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miss-choco-chips · 3 years

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Favorite color

Ever since he was born, his world was filled with colors, a beautiful rainbow at his fingers. He’d look down at them at night, or when his parent’s leaving made him want to cry, or when a horror story told by a classmate in the playground scared him half to death, and find comfort in their silky touch and bright hues.

He was seven when he learned the meaning behind them. And the blaring lack of red signaled the first, but not last, heartbreak of his life.

Blue, green, purple, black… and bright yellow. A teacher, a missed opportunity, a first love, life and death… and friendship. No eternal love for Tim, it seemed.

Well. He hadn’t really expected any different. Who would love him forever, when his own parents didn’t?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

He had forgotten it, and it escaped his notice for many years. Until one night, following Dick Grayson as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, when he noticed his purple string moving in synch with him. Pointing towards his hero, the boy who had given him his very first hug that night at the circus. His First Love, his Not Meant to Be.

That night, Tim packed up early and went home. He just couldn’t stand the red uniform contrasting sharply with his purple thread.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When Dick left, he thought maybe now he could go back to his old habits, to run the streets looking for flashes of the new robin without the baggage of avoiding to look at his own hand.

No such luck.

The green made a whole lot of sense when news of Jason’s death reached him, tough.

It wouldn't be the last night he’d cry himself to sleep, holding the frayed ends of his fated Almost.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Becoming Robin was both easy and painful. Comfortable, because the blue string pointing him towards Bruce meant this was always supposed to happen; heartbreaking, because it took a kid dying. Because Tim might not have a romantic soul mate, but his hands, that had made a green string break to grant him access to the blue path, were stained red nonetheless.

Wearing Robin’s red, with all the hurt and bad memories it carried, felt like a subpar punishment.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Meeting his Yellows almost passed his awareness. In the middle of a crisis, every adult missing, no mentor to guide him, he couldn’t exactly spare a thought for the kids looking shellshocked at him, each other and their hands.

After, when Young Justice was officially formed, he firmly avoided looking at Bart, Superboy and Wondergirl. Their eyes followed him, pleading, but he’d learned no good ever came from strings that weren’t red.

And the red in his soul wasn’t from love.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Despite himself and his best efforts, they grew closer. Life or death situations had that effect on people, after all.

His own reluctance, which had in turn provoqued Kon’s anger, Bart’s dejection and Cassie’s confusion, slowly began to crumble. He was helpless in the face of their unrelenting friendship.

The strings grew shinier, stronger, healthier, the yellow a stark contrast to frayed (dead) green, cold blue, distant purple. Scary black.

Tim still despised the rainbow in his fingers, but… he could maybe withstand the sparks of yellow he’d catch from the corner of his eye, knowing just who were at the other end.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It wasn’t exactly team training. Greta, Anita, Cissie, Slobo and the others didn’t join them, for whatever reason. It was always the four of them, leaning on and learning from each other.

When Kon’s strength frustrated him, when the world around him seemed to be made of bubbles and sea foam, Tim stayed late at night every weekend to help. Every spare moment directed towards coaching him, again and again, through exercises he had to come by himself (Clark was no big help, here), until exhaustion made his muscles tremble and Kon’s anger had burned out from frustration to soft acceptance that he just wasn’t like the rest. Until he could hold still and let Superboy trace the side of his jaw with a careful finger, and exchange proud little smiles when his face remained unbroken.

Bart being raised by video games had the expected outcome; he had little to no practical, day to day life knowledge. He was the closest living thing to a Looney Toon. Which was fun and good when crime fighting, his crazy ideas often saved their ass last minute, but unacceptable if integrating him into society was to be considered. So Tim would take him out, hand in hand so he didn’t forget himself and ran on his own, to leisurely stroll down busy streets, arcades, schools, libraries. Talk to people in parks and visit recreational centers, barter with street vendors and ask the little boy selling flowers on Jump Street how his mother is doing. Whatever Tim could think of that would soften Bart’s cultural shock.

In that regard, Cassie was a godsend. With her own attentive mentor, and raised like a normal girl until she obtained her powers, she was the most well balanced member on their team. Tim had started to feel a little restless (how can he help her, how can he convince her to stay…), when he noticed her frustrated, sad face whenever Donna was mentioned on Tv, when any reporter or older hero compared the two Wonder Girls. Familiar as he was with imposter syndrome, Tim would rest his arm around her shoulders and turn to the rest of the team, loudly reminding everyone to ‘speed up guys, Cassie here’s already done with her training routine’ or slump tiredly against her while complaining about ‘how immature they are, I can’t deal, thank God you’re here to remind me competent people do exist’.

It was familiar, to help them along. To nudge them forward and watch their backs as they went, firmly making their way towards being the awesome men and woman he knew they’d become. Lending a hand here and there, working on steading their foundations, so he’d be remembered fondly when they inevitably took off and went on with their lives.

He was used to that, to looking for ways his fated people would want him around. Being a good brother to Dick, an eager student to Bruce (a good mourner for Jason).

What he wasn’t used to was reciprocation, though.

Tim had learned how to fly from the best, from Dick Grayson himself.The boy with no powers that looked at gravity and laughed, sayed “thanks, but no”. But there were some things only a true meta could experience, ways to move his body just so, to take advantage of wind currents to either speed or slow his movements. Kon also visited him in Gotham, unknowing or uncaring about its meta restriction, risking pissing off Batman himself just to spend time with Tim.

There was Bart, kind, cute, friendly Bart, who would stop eating and playing around to drag Tim to the training grounds and run laps around him, as silently as he knew how. Making Tim used to fighting against someone quicker than him, lighter on their feet. To count incredibly soft steps even when they made no sound, and use other senses to pinpoint exactly where the next hit was going to come from. And after they were done, there was always a warm smile and some sweet treat (always different, as if Bart was determined to figure out Tim’s preferences by trial and mistake), the new knowledge and delicious prize worth the dirt in unmentionable places.

As stated before, Cassie was an absolute godsend. But it wasn’t just because she was easier to deal with than the rest. Or because she understood the pressure he had on his shoulders, being raised in the shadow of two incredibly renowned heroes. When Tim’s position as leader had been taken away (after Bruce’s plans for taking out the league became known, and ‘what if he has the same for us’), she took him aside. Hugging him, promising him the team’s anger was going to pass, that she could see why those contingencies might be necessary, that even if she was officially in charge, she’d always defer to him when it mattered. Her trust in him and his heart was unshakable, firm as the arm he’d put round her when self doubt arose its head.

(It wasn’t supposed to be this way; if they reciprocated, they didn’t owe him, and then how was he supposed to keep them close? To convince him to stay, to love the boy with loveless fate?)

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jason was unexpected, but Tim couldn’t hold it against him. Even there, bleeding out in the Tower, he felt… at ease.

His predecessor was back. Bruce’s son was back. The prodigal Robin had returned, by some miracle. Tim’s shift had come to an end; even if he died here, he had succeeded in keeping Bruce sane, and now that the real deal was in town, Jason could take over and everything would go back as it should have been. Everyone (B, Dick, Babs, Alfred) would be happier. Maybe they’d mourn him, for a bit, but with such a joyous occasion as a beloved one returning home, it wasn’t like grief could stay for long.

Someone yelled, near. Warm hands shaking as they touched his face infinitely careful, small fingers intertwined with his in a very familiar hold, a strong and slender arm around his back as he’s being held in a half hug. Cries, pleas, demands.

And while nothingness claims Tim, drags him to a well of black, yellow still clings to his eyelids. A touch that keeps him warm even though unconsciousness is supposed to be so cold.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Death and life. Damian.

Tim can see the first one, what with all of the brat’s attempts to end him. It’s the second one that has him stumped.

He knows not all strings go both ways. His purple one, for example; even if Dick was Tim’s first love, everyone and their mother knew Babs’ was his. Dick had a string pointing towards Tim, but it was a mentor-student one. Same as the one he and Bruce shared. Jason, too; Tim’s side of the string was the green of Almost, while the former Robin’s color was black (Tim taking his place as Robin, and being the only one in the family offering his hand again and again despite his murderous actions, was in some poetic sense the death of an old role, and the birth of a new family dynamic).

Damian, though… Well. He was almost sure they had the same color for each other (how else to explain such dangerous rage), but really, unless the kid was willing to share, it was only suppositions for now.

His only comfort remained the three beams of light, of a yellow almost golden in its healthy shine.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When Tim changed his suit following Conner’s death, everyone thought it was an homenage. A way to pay tribute to a hero that was his closest, dearest friend. A way to never forget (as if he could, ever, with the lifeless line of pale beige, once yellow, dangling from his twitching finger).

They weren’t wrong, but it wasn’t just that.

Red had always pained him, in a deep, almost forgotten place. A thorn on his side, scratching against his heart. For the longest part, yellow had filled him to the brim, until hurt and yearning had no place inside him. With Kon’s warmth missing, red bleed in the place between Cassie and Bart, despite their best efforts to close ranks and keep it out.

Their sad eyes followed him during the funeral, knowing what the color meant to him. Just how much he was hurting himself, right now. But, lost in their own grief, there was little to be done.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

By the time Tim got the call about Bart, he already knew.

He ignored the ringing phone, holding a sobbing Cassie in his arms, both desperately clutching at their only remaining yellow string.

Between the two of them, color like blood seeped.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Every so often, when Ra’s voice in his ear became too familiar for comfort, where lines draw in sand begane to erode and blur, he’d raise his hand, eyes locked on the three yellow strings, and watch as Cassie’s moved, disappearing end pointing always in her direction.

He was fairly sure that, wherever she was, she was doing the same. Reminding herself he was alive as well, hadn’t left her behind.

Her absence from his life was necessary, finding Bruce a priority, and the red of his new suit (his new name) was proof of just how deeply it all ran. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t yearning for her lighter color.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They were back, and he was hiding.

He wanted to run to their arms, hug them and never let them out of his view, far from where he could protect them (keep them). He wanted Kon’s hand on his face, delicate despite his strength, un-trembling when Tim’s own would softly join it on his check and held it there; Bart’s fingers between his own, too steady and constant for the boy who didn’t know how to sit still; Cassie’s arm on his waist, his own on her back, as they shared the weight of the world in their shoulders.

And because he wanted so damn much, he couldn’t do it.

He was covered in red. His first love discarded him, his Almost died so Tim could have his Teacher, his Life and Death was so heavily focused on the last bit… his hands lacked red, but oh, how much he leaked of it in his soul.

He couldn’t let them die again, be stained by his twisted fate; even if it meant he could’t hold them close any longer.

Letting go was more painful than holding on, but he was used to it by now.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

They find him. Of course they do; even without Kon’s senses, they all have beams of gold pointing them towards him, like Dorothy’s yellow brick road.

Tim knew it, was ready for it. And as such, had prepared the words that would push them away, to where it was safer.

Or so he thought.

“We are not leaving you.”

“Who cares about fate? You are ours, Rob.”

“It’s been long enough, Tim. Time to come home, we are done waiting.”

He denies them, shakes despite his usual iron clad control over his body, heart wrenching painfully at their decided expressions.

“You don’t understand. I’m Red Robin now. I’m not… I’m no good for you.”

“I could literally snap your back with the flick of a finger, shut up with that ‘I’m dangerous’ bullshit.”

“Yeah, even Bart could be dangerous given the right circumstances, you aren’t the only one here to watch for. It doesn’t mean shit to us.”

‘

“That’s right, I- wait, what do you mean ‘even Bart?”

“Not the point, Imp.”

They don’t get it. He takes his mask off, wants to give them a good look at his eyes, to read his emotions there and finally realize what’s wrong about him.

“Almost all my strings have something to do with death, or were touched by it. Don’t you see it?” He raises his hand, despite knowing they can’t see his strings, only their own. “I have no red here, only blood. I can’t… I’m not safe to love. I’ll never be loved.”

Kon snaps, something he had rarely done since their Young Justice days, hands on Tim’s shoulders, seemingly torn between shaking him and pulling him close. The latter wins.

(As it always does)

“This is love, you idiot! WE love you!”

Tim chokes on something (saliva, his own breath, emotions). Gasps, tears coming to his eyes unbridled.

He feels two pairs of arms joining the first one, a cocoon of warmth and unconditional love forming around him.

Bart’s sad eyes watch Tim from under Kon’s hug. “I don’t have red either, Rob. Romantic, platonic, filial… who gives a fuck”, he shrugs, before hiding his face against the red of Tim’s uniform. Uncaring of all it represents for him or perhaps doing his best to defy it.

Cassie just holds them all in the circle of her own embrace, forehead to the back of Tim’s head. Her hold is the tightest, and he just realizes- she lost all of them, didn’t she? To death and grief, all too far to touch, and now that they’re back in her arms, there’s little chance of her ever letting go again.

“Love has more than one form, Tim.”

He shudders in the middle of this weirdly emotional dog pile, and thinks. About Bruce and Dick’s pride when they successfully taught him something new. Of Jason’s reluctant smile when Tim first tugged him along to some joined patrol, sneakily edging him closer to the family with every interaction. Of Damian, who would often look down at his own hands (and Tim would honestly kill someone to know just which color the young boy had for Tim) and then at him, with something like hope in his green eyes.

He thinks… yeah. And this one…

(He gives up, closing his eyes and snuggling deeper into Kon’s chest, knees buckling but staying up thanks to his three rays of sunlight holding him in place between them.)

This one’s shape might just be his favorite.

#my writting #core disaster week #day two #Red string of fate #tim drake #kon el kent #bart allen #cassie sandsmark #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #jason todd #angst #you've been warned

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batboyimagines · 4 years

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In the Family [Bruce Wayne x Male Reader]

It’s been a day like any other day. You wake up with Bruce passed out beside you, write your morning letter to Bruce, get ready for the day, and are out the door by 11:00. To the press, you are Bruce Wayne’s more responsible husband and impulse control. Which, does have a grain or two of truth.

Bruce is an oxymoron when it comes to his impulses. On one hand, he’s an excellent planner and has contingency plans for every little thing from if he loses a grappling hook to when pigs fly. On the other hand, he is entirely at fault for the ridiculous amount of children you have.

After a long day of work, you come home just in time to see your loving family of vigilantes off for the night. You stay awake for a few hours just to keep an eye on them and then you’re off to bed. Rinse and repeat.

However, you were just awoken ten minutes ago by Alfred. He had hurriedly explained to you that Gotham is currently being invaded by aliens. Bruce was out on league business today but has returned to defend his home, dragging some league members with him. Who are now sitting in your living room.

You had gotten ready in a flurry of half exhausted resignation to a sleepless night. Unlike the rest of your family, you do your best to conform to some form of sleeping schedule. Even so, in only a few moments, you relieve Alfred of entertaining guests and come down the stairs in your rumpled suit.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash are strewn around the living room in varied states of impatience. The Flash is sat upon the ottoman bouncing his leg with Green Lanterns feet resting next to him. Green lantern is boredom slumped on the couch. On the opposite couch Superman’s sitting up straight as if ready to hop up and fly out immediately. He looks pissed. Wonder Woman leans against the wall beside him, arms crossed and also looking pissed. Hoo boy. You stride across the carpeted floor quietly and come to a stop a few feet behind the Flash.

“Evening.” You announce your presence groggily. Everyone startles, the Flash actually falling off the ottoman. Wow, are you really that quiet?

“How did- when- hi?” He squeaks at your feet. You look down at him.

“Hi.”

“I can just tell you have something to do with Batman.” Green lantern groans.

“I do live with him, yes.”

“What are you to him?” Wonder Woman asks curiously.

“You all know his secret identity, right?” They all nod. “I’m his husband. It’s nice to finally meet his coworkers.”

“You’re his husband?!” Green Lantern and Flash shout. You wince.

“Mhm.”

“Congratulations.” Superman says standing from the couch. He probably already knew, he is your go to reporter after all. After Miss Lane. “But we came here for a purpose.”

“Is it the aliens?”

“Of course it’s the aliens.”

“Okay, what about the aliens?”

“Are you kidding?” He demands. “The citizens of Gotham are in danger and there’s no telling if this invasion will spread to other cities, we need to assist!”

“Makes sense, why are you coming to me with this?”

“Batman sent us here.” Wonder Woman says. “He said he is in no need of assistance and if we had a problem with that, to take our complaint up with you.”

