#unfortunately you got me talking about the impact of jason's death | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jason-the-mommas-boy · 4 years

Note

hello darling Narrator!! okay idc if this is a request or something for the book but,,, Jason helping his s/o with their hair/makeup,,, he’s so precious and would be so gentle when working with hair?? he might not be the best at it but he’s number one in my heart

aa!! anon, im so sorry that this took so long but I just really loved this idea and I also mixed it with one of the february prompts I had planned so that’s the main reason it took this long aaa…I hope you enjoy it though!! also bonus points for anyone who knows what the book I reference is at the end)

Jason Voorhees braids his S/O’s hair (and more)

Prompt / Summary - Sleepover!!! / nails prompt from the 2020 February prompt list made by @ / hiddendreamer67 (yes ill be doing all of them eventually!!)

Word Count: 6.7k

Jason can’t remember much about his childhood after all these years.

Yes, of course, he remembers his mommy, the bullies that tortured him at the camp, and the overwhelming feeling of water running down into his lungs. But the small details have completely dropped from his memory as his decaying body grew older. Though, as soon as you entered into his life and he accepted that fact, the small stuff you did would irk the forgotten things.

You taking his measurements for example. You were going to get him a new shirt as a surprise once you learned that he absolutely adored turtlenecks, but you needed to make sure it would fit on the giant man! Jason didn’t question it, if he had to be honest, you had done weirder things. Much to his surprise, this little action had reminded him back to when he was just a kid, his mommy doing the same exact thing! She’d take his measurements, and leave a kiss on his forehead for behaving so well afterwards.

These memories often left him feeling happier. It was something positive that he could take away from when he was a child as most things were very negative. But it also meant that you just kept putting a positive impact on his life! You were such an angel in his eyes.

A few days ago, he had another one of these moments. It was late in the evening when you arrived at Jason’s cabin, a little bit of (messy) makeup adorning your face. You had a big meeting at your job that day and felt like it was important to look better than usual so you wouldn’t leave an okay or worse impression.

You’re a little dumbfounded when your boyfriend opens the door to let you in, he freezes up, and goes blank. He’s never seen you in makeup before! And??? If he didn’t already have a dead heart, it would have stopped beating at that very moment! You were so pretty already and now you’re even more pretty??? Oh, RIP this poor man. It seems like every other day you were giving him an entirely new reason to love you.

But it also reminded him of when he was younger. His mommy would let him put makeup on her face if he wished to do so after a particularly long day at camp. He’d grab a washcloth and clean her face before placing a lot of makeup on her. He thought his mommy looked just lovely with it and it would always destress him or calm him down.

“Jason?” Your voice called out, pulling him away from the trance you had put him in.

Right, you were still outside the cabin, waiting for him. He let you inside, taking a step to the side. A warm fire was already ready when you stepped in, the warmth inviting you to sit and relax. But even before you even thought about taking a seat on that couch, Jason stopped you and made sure you were paying attention to him for the minute. He made the heart shape with his hands and then he gestured towards your face.

It took a moment before you realized what he was trying to say. With a smile, you looked up to him. “Aww! Do you like my makeup?”

He nodded, happy that his message came across.

He made another notion quickly afterwards, pointing to your lips. He wasn’t sure how else to express what he wanted to do! Being mute could be extremely difficult sometimes.

You tilted your head, giving him a confused look. “Err, wha?”

Uh, okay. This time he tried to hold an imaginary brush up to your face and made a few strokes, as if he were painting on a canvas. Was that any better? He wasn’t exactly sure.

Silence. Then you blink a few times, having stared at his fingers with a skeptical face.

“You would like to do my makeup?”

Jason nodded again, this time much more excited. He’s already shown that he just loved brushing your hair, which made sense. He didn’t have any hair of his own and probably found the action itself soothing. So it’s really no surprise to you that he’d like to do your makeup as well! Honestly, your boyfriend just loved doing stuff for you.

You pat his arm as an idea popped into your head! “Jason! Why don’t we just have a sleepover? You can do my makeup and hair and I’ll do your nails! How’s that sound to my special boy?”

Oh! Sure!

You didn’t have any of your makeup with you, though. You were more than sure that Jason didn’t either. Yeah, he took everything he could find from the dead campers, but it was pretty unlikely the people here would pack lipstick in their supplies.

It seemed like Jason was having the same thoughts as you. He was also a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to do your makeup tonight, but he was still just as happy to have you here, in his home, and hopefully, be in his arms soon.

You bite your lip. “Don’t worry I’ll bring everything we need, okay?” You got an understanding nod in response. Okay, cool!

Oh, but a sleepover??? The masked killer can’t remember if he ever had a sleepover before. Probably not. He never recalled having any friends back at camp besides his mommy, but she was always busy with her job as the cook most of the time.

You’ve also never stayed the night before! There were so many new experiences you were providing him!

“Is this weekend okay with you? That way I can come by early perrrhaps? I don’t want you to put makeup on me just to take it off before we sleep.”

He shook his head as if to say, Oh, absolutely not, there could be campers out there to hurt you-

You bit your lip and tugged at his sleeve. “Pleeease? Take a few hours off that routine for me? I’m sure there’ll be no teenagers running about.”

Oh, what was he thinking? He couldn’t say no to you. As long as you were spending all that time with him, it was okay. More time spent with you, the better, he guessed. With a nod, he pressed his mask against your forehead, mocking a kiss.

With the plan made, all there was needed to do was wait on Jason’s part. Which he already continuously struggled with on a daily basis. Yes, he had patience for the kill, but he did not have patience to wait for you!

Well, Jason assumed that if you were going to stay the night, you would most likely want a warm place to sleep. While he had his own bedroom, it was extremely cold, no thanks to the giant hole in the roof. He also found that the tunnels underneath were also unfit, as they were cramped and filled with rats. He didn’t know your opinion on the rodents but he didn’t want to give you a scare. He considered moving the fireplace for a moment, but then realized it would be chilly in the main room instead! Were you fine with sleeping on the couch (with himself by your side)?

The next few days would pass by, agonizingly slow in Jason’s opinion, but he wouldn’t complain. You still visited at night to hang out with him! To cuddle on the couch and let you talk about your day. He just loved having you in his arms (or be in your arms!) and just being able to enjoy your company as much as you enjoyed his. He was just too excited for his own good sometimes.

As much as time mocked the poor boy, it also went by terrifyingly fast. The weekend was already here! The sun found itself sitting at the horizon just as Jason was making his way around the woods, reminiscing on the events of the past few nights with you. He needed to make sure there were definitely no campers at or around the camp. He just wants to enjoy his first sleepover with you and not have any disruptions! Only when he was sure that the area was free of intruders, he made his way back to his home.

A step in and he’s already on his way to get stuff out for the sleepover. He places a stack of firewood near the fireplace, enough to last the whole night to keep you all nice and warm. Well, he thinks it’s enough, but knowing Jason, he probably overstocked.. He doesn’t have the best sense of time unfortunately. To play it safe, he also had a couple of blankets sitting on the couch so that you would not freeze to death in the middle of the night, especially since he didn’t provide any body heat. Oh, and pillows, of course. Your comfort was his top priority.

Did you need food? You never really ate when you visited before…maybe you would at least need something to eat in the morning. But if you were to even mention being hungry before then, he would leap at the opportunity to do something for you. His chest always seemed to get fuzzy when you praised him and he genuinely liked that feeling. It was a drive to do more things for you, though he would have done anything for you even if he didn’t. Your happiness was the goal that he set to achieve every time you step foot on his grounds.

Just as he sets extra pillows down on the couch, he hears the ring of the bells chime in a familiar pattern from down below. Loud enough for him to hear, but quiet enough for no one else to pick up on it unless they were paying attention. It was your way of communicating that you were almost to the cabin for a visit.

Oh, he was excited. There was no use in hiding that. He just loved it whenever you came by, no matter if it was almost a nightly basis. It was the idea that you were sleeping over that really excited him. There was the aspect of being able to do your makeup and hair as well. The detail that you wanted to take care of his nails didn’t slip by him either, but he wasn’t sure on what that really meant.

He lifts his hands up so they’re in his eye view, turning them so he could look at his fingernails. Was there something wrong with his nails? He didn’t think so, maybe they were just too long? Jason wasn’t really that caught up in how much self-care was deemed acceptable in society, he just didn’t care, but maybe he should be taking care of himself better. He did have a significant other to impress now.

He shrugs the thought off, leaning down on one knee to toss some logs into the fireplace. The lack of self cleanliness didn’t seem to bother you from what he could tell. Yeah, he had the decency to let you wash his clothes every now and then or stand out in the rain in attempt to wash off the dirt and blood on his jacket and jeans (much to your dismay), but he didn’t do much other than that.

With newspaper and wood in the fireplace, it was set for a fire, to which he eagerly started. He has no need to stay warm, he didn’t get sick or anything alike, and didn’t even mind the cold, but the heat that the fire provided was a reminder of you. Not just because he only set the fire just for you when you were about to arrive, but also because it reminded him of your warmth, the body heat that you radiated. You were just so warm compared to him, which was no surprise as he was a walking corpse and you were a living human being.

The fire itself finally roars to life, flames intertwining with one another as he stands back up. A smile found itself on his lips, it was genuinely a funny thought that you were perfectly okay with dating someone that was like a zombie, even as going far as cuddling and kissing him. He was a murderer too but you seemed to be okay with this fact too after a while. It was understood that he wanted to be left alone on his land and wanted no guests, with you as the odd exception to this rule. You weren’t afraid of who he was, not even slightly disgusted, and with this fact, his undead heart overflowed with emotion in his chest.

Jason was unknowingly poking at the fire with a stick, struck with this sense of boredom while still being excited for your arrival. He didn’t know how to explain it, maybe it was just a side effect of impatience when something he was waiting for was so close. He runs his tongue over his teeth, trying to understand this new emotion to the best of his abilities. This wasn’t the first time that you, whether you meant it or not, caused him to feel something entirely new.

It seems like all you did was provide new. New emotions, experiences, memories, desires, and a lot of many other things he couldn’t put his finger on. It was all new to him, as most of his years were spent feeling anger and remorse, killing anyone who dared to step on the campgrounds. He wasn’t the way he was now though, only shaped by the world, your kindness and childhood memories he would find along the way. He’d been a blank slate with a few morals already set in place, a curious young boy eager to learn given the opportunity.

A gentle knock kicks him out from his thinking, dragging his attention away from the fire to the door.

You were here!

Dropping his poking stick, he scrambles to the door to open it. With a motion, the door was opened and boom, you were there! The ever-so adorable you was standing at his doorstep, a backpack scooped up in your arms, and a smile on your face. You were practically a beam of sunshine in his dark little corner of the world at this very moment.

“Hey!” You greet, moving the bag in your arms so you could wave at the masked killer of Camp Blood.

He waves back before plucking the backpack from you with ease and moving aside so you could enter. You were a guest in his home and Jason was not going to allow you to do any physical labor, even if it wasn’t a big deal for you. The bag itself wasn’t even that heavy, and probably felt like a feather in Jason’s hand, but your boyfriend didn’t care.

You roll your eyes playfully and walk inside, making sure to close the door behind you as well. “Why, thank you, Jason.”

The way he perks up at your praise does not go unnoticed, the smile behind his hockey mask completely evident. He nods in response, shrugging in the process as to say that it wasn’t a big deal.

A gentle hand sets on your shoulder as he leads you to the couch, to where the warm fire and blankets were. He was no stranger to the cold outside, even if it was early enough for the sun to be out. You oblige (there was no use in fighting with your boyfriend on this, was there?) and set yourself on the old cushions.

You take a folded blanket off the stack of squares and smile, more to yourself. Jason didn’t need to go out of his way to find his stash of blankets, as experience reminds you that he had to go searching for one for a little bit the first time you complained that you were cold. Maybe it really did get that chilly at night here.

Unfolding the blanket as the gentle giant beside you took his own seat, you sit up and place a kiss on the lower part of Jason’s hockey mask. “Mmm, thank you.” And, to make sure he understood, you rest the blanket on both of your laps.

It seems that no matter how many times you show him physical affection, he’ll never really get used to it. It’s alien to him no matter what, as it always got him to freeze up and take a few moments to unwind the growing flustered feelings. Even if the kiss wasn’t directly skin-to-skin contact, the act itself always made the poor boy feel overwhelmed if he wasn’t prepared for it or the one initiating the affection first.

With a slow nod, Jason leans down to return the favor with a mock kiss on the forehead. His mask wasn’t exactly the most pleasant thing to feel, the fiberglass was always cold to the touch. This was more than likely due to the body heat your boyfriend seems to never produce. It was also a bit rough, with all the cuts from the use over the years.

The masked killer sitting by your side gently taps your shoulder with two fingers to gain your attention before it could drift away, lifting your backpack into his lap and tilting his head as if to say What is this for?

You giggle, finding his curiosity cute. “It’s my things for the sleepover.”

He tilts his head the other way. Surely you did not have that much makeup just lying around.

“It isn’t just the stuff I said I would bring silly.”

Oh?

Taking the bag from his grasp, you pull the longest zipper open to reveal clothes and a few toiletries. You grab a shirt as an example to show him. “I brought things like pajamas to wear tonight and clothes to change into tomorrow. My toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, and all that stuff.”

Ah. So there was more to taking care of yourself than just keeping your clothes clean. Jason nods, understanding. Of course you would bring other things to make sure you kept clean.

You place the piece of clothing back into the backpack and reach further in to locate and pull out a hairbrush. You eye the object for a moment before looking back up to your expectant boyfriend. “You wanted to brush my hair, right?”

He nods again with a child-like glee in his eyes, he just adored brushing your hair.

Instead of simply handing the brush over, you point to his hands. “You know the drill, Silly. Your hands must be clean before you can touch my hair.”

With a glance towards where you had pointed, Jason realizes that his hands are grimey and covered in dirt. While it was true that his hands weren’t dirty enough to leave marks on anything, it still would be the best route to clean his hands before touching your hair. He didn’t want to ruin your pretty hair!

The cabin he resided in no longer had running water as the years passed by, and while Jason could do many things, he didn’t know how to make the sink work again. To make up for that, he keeps water bottles he’s stolen from campers and the few you got him in his (no longer working) fridge. He really didn’t need water, his body didn’t require it to function properly, and only really kept the water to wash his hands and other things if he needed to.

So, he was stuck washing his hands awkwardly in the sink that didn’t work with some soap bar he found most of the time. And that’s what he’s planning to do as he pushed the blanket off his lap to the side and stood up. Well, before you tugged at the sleeve of his jacket.

When he looks down to you, you smile and tilt your head, an action Jason would have done if he had a question. “Can I wash your hands? I need to scrub those nails.” You pause, seeing the confusion in his eyes. “For the nail polish and stuff.” Another awkward pause, was he waiting for something? “Just uh, fill a bowl with water and bring it over here with the soap, okay?”

The masked killer stood there for a moment before nodding, agreeing to your request. He leans down to pat your head and continues to make his way toward the decaying kitchen to grab what he needed. He could practically feel his heart flutter in his chest, almost questioning if it would leap out and start running all over the place. One of his favorite things in the world was having your tiny hands in his. It didn’t matter if your hands were actually tiny compared to another normal human’s, they were tiny in his hands! It genuinely made him feel like his heart was melting.

Wait. Did he have any bowls in the cabin? He should, right? It seems like such a silly question to ask himself, but he never really looked into the kitchen. He didn’t need food or water and he was perfectly okay with using his mother’s machete as a murder weapon, so there was no use in searching the kitchen for stuff he simply didn’t need. And when did he ever recall the use of a bowl?

He takes a step into the kitchen, somewhat hesitant and suddenly feeling lost in his own home. The bowls would be in the cabinet if his memory served him right. With one swift movement, he finds himself standing at multiple cabinets connected to the wall. Pulling at the tiny knob, there’s a relief flooding through him when he does find the bowls sitting there right in front of him.

They were a little dusty and a little cracked from age, but that’s okay. He eyes them and picks out one that looks like it was the least likely to spill anything. They weren’t very big, probably couldn’t even fit one of his hands in it, but it was better than having to head down into the tunnels and go scavenge for some doggy dish.

Satisfied, he closes the cabinet and grabs the other two items he needs to be able to complete his little quest and sit back down with you.

His little feet stomps were enough to tell you that Jason was walking back and by the time you were going to turn your head around to greet him again, he was sitting back down on the couch. Ah, right. Mister long legs.

You lend your hand out, a way of asking for the bowl that he had in his grasp, to which he complied. “Thank you again.” You smile at him, gently squeezing his hand before taking the bowl, which was holding the water bottle and an unopened bar of soap.

You move the objects out of the dish, quickly filling it with the water instead with the help of Jason steadying the bowl in his hands so it wouldn’t spill over. You balance it in a safe spot between the two of you, getting the man before you to wet his hands as you take the bar of soap out of the box.

Wetting the soap just after Jason moves himself out of your way, you gesture for him to give you one of his hands and set to gently scrubbing at his palm. He was perfectly capable of washing his own hands, but it was going to be easier if it was you picking at the dirt in his nails. Also, his hands were nice, there was no denying that.

You look up, making an attempt to keep the silence sitting in the air at bay. “Have you ever had your nails painted before?”

He shakes his head. An obvious answer to you now when you consider that the poor boy didn’t have any friends when he was younger.

Feeling a bit of guilt boil in your gut, you bite your lip and try to keep the conversation positive in case any unwanted memories found their way to Jason. “Well, I don’t have many colors to choose from, but you’re free to choose what you want. We can do different colors if you’d like.”

Jason nods to this, the proposal more than agreeable. Honestly, he was just happy to have an excuse to feel your fingers on his. It left the tips of his ears feeling tingly, a very pleasant buzz that probably would have left a blush on his cheeks.

“Just, uh, don’t touch anything after I paint your nails! They’re gonna need to dry off.” It was a reminder that needed to be set. If someone hadn’t told you to not go touch crazy when you were younger, nail polish would have gotten on everything. But Jason gives another nod, understanding.

Okay, next hand. You pat his other arm as you let go of the one you just finished scrubbing the dirt and grime off of. And with that, you start your work.

“How would you like to put my hair up this time? Braids? Ponytail? Bun?” You grab his attention with a smile and wait for his answer.

It takes him a moment before he raises his recently cleaned hand up with one index finger up, indicating the first option you listed. “Braids, huh?”

He nods, confirming his answer to you.

“Okay!” You squeeze his hand, giggling somewhat. The first time he tried to put your hair up in braids was a little more than just messy, but it was fun for you both in the process and in the end result.

The water in the bowl was a little more than dirty by the time you give back Jason’s hand, leaving both of them cleaner than before. You drop the bar of soap back into its box and set it and the dish on the floor to move it out of the way.

Jason is wondering if he should wipe his hands off on his dirty pants or not, and settles for very carefully drying them off on his shirt. He didn’t want to erase the effort you put into scrubbing his palms but he also didn’t want to make your hair wet. You offer him your hairbrush for him to take, and with nothing in the way between you two, you scoot in closer to his lap and turn around.

It only takes a few moments until you feel a very light trace of fingers running around your hairline. At this point, it feels like you are never going to get used to how gentle your boyfriend is around you when you know how much strength he can put out at will. It draws a shudder out of you as he drags his fingers through your hair and you easily relax into his touch.

It didn’t matter if your hair was a mess, greasy, tangled up, or just plain gross, Jason loved it. For someone to trust him enough to be able to be this close and touch something such as their hair without a care in the world reminds him of what he so dearly needed. Human contact, bonding, something he very much lacked in his childhood with others around his age. Sure, there were other activities, but brushing your hair was his favorite. There was something so satisfying about it to him. Was it the brushing out the tangles, playing with something so soft with his fingers as he styles it to his liking, or just having you so close to him that he could straddle you in his grasp and smell you? It was a mix of all of them, he guesses.

And with a silent breath, Jason runs the brush through your hair.

There weren’t many tangles, he finds out. Which, in his book, was good. He didn’t know if you had a sensitive scalp or not, and the last thing he wanted was to see you in tears because he pulled at a tangle too harshly. You always seemed to be fine when he brushed your hair, but he could never be too sure.

Otherwise, he was enjoying himself, especially when he finally brushes out all the little tangles, leaving him to brush your hair mindlessly. You didn’t complain about this, it felt nice to feel the brush move gently around your scalp with no real intention. This was nice.

Jason sets the brush down on his thigh and moves his fingers back through your hair, relishing in how nice it was. He separates it into three parts, trying to make them all equal as best as he could. If he had to be honest with himself, he wasn’t the best at braiding. His hands were awkwardly too large in some instances and the braid itself was always too loose to hold for very long. He liked doing it though, practice makes perfect after all.

He starts the braiding process, feeling a little lost as he did so. It felt a little confusing just because he’d forget which part to move, even if it was making itself clear as day to him.

He leans down to rest his chin on your head once he gets close to finishing the braid. It was a little out of nowhere for you, but it was enjoyable nevertheless. He moves a free hand to run down to your arm from your shoulder, patting at your skin along the way with two fingers. Was he trying to grab your attention?

Just in case, you turn your head to the best of your abilities without disrupting his little resting spot on your scalp. “Hm?”

He tugs at the bottom of your braid with care, inferring something, to which he hopes that you’ll get what he was trying to say.

Oh, oh!

“You need a scrunchie, don’t you?” You ask, and feel Jason tap his fingers again in response.

That was a yes by your standards, so you stretch out your leg to fetch your backpack by the straps with your foot. There was no necessary reason to get up and leave your boyfriend’s gentle grasp when he was getting himself comfortable. You lean forward just a tiny bit to grab the bag once you could reach for it and pull it into your chest. It wasn’t long before you found your tiny bag of scrunchies sitting amongst your clothes, and you take one out for the gentle giant behind you to take.

The object leaves your hand pretty quickly, and you feel Jason sit back up to wrap it at the end of your braid to finish the look. The braid itself feels like it would fall apart at any moment, but gosh, did it feel nice to have such big hands playing around in your hair.

You flip yourself around so you are facing Jason again, placing the bag in your lap as you opened up another zipper. You reveal its contents to him, showing him the makeup supplies that you brought. “You wanted to do my makeup, right?”

He nods, a huff coming out from him as he brings a hand up to fix a few stray hairs near your face. With that, you can’t hide the faint blush on your cheeks. It was so unfair that this monster of a man didn’t even have to try that hard to make you a little flustered, and it was even more unfair that he usually never meant to do so!

“I already cleaned my face before I got here so…you can do whatever with what I have!” You take out a small tube of lipstick. “I don’t have many colors or a lot of anything, is that alright?”

Of course it was! He gives another nod and digs his fingers into the pouch, peering into what items he could see.

“Okay! Just don’t poke my eye out.” You joke, dropping the lipstick back to where you had grabbed it. A smile pulls at your lips as you hear a noise erupt from him while his shoulders give a light shake, a voiceless laugh sounding from him.

It was only really funny to him because he would never hurt you, he knows that he has to be very gentle with humans, or, well, you. Any other human he doesn’t care if he hurts or not as long as their injury or death was justified, but if you got hurt, he doesn’t know what he would do with himself. He nods to what you say anyways, shrugging his shoulders to convey that he won’t, he doesn’t have a reason to.

Jason pulls out a cylinder tube from your backpack, something comically small in his grasp. He uncaps it to better recognize what it was. It produced a wand with some black fuzz at the end. He was familiar with the use of it, but the name was escaping his tongue.

You, on the other hand, knew that what he was holding was a tiny bottle of mascara. If you remember correctly, it was a sample size you had gotten from a store not even a month ago.

He makes a tilting motion of his head and then points to you with his index finger, he wants you to do the same thing. You comprehend this and do so and close. your eyes.

His hands are shaky and unsure, the mascara wand shaking a little bit as he applied it to your eyelashes. He had to be careful! Jason definitely did not want to accidentally rub mascara onto your skin and if he knew any better, makeup was not easy to take off. He made a few strokes before pulling away, the absence of his presence near your face told you he was finished and sitting back.

You flutter your eyes a bit, giving your boyfriend a playful look. “Am I looking good so far?”

Jason nods, his chest a little warmer. You always looked nice in his opinion. Even if you were trying to push against him in the rain for him to get back inside, you still somehow managed to be the most beautiful thing he’s laid his eyes on. It was just very frustrating that he didn’t know how to express that without a voice.

“Why thank you.”

He shrugs and puts the tiny tube of makeup back into the pouch. Amongst his search for something else to use, he found a few lipsticks, all which were varying in color and shades. He could easily name what these were, as it was his favorite thing to play around with when he was younger.

Jason takes his time in putting up each one near your face, testing to see which one best complimented your skin color. After a moment, he seems to be happy with his second option and continues to place the rest of the cosmetics back to where they previously sat. He gestures for you to sit up and he cups your chin with his expected gentleness.

He’s careful and considerably more steady when he applies the lipstick, obviously more confident with this item of makeup. He tries to not put on too much and not smudge any of it, but the key word is tries. His big hands are the cause of his mistake, accidentally smudging some of the color off your lips when he was pulling back and has to fight the urge to try to wipe it away

A giggle escapes you, essentially grabbing his attention away from the accident to you. It was a sign to convey that it was alright, things happen.

The item is put back where it belongs in your bag, packing the hairbrush too, and he was a little unsure of what else to do. He didn’t have much experience in the makeup department, and within the awkwardness of his confusion, you speak up. “Are you done?”

He’s contemplating on how to answer, still unsure himself. Jason takes a quick glance at you, a little flutter in his stomach making itself known, and nods. He almost captured the way you had looked a few days ago and he enjoys that.

“Well, what do you think?” You ask, giving him a smile.

Despite his mistake still prominent, you still look really pretty! He forms a little heart with his hands to tell you his thoughts, his lips forming a smile behind the mask.

You reach up to squeeze his wrist and give a half-suppressed laugh. “Awwe, always the gentleman.” Pride fills his chest and he pats your arm before pushing the backpack back towards you.

You scavenge through the bag’s pouch and pull out a few bottles of nail polish, one that is filled with a clear liquid while the others are of different colors. You present the ones with color to Jason in your palms, offering them to him. “Pick a color!”

Your masked boyfriend hesitates, viewing his options before plucking one of the bottles from your grasp.

“Yellow? Okay.” You nod, putting the rest of the colors back in their little pouch and moving your backpack to the floor. You pause, tapping the yellow nail polish. “Yellow’s your favorite color, huh?”

It was obvious, kind of. He had shown you a lot of attention in thanks when you had given him a yellow turtleneck sweater not too long ago. His bedroom had a lot of yellow knickknacks and his tiny garden he started with you were mostly filled with yellow flowers.

With no surprise, Jason nods. He made it no secret, he very much enjoys the color. If anything, it was a reminder of you to have when you’re gone. Yellow is a very vibrant color that he associates with happiness and he considers you his little patch of sunshine! You definitely made his life way better the moment you walked into it and stood your ground. It only made sense, right?

You give a dip of your head and gesture for him to give you his hands. “Before we can paint your nails, we have to put on this clear coat so it lasts longer. Is that okay?”

