unwoven

fate unspooled our genes and put the magic inside shameless riff on dcuo with a horde of ocs

[gingerly-writing]

Prompt #3117

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Leaning into the fact that I’m an idiot!”

[gingerly-writing]

Prompt #3068

“But they beat me! I don’t care if you still managed to rescue the situation, my nemesis kicked my ass!”

“Everyone’s first time sucks ass. You know what you need? Ice cream. Everyone gets pity ice cream the first time they lose a big fight. C’mon, I’ll get the rest of the team and you can pick the flavour.”

[weavermatrix]

“I hate him!” Xirau crossed their arms, crouched against the AC unit and hunching their shoulders up as Starstorm kicked some rubble into a semi-neat pile. “Why is he doing this!”

“Zi, calm down. Shroud’s a bitch. He’s a stinky, evil, rude little bitch and you’ll get him next time.” Starstorm pulled his phone out and tapped out some things into the messenger. “I thought you mentals had a hivemind or some shit that stopped this, though?”

“No,” Xirau corrected. Always worked. Whenever Starstorm needed to get them out of their own head (ha) being wrong about something simple always worked. “Telepathy is not a hive mind. And you can only read it if they’re not good at controlling it.”

“Chocolate?”

“Sure.” Xirau rubbed their head. It would fade over time, but the memory stung. And would sting. For a long time. “What’s his problem?”

“Dunno. Maybe kicking the shit out of a sixteen-year-old makes him feel badass. Oh, look at me, I graduated high school so now I’m gonna act like a dipshit about it.”

Xirau groaned. They floated off the ground and gripped their cape from the back, shaking it out, and drifted over to Starstorm. “Did I do something to him?”

“You existed. Gold’s on his way and we’re gonna go to Courtney’s by the park. Hey, on the way, I’ll tell you about the time I got my fire so hot Knightmare couldn’t make any ice.”

“I wish my nemesis was cool,” Xirau groaned. “Aura and Lazarus have their thing, you and Knightmare have yours, I don’t even know what Shroud’s deal is.”

“Aura and Flames are nemeses. Lazarus doesn’t have a nemesis.”

“But I thought Aura and Lazarus were nemeses.”

“Oof.” Starstorm lifted from the building as well, floating off towards the park. “I’ll tell you about that when you’re older.”

“That’s fucking gross!” Xirau sped past him and made a show of covering their ears. Starstorm laughed and caught up with ease, little spirals of fire peeling from the outside of his armor.

“I’ll think it! Try and get away from my thoughts! You’re gonna know aaaaall about those two!”

“Oh my god, I hate you!” They bumped into Starstorm, sending him spinning, and the other hero recovered just in time to bodyslam Xirau halfway across the city block. For the moment, Xirau’s nemesis was forgotten.

[weavermatrix]

mid design skills aside armor/uniform/costume choice says a lot about how someone approaches how things work. is it a game? dead serious? are you tough enough without armor and can make do with a reinforced bodysuit or do you need extra padding? and of course, aura’s gliders, since he’s the only one without flight or superspeed.

[weavermatrix]

extremely funny relationship charts

[weavermatrix]

some of my favorite things on here:

Aura and Flames VS Aura and Lazarus: okay. flames and aura are nemeses, kind of, in that everyone just accepts that they are and treats it like that when in reality both of them are usually just kind of involved in their own stuff, and it’s too much of a hassle to correct people and say “no, we’re fighting because we’re on opposite sides and it’s the only time he can relax”. aura and flames haven’t fucked, and everybody knows this, because if they had flames would never shut up about sleeping with him. aura and LAZARUS? they’ve fucked. they’ve DEFINITELY fucked, but both of them are so quiet about their private business that nobody can prove shit. they’ve fucked and anyone with eyes can see but there is absolutely no proof. the sexual tension when they spar is absolutely inhumane.

starstorm and lazarus: starstorm has never had a non-antagonistic relationship with an older man in his life and usually it’s because he was a problem kid, he’s rude, he has attitude problems, and he’s constantly picking fights. lazarus doesn’t get on him for any of it because it isn’t his business and he doesn’t care, but he DOES enforce the rules he’s put down in the neutral zone. he respects lazarus for treating him like an adult, not a dumb kid. and he fucking HATES it.

golden lightning and riptide: golden lightning gets intensely traumatized and can’t offensively use his exobytes. riptide helps him learn how to heal and uses him as a test subject (humanely). golden lightning reluctantly begins to respect and look up to him for being tough as hell and smart as hell even though he’s a villain. riptide calls him goldilocks :) and even though gold isn’t anywhere near good enough to get all nemesis-y with him, he’ll try, but it’s mainly just to spend some time with his crossfaction mentor once he can fight again.

the whole neutral zone gang (aura, gold, starstorm, xirau | lazarus, flames, knightmare, diamond dust): because it’s held on lazarus’ SL’s territory one would expect it to be horrible violent. and it is! but it is also surprisingly chill. aura was one of the first people to semi-regularly show up, at first just to chat with lazarus about official business, and then to get harassed by his nemesis... who’s one of the only people to treat him like a person instead of a sl lieutenant.  diamond dust and lazarus are “work friends” in SL leadership, knightmare and diamond dust are ice friends, flames is there to have a good time.

