#bruce is not the 'lesser' person for not killing. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nerdpoe · 2 months

Note

3 Fanon ideas to make a prompt from :)

1). Ectoplasm is Lazarus Water but purified

2). Ghosts can retreat to their cores

3). Protocore Jason AU

Danny has to retreat into his core, Jason somehow finds him and absorbs it. It looks like Jason is pregnant as his own ecto is being purified and then given to Danny's Core.

Enjoy:)

This is a full prompt, though? Okay I'll write mpreg. Gonna bypass that "looks" and make it an "is" though, throwin in some reincarnation and trans Jay.

~~~~~~

Jason was doing one last round before he left for Gotham. Before he left to prove a point. To teach Bruce a lesson he'd never forget.

He wasn't sentimental, no, he was just checking to make sure he wasn't forgetting any sickass weapons that may have fallen behind a dresser or something.

"Todd," a small, imperious voice demanded from behind him. "Observe my new pet rock."

Jason sighed and stood up to humor the little demon.

The kid was holding a weird glowing, cracked orb. It was radiating frost, and Damian had to use cloth between his hands and the magic stone.

"Damian," Jason started, keeping his voice level. "Where did you get that?"

The kid sniffed with all the superiority of a spoiled brat, looking proud and holding the obviously enchanted stone higher.

"Since Grandfather and Mother say that animals as pets would be a weakness, I decided to search the lesser treasure room for a suitable inanimate pet."

Jason sucked in air through his teeth in a soft hiss. There was no "lesser" treasure room; there was the "safe" treasure and the "unknown" treasure. Where was Talia when he needed her?

"Look, kid, I don't think-" Jason started, reaching for the weird rock, just as Damian started pulling away.

"-You are jealous that I have this rock and you do not-"

"-Damian, please, just hand over the fucking-"

"-Cease your attempted theft this instant-"

"-Damian come here you little shit-"

Jason tripped. Damian tripped. The weird rock went into the air...and landed on Jason's chest. It melted into him with a sharp flash of pain.

And that was that.

Damian stared at Jason's stomach, aghast.

"You stole my rock!"

By the time Talia arrived to see what was keeping Jason so long, he and Damian were rolling on the ground biting each other.

~~~~~~

Months later, Jason was beyond ready to murder the newest Robin. He'd originally planned to just beat the shit out of the kid, but he'd been having a rough time.

He was losing his carefully crafted abs.

He was getting soft.

Normally that was whatever, but he was trying to be intimidating, and being soft in any way was definitely going to trigger the dysphoria he thought he'd outrun.

It made no sense; he worked out daily, had started eating on a caloric deficit, drank nothing but water, and made sure what he ate was home-cooked.

Then, one month before go-time with Timmy, he'd started getting nauseous.

He felt bloated, tired, hungry, and most of all; pissed.

As he stalked through the Tower that the newest Robin was hiding in, he may have, perhaps, let the millions of small annoyances pile into one big rage filled pity party with a kid as the target.

It really didn't help that he hadn't been able to don his replica of his own Robin costume, because he...he had pudge. He didn't fit in it.

It was infuriating.

He knew it wasn't little TimTams fault, but he was gonna take his rage out on someone, and the kid was the unfortunate closest person he had beef with.

Was he overreacting? Probably.

But it was lash out or cry, and he refused to cry.

On top of everything, the one thing that had helped with any of the symptoms, the extra purified Lazarus Water that Talia had given him to 'act as an emergency first aide', was gone. He'd drank it all.

With that supply out, he was.

Well.

He was going to kill little Timmy, fuck the consequences.

But little Timmy was...doing a very good job of staying completely out of sight. The kid had been acting far more neurotic than he normally did, only letting out a small gasp when he'd seen Red Hood and immediately darted into some sort of weird hidey hole.

Jason hadn't been able to find him since.

The kid had added his own gopher network to the Tower, fuck.

The speaker system crackled on, just as Jason was about to start laying down bombs.

"Red Hood, please consider your condition. Do not do anything that would raise your blood pressure, or uh..." the newest Robin's voice trailed off, keyboard audibly clacking as he looked something up. "...Or eat peas? No, that can't be right. Whatever, look, just stay calm, take a breather, and don't overstress yourself. It's not good for the uh. The second...yeah. Not good. Do not do. Why am I so dumb sounding when it comes to things like this? Shoulda gotten Steph..."

The kids voice trailed off as he berated himself, but Jason was too busy fighting off the horribly dawning realization of what the kid was saying.

Which couldn't be true, because there was no way for the kid to know, and Jason hadn't had sex in...well. Years.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Jason gasped, thanking his past self for putting the vocoder in his helmet. It sounded far more threatening.

"Oh. Uh. During one of your fights with Batman, you got glanced by something sharp, and there was a little blood. Don't worry though! I didn't tell Batman! I just wanted to see if I could figure it out on my own! So I ran your blood and now I...know. That was actually probably like, really invasive. Sorry Jason."

Jason knew the fight the little Bird was talking about. He'd had a random wave of vertigo, barely dodged a batarang. He'd had to do his own stitches afterwards.

"...You know? Know what?"

"Okay, I should clarify. I didn't tell Batman, but I kinda needed help scrubbing everything, so I had to ask Oracle to help, so she knows, and she couldn't keep it from Nightwing, because he's felt super guilty about how he treated you, but Batman definitely does not know."

Jason sat down on the nearest chair, feeling like the wind had been ripped from his sails. He took the helmet off and dropped in on the ground in favor of running a hand through his hair.

"How can you be sure B doesn't know it's me?" He rasped, staring at nothing.

"Because can you imagine he'd leave you alone for a second if he knew you were alive, much less up the duff?"

Jason had nothing to say to that. Either Ra's had been up to some fucked up experiments while he'd been asleep, or he was the victim of miraculous conception.

The newest Robin was rambling over the speakers, but Jason ignored him and held his head in his hands. The glowing orb flashed through his mind, and Jason didn't even have the energy to curse Damian for doing stupid kid shit.

He was just thankful that the kid hadn't been a viable host.

"Tim, shut up. Do you have an ultrasound machine here?" Jason interrupted, steeling himself. He was an adult sort of, one year before it was technically true, and he could freak out later.

It was time to do adult things.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Why? Has your gyno not done one yet?"

"Don't have one, didn't know. Where is it?"

"...I probably should have broken that news to you like, way softer."

~~~~~~

Jason was...pulling back. His criminal empire was still growing strong, and he was making a shit ton of money from it, but he was pulling back from actively provoking Batman.

As much as he wanted B to be the one to kill the Joker, he knew that the older man probably wouldn't do that, and Jason wasn't going to risk getting anywhere near that maniac while he was pregnant.

Batman had certainly noticed the change in behavior, but whenever he tried to intrude into Crime Alley, Nightwing or Robin would intercept him.

Jason.

Jason wasn't sure what he wanted to do about Bruce.

Dick was slowly earning forgiveness for his pas actions, piece by piece. Tim was surprisingly good at being supportive, and Jason's hatred for him was starting to wear away to the realization that this was just a kid.

Oracle, whoever she was, had apparently designed the best security system in the world and quietly renovated an apartment into a safehouse, just for him.

He hated the charity, but it was better than what he could make at the moment with how many enemies he'd gained.

As the months passed by, he found himself hiding away in the gifted apartment more and more.

The dysphoria was...bad.

There were no more mirrors in the apartment.

The kid, which the ultrasound confirmed they were, was a small one, thank fuck. His belly had popped out, true to most pregnancies, but it was relatively contained.

It was still enough to make a horrible sense of wrongness almost knock him off his feet every time he looked down.

He was, essentially, useless.

If it wasn't for the trio of well-meaning extended family (maybe? he had his suspicions about Oracle), he probably would have just laid down on the floor of his apartment and not gotten up.

Tim, surprisingly, had adopted some stupid Alvin Draper alias and was running his crime network in his stead. He was doing a concerningly good job, actually, and Jason and Dick had exchanged more than one worried glance over the kid's head.

Dick had moved in, citing that Bruce was getting suspicious and it was easier to pretend that he'd moved back to Gotham than it was to continually make up excuses. In reality, he was making sure Jason didn't lay down and rot, keeping him active and healthy.

Jason was...trying. He was trying. But between needing to stop HRT and the changes and his fucking voice and just. Everything. All of it.

He hated it.

But he still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the kid.

Dick and Tim had set up a nursery, just in case. Dick had also surreptitiously reached out to the Kents, also just in case. There was no judgement. If he decided to keep the kid or give it away, it would be well taken care of.

That should have been a weight off his shoulders.

But instead, he felt like he was getting worse.

He was so, so fucking tired. He was starving but he couldn't stomach the food Dickwing put in front of him. He had worked so hard to build his criminal empire, but when Tim tried to tell him about it he couldn't focus long enough understand what was being said. He knew that they were getting more and more concerned, and when he woke up one morning and vomited straight Lazarus Water, Tim snapped.

"I'm calling B."

"Tim, no, we can-"

"-No, Dick, we need to figure out what's going on! This isn't something Leslie can handle, we need Bruce!"

Maybe it was just something buried deep inside Jason, but he agreed. He wanted his dad, not a doctor. He didn't care about Tim's reasoning, he just. He agreed. He wanted Bruce.

"Do it," Jason rasped from the floor, leaning into the cold tile. "Get B."

~~~~~~

Jason was still on the bathroom floor when a set of far, far heavier footsteps paused at the doorway.

The wood from the doorframe creaked as whoever it was tightened their grip on it.

Their breathing stuttered. They swallowed.

The footsteps continued, and they knelt next to Jason, wordlessly running their fingers through his hair.

"Hey Jaylad," Bruce whispered, voice tight and controlled even as his hand shook. "Looks like you've got a bit of a situation. Wanna tell me what happened?"

"Got knocked up by a magic rock," Jason muttered, thoroughly enjoying the hand in his hair. "But it ain't going right, and I'm tired and hungry all the time, and I'm throwing up the Lazarus Pits."

"The magic rock info is new," he heard Tim mutter from the hall, right before he was forcibly shushed by Dick.

"Did you have any weird cravings? Any symptoms that don't normally match a pregnancy?" Bruce asked, keeping his voice calm and controlled even as he lifted Jason from the floor and into his lap. "Should I get Constantine on the phone?"

Jason let it happen, turning to hide his face from the shitshow that had been his life for the past six months and shoving it into Bruce's stupid fancy shirt.

"Had Lazarus water. Drank it. I'm hungry but I can't eat anything. I can hear the kid chirp sometimes."

"Like a bird? That's adora-"

"-Shut up Dick not now!"

"You shut up!"

"You...drank. Lazarus Water." Bruce repeated, voice stilted as he clearly started working through something in his head. "I....hm. Okay. I'm...I'm going to call Constantine." Jason couldn't help the snort at the clear distaste in Bruce's voice as he said that.

He expected Bruce to put him down and go get changed into his Batman kit.

He did not expect Bruce to adjust his hold, lean back onto the cabinets, and make the call then and there.

~~~~~~

Constantine was officially unofficially his doctor for the duration of his pregnancy.

That was not something that anyone wanted, Bruce especially.

Jason wanted to throw up and aim it at the Hellblazer, but he had a feeling the man had been covered in worse and would, at best, be unfazed.

At worst, tempted to just smear it on Jason to prove a point.

The Mage of the hour himself was hovering over Jason, eyes unfocused as his glowing hands rested on the despised baby bump.

Jason was laying on the couch, trying not to let the sound of Bruce's pacing drive him up a wall.

"That," Constantine started, head tilting as if he was listening to something. "That is a core. And a baby. And another core. Two Ghost Cores, two bodies. If you're meetin' the needs of the physical, and you're still havin' issues, prolly need to see to the spritual, love."

"Don't call him love," Bruce warned, pausing his pacing long enough to glare at the Mage.

Constantine didn't bother to acknowledge him.

"Don't suppose you've got any spare Lazarus Water lying around, eh?" The man asked instead, eyes refocusing as he removed his hands from Jason's person.

Jason shook his head, but Tim nodded his.

Everyone stared at Tim.

Tim shrugged.

"What? It's under the city. Not like anyone will miss it if we take some."

"How. Tim, how do you know that?" Dick asked, sounding a little scared.

"Because I found it? I tried throwing dead rats in it but it doesn't work on rats, so I tried larger dead animals that had gotten down there-"

"-B you've raised Dr. Frankenstein," Jason groaned, covering his eyes from the realities of a mad scientist little brother.

"But I'm not an undead being stitched together?" Tim asked.

"You uncultured swine," Jason snarled, practically throwing himself into a sitting position and was quickly met with Constantine trying to wrangle him back down. "It's common fucking knowledge that Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster, and if you paid any attention in English class-"

"-I'm gonna go get Lazarus Water okay bye!" Tim shouted, bolting for the door.

~~~~~~

Jason drank his fifth juice pack of Lazarus Water, finally starting to feel like himself again, and stared at Bruce.

Bruce, to his credit, was clearly trying very hard not to stare back.

Jason imagined this was rather hard, given that he couldn't stop fucking purring. Apparently, that was a Thing that his body could and would do, according to his unofficial doctor.

Dick and Tim were helping Constantine put the Lazarus Water into the juice packets, all of them desperately pretending that they weren't there at all and trying to be as quiet as possible.

"So, Hellblazer. Nothing to say about the Big Bad Batman?" Jason asked, eyes never leaving said man.

"Not particularly any of my business, mate. I don't really care one way or another."

Bruce actually looked a little put out at that, much to Jason's satisfaction.

"I imagine you have questions," Jason sighed, finishing off his juice pack.

Bruce finally turned to look at him head on, gaze steady.

"They can wait. Do you have any plans for...this?" Bruce didn't motion towards Jason's stomach, but he didn't have to.

"...Maybe. I don't even really know what this is." Jason muttered, sinking further into his chair.

"I told you, love, it's a baby. With a ghost core. It was probably an adult ghost, at one point, but if it was cracked near as bad as you say, it was either reincarnate or disappear." Constantine shrugged, taping another stupid tiny straw to another juice box and moving to repeat the action. "Either way, since it's reincarnation, the baby ain't gonna know tit from tat. 'S just a baby."

That. Damn. If he'd been faced with the same choice, he probably would have done the same thing.

"You keep saying that. What does a ghost core do when it's in a human?" Bruce asked, knuckles white on the couch's armrest.

"Dunno, haven't seen it before. Heard of it, though. Just makes the person powerful, but now sure how much. Flight is definitely gonna be there, though, so I'd ask supes for some pointers." Constantine answered without really answering, true to form for him.

Jason heaved himself up and waved everyone off as they started to get to their own feet to help him. "I'm gonna take a nap. Snipe at each other in here and don't fucking bother me."

~~~~~~

Jason was disgusting.

Alfred and Bruce and everyone else assured him he wasn't, but he absolutely was.

It was so bad he'd gone ahead and, without informing anybody, arranged for an induced labor at Gotham General as soon as he could.

He didn't want to deal with Dick getting scared and frantic, or Tim overplanning and having a mental breakdown, or Bruce's rigid shoulders as he both tried to apologize and do something stupid like take over from the actual doctor.

Alfred would probably be composed, but if Alfred acted a little off then they'd know.

Hell, Jason had started getting some Braxdon hicks contractions and he swore he watched Bruce's hair grey in real time.

So at the eight and a half month mark, Jason lied to everyone and told them he was going to another safehouse to get away from their coddling.

He ignored their objections and reached for the keys to his car-

-and pissed himself.

Or, it felt like he did.

The apartment went dead silent as everyone looked down.

Then the contractions really hit.

~~~~~~

Bruce actually did try to take over the maternity ward and do the doctors jobs.

Jason was delighted to have an excuse to kick him out.

He couldn't force the man to avenge his murder, but he could make him wait in the waiting room like the rest of the peasants.

