#and then i have seen rogue one 3 times which is not the same as rewatching it 20 times a year for comfort's sake
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Sea Cryptic! Danny AU- Pt.6
[Pt.1] [Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.4] [Pt.5] [Pt.7]
Danny slumped over the table at the library. He’d feel embarrassed about it if it weren’t for the rest of the floor’s occupants. Around him, students were speed running through the five stages of grief like it was going out of style.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuck.”
“Same.” Danny replied, rolling his head to look at Tim. “I’m feeling like an academic victim instead of an academic weapon right now.”
“I should have stayed dropped out of school,” Tim grumbled.
Danny gasped theatrically. “And deprive the world of your awe-inspiring genius on…” Danny peered at Tim’s books and grinned. “On… the Krebs cycle? Seriously? They’re teaching that again?”
“I know! This is like, the third time.” Tim whined.
“At least you’ll be good at it, right?”
Tim scoffed. “I’m gonna drop out of college and become a stripper.”
“They do make bank,” Danny nodded. “But aren’t you like a millionaire or something?”
Tim brightened. “Oh, you’re right. I don’t need education! I’m filthy rich!”
Danny whacked Tim on the back of the head, laughing quietly.
“Whatever. Let’s go take a break. Snacks?”
“I literally don’t know how you eat so much.”
“Snacks have a separate stomach pouch. Normal food goes one place, junk food and desserts in another.” Danny retorted, quickly packing up his stuff. In reality, he didn’t need that much food. He’s half dead, after all. But food also converts to ectoplasm in his body, and ancients knows Danny needs all the energy he could get.
They made their way out of the campus library, passing stressed out looking students on their way to a taco truck.
“Does this even count as a snack?” Tim asked, amused. He tugged on his book bag, readjusting the vigilante pins on them.
“Is the sky even blue?” Danny snarked back, forking over the cash needed for the best fucking tacos on this side of Gotham. They sat on the benches, asking for an obscene amount of extra lime and cilantro before going to town.
“Holy shit, how many of those can you eat?”
“Dunno,” Danny mumbled though a mouthful or carne asada and pico de gallo. “Hungry.”
Tim snorted, pulling out his phone to scroll as he ate. A moment later, Tim showed Danny his screen.
“Hey, you live near here, right?”
Danny, cheeks bulging with food, peered at Tim’s phone and nodded.
“Oh, cool! Have you seen the green guy around?”
Danny squinted at Tim, tilting his head as he chewed.
“You know, the glowing green guy that’s been blowing up the Gotham Bay tag.”
Oh. Tim was talking about him, Danny!
Danny nodded. He quickly ate his food and wiped his mouth before replying. “Yeah, why?”
“Does he seriously just clean up the bay? Nothing else?”
Mildly offended for some reason, Danny shrugged. “I mean yeah? He doesn’t seem to pop up near any of the shady spots- oh, I saw him save someone from a mugging in front of my apartment once! But like, I think all he does is clean the bay. Which is good, because holy heck, that place is nastyyy.”
“Seriously?” Tim leaned in, looking super interested. “So he’s friendly?”
Danny raised a brow. “Yeah, he seemed pretty nice, I guess. Though, that’s not saying much considering your Rogues tend to be pretty chill when they’re not in the middle of a scheme.”
Tim snorted. “True that. You talked to him? When? Outside of his bay cleanings, right? I’ve noticed that he only talks to the Bats during those.”
Danny stared at Tim. “Tim… are you… stalking the guy?”
What Danny really wanted to say was: “Tim, are you stalking me?”
“I’m not stalking him!” At Danny’s suspicious glare, belied by his sauce stained mouth, Tim sighed. “Okay, maybe I am. But only some minor stalking!”
“Uh-huh.”
“But if you have, you think you could introduce us? Maybe he’d want to be friends?”
Was Tim asking Danny to introduce him to… Danny himself?
“Uh. Why do you even want to meet him?”
“Danny, he’s a glowing green guy that does community service for funsies. And he knows the Bats. That’s cool.”
“And here I thought you wouldn’t know cool if it smacked you in the face.” Danny teased. Well, whatever. He might as well do something nice for Tim. “Sure. I’ll text you when he pops up and see if he’s okay with meeting you.”
Tim grinned at him, a piece of cilantro stuck in his teeth. “Thanks!”
——
Danny made a duplicate of himself and went ghost. Danny and his duplicate looked at each other and sighed.
“We’ve done stupider things.”
“But we’re still not telling Jazz.”
“Agreed.”
Danny paused. Did he just make a deal with himself? No, he’s busy.
Doppelgänger Danny went invisible and left the apartment by going through a wall. Danny followed in a sedate pace, the normal way.
Outside, he pretended to catch sight of a suddenly visible Phantom. He’d heard the heartbeats outside his apartment ever since he got home all those days ago, and he’s pretty sure the vigilantes were watching his place ever since. Luckily, he made sure there weren’t any bugs or hidden cameras- Sam beat cautiousness into his head a while ago- before starting the plan.
One of those heartbeats sounded like Tim’s which left some… interesting connotations.
Danny sighed. Who was he kidding? Of course he’d be friends with a vigilante.
“Hey, Phantom!” Danny shouted, waving. Phantom floated over.
“Danny. Hi. Did you need something?”
“Oh, not really. My friend wanted to meet you, he’s a huuuuge fan. Think you’ve got time today?” Danny held up his phone.
Phantom hummed. “I can stay for a bit. Thirty minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll call him. His name is Tim, by the way. Thanks for taking the time to meet him!”
“No problem.”
Danny texted Tim, and minutely frowned as he picked up the sound of Tim’s ringtone. Shit, that pretty much confirmed his suspicions. He got a text back from Tim.
Timsy
[5 nin]
Nin
Nin
Nin
Min
Danny huffed an amused breath. “He’ll be here in five minutes.”
“Alright.”
Danny texted back an okay.
Five minutes later, a flushed and disheveled Tim peeled onto the street and right to the curb.
“Here!” He said as he tumbled out of the car.
“Damn, bro. You good?”
“Fine- oh my god, you’re the green guy!” Danny had to hand it to Tim. If he didn’t already figure out he was Red Robin, Danny would’ve believed the act. Holy shit, wait, he called his friend broke. Hah!
“It’s Phantom. Nice to meet you, Tom.”
A quick sliver of sullenness flashed over Tim’s face. “It- it’s Tim.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, human names sound so similar.” Danny leaned back and hid a grin as his doppelgänger messed with his friend.
“Oh, wow, you’re not human? What are you then?”
“Oh my god, Tim, you can’t just ask him what he is!” Danny scolded. These vigilantes were really similar.
“Sorry…” Tim apologized.
“It’s fine. To answer your question, I’m dead. Ghost.”
“Do you really pay taxes?”
Phantom tilted his head. “Yes, of course.” By the, Danny meant that he paid both human taxes and oversaw the Zone’s taxes. “You know that saying, something about never escaping from two things and that’s taxes and death? You can escape death- might come back a little wrong- but taxes are in the afterlife too.”
“Come back a little wrong?” Tim asked, eyes suddenly sharp.
“Come back a little,” Phantom gestured to himself. “Green. More emotive and prone to irritation.”
Tim stared.
——
“Jason, are you a ghost?” Dick, crouched on the top of Danny’s apartment building whispered.
Red Hood, crouched in the same area, stayed silent.
——
“How did you die?”
Phantom snarled and disappeared.
Tim whirled around, looking bewildered. Behind him, Danny struggled to stay calm.
“Where’d he go?”
“He probably didn’t want to hurt you.” Danny sighed.
“What? What did I do?”
“You asked him how he died. That’s like, the ultimate social taboo.”
“I didn’t know that!”
“It’s common sense, dude. Trauma like that has to be shared instead of asked about. Generally.” Danny sighed. “Come on, let’s get off the street and I’ll give you a crash course in manners.”
——
Bruce, upon hearing about the conversation, dove headfirst into researching the after life.
“No, go suck a goat’s genitals, Batsy, I am not helping you adopt a being of the infinite realms!” Constantine hung up on him.
“Hn.” Bruce will adopt the child and give him a home. It’s only a matter of when… and what inter-dimensional loopholes he could find and use in the relevant laws.
Jason was right behind him, because he was going to get answers, dammit.
#danny phantom#batman#tim drake#jason todd#bruce wayne#dc x dp#dick grayson#red hood#nightwing#bamf danny phantom#sea cryptic! danny au
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omg i really really love your blog<3 you are such a sweet person and so kind to all your followers and others on here and your writing is absolutely amazing!
i saw ur requests were open and i was wondering if you could write something for poe dameron? a hurt comfort because in your rules you said you wouldn't accept full angst which honestly is so real of you and i completely agree :D its just, ive read so many fics where poe's best friend or squadron member is either in love with him or fwb with him and he starts dating someone and they look rlly in love but then he leaves the person for the best friend and i cant help but always wonder how the person he left is feeling! and i was wondering if you could write something along the lines of this but he doesnt leave the reader and hes not really in love with his best friend or anything im so sorry this became really long but you can totally ignore this or say you cant do it its absolutely alright!<33
thank you sm though and i hope you have a good day!
Anon, thank you so much for such lovely and kind words! You are AMAZING! (Seriously, they have absolutely made my day/week/year!)
This ask has killed me (positive), my subconsciousness had a lot to say, it seems.
Tangerine, Tangerine
Poe Dameron x GN!Reader Rating: M Masterlist | ao3 | want to be tagged?
Warnings: angst (but with a happy ending), thoughts that a partner is cheating, blood, x-wing fight, swearing (not star wars swearing, because even though Kriff is great, I need to say fuck), Moonbeam as a nickname, typos, rail road sentences, please let me know if I’ve missed a warning!
Word Count: 4494
_______________________________________
It was just a kiss. It was just a kiss. It was just a kiss.
You’d misunderstood, you’d read the situation wrong, you’d seen incorrectly. It was just a kiss. It was just a kiss. It was just a kiss.
Your radio crackled, “Green Leader, checking in. We’re manoeuvring in 5. Call out.”
“Green Two check.”
“Green Three check.”
It was just a kiss.
“Green Four check.”
It was just a-
“Green Five check.”
Just a-
“Green Six check.”
Just-
“Green Seven,” you swallow. “Check.”
It wasn’t just a kiss.
You patted your helmet twice and rolled your neck, breathing deeply as you settled in. On your left, you could see some of Blue Squadron.
This mission was straightforward - on a holopad.
Two teams to escort The Harbringer, the resistance supply ship. It had been damaged by a rogue blast from a tie fighter just as it jumped to hyperspace and had had to make an emergency landing on one of Tre’Ral’s desert moons.
The crew on board had managed to fix all they could. But without proper materials, there was little chance of the ship making it out of the moon’s thick atmosphere and entering hyperspace. So Blue and Green Squadrons had been dispatched. Blue 1-4 had already made contact, jump-starting The Harbringer enough to get it airborne.
Due to Tre’Ral’s sun and planet density, the gravity on the moons was a little stronger than most world’s atmospheric pressure.
Green Leader, Sena, had repeated through briefing at how this would affect flying. How to be ready for it. And she hadn’t been wrong, it was different flying here. Tougher. And you loved it.
You’d grown up on Para, a planet with a high gravity density. You’d learnt to fly there well before you’d flown in space. Being here on this desolate moon almost felt like home. Your movements seemed smoother, precise. No longer needing to overcorrect for your naturally ingrained harsh movements. No longer spinning out and fighting low gravity, finally working with the tide.
The manoeuvre would see the ships escort The Harbringer out of the moon’s atmosphere and then the rest of Blue squadron would form a sort of 3D star formation around the cargo ship. All jumping to hyperspace at the same time to carry it along with them.
Simple.
In theory.
Everyone had spoken about how practically textbook it was, how easy.
But then, of course, why was Green Squadron going?
No one at the briefing had asked, why would they when the answer was so obvious. This part of the quadrant was teething with First Order. With a slow, busted supply ship you were all practically screaming for them to come and play target practice.
You swallow.
You should be focusing on that, on the mission. Instead of the utter nonsense that was ricocheting around your head and piercing your heart.
I hadn’t just been a kiss.
