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doctoranon · 3 years

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I Must Be Dreaming

Written for the MGI Civil war for Team Jason Supremacy

TW: Angst, Major character death, swearing

~~~~~

“Come on, baby. We’re going to be fine.” Jason mumbled into Marinette's dirty matted hair, desperation colouring his tone. “Gonna get us out of here, we’ll be fine.” he huddled close to the semi conscious woman, being careful as possible to not disturb any of the rubble that trapped them where they were.

They’d underestimated how desperate the Joker was this time, underestimated how many bombs were placed and now they were paying the price, he and Marinette were trapped under fuck knows how much rubble with sketchy comm links and no way of knowing quite how far off a rescue would be.

They had at least garnered that one was underway through the static of the comms, that they’d called in the big guns with Supes and the Flash to help with getting to them quicker. Still, he wasn’t sure that- no, no of course they’d both make it. Their wedding was next month and then they were starting their life together. The one they’d always dreamed of. But looking at the flow of blood from Mari’s head wound his heart kept shooting straight to his throat. Logically he knew that head wounds bleed a lot and he was trying to stem the flow with a ripped piece of his uniform. But he’d been a vigilante for more than half his life at this point, and he’d seen-

Shaking the thought from his head roughly, he placed a kiss on Marinette's hair line, smoothing it out of her face as she watched him in a daze, mumbling incoherently every now and then. Everytime she did so his heart calmed a little. Consciousness was good. As long as she kept awake and stayed with him they’d both be fine.

“Jay-” his attention diverted quickly to Marinette and he smiled down at her, tears pricking at his eyes.

“Hey, Baby.” he warbled, dropping a kiss to her lips. “You’ve scared me.” he admitted, feeling his shoulders relax slightly. Help was coming. Mari was awake.

“‘M not-'” the words were slurred and seemed to take all of her energy and concentration to push past her lips. Taking a small breath, she let go of a longer one before uttering “‘M Tired.”

“I know baby, but you can’t fall asleep right now. You know that.” he explained, moving his free hand to his comm and trying to get someone's attention, growling angrily when all that could be heard was a static reply. He knew Tim was trying to reply, but he didn’t know what he was saying, and wasn't even sure if Tim was getting his own messages.

Wincing when he bit his already split lip, Jason sighed and kept a watch on Marinette, before he started to feel a shift in the rubble surrounding them. Straightening himself as much as he could he gave a yell. If it was Supes then he probably already knew exactly where they were, but anyone else might have needed the sound to redirect them.

As more and more pieces of rubble started to shift, he bent over Mari, protecting her from as much debri as possible. “See, toldja we’d get out of this, didn’t I?” he smirked down at her, before noticing her closed eyes and shallow breaths.

Immediately becoming panicked, he patted at her cheek. “Hey! No! No, you stay with me for a little longer Baby. They’ve almost got us.” he insisted. Before shouting at whoever it was to hurry it the fuck up.

Patches of light started to come in and he could hear the others now, he wasted no time to relay Marinette's condition to them and their efforts seemed to double. But, as Marinette liked to remind him, Too much of a good thing can sometimes be bad. The universe balances itself out and all that jazz.

One wrong movement of the concrete had a rather large piece dislodge. Jason's position protecting Marinette had put him directly in its path and with a solid crack hit him in the back of the head, whiting out his vision with pain. Ears ringing he tried to shake it off and check on Marinette, but that only served to make him dizzy as fuck and spots dace across his quickly dimming vision.

The last thing he saw was a silhouette against a bright light where a large body sized gap now was in the rubble they’d been trapped in. Then his vision went black and he was swept into unconsciousness.

~~~

Feelings came back to him slowly and consciousness felt just beyond his grasp, but through sheer will he opened his eyes to look around. He was in a med bed in the bat cave. So at least that meant they were out, but Marinette was nowhere in his sight and he needed to make sure she was okay.

Struggling to sit up, Jason had already started to get out of bed when Dick rounded the corner and rushed to his side.

“Get back in bed!” he was scolded, as Dick tried to stop him from getting up, and failing miserably. Jason was going to find his Fiance and no one was stopping him.

“Not till I’ve seen Mari.”

“Well that’s not happening.” he was told, as Dick called for the others not far out of hearing range. “You’re getting back in that bed.”

“Get the fuck out of my way, Dick. I’m seeing Mari.” Jason insisted, trying to push his brother away from him as he staggered under his own weight for a moment. Reinforcements arrived under the guise of Tim, Chloe and Alfred and he groaned internally before noticing the red rimmed eyes the blonde was sporting and his heart froze.

Doubling his efforts, he pushed Dick away successfully this time. “Where is she, Tim?” His tone was frantic as he started on his way past his other brother. “Where the fuck is Marinette.” her name brought a whimper from the blonde and Jason's frantic eyes zeroed in on her. “Please.” he begged, refusing to believe the worst.

When no one moved or tried to answer his question he growled angrily, moving to push past them again before being stopped by both Dick and Tim.

“Jay, please, get back in bed. We’ll explain-”

“NO!” Jason struggled against the two former robins, his eyes beginning to drake on a greener hue. “Let me see Marinette!”

Feeling a presence come up from behind him, he felt rather than saw as something pricked his skin.

“I’m afraid, Master Jason, you need to calm down.” came the guilt laced tone of the Wayne butler. Something Jason felt triple his anxiety before the sedative began to kick in and his weight was caught by Tim and Dick.

“Mari-” he mumbled, before unconsciousness took him over again.

~~~~

The next time he was aware, he felt a hand in his own and a soft humming coming from his left. A familiar humming. A beautiful humming that belonged to-

“Marinette.” he mumbled, opening his eyes and searching for her visage, smiling sleepily at her when he saw her sitting in a chair next to the bed. Bandages wrapped around her head.

“Hey, Sleepy head. It’s about time you woke up.” she smiled, squeezing his hand and placing a kiss on the back of it. “You gave everyone a scare earlier.”

“You scared me. You weren’t here when I woke up- I thought-” he choked but he grinned at her through his tears. Pulling their hands to him and returning the kiss on the back of her hand. “I was worried, beautiful.”

Chuckling at him, she booped his nose with a scrunched up grinning face; A scrunched up, grinning alive face. “I’m not leaving you that easily.” she comforted, before letting go of his hand and waving her engagement ring in his face. “Besides, you put a ring on it. I’m yours. Forever.” she teased him, gaining a chuckle from him as he relaxed back into the pillows.

“If Dick-head had just old me you were okay-”

“Hey, don't blame your brother for your half cocked plans and jumping to conclusions!” she scolded him, a grin still fixed to her face. “You need to wake up when i'm here next time.”

Chuckling Jason felt at peace, knowing they were both okay. “Or you could not scare me in the first place”

Resting his eyes, he breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of all residual tension he had been holding onto. “So, any chance you’re going to show me that dress before the wedding now?” he teased, opening his eyes and over acting a pathetic look on his face. “Please?”

“Never. The day I walk up the aisle or not at all.”

“I had to try.”

Both chuckling at their antics, Marinette moved to cuddle up on the bed with him. “I can’t wait until the day after the wedding.” She told him, resting her chin on his shoulder. “When I wake up as Mrs Jason Todd.”

“I can’t wait for that either.” he beamed, kissing her sweetly and pulling back to stare into her eyes. “For that day, and every day afterwards.”

