#our goth queen deserves better | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hannahmanderr · 6 months

Text

(part 1 of 2)

Newton's third law states for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The Heart of the Infinite Realms sets out to prove that wrong.

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Danny reeled.

Remnants of fleeting memories that weren’t his own assaulted him like a swarm of angry bees. There was the weight of a pulsating ring lifting from his finger -

- and the distant thunder of a door slamming open -

- and -

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Star rolled her eyes. “Listen Pauli, if he really thinks he can use you like a plaything and toss you aside the moment he thinks he’s found someone better, then he never even deserved to breathe the same air as you.”

“H-he told me I was special!” Paulina sniffled. “That I-I was the on-”

“Girl, you know I love you, but I told you this when you first started seeing him!” Star interrupted. “He’s a player! Like literally! That boy can’t keep it in -”

“But he ch-cheated on me! No one cheats on me!”

She flicked her eyes both ways as she crossed the street. Paulina’s house wasn’t too far of a walk, but she did have a couple of streets to cross to get there. “Exactly. No one cheats on you and gets away with it. You’re the queen. You’re the one who rules.”

Paulina sighed with a dramatic flair only she could perfect. “I don’t feel like the queen. Not when I can’t have what I want…”

It was a rare show of vulnerability from her. Paulina never showed weakness, not to anyone. The only person she would open up to was Star, and even then she would not do it often. Things usually had to get pretty bad for her to be so blunt.

Still, Star frowned. “Are you on about Danny Phantom again? Because I thought we -”

“No! I’m keeping my promise! No ghost boy until he realizes I’m right for him!”

“Good girl.” She skipped over a puddle, and a sudden grin blossomed on her face. “Ohhh, wait, I think I know what this is about,” she said with a mischievous air.

“What?”

Star’s grin widened. “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about what you told me at Dale’s party last month. I know what you really want. Or should I say… who you want?”

She could practically hear Paulina’s stunned expression over the phone. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said flatly.

“Mhmm. Sure. You were drunk, but you weren’t that wasted.”

“I wasn’t anything because it never happened!”

Star laughed. Paulina’s house was just around the corner and a block down the road now. “Pauli, you can admit it to me. I’m not gonna tell anyone. Besides, I think it’s sweet how you pine after her!”

Paulina groaned, and there was a soft thump as she presumably flopped onto her bed. “It’s not pining! Díos mio, it’s not anything! Like I would fall for a goth geek like her, even if she is pretty!”

Star had to bite her lip to keep from guffawing at her friend’s slip. And to think Paulina was denying this crush so vehemently.

“Well, I -”

The sky exploded around her.

Experience had long since taught her to duck immediately. When you lived in a town plagued by ghosts who could fly, there were only so many reasonable responses to loud noises. Miraculously, she managed to keep the phone pressed to her ear.

She glanced up fearfully. The air hummed with potent energy, the kind that usually heralded a powerful ghost, only this was dialed up to an eleven. A series of chills ran down her spine, and in spite of herself, she shivered.

Above her, the sky keened with an ominous rumble that shook her to the bone. Her heart plummeted when the sharp crackling of lightning pierced her ears and a blinding fork of green light split the sky.

The edges of the cracks began to try and pull themselves away from each other, revealing even more green light. Just beyond, if she squinted, she could see the black of a pitch dark void trying to creep into the cracks and push them apart even more.

And just as quickly as the lightning and the cracks had appeared, they disappeared with a deafening snap that jolted Star’s gut out of place and sent her falling onto the sidewalk.

For a minute, she couldn’t do anything other than breathe heavily, trying to catch her breath and calm her racing heart. Paulina’s voice was running at a hundred miles per hour in her ear, but she couldn’t find it within herself to even try to pay attention. Something inside her boiled away at her blood, filling her with a kind of dread she’d only felt a handful of times before.

Very carefully, she propped herself up so she was sitting. She couldn’t find any remnant of what had just happened - only confused neighbors emerging from their homes, peering up and wondering the same thing she was..

“... was that? Star! Star, please! I heard a loud noise, are you okay?”

The words slowly started to take form in her brain. “Y-yeah,” she whispered, still watching everyone point up at the sky and talk amongst themselves. “I’m fine… I think… Did you see the sky?”

¿Qué piensas? Of course I saw it! What even happened?”

Star swallowed. “I don’t know…” But whatever it is can’t be good, she finished silently. Not when you lived in a town constantly plagued by the supernatural.

“I-I’ll try to tell you what I can when I get there,” she promised, hoisting herself onto her feet and jogging towards Paulina’s house. It shouldn’t have been more than a block, by that point.

She didn’t know how on earth she was going to explain it.

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He staggered backward, the blinding green light from the split sky still imprinted on the back of his eyelids. His hand hit the stone wall behind him, and if it was the wall of the Keep or Long Now or the Acropolis or his own house, he didn’t know.

Swooning, he pitched to the side. Fragments of foreign memory still plagued him with the echoes of sounds he didn’t recognize, like the unearthly roar of rage and anguish -

- and the broken cry of a disembodied voice -

- and the sound of -

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Sydney yawned noisily as the shade of his trigonometry teacher, Mrs. Rekdal, wrote out another equation on the blackboard. In life, Ms. Rekdal had been a tiny, crotchety Norwegian lady with a distinct distaste for nonsense. Apparently, her shade held similar attitudes.

She whirled around sharply and pointed her chalk at the classroom. “Who said that?” she demanded, beady eyes coming to rest on each and every student in turn. “If this is so boring, perhaps it’s time I assigned you another twenty problems for homework, eh?”

Sydney froze. Granted, he didn’t particularly care if they got another twenty problems (things like homework become meaningless when your entire afterlife is tied to the shadow memory of a high school), and he knew Ms. Rekdal would easily forget about the incident, but even after 50 years of trig lessons from her, incurring her wrath still shook him to the core.

The girl behind him - not one of the ones he’d finally managed to win over, sadly - kicked the bottom of his seat. “It was Poindexter!” she said. Her voice barely concealed her snickers. “He did it!”

Sydney turned to glare at her. “Real chummy of you, Kathy.”

She merely flashed him a cheeky grin.

“A-hem!”

Sydney yelped at the sharp crack of Ms. Rekdal’s ruler slapping against his desk. Sheepishly, trying to keep his shoulders from creeping up towards his ears, he turned back to meet her fiery gaze. She had always been one of those teachers that seemed like they could stare into your soul, and now felt no different.

“Well, Mr. Poindexter?” she said. She peered over the rims of her tortoise-shell glasses. “Tell me why I shouldn’t send all of you home with an extra hour of homework tonight, since you seem to be the wise guy here!”

He bit back a comment about how it was impossible for her to send them home with extra homework - for all intents and purposes, the echo of Casper High was home - and instead tried for an apologetic smile. “W-well, you see, ma’am, I -”

Ms. Rekdal disappeared.

Sydney blinked. “What the -” He waved a hand around where she’d been standing, but there was no trace of her. “Did you guys -”

He cut himself short when he turned around, only to see the rest of the class had disappeared too. Not even their bags and books and papers remained.

He stood up, and his chair fell to the ground with a clatter. “Alright, if this is someone’s funny idea of a prank, I’ll have ya know this is a lame one, buster!”

Something shifted outside the window.

Something of a girlish scream tore from his throat as he looked out the window only to see a big, gaping rip of pure darkness emerging against the already-dark horizon of the Ghost Zone. Around the edges, ectoplasm warped and wobbled. Neighboring doors and windows were swallowed whole, or disintegrated, or simply glitching.

Even through the glass, he could hear the distant sounds of a guttural, furious roar. His eyes flew open, and his core shuddered to a halt.

He knew that roar anywhere.

“I-impossible!” he gasped. He made to run for the door and tripped over his fallen chair. “He can’t be - he’s supposed to be locked away! I-I have to…”

Have to what? If his ears weren’t tricking him, if this truly was him… what could little old him do? He was a wimp! Nothing like the kind of person needed to beat him up! Nowhere near as strong as -

The answer hit him like a brick wall.

“Phantom!” He worked to untangle himself from the chair. “I’ve gotta -”

“And just what do you think you’re doing, Mr. Poindexter?”

Sydney blinked again, and Ms. Rekdal stood over him, arms crossed and eyes as beady as ever.

“What?” His ears fell deaf to the snickers of his classmates around him as he sat up, staring out the window.

The tear of darkness was gone. The roar had died away. The doors had been returned.

As if nothing had ever happened.

“Sit! Up! Poindexter!” Ms. Rekdal snapped at him. “Unless if you don’t think you need history class anymore, in which case I’m more than happy to send you straight to the principal’s office!”

Sydney stopped in the middle of righting his chair. “History class? But this is trig!”

This time, he heard his classmates’ giggles. “Wow, did you really hit your head that hard?” Kathy said, still laughing behind her hand. “Trig class, what a joke!”

“I don’t -”

“Enough!” Ms. Rekdal barked. “There’s been enough interruption to this class for one day! The next person to disrupt class will earn themselves a one way trip to a month’s worth of detention!”

Sydney gazed around the room helplessly. Sure enough, the posters of formulas had disappeared in favor of maps and posters with the presidents. Rather than the math they’d been working on before, the blackboard was covered in notes about the War of 1812. His classmates all sat in the same seats, but they held history textbooks in their hands instead of trigonometry textbooks.

His mouth formed around soundless words. This… it couldn’t be right. The shade never changed. It never changed. It was impossible! It was an echo, it couldn’t change! Everything always remained the same!

Until now. Until that rip in the sky. Until that roar.

Without another word, Sydney turned and fled out the door.

He had to warn someone.

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He fell into something squishy and warm and loud, something yelling his name into his ear. He flinched away from the sound. It grated too harshly on his ears. It only added to the cacophony of alien memories overwhelming him.

And yet worse than the peppering of unfamiliar memories and the swimming thoughts and the disorientation, was the intense burning that consumed his core and heart, inside and out. Like someone had taken him to the sun and dropped him inside. Or like someone had stabbed it with a knife of fire and blood blossoms.

Like being caught in the crossfire of life and death all over again.

He groaned weakly and drew his knees to his chest. It was too much to bear. Too much. Too hot. Too much like the memory of a razor-sharp sword swinging down into his eye -

- and the angry flames of a crown trying to reject him -

- and the -

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The Fright Knight sighed as he carefully petted Nightmare’s fiery mane. He did not own much; he was a servant to the throne, and the throne provided for him. He had no need for belongings, not like other ghosts. Even if he’d had belongings, he couldn’t guarantee they would even remain the same with the changing of the throne. Everything, even down to his armor, always changed.

Still though, there were a few things he could always count on having. His sword, for instance, christened as Sāwol Rīpere many centuries before, with the coronation of the most recent king. Of course, its name changed with each coronation of each new king, but the sword remained his. The tool with which to carry out his sacred charge.

And his beautiful mare. Her name too changed along with the sword’s (and his own), but she remained by his side throughout the centuries. His duty to the throne aside, Sāwol Rīpere and Nightmare were the two things he prized most. His two constants amidst an existence of rotating rulers and rotating identities.

Granted his relationship with Sāwol Rīpere, now better known by its more modern translation of Soul Shredder, had been strained over the past few centuries. Even now, sheathed and hanging at his side, he could feel its power itching to be freed, its need to reap souls to the Realm of Eternal Terrors, as it had been commissioned to do with the name it had been granted.

It was a power he despised.

And yet it was a power he couldn’t reject.

Not yet, at least.

He still managed to take comfort in Nightmare. Though her appearance had changed to evoke fear in those who saw her, to him, she was the same magnificent steed she had been millenia ago, back when she’d first been given to him. Their bond was strong, one-of-a-kind. No matter what, he knew he could rely on her to be his faithful companion.

As he stroked her neck and mane, though, he felt her muscles tense beneath his hand. Despite having no visible face, the Fright Knight frowned. “Nightmare? What troubles you?”

As if in response, a crashing force of energy slammed into them both.

The Fright Knight braced himself against the barrage. He’d found himself in the midst of many onslaughts before, but none so strong as this. Nightmare whinnied with anxiety, and he suspected the only reason she did not kick her hoof against the ground was because she too needed to brace herself against the force.

Almost as quickly as it came, it left, and in its wake came a rumble that caused his armor to clink together loudly. Across the sky of the Realms above him, green light flashed and forked, and with a great heave that he could feel in his core, it began to tear itself apart, exposing a darkness like none he had seen before.

At the same time, another sensation grew in his core, one that he’d not felt in many centuries. A certain yearning that strained against himself, one that demanded to be satisfied immediately. As he watched the tear in the sky grow, his eyes widened as the recognition of the yearning dawned on him.

“After all these years,” he whispered. “Could it be…?”

For a moment, he stood there, reveling in the feeling. True, this was not an entirely foreign pull on his core, but there was a distinct… lightness to it. Not heavy or forceful or with the sense of impending doom that had accompanied it the last time it had appeared. No, this one felt promising.

Like for the first time in hundreds of years, he could allow himself to hope again.

And then the next moment, yet another sensation wrapped its hot grasp around his core. He gasped at the familiar sting, and Nightmare reared with a loud neigh.

Of course she would. He knew she hated the sting as much as she did.

“Calm yourself!” he said, unable to keep the urgency out of his voice. He reached up to stroke her neck again, and she dutifully relaxed into his touch. Still though, she made sure to voice her displeasure through a series of nickers and grunts.

“I know, my mare.” He couldn’t resist how his fingers tightened around the tendrils of flame that formed her mane. “He’s been awakened again. He’s…” His voice trailed off. He couldn’t bring himself to reassure his horse in the face of the revelation.

He swallowed thickly. The hot grip on his core was undeniable. It had held him captive for too long now, ever since a crown of flames was placed upon the new king’s head. He knew it all too well. His core demanded that he follow it, that he fulfill his duty to the throne.

And yet the new sensation, the new tug at his core… it too demanded his attention. Though softer and quieter than the sting, it beckoned to him as well. It told him of a duty that needed equally fulfilled. The same duty demanded by the sting.

He sighed again, shakily, and carefully untangled his fingers from Nightmare’s mane. The feeling of his core at conflict with itself was quickly becoming all too much for him to bear.

He needed to choose.

And he knew which one would win out in his core, regardless of his own desires.

Slowly, he mounted Nightmare. With a cry, he snapped the reins, and his mare took off like a rocket.

Headed straight for Pariah’s Keep.

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“No!”

His cry was strangled; his mouth felt too clumsy around it. The scratchiness in his throat didn’t help matters, and he couldn’t remember if it had been from all the screaming, but had it actually been him doing the screaming? He couldn’t remember, and he had too many memories jumbled around in his head.

And he had priorities. Like the last memory of the Fright Knight. And his panging, burning core.

His core, burning with the same hot grasp that had taken the hold of the Fright Knight.

Trembling, he blindly attempted to push himself away from whatever warm, soft thing he’d fallen on. “He’s -” he gasped, unable to catch his breath. “Pa- he’s…”

Voices around him drowned his own feeble voice out. They shouted, only adding to the overstimulation. Were they talking to him? Yelling at him? He couldn’t tell. It was like trying to listen underwater.

With another gurgle, his arms gave out from under him, and -

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He fell face first onto the stone floor. The dome of the Ecto-Skeleton shielded his face from most of the damage, but the force of the blow still shook his body and caused him to crash painfully against the side. Hopefully that crack in his ribs was more imagined than real.

Ignore it, he repeated to himself. The same mantra he’d been repeating to himself the entire fight. Do what needs to be done.

Still though, he couldn’t stop himself from glancing down at the dashboard.

19%.

18%.

17%.

Not enough.

It wouldn’t be enough.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned a picture of Amity Park to mind. Pushed out the pain. Pushed out the feeling of energy draining from him faster than he could replace it. Pulled in every desperate thought about the city and people he loved so much. His friends. His family.

Do what needs to be done. For them.

As he stumbled to his feet, gasping at how much energy even such a simple movement cost him, Pariah cackled above him, his laugh deep and thunderous. “Surrender, child!” he taunted from his place at the foot of the dais. “You can’t possibly win!”

Danny’s eyes narrowed.

16%.

15%.

Pariah was right. God, the thought made his stomach turn and his heart stutter, but Pariah was right.

There would be no winning here.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. The sound of Pariah’s maniacal laughter was drowned out by the rush of blood in his ears. Each labored breath pushed his overworked lungs closer and closer to the brink of giving out. His heart and core had long since begun to fall out of their carefully maintained rhythm.

The image of Sam and Tucker, of Mom and Dad and Jazz, began to fade from his mind’s eye.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the tears threatening to fall.

He had to.

He had no choice.

Do what needs to be done.

He inhaled shakily. “I don’t need to win,” he said, making sure to look Pariah dead in the eye. With a heave, he summoned energy to his hands and shot twin blasts of turquoise ectoplasm.

Pariah, of course, ducked, but the blasts soared over his head and into the rubble at the top of the dais. With a deafening crash, the stone was exploded out of the way, revealing an ornate sarcophagus standing alone atop the dais, lid still opened and ready to welcome an occupant.

There would be no winning today.

14%.

13%.

Not for either of them.

Not if he could help it.

“I just need to make sure you lose!” he shouted, lunging forward. Pariah, whose confident aura had faltered at the sight of his old prison, stumbled back, never once averting his gaze from the Sarcophagus to see Danny.

Just before they collided, Danny made a desperate swipe above the king’s head. His fingers closed around hot metal, and he yanked with a great tug.

The Crown came loose.

If his life hadn’t been at stake, he probably would’ve laughed at the bewildered look on Pariah’s face. Unfortunately…

He looked down at the Crown in his hands. Back up to the Sarcophagus. Over to Pariah.

12%.

“NO!” Pariah’s scream was loud enough to shake bits of rubble from the ceiling.

Danny looked back down at the Crown. Something about it seemed to pulse in his hands, almost as if it were alive. He could feel the power within it. Even through the metal mecha, he could feel its richness, its fullness, how pure and unfiltered the power within was…

It reached toward him. He could feel it practically knocking at the door to his core, asking to be let in, and his core ached to do so. It was almost frightening how welcoming the power felt, and how much he found himself yearning to welcome it back.

If only…

11%.

Pariah began to recover from his shock, and in that instant, Danny made another split second decision.

He threw the Crown to the side and lunged forward again.

The instant it left his hand, Danny regretted that decision. The sudden absence of that power hit him like a brick wall, and he nearly faltered from the shock. Maybe he should’ve kept it. Maybe the ghosts were wrong about it only working with the Ring. Maybe it could’ve offered him something, anything, just something enough to make sure he lasted long enough to put this guy away for good.

When he came into contact with Pariah, though, those thoughts were thrown aside just as easily as the Crown.

He had a job to do.

Pushing the king up the dais was surprisingly easy, all things considered. Still ate up too much of his precious energy, but had he held onto the Crown any longer, Pariah would’ve had more of a chance to recover and brace himself against the attack. That would’ve cost him even more energy.

And it didn’t mean his heart didn’t tremble in his chest with every pained breath. Or that his ribs didn’t scream in agony. Or that his body felt any less battered and bruised as it probably was.

Just a little further.

Pariah growled, something feral and guttural, and he tried to dig his heels into the ground.

So close.

Danny pushed harder.

10%.