You and Poe had gotten together clumsily, three months ago, your normal awkwardness drowned out by so much Polanis Red that you almost couldn’t see straight. It had been after the battle of Hurthwen, a nasty dogfight that had everyone hyped up on adrenaline.
He had been drunk when he kissed you, you remembered that.��
Maybe he had thought… maybe he had believed he was kissing her instead.
It made a lot more sense.
Sena was the Green Leader, she was a great pilot. One to be reckoned with. She was kind, she was fun, she was beautiful. She and Poe had joined the resistance together, risen the ranks together. Basically inseparable. Always laughing and joking. She had been in the same squad as Poe, under his command before she was promoted to leading one of her own.
They had always been close. Always. Best friends.
Sickness bubbled in your throat.
You remembered Frizz and Hank talking offhandedly, well before you and Poe were a thing. Both of them sure that Sana and Poe were dating or ‘knocking boots’ as Frizz had so elegantly put it.
“Two people can just be friends, you know.” You’d said, trying to hide your little crush on the commander.
“Yeah,” Frizz laughed, “But not them. You seen them together?”
Hank chortled.
Nonsense. You’d brushed it off then. Allowed it to creep into your thoughts when it was dark and the base was quiet. When Poe’s breathing was soft and light behind you, his arm around your waist.
Him and Sana just made a lot more sense than him and you.
“Yeah, but not them. You seen them together?”
Yeah. Now you had.
The Harbringer came into view over the horizon. The seemingly endless stretch of desert was cut through in the distance by a fearsome outcrop of crocks, leading up into a field of formidable mountains.
Blue 1-4 were already hooked up to the cargo ship, all five hoovering moving together as they flew towards you to meet.
You wouldn’t have said things were difficult with you and Poe. Well, you wouldn’t have said that before. It was complicated for everyone on the base, most staff were on different call schedules, off-world or on a mission at all times. Having a relationship wasn’t straightforward. There were stretches where you wouldn’t even be on the same planet for days, but…
But you had thought it was…
It didn’t matter.
You’d gone back to the briefing room, just before take off. You’d wanted to tap the main holoscreen twice, for luck. A little ritual you’d adopted early on. Most pilots were a superstitious bunch.
That’s when you’d seen them. Sana and Poe. Locked in a tight embrace, their lips pressed together in a deep kiss.
Your heartbeat had thundered so loud you’d been surprised they hadn’t heard it. But they’d been too preoccupied to notice your presence.
It was cliche but time had almost slowed, calmed and stretched like the moment you take aim, the second before you fired your ship's canons.
A flash of the control panel had flickered into your mind when you saw them, your fingers twitching as if you had the trigger in your hands.
You’d turned and left without a sound. Without a word. Without letting them know you saw. Leaving them to… whatever they did next.
Was it their first kiss? One of many? Had this been going on well before Poe had taken your hand and led you outside so he could clumsily name all the constellations, making up new ones and backstories to make you smile?
“That one here, you see it?”
“Yeah?”
“That one’s the best one, best in the sky. It’s orange and it’s right next to that other orange one, like they’re holding hands.”
You’d laughed.
“That’s me and you Moonbeam.”
Moonbeam. That stupid nickname.
You’d gone to your room quickly, the one that you and Poe shared, and taken off the necklace he’d given you.
“I want you to wear it for luck, Moonbeam.”
That stupid smile he’d given you as he’d slipped it from his own neck and onto yours. That stupid kiss he’d given you after. You’d thought that expression was cute when you’d seen it, pure. Now it just seemed like he’d been laughing at you, playing some sick joke. ‘How long can I string someone along?’, ‘how far can I go before they realise it’s all pretend?’
You’d left the necklace with the ring slipped through on the small set of shelves in the corner, the one Poe normally kept his holopad on.
It was idiotic, but your neck felt… empty without it. Cold. Every now and then you touched at where the chain normally lay.A subconscious action only brought to the forefront of your mind by the sensation of your own skin instead of metal.
Something caught your eye in the distance, a flash of sunlight glinting off the horizon. Dread twisted in your stomach as realisation dawned a second earlier than your scanners. The extra gravitational pressure and high quantity of magnetic metals in the sand affected everyone’s ship computers, causing a brief information delay.
Your alarm sounded out inside your ship, the radar blinking into life as tie fighters approached from the rock outcrop. They’d used the high mineral concentration to hide their energy signatures.
“Fuck.”
The radio screamed into life, orders out pouring over orders. Blue squadron rushed into position while Green scrambled.
“Blue in place now!”
“It’s gonna be rushed, but we haven’t got a choice!”
“No time!”
“Incoming!”
“Green half split! Evens left, odds right, let’s keep those fighter’s off The Harbringer and Blue squadron! Gamma pattern!”
“How far away is the Delta?”
“Calling in attack pattern!”
You swing to the right, falling in with Hank and Petal and bank hard, it takes less than a second for you to notice that your squad's movements aren’t as precise and well-timed as usual. The stronger gravity throwing everyone, except you, off their game.
That didn’t bode well.
You climb for a second, punching hard on the acceleration to get some height and a clear view of the oncoming and flick on your targeting system. The image glitches, doesn’t hold steady even as you focus. Off by half a fraction.
Shots fire out from both sides, most missing.
“Targeting not working!”
“It’s out!”
“I can’t get a clear shot!”
“The read is malfunctioning!”
“Half a click 4/8!” You shout, as you take your shot, hitting two tie fighters head-on.
“Good shot Green 7!” You can hear the joy and relief in Sana’s voice. “Half a click 4/8, you’ll all have to manually adjust!”
You dive, swirling around two fighters before skimming close to the ground, trying to draw their attention away from the cargo ship. You spin, slamming your control harder than you would need to in any other situation as you turn and spike past another fighter, taking out one in the process.
“Wooooo!” Hank yells over the intercom.
You laugh. “Bet you never thought you wished you grew up on Para right?”
“Every day new things surprise me.” He banks left, you right, Petal dives down.
It’s too much of a rush, everything all at once, patterns and shots flying, your ship’s systems screaming as you push the engines a little too hard.
The tie fighters aren’t moving as fast as they normally do, bogged down even more than the x wings by the gravity. They can’t make their normal quick turns and it’s affecting their strike patterns.
Good.
But there’s so, so many of them.
Explosions fly debris out, and you climb higher. Needing a clear view and unable to rely on your targeting systems.
More shots fly out, The Harbringer is taking a battering but so far its shielding is holding the hull together.
The radio keeps screaming, overlapping voices that blur into background noise. You’re trained to only hear your call signal, direct messages. You vear off, narrowingly missing a blast to your wing.
“-On my tail.” Frizz’s voice cuts through the noise, a sharp stab of dread slicing you open as you turn, automatically looking to the reader, it’s still not clear.
You climb, twist, fall, see a Green ship, followed tightly by two fighters. Accelsorate, bank. You fire. You’re aiming in a panic now, not adjusting right, not breathing through.
The shot hits one, before you have to swerve to avoid being struck head-on.
“Thanks 7!” Cril yells over the speaker, managing to shake the other fighter.
There’s a scream, a crackle of sound over the system. A sound you know too well. You see the ship crash into the desert, exploding before it even hits the ground as the a tie fighter’s shots hit home.
Frizz.
“No…”
“Check!” Sana yells, unable to tell who went down with the system glitching. “Green Leader!”
You swerve around another fighter, everything moving so fast, too fast.
“Green Two check!” Cril.
“Green Three check!” Petal.
Nothing.
“Green Four!” Sana yells. No call replies. Balna. Not Frizz.
The momentary rush of relief at Frizz being alive is cut horribly short by the image of Balna’s kind face that bursts behind your eyes.
You bank left, right, swerve, take aim, twist.
There’s a chance, a good chance that you’ll win. All of Blue is in place, The Harbringer is moving up with them. The tie fighters are taking more hits than the resistance, their less aerodynamic design hampering them more than usual with this gravity.
All you need is…
Another alarm.
“Oh… fuck.” You slam on your intercom. “Z-Fighter!”
A chorus of yells answer you.
A Z-fighter, a quick moving ship a fraction bigger than The Harbringer, with two powerful front guns. A few shots would take the cargo ship out completely.
And with how slow the supply ship was moving, that wouldn’t be hard.
The Z-fighter storms in, moving fast but not firing, they were obviously having problems with their targeting too, needing a close clear shot.
“Take out the main cannons!” Sana yells, the panic in her voice cutting through the chaos. You turn, aim, take out a tie fighter but have to veer up at the last second. Twist.
Someone comes in after you, aiming for the cannons, a fighter clips their side and they can’t correct quick enough. They spiral off, their ship crashing into the Z-fighter. Obliterated on impact. The Z-fighter seemingly unaffected.
You loop back, adrenaline blinding you to everything, anything that’s not the goal. Take out the canons. Take out the canons. People are counting on you. Take out the canons.
You fire, a clear shot before you bank to the side to avoid a direct hit to your hull.
It’s not enough.
You need to pass again, and again. Other x wings flying in, taking shots, the gravity making them slow, imprecise. Only one blast hits and it’s not full on.You’re the only one hitting directly and it’s not enough.
It’s not enough. It’s not enough. It’s not enough.
There’s shouting and screaming, the zipping of the fighters as they cut through the sky. Someone yells your name and you don’t hear it.
Another hit lands. One canon out. Only one left. You can do this. The Harbringer is nearly in the upper atmosphere, they can jump from there. Just a few more seconds. You can do this.
“Black Leader!” Poe’s call sign cuts over the dim, followed by the call signs of half of the Red Squadron.
They must have scrambled after first contact.
The canon’s powering up, a quick glance to your panel tells you that The Harbringer’s shield is barely functioning. They won’t survive a direct hit. With how close they are and the Blue Squadron ships that are attached there’s no way they wouldn’t be pulled down too if The Harbringer fell.
The canon needs more than one hit to take it down, more than five. No way you can shoot five times before they fire.
You twist, full force. Pumping the acceleration. Fire. Fire. Fire. Three hit. You don’t slow down. Fire. Fire. Fire. They hit. The canon is still operational.
Sana is screaming orders, so many shots fire at the canon, none of them hit right, hit full on.
Two chances left.
One to fire. If it takes out the canon you just have enough time to serve up, to avoid getting smashed to bits.
Poe shouts for you over the intercom.
You don’t answer.
One to fire. If it doesn’t take out the canon then… then you crashing into it head on will.
Poe yells again, this time cutting over everyone else, sending you a direct call.
You don’t answer.
You fire. Hit.
Poe screams for you, his voice painful and panicked. He’s already worked out your plan before you had even thought of it.
The canon doesn’t go down.
You cut the call to him. Blocking out his signal. You don’t want Poe to think you did this for him.
You don’t want him to think you did this because of him.
“Green Seven!” Sana yells, seemingly knowing what you’re going to do.
Hank screams your name over the radio. It hurts. You think it’s the worst sound you’ve ever heard.
��Moonbeam!” Poe’s voice is ripped raw from yells, Sana has patched him through over her signal. You were wrong. That was the worst sound you’ve ever heard.
You dip at the last second, not hitting the canon straight on but smashing your right wing into it. The force surprises you, even though you braced for it. The impact sending you spiralling. You try to regain control, try to turn into the spin. Training taking over even though you're a wing and half a ship down.
Shouts over the radio, you barely make out-
“-cannon’s down-”
“-Jump!-”
A spark hits, your console explodes into flame, shards hit your side and you yell. Sky and sand tumbling over each other over and over, and you manage to hit the eject button.
The force rips you upwards, free briefly from your burning ship. But you’re too close to the floor, not enough time to slow down your velocity. There’s-
.
The impact of the ground hurts. Pain explodes along every nerve despite the ejection seat dampening. You scream.
Agony is everywhere, everything. You can’t feel anything else, can’t comprehend anything except floods of pain.
You hit your belt, falling out and to the desert floor. Looking up just enough to gauge where you are, where your ship fell. It’s an exploded, fireball mess far off. At least it’s not an immediate threat. You crawl to the side and sob.
