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#i have dinah lance feels
tbcanary · 11 months
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2023 reading list: Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (1987)
To find the predator, you look for the prey.
(ID under the cut.)
ID: Five panels from Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. Two are still images, placed as banners above and below three animations.
1: Oliver Queen in his Green Arrow costume, surrounded by Mt. Rainier and wilderness.
2: Shado stands in front of an orange and red background. A dragon slowly fades into view, and then back out.
3: Dinah Lance stands in front of the Seattle skyline. Text appears that reads "I won't make orphans." Blood drips slowly from her temples and down her arm, and then from the text itself.
4: Oliver looks out over an arrow as it slowly drips blood offscreen. A spider creeps down the frame beside his face.
5: Shado is facing away from the viewer. The Seattle skyline is laid out behind her, lit by a setting sun.
/End ID
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ccbatman · 17 days
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woe. bruce and dinah friendship be upon ye:
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"Someone has to have our backs. Keep us honest. That's why I'm here." / "Batman needs a conscience? Okay, I'll bite."
{ The Brave and the Bold (1980) #166 • JLI (1987) #13 • Batgirl Year One (2003) #7 • JLI (1987) #6 • JLI (1987) #7 • JLA: Incarnations (2001) #4 • Green Arrow/Black Canary (2007) #1 • Injustice 2 (2017) #4 • JLI (1987) #13 • JLI (1987) #11 • Justice League of America (1960) #84 • Justice League of America: Rebirth (2017) }
#bruce wayne#dinah lance#black canary#batman#gather around children and let me tell you a story about a young girl fresh to the world of comics who watched season 2 episode 5#of batman the brave and the bold and became deeply invested in the relationship of bruce wayne and dinah lance as fellow proteges of the js#and fairly young orphans with a close if not slightly competitive relationship built on mutual trust and admiration of one another#and understanding of their respective histories#only to read more comics and learn that that's not really a thing they have. anywhere. apparently. head in hands.#anyway if anyone knows more comics where they interact please let me know. i know they team up in shadow of the bat (which i would have#included but i found out about only after i'd finished arranging my photos) and met once or twice in bop if my memory serves. and 2006 jla#see at least the bruce and zatanna childhood friend truthers have paul dini in their corner. what do i have? brief interactions cobbled#together from dozens of comics strewn across the years each with very different vibes for their dynamic. wjdhjkh#i think of them as a mix of the bruce and zee and the bruce and babs dynamics. ga/bc came closest i think. it may not have been about them#but it was TO ME.#you know the zee and dee mini series? that's what i wanted for them#oh yeah feel free to tag as ship lmao. they literally make out after one of these panels im just choosing to ignore it <3#comic ref#freya talks comics
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strunmah-mah · 8 months
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Alright. . . I knew going in the new Birds of Prey books was going to have a wonky premise, but I don't think I've ever been blind sided as thoroughly as I just was by time traveling Mia Mizoguchi.
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lesbianspeedy · 1 year
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Ideally, who would you want Mia and Dinah's relationship to be like if it was properly developed?
this is a really tough question for me, it has a lot of things to consider. in terms of both dinah's writing in relation to mia in the past, and how i personally feel each character views that sort of relationship.
i've said it before i'll say it again, my achilles heel is that i DO get the warm fuzzies from that one winick panel of dinah saying she considers mia her daughter. HOWEVER i also see like. how fucking wild that was to throw in. like, textually speaking, dinah met mia once, said she thought ollie was sleeping with her (insane writing there mr smith) then when connor is recovering mia makes a joke about dinah being a bitch. thats like the extent of their interactions before winick takes over.
then it gets weirder, cause winick takes over and has ollie "cheat" and for some reason mia is like REALLY fucking overprotective of dinah, telling ollie to call dinah just because he's talking to joanna. (this is just winick not knowing what the fuck he's writing). then they "break up" etc, dinah isnt seen with the fam for like 2 years in the in-universe timeline. there is one part in hit issue bop #88 where she asks after mia but thats it.
dinah comes back near the end, they still dont really interact, end of vol 3/start of ga/bc happens, suddenly dinah sees her as a daughter. its just. so fucking randomly jammed in there.
now i have my own personal HC explanation for the mia side of this, let me quote myself from the arrowfam server:
"ik mia's like weird attachment to dinah in winick's run, esp the first arc, is like just bad writing. but ive decided that the author is dead and i killed him. its actually because the last time she felt safe with someone was with her mother and her brain hasnt caught up to her heart yet and allowed her to feel that kind of safety with ollie, so she attaches to the closest mother figure she can find at that point, before ultimately realising that the unconditional love and support she has now is thanks to ollie. thank you for your time."
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now to actually fucking answer your question (jesus christ i got carried away i am sorry). PERSONALLY i'd like their relationship to just be "youre my dad's girlfriend" "you're my boyfriend's kid" like mia isnt a child she is a teenager who knows exactly how stuff like this works. i think mia absolutely does look up to dinah, as both a hero and a strong female role model (which i think mia sorely needs), but they dont need to be like. mother/daughter extreme. they can love each other and be family without being put into nuclear family tropes.
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fashion-runways · 2 months
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hi!! new pinned post, because the last one had gotten long again-- if you want to read previous posts, here's the first one, here's the second one. the tl;dr from those is that my dad got wrongfully imprisoned abruptly, our place was raided, the cops broke a bunch of shit and took a bunch of our things and still haven't returned them, they left all the broken things for us to spend money in repairing, we had to spend money on a lawyer, trips to visit him, new clothes, medicine and food for him in jail, etc. it was a mess, way more details in both posts. he's back home now, with an ankle monitor because technically his case isn't being investigated yet, they haven't done anything about it at all, the case hasn't moved one ounce lmao it's great, always trust the judicial system and cops!! ugh, anyway!
we found a therapist for my dad who can help her deal with all the stuff he had to deal with while in prison, all the bullying, the depression, the starving, the separation, etc. he needs to get a bunch of other medical appointments, has to get surgery, among other things, but for now things are much better on that front. that being said, he did lose his job and my old redbubble account got suspended without a warning months ago, plus argentina's economy is... really bad right now. food prices rise every day, public transportation prices went up like a 200% in a couple of weeks, salaries are low and stuck there, subsidies are gone, the local peso keeps falling, we have an absolute psychopath as a president who spends more time insulting or threatening anyone who oppose him than caring about people. it's a disaster. for updates on argentina in english, this person on twitter makes very good informative threads if you're interested.
anyway, i used to make around 30/40 dollars a month in redbubble, and that used to help adding up to the donations i got here, and it got suspended, so now i make like 1/2 dollars on teepublic monthly. so... it's a huge loss. there's a lot of things me and my mom are in charge of paying-- groceries, power and water and gas, medicine (she's diabetic, i have some sort of chronic sinusitis), our dog and cat's food and medicines, wifi, phone bills, public transportation, healthcare, my dad's new therapist... so, you know, i really need anything people can donate. even if it's just a single dollar, literally any amount helps. i love fashion so much and i love this blog, i work really hard on it even when my brain says no, and i really appreciate how much you guys love it too. i love seeing people discover new styles, new designers, new things to be inspired by. so, yeah... i'm never going anywhere, but i do need help to basically stay afloat.
as usual, my kofi link is this one: https://ko-fi.com/fashionrunways and my teepublic link is this one: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dinah-lance. thanks for being around and sharing and reblogging my posts, thanks for asking questions about fashion, and of course thanks for helping to the ones who can, and thanks to the ones who can't too, i know how that feels like, don't worry about it. love you 💖
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mordredisacoolname · 3 months
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HEADCANONS: SU!SIDE SQUARE/BIRDS OF PREY CHARACTERS
Are they top or bottom/sub or dom
MALE READER
CHARACTERS: HARLEY QUINN, DEADSHOT (FLOYD LAWTON), RICK FLAG, CAPTAIN BOOMERANG (GEORGE "DIGGER" HARKNESS), EL DIABLO (CHATO SANTANA), POLKA DOT MAN (ABNER KRILL), THE HUNTRESS (HELENA BERTINELLI), BLACK CANARY (DINAH LANCE), VICTOR ZSASZ
Warnings: N/SFW, amab reader implied, ADULT CONTENT READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harley Quinn
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-I can see her being both a dom and a sub
-really depends on her mood at that moment
-she can be all submissive and a pillow princess one moment, and the next thing you know she's on top of you pinning your hands down
Deadshot/floyd Lawton
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-he's a top one hundred percent
-I like to think he tried bottoming for a man one time (whether it was you or not) and didn't like it
-now for the other question, is he a dom or a sub?
-he can be both, but either way he'll be in charge
-you're on top of him controlling the pace? Nah ah, he's secretly the one in charge
-you don't know how it's possible but it's all going according to what he wants
Rick flag
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-I see him being a switch
-depend on his mood
-when he's angry he wants to fuck you to defuse the tantion, but when he's in a good mood he likes getting fucked by you
-but he's totally a sub
-he likes letting go of control and trusting his partner to do what's right
Captain boomerang/George "digger" harkness
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-he'll never admit this to anyone besides you but he really likes being fucked
-he's a sub, no questions
-at the beginning he only tops, too embarrassed to ask you to top
-however when you do, his world flips upside down
-he won't admit he likes it right away, saying it was "ok", but he just keeps thinking about it and eventually submits to his desires
-oh how he loves being so roughed up he cant feel his legs for the next two days
El Diablo/chato Santana
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-he's definitely a sub top
-he likes when you ride him
-gripping his shoulders and setting the pace however you like
-he also really enjoys being teased and tied up
Polka dot man/Abner krill
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-I feel like he enjoys fucking someone rather than being fucked, even tho he doesn't really mind either way
-he's very shy at the beginning, so you think he's a sub
-and even tho he really likes being told what to do, he also enjoys being in charge very much
-but when he doms he's a soft dom, doesn't like hurting you
The huntress/Helena bertinelli
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-I see her as a switch
-enjoys both subbing and domming, but prefers subbing
-likes letting go of control and just feeling good without doing much
Black Canary/Dinah Lance
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-oh she's definitely a Dom
-will literally destroy you
-she has so much energy, when you have sex get ready for at least two rounds
-she's also a teaser, likes seeing you desperate and begging for her
Victor zsasz
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-he likes displaying himself as a big tough guy, how dare you suggest him being on the bottom
-but he is
-he can be a sub and a dom just fuck him hard
-will literally let you do anything to him, scratch him, choke him, slap him, he's all yours
-but if you say something about it to others you better run
-also he's totally a brat
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artbyblastweave · 6 months
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You said you needed to be prodded to elaborate on why Worm should have been longer? Well consider this a prod, if I may be so bold.