Something snapped inside him as they reached the top, and with a feral growl of his own, Danny shoved Pariah face-first into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep and shut the lid with a bang that resounded across the Zone.

For one blessed second, he felt lighter than air. Had he managed to do it? Had he really won?

And then the full force of Pariah’s power crashed against him.

Danny’s core skipped a beat as he frantically repositioned himself to hold down the lid tight. Pressed tight against the Sarcophagus with his head bent low, he couldn’t see much around him, but he felt it as the atmosphere around him began to shift violently. Ambient ectoplasm manifested into something tangible and swirled around Danny and the Sarcophagus like an angry cyclone.

Angry was definitely the right word for it. He could practically taste it in the air as the energy around him hummed.

(Little did he know that the same angry cyclone surrounded the kidnapped Amity Park.)

Something was on the brink of happening. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something familiar.

He looked down at the dashboard.

9%.

8%.

Pariah roared wordlessly from within his prison, the noise nearly deafening in Danny’s ears. The king gave a particularly strong heave, and Danny gasped as he desperately pushed back.

The energy around them was becoming palpable now. It wanted… something. It wanted… to…

7%.

6%.

5%.

His eyes unfocused for a moment, no thanks to the exertion, and when they came back into focus, albeit somewhat blurry, they landed on the keyhole of the Sarcophagus.

His heart dropped like a stone.

The key. He didn’t have it.

No…

Oh God. Oh God. He…

He really wasn’t going to make it.

He wouldn’t win.

And Pariah would be able to walk free over his dead corpse like a welcome mat.

Oh God.

I’m gonna die.

4%.

And now he knew why the energy buzzing around them felt familiar. He’d experienced this before. The ectoplasm and the hum and the desire and the feeling like something was about to break and everything.

He didn’t have the energy to scream as flashes of blinding white and green light filled his mind. The memory of electricity coursing through his body, burning his insides away and reducing him to dust and rewriting him entirely, was almost enough to make him fall away from the door.

3%.

Almost.

He couldn’t breathe now. Whether it was because he was too weak or because the smell of burning flesh and ozone and ectoplasm haunted him or because of some other third reason, he had no clue. Tears fell freely down his cheeks.

Please, he begged silently. Why was he praying? Did he even believe in God? Was it some fit of desperation of hope of a life beyond this one?

2%.

His core felt ready to give out. His heart fluttered in an irregular beat. He was slumped against the Sarcophagus’ door, nothing more than dead weight against it. He was all too aware of the neural receptors attached to him, sapping away any last bit of life they could.

I don’t want to die…

The energy around him threatened to rip him open all over again.

I’m too scared…

Distantly, he felt something wrap around his core.

I’m too weak…

It wasn’t unpleasant, surprisingly enough. If anything it was… comforting?

I can’t do this…

1%.

He began to fall into a lifeless heap. He expected it to hurt as horribly as the rest of him, as badly as everything else had hurt him, but it was strangely soft. In a bizarre turn of events, he was reminded of one of the poems Lancer loved to drone on about. Something about going softly into the night.

Maybe that’s what dying would end up being.

I don’t want to die…

He couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t hold on.

He dropped.

Something clicked.

(The energy moved.)

The roar in his ears died away. His vision went black.

A voice tried to speak to him. He couldn’t understand it.

His core and heart slowed.

Rest. The thought was fuzzy, unclear, more of a feeling than a word. He couldn’t even tell if it was his own.

But he obeyed.

Maybe dying could be like going to sleep.

Maybe…

And as he lost the last threads of his consciousness, a new voice spoke to him, unfamiliar but clear as day.

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Sweet little Prince…

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He choked back a cry of fear. That voice… Was it the memory, or was it speaking to him now?

With a jolt, he realized it was the same voice that had been giving him those thoughts since he’d entered the Ghost Zone not two hours earlier. Panic gripped his heart, and when the hot hold on his core gave a particularly strong squeeze, he gasped and clawed at his chest.

Leave me alone! He didn’t know if he said it out loud or not; he couldn’t tell. At this point, all he knew was the fear inside of him. Get out of my head!

It was Pariah. It had to be. How he’d gotten inside his head like this, he didn’t know, but it was the only explanation.

Another wave of panic seized him, and he began to claw with more desperation. On some distant, not quite conscious level, he drew on his core, willing the energy into his hands, only for it to respond with another stab of pain. He cried out.

A pair of hands seized his own. He instinctively drew on his core again in an attempt to go intangible and escape, but he was met with the same pain. Instead, he resorted to thrashing about, trying to free himself.

“Par… let go..!” he wheezed.

He couldn’t let Pariah get him again.

He couldn’t go through that again.

He couldn’t.

You won’t have to.

The voice only increased his vigor.

He jerked away from the hands as hard as he could, and -

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The force of the shudder had been enough to bring everyone in the Ancients’ chamber to their knees.

Save for young Phantom.

For a moment, Kala could only watch from his position pressed into the table as the child hung in the air, wrapped in a warped glow. The deathmark on his arm grew brighter and brighter, and frost began to spread on the floor and walls. Power tinged the room, a power that felt as light as a refreshing summer breeze and as strong as a mountain.

In that moment, Kala could believe that this child was truly the next High King, every bit deserving of the title of Pariah’s Bane.

And then Phantom fell and the illusion shattered.

The shudder was almost forgotten as the power and frost dissipated. The child landed on his feet but quickly fell first into the wall behind him, then into one of his human friends, the boy. The boy yelped Phantom’s name, and the other one, the girl, was quick to kneel at his side as well.

If the image of the child floating in the air, surrounded by power, had been kingly, the image of him writhing pathetically on the ground and whimpering nonsense was anything but. Kala found himself at a loss.

He’d never seen anything like this.

Frostbite and Pandora’s attendant reacted immediately, rushing to help ease Phantom off of the human boy. “He’s burning up,” Frostbite murmured. In his arms, the child looked small, weak. He pressed two claws to Phantom’s chest, and Pandora’s attendant took Phantom’s hands in hers to keep him from flailing too much. “His core is overheating.”

“It was that - that earthquake, or whatever you call it!” The human girl sprang to her feet and looked helplessly at the other Ancients. “It’s been doing that all day, that’s what we were trying to say before!”

Zunje grabbed the tablet that had been thrown from her hands. “It’s done this each time?” She began to scroll furiously. “But why would it overheat? Why would it respond so poorly? If it’s the Heart at the root of all this, it shouldn’t…” She trailed off, muttering to herself.

Phantom cried out unintelligibly, trying to shake off the attendant’s grasp, but she held tight, singing something quietly in ancient Greek.

Kala’s frown deepened. Something was not right.

“No king before has ever had such a… violent reaction to being told of their ascension,” he remarked.

The human girl’s eyes flashed his way, and to his surprise, he found himself mildly impressed by the fierce, determined shine in them. “It’s not that! He wouldn’t… It’s gotta be something else! This doesn’t just happen!”

“Precisely,” Kala agreed with a nod. “Perhaps this truly is the work of the Heart. Perhaps it is attempting to reject him.” The idea made sense to him. In spite of whatever image he’d been presented with earlier, he couldn’t accept the notion that Kilaris would choose a half-breed child of all possible candidates. He simply couldn’t! It violated every unspoken law that had already been established!

… Right?

“But the Heart’s rejected folks before,” Babel said. “It’s never done anything like this before. I mean, even if he ain’t the guy…”

“... Kilaris would never inflict harm like this upon one of its own,” Pandora finished.

Kala hummed. “Then it must be someone else’s doing.”

“What?” The human boy glanced at him. “I thought Vlad said that was impossible. Like, someone would have to actually be here to hurt him that way.”

“No, yeah, that’s about right,” Zunje said. She did not look up from her tablet. “Core interference has gotta be a direct thing. Only a strong magic can do anything from a distance.”

“So then it is the Heart,” Pele said with a grunt.

Zunje bit her lip. “I… I don’t know? It’s… I can’t tell?” She stabbed a finger at the tablet. “I’m trying to, but it’s not…”

Phantom rolled in Frostbite’s arms. “P… pah…” he gasped, as though his mouth struggled to form around the sound.

Frostbite himself rumbled. “He needs to cool down. I’d offer to maintain his core temperature myself, but…” His eyes flickered in Pandora’s direction. “I… worry about the practicalities. I may have something that can help, though.”

“Here.” Pandora’s attendant shifted to sit on her ankles. “Go. I will keep him as stable as I can.”

Frostbite seemed hesitant, but after a brief moment of indecision, he carefully lowered the child into the attendant’s lap. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised, and Kala couldn’t quite decide if it had been directed more towards the attendant or Phantom himself.

As Frostbite disappeared through the door of thick ice, Kala turned his attention back to Zunje. “Can you not give us any report?” he asked.

“Believe me, I’m trying. My sensors are going nuts. Things are just so inconsistent…”

There was a loud crack, and suddenly, Babel stood on Zunje’s shoulder. “Lemme see!” They made a grab for the tablet. “Inconsistent is my middle name.”

“You don’t have a middle name.”

“Well, if I did, it would be inconsistent.”

Phantom began trying to speak again. Pandora’s attendant leaned in closer. “Say that again,” she whispered.

Still, the child’s mumbles seemed unintelligible to him.

The human girl had gone back to staring at her friend, picking blindly at her fingers. “So… you were being serious about Danny being a - a king?” she asked quietly.

Pandora nodded. “Very much so. I’ve admittedly had my suspicions for a while now…” She trailed off, glancing at Kala. “But it’s been speculation at best. I’d hoped for his sake that I was wrong, but…”

“Wait, what? Why? Is it dangerous or something?”

Pele snorted. “Danger lies in all things. It is never a question of if. It’s a question of how much.”

“The throne is not inherently a dangerous office,” Pandora said quickly, having seen the way both humans paled considerably. “My concern was… mainly in terms of his age. Even by your human standards, he is young.” Her gaze softened as it came to rest on the delirious Phantom. “It is an incredible burden to ask of anyone, especially for someone as young as he.”

“Right. Yeah.” The human boy licked his lips. “Definitely not dangerous to put a teenager in charge of an entire dimension. Nope.”

“Do not get me wrong. I firmly believe he’ll make a great king, given time.”

“If he is to be king,” Kala said before he could stop himself. “I am still not certain that he is the Heart’s chosen. Especially given these… troubles.”

“You can’t deny that he has some connection to Kilaris,” Pandora protested. She gestured to her attendant, still holding the child in her lap and leaned in close. “How else can you explain a reaction such as this?”

Kala opened his mouth to answer before realizing he didn’t have one. How could he explain it? As much as he loathed to admit, the evidence did seem to point to the boy as the next king. He would, as always, wait to finish gathering all evidence before making a decision, but he couldn’t deny the signs.

He also couldn’t deny the doubt that refused to be satisfied, deep in his core.

The door of ice opened again, and Frostbite re-entered the chamber, holding a bundle of fabric in one of his paws. He wasted no time returning to young Phantom’s side.

“Here.” Gently, he lifted the child’s shoulders and secured the fabric around his neck. “I was saving this as a gift, but… he needs it now.”

Kala watched with attentive eyes as Frostbite carefully wrapped the outer folds of the cloak around Phantom, effectively cocooning him.

His eyes opened.

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

Clockwork hummed a little tune to himself as he spun the dial on his staff. In front of him, a time window showed the image of young Danny, emerging from a portal.

A black, frosted crown sat on Danny’s head.

Clockwork would’ve liked to watch the boy in real time. Sadly, the Observants had made sure to block his view into the Ancients’ chamber long ago.

He’d have to settle for offering a tiny bit of assistance from afar.

Hopefully Frostbite wouldn’t be too upset with him for adding his own little touch to Danny’s gift.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #ghost king danny #hannah writes #supernova #fanfiction #danny phantom fanfiction #dp fanfiction #fanfic #what did i tag these with before #i can't remember #anyway off to finish off part 2 afshdkjladfskj

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squadrah · 1 year

Note

your first impressions of la squadra vs your thoughts now?

I first saw them in the anime, so these are based on that!

Risotto:

"Congratulations on being so big and managing a Grim Reaper aesthetic out of a jester's hat and prison stripe pants, what is with your eyes though."

VS.

"I wish he had gotten his backstory animated as a bonus because I feel like it would have added so much to his arc and character to make it explicit. As ruthless as he can be once he makes up his mind, I like him more for those little flecks of humanity shining through."

Formaggio:

"That has to be the ugliest color scheme they could have gone with, but he seems fun."

VS.

"He was robbed, he was slandered and he was robbed when he has one of the best abilities out there that I would want in real life, he's just a little guy, just a little birthday boy and he needs to be appreciated more."

Prosciutto:

"TATTSUN?! This guy must be really popular to get voiced by Tattsun."

VS.

"The reason he was voiced by Tattsun is because he's literally the best and he's my forever fave and a major driving force behind me writing for fandom at all, and I love him and his Stand and his everything and I will defend him to the death."

Pesci:

"I am intrigued by your shapes and your Stand."

VS.

"He is a good boy and I wish we got to spend more time with him because it is so cool to me that one of his Stand's quirks mirror's the protagonist (damage reflection). Like, this is meaningful to me and I deeply respect his potential."

Ghiaccio:

"I know this was wishful thinking but damn, I wish you were voiced by Yoshino Hiroyuki. Your Stand is amazing though!"

VS.

"He was really great to watch and I was so sad he died because he was yet another minor antagonist showing amazing integrity and spirit and I love his Stand aesthetic and I'm so glad he gets amazing fanart of it, he is extremely valid."

Melone:

"He's a walking talking aesthetic. A computer Stand, too... oh fuck, oh god no."

VS.

"Still mad about some choices made by Araki and DavePro, because I have since embraced him as such an interesting character with oodles of potential and great to meme. He deserved better than what he got, as did his fans."

Illuso:

"What a smug bastard. Very cool Stand."

VS.

"What a smug bastard with a bajillion implied issues, he is such deliciously rotten candy, he's an asshole but he's our asshole, he's literally so much fun while being such a terrible person honestly, life would not be the same without him."

Sorbet:

"That widow's peak... Very boring fashion though."

VS.

"This is a goth drag queen who was mercilessly culled before his time because he wanted cash in this shit mafia economy for his dream goth wedding. I want him to have everything that the shounen genre was too afraid to give him."

Gelato:

"There is a very uniquely naughty vibe here. Very boring fashion though."

VS.

"He is the naughtiest little devil in this hell house, he is the personification of the >:3c emoji, everyone loves him and is simultaneously afraid he's gonna set the house on fire just for a laff. Adorable."

#la squadra #risotto nero #formaggio #prosciutto #pesci #ghiaccio #melone #illuso #sorbet #gelato #squadrah original #mannn remember when i watched the TGD arc and was like ah it was good i cried and everything #and a month later it just hit me that prosciutto is the fucking best #it literally took me a month and then it just crashed into me #and now here we are and he is still the fucking best

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beesandfigs-abandoned · 2 years

Text

OUR GOTH QUEEN DESERVED BETTER 😤😤😤🔥🔥🔥💕💕💕

@dragonfly1399

#litg najuma #litg #litg fanart #dear lord have mercy plsssss #my goth queen #i love her with my entire heart #litg s4

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fakeboitherottengirl · 2 years

Text

I’m pretty sure I was like 2 or 3 (maybe younger but not older bc we still lived with my grandma) my dad watched “Banned From TV” with me and also “Faces of Death” which all I remembered was the monkey “death” until I rewatched it in my teens but people think I’m weird for being fascinated with gore/lost and forbidden media and it’s like my brother in Christ I was watching my first mixtapes when y’all were watching Barney my ability to feel healthy levels of shock went out the window before they had a chance to develop. I really do hate the trending back toward long mixtapes because there’s usually something on the mixtape like animal or child content which I find too upsetting or gross filler like scat porn. also there is animal violence material (the crushing of chicks) that I thought was a bad dream when I was little but I’m starting to suspect was something on my fathers mixtapes because apparently he used to collect tapes of shock footage that he would buy on construction sites in NYC and has the VHSs in his gun locker so I guess my gore fascination is another thing I inherited from him but yeah apparently in the early 90s in the shittier part of NYC you used to be able to buy an unmarked VHS with only the knowledge that what it contained was really bad. Also I never got in trouble for watching gore, it was something I did in the open on my family computer growing up (as opposed to reading Hannah Montana erotica and forgetting to clear the search history which got my internet privileges revoked for a few days in middle school) my parents were just like “oh, our goth teenager likes gore, what a quirky little girl” like it was treated as completely not alarming to the point where I just assumed everybody watched gore in private like they watched porn and was shocked to find out that wasn’t the case. Also it’s weird that my family just let me watch it on the communal computer in the middle of the living room where my sisters and shit could also see and they’ve thrown it in my face since that I exposed them to gore growing up and it’s just like y’all I didn’t even realize it was a taboo thing until I hosted a viewing of 3 guys 1 hammer and half my friends avoided me for a week but I’ve grown up with gore and consider it a fairly harmless indulgence especially compared to porn. It was also an important part of me re-mastering the parts of my brain that Happy tree friends shook up (which were the only segments in FUBAR that I remember having to look away from). Idk what the point of this post is other than to say I never really had a chance to develop a healthy sense of shock and early exposure to extreme/adult media has completely fucked up my ability to respond normally to the concept of violence and I really worry for this generation who is growing up with iPads from the time they are old enough to hit a button they are going to get exposed to so much and as much as i front like queen edgelord early exposure to that kind of material seriously damaged me and as far as I’m concerned the glass can’t be Uncracked the damage is done but if u have a child please dear god monitor/limit their internet activity because I grew up in the age of the physical Chinatown mixtape and still saw what I saw kids growing up online are going to see so much so soon if you don’t take active steps to shelter them please protect the next generation from what happened to ours they deserve better

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bi-cookie · 4 years

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• 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 -> 𝖫𝗂𝗅𝗒 𝖲𝗉𝖾𝗇𝖼𝖾𝗋

❝ I'm your goth queen, thank you very much.❞

#our goth queen deserves better #this turned out better than i expected #imma give her all the love shes too precious #🤧 each week imma do a character from bb and imma love it #lily spencer #bb #bloodbound #edits #character aesthetics #aestheitcs #moodboard #choices moodboard #choices edits #choices aesthetics #character-moodboard #*mine

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girlfrommars28 · 3 years

Text

This is a new version of my TD characters sexualities bc I rewatched it and I changed my mind on a couple of things

Chris is the embodiment of being gay and homophobic

Chef is gay

Beth is straight in my opinion, I know I said she was my pan child but I rewatched the show and she just doesn’t give me that vibe + I don’t like her that much anymore so... yeah

DJ is still my gay child, I’ll do everything for him and his two mums; TDWT did him dirty

Gwen is still the goth bisexual queen; for my own sake I’ll ignore what the writers did with her and act like the kiss never happened and you should do the same; her and Duncan should’ve remained friends, case closed drive safely

Geoff is giving me bisexual vibes

Lindsay is either bi or pan, but I’ll go with pan; she was robbed, I’m telling you, ROBBED

I’d say that Heather is a lesbian, but since aleheather is my ride or die ship, I’ll say that she’s bi

Duncan is just giving me bi vibes, maybe bi with a preferance for women, but bi nonetheless

Tyler is a chaotic bisexual; just watch his first interaction with Alejandro and you’ll understand

I see Harold as straight, but I could be wrong

Trent is my bi child; they did him dirty in TDA, he deserved so much better

Bridgette is pan; she is my second favourite character and I’ll not argue on that; this girl was robbed, I’m still mad about it

Noah remains our sarcastic gay pal, he’s probably ace as well and most likely in a relationship with Owen

I want to say that Leshawna is a lesbian but I’ll say she’s bi; I love her and her elimination in TDI was stupid

Sadie and Katie are lesbian girlfriends, try to change my mind

Ezekiel is aroace, I don’t have an explanation for that, he just is

Cody is a bisexual king, I also see him as a trans boy

Eva is a raging lesbian, she has a special place in my heart

Owen is our chaotic bisexual king but we all know that; it was made very clear from the first episode

Courtney is yet another chaotic bisexual; I can see her and Gwen getting together after the show

I think Justin is aroace

Izzy is pan in my opinion

Alejandro is just really bisexual, you can argue with the wall

Sierra is bi with a preferance for men (Cody)

Jo is our hardcore butch lesbian; I’m pretty sure I had a crush on her when I watched TD as a child, should’ve told me something sooner

Scott is ace and maybe bi but with a preferance for women

Zoey is a chaotic pansexual queen, she is my child, even though I feel like putting my hands around her neck ever so often for some of the stupid stuff she does but anyway

Mike is most likely bi with a preferance for women; as for his alters, Vito is a pansexual mess, Svetlana is a raging lesbian, Mal is a they/them aroace brat, Chester is just... Chester and I don’t even know what to say about Manitoba Smith so...