You wipe a hand down your face and sigh into it. Dammit Bruce it’s too late for this. “Well, you’ve made the complaint. Can you go now?”

“We can’t just go!” Green lantern shouts. “There’s a freakin’ alien invasion!”

“You’re superheroes, you can get yourselves home safe.”

“That’s not the point.” Superman argues. “The point is that Batman needs our help.”

“Well, this is Gotham and you know how he is. He likes to keep things in the family.” Superman glowers at you.

“In the family.” He says flatly.

“Yeah. Although, I guess you could probably go help,” you muse, “Tim and Kon have been getting awfully close lately. You just might be an in law someday.”

“In law?” Superman sputters.

“You wouldn’t want to be an honorary bat?”

“No!”

“That’s a shame, I don’t think you’ll have a choice in that.”

“Okay, as funny as Superman’s face is right now, what about those aliens?” Flash interjects.

“You should just out and help Bruce anyway.”

“Really?” He asks in shock.

“Really. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission with Bruce. Also I don’t want him to die and I’m too tired to talk you all out of it.” They all begin to ready to charge off into battle. Wonder Woman stands before you.

“We will return your husband to you safely.” Wonder Woman tells you warmly, squeezing your shoulder. You smile at her tiredly and pat her hand.

“Thank you. Stay safe.”

You see them off. The moment they’re gone you hug Alfred goodnight and make your way back to bed. You collapse on the mattress fully clothed and drift off in moments.

When you wake up, Bruce is settling down beside you. You roll over and sling your arm across his waist.

“Hello.” He mumbles into the pillow.

“What time izzit?”

“Ten o’ clock.”

“Mm.” You both rest in silence a few moments.

“... did you send them after me?”

“Hm?”

“My team. Did you send them after me.”

“They already wanted to help. I didn’t feel like stopping them.” You peak open a bleary eye. “That okay?”

He nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck and you adjust the disturbed covers so they cover him. “Just fine,” he says curling your shirt in his hand, “thank you.”

You kiss him on the crown of his head as a your welcome and enjoy a nice morning in with your husband.

#Bruce Wayne x Male Reader #Bruce Wayne x Reader #x reader #x male reader

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keelywolfe · 3 years

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FIC: Pity in Short Supply (baon)

Summary: In the aftermath of the kidnapping, Red has a few thoughts. There's a reason he's always called 'em liabilities.

Tags: Kustard, Domestic, Established Relationship, Sans/Underfell Sans, Aftermath of a kidnapping, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Underfell Papyrus/Underswap Papyrus, Background Spicyhoney, A Touch of Lemon Goodness

Part of the ‘by any other name’ series.

Read it on AO3

Read it here!

~~*~~

By the time the sun was thinking about hopping over the horizon and getting started on its daily workout, the warehouse parking lot was starting to clear out. All the ambulances were long since gone, the only one of ‘em with a person in the back was the guy who was still stuck in that weird foam shit.

Red didn’t believe in karma; he’d spent much too long eating shit himself for that, but if there was any lingering threads of justice still clinging stubbornly in the air, it’d take a long, painful time to get that fucker loose.

Most of the Embassy Security teams were heading back with all the evidence stacked in their backseats and Red was standing in a shadowed corner away from the streetlights watching them pack it in. Some of ‘em would start working on interviewing the kidnappers who didn’t need a few hours to cut them loose from a little chemical warfare, along with the agents the FBI shipped their way. Some were gonna work on getting shit together for the inevitable interviews with the kidnappees sometime this afternoon. Red had some pull and plenty of strings to yank, but even he wasn’t gonna be able to hold back the tide of questions much longer than that.

There was probably gonna be a fit pitched somewhere along the line that he’d sent his trouble twins home to sleep before getting much info, but Red would have to hula that hoop when it rolled in. Wasn’t only about Stretch, it was about his bro; there was only so much the boss could take before he slammed face-first into his breaking point and he’d been skating a little too fucking close tonight for Red’s taste. Better to let him take his pretty little liability home, clean him up, spend a li’l time rubbing his scent all over him again like a dog in heat and wasn’t it a damn good thing none of ‘em could piss.

The last thing any of ‘em needed was his bro snapping and hauling his honey away like a shorter, skinnier, bald version fucking King Kong.

(and was the memory of his brother's bleak face as he sat there waiting for answers while Red lied out promises about getting his liability back in one piece gonna haunt his nightmares, fuck yes, 'course it was, gotta balance those books somehow, there was always a price, he'd learned that lesson fast while he was still carrying his baby bro on the streets. always a price, fucking always)

Red wasn’t too worried about losing any info, anyway. Wasn’t much chance of Stretch forgetting much, not with that eidetic memory of his. Not being able to forget was half of his fucking problems to begin with.

Out in the mostly deserted parking lot, the last couple agents were finished packing up their car, not even seeming to give him a second glance as they climbed in. ‘Seeming’ was the real shit there, to anyone who wasn’t used to watching. The driver, a deceptively slender deer Monster, their antlers cut stylishly down, paused just long enough for their eyes to flick his way. The subtlest of looks, but that was it. They didn’t make a show of asking if Red wanted a ride, didn’t play any ego trips over spotting him, just hopped into the car and sped off.

Good instincts. Red made a mental note to keep an eye on that one. Good, not great, ‘cause they didn’t notice the one standing further back behind him, the guy who took up the best shadows before Red even showed up.

He stepped up now, hands stuffed into his pockets as he shuffled his way to stand next to Red, untied shoelaces dragging on the damp asphalt. They stood there together while the first unbearable rim of sunlight crested and took the shadows with it, bathing them in painful, golden light.

Red pulled out a cigar and bit off the end, spitting it to the ground. He lit a match with a flick of his thumb and held the tip in the wavering flame. When the end was smoldering, he flicked the match into the puddle, the faint hiss of it extinguishing unheard as he asked in a cloud of exhaled smoke, “how’s it going, sansy?”

Red was looking at the empty parking lot, the puddles dotting it like a scattering of miniature lakes across a land of broken asphalt, so he didn’t see Sans shrug, but he could feel it, a ripple in the still air around them. “went like clockwork. we planned for this sort of shit, you know, planned it out for years. worked out possible sceneries with fuzzybuns, toriel, all the diplomats.” Sans’s ever-present smile widened humorousness, “even had a few for edge and stretch, guess we shoulda brainstormed on those ones a little more. don’t know if we coulda come up with that one, though. drugging him was always a contingency, but no one guessed they’d strip his ass down and lose every damn tracker on him.” Another tight shrug, one quick. cramped motion, “we’ll know better next time.”

The plume of smoke rising from Red’s cigar curled in the air, drifting like a mist in the dawn light. Red watched it and nothing else, letting his sockets fall half-closed as he followed the wispy path with his eye lights. “ain’t asking about the fucking ops. how’s it going, sansy.”

There was a long moment of silence, broken only by the rough scrape of gravel shifting under Sans’s feet as he rocked on his heels. “you know, i took up with the security department for paps,” Sans said conversationally. “wanted to keep a close eye on him when he went traipsing around the big bad world to spread the good word. back underground, that whole sentry schtick was an excuse for a paycheck, i wasn’t guarding anything but my own g and a nap.”

“yeah?” Red stuck his cigar between his teeth and bit down, tasting the scatter of soggy, bitter tobacco on his tongue as the jagged tips tore through the fragile wrapper. “that so, sweetheart?”

“yeah, that’s so, dollface,” Sans chuckled mirthlessly. “little ironic, ain’t it, that it turns out i’m good at this shit. who would’ve thought.”

“yeah, never woulda guessed a judge might not be bad at the whole diggin’ up covert info,” Red shook his head sadly, “a shock, really, that ya could put that empty skull of yers to some good use.”

“sweet talker. gonna end up sleeping downstairs with the cat you keep that shit up.”

“fuck, don’t do that,” Red shuddered. “already worried if i don’t get up fast enough to feed that bitch, she’d gnaw off my pinky toe before i wake up.”

“that picky little shit wouldn’t eat you if you rolled yourself up like sushi and slathered on caviar.” Sans hesitated, then asked, softer, “how’s stretch doing?”

“like shit.” Red didn’t bother to cushion it; his pity came sparingly and Sans could take it. “he’s got his judge all cranked up to eleven. caught a helluva glimpse of me when i got here, thought he was gonna puke on my shoes.”

Sans let out a long, ragged exhale. “that’s my fault,” he said bleakly, “i got him to hit his on switch to look for that lost kid, should’ve known he’d have a hard time shutting it down again.”

“maybe.” Red wasn’t too concerned about it. If Stretch wanted to retire and shove all that down into the dark, wasn’t any dust off his ass, but the only way he’d lose it entirely would be if someone ripped it out of him by way of a dustpan. “if those fuckers hadn’t tried to pull a limburger baby on the kid, then it woulda died back down on its own.”

This time Sans chuckle was more real, a little honest humor creeping in. “don’t let stretch hear you call him kid, he’s already got his panties twisted halfway up his spine.”

Red scoffed, tapping away the ash gathering at the tip of his cigar. “honey bun might be the same age as us, but he ain’t as old as we are. don’t matter how the universe tried to age him up.”

The sound Sans made might’ve been a hum of agreement or the juicy, hawking prelude to spitting. The sun hadn’t had a chance to chase away the evening chill and Sans’s jacket was zipped up against it. Over the tab of his zipper, nearly concealed by neckline of his hood, Red could see the glossy rim of well-oiled dark leather, the slightest glint of metal. He let himself look at it for a long moment, take a sip of dark satisfaction at seeing his collar right where it was supposed to be. Then he looked away, back across the empty, crumbling parking lot.

Sans didn’t try to touch him, only shifted his stance until their fingers brushed in a way that could pretend to be accidental, bone lightly scraping bone.

“we should get going,” Red said. The sun was climbing higher, the stars giving way to gauzy, useless clouds. At least stars were interesting, a reminder there was another Aboveground than this one, another path upward that might someday be reached. “we got a lot of shit to do downtown.”

“we do,” Sans agreed. He tipped his head in Red’s direction, slanting him a glance out of the corner of his socket. His eye lights were tinted golden by the sunrise, sly and knowing in a way that had nothing to do with magic. “want me to blow you in the stairwell before we take off?”

Red didn’t wait for him to finish, tossing his half-burned cigar into a puddle, dousing it and sending a splash of ripples through the still water. “fuck, yes.”

He followed Sans into the warehouse and in moments he was braced against the rusty handrail with his shorts around his ankles in the dust, shuddering at the feel of that hot, wet mouth around him, worshiping his cock with lovingly sinful familiarity. Every inch of his focus was taken up by that and there wasn’t room to think about a single other thing. Not even the phantom sensation of metaphorically getting flayed alive by a wild orange gaze, the unexpected, needle-sharp feel of every one of his sins digging in their spidery claws as they crawled up his spine.

He didn’t think about it at all.

-fin

#kustard #sancest #spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underfell sans #sans #by any other name

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ampmiscfiles · 2 years

Text

The Webs We Weave: Chap 31

Start at the beginning

Peter grunted as he hit the ground. His limbs felt to heavy to move, but the sounds of fighting were all around him. He tried to focus in on any one group, but everything seemed to jumble together.

He knew something had hit Norman, causing the man to drop him, but he didn't know what or by who.

He wanted to move. To get up and help the fight, but it was pointless. His body was burning through the sedative, but not fast enough. Whatever Norman had used had been powerful.

Then again, Norman knew a lot about him apparently.

"Spider-Man?"

Peter let out a small nose as he felt hands lift him slightly.

"I'm going to move you somewhere safe, ok? Just hang on."

Peter felt himself lifted off the ground and moved.

Wanda Maximoff.

He wanted to ask how the team could afford for her to take the time to tend to him, but it was pointless. He wasn't asking anything any time soon.

"I've moved you to a dark corner behind some equipment. You should be safe here while you recover." she said softly, lifting his mask just enough to free his nose. "We're handling things, so don't move even when you start to feel better. You're a liability if you're still feeling any effects from the sedative used on you."

Peter forced out a puff of air.

"Stay here." Wanda said, voice firm before leaving him.

Peter hated being useless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wade took note of where Wanda stashed Peter, knowing that if things went south, he'd have to take him and run.

He had promised Matt.

He also didn't want Peter to see the amount of blood now sprayed over the lab. He and Frank weren't exactly team players when it came to keeping the bad guys alive.

He briefly wondered where Matt had vanished to, but pushed it out of his mind just as fast.

The Devil of Hell's Kitchen was pissed, and Wade Wilson wasn't about to get in his way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Watch where you're aiming Castle!" Jessica shouted, punching a man in the face. "I got better things to do than get shot."

"Then get out the way." Frank replied, shooting over Jessica's shoulder.

"I really hate you sometimes."

"I'm used to it." Frank shrugged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony turned, relieved to see Norman no longer had Peter, but panicking as to where he was. He knew there was no way Peter was able to get himself out of the way on his own.

"I know you said this place isn't supporting Fisk Tower," Harley said, landing next to him. "But it's getting close to not supporting itself either. We gotta start moving out of here."

"We can't leave without Norman, and I don't know where Pete is." Tony said, blasting the remaining piece of equipment.

"I think I saw him with Wanda a minute ago, so he's safe wherever he is.

"You seen Fisk?"

"No." Harley said, looking around. "I lost track of him not long after we entered the room."

"Damn." Tony hissed. "Catching Norman is the main goal, but nailing Fisk on top of it would have been great."

"I lost Daredevil too." Harley replied.

"I guess we'll leave that to him then."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well now," Fisk said, squaring off fully against Matt. "You know, you're little protege swore you wouldn't come."

"He knows better." Matt growled. "And you should too."

"Oh, I do." Fisk grinned. “I knew well enough to have many contingency plans.”

Matt glared at Fisk’s grinning face.

“You see, the more your little friends blast in there, the better it is for me. I’ve got the entire place rigged to explode. All they’re doing is ensuring there really is nothing left to link me to Osborn.”

Matt didn’t respond, instead, he lunged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You wouldn’t believe that laughable security those servers had.” Clint grinned, falling in place by Natasha

Natasha smirked as she fired off a shot.

“It’s really sad how much work you get out of by pretending to your kids you don’t know anything about computers.”

“Kids are free labor, Nat.”

“I’m sure they’d be absolutely thrilled to know that.”

“You suck the fun out of it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Jessica smirked ducking down to check on Peter’s condition.

The Pumpkin King.” Peter huffed.

“If you’re making jokes, you’re gonna be fine. Also, for the record, I’m Sally, not Oogie Boogie. Rand can be Oogie."

"I knew you had the hots for me."

"You wish, Parker."

Peter chuckled, shifting himself. It was obvious the drug was slowly wearing off, but he was no where near ready to join the fight.

"We really need to get you out of here." Jessica said, looking around the room. "The structure is won't last much longer. Not with us fighting and Stark and your replacement blasting everything."

"They're what?"

"Blasting everything. Norman was creating more serum. They're taking everything out."

Peter went to respond, words freezing as Felicia slammed into the wall next to them.

"Holy shit! Felicia!" Jessica shouted, pulling her out of sight.

"Cat!" Peter shouted, moving far to slowly to really do anything, but desperately wanting to touch her.

Felicia groaned, much to the relief of the two with her.

"The fuck happened?" she grunted, sitting up and looking at Jessica.

"You hit a literal wall. How's the head?"

"No blood." Felicia winced, touching a tender spot on her head.

Taking a breath, she opened her eyes, intent on rejoining in the fight when her eyes locked on the other person with them.

"Peter!" she cried, flinging herself at him, tears in her eyes. "Thank God!"

Ripping his mask off, she tossed it to the side as she scanned every inch of his face before placing her lips on his. She held him firmly for a few moments before finally pulling away.

"Don't tell Wade about that." she laughed wetly.

"Knowing that guy, he's be more upset he wasn't invited to join in than that it happened." Jessica huffed, rolling her eyes.

"It's a mess out there." Felicia said, peering back out at the fight. "We gotta get you out of here. Wade keeps trying to get to you, but can't make it."

Good." Jessica nodded. "He's doing Peter more good out there then back here. The faster they take out Norman and those other guys, the faster we can get out of here. The structure of this place is getting pretty sketchy."

"About that, why are Stark and his mini blasting everything?"

"Can't leave any research behind. We can't risk the possibility of, not only Norman's formula, but anything about Peter getting out. We don't know if he actually does have anything on Peter, but better safe than sorry."

