#jl doesn’t know how to friend prove me wrong | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mischiefandspirits · 3 years

Text

Oldest and Newest

Damian tugged down his face mask as he looked out over Gotham city. He was finally here.

After two decades of anticipation, after nearly a decade of work, it should have been a happy occasion.

He tugged the mask back up as he heard a scream nearby.

He stopped three muggings, saved a woman from assault, and stopped a robbery by the time a flicker of purple started following him.

He scared off some men that were following a woman then pretended to take off northward before ducking around a water tower and sneaking up on his pursuer as they tried to follow. He took them in before approaching.

They looked about five foot six. The dark body armor and cloak hid their build some, but the way they carried themself proved they were muscular even if not overly broad. As he grew closer, he could see that the armor was primarily black with dark purple detailing that matched the cloak’s color. They also wore a full face mask like his friend Vesper’s, though theirs had white lenses that stood out against the black fabric instead of being completely black like the older vigilante. They were cautious, yet sure-footed as they raced over the rooftops which showed a familiarity with the territory and an understanding of its dangers.

Similarly, their growing annoyance showed they’d realized they’d lost him so Damian swooped in to pin them against an air conditioning unit. They tried to throw him off, but his larger size and superior skills kept them pinned long enough to bind their hands and tie them to the unit.

“Who are you and why are you following me?” he growled, crossing his arms and looming over them.

They stared at him for a moment, head tilting to the side, then snorted. “No wonder he got mistaken for B a few times. Are you seeing this guy?” the young woman -- judging by her voice -- muttered to herself before saying, “I’m Spoiler and I’m following you because you randomly showed up in Gotham and started playing vigilante. Don’t you know Batman doesn’t like that?”

“And yet, here you are doing the same.”

“Excuse you, I’m Batman’s partner. I earned my place on these rooftops.”

“Right.”

She tilted up her chin and crossed her arms. “I am!”

Damian frowned, but didn’t move to redo the ties she’d slipped. Vesper had told him that his father was a solo hero. Batman worked with the Justice League and the Birds of Prey as necessary, but he’d never had a permanent confidant or taken on an apprentice like some of the other heroes. The closest thing he had to partners were the Batgirls. According to Vesper, though, neither ever developed a close bond with the man. The two might be called in as backup or would team up with his father when their paths crossed, but they never depended on one another. His father was more of an inspiration, patron, and occasional teammate than a partner to either woman.

Spoiler didn’t seem to be lying, however, and appeared too forward to be capable of deceiving him. Had something changed in the four years since he’d talked to Vesper? Perhaps he should have gone with his original plan of waiting to go out until after he’d spoken with her the next day after all.

Hindsight and such were not going to change the present, however.

He looked over the woman again. Girl, he realized. Given her proportions, she was likely in her mid-teens though he could be wrong as the armor was rather concealing. An apprentice, then, which explained why she had not fallen beside her supposed partner. The mission his father perished on must have been deemed too dangerous for her to accompany him.

He carefully thought over his next words. He was not ready to announce his presence yet as clearly he had some research to do and he needed to speak with Vesper. He also didn’t know how trustworthy Spoiler was. Even if she was telling the truth about being his father’s partner, that did not tell him just how far his father’s trust in her went and therefore how far he should trust her in turn.

He stepped back from the girl, dropping his arms and attempting to take on a less antagonistic posture. “Then I am sorry for your loss.”

“Loss?” Spoiler questioned.

“Batman’s death,” he answered slowly. Had no one told her?

“What? Batman’s not dead.”

Oh, no, she was simply trying to hide the truth. “My contacts within the Justice League say otherwise.”

Batman's death had left Flamebird uncharacteristically despondent of late, understandably given how close his father and Damian’s were and the fact Flamebird had been on the mission where Batman perished.

“Someone’s going to get an ass beating,” she muttered, storming to her feet. She poked him in the chest. “So what, you find out Batman’s gone and decide that means you have a free pass to just do whatever you want in my city.”

Damian pushed her hand away, fighting down the urge to stab it. “As I think we’ve established, I had no idea you existed. I simply had business in Gotham and thought I’d do some good for a recently undefended city.”

“Yeah, well, now you know the city is being defended.”

“By a child, yes,” Damian scoffed before he could stop himself and the girl bristled.

“Who the fickle frack are you to judge me?”

After being momentarily stunned by her euphemism, he answered, “I am Ẓill.”

She stared at him and slowly shook her head. “Yeah, no offense, it’s def a me problem, but if I try to say that I will totally beat it to hell and back with a tire iron then set it on fire and spit on it just for good measure. Is that an alien language?”

“Arabic.”

“Shit. Yeah, okay, that’s why I’m sticking to the Romance languages for now.” She glanced to the side. “Do you know Arabic?”

“I-” he started, but she waved him quiet.

“I thought you were going to learn after the last run-in with… Okay, yeah, that’s fair. So… Well of course he can, the little polyglot.” She turned back to Damian as he started to wonder if the girl was insane. “So your name translates to Shadow. Mind if I just call you that because, again, I will not be responsible for the atrocity that leaves my mouth if I try to pronounce Arabic without time to practice.”

“Shadow is fine.” She wouldn’t be the first, as it had taken both Flamebird and Beacon awhile to learn how to pronounce his name properly, and the Ismoian still called him that on occasion as a nickname. More accurately she called him Shadow the Hedgehog, but that was a reference he refused to investigate given Flamebird’s reaction to it. “Who are you talking to?”

She gestured to the side of her head. “Augur. He’s our eye-in-the-sky computer guy. Hacking, running comms, information gathering, strategy, all that fun stuff.”

“I thought Oracle worked with Batman when he needed assistance with that.”

“Oracle? I mean, she helped train Augur and helps out when he needs a hand, but she’s got the Birds of Prey and Vesper, not to mention helping out the Justice League sometimes. I think she used to do a lot more for Batman back before Augur, but she’s got her own shit to do now. Augur’s our main man.”

He really should have waited to speak to Vesper. Clearly his information was more out of date than he thought.

“So, Shadow Weaver, what brings you to Gotham then?”

“Shadow Weaver?” He growled when she nodded, radiating amusement. That was clearly another reference he didn’t want to know anything about. “My being here is none of your concern.”

“Random unknown vigilantes being in my city are, like, the definition of my concern,” she said, cocking a hip.

“Your city?”

“Yeah, my city. So either tell me why you’re here or get lost.”

“And if I don’t?”

She shifted into a fighting stance. “I’ll make you.”

Damian snorted at the threat, then was yanked backward by his hood. He brought his hand up to defend, which was knocked aside.

He froze when he recognized the featureless mask staring down at him.

“I told you to keep your head down,” Vesper reprimanded, poking him in the forehead.

“If you had warned me that Batman had picked up a disciple this wouldn’t have happened,” he huffed and Spoiler pretended to gag.

“Ew, gross, don’t call me that. Makes it sound like I worship B or something, which, yeah, no.”

“Stop picking fights with Spoiler,” Vesper said and poked his forehead again. “Batman is already going to be mad enough.”

Damian’s eyes darted away from his friend and, behind Vesper, he saw Spoiler flinch.

Vesper let him back up and shoved him away. She turned to Spoiler. “I’ll deal with him. He’s a friend. Sorry.”

The girl nodded and left.

“Come on.”

The older vigilante led him to the rooftop of a clock tower. She used a biometric scanner to unlock a hidden hatch and they slipped inside, dropping down ropes into a workspace.

There was an elaborate computer setup in one corner, oddly lacking a chair, and a workout space in the other. Mirroring that was a modest medical area in one corner and a kitchenette in the other with seating at the island. Elevator doors stood between the computers and medical area while a couch and some chairs sat at the center of the room.

Pulling off her hood and mask, Cassandra led him to the couch. He removed his own hood and mask then pulled his katana off his back to lean against his leg as he sat next to her on the couch.

“You look good,” she said, glancing over him.

“You too. It’s good to see you again.”

She nodded, then lightly slapped his arm. “What were you thinking, Damian? I know I told you how protective Batman is of his territory.”

Damian’s left hand came up to trace the phoenix engraved onto his right bracer. “When was the last time you spoke to someone in the Justice League?”

She frowned, studying him. “I have been on an Outsiders mission for the past month, and was busy with a show the month before that. If Oracle has worked with them in that time, she hasn’t said anything. Why?”

“A little under a month ago, a JL team went on a mission. I don’t know the full details, but it had something to do with Darkseid and… Batman did not make it back.”

She didn’t react visibly, but her voice was soft when she asked, “You are sure?”

“Jon was on the mission. He said Batman was vaporized right before their eyes. I’m sorry.”

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. After her moment of silence, she looked up at him, face blank. “Why?”

“Why?”

“Why are you here? Why do you care? You’ve always been interested in Batman, but this is… more.”

He sat up straight, hands fisting on his thighs. “I told you my name was Damian Naji, but that was a lie. My name is actually Damian al Ghul. My mother is Talia al Ghul… and my father was Batman.”

She studied him. “Batman… did not know?”

“Not as far as I am aware. Mother told me she told him she miscarried because I would be a distraction to him and the cause. After everything you’ve told me about him, I think she and Grandfather were just worried he’d take me from them. If she told him after I left, I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell him? You could have come to him for help when you ran away from the League.”

“Tt. You know how I was back then. I was everything Father stood against. He wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with me. Not until I could prove I was worthy of him.”

She reached out to take his hand. “That’s not true. He knew my past and he accepted me.”

“You killed one person, instantly regretted it, and never killed again. I spent almost ten years as an assassin. It’s not the same. Besides, you were just an occasional teammate. I’m…”

“His son. Which is exactly why I know he would have loved you. Batman cares deeply for those who he considers his own. Even Oracle and I. He keeps -” She frowned and looked down. “He kept his distance from us, but only because he felt he didn’t have a right to us. Oracle had a parent and was independent, only needing help getting her feet under her. I was an adult, legally, when we met and Oracle took on my training since she was the one who found me and had practice working with younger heroes due to assisting Black Canary with the Justice League’s minor division. Had he found you, though, he wouldn’t have hesitated. You would have been his.

“He would not have been happy about how you were raised, but he still would have loved you. He would not have turned you away, even if you had wanted to continue down the path of an assassin. He would have seen that wasn’t what you wanted, though, and taught you a new way. You would not have had to do it on your own.”

Damian shook his head. “No, I had to prove that I wasn’t what my mother made me. I had to prove I could follow his rules, only then could I present myself as his heir.”

“You wouldn’t have had to prove anything to him.”

He pulled his hand away to trail it against his bracer again. “Perhaps you are right. You knew him better than I. But I did have to prove it to myself.”

She shook her head and wrapped an arm around his shoulders despite him being a head taller and twice as wide. “How?”

“My first kill was on my sixth birthday. I was fifteen when we met and I decided to leave behind the League’s ways in favor of Father’s. It… took me longer than I liked to push through the instincts to kill so on my sixteenth birthday I made an oath. Ten years of saving lives to atone for ten years of taking them. Only if I reached my twenty-sixth birthday without taking another life would I come to Gotham.”

“That is why you’ve come.”

“No, my birthday is still a few months away, but… Jon told me what happened. I realized I was too late so I am here to… I thought if I could never present myself to Father absolved of guilt, I could at least protect the city he devoted himself to since I believed it was now undefended.”

“You did not know about the others,” she chuckled.

“You told me he worked alone,” he growled.

“He did when we last spoke.” She pulled away, tilting her head. “Am I your only source for information?”

“Yes. I did not know if I could trust any other source given his reclusiveness.”

“But I only told you about Batman. What about behind the man under the cowl?”

He slumped back against the couch.

“You do not know who he is,” she said, amusement in her voice.

“Mother always told me I would learn who he was when I’d earned it. The only things I know are that I am his only family and heir. That’s why I asked you to meet me. I wanted to do this properly and cover his responsibilities in and out of the mask, but I can’t do that without knowing who he is. I’d hoped that either you would know or you could help me figure it out.”

She hummed and glanced to the side.

He followed her gaze to see a clock on the wall. It was nearing two in the morning.

Suddenly she hopped to her feet and dragged him up. “You said you are staying at Hotel Belle Monico?”

“Yes, room 3215.”

“Go straight back there and get changed.”

He nodded, figuring she wanted to get some rest. “Alright. I’ll see you later then.”

After getting her confirmation, he climbed up the ropes and did as told. It only took him fifteen minutes to get back to his room and another twenty to change out of his vigilante attire, lock all his gear away, shower, and put on his sleeping clothes. Once that was done he started to debate whether or not to get some sleep or do a bit of research first.

A knock came at his door.

He grabbed the small dagger he kept on him at all times and palmed one of the knives he’d hidden around the room as he approached the door. He peeked through the peephole, then tucked both weapons into his waistband and opened the door.

Cassandra had lost her own suit in favor of a casual teal dress and gold-brown leggings. She frowned as she took him in and started shoving him further into the room before he could say anything. “Get dressed.”

“What’s going on?”

“Clothes.”

Well aware he wasn’t going to get anything out of her, he slipped into the suite's bedroom and changed into some slacks and a polo.

“Good,” she said when he came out, then turned on her heel and left.

He quickly followed after grabbing his wallet and one of the room’s keycards.

“Where are we going?” he asked once they were in the elevator, but she just smiled at him.

The silence continued as they climbed into her car and she drove them through the city. He tried to ask again when they crossed a bridge out of the main city and into a neighborhood filled with mansions and old manors, but she remained tight-lipped until they pulled up to the gate of a larger manor.

She rolled down the window and hit the call button, which was soon answered over the video screen by an older gentleman in a butler’s uniform.

“Ah, hello, Ms. Cain,” the man said in a warm, British accent. “I was told you might make an appearance, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.”

“Hello, Alfred. Should this wait?”

“No, you might as well come in now. They’re all still awake after tonight’s events,” he sighed and the gates began to creak open.

“Sorry,” she said and he waved her off before the screen went dark.

Curiosity itched at Damian, but he stayed quiet as Cassandra drove up to the front door and they climbed out.

Alfred met them at the door. He gave Cassandra a kind smile then turned it to Damian. “Always a pleasure, Ms. Cain. And who is this?”

She looped her arm around one of Damian’s. “An old friend. Alfred, this is Damian Wayne. Damian, this is Alfred Pennyworth.”

He didn’t react to the name, assuming she’d just given him an alias, but the calculating expression on Alfred’s face as he stared at Damian’s had him second-guessing the assumption.

The expression was quickly replaced by a sad smile, however, as the man stepped back to allow them into the manor. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Master Damian.”

“You as well, Mr. Pennyworth.”

“Just Alfred, my boy. Please come in. The others are winding down in the family room.”

“Thank you, Alfred,” Cassandra said, then led Damian into the house by his arm. They went up the main staircase in the entrance hall and into the first door on the left where they found a room inhabited by a group of children.

The oldest were a pair of teenagers sitting on the couch.

The girl was white, but tanned with long blonde hair pulled into a messy braid and dark green eyes. She was thin but muscular and he could see her arms were covered in small scars thanks to her Gotham Sirens tank top. She was cradling a sleeping infant who was wrapped in a Wonder Woman blanket and clutching a stuffed Batman.

The other teen was more androgynous, body hidden under an overly large White Arrow hoodie and Supergirl sweat pants. They were Latine with their skin a pale brown and their eyes a silvery blue. Their hair was black and chin-length. They had a video game controller on their lap and a tablet in their hands.

The next oldest was a preteen boy with a book sitting sideways in an armchair, back against one arm and legs draped over the other. He was fair with freckles speckling his face around his navy eyes. His hair was short and a dark red, almost black color. He was thin and muscular like the girl, but there was a touch of broadness to his shoulders that spoke of a bulkiness to come with puberty. A German Shepherd was squeezed onto the chair with him, half-tucked under the boy's legs with his head on the boy's stomach for pets.

The last child was a few years younger than the preteen. He both had the most conditioned and the least combative build of the children, having more of a gymnast's figure. His skin was of a similar olive tone to Damian’s, though a few shades lighter, and his curly hair was brown-black. Damian couldn’t see his eyes as he was dozing on a rug in front of the tv with a three-legged pitbull puppy, both curled around a large stuffed elephant. A video game controller was abandoned behind the boy.

