#where the question was ‘is the clone/new version still you? or are they an entirely new person now?’

[crybaby-bkg]

cw: Bakugou dies but comes back to life, “comes back wrong” trope, implied fighting, angst

When Bakugou died, you’re not sure how you went on living. Grief had taken over your life, sat you in the passenger side while it cruised off the highway into icy waters. And even then, you couldn’t find the energy to drown.

It’s why there’s a sudden uptick of energy when you’re promised to have him back. Some top scientists contact you months after his death, tell you to hurry down to the headquarters labs, come and rejoice for what you’re about to witness. And you’re horrified, to say the least.

“This isn’t my husband.” Are your first words when you walk in, watch the figure on the other side of the glass examine its own hands. It looks like your husband but—but his hair isn’t the right shade of blond all over. His nose bridge had a slight bump after a scuffle with a villain. He had a scar on his hand but—but it never looked like it was to sew a pinky beside the other fingers.

“Is that really my husband?” You ask next in disbelief, slowly entering the room. Bakugou’s head snaps up, his eyes a little brighter than you remember but—they hold so much emotion. So much memory, so much panic, so much guilt.

“I left you.” He mutters, his voice raspy and ragged, and you wonder if it’ll always be like this now. It makes you cry a little harder than it should, but you only embrace each other. He’s cold and his shoulders don’t hold the same mass and his back doesn’t carry the same scars. There’s one, jagged and rough, running down his back, and you think, you think that’s where they slipped a new spine in.

“Welcome back home.” You tell him, weeks after meeting him again, new and not totally—Katsuki. He’s stiff and he doesn’t immediately take off his boots when he enters, and it worries you. Makes you think if you’ve just let a stranger into your home, one that has stolen your dead husbands face. Makes you wonder if he’ll be as loving as Katsuki once was, or if he’ll become your monster looming over you with the guilt of not being able to rest anymore.

“I’ve missed you so much.” You whisper against his mouth one night, a little while after he’s moved back. You don’t know why you lay under him, why you let him nestle himself inside of you, why you let him hold you against his chest. Katsuki always ran his hands over your cheeks and neck whenever he held you like this, but this…man, only holds himself up with his hands resting beside your head. It’s alien, how he looks at you, how his hips are methodically measured with every thrust, how he kisses you every 8 seconds. You wonder if he’s more robot than Frankenstein monster.

“Why did you come back to me like this?” You ask him one night, barricaded in the bathroom away from him. You can hear his sobs on the other side, his pleading to be let in. He tells you he never wanted to come back if he had to be like this, that he’s sorry, please let him in, he misses the warmth of your skin, he’s never been so cold before, he’s never liked the cold.

“Is this considered cheating?” You ask yourself aloud one night, when Bakugou is forced back to the lab when he becomes too…un-Bakugou. To sleep with a man that is your husband in every way but? Your husband has been dead for a year now, and yet you stroke the chin of the man that tries so hard to be him everyday, but fails so miserably at it every time.

“I’ll come back to you right this time.” Bakugou promises to you when he’s strapped down to leave for the lab and before he’s sedated. But you don’t believe him—you never did. Your husband is dead, and this animated corpse has been nothing but a cheap mockery of everything you’ve lost and something you will never truly get back.

#I was writing this and then checked my dash and saw another post about this #and felt so guilty and almost didn’t post it aidjdkfj #but I love this trope too much to delete it!!!!! #I’ve written about this in my published book before and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever written #there’s just such a deep heartache about having to grieve someone #and then the grieving process being interrupted by the one you lost #and battling with their death even though you still look at them everyday again #but it’s just not right?? it’s not the same?? #they have the same face (kinda) but it’s truly not hem #not them* heck #it reminds me of a convo I had in a psych class about making a new cloned version of yourself #where the question was ‘is the clone/new version still you? or are they an entirely new person now?’ #and at first I said they’re still me you know? they have my face n body n memories #but my prof told me no!! after they have been cloned they are sentient and are now their own person making new memories apart from you #and I thought that was soooo interesting and it makes me fall in love w this trope every time #you’re my person but only a version. you’re who I love but a newer person. you’re not them. you’re everything I’ve missed about them #so heartbreaking I LOVE ITTTT #sorry I’m rapping it’s the sleep meds kicking in #okay bai #bakugou treats! 🍬 #—new treat in the streets! 🍫

[lanaluthorlang]

Now, I don’t necessarily think that Lexana are that out of character in season six. On the surface at least. With everything the two of them had been through, together and separately, you wouldn’t have to suspend your belief to accept that cracks would begin to show. Those trials could have strengthened their bond, or,they could have brought to the surface any anxieties that might have been lurking in their minds. 

For Lana, this is a new relationship. There’s bound to be doubts or fear that she’s rushing into things. Especially when you take into account everything that happened with Zod possessing Lex. She had to make a choice on the spot to follow him into the unknown. And she did. And once the dust settled she had time to sit and think about what she just got herself into. All her past relationships have either been built on lies, or staying with someone she had fallen out of love with for the sake of the other person’s feelings. 

Nothing new would have ever been easy for someone who’s used to being put on a pedestal until it’s time to discard her and move on. Clana might have had many ups and downs but at the same time, Clark represents a safe place for her to run to when her current situation starts to feel too real or she starts to have second thoughts. Lex might have been her confidant, but Clark had always been her constant, no matter how fragile that base might be.

And there is a version of Lex where his paranoia leads him to do all these awful things. Here is a man that has had every bad thing said about him proven to be true in the eyes of the people he cared for most, and as a result been rejected and abandoned. Who’d been lied to and deceived countless times over. There is a world were his fear of losing Lana, the one person he has left, leads him to going to extremes to keep her in his life. And with this being a sci-fi show, a fake pregnancy or a little cloning wouldn’t be out of the question. I think that’s what this season was going for, but the writing was so cold and detached that we couldn't connect with Lex’s reasoning. 

Also, obviously manipulating situations to keep your partner is wrong in any circumstance, but the point is that they could have given Lex a very human motivation and they didn’t. They wrote a mentally ill character and never followed through in a way that mattered. 

The biggest change in their dynamic this season is the absence of their communication. Y’know, the very foundation their relationship was built upon. I could buy Lex lying to Lana about his secret projects. I could buy Lana hiding her resurfacing feelings for Clark from Lex. I could even buy the clones and the fake pregnancy. But Lana wouldn’t have been afraid to push Lex until he told her the truth. She wouldn’t have been afraid to vent to him about her fears, her feelings, or her insecurities. Lex has had a habit from day one from hiding the truth until it blows up in his face (secret Clark room anyone?) but he wouldn’t have so coldly brushed aside those massive breaches of trust. 

You could make the argument that every single thing Lex did to and for Lana in the previous seasons was leading to him trapping her in this abusive marriage, but quite frankly, I don’t think the Smallville writers were smart enough to plan long term like that. I still respect that reading, but, as with a lot of things, our perception of these characters changes how we perceive their interactions with others and how we read their overall narrative. This entire breakdown is soaked in my bias, but it’s still how I see the show at the end of the day. 

Because I don’t see the Lex from the first half of the show as a scheming mastermind. You can have Lex be the big scary villain all you want, but you can’t go from one season where he’s clearly shown to have empathy and understanding to having him be a volatile gaslighter in the next with no signs leading to that point. As for Lana, I could buy this relationship being an act of rebellion on her part. After all, Clana was the dying star that this show revolved around for eight seasons. Still, it’s a disservice to her character to tie her to a ship we all know is sinking.  

Tldr: the foundations of the Lexana divide is in character for both of Lex and Lana’s traumas, but the execution of how they deal with it, and the framing of Lex as the shallow villain and Lana as the silent victim makes the entire storyline feel cheap and poorly written.

#smallville #lexana #lana lang #lex luthor #meta #if this reads kind of messy its bc I'm throwing all my thoughts out before leaving for work #been having a lot of thoughts about s6 lexana and how it drives me up a wall #bc the seasons isnt that bad as a whole but their storyline makes it borderline unwatchable #like okay cool you're trying to spotlight domestic abuse but you're doing an awful job #at least lana fights back in the end but its so hard to watch how lex interacts with her in the buildup #and its so funny bc I can watch ship vids of this season and understand the vision #bc quite frankly I get these two in a way the writers never will #bc they dont respect lana as anything more than a prize and rush lex into the villain role when they realized they were taking too long

[clotpolesonly]

📖👀

Ronan accidentally dreams up a child version of Declan. it's completely unintentional, maybe manifesting some subconscious thing as the two of them struggle to mend their fractured relationship and Ronan tries to reconcile the parts of their childhood that he thought were true but is not realizing were not, etc etc. however it happens, they've now got a 6yo Declan clone on their hands.

and the series made clear that dreaming is not like most fantasy series magic systems. they go out of their way to establish that dream people are real people. so there's no getting rid of this kid, he's not an illusion or a spell that can be broken, he's real and he's here and he's permanent.

Declan hates everything about this. he doesn't like kids very much in general, but this kid in particular is........him. and it's a version of him that is young and stressed and sad and closed off but who isn't good at hiding it yet. a child who reminds him of all those emotions he refuses to admit he still has. he doesn't have any patience for his own emotions as an adult, he would have even less patience for them in this context.

it's Matthew who asks him "why are you so mean to yourself?"

nobody's ever really noticed that he's mean to himself as an adult -- all the shaming and berating happens inside his own head behind the blandly pleasant businesslike face, and he'd never admit to it if asked. now he's being forced to externalize all the internalized bullshit that comes with his eldest daughter syndrome and parentification.

"i'm not being mean, i'm just…………he needs to learn. life isn't fair and it'll be better for him if he understands that now. he's acting like a baby. he needs to grow up."

Matthew is so protective of this kid, right off the bat. both because that is his BROTHER, thank you very much, and he loves all his brothers, even the new spontaneously generated doppelganger ones, and also empathetically as another dream. he flat out refuses to allow Declan and Ronan to lie to bb!Declan about the situation like they did to him his entire life, even if explaining it in full to a 6yo proves challenging.

the first thing bb!Declan says after grasping you're a dream thing is "am i a secret?"

he doesn't quiiiite understand dreaming conceptually, it's complicated, but he does understand that dreams are things that no one talks about. dreams are dangerous. dreams get swept under the rug or sucked into that big vacuum bag to disappear forever or buried in the fields where no one will find them.

that might be the first moment that Ronan truly understands why Declan hates their dad.

Ronan's feelings on this clone are mixed. on the one hand, it's Declan, ew. on the other hand, Ronan actually does like kids, he's a SUCKER for kids. bb!Declan is alternately quiet/serious/well-behaved and visibly, obviously anxious/edgy/clingy. he starts out avoiding Ronan (once he understands that this is Ronan) because at 6yo he's lived with his brother's dreaming long enough to have developed a healthy wariness of the dangers of it, but grown up Ronan doesn't bring back dangerous things like he did as a kid, and it's not long before bb!Declan is firmly attached. grown up Ronan is fun and funny and more patient than grown up Declan is, by far.

(like with Mór, bb!Declan can always tell when his older self is getting tired of dealing with him, even when he's not angry. dad used to tell him that mommy wasn't mad at him, she just needed space. bb!Declan says this to Ronan, Declan goes white in the face, and this is how the younger Lynch brothers find out about Mór in this 'verse, cuz Aurora was never angry a day in her life, nor did she ever need space from her boys.)

(which would be worse for Declan? becoming his father or turning into his mother? both existentially horrifying concepts for him.)

the question remains of what to DO with this child. Declan tries desperately to think of some way to get rid of him, with Matthew getting increasingly angry that he would even consider that, while the Gangsey take turns babysitting.

Blue charges for her services cuz she knows Declan's good for it, lol. Gansey has absolutely no idea what to do with a child and falls back on dramatic retellings of Glendower, which bb!Declan eats up cuz they remind him of his dad's bedtime stories. Adam is trying really hard not to get too attached but bb!Declan is so inquisitive and asks him so many questions and LOVES that Adam gives him full unabridged answers and doesn't talk down to him. Ronan has decided that bb!Declan is fun, "when did you stop being fun, Decklo??" (he looks up to find that Declan has already fled the room -- seeing Ronan so openly fond of his younger self when he's long since given up on connecting with the normal version hurts way more than Declan is willing to admit to out loud.)

Declan is at wit's end. it's already been weeks, probably, and there's no solution in sight, and he's had people in his space non-stop the entire time, and taking care of an actual child is way more labor-intensive than looking after Matthew had been, and all this goes double if we have autistic flavored Declans 😂 they're both chronically overstimulated, their routines have been thoroughly disrupted, and their preferences and comfort foods and whatnot have changed over the years and no longer align.

it's a goddamn mess and at some point, Declan just leaves. he gets in the car and disappears for like 3 days without warning. it's very uncharacteristic of him, Matthew is freaking out, Blue's threatening (concernedly) to charge him double for the last minute babysitting, even Ronan is texting him. but he comes back eventually, slightly more settled. he cuts all the tags out of bb!Declan's shirts. he buys the brand of crackers he remembers liking at that age even though he doesn't like them anymore. he makes a conscious deliberate effort (so, so difficult) to remember that this is an innocent child, he is not at fault for experiencing emotions, he deserves to be treated gently."

it's better, for a few days. but his -- their -- birthday is coming up, Declan turning 20 and bb!Declan turning 7, and it hits Declan all at once that this truly isn't going away. that there's no way out of this, there's no magic fix, there's no escape. that he's going to be responsible for this child for another 11 years.

that's when Ronan finds Declan on the floor in his own closet, head between his knees, struggling to breathe because he can't DO this. keeping track of Ronan and Matthew until they reached majority was one thing, and he's been white-knuckling his way through it as best he can, but he cannot be responsible for raising any child, much less him-fucking-SELF. he was supposed to be free in another year when Matthew turned 18, he was supposed to go to college, he was supposed to have a life, he was supposed to finally get the chance to exist as his own person, and what now? what now?

and Ronan, witnessing this, has his own (surprising to everyone except maybe Adam) revelation. that he's not planning on college. he's not career-oriented. he's independently wealthy, he's settled and (more or less) stable, and he likes kids way more than Declan ever has. hell, he's already got one, weird feral little creature that she is.

before he even realizes it, Ronan is making the offer. he'll take bb!Declan. as long as Declan promises to have some kind of relationship with the kid and not just fuck off forever, Ronan will raise him at the Barns, claim him as some illegitimate half-brother they just found out about, dream up a paper trail for him. it's not perfect, but no solution was ever going to be in this situation, and really it should be his responsibility, shouldn't it? since he was the one to dream the kid in the first place?

he sort of expects Adam to run for the hills upon announcing this, especially because he made the decision without consulting him first, but Adam is more resigned than surprised. he'd seen this coming from a mile away. he's not overly thrilled at the idea of being a co-parent of two by the age of 18, but this is what he gets for falling in love with such a big-hearted Lynch, so.

it works, honestly. it's weird and it's messy and there's plenty of bumps in the road, but bb!Declan thrives at the Barns when there are no secrets to keep. when his guardian is present and makes no demands of him except chores. he comes out of his shell bit by bit, and he's happy, enthusiastic and curious and effusively loving, and Ronan fucking adores that kid, even if it is Declan in miniature.

and Declan himself gets to go to school, he gets to disentangle himself from the responsibility of his family enough that he can fucking breathe for the first time in his life, and he comes to terms (painfully, but necessarily) with the fact that this new version of him is going to get the childhood that he didn't. he's going to be loved and safeguarded and allowed to be a fucking kid.

weird as it is, there's healing in that.