Lightning is so gay, he’s most definitely best friends with Jo bc lesbian/jock solidarity; he probably takes Jo to buy clothes and gives her fashion advice; I mean, just look at him, this guy has a super bowl champion father and trophy wife mother, you can NOT tell me that he doesn’t dress well and take care of himself religiously

Brick is yet another gay man; and a bottom

B is aroace, maybe even a trans man

Dawn is my favourite character from the whole thing so I’m probably projecting this but she is unlabeled, but if it would be to put a label on herself it would probably be pansexual, cuz she doesn’t give a frick about gender, she just loves

Dakota is bi with a preferance for men

Anne Maria is either really bi or really straight, no in between

Staci is probably straight but idk

Cameron is my aroace child

Sam is giving me bisexual vibes

I won’t do the whole Pakitew Island cast bc I haven’t rewatched it and I’m not really planning on it but I do have some opinions about some of the characters so...

Scarlett is a raging lesbian

Topher is gay

Jasmine is bi and so is Shawn

I like to say that Max is aroace, maybe a they/them or he/they as well but idk

Samey is a chaotic bisexual, lesbian could also work

Ella is yet another lesbian, she could also be bi but I’m going with lesbian

Special mentions to Brody who I personally see as pan and also in a poly relationship with Geoff and Bridgette

and also, Josee is a lesbian

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lesbianlotties · 3 years

Note

hey, dani! for your february prompt list for andy x quynh... in an AU where quynh did not go under, what would be the fashion periods that each of them thought the other had their best look?

Sure, maybe Andy and Quynh are the two oldest people on Earth who have seen the rise and fall of entire Empires, have fought countless wars, and come back to death pretty regularly. But there are some things about being human and living in a society that not even the most extraordinary people can avoid. So, they had to go shopping for new clothes.

“Do you like this?” Andy asked, holding up a black t-shirt that was unlucky or privileged enough, depending on the t-shirt’s sensibility, to face the judgement of Quynh’s unimpressed stare. “It’s not boring, it’s practical,” Andy defended her choice, knowing exactly what that look from her wife meant, “and it has this little… design… here…”

Quynh stepped forward and swatted Andy’s hand away from trying to defend the barely noticeable design on the front of the sad t-shirt. “My heart,” Quynh started saying in a tone that instantly made the other woman smile, “We deserve better than this. I’ve seen you dressed like an actual Queen.”

“Well, I remember that being impractical,” Andy smirked. This time Quynh rolled her eyes and continued looking over the unimpressive articles of clothing that the twenty-first century offered to them. “And I’ve seen you wearing full body shining armor like a knight,” Andy added, “but I don’t hear you complain about missing that.”

“Because it was so much work,” Quynh sighed as she studied a jacket, “A good look, but was it worth it?”

“I’d say it was,” Andy murmured. She tried to lean in for a kiss, but instead she received a jacket shoved to her chest, “I have one like this already.”

“Yeah, but who knows in which continent you’ve left it now,” Quynh smiled, picking up another jacket and moving on, with their shopping and their conversation, “You know what I liked? When people started being okay with us wearing pants.”

Andy immediately hummed in agreement, frowning a little as she searched for the memories, smiling when the right images came up in her mind. “Yes, but it’s not like people’s disapproval ever stopped us,” she grinned, which earned her a sweet kiss on the cheek. They stayed silent for a moment, while Quynh considered the not very different options of pants available. “You know, if this gets too boring,” Andy said, her tone already warning Quynh of some mischief, “I’m sure we could bring back something from our 90s closets.”

Instantly, Quynh smiled, thinking about it, and when she managed to remember the details of the punk and goth fashion they were unavoidably attracted to a few years ago, she couldn’t help but start laughing. “Oh my God, that much hair was impractical, seriously,” she continued to laugh along with Andy, and then she lovingly ran her hands through her lovers’ hair, “though the buzzcut looked good on you, Andromache.”

This time when Andy leaned in for a kiss she was victorious. She enjoyed the kiss that lasted the entire time it took Quynh’s hands to go from Andy’s hair down to the belt loops of her pants, which she tugged as she pulled away enough to say, “I have to admit, I do like these,” she looked at the tight jeans Andy wore and after stealing one more quick kiss she pulled away entirely and continued to guide them through the necessary shopping, with Andy always standing close with an easy smile and a good memory to share, just to make her laugh.

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ariana-maryse · 3 years

Text

Top 10 Hottest for February

Who skipped a month? Not me. Definitely not me.

Akasha (Aaliyah, Queen of the Damned)

Y’all know that one scene? To Change? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Tex (Tim Heidecker, Us)

I never in my life thought that I’d wanna smash him, but Jordan Peele knew wtf he was doing with the Tethered characters.

Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty, Casper)

You throw a villain with a raspy voice at me and it’s over.

Blade (Wesley Snipes, Blade)

*Please read this like that line in Bridesmaids* I mean, it’s Wesley Snipes. I want to be a vampire he’s hunting and we can have that cat and mouse thing.

Huck Finnigan (Charlie Carver, Ratched)

Huck deserved better. So caring. So gentle. One of the few soft characters I wanna touch tbh.

Dr. Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez, The Cell)

Another wholesome babe. She’s smart, she’s strong, and she’s just so good.

The Beast (James McAvoy, Split)

Now we return to our regular programming. Crawling up the walls and shit like Spiderman. Hot.

Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis, Beetlejuice)

I mean, it’s Geena Davis. (I hope you read it the same as the other one.)

Eric Draven (Brandon Lee, The Crow)

What goth kid didn’t wanna bone Eric Draven? I’m not made of stone.

Michael (Paul Bettany, Legion)

Do y’all know how little fanfiction there is of this film? It’s a travesty.

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stillchaoticlogic · 4 years

Text

Falling: Chapter 3

Pairing: Raihan x Reader

Falling in love is easy…

It’s falling out of love that’s the hard part.

As you try to run from old feelings you meet someone who is determined to bring the spark back into your eyes. Raihan isn’t sure what happened in the past and he doesn’t care. He’s got one shot to make you his and he’s going to take it.

First Chapter: Here

Second Chapter: Here

Cry for Me

Gazing down at the phone on the table you watched as it lit up again for the fifth time in the last thirty minutes. You heave a sigh when Hau’s name pops up on the screen. Leaning forward you pull the phone towards you and answer it.

“Hello?”

“(NAME!) YOU ANSWERED!” his voice loud in his excitement.

“Yeah sorry for leaving so abruptly… and the radio silence… I got a job opportunity and had to act fast. Things got crazy quickly. How are you? How’s being champion?”

“I-I wish you were here… When will you be back?” His voice is rife with self-consciousness. He’s scared.

“I...don't know…” your answer is hesitant.

“But! I need you here! We all do! We miss you!”

“And I miss you guys too, but I need to do this for me. I need this opportunity.”

“Is this because I took your job?” he sounds guilty.

“Hau… Alola is no place for me anymore and I need to move on. This has nothing to do with you.”

“But...you left… Are you mad at Kukui? He said something seemed to be bothering you…”

“I’m not mad at Kukui, I just needed to leave. I have opportunities here that I didn’t in Alola. I need a break and to heal from some things.”

“Heal? What happened?”

“I’m tired Hau… I’m just overwhelmed with things and I have some things to sort through…”

“So you won’t talk to me about it, what about grandpa?”

Thinking of Hala, the island Kahuna and Hau’s grandfather makes you feel even guiltier. He had become like a grandfather to you and while he had encouraged you to leave, you hadn’t told him of your plans either.

“Hau, I’m going to be fine. If I need to talk to Hala about anything I’ll call him okay?”

“So you aren’t coming back?”

“I have been offered a job in Galar and I’m taking it.”

“But isn’t that guy their champion?! What are you even going to do!?”

“I’m the new...chairwoman… of their league.”

He’s silent for a moment.

“You’re really not coming back…”

“...No…I’m not…”

“I’ve got to go… I have a match… I’ll…”

“Hau! Wait!”

“Bye (Name)...”

You close your eyes in pain at the sound of the call ending. He’ll be fine, you know this, but you wish you had handled this differently. In your desperation to get away from Kukui you had left everyone else without an explanation too.

“I can’t believe I fell in love with a married man…” you grumble to yourself as you throw your phone onto the table. Rotom buzzes in annoyance and you quietly apologize to him.

Your phone rings again this time it’s Leon calling.

You answer it and put on a brave face, “Hey Leon! How are you?”

“Hey! I’m good! I heard you had a good day with Raihan!”

“I did!” you say with a laugh remembering the banter between you and the Dragon-type gym leader.

“Well, we’re going to start touring the gyms tomorrow! I figured we would start with the first three and then go down the line. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good! How long will the tour take? I need to start looking for a place to live and I should probably start prepping for the next tournament right? It’s a month away?”

“Don’t worry! This shouldn’t take more than a week… You can also scout places to live while we travel around!”

“Sounds good! What time can I expect you tomorrow?”

“Does eight work for you?”

“Yeah that works!”

“Perfect! I’ll meet you tomorrow morning then!”

You say your goodbyes and the two of you hang up. The light padding of Aurora your Alolan Ninetails alerts you to her presence. Ember your non-Aloan Ninetails following close behind. The duo finds themselves on either side of you on the couch. You lean back as the fire and ice foxes endeavor to curl up next to you.

“You know the two of you aren’t Vulpix anymore right?”

They both look mildly affronted before they settle themselves half on you and half on the couch.

“Yes… well, I’m so excited about this bonding time…”

They promptly ignore you and continue to lay happily in your lap. You close your eyes and recall the day you just had. Raihan seems to be a fun guy, you can see yourself being friends with him. You’ll need those here, friends. You recall the way he held you while you watched the sun go down and you try to recall a recent moment when you laughed as much as you did today. A ping interrupts your musings and Rotom hovers in front of you.

Dragon Boi: So did you have fun on our first date? Is tomorrow too soon for a second?

You: It was a rather good first date… too bad there wasn’t a kiss at the end… Where is that Leon?

Dragon Boi: Still?! You know if it’s a kiss you want I can be there in about twenty minutes right?

You: Twenty minutes? I thought you were in Hammerlocke?

Dragon Boi: I’m staying with Leon tonight since we’re starting the tour so EARLY tomorrow!

You: Oh? Tell him to come.

You: I’ll be waiting eagerly!

Dragon Boi: I thought we had something but you’re using me to get to Leon, aren't you?

You: Yep.

Dragon Boi: Damn that’s cold… I thought we had a better time than that…

Dragon Boi: I thought we were going to get married, but if you really want Leon…

You: So dramatic….

Dragon Boi: Dramatic?!

Dragon Boi: Naw I am… I’m not gonna lie to you about that…

You: hahahahahaaa

You: I did have fun today and if you’re there tomorrow I’m sure I’ll enjoy the tour.

Dragon Boi: Wait.

Dragon Boi: did you just ADMIT to having fun…

Dragon Boi: With ME

You: Well not if you’re going to make a big deal out of it…

Dragon Boi: Still.

Dragon Boi: You had fun today.

Dragon Boi: With me.

You: Yes…. congratulations…

Dragon Boi: Thank you thank you

Dragon Boi: Our wedding will be spectacular

You: All I ask is that we fly away on your Flygon after the ceremony. I want a truly memorable exit!

Dragon Boi: Ugh! I woman after my own heart. You can have anything you want my queen!

You: Queen?

Dragon Boi: Don’t like it?

You: Oh no… quite the opposite… I could get used to that…

Dragon Boi: Good. You deserve to be someone’s queen. I don’t mind volunteering for the role of your king either… just sayin…

You: Very funny Raihan…

Dragon Boi: I’m being serious! I’m just sayin if the position is open… I will happily fill it.

You: I’ll consider it…

You: Good night Raihan…

Dragon King: Good night my queen.

You bite your lip to keep the smile at bay, you can’t get involved with a man you just met as a means of getting over Kukui. Even if that man is sweet, funny, charming, handsome, strong and kind. Nope. Absolutely not.

Your screen lights up indicating Kukui is calling you and without even thinking about it you mumble the word that you’ve felt all along.

“Reject.”

Falling into bed that night your pokemon curl themselves around you the best they can. They’ve been extra concerned about you lately and they rarely leave your side. You can feel their protective auras surround you and you love it. You love them. You don’t like that they are worried, but feeling their concern makes you feel loved.

The next morning you are greeted by both Leon and Raihan in the lobby. Raihan is quick to greet you with breakfast and coffee, both of which you take happily.

“Ahh my hero has brought me coffee again!”

“Of course milady!”

You chuckle as you take the breakfast sandwich from him and the coffee. Leon chuckles at the interaction before he interjects.

“You kids ready to go?”

“Hush Leon, I’m being pampered right now! Can’t you see that? You get me up at this ungodly hour and then try to deny me being showered with adoration. I think not.”

“You heard the lady, Leon… She wants me to adore her… this might take a while.”

Leon rolls his eyes at yours and Raihan’s antics, “The taxi is waiting.”

“Oh? Are we taking the goth bird taxi?” You ask as you take a bite of your sandwich.

“They are called Corviknight, and yes we are,” Leon answers.

“I want one… Where can I get one?”

“They are pretty common...They evolve from Rookidee.”

“Hmm… Rookidee…”

“We should be able to find you one today,” Raihan pipes in.

“That would be delightful! I really want to train some Galarian Pokemon…”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Dreepy! An Applin! I heard they evolve depending on the type of apple they eat. A Ponyta…” you continue to list the pokemon as you head out to the taxi.

“Dreepys are kind of hard to find… I’ll show you where they like to hide,” Leon says as he opens the door for you.

“I have a pair of Volcarona…. Nothing is more annoying than searching for their annoying ass… I’m sure I’ll be fine!”

“You have 2?!” exclaims Leon in shock.

“Yep… I have a pair. I was going to breed them, but they hate each other.”

“They hate each other?!” says Raihan in surprise.

“Oh yeah… if I put them anywhere near one another they just fight.”

“That’s insane! Why don’t you ever battle with them?”

“Well I had a League sanctioned team that I had to use in Alola, and they weren’t on it. It was mostly to keep people from trying to go out and catch them. They live at the foot of volcanoes so not exactly the safest place for young trainers.”

“I can’t believe you have one let alone two!”

“I got bored…”

“Bored?”

“Yes… bored…”

“So you caught two pseudo legendary Pokemon?!”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“I really just want to know when our wedding is…” Raihan interjects as he gazes at you as if the sun rises and sets with you.

“Wedding?!”

“Quiet Leon, can’t you see the man’s trying to propose?”

“Propose?!”

You arrive at Turrfield and head into the gym. You are greeted by a stout looking trainer with a dazzling smile. That’s why he’s the first gym leader, he instantly radiates comfort.

“Milo! This is (Name), our new chairwoman. (Name)! This is Milo, he’s our first gym leader!”

“Very nice to meet you, Milo! I’m excited about touring your gym! Especially since I really want to know more about the gym challenges.”

“Likewise! Let me take you on the tour and explain my logic for the challenge.”

You stop in front of a large field and notice a bunch of sheep-like pokemon.

“How cute!” you exclaim as you approach them.

“My family is Wooloo farmers, we raise them for their wool. My challenge is to have the trainers herd about twenty of these little guys to the other end of the field.”

“What is your reasoning for having them herd them?”

“It shows patience. These young trainers have a long road ahead and a lot of work to do. Not to mention training new Pokemon is not easy. They need to prove they have the patience and discipline to advance.”

“That’s an excellent point!”

“So you approve?”

“It doesn’t matter if I approve, it’s your gym, you clearly know what you’re doing.”

“Why don’t you give it a shot?” Raihan asks as he comes up behind you.

“Huh?” you murmur as you turn back to look at him.

“That’s a great idea!” exclaims Leon.

“I don’t…”

“I think you should give it a shot!”

“Oh dear…” you mutter.

You eventually relent and take your place.

“This is ridiculous…” you mutter as you begin to herd the Wooloo towards the gate. You huff as one goes rogue and you have to chase after it. A couple of others break away and you have to roll them back. After a little back and forth you finally get all twenty at the other end. You trip and hear the men laughing at you as you pull yourself back up. The Yamper end up scaring the Wooloo and you pout as about five of them break away and scatter. With a huff, you rush back down the field until you are back at the beginning.

“You know the Wooloo is down there?” Questions Raihan as he holds back a laugh.

“Very funny…” you pout as you grab his and Leon’s hands and drag them behind you.

“You’re going to help me though! Chop chop Milo!”

The three guys follow you out onto the field and you all head over to the Wooloo who are eyeing you all warily. The four of you end up laughing as you chase the wooly Pokemon up and down the field. Each one of you getting in the others way and changing directions at a moment's notice. You notice Raihan’s Rotom filming the event as you all rush around happily chasing after the Wooloo. When you had all of the Wooloo at the end of the field you all collapse at the end and laugh until you can’t breathe.

“Was that what you were expecting?”

“It was something all right!”

You leave the gym chuckling to yourself before you all head over to the Hulbury gym and meet Nessa. The Raging Wave is everything you would expect her to be.

“So, you’re whipping these boys into shape?” She asks as the two of you head out of her gym. The afternoon sun drying your damp clothes after completing her gym challenge.

“Oh, you know it…”

She laughs as she bumps your arm, “I love it! So the real question is when are you going to battle Leon? You could be our next champion…”

You chuckle, “I have no intention of being a champion right now… Perhaps in the future, I’ll take him on, but right now I’m just enjoying life.”

“Like you could beat ‘The Unbeatable Champion,’” Leon says as he poses.

“Are you posing? For no reason…?” you ask in confusion.

“He does that… So weird…” you mumble before waving to Nessa.

“Let’s get lunch soon! I’ll need some girl time before this is all over!”

Raihan drapes his arm around your shoulder as you head off down the road.

“You got it!” Nessa yells back.