There’s blood falling into the sand from your head, the right side of your face. You can’t see properly out of your eye and your left leg is definitely broken. Shattered. Still, you drag yourself forward, digging your hands in and pulling as something ribs and tears in your side, warm liquid soaking into your fight suit.
The resistance will jump to hyperspace, they’ll get out. They’ll make it.
You just needed to get away from your ejection seat, when the First Order doubles back they’ll see it, they’ll see you. You just needed to get to an outcrop. Hide.
Make it look like you had a weapon.
Make them shoot you first instead of taking you for questioning.
Can’t let them take you alive.
There's the faint sound of a ship somewhere above, landing gear coming down.
For a second you freeze, panic gripping your heart, you dig into the sand hard, pull, pull, pull yourself closer towards the outcrop of rocks. The air seems to be leaving your lungs, your breathing ragged and hot.
You cough, red hitting the dirt, iron hitting your tongue.
You crawl, pull. The pain is making you light-headed. You gasp, trying to get in a full lung full of air. It's not enough. It's not enough. It's not enou…
.
When you open your eyes your first thoughts are simple. Clear.
I'm dead.
You were either shot in the head in the sand or simply succumbed to your wounds.
But then things begin to feel… fuzzy. Not painful, but not right either.
And that's when you smell the Bacta. And then the light starts to change to distorted shapes, and finally, you recognise Hank sitting next to you.
“You better not be dead too,” you whisper your voice dry from lack of use.
Hank jumps up, goes to grab your hand and then stops himself. There are tears in his eyes. He softly places his fingers on yours and you squeeze back.
“You're a fucking idiot you know that?” He grins and you laugh. Which hurts a little, but feels good.
“One sec,” he moves away just to speak to someone outside before he comes back. “I'm the one that picked you up, you know?”
“Now who's the fucking idiot?” You smile but your chest aches, heavy with the weight of his words. “You shouldn't have done that.” You whisper.
“What?”
“You were under fire, you should have just jumped-”
“I saw you eject. Saw you moving. You think I was just gonna leave you there?” He sits. “Besides, I was closest. The commander would have blown up the whole planet to get to you.”
You swallow, turning away slightly. Going cold at the mention of Poe.
Hank mistakes the look for guilt, and squeezes your hand again. “Hey, look,” he smiles, “you took out the canons, you're a fucking idiot but you know how to fly in heavy gravity.”
You snort.
He smiles.
“Who did we lose?”
Hank sighs, “three…”
You nod, closing your eyes for a moment.
“There-”
There was shouting from outside, a crash and then Poe stormed into the room, med staff close behind him.
You swallow, sickness building in your throat.
He looked awful, drawn out and worn thin like he hadn't slept or eaten in days. His eyes red.
He rushes forward, Hank moves out of the way, so Poe can take your hand in his. He leans forward and kisses you softly, carefully stroking your cheek, being gentle with your bandages.
“Moonbeam…” he mutters and you flinch back from him. He looks at you with sad, confused eyes.
“Look, I can only allow one visitor in here.” The med staff member says.
Hank stands, and speaks when you frown. “I'll see you later, Poe’s the one that hasn't left your side. The only reason he wasn't here when you woke was because I made him go take a shower.” Hank smiled, “you can thank me for that later.”
Both you and Poe are quiet as the others leave. Poe searching your face for something, while you look away.
“Moonbeam,” he says again softly, but there's an edge to his words that you're not used to. “What the fuck happened on that mission? What the fuck is this?” He holds up his hand, his necklace and ring wrapped around his palm. His eyes are shiny as he speaks. “Were you trying to kill yourself? What the fu-”
“Poe,” you breathe. Best to get it over quickly. “I saw.”
He frowns. “Saw? Saw what?”
“You and Sana, in the briefing room… before take off.”
The small frown on his forehead relaxes slightly for a moment as his eyebrows raise. “You… saw?”
You nod.
“You, but, I didn’t see you when I pushed her away?” His voice cracks at the end, a splinter running into the muscle of your heart.
“You pushed her away?”
“You didn’t see that?” He frowns again, blinking hard, “you just, just saw and walked away and what? Took this off?” He holds up the necklace again. A tear falls from his eye and he rubs it away furiously as if it had scorched his skin. “Just, just left it and… and…”
“I didn’t know you didn’t want it…” You say quietly, emotion is making your chest tight and constricted. “I didn’t know you didn’t want her…”
“What?” He breathes, moving closer and squeezing your hand. There’s disbelief in his voice, confusion. Anger, it’s deep down and controlled but it’s there. “No, look, she kissed me. I pushed her away, I, I even logged a report, I’ll pull up the god damned camera feed to show you.”
He’s not lying. His gaze is unwavering and he’s got that painfully earnest look in his eyes.
“You thought…” he shakes his head slightly, his voice pained, “you thought I’d-”
“You both make sense together.” You blurt out. “She’s… and you’re…” you shrug and sigh, on the verge of tears yourself. “You’re both the best of us.”
“No,” he shakes his head fiercely, “Moonbeam, no.” He wipes roughly at his eyes again, glancing down for a moment and you lightly touch his head.
He looks up instantly as you stroke his curls, still lightly damp.
“I’m sorry.” You whisper.
Poe shakes his head again, grabbing your hand and kissing your wrist. “I’m sorry.” He kicks off his shoes and clambers into bed next to you a little awkwardly. He’s trying to be careful, trying not to hurt you but needing closeness so badly it’s suffocating.
You scooch to the side as quickly as you can in your current state and lean into him as he wraps his body around you softly and kisses you sweetly.
“Love you, love you, love you,” he repeats after every kiss, pressing his lips to every part of your skin that he can reach.
“Why are you sorry?” You mutter as he holds you, “I’m the one that messed up.”
He shakes his head, “I’m sorry that I don’t make you realise how special you are, how perfect.” He kisses your cheek, “you’re the best of us Moonbeam.”
You tut but his grip tightens and he holds you tight.
“And one hell of a pilot.” He grins.
You scoff.
“You are.” He kisses you again.
You nuzzle against him, settling into his touch. Knots have formed in your chest, pain that’s loosening. His warmth is comforting. Home.
“Sana said she didn’t know I was in a relationship,” he says softly, resting his chin on the top of your head. “I don’t know if that’s true, but… I do believe her.”
You nod. “She’s a good person.”
He moves so he can look you in the eyes. “Please, Moonbeam, I… don’t,” he bites his tongue, closing his eyes for a long second. “I want to tell you, I want to say, don’t ever do something like that again… don’t… don’t put yourself at risk.”
You touch his cheek lightly.
“But it’s not fair is it?” He smiles sadly. “We both do that every day… You know you were gonna be in my squadron at first?”
You shake your head in surprise and he nods.
“You were, but… well,” he blushes ever so slightly. “I was so embarrassingly head over heels in love with you,” he laughs lightly. “For months I could hardly talk to you, you know I had to down five Polanis Red’s in a row after Hurthwen just so I could ask you out? I knew I wouldn’t be able to function right if you were in my squad. I knew that I’d put everyone else at risk because if it came down to it… if there was a choice between everyone in the squad dying, everyone on the base, or you… I’d let the resistance burn instead of lose you. Every single time.”
You close your eyes, fighting the emotion that needs to break through and squeeze his hand like a lifeline. “I love you.” You whisper.
Your fingertips brush against the necklace, the ring hooking around the first knuckle of your index finger by chance.
Poe slowly moves his hand from yours and unwinds the necklace from his palm before carefully placing it over your head, giving you plenty of time to move away if you wanted.
“I love you Moonbeam,” he mutters, his voice low, reverent. Then leans in to kiss you. You kiss him back with all your heart.
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Thank you for reading!
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Platonic!Yan batfam with young adult reader. Part 4
[Part 3]
Note: Reader is 18-22 years old. Gn reader
Content warning: being treated like a child, being looked down on, stalking, obsessions, soft yandere but still a yandere, reader has memory issues and it's ambiguous as to why, delusional batfam, batfam as a whole basically view you as a child younger then Damien despite you being older, reader is questioned by police, reader witnessed a crime, reader tried to be a hero, violence, blood, mentions of death, dissociation, abduction
Focus Dick (Nightwing)
------
Life moved on after the incident with Redhood. He'd left early that morning leaving a note saying, 'See you soon Sparky -RH'. You didn't care to think of what the note could mean. So you burried the strange sense of foreboding that clawed in your mind at the note. Maybe the Gotham paranoia had gotten to you?
Either way, things in the next few days were normal...as normal as Gotham could be. The bat clan had put most of the heavy rollers back in Arkham at a record speed. No one knew if it was just the rogues being sloppy, or the bats were feeling a tad extra feral. You remembered when you first learned about Batman and his underlings; the idea of the police having feral furry themed vigilantes was funny. You'd thought your new neighbor was joking. But no, it was true, and after your personal run-ins with Robin and Redhood, you could confidently claim the group was feral and would punch God..any God really... given the chance. Which was what Gotham needed to be blunt.
It was nice though that you got out of the heart of Gotham sometimes. So you'd taken a day off to go to Bludhaven. It wasn't better than Gotham, but it was a change of place. The fact that a comic store was having a closing door sale was totally *not* the reason. It was.. but you were hoping to get something cool for cheap! Nerd stuff was expensive, and as a nerd, you knew that well.
The quest for a trinket wasn't supposed to end with you being brought into the local police station for questioning. You weren't part of a crime no, but you were a witness, *the* witness. A mugging gone wrong. Honestly the details were fuzzy, yet at the same time, key parts you couldn't forget. The feeling of the woman's heart fading as you held pressure on the stab wound. The wheeze in her voice as she struggled to breathe and tell you her final words. The way your body trembled as the paramedics arrived and carted her away to a hospital. The sensation of blood on your hands and skin, and the smell...
"You okay?" The police officer's voice pulled you from the spiral of your thoughts.
"I'm sorry what?" You were in a haze, shock most likely.
"I asked if you would be okay answering a few more questions. Detective Grayson just got here and wants to ask a few."
"Oh sure yeah..." the voice, no your voice spoke, but it didn't feel like you.
Dick Grayson walked into the room the officers had put you in. You weren't in trouble. A nearby camera had seen it all go down, but you were a vital witness, one who was clearly not well after what you saw. Dick didn't blame you for your state either. He...he should have been there. When Bruce had called telling him you were in Bludhaven, he was ecstatic to think he could meet you. He'd been planning a nice little meet cute styled thing to bridge a gap from a stranger to you to being besties. He was your eldest brother, the one you'd be able to rely on most. You'd love everyone in the family but you'd come to him first for everything. He could so easily picture it. The two of you staying up late, watching films and you opening up to him and feeling safe in his company. The inside jokes you'd have together, you'd both be thicker than thieves.
So seeing you as you were now was a reminder of just how fragile you were. You were in shock a really bad case of it too. Your eyes were distant as you struggled to answer the basic questions. You were shaking. You still had the victim's blood on your shirt too. He should have been there. Any of them should have, but you were in *his* turf so it should have been him. He should have gotten there before you had to see it. You shouldn't have had to apply pressure to a wound like that.
Your voice was hollow, he'd seen videos of you. Hollow is never something he could have pictured you as. You had so much life to you. Yet here you were in this state because of *his* failures; as Nightwing, a detective, and a big brother. What if it had been you? You would have died on his watch in his turf. He couldn't handle that right now.
He got the answers he could from you, then easily guided you out. He told his fellow workers he was taking you home. No one questioned it, Dick was a good guy and not the type to let a traumatized witness go home alone.
You didn't question him as he ushered you to his car, or where he was taking you when you hadn't told him where you lived. He wasn't sure you could do that right now. He wasn't lying saying he was taking you home... it just wasn't the home you'd have expected if you were more here. The room in the manor wasn't perfect, but you'd be safe there.
He brought you inside, and the family members at home seethed at him. He couldn't blame them, this was his fault. Cass took you with help from Alfred to get you cleaned up and put you to bed. His heart broke seeing how you just went with everything. Like you were aware enough to function on a base level and orders, but mentally? You were gone. Pulled into yourself, protecting yourself from the trauma that he'd caused. He should have been there.
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heyyy it's the tropes jason anon again back at it with a new question! what quotes from the comic books would you say describe jason & his philosophy well? thank you so, so much for helping me out ❤
Hi again Anon!
