#and i just stared at these panels of jason in bed all day for like good 5 minutes thinking. jesus christ. jesus christ

[boyfridged]

You may have already mentioned this in some of your other metas, and I just missed it, so please ignore this if it's redundant.

Do you think Bruce is projecting onto Jason by pushing him as a Robin? Obviously, Jason wanted to be Robin and was excited about it, and Bruce let Jason do other things, but (if I'm not mistaken) before Tim came into play, solidifying the whole Batman needs a Robin/support to keep him upright, Bruce and Dick becoming Batman and Robin, in the beginning, was also sort of a coping mechanism.

I think there are a few examples of Bruce enabling this kind of mindset. Like in Gotham Knights #43–44 (sorry), every time Barbara brings up Jason's inner turmoil, Bruce refocuses on his ability as a Robin; similarly, when Jason finds out about Two-Face and his dad, he is hurt, and Bruce acknowledges that but then does the same thing, zeroing in on reassuring Jason that he made a mistake but is still a good Robin.

Like, Jason got it from Bruce, but he unintentionally encouraged that kind of thinking.

oh, i definitely think that bruce is projecting on jason and that it profoundly affected jay. and, while every single one of your observations is apt, i would add that what truly made it so tragic is that he projected his own worst traits on jason while being blind to the fact that jay already shared his best qualities.

tldr: bruce projects himself on jason in terms of grief (saying that jason needs vigilantism to work his grief through) and sees his own worst traits in jason (anger) but doesn't see his own best traits in jay (compassion, love, and sensitivity). ironically, jason does end up developing all of the (projected) worst characteristics of bruce (obsessiveness, and relentlessness in pursuit of the respective perceived idea of justice). this happens even though they were barely present in his early storylines, and only ever manifested when jason was scared or lost. later, they truly came to be because of his trauma relating to vigilantism.

and the long, long version, coming with panels and quotes: under the cut.

first i want to say that the following analysis focuses very specifically on bruce's mistakes, but i don't view the overall of jay's upbringing by bruce solely in these terms. from text it is also clear that bruce deeply loves and cares about jay, and that jay enjoys being robin. now that this is clear, let's get to particularities, and start with jay's origin story.

i truly never stop thinking about the significance of bruce meeting jay in the crime alley, the place of his parents' death. there's a lot to be said about it, but here the focus is, of course, on the fact that he sees a little boy, very much similar to himself, angry and hurt, in the same scenery that brought him so much grief. and jay in some ways does appear to be a mirror of bruce's own agonies, as well as a mirror of his own inclination for seeking justice; and somehow, bruce fixates on the first one, while almost completely dismissing the latter.

bruce looks at him and assumes that the remedy to jason's pain and anger is being robin; and he doesn't stop to think about it. (it has to be noted that there's also classism at play, classism that is mostly a result of writers' own beliefs – collins did state in a couple of interviews that that the motivation behind jason's background was to make his introduction into vigilantism seem less offensive, as jason has already been exposed to crime...)

i think, in this context, it's interesting to look at the two-face storyline even closer, and from the start too. in the beginning, bruce talks of jason's 'street' roots and assumes jay would go "down the same criminal road that took his father [willis] to an early death." he also talks of jason making a lot of progress. later, in batman #411, after jason learns that willis has been killed by two-face, bruce comments that jay "has never been like this...listless...almost pouting--"

this all, along with jay's cheerful and diligent behaviour from the previous issue builds an interesting picture for us: because we essentially learn that jay has been overall an unproblematic child. bruce, of course, attributes this "progress" to the training. however, for anyone else, the logical conclusion would be that jay's quick adjustment was simply a matter of finding himself in a safe and stable environment and receiving continuous support and attention from a parental figure. i find it rather questionable that jason's personality softened down because he had something to punch in the cave–– the more intuitive explanation is of course that he was angry and quick to fight when they first met because he couldn't afford anything else and because he was scared. but months later, in a loving home, he can allow himself to drop his guard; and his cocky attitude disappears until much later.

so the rather unsettling picture that we derive is that bruce is training jay to become a vigilante in order to "channel" his (nonvisible at this point) anger into something useful and just. and he clearly links this to his own trauma in batman #416 (that’s already starlin btw), in his conversation with dick, explaining why he took jay in: “he’s so full of anger and frustration… he reminds me of myself, just after my parents were killed.” bruce also mentions that soon after their first meeting, jason helped him and "handled himself well" in the fight, but he doesn't mention that jay has ran away from a crime "school" and intended to stop injustice on his own only because he was ignored.

the theme of bruce comparing jay to himself appears again in detective comics #574 (barr), where it is approached with a much more... critical look, thanks to leslie's presence and her skepticism of bruce's actions. after jason has suffered nearly fatal injuries at the hand of the mad hatter, bruce reminisces on his own trauma and motives. he tells leslie: "i didn't choose jason for my work. he was chosen by it...as i was chosen." leslie replies: "stop that! (...) you do this for yourself... you're still that little boy (...)" then, the conversation steers to the familiar ground and the topic of anger. in bruce's words, again: “i wanted to give jason an outlet for his rage…wanted him to expunge his anger and get on with his life…” and finishes "and instead, i may have killed him."

the recognition that bruce's projection on jason and involving him with his work might have fatal consequences is, as always, fast forgotten once jay wakes up and proclaims that he wants to continue his work as robin.

but to circle back, i think there's something else worth our attention, something deeply ironic, that is showcased in that issue: that bruce has no evidence for jay's "rage." when leslie talks of bruce's past, she recalls his tendencies to get into brutal fights at perceived injustice as early as in school; when bruce talks of jason, two pictures that are juxtaposed, are that of jason fighting as robin and jason... smiling, playing baseball.

so, in the early days of jason's training and work in the field, we see bruce talking of jason's anger a lot; but we barely see it.

that being said, jay is angry sometimes– and i think your observation about how bruce deals with it is incredibly interesting and accurate.

we first see jay truly and devastatingly angry in the two-face storyline. bruce focuses on jay's reaction as robin, which is, in fact, aggressive. but something that he barely addresses is that jason's first reaction is sleeping all day, and not beating anyone to a pulp; in fact, this vengeful instinct seems to arise only when he is put right in front of two-face. and his third instinct, once the rage (very quickly) dies down after the altercation with two-face, is crying, because bruce hid the truth about willis' death from him. jay, while crying, asks bruce: "you have taken me out into combat-- but you spare me this?" in response, bruce lectures jason about how grief inspires revenge, which is, again, deeply ironic, given that jay seeking out revenge seemed to be prompted and enabled solely by the role of robin. moreover, his question suggests that at this point he saw grief ("you spare me this") and fighting as two different things.

the final is, as you said, bruce focusing on making it into a lesson on vigilantism, or, in his own words, "tempering revenge into justice." personally, i think in this way bruce directs jason to bring his grief into the field as a powering force, something that he didn't necessarily have an own incentive to do. the flash of compartmentalisation between his ordinary life and being a sidekick that jay has shown by questioning bruce's decision is lost. emotions are now a robin thing, and they have an (informal) protocol, a moral code. and when jay is confronted with an emotionally exhausting case next – the garzonas case, i believe that the focus on "tempering revenge into justice" is exactly the problem– we don't see jay crying, we see him frantic about finding the solution. this, right there, is bruce's obsessiveness, that in my opinion, was developed in jay specifically as a result of how his engagement with vigilantism combines with his deep sensitivity.

and, needless to say, his sensitivity is all the same as that of bruce – they both can't stand looking at other people hurting, they both wear their hearts on their sleeve, caring way too much – the thing is, bruce never quite acknowledges how they are similar in this matter. instead, he focuses on his sparse bursts of anger, wanting to bring jason closure in his grief the only way he knows it – in a fight for a better world. so, as you said, he focuses on jason's ability as robin.

which just doesn't work for jason. at all. we know it from how his robin run comes to an end: in the first issue of a death in the family (batman #426) alfred informs: “i’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying.”  to that, bruce contends: “in other words, i may have started jason as robin before he had a chance to come to grips with his parents deaths.” he also tells jay that the field is not a place for someone who is hurting; a message that is the opposite of what he's been saying for years now, and something that i imagine was difficult for bruce to conceptualise, because then he would have to question his own unhealthy tendencies. it's a bit late to come to this realisation; bruce's self-projection that caused him to worry so much about jay's anger has already turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy that will fully manifest itself in utrh, when jason does the only thing he was taught to do with grief: try to channel it into justice.

#AHHH this took me so long for no reason at all. so sorry anon <3 #anyway. i'm obsessed with your observation regarding bruce's focus on robin in the two-face storyline #i've already briefly considered it but you made me go back and reread it #and i just stared at these panels of jason in bed all day for like good 5 minutes thinking. jesus christ. jesus christ #“you spare me *this*?” <- this line is making me feel SICK TO MY STOMACH. #so maybe bruce is right when he says that he made jason like this in tfz. #and jay is of course even more right when he says that he didn't make him. he raised him #also don't apologise for bringing in gotham knights #i actually talked about it some before because it is a very good illustration of bruce projecting on jay #<- i didn't include it here bc my post was getting insanely long. #anyway back on the topic. i think it's so deeply sad that jay genuinely has no idea #that this is what bruce thinks #i think he would be DEVASTATED if he knew the way bruce fixated on the idea of his anger #hm. normal now. #thank you so much for this ask. you can tell i was delighted to answer it <3 #i actually already had a draft about it when you sent it... but i'm sooo slow with editing my word vomit #outbox #jay.zip #jay.txt #dc #jason todd #core texts

[smilingformoney]

Rickmas 2023: Day 9. Missing Star | Alexander/Reader

Read now on Ao3 or below the cut:

The knocking on the door was incessant, and Alexander rolled his eyes when he heard a voice calling through the door.

“Sir Alexander! The panel started five minutes ago, they’re waiting for you —“

With a huff, he picked himself up from the couch and stomped over to the door, opening it so suddenly he caught the poor event steward on the other side by surprise.

“I’m not bloody coming, clearly,” he hissed.

“But, Mr Dane, the fans are expecting you —“

“I. Don’t. Care. Tell them I’m sick or dying, I don’t care, just piss off and leave me alone!”

He slammed the door closed on the shocked steward’s face, and you peered up at him over the back of the couch.

“That poor steward was only doing his job, Alex.”

Alexander waved his hand dismissively and pulled his robe tighter around his torso.

“If his job’s to disturb me when I’m with you, he needs a new career.”

He returned to the couch where you had previously been cuddling and watching TV, and you slipped easily back into his arms.

“You’ll have to show your face at some point. They didn’t pay for this hotel room so you could sit in it all day.”

“Trying to get rid of me?” Alexander snarked, and you shoved him playfully.

“You know I’m not. You can get away with skipping the group panel, but you’ll have to make it to your solo panel. Else they might send Jason to drag you out.”

Alexander scoffed. “I’d like to see him try. He acts like he’s so tough, but I can tell you, his fight scenes are almost entirely done by stunt doubles.”

“And yours aren’t?”

“Of course not,” Alexander said proudly. “I’m a real actor. I do all my own scenes.”

“Well, good thing you do all your own sex scenes too, else we’d never have met,” you said, grinning up at him cheekily.

He smirked and held you in tighter, remembering the day you’d met on set for a film of his, he the lead actor and you the intimacy coordinator for the sex scene he’d filmed. Somehow, with a stunning Hollywood actress nude on the bed with him, it had been plain old you the acting legend had had eyes for.

“Really, I just don’t want to put that bloody thing on my head today,” Alexander admitted. “Honestly, do they think people won’t recognise me without it? I do have other roles I’m known for without the stupid chicken head.”

You laughed, knowing full well that your boyfriend would set fire to that key part of his costume if he could, yet he’d chosen to participate in the Galaxy Quest reboot. Secretly, he liked the role and even the people he worked with, but he’d never admit it.

“Oh, but think of the applause you’ll get when you step out onto the stage! All those people there to see you. I know you love it, Alex.”

He scoffed, but he didn’t correct you. You leaned in closer to him, resting your head on his chest, and he placed a kiss to the top of your head (which had fortunately never been the victim of chicken head, although he had threatened you with it a few times).

“I’ll go to the solo panel, I suppose,” he sighed. “Only so I can talk about Death to Secrets coming out next month.”

You scoffed. “Yeah, good luck getting a bunch of sci-fi nerds to care about a depressing drama about a dying old man. Hey, kids, come see my exciting new film where I spend two hours staring out a window dramatically - ow!”

It hadn’t hurt, but you were more surprised than anything when he reached around and slapped your arse.

“Disrespect my art and you disrespect me, you know that, [Y/n].”

“Oh, sorry, sir,” you said teasingly. You sat up slightly and kissed him, which immediately softened the hard stare he was giving you.

“Hmm… good thing I love you, isn’t it?” he said.

Even after so long together, it still made your heart leap when you heard those words from him. He was such a grumpy old man, yet for you he was soft.

“Yes,” you agreed. “It is a very good thing.”

#rickmas2023 #alan rickman #galaxy quest #alexander dane #alexander x reader

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

a discussion of jabberwock with team interaction hcs + deeper nash analysis

for anon who asked "Can we get some headcanons for jabberwock members or like headcanons when they're together? (its okay if it was jason or nash only)" and made me realise it's about time i get these guys' personalities down

note before we start: cause i didn't know their names until i wrote this

zack is the bald one, allen is the one with a headband, nick is the other white guy apart from nash.

team hcs

nick gets bullied for being under 6ft, but not by jason

nah good old jason teases all of them for being short fucks, emphasising that they’re all 5ft tall in comparison to him

he 100% lifts things out of the others' reach and then laughs for ages after when they try get them

unfortunately though, they’re all used to this and now just ignore him. either that or nash stares at him so intensely jason actually repents and hands it back

zack’s another one with a very good glare, but he’s used it too often on jason and it’s since stopped working.

also jason gives me ‘straightens his back as much as possible when getting measured so he’ll measure in as 7ft’ vibes

oh and he thinks he could wrestle a gator and win. i’ve got no explanation for that except for the fact you can't tell me it's ooc.

allen’s very protective over his white headband - it’s his lucky item - but he’d never let anyone know that

he’s confident in his abilities like the rest of them, but there’s nothing wrong with wearing a headband just in case

(nash knows anyway)

they watch nba matches together and do not shut up once throughout the entire match - lots of jeering, booing each other if someone criticises a player they like, lots of “i could do that”, lots of “get your fucking hand out of my popcorn do you want me to punch you in the face” etc

they used to all live together, but nash has since moved out. he was sick and tired of trying to make people do chores, as the only one who kept their room clean.

yeah the others’ house looks like a heap of trash but also very much “where’s my toothbrush?” “it’s in the third coke can by the orange peel behind the sink” *silence* “yeah thanks” *a minute later* “who the fuck has been using my toothbrush”

they’re all “bro your dribbling sucks why are you on this team loser” to one another, but also very protective (aka arrogant for one another) if anyone else Dared to criticise one of their teammates

then again, what kind of person would criticise jabberwock

half of the time he spends with jabberwock, nash is a Single Mother TM trying to get a bunch of man children to behave; the other half of the time, he's just as bad as the rest of them

i talk about this a lot but i get the feeling nash is an exceptionally hard worker, but at least he gets to let his hair down around his teammates sometimes

nash is also the only person jason thought was truly ‘strong’ at first sight

and nash is also the only person who can beat jason in a fight, and also the only person who can get nash to train, and also the only person who can.. [etc. you see my point].

(n.b jason calls himself the ‘almighty me’, nash says that ‘even god can’t beat me’. point made.)

you know how jason silver’s motto is “I have never thought”

imagine him proudly stating that, before zack adds with a straight face, “yeah cause nash does it for you.”

in short, the team would fall apart without nash.

although the team’s communication and coordination is very fine tuned, nash is the guy who keeps everything in order off the court to prevent what is essentially a team of aces ('main characters', if you will) from falling apart

they hang out together a lot, but do all have other friend groups that do not overlap

team bbqs

unofficial rule not to criticise anchovies on pizza because the one time nick did, nash snapped

however pineapple on pizza is fair game, even though zack quite likes it

more than once, jason has brought a girl home and nick has stolen her attention away with effortless trick shots, funky ball manoeuvring etc

more than once nick has had to trek to nash’s place (with a black eye) at midnight to have somewhere to sleep

do you see a correlation?

oh and everyone in the team has been walked in on by nash when they were naked with some girl

nash has absolutely no shame

he apologises to the girl with a charming albeit insincere tone, and then remains standing in front of the bed/couch until his teammate does what he expected of them

usually it involves not having come to practice

allen learnt a few (emphasis on ‘few’) words of japanese before they travelled to japan and was disappointed that he never got to use them

that said, one of those words was hentai

and now a quick analysis of some panels

a) so there's at least one player who wasn't underestimating vorpal swords. if i were to overanalyse, i'd add that nick's wearing a hoodie (possibly athletic wear) whilst nash has a 'fancy' shirt on; perhaps nick wasn't expecting them to be going to host clubs instead of chilling/training?

b) i know what you're thinking: "how can you say nash is a hard worker when he didn't want to practice for the match". i reckon he was still pretty high on the complete and utter success of their previous match, that plus being around girls, encouraged him to have a more 'jason-y' personality. (either that or fujimaki didn't want to add too much depth/realism into nash's character bc he's unequivocally the villain, right? and obviously this helps with the plot and the jabberwock bad geniuses gom good geniuses rhetoric.)

earlier, i mentioned how nash is the only one that could keep the team together, and is thus the undeniable head of the team; here's a clear example. you can see both jason and zack have no interest in continuing - if anything, there's disgust in their faces, kinda just saying "we spat on all of japan, now we can go home". whereas nash won't allow for the slightest of possibilities that there might exist a team stronger than them, and hence agrees to the match. the key thing here is that the others do as he says without too much fuss.

another thing to note is nash's reference to harakiri. now what can we make of that, alongside his proficiency in japanese, in relation to his character? the way i see it, he's either a weeb or possibly has some japanese lineage. (you could spin that even further and say his mother was japanese, taught him the language, then abandoned him, and hence his almost excessive hatred/mockery of the japanese people.) (is that why he wanted to do another match in japan..?)

just a quick point. "thanks to him" - jason isn't so superior as to think that he could win this match effortlessly without nash's support. links pretty nicely with my earlier idea about how nash is the only person jason has always considered 100% strong.

yet another point about how nash is the strongest of the team in pretty much every way you can think of. you know how scary/powerful you have to be to shut jason up (after he's getting real pissed from being prevented from scoring?)

i personally think this is a pretty important panel, though i've never seen anyone mention it before. did nash grow up training in a professional basketball training situation, as opposed to growing up playing streetball like i suspect the others did? well, to answer that question, imma bring in another panel.

here we see visible rage on nick, zack and jason's faces - they can't accept their loss, which is fair enough. but i'd argue that nash's face seems to depict sadness more than it does anger like to rest of them, look at how downturned his mouth is - and he's looking away from the 'camera', as if hiding his shame.

when you combine that with what he says here, i have no doubt that this is someone who has experienced some proper lows in basketball - as would be expected from someone who's played 'properly'. he's possibly not even a prodigy like the rest of them - compare jason's motto with his. "i have never thought" versus "do not suppose opportunity will knock twice at your door".

there's various lines of thinking you could design with this - he might have been trained by alex (hence, himuro having heard of jabberwock, though he should have known of a team as popular of jabberwock regardless), he might have grown up with professional basketballer parents etc. but here's my own little theory:

nash received serious basketball training from early on - maybe because his parents were living vicariously through him, or maybe he always loved the sport and wanted to be no1. so there he was training away, but, as he grew older, it started getting all a bit too much.

he didn't want to dedicate his entire life to basketball. after all, his hobby is water sports and his speciality is boxing; that's a lot of different things to be keeping up with, whereas the pipeline for promising athletes demands people focus solely on basketball. as a result, nash become bitter: stopped attending practice regularly, got in trouble for trash talk of increasing severity, etc.

result was he was kicked out of the program.

only when he was no longer playing basketball again, did he realise how much he missed it. and hence he got into streetball, where he was tremendously successful as someone with so much training, 'elite skills', and the overly confident attitude to boot.

then, one fateful day, he met jason and the rest is history.