~~~~

Over the next few weeks, Jason felt like he was walking through a dream. The days felt like they moved slowly and quickly all at once. They both healed up and anticipation grew as the big day was suddenly upon them, and he was there, standing at the bottom of the aisle waiting for his soon to be wife to join him.

As the song he didn’t even remember picking played, the most beautiful woman in the world walked towards him. Ready to commit her love and life to him forever. Something finally all his. Something permanent.

Dick leaned over his shoulder and nudged him with a wide grin. “You look mesmerised, Little Wing.” he whispered, the proudest grin Jason had ever seen aimed at him.

“I feel like I'm dreaming.”

Dick chuckled lightly as he faced the front again, eyes on the procession. “Then you better wake up, Jay. Because she's nearly here.”

As Marinette reached him at the altar, he reached for her hands, pulling her towards him and stealing a small kiss.

“Hey, save it for the end.” Tim, who was officiating at the behest of his brother teased them, as the seemingly faceless congregation chuckled in the background.

“I couldn’t help myself.” Jason laughed, feeling so full of love and life. Everything was perfect. Just like he and Marinette had dreamed.

Clapping his hands together with a bright and wide grin, Tim turned to face the audience. “Welcome, to the wedding of my Big brother, Jason Todd, and the girl I introduced him too, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Both the Bride and Groom have written their own vows and Marinette won the coin flip to go first.” Tim joked, before gesturing to the vision in white.

“Jason, the day we met, I knew you’d be a pain in my ass.” she teased, gaining a chuckle and ‘hear, hear’ from the people present, himself included. “And you are,” she added to a few more chuckles, as tears formed in both their eyes. “The day you first kissed me, I knew forever was what I wanted from you.” she grinned at him, tears falling down her cheeks, and he moved his hand to wipe them away.

“And the day I died, I knew I would leave you heartbroken.” Jason froze, the smile was still plastered on her face, and looking at Tim showed the same, as if Marinette had said nothing wrong at all.

“Wait, what?” His brow furrowed and heart starting to beat quickly in his chest. “I don't understand, Mari?”

“You need to wake up, Jason,” Tim was speaking now, the happy smile still plastered on his face as if he wasn’t breaking Jason's entire world.

“No. No I don't. We’re getting married,” Jason said frantically, looking around him at the guests and feeling a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck.

“Please, Little wing. Wake up.”

The world both fizzled out to black, the image of Marinette in her wedding dress fading quickly, and also gained a more realistic feeling behind closed eyelids.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Jason felt his lips tremble as he turned his head and slowly opened his eyes to his brother sitting next to him in a med bed in the bat cave.

His brother met his eyes, red rimmed and full of pain.

“She’s gone, isn’t she?”

The pause was a hundred years and no time at all.

“I- Yeah, Little wing. She’s gone.”

He closed his eyes again and turned to face the ceiling, tears spilling from under his eyelids.

“We were getting married.”

“I know.” was the choked reply, and he could hear the pain in Dicks voice, but he couldn’t feel anything over the rush of absolute nothing he felt.

“I love her so much, Dick.” he whispered, teeth clenching as he began to cry in earnest. Breathing felt strange, the whoosh of in and out feeling nothing like it should, and two arms encircled him as a low keening noise escaped from behind his still clenched teeth.

He was supposed to be stuck with her, forever. And as the thought of forever filled his mind, a forever now not including Marinette; Jason felt something in his chest shatter so explosively he knew he’d never find all the pieces again.

#jasonette #maribat #maribat fanfic #mgi civil war

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og-danny-dorito · 3 years

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Jason Todd : Assassination Jobs

[ A/N: kinda wrote this by the seat of my pants ksjdfndksjnf- it’s basically just how i think jason deals with assassination jobs and a story pertaining to the one time he really did do one and why he did it. not really an x reader but i guess you could technically place yourself in the woman’s place. she’s the one who calls upon jason to help with her issue but it doesn’t have any self-insert elements. kinda more of a really long headcanon ]

⚠️ TW : stalking, abuse, violence ⚠️

jason doesn't usually do assassin work. it requires a lot of coverups, connections, planning and is overall a huge mess, so he kinda just avoids it.

there have been a few times though, where he’s made exceptions.

most of them just had good pay involved or something like that, but the one that’s probably the most commendable to him is when a woman came to him one time with a very vague request. how she got his line he had no idea, but regardless by the time they actually met up she seemed kinda,,, nervous.

she was kinda jumpy and avoided eye contact so she didn’t look too confident or assured in what she was doing, she was looking all around her nervously as if she was scared someone would hear them, and on top of it all she had planned for them to meet in a secluded alleyway with little to no surveillance opportunity and in a sketchy part of town.

he wasn't stupid enough to trust her right off the bat, obviously, but he was smart enough to know that if she really did have some sort of thing planned out she wouldn’t have asked him if he knew there was no way anyone could see or hear them there. it was a bit odd but seemed safe enough, so he showed up.

now, jason went into this expecting something standard. maybe a boss was bothering her or there was a coworker she was having trouble with or something like that, but what had come out of her mouth left him feeling both astonished and, to put it simply... enraged.

he could see the way she covered her arms when she talked to him or how she tried to wear layers of clothing that would hide some of the wounds under her skin. it wasn’t uncommon to find people like that in the area she said she came from, or to find people like that in the whole of Gotham, but somehow knowing that she was desperate enough to call a literal vigilante for it and risk getting put on The Watchlist made him even more concerned off than it should’ve.

in simple terms, the woman said than an ex was bothering her. the ex had forced her into an abusive relationship that usually left her in serious condition or had her admitted to a psyche ward, to which she had almost ended her life as a result. they had broken up after the police got involved, but because of some sort of loophole the ex was able to get out of prison a few months early.

that’s when the stalking began.

she said that she remembered the feeling of being watched, or feeling as if someone was always on her back. the family she was staying with just thought that it was a result of having come out of a mentally stressful situation, but she knew for a fact that something wasn’t right. the packages of unknown origin went unseen by the police. the flowers that would show up at her workplace with a little note reading “i’ll be back soon” were discounted for her loosing her mind. even things down to the way she felt like things were missing in her room when she came back from work had scared her to no end, and she finally decided to put an end to it whether she would get help from her family/the cops or not.

that’s where jason came in. she didn’t really have any specific instructions for him to follow, just a picture of the creeper and a request for him to “get rid of them” in the quickest way possible. he was kinda confused that she didn’t want them to suffer, but he struggled with the decision anyway. there was a very real possibility that she had in fact lost her mind and was now sending him out on a wild goose chase, but he also knew that it was equally as possible that she was telling the truth. he had seen people like her be ignored and have their concerns swept under the rug, only to have their voiced listened to when it was too late

so he agreed to the offer, telling her to give him until the end of the week to get the job done

he didn’t feel right having her stay alone like that, and so instead he asked her to stay in a hotel nearby for a few days so he could draw the ex out and get rid of them quietly. she was really polite about it too, agreeing to whatever requirements he had listed out for her and all of that. just a nice woman in general, didn’t produce any complications and tried to make it as easy for him as possible.

and so that’s exactly what he did. he waited until the creep pulled into the driveway in a super sketchy car with tinted windows and talked to the lady at the front desk, who eventually gave them the room the woman was staying at. they didn’t seem like they were trying to draw attention to themself at first, but as he got out of his car and made his way to the room, he could see how the ex was getting more and more aggressive with knocking on the door.

