Link and credits to the original op: Prompt by @hello-eden
Now onwards! :D Hope you will enjoy....
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Damian stared. There before him was no longer his Grandfather but a boy some years younger than him. He glanced over at his elder brothers. Richard was already on the coms reporting back. Drake was on his wrist computer typing away about something while muttering. He glanced back at the boy, suddenly realising that what he thought was his resemblance to his father could also be resemblance to his grandfather.
The boy before him, probably around the age six, had dark black hair with a white prominent sideburns, similar but far more prominent then Todds white forehead streak. The boy's eyes were not just the simple green Damian had been familiar with but one of the boy's eyes was red, heterochromia. Something Damian hadn't been aware his grandfather apparently had. All his life he had never seen his grandfather like this. The youngest that man had ever appeared had been 60, though Damian was acutely aware that his grandfather was far older than that.
But right now, there sat a six years old boy, his grandfathers ropes, oversized and barely hanging to the boy's shoulders, in the middle of the aftermath of one of his grandfathers plans backfiring. The boy glared at them eyes narrowed as he clutched the robes around himself, Damian noticed the shift in the boy's eyes, red and green wandering around but keeping them in his field of view. He noted how his shoulders tensed before they turned back onto them. It was clear his grandfather did not retain his memories.
"Hey there buddy." Richard, the one who probably had the best handle on small children among them stepped forward and Damian watched how his de-aged grandfather took a step back growling. Damian blinked, that was not what he had expected from his usually dignified grandfather, but then again, he was de-aged and a child.
"Where is mom?"
There was a pause among everyone and they could practically feel the drop in the air of reality hitting hard. With how old his grandfather truly was, there was no way his great-grandmother was still alive. Damian's head turned to look at his eldest brother, his eyebrow arched his masks on his face moving according to that. The silent question of 'now what?' Passed on towards Richard before he turned back.
"Some things happened, and we are here to help. You don't need to be scared of of, in fact it would be create if you could help us better understand-" He watched how his brother tried to gently explain the situation to his grandfather, a sense of strangeness filled Damian watching that seen but he snapped out of it as the boy cut Richard off with a small growl.
"Mom would never leave me. The only reason he would is if something happened to Ellie!" They stared and the conviction the boy spoke these words with, yet they all caught it the brave front the boy was putting on. The slight barely audible stutter, the wet sheen to his eyes as he stared back at them. It tucked at all their hearts. And Damian could accept it right now, this wasn't his grandfather Ra's Al Ghul, but a small boy lost and confused.
While Damian came to terms with the situation Tim caught on to something else. The boy before them asked about his mother, but then used the pronounce 'he', while Tim hadn't expected it that clearly indicated that Ras mother wasn't a simple female that might have died long ago. He had noted the use of a different pronounce that 'regularly' associated with the term mother.
Despite the show of hostility Tim crouched onto eye level of the boy. "Could you tell us your name, and age?" He tried to ask gently, the way he had seen Dick interact with children before. "We could help you find your mom then or maybe Ellie, if you tell us who they are?"
Tim ignored the looks his siblings were sending him and burning into the back of his head. It didn't matter if that was a small lie, they needed to calm the boy down and confirm information. While there likely was no doubt that this was Ra's, they still needed to confirm it, the de-aging happened to quickly before their eyes there was no guarantee that they really could completely trust what they saw.
Though judging by the glare the boy was now giving him, that had a lot of similarities of how Damian tented to glare at them at times. Tim could say there was no changes that, that wasn't Ra's. Still they had to proceed logically just to be on the safer side, in case this wasn't just a villain plan backfiring but a part of a bigger absurd plan, to appeal to their consciousness with the use of a innocent looking child.
The boy on the other and stiffened more, eyes darting towards each of them, then around the area before coming back to stay on Tim. In a way the teen hoped to see some sort of recognition. But instead he saw contemplation, the gears turning in the small boy's head as red and green eyes wandered over them once more.
"Dan."
Was the court answer they got after several minutes. Dick blinked under his mask glancing back at his siblings before at the child again. "What was that Buddy?" He kept his tone friendly and calm, anything to make the child feel safe at the moment, even if that child was Ra's Al Ghul.
