Chapter Four
Masterlist
Danny gently brushed his fingers through Jason's hair, looking down at the relaxed face of his friend in sleep. He hadn’t expected Jason to fall asleep while in his presence for a very long time, let alone on him. It was a pleasant surprise that made Danny reflect on himself like only his paradise could, but he focused instead on the motions of brushing his fingers through the hair, too afraid of what he’d find if he looked inwards like instinct said to.
Eventually, his thoughts drifted, not being able to maintain focus on one thing for too long as his core had yet to settle from the adventure it took to get here. Finally getting used to his new job had helped, but his main obsession wasn’t getting fulfilled because his family was too far away. Even the family member closest of all was only close physically because Jason had no memory of the long journey they’d been on far before they’d met in this life.
Having all of these memories was so confusing, it threw everything he thought he knew about his life into the trash and set it on fire. Yes, he and his fright had always felt like they had instincts they couldn’t explain that were pushing them to gear up for some big thing that had turned out to be his death, but he’d found ways to reason away the crisis that would come from that. Jazz had always told him that his way of dealing with most trauma by ignoring its impact and joking or talking around it would come back to bite him, and it did. It really did.
More than that, his current internal crisis was about something so much bigger than just having to flee his home and not see his family for so long, after all the time travel he’d done that was nothing. It was- Danny stopped that thought in its tracks, he wasn’t ready. He’d learned long ago to build up to the most troubling thought because doing otherwise would upset the already precarious balance of his sanity.
Danny felt like he was being torn apart by not having someone else who remembered more than just this life. He would reference something, only to have to explain it to his fright or watch it sail right over the head of whoever else he was talking to. Danny wanted to talk about it, to reminisce about it with someone, anyone, but he couldn’t properly put some things into words. Even Ghost Speak, as impossible as it was, couldn’t properly convey his feelings sometimes because he had no real idea what he was feeling. Learning about his past by reliving it had been such a confusing experience, and he didn’t know how to deal with that.
His thoughts paused as he focused once again on gently brushing Jason’s hair with his fingers before racing back through time to think about the hour that had led up to this. It was another one of their spontaneous hangouts made possible by the fact that they lived so close to one another. Jason had shown up, grumbling about brothers who called stupidly early in the morning to talk about nothing, and Danny had chuckled lightly, letting Jason rant as much as he wanted, as he needed to. They’d settled onto the couch, Jason using Danny’s legs as a pillow because he kept falling over when he tried to sit up. In what seemed to be no time at all, Jason had dropped into sleep.
Danny’s thoughts turned inwards so suddenly his breath stalled for a couple seconds. The core, heh, of his internal struggle was the strange pressure he felt to forgive Maddie, and even Jack, for all the horrible things that happened just because they were family. After all, Danny’s main obsession was family, but his second obsession was freedom. Most people thought that the two things would clash far more often than they did, but they usually worked together, for Danny saw freedom as only worth it if there was someone to share it with, someone to have it for, hence why freedom was the secondary obsession.
Maddie had realized what was so wrong about her approach to life, and she’d done it in such a crushing manner that she nearly broke her mind. Everything had come crumbling down around her, and she’d apologized so much for her part in how everything went down, crying about how she’d never wanted to hurt anyone, least of all her children, and bemoaning everything that she’d done wrong. Maddie herself had told Danny that he never needed to forgive her for her part in everything, but Danny found himself trying to force that forgiveness anyway.
Jack had never apologized, never admitted any wrongdoing, never seen how many people he was hurting, never seen how much damage he was causing, and never stopped hunting Danny, but Danny’s core still yearned to forgive him, to bring the family back together. Danny acknowledged that Jack had done a lot of wrong in his life, but Danny still wanted to give him forgiveness that he hadn’t earned, hadn’t even tried to earn, all because he was family.