Alfred he allowed to stay, though.

~~~~~~

Jason still hadn't decided what to do with the kid.

He didn't know if he was gonna send them off to a farm or if he was gonna keep them.

So he let himself hold them, to see if any of the disgust he'd felt during the pregnancy had been directed at the kid or if it was all just him hating how he looked.

The little bean of a child, eyes bluer than his own, proceeded to free one arm to pull on Jason's bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.

Ah.

Nah, the hatred had been towards how he looked.

This one was his, the Kents could get visitation rights.

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samgirl98 · 10 months

Text

Zombie Son 2/2

Batman stared at the pictures of Joker’s dead body. Something wasn’t adding up.

The official reports said that Joker had been killed by a guard at Arkham when there had been a breakout. However, Batman had never seen that guard before, and he disappeared right after killing Joker.

The shot had been a single bullet to the head. Almost like an assassin had done it instead of a random security guard who would’ve been scared mindless. Something told Batman this had been done professionally; it was too clean, too quick.

“Still looking at the pictures of Joker’s body?” Dick walked in wearing a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt, “maybe you should let it go and count your blessings.”

“Hn,” he grunted. Batman, no Bruce, couldn’t let it go. This is the man that killed his child. Joker was dead now, and he had to know who and why. Batman pulled up the death report again, and he heard Dick sigh.

“Seriously, can you at least go to sleep? The case will be there when you wake up tomorrow.”

He ignored Dick; Bruce didn’t want to admit to his eldest that sleeping had become an ordeal after Joker’s death. He only saw Jason’s limp body; he heard his son’s cry asking for him, only to get there too late. No, working on the Joker’s murder was more productive than sleeping.

“Bruce, you’ve been up for almost thirty hours; go to sleep.”

Bruce looked up when he heard the ping. He had run the guard’s face through a facial recognition program, and it had finally found a match.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dick said.

It was time for Batman to talk to Waller.

____

Amanda Waller was drinking a cup of wine when Batman entered her office.

“What do you want, rich boy?”

“You put a hit out on the Joker. Why?”

Waller sipped her wine and answered, “I have no idea what you mean.”

Batman threw two pictures on her desk.

“Mark Burkhardt, he works for you, and he was the one who shot the Joker. So, once again, why did you put a hit on the Joker?”

“Listen, Batboy, what the US government does is none of your concern.”

“Anything that happens in my city is my concern.”

“I would’ve thought you’d be happy he’s dead, considering what he did to Robin number two.”

Batman clenched his fists. Waller knew she was playing with fire but couldn’t help herself. Riling Batman up was just so much fun.

Batman suddenly slammed his hands on her desk, “Why did you kill the Joker?”

She sighed; Amanda had told Alicia Batman wouldn’t let this go but, oh well, she did her part. What happened next would be none of her concern.

“It was a favor to an old colleague of mine. It was done off the books; officially, the US government had nothing to do with this though they did turn a blind eye to it when they found out it was that terrorist.”

“Who put the hit out?”

“Alicia Walker,” she did tell Amanda to send Batman her way if he ever showed up.

“Why did she put a hit out on him?”

“I don’t know; you’d have to ask her. Now get out of my office.”

Amanda took another sip of her wine, and when she looked up, Batman was gone.

“Hmph, good riddance.” Amanda picked up the phone and dialed Alicia, “The Bat was here. Be prepared to see him soon.”

She hung up before the other woman could respond.

____

Alicia Walker, retired A.R.G.U.S agent, brought up her shotgun and pointed it at the shadowed man in her little cabin.

“I’ve been expecting you; what do you want?”

A lesser person would be coward by the looming shadow of the Batman, and indeed, he was a terrifying figure, what with all the black kevlar and white-out lenses. Alicia wasn’t a lesser person.

“You put a hit out the Joker. Why?”

“Why not,” she retorted, “he was the scum of the earth. Considering what he did to your bird, I don’t know why you care.”

Batman tensed.

“What makes you say that,” he growled.

Alicia rolled her eyes.

“I was part of the US government; we know everything, Wayne.”

Alicia turned her back to the man to get her moonshine. When she turned back around, Batman was gone.

“Hmph,” she took out her phone, “he’s been here. Be prepared to have him appear at your doorsteps. And say hi to my niblings for me.”

____

“Do you think it’s really him?” Dick asked in a whisper.

“Hn,” was Bruce’s brilliant response.

In front of him was a picture of the Fenton family. There was the mother, the father, the daughter, and two sons.

It was the youngest that had caught their attention. It was Jason. A little older but him. Bruce would recognize his son anywhere.

He had pulled up the adoption papers the Fentons had signed. They had found ‘Jay Fenton’ comatose in the streets of Gotham. The only thing the boy would say was ‘Bruce.’

The boy was allowed to be adopted by the Fentons after they pulled some strings.

“It’s him. I know it is.”

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“Now, I’m going to Amity Park.”

____

Jason knew that Bruce, that Batman, would show up sooner rather than later. That doesn’t mean he was prepared to find Bruce standing in his parents’ living room, demanding to let them see Jason.

“What are you doing here?” Jason asked with vitriol.

This was the man that had not avenged him, that had let his murderer walk free. If it hadn’t been for the Fentons, that sorry excuse of a man would still be wasting oxygen.

“Jay lad,” Bruce whispered. He took a step toward Jason; Jay took a step back.

“What do you want?”

Bruce gulped, “I want my son back.”

Jay snorted.

“I’m not your son; I stopped being your son when you let that clown walk the streets. I am the Fenton’s son.”

“Jay lad, please.”

“No! You let my murderer live! How, why?”

“I don’t kill, Jay lad. I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t? You have such an antiquated moral code that you let murderers roam the street and take more innocent lives!”

“Jason, please, I’m sorry I let you die—”

“You think this is because you let me die? Bruce, I forgive you for that, but why in good God was the Joker still breathing? I come back and—and my killer is still around. Nothing changed. No, wait, you put a different kid in the Robin suit. You replaced me rather quickly.”

“He isn’t a replacement, Jason! No one could ever replace you; you’re my son!”

“No, I’m not.”

Jason walked up to his mom.

“I’m their son, and I suggest you leave, Bruce.”

Bruce stared at Jason before nodding reluctantly.

“Very well, but please take this. If you ever need anything, call me.”

Bruce turned to walk away and then turned to look at Jason one more time.

“I’m glad you’re alive, Jason. I missed you.”

“Get out,” Jason said.

When Bruce closed the door behind him, Jason turned and hugged Jack and Maddie, crying.

“It’s okay, sweetie, we’re here.”

“Yeah, Jay,” his dad bellowed, “we’ll always be here.”

Jason let himself be comforted by his parents. He looked down at the card Bruce had left him, crumpled it up, and then put it in his pocket.

@fisticuffsatapplebees @suppengott @mur-ururu @daemonlogical @aikoiya @learning-to-fly-on-my-own @rubber-ducky-your-the-one @overtherose @thegatorsgoose @kisatamao @emergentpanda-blog @skulld3mort-1fan @why-must-i-be-like-this @nappinginhell @onlyhereforthechaos @mlpizza @currant-owo @hoarder-of-gender @malice-of-the-sunrise @regressor-marina @joseph557 @stargirl1331 @yjfk @fandomnerd103

#dc x dp #zombie son #dp x dc

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

Text

Who's ready to feel pain again?

Here's an angsty eldrich horror prompt to make you cry <3

Au where Danny is blind and Damians younger twin. He was raised basically being told he was abandoned by his mother for his blindness and that his brother was healthy and happy with her. Meanwhile Danny's life was a living nightmare. No one wanted to adopt a blind kid in a small city like Amity Park, so he stayed stuck in the crappy little orphanage with neglectful caretakers. He hated this place and everyone in it, though he had no doubt his life would be much better if he hadn't been blind.

Danny was killed when a drunk driver purposely ran him over for something as stupid as ableism. Unfortunately, dying as a person with a lot of sorrow and angst in his heart inside Amity Park basically ensured he would become a spirit. That, or it had something to do with the Fentons expiramenting on his corpse.

No one could have known he would be so powerful though. Or that he would be able to "see" after his death. He soon became obsessed with finding the woman who abandoned him in this tiny city in the middle of nowhere and making her pay.

First, he needed a lair. He found out from research -aka possessing his mothers ninjas that felt like her and by extention, himself- that his father was Bruce Wayne- the Batman, and the first time in forever his heart filled with want.

He wanted a father. Someone who was kind and caring and who would protect him. Someone who would want him in turn.

He wanted brothers who would play with him and tease him and teach him him how to be like them.

He wanted sisters who would stand by him and hug him when he had a bad day and help him get away with things he wasn't supposed to be doing.

He wanted a family. The family Talia had cheated him out of. The life Talia had cheated him out of.

So he picked a mansion. A horrible dilapidated old thing, literally half falling apart. One pulse of his core transformed it into a billionaires dream. Everything was pristine as the day it was built. The gardens outside changed from weeds and grass taller than he was to beautiful paved garden paths, forever in full bloom.

This of course drained his energy and he fell asleep, never taking notice of the "For Sale" sign out near the gates

Needless to say, once he awakened he was not amused to see a couple unboxing thier belongings and taking over his home. He just wanted to scare them. He didn't think throwing heavy boxes across the room into thier heads would kill them, but it did. He killed them and there was no going back.

It was only a few hours later that he discovered whoever he killed within his lair would become a ghost.

A weak ghost fully under his control.

So he continued killing the people who moved in, but was sure to always give them a month to move out, signing a warning on thier calenders. Some left. Most didn't though, and became lesser ghosts.

His obsession with the picture perfect family allowed him to develop the power to trap any one person in a painting, but only one person per canvas and he had to have a full view of thier body and he has to do that double L thing with his hands and line them up in the center.

Once he lures his mother home with a mysterious letter addressed to her mentioning her League he wastes no time trapping her and hanging her portrait in the grand entryway.

He did the same with his Father, inviting Bruce Wayne and his wards to speak about someone committing corporate espionage in his company. Danny didn't actually know what that was but it sounded important, and the end goal wasn't to fool them but to get them here. Sadly nothing seemed to go as planned. First Jason snuck into the mansion as Red Hood a week before the planned meeting time and saw something he wasn't supposed to. Namely one of his victims. So he ordered the spirits to pin the startled Jason to the wall as Danny trapped him.

The painting came out better than expected. You could tell he was startled even with his helmet covering his face simply by his body language. The multitude of transparent arms coming through the wall to pin him made the scene all the more haunting.

The bats grew more concerned with each day that passed with no word from Jason and as the day on the invitation grew closer they begin preparing to go in groups. One group goes as civilians and the other sneaking about as vigilantes and trying to find Jason while Alfred and Barbara stayed behind to keep an eye on them and the mansion respectively.

Cue them arriving at the mansion and being forced to play real life Pac-Man and free thier kin from thier paintings while avoiding getting trapped in one themselves.

Eventually one of them discovered they could actually use the furniture around the house as weapons and Danny couldn't phase through it and they told the others about it so they didn't have to keep relying on Jason's unexplained ability to punch ghosts.

Eventually they manage to temporarily defeat Danny and escape the mansion. It was so hard on everyone listening to him sob from where he was pinned on the ground, begging them not to go. Promising to be the best little brother, the best son, he promised to be good.

Bruce took it the hardest. He had failed another of his children but he needed to get the rest of his family out of the sprung trap before the weaker spirits dug Daniel out of the rubble and the mansion is pulled back into that pocket dimension and captured them again. They had been here a while and he was fairly certain his family could go for a round 14 but he wasn't sure they would last beyond that.

So they left. But Bruce silently promised himself he would come back for his son. He kept repeating it over and over in his mind like a mantra to block out his sons desperate cries as they left him behind.

Needless to say the ride back to Gotham was mostly silent as his children processed everything that happened.

#fanfiction prompts #prompts #dp x dc #tw: murder #tw: blood #tw: death #danny fenton #danny phantom #batman #damian wayne

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scotianostra · 21 days

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On 9th April 1747 Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, the leading Scottish Jacobite rebel was beheaded on Tower Green.

A longer post than normal from me as in my opinion Simon Fraser was one of the most interesting characters in Jacobite history. A man of contrary, he was known to be very kind to the lesser clansmen taking a paternal interest in their affairs. A quote regarding him says that….“Generally he had a bag of farthings for when he walked abroad the contents of which he distributed among any beggars whom he met. He would stop a man on the road; inquire how many children he had; offer him sound advice; and promise to redress his grievances if he had any”

In his own estimate, he took care his clansmen were ‘always well-clothed and well-armed, after the Highland fashion, and not to suffer them to wear low-country clothes’ Lovat was also a brute of a man forcing a young woman into marriage and raping her in an attempt to legitimise the union. Lovat has become more well know lately thanks to Outlander, where in their world he is grandfather to the main protagonist Jamie Fraser and played brilliantly by the fine Scottish actor Clive Russell. Back in the real world he has been in the news in the recent past, I shall cover that at the end of this post.

Born in 1667 into the ancient clan who fought with distinction in the Wars of Independence – Sir Simon Fraser was one of the co-victors of the Battle of Roslin and his sons were close friends of Robert the Bruce, Alexander marrying Bruce’s sister Mary – Simon was the second son of Thomas Fraser of Beaufort who was closely related to Lord Hugh Fraser of Lovat, chief of clan Fraser.

Simon became his father’s heir when his elder brother was killed fighting alongside Bonnie Dundee against the forces of King William III at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. He was still nowhere near being clan chief, however, and took himself off to Aberdeen University from which he graduated in 1695. Lord Hugh Fraser, the 9th Lord Lovat, was a weak man who unexpectedly signed over the clan leadership to Simon’s father in 1696.

Lord John Murray, Earl of Tullibardine and the most powerful man in Scotland, disputed the succession and fell out spectacularly with Simon in Edinburgh. The young Fraser hothead duly went north to Castle Dounie to try and persuade Hugh’s widow Amelia to give him the hand of her daughter, also Amelia, in a dynastic marriage that would seal his succession. Tullibardine was having none of it and moved his niece to the Murray stronghold, Blair Castle, where he planned to marry her off to Alexander Fraser, heir to the Lordship of Saltoun.

Simon retaliated by kidnapping Alexander and frightening him away, and to make matters worse in October, 1697, he went back to Castle Dounie and forced the widow Amelia into a sham wedding, raping her to consummate the “marriage”.

Tullibardine ensured Simon and his father were declared outlaws and when old Thomas died in 1699, Simon was unable to legally claim his title as 11th Lord Lovat which later passed to one Alexander Mackenzie who had legally married the younger Amelia.

Simon Fraser somehow managed to persuade King William that he was no threat, despite having his own personal army, and he was pardoned in 1700, only to be declared an outlaw again the following year over the forced marriage and rape.

Simon went off to the court of the Stuarts in France where he devised the plans that were eventually used in the 1715 and 1745 uprisings. Long before the former, however, Simon was double dealing, giving Queen Anne information about the plans of James, the Old Pretender. He was found out and King Louis XIV clapped him in jail for three years.

Even after he was released he was prevented from travelling to Scotland and thus missed the Act of Union which he opposed.

Still desperate to get his Lovat title and the chieftainship of his clan back, Simon sided with the forces of the new King, George I, during the ’15, and was given back his title as a reward, with Alexander Mackenzie imprisoned for being a Jacobite. The two men would fight in the courts for the next 15 years as to who was entitled to the income of the estate. Simon eventually won and spent his time building up the Fraser estates and wealth, even taking command of one of the Independent Companies of Highland soldiers established by the Hanoverian regime – the Fraser Highlanders.

As I said early Fraser was a man of contrary and to me was very like “Bobbing John” The Earl of Mar another Jacobite who a tendency to shift back and forth from faction to faction, no sooner had Fraser built up this “Hanoverian” army that he started openly campaigning for the restoration of the Stuarts. The Government responded by cancelling his military role.

When Bonnie Prince Charles landed in Scotland he was still playing games.

He allowed his sons to fight for the Stuarts, but stayed at home himself “loudly lamenting the wilful disobedience of children,” as Sarah Fraser has put it. Lovat did meet Charles, however, and expressed his anger at the lack of “siller” which he knew would be necessary for a successful campaign. They met again after Culloden, at which Clan Fraser fought bravely and suffered many casualties, and Lovat advised the prince to get away and re-form his forces. Charles fled through the heather, as we know, and made it to France while anyone associated with the Bonnie Prince was hunted down. The Duke of Cumberland’s troops were not taking any more games from Fraser and burned Castle Dounie.

Lovat managed to make it to Loch Morar but was captured there while hiding in a hollow tree. Although approaching his 80th birthday, The Fox was taken south to London.

He pled not guilty but his trial was a formality and he must have know his fate would be the same as previous nobles, the Earls of Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Derwentwater who were executed for treason the previous year.

At his trial, ever the Fox he insisted strongly upon his affection for the reigning family. Such were the characteristics of Simon Fraser, but of course he was found guilty the sentence, hanging, drawing and quartering was commuted later to a mere beheading by the King.

In a way, Lovat had the last laugh. Newspapers and pamphlets of the time recorded that as he was led out to the scaffold on Thursday, April 9, 1947, a wooden stand that had been erected near the Tower to seat crowds eager to see the execution collapsed sending hundreds plunging down. At least nine people died and dozens were injured, which amused Lovat – the phrase ‘laughing your head off’ is said to date from that event.

According to a woodcut print made on that fateful day, Lovat “with some composure laid his head on the block which the executioner took off with a single blow.”

As I mentioned at the top Lovat has been in the news quite recently. Simon had requested burial at the family mausoleum at Wardlaw near Inverness and the government initially agreed but changed its mind thinking his body could become a rallying point for further trouble. He was therefore buried in the floor of the chapel within the Tower of London, St. Peter ad Vincula. The chapel was refurbished in the 19th century and the floor was relaid. One of the coffins uncovered during the works had the nameplate of ‘Lord Lovat’. The names of those found are now recorded on a plaque on the wall of the chapel.

