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spacedace · 8 months

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Reluctant War AU Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Everything I know about Flash and the FlashFam (& Flash enemies) comes from fandom and theflashmuseum on tiktok so fair warning on that lol

Sorry if Barry is out of character or things don't line up with canon. Canon is a stranger I think I passed in a crowded room once, I did not ask for its number lol

Anyway, time to touch a bit more on that whole Ancient of the Speedforce Elle thing yeah? Here be a sprinkle more of that and I promise there's more to come haha

Gonna start posting this on Ao3 soon, probably Monday or Tuesday, so heads up I may stop adding these parts here on tumblr once I do

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It lived beneath his skin.

For a long time Barry had never believed in magic. His world was grounded, scientific, made of predictable rules and laws. Tools that could be used to explain everything strange or supernatural away as just another odd twist of the massive universe they all belonged to.

It took perhaps a little longer than it should have to admit that magic was as real as thermodynamics and gravity and atoms. That the world was a great deal stranger than even science - for all its own wildness at times - could account for. There were things that went bump in the night. Hells below and heavens above and things that crawled and clawed their way out from the places in between.

It was almost a little embarrassing how long it had taken him to admit to such things, when considering his relationship with the Speedforce.

A force of the universe. Like gravity or time, pushing and pulling everything along. Something that could be explained with all the familiar scientific concepts that had buoyed him along in life for so long.

Except.

Buzzing, burning, blistering. Not painful but felt. Making his hair stand on end, his fingers tingle and numb. Sliding against his veins, bouncing between scar tissue and freckles. Pressing out from the confines of his sternum, rattling against his rib cage as it shifted and moved. Twining around each and every vertebrae. Coiling over and under itself within his skull, darting along the paths of his neurons and nerves. It hummed in every cell in his body. Darted and danced in the space between the atoms that made up his very existence.

The Speedforce lived beneath his skin.

Lived.

Not existed. Not contained. Lived.

He couched it in terms of science, but science - despite his long time refusal to acknowledge it - wasn’t really able to explain the full scope of what he could feel. Not just the power of the Speedforce, but the…the identity of it. The living part that made it’s home in his body, existing in a way that was separate from him. Distant and indistinct most of the time, but…sentient.

He could feel it. Warm and excitable, delighting every time he tapped into it. Pushing him from behind urging him on and on, tugging him forward from ahead beckoning to go, faster, faster. Joyful in his victories, despairing in his loses.

It lived beneath his skin.

Until it didn’t.

He followed its joyful calls, pushed beyond what he should, what he knew was safe. Chasing that welcoming chant of faster, faster until he was there. In the Speedforce. More even, was the Speedforce.

He was everywhere. Beyond everywhere. In every possible everywhere it was possible to be. Every world, every universe, every multiverse.

To enter the Speedforce, to merge with it, was to become part of existence itself.

He couldn’t remember everything about it once he came back. He got flashes, sometimes, quick moments in dreams of places, of moments. What stuck with him most had been the feeling of it all. That had been the hardest part of returning. The sense of terrible loss, of having been surrounded by such a giddy, delighted, devoted love only to be pulled back from the heart of it. Returned to how he had been before, drifting at the edge of it all, it had been painful, agonizing even.

He…adapted, eventually. The sense of it all was still there, just distant. Something he’d come to feel he’d see again, someday.

It had been different, recently.

His powers were the same, he just as fast as ever, but…there was something…off. Changed. A sense that while his speed remained, the Speedforce had become, for lack of a better word, quiet. Distant.

He’d been having dreams, since it started. Not the quick glimpses of his time where he’d merged with the Speedforce. No, instead they were more nightmarish. Not nightmares exactly, though he felt like they should be with what they contained, but something else. Something that felt unnervingly real, left him confused and reeling when he woke with the certainty that when he opened his eyes he’d see the same as what his dreams held.

In the dream, he was in a room.

