#Also Valerie is stuck in Gotham and she has to get home

[glow-worms-are-believers]

Just like heaven (dp x dc)

So.

Maybe diving head first into a rapidly disappearing portal in pursuit of the Phantom Menacetm was something she could’ve thought about a little longer. Because, though it was generally a good thing Valerie didn’t know when to quit, it also tended to lend her in difficult situations. This time she had landed herself in a strange city with no idea of how to get back home.

Worse still, Phantom and his furry partner in crime were nowhere to be found which mean she couldn’t threaten them into answering her questions.

“Alright, Val,” she muttered. “You can do this.”

She looked around wearily, noticing the seedy atmosphere of the urban landscape she’d found herself in. Valerie turned towards the other end of the unfamiliar dirty alley and spotted a shadowed figure.

“Hello?” Valerie called out but the person didn’t move.

The teen hesitated a bit before approaching slowly. “Hi, sir?” She tried again.

There was still no answer, so Valerie walked up to the figure. She side-stepped to place herself in front of the figure to find herself facing what looked like a teenage girl wearing an oversized purple hoodie and sweatpants.

“Hey,” Valerie repeated, waving her hand in front of the girl’s face. “Are you ok?”

The girl’s eyes widened as she looked up into Valerie’s visor. “You can see me?”

Valerie frowned behind her helmet. “Uh, yeah?”

“You can see me,” the girl repeated, her blue eyes, wide.

“Uh,” Valerie let out. “Do you need help?” She couldn’t help but ask though she herself was in a pickle already, the girl was clearly in distress.

“No, it’s just-“ the girl’s voice hitched. “Nobody has been able to see me.”

Valerie raised a hand to pat the girl on the shoulder awkwardly, as she didn’t know what to say to that but as she did, her hand passed straight through the girl as if she wasn’t even there.

“What the-” Valerie almost cursed.

“Are you a medium?” The girl asked, uncaring of the fact someone had just put a hand through her shoulder. “Please I need your help.”

“My help,” the teen vigilante repeated blankly as she struggled to reconcile her previous encounters with ghosts and this very human-looking girl in front of her.

“I think-” the girl started haltingly before taking in a steadying breath. “I think I died.”

#So the girl is Stephanie who is currently in a coma after her run as Robin brutally ended #this is based on that movie Just Like Heaven #So long story short Steph isn’t dead but she thinks she is (she’s in a coma) #Valerie can see ghosts cause of amity park making its people liminal #Stephanie brown x Valerie Grey #Or can also just be platonic #Also Valerie is stuck in Gotham and she has to get home #I’m thinking the vigilantes don’t like her much #Steph acts as a shoulder angel whispering stuff in her ear #I don’t know how coherent this is but like basically it’s just the plot of Just like heaven but with added vigilantes #dc x dp #dp x dc #roxpoxwrote #roxpox #valerie gray #stephanie brown

[pavys-originals]

Fandoms I will be writing for + the original characters within

Including a brief summary of each. 

Birds of Prey Valerie Steward - Crime boss, rival of Roman Sionis, has Renfield Syndrome, usually likes the most expensive and lush possessions. Has very large circles beneath her (In a social/hierarchical sense).  Can be incredibly eccentric, and very passionate.

One/Omni- The first of the Blackcoats, a large group of highly trained marshal-like operatives. Omni himself usually does not get involved in combat, and pays close attention to details. 

Two/Hyinth- The second in the first thirteen/High Council of the Blackcoats. Isn’t quick to rush to violence, though they will do what they must to get things done. 

Three/Cettie- The financial backer of the council. Doesn’t usually get involved with the violent sectors of the organisation, she finds it a waste of time. 

Four/Aven- Pure bodyguard material. That’s it, that’s Aven. Not himbo- he’s to smart and sharp for that- just muscly man who will protect at all costs.

Five/Aretha- Now when I tell you that this woman knows how to kill someone and get away with it, I mean it. She trained to be Valerie’s understudy in a sense, and has perfected her own technique in disposing of people when asked.