The three awake children turned to Damian and Cassandra when they entered. They all greeted her warmly, but the girl and boy eyed him warily while the androgynous teen studied him with sharp curiosity.

“Who’s your friend, Cassie?” the boy asked.

Cassandra shoved Damian further into the room. “Your brother.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So last month I made a post asking if anyone had written a story where the Robins' ages were reversed as is the trope, but they still got taken in by Bruce in the same order as well as giving some ideas for how that could work. No one ever got back to me on if that was already a thing so I figured I might as well write out one of the scenes that really caught my interest when brainstorming.

#batfam #damian wayne #cass cain #stephanie brown #batman #rabno #fanfiction

13 notes · View notes

highonchocolate · 3 years

Text

Take Two: The Guardian in Gotham Chapter 7

First Previous Next Ao3

As Marinette made her way out of the room, Dick turned back to Jason and Tim, the two of them wearing identical frowns he knew were mirrored on his face. “That conversation was not normal at all. That stuff she said about the man being over 150 years old..I get the feeling she isn’t just a regular civilian after all.” Tim and Jason nodded in agreement. “Do you think she was talking about the Lazarus Pits?” Tim asked, pulling up his computer and beginning a new search on their guest. “That man she was talking about seemed to be her mentor, but I didn’t understand the last sentence she said. It wasn’t in any language I know.” “She sounded fuckin’ terrified after hearing whatever that friend of hers told her.” Jason inputted, leaning forward. “Maybe we can try to hear the other end of the conversation, maybe that will help.” Dick said, turning to Tim hopefully. “Yeah, okay, just give me like fifteen minutes. I have to find her phone on the Manor WiFi and go from there, since she took it with her and I can't just directly hack in.” Dick nodded. “Do we want to tell Bruce now, or wait until we’re sure nothing crazy is going on?” “Let’s wait, I don’t need the old man getting worked up, only for this to be a false alarm.” Jason sighed, hands fiddling absentmindedly at the empty space where his guns usually sat.

Noticing the movement, Dick laughed inwardly. ‘It’s like a little baby looking for his teddy bear!’ He wasn’t dumb enough to say it out loud though, he knew Jason would probably shoot him in the kneecaps if he dared to insinuate he used his guns as teddy bears.

“I got it.” Tim’s voice interrupted his train of thought, fingers flying over the keyboard as he pulled up the call. They leaned forward to hear as he pressed play.

---

Flopping down onto her bed, Marinette let out an exhausted sigh before grabbing her pillow and screaming into it. Tikki rushed to comfort her, flying up to her face and gently nudging her cheek. “It’s okay Marinette-” Her sentence was immediately cut off by another loud groan/wail. “Tikki! What am I supposed to do?! Talia probably knows the Miraculi are active in Paris! What if she targets Maman and Papa? Oh no I’m such an awful Guardian Tikki! I’m going to get everyone killed!”

She was interrupted by Wayzz, who flew over with a warm cup of tea balanced precariously on his paws. Since he couldn’t see over the top, he nearly crashed into Kaalki, who let out a little shriek and sped out of the way. Her lips twitched upwards at the sight, and she quickly grabbed the tea before it could fall.

“Marinette you’re not an awful Guardian! Nobody can figure out a Holder’s identity unless they catch them detransforming, or the Holder tells them. So your parents aren’t in any danger!” Tikki explained, nestling in her hair and reached down to pat her on the forehead reassuringly. “Well not in any more danger than usual, what with the Akuma attacks happening almost every other day.” The girl quipped. “But the League could still try and talk to us after an Akuma attack before we detransform. Or they could just follow us until we detransform, and then attack our families.” She rolled over in bed, letting out a yelp when she jostled her foot.

“Hey Roarr,” She called out. “Didn’t you say that the Order is more powerful than the League, even now?” The striped pink Kwami nodded in agreement. “Yes, Marinette. You are one of the strongest Guardians in history, and since your team is composed entirely of True Holders, the Order is definitely stronger than the League right now.” As she turned the information over in her mind, bits and pieces of a plan began to form. “Well, I could tell them I’m the Guardian...and maybe that will discourage them from trying to attack the rest of the team?” Before any of the Kwami could respond she sat up excitedly. “Oh I know! I’ll tell them I am the Guardian, and part of the Order. And warn them of the consequences that will occur if they try and attack any of us. And even if they do try, I can just transform and take them down using Mullo, Trixx, and Tikki!” She pumped a fist in the air proudly, before turning to the Kwami to see what they thought. Tikki and Wayzz looked like they were contemplating the idea, the rest of the Kwami were either vehemently shaking their heads, or nodding vigorously. Finally Tikki spoke up “I think...that would be alright, but only if they approach you first, okay?” Marinette nodded. “Of course! There is no way I’m actively going to look for ninja assassins!”

---

“Hey Chloé, what’s up?” Marinette’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Maribug! Fu’s completely lost it!” The other girl-Chloé shrieked over the phone. “Tone it down a bit, Chlo. What do you mean?” Marinette asked. “He won’t stop mumbling to himself, and at random times he’ll just stare at the wall blankly!” The girl answered, though at a much quieter volume. “Well, I think that behavior should be normal for a man that just had memories from over 150 years of his life erased.” Marinette responded in French.

At that, Jason reached over and paused the recording. “So their mentor is this ‘Fu’ guy, and he had his memories erased. That’s not normal Pit stuff. When I was dunked in, I still remembered everything, I just also wanted to kill everything I came across. Same with all the other fuckers that used it. Memory loss wasn’t a thing.” “Okay, so we can cross off the Pits, but that still doesn’t explain this dude being that old.” Tim agreed. “Let’s keep listening I guess.”

“No he says the Demon is coming!” At those words, the three of them tensed, but continued to listen. “Chloé,” Marinette spoke, “you need to tell me his exact words. Now.” Her voice hardened at the end, and the other girl immediately became serious. “It was mostly mumbling, and I couldn’t make out most of what he said, but I heard something about Al Guhl, and eternal life.” This time Dick was the one who hit the pause button. “How the fuck does she know about the League?!” Jason burst out, looking unsettled and angry. “I don’t know, but we might have to keep an eye on her.” Tim stated, looking worried at the idea of them hosting an assassin in their house. “Okay, let’s see if they say anything about being a part of the League.” Dick frowned, reaching over to press play.

“You’re absolutely sure he said that? You weren’t just hearing things?” Marinette asked, voice filled with barely-concealed panic. “Yeah, that's exactly what he said. Is something wrong?” Chloé responded, sounding worried. Marinette let out a strained laugh. She said something in another language, which caused the other to inhale sharply and let out a curse. “Yeah, we’re totally fucked.”

“Okay then, looks like she’s not a part of the League I guess.” Dick frowned. “Maybe the League is an enemy of hers? Sorry, theirs?” “Okay maybe, but what does anything in Paris have to do with the League?” Tim responded. “I don’t know, maybe we can ask the rest of the JL if they’ve heard anything from Paris, or France in general.” He said, standing up and stretching. “Why can’t our lives be fucking normal for once?!” Jason groaned as they headed to the Cave.

---

“HI everyone!” Lila sang as she entered the classroom on Monday. “You’ll never guess where I went this weekend!” Pausing, she waited expectantly for the excited exclamations of her classmates wondering where she went, who she met, and how many celebrities she had turned down because they wanted to date her. But when no one responded, she felt her smile turn cold.

Looking at Marinette’s empty chair, her mouth twisted into a smirk, ready to spin new tales of her exploits in foreign countries. Poisoned words, dripping in honey to hide their bitter taste, spilled from her lips. “Oh is Marinette still gone? I didn’t think she could get any worse, but now she’s skipping school as well?!” Faking sadness, she made her lower lip wobble; shoulders hunching in on herself in a false display of timidness. “I tried asking her for a second chance to prove myself since she hates me so much, but she slammed her door in my face and told me to get out!” Still, there was nothing but silence. She looked up, and saw her classmates huddled together around Adrien’s desk.

Gritting her teeth, she sauntered over to them, heels clicking against the hardwood floor. “Hey guys, what’s up?” She asked, voice sweetened to cover up the irritation. “Oh hey Lila!” Mylene looked up, noticing her presence. “What’s up?” She repeated, pushing back the frustration beginning to bleed into her tone. “Oh, well Marinette’s in America now!” Alya told her, nearly vibrating with excitement. “We don’t know where exactly, but maybe she’ll meet some celebrities while she’s there!” “Really?!” Lila exclaimed, forcing enthusiasm into her tone. “That’s so cool. You know, I went to America last month, and I met Lois Lane! She wanted me to intern for her, but I recommended you instead!” “Oh, that’s cool Lila. But aren’t you wondering where Marinette is?” Rose asked eagerly. She felt a white-hot bolt of anger flash through her veins. “Of course I am!” She lied, hatred welling up inside her. “Here, tell me more!”

As she sat down next to Alya and listened to her ramble, she couldn’t help the furious thoughts running through her mind. ‘I had finally gotten rid of her, and what does she do? Continue to hog all the attention even when she’s across the sea!’

This would not do. She needed to make sure they all forgot about Marinette. With a plan in mind, she plastered on a knife-edged smile and began to enact her scheme.

---

@laurcad123, @liquid-luck-00

#maribat #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #adrien agreste #chloe bourgeois #luka couffaine #kagami tsurugi #alfred pennyworth #bruce wayne #tim drake #jason todd #dick grayson #lila rossi #alya cesaire #lila salt #class salt

91 notes · View notes

miyu-hyperfixates · 4 years

Text

Random post-canon/backstory MDZS headcanon #3

After spending so much time with LSZ, WWX got a lot of opportunity to learn more about his adoptive son. So he often asks LXC, LJY and LWJ stories about LSZ’s childhood. And so he learned about the influences of the adults in LSZ’s life and how it affected his personality and behavior.

For example, while his gentle and diplomatic personality obviously came from the influence of his equally diplomatic uncle (no example needed to be mention, it was pretty obvious seeing as LWJ has all but appointed LSZ as his spokesman), one could sometimes still spot here and there the tiny bits of pure stubbornness that were all LWJ.

During the period where LWJ had been bedridden due to his injuries, LSZ was only allowed to visit him once a month [in an utter bitterly mirror of what happened with Madam Lan]... Except that LSZ despite not remembering his past had separation issues and was absolutely anxious at the idea of not seeing LWJ often... So in the beginning LQR would panic anytime he lost sight of LSZ who apparently was very good at disappearing on him, only to find him later in the Jingshi, snuggled beside a sleeping LWJ.

After the tenth times basically LQR gave up on lecturing him and just let him live in the Jingshi. [By the way what LQR didn’t know was that LXC had been purposely helping LSZ sneaking away, because he’s still fucking bitter about their childhood and didn’t want his nephew to grow up like them]

According to LJY, LSZ was also prone to bouts of mischievousness though it manifested in such a way that most of the time no one ever see it coming and even if they did, they never directly connect it with LSZ (even when LSZ pranked them right in their face). It used to drive LJY crazy when they were kids but now he just finds it hilarious, especially since he realized that LSZ seriously lacked self-awareness on that matter.

Because whenever LSZ planned to prank someone or break the rules, he’d copy the rules two times preemptively. And he thought that the teachers/people in charge were aware of it and so when he inevitably got caught for pranking someone/breaking the rules they won’t add any punishment because LSZ had already punish himself. That’s the argument LSZ gave to LJY whenever the latter mocked LSZ about never getting into trouble even when he wanted to.

And so, to prove his point, one day when they were something like ten or eleven, LJY had thrown LSZ’s stash of self-punishment right in front of a senior and casually said “Sizhui was the one who gave a small stash extra-candies to the shidis. He disciplined himself accordingly, please verify his work.” And the senior’s reaction was to laugh and shake his head, “You really don’t need to find such excuses to copy rules, we all know Sizhui loves to copy rules on his free time! Sizhui is such a diligent disciple, don’t be ashamed of what you like to do.” LSZ: ...... LJY *laughing his ass off and vindictively pointing at his best friend*: See! It’d probably take befriended demonic cultivators or fierce corpses for anyone to notice you did something wrong and punish you! [Jingyi has super prophetic powers, fight me]

Of course when WWX learned about it he laughed his ass off, patting LSZ on the shoulder and telling him how proud he was. WWX: I was afraid that growing up with the Lans would have make you all mature and all... But I’m so glad there’s still some of that little shit who used to con Lan Zhan into buying him toys in you. LSZ *with a straight face* : Wei-qianbei, if you don’t stop laughing I’ll add a dozen cups of salt in your chili oil... WWX, narrowing his eyes: you’re bluffing. LSZ *smiling serenely*

About like two weeks later, the entire Gusu Lan sect saw WWX making a weird dying noise right after eating a bit of his spicy dish and then coughing and rushing to gulp down a whole barrel of water. All the while cursing, while LSZ just sweetly smiled in the background and LJY patted him on the back. LJY: See, Wei-qianbei, I told you, right in the face, and you still didn’t saw him coming.

What came as a surprise to WWX is that apparently, sometimes seemingly out of the blue [but not really, you just needed to notice the warning signs] LSZ would almost totally forego the “good and sweet diplomatic route” and immediately jump into the “still polite but with a cold and very sharp edge that will stab you one hundred times where it hurt most”.

LSZ has a very distinctive line when it concerns disparaging words or attacks towards his family and whoever he considers his friends and well.... As all of his acquaintances are pretty much badasses, he usually doesn’t really feel the need to intervene, they can pretty much fight their own battle themselves... But if he even feels the slightest hint that his friends/family are unsettled then he’d immediately plant himself like this huge mountain right between whatever threats and his friends/family and then - regardless of whom he’s talking to - he’ll cause a huge scene where he’ll demand a public apology.

LJY used to be bullied when he was a kid because he was too loud and brash and didn’t know how to act like a Lan at all [I hc that LJY’s parents are actually both Lan, coming from two different branches, which technically makes him the most Lan to ever Lan]. And whenever it happened LSZ would come to his rescue, standing right in front of him. Then he’d proceed to list all the rules that the other party had broken before ending with “Please apologize to Jingyi and then go to Hanguang-Jun for discipline.”

After hearing about those, WWX felt a strange pang in his heart without really knowing why... For some reasons, LSZ’s behavior just seemed very familiar.

It’s only when he himself witnessed one of those as LSZ defended JL that it clicked. It was JYL... LSZ was acting like WWX’s shijie.

So it turned out that LWJ had raised LSZ in a way that he thought WWX would have like his son to be raised. And whose values and behaviors better than WWX’s beloved shijie? But the thing is, LWJ didn’t really know much about JYL personally... The few things that he knew was what he heard from WWX: she was gentle, caring, made the best lotus root pork ribs soup ever, loved her brothers very much and that was about it.

But LWJ did witness the Phoenix Mountain scene.... and boy did it made a lasting impression in his mind. And that’s what he ended up teaching LSZ too. [ Small LSZ of course didn’t know that the person in LWJ’s story was JYL but he still thrived to emulate that amazing person]

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #mdzs headcanons #wwx #lsz #wwx & lsz #ljy #lsz & ljy #sizhui is the Best Boy #lwj is an awesome dad #don't mess with lsz he'll add salt in your chili oil #wwx & his ducklings #jingyi is the most lan to ever lan fight me #my post-canon hcs

56 notes · View notes

highly-opinionated-ramblings · 4 years

Text

Batshipping masterpost

Sometimes asking yourself the question “what would it take for me to ship these two characters together?” helps you come up with really really good stories that you otherwise might never have thought of!

Very fun writing exercise. Do recommend.

ANYWAY. I like Batman, so I asked myself this question about him, and these were the results!

(Featuring: Catwoman, Riddler, Twoface, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Azrael, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Aquaman)

What would it take for me to ship Batman with that character? A few key ingredients:

If they are/were a villain, a redemption of sorts. A slow process of coming to terms and actively deciding “yeah, that’s not who I am anymore.”

A connection, a distinct moment where they’re able to talk to Batman as more than just an old enemy or a League ally. A spark that generates interest in developing the relationship further.

An establishment of explicit trust. This usually comes in the form of Bruce revealing his identity to the other and trusting them (maybe tentatively at first, but even so) not to give it away.