#jabberwock deserved some love and they got it! #i wasted too much time on this but happy jabberwock sunday everyone #but i did like rereading extra game #it's all about those little details man #jabberwock #allen #zack #nick #nash gold jr #jason silver #knb #kuroko no basket #kuroko no basuke #kirisaki daichi scenarios #hcs #headcanons #extra game #knb extra game #imagines #scenarios #manga panels #mangacaps #character analysis #team interactions

[whengeorgiawentblue]

Seeing some of those Straddlegate pictures and gifs just gives me such enjoyment because all the hateful people who are saying they're only ex coworkers now or was never really friends, well Jensen is the one who, when he remembers the story, immediately comes forward to lay on the floor, knowing full well Misha is going to straddle him. Now I don't know about you but some of the people I work with who I don't like, I would never in a million years lay on a floor in front of hundreds of people and let them not only straddle me but put their hand on my throat and THEN hold that person's hand to help me up.

The way Jensen immediately laid down, he and Misha were so in sync like that's what they had always known was going to happen. That's typical couple behaviour.

The straddlegate is a total trainwreck. The entire panel actually. You know that there like, hundreds of evidences of cockles. But that panel only is more than enough to prove cockles is real.

When I joined this fandom, one of the first cockles things I saw was the chest to chest selfie. That was sus enough to make me think something was going on between these 2.

And then I saw posts analyzing the picture, finding out the dust on Misha's shoulders (like if he has been pushed against the wall), or the fact that the selfie was taken in the back of the building, away and hidden from other people's eyes.

Later on I found out the pic was taken at the jibcon10. Just after the cockles panel. So I learned about the straddlegate. And then about the boner. And Jensen's words about "staying in bed all day" while staring at Misha.

Then they sent Jared to stop them, and Jensen put his most dissapointed face ever.

And then I saw more analysis about Jared making sex jokes, the "genital shape" balloons, the innuendos about Jensen and Misha having sex.

And Jensen playing with the handkerchief, putting it in his pocket exactly like top men do to advertise they want gay sex.

And finally when all the cast was on stage, and I saw "Jealous Jensen" in action, when Misha got closer to Jason Mann, when Adam Fergus laughed (thanks God Jensen didn't see he talked to Misha just before that) but specially when Rob Benedict caressed Misha's arm, and Jensen stares at them with dagger eyes.

And after all that chaos, when the panel finally ended, Jensen dragged Misha to the back of the building, where nobody was able to see them, because I'm sure they did more than just taking the selfie. Something they didn't want other people to know. Something not to be seen.

And finally took the selfie with no space for Jesus and with dust on Misha's shoulder.

Insane. It's fucking insane. That panel was enough to prove that they are lovers. And yet we still have like a gazillion more evidences. Insane.

#cockles #straddlegate #jibcon 2019

[strunmah-mah]

I hate comic books, I love comic properties, but I hate comic books.

Comic properties have such wonderful creative potential. These are properties that are willing to just go there and be weird and be themselves push boundaries, ya know. But the comics they’re based on can be such a slog to get through.

I grew up on TMNT (2003). I adore that version of the turtles. When I got older I decided to branch out and try reading the IDW run of the  Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. I was four issues in when they had a foot not in one of the panels *Want to know what these characters are talking about? Go read the Donatello Miniseries! It was a brand new continuity, what do you mean I already have to do homework for it by issue 4? I dropped it on the spot. If I had missed that what else could I have missed? I don’t enjoy doing homework for my hobbies.

When the MCU started to get big. I was one of many who became a Loki fangirl. And about that same time Marvel decided to do a Loki solo series. Loki: Agent of Asgard. It was good and I loved it. But around that time Marvel also did a continuity reboot, where they merged their main (616) universe with the Ultimates continuity that way the publishers only had to make stories for one universe and everything was supposed to be staring from scratch as an easy jump in point for new readers. Except some characters were to be able to remember their old universes and Loki was supposed to be one of them.

This confused me. Why would do a continuity reset but have select characters remember? As a reader, how were you supposed to know which characters did or did not remember their old universe. It was weird, but I rolled with it. Loki had just undergone massive character arc and I was glad he wasn’t getting erased. He was also dragging his new best friend, Verity Willis (a character original to his solo run and one of the best things about it) into the new universe with him. So I picked up The Might Thor #1, the next series Loki was supposed to appear in, and started reading.

It sucked. Despite the reset the new Thor run started right where the previous run had left off. In the middle of political shenanigans with characters I had never heard of before. I had no idea what was happening, but I hung on for Loki. In Loki’s solo run he had become something of a neutral figure verging on heroic with some new powers to boot. And I was curious to see how he would team up with Jane Foster as Thor. So imagine my immense disappointment when Loki showed up as a full blown villain. All of his character development gone, Verity Willis erased. But they kept his final look from his solo run and some of his new powers. It felt like a betrayal and I dropped the run.

I enjoyed the movie Batman: Under The Red Hood. I got attached to Jason Todd, So I wanted to read his solo runs. Lost Days was very good, Talia as a mentor figure to Jason was great, right until the last issue where the characters went fro mother/son to jumping into bed together. It was weird gross and uncomfortable. So I picked up Red Hood and the Outlaws the new 52 run. That teamup felt like someone picked a bunch of names out of a hat and said “let’s right about them.” I couldn’t figure out why they stuck together as a team when at least one of them ways always running off and doming something on their own. A Jason Todd who says you shouldn’t murder child traffickers and slavers in not my Jason Todd.  And there was something wildly wrong with Starfire’s character too. Some of those issues were physically exhausting to get through.

Again and again this happens. Christopher Nolan’s batman trilogy? Great! Wayne family Adventures? Awesome! Batman titled comic runs be it solo or team up. Batman the character is the worst part of those.

My sister and I watched Transformers Prime together It was our bonding activity for a while. She decided she wanted to read some of the Transformer Comics too. Except the series she picked and liked kept changing it’s title at random and she couldn’t keep track of what issue to buy.

How come comic based cartoons and movies can be so good? But the comics they are based on can be such pains?

#comics #idw #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2003 #mcu #marvel comics #loki laufeyson #loki agent of asgard #dc comics #dc #batman under the red hood #the dark knight #red hood and the outlaws #jason todd #star fire #koriand'r #red hood lost days #talia al ghul #jane foster #thor #i want to enjoy comics #but it's hard #there's a few good runs here and there #but what's the point if the good runs are just goin to get erased from existance #does dc even know what continuity is? #oh also #bruce wayne #verity willis #i forgot to tag them #i don't feel like tagging each indvidual tutrle

[itsstrange]

Coffee Run & Green Eyes

Series: Spark Between Us

Relationship: Jensen Ackles x Skyline McNoir (OFC)

A/N: Hey everyone! I know it’s been a long time and I apologize for those waiting for more stories, but if you follow me on IG then you would know that this last week I was struck with a stomach flu which caused me to not have enough energy for various things. Luckily, I’ve recovered and feel much better. I also want to apologize to those who have requested me some stories, don’t worry I have Not forgotten about you! Just been dealing with some things!

But!! To not keep you guys in the dark I decided to post a Series I wrote for Ao3 on here, just to give y’all something to read meanwhile I work on some other works for y’all!! Hope y’all enjoy it!

Another thing, we have hit 105 followers y’all!!!! Thank you so much for all the love y’all continue in giving me!! I appreciate it so much!! 🥲💚

✨{Credits to owner for the gif}✨

Summary: Skyline McNoir tags along with a few friends who are attending a convention of some show she’s never watched. Little did she know, she would fall head over heels for the lead actor.

Word Count: 2.4 K

Warnings: Will contain Fluff, public sex, alcohol consumption, public fingering, just pure NSFW for all you Jensen fans out there 😊

————

ENJOY!!

————

The blasting chorus of Follow Me Now by Jason Gleed, wakes Skyline up. Her Hazel eyes glare straight ahead at the coconut cream wall for a few seconds before bringing the cover above her head, trying to muffled the music. Which didn’t help. At all. Then to make the morning less fun, her bed begins to shake violently by her best friend who’s jumping up down awhile singing at the top of her lungs. Skyline groans into the covers and tries to bury herself deeper into the warmth, but before she can even hide, the covers are being shoved off her form. A shiver runs throughout her body from the coldness in the room.

“C’mon Sky! Today’s the day!” Erin yells as she hovers above,

Skyline groans once again, eyes closed shut when it’s far too bright in the room “Five more minutes,”

“No come on,” Erin says, slightly pushing Sky’s body with her foot, “Tiffany and Laila are already downstairs grabbing breakfast,”

Still not moving, Erin shoves her body once again with her foot, when that didn’t do the trick an evil smirk spreads on her face. Grabbing an unused pillow, she raises it above her head before roughly slamming it against Sky’s head, causing her to jerk upright. With sleep still in her eyes, Sky is only able to squint at her best friend.

“Erin! What the fu-,” Her words were cut off when a large pillow smacks her in the face,

Erin chuckles at her, ignoring the death stare as she hops off her bed, “Chop chop.. we got a busy day today!”

With a roll of her eyes and a loud groan, Sky rolls off the comforter and towards the bathroom. After taking care of her regular morning routines, she hops in the shower. Erin’s music still blasted through the speakers, as Sky took a quick shower and she honestly hoped none of their neighbors complained about their disturbance, she knew she would have if she was trying to get a few more hours of shut eye.

That’s all she ever really wanted at the moment, sleep. After months of studying, exams, piles upon piles of work, and busting all nighters she was finally in winter break. The feeling of being able to come home for the holidays and spending those days with her family sounded amazing and relaxing. However, after the second day of being home, she gets a call from Erin. Mentioning something about having another extra ticket for a convention to meet the cast of some show she’s never watched. She kindly declined the offer, wanting to spend her days off with her family sounded like a much better idea than meeting unknown actors. However, Sky often forgets Erin is not the type to take no for an answer and demanded her to hand the phone over to her mother.

Thinking her mother would defend her and find a way to convince Erin to try and find someone else to take to the convention, Sky hands the phone over to her mother. You can only imagine who won that argument.

Once out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her body, Sky heads out the bathroom and towards her duffel bag. In the winter season of Austin, Texas, she decides on a plain long sleeve, black jeans, grey hoodie, black boots on her feet with a leather jacket on top. Once her hair is made and adds a couple splashes of makeup on her face, she grabs her phone and book from the small counter as she follows Erin out the room. After a few minutes later, they finally arrive in the breakfast buffet where Tiffany and Laila are already stuffing themselves with waffles and eggs. With a yawn, Sky makes her way over to the buffet with Erin right behind her. Once they both get their plates and sit down on the table, they dig in before getting on with their day.

****

8:45 am

“Oh my god!! I just hugged Speight!!” The sound of Laila coming around the corner interrupts Sky from her book,

The sight of Laila bouncing up and down on her feet with a wide grin makes a small chuckle escape from Skyline. As her friends beamed over this Speight guy, Sky returns her focus down on her book. Not really paying much attention at their excitement, but still having a smile on her lips as she reads the next chapter in her book. Even if she’s not having the same excitement as her friends, she is still having fun with them. Being around them in general for whatever reason always brightens her day. No matter how rough of a day she’s seems to be having, her girls always know just how to distract her and make her have fun.

“Ohh it’s almost time for Osric’s panel,” Tiffany says while looking down at her phone,

No longer able to focus on her book, Sky marks her spot before getting up from the floor.

“You guys go in, I’ve got auto’s for Kim at nine,”

It’s barely nine in the morning? Jesus. Sky thinks to herself, the day has felt extremely long she could have sworn it was already noon.

“Okay, let’s go Sky,” Laila motions her head to the side for her to follow,

“If you guys want me to continue tagging along, I’m gonna need an espresso,” Sky states, feeling yet another yawn creeping up her throat,

Her friends chuckle at her but agreed with her idea. They wouldn’t want her dragging her feet all over the convention, besides, coffee did sound like a great idea. Once writing down their preferred drinks in her notes, Sky leaves through the doors, down the steps and towards a coffee shop not too far away. It was only a couple blocks away, she should make it back in no time. Hugging her jacket closer to her body when the wind picks up, Sky quickens her movements to avoid its freezing weather but careful to not slip on the wet pavement. The last thing she needs is to fall flat on her ass, better yet get a concussion or go back home with a broken wrist.

Boy would her mom faint if she saw her daughter in a cast. Will most likely give her a lecture on why it’s important not to be on the phone during the most worst seasons. ‘If you weren’t on the phone this wouldn’t have happened Skyline’. Yep. She can definitely hear her ranting.

After a few blocks in the harsh winds, Skyline is finally reaching the small little coffee joint. Just as she reaches for the handle of the door, another, large, hand reaches at the same time. Thick fingers slightly touching her own, making her pull back with an apology.

“No it’s fine go ahead,” A deep voice says beside her, letting a shiver run down her body,

Most likely from the weather, what else would it be?

She looks up at the man. Dark beard, shades on his face, black hat on his head, with a black T-Shirt underneath a checkered navy flannel and black Levi’s jacket. Even under the dark shades she can tell he was good looking, handsome in fact.

“No you can go ahead,” Sky smiles at the man, stepping aside for him to enter,

He only shakes his head, gripping the door handle as he opens it for her, “Please I insist, my mom would throw a fit if she finds out I didn’t show my manners,”

Sky chuckles at him, “Well we wouldn’t want that now,”

The man chuckles back, smile forming on his lips. Man did that smile just make her stomach flip.

“No, we really wouldn’t,” Chuckling once more at him she accepts the offer with a thanks before entering the coffee shop,

As she walks inside, the change of temperature immediately hits her cold cheeks. Almost as if a heating furnace was suddenly shoved in her face, but she wasn’t complaining, the warmth was needed. Walking further into the coffee shop, she takes a glance over her shoulder to see if the man was behind her, but only lets a smile appear when she catches the moment of him allowing an elderly couple enter before him.

That’s sweet. She thinks to herself as she walks up to the counter. Once her drinks have been ordered and paid, she heads over to a small empty table near the window. Sitting on the chair she pulls out her book and continues where she left off as she waits for her drinks. A few minutes had passed and Sky was too engrossed in her book to notice her name being called out by the barista. Eventually though, she comes back to reality when someone places her drink in front her. Looking up from her book she meets eyes with bright emerald orbs, and noticing those breathtaking eyes belong to the same man from the door.

“I’m guessing your Skyline?,” The way her name rolls off his deep voice sends a shiver down her spine,

Definitely can’t be the air this time, absolutely not.

Eyeing the cup of coffee in front of her, she lifts a eyebrow at the man, teasing him. Even if she sees her name written on the side of the cup.

“And what makes you think that?” The way his lips slightly lift causes something to flip in her stomach,

Again.

“Well.. seeing how there’s hardly folks in here,” He looks around the shop for a few seconds before landing his eyes on hers again, “and you being the only one sitting down without a coffee.. I took a guess,”

Sky hums with a smile as she takes the cup, “Nice deduction,”

He shrugs a shoulder with a smile, “This seat taken?”

Sky shakes her head as she takes careful sips from her drink. With a small smile the man pulls out the chair with his other free hand, seeing how he has a cup of his own in one hand.

“I’m Ross by the way,” The man extends a hand once seated,

With a smile Sky accepts his hand, feeling it warm and rough as it wraps around her own.

“Nice to meet you,” Still smiling she pulls away from his firm hand,

“You around from here or just passing through?” He asks, taking careful sips from his cup,

Sky softly smiles at him as she wraps her hands around her coffee, trying to warm up her fingers.

“Born and raised,” He raises a brow at the small fact,

“No kidding?”

She nods, “Yeah but I’m just home for the holidays,”

He hums with a nod, “In the army or something?”

Sky couldn’t help the chuckle that escapes from her, definitely noticing how the corner of the mans lips slightly lift as well.

“More like college. My last year,”

“Really? What’re you studying?” He asks, taking another sip, never letting his eyes drift from her Hazel ones,

But does notice how they dart down towards his mouth before quickly looking back up to his eyes. A small smirk hides behind the cup, but doesn’t hide it when he pulls it away from his face.

“Biology,” He hums once again with a sincere smile, making her stomach flip,

It was such an odd feeling, especially when it was coming directly from a man she hardly knows. But for some reason, it felt right. Their conversations switched from topic to topic, never faltering. It just felt right, as if they were long time friends catching up with each other instead of two strangers who just met. Eventually, their conversation was cut short with the barista calling out her name once again with the rest of her drinks.

Getting up from her seat she walks over to the counter where her drinks waited. As she grabbed a cup holder and begins placing her drinks in each space, Ross, settles next to her. Getting a whiff of his cologne. Leaning on the counter he had both his and her coffee in either hand, which he hands over with a smile once all coffees were safely secured in place.

“I should get going,” She smiles up at his green orbs, and only then noticing how freckles are splashed on his face,

This man was literally dashing, no doubt about it.

“Yeah same here,” He says looking down at his watch, “Need a ride?”

She shakes her head with a smile, “I’m good thanks,”

“You sure? Heard it might rain,” He continues to lean on the counter as she places her coffee in an empty slot of the holder,

“I’m sure, it’s just a few blocks from here,”

“Well it can rain from those few blocks,” He argues as he gives her a smile, not wanting to end their little moment,

Neither did she, but she had friends waiting and the moment she tells them the reason why she took a little longer than expected, they wouldn’t leave her alone until she gives them the whole shebang.

She lets a small chuckle escape her lips as she picks up the coffees, “I’ll make a run for it,”

He softly chuckles at her comment, green eyes staring straight into her Hazel orbs that have slightly turned grey from her sweater. Definitely finding her and her eyes fascinating and beautiful.

“It was nice meeting you Ross,” She smiles at him as she walks away,

He smiles as he watches her, sending her a wave goodbye when she looks over her shoulder before walking out the door. Watching her leave didn’t feel like a loss, it felt the complete opposite actually. Why? Well for starters, he knew it wouldn’t be the last time he saw her considering she had the all too familiar Creation Entertainment wristband on her left hand. Also, he had her book inside his jacket, another reason on why he would see her again.

Both to retrieve her book and to have a reason to see her again. Don’t get him wrong, he was actually going to give it to her before she left, but the thought of holding it and having a reason to see her again sounded like great idea. He wanted to see her again, wanted to have a conversation longer than 10 minutes and just wanted to get to know her. She was different, in a good way, absolutely in a good way. The way she seemed to not know him or maybe she did but simply did not care made him feel relaxed, made him feel somewhat normal and he would give anything to feel that way again.

Even if it meant “stealing” her book to have an excuse to see her again.

PART 2

————

-Hope y’all enjoyed this first part of the series!! Stay tuned for random updates for ‘Spark Between Us’ I won’t give an announcement on when I’ll update it so keep your eyes peeled on it!!

-Turn on Post Notifications!! 🔔 For more!!

