When reading Omegaverse stories, I always get so frustrated by the "Prime Alpha/Omega" trope. Where not only are the tropes of the genre are turned up to 11, but with the trope of the 'fated mate', or soulmate.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if Primes weren't 'the better, more special versions of Alpha/Omegas', but instead a liability? What if being a Prime is closer to a genetic disorder/disability? A mutation of the Alpha and/or Omega gene that causes overactive presentation.
Primes that have hypersensitive noses and ears that make the majority of scents and sounds unbearable. "true/fated mates" are just their noses finding very few scents palatable.
Primes glands also overproduce scent, meaning they usually aren't compatible with each other.
Because the Prime mutation causes presentation hyperactivity, it also re-wires their brain to emphasize Pack Hierarchy, making social interactions even within their designations awkward. This also increases the risks of "feral" heats/ruts where the affected person loses memories and resorts to basic instincts/urges for the entire duration of the cycle. They are also more prone to pack cycle disorders, which can increase the likelihood of "feral" heats/ruts, etc...
The Prime mutation is a recessive gene, which means that it takes two of the same type of mutations to cause a person to be a Prime. This means that same designation pairings carry an increased risk of the pups being born Primes.
so. i was not happy with the 3D models of horses on offer in the CSP store or literally anywhere else i could find them, i needed one to use for my work, and i went ahead and made my own that is now available for the low low price of FREE in the CSP assets store.
textures included are greyscale basic shapes, multicolor basic shapes, and white with no shapes (but eyes, mouth, nostrils, and hooves emphasized for ease).
shape is ROUGHLY based off the silhouette of an Andalusian. size-wise, it by default stands at around 16 hands, but of course it can be resized to suit your needs. for that, I recommend sizing a human pose doll to the correct height (in centimeters), lining them up on the same plane, and resizing the horse to match the human doll's height. remember that a horse's height is measured at the shoulders!
it also comes with the following preset poses:
if you use CSP and wanna snag it, type 2204263 into the search bar in the CSP assets store. happy horsing!
I’ve seen people comment that Pomni’s torture scenario was kind of weak compared to the others, and that it could be because she hasn’t been in the circus as long, thus Caine can’t personalize her punishment as well.
And even if he’s technically using their traumas to hurt them, I don’t think that was his main intention. I think he was “replying” to their criticisms.
Pomni: We think your ideas suck!
Including Gummigoo, Pomni?
Zooble: Pathetic! You’re like a child! What kind of all-powerful being has such fragile ego?
How can someone, whose body perfectly encapsulates their mind and is fully customizable, not feel satisfied yet? How many options do you need? How vain can you be, Zooble?
First of all, I know that Zooble most likely suffers from dysphoria, and Caine focusing the torture scenario on that was a massive dick move on his part, especially when Zooble had shared their insecurities about their body in a previous episode.
However, in that same episode, Caine shared with Zooble his own insecurities.
Caine: Making adventures is my art! It’s all I exist to do! All I am… good at. (…) … w-what you’re saying could imply that I’m bad at the only thing I’m good at, and that…
I’m just saying that he probably took Zooble’s criticism as a low blow of its own and he made it personal.
Ragatha: You never let us feel like we’re at home.
Which home? Yours, Ragatha?
Gangle: You discourage us from thinking outside the box and doing things our way!
my thoughts about Caine's model lacking many essential facial features (as if he was never intended to show any emotions) and yet him being literally the most expressive character in the circus despite everything.
me being low-key obsessed with the implications episode 7 left us with. Players questioning everything they've been told and Caine being in the center of it all.
Just to be clear, I do believe Caine is written as a sentient AI who is just struggling to understand humanity and everything that comes with it. And I think these thoughts about him faking his emotions are inherently wrong within a story. He's oblivious and desperate but not malicious. But couple it with the fact that he's been lying about many other things (so far I'm inclined to think it was for players' sake in his own eyes) and that humans have been suffering for a while dealing with a literal god that doesn't understand them... Well, I have a feeling that they will doubt his motives and literally everything they know, rightfully so.
