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nerdzzone · 1 year

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Worlds Apart

Chapter Four

Summary: Single mom, Bridget Clark, thought that she was fine by herself. Moving her son to a new town and out of the hustle and bustle of Boston, she thought that life would be quieter and simpler, but a chance encounter with a certain Hollywood actor only a week after their big move had her questioning everything. Bridget was faced with the ultimate decision of head vs heart, but would letting her guard down prove to be worth the risk?

Series Masterlist

Note: I just want to say a big thank you for all the comments and love this story has received so far! It's been so motivating and has made it really hard to stick to my 'only one chapter a week' schedule 😂

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“Landon, wait for me, please!”

Bridget’s voice carried down the sidewalk as she hurried after him, the tall heels of her shoes clacking on the ground as she tried to match his pace. Reluctantly, he paused to let her catch up, but she could see from the strain on his face that listening hadn’t been an easy choice.

“But, I see Daddy!” He protested. “He’s right there!”

He pointed down the sidewalk towards the restaurant they were eating at that evening, but even though she could also see Landon’s dad - Marcus - and his husband - David - she stuck by her original request.

“I know, but there’s a lot of people around,” she pointed out as she took his hand in her own. “You have to stay close to me until Daddy sees you too.”

A sigh fell from his lips, but the way Landon squeezed her hand told her that he’d heard and understood and she smiled as he stayed by her side until his dad was just a few feet away. As he let go of her hand and sprinted towards Marcus with a cry of ‘Daddy!’ leaving his lips, Bridget felt her heart warm at the sight. Even though they weren’t together, she was always grateful that he was such a great dad and that Landon had such a close bond with him. She smiled as Marcus scooped him up in his arms until she caught up to the group and stole everyone’s attention.

“Happy birthday!” Marcus cheered, reaching out his free arm to pull her into a hug. “How does thirty-one feel?”

“Not too different from thirty so far,” Bridget admitted. “But Lando made sure I had a great day, didn’t you, buddy?”

“I did!” Landon nodded eagerly as a proud grin slid onto his face. “We went to the park and then we had ice cream in the sun!”

“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Marcus chuckled before shooting a sly glance at Bridget. “Who paid for the ice cream?”

“Landon did,” Bridget informed him as she slipped out of his grasp and thought back to how confidently Landon had pulled the money out of his pocket earlier that day. “So, thank you for that.”

“It was all Lando’s idea,” he assured her. “We were talking about what you might want to do today and the idea was all his, I just made sure he had the funds.”

“He was really excited about it,” David chimed in. “He was determined that you were going to have a fun day.”

“Well, he succeeded,” Bridget assured them, feeling grateful that they’d helped Landon reach his goal of making her day special. “We had a really great day together.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

David’s words were genuine as he pulled her into a hug as well and mumbled his own birthday wishes into her hair. Despite the unfortunate way that their relationships with Marcus had overlapped, they had managed to build a strong relationship of their own over the years. Of course, Bridget had been resentful at first. It had been hard to watch Marcus be happy with the person he’d left her for - even if his sexuality had been the biggest motivating factor - and it had been even harder to see them become a perfect little family when Landon was born while she was all alone. But both men had been apologetic about how the situation had unfolded and they were both amazing dads who loved Landon very much and that made it easier for Bridget to let it go after a little time had passed, and the friendship she’d had with Marcus grew stronger as she made the effort to form one with David as well.

“I think Molly is already inside,” Marcus told her as she stepped away from his husband. “We saw them heading in just as we got here.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Bridget smiled. “Let’s get this party started.”

Landon let out a cheer of agreement that pulled a laugh from all his parents as they went inside to join the rest of their group. They were almost at the table when Molly’s husband, Robbie, spotted them and flashed Bridget a grin.

“Well, look who it is,” he greeted them. “It’s the old lady of the hour.”

“Old?” Landon questioned, his brow creasing with concern as his dad helped him climb into a chair at the table. “Mommy, are you old?”

“She sure is, kiddo,” Robbie informed him. “She’s officially over thirty.”

“Barely,” Bridget protested. “I’m only thirty-one.”

“Are you gonna die?” The follow up question from Landon had Molly choking on the glass of water she’d been sipping as she fought back a laugh and an indignant ‘what?’ from Bridget prompted him to elaborate. “My friend, Johnny, says that old people die so if you’re old, are you gonna die?”

“Look what you’ve done, Rob,” Bridget shot him a playful glare before reassuring Landon. “No, buddy, I’m not gonna die any time soon. Robbie was just teasing me because I’m getting older but I’m not old yet.”

“Are you sure?”

The suspicion in his voice had Bridget leaning down to kiss the top of his head as she assured him that she was fine and wouldn’t be going anywhere in the near future.

It wasn’t an unusual situation. Robbie and Molly had been together for almost ten years and he’d quickly settled into a brotherly role in Bridget’s life. When Landon was born, the shift into the goofy, antagonistic uncle role had been a very natural transition and Bridget spent a lot of time explaining away the ridiculous comments he made to wind Landon up. Landon adored him though and she was grateful that he had so many trusted role models in his life.

As everyone settled at the table - with David, Marcus and Landon on one side and Bridget, Molly and Robbie on the other - Bridget took advantage of the distraction of everyone catching up to nudge Molly as she sat beside her, catching her attention.

“I have news…”

She murmured the confession low enough that no one would overhear and she hoped that the sudden look of excited curiosity on Molly’s face wouldn’t give them away. She hadn’t mentioned anything about their date - or even meeting Chris - because she’d decided she wanted to wrap her head around it before she shared the news with anyone, but as soon as she saw her closest friend, the need to share was almost overwhelming and Molly’s clear excitement only made it even harder to wait.

“You do?” She questioned, matching Bridget’s secretive tone. “What kind of news?”

“Exciting news,” Bridget wiggled her eyebrows as a hint towards the juicy nature of what she had to share, but when the action earned a suspicious glance from David from the other end of the table she knew she needed to wait until they had a more private moment. “I’ll fill you in later.”

Molly reluctantly agreed and let the subject drop as the waiter came to take their drink orders. Usually, Bridget wasn’t particularly into drinking. She’d indulged enough when she was younger to learn that the suffering that followed wasn’t really worth it and after Landon was born her life seemed so busy that there was rarely a convenient time for a hangover. However, she would occasionally partake in a drink or two and on special occasions - like her birthday - she let herself get a little more carried away. The bottle of white wine that she’d decided to split with Molly was evidence of that as she knew it was just the beginning of the evening they had planned.

Originally, the plan had been very subdued. It was her week with Landon so she’d figured that they’d probably just stay home and order takeout, but when Marcus had found out what she had in mind, the frown that took over his face told Bridget that he was unimpressed by her lackluster plans. By the time she was dropping Landon off at his house at the end of that week, Marcus had made them all a reservation at a nice restaurant in Boston, told her to invite Molly and Robbie to join them, and offered to keep Landon for the night and drop him off at his daycare in the morning so that Bridget could go for a few drinks with Molly after dinner without worry. Molly had immediately and enthusiastically jumped on board and Bridget was grateful that she had so many people who were eager to celebrate with her.

Considering it had been a while since they’d been together as a group - or even really had any time to hangout individually - they quickly fell into conversation as they caught up on each other's lives. Even Landon was included as he regaled them with tales from his wild days at ‘school’ as he called his daycare and excitedly told them how well his first night of Little League had gone the night before. However, as their main course arrived shortly after Landon had told them all about the new baseball glove he’d been given by his Grandma and Grandpa, the mention of Marcus’ parents reminded him about something else.

“Speaking of Landon’s grandparents,” he caught her attention as Robbie and David remained distracted by Landon’s detailed explanation of the rules of baseball. “I saw your dad the other day.”

The touchy topic immediately had Bridget on edge, but she hid the way her annoyance made her jaw clench with an exaggerated cringe.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it wasn’t too unpleasant for you.”

“It was fine, he always liked me,” Marcus shrugged and Bridget had to admit that it was true. As a physiotherapist, Marcus had easily earned her dad’s respect simply by having a profession that he valued more than he valued hers. She’d always felt that he would have much rather kept Marcus in the family after their break-up than her and that he was probably quite relieved that he saw more of Marcus than he did of her as Marcus often ran into him if he was called in to the hospital to treat a patient. Her assumption was only solidified in her mind when Marcus continued. “But he didn’t even know that you’d moved.”

A wave of indignation washed over her and although she knew it wasn’t worth letting herself get upset over, she couldn’t hold back the roll of her eyes that his words caused.

“He absolutely did,” she insisted. “I told them when I went over for my mom’s birthday dinner just before Christmas.”

“Really? He seemed completely clueless about it.”

“Yeah, well, he usually is,” Bridget huffed. “They both are. The birthday card they sent Landon last year was for a six year old so if they can’t even get his age right then I’m not surprised that they don’t care about keeping up to date on where we live.”

“That’s so ridiculous,” Molly scoffed disapprovingly as Marcus nodded in agreement. It was no secret to Bridget what they both thought of her parents, but it was always comforting to be reminded that her frustrations with them weren’t unwarranted. “Have you heard from them at all today?”

“No, not at all,” Bridget admitted. “But I doubt they even remember when my birthday is.”

“Fucking assholes…”

The words were mumbled under Molly’s breath, but loudly enough to earn a stifled laugh from Bridget before she flashed her a smirk.

“Careful Molly, Marcus doesn’t like it when people swear around Landon.”

“She’s not wrong,” Marcus reluctantly agreed. “But Bridget shouldn’t either.”

“Bridget has more important things to worry about.”

It was a weak defense and Bridget knew that Marcus immediately saw right through it as he playfully rolled his eyes.

“Or is Bridget just too lazy to break her bad habits and watch what she says?”

“Bridget would like to remind you that it’s her birthday and you’re supposed to be nice to her today.”

“Why is Bridget talking about herself in third person?” Robbie questioned, breaking up the bickering. “Is it a sign of old age? Are you losing your marbles? Should we put you in a care home now so you can get the help you need?”

The exaggerated distraught tone to his voice had a laughter rippling through the group as Bridget shot him another glare.

“You’re older than I am,” she reminded him. “And you’re not as funny as you think you are.”

“I think Robbie’s really funny,” Landon defended him despite being clueless about the rest of the conversation. “He makes me laugh all the time.”

“And that’s the only opinion that really matters,” Robbie decided, a smug smile sliding onto his face. “So, thanks, kiddo.”

Landon mumbled a quick ‘you’re welcome’ through his mouthful of food and despite her apparent loss of the argument, Bridget couldn’t help but smile at how nice it was to have most of the people closest to her all together for once.

“Okay, so spill. I’ve been dying to know what your ‘news’ is all night.”

The demand came from Molly as she joined Bridget at the table she’d been waiting at, placing a margarita in front of her. The rest of their dinner had gone smoothly and been a great time, but both women were eager for their chance to split off from the group and catch up properly without any prying eyes. Molly had held off long enough to buy Bridget a birthday drink, but wasn’t willing to wait a minute longer to get the gossip.

“I went on a date.” Bridget tried to hide the grin on her face with a sip of her drink, but the squeal of glee that her admission pulled from Molly had a laugh falling from her lips. “Relax, it was one date. Don’t get too excited about it yet.”

“Oh, I am excited,” Molly insisted. “It’s been years, Bridge! You haven’t been out with anyone since you and Marcus broke up five years ago! This is a huge deal and I am going to get very excited about it even if you never see the guy again.”

“Well, that is a possibility,” Bridget informed her. “So, let’s reign in the celebration just a little bit.”

Molly's smile faltered slightly at that added bit of information, but her eyes narrowed suspiciously as she seemed reluctant to dull down her excitement.

“Why is that a possibility? Did you not like him?”

“No, I really did like him,” Bridget assured her. “But he’s just left town for, like, two months because he has to travel for work so who knows how he’ll be feeling about things by the time he comes back.”

“He’s travelling for two months straight? What kind of job sends you on a business trip for that long?” Molly questioned, her brow furrowing in obvious displeasure. “That seems a little fishy.”

“It’s not,” Bridget smiled. “It makes sense for the industry that he’s in.”

“And what industry would that be?”

Going into the conversation, Bridget had planned to keep Chris’ identity a secret. She knew that the fact that she’d gone on a date with anyone would be a big enough shock, throwing in who exactly her date had been had the potential to overwhelm Molly entirely. However, she’d always found it almost impossible to keep any secrets from Molly and she was hoping for a little advice that would be hard to get without sharing all of the details.

“The film industry,” she admitted, bracing for more unbridled excitement. “He’s an actor.”

As expected, Molly’s eyes visibly lit up as she leaned in closer.

“An actor? Like, a good one?”

“In my opinion, yes. I think he’s a good actor.”

“So, he’s famous enough that you’d seen him in a movie before you met him?” Molly mused before a scoff fell from her lips. “Wait, why am I trying to guess? Just tell me who it is!”

“Okay, but you have to promise not to tell anyone…”

Bridget gave Molly the sternest look she could muster, but the genuine offence on Molly’s face was all the reassurance she needed.

“Of course, Bridge. You know I’ve got your back, I wouldn’t share your secrets with anyone.”

Steeling herself for another enthusiastic reaction, Bridget forced the words out of her mouth before she could change her mind as she confessed, “I went on a date with Chris Evans.”

“Oh my god.” It was a softer response than Bridget had anticipated, but after watching Molly blink a few times as she tried to wrap her mind around what she’d just been told, she could see the moment when it really sunk in and her voice raised to the octave that Bridget had originally anticipated. “Oh my god! Really?! The Chris Evans? As in, Captain fucking America?”

“Shhhhh,” Bridget hissed, glancing around the room to see if anyone had noticed her outburst and feeling grateful for the loud music that she’d - embarrassingly - worried would give her a headache when they’d first walked. “Not telling anyone includes not screaming about it loud enough that everyone in this bar can hear you!”

“Sorry, sorry, I just wasn’t expecting that! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t that.” Molly shook her head in disbelief, taking a sip of her drink to snap her out of the state of shock she appeared to be in before continuing. “Okay, tell me everything. How did that even happen?”

With a smile on her face, Bridget eagerly launched into the explanation. How they’d met at the grocery store and then seemed to run into each other everywhere. How he’d helped her connect with his sister and then offered to paint her house. How he’d then spent an entire day helping her and asked her out at the end of it.

“So, we went out for dinner last week and it was really nice. He’s super down to earth and easy to talk to, we had a great time and now I think I have a stupid, giant crush.”

The grin on Molly’s face spread until it stretched almost from ear to ear and had Bridget almost wishing she hadn’t mentioned anything at all.

“That’s amazing! It’s like the start of a romantic comedy,” Molly gushed. “But now I’m still wondering why you think it’s such a possibility that he won’t want to see you again.”

“Because he’s gone for two months,” Bridget reminded her. “It’s the premiere of the new Captain America movie tonight and then he has to travel for all the press. By the time he gets home I’m sure he’ll have forgotten all about me.”

“I don’t think that’s true or he wouldn’t have put in the effort to get to know you before he left,” Molly pointed out. “Have you heard from him since your date?”

“Yeah, he messaged me later that night to say that he’d had a good time,” Bridget admitted. “And he messaged me on Friday when he got to L.A. and we talked occasionally over the weekend.”

“So, it sounds like you made a pretty good impression on him too.”

“I think so, but two months is a long time.”

“It is,” Molly agreed. “But if he’s interested then it’s not an insurmountable problem.”

“I know,” Bridget nodded, sipping her drink as she tried to think about how to phrase her next admission. “But his interest might wane while he’s off travelling the world and being adored by every woman he meets.”

“Well, then you’ll know not to waste any more time,” Molly shrugged. “I know that would be disappointing, but at least that will tell you where you stand. For now, I don’t see the harm in seeing where it goes.”

“There could be plenty of harm,” Bridget frowned. “Even other than just getting my feelings hurt and self-esteem shattered, I have Landon to consider and I need to think about how getting invested in Chris - or anyone - could affect him.”

Molly opened her mouth to respond, but even though she shut it before she actually got any words out, the look on her face told Bridget that she clearly disagreed with what she’d just said. However, she was grateful that she’d taken the time to compose a diplomatic answer before she spoke.

“I think you might be getting a little bit ahead of yourself,” she gently warned her. “But this could be kind of the perfect opportunity in your situation. He isn’t here so you don’t have to worry about him being around so much that Landon gets attached and by the time he gets home you should have more of an idea if it’s something that’s going to fizzle out or if it’s something that might go somewhere, right?”

“I guess so…” Bridget anxiously chewed on her bottom lip as she mulled over Molly’s words until a sigh fell from her lips. “I just don’t know how any of this is supposed to work and I don’t want to do the wrong thing and let Landon down.”

“I’m confident that whatever happens between you and Chris, you won’t let that happen,” Molly assured her. “You’re an amazing mom, Bridget. You always put him first and I have so much respect for you for that, but you’re allowed to be more than just a mom.”

“I am…I’m a librarian too…”

It was a weak protest and Bridget cringed as she heard the words leave her mouth and saw the amused smile slid onto Molly’s face.

“Yeah, but you’re allowed to want more from life than just work and your son.”

“I know that,” Bridget nodded. “But things are good right now. Rocking the boat is scary.”

“Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing. You deserve to be happy and sometimes you have to take scary risks to make that happen.”

“I am happy…”

“But could you be happier?”

The question caught Bridget off guard and she took a minute to think it over. Saying that she was happy was an honest answer. She loved the career that she’d chosen and she’d settled in nicely to her new job. She loved her son and was genuinely enjoying spending time with him as he was starting to explore the things he was interested in and try new things. She was truly content with her life as it was - especially now that they’d moved out of the city - but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t room for more.

“I could be,” she admitted. “I don’t think I realized how much I missed dating and romance until I met Chris. I’ve gotten very used to being alone and doing things by myself, but this whole situation has reminded me about what else is out there.”

“So go for it,” Molly shrugged. “Let yourself enjoy it and see where it goes.”

“Okay, but everything else aside, our lives are so different,” Bridget pointed out. “I’m worried that he’ll get bored so fast when he realizes how uneventful my day to day life is.”

“Maybe boring is what he’s looking for.” Molly’s suggestion earned a scoff from Bridget and she rushed to clarify. “Not that I think you’re boring, but the life of an actor must get pretty draining. Maybe he wants something a little quieter than what he can find in Hollywood.”

Another sigh fell from Bridget’s lips as she thought about what her friend had said and agreed with a soft, “Maybe.”

“Or maybe,” Molly flashed her a grin. “He met you and was so blown away by how funny, sweet, intelligent and sexy you are that whatever he thought he wanted completely changed and now he wants whatever you’re offering.”

The idea had Bridget barking out a laugh as a blush covered her cheeks, but it succeeded in putting a smile back on her face.

“Okay, now who’s getting ahead of themselves?”

“Not me,” Molly insisted. “Clearly, he’s smitten and to celebrate that fact, I suggest we do some shots.”

It was a suggestion that was entirely unsurprising given her knowledge of what a night out with Molly was like, but she let out a groan of protest anyway as she tried to convince her that it was a bad idea. She knew she was fighting a losing battle though and it didn’t take long for Molly to have her tossing back the last of her margarita before she disappeared in search of another round - complete with several shots of tequila.

And it was those shots of tequila that she blamed on the message she sent later that night.

Chris had been on her mind all night - even more so after her conversation with Molly and the many questions she’d been asking - but she knew he was busy and had managed to resist sending him any drunk texts. However, when Molly went to the bathroom just before they left the bar, she let herself indulge just a little by looking online to see if there had been any pictures posted from the premiere. Of course, there were plenty and what she found had her heart beating a little faster in her chest.