.

send me a book emoji for the plot of a fic that i haven't written but daydream about!!

#and the answer is #Anonymous #sorry this took forever lmao #i have so many thoughts and feelings ok #Declan Lynch #kid!Declan #Ronan Lynch #TRC #fics by me #in a manner of speaking lol

[discet]

Here's a fun question, how would your swap au versions of the calamity trio and the canon versions react to each other based on where they're at by the end of their respective season ones?

I love this question so much. Gonna use C! for canon and then AU! for Alternate Universe. We're going to assume that the AU! counterparts are in a slightly better emotional spot then where we left off at, maybe a few days after Reunion. Also assuming that Canon!Trio had the same pre amphibia stuff as the AU!Trio.

okay so starting with the easy one.

Sasha strikes me as the person who would absolutely hate to be around themselves. I think it starts with the two of them trying to one up each other passive aggressively before things grow increasingly more aggressive. Until they come to blows

C!Sasha: I had a entire floor of Toad Tower all to myself and servants waiting on me hand and foot

AU!Sasha: While I got shit done. Half the continent knows my name while you were a big fish in a small pond. Plus I didn't spend half my time in a cell.

C!: At least I didn't lose to Marcy.

AU!: Oh cause losing to Anne is less embarrassing? And my Marcy managed to destroy your little tower and its toads by herself.

C!: At least my Anne didn't ditch me.

It pretty much immediately comes to blows after that.

Marcy: The Marcy's immediately geek out upon seeing each other and after establishing whats different in their timelines briefly debate whether they should wait for a third Marcy from an AU where they dropped near toad tower to show up. Ultimately the debate is moot cause they are too excited to talk about things and compare notes.

AU!Marcy talks about how things have been pretty rough for her but she's made a lot of good friends in the valley and has been adopted by the Plantars. Also that she's been learning magic.

C!Marcy says that's weird cause in Newtopia she's just been thriving and absolutely crushing every challenge that comes her way. Also brags about her friendship with the king. Also super psyched about the magic and shows off her crossbow.

As C! is talking AU! starts to realize that she is still totally lost in escapist mindset and hasn't really faced any great trauma yet. AU!'s brand new older sister instincts kick in.

AU!Marcy: Hey, you know that trope where a character gets cloned and ends up basically being family to each other?

C!Marcy: Yeah, that's a really sweet trope.

AU!, now hugging C!: Great so we're sisters now and I'm going to take care of you.

C!, slightly misty eyed: O-okay

Anne is the funniest so I saved her for last. So both of them are in denial and just acting like everything is good. They bond over both having spent time in Wartwood. C! talks about the Plantars and how good they were to her.

There's a little drama when AU! says how Hop Pop tried to steal the box in her version of things, and C! says that HP would never do that to her and that Hop Pop actually sent the box out to some contacts of his. AU! can tell C! got duped, but ultimately decides that C! probably wouldn't believe her and it isn't worth the fight.

They make small talk until basically this exchange happens.

AU!Anne: Yeah, its been wild I never thought I'd start dating in a place like this...

C!Anne, incredulous: Dating? Who are we dating? One of the frogs?

AU!: What? No! We're dating Marcy.

C!, blushing and eyes wide: Marcy!? Wait, you're gay?

AU!: No, we're gay, have you not figured that out yet?

C!: Woah, just because I thought Mrs. Croaker was hot doesn't mean-

AU!, now also incredulous: You thought what?!?!

#awiw #sasha waybright #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #amphibia #god this was a delight to write. #thank you for this question

[volucerrubidus]

Tim Drake did not want to die, nor did he plan on dying. But in the event that he did, he had written letters to his loved ones, which were sent in accordance with his will. 

This one is meant for Thad Thawne II. 

Thad. 

Okay. So. Wow. If you're reading this, I guess that means I've passed recently. To be honest, I'm a little weirded out thinking about that because I definitely wasn't planning on this, and I really wasn't sure this would ever be read. Or, I'm not sure, since… From my perspective I'm still writing this. 

Sorry. That's the introduction I've used in all of these. Mostly because I don't know how to start these, so if I use one start, maybe it'll help me finish the rest of them. 

This one is addressed to Thad Thawne, a.k.a. Inertia. The original one, that is. Not a clone, or a time travel copy, or a double-evil doppelganger (if you're an evil doppelganger of an evil clone, does the evil cancel out?). 

…I'm not so sure, to be honest, because, actually, I don't think you're evil. I don't think you ever were. You had a lot of things going on in your head, and, okay sure, that's not really a reason to go around hurting people, but, I just think it's unfair to call you evil. 

Because the you I got to know was… okay, rude, stubborn, and kind of a jerk at times. 

And, you were beautiful, funny, challenging, and caring. Say what you want to, but you loved me, and I know it because you told me.

Of course, even if you didn't, it would have still been obvious. I think you did a lot of things I did, when it came to love admissions. 

It was in the "are you hungry?"s, and the "that was stupid"s, and the "at least let me put a bandage on that before you go tracking blood in my kitchen, Drake"s. As if that wasn't our kitchen eventually. 

There was a lot that became ours, wasn't there? 

Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benetar. The art of the fondly spoken threat. Doctor Who. Movie interpretation. The color green. A new version of the dynamic duo. 

(Seriously, a lot of my rogues were not pleased when they found out I might have an overprotective speedster on my flank at any given time). 

Anyway. There's a million things I could list here, and a million more that you'll think of, that I didn't. And since I want this to do us justice, but I also don't want to have to use an entire hard drive for just one letter, I'll avoid going on for a bajillion pages about everything I'd call ours, and I'll just say that all of it, every piece, it was awesome. It was ours. It was all my favorite part.

And I know, I can hear you telling me that that's a cop-out answer because that defeats the purpose of a favorite, and normally I'd agree with you (and then not admit it and argue with you just to see that happy little glint in your eyes) but just this once, let me break reality to say that all of it was my favorite part, and that I wouldn't take a single bit of it back. 

Even the worst parts. Even those. In fact, I maybe even loved those the most, because those are the things that need the most love sometimes. 

For better or worse, y'know? 

I'm pausing in my writing here, even though you can't see me doing that. I just want you to know I'm doing it because it's, uh. Gonna get hard from here on out. 

We've grown impossibly close, you and I. It's been many, many more years of a relationship than most people would take to, as they say, pop the question. 

For the sake of transparency, though I imagine this might hurt a lot, I…

It's in a locked part of my desk, where it's been for three months, as of writing this, because I just. Can't. Figure. Out. How. To. Do. It. 

I hope this version of this letter isn't the one you see, and that if you ever do have to see this, it's one where I get to erase and rewrite all of this to be about a wedding that I have no doubt gave us both tension headaches for six months straight as we planned it. 

Because. Yeah. In my desk. The one in my Nest; the real one. The one I did all my most important work at, and the one you yourself have forcibly removed me from on multiple occasions. That desk. 

There should be a box in there. With a ring in it. 

I hope you like it. I saw the emerald and silver together and I forgot how to breathe for a second because it reminded me of you so vividly that I bought it on the spot. 

Don't ask me how I knew your ring size; I've known for about five months.

If this really is the version you see… I'm sorry I didn't ask three months and two days ago, when I bought it. I should have, apparently. 

Then again, canceling wedding plans might suck worse, so maybe it's a good thing that I was too chicken. That I kept making the excuse that I couldn't plan the right proposal, so I'd do it in three weeks. In a month. In two. 

It just. It had to be perfect. For you. Nothing less than perfect would have sufficed. 

You deserve perfect, Thaddeus Thawne II. 

Although, since that’s true, I’m sorry you would have been stuck with me for your lifetime, then. But maybe not sorry, too, because I bet you'd glare at me so hard for saying that. 

Anyway. 

Keep the ring, if you'd like. It's for you, so it's yours to have (and to hold– okay I won't do that, that part hurts). 

The point is. 

Keep it and remember me. 

But. BUT. 

Thad Thawne, I know that you aren't gonna wanna love anyone again after this. I know because I've been there. It's awful, and cruel, and it sucks.

I won't pretend to know how you're feeling because I've been through grief plenty, but it's different with each person, really. Similar but different, nonetheless. (Kinda like us, no?) 

You're gonna feel like this for a long time, and, honestly, I don't blame you. It's easy to feel like you'd be betraying me somehow if you find someone to move on with, and you're definitely gonna get mad at me for saying this at this stage in your grief, but… I really, sincerely hope that you never stop loving, Thad. That you do find someone to move on with.

You have a massive heart, and it longs to love and be loved in return. That's beautiful. Please do not squander that. 

For me, Thad. Please do just this one last thing for me. Please never stop loving. 

I want you to love and to love and to love and to wear it on your sleeve and to pour it out on everyone you can, and everyone who you deem worthy of your trust and companionship. I want you to love until it's unbearable and then keep loving after that. I want you to let the hurt come so that you can heal it and be with the joy that remains after it's gone. I want you to create new "are you hungry?"s and "that was stupid"s and "at least let me put a bandage on that before you go tracking blood in my kitchen, Drake"s. I want you to share your kitchen with someone again. 

It doesn't have to be now. It's okay to take your time in this. In fact, I'd be worried if it didn't take time. That would most certainly not be healthy. 

I dunno how much of this I have to tell you, to be honest, though. 

You know me. Better than anyone, at this point. Maybe even better than me. So I know you know, deep down, what I would want for you. Don't lose sight of that, okay? 

Thad, I will never, ever want anything but love, peace, happiness, and an honest, unabashed love of life itself, for you. I want you to know that you deserve those things, even if it's hard to believe sometimes. 

I think I'm running out of words to say. 

Isn't that crazy? I used to have endless words to say in our endless, constant fights and bickering, especially in those early days. It was like I couldn't shut up around you. 

But now I'm running out of things to say. 

So… imagine me sitting with you in silence for a while. 

I hope it's loving, peaceful, as happy as it can be, and brings you a crumb of love of life, just for a few seconds even. 

And if you're ever in Gotham, I hope you sit in silence and think of me being there, somehow. Maybe you can imagine me overhead, or fighting some random crook of the week, or arguing with my brothers, or breaking traffic laws on a motorcycle, or sneaking up behind you to put my hands over your eyes and copy the Batman voice, before I sit myself beside you, and then we rest there until our legs get numb, or until some poor mook tries something directly beneath Robin and Inertia, or Batman comes to yell at you to get out of his city (like it isn't mine, too), or that we're staring at the places where stars could be, if we just imagine hard enough…

Anyway. 

Don't shoulder this alone. Don't stop loving. 

I'll never stop loving you, that's for sure. 

Take care of yourself, Thaddeus Thawne II. I'll be sure to check on you from over here. 

I love you. 

-Tim

#[wrote this a while back for fun and angst] #[gonna pop it on the dash now bc thad's about to get payback lsjfdksl] #{it is very good bad thing we’ve found – timthad} #tw: death

[h4lftruths4ndhyperb0le]

I know that this isn’t exactly canon, but the fact that you have two different versions of the Jedi Code that mean vastly different things is wild. The one that’s well known, of course, is the newer version (chronologically, in the SW timeline):

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force.

But then there’s ALSO the other, older version:

Emotion, yet peace.

Ignorance, yet knowledge.

Passion, yet serenity.

Chaos, yet harmony.

Death, yet the Force

So at first glance, the two seem pretty similar—the new one is just clarifying the older one, right? Except that it isn’t; it’s entirely changing the meaning. The old Jedi Code recognizes that, while some ways of living are to be sought after and worked toward, they are not always possible. Jedi will feel emotion, yet should seek to find peace with those emotions. Ignorance will always exist, so Jedi should seek to counter it where they can with knowledge. It isn’t bad to be passionate, yet that passion should not come at the expense of serenity, moments of true calm & peace. The world will offer chaos, and the Jedi seek to transform that into harmony. There will be death—such a thing is inevitable—yet, through the force, the Jedi are able to find peace knowing that death is not the ultimate end.

The new code, though, destroys that balance. It fully denies the existence of emotion, ignorance, passion, chaos, and death, stating that they are incoherent with the ways of the Jedi. This shift in the Jedi Code isn’t just a clarification, it’s a transformation from words seeking to embody the line on which Jedi must walk into absolute statements—and, it is said, only Sith deal in absolutes.

And I feel like this shift in the Jedi Code reflects the decline of the Jedi Order: they shifted how they saw things but still tried to hold onto the sentiments of their past. By the time of the Clone Wars, it’s no wonder the Jedi Order falls under the control of the Senate so easily: in accordance with the “new” code (which is, by then, quite old) they feel the need to eliminate emotion, chaos, ignorance, and passion from themselves, and, inasmuch as depends on them, from the galaxy. And if that comes at the expense of death? So what—there is no death, after all, only the force.

And so even if the individuals in the Jedi Order have doubts or uncertainties about this war, they’re drawn in by their Code, and so they don’t stop to ask the questions they otherwise would have, and war only heightens that moral deterioration, and that’s how you get Anakin Skywalker, who thinks his Order won’t let him love anyone. It’s how you get the council refusing to aid Ahsoka and then telling her it was a test from the force. It’s how you get an army of soldiers who are entirely human, but who were bred and genetically altered for war, and yet no one looks into it much—because aren’t they helping put an end to the rule of passion and chaos and wild emotion that the Sith are threatening to take over with?