Neither of them needed forgiveness, Danny knew that. Maddie was working on forgiving herself while still repeating over and over that she would never pressure Danny into forgiving her, that forgiving her was his decision, but she didn’t fully understand what it meant to be Danny. Danny always felt pressured to keep the family together, to make the right decision, to keep his family happy to the extent that he didn’t know what to do with himself if he wasn’t doing anything for that. Jack didn’t even think he’d done anything that needed forgiving, and there was no way Danny would try to talk to Jack about that.
Danny knew all of this, yet he felt pressured to forgive things that shouldn’t be forgiven. His core demanded a family he could connect to, knowing he couldn’t contact his fright for now, too dangerous, knowing he couldn’t contact Maddie, too dangerous and still too hurtful and tearful, and knowing that he couldn’t contact Jack, too dangerous and too much attempted murder between them. Danny didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t want to forgive Maddie. She’d sworn long ago to keep her family safe, but the moment that someone accepted her ideas and her, she threw that out the window. Her thoughts had narrowed down to protecting Jack and his happiness, becoming just as obsessed as him about ghosts. At least she’d tried to stay on the sane side of it. She’d tried to pay attention to her children, but she couldn’t do much when she got absorbed into her work so quickly and so completely. He didn’t want to forgive someone who had proved time and time again that she was not dependable, that she was not to be trusted, that she would only break his heart. He didn’t want to forgive Maddie, yet he kept catching himself forcing his thoughts to call her Mom.
Admittedly, there was less pressure from his core to forgive Jack, but instead it played that what if game. That was a dangerous game to get into, especially for a ghost. Emotional damage was almost more damaging to a ghost than any other type of damage, so playing the what if game was like playing with his life. He knew that, yet logic was not the driving force he always went by. As the days passed, it got easier and easier to remember what Jack had done, to cast aside any lingering familial bonds with him.
The root of the problem then, was Maddie. Maddie, the person who actually kick started the whole adoption process when she found Jazz playing with young Danny at the park, the person who’d tried to take an interest in his interests for the first couple of months before getting swept away by the portal, the person who’d made Jack set aside time to put up the glow-in-the-dark stars to make Danny feel more comfortable, and the person who’d always tried to push Danny to do his best. Maddie, the person who’d shot at him with intent to heavily injure or kill, the person who’d ranted almost everywhere about the many ways she wanted to tear him apart molecule by molecule without knowing that it was him she was talking about, tainting every place they went with that memory, the person who’d made most of the more harmful inventions, the person who figured out that electricity hurt him more than most, and the person who’d turned most of the town against him in the early years. There was a sharp contradiction between the two Maddies in his head, but he knew from Jazz that separating Maddie like that was a trauma response.
The answer hit him with the same force his body had hit the wall. He couldn’t forgive Maddie, not so soon and maybe not ever. It just wasn’t possible for him, and trying to force it would only tear him apart. He couldn’t forgive someone who had done so much to him, and there was no way he would be talking to a therapist anytime soon due to his own issues, meaning that forgiveness would likely be a longer process once it finally got started. Even though the realization hurt, there was a sense of freedom building in his chest that swirled like glitter through his core. Finally, he felt settled in his own skin. The thought was a sweet lullaby that lured him into sleep.
~`~`~
Jason woke up gently, rising from the dreams to settle into his own body with a smooth feeling that was missing most of the time. He kept his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of peace that surrounded him while he tried to remember why he felt that way. Realizing it was because he fell asleep on Danny, his eyes snapped open and his face flushed. Sure enough, there was Danny, asleep with his head tilted over the back of the couch.
Danny seemed so peaceful in sleep, causing Jason to realize that there had been an invisible weight to his friend’s shoulders before now. Jason couldn’t help but stare, feelings swirling in his gut, unfamiliar ones. Jason’s brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what he was feeling. It was, was the odd mix of happy-peace-nerves-joy-meant-to-be that Jason had come to associate with Danny, but there was something more to it, some level that seemed to have been added while he watched them sleep. The meaning of it escaped him, but he didn’t want to spend too long thinking about that, preferring to spend this time memorizing every single bit of Danny’s face, not knowing when it would be possible to do so again.