Cement and metal, hostile and brutalistic in design. He was bound in place, standing upright with feet and hands spread wide and locked in place within strange devices. Gleaming chrome and brilliant green, a painful thrum of energy surging through his body - not the Speedforce, something else, deeply unpleasant pulsing through every cell of his being and freezing him in place more firmly then the restraints did. Projectors hung from the ceiling, displaying images of landscapes, changing every ten second or so.

The sight of them made him nauseous, body shivering and spasming with the burning, agonizing need to go, but at the same time there was something distantly soothed by them too. Like a gnawing hunger abated with water and crumbs. The need for food not gone but the pangs diminished by the false feeling of being full.

In the dream he felt like he was dying.

In the dream he was afraid that maybe he couldn’t.

That he’d be trapped alive in that state forever, watching places he’d never see in person again as he was trapped in one place. His mind spiraling his Core splintering under the weight of it all, scared so scared. He wanted his brother, wanted to see the cement walls explode into dust and debris and see him there, ready to save the day like he had so many times before.

He just had to wait. His brother was looking for him, would have everyone in the Realms looking for him. He just had to hold on.

Barry didn’t have a brother. He only remembered when he woke, heart hammering in his chest fast even by his own standards, mouth tasting of bile and body aching with the need to go.

He hadn’t been sleeping much these days, even before the King of the Dead declared war.

It was having its effects, as sleep deprivation always did. His mind drifting, catching again and again on the dream, attention far away from the world around him. How many times had he been startled by someone calling his name, touching his arm? How many times had they given him a pinched, worried look that told him they’d been trying to reach him for longer than they should have before he noticed.

He was aware, distantly, of the glowering, stern faces around him. The flinty looks of his friends’ and partners’ eyes as they stared at the image of Waller’s scowling mug.

She’d declined an in-person meeting, hunkering down in some bunker somewhere trying to avoid the consequences of her latest atrocities. Or maybe just trying to avoid the very real possibility that one of the members of JL Dark might try to kill her for what she’s caused.

Or JL light, for that matter.

Bruce and Clark had their rules that they lived by, but Diana certainly wouldn’t hesitate to splatter Waller’s brains across the nearest available wall. In reviewing footage of one of the last battles - she’d been at the other one at the time, trying to contend with a ghost in the shape of an ethereal dragon - she’d recognized the spectral figures of Amazons long dead, fierce even in death as they fought with a warrior’s pride along side the rest of Phantom’s armies. They followed a figure that towered even above the Amazons, four arms and gleaming armor and a name that Barry associated with ruin and forgotten hope but who was so much more to Diana. Heroes long departed to the fields of Elysium, stepping out of their well earned rest to fight once more.

A few hadn’t survived the weapons the GIW shot them with. Barry didn’t know what that meant, for a ghost to die. If they simply returned to their afterlife or -

He tried not to think about the or.

They’d been going back and forth for awhile now. Voices faraway, muffled. The world felt as if it was underwater, blurred and cold. Clark had gotten to his feet at some point, Waller’s grip on a pen so tight on the screen he expected to see if burst at any moment. It was an important meeting, an important discussion. One he needed to be apart of, aware of, but it all escaped him. Sand held too tightly, slipping through his fingers. On the screen, Waller hit a button on the computer beside her and the image changed.

The world burned back to life in sharp relief.

The dream.

The room.

Cold cement. Projections of unreachable places on the walls. Chrome and green machinery in a configuration meant to contain.

It looked larger on the screen.

Maybe it was how small the figure held prisoner inside it was.

She was young. A child, no older than Superboy Jr. or Robin. She looked like Phantom - her father - but there were differences. Her hair was white, but it didn’t look like the spun starlight of her father’s. Instead it burned, the bright hot crackling of the plasma of a lighting bolt striking. Skin the blur of shapes caught just at the corner of the eye as you ran past, Eyes -

Looking at him.

The image had come up, a live feed - he knew it was live, knew he was looking at her where she was at that exact moment - and she’d been as he was every time he tried to sleep. Trembling and shuttering, eyes squinting against the pain, trying to stay open so as not to miss a single moment of the flat images imposed on blank cement walls. Desperate to fill the fathomless hunger burning deep down in the Core of her.