they were saying all sorts of fucked up shit to her through the barrier like how she’d never get away from them, how she’d suffer the consequences if she kept running away like this, shit like that. jason could feel the adrenaline coursing through him as he got closer, his steps speeding up as he closed in on the assailant. they only had a second to react before he was already putting them in a headlock, letting go when their body fell limp and hauling their arm over his shoulder

it didn’t take him long to bring them to his car (skillfully masking it by making it seem like they were blackout drunk) before tying them and throwing them in the backseat. the place he took them to finish them off was something simple like the side of one of the nearby docks, and he left with a text asking his cleanup guy to come take care of the body. he went back to tell the woman that it was over, that she was safe now in some odd attempt to console her. make her feel a little better

it was only when he got there did he find her sitting with her knees locked to her chest on the bed, the whole room completely undisturbed save for the mug which had probably been knocked to the floor in her panic of hearing the ex on the other side of the door. he didn’t blame her, if he saw that creeper in a dark alleyway he’d pay them no mind- ...but that wasn’t the point. the point now was that she was sitting here with her knees hugged up to her chest and her breathing erratic, obviously having a panic attack

here’s where the odd part comes in

jason has never really been one for this sort of thing. not killing people, he knows all about that, but rather... emotions. or emotionally charged situations. they had always been uncomfortable for him, like uncharted territory in a way, that’s why it was surprising- even to himself -when he walked over there and sat by her, putting a hand on her back and just... rubbing circles there

for a second it looked like she was confused too. the guy who just murdered her abusive ex in cold blood without so much as a qualm to the matter was now rubbing warm circles around her back, sitting there like some sort of awkward dad trying to comfort a middle schooler who just went through their first breakup. it didn’t seem awkward or forced though, just... concerned. and it was confusing. but she didn’t dare try to get away from him, not when it was actually helping her racing hearbeat

and so they kinda sat there for a second with him rubbing circles on her back before she eventually calmed down, taking in large breaths of air and trying to relax herself before she ended up getting cramps from staying in the same position. jason kinda just watched though, only taking his hand off of her back when she looked fully undone. there weren’t any words to affirm what had happened, it seemed. they both knew that it was done, and it could never be undone.

but the larger male couldn’t help the words that came out of his mouth once she had finally settled down, soft and without the familiar edge they normally had. “you know you could’ve asked me to make it painful for them. i would’ve done it if you had told me to.”, he said, the blank eyes of his mask tracking her every movement. she shrank a bit under the pressure of it, but made sure to keep her eyes glues to her hands in her lap. it had always been easier to speak that way.

how do you explain years of complex emotions to someone? the fact that you still cared about them but knew that there was no other way to get rid of the problems they were causing? for all she knew he could just be like the other supes out here, preaching evangelical bullshit without any knowledge of the real problems that made this world the shit hole it was. but... part other knew that wasn’t the case.

she knew in her gut that behind that mask was just another human being, littered with scars from a past that would never heal over. what superman would agree to killing someone, anyway? he wouldn’t, that’s how. she knew that only someone who understood what was going on would do that, take the risk to avoid it happening to someone else. the thought made the next words a little easier to get out of her mouth, even though she knew it sold the idea short

“i cared about them once, i wouldn’t want them to suffer like that.” and to that, he only nodded. it seemed like he understood, and for a second jason did. he didn’t want his mother to suffer, even when she had sold him out to a literal clown and watched him get beat within an inch of his life. it made sense in some odd way, and he couldn’t argue with it. so he didn’t

he stood and looked around the room before asking her if she needed him to bring her home, to which she politely declined and said that she’d just take public transport. and so he got himself together and made way for the door, to which the woman called out and asked him when she was supposed to pay him.

to which, with all of his conscience guiding his actions, jason stopped and turned to her.

“free of charge.”, he said. and then he left.

he left without feeling guilty about it for the first time in a while. he slept easy that night, with his train of thought on the right track and how mind stilled, relaxed and comfortable in his nearby safehouse. and for the first time in a while, a very very long while, he felt like he was doing something right. no, he wasn’t that poster-boy that every one wanted from him or the savior people needed, but he did his best. he did his best for the people that needed it and honestly, what’s more important? complying to a corrupt system, or protecting the weak?

and even though he had always known the answer to the question, he felt like he knew for sure what it was for.

[ Thank You For Reading! ]

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miss-choco-chips · 4 years

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Put a ring on it

I’m not sure what this is, everyone. Had it on my docs for a while, got bored during work and thought ‘what if I just post this?’, and here we are. Basically the Core Four being loving and caring (and spiteful).

Shout out to @animemangasoul who pumped me up about this and @the-quiet-carrotcake and @iphoenixrising for letting me cry to them the Titans loving Tim.

Can be read as either ship or friendship

------.------

When shit went down, Wally and Roy made sure they were nowhere near the planet. A nice little interplanetary fuckery called for anyone free, and both of them had magically clean schedules, so off they went, praying to every god they knew about (and, with how many holy disasters they had faced between them, there were a lot) to be back after the worst of the mess had blown over.

Even if it meant missing the undoubtedly hilarious face Batman would make when he found out. Not even the chance of witnessing that was worth staying and waiting with bated breath until someone pointed out that, in the end, it was both their faults.

-So let me get this straight.

-Difficult for me, but go on.

Wally rolled his eyes, chucking a pillow at his little dude, wondering how Nightwing could do this with not one, not two, but three badly adjusted little brothers (and that without counting the girls, though, to be honest, they already had Babs). Truly, a hero of the ages. Arsenal just cackled from his place in front of the coffee table, where he was keeping them company and cleaning his equipment.

-I’m serious. I’ve never seen you this mad without a bad guy to blame for it.

-Well…

-As furious as you are at them, Bart, they are still the good guys.

-Debatable.

Wally threw another pillow, and Bart, arms crossed and all but vibrating on the couch, didn’t even bother on dodging. Just moved his particles quick enough that the thing went straight through him.

Arsenal raised an eyebrow at them- It’s scary when you do that. Like a freaking ghost.

-It’s scary that Tim’s whole family can be this level of neglectful, but you don’t see me bitching at them.

-Only because you know they’ll give you your ass back to you in a silver platter after they are done whooping it -interjected the older speedster, snack bag on his lap, a few more by the ground at his feet, sitting as close to Bart as the whole ‘don’t touch, I bite’ aura he had around him would allow.

-Kinky.

This time, Wally’s pillow was aimed at the archer. Roy just dodged without looking, still cross legged on the other side of the little table facing the couch.

-Real talk now, it’s not like they are jerks on purpose. We all know the Bats are on a whole new level of ‘always busy’, it’s to be expected they wouldn’t have time for social niceties.

Wally winced, scooting a little further away from Bart when he looked up to glare at Roy. That wasn’t a nice look. That was a ‘I can take you to someplace no one would hear you scream in less than ten seconds’ look.

-My seventeen year old best friend managed to finish high school after having to take a year off to go look for his missing mentor, going through several different mourning processes and dodging a frankly creepy cradle robber of a ninja terrorist, all while kicking ass and taking names, taking care of a huge as hell company, and keeping up the intel guy work for the rest of his shitty family. And he still graduated early. The least they could do after the fuckery he was put through by their collective stupidity would be go as moral support, but no. No, other things are more important than such a big milestone on his life. Fuckers.

Wound down after the rant, Bart dropped back on the couch, shrinking in place, oozing contempt from every pore.