#that’s just my two cents #because COME ON the dichotomy between #only sith deal in absolutes #and the LITERAL jedi code #is right there #and it makes me wonder ​what would have happened if they hadn’t changed it #and if they’d stuck with their historical beliefs #jedi #jedi order #jedi council #jedi code #old jedi code #star wars #star wars clone wars #sith #clones

[hezraela]

So, Ponk’s lore stream leading up to the Egg finale pretty explicitly ends with them going down to the Egg. When they show up next, at Puffy’s party, they have both arms.

HOWEVER, I do think it would be incredibly devious for the Egg to have pointed Ponk in the direction of Sam’s machine, instead of just poofing in an arm out of nowhere. Because, as you’ve said, we’ve never seen the Egg deliver on its promises in a physical way before, so maybe it’s more of a “giving you what you need to help yourself” type of situation. And then that opens up a world of possibilities - does Ponk even know the machine was Sam’s? How did they manage to operate it? Did the Egg do that part for them? And if the Egg has access to that technology, what kind of mayhem could it have planned using it? What will/would Sam’s reaction be, when/if he finds out? Is this an entirely new clone of Ponk, or did they just use the machine to make a replacement arm? If it’s a new clone, where is the original Ponk body? Does Ponk know about the ability to switch, and if yes, do they plan to use it? How / for what? Did the bank explosion destroy this new body? Do clones have one life, or three? SO MANY COOL QUESTIONS!!

Hmm in fact in fact so many good questions !!

Your idea of the egg leading ponk to the machin is actually genius.

That would make so much sence, cause we know Ponk went to Sam for some help getting his arm back (maybe at that time he thought about a prostetic or something of the kind) but Sam sent him away and that alone is a full can of worm of it's own.

Was he so disconected from reality that he did not remember his condition and the clones machine OR did he just not wanted to help him as a form of retribution for the prison key card incident? or, maybe even a bit of both : the fact that he would still be salty about the key card would make him unconsciously not think about his contraption.

Anyway, knowing that Sam was definitly not the one pointing Ponk to the machine (neither at the time he asked for help nor before because Ponk would have know about it when asking for for his arm back) and the fact that we never saw Ponk interact with XD (correct me if i'm wrong )

He turned to the egg, the entity rederidecting him to the contraption. Good thinking !

So first he saw that sam is not in the same machin he showed phil at the begining and at that time he said that he would not destroi it so can we assume that this first instrument to still be up and running. And in the case it 's what happened then Ponk would not have the capacity to have multiple bodies at once since that first version is known to not have that fonctionality.

Which lead to your question : "How did they operat it? " Well if we believe that Ponk uses the first version, there might be researche about it aroung, letting Ponk figure out the way it work ! and maybe Ponk figered out it was sam by them maybe not !

I don't think the egg has acces to that technilogy simply because the egg can apparantly just be stopped by some iron so i'm not sure it has the mental capacity to comprehend the complexity

And that post is getting awfully long so I'll divide it here to keep the really speculative ideas on an other post !

so 1 we don't know if Sam remember about about Ponk's state at that time, 2 we don't know if Ponk will come back and if we come back if he will have his arm again or not (if he will use the machine again)

#again great thinking #dsmp #awsamdude #ponk #lore theory

[jestiamy]

classic. gloomy rant except I moved it to tumblr from somewhere else and it's about monkies instead of turtles ; long thing below cut, season. I don't know, one spoilers of Lego Monkie Kid if literally anyone ever cares about that

I think the ethics in clones in media varies from how they were made and what kind of clone they are - sometimes they're just illusions (shadow clones from naruto can be used as an example here) and sometimes they are entirely separate beings from the source sans their dna (conner & jon kent from dc can be used here) ; depending on their type how the media treats them varies. naruto clones are just expansions of himself and so are treated frivolously, the kent clones are functionally entire human children and are treated as such. the mk clones are an interesting case to me because they're somewhat both - mk is still himself as these clones, but he can't remember anything they do and they, if left alone, will start eventually forming their own personalities divorced from their source. in cases of long amounts of time doing the same task - will go crazy too. that means for the mk clones they HAVE to eventually be popped or whatever you want to call it or else they'll eventually start losing their minds. you could say that doing the same task over and over again, knowing your continued existence is based on how well you preform this task, would drive anyone insane - but the mk clones existed for around maybe 2-3 days at max. some had really basic orders - take out the trash for me. after that they aren't popped, so they now have to find a new purpose in their existence (I'd imagine this is where most, if not all, of party mk's clone army comes from.) and yet they start morphing quickly (entire personality changes, eye color changes, teeth morphing.) it can be questioned on how much these clones are mk, and how much these clones are just entirely new beings based off of him. this implies a further moral debate on how ethical it is to actually 'kill' clones by popping them. we see later that mk can respawn party, paint, and delivery - but we have no way of knowing if these are the real clones, or simply pale imitations that hold their memories. and on a separate tangent, party's army is never seen again. they all have generically distinctive looks - and while it could be argued that they just became normal mk clones, party/paint/delivery keep their looks and general personality just fine, so for what reason would it be assumed that the feral mk clones are an exception to this rule? are they simply dead forever now? mk killed thousands of versions of him, and they never come back. now we have to question why party/paint/delivery are exceptions to this rule. is it because they are distinctive enough to recall? does he need to think of a clone in specific in order to resummon them or else he'll just make entirely new clones? does he also think of the fact he creates and effectively kills new life every time he summons and desummons clones for fights? do mk clones all spawn into existence knowing that unless they are 'established' enough personality wise in the eyes of their base self, they effectively will die forever? or have they never considered this, because they exist only for a few minutes. does this awareness of your existence come with time? did all of the party mk clone army know that unless they managed to actually kill their original, they would never been seen again? it could even be argued that party/paint/delivery assumed the same would happen to them at the time, as cloning was still new to everyone and rules had yet to be established. I just think there's a lot of fridge horror behind that episode

#saying stuff #lmk #you get. a single fandom tag because I think my nerding about clones is interesting enough to be seen #but not interesting enough to tag well

[buffriday-with-the-bees]

https://worldbuilding-exchange.dreamwidth.org/ for anyone who's interested—but signups only run for another hour and a half or so.

Dear Worldbuilder,

Hi! Thank you for looking at my prompts. I'm lrthreads on AO3.

DNWs: rape; animal abuse; incest; nominally consensual sexual situations where one or more participants have unequal levels of power or unequal ability to meaningfully consent, or lack of ability to meaningfully consent. Slavery or slavery AU.

(Some of these canons have some of my DNWs. If they are present in canon and done in a canon-typical way then I'm probably okay with that. On my signup form I attempted to clarify this where necessary.)

If you want to do any other kind of AU, as long as it lets you explore the worldbuilding for one of my requests, go wild. I feel like many of these would be difficult if you pull them very far away from their canon, but if you think you can make it work I'm not going to question that.

I listed a bunch of other likes and dislikes in my Yuletide letter if you want to get a feel for what I'm into. You can also look at my AO3 bookmarks. Here I deliberately pared that back because I already asked for stuff I'm interested in, and I don't want to constrain or interfere with your worldbuilding.

Anything in this letter and in my signup should override any DNWs in the Yuletide letter but feel free to contact me through the mods if you have concerns.

Almost Human (TV)

There was a throwaway mention of New Pittsburgh in one episode. What happened to Old Pittsburgh? What's New Pittsburgh like. Maybe John and Dorian have to go there, for reasons. Or they have to read about it because of a case. (The reasons are that I live in Pittsburgh and I love it here. But in the work the reasons could be whatever you want.)

Newsflesh - Mira Grant

I'm interested in behind the scenes at the CDC, especially in their cloning program.

Possible prompts: Becks is still around. Ideally as actual Becks and not a clone, but that could be interesting too. Speaking of Becks and clones, she used to be a Newsie. What if she starts digging into the possibility of other clones, either as a Newsie, Irwin, or both? (We know Emily Ryman had one. And I often wonder about Kelly Connolly. What are their thoughts? So long as whatever version of Kelly is around to have them. Kelly is extremely legacy—a nepo baby if you insist—what does her family think about the cloning situation?) This could be during the trilogy or after it.

Danika (aka Dr. Shaw) could also be an interesting POV character for this.

Raising the Griffin - Melissa Wyatt

High five if you've read this too. I'm interested in almost anything that matches one of my listed prompts.

To elaborate: Press coverage of the restoration of the monarchy, or in-universe historical works. What did it look like to average locals, to people like deBatz, or Ms. Kellerman? What about the tabloids Isabelle was working with?

Sports—dive into rhenyi or explore other aspects of sports. Was rhenyi ever an Olympic sport? Did Rovenia send athletes to the Olympics in other sports, and how did they do? IIRC skiing is mentioned in the context of possibly opening resorts to attract tourists.

Infrastructure and government—this is an area that needs work, IIRC. What are some infrastructure problems? Does Rovenia have a national health care system? What kind of shape is it in?

Lord Ermenwyr series - Kage Baker

It's not entirely clear, but it seems like The Bird of the River takes place before The Anvil of the World. (Feel free to do what you want with the chronology, though.) The Green Saint is mentioned as becoming part of the Children of the Sun's pantheon in Bird. How does this affect her children? Do they have encounters with other gods?

How do regular people (Yendri and Children of the Sun) feel about the changing pantheon?

Smith (the main character of Anvil) and Captain Glass are both putatively affected by the gods. How common is this? Are there others? Feel free to do a deep dive into Captain Glass's and/or Smith's whole deal(s), whether as fic or as an in-universe scholarly or journalistic or tabloid work. (We know from Anvil that ethically dubious journalists exist in the setting.)

Tam Lin - Dean

My main curiosity is, what's elfland/fairyland like in this book? What if Tina, described as a "biologist and a materialist", ends up in elfland? (I headcanon Tina as autistic, FYI, but I don't expect adherence. Just throwing it out there in case it appeals.)

We get a lot of Janet, because it's her book, and I love her, but if you feel moved to have some of the other characters be the focus I'd love that. Especially a Tina and Molly caper, or even Nick and Peg.

Other thoughts: we know there's a student newspaper. Is there a student literary magazine? A student radio station? If you want to go modern (either future fic or modern AU) what's Blackstock social media like? In the early days of the internet does the college's peculiar folklore ever get mentioned on newsgroups or bulletin boards where urban legend buffs gather?

We know there's a senior class play and a folk dancing group. What other extracurricular activities are there?

We also know about traditions like the committee that selects the bagpiper and stealing the Schiller bust. A microhistory of these could be interesting. Or any other traditions that you think might fit in.

If you want to combine some or all of these prompts or worldbuilding requests feel free.

Star Trek

I like/liked Wesley. (Past tense for when Next Gen was new and I was a fanling who was obsessed with it.)

So whether you want to explore how his existence led to policies (either his childhood/adolescence or his canon disposition) or show him dealing with time travelers as a regular part of his duties, I'm on board. I'm cackling internally at the thought of Wesley having to write a memo about this, or something.

I'm behind on his later appearances (Nemesis, Picard) but if you want to include that material go ahead. My favorite Next Gen Wesley episodes were "The Game" and "The First Duty."

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

I think Thistle would have a unique perspective on the birth, death, and rebirth of genii locorum. Also she has a dozen or so as her mom-in-law as sisters-in-law and I suppose cousins-in-law if Father Thames's sons count.

Same for the demi-monde, the possible source of some of her mentioned many foster kids.

Grace Yutani, as heir to the Sons of Wayland, might have access to some interesting historical records or knowledge, but so could Thistle.

Star Wars

I've always wondered what Nabooian childhood was like for people who knew they could be elected queen or appointed a handmaiden, or that they couldn't. Why is Naboo like that? What's the educational system like?

Alternate prompt: raising livestock, preferably happabores or felids like tookas or lothcats. But anything small, cute, and fluffy is also of interest to me. Are there livestock shows? The equivalent of cute animal videos on the holonet?

Sunshine - Robin McKinley

I'm especially interested in the mentioned retired SOFs who end up tending orchards for stake-growing purposes. But if you wanted to write about the part-blood situation, or combine them by having part-bloods whose powers include being good with plants, I'd be interested.

(Or you could have a POV outsider situation looking at the SOFs who are always at the coffee house—the person who sees their mentioned expense reports perhaps. But whatever tickles your fancy is fine.)

#letters #exchanges

[isajynx]

Chapter 4 Part 1

            Levi and I are settling into our new lives together, building our relationship one day at a time. It wasn’t uncommon during this time for me to miss my period. Between the depression and my weight was the reason of what I called my “unreliable spirit week”. So, when I missed two of them, I wasn’t entirely concerned. When the third period time came and went, that started to send up a big red flag. I began to figure out what was about to come to be. My body started to change; I was getting heavier with no changes in my diet. Still, I could not bring myself to buy a pregnancy test. I could bring myself to believe that no matter how hard I tried to not be a young mother, I was about to be. The day I felt something move in my stomach, I knew there was no hiding it anymore. So, here I am 19, the same age my mother was when she for pregnant with me. I am in all aspects becoming my mother that bore me. Whether I was ready or not, I was about to be a mother. My fear began to spiral out of control, I was barely holding our lives together as they were, and now we soon have more responsibility in its way.

            The pregnancy was easy, the delivery not so much. After approximately 14 hours of induced labor, our child was not budging from her warm confines of the womb. When our child and I began to have complications with the progression of labor, we made the decision to have a c-section. That is when I became truly worried for not only my life, but the life of my child. I heard a conversation between my husband Levi and a nurse:

            “If we run into complications in there and we are only able to save one of them, who do you want us to save?”

            “My child, you better save my child first.” He replied. He chose the baby, I didn’t blame him, but it did hurt my feelings. All my fears quickly disappeared when I heard the sweet cries of my beautiful daughter, Jade. She came in screaming, demanding to be heard. All 7 pounds of her, a force to be reckoned with. Everything went successfully, for both Jade and me. The moment I held my daughter in my arms, I knew I loved her. Blond wispy hair, blue eyes, looking as if I had cloned her. A new and improved version of myself. I knew I would do anything to keep her safe. I was going to love, cherish and trust my daughter, giving her everything I did not have in my childhood.

            Being a mother came easier to me than expected. I am glad I learned to fend for myself and care for others at an early age. Jade gave me a sense of strength. She gave me a reason to fight every day. Jade completed everything I couldn’t accomplish before, having a family. All the “new” wore off and my life became a blur. I gave up on attempts to breast feed because I couldn't make it work. My life became a cycle of feeding the baby, burp the baby, change the baby, cook food for Levi, watch the baby sleep, work a full-time job, clean the house, do the laundry and some where find a moment or two to sleep. It was an everyday wash, rinse, repeat. There was not enough time for the adult into the equation. The chaos that was our lives placed strain on my duties in the bedroom, soon creating a rife in my young relationship with Levi. Suddenly nothing I was doing was right, and I fell victim to my first lesson in emotional abuse at the hands of Levi.