An introduction to the kids. I am one hundred percent positive that this is, for the vast majority, not a voluntary action on Batman’s part. But if you raise nine kids to be detectives, you can’t expect to keep secrets from them for long! And once they know you’ve been sleeping with that former villain, you’re going to have to justify that to them somehow.

Then the whole cycle starts again as the villain redeems themselves in the eyes of the kids and gains their trust and acceptance too. Good stuff.

Note: my interpretations of these characters are entirely my own and by no means do all of them line up with any sort of canon. I just sort of do whatever.

Also: some of the bullet points below address some of the mental health problems in the villains, so proceed at your own discretion.

Catwoman: I really like the Gotham tv show’s dynamic between Bruce and Selina, which is to say, they were childhood friends with an early attraction to one another, but had a falling out sometime around the very beginnings of Bruce actually becoming Batman. She spends a few years as a professional thief. He sends her to prison a few times. But eventually she settles down and opens up a casino or whatever, where she deals information under the table. Alfred and the kids know her these days as an ally rather than enemy. So it’s just a matter of her realizing that her attraction to Bruce is deeper than originally assumed, and that if she wants to be with him she has to really dedicate herself to that idea, and for him to realize that she’s being serious and that he needs to prioritize spending time with her over obsessing over his work.

Bruce takes his mask off dramatically, saying something along the lines of “it’s me, Selina” and she’s like “yeah I know.” “What?” “You do this thing where you pace back and forth and nod your head up and down when you’re thinking. Never known anyone else who did that but Bruce Wayne.” “...Oh.”

Childhood friends interpretation is also great because Alfred already knows her and likes her. And she has all these embarrassing stories about 14 year old Bruce to share, which means that even the most resistant of the kids warm up to her right away.

Riddler: the first line in his Arkham file is that he has an obsessive need for attention. And Bruce KNOWS that. But it takes years for it to occur to him, incredibly sleep-deprived and staring down one of Ed’s death traps that he really, really doesn’t want to deal with today....what would happen if he just, y’know, gives it to him? The attention that he wants? And the results are instantaneous. It’s like the floodgates are open and Ed just can’t stop talking. It starts out snide and derogatory, the same way he usually talks to Batman, but the longer it goes on the more it deteriorates into something oddly helpless and vulnerable. Bruce has been so used to cocky, swaggering Ed that it never really occurred to him that this was someone suffering, who needed help. So he sits down and does his best to convince Ed that he’s not going to take him in (how many times has he been sent to Arkham? And what good has it done him, really?) and they talk. He leaves out of necessity (bank robbery in progress, says Barbara’s voice in his ear) but he goes back the next day, and again after that. Ed gets attention from Bruce without having to resort to crime to get it. Bruce gets a break from head busting and an outlet for some of the stale energy inside his head. They tell each other riddles and play strategy games and get to know each other, for real this time.

Ed stops worrying so much about proving that he’s smarter than Batman. Instead he channels all that energy into uncovering Bruce’s secret identity. It’s just another one of their games. Bruce has kept that secret for a long time and he’s confident he can keep it up, but Ed’s always alert waiting for him to slip up, to leave a clue

Option 1 for how he finds out: he sets up an elaborate trap, making it seem like he’s in danger and the only way to save him is for Bruce to take his mask off, so he does. Ed is outraged. “REALLY? BRUCE WAYNE? FUCKING REALLY?” he yells, dropping all pretense of being in danger. The robots he made for this setup drop like puppets with cut strings. Bruce gets ready to Fight.

Option 2: Some other villain reveals Bruce’s identity before he gets the chance (Arkhamverse style). Ed is outraged. “HOW DARE YOU LET ANYONE ELSE BUT ME DO THAT” he yells while Bruce tries his best to ignore him and focus on calling the JL to fix the whole situation somehow

Option 3: Bruce just tells him. Ed is outraged. “I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO FIGURE IT OUT YOU IDIOT”

The kids are Not Happy about Bruce dating Gotham’s Most Annoying Super Villain

Twoface: again I gotta go with the whole ‘they were friends when they were younger and Bruce had a raging crush on him’ setup. Cause that adds a whole layer to Bruce’s part of the story, watching Harvey become Twoface and assuming responsibility for locking him up every time he gets out. One day something happens in Gotham- string of murders or something, it’s not important really what it is. Bruce goes after the person responsible and his trail leads him to Harvey. So he busts into the safe house, intending to intimidate anything Harvey knows out of him, and then throw him back in Blackgate. “Ohohoho, noooooo, you got this all wrong,” Harvey says when he figures out what Batman’s getting at. “That motherfucker put a dozen of my men in the ground. This is personal. You want me to tell you what I know, you’re going to take me with you.” And Bruce agrees. Cause he knows Harvey’s got a certain moral code that he can be trusted to stick to, and it’s the most painless way of getting what he wants from him anyway. Working with Harvey is weird, though. He shoots a couple of goons going after Batman and gives him that lopsided smile, says “I’ve got your back,” and suddenly Bruce is like 20 again and Harvey is bringing him a coffee, smiling. During their chase they have a dramatic rooftop showdown with whoever it is they’re chasing. Bruce turns around just in time to see one of the thugs push Twoface over the edge. He gets caught up in the moment and practically screams, “Harvey!” Of course, he’s able to dramatically swoop in and save him, though it’s a pretty close call. When Harvey comes to he sits up and says quietly, “It’s been a long time since anyone’s called my name like that, did we have that kind of relationship?” and Bruce panics and tries to brush it off as his imagination, but Harvey shakes his head and says “once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it, man. It’s you under there, isn’t it, Bruce?” And it turns out that knowing Bruce’s real identity turned out to be exactly what Harvey needed. Cause he can identify some of the duality he feels about himself in Batman, now. They spend some more time together, talking some of that out, and it doesn’t take long for Bruce’s crush to return en force.

Poison Ivy: He lets her go. He knew she was at that scene, and she knows he saw her, but he lets her go, cause it wasn’t a big deal. No one died, relatively little property damage, and that jerk deserved it anyway. The next day there’s a potted plant sitting on GCPD’s doorstep and they call Batman thinking it might be dangerous, but it’s just a lovely specimen of a rare flower, which he knows is her way of saying thanks. (He doesn’t let the police know that, though. He just puts it in the back of the Batmobile and tells them it’s nothing he can’t handle). He takes it home with him and treats it well. And she knows it, can kind of sense it, distantly. They have a few more run ins over the course of the next few months and they take it easy on each other, having this sort of mutually unspoken agreement. Eventually something happens for her to need to talk to Batman, so she digs her roots in deep and finds that flower...in the garden at Wayne Manor. She leaves a message for Batman and they meet up and talk about whatever she needed. She doesn’t mention the Manor, so he asks about it. She just shrugs and mentions something about Bruce Wayne’s recent efforts in protecting the environment. “Maybe we’re not as different as I thought, after all.” They give each other more little presents from afar. One day she sees him hanging around (where she knows he knows she can see him), and drops by to talk. He offers her a ride home and ends up spending the night.

This one I think he owns up to before the kids can figure it out. Pam’s a good source of information, and if he was desperate he’d call her even with all of them watching. They’d all think he’d been bewitched, of course. It’d take a while to convince them all otherwise.

Harley Quinn: all it takes is for him to get his first glimpse of the real her and decide that Joker victims need to stick together and help other Joker victims. After the breakup and the subsequent recovery, she’s living free (albeit under Constant Surveillance) in Gotham, and he checks in every once in a while, just to make sure she’s doing ok and not reverting to her previous, Joker-driven, rocket-fueled bad habits. One day there’s an incident in her neighborhood- maybe someone was going after her and Bruce was there protecting her, or maybe it wasn’t related to her at all. Regardless, it’s her who finds him after the explosion and takes him home and gives him first aid. He’s groggy and panicky when he first wakes up in a strange place (not a hospital, not the cave) with an IV drip in his arm (he’s not in a hospital, where did that come from!). It gets worse when he realizes that his mask was blown right off his face in the blast. It gets SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE when Harley appears in his field of vision, waving around a tablet pulled up to Bruce Wayne’s wikipedia page, in full psychologist mode, ranting about how he’s been going about dealing with his childhood trauma All Wrong. But they talk, and she promises not to give his secret away. “What would I have to gain from that? You’d stop coming to visit me then!” It takes a while for the two of them to figure out exactly what’s going on between them but once they’re both sure the others’ intentions are good, they develop a good, strong relationship.

Bonus points if, at any point in the above time space, she walks up to him one day and hands him an unmarked usb drive. “What’s on this?” “My daughter.” “What.” “My daughter! Her location and everything about her.” “Is she...Joker’s?” “I dunno. Could have been him or any one of a number of other guys. Mistah J threw some really wild parties. *shrug* The only part that really matters to me is that she’s mine. And if anything ever happens to me, she’ll need someone to look out for her, y’know?” “And that’s me???” “Well, helping people in need is one of your compulsions, after all. Especially kids, or else you wouldn’t have so many of your own.”

I usually imagine Jason as one of the ones kind of sticking up for Batman, citing how crime has all but disappeared since he started sleeping with whatever particular villain and that who are they to police who Bruce shares his bed with anyway (BONUS bonus points if he’s just entering the early stages of coming to terms with his own bisexuality and never realized that Bruce was bi, too), but that wouldn’t be the case with Harley. He’d feel pretty hurt about that, I think. On the other hand: Dick has been around since Harley’s debut on the scene, and has always thought of her as relatively harmless and even respected her to a degree, as a fellow acrobat, so he’s cool with her dating Bruce

Azrael: His JL team goes on hiatus for a little while, so he calls Bruce up like “uhhh, I don’t really have much of anywhere else to go, so can I come back to Gotham for a while?” And Bruce tells him that they’re actually experiencing a pretty calm stretch for a change, but yeah, he can come if he wants. At first he’s excited because he’s never been invited to the actual, og Batcave, but there really IS nothing going on. He meets Alfred, who offers him tea. He meets Steph and Tim, out of masks, lounging on the couch playing Street Fighter. They assure him that if literally anything happens, one of their gajillion alert systems will let them know. He goes off in search of Bruce, finds him sitting at the kitchen table making his way through a veritable mountain of paperwork. Eventually he admits that he doesn’t really know what to do with himself in the downtime. “I usually try to use time like this to do things for Bruce Wayne, instead of for Batman,” Bruce explains. “You should do something for Michael Lane, while you have the chance.” “But...but...but I’ve been Azrael full-time for years now...” “Alright, well, what did you like to do before you were Azrael?” “UHH...” Before he can short-circuit too much trying to come up with an actual answer to that question, Bruce puts aside his paperwork and takes his arm. They get in the car and Bruce takes him to like a hobby shop or something. They buy model kits and a cookbook and some yarn (”one of the kids can teach you”), and he promises that one of these days they’ll clear some space on the lawn to play football. Michael hasn’t experienced this level of anyone caring for his well-being probably ever? and all he can do is stammer something about “is there anything I can do for Bruce Wayne in return?” “You can keep me company while I file all my paperwork, I guess.” So he sits at the table across from Bruce and builds his little ATAT model kit feeling happier than he has in a long time. Bruce can tell that a little more attention would do him good, so they spend some more time hanging out which leads to having some deep conversations and building up feelings for each other, it’s all very cute

Right at the beginning of Michael developing his crush on Bruce he realizes that something’s different, but doesn’t quite realize what it is, and his mind jumps to the worst case scenario right away. He locks himself in his room, calls Bruce at work, panicking, and says he thinks his St. Dumas brainwashed obsession with Bruce might be coming back. Bruce tells him to calm down, they’ll run some tests. All the tests come back negative, but Michael is visibly shaken, so Bruce offers for him to hang around Gotham a little longer so they can monitor him, which is what leads to his extended stay in Gotham

Mr. Freeze: One day something changes. One day the realization finally, finally clicks into place. There’s a huge floating JL base in the sky and aliens living on Earth and people coming back from the dead and healing from miraculous injuries and plagues all the time. If it was going to happen to him, it would have happened by now. It’s over. Nora’s not coming back. That day he laces up his boots and loads his gun and walks over to the little diner on the corner and wrecks it. Batman gets the call, and obviously he knows that something’s different, this isn’t Vic’s MO, but he goes anyway, of course. Vic blasts away at him with his freeze gun, wildly, recklessly, screaming and ranting the whole time. Bruce dodges out of view, and Vic transfers his aggressions to the nearest object in sight: a table. He blasts that thing in half, and then in half again, and keeps going until it’s nothing but splinters and he’s just standing there, gasping for breath. “Victor,” says Bruce from behind him, “tell me what’s wrong.” “Nora’s dead,” Vic mumbles under his breath. Bruce comes around to face him and Vic is looking at him with THE SADDEST puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen. (I know what you’re thinking right now. “Mr. Freeze can’t do puppy dog eyes.” You’re WRONG, I’m telling you) “That’s the first time I’ve ever said that out loud, I think... I d-don’t...I don’t know what to do…” and Bruce is like, darn, I can’t take this fool to jail. So he brings him back to his chilly lair instead and sits him down and talks him through it a little. Leaves him with a phone number to call if it gets real bad again, but makes the first call to check up on him later anyway. This one is a sloooow burn, it takes Vic MONTHS to get over Nora, couple weeks to realize he MIGHT? be developing feelings for Bruce, couple more weeks to wrestle with the guilt of that. Learning Bruce’s identity is the thing that really brings all of it to a head. Maybe there’s an attempt on Bruce Wayne’s life and later that day Batman shows up with the same pattern of lacerations on his cheek, or broken leg, or whatever. Vic’s not an idiot. He can put two and two together. When Bruce finally takes off the helmet in front of him, it’s a huge relief. To be able to say “I know what it’s like to lose people” and for Vic to know he’s not just talking about heroing. They get closer and closer from there. Their relationship is a weird one, with a lot of compromises to make, but they do the best they can.

The kids don’t particularly mind Bruce going out with Vic. He’s not so much a villain as he is just a guy who’s been dealt a bad hand in life and done the best he could with it. But having around makes the already-cool cave soooo much colder, which isn’t so fun.

Clayface: There hasn’t been an incident with Clayface in years. He’s older, little calmer, little more mature (I like the New 52 plotline of him joining Kate’s crime busting team, but this little scenario works even without that part thrown in). Still, when Bruce hears he’s back in town, he figures he should probably pay him a visit anyway. Just in case he’s planning something. But he goes to the address he was given, some apartment building in Kingston, opens the door, and finds Basil. Not Clayface, Basil Karlo, sitting in a chair by the window reading a paper. “Haven’t seen that face on you in a while,” he says, still unsure if it’s a trick or not. “Oh,” Basil shrugs, unsure if he should be worried about being tossed in jail again or not. “Well, it’s my face. The one I’m most familiar with, takes the least amount of concentration to keep up with. I did make some changes, though, see? Few gray hairs, few lines on my face. Do I look older?” “Yes. It’s a good look.” He keeps checking in with him, cause you can never be too careful, and then because he actually starts to enjoy Basil’s company. Their relationship is one of the more light-hearted ones on this list. They get wine drunk and make out on the roof of the apartment building, very giggly.

“If I learned anything at Arkham, it’s that there are some things that you know are wrong with you, but there are also things that are wrong with you that you aren’t even aware of, and that you couldn’t identify or fix even if you tried.” “One of the psychologists told you that?” “No. I shared a cell with Tetch for a few weeks. That dude is so much more messed up than you realize.”