Six/Giga- The techie. Honestly, they know so much about random stuff they will RAM it down your throat. They’re also kind of jokey, hence the pun. 

Seven- Seven gave up his name when he was fairly young, and is now one of the most powerful and down-to-earth of the Blackcoat high council, as he is the one who oversees the training regimens.

Eight/Axel- A total wild card of the group. Rarely follows orders, and lashes out with violence fairly frequently. He’s honestly a big softie though. 

Nine/Jerra- Usually the one that gets sent in when they need an undercover job done, or a mole of some description. He’s a phenomenal actor. 

Ten/Rocsas- One of the youngest. He’s very ‘in’ with the word on the streets of Gotham,and often informs the council of riots/coups that are being planned by the gangs of the city of crime.  

Eleven/Ixi- Iris/Thirteen’s twin. They are very detached, and don’t often show emotion in the work place. It is suspected that they show lots of affection in a domestic setting though. 

Twelve/Brutus- As his name suggests, he is the strongest of the group, naturally born this way and has honed his skills in since starting training. He is very protective, and follows orders. Not always the brightest spark though, but occasionally he will get a good idea. 

Thirteen/Iris- Sometimes referred to as the ‘softest’ of the High Council, as she is much more compassionate than the majority of her peers. She doesn’t mind it all that much, and often interjects in debates with the more emotional side of the story. 

Twenty-Six/Kalmiya- Almost an entirely blank slate, she is seen as the perfect soldier. Little room for emotions, much room for logic. However, she does seem to learn social cues and expressions very quickly off of other people. 

CATS  A note- about the cats ocs; Just because they are stated to have mated with another Tom/Queen does not mean I won’t write for them. If I write for the children, the bond between parents is not usually mentioned.  

Ariadne-A witch’s cat. She is quite mysterious, but once she warms up to you she’ll adore you like there’s no tomorrow. She is able to teleport over a short distance, has slight telepathy, and sometimes has visions of the future. 

Graciette- The pub cat. Daughter of Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots, younger sister to the mischievous twins Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, and older sister to the young kitten Electra. She is always on  time, and is very enthusiastic about overseeing the games in the pub. 

Leviticus- The oldest triplet, son of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger. He is very close with his grandfather, Old Deuteronomy, and very wise. 

Squiggletigs-The middle triplet, second son of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger. He is usually found with Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, he is much more playful than his older brother. He’s like the middle ground between Leviticus and Pixietrick.

Pixietrick- The youngest child of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger, and their only daughter. She’s very much like her father, both in appearance and in personality. 

Fantasma- The inventor’s cat, and daughter of Graciette and Alonzo. A lot of her time in the junkyard is spent finding random little trinkets and other doo-dads to use for her inventions, or just random collections she has. She’s very shy, and very sweet. 

Zilke- The blind cat, mother of Quaxo/Mistoffelees and Victoria. She tried to stick by Macavity when he was kicked from the tribe, her love blinding her to the near regicide that was committed. Eventually, she became actually blind. 

Seattine- One of the two pirate cats, rumoured to be descendants of Growltiger himself. They rarely come ashore, but when they do, they play many a shanty for old Gus. Seattine favours the concertina as her instrument, and is usually very upbeat.

Hurdeon- One of the two pirate cats, rumoured to be descendants of Growltiger himself. They rarely come ashore, but when they do, they play many a shanty for old Gus. Hurdeon favours the hurdy gurdy, and is a lot calmer than his twin sister. 

Doctor Sleep  Elva Warren- The owner of a sweet little antique shop in New Hampshire. She is always welcoming to new faces, and she knows just what cheers them up when she meets them, what to say to make them smile, all because of her Shine. 

IANOWT  Marilyn Higgins - An uncool kid like Stan and Sid, though a lot of people consider her to be less cool then them. Mostly because of all the morbid facts she spouts, especially during Science class. Probably also doesn’t help that she knows a fair few ways that the world could end that make some people uneasy.