He looked so good. She’d found him attractive every time that they’d met, but he cleaned up well and it almost felt unreal that the well dressed man on a red carpet posing with all his celebrity friends was the same man that had helped her paint her house and taken her out for dinner. And it seemed even more unreal that a man as handsome as Chris had actually kissed her at the end of their date.

Inspired by the flush of attraction rushing through her and the alcohol she’d consumed, she found his name in her phone and sent him a message before she had time to change her mind.

I saw some pictures of the premiere and I’ve gotta admit that you look amazing in that suit. Please thank whoever styles you for such a delightful birthday treat.

She regretted it almost as soon as she’d sent it. Reading it over, it felt silly and fangirly and her use of the word ‘delightful’ immediately made her cringe. However, Molly came back before she had time to think of some way to take back what she’d said and she tried to push it from her mind before Molly started asking questions and she had to explain what she’d just done. With the time change, she figured Chris would be too busy to respond any time soon anyway and hoped she had her wits a bit more about her by the time that happened.

Unfortunately, that wish didn’t entirely come true as the reply from Chris popped up on her phone not long after they got back to Molly’s place. She was surprised - considering it was barely after nine pm on the west coast and she assumed he would be too busy to answer her for most of the night - but she was grateful that she’d at least had enough time to get a late night snack and some water in her system before she opened the message.

Ha! Thank you. And it’s your birthday?! You never mentioned that!

She hadn’t even realized that it seemed like she was fishing for birthday greetings in her message and felt an immediate flush of embarrassment as she quickly answered.

It is, but it’s no big deal. Just another day really.

She waited with her phone in her hand for a moment, but felt a wave of disappointment when no response came. Flopping back on the bed in Molly’s spare room, she let herself have a moment to fret and ponder her next move before forcing any doubts out of her mind once again. Considering that Robbie had to work early in the morning, Molly had decided to bunk with her and she knew that she’d be appearing at any moment and that even in her intoxicated state, she’d be able to sense any disappointment or stress that Bridget was feeling from her exchange with Chris.

His response had been as enthusiastic as she could have hoped for given the initial ridiculous message that she’d sent, but she could feel her anxiety rising about the fact that she’d messaged him at all. Throwing in the fact that she’d brought up her birthday like she was desperate for even more of his attention had her ready to accept that she had probably just ruined everything already. However, just as she was about to throw her phone across the room to force herself to stop staring at the screen as if she could will him to respond, the screen lit up with another notification from Chris. But this time it was some kind of video attachment.

She quickly opened it, but felt a wave of confusion wash over her when Paul Rudd appeared on her screen.

“Uh, hi Bridget,” he smiled at the camera. “I hear you’re a good friend of Chris’ and any friend of his is a friend of mine so I just wanna say happy birthday! I hope you’ve had a great day because I’m sure you deserve it.”

A laugh slipped from Bridget’s lips as she thought back to the conversation they’d had while he was painting her house. It was obvious why he’d chosen that particular superhero to send her a birthday greeting and she could barely contain her giggles as she played the video again just as Molly walked into the room.

“What?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow at Bridget’s goofy behaviour. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Bridget smirked. “I’m just enjoying my personalized birthday message from Paul Rudd.”

“Paul Rudd? How did you…” She trailed off as a look of realization washed over her face and she let out a soft gasp. “Oh my god, Chris sent it to you?”

“Yeah, I messaged him about the premiere and let it slip that it’s my birthday and he sent me this.”

“Let me see!” It was more of a demand than a request as she scrambled across the bed, but Bridget was happy to share the message. She tilted the phone so that Molly could see and hit play, unable to keep the grin off her face and laughing when the video ended and Molly shrieked, “Oh my god! Paul Rudd actually just wished you a happy birthday!”

“Shhh,” Bridget giggled. “But it’s actually kinda cute because I mentioned that Paul Rudd was probably my biggest celebrity crush and obviously he remembered that.”

The look that slid onto Molly’s face could only be described as one of judgement as she questioned Bridget on that statement.

“You told him that you have a crush on one of his co-workers? Wow, Bridge, we need to work on your flirting skills,” she teased her. “I know you’ve been out of the game for a while, but that’s usually not what people want to hear.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Bridget blushed. “I didn’t realize that they even knew each other and it was before our date so he clearly didn’t mind - especially if he was still willing to ask him to send me a birthday message.”

“Okay, that’s true,” Molly relented. “Did you answer him yet?”

Bridget shook her head, but the door of the spare room swung open before she could reply and Robbie stepped into the room.

“Sorry,” Bridget flashed him a sheepish smile. “Did we wake you up?”

“I heard you guys come home,” he admitted. “And I was going to go back to sleep, but I always like to check in when I hear my wife screaming another man’s name in bed.”

“Paul Rudd’s not here,” Molly rolled her eyes. “But I do have something to tell you. It’s a secret though so I’ll have to tell you when Bridget leaves or she’ll be mad at me.”

“Molly!” Bridget protested. “That’s not how secrets work! You’re not supposed to tell anyone at all, not just tell them when I’m out of earshot.”

“I know, but it’s Robbie! I tell him everything, you know that. Just like I tell you everything about him.”

“There are no secrets here,” Robbie smiled. “But if you don’t want me to know whatever Molly is so clearly desperate to gossip about then I will do my best not to listen.”

Molly whined in displeasure at that claim and Bridget swatted at her playfully.

“You can listen, I trust you not to tell anyone,” Bridget told Robbie as he let out a yawn that reminded her of the time. “But you should go back to bed, I’m sorry we woke you up.”

“It’s alright,” Robbie shrugged. “I’m glad you had a good night. Do you need anything? Have you both had some water?”

They both pointed to the glasses beside the bed and smiled at his concern before saying goodnight and letting him get back to bed. After all the excitement, it didn’t take long for Molly to start drifting off as well, but Bridget had one more thing she wanted to do before falling asleep and she opened her conversation with Chris once again.

Oh my gosh, best birthday present ever! Even though, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to see your beautiful face too, but I don’t want to be greedy so I’ll just say thank you.

Emboldened by the alcohol that she could still feel in her body, she added a little kiss blowing emoji at the end and hoped that he wouldn’t think she was being too forward. Molly’s words about her confession of a silly crush on Paul Rudd were floating in her mind and even though she was fairly sure that Chris wasn’t bothered by the situation, she hoped her comment would be a little reassurance that her interest remained focused completely on him.

She tried to fight off the need for sleep that was weighing down her eyelids as she wanted to stay awake long enough to see if he was going to reply, but considering the video he’d sent appeared to have been taken at some kind of after party, she knew he was probably busy and after a few minutes passed with no response, she let her eyes flicker shut and drifted off to sleep.

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connorshalstead · 1 year

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A few opinions about Chicago Med below unpopular, popular, I dunno, y’all decide!

Ava’s character had so much potential, but the way the producers wrote her relationship with Connor screwed her over.

As much as I love Rhodestead, I really, REALLY wish Manstead would’ve worked out. Albeit, give Will some therapy and teach him how to treat a woman !!

If we couldn’t have Manstead, we should’ve at the very least had Jeff Clarke with Natalie, he genuinely cares about her, but at the time, she was in love with Will. I wish they had more time together.

Elsa sucks. Period. I get, that it’s fiction and she’s meant to be quirky and not an average doctor? But she’s such an asshole to patients that I can’t respect her as a doctor.

Natalie should’ve had an arc where she was transferred to the peds department permanently. She would’ve thrived there.

I don’t like Nina. I understand people that do, but she’s personally not for me, I think her and Will’s relationship was… pointless? It was only to make Will realize he was truly in love with Natalie. Which, didn’t matter in the end cause of how badly their relationship ended.

The way Sarah left was absolutely insulting to her character and her relationship with Dr. Charles. Biggest punch to the gut ever as someone who relates strongly to Sarah.

Connor’s best arc was becoming a heart surgeon under Downey’s guidance. Their friendship was too short and underrated.

Lanik deserved so much more screen time. He was the best E.D. Chief and should’ve gotten more appreciation.

Maggie carries the show, I take not disagreeing on this one actually. /hj

April honestly deserves to be happy. She’s been through so much shit, and she and Ethan DESERVED that happy ending.

The “safe” drug use site was maybe Will’s worst decision. Next to Jennifer Baker and taking care of Burke.

And leaving Natalie in the dark ^

As bad as I feel for both Natalie and Will, she had no right to treat Will the way she did, having lost her memory or not.

There was a point where I DID NOT like Natalie. She was flat-out emotionally abusive to Will when he genuinely did care about her and tried to help.

That being said, Will still has faults. He should’ve absolutely given her space after the breakup and the Burke situation.

And I know he’s a highly secondary character but, I can’t help but feel bad for Owen? He saw Will as his dad, he was probably the first male figure he saw after he was born for… quite a while? It was shitty of Natalie to completely separate them. Especially after how much Will cared about him.

Second, to all of that, Philip was fucking pointless.

Ben was the best thing to happen to Maggie as well.

Jesus Christ, I feel like these people go through fiancés like cigarettes. (April with Tate, and in S5, Ethan)

And Natalie with Jeff, then Will?

Like, let people get married?? What is Dick Wolf so scared of? (Gay ppl probably)

Will deserves a STABLE RELATIONSHIP with a good person, not an ex-drug addict (who he fought with constantly and THEN SHE ASKED HIM TO GO TO LA WITH HER?), not Natalie, and Connor is gone so… :/ Idk, give him and Nina another chance even???

I really wish we got more “casual” crossover content. Like, I wanna see scenes of Casey, Severide, the Halstead brothers, Upton and maybe even Ruzek? Just hanging out at Molly’s :(

I really think Sarah and Connor were a missed opportunity. Especially with all the weird shit that happened in the first two seasons? It wouldn’t have been too far-fetched.

Better than Sarah and Joey 😭

Sarah deserved a love interest and someone to help carry her burdens. That girl had been through enough

Along with wanting Will to have a stable relationship, we should’ve gotten more Reesestead scenes…

Crockett is kind of a dick…? Especially to Ethan in his earlier episodes. But, he’s redeemable.

I really like Noah! But, I think he’s better suited as an E.D. doctor, not a surgeon.

Also, as much as I LOVE April and want to say she does no wrong, the way she treated Noah was extremely childish and unfair. He truly could handle himself and him becoming a surgeon goes to show that.

Finally, Chicago Med is absolutely shit at trans and gay representation. To the point of sometimes blatant transphobia in some episodes… (Looking at Claire…)

Thank you for reading, and remember that these are my opinions ! Feel free to disagree but remember, sending death threats is a crime !! Respect people’s opinions.

#chicago med #one chicago #will halstead #connor rhodes #sarah reese #rhodestead #manstead #natalie manning #daniel charles #sharon goodwin #unpopular take #opinions #hannah asher #ava bekker

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ijustthinkhesneat · 1 year

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I’m gonna share my DC character headcanons because I want to and no one can stop me! (I wish I had cool art skills to ad visuals to this but I am artistically challenged 😔)

Bruce Wayne:

Birthday: October 10th, 1991 (Spooky szn, also I decided he’s not old)

Sexuality: Bisexual he’s in love with Clark 😊

Favorite Animal: Bats because I’m basic

Has Autism

Height: 6’0

Favorite Food: Lasagna, it is inexplicably the only thing he can cook.

Gender Identity: Demiboy, He/They Pronouns

Now the juicy backstory…

-In my demented brain Bruce didn’t actually have a happy childhood before his parents death and that Thomas was kind of a traditional toxic masculinity man. I think Martha tried her best but couldn’t fully protect Bruce. Alfred was a friend of Martha that moved in after their deaths to take care of Bruce and instilled a lot more positive values in him.

-Is canon, absolutely not, but it’s my brain I can do what I want. I feel like this also helps explain Bruce’s struggles with being a emotionally vulnerable with his kids and the why he makes shitty choices sometimes.

-I also believe he wants to be better and genuinely tries really hard to be a good dad. Very much that trope of ‘I want you to have a better life than I did’.

-Post Alfred moving in with Bruce his development into Batman plays out pretty much the same, but he he does start to realize he is not the straight.

-After adopting Dick he finds out that his son is definitely not straight (caught holding Wally wests hand in a not god honoring way) and has a lot of internal turmoil, he wants to support his son, but has to wrestle with his own internalized homophobia. (Thanks Tom). Lots of angst it’ll be great.

-This contributes to Dick leaving and Bruce finally confronts his issues, enter Jason.

-Jason dies and Bruce goes all the way off the deep end, almost kills the joker. I actually like the idea that Dick stops him and then returns secretly to finish the Joker off, cause he thinks Bruce wouldn’t be able to recover.

-Tim gets adopted a little earlier because jack and Janet throw him out for being trans. Trans baby Tim is the best. This helps Bruce come to terms with his own identity again.

-Steph becomes robin because slay queen mama waffle boots the house spoiler

-Jason returns and has his under the red hood arc minus Bruce basically slitting his throat with a batarang cause I hate that and it makes no sense.

-Cass is adopted and becomes the silent chaos queen we deserve. I like many people headcanon her as being selectively mute, Bruce learns sign language faster than anyone else.

-Damian shows up around the age of 5 because again time is like dick Grayson, bendable as all hell. Bruce loves his babies but extra babies Damian because he loves him and sees a lot of himself in Damian and doesn’t want him to be like him.

-Bruce reachs out to Jason because he missed his son to much and he comes back and omg it’s just the best thing to ever happen pls DC let these boys be SOFT.

-Bruce adopts Duke because another vigilante child isn’t gonna make a difference now but little does he know that his fifth son is perhaps the most chaos gremlin of all. He is flashlight and he will step on the Jokers throat for fun, because not only did the joker jokerize his bio parents but he fucked with his brothers and his dad to much so he’s gonna toaster that man’s tub.

That’s my Bruce headcanon and time line the others won’t be this long but this is for me so I don’t care what anyone thinks teehee.

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 6 months

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Got some more for tonight :D

1: what do they want to be when they grow up besides superheroes? I can see them following in their father’s footsteps and becoming a police officer (if Jake doesn’t become a pro basketball player) and a reporter for Chris.

2: if there is a cartoon or live action movie/show, who do you want to voice/act as them?

3: you mention in a earlier post saying Chris likes invincible and him and his dad are like invincible and Omni man, does he get PTSD from watching/reading the parts where Omni man beats up mark?

4: speaking of invincible, has the duo been in brutal fights similar to the comic/show?

5: what’s the funniest thing they ever heard or saw?

6: what does the boys like to do with their own family members? like Jake and Jason might practice shooting guns and Chris and Clark flies to Jupiter.

7: do they cuddle when they’re watching a movie or show? Like laying against each other or sitting in one’s lap and wrapping them with arms.

1. While for Chris I can see him become an investigative journalist for a smaller newspaper/news website, I think Jake would lean instead on being an athletics/acrobatics teacher, primarily in a school that doesn’t receive as much attention from the boards or the State. Given his family history in the trapeze and his hobby of basketball, I can see those sports being his professions he’d be teaching to the students. That of course is balanced by duties he has as a technical Prince of Tamaran.

2. For an animated series, I hear Chris being voiced an actual voice actor whose about that age as Chris is in story. For an example of this being done well, look at the performances of the voice actors they had for Gumball Watterson from the titular Amazing World of Gumball.

Now as for Jake, while I’d ideally take something of a similar approach for him as with Chris (after all both Gumball and Darwin were voiced by actors who were their age), an alternative can have Jake being voiced by actress Colleen Clinkenbeard, best known for her dubbing work on One Piece and Dragon Ball Kai. Similarly if we are left with no other choice but a more experienced voice actor for Chris, I picture either Grey Delise Griffin (she’s known for quite an extensive library) or Pamela Hayden (best known for being the voice of Milhouse from the Simpsons)

And yes I do realize for the options presented there’s that old saying in show business “Never Work With Children or Animals” so it’s not like I didn’t take that into consideration, hence the alternatives lol

3. Oh me oh my that’s a guaranteed yes. Very very VERY bad flashbacks come flooding right back to Chris with each and every blow Nolan pounds his own son. Though a lot of that shock was already happening prior to that moment; what truly broke Chris even before the climactic beat down was the subway train scene….Chris had to pause the episode and head to the bathroom to empty out his lunch and only came back to finish the episode about 15 minutes later.

Needless to say, even if he does stick all the way to the ending, it was very rough watch given the similarities between Nolan and Zod. Though one tiny detail did get to Chris beyond that malaise of trauma and shock….Nolan actively regretting his decisions and outright turning away from his own wicked ways once Mark said his fateful words, a single tear coming down Nolan when he realized what he’d truly done. It gave Chris a very very tiny glimmer of hope; if Nolan can realize what he did was wrong…maybe even his birth father can as well. It was very faint hope but hope all the same.

4. Oh…oh HO HO HO. Yes they would have, my friend. Whether it’s via Zsasz, a visiting Mongul, Zod himself or a plethora of other villains that match the Duo’s power levels or even below them in Zsasz’s case. Maybe it’s not a frequent issue, but battles that had landed Chris and Jake in the hospital has precedence and history. Thank goodness for their healing factors and the amount of work from both Dr Thompkins and the Fortress of Solitude’s healing matrix.

5. Probably that one time they saw Hawkman and Guy Gardner utterly fail at their job for watch duty at the Hall of Justice’s kitchen, allowing their siblings Mar’i and Jon to sneak out some snacks without those two noticing.

And the time also Milagro was training alongside Tai by Jessica and Stewart. They were given the instruction of “Think of a Big Dog” for a construct. Tai created a Full Grown Husky construct while Milagro instead created a 40 story tall Xolo Puppy construct. At least it looked big for them

6. Well I can guarantee you that Dick will notice if Jason does that with either of his kids and oh boy he wouldn’t like it, not one bit at all. So Jason would have to work with substituting those cannons with water squirts instead.

Besides out of the other Robins and Batgirls, Jake himself prefers hanging out with his Uncle Tim far more often, doing a whole bunch together. Among Jake’s favorites being the two visiting a nearby Bono N’ Stomp and both of them going into the ball pit. Tim has a ton of fun since no matter what, essentially he’s a more or less a big kid himself.

Now for Chris, it won’t be just with Clark that’ll accompany him in space flights. Often times both Krypto and Jon join along with them, from there the three can do play some catch on the Moon, take small sight seeing across the entire world from the Effiel Tower in Paris, The Taj Mahal in India, The entire city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, etc. just generally exploring the world and the stars all around them.

When not doing that, then Clark joins with Chris and Jon in guitar jam sessions in the barn and/or board games.

7. If you ask Chris, all he’d do is point a finger at Jake with a soft smirk as the latter is cuddle and comfy incarnate when they have movie time during sleepovers. It’s a trait beyond doubt both Mar’i and him have inherited from their mother and if they do notice it, they’re all too proud of it. Most commonly in Jake’s case, he’d lay down opposite to Chris, so that he lays his head down on one side of the couch’s arms while Chris lays down in the other.

These asks are much appreciated my friend @gothicghost2000 . Thanks a plenty 😊

#chris kent #jake grayson #starburst duo #invincible #mark grayson #nolan grayson #voice acting #hawkman #carter hall #guy gardner #tai pham #milagro reyes #green lantern #dick grayson #koriand'r #mari grayson #clark kent #jonathan samuel kent

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homemadechickfilasauce · 2 years

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Movies I could rewatch every week in no particular order

1. The Loft (2014)

For five men (Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts), the opportunity to share a penthouse in the city -- in which to carry on extramarital affairs -- is a dream come true, until the dead body of an unknown woman turns up. Realizing that her killer must be one of their group, the men are gripped by paranoia as each one suspects another. Friendships are tested, loyalties are questioned, and marriages crumble while fear and suspicion run rampant.

