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themaribatpit · 3 years

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Jasonette July Day 4: Game On

Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Game On Rated: T (for sexual references, mostly references to things that happened in the comics. You have been warned.) “I can’t just go spilling my protégé’s secrets. I can barely send her out into the mean streets on her own.” she said with a coy show of innocence that she wasn’t even trying to make believable.

“I’m not asking for her identity, all that concerns me is why you decided to take her in.” Batman explained.

“She was in trouble, I was in the neighbourhood and I gave her a helping hand,” she explained. “That special claw of hers comes in handy, and besides we all know how you feel about magic users Bruce.” She wasn’t wrong about that. Batman could never trust Constantine further than he could throw him. He could only bring himself to turn to Zatanna when he really needed her help. Shazam was an exception, seeing as the limits of his magic were clear and simple enough to understand. That didn’t make him any less formidable, but it didn’t make him quite as unpredictable. He was, at the end of the day, a detective who was trained to think rationally and logically in order to get to the bottom of a situation. Magic was the ultimate wild card, and the sooner he figured out this girl’s abilities, the better. “You’ll be pleased to know she’s not a completely hopeless case, she’s been helpful but she doesn’t get quite the same thrill out of thievery.” Catwoman remarked, “but it’s been lovely having her around, and I’m not about to just hand her over to you”.

“Then what would you have me do?” he asked, “I’m concerned your rivals might be a little less forgiving.”

“Is that so? You don’t think she’s strong enough to save herself?” Catwoman smiled, it was nice to know that he cared, just a little. “Besides, she’s already had years of experience under her belt, maybe you’re just jealous you didn’t find her first.” She taunted playfully. Goodness knows he was in no position to talk when it came to taking people under his wing. “Tell you what, how about we have a friendly little wager?” Bruce saw her eyes light up at the thought, but he was undeniably curious about what she had in mind.

“What do you propose?” he asked.

“A fun little game, your boys against my little foundling. If any of them can take her down, then you can welcome her into your family with open arms” she explained.

“How do I know she won’t just kill them?” Batman asked, it wouldn’t be the first time Bruce had to try and steer someone away from any homicidal tendencies.

“She’s a lot of things, but let’s just say killing wasn’t really an option for her back in the day.” she explained, “She’ll fall in line with your ‘no killing’ rule quite nicely. Think about it, your sons versus my little girl.” Her claws skated across Batman’s shoulders as he pondered this.

“Anything else?” Batman asked, he had to know exactly what they were walking into.

“Your boys can bring a second to their little duels, but only one. No need to have the Titans ganging up on her.” she explained. She left out the part about her protégé having other tricks up her sleeve. With the power she had, they would be lucky to get a single scratch on her.

“So be it then.” Bruce said, it would be an opportunity to see how this girl measured up against the boys he had trained. At that moment Catwoman decided it was game on.

Marinette had just come home from her classes at Gotham University, and she was looking forward to a quiet night working on some designs that were due a few weeks. A text message from Catwoman brought her plans to a grinding halt:

“Mari dear, made a little wager with Batman. You beat his four sons in a fight, and you get to stay with me. If you lose however, he gets to take you under his wing (in every sense of the word). They’ll be on the lookout for Lady Noire in the next few days, but I never said anything about only using her to win.”

Marinette was really starting to regret being saved by Catwoman. That night, she was outnumbered by some muggers who thought she would be an easy target. She was trying to find an opening, to make a break for it, maybe find somewhere to hide and transform if she really must. Suddenly she heard a voice grab their attention, “I’ve always loved big strong men who aren’t afraid to show it with someone half their size.” she purred. While they were distracted, Marinette decided to call on Plagg for some help. She always loved how the Lady Noire suit made her movements feel lighter, plus the night vision and Cataclysm were useful too. Unfortunately for her, it meant that Catwoman saw her in action and decided to take an interest in her from that day forth. Sure, she was a cunning thief and there was little that Marinette could do to stop her. At the same time, Marinette was a young woman in a city that was the polar opposite of what she knew in Paris. She couldn’t deny that there was something comforting about having someone in this city looking out for her. Especially since her parents were in Paris, and Master Fu was no longer around to help her. She took the Miraculous with her to Gotham City, but none of the other wielders came with her. She was still their guardian after all, but she had to be more careful about using them. She wasn’t about to single handedly take on superpowered crime lords with their armies of henchmen. She had to be a lot more careful with her powers since other people could get hurt. Besides, they already had a small group of vigilantes keeping the city safe, they didn’t need her.

Marinette reread the text message over and over again. she was about to see what these vigilantes were made of, though it was just as accurate to say it was the other way around. She opened the box, carefully choosing which ones she could use in a fight. She usually used Lady Noire when she was with Catwoman, but by the sound of it she was counting on her to use all of her tricks to win.

Damian never fully understood his father’s attachment to Catwoman, but this was a challenge he could not refuse. They were told to keep an eye out for this “Lady Noire” character while they were out on patrol. Oracle had agreed to referee this ordeal, Damian was absolutely certain he was going to be the one to bring her in. They were allowed to bring a second, but Damian didn’t think it would be necessary. From what they were told she was a smaller Catwoman, though they were told to exercise caution because of her destructive abilities. The last person Damian had expected to find was a girl in a red and black body suit, who looked nothing like the girl with long hair and green eyes that Batman had described. Still, there was something odd about the girl and Damian moved in closer to investigate.

Catwoman had given Marinette a vague rundown of who her opponents were. There was Nightwing, the eldest of the four boys and a trained acrobat. The second eldest was the infamous Red Hood, Marinette had heard rumours about him and she had no way of knowing if the Kwamis could guard her against someone who uses firearms. The third was Red Robin, Catwoman advised using clever strategy if she was going to get the upper hand on this one. Finally, there was the current Robin, the son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul, the youngest of the boys who was trained by assassins before Batman took him in.

She took the Ladybug earrings with her, seeing as they were more versatile for the occasion. In addition to the earrings, she wore the Longg’s choker around her neck. Master Fu had often cautioned against using fusions, considering how draining they were on her body. Her new mentor advised her to use every tool she could in her arsenal, because they certainly would. On most nights she noticed a small, hooded figure passing through her neighbourhood from time to time. She decided to see which of these boys would be her first opponent.

While she was standing on that rooftop, she heard a few footsteps behind her. It was raining but through the mist and the rain she could see a small, shadowy figure watching her closely. It made sense, she was dressed in bright colours and standing on a rooftop in the pouring rain. She practically had a sign on her head that said “come and get me”, which in some way was part of her plan. The question was, whether or not her first opponent would take the bait. “I know you’re there little one, so are you going to stay there or come over and say hello?” she asked, Marinette tried to sound cheerful but she ended up sounding silly instead. She tried to hide the burning embarrassment she felt at how silly that sounded. The boy could probably sense it too, because she turned around and saw him narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.

He leapt from his perch and landed behind her with a thud and splatter of rain water. He was no taller than Marinette and he wore a red and green outfit, with a black hooded cape and a green domino mask. The red and green outfit had a golden yellow “R” on his chest, and she also noticed a sword that was sheathed at his side. Marinette had to suspect this boy was the youngest out of the boys, Robin. The two of them stood in silence for a long moment, she figured that someone who was formerly trained by assassins would be a little more hostile. Then again, he was probably expecting someone else entirely. “Aren’t you a little young to be out patrolling by yourself, little one?” she asked, trying to make some kind of conversation with the boy. She wasn’t in any position to say anything about this, considering she had been protecting Paris since she was 13.

“What’s it to you?” He scoffed, “we’re looking for someone named Lady Noire, and you clearly wanted to attract someone’s attention by standing on a rooftop in that costume”.

“Robin, can you not be a brat for like, five minutes?” Red Robin groaned into his comm, but Damian didn’t listen.

“You can either state your business or stop wasting my time” he snapped, as Marinette chuckled.

“So, you’re planning on challenging Lady Noire. Tell me, what do you really know about her?” she asked him.

“Only that father and that woman have taken an interest in her, and I intend to prove to both of them that she is nothing special.” he growled, “so unless you know something about her, stay out of my way”.

“You seem certain, for someone who has never once faced her” she said with a smile.

“I was trained by the best, I will not lose to someone who is little more than a foundling.” he was reaching for his sword at that moment. Red Robin and Nightwing rolled their eyes at that comment as they listened in. They knew they had all bested their youngest brother at some point or other, despite being “foundlings”.

“It would have been easy too just to hide from you and your brothers, but I’m going to enjoy taking you down a peg.” She braced herself for her first fight of the challenge. She really could have, but sadly she had very little patience for people who thought they were better than everyone else.

“I won’t lose to you Lady Noire, or whoever you are”, he growled as he drew his sword and pointed it at her.

“Tikki, Longg, unify!” she called out, and a flash of red and gold light stunned Robin for a moment. The red and black bodysuit now had gold accents and a symbol on her chest. The symbol was a lighting bolt, a wave and a gust of wind all swirling together.

“What did you do?!” Red Robin yelled into his comm, “I swear if she kills us all just because you couldn’t control yourself…”

Robin looked up to see that she had a yo-yo in one hand and the other reached behind her to draw a sword.

“And by the way, it’s Dragon Bug to you”, she swung her yo-yo with one hand and Robin ducked to dodge it. After dodging it, he charged at Dragon Bug, katana in hand. She blocked his attack with her sword before kicking him back with her foot. Dragon Bug pulled back her yo-yo and charged at him with her sword, when he blocked her, he spun around and kicked her legs out from under her. As Dragon Bug fell to the floor, she raised her sword and yelled “Water Dragon!”. There was more than enough to create a barrier that pushed Robin back before he could strike again. Robin was knocked back against the wall, and she took out her yo-yo to make an escape to the streets below.

This Lady Noire, Dragon Bug, whoever she was, had insulted his honor. To him, that just simply would not stand. His father said that he wanted her alive, but he could barely get a scratch on her. He got up quickly and used his grappling hook to swing after her. She was waiting for him, with her hair blowing in the wind, and a smile that Damian wanted to wipe off her face. He charged at her once more, this time sliding on the floor at the last moment and hoping to take a swipe at her leg. Once again, she managed to turn and block his katana. The pair of them traded blow after blow after blow, but he could only land a few scratches on her. Marinette could use Lightning Dragon and shock the boy, to bring this to a swift end. However, with all the water that was around them, she might end up killing the boy instead. Before she could try anything else with that sword, he blocked it and sent it flying off to the side. Marinette watched as her sword flew out of her hands before clattering on the ground next to them.

Marinette had to admit that this kid was good and that the fusion was starting to drain her a little. She had to act fast as she dodged another incoming strike. She leapt backwards to dodge it but the boy took out a grappling hook, he gave it a few good spins before flinging it forward and catching her foot. He pulled the wire taut and sent her crashing to the ground, hard. “You may have your tricks, Dragon Bug, but I have skill, I have training, and now I have defeated you.” he called out as he tugged at the wire, pulling her towards him.

“That may be true, but there’s something you should know…” she groaned as she propped herself up on her elbows, he stopped for a moment as he waited for her to tell him exactly what that was. Marinette reached for her yo-yo, she needed to finish this and safe her strength, “…you’re not the only one who’s had training.” she told him. Dragon Bug quickly spun her yo-yo and swung it at Robin, this time wrapping the wire around him and pulling the string tight. He tried to free himself using his katana, while Dragon Bug unwrapped the wire around her foot. As she stood up she said, “another one of my ‘magic tricks’” as she ran to retrieve her own sword. She sheathed the sword and looked back to find a hog-tied Robin, desperately trying to cut the cord and free himself. She wanted to enjoy this moment for just a little longer, there was always something so satisfying in moments like these. She took a moment to send a quick message to Catwoman:

“Dragon Bug: 1, Robin: 0” before sending her a selfie, with Robin tied up in the background.

She glanced back at Robin who was now just scowling at her. “You fought valiantly little one, but sadly you are not my only opponent” she told him as she unwound the string around him. When she had her yo-yo back, she flung it towards a street lamp and swung forward, lifting her up off the ground. There was one thing Damian was certain of, there was no way his brothers were going to let him live this down. With a good tug of her yo-yo, freed Damian, spinning him around in the process.