In what seemed to be no time at all, Danny’s eyes were fluttering open, unfocused until they locked onto Jason’s with startling clarity. “Hey.” Jason whispered softly.
“Hey.” Danny’s response was just as soft and quiet, not carrying like it usually did.
Jason wanted to stay in this relaxed state forever, but he knew that they needed food. “Wanna get some Batburger?” Jason offered, not really wanting to cook at the moment and assuming Danny wouldn’t want to cook either.
Danny gave him a soft smile in response. “Sure.” And they separated to their separate apartments to get ready to leave.
~`~`~
When they walked into the Batburger, it was mostly empty save for the workers and a group of people in one of the corner booths, a group of people Jason recognized. He nearly groaned but held back, not wanting to be seen by them. Danny walked up to the counter and Jason followed, trying not to get noticed by the group even though he knew it was inevitable. Against all odds they made it through the ordering process, Danny continuing their odd trend of not ordering any fries, but Jason knew that the good luck would not hold.
Sure enough, as the two of them were choosing their drinks, a voice called from the only other customers in the store, “Jason! Jason, is that you?!” Jason groaned at Dick’s obviously played up tone of hurt. He debated whether or not to ignore Dick, quickly coming to the conclusion that doing so would only make everything worse.
“Is that the one you were complaining about when you knocked on my door?” Danny suddenly asked in his ear. It was a testament to Jason’s skill that he managed not to jump, although he did lean away.
“Yeah.. that’s him.” He muttered. “Is your eyesight finally failing you old man?” Jason called back to his brother the irritant, enjoying Dick’s betrayed gasp even if it was fake.
Despite Jason’s words, when it came time for Danny and him to pick a spot to sit, he walked towards the table where Dick, Damian, and Tim sat. Tim had clearly been bribed with coffee to be there, but Dick and Damian were probably on one of their brotherly bonding outings, which usually weren’t held in Crime Alley, meaning that Tim was also bribed with a chance to run into Danny. Great. That meant such good things for this meal, not.
True enough, they were barely settled into their seats when Dick burst into words once more. “Hello, my name’s Dick, this is Damian, and the one falling asleep where he sits is Tim! I wasn’t aware that Jason had any new friends recently, so I don’t know your name, sorry!” Dick flashed his blindingly brilliant Dickie smile while maintaining his hurt expression when he looked at Jason, obviously, to anyone who knew Dick at least, trying to put Danny at ease.
“Interesting choice of words there.” Danny’s tone was neutral, expression almost bored as he met Dick’s eyes with a tilt to his head.
“Huh?” Dick blinked, clearly thrown off by this unexpected reaction.
Danny simply tilted his head in the other direction, eyes still locked on Dick’s as they sharpened. “You apologized for not knowing my name, despite clearly assuming that Jason hadn’t told me about you. You automatically assumed I was a friend of Jason’s, not an acquaintance, not someone who he owed a favor to, not just someone who he fights with, but a friend. You didn’t specify which one was Damian, relying on the fact that I wouldn’t interrupt you to give clarity with describing Tim, who, by the way, doesn’t look like he’s falling asleep where he sits, rather like he’s retreated into his thoughts. You introduced yourself first with the tone of someone who expects people to look at you weirdly due to your name, or maybe just treat you differently for your name, probably trying to get it out of the way and likely already having a funny retort pulled up in your mind. You also didn’t share any extra information about Damian other than a fond tone, pointing towards you expecting me to know about him, and by extension all of you, likely from news sources or Jason. In short, you said what you said the way you said it to appear properly social while fishing for clues about who I am, maybe even leading into an interrogation gentle enough to be written off as just the type a concerned brother would give here in Gotham.” Danny blinked, seemingly caught off guard by his own words. “Sorry, force of habit. My sister used to quiz me about people based on how they talked as a way to double check her own thoughts before she got good enough at reading people that she didn’t feel that it was necessary anymore, then it became more of a game. Guess I’m more tired than I thought.”