But then a shuttering breath and her eyes - the burning green of an afterimage - snapped up to the camera. Snapped up to look at him, recognition in her young face. And despite never having seen this girl before, he recognized her too.

The Speedforce lived beneath his skin.

She lived beneath his skin.

He could feel her there. Buzzing, burning, blistering. Not painful, but felt.

Not as felt as she used to be.

The image snapped back to Waller’s face, smug and self-satisfied. Talking - lying - about the how the girl was there, what the GIW’s intentions for her were. Barry was on his feet, but so was everyone else. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, could only hear static, the rush of wind, the crack of the lightning bolt. A call for help.

It was then that the alarms began to blare. On the screen someone rushed in to whisper into Waller’s ear. Bruce was running out of the room towards the Zeta tubes and Barry was right there with him and there was so much chaos around them, men in white and Gothamites and Ghosts banding together to rain terror down upon them and something massive and horrible and living towering above it all and Barry let go of that last bits of logic and thought.

Instinct, older than he was. The echo of a voice that had called him for years now, carrying him along, biding him forward:

Run.

Someone might have shouted after him as he left Gotham behind. He didn’t know.

All he knew was the pounding of his feet upon the ground, the wind in his face, the Speedforce lashing and frantic and hopeful burning and sizzling beneath his skin. Calling him further and further away until he stood in a vast, empty field staring at a single, rusted shack near ready to collapse before him.

He wasn’t alone.

Wally. Bart. Max. More still. Not just his family and friends. Eobard. Hunter. Thaddeus. Everyone touched by the Speedforce.

They didn’t speak. Bodies humming and thrumming, crackling with energy and intent.

Minds as one, they focused on the shed, the hidden hatch inside, the base hidden deep below.

The Speedforce lived beneath their skin, and no one was going to steal it away from them.

#dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #barry allen #justice league #flashfam #dani phantom #danielle phantom #elle phantom #ancient of the speedforce elle #ever onward elle #amanda waller #eldritch speedforce #kinda #unsettling speedforce at the very least #cut to 20 minutes later to all of the speedsters & Elle at a waffle house having the world's most awkward family reunion #Dick gets a call from his bank about his card being used to buy several thousand dollars worth of breakfast food in another state #& immediate calls Wally like #Dick: YOU TOOK OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF A FULL ON WAR IN GOTHAM TO GO GET WAFFLES?#(because of course he gave Wally his card - he's bought Wally a god damn expensive ass apartment they're basically married)#Dick: I THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING MIND CONTROLLED #Wally: ....sorta? But like...in a good way?#Dick: How can there POSSIBLY be a good way of being mind controlled?!#Wally: you know what actually I'm gonna make our new mom explain this one #Dick: ...WHAT DOES THAT *MEAN*???

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doctorsiren · 1 month

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I have to say I love your defenseworth au. But I gotta say/ask for this.

I gotta see some Phoenix and Franziska bonding. Like mayber over Phoenix teaching her about poker with a secret lesson about how to read people which can be very handy for the job field their going into and just.

I gotta know man, what their relationship like as siblings.

he’d bring out her immature side that she tries to keep hidden under her prosecutor persona simply due to his own immaturity

This is them bonding I swear

#doctorsiren #ace attorney #ace attorney au #phoenix wright #franziska von karma #ace attorney fanart #prosecutor wright au #defenseworth au #digital art #my art #procreate #nuh uh is such a versatile phrase #they would be very openly competitive with each other but also they would gossip while painting each other’s nails and makeup #I was gonna draw poker chips and cards on the table but uhhh nah I got lazy lmao #ALSO #my personal HC is that from ages 13-17 Franziska was called the ‘Prosecutor Princess’ back in Germany and such #but when she heard Miles had a genuine rival she got competitive again and remade her whole persona #she had the whip the whole time but she cut her hair shorter and wore a more sleek and less ‘childish’ outfit #so in this AU the same sorta thing happens that when Phoenix becomes a prosecutor. Franziska reinvents her own persona too

