#and i used some of ideas for it in the comic :) including straight up making a character called that adbhjfgbdhfj

[halfusek]

Abomination [Part 69] [Epilogue] (2/11)

FIRST PART

NEXT PART

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The End Is Never The End Is Never The End Is Never The End.

#bendy and the ink machine #abomination #joey drew #phil batim #batim #halfart #long post #does the post batdr fandom even know who phil is... #well in case you dont #its not really a character #its a reference to a note on joeys board in his apartment in batim ch5 #we used to speculate so much about what it could mean #and i used some of ideas for it in the comic :) including straight up making a character called that adbhjfgbdhfj #joey x phil #but technically i guess it counts as an oc? #so #batim oc #joey x oc

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

#time for Dracula Season pre-gaming :3 #thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions! #dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula

[writingwithcolor]

Black woman’s skin turns blue from powers; is this whitewashing/erasure?

Anonymous asked:

I have a character in a comic I'm hoping to write one day. She's a light skinned black woman(she's half white if that helps!) living in New York City during an 80s themed post nuclear apocalypse. The comic's main characters are all rock stars, so a lot of the character design elements revolve around the different rock genres. The character in question is in a glam rock band, so there's lots of bright, saturated, crazy colors involved in her design. The problem I'm having involves this one story beat where she gets mutant superpowers that give her electricity and sound based abilities. Her skin turns cotton candy blue as a result of the mutation. I'm hung up on whether or not this might fall under some kind of skin lightening or white-washing trope since it's a fairly light shade of blue. I designed her mutant look before her human look, so this was well before I'd even figured out what race she was, and I simply thought the shade of blue would compliment both the electricity powers and the fact that her hair is dyed pink. Is there a way I could still make this work? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Ideally, it would be nice to keep her brown skin tone. There’s a common comic and supernatural trend where Black people’s skin is covered up by a suit or Black-coded characters are an unnatural color (blue, green, purple, etc).

This is more of an issue when: 

There are no other Black characters of those identities besides the covered up/ ones with unnatural skin colors.

The creator adds this change to make them "special" because they do not believe Black characters, with features commonly associated with Black people like dark hair, skin and eyes, are acceptable enough for the character to stand on their own.

The supernatural special Black people are treated well by the story. The "non-special" Black people have unhappy stories and misfortune.

Other races of characters do not get their skin covered up or changed. Only the Black ones and/or BIPOC in general.

I think a quick fix for this would be for her skin to turn blue when she’s actively using her powers, at random, or other specific times, besides constantly. If she needs to be more consistently “mutant looking” Are there other ways she could change without her skin color changing or changing completely?

People with glitter on skin, light surrounding their face, and blue braids. Images from pexels.

More ideas that keep her skin brown

Hair

Her hair color changes blue or your color of choice (which could include body hair too, which would give her a more “otherworldly” appearance).

Note: If her hair is curly or natural, please keep it so! At least, the powers shouldn't change it straight.

Eyes

Her eyes glowing brighter or colorfully during power-use.

Note: If they're usually brown, they could stay brown when powers not in use, like Marvel's Storm in some versions.

Storm by Marvel Entertainment//20th Century Studios.

Skin and body

Blue patterns appear on her skin.

Blue glow or sheen to her skin without fully changing the color.

Her skin projects color and light.

New growths or changes to body, such as ear shape, wings, etc.

No matter what you decide, please make clear in your tale that she’s a Black mixed race woman. And have fun!

More reading:

How Special is Too Special? The Politics and Characterization of Stacking Special/Abnormal Traits on Mixed Race Characters

~Colette

#Black women #skin color #supernatural #superheroes #description #asks

[ph-cutie]

UPDATE I made an updated version everyone look at that instead

Hi! I made a height chart of some disco elysium characters using their actual 3D models! Harry's height is stated in the game to be around 180 cm/5'11ft so I used that as a baseline to scale the chart. More talking under the cut.

also I fucked up cindy's placement she should be more like 5'2

edit 2 i have no idea how I didnt realize soona's hair was making her taller lol pretend i wrote down like 5'5 or something

Yeah, this post certainly doesn't have all of them. A lot of the models I have are comically tiny and would have to be tediously resized using collage mode references or something and I straight up forgot about most others, this was moreso done to see if this project idea was even possible to do. It's possible I'll make a follow-up including EVERYONE though! :) eventually

I also fumbled something while extracting files, certain files were missing and now I cannot extract files At All, this is why Garte and Klaasje are messed up and it also kept me from including some characters entirely.

#disco elysium #ive been working on this for ages i just kept forgetting about it lfmao #ok whatever im tagging half the characters #harry du bois #kim kitsuragi #jean vicquemare #judit minot #trant heidelstam #cuno

[indieyuugure]

Your comic series is the first Rottmnt comic Iv ever read! It was an amazing first impression to the Rottmnt fandom! Could you teach me how to draw the turtle boys ( rise turtles)?

Also love the new update!

Aw! I’m so glad my comic made on good impression on you! ^v^

Of course! I’d love to help you!

So first thing’s first, here’s the boys the best I can draw them. The most important thing when learning to draw new characters is identifying what makes them look like them. We’ll start with the faces since that’s, in most cases, the point of focus.

Leo’s face is a pretty tall and vaguely pentagonal. His face is also very angular, the corners of his cheeks and top of his head are very sharp. Leo has the traditional style mask with tails that drop down to about his waist.

Donnie has that smart boi forehead and majestic eyebrows. His forehead often has a soft curve to it while, similarly to Leo, his cheeks and jaw use sharp angles. Remember too that the top of his head is flat, there’s no curve. His mask is that newer pirate style that wraps over the top of his head, with the tails looking like curvy squares.

Mikey’s face is a combination of a rounded square and a circle. The top of his head, while much rounder than Donnie’s, is somewhat square. The bottom of his face is a curve. Sometimes I draw the curve in line segments, but it’s not a requirement and won’t impact the way he looks. In general though, Mikey has a very circular face. His mask is the traditional TMNT style with the rounded bouncing tails on the back.

Raph is arguably the hardest to get right for some odd reason. Really though Raph’s face is just a shorter version of Leo’s face with slightly more exaggerated angles. His face is like a fat pentagon. Also tip: Raph’s eyes are always just a little smaller then you think they’re going to be. Trace some scenes from the ROTTMNT movie, you’ll see what I mean. Raph’s mask is the same style as Donnie’s where it covers the whole top of his head. There’s a small nick on the edge above his right cheek and the tails are tattered.

Okay, next are their markings! They play a lot in how easily identifiable they are.

I figured these diagrams should help as a little map as to what spots go where.

Alright, now we’ll look at their shells. There are many amazing diagrams and explanations for drawing their shells on Pinterest I’ve found, but I’ll sum it up here as best I can.

Leo’s shell is very sleek in design making his is profile look the thinnest of his brothers. Many people describe his general body shape as being an inverted triangle.

Donnie’s shell is very straight with hardly any curves. I didn’t include his battle shell in this since that qualifies as “gear” in my opinion, so you get to see what Donnie’s shell looks like! You’ll notice that the sides of his shell are very wide, which I’m guessing is because the curve of his carapace is so shallow.

Mikey’s shell is very similar to Leo’s but is a lot thicker and boxier(haha get it? Cause he’s like, a Box Turtle? :D I’m so lame…). He’s also much rounder and the distance between his plastron and carapace is pretty big.

Raph’s shell is probably the most complex of the boys because of all the spikes. Good things to keep in mind are that the spikes on the top of his plastron angle out, and spikes on his carapace flow up. In general think of Raph as a pentagon, he’s got big broad shoulders and arms and almost comically short legs. (And yes, I’m aware that I didn’t include the side of his shell here, it was too big to fit on the diagram. But just to give you an idea of where it should be, around the “w” in “flow” is where it should connect to his carapace.

Okay! So now that we’ve covered what the boys look like, let’s apply it to their bodies!

Here’s a quick sketch of Leo. “Oh, but Indie” I hear people say, “I can only draw basic shapes and stick figures!” Well to that I say good because that’s what I’m doing too!

For drawing action, it’s crucial to capture the energy of the character. And in a style like Rise’s energy is an iconic trait. So I’ve re-invented this “shape method” to actually be useful. The number one thing is that these shapes are loose guides as to the positioning of the body. Don’t think of these shapes as “well chests are like cubes and arms are like rectangles.” These shapes are place holders. I could replace those circles with stars and it wouldn’t change anything. I just use circles because they’re faster to scribble and stand out against the hard angles of everything else.

Here’s a picture of the shapes overlayed on the image, as you see, these shapes are guides to help comprehend a complex angle in 3D space. Sadly I don’t have much I can assist with on proportions, since I learned purely by studying total uncreepily real life people and myself (I swear I’m posing in the mirror for purely educational reasons! Okay!?).

But anyway, for this kind of thing, practice is the only remedy. Just draw action pose after action pose. Trace scenes from ROTTMNT and the movie to teach your eye to see what things should look like and to train your brain to recognize patterns of shapes and angles.

I hope you found this at all helpful. I’m not really sure how great of a teacher I am but people keep asking questions like these so I guess I’m okay. Glad you liked ROTP so much and I’m glad it made such a good impression on you! ^v^

Good question! :]

And of course if you have more questions, feel free to ask. Here are some previous asks about drawing I’ve gotten that you might also find interesting:

Tricks for Drawing Extra Expressive Faces

More Tricks for Drawing Expressions

Tips and Tricks to Drawing Non-Graphic Wounds

Basic Guide and Tips for Drawing the 2012 and Rise Turtles

How to Draw 2012 Raph’s Fire Ninpo

Nailing The 2012 TMNT Style in 2D

Important Concepts in Drawing Female Characters

#q&a #tmnt #ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #art #art tips #drawing #drawing tips #drawing stuff #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

[goblin-enjoyer]

Normalize the tf2 mercs as being absolute genetic freaks of nature under the hood. Medic is crazy and we know he gets paid good so he’s probably got lots of bits in his bin if you know what I mean.

Pyro is straight up nonhuman. Pyro is a fire elemental that the Mann brothers have bound to a hazmat suit and medic made a real boy by giving them meat. Not making her a human body mind you, but rather every time he gets damaged, instead of bursting into flames meat forms around the wound and it bleeds instead of letting the inner crea tur out.how? Wizard. Moving on.

Soldier has massive lungs that make him 20% more louder. If he was smarter he could probably echolocate his way around. That or sound attacks idk he eats wizard pills he could have hollow bones for all I know. Sure he has hallow bones now for rocket jumping. Im the one typing I get to make nonsense on the fly.

Medic put pigeon dna in scout and that’s how he makes his trademark milk-like substance. How this happens you may ask? Scout saw medics doves have sex while getting his second Uber heart surgery and said “man I wish I could pick up chicks that well” and medic said “good idea I will help you with this” and then looked at the camera and smirked. The administrator does not spectate medics lab/operation room/dove breeding center anymore. Also scouts immune to radiation due to all the bonk he ingests, though sometimes he does become radioactive sometimes. 

We already know that demoman’s body creates alcohol and that he has a ghost eye, but did you know that if you shoot him with some sort of piercing explosive round he will combust into flames. I… I couldn’t really think of anything for demoman I don’t play him as much.

Engineer always wishes he could have kids, but doesn’t want to have sex. That and he removed most of his reproductive/unnecessary/extra/mid organs with machine parts like 30 years ago. So after the events of the games and comics where everyone is happy and junk, he teams up with medic to make himself some half robot half human half whatever dell conagher is at that point at time children. He asks if medic ever want kids he can do the same for him but he declines as at this point in time he has perfected the art of male impregnation.(on various ape parts) dell is a great father and yes I added this part because the whole humanized sentry thing that went around a while ago touched my heart because despite the words of almost every engineer main everywhere I get so attached to the sentries I build that I die a little bit inside every time I die and my buildings get sapped and I have to just watch as my babies get destroyed. I get too attached to my buildings to play engineer

Heavy doesn’t stop growing, similar to that of a reptile. His skin is as thick as a rhinos. He hibernates for a month in summer because I said so. He has accidentally killed/crushed medic before and is now eternally cautious when in bed with him. Medic doesn’t mind, he knows what he’s gotten himself into. Heavy can also talk to birds like a Disney princess. Medic didn’t add any bird parts for this to happen he just was always like this.

