#and not the gill kind bc she was a motherfucker

[phantombmoll]

#The fic that didn't have a name has a name now! Also Is it dark? Yeah Is it hella dark? Maybe I don't think I'll have to put trigger warnings on this because it's more about Peggy and Ted, the investigation is just the thing that brings them together in the first place annnnnnddddddd I think this fic should average at about ten chapters or so when finished, maybe more though. I'm just kind of letting the words and characters carry me along at this point. Reignite - available on AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/30941900/chapters/79329064

#Ted Hastings x OC - Part Two

“You moved in here?” Ted asked, looking around as Peggy fiddled about in her handbag. She brought out a key chain that seemed stuffed. It jangled as she searched for the right one and a smile twitched at the corners of Ted’s mouth. Hardly inconspicuous.

“No, no it’s just-” Peggy paused sliding the key into the lock. “If someone’s watching the house I’d rather them watch this one.” She admitted, stepping over the threshold. A lamp was already on and Ted suspected timers to make it appear someone was still here. Ted wasn’t sure what he’d expected to find, maybe more clutter, something like hoarders. Newspapers taped to walls. The hallway was clear though. A stretching corridor that ran past the stairs and to the back of the house where Ted could see the kitchen.

His timer theory was confirmed as Peggy turned right and he spotted the plug in the wall.

The house was just big enough for its purpose. A living/dining area with a long polished table to the right. The corridor and stairs took the middle of the house and to the left was Peggy’s fathers office and then the kitchen.

On stepping in the open living/dining space looked, for a better word normal. Bookshelves, a wide telly that Ted imagined the footie looked great on. Nik nacks and pictures littered the walls. A glass bookcase contained memorabilia. As Ted turned back towards the wall the door he’d come through was on, a mosaic of paperwork blossomed. Peggy turned over a few paintings and then to Ted’s surprise pushed a bookcase on wheels out of the way revealing more.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph you weren’t wrong about there being a lot here.” Ted breathed. His eyes didn’t know where to land first.

“I’ll get you a drink.” Peggy said her heels clipping along the polished wooden floor until she must have removed them.

Ted moved towards the wall starting to glance over the patchwork of paperwork in front of him. There were, he noted, albeit hidden, gruesome crime scene pictures. Markers on them indicated they were copies, probably from Peggy’s fathers legal practice.

There were symbols circled in red pen, missing persons posters, autopsies, grainy cctv print outs, newspaper clippings. Things were highlighted and connected but for now Ted had no real idea what he was looking at. There was a face he recognised though. Tommy Hunter. A red thread made its way from an outer circle of photographs to another man Ted didn’t recognise.

“Here.” Peggy returned, handing him a whisky in a glass tumbler.

“You remember how I like it.” Ted said, glancing down.

“And what you like.” Peggy nodded towards the glass, encouraging him to take a sip. In her hand she had what Ted suspected was cider.

“Is that your mother?” Ted asked, leaning in towards a picture on the board.

“She’s what got this whole thing started. Well Richard was.”

“Yeah well your da never took that divorce very well.”

“Yeah but that’s not why this started. Richard was creepy, as were his sons.” Peggy rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably and Ted watched her for a minute. “She’s in the Bahamas now I think, mum, some business tycoon called Henry or something.”

“How many times has she been married now?” Ted asked with a brow raised.

“If she marries this one it’ll be six and honestly I’m surprised the police haven’t been onto her yet because it gets a bit black widowy after the third.” Peggy chuckled.

“God that’s not what all this is is it?” Ted asked, gesturing to the wall. Peggy laughed and shook her head but when she looked up at the wall her face fell a little. Something went out behind her eyes and Ted felt it down in his gut. He knew that look. It was the look of someone who knew about evils, knew people were still being hurt but was having to play a waiting game. He knew that look because he’d worn that look himself.

“My dad heard a rumour before he retired. A rumour about Richard Bank’s grandson. A party that got out of hand, all the gossip said it was drugs and violence and it just needed to be hushed up and it was. Dad found out later they paid off journalists, doctors, a few nurses. Which is nothing major in the grand scheme of things. Rich kids causing trouble then parents throwing money at it, is nothing new. Then just after retirement he overheard at an event that Banks' son, Andrew, was in trouble again. Something to do with a party.”