Full disclosure here; I don't think Jason has been written consistently enough over the years to necessarily have one set, inarguable philosophy. But I do think there are certain themes that carry through.
So;
Red Hood: Lost Days #3
This is, notably, the first time Jason kills. (I'm not including Garzonas, which is debatable, or the Cheer incident, which is a retcon) He finds out his hand-to-hand teacher has a barn full of drugged children about to be sex trafficked. The cops and politicians are in on it, making lawful justice extremely unlikely, but taking out one man takes out the system. Jason crosses that line for the first time because nobody else is there to stop it, and this is the most practical route.
He does not see it as "murder" because he feels it was deserved.
Red Hood: Lost Days #4
After that line has been crossed - as Talia points out here - a pattern emerges. It's notable that Jason does not kill all his dubiously skilled teachers, only the ones he deems the worst of the worst - people deliberately and repeatedly harming everyday people, especially children.
Jason reiterates this in his famous utrh speech. He's not talking about killing every rogue, every criminal. He's talking about killing the worst of the worst, the people who can finagle their way out of the system, the people the system fails to catch.
Under the Red Hood
It would be remiss of me not to include that one time Jason killed a nazi. Good for her dot gif.
To Jason, these people are beyond the regular means of justice, so he provides his own. He stops them from hurting anybody else.
This is not an exclusively post-resurrection opinion of his, either. Jason expressed similar thoughts during his Robin run.
Batman #422 (thank you @benbamboozled 😘)
This woman, Judy, baited her sister's murderer into attacking her too and then slits his throat. She's unrepentant, and Jason agrees with her decision. (Bruce, for the record, gives a speech on how "nobody is above the law" which is. An interesting stance for an illegally operating vigilante to take lmao)
It makes sense to me that Jason, as someone who has seen the system fail repeatedly (both as a civilian and as a hero), would have those kinds of doubts. The system doesn't always work. The system often fails the most vulnerable people.
When Bruce was failed by the Gotham justice system, he became his own extra-judicial system. When Jason is failed by both the justice system *and* Bruce's own vigilante system? Why wouldn't he do the same.
Unfortunately, this thread is mostly dropped for a while with the wave of writers who either actively hate Jason and try to make him capital E Evil or who are playing shameless self insert with him, but there are two more recent panels that I want to include too;
Task Force Z #12
So, in TFZ, Jason pushes who he thinks is Bane off a roof for killing Alfred. It... is not actually Bane, but instead the brainwashed former corpse of Gotham re-reanimated via comicbook science and. You know what, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Jason regrets killing Gotham because he didn't deserve it, but reiterates that he will kill the real Bane if he gets a chance.
Jason sees killing as something he can do that others can't, that others maybe *shouldn't* have to do.
The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8
And finally, I adore this little beat in JTMWSL. This is something Jason thinks about. He's not just some brute that doesn't understand that "killing is bad". He thinks about it, reads theory about it. He sees that between the black and white, there are many, many shades of gray.
He understands that people who don't kill with their own hands aren't necessarily good people - like these cops here, gleefully waiting for him to be killed in prison. And that the people who *do* get their hands dirty aren't necessarily the bad guys - like poor Judy.
And I think he probably varies where he places himself on that scale at any given moment.
#I'm sorry anon none of these are strictly speaking quotes but this is what I've got lol#jason todd#asked and answered#long post#my meta
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I've got a theory about why this happened, and I think the other Mandoverse shows support it, especially Mando S3. Basically, these shows have over-committed to using the Volume to the point that it hurts their action scenes. Not just in terms of how they look and feel, but what can even be put in front of the camera.
As Greig Fraser (the brilliant DoP who worked on early Mando as well as Rogue One, Dune and The Batman, and first got the Volume to work) has said, the Volume comes with pretty steep limitations. Spielberg has managed to do some things with it that Fraser hadn't thought possible, but for the most part it restricts what angles you can shoot at and also what movement you can have. Film Crit Hulk talks about it in more detail re Mando back in 2020:
Note HOW MANY times they’re standing relatively flat and the camera angle is directly parallel to a ground so that it puts the horizon in the same 1/3 of the frame spot behind them. They do this because if they raise the camera higher (as many shots should and would) it would reveal the “boxy” angle of the stage. It may seem small, but it REALLY de-emphasizes the natural surrounding and I’m worried it’s hurting the overall look of the show.
And it occurs to me that arguably the best-shot action of that series is probably the one where they went out and just filmed in the California hills. Note how Boba gets to tower over that one Stormtrooper and how there's a real sense of wham when he lands.
youtube
If you're shooting everything in a context where nothing can move all that fast, though, it really hurts your most kinetic characters. When Kelleran Beq gets his showcase in Mando S3, the camera can't move to add oomph to his strikes or give him a hero shot (in Kenobi you see them trying this with Vader, but they have to stop short of an angle which will actually give the image punch). If you've seen Dune Part Two, think of how the camera races along with Paul and Chani in some of their fights with the Harkonnens. That's wholly missing here.
And this also impacts the old jet packs (and Jedi acrobatics, for the most part). Whereas Jango could rocket around merrily, it's notable that the Children and the Nite Owls alike only really use their packs for dedicated aerial scenes. In the pirate fight, you can easily imagine them boosting from rooftop to rooftop and sparking even more "high ground" memes, but instead they conduct the fight entirely at a walking pace and on the ground.
And all of this hurts Sabine in particular, because like Ahsoka, she originated in animation and has previously been depicted in a really kinetic way. Even without a jetpack, she's a very acrobatic fighter in Rebels, and it's one of the things which makes her a really fun character. But in the process of moving to live-action, Filoni and co opted to change the characters to fit the Mandoverse style, instead of changing the style to fit the characters. The result is that lots of the things that first made Sabine so cool and fun just aren't really possible now.
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Bad Batch: Season 3
My Predictions
The final countdown has started and I'm not ready at ALL!
Here are some of my predictions for Season 3 and what I could imagine happening!
1. Tech will be back.
Yes, the trope of dead characters returning is incredibly overused. But as many others I have a good reason to believe that Tech might still be alive. Think about it. It’s pretty likely Hemlock managed to locate Tech’s body considering he left us a huge breadcrumb: his goggles.
Why would Hemlock get rid of a genetically enhanced super soldier, especially considering he likely knows how to properly brainwash someone?
I too like to think that Tech might be the black armoured soldier in the front. It’s the same, if not similar armour as Clone X. Maybe these are part of a special type of clone assassins or troopers? Could they be the prototype for the Dark or Death Trooper?
It’s pretty plain to say that Tech will likely come back, though probably not as the Tech we know.
2. Crosshair & Omega Dynamic
We've seen Omega genuinely bond with all of the Bad Batch - except for Crosshair. Despite her trying her best to get to him every time they had the chance to interact, he denied her any kind of response. Whether that would be because he's just too withdrawn or because he refuses to let anyone see his vulnerable side, we don't know so far.
What we do know however, both based on pure logic alone and the fact that we've heard them both involved in a heated debate in the leaked trailer from the Star Wars Celebration last year, is that they likely will spending a lot of time together on-screen now that they're both captives of the Empire.
Hopefully Omega will be able to lift Cross' spirits, he doesn't seem to be doing very well from what we've seen!
3. Ventress will be an enemy!
Asajj Ventress! We all know and love her, so naturally it's incredibly nice to find out that she'll be returning to the screens for the final season of the Bad Batch! Despite they're naturally being some raised eyebrows considering her fate in the Dark Disciple book, I'm curious to see in what way they'll connect the stories!
However, seeing as Ventress could rather be classified as an anti-hero rather than a full on hero, I believe that she won't be helping the Batch but rather fighting them in order to get to what she wants - as she likes to do.
Perhaps she'll end up cooperating when she realises there might be no other solution, but I strongly doubt she'll be any help to them when it comes to following their personal goals.
4. The Fall of the Clone Rebellion
It's sadly no secret that given the events of Rebels and the three remaining clones Rex, Gregor & Wolffe, it's very likely the rebellions aka rescue of the clones didn't go as initially planned.
I could imagine this being explained a bit clearer in the finale, perhaps even leading up to a great fight against the Empire in the end. We can't forget that the series mainly revolves around a rogue batch of clones, so the thought that it might also go out with a clone-centric subject, especially such a big one, isn't necessarily far-fetched.
5. The End of the Mission
And finally, my most tragic prediction: The end of the Bad Batch.
The writers have been making it very clear that season 3 will likely be the darkest season of the show which unfortunately leads me to think that, as much as I'd want it not to be the case, the finale will lead to the ultimate end of Clone Force 99.
I suspect the series to end with the batch ending up together in some way, as the original five, and landing in a tricky life-or-death situation. Perhaps they'll be stuck in a crashing ship with a one-person escape pod or maybe they'll be facing a threatening figure such as Sidious, leading to the decision to sacrifice themselves in order to protect Omega.
Either way, despite season 3 likely becoming a tragic rollercoaster of emotions, I'm glad we had the chance to experience the epic story of the Bad Batch. It's sad to see them go and although these characters have become like a family not only to me, but to many other fans, let's enjoy our last moments with them and let them go out with a bang!
#star wars#clone wars#bad batch#bad batch season 3#bad batch s3#the bad batch#the clone wars#clone force 99#star wars the bad batch#star wars the clone wars#star wars clone wars#tbb
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FourRaccoonsInACoat Masterlist
Thanks for stopping by my masterlist, I am thrilled there are people who are interested in my writing! You may be asking, did I really create a logo for a nonexistent book series that only exists in the BG3 universe and features Malta the crime-fighting cat, all for the sake of a gag?
Yes. Yes I did. I will speak no more on the matter.
My fanfiction is centered around Baldur's Gate 3 and explores the romance between Astarion and the Dark Urge. The Durge MC in my works is based on my first BG3 Durge, a female half-drow warlock named Eli. I currently have one ongoing chapter fic, as well as a few one shots that all take place in the same universe.
I write fanfiction for myself as a way to decompress from life and because I enjoy sharing my stories with others. It legitimately makes my day when someone is entertained by my writing, so thank you for every comment, like, message and kudo. Much love and appreciation to you all!
Also, if you're here for BG3 Incorrect Quotes, follow that link for the masterlist.
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AO3 Account - All of my works are crossposted to AO3.
Ongoing Work
Head Full of Ghosts:
Current Rating: M
Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
Eli has spent a lot of time combing through her fractured psyche, trying to piece together any semblance of facts about who she was before she awoke on a mind flayer nautiloid. In all that self-reflection, she has concluded there are two things she is very good at. Killing people and drinking.
Neither of which is proving very useful as she tries to navigate interpersonal pitfalls after being appointed leader of a ragtag group of maladjusted misfits who are trying to source a cure for the illithid tadpoles in their heads. As if that isn't problematic enough, she's also having to contend with the growing affections between herself and the group's resident vampire spawn, Astarion.
Between fanatic cultists, goblin raids, murderous urges and cryptic memory loss, Eli figures a relationship is the last thing she ought to get herself wrapped up in. And from what she's seen of Astarion, the cavalier rogue seems to have his own breeds of specters haunting his steps.
Neither one of them has any business mucking about with romance. But, neither one of them is particularly good at staying away from things that entice.
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One Shots
In chronological order:
Fall for Me ---> Faint of Heart ---> Midnight Prayer
Fall for Me
Rating: E NSFW18+
Astarion wakes from a nightmare and goes to Eli, seeking reassurance as he struggles with the denial of his feelings. The last thing he wants to do is give someone else control over him, not after he’s so recently regained a taste of freedom. Over the past 200 years, every relationship Astarion was involved in had been nothing more than a means to an end, with Astarion either playing the role of manipulator or the one being manipulated. Attachments were leverage, giving someone a hook they were able to dig their claws into in order to gain ground. Isolating himself from connecting with others was how he had survived.
This, however…this was different.
Rating: M
Faint of Heart
Somewhere along the way, more and more truth has begun to slip into the words Astarion has been using to charm Eli into his bed. He's not sure when it started, but sometime between their passionate nights and hard fought days, genuine feelings began to stir.