Meanwhile, Jason and Roy were on a road trip back to Gotham, the two of them had just taken care of a Drug Lord in Starling City. Jason’s phone buzzed with some news from Dick, something about how they had all been embroiled in a bet to take down Selina’s new protégé. If any of them win, she has to join the Bat family, and if they all lose then she keeps working with Selina. He could not bring himself to care, it was 50/50 on whether or not this girl was tolerable or if she was going to annoy him like the rest. Roy glanced over at him before turning his attention back to the road, “you look like you’re desperately searching for a fuck to give” he commented.

“Just some dumb bet Bruce made,” Jason shut off his phone before reclining back in his chair.

“That’s not like Bruce, usually making dumb bets was something you guys did” Roy wracked his brain trying to imagine the stoic and serious Batman making a dumb bet.

“Something about Catwoman and her little sidekick.” he drawled, “If Dick, Me, Replacement or Demon Spawn take her down, she becomes Batman’s little sidekick. Like he doesn’t have enough of those running around”.

“Ah, I’m guessing you don’t want to fight her when we make it back to Gotham City?” Roy asked, “wouldn’t it be hilarious if you taught her how to win against your brothers?”

Jason gave a half-hearted chuckle, moments later his phone buzzed with more messages. He was really looking forward to this little power nap, but he checked to make sure no one desperately needed his help.

He sees the picture that she took with Damian tied up in the background. Babs, Steph and Cass had watched the whole thing, with popcorn. While Tim had made that photo the new wallpaper on the Belfry’s computer.

“Well, says here she literally wiped the floor with Demon Spawn, before swinging away on a yo-yo.” he said and they both laughed “now I’m just mad I won’t get to buy the girl a few drinks”.

“I mean either way, I’m sure you’ll get your chance if you’re both in Gotham City. I’m just sad that I’ll have to be your third wheel.” Roy said wistfully.

“Roy, I had to listen to you and Kory in the next room,” Jason recalled, “you have no room to complain about third wheeling.”

“Awh was little Jaybird jealous?” Roy joked.

“Hey you’re the one who assumed that we banged in the first place,” he said “all I said was I was with her, and you decided to interpret that however you wanted”.

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway because she ran off to Miami to work through some things, and we’re just over here thinking about the good old days,” Roy said. The two of them continued to drive in silence and Jason leaned back, trying to get some sleep before facing whatever chaos was waiting to greet them in Gotham City.

Tim has researched all he could on this mysterious Lady Noire, yet there are several reported sightings of different vigilantes all with the same height and build. Lady Noire, Ladybug, Dragon bug. Tim compiled all known sightings onto his corkboard to get a clear picture of who this person is.

The fight between Dragon Bug and Damian provided him with crucial information on how he could counter Dragon Bug. Tim then donned his Red Robin costume and began patrol of Gotham City. Gliding across he spotted an usual sight, a costumed person standing on a rooftop. It had to be the one Batman told him about, the person he was to fight because of the bet.

Tim landed on a nearby rooftop to reconfirm the target. "Same height and build, but this costume is different." Tim sighed, he had noticed that each costume had its own power and abilities, and made detailed notes on each. Codename: Polka-dot had the power to summon an unknown household object. Codename: Catwoman II used an indestructible staff and the power of disintegration, Codename: Drake used a sword and came with the power of hydrokinesis.

However, he had no intel regarding this new costume. He decided to press his luck and use stealth to take her down. He leaped off the roof and began gliding towards her with a kick.

To his surprise, his target shrank at the last second, he glided through and smashed into a skylight, landing inside an abandoned building.

Multimouse followed suit and jumped in through the broken skylight. Landing right at the centre of the room, she simply stood there arms akimbo looking at him. Red Robin threw a smoke bomb, grappling to the rafters. Multimouse did not pursue, no sense of panic she simply walked to a wooden crate and sat on it.

Red Robin, took the opportunity to launch himself off and glided towards Multimouse with a kick. He was shocked to see her suddenly turn around as if she knew he was there the entire time, with perfect timing she grabbed and judo flipped Red Robin through the wooden crate. Wiping her hands in a dramatic manner, Multimouse walked to the centre of the room and crossed her arms. Red Robin crushed a smoke bomb with his hand, obscuring the area and diving towards an underground vent.

He began to wonder how she was able to counter him so effectively. "The power of foresight? 360 degrees x-ray vision? No it can't be." Red Robin thought to himself. While crawling in the vents to a position behind Multimouse, he berated himself for pressing his luck without any information on Multimouse. He peeked his head out of the vent, Multimouse had not moved, she continued to stare at Red Robin's previous location. Taking another chance, Red Robin jumped out of the underground vent ready for a takedown.

Again as if she was a clairvoyant she countered him perfectly, spinning on the spot and delivering a crushing kick to Red Robin’s midsection. Sending him flying across the room, he took out his staff and slowly got up, using the staff as if it was a cane. He stood on shaky legs, in disbelief.

He then begins to notice something unusual hanging on the hem of his cape. His eyes widen as he takes a closer look. A miniature clone of Multimouse was hanging on, his eyes snapped up to the rafters and then the vents. There were several miniature clones all over the building, all about the size of a small insect.

Red Robin's jaw dropped as he had this epiphany. Seeing her cue, Multimouse shrank down and spawned a horde of miniature clones. Millions of clones rush towards Red Robin, he begins swinging his staff, stomping on any clones on the ground, flailing his arms like a madman. The horde bellows a collective “Surrender,” Red Robins defiantly continues to fight.

Soon the swarm begins to cover Red Robin all the way up to his neck, his body unable to move. The Multimouse arms pulls off the cowl and begins pulling all of Red Robin’s hair. Red Robin, facing the agony of Multimouse waxing his head. “Ok, ok I give up.” he cried. As he finished his plea, the swarm dissipated and reforms to the singular human sized Multimouse. Red Robin is then left kneeling and staring at the strands of his own hair left on the floor.

Multimouse, seizing the opportunity to obtain a trophy of her efforts, takes a selfie with a poor, disheveled Red Robin in the background.

Marinette was really starting to feel the effects of using different Miraculous for two nights straight. Dragon Bug was draining enough, but she had to use Multimouse to take on Red Robin. That left Nightwing and The Red Hood, and she was starting to wonder what was the point of this game. She felt like she was just fighting to win, fighting so that the person who took care of her when she first arrived in Gotham could prove a point. If she won, then she would stay under Catwoman’s protection, and the Miraculous would be protected with her. Though she was lucky that the Miraculous themselves didn’t look valuable enough to pique her interest. If she lost to one of them, she would be under Batman’s protection instead. She would become a part of the group of vigilantes who operate in the city, and she didn’t know how she felt about that either. How would she feel about seemingly being the only magic user among them? How would he feel about her being a magic user? She hadn’t even met the guy, all she knew was that he took an interest in her dealings with Catwoman. Maybe she would encounter the Red Hood and he would make the choice for her by putting her out of her misery. She decided to settle this fight once and for all as Ladybug, maybe then someone would give her some answers.

She got a text message from Catwoman, telling her to meet her on a rooftop that had gargoyles glaring down at the streets below. Maybe she had information on where her next fight would be, she didn’t say. By the time she got there, she saw two people eating fast food next to the gargoyles. The first was a redhead in red armor, and the second was…

“Get your own brooding spot, this one’s taken!” He yelled. Marinette looked up to see the other guy had a red domino mask, and in addition to being dressed in Kevlar and leather, had a red bat symbol on his chest.

Marinette spun her yo-yo, getting ready for a fight. The redhead continued eating, while his dark-haired companion gave her a swift once over.

“So, you’re the girl who took down Robin and Red Robin?” he asked, as if struggling to believe it.

“And you are?” she asked, when he put on the red helmet that was in his hand, it suddenly became clear.

“So, looking for me?” he asked, “Or are you on your way to fight the original boy wonder?”

“Honestly, I’ll take my chances with you.” Marinette said as she launched her yo-yo at his companion and wrapped the cord around him.

“Wait, wait, wait why me?” the redhead cried, then she threw him and sent him crashing into the Red Hood. The pair of them slammed into a nearby wall before she released the redhead. She unwound the cord and was getting ready to strike again.

Underneath the sprawled out pile of bodies, Red Hood grunted “Arsenal, get your ass off of my face or else…” Arsenal got up before he could finish his threat and they both stood up.

“So who checked ‘Fights with Toys’ off their bingo card?” Arsenal joked.

“Is that the best you can do?” Red Hood taunted. He came at her with a knife in hand, when she leapt in the air and wrapped her yo-yo cord around his arm. She launched herself at him, landing an aerial kick on his helmet. Red Hood grabbed her by the foot and flipped her over, sending her crashing to the ground.

“If you came here to fight me that’s one thing, not many people get to say they took on someone with a yo-yo and lived, unless you’re Toyman.” he said, as he lifted her up off the ground. “If you think this is what it takes to face Nightwing, then you have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

Ladybug took a few steps back after he helped her get to her feet, “so are you going to fight me instead?”

“Pixie, take it from me, it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be. As fun as it’s been watching you kick my brother’s asses, they are nothing compared to Nightwing.” he explained as he took off his helmet and set it down next to him.

“What do you know about Nightwing?” she asked, still understandably guarded about the situation.

“Oh what don’t I know, he’s basically Batman’s heir.” he told her “I’m just one of the spares, and that’s on a good day when I managed to not die.”

Dick had made it clear days ago that he wasn’t going to fight her, he already put his foot down at how silly this whole thing was. Jason, however, decided to have a little fun. “Honestly, you might as well just walk right into the batcave and challenge Batman yourself.” he told her, “I mean you won’t die, that’s kinda his whole deal, but you’ll be eating through a straw for the rest of your life.”

Jason, enjoying the anxiety bubble in the young woman, and he decided to crank it up to eleven.

“Nightwing is equal if not better than Batman in every way, he once took up the mantle of Batman when he was injured. Not only that, he broke Bane’s back. He lifted a 7ft tall 500lb big guy, snapped his spine over his knee as if it was nothing.” Jason moves his arms, mimicking the motion of breaking something over his knee. Ladybug began to sweat even more, struggling to imagine the powerhouse of a man to even accomplish such a feat.

Jason’s grin widens, “not only that, he fought a giant mutated bat the size of a man. He wrestled Man-Bat, putting him in a full nelson and smashing its face into solid concrete” Ladybug cringes at the thought of feeling the full force of having your face slammed into concrete. Jason gets ready for the coup de grace. “In fact, when he was 10 years old, he watched his parents get murdered by mobster Tony Zucco in front of his own eyes. After being taken under Batman’s wing, he went out for revenge. He chased after Tony for hours and cornered him in Crime Alley.

Tony died that night when Nightwent went after him, the official cause was a heart attack.”

Jason stops talking to look around him, as if he was paranoid and there were eyes all around him. He walks up to Ladybug and whispers to her ear “but between you and me, it wasn’t.”

He turns to Roy, “but if she’s gonna try and take him on after all that, then we might as well pull up some chairs and watch.” he said, giving Roy a knowing look.

“Oh yeah, I mean he’s no match for a cute girl and her yo-yo.” Roy joked.

“Come on, he’s probably waiting on top of the Iceberg Lounge, and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting” he declared, Ladybug followed as the three of them made their way to the Iceberg Lounge. She felt her legs shaking, but it’s fine, she would at least live to tell the tale...right?

Nightwing stood on the roof of the Iceberg Lounge, carefully watching the whereabouts of the people going in and out of the area. He heard footsteps and looked up to see three figures landing on the rooftop in front of him. He looked up to see Red Hood, Arsenal and a short girl who looked to be in her late teens, maybe early 20s. He looked between them, then back at the girl who was spinning a red yo-yo with black polka dots.

Nightwing waved to them, figuring she would be the short girl mentioned in the bet between Batman and Catwoman. As he noticed the three, the short girl visibly frightened as he walked towards them.

Nightwing sighed “what did you tell her?” he asked, he had better things to than get involved in Batman’s dumb little bet. The outcome would have been someone joining the Bat family by force, even he had put his foot down by that point.

“I mean, nothing that wasn’t true.” Red Hood told him, “she might as well know who she’s dealing with.”