[weavermatrix]

extremely funny relationship charts

[gingerly-writing]

Prompt #3039

“Are you here to drown your sorrows?”

“No, just marinate them a little.”

[weavermatrix]

“He feels bad about it, you know.” Flames pulled the chair out and sat next to the healer. It would be rude to reach for his drink; Flames wasn’t exactly innocent, either. Aura would be quick to point that out; he didn’t like hypocrisy. Didn’t like holier-than-thou. The only thing he tolerated was being underestimated.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t like him,” Flames explained bluntly. “And I think it’s funny that the thing to knock some sense into him was throwing you under the bus.”

Aura tapped his empty glass on the table, side-to-side, fingers rolling index to pinkie down the side of it. “We’re not on the same side. You’re on the same side. I’m a hero.” 

Flames looked away, mostly out of respect; he was able to heal himself pretty effectively, but it couldn’t heal exhaustion. Aura was exhausted. Even the glow of his eyes behind the half-domino was fainter and duller. When Flames came to the bar, he hadn’t been expecting to see Aura in the first place. He certainly hadn’t planned to come over and talk to him; only the thought of spilling some dirt on Erebus made it worth it. “You know, I almost didn’t recognize you out of uniform.”

“I am in uniform,” Aura said evenly. He wasn’t entirely wrong. He was, essentially, still wearing his body armor.

“The wings,” Flames continued. “They make you seem a lot bigger than you are.” A shield, a bludgeon, a flaring show of threat and warning, gliders— Aura’s wings, interlocking metal blades on a chest harness, made his look. Aura glanced at him, sidelong and suspicious.

“Really.”

And, fine. Maybe he’d come over because one of his favorite passtimes was messing with straight-laced heroes. “It’s a good look. If I was barely pushing five foot, I’d get a pair too.”

That finally won a smile. Aura stared down into his empty glass, trying not to let it become more than that. “I’m taller than that and you know it.”

Flames didn’t bother hiding how smug his small victory made him. Neutral bar or no, Aura was known for unshakeable calm and focus. How much had he been drinking, anyway? None of Flames’ business, that was for sure. “While you’re cooped up in here, I’m gonna go back downtown and tip over a few more trucks.”

He stood, pushing his chair in and sauntering towards the door.

“I’m not the only hero in this city,” Aura called after him, and then, after a moment, louder— “and I have a phone!”

[weavermatrix]

[shitpeoplesayindcuo]

[gingerly-writing]

Prompt #3036

“This is my high ground, bitch.”

[weavermatrix]

“I see that.” Lazarus didn’t bother uncrossing his arms. Starstorm scowled. At least with  the other villains at the neutral zone, it was easy to get a reaction. It was, for him, very easy to get a fight whenever he wanted one— by force if necessary. Lazarus rarely rose to the occasion. Like Aura, he was content to hang back on his side of the roof and watch the scraps and duels that happened in the middle.

He just had something about him that could make anybody feel small. Starstorm wasn’t a small man. He was five eleven. He did MMA. He did boxing. Lazarus, though— he had presence. Like he was tired of Starstorm’s shit before he’d even gotten on it, and tough enough to put him down if he wanted a fight. Lazarus should have been the amalgamation of every shit boss, killjoy teacher, and nasty coach he’d ever had, and Starstorm should hate him for it.

The issue was that he wasn’t, and that he didn’t. Those people thought they were all in the right, and were assholes because they thought they were better than him. Lazarus just thought that Starstorm was beneath him and not even worth the effort of a fight, and he wasn’t trying to look out for him or help him or “make him better”. 

“Get down from there before a plane hits you.”

“How about you come up here and we can both get hit by a plane?”

Lazarus unfolded his arms. Starstorm kindled a cocoon of flame around himself, spinning slowly to form a searing barrier, and grinned.

“Get down,” Lazarus repeated, one more time.

“Suck my dick!”

He hadn’t noticed the intimidating boulder half his size coming up behind, then above, him.

He did notice when it dropped on top of him, breaking the fire barrier and crushing him into the rooftop, and into blackout stasis.

Bitch.