“Aww, you made a friend…” Raihan says as he pulls you close to him.

“It would seem so…”

“That’s good, I’m glad it was Nessa?”

“Why is that?”

“Well, Nessa and I go way back…”

“And?”

“No reason…”

“He’s already asked Nessa to put a good word in for him,” Leon says with a grin as he walks along behind you.

“He did?!”

“BRO?!”

“Oh yeah…”

“BRO?!”

You throw your head back and laugh, “Dragon Boy is pulling out all the stops…”

Raihan looks away from you and goes to pull his arm back.

You chuckle as you wrap your arms around his waist and look up at him through your lashes, “You know Rai…”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t need a good word…”

“I don’t?”

“Of course not… We’re getting married remember?” You ask as you pull away from him and rush down the street.

“Hey wait!”

“No way!! I heard there were Vulpix at the Motostoke gym! I want to pet the baby floofs!” you yell over your shoulder as you rush off down the street.

“So how bad do you have it?” questions Leon with a laugh.

“Pretty bad… I mean I’m pretty sure she’s perfect…”

“Yeah, I figured… you’ve already proposed and you’ve only known her two days!”

Raihan laughs as he scratches the back of his neck, he can see your silhouette as you rush down the pathway back towards Motostoke.

“Yeah… that’s a... uh…. Running joke…”

“Well, she seems to be running with it too…”

“Nah… She’s not serious… She’s been hurt and she’s dealing with herself right now.”

“Then be there for her. Be the friend she needs now and who knows man, when she’s ready maybe you will get the chance to propose to her?”

Raihan laughs, “So we’re just jumping straight into marriage.”

“Were you or were you not straight-up pampering her this morning? Just adore her and treat her like she’s the most sublime woman you’ve ever met and if things fall into place then you know.”

“She is the most sublime woman I’ve ever met…”

“Are you saying that as her fan or as a man? Remember, just like you’re more than ‘Raihan the Dragon-Type Gym Leader,’ she’s more than ‘(Name) The Alolan Champion.’”

“I know that!”

“Just… remember to treat her like a person and not just your idol. She’ll love that too.”

“Since when did your single ass get good at giving dating advice?”

Leon glared over at Raihan, “I date!”

“Since when?”

“Shut up…”

By the time the duo arrived at the gym Kabu was chuckling as you clutched about three Vulpix to your chest.

“I want to take them all home with me!” you exclaim as you bury your face against the soft fur.

“I don’t think you need 5 more Vulpix when you have two Ninetails already,” Leon says in exasperation.

You gasp dramatically, “Leon! How dare you? You can NEVER have too many Vulpix!”

Raihan laughs, “What if we head to the wild area tomorrow and find a Dreepy for you?”

You narrow your eyes but nod, “That’s acceptable.”

“Why do I feel like we just got played?” questions Leon.

“Because you did… I was doing some research, I would also like a Toxel!”

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on the tour?” Leon asks.

“Oh, come on Leon! The Wild Area is right outside the city, plus we can explore while we head back to Hammerlocke,” Raihan interjects.

“It would be nice to be able to start familiarizing myself with some of the native pokemon as well,” you chime in.

“Still…”

“Leon… I’ve been running a league for the past 3 years… Don’t worry I’ll have everything taken care of. Plus I wanted to check out the area around Hammerlocke, since it’s central, I think it would be a good city to move to.”

“Really?!” questions Raihan.

“Yeah! That whole gothic castle look is to die for too. I’ve had my eye on it since I got here!”

Raihan smiles as he watches you go back to playing with the fire foxes, ‘Things are looking up…’ he thinks happily.

Note: Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Holiday! I know I did! I’m having way too much fun playing FFX for the Switch. If you haven’t ever played it...highly recommend! I like this chapter but the next one will be even better! Raihan is totally catching a Dreepy isn’t he? Love. Please as always let me know your thoughts! I love hearing from you all!

#raihan #pokemon raihan #gym leader raihan #raihan x reader #pokemon raihan x reader #pokemon #pokemon fanfiction #pokemon scenarios #pokemon imagines #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #sword and shield fanfiction #swis fanfiction

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

Text

Family Weekend

The Teen Titans headed out for a weekend with their families. Wonder Girl was running a mission with her Amazon sisters. Impulse had planned out some fun with her parents and twin brother. Virus left for their homeworld. Nightstar spent time with her mothers.

Robin, having left Gotham over a year earlier and not looked back, assumed he'd spend the weekend alone in Titans Tower. Then Red X broke in.

Part of Batkid and Robin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robin stared down at his tea with a frown, tapping his fingers against the mug randomly. A small buzz came near and he sighed. “Don’t try it, Virus.” When the buzz kept coming, he glared behind him at the blue Roomba slowly making its way towards him.

It paused, then sighed. Electric blue energy pulled out of the robot vacuum, leaving the black device to roll off on its own. The energy collected into a blue humanoid form with geometric white patterns across them. The patterns on their face formed into a pout as they leaned against the kitchen counter. “How did Robin know?”

He just smirked and turned away.

“Come on!” the Gexin whined and threw themself over Robin’s lap, making the barstool rock slightly. “Robin has to tell Virus how Robin knew Virus was the tiny floor robot. Please!”

“The thing was blue,” Nightstar called from the couch, not looking up from her book.

“Nightstar and Robin have not seen the tiny floor robot before. The tiny floor robot could have always been blue.”

“There’s also the fact Roombas are banned from the tower,” Robin pointed out, patting Virus’s back. “So it had to be some kind of prank.”

“Speaking of, why is there a Roomba in the tower?” Nightstar asked, looking up with a glare and Virus shifted into their amorphous form to hide behind Robin.

“The tiny floor robot is Impulse’s,” they said quickly. “Virus just borrowed the tiny floor robot.”

“Wow, hey, way to snitch!” Impulse huffed, zipping up next to Robin. “And for your information, it’s not a Roomba. Roomba’s are made by iRobot. Uncle Arsenal made this one. Its name is Voobo.”

Robin gave her a look. “Get rid of it before Wonder Girl gets back or its name will be Crushed.”

“Come on, Rob. Can’t it stay?” she asked, batting her eyes.

He was unmoved. “Remember last time?”

“It was a joke! Come on, no one even got hurt. I thought you’d like it. Having Dags around would have kept us on our toes. You love that ‘Constant vigilance!’ stuff.”

“You took one of Wonder Girl’s daggers,” Nightstar said.

“Well, yeah. I wasn’t going to strap one of our kitchen knives to the thing,” Impulse scoffed. “I cook with those, unlike some people.”

“No Roombas -- or Roomba-like devices -- in the tower,” Robin declared.

Impulse booed him and Virus poked part of themself out from behind him so he could see their face patterns making it appear they were sticking their tongue out.

“Hey, you want it to get crushed, be my guest.”

“Shouldn’t you two be packing?” Nightstar asked.

“Nightstar is one to talk,” Virus huffed.

“All my stuff was packed up last night because I’m capable of thinking ahead.”

“Virus only has a few files that Virus needs to transfer into roving storage,” the Gexin hummed, leaning against Robin’s back. “The transfer will only take a minute or two so the transfer can wait until Virus is about to leave.”

“And I’m a speedster. People would get suspicious if I wasn’t late,” Impulse shrugged and scooped up the knockoff Roomba.

“Well, Flash was supposed to be here ten minutes ago so you should probably get packed,” Robin pointed out.

Her eyes widened and she glanced down at her phone. She gave a curse and darted out of the room.

Virus jumped over the counter and grabbed a banana. As they absorbed it, they asked, “When is Nightstar going to leave?”

She shrugged. “Ommi’s waiting for me at a diner nearby since I was waiting for Flash to get here so we could all say our goodbyes together and she’s still tracking down exactly where Troia, Ilia, and Wonder Girl are. We’re going to go raid whatever mission they’re on before Mom gets back from Tamaran tonight.”

“Okay. Then Virus will go do the transfer so Virus is ready to go as soon as Impulse leaves.”

Nightstar shrugged and went back to her book. Though, as soon as they were gone, she tossed it aside and turned her focus on Robin. “You know, I can cancel. Ommi won’t mind messing with Donna, Cassie, and Yara on her own.”

“Kory will be upset if you miss Family Weekend,” Robin pointed out, turning back to his tea.

“She hasn’t been planetside for two weeks. I’m sure Ommi, Uncle Roy, and Uncle Biz will be happy to keep her distracted. Not like we get up to much even when I am there. I’ll just call her later.”

“There’s no reason for you to stay. Go have fun annoying Yara with Artemis,” he sighed.

“If you’re going to spend the whole time brooding all alone again then there’s plenty of reason to stay.”

“You’re the queen of brooding,” Robin chuckled halfheartedly.

“Which means I know how much brooding alone sucks,” she said, getting up and moving to stand over him. “I’ll stay and we can brood together.”

He sighed again and set the mug on the counter. He met her eyes. “I’m fine, Mandy.”

“Dick -”

“Seriously. I’m just going to catch up on some work. I could use the quiet and you deserve some time with your moms. You said Kory’s been getting better.”

“Fine, but -”

“Yara’s on a mission in the Amazon Basin, Irey’s got all sorts of plans set up with her parents and Jai, and Galvio’s going to be off-world. None of them need to be popping in or coming back early just because you think I can’t be alone for a couple of days.” When she opened her mouth, he added, “And neither do any of the other Titans. They’re all working hard to cover for us so we can have this break and don’t need to add babysitting me on top of that.”

She scowled and sat down on the stool next to his. “It’s not that I think you can’t be alone, it’s just that I think you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Thanks.”

“You know what I meant,” she growled, pushing his chest hard enough to make his barstool tip backward.

He hooked his food around hers and righted the stool before it could fall. “I’ll be alright. A little alone time is good once in a while.”

Impulse ran through the room, stopping only long enough to say, “Dad’s here!” before she was gone again.

Nightstar tisked and stood up. “You’re sure?”

He nodded and she turned away. “Fine, but I’ll have my T-Comm on me if you need anything.”

He didn’t respond.

She grabbed her book as Flash ran in.

“Hey kids,” he said, glancing at the two. “Where are the others?”

“Wonder Girl’s already gone, Virus is preparing to leave, and Impulse is packing,” Robin answered.

“Course she is,” the man chuckled. “I’d say she gets it from me, but Uncle Barry was the exact same way so maybe it’s the Speed Force.”

“I think you guys just like to use that as an excuse to be lazy,” Nightstar said as she left.

“I’m sure Artemis would agree,” Wally chuckled. He turned to Robin and the boy stiffened.

Not visibly enough that Flash would notice, but visible enough that…

Robin turned away to grab his tea.

“So, you heading to Goth-”

“No.”

The man shot over to sit on the stool Nightstar had been using. “One of these days I’m going to get you to tell me how exactly you’re related to the Bats.”

“Good luck with that,” he scoffed. He looked up at the man. “You work with three of them. Four when Flamebird’s having a good day. Why not just ask them?”

Shut up. You don’t care. They don’t care so you don’t care.

Flash snorted. “Right. Like getting info out of a Bat isn’t impossible. If I ask Signal, he just shakes his head and says it’s not his place. Orphan just looks sad when you get brought up and won’t talk for a while. Flamebird won’t talk to me, to begin with, so he’s out. His old man hasn’t been much better since Batkid died -- not that I blame him -- and he only got worse when that new thief showed up in Gotham a few months ago so there’s no chance of him saying anything.”

They don’t care.

“If it’s so impossible, then why do you keep bugging me.”

“Well, you’re not really a Bat, right?”

Robin’s fingers tightened around the mug. “No, I’m not.”

“There you go then.”

He glared down at the tea.

Distract.

“What were you saying about a thief? Catwoman got a rival?”

Flash shrugged. “It’s Gotham stuff so we don’t hear much, but I have heard the new guy’s been giving her a run for her money. It’s not only that though. He’s apparently claimed a chunk of the city as his own and screws with anyone that messes around in his territory without his permission. Especially if they involve kids.”

Robin hummed, not paying attention.

Cass doesn’t care. She’s just sad because I remind her of Jay.

“I think he’s called Red -”

“Daddy!” Impulse shrieked as she came streaking through the room to throw herself at Flash, who was already on his feet with his arms outstretched to catch her and pull her into a hug.

Virus came skipping in after her at a much slower pace, a duffle bag in his arms. Nightstar was a few steps behind wearing her battle armor with a rucksack hanging from one shoulder.

“There’s my light! You ready to go?”

“Yup! Just got to say bye to the others,” she said, squeezing him. She let go and passed the bag Virus was carrying to her father before pulling the Gexin into a hug. “Bye, Vi!”

“Goodbye, Impulse! Tell Turtle Virus says hello.”

“I will. Tell Galv-11 I say hi! Twin solidarity!” She pulled away to hug Nightstar. “Have fun with your moms!”

“Yeah, yeah.” She gave Impulse’s back two pats before pushing her away.

The redhead just smiled at her before throwing herself at Robin, a move that would have knocked him off the stool and spilled his tea if he hadn’t seen it coming and braced himself. “Bye, Rob! See you Monday!”

“See you, Pulse.”

She pressed a quick -- for non-speedsters -- kiss to his cheek before pulling away. She gave the group a wave as she took her dad’s hand then the two were gone.

“Well, I’m off,” Nightstar said, adjusting the pack and glancing at her remaining teammates. Her gaze lingered on Robin. “Unless someone’s changed their mind.”

“Bye, Star,” Robin said pointedly.

She nodded to him, then Virus.

“Goodbye, Nightstar. Virus has completed the transfer so Virus will be leaving too.”

“Bye Virus.

They waved then dove into the phone outlet that connected to the satellites on the roof.

“Don’t cause Yara too much of a hassle. You do have to work together when you both get back.”

“Yeah, yeah. We all know she loves it,” Nightstar said, waving him off as she turned to leave. “Talk to you later, Dick.”

“Later, Mandy.”

He waited a few moments after the door shut behind her before getting up to go to the couch, tea still in hand. He sat down and grabbed the tablet he’d left on the coffee table. A few clicks had the security feeds up. The speedsters were long gone, Virus was just finishing the transfer over to the Justice League’s long-range satellites that would let him system hop back to his homeworld, and Nightstar was making her way out. He watched her progress until she was completely out of range before tossing the tablet to the side and slumping back against the couch.

He took a sip of his tea and scowled. He set it on the table and buried his face into his hands.

Over a year and a half away from Gotham and he still couldn’t figure out how Alfred made a cup of tea taste like anything other than gross leaf water.

He didn’t know why he still bothered. He’d never liked tea all that much, even when Alfred made it.

It was just… stupid Family Weekend. He hated it. Hated being alone. Hated seeing the others all disappear to spend time with their families. All it did was remind him of everything he’d lost.

Everyone he’d lost.

Or never had to begin with.

He wouldn’t begrudge any of his friends their family time, though, and he certainly wasn’t going to make anyone stay behind with him just because he was a little lonely, even if that meant telling Nightstar a few white lies.

He just wished he had somewhere to disappear off to as well.

He forced himself upright and turned on the tv. He tried to lose himself in a horror movie as he fought down memories of Barbara’s hacking lessons, memories of pranks he’d played on the others with Cassandra, memories of patrolling with Damian, memories of Duke helping him with his English homework, memories of early morning coffee and cereal runs with Tim, memories of nail painting gossip sessions with Stephanie, memories of Jay’s… memories of Jason.

He considered checking in with the Titans East, maybe even visiting, but Nightstar definitely would have considered he’d try that and told Speedy to let her know if he contacted them. Considering the friendly rivalry they had going on after defeating the Master of Games, she’d definitely sell him out in a heartbeat.

Patrolling was also out since Irey would still be monitoring the Teen Titans' social media so she’d know instantly if he left the tower, something he wasn’t supposed to do since they were all supposed to take Family Weekend off, even if he stayed in town.

Normally he’d bury himself in work, but he didn’t actually have any open cases right now.

One good thing about Gotham’s crime rate, you never had to worry about not having an open case.

Shut up!

Robin was so distracted trying to distract himself from his intrusive memories, he almost didn’t notice when the air in the room shifted slightly about an hour after Nightstar left. His hand subtly moved to his utility belt, but he let it drop after a second.

He glared to the side as something invisible settled next to him on the couch. “What are you doing here?”

Red X faded into view with a shrug. “The better question is what are you doing here, kid? I was told you lot were clearing out for your little Family Weekend thing.”

“You were told?”

“Alright, so I might have been eavesdropping on Wonder Babe and Zippy.”

“What are you after?” Robin growled. He stood up and drew his staff as he went over everything in the tower and tried to figure out what Red X would consider worth stealing.

“Calm down,” Red X said, leaning back and putting his feet up on the coffee table. “I just ticked someone off and need a place to lie low for a few days. Didn’t plan to take anything.”

“Right,” Robin said sarcastically. “You didn’t plan to take anything.”

Red X chuckled and held up his hands. “Alright, you caught me. Tell you what. You let me stay and I’ll keep my hands to myself from now until Monday.”

“And return what you’ve already grabbed on your way here?”

It was only thanks to his experience with masks that hid the eyes that the hero could tell Red X was rolling his as he pulled a handful of Robin’s feathers and one of his spare expandable bo staffs from the suit’s hidden pockets. He tossed them onto the table, saying, “You really need to learn how to lighten up, kid.”

Robin lowered his weapon, but didn’t put it away. “Who’d you tick off? And how?”

Red X shrugged and relaxed back onto the couch, grabbing the remote. “The old man. One of the others accidentally got hurt during my last score so now the lot of them are out for blood. They found my place in Jump so it was either skip town until I can get a new place or lay low. And I’m pretty sure skipping town is what they want me to do so here I am. Doubt they’ll think to look for me here.”

“Why would they want you to skip town?” Robin asked as he took in the new information. He’d never realized Red X was part of a team. Who was the old man?

“Uh, because then I’ll have to go back home and that’s their turf,” he said slowly, like it was obvious.

“Where are you from?”

Red X paused in his channel surfing and looked up at him. “You don’t know?”

Robin glared at him.

“No, seriously, you don’t know who I am?”

“I thought I made that clear the first time we met.”

“Yeah, the first time, but…” Red X set down the remote and leaned closer. “Kid, when was the last time you talked to your family?”

That was the final straw.

Robin swung his staff at the thief, who flipped out of the way. Through clenched teeth, he said, “I think the fact I’m here during Family Weekend makes it pretty obvious I don’t exactly have a family to talk to.”

Red X struck out with one of his x’s trying to wrench the staff from Robin’s hands. “Shut up, kid. You can play whatever lost bird act you want for the rest of the world, but we both know you’re one of Batman’s toy soldiers.”

The hero snarled and aimed for the thief's head, but he managed to grab it and disarm him before it made contact. “I’m not a Bat just because I trained with them for a time.”

“Sure, kid.”

“I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but I’ve been a hero outside of Gotham longer than I was one there.”

“Oh, I noticed,” Red X said lowly, tossing the staff aside. “What that idiot was thinking letting Flamebird send you all the way across the country right after Batkid got blown up, I’ll never know.”

Robin flinched back at the accusation before his fists clenched at his sides. “Then you’ll be happy to know no one sent me here. It’s just where I ended up when Batman decided he didn’t want to work with me anymore and tossed me out.”