“Anyway dad, put it down to rumour mongering but things kept coming up and he ended up doing a little digging. He was just curious. Cut to a few years later. Must have been about 8 years ago now. Dad was doing some pro-bono work, an old lawyer that Dad had grown up knowing. The guy starts babbling incoherently, asking if Lucy’s okay, if she’s alright, that he didn’t mean to hurt her. Before dad can get his phone out the nurses come in, say something about watching Dracula and my dad is shuffled out. Dad said he couldn’t get it out of his head though. He couldn’t get out of his head how distressed his old friend had looked. So he started pulling on a thread and this is what he wound up with.” Peggy gestured to the papers around them. “It’s like a club Ted, and they hold ‘pleasure’ parties and gatherings and god knows what else.”

Peggy inhaled, then took a drink. How many times must she have gone over this and still the thought made her sick. It was then Ted knew something much worse than just drugs and gangsters was coming.

“It’s not about power, well, I suppose it is but not in the sense of what I’ve seen before. It’s not about money or blackmail or drugs. It’s about blood and pain and leaving humanity at the door.” Peggy paused for a minute and closed her eyes, holding her drink to her like it might save her from whatever was running through her head.

“From what we can gather it’s an anything goes situation. Whatever you want, they’ll get it. Whatever you want to do or try or indulge in, they will give it to you. You give them a fee and you walk into a room where anything goes and you can call yourself a god.”

“And I know what you’re thinking. People like Tommy Hunter and his friends have parties like that all the time. You hear about it from the poor victims but this isn’t some side operation this is the whole operation Ted. All they do is specialise in these parties. Doctors that stitch people up, doctors that forge death certificates, nurses that get medical grade drugs, policemen who falsify documents, lawyers that help keep things in check, funeral homes that burn bodies. It’s a business. A unique one of a kind business with enough people pulling strings and taping mouths shut that the wider world still hasn’t found out about it.”

“Your da thought someone at the firm was involved?” Ted stated more than asked.

“And he started pulling files.”

“And fell down the rabbit hole.” Ted said the skepticism he’d felt in the bar seeming to leach out of him. “I’m going to need another drink.” He said slowly before finishing the whiskey in his glass.

#ted hastings #fml #idek #this is a thing and I don't know why but here we go #line of duty #here is a thing I will start writing then stop at some point and disappoint myself and the three people who read it #listen #idc though #tumblr is my happy place where I can be all #listen here's some fanfic I've written #and it's cathartic to throw this shit out into the ether #also I love Ted m #he deserves a bit of romance #and not the gill kind bc she was a motherfucker #so #here we go #will I make this tropey as fuck YES #will I use stupid things like making them have to pretend to be married at somepoint.... maybe..... #I dunno yet #I'm still figuring shit out

[lilvirgoprince]

Robin, Aqualad and Artemis redesign from the Young Justice animated series! Im thinking about doing all of them also Artemis and Robin are a little messier bc I did them a couple months ago when I just finished my rewatch. Notes about each under the cut! 