He confirms his consent and you hunch over, starting to administer the clear coat onto his nails with the small brush. Nail polish is colder than what the masked killer assumed and shudders out of surprise. You take the yellow nail polish and start applying it to every other fingernail, cleaning up any mistakes you make with your sleeve. Jason was staying very still as you worked, not even flexing his fingers like you would have in an impatient hurry. It’s appreciated that’s for sure.

The varnish is quick to dry just as you finish applying the pink, though still wet enough to be easily ruined. You put the color off to the side and sit up, giving Jason a better view at the nails you had painted so far. “Do you like?”

Yellow looks nice on him, Jason thinks. He likes it and he has to bite back on the desire to hug you to better show you his appreciation, but finds an alternative. Jason leans down and presses his hockey mask against your forehead. This was nice.

You sit up and plant a kiss against his cheek in return, leaving a lipstick kiss mark in the spot. You can’t tell if Jason acknowledges this fact, but it just makes him look so much softer and cuter. Now, if he were wearing his sweater you got him, he’d be the definition of adorable.

You speak up and tug at your backpack, “I, uh, have a book in my backpack if you want me to read it to you…? You told me that your mom used to read stories to you so I thought you’d like me to read to you?”

He was this close to hugging you right now, oh gosh. You were so attentive to what he was always trying to say in actions. He nods his head excitedly, watching you peak through your bag one last time for the evening to pull out a black book.

“Get comfy.” You tease, adjusting your position to turn around and sit in his lap. He follows your instructions, hunching down to rest his head on your shoulders to not only see the cover better, but to nuzzle into your cheek.

You lick your lips and open the book. “The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do…“

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esperwatchesfilms · 3 years

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New Year’s Evil

youtube

I got the idea to start this challenge while stoned in the middle of the night and desperate for a goal. Something to put myself into. And I thought, “COVID has made me a shut-in who only watches films and talks to people. What better way to spend that time than to actually attempt to beat that world record I set out to beat so long ago. Unfortunately, I’m doing it very unofficially so only the people I talk to on a regular basis are likely to pay it any attention. I’ve got to point out here and now that my scoring system for films is arbitrary and is not a true reflection of how much I enjoyed watching a film. My scores are based on silly things that I give and deduce points for as I see fit. The Esper Scale of Entertainment (or the ESE) is understood by no one, but I will give a clear indication of why points were given and taken away at the end of each post. With those two things out of the way, I’ve got to admit I really enjoyed New Year’s Evil despite its 35/100 ESE rating. It starts off with a disappointing horror movie rule-breaking trope. There’s a woman of color in the first scene. Clearly, this means the killer is going to kill her. She committed one of the ultimate horror movie sins by being a woman of color, and thus, the movie gods decided she had to die, which was made even worse by her cliché killer-pops-out-from-behind-a-shower-curtain death. Then we get the opening titles. About eight 80s punk-rockers are packed into a convertible and blasting “New Year’s Evil” by Shadow, the video I attached to this post. So, from the word go, I have no idea what I’m watching, but I’m here for it. The song slaps, so I’m immediately all in. Earlier we saw the Yvonne (the woman of color) talking to a friend over the phone saying, “I’m on my way” before her horror-movie-trope demise, and once the credits end, we are more properly introduced to Diane, aka Blaze, a TV/radio personality who is hosting a party she calls New Year’s Evil, which appears to be a punk show where all the opening title convertible punks were headed. Before going out on stage and starting the show, Diane/Blaze’s son rocks up in fancy coat tails with blue jeans and a crumpled tie. He’s handsome as hell, but holy hell, I can’t deal with this look. I should have probably taken more than five points off for this look alone, but it’s too late now. Anyway, Blaze and Derek (Coat Tails) have a weird mother-son exchange, and their interactions are cringey at best, but incestual-feeling at worst. Anyway, the show Blaze is hosting is a punk rock show where there are some unexplained people on a stage answering telephones (is it a telethon? We don’t know. No one seems to be pledging anything. Are they making requests? It is not explained). So, Blaze is the host and decides to get in on the answering-the-phone action. When she does, a modified voice says to call him “Ee-vil!” He pronounces it exactly the way Mermaid Man does in Spongebob Squarepants, and I could only see the ridiculous face of Mermaid Man in my head any time he said it (because, oh, yes, friends. He can’t only say it once! Anyhow, the man says he’ll be killing one person on the hour every hour from 9 pm to 12 pm. (East Coast’s New Year to West Coast’s New Year) So, naturally, Blaze informs her agent that he needs to get ALL the police there to protect everyone. Meanwhile, there’s a mosh pit happening in a sanitarium, where they are watching the New Year’s Evil show live on television. While we are at the sanitarium, an orderly (I think?) and a nurse sneak off to have some fun. The orderly has a small radio capable of recording external sound (like an oversized Talkboy) as well as the sound being emitted from the radio. The nurse makes some mention of it, to which he responds, “I always come well-equipped.” She giggles, bites her lip and says, “I bet you do!” Which tells us, as the audience, that not only are they about to do the do... but this dude’s definitely the murderer. Because we’ve already seen one horror movie rules death. So, of course, we need to see another. Nurse lady has sex? Nurse lady has to die. From here on out, there are more killings as the police rock up and try to sort out what’s happening. They’re portrayed as very useless, very authoritarian/demanding, and very judgmental -- soooooo, accurately, I suppose, is the word I’d use. They’re portrayed accurately. We see the killer in the car with two women, one of which is a ditzy blonde who just cannot shut up. She talks about all the different types of meditation she’s tried. She tells the killer her friend tried one of the types, too, for her “nervous diarrhea”. You know, just the thing you tell a stranger you’re thinking about sleeping with... that your friend gets nervous poops. The ditzy blonde girl is our next horror movie trope. “The Fool”. Done in by her own stupidity. They stop somewhere for snacks or some such (I honestly don’t remember), and the friend goes in leaving the killer alone with the ditz, whom he strangles with a plastic baggie that is also full of weed. When the friend comes back, the car is gone and in its place is her friend’s shoe. She sees a nearby dumpster with a piece of fabric matching her friend’s dress poking out. She walks over while some generic horror music mixed with some Walmart Brand Jason Voorhees breathing plays, and she opens the dumpster, and the killer is inside with a lighter which he flicks on and grins menacingly at the woman, who is yanked into the dumpster, where we can assume she, too, was murdered.

I should note that somewhere before being murdered, the ditz says, “When a girl doesn’t have a date on New Year’s Eve, she’s in Shit City.” And ditzy girl? I hear ya. From here on out, there are some necessity injuries. He is being hunted down by bikers for what seems like no reason at one point, so he hides at a drive-in movie, where he sort of kidnaps a girl who was getting felt up by her boyfriend. He yanks the dude out of the car and throws him aside after stabbing one of the bikers who was chasing him. We don’t see him die, so I’m going to assume it’s an injury since he seems to only be interested in killing women. He then, later, knocks out a security guard trying to get into the punk party because the police have now determined that Blaze is probably the final target. The police and Blaze are about to check on Blaze's hotel room (the party is being held in the hotel in a ballroom or something, I’m assuming. Convention center? I don’t know. The place is connected to the hotel), where her son is, and they pull a gun on him. She yells that it’s her son, and they apologize and leave, and she apologizes to Derek saying she forgot he was there, and he storms out, “YOU ALWAYS FORGET ME WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”. The police leave, and when another officer comes back, THE KILLER ANSWERS HER DOOR. PLOT TWIST -- THE KILLER IS DIANE/BLAZE’S HUSBAND!!!! He called earlier to say he would be late, and when he shows up? HE’S THE KILLER!!!! I have to admit, I didn’t see this coming. The husband was mentioned briefly, but my brain didn’t connect it, so it was a pleasant surprise that this 80s film done duped me. Good job, New Year’s Evil!!

Anyway, Blaze is seen in the elevator moments later flirting with the officer, who’s married and has two sets of twins, information to which Blaze comments, “What’s the matter? No TV?” Suggest, Blaze. Very suggestive! It sucks that your creepy murder-husband rigged the camera in the elevator, so he knows about your weird suggestive conversations with randos, something it seems his son has also alerted him to, because when he reveals he’s the killer to her, he mentions that ladies are evil in general. Okay. So, it wasn’t just me. It wasn’t speculative. Dudeski really does just hate women. The whole film is just, “Guy hates women. Guy’s New Year Resolutions include killing all the nasty womens.” He tortures her a while by handcuffing her to some chains underneath the elevator, and then making the elevator go up and down with some fuse box of some kind that happens to just be easily accessible and next to where the elevator is. At least I haven’t seen this form of torture in film before, so that’s fun. The end is relatively boring. The police sort out that the husband used to be in the sanitarium we saw earlier where the nurse died. They find him torturing his wife, and they chase him to the roof, where he runs to the edge of the building, quotes Hamlet, and immediately plummets to his death wearing a goofy mask that he’s only worn twice in the film, both for short periods of time. He dies on impact, and everyone goes to investigate the body. The son picks up his mask and ominously stares into the distance, telling us before he’s actually told us that he’s totally going to take up his father’s quest to murder the womens.

Blaze is put in an ambulance, and when it pans to the driver, it’s the son, wearing his father’s mask. The film ends, the credits roll, and I move on to the next one.

Overall, I laughed throughout. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this film, but if you’re bored on New Year’s Eve and feel like a “horror” film, this one isn’t the *worst* one you could watch. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the ESE rating I gave it.

Quick ESE explanation: every film starts with 50 points for being a film. From there, I add or deduct points based on... my whim.

35/100

50 +4 for packed punk convertible +2 for New Year’s Evil 80s metal theme song +1 for switchblade comb -5 for coat tails with blue jeans -5 for creepy incestuous mother-son duo -2 for Mermaid Man pronunciation of “Ee-vil!” +10 for “I always come well-equipped.” “I bet you do” -5 for punks moshing to some funky blues -5 for predictable horror movie trope deaths +2 for maniacal punk laugh +3 for the “Oops” because he pissed off the bikers +5 for punks booing the police at the New Year’s Evil party -7 for the creepy incestual feeling of the interactions between Blaze and Derek +10 for PLOT TWIST!!!! -25 for the woman-hating killer +5 for creative elevator thing +2 for Hamlet quote -5 for highly predictable ending

#movies #world records #most movies watched #New Year's Evil #New Year's #review #spoilers #80s films #punk movies

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Michael in the Mainstream: The Chris Columbus Harry Potter Films

Here’s a bold stance to take these days: I actually still really love the Harry Potter franchise.

Yes, this series hasn’t had a huge impact on my own writing; my stories I’m working on draw far more from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and the Percy Jackson series than they do Harry Potter. And yes, the author of the franchise has outed herself as a transphobic scumbag whose every post-script addition to her franchise has been an unprecedented bad move (save, perhaps, for allowing Johnny Depp the opportunity to work during a very trying time in his life). But while the author is a horrendous person and the story hasn’t exactly given me as much to work with as other stories have, there are so many great themes, ideas, and characters that even now I’d still say this is one of my favorite series of all time. The world of Harry Potter is just so fascinating, the usage of folklore is interesting, and it has one of the most menacing and disturbing villains in young adult literature and manages to play the whole “love prevails over evil” cliché in such a way that it actually works.

And, of course, then we get into what I’m really here to talk about: the adaptations. The movies are not entirely better than the books; while I do think most of the films are on par with their novel counterparts, and they certainly do a good job of scrubbing out some of the iffier elements in Rowling’s writing, I still think there’s a certain, ahem, magic that the books have that gives them a slight edge. But, look, I’m a movie reviewer, and these films are some of my favorites of all time, and as much as I love the books I’m not going to sit around and say the books surpass them in every single way. There’s a lot to love in these films, and hopefully I’ll be able to convey that as I review the series.

Of course, the only place to truly start is the Chris Columbus duology. Columbus is not the most impressive director out there – this is the man who gave us Rent, Pixels, and that abominable adaptation of Percy Jackson after all – but early on in his career he made a name for himself directing whimsical classics such as the first two Home Alone movies and Mrs. Doubtfire. Those films are wonderfully cast and have a lot of charm, and thankfully this is the Columbus we got to bring us the first two entries in Harry’s story.

One of the greatest strengths of the first two Harry Potter movies is just the sheer, unrelenting magic and wonder they invoke. They’re so whimsical, so enchanting, so fun; they fully suck you into the world Rowling created and utilize every tool they can to keep you believing. Everything in these films serves to heighten the magic; practical effects and CGI come together with fantastic costuming and set design to make the world of wizards and Hogwarts school feel oh so real. And of course, none of this would be even remotely as effective if not for the legendary score by John Williams, who crafted some of the most iconic and memorable compositions of the 21st century for these films. In short: the tone of these films is pretty perfect for what they are, and every element in them works to make sure you are buying into this tone at every moment.

The other massively important element is the casting, and by god, the casting in these films is simply perfect. Of course, the title characters and his peers have to be unknowns, and thankfully they managed to pluck out some brilliant talent. I don’t need to tell you how good Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are, even back in these films, but I do feel the need to say that Rupert Grint is vastly underappreciated; I really don’t think the films would work quite as well without his presence, because he does bring that goofy charm Harry’s friend group needs to balance it out. Matthew Lewis is the adorable coward Neville Longbottom and Tom Felton is the snotty brat Draco Malfoy, and though both of their roles are fairly minor in the first two films they manage to make their mark. The second movie pulls in Bonnie Wright as Ginny, and again, I’m gonna say she’s rather underrated; I think she did quite a fine job in her role.

But of course, the real draw of these films is the sheer amount of star power they have in terms of U.K. actors. You’ve got Maggie Smith (McGonagall), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Warwick Davis (Flitwick and, bafflingly, only the voice of Griphook, who was played by the American Verne Troyer in the first film for… some reason), John Hurt (Ollivander), Toby Jones (Dobby), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick)… and this is only the first two films. The movies would continue pulling in stars like it was Smash Ultimate, determined to tell you that “EVERYONE IS HERE” and be the ultimate culmination of U.K. culture.

Of course, even in the first few movies there are those who truly stand out as perfect. Smith and Coltrane are most certainly the perfect embodiment of their characters, but I think a great deal of praise should be given to Richard Griffiths as Uncle Vernon; the man is a volatile, raging bastard the likes of which you rarely see, and he is at once repulsive and comical. He’s pretty much the British answer to J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. Then we have Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy in the second film, and he is just delightfully, deliciously devilish and dastardly. Isaacs actually came up with a lot of Mr. Malfoy’s quirks himself, such as the long blonde hair, the cane wand, and the part where he tries to murder a small child in cold blood for releasing his house elf (which came about because he forgot literally every other spell and had just read Goblet of Fire, so...). Then of course there is Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart, and… well, it’s Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart. I don’t think you could find a more perfect casting choice (except perhaps Hugh Grant, who was originally cast but had to drop out). He just really hams it up as the obnoxious blowhard and helps make him much more tolerable than his book counterpart, though he does unfortunately have the lack of plot relevance Lockhart did in the book, which is a problem unique to Lockhart. Fun fact, he is the ONLY Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the series to not ultimately matter in regards to the main story.

Of course, the greatest casting choice of them all is most certainly The late, great Alan Rickman as everyone’s favorite greasy potions professor, Severus Snape. I think Rickman goes a long way towards helping make Snape one of the greatest characters of all time, with everything about his performance just being perfect, and what makes it even better is how it would ultimately subvert his typical roles (though that’s a story for a different review). I don’t think either of the first films is really his best outing, butt he first one definitely sets him up splendidly. Snape barely has a role in the second film – something that greatly irritated Rickman during the movie’s production apparently – but he still does a good job with what limited screentime he has. Then we have Richard Harris as Dumbledore. Due to his untimely death, he only played Dumbledore in the first two films, but he really did give a wonderful performance that had all the charm, whimsy, and wonder the Dumbledore of the first few books was full of. The thing is, I don’t know if he would have been able to make the transition into the more serious and darker aspects of Dumbledore that popped up in the later books. I guess we’ll never know, which is truly a shame, but at the very least he gave us a good showing with what little time he had.

My only problems with the first two films are extremely minor, though there is at least one somewhat big issue I have. You see, while I do like everything about these films, I feel like they’re a bit too loyal to the books, not doing enough to distinguish themselves as their own thing like films such as Prisoner of Azkaban would do. But if I’m being honest, this is seriously nitpicky; it’s not like this really makes me think less of the films, because they have way more going for than against them. Stuff like this and the cornier early performances from the kid actors are to be expected when a franchise is still finding its legs. It really is more of a personal thing for me; I prefer when creators allow their own vision to affect an adaptation so that I can see how they perceive and interpret the work, but at the same time the first two Harry Potter books are all about setting up and the main plot doesn’t really kick off until the third and fourth books, so… I guess everything balances out?

It is a bit odd looking back at these first two films and noting how relatively self-contained they are compared to the denser films that were to come; you could much more easily jump into either one of these films and really get what’s going on compared to later movies, where you would almost definitely be lost if you tried to leap in without an inkling of the plot. But that is something I do like, since the first two films have really strong plots that focus more on the magical worldbuilding and developing the characters, setting up an incredibly strong foundation for the series to come. There are a few trims of the plot here and there, but it’s not nearly as major as some things that would end up cut later.

But, really, what’s there to cut? Like I said, these movies are more about the worldbuilding and setting up for later plotlines. They’re relatively simple stories here, and I think that’s kind of their big strengths, because it lets the characters and world shine through. The first film honestly is just Harry experiencing the wizarding world for the first time, with him going from scene to scene and just taking in all of the magical sights. Most of the big plot stuff really happens towards the end, when they make the journey down to the Philosopher’s Stone. The second movie is where things get a lot more plot-heavy, with the film focusing on the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets and all of the troubles that the basilisk within causes. Despite how grim the stories can get, especially the second one, these films never really lose that whimsical, adventurous tone, which is incredibly impressive all things considered.

It’s not really criticisms, but there are a few things that make me a bit sad didn’t happen in the first couple of films, or at the very least offer up some interesting “what could have been” scenarios. I think the most notable missed opportunity is the decision to axe Peeves, despite him being planned and having Rik Mayall film scenes with him only to have said scenes left on the cutting room floor, never to see the light of day; Mayall had some rather colorful words to say about the film after it came out. Sean Connery passing up on playing Dumbledore is another missed opportunity, but Connery has always been awful at picking roles and hates fantasy, so this isn’t shocking to me in the slightest. Terry Gilliam being straight-up told by Rowling she didn’t want him directing is another sad but necessary decision, as was Spielberg dropping out; neither guy would have been a very good fit for the franchise, honestly. Alan Cumming turning down the role of Lockhart because Grint and Watson were going to be paid more than him is a bit… lame, but also I don’t think he’d have been as good as Branagh in the role; as much as I love Cumming, Branagh has this grandiose stage actor hamminess that Lockhart desperately needs. There’s a lot of fascinating trivia facts I learned writing this review, and a lot of it paints some pretty weird pictures of how this franchise could have turned out in another world.

Chamber of Secrets and Sorcerer's Stone are both absolutely fantastic, whimsical fantasy movies, and I’d definitely recommend both of them to anyone who likes the fantasy genre. It’s a great jumping off point for younger people who may not be able to handle something as intense or heavy as, say, The Lord of the Rings making it a very useful gateway drug into fantasy, though it still manages to work perfectly as fun, engaging fantasy on its own. I’m personally more of a fan of the third and eighth movies but I can definitely hear arguments for either of these two being someone’s favorites or even the best in the franchise, because they invoke a lot of nostalgia and charm just thinking about them, good memories of seeing them with my family when I was a kid.

Some have come to view Chamber of Secrets less positively over the years, seeing it as an awkward transitional phase between the lighter, more whimsical adventures and the darker plot-driven ones, but honestly, Between the Columbus films, Chamber is definitely the superior one. It takes everything that was great about the first film and builds on it, and also gives us Lucius Malfoy, Dobby, Gilderoy Lockhart, and way better special effects and a more consistent narrative. The first film is still a classic, of course, but it’s almost episodic in nature and a lot more focused on showing Hogwarts to us than delivering a story. Still, it definitely has the plus of having way more Snape than the second film did, and there’s no arguments against that from me! Both films are very good at what they do, and both definitely deserve a watch.

#Michael in the Mainstream #Harry Potter #Christopher Columbus #fantasy #fantasy film #Daniel Radcliffe #Emma Watson #Rupert Grint #Alan Rickman

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justicealwaysprevails · 4 years

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ducks and drakes.

WHO: Bruce Wayne @justicealwaysprevails & Jason Todd @thatsjasonfkntodd, mentions of Dick Grayson @amazingflyingdick WHERE: The hospital WHEN: Backdated to June 30th, 2020 WHAT: Bruce is the first to arrive at the hospital

Jason: The ambulance ride from that alley to the hospital seemed to simultaneously take a lifetime and be over in the time it took him to blink. Dick was unconscious for the entirety of it, and after answering a few questions for the EMTs, Jason just allowed himself to disassociate for the rest of it. He stared at the same spot for the whole ride, eyes fixed on the bottom left corner of the stretcher, and wasn’t aware of much else until they opened the doors at the hospital. They rushed Dick inside and Jason was directed to the waiting area. Someone stopped long enough to ask if he needed to call anyone, but he shook his head. He did, but he’d do it on his own time.

As it turned out, one of those people already knew. Bruce has somehow ended up there before the ambulance. Once Jason saw him, he stopped several feet away and looked at him only briefly before his gaze was on the floor again. He was still covered in blood, though most of it had dried by then. It was on his clothes, on his hands, some was even smeared against his jaw where he’d absentmindedly reached up at some point. He should say something, he knew he should, but he just stood there instead. Bruce: The alert that medical had been dispatched pinged on his phone. After triangulating the position, Bruce instantly knew he wouldn't be able to reach the location before the ambulance. He was already on his way to the hospital by the time he received details from Barbara about who was involved. It could have been anyone in the league, but the knowledge that Jason and Dick were involved changed everything. Up until then he assumed it had to be the scheduled group on patrol or possibly a civilian or an agent of NOVA. He never once considered the possibility that it could be someone in the family.

It wasn't long after he reached the ER that the ambulance arrived. Bruce could hear it and he was already waiting when Jason stepped into the waiting room.

Bruce stared at him, shocked by the amount of blood, but instead of asking what happened he reached to hold both of Jason's arms. He took only long enough to determine that he wasn't injured before pulling him into a tight hug. There was a desperation in the embrace that Bruce wasn't able to hide, not right then, and he was silent. He couldn't bring himself to speak quite yet. Jason: It took a lot to really get under his skin. Given the life he’d led, the things he’d done with his own hands or watched happen in front of him, it was rare that something impacted him in a big way, especially in the same period of time that it actually happened, but he couldn’t get the paleness of Dick’s face out of his mind or the way his words had ran together more and more before the ambulance got there.

It had him distracted enough that he didn’t pull away when Bruce embraces him like he typically would have. He didn’t even ask some smart ass question like what are you doing? like he probably should have. He just didn’t have it in him right then to keep up every front and every wall. Jason didn’t relax in the embrace, nor did he exactly return it, but he let Bruce pull him in and he felt a distinct tightness in his chest as he did. Bruce: The number of times Bruce had hugged Jason since his return could be counted on one hand. The number of times he'd wanted to far exceeded that, but he held himself back when he knew it wouldn't be welcomed. That was, unfortunately, more often than not. He never relished the circumstances, but he did let the hug linger for a few extra seconds while Jason allowed it. There was no telling when the next opportunity would be.

When he pulled back, he kept his hand up on Jason's shoulder. He considered guiding him to a chair, encourage him to sit, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to. Bruce was too anxious to even consider it himself. He looked at Jason directly, his voice even in spite of the devastation in his expression. "Do you know what happened?" Bruce had some information from Barbara, but he had no idea if Jason arrived during the altercation or after. Jason: The question finally pulled him back down to reality. Jason blinked and looked around, taking in the area they were standing in. Fortunately, they were the only ones there for the time being. Jason was still wanted, still on the run from the SCPD. Eventually someone would show up. Dick had been one of them until just a few days earlier, practically. He’d need to be gone before that.

A violent shiver ran through him and he could feel the hair on his arms standing on end by the time it was over. “Dick went to...help some kid or something. That’s what Babs said. When he asked for his name, he said Gary Kemp. That’s the-“ Bruce would know already, he was sure, “that’s the name of the NOVA agent that Dick killed.” That was one of the first things Dick had told him when Jason showed up in Star City. Someone had been harboring that grudge for a long time.

He looked down and was confronted again by the sight of all the blood on him. “They shot him in the head, B. Straight through. I don’t know...” It was unlike Jason to hesitate or stumble over words. He typically had no struggle in just saying what came to mind, but he couldn’t finish that thought. Bruce: The waiting room was empty. Even the nurse had disappeared from the station. Since Bruce didn't know what to expect, he'd called Gordon as soon as he found out that Jason was involved and let him know that he was there, for now, and Barbara had been a witness. She would need to be talked to. Based on her story, he didn't think Jason would have seen anything - but he wanted to be sure. It sounded as if it everything happened quickly.

On instinct he quickly reached for Jason's other shoulder when he felt him shiver, as if he were bracing him that way, and he listened carefully to everything he said. He nodded, not flinching at the mention of the name. He'd heard the same story from Barbara earlier. It didn't leave much doubt as to who was responsible for the crime, but it wasn't a given.

What Barbara couldn't tell him was the extent of Dick's injuries. Bruce heard how quickly the ambulance pulled in and the rush of the EMS team in the hall. That meant Dick was alive. It didn't make the news any easier to hear and he closed his eyes for a moment. His grip tightened on Jason's arms and perhaps it would be too much, especially in such a close time frame, but this time it was purely for his own sake. "He's still alive," he said. "If it went straight through, that's good. It creates less damage." Jason: He looked up at the ceiling, squinting against the harsh fluorescent lights. “Right,” he muttered, feeling the same irritating sting that had been there in the alley. He blinked it back for a second time. “Less damage.” It wasn’t exactly comforting, but it wasn’t unhelpful. All it did was make him not feel worse. Considering it was Bruce, that was probably the best he could hope for. “Lost a lot of blood.” Like he needed to say that and wasn’t walking around wearing the proof of it.

After a few beats of standing there, Jason walked over to one of the chairs and slumped down into it. He raked his hands back through his hair and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and closed his eyes. He wanted to just make a box of himself and stay in it until someone walked out with some kind of news. Bruce: It wasn't much comfort and Bruce was aware of that, despite not being capable of offering much more. He had never been good at comforting others, not with words, and Jason could often be resistant to it. He wasn't a particularly positive person himself. The situation looked grim from even a realist's standpoint. Nodding, he couldn't fully accept that all the blood on Jason was from Dick even though he understood it to be true. It was too much.

At first he couldn't bring himself to sit. There was a tenseness in his posture that was only seen at times like this, when emotions were involved and death was a possibility. It was more possible now than ever. Eventually he did sit next to Jason, but he was silent for a long time before speaking again. "I've never known them to use children." Jason: He was barely present. His mind was blank, for the most part, filled with static. If he tuned that out he’d have to deal with the thoughts it held at bay and he just didn’t want to. Not yet. The others would show up eventually, at some unknown future point a doctor would step out and speak something at them. He’d push the static away then, maybe.