Dick sat stunned for several long minutes, looking like what Jason felt the first time Danny had done that when tired. It hadn’t happened often, but it was always shocking when it did. Amused, Jason looked at the other two people at the booth, seeing a similar shocked expression on Tim’s face, who also no longer looked as tired, but Damian didn’t look at all like Jason expected. There was no shock in his expression or body language, rather amusement and some things Jason couldn’t quite define. It sent a disquieted feeling slithering up Jason’s spine, but that was normal when it came to the Demon Brat.
“If anyone could deduce so much about you, Richard, then you must be slipping.” Damian huffed out.
“Are you saying that I couldn’t do the same to you Damian Wayne?” There was an odd emphasis put on Damian’s last name that Jason hadn’t heard before, not from Danny at least. There was also a new light in Danny’s eyes, though this was one that Jason recognized, the spark of a worthy challenge.
Just like that, it was like the world fell away for the two of them, and Jason suddenly felt like an outsider who was ignorant of the world. He couldn’t explain why he felt that way, but he did. Damian didn’t respond past a raised eyebrow, but Danny just kept staring the same, although Jason felt like something in the air had changed even if Danny hadn’t. The green that had lain quiet for so long suddenly roared its head, and Jason redirected his eyes to his hands that were clutching the edge of the table so hard his fingers were white.
“Order for Todd.” All the tension in the room suddenly snapped, and everyone at the table turned towards the front counter where the words had come from, numbly Jason walked over and got the two trays of his and Danny’s food. He nodded his thanks to the worker and turned back to the table, keeping his eyes on the floor for a reason he didn’t know, which was rapidly becoming the normal sensation of the day.
When Jason got back to the table, things felt so much looser, more free than before, although no one was talking. Setting the trays on the table, it was like whatever was keeping anyone from speaking snapped. “What do you do for a living?” Tim burst out before his mind appeared to catch up to his mind and he flushed slightly, yet still watched Danny, determined to have the question answered now that it was asked.
“Oh, I work at Arkham as an assistant head guard for the Rogue Wing. It basically just means that I do most of the same work as a regular guard with a couple of added responsibilities and a bit more paperwork. I actually didn’t mean to apply for anything over a regular guard, considering I’m a little on the young side, but the person who referred me to the job handed me an assistant head guard form. I didn’t even know what position I applied for until my interview.” Danny chuckled the last line, clearly wandering in the past a little as they stopped talking to devour a burger, one of four on their tray.
“Why didn’t you order any fries? Sorry, weird question, but I’m curious.” Dick tried his best to seem sheepish, but Jason saw through that for the attempted ice breaker it was.
Danny hummed as he washed the burger down with a sip from his soda. “No fry can ever compare to the fries at my local burger joint growing up, so I never bother to order fries anywhere else.” Danny clearly saw that more questions were about to be asked because he quickly kept talking. “The fries there were so good that a pair of inventors literally made an invention specifically to keep them at the perfect temperature, although the fries were good cold too. Rumor has it that wars have been fought over the recipe behind those fries, although no one can say whether or not this is true.” Danny had leaned in, voice gaining intensity like the best of storytellers, drawing his audience in. Jason had leaned in too, and he saw his brothers had done the same. “It’s been said that the burgers are absolutely nasty, but the fries make ordering combos worth it because it makes the fries cheaper. I’ve heard a tale or two of one man who ate nothing but those fries for a solid year and proclaimed he was all the better for it.” Danny smiled at them like he’d just told a massive joke or revealed a big secret and leaned back in his chair, not even looking as his hands unwrapped the next burger. “Of course,” his tone was lighter now, seeming to let the air back into the space around the occupants of the table, enabling them to draw their first real breath since Danny had gone all intense, “this is all rumor, none of it is confirmed as fact.”
“What’s the restaurant’s name?” Dick whispered, clearly drawn in by Danny’s behaviour.
“Not telling.” Danny said with a smile, digging into the second burger while Dick made a hurt gasp that was only half acting this time.