"Dan, that's my name." The child version of Ra's, Dan spoke again eyes on them as the boy clutched the oversized robes around him tighter. Not speaking up more.
"Dan?" Dick heard Damian murmur, it was the least to say it confused them all but then again, Ra's was very old originally, he might have changed his names a couple of times during his life time so far. It wasn't like they could track down anyone anyway or keep to what Tim had told the boy, about trying to find likely already dead people for the boy.
"Anything else you want to tell use, Dan?" Dick ask gently in hopes to get anything more out of the boy but, realised a moment later that they hit a wall as the boy's eyes narrowed with dangerous glint. Something he tried not to react on as he had seen that kind of look from Damian before and dear god, this child version of Ra's was making them more and more aware that Damian was related to that man after all.
"That's all I am going to say." The boy growled a little, though Dick could still see the hints that all of that was just a brave facade to not appear weak before them. A mannerisms he remembered all to well Damian had for a long time when he first came to Gotham. A mentality of 'don't show weakness'. Dick sighed, this was going to be difficult to handle wasn't it?
Dan stared at the place these strangely dressed people had brought him too, by now he was wearing more fitting clothes instead of that oversized robe. Though the shirt and shorts where still to big for his current frame. For a moment he cursed his small build as he quietly walked about this 'safe house'. While Dan was no stranger to strangely clothed people or entities, he was wondering what he had gotten himself into as he watched them from the corner of his eyes. The last thing he remembered was being with his Mom and Ellie, they had just gotten back from a checkup with Frostbite and his mom had promised him that he was allowed a spar with Frightnight.
And then...
Suddenly he was before these people strangely dressed people in the mittel of what looked like a destroyed altar, robes that were way to big barely fitting him. While Dan acted bravely he couldn't help the childlike fear at the sudden change of situation. Frostbite had explained it to him and Elly, that because of now properly growing up their mentality would reflect on their actual ages now. It was annoying and by all means Dan didn't want to appear weak in front of potential danger, but his eyes still watered at the thought of his mom suddenly leaving him.
Sometimes he hated how attached he had gotten to Danny after all these years.
He glanced back at these 'heroes', his ears twitched as he tried to catch what the conversation the oldest of them was having on what appeared to be a earpiece communicator. Dan had noted that everything seemed, a lot more modern that what he was used to. It made him wonder if maybe something happened to the timelines again and he got flung into a different time. If that was the case he knew he could relax and just wait for his mom to pick him up, but at the same time Dan had a feeling that wasn't the case. There was no green post-it note from old Clockwork.
Keeping these people in his peripheral vision he angled his body away. One hand out to the side and definitely kept out of their side he tried to see if he could still access his ghost powers, he knew Frostbite had told them not to do that while they were still in a delicate state of re-aging but he needed to know, in case he needed to defend himself. It didn't have any Fenton weaponry on him either.
Dan hissed as a pain shot up his arm and he dropped trying to summon his powers, with a slight bout of annoyance. Okay Frostbites warning was valid, noted. Thought the next moment the kid dressed like a streetlight, Robin if he remembered right, snatched his arm up, inspecting his hand and Dan blinked for a stunned moment before growling. He didn't liked getting touched. He was just about to voice that when he froze.
Recognising something he hadn't before. "You...." He mumbled stunned. That kid had a ecto signature, it was weak, washed out and not really strong, but Dan recognised it and swallowed hard, it was similar to his moms and his own and Ellie's. Before he could comment on it more a gleam got his attention and suddenly Dan saw something else peaking out of the collar from the colourful dressed boy.
Without thinking Dan snatched it and stumbled back from the boy, inspecting the green, emerald like stone. The gold chain around it broke as he had ripped it of the others neck as he looked at it carefully, his thumb going over the smooth surface. While Dan did that he did not notice how Robin got held back by the teen from lashing out. He didn't noticed how the three 'heroes' seemed to hurriedly hiss and discuss something among themselves as Dan inspected the calling stone.