Sniper can dislocate every bone in his body and go through cracks that are at least the size of his head. He will use this to show up in the most unexpected places imaginable. Is legally classified as an tardigrade in some places due to his ability to be fine in almost any place (volcano,Arctic,sewer system, a walk in closet so large it took him 5 weeks to get out, space that one time). Can go up to a year without eating (the team found this out at the same time they figured out the space thing). Swallows things whole.

Spy can shift his flesh around to disguise as almost anything, keeps the mass and weight though. Breaths mostly through his skin so he doesn’t cough due to his decrepit lungs. Was hit by a car once. Doesn’t have anything to do with the subject matter of the tf2 mercs being freakish beings with human skin but I just wanted to include it here.

Medic. What isn’t medic? The only thing consistent with his biology is that he can regenerate somehow. He alters his body so much that it is roughly equivalent to 1 tyranid hive fleet and 2,million ork painboys.(the tf2 mercs would be more likely to work for the orks than to ever work for one of the human factions in 40k and I just needed to get that off my chest) This is how he manages to get away with all the things he’s done. Banned from this continent? Just become a new person who’s not banned from that continent and presto you’re good! The laws don’t account for the ship of Theseus!

#midnight brainrot #man I love posting nonsense late at night #tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 heavy #sniper tf2 #scout tf2 #spy tf2 #tf2 engineer #tf2 medic #tf2 spy #tf2 scout #tf2 pyro #tf2 sniper #tf2 soldier #tf2 demoman #did I tag this right? I’m not good at tagging things

[spiderpussinc]

are the 2099 comics THAT bad in terms of racism plus other weird writing choices??? i'm starved for miguel content and would like to read the original comic run but i keep seeing the debate of the original comics being problematic and/or downright just BAD bad (not to mention miguel is supposed to have mexican heritage but he's straight up a white redhead lol)

Some people may disagree but speaking as a latinx writer; it's bad because it is racist, yes! On multiple fronts!! And beyond that, it's also bad as a complete failure of comics structure and compelling narrative.

Longpost, on readmore;

I say this as a long-time capeshit reader, as politely as possible: Miguel's comics are a *paycheck* book. As in; a series a writer does monthly to be paid for it, but with middling aspirations and downright negative characterization depending on where their mood is.

The first few issues of his 1992 run are relatively complete and well-balanced, may even trick you into thinking this story is going somewhere; but that's only because they're the /character pitch./ Ill skip to the end and tell you upfront. That 1992 series ends with the implosion of the whole "2099" line of comics (an universe that included other books, like ghost rider, doom, etc, by other writers) due to dwindling public interest and mass cancellations. The end of that run is basically meaningless, since the whole thing got retconned - and even before that a guest writer had came in and made mistaken character reveals pdavid wasnt happy with and wanted to erase before the finale. The event book that wrapped up that universe was unironically, literally called -- "2099: Manifest Destiny."

Now, I don't like Peter David's writing. I think he's obsessed with the idea of building harems out of his female characters (when he's not fridging them, or making them act ~crazy~ to further alienate them from the protagonist) and it is the kind of grueling, joyless reading experience I can only describe as making you feel Oily Inside. This goes as far as multiple stalking plotlines, the inclusion of a guest appearance from AU s/x slaver Hulk in later years, Miguel's mother being strongly implied to have been forced into conceiving him by his real dad who's the evil CEO of alchemax, general torture painporn. His broader supporting cast is so interchangeable and disposable that they were literally disposed of.

In terms of the racism; I have mentioned how he uses cultures as tokens and does 0 research whatsoever. The way it feels and the way it is deployed is through a lens of Exoticism - tourism. Miguels suit is allegedly "a dia de los muertos costume" b/c pdavid seems to think that holiday is mexican halloween. In the orig book, you'll see plenty of broken japanese and stereotypical orientalist caricatures - after killing his first love interest, pdavid introduces a japanese girl who is unironically, literally named "Xina" (that pretends to be chinese on occasion) to fill in the vacant role. Miguel himself falls right into all the usual latino stereotypes — short tempered, drug addict, sex magnet "latin lover" (this last one also applied to his brother Gabriel, who for the longest time is characterized by just Going Through A Lot Of Girlfriends). And it's kind of insane bc he's still being drawn as a deeply deeply white man, but not even that takes off the burden of the racial microagressions!!! They're the only times pdavid seems to remember that heritage! Then there's the commemorative hanging page. Since you mention the redheadedness; thats another insane thing to me. He has 0% of irish in him. His dad is Blond. Who is this man?

Most of the info in the 2099 run is either revealed to be a lie midway thru (miguel is not mr o'hara's son, nor addicted to rapture) or completely retconned away to be rewritten in new runs. Different writers have tried to come in and do miguel in other team/event books but frankly nothing stands out and most of them get marked as alternate-miguels. Unfortunately, every time marvel decided to give another shot at spider-man 2099 they also brought pdavid back. The newer books were never a success, and theyre just as filled w/ the garbage i mentioned earlier (wow! Steampunk spider-woman is given to pdavid for *ONE* issue and instantly tonguekisses gabriel before leaving, so novel. More fridging ensues. Stalking. Etc.) 2099 as an *universe* has been retconned so many times Nothing is consistent and Nothing is set on stone and frankly i think they should make it an AU separate from main canon and build a whole new world already.

The art in the 2015 + runs consists mostly of tracing, and more of that oily weird feeling applied to fem chars. Perhaps you have noticed in this entire hate review have never once spoken about Miguel's heroic plots and memorable villains --- he has none. At least nothing I can remember or distinguish. (Interchangeable, disposable, etc) There is a vague inkling of "this is an anti-stabilishment spiderman, he fights against The Public Eye, the Corporation Cops!" at the start but much like his cultural illiteracy pdavid has no real insightful politics commentary, so that dissolves into the background in time. Its all buzzwords. All of his plotlines are solved in circuitous or soap operaish extradrama ways; and while some of this is present in other superhero comics, what stands out to me MOST is how utterly fucking joyless Miguel's comics are. It's like going through a slog on obligation. They genuinely gave me a headache every time.

ATSV does a great job of reinventing Miguel and rebuilding the parts of him that showed real promise. Being a different tone-swapped spiderman, futuristic, being more on the tech-science side of crime fighting. Him being a single dad with a daughter is also new. (And he is single! There is no singular mention of marriage or a wife anywhere, he's a geneticist, multiple spider-men we see in this movie were literal clones made in tubes - i am fond of the idea he's a transmasc dad but even if you think he's cis he could have made that baby himself. Adoption is also always there.) I think its very clear ATSV didn't want to bring any of pdavids major weird shit w fem chars to the big screen on the hopes that miguel gets rebooted eventually. I think he's gay. Nobody can prove me wrong.

On that note, Steve Orlando (queer writer, also wrote for DC's midnighter/apollo) did some of the latest 2022/2023 Miguel miniseries. Another reboot! Those were "2099: Exodus" and "Spider-man 2099: Dark Genesis" - i think its campier/trying to tackle superhero plots more head on and trying to do something wide wacky cast focused at Marvel's personal request, but Miguel's future is very up in the air rn. I do really hope they reboot him into something closer to ATSV with latines at the center soon.

What I always reccomend for people curious abt miguel: read his first 3ish 1992 issues, get a general feel and close the book as soon as you feel annoyed. It won't get better. Remember none of it is canon nor has been relevant in over two decades. If you want to know the wider context of his messy chronology, check out some of the 2099 "all comics" type of youtube videos, theres some pretty easy to digest summarizations if u dont wanna waste ur time reading stuff that just got retconned again lol. Most writers now are operating on vibes and that is a freedom you should also allow yourself in your own fanwork.

Putting his panels out of context can be very funny though. (For further curiosity or tangents, there's always my meta tag)

#meta tag #asks #miguel o'hara #miguel ohara #spiderman 2099 #spiderverse #spider man: across the spider verse #atsv #my spider stuff #atsv miguel #miguel atsv #marvel comics #spiderman #itsv #2099

[genericpuff]

On this week's episode of "Webtoon Controversies That Could Have Been Avoided If Only They Had Some Damn Quality Control"-

Oh boy, prepare yourselves, there's some TEA on this one.

Quantum Entanglement, a new Webtoon Originals series from creator Arts Angel (aka Sarah Ellerton) is uh... a teeny weeny painfully obvious that it was made with AI.

AI is getting better, but when it comes to comics, there are still a lot of "tells" you can pick up on once you know where to look. Hands are certainly one of them.

Not knowing how to draw hands efficiently and consistently is definitely an Artist Problem(tm) but it becomes a lot more obvious it was made by AI when you get weird little off-putting mistakes like a fingernail being just a little too long or missing joints (hot dog fingers, eyo) or the distinction between fingers not being clear.

But there's also hair and other detailed parts that are often lost in the translation process between prompt to final piece. Jewelry, text on a screen, phones, that sort of thing. The insinuation of a 'thing' is there, but it's like looking at it through a fishbowl.

And ultimately, a lot of AI art tends to just be a little too 'perfect'. Everything is just a little too smooth for it to look like it was naturally made by a person. Faces end up veering into the uncanny valley territory and there are inconsistencies between the eyes and the rest of the body. Backgrounds become lost in what I like to call "AI goop", becoming nothing more than weird blurred/filtered out insinuations of what's supposed to be behind the character.

Basically, at this point, it's undeniably clear that AI is being used to create this comic. While there are also plenty of signs in the handiwork that show a human was involved in some parts, there are other places that are undeniably filled in with the use of AI. So it's not necessarily a 100% made-by-AI comic, but it's absolutely AI assisted.

But what's REALLY absurd about this whole situation? The creator denies it. To the point of including a disclaimer in the first episode trying to "get ahead" of people who are assuming it's AI by saying, "No, it's not made with AI, here's the proof! Don't look at the blood on my hands or the body in the trunk of my car!"

Now, first off, the absolute absurdity of making yourself look guiltier by trying to prove your innocence before people have even started to suspect you... I'd like to think that this was edited into the first episode after the initial accusations started rolling in but considering it's an Originals series, it's hard to know if it was, as creators typically don't get as much control over just editing their episodes on the fly like Canvas creators do. Typically it's their editors who do that sort of thing for them. And even if it was edited in afterwards, it's still there for people who have no idea going into the comic blind and might not automatically assume it was made with AI, so it just looks like you're bringing up the potential of AI being used completely unprovoked. By planting the idea in your audience's brain that AI is even a question, you're making them suspect everything.

It's kind of like when Dream was suspected of cheating in a way-too-lucky-to-be-real speedrun of Minecraft a couple years back, so he went to all these painstaking efforts of hiring a quantum physicist to "prove" his innocence with a straight up THESIS documenting all of the reasons he couldn't have cheated through math and figures and jargon. Ironically, this just made Dream look guiltier, and sure enough, he eventually admitted he had cheated.

That said, did you notice something in that "art process" pic?

That finished panel isn't even what showed up in the final comic.

So the absurdity of this all, again, just makes Arts Angel look a lot more guilty of actually using AI, especially when it's basically undeniable in so many of those panels above. People don't paint like that.

But that brings us to talking about Sarah Ellerton, aka "Arts Angel", the creator. Many long-time readers of her work are defending this, claiming that she has, in fact, "always drawn like this".

What's insane? She actually is who she says she is. This isn't like some kid who came out of the woodwork with AI and claiming that they had 20 years of experience, Sarah Ellerton's main site, The Seraph-Inn, has been live and crawled by Wayback Machine as far back as 2005.

And you can see the art evolution over the years, starting with Inverloch-

-into Phoenix-

-and all the way to Immaterial-

But here's the thing about that last comic. The main protagonist is, apparently, the same girl from Quantum Entanglement, the newest installment in this series where it becomes abundantly clear the creator has started using AI.