Roy raised his eyes to share a look with Wally. Even if the bro code meant they were contractually obligated to defend their respective best friends, there was undeniable truth to Bart’s statement. Jason had gone on killing sprees for far less than Tim’s situation, and God knows Dick would have showed a big middle finger at his mentor and go off world with the Titans as a protest at the slightest fight. All in all, Red Robin was taking it like a champ.

-Jason’s busy with the Torinelli drug cartel thingie -tried Roy nonetheless, loyal as one could be.

Wally nodded- And Dick had already promised Damian to go on a camping-training trip that weekend...

-Great. So criminals that aren’t going anywhere and the ‘favorite’ demon child are more important than my best friend’s graduation, which isn’t even a long thing, just a couple hours and a few photos. Awesome. Do you happen to know Batman’s excuse? I mean, I’m sure is equally as shitty as his sons’ excuses, but, you know. Variety and stuff.

Wally sighed, because yeah, point. Were it Bart’s graduation, nothing short of the end of the world would have kept him from going, but, again, he only had one little dude to worry about. Dick’s house was full.

-You’ll be there -tried Roy, dropping his arrow back on the table and resting his crossed arms next to it, leaning forward to look straight at Bart-, you and the rest of the brats, right? Supes and Diana’s babies. You guys may not be related like that, but that’s not necessary for you to be family.

Like the Teen Titans were, went unsaid- the older heroes exchanged a glance, reminiscent of their days fighting side by side under Dick’s unwavering leadership. No matter where they were now, that’s where they both came from.

-Yeah -accepted Bart, but the frown hadn’t left his face-. It’s just. His parents are dead, his ‘foster’ bat-family are dicks. He has us, yeah, but… I wished he could have his family there, you know. Like, if I could adopt him, I would, just so he can have that.

Wally dropped the empty snack bag onto the ground and took a new one, tipping it in Bart’s direction as a peace offering- I mean, it’s still a month away, maybe one of them would clear his schedule and go? Probably not all of them, but anything’s better than nothing, right?

Bart harrumphed, hunching even lower in the couch, pout still present.

-If anything else fails -joked Roy, going back to cleaning his stuff-, I hear Kara’s single right now, and Tim’s an emancipated minor. Get them to marry each other, and then your Super friend is technically his brother- or something like that. Political families still counts.

Bart went still for a second, and if Wally were less invested in his snack and more on the thoughtful expression on his face, he might have known ahead of time that his next words were a bad, bad idea.

-And if she’s not on board, you could always ask someone else on your team. Team as family and all that shit, Tim would literally be marrying into the fam. Want some chips?

But Bart was already gone.

-Huh? -blinked Roy- Where'd he run to?

-...

-...You don't think he…

-What? No. No, of course not, they aren't so dumb...

For a horrible second, Roy and Wally crossed eyes again, both remembering the stupid shit they got up to when they were seventeen, and replayed the conversation. Their jokes, that anyone with half a brain would take as that, as silliness. Then came the thought that being stupid was almost a requirement for being a Titan.

With the kind of synchronicity one could only have after fighting side by side for years, they both jumped to their feet at the same time.

-I’ll hit Kori up, maybe she has some alien fuckery to deal with and we can tag along.

-Imma call Supes and let him know we’ll be off planet for a while. Shit, Dick’s gonna flip. He was the big B for a while, he knows stuff. Painful stuff.

-Dude, he at least doesn’t kill. Jay has guns, and it’s his favorite brother we’re talking about.

A shiver went through them when Batman’s reaction came to mind.

-If Kori’s not dealing with something, I’ll ask her to start shit up somewhere far, far away to give us an excuse to leave either way. She’s a goddess like that, she’ll help.

-Good thinking. I’ll start packing.

---.----

The secret meeting was held at one of Tim’s safe houses, because it had enough lead on the walls there was no risk of Superman overhearing them. Not that the owner of the place was aware of it; no one was, besides Cassie, Kon and Bart themselves. Keeping it hush hush was vital for the success of the mission.

-All on board then?

Kon’s smile could light up a town- Hell yeah dude. I’ll take care of getting Tim time off from work. Tam knows me and I’m fairly sure she doesn’t hate me as strongly as she does the bats. Fair warning though, she might ask to come with.

-She’s cool, so I’m in. We’re gonna need a witness anyway.

Cassie nodded, fierce smirk and challenge in her eyes- This is gonna piss so many people. Hey, do you think if we let Oracle in the know she’ll give us footage of the bats' faces when they find out?

Bart bit his lip- As crash as that would be, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.

Cassie deflated, but then shrugged it off- We’ll ask Tim, then. He’s as good as her with hacking, I’m sure he’ll figure something out.

-If he doesn’t kill us first, you mean.

-Don’t be a coward, Kon. I thought you were in.

-I’m not saying I’m backing down, just that we should put our business in order in case he snaps and murders us in cold blood. I know he has it in him, if pushed the right ways.

She nodded, because point. The almost feral look on her face wasn’t gone, though- Worth it. I'll be in charge of clothes. You reckon there's any chance I can get a dress on him?

-Sure, if you want him to actually break his no kill rule.

-Fine, but he's wearing white anyway. It goes well with his skin tone.

Bart extended his first for her to bump- Now you're talking. I'll be the extraction man and take him to the place.

Kon crossed his arms, looking conflicted for the first time- We can't go the classic way about it, because a fake name would mean he won't take seriously what we're trying to do, and if we use his real one in a formal document, it'll hit the news before the ink has a chance to dry. And then he'll kill us for sure.

-You're awfully worried about him drawing blood, Blue. What gives?

-He's scared shitless of Cassie and you're too adorable to hurt, but me? I'm the one he's gonna focus his rage on, and you know how he gets when at his limit.

Cassie snorts- He can't live without you, you dork. I think we are all safe. And anyways, the plan is to make him too drunk to walk on a straight line, he wouldn't be able to hurt us.

-You say that -interjected Bart, getting up from where he was crouching above their carefully spread, color coded sheets of plans; Tim would be so proud- but I've seen the dude drop kick someone with a broken leg once. He can fuck shit up no matter the situation.

-True… still, we are doing it, right?

-Oh yeah, for sure, I just wanted everyone aware that it might be our last big bang.

-Then we better make sure it's one hell of an explosion, am I right?

-Hell yeah.

-This is gonna be so crash!

----.----

The entire thing had gone something like this.

On friday, Tam made Tim turn around and head back home the second he showed his face at the office, claiming the bags under his eyes clashed terribly with her new Prada handbag and she’d rather had it than him around. In Foxspeak, it meant ‘go the fuck to sleep or so help me God’. Tim would have fought back just on principle, but Tam had him at a standstill, because the spleen thing could very easily reach Alfred’s ears if he crosses her, and no one (him) wants that. As if to make sure he would obey, she demanded they share the car that would take her to the airport (did she have some meeting out of Gotham? He couldn’t remember) and dropped him at his Perch on her way there.

He wasn’t actually planning on sleep, maybe work some of his cases from home, start patrol early, possibly tracking Jason down to offer his help for the drug cartel thing. Confused by the unexpected way his morning had gone so far, he was woefully underprepared for a flash of red and yellow to whisk him from his living room the second he put his carrier bag on the ground.

It was only years from using his team as glorified uber drives what kept him from nerve striking Bart on reflex. Knowing whatever he asked would be lost to the background sound of super fast travelling, he merely slumped over the thin shoulder he was thrown over and waited till they reached their destination.