Fraser folklore, and written in several books says that his body was spirited away from London, the stories even go so far as to name the boat ‘The Pledger’ that sailed north to The Beauly Firth, where he was taken to the family mausoleum, there is even a plaque in the crypt that reads “In this coffin are laid the remains of Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat who, after twenty years in His own Land and abroad with the greatest distinction and renown, at the risk of his own life, restored and preserved his race, clan and household from the tyranny of the Athol and the treacherous plotting of the Mackenzies of Tarbat. To preserve an ancient house is not the greatest credit. Nor is there any honour for the enemy who despoiled it. Although that enemy was strong in his plotting and unrelenting warfare, yet Simon who was also skillful and cunning defeated him in war.“

In 2018 the headless skeleton inside the coffin was exhumed to be examined by experts from the University of Dundee in January this year they announced that the bones in the coffin did not belong to Simon Fraser, but to a young woman. So it looks like his body did end up rotting in The Tower’s Chapel, although the Frasers will still tell you otherwise.

Scottish actor Clive Russell played The Old Fox in the television adaptation off Outlander.

#scotland #scottish #history #execution #jacobite

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zahri-melitor · 8 months

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I missed writing up my Helenapoll thoughts so here we go:-

Joey Cavalieri – I think Cavalieri does some interesting complex things with Helena’s background and in grounding the fundamental trauma that made her Huntress, from the ‘danger of being raised female’ to ‘danger of being a Bertinelli heir’ to ‘danger of mob connections’ to ‘danger of being a vigilante’. It has a level of realism that you don’t generally get in the regular DC comics universe in regards to some of these topics.

Chuck Dixon – Dixon’s the one who cemented Helena into Gotham and put the work in to establish her rocky relationships with everyone else. He gave us Robin III: Cry of the Huntress which set up Tim and Helena’s relationship, which I adore. He gave Helena a clear role in Gotham as the outsider, which is not always fair on her, but provided plenty of conflict for plot momentum and let her yell at Bruce more often. I think Gotham would be lesser without Helena having that position in the group.

Grant Morrison – so DC One Million is unexpectedly good Helena content, to my surprise. It’s one of the few places outside that uses her experience as a teacher really naturally in terms of how it frames her views and actions as a vigilante (apart from all of those regular Helena solo stories where she goes off hunting down the abusers of her students, of course. Which is apparently the ONLY plot anyone can come up with any time Helena gets pitched for a short story/single issue)

Devin Grayson – ooh let me get spicy for a moment. I think Nightwing/Huntress is bad Dick Grayson. I’m less convinced it’s truly bad Helena. Now the fallout from this by creating the ‘you stole my man’ narrative that ends up being the overarching topic of the Helena and Barbara dispute (even though they have multiple other fascinating points of contention) is irritating, but it’s interesting in terms of Helena testing if this helps in any way with how she relates to the rest of the Bats. (It fails) In terms of her other stories, I don’t actually mind Fear of Faith or Spiritual Currency, but they’re very one trick only (She’s! Catholic!) with Helena. They are helpful in building the reasoning for why Helena joins with Pettit.

Greg Rucka – it’s the man himself! Cry For Blood is easily my favourite Helena story, and his hand is obvious in all the best parts of Helena in No Man’s Land. If you don’t like Rucka’s Helena, you don’t like Helena.

Gail Simone – I maintain that Simone took a very complex situation, with Barbara and Helena’s layered antagonism over Dick, the Bat(girl) costume and the two betrayals surrounding it, their differing moral stances on when killing is acceptable and why, their mutual lack of trust from previous failures and personality clashes, and found a way to work through it so they weren’t at eternal loggerheads. They were both justified in their dislike for each other, but finding a way for them to become friends (with screw ups along the way on either side) and move them away from that eternal ‘two women cannot be friends if they’ve ever been attracted to the same guy’ canard was just a really important moment for their mutual stories. Plus it was the first time anyone had really given Helena time to be in a title with more than one other woman (Zinda and Helena and Dinah getting drunk and kicking heads together is something that can be so special).

Tony Bedard – oh the other Birds of Prey writer we tend to ignore. The interesting thing with Bedard’s run is that he gives Helena the space to work as the BoP field leader, given Dinah’s absence, which is a role nobody would have considered for her until Dinah resigned. It’s a growth period for her.

Ivory Madison – I like Huntress: Year One. I really enjoyed it as a story. I think Madison had a lot of fun drawing out the parallels and future echoes in it, and I really just enjoy the background competence given to Helena even at this early stage as she learns to be a vigilante.

#helena bertinelli #writer comparisons

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radiance1 · 2 years

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You said you'd make any of our ideas worse right? Here ya go <3

He wanted a father. Someone who was kind and caring and who would protect him. Someone who would want him in turn.

He wanted brothers who would play with him and tease him and teach him him how to be like them.

He wanted sisters who would stand by him and hug him when he had a bad day and help him get away with things he wasn't supposed to be doing.

He wanted a family. The family Talia had cheated him out of. The life Talia had cheated him out of.

This of course drained his energy and he fell asleep, never taking notice of the "For Sale" sign out near the gates

It was only a few hours later that he discovered whoever he killed within his lair would become a ghost.

A weak ghost fully under his control.

So he continued killing the people who moved in, but was sure to always give them a month to move out, signing a warning on thier calenders. Some left. Most didn't though, and became lesser ghosts.

Once he lures his mother home with a mysterious letter addressed to her mentioning her League he wastes no time trapping her and hanging her portrait in the grand entryway.

Cue them arriving at the mansion and being forced to play real life Pac-Man and free thier kin from thier paintings while avoiding getting trapped in one themselves.

Bruce took it the hardest. He had failed another of his children but he needed to get the rest of his family out of the sprung trap before the weaker spirits dug Daniel out of the rubble and the mansion is pulled back into that pocket dimension and captures them again. They had been here a while and he was fairly certain his family could/ go for a round 14 but he wasn't sure they would last beyond that.

Needless to say the ride back to Gotham was mostly silent as his children processed everything that happened.

So, Ra’s Al Ghul hears from Talia that her son -no not Daiman, the blind one- is now an extremely powerful being that reeks of something similar to the pit.

This caught Ra’s attention, thinking that whoever could effectively catch Talia and trap her is someone worthy of notice. Even more so when he finds out it’s the failure that was cast off the League because he was blind.

So, Ra’s gets Talia to confirm any information she has of the boy’s abilities, and the most notable one was his ability to cast anyone into a painting by making a frame with his fingers.

So Ra’s has this whole plan in mind of how to get the boy to his side. By taking advantage of the boy’s young age and his emotional instability, by pretending to be this kind and concerned grandfather figure that was desperately searching for his long lost grandson for so long.

Ra’s Al Ghul doesn’t really have a sense of danger when facing Danny. Because if it comes down to it he can beat him.(Due to dipping and recovering in the Lazarus pit for decades, Ra’s Al Ghul has acquired the ability to harm ghosts, he also made it the same for his sword.)

So Ra’s goes over and plays the whole, kind and concerned grandfather card. Claiming that his daughter has prevented any attempts at locating Danny. And Danny, being emotionally vulnerable because of Batman’s escape and his breakdown, instantly believes Ra’s and starts to resent Taila more.

So at first he tried to trap Ra’s in a picture frame, claiming that he can stay with Danny forever this way. Leading to Ra’s stopping Danny from forming his frame and fighting back the weaker ghosts with ease, and manipulating Danny even more to get him to come with him. Claiming that he can get him what he most desires and that he loves him too much to just stay in a painting unable to hold his grandson.

It works, and so Danny leaves with Ra’s to the League of Assassins.

Now, Ra’s doesn’t tell anyone about him having Danny, not even Talia(As she is part of his mental manipulating material and can’t let the meet lest they form a bond) and no one else knows until later.

With the time that Batman is fully prepared and wants to take his 10 year old son back home to the manor to give him all the love and care he can and then some.

Only to find the lair empty. No signs of life, not even the weaker ghosts that Danny used last time to trap and keep them at bay. This leads to Bruce spiralling thinking that he was too late to save his youngest son and thinking that if only he was faster none of this would have happened.

Cue over to Ra’s insulting Danny and telling him that he’s lesser. In hopes of lowering Danny’s self-esteem and making him rely on only him and no one else. If Danny cries, Ra’s holds tightly onto a part of Danny’s body and tells him to be quiet.

If Danny snaps and tries to harm Ra’s, he lets himself be hit enough that he can bleed. Then switches back to the kind and concerned grandfather persona and plays the victim card, saying that ‘I’m only doing these things because I love you”’, “Why would you hurt me? I’m just doing what’s best for you” ex cetera, ex cetera. He also says such things while giving Danny physical affection like a hug and the like, making it strike harder that it’s Danny’s fault and that he should have harmed his grandfather in the first place. As he is the only one that loves him.

Danny(being a literal 10 year old) has no choice but to believe Ra’s. Since his mother abandoned him, never cared about him and stopped his ever so kind grandfather from finding him(lie).

His Father never cared for him. He left him alone under a pile of rubble while he desperately begged for him not to go, taking along the children that he actually loves with him.(bonus points if Ra’s told Danny that Bruce knew where he was but never did anything about it, even though all the evidence suggests that Bruce is a family man)

The people of Amity Park never cared about him. Hell, one of them even killed him.

Only Ra’s, no. Only his grandfather is the one being in this world that cares for him and only him. He won’t abandon Danny like the rest of his so-called ‘family’ right? All the while Ra’s is gently telling Danny the words he wants to hear and nudging him onto the path where he resents everyone else and would be only faithful to Ra’s and Ra’s alone.

#Dc x dp #Ra's Al Ghul #crossovers #Ra's when he learns that his failure of a grandson that he kicked from the League to die by himself is now a powerful but mentally #and emotionally unstable being #Ra's: Haha free real estate #Danny the mentally and emotionally unstable being in question coming face to face with his seemingly loving and kind grandfather #Danny: Is this..a family?#When it's really not-#Also batman is there too being depressed

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cainware · 2 years

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Okay I might get devoured for this, but I'm gonna post it anyway, so please bare with me:

I feel like Bruce has this belief that Jason never understood why he can't kill right, but also I feel like Bruce also doesn't understand why Jason can. Like he looks at it as a moral failing in so many different iterations from writer to writer but like? Bruce, understanding is a two-way street.

Bruce thinks he'd never be able to come back from taking a life, but then you look down the line at Jason, and Jason can and does. He's not lesser because he kills when he thinks it's the right thing to do, he doesn't lose himself in the bloodbath like Bruce thinks he himself would. Jason doesn't go mad with power, he doesn't go around just murdering any random thug just because.

And I think that damages Bruce a little bit, because he doesn't want to admit that Jason's killing isn't as much of a moral failing as he thinks it should be. I think that Bruce, somewhere in his mind, wanted to believe that if he couldn't do it without losing himself, then nobody could. And I think he can't bring himself to admit to himself that in that regard, Jason has always had a better understanding of the world and his own person than Bruce ever will.

#idk i was rereading utrh and ive been absorbing a lot of other batman related content at warp speed #and maybe this doesnt make sense but to me it feels like bruce just #doesnt want to admit that its possible to take a life for the right reasons #as a direct relation to his own personal traumas #but in that same vein feels like his views on it should be universal because its no shocker that #bruce has very black and white thinking and the concept of the grey area doesnt exist very often to him #but at the same time i feel like its either a blow to him mentally to think that someone can do something he cant #or a blow to his ego that he wouldnt be able to control himself if he slipped #and this is based entirely off the more popular and rehashed versions of bruce that dont fully understand him #but unfortunately that kind of litters a lot of batman media #like dont get me wrong my favorite versions of bruce are multidimensional and has a broader understanding #of the world and gotham and all his kids and their motivations #but the more popular versions (i dont want to say badly written because every batman has their own merits)#(except for you frank miller you know what you did) dont all have that level of growth and general acceptance #of gotham and his kids being Naturally Morally Gray #i should probably shut up or not post this but its out there now so yeah #jaybirdwhistles #shut up jay stop being annoying on the tl

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aboutzatanna · 2 years

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Meet Zachary Zatara! Zatanna’s Cousin

I’ve covered Zatanna’s mother, father and now to complete my series of posts on the pairing, lets look at Zachary Zatara.

Zachary is a magician just like Zatanna, making her one of the few female heroes with a male side kick. He was also a member of the Teen Titans during Geoff Johns run which the YJ show draws heavily from.

I’ve included a recommended reading guide for him at the very end of the post including some lesser known, obscure stories so do check that out if you’re interested in wanting to read more about him.

The inspiration for Zachary goes back to writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross Kingdom Come OGN. KC was seminal back in the day and had a huge influence on the DCU both positive and negative.

A big part of KC were the children of various superheroes and super villains whom Superman, freshly out of retirement, recruits into his new super powered army in order to fix a world ravaged by out of control anti heroes like Magog.

One of them was John Zatara, the son of Zatanna and Constantine (the latter of whom was walled off from the rest of the DCU at the time). It’s not known what happened to Zatanna and Constantine in the KC timeline, Zatara being their kid was only revealed in the back of the Absolute edition of Kingdom Come.

Zatara barely had a speaking role in the OGN, here is a couple of scenes where he shows up in:

He also showed up as a supporting character in ‘Kingdom Come: The Offspring’ one shot by Mark Waid and Frank Quietly which focused on Plastic Man’s son Earnie a.k..a ‘Offspring’ where it was mentioned that he was dating Avia, the daughter of Scott Free and Big Barda.

Also note that all of his dialogue was written backwards throughout the whole comic even during normal every day conversations:

He also appeared as a background character in The Kingdom Special as one of the many heroes trying to protect Superman and Wonder Woman’s kid from Magog.

Given these minor appearances it’s really hard to get a feel of Zatara’s personality here. One gets the impression that Avia is the assertive one in their relationship whilst Zatara is the passive one. And...this is just my speculation here, but I think KC Zatara might be autistic or at least, on the spectrum.

After KC’s monumental success, DC began incorporating elements from KC into it’s main universe, and just to give you an idea of how immense and influential KC is and continues to be:

(feel free to skip past these bullet points if you’re not interested in KC’s influence)

- Maxine Hunkel, Magog, Jai and Iris West first appeared in KC then later in the main DCU.

-The concept of a Blue Beetle who wore mecha armor ended up becoming Jaime Reyes.

-It also popularized the idea of Bruce and Talia having a son. The idea originated from ‘Son of the Demon’ where we first see their infant child given up for adoption. Then in KC we see him grown up and named ‘Ibn Al Xuffasch’ and later incorporated into the comics in the form of Damian Wayne. Xuffasch also had a romance with Nightstar (Dick and Kory’s kid) much to Dick’s chagrin.

-Alan Scott’s GL armor was introduced in KC that later appeared in the main universe.

-WW’s golden eagle armor which has appeared in both the main universe and in WW84, her being the one Trinity member being willing to kill in the series which also directly paved the way for Rucka’s Sacrifice arc in which she killed Maxwell Lord. Granted she killed once during Perez’s run but the context of how it happened in Sacrifice directly pertains to KC. This lead to the false perception of Diana being a blood thirsty warrior and her thus her characterization in early Nu52 era.

-KC Superman even showed up in the main universe and even talking to Diana about how the main universe was turning similar to his.

-The concept of Diana being exiled from Themyscira. In KC universe she was exiled because of her failure to change Man’s World. In JLU, 2017 Wonder Woman and Bloodlines DTV movie, her being exiled would be incorporated into her origin story instead (not for the better, if you ask me). In the Golden Age, Post Crisis and Rebirth versions, she left voluntarily with the blessings of her mother and sisters and was later able to reunite with them.

-Even the core concept of the Infinite Crisis event of older heroes trying to impose a nostalgic outdated view of heroism on a world they deemed too dark and cynical was clearly inspired by KC.

-JLU’s Cadmus arc and the paranoia about Superman turning the JL into a super powered army, the fight with Captain Marvel on the show, things turning out for the worst despite Superman’s best intentions and Batman disproving of Superman sentencing criminals to the Phantom Zone felt like they were directly drawn from KC.

-CW’s version of Crisis on Infinite Earths where Brandon Routh’s Superman had a costume similar to KC Superman and even has elements of his backstory like Lois, Perry and his co workers being killed by a gas attack from the Joker.

-Even CBR exists because of KC since the site started off as a fansite for Kingdom Come before turning into a forum and later a comic book news site. So yeah, good and bad influences on the DCU all round.

1/3 Zachary Meets Infinity Inc & Black Adam

Anyway, back to Zachary Zatara, he first debuted in Teen Titans Vol 3 #34 and was created by Geoff Johns and Tony Daniels. Although his first published appearance was in Teen Titans, his first chronological appearance would have been in 52; a weekly series which covered the gap year in which Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were inactive and other heroes were filling in for them.

Zachary showed up in 52 #21 as part of the Teen Titans team investigating the new Infinity Inc (a group of kids given super powers by Luthor).

Note that’s not Big Barda. That’s Little Barda. A New God who takes after Barda and clearly based off of Avia.

Zach gets off on the wrong foot with one of the Infinity Inc members:

Later, in the issue, one of the Infinity Inc members was killed in battle (thanks to Luthor’s machinations) and Zach and Little Barda are seen at the funeral:

Note that Zach is associated with Raven.

Later in 52 #32 Zachary is among the crowds of young heroes gathered to fight Black Adam (he’s right next to the Superboy statues palm):

Among them is also a young, costumed Eddie Bloomberg aka Kid Devil whom we will see will be an important character for Zachary:

In World War III #3 we get a small glimpse of Zachary fighting Black Adam as well as Raven reacting to him getting hurt (these two always had a connection):

And finally in the 52 #50 we see Zachary working with Zatanna and several other mages attempting to stop the rampaging Black Adam with the help of Billy Batson:

Zatanna and Zachary don’t share any dialogue with each other in the issue but it’s cool to see them working together as well as seeing Zatanna and Billy effectively leading the magical side of the DCU and I love that it’s Billy who figured out how to defeat Black Adam.

2/3 Zachary & Eddie + The Teen Titans

Zachary would make single panel appearances in Teen Titans #34-38, they were from bits and pieces from Cyborg’s recordings from when he was in a coma. The ‘present’ day of these issues were set the year after the events of 52 Zach complains about Raven’s powers affecting him and we also get hints of his personality:

So Raven has gone missing and in between fighting super villains, the Titans go on search for her which leads them to meet Zachary.

Zachary finally gets the spotlight in Teen Titans #39 in which we are also introduced to his assistant, Bunny and he and the Titans don’t really get along:

We also learn from Cyborg that his powers were only awakened recently after the events of Days of Vengeance (long story short; Spectre went crazy, Nabu died, magic died and was reborn):

Zachary is kind of snobbish, arrogant and rude but they are also a way for him to hide his insecurities and fears.

As you can see he also has history with Kid Devil/Eddie Bloomberg and we finally learn about their history and Zachary’s role in Eddie’s transformation from the kid in the suit you saw in 52 to the humanoid devil in present day in Teen Titans #42.

So, Eddie is a huge of Blue Devil aka Dan Cassidy and idolizes him much to the latter’s chagrin , this leads to him wanting to get powers just like BD. One day he gets a strange mystical candle from a stranger which he takes to Zachary for consultation:

So despite Zach’s warning, Eddie goes through with the deal and to no one’s surprise, his trust in Blue Devil is in fact broken, when Eddie learns that Blue Devil was indirectly responsible for his Aunt’s death. (Long story short: Neron promised him a way to return to being BD if Daniel blew up a power plant, the latter did but the feed back ended up killing Eddie’s aunt who was miles away. Dan Cassidy kept it a secret until Eddie confronted him about it).

So yeah, Eddie is pretty much damned now but Zach tries to console him the best way he can, in Teen Titans #56:

This era of Teen Titans was heavily dependent on making the Titans into a Junior Justice League. Along with Zachary, this run also introduced Miss Martian and reinvented Superboy/Connor from a fun loving Booster Gold style glory hound to the angsty black t-shirt wearing Superboy we know today and Cassie Sandsmark from the tomboyish fangirl to the cheerleader archetype. Instead of a stand alone squad the Titans were now tutored by older heroes, at least initially. Suffice to say, this run had a huge influence on the Young Justice show.

As for the run itself, I wasn’t a fan of how Robin, Wonder Girl and the Wonder Twins were written. Especially under Sean McKeever post Infinite Crisis (though tbf he faced a lot of editorial hurdles) but the Eddie/Zachary stuff was a highlight for me personally.

Side note, Teen Titans #52 also gave us a peek at a possible future version of Zachary, you can tell he is evil because he has a goatee:

Zach also showed up in Tim Drake’s Robin series (Robin vol 2 #166) to help him out with some bad guys:

There are so many dark haired caucasian costumed guys around, especially in Gotham that even the villains get confused.

There are some interesting parallels between Zachary and Donna Troy. They’re both the side kicks of female heroes, both of them debuted in a title that didn’t star said female hero and they operated independently for a while before actually getting to interacting with their female mentor.

Despite Zachary being a ‘part time’ Titan, he would show up in the 6 issue Terror Titans mini in which the Titans took on Clock King who was running a meta human fight ring. Zachary and the Titans were captured and mind controlled to participate in the tournament and somehow Zach lost to Terra in a straight up fight:

(I call bull shit, maybe he threw the fight)

Also Zach being emotional about Kid Devil is what got him caught in the first place:

Meanwhile, in the main Teen Titans Eddie has managed to beat his curse and returned to normal human form.

Then in the follow up in Teen Titans #69, he harshly turned down Wonder Girl’s offer for Zach and other teens held prisoner by the Clock King to train with the Titans.

His next appearance in the Titans would be part of a back up title called Coven of Three which ran from Teen Titans #84-87. The series starred Zachary Zatara, Traci 13 and Black Alice in which the Demon’s Three trapped them in a world that brought their deepest desires to life. All of it as part of a gambit to escape their imprisonment and threaten the world again.

The series begins by showing Zach in the least flattering light as possible:

Then drops this reveal on us when Zach’s dream world is shown:

Yes, he had a girlfriend with unborn twins who died untimely deaths. How old is this kid anyway? Was it a teen pregnancy? Does Zatanna know? This is one of the many plot threads that could have been addressed in the Zatanna ongoing were it not for it’s untimely cancellation and the 52 reboot.

Traci 13′s dream is a world where she is worshiped as a Goddess and Black Alice’s dream was a world where her parents were alive and they had a normal family unit. Of the three, she was the most reluctant to give up her wish. It made things more complicated because undoing the spell required the consent of all three individuals. Zachary and Traci have relatively normal, stable lives to return to, Alice doesn’t.

We also got this interesting scene showing the difference between a book worm mage and someone who has natural abilities but never studied actual theory:

Zach also brings up Eddie again and he gets a moment with Kate (his dead gf) before helping Traci undo the spell:

The three managed to undo the spell and even agree to become teammates:

But there is a twist at the end where we learn that oops, even though they ‘won’, it was all still a ruse on the Demon’s parts as they’re still playing right into the demon’s hands:

The ending also flips our view of the character. Zachary, whom in the beginning was kind of a jerk, ends up with the most sympathetic motivation of wanting to use magic to bring back his dead girlfriend and unborn child. Black Alice ends up more or less at the same spot she started in. Meanwhile, it looks like Traci 13 is on the path of actually bringing her dreams of being a goddess to reality as she keeps one of the magical items used to trap the Demons Three for herself.

On the YJ cartoon, I wasn’t a fan of Mary being the corrupted one for various reasons. But given Traci’s characterization here, I would have rather she had been the one corrupted by power.

It’s a neat twist and I’m disappointed that there hasn’t been any follow up to it. Especially the part about Zach’s dead girlfriend. Zatanna and Diana need to have a talk about their respective side kicks going through all sorts of trauma in stories without either of them getting involved.

NGL, I still find weird that the Young Justice show, which draws heavily from Geoff Johns era of Titans decided to deage Zatanna and put her on Dick’s team instead of using Zachary, who was already associated with the Titans. Plus it’s rare for a female hero to have a male side kick. But then, if Zatanna was with the adults on YJ, we’ll probably see even less of her.

2/3 Zachary & Superman: World of New Krypton Era

Sometime after his first appearance in Teen Titans, Zachary later showed up in Superman #680 in which Superman fought the mythological Atlas and was getting his ass beat. Supes realized that he needed help so he went to a magic show Zatanna was meant to headline but instead met Zachary there and the two got off to a rough start:

I’ve mentioned this story in another post but lets cut to the chase; Supes is a little abrasive here but lets cut him some slack, the Man of Steel was forced to leave his dog to fight his battles for him.

After getting a super charge from Zachary, Supes managed to beat Atlas but he wanted everyone to credit Krypto instead.

Zachary would have a minor role during the ‘World of New Krypton’ era of Superman comics. This was imo, the most interesting era of Superman comics which was kicked off when Superman rescued the shrunken bottled city of Kandor and restored it to full size on.......earth. So now the inhabitants on earth are neighbors with a thousands of Kryptonians and not all of them are as nice as Superman.

This event was like a tide for the Superman books and supporting cast, I can’t think of another era (besides maybe Death of Superman) that elevated supporting characters like Supergirl, Guardian, Dr Light/Kimiyo Hoshi, Captain Atom while also reviving Silver Age characters like Mon-El, Flamebird and Nightwing/Chris Kent (hey, remember him? he was the proto Jon Kent).

Zachary and Zatanna appeared in Action Comics #873 along with the ‘Sentinel of Magic’ where they cast a spell to ward off a group of hostile Kryptonians and we also get a peek of Zatanna mentoring Zachary:

The Zatara’s and the Marvel Family should team up more, imo. Plus it’s cool to see them doing combos and this is a great follow up from their appearance in 52. Their team work is better here and they’re doing combos now.

In Superman #690, Zachary is meeting one of his stage hands who has something important to tell him when they are suddenly interrupted by Parasite:

Mark Merlin is an old Golden Age character, the writer, James Robinson (who also wrote Starman) is a huge fan of Golden Age characters.

I’m normally not a fan of jerkass protagonists but Zachary is a little different. His arrogance and aloofness serves as a mask to hide his insecurities and cowardiance. Plus you know Zee would whoop his ass if he really crossed the line.

In a sudden twist though, we learn in Superman #692 that the man Zachary was talking to was not Mark Merlin, but Mirabai; a sorceress who agreed to become an ally for General Sam Lane in his anti-Kryptonian war in exchange for him loaning her a brainwashed Captain Atom so she can rule her realm (called the Sorcerers World) with an iron fist.

Zachary appeared in the Captain Atom back up series in Action Comics that ran from Action Comics #879-889. Zachary appeared in #887-889 as an unwitting slave to MIrabai. He doesn’t really get to do much here, the story is centered on Captain Atom who has managed to break out of the Mirabai’s mind control and joined the rebels to help them over throw Mirabai.

He succeeds only to find out that one of his ally’s was actually the wizard Mordru (I’ve mentioned him before in relation to Dr Fate) in disguise who quickly banished Zachary back to the mortal world:

But he is friendly with Captain Atom, telling him that the latter could come back to his realm at any time.

This issue also came with preview pages for Zatanna’s solo series by Paul Dini and Stephane Roux which is where we meet Zachary next:

Side note: Mirabai would make a good foe for Zachary and by extension Zatanna (’nobody enslaves my cousin!’).

3/3 Zachary & Zatanna

Finally, when Zatanna’s own ongoing was launched in 2010, we finally got to see what their relationship was like.

Zachary showed up in Zatanna #04-06 written by Paul Dini and we finally get a little backstory on them including this flashback showing a teenage Zatanna teaching a young Zachary:

Zatanna promises to show up for Zachary’ next show but fails because an evil casino owner who made a deal with a literal demon hypnotizes her to marry him so he can sell her soul in exchange for immortality.

Zachary is at first, pissed when Zatanna doesn’t show up...

but ends up helping her escape from the evil casino owner while also bickering like siblings:

The issue walks a fine line between not rendering Zatanna a damsel in distress, giving her agency in saving herself while also allowing Zachary to contribute to the story.

At the end, she finally does manage to make it to one of his performances:

He showed up next in Zatanna #14 written by Adam Beechen which starts out with Zatanna chewing him out for screwing up a joint performance:

Zach, predictably doesn’t listen and ends up getting into trouble which his cousin had to bail him out of:

Part of what makes the Zatanna/Zachary dynamic so fun is that both Zatanna and her father are often portrayed as heroic and selfless (even if they have some morally gray moments at times) but Zach is more self absorbed and arrogant which forces Zatanna to be more up front in dealing with her side kick. It also gives Zach a character arc; his hubris is a cover for his cowrdiance and insecruities thus his story arc is one about overcoming them to become a better person.

They also worked together during the Reign In Hell event which is set sometime before Zatanna’s series, I’m posting this here because I found Zach’s impudence here to be hilarious:

You know you done fucked up when even Jason Blood is horrified.

Post Nu52, Zachary disappeared but he did show up in Raven: Daughter of Darkenss, a 12 issue limited series by Marv Wolfman as part of the Nightforce:

I haven’t read it yet and it’s the kind of thing that deserves it’s own separate post anyway.

Finally, in 2021, a Suicide Squad book was among the titles in DC’s Round Roubin (basically, vote for whichever title you want to read the most otherwise it won’t see the light of day) with Zachary on the roster. The title never made it past the rounds and was never published but we did get some preview pages, Zach screwed up royally and has to work with the Squad to make up for it:

Thank god this was never published, all I can imagine is Zatanna downing a whole bottle of alcohol and screaming after hearing this.

That’s about it for his major appearances to this date. Now for some FAQ’s before wrapping this up and also check out the Recommended Reading List at the very bottom:

Who Are His Parents?

Zachary’s parents have never appeared on panel and has never been mentioned. Sure, in Earth-22 Kingdom Come universe, ‘John Zatara’ is the son of Zatanna and John Constantine but as you can see there are differences between ‘John Zatara’ and the ‘Zachary Zatara’ here.

Zatanna having an adult son either in the Pre Nu52 universe or the Rebirth timeline doesn’t make much sense timeline wise unless you go down the path of convoluted retcons involving aged up magical babies and false memories ala Pre Crisis Dinah Laurel Lance. You also have to consider the flashbacks showing teen Zatanna training kid Zachary, how they interact like cousins/siblings instead of mother/son and they refer to each other as cousins even when they are by themselves. .

That said, there is no indication in Giovanni’s backstory of him having any siblings either but not enough to completely rule out the possibility either. It’s possible that he had an estranged brother or Giovanni himself became distant from his own family or he had an uncle and Zachary is his cousin first removed.

Also, this is just my opinion, but I can’t really see Zatanna as a mom. Even with characters like I like seeing her dating (whether it’s Blue Devil, Joshua, Batman, sometimes Dick Grayson). I can see Wonder Woman, Mera, Big Barda and Catwoman being mothers but never got that vibe from Zee. Sure she’s great with kids but I never got the ‘mom’ vibe from her character. She always struck me as a Helen Mirren type who would remain childless but fulfilled even into her old age.

I have a few guesses as to who his parents could be in the pre Nu52 timeline:

-Fulcanelli. A minor character that appeared in Fate #10 (click here for more). Zatanna initially introduces him as a friend of her fathers. He’s an alchemist who is burdened with the cost of magic. At the climax of the issue, right before he is turned into a gold statue, Zatanna calls him uncle while in turn he calls her niece. Whether it was just an affectionate term, like she thought of him as an uncle despite not being related or if they were actually blood related was never clarified. Plus Zatanna has referred to people she isn’t blood related to as uncles or aunts, like the time she called Rose Psychic her Aunt during Reign In Hell.

But suppose Fulcanelli and Zatara’s were blood related, Zachary’s father being an alchemist could explain why his power doesn’t work on anything organic.

-Giovanni himself.

Which would make Zatanna and Zachary into siblings as well which also fits their banter in the comic books. My theory in this case is that they share the same father but different mothers. Giovanni has been associated with multiple women, both romantically and non romantically; Madame Xanadu, Charity from Starman and Tigress. He was smitten by Madame Xanadu and outright said he wanted to make babies with her but the latter turned him down since she was aware of his future. Their relationship never moved beyond friends with benefits but it would be interesting if she ever did take up on his offer after Sindella’s first death.

The other option would be Tigress; the classic enemy-to-lovers trope. Tigress was a thief and a normal human who was Zatara’s main nemesis and sometimes-ally during the Golden Age. There are no stories where their relationship turned romantic but imagine if it did at some point but for whatever reason it didn’t work out, they divorced and Tigress had custody of Zachary. The flashback of teen Zatanna training a young Zachary could have taken place during brief visitations. It also fits Zachary’s stated origin that his powers were only awakened after the events of Days of Vengeance, especially if one or both of his parents are human. It also explains Zatanna telling Flash that she doesn’t have a family in JLA: Crisis of Conscience, technically she wasn’t lying as this scenario involves Tigress separating herself from the Zataras. But then Zach got his powers and started following in his father’s footsteps and the two started to bond again. It also contextualizes Zachary’s ego; he is trying to reject his mother’s villainous roots and trying to embrace his father’s heroic side.

Still, this is just what my speculation.

Who knows what Johns, Robinson and Dini had actually planned though. Maybe they were intending for him to be Zatanna and Constantine’s son and had a convoluted explanation involving wizards and genies and time travel involved.

Is Zachary Queer?

Zach has never been confirmed to be queer but I noticed that he does have a queer fanbase and his close friendship with Kid Devil aka Eddie Bloomberg can be interpreted as such. They just have that vibe to them. He also does have a relationship with Bunny, his stage assistant but that could just mean he is either bi sexual or polysexual. Folks are free to interpret him however they like.

I’m supportive of the head canon that Zachary is queer and him being in a relationship with Eddie totally works.

I hope Zachary returns one day. He would be perfect for JLD and I love his dynamic with Zee and an appearance there is long over due.

Litnu txen emit!

Recommended Reading

-52: #21, #50 (also World War III #3)

-Teen Titans Vol 3: #34-38, #39, #42, #52, #69 (after Terror Titans)

-Terror Titans #1-6

-Robin Vol 2 #166

-Teen Titans #83-87. Coven of Three back up with Zachary, Traci 13 and Black Alice.

-Superman #680, #683 (which is followed up in Action Comics #873), #687

-Superman #690 followed by #692 and the rest of the story is picked up in Action Comics #887-889 Captain Atom back up.

-Zatanna #4-6 and #14.

-Raven: Daughter of Darkness #1-12

If there is anything you would like me to add or remove, let me know.

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remarcely · 10 months

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After receiving a lengthy comment on one of my recent ao3 works, I’ve spent most of my morning thinking about how fanfic writers portray Jason Todd.

People write fanfic for a few reason, one big one is they don’t like the canon and think more can be done with the characters/plot. It’s not the only reason, but it’s fuelled plenty of fandoms over the years.

Jason is a difficult character to write. He’s been handed around countless writers, had some good stories and some bad ones. He was unfortunately relabelled as the angry Robin, killed off in a way that a lot of people were not happy with, and the legacy he left behind in-universe affected every character.

I have mixed opinions on Under The Red Hood. I own the comic, I’ve read it, and I did enjoy it as a storyline. Do I like Jason as a morally grey antihero/villain? Yes. Do I think he deserved more than to be used as a pawn in the succession of Batman, Talia’s plan to send Damian off to Gotham, and essentially being a distraction? Yes.

Not that he could have been ‘good’. His anger was justified from his perspective- because nothing worthwhile changed. He died and, sure, Bruce changed the way Robins operate and the gear to add extra protection, but that’s still a child soldier. Jason was the first Robin in line to the grave, even if the major deaths were retconned later on.

It’s his anger at Tim- which yes can be accounted partiality to being replaced and pit madness- that I disagree with. Jason died as a kid because of Robin, no matter which way you spin it. That anger at the injustice should have been spun to his brutal protection of any child. Tim shouldn’t have been excluded, if anything he should have been protected more.

A lot of the stuff I write is AU I don’t write Jason as a villain much currently but I’ve always enjoyed the more anti-hero leaning Jason. I don’t care about him killing, being a crime lord, or antagonising the Bats.

I can see everything his character is and has been and still wish his hand of cards had been better.