You can see the effects of this being parsed through AI, because she's gone from being a unique character with two-toned hair and darker skin, to being turned into a generic Instagram anime girl. And lemme tell you, AI used in comics has NOT gotten better at depicting darker-skinned characters (I actually tested an AI-coloring tool WT was planning on putting out a year or two ago, it was uh... not great.)

But the most damning thing about Sarah?

She works in IT.

That on its own wouldn't be so telling if it weren't for the 20 years she clearly spent actually honing her craft, only to suddenly switch to using AI as a crutch.

Quantum Entanglement was picked up for Originals in July 2023. It launched two days ago, with four free to read episodes and 6 more under the FastPass paywall. Three months after it got picked up. That turnaround speed is insane for an Originals series. Now, I'm more inclined to believe that maybe she's using the exact same pages she used in the Canvas version (there's unfortunately no way of checking through Wayback, it never crawled the Canvas version, so unless someone has backups of the Canvas pages they're willing to share, we'll never know) but that short turnaround time is insane for a comic that's this insanely detailed. It likely means they didn't need much pre-production time to get a strong buffer going, and that it doesn't take them as long to produce these episodes on a weekly basis so they could be under way less crunch than creators who do this by hand.

By comparison, the winners of the Call to Action contest from last year are STILL working on their pre-production. Many other greenlit Canvas series are known for getting picked up and stuck in pre-production for several months and even a year or more simply due to how the company operates with when it chooses to launch these series and how much pre-production is necessary. Some creators have literally said that their pre-production was done, but WT still kept them waiting to launch. So three months for a freshly greenlit Canvas series to launch is NOT the norm.

All that said, I feel for the people who are trying to defend her. But it's so undeniably AI with the creator herself providing fake proof that it makes it really sad to think that this person was honing their craft for 20 years just to wind up utilizing AI. Being a good artist does not make you immune to the temptation of using cheap methods or developing bad habits. Going through "the struggle" does not make you immune to taking shortcuts that wind up cheapening your work or taking advantage of the work of others.

Now, maybe Sarah trained AI around her art. If this didn't play out the way it did, I'd be willing to give her benefit of the doubt and assume that. Training AI off your own work, while still up for debate as to how ethical that is, at least doesn't hurt other artists, because it's your own work the AI is "stealing". There are definitely ways AI could be used to make life easier for artists without replacing the art process entirely, the same way artists have learned to use 3D assets and digital art filters to make their process more efficient and boost the quality of their art up to the next level.

But the fact that she's being so cagey over it, claiming she's not using AI period when she very clearly is, providing "proof" that actually proves she definitely used AI, while operating under a penname that's strangely similar to a name Grimes - former tech wife of Elon Musk and staunch supporter of AI - used for one of her studio albums-

- that's what makes it a lot more clear she's using it maliciously.

The AI is very likely trained off another artist's work. Maybe someone whose art style is similar enough to hers that she could integrate it into her own and pass it off as legitimate. Someone whose art style is cartoonish but still modern, like if Disney made anime. Someone who's so prolific and consistent in their stylization that training an AI off it would seem like a no brainer to those who want to replicate that style quickly and easily.

Damn. What a disappointment. Do better, Sarah.

And for god's sakes, Webtoons, pay more fucking attention. I've been steadily picking away at moving the entirety of my comics over to other platforms on a weekly schedule, but at this point I kinda just wanna dump the last 30 or so chapters onto ComicFury all at once so I can ditch this platform for good, especially if it turns out AI comics getting greenlit is a feature, not a bug. The ratings for Quantum Entanglement have dropped significantly overnight, now sitting around 5.09 and still dropping, but is Webtoons going to do anything about it? That remains to be seen.

#webtoon critical #anti AI #quantum entanglement #quantum entanglement webtoon #webtoon controversy

[memoiremunson]

Melting - Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Summary: Out on a picnic, you use the reflection in your boyfriend's, Eddie Munson, sunglasses to apply your lipgloss, leading to a heated, intimate moment.

A/N: I've been obsessed with Melting by Kali Uchis and it helped inspire me with this concept. I also experienced something similar to this the other night and knew I had to apply it to Eddie! Hope you enjoy! <3

Word Count: 1,191

Warnings: kissing, sexual tension

● - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ●

It was another warm sunny day in Hawkins, Indiana. The dew in the air from last night still lingered heavily as the rays of sunshine caused sweat to glisten and stick to your and Eddie’s skin. Determined to have a good day, you and Eddie persevered. A cool breeze eventually worked to balance out the heat though, making it a nice day to be out. 

The plan for the day included a picnic in a park, something more intimate as the days of the week had been so far filled with babysitting your favorite rambunctious tweens. You loved the kids but you needed some alone time with your Eddie. So here you were, legs and shoulders on display as you drank in the sun, an image straight out of a painting Eddie thought. 

Eddie’s cassette player lowly played a mixtape you had both worked on a couple of days before. The soft melodies floated through the sticky air as Eddie lay next to you, sunglasses on and strong arms folded behind his mane of unruly curls. His soft breathing is heard as your ear is keen to him despite the music. It seemed that you were tuned in to every single noise and movement of his nowadays after spending so much time together. It was comforting, grounding even. 

Soon after a couple of quiet moments, you run your tongue over your lips, feeling the heat begin to dry them out, chapping them in consequence. Grumbling slightly you look to see where you placed your purse to find a remedy. The disturbance in your position catches Eddie’s attention as he cranes his head to watch you. 

“You alright, sweetheart?” He asks, voice dripping in a sickening sweetness. 

“Yeah, just need to find my purse.” Your words come out spaced and distracted as you sift through the items of the picnic basket and snacks to look for your small purse. 

Eddie now sits up helping you search for the bag. Looking to his side, he sees it peeking out from under his back.

“Aha! It was right next to me the whole time.” He hands it over to you, fingers purposely brushing against your delicate ones. 

“Thank you, Teddy,” voice hushed, offering him a smile that comes across as both demure and seductive.

You search for the tiny tube of moisturizing lip gloss you had packed, finding it with ease. As you look for your compact mirror, you’re surprised to see it missing. A small pout begins to form on your face as you had thought you packed one. Eddie watches your expressions intently, mesmerized by your expressions. He couldn't believe that you were his, a goddess to a mere mortal.  

You lift your head up, eyes frantically scouring for where there was the slightest hint of a reflective surface. Your face suddenly shoots to look at Eddie, remembering the sunglasses perched on the bridge of his beautiful nose. Another smile, as damning as the one before, grows on your face as an idea settles in your head. 

Eddie mimics your staring as he catches your eyes, though his are hidden behind the barrier of his lenses. 

“What is it, sweetheart?” He asks, voice all teasing and poking at the playful aura you’ve now adopted. 

You slide closer to him now, your sundress slightly shifting further up, showing the expanse of your fleshy, sun-kissed thighs. 

“Edssss … can I use the reflection in your glasses to put on my lipgloss?” You really work up the charm as you say this, mascara-coated eyelashes batting furiously and chapped lips jutting out almost comically. 

“Of course, baby. You know I can never say no to you.” You know this to be true but still like to hear when he says it as it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. 

He leans forward, sticking his thickly veined neck out, one of your favorite features of his, to bring his face closer to yours. However, you’re quick to push his broad shoulders back as you hike your legs over his to straddle his thighs.

Your dress now pooled around your hips, leaving a glimpse of your panties to be exposed for his eyes only. The bare skin of his thighs meets yours, the sensation heightened by the rough jean material of his black cut-off shorts. 

A small gasp slips out of Eddie’s parted lips as you settle onto his lap. His metal-adorned hands instinctively find purchase on your hips, holding you securely. 

You bring up the small tube to extract the wand covered in gloss. Now that you are mere inches from his face, you can make out the shape of his eyes better now. 

The tube makes a soft clicking sound as you bring the wand up to your lips, half watching yourself apply the sticky substance, half gazing into those beautiful doe eyes of Eddie’s. They are usually curious and wide in general, but they seem almost like saucers now as he watches with a deep fascination. 

His senses are enhanced now as well, making him feel like one of the superheroes he read about in comics when he was younger. The waft of your perfume, the sight of your parted lips, the stickiness that has gathered at the connection of both of your thighs, the sun illuminating your hair from behind, everything comes at him at once. He can’t help to be silent and still in his place. Scared to interrupt the intimacy of the moment. 

Satisfied with your application, you nod your head slightly, sliding the wand back into the tube. You begin to move back in order to resume your sunbathing position. Eddie moves a second slower at your wiggling, delayed in reaction but manages to hold you tight to prevent the progression of your moments. 

You turn your head to meet his face again, knowing he wouldn’t let you get away that easy in the suggestive position you’ve placed the both of you in. Eddie’s quick to grab your chin with his forefinger and thumb, the cool ridges of his rings pressing into the heat of your chin as he plants a firm kiss on your glossed lips. 

Only now you both wear the gloss as the kiss has smeared the shine onto his full lips. You let out a giggle at the boy with flushed cheeks and pink-tinted lips. It’s almost criminal how pretty he looks with lipgloss on.

“Edsss … you messed up my lipgloss! I’m going to have to reapply it againnnn,” you whine, lip curling up into a smirk as your voice travels to a higher pitch towards the end of your sentence. 

“Well, I guess you’re just going to have to stay here and fix it.” He says as if he hadn’t intended to keep you in his lap longer. A cheeky smile breaks out on his face, dimples and pearly whites on full display. You match him with your own radiant smile as you lean back in for a more passionate kiss.

Needless to say, your tube of lipgloss was nearly empty by the time you two ventured home. 

Thank you for reading, Angel <3

#eddie munson x reader #eddie x y/n #eddie x reader #eddie munson #eddie stranger things #stranger things x you #stranger things x reader #stranger things #stranger things fic #stranger things 4 #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader protective #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson x reader fluff #eddie munson x reader comfort #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson fic #eddie munson blurb

[kbspangler]

We're going to start this by saying that—as much as we might want to—we will NOT yeet this person straight into the sun. They're asking questions which…make sense? I guess? In context? Especially for the Webtoons platform?

I mean, I'm so mad I had to get up and walk away for a while before writing, but.

(All of this was originally posted on a thread over on my Bluesky and I finished it before realizing that "webtoon" isn't capitalized so perhaps the researcher means it as a generic term like "webcomics," in which case some of the strongest pro-labor arguments don't apply at all and fuck everything forever, but let's resume.)

A well-known problem with the Webtoons platform is that "successful" comics which pay the artists a wage for their work require brutal labor to meet a regular update schedule.

It's not just comic panels, it's a vertically scrolling art display.

So the obvious answer is "Sod off, fancy lad" but they are actually asking questions which might address real problems: specifically, can a comics artist publishing on Webtoons improve their workflow so they aren't constantly broken by their job?

The researcher is also active in South Korea, where there's a known secondary layer of problems with South Korean comics creators publishing on the Webtoons platform, including pooled labor, contractual obligations, and monetization of time and original IP.

So the researcher is asking questions which might have value!

Meanwhile, Dr. Beer and myself are shouting "GOD I'M SO ANGRY" at each other in chat, because "might have value" is distinct and separate from what the researcher is proposing.

What the researcher is proposing MIGHT be along the lines of what @tkingfisher did when she tested Midjourney's storytelling capabilities and made an AI-generated comic. I don't think it is, tho. Could be wrong, but the phrasing indicates I'm not.

"…expedite their workflow…" How?

"…explore new creative ideas…" How?

"…produce higher-quality artwork…" HOW?!

The phrasing implies using an AI engine to generate some, if not all, of the comic. The researcher might be approaching comics creators to learn if they've considered any of these possible uses for AI, thus resolving the "How?"

The framing is positive, very much a "Have you considered what AI can do FOR you, to HELP you?"

The framing does not appear to take into account the negative aspects of using AI to make comics: Theft. Copyright. The intentional decisions artists make versus AI-derivative images.

Above all, the emotional attachment that comics creators have for the craft of telling their stories through art.

Which is why @alepresser and I have been shouting at each other for at least an hour about *waves hands* all of this, the idea that making comics somehow needs to be fixed, that AI is just another digital tool that can help us rather than something which strips the love away.

p.s.: please read our comics. We love making them. We hope you enjoy them.