"But," Peter winced, moving a bit. "It might be nice to know what he did have."

"Don't worry about that. I saw Barton over at the screens Stark wasn't taking out."

"Maybe we can sneak Peter out without help." Felicia said, scouting the room.

"That's my job!"

Felicia, jumped as Wade landed in front of her, having finally made it over.

"Sorry kitty cat, explicit rules from Devil Dad. I gotta get his Spider Son out of here."

"Well, you two can duke it out." Jessica said, shoving past Wade. "I'm missing all the fun."

"Wade." Peter said, sitting up fully. "Where's Matt?"

"No idea."

"Is Fisk out there?"

"Fisk? Wilson Fisk?" Felicia asked.

"Yeah, he's Norman's mystery backer."

"Well, that answers your question, Baby Boy. Fisky isn't out there, and neither is Double D."

"Damn!" Peter growled, moving to stand. "He shouldn't have went after him alone!"

"Whoa, Spider! You're in no shape to be moving on your own!" Felicia scolded, grabbing on to his arm to support him.

"I know you're worried, Petey, but Matt made me promise to get you out if you couldn't fight. I don't know if you've noticed, but you can barely stand! Not even sure you could at all if you weren't being supported."

"I won't let Matt take on Fisk alone, Wade!"

"You'll be more of a burden to him than a help with the state your in, Peter." Felicia glared. "You're going to let Wade take you out of here, and let the rest of us finish up. Matt can hold his own."

Peter grumbled at the ground, anger tensing up his body.

He knew Matt could take care of himself, but it didn't mean he didn't have to worry.

Fisk was working with Norman, and while Fisk always had escape plans, Norman's were usually far more dangerous. He doubted Fisk wouldn't take advantage of that, and Peter knew Norman better.

"Wade, get him out of here, now!" Felicia ordered, running back out into the fight.

"Don't you dare, Wade." Peter growled.

"As much as I'd like to indulge your fiery attitude, Petey, no go. Double D made me promise I'd get you out, so that's what I'm going to do."

Scooping Peter up bridal style, Wade slipped out from behind their coverage, going Peter his first real view of what was happening.

Fisk men were littered across the floor. Some were bloody, some just unconscious. There were damages to the room everywhere. Tony and Harley were making quick work of all the equipment in the room. Jessica, Luke, Danny and Felicia were taking care of the extra men, and the rest were busy with Norman.

While everyone was fighting hard, it was obvious they were slowing, and the ones fighting Norman had sustained injuries.

Somehow, Norman had managed to require his glider, and had plenty of bombs to spare it seemed. It wasn't like he didn't have his own injuries though.

Throwing another bomb, everyone dove to sides as it exploded.

As they stood, everyone froze.

A loud rumbling sound ripped through the room as the ceiling began to crack and pieces started to fall.

"That's our cue, Baby Boy!" Wade shouted, darting towards the large open door.

Everyone started scrambling as the following chunks of falling ceiling got larger.

Peter lost track of everyone as Wade's large shoulders kept his from seeing what was going on behind them.

"Wade!" Peter shouted above the rumbling. "We have to help everyone!"

"I told you, Petey. My mission is to get you out. They can handle themselves."

Peter felt the panic and agitation rise in him. He couldn't let Wade get him out while everyone else remained behind.

They didn't even know where Matt was!

Making choice, Peter took a breath.

"I'm sorry, Wade."

"Wha-"

Wade gasped as Peter drove his elbow into his sternum, causing him to lose his grip and Peter to fall to the floor.

Getting his breathing under control, he looked up to see Peter running, as fast as he was able with the drug still working through him, back towards where the fight was.

"Peter!" Wade shouted, straightening up and chasing after him.

He was almost caught up, when another rumble and a tremor tore through the underground building. Wade watched with wide eyes as Peter disappeared on the other side of falling debris.

Completely blocked off from Wade's protection.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter took deep and labored breaths as he looked at the blockade between him, Wade, and the only way out he was aware of. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't leave Matt, his father, alone.

He had to find him.

Stumbling back into the lab, the entire room was in ruins and on fire.

He caught the sight of Felicia and Bucky running into a tunnel on the other side of the room, relieved to know there was at least another way out.

Shuffling forward, his Spider-Sense blared. Unable to move as fast as normal, Peter felt something slam into him ,throwing him across the room.

"I thought you were smarter than this, Peter. Coming back into a crumbling, burning building."

Peter sat up, taking in the sight of a bloody and battered Norman Osborn.

The man grinned wildly down at him.

"I guess I should be thankful for that bleeding heart of yours. I thought I lost you, for real this time. Lucky me, your little friends were unable to stick around to finish the fight."

Peter pushed himself back as Norman advanced, his eyes tinted the goblin green and manic.

"The more I think on it though, perhaps you're just to good, Peter. Forever a hero. Always trying to do the right thing. You could have been more, but it's obvious you're a beautiful failure, Peter Parker." Norman sighed.

"As much as I hate to see such a wondrous being die, I'm afraid I can't let you leave me."

Peter's eyes widened as Norman moved forward, pulling a blade from behind him.

"Not really my style, but I don't exactly have time to be more creative."

Norman stood over Peter, lifting the knife.

"Goodbye, Spider-Man-"

As Norman brought the knife down, two things happened. Peter pulled the small spider out of a pouch in his suit, activating it and encasing himself in the Iron Spider suit as a repulser blast slammed into Norman's chest, sending him flying across the room and into the wall.

The man's body crumpled to the floor, lifeless.

Peter stared, wide eyed at the body. His brain numb to what he was seeing.

"Come on kid," Tony's voice cut through the haze. "We gotta get you out of here. I have no intention of leaving without you."

"Tony?"

"Yeah, Pete."

"Where's Dad?"

Tony froze, looking at Peter's distracted face. Swallowing hard, he scooped Peter up.

"He's fine. Managed to subdue Fisk for arrest."

"Norman?"

"Let's get out of here." Tony replied instead, face plate lowering as he shot off into the tunnel Felicia and Bucky had gone through.

As soon has they got inside, the room fully collapsed, closing sealing them off from the ruins. Raising his face plate, Tony began carrying Peter the down the tunnel.

The two were quiet for a while before Tony spoke.

"You're in big trouble, Pete. I saw Deadpool carry you out. Everyone's gonna be pissed when they find out you managed to get away from him."

Peter lowered his eyes, guilt coursing through him. He had hurt Wade and for what? He almost died for no reason.

He had never felt more stupid.

Not even after the ferry incident and Tony had taken his suit, sending him home in that humiliating outfit.

Why did he go back?

"You were worried, Pete." Tony said softly. "We often make stupid decisions when we care about someone."

Peter frowned as he looked up at Tony's forlorn expression.

"I'm sorry, Peter. I'm so sorry. You will always deserve better than me. I'm glad you have your rag tag team. They fit you. You're, whatever she is, blonde bombshell is a force to be reckoned with. Of everyone I saw fighting, she went after Osborn the hardest whenever she could."

Peter felt a small smile cross his face.

"I don't deserve them after the stunt I just pulled. I practically threw everything they did for me back in their faces."

"I told you, Pete. We make stupid choices when someone we care about is in danger."

They were quiet again as they continued along.

"What were you doing there, Tony?" Peter finally asked.

"I went back to make sure everyone was out, and to ease my own conscious about Norman. I couldn't leave without knowing he was contained...."

The word 'dead' went unsaid.

Although it was exactly what he was now.

"You could have gotten yourself killed, you know."

Tony huffed out a chuckle as he looked down at Peter.

"I had to know, for your sake."

Peter looked away, leaning into the cold metal of Tony's suit. He noticed there were several spots where the suit had taken damage, but continued to operate perfectly.

Regardless of everything, Tony Stark was an amazing inventor. His work was unmatched.

"I brought the suit you made me."

Peter winced as the words left his mouth. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to tell Tony.

"I see. I'm glad you did. If I hadn't gotten there when I did, the suit would have protected you."

"It's.......awesome."

"Of course it is," Tony grinned. "I made it."

A laugh bubbled up out of Peter.

"And there's that Tony Stark ego."

"I'm hurt you think it ever leaves."

Peter shook his head with a smile. He felt his eyelids growing heavy as the gentle swaying of Tony's movements continued.

"Go to sleep, Pete. That stuff is still in your system. We'll be out of here when you wake up."

Without replying, Peter closed his eyes.

#twww #Peter Parker #Wade Wilson #Tony Stark #Matt Murdock #Felicia Hardy #Avengers #spideypool #fanfiction #the webs we weave

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juniaships · 3 years

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After being reminded of how awful canon film is I wrote my own self indulgent version of Batman Vs. Superman. I want the story to be self contained, so no Doomsday or Darkseid forewarning. Warning: Rambling, me being butthurt while high on sugar, really trying to make this a coherent storyline with genuine development, some Bruce x OC moments shut up you demon!

The beginning is the same as in canon with Lois in Africa???Middle East??? With her partner James Olsen trying to resolve a hostage situation. James gets killed trying to protect a hostage, but before anymore are killed Superman comes in and rescues them. He subdues not kill the terrorists but gets into trouble with the intelligence agency for interrupting their mission. This incident reaches the ears of Helen Hunt's character the no-nonsense Senator. However Superman is more concerned for the deceased James and the unharmed hostages than getting in trouble with the government, he feels guilty being unable to save James in time.

After James Olsen's funeral Clark and Lois are unsure what to do next. They decide the best way to honor his memory is continuing their line of working bringing light to troubling issues as well as a troubling rose of villains. They also find out that the terrorists had weapons given to them by Luthor (to protect interests in that region).

Meanwhile, Lex decides to capitalize on the post destruction of Metropolis by launching a smear campaign. He also starts pursuing charitable events to make himself look good in front of the masses. Because of growing negativity towards Supes, Clark starts feeling a lack of confidence but from reassurance from his mom he redirects his focus hero by doing small stuff around Smallville. Gradually the town starts to see him in a far better light but there's still Metropolis and the larger world. Clark goes there to help rebuild. At his job at DP, he gets the chance to interview visiting millionaire Bruce Wayne in Whatever City (not the actual name but a totally different city from Metropolis and Gotham). At the press meeting Bruce is rather cold & not as Clark expected. He's even working with Lex Luthor as part of a business deal, which makes Clark wary as he knows about Luthor's criminal activity.

Superman goes out in a flight to clear his head. While flying around he sees a kid walking on the railroad tracks hy himself with a pair of headphones....and a train steadily approaching! Supes swoops in and saves the kod from being nuked and chastises him for being so reckless. The teenager apologies and introduces himself as Jimmy Olsen (a nephew of the deceased James). He had been listening to music as a way to cope with his uncle's death. They talk for a while and Superman brings Jimmy back home. Several weeks later Clark ends up mentoring Jimmy as a school project.

Back in Whatever City we're introduced to one of Lex's assistants Nicola. She's a former Holliday Girl who had overheard Lex's plan and vowed to stop him. She managed to get in contact with an old friend: Diana Prince. Nicola brings up Lex's plan and hidden research of metahumans. The Amazon surmises that such a scheme could result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people. Diana decides to bring her agency to stop him & asks Nicola to stay low. Diana gathers her old armor and prays to the Gods for luck.

Lex apparently likes Nicola enough to send her an invite to a charity ball, where she crosses paths with Bruce for the first time. They talk for a while only to be interrupted by Clark.

After a meeting with Luthor to discuss a merger with their companies, and seeing hints of Luthor's true selfishness, Bruce grows suspicious of him and started to dig around. We see through memorabilia that his initial coldness towards Clark and other people wasn't out of spite but of grief: Jason Todd's death some years ago.

Clark continues his good deeds and is slowly regaining his respect. He even makes plan to visit a children's hospital but is forced to cancel when Superman gets called to show up for a Congress hearing. At the meeting Superman admits his guilt but tells about James and how he died a hero. The Senator doesn't know where Superman is going with this but is listening. Then Superman's voice trails of as he hears a beeping noise and shocked he leaves the room in a hurry. He briefly searches the place and finds a bomb strapped in a closet. He carries the bomb out and throws it as high into the sky as possible Back inside the audience and senator are bewildered by his absence then hear a loud booming noise outside. There's shock as a bright light flashes in the sky...

Superman legit rejected their hearing to save them from a bomb. A bomb planted there by Tess on the instructions of Luthor...a plan she was willing to sacrifice her own life for.

This leaves the senator reconsidering her stance: if he really was as bad as people say then he wouldn't have saved them.

After the incident the entire country begins to have a more positive opinion of Superman while the government launches a search for possible terrorists. Bruce hears about what happened and after sneaking around as Batman, finds out about Luthor being the one responsible for the attempted terror attack. Later on he (as civilian) makes an announcement that he is not going to go through with the merger with LexCorp.

Hearing the news that Superman foiled his attempted assassination (and losing out on Wayne Enterprises), Lex gets very pissed off and threatens to fire Tess. She tries to save face by reminding Lex of his contingency plan...making Lex calm down and grin as he begins to remake his plan.

Nicola agrees to a date with Bruce and prepares. Meanwhile Lois and Jimmy are enjoying a night on the town while Clark stays behind to work on a news story. The two friends were about ti make it back to their hotel before being accosted by some men who force them into a car and takes them to Lex Corp.

At the HQ Lois calls him out that his plan could spell doom for the world. Surprisingly Luthor agrees but makes it clear he doesn't care. He orders his men to capture her, but Jimmy manages to escape and goes off to find Clark (who is writing a story to expose Luthor's actions). Jimmy tells him learns from him that Lois is in trouble Superman tells him to stay as he fetches the police. In reality he jas gone to find her as his hero alias. He finds her but just as he's about to rescue her Lex threatens that he also has another certain someone (Martha Kent ) captured if he doesn't comply, seeing that Supes was often seen visiting her. Reluctantly Superman complies and Lois is freed from her bonds, yet Lex takes them as hostages to a room lined with Green Kryptonite. He leaves to his warehouse to check on progress of his prototype. Jimmy wonders where Clark has gone and goes to the police station himself.

On their date Bruce mentions to Nicola that he knows what she's up to. Nicola coldly replies what was he talking about and he mentions Lex's actions and her possible status as an accomplice This starts a spat leading to Nicola spilling that she is working against Lex (making her a foil to the blindly loyal Tess) and that her goal was to stop Lex from unleashing his plan. She already called a friend to help them yet when Bruce presses forward they see a kid (Jimmy) wandering around and concerned asks what's wrong. Jimmy replies that his friend was kidnapped and doesn't know what to do. Bruce leaves to find Clark while Nicola stays with Jimmy.

Nicole & Jimmy arrives back at the hotel and sees Tess Mercer waiting for them. She had been sent by Luthor to eliminate the witness. Nicola tries to talk her coworker out of harming an innocent kid but Tess refuses. They duel but Tess proves to be a surprisingly stronger fighter. Before Tess could come in for the kill a frightened Jimmy knocks her out cold from behind.

At HQ Lois & a weakened Superman attempt an escape. Lois believes its hopeless but Clark reminds her that Lex won't put them down for long. Batman arrives at the HQ and stealthily avoids the guards. He deduces the room Lois and Supes are locked up in and free them. Batman says thay a little birdie told him everything Lois and Clark grinning that it's Jimmy and the two superheroes decide to work together to bring down Lex.

Batman goes to save Martha (the warehouse fight) while Superman goes to confront Lex, dropping Lois off at the hotel where rhe police are waiting (Tess apprehended). Nicola researcher offers to take the reporter home but she declines, not wanting to sit back and watch Lex try to destroy the world. After giving her report to the police she and Nicole meet Steven Trevor (a descendant of Steve Trevor and an agent). Steven says he already sent his men to arrest Lex as they found that he waa behind the bombing. Lois sneaks away to see if she can help Clark.

Clark manages to catch uo to Lex at his lab and tries to reason with him. Lex says that he already unleashed his prototype as a test to see how many lives Superman is able to save. Superman argues that Lex has gone mad trying to play god, which he disagrees: "I'm not playing god I'm only playing favorites is all." Disgusted, Superman leaves and goes off to fight the prototype. As he does an entire line of trucks arrive...led by Nicola's special friend...