My personal opinion, which means shit all to any one else and you are very welcome to take with a grain of salt, is Jason's villain-arc should have been him acting solitary, separate from the League of Assassins. One gripe I have with fanfic is others writing that a non-league affected Jason would go straight back to Bruce. I don’t know about you, but if I were in Jason's decomposing dress shoes I’d be pretty pissed.

As I’m writing this now, I really want to create that story myself- which is the whole point of fanfiction.

This is longwinded and could be put in better words, but these are the only ones I’ve got I’m afraid. Fanfiction can be a change to canon and it’s characters, some good and bad, but always different. It doesn’t mean we ‘don’t even like the character’ or aren’t a true fan. Every portrayal will variate from the original.

Robin in the past has been viewed as a generic side kick, with very little difference between Robin 1 & 2. Their designs were near identical, their creation based on being Batman's partner, and No.2 was quite literally voted by the readers to be murdered. Of course they will be different as they grow and change with their audiences, they are stories.

Jason Todd is not the same character he was 40 years ago and he will continue to evolve for the next 40 years. Fandom will defer from canon as it picks an audiences favourite parts and ignore the lesser liked. I don’t try to write Batman comics, I personally have no interest of doing so, I am perfectly happy writing short online works about what I like from the stories I’ve been provided with.

If you don’t like fanon, read canon. If you don’t like canon, read fanon. It is as simple as that, there is no need to start insulting peoples understanding of your favourite characters because they hold different opinions to you. Enjoy comics without policing others.

Do not send any hate to the comment I am referring to if you come across it, they are welcome to their opinion, even if could be construed as rude.

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lacrimosathedark · 2 years

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The best thing about Jason and Tim’s dynamic is at multiple times they have hated each others guts and at multiple times they’ve been in sheer awe and admiration for each other.

And they almost never feel the same way at the same time.

Pre-UTRH

Tim: I wonder what Jason would think of me...I hope I’m honoring his legacy.

Jason: I’m going to kill this pretender in front of my adoptive parents.

Tim: O.O Selina help

During-ish UTRH

Jason: Huh. This kid is actually really competent and smart and he has friends...he’s a better Robin and a better person than I ever was.

Tim: Come at me bitch I’ll kick your ass *proceeds to get his ass kicked*

Jason: *writes his name on the wall in Tim’s blood* :D

After Bruce dies

Tim: I’m going to get Jason out of prison. He deserves better and Bruce would want better for him.

Jason: Joke’s on you loser you’re still on my shit list

Tim: Dammit.

Battle For the Cowl

Jason: Tim’s smart and talented, maybe he’d understand what I’m trying to do. Maybe we could work together.

Tim: You've completely lost it. I’m gonna kick your ass. *proceeds to get his ass kicked once again* Selina HELP

Jason: Oh my fuckin god he fuckin dead

Like, these two have so much in common and they could be so close but they take what being brothers is like (loving each other while also hating each other) to the absolute extreme and when it’s not sad, it’s so fucking funny.

Honestly, I avoided N52 stuff so I only know that they worked together a few times (and shared breakfast once awww) but like...Task Force Z right now has me laughing cuz it’s the same shit to a lesser extreme cuz it’s like

Tim: You jerk, you broke my nose!

Jason: Eh. What’s a few broken bones between brothers? <3

I love my red bird boys.

EDIT: PLEASE do not tag this as JayTim. This post is intended to be platonic (Jason literally calls Tim his brother) so please refrain from tagging this as a ship.

#Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Red Hood #Red Robin #Robin #bros being bros #I think I'm funny

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aidanwaynealghul · 2 years

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Daniyal Wayne-Al Ghul was born seconds after his brother Damian, close enough that it was always an argument when growing up. Daniyal was always considered the lesser of the twins by their grandfather, born second and not nearly as naturally gifted as his brother; maybe it had something to do with having to be dipped in the Lazarus Pit for a chance at life. Who knows, either way he never stood a chance as an option to be his heir, his grandfather took every chance he could to test him and when he finally failed at one of his tests at the age of 7? He was meant to be killed.

His mother said that she would take care of it, he was whisked away and left in a small town in Ohio. His mothers only instructions? Find someone to take him in, no one could know his real name and if he ever feared his grandfather had found him? Get to Gotham by any means and tell Bruce Wayne he was her son and needed help. He supposed now that she knew Bruce would be smart enough to put two and two together that he was his son if he did that.

He knew deep down that his brother thought he was dead, but he missed him either way. After being taken in by Maddie and Jack he dreamed of being able to go back to the League and wish him away to come back and live with them, he knew it was a pipe dream but he still thought about it whenever he looked at the stars. Especially on their birthday.

When he was 10 Tucker ran into school hyped up by the latest Wayne news, he followed the man's business religiously because of the tech they produced and because of that gave him updates whenever the man took in a new child. This time was different, he told him that Bruce Wayne's biological son had shown up and showed him a picture on a screen of a face he hadn't seen in three years and his Mother's instructions about Bruce Wayne made sense and Diaman suddenly wasn't as far out of reach as his had been.

Danny ended up having a panic attack and Jack and Maddie had to come get him from school, he never explained it to any of them.

Eventually Danny gets his powers, at some point he fights the Ghost King and finds out awhile later that besting the other now means he is the Ghost King. He starts learning more about The Ghost Zone, most of the ghosts who regularly bother him still do so-but it's more out of routine than trying to actually win. After graduating he is still sharing the responsibilities of Ghost King with Clockwork and Pandora, Jazz having convinced him to take business and leadership classes for the sake of the zone.

Danny isn't stupid by any means, he knows how important it is to do his job well. Pariah Dark had let The Ghost Zone delve into chaos, and the living world has suffered because of that. That didn't mean though that he couldn't have his own personal agenda though in the school he picked, and so off to Gotham University he went. It was easy enough to convince Sam to apply there to with the aesthetic of the city, and Tuck with the proximity to Wayne Tech.

They didn't know until nearly two weeks in though when he froze in the middle of a crowded hallway before ducking behind a display and going invisible exactly what his motives were, they looked down the hall and noticed someone who looked eerily similar to Danny save for his eyes and the shade of his skin. They waited till the guy was gone and Danny became visible again before grabbing him and dragging him off to the nearest Batburger to interrogate him, they'd known he was adopted but they hadn't known the full story.

He figured if he was telling them part of it, he might as well tell them all of it. And so that was when Sam and Tucker learned about the first 7 years of Danny's life, just how used to fighting he was before he got his powers even if he was a little rusty after 7 years of not fighting. They can hardly believe anything that he was saying, but the similarities to the guy that a quick internet search confirmed was infected Damian Wayne? We're entirely undeniable, with the crazy lives they led it wasn't the most unbelievable story. They'd heard crazier.

#I've replaced this see pinned post

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whalehouse1 · 2 years

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So I’m back on my pimp Jason Todd>>>>>crime/drug lord Jason Todd awesomeness again because think about it:

1: He’s a bat, he would keep track of all his workers’ clients and if something happened to a worker he would know exactly what to do about it, reducing the likelihood of them being put at risk once people find out that he’s their boss.

2: He would 100% do his best to get them insurance needed for testing and medicines needed and when he finally gets access back to his trust you know they are well provided for even if he stops being a pimp.

3: He would be able to teach them various self-defense measures if needed which would again reduce the chance of something bad happening to one of his employees.

4: It has much less detrimental affects on the so-called “victims” of sex workers, when I’m sorry, if you have a family or significant other and you’re cheating on them and you spread something around, you are not a victim. You’re a garbage person. It’s not the sex workers fault and it’s not the family’s fault, it’s your fault. And I know someone will say something that it isn’t it their fault if the drugs cause a familiar rift too? It is, but you know drugs alter brain chemistry and can alter how a person acts and addiction to drugs isn’t a good thing, addiction to sex isn’t good either, but sex doesn’t alter your brain to do things you wouldn’t have done in the first place.

5: He would kill the bad pimps who take advantage of their workers and make the city much safer for those in that business, again Jason helps victims over killing criminals. He’s a protector of the weak first and foremost.

6: Imagine once he gets back into the family and he makes the Wayne’s all March for sex workers to be legitimized and treated like people. You know Bruce Wayne walking down the street for that will get attention and honestly there really is no reason it’s still illegal besides to make it easier for people who think they’re better than others to subjugate them as lessers which is just disgusting.

7: Jason yelling at anyone who calls them hookers or whores and going, “They’re sex workers you &);@((!!(:!s!!!”

#jason todd #red hood #tw: drugs #drugs #give me one reason this isn’t a better solution than him being a drug lord #you know the stuff that cost him and his jerk of a birth mother their lives?#I honestly think DC should just retroactively apply this #nothing hear doesn’t say he couldn’t kill drug lords and play 8 heads in a duffle bag

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years

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Good & Evil - Flawed Heroes

Welcome to Good & Evil: A Study of Heroes & Villains. I’m discussing different forms of heroic and villainous characters, different types of protagonists and antagonists, and providing examples of them each from various sources. We’ve covered the basic building blocks of the “Hero” and “Villain” archetypes, so now, let’s start getting a bit more complex. Today’s topic: Flawed Heroes. To begin with, it must be said that the phrase “Flawed Heroes” is somewhat unspecific. On a technical level, most heroic protagonists worth their salt have flaws of some kind: if they didn’t, there would really be no conflict or tension. After all, if they were completely perfect, the story would be over quite quickly. However, the specific flaws we’re speaking of are internal ones: less physical and more mental or emotional. While simple Heroes are essentially role model figures who will always make the right choice, no matter what, Flawed Heroes are characters who either will EVENTUALLY make the right choice, or else will always make the right choice, but not always for the right reasons or in the right way. They have personal issues that they need to tackle, lessons they need to learn, or simply go about things in a way that might not always be the most agreeable.

The most classical example of the Flawed Hero, I would say, is Sherlock Holmes. From the books on through virtually every noteworthy incarnation, Holmes is the quintessential Flawed Hero. He is the tenacious detective who will always bring justice to those who deserve it, and he will, in the end, always catch the right target. However, he won’t always be NICE when he goes about it: Holmes is mercurial, antisocial, obsessive, rude, arrogant, eccentric (if not, indeed, half-mad), and has an addiction to drugs, among other less-than-savory habits and traits. While he also generally avoids bloodshed, he’s not above allowing people to die, or even - if absolutely necessary - killing them himself, provided it is the only way to bring a case to a happy close. However, therein lies Holmes’ integrity: despite his many, MANY unhealthy and unpleasant behaviors, he is a person who - deep down - values life and morality. He will always try to bring a case to a non-lethal close, always try to do what is best for everyone involved, and will never ignore anyone who has a problem worth his time. Holmes is not a perfect person…but he is a good man, even if he doesn’t recognize it, himself.

A similar situation can be found in the central character of the BBC sci-fi series “Doctor Who,” the time-travelling alien known only as The Doctor. The Doctor has been played by many actors over the decades, and each incarnation differs from the last in some greater or lesser degree. However, one thing that all the Doctors have in common are these three facts: all of them are a pack of weirdos, all of them have egos, and all of them have the propensity to do morally questionable things in the name of a good cause. While some versions of the Doctor are nicer than others, for lack of a better way of putting it, none of them are perfect people without flaws or personal issues. However, regardless of their faults and troubles, each Doctor consistently proves to be well-meaning, and values fairness and kindness. To paraphrase a line from the show, the Doctor may not always ACT like a good person, but he (or she, in number 13’s case) will always TRY to be.

If Superman is the quintessential Hero of DC Comics, then I would argue Batman, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne, is the quintessential FLAWED Hero for the same company. Much like Superman, Batman has been reimagined and reinvented numerous times, and some versions sway to different areas of the scale (Adam West’s Caped Crusader is more of a classic Hero, while Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight is more of an Anti-Hero), but at his core, I think Batman stands as a character who is pretty uch heroic, but still has problems. Disregarding his lack of conventional superpowers, Bruce Wayne has several issues as a person: he’s obsessive, depressive, cynical, and at times curt or even cold. While he typically abhors outright murder, he has fewer problems maiming or just scaring the daylights out of criminals who encounter him, and the zealous, at times militaristic passion he has when warring on crime can, at times, seem overwhelming. However, at his heart, Bruce Wayne is not only a good man, but a man many wish they could be: he is charitable, much more caring than he lets on, and while his methods are unorthodox, he is rarely truly cruel or callous. Bruce Wayne has issues, but he is not in any way a villainous figure. He stands as a beacon of goodness in a dark world…he’s just not always the easiest beacon to get along with.

While Batman, The Doctor and Sherlock Holmes are relatively “static” in their flaws - by which I mean, they are characters where the issues are constant pretty much from beginning to end - a very common pattern with Flawed Heroes is their tendency to evolve and become True Heroes. Very often, these protagonists will start off as people who do not make the right choices, but - after facing various trials and learning various lessons - they ultimately DO make the right decision at the most crucial point in the story, and thus prove their mettle, becoming a Real Hero as they overcome temptation. Sometimes they will be presented these temptations over and over again, but they will - inevitably - either resist or at least take something away from these roads that should not be traveled. I can think of no finer example of this type of character than my personal favorite superhero, Spider-Man.

Spider-Man (and I’m specifically talking Peter Parker here) has an origin story that fits this idea to a tea: when he first gains his incredible abilities, helping people out is the last thing on his mind. He instead goes out to seek selfish pleasure and material gain, and it’s indicated in some versions that, if he had continued on this path, he might have become a villain rather than a hero, over time. However, when personal tragedy strikes because of something Peter did or did not do, he learns that “with great power comes great responsibility”: his actions and inactions have consequences, and those with power and prestige should do what they can to help the less fortunate. Even after learning this harsh lesson, Peter still makes mistakes - some more dreadful than others - but this isn’t because he’s an idiot or because he’s a bad person. It’s simply because he’s a human being, and he always does his best to make sure the mistakes of his past do not become his follies in the future. It may take Spidey a little time to reach the right decision, but he will get there, one way or another.

A rare but interesting twist on this formula, which has popped up more often in recent years, is the Flawed Hero who does not realize they ARE flawed..and for that matter, neither does the audience! These sort of “twist flawed heroes” are intriguing because they make us question our ethics and ideals just as much as the characters do. A great example of this is Judy Hopps, the main character in Disney’s Zootopia. Judy, at first glance, seems to be a pretty straightforward hero: she’s optimistic, determined, and joins the police department largely out of a genuine desire to help people and do good. So, where does the flaw come in? Well, Judy comes to realize that she has a fundamental problem with her perception of the world: it’s very black and white, with one group of animals - the predators - always being seen as evil, and the other group - the prey - being seen as inherently good. Over the course of the film, she realizes this bias in herself, and when it causes trouble for not only her life but the lives of others, she comes to understand the fallacy in her line of thought, and begins to re-evaluate her entire view of the world around her. The audience learns from Judy’s journey just as much as she does, which makes her a particularly relatable protagonist. Flawed Heroes, on the whole, achieve the same basic goal and function as more typical Heroes, but have a different way of going about it. Instead of being characters we want to be like or wish to become, they are characters who more accurately show us the good humanity is truly capable of. People aren’t perfect, we all have our own foibles and fancies, and we all have lessons we have to learn at some point along the way. This does not mean we cannot do great or wonderful things, nor does it mean we should give up on believing such things are possible. By showing us the humanity that lies under the surface of a hero’s journey, Flawed Heroes tell us that, no matter what we’ve done or what we’ve been, we, too, can overcome the toughest obstacles not only against the world around us, but within our own souls. They are still figures of hope...they just have to work a little harder to make that hope a reality.

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nerath-mp · 1 year

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Lore: The Legacy of Bael Turath, part 3. The Turathi, He-Who-Was and the narrative in my personal campaign

So, what I did I do? I didn't ignore it, I didn't throw it out either, as the consensus seems to be on such things now. I broke it down and looked at it. From my time with another TTRPG, Tribe 8 by Dream Pod 9, I was used to handling heavy themes of prejudice, persecution-rooted violence, even eliminationist intentions as a means of handling inconvenient truths within a society and the need to create an 'other' to externalize malcontentment.

Deconstructing the myths, removing the Antisemitism

Let's look at how the "fall" is framed in the Points of Light.

Here it is written as the fault of tieflings, as it was their ancestors who made the pacts with Asmodeus and conspired to kill He-Who-Was (the epithet used in the place of the identity of the human creator god, deliberately destroyed from creation by Asmodeus in the deicide).

Now, let's circle back to the thematic elements that the Scramjet team outlined for the 'story' of Dungeons and Dragons and how those elements synch up with the Bael Turath and tieflings that were published.

Starting with the world's assumptions:

The World is Ancient

The World is Mysterious

"Good" and "Evil" Mean More

No Forced Race Relations

Less Evil Fighting Evil

Then let's look at the frailty that Bruce Cordell and Matthew Sernett introduced for humans - they rush ahead without awareness of themselves or the world around them, and as a result they are corruptible in a way the other mortal species are not. They are ambitious, and not the greatest at taking responsibility for why their efforts fall short of their ideals.