“Right, and you probably told her you are just a soft teddy bear compared to me.” Nightwing remarked sarcastically, “was it to keep her from beating the stuffing out of you?”. At that point Ladybug was visibly confused, so Nightwing looked over at her “so how did you get dragged into this? Got sick of having to share a litter box?”

Ladybug eyes Nightwing cautiously, thinking his joking mannerisms are an elaborate ruse to lower her guard. “What, don’t tell my Catwoman’s got your tongue?” Nightwing jokes with a large grin. Ladybug begins to slowly walk back, confused at how expectations did not match reality.

Nightwing points his thumb at Ladybug and talks to Red Hood, “Alright what did you tell her about me?” Red Hood raises his arms innocently “Like I said, nothing that wasn’t true.”

Nightwing raises his eyebrow at Red Hood and crosses his arms. “Alright I told her how you took down Bane and Man-Bat by yourself” Red Hood admits. “And?” Nightwing begins tapping his foot. “I may have, insinuated that you may or may not have had something to do with Tony Zucco's heart attack”

Nightwing facepalms, “well so much for first impressions, let's start over shall we?”

Nightwing reaches his hand out to Ladybug, “Name’s Richard but everyone calls me Dick”

Marinette tentatively reaches out to shake his hand, “I know you aren’t enthusiastic about this bet, neither am I. I don’t want to knock your spots off, so how about I lie on the ground, you take a picture for Catwoman and you fly off into the sunset”

“Where would I go?” she asked,

“She could come with us.” Red Hood suggested, “nothing would annoy Batman more.”

“Right, and next she’ll start asking me if I actually hypnotize people with my ass.” Nightwing said as he raised an eyebrow at him. “Think Catwoman would let you take her?”

“We already asked, someone has to look after this pipsqueak while she’s doing what she does best, alone”, Red Hood explained.

Ladybug felt herself calming down a lot more at that moment. She came to this city not really knowing anyone, feeling like there was no one else looking out for her. Now, for the first time in a long time, she felt like she was going to be in good hands.

Bonus 1:

Roy: So, should we call ourselves “Red Arse Bug” or “Lady Red Arse”?

Jason: Do you want me to throw you off this roof?

Bonus 2:

Ladybug: So you all had to wear red, yellow and green?

Red Hood: Yup.

Ladybug: What was it like?

Red Hood: I did my time in the pixie boots, Pixie. Doesn’t mean I like to talk about it.

#jasonettejuly2021 #jasonette #maribat

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weasleysweets · 3 years

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tolerable , one.

summary ; george weasley is more tolerable than you thought.

word count ; 1319. ( short , i apologize !! )

warnings ; none.

IT WAS NO SECRET that you and george didn’t get along , but the fights weren’t nasty and they werent mean. but it was always him that started it, teasing you about something small. which led to you teasing him back, until it got heated and one of you had to be removed.

to everyone else it seemed like you were in love. but that was hardly the case , the both of you avoided each other like the plague. the both of you thought you hated each other. you found george annoying with all his pranks and he found you a stuck up prefect that would snitch on him, which you never once did.

it was a lost cause.

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“DO YOU HAVE A DATE TO THE YULE BALL” george blurted as a blush arose on his cheeks. you rolled your eyes gently and scoffed “what’s it matter to you weasley?” “just answer the question y/l/n “ “no i do not.” playing with the hem of his jumper he leaned forward nervously “go to the yule ball with me y/l/n?” his blush darkened and he desperately avoided your gaze.

“why should i?” he frowned softly and his movements slowed as he finally looked you in the eye. “ fred and i made a bet that we could get a date before old ronnikins, and i don’t have one yet but fred’s taking angelina.. well fake everything and then we don’t even have to talk to each other at all afterwards. and i’m not telling fred i asked you because of a bet..” he whispered as a person walked by.

“that’s very perilous george” he scoffed as the words slipped past your lips. “isn’t everything?” rolling your eyes and leaning your head onto your hand you narrowed your eyes judgingly at the ginger who cowered under your gaze. “what’s in it for me weasley? i could always find someone else. i mean the ball is a month away!” you exaggeratedly threw your hands up smiling like a dork. he rolled his eyes chuckling

“i’ll never prank you again.” your eyes widened at his statement. they had never done a horrible prank to you, only small pranks here and there. like making your book scream everytime you opened it or dying your hair pink. “is this a trick?” you spoke softly leaning forward once more. he shook his head quickly. “fine, then yes i’ll do this.” his eyes lit up like a little kids on christmas and a bunch of thank yous flew out of his mouth.

he relaxed against the chair and peered at you softly. “can i see your dress?” you shook your head softly smirking “no, it’s a surprise. but can i see your robes so i can color coordinate my dress?” he nodded softly. “i’ll bring them to the common room tonight at 10 , be there !” he stood smiling and started walking off. “i will.” you spoke softly and he shot you a huge smile , the blush never leaving his cheeks.

the rest of the day went by swimmingly , the weasley twins didn’t bother you and the castle was quiet compared to normal weekends. everyone was at a slytherin x ravenclaw quidditch match. you made your way to the common room, immediately spotting your bestfriend sitting on the couch and reading. “ jamey!” his head shot up at the nickname as he shook his head laughing . “hello to you too y/n/n! what’s got you so happy?” “someone asked me to the yule ball.” you smirked as his shocked expression and laid your legs over his. “who?” “george weasley.”

“i thought you two hated each other?” confusion evident in his voice as he laid the book he was reading down. he crossed his arms softly and leaned back “well you were wrong.” he gasped dramatically slapping a hand on his chest. “i am never wrong mrs.y/n/n!” you narrowed your eyes at him jokingly “is that so? i bet snape would disagree!” he chuckled shaking his head.

“but in all seriousness , is your dress color coordinated with his outfit.” “not yet, but it will be, he’s coming down at 8pm to show them to me. i refuse to let him see my dress. it’s very elegant, i learned a spell from an old book and it has butterfly’s clinging on the abdomen!” he smiled softly rubbing your knuckle “you have to show me later. “ you nodded in reply as everyone started coming back from the quidditch game the common room began to get very loud.

james and you had parted ways , he had started talking to a couple quidditch boys and a second year gained your attention, desperately needing help in potions & athrimacy , you had agreed to tutor them every wednesday after they were done with quidditch practice. he embraced you quickly yelling a thank you and running off to play around with his friends. which left you alone on the loveseat next to the fire.

your hands grasped the book you had been reading just hours ago before a certain ginger interrupted , the front page lightly torn from the many times you had read it. on the front in a fancy label read “ alice in wonderland “ a book you often found yourself rereading a bunch of times , especially when alone at hogwarts.

your mother had given it to you when you first started hogwarts, claiming even thought the castle would be full of life and magical memories, it was nice to escape that reality and go in to another. and she was right. in times you found yourself thinking about george weasley to often, or over thinking your conversations to the point you got a headache, you escaped in this book.

you flipped to the page you were reading and pulled a blanket over your bare legs, finding comfort in the soft yellow pattern. the couch softly dipped and you glanced up to see who had sat, to be met with the sight of george weasley oncemore. “why is it you always bother me while i’m reading?” you shut the book softly and put your attention on him. his eyes widened and he chuckled lightly. “i think that’s the first time you have ever initiated a conversation with me.” he spoke softly but the smile never leaving his face.

“is it really?” you scrunched your nose confused as he chuckled more and nodded. “why did you?” “well weasley, we’re going to have to deal with each other until the yule ball. so i mine as well be nice to you. but the second the yule ball is over with we’re going to act like it never happened.” you spoke with a pointed finger and in a hushed whisper , his smile faltered lightly and your heart hurt the moment the words slipped past your lips. he chuckled oncemore and grabbed the book from your lap. “alice in wonderland?” “my mum gave it to me.” smiling softly he handed it back, “my mum used to read it to me and my siblings when we were little. it really is a good book. “ a blush rose on his cheeks as he grasped your hand to look at all of the rings and bracelets you had on.

“well, weasley. i’ve heard some things about you.” you spoke watching him intently as he played with the rings on your fingers. he blushed glancing up sending a confused glare your way. “i heard about how you and your brother want to open a joke shop?” his eyes lit up and he looked at you smiling “weasley wizard wheezes, it’s going to have so many things.” he blushed embarrassed as you brought your hand back and started playing with his fingers. “that sounds amazing george really. i’ll make sure to stop by once you open up.” he smiled hugely as you said that, hoping that you meant that you two would be seeing more of each other.

OMG IDEA IDEA IDEA

ONCE IM DONE WITH THIS SERIES WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO SEE IT FROM GEORGES PERSPECTIVE??

#weasley twins x reader #weasley twins imagines #george weasley fanfiction #ron weasley smut #george weasley smut #george weasley fluff #george weasley x reader #george weasley imagines #george weasley #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter smutt #harry potter

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emerywrites · 3 years

Text

Fanfic: “Please don’t make a fuss”

So, I recently got back into Harry Potter and reread all of the books. Percy Weasley is one of my favorite characters and since its his birthday I wrote a fic. I hope that people enjoy it. :)

Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Percy hated anyone making a fuss about his birthday. For twenty years he got away with passing it by with little acknowledgement. One year his daughters decide to change that.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: survivors guilt, PTSD

Percy always did his best to ignore his birthday. During the time that he had been estranged from his family, he had seen little reason to make a fuss about his birthday and the habit had stuck with him. Soon after he and Oliver had reignited their relationship, he told him that he didn’t want any birthday celebrations. Oliver had respected that other than a small gift and a “Happy birthday, love” the morning of August 22nd every year.

When Molly and Lucy were old enough to understand birthdays, things had changed, of course. They insisted on making homemade cards and having a cake. Percy allowed it and ate a small piece of cake as he admired their artistic efforts.

He remembered some particularly interesting cards on his birthday after they’d turned five. “That’s you, Daddy, and that’s me and that’s a dragon!” Molly had explained as she pointed to barely discernable shapes she had drawn in crayon.

“Oh, a dragon, how unique, dear,” he said to his daughter before leaning over to mutter to Oliver, “She’s been spending too much time with Charlie.”

Lucy showed him her own art of their family playing quidditch and Percy had been just as encouraging. It was easy to enjoy a birthday with small children who were an easy distraction. When they were young, he could allow his birthday to be more about them than himself.

But as they got older, that changed. His daughters wanted to get him gifts with their pocket money. They asked why they had birthday celebrations at the Burrow for everyone else in the family and why they went to see Papa’s family on his birthday, but never did any of that for Daddy. It was difficult to explain the complicated emotions that went along with Percy’s desire to not think about his birthday. So, he never did. He only ever said that all he wanted for his birthday was peace and quiet with his husband and daughters.

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Molly and Lucy were fifteen and August 22nd had come around yet again. They successfully avoided mentioning his birthday other than a kiss on his cheek that morning with a “Happy birthday, Dad”. The rest of the day was spent in Diagon Alley getting their school supplies and of course a special gift for Molly for being made prefect and Lucy for being made captain of the quidditch team. Percy was more than happy to make their successes the focus of the day.

After they got home, Molly ran upstairs to try on her new robes with her prefect’s badge. Moments later she came running back down. “I can’t find my badge!” Percy promised her that they would look until they found it.

Then Lucy piped up with, “I think you left it at the Burrow yesterday, when we went to show Grandmum and Granddad.”

Molly gasped. “You’re right! We have to go get it, right now.”

“Alright,” Percy agreed. “Ollie, you take Molly to get the badge. Lu and I can get started on dinner.”

“Dad, you know how Gran is, she’ll be disappointed if we don’t stay for dinner,” Molly told him. “We should all go.”

That was when Percy got suspicious. But he didn’t want to act paranoid and relented into going along. He side-long apparated with Lucy and Oliver with Molly. When they showed up outside of the Burrow, Percy immediately knew something was wrong. None of his nieces or nephews were outside running around. Usually there were at least a couple of them always underfoot no matter where you went around the Burrow.

He got a bad feeling that he knew what was about to happen. “Ollie, I’m not feeling too well. The three of you can stay. I’ll just go back…” But the three of them were already going up to the door. Percy followed, feeling his stomach twist into a knot as he desperately hoped that he was wrong in his prediction.