“Everybody uses children,” he said without really weighing the words even as he spoke them. It might have sounded like some unfair barb in that moment, but it wasn’t really. It was just a fact of life. Bruce: The statement made Bruce furrow his brow, but he said nothing. It was not something he could refute or deny, especially because he had plenty of his own regret, and he let more time pass instead.

It was a long time before he could say anything else. There was a visible difference in the way he moved and in the way he didn't move. "I will call the others once we have something more to tell them." Bruce didn't want them to sit there the way they were right now, silent and somber. Jason: “It’ll be awhile.” Unless...the news they were getting was the worst case scenario. Then it might happen faster than he wanted to think about. Jason curled his fingers hard against his scalp, clenching them around dark locks of hair. “If the SCPD is on the way, give me a heads up. I have to leave.” They’d show eventually, they’d have to, and he couldn’t add that on top of what was going on with Dick. His own stupid backfired plan had already caused enough issues as it was.

Jason looked up as he heard steps coming toward them, but it was only a nurse passing through to go to a different room. It had left his pulse racing anyway. Dick had seemed determined not to give into it, but it wasn’t like that was really something that was up to him. He was only human, didn’t even have the edge that the Lazarus Pit gave Jason. It wasn’t a choice. Bruce: Bruce nodded. He knew they'd taken Dick into surgery. It would be a few hours. He wasn't sure how much time had passed already, but when he checked his phone he was shocked to see that it'd been almost an hour. He'd let that much silence pass between them? It was obvious that Jason was beyond just affected by what he'd experienced. Perhaps his silence shouldn't have shocked him so much. "I told Gordon I was already here and that Barbara has the information he needs." Eventually the SCPD would show up at the hospital, but there wasn't much to do if they weren't able to talk to Dick.

The sound of footsteps also made him tense. Even when they passed and faded away he couldn't quite relax, his expression strained, and he sighed softly and turned his gaze to the floor. "Jason..." He paused, his hands folded between his knees, but whatever he'd thought to say was abandoned as he understood the pointlessness of it. It would come across as if he were trying to assuage own guilt. "I do take responsibility," he finally said. "For everything. I need you to know that." Jason: He only nodded his acceptance. It wasn’t going to keep the SCPD away forever, but it might work long enough for Jason to get some news in person rather than a phone call or a text. If he could stick around to hear that Dick was going to make it through the night or something, that’d be enough for the time being. He didn’t relish being there for everyone else arriving, nor was he in the mood to try to navigate or even acknowledge anyone else’s feelings yet. The past two weeks had already been exhausting. He’d counted on that exhaustion, signed up for it even, but he’d never guessed it would be immediately followed by what had just happened. To say that he was drained didn’t even come close to the truth.

“What are you talking about?” He raised his head, brows furrowed, and stared at Bruce. “Responsibility for what?” As inclined as he was to play the blame game and lay things on Bruce, he didn’t see how Dick getting shot could be lumped in there. Bruce: There had been numerous times in the past that ultimately brought Bruce here - at the hospital or a bedside - and every time it was intrinsically linked to the lifestyle they'd been raised in. It carried consequences they couldn't have possibly understood at that age. As their guardian, he'd taken on that responsibility to protect them. That was something he'd always failed at doing even when they needed it most. He knew that. It didn't matter how much he loved them if he couldn't keep them safe. What was ironic was that most of his efforts to do just that ended up doing more harm. Instead of acknowledging his own failings and recognizing his distancing was because he feared their loss, he was unflinchingly strict with their training.

Bruce was silent for a few minutes, staring at his hands, but then he sighed. "If this were NOVA, they had months to take their revenge against Richard Grayson. They waited until they had the confirmed link to Nightwing." It was a link they might not have ever made if it weren't for Joker. Jason: Jason had not planned on searching for some way to blame Bruce for what happened to Dick, but he’d not been so quick to make the same connection Bruce did, either. He should have, and would have eventually, but he wasn’t thinking clearly. Of course NOVA had waited. They’d waited until he was both a confirmed vigilante and cut his ties to the SCPD.

“I won’t say that us getting outed,” which had only come about because of Bruce’s choice, “didn’t lay some foundation for it. But who cares right now? Doesn’t matter if it’s your fault or in what percentage. You can take all the responsibility you want and it doesn’t go back in time.” Bruce: Dick's resignation from the SCPD had actually brought Bruce some relief. He knew he was overworked and that was something that could sneak up on you, even in small ways. Not that he was one to talk. Still, he no longer spent time at Wayne Enterprises. Lucius Fox was the acting CEO. Bruce paid the occasional visit, but he no longer had any official authority there. His position as a board member was merely a formality.

"That's not what I'm trying to do." He knew there was no undoing what happened tonight. "I'm thinking about the future and what can be prevented, regardless of past actions." Bruce paused. "Or inaction. What matters is what can be done now." There was no going back in time and preventing Dick from taking up the Robin mantle. That one action could have prevented a series of mistakes. Jason: “I don’t fucking know, Bruce,” Jason cut in, snapping more than he’d meant to even if that wasn’t something he usually tried to control anyway. Not for him. Right then, he was just mentally and physically worn down and he didn’t have it in him for hypotheticals or vagaries. “I don’t know what can be done or want you want to do. Maybe just stop deciding shit without us. Maybe start there.”

He leaned forward again, creating the same box on either side of him with his arms so that he could just stare down at the floor. The pattern was ugly. Little black specks in otherwise clean white. It looked like dirt. Bruce: Bruce was silent, but Jason's response took him by surprise. He never set out with the intent of leaving the rest of them out of a big decision, even though he knew they would be affected by it. It was a responsibility he would shoulder himself, because they all carried too much guilt. Anger was easier. Someone else was always to blame.

"How is Roy?" He knew about what was going on, but hadn't involved himself in the situation. Jason's abrupt departure from the manor combined with the terse discussions they had during his jail visitations made Bruce back off. At least for the time being. He hadn't known about Roy until very recently. Jason: Jason lifted his head a fraction as Bruce mentioned Roy. He thought about asking how he knew or why he cared, but there was no point in that. He knew everything that was going on whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not. “Getting better.” He’d made it a couple of weeks, through the peak of it and the physical symptoms of withdrawal. That didn’t mean it was over, but the most acute part of it had passed. “I’ve got it under control.”

Dick had given him some relief during all of it, though Jason had barely let him. Now Roy was barely on the other side of it and Dick...he’d been so close to Roy’s when he got that Jason half wondered if he’d been heading that way. It made him clench his fist against his temple. Bruce: Nodding, Bruce frowned when Jason claimed to have it under control. He wasn't going to contradict him, it wouldn't be received well, and Jason wasn't entirely wrong. The situation had been handled. The hardest part was over. Bruce wished he'd known sooner, but there was nothing he could have done even if he had. That didn't mean he wouldn't have offered. "Is there anything I can do?" It was the better question to ask. He'd learned that the hard way.

The nurse returned with two small bottles of water. She awkwardly offered a damp towel, which confused Bruce at first, but then he realized it was for the blood on Jason's hands and his jaw tightened. After he thanked her and she turned away, he shifted in his seat and put his hand on Jason's arm. Instead of handing him the towel, he began to clean it off instead so he could keep his head down. Jason: Jason shook his head as soon as Bruce asked the question. He didn’t want or need anything from him. He’d handled it. Roy was going to be alright. Having this all happen to Dick right as he was getting past the withdrawal was about the shittiest timing in the world, but he was just going to have to trust that Roy wouldn’t undo it all in one night. If he did, if Jason left the hospital and went back only to find out that he’d got his hands on something and used in the hours he’d been gone, he didn’t know how he was going to deal with it. He didn’t linger on the thought more than a second.

After the nurse came and want, Jason ran the towel along one side of his face and stared down at it. It was streaked red with one swipe. “Can you get me a change of clothes? If somebody else is coming?” Bruce: It was the answer Bruce expected and he nodded, silent. When he found out about Roy, he considered reaching out to Oliver about what was going on. Ultimately he'd decided against it. As concerned as he was, he knew it would be interfering too heavily in something Jason would resent him for. The right decision seemed to be to stay out of it, even though it didn't sit right with him. It wasn't up to him to fix the situation for Jason. Even if it worked, he wouldn't even see it that way. What he could do was guarantee that he wouldn't lose his job in the meantime, Wayne Enterprises funded the center he worked for, after all, but that was something he'd elect to keep to himself.

Bruce started to respond, but stopped as soon as the doctor appeared. He stood immediately, but when the doctor asked to speak to him privately, he hesitated. "This is his brother. We can both hear what you have to say." Jason: If Dick had not brought it up first, and if he was not one of Roy’s best friends, Jason would have kept every bit of what was happening to himself. Even if he’d wanted to ask for help, Bruce would have been low on the list of people he would have gone to for that. He didn’t need the judgement. He certainly didn’t need to feel like he owed him anything.

As the doctor came, Jason got back to his feet, too. Admittedly, he was a little surprised that Bruce didn’t just go with him. He dropped his hand back to his side, still holding the bloody towel, and tried to gauge the expression on the man’s face. “Is he alive?” The paramount question. Bruce: Bruce's attention was fully on the doctor even though he was aware of Jason next to him. He was silent as he listened to him explain how Dick was stable and had just gotten out of surgery that would relieve swelling in his brain. When the doctor began to explain about the medically induced coma he tensed, but relaxed somewhat at the reassurance that they intended to bring him back after a couple days.

It was all the information the doctor could offer, at least until he'd looked at updated brain scans that were currently being taken, but he informed them that they could both go back and see Dick as soon as he was brought to a room. Jason: It wasn’t the worst news. It certainly wasn’t the best, either. The only reason to place someone purposely in a coma was to give them a shot at recovering from extensive damage. That wasn’t news, exactly, as Jason had seen first hand what the wound had been like, but it still made his stomach drop a fraction. Still, he was stable. He was alive.

Once the doctor had gone, he let out a long sigh. “Are you telling the others now?” He would have offered to do it himself, but was fairly sure all he could’ve mustered was a group text with an address. Then again, that could very well end up being what Bruce also did. Bruce: Bruce was already sending a message to Barbara before Jason finished the question. He nodded, his voice quiet. “I will call the others once he’s been assigned a room.” That way he could tell them where to go. He knew they would all want to be there. The thought was a bit overwhelming.

It didn’t take long before the nurse returned and led them to the room. Dick was already settled there, connected to various machines, and Bruce took his time to study the readings on each of them. He only stepped out long enough to call the others. Jason: He hated hospitals. Granted, everyone said that. Who would ever enjoy being there? But he had a special dislike of them that came from years of dodging Child Services. He’d spent most of his childhood avoiding getting any kind of help or care because doing that meant seeing a social worker, being sent to some group home, yada yada. The feeling stuck.

He didn’t say anything more to Bruce, but stood in silence with him by Dick’s bed until he stepped out to make those calls. Only then did Jason let his shoulders slump and the deep, tired sigh he’d been holding slip out. “This sucks,” he said aloud, talking to someone who couldn’t hear him.

#bruce wayne #jason todd #dick grayson #c: discord

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dfel-exe · 5 years

Note

Hello, I have a huge soft spot for cute fictional teenage murderers, for example, Lawrence (dfel) and Jason Dean (Heathers). Only if you wouldn't mind, what do you think about writing a Lawrence X Reader where it is a Heathers AU where Lawrence takes the place of J.D. and the reader takes the place of Veronica? Omly if you want to, though.

BASED OFF OF THE MOVIE!!!

i apologize it took me so long to get to this, requestee. but, it’s here now! it may be a little messy, but i hope you enjoy it nonetheless! (there may be a few typos, as i said, this was 30 whole pages of editing. but i’ll probably find them sometime along the road! enjoy~)

this took a long time (7 hours in total, actually), but it was super fun! i avoided calling the three girls all by Scarlett to avoid confusion, as i know that wouldn’t have only confused me, but you guys as well. i tried my best to keep everybody as in character as possible, but Lawrence will probably seem really out of character here, as JD is a very unique character and i felt the need to keep Lawrence very similar to him. Sue will also seem very OOC near the end, but if you’ve watched the movie, you know why~

Love Story (Heathers!AU) - Lawrence x Reader

Word Count: 10,938

Warnings: death, mentions of suicide and eating disorders, vomit, swearing; lots and lots of dark humor

Key: Y/N - Your Name; E/C - Eye Color; H/C - Hair Color

Y/N’s diary writing and thoughts will be in italics

You let out a sigh of annoyance as you watched Scarlett and her minions trample the flowers in your yard, their croquet sticks dangling from their hands. You’d think after they buried you under the ground, they’d at least have the decency to respect your flowers. They walked up to the croquet balls, each of them having their corresponding color of red, yellow, and green. The one who wore yellow (who you liked to call Scarlett #2) had beautiful long, light brown hair, and gorgeous dark blue eyes. She positioned herself in front of the yellow ball, swinging the stick back to hit it. As soon as the ball and the stick connected, she let out a sigh at the unfortunate results of her hit.

“Damn. It’s your turn, Scarlett.” She looked back at the girl wearing red. Scarlett clicked her tongue and looked at Hailey.

“No, Hailey. It’s Sue’s turn,” she spat, her ruby red eyes narrowing. The two of them looked over to the third girl. She had a book in her hand, her mind far away from the game of croquet. Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Sue?”

The ravenette looked up, her glasses framing her large, brown eyes. She closed the book and looked down at her feet. “Sorry, Scarlett.”

You huffed at the interaction between the three.

Sue tossed the book to the ground, hastily getting in position to hit the ball. The ball neared your head, but rolled to a stop before any damage could be done. Scarlett was up next, a smirk crossing her face as she bent down to pick up the red ball. The smirk didn’t leave her lips as she kissed the ball, placing it back down on the ground. Getting in the right stance, she swung the croquet stick to hit the ball.

You squeezed your eyes shut as the red ball made contact with your forehead, a sudden stinging pain emerging from the area. A few seconds after the hit, you shook your head and looked up at the three as they giggled. You looked away, your misery and humiliation only growing.

————————-

You sat on the school steps, a pen in your hand as you scribbled down your scattered thoughts. Well, maybe not as scattered as you imagined. In fact, they were quite organized. Unlike your hasty handwriting…

Dear Diary,

Scarlett told me she teaches people real life. She said, “Real life sucks losers dry. If you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly.”

I said, “So you teach people how to spread their wings and fly?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “You’re beautiful.”

Hailey walked up to you, Sue close to her side. The brunette gently kicked you in the side, a pout on her face as she avoided eye contact.

“Come on, Y/N…” she muttered, clearly not enjoying her time pestering you. Her soft voice echoed in the (surprisingly) quite corridor, her distant eyes almost as dull as her voice sounded.

Your eye twitched as you flipped the hair out of your face, looking up at the girl in yellow. “What is your damage, Hailey?”

She flinched at your aggressive tone, tilting her head once more and avoiding eye contact. She squeaked out a reply. “Please don’t blame me, blame Scarlett… She told me to haul you into the cafeteria, pronto.” She lifted her head, looking over to Sue, signalling for help.

Sue took the signal and continued the conversation. “Yeah, she really wants to talk to you, Y/N.”

You shut your diary, aggravation covering your facial features at their urgent tones. “Okay, I’m going. Jesus Christ…” You stood up, following the two to the cafeteria. As you entered, Sue and Hailey led you to Scarlett. Your eyes traveled the room, finding a variety of different students.

Of course, you had to have your table of jocks. More like the dumbasses of the school, in your opinion. But hey, to each their own, right? And then, there was the table of cheerleaders. If anybody could make somebody’s life a living hell in thirty seconds, it was them. If they had dirt on you, your high school social status was down the drain. The rest of the tables consisted of the basic groups, your nerds, your losers, your weirdos (named by the one and only Scarlett).

You looked straightforward once more, facing the back of Scarlett.

“Hello, Scarlett.”

She turned around, a fake smile on her perfect features.

“Y/N, finally. I’ve got a note of Zion’s. I need you to forge a hot and horny, but realistically low-key note in Zion’s handwriting, and we’ll slip it onto Martha Dumptruck’s lunch tray.”

You glowered at her, speaking up with an irritated voice. “Shit, Scarlett, I don’t have anything against Martha Dunstock.”

Her jaw dropped at your words as she raised her eyebrows. “You don’t have anything for her either! Come on, it’ll be very. The note will give her shower nozzle masturbation material for weeks.”

Sue and Hailey made eye contact with each other, small smiles on their face. A despondent look crossed your face as you looked her in the eye. “I’ll think about it.”

She gave you a familiar nasty look. “Don’t think,” she jeered.

Her famous smirk appeared once more as Martha turned the corner, putting more food on her lunch tray. Scarlett turned to her minions, giving them a smile. “Y/N needs something to write on. Sue, bend over.”

Sue let out a sigh, but obliged to Scarlett’s words and bent into an L position. Scarlett gave you a piece of paper to write on, holding out the note she had gotten from Zion. You let out a dejected sigh, placing the paper on Sue’s back and beginning to forge what Scarlett was telling you.

“Dear Martha, you’re so sweet.” She continued to talk in her sugary voice until you had finished the letter, tearing it out and handing it to Scarlett. She then handed it to Hailey, who folded it in half and slipped it onto Martha’s lunch tray. She ran back to the three of you with a giddy smile on her face as you watched Martha take a seat.

You all sat yourselves down at a lunch table, the chatter between the trio continuing as you tuned them out, resting your cheek on your palm. A tap on your shoulder snapped you out of your daze, Scarlett giving you a smile.

“Y/N, guess what day it is?”

You thought for a moment, but quickly answered. “Lunchtime poll? So what’s the question?”

“Yeah, so what’s the question, Scarlett?” Sue asked as well, looking Scarlett in the eyes.

“Goddamn, Sue. You were with me in study hall when I thought of it.”

“I forgot.”

Scarlett stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and looking back down at the paper. “Such a pillowcase,” she muttered under her breath.

“This wouldn’t be that bizzaro thing you were babbling over the phone last night, would it?” You questioned, your eyes scanning the lunch room once again. You made a brief second of eye contact with a boy who seemed to be staring at you. He had brown locks and circular glasses, a confused squint crossing his face. You quickly averted your gaze, looking back to Scarlett.

“Of course it is-” She stood up, you and the other two following behind- “I told Dennis if he gave me another political topic, I’d spew burrito chunks.”

You looked over at the boy once more, barely hearing Scarlett’s words. This time, he gave you a charming smile with a small raise of the brow. With your eyes glued to him, you didn’t even notice where you were heading until you ran into somebody’s lunch chair. The impact made you gasp as you jumped back, looking down at the person sitting in the object.

“Oh, Y/N, I’m sorry!”

“Judy, gosh. Hey, I’m really sorry I couldn’t make it to your birthday party last month.”

She shrugged and let out a slight laugh. “It’s okay. Your mom said you had a big date. I think I’d probably miss my own birthday for a date.”

You playfully punched her shoulder. “Don’t say that.”

She gave you another one of her bright smiles as the conversation continued. “You know what? I was looking around the other day, and I dug up, uh, these old photographs.” She let out a slight laugh as she pulled a few photos out of her bright blue backpack. She handed the photo to you as you smiled at her.

“Oh, these are great!” You exclaimed as you looked at the old photos of you and her. The both of you were dressed up in Halloween costumes, you a ghost and her a devil. Both of you had bright smiles on your faces as you had your arm around her.

Scarlett firmly grabbed your arm, giving it a harsh tug. “Come on, Y/N!”

You dropped the photos (against your own will, might I add) as the blonde dragged you away from your childhood friend.

“I was talking to somebody!” You gave her a glare. She rolled her eyes and walked over to another lunch table, smiling at a brunette girl who looked quite annoyed.

“Hi Courtney. Love your cardigan,” Scarlett said with a judgmental look on her face.

Courtney smiled, placing a hand on her chest. “Thanks, I just got it last night at the limited. Like totally blew my allowance.” She giggled.

Scarlett smiled, pointing at her notebook. “Now check this out. You win five million from the publisher’s sweepstakes, and the same day that the big Ed guy gives you the check, aliens land on earth and say that they’re going to blow up the world in two days. What do you do?”

The boy sitting across from her smirked, responding to the question. “That’s easy. I just slide that was over to my father, because he is like one of the top brokers in the state.”

“If I got that money, I’d give it all to the homeless. Every cent,” Courtney replied, looking you in the eye.

“You’re beautiful,” you said, pursing your lips and furrowing your brows, nodding at her answer. You turned away from the table, walking off. Scarlett gritted her teeth, turning towards you.

“If you’re going to openly be a bitch-”

You cut her off immediately. “It’s just, Scarlett, why can’t we talk to different kinds of people?”

She opened her mouth in shock and gave you a confused look. “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, do I look like Mother Theresa to you? If I did, I probably wouldn’t mind talking to the geek squad.” She gestured to four boys at a table. The one who she pointed directly at spit out his milk at the sight of the two of you looking at him.

“Does it not bother you that everybody in this school thinks that you’re a piranha?” You questioned while leaning your head forward, looking directly into her ruby eyes.

She gave you a sinister smile. “Like I give a shit. I mean, seriously Y/N. They all want me as a friend or a fuck. I’m worshipped at Westerburg, and I’m only a junior.” She shook her head at you. “I can’t believe this. We’re going to a party at Remington University tonight, and we’re brushing up on our conversational skills with the scum of the school.”

You rolled your eyes and averted your gaze to the floor, bumping your shoulder with hers as you walked towards the table of geeks. You gave them a soft smile.

“Hi,” you said, waving at them politely.

One of the geeks smiled, giving you a wave in return. Scarlett walked up next to you, letting out a sigh and staring down at the geeks with venom in her eyes.

“So this is what’s called a lunchtime poll.” You gave her a small nod as she asked the question before the both of you walked off to other groups, getting an answer from each of them. Some answers were weird, some normal, and others were quite… different, to say the least.

As you finished up with the poll, you and Scarlett found your way back to Sue and Hailey, both of which were watching Martha read the letter.

“Here we go…” Hailey muttered as she latched onto Scarlett’s arm. Martha stood up, walking over to Zion and his jock buddies. She handed him the letter, one of his friends looking over his shoulder to read it as well. The three girls behind you began laughing as discreetly as they could.

Zion’s friend burst out laughing as Zion looked at him with anger, giving him a punch on the shoulder. “Lay off, dude.”

“No way,” his friend replied, snatching the letter and passing it around the table. As the scene went on, you looked over back to the boy that had been staring at you earlier.

He adjusted his glasses, leaning back in his seat and giving you another smile, this one accompanied with a shrug. Letting out a sigh, you looked back to the table of jocks only to see Martha storm out of the cafeteria as they all continued laughing, Zion’s mood dropping at their animalistic behavior. You looked at the girls next to you, shaking your head and walking over to the donation table where two boys stood.

“Hey, Y/N,” Harry, a calm and kind boy, smiled at you. You nodded at him in acknowledgement as his friend took over the conversation.

“Five keeps the neighborhood alive,” he said, raising his eyebrows in hopes that you would donate. You gave them a small smile, reaching into your pocket. But before you could grab any money, a hand grabbed your arm and dragged you away from the table.

“You wanted to be a member of the most powerful clique in school. If I wasn’t already the head of it, I’d want the same thing.” Scarlett gave you a sadistic smile. “Come on, Y/N, you used to have a sense of humor.”

Her smile dropped as she flipped around, sashaying out of the cafeteria. As her back was turned, you lifted up both of your middle fingers and shot them out at her before quickly putting them away, rolling your eyes, and following her to the bathroom.

Hailey and Sue were already in the room when you and Scarlett entered, Hailey re-applying the little amount of makeup she had on and Sue standing near a stall. Scarlett joined Hailey as you stood by them.

“Y/N, could you come back here a minute?” Sue asked, eyeing you with an unintelligible look.

You looked at Scarlett, lifting up your pointer finger to your temple. “True friend’s work is never done,” you stated, turning around and following Sue into the stall. Scarlett rolled her eyes, muttering a ‘gross’ as you walked towards the girl in green.

“Grow up, Sue. Bulimia is so ‘87.” Scarlett leaned forward, putting on some lip gloss before smiling to herself in the mirror.

You looked Sue in the eyes, as you filed your nails. She was obviously embarrassed about the subject, being one of the most serious in the group.

“You know, maybe you should see a doctor.” You smiled at her. She looked down at the floor.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Come on, Sue, let’s take another look at today’s lunch.” Sue tried to make it go unnoticed, but you let out a quiet chuckle as she rolled her eyes at Scarlett’s next words.

You gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t listen to her.”

Pushing yourself off the stall, you opened the stall door and walked out of the bathroom, the three girls following you back into the cafeteria. For the fourth time that day, you made eye contact with the mysterious boy with glasses.

“Wow, Y/N, drool much?” Hailey gave you a smug smile as she whispered out her words. It wasn’t often that she would speak like this, but on the rare occasion, she would muster up a few of these words to impress Scarlett. “His name is Lawrence. He’s in my history class.”

You ignored the stares the three gave you as you began to walk towards the boy, your gazes not leaving each other once. As you fully approached him, you began to speak.

“Hello, Lawrence.”

He looked down and let out a small chuckle at the fact that you knew his name, but looked back up at you with a gentle smile. “Greetings and salutations. Are you a part of them?” He gestured towards the three girls you had been standing by previously.

“No, I’m my own person. I’m Y/N.” You hugged your books tighter to your chest at the smile he gave you for your answer.

“This may seem like a really stupid question,” you said, eyeing him up and down.

“There are no stupid questions,” he replied. You bit your lip and smiled at the response.

“You inherit five million dollars the same day aliens land on the earth and say they’re going to blow it up in two days. What do you do?”

He furrowed his brows, looking down for a brief moment before looking back up at you. “That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard. Ah, I don’t know. Probably row out to the middle of a lake somewhere, bring along a bottle of tequila, my sax, and some bach.” He smirked, looking satisfied with his playful response.

“How very.” You smiled. He nodded back at you. The conversation was cut short by Scarlett storming towards you, a dissatisfied look on her features.

“Come on, Y/N.” She looked at Lawrence with a sour expression. You gave him a smile.

“Later,” you said, biting your lip once more.

He smiled back at you, fire in his eyes.

“Definitely.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes and grabbed your arm, dragging you away.

———————————

After an afternoon of Scarlett and Sue bickering and a short conversation with Lawrence at the snack shack, you had finally arrived at the university party with Scarlett. As you walked into the area the party was at, a college kid stood up and smirked.

“Hello ladies, throw your coats on the floor. Ah, Y/N, this is Brad.” The guy said, pointing to his friend who stood next to him. He eyed you up and down before letting out a quiet ‘excellent.’ Scarlett grinned at you as the college kid (who you still didn’t know the name of) continued to talk.

“Did you girls bring your partying slippers?”

Scarlett smiled up at him. “Let’s party.”