A big chunk of it is rote contrarianism. Part of it is that I like Worm, my experience reading so much Worm was "Sweet! Even More Worm! I've got so much Worm left before I'm out of Worm!" So a version of Worm with More Worm is prima facie an enticing prospect.
In the non-reflexive, genuinely considered sense, there possibly should have been an interlude arc to flesh out the timeskip, make it feel like it was as much of her powered career as it objectively was. And I'm far from the first person to make this observation. But on another level, there's a sense where "Worm Should Have Been Longer" is conflated in my head with "Worm's Timeframe Should Have Been Longer." Which is tricky, and invites further unpacking-
One thing about Worm I've noted in the past is that the villain portion of Skitter's cape career- more than two thirds of the book- only takes place over about three months, but- speaking only for my reading experience- this was surprisingly easy to miss or elide in my consideration of the narrative. One reason for this is that Taylor and her supporting cast are so heavily fleshed out, are so well-realized, undergo so much character development in a compacted timeframe, that it felt like I had been following them for much longer than I had. This is enhanced (was enhanced?) by the out-of-universe passage of time; The S9 interlude arc is, like, a little over the one-third mark of the story, but Worm had been running for a year at the time that that was published, and it certainly felt like I’d been reading a years' worth of fiction while binging it. In this way Worm was truly faithful to its comic book origins; story arcs that take place over the course of hours but are published over the course of months, building reader familiarity with characters who objectively haven’t been at what they're doing for very long. A third element (noticed on rereads) is that Wildbow often opens with scene transitions/cold-opens or what-have you that, are generally contiguous with the preceding events, but simultaneously slightly obfuscate exactly how much time has passed. Arc 6 opens with Taylor finishing up with the ABB mop-up, and it’s blocked to demonstrate how far she’s come in such a relatively short time period. It can’t have been more than a few days since Lung. It explicitly wasn’t. But it had the vibe of having been a while.
What I’m working towards here, inch by inch, is the following conclusion: Worm has what I call an eyedropper approach to Taylor’s three-months and 22 arcs. Any given escapade feels like it’s just one vignette, emblematic of a longer, two-or-three-year stage of her life, scooped out and displayed as a representative sample of what’s going on. When shit hits the fan with Dinah, it feels like the upset of a longstanding status quo, even though by that point, Skitter has only been in five or six major engagements alongside the Undersiders. When they spend Arc 21 lancing various supervillain incursions into the city, it felt like I was watching a day in the life, like this was something the Undersiders had been dealing with, and would be dealing with, for a while- even though arc 21′s handful of engagements are basically the only times Skitter did that before she left. Purely from a vibes-based perspective, you could tell me that the first two thirds of Worm are occurring over the course of eight to ten years, and I might roll with that for a minute.
But the catch is- her villainous career has the vibes of lasting a long time, but it’s actually really thematically and logically important that it doesn’t. Skitter’s friendships within the Undersiders are strongly predicated on her ping-ponging from crisis to crisis so quickly that no true reckoning about their differing morals can ever come about. Skitter’s ability to administer as a benevolent warlord is heavily predicated on her lines of credit from Coil- and you cannot stretch that tension out much longer than it was stretched in canon without Dinah dying or Coil getting fed up with Skitters non-profitability. Breathing room is anathema to the story’s depiction of a pressure-cooker society where every crisis begets a new crisis. Nothing between Lung and Alexandria plays out the same way if anyone is allowed any amount of time to think about or process anything. And you actually see this in arc 21; it’s the first time that Skitter has a real opportunity to think about what the long-term looks like, and there’s a whole sequence where she’s getting nervous about her ability to reign in Regent over the long-haul. It’s the first time in three months where she’s had the luxury to worry about that kind of thing. 
You square this circle by.... basically, by striking the canon balance. There's a sense in which I'm increasingly convincing myself that I'm not talking about a problem Worm has so much as a problem Worm already has a workable-but-imperfect solution for. Create distinct periods in Skitter's development- "Rookie era," "Warlord Era," "Wards Era," whatever-each of which feel like they could balloon out into a years-long status quo if this were a comic, even though the cast are really living through the weeks where decades happen. Rely on the Sheer Amount Of Worm to smooth over the breakneck pace at which everyone's character growth and interpersonal connections are developing. There are a few points in the story where "fuck, has it only been three months?" is a salient mood to invoke. The get-together with Danny's coworkers, the back-to-school portions of arc 20. But for the most part the work already does a really good job of making the pinched timeframe a minor bit of fridge logic and not something hugely dissonant and immersion-breaking.
In the process of writing this I've basically argued myself out of thinking that there's much to gain from fucking around with this delicate balance. I don't know if that has implications for whether or not additional arcs covering the timeskip would help or hurt that balance- at a certain level of focus, that whole "you liked us, but you didn't love us" bit about Skitter's time with the Wards vs. The Undersiders becomes a much harder sell. It was already one of the hardest sells in the book for me, the thing that got me thinking about this in the first place. (two years vs three months!) But at some point, I have to bite the bullet- in a work as ambitious as Worm, "good enough" is a fine thing to settle for. It's good enough!
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royboyfanpage · 3 months
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Relationship Rant- Dinah Lance
I'm gonna talk about one of the most endearing relationships in DC: Roy Harper and Dinah Lance.
As I've mentioned in other posts, I dislike the idea of Dinah as the "Arrowmum", I think it's a disservice to her character and, generally speaking, when fandom applies the title of "mother" to a female character it tends to reduce them down to that (as I've seen a lot of posts doing with Selina Kyle). That being said, there's something undeniably mother/son coded about Dinah and Roy's relationship, in the sense of mutual care and respect.
As far as I can tell, the first instance in which Dinah and Roy were seem interacting at length is in Snowbirds Don't Fly part 2 (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86), and Arsenal #1 further backs this up by saying Dinah didn't even know Roy's civilian name until that comic.
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This sets the tone for their entire relationship, as Dinah's literal introduction to Roy is when he's at his lowest. A lot of other people in Roy's life, particularly Ollie, had already known him extensively pre-Snowbirds; they had memories who they could look back on as "before it all went wrong with Roy." Dinah, however, doesn't have that. There's no pre-addiction Roy she can look back on, no fabricated "better" version she can judge the later Roy based on those standards. Everything she's seen of Roy has been improvement- she's seen him at his lowest, and seen him fight to improve and better himself as the years progressed, even stating that she views him as the bravest person she's ever met.
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But that isn't to say their dynamic is exclusively Dinah comforting him. Their relationship is built on mutual care and affection, supporting each other, such as after Ollie died.
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At that point, they're really the only two people they can speak to about their grief. I believe Hal's dead at this point, or at the very least he's Parallax, and Connor had only been in Ollie's life briefly prior to Ollie's death. Dinah and Roy are the two people who truly knew Ollie, and are alive to talk about it, at this point in time, and as a result they are each others mutual source of comfort.
They also just have a good relationship in general. They're able to joke around together, and they can talk to each other easily-
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-and it's so clear to see their chemistry with one another.
When Roy later joins the Justice League, Dinah's one of his biggest supporters, even before his official initiation-
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-showing just how much she respects Roy and believes he can do well. (From Green Arrow (2001) #74) Dinah's seen Roy as the competent hero he is, and knows that with his skillset and sense of morality he is far better fit amongst the greatest heroes of Earth compared to the controversial, underdog team Outsiders (which, while I adore the 2003 Outsiders cast, is a good point. Roy was seen routinely unhappy in that team, and the Justice League was one of his biggest dreams). Upon his actual induction into the League, Dinah's the one Roy dedicates his success to-
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-demonstrating just how much he appreciates her and her constant support (From Justice League of America (2006) #7), and she's the one who reassures him that he does deserve the title of Red Arrow upon him joining the League and feeling anxous about it.
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And in Vixen: Return of the Lion, when Dinah is compromised, you can see Roy's panic and concern for her wellbeing-
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-demonstrating just how much he cares for her. Dinah's arguably one of the only people who loves Roy the same way he loves everyone in his life- unconditionally, and without judgement or grudges- and so the concept of losing that person to which his type of love is reciprocated is understandably terrifying.
Overall, Roy and Dinah are one of DCs most endearing relationships that has so many layers- a mother/son dynamic, a mutual support system, and best friends.
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rainybyday · 2 years
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Danny being able to follow the descendants of Jazz or Sam/Tucker is a common idea, but I’ll do you a new one
He follows all the descendants of every Amity Park, but with a bit of twist
With a mix of Danny being an Immortal au along with everyone being contaminated by ectoplasm au here is my thoughts
Danny is going to look after everyone in Amity and their descendants and bring them all personally to the afterlife comfortably (since it seems that anyone contaminated with ectoplasm would go to the ghost zone (my idea my rules)). He would spend years upon years watching and guarding them, however, there is a slightly variable he didn’t think about until he saw Tucker’s children. 