They entered the Burrow, just for the entire family to shout, “Surprise!” Every one of his siblings and their families were there, crammed inside his childhood home. It was overwhelming to see all of their smiling faces, there for him. Percy’s first instinct was to bolt and he would have if it had not been for him backing straight into his husband’s strong chest. He swallowed hard and plastered on a grin.

Percy kindly thanked them for such an amazing surprise. Everyone explained how it had all been Molly and Lucy planning the whole thing. Oliver hadn’t even known about it as the girls knew that he could never keep a secret from Percy.

Percy told himself, he would just get through the evening. He could do it. He’d often enough kept up a façade for politicians and department heads that he had to socialize with. He’d managed to trick Death Eaters into thinking that he wasn’t a threat to their take over of the ministry. It should be easy to pretend to his family that he was happy on his birthday.

They all sat outside at tables magically extended to their limit to hold the, what seemed to be, ever-growing number of Weasleys. Percy sat next to Oliver who was holding an enthusiastic conversation about quidditch with Ginny. His daughters were a bit further down the table talking animatedly with their cousins. He caught a few words of Molly bragging about her new status as prefect in the up-coming school year. Percy tried not to think about his twin brothers’ teasing about “perfect prefect Percy” and how he kind of wished he could reminisce with Fred and George about it. And, now he was thinking about Fred…

Percy hadn’t even noticed that his mother had gone inside. Then she was suddenly coming back out into the garden, floating a towering chocolate cake that had his name in icing. Freddie and Roxanne’s set of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes patented fireworks flashed and screamed through the sky. Percy thought he was going to throw up. He flinched and saw flashes of the walls of Hogwarts castle coming down… Fred’s lifeless eyes…

Percy stood abruptly, knocking his chair backwards. Everyone’s attention turned to him. Smiles faded from their faces when they saw the panicked expression he wore. “I have to go,” he said shakily.

He ran inside, knowing that there was no way he was steady enough to apparate. The intention was to take the floo home but the powder was not on the mantle where it usually was. He was about to try and summon it when Oliver came running in.

“Percy! Percy, what happened out there?” Oliver’s voice was so concerned and that just made Percy feel worse for making a scene.

“I can’t do this, Ollie,” he said hoarsely. There was a lump of emotion in his throat that made it difficult to get his words out. “I can’t be here.”

“Why not, love? I know you don’t like people to make a fuss about your birthday but the girls really wanted to do something special. They wanted to give you a proper birthday.”

“And they are lovely for wanting to do that. But you don’t understand!” How did he explain it? How could he, when saying it out loud would hurt more than anything?

Then Oliver was much closer. He put his hands on either side of Percy’s face and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears that Percy didn’t even realize he had shed. “Love, you’re scaring me. What is going on?”

Percy gently took his wrists and pushed the hands away. “I hate my birthday,” he said slowly. “After… after I left, I stopped caring about my birthday. I had my work and it just felt like another distraction.”

Oliver nodded. “So, you’re out of practice in celebrating. We can fix that. We’ll just start a bit smaller next time.” He laughed as if it was that easy.

“That’s not it!” he snapped. He was shouting. He didn’t mean to be but no one understood and they wouldn’t until he got it out. He couldn’t help but look away toward the fireplace. The words that sat on the tip of his tongue weren’t supposed to be out there. They were meant to stay there in his heart, slowly eating him alive. At least there, they couldn’t damage anyone else. “My birthday is just a reminder, Ollie! It’s a reminder that I get another year, year after year! I get to grow old and Fred doesn’t! It’s a reminder to my family that the wrong son survived! I can pretend… I can pretend that I’m okay if I just don’t let anyone make a fuss about celebrating. It feels wrong to make them celebrate it.”

Percy finally allowed himself to look at Oliver. His husband was staring at him, his mouth opening and closing like he didn’t know what to say, but was struggling to find the words. But just past Oliver, standing at the threshold of the kitchen, was his father looking at him with pain-filled eyes.

“Is that what you really believe?” Arthur asked as he approached. “That we think the wrong son survived?”

Percy really wished he had just pushed through and gotten to the end of the dinner. He should have found a way to keep the smile on his face and his bum in his chair. Now, he was hurting his father all over again. “No!” he tried to lie. “I…it’s…” Both his father and his husband looked at him with pity and that was humiliating. There was no point in lying when they could see through him like a ghost. “Yes, that’s… that’s always what I believed. How could I not? It felt like the cost of me returning to the family was Fred’s life. Like it was some sort of horrible exchange. And you lost, someone as well-loved as Fred to get me… the broken one who came back too late.”

“None of us have ever thought that,” Arthur said with an adamant shake of his head. “Losing Fred was a tragedy. That loss is always going to be there. But I also got a son back that day, Percy. And I apologize, that we obviously didn’t do enough to make you feel fully welcomed back and that you thought we wouldn’t want to celebrate having you.”

“Dad, you don’t need to-” But then his dad was hugging him. It was strange. He tried to remember the last time his dad had hugged him like that. It had been a while.

When he was eventually released, he realized that Oliver had slipped out of the room. His dad looked at him and cleared his throat. “If you need to go home, I can tell everyone that you weren’t feeling well. But I think everyone would really love for you to stay.”

“I’ll stay,” he said softly as he adjusted his glasses. “Molly and Lucy did put a lot of work into this.”

The reassurance had been needed but the fear of being unwanted still sat like a heavy stone on his chest. But then he followed his dad back outside to the garden. Everyone turned to look at him and in overlapping voices said how happy they were he came back out. George came out of nowhere to throw an arm around his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I told the little troublemakers to cool it with the fireworks,” George whispered into his ear. “They can set me off too sometimes.”

Then George was pulling him over to the cake, sitting on the table. The candles had been placed and were alight. A spell had been used to keep the wax from melting onto the icing. Molly and Lucy ran up beside him.

“Make a wish, Dad!” Lucy encouraged.

Percy let his eyes fall shut for a moment as he made his wish. Then he opened them again and blew out the candles. Everyone cheered and his mother gave him a kiss on the cheek before she went to serve the cake.

The overwhelming love he felt in that moment was almost too much. It had soothed his fear to the point that it had gone dormant. It would come back but he had a feeling its potency had been dulled.

“What’d you wish for?” Lucy asked softly.

“For every birthday to be as amazing as this one,” he replied.

#cw survivor guilt #cw ptsd #percy weasley #percy x oliver #oliver wood #molly weasley ii #lucy weasley #emerywrites fanfic #fanfiction

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evansyhelp · 4 years

Photo

✧ TEXTURES – A TUTORIAL BY EVANSYHELP.

In this (long and image-heavy) tutorial, I’ll be showing you how I make textures, as requested by a very kind anon. I use Photoshop CC 2019 but you should be able to replicate my methods on most editing software. Please like or reblog this post if you find this helpful!

Index.

Ethically Sourcing Your Images.

Finding The Right Image.

Making Your Texture.

Other Tricks I Use.

Quick Recap.

Making Textures Without Images: Speedrun.

Outro.

Ethically Sourcing Your Images.

I will be explaining a couple quick ways to make textures without any images at the end of the tutorial, but since my personal favourite way involves images and that’s specifically what the anon requested, that’s what the majority of the tutorial will be focused on.

The first step, naturally, is finding an image to use. My personal favourite site is Unsplash, but there are plenty of options out there.

What you need to keep in mind is what kind of license the images have. Unsplash is free for personal and commercial use with no attribution required, which makes it perfect for things like this. There are more sites like this in my free for commercial use masterlist (linked at the end of the post), but unless you’re using them in products you’re selling (like graphic commissions), the commercial aspect isn’t something you need to worry about. Just check the site/photographer’s rules to make sure you’re allowed to edit the images for personal use, and whether attribution (credit) is required.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that these sites typically never allow you to redistribute the images as they are. That means you can’t just go to Unsplash’s texture category, save the images without any changes, and reupload them in a texture pack on Tumblr. That’s stealing. We don’t do that.

Finding The Right Image.

Knowing what kinds of images will make good textures is a learning curve. My first couple texture packs are rough compared to what I make now, because I basically taught myself with no guidance and learned through trial and error. But with practice, I learned what worked and what didn’t.

You want your images to be HQ, either with no ‘subject’ (ie. a person) or with a large background. Higher contrast is better but not super necessary. You should hopefully be able to envision what kind of texture you want to make before you even touch the image.

Making Your Texture.

For the majority of the tutorial, this is the image I’ll be working with. Credits can be found in the link at the end of the post.

Open your canvas. You can make specialised textures, like 100px for icons or 540px for Tumblr graphics, but I personally prefer to make them large for versatility. I’m using 800px in this tutorial. Once you’ve chosen your size, upload your full-size image into the canvas. This is where the fun begins!

Drag the image around into a nice position. Or use Edit > Transform to rotate, flip, and warp the image in different ways. Or use Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to change the size or the angle more precisely. Or probably some combination of all three! With Free Transform, make sure this aspect ratio anchor is selected so you don’t butcher the quality of the image, unless you’re warping it intentionally:

This is all very individual to each image you use. You might want to flip one, shrink another, put another at a 30 degree angle. Just experiment until you end up with something you think would look awesome as a texture. For the sake of providing a good example, I flipped this image vertically, shrunk it to 80% its original size, and rotated it until it looked like the smoke/cloud was coming from the bottom right corner. This is what we have:

Then we move onto enhancing. Textures work best when there’s a lot of contrast because it’s easier to manipulate the blending modes. So if your image isn’t already high contrast, these adjustment layers (Brightness/Contrast, Levels, and Selective Colour) are your new best friends:

If you don’t see this on your Photoshop, go to Window > Adjustments and it should pop up. Again, just experiment, because different images will require different things. Essentially, you want to make the darks darker and the lights lighter. Something I like to do is add a Selective Colour layer and use the Black slider. Pick out the primary colour of the image, and then Whites, in the drop-down menu, and move the bottom slider (left to lighten, right to darken) until you’re satisfied. Like so:

So with those Selective Colour settings and the following Levels settings, here’s the before and after of my image.

Much better contrast! If you want to end here, you can, but I personally prefer grayscale textures a lot of the time because it makes it more versatile. Instead of being forced to make a blue graphic because this image is blue, I can make any colour graphic I want with one simple black and white Gradient layer. Photoshop does have a default Black & White adjustment feature, but I prefer using Gradients.

Pro tip: if your image doesn’t have a pure black, you can keep the darkest parts of your image dark by using the left slider, shown below.

A lot of the time, I’ll also decrease the opacity of that Gradient layer, to somewhere between 80% and 95%, so just a hint of the original colour comes through. This gives it more dimension in my opinion, while still keeping it mostly neutral. Here’s 100% vs. 85%:

You may find that you want to add a little more contrast after. With this texture, I decided to grab another Selective Colour layer, pick ‘Black’ in the drop-down menu, and pull the Black slider up to +40. I also settled on 95% opacity for the Gradient. And here’s the final product!

Other Tricks I Use.

That covers how I make a lot of my easier textures, but here’s a quick run-through of other, slightly more complex tricks. I’ll be working with this image (again, credit at the end of the post):

This, of course, is not as obviously texture-worthy as the previous example, but I love textures with strong lines, so here’s how the magic happens! I wanted to get rid of the detail on the bottom half, so I used the Polygonal Lasso tool to select it:

Then I used the eyedropper tool (the 4th symbol under the polygonal lasso in the image above) to select the blue of the sky and, on a new layer, painted that selection completely blue. I decreased the opacity to 90% just so it wasn’t a total block colour, but not enough that you can really see the lines. I repeated this process for the sky, so it looked more consistent with the bottom half.

Then, using the eyedropper tool again and making a new layer for every colour, I went in with a small soft paintbrush and painted out the harsh vertical lines on each segment of the stripes. I didn’t want to make them totally perfect, but I painted over the bulkiest interruptions.

I added a black and white Gradient layer, using the slider tool I showed you before to darken the darks and lighten the lights, and decreased it to 50% so that it wasn’t totally black and white but still more neutral than the original. Here’s the result:

Another fun way to shake things up, which unfortunately will require Photoshop (CS6 should be fine, not sure about earlier versions), is the Filter Gallery. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery, and you’ll find a TON of effects that change your image drastically. Most of the default settings are nightmarish, but you can play around with the settings panel on the right.