He smiled and leaned over to Brad. “She loves to party!” He shouted over the music. Brad smiled and whispered something in his ear, the both of them breaking out into chuckles afterward.

Dear Diary,

I want to kill, and you have to believe it’s for more than just selfish reasons, more than just a spoke in my menstrual cycle. You have to believe me.

Brad smiled at you as you awkwardly stood in the small, young adult filled hallway. He shouted over the loud music so you could hear him.

“It’s so great to be able to talk to a girl and not have to ask what’s your major! I hate that.” You took a sip of the alcohol in your cup before looking away from him, ignoring his comment. He stayed silent for a moment, before his loud mouth opened up once more.

“So, when you go to college, what subjects do you think you’ll study?” You rolled your eyes at the question, repeating the process for the earlier comment. You pushed yourself off the wall, walking away to find a room that was empty.

Oh Christ, I can’t explain it, but I’m allowed an understanding that my parents and these Remington University assholes have chosen to ignore. I understand that I must stop Scarlett.

After multiple (awkward) incidents of walking in on college couples making out and such, you had finally found a room for yourself. You plopped yourself down on a couch, looking around in boredom. After a while of scanning the room, your eyes came across a box of matches.

Taking a match out, you lit it up and hovered your free hand over it, feeling the heat. Your hand got a little too close to the flame (probably because you were slightly tipsy) causing you to drop the match. But, you weren’t planning on it landing in your cup. The alcohol in the cup caught fire as you lifted the cup up, staring at the accident.

“Shit…” you muttered, throwing the cup out of an open window in panic. You leaned back on the couch, twiddling your thumbs at the boredom that visited you once again. After a few minutes, the door creaked open.

Brad gave you a cheeky grin, walking over to the couch.

“How’s my little cheerleader, huh? Oh, I know everyone at your high school isn’t so uptight.” He sat down next to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “Come on.”

You gritted your teeth out of frustration and anger, beginning to raise your voice at the boy. “Come on, now look, I don’t feel so good, okay?”

Ignoring your comment, he picked up one of the coats on the couch. “Hey, let’s do it on the coats. It’ll be excellent, huh?” He gave you a wide smirk, his cocky voice annoying more than ever. You stood up out of his arms, looking at him with a glowering look.

“You know, I have a little prepared speech I tell my suitor when he wants more than I’d like to give him. Gee, blank, I had a really nice-”

“Save the speeches for Malcolm X. I just want to get laid.” He cut you off with his bold statement.

You reached down and nabbed your coat. “You don’t deserve my fucking speech.” You were practically fuming as you walked away from the room.

Judy was a true friend and I sold her out for a bunch of swatch dogs and diet coke heads.

Killing Scarlett would be like offing the Wicked Witch of the West. Wait, East. West! God, I sound like a fucking psycho!

You leaned against the hallway wall, the alcohol becoming a little too much for your teenage stomach. Before you knew it, a loud, booming voice reached your ears.

“What’s your damage, Y/N? Brad says you’re being a real cooze.” Those familiar, ruby eyes were narrowed at you, venom lacing her voice.

“Scarlett, I feel really sick like I’m going to throw up. So can we please jam now?” You replied hastily, your breathing labored.

She raised a brow. “No. Hell no!”

Before you could prevent it, you felt the bile coming up your throat. You lurched over to avoid throwing up on Scarlett’s dress and let the vomit leave your mouth. As you came up gasping for breath, Scarlett let out a sinister laugh as she stared at you.

Tomorrow I’ll be kissing her aerobicized ass, but tonight, let me dream of a world without Scarlett. A world where I am free.

You rushed out of the building, Scarlett not far behind you. You closed your eyes and took a few deep breaths before Scarlett began scolding you.

“You stupid fuck!”

Anger built up in your system as you quickly shot back a retort. “You goddamn bitch!”

“You were nothing before you met me. You were playing barbies with Judy. You were a bluebird. You were a brownie. You were a girl scout cookie. I got you into a Remington party. What’s my thanks? It’s on the hallway carpet! I got paid in puke!”

“Lick it up, baby! Lick. It. Up!” You replied with a satisfied smirk.

Her ruby red eyes glimmered in the moonlight, eyebrows furrowed in fury. “Monday morning, you’re history. I’ll tell everyone about tonight. Transfer to Washington. Transfer to Jefferson. No one at Westerburg’s gonna let you play their reindeer games.”

————————

You finished scribbling words into your diary, quickly throwing it across your room not long after. You let out a sigh. Preparing yourself to go pick it up, you looked over to the direction you threw it. But the one thing you weren’t expecting was to see Lawrence’s face popping through your window.

“Dreadful etiquette, I apologize.” He gave you a small smile.

You let out a small, awkward laugh. “It’s okay.”

He bit his lip, raising a brow at you. “I saw the croquet set up in the back. You up for a match?”

————————-

After a night of Lawrence’s so called ‘strip-croquet’ and talking about both of your hatred for Scarlett, you both made your way to her house early in the morning.

After the two of you snuck into her house through the backdoor, you decided to put out a bit of reassurance.

“Trust me, she skips the saturday morning trip to Grandma’s even when she’s not hungover.”

He shut the door behind him, following you into her kitchen. “I guess we’ll make her a little hangover cure that will induce her to spew red, white, and blue then.”

You let out a small snort at the comment. “What about like milk and orange juice? What’s the upchuck factor on that?” You asked him. You walked over to the fridge, opening it and looking for the two drinks that you were planning to put in your evil hangover remedy. After spotting the two, your face lit up.

He stood up from his crouched position of searching through her cabinets, holding up a bottle of liquid drainer. “I’m a no-rust-buildup man myself.”

“Don’t be a dick. That stuff will kill her.” You rolled your eyes as you took out the orange juice and milk, putting it on the kitchen counter. He gave you a bit of an awkward smile, the grin on your face slowly dropping.

You looked around the kitchen counter, thinking about the comment he just made. You quickly thought of something to change the subject. “I know, we can cook up some soup and put it in a coke. That’s pretty sick, eh? Now should it be chicken noodle or bean with bacon?” You screwed the cap off of the orange juice and put the two soups on the counter.

He turned around and gestured the various cans and bottles on the counter in front of you. “Put a lid on that stuff, I say we go with big blue here.” He lifted up the glass of blue liquid drainer in order to show it off to you.

Holy shit, he wasn’t joking, was he?

“What are you talking about? She would never drink anything that looked like that anyway.” He clicked his tongue, looking up into the newly opened cabinet.

“So we’ll, uh, put it in this.” He grabbed a mug with a lid on top of it, turning to you to get a look of approval. “She won’t be able to see what she’s drinking.”

You sighed, walking over to the area he was standing at with the orange juice and milk in your hands.

“Let me get a cup, jerk,” you said playfully, reaching up to grab a mug to put the two drinks in. He began to dump the liquid drainer in the mug he grabbed, while you started pouring the milk and orange juice in the cup you had grabbed.

After a bit of conversing, he looked you in the eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, grabbing your cheeks and gently lifting your face up. He initiated a gentle kiss, while you reached down to grab the cup of orange juice and milk. Too focused on the kiss, you accidentally grabbed the liquid drainer. Pulling away from the kiss, you gave him a soft smile before walking away to go find Scarlett.

As you were about to walk away, Lawrence called out to you.

“Ah, Y/N?”

“What?”

“Uh, nevermind. I’ll carry the cup.”

The two of you entered Scarlett’s room, watching her sleep peacefully.

“Morning, Scarlett,” you greeted her as she opened her eyes, sitting up slowly.

“Y/N and… whoever the hell you are. Nice surprise. Hear about Y/N’s affection for regurgitation?”

“Scarlett, I think last night we both said a lot of stuff we didn’t mean,” you spoke to her in a soft voice.

She raised a brow. “Did we?” She shifted her gaze over to Lawrence. “How the hell did you get in here?”

He looked over to you as he began speaking, changing the subject quickly. “Um, Y/N knew you’d have a hangover so I whipped this up for you. It’s a family recipe.”

“What did you do, put a phlegm globber in it or something?” She questioned. “I’m not going to drink that piss.”

He looked over at you once more. “I knew this stuff would be too intense for her.” He brought the cup down to his side.

Scarlett let out a laugh. “Ha! Intense. Grow up. You think I’ll drink it just because you call me a chicken?”

You and Lawrence both shared mischievous smiles as she got out of her bed and began walking towards him.

“Just give me the cup, jerk.”

He licked his lips, extending his arm as she took the cup and quickly lifted it up to her lips, downing the entire drink. Her eyes widened after she got a taste, and she began to lurch forward a bit.

Your face morphed into one of confusion at her reaction, and it only deepened as she began choking and gasping for air.

She walked forward, clawing at her throat and before you knew it, she fell forward, straight through a glass table. The glass shattered and you let out a gasp, looking over at Lawrence as he smiled a bit.

“Oh my god!” you yelled, shock overcoming your system. “I can’t believe it. I just killed my best friend.”

“And your worst enemy,” Lawrence added on.

“Same difference.”

You walked over to a chair, holding your head in your hands and closing your eyes tightly.

“What are we going to tell the cops?” He questioned. “Fuck it if she can’t take a joke, Sarge?”

“Oh the cops,” you gasped out, the shock still settling in. “I can’t believe this is my life. Oh my god. I’m gonna gave to send my SAT scores to San Quentin instead of Stanford.”

“All right, just a little freaked here. At least you got what you wanted, you know?” Lawrence feigned shock, a smile on his face as he stood behind you. You turned towards him, his smile dropping immediately.

“Got what I wanted? It is one thing to want somebody out of your life, but it’s another thing to serve them a wakeup cup full of liquid drainer.”

The both of you stood silent for a few moments, the air being broken by Lawrence’s silky voice.

“Alright, we did a murder. Now that’s a crime. But if this were like a suicide thing, you know?”

“Like a suicide thing?”

“Yeah. I mean, you can do Scarlett’s handwriting as well as your own, right? Right?”

You reached down into one of her drawers, grabbing a sheet of paper. Looking Lawrence in the eyes, you responded. “Yeah.”

Lawrence nodded as you began to recite what you would write down. “You might think what I’ve done is shocking.”

Lawrence continued on to your words on what to write in the note. “Um, to me though, suicide is the natural answer ot the myraid of problems life has given me.”

“That’s good, but Scarlett would never use the word myriad.”

“This is the last thing she’ll ever write. She’s going to want to cash in on as many fifty cent words as possible.”

“Yeah, but she missed myriad on the vocab test two weeks ago.”

“That only proves my point more. The word is a badge for her failures at school.”

“Oh.” You sighed. “Okay, you’re probably right.”

He nodded at you as you continued to say the words you were writing out loud.

“People think that just because you’re beautiful and popular life is easy and fun. No one understood, I had feelings too.”

As the two of you finished the suicide note, you ran out of the house, seperating with a kiss and going your own ways.

—————————–

After a long school day of the students ‘mourning’ for Scarlett (and your small mental breakdowns in the locker room and english class) you had finally settled down next to Lawrence on his couch. You rested your head on his shoulder, your eyes closed as he had a tiny conversation with his father. You tuned most of it out, until you heard his father mention something about you. Lawrence lightly tapped your shoulder, forcing your eyes to open as you looked up to the man.

He was almost the spitting image of Lawrence, but a lot older.

“Y/N, this is my dad, Dad, this is Y/N.”

You smiled at him, giving him a small greeting as you held your hand out for a shake. He just stared at you, an unreadable look on his face. He didn’t return your handshake, resulting in you awkwardly retreating your hand. Lawrence rolled his eyes at his father’s actions.

“Gee, Dad. Why don’t you ask your guest to stay for dinner?”

Before you knew it, an unsettling feeling rested itself inside your stomach. You lifted yourself off of the couch, a gentle (yet awkward) smile resting on your face.

“Actually, um, I can’t. My mom’s making my favorite meal tonight. Spaghetti, lots of oregano.”

Lawrence gave you a nod. “Sounds good.” He stood up from the couch, walking over to give you a small kiss on the cheek.

“See you,” he mumbled.

“Right.” You bid the two goodbye, quickly walking home.

After a very short dinner with your parents, you quickly got clothed in the old black dress sitting in the back of your closet. Scarlett’s funeral wasn’t exactly something you were looking forward to, but out of respect, you had decided to attend.

As you sat in the church pew next to Lawrence, the (quite opinionated) priest continued to drone on.

“I blame not Scarlett, but rather a society that tells its youth that the answers can be found in the MTV video games. We must pray that the other teenagers of this town know the name of that righteous dude who can solve their problems. It’s Jesus Christ, and he’s in the book.”

“Amen,” the attendees of the funeral chorused, both you and Lawrence looking over at each other with hesitant looks.

As each of the fellows teenagers of your school took their turn praying next to Scarlett, you were finally up. You kneeled down next to the girl (who still managed to keep her beauty, even in death) and softly closed your eyes.

Hello, to whoever’s listening in on this. I’m sorry. Technically, I did not kill Scarlett, but hey. Who am I trying to kid, right? I just want my high school to be a nice place. Amen. Did that sound bitchy?

As you walked away from the casket, you ran into Hailey not long after.

“Y/N, what are you doing tonight?”

“I’m not sure, mourning? Maybe watch some TV. Why?” She linked her arm with yours and walked you out of the church.

“Well, Ram asked me out tonight, but he wants to double with Zion and Zion doesn’t have a date.”

You sighed, stopping her in her place and looking at her sympathetically. “Hailey, I have something going on with Lawrence.”

“Please, Y/N. Put Lawrence on hold tonight, I really need your help here.”

You exhaled, giving her a hesitant nod before walking off.

———————–

You gave Hailey an annoyed look as the two of you stood next to each other in the towns pasture. Turns out, Ram had wanted to tip cows and decided to bring Zion, you, and Hailey along. You raised a brow while Ram giggled, circling the cow. Zion stood behind him, rolling his eyes every so often. After a small countdown, Ram had finally managed to tip the cow.

The cow landed in a big puddle of mud, the liquid splashing across you and Hailey. Ram let out a loud laugh while Zion, of course, continued to roll his eyes.

You let out a sigh of discontent, walking away from the trio and leaning up against a nearby tree.

After a couple of minutes, a familiar voice found your ears.

“What is this?” Lawrence questioned, walking down the hill. You groaned, walking towards him.

“I’m doing a favor for Hailey. Double date. I tried to tell you at the funeral, but you rode off before I could.”

“Another one of Scarlett’s clones.” He let out a chuckle, anger laced in his words. You gave him a disapproving look. He looked down at his shoes, muttering out an apology.

After a quick invite to go get a slushie (which the both of you enjoyed, thank you very much), you ended up going home in preparation for the long school day ahead of you.

And to your expectations, the next day started off shitty. Apparently, Ram decided to make some nasty ass rumors about you and him, plus Zion, which wasn’t going too well for either of you. The day was filled with rude comments directed towards you, and after a while, you were fed up. You called your mother to pick you up from school, and you spent the day coming up with revenge plots in you mind (that would never happen).

As you (sorta) expected, Lawrence had shown up later that night with a proposal. He wanted you to call Ram and tell him to meet up with you somewhere so the two of you could give him a scare with blanks. Crazy idea, I know, but hey, you only live once, right?

“Hi, Ram? Hey, this is Y/N. Yeah, I didn’t expect to be calling either. I guess my emotions took over. I was wondering if you wanted all those things you’ve been saying to really happen. It’s always been a fantasy of mine to have two guys at once.” You almost gagged at your fake words, but kept up the sickly sweet act. Lawrence let out an airy laugh, staring at you with surprise. You smiled and picked up a pillow, chucking it at the boy before focusing your attention back to the boy on the phone.

“Oh, sure. You can write to penthouse forum. Yeah, in the woods behind the school at dawn. Don’t forget! Oh, and you don’t have to bring Zion. It might be a little more interesting with just the two of us.” You quickly hung up the call, pursing your lips as you tried to hold back your laugh.

Lawrence gave you a charming smile before giving you a small peck.

About an hour later, you let out a sigh. Placing the gun Lawrence had handed you on the bed, you looked at him in the eyes. “I don’t get why we’re faking suicide notes when we’re just going to be shooting them with blanks.”

He returned your stare, raising his brows. “Well, we’re not going to be using blanks this time.”

Your brow raised as you stared at him in shock. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

Holy shit, I’m dating a fucking sociopath.

“Listen, my Bonnie and Clyde days are over,” you breathed out, beginning to lift yourself off the bed.

“Wait a second, wait a second.” He grabbed your arm, gently yanking you back down. “Do you take German?”

“French,” you corrected.

“All right, these are ich luge bullets. My grandfather snared a shitload of them back in WWII. They’re like tranquilizers. Only they break the surface of the skin enough to cause a little blood but no real damage.”

“So it looks like the person’s been shot and killed, and really they’re just lying there unconscious and bleeding?” He gave you a nod.

“Right. See, we shoot Ram and make it look like he accidently shot himself, and by the time he regains consciousness, he’ll be the laughing stock of the school. The note’s the punchline. How’d that turn out?”

You smiled up at him. “First, tell me the similarity is not incredible.” You smirked, grabbing a paper with a sample of Ram’s handwriting and the note you forged.

Lawrence grinned. “It’s incredible similarity.”

You let an accomplished smile, clearing your throat so you could read off the fake note you wrote. “I died the day I realized I could never reveal my forbidden feelings for Zion to an uncaring and ununderstanding world. The joy I shared when I was around him was greater than any touchdown. Yet, I was forced to live the lie of a sexist, beer guzzling, jock asshole.”

Lawrence let out a chuckle. “It’s perfect.”

———————-

The next morning, you waited in the woods with a gun tucked into the waistband of your skirt. You readjusted your jacket so it would cover the bra that you were wearing for the act, jumping slightly at a sudden voice that chirped into your ears.

“Hi, Y/N.”

You gave Ram a nod of acknowledgment. “Glad you could make it.”

He stood around for a few seconds. “So… should I just whip it out or?”

Jesus Christ.

You gave him a fake smile. “Well, I’ve made a circle on this side of the clearing. Ram, why don’t you step over here.” You pointed to the circle you had made, Ram following your directions.

“When you get to the circle, strip.”

Ram raised a brow. “What about you?”

“I was kind of hoping you could rip my clothes off me, sport.” You gave him a wink, disgusted at the look he gave you.

“Good idea.”

After he had finished stripping down, you looked away, a fake smile crossing your face. “Okay, count of three, yeah?”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.” A surprise entrance was made by Lawrence. He stepped out from behind a tree, his gun held up high as he shot at Ram. Ram fell to the ground, blood surrounding the wound. A shuffle and gasp was heard from the forest, the both of you looking at each other with brows raised.

Before you knew it, a flash of red zoomed away.

“W-Was that Zion?” You questioned, looking over at Lawrence.

“Damn… stay here, Y/N. I’ll be right back.”

Lawrence ran after the boy, leaving you and Ram in the dust.

After a few minutes of silence, you kneeled next to Ram. You shook him a bit, noticing that he wasn’t breathing. The shocking realization came over you quickly as you drew back, a gasp leaving your mouth. “Oh my god.”

Zion came running around a tree, staring down at you and Ram. Lawrence didn’t hesitate in this stall, shooting him in the chest quickly. Zion slowly fell to the ground, a look of regret washing over his face. Another gasp let you as the blood from his chest splattered across your face, your hands reaching up to wipe it away.

You stared at Lawrence with suspicious eyes as you placed the note onto Ram’s body. Voices were heard not too far away, Lawrence looking up at you with wide eyes. He stood up, grabbing your hand and dragging you away from the scene.

You and him continued to sprint, a harsh whisper erupting from your throat. “Where the hell are we going?”

He shushed you, running even faster. The two of you eventually reached your car, both of you rushing to open the doors. You sat in the driver’s seat while he sat in the passengers, him ditching his large coat.

“Take your jacket off,” he said, out of breath while he pulled his shirt over his head.

“What? Why?!”

“Just do what I say!”

You complied, shrugging off the jacket to reveal your bra. Lawrence hastily reached forward, grabbing the sides of your face as he roughly kissed you. You didn’t exactly comply at first, until he mumbled ‘just follow my lead’ under his breath.

You leaned forward, wrapping your arms around his head as you matched the intenseness of the kiss. He leaned forward even more, making you lean slightly back as he bit your lip. You let out a slight yelp, but continued with the session. You shifted your eyes over to the front of the car, seeing a police officer on his walkie talkie. Shifting your eyes back over to Lawrence, you moved your lips down to his neck.

He looked over your shoulder, watching the cop leave. Letting out a sigh, he parted away from you. “We’re all good now.”

You leaned back into the seat, putting your jacket back on. “Thank god.”

————————–

Following a brief argument with Lawrence in your car about whether they deserved to die or not, the both of you sat next to each other at a funeral, once again. A repeat of the same speech from the same priest and an emotional speech from Ram’s father set off something inside of you, something that agreed with the feelings you had about the murder of Zion and Ram.

Dear Diary,

My teen angst bullshit has a body count, and I’m not too happy about it. The most popular kids in school are dead. Everybody’s sad, but it’s a weird kind of sad. Suicide gave Scarlett depth, Zion a way out, and Ram a brain. I don’t know what it’s given me, but I’ve got no control over myself when I’m with Lawrence.

Are we going to prom or to hell?

—————————-

The day consisted of a lunchtime filled with you ignoring Lawrence and an afternoon of bickering between you two (as well as figuring out that his father is just as psychotic as he is), which resulted in a break up that didn’t end too well.

Roaming the hallways wasn’t exactly the easiest. I mean, after all, your ‘best friend’ was dead, your ex was a psycho, and Sue and Hailey weren’t your favorite people of all time. But, you grew some balls and showed up.

As you stood outside of Scarlett’s locker, you weren’t expecting a pair of cold hands to fall over your eyes.

“Guess who?”

You lifted the hands up, turning around to face the one and only Sue. But not only was she in high spirits, she had Scarlett’s red bow clipped up in her hair. It did compliment her nicely, but it didn’t seem correct.

You looked at the bow, letting out a scoff before walking away.

As the day came to an end, you laid down on your bed, letting out an exhausted sigh. It was basically a routine by now. Ever since Lawrence came into your life, the only interesting things that happened were pure chaos, which wasn’t your favorite.

You looked over at the phone on your nightstand, reaching over to dial a familiar number. The line began to ring, and before you knew it, a cheery voice answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Judy? This is Y/N. I was wondering, would you want to come over and play a game of croquet with me?”

Judy showed up not too long after, and the croquet game commenced. Judy was in the lead, but that wasn’t the thing that you were too focused on. After a bit of small talk, you decided to strike up an actual conversation.

“You know, I’m sorry for… dropping you like I did.”

“Oh, Y/N. It’s okay, I understand. I’d drop me too for a chance to hang out with Scarlett and her gang. No hard feelings, yeah?”

You gave her a gentle smile, but before you could vocalize a response, a voice interrupted.

“Well, look what we have here.” Sue and Hailey walked in, Sue clad in red.

Judy smiled at the ground, giving you a bashful look. “Listen I… I gotta get home, okay? Let’s talk again.”

You smiled at her, bidding her farewell before looking over to the two who rudely interrupted your free time with Judy.

Sue looked at you with a chipper smile. “I’m red.”

You rolled your eyes.

———————–

Succeeding an argument with your parents about teen suicide, Sue decided to stroll into your house claiming that ‘the door was open.’

You walked up to her, giving her a small glare at the smile she sported. “Y/N, have you heard? We were doing chinese at the food fair when it comes over the radio that Martha Dumptruck tried to buy the farm.”

You opened your mouth in shock at the new information, but decided to let her continue speaking.

She let out a chuckle. “She belly flopped in front of a car wearing a suicide note.”

Despair flowed through your veins as you stared at Sue in surprise. “Is she dead?”

“No, that’s the punchline. She’s alive and in stable condition. Just another case of a geek trying to imitate the popular people of this school and failing miserably.”

You squinted your face up in anger at her words, lifting up a hand. Your hand flew across her cheek, the loud sound of flesh against flesh filling the room. Sue gasped, holding her hand up to her cheek.

Let’s just say that hours later, you were stuck apologizing, once again. The two of you sat in your room, listening to Hot Probs, and advice hotline on the radio. After a few ridiculous calls, a familiar voice entered your ears over the radio.

“My name is Hailey– no, it’s not Hailey. No, it’s Madonna. Jeez, no not that.”

You stared at Sue with wide eyes, her returning the look.

“Hey, babe, I need a name,” the man hosting the hotline called out. A few seconds of silence followed, but Hailey’s voice soon came through.

“My name is Tweety. God has cursed me, I think. The last guy I showed interest in killed himself the day after we had our date. I’m failing math, my whole life is a mess. I was supposed to be captain of the cheerleading team-”

You looked up at Sue in shock. “She knows we listen to this show.”

“Holy shit, we’ll crucify her!!” Sue smiled widely. You rolled your eyes at her comment.

—————————-

The next day came by all too quickly, and here you were, stuck in your thoughts once again. Hailey’s name was written all over the board as she sat idly in her cheerleading uniform, a sad look crossing her face.

Dear Diary,

Sue told everybody about Hailey. Yes, I’ve cut off Scarlett’s head and Sue’s head has sprouted back in its place like some… mythological thing my eighth grade boyfriend would have known about.

Sue’s even doing the old note trick. I’ve seen Lawrence’s way, and nothing has changed. I guess that’s Sue’s way. And Jesus, what about Lawrence? I can’t get him out of my head.

Wait– where’s Hailey going?

Hailey picked up her stuff, covering her face as she stormed out of the classroom.

You closed your diary, the teacher walking into the class asking the same exact question. Sue chuckled, looking down at her nails.

“She’s going to cry~” The jocks in the class laughed at her response. Not being able to handle the urge to go after her, you shot up from your desk, walking out of the classroom in the same way Hailey had. The teacher called after you, but no response was given.

You ran into the bathroom, catching sight of Hailey filling up an empty prescription bottle with water. Storming up to the timid girl, you grabbed ahold of her cheeks, forcing the tremendous amount of pills out of her mouth. “Hailey!”

“What are you trying to do, kill me?” She pushed you away, hugging her torso.

“What are you trying to do, sleep?” You shot back as she lowered herself to the ground.

“Suicide is a private thing.”

“Hailey, you’re throwing your life away to become a statistic in the us-fucking-a today. Now, that is the least private thing I can think of.”

“What about Scarlett, and Zion, and Ram?”

You sighed, sitting down next to her. “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?”

She hesitated for a moment, but answered not long after. “Probably.”

You reached your hand down to hers, gripping it tight. “If you were happy everyday of your life, you wouldn’t be a human being. You’d be a game show host.” She chuckled at the comment.

“What do you say we knock off early, but some shoes, something lame like that?” She asked, smiling at you.

“Okay.” She rested her head on your shoulder as the two of you sat in a comfortable silence.

———————–

You stomped down the stairwell, catching Sue sitting on the windowsill at the bottom. Apparently she had started a stupid little petition, and you weren’t too happy about it. “Sue?”