2. Donnie Darko (2001)

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

3. The Boy (2016)

A young American named Greta (Lauren Cohan) takes a job as a nanny for an 8-year-old boy in a remote English village. To her surprise, Greta learns that the child of her new employers is a life-size doll. They care for the doll as if it was human, which helps the couple to cope with the death of their own son 20 years earlier. When Greta violates a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring her worst fears to life, leading her to believe that the doll is alive.

4. The Lovely Bones (2009)

After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz) -- and her killer (Stanley Tucci). As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.

5. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

Mike and his wife Cindy take their son and daughter on a road trip that becomes their worst nightmare. The family members soon find themselves in a desperate fight for survival when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park that's mysteriously deserted -- until three masked psychopaths show up to satisfy their thirst for blood.

6. Me Before You (2016)

Young and quirky Louisa "Lou" Clark (Emilia Clarke) moves from one job to the next to help her family make ends meet. Her cheerful attitude is put to the test when she becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), a wealthy young banker left paralyzed from an accident two years earlier. Will's cynical outlook starts to change when Louisa shows him that life is worth living. As their bond deepens, their lives and hearts change in ways neither one could have imagined.

7. Monster House (2006)

No adults believe three youths' (Mitchel Musso, Spencer Locke, Sam Lerner) assertion that a neighboring residence is a living creature that means them harm. With Halloween approaching, the trio must find a way to destroy the structure before innocent trick-or-treaters meet ghastly ends.

8. What Happened To Monday (2017)

In a world where families are allowed only one child due to overpopulation, resourceful identical septuplets must avoid governmental execution and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.

8. Father Of The Year (2018)

When a drunken debate between two college graduates about whose father would win in a fight is taken seriously by their dads, jobs are lost, relationships ruined, and best friends come of age as they come to grips with the identity of their fathers.

9. The Last Song (2010)

Unruly New York teen Ronnie Miller is angered to learn that she and younger brother Jonah are being sent to stay with their father for the summer. The talented young pianist is already grappling with her mother over her refusal to attend the prestigious Juilliard music school, and is in no mood to spend the holidays away from her friends in a small Southern beach town.

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clarktooncrossing · 5 months

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Giraffe's Eye View: Christmas Specials Special (2023) | Barbie in Nutcracker

Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. Mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. All the dogs in the neighborhood somehow learned to bark Jingle Bells in sync. Yet retail workers are still more annoyed with Mariah Carey. Snow is getting shoveled, tossed, and formed into sentient beings leading parades without permits. It makes for an excellent distraction as the Krampus abducts children for bad behavior. Fruitcake is exchanged only to find its permanent home in the garbage. Terrorists have hijacked the Holiday office party right before your boss can give you a Jelly of the Month Club membership as your bonus. And of course, the Turducken has returned to wreak its fiery vengeance upon an unsuspecting world! If all this doesn’t put you in the Christmas spirit, perhaps these following Holiday specials will!

Greetings people of today and robots of tomorrow! It is I, Santa Clark, your geeky giraffe friend with a deep love of Christmas! My obsession for the yuletide is rivaled only by Maleficent’s hatred for it, which is saying a lot considering she once teamed up with Mad Madam Mim to kidnap the literal Spirit of Christmas. Yes, that really happened. I know this due to my annual pilgrimage to the Island of Misfit Specials, home to obscure or nerdy festive media ranging from movies, TV episodes, and comics. It’s no easy journey. Constantly I find myself confronted by sinister snowmen, genocidal gingerbread men, and worst of all, crappy commercials. Getting stabbed in the foot by a candy-cane wielding cookie is one thing, but I swear I’ve seen that ad for Wilbur’s White Elephant Gift Emporium more times than I’ve seen Miracle on 34th Street! Sometimes at night I catch myself reciting that jingle. Wilbur’s White Elephant Gift Emporium: Where Christmas meets Convenience! Huh, maybe Maleficent had a point.

Nah, my deep-rooted appreciation for this time of year can weather even the most moronic marketing! It helps that most of the merry media I’ve seen have put me in the perfect Holiday mood! Examples include the time a Ninja Turtle found himself trapped in a truck full of stollen toys, a drunk department store Santa stumbling onto a wish-granting magic bag, Big Bird nearly becoming a popsicle, Gwenpool waking up in a world where Galactus took the place of jolly ol’ Saint Nicholas, a terrifying tree stump trying to slaughter some saps over a stupid ship war, and the year when Death gave the Little Match Girl the greatest gift of all. Needless to say, I thought I had seen it all. That is, until I took my friends on a trip to the Island, tasking them to find me new, strange, seasonal specials to review! Some of them were fair, finding me festive favorites as comforting as coco in front of the fireplace. Others were fiendish, wanting to feed off my misery like Gremlins after midnight. Regardless of how naughty or nice my companions were, I’ve compiled all of their suggestions into a makeshift advent calendar! So stay tuned everyday until Christmas to see how badly my buddies can shred what little sanity I have left.

On the first day of Christmas, my buddies gave to me...

Hoo boy, what a way to start. Now you’d think my friend Molly (molly420) would’ve made her choice due to the magnificent Margot Robbie vehicle that came out earlier this year. Honestly, Harley Quinn’s humorous turn as the iconic blonde bimbo had nothing to do with this. I’ve been trying to get this special written for a while now and Molly missed her chance to partake the first time around. Knowing I’d offer myself up to being tormented again, she set an alarm on her phone to remind herself to suggest Barbie in Nutcracker when the opportunity presented itself the following year. That kind of disturbing dedication I can oddly respect. Still doesn’t stop me from feeling annoyed. Jolly as I may be, Nutcracker turns me into a Scrooge! My love of Christmas only goes so far when I’m bored out of my mind in an auditorium, watching confused toddlers prance around on stage, the titular toy soldier clashing against a dude in a bargain bin rat costume. How can a show be so tedious yet so trippy? No wonder I made a comic comparing my going to see it to the five stages of grief. My love of Barbie isn’t much higher, her only being interesting whenever she’s in a Pixar picture. Say what you will, but Barbie and Ken’s relationship in Toy Story 3 gave us Ariel and Batman flirting. Any argument you have is invalid. Still, perhaps I’m being too harsh. I’ve praised an adaptation featuring Mickey and Minnie before, so there is precedent for decent retellings of this tale. Will Barbie manage to pull off something similar?

Certainly not in the art department she won’t! Admittedly this is a direct-to-video movie from 2001, a time when computer animation was still finding its footing. Not to mention, this movie was one of the first to use motion capture, employing the world famous New York City Ballet to provide the dancing seen on screen. In a time when Gollum wasn’t even a fully realized character yet, that’s actually impressive! Really, I have to tip my hat there. Everything else looks like a sugar plum fever dream. This is one of those movies you never want to pause ever! The lighting is lackluster, the textures are terrible, and any movement outside of the dancing is stiffer than a board. This animation has aged like eggnog! Still, it’s not the worst cartoon content I’m critiquing this Christmas. At least it succeeds in making Barbie look as plastic as ever.

Speaking of our pink protagonist, our story starts with Barbie (Kelly Sheridan) in the middle of instructing her ballet class. A class that consists of one brat failing to master a basic move. Business is booming! Seeing her sole source of income struggling, our blonde ballet instructor halts class in order to tell a self-insert fanfiction where she takes on the role of Clara. She is visited by her adventurous Aunt Drosselmayer (Kathleen Barr) on Christmas Eve, bringing with her a horribly rendered Nutcracker. Her niece is smitten by the doll cuz some peeps have kooky kinks. She even goes so far as to bandage up its arm when her brother breaks it. Great, now he can’t come with Clara to Cowboy Camp! Despite the busted limb, the wooden warrior is able to ward off an army of malicious mice that invade the house later that night. Leading these vile vermin is their king, voiced by the GOAT, Tim Curry. Oh Tim, you’re the gift that keeps on giving! He is the savory pinch of salt that can turn any drab slab of beef into a five-star steak. He is the shiny red ribbon tied up on that piece of coal you found in your stocking. He is the guy who has it out bad for Christmas if this and Belle’s Enchanted Christmas are any indication. As per usual he adds sinister charisma to an otherwise forgettable fiend.

A shame he’s not in the movie for long. Upon waking up, Barbie takes a page out of Clark Griswold’s guide to exterminating pests by covering the critter in a coat before bashing its brains out with a hammer. Or at least that’s what should’ve happened. Rather she stands still long enough for the Mouse King to use his magical scepter to shrink her down like Ant-Man. Only after does she repel the rodent via meekly kicking her slipper at him. Brilliant strategy Barbie, G.I. Joe’s got nothin’ on you! Especially since now you’re the same size. Left wondering how to return to normal, the suddenly sentient owl perched atop her grandfather clock swoops in to exposit. Oh sure, she could’ve prevented this from happening by simply eating the mice, but that’d be too logical. Jee, thanks ya' feathery fool. Instead she tasks the two with finding the Sugar Plum Princess, a magical maiden from the Kingdom of Parthenia who went missing years ago. Only she can help Barbie regain her tall status as well as dethrone the mousey monarch.

Thus off they’re sent to this magical realm, encountering freakish fairies, rampaging rock giants, multicolored mares, and the always bickering Captain Candy (Ian James Corlett) and Major Mint (Christopher Gaze). Whenever these two aren’t repressing their obvious sexual tension they’re blaming the missing Prince Eric for their troubles. He's the reason for their many woes! A sentiment shared by the few survivors still living here. Dang, you folks have a nasty habit of misplacing your monarchs. Maybe you ott’a start tagging them.

Whatever happened to Prince Eric? According to Mint his friend was next in line to rule before finding himself smitten by a red-headed fish girl who saved him from a sinking ship. Shirking off more of his responsibilities led to the Mouse King eventually seizing power, the tiny tyrant transforming the prince into the very same Nutcracker (Kirby Morrow) escorting Barbie in the present. A plot twist so obvious even our heroine saw it coming a mile away. Props to this picture for subverting expectations but that just makes Barbie’s inability to figure out the bigger reveal all the more moronic. Cuz yeah, no freak’n duh she's the Sugar Plum Princess! No doubt all of you figured that out as soon as the name was dropped. By the end Barbie finally figures it out herself, using her powers to grow back to full size, squish the Mouse King under her hot-pink heel, then dance an annoyingly long amount of time with her now human boi toy. Hey, might as well get your money’s worth out of those New York Ballerinas.

My snark should’ve made it clear by now how this adaptation isn’t for me. That’s not to say there aren’t things I liked. For starters, I appreciated the writers’ attempt to turn what’s normally a string of random sequences into a coherent narrative. Granted, they never explain how Aunty Drosslemeyer came into possession of the Nutcracker, why the Sugar Plum Princess went missing in the first place, or how Barbie suddenly learns how to use her magic, but still the effort is there. Overall the script wasn’t as brain dead as I feared it’d be. Then again, perhaps it didn’t seem as stupid due to the talented voice cast reading it. Aside from Curry, the ensemble is stuffed with My Little Pony alumni, Starlight Glimmer delivering a decent performance for our main star. Clearly she struck a chord with audiences considering how many times she’d reprise this role afterwards. Out of all the cast though, Kirby Morrow as the Prince was the weakest link, his voice never matching the character design. Not to mention, they had the audacity to cast Curry and never give him ONE stink’n song number? Screw this movie not being a musical, you don't cast a Sweet Transvestite without letting them sing! It’s a crime punishable by death! Atop of that, the pacing is peculiar in places, the plot twists are obnoxiously obvious, and the animation is just adequate. By no means is this a masterpiece.

It is, however, a great excuse to spend time with my cousin. Being a fan of Barbie for as long as she’s been alive meant she was the perfect person to call to borrow a copy from. We got together and had a laugh at the movie’s expense, my cousin unable to ignore the apparent flaws either. Fun times were had, and what more could I possibly ask for? At least now I don’t have to review any more versions of Nutcracker… right?

INDEX | NEXT REVIEW >

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ryderastrea · 1 year

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a dad and son talk

Date: October 26, 2022 Location: Ergo, Twarvu, Kor’Sel’Koo Characters: Ryder and Henry Astrea Description: Henry checks in on Ryder when he notices them looking a little down. Characters Mentioned: Robin and Alisz Astrea, Skylar Clarke-Iz’an, Salem Ilmari, Derros Laernal, (Stella, Laurie, and Blue are implied?)

Ryder quickly found out how intimidating it was to spend the night on the dance floor when their mother was watching, and they were trying to pretend like they didn’t secretly dream about becoming a dancer. After a glass of wine, crush reveals, awkwardly dancing with their dad, and checking on Robin, they ended up back at their table, picking at their second slice of wedding cake.

The wedding couldn’t go more perfectly, and they were both relieved and happy for the newly married couple. Ryder hated that they felt drained. Maybe it was the stress of it all or reuniting with their parents–or even just being surrounded by people in love while feeling lonely. Either way, they just needed a minute to themself.

It was a short-lived minute when Henry took the free seat next to him and gave him a soft smile. “What’re you doing here all by yourself, Ry? You should be celebrating Sky with the others,” He said.

“I’m eating cake,” Ryder replied as they gestured to their plate before sliding it towards their dad. “Want some?”

Henry seemed to contemplate it for a moment. “I shouldn’t be eating so much cake in my old age, but if you insist…” He took Ryder’s fork and cut into the half-eaten slice of cake. “So, do you have a secret boyfriend I should know about too? I saw you with Derros earlier.”

Ryder snorted and rolled their eyes, earning them a feigned offended look.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me. It’s an honest question. Robin introduced us to Salem earlier. He’s nice–very polite. He kept calling me “sir,” Henry paused to laugh. “I just wanted to know if I should expect the same from you.”

Ryder shook their head and sank lower in their seat, looking out to the crowd on the dance floor. “Nope. No secret boyfriend. I’m still as single as I’ve always been,” he muttered. Maybe one day he wouldn’t feel so sad about it, he knew that wanting so much would just make it less likely to happen, but they couldn’t exactly control it.

Ryder couldn’t see his dad’s face, but he could practically feel the pity radiating from him, which was only solidified when he patted their hair gently. “There’s nothing wrong with being single,” he said eventually. “The right guy will come along.”

Biting their lower lip, they made a non-committal noise in response. Ryder knew their dad was just trying to make them feel better, but they were honestly getting tired of hearing it. You’re young, you’ll find someone someday, you just haven’t met the right person yet, anyone would want you. That was the thing though, no one did, so it just felt like empty promises. Sure, they were young, but they were getting older. Next year, they’d be twenty-five. Most people had several significant others by then, and Ryder still hadn’t had one. They were interrupted from their thoughts when Henry nudged them, forcing them to actually look at him.

“There you are. You were a million miles away. What’s going on with you, kiddo? You seem really down. You were so quiet on the dance floor earlier,” he said with a worried frown.

“I’m fine,” Ryder answered immediately with a strained smile. “I’m just tired from the wedding planning. It was hard to put this together in only a month.”

“I bet. You and your brother did an amazing job. It’s just my job as your dad to worry about you. Are you happy on the ship? I…” Henry faltered like he was trying to decide the right thing to say. Alisz wasn’t there, but she was still in the room, so Ryder wouldn’t be surprised if he still felt the need to be careful. “I know you have Sky and Robin there with you, but I was never sure if the traveling pirate lifestyle was for you.”

Ryder tried their best not to react, but they visibly swallowed before looking away again. “I like traveling,” they answered vaguely, “ and I like my crew mates. I’m really close with a few of them.” It’s being a medic I don’t like, they added mentally. “Really, dad. I’m fine. You don’t need to worry. Like you said, I have Sky and Bin. I’m really just tired, and my eyes are sore from crying during the ceremony.”

They stood up suddenly, ready to stop this conversation. They looked down at Henry with a forced grin. “Let’s go back to the dance floor. We can try to get mum and Robin to join. I finally taught Robin to do more than a box step.”

Henry just looked at them for a beat before smiling and nodding before getting to his feet. “Well, that I’ve got to see. Come on.”

#selfpara #a dad and son talk #i had no idea what to title this so i just went literal lmao

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soulmate-game · 3 years

Text

Hawkmoth was a bitch, and Marinette meant that with every fiber of her soul. Fu was also a bitch, and Marinette actually had good memories of the guy. Not many, but she had some. The fact that the guy got two ten-year-olds to become super heroes and fight a supervillain for him kinda soured those memories, though. But with Chat Noir not allowed to leave his house? Yeah, even as young as they were it only took about a year to find out who HawkMoth was and another year to take him down.

Except, that left Marinette alone. The final battle took her mom away, and Chat had to move out of Paris after his dad was arrested. Luckily Jagged allowed her and her papa to move into his house in Gotham, and everything was…

Well, it was okay. For about a month.

Then her dad was gone too, and she had no way to talk to Jagged, and the police were scaring her—

Yeah, that was the basic order of events that led to where she was now. Pushing fourteen years old, ex-superhero, protector of a magical box of gods, stealing the tires off of a very nice motorcycle.

Marinette was tempted to just take the whole thing, she loved bikes and knew she could drive it. But the thing had more security than she knew what to do with, and the fact that it belonged to Red Hood… she didn’t want to deal with trackers today, thanks. So the tires it was.

Should she maybe care more about the fact that she was stealing from a vigilante with a violent streak? Maybe. Did she? Hell no. For all she knew, maybe Red Hood was a bitch too. (Yes, she was still learning English slang. She was fluent by educational standards, but learning how to curse in a foreign language was fun and she still had a little bit to go. Her few street friends were very happy to help).

A shadow dropped down in front of her, and Marinette’s hero instincts kicked in. The tire iron she was using cut through the air, slamming right into the side of Red Hood’s knee.

—*—*—*—*—*

“Hood,” Batman’s voice grumbled over the comms, instantly grabbing the attention of everyone else who was on the comms. It wasn’t as gruff as he usually sounded, in fact it almost sounded like… he was trying not to laugh?

“Did you get gassed by Joker?” Dick asked before Jason got a chance to respond. “Need backup?”

“No,” Batman responded, sounding a little more composed. “Not a rogue. But Hood, I need you to join me at my location as soon as possible.”

Finally getting the chance to talk, Jason responded a little warily; “Sure, B. Wait,” he blinked at the location that was sent to him. “Isn’t that where my bike is parked?”

Batman didn’t respond at first, only the sound of labored breathing— again, as if he was trying not to laugh. “Just get here, Hood.”

Sighing, but not too mad since the night had been fairly quiet so far, Jason decided to humor the old man and head over. When he could see the cape-clad back of Batman, he easily leapt over the last roof and sauntered over.

“Okay, B,” he had his thumbs tucked in his pockets as he drawled. “What’s the issue?”

Batman was grinning. As in, actually showing amusement. And he just pointed down, straight at Hood’s bike.

Jason rolled his eyes under his helmet, turning to look. At first he didn’t see anything amiss, until he saw movement and looked harder. Oh. Oh, holy shit.

“Is that a kid?”

“Yep,” Batman’s grin grew.

“Is she… stealing my tires?” Hood was so, so glad he wore a helmet that hid his expression. Because… wow.

“Yep,” Batman finally lost his composure, chuckling. “This seems like Karma, don’t you think?”

“And you just watched her so you could rub it in,” Jason groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation. Of course he would. Nobody knew it (except the other heroes who knew him) but Batman was a petty little jerk when he wanted to be. He bought the whole Daily Planet just to spite Clark, for crying out loud.

“Don’t adopt her,” Batman said as he stood up, patting Red Hood’s shoulder. “It looks like she’s almost done.”

“Shit,” Jason hissed, looking down to see that she was, actually, very close to being done. She had already had one tire completely free by the time he had arrived, and now she was only seconds away from getting the other one completely free.

He took a quick assessment— she was tiny, and really thin. Definitely a street kid, he thought, though he didn’t recognize her. He knew most of the street kids that stole to get by, nowadays, which meant she must have been fairly new. But even though she seemed to know what she was doing, her small frame made her take longer unscrewing the tires than it normally would have taken. Sure that she wasn’t a threat by any stretch of the imagination, he jumped down. His plan had been to startle her a little by showing up out of nowhere, but he didn’t want to scare her too badly. Just make her jump a little.