The amount of attention this little comic received is a bit terrifying and overwhelming and seeing all the different interesting interpretations people come up with I just wanted to explain mine own a little better <3
I want them all to be healed and happy, little guy absolutely included, but man the situation is rough, and the odds are against us
(Also please ignore typos, I'm hyperaware of them and even messed up writing my on name, i was really, really tired :') )
1: The circus members are brain scans, this folder might be the abstracted members. CA_NeuralScans (Obsolete)
2: 'Abel' did exist, and the circles at the beginning of the episode were most likely Caine killing 'Abel'.
3: The circus was created on October 30th, 1996. Kinger's password is Queenie, and this confirms again that Kinger was his username.
4: Ragatha entered the circus on October 15th 2008, Scratch entered the same day but in 1999, and Caine in 1996. Interestingly enough, he is written in LISP, which has links to AutoCAD the modeling software.
5: Not much to actually say here, Caine's internals are protected by both him and bubble.
6: Assuming the GreenGrounds is the circus, Kinger was likely trying to inject the torment program (what the circus members are being tortured with??) with a daemon (automated process) in order to stop it.
Note a censored name [G_AN_]. My guess is on Grant lmao
Since these pictures are covered by Caine and Bubble, I'll write what they probably say.
"This IS a wacky word, but WRONG word!" "System selecting SAFEST option for reliability, cancel automatic selection? [Y/N]"
"Yes"
"Which backup do you want?"
"C"
"NONE Selected"
"Interpreted as: DELETE"
"Confirm deletion of current unstable program (or AI)?"
"No"
"Negative response! inverting to (?) per (?) protocols!"
"DELETE THIS MOTHER*****R, HAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaaaaaa"
"No"
"Errored: Proceeding with ORIGINAL decision"
"Actually you're CONFUSED let me HELP, should this program EXIST [Y/N]"
"Yes"
"Override instruction error falling back to default metric"
(Kinger tries to yet again load a backup and stun Caine here)
"Are you really going to delete Caine? [Y/N]"
"YES" (This is where he accidentally hit delete)
A Quiet Night AU- A DC/ A Quiet Place fusion thought Long Post
Sooooo I was watching A Quiet Place (which I love deeply, it was such a DIFFERENT handle on horror movies, watching that in a theater was a RIDE) and I am neck deep in DC and had t h o u g h t s. Please keep in mind that I have only fandom knowledge of DC and am playing with the death angels (name of the Quiet Place creatures) make up for this au:
To Start:
AU is an AOB verse, cause I wanted to play with what a situation like this would do to instincts and packs and I need everyone to do the thing we do with comics where we apply “Comic Book Logic” to why these death angels succeed in invading the Earth. Why the metas and supers didn’t get them out, because this verse would be taking place AFTER the world has been invaded, and the creatures have wiped out QUITE a large chunk of Earth’s population.
Read the VERY LONG ramble about this verse under the cut.
We have Alphas Jay and Cass, Omegas Tim and Dick, Damian is unpresented but approaching the time he would present properly, and he’s an Alpha-to-be. Alfred, Steph and Duke are Betas.
The Death Angels: For those not in the know, they are large, kind of spider-like in movements, VERY fast, and fully armored. The armor stands up to bullets and knives, and explosions can toss them but don’t seem to do damage. They’re entirely blind, have claws and a mouth full of sharp teeth and their hearing is VERY sharp. Their head opens to expose soft insides that work like a super-ear, tracking sound, and that’s really the only vulnerable spot, and they can’t swim. That’s all canon to their verse. I’m playing with them a little, so that the planet they come from is laced so deeply with kryptonite they’ve adapted to sort of work on supers, as in they can’t use their powers on them. I’m upping that armor to be stronger than standard canon, as we do have metas running around and I want them to really only be vulnerable while hunting and exposing the ear to hunt.