“Y/N, color me stoked, girl. I’ve gotten everyone to sign this petition, even the ones who think big fun is stupid. People love me! You know, you haven’t signed yet.”

“People love you, but I know you. Jennifer Forbes told me the petition she signed was to put a hot tub in the cafeteria. And Doug Hilton said–”

“Some people need different kinds of convincing than others. Look, just sign the petition, okay?”

“Don’t talk to me like that, okay?” You imitated, mocking her words.

“Look, it was Lawrence’s idea. He made out the signature sheet and everything, so why don’t you just sign it?”

“No,” you spat. She gave you a smirk, adjusting her glasses.

“Jealous much?”

You gritted your teeth, letting out some of your anger. “Sue, why can’t you just be a friend? Why are you such a megabitch?”

“Because I can be.” She smirked. “Y/N, why are you so damn persistent? Do you think, I mean, do you really think if Judy’s fairy godmother made her cool, she would still hang out with her dweebette friends? No way.” Sue finished the conversation, walking away swiftly.

You ran a hand through your hair, a frustrated sigh coming out of your mouth.

“Wanna go out tonight, catch a movie? Some miniature golf?” The ever-so familiar voice of Lawrence called out.

You crossed your arms, smirking at the ground. “I was thinking more along the lines of slitting Sue’s wrists open, making it look like a suicide.”

Lawrence walked up to you, rubbing your arm as he put his around your shoulder. “Now you’re talking. I could be up for that. I’ve already started underlining meaningful passages in her copy of Moby Dick, if you know what I mean. I knew you’d be back, Y/N.” He wrapped his arms around you, but you still had yours crossed. “I knew it. I was positive, I was sure.”

You lifted up your elbow, bringing it down into his stomach. “It’s over, Lawrence. Grow up!”

After a few feeble attempts of his to change your mind, you walked away, leaving him behind.

———————-

According to your parents, Lawrence stopped by the house and left you a letter. After opening the letter and revealing ‘Look familiar, sweetheart?’ in your handwriting (forged by himself), the message seemed pretty clear to you.

You rushed up to your room, only to find a doll with a tiny noose around its neck hanging from your ceiling fan.

This crazy bitch wants me to kill myself. Well, nice try, Lawrence. You don’t have a clue who you’re messing with, do you?

You laid down on your bed, curling yourself up in fetal position. Not long after, the sweet sound of the whistling wind managed to put you to sleep.

That night, you had a dream. Lawrence had shown up to your house and faked Sue’s suicide, and at her funeral, Scarlett had visited. The dream was very vague and you couldn’t remember much, but you weren’t too big on symbolism, so you decided to ignore it.

You were awakened by your mother shouting that dinner was ready. But, you decided to ignore her. If you wanted to carry out this fake sucide correctly, you couldn’t be having dinner with your parents, right? So, you went and sat down at your desk, opening your diary.

Dear Diary,

Last entry.

No one can stop Lawrence. Not the FBI, the CIA, or the PTA. He once told me that the extreme always makes an impression. Well now, it’s my turn. Let’s see how the son of a bitch reacts to a suicide he didn’t perform himself!

You slammed shut your diary, tying together one of your bed sheets into a noose.

Hanging it from your ceiling lamp, you took a deep breath before sticking your head into the loop at the bottom.

“I swear to god, if I actually die from this, I will come back and haunt every single soul that goes to my school. Dear God, please let me live,” you muttered, slowly stepping off of your bed and hanging from the noose. It hurt quite a bit, but it wasn’t enough to kill you.

You heard the sound of your window opening, but you kept quiet and let your head hang down.

“I can’t believe you did it!” Lawrence exclaimed. “I was teasing… I loved you. Sure, I was coming up here to kill you. First I was going to try and get you back with my amazing petition. It’s a shame you can’t see what our fellow students really signed.”

You heard the sound of a few paper before Lawrence spoke up again. “All right, listen–

‘We students of Westerburg High will die. Today. Our burning bodies will be the ultimate protest to a society that degrades us. Fuck you all!’” He finished reading the petition.

“It’s not very subtle, but neither is blowing up a whole school, now is it? Talk about your suicide pacts, eh? When our school blows up tomorrow, it’s going to be the kind of thing to infect a generation. I mean it’s going to be a woodstock for this century! Damn it, Y/N. We could have toasted marshmallows together.”

As your mother called out for you one last time, Lawrence finally decided to leave the scene, your mother walking in on your hanging body. As she started to sputter out a few words, you lifted your arms up and untied the noose, falling back onto your bed. Your mother went silent as you gave her a smile.

“Hey, Mom, why so tense?”

—————————-

You entered the school more stressed out than you had ever been. Your search for Lawrence was shorter than you expected, as you saw him walk into the school with a duffel bag, that you could only assume carried the bomb. You followed after him, silently praying that he didn’t hear you. (which he probably wouldn’t, as he had headphones on). You were quite a ways away from him, but you lost him through the mass of students on the way there. You knew he had gone to the top floor, but you weren’t sure where.

Think, Y/N, where would a crazy psycho want to place a bomb…

A place with lots of students… we do have a pep rally today… and its held in the gym!

Eureka!

But where would he place the control for the bomb? Think, think, think…

Shit! The boiler room is under the gym, that’s the only logical place!

You rushed down to the boiler room, slamming open the door and beginning your search for Lawrence. Luckily enough, you managed to catch him.

“May I see your hall pass?” You asked, holding up the gun he had given you only mere days ago when you were dealing with Ram.

He let out a laugh. “I knew that noose was too loose. God damn you, woman.”

“Like father, like son. A serious-as-fuck bomb in the boiler room to set off a pack of thermals upstairs.” You let out a few breaths, getting closer to the boy. “Let’s start by putting the bomb down on the ground.” He gestured to the ground, where the bomb was already sitting.

You inhaled sharply, your hands shaking. “I knew that! I knew that. Put your hands on your head.”

“You didn’t say simon says.”

You raised a brow at his words, but before you knew it, you had been disarmed. He held you against the wall, taking the gun that you were previously holding and slamming it down to your temple. Darkness clouded your vision as you slid down the wall, helplessly watching as he walked off.

You weakly lifted yourself up, fighting the urge to pass out. As you finally managed to find the strength to stand up, a bright red fire extinguisher caught your eye. You grabbed it off of the wall, making your way towards Lawrence. As you neared him, your shoes squeaked against the ground, catching his attention. He turned around, about to shoot, but you slammed the extinguisher against his skull. The force managed to make him drop the gun, as the both of you scrambled towards it. Before you could reach it, he grabbed you by the shoulders and lifted you up, slamming you against the wall.

As he smirked at you, you took his minor distracted state to your advantage, kneeing him in the stomach. He lurched back at the impact, giving you a chance to run and grab the gun (which you gladly took). You picked the gun up and pointed it at the boy, but he ran away, knocking over a bunch of cans in the process. You stood up, on alert for Lawrence. As far as you knew, he could be anywhere in the boiler room. One mistake, and the lives of every kid in the school were gone.

You turned each corner warily, keeping the gun straight up. As you turned the final corner, he stood there with a knife in his hand. The diffuser was in between you two, time ticking with forty seconds till it exploded.

“You think just because you started this thing you can end it?” He shouted at you.

“I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you, I swear to god!” You threatened, the gun raised high. “How do I turn off the goddamn bomb, asshole?”

“Fuck you!” He shouted, flipping you off. You put your finger on the trigger, shooting the gun. The impact wasn’t exactly where you expected, but you let out an airy laugh as you saw his middle finger missing.

He let out a sound of pain, cursing as he dropped to the ground.

“It’s all over, Lawrence. Help me stop it!”

He struggled to breath as he covered his finger with a dirty towel he found off the ground. “You want to clean the slate as much as I do. All right, so maybe I am killing everyone in the, because nobody loves me! Let’s face it! The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven.”

You furrowed your brows in anger. “Which button do I press to turn it off?”

“Try the red one, all right?”

You looked back at the timer, seeing all three buttons were red with thirty seconds left on the clock.

“Seriously, people are going to look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, now there is a school that self-destructed not because society didn’t care, but because the school was society! That’s pretty deep, huh?” He questioned, a crazed smile still on his face.

“Which red button?!” You yelled.

“Press the middle one to turn it off if that’s what you really want.”

“You know what I want, babe?”

“What?” He shouted, hastily standing up. You panicked, shooting the gun. This time, the bullet hit him in the stomach. Because of the impact, he stabbed his knife into the diffuser, the timer beginning to beep as it came to a stop. You let out a sigh of relief as Lawrence fell to the ground once more.

“I want cool guys like you out of my life.”

You walked out of the room, watching each and every one of the students cheer, none of them knowing what went on in the past two minutes. You walked away from the gym, exiting the school and taking a seat on the entrance stairs. Lawrence walked out not long after, the dirty towel now covering his stomach wound.

“Color me impressed.” He spoke out. “You– You really fucked me up pretty bad, Y/N. You um, You got power. Power I didn’t think you had. The slate is clean.” He stated the last remark, lifting up the corner of his coat to reveal a bomb. He turned it on, walking a bit away.

Looking back at you one last time, he smirked. “Pretend I did blow up the school. All the schools. Now that you’re dead, what are you gonna do with your life?”

You smirked at him, pulling a cigarette out of your pocket and sticking it in your mouth. He smirked, holding out his arms as the timer ticked away.

You pulled out a lighter, lighting your cigarette while the explosion went off. As you puffed on the cancer stick, you began to walk away from the school, not a single regret in your mind.

And that, my friends, is the story of you and Lawrence, a love story that might not go down in the books, but will be engraved in your memory for years to come. A love story that probably would have been better off not happening. A love story that you’d rather forget.

#dfel #dangerous fellows #lawrence x reader #dangerous fellows x reader #df #dangerous fellows one shot #dangerous fellows lawrence #fanfiction #fanfic #lucy dream #lucydream #lucy dream games

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psychefm · 4 years

Text

talk to the hand [ booboo stewart ], [ deon damgaard ] is the new kid on the block around here. at [ twenty one ], the [ demi boy ] works at [ chuck e cheese ] in the mall and, like, [ he ] totally reminds us of [ travis birkenstock ]. oh snap! what? their favorite movie is [ addams family values ]???? so is mine! (pepper, she/her, twenty three, est )

ABOUT THE MUN. hey demons, it’s ya gurl pepper

tumblr still hates me, and yk what i hate it right back.

BIO. i need a himbo! i’m holding out for a himbo at the end of the night! he’s gotta be strong, and he’s gotta be fast, and he’s gotta be dumb and polite! suicide tw, depression tw, death tw !!!

Deon Damgaard was born from a tryst of passion. In other words, an affair. A very exciting affair, if that makes things any better. Said affair was between his mother, a talented young pianist, and his father, an influential, very much married businessman. You see, his father saw his mother play once and instantly fell in love. He came to every single one of his mother’s performances after that, and every time he did he left her flowers. Extravagant, beautiful flowers, the kind of flowers that make an impact on a woman, apparently. And they must have, because before long Deon’s mother was falling just as in love with Deon’s father as he was with her. And obviously you know what happens next. Deon.

Now, the thing about passionate love affairs is that they’re love affairs for a reason. There’s the love part of course. But there’s also the affair part. And that’s where things get complicated. Because despite being utterly, and completely in love with Deon’s mother, his father was still married. And he had no intention of ending his marriage, even for love.

But Deon’s mother didn’t know that at first. You see, Deon has inherited his mother’s easy optimism. The woman was in love and she believed with absolute surety that the love of her life would ultimately choose her. And so she waited for that day. And waited. And waited.

She spent most of the first few years of Deon’s life waiting, but the longer she waited the less Deon’s father even bothered to come around. The thing with falling in love hard and fast is that you can fall out of love just as quickly. And that’s exactly what Deon’s father did. He fell out of love like it was nothing.

So there was Deon’s mother, with a baby she shared with a man who didn’t love her anymore. One that carried his last name against his wishes, one that even had the name that he’d said he’d always wanted to give a son. One that she loved, truly. But that love wasn’t enough. Because Deon’s mother was in pain. More pain than a little baby like Deon could understand. Enough pain to end her own life.

Deon was six at the time. Not old enough to know what was happening, but old enough to understand that something was wrong. Especially when he quickly found himself in an orphanage. His father never claimed him of course. Deon doesn’t even know if he mourned his mother. Or if he wanted to come to her funeral. All he knows is that he wasn’t there.

There’s not much to be said after that, or at least nothing as poetic as the beginning. Deon was put into the foster system and he was never really wanted again. Well. Maybe that’s not completely true. The truth is no one ever wanted to adopt him. But he always hoped someone would. He’d be passed from family to family to family, bright eyed and hoping like the optimistic child he was. But they never wanted him. Some said he was too hyper. Others said he was too curious. More than a few just said he was too odd, and Deon always found that strange. That he was too odd to keep. Too odd to love.

Of course most of them didn’t expect Deon to be eavesdropping when they said these things so Deon couldn’t really fault them. They didn’t mean to hurt him. And so he could never truly hate them. He couldn’t find it in his heart to. But it was painful, to get his hopes up each time only to have them dashed away. Whether that be by being tossed aside like nothing but a nuisance or tossed around like nothing but a rag doll. It always hurt to seek love and give love and yet never get any in return.

Deon moved to Strawberry, Nebraska at thirteen to be fostered by a cold, gruff couple who didn’t really have much of an interest in him other than the checks he provided. It took a while for Deon to realize that and even longer for him to accept it, and honestly some part of him still hasn’t. Even to this day Deon will try with them, just optimistically hoping that this one extra act of kindness, or one extra attempt at bonding will be the one to break the camels back and make them like him. It never is though. But at the very least Jack and Barb Finchum never got rid of him. They kept him around for the money, and due to this Deon got to stick around Strawberry. Strawberry is the place he’s been the longest in his entire life.

And after Deon realized that he might be around for good he started trying harder than ever to make friends. Prior to Strawberry Deon had never really made many, and honestly he tried to see it as a blessing. I mean, could you imagine having to leave not only your family but also friends time after time? It would be too much to bear. So Deon did his best to see it as a good thing. But now that he had the opportunity Deon was trying harder than ever to find his people. Maybe a bit too hard. Honestly Deon was probably known throughout town for being the weird loud kid, and he was pretty okay with that. I mean, he didn’t know it but he would be okay with it if he did.

Was the guy you’d see at every house party, the guy who would make an elaborate plan to skateboard down the stairwell railing of the school on a dare, who would do your big chemistry project for nothing but a couple of joints and a taco, because that’s another thing, despite being a complete idiot Deon is also somehow a genius. Like he’s stupid, but he’s good at school, mostly because Deon quickly learned that everything in life had a price: food, toys, family, but school? School was free, and he adored it. Okay, maybe not all of it. English and foreign languages and god, history, all of that was painfully boring even if Deon could pass. But science? Science was the one thing that he had to look forward to throughout most of his childhood. And it continued to be that one thing into his young adulthood.

The majority of Deon’s said young adulthood was also spent sporadically behind bars. Let’s just say Deon fell into the wrong crowd. It wasn’t on purpose, Deon has just and likely always will be the kind of person who is eager for friendship. All these kids had to do was be even slightly nice to him and ‘sure, man! i can totally hotwire that car for you!’. That’s not to say Deon was completely innocent himself. Most of his arrests for theft, graffiti, and street racing, were products of his own doing. But sometimes, Deon just happened to be the guy abandoned at the scene of the crime. He never gave up his friends, no matter what the cops threatened him with, but he unfortunately never had the privilege of having his loyalty returned.

Deon stayed out of juvie by the skin of his teeth. It was mostly due to the fact that strawberry wasn’t a particularly big town, and Deon could usually endear the small town sheriff to him with his incessant chatter, and well meaning demeanor. He honestly made friends with more than a few of the cops that had arrested him, and there are more than a few that Deon would still call up today and chat with. He is probably in mall jail all the time for little things honestly. Sorry Peter.

Despite his dabbling in crime, Deon graduated from high school with an almost spotless GPA and partial to full scholarships to more than a few universities including Harvard, MIT, Yale. Deon was kind of startled by all of the offers, but he did have more than a few projects during his years of schooling that caught the universities attention (including making the car from back to the future for fun but also making it so that it could possibly run on electricity, making a small robot that could run on used vegetable oil, etc). But with all the offers, Deon decided to stay local, because I would like to think that he finally made friends here and he could never just leave them now that he did.

I feel like Deon has been working at Chuck E Cheese since he was maybe fourteen? And he loves it, he has the time of his life every shift. Likes to go around and play with the kids, can generally be depended on to fix the animatronics when they’re acting up, honestly probably started working there because he kept fucking with the animatronics for fun in his spare time and realized he could actually fix them too. that said, he still likes to reprogram chuckie himself to like do the worm or something. he has a great time with it, and i am so sorry kath.

okay that’s it i think

HEADCANNONS. if i get shot do i own the bullet? like can i keep it?

this is deon.

fun fact, i originally made deon as an npc in a house party para i was doing with my friend sdkjsdjk he was genuinely made to be as annoying as possible but then my friend actually really liked him so now he’s a whole ass muse. that said if he is annoying… it’s because he was legit designed to be i’m sorry folks sdkjdskj fingers crossed he’s not though! but grating traits he has: never stops talking man, says man, dude, bruh, and bro, constantly. CONSTANTLY. you’ll be having a conversation with him and he’ll just blurt out something completely off topic??? HE’S SO LOUD TOO! And incredibly inappropriate god

that said deon was also inspired by jason mendoza and i literally teared up writing that because i’m still not over the end of the good place so dkjsdkj let’s move on!

loves back to the future and honestly i should have put back to the future as his favourite movie but i really didn’t remember it existed until now.

has a septum piercing, a tongue piercing, a smiley piercing, a nipple piercing on his left nipple and several tattoos, most of which he’s done himself after buying a tattoo gun (honestly you shouldn’t let deon tattoo you because he just does whatever comes to him at the time but also LET DEON TATTOO YOU!). honestly has more than a few earrings too like both ears are probably full of piercings and he’s very proud of all of his them honestly.

loves colour and neon especially, but also loves to wear a lot of black like he’s a whole ass mess. his favourite colour is yellow btw. generally just wears what he likes, but he pretty much never looks polished.

his favourite number is 0!

wears a lot of rings and jewelry as well, you will rarely find your boy without something on his fingers.

has a rat named titty boy that he calls titty for short. his name is titty boy because he only eats hot cheetos and likes to watch garbage tv. as sad as it sounds he was one of deon’s first genuine friends so he loves him like BIG. takes him everywhere like he usually has him in his bag at work, so you can catch titty scurrying around chuck e cheese sometimes.

built a little bot and named him douche bag, or rather deebs for short. also loves him big. deebs is constantly getting updated by deon honestly, but your boy actually probably won a prize when he made him because he’s actually?? very like advanced for what he is (he runs on used oil from fast food chains, has a touch screen, etc). deon literally made him so that he could help him remember to take his pills (deon has clinical depression and adhd, so he needs deebs around to give him that nudge sometimes), and he can do that and more now. deon kind of wants to see if he can break him into the service animal industry, cause he figures he could be good for people who need service animals but have allergies to fur.

gets around, mostly because he is attracted like everybody and feels no qualms about telling them that? and omg he’s also bi btw, no one is surprised. but honestly isn’t really a player just cause he’s too dumb to be one man. like if he was suppose to call you and he didn’t he literally just forgot sdkjsdkj

does not talk about himself at all! ever! like legit learning anything about deon’s past is like pulling teeth!

like i said deon has depression, but like most people probably don’t know that because again,, your boy is close lipped. that said he doesn’t try to hide it, like if you see him taking his pills you see him taking his pills. there are times though that deon will just not be found for a week or two when his depression gets bad. he usually emerges from these occasions chill and chipper as he usually is with sdkmds absolutely no mention of it. i don’t know if he has any friends he’s close enough to that he’d talk to about that though you know, like honestly from deon’s perspective *deon vc* i don’t wanna bring anybody down, man…

says man and bro and bruh and dude WAY TOO MUCH like they punctuate most of his sentences sdkdjs

surfer dude energy. skater dude energy. stoner dude energy.

smokes A LOT of weed. LOVES to party! that guy you see at every house party and have to wonder like??? how is he passing ANY of his classes sdkjsdj how is he SURVIVING

honestly when i usually write deon he’s an MIT graduate so dskjds he definitely got an offer from there that he casually responded to like ‘oh shit, thanks man, but i’m cool!’ sdkjdsjk

sometimes you can catch deon sitting in his car blasting mariah carey and crying in the mall parking lot.

knows all the words to TLC’s waterfalls and will sing it to completion whenever it’s on.

will come to your flat and like fix your heater if it’s acting up. literally just hail deon down if you need anything fixed and he will do it for literally nothing. he just likes to help, and to be wanted around tbh rip

swears A TON omg i almost forgot deon swears constantly dkjds he doesn’t see a problem with it honestly, and he’s never like angrily swearing honestly it’s usually excited swearing but sdkjsdkj he’s a potty mouth nonetheless and if your muse doesn’t swear deon will pay them money to do it despite being BROKE. “will you say fuck for a dollar?” sdkjdsj

PERSONALITY. do u are have stupid? hell yeah brother!

honestly one of my most kindhearted muses. like deon wouldn’t hurt a FLY! he catches spiders in his hands and takes them outside sdkjsdk. like even if you’re a dick to deon he will still be nice to you! never gets mad at ANYBODY, like it’s so rare to see deon pissed man he has the heart of a surfer dude

just freaking says things man. doesn’t think before he says anything ever. no brain to mouth filter at ALL.

that said he’s a lot smarter than he looks and acts skjdsj but he’s also so so stupid, it’s a bit contradictory honestly because deon is a DUMBASS! but he be knowing things man i can’t explain it. like he has no brain to mouth filter but like if you tell deon a secret no one is ever going to know.

PAINFULLY loyal to his friends like to a fault! even if you betray deon or abandon him he legit will not do the same to you, like if you were ever his friend you will be his friend until the day he dies.

generous. would give the shirt off his back to someone if they needed it

humble? like deon knows he’s good at what he does because people keep telling him that but he doesn’t do it because he’s good at it he does it because he thinks it’s fun and like rewarding, like seeing deebs beeping around just makes him happy.

doesn’t have a competitive bone in his body when it comes to academic success or professional success but when it comes to pacman or tWISTER and suddenly nothing else matters in the world

lowkey still desperately wants friends and to be accepted, and cares a lot more about what people think of him than he lets on, rip

you absolutely could manipulate deon whenever you wanted to, he would skdjdsjk probably never catch on man. it’s like ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, come on man… fool me THREE TIMES?? bro.’ dkjdskj

lowkey sad sometimes because it be like that, but he will hide it the minute there’s someone around him.

one of those muses that is like… are you pretending to be dumb or are you really that dumb? and like legit i don’t even know the answer man and i’ve never actually got to play him long enough to find out so i’m hype for that!

WANTED CONNECTIONS. *tries to crowd surf at a ted talk*

BROS. give deon some a group of close guy friends he will adore them with everything in him!

SOMEONE THAT’S ANNOYED BY HIM. whether you’re trying to go home after your shift and deon is talking your ear off about the toe he found in his subway sandwich, or you have to hear him playing cotton eyed joe over the mall’s speakers (cause deon would do that,,,, i am so sorry peter blooth mall cop) you have a right to be annoyed by him. you are valid.

CONFIDANTE. despite the amount deon likes to talk he’s actually a really good listener and will keep all your secrets forever! so confide in him man, he’s got you. or the other way around someone deon feels like he can confide in and talk to?? a concept.

EXES. give me someone who broke his heart! i’ve never gotten to play brokenhearted deon but it would be fun. or someone who’s heart he accidentally broke, honestly he wouldn’t know it until it was too late sdkjsdkj.

CRUSH. give me someone who has a crush on deon that he is completely oblivious to. give me someone who deon has a crush on that he doesn’t know what to do with! honestly for the most part deon is either very blunt and forward or awkward and dumb with a crush, but either way it will be entertaining for all involved.

DAD FRIEND/MOM FRIEND. deon is a whole mess honestly, and he just needs someone who will make sure he doesn’t die you know? because he’s used to taking care of himself generally but he really will get himself into dangerous situation because he’s just stupid. some random stranger offers deon crack at a music festival? deon will take it! it’s so nice that they offered him some! *deon vc* yoooo, thanks man!

ENEMY. i just find it funny that deon wouldn’t know they are enemies. he’d wave to them and say hi and they’d be like I HATE YOU and he’d laugh like it’s a joke dkjdsk it’d be very one sided but very entertaining.

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. deon has traveled all around america so give this to me friends! they were buds for maybe a bit before he moved or something like?? i want it.

FWB. just really chill buds who also have sex. deon will try to high five them after sdkjdsjk maybe someone involved is catching feelings or maybe they’re just going to always be friends who have seen each other naked, and you know what that’s okay too.

alright that’s all i’ve got for now and yk how it is, please smash that like button if you’d like to plot and i’ll come running.

#d.d. | intro.#vhsintro #god finally done #this is probably a mess and there might be mistakes but i'm tired of looking at it #suicide tw #death tw #depression tw #just in case

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deonisms · 4 years

Text

━━ ( booboo stewart + cis male + twenty one ) oi , have you seen deon damgaard around he lives in flat 14 in bedroom 2 ? i was meant to meet them this morning at bean me up before our lecture but he didn’t show . no ? well , shit . if you do see them , can you tell them i’m looking for them ? they’re a 3rd year robotics engineering student from gainesville, florida & you’ll know it’s them because they might just remind you of the faint smell of something burning, the restless clicking of a tongue piercing against teeth, boisterous laughter muffled by thin walls, dark circles combined with blindly bright grins, the warmth of overheating machinery . just be careful, he can be a little tactless, gullible & mercurial sometimes . —- oh don’t look like that , they’re usually eccentric, innovative & intuitive most of the time . ✏ pepper , twenty three, she/her, est

ABOUT THE MUN. hey demons, it’s ya gurl pepper

djkdsjk hello it is me again,,, simply out here being a slave to my own inspiration. honestly, i love ismael but i was torn between him, theo, and deon before apply for this rp and i am just feeling deon a bit more atm. i might still bring ismael in later as my third muse but for now it’s going to be all chaotic energy with one mr. deon! but omg okay a bit about me, i love the bachelor/bachelorette so hit me up if you want to mourn the death of pilot pete’s last braincell. i have a yorkie who literally runs my household as she should. i am honestly a hoe for a good aesthetic, like pinterest runs my ass. and i love sparkling water, which is controversial i know but perrier? god. fuck me up.

Deon was six at the time. Not old enough to know what the big deal was, but old enough to understand that something was wrong. Especially when he quickly found himself in an orphanage. His father never claimed him of course. Deon doesn’t even know if he mourned his mother. Or if he wanted to come to her funeral. All he knows is that he wasn’t there.