Robin:  - first choice: I got rid of the toe shoes, Im sorry who thought it was a good idea to give him toe shoes?? I have him with shoes that elude more to an acrobat  - thats a general note too: I tried to keep the elements that felt acrobat-y and also the more “boyish” elements- like the short sleeves those are cute - overall the original look I didnt feel I needed to change much? I just wanted to make it look more sleek? I love the clunky gloves in the original though! also the cape!!   - weird choice but I removed the little R which didnt really have much purpose other then making things less crowded but I could probably put it back   - Im trans so I say hes trans, there isnt much I changed for that except I figured I’d shift to be an outfit that would make the body more masculine? basically thinking about what I think when Im getting dressed   - idk I also made the cape “sharper” or gave it more of a distinct cape? this is in part to contrast my Miss Martian redesign but also to allude to the bat of course    - his gloves still have the same function as they did before with being able to project his little screen thing bc that was cool!   - I gave him messier hair then I would’ve otherwise to give that contrast between Robin- Robin out of unifrom- and Dick Grayson (I have a Masks ttrpg character that is a Janus so that was just on my mind)   - gotta keep the mischievous grin (peter pan ass looking motherfucker) and the domino mask!  Aqualad:  - did yall know that electric eels dont have gills! yeah thought in his original design he is kind of supposed to have an eel vibe to it? I tried to lean into that more (also for eel facts I was like rapidly texting my roommate whose majoring in Ocean Science about how confusing and strange they are, he was helpful lol) - the eel shifts can be seen in the way I made his look more “stripe-y” (with the chest part) and adding in the blue to contrast  - he didnt have a mask before and I get that isnt too important but I thought giving him like a “paint” mask might be fun and look cool, SPEAKING OF PAINT... - with the eel choice I decided that it might be cool for his arm marking to be like electroconducive paint or whatever idk Im majoring in ecology not majoring in engineering or physics (im also looking at his original design and feeling like a dumbass for him no longer having eels on his hands :’()  - im mlm and so I think he should be mlm from the start, just a cool older gay for robin to look up too, that isnt important to his design but I think its important in my heart - I gave him shoes, I took on seminar on parasitology this semester and his bare feet just make me so worried about him getting an infection- they are shoes for swimming though! (or he can just pop them off if he wants to use his... toe fins- hes running around on land though he needs shoes)  - w/ the hair I get his atlantian but I know that giving a darker skinned character light eyes and hair to imply “magic” or whatever isn’t a great trope so I wanted to give him a different hair style but I also thought the idea that he bleached them just cause he wanted to might be cool. He also has brown eyes (whoops noticing I left the rest of the eye blue though)   - he gets little earrings  - I didnt like that he has the U shape as like a little belt so I decided to encorporate it into the rest of the outfit- his look is also based off a wet suit!!  - trying to think if Im forgetting anything.... OH I gave him a swimmers body too!! so broader shoulders from swimming!!  Artemis:  - like Aqualad she bleaches her hair too, I like to think she does it in like a rebellious teen way? idk maybe her and Aqualad can bond by them doing it together  - I took away the completely low wasted pants... idk they just felt a little weird if that makes sense...   - I also made her top more of a sports bra, then instead of just slapping and arrow on there I made it apart of the top  - her old mask lowkey felt strange to me??? I was talking w a friend and she pointed at that it feels like a cheesy bank robber mask? (like ski cap with holes) which maybe was intentional to like... ellude to her family and that “untrustwothy”ness??? idk I decided to make it cover her mouth instead to lean into that- it also connected to how both Cheshire and Sportsmaster have full face masks (I havent finished my KF and SB redesign but I dont think theyll have masks that cover the mouths so it singles her out)  - also the part of her mask that pulls her hair back is now like traditional art of the Goddess Artemis which I feel was under utilized in her original design? thats also why I gave her a cool braid instead of a pony tail! (I also feel like its a little more practical idk does it make her seem horse girl-ish)- I also made her boots distantly resemble thoughs  -shes also trans, bc like Robin I say she is- also it’d be funny for her and robin to bond over being “the team non-metahumans, who are both trans and both love Wally West”   - On that note thought I tried to make her look different from Robin and I also gave her nice abs bc she has cropped clothing which nicely show it off  - body type wise shes a little lean and lanky  - I got rid of her weird belt replacing it with a belt that repeats the overall triangle/arrow motif repeating throughout her fit    - gloves function as those little arm guard things you have if you are doing archery- I tried to make those look more functioning also cooler bc they kind of just gave me a strange vibe in the original  I think thats all I have! idk I feel like this might flop but TBH Im having alot of fun w it and Ive been talking to an old friend whose watching it for the first time which makes me really happy! Also these arent to say the original designs are bad I just wanted to take my own crack at reworking them!- OH wait- heres my height chart for these three, Aqualad and Artemis are the same height around 5′10″-6′0″ and robin is around 5′3″-5′5″ he was originally taller then I looked at my line up and was like “shoot everyone is too tall” so I adjusted him so I could bump down Meghan, Wally, and Zantanna a little without making everyone too short (if that makes sense) 

#young justice #young justice animated #yj #robin #robin young justice #dick grayson #artemis #artemis yj #artemis crook #aqualad #artemis young justice #aqualad yj #aqualad young justice #kaldur'ahm #kaldur #dc #dc comics #superheros #idk what other tags to add lol #redesign #my art #also #my opinions #lol

[phantombmoll]

## I don't know what this is, I don't know where it came from but here's a thing I just randomly started and will probably continue. I don't even know where it's going yet apart from some romance becccaaauuuusssseeeeee..... yeahhhh.... anyway

it doesn't even have a name yet hahaha! ##

Ted Hastings x OC - Part One

"I don't think this is the drink I thought it was going to be." Ted said watching Peggy's face as she took in their surroundings.

"Ted, that ball is well and truly in your court. I'm not the sort to come begging. Besides if you want that kind of drink I expect somewhere a bit nicer." Peggy replied taking a sip from her drink and locking eyes with him for a moment.

Ted held her gaze before he sighed, shifted in his seat and wrapped his hands around the pint in front of him.

"I am sorry about your dad." He broke the silence. "He asked to see me, I was caught up with something but I thought he had more time."

"He did." Peggy said and from the tone in her voice Ted realised this definitely wasn't the drink he'd thought it was.

It must have been at least 10 years since the Ackley Sens case, 10 years since they'd worked closely. 10 years since he'd been tempted but not acted on feelings that had been growing. The kind of intense warmth that starts as a campfire but left uncontrolled could burn down the whole forest.