But he had underestimated her, it seemed. Without wasting a second, she jumped up and swung her tire iron at his knee. He cursed, she was a lot faster than her had been expecting. He was able to move so that the weapon only clipped the side of his knee, his knee pad thankfully taking the worst of it. She still hit hard enough to make him stumble and hiss in pain though, which was an accomplishment.

That’s when she abandoned her weapon and her tires, darting to try and escape only for Batman to drop down and block her escape. Though really, it was the grin Batman had that scared the girl most of all, apparently, making her slowly back away from him.

“Please stop smiling,” she begged with a faint French accent to her words. “It is not natural.”

That made Red Hood laugh, already recovered and right behind her. He plopped a gloved hand on her head.

“I know, it’s creepy right?” He joked. “What’cha doin’ stealing my tires, kid? I kinda need them to drive anywhere,” he was careful to keep his voice light and devoid of any anger. He wasn’t really upset, all told. It would be hypocritical of him if he was.

She looked between the two vigilantes for a moment, clear intelligence behind those bright blue eyes as she seemed to consider something. Suddenly she pulled away from Red Hood and stepped away from his reach, straightening up and trying to look tall.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said as firmly as she could. “My father was Tom Dupain, he was killed in a mugging three months ago. We were living in a house that our family friend leant to us after my mother’s death six months ago, and we moved here from Paris. I haven’t been able to contact him, and the police… I don’t trust them,” she admitted, clearly seeing this as the chance she had been waiting for. “I have been living on the streets since my father died. I am sorry for trying to steal your tires, Monsieur Red Hood. But it was a risk I had to take.”

“Did you expect us to catch you?” He asked, crossing his arms as he re-evaluated the girl. She was a lot stronger than he had assumed earlier, both physically and mentally. She seesawed her hand to indicate ‘kinda’.

“Even if you didn’t, I could make good money off your tires,” she justified with a shrug. “To me, I would win either way.”

“Who is your family friend? Can he help you now, take you in?” Batman asked, moving forward and kneeling down to be closer to Marinette’s height. Neither he nor Jason had missed the part where she was an orphan, but they had expected that considering what they had caught her doing. And they both knew that she wasn’t likely to take any apologies they tried to offer very well. It was best not to show pity, or she might get angry.

Marinette frowned. “... Our family friend is Jagged Stone. He lets me call him Uncle Jagged,” she told them, clearly expecting the disbelieving grunts they gave. “I mean it! You can call him, he might even be looking for me! I—“

“We know,” Hood assured her, now kneeling down as well. Man, she was short. “Calm down, we know you’re telling the truth. Jagged has made several public announcements about his missing honorary niece, we just didn’t recognize your name right away. And Jagged doesn’t have access to very many pictures of you, those he does have the Mayor isn’t allowing him to show because that spineless jackass—“

“Language, Hood.”

“—Cares more about keeping bad press off the air than finding a kid, even if it’s a world famous rockstar who’s asking. That’s probably why you haven’t heard anything, the mayor’s keeping it off the radio and not many reporters are brave enough to take the story and get on his bad side.”

“Oh…” Marinette took a deep breath, fighting the tears that were threatening to rise up. “He has been looking…” she sniffled, curling in on herself a little. “Can you take me to him?”

“I think we can do that,” Batman agreed, standing up. “I’ll contact him. Red Hood, can you handle everything here until I give you a place to meet up with Jagged Stone?”

Jason nodded. “No problem, B. Come on, little rabid pixie. Step one of gettin’ you back to your uncle is to help me fix my bike back up.”

Marinette sighed, shoulders dropping. “All my hard work, undone…” she playfully complained. But in the end she didn’t argue or fight against it, she just sat down and helped him reattach his tires.

All the while, Jason’s family kept teasing him over the comms. Clearly they were also thoroughly amused by the cosmic display of karma.

“...Monsieur Hood,” Marinette asked once they were done repairing the motorcycle and he had given her his too-big extra helmet. He tilted his head a bit to show he was listening. She squirmed. “Can… can we stop by my hideout? I have something really important I have to get.”

Jason smiles gently under his mask. She might not have been a street kid for very long, but she really did bring back some memories for him. He got on his bike and held a hand out to her.

“Sure thing kid. Wanna grab something to eat after? Can’t have a reunion on an empty stomach.”

She gave him a lopsided smile— not quite overjoyed, but definitely hopeful and thankful. Maybe this was the end of her streak of bad luck, she could only hope.

“Only if you don’t mind, Monsieur Hood,” she agreed before taking his hand and letting him help her onto the bike.

“No skin off my back, pixie,” he assured her. Then they were off. He followed her directions until they got to an abandoned building about three miles away, not in a good part of town at all but at least not in crime alley. Marinette easily led him through the building, skirting around other piles of ratty blankets and up broken stairs until they got to the badly-maintained top floor. She led him over to an almost invisible door in the concrete wall that pulled out to reveal what was probably a broom closet once upon a time. It was crowded with what looked like junk and empty boxes, along with a few blankets and two or three changes of clothes that were clearly her’s. A few belongings scattered around— a book, a small pink purse, and… Marinette came out of the pile of mess holding what had clearly been a very carefully hidden box. She also grabbed the purse and slung it over her shoulder, but didn’t seem worried about anything else.

Jason frowned at the box. It wasn’t that big, but it was clearly made of old wood. There were intricate carvings that were painted pink, in a symbol that was itching at the back of his mind. He recognized that symbol, but from where?

“Ready to go, kid?” He asked as he thought about it, getting a nod from Marinette. Twenty minutes later they were at a Batburger, sitting in a shaded booth that couldn’t be seen from the street.

She never let the box out of her sight. She kept it on the seat next to her, and Jason noticed that she tried to keep one hand on it at all times. But when she spoke, now her French accent stood out to him even more than before. But why—?

And then it clicked. Paris. Hawkmoth. Ladybug, Chat Noir, magic artifacts called Miraculous. Wonder Woman had raised a fuss when the heroes disappeared, declaring that something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on what. Then the magic users they trusted were called in, and returned from Paris with the grim news that the former Guardian of those artifacts had activated a failsafe and passed the guardianship on to someone else while erasing his own memories at the same time. But nobody knew who he could have passed it on to, so Batman had been given the green light to do all the research he and his team could into the Miraculous box to try and help track it down.

And here it was. The carvings were in pink now, which might have been the “cosmetic change” that Constantine had mentioned might happen when the box changed guardians. He had found the box full of super powerful magical artifacts… in the hands of a newly orphaned street kid who couldn’t have been older than fourteen at best.

What the hell?

“...” Red hood reached into his pocket and pulled out an old receipt and a sharpie. He scrawled on the back of the receipt and handed to Marinette. The girl was halfway into a bite of her burger when he did, and blinked at him owlishly before swallowing and cautiously reaching out to grab it. She frowned at the numbers scrawled there.

“What’s this?” She asked.

“My contact info,” he explained. “I won’t ask questions about why you have that box,” he watched her instantly stiffen but continued as casually as he could; “but it doesn’t matter. You can call me if you ever need help with anything, kid. Help with that box, help if you get in trouble in Gotham again, or even if you’re having a bad day. You can call me for whatever, got it? I don’t care if you think it’s stupid, if you can’t talk to anyone else in your life you can always call or text me and I’ll do whatever I can. Got it?”

“...” Marinette sniffled for a second and looked down at the table in silence for a second. “... what if I want your motorcycle?” she joked, but the watery tone of her voice gave her away.

Jason laughed, patting her head. “I need my bike, but we can talk about getting you your own once you are old enough to get a license. You almost done? Bats says that Jagged is ready to meet you, I can take you to him right now.”

“Yeah, lets go!” she was newly energized and shoved the last bite of burger into her mouth greedily. “And Red Hood?” She asked as they headed out to where he had parked.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Thanks.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Permanent tag list (I remembered it this time!)

@rosalineandrosemary @neakco @justanotherfanficlovinbitch @trippingovermyfeet @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @bigpicklebananatree @fantasylover-92 @prongs-flowers @jumpingjoy82 @prettylittlebutterflie @queenz-z @literaryhiraeth @waffelyunsure @deathssilentapproach-blog @waiting247 @theirlmikan @unoriginalmess

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #dc x miraculous #soulmate-game #platonic jasonette

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babylooneytoonz · 3 years

Text

the Other Lane.

pairing : Clark Kent x Reader

requested by: @dashingcavill [Hope you like this! 💛]

warnings: Angst with a happy ending, and a lot of fluff in the end.

A/N: Ah, I'm really sorry I couldn't help but put some major angst in here, but I swear the ending is happy and I added the right amount of feels and fluff to make it hurt less. 💛

[The Masterlist]

You often wondered if you were born to your parents only to become a commodity that could be compared to your sister, Lois , at all times. Yes, the two of you were different, she had glamourous blonde hair and sparkling blue irises that made her strike out, while you had sombre [Y/H/C] hair and dull [Y/E/C] eyes that peeked out from the tint of your glasses. If the glasses weren't enough to fit you perfectly into the category that was termed as 'nerds', the fact that you loved to bury yourself into mounds and mounds of books, and literature was sure to fit you into that bill. All that comparison, but that didn't lessen the bond that you shared with Lois though.

However, things slowly started changing, the dynamics messing up when Clark Kent came into your life, as a friend and as a colleague.

Lois worked as a reporter for Daily Planet, and you, well you were mostly working in the background, struggling to make a run with your tiny little column on relationship advises. It wasn't like you were any less intelligent, but maybe you just were okay with how everything was going.

It didn't mean that there weren't times at all when Lois made you secretly jealous. To be fair, it didn't bother you when you heard stories of how Lois got herself into trouble yet again, with none other than the Superman came to her rescue. You could still take that, considering the fact that Superman took his duty towards the civilians as his topmost priority, but when you began noticing obvious changes in your sister's behaviour when she talked to Clark, his alter ego; your colleague at work, you couldn't help but start feeling the little pangs of jealousy.

It all began subtly— starting from lingering glances at the workplace, to hands brushing with each other's, almost innocently, yet the two of them had a sparkle in their eyes when it did. At first, you decided to ignore them at work, trying your best to not run into Clark Kent while you were in your office building. The reason for this was still inexplicably strange for you. You didn't even know the man that well, yet you could do nothing in your control to keep your budding feelings for him under check. It was like, the more you avoided Clark Kent, the more you began aching to get a glimpse of him.

As the days passed, you realized that your crush on Clark was slowly getting more prominent, and you started feeling scared, dreading if there ever came a day that your secret crush on him with finally be out. To top it up a notch, you wondered how Lois will react, knowing well aware that there was something blooming between the two of them, although she had never admitted this to you herself. Also, you kept hoping that whatever this was, between Clark and Lois, it was maybe all in your head and that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't even true, and you hoped it wasn't.

Soon, days grew into weeks and weeks flew by as long months, and you realized that what you felt for Clark wasn't just a silly crush, but you were actually falling in love with the man. It was the littlest things that he did that made your heart melt. You would, sometimes, run into him in the cafeteria, where he would be filling up his mug of coffee. He was a gentleman, he would smile and greet you warmly, your eyes meeting his sparkling bright ones as he would move out of the way and insist that you went ahead first. You would often end up taking elevator rides with him, and he would make sweet small talks with you, talking to you about everything, ranging from the weather to a possible alien invasion.

The plan that you had cooked up to avoid Clark Kent went down the drain from those days onwards. Instead, you almost began running into Clark almost everyday. The gossips about Clark and Lois had, by then, died down and you couldn't help but feel relieved, relieved that maybe you had just been dreaming, and there was nothing between Lois and Clark.

"Hey [Y/N], can I borrow your turtleneck? I can't seem to find mine?"

You looked up from the book that you had been binge reading on, flustered and embarassed, as you immediately tossed the book unceremoniously into your blanket. Of course, you couldn't let your sister in on the fact that you were secretly reading the fifty shades series. She would tease the living hell out of you. And then there was the fact that you felt ashamed of the fact that you could practically imagine Clark Kent in your mind as Christian Grey, and it was making you all heated up and bothered.

Lois raised an eyebrow when she saw you red you had turned, "Are you okay? You look like a massive human sized tomato."

"Gee, Lois, thanks?" You mumbled, still reeling from the way she had suddenly barged into your bedroom, as you pushed your glasses over the bridge of your nose, "couldn't bother to knock?"

"Since when do we do these formalities?" She wiggled her eyebrows dramatically, and dashed towards your closet, throwing it open as her fingers began working through the hangers, looking for what she was looking for. She was practically messing up your closet, so you sighed and decided to give her a helping hand. Abruptly, you slid out of the covers, forgetting about the novel that you had hidden underneath and the novel suddenly slipped off the side of the bed and fell to the floor, it's covering full on display.

You facepalmed, burying your face into your hands as Lois walked up to the book and picked it up, smirking obviously as she read out the title out loud just to tease you.

"Looks like my baby sister is finally growing her wings."

"Stop it, Lois. Don't embarass me," you grumbled, looking away. Instead, you dashed up to your closet and pushed her to the side, roughly pulling out your turtleneck as you handed it to her.

"Come on, [Y/N]" she laughed, shaking her head, messing up her perfectly styled blonde waves as she ran a hand through them, "We all have done this. You're not the only one. Nothing to be embarassed about. It's not like you're watching porn."

"It is technically still porn if I'm reading it," you whispered, watching her as she examined the turtleneck and smiled, as though she had pictured just the best trousers to go with it in the back of her mind as she absentmindedly replied back, "Again, sis, we all have done it."

You noticed the way she kept glancing at her phone, with a smile threatening to spill across her features. You raised your eyebrows and smacked your lips together, blinking curiously. She finally looked up and saw that you were staring at her so she grinned, "Guess who has a date tonight?"

"A date?" You asked, absentmindedly.

"Clark asked me out, [Y/N]. He is taking me to this really good Thai place that opened up in the suburbs and I just couldn't decide on what to wear!! This will just go perfectly with my jeans."

It happened so suddenly, but it still did. You felt like someone had just ripped your gut out with bare hands. You suddenly felt empty, was an understatement. You suddenly felt strange and cut off, and everything around you suddenly felt cold and distant and gloomy. You looked up at her, your earlier warmth having dissipated into a cold, dark look and you gave her a smile, biting your lip, "That's great, Lois. Have fun."

Lois noticed the way your face fell, but she couldn't understand or take the hint. She kept watching as you moved away, turning your back towards her and didn't utter another word. She parted her lips, wanting to ask her what had gone wrong suddenly, but decided not to, or rather, keep the discussion for another time. She didn't want Clark to reach before she had even gotten ready. You didn't step out of your bedroom, that night when Lois returned from her date with Clark, and Lois frowned when she saw that the lights to your bedroom were already switched off. You were a late sleeper.

Two months later,

Lois looked up from the article that she had been reading to find you enter the dining room with a breakfast plate in your hand.

"Mornin'," you mumbled, your voice barely audible as you sat down on a chair in front of her, next to your father, Sam Lane. Your father looked up from the newspaper that he was reading, and glanced at Lois who shrugged her shoulders in response and he cleared the throat.

"Honey, don't you think you've been locking yourself up in your room for long now? When was the last time you actually did something that didn't involve either the bed, or your office desk?" The cutting crispness in his voice was enough to slice through your heart, but weirdly, you felt nothing, ecen when you heard Lois gasp and mumble something to her father in protest.

"What do you want me to do, dad?" You asked, sipping your juice, your eyes fixed to your plate.

Ignoring you, Sam turned towards his elder daughter as he narrowed his eyes at her, his loud, booming voice echoing through your house, "Lois, what the hell happened at work? She just quit? And didn't even give a damn valid reason as to what on earth happened?"

"I don't know, dad. She hardly talks to me anymore," Lois replied.

You chuckled dryly to yourself, wondering when you had become so invisible to the world. You were right there with them and yet they regarded you like you weren't even there.

"It was difficult to get you job at the Daily Planet and look at you, throwing it away for whatever the hell the reason was." Your dad barked.

Your fingers clenched into a fist and Lois visibly tensed. Hurriedly, she stood up and announced that she was leaving. You stood up too, but not for work, but rather to go back to the place that you had locked yourself in for the past two months. When you reached the door, you turned around and regarded your father, mumbling, "Why would you care anyway? You never really did before."

You kicked open your room door and slammed it back shut again as you ran straight for your bed. You were trembling like a leaf trying to detach itself from the tree when you buried your face into the pillow and screamed as loudly as you could into it. You were a mess, a walking , talking, living, breathing mess.

You cried, for almost thirty minutes, until you were out of tears. You then sat up and rubbed your eye sockets, finally taking a deep breath. You were letting Clark and Lois affect you so much, you had forgotten what it was like to live normally. How were you supposed to go on like this? If you wouldn't take a command of your own life again, then how would learn to get back up on your feet? When would you learn to accept that you would never get Clark? He wasn't the one for you.

Feelings are so transient, it's like you can feel them slicing through your insides one minute, and then the other minute, you feel unrealistically numb.

With those sorts of destructive thoughts in your mind, you sneaked a bottle of whiskey that night from your father's liquor cabinet at two am at night. You rolled the window pane and snuck out onto the fire escape until you were climbing up towards the roof the building of your apartment, the bottle in tow.

You fixed yourself on the ledge, using your teeth to twist the bottle cap as you took a swig of it, feeling the warm liquid burn your relentless thirst for relief. Sip after sip, you kept staring at the starless sky, mediating your gaze from the sky down to the glittery buildings.

"Will I ever forget you, Clark Kent?" You whispered, into the thin air, laughing bitterly at yourself as you took the last sip from the bottle before it rolled away. The way the lights glimmered in front of you, and one of two cars drove past your building, looking like tiny little blinking lights from the height you were at, you realized one thing. No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

You were lost in a turbulence of your own thoughts, so entangled into them, you didn't hear the soft thud somewhere behind you, neither the sound of the faintest footsteps that got closer to you, with every passing second. You took a sharp breath, and slowly stepped over the ledge, feeling shudders all over your frame as the winds hit you all over you. You footing, however, slipped, a sharp scream erupting from your lips as you fell backwards against gravity, your heart almost stopping.

Someone suddenly reached out towards you, gripping your wrist, leaving you hanging from the ledge, your body flailing in the air.

He pulled you with a jerk towards you, and your body hit his front, your hair falling all over your face partially covering it. You felt intoxicated, so much, that you had almost died by falling off the building but you didn't feel the scare, the only thing you felt was a sudden surge of adrenaline.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Superman growled, through gritted teeth, his eyes sparkling as you jerked you by your shoulders.

"Clark? Is -- that you?!" You slurred, holding on to his cape tight to hold you in place. You were in a weird state of mind, you could see that it was him, but you couldn't figure out if it really was him, or if it was your mind that was playing an illusion on you.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Clark fumed, still holding on to you by the low of your back. He suddenly jumped off the ledge, with you in tow, away from the edge, so the two of you were in the middle of the roof now.

"K-Kill myself? No, I.. I.." You stammered, struggling for the right words but your brain felt frozen.

"Two months, and you don't show yourself. And when I finally see you, you're trying to jump off a fucking building?!" His eyes just then fell on the empty whiskey bottle. He growled, clenching his fists tight as he let go off you and walked up to the where the bottle lay, his cape flying behind him. He bent, lifting it up as he examined it, noticing how the neck of the bottle had your lipstick imprints on it. "And you're drunk. To top it up a notch."