Of course most of them didn’t expect Deon to be eavesdropping when they said these things so Deon couldn’t really fault them. They didn’t mean to hurt him. And so she could never truly hate them. He couldn’t find it in his heart to. But it was painful, to get his hopes up each time only to have them dashed away. Whether that be by being tossed aside like nothing but a nuisance or tossed around like nothing but a rag doll. It always hurt to seek love and give love and yet never get any in return.

The bright side in Deon’s eyes was that at least he never made any friends. Because could you imagine how hard that would be? To pack your bags and have to say goodbye to your family and friends every time? It’d be too much to bear. So Deon counted his blessings. There weren’t many but he cherished the ones he had.

One of which was school. Deon didn’t have much at all, but at the very least he had school. Because everything had a price. Toys. Food. Even families (Deon wasn’t completely ignorant to the fact that his families got paid just to take care of him. For a lot of them that was the only reason they kept him around in the first place.) but school? School was free, and he adored it. Okay, maybe not all of it. English and foreign languages and god, history, all of that was painfully boring. But science? Science was the one thing that he had to look forward to throughout most of his childhood. And it continued to be that one thing into his young adulthood.

The majority of Deon’s said young adulthood was spent sporadically behind bars. Let’s just say Deon fell into the wrong crowd. It wasn’t on purpose, Deon has just and likely always will be the kind of person who is eager for friendship. All these kids had to do was be even slightly nice to him and ‘sure, man! i can totally hotwire that car for you!’. That’s not to say Deon was completely innocent himself. Most of his arrests for theft, graffiti, and street racing, were products of his own doing. But sometimes, Deon just happened to be the guy abandoned at the scene of the crime. He never gave up his friends, no matter what the cops threatened him with, but he unfortunately never had the privilege of having his loyalty returned.

Deon stayed out of juvie by the skin of his teeth. It was mostly due to the fact that he lived in a lot of different small towns for majority of his adolescence. Deon could usually endear the small town sheriffs to him with his incessant chatter, and well meaning demeanor. He honestly made friends with more than a few of the cops that had arrested him, and there are more than a few that Deon would still call up today and chat with.

Despite his dabbling in crime, Deon graduated from high school with an almost spotless GPA and partial scholarships to more than a few universities including Harvard, MIT, Yale. Deon was kind of startled by all of the offers, but he did have more than a few projects during his years of schooling that caught the universities attention (including making a car that ran on used vegetable oil, a charger that could charge your phone to completion in less than a minute, etc). But with all the offers, Deon picked Larnswick. Why? Well, mostly because he’d never been on a plane but also because he picked his university by playing eenie meenie miney mo dkdskj

Deon showed up to flat 14 with one pretty light suitcase, a rat in his hand, and a beaming grin despite being in a new strange country. He’s here on a full scholarship, but doesn’t really have any money of his own so he works a lot of jobs, or rather he gets fired from a lot of jobs. Every month or so you can see Deon in a new uniform for a new establishment, and every once in a while Deon will tell you the wild story of how he got fired from said establishment. Honestly he could really do well in a job as a handyman, but jsdkj he hasn’t thought of that yet.

HEADCANNONS. if i get shot do i own the bullet? like can i keep it?

fun fact, i originally made deon as an npc in a house party para i was doing with my friend sdkjsdjk he was genuinely made to be as annoying as possible but then my friend actually really liked him so now he’s a whole ass muse. that said if he is annoying... it’s because he was legit designed to be i’m sorry folks sdkjdskj fingers crossed he’s not though! but grating traits he has: never stops talking man, says man, dude, bruh, and bro, constantly. CONSTANTLY. you’ll be having a conversation with him and he’ll just blurt out something completely off topic??? HE’S SO LOUD TOO! And incredibly inappropriate god

that said deon was also inspired by jason mendoza and i literally teared up writing that because i’m pmsing so sdkjsdkj let’s move on!

has a septum piercing, a tongue piercing, a smiley piercing, a nipple piercing on his left nipple and several tattoos, most of which he’s done himself after buying a tattoo gun (honestly you shouldn’t let deon tattoo you because he just does whatever comes to him at the time but also LET DEON TATTOO YOU!). honestly probably has more than a few earrings too, and he’s very proud of all of his piercings honestly.

his favourite number is 0!

wears a lot of rings and jewelry as well, you will rarely find your boy without something on his fingers.

has a rat named titty boy that he calls titty for short. his name is titty boy because he only eats hot cheetos and likes to watch the real house wives. as sad as it sounds he was one of deon’s first genuine friends so he loves him like BIG. takes him everywhere like he usually has him in his bag at lectures. titty can be found scurrying around the flat having the time of his life at any given moment that deon is in there.

built a little helper bot and named him douche bag, or rather deebs for short. also loves him big. deebs is constantly getting updated by deon honestly, but your boy actually probably won a prize when he made him because he’s actually?? very like advanced for what he is (he runs on used oil from fast food chains, has a near nonexistent carbon footprint, facial recognition, etc). deon literally made him so that he could help him remember to take his pills (deon has clinical depression and adhd unfortunately, so he needs deebs around to give him that nudge), and he can do that and more now. deon kind of wants to see if he can break him into the service animal industry, cause he figures he could be good for people who need service animals but have allergies to fur.

gets around, mostly because he is attracted like everybody and feels no qualms about telling them that? and omg he’s another muse of mine that’s bi btw, no one is surprised. but honestly isn’t really a player just cause he’s too dumb to be one man. like if he was suppose to call you and he didn’t he literally just forgot sdkjsdkj

does not talk about himself at all! ever! like legit learning anything about deon’s past is like pulling teeth!

like i said deon has depression, but like most people probably don’t know that because again,, your boy is close lipped. that said he doesn’t try to hide it, like if you see him taking his pills you see him taking his pills. there are times though that deon will just not be found for a week or two when his depression gets bad and usually at those times his door will be locked and will not open for the entirety of that week like MAYBE at night when everyone is asleep so he can pee but that’s it! he usually emerges from these occasions chill and chipper as he usually is with sdkmds absolutely no mention of it. i don’t know if he has any friends he’s close enough to that he’d talk to about that though you know, like honestly from deon’s perspective *deon vc* i don’t wanna bring anybody down, man...

says man and bro and bruh and dude WAY TOO MUCH like they punctuate most of his sentences sdkdjs

surfer dude energy. skater dude energy. stoner dude energy.

smokes A LOT of weed. LOVES to party! that guy you see at every house party and have to wonder like??? how is he passing ANY of his classes sdkjsdj

honestly when i usually write deon he’s an MIT graduate so dskjds he definitely got an offer from there that he casually responded to like ‘oh shit, thanks man, but i’m cool!’ sdkjdsjk also probably has gotten more than a few offers to work at like google but refuses to work there until every image that shows up for the search ‘donald trump’ is just the angry orange. it’s his own negotiating point and he refuses to budge on it.

sometimes you can catch deon sitting in his car blasting sara barailles and crying in the university parking lot.

and finally, in ode to ismael,,, deon has a crush on claire from the bon appetit test kitchen. like he wants to marry her. his twitter is just nonsense stream of consciousness stuff and then occasionally ‘@clairesaffitz MARRY ME CLAIRE’. people have probably tried to point out to him that claire doesn’t have a twitter but deon always forgets djhddfjk

knows all the words to TLC’s waterfalls and will sing it to completion whenever it’s on.

PERSONALITY. do u are have stupid? hell yeah brother!

just freaking says things man. doesn’t think before he says anything ever. no brain to mouth filter at ALL.

that said he’s a lot smarter than he looks and acts skjdsj but he’s also so stupid, it’s a bit contradictory honestly because deon is a DUMBASS! but he be knowing things man i can’t explain it. like he has no brain to mouth filter but like if you tell deon a secret no one is ever going to know.

generous. would give the shirt off his back to someone if they needed it

doesn’t have a competitive bone in his body when it comes to academic success or professional success but when it comes to mario kart or ddr or tWISTERand suddenly nothing else matters in the world

lowkey still desperately wants friends and to be accepted, and cares a lot more about what people think of him than he lets on, rip

you absolutely could manipulate deon whenever you wanted to, he would skdjdsjk probably never catch on man. it’s like ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, come on man... fool me THREE TIMES?? bro.’ dkjdskj

lowkey sad sometimes because it be like that, but he will hide it the minute there’s someone around him.

one of those muses that is like... are you pretending to be dumb or are you really that dumb? and like legit i don’t even know the answer man and i’ve never actually got to play him long enough to find out so i’m hype for that!

WANTED CONNECTIONS. *tries to crowd surf at a ted talk*

BROS. give deon some a group of close guy friends he will adore them with everything in him!

A NEIGHBOR THAT’S ANNOYED BY HIM. whether you’re trying to get inside and deon is talking your ear off about the toe he found in his subway sandwich, or it’s just the damn loud music he’s always playing (if you hear cotton eyed joe at two am, it’s definitely deon) you have a right to be annoyed by him. you are valid.

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. deon has traveled all around america so give this to me friends! could even be friends from high school or something or middle school, whatever it is i’m game.

alright that’s all i’ve got for now friends, because i’ve been up since 7am and i am slowly losing steam sdkjs but we can always brainstorm! like this and i’ll slip and slide into your dms!

#theflats:intro #suicide tw #death tw #depression tw #aye here he is folks!#i am too tired to edit this so dfkskj it is what it is!

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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hi, im new to reading actual comics and i just read the court of owls. this was the first time id ever seen bruce actually hit dick—does that happen a lot? i was honestly shocked at it. and bruce never apologized. im trying to understand why bruce would do that—why do you think? i dont think the comic was glorifying it at all but it was still there and im a little dumbfounded as to why the writers thought that was appropriate to put in there. what are your thoughts?

Its shitty writing. That’s the ultimate answer. Every instance of Bruce’s kids ever has been an instance of shitty writing, because it never gets addressed or followed up on, and its not like there’s EVER a good reason to write a father hitting his kids unless you’re specifically centering the kids and trying to write a story of abuse and learning to recognize and accept that yes, this is actually happening to them now what do they do with that awareness and understanding....and let’s be frank, that’s not a story that DC has ever desired or intended to write with Bruce in the position of that father.

So flat out, no equivocation, every instance of Bruce hitting his kids ever, has been shitty, unacceptable writing, no matter the context or the follow-up, because the end takeaway at the heart of the matter is always, always, always, that whatever each writer’s actual intention when writing those scenes, they definitively did not ‘intend’ for it to be seen as abusive.

But that means jack shit in terms of whether what was actually shown on the page, was in fact abusive. Which has been the case, more than once, and with more than one of his kids.

So unfortunately, he has been physically violent with Dick on more than one occasion, in which there was no chance of it being spun as mind control or like, them fighting as equals because of some story position or whatever, where it was just definitively, a father hitting his son for his own emotional reasons or whatever. It happened after Jason’s death, it happened in the Court of Owls arc, it happened after Dick briefly died and was resuscitated in Forever Evil and Bruce was trying to get him to go undercover without anyone else knowing he’d survived yet. There have been a couple other times where the two of them have come to mutual blows in a fight that started as just a verbal argument, but I tend not to focus on those for a number of reasons but tbh, mostly just because its an uphill battle getting people to address even the times when its most clear that Bruce is without a doubt unjustified and dishing out abuse that is in no way reciprocated. There’s no real chance to even get around to the scenes that are complicated by additional layers.

And again to be clear, this kind of shit writing isn’t just limited to Dick. Bruce has been physically violent with Jason ever since he came back as the Red Hood in more than one altercation, with there being the flimsy justification in some of these stories that well, technically Jason is ‘the bad guy’ and Bruce is just doing what he has to in order to stop him....but with more than one instance of Bruce being overly violent with Jason in ways that he isn’t with even some of the worst criminals or villains in other stories, thus making it impossible to interpret as anything other than Bruce’s aggression being heightened by his emotional turmoil at Jason’s actions, the fact that he’s fighting his own son, Bruce’s own issues, etc, etc....

Which ultimately all just boils down to...Bruce is violent with Jason and to degrees that he isn’t with even his most notorious villains, and his own emotional state is the only explanation possible, which makes the over the top nature of Bruce’s violence in these scenes outright abuse, no matter the existence of the ‘well Jason technically was doing something that Bruce was trying to stop, it was more of a hero vs antihero thing rather than a father vs son thing’ attempt at spinning it otherwise. Notable and notorious instances of this are Bruce’s way of ‘finishing’ things in UTRH, RHATO #25, etc.

With Tim, the only real instance so far has been Batman #71, the King written bullshit I spoke of, and tbh I’m still so steamed at his attempt at justifying that, like, just read the latest issue to see the full story there because I refuse to even dignify that particular bit of abuse apologism with a paraphrasing.

And unfortunately, Bruce has definitely been written being emotionally abusive with all his kids at various points or another, with again the real culprit usually being dumbass fuckferrett writer assholes who wouldn’t know how to write a healthy parent/child interaction if your Higher Power of Choice directly appeared in their room, shining with benevolence and full-on “Do Not Test Me On This” wattage, and then handing them a script that word for word laid out how to write out a healthy parent/child interaction for the scene they were beginning....like, they’d STILL find a way to fuck it up, that’s how bad these particular writers are at recognizing This Is A Good Action and This is A Bad Action, Bad, B-A-D, DON’T DO IT.

And the thing is, that’s not Bruce Wayne at his core characterization. I don’t believe it is anymore than even the most die-hard Bruce fan, which I most decidedly am not. I’m here for his kids, he can stay when he’s doting and on his best Dadly behavior, but he’s always on thin ice with me at this point and on his own, I’m usually just like meh, wouldn’t adopting an orphan right about now be a better use of your time?

But for sure, Bruce absolutely has been written as a good parent in canon as well, and has everything he needs character wise to constantly have that portrayal of him upheld and prioritized instead of his worse traits but like. We have definitely gotten Bad Dad Bruce in canon, and more frequently than any of us would like....which is where we usually turn to fandom, for fix-its.

And there’s lots of Good Dad Bruce Wayne in fanfics. Its even its own tag. And I have no problem with most of those fics in spirit, or the concept in general, I’m just very opinionated and knee-jerk about abuse apologism across the board, so I mean...if it were up to me, I’d much rather normalize tags like “Bruce Wayne Can Be A Good Dad” and “Bruce Wayne Can Be A Bad Dad.” I don’t generally like broad-sweeping declarations made about characters that no one person can ever ensure consistent characterization for, so no matter how understandable the intent, I object to the idea of Good Dad Bruce Wayne protection squads or tags on the basis of like...how easily that can lead straight into abuse apologism, with people making the claim “Bruce would never do what he did in canon story (x)....because Bruce is a Good Dad and good dads don’t do that.” Well no, they don’t. In theory. Cuz problem is in reality, supposedly good dads do things like that all the time, because nobody IMO is truly good or bad, they just do good or bad things and even a person with a track record of doing mostly good things can occasionally surprise people, even themselves, by doing something horrific.

And like, when we’re talking about fictional characters I’m all for arguing that something was out of character because with fiction you CAN actually consider a writer’s intent and compare and contrast it with what’s on the page, like you CAN technically say well, the writer SAID in this interview here, that they did this because they were thinking x, y and z....and then you could feasibly point to the actual on the page depiction of that scene and say okay but look at x, y and z here...what we actually got clearly isn’t what they claim they were actually going for, so they fucked it up, it wasn’t even their own intention, so like....I argue that this was out of character and shouldn’t be given too much weight.

You can’t do that in reality. Impact is what matters. The effect. Not the cause. The intent. No matter how uncharacteristic an up until that point ‘good dad’ striking their kid is for them....they’re not a character. They’re a person. It CAN’T be out of character, its them that did it, their action that caused the effect of their kid being abused, with no take backs for that, no rewind that will ever undo whatever effect that has on the rest of their relationship from that day forward, or whether they even have one at all.

And people have trouble setting firm boundaries on what they will defend in fiction versus what they will defend or call out as indefensible in reality, it isn’t nearly as either or as a lot of people try and tell themselves it is, IMO....like, my stance tends to be that if you can’t even condemn a fictional character for doing a clearly abusive thing, how do you think you can definitively say you’re sure you’d be able to condemn a loved one for doing a clearly abusive thing? Y’know? Its not as easy to separate as people like to make it out to be, so I’m hugely against abuse apologism in fandom because I think a lot of times....the way we react to these things in terms of favorite fictional characters can potentially end up a training ground for how we react to these things in real life, if they end up happening at a later point.

So I’m very critical of Bruce in a lot of my posts, but its not because I don’t want him to be good for his kids or don’t think he can be written that way....and not even because I don’t get the thought process behind ‘well I don’t view his character as being capable of that when he’s written the ways that drew me to his character in the first place, and this kind of behavior isn’t what I’m here for, it isn’t escapism for me and it just depresses me so I choose not to interact with or acknowledge these specific parts of canon.’

My issues arise from the specific ways a lot of fans attempt to write around these instances of canon, in order to not have to factor it into Bruce’s character and their view and depiction of it...while often times failing to apply similarly transformative energy to the characters Bruce hurt in these instances of canon. And when that happens, its a problem, IMO....because you end up writing Good Dad Bruce Wayne....and his kids who are at times resentful or bitter or argumentative or wary...as they are shown at times to be in canon....largely BECAUSE of those moments in canon where he’s written at his worst and does fucked up things. But without acknowledging those parts of canon at all, AND without similarly rewriting the course of events in his KIDS’ lives as much as you do in Bruce’s himself.....the end result often ends up being that you have Good Dad Bruce Wayne and a bunch of stubborn brats that according to this narrative spin have no reason for being as resentful or bitter or argumentative or wary as they’re being here...since THEY’RE still being written according to their full, overall canon characterization, with no specific chunks chiseled out.

And then of course, my other major issue with abuse apologism in fandom arises from how often fans seem willing to tackle the possibility or instances of Bad Dad Bruce Wayne in order to write fix-it fics and headcanons and meta for the times he’s hurt Jason or Tim or Damian, etc.....but then selectively erase or ignore the instances he’s done similar shit to Dick...because so much of this fandom insists on this take that he’s specifically favored by Bruce and has received special treatment that justifies the others’ occasional resentment of him, and the resentment of their fans for him. So there’s this kinda thing where you end up with a lot of fandom ignoring or refusing to acknowledging some fairly pivotal canon events because Bruce Would Never Do That, He’s A Good Dad.....AND then on top of that you have a lot of the rest of fandom ignoring or refusing to acknowledge some equally pivotal canon events because Bruce Would Never Do That To Dick, He’s A Good Dad To Dick...Its Just Everyone Else He Fucks Up With.

And that kind of selective acknowledgment of abuse for reasons of personal character preference like...get under my skin, BIG TIME. *Shrugs*

#abuse cw

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dyde21 · 5 years

Note

please PLEASE if you have the time (no pressure im sorry im just excited) write a soul eater au or oneshot im crying ive waited my entire life for someone to mention it i love it so much anyways i love your fics/ ur writing is amazing xox ily again thank you

I hope this is what you want!

XxXxXxXxX

“Percy! Get up, we have to leave for school.”

Annabeth called out, cracking an egg into the bowl as she prepared some scrambled eggs.

Having been Percy’s partner for so long, she knew how slow he was to get moving in the morning.

Sure enough, a minute later her partner came wandering out of his room, yawning as he slunk into the bathroom and the shower turned on a moment later.

Humming to herself, Annabeth finished serving up the two plates of breakfast and set the table as she started to eat her own meal, glad her partner had decided to actually get up responsibly today.

A few minutes later Percy wandered to their small table in their apartment, grabbing a piece of toast and eating it as he let out one last yawn.

“I told you to dry off properly before eating, don’t drip everywhere.” Annabeth warned, narrowing her eyes at his freshly showered hair that was dripping his water down onto his shoulders and rolling off onto the floor.

“No time, we’re going to be late.” He echoed her, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Rolling her eyes, Annabeth just finished up her food and moved to the kitchen to wash her dishes. “Then let’s go.”

She saw him scoop about half the plate into his mouth at once as he started washing his plate too while she finished putting her textbooks in her bag.

“Annabeth?”

He asked, leaning around the corner as he put the plate in the drying rack.

“Hm?” She called, struggling with the zipper for a moment as she glanced back at him.

“Thanks for breakfast, it was delicious.” He said with a warm smile.

She felt her cheeks burn slightly as she looked away. “No problem.”

Soon they were off on their way to the academy, her arms wrapped around his waist as they rode on his motorcycle.

They parked it in their usual spot, and made their way up to the large steps to the DWMA.

When they got to the top, they heard a familiar argument.

“Come on, you’re my partner.”

“That’s why I need to make sure you learn.”

“Just let me borrow them today!”

“I said no.”

“If your meister fails, you’ll fail too.”

“You’re not going to fail.”

A familiar pair was standing there bickering. The blonde boy with his arms crossed as he watched his meister put on a puppy dog face.

“I take it you didn’t study?” Annabeth asked, a small grin on her face.

Piper just scoffed. “I did most of the work! I just got a little distracted.”

Percy laughed at her. “You never learn, huh?”

The meister turned her attention to him. “Like you’re one to talk.” She countered, raising an eyebrow. “Did you steal Annabeth’s notes while she slept again?”

Whipping her head around, Annabeth glared at her partner. “You did that?”

Shrinking back, Percy raised his hands. “Once!” Before he turned back to Piper. “No, unlike some others, I actually learn from my mistakes.”

“Or I won’t give you dinner till you finish studying.”

“That too.”

Jason laughed. “That’s sad dude.”

Percy stepped up. “You say something, sparky?”

Jason shrugged. “I just think a weapon should be a little more responsible.”

“Annabeth is the genius in this partnership. I trust her completely, it’s my job to provide the strength. Something you could work on.”

This time Jason flinched slightly. “Oh?” He countered, squaring his shoulders. “You sure you wanna pick a fight so far from the ocean?”

A troublemaker smile crept across Percy’s face, and Annabeth sighed knowing what was happening.

“If I’m just fighting you I don’t need the ocean. I would have to make Piper find a new partner.”

“Try it, Jackson.”

Percy stepped back as he held out his arm. It glowed, and a moment later it was replaced a bronze sword blade from the elbow down.

Jason’s own arm as his own arm was replaced by the end of the spear.

“Are they seriously at it again?” Hazel’s voice cut in as she walked up with Frank, who was happily eating a muffin.

“Unfortunately our idiots seem energetic this morning.” Piper complained as they watched the boy’s clash.

Annabeth had her head in her hands. “Can we just get to class without a fight breaking out once?” She turned towards where Percy had just skidded back. “Percy, we’re going to be late. Hurry up. Or else.”

“Go on without me! I need to finish teaching him a lesson.” He replied as he spun, planting his foot in Jason’s stomach and swiping at him only to be met with the spear.

Annabeth frowned, feeling her annoyance peak. She was not going to be late because her stupid partner had a rivalary with her best friend’s weapon.

“Need help?” Another voice asked as Annabeth turned to see a pixie haired girl walk up with her partner who Annabeth was pretty sure wasn’t actually fully conscious.

Scratching the back of her head, Annabeth sighed. “I’m not in the mood to deal with them. Can you break it up?”

The cheery girl grinned, saluting. “On it! Tyler, you’re up.”

“Mmm..” Was the boy’s response, his eyes still shut as he yawned and took his partner’s hand. The boy glowed for a moment before his whole form shifted into a large bow.

“Soul Resonance!” Everyone took a step back as the girl took a step back into a stance, pulling the glowing bow string back to the full draw distance. The air around her was chilled, as an icy mist crept from the arrow.

Annabeth saw the girl take a deep breath, before she fired.

Just as the boys landed, swinging towards each other, the arrow struck the ground between their feet before it exploded upwards into an icy pillar. Smoke erupted from the impact, and both of them flew backwards, sliding to a stop on the ground.

Annabeth walked over to where Percy was, sitting up and rolling his shoulders. He was clearly about to start complaining about the interference until he saw Annabeth glaring down at him.

“Stop picking fights with your friends.”

Percy looked up at her, opening his mouth to counter before he sighed and looked down and away. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to lose to him.”

Sighing, seeing his crestfallen expression Annabeth just reached down a hand.

He looked up at her hand, before shifting to her and giving her a soft smile.

“As long as I’m your meister, you won’t lose to anyone. I’ll make you the strongest weapon here.”

Percy took her hand, and stood up, still holding it for a moment. “Of course, I do have the best Meister after all.”

Glancing over, Annabeth saw Piper walking back with Jason, having given him back his glasses that had been knocked off.

The group was back together after a moment, Tyler resting his head on Ashe’s shoulder as he let out another yawn. “It’s too early for fighting.” He mumbled.

“Come on.” Ashe muttered, tussling his hair, waving bye to the group before heading inside.

Jason and Percy stared each other down for a moment, before Percy reached out a fist. Jason grinned and knocked knuckles with him.

“Dude, you’re getting stronger.”

“Bro, you’re much faster now.” Percy countered.

Rolling her eyes as how her idiots could go from at each other's throats to a bromance in a matter of minutes Annabeth just ushered the group towards their class, having lost most of the time they had saved by heading over quickly.

When they finally got in to class, they walked over to where Leo and Calypso were sitting. Calypso had a small box of apple slices and peanut butter that Leo was currently eating out of as they chatted happily. “Hey guys.” Leo said, turning around and waving.

They all took their seat after a moment, the more studious ones already pulling out their notes.

“Sup.” Annabeth turned her head around at the greeting, and Saw Reyna setting down a coffee as she put her bag down.

“Did you finish the essay?” Annabeth asked, noticing Percy slump down next to her and put his head down, already starting to doze off.\

Reyna nodded. “Yeah. Two days ago actually.”

Annabeth was impressed by her friend yet again. Reyna was the only autonomous weapon in their class. Even without a meister she was still able to fight on par with everyone else.

Across the classroom Annabeth saw Tyler and Ashe from earlier. Tyler was looking a lot like her partner, face down on the desk with his shoulders slowly rising and falling, while Ashe was running a hand through his hair gently, a soft smile on his face as she looked at him.

Grinning slightly, she turned back to the rest of her friends as she heard Hazel and Piper starting to discuss how their missions were going.

A few minutes later their teacher entered the room, downing a coffee and tossing her backpack on her desk, which slid across it before falling off onto the ground. “Sup. Annabeth, Frank, Piper, and Calypso. Bring your team to Chiron’s office, you have a mission. The rest of you, pop quiz time.”

She said, motioning towards the door as their group looked between each other surprised. A group mission? It had been a while since they went on one of those together.

They all glanced between each other a bit, all thinking the same thing.

“Hurry up, or you’re taking the test too.” Thalia added.

They all hurried up and soon found themselves standing at the headmasters office.

“Welcome students, you’re all doing well I assume?”

“Yes headmaster!” They all called out in chorus.

“It seems we’ve discovered creature well on it’s way to being a kishin. It’s evaded us for now, but we’ve narrowed it’s location down. We’re sending you out to deal with it now, before it grows in danger.”

Percy stepped up slightly. “All of us? I’m pretty sure Annabeth and I can take care of one monster.”

Annabeth stayed silent, but didn’t exactly disagree. She couldn’t be the best meister if she had to constantly rely on others to finish her own job.