“Why are you guys even here? You usually stay out of Crime Alley.” Jason decided to steer the conversation back on track, not wanting to get stuck in the endless hole of the weird conversations Danny could hold, not today.
“We were thinking about showing up to your apartment unannounced. Richard wanted to whine about you not spending more time with the family as a means of getting you to agree to coming over to the Manor next Wednesday. Alfred has promised to make some of your favorite meals if you agree, and Father asks that you extend the offer to your new friend, although I did try to inform him that you have not confirmed whether or not your new neighbor is a friend.” Damian kept his tone straight to the point, even as his eyes hid some amusement over the whole thing as Dick gasped about betrayal beside him.
Jason pretended to think it over. “All you had to mention was Alfred’s offer and I’d be there.” Jason turned to Danny. “They’re going to bug you about visiting until you do, are you free and willing to go Wednesday?” Jason already knew what the answer would be, but he asked the question anyway, something about seeing Tim get intrigued about a new mystery seemed funny.
“Nah, I’m busy that day. I’ve got to work some of the odd hours, and every other hour is taken up by an activity. ‘M booked.” Danny didn’t even pretend to consider it as he washed down the remnants of the last burger, eating fast like he always did in public. “Although I have heard you wax poetic about Alfred’s cooking so it is tempting.
The meal was filled with innocent questions as Danny watched them all eat. It would have seemed odd to Jason, but he’d grown used to the way Danny lived his life. Through the meal, Jason watched Dick become more comfortable in Danny’s presence, only really noticeable to those who knew him, but Jason somehow knew Danny knew that Dick was becoming more at ease. All attempts to find the source of why he knew left him with a headache, so he quickly abandoned the thought. Tim also relaxed, although Jason was sure this was mostly faked to put Danny at ease. Tim preferred long periods of observation to make sure people he found suspicious were actually okay people. Damian was even more of an enigma than usual, making references that were heavily veiled behind things he would usually say, and amusement was a frequent visitor of the deep depths of his eyes.
Suddenly, Danny got an alert that had him settling his expression into a serious one. “I have to go.” Danny stood up, abruptly cutting off the easy conversation that had been flowing before. “There’s been a breakout, Joker, Harley, Ivy, and Penguin have gotten out. The other assistant head guard is dead, so I’m being called in.” He looked around at them with no real emotion on his face, making Jason repress a shiver. “I wouldn’t stay on the streets for long. My coworker told me Joker was in a funny mood.” With that, Danny took off.
Jason, Dick, Damian, and Tim looked at each other, many emotions flickering between them as they silently conversed. Without another word, they sprung up, tossing everything left on their trays, which was mostly just some wrappers, and they bolted for the safehouse nearby that held a spare of all their gear. Jason hoped Danny stayed safe before putting all thoughts of his friend out of his mind, focusing on the task at hand. Jason hoped that Gotham was ready for whatever the Joker had in store for them.
As soon as everyone was suited up, Jason turned on his comm. “O. We have insider information that Joker, Harley, Ivy, and Penguin have broken out of Arkham, get everyone on.”
There was a flurry of activity and words as everyone else booted up into high gear, a breakout that involved Joker didn’t spell anything good. Finally, B’s voice came over the line, “Hood, report.”
A/N: I’m still not entirely happy with the ending, but I cut it there because I was starting to get way too frustrated with the chapter. I may edit this a bit for when I post it to AO3 eventually, but I’m just vibing on tumblr for now. Sorry this took so long.
Taglist: @blacksea21090 @chrysanthemum9484 @samgirl98 @may-rbi @justwannaseesomebrozawa @serasvictoria02 @treepainting @fluffykster @enderglace @sigdexae @persephoneblackrose @angelofsongsoteira @lazy-bouqet @littlefeather345 @icedbluesoul @autumnwulf @thefearfullone @alixanterm @skulld3mort-1fan @dulceringo @vidimirrayne @betinaplayingwriter @the-legal-shipper @currant-owo @crystalqueertea @fisticuffsatapplebees @bugaboo25 @dannyphantomphan @botwadtict @kyrianclawraith @mnemovoid @lyra689 @demiourgias
180 notes
·
View notes
Some important stuff in regards to the harassment of developers came from Bungie today. They won a lawsuit against a guy who repeatedly harassed a community manager and his family (not fully confirmed in the official document, but people are fairly certain this is about A_dmg and his family). This is a twitter thread from the lawyer who went into some details about the situation. The court document is also available to read (featuring some of the horrific harassment tactics that were motivated by racism and also used racism as part of the harassment so be advised if you want to read).