It all comes to a head after the crew stages a prison break out of Moonrise Towers. Now, during a rare evening of respite, Astarion is determined to make a confession, regardless of his fears over the fallout.
Rating: M
Midnight Prayer
Neither Eli nor Astarion knows what they're doing when it comes to romance. Their combined histories with healthy relationships adds up to an unsurprising total of zero. Astarion once admitted to Eli that he couldn’t remember ever bedding the same person twice. And Eli…well, she can't remember anything, frankly. Her memories of past lovers are nonexistent…at least…
At least until today. Today, when they’d finally met the infamous Enver Gortash.
#bg3#baldur's gate 3#baldur’s gate iii#baldurs gate 3#bg3 spoilers#astarion#astarion bg3#bg3 astarion#astarion romance#astarion fanfiction#astarion fanfic#astarion x dark urge#astarion x durge#astarion x tav#astarion headcanons#bg3 headcanons#bg3 fanfic#bg3 fanfiction#ao3 writer#ao3 fanfic
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My CX-2/CX-Tech contemplation ahead of 3.12 & beyond:
(i.e. fuck it, as others' hopes dwindle as we count down to the finale, Poe is doubling down)
(i.e. enjoy myriad ramblings that are somewhere between 'this is how I'd do it' and the perils of watching with confirmation bias/Winter Soldier-lover glasses on LOL)
the tl;dr is: ignoring things like "domicile" and whatnot - compare CX-2's behavior and attitude and ruthlessness at various stages: 1) upon arrival on Teth 2) after getting knocked into the wall and buried under all the rocks 3) the escalating rage while fighting Crosshair culminating in the nearly drowning him/possibly pausing/getting stunned and falling and 4) getting to and while on Pabu.
I think it's really interesting how the same operative who went "rogue" (twice), who recklessly endangered his target by shooting down her ship and firing chaotically into the group she was with, is so precise and controlled on Pabu.
I think it's really interesting how Scorch tells him to "eliminate" the others if they get in the way and the operative who killed most of Rex's cell on Teth conveniently manages to "neutralize" 2/3 of them without killing them (creative but "technical" interpretation of orders?). Somewhat notably perhaps, his orders upon activation to Teth are to "neutralize" the compromised operative, the intent to kill him before he can talk is not ambiguous. Cannot imagine he's under any delusions that Hunter & Wrecker are definitively dead at the time he reports them "neutralized."
I think it's really interesting how he places the final explosive on the Marauder right on the wing by the ramp where it might be noticed when he surely just needed to blow the engine. I think it's interesting that we've seen what a precise shot can do to ground a ship but the operative chooses instead to loudly announce what's coming.
I think it's really interesting how there were presumably three potential targets when the gunship was compromised - the pilot, the ship itself, and Hunter - and the operative went for what had to be the trickiest shot (through the window!) that took out his own guy and left Hunter alone in the water to make his way back to shore.
I think it's really interesting how he gets tunnel-vision feral on Crosshair in Extraction, that shit got personal, and doesn't react to having him right in his sights in Point of No Return. (I also think it's interesting that he's got some sort of facial recognition thing going on in ep11 but I don't know what to make of that). I think it's interesting that the thing that dooms them to losing Omega - being separated, where no one has any backup - is also the thing that saves the boys from going down in a final desperate stand to protect her and saves Pabu from being caught in the crossfire.
I think it's interesting that aside from the docks, we don't see Pabu meet the fate we all feared and he doesn't give the go-ahead to light it up until he's maneuvered them into a position where surrender is the only choice Omega will see left to her.
(if we find out in 3.12 that the stormtroopers razed Pabu before departing um... ignore this point/possibly this whole manifesto? lol)
I think it's interesting that the operative had no update for Hemlock until Hemlock called with his impatient/Disappointed-in-you voice and then had enough of an update to get him off his back. (also I really wish we had any gauge of the time lapse between any of these episodes) (Am curious about the allusion to Cid and "pulling" intel though that's dark implications lol; but makes for a curious juxtaposition against the careful way he approaches/avoids Phee on screen; which makes for a curious juxtaposition against the gives-no-fucks about collateral damage on Teth).
I think it's interesting that episode 3 is called Shadows of Tantiss and it's the first time (I think?) we see one of, as Rex&co call them, the "shadows" on Tantiss even though it's almost a parallel shot to the two glimpses Omega gets of Crosshair in the corridors during ep1. We're getting a very slow drawn-out reveal on the program, from the glimpses of Crosshair & co in ep1 to the shadow in ep 3 to the ruthlessness of the program in 6&7 to finally getting a glimpse of the lab in 10. What happens to CX-2 after he delivers Omega?
The ep titles this season are clever. The Return - to Pabu, to Barton IV, to the squad. Harbinger - hints of the mystery surrounding Omega, hints to what's coming for Pabu. Identity Crisis - Emerie but also the crisis of being identified as Force-sensitive.
Anyway, I think how you pull off a CX-Tech plot this late in the game is that every episode he's in (or whatever shadow we see in 3.3), the title is also about him. Infiltration makes sense; but Extraction... what is that pause, as Crosshair is about to drown?
What if this below is the extraction? From the river, from the prison his mind has been locked in? (shoutout once more to the (maybe twitter?) post I can not find (sorry!) comparing his slumping over on the river bank to the way Crosshair collapses after ordering the engines turned off on Bracca/probably the beginnings of the end for the chip)
The way he works with the reinforcements on Pabu vs the way he did not on Teth, at all - I think something started going haywire after the quick succession of 1) the explosion 2) getting thrown against the wall and 3) getting buried under the rocks. He then gets a tiny bit blown up again by Crosshair in the stairway, and then tumbles off a smaller waterfall before we see the absolute feral rage at Crosshair and "you had your chance/chose the wrong side."
All of this to say -
The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is that he doesn't need freed from his conditioning anymore, he's already broken all or mostly free after all the getting blown up and being stunned and tumbling down a giant waterfall and almost drowning his brother; he just needs freed from Hemlock and his bio trackers and surveillance and whatever the hell else is keeping him trapped.
The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is that he's now playing a game against himself, both working for Hemlock and figuring out how to take down Tantiss. (Tragic consideration here: operative can't bring a tracker back in Omega's pocket, but knowing/anticipating Crosshair, potentially was expecting/counting on a tracker making it onto the ship) (Though this hypothetical setback also sets up the crucial role we might now expect Emerie to fill in somehow enabling a rescue effort)
The way you pull off CX-Tech this late in the game is by building towards what's actually a sort of mirror of the buildup to Return to Kamino - you follow orders and capture the piece that will bring the cavalry to the rescue - of the clones and the children, not just Omega.
And then you make an epic trick shot and take off the mask and fuck up Hemlock's whole day. (Poor dude just wanted to be made Science Minister)
"Why have I been activated" remains such a curious introduction of this guy. Made all the more curious by Hemlock lamenting that he's got no other operatives ready to deploy. Maybe... this one wasn't quite fully cooked yet either.
(Side conspiracy theory: Crosshair knows it's him but thinks he's past saving.)
#anyway that's my absurd 'but I WANT IT dammit' conspiracy theory/AU fic premise LOL#tbb#the bad batch#tbb spoilers#the bad batch spoilers#CX-Tech#Poe's brain being left unattended with TBB#look I wouldn't be so fixated on this had the season itself not brought me to the dark side#I was perfectly content to let him be dead until eps 5-7#and look I still cannot possibly fathom how he'd have survived in the first place#that is just straight up being handwaved at this point I don't even care
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one demigod powers retcon that really annoys me is how demigods being trained with the Mist works. Because in TTC we learn that Thalia is extremely well trained with manipulating the Mist and learned how to do that while living as a rogue with Luke. But then in HoH when Hazel meets Hecate, and every time Hazel uses the Mist to create illusions afterwards, it’s treated as functioning entirely differently and that mastering the Mist is something that Very Few People Can Do (when in TTC Thalia explains that it’s extremely easy for any demigod to manipulate the Mist). And then again in MCGA we get another retcon where Alex insists that it’s better to do more mythological stuff rather than try to hide it because doing so generates more Mist and so hides stuff from mortals better, which is just an explicit retcon because that scene self-refers to how that’s contrary to everything we’ve been told about how the Mist functions since TLT.
I get the Mist is a catch-all, but we already have a distinction between the Mist and general magic/sorcery, particularly with characters like Circe, Medea, and Hecate kids like Lou Ellen and Alabaster (and then also a distinction between Greco-Roman magic like the Hecate kids use and Egyptian magic like the... Magicians use. But also Annabeth was able to use Egyptian magic, so). The sorceresses on Circe’s Island and also just generally Circe and Medea themselves confirm that in-universe anyone can learn magic (and Reyna and Hylla having lived on Circe’s Island and studied under Circe implies that both of them should know some magic, but we never see them use it).
So just generally it doesn’t make sense for Hazel to learn how to use the Mist specifically rather than learn general magic from Hecate if she’s going to learn special abilities at all - and it’s kind of a moot point anyways because her getting that guidance is implied to be a Special Exclusive To Hazel Ability but Mist or magic either way it’s impossible for that to be the case? It would have made way more sense to just have Hecate, as a chthonic goddess, go “Oh hey Pluto kid. How’s those powers of yours going? Wait, what do you mean you haven’t figured out how to do [x], [y], or [z] yet? Those are totally within your scope of powers based on your father. No no no, okay: Here’s a blessing from me and here’s some tips on how to do that. Now go kick a guy off a cliff or something.” and then Hazel scurries back to everyone and unlocks like 3 new OP abilities as a daughter of Pluto because dammit if Nico can BS his way into having whatever weird tangentially Hades-related powers he wants, so should Hazel! And we can even keep the same general powers scheme that she gets from utilizing the Mist by just saying she unlocked some kind of illusion abilities because it’s already implied since BoTL and Nico and Bianca had powers similar to that (Bianca sending Percy visions of Nico’s whereabouts, and Nico imparting an aura onto the Titan Army to part his way AND in HoO repeatedly casting out his memories/emotions) and that’s all we’ve ever really seen her use the Mist for anyways.
#pjo#riordanverse#hazel levesque#hoo#heroes of olympus#this always bugs me whenever i think about it#stop retconning the Mist and just let Hazel be OP already#its quite simple actually
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OKAY GUYS
so. you know how a lot of people hc about the gotham accent in general dc media? well i always love this hc because accents are just so cool to me. so hear me out (this post is specific to the gotham tv show universe but can be generalized to any universe a cataclysm/No Man's Land event has occured)
earlier i was on tiktok and i found a video talking about the human tendency to create accents over time. (the video talked about how friend groups and families create accents/dialects which is?? so cool?? but i digress)
anyway, this led me to learn about a study about a group of scientists living in antarctica and how, over the period of just one winter, their vowel sounds had begun to merge together to create the beginnings of an accent. so now, i'll relate this to the cataclysm event.
to cause this event, during which gothamites are cut off in basically every way from the outside world, the bridges around gotham are bombed and destroyed (at least in the gotham tv universe). in this same universe, the time in which they are completely undisturbed (besides one guy communicating over a radio to one lady) is 97 days (over 3 months), at which time a military strike force (kinda. they're evil) is sent in to basically kill all of the criminals there. however, these people really only communicate limitedly with police, gang leaders, and like one time with bruce wayne. but that's about it. reunification with the outside world only began after day 391. that's over an entire year of near-complete separation from the outside world.
now, they already started off most likely having some kind of accent, especially noticeable in the people who lived primarily in the city. (even if the accent isn't particularly strong/differentiated at the time.) however, now they've spent an entire year together, alone in a big city. this has the makings of a stronger accent (at least for those who were stranded in gotham when this event occurred).
one of the important things to keep in mind when considering accents/dialects is the use of specialized vocabulary words, and lemme tell ya, gotham 100% has that. even excluding all of the names they have for people and the general gang info these people have, they still have multiple different terms for parts of town (ex: the financial district = penguin's territory, etc. with the other gangs in power at the time). on top of even this, the amount of stuff that just casually goes on in gotham is seen to completely flabbergast outsiders all the time. they likely have slang that is used to refer to various things the rogues do, or things about violence, gang wars, rations, barracks, etc. there is SO MUCH opportunity for an accent to originate here??
of course, once the events of No Man's Land end and reunification happens, a ton of gothamites who weren't there during it move back in and the accent is dispersed among the population. it likely is in part shared and, over time, becomes part of common vernacular, and, in part, deteriorates, especially regarding things that are no longer as common in the distant future (ex. referring to the financial district as penguin's terf 10 years after this happens would be a bit odd). however, i do believe that this would create a lasting impact on the overall population of gotham, even if only minorly.