A GIRL AND HER FED: science fiction with a healthy side of the supernatural

SIDE QUESTED: queer fantasy YA with a sassy vulture

#webcomic #webcomics #comic #comics #agahf #a girl and her fed #side quested #ai generated #ai art #ai artwork #artificial intelligence #technology #machine learning

[uraichievents]

Welcome to this year's UraIchi Prompt Challenge! For our 8th PC, we will be focusing on crossovers!

Like we did for a previous mini-event, this year will also have a spin-the-wheel component. For PC8, you will be spinning for at least one random fandom and creating a crossover fanwork with it. A total of 300 different fandoms were nominated in the space of a week, so you'll have plenty to choose from. For most of them, I tried to copy the fandom names straight from the AO3 tags. The only exceptions are if they're not on AO3, or if I thought a catch-all name suited it better (ie. Marvel Comics (Any) because there are just too many of them, and this way you can pick whichever Marvel comic/movie/etc. you want). But overall, all fandoms that were nominated have been included in one of the wheels.

Before we get into that though, here are the rules for PC8:

1) Fanworks must be UraIchi-centric and complete. Obviously, this year, they must also be crossovers in some shape or form. UraIchi can be romantic or platonic (lovers, friends, family, enemies, etc.), so long as you can stick a / or an & between them, and they and their interactions are the main focus. 2) Any kind of fanwork is allowed if you can pull it off (fic, art, vid, gifset, etc.). There is no word limit for fics. 3) Poly ships are fine so long as UraIchi is in there somewhere. 4) The general definition of a crossover is a fanwork where two or more fandoms are combined in some way. For the purpose of this event, dimension travel, fusions, isekai, reincarnation, and resurrection would all count so long as your work includes at least one other fandom outside of Bleach. Likewise, Bleach must obviously be one of the fandoms. Basically, so long as Bleach and 1+ Other Fandom(s) are combined in some way, starring UraIchi as the main characters, then you should be good. If you are unsure whether your idea of a crossover counts, you can always send in an ask to check.

Post Date:

The due date for this event is December 31st, 2023, and the AO3 Collection will open at 12am (PST). I’ll reblog this post with a link to the collection closer to the date.

Tags:

If you’re posting your work (or a link to your work) as a post on Tumblr, you can tag it #uraichi prompt challenge 8 in the first five tags so I can reblog it here.

And finally, what you've all been waiting for:

As I mentioned before, I used Wheel Decide to make the wheels, but each wheel has a limit of 100 items, so since we ended up with 300 fandoms, I've had to split it into 3 wheels.

There's no specific theme or category for each wheel. I threw everything into a random choice generator, and then threw the results onto each wheel in batches of 100, so it's all random, and you can play this in a number of ways. You could just pick one wheel, spin, and get your fandom that way. You could also spin two or three wheels, and then pick your favourite out of the fandoms you get. Or you could spin all three wheels and write a four-fandom crossover like a crazy person. The point is, there's pretty much no wrong way to go about cobbling together your crossover.

If you want to submit more than one fanwork, feel free to spin for as many as you want to write/draw/etc. (of course, they should all be complete). And yes, you can spin more than once if you're really stuck on the fandom you get, or you just don't know the fandom at all.

I think that's about it, if anybody has any questions, please don't hesitate to send in an ask. Then, without further ado, here are the wheels:

WHEEL 1

WHEEL 2

WHEEL 3

Have fun!

#bleach #psa #uraichi #uraichi prompt challenge 8 #uraichi prompt challenge

[just-some-random-blogger]

Hello how are you? I'm going to request an imagine from Morpheus interested in Lucifer's twin sister, in the imagine Morpheus will get the bag of sand that was with Johanna and the reader was with her since they are very good friends, and the reader offers to go with Morpheus to the hell with him, he accepts since he wants to spend more time with her, reader being lucifer's twin having the title of star of the night she and lucifer have the same powers because they are twins she is still in heaven being an archangel when lucifer went to hell she keeps visiting him, reader and lucifer have a great relationship

Harbinger Of The Dusk

Dream of the Endless x Angel!Reader

Summary: After a century of being apart from your love, you meet again with the help of Constantine and accompany him to retrieve his lost item from your twin's domain.

Word Count: 3k+

Warnings: fem!reader, simp!dream, beloved!lucifer, some hurt/comfort, typos, etc.

Part 2 kinda "Holy"

A/N: the rest of your asks is below the cut! Yes hello nonnie. Its been ages HAHAH but i am well. As well as someone doing their finals is HAHAHHA. Tbh i remember i was really excited when i got this ask cos its so fresh and i love Gwendoline christie sm that i began writing it straight away but then it died 💀 BUT THEN i read the sandman comics in our school library and felt a really strong desire to write for dream and include hell somehow THEN I REMEMBERED THIS REQ and fell in love with your idea all over again so im using your req to scratch both our itches <3 <3 although I will say since then, my image of the ruler of hell has changed dramatically after reading the comics. by the time i wrote in lulu, it was comic!lucifer in my head and not gwen. still referred to lightbringer with fem pronouns <3 cos why not. this was a treat to write in all honesty, so i hope you like this nonnie <3 Tagging: @pinksirensong @aralezinspace @deniixlovezelda @shadow-pancake9 @sloanexx

Dream was tired, fatigued, completely and wholly exhausted. He barely made it back to the Dreaming, only to see it in rubble and ruins. At this point, he was, too, falling apart.

But then Lucienne appeared, Lucienne appeared and reached out to him and then suddenly, he couldn't fall apart; he wouldn't.

He knew what he had to do, what he had to do for himself, for Lucienne, for the Dreaming.

And so he spoke to the Fates, and now here he was, with this occultist detective, Johanna Constantine, who had woken up from a bad dream.

She shoots awake, clutching her chest. She pushes back into her bed when he catches Dream's nearing figure, "Constantine."

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" she shouts, pointing a finger.

Dream, although unappreciative of her authoritative words, allows her the courtesy of catching her breath and wits, as she was still reeling from her nightmare.

"I am Lord Morpheus, Shaper of Forms, King of Dreams and Nightmares, Prince of Stories, Dream of the Endless."

Johanna makes a face as she heaves. She relaxes suddenly, as if deciding he was no longer a threat to him, though he broke into her apartment, "wait, Dream of the Endless? That's you?"

"Indeed."

She huffs, leaning against her pillow, "huh, how'd you get out?"

Dream stiffens. Johanna awaits his response. She does not get one.

She decides to ask another question, "does this mean I'll be sleeping better now?"

Dream does not reply this time either, but Johanna does; she responds to herself, "well of course not, Johanna, people like you don't sleep well."

Finally, Dream speaks, "how do you know of this?"

Johanna turns to Dream. She raises a brow, "about me not sleeping well? Well, duh, it's me that-"

"About my imprisonment?" Dream cuts her off coldly.

Johanna clamps her lips together upon hearing this. She watches him for a moment. She sniffles and crosses her arms, "her."

"... her?" Dream slowly repeats.

She nods, "her."

When the woman does not clarify or continue, he begins to feel his patience thin and his anger flare. The room begins to darken, his form begins to grow. He was in no mood for cryptic responses.

Johanna had not yet caught on to this, which was why she frivolously thought of adding, "the star of the night."

Dream quickly snaps out of his trance.

Johanna turns to her bed then back to him. She watches as Dream reacts to her words. He looks like he was kicked in the gut. He looks winded. She carefully says, "isn't she your girlfriend?" She narrows her eyes and pushes her blankets off her, "she doesn't get personal, rarely talks about herself in the name of selflessness, but she loves to talk about whom she loved and I can tell-"

"How do you know her?" Dream quips.

Johanna makes a face before she gets off her bed, "she's an angel, I'm an exorcist. It makes sense, no?"

"Where?"

"Where?" Johanna repeats, shaking her head, "where what?"

"Where do you meet her?"

She furrows her brows, "why d'you a-- you want me to take you to-"

"Yes. Take me to her," he quickly responds, "but first, you must help me retrieve something."

After the Endless and the exorcist retrieve the something, that was a bag of sand, Johanna drives them to a home for the aged. It was called Dusk Haven. Immediately, Dream knows this is the right place. He hastily exits the car and stares at the building, wanting nothing more to run inside and look for the angel, but is seemingly unable to move from where he stood.

Johanna steps out of her car and walks over to the Dream King, cocking her head to the side, "come on then."

For a moment, Dream watches before following after her.

I stop what I am doing when I feel a familiar presence near me.

I hear my name get called out and I turn to Margaret, the old lady I had been conversing with, offering her a smile and quick regard as I tell her I must do something.

"Alright, but don't be too long, pretty girl."

I nod, "I will do my best, my dear."

I before I get out of the hallway, I open the door and find Johanna passing by. She turns and blinks, lips parting at the sight of me, cheeks tinting red. I smile, "Constantine."

She stares. I hear her breath hitch. She clears her throat, "Angel."

"My love."

My stomach drops.

I turn and see the face of Dreams. My lips part. I whisper, "my love."

I walk over to him and seal him into a tight hug, feeling my eyes water and my throat and chest constrict in grief and longing, "my dream."

"My angel," he mutters against me, sealing his arms around my form. Dream crumbles into me. I feel him crumble against my form. I feel him release a tight tension in his spine. I feel him relax and find refuse in him. My body calls out to him. I missed him so.

Johanna watches then huffs, "I reckon my work here is done."

Dream's eyes dart to her and he nods once, "yes, thank you, Constantine."

I close my eyes and nuzzle my face into his neck.

She nods, "see ya, Sandman," then walks off.

A few elderly fellows pass us in the hall as we continue to find solace in each other's arms.

"How lovely."

"Get a room!"

"Oh I remember when Gertrude and I-"

"I'm walkin' 'ere."

"Such a stunning girl with such a strange, scrawny boy."

I pull away and take his face in my palms. I trace his cheeks with my thumbs and brush his dark hair out of his face. I inspect every inch of him. He was whole, but he was also not. His face, normally, was angular and bony, but never like this, never.

Dream looks upon me with his hands resting my waist. He allows me to touch him as I please, and while I knew I was always special in this, I knew that he was never too keen on any bold form of affection, as it was not his nature.

"I was forbidden to interfere," I mutter lowly as my hands roam him. I avoid his gaze.

He rubs my back, "I know," he pulls me close, "I know this," he sighs, "I do not fault you for not coming to me."

I look back at him with sorrow, "you must have been greatly distressed," I frown, taking in his sullen form and tired eyes. I have not seen him in such a state. He has taken many forms throughout his life, and though most of them were slender and lean, never did he look so thin or hollow the way he did now.

I blink away my tears, "there has not been a day that I did not want to go to you, Dream."

He places his hands atop mine and leans into my touch, "and there has not been a day I did not want to see you," he leans in and kisses me. I immediately reel him and and deepen our exchange. As our lips and tongue dance together, he briskly pulls away to speak, "to have you touch me lik-"

"GET A ROOM!"

"CALLAGHAN, YOU PUT A SOCK IN IT!"

I pull away from him and turn to the arguing seniors in the hall. I look back at Dream, who leans back into me and clutches my body close. I sigh ands him and lead him down the hall, "perhaps we should get a room, my love."

Dream looks at our joined hands as we exit the home for the aged. He thinks there is a great comfort in knowing that the angel before him is just as honeyed and tender as before, that she lives her life in servitude to others still, that after a century, there is a constant that is the she, the North Star of Dreams.

But he remembers he did not have time for tender honey, though he missed the taste so badly. No time, not at present, "my love."

I stop in my tracks when we get outside and turn to him.

"I do not wish to be parted from you," he starts, stepping close to me, caressing my cheek, "but there are things I must first do."

I knit my brows before I nod, "of course, Dream," I shake my head, "I know you value your duty most of all," I place a hand on his cheek, "and I shall do them with you."

Dream stills as I rub his cheeks. I look at him through my lashes, "I, too, do not wish to be parted from you. I beg that you do not tell me you came only to see me and leave."