Here’s just a few results that are possible with the Filter Gallery, labelled for convenience. You can view the HQ versions in the link at the end of the post.

Quick Recap.

So you don’t have to reread this obnoxiously large tutorial every time you want to reference it in the future:

Choose a HQ image.

Resize, rotate, flip, and/or warp.

Enhance the contrast.

Black and white!

Paint over problem areas!

Filter > Filter Gallery.

Making Textures Without Images: Speedrun.

We’re almost done! There are some tools built directly into Photoshop that can allow you to make textures completely from scratch, and I’ll briefly cover my favourites here.

The first is pattern fill layers. I spent too many years not appreciating the patterns feature in Photoshop, but they’re great. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern, click ‘OK’ on the box that pops up, and another box will pop up to let you choose your pattern.

By themselves, they are UGLY. It can take a while to figure out how to use them. But if you change the scale, change the blending mode, and change the opacity, you have thousands of textures at your fingertips. And if you add two or three together? Billions of possibilities. I can do a more in-depth tutorial on patterns if y’all are interested, but here’s two examples I just whipped up in a matter of minutes, using two patterns on each:

The next feature is gradient fill layers, and the gradient tool. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient… to select a gradient (or make your own!) and an angle, OR use the gradient tool (featured below) to drag the gradient across your canvas manually. On its own, boom, that’s a gradient texture. Paired with a pattern or put through the Filter Gallery? Even better!

The last is brushes. Brushes can be great for textures because there are so many kinds. You want to make a paint splatter texture? Paint splatter brush sets are everywhere! You want to make a smoky texture? You can get brushes that look like smoke! Smudged? Scratchy? Grunge? Halftone? Light leaks? Torn paper? Brushes have your back.

With all of these features (and things like actions, too!), your saving grace is going to be this little cog wheel shown below, and the list you’ll find under the Reset/Save/Load section. There are SO many more options built directly into Photoshop that you don’t even see right away, because you have to add them manually from this little cog wheel.

And you can download countless more patterns, gradients, and brushes from sites like Brusheezy and DeviantART. A couple tutorials on downloading and installing them can be found in the link at the end of the post, but remember, download these things ethically. If you want to sell products that use a custom brush, it’s your responsibility to find brushes that are free for commercial use. If you don’t want to credit the creator, it’s your responsibility to find resources that don’t require attribution.

Outro.

I think that’s everything, guys! If you found this tutorial helpful or otherwise enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi! I offer exclusive rewards, like custom graphics, to everyone who donates.

Due to Tumblr’s latest rules about links, you can find the credits list, the promised bonus tutorials, other important links, and the full-size HQ versions of the textures made in this tutorial over here.

Thanks for reading!

#rph #allresources #completeresources #itsphotoshop #chaoticresources #photoshop tutorial #photoshop resources #photoshop help #ps resources #ps tutorial #eh #eh: tutorial #tutorial #ps help #texture #*100 #*250

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lettheladylead · 3 years

Note

Your not going to lose me. Scroldie

I misread the prompt. Also I made this over the course of a day of traveling so it might make zero sense but I don't feel like rereading it so if it's nonsense then MY BAD

Scrooge sat at the table, reading the morning paper as per usual. He always enjoyed his morning rituals and patiently waited for his usual nutmeg tea to be placed in front of him.

Just a few moments later and it did exactly that. Scrooge smiled and looked around the paper to see the teacup. Immediately he was struck by the hand that was currently pulling away from his morning treat and his eyes followed the arm to see it was very much not connected to his housekeeper.

"G-Goldie?!" he stuttered out in shock.

"Hey there, hun," she greeted casually, as if this was the most normal scenario. "How's your morning going?"

He blinked at her and glanced around the room to see if Louie was around or something else strange was going on. "It's…going just fine. What are you doing here?"

Goldie smiled softly and raised a curious eyebrow at him before taking a seat on the table in front of him. She leaned over and let her hand glide across Scrooge's beak, stopping with her fingers tangled up in his whiskers. "Can't I greet my husband in the morning?"

Scrooge was too stunned to react. Was this some kind of con? What could she possibly get out of this? Just a chance to be in his house and steal anything she wanted? Or was she just trying to humiliate him by convincing him they've been married and he's such an old fogey he forgot? He’d never forget something like that.

He was so caught up in his paranoid thoughts that Scrooge didn't notice as Goldie leaned down and kissed him properly. As soon as their beaks touched he felt a jolt of electricity down his spine that told him that whatever was going on, he should enjoy this little moment and then be paranoid about it afterwards.

He kissed her back with what was clearly more fervor than she expected, based on her surprised moan and her hands moving to his shoulders. He stood up and placed himself between her legs, hands gripping his hips as they continued. Who needed nutmeg tea when he could have this?

After a few more moments of that, Scrooge pulled away and enjoyed the vision of Goldie looking thoroughly ravaged. Her hair was a bit messed up and her cheeks were red and her chest was rising and falling heavily with each breath.

Goldie smiled at him - and it was a smile that he'd have embedded in his memory for the rest of his life - and slid one of her hands down to his chest. "What was that for?"

He almost rolled his eyes, still not understanding the game they were playing. “Just enjoying my ‘wife.’”

She reached over and grabbed the nutmeg tea, taking a few sips while never breaking eye contact with him. Scrooge felt a shiver down his spine and she tilted the cup towards his beak so he could drink from it, too. It felt so intimate and domestic and...and nice that he started to think maybe he didn’t care if this was a trick.

As she put the cup back down, he leaned forward and lightly kissed her neck. She hummed happily and put her hands on his shoulders, pushing him back into his seat. He obliged as she followed and straddled his lap, pressing her beak softly against his once again.

He felt like putty with her fingers in his whiskers and her breath against his skin. “Goldie…”

“I love you, Scrooge,” she mumbled in between kisses. “I’ll never leave you again.”

His fingers dug into her hips and he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he kissed back. “...what’s wrong, Goldie?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, kissing him still.

“You’re...why are you really here?” he responded, pulling away from her and putting his hands against the side of her face. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, so long as I’m with you,” she said softly. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

He blinked a few times and looked deeply into her eyes, trying to gauge her angle using his decades of experience with her. “It just is,” he said finally, squinting as Goldie’s eyes seem to darken.

“Scrooge…” Her tone was reminiscent of a time he’d disappointed her before, but Scrooge didn’t back down.

“I don’t understand why you’re here.”

Her eyes flickered again and he felt his heart leap. Maybe this was a trick in a different way than he thought.

“...Goldie?”

“Why can’t you just accept this?” she said sadly, her voice starting to shake in a way that felt unnatural.

Scrooge glared at her and pushed against her shoulders. She didn’t fight back, instead falling back and smacking into the edge of the table. She closed her eyes and he took note that she looked empty and hollow. Nothing about her felt bright and fun and exciting like she usually was. Nothing about this felt like her at all.

“...you’re not Goldie.”

Her eyes opened again to reveal bright yellow with deep triangular slits that immediately faded back to her normal green. But there was no questioning what he’d seen, and Scrooge slid his chair back and stood up in shock.

“What are you-?!” he spat at her, wiping a sleeve against his beak in disgust. “What’s wrong with you, you egomaniacal -”

She responded with a deep laugh and another look that sent shivers down Scrooge’s spine, but for decidedly different reasons. “Just needed to distract you while I finished taking your dime.”

He looked even more confused as her blonde hair turned to black and the rest of her seemed to disappear in a mist of pink smoke.

Scrooge rushed towards the door so he could grab a phone, but when he opened it he was met with complete and utter darkness. Magica’s laughter hung in the air around him and he looked every which way as he backed away from the darkness that was slowly creeping into the dining room.

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to focus. This wasn’t real. He’d known it wasn’t real from the start and now his arch nemesis was going to steal his most treasured possession because he was too busy being a lovestruck fool.

Scrooge took a deep breath and grabbed the dime from around his neck, squeezing the coin tightly in his hand.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself laying in his bed, same as he last remembered. Before he could even consider that this whole thing had just been a dream, he heard the sounds of struggling coming from his floor. He sat up and witnessed the most unexpected site: Goldie holding Magica De Spell in a violent chokehold and demanding that she ‘undo her spell.’

“It’s done! Just-” Magica choked out and coughed. “Just let me go, you psychotic harpy!”

Goldie scoffed and let her go with a violent shove. “How am I the psychotic one here?”

Magica growled and kicked out at Goldie again for quickly jumping out the window and flying off on her newly acquired broom. “You haven’t seen the last of me, McDuck!” she shouted.

Goldie rushed to the window to make sure the witch was really gone and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“...Goldie?”

She turned to see Scrooge staring at her with the widest, most confused stare she’d ever seen. “Hey, Moneybags. You’ve got a real rat problem here, you know that?”

He blinked and tried to soak in everything he’d just seen. “Did you...save me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” she said with a smirk, but he could hear that she was out of breath and her hair was sticking up in so many places it was clear she’d just been in quite the fight. “I stopped by for a visit only to find another woman in your bedroom. What else was I supposed to do?”

Another slow blink. He reached towards his chest and felt for the dime, but didn’t feel the string around his neck. Before his paranoia started to come up, Goldie tossed the dime at his face and he let out a loud “oof!” as it smacked into his forehead.

As the dime fell into his open palm, he thought about how this was definitely the Goldie he knew and loved.

He looked up at her with an expression of pure love and Goldie’s sarcastic comment was cut off by her own shock. She blushed and looked away from him for a second before glancing up again.

They silently stared at each other for a few moments. Goldie finally moved towards him and took a seat on the edge of the bed with a loud sigh. “Don’t make this into something it isn’t, but I’m tired as hell.” She laid down across his bed and closed her eyes. “So you can either go back to sleep or get to work, but I’m staying right here.”

Scrooge just stared at her for a minute as she snuggled under his comforter, her back to him and her eye makeup smudging against the pillow. He smiled brightly and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“Stay as long as you’d like, dear.”

She hummed in response as Scrooge got out of his bed and shrugged on his morning robe. It wasn’t quite his usual time to wake up, but he needed to update his magical defenses. Goldie could wait til he came back.

#ducktales #scroldie #scrooge mcduck #goldie o'gilt #fic #fics #roseprincess1994 #carro answers

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jolyne-jolyne-jolyne · 3 years

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The Impact Of Jotaro’s Neglect On Jolyne’s Character

When I first read Stone Ocean, I felt that Jolyne's hate toward Jotaro was a bit extreme and unjust. At 14, she stole his car and went joyriding just to get his attention. She also whined and complained about how terrible of a dad he is in the middle of their fight against Johngalli A. I think many readers didn't like her in the beginning because of her spoiled attitude. Upon rereading though, my feelings have become a bit more mixed.

In the first chapter, she told her lawyer that when she was six, she had a 42 degrees Celcius fever and her dad couldn't be bothered to come home and see her. If you live in the US like me, you're not familiar with the metric system. I googled it and it turns out 42 degrees Celsius is a whopping 107.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything above 105 F is dangerous already, but once you hit 108 F, you could very well die. So, with her 107.2 F fever, little Jolyne was literally on the verge of death.

A fever doesn't sound all that deadly when it comes to mind, but have you ever had one before? I haven't in years, but I remember it being awful on so many levels. Your entire body feels hot and cold, and you're sweating and shivering at the same time. Your head is pounding, and just mustering up the energy to even move it takes a lot out of you. Opening your eyes burns for some reason. And that's a fever that's below 42 C/107.2 F.

Imagine being six-year-old Jolyne. I like to think that Jotaro was a good father and husband when Jolyne was younger but then maybe a stand user attacked them or he realized Dio's followers were still out there and watching him, so he decided it was best for his family if he didn't bring those stand users to them. Further, he didn't want to let on to how much he cares for them, as they could be used against him. Out of the blue, with no explanation, Jolyne suddenly lost her father's love. She still remembered a Jotaro who used to spoil her and play with her (all those Dadtaro and Smolyne memes) and now he suddenly wasn't home all the time anymore. She probably tried different tricks, small things, to get his attention and reassure herself that he indeed does still loves her and is just caught up with work or something important. Maybe her small efforts worked and maybe sometimes they didn't.

Then the fever happens.