Which… he wasn’t expecting Vegas.

The next few hours were a blur of his team explaining they had planned this gateaway as an early graduation party, hugs and a few grateful tears on his part, and booze. So much booze. He was trained by Batman, he had a bigger than average resistance to… well, everything, and still, he got so, so wasted.

Saturday’s hungover was cured with more booze. They hit casino after casino, danced over tables, payed a bar owner to close for the night and let them work their way through his entire supply, went to some neon party at someone’s exceedingly large hotel suite (the guy wasn’t getting his deposit back), his cellphone was thrown on a fountain after Cassie got sick of it going off again and again with Dick’s predetermined ringtone, drank some more, were kicked out of yet another casino...

At some point Tam appeared (a very drunk Tim had hugged her and spun her around so fast her stilettos went flying and almost blinded someone), and they all went back to the hotel, where Kon basically manhandled him into a white suit. More booze when Tim started asking questions, followed by a two hour long stay at some park were Cassie, Bart and Kon took turns holding his hand, and then each others’, with Tam saying something about bonds, and family, and sickness, and health in the background, Kon muttering something in kryptonian and making Tim repeat it, Cassie dropping to one knee and sprouting some Amazonian speech, Bart jumping on his back after his own speech (futuristic laws and all) was done, then more booze, partying and….

Well, everything was a blur, before and after that.

They woke up saturday morning with the worst headache, in a undignified puppy pile back at their suit, minus Tam who apparently had her own room. Kon’s TTK took care of the blinds and Tim blinked awake at the sound (Robin instincts), looked at his sleeping friends and then went back to sleep, head pillowed by Bart’s butt, with Cassie’s knee denting his ribs and Kon’s arm thrown over his neck, completely disregarding the three rings hanging from his shiny new necklace.

That was a problem for sober Tim to solve.

---.----

Monday morning, Tim went back to the office, Tam by his side, acting like everything was perfectly fine.

Dick called after lunch asking about his whereabouts that past weekend, claiming he was missed during patrol, but backed down when informed he was actually relaxing with his friends. Bruce didn’t ask, probably had tracked him down the second he couldn’t find him and let him be after realizing he was at Las Vegas.

Everyone that saw them walking down WE’s hallways would have swore a trail of classic music followed them, graceful and elegant.

In Tim’s mind, however, the background sound was the kill bill sirens and blaring red lights.

Tam felt like a queen, coming back after conquering treacherous lands.

Tim felt like Jason may have been onto something when he died.

----.----

When the Big Day (capital letters included) arrived, and Tim got into the stage to accept his diploma (Honor Student, of course), his eyes automatically went to the loud, rowdy teenagers, sitting as close to the front as possible, cheering and smiling.

He was far enough that it could’ve been a trick of the light, but he thought he could see all three of them going misty-eyed. His own eyes watered when he shook the headmaster's hand and posed with his diploma for the cameras (Wayne Heir Graduating would be trending on every magazine by dinnertime), his friends never stopping yelling his name.

When the time came to throw the little hats, he catched by the corner of his eye how Bart held both Cassie’s and Kon’s hands, keeping them from flying in their emotion. If one paid close attention, their feet actually were floating juuust above the ground. They were just so genuinely excited for him, it was… it was amazing.

After as little smalltalk as possible with his classmates, he sneaked away into some hidden spot, away from prying cameras, and waited. Sure enough, his best friends were there barely ten seconds later, and using that same speed, they swept him off his feet. Bart was the first, latching to his front, Kon a close second jumping on his back and hugging his head. Cassie, ever the showoff, threw her hands around the three of them and spun them around as if they weighted nothing to her. That was probably the case.

-You did it, you did it, you did it!!!! Oh my god, this is so crash!!!

-Not that we had any doubt, with that big brain of yours. Making a girl so proud.

-Speak for yourself. Personally, I feared the worst. This is Gotham, after all.

-But nothing happened! And you GRADUATED!

Tim let out a laugh, allowing himself to just feel joy. Letting them see him like that, as payment for being the most awesome friends (family) in existence, he returned the hug, squeezing back as strongly as his non meta arms could.

Then, a voice behind them that he absolutely didn't expect- Congratulations, Master Timothy.

Without letting any of them go, Cassie turned around, so they could all see Alfred Pennyworth, in his Sunday’s best, looking proud and warm, his eyes glazed over with nostalgia when they landed on his young charge. One of the young men he had the honor to watch grow into the amazing person he was today.

Even more surprising, he held a tablet on his arms, screen facing them, with a familiar figure there, white streak and leather but no firearms, probably cautious of possible civilians around.

-Hey, baby bird. Sorry ‘couldn’t be ther’ p’rsonally. Hope ya don’t mind me an’ Alfie crashing like this.

-A-Alfred? Jason? What… I thought you were in Russia!!

The man on the screen scratched the back of his head, visibly uncomfortable but determined.

-Am, actually. But it’s yer big day, babybird. Wouldn’t missit for the world.

Tim’s already watery eyes just overflowed.

-----.----

It took a month for shit to hit the fan. Tim was honestly impressed, because things rarely went his way, and getting more than a few hours to mentally prepare for Disaster? Unheard of. What a shocker.

When it did went down, it was in large part because he was milking the ‘no metas in Gotham’ rule that kept his team at bay and allowed him to go days without sleeping. Kon would say it was karmatic retribution for ignoring their orders to relax and take it easy. He would protest, but really, how to deny the truth; if not for his sleep deprivation, his secret would have gone a lot longer without being unveiled.

Between hacking into Lexcorp, running the dna samples he took during patrol half an hour ago on the database and finishing his report of the night, he was out of fucks to give. Damian bitching on his ear was the last drop.

-...And your mere presence here is an insult to Grayson's legacy. He founded it, Todd died for it, what did you even contribute to it?

A slow blink. Tim was aware his brain to mouth filter was as good as gone, but tired as he was, he just didn't care.

-Besides providing the brains on this whole fucking operation? Pants, I guess. Common sense. Ninja skills commended by your own grandfather, the king of ninjas. Virtue, too, since Dick is a verified hoe and Jason slept with your/

-C'mon Timmy -cut in Dick, Nightwing suit halfway down his chest, when Damian's face was turning an alarming shade of blue- aren't you a little old to be fighting a kid?

-Who are you calling kid?!

Typical, big bro to the rescue. Tim was too tired to be disappointed that once again Dick was siding with an eleven year old bully that kept harassing Tim. Never mind that he had been minding his business before Damian came to bark at him.

-Boys -chided Bruce and, huh, Tim had said that out loud. Whatever, not like it wasn't true. Fuck them.

-Fuck you -he told… Bruce? Dick? Definitely Damian, too- all.

-Tim! -gasped Dick. Still half naked. Standing right by Damian's side.

That kid was going to have a very uncomfortable sexual awakening any day now.

-SHUT UP, DRAKE! YOU ARE DISGUSTING!

Wow he really needed to stop talking out loud.

-Tim -And now Bruce was walking towards them, frown firmly in place- you are obviously too tired, if you can't control what comes out of your mouth. Go to sleep.

Tim hissed at him. Dick looked too shocked to answer but Bruce, somewhat used to that reaction of the sleep deprived teen, loomed even more.

-I'm an emancipated adult. I control your company. I live on my own. You're not the boss of me.