————

#jensen Ackles #jensen ackles x ofc #jensen ackles x y/n #jensen ackles x you #jensen ackles x reader #jensen ackles imagine #Jensen Ackles smut #smut #Spark Between Us Series #supernatural imagine #supernatural #supernatural smut #dean winchester #Dean Winchester x reader #the boys #the boys tv #the boys imagine #Soldier Boy

[phis-corner]

How about #34 and #9 on the fluff/angst list?Ship is yours to decide

34- “Please don’t do this.” 9- “You meant too much to me.” | Platonic Timari

Note: reverse robins au, where Tim was the one captured by Joker instead, choosing to take his own life instead of break under torture. Marinette, having given up LB post Hawkmoth’s defeat, chooses to take up her dead brother’s mantle after seeing Bruce spiral. She is also Bruce’s biological child in this au.

I got reaaaally into reverse robins, and this is the result. 

TW: suicide mention

Her father and Alfred are being increasingly shifty about the Red Hood, abruptly stopping conversations when she enters the room and changing the subject when she brings up the mysterious man who’s been picking off the corrupted people in this city.

So she makes a plan to look into it in her own time, carefully watching and observing to find a free time slot, and seizes the opportunity.

Dad is at a WE meeting because Lucius threatened him with no gadgets for a month if he didn’t show again, Alfred is asleep (because he is actually human, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary), and Damian is in Bludhaven with Jon, both working their respective day jobs as an officer in the BPD and a journalist.

Marinette silently logs into the Batcomputer, bypassing the security on Hood’s file with a little help from Oracle (hey, Steph was being kept out of the dark too, and they were both curious.)

She reads the basic information, and scrolls down to the DNA section.

Her blood runs cold when she sees the information listed there, because how can it be a match?

He’s dead.

Dead.

Captured by the Joker, tortured near the breaking point, before taking his own life with a shard of broken glass to preserve their secrets.

She watched them lower his body into the ground. Watched as his friends and family stood there, under the clear blue sky, which seemed too pretty for such a terrible day.

Watched as his teammates broke down around his grave, as Bruce’s face crumpled when everyone else is gone.

Watched Damian, two weeks later, finally show up and leave a single purple hyacinth, kneeling in front of the headstone and tracing the letter with a single finger, head bowed, before leaving. 

She searched up the meaning of the flower. I am sorry, please forgive me.

She mourned him.

Mourned a brother, so kind and intelligent, who never really knew how much he meant to all of them.

She has her own suspicions about how he was captured in the first place, but pointing fingers would do more harm than good.

Her father spiraled again, after he died.

She didn’t want to do it. Didn’t want to introduce a new Robin, and slowly let the world forget about the second. Robin should have died with Tim.

But Batman will not stop, and as long as he keeps fighting, he’ll need a Robin to hold him back.

Marinette dons the costume, two months after they bury him, and tries to forget that this uniform, his spare, still smells like him.

She’s wearing a dead boy’s clothes.

Alfred helps her make a new one after that first night.

Eventually, he does accept her as Robin. He trains her harder than he did both Damian and Tim.

She pushes through.

And now, four years later, there’s evidence proclaiming that he’s alive.

Alive, and on a killing spree, weeding out Gotham’s corrupt at the very center, strategically taking people out to topple the system.

A laugh escapes her, even as her shoulders shake with tears, because the methods are so familiar, so Tim, that she doesn’t know how she didn’t notice earlier.

She asks Jason to cover for her that night. 

He agrees without any questions, seeing the serious look on her face. Marinette has never been more grateful for the boy she and Dad found stealing the tires of the Batmobile.

After Batman leaves (Robin is benched until Red Hood is taken care of, whatever that means), and she pretends to go to bed, she opens her closet and pushes against the hidden panel in the back wall, revealing a spare uniform.

Robin escapes out her window, even though she knows that Alfred will have been alerted by the window opening.

Too bad for them, though, because she removed all the trackers except the emergency beacon, which can only be activated from her side.

The Red Hood is elusive, but she knows his tricks. She keeps up with him as he turns corner after corner, jumps from building to building, until he stops on the roof of Wayne Enterprises.

“Robin.” He says, helmet filtering out any signs that it’s her brother underneath. “But you’re not really Robin, are you? You’re wearing a dead boy’s clothes.”

She can’t help it, she flinches at how casually he speaks of his own death.

“Tim.” She tugs at the uniform, which has never fit right, despite it being tailored to her exact measurements. “What happened to you?”

“What happened? I died, that’s what happened.” The helmet comes off with a click and a hiss of air, and then it’s just her brother, older, eyes violent green, face twisted into a sneer. “I went off to follow the lead on the Joker myself, since Big Bird shut the door in my face and told me it wouldn’t amount to anything, got myself captured, and ended my own life to preserve their secrets. But you should know all of that, Replacement.”

The nickname is like a dagger to the heart. “I never wanted to replace you, the same way you didn’t want to replace Damian.” She says steadily, staring straight into his eyes even as her heart skitters frantically. “I was keeping Robin’s legacy alive.”

“Robin should have died with me.” 

“You know as much as I do that Batman needs a Robin, and Batman would not stop fighting as long as he lives.” She replies. “I never wanted to be Robin, Tim. It’s been four years, and it still feels like it doesn’t fit. But there was nobody else to do it, no one else to bring him out of that spiral.”

Tim is silent for a moment, so she continues.

“Come home, Tim. Please. We’ve all missed you so much. Dad isn’t the same anymore. No one is. We can be a family again.”

“Don’t you see, Marinette? I was never meant to be Robin, either. I was just that one annoying kid who wouldn’t leave Bruce alone, the one who blackmailed him into letting a second Robin out onto the streets. Even after I moved in, I was just that one kid who never really belonged, the outsider trying to insert himself into a family, pretending that Bruce cared for me as much as he did his biological children. Bruce only allowed me to stay in the Manor because I knew his secret. Damian made no effort to hide his disgust around me. You- you were the only one in that house who treated me like an equal.”

He draws a gun and points it at her, and she hears the safety click off. “But you’re Robin. He shouldn’t have made another child Robin. He should have said no, let the legacy die.”

“Tim,” She pleads. “Please don’t do this.”

Something in his eyes waver for a moment, fading to blue, before they harden into acid green again. “You meant too much to me. Let’s see if you mean enough to Batman too, enough for him to arrive on time.”

The gun goes off with a bang, and she feels the bullet enter through a crack in her armor, burying itself in her torso.  The pain is nothing new, but overwhelming all the same as her entire body seems to be on fire.

The last thing she does before everything goes black is calibrate the beacon to send the signal to Nightwing only, before smashing the button with all her remaining strength.

I hope Flamebird gets them here on time.

There are two reasons why she chooses to send it to Nightwing, and Nightwing only. One being because Damian doesn’t know that Tim is alive, and despite everything, he deserves to.

The other?

She doesn’t trust her father to make it.

permanent tags

@wannajointhecrabcult @miraculous-simmer7 @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @fantasyislive @chocolateherringtacofan @junarvion @susiej1118 @aestheticnpoetic @toodaloo-kangaroo @ladybug-182 @itsmeevie01 @g-arya @souleateralicestein @nightstarblue @i-is-mysterious @moonystars14 @vixen-uchiha @the-flapdoodle-noodle @labschaos @nathleigh @jalaluvsu @kaithehero @iamablinkmarvelarmy

unspecified @momothefemur @indecisive-mess-named-me @laurcad123 @ilovefluffbutsmutisalsogreat @sassakitty @fusser90

#maribat #platonic timari #ambiguous ending #my writing

[mirrerover]

Big Plans

“You know shit’s never gonna fucking change, right?” Jason makes to grab for his Zippo. Remembering Dick will happily remove his nuts from his waxed sack for even contemplating smoking inside Dick’s apartment, he stops. His fingers twitch with irritation, nothing like a little nicotine deprivation to start the day. “Gotham’s a gothic nightmare where corruption runs thicker than blood and Blüdhaven’s worse, somehow. Like looking in a funhouse mirror. Uglier. More warped.”

“I really do enjoy our little morning pep talks,” Dick replies, closing the last two buttons on his dress shirt before tucking the fabric into the waistline of his pants. In general, Jason would say he prefers the Kevlar-enhanced, ass-hugging suit Dick prowls the night in—but there’s something to be said for a crisp, white button-down with the sleeves rolled up, forearm veins on display. He doesn’t know how the Blüdhaven criminals are faring but, personally, he wouldn’t mind letting Detective Richard Grayson slap some cuffs on him. Let Dick work him over hard in a surveilled box until Jason cracks, raw and bloody under the harsh fluorescent lights. 

“These fucking places,” Jason grumbles, tired and cranky from watching Dick getting ready to leave, all that warm, gold skin about to slip right out the door. “It’s not something anyone can fix. Nothing short of dropping a bomb on the damn place and razing it to the ground.” 

Dick sighs, running a hand through his hair. It’s getting longer, strands brushing the bone of his jaw. He’s no stranger to this; Jason and the trash he talks. Words pouring out of him sharp as knives, the blades full of blood. Just endlessly spewing shit.

“No point to it all, huh?” Dick leans a hip against the dresser, arms folded, eyebrow raised. There’s an ease to him that’s inherent; the way he owns his body, his space, every room he’s in. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re trying to lure me back to bed.”

 Jason thinks it over. Admits, “not originally,” and lets his legs fall apart slowly. Nude body lounging against cheap, synthetic pillows, he’s got Dick’s low-rent sheets strategically draped across his crotch, all tasteful and shit. Just like the Renaissance paintings cluttering the hallways of the Wayne Manor. None of the shameless, naked peacocking Dick gets up to after sex. No, Jason’s classy. Artful. The signature Jason Todd brand. “But are you feelin’ down to fuck?” he asks. 

Dick throws his head back and laughs. Really fucking laughs. Eyes scrunched up and shoulders shaking, all charisma and beauty and warmth. Laughing like that, it’s suddenly easy to see how a group of metahumans chose Dick as their leader despite his lack of superpowers or how the Blüdhaven Police Corps would accept him as their own despite him being the ward of Gotham’s favourite billionaire asshole. There’s something about Dick like there’s something about Bruce. Something captivating and inescapable that would make you launch a thousand ships for them. Burn down entire worlds for them. Jason’s not sure Dick’s aware of that. And in a way, Jason thinks he understands the Joker better than Bruce ever could. 

Dick’s laughter fades too slowly, and Jason would be annoyed but there’s a tightness to Dick’s pants that wasn’t there two minutes ago, and Dick’s always laughing. Joyful and happy. Like those are easy feelings to conjure and easy feelings to have. As if getting out of bed isn’t like crawling out of a dark pit every morning and as if life isn't like taking a suckerpunch to the gut, over and over.

“Wish I could,” Dicks says, and Jason swears he sounds like he means it. “But I got big plans today. Gotta save a city.”

“‘Save a city.’ Jesus Christ. More like go get shanked in the gut.”

Dick shrugs and slips on a watch. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

The other bats all have their day jobs. The Police Detective, the Socialite, the rising Tech Wunderkind, and Jason’s personal favourite: the Student. Jason derives no small amount of pleasure from knowing that Bruce and the Demon Spawn get to suffer through the worst of it. Like an ill-fitted suit, Jason hopes it pulls and itches every time they’ve got to slip their disguises on. It shows how removed they are from the rot and the grit and the filth of what is Gotham. The gore at the core of it all. 

That’s where Jason lives, at its epicentre. 

He’d fallen into it naturally, being a crime lord. It had been a logical first step when he’d come home, head full of green fumes and rage. He’s proud to say, he puts the organized in organized crime. Outshines even the worst of them in calculated vicious violence. The crime part of the job, Jason can admit he’s gotten more discerning about. There’s no peddling drugs to kids or bleeding junkies dry, no people traded like cattle, and he doesn’t like selling guns to the lowlifes clogging Gotham’s streets. So, he’s become a parasite instead. Infiltrates a crime organisation and eats it from the inside out till it finally collapses. Scraps the dead beast for parts and money.

It’s not something Jason talks about with this version of Dick. His shady deals, his underground moonlighting. Never with a cop like the one making his way to the bed right now, uniform tight over thick thighs and a sway in his hips that’s nothing less than sexual warfare. 

“Try smoking in my bed again, Todd,” Dick warns, looming over him. He stops whatever threat he was going to utter, disrupted by Jason grousing at him to fucking let that go already. Perfectly pleasant, Dick does exactly that. Just stares at Jason with a face far too naked and utterly too fond. Something’s creeping under Jason’s skin at the sight of it—an itch he doesn’t know how to scratch, unable to decide whether he wants to kiss the prick or break his perfect face instead.

A little lower, there’s a bruise peeking out of Dick’s collar that looks like a handprint. Jason had put that there last night. Violently. Not even the fun kind of violent but the messy kind. The kind where something hunts Jason through nightmares and his body acts before his sleeping brain has had the chance to catch up—that kind of violence. Maybe a better person would wallow in the guilt and remove themselves from the situation. Not Dick and Jason. They just get better at hiding the batarangs and guns. The 200 pounds of well-trained muscle and murderous reflexes are a little harder to counteract but Dick’s no babe in the woods. Besides, Jason’s not exactly the first lethal bitch between Dick’s bedsheets.

Dick smiles. A teasing thing full of soft edges. “Mornings are hard. Aren’t they, Sugarplum?”

“Fuck you to hell.” Jason groans with feeling, hating the hard lumps of Dick’s mattress when he sinks back into them. “Just get lost already, Birdbrain. There’s no fucking point to you with your clothes on.”

“Nice to know I’m not completely useless.”

Jason wants to fight that far too favourable self-assessment. Would fight it, were he not half a pack of Lucky Strikes and three cups of coffee short of mustering the energy. Which is also the only reason he’s letting Dick press an off-centre kiss to his forehead. A shitty place for a shitty kiss from a shitty person, if you ask Jason. Very much Dick Grayson’s style.

“Try and behave, Little Wing.” Dick’s already moving away from the bed and shrugging on a jacket. “I really like this place. Got three South facing windows and none of the neighbours run a meth lab.”

“Prime Blüdhaven real estate,” Jason mutters darkly.

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Dick takes one last look at himself at the mirror, shoots Jason a tacky wink because his existence is a curse, and promises under his breath something that sounds suspiciously like I’ll be back or I’ll miss you. Another twenty seconds later and Jason hears the front door lock click back into place.

His day is wide open now. 

There are things to do but there are always things to do. At any time, Jason’s got about forty things in various stages of motion. Always working on something. Someone. Bigger games than the one he’s running on Dick right now, lighting one up in his bed.

Blowing smoke up into the air, Jason decides that today he’s going to crack the safe Dick keeps behind the panel in his closet. Perfectly harmless, really. Just him fishing through some of Dick’s case files—maybe even solving a few, if he’s feeling charitable. And for tonight, there’s that Malaysian place three blocks over that does a better Rendang than anything he’s found in Gotham. Dick never shuts up about it. Like he’s never going to shut up about the cigarette smell seeping into the wallpaper.

Jason smirks. Solid options. He still has last night’s terrors painted on the back of his eyelids and the feeling of Dick’s neck under his hand but they’re slowly fading. And Dick’s got him covered, said he’d take care of the big plans, so Jason doesn’t have to. And next time, when Jason’s Dick and Dick’s Jason, he’ll have Dick covered too. Jason will tackle the big plans while Dick raids Jason’s fridge and leaves wet towels all over his apartment. Jason knows it’ll happen. It has happened. Just not today.

Maybe tomorrow.

----------------------

@wethatake thanks for being the beta and basically a co-writer. You suck but I love you. <3 Here’s to hoping that your sad little sack of a co-worker doesn’t kill you. XD

#jaydick #jaydick-flashfic #jaydick-flashfic: big plans #jason todd #dick grayson #mirre writes

[peterxwade24]

Safety Found in Red Sleeves

Chapter 7

So, who’s ready for Gotham ft. Thana and friends? Also, Uncles Ed and John show up at the end so, look out for that.

Anyways...

Jason woke up early that next day, and he decided he was just going to have a little bit of a lie in. He smiled and pulled Damian closer, shushing him when he made a noise in protest. “I’m pretty sure the girls are going to join us in a little bit, and then Tim a little while after that.”

Just like he expected, Steph and Cass joined them in the bed not too long after he said it, and then Tim joined in a few minutes after the girls. The five of them laid in bed, everyone finding comfort in each other. No words were passed between the family, they didn’t feel the need to speak.

That’s where Dick and Wally, and their kids, found them about an hour later.

“Why weren’t we called to join the cuddle pile?” Dick pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, while Mar’i, Jay, and Iris ducked around their fathers and climbed into the bed. They, like Damian, chose a Wayne and clung to them. Mar’i clung to Tim, Iris clung to Steph and Jai clung to Cass.

“There’s a nine-year-old practically asleep on my chest. My phone is on my nightstand. None of them brought their phones to my bed.” Jason whispered and carded his fingers through Damian’s hair.

Dick shot a look at Wally, Wally simply shrugged as though to say “when in Rome” before he too got into the bed.

“C’mon Dickiebird. We don’t have anything to do today. We don’t start guiding or protecting them till tomorrow.” Jason’s words were slightly slurred in his comfortable state.

Dick huffed good-naturedly before climbing into the bed with his family and the Wests.

---

Tim’s phone blared from the room he’d claimed, stirring the almost completely asleep cuddle pile into wakefulness.

Jason frowned and shifted Damian from his chest to Steph’s other side. “I’ll be right back. Imma go answer Timber’s phone.” Jason slowly got out of the bed, being careful to not displace the other kids, and quietly left the room. He made his way into Tim’s room, grabbed his phone off of the night stand, and, without looking at the caller ID, answered the phone. “Timothy Jackson Drake’s phone, Jason speaking.”

“Why do you have his phone?” Bruce’s irritated voice came over the line.

“Because Tim’s in my bed asleep with most of my family and he left his phone on the nightstand next to the bed he sleeps in.” Jason’s voice didn’t change despite a grin forming on his face. “If something’s gone wrong at Wayne Enterprises, then shouldn’t you as the CEO be stepping up to solve it? And not your seventeen year old son.”

“You have no-” Bruce growled.

“I have no what? Room to care about my little brother? Right to care that my brothers and sisters would perish in your care?” Jason’s tone took on a deadly edge. “I have killed for less. I have killed to keep my son safe. I am not above maiming in the defense of those I love.” Jason hung up the phone and put it back down on the nightstand with a weighted sigh. He turned and the only indication he was surprised by Cass’s appearance was a slight widening to his eyes. “Hey Cass.”

Cass simply walked towards her brother and let herself slump against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him in her own display of thanks.

Jason simply rubbed circles into the older girl’s back. “I will not let him hurt any of you ever again. Harvey and I will fight tooth and nail if we have to, he has already given up his parental rights to Damian. You and Steph and Tim are just as much my siblings as you are my kids, well, you not so much a kid but you know what I mean.”

Cass shook with silent laughter and nodded. She patted Jason’s back and pulled back. She flashed him a smile before pulling him back to the rest of the family. 

---

Jason smiled as Damian ran around the park with Mar’i, Jai and Iris. Damian hadn’t had many opportunities to open up to children his age, as there hadn’t been any in the league, and despite the fact that he was older than the other three the four of them got along fairly well. Jason watched as Dick fretted over the three younger kids, Wally stood beside him with a small affectionate grin on his face. Tim was riding a skateboard around the park, Bart keeping pace beside him. Cass sat with Kon while Steph, Cassie and Cissie chatted a few paces away from the other two.

Damian, Mar’i, Jai and Iris ran around the park, weaving around other patrons and laughing. Damian looked over his shoulder at the other three when he ran into someone.