It means to kill them, you have to get close enough to be heard, to be HUNTED. You have to be clever. Usually with some kind of blade, as most other things (especially guns) are too loud, and even if it works it brings the hundreds of death angels in the area, every single one that heard it, your way and then your fucked. On top of all of that- if they close the plates of armor that shield their ‘ear’ bullets don’t penetrate it, and blades skitter off. You have to get to that soft unshielded ear to take them out. The hearing was picked up real quick by the Bats and they tried to use that.
On technicality, very high pitched feedback sounds can fuck with their hearing, and cause them pain, usually making he plates that cover the ear kind of…lock up? And then they stagger around, can’t track people or what’s around them, and the ‘ear’ stays exposed cause the plates of armor are locked in an open position, even if they’re jerking around like animatronics move trying to make the sound make sense and stop hurting.
I’m messing with that cause I want to make this more difficult lol. If you manage to mess with the main method of hearing, the death angels are evolved to slam the armor plating that covers their ‘ear’ closed, block out the sound, and shift to a low clicking-purr sound that vibrates their body and acts as a makeshift sonar type ability over the kind of echolocation they’d been using, reading the vibrations of it through their legs and basically triangulating prey and obstacles around them and it makes them more dangerous because it’s a response to being hurt and they do NOT appreciate it.
In canon rain/waterfalls can hide you, if you keep the sound level under the sound of the water. I’m going to keep that, saying the rain hitting the ground hard enough can sort of hide people from that sonar too, if you move carefully. Caves are also a good place to hide- provided the death angels don't get inside. Which means the Bat-Cave is a kind of ‘safe’ space, far enough underground they can speak softly, and the equipment inside is safe to run, so long as they are careful with the clock-entrance.
I babbled to wintersnight (@iphoenixrising) for a good while about this AU (@north-peach doesn’t like horror, she thinks the protags are all stupid and it drives her nuts so she missed this ramble lol) but Winter followed my logic and encouraged me to actually post this somewhere lol
Leading into the Next Important Thing:
Cities are death traps. All that confined space and the noise of it? The death angels came in like moths to a flame. Large groups of moving people trying to evacuate? Too much noise. Death angels stampede in and hit the group like a pack of wolves cornering prey.
Gotham was one city of many that hit hard and fast. The Bats are good at what they do, but they’re not omniscient no matter what anyone thinks. It was so fast.
This verse would be covering the AFTER of the invasion of the death angels, AFTER they’ve swarmed the world, after so many have died. This verse would be the ‘post-apocalypse’ survival AFTER.
Zeta-tubes are technically usable to get them out, and up to the Watchtower, but the sound of them activating is loud enough to pull the death angels, and the tube gets destroyed in their hunt for the sound. This also works in reverse- if you use them to come back down, the creatures will swarm towards whoever arrived, and the tubes still end up getting destroyed.
Coming back to the AOB concept:
I love how all of what’s happening opens the chance to play with their instincts and protective territorial instincts. The urge to den down in a defensive position. To patrol their chunk of space, keep their pack alive and safe
To fight.
They were all scattered when the invasion happened, so they have to work their way back to the cave by foot, cars are too loud, and their grapleguns make enough sound to also be unusable when firing as well as anchoring down. They can’t open the hidden entrances for vehicles, it’s too loud and opens a way straight in, so they have to find other ways in. If they can get into the manor, the clock would be an option, it opens smooth and quiet, but the trade off is risking any sounds inside the cave traveling up the stairs and getting the location found.
So most of the Bats running around Gotham are going to sneak into the hidden natural entrances into the cave systems and navigate back to the cave. Defenses and redirects are going to be set up to prevent death angels from getting in.
Which leads to my favorite part of this AU:
How this situation combines with AOB instincts in the Bats specifically.
How clever the Bats are.
I want to play with that. Wanna address how smart they are, their instincts going absolutely feral-survival-mode wild in this kind of life-or-death situation, with threats actually actively hunting them, zero chance of reasoning with them.
Wanna address the genetic memory of packs before cities were made being drawn out. Wanna look at how packs actually hunt when those instincts are stirred and it’s life-or-death, how the Bats work together. When an Alpha, Omega or Beta is pushed to the brink, pushed to feral, their pack, their territory all threated, all in actual danger by something that can and will hunt them back. I want to see their senses cranked up and used to track death angels down, hunt and kill them.