IT  Melissa Farley- A British exchange student from a small village in Norfolk. She is very kind to those around her, even willing to take them in and introduce them to her family’s traditions and interests. She has even offered to tutor some of the Losers, should they ever need it.  Tiffany Crandall- A farming gal from Ludlow, Maine. She moved to Derry with her grandmother and grandfather after her parents were hit by a speeding Orinco truck. She is neughbour’s with Mike Hanlon, and has very little fear when it comes to brawls. It’s traffic and roads she doesn’t like. 

Moulin Rouge  Celine Bisset- A dancer in the Moulin Rouge. She is usually quite gentle, unless her client asks for her to be rougher and more assertive. She ended up becoming a dancer there because her fiance left her stranded when he ran off with another woman. 

Overwatch Asteria Murphy- After surviving an omnic siege where Blackwatch was sent to free the inhabitants of an apartment block, Asteria joined Overwatch to try and make sure nothing like that happened again. 

Mars Virgil- Son of Asteria Murphy, and Jesse McCree. Grew up in Deadlock Grange with his mother, and Robert Virgil- the man he assumed was his father. He joined Overwatch after  an attack on his mother’s diner, and found out his true family soon after.

Resident Evil Village Ihrin Moreau- Sister of Salvatore Moreau. Unlike her brother, her experience with the Cadou did not mutate her into a fish at first glance. It is when she comes into contact with water that her first stage mutation reveals itself, and her true mutated form shows when she is critically injured. She is vain and practically unfeeling unless something catches her eye.

Aeolus Aetos- Self proclaimed “Lord of the Wing”. Aeolus is a man who’s mutation made him think so highly of himself that he only concerns himself with his own problems. He is vain, and keeps himself the most pristine he can. Being mutated to appear part eagle gives him both his pride and his expert hunting skills

Mori Russell- One of the village hunters, who survived the lycan attacks by fleeing into the forests, and hiding out of sight. 

Lena Vaughn- Daughter of the local brewer. Also survived the lycan attacks, but because of her skill with a shotgun rather than running away. 

Shallow Grave Deirdre Sullivan- A failing artist who moved from her family home in Ireland to chase her dreams. She’s partway there, she’s just lacking in the money.Money that she has a hand in keeping away from David. 

Star Wars  Alaana Rohiikshuul- A Jedi consular/seer. She is very down to earth, and tries her best to have the mysteries of the Force reveal themselves to her so that she may write of them. It is this constant search for knowledge that has her meditating for days on end, lost in her own thoughts. Alessandro  Rohiikshuul - Alaana’s twin brother, and the slightly more impulsive of the two. This is not to say he is outwardly violent. Like Alaana, he makes sure to exhaust all other options beforehand. He is much more openly passionate.  Othkiir Rohiikshuul- A young, feline force sensitive from Alaana and Alessandro’s home planet, Tmryn. He can be a little all over the place sometimes, but he tries to do everything he  can for the greater good. 

Daesha’Tiatkin- A Twi’lek force sensitive who deserted the Jedi Order in her late teens- opting to live a scoundrel’s life. She does what betters her, and usually her alone, though you should not mistake this for having no moral compass. She is impulsive, and almost always optimistic. 

Kyden Kenobi- Son of Sith!Obi-Wan and Sith!Alaana. Captain/Commander of the Night Witches squadron in the Empire’s fleet. Usually incredibly goofy and sweet. 

Trainspotting Ava Byrne- (First film)- A philosophy student who got stuck in Edinburgh when she left her home. She got stuck in the same apartment building as Renton and the other boys, but refuses to divulge in their illegal activities.  (Second film)- Ava didn’t end up leaving Edinburgh, the best thing she managed to do was write “The Ethics of Drug Use”, which was of course inspired by the boys’ old lives. She hasn't properly seen the boys since Mark left, though she will occasionally pass Simon or Daniel in the street, and give them a semi-respectful nod.