Lex realizes he has been found out and tries to destroy the evidence. Lois realize that the monster was made of Kryptonian DNA so she looks around for the spare Kryptonite and manages to grab a considerable long piece. Just as she does the place starts flooding and she runs. However she nearly drown. Fortunately she gets pulled out by a woman wearing armor. Lois doesn't even ask her name as she recognizes the W shaped emblem and blue&red color scheme. Lois gives the heroine the spear and tells her that she says she loves Clark. Wonder Woman nods and heads towards the direction of Superman.

Superman draws the monster out away from the city and is helped by Batman. Wonder Woman arrives with the spear. The final battles commences with Batman providing a distraction to lead the prototype away. Diana and Superman fight the beast but is soon overpowered. Clark takes the makeshift spear and goes off and manages to subdue the creature rather unwilling to kill it. However he gets blown up by a missile sent by the US military and everyone thinks he is dead.

To his he walks out of the smoke, banged up but alive, having narrowly escaped the blast. The monster has died, leaving Clark to wonders sadly if the monster could have been saved as it had no control over its actions. A relieved Lois embraces him as the other two supers look on in bittersweet triumph.

Several days later, the President, on the behest of the Helen Hunt Senator, gives Superman a full pardon. The world also starts to see rising of actual superheroes to take in the increase of villains having been inspired by the actions of the newly dubbed Trinity. The ending shows that long term exposure to Kryptonite left Lex without any hair, cementing his iconic look. He had also beem arrested and tried and ends up locked up at a mental institution on an insanity plea. His other henchmen & Tess are jailed and Luthor's company scrambles to do damage control. Bruce catches up to Clark and apologizes for being cold. They part ways on better terms before musing at the similarities between their alter egos. Diana teases that they make a great team and returns to the capital with her team. Bruce returns to Gotham and stops at the cemetery to place flowers on Jason Todd's grave, showing that he moved to the acceptance stage of grief. Jimmy also ends up getting a job as an intern for Daily Planet with Lois as his mentor this time. And Nicola goes to Gotham to work as a social worker and takes up a case: Cassandra Cain.

The final scene ends with Clark as Superman dressed up in Metropolis visiting a local orphanage/foster home, showing that at his core he truly does care about humanity despite all them haters. 👏👏 👏 happy ending everyone!!!

The movie ends with a montage of

- Cyborg walking around aimlessly in his hometown and finding a discarded newspaper highlighting the heroes' exploits and getting the idea to try becoming a hero himself

- Aquaman in his kingdom catching up with the surface world and becoming curious, and wonders about an alliance

- Barry standing in a hill in his city in costume. He grins and smiles, before pulling over his cowl and racing off

- And Lex, plotting an escape from his cell, suddenly sees a peculiarly tall guard looming over him. He makes a digging comment that the guard shrugs off. To his surprise the guard unlocks the cell and leads Lex out. Lex asks who the guard is; the guard slips off his disguises revealing a sapient Gorilla...Gorilla Grodd!

All This sets up a future plot point that wouldn't be explored until after Justice League where we're introduced to the cinematic LEGION OF DOOM!!! The prototype they fight is not doomsday but foreshadows the creation of Bizarro (who was one of the original members of the LoD).

With the actual Justice League movie we continue with the formation of the team through several subplots converging into one major story arc. The Helen Hunt Senator plays a huge role being their ally and influence on building the Hall of Justice. Plus more Brucola stuff because we need fun stuff in Batman, Tom King.

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revchainsaw · 3 years

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Stargate (1994)

Welcome to the Cult Film Tent Revival my freaky fanatics, prepare yourselves to take the sacrament from across the stars, as we engage in the miraculous works of one of our most beloved Cult Saints, Saint Kurt. Coming to us from the golden age of Sci-fi Adventures, when Hollywood would dump the big bucks into a film so out of this world, we are partaking this evening of 1994's Stargate!

The Message

Every child has an Egypt phase. I remember fondly flipping through my DK Eyewitness guide to ancient Egypt with my Anubis warrior action figure from the movie stargate propped up on my desk. This wasn't even school work, Egypt inspired this young freak to learn outside of the classroom, and Stargate inspired me to look to Egypt in the first place. My father was a military man, as mentioned before, and this film irked him to some degree. He hated that the film was slightly critical of firearms, but mostly he hated that it depicted the high security military installation where he worked unrealistically. You know the high security military installation in the side of Cheyenne Mountain. yeah, that one. I don't know why my father expected a bunch of nerds from Hollywood with not security clearance to have any idea what it looked like in that hyper-secure location, but he did. I suspect after they lost him on the guns he was looking for any reason to hate Stargate, and so, impressionable as I was, I thought for years that this movie was really stupid.

Thank the Gods of Cult that I had the inspiration to give this film a second chance. I have to say, it's a little stupid, but it's not REALLY stupid. Also, Disney's Atlantis is totally just animated Stargate, and that's pretty fucked up.

Stargate is the story of how a big old nerd, whos name is NOT Milo, played by James Spader was enlisted by a bunch of military bad guy types to use his crackpot pseudoscience egyptology crap to decipher a bunch of writings that every other scientist or academic was wrong about. When he does this he succesfully creates a Stargate, a bridge between our world and another.

Our other hero is Sergeant Kurt Russell. Russell is sitting around trying to take two and not call his doctor in the morning, just generally being sad about guns because his son accidentally shot himself. Like father like son I guess. Sorry if that sounds cruel, it's just so desperately reaching for pathos and drama that it kind of enters into the realm of parody parody. I may have been raised by gun nuts, but I am very pro depicting guns as dangerous. Stargate is about as subtle as a pie in the face, or a bullet in the face. Ok, I'm done. Anyway, the military has one more mission for Kurt and he decides for some reason that means that guns are good again for killing bad guys, except for later when he decides that guns are bad again.

So Disney's Atlantis and Guile from Street Fighter enter the Stargate and discover a world where illiterate humans are kept in subjugation by a ruling class of aliens who use them to mine precious minerals and demand to be worshipped as Gods. The leader of these aliens is an immortal alien being who has possessed the body of a teen boy pop sensation and goes by the name of Ra.

James Spader is gifted a wife by the locals because it's so quirky that women are property, i guess, but it's okay because they happen to be in love, and with her help he is able to learn the truth behind this worlds condition. Ra had built the Stargate to travel between worlds and was worshipped in Ancient Egypt, however the people got wise to his BS and he had to escape. He took many humans hostage and crossed the stargate and then banned reading and writing as an attempt to quell any kind of uprising, and it's worked for a long time.

Ra is pissed at the earth boys though because he knows a nuclear weapon when he sees one. Turns out Kurt Russell brought a big ol bomb with him across the stargate as a contingency plan for any aggro aliens they may have found. Hey, they found them so I guess it wasn't too bad of an idea. Ra punishes his worshippers by having them mercilessly bombed and Spader and Russell team up with the locals to revolt. They eventually gain the upper hand and Ra attempts to flee with his Pyramid space ship but our heroes teleport the nuke onto his ship and save the day. Thus launching several Sci-Fi television series that I have never watched.

The Benediction

Best Scene: Ra Footage

The Throne Room Scene where we are first introduced to Ra and his godlike warriors is pretty excellent. It's so menacing how he surrounds himself with a force field of children, and the combination of futuristic technology with an ancient Egyptian aesthetic that this film sells itself on is on it's ultimate display in this scene. I really like the villains in this movie and I savor whenever they get to be shown off.

Best effect: Mastadge Ride

The CG on Stargate is better than in Species which sought to be it's competitor a year later, but it is still dated. It's utilized in cool enough ways and sparingly enough that even though it looks cartoony at moments it is very easy to forgive. Being Easy to forgive however, would be a pretty lackluster qualification for best effect and I'm going to have to turn this honor to the practical creature effects for the Mastadge. When we are first introduced to our alien world one the first things we see is the fuzzy maw of one of these creatures, before it takes James Spader for a very harrowing trip across the desert. These alien beasts of burden do sometimes reveal that they are mounted upon horses, but in close ups they just look so good. I love them and I want one.

Worst Scene: It's just sad OK!

Kurt Russell becomes very popular with the young men from the village of Ra's worshippers. They come to see him as some kind of hero and seek to emulate him. However, these people are very peaceful and not in any way battle hardened. A group of the young men stand up to the leaders and seek to aid the Earthlings in their revolution. They are brave but in many ways out classed by Ra's elite guards. Through the sheer force of numbers they do succeed in casting off the shackles of their oppressors but not before one of the young men we've come to care about is tragically blasted all to shit in slow mo. That scene made me cry a ton when I was a kid, and I dreaded waiting for it as an adult. It is worth noting that if you aren't 5 years old a lot of the drama in Stargate is pretty hamfisted and corny. It's a pretty excellent action movie, and a pretty goofy drama.

Coolest looking Villain: Animals as Leaders

I used to think that Ra was really stupid looking, but I was a kid and was biased towards cool warriors with animal heads, but I really have a much better appreciation for the effects and costume design of all of the godly villain crew than I used to. That said, The Anubis guy in particular still holds up. It's the dope Jackal head, the teal of the armor. It's what I picture when I picture Stargate. The Horus guys are also worth a mention with their awesome hawk jets. I couldn't pick a "Best" villain, so I went with the Coolest Looking.

Worst Aspect: Lacking Character

When I have fond thoughts of Stargate, they almost never revolve around the characters, or if they do it's in a juvenile manner. Who had cool armor, who had cool weapons, or who did the coolest thing? I have a hard time caring about these meandering people. They are inconsistent. They have no flaws that they work on or grow from. They are special because the script insists that it's so, and I don't really care if they succeed or fail at any point in the film. It's a shame because we have a good set up, and good lore. If at any point any body acted like a real person I think Stargate would be better remembered as a film than as the weird older sibling of a long running television series.

Summary

I'd like to say that Stargate succeeds at everything it's trying to do, but it doesn't. Stargate fails in the tragedy and pathos it attempts to create within it's characters; but it does succeed in almost every other way. Stargate is an engaging and exciting action movie. Stargate delivers on it's science fiction concept, and provides some fun fantasy lore to round out it's world building. Stargate is also a great looking (at most times) special effects spectacle. For all of those reasons, It is not a great film, but it is pretty darn good film.

Overall Grade: B

#Stargate #Sci-Fi #1994 #90s #Action #Adventure #aliens #egypt #space #Kurt Russell #James Spader #Grade B #B #Grade: B #(B)

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vagrantblvrd · 4 years

Text

Super self-indulgent FAHC AU wherein for whatever reason Geoff doesn’t come to Los Santos to start the FAKE AH Crew until ~later.

Meanwhile, everyone ends up in Los Santos anyway - because reasons - and have to scrape by without the support of the crew behind them?

Like, hacker/thief/??? Gavin ends up in Los Santos via a series of unfortunate events in which he is a total shit and sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong?

Cue his ~fleeing to the US and meandering his way along - getting in trouble along the way, because of course he does, but also amassing a rather impressive list of contacts and such as well - to Los Santos.

Where, lol, of course he gets in over his head yet again? Young and stupid and tries to get one past the wrong guy and before he knows it he’s got himself an arrangement, right?

Work for the guy he tried to fuck over or be horrifically murderized, and oh, hey? The family and friends he left back in England? Sure would be a shame if something happened to them, you know? They seem lovely.

(Why would you just look at the pictures and videos this guy has of them doing all sorts of everyday things and accidents happen, you know. Awful, that.)

Anyway, anyway, Gavin keeps his head down and plays good little hacker/thief/???.

Gives his new boss what he asks for out of him and no more, doesn’t volunteer information or skills or anything he may have himself or know someone who knows someone who might be useful.

No.

Gavin does what’s asked of him and lets his boss’ goons and thugs push him around - little weasel, a coward and so on?

But also Gavin is making a list (or two or three) that has all kinds of interesting information to be had in them? Things his boss’ enemies or other such interested parties could use to utterly ruin the bastard.

Gavin’s got plans, you see, it’s just a matter of time and all that.

Until then he’s meek and mild and does his part whether it be hacking or off to steal some shiny little bit of interest to his boss or whatever else his boss knows he’s capable of. (Nasty stuff, when you get down to it, strange how his boss never wonders how Gavin knows how to do any of this stuff or rest easy thinking they won’t be used on him, but arrogance will do that to people, I guess?)

ANYWAY.

Things are going along...well enough when Gavin’s boss brings in a new hacker.

This kid (not really a kid, if anything a couple of years younger than Gavin at most, but he seems young) who buckles down and plays nice without the rough treatment Gavin and the handful of other hackers and “specialists” like him that have been through the base where Gavin works most of the time.

Gavin would let things run their course for this “Matt Bragg” but he’s not like the others Gavin’s been forced to work with?

They were always the same kid of wrong as his boss and his boss’ favorite goons and thugs. Mean and cruel for the sake of it and didn’t worry who they were hurting so long as they made a profit off it.

But Matt Bragg, okay.

Quiet kid, keeps to himself and gets this pinched look on his face when their boss decides whatever information he handed over to him was to be used in the most “efficient” way possible.

Matt gives their boss two different routes to obtain whatever shiny he’s after, one with minimal casualties on all sides but it’ll take a little longer. The other requires guards and security to be killed, but it shaves a hefty chunk of time off the entire operation, and no bet which one their boss chooses.

And, look.

The fact that Matt took the time to come up with two different approaches like that - contingency plans, yeah, sure, that’s a given - but Matt went out of his way to devise a tactic to avoid having to kill people.

Other things like that crop up from time to time, and Matt gets into trouble for it sometimes, taking too long to get the boss the information he wants because he’s concerned about having to kill some hired guns in a batch of mercs or rent a cops or whatever.

But he keeps on looking for those alternatives, and Gavin takes an interest.

Realizes Matt’s in the same boat as him with regards to working for their boss. Details might not be exactly the same, but whatever they are he ended up here same as Gavin, and that’s.

Interesting?

interesting.

Enough for Gavin to take that interest in Matt, sabotage him here and there so the boss gets pissed, yeah, punishes Matt by restricting his “privileges” and so on?

But there’s a good reason for that.

Because Matt’s good at what he does, too good, and there have been others like him through here before.

Got chewed up and spat out and left to fend for themselves when the cops (or worse) came looking.

Got set up, put on a job and left high and dry in the middle of it while the boss and his flunkies got away with the shiny they were after and a pretty little scapegoat/sacrifice left behind.

It’s where Matt’s headed if he’s not careful, and he isn’t.

Careful, that is.

Goes along with what the boss wants, but he’s the stubborn kind of idiot, you know?

Mouths off when he shouldn’t, and it gets him knocked around a bit. Gets him noticed by their boss’ goons and thugs when it’s the last thing people like them need or want.

Matt’s not stupid, realizes what’s going on and goes to confront Gavin about it, grabs his arm and freezes when Gavin lets out this little hiss f pain, pulls his arm back when Matt’s left staring at him.

Because in all the commotion Gavin’s sleeve got pulled up and there are these marks, bruises and worse and faded scars and -

“What - “

Gavin scowls at Matt, because rude, and also, idiot.

“Leave it alone, Matt Bragg,” he says, meaning Gavin deliberately fucking Matt over and everything else, because you know, because.

Those jobs and tasks and whatnot of Matt’s that Gavin sabotages him on?

Have to get done by someone, and Gavin’s reliable about things like that, isn’t he. (Has to be with everything he’s got on the line and all.)

So Gavin does the jobs/whatever Matt was supposed to and since Gavin has certain skills and the whatnot Matt doesn’t he ends up in the field when Matt would have remained at the base.

Gets hands on experience with whatever conundrum was posed to Matt, and sometimes that means he gets hurt because like hell will his boss offer him helpful support and such, you know?

It’s Gavin thieving about in hostile territory and with the odds stacked against him and shit always goes wrong.

And if it’s not the job/whatever where Gavin gets hurt you can bet their boss’ goons and thugs have something to say about things. (Gavin’s got a mouth on him even now, and makes enemies like you wouldn’t believe without trying.)

So anyway, anyway, Matt is like !!! and oh, you fucking moron, and drags Gavin off to get propery patched up.

Cue Friendship montage in which they realize they’re more or less working towards the same goals - Gavin wants the fuck out of this arrangement he was forced into and would rather do that than burn things to the ground while he’s still inside.

But Matt?

Lol, fucker would cheerfully burn the place down around him and figure his way out from there.

So.

Montage sequence in which they team up and utterly wreck their boss and his operation.