Now even Damian was looking at him open mouthed. Whatever. The computer pinged with his results, just as his phone did with his 'The hubbies and waifus' group chat.

-What's gotten into you, kiddo? -now Dick was worried, throwing an arm around his shoulders. Still half naked, that was an important detail.

Tim shrugged him away.

-Fucking demon spawn coming from nowhere to fuck with me just for the hell of it puts me in a bad mood, I'm weird like that -he deadpaned, replying to the group chat one handed- And the rest of this fucked up team siding with him just because he's a bad word away from a violent psychotic break doesn't help. Fuck off and let me do my shit, and I'll be out of your hair before you know it.

And then, with a sneer, ignoring both Bruce's and Dick's flabbergasted expressions, Damian said what would be Tim's down fall.

-Go to hell, Drake.

A ping made Tim look down at his phone and he replied without thinking, one hand tapping away at the screen- Wait, let me ask my wife.

A beat of silence. One sneer, one grunt, one surprised gasp.

Bruce made a half step towards him- Tim, what/?

A ping.

-She says no. Hang on, let me get you a second opinion, just to be safe.

-Timmy, what do you mean/?

Another one.

-Husband number one says no, too. Husband number two hasn't replied, probably asleep or traveling somewhere, but two already win by majority. It seems it's a ‘no’ on going to hell for me. Bummer, it would have been funny seeing your homeland, brat.

-...

-Aaaaand that’s my cue to interrupt -announced a new voice above them all. Kon, phone at hand, looked down with half amused, half guarded expression-. Someone hasn’t held their end of the deal and slept eight hours, huh, bud?

Tim, ignoring his family that hadn’t yet recovered from the bomb, shrugged- I slept eight hours. This past week. You never said they had to be consecutive hours.

The super just sighed and landed long enough to haul a too tired to resist bird in his arms- I can see you aren’t getting any sleep in Gotham. Let’s go back to the Tower, Cassie wants us to see The Princess Bride with her again.

-Don’t lie to me, you liar.

-Bart wan/

-Look at my face and tell me the truth.

-Okay, I want to see The Princess Bride again -he conceded, taking flight towards the closest exit, sleepy bird cocooned in his arms and TTK- Later, bats!

-...

Finally, Dick snapped back to reality, although the background noise in his head was one would expect in suspense movies right before the assassin jumped a unsuspecting protagonist- ...did he say ‘husbands’? As in, married?

-...

-AS IN MORE THAN ONE?

----.----

#Tim drake #kon el kent #cassie sandsmark #bart allen #tam fox #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #damian wayne #Alfred Pennyworth #core four #crack wedding

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afterspark-podcast · 4 years

Text

G1 Episode 27: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

O: And so the Autobots are like, “AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

[Intro Music]

O: Hello and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon, I’m Owls!

S: And I'm Specs.

O: Today we're going to be talking about episode number 27, Microbots. Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Okay.

O: And now in South America!

S: White people doing white people things, as they do.

O: Digging up pottery. [laughs]

S: And we know they're white people because they're treating it like a game.

O: Also, the male archaeologist says how old an artifact is, immediately after digging it up. Fuck carbon dating, real men can tell just by looking! [laughs]

S: The female scientist hits something strange while digging. Something strange, in very fashionable Decepticon purple.

O: Ohh!

S: Come to think of it her hair is about the right kind of purple too, I'm surprised the Cons didn’t kidnap her as well.

O: [laughs]

S: Or won't.

O: [laughs] Surprise! It's a spaceship.

S: These two archaeologists have unwittingly dug up the original Decepticon ship, the Nemesis.

O: Which you know, on a tangent, kind of got crashed there in Beast Wars. Ahhhh! [laughs]

S: The Decepticons uh, catch this breaking news about this fascinating find.

O: But to the Ark! Guys, guys, it's a Preceptor episode! It is gonna be a good day, he is so cute.

S: He is, we're getting our good Preceptor, proper introduction.

O: Yes, and he deserves one, cuz he is a adorable.

S: Preceptor is attempting to fix a microchip that belongs to Ironhide, um, and he's hurried along by Brawn, who's being a dick.

O: VINDICATION! Heh, Brawn is a jerk, even to his allies!

S: And we quote, “Real work is crushing Decepticons, not fussing with chips.”

O: Perceptor reminds Brawn that they fucking need him, and considering that the Cons try to blow up the planet every other week through some roundabout scientific nonsense- yes, having a scientist on staff is a good idea! [laughs]

S: Especially one who doesn't, you know, blow shit up all the time.

O: Yeah! Wheeljack is a very specialized skill set. [laughs] Preceptor enlarges the microchip to repair it.

S: Chekhov's size changing ray, anyone?

O: Why, yes. Bumblebee, being not a jackass, defends Perceptor as Brawn continues to be well, a jackass. [laughs]

S: I mean, I'd have to wonder how... basically, the team works? But I guess Preceptor is one of the newer people who arrived, so I guess it makes sense that there'd be some tension.

O: Probably, but- but Brawn just seems like a jerk. [laughs]

S: He is, he is. Optimus orders Bee, Brawn, and Ironhide to follow him as they head down to South America to stop the Decepticons from getting into their ship. Cuz the Autobots have also caught the news- the news flash.

O: Obviously, now in South America, the Cons are blowing up lots and lots of trees.

S: It's what they do.

O: Starscream is attacked by an absolutely gigantic snake.

S: It's easily as big around as his arms, man. It's super big!

O: Right! And then we have Ravage frolicking with an actual jaguar.

S: And you know, his method of dealing with it involved shooting a missile at it before easily batting the jag- the jaguar away, and the jaguar’s just like-

O: “What the fuck?” [laughs]

S: “Screw this, I’m out of here!”

O: [laughs] Right?

S: And Starscream is, you know, able to shed the snake.

O: Puns- no, no!

S: Starscream had better be-leaf that Megatron has a plan.

O: No, no, this stops now! Bonecrusher is just trundling along in the back moving some trees in vehicle mode and I just love it. I think my personal headcanon is that the Constructicons are constantly doing their actual jobs while everyone is being morons, and I love it.

S: Considering how many, you know, bases of the week the Decepticons have, yes, they are pretty-

O: Presumably, they're actually pretty good at their job is what I'm gonna go with and I- I don't know I found thought that thought very, very funny. [laughs]

S: Yup, apparently they're doing all of this to try to avoid Autobot detection by staying on the ground. So you know, they can avoid the Sky Spy detection or satellite detection or something.

O: Which makes sense, but eh… regardless, the Autobots have arrived in South America and that's not Ironhide, that’s really not Ironhide?

S: Well, Ratchet’s voice is coming out of his mouth, so we have to assume it's actually Ratchet and they didn’t just you know, miscolor him.

O: Again. The Autobots follow the trail of destruction left by the Cons.

S: Why did Prime bring the medic and two short guys?

O: I think this isn't this is an established pattern at this point. [laughs]

S: Oh, honestly, yeah.

O: Meanwhile, back with the Cons, Scavenger is scanning the ground in vehicle mode while Megatron is walking next to him. It just looks kind of weird, like you know they can turn into vehicle mode but I- I still kind of- like, oh right, Megatron is twice the height of a dump truck, right. [laughs] Like, you kind of forget when you don't have things around it you know, compare it to?

S: Yeah, well, I guess they needed their geologist, and considering the placement of Scavenger’s um, backhoe thing, which apparently his scanner is in in robot mode it makes more sense for him to do it in his alt mode.