He lets out a breath and leans his forehead onto mine. He closes his eyes when I move to kiss him. One I pull away, he speaks out my name. He speaks it with so much reverence I feel my wings flutter from behind its glamour of invisibility.

"I do not mean to deny either of us of each other's company, but you see, my helm has been bartered off to a demon," he pulls away and takes my hand, "I must go to retrieve it in hell, and taking you may cause you quarrel with your blood that I do not wish to happen."

"Oh," I mutter softly, "one of dearest Lucifer's acolytes has your artifact?"

He nods, "it remains to be seen."

"Then do not fear. I shall accompany you to my half's domain."

A line forms between his brows.

I chuckle softly and smoothen the crease on his forehead, "do not trouble yourself with useless worrries, my Dream. You could not cause strife between us that is not already there."

I grab his hand and breath in deeply, allowing myself to take on my truer form. I pull him up as I stretch my dark wings out and begin to rise from the ground, "my sibling is capable of only bearing one grudge against me."

Dream holds onto me as we rise up into the sky. He utters, "not joining her uprising."

"Yes," I clutch him tightly against me, "I am certain though Lightbringer will be most pleased to see me."

And so when we get to hell, Dream and I stand before the gates, awaiting for the keeper to come. Once the wretched thing appears, Squatterbloat, I speak to the demon guard and announce ourselves, "I am the Nightstar, Harbinger of the Dusk, Star of the Night, Bringer of Darkness. With me is Dream of the Endless, King of Dreams, Shaper of Forms, Prince of Stories. We have come to speak with the my blood half, Morningstar, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell."

For a moment, I see the demon is too stunned by my appearance and glory to speak. He begins to chant, "holy, holy-"

"Open the gates, Squatterbloat."

He looks upon me then grins, "an angel of the most high, in hell?" he laughs, "you have fallen to the depths to join our ruler."

I narrow my eyes at him, "do I look felled to you?"

"Your feet touch upon the ground," Squatterbloat says, looking down to my shos.

"What do you know? I live amongst the people, and I am not yet in hell."

"Oh, your glory excites me-"

"Chose your words wisely, or I shall smite you."

He tries to reach out to my form, "oh, holy," his paw raises, "I shall love to defile yo-"

"You will regret attempts," Dream quips with a look of disdain.

I blind him with darkness. The demon yelps.

I rise from the ground look down at the him, "you will find that I will not be ridiculed by a lowly imp."

I watch as Squatterbloat withers away, writhing in pain and confusion. I blink at thw pathetic display then turn to Dream, reaching out to him. He takes my hand and I decide to fly us over the gates instead.

"Is this proper, my love?" Dream mutters as we soar over the damned who wail and lift up their hands, calling out to me for deliverance.

I make an annoyed sound, "I will soon destroy the abominations here if we interact with them any more. The ruler of hell would surely appreciate that less."

Dream does not argue, "very well, my love."

When we descend into the heart of hell. I release Dream and prop him down on his feet, but I, myself, do not touch my feet upon the stone. I would both be desecrating myself and my beloved's domain by doing do.

"Lightbringer," Dream calls out, "Morningstar! I call upon you."

There is a crash.

"WHO IS THERE? WHO INSULTS ME BY ENTERING MY DWELLING WITHOUT-" the ruler of hell stops when she gazes upon me. The Fallen blinks, "ah," she releases a breath and smiles, raising her arms out to me, "sister."

I smile back, "my half."

I soar over to Lucifer, placing my hands upon her face. We kiss and I take in her appearance. She looks well. "It is wonderful to see you, beloved"

She nods, "it is wonderful to see you."

There is a groan from the side.

Mazikeen looks up at me and gawks at my form. I turn to her and her half-rotten from, and smile, "greetings, Mazikeen."

She mumbles a garbled greeting in response, eyes wide in wonder of my figure and cloak of holy darkness.

Lucifer turns to Dream, "why have you brought an Endless with you, beloved?"

I turn to Lucifer then to Dream, "there is something that he wishes to retrieve from a demon."

Lucifer crosses her arms and tilts her head, "ah, I see. The Endless has been bested by one of my children."

"I am not bested, Morningstar," Dream speaks, "I was imprisoned for a century and with that time, my helm was taken and traded to a demon."

My twin purses her lips, "I see," she waves a hand, "do not dawdle then, Dream of the Endless, speak the name of the demon and I shall call upon them."

Lucifer and I look at him.

Mazikeen hisses when her hand burns when she tries to touch me.

We turn to her.

"Mazikeen!" Lucifer scolds.

Mazikeen apologizes, pulling back. I look at her as she clutches her rotting arm that was now further mangled.

"I do not know the name of the demon," Dream replies.

"I see," Lucifer repeats, "then we shall call upon them all."

The demons, djinns, damned, and all clamor at the foot of the stronghold. Dream and I walk to the edge, looking out the opening, beholding the view before us. I look out to them as they see my form and praise and curse me all at once. I feel revulsion, a thick bile rise up my throat. I spit it out my side.

Lucifer walks next to me, laughing lowly, "you insult me, my blood."

I turn to her and offer a half-sympathetic look, "it is my nature. Do not be insulted."

Dream looks upon the pit and tries to make out one who has his helm. He listens to them and their dreams. He cannot isolate the cries. He pulls out his bag of sand and scoops a clump, breathing out to it, causing it to flurry over the entities. It then summons the demon that has his artifact.

With a whiff of sand, the demon is brought before us.

"Choronzon," my twin and I speak at the same time.

"My Lord," he bows to my twin. When he turns to me, he falls onto his hands and knees, "my- my-" he starts and tries to lift his eyes, but he cannot look upon my form. Choronzon turns away and shields himself, "I- how may I serve?"

Lucifer watches as Choronzon retreats me. Once he is far and look back at her, she points, "the Dream King wishes to retrieve something from you."

"Greetings, Choronzon," Dream addresses.

Choronzon, now turned away from me, regains composure, "Dream King." He grins.

"I have come to retrieve the helm that was stolen from me."

He grins even wider, sharp teeth laced with malevolence, "stolen? Me?" he places a hand on his chest, "you flatter me too greatly."

"I do not speak to flatter you," Dream retorts.

Choronzon laughs and licks his hand, wiping the side of his head. He basks in self-indulgence.

"Well, have you the helm, demon?" I call, narrowing my eyes upon his disgusting form.

He cannot bare to look at me but he replies, "I don't know of a helm."

"You cannot deceive us," my twin and I speak in unison once again.

Choronzon turns to his master, evading me, "right. My liege, the helm is in my clutch after I traded with something. It is mine. I have broken no laws of hell in gaining it," he turns to Dream, "it's mine."

"Very well," Lucifer says, turning to the Endless as well, "what say you, Dream? I shall not assert myself to a child that has kept my laws."

Choronzon is smug. Dream tilts his head at the demon, "it is not yours to keep, just as it was not something to have been traded for."

Choronzon shrugs then smiles, "then you challenge me?"

I scoff.

Lucifer's lips curl.

Mazikeen watches.

Dream scowls. He thinks about his condition, and how he was not yet strong enough to fight. I watch him, feeling the agitation rise around him. We all can sense it. I knit my brows when he finishes debating and states, "very well."

Choronzon beams.

"No," clatters a sword, "I disagree, demon," I announce, pointing my blade upon his neck. I take my full angel form, stretching my wings. It glitters with darkness as I hover above the creature.

Choronzon shrieks and topples back, the mere presence of my weapon overpowering him already.

"MASTER!" Choronzon calls as he shields himself from me, turning to my sibling for aid.

I press nearer with a look of fury.

Lucifer looks upon her demon and his pathetic form on the ground and watches him shrivel. She crosses her arms while doing so.

"You will soon perish if you do not release what you hoard, Choronzon," my voice echoes and my eyes blaze with darkness, "I will smite you that none of your vileness shall remain, as though it never was. Is that what you wish, deceitful creature?"

"MASTER!" Choronzon calls, screwing his eyes shut until he is at the edge of the room.

Dream gazes at the demon curling up in terror.

The miscreant calls out master again.

"She asks you a question, dear Choronzon," Lucifer says, "do you wish to see the power of the one favored by most high?"

"NO!"

Lucifer raises her hands and shrugs, "then you know what you must do."

Choronzon immediately brings out the helm and throws it away with desperation, "MERCY!"

I pull back and mellow my form, allowing my weapon to dissipate into the air, "this is not mercy, demon."

Lucifer nears Choronzon as he shivers. He reaches out to her garments and cries out, "master-"

"I am sorely displeased with you," she says, looking out to her people, "where are the twins Agony and Ecstasy? Take him away."

Choronzon screeches as he is taken away. He begs all the way down.

Dream picks up his artifact and finds himself sighing in relief.

Lucifer turns from Choronzon with a blank expression, watching as he is dragged away in chains, to me, lips turning into a frown, "that was hardly fair, my half."

I turn to her and shake my head, "I am incapable of hardly fair, beloved. You know this."

"I know this," Lucifer sighs. She looks to Dream as he puts his helm on, "and you. You use my beloved as leverage to beseech me. You have acted most wrongly."

"I did not wish to bring her with me, but you will find that she insisted," Dream says, reaching out to me. I move towards him and take his had.

"Thank you, Lightbringer," Dream nods in regard.

Lucifer scoffs, "thank me?" She laughs, "so you have your helm. Tell me, then, why I should not keep you here?"

I furrow my brows at her look of anger, "my half-"

Lucifer raises a finger. I hold my tongue.

Dream looks upon at her as she walks over with a grimace.

I watch as she stares him down.

"Well?" she imposes, "can you not think of one good reason for me to release you? Or will you use my half as leverage again?"

"An Endless has no place in hell."

Lucifer's lips curl, "and yet you see, you have no power here. It is not by your own power that you have come, and I will not allow you insult me further by using my sister as your chaperon."

I look at Dream, tightening my grip upon him, wanting nothing more than to speak on his behalf in this moment.

He is silent for a long moment

She grins, pleased with herself for besting Dream of the Endless.

Seeing her like this makes my stomach roll. My heart aches at sight of her unquenchable thirst for power. I begin to recall her fall I feel my eyes water at her self-importance. She wounds me deeply

Lucifer catches my express but offers me no pity nor remorse. Instead she raises her nose with arrogance and asserts, "you shall not take him out, beloved. I will hound him, if you do."

"But he is set to rebuild his own domain," I mutter through tears, "you will not keep him here, devil."

"Then he shall give me reason not to, angel."

Dream turns to me and wipes away my tears, "reason?" he starts, "power? You say I have no power here, but tell me," he turns to Lucifer, "what then would be hell without its dreams?"

My half throws her head back and laughs, "hell has no need for dreams, Dream King."

"No?" Dream pulls me towards him, "so I ask," he turns to the legion of damned, "what would hell be if it could not dream of heaven?"

I lift up my eyes to Dream.

Lucifer stills.

I look at my beloved lover then my beloved sibling. I wipe tears.

I feel a fury bubble from within my half. It tears at me. It makes my face harden. It guts me.

It was plain to see that Dream had given reason.

"Come, my love," Dream mutters softly, leading me off as he began go walk away, "let us leave this place."

I nod and allow Dream reel me away like a ballon. I give ruler of hell one last look, "farewell, beloved."

Lucifer glares then turns away.

Dream and I navigate hell as he walks and I float. The damned part for us to give us clear passage.

Lucifer watches, looking down upon her domain, tears streaking down her face, "one day, we shall destroy you."

#dream of the endless fanfic #dream of the endless fluff #the sandman fanfic #the sandman fluff #the sandman x reader #morpheus fluff #the sandman x you #dream x you #dream fanfic #dream of the endless x reader #dream of the endless x you #morpheus x reader #morpheus x you #dream x reader

[homunculus-argument]

Today while I was working I suddenly remembered that at some point during my early twenties I had a tumblr account and that I used to read your posts often. I somehow managed to pull out from the void my tumblr account and here you are. How are you? I remember that you wanted to get your comics published (right?) did that happen? How is your boyfriend?