“Are you okay? Oh I’m so sorry.” A girl, who was with the person Damian ran into, spoke with a French accent. She was significantly taller than her companion with long black hair, the bangs and tips of which were dyed purple, and copper coloured eyes. She fretted over both Damian and her friend, who Damian was finally taking in. Her friend was short, just a head or two taller than Damian, with blue eyes and short pink hair, part of which was pulled back into a spiky ponytail.

Damian nodded. “I’m fine.”

Mar’i, Jai and Iris, upon seeing Damian standing, turned and ran to get their fathers.

The taller girl nervously flicked her bangs out of her face before frowning. “Are you sure you’re okay? Alix doesn’t always look where she’s skating.”

The other girl, apparently named Alix, looked ready to comment when Dick and Wally approached.

“Are you okay Damian?” Dick’s tone was filled with concern while Wally hung back with the three other kids.

“I’m fine Uncle Dick.” Damian frowned, “where’s Baba?”

“He’s gathering the other three, then they’ll be over here.” Dick reassured his young brother/nephew.

Jason ran to his son and scooped him up. “Oh Kutlat Saghira. Are you okay?” He turned to look at the French teens and smiled. “Thank you for stopping to make sure he was fine.”

Alix’s eyes widened before nodding. “Yeah, uh, no problem.”

Juleka gave a shy smile and nodded. “It was the least we could do.”

-*-*-*

Thana stared at her friends, the three who had always had her back and the two newest additions to their ranks. She took a moment to thank Plagg and Tikki, without whom she may never have met her closest friends and allies. She took in her friends and the way that all of their outfits seemed to go together without being obnoxiously matchy-matchy.

Alix seemed to be vibrating in her shoes, which were custom made turtle shell patterned Heelys. She wore dark gray distressed jeans with a dark forest green racerback tank top. She had a black and red men’s flannel over her tank with a red beanie perched on the top of her head. She had a dark green turtle themed shoulder bag strapped across her back.

Nino, standing next to Alix, had similar shoes done in snake skin instead of turtle shell. He wore loose-fitting blue denim jeans with several snake related patches around the side seems, he had a gray collared shirt under a red sweatshirt. He had a black shoulder bag across his back, on the opposite side Alix’s was. He had his normal headphones around his head while he had a pair of black headphones atop his head.

Adrien wore black and white checkered vans with white socks. His pants were salmon with baby pink criss-crossing stripes covering them. He wore a baby pink sweater with a light gray fanny pack.

Chloé wore a layered yellow skirt with a pair of foxes chasing each other around her hem, her skirt was made up of a solid layer of yellow silk under two or three layers of tulle. She had a white crop top tank under a red knit cardigan. She had an orange coloured baguette purse at her side. She had black converse with black socks to finish off her outfit.

Kim wore a pair of black running shoes, with gray sweatpants and a white shirt. He had a red zippered hoodie on top of that. He had a tiny gray ox with a smaller black cat curled up on its back on the hem of his shirt.

Thana had a pair of black running shoes, with gray leggings and a white tank top. She had a red crop top hoodie made of the hoodie she’d received from Jason all those years ago with a few added panels. Her tank top had little depictions of the Vietnamese zodiac animals on her chest.

Alix smiled brighty. “So, Kiti, you’ll never guess who I ran into, almost literally, yesterday.”

Thana hummed in acknowledgement as she led the group to the elevator. “Who’d you run into Rùa?”

“Oh, just, your brother, his brother, and an assortment of children.” Alix grinned as Thana froze and turned to look at her.

“What?” Thana’s voice was almost too quiet to hear, prompting Kim to drape his arm across her shoulders while Nino settled his normal headphones around Thana’s neck.

Chloé stared at Adrien, her blue eyes seeming to stare into Adrien’s soul.

“Hey, Al, that maybe wasn’t the best thing to say when we’re trying to get to the lobby to go on a tour with the rest of our class.” Adrien attempted to gently tell her off, but it backfired.

“Whatever.” Alix slunk ahead of them into the elevator.

---

Adrien looked at Alix forlornly as Alix chatted with Juleka. He knew he’d have to apologize eventually, he may have one fear as Monsieur Punaise (which was his partner) but he had two fears as Adrien Agreste, and they were disappointing his father and an angry Chloé Bourgeois. He shook his head and looked back at Chloé, who had a frown on her face as her eyes continued to scan the streets.

Nino fiddled with his phone as he kept pace a step behind Chloé but a step ahead of Thana and Kim. He looked to be fully absorbed in his phone but he was quick to pull Chloé away from the street a few moments before a car came whizzing past.

Their tour guide, a pleasant man who’d introduced himself as Richard, despite the fact that the bodyguard had snorted in response before neglecting to introduce himself, led them around Gotham. He pointed out all of the touristy destinations, while Thana mumbled what could be considered sad facts about each place.

Thana kept flicking her eyes to the bodyguard, there was only one Gothamite with the exact same build as their bodyguard with the same scars littering his cheeks and jaw. She was worrying the cuffs of her jacket sleeves when she heard the distinctive tap of her Uncle Ed’s cane. She whipped around to attempt to locate him, before seeing him and his tacky suit and her Uncle John and his equally as tacky suit approaching from behind Kim. She broke away from the group, causing the rest of her class (as well as the tour guide and bodyguard) to turn to stare at her as she threw herself into her Uncle Ed’s arms.

“Little Hood. It’s good to see you.” Her Uncle Ed held her close while Uncle John finally reached the duo.

“Hey Mini Todd.” Her Uncle John ruffled her hair before settling an arm around Ed’s shoulders.

The three reunited for a moment under the watchful eyes of the class’ bodyguard, Thana’s friends, and Marinette’s class. Kim pulled out his phone to take a picture to send to his Mẹ, because she had asked for any updates on Thana’s family situation. Nino took a picture to send to Thana, because he knew she’d want to have photographic evidence of when she reunited with her two of her uncles.

“I missed you two so much.” Thana whispered into Ed’s neck while John settled his hand on the back of Thana’s head.

“We missed you too.” John assured their niece, he knew that she’d had doubts about whether or not they had actually missed her as much as she’d missed them, and he hated her father for giving her that complex every day.

Lila let out a blood-curdling scream before appearing to tremble as she pointed at the trio. “Marinette is hugging The Riddler and Scarecrow!” Lila then proceeded to pretend to faint, luckily for her Alya was right there to catch her, unluckily for her everyone else was focused on their classmate and that fact that she appeared to have tears streaming down her cheeks.

Taglist:

@southamericangothamite @maribat-is-lifeblood @mystery-5-5 @our-preciousss @mochegato @chocolatecatstheron @throneoffirebreathingbitch @2confused-2doanything @wannajointhecrabcult @dreamykitty25 @tomanyfandomsonmymind @moonlightstar64 @justafanwarrior @mialuvscats @pheony1882 @pepelachanel @moongoddesskiana @abrx2002 @ladybug-182 @greatcatblaze @thatonecroc @vixen-uchiha @superbwhispersconnoisseur @lilkymilky @susiej1118  @bluesimani @thatonecroc

#maribat #ml crossover #mlb crossover #ml x dc #mlb x dc #Safety Found in Red Sleeves #SFIRS

[redhoodssweetheart]

Clumsy

Genre: Fluff

Relationship: Older!Damian Wayne x Gender Neutral!Reader

Requested: Yes (REQUESTS ARE OPEN UNTIL JUNE 14TH 11:59 PM EST)

Word Count: 1K

Warnings: Fluff, like one swear word

Description:  Damian teases you for being clumsy.

A/N:  There’s a part at the end that I would love to actually seeing as a comic but I can’t draw worth a damn lol.  

There was a crashing sound followed by a string of swears.  Damian leaned forward in his seat and peered around the corner of a bookshelf and saw you bent over picking the books you had dropped.  You were mumbling to yourself as you did so and Damian slowly rose from his seat to come join you.

“Y/N, why on earth were you trying to carry so many books at once?”  He hadn’t even known you were in the library.

You sighed and situated the books back in your arms with Damian helping carry some of them.  “Tim asked me to retrieve these for him.  He’s doing some type of research for school and handed me the list.”

Damian arched an eyebrow, “You do know that you don’t have to do this for him, correct?”

“I know, but I wanted to help him,” you explained.  “He’s always so busy and he was focused on what he was working on so I thought I’d get these for him.”

The two of you walked down the stairs toward the kitchen where Tim had papers and books spread out all before him.  He looked up when he heard footsteps approaching, “Ah Y/N, thank you for getting these for me.”  He motioned for where you could sit them down at and then went right back to working.

You chuckled and turned to walk away once your task was complete.  Damian followed along beside you and watched as you made your way down the halls of Wayne Manor.  At one point you went to trip, but he caught you by the elbow.  He had seen you trip several times in the past couple of days, not to mention knocking over your glass the night before.  Or there was the time when you walked into a door.  “Are you always this clumsy?”  

You chuckled and rubbed the back of your neck, “Yeah, I used to say that I could trip over a flat surface.  I don’t know why I’m like this, but you grow used to it after a while.”  You thought back to all the times you had accidentally spilt something or tripped over surfaces.  “I think my clumsiness is the one reason why Bruce won’t let me go out into the field.  I don’t blame him.  Could you picture my clumsy ass as a vigilante,” you began to laugh and Damian cracked a smile.  “I’d also make the worst villain ever.”

“I’m not going to lie if you were a villain your clumsiness would make our job a lot easier,” he teased.  An image starting to take shape in his mind of you becoming a supervillain and fighting him, but being unable to best him because of your clumsiness.

You elbowed him, “Thanks for the confidence in my villainy skills.”  Though you knew he was right, you would definitely make their job easier if you were the supervillain they had to face off against.

He chuckled at the mock outrage on your face, “Danger prone Y/N, tripping their way into a jail cell one crime at a time.”

You made a noise of indignation, “Damian Wayne!”  There was a large part of you that wanted to laugh along with him, but you also didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that you were finding this amusing as well. 

Damian was full blown laughing now imagining you in your supervillain getup and tripping into a jail cell.  Dick and Jason were passing the two of you in the hall glanced at one another before staring at Damian who wasn’t paying a bit of attention to them.  He still couldn’t get the thought of all your blunders that would inevitably lead to your capture and your arrest.

“No, no this is great,” he said between peels of laughter, tears trailing down his cheeks.  “I needed this laugh.”

You rolled your eyes and snorted, “Yeah I can see that, demon spawn.”

Damian straightened and wiped the tears from his eyes and face, looking at you with a rare, wide smile.  “I still can’t get the image of you tripping into a trap designed to catch you,” he told you.  “I know exactly how I’d do it too.”

“You know something, Damian.  You’re mean,” and you began stomping away.  It would have been perfect if your foot hadn’t caught on the rug and tripped you.

Damian rushed to your side in an instant, “Are you all right?”

He was hovering above you, his hand outstretched to help you up.  Slowly, you reached up and took his hand, but instead of getting up you tugged him down so that he landed beside you on the floor.  The look on his face as you did so was priceless and you began to laugh, getting him back for laughing at you.

Damian narrowed his eyes at you, “All right, all right lesson learned.  I won’t laugh at you for being clumsy again.”

You grinned at him, “Some slight teasing every once in a while is fine, but there will be retaliation, Wayne.”

He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to your forehead, “Come on, I’ll carry you to make sure we make it to our destination without injury.”

The two of you stood up and dusted your clothes off, “I can make it back to the library, Damian.  Contrary to popular belief and despite the little accident back there I’m not unusually clumsy.  Just more so than most.”

“Uh-huh,” he said in a way that made you think he didn’t believe you.  Then he moved so that you could climb in his back and give you a piggyback ride to the library.

Later that night as Damian was sitting in bed with his iPad, he started a comic sketch of you and he fighting as a supervillain and vigilante.  It was just a funny little comic, nothing meant to be harmful or mean spirited, he just couldn’t get the idea out of his head.  When he was done with the first panel he thought that maybe he would post this somewhere anonymously and see what the fans of the BatFam thought of it.

Or maybe you would kill him if he did so.  Either way, he didn’t see himself stopping anytime soon.

#Damian Wayne x Reader #Older!Damian Wayne x Reader #Damian Wayne x Reader fluff #Damian Wayne #Damian Wayne fluff #Damian Wayne fanfic #Damian Wayne fanfiction #Robin #Robin fanfic #Robin fanfiction #Robin fluff #Requested

[primeemeraldheiress]

2, 5, and 15 for the fic asks?

What is your favorite snippet of dialogue?

I don’t think I have a single snippet. There’s too many exchanges I like... So have a smattering of my favs.

From Cry ‘Havoc’

“My queen.” The figure in black stood in front of the glowing ray shields. Unmoving and deadly patient.

“Did you mean it?” The words ripped themselves out of her mouth before she realized she was going to voice them. She almost wanted to take them back but it didn’t matter. At this point, nothing mattered.

The helmet — the visage of nightmares to many of her man, the herald of death to even more — tilted, confused.

“Every word I have spoken since we were trapped within the temple has been sincere.”

The air around them rang with truth. She didn’t understand how she knew that; she didn’t even care anymore. Something loosened in her chest and she could breathe again. She hadn’t even realized she had been struggling, her chest heaving as she took her first full breaths since the had news come in.

Her fist slammed into the panel next to the cell, bringing the shields down. Setting him loose. Her other hand curled around a blade, still humming that mournful — frighteningly familiar — tone.

“If you meant it,” she bit out, furious at the pirates, at the situation, at him, “bring them back.”

“I am yours.”

From The Corner of Divinity

“Your enemies are my enemies.” The man said, his voice rough. “I have brought you your most hated foe to do with as you will. A gift in good will; in greatest care.”

“My greatest monster.” Jason stated, a tremble in his voice.

“Your greatest fear.”

“My greatest fear.” Jason agreed as he slowly took the blade, examining it. He tested its weight and balance. Tested the sharpness of the blade. Each part of this ceremony was important. Carried weight. Meant something. From the quality of the blade to the gift presented. Not that he ever thought Deathstroke himself would deign to own a substandard weapon. He hesitated just a moment. Only a moment. Then, he took Slade's hand back and placed the hilt of the knife back into it.

Staring into Slade’s eye, he voice low with intent he asked him, “Destroy it for me?”

From As Long As You Learn

“Master Yoda is right. We’ll do better this time, padawan.” Anakin slumps, falling back on his heels. “Come get your kid, Kenobi.”

From Pull Back The Curtain

“You can’t tell me, your majesty, that you don’t know what you’ve done.” He pinches the bridge of his nose and the cup he was holding clatters on the saucer as it’s placed back on the table.

“At least,” he says, a little more gently, “you were kind. I do have to thank you for that.”

Obi-Wan looks up at her, grief in his eyes but jaw clenched with still present fury. He tips his head at her in mock deference, “Thank you for being kind when you took my padawan to bed, Senator. No one else has been as conscientious.”

Her heart beats a frantic tattoo in her ears. What?

“What?” She croaks. Anakin... no one else... gentle? Separately, the words make sense but strung together she can’t parse their meaning. She doesn’t understand but the words that Obi-Wan is saying, everything he is implying, makes her think she’s supposed to.

Makes her think that all of this is supposed to be common knowledge.

What is she missing? What does everyone else know? Who should have told her?

Icy fingers crawl up her spine and her stomach turns. Something is very wrong.

Obi-Wan chuckles but there is no humor in the laugh. It is a dark thing. Almost poisonous as it leaves his mouth.

“Surely you didn’t think you had been the only one.”

There is something low and unpleasant threaded through his voice now. Something hateful. Padmé wishes for the restrained fury from before. Even though it had been directed at her then. Even though this hate now was not.

“Anakin has been a favorite of the Chancellor for several years now.”

From Best Laid Plans Not Sober

The boy’s grew wide and he looked at Jason in confusion, “I thought Alfred was our grandfather.”

“He is.” Jason affirmed.

He saw the older man place a hand to his chest out of the corner of his eye and his heart ached. He wanted to go to him... but making sure Damian understood was more pressing.

“Then why is he serving, akhi?” The boy demanded. “He should not be lowering himself to such a position!”

“Alfred serves because he loves us.” Jason explained patiently, cheeks still a swath of red but slowly fading. “He wants to take care of us and make sure we’re healthy. It’s how he shows his love.”

Damian tilted his head in thought. “Like when you killed the lion.” There was a sharp intake of breath from the table. Tim. Jason felt the flush renew. Great. That was the last piece of information he needed floating around the manor.

“Like when I killed the lion.” Jason affirmed with a resigned nod. “I’m a protector, like Dad. Alfie’s a carer. People have different ways of showing their love. It’s not the only way they show it, but typically it’s what comes more naturally.”

“I understand.” The boy lowered his head. “I am sorry.”

“It’s not me you need to tell.” Jason chastised softly, “Either way, even if Alfie was staff and not family, I know I taught you better manners than that.”

“But Mother-”

“Is not here.” He stated firmly. He knew what kind of image they had to keep there. Knew what Talia said. “This is not Nanda Parbat. You do not have an image to uphold.” Jason continued, “Even when you do, manners are not a detriment to that image. Do you understand?”

“Not entirely.” The boy admitted. “But I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask. I will never demand more than your best effort.”

What’s your favorite headcanon you use in fics?

I have a whole host of them, actually. Though, some of them I only use for certain fics. I have a whole file on Tatooine worldbuilding that I’m slowly introducing to different verses. They’re getting a lot of screen time in Kidnapping AU, actually. I have headcanon reasons for Anakin wearing black and background info and ideas. I don’t actually want to give too much away, here, but I’d rather see you guys slowly be like “... O.O ThATS SO COOL” when you read it. 

And, I mean, Eli and I are now collaborating on a whole series of one of my favorite headcanons, Shmi had a wife. 

OH, WAIT --  my absolute FAVORITE headcanon that seems to make its way into everything is that the marble of the Temple feels warm to the touch if you’re Force sensitive. Due to all the thousands of years of positive emotions -- of family, and love, and home -- that have seeped into it. 

I haven’t seen anyone else use this so I think it’s mineminemine! :)

Give us a snippet of something from your WiPs!

Hmmm... What do I have that isn’t super spoilery or that I’ve given before...

They were hunting him.

He could feel them move through the halls. Sweeping rooms, their minds intent. Searching.

He needed to hide. He needed to get away. Until it was dark. Until it was safe. The night was safety on Tatooine, as the Three Sisters rose in the sky and the Masters slept. A time when the slaves could gather and tell stories. A time when they could slip their chains for a few hours and breath together. Laugh together. Love together.

A time to run.

Darkness meant safety. Meant the cooling air after the deadly heat of the day and freedom from the master’s gaze. Darkness meant the embrace of family.

He needed to find the dark.

He could feel it. Beneath his feet. Beneath the Temple.

It called.

On silent feet, he ran, pressing himself to walls when he felt the brush of another mind. The intent of the hunt around him. The marble of the floor was warm against the soles of his bare feet as he crept through disused halls.

He was stepping through the alleys of Mos Eisley. Silently, on the heels of his mother as she left to attend an illness in the slave village. Then, he put a foot down and it was on the dusty duracrete floors of Watto’s shop. The Toydarian sneering at him, hand raised in threat.

Anakin cowered.

Then, it was the gravel of Gardulla’s slave quarters, watching as his mother dragged away. Before he’d learned that crying was a waste of water.  

When the Temple came back into view, Anakin didn’t know where he was, but it was dark, and it was cool, and it was safe.

It must be safe.

#Ask Meme #Ask Game #Emerald Drabble #Servio Sumus #Pull Back the Curtain #Unmasked AU #BLP #The Corner of Divinity #Drugged Anakin AU #ilonga #Emerald Ask #Long Post

[thegizka]

Order and Control

Writer’s Month 2020 Day 2:  Quarantine

When Bruce is exposed to a dangerous virus, he quarantines to prevent further spread until the Justice League can develop an antidote. Unfortunately, his children keep ignoring his orders.