Because ectoplasm is like a radiation of sorts, it gets genetically mutated and encoded into their very dna. If someone, let's say Jazz, was to have a child then that genetic mutation will also be passed down to her children and their children and everyone down her line will have this mutation as well. 
So that means that everyone in Amity Park will have a mutation that would let them be Limitals in different degrees. The stronger bloodlines would be people like Jazz, Sam, and Tucker but others, like Wes and Valerie would also have strong ectoplasm lines as well with how closely they gotten near ghost and contaminated areas. 
Depending how contaminated the original carrier of the mutation was, the mutation can either grow stronger or weaker or do nothing at all as it gets passed down. Most people with small mutations of ectoplasm have slightly better senses or a change of their physical strength, such as being slightly faster or slightly stronger, which can be played off as being either born talented or genetics. 
It was those that came from direct stronger mutations that are hard to cover at times. Their changes are very visible. Sure, theirs the small stuff like enchanted senses and maybe green eye colors being a common trait but there's also big changes. Some have high IQ’s that get written down as geniuses, some have naturally strong bodies that could win Olympic gold, and some even have natural ghost vision and become psychopomps! 
So you see, while Danny is watching over the mass majority of the growing Limital population he has to deal with the, er, the troublesome line of descendants that decided to screw with Danny by being gifted these gifts.
Those years of making sure no nosy reporter or government official coming to harm them for the umpteenth time is driving Danny crazy. Thier many great grandparents always find it funny and slightly amusing to see Danny getting overwork by their many great grandchildren and it's driving him up the wall. 
Now you are probably asking “how is this a dc x dp idea?”
well, my good friend looks no further
Because this is where Danny will probably get bald from stress. 
Hypothetically if I were to say, oh I don’t know, if Barry Allen was a descendant of Wes, then let's say that the lighting that struck him was supposed to kill him. 
It was because of the mutation that Barry was able to survive, but at the same time, the electricity from the lighting was also able to reactivate the mutation in Barry’s genes which gave him his unnatural speed. 
But because Berry is Wes’s descendants and being one of the stronger bloodline carriers Danny was also able to feel Barry’s heart being structed and left to see what happen to him. Which now turns out to be a mistake because now he has to look out for a superhero of all things!
Now, you are probably wondering if it stops there. 
No, no it didn’t. 
Turns out Bruce Wayne is part of Sam’s bloodline with Dinah Lance being a part of Jazz’s bloodline, and Cyborgs being a part of Tucker’s bloodline!
And somehow, SOMEHOW, Valerie’s great grandson was adopted by Sam’s descendant! 
And then the normally very quiet and very small, mutated bloodlines came in and ruined him ever further.  
Don’t get him started with Dash’s descendant - John Constatine. 
Why, just why.
But at least it’s better than Paulina’s descendants. Who looks at a homeless child and said that they can inherited the powers of gods and magic and ghost them like that! God damn Wizard! Why did you do that to Billy!!! 
(Danny’s screams of frustrations could be heard for miles.)
+Danny can feel even the smallest of ectoplasm so that was why he was able to find every descendant and so forth. 
+Being a descendant doesn’t mean you will look or act exactly like their great grandparents, so Danny likes to complain at times to the great grandparents because they weren’t like their grandchildren or how their grandchildren aren’t like them. 
+Some bloodlines did get mix during those years, such as Jazz’s and Valerie’s bloodlines and Dash’s and Tucker’s so their mutation will grow stronger if connected to a stronger bloodline. Sometimes those bloodlines also split so could be three main families for some people, like Wes’s descendants.
more at this link
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plotwholls · 2 years
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Okay so I’ve literally been searching for two days to find this post, but I can’t, so if anyone can find me the post about the League trying to figure out how crazy Amity is, PLEASE send it my way bc jfc I hate not crediting people and this is going to GRATE ON MY NERVES. Anyway.
Basic premise is that the JL sees the town goes “uh,,, that’s sus” and decides that they can’t just bust in and try and figure out if they’re crazy. So. In order to be better accepted, what do they do?
Well, they make the worst possible decision that they didn’t know was dumb: they sent a shrink.
The principal cleared her throat. “And… you’re here to apply for our, uh… what did you say?”
“The school counsel—”
“Ah yes! That!”
Dinah tried to keep her expression neutral while she internally chanted “whatthefuck whatthefuck whattheffffuuuuuuccccckkkkkkkkkk—”
The principal seemed to chew on her apprehension for a minute before giving Dinah a wavering smile and rubber stamping it. “…You can start next Friday.”
“But it’s Saturday…? I can start Mon—”
“Thatwon’tbe—!” She cleared her throat, her smile tight, as if that could conceal her prior panic. “That… won’t be… necessary, Dr. Lance.” Principal Ishiyama gestured towards the door. “Besides. We’ll need the time to— fix up your office!”
Dinah smiled and nodded, but she noted to herself as she walked out of the reception how Ishiyama rushed to her secretary to begin whispering furiously.
Dinah saw how she was scared.
Dinah paused on the front steps, digging her phone out of her slacks’ pocket. She scrolled through her contacts for a moment before finally hitting call. She pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder as she started digging through her purse for her keys. As soon as it picked up, she announced, “Hey, babe! I got the job! I’m on the front steps of my new workplace!” She sing-songed. Oliver took the hint. “Oh? What the hell happened in forty minutes that has you calling me before you’re even in the car? Actually… wouldn’t it be twenty? Fifteen? Commute’s… what, twenty-five minutes? Still can’t believe Bat’s is putting you up in this shack—”
Dinah slipped into the drivers seat, shut and locked the car and switched her phone to the other ear. “Ishiyama was scared of me.”
“…What?” Oliver laughed a bit. “Darling, don’t get me wrong, you’re terrifying, and I love every inch of you for it, but… those are Canary vibes you’re talking about….”
Dinah turned the ignition, foot pressed hard on the breaks. “Then explain to me why I’m starting next Friday even though I told her that I was ready to start Monday— or why she jumped out of her skin when I tried to shake her hand? How about how she caved the moment I confirmed I was going for the counselor position and gave it to me without further questioning?”
Oliver got a bit more serious. “And you’re sure you were reigning in the Resting Bitch Face?”
Dinah rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m very sure that I was masking my ass off— and you know how good I am at that!”
“I know, hun,” Oliver soothes (it works, much to Dinah’s chargin and battered ego). “It’s worked on Superman and Batman. You caught your own Autism. Your mask is great, babe. Still prefer your murder vibes, though.”
Dinah grinned, her heart feeling achy and cheeks warm. “Well, yeah, that’s why I let you be my boyfriend.”
“And I thank God everyday you knocked some sense into my dumb ass— how about you go get us some safe foods and I’ll pull out the case packs again— we’ll try and figure out what’s going on, alright?”
Dinah smiled softly, her grip on the steering wheel softening, too. “Yeah, alright— when’s Roy gonna get here?” Dinah checked over her shoulder as she threw on her blinker. She turned back. “He should be up to date on anything we find.”
“He’s getting in later tonight,” Oliver told her, “and he’ll have already of eaten, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
Dinah smiled. “You’re so awesome.”
“I’ll try not to get a big head, but given how often you give out praise, that’s gonna be hard….”
Dinah laughed at the overly dramatic woe. She loved that about him— how he made her laugh like she was six again. “Okay, okay— I need to go, I’m driving— text me anything you want. Ask Roy, too.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll get started on the files, too, alright? Because that wasn’t ego stroking; she shouldn’t have been scared unless she knew who you were and she did something horrible.”
Dinah smiled like she was chocolate under a heat lamp. “Okay.” God, she hopes he can’t hear her freaking heart eyes.
“Okay,” He laughs. “I’m gonna go. I still have a sofa to get through this door.”
She laughs as she takes her turn. “Alright— be safe.”
“You, too. Love you.”
“Not quite there yet,” She tells him, still melting, “but I think I’m getting there.”
“Take all the time in the universe. Bye.”
“Bye.” God, that man makes her soft. Dinah screams a little in the back of her throat, wanting to thrash a bit (but that’s dangerous, so she’ll settle on the screaming).
(She’s going to need to send Batman a gift basket for this— a way for her to bond with her boyfriend’s son, make him feel validated, and let her manage some distance from her relationship to try and figure her head out? He’s getting a basket like none other. She’s gonna dig up Grandma’s cookie-brownie recipe and make him a butt-ton. And then she’s going to send the recipe to Agent A. …and so maybe she’s going to slip in a book on autism (because there’s no way he’s neurotypical) in there, too, but who’s gonna know, huh?)
Dinah floated through parking, and starting her walk to the store, but the floating quickly shifted into a mask as phones started going off in waves— all of them with the same ringtone, which would make others (strangers, from what she could tell) lean over to look at their neighbor’s phones once they realized it wasn’t theirs.
…And slowly, one by one, they began to turn to her. Dinah saw a lot of things on their faces. She faked a happy little twirl to get a look behind her, too.
Fear. Trepidation. Horror.
The most common one was what most would call a “threat,” but Dinah had always been one for specific language, and these looks weren’t threats.
They were promises.
They were swears upon their loved ones’ graves and everything they held dear.
They were telling her a very simple story with a very stony set of the face: “fuck this up, and you won’t live to fuck it up again. We won’t let you.”
Most importantly, it gave up that tiny little detail that made the puzzle fit. With a slightly more real (if more feral) grin, Dinah did a happy little job as she finally stepped into the store. It was such a simple little word, especially with a three letter modifier tacked in front, but it told her so, so much. It said, “We won’t let you….”
“Not again.”
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rubydubydoo122 · 29 days
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In every universe Jason Peter Todd dies young. It’s a fate sealed across the multiverse. Maybe he could hope that there’s one universe where he doesn’t. aka, Jason, Dick, and Bruce go multiverse hopping, and are not having a fun time. (Ps, when I started writing this fic I hced Jason as Latino, but I don't really believe in that hc anymore, so just a heads up if you don't like that hc)
TRIGGER WARNING -> Child Death (it's Jason)
They spent the next couple of realities kind of… drifting. 