Red X froze and the hero could feel the thief studying him. When he spoke, there was something sharp and venomous in his tone. “He kicked you out.”

“He kicked me off the team, yeah,” Robin said. “He didn’t want me on the team anymore so I found a new one. Like I said, I’m not a Bat. Why does this even matter?”

“He kicked you out,” Red X repeated. Then he was turning on his heel and marching out.

“Where are you going?”

“Forget hiding out. I’m going to go kill Batman. A nice x to the grapple line will solve all our problems.”

Before Robin could move, Red X teleported away.

“Great,” he growled, running his hand through his hair. He grabbed his tablet and ran to the door. As he rode the elevator down to the garage, he checked the security, running the cameras through all the frequency settings. All that came up were two blips, Red X’s entrance and exit.

As he ran up to his R-Cycle, he considered what to do. He couldn’t just do nothing about an honest death threat (and he knew Red X was serious, even he didn’t understand why), but Batman had made it clear he didn’t want Robin getting involved in Gotham. Maybe if he could get to Red X before he left town…

Well, he’d have to hope he could. If not, he’d have to bribe Dove into passing along the message to Oracle or Batgirl the next time she checked in with the Birds of Prey so they could warn Batman. After that, the thief would be completely out of his hands.

He took his R-Cycle out, but only went as far as the nearest highrise before taking to the rooftops. It wasn’t as effective a tactic in the daylight, but it would still limit the amount he was seen so, hopefully, Irey wouldn’t notice he was out.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do. He’d been trying to locate Red X’s hideout since the thief had appeared, but thanks to the invisibility and teleportation abilities granted by the suit as well as the thief’s own skills and the fact Robin still didn’t know what he looked like under the mask, it was slow going. He’d managed to narrow it down to a certain neighborhood after months of work, but patrolling the area didn’t turn anything up so he couldn’t be sure if Red X was there or if he’d already left.

After two hours with no sign of the thief, he decided to head back in. As he rode back up the elevator, he set up a program to track anyone leaving town for Gotham by train or air and double-checked the algorithm he and Virus had set up to search for Red X on traffic cameras. Neither was likely to turn anything up since Red X was too cautious and Oracle was sure to set up her own once the case was handed over to the Bats, but he had to do something in the meantime.

And if it showed them he knew what he was doing…

Of course, none of that mattered when he walked into the main room of the tower to call Dove and found Red X relaxing on the couch.

“Were you seriously lying about killing Batman?” Robin growled. His anger was less about the thief lying and more because he’d fallen for it, but he was still pretty annoyed all the same.

“Nah. I just realized that you being here also means the others didn’t do anything about the old man kicking you out, and wiping out Gotham’s Bat infestation is going to actually take a bit of planning,” Red X said. That same acidic anger tainted his words, but now it was wrapped in a thin veil of restraint. He could see that same fragilely controlled anger in the thief’s body as he came closer, hidden almost perfectly under his relaxed ruse.

“You really think I’m going to just sit back and let you stay here while you’re plotting murder?” Robin said, stepping in front of the thief and crossing his arms.

“Calm down, kid. I’m not going to do any planning here,” he snorted, tilting his head to see more of the tv around the hero.

“That’s not the point.”

“If you’re worried about being an accomplice, then you’ll be happy to hear you couldn’t stop me if you tried.”

Robin pulled out his staff and Red X went stiff.

“Kid, you do not want to fight me right now. Just sit down and watch the movie.”

“Why?” Robin asked, slipping into a fighting stance. “Why are you even going after the Bats?”

“He kicked you out,” Red X growled, the sound of his control cracking slipping in his voice.

“So?”

Suddenly the thief was on his feet and grabbing the front of Robin’s suit.

The hero tried to strike him with his staff, but he deflected the blow and pulled him in until they were nose-to-helmet.

“He kicked you out! He fucking kicked you out! Not even three months after he put a kid in the ground, you were on the other side of the country fighting aliens! Alone!”

“I was-”

“And where are the others? Have you even talked to them? Have they tried to talk to you? They have to know where you are, even if Oracle wasn’t as semi-omniscient as she is! You and your clubhouse are all over the news! Has she or Orphan reached out? Signal? Batgirl? Hell, Tim might be an ass, but I thought he’d at least check-in to make sure you didn’t get killed.”

Robin’s breath caught in his throat and he choked out, “How -”

“Where the fuck was Damian in all this? Did he seriously not say shit about Bruce tossing his fucking kid out?”

Despite his best efforts, he was shaking. He wasn’t sure if it was because Red X somehow knew who the Bats were or because everything he had been burying and reburying ever since he left Gotham was being unearthed and shoved in his face even worse than it normally was during Family Weekend, but he couldn’t breathe.

“You weren’t even at the funeral!”

Robin flinched so hard he’d jerked himself free off Red X’s grip and toppled backward. He slammed his eyes shut against the sting of tears and ducked his head as he took in ragged breaths.

That was not the Bats’ fault. That was all him, and the guilt would always weigh on him.

He’d been selfish, so lost in his own problems that he’d completely forgotten Jason’s funeral. He only even realized he missed it when he spotted the pictures in the news and read about it in the gossip columns. His absence had been noticed, of course. Bruce and Damian told everyone he was sick since it had been before he’d been gone long enough for them to need the boarding school lie, but some didn’t believe it. Dick had read every horrible word there’d been to read.

He deserved it.

As soon as he’d realized his mistake, he’d bought some flowers and spent hours in the cemetery apologizing over and over again, but he knew it’d never make up for what he’d done.

“Don’t you get it? They already let one kid run off and stupidly get himself killed and then they just -”

Robin was on top of Red X in a second, pinning him against the couch. “Don’t you ever talk about Batkid like that! He… What happened to him… You don’t get to talk about him!”

It was meant to come out a snarl, but the tears he was fighting back rang out clearly.

He expected another quip, or for Red X to at least try to fight, but he just stared up at Robin as he went limp in the pin. “Kid…”

“How do you know who they are?” the hero snapped, wanting to focus on something -- anything -- else.

“I’m so sorry. If I’d known they hadn’t told you…” the thief started softly. “I thought…”

“Thought what?”

They just stared at each other for a moment, then Red X raised his hands.

The hero watched for any signs of an attack, but the thief just brought his hands to the helmet. He hit the release and pulled the helmet off.

Robin’s breath caught in his throat for the second time.

Under the helmet was a domino mask, light grey with black outlining the white lenses. Even still, Robin had seen the boy behind the mask in a domino too many times to not recognize him.

He was older, his hair a bit longer and choppier. He had a few new scars and his hair was a white color in the front that was just a little too bright to be natural. It was him though.

“Jay?”

Jason gave a familiar grin as he let the helmet fall to the floor. “Hey, Dickie.”

Robin threw himself off the older boy, scrambling to his feet and pointing his staff at him. “No. Jason’s gone. Dead. I don’t know who you are or why you look like that, but…” Robin was losing the fight against his tears.

“Red Bird,” Jason said softly. He reached out for Robin and the hero swatted his hand away.

“Don’t! You’re-He’s dead! You can’t be him!” Unless… Jason had to be dead. It couldn’t have been a test.

A test he must have failed. That’s why Bruce…

“No. He has to be dead,” Robin said, shaking his head and taking a step back. “He-You wouldn’t have lied to me about that. Not… Not Jason. He wouldn’t.”

“Oh, Dickie.” Jason came forward, ducking under Robin’s strike to pull him into a hug. “It wasn’t a lie, I promise. I did die. I just… got better.”

“Got better?” Robin sniffed and dropped his arms, not returning the hug or pushing away from it as tears filled his eyes and slipped past the mask. “How do you get better from being dead?”

“Heck if I know,” Jason sighed and eased the mask off Dick’s face. As he gently brushed the tears away, he explained, “I just woke up inside my coffin months later. I didn’t… I wasn’t all there so I ended up just stumbling around Gotham for a few weeks until I got brought to a hospital. The step-mom from hell found me there somehow and stole me away to toss me in one of her stupid green pools.”

“She put you in a Lazarus Pit?” Dick hissed, finally hugging his brother back.

“Yeah. Don’t know if she was trying to hurt Bruce and Damian again by screwing up my head or if she was in one of her Maybe they’ll love me this time! moods and honestly thought it would help. I didn’t stick around to find out, just rampaged through the compound until I was able to escape. I managed to make my way back to Gotham, but…” Jason pressed his face into Dick’s hair and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I expected when I got back, but… I didn’t expect nothing. Bruce was carrying on as usual. Everyone was. And Joker’s just… back in Arkham, ready to escape another day. I died and the only thing that changed was that Damian shipped you off to play with some other kids in California. Except no, he didn’t. Bruce kicked you out! When Damian died, Bruce nearly killed himself in his search for a way to bring him back, to the point that Duke’s gang had to step in to watch the streets and Tim had to step in to watch Bruce. When I died, nothing.”

“Jay -”

“I know I’m not Cassandra ‘Prodigy’ Wayne or Damian ‘Bloodson’ Wayne or Duke ‘Perfect Child’ Thomas or Tim ‘Teenage CEO’ Drake-Wayne, but I thought he’d at least care that I got killed!” Jason snarled, jerking away from Dick to throw his hands in the air before slamming one onto the coffee table, cracking the wood. “I thought he’d at least give a shit about me!”

“Jason -”

He slammed his hand against the table again, and again. “But he doesn’t! Not enough to actually do something about fucking Joker! Not enough to try and bring me back like he did his flesh and blood! He doesn’t care! None of them fucking care about anything but themselves!”

Dick tried to grab his arm, but Jason threw him off.

He turned to the young boy with a glare. “And then you! They just got rid of you! What? Was Bruce so happy to be rid of me he realized he should have cut off the kid acquisitions with Tim? And everyone just agreed with him!”

“Red Wing, please.”

Jason had been taking a step towards Dick, but at his words he spun away. He slammed both his fists into the table with a snarl and it collapsed. He dropped to his knees, breathing heavily.

Dick watched him for a few minutes. Only when Jason stopped shaking and tugging harshly at his hair did he step closer and sit next to his brother. When he wasn’t rebuffed, he pressed their shoulders together. “The pit?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Damian told me how it affects people. Besides, that table gets destroyed so often we start to get antsy if it lasts more than a week,” Dick chuckled and Jason snorted. He nudged his brother gently. “Is this okay?”

“I’d never hurt you, Red Bird,” Jason declared, though a bit of uncertainty leaked into his voice.

Dick set his head on Jason’s shoulder with a frown. “I know. I was asking if you were okay with me touching you.”

The older brother smiled and wrapped his arm around the younger. “I’m always happy to be your pillow.”

“I’m serious, Jay.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “You’re always serious lately.”

“I still know how to have fun,” Dick said. “You just keep catching me in serious situations.”

Jason gave him a disbelieving expression, but before Dick could comment it shifted into a smile. A familiar smile.

That smile promised a lot of fun, but also explosions and weeks of being grounded. It promised lectures from Bruce to Jason about needing to be a better example and from Tim to Dick about how Jason was a bad influence. It promised exasperated yet fond looks from Cass, Babs, and Damian. If Steph was involved, it promised retaliatory pranks when they placed most of the blame on her. If not, then it promised endless complaining for leaving her out. It promised secret smiles from Duke, either because he hadn’t been involved but still thought it was funny or because he had been involved and was thanking them for not ratting him out.

Altogether, that smile promised the best kind of trouble.

“Jay,” Dick started warningly, but Jason just pulled him to his feet.

“Prove it!”

“What?”

“You think you can still have fun, then prove it!” Jason chuckled, grabbing his helmet and towing Dick out of the room. “Let’s go wreck some stuff!”

“Wh-Jay! We can’t -”

“Calm down, we’ll keep it to the bad guys’ stuff so we don’t hurt your delicate sensibilities.”

Dick glanced down at the X on Jason’s suit. “Speaking of which -”

“Nope. That can wait for after Family Weekend. Right now we’re just Red Bird and Red Wing, not Robin and Red X. We can get back to our little cops and robber game when your friends get back.”

Dick knew he should probably argue. Even ignoring the fact Jason had been discussing murder not even half an hour ago, Red X was still a criminal.

But Red X was also a back-from-the-dead Jason and Robin wasn’t allowed to work during Family Weekend.

“Where are we going?” he asked as they stepped out of the elevator onto the residential floor.

“First stop is your room. I left my stuff there since I knew it would be the last place you’d check. One of us should also probably change if we don’t want to raise questions.”

Dick didn’t bother to ask how Jason knew his way around the tower to the point of knowing where his room was. Clearly, he’d been spying on Dick. It was probably something they’d have to talk about later since Dick knew from experience that his teammates would not appreciate it, but it could wait.

“Well you’ve already stolen my clothes once,” Dick pointed out, tugging at Jason’s cape.

Jason rolled his eyes. “If you didn’t want someone to take the suit you should have locked it away better.”

“I put it in a safe!”

“Not a good one.”

Dick slapped his arm. “You were trained by Selina. Your standards are unreasonable.”

“You say that like she didn’t train you too,” Jason snorted then tugged Dick closer so he could wrap his arm around Dick’s shoulder. “I should probably change though. I don’t know how the family will react if they find out we’re hanging out and I’d rather not risk it ruining our weekend. I can take care of them after.”

“Jas-”

“Yep. Sorry. Work talk later. So, Red Bird, you know of any bad guy bases worth ransacking? Or at least an empty factory we can go to town in? I got some new toys I want to try out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Impulse was tapping her foot in superspeed as she scrolled through her phone.

“And none of you have talked to him since Friday morning?” Wonder Girl asked and she paced across the living area.

“We texted on Saturday, but it was just a quick check-in. He said he was busy, I needed to stop worrying, and he’d see me today,” Nightstar said, not looking up from her book. She seemed for all the world relaxed, but the others had all noticed she hadn’t turned the page in over a half hour.

“There’s still nothing on social media,” Impulse said, refreshing the page. “I found a few mentions just before lunchtime on Friday of someone on the rooftops that could have been him, but that’s it.”

“The same can be said for the news sites,” Virus said from inside the computer. “Robin has not appeared on any of the news sites since our fight with Mother Mae-Eye last week.”

Wonder Girl tried her T-Communicator again and scowled when it wouldn’t connect to Robin’s. “Are you sure he didn’t head over to one of the others’ bases?”

“I had Speedy and Dove on Robin duty so I know he didn’t hit Titans East or North,” Nightstar said.

“And Aquagirl tells Turtle everything so if he’d shown up at Titans South she would have told him and he would have told me so I would know and I don’t so he didn’t,” Impulse said quickly.

Nightstar looked up from her book and squeezed the younger girl’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. We’ll find him. He probably just took off to do some recon and didn’t tell us because he knew we’d yell at him for not taking the weekend off.”

“He’s going to spend the next week locked in a cell if that’s true,” Wonder Girl huffed. “Then he’ll have no choice but to take a break.”

“Robin would just break out,” Virus argued.

“Maybe I should take a run around the city, just in case,” Impulse said, standing up.

“The tracker on Robin’s R-Cycle showed Robin heading out of the city before the tracker was disabled so Impulse likely would not find Robin by running around the city,” Virus pointed out and the girls turned to his computer.

“You didn’t say anything about him leaving town earlier,” Nightstar said.

“Virus did not think the information was relevant. The information doesn’t help the Teen Titans find Robin since the tracker was disabled before any set destination could be determined.”

“Except we had no idea he’d left town until now! When did this happen?”

“Friday afternoon. Robin le-” Virus cut off as an alert came up. “Oh! Someone just accessed the tunnel leading to the garage.”

“Robin?” Nightstar asked, getting to her feet.

“The people in the tunnel used Robin’s codes, but there are two people and both are on foot. The sensors aren't registering Robin’s gear.”

The girls shared a look and ran for the stars, Nightstar calling over her shoulder, “Meet us down there!”

“On the way!”

Impulse ran down the stairs while Nightstar and Wonder Girl flew down the center. They slipped into the garage to find Virus already waiting. The four took defensive positions behind workbenches and toolboxes just as voices began to reach them.

“You owe me a new R-Cycle. And a new communicator. And -”

Impulse perked up at Robin’s voice, but Nightstar waved her quiet before she could react as a second voice answered, “First of all, how was I supposed to know trying to use your fancy walkie-talkie would break it? Who’s stupid design flaw was that?”

“It’s to prevent it from being stolen and used against the Titans.”

“Okay, that’s actually a good idea, but it’s still not my fault. Second, the paint was your idea! Don’t try blaming that on me.”

“You blew up the crates too soon!”

“No, I didn’t! I told you fifteen minutes!”

“You only gave me fourteen!”

“I gave you fifteen!” the unknown voice yelled as two figures walked into the garage.

The first was obviously Robin, though he was dressed more casually than any of the Titans had ever seen him. Gone was the armored suit, replaced with blue jeans and a red hoodie with a bat insignia over the chest. He still wore his domino mask and steel-toed boots, but the latter was speckled with red paint.

The second boy looked around Nightstar’s age. He was tall and broad, but not bulky. He wore a suit similar to Robin’s, but black and plain. A brown leather jacket was thrown over the top with a red bird patch on the shoulder that matched his red domino mask.

The new boy was scowling at Robin, who was scowling back. Even still, both looked completely relaxed and a smirk was tugging at the new boy’s lips.

“Maybe you need a new watch. Or maybe you just forgot how to count. Did you forget eleven was a thing again?”

The new boy jumped at Robin and instantly the two were brawling, throwing punches left and right and trying to pin each other. The fight was clearly well-practiced, in Wonder Girl’s opinion. Not choreographed or restrained, but instead a flurry of movements that showed how the two knew each other’s fighting style enough to both predict most attacks and roll with those they didn’t. Despite just how rough their roughhousing was, she could see neither was actually trying to hurt the other.

The others didn’t quite catch onto that though as all three darted in to break up the fight. Nightstar grabbed the new boy and pinned him against a workbench while Impulse and Virus placed themselves in front of Robin.

“Woah, what? Titans, stand down. Red Wing, don’t hurt her.”

“Don’t hurt her? I’m the one pinned,” the boy gasped dramatically.

“You’re also the one with the souped-up taser,” Robin deadpanned.

The boy smirked and revealed the device in his hand, which crackled with red lightning. He turned it off and tucked it into his jacket as he winked up at Nightstar. “You know, Princess, if you wanted to get all up close and personal, all you had to do was ask.”

Her eyes glowed purple, but Robin grabbed her arm and pulled her away before she could blast the other boy.

“Don’t flirt with my teammates please,” Robin sighed.

“Not my fault you surround yourself with beautiful girls, Kid,” the boy said as he sat up, winking at Wonder Girl this time.

“Who are you?” she demanded, hand falling to her boleadoras.

“What? Don’t recognize me without the x motif and skull mask? I’m hurt.”

“Red X?” Impulse said, glancing between Robin and the boy.

He gave her finger guns while Robin smacked his forehead.

“What is going on?” Virus asked.

“Well, wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome,” Red X said, stuffing his hand in his pockets. “Family Weekend’s been fun, bro. I’ll let you know when I steal a new cycle for you from the old man so you can tell me if I need to add any bells and whistles. Later.”

“You’re not -” Nightstar started, but cut off as Red X dropped something that caused smoke to flood through the garage. “Impulse!”

“He’s already gone,” Robin sighed.

A moment later the ventilation system kicked in and cleared the air to reveal Robin was right.