Read it on Ao3.

Note: I do not own any aspect of DC or Batman.

Bruce waited until the lock on the hidden door clicked behind him before turning on any lights.  This safehouse was unlikely to be discovered, carved into the mountains of Montana with no one in a hundred mile radius, but now was no time to be lax in security.  He moved through the small kitchen and sitting area, bypassed the bed, and tapped a pattern on the stone wall to open an access panel.  After entering the correct security codes, the wall folded away to reveal a secret room housing a computer and an assortment of equipment that might be useful in a pinch.  Someone had left an empty bag of chips in the bin beneath the computer desk.  He made a mental note to remind his children of the importance of discarding all traces of themselves when leaving safehouses.

A few minutes later, he’d turned on the computer and connected to his network.  Bouncing his signal around the globe to discourage tracking, he sent a message to the Watchtower.  A second later, Clark appeared in a video feed.

“I take it you made it safely?”

“I’m here,” Bruce grunted.  “Were you able to find any trace of this thing?”

“Barry and Victor are still in the lab analyzing the samples you sent.  They haven’t found anything yet.”

“How are you feeling?” Diana asked, leaning into the frame.

“Fine so far.”

“You should have come back to the Watchtower.  The investigation would move faster if we could monitor you more closely.”

“We all saw the bodies,” he growled.  “Minimizing exposure is the priority.  If we can stop these bioterrorists before they release this virus, we won’t need a vaccine.”

“You need it.”  Clark frowned.  Bruce knew he agreed with Diana and would prefer Bruce isolate closer to people who could care for him.

“I will run what tests I can here and link them to the Watchtower.  I trust Barry and Victor will find the solution.”

“Do you need anything?” Diana asked.  “We can be there in a heartbeat.”

“No,” he said emphatically.  “Don’t.  And don’t tell anyone where I am.  No one can know.”

Clark and Diana exchanged a look that said they didn’t agree with him about this either.  But they had seen the horrors this virus had done to these bioterrorists’ test subjects.  They knew it was too dangerous to risk.

“We won’t,” Diana promised.

“Stay safe, Bruce.”

“You too.”

The video went blank.  Bruce sat in the silence of the safehouse for a moment.  He had stared at his own death so many times that he wasn’t scared for himself.  He was just frustrated that he couldn’t be on the front lines with the rest of the Justice League.  He had been foolish to investigate alone, stumbling onto the test site and inhaling the virus from a partially-empty canister.  He should have been more careful.

With a sigh, he hauled himself to his feet and began preparing the science equipment that he had at his disposal.  He’d already shed his suit and secured it in an impermeable bag.  He would set up a secure, sanitized lab space and swab it for residue, though so far the only traces they’d detected had been found in biomatter.  He would take frequent blood and breath samples, both to monitor his condition and try to isolate the strain for vaccine fabrication.

There were a lot of tests to run.  It would be a long night.

-----

Bruce awoke late in the morning noticing two alarming things.  The first was that his throat felt sore.  It wasn’t a sign of dehydration.  He had been careful to drink plenty of fluids to help his body remain strong as it fought against the virus.  The second was a vehicle pulling into the hidden garage and killing its engine.

He scrambled to the computer to pull up the security camera.  The fact that someone had found the entrance and not set off any alarms meant it was someone who knew this safehouse.  It was probably one of his kids.

Sure enough, he saw a mop of familiar dark hair emerge from a compact sports car.  A shorter, crisper head of hair jumped out of the passenger seat.  A jolt of fear chilled Bruce’s spine, accompanied by a waterfall of questions.  Had they touched the Batmobile parked next to them?  Had he brushed against the walls on his way to the entrance last night?  Had he remembered to disinfect the door?

“Dick, Damian, don’t move,” he called through the comm system he’d had installed three years ago.  He saw them stop.  Bless them for having the sense to listen.

“Father, what is going on?”

“You shouldn’t be here.  Go back to Gotham,” he ordered.

“B, are you okay?”  Dick took a step forward, and the panic spiked again.

“I am.  I’m just busy.  I need you to watch Gotham for a few days.”

“Are you working on the bioterrorism case?” Damian demanded.  He shouldn’t have known about that.

“Vic told us you may have been exposed,” Dick explained.  “Babs got a ping of activity from this safehouse last night, so we came to see if you were okay.”

His eldest son always did have a bleeding heart.  He let his emotions override his good sense.

“If I have been exposed, that’s reason for you to leave.  I can’t spread it to anyone else.”

“If you are in danger, Father, we should help you.”

“You can help by keeping watch over Gotham until this is over.”

“But-”

“Come on, Damian.”  Dick took his brother’s shoulder gently.  “There’s nothing we can do here right now.”

The youngest Wayne resisted for a moment.  Bruce saw so much of his own stubbornness in him.

“Be safe, Father,” he ordered before turning back to the car.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, B,” Dick called.

“Take care of them, Dick.  I’ll be back soon.”

A modicum of relief returned when he watched them drive away, but he couldn’t shake the unease their arrival had caused.  He was surprised they’d found him so quickly.  It was a little upsetting that Cyborg felt more loyalty for his former Titans teammate than the Justice League, but Dick had that sort of magnetic pull.  Bruce felt guilty for forcing his eldest into the responsibility of Batman’s duties and watching over his siblings, but it couldn’t be helped.  He just hoped he could keep the rest of them away and safe.

He reached for a glass of water to try and soothe his throat.  A basic medical check revealed no fever and an average heart rate.  He pricked his finger for a blood sample.  He hadn’t found anything decipherable from the tests he ran last night, perhaps because the virus had been too new in his body.  Hopefully today’s efforts would be more fruitful.  He popped a lemon cough drop into his mouth and got to work.

-----

Late that night, the purr of two motorcycle engines signalled new visitors.  Bruce was still awake, pouring over data from the case and taking notes on the progression of his infection.  Most of the potential side effects could be attributed to the strain of his night life, but until they had a better understanding of this virus, he was meticulous in his documentation.

The security feed revealed Jason and Stephanie parking their bikes near the garage wall.  They must have spoken with Dick because they wore respirators and chemical-repellant suits.  Jason had towed in a trailer piled up with equipment of some sort, indicating they intended to be there for a while.  The chill of panic returned.  This was not good.

“You two need to leave,” he ordered using the comms.  His sore throat and lack of conversation made his voice sound hoarse.  He reached for his water.

“Hey Bruce, you don’t sound so good.  Are you doing okay?” Stephanie asked in concern.

“I’m fine,” he insisted.  To support his claim, his voice came through more clearly.  “I’d be better if you both left.”

“No can do,” Jason grunted, lifting a stack of tarps sealed in plastic out of the trailer.  “We’re under orders from Alfred to make sure you don’t die.  We’re not going anywhere.”

“Yes you are,” he insisted, starting to feel helpless.  They couldn’t be here.  The risk was too great.  “I am ordering you to leave.”

“Too bad, Old Man.  I stopped following your orders years ago, and Stephie ain’t your kid or your Robin.  Your orders mean nothing to us.”

“Alfred’s, however,” Stephanie interjected, “sure do.  But don’t worry; he gave us very specific instructions on how to disinfect everything and keep you safely quarantined while we help.  You’ll be in good hands.”

He didn’t need to be in good hands; they did, and them being here was not safe.  But they had obviously come with the intention of staying, and they were more likely to ignore him than his other kids.  He wanted to argue, but he had to turn away to cough.  His throat felt raw, and it took him a while to regain his breath.  By the time he looked back at the garage feed, they had finished unloading and were going about Alfred’s instruction.

“Please,” he croaked in a final effort to discourage them, “just leave.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Stephanie asked, ignoring his plea.

“Save your strength Old Man.  We’re not going anywhere.”

Bruce sighed.  He didn’t have the energy to argue with them.  At least they were taking safety precautions.  They pulled one of the tarps over the Batmobile and sealed the edge to the garage floor with tape.  Jason started constructing a portable sanitizing chamber right in front of the door while Stephanie grabbed cleaning materials and went about fumigating every exposed surface.

“Make sure you ventilate properly,” Bruce instructed.  She raised a hand in a thumb’s up to acknowledge his advice but didn’t pause her work.

“Hey Bruce,” Jason said, laying tarps over the framework and sealing them tightly, “Dick seems to think this is pretty bad.  Is it?”

“You’d be more helpful working with the League to find the source, not here.”

“You never do answer our questions,” he grumbled.  “That’s only going to make them worry more, you know.”

Bruce noticed that he’d said “them”, and it stung a little that Jason had omitted himself.  He wondered if he had ever felt like part of the family, or if Bruce’s cascading screw-ups as a mentor and father had driven him away.  Even now, he had no idea how to connect with him.

“Get some rest, Old Man,” Jason said, sorting through filtration hoses to hook up the sanitizing system in the chamber.  “Steph and I don’t need you supervising if you’re not going to help.”

Bruce couldn’t think of anything to say, so he turned back to analyzing the data from the case.  He kept the security feed up in the corner of the computer screen so he could check on them while he worked.  There was some comfort in that.

-----

He awoke the next morning disoriented.  His throat burned, and his breath felt slow to fill his lungs.  He was fairly certain he had fallen asleep at the computer in the safehouse, but the conversation he was hearing was reminiscent of days in the Manor.

“Sleep.”

“He has to get up at some time, Cass.  Otherwise the food Jason made will go to waste.”

“And I need to ask him some questions about this data.”

“Tim, have you heard anything else from Leslie?”

“No.”

“So even the doc is stumped.”

“She has assured me that the best resources will be allocated to our mission.  Pennyworth will contact us as soon as progress is made.”

“Vic is monitoring her research, too.  He’ll let us know if the League comes up with anything.”

“It’s kind of nice having a friend in the League.  We used to have to hack the Watchtower to get their data.”

“The old man would have a conniption if he knew.”

“Security breeeach,” Tim growled in a Batman parody voice.

“Con-nip?  Shun?”

“One word.  It’s basically a tantrum,” Barbara translated automatically.

“Don’t worry about learning it, Cain.  Todd is the only one who speaks with such outdated language.”

“I’m pretty sure I heard you call your wallet a pocket book the other day, so maybe rethink that statement.”

Bruce sat up slowly.  His limbs felt heavy, and both feet tingled from a lack of oxygen.  He could tell this wasn’t normal fatigue.  He’d pushed his body to its natural breaking point often enough to feel the difference.  He felt as though he were barely in control of himself.

“Hey guys, it looks like Sleeping Beauty is awake,” Barbara called.  “Hi Bruce.”

A chorus of voices and a jumble of words penetrated the ringing in his ears.  There was a new video feed on his computer.  Glancing at the security feed, he saw that someone had set up a sort of control center in the garage.  Wires criss-crossed between the monitors and blinking machines, disappearing into carefully concealed access points in the floor and wall.  Tim and Barbara were camped in the center of it all, but everyone crowded together when they heard he was awake.

“How are you feeling B?” Dick asked.  He and Damian had returned, bringing Cassandra, Tim, and Barbara with them.  The growing number of people camping in the garage was perplexing, especially when he wanted everyone to stay away for their safety.

He tried to say he was fine, but his voice wouldn’t work.  He devolved into a coughing fit.  It took a good minute to catch his breath afterwards.  He wished he didn’t have to see the looks of worry on their faces.

“There’s a nebulizer outside the door in the sanitizing chamber.  Leslie provided some medicine that might help,” Tim said.

“Jason made some soup, too,” Stephanie added.

“Alfred’s worried about you living on whatever freeze-dried nonperishable shit you have in there.”

“Language, Todd.”

“Can you get up, or should I bring it to you?” Barbara asked.

“No,” Bruce croaked, the panic oozing through him.

“Relax Bruce, we have a robot we can send in,” Tim reassured him.  “We won’t get anywhere near you.”

“We have thought of everything, Father.  Do not resist this care.”

Barbara tapped a few keys on her keyboard, and Bruce heard the lock on the door slide.  A moment later, the mechanical whirring of wheels grew gradually louder.  A multi-tiered platform rolled into the room.  A sealed bowl of soup sat on one shelf, the condensation on the lid indicating it had been packaged some time ago.  Someone had placed a few bottles of water next to it.  A portable nebulizer sat below it with a bag of medication and supplements from Leslie’s clinic.

“You should let me drive that sometime,” Stephanie whispered to Tim as the robot came to a stop.  The lock on the door clicked back into place in the other room.

“When you get a chance,” Tim said, “I have a few questions about the data you gathered from the test site.”

“Hang on there, Timmy.  The guy just woke up.  Let him eat his soup in peace.”

“This is a time-sensitive issue, Todd.  The sooner we get information, the sooner we can stop these terrorists and help Father.”

“Eat, then questions,” Cassandra insisted.

“I agree,” Dick declared.  Bruce could see the intention to argue further leave his siblings.  Did he know how influential he was over them?  “The League and half of our contacts are working on this.  We can spare twenty minutes to let Bruce eat in peace.”

“It’s time for patrol anyway,” Jason announced, pushing himself away from the crowd.  “Demon Spawn, you’re coming with me.  All this motor traffic may have caused some curiosity and suspicion.”

“From what?  Mountain goats?” he scoffed, but he followed Jason out of the garage.  Bruce was surprised he hadn’t commented on the nickname.

“Clean plate club,” Cassandra said, looking straight at Bruce through the camera.  She was serious enough to make him chuckle, but his throat couldn’t muster the sound.  She followed her brothers out to patrol.

“I’m going to see if I can boost our signal now that there are seventeen machines trying to use our network,” Tim announced.  “Want to help me, Steph?”

“Sure.”  She skipped to catch up with him as he headed for the exit.

“No making out until you’re done,” Barbara called.  “I want to see results!”

“You’re one to talk,” Stephanie teased before she and Tim disappeared.

That just left Dick and Barbara, the original Robin and Batgirl.  Bruce opened the soup under their watchful eyes, moving carefully with his slow limbs.  He knew they were waiting for him to say something, but they also knew to give him time.  He didn’t mind their scrutiny as he sipped his soup, unable to handle more than little gulps with his sore throat and labored breaths.  They would read into every movement he made to extrapolate how far the virus had progressed.  Bruce wondered how much they had shared with the others.

“Gotham?” he whispered when the soup had soothed enough of his throat to give him a voice.

“Duke, Kate, Luke, and Harper are taking care of things.  Alfred is coordinating from the Batcave.  Dick reached out to Zatanna, and she’ll be around for backup.  Everything’s under control.”

“You, on the other hand, have definitely looked better.”  Concern was written all over Dick’s face.

“Have we found them yet?” he deflected, always dodging questions, always hiding behind the mask.

“The League has narrowed the attack down to three targets,” Dick shared.  “They’re en route to stop it as we speak.”

“DC, Moscow, Shanghai,” Barbara listed, anticipating his follow-up question.  She always was sharp.  “A strike force already went to their base in the Canadian Rockies and cleared it out.  This should all be over in an hour.”

So the end was in sight.  No wonder everyone was so tense and had sought things to do while they waited.  No wonder they had gathered together since they couldn’t be part of the counterstrike.  He set down his spoon and focused on his breathing.  He’d never been good at waiting on the sidelines either.  His nonexistent appetite was gone.

“The comms,” he wheezed, reaching for the keyboard.

“No,” Barbara replied, her fingers typing some sequence that locked everything on his computer except the video feed.  “You have to keep your heart rate steady.  Any excitement will spread the virus faster.”

“There’s nothing you can do, B.  Let the others handle it.”

He knew they were right, but he hated not knowing what was going on.  He hated not having any control over it.  He had never been good at relinquishing control, and now he had no choice.  His body wasn’t responding the way it should, and his children had ignored every order to stay away.  His control was falling apart.

“Hey,” Barbara said, pulling his mind back to the present, “don’t keep that spoon idle.  You don’t want to disappoint Cass.”

Bruce obeyed and brought the spoon to his mouth, letting the soup trickle down his throat without tasting it.

“Antidote?”  He didn’t trust his heavy tongue to form a full sentence coherently.

“Last we heard, they were analyzing an active sample to make sure they didn’t miss anything.  They should have it done soon.”

“Leslie was a big help,” Dick said.  “Tim sent her your tests and notes because, and I quote, ‘Barry is great but he usually works with dead bodies, and I’d like the expertise of someone who works on keeping them alive’.  It was a good call.”

Bruce tried to chuckle again, but instead he coughed.  With the stiffness of his lungs and muscles, he was left gasping for oxygen.  His body wasn’t working right.  He coughed again, and coughed and coughed and coughed.  He heard Dick and Barbara calling to him through the monitor but he couldn’t stop coughing.  He couldn’t get oxygen fast enough.  His vision blurred, and the ringing in his ears grew louder, or maybe it was the shouting?  He couldn’t tell anymore.  It was just pain and coughing until his diaphragm ceased up and he couldn’t breathe.  He couldn’t breathe.  This was how it would end.

He couldn’t breathe.

He could only pray his kids wouldn’t enter the room and get infected.

Everything went dark.

-----

Bruce came to with the disorienting feeling that he shouldn’t.  His throat felt raw and his limbs felt heavy, but he could swallow and move.  His body was tired, but his lungs filled with air without hesitation.  His heart was beating.  He had control.

He opened his eyes slowly.  He was still in the Montana safehouse.  Somehow he had been moved to the bed.  He could hear the soft hums and beeps of medical equipment, as well as a low murmur of voices.  The smell of cooking reached his nose.  He was hungry.

Bruce carefully sat up so he could get a better look around.  A pile of portable cots and sleeping bags had turned up in a corner.  So had a rather large TV on which Dick and Damian were currently playing Cheese Viking.  Tim was on his laptop on the couch, and Stephanie leaned against him, napping quietly.  Barbara and Cassandra were at the table working on some language exercises.  Jason and Duke were working in the kitchen under the careful guidance of Alfred.  It seemed impossible to fit so many people in the small safehouse, yet here they were.

Ever vigilant, Alfred turned as though sensing the movement of his patient.

“Ah, Master Bruce, you are awake.”

“Hey, looking good Bruce,” Duke greeted, waving a wooden spoon.

“Well what do you know,” Jason said, stepping away from the stove to get a better look at him.  “You came through faster than I was expecting.”

“That stir fry needs your attention, Master Jason.  The rest of you, occupy yourselves while I look him over.  You’ll have a chance to say all you want over dinner.”

With minimal grumbling, everyone returned to what they had been doing.  Alfred’s word was law, even when they had outgrown taking orders from Batman and Bruce Wayne.

“How do you feel, sir?” the butler asked, checking some readings on the monitor next to the bed and proceeding through the routine of a medical check.

“Alive,” he rasped.  “What happened?”

“Mr. Allen and Mr. Stone were able to fabricate a cure.  It was en route to you when you collapsed and arrived just in the nick of time.  Of course, the others had all rushed to your aid and exposed themselves before then, so you’ve all been ordered to quarantine for a few weeks to monitor your recovery and eliminate any chance of further spread.”

“The bioterrorists?”

“Successfully thwarted and captured.  Once again, the Justice League saves the day.”

“It’s over,” he sighed, relaxing against the wall.  Alfred gave him a wry look.

“For the rest of the world, yes.  For you, it’s only just started.  Your body must recover from the toxins, and on top of that, you have eight very strong, very different personalities to live with in a small space.  I expect it will be a bit challenging for you.”

Bruce looked around at everyone.  The teasing and familial bickering were already on display.  No matter how many times he told them to behave, they still got up to mischief.

