I Need This Like I Need Air - Blog Posts

No because I am the niche. Or maybe the niche was made for me. Honestly, what am I even learning in college if I cannot even articulate this properly?

Anyway—I am obsessed with the Star Wars prequels and Squid Game, and when I say I have been thinking about this exact crossover too?? I am losing it. I need to write this immediately. They really do have so many parallels and both pairings make me want to sob 😭

In-ho as Anakin | Vader and Gi-hun as Padmé? The emotional devastation. The tragedy. The drama. And now I cannot stop thinking about who the rest of the cast would be in this AU. It is over for me. I have no choice but to write this.

this is so incredibly niche, but i don't even care anymore.

inhun and anidala, as couples and as separate people, have quite a few parallels, and i need to talk abt them.

the way that inho's front man outfit and the darth vader suit are similar. a mask hiding their faces, modifying their voices, making them seem unhuman with its features. the way that both suits set them apart from the other workers and the way they completely hide the person beneath it.

inho and anakin both being on the "right" side, a cop and a jedi. people who protect others, who should be a positive force in the world. but both the police and the jedi have a lot of problems in how they can intervene during certain situations.

both of them wanted to save their pregnant wives and both failed, with anakin believing both padmé and their child died, while inho's actually passed away.

they both have an older man who serves as a mentor and introduces them to the dark world they will soon be a driving force in (palpatine with the sith, and ilnam with the games). in both cases, anakin and inho are the successors when said mentors die.

anakin tried to recruit luke to the dark side, and inho tried to recruit junho to join the games.

padmé and gihun are both idealists who sacrificed their personal lives to make the world a better place. they are protectors and nurturers.

padmé accepts the role of senator because she needs to try to change the current status quo, and gihun pursues those who are being the games to bring them to justice for what they have done.

gihun watches as the man he loves becomes unhinged and cruel (sangwoo), and the same happens to padmé as she witnesses anakin's descent into madness. both plead with said men to turn back, and both almost die at the hands of these men.

padmé and gihun both thrive for justice and for those who harm others to be brought down, and they are both key players in trying to destitute a power-hungry leader (padmé creating the rebel alliance against palpatine and gihun leading the revolt against the front man).

and, finally, the speech anakin gives padmé in aotc:

From the moment I met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when I haven't thought of you. And now that I'm with you again... I'm in agony. The closer I get to you, the worse it gets. The thought of not being with you- I can't breath. I'm haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me. My heart is beating... hoping that kiss will not become a scar. You are in my very soul, tormenting me... what can I do?- I will do anything you ask. ...If you are suffering as much as I am, please, tell me.

and later on, padmé's response:

I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life. [...] I love you. [...] I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly... deeply... love you and before we die I want you to know.

these are so inhun coded to me 😩

inho can't stop thinking about gihun after first seeing him yell at the cameras abt deok-su killing that player (for me, this was when inho's fascination with gihun began), and now that gihun is near him again, he can't breath, haunted by the friendship and camaraderie and love gihun handed him when he was "youngil".

and gihun loves inho, even as his life is being destroyed around him. he doesn't want to love him but he does, so much. he's not scared of dying, he's scared of his feelings for inho, of how much he loves this seemingly cruel man. and now gihun needs inho to know that everything gihun gave him was real.

Stop, because this has actually taken over my mind.

I imagine Gi-hun as a divorced, gambling-addicted cleaner at the opera house, living there while his daughter trains in ballet at the dormitory. He’s worked there for years, long enough to start believing in the so-called Front Man—especially since said ghost has been giving him impromptu singing lessons.

Gi-hun can’t deny that ever since the Front Man took an interest in him, most of his gambling debts have been conveniently forgotten by those he owed them to. Some creditors have even mysteriously disappeared.

One day, disaster strikes. The prima donna refuses to sing after yet another sabotage by the opera ghost—this time, right in front of the new owner of the opera house, the Recruiter. To make matters worse, a new benefactor has arrived: Cho Sang-woo.

Gi-hun’s childhood best friend.

Sang-woo doesn’t recognize Gi-hun at first—just a cleaner on stage, sweeping up the aftermath of yet another accident. But when it becomes clear that the opera will have to cancel its performance (and refund an audience they can’t afford to lose), Jung-bae, the stage manage who got Gi-hun the job years ago, makes an outrageous suggestion: let Gi-hun sing.

Gi-hun nearly spits out his drink. Everyone laughs. The idea is ridiculous. Him? The starring role?

But then—he sings.

And the laughter stops.

Before he can protest, the costumers are hauling him backstage, fitting him into elaborate robes, combing his hair, shaving his face. By the time he looks in the mirror, he barely recognizes himself. He isn’t just a cleaner anymore.

That night, as Gi-hun steps onto the stage, Sang-woo recognizes the voice before he recognizes the man. The performance stuns the audience, and afterward, Sang-woo finds Gi-hun in his dressing room, inviting him to dinner. The invitation feels surreal—too fine, too polished. The luxury, the crisp new clothes—it’s everything Gi-hun ever wanted.

But something about it feels wrong.