This isn't just a win for the individual community manager and Bungie, but also has potential to set a bigger precedent in the future. It's basically the first time this has been done to this extent and some ruling in this case made it clear that companies can pursue this sort of legal action in the future if their employees are harassed and threatened. This is HUGE because the protection of employees in the gaming industry has been abysmal otherwise. This case will allow for the company to file a lawsuit on behalf of their employees in cases of harassment.
Before I add some of the more heinous stuff about this situation below, I want to say that the majority of reactions to this are positive. People are happy that this happened as it did and a lot of people are excited about potential big influence this will have in the future to combatting harassment of this type in the gaming industry.
Extra details and thoughts below (racism tw):
This started because the community manager highlighted a black content creator, Uhmayyze, who is himself a victim of harassment more often than not (usually of racist nature). He is most often harassed because he is unapologetically positive for which people have continuously sent him awful shit and comments. Because he enjoys the game and isn't jumping on the hate train. Just recently he commended Bungie for a ban wave and had hundreds of people hound him on twitter for his comment, including Gladd who started it by specifically replying to Uhmayyze and putting him on blast (warning for a lot of gross comments, including photoshopped screenshots of fake discord texts to make Uhmayyze look bigoted, nsfw images, r slur, suicide baiting and so on). This is important because the incident of real life harassment was fuelled over a community manager highlighting a content creator that is himself being harassed and despised online for the crime of... being positive. And you know, for being black. This situation isn't an isolated incident. The community, including other content creators, are absolutely horrible towards this one person that they feel, I guess, does not follow the content creator NPC questline of hating Bungie and Destiny.
So of course, at some point, someone from that crowd will feel confident and justified taking things further. How dare Bungie promote this person they hate. How dare they focus on a positive creator. They're clearly biased and don't want to listen to criticism, only to "toxic positivity" streamer. How dare a community manager highlight this creator. It's a personal slight to them, and "proof" that Bungie is bad and evil and "ignoring criticism." There's someone out there (and probably not the only one) that hates this creator and the game so much they were willing to harass and threaten a community manager and his family in real life.
The community manager was first harassed by phone with text messages and voice mails featuring racist bile, including apparently a voice mail telling him to "convince Bungie to create options in its game in which only persons of color would be killed." This is the worst part for me and super concerning in general, as well as showing the dedication of this person to racism, motivated by his hatred of a black creator (which also, by proxy, technically makes the streamer being harassed as well). Absolutely ghoulish behaviour.
This escalated to also harassing the CM's wife and resulted in doxing them; the harasser somehow found their address. Most of the reports on this will say that the asshole "sent them pizza" which doesn't truly capture how horrific the incident was. First, it's a random guy who has your address which is concerning enough given that he harasses you by phone already. Apparently the pizza was made to be "inedible" and the delivery was instructed to bang loudly on the door upon arrival to maximise discomfort. The order was also deliberately made to be paid on delivery to create as much pain for the victims as possible. The harasser also kept track of the delivery and then called the family again when it was done to tell them to "enjoy the pizza." The family immediately contacted Bungie who contacted the police and provided the family with protection. There's no telling how this would've escalated had they not been in the position to call Bungie and had Bungie not reacted to them asking for help. It's absolutely crucial here that Bungie is the type of a company willing to immediately assist in this situation.
Immediately following that, Bungie organised a long and expensive manhunt to identify the harasser and bring them court. That's where most of the expenses went; finding the culprit and protecting the employee and his family. This is the money Bungie earned back by this court decision because they could prove that the expenses were caused by a person harassing and threatening their employee.