They spent the first couple universes mainly in hotel rooms or abandoned apartments, because Jason was tired . Using his All-Blades to almost his limit twice in one week, along with being pinballed around the multiverse was exhausting. 
Though eventually they went back to watching different Jasons die.
There were different Robins killed by different rogues– Scarecrow's goons giving him multiple doses of fear toxin. Ivy’s plants throwing him into a building too hard. Another Jacicle, this time a courtesy of Mr. Freeze.  
Then there was the reality where Jason got killed by the Joker in that one warehouse alone. Then the Jason , who got killed by the Joker at Amusement Mile. And the Jason who was captured in Arkham Asylum and apparently brainwashed and then he died. And then– there were a lot of Jasons killed by the Joker. 
They couldn’t do anything about the Jason who dropped dead on the streets. He couldn’t find clean water for a week, because of a rogue attack on the plumbing. (When that had happened to him there had been a convenience store owner who was kind enough to spot him and give him a spare water bottle. The owner stuck with him and made sure he sipped slowly.)
There was also the Jason who died caught up in a gang war. And the one who got shot by a cop. Gotta love the GCPD, (Commissioner Gordon is the exception.) 
What really sucks is that they’ve learned that no matter how hard they try, Jason is still going to die. They’ve tried keeping Jason at the manor. They’ve tried keeping him out of the way from rogues, they’ve tried tying up the Joker before he could get to Jay, but he keeps on dying .
Honestly it’s starting to get annoying. Is Jason following the three Ds– Disassociation, Derealization, and Death-Jokes– to stay sane? Obviously. You can only watch yourself die so many times until the voice of the Anti Monitor that says, “Incongruities must be purged” gets too loud and you start thinking, Huh, maybe being purged isn’t such a bad idea .
But honestly, the worst part about this is that none of the Jasons have been older than 15. At least they could bump it up a number. 
They also were never in a place long enough to actually start on the beacon prototype. So that sucked even more.
Until they landed in the Universe they were currently in. They landed just outside of the Manor’s Ballroom which was currently filled with people dressed in black tie attire.
On the stage, there was a banner that read: 30th Annual Wayne Foundation Charity Gala. There were three large tables closest to the stage, on the left seated Bruce, Talia, Damian, Baby Jon in a highchair, Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Diana Prince, and Alfred 
On the right, seated Leslie Thompkins, Commissioner Gordon, Elaine and Doug Thomas, Crystal Brown, Oliver Queen, Dinah Lance, and a man Jason has never seen in his life.
And the middle table held the rest of them. Barbra, Roy, Dick, Cass, Jason, Stephanie, Tim, and Duke.
Yet, despite the supposedly very magical presence of One Wonder Woman, and Talia (and Superman and Duke he supposes) it didn’t feel like there was any magic at all. Zero, zilch, nada.
Jason turned to Bruce, “I don’t think Uncle Clark and Aunt Diana are superheroes here.”
“I don’t think any of us are.” Dick was analyzing each of them closely, until his eyes blew wide, and he started  smacking both Bruce and Jason’s shoulder, “The Man sitting next to Oliver is Béla Károlyi. As in the Olympic level gymnastics coach.” Just as he said that, alternate reality Dick leaned back, seemingly saying something to Mr. Károlyi which made the man laugh, causing his brother’s jaw to drop.
Jason looked back to all of the tables, realizing that everyone looked so much… happier. So much lighter. He felt a smile creep onto his face, “Ya know, in all of the other Universes, I died either on the streets or because I was Robin. I have a pretty good feeling about this one.” 
Bruce looked like he was about to say something when the lights started to dim, and a projector was rolled out.
The screen opened up to an eight year old Dickie in a booster seat, holding Zitka in his arms. The camera quality showed it was from the early 2000s, which, yeah, considering if Dick was eight, it was probably 2002? There was a symphony of awws that went around the room as Alternate Reality Dick rolled his eyes, but sent a smile towards his Bruce.
The video continued to show clips of Bruce taking Dickie to visit Haly’s circus, probably for the first time since Bruce took him in.
Bruce turned to Dick with a raised eyebrow, “Remember how I had to practically pry you from Zitka when it was time to leave?”
Dick snorted, “I remember her smacking you with her trunk. Haly was really concerned, but I knew you were fine.”
“Because I’m Batman?”
“Because you’re Batman.” 
Then there was a video of Dickie and Bruce at a playground, where Bruce is struggling to squeeze down a tube slide. Alfred and Dickie dusting the chandeliers together– except Alfred was on a ladder, and Dick was hanging off of something. There were more pictures– a couple with Dick in a leotard and sweats with several gold medals around his neck, while he and Bruce ate ice cream– but mostly they were just of Dickie being a kid. In front of the school building, rolling out cookie dough with Alfred, up in a tree, that sorta thing. 
There was also a video of Dickie watching the Olympics, and watching the male Olympians do the Vault. He looked into the camera “Please, I can do better than that.”
The audience erupted into cheers, as Mr. Károlyi reached over and patted Dick’s shoulder.
Until there was a video of a maybe four year old Cass hiding behind Talia’s leg. 
“Hi, my name’s Dick.”
Talia gave Dickie a soft smile, “This is Cass. She can be a little shy sometimes.”
“ That’s ok. Bruce was a little shy at first too. Look at him now.” Dickie peered around Talia to get a better look, “Hi Cass, I can’t wait to get to know you.”
Alternate reality Cass was covering her face with her hands as another round of awws circled the room, but Dick leaned in to whisper something into her ear which made her look up and smile at him.
There were a lot more pictures of Talia, Cass, and Dickie doing things together. Like Cass painting Dickie’s nails, Dickie teaching Cass how to tumble, and a picture of Cass and Dickie standing side by side, backpacks on, holding signs that said KTG and 5th on it. There was also a really cute video of Dickie and Cass setting up a date night for Bruce and Talia. 
Then there was a video of maybe a six year old Cass holding hands with a toddler in the middle of a Gala. 
“Whatcha got there Cass?” It was a young voice, so he assumed it was Dickie behind the camera.
“A baby brother.” 
“I’m Tim! Where do you live?”
The room erupted into howls as alternate reality Tim lowered his head so he could no longer see the screen. 
Dick turned to Jason, “Guess the stalker tendencies started young.”
From then on, there were a lot of photos and videos that included Tim and Cass in the middle of shenanigans together. Cass putting lotion in Tim’s hair, Cass putting makeup on Tim, both of them racing those little electric cars down the giant manor driveway. Bruce teaching Cass how to ride a bike, with Talia and Dickie cheering her on in the background. Videos of Cass dancing balletT
There was also a picture that looked like it was from Thanksgiving, with Alfred, Bruce, Talia, Dickie, Cass, Tim, Jack and Janet Drake, Uncle Clark, Ma and Pa Kent and Aunt Diana. So Bruce and Dick probably just babysat Tim a lot. 
Then there was a video of a very large backyard wedding– It looked like a fusion wedding. Yeah, the closeups of Talia showed henna decorating her arms.
“You know your name’s hidden in the design.” 
“I already found it.” Bruce grinned at Talia, and placed a finger right below her ring knuckle, “Right here.”
“You know they say it is a sign of good luck if the groom finds his name faster.”
Bruce kissed Talia’s forehead, “We don’t need luck, but I’ll take it. Now where are my shoes?”
Talia laughed, “Well, Beloved, Dick is going to have to find them. If not, you have to pay Cass to get them back.”
“Dick can’t even find his own shoes half the time.”
“Well, you’re a billionaire for a reason.”
There was also a video of Ra’s and Bruce dancing bhangra together, which honestly wasn’t bad at all.
The next picture was of a 14 year old Dickie, and an eight year old Cass, with Talia, Bruce and Alfred in the courthouse holding up adoption papers.
There were a couple of photos of the five of them at Disney World. Then some more Thanksgiving photos, this time, Janet Drake wasn’t there, but Jack was. Except he was in a wheelchair. There were more photos and videos from throughout the year. Like Cass and Dick’s Birthdays, Mothers and Fathers day, and then Tim’s 6th birthday.
It looked like a really small thing, and Jack wasn’t there. Then Bruce handed him a gift wrapped rectangle. “Happy Birthday, Tim. I know it hasn’t been the best year, but hopefully the next one is better.”
Tim took the gift with a tiny smile, and unwrapped it. “A camera!! I love it! I love it! I love it! I’m going to take a picture of all of us right now!” Tim frowned at the buttons, “How do I take the picture?”
There were giggles that went around the room as the slideshow continued, now with a lot more photos of Bruce and Alfred compared to before. There was a video of Dickie holding both of Tim’s hands while Tim balanced on a skateboard. A video of Cass teaching Tim and Dickie her Ballet routine, and a really nice picture of Dickie in the middle of a corkscrew flip. 
Then it cut to a video of Cass and Dickie teasing Tim in the living room.
“I’m not scared. It’s just a movie.” That being said, Tim was currently hiding in Bruce’s arms, so he definitely was scared.
“We can turn it off if you would like us to, Tim.”
“I’m not scared! I am six years old. I’m not a baby. I hate being the youngest.”
The camera panned to Talia, “Well…you don’t have to be the youngest anymore. I’m going to have a baby.”  
Tim’s eyes widened, and then he rolled his eyes. “Finally.”
The next couple of videos and photos were of Dick, Cass, and Tim painting the nursery– Jason totally forgot the manor had a nursery– yellow and green while Alfred and Bruce assembled a crib. There was a video from the Baby Shower where everyone was putting bangles on Talia’s arms, along with feeding her sweets. 