“I appreciate your eagerness to prove yourself, young Perseus. But this monster should not be taken lightly. In fact, I'd rather not send students, but all of our death scythes are occupied at the moment.”

A quiet fell over the group. They hadn’t heard their headmaster so serious in a long time.

“Your mission is to locate, and destroy the monster. Above all, all of you are to return safely, am I understood?”

“Yes sir!” They all replied, before making their way out of the room and towards the desk to get their travel info.

A few hours later and they were all assembled at the airport, waiting outside one of the terminals. They all had their one bag, and were chatting together as they waited to finally be able to board. Well, most of them aside from Percy and Annabeth who were huddled off to the side.

“I’m not flying there.” Percy said, crossing his arms.

Reaching out gently, Annabeth rested her hand on his arm. “I know you don’t like flying, but we don’t have time to find another way. This creature is dangerous.”

Reaching up, he ran a hand through his hair. “I know! I know okay! But… flying isn’t cool. It’s too dangerous. I don’t want to die because I’m trapped in a tin can up in the sky.”

Glancing over, Annabeth saw the rest of the group looking over at them, both exasperated and concerned. They all knew about Percy’s… issues with flying. Which is why they usually took trains or boats when they could.

“Percy, we all have tickets, we’re going to fight a dangerous monster that is way more likely to kill us, and it’s a quick flight. We need you to come on.”

The voice came over the intercom, letting them know that they were allowed to board now.

Percy took a few steps away from the plane. “You guys go, I’ll grab a train ticket and meet you there.” He countered.

“Percy!” Annabeth snapped, making him flinch. She knew he knew how outrageous he was being, but she could genuinely see the fear in his eyes. He had a crippling fear of flying, and Annabeth really didn’t want to force him to suffer through it.

“Come on, I promise you’ll be safe. I’m with you.” She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it with hers gently.

He gave her a pained expression but nodded after a moment, and let her head him back.

The rest of the group was quiet as they boarded, even Jason wasn’t picking a fight with him. Percy just kept his eyes down at the floor, letting Annabeth lead him.

They all stowed their carry ons, and Percy had headphones in already. She could see how tense he was as he was clearly trying to pretend he didn’t exist for about two hours.

He had the music cranked up, and Annabeth could hear the songs from the earbuds.

Annabeth took a seat, and Piper leaned over the back of hers. “Is he going to be okay?” She asked, glancing over at her friend.

Sighing, Annabeth ran a hand through her hair. “Yeah, he will be. It’s just going to be a rough two hours.” Her voice dripping with concern. She really didn’t like seeing him like this, which is why she usually put up with slower travel when they could if it kept him out of the sky.

Piper gave him one last glance before she slid back into her seat.

Getting comfy in her seat, Annabeth saw his hands clenched tightly around the arm rests as the plane eventually started rumbling as it started to roll along the runway.

Reaching over, she nudged his hand, and he looked at her with wide panicked eyes. She managed to thread her fingers through his as she held his hand, and tried not to flinch with how tightly he was squeezing hers.

Eventually they reached cruising altitude and he seemed to relax, just a little.

“Hey, you okay?” She asked eventually, leaning over and gently pulling an earbud out.

He forced a smile to his face. “Just peachy.”

Not wanting to call him out, she nodded. “We’re at cruising altitude now. We’ll start landing before long, it’s almost over.”

He nodded, clearly trying to be nonchalant but she could see the relief in his eyes.

She stood up to go to the bathroom and was surprised to feel him suddenly grab her wrist, looking up at her with a worried expression.

“I’m just going to the bathroom, I’ll be back in a moment.”

He nodded, releasing her hand and looking away, embarrassed at his own actions.

When Annabeth finally managed to make it back to her seat, Piper was sitting in her seat chatting with Percy who seemed to be grateful for the distraction. They caught her coming back, and Piper flashed her a subtle thumbs up before moving back a row to her own seat.

Taking her seat next to Percy again, he seemed a little less tense finally, at least until they hit a patch of turbulence that made Percy jump.

“We are hitting a small patch of turbulence, everyone please return to your seats and buckle yourself in.”

“Oh my God.” Percy complained, grabbing her hand again.

Annabeth bit back a smile, amused that her partner was so flustered over a common event. Meanwhile he would be fearless and laughing when charging monsters that wanted nothing more than to rip him to pieces.

Eventually Percy’s nightmare ended and the plane landed. The second they managed to get out of the airport, Percy was laughing loudly, throwing his hands up.

“Let’s do this! Let’s kick this monster’s ass!” Hazel just hung back a few steps. “He certainly changed.”

Rolling her eyes, Annabeth shrugged. “I think he’s just happy to be on solid ground again. I’m glad though.” She confessed, a warm smile on her face at how happy he looked.

Noticing it had gone quiet, she glanced over to see Piper and Hazel both looking at her with a knowing smile.

“She’s so cute when it comes to Percy.” Piper offered.

“Indeed.” Hazel agreed.

Scoffing, she pushed ahead of them and ignored their giggles and her own burning cheeks as she caught up to Percy and started to go over the game plan with him.

"Okay, so we'll check into the hotel and then we'll go hunt him. He's mostly active at night so it'll be hard to track him down before then. We need to be ready, I haven't seen chiron act that serious in ages."

Percy's gleeful smile faltered as his expression became serious. "Yeah, we need to be careful."

They glanced at each other, both looking determined to keep the other safe. Before either of them could really say anything sappy, Leo launched forward and through his arms over both of their shoulders. "We'll be fine. It's nowhere near home so we can just let loose and not worry about damages." He teased with a snicker, until a hand gently hit the back of his head.

"Just because we wouldn't get in trouble doesn't mean that others wouldn't be inconvenienced." Calypso warned.

Leo just shrugged and withdrew his arms and walked forward. "He's out in the woods last I heard. Just some trees around. I promise not to start a forest fire." He said, giving a scouts salute.

The group continued to bicker and laugh as they made their way to the hotel and checked in.

After they swarmed a local cafe and ate their fill, the sun was finally setting and they all moved towards the outskirts of town. Now in their proper battle attire, the mood of the group was different from before.

Annabeth lead the group with Percy at her side, Jason and Piper were in the middle with Leo and Calypso while Frank and Hazel brought up the rear.

"Where's Ashe when you need her and her eagle eyes." Piper muttered, glancing around in the darkening forest.

"Let me try. Percy." Annabeth said and held his hand.

"Soul resonance." Closing her eyes, Annabeth let her senses expand outwards. She could detect the wavelengths of her friends, a few small forest critters, and as she strained herself to reach the edges of her range she detected something… horrible. Her eyes snapped opened. "Northwest, about a mile!"

Instantly the group took off into a run. It was game time.

As they closed the distance, they heard a loud roar and birds fluttered out of the nearby trees into the air.

As they broke into a clearing they saw what reminded her of a lumberjack. It was a large creature, resembling something that had once been a man but fur sprouted from him. There were tattered remains of flannel hanging around him and a massive woodcutter's axe was gripped in one hand, stained by what she could only assume was blood.

It turned to them, glowing red eyes as it let out another roar and tossed something towards them that it had had gripped in its hand. It crashed to the ground a few feet in front of them. With a gasp, Annabeth realized it had been a moose. It had looked like a fox in its hand, the creature was massive in the distance.

"Percy…" she started, reaching out her hand.

Percy took it again, before his whole form glowed. His weight shifted and a moment later she was left holding a large bronze sword. Swinging it a few times, his familiar weight was a comfort. Their wavelengths started to sync up as she felt her body grow light. They could do this.

"Get ready!" She called out.

Next to her Jason glowed before she formed into a large bronze spear. He appeared in Piper's hand, who spun him rapidly around her body a few times, the air crackling and making the air on the back of her neck stand up.

Leo grinned and struck a pose before he started glowing as well. The glow wrapped itself around

Calypso's arm as he formed into a mechanical, bicep length arm brace. Flames flickered up and down her arm as she flexed her fingers and arm.

Finally Hazel and Frank shared a smile as she glowed. A moment later she reformed into a beautiful Onyx bow as Frank opened his quiver.

Annabeth stepped forward, but the massive axe flew through the air, barely giving her time to duck before it impaled itself into the tree behind her, cleaving it in two. Barely able to keep her balance, she sprinted forward while it's weapon was away. What she failed to see in the dark was the chain hanging low that suddenly pulled taut as the axe came flying back from behind.

"Annabeth!" Calypso called out as she leapt forward. Her arm glowed bright as she brought down a massive punch into the axe, spiking it into the ground a few feet behind Annabeth.

"Thanks!" She called as she continued to rush forward while the beast tried to yank the axe free.

As Annabeth leaped up, it raised back both its fists in attack. Just then two arrows impaled themselves into the neck of the creature. It flinched enough for Annabeth to leave a slice down it's chest. Jumping back, Annabeth was horrified to see the wound was shallow. Just how tough was it?

It ripped the arrows out, snapping them in its massive palm, before it swept out with an arm and knocked Annabeth backwards.

"Annabeth!" Percy screamed but she scrambled to her feet. "I'm fine!"

It reaches forward as if it to grab her.

The air felt charged and a moment later a spear impaled itself into its chest. It roared again as electricity arked out of the spear and through the beast. Piper launched after it, grabbing it and spinning around it once before kicking off it and flipping backwards gracefully and landing next to Annabeth.

"This thing is tough."

"You're telling me." Annabeth grumbled. A few more arrows shot through the air but they harmlessly stuck into the back of it's massive arm.

"Buy me a minute." Piper called as she sprinted to a nearby tree, hopping up and starting to climb the branches.

Annabeth dashed forward. "Caly! Right!"

Annabeth rolled left as she slid under another swing and sliced upwards with Percy, leaving another all-too-shallow cut on its arm. Stepping forward and swinging with both hands, she managed to leave a gash on the side of it's leg and make it stumble.

Just then Calypso appeared from the right, another fiery punch connected to the side of it's head and sending it crashing to the ground.

"River! 100 yards to the west!"

Annabeth glanced back to Frank and Calypso, then back to Piper at the top of the tree. The beast was dangerous. They needed Annabeth's full strength to bring this thing down, which meant getting Percy to water.

"We can ma-" Annabeth's side exploded in pain as she rocketed across the field, the beast having swiped at her from the ground. She bounced once, gasping pain before sliding into a tree. Her vision was blurry and she struggled to get back air into her lungs. She was vaguely aware of Calypso and Frank launching an assault to distract it. It yanked on the chain again, tripping Calypso as the axe flew back to it. Annabeth struggled to her feet as she saw the beast launch the axe at her. She manages to dive out of the way, but it once again knocked the wind out of her. Percy was yelling at her to keep moving again, but her body was still hurting. She saw the chain resting over her get pulled taut. She realized what was about to happen but her knee gave out momentarily. She tried to raise Percy but knew she didn't have the strength to block the axe.

It flew towards her, and she braced herself. What she didn't expect was for a glow to appear and Percy to be next to her and tackling her down to knock her out of the way.

"Percy!" The scream tore from her throat. His body slumped over hers. She forced herself to sit up, and held Percy. His back was torn and blood was starting to leak out from it.

"He's hurt!" She called out.

The beast raised the axe again as if to throw it, but Calypso appeared, her whole form blazing.

Her fist connected with the ace, sending it flying to the side out of it's grip. Just then they heard Frank and Hazel yell out in soul resonance, as a massive onyx arrow shot across the field. It pierced the chain, snapping it in half as it fell limp.

"Percy, can you change?"

Percy forced a smile to his face and nodded, changing into his sword form as Annabeth took off running. "Let's go!"

Her group followed behind her as she made her way towards the river as fast as she could. Water always strengthened Percy. His wavelength was unique to it, one of the things that had interested her about him first.

The beast roared and was following after them as trees crashed in the distance.

Mercifully, before long they heard the river and saw it through the trees. A tree sailed through the woods, but was slowed down and stopped by others.

Sliding into the river, Annabeth stabbed the sword into the river. She immediately felt his wavelength strengthen and spike.

"Get him in here!" She called out after a moment, as she focused on keeping her wavelength in sync with Percy's.

The beast came crashing out of the woods, swiping at Piper who narrowly flipped out of the way. Another massive onyx arrow collided into the beast's back, piercing into it as it stumbled towards the water.

"Let's do this Leo!" Calypso called out as Annabeth felt the temperature of the area spike upwards. "Soul Resonance!" Her arm glowed as it spread across her back and down her other arm. Slamming her fists together, flames erupted around her. She jumped up, and in a superman punch she punched the end of the arrow with a titanic blow, as the arrow lurched forward and pierced through the chest of beast as it stumbled forward and crashed into the water.

"Percy! Now!" His response was pained, but powerful.

"Soul Resonance!"

Their wavelength spread out into the water as it vegan to swirl around the beast, faster and rougher as it began to tear at him and lock him in place. She breathed heavily as she focused on keeping control of so much water and fighting the struggling beast.

The final chorus was as Piper yelled out as well.

"Soul Resonance!"

Jason's form grew as she stabbed downwards with him, into the top of the beast.

Annabeth hopped out of the water as a bolt of electricity struck from the sky to the spear, hitting it and arcing through the beast and water.

With out last pained gurgle, it roared before its form darkened and it exploded into a glowing red soul.

They all gathered on the shore, exhausted and out of breath.

Percy leaned against the Annabeth, tired. She checked his back, but the wound had already closed thankfully.

Piper walked over and handed Percy the soul. He looked at her, then at the others. "But…"

Piper grinned. "You earned it this time. Besides, with this…"

Percy saw the rest nod before he finally ate it.

"We're at ninety nine now."

Annabetb grinned at his partner. After all these years, they were finally almost there. She had almost made him into a death scythe.

They all just laughed and started heading back. Percy leaned on her a bit more, but she wasn't complaining. "You alright?"

"Yeah, just starving."

She grinned and hugged his side. "Let's get you some Pizza."

XxXxXxXxX

I know I said I was on hiatus but I really wanted to get this posted! I had a lot of fun writing this one shot. I really need to rewatch Soul Eater soon!

#Pjo #percabeth #Percy Jackson #Annabeth Chase #Soul Eater #piper mcclean #jason grace #hazel lavesque #frank zhang #leo valdez #Calypso

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justalittlebluetiefling · 6 years

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5x04 - Pandora’s Box

So, I did a thing again and I was tempted to not publish it, but why would I write almost 4000 words and then just let it sit on my OneDrive forever? (Oh wait, you mean like all those WIPs sitting there???)

Here’s what I cover this time. Trigger warnings are addressed in the tags.

Random Things I Think Are Important Eligius III The Dark Year

Wonkru Kane and Abby Bunker Excavation Octavia

Eligius Miles Ezekiel Shaw Pirate Mechanic

Spacekru and Clarke Raven and Murphy The Big Reveal Bellamy and Clarke

Other Drawn Lines Death Watch

Random Things I Think Are Important

Eligius III

The blockage of the information on Eligius III is going to come back. It feels a little too obvious to have Shannon Kook’s new surprise character be someone returning from the Eligius III mission, but it has the potential to be super cool. It is obviously important enough to bring up, so it will show up again.

Could they really bring in space travel for season 6? Jason did say that the ending of this season opens up the possibility for more seasons. They talk about long-haul interstellar missions a lot. They’ve already talked about Hythylodium as a long-range fuel twice this season. I’m hoping that my man Zeke can help my gal Raven unlock those files on Eligius III and we can get a little more information so that the true speculation can begin.

The Dark Year

Alright, I know that no one really wants the cannibalism theory to be true. I sure as heck don’t. It makes me queasy just thinking about it. However, Abby brought up The Blight in episode two. “They won’t have to fight the temptation to eat their friends. You’re third generation farm station. You must have heard the rumors about the blight. It’s why we started floating our dead.” It’s why they started floating their dead. They’re not going to bring something like that up if it’s not going to relate to the current story. Most of the information they offer up early in the season is useful and foreshadows something. Maybe they’re not partaking anymore. I sure as hell hope they never did, because gross. This is still something that needs to be watched out for.

Wonkru

In some weird perversion of grounder culture and the justice system on the ark, it almost sounds like they’ve created a new religion. Octavia seems to be less a queen and more a religious figurehead. It would not be unprecedented. The mythos of the Commander also felt religious. Wonkru seems to have developed into an Imperial Cult.

An imperial cult is a form of state religion where the leader is worshiped as a demigod or deity. “The cult may be one of personality, or one of national identity or supranational identity in the case of a multi-ethnic state. A divine king is a monarch who is held in a special religious significance by his subjects and serves as both head of state and a deity or head religious figure.”

Quite a few ancient civilizations were run this way. Ancient Egypt, China, Rome, Japan, etc. Pharaohs were believed to be incarnations of Horus and generally acted as a go-between for the gods and the people. Quite a few Roman emperors were declared gods by the Roman Senate, but typically after their death.

In the beginning of the episode, Gaia says, “As always, as we invite death into this hall, we honor it.” They bow their heads and say as one, “All of me for all of us.” It feels like a religious ceremony, but they’re not worshiping any god. They’re worshiping Blodreina and her justice. It’s the point where Blodreina doesn’t have to be Octavia. It could be anyone. Is this where the initiates will come in?

Still, I don’t know if they’re scared of her or what, but when Charmaine tells them to round up their things, no one moves until Octavia nods.

It should be said, though, that I’m sure not everyone agrees with this system. Kane clearly doesn’t. Abby doesn’t. Jackson and Miller both seem hesitant. Indra doesn’t seem comfortable, but she and Miller are protecting Octavia, although probably for different reasons. There is definitely the potential for an uprising.

Kane and Abby

Everyone was right in guessing that Kane was in the ring, because he “stole” medicine for Abby. However, instead of it being about saving her life, it was covering for her addiction. I’m trying to withhold judgement until it’s delved into a little more thoroughly, because it’s not really my cup of tea. A story about overcoming addiction can be a powerful thing, but I don’t understand why Abby needed the pills in the first place. The most likely option were that she was taking pain pills for headaches and got hooked, but yeah. We’ll see.

The addiction could be one of the reasons she was so willing to leave Clarke with Octavia and Wonkru. I don’t think that Abby would have left her behind in the past. I know she sees that Clarke has been self-sustaining, but Clarke and co. were arguably self-sustaining after they were sent to the ground and Abby had an incredibly hard time letting go then. It seems more likely to me that there were two benefits to her going with Eligius: an easy way to save Marcus from Wonkru and the ability to avoid Clarke finding out about the pills.

I have a few family members who suffered with addiction, so I am only speaking from my experiences. I could be completely wrong and we could have different experiences. There’s a point in your life as a parent where you accept that your child has grown up. Abby has mourned for Clarke’s death like Spacekru did, as well. I’m sure there are a lot of things that informed her decision.

It’s fantastic seeing this character development in Kane. In the pilot, he was just… well, he was a dick. He did always have humanity’s best interests at heart, though. He’s evolved from believing that the ends justify the means to considering the impact that his actions have on other people. Unfortunately, this also opens him up to being a martyr. We already saw that he was willing to go that far this episode.

Bunker Excavation

This has been talked to death, so I’ll try to stay brief here. It’s been a very long time since I last took a mythology class. I had to look up Pandora’s Box again. When Pandora opens up the box (or jar, in older stories), she lets out: greed, envy, hatred, paid, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. And hope is left inside.

I’ve seen some different interpretations on this, but what if there’s someone or something left in the bunker that is going to help everyone. Not help them win this war with Eligius, but possibly to help expand the survivable area? I mean, terraforming hasn’t been mentioned at all in this show that I recall, so maybe that’s reaching, but the crux of the story is that hope was trapped inside the box. They sure aren’t trying hard to convince us that hope isn’t a theme on this show. I know that survival is the primary theme, but still. It’s a major part of the story of Pandora and in Ovid.

Anyway, let’s just put terraforming on the list of things that I can’t believe I’m considering as a possibility for this show and move on.

Octavia

Okay, why am I doing this? Skip past this part if you don’t like Octavia. This isn’t defending her, but it also isn’t persecuting her.

Baby Blake was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The system that she helped build is barbaric, but if she hadn’t formed this system, everyone in the bunker would probably be dead by now. All of Skaikru would be dead. There might be a few warring factions left at this point, but they would be starving, because they didn’t know how to operate the systems. The bunker could have opened up to something MUCH worse.

So, bear with me here, but our judgmental babes Clarke and Bellamy don’t have a lot of room to judge. Do I ultimately agree with them? Yes. But I don’t know what either of them could have done better. As Octavia says, six years is a long time. There had to be some kind of justice system implemented. Population apparently needed to be reduced (have I mentioned how much I hate that plot device and find it unnecessary?). Did it need to be a gladiator ring? No. But Octavia did win the right to the bunker in battle. If she had allowed all of Skaikru to stay in and had the other clans split the rest of the space equally, there may have been more of a chance for a more peaceful solution. If Clarke had made it in, everyone could have become Nightbloods, but would there have been enough food in the valley initially to support people? We don’t know if the farm could have helped supplement their diet for long. They would have had to ration. Rationing typically leads to rioting. I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Regardless, Octavia will say something about doing what was necessary to survive at some point this season. Clarke and Bellamy will be horrified. This episode started off being about reunions, but by the end, the lines started to be drawn for the upcoming conflict.

Eligius

Oooh the dynamics here are becoming more and more interesting every episode. I thought Charmaine seemed a lot like Dante at first, but this episode corrected me. They’re more like the Grounders than the Delinquents from season one: pretending to make deals while intending to kill the people we care about.

Also, McCreary has been planning to overthrow Diyoza for a while. I can’t wait to see Murphy’s reaction to this guy (1x12 anyone?). If it’s not the fake episode title, I think that conflict will be the one that comes to a head in ‘Sic Semper Tyarnnis.’ I thought that might apply to Octavia, and it’s possible it still does, but knowing the underlying motives here changed my mind. If anything, this will be the point that Diyoza will officially ally with Clarke, Bellamy, and co. in order to save her own life. Or die before she has the chance.

We know Charmaine was a decorated war hero and that she became a terrorist. They’re going to explain why. I don’t even know how to speculate on this, though. My big fear is that if 5x9 is a story about McCreary overthrowing her, that it’ll be closer to 2x8 and the backstory we got for Finn right before his death. Jroth does like killing people, but she’s too interesting for me to want her to die, even though she’s currently an antagonist.

Okay, but how about some more imminent issues dealing with Eligius. ALIEN STOMACH SNAKES. This has to be what they want the doctor for, right? We don’t have enough information to speculate, but is it an alien parasite? Do they have to kill it with fire? Is it contagious? Is it a result of cryosleep? Is McCreary sick with them? Is someone that he loves infested with them? Did they pick it up while they were mining? Is it the thing that made Zeke feel guilty enough to help the prisoners overthrow the ship? Oooh, were they being experimented on? Could they form a symbiotic relationship with their host? Are they like yeerks in Animorphs? I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING.

Miles Ezekiel Shaw

Oh man, this guy. This guy. I don’t even know where to start. So far, over the course of this season, we’ve learned that he was a guard on the ship and helped the prisoners with their mutiny, because he didn’t agree with what was being done to them. He is the one who suggested that they orbit the planet for a bit. He’s their pilot. He can code. He pushes for a peaceful solution instead of war. He was an altar boy, an adrenaline junkie, but he’s logical. He’s sarcastic and witty and fucking ballsy. Alright, this is getting away from me.

We are already seeing proof that Zeke is going to turn on Eligius and come over to the “good” side.

First, they make a point of showing that he’s listening to the exchange between Diyoza and McCreary when they talk about grabbing the doctor and killing the hostage taker and his girlfriend. Zeke is not on board with this plan. Their behavior since they’ve landed is making him question his choices.

I’ll admit that my second point is a little shaky, but we all seem to be in agreement on him pretending that he couldn’t launch the missiles. Lot’s of things back it up. Raven was focused on keeping them out of the systems in space and there was no explicit mention of her hacking into their ship on the ground. Thanks to Occam’s Razor (or wishful thinking), Zeke flubbing the codes and pretending it was Raven after he’d hyped up her awesomeness all episode seems pretty likely.

Finally, we’ve got the ‘our people’ vs ‘your people’ moment. It starts around the 33-minute mark. Diyoza starts laying it on a little thick and mentions “our people” twice. She uses it to guilt him into opening the docking bay doors to kill Raven and Murphy. But he doesn’t want to do this. He knows very little about them. He knows Raven’s hacking skills, he knows his opinion on Clarke, I think he respects Bellamy for working toward a peaceful solution, and he overheard their reunion via Lasercom. Would you want to kill these people?

“Wait.” “What is it, Shaw? Talk to me.” “They’re waking up.” “They opened the pods.” “Colonel, if we don’t close the doors right now, your people are gonna die, too.” “You mean our people, don’t you, Lieutenant?” “What are your orders?” “Close the doors.”

Zeke is relieved here, because he doesn’t have innocent blood on his hands. Charmaine is also impressed by these tactics. It’s a ballsy move, but it doesn’t matter.

“Either way, we’re back in control. Your friend may be smart, but she’s a coward.” “Live coward.”

Here’s where I wonder if Zeke can empathize with making a choice to save yourself. I do believe that he thinks he had the moral high ground siding with the prisoners, but there’s a good chance that it was a survivor’s move, too. Also, the implication that he’s their only pilot was a little surprising to me. Piloting a ship across the solar system seems like it might be a little exhausting. They’re trying to make me believe that he’s indispensable and lull me into a false sense of security. They’re going to ruin my life by taking him away. I HAVE BEEN BURNED BEFORE.

Anyway, Jordan is giving us QUITE a performance as Lieutenant Shaw and I’m loving it. His delivery of “It’s done” after he opens the docking bay doors is heartbreaking and I just want to hug him. It seems fairly obvious at this point that he’s going to help Raven and Murphy escape, because the poor guy is reaching the end of his rope.

Pirate Mechanic

This seems as appropriate a place as any to talk about Zeke and Raven. This is a specific variation of Meet-Cute, but I can’t remember the specific kind. I wanted to say Love At First Punch with a heavy dose of Defeat Means Friendship, but there are a ton of possibilities.

Regardless, he seems incredibly annoyed and impressed by this girl at the same time. “I told you, this girl is some kind of genius. Everything I thought of, she thought of first. She even had time to flip me the bird.” When you’re the smartest one around, it’s really frustrating to encounter someone quicker. But he’s intrigued already.

And finally, we have Charmaine calling out a relationship that isn’t established yet as at least something when she refers to Raven as his friend. I’m sure she’s not going to be surprised when Zeke turns on them to save these people. It’s the most unfortunate thing about him, after all. He seems like an all-around decent dude, but he makes no effort to keep his emotions hidden. It will probably get him into trouble.

My guy has no idea what he’s walking into next episode. I mean, he already respects her for her mind. He heard her emotional reunion with Clarke and I’m sure that hit a few buttons. But when he sees her? Shoot. I have palpitations whenever she’s on screen. I can’t imagine what he’s going to go through.

Really, I think this ship has a ton of potential and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop it!

Spacekru and Clarke

I need to come up with a better name for this entire group. The Griffin-Blakes & Co.? I could just keep calling them The Delinquents. It seems apt for now, but it’ll depend on where lines end up being drawn.