Your nostrils flared in an anger you hadn't experienced ever before, your secret feelings finally crushing you completely, mixed with the alcohol that was rushing through your blood. You growled, like a cornered animal, that was wounded yet didn't want to back down. You pushed him, once, twice, throwing out all your pent up anger and frustration into his steely body like he felt no hurt. You screamed, you lashed, you scratched and you cried, finally coming undone, like beads of a rosary coming apart and scattering all over the floor.

Clark's heart broke at the sight of you. He had always seen you as a strong, happy woman, always smiling for him whenever he saw you at work. And this woman, that stood in front of his eyes right now, was far from it.

"I am not weak! I wouldn't kill myself! You give yourself too much importance, to think that someone would give their life for you!" You lashed out.

You were tired of hitting him like a punching bag. He grabbed you by your wrists, holding them together in front of you, pressed against his chest. He slowly moved, so he was towering over you, his back shielding you from unwanted, prying eyes as he gazed into your eyes, trying to find the answer to where all of this was coming from.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Come on, Lois is worried about you."

You couldn't stop yourself when your hand jerked itself free from his hold, and your palm struck his cheek. There was a crackling noise, of skin against skin, and tears formed in your eyes when the realisation hit you, all the intoxication washing off of you. You had just slapped Superman, a man that could snap your neck by grabbing your throat. Yet, he just stood there, too shocked to even register that you had slapped him right across his face and what was worse, he couldn't understand the reason you had done that. Anger was surfing through his veins, but worse than the anger that he was feeling, he was feeling like someone had pulled his heart out, ripping it to shreds right in front of his eyes.

"Why?" He let go off your other hand, his own palm coming to rest against his cheek as you gave you a look full of hurt.

"Why did you even save me, Clark? You should have let me fall. Atleast, it would have spared me the pain of listening to her name flow out of your lips again."

"Why do you hate her so much? She is your sister, [Y/N] and she cares for you. She worries that you're killing yourself and she doesn't know the reason why--" Clark was losing his temper, slowly but surely. He didn't understand you and that was eating him up.

"The reason why? WHY??! Oh Clark can you stop? And listen to yourself. I love Lois, but she needs to stop trying to govern my life. I'm allowed to feel sad, I'm allowed to feel a fucking heartbreak--" You didn't realise, but your lips were trembling now, your eyes leaking salty tears. You shivered when you felt Clark hold you by your shoulders but you didn't push his arms away.

"Who broke your heart?" He whispered, his voice cracking.

"You're fucking daft for a man who saves the world--" Hissing bitterly , you pushed yourself away from Clark's grip and turned towards the ledge but this time, you didn't try anything that would risk your life. You simply revelled in the cold feeling of the wind striking your tear stained face as you took a punctured breath, feeling Clark's breath on the side of your neck.

"Who broke your heart?" He asked again, but this time it was much softer, and it made you bite down on your lip to hold yourself from breaking into a hysterical crying.

"You did, Clark. You broke my heart." You finally whispered, staring into the abyss in front of you, your eyes cloudy and your throat parched as you continued, your lips trembling, "I loved you. Always did, but you never looked at me. It was always Lois. And it killed me, watching you love her, knowing that you will never love me the way you love her--" Clark let you speak, he wanted to listen to you, for you to let it all out, all those bitter things that you had locked up inside your mind, that was slowly eating you up and killing you from the inside. "I am tired of everyone, for you, for my father and for the world to see me as the Other Lane, as Lois Lane's little sister. My name is [Y/N]. I like to draw although I am shit at it, I can sing in the showers and I hate partying. That is me. I want a normal relationship too, but it seems that the world is against me. I fell in love with one man, and turns out, he isn't even human, he is a freaking superhero from Krypton?"

Clark let out a gruff sounding snort, as he looked down at you. Reluctantly, he reached for a strand of hair that was sticking to your tear coated cheek, removing it and gently tucking it behind your ear. He felt a shudder run down your spine, with just a gentle touch of his hand and he smiled, biting his lip. How was he supposed to tell you what the truth was?

"You remember how we met at the cafeteria every morning ? And I let you take the coffee?"

You nodded, listening to him, trying to control the crying that had now turned to sniffles, as Clark kept speaking.

"And the countless times I ran into that elevator with you and me stuck inside for just two floors?"

"You must have been thinking how weird I was. How unlike Lois--" You began, but you were cut off by Clark's voice.

"I used to wonder if there was anything I could do to make the elevators stop working, so I'd get to spend more time with you. Wretched elevators, not once did anything go according to what I wanted." He mumbled, but he had a small smile playing on his lips, while you just looked on, staring at him in disbelief, wondering if your mind was playing jokes with you once again.

"I thought I would take Lois' help, to you know, figure out if you felt the same way, but you never said anything to her."

"What about the date? Lois and you went on?" You asked.

"Well, I --" he shrug, looking down at his feet, sheepishly, " Lois thought you would confess how you felt for me if we pretended to--"

You were too numb to react; so you just blinked in retaliation. Your blood ran cold, and you suddenly felt light headed. All this while, while you had secretly been pining for Clark Kent to love you back, was it actually the other way round? Was Clark going through the same thing wondering if you felt the same for him?

"That was cowardly." You hissed, through pursed lips, "Trying to pretend to be in love with my sister."

"I was in love with the other Lane," he bit his lip, his face slightly inclined towards you, so he was looking down at you, and you up at him, "I think you are amazing. You are intelligent, and smart. And you're unique. There are these little things I adore about you. The way you greeted everyone whenever I was around-- ranging from the security guard, to the building keepers at the Daily Planet.. the way you forgot to wipe your lips after drinking coffee, and you had this froth all over your upper lip giving you a faint moustache?" He chuckled because you literally let out a gasp, suddenly embarassed.

"Then there were those days you had a bad day and you locked yourself up in your cabin, working all day. I wondered if I should just knock, but I was scared you will tell me off--" he continued, his blues peeking into yours. Your stomach fluttering, you couldn't help but laugh, as though a weight had been lifted off your chest suddenly and held him steady with your hand on his arm. Finally mustering enough courage, you pushed yourself on your toes, and reached up, letting your palm graze delicately over his cheek, caressing his cheekbone with your thumb, "I would have never told you off, Clark. Though that's not what is bothering me right now."

"What is ?" He asked, innocently, relaxing under the touch of your thumb.

"You said you're in love with the other Lane, Clark."

His lips creased, slowly tugging upwards into a smile that was enough to make you feel giddy. Superman wrapped a sturdy arm around you and felt yourself being lifted off, until he was practically holding you in his arms, "Mhm, yep? You got a problem, Miss Lane? Or do Kryptonians don't fit the bill ?"

"Oh, hush, Clark. You're such a dork. But will you be.. my dork?" You bit your lip, holding on to him as though your life depended on it.

"I thought... you'd never ask?" He began, unsure of how to properly weave the complexity of his feelings , churn them into words, something only Clark Kent was good at , and not his alter ego, but found himself halted by the soft press of your index finger against his lips and the sweet whisper of your voice against his ears as he held you close.

“I know, neither did I.” You whispered as he clasped your face in his massive hands and gently touched his lips to yours.

Three years later,

This had probably been the longest that Clark Kent had been away from you, his lover, his best friend, his wife-- four months to be exact. Needless to say, he was excited to be able to see you again, to hold you again.

The familiar silhouette of the cottage on top of the hill came into his view, flowers hanging into tiny earthen pots hanging out on the front porch. The freshly painted white picket fence looked beautiful, and inviting as Lois stood with Martha by the gate, both the ladies sipping tea from their respective cups and saucers. They couldn't contain their smiles when they saw Clark, even though he was covered in what looked like grime and blown up alien intestines?

"I don't even want to know what happened," Lois chuckled, while Martha hugged her son and he kissed the side of her cheek before she scrunched up her nose in disgust at how awful he smelled.

"Well, I guess I'll draw you a bath, you two can talk out here until the baths ready." Both Clark and Lois watched as Martha Kent disappeared into the home and he smiled, when Lois spoke again.

"FYI, she is at the orchard, harvesting the apples for an apple pie," Lois gave him a smug look, fluttering her lashes, "Oh don't pretend you don't want to see her. I can see your eyes darting around, trying to find her. I'll be inside, both of you, just come back in for supper."

He nodded, watching Lois leave and slowly, his fists clenched on either of his sides, he found his way into the tiny orchard that his lovely wife loved to spend most of her time at. He fixed himself by the wooden gate, his eyes admiring you from afar, as you stood on your tiptoes and picked out apples, tossing them into the basket that you held in your arm.

"Need help, Mrs. Kent?"

The basket dropped from your hand as you turned towards the source of the voice, your lips parted in shock. Clark's eyes travelled from you down to your beautiful swollen bump that your loose maternity dress was doing nothing to hide. He chuckled at your response as he walked towards you with longer, faster steps while you simply waddled towards him.

"Jesus, Clark-- I thought you'd miss the birth," you cupped your husband's cheeks in between your swollen fingers as he nuzzled his nose against yours, before kissing you.

"How is my monkey?" He brought his palm to rest against your nine month old baby bump, stroking over the fabric as he whispered against your lips.

"Moving around, not letting me get an ounce of sleep," you smiled, letting your fingers rest over his hand that rested against your stomach, "but I cant really complain now, can I? After all the little nugget's got Kryptonian blood running through their veins."

Clark chuckled, his blue eyes crinkling slightly as he knelt down in front of you, his face in line with the base of your bump as he planted a kiss on the curve of it.

"Come on, Kal Jr, will you stop bothering your mom? She needs all the sleep she can before you push your way into the world and steal our goodnight sleeps for a while," you smiled warmly, as you peered down at him, running your fingers through his hair and he looked up at you, planting another kiss against your bump.

You suddenly frowned and looked at the brown mess on your fingers that stank.

"God, Clark? What the hell? Did you seriously take a dive in a shit pool?"

He chuckled as he pulled himself up again and his hand once again found the base of your stomach to lay his hand protectively upon.

"Alien blood. You should have seen the intestines that covered me. It looked like noddles dipped in black bean sauce and meatballs--" You smacked him hard against the chest to shut him up, but instead he began laughing, his laughter rumbling out of his stomach as you began dragging him inside with his stained cape.

#clark kent x you #clark kent x y/n #clark kent #clark kent x reader #superman #superman x reader #superman x you #kal el x reader #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill x y/n #henry cavill

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ellana-ravenwood · 4 years

Text

The day he understood what Death means - Batfam x Fem!Reader

Synopsis : The youngest Wayne makes a shocking discovery...And will need his parents, siblings, and the one and only Alfred, to recover from it. /Drabble.

I don’t know. I was thinking about this. How when you’re a kid, realizing that one day you’ll die, but worst, that the people you love will die, is sort of traumatic...And wanted to write about it. So. Here we are, with little Thomas eh. I hope you will like it :) :

My masterlists blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

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If you have no idea who Thomas is, he appears in those stories (long story short he’s the youngest kiddo, biological of Batmom and Bruce) : The Great Mall adventure, Master of Diaper Shaky steps and bad teaching, Polichinelle, “Go away, you’re confusing my baby”, Wild Child 2, “We want them back”, How do you make babies ?“ and Mom got lost again”

******

Realizing your loved ones are not immortal for the first time can be traumatic.

Especially if they’re amazing, if they’re your heroes, if you admire them beyond all measure, if they love you unconditionally just like you love them so damn much, and if you can’t even imagine your life without seeing them every day.

If you can’t even fathom the fact that maybe, one day, they won’t be there when you wake up and go look for them. And that they will never be there again.

And so it was particularly quite the shocking discovery for little Thomas Clark Wayne, 5 and a half years old, to find out about that certain thing called...”Death”.

It happened on a moody, rainy Summer day. The weather outside was awful, even for Gotham City. And it meant that Thomas was calmly playing inside, rather than getting up to some shenanigans in the garden.

His parents were home, it was one of those rare day they both had off.

Which always filled little Tommy with joy. It wasn’t often he could get them both with him !! In the end, the fact it was rainy outside was good. It meant they’d probably all snuggle up later in the day, and watch a film, a mug of hot cocoa in their hands.

You would probably throw a blanket over him, and keep him close, sandwiched between you and his dad. His father would fall asleep half-way through the film, which would annoy you and Damian.

Damian would join for sure. Sitting next to you. Yes. He would. Maybe Tim too, if he wasn’t too busy with college ? Oh he would surely make the time to come. And Cass ? Yes. Yes Cass would be there, sitting in her usual spot, on the floor right in front of you (or maybe Tommy). Because she knew you’d gently run your hand through her hair, and your youngest son slowly took the habit to do the same. Which was so soothing to Cass...Duke would certainly be there, he never said no to a good movie.

Maybe, because it was a rainy day, Dick and Jason would come too ? Unlikely, but Thomas could hope. He loved having his entire family in one spot.

They’d ask him to do his “puppy eyes” and convince Alfred to join them too, and not work.

Alfred had an armchair reserved just for him. Right next to the couch where Bruce would sit, leaving enough space for Ace to lay down (Damian’s dog, Titus, always preferred to be near his master, who would more often than not be sitting next to you, laying his head on your shoulder, even as he was not a child anymore...Yes, Titus sat next to Cass, at Damian’s feet, letting his head fall down in Cass’ laps).

Ace...Ace didn’t feel well yesterday, and this morning, the “dog doctor” came.

Thomas heard him say they needed to give him a...an “indection” or something ? (An injection, really) So he’d probably get better. Shots were supposed to get you better or to avoid you getting sick, that’s what you told him.

His dad looked upset, but it didn’t alarm Thomas much. Because his dad was always upset when him or his siblings would get a shot, he hated going, so it was probably the same thing.

Come to think of it, Thomas hadn’t seen Ace since the “vekerinarianan” (or whatever it was pronounced) came earlier in the day.

He suddenly wanted some “doggle” (dog cuddles), and so he put down the toys he was playing with, and went to look for him.

Maybe, he could also round up the rest of his family so they’d start movie time earlier ?

Hyped to have some family time, as he considered his dogs family for sure, he went on the hunt to find Ace, and gather everyone else.

If only. If only he had known...

************

“Aaaace !! Aaace ? Ace boy, where are you ?”

This was odd. Usually, Ace would come running if he heard the little one’s voice. That dog loved children, and he made it his mission to protect all of them (bonus point if he had some snuggle, and a few treats, while doing it).

Bruce told him long ago to protect his kids...So Ace was always there.

Maybe he wanted to play hide and seek ? Thomas would play that game with Titus and Damian, Ace never seemed very interested, but maybe he changed his mind ?

“Ace ? Aaaacceeee ?”

The boy roamed the manor, but every room Ace would usually hang in were empty.

Finally, he decided he’d ask his parents, who would usually hang out in...oh, they weren’t in their usual spot either. In their bedroom, maybe ?

Thomas ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, sure that he would find Ace, and his parents, asleep in the master’s bedroom. When they had their day off, his mama and daddy would often take long naps together.

Thomas immediately knew something was wrong when the door to the room was wide open. Slowly, he approached the place and...surely his parents were there.

But something was off.

His dad was laying in the bed, back to the door, his head laid in your lap. One of your hand was caressing his head soothingly, while the other was drawing calming circles on his back.

Definitely something was not normal. You’d do that to your kids when they were sad, or sick...Was daddy sick ?! This gave Thomas a little fright.

You whisper something into Bruce’s ears, and he doesn’t answer, just shaking his head to say “yes”. And so you stand up, after giving him a kiss on the cheek, and...You spot your youngest son.

You smiled at him reassuringly, and go to him.

“Hey little buddy. You should give a big hug to Daddy, he’s very sad today.”

You say, walking past him and ruffling his hair.

From the direction you were taking, you were going to the kitchen, and Thomas just instantly assumed you were going to brew some tea for his dad. When Bruce was sad, you’d always brew some tea for him, from his mother’s garden (which was kept up nice and clean by you and Alfred, now).

Worried about his dad, Thomas slowly walked to him and climbed on the big bed. Bruce turned around to see what this new weight was, as he knew you had just left and...He smiled.

Of this wide pure genuine smile he gave his family only.

But there was a hint of sadness behind his eyes, and Thomas didn’t like that one bit. So the little boy crawled to his dad, and nestled next to him, wrapping his little arms around his dad’s neck and holding tightly.

Bruce engulfed his son in his own arms, holding onto the little one, burrying his face in his hair. There was always something comforting, in the smell his kiddo had. It was a mix of your smell, which was always soothing to him, but also something more...Something soft and sweet.

Just like his son.

Little Thomas was the epitome of a sweet child. It was a miracle, a man like him made a child this cute and happy. Ah, but he wasn’t raising him alone of course. There was you, and his siblings, and Alfred...

After a pause of the little boy holding his dad, he whispered slowly :

“Daddy, why are you sad Daddy ? Please don’t be sad, it makes me sad too.”

Thomas unwrapped his arms from around his dad’s neck, and squished his little hands on Bruce’s cheeks. Which made Bruce sigh fondly, chuckling a little as he said, honestly (he shouldn’t hide this sort of things) :

“Because Ace is gone.”

There’s another silence, during which Thomas tries to understand why is the fact Ace went somewhere so sad. He cannot figure it out, so he asks :

“But, he’ll come back daddy. Like always. Yes ? Ace is a good boy.”

“Was.”

Bruce is clumsy in his grief. He always been. He’s not sure how to broach the subject to his son, how to explain to him their dog was just too old and sick to make it...He doesn’t know how to explain death to him.

“Was ?”

“Ace is gone for good.”

“What do you mean Daddy ? Where did he go ? Why couldn’t we see him again ? Did he move out, like Dick ?”

Oh. Oh the sweet innocence of a child that is maybe a little too sheltered by his family (he’s the youngest, the one they’re trying to keep away from the horror they see every day as much as they can...Although he’s still trained, all of them hope he will never become a Robin, or worst, a Batman).

“Did he move out, like Dick ?”

Sweet, sweet Thomas. Not able to even fathom that Ace is never coming back...and why would he ? How could he know what his father meant ?

“No, no he didn't move out. He left us, to a place we can’t follow him to.”

Another short pause. And you could see the gears in little Thomas’ head turning. After a little bit, he asks :

“...The toilets ?”

This makes his father chuckle, even in this sad times. But he continues :

“No. Not the toilets. He...He went really far away, where we can’t ever see him again.”

This idea is so foreign to your son, that he raises himself on one of his elbow and exclaims :

“Why would he do that ? Does he not love us anymore ?”

Obviously, the thought is distressing to the little bird. So Bruce says :

“No no no, of course he still loves us...loved, us. But he had to go.”

“But why ?”

“Because he was getting very old, and sick.”

“But we don't mind daddy, right ? We don’t mind ? He doesn't have to go away for that, I don’t care if he doesn’t play like he used to, I want him to stay ! Tell him daddy, call him on the phone to tell him to come back.”

Bruce is lost. How ? How can he explains what death means ? He thought about this moment coming many times, but never told him anything as he thought that he had time to know what it meant. He had time...

How do you tell a child that one of his favorite “person” in the world is dead ?

“Unfortunately buddy, we have some sad news.”

His savior. You, as usual. With two cups of tea, and a cup of hot cocoa on a tray. As you went downstairs to get some “pick me up” for Bruce, you knew your son was gonna need it too.

“What news mama ?”

“Ace. He died today.”

You actually thought about it as you were preparing everything for them. How to talk about this ? You decided to go with “honesty”. Not brutal honesty though. You weren’t about to traumatize your son.

But you thought it was important he knew what happened to Ace. As a child, you hated how your brothers tried to make you think your ferret ran away to Las Vegas or something of the like.

You understood this sentiment, of course. But you also remembered how betrayed you felt when you finally understood “death” and realized your beloved Mister Will Ferret was NOT in Sin City having fun, but just died...

The truth was important.

Especially about such subjects.

Children weren’t dumb. And they had every right to know certain truth.