The published presentation of Bael Turath and of tieflings partially violate these Point of Light fundamentals:

It isn't the tieflings who were corrupted - they are the product of human corruption and desire to achieve victory over Arkhosia.

This "truth" of tieflings is apparently widespread (thus not terribly Mysterious, and not obscured by the 'Ancient'-ness of the world),

The tiefling has distinct implications on the greater stakes of the conflict between 'Good' and 'Evil,' without having any personal choice in the matter

It imposes certain Racial Relations in its stereotypes, we are told in their write-ups that they are not trusted, that they are feared. Moreso, this mistrust is reinforced by the repeated use of tieflings in the published adventures and setting elements as always conspiring to act against the Points of Light – either due to their embrace of their innate nature or due to trying to turn the negativity they face into a positive, in-group reinforcing of community.

It lessens the victory of heroic tieflings by introducing their heritage as a Lesser Evil against the Evil they oppose. The ‘good-est’ tiefling is tinged by their backstory in a way elves are not blamed for the drow, half-orcs are not held at fault for their orcish ancestry, dwarves are not responsible for the Derro, the Duergar or other beings.

On the Dawn War, He-Who-Was and Asmodeus

Now, I won't go into full setting secrets here, because this is a setting that, despite this ugliness, I want to keep around if possible and will want to reveal over time in this and any future campaigns.

Dawn War

So, let's go back to the origin of this. Before Bael Turath, to the gods, their parents the Primordials and the mortals created.

My approach is the Primordials and their motivations for creating and destroying the planes, the matter, energy, thought, time and life over and over again had a purpose, an intent that was never shared with any of their creations in that arrogance and presumption present in a lot of creation myths.

The gods in turn, made mortals for purposes that both did not fully understand and did not share fully with their creations.

This sets up the incomplete knowledge of the how and why of the setting, and establishes a cycle of the creator being undone by underestimating and being unsympathetic to their created. It also helps frame that everything that follows is a historical myth written by the victors/survivors of any conflict, based on their perspective and intending, conscious or not, to justify the actions taken.

He-Who-Was

Next, what do we know of He-Who-Was?

Very little. This is said in-fiction to be the product of efforts by Asmodeus to purge the god from existence, perhaps to prevent someone’s effort to undo his usurpation. But then, why do the other gods go along with this? Or did they have a choice? The moral framing of the Dawn War is … vague. The gods ‘say’ they learned that the Primordials planned to erase creation and start over – killing both mortals and gods alike. While this would seem to justify the acts of the Dawn War, it isn’t like there is a strong counter-narrative. And many of the gods performed acts that were not particularly morally or ethically justified in the war.

So, what if He-Who-Was was not the caring creator-patron-tribal deity of pre-historic humanity? What if this is a “white lie” told to make Asmodeus’ and Bael Turath’s actions of far greater evil, and to assist in preventing other mortals from looking into the relationship of gods and mortals too closely.

Asmodeus and Humanity, the creations/servants of He-Who-Was

So whence comes the ambition, the victory-by-all-means, deception and betrayal as tools for the "greater good" nature of Asmodeus and of humans? Would that not be the product of He-Who-Was? If this was not the case, would the difference within Asmodeus or the humans not be noticed by “He”?

This presupposes that Asmodeus was either corrupted by the Dawn War, or was a true reflection of He-Who-Was or was different but due to the nature of that conflict, such difference was tolerated and even enabled in the service of victory against the Primordials.

This frame of Asmodeus as a certain "allowed" or "tolerated" evil, who embodies the concept of betrayal in the service to both selfishness but also to a greater goal. This tracks with another creation associated with He-Who-Was, the mortal human species. These are noted as being focused on ambition, overcoming adversity, not necessarily seeking it out, but reacting to it with defiance and the will to push on, to make new again, and a vulnerability of this to be bent to selfish purposes or the purposes of others.

The Primordials made the gods (He-Who-Was among them, as is Asmodeus as a lesser spirit)

Primordials and Gods create mortal life in the material plane, including humans

And the civilization of Bael Turath is formed as the "homeland" of the humans, similar to how Cendriane in the Feywild is the home of Tiandra and the eladrin, or the first dwarf emperor and the home made by them in the mountain deeps after Moradin and the first dwarves liberate themselves from enslavement by the Primordials.

He-Who-Was is defined as a deity of good or neutrality, but two of his chief associations are to Asmodeus and Bael Turath human civilization.

So we have Bael Turath, founded by a species who do not necessarily seek adversity but react in a certain way when confronted by it with an impulsive intensity unique to them and that can lead them to self-defeating or harm to others without necessarily conscious intent. And experienced in the Dawn War as they were, as entitled as they were told to be by their victory, Bael Turath humans come up against the an equally autonomous, independent, civilization given to believe the same things about themselves, the dragonborn of Arkhosia. How does this conflict begin? What are the motivations in this war. From the text it seems humans were the hostile instigator, unwilling to backdown from their desire to expand, to lay claim to resources, to extend their dominion, whereas the Arkhosians were equally proud, and sought to embody excellence and virtue in all things - including conflict and mastery over things (reflecting the nature of Bahamut and Tiamat as dualistic parts of Io, the original dragon god of perfection).

(Source: Draconomicon volume 1 interior art, “King of Terror Erek-Hus versus Io, god of dragons”, artist unknown; Description: a huge semi-humanoid being made of rock, magma and lightning, wielding a huge chipped axe stands on one mountain peak while a huge dragon prepares to launch itself from another mountain peak)

The Arkhosian-Bael Turath War, the Law of Unintended Consequences

As experienced in the Dawn War as they were, as entitled as they were told to be by their victory, the ambitious humans of Bael Turath come up against the an equally autonomous, independent, civilization given to believe the same things about themselves, the dragonborn of Arkhosia.

Immovable object meets irresistible force. Conflict ensues, and this is the first major post-Dawn War conflict. The victory over the elemental chaos left the gods weakened and wary - they were not all powerful, they won but at great cost. And as the strength and the flaw of humans seeks to overcome, and sees every defeat and setback as an opportunity to come back better, the conflict escalates quickly. The gods are still intimately connected to the mortals at this time, they get drawn in as well and here we hit a snag.

Io was the ruler of the gods in the Dawn War, and its offspring were the Thrones, the inheritors of that rightful authority (Bahamut and Tiamat). This would place He-Who-Was in conflict with an authority the god acknowledges and respects, but with a mortal people who do not always constructive react well to "no." He-Who-Was god hesitates in intervening on the side of his creations, allowing Arkhosia to slowly overtake Bael Turath, which, in turn inspires desperate humans to consider how to achieve victory. And we turn again to He-Who-Was' chief agent, Asmodeus - who embodies (or reflects his creator?) the idea that any means is justified by the ends, who is also very experienced in the frailty of deities, what happens when one is killed and their energies disperse back into the Astral Plane, and what drives the human motivation of the conflict.

So who is betrayed in this deal for power and victory? Who initiates it, what are its terms? Lost to the self-edited memories of those involved, the twin fogs of history and of war, and the severity of the reaction by the other gods, my setting settles on it wasn’t the singular fault of either angel or mortal rulers. Both parties (Asmodeus and the human rulers of Bael Turath) sought to benefit, and believe that the cost was worth it.

(Source: interior art from Player’s Options: Dragonborn, a 4e sourcebook, by Eva Wildermann; Description: a single dragonborn warrior is flanked in melee combat by tiefling attackers)

But what was He-Who-Was' opinion on the matter? Ultimately, we judge the god the victim, but was it also a predicted strategy to some unresolvable conflict. He-Who-Was faced an impasse:

He cannot break his oath to Bahamut or Tiamat without calling into question the authority of the gods.

He cannot betray his creations, as no god betrays their creations.

His creations, when faced with adversity, seek ways to defeat it and these means can often lose sight of the ends.

So, was He-Who-Was murdered in an act of betrayal and immorality that stains a whole species throughout time? or, was it a stratagem that allowed He-Who-Was to intervene in the war without betraying his loyalty? or, was it simply a predictable plan born from human ambition and desperation in the face of defeat – something they had been rewarded for before in the Dawn War? And does his death, and the reaction of the gods to it, not escalate the price paid for such power so as to dissuade any other mortal civilization from attempting a similar act for their own purposes?

Perhaps the destruction of He-Who-Was breaks the letter of a rule but preserves the spirit of it?

In any event, He-Who-Was was destroyed, and become the victim of legend, the first intentional divine death since the hostilities of the Dawn War and one not the result of a trick or cursed artifact of the Primordials, also (possibly) the first initiated by mortals on their creators, echoing the rebellion of the gods against the titans. Asmodeus ascends to godhood, and lends aid to the humans, who push back with legions of astral warriors who become as monstrous and cruel externally as they become internally as well. Arkhosia is ruined, but avenged by the response of the gods to this "atrocity", an attempted genocide to wipe creation clean of Bael Turath and the deicidal humans.

Turathi, Baelish, and other fragments of the Human Species

In this framing are tieflings, or Turathi as they are called in my campaign, the inheritors of evil? Were their ancestors the original conspirators with Asmodeus? Or are they an unintended product of the event - either of the deicide itself or the punishment of the avenging gods?

Well, no one knows, really - and it isn't really a lingering burden upon them. The crime here wasn't a pact with capital-E 'Evil', it was in the destruction of a god, an astral spirit who embodied certain concepts and ideas, and if those concepts and ideas are not inherited by another god, they are lost forever.

This is why, in the Khonsuria write up, Ilsundal created Ioun to embody the concepts of Knowledge and History, and gave Pelor his domain over Time to prevent these concepts being lost to Creation forever if Ilsundal got lost in the Far Realm.

It is also why there was a mad scramble between Vecna, Orcus, and others for the domain over Death when Nerull was killed, and why it was given over to the Raven Queen, as was Winter when its domain-holder, the goddess Khala sought conquest over the material plane by perpetuating her season and elimination of the others.

I want to state another change I made to my world - there are no "half-" biracial beings - at least not naturally. As it is a fantastic setting, genetics and the general differences of "race" ancestral roots does not apply. When two beings of any mortal species wish to have children, their offspring mechanically inherit one set of traits or another - greatly aided by the separation of ability score modifiers in this process by the OneD&D playtest and things like the custom race from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and third-party products like Ancestries and Cultures and An Elf and an Orc had a baby. Hybrids or chimera of two species are the result of magic or the intervention of some spiritual power - be it an astral god, a primordial, an abyssal fiend, or the nacent sentience of spirits of the Material plane or its echoes, the Feywild or the Shadowfel.

The only exception to this are Turathi and "normal" humans. But this is because, appearance and certain traits like fire resistance and innate magics, turathi and humans are a single species, as are humans and those marked by the elemental energies (the genasi) or the fey touched, or the shadar-kai (in 4e these aren't elves in the Shadowfel, but humans, a civilization that fled into the plane of the dead and sought to exist by pledging eternal service to the Raven Queen… or to the dark powers of the Shadowfel, the shadow equivalent of the Primal spirits of the Material plane). And because of this, human offspring sometimes are born with these additional traits by quirk of circumstance or fate.

The only cultural background that really seeks to oppress turathi are human - who do so out of fear or guilt of having those old myths manifest in the birth of a cloved-hoof, horned, be-tailed child. In the current setting the Baelish, the descendants of human survivors who remained geographically close to the region of Bael Turath and Arkhosia, are the most outspoken and prejudiced against turathi, actively hostile to them, hunting rumours of their location, etc. This is enabled by Helia, an angel who currently is an exarch of Pelor and acts as a self-claimed "punisher and preventer of Bael Turath's darkness." But in the same region she is also Sekhet, the One Who Massacres and Heals, the khonsurian war goddess and goddess of healing - aspect/servant of the sun god Ammon.

So let’s go back to that ADL list and the Points of Light story elements to see how we are doing?

ADL’s list of Antisemitic tropes

Power – humans made the pact, turathi simply reflect the echo of that pact, turathi are not said to seek power to any greater degree than other mortals

Disloyalty – turathi are not disloyal or thought to have a hidden allegiance simply because they are turathi (except among the Baelish cultures)

Greed – turathi are not any more or any less greedy than another being, nor are is greed associated with them in any essentialized way

Deicide – this remains in a way, but like Power they reflect this act, they are not responsible for it; and humans collectively (so humans, aasimar, turathi, genasi, shadar-kai) are generally untrusted by the gods

Blood – the turathi are not thought to indulge in any form of blood sacrifice or infernalism (again, except for Baelish cultural tradition), and the bartering of power for blood shed as sacrament or the selling of souls, is connected to the beings that demand such things – not the mortals themselves

Now, our Points of Light

The World is Ancient

The World is Mysterious

"Good" and "Evil" Mean More

No Forced Race Relations

Less Evil Fighting Evil

Ancient and Mysterious are both restored – the former in we are not sure what preceeded the Dawn War and the latter by keeping the motivations of the Primordials, the Gods, He-Who-Was, Asmodeus or the rulers of Bael Turath shrouded in secrecy.

There is an escalation in the stakes of Good and Evil, but no one species or ancestry bears the full weight of that conflict or reflects it entirely.

The only “Forced Race Relations” now are between the Baelish human cultures and the turathi, and the caution the Gods have with humanity in particular but with all mortals generally. The former is overt racism and is called out as such, second is less total condemnation and more cautionary tale – humans are particularly dangerous, especially when desperate.

As for less Evil vs Evil fighting, well, if turathi are no longer defined as “evil” then there conflicts with larger evil avoid this issue.

Bael Turath and the Turathi are now just another echo of this ancient, mysterious world.

The Fall is wrapped up in ambition and the possible solution to how He-Who-Was could assist Bael Turath without breaking the oath of loyalty to the children of Io.

The mortals who have a responsibility for the acts of Bael Turath are humans, Turathi are simply a group of humans who bear a physical appearance that stems from Bael Turath. They are no longer the nobles/rulers of the ancient empires.

Turathi are treated by non-human species as collectively human. It is only one specific cultural group of humans that treat them as evil, and only one angel who sees the persecution of turathi in her geographic duty as the scourge of the Bloodsands. Helia, when she is known outside the Bloodsands, lacks this anti-Turathi sentiment.

For the last part of this odyssey, we descend into the narrative and look at these elements from the perspective within the setting.

#Lore #Nerath #dnd campaign #Bael Turath #Turathi #tiefling #content warning

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bicanthropus · 2 years

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kate kane

╔═.✾. ═ LOG *** : kate kane | cis woman, she/her | 36.

Just spotted KATE around town. Our records show that they remember [ most things ] from their source : dc comics (prime earth). They were first spotted in march 2019 and our best guess is that their last memory is making ammends with bruce. Archivists watching them state that motorcycles on an empty street, unwavering sense of duty, steel fire escapes in a fog vibe about them.

━ from Armes E. Sallow’s personal archives. ═.✾. ═╝ ↳・゜olivia thirlby .

━━━ transcribed on : 22 march 2019. transcription annotated by an unnamed archivist.

❃゜・。. ・°゜

ARMES: can you tell me your name and where you are from?

Katherine Kane, from Gotham, New Jersey. Though I’ve lived in a lot of places around the globe, army brat and all that.

ARMES: and what is the last thing you remember from your home?

I remember going to dinner with my cousin, Bruce, and talking over a few of the issues we’ve had in the past. It was really good for the both of us.

ARMES: I ask this because we have a history of memory loss in town. do you feel as though you have any blanks in your memories?

I don’t think so, though most of the time memory loss isn’t apparent at first.

ARMES: how long have you been in town?

A few weeks now.

ARMES: and are you feeling settled? have you found a job?

The BnB has been great. I found an old pub that’s been left to ruins that I’m thinking about fixing up and making whole again.

ARMES: what, do you think, was the strangest thing you saw before arriving in this town?

[a laugh] I literally met Bloody Mary. And the Hook Man. And have seen multiple cults try to take over Gotham.

ARMES: do you believe in the supernatural or mythical?

Yes and no. I think there’s weird things out there, but it’s not my area of expertise.

ARMES: what kind of traits would your friends or family give you?

Hardworking, duty driven. Maggie would’ve said I work too much and too hard.

ARMES: is there anything else you would like to say?

Nope, thanks.

❃゜・。. ・°゜

notes collected by various archivists

Kate Kane is a smaller, lesser known character of DC Comics despite being a prominent member of the Detective Comics during DC’s Rebirth Era. She is the cousin of Bruce Wayne (Batman) and takes on the mantle of Batwoman, though she often distances herself from being under direct command of her cousin. Research shows her to be stubborn and often existing in more of a grey area than her cousin. She is known to kill if it is the last resort, unlike Batman, and it has put her in some sticky situations with the family.

Notorious for never keeping a solid relationship, she has been with multiple women throughout the comics though does not retain the playboy image her cousin tends to. Her descriptions of herself are pretty accurate, as she has always been lead by her sense of duty and often puts her entire being into her work.

danger rating: 5/10 likelihood to investigate: 8/10

#✿ kate kane ✿#❃゜・。. ・°゜sallow | prompts #sallow hills (intro)

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shurisneakers · 3 years

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harmless (x)

Summary: Bucky volunteers to go stop a small time villain, but nothing can prepare him for what exactly he has to deal with. (Bucky x villain!reader, drabble series)

Warnings: cursing, frustrated bucky, dramatic reader, anxiety, smidge of angst, mentions of violence

Word count: 7.8k (i went overboard. clearly.)

A/N: as well all know, i am a humanities student writing science geeks. if any of this sounds unrealistic or nonsensical, it’s because it is and i am honestly too exhausted to research data privacy and AI so here’s my take on how STEM should work i.e. the power of friendship <3 major shoutout to @iamlittlesparkler for the idea for this chapter!

here’s my ko-fi if you’d like to support my writing <333

Previous Part || Series Masterlist

“As you know, we have a busy week ahead of us.”