O: Fair. They arrive on the dig site, just as the archaeologists were going to try to get into the ship, which is now more unburied than in previous shots.

S: The humans, um, flee, you know, drive off after they encounter some threatening laser fire with- that you know, misses them of course.

O: Megatron says, “Cut it open!”

S: Can't you just find the door?

O: Specs, Specs, he forgot the password, it has been a several million years, hello? [laughs]

S: Couldn’t you just, you know, get your construction crew to take the door off the hinges or something?

O: [laughs]

S: I mean seriously, there are less destructive ways to get into this thing for whatever you want in it.

O: Oh, Spe-

S: What if you destroy the thing that you're going in there for?

O: Oh, Specs, Soundwave didn't plan this out, so therefore it’s nonsensical as hell. [laughs]

S: [sighs] God. And oh look, they blasted into the part of the ship that had exactly what the fuck they wanted.

O: HOW CONVENIENT!

S: I'm surprised I didn't accidentally blow themselves up.

O: The show would be over then what would we do? [laughs]

S: Plot armor.

O: [laughs] Megatron survived a planet exploding, I think he would probably be fine.

S: Maybe not anyone else.

O: Yeah, fair.

S: Megatron wants to play doctor on the ship as he extracts this thing called the ‘Heart of Cybertron.’

O: Apparently, he just wanted to be a medic in every continuity, who knew?

S: Like, I think he borrows a laser scalpel from Hook or something.

O: Yeah, like, he- he doesn't even have like, the innate um-

S: Thingy.

O: -equipment to do it, is what's funny. But he does it, he doesn't blow them up. Which we establish later this thing is explosive.

S: Yeah, cuz apparently this this thing is an energy maximizer, whatever the fuck that means.

O: Yeah, I know, who knows. [laughs]

S: And then Megatron just hands it to Hook and says, “Put it inside me,” and then lays on the ground, where you know-

O: What the fuck? What the fuck? [laughs]

S: It’s an impromptu surgery.

O: [continues laughing]

S: And then Hook just kind of shoves it in there, where his spark chamber would be, I guess? In a later continuity but this is- this is the G1 cartoon, there's no sparks.

O: There's no continuity, but I will remind you we know sparks exist, retroactively by way of Beast Wars. Sorry! Heh, this will be the soapbox I die on, apparently? [laughs]

S: Megatron is super buff now, metaphorically speaking.

O: But then Optimus shows up, and orders [an] attack. [Clears throat] But, uh, wait a minute, so you're telling me that Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Brawn are just gonna take on Suped up Megs, Soundwave, Starscream, Ravage, Rumble, and at least some of the Constructicons, if not all six of them and/or possibly Devastator?

S: Optimus has completely confidence.

O: IN WHAT!?!

S: Ratchet being able to out medic the Constructicons, I don't know.

O: I don’t know how that solves Megatron shooting purple force lightning out of his fingertips!

S: Well, I guess Mega- I guess Optimus doesn't know how to deal with it either cuz he takes it straight to the- straight to the chest and he falls off a cliff.

O: [laughs] Of course! And a quick commercial break and Cliffjumper manifests out of nowhere!

S: Well, see, now that they don't have to animate Optimus moving, they have more of a budget to deal with all these other pesky characters. So just pretend they were there all along!

O: Well, speaking of pesky characters- Bluestreak and Ironhide are here now too.

S: And there's-

O: Did I mean Smokescreen?

S: Uh, I honestly don't remember.

O: [laughs] Now- that may have- I may have meant Smokescreen, because for some reason I keep getting the two mixed up when I'm taking notes. So, I do apologize, uh, but two more characters show up is what we're getting at.

S: Yeah, then they're both immediately taken out by Megatron's force lightning because, of course.

O: Of course!

S: And then Brawn.

O: YES! Pay for your sins Brawn, your sins of being a dick to Perceptor!

S: And then Ratchet is hit, and then Huffer shows up, before getting immediately unlucky and he's like, “I hope I'm lucky!”

O: And then he’s not. He’s not. But now, iguana.

B: [laugh]

S: [sighs] And with that uh, lovely lizardly intermission.

B: [laugh]

S: Smokescreen is trying to rouse Prime.

O: Prime is up, but Windcharger is down. [laughs]

S: Okay, so, um, so is the going rate for Optimi six Autobots or are they all going to go away now that Optimus is up?

O: [still laughing] Who knows? But Optimus apparently knows about the Heart of Cybertron which is the thing that he- that was just shoved into Megs that I have to ask, “How?”

S: Apparently, they just didn't give a damn about finding it before now, or they thought it was maybe in the ocean, though I don't know why they wouldn't have been concerned about that considering…

O: Yeah, cuz they- again, we establish later it is explosive. [laughs]

S: Yes, and also that the Decepticons live in the ocean.

O: Right. Now it is time for a Smokescreen to show us why his name is Smokescreen.

S: As he does. Megatron angrily shoots in random directions while yelling, because he can't see through the smoke that Smokescreen....

O: Has smoked out.

S: Yes.

O: Optimus orders everyone to fire on Megatron.

S: And Hoist is here too.

O: They blast the hill, burying all the Cons under a rock slide. Which no, Soundwave my poor blue son, and Rumble my poor blue garbage baby! [laughs]

S: We also got confirmation Grapple’s here too, as Optimus orders him, Hoist and Ratchet to get the wounded out of there.

O: Back at the Ark, Preceptor meets the wounded Autobots as they arrive at the entrance to the Ark.

S: God, that must have been some commute.

O: Yeah, from South America! Presumably without Skyfire?

S: I guess? I mean, maybe Skyfire just turns up, picks them up and drops them off, who the hell knows?

O: He was on vacation, and you know, they- they had to call him in, who knows?

S: Yeah. And Brawn is continuing his modus operandi for this episode aka, jackassery.

O: Of course! Wheeljack... was also in the earlier fight as he's now among the wounded, despite us never seeing him.

S: I think I can just assume apparently all the Autobots were there.

O: Right.

S: Getting their asses-

O: Most of them.

S: Getting there butts kicked. I don’t know. Uh, the Cons proceed to unbury themselves and then we’re back at the Ark.

O: Wee! [laughs]

S: Preceptor is uh, also working on a wounded Powerglide.

O: Jesus! I know we said it, but like, there were so many Bots in South America! So many!

S: A good chunk of them.

O: Perceptor puts forth the suggestion that a group of Autobots should shrink themselves in enter Megatron to disconnect the Heart of Cybertron.

S: It's not exactly a bad plan, it's just if they had this before now we didn't they think to use it and they're never gonna-

O: Or some other, yeah… who the fuck knows?

S: And it's never gonna come up again.

O: But Optimus seems game! Brawn is still very unhappy, but Optimus orders Bee and Brawn to accompany Perceptor into Megatron.

S: Preceptor’s so sassy about all this.

O: The sassiest of microscopes. And I know Perceptor said they were going to be ‘microscopic,’ but I swear they're just toy sized.

S: I think you mean ‘fun sized’.

O: Well, obviously I mean fun sized. [laughs]

S: They’d fit quite nicely on your desk.

O: Wouldn’t they though? Powerglide is tasked with getting them near enough to Megatron so they can infiltrate the Decepticon camp. It is time for booze!

S: Or as a fanon and calls it ‘high-grade’. AKA, robot booze.