Superman: Clark calls him up saying something about a mystery in Metropolis that has everyone stumped, and maybe the World’s Greatest Detective wouldn’t mind helping him out? So Bruce drops by to lend him a hand. The ‘mystery’ turns out to be a group of unfamiliar aliens who’re out to get Superman (I don’t care why. Maybe they’re holding some kind of grudge, maybe they’re bounty hunters, maybe they want to sell him off into space-gladiator slavery, whatever). These antagonistic aliens have been very careful in their preparations- they’ve done all the math, and come up with special weapons specifically designed to hit Superman hard enough to knock him out. But they didn’t plan on Batman being there with him, which throws them off just enough that Superman is able to chase them off successfully. In the midst of that fight, though, Bruce takes a hit. A hit calculated for Superman. It breaks several of his ribs and punctures a lung. Clark panics, scoops him up and flies him to the nearest hospital at record speeds. They’re able to stabilize him at Metropolis, and then they send him back to the Watchtower for further treatment. When he wakes up he’s pretty disoriented and confused, but Clark (who had been listening for a change in his breathing and heartbeat from a couple rooms away) comes rushing in, ushering him back to bed and promising to explain everything. Bruce is woozy and wonky enough from whatever drugs they gave him that he lays back down and lets Clark hold his hand protectively without argument. He listens to Clark’s explanation, mumbles something about calling Alfred, and promptly falls back asleep. Clark feels so guilty about his injury that he won’t leave his side for weeks, even following him back to Gotham once he’s well enough to leave the Watchtower.

“God, when will they finally just kiss already,” Jason says, taking cover with the rest of the family in the cave. “I know, right,” says Steph while Tim, Cass, and Duke (and Alfred) all nod in agreement. “SHUT UP,” yells Damian, having a hard time adapting to the idea of his dad and his best friend’s dad getting together

Any Superbat is good Superbat but I enjoy it best in the context of ‘they’re old enough by now to be embarrassed about how angsty and competitive they were when they first met, and they both have huge extended families, and the rest of the JL has been watching them dance around each other for YEARS, JUST KISS ALREADY DAMMIT’

Wonder Woman: I don’t usually imagine Bruce as a flustered kind of guy, but Wonder Woman is everything he wants to be when he grows up and he can’t help it. She’s so effortlessly cool, calm, and collected. And she’s a natural charmer, the public loves her. She always manages to come at things with a fresh perspective that has helped unstick his too-logical train of thought numerous times. She paid him a compliment once and he sat in the batmobile in the parking lot thinking about it for like twenty minutes. One day they get assigned to a League PR thing together that turns into an assassination attempt (surprising no one), but everything turns out ok. Minor damage to the surrounding buildings, a few people injured in the mass chaos, that’s all. She goes looking for him after returning from talking to the local cops, and finds him with a toddler girl on his hip, holding hands with her six yo sister, helping them look for their parents. And she just has to stop and marvel for a minute at how soft his voice is??? How the toddler isn’t even crying??? He bends down to hug the little girl bye after returning her to her fam and Diana almost has a heart attack. “I see that the gods have blessed you with an affinity for children of all ages,” she says. By the time he straightens back up he’s Batman again. “What do you mean by that?” “I can never get kids to warm up to me like that in situations like these...I always thought it was because I was just too big and imposing. How did you do it?” “Oh. Well. You know. *gestures vaguely* You just gotta give them what they want.” “And what is that?” “Security. A promise of safety from an adult that they can trust.” She doesn’t quite get it but she watches him, and talks to his sidekicks sometimes. It amazes her how much kindness and love are hidden under that mask of his. When he smiles from the heart he could melt glaciers. So she starts to press, just a little, just to see how he’ll respond. And once she figures out exactly how flustered he can get, too, it’s all downhill from there.

Martian Manhunter: This one is literally one of the sweetest, most pure relationship dynamics I think I’ve ever written, which really caught me by surprise! The way I think of it is like this: When they first meet, Bruce is really, really uncomfortable with the idea of having J’onn in his head, so J’onn tries to keep telecommunication with him to a minimum. So when Bruce gets his attention during like a meeting or something and subtly lets him know he needs to talk, J’onn knows it must be important. So he opens up a private channel and helps Bruce deal with whatever it is (I don’t know exactly what that would be, only that it’d be some kind of sensitive topic best kept between the two of them). And over the course of that, all those one-on-one mind convos, Bruce starts to get used to talking like that with J’onn. In return, while they’re working together, he helps J’onn get used to human physical contact. It starts with small things- handshakes, little pats on the shoulder- until J’onn is comfortable returning them. One day J’onn has a bad day and it’s Bruce that comes to find him, to comfort him. He doesn’t really say anything, just puts his arms around J’onn and holds him close. Most humans- and hell, even most Martians- wouldn’t have done that for him. What else was J’onn supposed to do but fall in love with him?

I really liked the scene in JL8 where J’onn was trying to, like, share a memory with Bruce or something, and instead he ended up unintentionally stumbling into some of Bruce’s trauma memories, which freaked both of them out pretty badly. I think that little scene would fit quite nicely into this scenario. Bonus, if it happens in the really early days of the League, it doubles as the moment when J’onn first learns Bruce’s secret identity.

Flash: It’s been a longtime headcanon of mine that Barry is very active in the Central City community, not just as Flash, but as himself, too. Namely, he spends a good deal of his free time volunteering with the local homeless shelter slash food bank. I mean, come on, just by the very nature of his powers, is it any surprise that he has a vested interest in ending hunger in his community? One day he stops Bruce in the hall in the Watchtower, and clumsily explains that he needs to ask a favor. The shelter has been looking to expand their operations for some time, but right at the last second one of their backers pulled out. They’re short 7k for the payment on the property they needed to make tomorrow, and Barry didn’t know where else to turn to get that much money that quickly. He promises to pay him back, somehow, eventually. Bruce cuts him a check right there for 10k, and tells him to consider it a gift. Later he even publicly endorses the program on social media, saying he thinks Gotham should implement something similar. Barry invites him down to see the building he paid for, so Bruce rolls up his sleeves and spends the day volunteering with him. It’s a chance for both of them to see a side of the other that they’ve never seen before. Bruce watches Barry shine like a ray of sunshine, bringing light and laughter to a room full of people at their very lowest. Barry watches Bruce inspire trust and confidence in complete strangers, like magic. Not to mention, that smile- Barry tries not to use his powers out in the open if he can avoid it, but he discreetly flashes over to stop a tray or something from falling, and of course it doesn’t escape Bruce’s notice. He grins at Barry from across the room and Barry’s heart fully stops for a second.

I like to think of Bruce as a little older than Barry. Just a little, just a few years. Just enough that Barry always feels like an inexperienced, incompetent baby in the face of The Batman

This one throws the kids for such a loop once they find out about it. “THIS is what you’re attracted to, Bruce? THIS???”

Green Lantern: what I know about Hal is that he’s sassy. And what I know about Bruce is that if anyone he doesn’t have the ability to tell to go to their room is sassy with him, he gets snippy. So he and Hal butt heads a lot. One day Hal is venting to Superman in like, an elevator or something about how Bruce just Doesn’t Get It, Clark, He Doesn’t Understand Me, and Clark says, “well, Hal, can you honestly say that you understand him, either?” And suggests that maybe he should spend some more time actually getting to know Bruce before passing judgement. Hal takes that to mean ‘maybe I should go to Gotham and spy on Batman for a day’. When he spots him doing his best to hide inconspicuously on a nearby rooftop, Bruce rolls his eyes and ignores him. Dick spots him too, though, and invites him to the cave in hopes that maybe they’ll be able to settle whatever their argument was about (Jason, Tim, and Steph break out the popcorn and get themselves front row seats for the Drama). But in the end, an up-close perspective was exactly what Hal needed to realize that there was more to Batman than had been meeting his eye. He watches Bruce juggle ten different comm feeds while giving a press conference AND directing his kids’ efforts in the field at the same time, and he earns a new respect for Bruce. He gets where he’s coming from now, and why he’s always so cautious all the time. The guy has a lot to lose. So he mans up and apologizes. Bruce accepts the apology graciously, says he realizes that they’re fundamentally different people but that he values Hal as a comrade and respects his prowess with the ring, and Hal is like, ‘ah. We Are Friends Now.’ He spends more of his time on Earth with Bruce, and along the way he trips and falls headlong into a debilitating crush on him. Like, a visibly obvious crush. Bruce finds it adorable.

Green Arrow: Bruce and Ollie get invited to the same billionaire shindig one day and neither of them can think of a good enough reason to not go. Ollie’s recovering from a bad ankle sprain, and Bruce hasn’t slept in days, so instead of socializing with anyone else there they just sit in the corner and hang out with each other. Midway through the event Bruce closes his eyes and does this forceful little sigh through his nose. Ollie knows him well enough by now to know that small outward signs indicate big amounts of internal emotions with Bruce, and this is about as frustrated as he’s ever seen him out of mask. Normally his act is impenetrable. “What,” he asks, imagination running full speed ahead thinking about what might have happened, “what’s wrong?” “Firefly just broke out of prison,” Bruce growls, reaching for a refill of whatever he’s drinking. “Wh- Wait, who?” “Pyromaniac, serial arsonist in Gotham.” “How exactly did you learn this?” (read: do you have some kind of spider sense I don’t know about?) Bruce just gestures to his microscopic earpiece. Ollie offers, probably against his better judgement, to take a trip to Gotham and help catch Firefly. Bruce, barely able to see straight at that point (bad combination of sleeplessness and alcohol), accepts. So Ollie gets the full treatment, a trip to the cave and tea from Alfred and a haranguing from the kids and a trip to Blackgate with Firefly, even. In return he offers to have Bruce over in Star City sometime. Ollie is usually a little on edge around Bruce, but then he starts to see the real him and finds out that he does, in fact have a sense of humor. They have goofy adventures together and it’s all very cute

Aquaman: Arthur is hotheaded and when he gets in a Mood, the sight of Bruce and his stupid unmovable face just makes him angrier. But once during a mission, when Arthur is busy working himself into a panic, not knowing what to do, it’s Bruce that snaps him out of it. Grabs him by the shoulders and demands that he get a hold of himself. And it’s enough of a shock that it actually works- Bruce tells Arthur the plan, and Arthur does it without argument. No one is more surprised when it works than he is. He is SHOOK. Eventually he swallows his pride enough to go up to Batman and admit, “I think I’m still too emotionally invested in this, can you help me?” Bruce agrees, of course. He does his best to explain how he always keeps his emotions in check, especially when lives are on the line. It occurs to Arthur to wonder what kind of toll that takes on a person. He decides that Bruce could probably use a little vacation of sorts, and invites him to spend a day with him in Atlantis. A day in the life of a king, if you will. Bruce rolls his eyes and agrees, just to play along, but he ends up really enjoying it. Yes, there are a dozen-odd irons in the fire waiting for him when he gets home, but this time he finds that he actually has the energy to deal with them for once. Which is a good enough excuse to go back and do it again, and spend more time with Arthur in the process.

Dami is usually super resistant to Bruce dating anyone, but he would be ok with Arthur, I think. Like, “you bagged a king? Ok, respect”

Extra notes:

I feel like a lot of my thoughts about Clayface and Martian Manhunter specifically could also apply to Killer Croc, too, in a way. I mean, he’s not EVIL. He’s just never really been treated like a person, and so he embraced his image as Killer Croc instead of continuing to face that rejection. But if anyone can look past his exterior and see the needs of the man within, Bruce could. Feels a little weird to think about but maybe there’s something there.

Polyshipping is GREAT may I interest you in some ot3s??? SuperWonderBat is one of the more obvious ones, and I love it (cause Diana gets to play with TWO flustered boys) but BatLanternFlash is also top tier. And then there’s the villains! RiddleBatCat is one of my favorites! Also TwoRiddleBat and BruHarlIvy. The possibilities are endless!

I considered adding Lex and Slade to this post, but in the end I left them off. Cause it’s hard for me to see those as anything but weird, inherently unhealthy relationships. They’d make great black ships though : o

When talking about Bruce dating someone else from the JL, there’s DOUBLE the kids to embarrass. Can you imagine you’re like, Roy Harper or something, somebody’s sidekick, and you walk in and find BATMAN in bed with your mentor???? WILD

This post really got away from me, haha. Thanks for reading! Hit me up if you ever need someone to talk about Batshipping with (especially rarepairs, I got you fam)!

181 notes · View notes

currentfandomkick · 4 years

Text

Bio! Dad Strange part 12 Waiting for Help

Marinette promised herself that this was a nightmare, that she’d wake up and there wouldnt be a kwami or earrings.

She was wrong.

Her dad compliemented the new studs at breakfast, asking if she got them in Gotham.

“Found them laying around is all.”

Maman told her they’re begining self defense lessons tonight, and to bring the other girls. She didnt point out she already knew how to fight, and made a mentsl note to tell the girls to pretend she was just good at gym, not fighting.

She checked her phone. No message from Tim yet.

“What yout doing?” Tikki—no captor—asked.

Marinette forced a smile, “just checking my messages, that’s all!”

—

Tim looked over his messages. He remembered seeing two alerts on his burner from Harley Before the Arkham Prison Break and its destruction. He couslnt remember from who though... was it a heads up about the outbreak or...

He tried to find it on his laptop, cloning the phone to it ages ago. The data from it was... corrupt?

He didnt like the look of this. It was from Pixie. Teo messages, oen short and one cery, very long.

He managed to get one phrase at the end. His french had to be wrong but it said “they won’t find you”

He tried to call Pixie then. The number was disconnected. He swore.

He’d need to find the RKC somehow and findout where Pixie’s family lived. It sounded like somethinf was wrong, and he didnt know if he could get the old number back.

—

Marinette was dragged into the girl’s room on entering school.

“Marinette, I want you to help me out with Adrien—you’re the type his dad should like.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at Chloe. She loves her but really?

“Becuase I’m smart?”

“Ew, no, well...” Chloe shook her head. “You design, and you’re good at it. He might listen to you on giving him more free time if it was to snag you as a designer.”

“His dad?” Gabriel Agreste, owner of the brand Gabriel. Hasn’t designed since his wife’s disappearance, and has a hermit problem.

“He owns a fashion brand, and they like new talent.”

Easy to exploit, unaware of industry standards, and less aware of the laws protecting them... that didnt sound good.

“And i’m the key becuase...”

“He’s seen your work before, remember last year at the show?”

He was? She didnt remember it, too busy back stage and throwing classmates into outfits while Chloe did touchups on makeup and threw people on the catwalk.

“Come on, Adrien has bars on his window, please? For me?”

That... paranoid millionaire designer or abusive father, definitely toxic tendencies though. Maybe working on this family would be a good distraction?

“I’ll try, but no guarantees. And you know i’ll use a different name, right?”

“We’re minors Mari, I’d be worried if you didn’t. Now, let’s go say hi to my prince!”

Marinette questioned her sanity once more. But magic butterflies and kwami are a thing.

She just wants to toy with Markov’s emotional intelligence and translator programming. But she needs a cover for that...

—

Flash frowned at the images from the satellite imaging. Either something was off in Paris, one picture showed damage but the one before and after showed no issues, or there was a glitch. Occam’s razor.

“Hey Red, can you check our imaging tech? We had a glitch over Paris!”

He needed to work on his proposal for the JL on intervening with the meta situation in France. No one liked it. Someone pointed out there was polarization of us vs them in France, metas fleeing left and right. From french media reports, it sounded like they were running a campaign to remove metas from France unless they were ‘under the state’s control’ and that. No one liked that.

He hopes he can get Jill out before things get bad. He know’s she can hide,’but how long can she hold out? He doesn't want an answer to that.

He’s going to get her and the others out before it gets that bad.

—

Marinette wanted to throw Kim across the school when she remembered that Kim set off the Big Guy yesterday. She would be a normal meta in hiding if he hadn’t.

Sabrina made a slideshow last night for her to lecture him. Alix is down to tear Kim a new one, and Marinette has no sympathy for him.

The class is quiet when Big Guy comes in.

Marinette gets up, smiling at seeing him and Mylene together now.

“Hey guys, so, how’d it go?”

Big guy and Mylene blushed a bit. Interesting but not definite proof of her suspicions...

“So are you to going to sit together or...”

Mylene nodded, tugging Ivan behind her. Marinette smiled back at her classmates, who were... staring?

“Guys, things happen. Now get back to what you were talking about or get ready for class, okay?”

“Says the Gothamite,” Kim smirked.

“Only during the summer, you know the custody deal as well as I do.”

“Don’t remind me, I have to be deprived of my favorite princess every summer,” Chloe pouted, almost launching herself over Marinette and Sabrina’s desk to throw her arms around Marinette. Almost.