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expelliarmus · 1 year

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#mine #doctor who #dwedit #david tennant #carey mulligan #giffing this again? why yes of course!!!#for the first gif... i was gonna just have the tv screen with ten moving #and everything else would have been static #but you could really tell the rest of the gif wasn't 'moving' and i didn't like that lol #so i had to cut out the 'more like a big ball' part #even though last time i could have every frame in it #since i used to cut down the gif height to 225px......#ANYWAYS #i got all the report cards done today!!#and then i went out to reward myself with a fancy hot chocolate #it was very tasty #ok good night friends!! hope you all had a good day

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anna-scribbles · 5 months

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thirteen update 🍂 🎹 🏠 👻

chapter 2: November

chapter summary:

She was in a good mood. If she was ever going to take it well, it would be now.

“Maman, what if I went to school this year?”

excerpt:

“Heh.” Adrien flicked a finger beneath his chin and strutted the length of his bathroom floor, glancing at himself in the mirror. He twirled a rose—a red one, one he’d grabbed from the vase downstairs—between his fingers and then presented it to the mirror with a flourish.

“Haruhi!” he declared, “the spring of my heart surges upon the sight of your fresh smile, my love. My heart beats at the command of your drum! Your face is the fierce longing of my soul, and I present to you now this token of my lavish, undying—”

A sharp knock clicked against the bedroom door and Adrien froze, his hand still passionately hovering over his heart.

“Adrien?” Nathalie’s voice called, and Adrien—true to character, if he did say so himself—startled so hard that he slipped and fell onto his butt on the tile.

“Yeah?” he called, hastily pulling himself up and trying to find a place to set down the rose.

Nathalie peeked her head through the bathroom door and took him in, his rumpled hair and the too-small blue blazer he’d saved in the back of his closet for occasions such as…this.

“You have a guest,” she said flatly, and Adrien could not for the life of him figure out whether she was making fun of him.

She left before he could decide, and then it was only a matter of seconds before his bathroom door was thrown all the way open and a blonde ponytail bobbed into view.

“Adrikins!” Chloé crashed into him, wrapping him up in a hug that nearly knocked him over again. “It’s been way too long. You’ve been neglecting me. Aw, did you get me a rose?” She plucked it from his hands and then scrunched up her nose. “Ew, is this real?”

“As real as the current that springs from the well of my heart,” Adrien invented, and Chloé frowned at him like he’d just spoken Greek. “Nevermind.”

She looked him up and down and scrunched her nose up even more. “What did you do to your hair?”

Adrien frowned at his reflection in the mirror and pushed his hair further over to the side.

“I was trying to make it look cool.” He’d been trying to make it look like Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club.

“It looks like you just rolled out of bed.”

read on ao3

#ml #miraculous ladybug #ml fic #miraculous #thirteen #adrien agreste #emilie agreste #my art #HAPPY NOVEMBER(<-girl who procrastinates. it is the last day of november)#still. it counts.#shout out to me for deciding to draw a title card at midnight last night.#a weird thing abt me is that I have such a hard time drawing emilie. even here I had to cut half her face off.#something something ghost of a person. not tangible enough to pin down not even while she's still alive. just the idea of a perfect mother #a beautiful memory #what is it like to be the dead wife before she's dead?#etc etc. anyway there's endless tamaki suoh references in here. sorry #(<-isn't sorry)#I love fact checking myself in my own tags #okay happy thursday everybody I gotta do my work now

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project-sekai-facts · 5 months

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The 2DMV for Twilight Light contains various references to previous 25-ji, Nightcord de. media, as well as lots of imagery connecting to the members.

To begin with, each member is associated with an object or two that which appears frequently in the background of the 2DMV.

"of the box that gently resounds"

Kanade's item is a music box, a nod to the music box her father made for her mother. This music box played a significant role in Kanade's first unit event, Carnation Recollection, helping her to realise why her songs weren't reaching Mafuyu.