Did you wish your son could stay innocent for longer ? Of course. But he still had a right to know what happened to his dog. To be treated like a person and be explained things.

People, too often, treats children as some kind of idiots who wouldn’t comprehend complex things anyway, and who have to be protected at all cost from anything...

Kids were clever. You had a bunch of them to prove it so. But above that, although you agreed kids had to be protected...You weren't one of those person who thought you should lie to your children in order to do so.

Because one day, he’ll know what death is. He’ll know what happened to Ace. And what if the fact you lied that day, settles a slight distrust in him towards anything you’ll ever tell him ? Just like it did with you and your brothers ?

No. You thought at first it was a good idea to delay such a conversation. But why ? Because it would make you more comfortable ? That didn’t sound very fair in regard of your boy.

Everyone always talked about “the birds and the bees” talk, but never about something that was even more inescapable than that...

Death.

You give him a few seconds to take in your words. “Ace died today.” You wait for his reaction. He seems to think about it, having vaguely heard of “death” before...finally he asks :

“What does it mean ?”

He’s sitting up in the bed now. Bruce did the same, encircling his arms around his boy protectively (old habits die hard). But he’s determined to explain things to him too. You and Bruce were always rather in sync, about how you should raise your children.

“It means he will no longer be with us. He passed away to something else.”

“To what ?”

“No one really knows.”

“Will we see him again ?”

“No.”

“Why ?”

“Because he’s dead.”

“And being dead means you can’t see anyone anymore ?”

“Being dead means you are not living on this Earth anymore, so yes, you cannot see them anymore.”

“It means we can’t see him ? And what do you mean not on Earth ? Is he in Space ? Can we see him if we go to the watchtower ?”

“I mean in our life, we will not see Ace again. He won’t be with us ever again. He’s not in space, he’s just gone.”

“Because he’s dead ?”

“Because he’s dead.”

“So, being dead means we don’t get to see someone ever again ?”

“Yes.”

“Ever ever ?”

You decide to leave any conversations about a possible after-life aside, as it’s clear this, he’s not quite old enough to comprehend. So you keep on talking about the truth, with the support of Bruce.

“Yes. Ever ever.”

It takes Thomas a few minutes to take in all those new informations. Bruce is sitting on the bed, legs crossed, behind the boy. And your son is clearly lost in deep thoughts...Up until finally, finally tears are starting to well up in his eyes.

“But I didn’t even say goodbye !”

“Unfortunately, we don’t always get to say goodbye...”

“But mama, how will he know I loved him so much if I didn’t even say goodbye before he left ? How could you let him go before I did ?”

“I’m sorry, if I could chose I would’ve-...He knew you loved him and-”

“Are you going to die too ?!”

The dreaded question. Dreadest of them all, really. But you can’t lie to him. Not now that you started to explain things.

“Yes. Everyone dies one day.”

“But but but...but I don’t want you to die ! And Daddy ?”

Bruce nods, and...and that’s when it finally happens.

The awful moments your sweet innocent boy realizes what death sort-of means. That one day, none of his parents will be in his life anymore. Than one day, he’ll lose his siblings, and Alfred.

Just like he lost Ace. Because he was “old and sick”. But...Thomas knew a lot of sick people ! And a lot of old people ! Were they going to die too, without him being able to say goodbye ?!

And so the tears started to fall. And oh, oh did they fall.

Bruce held his son against his heart, drawing soothing circles on his back, just like you usually do. And you came to sit next to them, encircling them in your arms as well.

Thomas was trying to talk, but nothing came out very clearly as he cried, cried, cried and cried some more.

When he finally calmed down, he was slowly falling asleep, crying drained him of all his energy. That night, there was no “movie time”, but comforting snuggles with his parents...

Thomas had finally discover what “Death” meant.

************

“Oh my God Thomas !”

Bruce’s heart drops.

The entire scene goes in slow motion, and the fearless Batman can see his entire life flash in front of his eyes, as his tiny son is running towards him, while a few thugs were about to shoot automatic weapons at him...

“There’s a kid ! There’s a kid !”

“Who cares, we have the bat right at our mercy, just shoot !”

“I can’t shoot a kid...”

“Should we shoot ?”

The few seconds of surprise after Thomas bursted in allow Damian to swoop down, and to get rid of everyone. Slowly, a serious face on, your son walks to his dad and, solemnly, he says :

“This was too close, father. And...Thomas...”

“I know Damian, I know.”

Your little boy was inconsolable, clinging to his dad.

They didn’t even have to ask him how he got there. It was obvious he somehow snuck into the Batmobile (which wasn’t that much of a surprise, although it was already quite a feat...Thomas was small, but also very stealthy, as he was taught to be).

He was only five, and it wasn’t really clear to him yet his dad was that “Batman” everyone talked about, that his siblings were also vigilantes...But he knew that when they went out at night, they were often in danger.

And that night. That night right after the one Thomas learned what Death was...He snuck in the car, so he would make sure “she” would not take her dad away ! Or her brothers and sister !

Only Damian and Bruce were in the car, on patrol together. The rest of the kids were scattered across the city, and you were taking care of the bat computer (nowadays you were the one doing so to give some relief to Alfred).

Thomas took the habit to fall asleep in the cave, in a bed there just for him...and he must’ve snuck into the car.

It was nobody’s fault. It was very unlike the boy, to do such a thing.

He got into the car. When Damian and his father got out of it to apprehend a few of Two-Face’s thug, he stayed behind, looking at what they did...but when he saw those men about to shoot his dad (a proper ambush), he jumped out, punching every buttons (which was quite dangerous itself) to find which one opened the door, and then he ran to his dad...

The surprised probably saved Bruce. But it also almost killed him with a heart attack.

What if those men didn’t hesitate long enough for Damian to take care of them ? What if they shot anyway, ignoring the surprising appearance of a small child ? What if they had recognize who that kid was, too ? (Unlikely, this was a time where Thomas was still quite sheltered from media, as you tried to give him a childhood as normal as you all possibly could).

What if they shot anyway...

Bruce doesn’t think he would’ve survived the death of his youngest son. He was sure, actually, that he would’ve killed those men.

That is, if Damian didn’t do it first.

But it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, but it was so close. So close.

Later, when everything calmed down, Thomas would explain he jumped in the car to “keep death away”, to protect his daddy and brother. To make sure Death wouldn’t take them.

And that's when you all understood Ace’s death, and the discovery that everyone dies one day, one way or another, truly was “traumatic” for your baby.

From that point on, you made sure that Thomas would be in the cave...but this event. This event really unfolded a problem you knew you’d have to tackle truly one day.

You just had no idea yet how to help your son.

************

Damian had told Jason the debacle that was yesterday. About his parents explaining to their little brother what it meant to be dead. And about how it lead to Thomas sneaking into the Batmobile and running in front of danger to “protect” his dad.

Because of where he grew up, Damian always knew what death meant. And he never cared much (or convinced himself he never cared much). He understood from a very young age what all this shenanigans was...

Jason did too. He found his mother, dead, when he was three years old. He grew up surrounded by death, in the gutter of Gotham. He knew. He did.

But Thomas.

Thomas was a “normal” 5 years old boy, as normal you can be in such a family. He trained a little, and sort of knew about his dad being “Batman” (but it seemed he didn’t understand he was ACTUALLY the Batman people talked about in the city).

He spend most of his nights in a little area made just for him, with a bed and such, in the batcave (he hated sleeping upstairs alone, so he would sleep in the batcave and you’d pick him up to bring him in his bed once you’d go to bed, and/or once the rest of your family would get home).

So for a little one like Thomas, who was pure and sweet and nice...It was a shock, to know one day he’d lose the people he loved.

He was inconsolable, at Ace’s funerals (thrown at the back of the Manor).

He couldn’t get over the fact he didn’t get to say goodbye, and that he would never play with his dog anymore.

It made it worst, that Ace’s death made everyone else sad. That dog truly was a member of the family...

“I know you're feeling very sad. I'm sad, too. We all loved Ace so much, and he oved us, too.”

You told him a few times, tryin to put words on his emotions and helping him understand...God, to Damian, you truly were the most amazing mother. Always knew what to say, how to say it, when to say it.

But Thomas was still blue, and it was so unlike his usual bubbly personality.

And so, both Damian and Jason made it their mission to distract their little brother, and...it worked. For the most part. It really worked.

Amongst all his siblings, Damian and Jason were the ones that loved having a little brother the most. Not that the others didn’t, of course ! They just were a little less willing to play for hours on end with a little kid.

They were rather busy. Jason and Damian always found ways...They were an unlikely pairs at first glance. Most people would think Damian was the closest to Dick, and Jason too. But no. They were equally as close to all their siblings, in different ways.

But Damian and Jason, they had an extra connection. Jason was there, when Damian was a baby. He didn’t remember his own name, and was used by the Al’Ghuls after they resurrected him...But he was still one of the only person in Damian’s life that truly valued him.

Fate, right ? A funny thing. After all, how small did the world have to be for two of Bruce’s sons to meet in such a way ? A hidden son, and one he thought dead, at that ?!

In any case. They were closer than most would think. And they also were linked not only by the Al’Ghuls, but by how they were both ripped off of an actual childhood, and therefor wanted to make sure their little brother had one too (Cass was the same, but more subtle, and discreet).

And so...

They played, made art pieces, jigsaw puzzles, watched his favorite movies, cooked...Anything to take his mind off of “Death”.

That little boy would overthink too much, for such a young age.

But overall, Damian and Jason did a good job distracting him from the pain.

They did an amazing job.

You were so proud of how they took care of their baby brother (and it would give yourself more time to go cheer up the “Oldest Wayne”, your dear husband, who definitely had a hard time getting over his dog’s death...).

Only, there was one problem...And that problem was that neither Damian nor Jason, just like everyone else, were immortal.

And this, this, Thomas would realize very soon.

************

“More compresses, Master Tim !”

“On it Al !”

The loud noises woke Thomas up. You knew. You knew you should’ve gone up to bed earlier. Tuck him in, and wait for your family to come back.

Ah. But when they all arrived in the cave, ALL of them, including Dick who did not live at the manor anymore...You knew there was a problem.

And indeed. Jason had been badly hurt. Not something that couldn’t be fixed, but ah, once again, too damn close.

Everyone was on the tail of a high profile serial killer, the newcomer called “Dr Pyg”, and...Collateral damage. It happened, in this line of work.

It wasn’t easy. Especially when it was one of your baby. But you had to keep a leveled head, as you helped Alfred fix your boy.

You had taken medical trainings early in in your relationship with Bruce. For obvious reasons. And there was rarely a day it didn’t come in handy.

In any case, all the noises around woke Thomas up.

Before. Before he knew what death truly meant, he would’ve been worried. He would've cried. He would’ve been distressed. Of course.

And one of his siblings would’ve taken care of him, reassure him, soothe and console him, and little Thomas would be ok again.

Before he knew what death truly meant.

He was so small anyway, most of the time he’d forget things, or just not understand them...but he was five now. Close to the age of reason. And definitely aware of his surroundings enough now to pay attention, and remember things.

And he knew what death truly meant.

He clung to Jason for dear life, even as everyone reassured him he was actually ok. Jason himself was conscious, he had been badly hurt but nothing he hadn’t seen before.

He needed some rest for sure, but it was fine, really.

It wasn’t fine for Thomas. He yelled, threw the biggest tantrum he ever threw, yelled some more that they should stop. That he didn’t want them to die. That whatever they were doing...He begged them to stop.

Never before in your life, had any of you witness Thomas being in such a state. He was inconsolable. You couldn’t calm him down, no matter what...

And once more, it’s only because of exhaustion that he finally relaxed. But yet, still in his sleep, he clung to Jason’s sleeve, as if afraid his brother would be gone when he’d wake up.

It tore yours and Bruce’s heart apart, to see your baby like this. But to be honest...neither of you knew what to do...

************

“Where’s Damian mama ? Where is he ?”

Thomas was truly panicked.

The first day, he thought maybe his brother was busy with school and such. The second day, he started to worry. But now ? Three days in a row with Damian not at the dinner table ? Or in his room ? Or in the batcave ?!

It made Thomas anxious. What happened to his brother ? Was he...was he...DID DEATH TAKE HIM AWAY ?

“Where’s Dami mama ? Where is he ?!” Thomas kept asking, crying. And it took you moment to finally realize what your son must’ve thought. When you did, you picked him up and calmed him down, explaining Damian was simply over at Jon’s for a few days...

And from that day on, you’d make sure to tell him why anyone would be gone for any amount of time.

That night, Bruce and you talked about what you could do to help Thomas get over his consuming fear of losing one of you.

But nothing really came to your minds.

And it was awful, to feel like a failure like that.

Later on, your Damian would tell you you were NOT failing at parents because you were a little lost about this. After all, none of your other kids got into quite a crisis like this one. He said maybe considering a therapist could do ? But oh, oh Thomas was so little.

And if words were out that Thomas Wayne, barely five years old, was seeing a therapist ? The scandals would be unending, and would it really help your son ?

Damian joined in in the search for a way to soothe his baby brother. He never said “no” to cuddles from him, but lately...Lately, Thomas almost became overbearing, as he made sure he’d always sort of have his eyes on everyone.

And it wasn’t healthy, for such a little boy to worry so much.

Damian missed his carefree baby brother. He knew he had to eventually grow up, of course, and that he’d have some hardships but...he was just five and a half ! He wasn’t suppose to be so scared of death !

And so he thought, nights and days, of a way to soothe him. But just like you and Bruce, this matter was quite delicate...

************

It seemed like Cass was the only one able to truly console him, and make him relax. She would sing him songs, just like you did to her when she felt sad.

She would tell him tales of Death as a good thing, inspiring herself from many legends from around the world.

She would try to put perspective on everything, in a way you truly admired.

She never spoke too much, your Cass...But when she did, every words were carefully chosen and crafted into truly beautiful things.

And it would soothe your boy.

But only as long as he was with Cass. And he couldn’t always be with her.

You didn’t have her talent to tell those tales, and your singing was working only for a few moments to put him to sleep but...you couldn’t always have him sleep. You had to think of more viable options.

Nonetheless, when Thomas was really too anxious, Cass would be there.

Relieving everyone of their worry, as she could calm her baby brother in matter of seconds. In those moments, you wished time could stop. You truly did...

************

Thomas would cling to you and his dad the most. His siblings were often out and about, but you two ? Well you took some time off to be with your youngest son, to be there for him in this odd times...

And you weren’t sure it was such a good idea, in the end.

He would often just snuggle up to you or Bruce, listening to your heartbeats, which would calm him...You’d normally never say no to hugs from your children. But this was all starting to become so unhealthy for the little one.

What could you do ? What could you do ?!

************

Duke was panicking.

Thomas was doing fine today, and Duke felt like he royally fucked up.

Thomas was worried about Duke, telling him to be careful and that his heart would break if Duke ever died...Which melted Duke’s heart.

It made him feel so loved and accepted. And he wanted to help little Thomas so much...

That’s when he made a rookie mistake.

After all, he was still quite new at this “big brother” thing.

“There are things worst than death.”

Is what he told him. What was he thinking ? Reflecting on things, Duke realized he didn't think it through. To him, it was a soothing way to say death wasn’t that bad. But...Ah, ah it made Thomas cry.

“What ? What is worst than not seeing you guys ever again ?!”

At that moment, Duke hadn’t realized quite yet how much he fucked up. So he said : “Well, my parents can't remember me, can’t remember who they are...They’re not dead, but they’re not here anymore. They’re physically here, but they don’t know me, they don’t know how to hug me, they can’t be my parents anymore...Yet they’re still alive.”

The horrified look on Thomas’ face is what gave him a hint that this really wasn’t a good thing to say...

“No no no wait Thomas, don’t cry please, I was trying to tell you...Wait Thomas, please, no. Oooh buddy, buddy I’m so sorry.”

It almost made Duke cry too, to witness the one he considered his little brother in such distress. He wasn’t trained for this ! He wasn’t trained for this !!!

This was the first time Duke truly felt like an older brother, truly felt like he understood this important role. He had to think before saying something. He had to protect his baby brother. He had to find ways to soothe him...

“Ok here we are, here we are everything is a-okay, you’re ok, things will be ok...”

Duke picked Thomas up, and started to rock him back and forth slowly, just like his own mom did to him...He mixed the way his mom used to put him to sleep, with your soothing singing. With words he borrowed from you.

“I’m here, I’m here. Don’t worry I’m here, I won’t go anywhere. Things will be ok baby boy, things will be ok. You’re gonna be ok. I’m not going anywhere. I didn’t mean any of it...”

Duke had been living with you for a while now. He came to see all of you as his second family, even as his parents were still alive, and a constant chain holding him back at times...a chain that broke right at this moment.

Thomas was his little brother. He truly was.

And Duke was determined to be there for him. Especially after he made him cry.

“It’s ok Tommy, cry all you want. It’s ok to cry. It’s ok to cry.”

You always told him that. It was ok to cry. To be angry. To want to break everything. To want his mom...

But you were his mom too now. You were. And you had such a way with words. Such a soothing touch. Even as he was grown up now, you always knew what to say. You always did.

“You’re ok, right ? Yeaaaah you’re ok. See, things are fine, we chill, we chill.”

Duke was slowly swaying from left to right, Thomas in his arm, slowly lulling him to sleep, calming him down. His voice seemed to have the same effect than yours...Because he was calm. And because he meant it.

The love.

The love he had for this little boy.

It poured out of him, easily, naturally.

He loved that kid so much. And he wanted him to be ok. And it seemed like Thomas ? Thomas felt it. He felt the love. Just like Duke felt the love of all of you...

That little bean put himself in such a state at the mere thought of Duke dying, of one of his brother leaving...And Duke. Duke realized he felt the same.

Couldn’t imagine any of them dying.

And so he poured love in his every word, and swayed from side to side, calming Thomas, and making sure he knew...He knew that, he was right there.

Right there.

************

“You’re getting old, Alfred.”

You said jokingly, as you beat him at chess. And oh. Oh what a mistake you just did.

“Old ? I don’t want you to die Alfred, I don’t !”

Thomas was playing next to you. You hadn’t thought about his “trauma” for a little while as he seemed to feel a little better lately...But oh, he plunged right back into it there.

Because of you. You felt absolutely awful...

“I’ll fight Death for you Alfred ! I will ! I won’t let her take you !!”

It took a while, as it became usual now, to calm him down. He was ready to throw hands with Death. Fierce that no one would take his “grandpa”. But he was still very scared and sad...

“I’m a terrible mother...”

You told Bruce that night. And he held you against him, consoling you, saying it wasn’t your fault and that it was just friendly banter with Alfred as usual...

“You are the literal opposite of a terrible mother, my love.”

“But Broosh, I made him- I-”

You sniff, unable to control your sobs as you remember your poor little boy holding Alfred and yelling at Death she can’t take him. The poor butler himself didn’t even know how he could do anything to calm him down...

“We’ll find a solution my love, we’ll find a solution...”

This entire night, Bruce stayed up although he was exhausted, so he could soothe you and take care of you. Skipping patrol (knowing though the city was safe with his children out).

At some point during the night, Thomas came to your room.

It was often, lately, that after a nightmare he’d come running to you. His nightmares would often be about losing you...

You had finally fallen asleep, in your husband’s arms, and Bruce gestured to your boy to not make too much noice.

Sweet little Thomas acquiesced, and slowly came to the bed, taking the hand his father gave him.

Bruce was about to fall asleep too, knowing you had finally found sleep...But now, he wasn’t going to. Not until he made sure his son was asleep as well.

All he could do for now, was being there for you two. Try to soothe you as best her could. As best he could...

Sleep was restless and full of nightmares.

************

Dick would try to often visit his parents and siblings. As much as he could, which wasn’t always easy, with his work in Bludhäven. But nothing is more sacred than family...He realized that over the years.