The next video was of all six of them in the nursery with a giant whiteboard, where Bruce  tapped it with a dry erase marker, “Alright, what should we name this kid?”  
Tim jumped up and down, “ I got one! Peanut!”
Talia laughed from the rocking chair she was in, as Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, “Like…the butter?”
“Yup.”
“Write it down, Beloved. I like it.”
There were squeaks on the whiteboard, that felt a little long for just Cat, but oh well.
Dickie was doing a headstand against the crib, “Do we know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl?”
“We want it to be a surprise.”
“Hmm.” Dickie maneuvered so he was sitting properly on the floor, “What about Robin? My mom used to call me that. Maybe it could be the baby’s middle name? It’s gender neutral.” 
Jason turned to his brother Dick, “Your mom used to call you Robin?”
Dick nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off the screen
Screen Bruce looked to Dickie, “Are you sure, Chum? You don’t want to use it if you have any kids of your own?”
Dickie smiled, “I think I’d use my parents' names for my own kids. I’d like my sibling to share Robin with me. I’d give it to Cass and Tim if I could.”
The pride was practically bleeding through the screen, as Bruce erased the middle line separating Boy and Girl, to make a column for middle name. 
Talia ran her fingers through Cass’s hair as she started to braid it, “ What about your parents names, Beloved?”
Bruce shook his head, “They wouldn’t appreciate that.”
Alfred cleared his throat, “Might I suggest Athanasia? It was one of the names your parents picked out if you were to be a girl.”
“That’s a beautiful name. Write it down.”
Dickie snorted, “Yet they decided to name Bruce, Bruce. What are you, a mechanic?”
Tim moved to sit on the ottoman of the rocking chair, “Your name’s Dick .”
Dickie opened his mouth like he was about to make a counterpoint, but ultimately decided against it.
“Cass, do you have any ideas?”
Cass leaned back and pressed her ear to Talia’s stomach like she was listening to the baby, “Damian. Damian Al Ghul-Wayne. But we should call him Cat.”
The next couple photos were of Talia in a hospital bed holding a newborn Damian. Then a video of a tousled Bruce taking Damian from Talia, “This is weird. Usually they’re bigger when I first hold them.”
Tim was running around the hospital room taking pictures of Bruce and the baby from different angles, “If he’s too small for you, can I hold him? My arms are the perfect size to hold a baby.”
There was a hand that reached out to ruffle Tim’s hair, “I thought you said you wanted to take pictures first.”
“I do! But I also wanna hold him.”
“Why don’t you take pictures of Damian with everyone else, and then you can hold him. Save the best for last, ya know.”
Tim nodded and continued taking pictures.
Bruce, smiled down at Damian, “He has your nose and lips, Talia.”
“He has your ears, Beloved.”
There was a gag from behind the camera as Bruce kissed Talia’s forehead. Then they both looked to Alfred, “Do you want to hold him?” 
“I wouldn’t want to intrude–”
“Alfred, he’s your grandson. Just like Dick, Cass, and Tim.”
Alfred seemed to reboot at the statement, but it didn’t phase him for long, as Bruce placed Damian in his arms. “Why hello there, little lad.” Bruce came closer to the camera as it stayed trained on Alfred and Damian, “I can film for a bit.” The camera shifted a bit and a very ruffled looking Dickie appeared on screen, in a leotard and sweats. “What time is your first event at?”
“10:30, but Bruce–”
“Alright, that gives us about thirty more minutes here…”
“Bruce–”
“if I speed a bit, we’ll be able to make it back with time for you to warm–”
“Dad!” That seemed to immediately shut Bruce up. Jason kinda wished the camera was on his face, “I’d rather stay here with Talia, and you, and Damian.”
“What about the scouts?”
“I’ve still got, like, three years until I can go to the Olympics. I’ve got time. Besides, I fly for my family. Not for scouts.” Dick tapped his chest twice with his fist, before there was the sound of shuffling off camera, which Jason assumed was a hug.
Then Alfred walked over to Dick, and handed Damian to him. Dick made a face like ‘why are you handing me a child’ but then looked down at Damian and smiled, “Besides, he’s already stolen my heart. Good luck trying to get your child back.” Bruce and Talia both laughed, but Dick looked to Cass, “Do you want to hold him?”
Cass’s eyes widened as she shook her head, “No.”
“Alright then, Tim, go wash your hands and sit down.”
Tim did a little Mario jump, before running to the nearest hand sanitizer dispenser and running back to one of the waiting room seats, and making grabby motions at Dick.
Dick made a panicked expression before Damian went back to Alfred so that Alfred could give him to Tim.
“Make sure to support his head, ok?”
Tim nodded, as Alfred placed Damian in his arms, “Oh! Oh! He’s waking up!” Tim grinned, showing off his missing tooth, “Hi Peanut, I’m your big brother Tim.” Damian blinked up at Tim, once, twice.
Then he started to cry.
Tim’s eyes widened as he looked a little past the camera, “Take him back. Take him back!”
The next couple photos and videos were of Damian and the rest of the family at different milestones. And a little tiny baby Damian napping on Bruce’s shoulder, while Bruce is also asleep.
The Next video was from slightly outside the playroom– Jason didn’t even know they had one of those– of Talia and Bruce crouching in front of Damian in his walker.
“Say Ummmi. Habibi say Ummmi.”
“Don’t listen to your Mother, say Baba, Baba, Bababababa.”
The camera came closer, and Damian immediately looked at him, and gave the camera a two toothed smile that made the entire audience coo, “ Dee!”
Bruce frowned back at Damian, “I can work with that, Dada, say Dada, Damian.”
Damian reached to whoever was holding the camera, “ Dee!”
Dick laughed from behind the camera, “I think he’s trying to say…Dickie!”
“Diggie!”
“I win! I was his first words.” The camera shuffled around until it was in Bruce’s hands. Dick picked Damian out of the walker, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Cass owes me five dollars.”
His brother Dick turned to Bruce, “Ha!”
The video was cut off with a photo of Dick, Cass, Tim and Damian all piled on top of Bruce. There were more photos and videos as the years progressed. From Tim doing skateboard tricks, and Cass and Dick belting to “Enchanted”, to holiday photos, Tim getting adopted and Damian somehow covered completely in flour. There was also a video of the whole family going feral of Dick getting on the US Olympic team. 
So that was probably why Mr. Károlyi was sitting at the friends and family table up front. 
The next video had horrible quality, so it had to have been taken on an old iphone or something. “Um, Hi, Tim here, I’m recording for Bruce’s therapist, cus I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. So, it’s June 27th, and– ya know what, I’ll just show you.” The camera flipped around to show a Mercedes GLE that was missing three tires, and a Bruce who was hunched over, clutching his stomach laughing, “Bruce, do you want to tell Leslie what’s going on?”
“There was this–this tiny little kid, and he- and he stole my tires.” Bruce fully squatted and leaned his head against the car door because he was still laughing, “And then– and then–” Bruce apparently could not stop himself from laughing, “ And then he hit me with the tire iron, and called me a big boob!” If Bruce wasn’t on a street he would’ve been rolling around on the floor.
Honestly, Jason doesn’t think there was ever a time Bruce laughed that hard.
“Are you hurt, Beloved?”
Bruce shook his head no, and took a couple of breaths while wiping tears from his eyes, “ Tim, give me back my phone. I’ve got some people to call.”
“Are you gonna call the cops on him?”
Bruce looked at Tim like he was crazy, “No, I need to contact Elaine to see if I can adopt him.”
There was a bit of shuffling, but the camera only cut off after Tim grumbled, “ I could probably steal your tires too.”
Jason spared a glance at Bruce, only to find him with a slight fond smile. “Ain’t no way that was that funny.” Honestly, all Jason could remember was being terrified out of his mind. If he hadn’t been so scared, he would’ve thought of a better insult than ‘ya big boob.’
Bruce huffed out a laugh , a real one that Jason hasn’t seen or heard in years, “Honestly, It was a lot funnier considering I was dressed as a giant bat when you took a swing.”
Jason shook his head in disbelief.
“I’d get hit with that tire iron a million times if it meant you would enter my life.”
Oh. Oh.
No. He probably just means the kid Jason used to be. Jason sucked in a breath through his teeth, “Been there, done that, and let me tell you, Old Man, it was not fun.”
Jason half expected Bruce to yell at him for making a joke about his death, but he just rolled his eyes, “I guess I walked right into that one.” The next photo was a candid of Jay in the manor’s library white streak stark against his black hair, looking like he just rolled into Narnia, “That was the exact expression you made when you first saw the library.” Bruce looked back at Jason with a smile that wrinkled the crows feet around his eyes.
“I guess some things are constants when it comes to us.” 
Bruce fixed his gaze at the younger Jay who was oblivious to the way alternate reality Bruce was smiling fondly at him. “I have a good feeling about this reality too.”
They continued to watch the slideshow. Most of the pictures and videos with Jay in them consisted of him covering his face, unless he was absorbed in a book, or cooking with Alfred.
Then there was a video of Jay in the bathroom with a bowl of black hair dye and a brush, Cass straightening the white streak, so that the hair dye would go on more evenly.
The mirror showed it was Tim behind the camera, “I still think you should paint it red.”
Cass set down the straightener, “I think you should keep it the way it is.”
Jay shook his head, “This is gonna be my first time out in public as Wayne's new foster. They’ll already–” Jay cut himself off and chewed the inside of his cheek, “Maybe in a couple years. I’m just not used to all of this yet, and I don’t want more eyes on me because of a stupid autoimmune disease.” Jay took the brush and started parting the white strip so he could cover it in the hair dye.
“It’s not stupid. It looks really cool.”
“It makes you unique,” Cass shrugged, “ It is your hair, though, and you should be changing it because you want to, and not because everyone else thinks you should.” Cass smiled at herself, “ That’s what Dick would say.”