This is a big win overall for the whole industry. It's Bungie setting a precedent on how a company should protect its employees. No matter what people think about Bungie or big corporations or whatever, this is how you can use a lot of money and power to make sure that your workers have rights to decency and safety. That's huge for the rights of workers and worker protections. I hope it becomes a standard and that any future harassment is prevented altogether or at least punished accordingly.
Naturally, the commentary on the news from a big part of the community is super positive. Unfortunately, there's also a part of the community that has a lot of really awful shit to say about this. The comments on twitter are littered with people who are using THIS specific moment to yell about Bungie being a greedy corporation, how the money they won should be used to "fix the servers" and "make more pvp maps" or how Bungie will greedily put this money "into Eververse" or "into Marathon." There's comments about how time was uselessly spent protecting an employee who should expect harassment anyway, instead of working on "fixing the game."
This is what I mean when I talk about how impossible it is in the current situation to have a meaningful discussion about any sort of criticism or feedback. There's thousands of comments from people who think that this specific instance shows how Bungie is greedy. This is what I mean when I say that none of these people actually understand what they're talking about. You can't make proper criticism when you can't separate game development with a company's legal effort to stop an escalating harassment campaign of an employee. The majority of gamers are simply not fit to offer any criticism or feedback. The idea that we all have something useful to say and that employees at Bungie are obliged to give us their time of the day is simply incorrect.
I genuinely 100% stand by the claim that the recent barrage of content creators promoting the idea that Bungie is "the greediest company in the world that's scamming players and increasing costs out of greed" as well as the idea that Bungie is "abandoning Destiny for Marathon, isn't working on the game anymore and is deliberately ruining it" is the reason for these comments existing. If a big streamer said that Bungie is getting too much money but also not doing anything "good" with it, then any money that Bungie receives (including compensation for expenses they took to protect an employee from active harm) is a result of greed. The nuance of any situation is lost; when you only learn the mantra of "company has money therefore company bad" you WILL end up causing harm for people and you will most definitely not be an advocate of workers rights. That's where we're at right now.
The dehumanisation of people who work at Bungie (and the harassment itself) is a consequence of this crap and other similar crap that's been thrown into the ether for the past year, disguised as "we're just offering feedback." People heard that Bungie is a "microtransaction hell" and that Bungie is only investing in Eververse and Marathon and they feel like this story reflects that; they feel like an employee being harassed is not deserving of proper condemnation and that this isn't important enough and that Bungie is a greedy corpo anyway so who cares about that. They do not understand how companies work, how games are made, the state of the industry as a whole (or the world as a whole), the treatment of employees or workers' rights, and you cannot meaningfully critique a company's business practices without understanding that. And they don't because they think that legal expenses used to protect victims, finding a culprit and bringing their ass to court is money that is being used for game development and that Bungie receiving this money should result in... new pvp maps or "fixed servers."
And there's even seemingly good commentary where people recognise how this is good, but they initiate the comment with "As much as I hate Bungie and Destiny and I think they're awful and greedy and destroying gaming as a whole..." : that's not the time and place. You don't have to excuse your support of a big win for potential new employee protection policies just because those policies are done by a company. Of course it is. Companies are the only ones capable of pursuing this sort of legal action. It's one good way a big company can put their power and money into a good place to actually help people and bring forth positive change. And like, you don't have to tell us how much you despise Bungie before you're "allowed" to admit that this is good news. Sometimes companies do good stuff. It's literally not that complicated.
I hope that this situation will help other employees demand the same protection, that other companies will follow suit and that this will also make potential other harassers rethink whether or not they will engage in this or similar type of behaviour. In the meantime, know that the community is largely positive about this, but that there are still absolutely detestable human beings who should feel ashamed of their reaction to this. They shouldn't feel welcome here. And there's still people doing this to the devs and I hope Bungie takes their asses to court too.
132 notes
·
View notes