“I like seeing my family?” Marinette didn’t get why everyone made a big deal of it--if she was honest, objectively she did prefer Gotham. More science, metas are out and not hunted, and she has a family happy to help her with whatever that listened to her morals and played by her rules... albeit weirdly and a bit murderous at times.

But then she wouldn’t have her friends and she wasn’t going to give them up anytime soon. Especially since Max would build a tesla coil if she didn’t stop him. and a death ray too, to prove he could.

Sabrina rolled her eyes as Kim flung himself over his desk and pulled Marinette into a hug. “My sister, Gotham can fight me.”

“You would lose,” Max state, cleaning his glasses. (for dramatic affect, obviously Marinette, she heard him snark in her mind) “You can’t even cross the street without almost getting run over.”

Kim blushed as the class laughed. “Shut up--I don’t need to cross streets, just fight.”

“Marinette, has he even gotten close to beating you yet?”

“Nope.”

“A ten year old kicks your butt regularly Kim.”

“She beats everyone that challenges her. It is the law. of Marinette in a fight.”

Adrien stared at her then, “Really?”

Max piped up then, “Out of the 230 matches they’ve had, Kim lost each. As have her challengers in each match.”

“That’s awesome! Do you think you could teach me?”

“As long as we’re not at my house, I don’t see why not.” Good, keep him distracted. “Oh that reminds me, Sabrina, Chloe, Alix, Maman demands you come over to practice too. Remember the rule--”

“You’re not that good in science,” Alix began

“You kind of know how to fight, but not really.” Chloe continued

“And you have never, ever done anything remotely reckless,” Sabrina snickered.

that got a number of laughs out of her group. “Oh shut up, shouldn’t you be grilling Adrien on what color and other thing he’s using from now on?”

That caused the group to light up.

“I almost forgot we haven’t introduced Adrikins to that part our little group!”

“Little?” She heard the cure red head whisper. Yes, she memorized his voice already.... its not weird at all...

“Okay, so I’m yellow and stripes, as you can see,” Chloe gestured to her outfit. “Kim and Alix understand the wonder of my choice, as Kim is red and yellow, while Alix is black and stripes, hers are always her gloves or uses her snake sleeves to pass.”

“I’m purple and argyle, the best pattern,” Sabrina beamed.

“Green and collared shirts, the only way to go,” Max stated.

“Uh, pink or red is me, and a floral pattern is always on me,” Marinette gestured to the flower pattern on her shirt and showed off her coin purse.

“Blue and my hat,” Nino tipped his hat at Adrien as he walked over. “Nino.”

“Adrien, and wow, i don’t know... is my jacket okay?”

“White jacket, when off he’s mad at us then. Pro tip, wearing someone else’s colors or patterns means they’re your favorite,” Nino explained, turning to Marinette. “So Alix is your new favorite with the new studs?”

Marinette moved to hide her earrings.

“Marinette, how could you not tell me your rankings changed!” Sabrina mock-pouted.

“Sweet! I get dibs on Mari’s bed tonight!”

“Alix!”

“I, just, someone told me they’d bring good luck and with what happened over the summer...” and yesterday. “I figured it’d be okay to be a little superstitious--it can’t hurt in this case, right?”

Max shook his head, ready to lecture his la partner until Sabrina and Kim glared. He shut his mouth with a small frown.

“Of course not,” Adrein beamed. “Guessing it was pretty rough?”

“It was... more Gotham chaos than usual, that’s all.” New brother that was dead and is now alive and teenage again, Hero Stalker almost dying and somehow having one of her personal heroes deem her a good soundboard for solving cases that stump him? She didn’t know what to make of it, not really. (yet, Uncle Oswald’s voice rang in her head. You will when the dust settles, until then, keep your cards from view, or end up someone’s lunch.)

“That sucks.” Well, he didn’t try to hug her... yet. She could feel him debating it.

Class began then.

Marinette glanced back at Cute Red Head. She really needed to learn his name soon....

They had gym before lunch. During it, Marinette was told to show the class what can happen if someone is flexible and does the exercises right in a fight..

Kim came after her on the mats. She turned him into her vault, sent hi to ground as she jumped off him, and flipped out her landing for fun.

“I said for normal people Miss Cheng.”

Marinette grinned at their gym teacher. “Very well. Given that we seem to have magic infecting our city, its important for you all to learn how to defend and flee to safe places. Now, today we’ll be going over evacuation procedures...”

During lunch Alya and Lila were dominating a few other classes’ groups, talking about something called the “Ladyblog” and how amazing Ladybug was....

It didn’t sit right with Marinette. Chat was a big help, when he wasn’t getting ahead of himself. She was trained, he wasn’t. Could they be a little nicer to her apparent partner? She get’s she’s good, but she and Chat can be good together, can’t they?

Chloe was about to drag her to her table with Adrien, Nino (when did that happen?) and Sabrina, but she knew Max would follow her. which meant Kim would too--and she wasn’t lecturing Kim in front of Adrien and Chloe about him being jealous of them. that was a recipe for disaster--and she needed to do some recon on Big Guy and what triggered the transformation.

the police actually remembered to encrypt their files on the case, so she had to go the other way.

“I’ll catch up with you guys during class, I think those two,” Marinette pointed to Big Guy and Mylene, currently sitting alone and being avoided, “might need a buffer from the rest of school, Example setting and stuff, right Chloe?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I am reserving you in advance for tomorrow.”

She had one day to get Kim’s jealousy under control, great.

“Sure thing! See you later!” Marinette ran off with her lunch and took a seat across from Mylene and Ivan. “Hi, Marinette.”

Big Guy was Ivan apparently. Somehow Marinette managed to ask about how they got together, the poem he wrote yesterday did it. She squealed at that--it was cute, okay?

Kim came over after Marinette. Ivan tensed when he did.

“Hey Marinette--why are you--”

“Why not?”

Kim was silent at that, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh....”

“Sorry about Kim, he’s dense and i may be regular clumsy, but he’s emotionally clumsy.”

Ivan snorted at that. “Like when you almost dropped three trays of macaroons at the talent show last year?”

Marinette pouted at that. “I caught them all!”

Mylene giggled at that. “I think you’d do well in a circus act with reflexes like that.”

Marinette beamed at that. “Thanks! My Uncle Jerry grew up in one so he sometimes teaches me old tricks. Still haven’t mastered taming a certain monkey...” Marinette raised an eyebrow at Kim.

“I---fine. Ivan, I’m sorry about yesterday, i shouldn’t have made fun of the poem.”

“And?”

“...and your feelings.”

“And.”

“And I should talk my feelings out instead of taking them out on others.”

“and?”

“I,..” Kim frowned, thinking for a moment. “I’m glad you managed to confess, and will work on not acting out when I jealous of someone doing what i want to but won’t.”

“Good Kim.” He still wasn’t getting a macaroon. “Sorry about yesterday.”

Ivan stared at her and Kim. “So, dating or...”

“Ew.”

“Never.”

the pointed at each other. “That’s my brother/sister if my parents have it their way.”

Mylene brightened at that. “Really?”

Marinette nodded, “Kim decided he has all big brother rights too, apparently i’m a human arm rest.”

“You steal my hoodies.”

“It was cold, and unguarded. free game Kimmie.”

Kim shook his head. “this is not over Mari.”

“Is it ever?”

Mylene waved at someone... Alix and Max then--too long for one person.

“Hello.”

“yo, sitting here today?”

Marinette hummed as the pair took their seats. Over the course of the conversation, she found out a few things. 1) Ivan did not remember being Stoneheart. 2) the last thing he remembers is being told to knock by Damocles which only made him angrier at the time 3) a voice talking to him.

while inconclusive, her best guess would be some form of possession with rage as a catalyst for said possession to occur. Possibly just negative emotions, but she didn’t have enough data to support that theory.

Classes began again, this time with Adrien sitting by Nino, Sabrina moved back to Chloe’s side, and Marinette given more room than she needed.

Class was boring. She took the girls home with her while Max followed Kim to his house. Nino said something about babysitting and Adrien looked... sad. Some Huge Guy he called Gorilla picked him up without talking.

Maybe Huge Guy Gorilla is mute, otherwise very rude.

Maman had her handle the front while the girls were taught in the back what to do. and probably mined for information on what happened yesterday.

Marinette checked the Ladyblog and felt sick. She was being called a hero. Her family was not one of heroes---they were vigilantes at best and she knew it. She was a vigilante at best. don’t call me a hero--heroes always disappoint.

Marinette handled the front until closing time. she made dinner with the girls and Maman while Papa finished prep for tomorrow’s pastries.

dinner was normal. The girls kept their own anxieties about what was happening mostly quiet, but Marinette could feel it.

Alix stayed the night, Chloe had ballet and Sabrina needed to feed her hamster since Raincomrpix would be home late.

Marinette checked her messages again. nothing from Tim. She tried texting him while Tikki and Alix were asleep. she wasn’t even on read.

Marinette kept the tears in. He was still mad at her then.... did she doom Paris by lecturing Batman?

no, she just had to wait. Gotham wasn’t always calm. she just needed to wait for it to be calm and he’d see it. The Justice League would come. If not from Tim, then she’d work something out into her messages to Flash. a code.. just one letter in each letter needed to be different enough to notice. it would take time, but she knew he’d notice.

he had to.

she just had to wait. Had to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng in the meantime.

Paris and her just had to be patient.

They would’t abandon her Paris, right?

Bruce looked over the mostly cold case, Princess Jill, and sighed. They never found the girl that summer, and Superman wasn’t taking it well.

He looked over at Flash, who was trying to make a proposal the others could support. His french meta, Jill Smith, she was in Paris and they made progress on that front. No idea what her french name was, or her parents, but they knew she was in deep with the Gotham Rogues for Harley Quinn and Joker to claim any familial connection.

Both of these girls went by Jill. Possible body doubling given they both are summer only. There was a slim chance they were the same person, very slim, but that would mean that the Rouges were letting their princess go into fights, and he doubted they would. She’d be kept under lock and key while Mr. J was active, and clearly Pixie was not--possibly rebellious. They could use that to convert her.

Apparently Pixie Jill Smith was connected to a new threat to Gotham, Red Hood, often working in the same areas as Victor Zsasz. He wasn’t sure how the trio were connected, but he didn’t like it.

Flash was insistent that Jill was just scared and well... Batman would admit that much was obvious. He hoped Flash managed something usable in his proposal. The less batman needed to tweak for him, the better.

That’s all this time. Warning, there is an angst train and it will hurt for a while. it takes Years for things to end up where we want it, so this is a longfic in the works.

and reminder, Marinette had multiple romantic crushes and relationships in this. I only ask you tolerate the various ships.

Also the lovesquare from cannon may not be included, or if it is, it will be very different as so far, Marinette has a very different crush.

link to the full story for easy finding from ao3 --> https://archiveofourown.org/works/22342267/chapters/53372962

@mosseaters @dast218 @daminett4life @chaosace @emeraldpuffguide @ilovefluffbutsmutisalsogreat @mystery-5-5 @weird-pale-blonde-person

#maribat #maribat au #bio!dad #bio! dad au #bio!dad au #bio!dad strange #marinette strange dupain cheng #marinette strange dupain cheng part 12 #my au #ml au #my idea #sorry for the angst #ml fic #mlb x dc

84 notes · View notes

toughguywithbossygirlfriend · 4 years

Text

Justice League Dark #12 : Diana, Bruce and the Dragon

With my previous post about “DCeased #6″ I showed how Diana cared deeply for Bruce now a little bit of the reverse ... plus a little more of their similarities.

(Edit from DC Comics Rebirth Justice League Dark #12)

Underneath the Hall of Justice ... If we take a better look at the Great Skeleton in the Background ... especially his weird head structure...

(Edit from DC Comics Rebirth Justice League Dark #12 and “JLA:A League of One”)

It reminded me of the Dragon Diana killed a long time ago : Drakul Karfang

(DC Comics JLA: A League of One from 2000 )

and if you add the Weapon stands and its subterranean location ... this is Diana’s version of the “Batcave Trophy room”. We’ll take a peak at the “JLA : League of one” later, for now back to “Justice League Dark” :

This part is actually a side story in the Issue #12 showing us the past... the moment the creation of the “Justice League Dark” was decided :

Diana wants to have a Talk with the other Great Seven of the JL to get their approval for the creation of a New JL Team. Through the different Pics it is made Obvious that Bruce stays in the distance of Diana and the others... He doesn’t say a word ... something’s Up ... something more important then a meeting to create a Justice League to protect innocents from Magical threats ?!? ...

(Edit from DC Comics Rebirth Justice League Dark #12)

Diana : “..a covert team that works in the dark...”. Covert team ... Fighting in the Dark ... That’s already so much “Batman !” ..

Of course Diana doesn’t have any problem convincing them ... they are SO easy ! ... except one ... someone who stayed silently behind. The Amazon princess surely noted this since the beginning of the meeting but didn’t make a comment. Instead she waits for the both of them to be alone afar from prying ears... This seems so natural that you get the feeling this isn’t the first time they do it. They don’t need words, they just know. These two definitively share a connection apart from the rest of their friends.

(Edit from DC Comics Justice League Dark #12 and DC Holiday Special from 2017)

As soon as they started their little talk, I couldn’t help but recall their chat about their relationship with Darkness in the DC Holiday Special 2017 “Solstice” story and how they both needed to guard against being consumed by it (An amazing little story for the two from Greg Rucka). Again we are reminded how close, how similar, once you get deeper into their souls, once you cut off their visible differences Night and Day, Female and Male, Science and Magic, Godlike power and Genius Intelligence... Differences that, in the end, are nothing else then complements.

(Edit from DC Comics Justice League Dark #12)

Diana understands Bruce is more concerned then she expected, ... even afraid ! Batman afraid ? what the hell can frighten the Dark Knight ? ... At first, it looks like his fear is about instigating a “Crisis-Level events” of Magic ... but then ...

(Edit from DC Comics Justice League Dark #12)

Bruce : "...Why spearhead this yourself ? There are dozen heroes...” Damned ! that’s a very interesting statement.

If Batman’s fear was only about instigating a crisis level event why would he want a random other Hero to lead this Dark Justice League ? ... Choosing another Hero to lead that team wouldn’t prevent these kinds of events to happen and ... Leaving the fate of everything in the hands of a Rookie instead of Wonder Woman ?! No chance Batman would prefer that ! ...

Plus , lets face it, there is NO way Batman would have kept his mouth shut during a JL meeting if he was against the “JL Dark” or “afraid” it could lead to a crisis level event fo Magic. On the contrary he would have said it and made sure every one around the meeting’s table wets his pants, especially Clark who is easily affected by magic. This alone proves he already approved this new team ahead of the meeting.

This is about Diana leading the team.

But what does he really fear with her as the leader ?

Some have suggested he doesn’t trust her ... no, that’s definitively not it. He trust her to lead the main JL team on the Battle field (recent exp: Dark Nights Metal #1). He trusts her to protect Gotham (recent exp:Trinity #14). He trust her even if she loses her powers (recent exp: Batman #39 - #40), or is blinded(recent exp: Trinity #17). He proved that countless of times. Hell !, they passed 37 years in Gehenna with only each other to lean on. This isn’t about trust !

(Edit from DC Comics Justice League Dark(2018) #12)

Issue 12 is the 5th part of the “the Lords of Orders” story line and the Justice League Dark team has to embrace Dark Magic and Chaos to stop the Lords of Order (currently gone mad). To do that Diana and her team must become the “Lords of Chaos” for some time...Enough Darkness to taint, or destroy, the souls of most other Heroes... Actually the whole “JLD” series circles around : Diana, Magic and Darkness ...

Now I think it is time to remember the beginning of their exchange in the Hall of Justice :

Bruce : “Darkness can change a person” ... that’s what they really talk about.

More than everything, Bruce is afraid the Darkness this team will endure may change Diana. Very few times in his life he was so very very selfish : He said it himself, he doesn’t understand Magic, so he can’t lead that team but he would rather risk any other competent Hero being tainted and consumed in Darkness than Diana... that’s an unusual statement for him ... sacrificing someone else just to keep her safe ?... This gives us a good Idea what she really means to him.