Years moved between them before he ended up needing her help with something. It was after Roisin had officially left him, when he'd still been residing in the space of hoping to get his marriage back on track.

Peggy had asked him for a drink once. Ted had turned her down.

They'd almost kissed once, late in the office. Ted had moved away. Peggy had let him go. No questions, no protests. Just let it go and continued working like nothing had happened.

Now here they were. She'd asked him at the funeral if he wanted a drink and Ted had agreed. Even without the warm embers they were still friends. Though he couldn't deny he'd hoped for something more.

Peggy glanced around before leaning forward. She was an archivist at the station. One of the best around. Ted remembered her starting, only getting the job because her old man had been a barrister with some sway, keeping it because she was excellent at it. Over the years she'd become one of AC-12's go to people, especially when it came to historical data.

"When my dad retired he started working on something." She said wrapping her hands tightly around the glass in front of her. "Historic, given I have access to most files that come through the station, especially historic ones. I was helping him."

"Peggy I don't know if we should-"

"I haven't done anything illegal. Like my dad would let me." Peggy stated. "I have an eidetic memory Ted. Which means I never took anything home, I never gave my dad anything, I never let him see any files." Peggy swallowed. "There's a club of men and women, dating back to the early forties, in positions of authority that are using the system for their own gains."

"Peggy-"

"Police Officers included. Doctors, lawyers, firemen, police officers, care workers the list goes on. Money, power, sex, all the usual motivations. They are a close knit group. Secret handshakes, messages, symbols, forged documents-"

"Peggy." Ted said more firmly that time. "Now I had a great deal of respect for your father but everyone knows he wasn't well. His refusal to admit that to himself seems to have got him killed."

"This isn't some wild conspiracy theory." Peggy swallowed, frustration etched along her face.

"Then why didn't he bring it to AC-12 if he suspected Coppers were involved?" Ted leant forward his voice quiet but firm and now he was the one checking around them.

"My dad was a lawyer for a long time. He worked with you enough times to know as soon as he brought it to you or AC-12 and it became official, the cat would be out of the bag. This is a big operation and he wanted to get all the evidence he could before he took it anywhere. Especially given the nature of the people with access to this information."

"Peggy, do you know how this sounds?"

"I'm perfectly aware Ted. I've seen it myself though."

"You put your career at risk for the ramblings of a man with dementia and now you're bringing it to me expecting what?"

"He didn't have dementia, he had a tumour Ted and he was of sound mind. I haven't put my career at risk, everything I've done has been above board. I haven't accessed anything I'm not supposed to, I haven't been through evidence I'm not allowed to see."

Ted watched her for a moment before rubbing his forehead. There was a conviction in Peggy's face that made his gut turn with the feeling that this was a thread worth pulling at. He needed to be careful though. It could just be the case that she believed her father implicitly and why wouldn't she. The last time Ted had spoken to him he'd seem fine, cognizant, appearances could be deceptive though.

"He didn't know who he could trust. I think there was more going on then he even told me. I think someone else found that out."

"Peggy do you know what you're saying?"

"I'm saying I think someone killed my dad, I'm saying there's a ring of criminals acting from some of the most influential places within society and I'm saying that some of those are or were serving police officers." Peggy paused. "I know how it sounds, don't you think I've been over that in my head? Grieving daughter can't handle her fathers death so she finds something else to blame it on. That's not what this is though. Please just take a look at the files he put together."

"I thought you said you didn't take any files."

"I didn't. I have an advanced eidetic memory Ted. I can recall things I've seen and read years after in almost complete detail. I didn't need to take the files home because I pretty much was a walking file. Dad told me what he needed I sifted through information, found it and relayed it. A lot of the stuff he got was through public record or archives of his own, from the firm."

They were quiet for a moment and Ted sifted through regulation in his head trying to figure out if Peggy had broken any.

"Just come and look, if you think it's all poppycock I've bought into because there's been no objectional third party, I'll throw it all out. Forget about it."

"Alright, I'll come and look." Ted nodded and leaned back as he took a drink from his pint.

#ted hastings #fml #idek #this is a thing and I don't know why but here we go #line of duty #here is a thing I will start writing then stop at some point and disappoint myself and the three people who read it #listen #idc though #tumblr is my happy place where I can be all #listen here's some fanfic I've written #and it's cathartic to throw this shit out into the ether #also I love Ted m #he deserves a bit of romance #and not the gill kind bc she was a motherfucker #so #here we go #will I make this tropey as fuck YES #will I use stupid things like making them have to pretend to be married at somepoint.... maybe..... #I dunno yet #I'm still figuring shit out