            “You are working too much. You spend all your time with my daughter, and none with me. You aren’t feeding her right, you know. Why is she crying, don’t you know what’s wrong with her. Make the crying stop, you really suck at being a mom.” I remember asking myself, I thought we were in this together.

            “Where was all his help?”

            That’s a good question. It was nowhere more elusive than the fabled Chupacabra. His only contribution to our family was getting high and playing video games. No words of encouragement that I was doing anything right. No lending hand given. I was drowning under all the weight of my stressors, under the word-load of loving wife and mother. He couldn’t be bothered with such things as emotional support, a general sense of responsibility, or even a shred of love for his wife. I was trying to be the best I could be for my family. However, it soon became clear that my husband took pride in his ability to make me cry. He enjoyed asserting his dominance over me in every situation. With oppression and exhaustion comes a lack of intimacy. Sexual intercourse with my husband became an after-thought. There just was not enough time in my day. The ridicule of not being a good mother soon turned into belittlement of not bring a faithful wife.

            “You’re cheating on me, aren’t you? You aren’t fucking me, you got to be fucking someone. Give me your phone.”

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Bella and Beauford (your version of Beau) are twins, similar features (brown eyes), similar chip on their shoulder, similar flowery language, and Ed can't read either of their minds and both smell like grade A beefcakes. Both move to Forks. What kind of mess do you think will go down? 030 Does Eddie boi get the harem he's never wanted? How much can we destroy the B&B team self esteem? Find out on today's episode of the What if Muffin chronicles~! - Sw

Beauford is a reoccurring guest star on this blog.

Think Bella directly plastered onto a boy: absurdly pretty, still clumsy, still terribly introverted and awful socially, and smells like heroin to one Edward Cullen.

With that, onto your question

The Rules

To set some ground rules that are set in the post, I'm presuming both, somehow, are Edward's singer. Now, given that it's Bella and Beauford (fraternal twins), I'd say this is highly unlikely. Singers are rare, and Charlie and Renee don't notably smell like high quality heroin to Edward. More likely, Bella would be the singer, and Beauford would just smell generally nice (but not murder all of Biology nice).

It's also unlikely they'd have the same exact gift, or a gift that expresses itself in the same manner, blocking Edward out of their minds.

But the rules are set, both are Edward's singer, and both have Bella's absurdly powerful gift.

They're for all intents and purposes the same fucking person that somehow got stuffed in two different gendered bodies. The real genesis of this AU: Renee was abducted by aliens while pregnant and her unborn child experimented on. Beauford is, in fact, Bella's identical twin. Beauford is actually Bella's male clone grown in the womb.

After Bella and Beauford reach sexual maturity they'll be beamed back up into space and put into a zoo on Traflamador. (Except not because that would derail this post... The test pilot on Traflamador blew up their planet before Bella and Beauford could phone home. It's not important.)

Bella, Beauford, and the Time Before Forks

Bella and Beauford are probably frightfully codependent for a few reasons that go by the name of Renee. Renee's still out to lunch parenting, and it falls to Bella and Beauford to take care of adult responsibilities from a very young age.

Bella and Beauford come home from school to an empty house, are the ones to go grocery shopping, pay the bills, pay the taxes, do the laundry, pretty much anything that has "adult responsibility" stamped on it.

As a result, they don't really have time to make friends with kids out of school, and they quickly realize that they're the only ones they can depend on in their lives. More, they're the only ones who get each other on any level.

They're both social outcasts, both not what their mother wanted, both have to deal with their mother, and if they ever get in trouble then it's their sibling that they're going to call. Because no one else will ever be there.

I imagine both Bella and Beauford cling to each other tightly with both hands.

Which, of course, makes things weird.

There's getting along with your twin sibling then there's... only getting along with your twin sibling.

Bella and Beauford have lunch together, by themselves, every day in Phoenix. They partner together on everything and are very displeased if they're forced into a group project with anyone else. They participate in all the same activities and if one isn't allowed to do it then the other quits (yes, Beauford tried to get into ballet class, when Renee put her foot down Bella quit right then and there). They wear each other's clothes, if they can't, then those clothes never get worn (Bella never wears the few dresses in her closet). They actually remember their made up secret twin language and lapse into it accidentally from time to time. They're anxious when they're not in the same classes and meet up after every single class to walk down the hallways together. Rather than have any friends, most of their free time is spent at home reading the same books in the same room. They don't even talk about how amazing Heathcliff is, because they know the other knows.

I imagine they channel such the twins from The Shining. Absurdly good looking, beautiful, kids but good god what is wrong with them?

The Decision to Move

When Phil enters the picture seriously, he's not just a new boyfriend, Bella and Beauford sit down to discuss their options. Neither is quite sure how they feel about Phil.

He's awfully young, but he seems to be good for Renee, and is actually capable of paying his taxes (unlike Renee). He can probably be depended upon not to run off and to make sure Renee is taken care of.

However what about Bella and Beau?

With Bella and Beau going to school, they can't travel across the country every few weeks following Phil. Now, in theory, Renee could abandon them to follow Phil. This wouldn't make much of a difference in their daily lives (might, in fact, make things easier in a way as then Beau/Bella can just handle all the cooking rather than Renee even attempting to). However, Renee would never want to admit she's been leaving her kids to their own devices for years, and would feel horribly guilty to leave them behind.

As it is, they've already told Renee she can go on and travel with Phil and she refused, stating she had to be there for her kids.

There's also that Phil keeps trying to bond with Beau especially. As if he thinks it will be easier to bond with the teenage stepson vs. the stepdaughter. That hasn't been going well, Beau would like to avoid that if at all possible.

On the other hand... Forks, wet, cold, and being the children of the police chief's runaway bride.

Ultimately, the pair come to the same decision Bella came to in canon. They want their mother to be happy, feel desperately like third wheels, and if making Renee happy necessitates going to Forks then to Forks they shall go.

At least they'll have each other, and in the end, that's all that really matters.

Arriving in Forks

Bella and Beau arrive in Forks and receive the same reception they would otherwise. But more so. Holy god, the high school population says, it's the Cullens 2.0.

Eerily pale, beautiful, siblings, who are both sensitive intellectuals (and are also weirdly incestuous acting). All the guys want to date Bella and all the girls want to date Beau (some vice versa but they're not admitting that in a public high school in 2005).

The guys (Mike, Tylor, Eric, etc.) aren't all that thrilled by Beau's presence, he's major competition and day one is attracting all the attention. However, they see him as a way to get an in with Bella, he can set them up on a date and put in a good word. If they become his best friend, they have an excuse to go to his house, where Bella will be.

The girls (even Lauren who was initially very pissed off about Bella's sudden popularity) are much the same. Bella's overrated, but good god, that beautiful brother of hers. If they become Bella's best friend, they can have sleep overs, and might be able to see Beau without a shirt on. No matter Bella's stuffy personality, that hot brother is worth it.

Lunch that first day, as a result, is even more awful than it was in canon. Bella and Beauford, while generally oblivious about themselves, are very observant when it becomes to the behavior of others regarding their sibling.

They have an emergency meeting in the truck after school and come to the same conclusion: Bella/Beau, this entire school of hicks wants in your pants. Dump them all.

Both Bella and Beauford end the day supremely annoyed but reconfirm their commitment to this Forks plan. Beau predicts than in six months they'll be losers again and they'll go back to having lunch by themselves.

But what about the Cullens?

Edward, The Cullens, and Biology

As in canon, both Beauford and Bella notice the entrance of the alien procession into the cafeteria and ask "what the fuck?"

Nobody's thrilled about answering, because no one wants to lose Bella/Beauford to the Cullens of all people (the girls sigh with relief as, at least for them, all the lady Cullens seem to be dating one of the other guys. Beau is safe. The possibility of Edward/Beau is one they dare not contemplate in those five seconds.)

Still, Jessica reluctantly gives the run down. These are the Cullens, they moved in two years ago, are absurdly wealthy, beautiful, and supposedly not actually related. They're all dating each other. No, seriously, they are. Except the hot ginger, Edward, but don't bother because he's an ass.

Both Bella and Beauford think Jessica doth protest too much about Edward and internally give the Cullens the same bisexual Bella ranking: Rosalie, Edward (after a bit of thought), and then the rest of them.

Edward, for his own part, notes that he can't seem to hear either's thoughts. Weird. He concludes that the pair are highly overrated and he can't believe the school's so agog over the pair of them. Stupid teenagers.

Then Biology happens.

The pair open the door and good god, Edward Cullen is a demon. Luckily for them, they have each other. There may be an open seat next to Edward Cullen but Bella and Beauford go "NOPE". You see, teacher, we always sit together. No, really, we ALWAYS sit together.

The teacher is weirded out but it's so weird he actually has nothing to say to that. There's only one immediately open seat anyway, and two new students, so they're clearly in trouble with seating arrangements anyway. So he says, "Um, sure, go sit with Angela I guess." Angela is now in an overcrowded table with both Bella and Beauford, her original partner gleefully goes to sit with hottie Edward (then is in dismay sitting with Edward because this guy looks terrifying today). The twins, throughout Biology, are staring down Edward Cullen.

Edward, of course, has smelled the scent of the gods and is going through his personal hell on earth. He devises his many schemes of how he's going to murder Biology before he can get to the pair of them (Angela, for the record, gets smashed into a wall for the honor of being in Edward's way). Then, he doesn't know which he'd start on, he can't tell which scent comes from which. He tells himself he'll toss a coin, heads the boy goes first, then tails the girl.

Still, thinking of Carlisle's sad, disapproving, face as Edward massacres a room filled with children allows Edward to hold on through Biology. He'll murder them after school. Then of course he's able to clear his head and flees to Alaska.

In the meantime, thanks to being hyperaware of their sibling, and now having someone to talk to and confirm their suspicions with: Edward Cullen is Ted Bundy. This guy is creepy, dangerous, and in that moment it looked as if he was going to kill one or both of them. Bella/Beauford would be alright, though disappointed, if they were murdered then left in a dumpster. But their sibling die and meet that same awful fate? Not ever allowed to happen.

Bella and Beau have the world's most tense drive home and tense night taking turns taking guard and sleeping in the same room. Every time one questions if they're, maybe, just maybe, a little paranoid about this, the other confirms that "NOPE, THAT DUDE WAS SCARY".

They can't tell Charlie, he wouldn't believe them and they have no evidence, but when Edward tries to climb through their window maybe one of them will get in a good hit with the baseball bat (they won't, they're both debilitatingly clumsy).

The next day, to their confusion and relief, Edward Cullen isn't at school. He's not there the day after that either, or the day after that...

Beau and Bella start to relax, if only a little bit.

Edward, Alaska, and the Prodigal Son Returns

Edward in Alaska calms down and goes through the same thought process he did in canon. He keeps picturing the twins' faces, his obsession beginning to blossom, and convinces himself that he can't let these unremarkable humans get in the way of his life and his family.

After a week of brooding, much to Carlisle's horror, Edward returns to Forks and goes straight back to school. Specifically, he wants to do damage control with the twins and see just how much they actually noticed.

This goes worse than in canon.

First, Edward has to approach their shared table with Angela like a loser. There, Bella and Beau clearly don't want to talk at him, at all, and both clearly vividly remember exactly what happened last Biology class.

Edward barely gets a word in before he has to go to his seat. When he notices Bella, Beau, and Angela get their lab done as quickly as him (thanks to Bella and Beau), he tries again.

Bella and Beau both ask to go to the bathroom. (Yes, teacher, at the same time. Don't question this.) They don't come back. Edward, after ten minutes, also goes to the bathroom. He finds the pair in their giant, red, truck in the parking lot, deep in conversation (trying to figure out what the fuck is up with Edward Cullen).

He approaches them again, being as charming as possible. This has the opposite effect. Directed towards only them, Beau/Bella would probably let this slide. Directed towards Beloved Sibling, their "DANGER, WILL ROBINSON" sirens are blaring in their head. Beau floors it, and the pair tear out of the parking lot as fast as the truck will take them, they're telling Charlie they're taking a sick day. What will they do next Biology class? FUCK IF THEY KNOW.

Edward, standing in the parking lot with his mouth open, feels very very embarrassed and ashamed. He is a man eating demon and these two are perfectly aware of it. The rest of the Cullens find him there not long after, they find this both sad and hilarious.

Bella and Beau Get Hit by a Van

Well, this would all be well and good. Edward tells himself that if the pair are so determined to avoid him then he'll just avoid them. Problem solved. More, the pair don't seem to be chatterboxes, there's no weird rumors spreading about Edward Cullen or his siblings. At least, no more than usual.

Instead, it seems that everyone's trying to ask the twins to the dance, and are very confused when the twins say that they're going with each other. Sibling policy. You see. (They don't see, nobody sees, this is weird.)

Then it happens. Bella nearly gets hit by a van, Edward saves her, with Beau as a full not-concussed witness. FUCK. Bella and Beau travel to the hospital, Edward driving along behind them, and then after Carlisle checks Bella out they have their awkward talk.

Bella wants to insist that Edward was clearly the one who saved her, with his strange superhuman strength, but thanks to twin telepathy (which either is actual telepathy or is just reading twin body language, who even knows) knows that Beau wants her to shut up. They say nothing, the truth isn't important.

Instead, Beau states that he was the one who pulled Bella out of the way, Bella's just confused. Edward stares at Beau like he's an alien. Beau just smiles, thanks Edward for his concern, then throws Edward out of the room.

Bella and Beau madly discuss that Edward's clearly not human. More, while he saved her life today and that was very noble of him, neither has truly forgotten how he was in that first day of Biology. More, did you see him now? He clearly wanted, desperately for Bella to not remember what happened. He crushed that van like a pretzel, what if they told him that they saw him? What would happen to them? Beau doesn't want to take chances, not even for the truth, and in retrospect Bella doesn't either. Now is not the time to look gifted horses in the mouth.

Given Bella's injured, Beau's on full guard duty that night.

Meanwhile, the Cullens have their vote. It's even more dramatic, because instead of just one innocent, injured, witness, there's two witnesses and one was completely uninjured. Carlisle is utterly appalled that Rosalie genuinely suggests murdering them both so she doesn't have to move. He's more appalled when Edward reveals that he believes the twins may believe that Edward... wishes them harm for having witnessed his heroics.