The four all turned to him and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Sooooooooo… you spent the weekend with Red X?” Impulse asked.

“It’s a long story.”

“Red X called Robin brother?” Virus said.

“A really long story. The short of it is Red’s just been keeping an eye on me, in his own weird way.”

“He stole your suit,” Wonder Girl said and Robin shrugged.

“So are we just supposed to not go after him if he shows up?” Impulse asked.

“No, this doesn’t change anything about how we treat him in the field.”

Impulse opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “Kid Flash is right. You Gothamites are insane when you get together.”

Robin shrugged again. He grabbed the duffle bag he’d dropped when he and Red X had started fighting and turned to the elevator. “I need to make a call then we can check in with the others.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick stared down at his new T-Communicator. He should just call Dove. It would make things easier.

“Barbara Gordon here,” a voice said as the call on the phone in his other hand connected.

Dick took a deep breath and let it out. “Hey, Babs.”

“... Dick?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I-Hey, how -”

“Jason’s going after Bruce.”

“What?”

“He wants to kill him. He wants to kill the whole family, really, but Bruce seems to be his main focus. Damian too, maybe. I don’t know how much trouble he’s been causing so far, but it’s about to get worse.”

“I-You saw Jason?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t have any reason to do anything.”

“You said he was trying to kill the whole family.”

Dick’s breath caught in his throat and his hand tightened around the phone. “Yeah, well, clearly I’m not part of that.”

“Di-”

“He also might try to steal a motorcycle, but that might have been a joke. You should probably keep an eye out either way,” Dick added then hung up. He turned his phone off when it immediately started ringing. He tossed it into his lockbox and flopped down on his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes.

A few minutes later someone knocked on his door. He shut the lockbox and knocked it back into its hiding spot with his foot before calling for them to come in.

Nightstar slipped in, but just shut the door behind her and leaned against it. She waited a moment before saying, “X isn’t Tim or Duke.”

“Never said he was.”

“But he implied he was and you didn’t correct him.”

“Tim and Duke aren’t my brothers, Mandy.”

“By your logic, you don’t have any family at all. So why is X going around calling you brothers?”

Dick didn’t respond.

“Why’d you spend Family Weekend with him? Why are you wearing a jacket you normally keep locked away with all the other Batman-related things you pretend don’t exist?”

Dick frowned and dropped his hand to his hoodie. “It’s not Batman’s logo.”

“Sure, Dick, and I -”

“It’s Batkid’s.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Oh. Oh shit.”

“Mandy.”

“You think he’s… him.”

“He is.”

“Dick, Jason died.”

“Like I said, long story. He is back. The others know it too, considering the call I just had with Bab-Barbara.”

“You actually talked to her,” she said softly, coming to sit next to him.

“I talked at her. She didn’t get to say much. I just needed to warn her and the others about something Jay said and it’s too involved in our civilian identities to trust the message with Dove.”

“Sure, or maybe you just wanted to hear her voice.”

Dick glared up at her. “I want to hear all of their voices, is that what you want me to say? You know I’m not afraid to admit I miss them, it’s just not going to change anything.”

“Admitting it is the first step,” she shot back. “Now do something about it.”

“They don’t want me, Mandy. I’m not going to go crawling back there just to get shunted back into juvie!”

“You don’t know that’s what will happen.”

“Yes, I do!”

She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up so they were eye to eye. “Aren’t you the one who pushed me to reconnect with my mom?”

“That’s different and you know it,” he said, pushing her hands off.

“Why?”

“She’s your mom.”

“And they’re your family.”

“No, they’re not!”

“Di-”

He stood up. “They know where I am! I’m not trying to hide! I didn’t even change my codename! If any of them wanted to talk to me, Babs could easily contact me! At the very least, she or Steph could have Holly give me the message! Or Damian could ask Jon to pass the message to Eliza and she could give it to me! And yet that call is the only time I’ve heard from any of them since the Fight! Why do you think that is?”

“Because you’re terrible at dealing with emotions when they’re your own and the rest of your family is the same or worse,” she deadpanned.

“Just drop it.”

She sighed and got up to leave. She paused before opening the door. “You’re going to have to deal with this one of these days. Probably sooner than you think if you’re going to keep talking to Jason.”

“Doubtful. He isn’t exactly sitting down for tea with the Bats either right now.”

She shook her head and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little explanation of characters mentioned

Teen Titans:

Robin - Richard "Dick" Grayson: Foster son of Damian Wayne (15yo)

Virus - Galv-10 "Galvio" of Gex (~16yo in comparison to human development)

Nightstar - Ma’andkori "Mandy" Grace: Daughter of Kory and Artemis Grace (17yo)

Impulse - Iris "Irey" West: Daughter of Wally West, Twin of Jai (15yo)

Wonder Girl - Yara Flor: Daughter of an Amazon and Brazilian God (16yo)

Other Titans:

Turtle - Jai West: Son of Wally West, Twin of Irey (15yo)

Speedy - Dinah "Di" Harper: Second Daughter of Roy Harper (16yo)

Dove - Holly Hall: Daughter of Hank and Dawn Hall (14yo)

Aquagirl - Mareena: Daughter of Kaldur'ahm (14yo)

Supergirl - Eliza Zor-El/Eliza Lutessa Luthor: Clone of Kara and Lena Luthor (13yo)

Bats:

Batman - Bruce Wayne (49yo)

Catwoman - Selina Kyle-Wayne (50yo)

Oracle - Barbara Gordon (41yo)

Orphan - Cassandra "Cass" Wayne: Eldest Child/Only Daughter of Bruce Wayne (36yo)

Flamebird - Damian Wayne: Oldest Son of Bruce Wayne (26yo)

Nightwing - Jon-El/Jonathan "Jon" Samuel Kent: Partner of Flamebird (26)yo

Signal - Duke Thomas: Second Son of Bruce Wayne (23yo)

Black Bat - Timothy "Tim" Drake-Wayne: Third Son of Bruce Wayne (22yo)

Batgirl - Stephanie Brown (21yo)

Red X - Jason Peter Todd-Wayne: Fourth Son of Bruce Wayne (17yo)

#batfam #teen titans #reverse robins #dick grayson #Jason Todd #batkid and robin

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stinkysidebitch · 4 years

Text

BNHA students as youtubers! Pt.1

Ft. Midoriya, Bakugou, Tenya, Todoroki, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Kaminari, Jiro, Shinso, and Asui

-Midoriya

FITNESS CHANNEL!!!

He's all like: 😁🏃‍♂️🏋️‍♂️💪

He's not a douche abt it tho, its genuine tips and tricks to help other people 😌

Common guest in All Might's vlogs too

Generally discusses health and sometimes how to get in shape if you arent already 😋

Very helpful

Did I mention he's helpful?

Because he's helpful...

Does Dad vids with Eri sometimes 😍

Often features the Dekusquad 🤭

He was also on Present Mic's podcast but he wasn't talking about anything juicy so his airtime was cut in half 😔

Sorry my boy, but you aren't very creative with names... his channel name is just "Izuku Midoriya" 😩

-Bakugou

Step tf off Guy Fieri 🤬

Our boy is a youtube chef 👨‍🍳

Thinks that us "extras" need to learn from a pro

Yes, yes he actually does call his subscribers extras...

I feel VERY attacked ngl 😩

He do be kinda cooking doe 😳

Basically just bullies you into cooking properly

Has featured Kirishima a few times but after Kaminari shorted his brain AND the oven out Bakuguo swore to never let anyone BESIDES Kiri feature in his vids 😔

Kami was like: 🥴 and Bakugou was like: 😤

His channel name is definitely "Katsuki's Kitchen"

-Tenya

Ah yes, the CEO of boi hands

Tenya was a pretty difficult one tbh 🧐

Personally I see him as an educational channel on youtube 🤷🏻‍♂️

But not boring education, he talks about different types of villains to watch out for..

Definitely talks about evasion tactics and fighting styles

He's also unintentionally very funny

Does this a lot: 🤚🏻

Also did a series on how to be a good class rep

Please smash like, he's trying his best y'all 😩

He let his class pick his name (of course) so now he's stuck with "1-A's Dad" 🤧

-Todoroki

This guy is multifaceted

Meaning he does multiple things on his channel based on his interests

I see him as someone who teaches meditation and construction

Teaches people about proper Japanese home design and how to renovate it 🥰

YES, this is SOLELY based on when he changed the flooring in his dorm 😭

We do know that he likes traditional Japanese style homes though because he basically says that

I only said meditation because he's usually so chill 🧘‍♂️

I feel like either Mina or Midoriya introduced him to it because of how angry he can get sometimes so he needed it ☝️

Channel name is probably "Icyhot's World" because I really can't see him coming up with anything better, and also it annoys Bakugou 🤭

-Kirishima

The moral integrity of the youtube gaming sect 🤗

He has videos addressing current event issues too like BLM when things get really serious

YES, he is very politically correct

Respects wamen ☺️

His gaming videos are commentary and he usually plays online multiplayer

Expect to hear the voices of Bakugou, Kaminari, Sero, (ocassionally Tokoyami) and Mina whenever Kiri DOES play online

If they aren't all there (because they have their own channels to upkeep) sometimes he may add Midoriya, Jiro, or Shinso fairly often🤷🏻‍♂️

Rlly just depends on whose online, but he's open to playing with anyone

Works really well as a teammate, and is super positive and funny

Says that teamwork in games is just as important as teamwork irl (it's also "SUPER MANLY!")

He also loves to fuck with Bakugou in his videos a lot

Channel name is "Shitty Hair Plays" (much to Bakugou's chagrin)

-Tokoyami

Our goth lord and savior 🙏

Teaches us abt goth culture

He's like: ☻☠🧛‍♂️🖤

This includes goth design, history, styles of goth/alternative clothing, and also darker styles of music

Also reads his own spooky poetry

He's really good ngl 😳

Sometimes records himself gaming

Also his main feature is dark shadow so expect a lot of "ft. Dark shaow" on his page

Overall very interesting and deserves your subscription

And also his channel name is " The Dark Harvest Official"

- Kaminari

CrAcK cHaNnEl

Comedy reaction channel

He's kinda like Jontron, except he's an idiot 🚶‍♂️

At first I thought he might not have the self awareness to do this because he would need to be able to critique, but I honestly think Denki is smarter than he lets on 🤓

Does features, so think of the videos of Drew Gooden, Danny Gonzalez, and Kurtis Connor when they all collabed (or Noel Miller and Cody Ko)

Usually features Kiri and Sero (Bakugou gets too annoyed so he's rarely in the videos at all)

Mineta would get his ad revenue taken away so hes not in the vids

Also I hate him, so... 😌💕

His channel is probably called "Mr. Electric reacts"

We STAN a shark boy and lava girl reference 👏

-Jiro

I think you already know what I'm going to say

Obvs a music channel

Singing, playing instruments.. etc

Step aside Hannah Montana ✋👱‍♀️

She did do a video singing the transitions from the show as a joke though, so she isnt totally serious with her page either

Also has videos bullying poor Denki 🤧

Trys to teach you how to play but also does covers of her own

Has a few random videos of some of her classmates being morons on her page too.

I feel like her name would be "U.A's Taste" or something because sometimes it seems like no one else has any 🤷🏻‍♂️

She would def do a video explaining that

-Shinso

Shinso's page can only be described as a deepdive critique channel

He makes those 30 minute long videos discussing depraved youtubers horrible behavior with receipts, but he doesn't do it for drama, he does it to put the truth out there

And no I'm not talking about the big youtubers like "Tati" or "Pewdiepie", I'm talking like really screwed up abusers like "Onision"

(AN: Sorry this got so dark 😖)

POINTS OUT LOGICAL FALLACIES IN THE EVIL YOUTUBERS ARGUMENTS!!

But he also games sometimes, usually horror or online games

His audience challenges him to scarier games to try to get a reaction out of him but he NEVER flinches

He thinks jump scares are cheap

After one he'll just sit there and be like: 😑 "Well, that was annoying"

Firm believer in "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" (Needless to say a few people have deleted their channels from the roasts this man can dish out)

His channel is probably called "Shinso Listens" basically to make fun of Onision speaks 😅

-Asui

This one was easyyy

Our queen is a book critiquing channel

Think of strange æons and krimson rogue if they somehow had a child 😩

Yes, she did critique Onision's books and YES the videos did feature Shinso

And yes, it was entertaining as fuck

"Woah, that's a little harsh Shinso.. even for you.."

They both ripped him a new one in that video 😅

Not that he doesn't deserve it 👏

Mina reviewed Shane Dawson's books with her after he was canceled and sis... when I tell you it was pure genius 🖐😌

She and Tokoyami reviewed Gabbie Hannah's awful poetry book and it was PHENOMENAL

Her channel name is "Call Me Tsu" 🖐😌

Truly a gem on youtube 🤧

#bnha kaminari #bnha bakugou #bnha midoriya #tsuyu bnha #bnha #bnha kirishima #bnha imagines #bnha headcannons #bnha headcanons #bnha headers #crack post #crack headcanon

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amphtaminedreams · 4 years

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A/W 2020 Fashion Month: Before Vogue Went Blank

Hi to anyone reading,

I’m sorry this post is so late! I really have no excuse apart from all my mental energy being taken up by shooting and editing my Euphoria lookbook up until now and me being too much of a lazy, nap-loving twat to face the mammoth task of a fashion month review; honestly, by the time it’s done, it’s like a dissertation-level amount of characters, so let’s say the final push to get this out is in sympathy with all my 3rd year friends I started uni with finishing their ACTUAL dissertations.

Things have got scary since I originally started saving the photos for this post, and the world has been turned upside down. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen since the Spanish Flu, Italian Vogue’s April cover was blank. As I’m writing this, 26,000+ people have died of coronavirus in Italy, the worst affected country behind the U.S in terms of sheer numbers ( though quick update: as I post this, I’m pretty sure our incompetent prick of a PM has made sure we’re up there too). Proportionally, the actual death rate is even higher, along with a handful of other European countries. There have been some complaints made about the cover and it’s supposed “lack of imagination”; all I know is that in a country whose death toll accounts for 10% of worldwide coronavirus deaths, something of a visual silence feels appropriate.

That being said, for me, writing is one of the only things giving me a sense of purpose right now. Yeah, surprise surprise, working in a grocery store isn’t all that fulfilling. Who would’ve thought it? So what better time to reflect on a time when all the rich people of the world were going about their lives as usual and sitting front row at fashion week rather than crying on Instagram live to their millions of followers about how trapped they feel in their 10 bedroom mansions.

I’ve got to say, this year’s A/W offerings were a lot better than I expected, mostly due to the fact that I’m not generally a big fan of winter fashion; it’s hard to be disappointed given my preconceptions! There’s only so many knits and coats and jeans you can see before it begins to get a bit tiring, and I expected that to be reflected in the presentations. Fortunately, even the brands which are known for their bohemian, Coachella-esque collections generally managed to translate that into something recognisable and consistent on the runway whilst actually being weather appropriate. Of course, there were a few disappointments-I’m sure if I say one of them begins with D, you can guess which brand I’m talking about-but that was more than made up for by the standouts. Gucci in particular was my 2013 Tumblr wet dream and the Moschino show was what I can only describe as a live continuation of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, though I’ll stop with my praise there and wait til I get to actually reviewing before I go overboard with kissing Alessandro Michele’s ass. And on that note, in chronological order, I’ll get one with the reviews! First up, Acne:

Continuing on a winning streak when it comes to catering to my personal preferences (if someone tries to tell me designers don’t care about my personal preferences I’m going to whack out that “just found out the world doesn’t revolve around me, shocked and upset” Marina Diamandis tweet), Acne once again channels futuristic hippy commune living in a dystopian wasteland. I know, those are very specific personal preferences

I love the shredded hems and the burnt velvet, the rawness of it all, and the baroque/your-nan’s-wallpaper patterns are actually a surprisingly nice touch. I imagine if Giselle from Enchanted had to make her dresses out of a thrifty goth’s curtains rather than an upper-middle-class New Yorker’s, they’d look something like this collection. You’ve even got the odd bit of classic fresh Scandi tailoring in there with the oversized coats and blazers which holds it back from being a bit TOO flea market. Plus, the renaissance painting detailing on the black leather-look coat is a stunning detail as well; I’m so glad it seems this trend is here to stay, why wouldn’t I want random nude bodies all over my clothes?

As for the styling, I can’t get enough of the tousled hair. As an eternally tired person who can't be arsed to pick up a brush most of the time, I feel represented. Along with the outfits, it says “I’m an art student/transient painter in the 70s living in a city loft who smokes a lot of weed and does acid on the regular” and that is a life worth manifesting.

Alberta Ferretti was dreamy, and a perfect example of how to translate the bohemian aesthetic of their S/S show to A/W. Somehow despite the furs, ruffles (pussy-bows under tailored jackets and knits/generally heavier pieces always looks really chic imo), tulle, metallic tapestry style prints and chunky jewellery, it all still looks very effortless, like a natural continuation of what we saw last summer; the typically masculine structure of the oversized suits with the ornate patterns and the accessories lends to the careful navigation along the line where maximalism and minimalism meet, the looks as practical as they are decorative. Picture it: you work some high-flying, powerful job in the city, commute on a motor cycle and roll up in one of these suit sets. This collection is for the edgy businesswoman who is completely comfortable telling all the twattish males she works with where to stick it and I want to be her.

The evening gowns are, of course, stunning too. In this analogy where I am a powerful businesswoman and not a pushover who works at a grocery store right now and only beefs with rude customers, I would be wearing one of them to the boujie work Christmas party. The ruffled dresses remind me of something Valentino would put out with the colour palette and the ruffles, and whilst we’re on the topic of colour palettes, this one is beautiful. The lilac and hot pink is SO right.

Though predictable, Alessandra Rich is just as much of a treat as usual, the first brand you’d go to if you were styling a throwback it-girl, Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens if it took place 30 years earlier. Reminiscent of an amalgamation of vintage Chanel and Versace, there are so many cute details I love here, from the white tights with the black heels and the double breasted blazers to the gold chainlink belts and the pearls. The tartan suits with the shoulder padding are very Heathers, the prints the best of your mum’s 80s wardrobe, and nobody else out there is doing bows as well as this; these are the outfits that prissy bitch wears in the cartoons of my childhood that turn out to actually be quite good fashion inspo 15 years later, Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents I’m looking at you.

This girl was the blueprint.

I think someone like Lilly Collins or Daphne Groeneveld would be an ideal fit for any of these looks, or Lana Del Rey if she wanted to stop serving us middle-aged suburban soccer mom and took us back to those H&M ad campaign days. Lana stans please don’t come for me for saying that, I am one of you; I say this because I love her. It’s all altruistic.

Whilst I admittedly didn’t love it as much as last summer’s, I really enjoyed the Alexander McQueen collection too, plus I had a better idea of what to expect this time round; no, we’re not gonna get a repeat of the Plato’s Atlantis show but we do always get some beautiful pieces. Again, like with Alberta Ferretti, this seems like a natural continuation of what we saw in the summer, just with adjustments made for the colder, darker, and altogether moodier months. A/W being the gothier older sister of S/S, it seems right that a lot of the looks turn their back on the ethereal, almost fairy-like feel of what we saw before and embrace the vampier side, reds and blacks (the ultimate Bratz Rock Angels colour combination), plenty of dramatic structures and formidable suit sets. It’s punk but it’s classy, and even with the lighter pieces, we’ve got the grunge inspired harnesses on top to contrast with the elegance and effectively, toughen the whole look up, something Gucci does well too.