I guess that same reason is why she won’t ask him to join the team even though they both traveled side by side thru numerous worlds of Magic (Tir Na Nog, Gehenna, Skartaris, ... to name only a few during Rebirth) and his IQ would be a great asset even against Magic (see : Trinity #14). But She’d rather have another Brain exposed to Darkness with her then him.

And if You have still doubts that Diana and Bruce are the two opposite sides of the same coin, the same soul split in two bodies ... here’s “striking fear in the heart of her enemies” ... the Dark Princess ... XD

(Edit from DC Comics Justice League Dark #12)

Now, ... a little sneak peek into “JLA: A League of One” (2000) (the Book where I think the Dragon’s skeleton is from) about Diana’s contingency plans.

Just enough to reveal that it was the first time Diana used ...some kind of contingency plans to bring down or neutralize every one in the Justice League except Superman whom she could only “distract” for a short time. That would explains why she had a plan to kill Superman rather than neutralize him as revealed in DCeased #6... Anyway, her plans worked perfectly including the one for Clark/Kal. Only one plan failed back then...

We are in 2000 !! ... the same year we learn about Batman’s contingencies in the JLA’s “Tower of Babel”.

(Edit from DC Comics JLA : League of One in 2000)

So about the contingency plans ... I was wrong,... Bruce didn’t rub off on her as I first thought ... she already had it in her !! ... She really is in the other side of the coin with Bruce on it.

Now I’m starting to think she was just mad at Bruce when she voted him out in JLA(1997) #46 because his plans to neutralize her worked perfectly, while hers for him didn’t ... mean girl !... XD

Since the beginning of the “League of One” story he could read Diana like an open book, and looked thru her Lies when everyone else in the JL just accepted them. The others are really so easy... At least the fight between the stubborn Diana and Bruce is way more real and entertaining than the ones in “The Hiketeia”. Still Bruce doesn’t use a contingency against her. He knows why she does all this : to protect her friends from the JL. So he only wants to stall her long enough to convince her that she is wrong. But if you’re facing Diana in a fight that’s far from enough and the Win goes to the Warrior Princess.

(Edit from DC Comics JLA : League of One in 2000)

Another thing that Diana learns in that story is that even without Powers he is way harder to defeat then she expected ... and last but not least ...she destroyed the Dragon but is still alive after that ...dammit, that annoying man is always right even about prophecies ! ...

Early stories like this one show why Diana interests matured and moved slowly from the shining Man of Tomorrow to the secretive Dark Knight. Explaining what was resumed in Trinity (2008) #6 about her romantic preference between the two.

#wonder woman #diana prince #batman #bruce wayne #wonderbat

73 notes · View notes

bluboothalassophile · 5 years

Note

could you please write a fanfic about serious jealous dick please.

Curse of Agent 37

Dick stood there in a café, watching in envy, as his brother, roommateand kids all played at the park. It was the agreement, the only agreement hehad been offered by Jason.

Dick understood it on some level, he had basically fuckedover everyone in the family, especially his kids. And it was only by the aid ofnew Philadelphia resident, Raquel Ervin, that he had even this privilege of asupervised visit with his kids. Jason wasn’t playing around or giving him anyleeway, and Dick didn’t know how to feel about that.

All he did know was that he felt this intense, boiling,overwhelming jealousy at Jason while his youngest laughed and giggled while trustingJason to help him across the monkey bars, and Mar'i was perched on Jay’sshoulders filling Raquel in on everything she’d been doing. Mar'i, who was noweight if you could believe it, was very wary of him, and that hurt, while his three year old just didn’t know who he was, Dick tried not to be hurt because of itbut he couldn’t help it. He had done that to his kids, and he didn’t know if hecould ever be able to regain Jason’s trust, or Mar'i’s fully, and he envied hisbrother as he watched them. Dick finally made it to the counter, ordering threehot chocolates and three coffees.

His order was called and he collected it, carefully walkingover to the park.

“Alright I got refreshments,” he grinned at Mar'i and Jake whowere now hiding behind Jason’s legs. Jake because he was shy, and Mar'i gavehim a venomous glare. Dick crouched to offer the hot chocolate to Mar'i, Jakeaccepted his but hid behind Jason after taking it. Mar'i glared at him as sheclutched Jason’s leg tighter.

“It’s okay Mar'i,” Dick said softly.

“Here,” Jason gently took it from him, crouching to Mar'i’slevel as Jake hugged Jay’s hip now. Mar'i took it from Jason with a small smileof delight. “What do you say to your dad Mar'i?” Jason prompted.

Mar'i scowled and ran off, Jake trotted after her as didAmistad. Dick frowned a bit.

“It’ll take time,” Raquel said patting his shoulder. Mar'i hadhidden herself in the jungle gym her green eyes almost solid green like hermother’s bore into him, almost breaking the image inducer she wore.

“How much time?” he grumbled as he stood.

“You royally fucked up Dickhead, you will take this at herpace,” Jason warned.

“You don’t think I don’t know I fucked up!?” he snapped at Jason.Jason’s face was utterly passive which had Dick aching to punch it. “I knowwhat I did! I know I will never be able to excuse it or truly fix it! But havesome compassion! My own son calls you da, and Mar'i won’t ever stop glaringat me! Meanwhile they adore and worship you! You Jason! Of all the people tolove and worship they adore you, they look to you for safety, stability,protection, love and affection! When it should be me! I’m their father!

“I know I did wrong, and I know it will take time, butgoddamn it I want them back! They’re the only thing I have left of her!” Dickhissed as he stalked over to a different part of the park. He envied Jason. Hehad always envied Jason.

Jason, despite being his polar opposite was the most skilledin combat, he was a brilliant tactician, he was respected; by the JL, Titans,LoA, and other organizations; both criminal and vigilante, he effortlesslygained the trust of one of Dick’s closest friends, and Dick’s wife had adoredJason before her death. Jason had replaced him as Robin, or that’s how he feltoriginally about the matter, but now Dick knew how it felt to be trulyreplaced. Jason had stepped up after Dick had fucked it all up.

Jason, who was barely recovered from torture from Joker, whohad lost his best friend earlier, who had been beaten, stabbed, blown up, hadstepped up. Despite his grief for Raven, despite his pain from Joker, anddespite everything that had happened, Jason had stepped up.

Dick hadn’t been able to.

And in the end, it was Jason who had saved his sorry ass, atnearly the cost of his own life. Jason; king of fucking up, was actually fixingDick’s messes and Dick hated Jason for that. He hated his brother for being theonly one to stand here while the rest of his family was fed up with him.

“You know yelling at him about your envy will not scorepoints with your daughter, right?” a sharp voice asked as she approached.

“Doesn’t matter,” he muttered.

“Well it does to Mar'i,” Raquel stated as she stood besidehim.

“Mar'i worships Jason,” he pointed out.

“No, she trusts Jason, Jason is there, he was there when shewas in pain, he’s been there to scare away the nightmares, and kiss theboo-boos, and make the world better. But Jason isn’t her dad,” Raquel saidfirmly. Dick looked over at her then with a tired sigh. “Jason Todd is heruncle, he is her protector, he may very well be her best friend, but he is nother ‘Daddy’, and even Jake calls him Jay. You have to earn their trust back,but not their love or affections Dick.”

“Mar'i just glares at me all the time,” he muttered.

“She’s assessing you. You ran out on them to be Agent 37,Jason didn’t, and she will rely on Jason until you prove you can be there,”Raquel stated.

“Why are you so invested in this?” he asked.

“Cause I’ve been where you are, different scenario, and nohelp from Augustus and I’d be watching Amistad being raised by strangers fromafar,” she said. “Also, I’m the only friend you have other than Jason at thismoment,” she warned.

“I have Wally.”

“Who has his own family and city to protect, and while youtwo are best friends, he’s also mad at you for your stunt as Agent 37.”

“I just wish this was easier,” he whispered.

“If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth everything,” shewarned.

He said nothing as he looked into his coffee then. She wasright, he hated her for that, even as he watched Jason chat up Mar'i, Amistad,and Jake in an animated conversation.

#bluboothalassophile #fanfic #one shot #hopes for a bastard universe #hopes for a bastard spoilers #jason todd #raquel ervin #dick grayson #richard grayson #mar'i grayson #jake grayson #amistad ervin #hopes for a bastard

15 notes · View notes

dazzledbybooks · 4 years

Quote

Fifteen-year-old JL Markham’s life used to be filled with carnival nights and hot summer days spent giggling with her forever best friend Aubrey about their families and boys. Together, they were unstoppable. But they aren’t the friends they once were. With JL’s father gone on long term business, and her mother struggling with her mental illness, JL takes solace in the tropical butterflies she raises, and in her new, older boyfriend, Max Gordon. Max may be rough on the outside, but he has the soul of a poet (something Aubrey will never understand). Only, Max is about to graduate, and he's going to hit the road - with or without JL. JL can't bear being left behind again. But what if devoting herself to Max not only means betraying her parents, but permanently losing the love of her best friend? What becomes of loyalty, when no one is loyal to you? Gae Polisner’s Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me is a story about the fragility of female friendship, of falling in love and wondering if you are ready for more, and of the glimmers of hope we find by taking stock in ourselves. Early Praise: "Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me is an absolutely real, raw and emotional read, and it's a book that touched my heart with every page." - Katie McGarry, critically acclaimed author of Only a Breath Apart"Gae Polisner has done it again. I absolutely loved this beautiful, heart-wrenching story about friendship, family, and first love, and what happens when they all fall apart. Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me is a truly special book." - Lauren Spieller, author of Your Destination Is on the Left Buy link: https://wednesdaybooks.com/the-real-deal/jack-kerouac-is-dead-to-me/ Review: Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me by Gae Polisner is definitely an emotional tale. This novel is pretty raw. IT is telling about the struggles of JL's (Jean-Louise) life. JL's mom suffers from dissociation disorder so she is in a depressed fog constantly. There are days that she barely gets out of her bed. JL's dad is on a business trip. JL's best friend Aubrey has shunned her. JL has a boyfriend named Max that is a bit rough around the edges but he is really smart. Max wants to go to California after he graduates and he has invited JL to go with him. JL doesn't want to leave her mother alone. As the reader you see JL struggle with what is going on in her life. She doesn't know what to do. She is having to be the caretaker of the family when it should be one of her parents. JL feels pressure from Max especially with their age difference because he is ready to have sex and she isn't. Then she is also being put into situations that she is uncomfortable with. I just feel like this book had some really odd mature content in it. The fact that it eludes to the fact that Max sleeps with JL's mother. Like Why? Did that really need to be in a young adult book? Was that added for shock factor? I found that this wasn't my favorite story to read. It had some moments that I just didn't understand. Excerpt: LATE JUNE BEFORE EIGHTH GRADE The day is hot. We’re running through the sprinkler in my backyard, dodging in and out of the cold spray that fans over us, shrieking as droplets rain down onto our sun-warmed, tanned skin. You push me closer as the arc of water returns, and I fall onto the grass, wet, laughing, taking you down with me. The sod under us is new and soft, and the freshly cut blades stick to our limbs, our faces. We are giddy with summer, with each other. We are still on the cusp of everything. Afterwards, you turn off the hose, and we lie on faded chaise lounges we drag to the middle of my yard, our chests heaving with rapid, satisfied breaths in our barely-filled- out bikini tops. You reach out and take my hand and an indescribable sort of electricity shoots through me, real and palpable, as if I could reach out the fingers of my other hand and touch it, some white-hot charge that holds us together. We are friends—best friends—but more than that. We are entirely, platonically, in love. “See that cloud, JL?” You let go and point off beyond the top of the tallest sycamore branches. “It looks like a giant mushroom, doesn’t it?” My eyes follow your finger, my hand cold from the loss. “Do you see it there?” I bust out laughing. “What’s so funny?” you ask, your voice defensive. I lean all the way over, tilt your face a bit with my hand to change the angle. “It looks a lot like something else, Aubs. Look again.” You sit up and squint to see clearer. After a second, you say, “Oh my god, it’s a giant penis cloud, isn’t it?” and we both fall apart laughing. When our stomachs hurt so bad we have to fight from laughing more, you lie back down and ask softly, “Have you ever seen one for real, JL?” “A penis? No.” I think for a minute. “I mean, pictures, yes, but not in real life, in person. Why? You?” You nod and look at me, eyes big, mouth covered by your own hand like you’ve revealed some dangerous se- cret, making me sit up and demand, “Okay, spill! Whose?” You shake your head hard, your eyes round over your still- cupped fingers. I run off a few names, guessing. “David Brundage?” “Scott Silvestri?” “Matthew Flynn?” You uncover your mouth. “God, no! I hear it’s giant, though. Like a grown man’s . . .” “Well, tell, then.” “No one from school,” you say, covering your mouth again and adding through half-open fingers, “closer to home, JL. Come on.” “Ew, Ethan’s?” I squeal too loudly, and you nod, and we both shriek and shudder in exaggerated, disgusted delight. “Oh my god!” I say. “Why?” “By accident, obviously. I wasn’t trying! I walked in on him in the bathroom. He forgot to lock the door, and—” “Ew! So gross! Don’t tell me!” I cry, but I have a thou- sand questions. Ones I will never dare ask. “Right? Totally. That thing is, like, burned into my brain!” We shudder one more time for good measure. After, we’re quiet for a while, and the clouds shift and the mushroom one feathers out and disappears. I take your hand this time, feeling the electric bond re- turn as I swing our clasped fingers together in the space between our chairs. “I love you,” I say. “Me too,” you respond too quickly. I roll my head to the side and smile, and you add, “Your boobs are getting big- ger than mine. No fair.” “They are?” I glance down my chest toward my two pa- thetic, barely-there mounds beneath the bikini fabric. You nod. “Yes. And you’re so pretty—too pretty—you’re really perfect, you know? I’ve never had a friend as perfect as you.” It should be a compliment but, instead, the electricity fizzles as if short-circuited, and my chest fills with an in- explicable sense of dread. Your admiration feels somehow fragile and conditional, and impossible to live up to. “No I’m not, don’t be stupid,” I say, irritated. I want to untangle my fingers, get up, and sprint across the lawn, but you squeeze harder to hold on. “Yes you are. Admit it.” “Aubs—” “Well, I think you are. I wish I were more like you. Pretty and free, and not afraid of anything, like your mother.” It feels worse when you add this, because you don’t know me if you think I’m like her. I’m nothing like her, off-kilter and unfettered, nor half as beautiful. I’m plain, but I’m solid. And, yet, it isn’t about me, suddenly. It’s what you have decided. You have judged me as one thing, and at some point, I will disappoint you by proving you wrong. “I am not,” I say again, to right things. “Are too,” you insist, making my face redden in protest. But you don’t notice. You don’t see. And even if you turned and looked at me, you couldn’t tell the flush of anger in my cheeks from too much sun. “I just wish I could be more like you. Geesh, that’s all.” “You do?” You nod, and squeeze my fingers even harder, and we both close our eyes. I leave them there in yours even though a few are starting to go numb. “So much,” you say. “Really?” “Yes. Really.” So, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’re not judging me at all. I squeeze back, letting go of my unease, wanting to hold on to whatever spell has you enamored with me, instead. Or maybe I’m weak and don’t have the heart to call out the lie, and tell you how afraid of everything I really am. About the Author: GAE POLISNER is the award-winning author of In Sight of Stars, The Memory of Things, The Summer of Letting Go, The Pull of Gravity, and Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me. She lives on Long Island with her husband, two sons, and a suspiciously-fictional looking dog. When Gae isn't writing, you can find her in a pool or the open waters off Long Island. She's still hoping that one day her wetsuit will turn her into a superhero.

http://www.dazzledbybooks.com/2020/04/jack-kerouac-is-dead-to-me-blog-tour.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

1 note · View note

saltpepperbeard · 5 years

Note

Okay I’m officially back on my Joshifer bullshit thanks to you lmao. What are your thoughts on all the drama surrounding JH and CT? Do you think she’s the reason Joshifer never came out and admitted they were dating? Or was it because of JL and NH? I figure it’s been long enough that you can talk about it freely without starting the Discourse™️. Feel free to ignore this though if you think otherwise, I don’t want you to get any hate lol.