And, you know, because hackers end up filthy rich afterwards.

Fuck around for a while because Freedom and Choice and :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD but then they get word their boss had enemies who are looking to take over his territory and such and Gavin and Matt are like “...wait.”

Between them they have the resources and connections to set themselves for life in Los Santos, so they do?

Start setting up their own little criminal empires in the remains of their former boss’, and they start by bringing in assholes like this Rimmy Tim guy Matt met out at a bar one night?

Recently liberated from their boss and getting a drink to celebrate while Gavin was making sure things were good back in England and his boss’ allies/whoever couldn’t touch them and Matt’s more than a little tipsy, you know?

Mouths off to the wrong guy and almost gets the shit beat out of him but this weirdo in purple and orange (”I remember yellow, too?”) comes along and plays white knight for Matt.

At which point Matt has to buy him a drink as a thank you and the two of then end up getting shit-faced drunk.

Also you know.

Smooches are exchanged because oh, hey, he’s cute/hot/I like his face a lot before the alcohol kicks in and they end up snuggled together on a bed and passing the fuck out.

Not important whose bed, so much as the !!! the morning afterward realizing they went home with some weirdo and...smooched? Before snuggling and passing out???

And then awkward dating, because of course, and hey, since we’re building a criminal empire I totally know a guy, Matt says to Gavin, and then has to add, “It’s uh. We’re dating? But he’s exactly what we’re looking for for the whole...criminal empire thing???”

Gavin would be highly critical of Matt and his everything if it weren’t for the fact a bounty hunter he tangled with a ways back finally tracked him down?

Michael is super not thrilled with him, because of course?

This whole Thing where Michael got sent after this asshole hacker/thief/whatever in Gavin and they ended up being all 80s movies romcom/action flick flirting while avoiding the legit hitmen sent after Gavin?

Saving one another’s lives - at one point administering mouth-to-mouth - and getting matching flesh wounds in a shootout followed by a teensy amount of torture by some baddie?

And then!

Michael rethinking turning Gavin in only for Gavin to make that decision moot when Gavin knocked him out and chained him to a motel radiator before fleeing to parts unknown?

Only not so unknown as Michael finally found him.

There’s a cat and mouse game that ends up with both of then soaking wet - caught out in a rainstorm/went for a swim in a river/body of water - and Michael scowling at Gavin like he’s about to beat the shit out of him?

Only he kind of does...not that, what with the Angry Kissing that’s happening and Gavin’s !!! that turns to :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD and Michael’s >:((((((((((((((((((((((((((( that turns to >:((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( becuase Gavin is a piece of shit and Michael hates him so fucking much, stop laughing you little shit!!1! >:(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Anyway.

Gavin and Matt have Jeremy and Michael, and then the rest trickle in?

Like.

Gavin worked with a gang a while back that hired this sniper - odd sort, but damn good with a sniper rifle and the kind you can trust to keep their mouth shut.

Ray’s not in it for the long-haul, not looking for a crew, but he’s always up to do a favor for friends and such.

And then Michael meets Lindsay through -

“Don’t fucking ask, seriously.”

And then!

Some friend of Jeremy’s in Trevor - this !!! You!!1! - moment between Gavin and Trevor because Thieves!!1! who may or may not have run into one another in the field and ensuing shenanigans as they were after the same shiny and oh, what a fun night that was, eh?

Alfredo just.

Suddenly fucking there???

Seems to know Michael who is like, “Oh, this fucker,” and no one can tell if he likes Alfredo at first? But then it comes out Alfredo used to be a bounty hunter too before he decided it was more fun being a “bad guy”

(Extenuating circumstances in which he was hired by some people to bring in some poor bastard who was innocent of whatever crime they said he committed because reasons? Alfredo finding out and then shenanigans in which he saved the poor guy’s life and set them up with a new life somewhere and ended up being framed for crimes he didn’t commit and all that. And since he was being framed for crimes he didn’t commit, why the hell not go out and commit actual crimes?

But.

Like.

Fun crimes.)

And then!!1!

Just as things are going smoothly, Gavin and Matt’s old boss manages to hire some assholes to kill Gavin? Matt would be great, sure, but the focus is on making Gavin super fucking dead, and everyone is freaking out, right, because for whatever reason they all like the little shit?

General sort of panic/mayhem until one of the assholes hired to kill Gavin actually gets their hands on him?

Catches him alone somewhere and while everyone is panicking trying to find Gavin, Gavin himself is :DDDDDDDDDDDD because the asshole who caught him is the fucking Vagabond.

When everyone gets to where they are Gavin’s like ??? at all the fear/panic he’s seeing and is like. “Guys, it’s my ex!”

Because this whole thing way, way before Michael and such where Gavin met Ryan and somehow wasn’t murdered?

Managed to make friends with the bastard that turned into something more and it was good, really, really good, until it wasn’t.

Someone from Ryan’s past gunning for him and Ryan ran Gavin off - “Bastard shot me!” but Gavin’s not mad, not anymore.

And it wasn’t like Ryan ran him off so much as dumped him at the ER and left Gavin to deal with the gunshot wound and explaining how he came by it to the authorities and then trying to find the bastard again afterward.

Which...he didn’t, but after months looking for him his contacts told him the Vagabond had set up shop in a city somewhere and seemed to be doing well for himself?

And Gavin was like :(((((((((((( because oh, well then, thinking maybe Ryan was better off without him weighing him down and such?

(Because hey, Vagabond and some hacker/thief/whatver in Gavin and honestly, no doubt who the more capable/dangerous one of them was.)

Thinking if Ryan wanted to, he could have come back for Gavin, or at least looked for him, but he hadn’t,so.

Gavin left him to it, kept on his way towards eventually arriving in Los Santos and everything that happened since - including Michael, oh shit - and then, uh.

Super awkward inching towards Mavinwood with Gavin and his feelings for Michael and Ryan and Michael and Ryan with their feelings for Gavin? But also bonding over the fact they have feelings for Gavin, because the guy’s a little shit, you know?

Complete asshole, and oh my God, do you want to hear about this one thing he did once?”

And so on, and also other reasons such as oh no, he’s hot and oh no, he’s an unbearable dumbass, why do I always fall for them?

Fiona comes along because Gavin’s old friends in England get curious about what’s going on with him and there’s a misunderstanding and she kid of, sort of, tries to kill him?

Like.

A lot.

Worse than that time every asshole in the city (and beyond) were after the price on Gavin’s head and persistent as hell and “Wait, Dan told you to what?”

And Fiona’s like “He said, and aI quote, ‘Take care of the wanker, for me, would you, Fiona? I’ll owe you,” and other such things and Gavin almost dies from laughing so hard while Fiona’s like “What? What are you laughing at, you asshole?”

More shenanigans and such and by the time Geoff and Jack do get to Los Santos they’ve heard about this weird as fuck crew - dangerous, rumors say they took out the biggest name in Los Santos’ history to get where they are - and are greeted with Gavin and Matt and all the other assholes, what even??

#ragehappy #mavin #mavinwood #jerematt #possible alfreyco because of course there is #and other fun things #¯\_(ツ)_/¯#late night thoughts???#technically not a fic #vagrant fic #long post

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mememanufactorum · 4 years

Text

Halo: Reach quote starters

* FEEL FREE TO SHARE AS YOU PLEASE, NO CREDIT NEEDED. CHANGE PRONOUNS OR ANYTHING ELSE AS DESIRED.

-Noble Actual-

“You read his file?”

“Anyone claim responsibility?”

“Consider it done.”

“I’ll see you on the other side.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled.”

“I’m glad to have your skill set, but we’re a team. That lone wolf stuff stays behind.”

-Winter Contingency-

“Just get me under the hood.”

“You get a chance, maybe you can ask them.”

“I’m lonely already.”

“Shoot down attempts are likely, so keep your distance.”

“Let’s stay focused. Watch your sectors.”

“Let’s check it out.”

“I want your eyes in the sky.”

“Why are we not seeing explosives residue?”

“There’s a lot of blood on the ground.”

“Looks like there’s nothing here. Let’s move on.”

“You have permission to engage, but be selective. We don’t need to telegraph our presence.”

“Go in quiet. I’m right behind.”

“On your knees, now!”

“They’re not rebels, they’re farmers. Look at them.”

“What the hell was that?”

“Cheer up, big man. This whole valley just turned into a free fire zone.”

“No disrespect, but don’t we have better things to do than round up strays?”

“We don’t leave people behind.”

“I’ve cut about halfway through the door.”

“Where’s the rest of your unit?”

“Found something.”

“I’ll take that. Not your domain.”

“It’s all right. We’re not gonna hurt you.”

“Keep still, and I’ll release you.”

“Flush ‘em out. I’ve got you covered.”

“You’re in my light.”

“What’s your name? Do you live around here?”

“Your accent sounds familiar.”

“Big man forgets what he is sometimes.”

“Best not touch anything. You wouldn’t want to ground this place.”

“May God help us all.”

-ONI Sword Base-

“Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces has been unsuccessful.”

“Let’s knock some heads!”

“I doubt that very much.”

“Can’t do this on my own!”

“Are you havin’ fun yet?”

“Beautiful, ain’t it. Someone should take a picture.”

“Nice work, by the way.”

“I aim to please.”

“Been all hers half my life.”

“I requested your assistance and do not need reports on events that occur on my own doorstep.”

“It’s been too long.”

“What have you done with my armor?”

“Just some… Additions I’ve made.”

“Perhaps you could shed some light on his death.”

“We had other, more urgent matters to attend to.”

“Before you ask, I was alerted the moment you tried to access its contents. As I am with any unauthorized tap.”

“I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Just making a reading suggestion.”

-Nightfall-

“It’s starting to get crowded up here.”

“Direct action is always necessary.”

“Here. You may need these.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Looks like we’ve really pissed them off.”

“Give us a hand! Bastards just keep coming!”

“Little more action than we’re used to.”

“What are you doing here? Whole area’s supposed to be evacuated.”

“Didn’t like leaving it to someone else to protect our home, so we came back.”

“You know this stuff is stolen.”

“What? You gonna arrest me?”

“Gonna steal it back.”

“That’s no strike force, it’s an invading army.”

“If we’re gonna smother this thing, we need to go in hard and fast.”

“Sun will be up in a few hours… And it’s gonna be a very busy day.”

-Tip of the Spear-

“Might want to hold on to something!”

“We shouldn’t stay here.”

“I’ll hold these bastards off.”

“Have a nice day.”

“One way to get their attention! Hang on to your teeth!”

“No, no! Somebody tell me this ain’t happening!”

“We need to get out of here now!”

-Long Night of Solace-

“Forty-eight hours? That’s imminent?”

“Uh-oh. Who’s your money on this time?”

“You always pick her.”

“She’s always had him dialed in.”

“That thing’s crushing us and we’re waiting for backup? They’ll be backing up a graveyard.”

“You’re preaching to the converted.”

“I know that look.”

“You can say no.”

“You don’t even want to hear it?”

“...Fine. I’ll hear it.”

“And this is relevant… How?”

“Not the word I would use.”

“Don’t cut yourself.”

“This sanctioned?”

“What do you think?”

“Thank you for sharing.”

“As a soldier in the field, I couldn’t possibly have access to those kinds of resources.”

“You’re scary, you know that?”

“Good luck with that.”

“You’re the one who’s asking him.”

“Oh, there’s no way in hell he’s gonna go for this.”

“Some plans are too good to say no to.”

“Show them what you can do!”

“This breaks my heart…”

“Discourage the curious.”

“Hear that? I’ll be all by my lonesome back here. Make it quick, would ya?”

“Nothing we can do.”

“At your earliest convenience.”

“Damn it… So it’s gonna be like that.”

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“And the good news?”

“That was the good news.”

“That’s a one way trip.”

“We all make it sooner or later.”

“Time has come to return the favor. Don’t deny me this.”

“Tell ‘em to make it count.”

-Exodus-

“You got to be kidding me.”

“Damn, how do you stop that thing?!”

“Help! Somebody help us!”

“They’re coming! They’re after us!”

“Come on! Let’s go!”

“What are those things?!”

“Somebody shut that damn thing off!”

“What the hell is taking this thing so long?”

“Glad you’re on our side.”

“City’s been under siege for the last five days.”

“Guess some of us don’t like leaving a job half-finished.”

“Son of a bitch! I can’t watch this…”

“How’s the day so far?”

“Just keeps getting worse, huh?”

“You saved a lot of lives today.”

“He didn’t make it.”

-New Alexandria-

“Sorry I came alone.”

“Make him proud.”

“I said back off, you nasty son of a bitch!”

“Damn! Look how they move!”

“Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel… Not anymore.”

“Hey, you made it!”

“It’s a regular family reunion.”

“Keep ‘em. He gave ‘em to you.”

“I’ll honor him my own way.”

“The big man was sentimental…”

“He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky.”

“I hear what I hear.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You want to know if we’re losing?”

“I know we’re losing! I just want to know if we’ve lost.”

“Keep it brief.”

-The Package-

“We’re gonna have to thin ‘em out, or we’ll be way too popular.”

“We’ve got a job to do, so let’s stay focused and get it done.”

“Looks like they got themselves cornered.”

“They were committed to the position.”

“I’m going with cornered. There’s nothing here.”

“If we’re supposed to blow this place, this ain’t the spot to do it from.”

“I didn’t bring my shovel.”

“Alright, we came this far.”

“Apologies for the unusual security measures, but the stakes demand it.”

“Yes, well, as they say, news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.”

“Not sure I understand.”

“Whatever we’re doing down here, we better do it quick.”

“I don’t think you understand. We’re out of time.”

“Bury any of it, and you bury mankind’s best chance for survival!”

“Please. Buy me all the time you can.”

“What is this stuff?”

“Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own… Perhaps more.”

“Mankind is outmatched.”

“An apt question if there were somewhere else to place our hope. There is not.”

“Do you have it?”

“Say the words, please.”

“I have it.”

“I require no escort.”

“Make sure nothing falls into enemy hands.”

“I’ll do what’s necessary.”

-The Pillar of Autumn-

“You are alarming me.”

“Not sure how long she’s gonna stay together.”

“Don’t wanna hear it.”

“Go with him. It’s a ground game now.”

“It’s been an honor.”

“I’ll do what I can to draw their fire.”

“She made the right choice.”

“Stay low, let me draw the heat.”

“You think we got time to walk over there?”

“You don’t have the firepower!”

“I’ve got the mass.”

“Hit ‘em hard, boss.”

“You’re on your own.”

“They’ll be remembered.”

“Who’s next?!”

“I’m ready! How ‘bout you?!”

“We gotta get the hell out of here!”

“I have the gun.”

“Good luck to you.”

“Good guns.”

-Lone Wolf-

“Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren’t nearly fast enough.”

“Our victory – your victory – was so close… I wish you could’ve lived to see it.”

“Your body, your armor – all burned and turned to glass. Everything, except your courage. That, you gave to us, and with it, we can rebuild.”

#Halo Reach #Halo #roleplay meme #roleplay prompt #rp meme #rp prompt

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captain-ozone · 4 years

Text

okay okay, guys, so I know we’ve seen HP/Batman and ATLA/Batman mashups and crossovers, with numerous discussions about which Houses the Batfam would be Sorted into as well as which elements they would bend.

I raise you: the Batfam in the world of The Magnus Archives. Which Fear Entities might they serve? Which would they abhor? Which might they have been victims to?

Let’s discuss.

(If you’re unfamiliar with The Magnus Archives, it’s a horror/tragedy podcast. Highly recommend. For context, though, here’s some info on the Entities I’m talking about)

Bruce: He’d likely develop an association with The Web, The Eye, or possibly The Dark with an absolute loathing of The Corruption, The Extinction, The Desolation, and, of course, The End. He fights to keep these last four entities out of Gotham while utilizing his association with remarkably contradictory Entities (i.e. The Eye and The Dark) as both a detective and a cowled vigilante. If anyone could pull it off, he could. And does. I mean, Bruce goes out of his way to investigate and reveal corruption, crime, and other plots against the good people of Gotham, which The Eye loves, AND he skulks in the shadows and makes common criminals piss themselves when he comes to get them, all of which The Dark would thrive on. In any case, I imagine he’d resent any favor given to him by ANY of the Entities. The Hunt enjoys Bruce, too, as it would all the members of the superhero community, actually, in some capacity. Another point for The Web? For all the plans and contingencies he makes, he never plans to make a family. Kids just fall in his lap, somehow in the right place and the right time. The Web undoubtedly has a blast with Bruce. It gives him all sorts of plots to unravel while ultimately playing him like a fiddle.