No idea how long you've been gone but Tumblr has settled into being a weird little bottom-of-the-ocean extremophile habitat - much like the meteorite that ended the age of dinosaurs, the porn ban decimated the large and more normal life forms, essentially everything except the small weird critters who make their best to thrive here despite of the staff's best attempts to make the site unusable and inhabitable. Myself included.

I'm doing great, 3 albums of my main comic strip are in print - working on album 4 next year - and we straight-up ran out of stock on a few merch items in the last con I was invited to, my publisher's working on getting the first volume of my First Big Serious 10 Volume Graphic Novel into print by the end of the year. Doing good.

My boyfriend still tolerates my goblin ass for some reason. We're going out to spend a week at his family's old little cabin next week.

[emma-is-swaggy-and-epic]

DISCLAIMER THAT THIS IS THE 3RD TIME I'M FUCKING UPLOADED THIS PIECE OF SHIT BECAUSE TUMBLR KEEPS FUCKING UP MY IMAGE LAYOUT WHENEVER I POST IT SO IF THIS SHIT DOES THAT AGAIN I'M NOT GONNA FUCKING FIX IT BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO EMBED ALL THE LINKS TO THE BASES I USED AND WRITE DOWN ALL THE TAGS ALL OVER AGAIN

X / X / X / X / X / X

Ngl it was relatively easy to think of pony names for these characters since i've had the idea to make this for a while so i've had a lot of time to think about it lol

For yuriko: i chose the name "flawless lace" because in her regular form, i specifically chose the name "yuriko" for her because it means "perfect" so i wanted to try and include that aspect into her pony name. Some considered names for her were "perfect storm" and "lily lace" since the "yuri" part of her name means "lily" (though i decided against it bc i remembered that's the name of an actual pony in MLP...) the markings on her legs are meant to sorta mirror the stockings she wears in her usual form

For sprite: i chose the name "baby carrot" simply because that was a actual name i considered for her normal form before i decided on "sprite" (which is kinda funny since a big part of sprite's character is that she likes apples.....a food that is basically as different from carrots as it can get) she is a goat-alicorn hybrid because she's normally a deltarune OC, specifically a fankid of kris and ralsei; with the latter being a prince from the dark who is also a goat monster

For carrie: a big part of her backstory is that she named herself, she's literally a carrot that decided to be human one day (...or pony, in this case) and is trying to fit into civilsation as best she can; so i tried to give them a pony name that sorta fits that, and so i named them "carrot mulch" because i could totally imagine her trying to introduce themself to someone and doing that one trope in movies where the main character doesn't want to share their real name and just looks around the room for things to call themself lol. I also decided to make her a blank-flank since she probably hasn't spent that long a time as a pony and therefore wouldn't have a cutie mark despite appearing fully grown

For makeighlyn i feel like my choices are pretty straight forward, the character is a girls' flash game mascot created by a christian fundamentalist cult who somehow escaped into the real world and now works as a demon slayer so i decided to give her a name and cutie mark that reflects that. The only thing that i feel is worth mentioning is that i find it interest how the amount of pink in her design makes the blue in her hair look a lot darker...either that or i might've accidentally hue-shifted it or something

Choese is another pretty straightforward one, he's a flirty cheese-themed mouseboy so i gave him a heart-shaped cheese cutie mark and named him "gouda squeaks" because he's a fucking rodent. (Sidenote: i love smoked gouda so goddamn much omg)

Lastly for crystalline i decided to make her a breezie since she's normally a fairy and y'know....breezies are just the MLP equivalent to fairies....i also decided to name her "fee-fee breezie" since breezies usually have really cutesy names in the show (some of them straight up have references to their species in their names), the "fee-fee" part of her name is short for "feelings" since crystalline is an emotion fairy

Y'know when i first created crystalline back when i was like, 10 i was going through a phase where i just VIOLENTLY hated things for no reason (specifically things from MLP such as the vampire fruit bats, flurry heart and the manta hawk from the IDW comics) to the point that i would make them out of polymer clay JUST so i can make my pony toys kill them (i was a weird kid, needless to say) one of these things being the breezies....so ngl i feel like the fact that i made crystalline a breezie is really fucking ironic lol

#oc: yuriko #oc: sprite #oc: carrie #oc: makeighlyn #oc: choese #oc: crystalline #artists on tumblr #art #digital art #digital illustration #my little pony #my little pony friendship is magic #mlp fim #mlp g4 #mlp #mlp base edit #mlp base art #base art #ponified #ponification #mlp unicorn #mlp alicorn #mlp earth pony #mlp breezies #pegasister #mlp art #pony art

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Code Blue Ch. 47- Punch Drunk Love

Summary: It's one step forward and two steps back for Lee and Jo. The same can be said for Jo and Craig, only their encounter "lands" on a more comical note. Jo wants to play detective. Dave receives a message from beyond the grave.

*Chapter Warnings* language, angst, mentions of murder, drinking, intoxication, ghost child

Chapter characters: Lee, Josie, Craig, David, Jacob

Chapter word count: 6,699

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Salem, Massachusetts

March 21, 2023

An hour had passed since Lee had left you in the boathouse after his regretful blowup. As he sat in his lake house bedroom, staring blankly out the window at the gray sky morning, he could hear the muffled voices of you, Britt and Jason downstairs and then all went quiet, except for the creaking of his door opening.

He closed his eyes and lowered his head in sadness when he felt you softly sit down on the opposite side of the bed. As your movement ceased and you began to speak, a subtle breeze laced with the biting scent of your intoxicating vampire perfume flowed straight to Lee's nose, causing his heart to palpitate as he eagerly inhaled it.

"Jason and Britt are gone, just as you wanted. I think I should go too as soon as the laundry finishes."

Lee turned his head to the side and could see that you were sitting with your back to him.

"I'm sorry about your brother."

"What for? You were right Lee. He and Britt shouldn't be here. It was my stupid idea to bring him here to help Britt."

"It was both of our ideas Jo and it was for the best. Now he can take care of the woman he loves and leave us out of it. I don't want any part of this shit anymore Jo."

"I can agree with you there. Neither do I."

Your weary tone spoke a frightening volume to Lee.

"Does that include me...Jo?"

Your soft voice became hesitant and shaky as you still wouldn't turn to face him.

"I...I don't know what to do anymore Lee. All these secrets are like an incurable cancer and every time I believe it's in remission because you tell me it is, the secrets metastasize and honestly, I don't know if that is even the worst part anymore because we both just accused each other of killing Elizabeth."

"Yep." Lee softly and sorrowfully agreed as he nodded, then turned to face your backside.

"The only difference is, I stood by you and tried to protect you over it by disposing of the blatant evidence I found in my car, but you...you allowed Luke to put doubts in your mind with his circumstantial bullshit and you turned on me. You're the only one who's ever truly known the real me and yet you actually believed I was capable of doing something so repulsive, that I am some monster."

You finally turned to face him with an anxious tone.

"Lee...I am sorry. I know in my heart you didn't hurt Liz and yes, I stupidly let Luke twist my thoughts. God, it's just that lately, your behavior has been so erratic and even violent and you won't tell me why!"

"What..so I'm not allowed to be human and have emotions that happen to include anger?? Everything that has been going on is why Jo and we all react differently to stress, you know that. The day you tried to justifiably attack Landy's sister, THAT was violent but I didn't believe that could make you a murderer. Look at the violent shit Luke has done. He deserved that vase to the head. And Carpenter deserved my fist in his face and Gordon deserved his ass handed to him."

"I get all of that. I do. Can't you put yourself in my shoes just for a minute about Liz though? You cut her seatbelt to mess with her and kept that from me and when you had finally learned the truth that she was responsible for Jacob's death, you and my brother plotted right in front of me about taking her out and framing Ethan and you refused to help her when she was brought to the ER. And now I find out you were off living some double life with Luke that involved blowing up terrorists and god knows what else. What was I supposed to believe?"

"Me Jo. You were supposed to believe me. You just said you believe in your heart that I didn't do it, so which is it Jo? Are you with me or are you against me because it's feeling a lot like you're still against me and if that's the case, then why are you even here?? Jesus Jo...what I did for you, you haven't even said a word about that. Ethan's clearly been watching us. He snuck in here before he killed Liz and took my car, my knife and your clothes, then after he took care of her, he planted everything, all in hopes of framing you because we both know he wants you away from me and yes Jo, at first I believed you had done it, but ONLY due to having some blackout break in reality from your pills and all that wine."

"Something still don't seem right Lee. Why didn't he just kill me then? Wouldn't that have been the easiest and fastest way to get me out of your life and.."

"Jo, stop, god, don't say this shit. Just the thought of him being in this house and anywhere near you......"

Lee paused and rubbed his palms over his face, releasing a stressed sigh, then continued.

"Besides the most important reason, that being that he knew I would come and kill him without hesitation...he still needed to cover his ass in her death because he knew he would be a number one suspect. We weren't supposed to find it Jo. I'm willing to bet Ethan was going to drop an anonymous tip to the police about the evidence and I honestly thought that was why Luke was here, so now, I'm also feeling something isn't right because no one has showed up. Regardless Jo, I risked everything for you, my career, my freedom, because that would all be gone if it were found out I destroyed all the evidence and I DID it to make it all go away for you and like some stupid school boy, I actually thought you'd be impressed."

"What I am is scared Lee. I understand why you did what you did and I DO appreciate it, I promise you, but you have still got to get rid of that knife. He killed her with it and it can be matched up to her wounds."

"I'll take care of it. It will never be found."

"And then what Lee? We just go on with our lives as if nothing ever happened? I mean, first of all, Luke is never going to give up. It's his job now and...."

Lee sarcastically snickered. "It's just his way to feel like he's a good person."

"God Lee, I just don't get it. When he came back for Landy, you and he seemed like really great friends, but with what I just overheard between you and my brother, how is that if Luke supposably set you up as you put it?"

Lee shook his head in frustration. "There's no supposably about it Jo. He did what he did and we were both just trying to move on from it, from that life. I just wanted to forget it and then he just shows back up here as if nothing ever happened and his presence brings back all those bad memories and all those feelings of having to be on guard every second. None of that life was ever supposed to involve you. I didn't hide it from you to be sneaky or deceitful. I'm not that person anymore and I don't want to be, but he brings it out of me and not only that, but I'm not oblivious to his desire of you either. I just want him to go back to where he came from and stay there, in the past. You and I were finally getting it right and he swoops in and fucks our forever all up and now here we are, yet once again. And I know Jo, I know that everything happening is not all because of him. I know it's me too and god, I am trying so hard to be the man you want me to be and that you deserve after all you have been through in the past, but all I have done is drag you through hell and let you down over and over again. You're this angel of light and I'm nothing but a devil of darkness."

Lee's voice had become choked up and if there was one thing that tugged at your heart strings, it was seeing him cry.

"Please don't speak about yourself that way." you compassionately said as you scooted over to him and rubbed his back.

"You're not evil baby. You just feel cornered and like no one is on your side and I cannot apologize enough for ever thinking you could have hurt Liz. All that murder plot talk with Jason was nothing but anger. Your fears had just been validated that she was responsible for Jacob's death and as far as not wanting to help her at the hospital is quite understandable. I overreacted about all that Lee. I know in my heart what a compassionate and kind person you are. It's one of the many reasons I fell for you, so fast and so damn hard. And as far as myself, I am certainly no angel. I have a dark side. You've seen it, especially around Megan. She brings something out of me just like Luke does to you. I don't want to be that person either so I get it. Now you though, you had every reason to believe I could have done it and what you did to protect me, the sacrifices you were willing to make, means everything to me. That is FAR from letting me down. I'm so sorry for how I reacted. So you know, I...I would have done the same for you...without hesitation."

You slid your hand down his bare arm and laced your fingers into his. Lee softly sighed and tried to smile as he then placed his other hand over the union.

"I look at you Jo and I...I just love you and it terrifies me. It terrifies me what I would do for you. I did not wait for you. I didn't even know you were coming. When you walked into my life, I didn't know it was you because I didn't know there WAS a you. You were never a list, a goal, an expectation, a dream, ok maybe you were a dream. You were a surprise, a gift, an adventure, a new beginning to a story I thought I would never have and I am scared to death of losing you and that you won't love me anymore if you know all of the things I've done. I'm scared of a world without you."

