The Idea That "Hannibal Has To Compromise On His Victim Pool For Will To Be Ok With Eloping With Him

he won

bonus:

Mayhaps you've already taken a shot at answering this. Why do you think people in fandom get Dick Grayson so wrong?

to be totally honest i don’t know? like, i’d say a significant part of it is because the two icebreaker comics people seem to read when they’re getting into dc are red robin and under the red hood.

rr2009 is about a complex grief spiral that challenges dick and tims relationship before they ultimately reconcile, but if ur not interested w engaging w the story it’s very easy to villianise dick (and damian) for tim whump.

utrh also relies on a lot of context from other comics at the time, and i think a lot of people conflate bruce’s actions to dick, particularly with the movie, to make jason the victim rather than actually considering the actions he takes. idk. we fear complexity, ig

it’s weird because many of dicks most important and foundational traits — community, his relationships with his neighbours, his status as a big brother and mentor to young heroes, his kindness, his abrasive but ultimately loving relationship w bruce, his propensity to pick arguments, and his role as a beacon of light in gotham — evidently are popular because they’re consistently lifted to give to other characters. in return, dick is flattened to either an absolute enabling asshole or a total idiot with no friends who can’t even defend himself. it sucks

even in regards to angst…. a lot of what people write fic about has happened to dick rather than other characters. in modern canon he was fired during an argument with bruce. he was homeless and isolated during the latter half of grayson’s 96 run. he’s consistently hurt by bruce and his other family members when they throw hands at him outside of combat. like…… *smacks him* this bad boy can fit every fanon trope in him np

itd be nice for people to engage more with his character, but same with damian or cass it would require that other characters not be trapped in permanent victimhood or actually meet dick on his level. dick is the most emotionally intelligent person in that family and uses his powers to say the most heinous things imaginable. he’s the second best detective. after cass he’s probably the most dangerous physical combatant. he doesn’t need tim drake to show him how to reset his wifi password

– 𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 || 𝐛𝐞𝐧 + 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜!𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐬

SUMMARY: The thing about Klaus Hargeeves and the titles he had was that, for all the bad and bloodied ones he’d accumulated over his weirdly-long-but-should-have-been-shorter lifetime– nothing hurt more than becoming a stranger. PAIRINGS: Klaus x Reader (Platonic), Sparrow!Reader x Sparrow!Ben (Romance), Past!Reader x Umbrella!Ben (Romance), Klaus x Reader x Ben TAGS/WARNINGS: angst ; romance

Klaus Hargeeves had accumulated more than his fair share of titles over the course of his weirdly-long-but-should-have-been-shorter lifetime.

Before the first Apocalypse, he’d been Klaus: Number Four. The Séance. Family fuck-up and resident weirdo.

When he’d ended up smack-dab in the middle of the Vietnam war, the list only grew from there: Private Hargreeves. Soldier. Murderer.

The titles were no less bloody than his first few, and maybe if he’d saved Dave the additions might’ve been an easier pill to swallow.

But Klaus lost Dave anyway and though he wasn’t into the swallowing business nowadays (of pills, that is), the dog tags he wore beneath his torn shirt were a bitter reminder that death and misery would follow him always.

Even after leaving The Umbrella Academy. 

When he and his family failed to save the world the first time (which, according to a very snappish Five, was not technically the first time; very tensed up man-child, mind you)–Klaus, as always, did what he did best.

He accepted the cards he’d been dealt with, and he settled.

And for the most part, things were okay. Delightful, even.

Amongst his Cult, he’d been a Messiah. God. 

As if God wasn’t already fucked up for putting him through all the shit he’d been through, Klaus accepted the monicker with a grain of salt and revelled in the false sense of security it gave him.

So long as he was God, nothing would touch him or his people. 

Because, for all that Klaus was unlucky, for all that he was unfortunate when it came to too-bloody-titles and titles that were false in every way, somehow he’d ended up in 1960 with not only Ben, but with you, too. 