Misc  (Special Ingredients- my original story in the works) Tex Hudson-  The eldest brother of the trio of brothers, and he was the one to change his name when he got married the first time, as if it would help him in his family’s “business”. He has quite a temper, and is usually rather gruff. There are occasions where he can be sweet, they’re just growing exceedingly rare. Sloane Sawyer- The middle brother, and arguably the most elegant of the three. Always in a suit, he acts like the perfect gentleman in front of others, however when there’s no one else around, he tends to gloat about how many kills he has under his belt.  James ‘JJ’ Sawyer- The youngest brother, but also the tallest. Standing at a whopping six foot nine, Jamie may seem like a beast of a man, but he actually quite gentle. He’s a little slower than the others when it comes to figuring some things out, but he doesn’t let that slow him down anywhere else. He is incredibly sweet, quite passionate, and not afraid to show his vulnerable side when his brother’s aren’t around. 

Victoria/Victor Farley- A pirate captain who sails within the Devil’s Ring (more on that in their first piece), and acts however they so please within the pirate code. Born as Victoria Farley on mainland England, they followed their father through to the centre of the Devil’s Ring- becoming one of his crew in the process. From there they fought on and on, till they became a ship’s captain themselves. 

Scenarios/genres I will write -Fluff -Angst -Smut* -Horror -A combination of those stated above *This will only be written when I am in the mood. Bear in mind these may take longer than usual because I have to be in the correct mindset. I will edit this when necessary

Character Q&A is currently open! 

I will include trigger warnings and such at the beginning of each Oneshot/imagine/headcanon list.

#oc x reader #x reader oneshot #x reader requests #requests open #please request

[ncfan-1]

Okay, it’s time for me to have a little rant about the whole clusterfuck surrounding Barbara’s pregnancy announcement, the context for why she announced it the way that she did, and what I’m afraid the future holds for her and her sprog. This is probably not going to be particularly well-organized, but I hope that it will at least be coherent.

Point 1: Why are you dumping all of this shit on Lee, Jim?

Never mind the fact that, as pointed out by @lalaurelia, at this point Jim has stronger emotional connections with virtually everyone in his life than he does with Lee. Never mind that Harvey and Barbara are both right there in the precinct. Never mind that though he and Harvey have had their ups and downs, they’ve been firmly on the same page and the same side the whole season, their relationship is probably at its strongest, and that Harvey would probably be willing to lend a sympathetic ear to Jim’s fears about what’s going on in Gotham because he’s been right there with him, experiencing the same things. Never mind that Jim and Barbara have been slowly, if unsteadily, reconciling, that just earlier this episode they had the not-nearly-as-heated-as-you-would-have-expected exchange “What’s it going to take for you to trust me?” “After everything you’ve done?”, and that Jim choosing to trust Barbara and confide in her would have been a nice nod to that earlier exchange. Why dump all of this shit on Lee?

For one thing, there’s all the times Jim has hurt her, up to and including shooting her husband dead on their wedding day—and given how convinced Lee was so for long that it was cold-blooded murder, I’ve never bought that she’d be willing to warm back up to him after that. There’s also the fact that Lee has told Jim repeatedly that it’s over between them, and that by the end of Season 4, he seemed to have finally accepted it. In light of all of that, it is at best really inappropriate for Jim to suddenly start unloading on her in a manner not dissimilar to the way he confided in her when she was still his fiancée.

For another thing, Lee has been gone for three months, Jim had no idea she was still in Gotham at all, and she’s just been through a traumatic experience. He didn’t even wait for her hands to stop shaking after she was nearly murdered to start using her as a living worry doll. And it’s not like this Jim seems to be at all interested in reciprocating, because it’s just a stream of words from him, with no room for Lee to confide any of her own fears or worries in him.