“Like herding cats,” he sighed.  Alfred chuckled.

“More like herding bats, sir.”

#writersmonth2020 #day 2 #quarantine #my words #batfam #bruce wayne #batman #dick grayson #nightwing #barbara gordon #oracle #batgirl #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #stephanie brown #spoiler #cassandra cain #orphan #black bat #damian wayne #robin #duke thomas #signal #alfred pennyworth #mvp of the batfam #clark kent #superman #diana prince

[spookypalace]

worship the flame - chapter five

Jo peaks a look at him once or twice as he’s ordering a list of  drinks, she’s certain he catches her as pink lips curve into a smirk.  Brown eyes meet for a final time before he steps away, and she  wonders—maybe her dry spell would end.

---

Or the one where Jo meets Alex in a bar, during her final year of med school.

(if you would rather read on ao3, you can do here) ((chapter six coming today))

When her eyes opened at eight thirty the next morning, Lexie groaned in aggravation at being up so early. While her eyes felt heavy, begging to go back to sleep, Lexie couldn’t fall back into a slumber like she wanted to, so she reluctantly decided it was time for her to get up, leaving Jackson’s sleeping form behind. It wasn’t until she freshened up in the bathroom and walked across the hall that she noticed Jo’s door was wide open, giving a view of the perfectly made bed, which ultimately had Lexie realizing she wasn’t even home. Hell would have to freeze over if Jo got out of bed before ten on a Sunday. 

 Lexie’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she checked her phone for the first time while walking to the kitchen, seeing that she had a message from Jo that only said I’m with Alex, don’t worry! I’ll see you in the morning!! Realization dawned on Lexie, smothering a scoff as she shook her head in amusement and entered the kitchen, the cold wood panelling of the floor sending a brief shiver up her spine. 

 Jo spent the night with Alex and Lexie didn’t have to wonder what they got up to, and she’s hoping the guy lived up to Jo’s already high expectations from the week before. 

 Jackson was still asleep, unsurprisingly, so Lexie went into the kitchen and put a chocolate fudge pop-tart in the toaster to eat. But while she waited, silently scrolling through social media on the phone, the front door opened and Lexie glanced over, craning her neck slightly to see around the pillar as Jo walked into the house. Still in the clothes from last night, though most of her makeup was off and her usually shiny and soft brown hair tied into a haphazard ponytail, and Lexie instantly recognized the walk-of-shame look. 

 “Fun night?” she smirked right when the door shut. 

 “Oh, Jesus!” Jo gasped, literally jumping at the sound of Lexie’s smug voice as she pressed a hand to her forehead and found her best friend in the kitchen, eyes wide. “Scared the shit out of me, Lex.” Jo wandered in lazily as Lexie remained leaning against the counter waiting for the toaster behind her, raising an expectant eyebrow at her best friend. An airy scoff escaped Jo with a roll of her eyes, smiling as she admitted, “Oh my god, yes. It was fun—again. He was fun,” she corrected, smile turning coy. 

 “Yeah?” Lexie inquired with an anticipating smile, arms crossing over her chest. Sounded like Jo’s night ended a lot better than hers—the group had all came back to the apartment, Jackson and Steph having a little too much which resulted in her semi-boyfriend passing out in the bathroom, and Lexie dragging him back to her bedroom as Steph threw up in the sink. She needed to hear about her friend’s night to cheer herself up. “Details, please, give ‘em to me.” 

 Jo let out a blissful sigh, walking further into the kitchen and leaning against the counter opposite of where Lexie stood across the kitchen. “Well,” she began, grinning, lacing her fingers together and holding her arms in front of her and cracking her knuckles. “After you guys left, we both realised we wanted the same thing—lots and lots of sex. Lots of flirting, some not-so-innocent touching,” she wiggled her eyebrows, eliciting a laugh from Jo. “Then after we hooked up in the back of my car, we went back to his place.” 

 The toaster dinged and Lexie placed the hot treat on a plate, wondering if Jo’s cheeks were hurting from the smile she had on. She was obviously smitten, and Lexie hoped that this was a sign in the right direction for Jo. “Then we cracked open some beers, got to talking… Little bit of kissing and then a couple of rounds of, honestly, the best sex I’ve ever had again.” 

 Lexie’s eyebrows shot up, lips turning downwards, impressed, as she picked the pop-tart up with her fingers and took a bite of it, the hot fudge deliciously sweet on her tongue. “You talked this time, huh?” Lexie grinned after swallowing the bite, giggling slightly as Jo nodded and grinned widely. Now that Lexie really looked at her, she realized Jo did have that after-sex glow about her, again. 

 Jo snorted, shooting her a pointed look as she took out the scrunchie to loosen her hair. “He’s a doctor, Lex,” Jo laughed breathily with an almost disbelieving shake of her head as she looked up at the ceiling briefly. “What are the odds right? Well, he’s about to finish his year as a surgical intern and he actually lives with other doctors too—although we didn’t leave the bedroom for long enough to get a look at them if you know what I mean,” she added with a dreamy sigh. 

 If Lexie didn’t know any better, then she’d say Jo was in way deeper than her friend thought but voicing her opinion would only cause Jo to back away from the situation. Plus, maybe spending time with Alex was that good. 

 Lexie’s chewing slowed down to a stop at Jo’s words, eyebrows twitching into a frown. “Alright, Jo, relax,” Lexie said with a laugh, quirking an eyebrow almost warningly. Jo looked at her quizzically, detecting Lexie’s expression. “I love you and I’m super happy you’re getting what you want, but you didn’t learn anything else about this guy?” 

 Jo rolled her eyes. “Come on, we used a condom and I’m taking birth control so no STD’s here,” she shrugged before gesturing to her body, not seeing any fault in doing what she was doing as long as she was safe. But she gets where Lexie’s fear came from—her friend had once hooked up with someone who stole their toaster and TV remote. Neither of them was really sure as to why they decided on leaving the TV, but he was never seen again. And ever since Lexie had been wary of Jo’s antics, albeit they weren’t often but she still worried all the same.  “At the end of the day, if he was gonna’ kill me or steal from us then he would’ve done it by now.” 

 “So, he’s the same age as Jackson then, or?” Lexie with a quirk of a brow, biting into the pop-tart once more as she stared at her friend questioningly. Lexie would move past the fact they barely knew one another because she would support her through whatever as her best friend, but that didn’t mean she agreed with her all the time or even understood what she wanted. Jo was confusing as hell, but she guesses it came with the whole being abandoned shtick. 

 “Twenty-seven?” Jo both answers and questions, grinning impishly as Lexie nods. “I feel like I actually have something in common with a guy, finally. It’s a miracle!” she cheered, throwing her hands in the air before Lexie hissed at her to shush since Jackson was asleep. Jo’s eyes widened apologetically, hands covering her mouth as a short laugh escaped Lexie. “Sorry,” she whispered before pushing herself off the counter. “I’m gonna shower and I need to get some work done.” 

 “You got that just from learning he’s becoming a surgeon?” Lexie asks, watching as Jo begins to retreat to the bathroom, stopping as Lexie’s voice called out. 

 Jo shrugs, “it was just easy, Lex.” Her voice is soft as a small grin spreads across her lips and she leans against the wall, “it was nice, because we knew we didn’t have to try and impress one another, you know? Like, we both knew what it was, there was no fear that the other was gonna’ get cold feet when they find out you’re, like … damaged or whatever.” 

 Lexie’s face softens as she listens to her friends words, “you’re not damaged, Jo,” she shakes her head softly, watching as Jo shrugs her shoulders once again—trying to play off her insecurities, the same way she always did. “You were comfortable with him.” She states, fully processing what Jo was telling her. 

 Jo confirms Lexie’s deduction with a breathy laugh, shaking her head as she glanced up to the ceiling, “there was no pressure, we talked, and we didn’t have to worry about the crap that was spilling out of our mouths.” They laughed together, Lexie nodding in understanding as Jo sent her a final smile before pushing herself from the wall and making her way to the bathroom. 

 With her out of the kitchen, Lexie was left by herself eating her sweet breakfast, though once Jo was gone the frown returned to Lexie’s fake as she slowly chewed. Jo’s words regarding Alex had left an uncomfortably clench in the pit of Lexie’s stomach. Lexie remembered how much Jo was hurting when they she and Jason broke up, going to her bedroom and comforting her—for the first time ever, Jo hadn’t attended her classes or even picked up any of her study books. Lexie wanted to see Jo back out there, she really really wanted to see it, but now she was worried that Jo was going to end up falling for someone who wasn’t available. Although Jo may claim she’s the one unavailable. 

 Hours later, once Jo had jumped into the shower and Jackson was up to start his day, Jo sat in one of the living room chairs that faced the television, medical journals splayed out on her lap, coffee table and stacked on the floor. Jo could hear the fuzzy sound of their old television playing something she paid no mind to, as well as inhaling the dusty smell of the old books in her hands. It was sunny outside, which is why the curtains were drawn shut and Jo used the lamp for light instead preferring the artificial lighting against the pages of the books. 

 “Little bit of light reading on your weekend off?” Jackson’s voice teased, prompting Jo to glance up and see her step out from Lexie’s bedroom, looking hungover with his bedhead and eye-bags. Jackson hadn’t been in any condition to drive so Lexie had took off to the grocery store to re-stock the kitchen cupboards. He didn’t really like Lexie taking off on her own, especially since Jackson was a surgical intern and barely got two weekends off, so he didn’t get to see Lexie as much as they’d like. But there was no getting him up at the hour Lexie left. 

 “Yeah,” Jo laughed lightly, glancing down at the book before smiling at the guy who was becoming her friend. “I’ll probably be called into work later, so I want to get some work done before the inevitable.” Jo was about a quarter of the way through the work she had planned to do. 

 Jackson nodded as he sat down on the chair to Jo’s left, squinting at the television, pretending to focus on the screen in front of him. Despite the amount of alcohol, he had drunk last night, other than his messy hair and the bags under his eyes, Jackson still managed to look perfect. Jo, on the other hand, didn’t drink half the amount but felt she looked like a complete slob today—her messy bun was falling apart, skin slightly blotchy and dressed in baggy sweatpants. “Hey, how’d everything go with that guy last night … Alex, right?” he asked, turning to face Jo far too eagerly. “Lex mentioned you’d had a real good time, she spared any further details, though.” She laughed lightly when Jackson’s face turned to cringe. 

 Taking in the lift of Jackson’s eyebrow that silently told Jo there was no use in feigning off the question. Obviously, he knew something Jo wandered off last night, despite being informed of his later intoxicated state. “The guy—Alex—was great, we had fun,” she confessed with a half-hearted shrug of her shoulders and a grin which she hoped would satisfy Jackson. “Did Lexie mention he was also a surgical intern?” 

 The corner of Jackson’s lips tugged upwards. “She did, I’ve never seen the guy though so guessing not my hospital,” he added matter-of-factly.  

 “Nope,” Jo agreed, pointing at her in agreeing approval before leaning back in the seat. “Seattle Grace, same as—” Jo cuts herself off, about to mention the name of Lexie’s sister but she’s unsure if Jackson knew that tad-bit of Lexie’s life yet. 

 “Oh, Lexie mentioned that’s your first choice for the summer,” Jackson said with a slight furrow in his eyebrows, clearly hearing Jo’s words but choosing to ignore them. 

 Jo let out a slow breath, eyes flickering forward to the television that Jackson’s eyes glanced to every so often, the sounds of people enjoying themselves on the screen. Jo pressed her lips together in a small smile. “Probably not my best idea, like, he’ll be my superior.” 

 “Well, you can always join me at Mercy West.” 

 Jo chuckled, “as if, you’re not even in the top five percent.” Jo watched as Jackson’s eyebrows shot up at her words, lips parting to release a shocked scoff as she sat up eagerly in her chair. “Do you think I spend all this time studying to be mediocre.” With a giggle, she concluded, “I’m going to the best because I will be the best.” 

 “Wow,” Jackson laughed, eyebrows still risen as she leaned back in the seat, grinning as Jo continued to mock him. Jo nodded along silently a similar grin on her own face, looking down at the hardcover copy of her book before Jackson spoke up again. “You best hope you get in there because there’ll be no running to this mediocre surgeon if you don’t,” he lowered his voice as his gaze met Jo’s. After a moment, once laughter had died down, Jackson turned to Jo more seriously, “I’m kidding, I don’t doubt that either you or Lexie will be top of your class.” 

 “I know,” Jo agreed, her smugness radiating across the room. “Lexie’s my competition, she knows she’s going down—photographic memory or not.” 

 “You think you can beat a photographic memory, though?” Jackson shook his head, both continuing to tease one another. “I mean, Lexie’s pretty smart. It’s scary.” At that, Jo’s laughter bubbles over, finding it rather sweet that Jackson was intimidated by Lexie’s brain. 

 Speaking of the devil, Lexie chose that moment to throw open the door to their apartment and clamber inside with her hands full with grocery bags. Jackson flies off his seat and rushes over to the small woman, pushing the door open wider and grabbing all but one of the bags out of Lexie’s freezing hands. The winter weather hadn’t let up despite the spring sunshine. 

 Lexie let out a huff as she set the last bag down and pulled off her coat, wondering why she had just caught Jo in a fit of giggles. God fucking knows what these two would be talking about, Jo and Jackson didn’t sit and chat unless Lexie was around usually. “What’s going on here?” Lexie repeats her thoughts with a huff, trying to catch her breath after all those flights of stairs. “Are you two finally plotting against me?” 

 Jackson hummed, returning to grab the final bag and place it on the kitchen counter, placing a quick peck against Lexie’s cold cheek, “Jo was just letting me know how much better than me she is.” 

 Laughing, Lexie smirked, “You didn’t know that already?” 

 “Sure,” Jackson responded, his voice dull as he chose not to argue with the two girls who would team up against him if he chose to disagree. 

 It’s another few hours later when Jo eventually does get called into work, according to her boss the place was heaving, she wasn’t surprised considering it was a Saturday night and they had reluctantly given her the weekend off anyway. Jo quickly got dressed into her usual work attire, black jeans and a racer back bodysuit—it got sweaty behind the bar and Jo had learned the hard way not to wear t-shirts with sleeves. She flung open her bedroom door to see Lexie sitting on the same spot on the couch where she had left her, watching some show on the TV with Jackson still sitting next to her, the two practically fused to each other’s side. His arm around her shoulders, her legs thrown over his lap they watched the show. 

 The two of them looked over their shoulders when they heard Jo enter the room, stumbling through trying to get her trainers on. Lexie turned to face her by sitting on her knees and Jackson merely turning his upper half to look over. “Hey, Jo,” she greeted, unfazed by her presence. “We’re getting pizza—wait, why are you dressed?” 

 Jo glanced at Lexie, still attempting to get her right shoe on her foot as she leant against the doorway and was surprised slightly when she did nothing but frown. She usually ran to try and block the front door, “because shockingly, I have to work.” 

 Lexie’s eyes narrowed up at her friend and Jo, finally having two shoes on, shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Clearly that wasn’t the answer Lexie had hoped for, and Jo had the urge to admonish her for being childish. It felt that lately Lexie was forgetting that Jo was struggling with money, something which she had struggled with her whole life. Which, in this case, upset Jo. Lexie was so comfortable in her own life that she forgot that Jo still had her own problems—and finding a boyfriend wasn’t one. Even if Lexie was adamant that it was. 

 Jo shot Charlotte a sharp look, silently telling her to stop looking at her like that, though she only smiled back innocently. Jo huffed, mildly annoyed; why did she even bother? 

 “Oh, by the way,” Lexie was saying when Jo grabbed her keys and made her way towards the door, “Jackson was saying earlier—his work friends are having a party. You should bring Alex.” 

 “Sounds fun, I don’t think so,” Jo grins widely, shooting them both a pointed look which tells them it wasn’t up for discussion. “Inviting Alex kind of defeats the purpose of what we’re doing,” she then added, glancing at Jackson and Lexie a final time before swinging open the door and running down to her car. 

 A party was the last thing on Jo’s mind right now, until spring break came in a few weeks then her spare time will be filled with studying—and hopefully Alex. She didn’t want to be presumptuous; they hadn’t exactly agreed on how often they would see one another. She guesses he’ll call when he needs to and she’ll do the same, now that they’ve finally exchanged numbers anyway. 

 And asking Alex was completely out of a question. Attending a party with one another is way too much for two people who had agreed they were only looking for a sexual relationship. Sometimes Jo wondered if Lexie got confused, thinking that Jo was one of them girls who said they were fine but they were really the opposite, Jo was one to tell the truth or just avoid it. Lexie knew that, she knew Jo better than anyone, but maybe she chose to ignore it. 

 The music mixed in with the sounds of drinks clinking and people enjoying themselves, whether it be at the bar or next to the pool table or sat in one of the booths, where only silhouettes of people could be seen due to the dark lighting of the bar. There was a slight breeze that carried in when people entered and exited, something Jo found herself enjoying as she took a sip from the second glass of water she was nursing, the heat of the crowded bar getting to her. 

 “Hey, can you hurry up,” Billy’s voice sounded, prompting her to glance up from where she was standing. She had been rushed off her feet since she got there, both Billy and their boss throwing tasks at her, and Jo thought she had found a few good seconds to take a breather. 

 “I’m dehydrated, give me a sec,” she responded, smiling up at him, choosing to keep it civil rather than get snappy. 

 Billy pulled back, returning to the front of the bar to serve another customer. “If you can’t handle being on your feet for a few hours how do you think you’ll feel when you become a doctor,” Billy mutters under his breath, but Jo catches it loud and clear. It wasn’t a comment she hadn’t heard before, ever since she had informed Billy and the rest of the guys that she was in med-school and by the time summer came she would be moving on they had thrown snarky comments at her. Insinuating she wasn’t smart enough or that she didn’t have enough stamina, whilst they never said it was because she was a woman—she felt that it was very much because she was a woman. “She won’t be long.” Billy snaps to a waiting customer. 

 Laughing lightly, Jo turns on her heel. “Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” she responded, placing her hands on the counter, and raising a brow at the customer in question. 

 He listed off his order and thanked her, leaving Jo to get on with pouring the drinks. A few short moments later, the drinks are in the guys hands and Jo is smirking smugly up at Billy—his blue eyes rolling and his blonde bushy eyebrows frowning. If he wasn’t such an ass then Jo would probably have thought he was attractive, Billy was tall with broad shoulders and a charming smile, but his attitude was rotten. 

 “You run out on me and still work at my favourite bar? Bold move.” 

 Jo’s back straightened at the sound of the familiar voice, looking up at her right to see the one person she had hoped she wouldn’t every have to see again. Jason walked over, dressed in jeans and white t-shirt and expression strangely smug. Jo inhaled sharply as he leaned against the bar in font of her, feeling the muscles in her neck tense with the action as she kept her gaze on the flex of his arms—trying to focus on something so she didn’t start freaking it. She had managed to stay hidden from Jason the odd times she seen him here, but that had only been once or twice. He didn’t come here often, considering he claimed this was his favourite bar—the one where they met. 

 “I didn’t—you know I didn’t run out on you, we broke up,” was her flat response, wishing that Billy had chosen now to start shouting orders at her.  

 “Oh, so you’re not gonna apologise, I haven’t seen you since?” Jason mused, his words nearly sending Jo choking on her own saliva as she turned to stare at him with eyes widened with incredulity. 

 “Apologise?” she repeated with a scoff, leaning away from him slightly as her eyebrows shot up. “What the hell do I have to apologize for?” If anything, Jason should be apologizing to her for everything that happened between them. How did he have the audacity to even expect an apology from her? She’s done nothing wrong, for God’s sake. 