"You know I feel the same way about you Lee. It's patience and trust that I am running out of, not love. But...is love enough? Even for us? You keep lying to me and do understand why, but it doesn't make it right. Like you said, your past didn't have anything to do with me and I agree, but when it affects me, it does. It's affecting us Lee. I've looked past your secrets and forgiven you twice now and yet, here we are again. Lord knows I'm not strong enough to stay away from you. I've tried... but I'll have to find the strength Lee, because I won't do this anymore. I don't want to leave you, especially now with all of this and also with tomorrow being the one month anniversary of your father's passing and your birthday being four days away, but it's the third time now of being side swiped by your secrets and it's certainly no fucking charm. We have to trust each other. You have to trust ME and tell me what happened between you and Luke since it involves Peter...and it involves who you were and I want...I deserve to know all of you. Remember that time we danced in your other house and you looked right into my eyes and sang that song, All of Me, to me? You said you give me all of you. I thought you meant it. It's all or nothing Lee. Release this weight and let me help you carry it."

Lee kissed your hand and softly sighed as he gently rested his forehead on yours and gave you a tender eskimo kiss, then brought his sapphire eyes to yours.

"Of course I meant it. Let me show you. Let me make love to you. I need you Jo."

His warm, sweet breath over your mouth was driving you mad with desire and all you wanted to do was press your lips to his and tear his clothes off. Being this close to him was dangerous. You would always become puddy for him to shape and mold you just the way he wanted. You were a puppet on his strings. You were simply spellbound. Lee had healed all the hardships you endured before him, bringing you a peace you had never known and just a simple kiss to his bewitching lips, that alone had the power to render every part of you helpless, sucking your mind, body and soul right into his....but you couldn't give in to him. Not this time. As his lips lowered to yours, you regained control by softly but very reluctantly pushing him back before it was too late.

"Lee, please. No. Sex is not going to make this better or make this go away. Stop deflecting and tell me what happened."

Lee released an obvious sigh of frustration as he closed his eyes and lightly pursed his lips.

"I want to tell you baby. I do. I...I've just never spoken about it to anyone. As I said, I was just trying to bury it and move on. I certainly did not expect this to ever come up, especially now. Feeling cornered is an understatement. There's so much happening. SO much to deal with already. Can't we just do this another time Jo? I will tell you, I prom..."

You pulled your hand from his and stood right up in a huff.

"Don't you promise me anything! I don't believe your promises anymore Lee, because you break them, every single time. You swore to me you had told me everything, but then more dirty laundry always appears and to me, that is a lie...and now, you're making excuses and trying to fuck me to get out of telling me the truth. Putting it off is just making this worse. There's never a right time Lee. You just need to do it. You need to trust me. I'm not going to leave because of your past, but I WILL leave if you can't be honest. I am sorry you feel backed against a wall but it's now or never Lee. I love you more than anything in this world but I am so over this!!"

Lee stood up too and in his anger, he said something he shouldn't have.

"So, it's your way or the highway. Is that it?? Then just go if you want Jo. You would clearly be better off anyways. I said I would tell you and I meant it, but in my own time. I don't like being forced. I'm not ready. Take it or leave it."

"Wow. Well...ok then. Guess I'll leave it. Maybe I WILL be better off because CLEARLY you refuse to change or even try to. You know what? I'm done. I need to go see my mother, see if I still have an apartment and try to find Dave. I'll get my things later."

Lee watched in shock as you whirled out of the room and then he raced down the stairs behind you, pleading for you not to go, for he never thought you would choose that option.

"Jo wait!"

"Wait for what Lee?" you snapped as you tugged your leggings up and slipped your boots on. "You just told me to go."

"I didn't mean it like that. I said take it or leave it. I gave you a choice."

"And I chose! Just like you did."

You grabbed your purse, took out your keys and headed for the door, but not without Lee stepping in front of you.

"Yeah...and quite easily too. So that's just it?? Fuck forever? Jo don't do this. Please. Everything that you want to know, it's not just some quick and simple story to tell. It's dark, it's traumatizing and it's terrifying.

"THIS is dark, traumatizing and terrifying. I'm tired Lee. I'm so fucking tired. Even if you tell me now or tell me later, it will just be half of it, just like it always is, although you will swear to me that you told me everything and then I'll find out the rest later, not by you but by accident and I'm just over it. I don't want to do this anymore. I want a normal relationship and this is far from normal and it's a perfect example of why people put walls up. To protect ourselves and I stupidly let mine down for you. Not anymore. I'm rebuilding it. Now get out of my way Lee."

"Jo. Don't go. Please. Don't leave me. Let me fix this."

"You can't. I don't believe a word you say anymore. I don't believe I would even know what I know if it weren't for overhearing you because I don't believe you were ever going to tell me."

"Ok, that is not true. You don't even understand. I was going to tell you. I had to... or I would have never been able to ask...."

Lee paused with a hard sigh and desperate eyes that quickly wandered from yours.

"Ask? Ask what Lee??"

His hands went to his hips, his head lowered and his eyes closed.

"I...I can't...not yet. Not like this."

"Oh my god....I can't even right now. Goodbye Sam."

As you stormed past him and slammed the door shut behind you, Lee stood dazed and motionless, softly answering your question.

"Ask you to marry me."

You jogged down to the garage where your Monte Carlo was being concealed from the bar thugs and off you went, without a care if they found you. If they did, you would just tell them your car had been stolen and you just got it back. If they didn't believe you and tried something, then you'd give them an attitude adjustment on top of their heads with your Kubotan, Hank Williams Jr. style, just like you did to Luke which dropped the hunky herculean like a sack of potatoes.

For the entire twenty minute drive to your mom's in silence, your arms were locked straight on the wheel as you focused on your breathing so you wouldn't have a panic attack. Everything had escalated so quickly in only a few hours. One minute, you and Lee were dancing in the kitchen and sharing breakfast together, basking in the afterglow following a beautiful night of making love and the next, you couldn't get away from him fast enough. Did you overreact? Should you have stayed and let him speak? You tried this once before, leaving him, which that lasted a whole hot minute and it changed absolutely nothing, so how could you, would you, do it this time when all you wanted to do was turn around and run back into his arms?

The visit with your mom was nerve-racking in itself between trying to hide your emotions over Lee and her trying to hide hers over the horrific ordeal of finding a butchered and still breathing Elizabeth the evening prior and then there was your sister. Your mom informed you that Megan hadn't come home last night and wasn't answering her phone. Of course you couldn't have cared less and wished she'd never come back, but you still tried to make your mom feel better and reminded her that this was not out of the ordinary for Megan to do. It made you think of what Luke told you, that she had actually came to the police station of her own free will and told him that she believed Ethan took Blaise because he thinks he is her father. You had to wonder what would make her turn on him like that. Did she finally see what a dangerous piece of shit he was? Speaking of Blaise, it was now time to go see Craig and you dreaded that almost as much as you dreaded large bodies of water.

As you drove to your apartment, all you could think about was that poor little girl and prayed she was alright wherever she was. For her sake, for Craig's and even for yours, because you knew what Craig's reaction would be when he found out, if he didn't already know, that you knew Liz dropped Blaise off with Angel and you didn't tell him. You also knew he would believe you did it intentionally, which was in no way true whatsoever, to get back at him for not telling you Jason was alive. The guilt was unbearable. How could you have been so self absorbed?

You parked the car and tried calling Dave again before you went into the lion's den and once again, no answer, so you left another voicemail.

"Dave, seriously. Are you THAT mad at me?? If you are, then fine, I can deal with that but at least just text me and tell me you are alright, or text Britt if you don't want to talk to me ok? I'm so worried about you. There's things you need to know about Liz if you don't already and...I really need my friend right now. Ok...bye..."

As you got out of the car, you could hear the muffled sound of music coming from the complex and the only one who blared it like that was Craig when he was working in his art studio. Granted, it was a small complex with only four other tenants but If you could hear it, then so could they and you had to wonder how they could deal with it, BUT, at least his taste in music was right up your alley and when you entered the building, the artist's distinct voice could not be mistaken. You always loved a good David Bowie tune....and this one seemed rather fitting for what you walked in on. How relevant it was for you as well.

Upon nearing his wide open studio door, the strong odor of paint and sweet cigars stung your nose. You weren't sure what was worse as you walked in. The smell or the vision of him lying on a wheeled platform, desperately engrossed in smearing yellow paint over a giant canvas with his bare hands, silver rings on and all.

The closer you got as you walked up behind him undetected, it was clear that he was not only drunk as you glanced down at his glass of blood red wine and two empty wine bottles on the floor, but he was in a very deep state of despair. He appeared as if he had just rolled out of bed, although he didn't look as if he had even slept at all as your astonished eyes rolled over him from head to toe. His dark hair was wildly awry as was his normally groomed facial hair and his feet were as bare as his revealing bare bottomed butt crack which you highly doubted he gave two fucks about considering anyone could walk in just as you did.

You now had the problem of getting his attention without startling him, for you knew why he was in the condition he was in because the last time you had just walked in unannounced, you were accidentally almost struck with a can of blue paint due to his fit of rage, and right now, he looked like a ticking time bomb ready to explode. With all that taken into consideration, you decided to just pull the plug on the music and hope he didn't pull a gun on you this time as you tensed up from the thought.

Craig quickly sat up at the sound of silence, gave you a curious glance over and then the only thing he reached for was his paint covered glass that he picked up by the rim and drank from after asking you "what's up?"

"Hey." you softly answered. "Sorry to just barge in but...I...I have been trying to reach you. Are...are you alright?"

"Well now. Is that somewhat of a rhetorical question? Do I look alright? Unless you're here to tell me that you know where my daughter is, then that would be a big fat no. Fancy seeing you here just Josie. I thought you hated my guts?"

Judging by his well noted inebriated sarcasm, you could tell it was going to be a walk on egg shells type of conversation and you still weren't exactly sure if he knew that you knew Blaise had been right within his grasp before she vanished into thin air. You figured he would have instantly called you out if he knew, but Craig didn't seem to be the type that got straight to the point about things. You had the distinct feeling he was the type that liked to toy with people like a cat does with it's prey. An intimidation tactic per se and it was surely working, so you decided to just come clean and face his claws.

"No. I..I don't know where she is and I...I don't hate you. Not even a little bit but you may not like me so much. Craig I...about Blaise...I need to tell you something that I should have much sooner. I just...I didn't know...how to."

There was a brief silence as he peered up at you and you could see the curiosity growing in his dilated blues.

"Not even a little bit huh? Hmmph. Must be pretty bad, whatever you did, if you're worried about me not liking you after what I did to you. Alright then love, I'll bite. Is my curiosity going to kill the cat? You seem pretty skittish right now."

The fact that he basically just read your mind regarding the cat references made you gulp and then it just got worse when you couldn't find the words.

"Cat....got your tongue just Josie?"

"Ok, please just stop with the cat thing already."

"Mrrrow!! Feisty one are we?" he shot off as he grinned and raised his hand, making a swiping gesture with his fingers.

"Craig! Stop it and listen before I lose my nerve."

"Jeesh. I think you need this wine as bad as I do. Have a drink. It'll calm your nerves. There's another bottle in the fridge. Would you be a doll and fetch it for us?"

"It's....10 a.m. Craig."

"Yeah and your point is? There's no time restrictions for drinking in your own home and even if there were, I don't follow the rules. I make them. It's 5 o'clock all the time in my world."

"Fine. Whatever."

You went and got the wine and a clean glass for yourself and him too because you couldn't stand watching him put his lips on wet paint.

"Here. Wipe your hands off." you commanded as you handed him a towel and opened the wine.

"Yes mommy." he chuckled and did as you told him. "Now. Have a seat and let's hear it."

"I..I'd rather stand."

"Suit yourself then. Cheers."

Craig raised his glass and knocked it all back in three gulps, then gazed up at you with a happy grin as you took a nervous sip.

"What the hell was that? Only a mouse could get drunk on that. Come on now, down the hatch."