During those moments, it would be rather normal for Thomas to go settle in his oldest brother’s laps. He would make the most of seeing him.

So today, as Dick was in the kitchen trying to make himself a cup of coffee, it was no surprise when little Tommy came to see him.

You had bought a new espresso machine, and Dick had no idea how it worked...Slowly, his littlest brother came in, dragged a chair next to him, and used it to climb on the counter.

He then started to make Dick’s cup of coffee, without much of a word being exchanged. Dick smiled widely, his little bro was so cute and clever. In no time, he had make a great cup of coffee for him.

But...Something seemed to bother him. Tommy was an exuberant child when around his family, but he had been quiet right there. He didn’t jump in his brother’s arms like he usually does, and he wasn’t telling him all about what he missed since last time he came in !

Was it still this all thing about being worried about death ?

“Are you ok little wing ?”

Ever since Jason, “Little Wing” or “Bird” became the common denomination for his younger siblings. A term of endearment that they all (secretly or not) loved.

Tommy seemed to think a little, while raising his arms, signifying he wanted Dick to pick him up.

Dick did, of course, and they went to sit at the kitchen counter, and as usual, Tommy settled down on Dick’s laps. He turned around and, after another short pause (Dick always knew when to stay silent, and wait for the other person to speak first) said :

“Dickie, are mom and dad not your mom and dad ?”

“Mm ?”

“Your real mom and dad, they died ? You can’t see them no more now ?”

There was a lump in Dick’s throat. Not because he thought about his parents no. He actually came to peace with their death long ago now. And though he missed them every day, it didn’t hurt as much as it used to.

He was lucky to find another loving family...From which that little worried kiddo in front of him was an important part of.

“Yes, I can’t see them anymore.”

“It hurts ?”

“It used to. Now less. I miss them, but I wasn’t alone.”

“Because you have our mom and dad ?”

“Yes.”

Dick ruffles his hair fondly.

“Do you wish you’d still have your real mom and dad ?”

“Mom and dad ARE my real parents too. I was lucky enough to find new ones. Not everyone is as lucky, like dad. He was alone for a long time”

“What about Alfred ?”

“It took dad a while to realize that Alfred was a second father to him”

“So...Will you be my second dad if dad goes ?”

Dick feels another lump in his throat. Bigger this time.

He couldn’t even imagine the day he’ll lose this “second dad”, this one he had now called “dad” for longer even than his own biological father...Dick was 8, when he came into yours and Bruce’s life.

He spend more years with you two than with his “real” parents. You never replaced them, no. You just..became his parents too.

He would never forget his biological parents. But he would never diminish the impact his adoptive one had. The love you and Bruce gave him.

Would he be good enough to be Thomas “second dad” ? After all, he currently had about the age Bruce had when he adopted him...

But Dick couldn’t imagine losing Bruce too. Losing another father. No. He couldn’t. He couldn’t.

Thomas was already moving on, asking more questions :

“Will I find another mom and dad too if mom and dad die ? Or will I be alone like dad ? Will I have Alfred forever ?”

“I-I don’t know buddy.”

“What if I lose all of you at the same time ? I will be all alone then.”

“You won’t.”

“But what if I do ?”

“I’ll always be there.”

“You can’t know that, can you ?”

“Maybe, but this will never happen. You will never be alone.”

“You really think so ?”

“I Do. And I promise little wing, I promise...You won’t lose all of us. You won’t.”

Dick held his brother even tighter against him, and missed the unconvinced expression on Thomas’ face.

************

Your youngest son was still utterly terrified of losing any of you. But his terrible fit would pass now, he would calm down more easily, and wouldn’t cry until exhaustion...But it didn’t mean he wasn't afraid anymore.

Unfortunately.

“Death” was still a constant on his mind. One of the biggest question. Without much answers.

His mother and father said no one knew what happened after “death”, but Thomas wasn’t convinced. So he went to the only one he knew would tell him the truth, and was most likely to know...Tim.

His older brother was currently in the garden, studying for his finals. But oh he’d take a break for his little brother, of course.

Especially lately, as said little brother was overly worried and needed constant reassurance.

“Hi Timmy.”

“Hey little one.”

“Bothering you ?”

“You are not bothering me, never.”

“Can I ask you a question then ?”

“Of course.”

“What happens when we die ?”

Oof.

OOOOF.

Not something Tim could say he expected to be asked. Even as he knew Thomas was sort of obsessed with this lately. And ah...Ah he started to get lost into physiological effects of death, into science, into things Thomas could definitely not understand...

And into things he didn’t care about.

Thomas had no interest in knowing what happens to the corporeal side of things. To our bodies. He wanted to know where “we” went. Where the being went. The conscience.

Of course he wouldn’t word it that way, but it was easy to understand that it was what he meant when he said : “where do we go when we die ?”.

After a long time of Tim getting lost in many complex explanations about decomposition (what the Hell Tim ?), he finally stopped as he saw that Thomas was most definitely lost.

“Where do we go after we die ?”

“Yes. What happens ? You must know, you know everything !”

The faith his littlest brother put in him made him feel warm inside but...unfortunately on this subject he had to disappoint him.

“I..I don’t know about this, actually.”

Thomas looked crestfallen. Was nothing sacred anymore ?? Death existed, and the one he thought would always have a solution to everything didn’t know something that important !!

“There’s many theories.”

“What’s a theories ?”

“One theory, multiple theories. A theory is...an idea of how things might work.”

“What are the theory ?”

“Theories, plural.”

“What are the theories ?”

“Well. Some people think that you go into some kind of afterlife. It depends the culture, and the religion, and...many other factors. But there’s usually a few places we can end up.”

“And we’ll see the people who died there ? We’ll see them again ?”

“Supposedly so.”

“Is it sure ?”

“No, it’s just a theory.”

“You said a theory is an idea of how things might work.”

“An idea that might not be proven.”

“What’s the point then ?”

“Theorizing.”

“I don’t understand...”

Of course he didn’t, he was a smart little boy...But still just five. Tim sat down to his level, and looked at him in the eyes :

“Well. You have to understand that um...No one knows what happens after death. So we have to make theories, things that might or might not be. You understand ?”

“No.”

“Well, since we don’t know, we make things up. But maybe those things are right. Maybe they aren’t.”

“So the answer is we don't know ?”

“Yes. But there are theories ?”

“Ok. So aside from the place we see others again, what are the theories ?”

“Well (...)”

Tim was a patient boy. For hours and hours, he tried to explain every single “theory” people might’ve had about what happens after Death. And Thomas listened carefully.

Finally, Tim was done, and his brother said :

“So...No one really knows, and there’s a lot of theory...ies. Theories.”

“Basically.”

Thomas looked so discouraged. Tim was very well aware that none of what he told him really helped his brother, or reassured him...But ah. Tim was known to not lie. Which was a good thing. And he couldn’t possibly have a free conscience if he had told his brother just one theory of the after life, the nicest one, just to reassure him.

Of course, he wanted to reassure him. To distract him. But he would do so another way. Lying to him was not it.

Still, it was so disheartening to see this sweet little boy so crestfallen.

“Um, Well...I guess some people know.”

Thomas looked up at his brother, hopeful, waiting for him to continue.

“Like Constantine. But um, he’s sort of crazy. And dad doesn't want him around the house for...reasons you’ll understand when you’ll grow up. And-”

Ah but Thomas wasn’t listening to Tim anymore, and his monologue as to why maybe John Constantine wasn’t such a reliable source.

“Constantine” huh ? Interesting. Ah. Sometimes, Tim forgot how smart his little brother truly was...for a five years old. And how he took after his father, when it came to memory and attention to details.

************

This constant worry went on for quite just a few days. A few very eventful days, that were so...exhausting. Thomas was constantly scared for your lives, and would cry if anyone got hurt too much.

He would follow you around, and be way too stressed for such a little bean.

Everyone came to hide their injuries from him, tried to distract him from what they were doing when out as the Bats...But it was becoming a real problem.

How ? How could they make a little five years old understand that he couldn’t forever be afraid of death ? It was impossible. None of you, not even you, had the right words. There were no right words anyway.

You could tell him whatever you wanted, it’d never make him stop thinking about Death taking one of you with her, taking one of you far away from him.

“A place he cannot follow you to.”

How ? How could you help ?!

But the change had to come from within him, you would soon realize.

About a week after Ace’s death, and a truly painful few days of everyone being lost and unable to help the baby of the family... he suddenly spoke up, at dinner time :

“Mama, mama, if one day you die, I will bring you back. I promise. Same for daddy, and Dick, and Jason, and Cass, and Tim, and Duke, and Damian, and Alfred. I don’t know if we can bring dogs back, but humans yes ? And worst case scenario, I’ll conjure your spirit so I can say goodbye, and then I’ll know we’ll see each others again !”

“Wh-What ?”

“Stunned” doesn’t quite cover how you felt at your son’s sudden tirade, at dinner that night. Everyone was here, a rare occasion. Your one dinner a months that was mandatory for all your kids ! To make sure you’d all have moments together.

And boom. Came this monologue out of nowhere, from your small little five and a half years old son.

Stunned. Not a strong word enough to describe you, or your other children.

But Bruce. Oh Bruce. Bruce was frowning. Narrowing his eyes in a way you knew perfectly well...It meant he was angry at someone.

“Who told you all this, son ?”

“Mister Constantine.”

A growl. A scary growl. From deep within your husband’s throat. You would NOT want to be John next time he’d see

“How did you talk to him ?”

“I used your phone.”

“I don’t have his number on my...Wait, the bat phone ?!”

“Yes. The one you call uncle Clark on !”

“What the-...how did you-ugh ?!”

There were so many questions. So many.

“I copied what you do, on the phone. And I asked it if it could call the Constantine.”

“The Constantine”, this better not be a stupid way he called himself in front of his son, Bruce thought. Ah, and curse the fact he kept having kids that were too damn smart for their own good !

Kids this days. Growing up with technology. Able to work a batphobe at age 5 and a half !!

“Hope I helped little man - John Constantine”, said the note that came to the manor a few days later. Which made Bruce fume with rage, but Thomas beam happily.

Bruce was already planning to go after John, and force him to say what he told his son. But...But...

To be honest. Whatever he said. You didn’t care. You knew, more than anyone else, that “Death” wasn’t as definitive as it sounded at times. And you knew for certain there was something after you died. What ? You couldn’t be sure. But something. Another place. Or maybe reincarnation ? Who knew.

Deep in your heart though, you knew that no matter what, if you ever were to die...You’d see your family again. You weren’t sure how or where. It was just a certainty in your heart. A gut feeling.

Yes. You didn’t care what John told your son. If it could help him accept that everyone will die one day. Didn’t mean he wasn’t afraid of losing you anymore. Oh no. But at least...At least he knew worrying about it lead nowhere. And to truly enjoy the moments of the present.

Whatever John said, it helped your son. That’s all that mattered. And as Thomas would grow up, you knew he’d understand things more and more.

He already knew he was luckier than many people. He had a loving family. They were all there with him for now (minus Ace, whom he missed every day). A lot of people couldn’t say the same thing.

Death was an odd thing. Especially in the World you lived in.

It wasn’t as definitive as some would say.

Your family knew that more than anyone else.

Death was an odd thing, that wasn’t always the ultimate end...

This, one day, Thomas would truly understand.

The end

__________________________________________________

And here we are :). Just a quick thing again, my bigger story (fake boyfriend trope with Bruce hehe) is coming soon. But in the mean time, felt compelled to write about this. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and liked it ? Not my best work :/, another quick drabble written very late at night eh. But nonetheless, fun to write ? Hope it’s not a disappointment, it’s just a thing to make ya wait for a more elaborate thing that I took a lot of care writing. Anyway it’s 4 am, time for bed :).

If you did, don’t hesitate to leave a little feedback or/and to reblog :). If you didn’t as well really, it’s always good to know what’s not good so I can improve (just stay civil please).

PS : Bonus point if you get where I’m trying to arrive at with those last few words about how definitive death is :p.

1K notes · View notes

thefanficmonster · 3 years

Note

Hey I was wondering if I could request some little hope group headcanons where the reader is a child who ran away from a bad home and when the group leave the Clarke family's house, they find the reader and they take her with them to the diner and maybe after they are taken to the hospital, John is given the opportunity to adopt the reader and the group just becomes a family to the reader and just full of family fluff?

Sure thing! ~ Enjoy 💕

- Following the horrors of the night in that ghost town, the group were rightfully terrified to see a little girl sitting alone outside the house even in broad daylight

- You were not at all surprised to see them though: you had seen them earlier when you finally admitted to yourself that you were lost and started following closely behind them without ever letting your presence be known

- Gathering their bearings, they mustered up the courage to approach you

- John was the one who spoke to you first, greeting you and introducing himself and the rest of the group before asking your name

- Once you answered him he asked for your parents out of fear for your safety knowing how dangerous the place was, especially for an unsupervised kid

- You flinched at the mention of your parents

- You had snuck out of the house with the intention of running away in the midst of one of their screaming matches that bothered you and scared you to no end

- But you didn’t get far before you got lost and came across the terrified group, just as lost as you

- John noticed the discomfort that arose in you at the mention of your parents so he changed the subject, choosing to shift the topic to the small backpack and teddy bear you had next to you

- “Packed up, huh? Going on an adventure?”

- You nodded almost enthusiastically, explaining that you wanted to move to the city and live there with Mr. Cuddles, your teddy

- Just then, the bus to the city, the one promising to get the group as far away from this nightmare town as possible pulled up, stopping at a gas pump a little ways away from the diner the group was originally gonna go to

- As the driver was taking his break, the group went to sit down and have a bite to eat, taking you with them

- You sat next to Andrew, who you quickly became super fond of - almost as fond as you were of John - considering how alike you were despite the age difference

- He was like the older brother you always wished you had

- You had always wished you had an older sibling that maybe would’ve been able to prevent or break up the fights between your parents

- That thought saddened you, but the group didn’t allow your spirits to remain low

- You also grew to like Daniel and Taylor who you thought of as the most adorable couple

- Angela didn’t initially leave any sort of impression on you because she seemed too confused and exhausted to talk but you believed she was a nice lady

- The events after the driver announced the bus would be departing are still a blur to you

- All you remember is that you sat down next to John and you probably drifted off to sleep because you can’t recall any of the ride to the city

- When you arrived at the stop, you showed John the five dollars you had and asked where you could find a house for that much money

- Ok, you asked for a mansion but let’s continue

- John pretended to think for a moment or two before ‘getting an idea’, remembering an apartment you could afford

- Low and behold, that apartment was his

- He was only planning to let you roommate with him until you finally would tell him about your parents so he could contact them

- But when you told him what they put you through he had the complete opposite idea

- He contacted child protective services instead

- And almost a month later you were officially John’s child, adopted with the quickest procedure possible thanks to John passing the background check with flying colors

- The rest of the group became a family to you just as quickly

- The events of the night prior to meeting you brought them all closer together

- Even Angela grew on you despite being distant for so long

- You’d often stop by the college with your babysitter who picked you up from school just to visit the students and you dad

- It didn’t take you long to grow accustomed to calling John ‘dad’ either which was super surprising to him

- The first time you called him that he was legit flabbergasted to the point of his ears going teary

- It’s a moment he’ll never forget

- Just like how he’ll never question the possibility of sunshine after the storm

- You were his sunshine after the nightmarishly stormy night in Little Hope

- And he’d go through it all again if it’d lead him to you, no doubt about it

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marshmallowgoop · 3 years

Text

Magic Kaito vs. Magic Kaito 1412

I’m not sure if I ever finished all twelve episodes, but I first watched at least a handful of the original Magic Kaito specials about a decade ago, and I remember really enjoying them. Superhero stories are among my favorites, and while both Magic Kaito and its sister series Detective Conan overlap with the genre in various ways—after all, Conan’s glasses were literally inspired by Clark Kent—Kaito’s flashy costume alone pushes his adventures more in that direction. So, maybe it’s no wonder that, back in the day, I kind of considered Magic Kaito my preferred series of the two.

Recently, I’ve got a reignited interest in the DCMK world (evidently). And it’s not a bad time to have a reignited interest, because English-language accessibility for this universe is much better now than it was ten years ago. Conan’s getting new movie dubs, and Kaito’s newer, expanded TV series, Magic Kaito 1412, is freely available on Crunchyroll. Obviously, I had to give it a shot.

I wasn’t impressed. Far from it. I chalked up my old fondness to nostalgia goggles. Kid the Phantom Thief is simply more enjoyable in Detective Conan than in his own thing, I figured.

But a few weeks ago, those old specials went up on Crunchyroll Germany. And it took me a while, but I finally decided to figure out the truth, once and for all. Have my tastes totally changed, or has Magic Kaito anime not always been Like That?

I was impressed. I watched all of one episode, and I enjoyed it so much more than 1412.

Which surprised me! Just examining the first episodes of both series, they’re honestly practically identical. They cover the same story beats almost exactly. Kaito’s introduction is even consistently him being disgusting to Aoko—behavior that, nauseatingly, convinced me that Mineta of the My Hero Academia series would actually be adored if he were conventionally attractive.

But as it turns out, that’s relevant to why the original Magic Kaito strikes me as far more palatable. Kaito’s actions towards Aoko are still indefensible in the old special, but he doesn’t repeat them on his teacher, and there are repercussions. Unlike in 1412, Kaito doesn’t get away with his harassment because his teacher finds him charming; in fact, Aoko even later notes that he “should be thankful [he] [wasn’t] expelled,” implying that he was indeed punished harshly for what he did. While Aoko assures Kaito’s mother that he didn’t get in trouble in 1412, in the original special, it’s clear that being cute isn’t enough to give him a free pass for disrupting class and being gross.

Further, in a more general sense, the tone of both series is of course goofy overall, but the characters in the old Magic Kaito feel much more like human beings than the cartoonish caricatures portrayed in 1412. A scene especially missing from the new show is a quiet one where Kaito and Aoko walk together after school. With the sun hanging low in the sky and a sparkling river flowing beside them, Kaito expresses his disappointment in how his magic trick didn’t exactly end as planned. “I guess I need to work on my finale,” he bemoans, but Aoko is more concerned with why he feels the need to pull these ridiculous stunts in the first place.

She quickly gets her answer. One of the exuberant little kids who had run by them earlier falls over and cries, and Kaito doesn’t hesitate to cheer him up with magic. And Aoko watches. She sees the way the little boy’s face lights up. She sees how he runs off again with renewed energy. And she smiles. She doesn’t say it, but the audience gets the message.

Oh. That’s why Kaito’s a magician. That’s why Aoko walks by his side.

I won’t claim to fully comprehend Kaito’s character. I haven’t read the manga, it’s been years since I’ve seen more than the first episode of these old specials, I’ve only watched about 20% of 1412, and for as much as I’ve been posting about Detective Conan lately, I’m (maybe humorously) about the farthest thing from current and would only be able to tell you about Kid’s first appearance in that show. But when Kaito returns to his empty home in the original series, and when he announces that he’s there to nobody at all, and when he welcomes himself back, all with a smile and a cheerfulness to his tone, I deeply feel his loneliness. I feel the weight of his lost father. I feel that, even if some of his tricks are inappropriate and inexcusable, he does them because he wants to make people laugh. He doesn’t want anyone to feel as sad and alone as he’s felt.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t get any of that from Magic Kaito 1412.

And they’re small things, they really are. But they make a world of difference. Even Jii, who really only becomes more than just a mysterious figure in the episode’s closing minutes, feels more like a tangible person in the special. He loudly gasps for breath after performing the magical, fantastical feats of his old friend, and it’s such a tiny, minuscule detail, but when watching, I feel it so strongly. I literally understand the strain of Toichi’s loss on Jii, too.