Jay frowned for a second, until a mischievous grin slowly appeared on his face, “ I’m gonna dye my hair, but not because of anyone else. I just wanna see how long it takes Dick to figure out I have vitiligo.”
Cass grinned and grabbed the bowl of hair dye, “I’ll help.”
Jay lowered the lid of the toilet and sat down facing Cass, “Timbo, you’d better hide that video.”
Dick turned to Jason, and flicked his hair, “I guess the white streak is also a universal constant. Even if the reason isn’t magic in this one.” He turned back to watching the slideshow, as Jason shared a look with Bruce.
Dick may be a great detective, but boy could he be dense sometimes. 
The next picture was of Jay and a three year old Damian looking out of the plane window, followed by a video of Jay reading out loud to Damian, Tim and Cass, as all of them gradually get closer and closer, until they were all cuddling, and then a photo of Damian, Tim and Cass sleeping as Jay seemed to continue reading 
Then there was a video of the seven of them in an empty looking stadium. The camera focused on Jay for a couple seconds before he pushed it away and it focused on Dick hugging his siblings. And then Talia, and then Alfred.
“Bruce, can’t you give it to him? You know him better, and you bought it.”
“You came up with the idea, Jason.”
“Anyone with brain cells would’ve been able to come up with it.” Dick started walking over to the pair, “Here, let me take the camera…” There was a bit of shuffling, “And you can take the bag!”
The camera focused just as Dick engulfed Bruce in a hug.
They pulled apart as Dick glanced at the bag, “Ya know, B, you didn’t have to get me a gift. A new little brother is more than enough.”
Bruce handed the gift bag to Dick, “Actually, the gift was Jason’s idea.”
“Snitch.”
“I am just giving credit where it’s due.”
Dick opened the bag and pulled out a red and yellow leotard with a pair of green shorts and green pants. Dick immediately recognized the colors and put a hand to his mouth.
“I know blue is also the color of the Flying Graysons, but to me these colors have always been more… iconic. I’m sorry if I overstepped, you don’t have to wear it–”
“No, shut up, I’m wearing it.” Dick had a soft smile on his face, “I was debating doing the quadruple flip, but I’m sure this is a sign that I should.”
Bruce clapped a hand on Dick’s shoulder, “ Great, because the rest of us are going to match.”
“Stop, I’m literally going to cry.”
The next photo was of all of the Robins– the whole family, because Alfred, Bruce and Talia were also wearing red, yellow, and green– in their colors. In the Grayson colors
Jason looked over at Dick whose eyes were glossy, but he was still smiling. Though he wasn’t looking at the screen. He was looking at alternate reality Jay, who was being nuggied by alternate reality Dick.
Dick realized Jason was looking at him, “It’s kinda the opposite of our first meeting.”
“Huh. it is, isn’t it?” he thought back to Dick giving him the box with a Robin suit that was too big for him. It was Dick’s official stamp of approval. He never got to grow into that suit.
Vaguely, he wonders if Bruce threw away that suit, along with all the other ones, save the one he died in.
The next video was of Jason in the garage with Bruce staring at a singular tire with a bow around it.
“Is that a tire I stole?”
Bruce grinned, “It is.”
“Huh. I didn’t realize you got them back.”
“I have my ways.”
Jay turned to face Bruce, “You do realize I stole them to make money, right? Currently, this serves no purpose to me.” His face morphed into something dejected “Unless…”
“No. No, not that.” Bruce kneeled in front of him, “ Jay, lad, I know you’ve only been here for a little over a month, but I would like to say, you will always have a home here. No matter what. 
“In fact this is more of a promise. I was thinking of giving you a tire for each of your birthdays, so by the time you turn 16, you’ll have all four. I was thinking we could maybe build a car together.”
There was a flurry of emotions that flashed over Jay’s face, before it settled on disbelief. “You? Bruce Wayne? Build a car?”
 “I am a man of many talents.”
Jay raised an eyebrow, “I better not be the only one putting elbow grease into this thing, otherwise, as soon as it’s finished I’m drivin’ away. With all four tires this time.”
Bruce lifted his arm to flex his bicep, “I’ll put in the muscle.”
Jay rushed in to give Bruce a hug and just as quickly pulled away, “ Thank you, Bruce.” Then Jay turned to face the camera directly, “ Are you seriously filming us, Tim?”
There was a video of the family helping Dick move into a dorm room. A picture of the first day of school with a very happy looking Jay, and just… memories captured that was so normal . No bruises, no broken arms, no hollow eyes from any of them. Just… love.
Obviously Jason knew that this family had to have had its fair share of ups and downs– most of them had seen loss in horrific ways– but the downs didn’t seem to lead to bloodshed, or near murder. Just more understanding.
The slideshow ended with a photo of the entire family cuddling on the couch, sleeping while Dick who was on the outskirts took a selfie.
The crowd erupted into cheers as the lights slowly brightened and alternate reality Bruce took to the stage. 
“Hello everyone, and welcome to the 30th Annual Wayne Foundation Charity Gala.” There was a polite round of applause, “Now, you may be wondering why I decided to start off the night differently than I have in the past years. That is because it has been brought to my attention that my usual speech about philanthropy and giving back to the community is, and I quote ‘ mundane and monotonous, and became stale after the second gala.’ Jason’s words, not mine. So he helped me write this.” There were a couple of chuckles that went around the room, “While I still believe in those values, the real reason this Gala is so important to me, is because it was important to my parents, Martha and Thomas Wayne. To me, this Gala has always been in memory of them.
“My parents loved this city, but they didn’t love it for its old buildings, or the grime on the pavement. No. They loved Gotham for her people. My dad, a doctor, who never turned his back on someone in need, no matter their background. My mom, who knew she was blessed with money and realized she could use that to help other people who need it in this city. Which is why the Wayne Foundation was made. Though, I don’t think there’s a single person in Gotham who didn’t already know that. Yet there was so much more to my parents than just that. Even though they’ve been long gone, I still see them everywhere. 
“I see my mom sitting at the kitchen counter, sipping her tea while Alfred prepares breakfast. I see my dad in the living room whenever baseball plays. I see my parents on the porch swing that overlooks the garden, but most importantly, I see them in my kids.
“The way Dick cares for his siblings sometimes is almost the exact same as how my dad used to care about me. He’ll bring an ice pack over in three seconds flat, even if they say they’re ok. He’ll slap a bandaid on an ouch, even if it isn’t bleeding. He’ll do anything to bring a smile to their faces. Just like my dad always did with me.
“I’d give up everything just to see Cass laugh. Because the way she laughs is just how my mom laughed. The way it starts with soft giggles and gradually gets louder and louder. The way she leans her head back and clutches her stomach. The way if something is truly hilarious, she’ll lean her head on the nearest solid object, trying to gasp for air.
“And Damian, oh Damian. He looks so much like Talia, but sometimes, I catch myself staring at him, picking out which of his features belonged to my mom, and which of his features belonged to my dad. His ears are shaped just like hers, his eyebrows are sculpted just like his. His curly hair is definitely from my mom.
“I can tell that Tim looks at the world in the same way my mom did. He looks at everything, taking in every little detail. He knows even when the subtlest thing is off. And when he looks at you, you know he is not just seeing you, but he’s seeing you . All of you.” 
Bruce pulled out a sheet of paper and placed it on the podium, “And I knew all of these things subconsciously, but Jason, he had to hold my hand through writing this whole speech. I would say some things that I remembered about my parents, and he’d go ‘ like blank does?’ and I'd be like–” Bruce facepalmed, “ duh. But he didn’t help me with this part. Uh oh, I’m going off script.” There was a rumble of laughter at that, but Bruce had a really soft smile on, and was making eye contact with Jay, “But in all seriousness, I think of the way I met Jason often. How he came to me on the reminder of the darkest day of my life, and turned that day into something brighter to remember. And I don’t believe in Fate, or God, but whenever I think of that night in the alley, I can no longer think of a boy who lost his parents. I can only think of my parents guiding their grandson to me. Jason made me realize that my parents guided all of my children to me, and to Talia, and to Alfred. And for that…” Bruce’s eyes were shining as he blinked hard and fast, “I don’t think words can describe how… how glad I am to be blessed with the beautiful family I have today.”
I can only think of my parents guiding their grandson to me.
Jason turned to his Bruce, only to see tears streaming down his face. 
What’s going on? Was he hurt? Why is he crying? He never cries. Batman never cries.
But this wasn’t Batman. This was Bruce.
I can only think of my parents guiding their grandson to me.
“Bruce? Do you…?”
Bruce looked from Jason to Dick and back to Jason, “Every single word and more. And so much more.”
And before he knew it, he was in his Dad’s Bruce’s his Dad’s Bruce’s his Dad’s arms. And then his brother’s arms. He was in his dad’s and his brother’s arms and everything felt–
Whole .
Jason felt whole .
They stayed in each other’s embrace as Alternate Reality Bruce finished up his speech, “There was a poem my mom read to me once, and I had forgotten about it until Jason showed it to me again. The poem actually inspired this entire speech. It’s called ‘ Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep’ by Mary Elizabeth Frye. 
“Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sun on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain.
“When you awaken in the morning's hush; I am the swift uplifting rush; Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry,
“I am not there; I did not die.”
There was a moment of silence as the audience drank in the words. And the silence was pierced. But not by applause or cheers.
It was pierced by twin shots.
Gunshots. 
And screaming. Screaming even though the room seemed to be drowned out by the sound of cicadas.
Because Jay was slumped on the table. 
He wasn’t Robin. He was no longer a street kid.
Still, he was–
Bleeding. 
One Bullet through the heart, one bullet through the head. 
Tablecloth stained red.