Dick: THE VAST OMG. He’d both be a victim and servant, and I will not take criticism on this point. The Vast is fickle, I think, and Dick would be a perfect plaything for it. As we all know, this poor boy lost his parents due to a fall from the trapeze, and he might have fallen himself, had things been different (*cough cough* I see you, Mother of Puppets). I love fics that put Dick’s love of heights at odds with his trauma (again providing some evidence for a love-hate relationship with this particular Entity), but of course, Dick overcomes the trauma associated with his parents’ fall and rarely leaves his feet on the ground. Heights and open spaces are his heroin. They’re in his blood. He shares this love with the Robins who follow in his footsteps as well as other colleagues in the superhero community. The Vast feeds off their initial fear of heights/grappling/free-falling, or perhaps each heart-stopping reaction they have when they watch Dick do all these wild acrobatic things from high heights. But The Vast isn’t just about heights, is it? It also has to do with a fear of falling into obscurity or feeling insignificant in the grand scheme of things. And we also know Dick has this fear in ABUNDANCE (see as, his oftentimes rocky relationship with his mentor, as well as his desire to be That Shoulder To Lean On in literally every team he’s been a part of). So. Yes. The Vast.

Babs: THE EYE. Her code name is Oracle. She oversees the entire Batfam operation. And is also an information hub for THE BIRDS OF PREY AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE. Like???? This needs no explanation or further discussion.

Jason: Oh god. This boy. Okay. So. He is fascinating, and he’d be fascinating to pretty much every Entity out there, for both good and bad reasons, too. They’d have a field day with him. Let’s look at his death first. He technically escaped The End as well as The Corruption and The Buried when he was resurrected, bodily restored, and forced to dig his way out of his grave. I cannot decide if these three Entities would target him specifically afterwards for having escaped their clutches or if they would be sated knowing how afraid he was at the time of his resurrection. Either way. The Web, also, would have had a hand in pretty much every convoluted part of DC’s many Crises, one of which triggered Jason’s resurrection in the first place. BUT WAIT THAT IS NOT ALL. Jason’s been touched by The Spiral (because who else would the Joker serve???? Actually... lies. I might argue the Joker shakes hands with The Stranger sometimes too, but idk how well those Entities would work together). Outside of his death at the hands of an avatar of The Spiral/The Stranger (which Jason would experience intense fear/loathing toward), the Lazarus Pit is probably a co-instrument of The End (because the fear of death does drive men to seek immortality, does it not?) and The Slaughter (for obvious reasons). During his crime-lord phase, he may have some association with The Hunt and The Desolation in addition to The Slaughter. The Flesh would have loved his duffle bag of heads. Prior to forming a team of Outlaws, he’s likely also been touched by The Lonely. And ALL THIS after being mentored by someone who has an association with The Eye/The Web/The Dark. And having a brother so closely tied to The Vast. In the end, after the Pit Madness has worn off, Jason might have unintentionally found himself an avatar of The End, but I imagine all of the Entities would love or hate him (and possibly even consider him with the same fondness they would a pet that gets passed around between distant family members). He...has a unique relationship with each of them, in any case.

Tim: WEB TIM WEB TIM WEB TIM WEB TIM. This boy was born to serve The Web. Though he very nearly fell prey to The Lonely, on account of his parents’ neglect. Prior to becoming Robin, he had to fight every day to keep himself from being consumed by it. Continuously lying and tricking his caretakers (as well as his parents) into believing he was alright by himself specifically to sneak out and get pictures of Batman was what initially drew The Web to him. After becoming Robin? Whoooo boy. He had free reign and excelled as a master strategist and manipulator. He violently rejects The Lonely, no matter how often it tries to draw him back.

Cass: Like Tim, she’s been touched by The Lonely. Unlike Tim, I like to think she’s made her peace with it and has learned to live in harmony with the mark it left behind. I mean, her father isolated her for most of her childhood and denied her the opportunity to learn how to speak and read. She had no connection to anyone beyond that. The Lonely adored her. Once choosing to join Bruce, she casts off her larger association with The Lonely, obviously, and learns to become a part of a family. Unlike the others in the family, though, she does not serve any other Entity and makes a point not to get too close to any of them, though she does have an uncanny understanding of each of them (and can identify their avatars, victims, and associated artifacts on sight), which puts her closer to The Eye than she likes to acknowledge. Her hatred of The End surpasses Bruce’s.

Stephanie: she’s the hardest for me to decide upon. Tbh, she’s probably a lot like Georgie Barker in TMA. Perhaps her shameless lack of fear/ability to focus beyond her fears makes her uninteresting to the Entities, maybe??? Will come back to her later. And will definitely accept any further thoughts on her.

Damian: The League of Assassins is all about new world order, right? Ra’s al Ghul’s main motivation is to save the world...while also destroying a good portion of it to do so. So we know Damian has grown up around ideals of The Extinction, The End, and The Desolation. After meeting Bruce and moving in to Wayne Manor, it’s hard to shake any loyalty to these Entities. His death and resurrection, like Jason’s, ties him further to The End, but after meeting Jon Kent, Colin Wilkes, Maya Ducard (etc etc) and actually allowing himself the opportunity to be a kid, he doesn’t really serve any Entity, does he? I mean, he probably defers to Bruce’s loyalties in the beginning and continues to do so while learning from his other family members, but he’s probably made no such commitments to any of the Entities himself. Dick’s tie to The Vast may have some impact on him, especially considering how close Dick and Damian are, but I doubt The Vast would have an interest in Damian solely because of it. The kid’s personality and The Vast don’t mesh. I bet Damian may, later, genuinely follow in his father’s footsteps and be a dichotomy by allying himself with The Eye and The Dark. For now, though, he’s a kid and deserves freedom from any Fear Gods.

Duke: you see the state the Joker’s toxin left this kid’s parents in?? Victim of The Spiral/The Stranger, without a doubt. I’m not as up-to-date on his current arc, unfortunately, so I’m not sure which Entity he would end up leaning toward outside of The Eye (by association to the others and due to his own detective skills) but his powers with light put him at distinct odds with The Dark.

#batman #dc comics #the magnus archives #tma au #batman au #mashup #may add more later #but damn please talk to me about this #i need to see what other fans think #despite what i say i actually will accept criticism #and will happily discuss and hear all theories both agreeing with and contradicting me #this is an unedited mess i apologize #but i needed to get these thoughts out of my head

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jinmukangwrites · 5 years

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Nightwing BTHB: Surrender

Smiley/Done // Eyes/Next // Clock/Requested

Summary: (Prompt) Dick Grayson has only been Batman for a few weeks, and already he knows he would do anything for his Robin. Even if that’s giving himself up.

Warnings: Whump, description of injury, blood, canon typical violence

-o-o-o-o-

It's an ambush. Of course it's an ambush. It was too easy, so simple, Dick didn't even think the drug traffickers would purposely leave a trail for him to follow. He let his guard down, and now Robin and he are fighting alone against a small army of mercenaries with no backup or contingency plan.

Bruce would be disappointed. He'd tell Dick that he failed and he didn't prepare for the worst and look where it got them.

And he would be right. It's Dick's fault.

Dick got to used to considering Blüdhaven the worst, got too used to going to Gotham and feeling like it's an almost vacation. He forgot that Gotham criminals are sometimes just as bad as Blüdhaven, sometimes just as corrupt and evil and smart. He forgot that they plan, that they don't ask themselves "what if Batman comes?". No, Batman coming is always apart of the plan. If you want to be successful in Gotham you have to be just as prepared for the worst as Batman himself is.

Dick forgot all of that. He didn't expect the trap, he thought the drug dealers were just lazy and ill prepared and bad at covering their tracks. Dick followed those tracks. Lead him and his partner right into an ambush.

Dammit.

He thought he could handle being Batman, but every day he pulls on the cowl he is reminded of why he never wanted it.

God. He never wanted it.

And as he dodges to the side of a sword aiming right at his gut, he bitterly thinks about how much he hates this. He hates how heavy the costume is. He hates the weight the symbol holds. He hates how Gordon looks at him like he's pitying him, hates how bad guy's are starting to laugh and say Batman's lost his touch, hates hates hates that he's supposed to run the company and raise the son Bruce left behind.

He never wanted this. He hates this. He's not ready to keep doing this but he doesn't have a fucking choice.

Gotham… the world needs a Batman more than Blüdhaven needs Nightwing. And it's not like he can ask Jason or Tim to take over. Jason is too wild, only following the rules because Dick leaves him alone, and Dick can't ask Jason to become the thing he loathes most. Tim is too young. Plus, he's pretty pissed at Dick for ripping away the title of Robin and giving it to a child who thinks he's entitled to it, and for not believing Bruce is still alive somewhere.

And Dick can't believe that. He doesn't have the strength to. If he does and it turns out Tim's hope is wrong… it will destroy Dick.

And Damian doesn't need that. Damian doesn't need that disappointment. Damian needs someone to raise him and train him, someone permanent. He needs a father, and Dick has to be that now, he can't let Damian believe this is all temporary and that his real father will return from the grave, because it might just destroy him more than it will Dick.

He swings a fist out, connecting hard into the jaw of one of his attackers. There's a snapping noise and Dick winces from the feeling of the breaking jaw against his knuckles, but he turns to face another attacker as they fall unconscious.

There's eight more. Ten in total, with the one Dick just knocked down and the one Damian’s taken out earlier.

The battle is slow going. The mercenaries are skilled with the weapons they use. It's not league training as the swords and bows would leave one to assume, they're too forceful and blunt compared to the gracefulness and sharpness of an assassin, but it's still skilled and dangerous to anyone on the wrong side of their sword. Which is currently Batman and Robin, but they totally have it handled…

Yup.

He rushes forwards, fighting off the twitch in his hands to reach towards his back and maybe slightly wondering if it would confuse criminals too much if Batman were to suddenly be using escrima sticks, he engages the next closest merc. Robin is across the room, flipping across another enemy with a fluidity Dick never had and whacking a blunted version of his sword across the back of the enemies neck, making them stumble. Dick doesn't think about that if that weapon was sharp like Damian insists it should be, that man would be without a head.

Dick focuses his fighting on the merc in front of him and throws a punch before they can loose an arrow. He knocks the bow out of their hands and lands a solid blow in their gut, making them grunt and expel all the air they had in their lungs. Before they could recover, Dick shoves a taser into their now bruised stomach and they fall to the ground twitching.

Suddenly, Dick is tugged backwards by the neck and he only has enough time to think about how much he agrees with Edna Mode in the fact that he fucking hates capes before he's spinning around and delivering a vicious roundhouse kick and tugging the stupid cape out of his attackers hands. The next merc goes down. Time to move on towards-

"Batman!"

His blood runs cold as Damian's voice reaches his ears. He spins around and his eyes land on a startling scene.

Damian is being restrained by three separate holds on him. One on each arm and the other holding harshly onto his neck, a sword pressing dangerously onto the child's throat. There's a fourth merc standing a bit off to the side, leveling Dick with a mean glare and an even meaner nocked arrow.

Damian looks frustrated beyond belief, his face red and cheeks slightly puffed out, as he struggles in the hold. Dick realizes that even though the battle lasted quickly, the man that grabbed his cape was just a distraction as the rest of the mercs teamed up on Damian.

Which, is in complete honesty, an impressive thing to do. Dick himself hasn't lost a sparring match against the kid yet, but it's always a very difficult battle to finally pin the vicious brat down. His eyes land on the rumpled cape around Damian's shoulder and he fights off a sigh. They clearly got ahold of his cape too. Fighting with a cape has its pros and cons, and when you fight with it long enough, you learn how to avoid the cons.

Damian has been fighting with a cape for just a few months. He doesn't quite know how to avoid having it be used against him. Letting him have a cape was definitely a bad idea, dammit.

Seriously. Fuck capes.

"Stand down and we won't hurt the kid," the one holding the sword against Damian's neck growls.

Damian snarls and Dick forces himself to not go narrow minded, not to focus on the grimace Damian makes when one of his arms is yanked back too roughly in response. Instead of listening to every fiber of his being telling him to run forward and risk everything to save his little brother, instead of putting his life above the mission, he does what Batman would do.

What Bruce would do.

What Bruce did when it was Dick in the hands of the enemy throughout their career.

He studies. Takes in as much information as he can in a half second glance. The bow man is leaning slightly on his left leg, his right one dripping with blood from what appears to be a stabbing would. Damian's sword is laying on the ground, covered with red and Dick wonders how much force Damian had to spend to impale a blunted weapon into flesh. If Dick were to rush him, he would definitely be able to avoid any arrows being shot his way, but if the man holding the sword against Damian's neck was willing to harm a child then Damian's neck would be slit before any rescue could be made.

The two mercs holding Damian's arms look well enough. If not a few bruises here and there. They would not be easy to take down, but if Dick were to run at them and get at least one to lessen their hold on Damian, then they both can continue the fight. Then again, the man making the threats will still have time to kill Damian. Before Dick could get halfway towards them. It also will leave both Dick and Damian open for a speeding arrow.

All in all, there isn't much he can do without risking Damian's life.

He forces his shoulders to relax. "Leave him alone," he grinds out.

"I will if you lose the belt right now," the man replies.

Dick tries to not look too eager to give himself up but he can't stop how quickly his hands go to his belt when the man pressed the sword ever so slightly against Damian's neck.

"Batman don't-" Damian growls, and Dick cuts off whatever he's going to say with a hardened glare.

The utility belt drops to the ground and he lifts his hands. "Let him go. He's just a kid."

Damian scowls at that but doesn't say anything, thank Jesus. The man loses his hold ever so slightly and there's a small thin line of irritated, thankfully not cut, skin on Damian's neck. "I don't want to hurt any kid, Bats."

Suddenly, the world flashes and tilts and the back of his head explodes in agony. He didn't think that any of the men he had taken out would get up, but one definitely has and definitely just smashed the hit of their sword against his head. He stumbles and Damian's almost panicked voice calls out for him, but everything goes white and fuzzy when his head is hit again and he blinks and finds himself on the cemented floor of the loading docs they have been fighting in.

He forces himself to focus for just a second more, just a second more to see Damian's arms forced behind him and a needle jammed into his neck. Something churns in his stomach, and the voice of Bruce tells him he's just made a huge mistake. His vision lasts just long enough to watch Damian go limp.

And then the black welcomes him.

-o-o-o-o-

Dick feels like shit. Waking up after forcibly being put unconscious is always the absolute worst. Especially if the method to knock him out was a few good whacks to the back of his head.

His thoughts are jumbled, but he thankfully can remember what happened, he just can't focus on the details, but the details aren't important. The bare bones are just enough for him to remember to take advantage of his seemingly sleeping status.

First thing he notices? His head hurts. No surprise there. Don't need to think about that much, probably has a goose egg and maybe a good concussion that he'll have to worry about later, but he can move on from that. Next thing is that his shoulders hurt and his hands are numb, and the back of his neck is killing him.

He's hanging by his hands, rough chains wrapped tightly around his wrists and connected to something above him.

Besides his own breaths, he can both thankfully and not-so-thankfully hear another, smaller person a little while directly ahead of him. He supposes he was hoping that the mercenaries would let Robin go if he surrendered himself, but at least he knows that whatever they injected the kid with it didn't kill him.

For now.

The man holding the sword against Damian's neck didn't sound like he wanted to kill a kid, but Gotham villains, even hired ones, don't usually tell the truth.

Besides the breathing, Dick can't hear anything else. His feet aren't touching the ground so he can't check for vibrations of any kind, so the only thing to do for now is to open his eyes and hope Batman's cowl (which is thankfully still on, thank you Bruce for thinking to electrify it) would cover his eye motions more than Nightwing's mask did.

He slowly blinks his eyes open, still keeping his neck lowered, and luckily the lighting is dim so it doesn't hurt too much, just pounds against the back of his skull a bit. It takes him a few seconds to take in what's in front of him. First thing he sees is most important. Damian is strung up from his wrists much the same way Dick is. He appears to still be unconscious but relatively unharmed, if not a little green around the gills. Dick wonders what they gave him and what kind of side effects Damian will feel once he wakes up. If he's actually asleep or pretending to be like Dick is.