I feel like my blog should come with a disclaimer honestly. Like, CAUTION: CHANCE TO GET BACK ON YOUR JOSHIFER BULLSHIT UPON VISITING lol. But oooh goodness we’re spilling tea of THAT caliber, huh anon? I don’t mind talking about it at all these days though. Because yeah, I believe we’re definitely out of the shipping war/Discourse™️ days, and I’ve also reached the level of Fandom Veteran where I just…No longer Give A Care lmao. TOO TIRED TO CARE.

But BECAUSE I have a tendency to get ramble-y, let’s go beneath the cut~

Okay so first off, I’ll start out with my honest thoughts on Joshifer, and what I think they had and/or what happened between them. The thing I lean towards the most is that they messed around at Hawaii. I think it’s the most likely thing, given that they were both young, pretty newly single, and alone on that island together. And looking at all the BTS footage, plus every promo that followed? Come on now. And maybe it wasn’t sex necessarily. But at LEAST making out/heavy petting or SOMETHING, my dude. I WANT TO BELIEVE lol.

So, what I LIKE to think happened is that Jen and Josh messed around/had sex/attempted to get into a relationship during the filming of Catching Fire filming somewhere. But in the midst of that, Jen got a little too scared with the whole idea, and ended up breaking things off to eventually go back to Nick. Which, in turn, hurt Josh enough to attempt to mend his wounds by starting a new relationship with Claudia that following summer.

And then that’s where things get…ROCKY lol. Because back in the day, I definitely used to think that Joshifer’s story didn’t end there. I thought that, somewhere down the line, they had to start messing around again or dating in secret, because there were some pretty eyebrow-raising events that took place.

The two ones that instantly jump to my mind are of course, Cannes and the MJ1 Promo. And hell, even MJ2 promo honestly. Cannes because of Jen giving Josh a LAPDANCE and the two of them leaving the party BY THEMSELVES, TOGETHER, “INTO THE NIGHT.” Mockingjay Part One because of them both contracting strep throat, but no one else in the cast/crew seemed to get it. And Mockingjay Part Two because of all those random kisses/bouts of physical affection.

Bruh, I was just CONVINCED that they were going to come out as a couple following the wrap of Mockingjay Part 2. I really really was. But then…they never did. They both seemed to go quite separate ways for that matter. So that’s left my mind to kind of shift a bit and to start questioning things.

Because, almost all throughout the Mockingjay Promos, both Josh and Jen were linked to relationships. Jen with Nick for a bit, and then Chris Martin for a bit, and Josh with Claudia (See I’m to the point where I don’t mind dropping names lol FIGHT ME). So like…BACK IN THE DAY X2 lol, I thought that they were just “cover up” relationships. Or PR relationships, if you will. I kind of hopped aboard that bandwagon because of how CONVINCING Joshifer seemed.

That, and Josh’s relationship with Claudia and Jen’s relationship with Chris just seemed…weird lmao. They didn’t seem anything like what I was seeing during promo with Josh and Jen. So that made me even more convinced that I was on the right track.

But then Jen broke it off with Chris only to move on to Darren, and then to Cooke, and Josh remained with Claudia. The ship I was nearly certain was going to take off never did. So it left me reevaluating tbh.

It made me think that Josh and Claudia had to be an actual relationship. Because, come on lol, there’s no way. Why the hell would he stay with her for six years now, for anything other than…a relationship? Because Paradise Lost lmao; who is she? We don’t know her. It never even made waves in the states at all. And that was FOREVER ago. Josh was never even that big of an actor to really properly “stunt” in my opinion anyway. That seems to be reserved more for the actors who are really on the media’s current radar. The talk of the town lmao.

BUT, that doesn’t mean I’m 100% a fan of them. Because I’m not. Never have been lol. And nor do I really like how they’ve presented their relationship. I’ve definitely seen enough sketchy stuff to make me wrinkle my nose. Which is the drama you were referring to I imagine lol. Claudia using Josh for her career’s benefit, their friends using him for their benefit, yada yada. Idk, once I kind of realized Joshifer wasn’t going to be an immediate thing, and once I kind of stepped away from Josh (which is a whole DIFFERENT story in itself lol), I just…really never jumped into that drama/cared about it at all.

AND, despite talking to a few different people about it, I feel like I never really gathered enough information to really formulate proper opinions on it. AND X2, I kind of realized that hey, these are actual people and we really don’t know what’s going on behind the surface level stuff we’re seeing. We could be 100% right, but we COULD be 100% wrong. So I just kind of stayed out of it, sighed whenever Josh was in Spain or she in the States, and just kind of moved on.

Same thing goes for Jen and Nick. Saying his name makes me shudder, but I think that’s only a self-inflicted gunshot wound lmao; THANKS, TWAAL. I had a lot of issues with him, but I think they were mostly…fandom driven? Like, it was one of those “I don’t like you because you’re interfering with my OTP and because your fandom hates mine” kind of dealios. I really didn’t have any VALID reasons to dislike him at all lmao.

People will say otherwise. I know a lot of Veteran Joshifer Shippers think that relationship was ENTIRELY fake/PR driven too. I can’t say I entirely agree? But again, it’s practically the same thing as my thoughts with Josh and Claudia. I didn’t dive that deep into things regarding that relationship, so I really know nothing, and so I REALLY can’t form a proper opinion.

*Wheeze* SO lol. Where does that leave me now. Well, since things did not go the way I and probably a lot of other people anticipated, I’ve just been…confused? Like yeah, there were things that I DEFINITELY thought were indicative of a possible fling/relationship. But Josh and Jen were with other people…? It seemed so so SO real, but then they moved tf on?

So yeah, I really don’t know what happened at all. I can’t prove anything. Josh and Jen genuinely could have been just friends all throughout promo, hence why they have nothing to tell. Or, they could have genuinely fucked all through promo, and their relationships WERE just indeed PR cover ups at the time. It’s literally impossible to say for certain.

I think if anything did happen though, it’s probably way too soon to tell. Especially with Jen in a rather new and very serious relationship now, and Josh still in the relationship that he was in all throughout promo. I feel like if something did happen, they’d probably open up about it like, a decade or maybe even more down the line. Or who knows, maybe it’ll be their little secret, and our little speculation.

Like, the both of them definitely don’t need anything “cheating scandals” or anything like that running rampant with their current situations. So yeah, if there was something, we likely won’t hear of it for a while, if…ever.

Which Goddddd gets my GOAT lmao. Still bitter to this day. And still can’t fathom what happened between those two. Because I was rooting for them so very hard, anon. I think everyone was at a point. There was just so much RIDICULOUS shipping fuel between them.

And I think for that reason, I’m always going to be rooting for them in one way or another. They’re the equivalency of a “first love” for me lol. Like, I’ll always always remember what I saw between them/have a soft spot for them regardless. And I’ll definitely ALWAYS have fingers crossed for ANY tidbits.

#Answered #Anons #Joshifer #Tea Time #TL;DR my mindset towards them has shifted towards a giant 'WTF EVEN HAPPENED' lol #Godddd I just #I LONG FOR ANYTHING THAT'D TELL US WE WERE ONTO SOMETHING #ANY #THING

33 notes · View notes

darklightsworld · 5 years

Text

Unexpectedly long record of me diving into m/m novels, so the J key is your friend for skipping ^^,

I’m still not out of the Josh Lanyon m/m novels hell, and now I won’t rest till I read all her stuff - even though it takes a lot of time away from manga and anime actually ^^; She’s doing exactly what I miss in BL manga: crime and mystery. Tbh, if we had something like Shimizu Reiko’s Himitsu (or Joker Game for example), but with a real relationship and sex scenes instead of teasing, I would be the happiest BL fan ever... That was also the reason why I got Memento Scarlet recently, even though I’m not that big of a fan of Kusabi Keri - it was not bad, but just... not enough. Yeah, I know BL novels have more, I loved Aida Saki’s S series, but I don’t have time to read Japanese novels (which would take more time than English ones) and I want to have manga.

Anyway, it’s very interesting how I found my way to m/m novels. I’m not a fanfic reader. I like manga, and especially if it’s derivative works to manga and anime I want to have comics all the same. I tried Japanese BL novels, mostly things that were translated into English or German, but it was a mixed bag. First, Japanese narratives use a different structure than Western novels, this is the kishōtenketsu, and it might be a challenge for Western readers (actually this is also a reason why many manga endings seem unsatisfying for Western consumers), and among the licensed works there were some terrible ones too.

I’m busy enough with manga, so I didn’t really bother, but then due to the hype and the Japanese release it was impossible not to notice the Captive Prince series. I liked the novels a lot, but I was immediately turned off by the “fandom”, that was once again all about representation and what are people allowed to write in fiction and entertainment - and I was like no thank you.

Another time skip, and the next time I came in touch with m/m novels was through illustrations by artists I like, for example Scarlet Beriko, who illustrated an American m/m short story, Speechless by Kim Fielding. This is how I became aware of the Shinshokan‘s Monochrome Romance label, that has been translating English language m/m novels into Japanese, and then I discovered Mamahara Ellie’s manga adaptation of JL Langley’s Without Reservations, and it looked so nice I had to read the novels - and I liked them. I read some others by Langley too, but it was still very low key - I like her stuff, but she’s not _that_ good of a writer. Then I stumbled upon Eli Easton, as Mamahara Ellie has been illustrating the Japanese edition of her How to Howl at the Moon series. Another shifter series, but _dog_ shifters, and it was really nice. Another few months flew by, and then I discovered Easton had a new book out with a gay dad that’s always up my alley, so I though why not use my commuting time reading m/m novels? Easton proved to be a good writer, and I started to go through her books. Her thematic range is wide, so some I liked better than others (maybe I will make a post one day), but the one that was a turning point for me was Snowblind. Not my fave by her, mind you, but it’s a spy/action/crime novel, and I realized I need more of that.

I have always been a fan of crime/mystery, I prefer it in movies, tv series to other genres, but strangely my (general) novel consumption was kind of lacking of that. Now I don’t really want to read anything without m/m, so crime/mystery m/m was what I wanted. Actually Monochrome Romance has brought over such author, Josh Lanyon, who I wanted to check out, because her books seemed successful, but I was actually reluctant because of the male penname. I know some value m/m by male authors more, because they think it’s more authentic and representation and whatever, but for me it works the opposite way, because m/m is the same as BL: fantasy for women usually by women. If I read m/m novels (or BL manga for that matter) I want to have a good narrative, interesting characters and relationships and good romance and sex doesn’t hurt either. Of course some realism is good, but I don’t care about representation and how well gay guys can identify with it, because this is not the genre for that, if I wanted that I would read gay novels. I’m not saying male authors can’t write good m/m novels, but if they don’t abide by the rules of the genre than they are in the wrong genre, that’s all. I was actually surprised just how much the discourse around m/m novels mirrors BL manga, especially that “scandal“, when Lanyon “came out“ as a female author in 2015, it was like yaoi ronsou in 90s Japan once again, it was ridiculous...

So yeah, Lanyon turned out to be a female author, but I only suspected after I got into her books, and didn’t bother to read up on her until much later - her novels immediately convinced me, so I didn’t care about her being male or female anymore. I started with the All’s Fair trilogy, and I was done in completely. She’s doing just what I always wanted to have. Policemen, FBI, crime, mystery, action, interesting cases, characters, who also get it on (latest at the 50% mark XD). Since then I have been working myself through her catalog, and I won’t rest till I read everything. She’s very prolific (or rather she has had a long career), mostly crime/suspense/mystery, but she does interesting excursions to other genres. Even her short stories of 50-100 pages can convey more than others in 200-300 pages, albeit she’s famous for abrupt ending without epilogues - some of that is salvaged by her holiday codas. What I like about Lanyon, that she can write damn well! Her books raised the bar for me in m/m novels immensely, and it’s a real pity that some of the Lanyon books will never reach a wider audience because of m/m (same as with BL manga). The language, the atmosphere, the composition of the plot... everything.

Her novels are mostly a hit for me, and there are a lot for me in the amazing category, but even among those there are some which blew me away. The reason for this post is such a book I just finished yesterday: Stranger on the Shore. I was totally done in by that book, I finished it in the morning, and I was basking in the afterglow all day. Beautifully written, and the way the whole truth is revealed to our more and more reluctant protagonist is amazing - it is all the more better, because the reader can guess one major point and observe the (self)discovery of the protagonist, and you just can’t help but love Griff... Another, shorter novel that had the same (or even bigger) effect on me is Come Unto These Yellow Sands. I love Swift, once celebrated poet, son of celebrated poets, recovering cocaine addict clean for six years. His struggle for a normal life and then to stay clean was palpable, his vulnerability and strength wrecked me to the extent I couldn’t fall asleep and had to read more.

Yeah, Lanyon has some very good novels, and I’m glad I discovered her stuff. Currently I’m looking forward to the fourth book in The Art of Murder series supposed to be out this month, another fave of mine with hardened Sam Kennedy and reckless Jason West - also part of the FBI universe, so I kind of hope for a check-in with either Elliot or Tucker, since Sam was supposed to leave for Seattle in book three... But anyway, too much to swoon about here, so I will leave it for another post.

Well, originally I just wanted to gush about Stranger on the Shore, but it ended up to be something else, oh well ^^;;;

10 notes · View notes

journal-of-the-alchemist · 5 years

Text

Ventilation

I need to write a bit about myself this time. Its been a long time since i started to write journal entries inside this , for me at least digital, journal that i hope and beg is seen by ANYBODY. Living in basically nowhere is a pain in the ass to be fairly honest, it may be what i have to do out of personal reasons i will not name. Doesn’t mean that i don’t feel a void in me that begs to be filled. I mean at this point i have lived for more then over 7.894.413.129 Centuries at this point (i lost count this is just a rough estimate from how many worlds i have been too and how many lives i have lived , take it with a grain of salt). Honestly its a miracle i am not absolute dead. I have seen too many of my old friends do just that. Felicie would have probably been close if i didn’t interfere, it was her last loop given by the 47th. I am not quiet happy how it worked out for us in the end, not being able to find any concrete weakness of Kevin's artificial anomaly , seeing how it even was able to mutate to control more then 25 people near our endgame goal of conquering the inhabitable side of earth. Not a elegant victory , a victory nonetheless. I am not sure if i want to log it yet since it really i wasn’t able to find a weakness that one could reliable abuse but i am absolutely certain i will see it again. Kevin seems to know a lot more about me then i initially thought, because he didn’t just know of JLS, he knew a lot of my contacts from the loopers bureau, even the ones like Felicie that have stayed off the grid for a long enough time to be forgotten. My priority may not be on him for now but that is only the case because i feel like he will inadvertently find me while i go and look for the shards i need to complete my goal. If he has come to the conclusion i have come to is unknown as of yet , the likelihood should be at a near 0 since i have come to learn for what the shards are used for and where to find them while the rest of the bureau don’t even entertain the idea of their existence. Fools. In the end the alchemist will prove them wrong , lets see who will be laughing then you ignoramuses. I have been able to surpass my old peers so much since i cut myself away from the 47th ascendant, maybe one day they will understand just how much she manipulates them all. The next entry i will log another of my old run ins while shard hunting. I think most of the people here will like it a lot.

#JLS #Journal of the alchemist #Journal Entry #entry 12 #47th ascendant #Felicie

1 note · View note

alidaalana-blog · 5 years

Text

Right Through Me - 1

Brrrrrring! Brrrrrring!

I looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was 3:15 in the morning and my phone was going off! My heart stopped beating as soon as I saw the number glowing at me from my cell’s LCD screen: Jayel (James Lee) Lawson.

He needs me, I can feel it. I hit ignore, pushed my phone under my pillow and rolled over. I was honoring the vow I made months ago not to fall into that trap again.

I closed my eyes and fought every fiber of my being that wanted to call him back. At this time of night, there’s no telling what could be wrong or what kind of trouble he got himself into. The part of me that has always loved him was beginning to panic with worry, she was fighting against the part of me that was stubborn and had a point to prove: Fuck that nigga. He was the one that pushed me out of his life.

In just a matter of seconds, I was forgetting to breathe. My blood was rushing. Or was it my adrenaline? Whatever the case, something about thinking Jayel was in trouble always filled my body with anxiety, knowing that he was capable of doing anything under the wrong circumstances. This time was no different.