This is it. Little Jolyne is in critical condition, probably in some hospital, hooked to some tubes and fluids working toward stabilizing her sickness and fighting it off. No one tells her that she's dying, but she could very well guess it on her own since she's on a hospital bed. Her mom is most definitely there for her, maybe stroking her hair or holding her hand while keeping her own sobs and tears at bay in order to stay strong for her. Right now, this is what little Jolyne needs, her loved ones by her side when she needs them the most. She probably hasn't ever loved her mom more than she has right now. But it isn't enough. One hand is tightly gripped by her mom, yes, but the other is left empty, trying to grasp for that sturdy reassurance her dad is supposed to provide for her. She doesn't care whether or not he no longer plays with her; she just wants him to be there. Now it the chance to once and for all put her doubts to rest.

Where is daddy? she asks.

Her mom puts on a fake smile and assures her that he's coming, just a little late. What else is she supposed to do? Tell her daughter that he's too busy to come right now? Jolyne believes her for a bit, but like the impatient kid she is, keeps asking when he'll come. Again and again, her mom makes excuses, but it comes to a point where Jolyne realizes he's not coming. As to why that is, she doesn't know. Her heart breaks when she realizes that she might not get to see him one last time before she closes her eyes again. She innocently wonders if something bad has happened to him, and her mom makes up a new kind of lie to not break her spirit. She survives through the fever, but her heart is tattered with deep disappointment.

Later down the line, years maybe, she learns the truth that her dad just chose not to come and see her when she needed him. At this point, Jotaro's already long been a pretty absent father and negative feelings have been culminating within her. She still had good memories with him from her early childhood so she stayed optimistic. But hearing this shakes her world. She's probably at that age where kids are figuring out who they are. Finding this out makes her question whether the reason her dad keeps leaving her is that he no longer loves her. Why? Is there something wrong with her? What did she do for him to suddenly hate her?

And then the divorce happens.

It's like a nail in the coffin. We know why he did it, but in her head, it frees Jotaro of all responsibility aside from child support and cements the notion that he wants to rid her and her mom from his life. Jolyne can't and won't accept it, so she pulls a bunch of stunts to get a reaction out of him. Even if he comes to shout at her or lecture her, it's still better than complete neglect and at least shows that he cares, right? However, by now, Jotaro has already steeled himself to distance himself from his family to give them a better life. Whether or not it was right of him to do so is irrelevant. The fact is, his actions start to push Jolyne over the edge. If he were always like this from the very beginning (like Giorno's mom), maybe she wouldn't have cared about him at all. But she can't forget those days where he cared for her and miracles happened when he was around (Star Platinum's stand magic). Having her mom alone just isn't enough. She wants her dad, whom she still loves and who's so strong (and could literally beat up all other dads) too.

There will come a point where she stops trying to figure out why he doesn't love her and just thinks maybe the problem isn't with her but instead lies with him. Maybe she talks about him to her pre-prison gang friends, like that biker gang, and they tell her that she's perfectly in the right. They encourage her rebellion and egg her on to do wrong in order to defy him. These petty crimes build up on her record and blacken her reputation. Jotaro's enemies take advantage of that to finally make a move and frame her in order to lure Jotaro over. And thus, Stone Ocean and Jolyne's journey as a Jojo begin.

She might look whiny and be taking her hatred for Jotaro a bit far at times, but if the above speculations are actually correct, his love for her and what he thinks of her mattered so much to her that it literally shaped and defines her character.

All things said, Stone Ocean might not be the best part or most people's favorite, but I love that Araki actually took the time to flesh out Jolyne and even Jotaro here. When this gets animated, I hope DP will maybe give us some childhood flashbacks to get a much better understanding of this aspect of her earlier on.

#jolyne kujo #jjba #jojo #stone ocean #jojo part 6 #jotaro kujo #jolyne cujoh

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sun-moon-stars-jedi · 3 years

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Batfam Ficrecs - Part 3

Don’t have anything to read during the holidays? No problem, here are some great Batfam fanfics. Most of them are fairly recent, so hopefully you’ll find something new. The focus is on fluffy and funny gen Batfam stories, but I also included a few H/C stories and two JayRoy ones.

My other Reclists for fluffy Batfam fics are here and here if you’re looking for even more. Have fun reading =D

Short and Sweet Stories:

How To Break Up A Knife Fight by RubyofRaven (Gen, 1.5K, Rated Gen): In which Alfred is away, Bruce has an emergency, and someone needs to be left in charge. Family fluff Batfam style with a perfect ending.

A Hindering Hand by collectivefandomstuff (Gen, 4.3K, Rated T): When Dick is refused the opportunity to coddle Damian, he decides to lavish his other siblings with his questionably helpful assistance. They are palpably ungrateful. Dick being an annoying older brother is hilarious and sweet at the same time. Good feel reading.

Halloween Wonder by alecmagnuslwb (M/M, 1.7K, Rated Gen): Jason and Roy take Lian trick or treating and she has a specific request for their costumes. Sweet JayRoy family fluff.

Get Out Of My Room by damthosefandoms (Gen, 2.2K, Rated Gen): Dick likes to mess with his little brother. Jason enjoys being a little shit to his older brother. Everyone always says they’ll get along when they get older. They’re not so sure about that. Sweet and funny story about Dick and Jason being brothers.

Have I Told You About Minnie? by Hinn_Raven (Gen, 4.5K, Rated T): After you’ve known Matches Malone long enough, you get used to him telling you about his kids. Not that his kids know about it. Bruce is a proud dad, even when he is undercover, and can’t stop telling everyone about his awesome kids. Nice focus on the relationship between Bruce and Stephanie.

Night at the (National History) Museum by collectivefandomstuff (Gen, 7.2K, Rated T): The Batbros cause havoc at a gala and it is hilarious.

Nutella by good_ho_mens (Gen, 1.7K, Rated T): Dick just wanted Nutella, and Jason didn't feel like getting shot today.

One Wrong Step by good_ho_mens (Gen, 3.0K, Rated Gen): Damian steps on a mine and Jason refuses to leave. Also, Tim worries. Batbrothers bonding during a crisis and it is so good.

Put On Your Mask (We're Going Shopping) by shanahane (Gen, 3.2K, Not Rated): It's been... some time since Bruce has done any sort of shopping. Still, somehow, miraculously, the trip to the supermarket is a not a complete disaster. One could even describe it as successful. Wholesome Batdad with his sons.

Friends That Say (You’re Not Alone) by ProsperDemeter (Gen, 3.5K, Rated Gen): Clark visits Wayne Manor during Christmas and sees a totally different side to Bruce in how he behaves around little Dick. Sweet and wholesome, good dad Bruce and little ray of sunshine Dickie.

siblings being siblings series by envysparkler (Gen, 12.3K+, Rated T): The Batkids notice that Bruce never confronts Jason about little mistakes and start to use him as a scapegoat. It spirals from there. Super funny, especially once Jason gets his revenge.

Hurt/Comfort Stories:

in doctor's office lighting (i didn't tell you i was scared) by good_ho_mens (Gen, 8.9K, Rated T): Tim gets meningitis and it isn’t pretty, but his family is there for him. A sickfic that goes pretty deep, including the first real look at how Tim’s missing spleen will influence his life. Hurt comfort done super well.

Tough Love by iselsis (Gen, 7.6K, Rated T): Jason finds his mother dead on the bathroom floor, but his grief is interrupted when a strange man breaks into his apartment and kidnaps him. The moment you get what is happening this story changes completely and it is so good.

Zoetic by PurpleArrowzandLeather (Gen, 4.2K, Rated T): Jason goes inside a burning building to save people who are trapped in their apartments. He doesn't come out. Emotional and sad, but so satisfying. (And Chapter 2 makes everything better again.)

Looking for Home by Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron (Gen, 11.8K, Rated T): Bruce and Jason are lost in the woods, not knowing how they got there, or even where they are. A little road trip even when there is no road is always good for bonding though. So, so great. Not gonna say more to avoid spoilers. Background Bruce/Clark, but that’s not really important.

Broken Bodies, Daisy Bloom Series by RandomReader13 (Gen, 15.6K+, Rated Gen to M): The Batfam during the zombie apocalypse. A very realistic take on how to survive the zombie apocalypse, with emotional family moments and the expected worst case scenario happening but with a twist.

Waylaid by Elya_Rho (Gen, 31.7K, Rated T): All Damian wanted was to spend the day alone with his father. Then Drake had to go and ruin everything by getting himself kidnapped... Damian pretending not to care about Tim while simultaneously doing everything possible to safe him is so good. Very nice Batbro story.

In Progress:

Keeping Score by Elya_Rho (Gen, 67.3K+, Rated T): Brothers can turn anything into a competition … including saving each other's lives. Don’t worry about it being a WIP, there are no unresolved cliffhangers. The individual missions are so good and get even better with each chapter. I reread all of them several times already, so definitely worth a try.

the thing with feathers by bacondoughnut (Gen, 16.3K+, Not Rated): When Dick and Bruce go missing and Tim can't find them on his own he turns to the only other person he can think of for help, Jason. He just hopes they can keep from killing each other long enough to save their family. Jason reluctantly helping Tim, great detective work and begrudging brotherly bonding, what more could you want?

Drink Deep in the Morning by GordandV (Gen, 4.0K+, Rated T): Robin era Jason talks Dick into taking him driving. Sweet Batbrothers in an interesting magical realism AU. A WIP with only one chapter, but the world is established in such an interesting way, it’s really worth a read.

A Change Of Scenery by Sun_Moon_Stars_Jedi (M/M, 18.5K+, Rated Gen): Jason finds himself stuck in the past while Roy has to deal with the fourteen year old version of his husband. Time travel is just so much fun! I’m shamelessly putting my own fic here, it’s fluffy and funny, so if you’d like to, give it a shot.

Epic Series:

Emotional Motion Sickness Series by Batbirdies (Gen, 348K+, Rated Gen to M): A series beginning with Bruce Wayne finally deciding to go to therapy, and the ripple effect afterwards. I can’t put into words how good this series is. If you like Bruce as a good dad, who makes up for his faults and is there for his kids, you absolutely have to read this!

Flightless Birds Series by Ionaperidot (Gen, 181K+, Not Rated): A Bruce without the Batkids meets one with them. Cue Batdad collecting abandoned kids from the multiverse. The progress Bruce and each of the kids makes is amazing, an absolute must read. Slight TimKon, but the pairing is not the focus of the stories.

In For a Pound Series by Cdelphiki (Gen, 248K+, Rated Gen): Talia gives Damian to Bruce when he is still a baby and it changes everything. I’m sure everyone has already read this amazing series, but on the off chance that you haven’t, go do it. Everything Cdelphiki writes makes you feel warm and happy, family fluff of the highest quality.

#batfam #jason todd #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #tim drake #ficrec #batman ficrec

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thanksjro · 3 years

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More Than Meets the Eye #29 - The One Where Everyone Gets Super Shiny

Our issue opens up with Swerve laying down the Story So Far in the Exposition Dimension.

Fantastic, you funky little man.

If Swerve looks like he’s been tossed through the car wash a few dozen times, it’s because this is where our new colorist comes in! Everyone, please say hello to Joana Lafuente- known for her love of gradients and attention to light sources, this actually isn’t the first time we’ve run into her. Lafuente worked on colors for several issues of The Transformers (2009), Last Stand of the Wreckers #3, and a few issues of MTMTE Season 1. However, she was matching the styles of her co-colorists on a majority of these, so we haven’t seen her style properly until now.

Getting into the story proper, Cyclonus is busying himself with staring out the window at a PNG of space, as he is wont to do, when he hears the tell-tale sound of tires squealing down the hall towards his room. Oh, goodness, whoever could that be?

Nearly forgot about him, didn’t you? Yeah, it’s a little difficult to follow up on things like a character’s recovery from a horrific disease when you’ve got comic event contract obligations to deal with.

After getting tackled by Tailgate, who reminds us all about the time he stuck his dirty little fingers into a dude’s brain meat, Cyclonus takes the little nerd on a walk through the ship.

You’re not going to convince me to reread “Dark Cybertron”. I don’t care how much of a marshmallow you are, it’s not happening.