(to those of you who keep up with my de-aged!gotham bruce au, this is going to be featured in some of the up-and-coming chapters (slang that feels off to others, weird references, a stronger accent, if only slightly, etc.). if you have any ideas or thoughts on this topic feel free to chime in!!! i love chatting and some help brainstorming on this would be appreciated <33)
#gotham tv#gotham#gotham tv show#gotham tv series#batman#gotham!bruce#bruce wayne#g!bruce meets batfam#gotham!batman#gotham!bruce wayne#my au#at the end there#tv: gotham#dc universe#dc comics#dc#dc no man's land#batman no man's land#batman cataclysm event#batman cataclysm#no man's land#gotham accent#gotham dialect
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The theory behind the sick eliatrope explained.
‼️SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4‼️
LEAVE AT THE WARNING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN EPISODES 7 AND 8 YET.
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If you’ve been thinking the same thing about this then you’re right.
There’s a high chance that the sick eliatrope is Nora.
This theory started to circulate among the primordial eliatropes when Adamaï explained there was a hole in the deepest part of Abuela’s ocean that looked a lot like an eliatrope portal, especially Qilby’s.
Of course, Yugo immediately assumes Qilby was the one who opened a portal for the necromes but Qilby does not waste any time and straight up tells Yugo that he’s wrong.
And it’s painfully obvious Qilby was being honest but Yugo doesn’t see it.
Qilby had already attempted to destroy the world and the only reason why he hadn’t put his plans into motion earlier was because he was still weak from being stuck in the White Dimension for so long.
Yes, when he created a portal for the shushus, it looked identical to the one Nora and Yugo found in the Sadida kingdom. But that’s just what an eliatrope portal would look like if it was used to travel to another dimension.
Not to mention that when he attacked Toross with the eliatrope dofus, he genuinely looked like he didn’t mean to strike Toross with wakfu.
Therefore, in defense of Qilby, if he was the culprit, he would’ve admitted it a long time ago. The only thing I’m betting about him is that he would have loved to have been the one responsible for this.
So to clear out the problem and see what’s really going on, the three eliatropes and Adamaï, accompanied by Joris and Amalia, all travelled to Toross’ world. When they took a look at the portal that was linked between the two planets, it was finally deduced that it was in fact made by an eliatrope.
However, they also realized that the portal created by this presumed eliatrope had lines of stasis in it which made Adamaï conclude that the one responsible for this was not only guilty but physically sick.
Yugo obviously interpreted Adamaï’s words at face value since he already believes Qilby is sick in the head and does not see the logic behind the fact that Qilby couldn’t have been working with the necromes because of Yugo himself (keeping him in the White Dimension).
Qilby is not the culprit no matter how many times Yugo claims he is.
The actual sick eliatrope is Nora for the following reasons below :
1. Her eliatrope portals are diamond-shaped just like the one that brought them all into Toross’ world.
2. During Nora’s exposition about how she managed to rescue the Eliatrope goddess, we can see how she painfully holds her chest from something. Nora doesn’t specifically explain this part, it is only shown to us but this could’ve been the exact moment when she got infected by the necromes as soon as she landed on Toross’ planet.
3. When she was fighting the rogues in that one mission given to her by her mother, if you pause at the right moment, you’ll only see the purple color flash on her while her weapons remain blue.
All points directly line up with Nora.
She’s the one responsible for the portal leading to the World of Twelve.
But the real question here is how come she doesn’t seem aware of all this?
Throughout the whole time she’s been in Toross’ world, she felt and looked scared, skeptical, and confused.
Some who believe in the theory might’ve deduced that she’s been acting but that doesn’t seem right. The way Toross talks to her doesn’t imply that she’s working for him and we can see how his words affect Nora as she looks completely petrified.
So I came up with three possibilities as to how this happened :
Toross already knew how to make portals because he had his dofus. After eating some of the Eliatrope goddess’ power, he was finally able to fully use his ability properly.
Toross doesn’t know how to make portals but after Nora came into his world, she accidentally got attacked by one of his minions which allowed him to use her energy to make portals.
After consuming Efrim’s energy, he was able to use Nora’s power through Efrim since primordial eliatropes and their dragon siblings share a special bond.
In short, the sick eliatrope is Nora but she is not guilty of being the one to link the two planets together. Toross is the one using her ability.
Because as Qilby said, it’s not just the eliatropes who can create portals. Some others have the ability to use this power in other ways.
#wakfu#ankama#krosmoz#wakfu theory#wakfu theories#wakfu nora#nora wakfu#nora#wakfu eliatropes#wakfu eliatrope#eliatropes#eliatrope#wakfu eliatrope goddess#eliatrope goddess#wakfu efrim#wakfu season 4#wakfu s4
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Hi! For the ask game, can i have any of the dc ou dcxdp please? 🌺
I will get to both but just for now DC x DP bc it is late and I don't have a lot of time. Sorry loves!
We can start off with DC X DP
The Cryptid of Gotham Academy!
A personal fav of mine. (Though I love all my ideas) I will give you the og idea I had written and then a little excerpt from what I do have done.
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After his family passed away Vlad had taken custody of Danny. Danny transferred to Gotham Academy and he becomes kinda like the 'cryptid' of the school. No one can seem to find him when they want to. He says the craziest things at times which later come true. ice cold to the touch and eyes that glow. He shows no fear of the Ice prince of Gotham. When people do catch a glimpse of him he is either always sleeping or hiding. , He has slept through villain attacks. Word is that his uncle is just as creepy as Danny. Damian is convinced that if Danny isn't already working with the Rogues of Gotham, he will become the next Rogue himself. So he takes it upon himself to investigate Danny Fenton. He didn't expect to get a new brother out of it. Although with Bruce's track record maybe he should have.
A little snippet as a treat.
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When the dust had finally settled, and Batman had taken Two-face off to the police, most of the school crawled out of their hiding spots. Parents and staff slowly one by one came to collect their children. Many of the elite of Gotham sent others out to collect their kids. Not all of them, however. Vlad came out of the woodwork. Damian didn't know Masters had a child. Let alone that they were attending the same school. Although Masters had been in the game a long while he was new to Gotham. He had yet to meet the man. The teacher must have also noticed him because seconds after he showed, the teacher called out.
"Has anyone seen Daniel?"
Murmurs broke out amongst the class. No one had seen the boy since second period by the sound of it.
"He's over here!" A student called out, and sure enough in the cabinet sat an unconscious Danny.
"Is he alive?!" Someone called out,
From where he stood in the room he could still hear Masters sigh. Vlad just stepped forward cutting through the students and teachers surrounding Danny. When he reached the boy he crouched down and shook the boy awake. "Come on Danny. It's time to leave."
"It's not 3 yet." The effects of sleep lingered in his voice.
"There was an attack, we are leaving early. "
With a nod, Danny shimmered out of the cabinet and left with Vlad. The second he left, there was an outburst.
"HE SLEPT THROUGH AN ATTACK?"
"Is he fucking crazy?"
"He did WHAT?"
Damian could agree with the sentiments of his classmates ( he would rather die than say that out loud) what concerned him the most was that he didn't know Danny was there. Perhaps it was time he looked into Gotham Academy's newest student.
Note: Not edited or polished much, it's a WIP for a reason!
#danny phantom#dp x dc prompt#dp x dc#damian wayne#danny is a cryptid#everyone fears him#batman#batfam#Vlad is here too I guess#wip challenge#The Cryptid of Gotham Academy!#Gotham Academy student Danny
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There's a lot of "oh, Baldur's Gate, isn't that game all about sex?" out there - I've seen it on the internet and heard it in conversation - which is fair, that's what the mainstream articles have been about, and let's not lie, most of us around here are all about the sexytimes with pretty people. (Me included, 100000%. And my "romance doesn't make an experience less interesting or serious" rant will be saved for another day.) But anyway ... it's Monday, and I'm avoiding work, so I figured I'd list as many things as I can think of right now that make the game amazing that have nothing to do with actually having sex with someone.
GINORMOUS areas to explore.
There are lore books literally everywhere. If you like reading random bits of in-universe texts, you'll be spoiled.
Have you ever played D&D and wished certain spells had more utility - like Grease, or Sleep, or Create/Destroy Water? You're in luck here! Anything that can either create a ground effect or temporarily distract/take enemies out is OP!
Animated, voiced cut scenes with nearly every single NPC you run across.
At the same time, most of them are not required. Some will give you interesting side quests, extra approval/disapproval from your companions, or interesting information that will give you more options in a future quest, but you don't have to spend hours talking to people unless that's your jam.
In character creation, you don't pick male/female as a gender. You pick from four body types (two small, two large, two with breasts/more slender, two more broad/slightly larger), three sets of pronouns (he/she/they), and several different sets of genitals - mix and match all three categories to your hearts' content. I'm sure there are other things they could have done, but it's the most inclusive character creator I've seen in a major game for sure.
The turn-based combat is a blessing for anyone who struggles with real time combat. Take your time, consider your options, look at things from all angles, sort through your spells and attacks to find the right one.
Or you can remember you picked up that barrel of smoke powder three rooms back, climb up into the rafters of the room, and chuck it into the fire pit in the middle of the room for maximum effect. I cannot overstate how fucking satisfying that is.
Big fucking tiefling horns. Of a variety of shapes!
Your female companions are the tanks/hearty warriors. Your male companions are all delicate fucking flowers, at least until you get Druid Daddy who can turn into a bear.
While optimizing your 4-person party to bring the usual configuration - one tank, one healer, a couple of DPS - is useful, it isn't always necessary. There are some fights where bringing four ranged options is a great idea, as long as you give them some survivability spells or plenty of potions. Sometimes bringing four people who can just barrel their way into a pile of ogres is satisfying. Mix it up!
Okay every companion thus far (I'm still only through act 1 yet, listen I have two games and my partner didn't feel well enough to continue the game where we're the farthest this weekend so I spent my time catching my solo game up) is absolute gold, no duds in the bunch, and the next few bullets will be one awesome thing about each one of them that has nothing to do with romance.
Astarion with the Thief subclass at level 3 literally cannot fail most lockpicking or trap disarming checks unless he rolls a nat 1. He is invisible when stealthed. He can one-shot most low level goblins with sneak attack arrows from range. He is a very bitchy fancy-lad Super Rogue.
Wyll is the Goodest Boy - the speed with which he goes from "I am oathbound to kill you demon!" to "well shit you're just a tiefling guess I'll deliberately fuck up my very dangerous warlock oath for you" is wonderful. He's noble and impetuous and wants to be more than a rich boy and gives nearly everyone the benefit of the doubt. I would die for him.
Karlach does the ADHD idle dance of "I could not stand still if you paid me all the gold in Baldur's Gate" and has the best puppy dog eyes. Also the story tie-in to her rage mechanics is really great and excellent storytelling.
Lae'zel is nigh unkillable if you give her the right stuff. Speccing her as Battlemaster is amazing for controlling the most powerful combatants on the field. Trip Attack has saved my ass so many times, you have no idea.
On paper, Gale should be absolutely insufferable. But somehow the writing and voice acting managed to hit just the right notes of humor and good nature and wizard geek. I'm very impressed.
Shadowheart is a very interesting combination of amoral/self-involved but also compassionate and I find myself fascinated by it. She clearly contains multitudes, and thus far the story is doing a good job of doling out pieces of her at a satisfying pace.
And speaking of interesting moral dichotomies, I absolutely adore that Halsin is both the good influence authority figure and also utterly ruthless when things run afoul of his strongly held belief system. Also thicc, broad-shouldered elf supremacy.