How terrifying it probably is to go into rut or heat in this kind of situation. Being hazy and vulnerable, instinct driven, unable to focus well, in a situation like this one. How, once the situation has settled correctly into their psyche and bones, it might change. The mess that is a presentation heat or rut in this kind of hell, because Damian is within the age of when it happens (between 13-16 is average in my head, this AU places Damian at 15 in my head, so he’s due for it). What it does to the pack of the person in heat or rut for them to be so vulnerable while something like this is happening.
The protective pup-instincts triggered by an unpresented Damian. What the urge to shield the pack, keep it alive and safe, and protect pups might look like when combined with the hero-vigilante instincts in them, and finding pups who survived the invasion, but are abandoned or the last of their packs, with no one and nothing left. What the drive to protect and expand their packs, keep them alive and thriving might look like.
The territorial instincts playing out, in a hunted/hunting situation with- as Winter put it- “The backdrop of Gotham and how many traps they'd set since this is their territory and they know every rusty fire escape, crumbling Bailbondsmen, and gargoyle in this entire city.”
She understood where I was going with it lol. I adore how well they’d know Gotham, and exploring how that knowledge would play out in setting up traps and triggerable distractions for the death angels, to help in hunting and killing them. How it’d be fed by those territorial instincts of their city being invaded, their people killed, and their pack in so much danger.
On top of all of that, I also like exploring how the pack leader (Omega Bruce) vs pack alpha (Jason) would react in a situation like this, and the give-and-take of compromise and keeping their pack safe in such a situation.
I imagine, when all this starts happening, the Bats are collectively scattered all over Gotham. When it happens, they try fighting first, but the creatures are fast and deadly. They figure out sound being what they use to track quickly, that they need to be quiet, and they’re trying to save who they can but… in a city, always moving, always going, full of crime and all the screams with only so few Bats and everywhere ELSE having the same issues at the same time?
They get forced to retreat and fallback. None of them are sure where the others are, who’s in active danger, they can’t talk to each other over comms, can’t make any sound too loud.
They just have to be dead quiet and make their way to the cave on foot, make jumps that they know they can land silently on buildings, watch for the death angels when they move, being so so very careful. Unable to check in and see if their packmates are alive or not. Bonds blocked on the job, to not distract their pack, and having to KEEP them that way, while headed for the cave, to not distract each other coming home.
Oracle being in the Clocktower- frantically shutting down the clock so it doesn’t ring over the city and bring the creatures to her, shutting down any alarms or alerts that could be too loud from her equipment. Sending the news all over Gotham any way she can, as silent as she can, on how the creatures work, and how the survivors can use that knowledge to STAY alive.
Being scared as she watches trackers, and prays, terrified any time they’re still too long that they may be hurt or dying. Praying she doesn’t see the trackers start moving a vehicle speeds, cause it means they’re going to get chased down by creatures OR a creature has grabbed them and soon the alerts for vitals will scream at her.
Dick shows up at her tower to get her out with Damian on his heels, so they can get her to the cave, because a city destroyed by invasion is not really wheelchair accessible, much less getting all the way over to the cave silently while trying to get through the rubble.
Now for my favorite boy:
Tim. Tim in this AU has lost his pack bonds while on Brucequest. He hasn’t accepted a place back in the pack, hurt and distrustful of if the others mean it, after having been pushed out of the pack in his eyes, rejected and unwanted.
They’ve been trying to fix that, mending bridges and working hard to prove he not only has a place but is WANTED. Building bridges back out with him. By the time the invasion happens, he’s actually starting to believe them- he’s coming to the manor, interacting, trusting they’ll back him, save him, welcome him. He’s coming around- but he still hasn’t accepted a pack bond yet. Not again.
Didn’t feel quite ready for it, so he doesn’t have a bond with any of the other Bats. He doesn’t know if they’re alive or dead, can’t sense the bond and know for sure, and they can’t check on HIM like that either.