Just keep your eyes closed Clark and go back to sleep, I begged myself. He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself.

My phone vibrated one time under my pillow as a text message came through.

Jayel (James Lee): Don’t ignore me, Clark. I need to talk to you right now. I’m home. Please come over.

Oh boy. He knew I would go if he asked. It’s our dysfunctional pattern. We hurt each other, breakaway, then one of us comes crawling back when someone else has hurt us more. If I had a shrink she would advise against going over there at the crack of dawn just because he asked me to. But I never had a shrink and sure enough, my legs were moving before I could protest or even stage a good defense. Once again, I was putting my pride, and possibly my mental health, aside to tend to my friend.

All I had on was a wife-beater and my underwear. I quickly threw on the skinny jeans I wore earlier and a zip-up hoodie then pushed my feet into some loafers. I washed my face and pulled a beanie down over the top of my head, letting my hair flow out from underneath. I looked in the mirror one last time and shook my head, what I was walking into was going to be ten times harder to walk out of.

In less than twenty minutes I was using the emergency key Jayel gave me to let myself into his apartment. There was no way I was going to ring anyone’s doorbell and wait outside at four in the morning. He was sitting on the sofa in the living room when I walked in. The glass of brown liquid in his hand almost tilted over when he saw me.

He gave me a pained smile. “You came,” he slurred out. “You never let me down, Clark.”

“Oh yeah?” Well, this was the complete opposite of how our last conversation went. I believe the word he used to describe me then was ‘selfish’. “Can I get that in writing?” I half-way joked.

Normally he would laugh, chuckle, or at least give me a grin then comment on my smart mouth. None of the above happened. This was unlike him. This was serious.

“What’s wrong James Lee?” I was the only one he allowed to call him by his real government. He hated his name so much, in high school he made everyone call him JL, which eventually turned into Jayel. But I still love to say James Lee every now and then to remind him that he’s talking to me, the person that has nursed his heart and his wounds more times than a lil bit. I sat next to him on the sofa and took the glass from his hand. I smelled the Jack Daniels before it reached my lips and took a sip, letting a swallow of whiskey roll down my throat. My face frowned as the Jack turned from a liquid to fire somewhere between my throat and chest.

“I caught her cheating. I saw her.” He said.

“Who?” I was unaware he was even in a relationship. But I’m not surprised, Jayel can’t be alone for one second.

“Jessa.”

“Oh,” his other ex. I turned away from him and rolled my eyes. When we last spoke they were no longer together. Now we were going back down this familiar road once again. I’m so tired of this bitch. And I’m over Jayel giving her the benefit of the doubt. It’s not the first time she’s cheated at all. But for some reason, Jayel just can’t let her go. “Where did you see her? When?” I asked even though I really didn’t care. The story is always the same. The names and places may be different but it always boils down to Jessa being as trifling as she wants to be. But I did care about Jayel and I knew he wanted to vent.

“At her apartment. I came home a little early and saw this dude’s car parked outside. I used my key and walked inside like normal. Thinking maybe I was wrong. Maybe someone else has the same shit green hatch-back. They didn’t even hear me. Clark,” he clapped his claps together, Hard. “I swear by the time I made it to the living room I could hear them fucking.”

“Get the fuck outta here!” This bitch has balls.

“Fucking! In my muthafuckin bed!”

Jayel took the glass back from me and emptied the rest of its contents in one swallow. He reached for the bottle sitting on the table, but I got to it first and placed it behind the arm of the sofa, way out of his reach. I needed him to focus, “What else happened?” Knowing this hot-headed boi, it couldn’t have ended there.

He smirked, “I cracked his head open.”

My hand went over my mouth in shock, but Jayel said it like he was discussing the weather. “You did not!”

“They were on their way to the hospital when I left.”

He was serious. My mouth was hanging open, “What do you mean they? She went with him?”

“Yep.”

“But that’s your girl? You were back together, right?” I was confused by the whole fucking thing already.

“And she left with another nigga.” He looked at me,” Shit was unreal.”

“Jayel, I’m so sorry, but you gotta stop doing this. You gotta stop going back to her.”I felt sorry for this poor fool. I gave him back his Jack.

“I know.” He nodded and refilled his glass and looked up at me. “Still mad at me?”

My eyebrow arched, of course I was still mad. I didn’t forget shit. But I didn’t want to get into our issues right now. That’s not why I came. “I’m here right?”

“That doesn’t mean anything. I know you’re still mad.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

“To hear you say it.”

“Ugggh,” I was in no mood to play these games with him. “Do you know what time it is? I’m not doing this with you. You want to know how I feel? The same way you would have felt if I didn’t show up tonight. Disappointed. Broken. Fucked up. I don’t know. Your friends are supposed to be there for you, not push you away.” Jayel opened a can of worms and I was finding it difficult to stuff them back in.

“That’s what we are, huh? Friends?”

“I’m not doing this,” I stood up and shook my head at him. “With your drunk ass.”

“I’m sorry Clark.”

“For?”

“Letting her come between us.”

“Again.”

“Again. But in all fairness, you made her insecure. What was I supposed to do?”

“Me? How? You know what, don’t answer that. My fault. With you it’s always my fault. I’m sure her fucking someone else is somehow my fault too.” I swear Jayel can rile me up like no one else. He can send me from zero to sixty in three seconds flat.

He ignored my growing attitude and continued, “She says I never stopped loving you.”

This wasn’t a confession. It’s understood that we have feelings for each other. Our friends tease us about it every chance they get. But I never tried to come between him and Jessa. Not once.

“And she knows we use to hook up between relationships and shit.”

“You told her that?”

Jayel is a terrible drunk obviously. He just rambles, mostly telling truths he would normally try to hide. If Jessa was smart enough to ever figure out that two shots were all she needed to find out whatever she wanted from him, there’s no telling what he’s confessed to her.

He shook his head, “No. She told me once that she could tell. By the way, I looked at you. I just denied it. Told her she was crazy. She didn’t believe me anyway.”

These words came out slurred and were beginning to bother me. I’d rather not hear his feelings for me while he was crying over another woman. I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me.

“We’ll talk about it later. Right now you need to focus on staying out of jail. You sent that man to the hospital, Jayel. Now what? I swear in all of the time I’ve known you, You’ve never done the crazy shit you’re doing now. For her! I don’t get it. She doesn’t deserve you. And we both know that. You know how I know we both know?” I held his chin up made him look me in the eye, then tilted my head to the side. He looked so pathetic he was making it almost impossible for me to cough up some tough love, almost, “because we’ve talked about it a trillion and one times, Jayel. We’ve broken it down til it could break no more. That bitch is trash.”

He dropped his head into his hands, elbows resting on his knees.

At that moment I was done asking why. There was no rhyme or reason for the shit we do when we’re in love with the wrong person, when our pride has been defeated. This was the one relationship Jayel ever completely committed to. The one girl he was faithful to and she broke his heart. Stomped on it – like a true cunt. I almost envied Jessa’s boldness, her ability to not give a fuck and keep it moving.

I resisted the urge to point out this is how I felt when he cheated on me. That would be kicking him while he’s down. But shit, it’s the reason I can relate to his pain. Jayel is the one guy I ever let get the best of me.

I sighed hard and released that thought. This wasn’t about me or us. I took his hand, “Come stay with me for a couple of days. I don’t think you should be here alone.”

His eyes widened, “Really?”

“Mmhmm. Go get some things. Think you can manage to do that?”

He nodded and struggled up to his feet, “I think so.”

Jayel packed a small duffle bag with whatever and followed me to my car. I shook my head at the sight. Two hours ago I was asleep, minding my own business.

#black writers on tumblr #writer #fiction #love #soulmate #black authors #broken #gimme more

0 notes

nomoremetaphors · 7 years

Note

How do you think the lex redemption arc would pan out further along in the dceu? I'm hoping that they will go in that direction too and I'm curious to hear your theories

All right, you asked me this, and I hope you remember that as this is liable to get long, involved, and more than a little bit fringe-theory in nature, because I’m definitively a Lex stan first and foremost when it comes to the DCEU.

So, first: Who is Lex Luthor?

Lex is, fundamentally, a representation of this line from Alfred in BVS:

That’s how it starts. The fever, the rage…the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel.

Lex and Bruce are mirrors to each other in BVS – the difference and divergence between them is that while Bruce can be forced to see Clark’s humanity through the connection of “having a mother” and the idea that saving Martha can be a redemptive act for him, Lex is too isolated to find any commonality between himself and “Clark. Joseph. Kent.” If anything, Lex shows more sympathy to Zod in the Genesis chamber than he does to anyone else.

It’s always been a little darkly funny to me that the very things that make Clark human – his restraint, his gentleness, his commitment to justice – are the very things that make him so alien to Lex. Lex believes that power cannot be innocent; he uses that as a justification for his own evil and as a reason to believe that Superman has to be a fraud, and has to be secretly evil himself.

This comes out of a need, I believe, to see himself as a necessary product of his childhood and the power that he now holds.

Lex spent his childhood under a man who had an impeccable public reputation, but was an abusive, religious monster in private (”No man from the sky intervened when I was a boy to save me from Daddy’s fist and abominations.”). In believing that power generates evil, he also had to learn that the only way to be safe is to be powerful, more powerful than other people.

He does what he does out of a need to survive in a world that he absolutely thinks conforms to his own childhood experiences of power and abuse. It allows him to do terrible things, because he thinks that he has to be evil anyway.

And Lex does see himself as evil – he refers to himself as “the problem of evil in the world” when first speaking to Superman on top of the tower.

If Superman is not ultimately evil – and by dying to save mankind, he proves he is not – then everything that Lex has ever done, all the evil he has become, wasn’t necessary. It opens up a wide world of choices that Lex could have made differently, and I’m not sure Lex knows how to live with that.

Now, we have to take into account a second question: what does this mean, thematically speaking?

I think that this actually ties most heavily into Suicide Squad. SS thematically focuses on the idea that good and evil are ongoing choices that people make. Almost every member of the Squad has done something reprehensible – Killer Croc eats people, Harley helped kill Robin, Deadshot is a hitman, Boomerang is a thief, and Diablo killed his wife and children.

And, in some ways, the element of choice is taken from them by the chips implanted in their necks. But that stops mattering when they get into direct conflict with Enchantress. She shows them their deepest desires in an illusion to distract them, but all of them break the illusion. Ultimately, Diablo sacrifices his life to help stop her.

So, good and evil are choices that people make from day to day. This opens up the potential for redemption arcs across the villainy spectrum.

From a character perspective, Lex is in the perfect position to embark upon a redemption arc, to learn from watching Superman die that he could choose to be better himself. From a thematic perspective, this would fold into the idea that good and evil are choices, and that bad people can do good things.

So, this brings us, once again, to the third question we can start to theorize about, the question I touched on in the last post: What will Lex do in Justice League?

Well, let’s start with the narrative context. Lex is the person who knows the most about Steppenwolf and alien technology, barring Cyborg. He has the capacity to use Kryptonian technology, and there is still Kryptonian tech on Earth.

Additionally, Lex has only ever been wrong about one thing – Superman’s motivations. Everything else he’s said has been true. He manipulated Bruce and Clark masterfully, and is the first person to warn Bruce about the impending invasion of Steppenwolf/Darkseid. It is, technically speaking, because of Lex that Bruce is so intent on pulling the Justice League together so quickly.

And Lex knows that demons don’t come from hell beneath us. They come from the sky.

Lex would see Steppenwolf and Darkseid as the ultimate manifestation of every dark thing he thought Superman had to be. He could very easily latch onto this as a chance for redemption.

This is why I foresee Lex building his warsuit. I also believe that he, like in the N52 comics, may pattern it off of Superman’s colors. No Lanterns, no Kryptonians – but a man wearing Kryptonian symbols, fighting in honor of a Kryptonian, that would be something.

It would also provide a theoretical answer to the question asked in BVS, Should there even be a Superman?

June Finch answers that with There is. And there must be – that’s the whole point of the Reign of the Supermen arc in the comics, and why Lex takes on Clark’s colors and cape in the N52 after he dies.

Zack Snyder favors complexity and moral quandaries in his superhero films. We know this. Having Lex embark on a redemption arc would be another chance for Zack to tackle this kind of story, because it would be a longer haul and much tougher sell than the way Batman finds his way back to the light in BVS.

And now, to really get to your question: How will that redemption arc look?

First of all, I don’t believe Lex will be trusted, and definitely not at first. Any partnership between him and the League would be borne out of necessity and reluctance on the part of the Justice League.

Lex will likely resent this a little, because he is that kind of person. Nevertheless, he will make a name for himself as a hero, an atoner for his past sins. Eventually, he may even become friends with some of the members of the League.

Lois will never be okay with this – and frankly, I wouldn’t blame her. Lex was particularly awful to her specifically, and, unlike Clark who died, she has had to deal with the lasting ramifications of Lex’s actions. Bruce, also, will never, ever trust Lex, even a little bit, because he’s already sworn that he will be keeping an eye on Lex forever.

Now, this is the part where I start to wander into fringe theoretical territory, if I haven’t already, but I have to say it:

I believe that the “him” that Barry is referring to in Bruce’s vision is Lex, not Clark.

This is the full text of what Barry tells Bruce in the vision:

Bruce! Listen to me now! It’s Lois! Lois Lane! She’s the key! Am I too soon? I’m too soon! You were right about him! You’ve always been right about him! Fear him! Find us, Bruce! You have to find us!

Now, most people took that as an implication that Superman is going to become the dark, monstrous, Injustice-flavored version. Other people took it just as a dream, like the Knightmare sequence or the Man-bat dream.

But if you consider the idea of Lex as the ‘him,’ the quote still holds up.

It’s Lois! Lois Lane! She’s the key! – If Bruce had listened and sought out Lois Lane, she would have been able to tell him about what Lex had done to the compound in Nairomi, and the way he’s been manipulating him. She’s also the key to understanding Clark’s humanity. Additionally, if this does reference something in the future – which is likely – Lex is fairly likely to interact with Lois in the future; their enmity is a common part of most Lois-Lex dynamics, both in the comics and on TV.

Am I too soon? I’m too soon! – In terms of time travel, this is a really ambiguous statement. Does he mean “too early?” That’s what most people took it to mean. If so, why would the quote be about Superman? If it was, then wouldn’t this be exactly the right time to tell Bruce he’s right to be doing what he’s doing – while he still has the capacity to kill Clark himself? But if it’s Lex, it fits almost scarily well, especially if you consider the idea of a redemption arc.

You were right about him! You’ve always been right about him! Fear him! – People, including possibly Bruce himself, thought this has to do with Superman. But Barry doesn’t meet Bruce until after Superman dies. After Clark’s death, Bruce comes to understand that Clark is, in fact, just a man trying to do the right thing. Bruce does say in the JL trailer that Superman showed people the best parts of themselves. This doesn’t jive at all with the idea of a panicked You were right about him! You’ve always been right about him!

If Lex becomes part of, or an ally to, the League, and then betrays them, Bruce will have always been right about him, and the “always” has to do with the whole time Barry has known Bruce. Additionally, Bruce has never liked Lex, even before Lex’s true depths of evil were known – we can see that in the party scene. His opinion of Lex hasn’t really changed, just gotten worse.

Now, what do I think happened in this future?

Well, it has to do with the Darkseid War in the comics. ��After Darkseid is killed, Lex returns to Apokolips to lead a revolution and install himself as its ruler. Subsequently, in the Men of Steel story arc, Super-Lex and Pre-N52 Superman encounter precognitive aliens who have seen a future where Lex has become a despot who is worse than Darkseid.

The Lex we have in the DCEU has shown himself to be unstable even in his most together moments. It wouldn’t take much for him to return to his evil ways, especially if he feels betrayed by Superman for whatever reason. If he takes control of Apokolips, that could be a precursor to a future that Barry warns against by traveling back in time.

So, in summation: I believe that Lex will try to redeem himself, but something will either prevent that, or some perceived betrayal will have him slide firmly back into villain territory, leading to Barry traveling back in time to try to warn Bruce about it.

Thanks for asking! It was nice to get this all out on paper, frankly.

#dceu #lex luthor #analysis #asks tag

6 notes · View notes