They're both in a metal shipping crate. Gotham has no shortage of them and Dick's been inside plenty to recognize it. He can't look up but he's pretty sure that the dim lighting is coming from a single bulb placed in the center of the crate, between Dick and his partner, and that there are two separate hooks screwed into the ceiling to keep the two hostages hanging.

After a tense minute of waiting with no other sights or sounds to reach him, he decides to risk it and lift his head. His neck smarts from it's previous and rather uncomfortable resting position but he pushes the aching to the side as he stretches his toes downwards. Thankfully the tips of his toes can reach the floor, so it takes off some of the weight from his shoulders.

"Robin," he risks, his voice scratchy and dry. Man, what he would do for a glass of water right now. He doesn't want to think about how thirsty Dami will be from waking up after being drugged. "C'mon, Robin."

Damian doesn't move and a spike of worry rises at the forefront of his mind. What did they give him?!

"Little bird, can you wake up for me?" He asks, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible.

The kid's eyebrows simply twitch a bit, but nothing else happens.

Dick purses his lips and looks up at his chained hands. The gloves are off, and glancing at Damian he's very much the same, and the chains are wrapped so tightly around his wrists that his fingers are pale and the skin that's pinched between the chain links are an angry red. Already, dark bruises are starting to form under the harsh bits of metal. There's a padlock keeping it all together so it's hostage can hang from an eye hook—just as he suspected—that's been screwed into the ceiling.

He thinks that maybe he can lift himself up and grab the lockpick his boot, it will definitely strain his shoulders that are already in a dangerous way, but he could do it. Risk snapping a wrist by putting all the strain on them, but he's been through worse. He's jumped over rooftops and fought people like the Joker with worse.

He's just about to curl up into the most painful version of a lift when a harsh clang fills the metal container. Dick considers for a second to continue what he was doing, but he figured it would take him longer to even work his leg to his hands than it would be for the door to their prison to open. In fact, with a glance behind him, he saw it was already opening.

He thinks that maybe he should pretend to be back asleep, but then his eyes catch on a camera wired into the corner of the container, just above the door now sliding open. He curses himself, Bruce wouldn't have missed that.

Four bodies file into the room and Dick's eyes instantly narrow on the man who had just some time ago held a sword to a kid's neck. He doesn't exactly recognize who the other three are; just that they are three out of the other eight mercenaries they fought. The last six were nowhere to be seen.

The door rolls shut behind the captors and Dick tenses when he notices not only the swords against their backs, but the wooden baseball bat in the leader's hands. It is almost ironic that it's a bat, Dick was beat with one of those in his first year of Robin. He guesses it's only fitting he'll have to face one of those things within his first year of being Batman too.

Jason has his thing with crowbars. Dick has his with baseball bats.

"Little bird, huh?" The leader asks, grinning. Dick feels his whole body go even more tense. They wouldn't.

"Leave Robin alone," he barks and God he almost sounds like Bruce. Roy and Wally have told him he has a glare that could rival Batman's, so he makes sure to throw that at them too.

It works. One of them even flinch.

The leader only frowns a bit. "We don't want to hurt the kid. We said we wouldn't if you gave yourself up."

"And Gotham's criminals have a streak for keeping to their word," Dick replies dryly.

The leader sighs. "Look, we were hired to take you out and you alone. Rough you up, break some bones, and make sure you can't follow. Your little bird is only here to make sure you cooperate."

"Stop calling him that."

A flash of irritation streaks across the leader's face and another hired sword lifts a hand to her lips and hides a smirk. Good to see someone is enjoying this.

And then, Dick is winded.

Jason has an issue with crowbars. Dick knows this because he's seen criminals try to hit him with one and if they actually land a hit Jason goes a bit more ham than normal on them. He'll drop the guns and the rubber bullets, rip the crowbar from their hands, and beat them instead, deathly silent and he'll keep silent until the next week, lips turned down in a barely contained rage.

Dick can't hope to compare his own issues with Jason's, but it's hard to not go back to that courthouse all those years ago as the wooden bat is whacked against his side, snapping a bone. It's hard to not see that half handsome, half ugly face of Two-Face, the purple and yellow suit, the gallows, Batman watching. When the bat hits against his jaw, it's even harder to keep himself in the present, even harder to not smell the rotten stench that follows Two-Face wherever he goes.

He has to remind himself that he's Batman now. Two-Face is in Arkham. It's Damian that's Robin and he should be just behind him, unconscious, blissfully unaware of the sharp snapping that fills the air when the bat hits his left shin just right. Dick can barely contain a scream, grinding his teeth and choking the noise with his own tongue. He can't imagine where Jason goes when he's hit with a crowbar. He can't imagine. If Dick goes back to a courthouse, Jason must go back to hell.

The beating stops after a few more hits to his chest and abdomen, and Dick's thankfully able to hold back any screams that Nightwing would probably have let out. The cape hanging on his shoulders and the cowl pulled over his face is too heavy, too important for him to show these assholes any weakness besides a clenched jaw and a glare sharper than their swords. His leg is pulsing and he definitely has a couple broken ribs that are currently screaming out in pain. It could be worse. The Kevlar on the suit's remarkable, definitely better than what Dick wore when he was nine years old. It's really just the pressure of his entire body weight on his wrists and his struggles to make purchases on his toes that's inflaming the smarting of his newest injuries.

The leader is breathing hard, his hair now out of place, but his face is calm, cool, and collected. Normally, a beating like that would involve some sort of grudge or angry yelling, but this guy is literally just doing his job. He could care less how injured Batman gets, as long as he gets paid.

Dick spit at him, a glob of blood, phlegm, and a broken tooth hitting him in the face. One of the grunts smirked and another oohed.

Not the smartest move. Definitely not the smartest move. Batman would have remained silent, glaring, maybe demand answers, but Dick can feel his temper flaring up beneath his skin and he acted before he could think about it. All the frustration and anger that's been bubbling under the surface is almost impossible to control in situations like this.

"I don't want to hurt you anymore than what I have to," the leader says in a deadly calm voice, wiping the thick blood off his face and brushing the tooth off from his shoulder. "But keep that up, it won't be only you getting the beating."

"If you touch Robin I'll tear you to shreds," Dick snarls back, jerking forward in his restraints, almost losing his balance and pulling at his wounds. "Robin has nothing to do with this. He's just following orders. Your issues are with me, jackass."

The leader sighs and hands the bat to the woman merc next to him. "Clearly, you still need to be broken."

She smiles wickedly and Dick tenses, preparing himself for another beating, and she lifts the bat above her head and is about to bring it down with brutal force upon his head, but suddenly, a flash of red, green, and yellow and the woman is calling out as a steel toed boot kicks in her face.

The others hardly even have time to react before Robin continues his miraculous attack. Dick is left staring wide eyed at his partner and Robin kick the legs out from the leader and then punches another right in the sweet spot of their gut, knocking out all air. There's a viciousness to Robin's movements, something Dick has scolded him over and over about, but right now he can't find it in himself to care that Robin's doing a bit more damage than necessary.

As Robin works on one of the grunts, he doesn't notice the leader angrily scrambling to his feet and pulling out a dagger. Batman grinds his jaw, ignoring how much this is gonna hurt, and kicks his legs up, wrapping his thighs around his neck and squeezing.

The leader is shocked by the attack from behind but is aware enough to plunge his dagger into Dick's leg. Dick bites back a cry and tightens his hold, ignoring the warmth now dripping down his thigh.

A couple seconds pass, and finally the leader slumps and Dick releases, returning to his feet and wincing at the blood trailing down his shredded wrists thanks to his entire body weight being hung on them. His chest is tight with pain and his broken leg is pulsing, his impaled thigh still housing the knife.

"Batman-" Damian says, punching the lights out of the last merc and running over to Dick. Dick flashes a smile but Damian ignores it as he studies the chains locked around Dick's wrists.

Damian is looking a little green around the gills, and that worries Dick a tiny bit.

"You alright?" Dick asks and Damian clicks his tongue irritably and walks over to the leader of the mercenaries. He digs his coat pocket and pulls out a key to the deadlock to the chains and then starts dragging the leaders unconscious body closer to Dick's feet.

Damian steps on the leader like a step ladder and reaches up to the deadlock with his arms outstretched. Dick winces when he catches sight of Damian's hands.

So that's how he got out.

"Can you land on your feet?" Damian asks before Dick can confront him. Dick swallows and chooses to not mention his two injured legs and simply nods. Damian clicks his tongue again, huffing in exasperation, before shoving the key into the lock. With a turn and a little bit of fiddling, the support of the chains are gone and Dick is suddenly falling down onto his ass rather harshly. Every single one of his wounds smart and he winces as a sharp bolt of pain travels up his spine, but he pushes that to the side as Damian bends down to help Dick to his feet.

"No," Dick says, and he holds out his hands, wrists bloodied and torn but it's nothing compared to Damian's hands.

Damian looks nervous for a second before he slowly gives Dick his own hands. Dick sighs as he gently turns Damian's bare hands over in his own. The thumbs are swollen and bent at the wrong angle. His skin is practically shredded around his wrists and up the back of his hands. Somehow, Damian has managed to break his thumbs and violently squeeze out the chains without anyone noticing.

"Robin…" Dick says.

"I'm fine."

Dick sighs because he's clearly not fine. His eyebrows are pulled together slightly in barely contained agony. The chains were too tight to simply dislocate the joints of the thumbs. Breaking thumbs is dangerous and could easily go very, very wrong. Damian has just fought with them, has just helped Dick escape with them. He needs them splinted and looked at by a professional quickly.

If he had his damn belt, he would be able to slip on a couple splints onto Damian, but he has no clue where their belts went.

"We need to get your hands looked at," he says and Damian huffs.

"You're the one whose severely injured. I know how to break my thumbs safely. I'm not the one who we should be worrying about."

Dick sighs, gently letting go on Damian's hands and Damian instantly brings then both to his chest. He doesn't want to think about the kind of training Damian has gone through to know how to "safely" shatter his thumbs.

"We need to get out of here," Dick says and Damian nods and scoots closer. He grabs Dick's arm (thankfully careful with his broken joints) and helps Dick stand up. His broken leg wants to give out and his stabbed one is shaking like a leaf, but with the help of Robin clinging to his waist they both manage to open the container and stumble out into the ocean and exhaust fume tinted air of Gotham's docks.

The rest is an almost pain filled blur. There isn't anyone else at the docks, probably all left towards the real location of the deal, and Dick doesn't even let Damian suggest he goes to find them. Dick is perfectly content with chalking this up as a loss for the night and he'd rather wait a few days to get more information and to heal than try to take out the bad guy's that night and possibly just get captured again. They find there belts and gloves stuffed inside a Jeep parked a bit away from the container used to imprison them (which now is locked with the mercenaries all inside, waiting for the cops Dick's about to call) and Dick pings for the Batmobile to their location after they do some basic first aid on their wounds.

By the time Dick and Damian return to the cave, Dick's falling asleep on his feet, and he vaguely recognizes the symptoms of a concussion and of shock, but he forces himself to stay awake and doesn't even let Leslie give him any pain meds until he sees Alfred slipping sturdy braces on Damian's hands with the worst of the cuts cleaned and stitched up.

Only after his Robin is safe does Dick let himself fall asleep.

-o-o-o-o-

Damian sits next to Dick quietly, spinning his spoon around in his partly melted bowl of ice cream. He's just been put in the clear after much therapy on his thumbs a few days prior and they both are celebrating finally taking out the drug bust the night before. Dick sets his empty bowl to the side and leans back further into the cushions of the couch, mentally patting himself on the back.

But then Damian speaks.

"Father wouldn't have let us get captured."

Dick stiffens. He almost forgot how insistent Damian is with comparing Dick's "inepitcy" to Bruce's perfection.

"D…"

"He would have found a way to get the criminals," Damian continues and each word is like a blow, a blow ringing with truth, as he too puts his ice cream bowl aside. Bruce probably would have found a way out of that. He most likely wouldn't even had fallen for the tricks Dick did. "And we would have taken them all down, together. Returned home with minimal injury."

Silence. A beat. Dick's heart is in his throat with shame.

"That's… what I keep trying to tell myself," Damian says, his voice going soft and quiet, whispered so Dick can hardly even hear what was said.

"What… do you mean, Dami?"

"… It's my fault. I got us captured."

Dick leans forward and turns down the TV, resting his elbows on his knees and bending sideways to get the best look he can at his Robin. "What are you talking about?"

"If I hadn't…" Damian stops and licks his lips, nervous energy making him clasp his hands in front of him. Dick feels a pang of worry, he's never seen Damian like this. "If I hadn't gotten grabbed, you would have been able to take them all out. I should have been your support, not your burden. Robin protects Batman. It's my fault."

"Oh… Dami..."

He almost expects Damian to resist when he brings his arms forward to embrace him, and tears almost fill his eyes the second when notices that Damian is already leaning towards his touch. He pulls Damian to his chest and holds him close, one hand slipping into Damian's hair and cradling his head into the crook of Dick's neck. He feels a tiny fist grab onto his shirt and he forces the sadness and worry and anger aside just to hold Damian, a kid who's only known his father for a few weeks, as tight as he dares.

Which is very tight.

"It's not your fault," Dick says, conviction in his voice. "It's not Robin's job to protect Batman, it's exactly the other way around."

Dick didn't realize that himself until he became Batman. He always agreed with Robin's current standpoint. Jason agreed. Tim agreed. Steph did too. The point of Robin was to make sure Batman didn't go insane.

But once he pulled on the cowl, he finally saw how small a ten year old really is. He can only imagine how small nine year old Dick looked to Batman all those years ago. He can only imagine the pain in Bruce's heart whenever Dick proudly said that it's his job to protect him.

Well, nevermind, right now he doesn't really need to imagine the pain. He's feeling it now. It's agonizing.

Children shouldn't fight wars.

Unfortunately, they live in a world where they must.

"It's my job to make sure you're safe, Damian, and I'm so… so proud of how you handled that night, broken thumbs and all. I'm proud of you. Your father would be too, if he was here."

Damian doesn't cry. Doesn't hiccup a sob. But Dick can feel his fist clench just a bit tighter around his shirt. So Dick holds him a bit closer, and hopes Damian believes him.

Then… very softly that Dick isn't even sure he heard it.

"Father would be proud of you too, Grayson."

#jin writes #badthingshappenbingo #nightwing #dick grayson #damian wayne #batman #dc comics #robin #big bro dick grayson #whump #cross posted on AO3 #dc #dcu #batman and robin

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spaceorphan18 · 4 years

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It doesn’t bother me, but I know some people didn’t like Blaine not having a say about the Sebastian tape in Michael. Same with the scene outside scandals in TFT.

@catcat-85 said: I did not like how Kurt got mad at Blaine for redecorating the loft when he moved in. He was not making room for Blaine and making him feel welcome. I also did not like how he reacted to Blaine telling him maybe he’s bi when he was confused about his sexuality after kissing Rachel. What Kurt said to him was harsh.

@gleefulpoppet said: Living in that loft with no walls/doors with roomates on the couch was ridiculous, there was no way they could win in that situation. And I agreed that Kurt getting mad at Blaine for trying to make some space (with tape no less, just testing it out) was ridiculous.

I’m just going to respond to everything here because I can’t do normal replies anymore, boo!

Blaine not having a say about the Sebastian tape in Michael.

I mean yeah, I think he should have had a say - there were a lot of things that were murky about that whole thing, but I kind of think of it as a Blaine story more than a Klaine story? And (probably terrible of me) I don’t think of it as much of a story in general, so I feel more indifferent towards that.

Same with the scene outside scandals in TFT.

God, this damn scene. What’s funny is this - I love TFT, I love their story in TFT, I have no issues with it. Because relationships are murky and complicated and things don’t fall into black and white categorizes.

What pisses me off about the stupid fandom shenanigans on this, though, was that this was the birth of the whole Better Boyfriend Olympics. The whole hubbub over the scene became so overblown -- partly because there was a contingency who didn’t like Blaine and they wanted him to fail -- partly because there were (are) a lot of (usually younger) who became disillusioned when this seemingly perfect love story took a dark turn for a half second.

God, I could go on, but I’ll spare you. So -- from a fiction/production POV, I loved it. From a fandom POV, it was the worst.