Because the irony being that the twins are right, the family is voting on this very issue right now. And what does that say about all of them?

Thankfully for Beau and Bella, the vote goes very similarly to canon. Jasper's not convinced until Alice has her vision.

And she drops the bomb. Edward's in love with Bella, Beau will be Edward's best friend and Bella Alice's, and both Bella and her brother will be turned and join the coven.

(Now, what Alice doesn't tell Edward is that, actually, Edward's in love with them both. It's safer to say that Edward's in love with the woman, as that's what Edward will far more readily accept. Throwing Beau into that mix would just make things very messy, if Alice wants her best friend and Edward's happy ending then she has to be smart about this.)

The family has a similar reaction. Carlisle gives his, "Well, alright then" and the family doesn't move. Edward, in despair and self-hatred, heads to the Swan house to see sleeping Bella for himself.

And lo and behold, Beau has been waiting for him. Beau tries to smash Edward's face in with a bat. Unfortunately, a) Edward's a vampire, b) Beau misses.

Beau and Edward end up talking, man to man, while Bella is sleeping. Edward decides that, yes, oh woe, he is in love with Beauford's sister and confesses as much (while also confessing that he might, you know, actually be dangerous). Beau suggests that Edward stay far away from his sister.

No, there's nothing Beau can do to stop Edward. Yes, he is just a pathetic human even more pathetic than most, but he promises that he will make Edward and his family's life hell on Earth if Edward ever thinks of assaulting his sister.

Edward protests he would never, Beau points out that Edward just climbed through his injured sister's window in the dead of night. Edward... tries and fails to explain away that one.

He actually does succeed in that he explains that Bella was in danger from... his siblings. Edward had come to protect Bella, to make sure none came to harm her. It's not necessarily his siblings' fault, it's complicated but... Well, Edward was trying to be somewhat noble.

Then something strange happens. Edward finds himself fascinated by this Beauford Swan. Such courage in the world's weakest, no most delicate, body. Look at those eyelashes, his big dark eyes, his perfectly shaped features. This boy is beautiful, as beautiful as his sister, and just as courageous as she is. And look at him now, nobly facing down a demon he knows he cannot win against for the sake of his sister.

How virtuous.

Edward tells himself that what he's feeling is kinship and admiration for Beauford Swan. Bella could not have a worthier brother. Edward leaves with the promise that he'll respect Beau's wishes (Beau doesn't believe that for a second).

The next morning, Beau tells Bella that Edward's the world's biggest creep and that the Twin Watch is not stopping anytime soon. They're going to need to make a big purchase of coffee.

Edward and His Torment

As in canon, Edward decides he should nobly stay out of Bella's life. He'll see if either twin really does talk (they don't) and then he'll ignore them until they disappear. They will forget him.

They don't, but they do discuss him. See, after much pondering, the twins realize that Edward truly is a Grade A hottie. More, he's so mysterious and inhuman. In retrospect, his saving Bella's life goes a long way, and for all that he's been... menacing, he's never truly threatened them and does seem intent on protecting Bella. More, he seems to be keeping his promise: he's staying out of Bella's life and he hasn't been back to the house since (he has, but they haven't caught him, Edward waits until they both crash until he can sneak in and stare at them both).

And he's never lied about being dangerous. Their glares soften into pondering glances, wondering just what the truth of this Edward Cullen and his family really is, and wonder what it'd be like to let him into their small, insular, world that no one before has ever managed to breach in the way he has.

Bella doesn't believe he's truly interested in her, despite Beau's insistence, and wonders if he's interested in Beau. Beau, for his own part, doesn't believe Edward's interested in him and insists that he's clearly very interested in Bella.

Reluctantly, the pair conclude that Edward is something likely very dangerous, against Edward's will, but benign. Whatever it was they sensed from Edward that first day, it was not something in his control.

Helping this is Edward enabling the mysterious mystery by breaking. He can't stay away from the twins. He tells them that he's tired of staying away from them, that they shouldn't be friends, that he doesn't want to be friends (but wants to be something hint, hint, wink, wink). Except he's convinced he and Beauford are friends, dual protectors of the angel Bella Swan. If he stares a little too much at Beau's perfect figure then that's because he's the perfect, male, version of his perfect sister.

Anyway, the twins go to Long Beach with the others and the twins are now just too curious. Edward's giving them nothing and they must know. Bella flirts with Jake for information, Beau is appalled that this works, and they hear the cold ones story. That night, they both have the prophetic Slayer dream: Edward is a vampire.

Bella tells Beauford that she knows three things. One is that she's in love with Edward. Beau's not sure how to take that for a second but, being Bella's twin and on the same weird wavelength, he gets it. He's in love with Edward too.

Neither finds it strange that they both confess to being in love with the same demon and that they see no conflict of interest in this.

The pair go to Port Angeles to help Jessica and Angela pick up dresses. (Angela and Jessica aren't sure why a man is coming, but they've learned not to question this twin thing). Bella and Beau ultimately decided not to go to the dance, too risky giving the deluge of invitations they received, and instead they'll be headed to Seattle that weekend. They claim this is not a date, Angela and Jessica just stare.

Due to Beau being with Bella, though the pair get hopelessly lost looking for the book store, Bella doesn't get followed by rapists. Edward shows up anyway, as Alice saw the possibility, and takes the pair of them to romantic Italian dinner. It's weird.

He then drives them home and Bella blurts it out. Edward's a vampire, she and Beau know. Edward has his miniature meltdown and realizes that these pair of siblings forgive him this. Beau, beautiful man that he is, is giving Edward his beloved sister and Bella is giving not only herself but her wonderful brother's hand in friendship.

Edward invites them both, that's right, them both, to the meadow. Neither thinks this is strange. And when they get there. Boom, it's over, any chance to question this is gone. Both Bella and Beau are seduced by Edward's sparkling chest and his quotes about lions.

He rests his head on Bella's chest but puts his right hand on Beau's. They sit like that. For hours.

The Cullens (Again)

Well, this went from weird to fucking weirder. It was weird enough when Edward became obsessed with this rando teenage girl. Now, it turns out that Edward's a horn dog panting after bisexual twins, clearly intending to romance them both at the same time.

Carlisle dearly tries to have an intervention. He sends Esme to do it, as in canon, this doesn't work (Esme is perfectly fine with Edward's twincest fetish and thinks it's wonderful).

Alice tells a dubious Jasper that Edward and Beau are just friends. Jasper doesn't believe her, but he's not sure what to even say.

Emmett is desperately holding in Edward sandwich jokes. Desperately.

When Beau and Bella are invited to the house (together of course), the entire family has no idea what to say to them. At all. They don't know how to process this. Rosalie is actually there this time, because somebody needs to warn these two about what Edward really wants, but then they're too weird.

It's all just too weird.

And... the rest of canon happens.

The baseball game occurs, James dies, Victoria's not sure which Swan she should target and so she targets them both anyway. They're in the same damn place so it makes 0 difference.

Bella and Beau joint hallucinate Hallucination Edward, somehow, and get even weirdly more codependent in their zombie fugue state. This tanks their popularity as now there's no denying the incest. Bella and Beau don't care.

Bella and Beau reach out to get Jake to build them the motorcycles. Jake doesn't necessarily want Beau around, the dude's weird and getting in the way of Bella time, but alright. Bella and Jake's friendship doesn't take off because Bella's codependent on Beau.

They do learn about the wolves though thanks to Jake's crush on Bella. Jake never realizes that he's coming in third place not only to Edward Cullen but to Beauford Swan. He thinks he has a chance. That poor boy.

Bella and Beau jump off the cliff together, convinced they weren't committing suicide.

Alice returns, gets Bella and Beau to go to Volterra, because Edward has to see that they're both alive. There's a joyful reunion, Aro is really weirded out by this whole damn thing and has a five second pause after touching Marcus' hand. "Well." he says afterwards, "You and your brother are close. I see."

They get to go home, Aro insists they turn. Eclipse happens. Edward proposes marriage to Bella. Neither Beau nor Bella are thrilled (mostly about the marriage and also about the question of how the twin enters this equation) but ultimately Bella accepts. Bella and Edward marry publicly.

Beau is invited for the honeymoon. Edward, Bella, nor Beau question this. Everyone else does. A lot. On Isle Esme, the three confirm their commitment to each other: they have a secret marriage. Edward and Beau are both convinced they're not in a relationship. Bella and Beau are convinced they're not incestuous.

Sex is had by... someone. Unclear who.

Bella gets pregnant, this seems to confirm Edward must be the father but... Bella and Beau are both very strange, almost alien, and very gifted. There is some red in their hair. Questions the Cullens dare not speak aloud are thought, Edward doesn't seem to notice.

TL;DR Basically, the books still happen but Edward is cuckolded and enables twincest.

...

I did not see this one coming guys. I swear. I did not.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #tw incest #cw incest #bella swan #beauford swan #edward cullen #anti edward cullen #bella/beauford #edward/bella #anti edward/bella #edward/beauford #anti edward/beauford #edward/bella/beauford #anti edward/bella/beauford #meta #headcanon #opinion

[bigskydreaming]

Hi, I was reading your post about Jason punching Dick in the face when Dick revealed he fake his death was bullshit ( which it was) and it reminded me of an issue/question that has bothered me for sometime.

Why did people believe Dick was actually dead?

I’m not the most avid comic reader so maybe I missed something but it was always weird to me that everyone just accepted this especially given how Bruce was acting or should I say wasn’t acting.

This is a man when his child died another child had to come along and told him sir you are being too violent and emotional you need supervision. When his other child died he went all over the universe to bring him back to life because he knew it was possible ( which was happening at the same time), so why didn’t anyone think it was weird he wasn’t doing that for Dick. Can you imagine Dick really dying that soon after Damian it would be injustice Batman Version. You are telling me that Tim, Jason or Barbara didn’t think it was weird that Bruce didn’t also bring Dick’s corpse to the bring Damian back to life mission or mention it to themselves. Like what more likely Dick dead and Bruce is handling it well or that he fake his death to do something stupid and Dangerous after his partner/brother/ little bit my son the feelings are complicated died after he was knocked out and woke up to his corpse.

Oh man, this is like, the entire nature of my beef?

(Slight derail just to emphasize the fact real quick that Dick DID actually die, he was just revived quickly, but like, the trauma of his death was very real and its not like anyone was clued into Luthor having a resurrection backdoor built into his literal murder of Dick in the actual moment of it happening. So Dick’s death wasn’t fake, and additionally, he didn’t have anything to do with like, telling people about it, because he was literally comatose in the cave and recovering while Bruce was telling people....by the time Dick woke up in the cave, we already know that Alfred at least had already been convinced by Bruce that Dick was dead, so I have a kneejerk need to pushback against the Dick faked his death narrative by reminding people wherever possible that Dick had no agency in the spreading of that narrative. 

It happened without him being involved, and the only actual contribution he ever made to it was just not revealing he was alive before Grayson #12, after Bruce like.....emotionally, mentally and physically badgered him into accepting that doing so would be directly harmful to his family and he didn’t want to be the reason more people died when like, people had just died because he ‘let’ himself be captured and interrogated by Power Woman’s Lasso of Submission, did he?

SORRY TO BE PEDANTIC, just wanted to start this off on a clarification, even though I know the aim of your ask was very much in tune with the rest of my response. A lot of people don’t read the actual comics, so like, I’m never gonna skip over an opportunity to emphasize that the shorthand people use to refer to Dick’s death and the year he was with Spyral, is like, literally just shorthand for describing it. Its not actually an accurate description of how all that went down and who had the most hand in it).

BUT ANYWAY. BACK TO THE MEAT OF THE BEEF.

Okay so like, not only was the entire family and Bruce himself giving Dick shit for his death and Spyral, like, PAINFULLY egregious because it was literal victim blaming in every possible sense of the word....

None of it made a LICK of sense with ANY of their characterizations, and they ONLY all accepted it on face value because the Plot Demanded It, and when you're like, no, as a reader I say The Plot Demanded It is not a good enough reason for me to be like well sure, that makes sense......looking at the characters ACTUAL actions at face value pretty much just makes them all look like assholes?

Like, Tim has never gracefully accepted anyone's death. Ever. This is core characterization for him. He will go to the ends of the earth for his loved ones and to bring them back, prove they're not dead, refuse to let death be the final verdict for them. He was tempted to use the Lazarus Pit to bring his parents back to life. He refused to accept Bruce was dead long before he had any proof whatsoever of that theory. He tried to clone his BFF/future-husband Kon in his fucking basement like, dude was two whole inches away from going Full Dark Side in his quest to bring back a lost loved one no matter WHAT the cost.....and then you've got Dick unmasked onscreen, killed offscreen, and Bruce then reporting to the rest of them with zero inflection 'oh Dick's dead now. Its very sad' and Tim's just like, sure. Sounds legit.

I mean?!?!

And you're SO RIGHT ABOUT THE DAMIAN THING! Bruce LITERALLY LITERALLY LITERALLY went BEYOND the ends of the Earth, like, he full on chartered a fucking space ship to fly his whole family out to APOKOLIPS to bring Damian back from the dead by going to EXTREME lengths.....WHILE everyone else thought Dick was dead....

And not a single person looked at Bruce and was like, okay, not that we're not down to do this for Damian because we miss Stabby Smurf something fierce ourselves, but.....what the fuck is UP with you dude? Why aren't you displaying ANY hint of this same kind of energy in regards to your eldest son that you said you watched die right in front of you?

Like....I don't know that we were actually ever told that Dick's coffin was empty or had a fake in it, but like....this family of detectives who refuse to accept death, defy death, COME BACK FROM THE DEAD....not a single one of them said like, okay, if I'm gonna like, ACCEPT accept that Dick is dead and gone for good, I need to at least just see him one last time? That's literally all it would have taken for someone to realize hey something's a little wonky here. Where's the dead body, Pops?

Since when has Jason ever missed an opportunity to prove Bruce is a) full of shit, b) acting like an emotionless robot and all his kids deserve better especially when they've just like....died, c) just factually incorrect and wrong and jumped to a conclusion before it was conclusively proved, d) lying like a liar or e) all of the above?

Nobody even ASKED if Dick's body could be put in a Lazarus Pit? Yeah, Jason wouldn't necessarily recommend it himself, given what it put him through, but actually fuck that, I take that back, because I'm NOT actually of the opinion that Jason full on hates his life and actively spends every second of every day wishing he hadn't been resurrected, even if it had come with a huge buffet of additional trauma and pain.