Raven and Murphy

I want to talk about Raven before I get into anything else. Lindsay Morgan always blows my mind, but she ascended to a new level this episode. So did Murphy, for that matter.

Raven doubts herself a lot for being such a badass. And this episode showed a new layer of her self-doubt. She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to pull the plug on the prisoners like Clarke or Bellamy would be able to. She knows that they’re murderers, but she’s hesitating over taking their lives. I’m sure it won’t be addressed, but my theory here is that leaving Clarke behind on earth really fucked her up. Raven was the one who said that they had to go, she knew that Clarke would want them to go, but ultimately, she thought she left her friend to die. She might have a hard time staying pragmatic this season for that reason.

Now, Murphy.

“Everybody was so surprised when I stayed behind, I mean, most of all me. Thought maybe I was doing it to impress Emori, but the more I think about it… I mean, why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice? Anyway, if it comes down to it, I got this.”

The fact that it’s Murphy up here to support Raven is cool. I’ve mentioned before that I haven’t entirely forgiven him for shooting Raven, even though he did it accidentally. But he’s grown and changed. Shit, this episode really solidified his redemption arc. He knows that Raven is afraid she won’t be able to pull the plug. He is going to pull it for her. “I mean, why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice?” He acknowledges her losses. She lost full use of her leg, she lost Finn, she’s been tortured, chipped, he watched her deal with the aftermath of using the EMP to get the chip out of her head. Murphy feels genuine guilt and admiration for her, now. Raven has forgiven him, so I should probably make my way that direction, too.

I know that next episode is not going to be pretty for them. Raven and Murphy are friends now. They want to protect each other. Eligius is going to use that against them and it is going to suck for us

The Big Reveal

There’s no way around it. I lost it when Raven said Clarke’s name last night. I was full on sobbing in my seat. I’m getting tears in my eyes thinking about it right now. I can’t watch this scene without breaking down. And Murphy’s reaction was even more than I could have hoped for. I forget sometimes how grateful he probably is to her. I mean, she saved everyone, but she very saved Emori two other times (the nightblood experiment and the helmet tear).

I legitimately can’t wait to see them meet up in person. And to see Monty and Harper and Emori and Echo react to her being alive. (I’m not touching on the way this impacts B.echo right now, because that’s a hot minefield and I love and respect people who ship it, casually or not.)

Bellamy and Clarke

We finally got their official reunion and hoo boy, it was worth it. I loved all 78 seconds of it.

There’s so much good about this scene. Bellamy hesitates in the doorway and he RUNS to Clarke. When he gets to her, his hand runs from her ankle to her knee, because he seriously couldn’t not touch her for one more second. It’s a caress to reassure himself that she’s really there. Like, look at this fucking screenshot.

It’s romantic as fuck is what it is.

Then the romance keeps coming. She’s so relieved that he’s there and they stare at each other’s faces before she jumps on him for a hug. There’s that slooooow pull back where there faces are sooooo close to each other before they finally talk for a second. The real killer is, “And now you’re home.” Bellamy is about to cry as he’s nodding, because shit you guys. He thought she was dead. I wanted to talk more about their potential turbulence, but this is a mindblowing moment and I got distracted. He gets to hold Clarke again for the first time in six years. She was his best friend. They relied on each other and trusted each other. They went through hell together and she was willing to die to make sure that he (and their friends) could live.

When they go in for the second hug, we get Clarke’s patented lip press to his shoulder, and for the first time in our lives, we see him reciprocate. BUT IT’S BETTER. Because his lips are pressing to her bare skin, his fingers are digging into her back. He’s taking her in, and lovelies? You don’t smell your friends. (Like this sounds weird, but I promise it’s sexy, you guys.) The piece of him that felt lost while he was up in space is back. NOT TO MENTION THAT HALLWAY SHOT!

I mean, wtf was that? It shows how he basically pulled her into his lap. Even when they separate again, their hands are still on each other. They don’t separate much. His hand is on her hip and hers is on his waist. We wanted Bellarke constantly touching each other to reassure themselves that the other was actually there and well, we’ve got it. We wanted more proof that everyone except them “sees” it? We got Charmaine Diyoza EXPLICITY CALLING HER HIS GIRLFRIEND. We’re getting canon romance this season, babes. It’s coming.

They fall into sync again immediately. They’re communicating wordlessly across crowds again. Bellamy is already factoring her back into his life, even though it’s going to make his own life confusing as hell. He is going to make her protection a priority. I’m sure they’re going to argue about the best way to approach things, but that’s a minor obstacle. They have always argued, but they can empathize with each other. It’s part of what makes them a great team.

Other

Drawn Lines

Octavia is more focused on protecting Wonkru, Abby is more focused on protecting Kane. Wonkru is not going to be welcoming of Bellamy and Spacekru. They’re not going to welcome Clarke. Eligius is obviously welcoming none of them, barring their theft of a doctor.

So, we have Wonkru and we have Eligius.

I think the following will end up working with Spacekru:

Clarke Madi Miller Jackson Indra (I’m iffy on her, but she doesn’t seem entirely on board with the system O and Gaia built) Kane and probably Abby Zeke

It’s a small group, but I’m sure we’ll see alliance form and fail a few times before the season is over.

Death Watch

Not in order, but these are currently the people that I’m most convinced are going to die this season:

Octavia Kane Abby Charmaine Indra Monty OR Harper Murphy OR Emori McCreary

The End. Thank you for reading my rambling once again. Hit me up in my inbox or DMs if you want to chat about any of this as long as it stays respectful!

#the 100 #minor meta #wild speculation #like seriously though i wrote this on two hours of sleep #and i didn't really edit it well #tw: cannibalism #tw: addiction #tw: alien stomach snakes #bellarke #murphy & raven #pirate mechanic #the blake siblings #the delinquents #zeke shaw #not tagging the rest because what the heck was i thinking writing some of this in the first place?#i'm really tired you guys #the 100 spoilers

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lysical · 6 years

Note

I was introduced to a lot of the Batfamily via the Morrison run. How screwed up is my perception of them? Comics are an effing minefield of characterization—I know, I’m a Hank Pym fan because I ran into him first in one of his highly rare likeable periods. Any tips/recs? It feels like everywhere I go the characters aren’t the “real” ones, and idk where to find these “real” ones. (This goes for Tim too, although you seem understandably down on him lately & might not want to talk Drake anymore

It does vary by character, actually. There are some fundamental things he does that are a bit out of there, and other things that are just plain offensive, but he’s not the absolute worst to come in on, as damned by faint praise as that is.

Long post ahead

Bruce: Morrison and I fundamentally see the character very differently. He sort of subscribes to some ideas about Bruce as Batman that I just don’t like re: emotions, life, family. He uses a lot of allegories and devices in his work and the depth is there, I just don’t agree with what he was doing and had to say about Batman on a fundamental level. Post-Crisis Bruce is a bit all over the place. A lot of different writers got their hands on him and the dark and gritty post-Jason transformation of the character was intense and permanent. Because of this, coming into Morrison doesn’t really hurt you that much--especially since for a lot of it he’s functionally dead. Maybe check out some runs like Hush (more emphasis on the family), Dark Victory (some young Dick Grayson), Batman: Year One (say what you want about Miller, but it’s a decent book and the atmosphere and art are great for an introduction to the modern character), and then hop over to some of Bruce’s team books. Sometimes characters get distilled well over in their team books compared to their solos (especially since the Bat Department is...weird at times). Maybe check out Superman/Batman, the old team up from the early 2000s. For Bruce it’s just best to cast a wide net and read a variety. JLA: Tower of Babel is a good one to see Batman and the wider superhero community in conflict, which brings in a lot of Batman’s negative aspects in a way that was decently balanced and didn’t villainize him via narrative even as the characters might have felt that way about him (Young Justice certainly did XD), but I havent’ read it in a long time so ymmv.

Dick: One of the few characters that didn’t get that bad a hand by Morrison, or too much of a characterization shift (his character shift had happened during the Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson period, although the latter more than the former). Unlike new 52 onwards, while he was softened a little to pair effectively with Damian, it wasn’t too much as we saw at times later and how fandom kind of tends to portray them (’Shut the hell up, Damian’ comes to mind). The Dickbats run was a nice change and development for Dick, a natural progression. The things that were sort of tweaked to create conflict with that transition (Dick not wanting Batman, some characterization behind that) were pre-Morrision, during Battle for the Cowl and the setup to Morrison, so while they follow on from that they’re mostly absent from the run. For the modern Robin Dick stories, go for Teen Titans: Year One, Dark Victory, Batman: Year Three, a couple of the other year ones are decent, although some incorporate those characterization shifts, but that’s comics. I’d go back to New Teen Titans (starts in Pre-Crisis, goes into Post, but the book doesn’t have a huge change due to the crisis and it’s just a really good run, deserving of being the benemoth during that time period that it was) to get the best of Dick on a team, then maybe check out Prodigal (follows on from Knightfall, Dick’s first run as Batman), skip Nightwing: Year One (it’s got tiny amounts of Dick and Jason bonding but Dixon ripped everything else about Dick’s early Nightwing period to shreds). From there, depends if you want his solo or his team stuff, he’s a pretty easy character to follow. I like to start chronologically with him because then you see the shifts happen as he falls back under control of the bat-books, and his solo and team stuff have some interesting contrasts (I lean towards his team stuff generally because Dick has always been about that for me, rather than running solo).

Babs: Birds of Prey is her essential stuff, I don’t think Morrison really did that much with her but my memories of it all are a bit vague now. I’d personally take anything when she’s romantically involved with Dick with a grain of salt, that relationship was a bit of a disaster and they both do terrible things to each other (I believe the one responsible for it all is Devin again but it’s been a while since i visited that train wreck) and there’s some victim-blaming that happens that’s not so good. I prefer Oracle having a bit of distance from the Batfam, as she’s just surpassed being someone who is under Batman’s authority and is just crucial to the entire operation of the superhero community in general, so Bird s of Prey.

Jason: Hnng. Here’s where Morrison really just decided to throw away established DC continuity and try his hand at a bunch of crap that fell completely flat. Just toss it and purge, tbh. Winick got Jason back late in the run but it was too late for that. Maybe there are tiny aspects of characterization that aren’t bad (Pride and Prejudice) but Morrison misunderstood Jason on a much more fundamental level. Also the red hair was probably some attempt to make a witty visual pun and add ‘depth’ but there are so many problems with it. Continuity-wise it makes so sense with how pre-crisis and post- worked, particularly for Jason, and additionally Morrison is realllllly wishy-washy with his ‘EVERYTHING IS CANON’ stuff that it rings false, plus in Pre-Crisis he was like...blonde I don’t understand. The implications of Jason being forced to dye his hair are absolutely disgusting for Bruce and go back into that fundamental problem I have with how Morrison sees Bruce. Jason, Post-resurrection suffers a lot of DC writers not knowing what to do and unloading a lot of DC’s baggage and some unconscious, problematic tropes onto him. Read his Post-Crisis origin (Batman 408 on, there’s the origin and some issues after set up by his original Post-Crisis writer Max Collins) and maybe all his Post-Crisis, pre-Death stuff since there’s honestly not a lot and it’s fairly obvious when Starlin starts pushing for his death. For post-resurrection, Under the Red Hood, Lost Days (it goes off the rails at the end, so I only half rec it honestly), Outsiders 44 and 45, Countdown (but only if you’re skipping the plot and just reading the Jason (&Donna &Kyle) bits, it’s one of the most even-handed treatments he actually gets in Post-Crisis but the book is otherwise terrible). Then just go straight to RHatO Rebirth.

Tim: Ignore new 52 and Rebirth entirely. Red Robin is a book a lot of Tim fans really like but I personally think it’s bad in general and also don’t like what the writer does with Tim, but ymmv. Tim’s origin is also pretty weak and his initial mini and series aren’t that great at establishing him as a proper character outside ‘this kid is Robin pls like him we want to get away from the controversy of the last one’ so it’s hard to connect with him there without nostalgia glasses. By Knightfall (1994ish) on, that’s where he’s more of a character himself, and his stuff from about then through to the early 2000s is the best (before Geoff Johns got him in Teen Titans and Didio started doing Things, which basically led us to today to be honest). Personally, I think Tim functions best in a team, there are aspects of what his writers do in his solo where they just...missed the implications and it kind of grates on me. His stand out book imo is Young Justice (the og comic not the cartoon which only shares the name and nothing else tbh).

Steph: Another who actually got treated decently well during the Morrison-era, as opposed to the crap she was dealt earlier during her time as Robin and War Games. Steph’s Batgirl run is something I definitely recommend, and her stuff with Dick and Damian in Morrison’s era is contemporary with that. Her origin is actually really good and compelling, so I’d dig into that (TEC 647, i think, is her first appearance). She kind of just revolves around Tim during his run and their relationship is kind of...there are implications there that are a bit cringe. Her stuff with Cass on the other hand is really enjoyable so I’d recommend those. Her brief Robin run is decent if melancholy considering what we know happens, and I wouldn’t touch War Games with a ten foot pole.

Cass: Shafted from the mid-2000s on, tbh. She got a bit blessed with a solid creative team to start her off in her Batgirl run, it attempts some pretty deep and interesting explorations of her character that while not perfectly executed are still really good comics. I’d just read her No Man’s Land stuff, follow her book and stuff with Steph and pretty much just ditch out when One Year Later hits. Her Black Bat outfit is cool and there is some retroactive backpedalling by DC to justify shafting her but it’s all Morrison era anyway so you might be familiar already.

Damian: Morrison created him and he took a lot of liberties with that backstory which unfortunately have had a lasting impact for Talia, which is frustrating. As Damian’s creator, what you see is what you get. Morrison didn’t want him to be likeable and he also didn’t really want him to be permanent (ties in again to how Morrison sees Bruce and family tbh), other writers gave Damian development later, but despite being around for over a decade now, there is still a lot of push and pull between writers about his characterization and development. It’s unfortunate but there’s a noticeable lack of consistency with Damian and his development that is frustrating to read. Probably read Tomasi’s stuff if you want Damian’s softened, developed arc and avoid other stuff. I’m not the best for Damian because most of his stuff is during the new 52 which I wasn’t around for and am picking through only occasionally.

Hope this helps.

#asks #anon #opinionated opinions: dc comics #batfam #recs: dc comics #ymmv on all of this #and i put it together really quick off the top of my head #but i hope it helps #bruce wayne #dick grayson #barbara gordon #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #damian wayne #no one who came in later because obvs they weren't around for morrison #if i missed someone....rip

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kinaaadman · 3 years

Text

Dangerously in Love

r. rodriguez

photo by: Jan Kryciński

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” – Isaac Asimov

In the world of wolvendom.. There once was a man named Lindow Amamiya, and he looked like a typical guy who gets all sorts of girls in the class although he can’t feel any sorts of emotions at all which is probably why he is single and had no relationship experience or whatsoever. He’s an orphan and he is an teacher in a magical academy. During his average daily life of wasting time away by reading books he was sitting around and is so relaxed as he read a book. Time passed and he managed to fall asleep. As he woke up he is awake in some place that is quite unfamiliar with him..

Lindow Amamiya’s POV

Lindow: “Where am I?” He whispered

I looked around the premises to get clues in regards where in the world am I

As I look around I observed that I am in a room in which the windows are all boarded up and bolted shut as if something monstrous would escape from the room in a way that its impossible to remove these boards. Although the windows are boarded up I noticed that there’s at least an electricity in the building and a light projected in the room that is bright enough to illuminate the room almost completely. I also noticed how precious the materials are and there are cameras inside the room. There are also chairs and tables across the room all scattered in an chaotic manner almost as if someone was in a hurry to get out of these place. It also resembled as that of a classroom.

As I looked closely on the boards I decided to try and communicate with the perpetuator behind these predicaments

Lindow: “It seems like I was dragged away while I was sleeping and locked me up in here.. Well these materials are precious and in which it is an honor to lock me up using such materials, Whoever hears me I’m not that strong you know? I know someone’s there because of the cameras installed in this room.” He said mockingly

Silence filled the entire room

Lindow: “I guess whoever is there is away..” He murmured

As I walked around and looked for answers in regards to where am I, I noticed an floating orb and it seems to be getting bigger and bigger. As I get closer a silhouette of a girl becomes clearer and clearer. The girl came out of the orb and managed to push me and we both fell onto the ground.

Hannah:” Ow.. Where am I? Who are you?” She asked in confusion

Who is this girl? Why did she came out of an orb? As far as I know there’s no magic that is able to distort time and space. These questions popped out of my head but I guess there’s only one way to find out..

Lindow: “Argh.. That’s my question. Who are you? Where are you from? You’re the one who came out of nowhere you know..” He said with a straight face

As I looked closely she’s blonde and looked like a typical girl that every man wished for. Well it’s not like I would know that, but it is according to my commoner’s dictionary.

Hannah Campbell's POV

Lindow:” Argh.. That’s my question. Who are you? Where are you from? You’re the one who came out of nowhere you know.. “He exclaimed.

That’s a good question.. Who Am I? Where did I came from? All I know is I came from an village and was talking with my friends and everything after that is so hazy..

Hannah: “I’m sorry but I was expecting that you would know that.. I do know my name atleast. It’s Hannah Campbell how bout you? What’s your name?” She asked energetically

Lindow: “It’s Lindow.. Lindow Amamiya. A pleasure to meet you.” He said with a straight face

This guy seems to be mocking me. Who says those words without energy or expressions at all anyway? Pleasure? More like a drag for this guy as far as I can tell but either way I need to know what’s going on so I need to calm myself.

Hannah: “So what’s with this place anyway?” She asked curiously

Lindow: “I was hoping you’d know.” He said mockingly

Lindow then proceeded to discuss what he knew about the situation and as soon as he was about to ask about why Hannah can’t seem to remember anything besides her name, something appeared in the illuminated light. It looks like a Robot Cyclops eye with bright red light came out of it with a sea urchin like figure that floated in midair. Just what the hell is that thing? The thing then began to spoke to us with a strange tone that seemed to be happy about what's going on.

Sea urchin like figure: “Hi and welcome to Magia Arcadia Academy I am program: Sea Urchin and if you would be so kind please step onto the particle accelerator to know more about your current situation. It’s the thing that shines light at the end of the room with some floating circles on it. It should be able to transfer you guys to me. Basically it is a magic teleporter. Hurry up now you guys don't want to be late nyehehe” says happily

I felt as if something fun is about to happen and so I immediately stepped onto the teleporter and Lindow on the other hand seemed to be stuck in his place and had no reactions or whatsoever that I ended up calling out to him right before I disappear.

Hannah:” Lindow c'mon hurry up we might miss something” She said excitedly

As I stand in the teleporter, I was enveloped by the light that teleported me and it was blinding enough that I had to close my eyes because it hurts. As I open my eyes I saw Lindow came shortly after. I looked around my surroundings and noticed quite a few people are gathered in here. The place has a stage, it is also an open area compared to the room earlier. The place looked like a beach now that I continue to gaze upon it. Shortly after my sightseeing, the sea urchin began to talk.

Lindow Amamiya’s POV

As Hannah called out to me before she steps into the teleporter the words that the robot said reeked like a trap all over the place. Whatever happens I guess even from the beginning of my capture we played in that thing's hands and there's nothing I can do about it. As I opened my eyes I saw people that seemed to be waiting for sea urchin to talk.

What's going on? Why is there a Cyclops that talked to us? Who is he? Why are we gathered? Why is the area open compared to the room earlier where they almost had no intentions to let us get away? Something's wrong.

Sea Urchin: “Hello there folks today we are gathered for such an important announcement.. I am certain that most of you that were in here ahead of time has figured out already that you cannot escape in this place due to the barrier and it is strong enough to dispel any magic attacks. Furthermore I have a proposal and that is.. a killing game. The rules are simple, kill a person that you're with without any witnesses and after the body is found we would hold a trial and if the killer gets away with it the killer gets to live while everyone who are innocent well.. they get to die.” It said menacingly

After the thing said those words I am almost certain that it is serious. Everyone was shocked by the proposal and they can't seem to accept it. Furthermore I may have been known as a genius but I don't have any magic but perhaps I can destroy the barrier with my anti magic..

Sea Urchin:” Oh and one more thing if the innocent discovered the killer well.. they can expose the killer and only the killer will die and they get to live. While if they both parties agreed to have work with them and the killer gets to live and so is the accomplice. Any questions?” It said jokingly

Suddenly a guy got pissed off and he had extraordinary strength that he managed to pick up a whole boulder and threw it at sea urchin. Everyone then started to be in chaos and started firing to one another but somehow another sea urchin is created. It was so clear that sea urchin was annihilated by the boulder because of the impact but somehow sea urchin managed to recover again with magic.. Wait something’s not right a device that is powered in magic can't control itself and always has a host as its source of magic. Which means one of us is behind these predicaments..

Sea Urchin then decided to kill the guy that tried to attack him. Everyone showed fear in their faces as they watch the guy burn away in smithereens that lead to death. In that moment, everyone realized that this is really happening. Lots of people died battling one another as well so much that half of us are the only ones left. We are 12 in total and one of us is the mastermind. Everyone then decided to introduce themselves for their own good. And of course it started with me.

Lindow: ”My name is Lindow Amamiya, I am the ultimate anti magic magician. A pleasure to meet you” He said with a straight face

Abby: “The name is Abby Hasunuma, The ultimate magic barrier magician.” He said formally

Kurt: “I’m Kurt Princeton, The ultimate swordsman.” He said seriously

Stella: “Stella Velvet, The ultimate fire magician” She said irritatedly

Jasper: “Jasper Kingston, The ultimate air magician and I'm looking forward to our future endeavors” He said enthusiastically

Jason: “ This is lame, I'm Jason Birmingham, The ultimate earth magician.” He said sarcastically

Michael: Projects text into a screen in his robot suit it says “I’m Michael Johnson, The ultimate technician. Nice to meet u ^_^”

Yuna:” I’m Yuna Priestess, the ultimate water magician” She said happily

Gordon: “I’m Gordon Wang Xiao, the ultimate chef and say no more to peasant’s food” He said boastfully

Yujiro: “I’m Yujiro Takamura, the strongest man in the world” he said horrifyingly

Finally it’s Hannah’s turn

Hannah: “I’m Hannah Campbell, well.. here’s the thing I’m no ultimates or whatsoever but all I know is I opened a portal through here and Lindow was a witness of that! And I don’t actually remember anything past that..” She said gloomily

Patricia: “I’m Patricia Mondragon, unfortunately I don’t remember mine either.” she said innocently

Everyone started to talk and they can’t believe that in these two people they can’t remember their pasts and what’s more is that Hannah opened a portal out of nowhere. In which it is a magic that doesn’t exist in our world and needed technology to do so but according to her she did it with shear mental will. I’ve also learned that she’s from a village far away and suddenly she’s just here. I wonder if that’s possible.. I believe there’s something more onto this.

After they discussed, they all agreed to explore the areas.

Days passed and not a single one of us found a possible way out. The area that we’re in isn’t so big either, it only consisted of an island with a big statue of sea urchin in it and two buildings that has rooms that we all sleep onto, it is divided into two buildings for males and females. We are separated from one another. The buildings also contained rooms for us based from our skills and abilities except for Hannah Campbell. It seemed that the perpetrator didn’t expect these circumstances. If so I bet that person observed Hannah, I must stay close to Hannah.

Hannah Campbell’s POV

Lately Lindow decided to stick around with me. It seems that he wants to be friends with me. That is nice I hope to make lots of friends in this adventure. Although it seemed that we have to kill one another in order to get out..

Nothing strange happened every day besides Lindow’s curiosity to be friends with me. Although it seemed like he don’t react or show emotions at all.. I wonder what’s wrong? I’d better ask him eventually.

At some point, Sea Urchin decided to call a meeting it states that we should all meet at the statue. We were there and everyone was given a some sort of record tape. Except for me.

Hannah: “Sea Urchin, How come I don’t have one?” She asked as she frowned her face

Sea Urchin: “You don’t need one after all that are your secrets and yours is revealed already.” It said with a straight face

Hannah: “Well I guess so...” She said as she frowned her face

We watched the record tapes that were given to one another in but we decided to share it to one another so that we would know everyone’s motives. It seemed that the contents of the tapes are about their families or someone important to them whom were taken away by Sea Urchin. Sea Urchin then suddenly showed up in front of us

Sea Urchin: “This are your motives to kill one another hehehe. After all of you manage to get out of this place, is when you would ever know what happened to them.” It said menacingly

After Sea Urchin spoke those statements everyone started to not trust one another but Lindow still decided to stick with me for some reason. He also seemed unfazed by the video that was given to him. Perhaps he trusts me and perhaps he believed that the individuals in the video are okay.

Few days later while I ate together with Lindow a body discovery announcement rang across the two buildings. There were two bodies it was Gordon Wang Xiao, the ultimate chef and Patricia Mondragon which later on Sea Urchin announced that her skills were of the Ultimate Assassin although she intended to keep it, someone knew due to her high position in the society and the culprit killed her because of it apparently. They were severely mutilated and my memory from that went hazy. My split personality took over and the trial ended subconsciously and apparently I turned into a detective all of a sudden and managed to win the trial. I grew closer to Lindow and understands him more because of what he told me after he narrated what happened in the trial. I later found out that he can’t feel emotions but somehow whenever I’m around, he felt something apparently. The culprits were apparently Jason Birmingham the ultimate earth magician and Stella Velvet the ultimate fire magician and their power were traced by me when my split personality apparently took over. They are also the ones who had a high position in their world that they are lived in so much that they concluded to kill Gordon and Patricia and it was later on proved that they were the culprits thanks to keen observation of Lindow and Hannah’s split personality. During the trial my split personality was interrogated and found out that I was jumping between habitable worlds since my world went into oblivion. I said that I couldn’t stand for it to happen again which is why I tried to save worlds as much as possible, Now 4 of us are dead there’s only the 8 of us.

Several trials occurred and my bond with Lindow grew stronger we managed to find out the mastermind before she manage to kill everyone. We later on knew that the world is still intact but several killing games has occurred at the same time that we were playing it. As we managed to expose the mastermind, the whole place collapsed and turned back into the room that we were in from the beginning and apparently it was made possible by simply running it with illusion magic that Yuna was so accustomed of. So much that it cannot be detected by magicians and she happens to be the mastermind. Lindow’s anti magic properties accidentally canceled some of the illusions which led to the capture of the mastermind. Lindow used his anti-magic to dispel the illusions and we managed to get out of the place. We managed to survive with 4 of us left excluding Yuna. It was Yujiro, Michael, Me and Lindow managed to survive. Me and Lindow’s bond grew exponentially big and we fell in love with each other during the struggles that we went through. We then created an organization against the terrorists across the world and locked Yuna for interrogation purposes and with the help of my power I read Yuna’s mind to locate where the other games are being held at. With the help of my friends and my love one we managed to stop the killing games that occurred across the world.

#creativewriting #12jotham_group_three #love #short story

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