Beyond narrative decisions—and there are others that I much prefer in the old series, such as how Kaito links his failed magic trick to his father’s “poker face” philosophy, and how Kaito uses a successful variation of his earlier trick to escape the police as Kid the Phantom Thief—I also just simply prefer the original art style. Magic Kaito 1412 is slick and shiny and modern, but in being so, it strikes me as much more generic than the older-styled 2010 special. Shot compositions also feel more powerful in the first anime; just consider how differently the two series handle what is arguably the emotional height of the entire episode:

[Image descriptions: A series of four comparison images examining how the 2010 Magic Kaito series and the 2014 Magic Kaito 1412 portray the same sequence of events. In both, Kaito asks Jii, “Dad was murdered?! Was my dad... a thief? Was he Kid the Phantom Thief?” Kaito then says, “I see...” End image descriptions.]

While the dialogue is essentially unchanged, the old show’s use of close-ups expresses the tension of the scene spectacularly. You can see the terror in Kaito’s eyes. You can see how the thought of his father being a thief is so distressing that merely asking the question is painful and heartwrenching. You can see the sweat on Kaito’s face. You can see in great detail how much he struggles to grapple with this new truth.

Magic Kaito 1412 is significantly more distanced. And there’s power in that decision, too. The revelation is overwhelming. It’s hard to take. Kaito may want to get away from it, but he can’t.

However, I resonate more with how the original series handles the moment. Seeing how everything affects Kaito way up close speaks much more to me—and there are still some fantastic long shots, too:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from the original Magic Kaito series. Both are distanced long shots. In the first image, Kaito and Jii kneel on the ground. Kaito’s hands are on Jii’s shoulders. In the second image, Kaito stands, facing away from Jii, while Jii remains on the ground in shame. They wear identical outfits in both images, and their capes blow in the wind. End image descriptions.]

Gotta love those capes.

Overall, my feelings on Magic Kaito as a whole could probably be best described as somewhat mixed. And I’m kind of new here, and I don’t even know when it’s appropriate to use the #dcmk tag, so I of course don’t have the slightest clue about how popular or unpopular my opinion that the 2010 Magic Kaito series ranks above 2014′s Magic Kaito 1412 is.

But skipping down memory lane and revisiting the old show was pleasantly surprising. Maybe my affection for Magic Kaito will never reach the highs it once had all those years ago, but it was almost comforting to find that my tastes haven’t changed all that much—rather, it’s Magic Kaito itself that’s changed.

#magic kaito #magic kaito 1412 #kaito kuroba #aoko nakamori #jii konosuke #dcmk #? lol like i said i don't know when it's appropriate to use that tag but i do talk about dc a bit here so?#mk critical #is that a tag?#honestly i was gonna try to avoid putting this in the tags because it's kind of critical but #it became like a legit essay and i'd like to hear other thoughts! and i hope it's not *that* negative?#anyway what is with me writing things i don't really plan on writing and not the things i do plan on writing ^^;#ramblings

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davidmann95 · 3 years

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How about those JL storyboards?

In case you haven’t heard, Zack Snyder is putting on display the ‘storyboards’ - i.e. a rough plot summary accompanied by some Jim Lee sketches - for what would have been Justice League 2 and 3, or as this puts it 2 and ‘2A’. You can see them here (I imagine better-quality versions will soon be released), and read a transcript here. This is evidently a very early version: this was apparently pitched prior to the release of BvS and Justice League being rewritten in the wake of it, with numerous plot details that now don’t line up with what we know about the Snyder Cut, plus it outright mentions it builds on the originally planned versions of the Batman and Flash movies. But it’s a broad outline of what was gonna go down, and while I initially thought it was Snyder throwing in the towel, the timing - paired with the ambiguity left by the necessity for changes, including that this doesn’t factor whatever that “massive cliffhanger” at the end of the Cut is - says to me he’s hoping this’ll be a force multiplier behind efforts to will sequel/s into existence. He’s probably right.

I’ll be discussing spoilers below, but in short: with this Zack Snyder has finally lived up to Alan Moore, in that like Twilight of the Superheroes I wouldn’t believe this was real as opposed to a shockingly on-point parody if not for direct, irrefutable evidence.

Doing some rapid-fire bullet points for this baby to kick us off:

* Folks who know the subject say a lot of this is a yet further continuation of Snyder doing Arthuriana fanfic with the League reskinned over those major players, and I’ll take their word for it.

* I don’t know whether I love or hate that in Justice League 2 the Justice League are only an extant thing for the first scene, and then it’s Snyder giving everybody their own mini-movies. It’s compressing the entire MCU “loosely interconnected solo stories leading to a single big movie later” strategy into a single movie!

* Funniest line in the whole thing: "Even Lantern has heard of the Kryptonian, worried that he's under the control of Darkseid. He heard his spirit was unbreakable." Hal what fuckin' Superman movie did YOU watch? Second funniest being “IT WILL GIVE HIM POWER OVER ALL LIVING LIFE”

* 90% of the plot I have nothing to say about, it’s generic stage-setting crap. That to be clear is the ‘shocked it’s Snyder’ element, it feels so crassly commercial in a way I can’t believe is coming from the BvS guy.

* Most of what I have to say is unsurprisingly gonna be about a handful of characters but Cyborg’s happy ending being “he isn’t visibly disabled anymore!” is not great!

* The Goddess of War battle with Superman...never pays off? No clue why it’s there.

* What I’d originally heard was that the Codex in Superman’s blood was the last key to the Anti-Life Equation and that’s why Darkseid was coming to Earth. It’s not like all of this wouldn’t have already been averted by Kal-El’s pod smacking into an asteroid on the way to Earth so it’s not as if this makes it any more Superman’s fault, and it would have at least tied all this back to the beginning of the movies, but I suppose that was either fake or from a later draft.

* I have NO idea how this was reimagined without the ‘love triangle’, it’s the central character thing and the entire climax flows directly out of it!

* Darkseid’s kinda a chump in this, huh

Anonymous said: So: Does Zack Snyder hate Superman?

Look: the hilarity of this when Cuck Kent has been a go-to Snyder cult insult towards ‘inferior’ takes on Superman for years cannot be understated, yet at the same time I can almost wrap my brain around where Snyder’s coming from with that as the end for his take on the character. He talked in that Variety piece on how his interest in Superman is informed by having adopted children himself, and Deborah Snyder is the stepmother to his kids by previous relationships, so I can see where he’d be coming from, and I can even imagine how he’d see this as ‘rhyming’ in the sense of “the series begins with Kal-El being adopted by Earth, it ends with him adopting a child of Earth!” In the same way as MARTHA, I can envision how he would put these pieces together in his head thematically without registering or caring what the end result would actually look like. In this case, Superman raising the kid of the man who beat the shit out of him who Batman had with Clark’s wife, who earlier told Bruce she was staying with Clark because he ‘needed her’, suggesting if inadvertently that this really honest to god was a “she’s only staying with Superman out of pity, she really loved Batman more” thing.

But Clark is nothing in this. He’s sad and existential because of coming back from the dead I guess, then he’s corrupted, then time’s undone and he woo-rah rallies the collective armies of the world (interesting angle for the ‘anti-military/anti-establishment’ Superman he’s talked up as) as his big heroic moment in the finale, and then he stops being sad because he’s adopting a kid. So his big much-ballyhooed, extremely necessary five-movie character arc towards truly becoming Superman was:

Sad weird kid -> sad weird kid learns he’s an alien, is still weird and sad, maybe he shouldn’t save people because things could go really wrong? -> his dad is so convinced it could go wrong he lets himself die -> ????? -> Clark is saving people anyway -> learns his origin, gets an inspiring speech about being a bridge between worlds and a costume -> becomes superman (not Superman, that’s later) to save the world, albeit a very property-damagey version, rejects his heritage he just learned about and space dad’s bridge idea -> folks hate him being superman and that sucks though at least he’s got a girlfriend now -> things go so wrong he considers not being superman but his ghost dad reminds him shit always goes wrong so he should be good anyway, which sorta feels like it contradicts his previous advice -> immediate renewed goodness is out the window as he’s blackmailed into having to try and kill a dude but the dude happens to coincidentally have some things in common so they don’t kill each other after all -> big monster now but superman keeps supermaning at it because he loves his girlfriend and he dies -> he’s brought back, wears black which apparently means now he likes Krypton again? -> he has work friends now but he’s still sad because he was dead -> evil now! -> wait nevermind time travel -> rallies the troops -> his wife’s having a kid so he’s not sad anymore -> Superman! Who gives way to more Batman.

Do I think Zack Snyder is lying when he says he likes Superman? No. I think he sincerely finds much of the basic conceits and imagery engaging. But I don’t think he meaningfully gives shit about Clark as a character, just a vessel for Big Iconic Beats he wants to hit. Whereas while for instance he’s critical of Batman as an idea (at least up to a point), he’s much more passionately, directly enamored with him as a presence and personality. So while Superman may be the character whose ostensible myth cycle or arc or however it’s spun might be propelling a lot of events here, it’s a distant appreciation - of course the other guy takes over and subsumes him into his own narrative. Of course Batman is the savior, the past and the future (though if he’s supposed to be Batman’s kid raised by Superman there’s no excuse for him not to be Nightwing), the tragic martyr to our potential. Admittedly the implication here is also that Batman can apparently only REALLY with his whole heart be willing to sacrifice his life to save an innocent, for that matter apparently his great love, once said innocent is a receptacle for his Bat-brood, but he and Clark are both already irredeemable pieces of shit by the end of BvS so it’s not like this even registers by comparison.

Anonymous said: That “plan” Snyder had was utter dogshit. Picture proof that DC & WB hate Superman. Also I love how you’re like Jor-El: Every single idealistic take you had about Snyder, his fandom, and BvS was wrong. Snyder’s an edgy hack, his fanbase just wants to jerk off to their edgy self-insert Batgod as he screams FUCK while mowing people down with machine guns, and the idea that BvS said Superman was better than Bats was completely wrong. You know what comes next SuperMann: Either you die or I do.

In the final analysis, beyond that mother of god is there sure no conceivable excuse for the treatment of Lois in this? The temptation is to join that anon and say as I originally tweeted that these were “built entirely to disabuse every single redemptive reading of the previous work and any notion of these movies as nuanced, artistic, self-reflective, or meaningful”.

...

...yeah, okay, that’s mostly right. Zack Snyder’s vision really was the vision of an edgelord idiot with bad ideas who was never going to build up to anything that would reframe it all as a sensible whole. He’s a sincere edgelord genuinely trying really hard with his bad ideas who put some of them together quite cleverly! But they’re fucking bad and the endgame was never anything more than ramping up into smashing the action figures together as big as he could, the political overtones and moral sketchiness of BvS while trying to say something in that movie reverberated through the grand scheme of his pentalogy in no way beyond giving his boys a big sad pit to rise out of so when they kicked ass later it’d rule harder, and all the gods among men questions and horror and trappings were only that: trappings. Apparently he’s really pleasant and well-meaning in person, but at his core his art as embodied in a couple weeks in his 4-hour R-rated Justice League movie meant to be seen in black-and-white all comes down to that time he yelled at someone on Twitter that he couldn’t appreciate Snyder’s work because it’s for grown-ups. He made half-clever, occasionally exciting shit cape movies for a bunch of corny pseudo-intellectual douchebags, folks latching onto and justifying blockbusters that at least acknowledge how horrifying the world is right now even if the superheroes are basically useless in the face of it if not outright part of the problem until a convenient alien invasion shows up to justify them, and a handful of non-asshole smart people who vibe with it but...well. ‘Suckered’ is a harsh word, and definitely doesn’t apply to all of them re: what they’ve gotten out of it up to this point and would (somehow) get out of this. But it doesn’t apply to none of them, either.

#Justice League #Zack Snyder #Superman #Batman #DCEU #Opinion

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nomattertheoceans · 3 years

Photo

GIF REQUEST MEME: Favorite season from The 100 - Season four

I love season four for a lot of reasons!! I think it’s the best season of the show and it should have been their last (despite my love for most of s5 ^^) I’m gonna ramble a lot but I don’t want it to take over the gifset so I’ll put it under a cut

Season four is the time of hard, impossible choices for everybody. The bomb at Farm Station, the List, the Nightblood tests, opening the bunker, the anti-radiation medicine…. Everybody is put through the ringer during this season and honestly, this is what I’m here for.

First great point for me personally: They can’t stop the radiations. When season 3 ended with the reveal of the radiations coming, I was legit disappointed with the show, I didn’t want them to spend the season “turning off” radiations miraculously, you know. So when ep 2 of the season aired and the first thing Raven said was “there’s no magic button to stop this” I WAS SO HAPPY!! It immediately got me much more hyped for the rest of the season because I was invested in “riding out 5 years of hell” much more than “let’s find a magic button”. So the season hooked me then ^^

The season is really good at re-using previous themes and twist them in just the right way

Clarke, who was so angry at the council for killing her dad, finds herself in the council’s position, and starts to understand that making such hard decisions is never easy. Making the list for instance, is so different from what she had to do before. The genocide of Mt Weather was an act of despair in the middle of a war, but making the list is a process, she has to truly chose who is “worth” more, which is what the council did when they sent the 100 to the Ground. She choses to hide the truth from everybody despite it going against what she wanted at the start of the show. It’s a really cool change for her character.

The Arkers and Grounders take the decision to test the Nightblood against Luna, the Rock Line thief, and Emori’s will. An obvious reminder of s2 but that I appreciate. I liked the Mt Weather story because of this: the mountain men were the antagonists but they also were the same as the rest of the show, they were doing whatever they had to do to survive, whatever it took, no matter how cruel it could be. We see in this season that when faced with the same decision, our protagonists reach the same result: sacrificing other people’s bodily autonomy to survive is worth it to them. It’s a really interesting theme to bring back because it muddies the waters of who’s right and wrong, and it highlights that in the end, there is no black and white answer.

This season gives us my personal favorite version of Clarke: she’s the closest she’ll get to a true antagonist (only comparable to s5 but s5 is a little bit of a mess so I still prefer her in s4). She has one conviction: saving her people. And to get it, she is ready to lie, to cheat, to kill, whatever it takes. It is interesting because I always saw Clarke in that light. She always believes that she has the right idea and she will do what it takes to get what she thinks is best. That’s where she is interesting to me (I’m not interested in her being an innocent victim forced to take decisions, that’s not how I see her at all and I find her a little dull in that interpretation haha but that’s for another post). Clarke stealing the bunker is a cruel act, but man, it’s incredibly smart. At that moment she knows she’s condeming many people (some of whom very close to her) to death, but she believes deep inside her that it’s the right thing to do so she’s willing to do it. And i really prefer her in those ruthless moments.

Octavia’s arc this season isn’t my favorite, but she is at her best during the last few episodes for me. The creation of Wonkru is one of my favorite scenes of the entire show, even though I saw it coming a mile away lmao (1200 spaces, 12 clans, it was easy to see where they were going!). I love the scene, I love the place it comes from (Octavia channeling Lincoln’s convictions was brilliant). I might not agree with her decisions (skaikru definitely deserved more spots than the other clans), but it makes perfect sense for her character to make this decision. The scene of her talking to Skaikru and telling them they’re no different from the others, and they have to choose or they all die, is also one of my favorites. Octavia received no mercy on the Ark, she had a terribly tragic childhood because of those people who are now begging her for their lives, and she doesn’t budge. The Ark, and the Ground, forced her to be that way, and she doesn’t back away. It’s also all a brilliant introduction to what Wonkru and Octavia will become in s5 (but again, that’s for another post lmao)

I love that we get the introduction of Spacekru because I love their little found family and the scene where they reach the Ring is so good!

Murphy’s speech to Clarke makes me tear up everytime I see it (it really was one of the strongest moments of acting of the entire show, Richard Harmon is amazing in it). Emori also blows me away in the previous episode, the way she’s shown to be ruthless, and cunning, and also how well she reads people. She knew they would come to test someone, and she did everything she had to for that someone to not be her. I love her ^^

I like the plot of the second dawn bunker well enough! (although I will never change my mind that Cadogan was a dumbass for putting it where it is instead of IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST WHERE THERE’S NO RISK OF BUILDINGS FALLING ON IT LIKE WHAT LITERALLY HAPPENED IN S5 OKAY anyway…..), it’s far from perfect but I like that it explains the people coming to greet Becca in s3, and I like that we expand a little on the origins of the Grounders culture (even though I wanted more about this). It’s kind of an “easy” solution, but at the same time it’s not. It was established early in the season before being abandoned, and even once it’s found, it’s not at all a perfect and easy solution. They have to fight for it, decide who lives there, it’s a pretty interesting development. What I mean is that it’s not discovered one episode before the end and it doesn’t solve everything. If anything, it creates more conflict. Which I appreciate alot.

ALSO ALSO Echo is a badass general in this season and I love it. She goes from being a spy in earlier seasons, to full-on commanding armies and being a strategic mastermind and I love it! She’s also ruthless and cunning and I lvoe that for her. It’s also such a good season for her and Bellamy!!! I lvoe all of it ^^

This season also has one of my favorite underrated quotes!!!! I’m gonna use a gif here cause I’m not at the limit yet lmao

“It’s unity day.” GODDDD it’s so good. It’s simple, but it conveys so much information and I love it:

Unity Day: the stations coming together to survive -> we’re virtually in the same situation here.

It’s a happy occasion, a day of survival and hope, just like the hope Octavia gave all the clans with her decisions

But it’s also a day of death and loss. She’s giving Kane a choice: join Wonkru with 100 members, or die in the flames.

It reminds us of the history of the Arkers, and I love when world-building does this thing where both characters are shown to have such a close cultural background that three little words are enough to convey such a strong message. It’s a detail but I love it and I wanted to ramble for a little bit ^^

Clarke’s sacrifice: This is when it gets to “meh” points for the seasons for me. Clarke deciding to stay behind to save Spacekru was a good moment. Yes, I know that if she hadn’t climbed the tower they all would have died anyway, but still. It’s a great moment for her character. She has hurt those people time and time again during this season, she was ready to let them die more than once, and I think she regrets it (although again, I like to see the extremes she’s willing to reach in this season). In that moment, she doesn’t decide that it’s too late to survive so she might as well give up. She knows she’s going to die, and she gives her last moments to save the lives of the people she hurt in the past. And I really love this. That is….. Until Clarke is revealed to not have died. I truly believe that she had reached the ending of her arc in the show, and it would have been a great ending to her character. But that’s also because I believe the show should have ended in s4 lmao. If it had ended, then maybe they could have left her death ambiguois, by showing her reaching the safety of the lab, but not showing her again afterwards. That way, we had no way of being sure she survived, but it was left ambiguous enough to make us decide her fate outselves.

The perfect ending: I didn’t choose the last gif randomly. That scene of Raven and Bellamy looking down on the Earth was in my opinion the perfect shot to end the show. At that point in time, we are left in a place that is very similar to where the show started: the Earth is destroyed by radiations, some people are waiting it out in space, some people are waiting it out on the ground. it mirrors the premise of the show (although in a much smaller scale), but this time, we’re left with hope of what might come in the future. Those two groups know (or hope) that they will reunite, especially with Octavia and Bellamy, the relationship at the core of the show, being separated. If the show ends here, we have come full circle from the pilot episode, and we can imagine how those two groups will reunite in the future. I find that ending the best possible for the show, so even though there’s so much I like about season 5, I wish the show had stopped at that moment, at that shot of Raven and Bellamy looking down on the Earth.

That got reaaaaally long, so…. sorry about that xD If you’ve reached this far, feel free to tell me what you think of this season (or the others haha) or send me asks, or request for other gifsets!!!

#the 100 #the100edit #my gifs #I will have you know that I did NOT edit this text lmao

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