He would be a fool to not recognise this. It was a stone made from concentrated ectoplasm, it appeared like an emerald to mortals but in truth was made from his mothers ectoplasm. A calling stone, to call him when ever they were in trouble and his mom wasn't with them already. Dan clutched the stone, it looked different from the one he remembered his mother giving him. His head snapped up as he stared hard with narrowed eyes at the other boy only a couple years older. Noting some resemblances to Danny.
Suddenly he had the thought that maybe, just maybe Clockwork had sent him here on purpose. Because maybe these people had done something to his mother, to Danny, and maybe even Ellie too. Because why else would they have one of these calling stones.
I was wondering what your thoughts were about Armand being in the meeting at the end. Do you think he genuinely has an addiction if so what do you think it could be my thoughts were maybe an addiction to stalking Daniel or something to do with Daniel's blood. Or do you think he is there to get closer to Alex - I say this bc it's highly suspect that he would end up in the exact same meeting as Alex unintentionally.
The episode was so good and I felt like there was so much to take in in a good way (but also a bad way in the sense that the abuse was deeply upsetting)
Hello! 👋🏾
Okay, so Armand at AA. Here's the thing... and I want to say right up front that my thoughts about it are probably a long shot, and really wrong, but... I think Armand is addicted to... being with people or within groups who he thinks/feels can define him.
Okay, let me explain. And the best way to start doing that is using this quote from The Vampire Lestat book, which Lestat says to Armand about what he sees when it comes to Armand:
Armand, from the moment Marius took him out of the brothel where he'd been kept as a sex slave, has suffered more and more from a lack of forming his own identity.
When Marius rescued him, Armand fell under the spell of Marius. Which, you know, he was around 15, had been a sex slave for years before that, which stripped him of any identity he had before that. And then, once he was with Marius, he was explicitly now being groomed to one day be a vampire and Marius' vampire companion specifically.
And, as I said in a recent post, in the show, that grooming didn't last 3 years, like it did in the books, but 12 years.
💬 0 🔁 13 ❤️ 70 · The book series has never been comfortable. There's nothing comfortable about it. I mean, everybody wants to see The Vamp
So Armand was basically molded to be what Marius wished, and Armand, of course, wished to please him and be that.
But then, not too soon after Armand was finally turned into a vampire, he was kidnapped, taken, and brainwashed by The Children of Darkness to be a cult leader. And that brainwashing worked, and so once again, Armand was molded to be something not of his own desire or choice, or even had a chance to figure that out. And so this role lasted 300 years.
Then Lestat broke the coven up, and Armand lost another "spell" that defined him.
So, not wanting to be the next in a long line of Armand doing such things is one of the (multiple) reasons Lestat rejected being with Armand.
In the show, at least what we've seen from Season 1 and 2, Armand seemed to let the theater coven define him for years until he started to get tired of it -- which Claudia called Armand out about as the reason why Armand began to run to Louis instead.
And then, everything happens, and afterward, Louis just became the latest in a long line of people or covens that Armand defined his life and sense of self. Each time wearing a mask, to be the appropriate person he felt he needed to be to fit with those people or within those groups.
So I think... that is why Armand is at the AA meeting. Because with it, he has basically found another group to be a part of to try to define himself with.
Think about it -- what does the summary for EP4 say? Well, it says this:
Armand is going on an apology tour. And what is one of the things a person learns being a member of AA?
The 12 Step Program.
And, from the official AA website, what is Step 8 of the 12 Steps? It's this:
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
So see, that's the thing -- I don't think Armand is actually at AA for the addiction he actually has. I think Armand may think he's there for a simpler reason, and I honestly have no idea what it could be.
But I do very much think Armand got the idea to go to AA in the first place from observing Daniel. Particularly during the time period, sometime after he and Daniel were separated and Daniel kicked his drug habit.
So yeah, I don't think Armand went to the AA meeting to primarily get closer to Alex, or Armand wouldn't bother going on any type of Step 8 apology tour IMO.
That said, however, I do think Armand does have his eye on Alex. Because with Armand's Mind Gift abilities, there is no way he didn't clock that Alex not only knows about vampires, but that Alex likely clocked that he, Arun, is a vampire as well.