And that's kinda what's implied when people just take it for granted that he would never be on board with any scenario involving using a Lazarus Pit to bring Dick back, because it suggests that based even just on his own experiences and feelings, he honestly believes Dick would prefer being dead and not have ANY further opportunities to be with his loved ones, his friends, help save the damn world again at some future point.....that Jason, projecting based just off himself, legit feels Dick would rather be dead than have another shot at life even WITH the downsides of Lazarus Pit usage? Nope. Sorry, I don't buy it.

Speaking of not buying it.....you know what was missing from all those soliloquies the others monologued at Dick about how they felt and were hurt and just devastated by his death, to such a point they can't seem to muster a single shred of happiness that he's NOT dead still -

(seriously, Damian was the ONLY person in ALL THE LANDS OF EMOTION-HAVING who expressed ANY kind of positive reaction to having Dick back. We were so fucking cheated of like.....ANY opportunity to have the characters show just how much they valued him by just being fucking HAPPY he was alive, no matter what else was involved....and then most of fandom compounded that by for years being like mmmm, no, Dick didn't get yelled at enough by his family for what HE put THEM through. Needs more yelling. More punching too. Bad Dick. Bad. This is the only way you'll learn not to die and get shipped off on a mission that you don't want but at least is to protect your family after being beaten into it by your dad whilst victim blaming you for dying in the first place. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN TO THINK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE AND THEIR FEELINGS FOR A CHANGE, DICK?!?)

- But like, BUT I DIGRESS aside....you know what was missing from all those monologues about how hard DICK'S death and ensuing year of basically exile from his loved ones was for EVERYONE BUT HIM?

We never got a single line of explanation as to what everyone else officially thinks even happened to him in the first place?

Like, did Bruce straight up just say oh bad news kids, your brother umm. Expired. Spontaneously. There's no one to blame, he just keeled over, its all very sad.

Is that how that went down?

You're telling me that the explanation of Dick's death didn't come with a single pointed finger at someone for this family of blame-happy vigilantes to like, BLAME for the loss of this brother they all mourned oh so much, they just couldn't help but blame him for all the hurt it caused them?

The family that in every other fic is like OBSESSED with avenging and being avenged and all things vengeful and even tangentially vengeance-y....like didn't ask for a single detail on whomst the fuck deprived us of our brother-having?

Where were the attempts on Luthor's life by Jason (who I mean, yeah I know it was in a previous continuity, but erasing that timeline doesn't erase my awareness of the time Dick killed Jason's murderer so like.....mmm, just saying, woulda been nice)....where was the rage directed at the Crime Syndicate and references to how seriously and personally the Batfam took making sure that they were PUNISHED for all this and would never be free to wreak havoc on their world or their family again? What did they tell Damian when he came back to life, and how are you going to tell me that this fraternal little ball of fury didn't aim himself like a cannonball at whomever the fuck had DARED take HIS Batman from him when Damian wasn't around to have his back?

Not only does everyone else's desire to be avenged start falling really flat the second you factor in hey maybe Dick feels "mmm what about MY avenging" sometimes, and why doesn't anyone ever care about doing that for him.....but also, y'know what REALLY sucks about the ONLY person we actually SEE being blamed for Dick's death and ensuing absence being like....Dick himself?

Not only were his family all super keen on making all of this HIS fault and HIM the bad guy because of how it made them all feeeeeeel (and meanwhile fuck his feelings, am I right Batfam hfaklshfklahfkla).....

They somehow found a way to justify prioritizing this OVER ever even getting around to blaming some villain for his death in the FIRST place, in the entire year or so they thought he was still dead!

Like, you couldn't come up with a single target in all that time, but Dick's back two seconds, and you don't even give him a chance to EXPLAIN before you're punching him, shutting him down with 'I expected better from you' and turning away with 'I don't want to hear it, why am I surprised Dick Grayson disappointed me again'?

afshklfhalfhalfhla

Make it make sense!

And like, it won't, cuz it doesn't, and it never will, and like I said at the top, the ONLY reason it all played out this way is because DC doesn't give a fuck about character development and deemed it necessary to go down this way for the sake of the plot (which was totes worth it, I mean, glad we sacrificed characters for this A+ plot which was clearly the greatest plot of all time and definitely justified every story choice made or not made around it loooool).

BUT.

BUT BUT BUT.

The problem isn't JUST that DC is stupid, even though that is an eternal mood and quite the problem.

Its that the SECOND large parts of fandom decided to play along with DC and just accept the story at face value, only add to it and play into it exactly as it happened in canon with no significant deviations, and like, heaping on the LITERAL abuse from Dick's siblings while ignoring the LITERAL abuse from his father....

THAT....is when all of this becomes relevant.

Because the second people decided TO engage with the reasoning DC gave for what Bruce did and how and what Dick did and how and just not mess with any of that and have it all play out exactly like that...

The second people are like, okay we're FINE with not just dismissing this story as OOC writing that doesn't make any sense, and actually VALIDATING it to various degrees by engaging with it as is....

That's when 'OOC writing' stops being an excuse or explanation for alllll of the above gaps in character logic and actions.

Because its like, when you had abundant chance to REJECT this story and say nope, this was bullshit from start to finish and I'm not here for it, when you were just as capable of transforming literally ANY aspect of this story you didn't like into something that made more sense to you....

And you chose not to.

That's.....accepting it as valid writing. You were like, okay, I'm game to just treat this as a thing that happened, just like they said that happened.

For the chance to give Dick shit for it, see. For the angst, see.

And that's when I'm like okay cool, so when engaging with this story as is and accepting it on face value and just delving into the characters as they were SHOWN interacting with and around these events......for the angst or whatever....

You guys just all decided en masse to just hop, skip and jump over allllllllll the opportunities for angst inherent in examining even ANY SINGLE ONE of the above lapses in judgment or hypocrisy on the parts of the characters (who don't get to be excused by OOC writing if you're not going to call the story an example of OOC writing, whoops).

And its just like, uh, what's up with that?

#lol thank you for this ask tho #I havent gone on a good Spyral rant in months #it does wonders for my pores

[pitch-pearl-void]

(The borderlands anon from however long ago)

So, I finished watching the show a couple days ago, because there were a couple things that showed up consistently in fics i that I didn’t understand (blood blossoms, some of the baddies, a handful of fenton inventions, etc)

First off, I still very much prefer pitch pearl to amethyst ocean or whatever the hell it’s called

And also, do you know where pitch pearl as a ship came from? I know there’s the episode with fun and super, but is that all there really was? Or were there more early fandom headcannons that supported them as separate beings?

Hello again! Sorry this took so long, I wasn’t sure how to answer 😅

Canon did a poor job with AO. I would even say it did it dirty, but it's popular enough it doesn't need that kind of support lol. If you really want to give it a fair shake I’d recommend reading fanfiction for it, but I understand everyone’s preferences are different. I personally don’t ship it because shipping best friends is something I have real issues with, but it’s not a bad ship if you want something that’s soft and makes you feel all warm inside.

Onto pitch pearl tho!

Tbh, I’m not entirely sure myself how pitch pearl as a ship started. I don’t believe it was because of the Fun and Super episode, largely because those two are rarely used in the ship. 

I asked someone else, and they thought that moment in What You Want when Phantom was first torn from Fenton as this colorless ghost might have been what started the concept they weren’t one whole person. Because, honestly? This ship goes far, FAR back. A lot of the older fics made Phantom into a voice in Danny’s head or a spirit that could separate from him at will without the need of the Ghost Catcher in order to offer Danny comfort. They had no rules because there weren’t any set way yet. The fact that Phantom could move and think independently from Danny was enough to get people thinking. It wasn't all romantic, most of it was borderline at best. They mostly focused on hurt/comfort and self-love, finding a balance between human and ghost with the occasional kiss thrown in.

Then there’s TUE, where Danny meets his evil future self and learns that his ghost half killed his human half after merging with Plasmius. It definitely gave more credence to the idea there might be more to Danny’s ghost half than simply having ghost powers. It aired before Identity Crisis, so it set the stage with a BOOM and had a much bigger impact on the ship. Phantom being seen as his own person is a bit more credible when he’s willing to kill Danny. It helped that TUE was a VERY popular episode. It drew in a huge crowd, and everyone was curious about what made the ghost half snap like that if he’s supposed to be Danny.

Supporting that idea is that a lot of the older art and fics took a darker view of Phantom in general, seeing him as Danny’s darker half or a ghost out for revenge after being imprisoned for so long. Even the name “pitch pearl” was created with that in mind. I always thought of it as “white hair/black hair” in the same vein as AO taking inspiration from Sam’s purple eyes and Danny’s blue, but when I went searching for the origins for the name, the old explanation set Danny Fenton as white pearl and Phantom as pitch black. The reasoning for that was partly their jumpsuits pre- and post- accident, but also because Fenton is human and “pure” while Phantom is a ghost and dangerous--because without Fenton, Phantom became Dan and destroyed everything.

For obvious and somewhat personal reasons, I don’t subscribe to that. But it does make all the art where Phantom looks evil while holding Danny make sense. I don’t like dark romance, and I’m personally thrilled we moved away from such a dark beginning, but it likely had a hand in the early popularity of pitch pearl.

If I were to guess how else it started when the source has them as one person, I would say it was most likely the fanart? Putting Fenton and Phantom side-by-side has a yin-yang appeal, and when they interact in art, you get the sense that these are two characters, not one. This was really popular when the fandom was much bigger than it is now.

For instance

Save Our Soul by nycken isn't a shipping piece by any means, but it could very easily give rise to the idea, especially if someone is new to the fandom.

They did not shy away from it being a self-cest ship back then, though. The idea that Phantom wasn't Danny was there, but I don't think anyone looked for evidence in the show to support it. That seems to be something the ship has evolved into rather than something it started from, and it is honestly my favorite way to see it.

I do have many headcanons about how they aren’t the same person in canon if you're interested! There’s the out of sync transformations, the title sequence and how Super and Fun are shown to separate in the Identity Crisis episode, Vlad’s inability to clone Danny, the way Danny talks to himself, just all kinds of things! If you want to hear more about those I'd be happy to answer 😁 (they'd probably be easier too lol)

But yeah, I think it was TUE and fanart. There may have been other factors (I think this was around the time Yu-Gi-Oh and puzzleshipping was popular too) because fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum, but I really couldn't say for sure. It's a ship that means different things for everyone who ships it. I like the psychological questions when they start off as "one" (the bonded peeps version) and enjoy the aus like soooo much, but others like it only for aus, and others like it as a crack ship, and then there are even others who like it as something dangerous. Some people love it for Fun and Super in Identity Crisis because they're just fun caricatures. It's hard to find the origin point when it has so many branches lol

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #pitch pearl #pitchpearl #I personally stumbled into shipping pitch pearl after reading too many reaction stories where Maddie finds out about Danny's secret #funny way to fall into a ship huh? lol #long post

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About “Eclipse Lake” from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

If I had to take a guess at who's the most popular character of The Owl House, I'd say that Amity would be a pretty safe bet. And not entirely without reason. Her home life is something several fans can identify with, she wins representation points for being a lesbian, and her development is the most impressive out of every other character. Not to say no one else develops, far from it. It's just that with Amity, her growth is a lot stronger, to the point where the version of her we're introduced to is practically a different character. The rest of the core cast has grown and become multi-layered over time, but in terms of personality, they haven't changed that much as Amity has.

But here's the thing: Amity has grown exponentially all through the sidelines. Despite being in episodes that heavily involve her, there hasn't been one where she had the starring role. Except for now, in "Eclipse Lake," the first-ever episode where Amity takes command. Is the episode better because of it? Or was Amity better off in a supporting role rather than a leading one? To find out requires diving into spoilers, so keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Belos Has Been to the Human World: Welp, I guess I'm tossing my "Belos was Philip" theory into the trash. As are many of you, no doubt. With that said, we still get a nugget of intrigue to know that he did, in fact, see the human realm at some point. Even more than that, he wants to go back. And from the sounds of it, he probably wants to return because it's significantly more pleasant to live there than the Boiling Isles. That bit of information interests me far more than him wanting to invade the human realm and rule it with an iron fist. While that last bit is not entirely out of the question yet, it's still pretty cool to learn as much as we can about Belos' grand plan.

Amity Taking Charge of Luz’s Recovery: Yup. That's about as much as I expected. We're barely into this episode, and already, it's established that Amity would go to great lengths to help her girlfriend. What more could you ask for?

Ghost: I want to pet Ghost. I don't give a s**t that they're a fictional being because I want to PET THEM! 'CAUSE I LIKE CUTE S**T DAMN IT!

Eda Learning How to Turn into “Harpy Eda” on Command: Cool concept for sure. Eda just figured out that she can turn into this thing, so there's going to be trials and tribulations to figure out how. What I personally enjoy is that to transform, not only does Eda have to talk to the Owl Beast, but at times she might have to make a deal with it. They made a truce, so the only way for it to work is for both sides to make compromises for it to work out. Like I said, cool concept. And I hope to see what else happens with it in the future.

Eda Using Anime as a Workout Tape: Well, that certainly explains the screaming. The fact that it was a Dragon Ball clone makes it even more perfect.

Eda calls Amity “Boots”: I love this. I don't know why I love this, but I do. So shove it.

Luz: Now let's take the time to talk about my favorite character. Luz may have taken the back seat in this episode, but the few moments she does show up, she's is on top form:

The way that she's all loopy and delirious from the common mold is hilarious.

The fact that everyone had to literally strap Luz down to stop her from going on an adventure is hilarious and admirable in terms of her character.

The fact that Luz does everything she physically can to warn the others about Titan's fools' blood is incredibly admirable.

And the way she just hurls herself at Amity when she gets back is just downright adorable.

The main protagonist being absent while the other characters go on an adventure is nothing new. But it's still nice to know that the quality of writing I expect from Luz didn't go away just because the episode isn't about her.

Amity and Luz using Tamagotchis to Text: I also didn't know what those things were until someone else pointed it out. I'm not that old...and so help me, I never will be.

Joking aside, I find it incredibly adorable that Luz and Amity have this way to communicate with each other that's only exclusive to them. Maybe Willow and Gus have Tamagotchis of their own, but we have yet to see them with ones, so it's plausible that only Luz and Amity can talk to each other through theirs. Which, again, is adorable. The fact that these two nerds found a way to text each other without Luz using a scroll or Amity using a phone fills my heart with glee and makes me extra happy that they're girlfriends now. Large in part because we get to see more cute s**t like this.