The panic of both sides of that equation is REAL. All of them have seen these creatures hunt and kill and destroy. And they don’t know if-
This event, this potential of loss on both sides is what makes Tim realize he is NOT willing to keep going without that bond in place. That he wants to feel them in his head again. He could have died or lost any of them, and never had the chance to be bonded to them as pack again, and-
He can’t do that again. He wants the bonds nestled in his chest, wound around his ribs and heart, thriving and anchored in his head. I may write the scene I have in my head out for Tim coming back to the cave last and just having a breakdown cause everyone is THERE, they’re alive.
This AU is going to be tagged “Quiet Night AU” on my blog, so keep an eye out for more.
And if you made it this far into this monster post, PLEASE feel free to send asks in about this verse, I wanna think about/talk about it and share. My brain is turning over all kinds of snapshots of moments in this verse, and I’d love to hear what yall wanna see from it, what questions or scenes you have in mind. Just address in the Asks that it’s for the Quiet Night AU.
Edit: I ended up writing the blurble with Tim making it back to the cave found HERE
I want you to know i regularly think about this AU. While I've never seen A Quiet Place, I have THOUGHTS about how the monsters work.
The Aliens have super hearing (obviously), but they Communicate on infra/ultrasonic frequencies. As in, Superman can only hear half of it outside of the range. They also have multiple sound receptors that help them catch and distinguish myriad noises.
The receptors fine tuned for ultrasonic frequencies are inside their faceplate things, as ultrasonic is used for long distance communication (like howling in wolves), so any noise in the ultrasonic frequency will encourage them to open up more in order to properly triangulate the source. Infra sound receptors are on the outside of their faceplates, and hearing them will cause them to instinctively clam up. Infra sound is used for short distance communication, mainly to convey danger.
My thought is that rather than a specific frequency causing them to be paralyzed, instead it's two, discordant frequencies. One ultrasonic, one infrasonic. The contradictory reflexes makes the monsters freeze for a few seconds as their brains sort through the contradictory intestines. Just enough time for a Bat, or a Super to take advantage of.
Desperately hoping Iron Lung gets some Taiwan showings, I've been a markiplier fan for over a decade and I yearn to see him drown in blood on the big screen.
Went in expecting a 5/10 with awkward acting. Got a 7/10 with the best acting I've ever seen from Mark, and a film that oozes every single beautiful, bloody drop of passion from its pores. Truly a work of ART. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is Art nonetheless. I truly hope you get to see this film in theaters.
"I just want to live, is that so wrong? Why doesn't anyone else want that?" as "Why doesn't anyone want me, Simon, to live? Why did they weld me into this death trap with limited oxygen and no food or water, where other people have died before? Why is the commander so reluctant to even lift me out of the ocean?" AND as "Why doesn't anyone want to live? Why did my brothers get mad at me for trying to stop the bomb that would kill us all? Why were they fine being part of a death cult? Why did they view death as its own divinity? Why are even the stars dying?"
I am relentlessly fascinated by the Speaker's "do you believe in god?" speech. These are some vague thoughts I have thus far.
Firstly, I think it's important to clarify I believe there are multiple entities involved; two fish things (which are almost certainly the corrupted and morphed forms of the researchers from the SM-8, like how Simon was becoming corrupted and changed at the end, which is supported by the credits being for "SM-8 Research Lead/The Speaker" and "SM-8 Research Assistant/The Whisper" - they're listed as both), and then the ""god"" or the light or however one wishes to refer to that.
In a way, it reminds me of Azathoth from Lovecraftian lore. Azathoth is a blind idiot god whose dreaming creates reality, and, should it wake, the dream ends and all reality ceases to exist. Everything you are, your memories, your experiences, your whole life, is merely a product of the vivid hallucinations of this eldritch entity.
I think there might be something slightly adjacent happening with the god in Iron Lung; only it's not sleeping, it's seeing.
Key points of dialogue, quoted from the movie:
"It's what caused the Quiet Rapture. Or a fragment of it, at least. It was a light, can you believe that? Shining through the hole like it didn't even matter, like nothing in this universe could ever possibly matter."