From 1960 to 1962, the years you shared together–you, consoling him first after an argument with Ben before astral projecting yourself between worlds to coax your boyfriend back; Ben, always disagreeing with anything to do with Destiny’s Children until you’d concede sweetly in turn; and him, teasing Ben mercilessly for making him a third-wheel but purposely making him more tangible so his love-struck brother could rest his head above your heart–reminded Klaus of the only good titles he had alongside his name. 

To the world (old and new), Klaus Hargreeves was known as many things.  Weird things. Bloody things. But to Ben, his Benirrino, Klaus was his brother. 

He could be overwhelming to a fault, he knew, but Ben–angry, bitter and emo Benny boy– loved him all the same. And Klaus would’ve died a happy bastard knowing he had at least one sibling with him 60 years in the past. 

With you, [N/N], Klaus didn’t quite know why you’d stuck with him after Ben had died in the original timeline. Until the epiphany came to him between nights you sought each other to grieve and days you went looking for a new high that he’d never had a best-friend before.

He might’ve been responsible for half the stress you were constantly under, but you had accepted him anyways and always in the ways that mattered and for that, Klaus would make do with a sappy Ben if it meant having you there with him, too.  

After two glorious years of just being Ben’s playful brother and [Y/N]’s chaotic best-friend, Klaus thought he could well and truly live if he only ever had to answer to these two titles.

And then, Five re-appeared.

The rest of his family, too. 

And suddenly, the world was back on a timer. 

Klaus had to be Number Four again. Had to be The Séance, the Soldier.

If they wanted an edge over the Temps Time Commission, he had to bring out the whole shabam and play into everything Daddy-dearest ever wanted of him in order to do anything and return to a timeline where he was all these shitty titles (some shameful, some not) and then some.  

And while he could’ve done it, could’ve accepted the bitter reality-check like the good little Solider that he was–it became a little harder for Klaus to just settle with the cards he’d been dealt with when Ben dies saving Viktor. 

It becomes even worse when, just as the two of you are almost out, almost back-in-your-original timeline, you decide to shield Allison during a barrage of gunfire. 

Klaus had seen you first amidst the chaos–eyes wide, hands trembling–and had cheered in a moment of drunken stupor before Five called your name.  Had called for you as though he couldn’t see you even though you were standing right there…

He barely manages to process what’s happened and the fact he’s lost his brother and best-friend all in one sweep (He sees Dave in the distance, and blood roars in his ears) before Viktor’s at his side, gently holding onto his hand with the echo of grief in his eyes as Five opens the briefcase. 

The last image he sees of 1962 is the small, sad, smile of your apparition as he falls forward in time and into a world that spits at everything he ever was. 

Because there, in 2019, is Ben. 

Alive. Breathing. Whole. 

“Dad, who are these assholes?” his brother’s voice echoes through the long room, Klaus’ stomach lurching as Ben considers them without a hint of recognition. 

His heart swells and the breaks again because with that question, his brother dies again.

“Come on Ben, play nice…” To the collective surprise and horror mounting amongst his family, your gentle voice cuts through the air as you step out from behind his brother to place a hand on his shoulder. 

Flushed and lively despite being dead only a few moments prior–he’s not the only one disoriented seeing you in front of them. 

“But he does have a point,” you continue onward, uncaring of the sharp breath Allison takes (your blood is still splattered on her face) or the way Diego’s eyes dart between you and Ben; side by side, even in another life.

“Who are you and why are you here?” 

thinking about that one trope where the hero is dying and reveals their secret identity at the last moment so they can die known and as the true person they were, not the hero name they designed. how, if dick were out as nightwing and were to be somehow in a life or death situation he literally could not see a way out of, and he was with a civilian who was comforting him in his final moments, he literally would have to die as nightwing and not dick grayson or else risk exposing the rest of his family. even if the civilian swore up and down and made a blood oath to never speak a word of this, dick would be unable to bring himself to allow himself the mercy of dying as dick grayson or hearing the name his parent's gave to him one final time

Wait wait wait. Guys!