"of the sealed up cocoon"

Mafuyu's items are a birdcage and chains. This is likely a reference to the marionette doll from Mafuyu's first event, Captive Marionette, that was kept in a similar-looking cage. This doll was what started Mafuyu's arc of rediscovering her true self and realising her mother was hurting her, which culmintated in N25's second arc ender.

The lyric that accompanies this is likely a reference to Kanade's trained Determination Ignited 4* card, which contains a purple butterfly (representing Mafuyu) locked in a glass lantern.

"Inside of the picture frame that keeps chasing"

Ena's items are a picture frame and a tin of paint. The tin of paint is likely a nod to the Unsatisfied Pale Color event and Ena's trained I Don't Want to Give Up 4* card. The picture frame is a reference to the Portray Yourself set that accompanied Ena's 3rd unit event, Someday, This Wish Will Transcend the Morning Sky.

"Inside of the abandoned mirror"

Mizuki's items are a mirror and ribbons. This is a reference to the IDSMILE 2DMV, the 2DMV for Mizuki's first unit event. Both that song and Twilight Light were produced by toa.

Because of the shared producer, there are also some similar lyrics in both songs, such as "The boundaries have begun to blur, the future uncertain" from IDSMILE, and "The boundary lines where disharmonies resound with each other" from Twilight Light.

There are also a few references to N25's second arc ender, Saying Goodbye to My Masked Self, most notably there being a glitch effect when Miku sings the lines "I still can't hear you, not yet" and "I still can't see you, not yet". When she appears on a phone screen in the second chorus during the line "I'm right here", she also appears glitched. In the event, Mafuyu's phone was damaged, causing the Virtual Singers to appear glitched when their holograms appeared. Miku couldn't contact Mafuyu for a while before the phone was able to turn on again, hence the lyrics.

Miku projecting out of the phone is also a nod to how she usually manifests herself to Mafuyu.

These images appear over the following lyrics:

The melodies that we create, The words that we pull in, The colors that intertwine together, And the scenes that are stitched together,

Once again they contain the items associated with the members in this MV, but the lyrics and on-screen text reference the members' respective roles within N25: composer, lyricist, artist, and editor.

Before the final chorus, the members of N25 are shown with picture frames behind them, another reference to the Portray Yourself set.

This part of the song contains multiple other references too, including:

The heart-shaped apple gem that originated as a charm on the costumes from the Snow White in Oblivion set, and later appeared as it does in this MV in some of the cards from the Where is ♡? set. Ena's card from the latter set also contains the birdcage associated with Mafuyu in this MV.

The apple is significant to Mafuyu as it was the food her mother would feed her when she was sick as a child. It was this care her mother showed her that caused her to want to become a nurse, the very dream her mother shattered. Those apples might also be Mafuyu's favorite food.

The blue butterflies that appear during this part and also at the start of the final chorus, which are a reference to the Samsa single jacket, and the Poisonous Fangs and Peeking Shadows set which had butterflies as a motif, particularly noticeable in Kanade's Determination Ignited 4* shown earlier in this post.

The phone underwater, which is actually a reference to three things. Firstly, this is a direct callback to the in-game jacket for Lower, Mizuki's second event commission.

However the phone falling in the water also links to a plot point from Saying Goodbye to My Maked Self, when Mafuyu's phone fell in her fishtank during a fight with her mother.

The throbber (loading wheel) on the screen is possibly a reference to the arc ender animation that plays after chapter 8 of the aforementioned event, which can be further backed up by the "Chasing your light, at 25:00" text that appears during that animation appearing in the 2DMV about 15 seconds after the phone is shown.

This part of the MV being underwater also connects to the Searching for a Reflection Beneath the Waters event, which introduced a lake to the Empty SEKAI.

The Heart in Water set from that event takes place underwater because of the new location, which in turn might be a nod to Mafuyu's trained Dive Into Me 4* fes card.

#project sekai #25 ji nightcord de #2dmv #sorry this doesn't include the 3dmv another cuts- clpl banned sharing them online and copyright claimed basically all clips of them #i know for a fact they dgaf about what gets posted on tumblr but i don't have the cards myself and couldn't find any surviving footage #cards #songs #those too

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