Later, a letter arrives. Not from Sang-woo.

From the Front Man, the opera ghost.

The signature?

A symbol.

〇△□

Before Gi-hun can make sense of it, he is summoned.

This time, not to the stage.

To the depths beneath the opera house.

Where the Front Man waits.

i dont know if this is too niche but then again tumblr never fails to surprise me so… hear me out on this????? i???? kinda need to write this au asap because the poto dynamic with 457 is actually crazy

the phantom is the og masked yearner i fear… he walked so inho could run

also the idea of the phantom (inho) being shorter than christine (gihun) has me giggling a little icl

A little snippet based off this post

Tim and Stephanie would both like to preface they know what they're doing is a bad idea. They do not need Duke, who is also listening in, to repeatedly tell them how terrible of an idea this is. He still does anyway, just to make sure he can rub it in when this all backfires later, but really, Tim and Stephanie already know.

They have both just decided to ignore that silly little fact in the name of information gathering.

So here sits Steph and Duke, huddled up in Duke's bedroom in front of Tim's laptop. Tim, meanwhile, is disguised as some random blonde haired, brown eyed kid. His fake backstory is vaguely based off one socialite or another, because even though he can change his tone or his accent, he just can't seem to hide the wealthy sounding lit in his voice.

In the back of his head, Jason and Stephanie's voices overlap. Once a rich boy always a rich boy, they say. Tim shivers.

"The Baby Bird has landed in The Nest." Duke sighs over Tim's com. "I still don't understand why the codenames are necessary."

"You know why they're necessary."

"Ow!"

Tim may not be in the same room as them, but it's not hard to figure out that Stephanie gave Duke a good punch on the arm. If Tim was there himself, he would've done it too. Duke knows that saying Peter's name within a miles range of the manor will cause the entire family to appear.

Duke himself wasn't even originally part of the plan! The only reason he's here is because Steph said Peter's name while they were talking, and then Duke just happened to wander one of the empty rooms in the manor! Seriously, what business did he even have in there?!

"Landing in the nest." Tim whispers. "Muting now."

"Roger that."

He mutes their side of the com, so they can hear everything he hears, but he can't hear them. It can be overridden by the two still at the manor if the need be, but Tim has faith that he at least won't fuck up that bad. Not bad enough for any help Steph can offer to be useful, at least.

He steps inside the coffee shop Peter frequents, oddly enough, it's actually called The Nest, and Tim's favorite cafe. It's the only place he can get their liquid death special, and he's pretty sure the only reason they keep it around is because he always tips at least $200 when he comes.

It makes sense that Peter would also frequent the place since he's his future nephew. Though, it's probably because Tim passed down his coffee habits. A fact that he will elect to keep from Dick so the man doesn't kill him before Peter's born.

Speaking of Peter, he just sat down in the far corner booth. The one that still has ink stained in the old wood, from that time he got a little too frustrated working on a case here. The one that has Dick's lightly carved initials in the side of the table, because when he wants to spend one on one time with Tim he likes to bring him here, knowing he can't say no to their coffee.

It makes him warm, knowing they probably continued the tradition with Peter when he was old enough.

Currently, Peter is tinkering with a futuristic looking watch. His coffee sits a good distance away, an obviously learned behavior, because Tim does the same thing after many many many drinks lost to an unrefined sweep of his arm. He's pulling other pieces out of a good sized black backpack next to him, quickly covering the whole booth in random looking machinery, completely engrossed in his project.

So Tim does what any other self respecting uncle whose nephew doesn't know he's his uncle, would do. He buys his favorite coffee, adjusts the blonde wig by running a seemingly innocuous hand through it, tips the barista, and sits across from his nephew with a smile.

He calls it a win when Peter wearily returns it.

"Sorry if I'm intruding." Tim starts, throwing a little rasp in his voice for the sake of his cover. "I was just curious about what you're... Working on... Looks complicated."

"Oh, it's a uh-- personal project. For my mentor. I'm under strict NDAs."

Tim nods. He wonders if Peter's telling the truth, and if he is, he's sure the NDAs are from WE, it's just a question on who he's referring to as a mentor.

"Ah, that's too bad. Do you mind if I just sit and watch? For curiosity's sake, I mean."

Even to his own ears that sounded suspicious, but he's never been good at improv. That's more Jason and Dick's thing.

Peter, at the very least, doesn't seem to care. He just shrugs and sips his coffee.

In that case, whatever he's working on probably can't be replicated at this point in time. There's probably some big discovery that hasn't been made yet, which makes Tim wonder who made the discovery. He'd bet $50 on himself or Bruce.

Conversation doesn't continue after that, so Tim just sits and observes.

Peter is clearly skilled. He moves with an assured elegance only to be competed with by himself and Jason, since both of them are the most skilled engineers of the family, though in two different fields. It's especially impressive with the eyebags that pull heavily on Peter's face, which he's sure he got from Bruce and not him no siree. Peter did not learn to overwork himself to death from him, that would be unacceptable.