They’re passed by Megatron and a bunch of crew members carrying that coffin we saw at the end of last issue down the corridor, Tailgate has a moment, and we get a taste of Cyclonus’ distaste for the Autobots as a whole. Tailgate is mildly offended by this, as he gropes his chest in distain, showing off his shiny new Autobot badge- a gift for not dying a terrible, gruesome death.

Good job, Tailgate. Proud of you.

They’re also passed by an absolutely blitzed Jackpot and Mainframe, the former singing Tailgate’s Tyrest-stopping praises as the latter carts him over to the Medibay to deal with the almost alcohol poisoning he’s got going on. Cyclonus remarks that Tailgate was missed, though Tailgate can’t help but wonder if that’s really true.

Y’all like slowburn romance, right? Because these two dumbasses have been roommates for two years, and we’ve just gotten to the point where physical contact can happen without one of them needing to be dying.

Anyway, it’s been a good day for Tailgate so far. Let’s hope it stays that way for the little dude.

...And that’s a series wrap on Tailgate! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

Hopping back in time to Megatron’s trial, things get underway, as Optimus Prime takes a nap in the judge’s bench as Gripper- whose name you don’t need to remember, as he’s not actually important- tells everyone about how brutal the Decepticon Justice Division is, even to Autobots. Which isn’t really supposed to be their deal, given their, y’know, name, but I suppose nobody’s perfect.

Up in the stands, in an… opera box, I guess? Rodimus is watching the proceedings, when Atomizer walks in. Which I guess you can just do in a Cybertronian court case. Sure.

Atomizer, in case you forgot, is the dude who has a bow and arrow, and used to be an interior designer.

Say, didn’t Whirl has a bow and arrow in the last issue when he attacked Megatron? Mighty curious, that.

Rodimus and Atomizer briefly reflect on the DJD, recalling the horror that was Vos- not that Vos, the other one. Rodimus would really just rather this all be over with so the Lost Light can get back to finding the Knights of Cybertron, and it’s at this point that Atomizer breaks out a thing he really ought not have- the count for the vote on whether or not Rodimus should stay on as captain. Rodimus doesn’t want to look at it, because it was supposed to be anonymous for a reason, and tells Atomizer to destroy the list entirely.

Hm, that’s not a terribly determined face there, Rodimus.

Back in the present, specifically in Swerve’s, Groove is threatening to break Streetwise’s arm, as we get the downlow on just what exactly our Legislator buddy’s deal is. Turn’s out, Swerve got one of the things reprogrammed, so that he follows not the Autobot Code, but something else entirely.

Hey, Swerve?

I don’t expect you to know this, because I don’t think you were present when they revealed this information to the readers, but… your new bouncer is made of people. He’s a dude made of other dudes, namely the Circle of Light. There’s a chance that you reprogrammed a sentient being, my good bitch.

Anyway, Swerve’s in a fucking mood because his shoulder hurts, someone’s stealing his shit, and Megatron has joined the narrative. Over at a nearby table, Skids, Nautica, and Riptide take a gander at the tabloids. Trailcutter, who is positively smashed, to the point where he’s just leaking booze out of his face like it’s his job, isn’t terribly interested in that, however.

What an astute observation, Riptide. And people say you’re stupid!

Trailcutter wants to drink some more, because it’s very likely he’s got a problem, but the mention of “Megatron’s super fuel” makes him feel like it’s time to stop hounding Swerve and start performing crimes.

Back during the trial, we get to Starscream’s testimony. He’s wearing his crown. He’s acting like a self-righteous asshole, as he defends Megatron.

Well, “defend” in the technical, legal sense, I suppose.

But really it’s more about him insulting Megatron’s intelligence, strength, and courage, in front of a LOT of people, while also trying to make himself look better in the war crime department. Megatron doesn’t appreciate this very much, if his murder-face is anything to go by.

Megatron lets Ultra Magnus (his defender, if you’ll recall) know that he wants a private word, and court goes into a brief recess.

Back in the present, Nightbeat’s busy looking at a pin-up of Rung’s alt-mode, when someone knocks on his door. That someone is Chromedome, who’s trying to solve the mystery of The Missing Declaration of Love. Not that he says that specifically out loud.

You two were married, why- okay. No point in yelling at this digital copy of a comic book.

Anyway.

So, the whole screaming thing only happened the one time, and everything was back to normal on subsequent plays of Rewind’s message. Nightbeat seems to be leaning towards the depressive isolating getting to Chromedome, which Chromedome responds to by telling him to get the fuck out. Alas, someone’s blocking the door!

YO WHAT THE FUCK-

Back with Trailcutter’s subplot, our drunken friend is in the middle of breaking into the Medibay. Our trio of cool-colored pals watch him from back at the bar, by way of a laptop that looks like it was built the same year I was born.

As Trailcutter attempts to commit a crime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, and Ratchet pass by, trying to figure out how to handle the whole coffin situation. Trailcutter’s about to punch the locks off a door, and Nautica decides that this is where she’s going to draw the line today, leaving the gaggle of fools to their shenanigans. Then Tailgate glomps Skids, throwing the computer to the ground and breaking it, as Trailcutter finds the door to the Medibay magically open.

If you don’t know what glomping is, there’s a 60% chance that you’re not old enough to vote in the US.

Trailcutter sneaks into the Medibay, we get a reminder that Ambulon is super dead, and Trailcutter commits theft from a food bank. What a guy.

This is the point where security shows up, armed with a great deal of guns, one of which is Megatron himself. Trailcutter, instead of feeling super powerful, actually feels positively awful after consuming Megatron’s rations of “super fuel”. Because he, as an Autobot, doesn’t want to be within 50 yards of Megatron, Trailcutter breaks out the forcefields the moment the guy approaches him. And oh, what a doozy this one is.

Trailcutter’s gotten himself a fancy new trick- this forcefield he’s broken out lasts for a solid half-hour, and he can’t turn it off. I’m sure that won’t bite him in the ass at any point in the near future, no-siree!

Back in the past, Rattrap is commending Starscream on playing the field and getting the public slightly more on his side, but Starscream’s too busy patting himself on the back to really pay attention. He knew damn well that Megatron wouldn’t like what he had to say on the stand, and now things are finally looking up for ol’ Screamer.

Over with Optimus Prime, Slamdance is showing off how the general public is really into this whole “folks being held accountable for their actions” thing.

In the present, Chromedome and Nightbeat seem to have remembered they have alt-modes and are driving down the hall back to Nightbeat’s room- wonder what the speed limit for the Lost Light is?- and discuss just what the hell happened. The current theory is that the Rewind they saw was a Data Ghost- a collection of information so dense, it had a not-quite-physical presence that wasn’t 100% removed when he died.

Which is a little fucked up, but let’s see where this goes.

Nightbeat undoes the 40,000 locks on his door while Chromedome bleeds guilt all over the shag carpet over the fact that he hasn’t been looking for Dominus Ambus like he said he would.

C’mon James, gimme that Chromedominus endgame.

Nightbeat finally opens the door to find a small problem.

Hm. That’s… not normal.

Over in the Medibay, Trailcutter’s bubble has burst, allowing Megatron to slap him in the back of the head. This head-slapping induces his FIM chip permanently, making it so that he can never get drunk again.

Weird party trick, Megatron. Kinda shitty, really.

Megatron then gives Trailcutter the job of director of security, because he needs direction in his life. Trailcutter just sort of takes what he’s given, because I suppose you can’t really argue with a guy who can literally slap you sober, and also threatens to destroy you if you fuck up even once. Nice, Megs. Nice.

MEGATRON THAT’S BEEN SITTING LIKE THAT FOR OVER HALF AN HOUR YOU FUCKING WET NOODLE

So, since there’s mystery juice all over the floor and no one’s died, Megatron assumes that the coffin ought to be fine to crack open.

Please note that Megatron is not a medical professional, and his views are now peer reviewed by medical professionals. Megatron is in no way endorsed by the WHO.

Anyway, Rodimus is in there.

Pretty fucked up.

Back in the past, recess is over, and Ultra Magnus comes bearing bad news- Megatron wants to change his plea to “innocent.” This gets about the reaction one would expect from just about anyone.

Well, except Rodimus, who’s too busy reading that list that he wanted destroyed. He’s very sad about it.

I know, what a bummer!

#transformers #jro #MTMTE #world shut your mouth #issue 29 #maccadam #Hannzreads #text post #long post #comic script writing

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mtreebeardiles · 2 years

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Stardew Effect, ch. 7

In which Kaidan seeks answers, and makes a new acquaintance

Full chapter on AO3

The letter sat inside the top drawer of his dresser for the next two days.

It was still glowing faintly any time he went to peek at it, to reread it, to wonder, again, what on Earth he was going to do. Would the mysterious "L" send another? It's not like there was much room for error with the postal system, and based on what little information he had he doubted his "neighbor to the south" utilized the conventional means of delivering mail.

Did this mystery person know about him, then? They knew his name, which he supposed wasn't hard enough to learn, considering the size and scope of Pelican Town. And if he could feel their energy field, there was a good chance they could sense his.

Granted, Kaidan thought, rubbing at a temple. I don't think I put out nearly as much energy as they do.

And that was the other thing: the sheer power this person seemed to have. How much of it was them? How much of it was the tower itself? He'd been taught about techniques some used in the Empire, tricks to store energy within objects. Usually amulets and the like, reserves for emergencies, but why not stone? Why not pour energy directly into the make up of your home, lacing it with who knew how much defensive properties?

He flopped onto his bed with a sigh, ignoring the fact that his hair was still wet from the shower. He raised a hand above his face, calling the glow forth on purpose, letting the shimmering energy flicker between his fingertips. Even with Camp Zero, he still knew so little about it. Was it magic? Something else? Was he cursed, or gifted, or something altogether new? Whatever it was, he knew he didn't measure up to what the instructors at Zero wanted.

He dropped his hand back to his side. How many hours had he spent, night after night, desperate to do what Vyrnnus wanted him to do? How many nights did he hold back tears, putting on a strong front for some of the other kids, all of them confused as to what was expected of them? A defector from the Gotoro Empire, Commander Vyrnnus hadn't pulled his punches, and he certainly had no love for the youth of the Ferngill Republic. Accusations of being deliberately obtuse, escalating to outright abuse, and then…

Kaidan huffed out a breath, pushing himself up. It was self-defense.

Self-defense, manslaughter, and all Kaidan and the other kids had to show for it was varying levels of control.

What if they're from the Empire? Or Camp Zero? What if one of the others…figured this shit out?

A shiver down his spine, and not the good kind.

Vibration against his leg had him glancing down, fishing his phone out of a pocket. His heart clenched, seeing Evvy's name flash across the screen, and it was with hesitation that he unlocked it to read the message in full.

He hadn't seen or heard from Everett since that night at the Community Center, hadn't received any notice that the man still wanted to talk -- or that he even remembered their conversation at the doctor's office. He chewed on his lower lip, scrolling through, heaving a sigh.

Hey Kaidan, sorry I haven't had the chance to get back to you. I feel like I've slept a good twenty years and it's pretty disorienting, ngl. I'm still off for the rest of the week, and I got a few more tests the doctor wants to run, but I'm reasonably sure I can still make it to your place if you wanted to talk. Let me know? Hope you're doing okay.

Kaidan tapped absently against his thigh, mulling over his options. He wasn't sure he wanted Everett risking the walk over here, even with Nutmeg as company, but he wasn't sure he wanted to venture into town, either. Not until he had a better grip on the situation. He scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling a headache start to build behind his eyes. Not a migraine, not yet at least, though the stress could certainly push it that way if he wasn't careful.

He pushed to his feet, rustling up a clean shirt to finish getting dressed. His nerve was wavering, but he put one foot in front of the other. Kitchen, sandwich. Wash it down with some lemonade. Shoes, on; keys, in hand.

Letter, retrieved, folded and slipped into his back pocket.

If he wanted to tell Everett the truth, he needed to figure out exactly what the truth was first.

#my writing #Stardew Effect #Kaidan Alenko #Everett Shepard #mshenko #Mass Effect/Stardew Valley AU #Liara T'Soni

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circuscarnage · 4 years

Text

Picture Perfect.

Hello! I saw a picture of Rooks room and get inspired to write a yandere fanfic. Sorry if he seems out of character, I haven't written for him since the game released. I’ve also been wanting to try my hand at writing a yandere fic for a while so I hope you enjoy.