(Luz calling Amity pretty is also a bonus)

Amity Wants to be the Most Awesome Girlfriend: Just the very fact that I can write that is a win. Sidenote: Love the fact that Amity explicitly says the word girlfriend. No beating around the bush, no implications. The writers have her go for it with no looking back.

Loved it. Loved all of it. And I hope to see more bits like this in the future.

King Mentions the Dissection: Hey, sometimes the best and most defining relationships start off on the wrong foot, King. Don't have to call someone out for it.

Kikimora: I admire good comically incompetent villains, which is what Kikimora is to me in this episode. She might have her terrifying moments here and there, but when she's just screeching about how she hates Hunter and focuses more on showing him up, it's a ton of fun.

Coven Guard Captain: This character doesn't do much...but she's still great. She acts as a perfect straight man to Kiki's psychotics, has this weird respect for Kiki that I hope gets explored, and wins comedy points for instantly getting bored by guarding Amity and just ditching her in a hole. This captain may have had a short role in this episode and an insignificant one in the series, but it was fun seeing her give her all despite the short time.

Hunter Bonding with Bird: I prefer "Little Rascal," but I can live with "Bird."

In any case, it was pretty sweet to see these two grow more of a bond. Bird suddenly making himself Hunter's palisman isn't an easy change to accept as much as it is easy for Eda to figure out how to turn into a harpy. Meaning that there will be an adjustment period alongside moments of Hunter learning to trust Bird. And, yeah, it's charming to see Bird try so hard to brighten up Hunter's life. Whether it's leading Hunter toward people who are actually nice or trying to cheer him up when he's digging his own grave, there are so many moments that make Bird the closest friend Hunter could ever ask for. The bond can only grow further from there, and like a lot of things this week, I can't wait to see more.

(Which is basically a recurring theme of this episode. It makes me excited to see more)

Character’s Commenting on Hunter’s Annoying Voice: My favorite part about this is how Hunter suddenly becomes self-conscious about it. On the one hand, I want to go, "Ah, poor baby." But on the other hand, I can't help it when I say, "Haha! You annoying-voiced bitch!" It's just great.

Amity has Abomination Goo in a Bottle: We get it. Amity's VA also voiced Katara. You don't have to rub it in our faces.

(But, seriously though, I do consider this a clever workaround for how Amity can use abomination magic when in a fight. It's pretty cool)

Amity and Hunter: Whoever thought about pairing these two up for an episode...you're the best. You're just the best!

Because this is a brilliant concept. Amity and Hunter are so much alike in terms of personality and homelife that it makes way too much sense to have them interact at least once. What I'm specifically grateful for is that when Hunter tries to associate himself with Amity, the only other intelligent person there, she's quick to shut him down. The Amity in the past might have been slightly easier to sway, but not the one we know now. It isn't until he finds the one thing that can get to Amity that Hunter knows how to exactly break her. Even then, she just barely falls for it, only being swayed when in a panic or in a desperate situation.

But regardless of how much of a jerk Hunter comes across as, it's great Amity tries to reach out to him near the end. She knows how it feels to try and gain respect from family, only to learn what love truly is from someone who cares. It's a moment where even though Luz is absent, her presence still shines through Amity's actions. She is now the person who's willing to be kind for someone she barely knows, and it's fantastic. It's everything I could have ever wanted when these two interact, and it's all delivered so well.

Willow Owning the One Brain Cell Between Hooty and Gus: Ah, Willow. Even when you got severely screwed over this season, you're still the best...Yeah, I'll get to that in a minute.

Owlbert Cracking Apart: Don't mind me. Just having heart palpitations at the sight of Owlbert almost dying. NoThInG tO sEe HeRe!

Expectation Subversion to the Minecart Chase: ...I f**king love this show. I'm telling you, it's hilarious when it really tries.

Hunter Cracks: Yes, I laughed. A lot. But can we talk about the fact that Hunter would rather dig his own grave than disappoint Belos again? That alone says so much where despite having a similar situation to Amity's, it couldn't be more different. If Amity angers Alador or Odalia, she'll either get grounded and cry about it to Ed or Em. But if Hunter angers Belos? Well, I would like to point out how close Belos' weird goopy spear got to Hunter's face and how there's got to be a reason why Hunter has his scars.

You know what? I think I'd bury myself too if I was in Hunter's shoes at that moment.

King and Amity vs. Hunter: Three things!

One, this is the coolest fight scene of the series so far. And no, I will not take any arguments about it.

Two, Amity is right. She is an awesome girlfriend. Seriously, abomination magic is no joke.

Three, I genuinely appreciate these small moments where King actually does something beneficial when contributing to the fight. It makes him much more than a comedic Disney sidekick and someone who can be useful from time to time.

Overall this was an epic, incredibly animated fight that proves that this series is no joke when it comes to action.

Hunter Threatens Luz to get to Amity: I'm not too surprised by this. Amity doesn't care if someone threatens her because, if you couldn't tell from that fight scene, she can take care of herself. But Luz? Well, she's certainly formidable, but that doesn't mean that Amity won't worry about her girlfriend. She will do everything in her power to help Luz, made evident by how much Amity went overboard with a simple illness. So Hunter using that for his benefit is a pretty devious move executed phenomenally.

The Key Cracks: I like to think this was intentional on Amity's part. It's plausible that Hunter's words got to her so much that she accidentally broke it, but it's also likely that Amity knew she was backed in a corner that risked Luz getting hurt, so found a way where Hunter sort of wins but still loses. It's somewhat similar to how Luz destroyed the portal after giving it to Belos. The end result was a situation where everyone is safe but at the cost of delaying the inevitable for the villain's victory. They're both moments where everyone wins and loses, all to move the story forward at a slower pace than one would expect. And, for the fifth time now, it makes me curious about what happens next because of it.

Luz Calling Amity her Awesome Girlfriend: Yeah, my heart melted when this happened. After all of Amity's self-proclamations that she is an awesome girlfriend, followed by a brief moment of doubt, it felt nice to see that Luz explicitly said it too.

(King having hug envy was also a nice cherry on top)

WHAT I DISLIKED

Hey, I actually have criticisms this time...been a while since that happened, huh?

Belos Doesn’t Look All That Threatening: The green scar is cool, don't get me wrong...but this man doesn't look all that threatening without the mask. With it, yes, I'm quaking in my metaphorical boots. But making him look like a chilled-out old man with what looks like a skin infection just takes away all of the horror for me. I mean, look at him:

He looks like a guy who I can easily push over, and boom! The rain of tyranny is over.

I'm more than positive that this is a personal issue. That doesn't mean I won't take it personally, though.

Eda Acting like an Idiot: I get it. Eda wants to figure out how to make her powers work and will try literally anything to do it. My issue is that why does she have to act like a dunderhead at times to do it? I mean, Eda seriously never tried peacefully talking to the Owl Beast, which is what basically caused her to turn into the Harpy the first time? Remember? With the whole making a truce thing?

And why is she being so carefree despite being surrounded by coven guards and blatantly ignoring Hunter's warning, which was very clearly real? Yes, Eda can be reckless and carefree at times, but when a moment clearly calls to take things gravely, she still learns to tone things down a bit. So it pains me to see her act so...dumb!

Willow and Gus Getting Sidelined...Again: I'm not the first to mention this, and odds are I won't be the last, but it really does suck to see Willow and Gus get pushed on the sidelines so far this season. More so with Willow. Gus at least got half an episode to himself, where Willow barely contributes in the ones she's in. Although, in fairness, this is only the first half of the season, and there wasn't much Willow and Gus could do in the episodes we've seen so far. They may get more attention later, but here, it's just disappointing seeing them do nothing more than setting up an inadequate joke.

IN CONCLUSION

I'd say that "Eclipse Lake" is an A- for me. The jokes were solid, it makes me excited for more, and I love everything done with Amity and Hunter...I just wish that the rest of the characters were handled a little better. Most of my issues aren't really that big of a deal compared to everything else done right, but after three perfect episodes in a row, the small things tend to hit a lot harder. Sorry to say, but I can't always let the good stuff eclipse the bad.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I have to mentally, emotionally, and maybe even physically prepare myself for the heartbreak that will inevitably be "Yesterday's Lie." Which I’m not ready for)

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #amity blight #emperor belos #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #toh hunter #the golden guard #willow park #gus porter #lumity #lumity is canon #the owl house reviews #what i thought about

[jetaime-jespere]

Under The Weather

Some pointless fluff that's been floating around my head for a few days. Also on ao3 🙂

It’s not the usual alarm clock that wakes her this time - the tauntingly peaceful melody that she now associates with being ousted from a dream every morning.

In fact, Emily is hardly awake. Her eyes are still sealed shut, she’s still nestled under the covers because the thought of moving is almost unbearable. Even in her sleep induced haze, the only thing she’s fully aware of is just how shitty she feels, like every part of her body has somehow teamed up against her in unison. What started last night as a subtle headache is now accompanied by a persistent rawness in the back of her throat. The same pain has crept in to settle behind her eyes, and now radiates around her head, like a pair of gnarled hands wrapped and clenched around her brain. But that isn’t the only thing - everything just hurts. Her limbs feel like lead, her throat is now on fire, lips cracked and chapped from the winter air. Her mouth is dry as dust as she grapples for the glass of water Aaron had left on her nightstand hours ago - something he’s done since they moved in together.

Cracking one eye open takes monumentally more effort than it should. The wind rattles against the windows, whistling through the bitterly cold February morning and Emily groans at the prospect of even moving from the safety of their warm bed. A glance at the clock tells her it’s 5:40. Aaron’s side is empty, the sheets cooled, but she can hear the steady pulse of the shower, see the steam curling out from under the door. The cloying pull of sleep is too consuming, the glass of water all but forgotten as Emily groans. The notion of having to get up in less than a half an hour is making her stomach roil in protest.

Instead, she burrows herself deeper into the blankets, wishing somehow this day would somehow restart itself. Her eyelids are too heavy to stay open, even though the looming reality of her alarm hovers over her, along with the daunting challenge of making it through the day. Emily remembers the stack of unfinished case reports left on her desk from yesterday, abandoned in the wake of remembering Ava’s ballet class just a few minutes too late to be early for once. That’s about the time the headache started, subtle enough to temporarily ignore as their daughter happily chattered away in the backseat, little legs kicking against the leather upholstered seat - a story about unicorns and fairies, one Emily could probably retell herself she’s heard it so many times. If only she knew then.

The next thing she’s aware of is Aaron bending down to kiss her awake, fresh from the shower and half dressed in an undershirt, his skin still damp as he murmurs good morning . The whiff of eucalyptus soap and his mouthwash only makes her dizzy as she all but pushes her husband away from her with an ill attempted protest against his affection. “Five more minutes,” she croaks. “S’tired.”

“Sweetheart?” Aaron questions even though he doesn’t have to. He’s no stranger to her indifference to early mornings, the way her arms wind around his neck to pull him close most days when he wakes her with the same kisses, the same sweet nothings in her ear. On the rare occasion when they have more time, he ends up back in bed with her, making the most of a few precious moments. Those mornings are his favorites - the ones where he gets to press her into the mattress, get her leg over his shoulder, seal his mouth against hers to muffle the moans he hasn’t grown tired of hearing even years after he first heard them. But this is different. He figures it out immediately, knuckles brushing against her flaming cheek, skin clammy under his touch.

“Hmmph?” Emily shrugs out from under his touch, the cool hand on her burning forehead a reminder of just how awful she feels. “Five more minutes and I’ll get up.”

Aaron laughs softly, already reaching for his phone on the dresser. “Not a chance.”

“I’ll be fine in a half hour.” It’s a futile attempt; Aaron knows her better than she knows herself by now. Emily doesn’t get sick often, maybe once every few years. But when she does, it hits hard and fast, rendering her inherently useless for a day or two, and they’re all a little thrown off kilter without her. Even though her eyes are closed she can practically see him making arrangements - school dropoff and pickup, soccer practice for Jack, ice skating lessons for Ava. It’s also a Wednesday, the one day a week he spends mostly in meetings as unit chief. It’s the day she picks up more slack around the house, handles the after school activities in addition to her own professional responsibilities. It’s a routine they’ve perfected through trial and error over time.

“You weren’t yourself last night,” he sinks down beside her, his weight dipping the mattress down as he pushes some hair from her face. “You barely touched your dinner. You fell asleep with the light on,” he adds pointedly, pressing his lips to his wife’s forehead for confirmation. “And you definitely have a fever.”

“Do not,” she argues. It’s becoming harder and harder to challenge him, a battle she knows she’ll ultimately lose. There’s no way he’ll let her out the door let alone into the BAU at this point. Despite the sweat that trickles down her back, her teeth chatter together.

Aaron wraps her into his arms, aware of how she melds against his chest as she seeks the warm comfort of his body. “Do too.” His tone is light, which only manages to frustrate her more. “And you’re staying home today. Don’t even try to argue with me.”

Emily attempts to pull away from his embrace. “I have a meeting too, you know. Jack has practice and Ava -”

“Has ice skating. I know, Sweetheart.” Aaron gently pushes her back down, tucking the blankets around her. “I know their schedule. And yours. We’ll manage.” But he’s already reaching for his phone, dialing a number he knows by heart.

“Who are you calling?” She asks weakly, succumbing to his insistence. The sky has lightened to a shade of dark blue instead of inky black, the first traces of the winter morning starting to peek through the curtains.

“I’m texting Garcia. If she can take Ava this afternoon, I can get Jack to soccer after my last meeting.”

Emily grumbles while he taps out a message as she runs through her day ahead. There are her own meetings, of course, a slew of chores around the house waiting when she gets home, all the little things that accumulate during the week without fail, over and over. Aaron can almost read her mind as he gets dressed, disappearing into the depths of their closet to pluck a suit from the rack on his side. “Things won’t implode without you, Em. We can survive one day.”

From her place in bed, Emily watches him dress, securing the sleeves of his dress shirt, the jacket stretching across his broad shoulders over the crisp fabric of his shirt. Some days, she can’t believe they’ve come this far. Seven years of marriage has brought its fair share of ups and downs, most recently an ill-timed miscarriage in the days before Christmas. She hadn’t been too far along - ten weeks - but December 23rd was spent at her doctor, Aaron’s hand wrapped around hers as the news was broken, their eyes glued to the ultrasound screen. They hadn’t been trying at all. It was a surprise neither of them expected, which only seemed to worsen the blow when it abruptly ended. Emily had been the picture of composed, smiling through her grief on Christmas Eve, distracted by Ava and Jack’s excitement, the endless mountain of gifts to smuggle from their closet under the tree, only to spend the early hours of Christmas morning crying in his arms until he rocked her to sleep. She closes her eyes, wills herself not to think of it. It’s still a little too soon.