The exhaustion leaks into his whole body. Low shoulders, slow movements, heavy slouching, small periods of zoning out and coming back to himself. He looks a little bit like shit, if Tim were to be fully honest.

At least it will be easier to get information out of him this way. The quicker they get information, the quicker they can send him home, the quicker his family can bundle him up and let him sleep for a week.

"So," Tim cannot help but break the silence. He's an anxious talker. "Your mentor? Is he cool?"

Peter pauses, his eyes slowly dragging up to meet Tim's brown contacts. "He's the best. I spend basically all my time with him nowadays."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. He's kinda hard on me, but it's just cuz he cares, y'know? He thinks he's this like- manipulative genius that has somehow fooled me into liking him, but honestly, he's giving himself too much credit. He just doesn't want to accept the fact that he's a good person, or that he's gone soft."

Peter rambles and Tim listens, nodding along as he talks. He's sure Duke and Stephanie are tuned in as well. Between the three of them there's no way they don't at least get some information on how to help him.

"I'm sure your parents are thrilled about that." Tim puts implication in his tone. He's not sure what he's apparently implying, but insinuation tends to make people defensive, and getting defensive makes people talk.

Peter does not get defensive.

"I wouldn't know." He shrugs. "They're not here for me to ask."

"Oh, where are they?" Tim asks, like an idiot.

"Dead."

Tim's whole world may have just crumbled before his eyes. He feels like somebody just crushed his lungs with their barehands, and then stuck them back in, sideways.

The first thought that comes to him is he cannot tell Dick. Under no circumstances can Dick find out. Hell, Tim kinda wishes he hadn't found out.

"I'm sorry for your loss." His throat is dry, the coffee isn't helping.

"Nah, it's alright. They died when I was little, so I don't have a lot of memories of them anyway."

"I-It's still unfortunate." Tim coughs. "So who raised you then? If you don't mind me asking."

A smile overtakes Peter's face. It's warm, loving, and wistful. It makes Peter look five years younger, and that makes Tim's heart clench.

"My uncle and aunt did."

"You look very fond of them."

Peter looks more awake than has this whole time, just the slightest bit bashful. "I am. They're the best."

Tim is having a hard time grasping how utterly crushed he feels, he can only hope it doesn't show on his face as he talks. Maybe he can play it off as being overly sympathetic.

"So it was just you guys then? No other family?"

"Nope." Peter shakes his head. "My uncle didn't really get along with any of them, and after he took me in, my aunt went no contact like he did."

So it was probably Jason who took him in then, which is somehow exactly something he would do and nothing like him at the same time. Tim has to wonder where Bruce was, or himself. And which aunt? Tim bets on Stephanie, but it could've been Cass.

"It sounds like you've lived an interesting life."

"Yeah. I wouldn't trade it for the world though." The truth in those words aches Tim's chest, he feels so winded... Lost, maybe. He almost forgets to listen when Peter continues reminiscing. "My aunt definitely did her fair share to make it interesting. She's basically the fiery redhead stereotype, but she cares a lot about everyone..."

Whatever Peter says next gets lost as Tim sinks into his own thoughts. The aunt is not Cass or Steph, unless one of them has been repeatedly dying their hair for years. Steph might still be on the table, maybe. More likely is Barbara, or possibly even Kori, maybe Roy is trans and hasn't told anyone yet. He'll have to ask Jason when he gets the chance.

Tim regrets his coffee, he thinks he's gonna be sick.

"Are you okay?"

Clearly, Tim is doing a bad job at hiding it.

"Yeah, sorry I need to get back home now, but thanks for keeping me company."

He could have stayed. Probably should have, even. But Tim doesn't think he can stand another moment with that old ink stain in eyesight.

"Oh yeah, it's no problem. I didn't mean to ramble to you like that."

Peter rubs his hand on the back of his neck, his eyes trailing off in the distance. He's embarrassed, he knows it for sure because Dick makes that exact same expression.

Tim walks out, and the chime of the bell above the coffee shop door sounds more far away than it should.

He can distantly hear Stephanie's voice in his ear say, "Well. Fuck."

Tim couldn't have put it better himself

I wrote this at 1am and it's barely proofread so don't @ me if there are mistakes. Who would've thought this would be my first piece of writing posted on this blog, huh

1) the watch. It's the universe hopping watch from spiderverse, figured that'd be a good explanation for how he got here and for what he's doing at the coffee shop

2) complete coincidence that it was that coffee shop fyi, he just needed a place to work

3) he chose that booth bc it's the booth that overlooks the entire cafe. It's vigilante 101 about seating choices.

4) thank you to @magicpiano for the original post. I have so many more thoughts about it but I doubt I'll write another piece... Maybe <(͡⁠°⁠‿⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)>

Send me an ask, if you want /⁠ᐠ⁠｡⁠ꞈ⁠｡⁠ᐟ⁠\

okay but eddie's version of boston. somewhere in 8b eddie goes to stay with his parents for a week to look at houses and start really repairing things with chris and it's His Episode. there's the occasional call with buck or bobby and a little scene of hen and chim asking how he's doing when buck has to end their call at the station. but it's just an eddie deep dive.