It honestly seems like Jim’s doing this because in his mind, Lee is the Good Woman to Barbara’s Bad Woman, the Madonna to Barbara’s Whore. And what are Good Women and Madonnas for, if not to provide support and a sympathetic ear to their men? But you can only achieve that kind of dichotomy by ignoring the inner life and the messy, complicated history of both of the women involved. You can only achieve that sort of dichotomy by forcing someone into a box and cutting away everything about them that doesn’t fit in the box, no matter how it might mangle them. That isn’t love. It’s not even caring.

Point 2: Having sex with Barbara only to start fawning over Lee the moment she shows up makes no sense based on Jim’s previous characterization.

Yes, even with the point I made regarding Good Women and Madonnas vs. Bad Women and Whores.

Jim does not do casual relationships or one-night stands. He just doesn’t. You remember how badly entangled he was with Sofia, how he could never seem to entirely extricate his fear and loathing of her from his initial caring for her? You remember his hookup with Valerie in Season 3, and the very different expectations he had the morning after than hers? How he just had different expectations than Valerie in general? I’ve said earlier that an ill-advised drunken hookup would actually be somewhat in character for Jim, and I still believe that, but I don’t believe that he’d treat it as a one-night stand. Not even with Barbara.

Because he knows that Barbara doesn’t do casual relationships or one-night stands, either. Seriously, neither of these people are known for just running around, having sex with people and then expecting no commitment from last night’s partner the morning after. Jim is probably going to expect some level of renewed commitment in their relationship after having sex with Barbara, and if he hasn’t developed convenient amnesia regarding Barbara’s character (which I know is a pretty big if, on a show like Gotham), he knows that having sex with Barbara is going to signal some level of renewed commitment to her, too.

(And yes, to those of you shouting “But what about Renee? What about that time Barbara cheated on Jim with Renee?”, I can hear you. Thank you. I was unlikely to forget, but thank you. That leads me into this digression:

Point 2A (only tangentially related): They really did Renee Montoya’s character dirty on this show.

Like, seriously: she only existed to sabotage Barbara’s relationship with her male fiancé. From day one, she’s constantly pestering Barbara with claims of Jim’s corruption that she can’t back up with hard evidence, at one point breaking into Barbara’s home to do it. Their hookup was after Barbara had been kidnapped earlier that season and was not faring well mentally (especially considering she wasn’t getting proper support from anyone in her life), when A) Renee knew Barbara was in a committed relationship, albeit one under strain, and B) Renee would have known full well that Barbara was mentally vulnerable, and that Barbara probably wouldn’t be willing to have sex with her if she was in a better place, mentally. Having taken advantage of her ex’s mental vulnerability to successfully torpedo said ex’s relationship with her fiancé, Renee drops her like a sack of shit not long afterwards and promptly disappears from the show, never to be seen or heard from, or even alluded to again. The fact that Barbara tries to go looking for Jim would indicate that she wants to get back together with him (with a possible mindset of “Okay, I made a horrible decision there, and I really hope the person I’m in a committed relationship with forgives me.”)… and she finds that he’s already moved on to Love Interest #2.

So Watsonianly, you could reasonably conclude that Renee was just so full of jealousy at seeing that her ex had apparently moved on with her life that she decided “Okay, if I can’t have you, you can’t have the relationship you forged after leaving me, either. Good luck picking up the pieces of your broken engagement, honey!” And Doylistically, it’s screamingly obvious that the only reason Renee even existed in Gotham was to sabotage Barbara’s relationship with Jim so that Jim could get together with Lee, instead—the fact that she disappeared right after and might as well not have existed anymore certainly indicates the writers had no purpose for her beyond that.

So: Renee Montoya in this show exists at the horrifying intersection of Predatory Lesbian, Homewrecking Lesbian, and Disposable Lesbian, and if she hadn’t been placed in that intersection, there’s a chance that Barbara and Jim would either have never broken up, or that they would have broken up at a much later date.)