 Jason’s smug smile only grew as a Drake song began playing throughout the beach, his Adam’s apple bobble as he swallowed before raising an eyebrow at her. “For leaving me, I had to hear from your roommate that we were over,” he answered matter-of-factly. 

 Jo blinked at the dark-haired guy, wondering if he were already drunk or something to assume, she would apologize for that. Yeah, it may have been rude of her to just leave like that but in her defence, she had good reasons. She didn’t need to explain herself to him—especially because he knows what he did. Jason may not be fully aware about what she knows, but that doesn’t really matter in her opinion. Saying it in the first place was the issue. 

 “Think of it as a humbling experience,” she retorted, looking away from him with a dismissing shake of her head. 

 “But leaving after we agreed to move in together like that?” Jason hummed; the mere sound filled with contempt. “Pretty disrespectful, don’t you think?” 

 Was he still talking? Better yet—was he really telling Jo her actions were disrespectful? incredulous expression once again took over Jo’s face as she looked at him, brows drawn together, and eyes widened. With an indignant scoff, she responded, “Says the guy who treated me like crap repeatedly.” And who preferred to spend his nights with some blonde co-worker. 

 The look on the jerk’s face was priceless when her words registered in his mind, blinking in surprise at the knowledge of Jo finally sticking up for herself against him. Her lips stretched into the fakest sweet smile she could manage, eyes silently challenging him to come up with a response to what she said, knowing he probably couldn’t bullshit his way out of this. The best he could do was apologize and leave her alone so Jo wouldn’t have to deal with him again. 

 “I loved you, Jo. It wasn’t my fault you aren’t capable of feeling the same.” 

 Jo’s lips parted at that, eyebrows lifting in disbelief once more. Was he serious? That’s what he chose to say—not even an apology? Sometimes it genuinely floored Jo how full of themselves certain people could be—a little humility in a person was a good thing, but she knew Jason and she knew people like Jason weren’t like that.  Jo dug sneakers into the ground to anchor the irritation that began to spark, as she mentally debated how much she wanted to chew off Jason’s head. While not one for verbally aggressive confrontation, Jo would be damned if she let Jason get to her once again. 

 “There you are, Jo—been lookin’ everywhere for you.” She turned her head to the left where the familiar voice came from, feeling a smile automatically curl at her lips as she saw Alex walk over. He also wore his jeans, the dim glow of the bar lights reflecting across his face—at this moment in time, to Jo, he was a literal angel. Alex smiled, dimples and white teeth, before his gaze flickered to the guy he was now standing beside and asked, “who’s this?” 

 Oh, boy. Jo wondered if Alex came over because he could sense her uncomfortableness, she hadn’t seen him earlier meaning he had to have arrived since Jason approached her. 

 “Um,” she cleared her throat, glancing at Jason who was raising an eyebrow up at Alex, probably sizing him up, before looking back at Alex and offering an uncomfortable smile. “This is Jason, an ex.” 

 Recognition flickered across Alex’s eyes, features hardening as the shadows of the lighting highlighted the clench of his jaw. Jo’s eyes slightly widened at how quickly Alex’s demeanour changed, going from friendly to clear scorn in a matter of seconds. It was odd, she had only mentioned Jason once … told him it was a bad breakup, nothing more. She’s pretty sure he wasn’t even mentioned by name. 

 Then Alex’s lips tilted into a smirk, contemptuous as he lifted his chin a bit. “Oh, you’re the ass that couldn’t make Jo’s time worthwhile,” he mused tauntingly, words accompanied by an unimpressed pucker of his lips. 

 Jo looked up at Alex, rolling her lips into her mouth to suppress the grin threatening to overtake her face as a gust of wind coming from the open bar door swayed her hair, brunette strands tickling her cheek. Maybe Alex had decided to deliver verbal punches rather than physical ones, which was definitely better, in Jo’s opinion. She appreciated it, all he knew was that Jo was no longer fond of her ex-boyfriend, and here Alex was, defending her and she didn’t even have to ask. He didn’t even have to know the reason, but he did that. For her. 

 “I don’t know what she’s told you,” started Jason’s response, reigniting the spark of irritation with Jo as she instantly flashed back to the night that she decided to grab all the things she had over at Jason’s apartment and never speak to him again. She also bristled at how he was talking about her as if she weren’t standing right in front to him. “But trust me when I tell you, she’s crazy.” He laughed at his words, as if he was making some sort of joke, he probably thought he was hilarious. 

 Jo’s teeth clenched as her gaze met Alex’s, whose eyes had narrowed and fingers clenched into a fist at his side, and while she knew Alex wouldn’t hesitate to deliver a punch, she didn’t want anyone to get violent with each other—even though her own hand was itching to attack. She was at work and this was not the place, not getting into fights with people who are full of themselves seemed like the best option. 

 “Or maybe you’re forgetting all the crap you put me through,” she found herself saying, turning to shoot Jason an overly fake sweet smile. He in turn let out a scoff through a condescending smile, shaking his head as if what Jo were saying couldn’t be further from the truth.   

 Jason’s only been standing with Jo for a few moments but her annoyance with him lasted much longer as she turned her full attention to him one last time, glaring up at him. “Your personality is just like your sense of humour—childish and bland.” With a smile that only widened at the sight of his offended glare, she finished, “Totally not worth it—and a waste of my time.”  

 His lips curled into a frown, looking ready to defend himself. “Hold on a sec—” 

 Not bothering to let him continue, Jo swiftly turned to face Alex, feeling her long hair fly around as her gaze met his. Alex’s hardened expression had changed into one of amusement, staring at Jo with raised impressed eyebrows after having watched that brief exchange. “I’m not supposed to be here. Wanna go somewhere that’s not here?” Jo asked him with a tilt of her head. 

 Alex’s gaze lowered and flickered past her, landing on Jason before returning it to Jo with a crooked dimpled grin growing on his lips. He tipped his head to the left and the two of them began walking away from Jason, Jo grabbing her purse as Billy barked at her and Alex followed her out of the bar completely confused, “Thought I was the one who was supposed to deliver the punches.” Alex jogged outside behind her, delivering a squeeze to her waist as Jo giggled. 

 Jo smiled proudly up at him as they walked, sneakers pacing across the ground as she playfully responded, “Didn’t mean to steal your thunder.” 

 “No, no, steal away,” Alex grinned approvingly as they walked past a crowd of people gathered in the parking lot, cheering when their cab arrived. “Your words probably had more of an effect than a punch would.” 

 Jo laughed, despite the many scents of petrol, smoke, and the lingering remnants of spilt alcohol on her clothing Jo could distinctly smell the boy next to her; fresh aftershave and something that was just Alex that she was now very familiar with. So comfortable with. 

 “You just walked out on your job.” He finally spoke up, mind flickering to the events that just transpired inside the bar. He won’t lie, he was completely confused about what had happened, but he had saw her from across the bar and she had looked anything but comfortable, anything but the smiling and happy Jo he had come to get to know. “They gonna’ be pissed?” 

 “Yeah,” Jo chuckled, tilting her head back slightly to look up at the cloudless night sky, stars twinkling overhead as Alex’s eyes went to her profile. She hadn’t bothered with make-up today, Alex noticed, although her wispy eyelashes remained prominent from where he stood gazing down at her. “They’ll be real pissed …” Jo’s voice trails off, “I hate it here.” She adds quietly. 

 “Fuck them,” Alex added with a teasing grin, nudging her with his elbow as Jo let out a laugh, leaning away from his prodding—cheering up slightly. “I’m just saying—” her grin widened, “—you’re young and in a few months' time you’ll be long gone anyway.” 

  She laughed, “you’re right.” Shivering slightly from the cool breeze, though she didn’t care as she shook her hair out of her face and grinned over at Alex, who was smiling back at her, reassuringly. “But this is my friends’ favourite bar,” Jo responded before looking at him with raised eyebrows. “We’re gonna’ have to start going to that complete dive, with the crackheads, down the street.” 

 Alex glanced at her, a boyish smirk tilting at his lips as he smoothly said, “nah, I know a place.” He holds a handout towards her, and without a second thought she places her own in his. “Come on, the bathroom there is way cleaner …" he winks as his voice trails off and he pulls her along with him. 

 Jo’s jaw dropped at his words, in amusement, as Alex looked straight ahead as they continued walking to his car. His comment and the look on his face that accompanied it were nothing short of suggestive, prompting a flustered heat to unexpectedly spread across Jo’s face and neck to tense as inappropriate thoughts regarding her and Alex began fluttering through her mind. It was an automatic response her subconscious stirred up and she wished that it hadn’t because now she felt like she needed to head back inside and order a big glass of water to cool off. 

 Thinking about Alex like that was not uncommon on Jo’s part, she knew. It was practically all she thought about lately, but things felt a little differently this time. 

 And she couldn’t put a finger on as to why. 

#jolex #jo wilson #alex karev

[roseinthenight]

Back to town [Jughead x OC] - Chapter 2

[Summary] | [Ch1]

2| Old best friends 

Later that day, around 6 pm, Archie knocked on the door of his sister’s room. April opened it rather quickly and looked up at the ginger boy.

”I was wondering if maybe you’d want to meet up with Betty, Jughead and Veronica at Pop’s?” Archie asked right away.

At the mention of Jughead April’s heart instantly started beating faster. She tried not to show too much interest, but honestly, she failed miserably.

”Yeah, sure,I’d love to! Buut... who’s Veronica exactly?” April tilted her head to the side as the question left her mouth.

”She’s new to the town, came from New York. I met her on the last day of the summer vacation.”

”I see. Well, why the hell not?” the girl shrugged. ”Just a sec,” she held up her index finger, singalling Archie to wait.

April looked at herself in the front camera of her phone. She wanted to look her best if she’s going to meet Jughead -and of course the others. After a few seconds, she put it in her back pocket, ran her fingers through her hair and turned back to her brother.

”Alright, I’m ready to go.”

----------

The red neon lights shined brightly in the warm August evening, bringing every bypasser’s attention to the diner coated in blue wooden panels. April could already see the familiar blonde ponytail and grey beanie from the window. She felt her palms beginning to sweat as she and Archie got closer and closer to the entrance. She fiddled with the hem of her flannel shirt nervously, not knowing at all what to expect from he best friends.

Finally, the bells above the door chimed, indicating that someone had entered. When the siblings turned towards their friends’ booth, Jughead was already on his feet, pacing towards them with disbelief in his eyes as he stared at April.

He didn’t change that much since April saw him the last time. He was wearing black boots, a gray pair of jeans, a darker grey T-shirt with an ’S’ on it and a thin black denim jacket. He also had a flannel shirt tied around his waist, and of course his signature beanie. Locks of his raven hair have lightly moved as he walked towards April.

She couldn’t help but let a huge grin appear on her face. She was so, so relieved to finally see her best friend (and crush, but that’s not really important, right?) again. Even Jughead seemed surprised at his own actions when he reached the girl; everyone knew that Jughead Jones was not a fan of PDA. Yet, he hugged the girl so tight and close to himself that you couldn’t even fit a piece of paper between them. April, of course, had nothing against this. She wrapped her arms around his waist and let her head rest on his chest. Jughead put his chin on the top of her head and just enjoyed the closeness of the smaller girl with closed eyes and not a word spoken between them.

They stood there, in the middle of the diner for what seemed like hours. The two girls who were still at the booth looked at them just as shocked as everyone else. The first to break the awkward silence, which seemed to have slipped the pair’s noce, was none other than Veronica Lodge.

”Excuse me for disturbing your cuddling,” she started with an edge in her tone, ”but you have your girlfriend right over here, Jughead.”

The mentioned boy lifted his head up from its previous position, but before he could even turn around and say something much likely rude as a response, Betty has already stood up for him.

”It’s okay, V,” she placed a hand on the black haired girl’s shoulder, a calming smile on her face showing that she really meant it.

”What? Are- are you fine with Jughead hugging another girl like his life depended on it?” Veronica asked with furrowed brows, not understanding the situation one bit.

”She isn’t just some girl, Veronica,” Jughead spat, every single word of his dripping with venom.

The raven boy looked at her like she had committed some kind of felony. He has now let go of April, but still stood close to her, their arms touching. His piercing eyes burned a hole on Veronica’s face. He unconsciously clenched his fists, which were slightly trembling with anger.

”Juggie, calm down,” April gently squeezed the boy’s shoulder. ”She doesn’t know me, remember?”

Jughead looked down at the girl, took a deep breath and slowly calmed down with April’s hand still on his shoulder. When it felt safe to leave his side, the brunette stepped in front of Veronica.

”Hi! I’m April Andrews, Archie’s sister. Jughead and I have been best friends literally since we can remember, so hugs like this aren’t really extraordinary. Plus, we haven’t seen each other for 2 years!”

While explaining the situation to the girl, April could feel Jughead stepping close behind her. She felt the warmth radiating off his body, his protective aura practically surrounding her. Even though she didn’t need any protection from a girl like Veronica, she wasn’t about to complain; she loved it.

”And I’ve already told you V, I’m okay with it,” Betty stood up from her spot and came over to April. ”Hi! I’m so glad you’re here again!” she smiled at the girl.

”It’s been so long, Betty,” April grinned and hugged the blonde, who returned the gesture.

When they let go, everyone sat in the booth, Jughead, Betty and April on one side and Veronica and Archie on the other. April saw that the ”new girl” still wasn’t really okay with her, but she did apologize and introduced herself as Veronica Lodge.

Pop Tate came over to their table to take their order.

”Well, well, what a surprise, little Andrews is back to town!” the man chuckled as he took his notepad in his hand.

”Hello!” she greeted him joyfully. ”Umm, I’ll have a strawberry milkshake please.”

The others also gave their order.

”So, April,” started Jughead when Pop Tate went away. ”What about your new style? I mean, you look cool, I’m just a little surprised.”

”Yeah, same here,” chimed in Betty.

”What could I say? Pinterest does wonders, especially when you have lots of freetime on your hands,” she replied with a soft giggle.

That was when the door opened again. April turned her head towards it, and saw the well-known faces of Riverdale High; the Bulldogs with Reggie in the middle. She wondered though, where could Jason be?

As Reggie scanned the place for an untaken booth, he noticed April and smirked at her, immediately starting her way.

”Wow, April Andrews,” he clicked his tongue. ”How come you’re back?”

”You know Reggie, there’s this thing called moving. Maybe you should try it,” April said. The distaste she felt for the boy was evident in her cold eyes and sarcastic tone, but her sickly sweet fake smile said otherwise.

The other people who sat at the table laughed quietly.

”Still the old brat, I see,” he laughed. ”If you change your mind, I could always take you on a ride,” he winked at the girl.

”Hey, watch it! You’re talking to my sister, for god’s sake!” Archie yelled protectively.

”Calm down, Andrews. I’m just sayin’,” with that he left and sat in a booth far away from April and her friends.

April shook her head while chuckling and didn’t notice that Pop brought them their drinks and food.

----------

It was about an hour later when April needed an escape from Betty and Jughead, so she excused herself and almost run to the bathroom. Until then, she could keep herself from feeling miserable and heartbroken, but it was just getting too much. They were stealing each other’s food, stealing kisses from one other and so on. It shattered April’s heart into pieces. She always thought she didn’t have a chance with Jughead, but there was at least a little bit of hope; now it only became clearer that she was never going to end up with her secret crush and she just needed to get over it. He was with Betty and April would never want to break them apart. They were so perfect together, she couldn’t even imagine how she could compete with someone like Betty. She was not an excellent student, she could never be as strong and pretty as Betty. April could go on and on about why she would never be enough for someone like Jughead, but she figured that she’ll have time for that when she gets home.  

These thoughts didn’t help her hold back her tears, but at least she could keep down her sobs. After minutes of trying to dry her tears, she finally succeeded. After getting herself together, she left the restroom and went back to their table like nothing had happened.

----------

At 10:23 pm, April was laying in her bed, staring at the white ceiling and thinking about today’s events. Suddenly, a loud thud shook her up from daydreaming. She looked over to her window and cautiously walked over, to be greeted with Jughead’s face and a ladder leading up to her window. She stumbled back a bit, before sighing in relief and opening her window.

”You scared me, shithead,” April looked at him angrily, crossing her arms.

”Sorry,” he smirked, not at all looking apologetic. After climbing in, he casually walked over to her bed and sat down on it, April following him.

”Soo, what you doin’ here?” April asked him.

”I just happened to be walking around this part of the town, you know, like in the old times.”

”Mm-hmm,” she hummed, putting her head on his shoulder. ”Well, I’m sleepy, Jug.”

”Yeah, I can see that much,” he chuckled as he looked at her face, noticing how she could barely keep her eyes open. ”It must have been tiring, travelling for so long.”

April nodded, then put her head back to its original place. Neither of them talked for a while, just enjoying the calm quietness. In the end, Jughead broke the silence.

”I missed you, you know?”

”I missed you too, Juggie. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t think about you.”

”I can say the same. I also thought a lot about the old times. When we were still kids, with no real problems.”

”Yeah, those were nice times,” April agreed. ”Oh, by the way. What happened to Jason? I didn’t see him with the Bulldogs at Pop’s.”

”Uh... he- he was murdered. His body was found a few days ago,” Jughead thought it would be better to say it simply.

”O-Oh, I’m...” April couldn’t find the right words. She wasn’t really close to the Blossom boy, in fact, she never even talked to him, but it still scared her a little bit. But mostly, she felt sorry for Cheryl, she knew how close the twins were.

”I’m writing a novel about it,” Jughead stated casually.

”Oh, so you’re still into writing? I’d love to read it someday.”

”I guess I can show you,” Jughead grinned. ”But right now you should sleep. I’ll go, okay?”

April definitely did not want Jughead to leave, but she was just so tired and it wouldn’t be nice if her father or Archie met with Jughead in the morning in her room.

”Okay, but be careful. A murderer’s on the loose.”

”Sure thing,” he stood up and walked to the window. ”It’s good to have you back, princess,” he smiled genuinely at the blushing girl. April didn’t expect him to call her by her old nickname. Only Jughead had called him this.

”You too, Juggie,” she whispered, his words still repeating in her head.

It filled her with joy, knowing that Jughead remembered and still used it. She got this nickname when she was about 5 and Jughead was 6.

Archie, Jughead, April and some other kids were playing hide and seek and the girl hid in a small, unfamiliar wooden cabin. When she entered, she didn’t notice that the lock has slammed down. Soon, she could hear that they were about to start another round, loudly arguing about who the seeker should be. She panicked and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She shouted for Archie and Jughead, tears running down her red face.

Jughead rushed to the door first, but when he didn’t succeed in opening it, he went over to the side and broke in the window with a branch from the ground. He helped April climb out, then hugged the sobbing girl.

”It’s okay. You’re safe now,” he whispered.

After long moments of calming the girl down, he let go of her.

”You were like a princess from a tale,” Jughead laughed softly. ”And I saved you.”

That night, April fell asleep with Jughead’s words on repeat in her head.

”It’s good to have you back, princess.”

----------

Word count: 2162

#riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #riverdale fandom #riverdale archie #riverdale jughead #riverdale betty #riverdale veronica #veronica lodge #betty cooper #jughead jones #archie andrews #romance #fluff #original character #jughead x oc #jughead fanfiction #jughead imagine #pop's #pop's chock'lit shoppe

[isthisthingeven0n]

missed opportunity : d.d

brief summary: you’re a popular british youtuber and attend vidcon where you meet the vlogsquad. however, one member is missing and becomes jealous he missed the chance to meet you.

word count: 1.7k requested: yes, by anonymous :) warnings: none that I’m aware of 

* masterlistin’ 

You couldn’t quite comprehend it all, even now as the plane began to descend. In your head, you thought this would be enough time to really come to terms with what was about to happen, but your anxiety surrounding it refused to cease.