TW: Stalking. A lot of stalking.

Words: 2755.

Potions wasn't exactly a subject that you excelled at. It wasn't that you were bad at it... you just had trouble getting your head around the instructions. It's not everyday you are flung through a magical portal and expected to partake in activities meant for trained wizards who have been here for more than five seconds. So a little struggling here and there was to be expected. But to completely mess up and almost set half the school on fire? That was a new record of stupidity, even for you.

Divus was not impressed. The way he lightly tapped his cane over his crossed arms was enough of an indication. He was just about to teach this stray puppy some discipline. But thankfully for you, someone came to your hour of need. And that someone came in the form of the boisterous Rook Hunt. Sweet talking his way into your conversation seamlessly and rescuing this poor soul from punishment.

"Monsieur Crewel," He started. "You must forgive our petite colombe, they are not accustomed to this world, and still have much to learn." He placed his hands gently on your shoulders, firmly keeping you in place. "May I suggest some personally tutoring? After all, who better the guide this innocent creature through the hurdles of life than yours truly?"

So it was settled. Instead of being placed with a heavy detention, Rook would be you personal tutor. Helping recover your grades and ensuring that you never repeat your little mistake ever again. You both agreed to meet in the Pomefiore dormitory, where he would escort you to his room in order to study.

As expected from Pomefiore, their rooms were nothing short of elegant. The room was quite grand. Cream coloured walls lined with gold coating the exterior, giving the room a very regal vibe. They had the same satin sheets that matches perfectly with their uniform. And the bed canopy above only added an extra layer of elegance. The stained glass window embedded in the wall illuminated a section of the room with rainbow light. He even had his hunting equipment decorated on the wall. His trusty hunting bows seeming as casual as a family picture. It looked extremely glamorous, and extremely expensive.

You kept your books clutched to your chest as he invited you further into the room. "Thank you again, Rook. Without your help, there's no doubt Crewel would make me do one of his impossible tasks." You turned to face him. "How were you able to persuade him so easily?"

Rook smiled, closing the door behind him. "We share an eye for the divine. Fashion and beauty come second nature to us. I am also one of his top students. He places his trust in me to guide his little 'puppies' in the right direction." Rook laughed, finding it endearing that Divus saw himself as a trainer, rather than a teacher. He walked himself over to his desk, pulling out the chair, and gestured you to sit down. You placed your belongings on the table and sat down, thanking him.

Before you started, Rook removed his hat, and went to place it on the stand. "Let's start with the basics, shall we? Firstly-" Rook suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He stared off into the distance, thinking for a moment. His hat still sitting firmly in his hand, before he finally placed it down. He checked his pockets, patting them down gently at first, but then becoming a tad more frantic. He patted down his jacket as well, as if he was missing something. He breathed out a smile. "Ah... sacre bleu..."

"Is everything okay?" You queried, quirking your brow at him. It was unlike Rook to be disorganised. He always knew where everything was, so seeing him in a state of surprise was a first. Rook met your gaze again, giving you an apologetic smile before speaking. "You must forgive me, petite colombe. It seems I may have left something important in Monsieur Crewel's classroom. I hate to leave at such short notice, but I must retrieve this item of mine."

"It's alright." You reassured him. There was plenty of times where you had left something behind, it was perfectly understandable. "Take your time. I can go over some notes by myself if you want?" Rook clapped his hands together happily. Expressing his delight to your sedulous mind. "Tres bein! Such a diligent student. So eager to learn, yet has trouble expressing so. Like a flower yet to bloom yo-"

"Rook. Go." You ushered him out of the room with a smile. If you hadn't stepped in, he would have continued his rant on beauty for the rest of the day.

As Rook left the room to retrieve said item, you opened your book to a random page and started to reread over your notes. At least this way, you wouldn't bore yourself to death waiting for him to come back. Might as well do something productive. Before long, your eyes started to get tired. Without Rook being here to help you, it felt strange being in his room, like you weren't supposed to be there. Some time had already passed yet he hadn't returned. You sighed, leaning back in the chair. Whatever he misplaced must have been important. Not wanting the boredom to consume you whole, you searched the room for something to do.

Without a doubt, the hat on the stand had caught your attention. You stared at it, resisting the temptation to try it on. Just as you reached out your hand, you quickly retreated it back. Another time, you thought. Today was a day of no distractions. You were going to do work, and Rook was going to help... whenever he came back. Given the unpredictability of Rook, who knows how long he would take. He had left his phone in his room, so there was no way to contact him. Sitting back down in the chair, you let out a heavy sigh.

That's when you saw it. Hidden away in the very corner of the room. Something that was slightly off. A stray corner of wallpaper was peeling off the side of the wall. It was only a small section, easily overlooked by anyone who passed by. But for someone who was obviously looking for something, it wasn't hard to miss. Rook didn't seem like the type of person to allow his room to fall into a state of disarray. Suffice to say, it caught you off guard.

Something about how that one corner was different was completely throwing off your concentration. There was no way you would be able to focus with something that distracting in the back of your mind. It was decided, in order to gain a better working environment, something needed to be done.

You stood up from your seat and made your way over to the bed, removing your shoes before carefully stepping on top of the satin sheets. They sank under your weight, making you briefly loose your footing, but you manged to make it to the wall without falling over. The Pomefiore dorm really went all out with the bedding. Soft and smooth to the touch, yet emitting a sort of poisonous aura. It dragged you in, insisting for you to lie down. As if someone could lie in peaceful slumber, forever in a death like state.

You shook those thoughts from your head. Now was not the time to think about that, there was a wall in desperate need of fixing! Standing up on your tip toes, your hand glided up the wall to secure the loose wallpaper. Just before you sealed up the wall, something else caught your attention. There was something behind the plaster. A corner of a white scrap of paper was peaking out from behind it. Why the heck was there something behind the wall? Was it something that he didn't want others to see?

You looked towards the door, seeing that Rook hadn't come back yet. What was taking him so long? His lengthened disappearance might as well be a blessing at this point, considering the blatant curiosity that festered inside you was starting to eat away at your moral compass. It is awfully rude to look at someones personal things without asking, but it was basically staring you right in the face, begging to be looked at. Surely, it wouldn't hurt to take a small peek, would it? No longer being able to subside the pestering need to be nosy, you peeled back a little more of the plaster, surprised at how easy it came off.

There was no denying the cold feeling that started to creep it's way up your spine. Slow and sultry, like someone trailing their fingers up your back. What you had expected to be a simple joke to be laughed it, turned out to be much darker then you could have ever dreamed. You couldn't believe what you were looking at, blinding rapidly, praying that it was just a trick of the eye. But every time you opened your eyes, there it was, staring back at you. That's when you noticed that there wasn't only one. Another corner peeked out.

In a marvellous flourish of motion, you quickly tore the wall paper off, revealing an entire collage of horror behind a thin wall of plaster. There was more of them. Completely covering the back wall. But these weren't pieces of paper. These were pictures.

Pictures of you.

How Rook was able to capture them without you knowing baffled you. He had taken shots from all angles, close up and distant, capturing every moment perfectly. You studied the pictures closer, being able to remember the exact date of when they were taken. One was from the day you were having lunch outside with your friends, smiling and laughing in ignorant bliss, unaware of the danger that lurked just beyond your line of sight. Another was from one of your walks, going around Night Raven campus without a second thought. Enjoying the peaceful scenery away from the usual chaos. Oh my god. He even managed to snap a shot of you while you were asleep.

Your hands instinctively slammed on the wall as you felt your body lurch forward, suddenly feeling very disorientated, and extremely unsafe. Rook could be somewhat of a stalker at times, but this was just too far. The little games he would play with the other students were nothing more than playful motions, they never borderline on obsession. So why. Why this? Why now? And most importantly, why you?

"Beautiful, is it not?"

Hearing those words broke you from your bystander state and placed you back within the clutches of the predator. You completely froze. Standing still on his bed, not even being able to look him in the eyes. You knew that you were in the wrong by snooping through his things. But if you knew what was in store, you wouldn't have done it. Discomfort radiated off you rapidly, filling the room with unimaginable dread. Neither of you said anything for a moment. But when Rook spoke, it shot through you like an arrow.

"My collection." His voice had gotten louder. He was much closer than before. On the side of the bed just behind you. You didn't even know he moved. "I've travelled my entire life and seen beauty in all it's shapes and forms. The Savanaclaw students are beast-men, their animalistic instincts interest me greatly. The students at this academy are all so distinct with their unique magic. But you." The way he spoke, letting you linger on every word he said, unsettled you greatly. "You had your own beauty in being simple. Standing out because you blend in with the background. A simple buttercup in a world of exotic flowers. It's a wonder how you managed to catch my eye, more so than that of Roi de Poison." He placed his gloved finger to his chin, taking a moment to think about his next words. "You have a certain... Je ne sais pas... Vulnerability. Something that a hunter like myself can't resist..."

As he said that, he reached out his hand, gently twisting it around your wrist. You shuddered at his touch, not wanting to be here anymore. Whatever was going on, you wanted no part in it. You wish you never saw this. Wanting nothing more than to rewind time and remain oblivious to his obsessive actions. That would be better. Going about life without knowing of the danger that was always three steps behind.

Plucking up the little courage you had, cautiously you turned to face him. You expected to see him looking at you with a sour expression. But he didn't. He didn't look angry. Why didn't he look angry? You just exposed him for stalking. Someone in their right mind should have at least changed their expression, or do something. But Rook didn't. He just continued to smile at you as he always did. As if nothing was wrong. You looked back to the pictures, and then to him. His timing was too perfect. Leaving suddenly and then catching you in the act. Leaving you bored and in need to do something. He didn't plan this... Did he?

"Did..." It was hard trying to conceal the fear in your voice. Still uneven and shaking from the realisation. "...Did you want me to find this?" Your voice was only just above a whisper, yet Rook heard it clear as day. His keen eyes picking up the slightest of sounds. He clapped his hands together happily. "Tres Bien! As expected of my petite colombe, you were able to find the clues and uncover the mystery. Your beauty surely knows no bounds. All good hunters know how to cover their tracks and remain undetected. I wouldn't let something like a stray piece of paper cause my undoing." His eyes flickered to wall, scanning over the pictures once again. It was clear that he was proud to own such a collection, but his gaze never stayed focused on them for long. Too soon his eyes would return to grace upon your features, taking them in intensely. "Even though I was able to capture your beauty within these images, it can never compare to the real thing. A replication of a painting is worthless compared to the original. That's why I had to have you."

Gently he began to pull you towards him. You tried to fight back. Squirming under his touch, hoping to be let free. But no matter how much you wriggled, how much you battered your fist against his arm, or how much you protested, he was easily able to seal you in his arms. He didn't even flinch. Being able to pull you in with one wave of his hand, like it was nothing. He only chuckled in response. There was no where for you to run, you both knew that. You had accidentally cornered yourself standing on his bed. You considered making a break for it. But then you remembered how fast Rook could be. It was sometimes scary watching him in PE, being able to easily sprint past Savanaclaw members without breaking a sweat. There was no way you would be able to outrun him. Not like you could run anyway, being clutched to his chest. Smothered in unrequited love.

All thoughts of escape fled your mind as his grip tightened. Digging his gloved fingers into your skin without breaking his smile. He was enjoying this. Having you be at his mercy. It was like being a rabbit surrounded by traps. One wrong move and something would end up broken. With a delighted expression, he tilted your chin upwards, forcing you to make eye contact with him. Half-lidded emerald eyes that sparked with delusional longing. "I want to capture that look of your face forever. Belated innocence... Such a pretty face would be wasted on those who can't appreciate it's beauty. My heart pulsated with admiration. You've completely captured my heart. My mind, body, and soul sing for your embrace. Every action I have taken has been in your name. And every action I shall take will be laced with your image. Won't you be my personal muse?"

#twisted wonderland #rook hunt #pomefiore #twst yandere #yandere #yandere x reader #twst rook #yandere rook hunt #if anyone is wondering #Rook calls the reader his little dove #but I hope this was okay #Hi sometimes I wanna write #but we will resume shortly to our regularly scheduled bullshit

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