The tieflings you meet in Emerald Grove are directly tied to the D&D adventure "Descent Into Avernus" - as is Wyll! (And I'm sure it has a lot of context for Karlach's story as well, I haven't finished reading it yet.) I'm sure there's more when you get to the actual city of Baldur's Gate, but I'm not there yet. It's just fun to have that as an option to read for backstory about some of the game's characters and situations if you want. It's not required reading, though - cough, Bioware/Dragon Age, cough - everything that happens with them is perfectly understandable without any additional context!
The "Balanced" combat difficulty is a really good mix of fights that take a LOT of strategy and ones that can be easily cheesed.
Have you ever wanted to shove someone off a cliff even though you have like 8 strength? Listen, a 30% chance is STILL A CHANCE, and you have limited bonus action choices. TAKE YOUR SHOT.
... feel free to add your own. I'm still pretty early in the game and can't wait to get to more.
(edited for some slightly better phrasing about the character creation gender options, hopefully)
#baldur's gate 3#bg3#why did i make this?#is it mostly to avoid work?#yes probably#but still#i feel like a post is needed#to say 'you can have all this!'#(and also sexytimes!)
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Heyyy, I finally saw the Marvels with my family! OH MY GOD, what a truly unhinged movie. I was fighting for my life for most of it, just basically being like:
What do you think of it as a movie, btw?? There’s so much I like, from the singing planet, to Kamala and her entire family, to the scene where all the Flerkens eat the entire ship(!!). It’s incredibly ballsy — but also, WOW there’s some stuff I don’t like. It’s so goddamn fast paced that nothing has time to breathe, the villain is not very interesting, and I think the way the fight scenes are shot makes the CGI really hard to look at… in terms of looks from the original to this, it’s like comparing Spy Kids to Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. Oof.
But I still had a LOT of fun, and I don’t really regret it. It’s probably still better than the Flash on account of pure dignity — and I guess to someone who knows these characters better than I do, I suppose the logic of the film makes more sense? My dad was confused by Kamala’s ability to use her powers without the bangles, and I still haven’t seen Ms. Marvel yet… so I might need an explanation on that myself. 😅
I liked the movie! I thought it was fun. Carol, Kamala, and Monica's dynamic was so much fun to watch, and every scene with Fury and the Khans cracked me up! Goose was amazing, too.
But yes, the movie could've been a lot better. I do think they could've added 15 or so more minutes because, like you said, it was so fast and had no time to breathe. I was kind of annoyed that the movie sort of glossed over Carol restarting a sun because that's a HUGE thing to do. Thor (temporarily) did the same thing in Infinity War, and it was rightly treated as a feat of strength, but the movie barely focuses on Carol (permanently) doing the same thing. It's like, "Oh, by the way, Carol restarted the sun. Moving on."
Yeah, the villain is BORING. I really don't know why they went with Dar-Benn, but I guess the problem is that Carol doesn't have many notable villains, and the ones she does have are related to the X-Men, like Rogue, Mystique, and Deathbird, so the MCU couldn't use them. Or they already used what villains she does have in the first movie, like Ronan the Accuser, Yon-Rogg, and the Supreme Intelligence. But I still think they could've used the Brood, Nitro, or Moonstone rather than Dar-Benn. Or even adapted a version of the Kree-Skrull War since I don't think the MCU is going to do it. And if they wanted to use the Quantum Bands (which are basically the Nega-Bands from the comics), they could've made Genis-Vell the villain (who would've turned good) since he's Mar-Vell's son and wields the Nega-Bands in the comics. Basically, there are many more interesting villains they could've chosen than Dar-Benn, or they should've written her better.
The logic of the film does not make sense to me at all; I just took it at face value. I still don't understand Kamala's origin or her abilities, and I've watched Ms Marvel. I think they've overly complicated her origin, and I still don't know what her mutant power is.
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FIC TIME
Gale x Female Tav
Set in Waterdeep after the events of Act 3. Gale and Tiefling rogue Tav (Hecate) are moving back to his tower just before the wedding and Hecate is Not Comfortable™
Fluff, comfort, and kisses. Oh and Tara’s here too.
Content warning for mild racism toward Tieflings
*****
Moving In
Hecate stood frozen at the front entrance of Gale’s townhome. Her nose scrunched as she considered it. No — townhome was much too modest a word. This was a townhome in the same way the High Hall Palace was a three-bedroom house. The blasted thing had to be at least five stories, perhaps even six. Gale had described it as a tower once and he wasn’t wrong. Elegant, rounded detailing cradled each of the windows, the edges of which were tastefully filigreed in a rosy gold. The double doors loomed, swirls of some pearlescent stone inlaid into the fine, dark wood.
“Of course,” she muttered to herself, “A regular wooden door just wouldn’t do. No sir. Have you even seen the gilding? Perish the thought.”
Hecate didn’t even want to touch the door handle, which gleamed as though recently polished. It had to be a spell, she was sure of it. She shifted her rucksack and it dug into her side as though prodding her forward. The carriage was still parked behind her but most of its contents were Gale’s, who had already rushed inside. She couldn’t blame him. After everything they’d been through, the first sight of home must have been sorely welcome, or so she assumed.
Distractedly she thumbed the ring on her left hand — a simple thing, just a thin band of silver. She’d expected something more gaudy from Gale but it seems he knew her better than she thought. Occasionally she’d notice a dim blue glow out of the corner of her eye. He’d enchanted it of course but, infuriatingly, refused to tell her how. ‘Not until the wedding’ he’d said with that sly glitter in his eyes that she adored.
The porter banging down the steps jolted her from her thoughts. ‘Dey’, he’d said his name was, a young half orc with an easy smile. He eyed her quizzically as he passed by and she jerked a thumb at the lurid edifice with a wry twist of her lips,
“Might need a hose-down before I walk in there, or bare minimum a palanquin.” Dey laughed and nodded, diving back into the carriage for the rest of Gale’s luggage.
Hecate chewed on her bottom lip, tail twitching in agitation. Her pride couldn’t let Dey lap her again so with a decisive shake of her head she strode for the steps, taking them two at a time as though speed would keep her courage from failing her. The door was still partially open from the porter’s egress and she slid inside without so much as a single hair touching the beautiful oiled wood.
Standing in the foyer, she was even more keenly aware of her drab clothing, the plain, soft cotton seeming more and more dull by the moment when compared against the gilded crown moulding and the plush purple runner that led from the door, down the hall and cascaded up the splendid spiraling staircase.
Hecate licked her lips, feeling rooted once again. What was this? Nervousness? She couldn’t remember a time she’d ever felt this way. What a hideous sensation. It sauntered about, regaling her with a rather haunting chorus:
You don’t belong here.
Her tail lashed the floor behind her and she very nearly fled back to the safety of the veranda when —
“Hecate? Darling, where in Faerǔn have you gone off to? Come upstairs, quickly now!”
With some difficulty she swallowed those words while curiosity unfroze her legs. With only a moment more of hesitation, she bounded up the steps, the top of the stairs revealing one, large open chamber. Dimly lit, she could just make out the walls lined from floor to ceiling with books upon books of varying color and size.
Her heart fluttered as she spotted him, Gale, standing at the center of this room as though he were a fixture in it. His back was to her, facing two heavy curtains on the far wall. His brown hair was pulled back into a half knot, the rest brushing the shoulders of a fine jewel-blue vest, emblazoned with spiraling golden runes. Hearing her footfalls he looked over his shoulder with a delighted grin and beckoned her to him, leading her by the hand to the thick hanging curtains.
“The time is nearly upon us,” he said cryptically, almost in a whisper.
“What are we doing?” Hecate breathed conspiratorially.
Holding the curtains so Hecate couldn’t glance past him, he peeked quickly between then closed them again, anticipation and delight dancing about him.
“You’ll see. Are you ready? It should be just about….there!”
With a flourish he threw open the curtains, revealing the setting sun framed squarely by the rail and roof of the balcony. With a soft touch on her arm, he turned Hecate back to face the room and she gasped, stunned by the sight of the evening glow limning the spines of thousands of books in brilliant gold. A gorgeous grand piano, now revealed by the sun, began to play softly, and Hecate felt as though she had stumbled into some holy chapel, reverence and awe settling into her as she surveyed the scene.
Hecate gaped openly for a moment until Gale snorted softly and Hecate realized with a blush he wasn’t even looking at the room, his brown eyes meeting hers when she glanced his way. He stepped closer, touching his forehead to her temple and wrapping a hand around her waist. She leaned into him, still awestruck by the size and beauty of the library; of this room that was nothing if not the embodiment of Gale’s soul. Shyly her tail hugged around his calf and she turned her face towards his, her fingers tracing the faint lines of gray in the hair above his ears. He breathed a smile and then…
“Mister Dekarios!”
Hecate’s bones nearly ejected from her skin as Tara flapped through the open balcony doors. Hecate’s tail spiraled off of Gale’s leg so quickly that it almost pulled his foot out from under him. With a yelp he staggered to attention facing the tressym who had perched on the balcony railing.
“Tara!” Gale exclaimed, much like a schoolboy caught with his hand in the cookie tin.
Tara sniffed, eyeing them both haughtily.
“Good heavens Mister Dekarios, I very much would have appreciated forewarning of your arrival. As great a wizard as you are, I do not believe this feat to be beyond you.” Gale opened his mouth to respond but Tara wasn’t finished,
“And would you look at the state you are in! Traveling for weeks in a cramped carriage, why you must be exhausted. Pleased to make your acquaintance again Hecate, my dear, a pleasure indeed. Now, would you not agree to a certain level of lassitude as would befit a journey such as yours?”
Hecate blinked, startled at being so suddenly addressed. Her gaze flicked toward Gale in a mild panic who mimed bags under his eyes and sleeping, jerking back to inspecting his own fingernails when Tara glared his way.
“I…ah…yeah?” Hecate stammered, still not entirely positive what ‘latitude’ meant. She’d look it up later.
Tara simply sniffed and regarded Gale again with a flick of her wings,
“I thought as much. Well, be that as it may, your repose must wait. You have a visitor Mister Dekarios, I’ve seen him to the first floor lounge. He has been plied with tea but I would not keep him waiting long. I bid you both a good evening.” With a twitch of her tail, Tara leapt from the railing and beat her wings, carrying her aloft to the windows of the upper levels.
Gale and Hecate looked at each other for exactly one second before dissolving into laughter.
“I swear she’d still cut the crust off of your sandwiches if she thought she could bully you into it,” Hecate gasped between giggles.
“More the fool, you,” Gale wheezed, “Didn’t bet on having two mother-in-laws, did you?”
Hecate groaned, “Oh Hells. Will you dance with her at the reception?”
Gale let out a loud “Ha”, wiping a tear from his eye, “As though she would give me a choice?” Still chuckling he leaned forward and pecked a kiss onto Hecate’s forehead, right between her spiraled horns, before drawing the curtains and plunging the library into darkness. It only lasted for a moment, however, as several magelight lanterns flicked on as soon as the sunlight vanished, much to Hecate’s delight.
“Well. Shall we see who has come to call? You can leave your belongings here, the porter will bring everything up to our apartment in due course.”
He held his hand out as though seeking to escort her. Hecate chewed her lip again, hesitant to leave the entirety of her worldly possessions unattended; but with a sigh she acquiesced, setting it to the side before taking Gale’s arm, the gesture causing her to grin despite her misgivings.
“Alright. Lead the way Mister Dekarios.”
Nose stuck high in the air, Gale ponced over to the staircase, stopping only when Hecate jabbed a finger into his belly, right where she knew it tickled the most, and he deflated into laughter like a parade balloon.
He lead the way down the stairs, cutting to the right at the bottom and making his way through one of the many doors into a powder blue room, bedecked with ostentatious and, Hecate thought, rather uncomfortable-looking furniture. The upholstery was pristine, complimenting the room with a rich blue brocade. Exquisite baroque detailing adorned the inner walls and ceiling and if Hecate felt out of place in the foyer, this room easily doubled that sensation.
Tripling the sensation was the visitor, a high elf, sat primly on the edge of a chair, sipping at his china cup as though he might choke on anything but exactly three drops of tea. His long, red-blond hair cascaded over his shoulders in a perfect, shimmering sheet. It blended beautifully with his red silk tang suit, the high collar emphasizing his delicate neck. Golden toggles flashed in the magelight as he turned to regard them.