Coffees line the conference room table, pens click against the stacks of paper that settle in front of various agents and the smell of deodorant mixed with post-training sweat lingers at the back of the room like a disgusting witch concoction.

“The annual parade is coming up and since there are a few security threats, SHIELD has been asked to step in. Therefore, all of you will be working security this week, possibly even at the parade.” Murmurs broke out in the room the minute this was said; mostly from first year field agents who were way too excited to have earpieces and fingerless gloves.

Bucky, on the other hand, doesn’t think much of it. They’ve dealt with threats before, most were declared empty the minute it got out that SHIELD or the Avengers were involved. It’s the 12th one that year.

“That’s only if we don’t catch it first,” Steve continued. “Our first priority is precaution. The tech and analytics teams are working on it. However, if you see anything suspicious, bring it up with Director Fury. He’s going to be around to make sure we’re not overlooking anything. Do you have any questions?”

More whispers erupted at the mention of Fury’s name. Wait till they realise he lives up to his name when they accidentally manage to set him off just by existing incorrectly.

Bucky smirks at the thought.

“You can leave then.” Steve straightens up as chairs shuffle against the carpeted floor, over twenty people leaving the room.

“And remember, if you see an eagle today, be sure to stand there and thank it on behalf of Steve for its service. Freedom! Liberty! And whatever else,” Tony calls out from the corner of the room, earning a sigh from the captain. Others only snicker as they close the door behind them.

“Thanks.” Steve stares at him stone faced, bemused at the symbolism that had been bestowed upon him.

“Gotta keep the patriotism high.” The only ones that remain are the official team. Bucky thinks that he should have left with the other agents but apparently, it was rude and not a good show of team spirit.

“How serious is this threat anyway?” Clint has his head face down on the table, hand holding his to-go coffee cup so it doesn’t fall over.

“We’re not sure.” Steve finally takes a seat on the chair in front of him. “It’s the biggest event we’ve had this year, wouldn’t put it past them.”

“If it’s those Welsh kids again, I’m gonna punch a hole through their house this time,” Clint warns, voice muffled through the furniture.

“It’s not them, we checked.” Nat had her leg up on the armrest of Clint’s chair. “Tech team’s been working overtime to figure it out.”

“You have anything that could help?” Sam sends a nod towards Tony.

“I got a few things but it’d take a while to put it together.”

“Didn’t you learn quantum physics in a night?” Wanda’s picking apart a cookie into pieces, chewing slowly.

“Thermodynamic astrophysics,” he corrects her. “Quantum science took lesser.”

Bucky scoffs slightly at the brag, eyes still trained on the table in front of him. Maybe if he made no noise, they would forget he’s here.

“Yeah, so this should be a piece’a cake.”

“If your cake was somehow made out of a highly specified tracker that somehow doesn’t violate the data privacy of the entire world while analysing millions of terabytes worth of information, then yeah. A piece of it.”

“What he means to say-” Bruce interjects, “-is that we’re trying. It’s just taking longer than usual.”

“Well, the parade’s this Sunday. Think it’ll be done by then?”

“Hey FRIDAY,” Tony crosses his arm over his chest. “How many hours have I slept this week?”

“Three and a half, boss.”

“How much more will I be getting?”

“From previous experience, about six.”

“Yeah, we can get it done.” Tony looks back at Steve.

“Ask someone on the tech team to help you out.” Everyone was well aware of Tony’s bad coping mechanisms and how futile it was to get him to change his mind about it, but they still tried.

“They’re too busy.” Bruce pressed his lips into a straight line.

Bucky tunes out at this point. If he could help, he would have reluctantly chimed in by now, but he couldn’t.

“So what now?” Sam rips Clint’s doughnut into two, keeping one half for himself while leaving the other to the latter who still hadn’t lifted his head up from the table.

“I actually asked Fury if I could call in an external to come help,” Tony pipes up.

“And he agreed?” Nat raised an eyebrow.

“After he realised I wasn’t going to leave his office until he said yes.” He pulled out his phone, rapidly typing out a message before hitting send. “It didn’t take too long.”

“Do we know this person?” Steve asks a little suspiciously.

“Well-” Bruce sneaks a glance at the broody man on the chair, “-kinda.”

Everyone can tell Bucky isn’t paying attention by the way he’s glaring holes into the plant. He doesn’t mean to, it just so happens that it looks like he wants to kill it. Nobody tends to bother him during meetings, knowing well and fully that he did not care.

“You’re about to.” Tony jumps up, making his way to the door to pull it open.

Bucky perks up. An open door means they can leave, right? He can go watch The Bachelor? He’s not sure what everyone was talking about, but if the meeting was over he could go ask Wanda who was always kind enough to help.

“Our newest recruit,” the billionaire announces, quickly adding the next part, “on a trial basis.”

Bucky looks at the door.

His jaw drops open.

“No,” he says loudly, posture immediately stiff as a plank.

“Hello to you too, Barnes.” You roll your eyes before sending a small wave to everyone else. “Hey everyone.”

“What are you doing here?” He looks like he’s seething.

“Don’t tell me you forgot about our date.” You cross your arms over your chest in defiance. “You told me 3 o’clock, you player.”

“What is she doing here?” He whips to Steve for an answer.

“Hey Y/N,” Sam greets with a smile on his face before Steve can reply.

“Sam Wilson, good to see you again.” You grin.

“Right back at ya, sugar.”

Wanda looks amused, Clint finally lifts his head off the table at the mention of your name while Nat takes her feet off his armrest, and Steve’s body relaxes when he realises what’s going on.

“Okay.” Tony claps his hand. Bucky shoots daggers at him. “As you all know, this is Y/N. She’s going to working with us this week.”

“This is ridi- how did you even find out about her?”

“Aside from the fact that she’s all you talk about?” Clint snorts. Bucky shifts his glare to him. It was bullshit and an exaggeration and Clint was going to get a shoe up his ass very soon.

Your grin only grows bigger.

“We saw one of the repulsors she made some time ago,” Bruce answers his question like the sane person that he is. “Tony’s had her in mind for a while.”

“Repulsors? How on ear-” Bucky connects two and two together before turning to Sam. “You. You got her this job.”

“Sam’s my best wingman.” You send him a small heart made from your hands. Whether the pun was intentional or not, no one would know.

“Don’t look at me, I had nothing to do with this idea.” Sam raised his hands to brush off the blame.

“You’re a villain,” he points out loudly.

“I’m a saint.” You raise your hand to your heart in mock offence. “I have done nothing wrong in my life, ever.”

“Listen, Robocop,” Tony interrupts your conversation, bringing the attention back to him, “I cleared it with Fury. He’s the boss here.”

“Fury doesn’t know-”

“What don’t I know?” The atmosphere of the room changes the minute he saunters in.

With an eyepatch on his face, gaze sharp and a long black coat, Nick Fury puts Bucky’s dark outfits to shame. Not like he was competing.

Bucky doesn’t continue his sentence. Nick’s imposing presence loomed at the doorway, putting a stop to the ridiculous arguments that were beginning to boil. Instead, he looks at you, only to find your attention trained on the man of the hour.

“Nicholas,” you half cheer from where you had shifted to in the middle of all the commotion.

Nicholas?

No one had ever called him Nicholas.

“Y/L/N,” Nick addresses in return. “Been a while.”

“You haven’t come to the lair in months, Nick.” You pout at him. “I even sent you an invite.”

Bucky furrows his eyebrows. Since when are you on such good terms with Fury? Since when was anyone on good terms with Fury?

“It must have gotten lost in the mail,” he fires back, “Or maybe it’s because I just happen to be the busiest man in the damn country. Take your pick.”

You roll your eyes, muttering something under your breath, but the good natured smile on your face shows that you didn’t take any of his passive- or straight up- aggressiveness to heart.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise I was interrupting your little tea time.” He looks around the rest of the room with an edge in his voice. “Don’t you all have work to do?”

“We do,” Tony interrupts, holding up his hand before pointing to Bruce and you. “Everyone else just sorta sits around and looks pretty.”

“I’m gonna go talk to the organisers, see what spots are most vulnerable.” Steve stands up. “You coming?”

“Yep,” Sam responds, flicking Clint’s shoulder to drag him along. “Come on, man. When was the last time you took a shower?”

“I’ll go see what the kids are up to in training. They’re probably flying off the handle right now.” Natasha brushes off crumbs from her lap. “Barnes, you in?”

Bucky silently shakes his head, eyes focused on you as you introduce yourself to every Avenger who walks out of the room, sharing a small fist bump with Sam.

“I’ll do it,” Wanda volunteers instead, finally leaving behind only the Science Bros, you and Bucky in the room with Fury.

“I’ll give you a tour of the lab.” Tony beckons and you nod, following him. “New eyepatch, Fury? Prada, I assume?”

“Stark,” Nick says curtly.

Bucky stares after you, arms still folded across his chest.

“Any problem, Sergeant?”

Other than the fact that his arch nemesis was now working with his friends, no, not really. But that did seem like a pretty big one.

“No,” Bucky mumbles instead, getting up from his place finally.

Apparently, no one else was worried about the possibly lethal combination of you and Stark, even with Banner there to dilute it.

Fine.

Guess he just has to observe you the whole week.

Well, half a week. It was Wednesday.

He observes inconspicuously over the rim of his coffee cup. He has a newspaper spread in front of him at Bruce’s table.

It’s not suspicious. He’s been there multiple times to sit in silence with the scientist who occasionally tinkers with something while engaging Bucky in tidbits of conversation. He finds it calming, refreshing even

Today he has an agenda. Everyone knows about it too.

“You know he’s staring at you, right?” Bruce looks up briefly from the giant blueprint laid in front of the group.

Tony had been dragged away to get a proper meal into him after he stayed up for 36 hours straight with caffeine keeping his system running.

“He has a tendency to do that.” You’re looking over the plan the three of you had come up with the day before. There were certain changes to be made in terms of efficiency. “Turns out if you annoy him, he stares harder.”

“We’ve heard about the inventions. Inators, he calls them?”

“Yeah,” you point out something on the sheet, drawing a circle around it to come back to later, “only good things I hope?”

“He doesn’t really talk much.” Bruce writes down a small comment against your arrow mark. “But if he hated them, he’d have a lot to say. So I’d take it as a compliment.”

“Would it annoy him if I did?”

“Probably.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment, then. Pass me the ruler?” You draw a line connecting two pieces.

Bucky’s ability to lip read is excellent but he refuses to do it, for privacy purposes. He knew that SHIELD had pulled some strings and had another teacher substituting for your classes the whole week since your other option was to come only after school hours. Anything else about this plan was murky.

“You gonna sit there all day?” Tony looks over his shoulder, following his line of sight.

“I’ve done it before.” He continues to look over the newspaper at you with your finger extended at something on the blueprint as you explained something to Bruce.

“You look like- how do I say this nicely.” He wasn’t going to. “A fuckin’ stalker.”

“I’m supposed to stop her from doing anything evil.”

“Sure.” Tony snorts. “That’s what this is. Should I get you a fedora and sunglasses while we’re at it?”

Of course Stark wouldn’t care; he brought you into this project. It was pretty much impossible to get him to agree with Bucky.

Bucky just narrows his eyes and continues his observation.

The menu of the cafeteria keeps changing. They like to keep things interesting.

Every time they do, Bucky spends too long staring at the menu, trying to figure out what exactly is familiar enough to order. Vietnamese week had him eating pho the entire duration it stayed.

“You plannin’ on eating anytime this century, sarge?” He recognises your voice immediately.

He knows what time your break is and he knows that you generally eat lunch in the cafeteria with the science team. Generally, the three of you pour over solutions and debate points all through the meal, and he spends the time getting acquainted with his new, lowkey Instagram account.

He blocks the Bucky Barnes hashtag the minute he gets an account again. God save his eyes from people asking him to break their back like a glow-stick. However, one afternoon of accidentally watching three cat videos has led to his entire explore page being taken over by them and he’s been trying for three days to get it to stop.

“Just trying to-” he tilts his head. “-understand what I’m reading.”

“Not a big fan of Greek food?” You join him in looking at the menu.

“Never really had the chance to try.” Tony and Bruce don’t seem to be in the room, probably pushing aside their meal to work on it as they’ve often done.

“Ah.” You already had your order in mind but you wait there.

Two minutes later he’s still staring at the menu. He can feel your presence next to him, unmoving. It unnerves him.

“Why are you still standing here?” He cranes his neck to look at you.

“I’m just seeing how long it takes for you to order.” You shrug. “So far it’s been five minutes and forty six seconds. Forty eight now.”

“Go away.” The concept of someone standing beside him, waiting for him to do something reminded him far too much of him trying to bag his stuff at the grocery counter rapidly while other customers waited to pay.

“Six minutes and thirty seconds. This is just sad now.”

“Your face is sad.” It was pathetic that he had now resorted to this.

It earned a laugh from you.

As entertaining as it was to be able to get on his nerves by just standing silently next to him, you finally ask, “Do you want a recommendation?”

He eyes you wearily. “You gonna give me food poisoning?”

“Not today, no.” You shake your head slightly. “Maybe tomorrow.”

He stares a little longer. You remain unshaken in your offer.

“Fine.” He sighs, stepping aside.

You tell him that since it’s his first time, you’d get him something basic. He thought it made sense.

He argued with you when you ended up paying for the both of you, only shutting up when you told him he’s holding up the line and that he could pay you back later. It doesn’t stop his incessant mumble complaining.

He ends up with gyros at his table and you sitting opposite him with your meal. He asks where the Science Bros are. You tell him it’s Science Hoes now, as christened by Tony, and that they’re in the lab.

“So?” You look at him eagerly.

“What?”

“How is it?” you urge, nodding at him.

He takes a cautious bite, really taking his time with it to annoy your impatient ass.

“Well?” You raise your eyebrow at him.

“It’s-” he pauses, looking down at his food. “-good.”

“Aha.” You lean back victoriously. “Knew it.”

He likes it. He also knows that this is probably going to be the only thing he orders for the next week unless you had planned otherwise.

“You’re not eating?” He gestures to your untouched tray.

“Taking it up to the lab. Got a few things to work on and we’re already behind.” You gather up your stuff and get up.

“Uh-” he pauses from practically inhaling the entire thing. He was already halfway done with it. “-thanks.”

“No problem. You wink at him. “Try figuring out what’s wrong with it.”

You turn on your heel to leave, taking your order with you. He can see your shoulders bobbing with silent laughter.

He stares down at his plate, swallowing slowly.

He pokes at it with a fork, lifting up the leftovers to check if there’s anything underneath. Nothing.

He checks to see if his limbs are still intact or his face was a different colour. Nope.

His stomach twists in worry about what’s going to happen. He still has a bit left but he pushes the tray aside.

The rest of the day he spends supervising you has you occasionally catching his eye, only to laugh. It only freaks him out more.

It takes eight hours of waiting and self induced tests later to realise there was nothing wrong with it. You were just playing with him.

He’s surprised to find you in the rec room when he strolls in with Sam, given that you haven’t taken a break all day.

You don’t share the same surprise... almost like you expected him.

“How long have you been waiting for me?” he immediately asks.

"I wasn’t here for you.” You raise an eyebrow at him. “Heard that Wilson was makin’ an appearance here soon so I stopped by to get a good look at him."

"Take a picture, it'll last longer.” Sam laughs, inserting a dollar into the machine and punching in the code for what he wanted.

"Gladly. Strike a pose, would you?" You grin, raising your phone.

“Maybe when I’m not covered in sweat.” Sam counter offers and you accept with a thumbs up.

“You going to the parade, Sam?” You toy with the can in your hands.

“I’ll be working security, so probably.”

“Sarge?” You take a swig of your drink.

“Huh?” He snaps back into the conversation, putting a stop to the mental list of reasons he was making of why you could be here at the same time as him. He knew your schedule, it wouldn’t be very hard for you to figure out his.

“You coming to the parade on Sunday?” you ask again.

“I guess.”

You wince.

“What?” he asks instantly, curiosity making him a lot sloppier than usual.

“It’s just- you wear so much black.” You gesture to his current getup to prove your point. ”I feel like all the bright colours would vaporise you if you looked at them.”

He doesn’t look amused.

“You know, like Prince Philip.”

“I think I’ll be fine.” He gives you a sarcastic smile.

“You comin’ Buck?” Sam laughs, unwrapping the bar he bought from the machine.

“You go ahead, I’ll catch up,” Bucky says offhandedly, still glaring at you innocently drinking your soda.

Sam chews absentmindedly on his protein bar as he walks out, amused at the situation Bucky pulled himself into.

“What’d you do?” Bucky asks, studying your body language.

“I bought a soda.” You lift the can to prove your point. “And now I’m drinking it.”

“Why are you waiting for me?”

“I thought I’d return the favour,” you point out. “I’m supervising you.”

“Don’t.” He walks to the vending machine, pulling out his wallet for some loose change. There was a Snickers bar he had been craving since morning that he bought every alternate day. Small joys.

“Why? I have the time.” You take a sip, setting it down with a clang.

“You’re only here for this week.” Bucky counted the coins he had. He’d use a dollar but he was trying to get rid of the jingling in his pocket that made him sound like a fucking clown when he walked.

“Actually,” you begin innocuously, “Tony offered me a full-time position.”

Bucky’s movements stop, hunched over the money in his palm.

“What?”

“Yeah.” You nod seriously. “A full nine-to-five as a researcher here.”

“And you’re taking it.” He shakes himself out of the minor shock to assess the damage.

“I don’t know. I got a lot of things to consider.” The chair scrapes against the tiled floor as you stand up. “But maybe you should get used to seeing me a lot more around here.”

He punches in the code for his Snickers. The row whirs forward slowly.

“See you at the lab.” He hears you discard the empty can in the trash before exiting.

He waits patiently for his bar to drop while his mind internally screams about the consequences of having you work here. You wouldn’t be evil anymore. Unless you were here to steal secrets from the Tower. On the pro side, his weekend would be free again. On the con side, his weekend would be free again.

His bar stops right at the edge of the row. He waits for it to fall over. It doesn’t.

He shakes the machine, suppressing the primal urge to beat the shit out of it when the damn bar refuses to fall.

He punches in a few random buttons hoping that at least it would give his money back.

The little monitor instead flashes a new message across the screen.

‘Have a good day, sarge <3’

Motherfucker.

Captain America looks less daunting up close, you realise. But he is still a very large man with very large shoulders. You know at least four people who would like to scale him like a tree, not that you’d ever tell him.

“Hey, Y/N.” He sends you a small smile when you walk into the room for a mid-week update. A clipboard in your hand, report attached and a few stationery items in case some points needed to be noted done, you look professional and ready.

“Afternoon, Captain.” Tony saves a seat for you and Bruce beside him since you’re on the same project. You almost miss the fact that Bucky isn’t in the room.

He walks in a few minutes late; tall, dark and brooding, immediately bringing the excitement in the room down by 40% by just existing.