"An ignorant god sees a sliver of our universe through a pinhole and thinks it understands all that is and all that will be; and it will. Because a god makes sense of what it sees despite what it should be. The light; it illuminates, and it blinds. It thinks, and therefore we are."
This concept of a hole being mentioned multiple times suggests, to me, that it's important. What is on the other side, I don't know. Is it a tear in the fabric of reality, something interdimensional? The other side of a black hole singularity? I've only got wild guesses to throw at that, and that part doesn't matter so much anyhow.
ETA: Some people have pointed out it's most likely "hull", not hole, in the first instance. That does somewhat undercut the justification of "oh they said it twice, it must mean something important", but I don't think it otherwise negates or changes anything theorywise. If anything, it reinforces the way "nothing matters"; literal matter does not matter, the light can go right through it.
What does matter is that, whatever it is, it gives this so-called god access to see a sliver of our universe. And I feel like what the Speaker is saying, about how "a god makes sense of what it sees, despite what it should be", implies that this entity's thoughts or beliefs, inasmuch as it may have them, dictate the very reality of the universe. Things change to accord to its understanding, even if that wasn't how they were originally or defies the natural order of things.
For example–and this is a stretch, I'm not saying this is my solid theory of what happened, but just theoretically say–if that ignorant god looking through a pinhole doesn't see, doesn't recognise planets and stars, for whatever reason, and thinks it understands "there are no planets or stars here", then there are no planets or stars. Not anymore.
Maybe it sees Simon - "I see you" - and believes he exists, so he exists, even when by all accounts he should have been long dead. Same for the researchers-now-fish-monsters; perhaps having seen the light and it having seen them, it believes them alive, so they are alive, technically, even if its in a monstrous, torturous, corrupted, would-have-been-better-off-if-they-were-dead, can't-take-it-down-here-anymore form. ("Is that how you're alive?" "Yes... no.") (The god, the light, doesn't truly understand what "alive" is. Or "human". It doesn't understand; but it will, because what it understands, is what is, whether it should be or not.)
"It thinks, and therefore we are".
It thinks, and therefore the whole universe accords to its understanding and perspective. The original order of things? Irrelevant. Nothing in this universe could ever possibly matter, not when mere thought reshapes it.
And so a god makes sense of what it sees, despite what it should be.
The part in Iron Lung where Simon says "I didn't tell you my name" and the Speaker responds back "yes you did" is something I didn't catch at first but gives me chills thinking about it now
This is the reveal that the voice talking to him over the speaker does not in fact belong to another scared and lonely survivor at the bottom of the blood ocean (or at least, not anymore) but actually the beast in the depths. The same beast that he spotted in the distance and jokingly introduced himself to earlier in the movie, which has apparently been stalking him the entire time
That line puts this entire portion of the movie in a new perspective. But what I can't figure out is, what was with the questions about Filament Station shortly before it?
When Simon mentions the incident at Filament Station the Speaker becomes very upset and demands to know what happened there. Simon is initially confused about how the Speaker doesn't know about it and he doesn't want to talk about it, but the intense insistence from the Speaker forces him to explain
Before the reveal I thought that it must be because Filament Station held personal importance to the trapped woman Simon was speaking to and this scene was meant to show how long she had been disconnected from the outside world. But now, knowing that he was actually speaking to this cosmic monster...
Why didn't it know this? And why was it so insistent on finding out? Why did it sound angry even?
Why did this eldritch horror at the bottom of a blood ocean care so much about Filament Station?
Santa is on strike due to global warming. All presents this year will be delivered by Sasha the Christmas Tiger. Milk and cookies may not be sufficient.
I can finally share what I spent all summer and most of the fall working on! (Well, excluding the time I spent working on my crochet Magnum Opus which I shall share after Christmas. I still can't believe I've made that.)
It's finally posting week for @dpxdcbigbang!!! My fic this year is even longer than last year's. Ooops. Because of that, I won't be posting the whole thing this week, just the first two chapters.