BTW, I think it's so fitting that Armand used his human name at the AA meeting. Basically stripping himself all the way back to his childhood name and identity, the last time he probably had any sense of who his own self was outside of things, people, and the horrific situations he went through.
So yeah, I don't know if Armand thinks he's addicted to something simple or if he actually is aware of what his real addiction is and is there for that.
However, overall, I think this is Armand, once again, trying to find either a place or a person that can help mold him and give him some sense of self. When Louis kicked him out, he, once again, suffered from the absence of a "spell" as Lestat in the book called it. And I think his going to AA is now his latest attempt at finding another one that he can fall under, put an appropriate mask on, and fit into with.
Oh, and yes, EP3 was really good. I'm still thinking about so much of it, and have already done two rewatches, catching more every time. 💕
Now I keep imagining Benedict drinking the special tea after they’re married and he’s so out of it he doesn’t really recognise Sophie for a bit but he keeps complimenting her and looking awed and he asks if she’s married she smiles and says yes and he’s devastated until she tells him she married him 💜
Sophie found her husband by the edge of the lake, sitting under an oak tree as he gazed in rapture at a verdant leaf. He held it delicately with the tips of his fingers and turned it this way, then that, as if it somehow held the secrets of the universe that only his contemplation could unlock.
She had known to look for him the moment Mrs. Crabtree said there had been a parcel delivered from Mr. Bridgerton’s brother in London. The box had contained an assortment of paint tubes and a jar of linseed oil that could only be purchased in town, along with a plain leather pouch marked by an unpleasant, but familiar, aroma. The pouch, now sitting on her husband’s desk in the study, was open, a shallow indentation the shape of two fingertips pressed into the dark powder.
As she came closer, her husband remained transfixed by the oak leaf, only glancing up once she was nearly by his side. His arms dropped, the leaf forgotten, as his eyes—the pupils full and dark—widened even further to take her in.
“You, madam, are a vision, simply the most beautiful—”
“Benedict—”
“You know me? No, ‘tis not possible. For I would have remembered meeting a being as ethereal as you. Tell me, what is your name? Flora? Helen? Aphrodite?”
“Benedict!”
A touch unsteadily, he rose to his feet, then reverently grasped her hands in his. His expression was euphoric, his gaze determined.
“I presume, but please tell me if my hopes are not in vain. Fair goddess, tell me: are you married?”
Under other circumstances, Sophie might have been put out by the idea of her husband declaring his love for another woman—but when the woman in question was herself, it was impossible not to be a touch amused. He had in all other regards shown himself to be a devoted and loving husband, but still, perhaps she might make him suffer a little in recompense, if not for failing to recognize his own wife then for his liberal sampling of the exotic tea that had robbed him of his faculties.
“I am married, sir, happily. To a man who has brought me every joy and comfort, someone I cannot imagine living without.”
His face fell, his features suddenly stricken with the deepest disappointment. Despite the game she was playing, it hurt her heart to see him so, reminding her of the pain she had once seen in his eyes during those dark days before their engagement, when she had told him of her plans to depart.
“I cannot bear it,” he said, his voice haunted, “to see you and know you could never be mine. Whoever this man is, he cannot possibly be deserving of you.”
“Oh, but he is.” Sophie pulled her hands free and wrapped them around his waist. She tilted her head up to meet his now thoroughly confused gaze. “Because he is you.”
“Truly?” he asked in wild-eyed wonder. “You are my wife?”
“So said the vicar, on our wedding day.”
“I shall thank God for my good fortune,” he said, “and as it is not a scandal for a husband to kiss his own wife, I shall do that too. For you are too radiant to go unkissed.”
He leaned down, his lips soft and urgent against hers, and despite knowing that the intoxicants of the tea were still in effect, Sophie let his attentions continue for far longer than was perhaps proper.
“Come, sir,” she said, as she stepped beside him and threaded her arm through his for support. “Let us get you to your bed. I will write a strongly-worded letter to your brother about the contents of his parcels and when you wake, I’ll be pleased to remind you of every detail of this folly.”
#the amazing digital circus
#photography
#coquette
#love and deepspace
#bloodymary