“Gale Dekarios, as I live and breathe,” he said, his voice unfairly melodic.
Gale smiled deferentially, leaning forward to greet the newcomer, pressing his cheek to his, first on the right and then on the left in a friendly gesture before stepping to the side, holding his arm out toward Hecate,
“Ashmead! How lovely to see you again. It has been too long. Please, allow me to introduce my lovely fiancé. This is Hecate. Hecate, this is Ashmead, one of my oldest school friends.”
“Oh, shit! A trouble maker-in-arms, then?” Hecate grinned.
“Ah—well…no actually. I managed to do that all on my own,” Gale ducked his head with chagrin. “No, Ashmead here was the picture of perfection at Blackstaff.”
“Mm,” Hecate hummed, leaning in and lowering her voice conspiratorially, “Don’t worry, I won’t hold that against you. Pleased to meet you.”
Hecate stepped forward with a smile, hand outstretched. Ashmead raised his in response and Hecate grasped it firmly. The elf’s hand remained limp however, as though he had been expecting a mere brush of the fingers or, perhaps even a kiss on the knuckles? Whatever the case, Hecate immediately loosened her grip with a blush, holding his hand awkwardly for a moment before letting go and stepping back slightly behind Gale as though he might shield her from making any more blunders.
Ashmead regarded her with a stiff smile,
“A pleasure, of course.” He returned to his teacup, his arm moving slow and graceful as though through water; it made Hecate feel bulky by comparison.
Gale pulled out a chair and nodded toward it with a welcoming smile. Hecate obliged him, sitting as daintily as she could muster, forming the mental image of sitting on an egg. Once she was settled he drew up a chair for himself and set to pouring himself a cup of tea, only after Hecate declined. Ashmead observed them both for a spell before setting his cup down with a sigh.
“You’ve been quite a hard man to see, Gale. First holing up here, taking no visitors, then vanishing at the drop of a hat. I must admit, I wondered if you would ever return from your…camping trip.” His nose wrinkled slightly on ‘camping trip’ as though he could smell the distasteful idea of it. Hecate scowled slightly but Gale merely chuckled,
“Believe it or not I find myself missing it sometimes, if I don’t think about it very hard,” he said with a laugh. “Now don’t miss my meaning, I don’t know that I would ever rough it just for the fun, but there’s a certain…camaraderie to it that you just can’t find anywhere else…” He trailed off, eyes catching on Hecate’s and his smile warmed her despite her unease.
Ashmead sniffed, dispelling the moment.
“Quite. Well I do hope you’ve been keeping up with your reading at least. There have been several utterly fascinating new editions this year. I just finished ‘A Study of Spores and their Supraterranean Effects’. I have it here. Sven is a brilliant mind even if his methods are…questionable.”
He passed the book to Gale who skimmed through key sections, eyes flickering side to side rapidly, brows furrowed in concentration.
“Questionable? He’s conducting experiments without consent! That’s downright reprehensible—“
“Yes but look at what his efforts uncovered,” Ashmead interrupted. “Distillation methods, potential therapeutic applications—“ Gale snapped the book shut and handed it back to Ashmead, shaking his head,
“I don’t think it’s wise to support this kind of experimentation. I dearly hope it is not being added to the curriculum at Blackstaff, I must have a word with the Dean…”
“Don’t act so rashly, Gale. None of his test subjects came to any real harm. Besides, he has an entire line of studies that you would be a fool to ignore. In fact, there’s one you might like,” he said, nodding toward Hecate who snapped back to attention from the glazed-over daydream she had been lost in. “It’s called ‘Of Cambions and Cornugons: a Study of the Hells’. Have you read it? Truly riveting.”
Hecate stared, frozen between baffled and livid. She was used to thinly veiled comments on her Tiefling heritage but she had not been prepared for it here.
“Why would she…”Gale started, bemused, but cut off when he saw the look on Hecate’s face and she could almost hear the gears whirring in his head as he tried to piece together what had just happened.
Slowly Hecate stood, gaze leaden on Ashmead,
“Actually I would like to hear the answer to that question. Why would I like this book?”
She’d give him the benefit of the doubt, but only the once.
Ashmead blinked, staring at her as though she had asked him the most foolish question in the world.
“Why, because of your devil blood of course—“
Gale stood up so quickly his chair nearly tipped over, the legs making a horrible screech that Hecate pettily hoped had scratched the floor…just a little. She held up a hand, stalling whatever Gale was going to say, her eyes never leaving Ashmead’s. She smiled but it was chilly and too perfect to be genuine.
“I apologize. Gale and I have just arrived from quite a long trip. We appreciate your visit but I must insist we take some time to unpack and rest. May I see you to the door?”
Ashmead’s eyes widened, and he looked at Gale as though to see if he was going to allow this to happen. Gale merely nodded his head toward Hecate, deferring to her with one, small gesture that braced her as surely as his arms around her.
With a wounded sniff, Ashmead rose and plied them each with the smallest of bows before bidding them farewell and sweeping out, brushing past Hecate as he went. Hecate didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she heard the front door slam shut. Gale was at her side in an instant, fingers tucking her hair behind her ear, cupping her cheeks in his palms.
“I am so, deeply sorry my love. I didn’t think…had I known…” Hecate quieted his stuttering, placing her hand over his and resting her head more fully in his palms.
“It’s alright. Well…no it’s not, but it’s nothing I’m not used to. I’m just…tired…” Hecate stopped, acutely aware of the prickling at the corners of her eyes. Mortified she ducked her head. Crying over one idiot? Gods she must be more exhausted than she thought…
A finger at her chin, a gentle pressure that lifted her glassy eyes up from the floor. He gazed at her, into her, eyes so soft it was almost painful. Hecate could feel those words again, burning like bile in her throat,
“I don’t belong here…do I?” she choked out.
Gale didn’t answer immediately. Instead he drew her to him, one hand around the small of her back, the other pressing her head to his shoulder and stroking her hair.
Hecate grit her teeth,
“Finery and riches…shit, Gale, that’s not where I live, that’s what I take. I’m not supposed to be here. I belong in some dungeon somewhere, cussing at a door and breaking my lockpicks…”
Gale snorted.
“I know,” he finally said. “That’s the Hecate I fell in love with, after all. You wear dirt and grime so beautifully…but you also wear fine things well too.” He pulled back so his gaze could find hers again.
“You belong here because you belong with me, and I with you. If this place doesn’t suit right now, it’s because it was a home and a life built around a lonely, privileged bachelor who couldn’t have ever dreamed of finding someone like you.” He placed his forehead to hers familiarly.
“I don’t want to return to my old life, I want it to be better. And it will be because you’re here.” He smiled and placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose.
“In addition, consider this: I am not married to this place. I’m marrying you. If we need to make our home somewhere else, it can be done. Though I do not envy whoever has to move that library because I’m going to be insufferable about it…” Hecate laughed, and it felt good. Gale chuckled as well. Then he leaned forward but stopped short so his mouth hovered just barely over hers, breathing a small laugh when Hecate shifted forward for the kiss that wasn’t there and scowled at him.
“You’re everything. Don’t ever forget that,” he whispered. Then his lips brushed against hers, so soft they could have merely been a breath. A low, growled noise rose in his chest and suddenly his kiss pressed into her, deeper and more insistent as though he could restrain himself no longer. One hand snaked around her lower back, pulling her to him with more force than he seemed capable of, pressing her to him. Her stomach clenched with a needful burn as his tongue licked boldly past her teeth and her fingers curled into his hair, completely ruining the half-knot. Neither of them cared.
He kissed her again and again between wide grins, eliciting a giggle when he spun her around. Finally they broke apart, falling into a comfortable embrace, Gale rocking them back and forth soothingly. After a silent moment he huffed,
“What an absolute bastard.”
“Mm,” Hecate mumbled into his chest. “To quote Lae’zel—Chk, Istik.”
“Oh I see you have been diligently studying your Githyanki.”
“I’m so glad you noticed. I know a noise of irritation and one whole insulting word.”
Gale chuckled, “I am fairly certain that means you’re fluent. Regardless, I still have half a mind to call Ashmead back here. Make him apologize…”
Hecate laughed, then reached into her pocket, dancing something small and shining between her fingers.
“That’s okay. I took his house key. Assmeat will have to come back for it. He can apologize then.”
Gale stared for the briefest of moments before dissolving into laughter, nearly collapsing into Hecate’s arms.
“I can not believe you called him Assmeat. How did no one think of that at school?”
“Because while you were pretending at being a twelve-year-old boy I actually am one.” Hecate grinned.
“I can’t argue with that,” Gale chuckled, his thumb stroking softly against her cheek. He bent down, his nose brushing against the side of her neck and slowly he trailed a column of kisses along its length.
“Alright ‘Future Missus Dekarios’,” she could hear the grin in his voice, “Shall we adjourn? There are things I want to do to you right now that are hardly appropriate for this room.”
“What the hell is appropriate for this room?” Hecate waggled her eyebrows.
“An excellent point. I can think of only one thing—“
And with a quick twist he hooked his arms under her legs, hoisting her up into the air and against his chest. Hecate giggled with delight and tucked her tail safely over his shoulder before pointing toward the staircase,
“Onward porter! Or be thee limp in leg as well as in spirit?”
Gale head-butted her playfully which turned into an affectionate nuzzling match between them which further devolved into Gale covering her face in as many kisses as he possibly could without dropping her. Then, with a tip of his head, a glowing dimension door opened beside them and one step took them through, the faint echo of ‘That’s cheating!’ ringing across the opulent foyer as the door closed behind them and vanished.
****
Bonus scene:
*Gale is letting Tara edit his wedding vows*
Tara: Mister Dekarios perhaps consider a comma in this section, you do like to go on.
Tara: Hecate, dear, would you not agree that Mister Dekarios is rather severely afflicted with verbosity?
Hecate: ….does that mean a lot of words?
Tara: Yes my dear.
Hecate: Ah…yeah, he’s pretty verb-city.
*Tara dies a little inside. Gale sincerely tries to explain the meaning of verbosity complete with word root and origin. Hecate is done with her speech already, it’s three sentences, Gale loves it.*
#baldur’s gate 3#bg3#bg3 tav#gale of waterdeep#gale dekarios#oc#fluff#fanfiction#fanfic#bg3 fanfiction#tara the tressym
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Top 5 bg3 npcs that aren’t companions?
oh great question thank you :)c going to refrain from answering with all pets/animals as well cause that’s all it would be 😂 oh and disclaimer that i’ve only played a little of act 3 as a tav and up to the start of act 2 as a durge so im sure im missing some great ones that are developed in the later game (‘:
mattis (completely coincidentally exactly the same person my character was as a child)(like i had decided on that backstory before even meeting him and when a cheerful scamming tiefling orphan showed up i was >:0000)(the rogue-specific dialog rly supported a 'recognition of the self in the other [derogatory]' interaction too which was so perfect)
dame aylin (i mean obviously aylin if you're free thursday night etc)(but also she's so interesting to me)(larger than life and sort of outside time very distinctly Different as a demigod and a target bc of it)(so full of love but also a harsh and violent form of 'good' i feel like you don't get to see much in female characters)
barcus wroot (wulbren turn on your location i just want to talk)
auntie ethel (there's little i love more than a hag)(and she gave me a piece of her scalp to eat so i feel we have a connection)
enver gortash (i haven't fully seen his story yet)(but he deserves mention bc i had such a strong reaction to meeting him)(which was that i literally could not wait to kill him i immediately hated him so much lmao)(but now im doing a durge run and im 👀 to meet him again bc i have a feeling it will be a very different reaction)
#talkin#bg3#i think after the coronation you're supposed to go up and talk to gortash more? from what ive seen in spoilers#and he tells you he'll leave you alone if you go after orin?#but i hated him so much that it didn't occur to me at all to talk to him even tho it gives you a quest marker#i was like 'well i'm not ready to fight him yet' and just#left the fucking building#and went into town#gortash inviting them to his coronation in a big grandstanding display of power and then waiting in his office to seal the deal#and growing increasingly impatient until some poor guard as to come in and be like :\#queue
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