You felt like a mouse alright, caught in a mouse trap as your anxiety began to slowly choke you. Enough was enough. You downed the wine and blurted out what you did.

"Craig..I..I knew Blaise was at Angel's before she was taken and I should have told you but I didn't because I was dealing with Jason and some other things."

His reaction was just as you had expected it would be. Shock, which was written all over his exhausted face.

"Is that so?"

"Y..yes." you softly squeaked and then began rambling. "And I..I am SO SO sorry. I was at Lee's and I saw Liz drop her off and I..I did try to call you. I texted too but you didn't answer or reply and then some other things happened and I...I had to go meet Jason and then I..."

"And then you just forgot about my daughter?? Does that sound about right? Because she didn't go missing until 48 fucking hours later. Did you forget where I live too?? but suddenly, you remembered today??"

In his aggravation, Craig purposely picked up the paint covered glass and filled it to the rim with more wine, then took a hefty gulp.

"Craig, so much happened. Obviously, Liz was attacked and then later she died and.."

He cut you off again as his agitation increased.

"And yet I still did not hear from you until now and now that I have, all I hear are bullshit excuses."

"I mean, that's two fucking days Jo. You were certainly able to go meet Jason but not come here. Last time I checked, your brother is a big boy who can handle his own problems, which is exactly what he's selfishly doing after all I did for him, but a 4 year old child is helpless Jo! I'm sure you slept too right? All snuggy in your bed, playing doctor with the doctor, all the while that piece of shit Ethan was plotting to kidnap Blaise. I even tried to protect you from him, right after you slapped me stupid and told me you never wanted to see my face again. Eh, that don't even matter. What matters is Blaise and it could have been prevented if I HAD KNOWN that she was merely 50 fucking feet away from you and so here I am now, daughterless and drunk. You know what I've been doing in my spare time since I have exhausted all my resources in locating her? It's like she has fallen off the face of the earth."

Craig put on some old cheap flip flops and stood up, then pointed down at his painting.

"You see that? I did what you said to try. I used Blaise as some inspiration to try and cure this painter's block I've been dealing with for so long. Did you know she likes bees? So I attempted to paint her a giant fucking bumble bee for when I get her back, or should I say IF I get her back, no thanks to you and certainly none to that dunderheaded detective who shares Ethan's rancid blood. Audacious British fuck writing me into his little black book as a person of interest in Lizzie's death. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a monster, even if I was raised by one."

"Craig, speaking of Cyrus, he happens to be one of the other problems we have been dealing with. Things that have nothing to even do with this. So much more has happened too and I don't expect you to understand that but I swear to you, I never meant for anything to happen to Blaise. Please...please believe me."

"I'll tell you what I believe. I believe you did this intentionally. What a great way to stick it to me for not telling you your brother was alive huh? Checkmate. You got me good Jo. Gold stars for you. Hit me right where it hurts the most. You're right. I don't like you so much anymore Miss March. I'll have your last months deposit ready for you in a few days and then I expect you out by the end of the month. Now get out of my sight. Good day."

"Craig come on. I would never put your child's life in danger just to get back at you or for any reason!"

As the acrimonious kiwi walked away, completely ignoring you, there was spillage of the yellow paint in his already cluttered pathway and the combination of flimsy flips flops worn by someone sober or tipsy, slick concrete and liquids do not mix.

Down he went as one foot slipped right out from under him and there he laid, stunned and flat out on his back with wine all over his face.

"Craig oh my god!" you gasped as you quickly but carefully made your way to him. "Are you alright??!!"

"There's that question again so I'll answer with the same answer. Do I look alright???" he snapped and attempted to get up, only to slip again and land on his butt.

"Here. Let me help you."

You reached down to him but he smacked your hand away.

"I might be a teeny bit sauced right now, but I'm not an invalid and if I were, I certainly wouldn't want or need any help from the likes of you Jo March."

"Fine." you huffed and then smirked at him. "Good luck then since you're now sitting in a giant smeared puddle of paint. I suppose if you crawl like the petulant child you're being, ass crack and all, you could make it out of your precarious predicament unscathed."

He glared up at you as he thought for a moment about demeaning himself even more than he already had by doing as you said.

"Fine." he also huffed and jerked his sticky hand out to you.

You took his hand and began to pull. As he pushed himself up with his other hand, his foot slipped out again and this time, he pulled you right down on top of his chiseled chest.

"Well now. Now who's in a precarious predicament Einstein? Now we're both covered in paint and not to mention fucked, just not in the way I would like." he boasted with a cheesy smirk as you both were nose to nose and damn near mouth to mouth. So close that his facial hair tickled your upper lip and his hot sweet wine breath made you drunk in a way that it shouldn't have as you and he stared into each other's eyes.

You quickly broke the trance he had you in and pushed your way up off of him.

"Come on Craig. Get up so I can leave. Now is clearly not the time to talk to you."

You reached down again, but made sure you were in a good stance to pull him up this time. Once he was securely on his feet, you handed him another towel to wipe the wine from his face and when he was finished, things became a bit awkward and silent for a moment as he fidgeted and fought having eye contact with you.

"I uh...I think I broke your glasses." you mumbled as you glanced at the black framed spectacles hanging from the frayed neckline of his knit shirt.

His head snapped down to look at them and then his defenses were right back up.

"Oh...well, no biggie. What's one more thing you've broken? I've got more, although... I don't have another daughter. I'm going to bed. See yourself out."

This time, Craig safely made his way back to his apartment entrance without a single glance back at you and then you quietly left. When you returned to your own apartment down the hall, you immediately took a long hot shower to decompress and cried your eyes out the entire time. Once you were finished, you sat down with a chilled bottled of wine you had in the fridge to try and calm your nerves. The conversation with Craig had went just as you imagined it in your head many times and he had every right to be angry with you. You should have went straight to him and met Jason later. Blaise would be safe and sound with Craig right now and you were the reason she was not, and for that, you were going to make it your mission to find her yourself and bring her home. You didn't have a cue as to how, but you were to try and make things right.

But of course, while trying to think about where to start, your mind betrayed you as all your thoughts went right back to Lee, but you knew they would once you were no longer distracted. How in the hell were you going to stay away from him this time if you couldn't even sit still without thinking of him??

The one glass of wine that early in the morning had caught up with you and made you somewhat sleepy and it wasn't long before you dozed off on the couch without even realizing it. Meanwhile, in a small town called Grandview, 15 miles from Salem, Dr. Dave had just returned home from a much needed getaway.

As he sat at his kitchen table, drinking a beer, reading your texts and listening to your voicemails, he contemplated calling you until he heard a noise in the living room. Dave lived alone and had no pets, so it was either his older but newly remodeled house still settling or....it was what is usually was. A ghost. And he had the gift to see and speak to them, although he would not call it a gift, but a curse and the only ones who knew were you and his sister Britt.

When he got to the living room doorway, there sat a little boy, about 5 years old with sandy blonde hair and big blue eyes, whom he had never seen before and he just looked at Dave until he spoke to him.

"Hey there. What's your name?"

"Jacob."

"Hello Jacob. I'm Dave."

"I know."

"Alright. Can you tell me why you're here?"

"She needs help."

"Who...needs help?"

"The girl at the train yard. I saw her. The bad man hurt her."

"The train yard??"

"Where mommy was hurt. Over there."

Jacob pointed out the window and Dave then realized he was referring to Train Town. It used to be a public attraction, about a mile away by a state park, but it was shut down many years ago and was now basically a train car graveyard.

"Who's your mommy Jacob?"

"Elizabeth. She died and rode the train."

Dave had to collect himself, for he now knew he was talking to Liz and your Lee's son.

"Ok. I heard about that. I am very sorry Jacob, but...who is the girl you said is hurt? Is she there now?"

"My new and favorite mommy's sister."

"You mean Josie? Her...sister?"

"Mmmhmm."

Dave sprung to his feet and called you, but got no answer so he called your mother Margaret and she confirmed that Megan had not been home since yesterday and that she could not reach her.

"Jacob, can you show me where she is at? It is a really big place."

"Yep. Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Jacob hopped out of his chair and ran out the front door and vanished like the typical fugacious ghost as Dave stood in a transient spell of shock. As his mind resumed focus, he then grabbed his medical bag, raced to his truck and sped off without a thought of the danger that could be waiting for him.

@redeemer46

#lee pace #lee pace fanfiction #code blue #craig parker #david conrad #love stories #dark stories #dark fiction #drama #angst #murder mystery #ghosts #supernatural encounters

[mintacle]

Jason Todd being girl-coded, you've opened my eyes! You are so right and suddenly a lot of things about him make sense (including why I like him so much), especially with how the narrative treats him (right down to turning a morally complex character into a straight-up card-carrying villain who eats puppies, ironically right around the time they did that to another female character, Talia). Jason is even written how I (a girl) tend to write angry victim power fantasy female characters. Like yes babygirl, scream and rage against the heavens about how unfair it all is!

I remember a post calling Jason "the Punisher for girls" except... yeah he kinda is. The Punisher is a male power fantasy with all that implies, while Jason is such a girl power fantasy and written with a lot of the usual negative narrative bias female characters usually get.

Except if we're honest and look past the superficial similarities of lethal force and guns, the narrative role of Batman is far more like the Punisher than Jason. Jason's role is the Punisher's daughter. Jason is if Lisa came back and was angry after what happened and big parent man Frank had to try to keep his (hysterical emotional angry-like-a-girl) daughter from crossing his arbitrary lines because she was going "too far" and tragically, he's unable to "save" her from herself and he must Move On while his child gets locked up or lies dying behind him (I can seriously imagine exactly how a proper Lisa-is-back plot would go down it's crazy how similar it'd be to Jason's return).

And another way Jason is girl-coded is that he's mentored by Talia, a woman. In comics you don't see male characters mentored by female ones often. Sometimes they can be taught specific skills by them for a brief time (like Tim and Shiva) but Talia's role as Jason's primary mentor and caretaker for several years is pretty unusual in comics.

True!! I'm glad my posts resonated with you so much. :)

I don't really know anything about the Punisher so I can't add my opinion to the mix, but other people will probably recognize your point.

But! On the subject of female characters mentoring male characters @benbamboozled made a great post actually about how women are seen as Having A Specific Skill or Expertise to teach whereas men are mentors For All, or For Life. And yeah Jason does break the rule absolutely! But we also don't get to see to much of that on page. He is in Talia's care for years, but other than Lost Days and utrh we just don't get to see these two interact. I either made a post or drafted and forgot about it, how DC won't publish Talia and Jason working together because it is vital to DC's agenda of keeping them marginalized that they each be alone nomatter how much reason and history they have to be in more frequent and meaningful contact.

At the same time, we really only see Talia caring for Jason in a motherly context, she isn't cast quite in the role of a mentor, rather sending him around to teachers than teaching him herself. It's a step in the right direction, but the fact of any mentoring and most interactions occuring off-screen, as well as their relationship being ignored later, or ret-conned like in the utrh movie where Talia was kind of replaced with Ra's.

For me a lot of Jason's girl-coded aspect arises from his opposition to Bruce who embodies patriarchal ideals. To some extent Jason is in the role of every person who has been let down by the patriarchy. The system we were told is for our benefit as well and which has let us down. It's about how we were let down by this world we thought was fair when we were smaller and trusted to be protected. It's about how our own father's have let us down, even if the time we last thought of them as protectors might have been many, many years ago.

None of these experiences are exclusionary to women either. I am not a woman, but I am queer. And I have been let down both by the idea that my father could ever be my protector instead of the one I needed protection from. And I have been let down by the idea I used to have of a world that would give me a voice without me having to prove myself every step of the way.

The need I have for more interaction between Talia and Jason is so much about two people villainized and victimized by the same patriarch-favoring narrative bonding and rising to challenge and upset the status quo. While I am aware that it will never happen and that DC already left Winnick a lot of leeway to have made Talia play such a type of role at all, logically it should be what follows.

Jason is girl-coded, but he also drinks his respect-women juices.

#jason todd #ask answered #I held back bc I could have gone on and on and on #thank you anon for sharing your thoughts!!