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Best Character Named X Poll
I'm doing a series of "Best Character Named X" polls where all the characters have the same first name but are from completely different media, feel free to send in name/charcacter suggestions, I'm posting one poll a day. New polls scheduled for 1:30PM BST everyday. Run by @femmehysteria
please send suggestions via ask so i can see them, replies get lost in the notes. I reply chronologically so very sorry if it takes a while for me to answer
INBOX CLOSED DUE TO EXAM SEASON
If your favourite character is not included in the poll very sorry i have either never heard of them or actively chose not to include them as theres only 6 characters per poll. Characters will only count of that is their first name, surnames do not count.
Round 185: Beverly
Round 186: Edmund
Round 187: Constance
Round 188: Rusty
Round 189: Margo
Round 190: Adrian
Round 191: Piper
Past Polls
Poll Ideas under the cut
Names that I have a complete list for*
Caroline, Rebecca, Steve, Victoria, Katherine, Robin, Clark, Phoebe, Nancy, Penny, Erica, Theresa, George, Felix, Charlotte, Diana, Zoe, Connor, Daisy, Maya, Andy, Alma, Nora, Juno, Otto, Donald, Angel, Judy, Jo, Hazel, Diego, Miranda, Lila, Duncan, Dexter, Meredith, Pearl, Malcolm, Napolean, Joan, Nico, Jamie, Kiera, Tam, Klaus, Luna, Laila, Zack, Imogen, Felicity, Cindy, Alicia, Alan, April, Astrid, Delilah, Jodie, Claudia, Juliet, Jonas, Milo, Celia, Katya, Atticus, Ian, Cynthia, Boo, River, Corey, Minerva, Ebony, Zia, Rudy, Quentin, Marvin, Miriam, Roxy, Percy, Bianca, Shirley, Beatrice, Amara, Cleo, Cecil, Amaya, Ryan, Mabel, May, August, Manny, Francis, Matilda, Deborah, Josh, Jared, Sabrina, Kendra, Angus, Ophelia, Liesel, Zelda, Fitz, Aurora, Ramona, Misty, Talia, Orion, Roy, Kala, Madeline, Anastasia, Anna, Kit, Marian, Lena, Polly, Cora, Leah, Jules, Artemis, Irene, Laurie, Laurel, Hilda, Valentine, Reggie, Felicia, Joe, Monty, Quinn, Skye, Walter, Christine, Marissa, Hope, Oberon, Lorna, Ace, Wally, Calvin, Alana, Jasper, Fergus, Bridget, Ulrich, Roger, Mason, Stella, Lenore, Wanda, Miguel, Winona, Hannibal, Newt, Aiden, Oscar, Tobias, Dorian, Dorothy, Una, Marnie, Mirabel, Wendel, Dora, Mort, Olympia, Toby, Chip, Harvey, Mara, Fearne, Axel, Gil, Bo, Remy, Rue, Leslie, Isabelle, Silas, Agnes, Luther, Sally, Delia, Zeke, Richter, Skylar, Scarlet, Bernard, Ray, Nigel, Cosmo, Ruth, Selina, Harley, Blue, Warren, Missy, Perry, Paige, Duke, Tao, Gemma, Cornelius, Declan, Wendy, Apollo, Celeste, Clyde, Nicole, Summer, Hugh, Esther, Cole, Jean (french), Tatiana, Carl, Kieran, Melody, Travis, Vivian, Haley, Elle, Prudence, Hans, Ralph, Azrael, Lauren, Molly, Agatha, Pauline, Athena, Darcy, Stan, Dana, Lee, Ford, Red, Stuart, Camille, Bruce, Cliff, Gabriel, Octavia, Tsukasa, Anita, Esme, Ella, Lara, Heather, Lois, Viola, Riley, Pyrrha, Rupert, Ada, Orlando, Blair, Parker, Aisha
Names I have an incomplete list for (welcome to send character suggestions)
Richter, Dylan, Chad, Moe, Guy, Yasmin, Woody, Alina, Freya, Adora, Owen, Noah, Taylor, Dawn, Chase, Hunter, Tina, Tanya, Cameron, Rudolf, Melvin, Melanie, Melissa, Melinda, Wolf, Adele, Adeline, Jem, Dolores, Jude, Callie, Irma, Ginger, Terry, Bellamy, Jacob, Jackson, Reese, Nemo, Addison, Adelaide, Candy, Harriet, Abraham, Ragnar, Destiny, Wendy, Hero, Drew, Raphael, Wallace, Jean (feminine), Elena, Cheryl, Rita, Hugo, Ike, Gaius, Lance, Shane, Rod, Tegan, Matthias, Liam, Jed, Caeser, Ellis, Dennis, Josie, Mick, Mike, Trixie, Amber, Bailey, Briar, Puck, Eden, Annette, Letitia, Giselle, Suki, Zain, Keith, Ron, Olaf, Wilfred, Blaine, Pam, Brianna, Clive, Sabine, Roman, Carina, Kalina, Mindy, Wade, Julia, Marlene, Lex, Edith, Monet, Marina, Zara, Marcus, Elias, Mira, Sasha, Glen, Yukari, Dinah, Sloane, Farah, Norman, Faith, Echo, Enid, Ross
Feel free to send more suggestions
*subject to change, you can still submit a character if there is no strikethrough if you think theres a character that its an absolute crime i dont add. Please don't suggest anything for the names with a strikethrough as they are polls that are already in my queue waiting to be published.
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fae-morrigan · 12 days
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In general, I was somehow sitting and minding my own business, when suddenly the thought came into my head that Jay and Lois were somehow too similar. Like, they are both very hardworking people who will fight for their truth, no matter what the cost to them. They will be ready to do everything for the sake of their loved ones, everything for their protection, smart, persistent and purposeful, who completely devote themselves to the cause. It’s as if the authors created Jay from the character of Lois, adding their own traits to him as a separate personality, but still the type itself remained the same. Well, if you look at it like that, then Jon and Jay basically look like Clois, hmm. Maybe this is nonsense, but here it is.
So, here's the thing about this! The parallels are absolutely purposeful, because Jay is Lois's legacy character.
A legacy character, simply, is someone who takes on the mantle or duties of a character who inspired them (either in or outside of universe). By this, Jon is a legacy of Clark, Red Canary is a legacy of Dinah Lance, so on and so forth. This very often includes intentional parallels between the original + new characters personality- for example, Damian being a legacy character for Bruce, a huge part of the B&R premise with those two was predicated on the fact that these are two very similar characters who have the same issues and deal with it in similarly awful ways. This does not, or even most of the time, denotate blood relation- rather, a simple carrying of the torch. Stephanie and Cass are kind of legacies of Babs's batgirl, for another example.
But crucially, also, they're different enough to still stand on their own. Jay, personality wise, has a bunch of differences to Lois- Though he's obviously got snark, he's also got a sort of reserved-ness to him that Lois doesn't have as a result of his specific traumas, not to mention we are shown that Jay in particular has a talent for heroism and leadership that separates him from Lois (who usually very firmly stays in her civvies). There's a side rant in the above about how what defines a character trait is not its existence but rather in what contexts the trait manifests, but that's a different post I invite somebody to ask me about. And then there's of course the difference in story for these two characters. Lois gets to work in the spotlight, with the privilege of being an American journalist- Jay, an asian indigenous man who's being actively persecuted, is relegated to hiding and does what he does largely out of necessity (even if there is a very genuine passion). Crucially, what makes a legacy character a legacy is how they are inspired to do what they do and take up the mantle by the person they are the successor of. Obviously, we know that Jay really deeply admires Lois:
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But we're never told WHY he's inspired by her..... OR ARE WE?! Yeah, so, actually, we're sort of indirectly told by ANOTHER comic the probable reason why Jay admires Lois so much- Lois Lane is the only American journalist to have ever reported fairly on the happenings in Gamorra/Parousia, without a bias towards the western perspective. She actively stood up for Gamorra when they were being manhandled by American imperialism.
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This is from Waller vs. Wildstorm, a four issue comic that I ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY DEMAND EVERYONE READ to get a full picture of Jay. Its likely about to tie into Suicide Squad: Dream Team, so its kind of crucial! And yet I feel sometimes like I'm the only one who read it. So, yeah. Jayjon and clois parallels are absolutely intentional, because they're the legacies of clois!
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fashion-runways · 2 years
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okay, i promised an explanation and i won’t go into too many details because honestly i’m still kind of a mess and there’s a lot we don’t know yet and everything but-- 2 weeks ago out of nowhere, in the middle of the night at 6am cops showed up at our home and raided our apartment and stuck around up until 2pm just making a mess of the whole place and taking photos and whatever, they broke the downstairs front door (which we now have to pay to replace off our own money), made an absolute mess of every room in the apartment, took every electronic device except our phones (and that’s only because i started crying about having all my healthcare info on an app and how i was going to lose all my appointments, and i think they felt bad for us?) and detained my father. they have barely given us information on what he’s accused of, they’re still nowhere near investigating those devices they took so they won’t give them back to us, and we have no freaking idea if or when my dad is coming back, because again, they’re not giving us a lot of information. on top of that my dad is pretty old, he's 65, he was supposed to have surgery this month because he can’t see very well from one eye (his workplace was paying for it) and he kinda can’t hear very well from one ear too, even though he refuses to accept it, and he’s been on anxiety medication for a while, so i’m kind of scared of what will happen to him without actual medical care or a nice place to sleep every night?? i don’t know. i truly don't.
now, this as you can imagine is traumatizing enough as it was, and it continues to be, but on top of that my dad was pretty much the only person with a stable job and a concistent income in this family, so now that he’s detained and we literally have no idea when he’ll come back, me and my mom got basically left in the dark. and even if he comes back, like, i don’t know, next week? i’m pretty sure he’ll get fired because he’s been missing work for 2 weeks now. i have some money that i saved from the stuff you guys send me, my mom has some money she makes, but it’s... obviously not enough, and this is a really stressful situation to be in, obviously, i wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies tbh.
so... i don’t know. i can’t promise i’ll post anything new because i’m limited to mobile for god knows how long, that’s why i’ve been reposting stuff. and if you want to help, if you enjoy the blog, if you have anything to spare, that would really be helpful. i know this sounds insane what happened, and trust me it still doesn’t feel real sometimes?? like i’m going to wake up and it'll be a bad dream? i don’t know. as always, since i’m from latin america, anything helps. literally even the smallest amount of money helps. sorry this post is so long and so trauma dump-y, but i said i’d explain and i need help more than ever, this blog is basically the only semi-stable thing i have income wise. if anyone wants me to tag this with any trigger warning specifically, let me know, i wouldn’t know what to tag this myself.
anyway, i have my kofi account that i link in every post i make here: https://ko-fi.com/fashionrunways and my redbubble account: https://www.redbubble.com/people/dinah-lance/shop if you’d want to buy something instead. and as always thanks for loving this blog and for always helping us, i know it doesn't seem like it matters sometimes, but it does to me 💖
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jenn0wow · 5 months
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My dc fanon/au on people Dick and Barbara have had different kinda romantic/sexual/complicated relationships with 😀👍 (these will all be referenced at some point in my little fics lol)
Dick:
•A few girls when he was a teen that asked him to galas as a date and he felt bad saying no.