I did not like how Kurt got mad at Blaine for redecorating the loft when he moved in. He was not making room for Blaine and making him feel welcome.

That’s fair! It doesn’t bother me much - if only the reason the whole thing happened was to shed light on their issues, and the point of the last moment in TURBP was to show they came full circle (which doesn’t fully track into season 6 but, eh, they weren’t sure if they were coming back or not, so I let slide.)

I also did not like how he reacted to Blaine telling him maybe he’s bi when he was confused about his sexuality after kissing Rachel. What Kurt said to him was harsh.

This is another one I have complex feelings about. First of all, maybe I guess I don’t mind when Kurt and Blaine become flawed, because I feel it rounds out their characters. Maybe I’ll write up (or dig up the meta on) this before - cause I’ve gone more in depth, but tl:dr version - while I do agree that what Kurt said was out of line and wrong, I understand the why of where it came from, and it’s not something I dislike.

Living in that loft with no walls/doors with roommates on the couch was ridiculous, there was no way they could win in that situation. And I agreed that Kurt getting mad at Blaine for trying to make some space (with tape no less, just testing it out) was ridiculous.

The loft situation was ridiculous, less than ideal, and while probably realistic that poor mid-western college kids are probably living on top of each other in NYC, I don’t fully buy that an engaged couple would remain in that situation -- nor do I buy Blaine moving out before Kurt kicking Rachel out. But, I’m fond of the NYC arc, so I wouldn’t put it last on my list.

These are all interesting choices with definitely some baggage behind them - but there’s not anything here that I /hate/ so interesting... Love hearing you’re guys’s thoughts!

#gonna think some more about this myself #Anonymous

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sharpen-jadescythe · 4 years

Text

Sharpen was almost an SI: 7 Seal

Source: Pinterest

Read time: 20 mins, maybe less?

The water was loud, stinging, damn freezing. Sharpen knew he was being punished by the ocean that day. Every stroke through the icy saltwater sent pain ripping back through his bicep, up into his shoulders, a hot thread he could imagine, searing down his spine.

He knew he was at the head of the pack. The other ‘seal pups’, if they weren’t half dead, were benefiting from the drag he created in the water as he lunged, and kicked. Another guy had almost been hanging on his back, he was so desperate to keep up with him.

Sharpen’s first instinct was to let the poor guy hang on. He was a fellow Alliance comrade, and there was no reason to let him drown. But then this guy started to throw his whole weight on the Night Elf’s body, and Sharpen knew drowning was a real risk. Sharpen then suspected it was Hael--that hotheaded Dwarf who’d tried to keep him up the night before their endurance test with drinking games. Bastard really wasn’t playing around this time! Or, Hael was freezing and panicked. But this was beyond foolish, and who knew what beasts were down in that water, watching for any in the squadron of swimmers to show weakness and struggle. Hael could get them both killed.

“Seals survive. Seals overcome at any cost... For the Alliance!”

Sharpen knew what SI: 7 Seal training demanded of him. And, he accepted halfway into the race that swimming on this scale was no different than any fist fight he’d been in. The water was brutalizing them, he’d been kicked ‘accidentally’ in the face, twice. Good thing Sharpen gulped air every few strokes and didn’t need his bleeding nose to really breathe in this element.

“Hael, cut it out!”

Talking was a waste. A waste of breath, energy, time. Two other men pulled ahead while Sharpen floundered, trying to deal with the anxious Dwarf.

Sharpen threw his body, rolling as easily as any real seal could, then punched Hael in the jaw. Sharpen then completed his swing under the water, punching into a new powerful stroke.

Hael was gurgling somewhere behind him now, splashing with new determination. Hopefully coming to his senses. But that felt... wrong.

SI: 7 made it clear that they only wanted the best people available. They were to prove their status, without a doubt. Anyone who fell short ‘was like a kid with a firecracker’ considered to be a danger Seal missions and the Alliance.

It hurt to do that to Hael, but it also sort of proved Matthias Shaw’s theories.

Now, Sharpen was at the head of the pack again. The Draenei man, Milnon Anaar and Felicia Graves, who was a Human, but could have been born a mermaid, they were the ones who managed to lap Sharpen before, when Hale jumped him. But they intelligently let Sharpen re-gain his lead and did much the same thing as Hale was doing. Going easily in Sharpen’s current as he swam hardest of all. A few strokes more and they’d pull up and lap him again.

It wasn’t necessary to do. The top three, surely all of those would get taken on. But nobody wanted to take a chance. Anybody else might pull some trick and race ahead. A sudden wave might knock them aside and send Hael careening to the front. They were supposed to leave nothing to chance, and have contingency plans ontop of that.

SI: 7 Seals got dropped into situations precisely like this one, in nothing but their standard Alliance swim skivvies beneath whatever light equipment they could swim in. (Today, the instructors were being ‘nice’ letting them swim in just the standard blue trunks, with a bold white ‘A’ on the hip.) These were the men and women who got deployed in the most politically imbalanced or unnatural situations but that was their whole purpose, survive and then to force hope and a foothold. The first Alliance agent in Voldun, who got the pirates and a few other locals to give them the edge and stop the Horde--he was an SI: 7 agent. Another Night Elf, actually. Silas Freedale.

A bit biased, but it was the other reason Matthias and some of the other officials were looking at Sharpen to ace this fitness test. Night Elves were showing themselves to be excellent swimmers. SI: 7 Seals who were druids, those were rare. That talent was usually already snapped up by the Cenarion Circle.

Fitness test? Feels more like a fitness assault, but okay...

Sharpen lifted his head up for breath and a final glance at the icy shore. Northrend was more or less settled after the Lich King conflict. The first one back to Honor Hold should have their spot in the Seals secure.

Sharpen wanted to give way and let Milnon and Felicia take it. He was tired. Then, somehow, Sharpen got angry. Furious. This contest felt like a waste of time. There were more dire causes... something about being a Seal was so much more than competitive. It was about glory, being able to brag about it. Some of them retired with a big payout after only a few body-obliterating years in the service and started up their own mercenary firms that did really well. That didn’t actually feel like serving the Alliance, or his people for that matter. How much good could a guy do while his ego was that puffed up, feeling better than the regular footsoldiers who flung themselves into the front lines. And those men and women treated each other like family, saw their stake in the conflict that way. Milnon or Felicia, cute as she was in that blue and white bikini, either of them would gut Sharpen if they got the chance. Sabatoge him to have his spot, with a smile. Not a fancy chance to show off. And to get there? Kicking people in the head, battering them when they have every right to fear drowning or being eaten by some shark...

Times like this, the SI: 7 Seals felt like a bunch of snooty arseholes.

Then, speaking of, the torpedo-like shadow of something in the depths, trailing him, snapped Sharpen out of his uglier thoughts. The shark was busy racing him to the shore, drawn in by the scent of his bloody nose.

They had a few more strokes before they had to do anything about overtaking Sharpen, but Milnon and Felicia suddenly started pulling ahead. It was because they’d seen it, too. The shark knew Sharpen was the more tired one, and wanted to try picking him off.

“Bastards... you’d leave me to a shark?!”

But that was another part of the test. Everyone told them this. And a realistic scenario for an SI: 7 Seal, at that. Eventhough all of this felt like the exact opposite of what the Alliance stood for.

Sharpen had enough. He finally fought for it. He elbowed Felicia in the face when she attempted to shove his head down, so he couldn’t get a breath. Milnon must have really been pissed, because he attempted to tackle and just drag Sharpen down with his sheer bulk. Sharpen rolled as he had before, to punch out Hale. Milnon would have seen that same move before. Sharpen guessed as much, since it was mainly a fake. He hooked an arm under Milnon’s bigger one, then tensed biceps, his whole rippling upper body in the effort to drag him in the shallows. Sharpen then regained his shorelegs first, and slammed the big blue Draenei hard into sandy, shallow water. Milnon was furious and grabbed Sharpen’s ankle. Sharpen jammed his foot into Milnon’s shoulder, came up with a hard kick beneath the Draenei’s tentacled jaw. Sharpen later admitted to himself that some of that was revenge.

Then, nose and mouth bloodied, sopping wet, foamy water sliding down over his hanging shoulders, his naked back, the flimsy little blue trunks sliding down one hip, Sharpen marched his big, coral-colored, green haired Night Elf self right up to the officials waiting there.

One of them had to be Mathias Shaw, because when Sharpen throttled the first real, fully-fledged SI: 7 Seal he saw, throwing them down into the sand and screaming at the top of his lungs that they were a rotten, man-eating organization for putting him through this abuse for a whole year, exposing him to these horrifying personalities, and they could shove his commission up their own flagrant arseholes...

Sharpen was sent home immediately and never got another communication from the Seals again.

But, seeing as how those sexy Alliance swimtrunks were very hard to come by? Sharpen most definitely kept those.

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batb1tch · 5 years

Text

It’s my boy’s birthday so here are some Jason Todd head-canons 🎉

Probably 3rd to last (Alfred and Bruce) on the list of ‘understanding internet slang’ in the household. He died and just sort of fell behind on the times (including memes, pop culture references,etc..) I know he’s known for making snarky quips and sarcastic comments but I have no doubt his siblings would call him out on his outdated references. It’s likely it’d really piss him off too like, knowledge is really everything to this kid and here he is with a group of teenagers who are always on top of shit (Steph, Tim, Duke, even Dick) and he doesn’t know what they’re talking about the majority of the time. Can’t figure out how to use Twitter or Snapchat and he does not have the patience to learn. It’s a genuine sore spot for him regardless of the humorous side.

Has an inner city accent that will never leave him. Still pronounce “on” like “awn” and frequently drops his r’s (which Bruce acts like he hates but really he finds it endearing.) Drops his “ing”s like “nothing” is “nothin.”

Fantastic chef, learned from the best. Very good at making something out of nothing and making it last. Steph has been showing him how to can things like fruit and vegetables. She’s basically just enabled his doomsday prepping behavior.

Speaking of, if you think Bruce is bad with the backup plans (yes there is always a b c d — z) where do you think Jay got it from? Absolutely anal about planning and contingencies. Has a backup for his backups.

Has a small hoard of books hidden in an end-table back at one of his safe houses. His favorite classics (mostly gifted by Bruce.)

Loves the smell of paper.

Definitely could use them but refuses to get glasses. Babs teases him for his squinting when she gets the chance.

“Just join the club book-worm, promise it won’t ruin your badass reputation.”

Jason ~squinting~ “I’d rather die....again.”

Collects cool bookmarks.

Definitely names his guns.

Favorite meal is literally any Spanish/Mexican dish followed by a good chili dog & a coke.

Can pack away enough food to feed a horse and keep going, not even Bruce knows how he does it. Alfred acts like he’s a pain in the ass to cook for but loves feeding him anyways. “You’ll eat us out of house and home someday my dear boy, good god.”

While we’re at it, he is 100% taller and wider than Bruce. You might think it makes Bruce a bit uncomfortable when standing right next to him (I mean...it does lol) but he absolutely loves when Jay throws his weight around because the malnourished string-bean of a child that he met on the street could now powerlift a small automobile and he is so fucking proud and happy that he grew up to be big and healthy (that he managed to grow up AT ALL mind you) how could he be mad? He probably tears up at the dinner table after Jay fills his plate for 4th time that evening and still intends to stay for dessert because he loVES HIM.

His feet definitely hang off the end of his bed by like, the shins because his room only has a full compared to everyone else’s king/queen. It never got upgraded when he hit puberty (because he was dead) and then he wouldn’t let anyone change it once he came back because that’s his bed “don’t fucking touch it I still fit just fine.” (Even though he’s like 22 and there’s a dip in the mattress that could put the Grand Canyon to shame.)

Still has a picture of Catherine hidden away. Visits her grave on the anniversary and always brings her favorite flowers (Lillie’s.)

His hands get cold really easily and they’re always dry/calloused.

Snores. Loudly.

The Lazarus pit did NoT heal his autopsy scar that shit is there for life and it is big and it is ugly. He doesn’t like taking his shirt off because of it and the look on Bruce’s face when he sees it could strip wallpaper.

Stopped dying the lock of white hair on his head.

Has spring allergies that turn him into a giant snotting watery eyed whiny baby.

He’s claustrophobic and not a fan of the dark. It’s why his helmet has night vision.

(While we’re at it, that helmet has to be the equivalent of like, iron mans on the inside. Definitely has built in comms, scopes, analysis systems, navigation, etc etc. the WORKS. whICH he designed and created himself because he’s brilliant.) (Actually Roy might have helped a little but don’t tell him that.)

Has a work-in-progress bike in the cave that hasn’t been finished for over 2 years and it will never be finished because he uses it as an excuse to hangout and spend time with Bruce. Drives Steph crazy to see it sit there but she gets it.

During his first Thanksgiving with Bruce and Alfred he cried for 15 minutes before dinner (which he’s still embarrassed about to this day) and then ate until he literally puked. He hasnt missed many Thanksgivings since he died.

TERRIBLE at 1st-person-shooters and super pissed about it.

“That’s not even realistic, an HK-416 doesn’t even have a 200 round drum. It’s bonkers! It’s madness Tim!”

“Shut the fuck up Jason you haven’t even been facing the right way since we started.”

(He’ll stick to Space Invaders and Mario fuck you very much.)

Really good at piano. Bruce asked him to start playing seriously when he moved in because “learning a musical instrument teaches self -discipline and versatility” but really it’s because one day during his Robin years Jay sat down and started plinking on the keys to a song he learned at the public youth-center on the “old shitty out of tune” wood one they had and it just happened to be a song Martha used to play Bruce all the time. He wanted to hear it fill the halls again.

Gets in a screaming match with Bruce nowadays and instead of lighting up one of Penguin’s underground casinos (like he might of used to 👀) he’ll disappear for a month to cool down. You can always tell when he gets over it though because he sends the family a postcard from wherever he is in the world. (Alfred puts them all on the fridge.)

Pit symptoms used to (and occasionally still do) include horrific night terrors, black-out rage, and brief moments of hallucinations or flashbacks. He had to relive the period of time shortly after he was pulled out through graphic and warped recollections (typically after not getting enough sleep or engaging in physical altercations.) He really only started to work through this after Ducra had suggested keeping a log and writing down everything he could remember. After a time he was able to piece together the things he had experienced or done (mostly to others) and as awful and horrible as knowing may have been, he could at least start to move on.

The more time he spent with Damian after he came back the more he could remember as well. He will occasionally speak to him in Arabic & not even realize he’s doing it (which scares the pants of Dames, himself, and Bruce.)

He does feel closer to the little gremlin because of it though. Talia likely had him as a baby with her the majority of the time after he was born and Jay was recovering/training, so he spent a substantial amount of time with both of them.

Bruce bought him a kindle for Christmas one of the first years he was back and he was (and still is but don’t tell the old man that) elated.

Occasionally mumbles in his sleep, usually in a variety of languages.

He does smoke, mostly only when he gets stressed out (because everyone reams him for it otherwise.) You’d think it’s a rebellious street kid thing but it’s actually because Catherine used to smoke the same brand and the smell reminds him of her.

His shoe size is a 13.

The time shortly after he crawled out of his own grave he could see ghosts (and I’m talking straight up dead people.) He can’t recall much of this or the time spent actually deceased (even after his dunk in the pit) but even now he’ll see things move out of the corner of his eye or get cold chills or feel like he’s being watched. When he hasn’t slept for like, 4 days and is bordering on manic depressive and harmful behavior, he starts seeing them again. Constantine prob finds him real interesting.

My guess is that he did see Catherine when he died but overall ended up in some sort of purgatory-like state which he can’t recall.

When he blushes it’s the hollows of his cheeks, back of the ears and neck and all the way down the front of his chest. The autopsy scar shows up white against it.

Has those hands that no matter how many times he washes them the oil/gun cleaner doesn’t come out of the cracks. Looks like a mechanic.

Tends to wear thicker work/type clothing like carhart fireproof pants and boots. Obviously his jacket too.

Not a fan of cold weather at all. His nose and cheek get really red and he shivers (as unmanly as that is)

OCD. His apartments are spotless, weapons and ammunition categorized and logged, etc.

Had asthma as a child and sort of grew out of it but sometimes his endurance suffers as an adult because of it.

Has this particular phone case 💀

#jason todd #jason peter todd #dc #batfam #red hood

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