If He Xuan and Shi Qingxuan switched fates does that mean He Xuan was supposed to be the Wind Master? Or does fate just refer to ascending but not what god you end up as?

I've read a few role swaps and He Xuan usually ends up being some sort of different god, which was a bit different from how I understood the whole fate switching thing.

I may be reading a little too far into this topic but now I'm really curious.

anyway a lot of i write about these two is inspired by me growing up with a single father in the early aughts. yes he never had any idea what he was reading because id make him turn the page before he was finished reading it aloud. yes id give him notes on his performance. for revenge he'd read the last page of a book we'd just started and then act shocked and refuse to tell me what happened. #singlefatherthings

thinking about the motif of debt/repayment in scums villain e.g:

"It was merely a wave of a hand to you both, but to me, it is a debt I'd pursue through ten thousand deaths." -Zhuzhi Lang

"A drop of kindness should be repaid by a torrent." -Zhuzhi Lang

"Qi-ge will remember this loyalty; in the future he'll definitely repay you." -Yue Qingyuan

"To think that a lifetime's moment of loyalty actually had to be repaid with so much" -Shen Qingqiu, on how Original Yue Qingyuan got pierced by 10 thousand arrows to save Shen Jiu

And probably most famously, "Everything that's happened in the past, I'll repay it all to you today." -Shen Qingqiu

the crux of Proud Immortal Demon Way is, after all, revenge. tianlang jun taking revenge on the cultivation world, luo binghe taking revenge on his scum teacher, qiu haitang taking revenge on shen jiu -- so it makes sense that the same ardour would be given to repaying good things as it was to repaying bad.

and. if you think about it. every character either successfully repays their debts OR has their original motive resolved eg: zhuzhi lang dies protecting tianlang jun, shen qingqiu "dies" absorbing binghe's demonic energy OR luo binghe's teacher no longer being scum, su xiyan never actually betraying tianlang jun

except one character.

yue qingyuan failed to come back like he promised. he failed to prevent qiu jianluo's abuse. he failed to save shen jiu from burning to death. when he found out shen jiu didnt die, he failed to resolve the original motive by telling him "i actually did come back for you." when he tried, it was too late and shen jiu had died and he failed to realize he was talking to a different person.

in a world defined by reimbursement, qi-ge failed to ever reimburse shen jiu.

I cast: curse of the eldest (can’t ask for help)

One of the things that tickles me about SJ and SY fics is that well, sometimes they're brothers, sometimes they're parent and kid, etc, but the overall vibe is usually consistent like:

Older Bro Shen Jiu: this is my idiot didi, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Younger Bro Shen Jiu: this my idiot gege, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Father Shen Jiu: this is my idiot son, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Son Shen Jiu: this is my idiot father, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Shizun Shen Jiu: this is my idiot head disciple, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Boyfriend Shen Jiu: this is some idiot I've never met before in my life, if any of you fuckers corrupt him I will bite out your throats.

Every Shen Yuan Regardless: please stop threatening to bite out peoples throats, oh my god this is the shit that will get you killed, DO NOT KICK THAT CHILD WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU I am trying to save your life here! (」°ロ°)」

I do love the idea of Shen Jiu being the more stylistically feminine Shen Bro with the more agressive personality while Shen Yuan is stylistically more masc while having that little coquettish personality of his.

Like yeah, Shen Jiu WOULD pop off all ten of his press on nails before immediately knocking your teeth out. (He would get acrylics but then he couldn't pop them off to fight people :/ ) Shen Jiu having bar fights in a mini skirt. He takes his earrings out and hands them to YQY.

Shen Yuan blushing and hiding his face like a delicate maiden while dressed like Adam Sandler.