When he’s fully dressed, traces of cologne lingering in the air, Aaron gathers a box of tissues and fills a glass of water, setting both down next to Emily. “I’ll bring you some toast before I leave. You need to eat something.”

“You need to wake -”

“I’m already -”

“Mommy?” The voice outside the door tells them at least one more Hotchner is already awake. Aaron drops a quick kiss on Emily’s head, frowning when he notes how warm she is. He makes a mental note to bring some ibuprofen with the toast and opens the door just a crack to find their daughter on the other side, fully dressed, not a hair out of place.

“Where’s Mommy?” He’s met with the round, concerned eyes that belong to Ava. Even at six, she could be Emily’s clone, with sleek dark locks and the same pale skin. Ava is precocious, sharp as a tack yet sensitive, hesitant to trust but loyal to a fault. Her arrival in the world had been dramatic, at one point downright terrifying for a few minutes, shoulder dystocia to blame. Aaron had turned ghostly pale as the doctors rattled off medical jargon he’d only ever seen dramatized on primetime television. Yet it was that same efficiency and urgency that ultimately brought their daughter safely into the world a short time later. The moment she was placed in his hands, Aaron was completely smitten, his world forever changed.

“Mommy isn’t feeling well, Ava.” Aaron explains with an abundance of patience, his tone soft and reassuring. In the days after Christmas, following the miscarriage, Ava had been confused when Aaron took Emily’s usual place at the new, massive dollhouse from Santa, doing his best to display the same enthusiasm his wife so effortlessly showed. He’d uttered the same words - Mommy isn't feeling well - when she protested, complaining about his doll handling skills and seeming inability to make their hair look half as good as Emily did. Even though his placations  held an entirely different meaning then, Ava questioned him relentlessly. Telling a version of the truth had been harder than he anticipated, for more reasons that one.

“Is Mommy okay?” Ava asks, persistent as ever.

“She’s fine, honey. Just the flu. Remember when you had it in Kindergarten? You got to stay home while Jack went to school. Mommy and I took turns staying home with you? You got to eat popsicles in bed and watch TV during the day?”

Ava nods, not fully convinced as she tries to poke her head further into their bedroom. “I guess.”

“That’s what Mommy has, honey. Grown-ups get sick too. So Daddy is going to drive you to school. Aunt Penelope is going to take you to ice skating lessons this afternoon.”

Ava squeals with delight at the mention of Garcia, clapping her tiny hands together, only to have the expression melt off her face seconds later. Then she frowns. “But Daddy,” she whispers slowly, her resemblance to Emily and similar mannerisms uncanny, as if profiling him even at the tender age of six. “You don’t know the Good Morning song.”

Aaron checks his watch and pinches the bridge of his nose as he peers into the hallway. Jack’s bedroom door is still firmly closed, indicating his son is most likely still sound asleep. Waking him is the next battle, one of his least favorite tasks as of late. “What song, Ava?” He sighs, not missing the fleeting touch of amusement that crosses Emily’s face from across the room, the softest of laughs. Even in her current state, pale and tired, clearly more than under the weather, Aaron thinks she’s stunning.

“Mommy and I always sing the Good Morning song on the way to school.” Ava folds her arms across her chest, tapping her foot against the floor. “If you don’t know the words -” Her dark eyes double in size, widening impossibly as she stubs her toe with disappointment. “How can you drive me to school?”

“Honey -”

“Mommy knows all the words.”

“Ava - “

“Daddy.” She challenges, sticking her lower lip out in a whiny pout. Aaron knows what’s ahead. Even though Ava has him completely wrapped around her tiny finger, their daughter absolutely adores her mother, never missing an opportunity to steal a few quiet moments together. He often finds Ava curled in Emily’s lap, listening to a story, or playing dress up with some of Emily’s old clothes. Aaron has caught a few misplaced tubes of lipstick hidden in her dress-up box, ones Emily thought she lost long ago. He’s seen the pictures she draws, the way Ava always draws Emily next to her in each one. It tugs on every single one of his heartstrings, every single time.

“Mommy will teach me,” he assures her, crouching down to her level, bringing her to lean on his knee. “Daddy will do his best to know all the words before I take you to school.” He ruffles Ava’s hair as she beams, seemingly appeased by his effort. “Can you be my special helper this morning and wake Jack for me?”

Her face brightens instantly, a mischievous grin spreading across her face at the thought of what she’s being asked to do - something that, most of the time, she’s actively told not to do. “Okay!”

Aaron grimaces slightly as Ava skips off down the hall. There’s a finite window of time until he’s left to deal with Jack’s morning moodiness, exacerbated by his sister’s surprise wakeup call. But it’s worth the few extra minutes he’ll get to spend with his wife. Emily is now fully awake, looking even more miserable than she had moments before.

“You’re on your own for the good morning song,” she rasps sarcastically. Her voice is hoarse, even as she tries to smile. “Couldn’t sing it for you if I tried.”

“I think I’m going to take her for donuts. Those strawberry frosted ones she loves?” He slips back in bed beside Emily, pulling her into his arms once again. “Distraction at its finest.”

“The ones I love,” Emily reminds him, swiping her thumb across his cheek. “Good luck.”

“Right. Hopefully she’ll forget all about it.” Then he remembers just who he’s talking about - a miniature version of the woman he somehow got lucky enough to call his wife, instantly realizing how wrong he is. He’s a goner; he won’t hear the end of this for days.

“I doubt it. But you can give it a try.” Emily snuggles into his chest, savoring their final few minutes of peace.

…

Winter sun streams through the windows, casting the bedroom in a mix of shadows and blinding light.

She isn’t sure how much time has passed - an hour could easily be three, maybe five. Sleep has consumed her, on and off all morning. Yet she’s uncomfortable, alternating between throwing the covers off and disappearing into them, unable to seek enough warmth as she reaches for one more blanket. Everything still hurts, and topped off by a congestion that settles deep in her lungs, rattles her chest with every cough. She almost feels worse now than she did earlier, if that’s even possible.

The house is quiet, so she hears the subtle rumbling of the garage opening, the soft creak of the door leading into the house. Emily smiles to herself - she’d recognize his footsteps anywhere as he makes his way through the living room. He’s undoubtedly picking up wayward shoes and toys along the way, most likely grumbling about the clutter. He’d never admit it (even if she knows it to be true) but it’s one of his favorite tasks. The mess is a reminder of what they’ve built over time, that sometimes things work out just as they were meant to. Even if it means their house will never be spotless.

She pries one eye open as he shoulders through the bedroom door, slipping his suit jacket off to drape over a chair. “You could have stayed at work.” Emily isn’t surprised at all. She knows him sell enough by now.

“I know.” And while Aaron is fully aware of that, there was never a chance he wasn’t going to come home to tend to her. He stayed at the BAU long enough to get things squared away, arranging plans for the kids, and delegating tasks as needed before making a hasty exit. And now, only a few hours later, he’s back. He checks her forehead, refreshes the glass of water on the nightstand and tosses some tissues into the trash. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.” Emily shifts to make room beside her. “Worse than before, if that’s possible.” She sighs a little when he wraps her into his embrace. Her head falls against his chest on its own accord. “Ava and Jack?”

“Garcia is taking Ava to ice skating. She’s taking her out for ice cream afterward.” He gets a hand in her hair, rocks her back and forth a little bit until she relaxes fully against him. Almost.

“What about dinner?” Emily mumbles, stifling a cough into her fist. It rattles within her chest, reverberating through her ribs. “She needs real dinner, Aaron.”

“I think she’ll live without vegetables for one night, Emily.”

She’s too tired to argue. “Jack?”

“Dave offered to take him to soccer,” Aaron says, patting her back through the last of the coughing fit and grappling for the water glass on the table. “It’s all taken care of.” His hands are soothing, gentle and strong against the sore, stiff muscles. “You sound terrible.”

Emily pointedly ignores him. “What about you?”

“I cleared my schedule for the rest of the day. Tomorrow too,” he adds with a wink, taking her hands in his own when she starts to object. “I’m making it my mission to get you better.” He shows her the package of popsicles he’d stopped for on the way home, tosses the bag away to the floor. “And I got some of these. Just for you.”

The soft laughter that comes from her is accompanied by yet another hacking cough. It’s the little things he does that are the most thoughtful - a pit stop to the grocery store in the middle of a work day is just one example. “Sounds like you have quite the job ahead of you.” But she’s eyeing the popsicles - it’s the first thing that’s sounded appealing all morning.

“You’re not an easy patient,” Aaron chides as he hands her a cherry flavored one, taking a lemon flavored for himself. “One of the worst I’ve ever dealt with, actually.” He flicks her nose lovingly.

“Is that so?” The cool chill of the frozen ice against her lips and throat is a temporary relief, a moment of reprieve. She doesn’t even notice when a little piece of it breaks off to leave a tiny red stain on the sheets. “You’re no picnic yourself, you know.”

It’s his turn to laugh, because she’s right. He’s just as stubborn, the art of rest and healing lost on them both. “I feel called out.”

“It’s because I’m right,” she quips. And she is.

Emily sleeps fitfully in his arms, only waking up once as the sun sets over the trees in the distance. When her eyes drift open, he has the television remote in one hand, the other anchoring her across his chest. “What time is it?” She mumbles, blinking furiously as her eyes adjust to the dim light.

“Close to five.” He kisses her, rocks her a little to wake her up. “You’ve been sleeping for hours.” Aaron sounds almost pleased that she finally got some solid rest. “I’m going to make you some soup. And don’t tell me I don’t have to.” He untangles himself from her, somehow without disturbing her comfort within their bed. “I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

His fingers brush across her cheek; she’s not as hot to the touch this time. Emily leans into his hand, curling her fingers around his wrist.

“Thank you for coming home.” She hardly sounds any better, certainly doesn’t feel it either. But having him there somehow makes it slightly more bearable, an unexpected silver lining to all of this. And the reverence in his eyes, the same one she sees every time he looks at her, confirms the fact that he’d do it without question. Another example of the unconditional love he’d promised years before when they exchanged vows in Dave’s backyard.

“There’s nowhere else I should be, Sweetheart.”

Four days later, Aaron wakes up with the same aching muscles and raw throat, barely able to keep his eyes open as a new week awaits them. Emily is only more than happy to return his favor.

#hotchniss #hotchniss fanfiction #hotchniss fic #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss #hotch x prentiss #domestic hotchniss #happy hotchners #pointless plotless fluff

[willowcrowned]

Double Trouble AU (Part 3)

One Anakin was enough, Obi-Wan thinks. One Anakin was far, far, more than enough, in fact, and so was one Ahsoka. He is barely past his mid-thirties and already graying at the temples and, yes, there is a war on, but he was finding silver hairs even before Geonosis, so there’s really only one person he can blame, and it’s Anakin.

And now there’s two of them. Oh joy.

“Where are you two from?” Obi-Wan asks the Anakin and Ahsoka in front of him.

“This is weird,” Ahsoka mutters to Anakin. And then, louder. “You know where we’re from, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan resists the urge to roll his eyes. “Well clearly I don’t.”

“Don’t tell him anything, Snips,” Anakin says. 

“I know.” Ahsoka narrows her eyes at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan once again has to resist the urge to roll his eyes. These two are Anakin and Ahsoka— there’s no doubt about it. They talk like Anakin and Ahsoka, move like Anakin and Ahsoka, even fight like Anakin and Ahsoka. Which, of course, begs the question: what the hell are identical copies of Anakin and Ahsoka doing wandering around talking to people like Hondo Ohnaka with a copy of Obi-Wan himself in tow?

“Alright,” he says, “Anakin, you were born on Tatooine and lived there until you were ten. Ahsoka, you were born on Shili and lived there until you were three, correct?”

Neither Anakin nor Ahsoka nod, but neither of them get the grimace on their face that means he’s wrong, so he continues.

“You were knighted at twenty, Anakin—” Anakin’s face stays un-grimaced. “—and took Ahsoka as your padawan that year.” Again, neither of them look disturbed by his assumptions. “She remained your padawan until she left the Jedi order—” Oh, and that gets a real reaction. Interesting.

Obi-Wan frowns. The people in front of him clearly aren’t clones, unless they’re clones with Anakin and Ahsoka’s memories up until a few months ago. It’s not entirely impossible that the Separatists have found technology to do that, but Obi-Wan has to assume that if they had, they would have been a lot stealthier about getting a clone to infiltrate the Order— not to mention, both Anakin and Ahsoka feel identical to his Anakin and Ahsoka in the Force.

Which leaves, well, a vision, time travel, or it’s equivalent. 

Obi-Wan can reliably say that this is not a vision, and he has the bruises from Anakin Force-pushing him into a wall to prove it. That leaves either time travel, or some sort of alternate timeline hopping, both of which sound like the plot of a bad novel.

“Right,” Obi-Wan says, sinking down into the third chair of the commandeered ship. “Ahsoka, how is Barriss doing where you’re from?”

Ahsoka’s gaze sours and she turns away. 

Anakin gives Obi-Wan a dirty look. “Did you have to say that?”

“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan says, and he is sorry— at least insofar as causing Ahsoka pain— but this is his best bet to getting another hint out of the two of them. “She’s... still alright in this universe.”

Ahsoka snorts harshly, and Obi-Wan grimaces. This really isn’t how he prefers to conduct investigations.

“Look,” Anakin says darkly, turning back to Obi-Wan from where he’s been watching Ahsoka, “please don’t make us stick you in a closet until we meet up with our Obi-Wan. We’re not telling you anything.”

“Why?” Obi-Wan asks.

Anakin lets out a frustrated huff. “I can’t tell you.”

That in itself is worrying; this Anakin evidently likes him— him-him, not just his alternate version— so if Anakin isn’t telling anything, not only must he have direct orders from the other Obi-Wan not to say anything, but Obi-Wan knowing could put at least him in significant danger.

The situation just became much, much messier, which shouldn’t have even been possible. If Obi-Wan doesn’t wake up with at least three new gray hairs tomorrow, he’ll be shocked.

#i love writing obi-wan he's such a smart and polite man with such a terrible life #everyone who liked the last installment of this au #this is for you #i cannot emphasize enough how motivated I am by attention #star wars au #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #double trouble au