Bucky surveys the room before catching your eye. He picks up his chair with ease and drags it over to where you are, sitting right beside you, ignoring the small cry of protest from an agent whose view he now obstructed. Everyone else just silently shifted over.

“Clingy much?” you whisper at him, eyes still trained on Steve who had waited till everyone was seated to continue.

“I’m supposed t’be keeping an eye on you,” he rebuffs in a hush.

“Well, you’re late. What if I went rogue, huh?”

“Therapy ran overtime,” he mumbles.

“Oh.” You blink. “How was it?”

“Same old.”

“You good?”

He refrains from answering when Steve starts addressing the room but yes, he was fine. He sends you a nod to confirm.

“This is just a usual checking in. We’ve received all your reports, but just to keep everyone on the same page-”

Bucky logs out mentally. He knows what his job is, he’ll probably lead a division of the security team or join the mission to neutralise the threat in case they find it first. Either way, he’ll figure it out without having to listen to an intern nervously stammer their way through their team’s report.

On the other hand, you’re not listening either. You were until you saw Bucky’s eyes glaze over while glowering at the window, assuming that he had stopped paying attention when his gaze doesn’t shift.

You should be listening. You’re new here and you should know what’s going on because any bits of detail are crucial to the working of your system.

Instead, you rip out a sticky note and discreetly place it on the back of Bucky’s metal arm. He doesn’t notice.

You bite your lip to stop yourself from smiling. More post-its from your pile of stationery make their way onto the vibranium, shades of pink, purple, green and yellow decorating his arm like a bulletin board.

You’re about to contemplate sticking one on his shoulder blade when he whips around to look at you. You freeze, hand in the air with a sticky note. He looks down at his arm, a scoff escaping him in disbelief.

“Are you serious?” He twists his arm to check the extent of how far you’ve gone. “What are you, six?”

“How’d it take you so long to notice?” You watch as he tugs them off one by one, counting to see how many you had managed to get on there.

“It’s impossible not to zone out in these shitty meetings,” he mumbles, pulling off the last one, crumpling all of them into a ball to throw at you. You skilfully avoid them.

“Don’t you feel pressure or heat or anything here?” You poke at his metal arm.

“No.” He clenches and releases the fist. “It can block bullets though.”

You snort. “Bet that’s a popular line in bed.”

He rolls his eyes. “I mean, it helps that I can’t feel anything. Sometimes,” he adds the last part as an afterthought.

“Like when you’re blocking bullets.”

“Especially then.” He nods.

“Would you ever want to?” you ask casually. “Like if you got the choice, would you prefer having feeling in that arm?”

“I don’t know.” He’s thought about it, but it doesn’t seem feasible in his line of work. He’d like it, though, to feel sand slipping through his fingers and the comforter under his palm. “Maybe when I’m retired.”

“Aren’t you well past that age?”

“Shut up.” He rolls his eyes. “And pay attention. You’re next.”

“So you are listening.” True to his word, Steve asks about what’s going on with your team. “Traitor.”

Tony shoots off about how you only had to test it out on a small batch first to see if you could acquire the targeted data without compromising anything else. You chime in about a few specifics, and Bruce more or less just confirms what you both are saying, only stopping to let them know that you’d be finished in a day or two.

Steve nods, moving on to the next committee.

“Did I get a good grade?” you whisper when you lean back again.

“B minus at best.”

“Fuck you, dude. I was great,” you protested. “It’s definitely worth a gold sticker.”

Someone shushes you sharply. You apologise quietly, whacking Bucky’s metal arm when you see a dumb smirk on his face.

He narrows his eyes at you.

You try sticking another post-it on him.

You’re only here for a week. That’s what he’s been told. Over six times, actually, after which he’s been told to go away the next time he asked.

No one’s brought up the job offer so he asks Tony if it was true and all he gets is a dismissive ‘yeah, whatever’. Besides, you haven’t told him if you accepted or denied it yet so isn’t sure if this entire thing is set in stone, per se.

So then why do you have a giant box of your belongings that you’re lugging around the lab, looking to set down?

And why does Tony allow you a table right in the centre of the lab for everyone to see as soon as they walk in?

There are a gazillion trinkets, picture frames and obnoxiously bright stationery that stands out against the dull minimalism of the lab.

“Every single one of these is a fire hazard,” he reports, standing over your desk.

You give him a side glance before reaching over to the side of your desk, pulling up a fire extinguisher and setting it on the table in front of him. “I came prepared, bitch boy.”

He doesn’t dignify that with a response. He chooses to look at what exactly you’ve brought with you because it’s a lot.

There are small cards with ‘thank you!’ sprawled on them in uneven lettering, bits and pieces of paper with small cartoons on them, little clay models and other miniature trophies with ‘you’re the best!’ under it.

“Your students gave you these?” He can’t remember the last time he gave his teacher anything other than a headache.

“Sometimes they learn or communicate better when they have something to keep their hands busy.” There’s a certain fondness in your voice that he isn’t used to hearing. “I end up with a lot of doodles and craft.”

“’s nice of them.” He can tell that this means a lot to you. He hasn’t seen it before.

He thinks the little decorations are adorable and maybe he’d keep another fire extinguisher on hand, just in case.

Until you start pulling out a set of framed photos and his smile drops.

Several collages of Bucky in flower crowns, him with terribly edited backgrounds of beaches and mountains, a photo of him laughing with ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ next to it in an italicised font.

“What the fuck,” he states, grabbing one of them.

You stifle a laugh, pulling out several more to place along your table.

“Where did you fucking get these?” He starts pulling them off the table one by one.

“I don’t think you know how much the internet is obsessed with you.” You set an especially large one of him in a Hello Kitty bowtie right in the centre. He doesn’t miss the star shaped frame you chose for this.

“What is wrong with you?” He swipes that up immediately, looking for a place to discard, possibly burn these pictures. “Why do you even have these?”

“It’s imperative that people know we’re friends.” You bite your lip, bringing out the last thing to annoy him.

“What is that?” A teddy bear with a blue jacket and a grey felt arm stared into his soul.

“A Bucky bear.” Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, don’t laugh. “Limited edition.”

He snatches it along with the fifteen other picture frames, thinly veiled distress and mostly disgust on his face.

“I hate you.”

“But I love you.” You lift the small heart shaped locket you hung on one of the pictures of your class.

You use both your hands to click it open for him, watching his face morph into one of disbelief.

Bucky my beloved, it read on the right with a small picture of him on the left looking intensely disgruntled. He doesn’t bother asking where you found that specific picture of him outside a Burger King at 3am.

He doesn’t even make an effort to take it away this time. He knows that you’ll simply bring up more and more until you drove him crazy.

“You still have to see the Avengers calendar.” You reach for the inside. “I changed all the pictures to you, it looks great-”

He turns around and leaves before you get a chance to flip open the pages.

He wanders around, looking for the best disposal area he can find. He knows there’s a giant fireplace in the common room in the Tower, and for that, he’d have to go up a couple of floors.

He steps into the elevator, chin pressing down on the several picture frames in his hands to prevent them from falling over.

No one sees him carrying a couple of fan edited pictures and merchandise of him. Which was good.

Unfortunately, the doors ding open on the next floor and his best friend steps on with possibly the worst timing ever.

“Buck?” Steve sounds confused. He should be, considering the sight.

Bucky shimmies slightly to get a better grip on his belongings. “Steven.”

Steve glances at what he’s holding.

“Is this,” Steve pauses, trying to frame his words correctly to sound as supportive as possible, “a therapy thing?”

“No.”

Steve waits for a further explanation.

“It’s Y/N’s,” he elucidates. Steve’s eyebrows furrow.

“Why are there so many pictures of you?” He looks at the content in his hands a little closer. “And a bear.”

“She’s evil. And I hate her.”

“Alright.” It doesn’t answer his question but his friend looks irked enough.

The elevator dings to the common room floor.

Bucky turns on his heel to head toward the place to set all the pictures on fire. He saves the picture frames to give back to you though, he’s sure those cost money. But he makes sure every last square inch of the picture with several hearts around his portrait burns to ash.

Bucky knows that by the time Saturday afternoon rolls around, the three of you would have been working for thirty hours straight, scrambling to get the last minute details done.

You’re still at it but he can tell through the adrenaline of the upcoming deadline that you’re exhausted.

Now he’s grouchy but he’s not an asshole. He’s already done two coffee runs for the team and brought you food when you didn’t show up for lunch. He mumbles something and dismisses it when you call out a ‘thank you’ his way. He considers it a debt repaid for the gyros.

He’s still keeping an eye on you but along with an emergency box of doughnuts for any sugar rushes that may be needed and bottles of water that he occasionally leaves at the corner of the table for you three to subconsciously keep yourself hydrated.

“Are you sure we checked it?”

“Yes.” Bruce nods.

“Double checked it?”

“Yes.”

“Triple checked it.”

“Yes.”

You look satisfied enough to move on to the next item. “Pass me the welding torch for a second.”

Bucky has a book in front of him that he hasn’t moved beyond the second page of. He’s more interested in seeing who collapses from burnout first. He has the infirmary on speed dial.

After another hour or so Tony holds up a silver tablet, roughly the same size as a smartphone, examining it from all sides.

“That’s it,” he states. “The final product.”

You exhale lightly.

“We should name it.” You have your hands on your hips, looking down at it in wonder. Maybe the zero hours of sleep was finally kicking in because you couldn’t believe you were finally done.

“You got any suggestions?” Tony asks.

To be frank, no, you didn’t.

“No.”

“Okay, we’ll do that later.” Tony sets it down, not sounding too disappointed. “F.R.I.D.A.Y, tell the team to get down here, please.”

“Yes, boss.”

Bucky jumps off his chair to join you in the lab, leaving the book behind.

It only takes a few moments for the others to join. Fury and Steve walk in together, already engaged in conversation.

“Greetings.” You clap your hands together. “We did it. We think.”

“We think?” Nick raises an eyebrow.

“We know,” Bruce clarifies quickly, stepping in. “We’re positive it works. We tested it out.”

Tony pulls up the holograph of F.R.I.D.AY’s system, sliding the tablet to the middle of the table.

“Is it secured under FRIDAY’s core?”

“Locked and loaded.” Tony hits the table lightly to signify that it was safe.

“I think we’re ready,” Bruce confirms.

“We better be, or else half the country is suddenly going to lose their internet connection,” you say under your breath.

“What?” Bucky’s eyebrows knit together.

“Nothing,” you beamed, “Okay F.R.I.D.A.Y., run sequence, global parameter.”

“Running sequence,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. parrots.

There was no going back now.

From what Bucky can see, Tony looks fairly confident but you have your bottom lip caged between your teeth, chewing on it nervously.

There are several hundreds of photographs popping up and disappearing within a minute. Everything looks like it’s going according to plan.

The giant holograph of the AI dims. Your face drops when F.R.I.D.A.Y. seems to sputter to a halt.

No one breathes.

In the midst of the tension, Clint mutters if they should play some background music. It’s followed by a swift ‘ow’ when Natasha flicks him in the shoulder.

You could hear a pin drop.

It suddenly picks back up again, running faster than the last time and the sigh everyone collectively heaves is almost comical.

It runs for a few seconds more before a list of names suddenly pop up accompanied by a series of photographs and geo locations.

“Sequence complete. Six names detected, zero encroachment on public or private databases,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. broadcasted. “Location determined to be Holland. Exact coordinates are computed into the quinjet.”

You let out a small cheer, looping your arm around Bruce, squeezing him in a half hug. He has a smile on his face, dropping his head as he laughs slightly.

“How dangerous are they?” Tony, however, continues to ask.

“A few prior convictions and a series of similar threats. Danger level determined to be at approximately five out of ten.”

“That’s not bad,” Steve commented. “Looks like we don’t need the full team there.”

“Romanoff, Barton, Wilson, Rogers can go ahead and take care of that,” Nick finally spoke up. “Everyone else is working security tomorrow, just in case anyone else decides that terrorism is on their fuckin’ to-do list for the day.”

“Buck, assemble a team and go over strategy for tomorrow,” Steve adds on. “Everyone else go suit up, wheels up in thirty minutes.”

“Fuckin’ Holland,” Sam scoffs, shaking his head. “Of all the places.”

“What do you have against Holland?” Nat asks as they leave together.

“Just don’t like ‘em.” Their voices grow faint the further they get.

“Hey.” A small greeting from behind you has you turning around.

Wanda stands in front of you and you have to ignore the fact that the most powerful being on Earth is talking to you.

“Hey,” you say back.

“I just wanted to say congratulations. You did a great job.” Bits and pieces of her accent poked out. She didn’t seem like she was putting in the effort to cover it up as opposed to the press interviews you had heard a few years ago.

“Thank you.” You smile. “T’was a team effort.”

“Well, we owe you one anyway,” Steve joins the conversation, leaving aside Tony who was still talking to Bruce.

“I wish I was humble enough to turn it down but I’m not.” You laugh. “It’s nice to have an arsenal of superheroes at my disposal.”

Steve looks like he’s going to respond but his attention is drawn towards F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s announcement that the quinjet was ready to go. He shoots you an apologetic look but you sign for him to go on, you’d meet with him later.

You watch as he claps Tony on the back, telling him to go get some sleep and something with more nutritional value than a pizza pocket in him, nodding at Bruce before taking leave.

“Y/L/N,” Nick stands beside you, looking ahead at the conversations being had as Steve tugs Clint along with him.

“Nicky,” you tease.

“I know at least seven underground prisons I can put you in if anyone hears you calling me that,” he says stoically.

“We all know you won’t get rid of me.” You shake your head. “Who’s gonna send you a Christmas card then, huh?”

He simply shakes his head, jutting his hand out and offering a handshake. “Not sure anyone here could handle another day of a highly caffeinated, sleep-deprived Stark.”

“Just say ‘thanks’, Nick, geez.” You roll your eyes.

Bucky watches the entire interaction unfurl; only the body language, not employing the lip-reading ability.

“You’re welcome.” You let go of his hand, a devilish look on your face. “You know what I want in return.”

Nick gives you a long, hard stare that could probably melt through Steve’s shield before turning around to leave.

But Bucky doesn’t miss the subtle high-five he gives you while walking out, unbeknownst to anyone else, bringing the biggest grin to your face.

He makes it a point to ask you what the fuck kind of leverage you have over the man for him to play favourites with you.

You finally collapse at your desk, letting out a loud exhale. You clench your eyes shut, your body finally melting into your chair. You look exhausted.

He’s not sure how to help. You don’t seem like you have the energy to tell him.

Bucky leaves a doughnut and water bottle on the table in front of you before shuffling out of the room quietly.

He’s certain that he’s spent far too long in Bruce’s lab this week. He liked the man as much as the next guy, but he probably wouldn’t come down there for the foreseeable future.

You’re at your assigned desk, reading light illuminating the space. Thankfully you’ve cleared up most of your stuff from the table, leaving no more liabilities to fall over in case he walked into the desk.

“So you’re done for the week.” His voice surprises you. You were scrolling through your phone, slightly hunched over.

“It appears so.” You put your phone down, swivelling the chair to look at him.

“How’d it go?” He leans against your table, making sure he isn’t using his full weight.

“Well, I slept for fifteen hours straight, so...” you leave him to connect the dots. He’s done the same several times.

“You’re probably gonna need more,” he says, mostly from his own experience, “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Actually-” you reach beside your table and lug your gigantic box of belongings onto the table with a loud thud, “-you won’t.”

He looks at the box that was nearly overflowing with its contents, the majority of the space being taken up by empty picture frames. “I thought you said Tony offered you a job.”

“He did,” you confirm. “I didn’t accept.”

“Why?” He watches you shift through a few things, adjusting it so that it wouldn’t fall over.

“This whole thing- it’s cool and all, but it’s not what I want to do.” You shrug. “I like teaching. I miss my class.”

He gaze lands on one of the thank you notes sticking out from the corner of the box. “Ah.”

“Back to school from tomorrow.”

“And evil on the weekends?” he prods, dropping a pen into the heap of stationery.

“Obviously.” You give him a lopsided smile. “Where else am I gonna use all this brilliance?”

You point to your head. He lets out a small exhale in the form of a laugh.

“Speaking of-” You look like you just remembered something.

You rummage through your backpack and pull out a small container, handing it to him.

“What’s this?” He turns it over, looking for any hidden clues. “Are you proposing again, because I’ve said no-”

“I’m not proposing,” you interrupt, “yet.”

He gives you a deadpan look.

“Open it,” you urge, and he complies.

Two small squares sit side-by-side. They’re slick black, barely bigger than the face of a dice.

“You put one of them here-” You tap on his bicep “-and the other here.” You tap his shoulder, a few inches below his clavicle.

“What does it do?” He thinks it’s like Nat’s little taser things, a nifty little tool that he could use on missions.

“It, uh-” you hesitate “-it allows you to feel sensation in your metal arm. Heat, pressure, texture.”

His breath hitches in his throat. He doesn’t mean for it to happen, it just does.

“You said that sometimes you’re glad you couldn’t because of the bullets and stuff. They’re detachable, so just take them off when you go on missions and wherever it is you Spandex ambassadors go.” You scoff slightly.

He can’t remember the last time he felt something soft with that arm or used it for something that wasn’t directly related to his job.

“I’m not messing with what the Wakandans gave you. It’s the most advanced piece of tech out there.” You shrug. “But if you ever want to feel it when someone attaches sticky notes to your arm, this could work. Just thought it’d be nice to have an option.”

He can’t decipher what he’s feeling right now. He looks up at you, only to catch you eyeing him cautiously, assessing his reaction. When you notice he’s looking at you, a nervous smile makes its way onto your face.

His stomach does a flip.

“Thank you,” he says quietly.

“Don’t mention it.” You sound a little relieved, picking up the box that he’s pretty sure weighed a ton what with all his memorabilia in it. “See you next week.”

He doesn’t know how to explain what it means to him.

Instead, he shoves his hands into his pockets. “What are you doing later?”

“Nothing.” You pause. “Why?”

“Are you gonna watch the parade?”

“Yeah, probably.” You shift your weight to your other leg to compensate for the box.

“Want some company?”

“Aren’t you heading a security division?” You have to consciously hide the bewilderment from your voice.

“Yeah. The place I’m stationed just so happens to have a good look into the street,” he explains, toying with the bracelet on his wrist. “Can’t really promise that I’ll be paying attention to it or that I’d even be there the whole time but for the most part...” he trails off.

“Uh-” You force yourself to shove aside your surprise at his determination, “yeah, sure. That’d be cool.”

He nods. “Okay. See you there.”

“See you,” you murmur as you walk to the elevator.

He opens the tiny container to look at the small chips. They’re still there, silently like they don’t change his world just by existing.

Gosh.

Next part

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