“You feeling alright?” Turning your head, your manager slides his blind down and places his hand on yours. You give him a small nod as you rest back in the chair, pulling the blind back up.

Looking outside, you could already tell it was going to be vastly different from home. Here it looked warm, there wasn’t a misleading blue sky where warmth was going to be absent. It looked like something out of a movie, a story you couldn’t believe to be a part of.

Arriving at the hotel with your luggage, you watched through various Instagram stories, checked your mentions to see excited tweets about you finally visiting America. You smiled as you responded to a few tweets before you started filming the welcome pack from Vidcon. 

“I still can’t get over the fact I’m actually in the US.” You collapse down on the bed, looking over at your manager and best friend. 

They both share a look before smiling. “You’ve come a long way, girl.” Your best friend tells you as she collapses down beside you on your bed. “Do you know your schedule?” She asks and you nod.

In all honesty, you learnt your schedule as soon as it came out. Vidcon was an enormous event, and you hadn’t expected to be a big name at the event, but it turns out you were more popular than you could’ve anticipated. You saw your name amongst those you once watched and admired, the sorts that were classed as ‘big’ YouTubers. Seeing your name alongside theirs, it was a surreal feeling, to say the least. 

As you arrive at the venue, you hear someone call your name. You turn your head to smile and wave, only to be approached by a series of fans. You laugh lightly, taking photos and signing things for them before security steps in, escorting you away. “It was lovely to meet you all!” You call out to them as you glance back, seeing them all taking photos or filming you. 

“It might be best if you take the back routes, Miss Y/l/n.” The security guard tells you as you walk with him along with your friend and manager. “These kinda events get rowdy quickly. We want to ensure our guests and visitors remain safe at all times.” He explains and you nod, listening as he directs you backstage where a series of YouTubers will be.

“We’ll catch you later, Y/n.” Your friend tells you as she and your manager begin to wander off, having the freedom to explore, but also record for your vlog.

Taking a deep breath, you walk into the space with a smile on your face. As you look around, most people are already in conversation with one another. You knew most of the creators have been countless times, and many are already friends. 

You pull out your phone as you make your way over to the food and drink, immediately noticing some Yorkshire tea which you’ve been craving. “I guess you really do live up the stereotype.” You turn to see Carly standing beside you with a smile on her face.

A small laugh escapes your lips as you nod. “Well, jetlags getting me hard and tea is my saviour. I think I smuggled a few tea bags in my bra today just in case.” You joke with her (but also you were deadly serious) and she laughs along with you. “I’m Y/n, by the way.” 

“Carly, I love your content. We didn’t know you were coming until we saw you on the Instagram page last week.” She explains and you nod along, squeezing the tea bag before you pour milk into the cup. 

“Yeah, I had a crazy last-minute cancellation that would’ve crossed over when Vidcon was, but because of it here I am.” You tell her with a smile. “So you’re part of the vlogsquad right?” 

She nods and motions to the group of people spread out across one sofa. Most of them you recognise from various videos and social media, but amongst them, the main figure isn’t there. “Most of us are here, David couldn’t make it as he had other commitments.” 

You follow alongside Carly as she introduces you to a series of them, and you sit down with your tea. “Do you really drink like twelve cups of tea a day?” Scott asks you with a laugh.

“Erm, sometimes?” You reply with a smile. “Like if I’m really tired I will, but I’m one of those who will drink tea in the hottest of weathers which isn’t often in England but hey ho.” You sip at your tea, feeling the heat of the mug spreading across your face. 

“God, David will be so jealous he’s not here to meet you.” Jason pipes up and you raise an eyebrow to him, watching as everyone shoots him a look.

Shuffling in your seat, you lean forward. “And why would that be, Jason?” You question, watching as he half laughs realising he said something he clearly shouldn’t have. 

“He’s always wanted you to be in the vlog.” Jason states, only telling you half the truth behind it. 

“How long are you here for?” Kristen speaks up, diverting the conversation from potentially embarrassing David despite him not even being there. 

“Only for the event. I’ve got a flight straight back to London and then I’m off to Paris with Bumble.” You tell them and you can see the disappointment. “Why? Did you guys wanna film some stuff?” 

Everyone looks around, nodding in response to you. “We’ve all seen your videos and honestly you’re naturally funny. Plus you’re British.” Carly states and you shrug your shoulders.

“I mean, I haven’t got any plans between panels and my meet and greet?” You ask them and a few nod. 

Within an hour, you’ve become friends with a few members of the vlogsquad. You stay close with Carly and Erin who help guide you around the venue between panels. 

As the evening draws closer, your jetlag worsens. You continue filming for your vlog, and feature in various other ones all at once. “God I need a shot.” You comment under your breath, not thinking much of it when you hear Scott rise to his feet. 

“Okay, mini party in my hotel room.” He calls out, and a few cheers as your eyes widen. “You called it, Y/n.” He chuckles and you laugh lightly, unintentionally being the cause of a party with the vlogsquad. 

*

The majority of your weekend was spent hanging out and filming with the vlogsquad. It was a surprise you hadn’t anticipated, but you loved their energy. You could tell David was missing, especially as you watched Zane get ridiculously drunk and try to walk through walls. 

As you finished up at your last panel, you knew you would have to head back to pack your bags. You met up with your manager who kept his schedule close to hand. “Okay, last panel officially done. That gives us twelve hours until our flight back to rainy ol London.” He deeply sighs. You know he’s loved being in the sun, even if it’s for work, he can’t get enough. 

“Great.” You half-heartedly respond. 

“Everything okay?” He asks, stopping you in your tracks as you shrug. “Well, that obviously means no. Come on.”

“I just, I like it here a lot. The people are great. And the content I got, amazing.” You say with a light laugh, glancing back to see Scott talking with Jeff. 

“You’ll come back, Y/n.” Your manager reassures you as you nod, following him.

Scott turns his head, noticing you leave. “David really did miss out on this weekend.” He sighs and Jeff nods along. “The girl he likes finally in town, and he can’t even meet her.” 

“That’s some Shakespeare shit.” Jeff comments as they wander backstage as Scott prepares for his final performance of the weekend. 

*

Walking into David’s house, Carly, Erin and Jason hold up Starbucks with a cheer. They smile as they spot David spread out across the sofa, his brows knitted together as he stares at his laptop screen. “How was Chicago, Dave?” Erin asks as she passes David a drink which he gladly accepts.

He takes a sip before pulling a face, passing it back. “It was good. I saw some of your posts from Vidcon.” He speaks softly, not wanting to make it more obvious than it was. “I saw Y/n was there.” He trails off, looking up to see the three of them exchanging a knowing glance.

“Yeah, she was.” Jason comments. “You’d of really liked her.” He adds, making David sigh to himself. 

“She headed home already?” David questions, knowing the answer will already be yes much to his disappointment. 

Deep down he knew you were just another person in the same industry as him. But there was something about you, the quirks you had that left him in awe of you. He wished he could meet you, bring you into a video like most people. Yet, you’re over five thousand miles away. 

“She flew home this morning, probably still in the air.” Carly tells David softly, giving him a small smile. “But she did say she’d love to be in the vlog when she next visits.” 

David lifts his head up, cocking an eyebrow to Carly. “She said that?” He asks like an excited child, talking about his crush. 

“Yeah, she said she’s going to try come over next month I think she said?” Carly questions, looking to Erin who nods. 

“Yeah, next month.” Erin confirms and David smiles to himself. “You going to DM her?” 

Looking over his shoulder, David can feel his cheeks heating up. “I might.” He says coyly. It has been a long time since he’s been on the field, having a crush on someone since Liza. “Do you think she’ll reply?” 

Carly scoffs lightly, rolling her eyes. “David, of course, she will!” 

“Okay okay.” David holds his hands up defensively before he reaches for his phone and goes to twitter. 

Taking a deep breath, he begins to write you out a message and sending it before anyone else can see. “You sent it?” Jason questions, peering over.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll just wait ten hours til she replies,” David says with a laugh, trying to hide his excitement about finally messaging you, even if you don’t reply. 

#david dobrik #david dobrik x reader #david dobrik fluff #david dobrik angst #vlogsquad #vlogsquad imagine #david dobrik imagine #david dobrik imagines #vlogsquad fluff #vlogsquad imagines #vlogsquad angst #vlog squad imagine #vlog squad imagines #vlog squad fluff #vlog squad angst #vlog squad x reader #vlogsquad x reader

[starcityhq]

WHAT: A full out attack on NOVA’s Headquarters in Star City.

WHO: Deathstroke & Robin

WHEN: September 13th, 2020.

Slade: Slade had planned all of this out with Damian. They both had their reasons. Their inclinations. Dick was the largest motivator for both, unsurprisingly. For Slade, he was the only motivator. There was no other reason for him to care about NOVA and, up until this point, he hadn't. No one had ever taken out a contract. The money hadn't been there. That was the surest way to get Slade to give a shit. That was, until they put a bullet in his little bird's head and Slade had had to figure out for himself--as no one had bothered to call him--that Dick was in the hospital. He'd sat there for four days. He wasn't doing it again.

He'd suited up with more guns and weapons than even he usually carried, his body a veritable arsenal as he met with Damian at the drop point. As the teen approached, Slade looked at him through the mask. "Hey kid," he said simply before getting right to business. They didn’t have time to fuck around.

"This is the map." With a few clicks to a console on his arm, a blue holo of the facility appeared in front of him. "The contact I bought out said we have entrance points here--" he pointed, "and here to get to the security hubs. We'll cut those and then it'll give us free access. Emergency lockdown will keep them all in and everyone else out for a while. Standard military procedure, but idiotic in some ways."

Glancing to the other, he shrugged a bag off of his shoulders. "We'll plant these explosives along vulnerable points of the building, indicated here, here, and here." From his belt, he drew an ear insert. "This is a comm. Two-way only. We're the only ones on the encrypted frequency. With me so far?"

Damian: Damian's progress with the lowlife criminals had run cold and it wasn't until his confrontation with Jason that he realized he was going about it the wrong way. He'd taken some time, possibly to give himself any opportunity to calm down, but the more he had seen Dick during that period, the more the only thing he could picture was him lying in that hospital bed and his anger just surged again. So he had eagerly awaited the chance to meet up with Slade and work up an actual plan. He had arrived on the dot, taking precautionary measures with his attire -- protective kevlar of his Robin suit covered beneath the layers of his less protective League attire. In his hand was the new sword Slade had gifted him for his birthday. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to christen it. 

He listened as Slade brought up a map of the complex and explained the information he had obtained from his informant. His eyes trailed to the bag of explosives and he gave a small nod of confirmation when Slade pulled the comm device from his belt, taking it and slipping it into his ear and readjusting his face mask. He was quiet for a moment as his mind raced. This was really happening. After this, there wasn't going to be any denying the things he'd done or how far he had fallen thanks to the desire to see Dick's attackers suffer. He shook his head quickly and brought himself back to reality. No time for idle thoughts. "Yeah, I understand. The military protocol should buy us plenty of time to mop the place up and get the explosives planted where we need." He responded simply. "Which points do you want me to work towards?" He asked, staring at the blueprint of the building to commit it to memory.

Slade: "We'll go in hard and fast, then split off to cover the west and east sides. I don't intend to leave many people alive. It's about a message to be sent. They need to understand that there are consequences to who they fuck with." When they fucked with the wrong people, they needed to have it explained to them. Loud and clear. "You good with that?" 

He noted the weapon Damian had equipped and gave an approving nod. "You have a chance to practice with it yet?" he asked.

Damian: Damian gave a small nod. "More than good with it. I wasn't planning on holding back." He stated icily before fidgeting his hood enough to reveal the red of his suit beneath the layers of leather and cloth. "It'll take more than their handguns to get in the way." He remarked. At Slade's question, he looked at the sword and gave it a couple of loose swings. "I practiced with it a little bit after I opened it. The Nth metal reactions with my body took a bit to get used to - but I'm a quick study." Damian answered simply. All in all, the sword was nothing but a weapon of benefits. Of course, he had made sure to practice with it enough to not be caught off guard by his quicker movements or stronger swings; but not so extensively that he would forget his own ability and start relying on the sword to compensate. He was smarter than that. "Thank you, by the way." He added and looked at the man.

Slade: "I figured you would be," he stated. 

"I had the material lying around and didn't think it would be right to waste the alloy. I haven't been wearing that suit in a long time." The Ikon suit was too good. Unless someone showed up with an identical one, he was set. He could take a hit from Superman without even flinching. That was what it was designed for, after all. And he still hadn't heard from Isherwood. There was no way that the other Ikon suit would show up. Why should it? "Glad it suits. I always thought, with the right weapons, you'd be fucking lethal." Now he was going to find out. "Let's see some of your mom's training come out. It's what I suspect you're really made for, kid. Not that I can decide what you are for you. None of 'em can."

He pushed to his full height, nearly a foot taller than Damian. "You have something on the suit that can support the map? Or are you just filing away what you can?" He wanted to figure out how much he was going to need to feed to him over the comm so he could plug that into his logistics.

Damian: The comments about his lethality were met with a silence. Damian wasn't exactly sure how he wanted to respond to those remarks just yet, and so he opted to give yet another quiet and small nod of his head. It wasn't just his mother's tutelage that he would be drawing out that evening. No, his Father may have taught him to adhere to a Code but he still provided vital hand-to-hand and hand-eye exercises between him and his siblings. When Slade rose to his full height, Damian straightened his posture. "I won't need the map. It's just a single building and the layout was pretty simplistic. It wasn't too hard to lock the information away for the mission." Damian stated and looked at Slade. Though his face mask covered the smirk, it showed in his emerald eyes. "I take after my Father's intelligence, after all."

Slade: "Basic human intelligence. Congratulations," he answered sarcastically. Though Slade did respect Damian's tactical mind. He'd managed to turn Slade around on a mission once before he bought him out. He would have lost just like his father would have, but he wasn't above doing what was necessary. That he also respected. 

"Any other questions? Any comments, requests, concerns?"

Damian: Cracking his neck, Damian shook his head. "None. Let's get this mission started so we can get out of here." He responded and put his gaze forward, pushing all other thoughts from his head and focusing solely on what needed to be done and what they needed to accomplish.

Slade: "Heard," he agreed before stepping back and nodding to the site. "You remember your entrance? When you get in, there'll be a panel on your side. You'll need to crack into it and pull the fuses before you trash the whole thing. That'll compromise security. I'll do the same on my side and they'll start the lockdown. From there we'll converge on the main hallway. Good?"

Damian: "Understood." Damian remarked, already maneuvering little by little towards the building - branching away from his path and veering to one side of the complex where his entrance would be found. He pressed the earpiece in his head, making sure it was activated and ready to go. "They're going to regret ever making Dick their target..." He muttered out.

Slade: "That's the idea," he agreed into the comm before he made his way stealthily to the entrance. It wouldn't do to be caught before they even made it inside. Slade had a message he wanted to send. Several, if he was honest. He didn't, therefore, want to deal with any interruptions before they got inside. So he fitted a silencer over his gun before waiting to pop the first person guarding the door and then didn't hesitate on the second. No alarms tripped as he reached down to swipe the ID badge off one and made his way inside. "You in?"

Damian: Damian was a little less refined in his entrance than Slade, but his former training and all of the exercises in subtlety that Bruce and Dick had given him over the years allowed him to descend upon the guards at his entrance before they were even aware he was there - silencing them with a few quick swipes of his blade across their throats and abdomens before swiping the ID card from one of the bodies and slipping inside. "Inside. Accessing panel now." Damian responded after a short moment - working open the metal cover to the panel and looking over the fuses inside.

Slade: Slade nodded, accessing the one on his side. "On my count, we'll cut the power at the same time. Ready?" As Damian confirmed that he was, Slade did a countdown from 5 before cutting the fuses and then trashing the panel altogether. "Meet me in the main corridor. And remember kid... it's about a message. Christen that blade."

Damian: With the panels trashed and systems fried, the pair were free to enact their vengeance. It was nothing less than the sort; no righteous assault; nothing but unadulterated vengeance for the attempted murder of someone they both deeply cared for in their own way. Damian didn't respond to Slade's orders - he knew what needed to be done and what to do. He didn't need to be reminded about that. His mind had already shut itself off from any doubtful lines of thinking. So when Damian came barreling into the main halls of the building on his way to the main corridor, he did so with a flurry of brutal attacks. Exchanging blows with the men and women that attempted to accost him; taking several punches and kicks before wrenching himself free from their grasps and introducing them to the cold steel of his blade. It was a macabre dance of violence that left several hands severed at the wrist and forearm, and deep stab wounds through throats and chests. Damian brushed aside the pain he felt as the Nth metal of his sword worked to patch up bruising and gashes from the blows he received as he forced his way deeper towards the main corridor.

Slade: Slade left behind a similar trail of gore and morbid display of his professionalism. He had been doing this a long time and he didn't even flinch behind the mask as he took out every person who got in his path. His healing factor wasn't affected by gunshots, but they couldn't reach him anyway thanks to the proficiency of the Ikon suit in protecting him from projectile force. He and Damian Wayne together were a raze of devastation and that much was obvious as they met in the center, blood of the fallen staining their clothing and weapons. 

They ended up essentially back to back, giving Slade the opportunity to observe the baby bat as he moved. He had grown up skilled, which still carried through this entire process. Slade approved and found himself thinking about what a shame it was that Damian had been remanded to a life as Robin when he could have been so much more with the right encouragement. He was every inch Talia's kid and Slade appreciated it in droves. Bruce Wayne did not, even if he had been perfectly fine putting it to Damian's mother. Not that Slade blamed him. But if Damian had been his child, things would be very different for him.

Once they had taken out the first wave, Slade wasn't even breathing heavy as he looked to Damian with some approval. "They'll send more people. But we need to start laying the explosives. Work our way through the building. I'll take the west and you take the east?"

Damian: Damian, unlike Slade, was panting ever so slightly when the pair finally met up. Though his sword's abnormal properties were a blessing for injuries, they seemed to work a little slower on recovering his expended stamina. He had a few blood stains around his exposed brow behind his face mask and hood, but the gash that caused them was mostly patched up. "East side. Affirmitive; I've got the locations memorized on where to place the primers and charges." He agreed with a nod as he sheathed the sword onto his back and adjusted the bag of explosives to be at the ready. "Rendezvous afterwards or do we make separate exits?" He asked for clarification.

Slade: "Shoot for a rendezvous, but keep your comm open. Be ready for more death. Every one is for Dick, though." He shook his head, looking around quickly. His danger sense was going off in droves and his heightened hearing could pick up orders being barked down the hall. "It'll be a tough go. They're rallying. If you need backup, tell me. Don't be a fucking hero about it." Dick would see Slade dead if Damian got hurt. "If we need to split, I'll let you know. I'm gunning for Nabel if she's here. If she's not, then I'll find her." He glanced to Damian. "Don't get killed."

Damian: With the explosives more readily at hand, Damian once again drew his blade from its sheath at Slade's ominous warnings. He trusted Slade, for better or for worse, and if the man said there were more on their way, he believed him - even if he himself couldn't hear anything from where they were right now. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon." Damian remarked before giving the man a nod and darting off to the eastern hallways that branched away from the main corridor. Greeting the wave of reinforcements on his end head-on, he engaged them with the same viciousness as he had the first wave - keeping his movements tight and cautious in order to protect the explosives from any sort of damage in the scuffles.

#starcevent #starcrevolution #starcadmin #starcplotdrop