Much thanks to my fantastic beta @mystarduststories who came up with the brilliant title and helped a bunch with tags and by pointing out awkward phrasing in my first draft. And @random-sparks-98 who came back as my artist for the second year in a row and gifted some amazing art for this fic which you can enjoy in the first chapter!!!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Relationships: Tim Drake & Danny Fenton, Tim Drake & Danny Fenton & Dani Phantom
Tags: #Tim Drake (DCU) and Danny Fenton are Twins #Twin Reveal #Aftermath of Cloning #Hurt/Comfort #Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent #Bad Parent Jack Drake #Epilepsy #Epileptic Danny Fenton #Past Child Abuse #Accidental Sibling Acquisition #Good Sibling Tim Drake (DCU) #Minor Barbara Gordon #Minor Cassandra Cain #Bad Parent Vlad Masters #Implied/Referenced Child Abuse #Past Ableism
Word Count for Chapter 1: 7.1k
Summary:
Tim Drake is spending an afternoon with his dad and Dana when he gets a call from an unknown number. The voice on the other line, though, is anything but unknown.
His twin has come to Gotham and needs help.
When he arrives, he learns Danny's not quite so alone as he first thought, but he's not with anyone Tim knows. The girl he's with looks just like they do and gives him more questions then she does answers. He's going to have to come clean to Bruce, isn't he?
Snippet under the cut
“This is nice,” said Tim’s dad. He sat next to Dana on the couch while Tim was in the armchair next to them. “It’s been too long since we’ve been able to just relax together as a family like this.”
Tim hummed noncommittally and flicked out the keyboard on his phone before retracting it again. He wanted to open up a game of snake or hangman, but his dad would absolutely notice, and then Dana would be upset he wasn’t paying attention during their assigned family-bonding time.
“It is. I’m glad I succeeded in getting you both into this show!” said Dana. She’d found the buddy-cop drama a few weeks ago and today there happened to be a marathon on, so she’d wrangled them all into watching it together. Tim might have enjoyed it more if he wasn’t a detective himself, but all he could think while watching was that blood tests didn’t work like that. Didn’t help that the characters were all dumb as rocks. Dana continued and said, “Tim, it’s so good to spend an afternoon with you.”
Which reminded Tim why he was pretending. Dana wasn’t a bad person. He shoved his phone into the crack between the cushion and the armrest and smiled at her. “Definitely, Dana. Sorry I’ve been too busy with my clubs to spend much time with you.”
His dad gave him a relieved look, and said, “Well, maybe we can make this a sort of routine. Once a week or so, we spend a few hours together. Either watching something like this or doing something in the city.”
“It’s so much easier to go places now that you live in the city rather than Bristol,” agreed Dana. “I think I saw the art museum had a special exhibit for local artists next weekend, we should check it out!”
Tim wanted nothing more than to run. He’d rather spend the time in San Francisco with Young Justice or in the cave reviewing cases. Maybe at home catching up on homework. Before he could think of a way to politely decline that wouldn’t hurt Dana and piss off his dad, his phone rang.
“Sorry,” Tim mumbled to them as he pulled it out. He didn’t recognize the number, but it had a Gotham area code. “Hello?” he asked.
“Tim?” came through the phone.
Tim recognized that voice: the pitch, the cadence. More familiar to him than his own. “Danny?” His dad made a noise and bolted upright, but Tim barely paid him any attention.
His dad muted the TV. “Everything okay?” he mouthed quietly.
Tim waved him off in favor of Danny who replied, “You picked up! I wasn’t sure you would.”
Tim didn’t have the heart to tell him that he only really picked up the strange number to get out of an awkward conversation with his dad and Dana. “Why aren’t you using your phone? What’s going on?”
Danny’s laugh was somewhat hysterical and Tim jumped to his feet. He waved away his dad’s and Dana’s questions as he rushed to his room. He’d have to pack if he was going to Amity. And look up bus schedules. Tim could hear Danny take a steadying breath. “Um. I have no idea where my phone is right now. But, uh. I’m in Gotham. We got mugged. Could you come get us? We could use some help.”