Back to the main topic: Jim has sex with Barbara. He relies on her for protection. He has weird, flirty dialogue with her. And then, the very moment he lays eyes on Lee, he starts fawning over Lee again and drops Barbara like a sack of shit, treating her with dismissive contempt when she tries to pull him aside until she finally, angrily, announces to everyone in his office that she’s pregnant. When he’s the kind of man for whom sex usually equals commitment, and he knows that Barbara typically views sex in the exact same way. The way he dropped Barbara for Lee isn’t just douchebaggery; it’s blatant stupidity. Especially given the way she has historically behaved when spurned.

If this was a different show, if it was any other show, I would think it obvious that Jim had been using Barbara for sex and protection, and that what really threw him for a loop was the revelation that there might be consequences for that—not just potential pregnancy, but that Barbara might expect that their having had sex meant that she had some sort of right to his oh, I don’t know? Commitment? But since this is Gotham, I suspect that we were instead expected to root for Jim and Lee having “shippy” interactions, and that we were meant to view Barbara as a bitch for wrecking their “reunion.”

(That said, I wouldn’t be any happier about the way Jim treated Barbara if she wasn’t pregnant. It’s just a horrible way to treat people in general, and given their interactions earlier that episode, given the sheer number of times she’s stuck her neck out for him this season, it signals a rank lack of gratitude.)

Point 3: The likelihood of this ending well for Barbara is close to nil.

At this point, Tabitha has succumbed to Bury Your Gays disease, and Barbara has had large portions of her earlier characterization (including her entire relationship with Tabitha—“best friends,” my ass) stripped away to make her more palatable as a Love Interest to Jim, even one he feels content to treat like shit when it suits him, and to make her more palatable as the mother of his child.

Not that I think she’s been made palatable enough to save her own life.

When I first found out about leaked images of the hookup, this was the scenario I envisioned: Tabitha will be killed to get her out of the way (Because rumors of her death were floating around at the same time, though I, naively, had assumed that the writers would have the decency not to kill her off in the very first episode of the season). Barbara will have large chunks of her personality airbrushed away to make it even remotely plausible that she’d want to have sex with Jim. She’ll get pregnant. She’ll die in childbirth to get her out of the way for what’s coming next, as the cherry on this shit sundae. Jim will get back together with Lee, despite all the reasons that doesn’t make any sense, and they will raise Jim and Barbara’s child together.

This was what I thought for a long time, though the interactions early on in ’13 Stitches’ and the fact that there was something approaching warmth in Jim and Barbara’s conversation in the Sirens, along with the fact that Barbara helped him out through all of his plans this episode, actually made me hopeful that maybe she wouldn’t die in childbirth after all. Barbara whitewashed enough to get back together with Jim is decidedly unpalatable to me, but it’s better than her being dead.

But then Lee showed back up. Then Jim started immediately fawning over Lee and treating Barbara with dismissive contempt. Then, my hopes that Barbara would survive pregnancy shriveled and died.

Not that dying in childbirth wouldn’t leave her character any more intact than it would if the writers whitewashed her enough for her to be considered “worthy” of marrying their “hero.” Barbara would be instead the Tragically Dead Mother whitewashed of her worst sins, but still too sinful to be considered worthy of living and raising her child. Instead, you have Lee being railroaded into the spotless Madonna who never felt even the slightest attraction to darkness and violence, who gets back together with Jim because Reasons, and nobly and self-sacrificially raises the child of her hated rival.

Never mind the fact that Jim shot and killed Lee’s husband. Never mind that Lee told Jim over and over again that it was over, and that at one point, Jim seemed finally to accept that. Never mind that Lee is the last woman on earth Barbara would ever want raising her kid. Never mind that Lee would probably feel, at best, a bit weird about having to raise the child of A) the woman who tried to kill her for “stealing her man” and B) the man she supposedly “stole,” and who then later killed her first husband.

The whole scenario is just sick. It’s sick. And the fact that I don’t trust the writers to do precisely this makes me feel sick.

#Gotham (Fox) #Gotham spoilers #Meta #It's all horribleness all the time