The patterned suits with the clunky boots in particular are very cool and I need a gun metal grey heart detailing harness, but undoubtedly the MOMENT of this collection is Adut Akech in what appears to be a silver chainmail dress. She looks like an Amazonian goddess, and whilst I could never dream of pulling something like that off myself, I could happily admire her in it for hours.

There wasn’t much to get excited about at Altuzarra. The collection was very elegant for sure and the feathered belts are cute but it was all quite pedestrian and nothing new-the only detail I really like is the cut out on the second dress from the left, 3rd row down.

As for Anna Sui:

I’m not altogether sure why I wanted to review it. A lot of the outfits as a whole are a bit messy, and not in that avant-garde, expensive-looking Margiela kind of way, just in a “how many fabrics can we possibly get on this model” kind of way. Plus, the styling seems weirdly outdated-a lot of the jewellery looks like the kind of thing you’d see if you searched “gothic choker” on Ebay and ordered the results from low to high, and the makeup and hair in particular is very 2012 Tumblr fashion blogger. Backcombed hair and red lipstick? We’ve got a Zoella thumbnail on our hands.

When the collection did go down the bohemian route though (and when that route wasn’t a failed attempt at what Etro does a lot better), there were a few nice pieces and prints. I mean you really can’t go wrong with a teal fur trimmed coat.

Ashish, on the other hand, took their aesthetic from a similar era and did it a lot more creatively and kookily; this collection looks a lot more deserving of being on a runway. The prints are so loud and costume-y that at times the garments risk looking like something you’d wear at a decades themed dress up party, but they’re saved by understated and much more commercial silhouettes, plus some gorgeous hair and make up. On the whole, very groovy, unintentional disco queen, despite the few risks that didn’t quite pay off.

Next is a brand I always look forward to. In the words of Myrtle Snow:

BALENCIAGA!

Seriously though, if any brand knows how to blend costume and high fashion, it’s them. They take over-the-top, almost absurd silhouettes and turn them into theatre. This year we’re taking it in the direction of Phantom of the Opera, I guess? Dracula? The Woman in Black? An off-broadway production of Harry Potter where Snape is the protagonist? Whatever the direction of the collection is, I live for the dramatics of it all. Demna Gvasalia got these models walkin’ down the runway like they’re members of the Volutri, which is a reference you should all understand given the renaissance Twilight is having online atm.

Straight off the bat, I adore the staging, and all the models are exquisite-the theme of the show was climate change, and I always love when there’s a story behind the presentation of the clothes. I can’t imagine how amazing this must have been to witness in person, though I’m guessing equal parts mystical and intimidating. There are so many things I love here: billowing coats, cinched in waists, the pattens that are sprinkled sparingly in amongst the black, and the bloody shoulder pads that almost run PARALLEL to the model’s necks. This is really a collection that Myrtle Snow would be proud of and brb whilst I get rid of my padlock necklaces in favour of putting whatever meagre amount I can get for them on Depop towards a Balenciaga padlock belt (as if, lol, I don’t even think selling my soul would cover it).

And then there’s Balmain, which isn’t always the fashion critic’s favourite, but which I do tend to like.

I mean there are some really good takeaways here-though the 80s inspired suit, as wearable as they are, can get a little repetitive, they are staples which here seem to pave the way for Olivier Rousteing to try something new for the brand. The moulded breast plates (reminiscent of the Tom Ford one Zendaya wore though I’m not sure which came first!), for example, along with the Matador-style capes and the flowing silk dresses are the most glamorous incarnation of Lara Croft one can possibly imagine, probably just as equally suited for a Roman goddess as they are for an Assassins Creed style action heroine. And yes, I am aware of the fact that Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed are two separate games, okay! I just don’t know enough about the visuals of either to firmly plant this collection in the camp of either one, so I’m going down the crossover route with it!

Not to say there weren’t any bad choices-I omitted a good portion of the looks that were shown; there were definitely pieces that I found to be a little tacky, particularly a recurring chain print which has got to be one of my least favourite patterns out there. Overall, though, it’s gonna be the richly coloured art-deco prints, the wet-look boots and the gem-encrusted scorpion brooch which stick with me, so I’ll let it slide.

Bottega Veneta was very meh; even of the looks I picked out, there are a lot I’m now looking back at and wishing I hadn’t included. Some of the men’s pieces are nice, sure, and I feel like one of those vaguely sick, victorian ghost looking male celebrities everyone obsesses over (Timothée Chalamet and Dane DeHaan I’m looking at you) would make those suits on the second row look fine af, but it’s mostly the womenswear that I’m here for and on this occasion it wasn’t great. A couple of the coats are nice and that’s about it. Like I really had to act as if the tassels weren’t there on a lot of the clothes and go from there because I really don’t like them in this context and if I was to veto looks purely on one of the garments having tassels, there’d be nothing to show or reference when giving my opinion on the show. They were EVERYWHERE. In a summer collection, done right, they can be a nice detail but here they just feel unnecessary and if I’m being honest, are quite ugly.

Thank god for Brock taking the sour Bottega Veneta tassel taste out of my mouth. Never a let down. Literally, everything they put out sends me into a daze of imagining I’m in some romantic drama wearing one of the pieces, in a man’s idea of “no makeup”, running round in a field looking forlorn and windswept because my ghostly lover has-

Okay, you get the picture. I’ve never read Wuthering Heights, but it goes something like that, right? If not, lets just say envisioning myself in any of these catapults me straight into some period drama where I’m born into wealth and sit by my mansion window looking sad all the time and writing poetry and lusting over some stuffy upper-class man I can’t have and who is probably played by Colin Firth because I’m pretty sure that’s what happens in most of them (about to enrage my future English lit undergraduate sister with that line).

Nobody does modest, muted sexy to such a masterful degree. I mean, when Maison Marigela did face veils I was just mildly afraid, but here they’re subtle enough that they’re quite beautiful and almost other-worldly, acting as some kind of boundary between this world and the past that Brock aims to recapture through its designs-the red lip popping out from underneath is a perfect touch too. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but I would say that’s solely on the basis of the more autumn/winter appropriate colour scheme and the heavier fits, which is just a personal preference. I mean, I’m usually not a fan of empire waistlines at all and Brock even manages to make that work.

Burberry this season was a real mixed bag, mostly due to the styling. There are some really gorgeous, London back alley vintage shop looking pieces, especially the 70s style coats, reminiscent of outerwear a slimy record exec would've worn back in the day repurposed by someone like Alexa Chung or Zoe Kravitz or whichever effortlessly cool woman it is we all want to be-also the private boy’s school rugby gear looking shit is classic Burberry and I’m a fan of that, even though it’s not the most inventive or exciting. I just don’t get why there had to be SO much ill-fitting plaid over ill-fitting plaid. Again, like with Bottega Veneta, I thought the menswear was a lot stronger; whilst I wasn’t really wowed by anything, it seemed a lot less forced, whereas a few of the womenswear looks gave me the vibe of a design team desperately grasping onto some ill-conceived ideas of street style and relevancy.

The design team at Carolina Herrera for example, know their niche. They never try to be something they’re not, always sublimely preppy and pretty and predictable-when it comes to target market, the bag is reliably secured. Laid- back princess dresses never get old for those constantly “summering” in one expensive coastal town or another, for the rich American moms attending charity galas and the Spencer Hastings and Blair Waldorfs of the world; women with glossy hair and fresh faces who act as if they woke up looking like that polished but are actually anal as hell and take 2 hours to get ready and would NEVER, I repeat NEVER, shit in a public toilet.

Yes, I managed to worm toilet habits into a review of a Carolina Herrera collection. I’m sorry. Enough with the pearl clutching.

Next is Celine:

I mean, when there are THIS many looks, it’s hard not to find something you like, and though VERY predictable and verging on lazy when you’re putting out the same shit every collection, Celine’s aesthetic is so similar to my own ideal style, it’s hard to be mad at it. That being said, a lot of the pieces, as per usual, came across as cheap YSL knock offs; the overall outfits are cute, but the more you look at the details-it particularly pained me to include a metal bow belt and an ill-fitting velvet skater skirt but I liked the rest of the outfits-the worse it gets. Please, PLEASE someone drive it home to Hedi Slimane, I’m begging you: QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. I get what he’s going for, 70s hipster Jane Birkin is a vision I can very much get behind, but not when it seems to be so rushed.

With the men’s looks, you can get away with it a lot more; when so much of menswear is so plain and unchanging, the slightest hint of Mick Jagger is enough to make a outfit edgy. But even then, I still feel like we’re seeing a load of variations of the same outfit. There are always some pieces that catch my eye, this time round the capes and the velvet blazers, and I would wear most of these things, sure, however I don’t think the combinations SHOULD necessarily look like something I’d personally put together; a runway collection is supposed to be aspirational and cutting edge, not pedestrian (entirely intentional self-drag, lol). Also, side note, the lack of diversity really bothered me. 111 looks and not one of these models has a body type that is naturally achievable for most people. It’s 2020 for fuck’s sake. I’m tired.

SO, let’s liven things up a bit with the Central Saint Martins collection, a breath of fresh air in terms of diversity (though a few more plus-size models would be nice):

As a former University of London student, I hate to heap praise upon them. If you’ve studied in London as well, you’ll know CSM students are ANNOYING. I mean, I’m sure they’re lovely as individuals but you can’t fully understand the meaning of the word pretentious until you’ve seen a group of them at a Uniqlo Tate Late. That being said, they are very good at what they do and I’m so glad that Vogue Runway includes them; this is what Off-White thinks it is, and really it makes sense that a bunch of current fashion students are able to come together to present one of the most experimental and forward-thinking shows of this season.

And let’s talk about the RANGE. From catsuits worthy of comic book heroes to dresses Twiggy would’ve worn in a 1960s editorial, every subgenre of fashion has been fully delved into here. Whilst we’ve got the adrogyny of the suits and suspenders combo and kitschy gender-bending co-ords David Bowie would be proud of, at the other end of the scale we’ve also got models walking down the runway dressed like wood nymphs or some other kind of siren-like creatures. There’s looks that wouldn’t be out of place in a Gucci or Come Des Garcons collection but at that same time would be equally at home in a Berlin techno club.

Honestly, credit where credit’s due-it was a really interesting show and I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Chanel was quite literally the polar opposite of the CSM show.

Very blah.

It’s crazy because before you properly get INTO fashion, Chanel is like the epitome of style. And then you do, and you see the runway shows get lazier and lazier (with some exceptions) every year, and you realise that same prestige that had you aware of Chanel at the age of 7 or 8 is literally all that’s keeping the brand going at this point. I’m not saying the collection is flat out ugly, a lot of it’s cute, but you’re CHANEL for fuck’s sake. Yeah, I like the crucifixes but SCALLOPED HEMS!? No. I do NOT recall travelling back in time to witness Primark’s Spring 2013 collection on the runway and I am NOT having it.

It’s not at all surprising that a lot of the time newer brands Charlotte Knowles (above) tend to be more interesting than those more established-and yes that was a Chanel indirect if the transition wasn’t obvious.

With no room to rest on laurels or reputation, everything has to be bolder and smarter and more distinctive and most importantly, has to appeal to its target market with the fervour of an L.A sign spinner. I only found out about Charlotte Knowles because of a Vogue article citing her as Bella Hadid’s new favourite brand to wear, and once I saw the collection, it was clear why; daringly modern, slick, and edgy is both her street style (say what you want about her as a model but her outfit game is unbeaten) and Knowles’ USP to a T. If Dion Lee, Off-White, GCDS and Acne had an orgy, this would be the result, and that is a GOOD compliment.

Next, Chloe:

Not a huge amount to say, to be honest. Low-key, wearable, and cute. Like Emma Roberts’ Nancy Drew if she did an autumn exchange program at the Sorbonne and studied art history, libraries and coffee shops on the weekdays and galleries and protests at the weekend. On reflection, that definitely makes this collection sound more exciting than it is but there are some effortlessly beautiful pieces here. The 4th row in particular is full of stand outs-the vest with the watercolour faces on with the shirt underneath is perfection, and the burgundy suit with the saffron ruffled collar peeking out from underneath is adorable and not at all reminiscent of the Ronald McDonald inspired nightmare that any combination of red and yellow tones should theoretically be.

As for Christian Siriano, I see why people hate it, I really do. I understand that it seems kinda unfair to have it show the same week as Brock and Rodarte and Oscar de La Renta. We’re talking 2 very different kinds of quality here. BUT, at pure face value, his clothes are FUN, plus Coco Rocha will always have a special place in my heart as someone who lived on The Face and America’s Next Top Model and every show that could possibly give me an unhealthy body image ever.

Like are you telling me you wouldn’t wear these dresses to a party!? Live a little. They just need tailoring...which ideally would be done BEFORE the model’s walking down the runway in it but...you know...can’t have it all.

Christopher Kane is a show I always look forward to.

I would say his designs are the only thing that make geometry look fun but I’m going to expose myself and admit that would be a lie because I actually found geometry really fun. Trigonometry was my shit, lol.

He is a designer who perfectly demonstrates that juggling interseasonal consistency and taking risks can be done. There’s always something DIFFERENT about his collections, fresh and subtly experimental. There are occasionally a few misses, sure, but I’d rather that than for a brand to keep playing safe, plus he never goes too far in the opposite direction either; no going weird for the sake of weird. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but it’s mostly because of the more muted, autumn/winter appropriate colour palette.

Comme Des Garçons? Too weird?

Never.

Honestly when it comes to a CDG collection, I have to really shift my perspective to appreciate it. I’m not looking at fashion presentation, I’m looking at a moving piece of experimental art. I know, it’s a stretch. But you know you’ll never be bored by one of their shows. Not gonna lie, this specific collection crossed the line into plain ugly a couple of times for me. We had padding so extravagant it looked like several models were walking round with Ikea pillows stuck to their chest and headdresses reminiscent of the kids’ game Headbandz. In amongst that though, we did get some gorgeous veils like the ones seen above and the shoes and socks combo is actually quite wearable.

I’d say Dilara Findikoglu is the cut-off point after which things get a little too avant-garde for my personal taste, and it hovers over that cut-off point flawlessly; despite the other-worldly elements of her collections, they remain somewhat grounded by nods towards conventional fashion that allow the beauty, be it inner or outer, of the wearer to shine through. Comme Des Garcons garments undeniably have character but they tend to swallow up any trace of the individual underneath, whereas the character of Dilara Findikoglu garments seamlessly merges with the wearer and in turn elevates both to something transcendent and ethereal. If the Pussycat Dolls got transported into a rugged, post-apocalyptic future, they’d scrape together these outfits to perform in, I know it; the energy of the collection, with the body jewellery and the frayed cut outs and the chalk white faces, is very warrior princess, just as raw and intimidating as it is hot as fuck, and I want that energy in my life. Along with a Dilara belt, of course. I would wear her name like a badge of honour anytime she wants. Dilara, pls pls let me be part of your tribe. PLEASE.

Anyway, this is where I thought I’d cut things off, so as to end on a positive note. You know what that means: Dior is coming up. I feel bad knowing my first post was defending Maria Grazia and yet here I am now, looking at the bar down on the floor, but I mean, you never know; maybe girl is doing this on purpose and one day she’s gonna come out with a Gucci level quality show like a phoenix from the ashes.

If you got this far, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING even if you’re just here for the pics. Part 2 will be covering some of my most anticipated shows from Elie Saab, Fendi and Etro to Gucci and Moschino, Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs, and everything in between. Yes, the shitty ones too.

I’m plowing through all the material as quick as I can so I hope to get the next post up really soon, and yes-you can count on the overwhelming sense of needing to be productive pushing me into fulfilling that statement.

Thanks again and I hope you’re well!

Lauren x

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hamliet · 4 years

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I finished The Witcher Saga

I’m not okay, no.

8.5/10 though. That’s pretty high for me.

I will say this: it’s lovely to have a fantasy series explore the female gaze and female autonomy without even defining the characters by the men in their lives. Looking at you Star Wars and Game of Thrones. Not that it’s flawless, because it’s not, but it ultimately fulfills its theme: destiny is not determinism. Destiny is hope.

I’ll do metas later (I have like four outlined, lol). For now have my sarcastic summaries of each book (spoiler alert):

The Last Wish:

Yennefer: I don't need your help!

Geralt: Unfortunately I've managed to somehow f*ck up Snow White, Rapunzel and Rumplestiltskin, the Frog Prince, and Beauty and the Beast; I'm not letting Aladdin end badly. My nonexistent childhood is at stake.

Jaskier: Man I'm going to have to sanitize all these stories before publishing under my alias, the Brothers Grimm.

Sword of Destiny:

Geralt: The Little Mermaid and the Snow Queen are now dead to me too.

Yennefer: Crushing childhood fantasies? You're the personification of life itself.

Geralt: If I'm life itself then I can surely protect Ciri's life but not her childhood but hell, I'm gonna try.

Yennefer: ...

Yennefer: I didn't mean that so literally but damn, I'm good.

Blood of Elves:

Geralt: I am a good single dad who don’t need no help. I can do this myself.

Triss: Now where have I heard that before...

Geralt: I don't need Yennefer's help.

Triss: Are you going to talk to Ciri about periods and PMS?

Geralt:

Geralt: I heard a kikimora calling.

Time of Contempt:

Yennefer: Geralt, make love to me like it's the last night on earth.

*half a chapter later*

Yennefer: I didn’t mean to make it the actual last night on earth.

Baptism of Fire:

Yennefer: right so... the fate of my daughter rests in the hands of:

my on/off non-communicative sulking baby of a boyfriend

a vampire dad

a pregnant teenage elf cosplayer

an overdramatic slam poet

a goth trying to overcome his Edgar Allen Poe stage

Yennefer: I think the task of saving our daughter who ran off with a group of backpacking millennials falls to me.

Yennefer: Also: Regis, adopt me; Milva, I'm godmother; Jaskier, shut up; Cahir, just embrace the aesthetic; Geralt, we're on again.

The Tower of Swallows:

Geralt: I haven't had the chance to exercise my Dad instincts lately. I hate everything. I especially hate you Cahir. Please do something to justify my hatred.

Cahir: I shall handle this insult to my honor most maturely. *punches Geralt in the face*

Milva: *spanks both of them like misbehaving children*

Three days later:

Cahir: *is wounded*

Angoulême: exists

Geralt: *Dad mode activated* much better.

Lady of the Lake:

Geralt: instead of destroying traditional fairy tales I’ve moved on to modern ones.

Milva Amidala: deserved better than life gave her.

Angoulême Erso: This is a rebellion isn't it? It's not? Oh well. I rebel.

Regis Skywalker: goes full emo but dies like the hero he is.

Darth Emhyr Palpatine: fucked and still fucks; have fun with that image in your nightmares.

Vilgefotz the Hutt: thinks imprisoning Yennefer was a good idea.

Boba Bonhart: deserves a Sarlacc fate.

Cahir Ren: dies after a glimpse of reciprocation from his crush.

Geralt Solo and Yennefer Organa: lo, are with their adopted daughter always, just not physically.