•Wally (very emotional, super close friendship that I PERSONALLY believe turned into a few make out sessions on “accident.”)
• Koriand’r (dated fr and probs first person he had sex with, but she breaks it off after almost getting married because she starts to feel too tied down and doesn’t know where or who she wants to be.)
•Raven (They tried for a second. Raven reminded him of Barbara a bit, but then realized they weren’t the same and it was unfair to project onto her. She found him boring. Really she liked Kori, but didn’t realize her feeling until after being with Dick.)
•Zatanna (for a second, but they both realized it felt weird.)
•John Constantine (cuz like who hasn’t)
• Barbara Gordon (very co-dependent friendship that they didn’t wanna ruin and then they stopped being friends for a moment and then they become friends again and then once they’ve both matured and became available then they finally officially get into a romantic/sexual relationship)
Barbara Gordon:
•Lucas Fox (dated for a few months but Barbara wasn’t emotional available for him even if he was like super nice and probably the healthiest relationship she’s ever been in.)
•Ted Kord (dated for a month or two, one because she was being nice and two because he had tech she really wanted)
•Ray Palmer (one night fling because she was like why not)
•J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter (J’onn figured out she was Oracle and they exchanged information and computer tech for a bit and then he asked her out on a few dates, but ultimately it didn’t work out cuz he knew she didn’t like her fr.)
•Dinah Lance (best friends, but a little homoerotic. Dinah says if anything stupid happens with them being superhero’s that they’ll move to a private island and live the rest of their lives together. Perhaps they have kissed 🤔 maybe a cuddle.)
•Helena Bertinelli (Helena flirts with her to further annoy her, but I feel like maybe they have had a one night fling but nothing serious and their relationship is pretty much the same afterwards.)
•Victor Stone (he knows when Babs hacks into the titan tower systems because she can “feel it’s her.” They decide to go to Dick and Kori’s wedding together. They date for a little bit until they realize they want different things.)
•Dick Grayson (very co-dependent friendship that they didn’t wanna ruin and then they stopped being friends for a moment and then they become friends again and then once they’ve both matured and became available then they finally officially get into a romantic/sexual relationship)
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zahri-melitor · 7 months
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Okay, general roundup of New 52 titles I have read so far, now I am well into 2013 in my read through:-
Batwoman, J.H. Williams run – genuinely great. This is a highlight of the New 52, honestly. If DC had stopped occasionally remembering that Kate Kane is now Bruce’s cousin and had let Kate and Maggie get married, it would be perfect.
Blue Beetle – it’s not the best Jaime run I’ve ever read, but in terms of restructuring Jaime’s origin to simplify it and remove the heavy connection with Infinite Crisis shenanigans, it worked far better than the Rebirth reboot. Let down by getting cancelled just as it started becoming more interesting (aka had finally finished the retread of Jaime’s origin story and started him having new adventures).
Threshold – this was certainly a comic I read entirely to see Jaime in it. If you are lucky enough to know nothing about it, it’s basically a planet of foxhunting tagged ‘criminals’, where Jaime ends up one of the tagged. It’s meandering, pointless and bad. I think if you’re a Lantern fan you’d also think it was bad. Deservedly knocked off after 8 issues.
Justice League Dark – I made it through 6 issues. My biggest takeaways were that everyone here was just so miserable and Boston Brand was dating Dawn Granger for reasons that surpassed understanding. I want to like it more than I do, for the cast it has.
Batgirl, Gail Simone run – appealing and infuriating in turn. There’s some genuinely beautiful writing here (the WWII paper balloons!) and Babs is recognisable as Babs, but it’s horribly let down by the fact that ‘healing’ Barbara means that she’s now both not allowed to operate as Oracle (by editorial dictat) AND she’s having trouble as a street vigilante as she’s still recovering from her injuries. It makes sense but it also makes Barbara doubly incompetent which is maddening as they’ve taken away everything that was hers specifically. Also James Gordon Jnr is always intensely irritating to have around and I am never going to get over giving Babs a villain called ‘Knightfall’ in the run immediately after healing her back. Yes. I got the reference. It’s not that funny.
Birds of Prey – it’s hmmm still finding its feet. Lacks the soul of the original run, but there are flashes of the old magic occasionally. It is hilarious to me that they decided to merge Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance back into a single character for this run, creating a bizarre new ex-husband for Dinah in Kurt Lance (seriously, Kurt Lance, why do you exist you’re so weird) and then within 6 issues or so abruptly realised WHY Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance have been separate characters since 1983 and reinvented a new Dinah Drake mother for the character. Spectacular. Sheer evidence that nobody involved in new 52 was actually spending much time thinking about how an all new origin reboot would affect characterisation.
Batman – I have my differences with Scott Snyder over his run, but he at least manages to make things interesting and spend time interrogating Bruce’s identity. It feels in conversation with the Loeb and Dini storylines around Thomas Elliot and that whole crowd of elite Gothamites. Lots of interesting set ups let down by execution or obsession with conspiracy theories. Love his work with Harper Row as a character.
Batman & Robin – okay folk, I do agree, this is a far far better Batman & Robin run than 2009. I feel like I’ve spent more time with Damian showing me his character rather than being informed by Morrison via Alfred mouthpiece about Damian’s character. There’s some lovely character work in here. It’s still suffering from getting New 52ed but it’s honestly the first run anywhere that’s actually really good for Damian characterisation (plus or minus the Damian and Colin Wilkes fight Zsasz plot in Streets of Gotham or Gates of Gotham).
Batman Incorporated – fuck you Grant Morrison. Nobody reading this title is having a good time. If you’re here for actual Batman Inc characters well I’m sorry, they’re mostly standing around the sidelines of a plot about Bruce, Talia and Damian. If you’re here for Talia I’m so sorry for you. If you’re here to read Bruce and/or Damian you get like 3-4 sweet scenes that I am sure you have already seen in screencapped panels floating around with no context. DC would be a better place if this book hadn’t been approved (also Cyril might still be alive)
Nightwing – this comic so far is obsessed with Haly’s Circus. Now I don’t like the whole Talon retcon (I think it cheapens a lot of things about Dick’s backstory as a character) but I will admit it’s nice to see Dick spending time with his Haly’s Circus friends and Dick’s optimistic side coming out in the ‘let’s just rebuild Amusement Mile as a place that isn’t Joker-haunted!’ Tragically of course because we’re never allowed to have nice plotlines involving Haly’s Circus it gets blown up again and lots of people die. But at least Dick’s back to owning the circus, amirite? (For bizarre ‘Pop Haly left it to him in his will’ reasons rather than Dick buying it out with his inheritance money that is totally not one of the many occasions Bruce has lied to Dick and told him that this trust fund is 100% based on investments of his parents assets, rather than Bruce attempting to give Dick Wayne money again so he stops living out of cardboard boxes in a tiny apartment)
Red Hood and the Outlaws – I have now suffered through three whole issues of this comic (actually 4 but I paged through that one to read like one scene at the end) and it is determined to make me hate everyone involved with it in terms of its disrespect for Roy and Kory. Also all the issues kept trying to convince me that Jason and Tim have always been each others’ favourite brothers, which lol. (If that’s actually ever true for Jason it’s the most hilarisad thing ever).
Teen Titans – I made it through two issues for crossover purposes. I am tempted to come back as I think I will get some stuff out of it once I’ve finished my Teen Titans 2003 read (and look there does actually appear to be some things in here I may enjoy). Can’t believe Kurt Lance shows up in this comic. I swear he’s my new nemesis.
Suicide Squad – I am 100% not reading this comic, I only opened it for crossover issues. What have they done to Amanda Waller. (Also why is Harley Quinn trying to date Floyd Lawton, did editorial suddenly realise how many people are into his deep uh comradery with Thomas Blake and overreact trying to remove the gay cooties or something?)
Catwoman and Detective Comics – honestly I haven’t got a good enough read on either yet from the few issues I’ve read, but ‘Tec is running a Penguin plot and I’m not in the mood for a Penguin plot at the moment.
So far, my recommendations: Batwoman I recommend without hesitation. Batman & Robin has been embroidered in fans’ memories but is worthwhile in any case. Batman is interesting stories sometimes let down in execution and may actually read better if you avoid touching any tie-in issues for a readthrough.
Nightwing, Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle are “these are some of my favourite characters, I want to know even if I don’t always like it” reads. They’re still the same characters, just trapped in a maddening world.
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