Ciri: is able to become Just Ciri because she is enough.

#the witcher #the witcher saga #sarcasm

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abbeyfangirl · 4 years

Text

dragon age: all characters (companions)

I’ve been in this fandom for a hot minute now and I want to update my opinions on characters :)

Origins

Alistair: super sweet dude who literally is not the stereotypicalchantryguyfightme. He’s a great example of healthy masculinity and I totally wish he was bi because I have an entire essay on that— also: he’s a poc! His mum was brown. In game he’s got dark features. if you really want a blond/blue-eyes/white guy, make your warden that. or accept that brown people can be noble and moral. or just draw cailan, idk. just because BioWare whitewashes doesn’t mean you should.

Leliana: someone hug my singing girlfriend before I crush her under with my own hugs. Also: nugs. Yes! Shoes. Yes! She likes how I style my hair? YES!! I honestly think she’s super duper and it pisses me off whenever someone’s like: yeah she enjoys killing people and the Game. ok. and michel de chevin willingly participated in genocidal marches through the alienage he grew up in with his elvhen mum.

Morrigan: dirty swamp witch that i stan and also have a v big crush on. tiddies. Have a son with a GW so we can raise him with our tiddies out in the forest. she’s also white-passing, as her father was chasind and all people we’ve seen that are chasind are black. therefore, she is biracial. therefore, poc can be goths and don’t shy away from giving morrigan a darker skintone. if the devs had of been thinking, she’d have a darker skintone.

Zevran: Actually is the best romance, I think. Loves consent, therefore I will stan him so hard my skull cracks a little. Also: he is a very brown boy and if he’s white in da4 I’m seriously going to throw all canon out the fucking window. genuinely a good person who needs to be told so.

Wynne: grandma who only likes my friends who go to church. but also super sweet and I’d rest my head on her bosom (in a platonic way omg ZEVRAN)

Sten: angry quiet boi. the bestest boi. I totally would give him a kitten for a gift and bake him cookies. Thicc softie. I think if I had DA:O and i knew how to use mods i would mod the fuck outta him. sorry.

Sha(y)le: who’s gender? idk her. See also: fuck birds and authority. pound ur ass into the ground you feathery meatbag little shits. fuck songbirds.

Dog: such a good boi. thicc. thinks Alistair is a whiny fuck and is Morrigan’s only friend. love him. he’s the cutest companion. bet.

Ohgren: honestly forgot about him bcc he’s such a shitbag. also: he could’ve been a really cool addiction recovery type but NOPE. probably would have a trump shirt in a modern au and would catcall wlw and hit mlm. no thanks.

Awakening

Anders: he acts like rlly straight but he’s so gay I can smell it. also he’s rlly cute and fun and I love him so much.

Justice: MAYBE i’M selF CONSCious OF THE twitchING. is the friend that genuinely doesn’t get dick jokes but is ur 110% ride or die.

Nathaniel Howe: honestly is sort of a white knight/neck beard a little, but it’s kind of charming with his whole velanna m’lady?? grump boi. annoying soul patch that I’d mod out SO FAST—

Sigrun: would have ROMANCED the FUCK out of her. why she even entertains the idea of fucking with ohgren makes me realize most of the writers are dumbfucks.png. peppy little emo. 12/10 would die if she kissed my cheek teasingly.

Ohgren: why. why. why. I’d have brought Shayle over. Maybe Zev? Definitely Dog.

Velanna: she was written to be an annoying feminist and you can tell but I deadass am a kindred spirit with her bcc I too am deadpan annoyed with Thedas’ general population too. love her. Would’ve loved to romance her. She’d totally be one of those who’d get all tsundere and be like “n-no i hate you” *kisses the fuckin soul out of you then blushes so hard she’s now a tomato*

Dragon Age II

Anders: fuck the cops. i don’t care. fuck the cops. (vine reference). also: do i hate him for blowing up the chantry that would eventually annul a huge collection of his people? no. read dalishious’s meta on Anders. v intriguing. didn’t they retcon the fuck out of the reported deaths too? like there was like eight Templars and Elthinia in there. Templars killed more “abominations” in a day than Anders in the game canon—

Aveline: initially thought she was fine and then realized she’s shit to my lil brother and I will fucking clap her ginger ass. See also: whorephobia isn’t a joke so fuck off with treating Isabela badly, you tit.

Bethany: sunshine. Literal sunshine. I feel my freckles grow in her presence and i love it. she’s my little baby sister and I’d slam that ogre so fuckin hard before it touched either twin.

Carver: there has to be a mod where both twins survive. I love them both to bits. My babies. carver is my bitter, angry little brother and I can relate because I too am very angry and would totally clap my own ass. hes so genuine and I don’t get the competition between Beth and Carver. Like, both are fuckin stellar in different ways. In this essay I will—

Fenris: honestly, I don’t get the general hate between him and Anders. Fenris’ main arc should’ve been a recovery arc, not drunken moping and revenge. he deserves better. give him a soft sweater instead of his spikes and let him love himself as much as I love him for MAKERS SAKE. like when you really think about their relationship, it could’ve been an eye-opener for fenris and finally some legit sympathy for anders. but we all know that if they had of teamed up that Meredith would’ve been dead before the end of Act 1 so.

Isabela: whorephobia is not a joke. oversexualizing your only appearing brown woman is so poorly written. how about we appreciate her and her lovely bosoms but also let people tease her about her heart of gold? her innate understanding of freedom? instead of just a wave of dick? please?? can we give her some pants for when she fights? can we accept that i fall for rogues who hate themselves?? fuck. also whomever draws her x femHawke x Merrill literally is after my own heart.

Merrill: my fucking babygirl MARRY ME. Fenris could’ve been her older brother type, but NO. she and Isabela should’ve been canonical gfs instead of Isabela/Fenris (no shaming the pairing tho!!). I love how she’s written as neurodivergent. V nice. Sometimes I just look her up and cry because she’s fucking everything. Also: she’s in the Dalish origin and she’s far from being white. Why did they make the most innocent/naïve character really white? hmmmm.

Sebastian: whew that boy. Would totally be that annoying Mormon at your door but you still let him in bcc he’s super sweet. Also: huge ass bible thumper and should get his head slap because you said the maker loved all his children why do you defend a complicit old hag you annoying attractive fuck—

Varric: totally is a bard and the devs couldn’t handle the idea of him being one bcc it might make him look less straight. is the only grey morality person I don’t want to fucking bash in with a fry pan. he sees people and I like that, but you totally know he’s siding with mages every time bcc him and Anders are like besties. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. “Professional Younger Brother”.

Tallis: I know nothing about her but she seems okay. I think she was an escaped slave and honestly? Fucking props. Spy on a shitting organization, idk what you’re doing, but your VA was that cool lesbian from SPN so I think ur okay?

Inquisition

Blackwall: Redemption Arc 101. Love him to bits. Sad dad bunwall. good man. actually atoned for his sins by actively becoming a good person. his initial design is 80% hotter im so sorry but so not.

Cassandra: was way browner in the last game. would romance the fuck outta her. I love me a butch lady who melts at my dorky recitation of poetry. BioWare is a coward. also is the worst choice for divine. but not a bad person. could use some more guidance or get her ass whipped by a dalish elf about religion or a circle mage kid whos like “yeah bud i didn’t ask for the templars to whip my ass everyday for existing.”

The Iron Bull: I think the Qunari/Vashoth were a little based off black people (the whole anti blackness thing where ppl are scared of them bcc of whatever reason) and it pisses me off that he had a weird ass dubcon thing with Dorian in banter. It doesn’t make sense— he’s an A+++ dom and would not jump straight in role play without at least checking in at first like wtf BioWare.

Cole: his mother was chasind so he’s like not supposed to be that white? or like biracial? albino? idk. love him to bits tho. He’s neurodivergent and I deadass love him. romancing him? idk. I see why ppl think it’s fuckin nasty but also like as a writer I’d age him the fuck up so fast before my inquisitor even THOUGHT about that. like idk. I’m down with him being a sweet little bro character tho. he’s a babe. love him.

Sera: had the worst fucking writer I’ve ever seen and I willingly read the twilight saga twice by a shit ass racist white lady who okay’d pedophilia. like. Fuck you Kristjanson suck your own dick you fuck. had the worst options in regards to speak to her. has a thicc case of internalized racism that literally most of the fandom just loves to use against her. my lesbian neurodivergent queen. Would write a thousand fix it fics for her. Love her to bits. im gay.

Varric: I haven’t played DA2 so i don’t get why everyone wants to romance him but like. a dwarf romance? yes please. Idk he reminds me of my uncle so I only see him as fun uncle material. Deadass should adopt Cole and Merrill and co parent with Blackwall for Sera. dads? fuck yeah. love me some wholesome, present fathers.

Dorian: is a gay stereotype that I love/hate so much. and he’s also just as bad about being a creep bcc he sexualizes qunari men (in banter). I attribute that to shit writing tho. I want to protect him from all the “omg gay best friend!” people. he’d clearly be that tired gay that wouldn’t give a diddly damn about ur het romance. wanna talk about politics? he’s ur guy/gay.

Solas: “me, an intellectual:”. I don’t hate him, but I’m not about him. He comes off as mysterious and suave (which he totally is) but I deadass would not save him from himself because he’s a racist, exclusionist eggshell. idk. not my cup of tea, but I can totally see the appeal. And he’s interesting, I’ll totally say that. “I think the Dalish are garbage but they made you” is not a compliment. it’s so offensive. and such bait for “quirky girls” which I’m no fan of. Would be Achilles and let Patroclus (Lavellan in his case) die before he realized how his pride is literally a waste of time. If he gets a redemption arc I hope Lavellan gets to slap him before getting him to teach all about ancient Arlathan and show that the Evanuris weren’t all total dicknozzles. (Aka I really have a hard time believing that they’d be slavery cult things. especially since they’ve compared elves to indigenous ppl, Jews and the Romani.)

Vivienne: it’s so racist that they’d make a black woman be pro-slavery. That’s such internalized racism. She could’ve been the cool ass “educate yourself first before you speak, fool” ice lady, but NO. the devs could’ve kept the “Templars are a tool that I proudly can mandate” and the “circles are very good education” and we. Could. Have. Romanced. Her. Like. Fuck. Sake. I just wanna give her a hug and say “love yourself omg!!” and not even in a romantic way. Also: she and morrigan should not have been so antagonistic towards each other. I’d expect them to have great respect for each other, as they both moved up in the world through hardwork and very little help. They could learn different magic from each other too and still maintain that rival respect “oh you” mood. Sidenote: probably the cooler option for Divine. if her approval is high enough she’ll love and be loyal to you forever and i can’t see her agenda being bad. she improves the circles exponentially and tells all the antis to suck her pretty painted toes.

Josephine: an actual disney princess. romanced her my first playthrough. I love her so much. she just makes me so happy. And she’s like: “Integrity, Loyalty, peace. That is what it means to be a GREY WARDEN good fucking person.” she’s the person who would let you hold her hand if you got anxious and she’d be that person who shouldered the whole group project with finesse and poise and would probably lie for everyone as to not be mean. i love josie. her and leliana’s relationship is so cute, too. whether it’s romantic or not: women supporting women.

Leliana: if you leave her hardened you must hate her. why. she becomes so against herself. i like how shes feminine and lighthearted because that’s so powerful-- to remain hopeful when the world is hopeless. (its hard to know when to soften her/harden her so i get it but. google it. she deserves to be happy and sweet again.)

Cullen: uwu war criminal with shit ass “redemption arc” that was actually a half-assed (at BEST) recovery arc. Recovery isn’t linear, it isn’t pretty, and even the broken need to be told they are wrong in order to heal right. Like I’m offended by that bullshit. I’ve had to do some mental health recovery in the past and unlearning lots of toxic ideologies— which I’m still unlearning— and it bothers me that he gets an easy pass because he’s hot. It’s one thing if you like Cullen, it’s another thing if you hold him accountable.

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nihilnovisubsole · 5 years

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My fashion queen, incredibly important question: How would one go about figuring out fashion *style* for characters? I've noticed your OCs always have a Look(TM), and I've gathered from your blog (and fics) that you've got an eye for aestethics - please, could you give me advice at least where to *start*. I'm completely unaware of fashion and, frankly, completely overwhelmed at the prospect of just starting..

Ah! Previous Anon again - forgot to add a more specific question about fashion (I’m squeezing in 2 quesiton in one xD). Do you have fashion advice for sleek/distant female character’s clothing that doesn’t hinge on formal dresses? (as is discernable, I have literally NO idea what a Grown Ass, Self Respecting Woman would wear)

wow. that’s high praise. when i got this yesterday morning, i knew i wanted to give it the answer it deserved. this is over 1500 words long, so apologies to anyone on mobile, but i wasn’t letting go until i’d really sunk my teeth into it.

unfortunately, since you’re anon, i don’t know enough about your character to suggest anything specific. instead, i want to take a step back and see if we can solve the root of the problem - “where do i start?”

when i was a teenager, an english teacher told me this: “the biggest constraint in writing is no constraint at all.” when you have the whole spectrum of something - in this case, clothes - to pick from, it is overwhelming. the natural human instinct is to freeze up. so while it may sound strange, if you’re just starting out, you might feel better if you have some constraints to work within.

with that in mind, you can treat finding a ‘signature look’ for your character like solving a murder mystery. you eliminate all the suspects that don’t fit until you know enough to narrow it down to the one that does. that’s going to involve something else you’ll recognize from murder mysteries: you’re going to have to interrogate the character. open them up and get to know them - their background, their likes and dislikes, their quirks, the role they play in the world around them. every answer will give you clues and weed other things out, and eventually, you’ll get a box small enough that you feel comfortable working in it.

now, i love fashion, and i love using clothes to send messages about a character’s personality. so as someone who’s had that interest for my whole life, i work from the other end. the constraints happen, in large part, without me thinking about them. i tend to zoom right to a certain aesthetic or item of clothing, say, “okay, what outfit can i build with this,” and go from there. but since you’ve said you’re “unaware” of fashion and it’s intimidating to you, i’ll try to ease you in through a different route and see whether that helps.

so, if we’re going to pick your character apart, let’s think about some practical questions first:

what setting does your character live in?

if you’ve narrowed your setting down to a historical decade, you’ll find most of the style questions already - firmly! - answered for you. for example, a victorian woman would, by default, wear skirts. if the character is contemporary, you’ve got a lot more wiggle room. if you want to mess with historical fashion rules for symbolic or story purposes, awesome, but i think that’s probably more advanced than you’re looking for right now.

if the setting is fantasy or sci-fi, what’s its dominant aesthetic? is it cyberpunk? sleek ~apple~ sci-fi? or is it more like star wars? is it medieval fantasy? woodsy faerie fantasy? JRPG-style fantasy? you get the idea.

what does your character do?

speaks for itself. what’s their job?

what is your character like, just in general?

this is where everything you know about their personality goes. if they’re a fussy courtier who’s worried about their reputation and appearance, they’re probably not going to be comfortable in plain, casual clothes.

what can your character afford to wear?

again, speaks for itself. do they buy designer brands? are they trying their best with what they have? or are they super strapped for cash and just have to get the job done?

does their social scene have an easily-identifiable aesthetic that you could work with?

does your character wear urban/street fashion or preppy rich-kid clothes? are they part of a subculture that dresses in a certain way, like teddy boys? do they have the desire or freedom to go all-in with that style, or do they have to play it down, like being corporate goth?

do they need to wear something they could travel, do hard work, or fight in?

goes with the job question above. do they need some kind of outerwear or accessory where they can hide weapons? do they always need to be ready, or is it situational?

basically, where does the character’s aesthetic need to sit on a chart of form vs. function?

what do other characters who are similar to your character wear?

look at your favorite movies, games, and TV shows and see what professional designers are doing with characters like yours. what colors and cuts are they using? what other elements do they choose? do you like them? if you don’t like them, what would you change? sometimes you can learn more from what you hate than what you love.

hopefully, you’ve already culled a huge swath of fashion ideas that you Know You’re Not Going To Do. you may still not know what you do want to do, either! that’s fine. let’s move onto some more artsy questions:

are there any colors your character would prefer or avoid?

it sounds silly. it’s not. a limited color palette will go a long way toward making a character’s outfits look unified and purposeful. obviously, in real life, most people don’t restrict themselves as much as fictional characters do. but if you were a costume designer, you’d want to have some guideposts to work with.

are there any motifs you associate with your character?

animals, elements, religious or cultural symbols, plants - you can sneak all these into their clothes’ details. maybe their dress has beading in the shape of a peacock, or rose earrings, or icy sparkles, or a bear pelt for a cloak.

have fun with meanings! moon motifs for mysteriousness, poisonous flowers, etc. let your inner lit major out.

do you want your character to have a certain silhouette?

this may seem odd if you’re just going to be writing your character and not drawing them, but think about it anyway. do you want to emphasize that your character is tall? is everything they wear skintight? do they have a large, unique hat?

a great example of this is maleficent. not only does she have a horn-shaped headdress, her huge, flowing robe tells us there’s a much bigger power in her than her body would suggest.

is there a certain ethos you want their clothes to project? what, in their world, would do that? what in our world would do that?

let’s say you want your character to look very powerful, to the point where people would find their looks alone intimidating. should they wear sharp, simple, severe clothes, maybe in dark colors? or should they wear very embellished clothes, like royalty? what are your setting’s ideas about beauty? modesty? does your character play by the rules, or do you want them to stand out?

what colors, shapes, and styles appeal to you personally?

for all the time i’ve spent talking about restrictions and guidelines, it’s important not to lose the fun of it, either. use your favorite color! give them clothes you’d want to wear in real life! character style is a playground where you can let wish fulfillment run wild.

at any time, feel free to turn to google or wikipedia if you’re not sure how to answer one of these questions. if you see an interesting idea, pick it up and follow it - what you’re doing here is training your eye, and that’s how you’ll learn. that said, if you’re already intimidated, i wouldn’t dive too deep into couture/aesthetic blogs until i had a more solid grip on how i wanted the character to look. it comes back to what i said earlier - there is such a thing as too much to choose from, especially when you’re not sure what you should be looking for yet.

there’s one other thing i want to mention that can help bring a character’s wardrobe together: repetition. if you’re planning several outfits for a character instead of just one, echo some of the motifs, shapes, or colors from one to the next. they don’t all have to be identical takes on the same thing, but if they have certain traits in common, they’ll feel less like separate outfits and more like a matched set. they could all be in members of the same color family or have similar patterns on them. maybe your character has a certain accessory that they wear with everything. you get the idea.

while i may not be able to plan your character’s wardrobe outright, i hope this makes the whole process seem more straightforward. or that it gives you some ideas to work with, or any other kind of help you might take away from it. this post is getting unfathomably long, so i’ll wrap it up, but i’d be happy to put any of my own characters through a “question test” like this one if you’d like to see how it works in practice.

finally, if you can find an interview with an artist or costume designer who worked on something you like, those things are worth their weight in gold. i read an interview with colleen atwood when i was in middle school, and it revolutionized the way i thought about fashion and storytelling. and when i say “revolutionized,” i mean “i owe basically everything i just told you to that article.” dig into them and see how they think and talk about their art! they’re more qualified to teach you than i ever will be.

#anon #asks #fashion #writing

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