O: Pretty much, so all the Decepticons get super drunk.

S: And everybody but Megs is passed out on the ground super stone cold drunk.

O: So what you're saying is, he can hold his booze then?

S: I think everyone else is just a really light drinker.

O: [laughs] Mm, mostly Seekers in all fairness.

S: And he passes out immediately afterwards, so no, I don’t think he can hold his booze better than anyone else.

O: [laughs]

S: I think he’s just got a better force of will.

O: [continues laughing] Powerglide makes the drop, and the tiny Autobots scramble out of their container and into Megatron.

S: Megatron wakes up and sees Powerglide and orders an attack. But of course all the other Cons are stumbling around and not able to actually move.

O: Including poor Laserbeak, who nose dives into the ground. Which is sad, but also hilarious.

S: And Megatron just decides that he's gonna deal with all this shit by himself and flies off.

O: [laughs]

S: Gonna be him against all what, two hundred Autobots?

O: Something like that, which maybe with the Heart of Cybertron he’ll be fine? [laughs]

S: Unless he goes boom, but I mean, I don’t think-

O: Boom baby! Boom baby!

S: I don’t think he’s gonna go boom.

O: A planet went boom and he didn't care, why would he care if be exploded?

S: Well, if it's inside him it's going to be more of an issue than if it's outside him. I don't think his armor has that sort of structural integrity.

O: I’m just imagining Megatron staying like, perfectly calm through sheer force the of will.

S: [sighs]

O: Or rage, one of those.

S: I don't think he's internal bits are as-

O: Probably not. [laughing]

S: -hardy as his outer bits, okay?

O: Ah, so, while he’s still- while- he decides to take on all of the Autobots he is still pretty darn drunk, and I just want to know where's my footage of him flying straight into a radio tower or something?

S: [sighs] Meanwhile, inside Megatron, whatever passes for Cybertron white blood cells are trying to rid his body of the um, microorganisms that are being Bee, Brawn, and Perceptor. Or-

O: Brawn- oops, sorry go ahead.

S: Or BBP.

O: [laughs] Brawn, being good at only one thing, which is you know, beating shit up- actually manages to destroy a few of them

S: He just tears them apart... with some oddly well animated movement.

O: Our motley crew continues on their micro excursion arriving at Megatron's shoulder joint.

S: And the- the naturally occurring gears, pulleys, and levers that the Marvel Comics say they evolved from.

O: Obviously. Cutting to Optimus, we are told Megatron's ten minutes out from the Autobot base.

S: Our tiny robots arrive at Megatron's brain module.

O: Why don't they just shoot it?

S: Apparently they just... I don't know, Preceptor and Bumblebee might have moral objections, but I'm not sure why Brawn just didn't do it. It's a bad idea to shoot, you know, your pilot or the brain of the robot you're currently hitching a ride in. You don't want…

O: [sighs] Fair.

S: You're gonna get kind of smooshed.

O: Splatted. [laughs]

S: Anyway, Brawn had the exact same idea.

O: Oh fuck no!

S: I guess he does have some good ideas sometimes but there, um- he's a jackass too.

O: [laughs]

S: Wheeljack tells Optimus, and by Optimus I mean us, that they have a force field up and it will only last five minutes under Megatron's attack so... are they limited by the amount of power that they have access to or just…I don’t know.

O: Um-mm, but we've got a 15 minute buffer, apparently. I don't know why they keep giving us exact times. Megatron arrives, and Optimus rallies all available Autobots to buy Perceptor more time.

S: [sighs] Bee and Perceptor pull Brawn back from Megatron's brain. Perceptor also tells us that the Star of Cybertron is super explosive, so Megatron falling down will be super bad.

O: Right. Megatron has started thinking, as brain impulses are starting to fly around his brain.

S: It's hilarious that Megatron just does a lot of stuff without thinking apparently.

O: Oh, I'm sorry, they’re evil impulses, that's important.

S: Yeah, I don't know how they pocess- oh god, do not evil impulses not show up like that?

O: [makes a bunch of confused noises and laughs] I dunno know.

S: Well, um, regardless uh, BBP hitch a ride on one of the impulses to the Heart of Cybertron cuz apparently that's how-

O: You get around a Megatron, mm-hmm.

S: Well apparently that’s how the Cybertronian nervous system works.

O: Apparently! There's some really nice animation in this. Is that why there were so few robots in some of the earlier scenes, you think? [laughs]

S: I guess they spent all their money on the special effects.

O: Perceptor advises caution when they arrive at the Heart of Cybertron otherwise they might set a bust the bomb.

S: You might set off the bomb, um, yeah, um, let's not do that.

O: Outside, Megatron gets through the Autobots forcefield.

S: As in, it shatters like literal glass.

O: Which seems to be a pattern with force fields in the show at this point. Perceptor disconnects the last wires, the three of them grab the star, and book it out of Megatron's body.

S: Mass shifting all the way home.

O: Megatron’s face, when three Autobots climb out of his shoulder are- is pretty fucking great by the way. [laughs]

S: Bumblebee turns around and says, “Excuse us!”

O: Of course! Megatron then calls them ‘retro rats’ and just flies off.

S: Oh no! The star is to destabilizing, or the heart is destabilizing, or whatever the hell it is.

O: [laughs]

S: Because the heart destabilizing, Brawn heaves [it] into space with- I don't know, a massive swing of his short stubby arm or something.

O: [laughs] And Perceptor shoots it, once it’s two thousand miles away, causing Brawn to now be a convert to Perceptorism, as he calls Perceptor his friend.

S: Perceptor just looks happy about this.

O: Which, I mean, fair. [sighs] Uh, join us next time for, “The Master Builder.”

S: Or the Constructicons seduce Grapple and Hoist, with words.

O: [laughs]

S: Alright, so we have two fic recommendations, one from me and one from Owls. The first one is, “Domestic Electronics,” by Bibliotecaria_D. And it's an IDW G1 AU, very AU.

O: Very!

S: But it- it’s not rated. Generally Gen, there aren’t really any pairings. The main characters are an original human, and then there’s uh, the rest of the cast is effectively original humans or the IDW ensemble.

O: [chuckles]

S: [sighs] And in summary, “Once upon a job in retail, an average Joe took home a returned domestic electronic from the Transformers brand. These are a glimpse into a normal life with tiny electro domestics running rampant through the apartment.” Character or theme or rec is basically, it’s got a bunch of tiny robots.

O: [laughs]

S: The cartoon has a bunch of tiny robots.

O: Yes!

S: Or well, several tiny robots. Just tiny robots.

O: [laughs]

S: At this point I think, “Domestic Electronics,” is complete and that's the note that we have on here because Bibliotecaria_D doesn't seem to be uh, active anymore.

O: But they have the fic marked as complete. It seems like they were kind of periodically adding stuff to it even though? But what's there is still really good, and I do recommend cuz it's very enjoyable to read.

S: Yep.

O: Alright, so my recommendation for today is, “Chronic,” by LittleMissSweetgrass. The continuity is IDW, the rating is T, it is slash it is uh, the pairing is Cosmos/Soundwave. Our characters are Cosmos, Soundwave, Rest-Q, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw.

And in summary, “Everyone had secrets. This was just a fact of life, and ever since the war started secrets became something of a currency something to trade or exchange for more. Secrets are what helped fuel the war and mechs had dedicated their whole lives just to find these hidden treasures. Cosmos’ personal secrets weren't anything that would be considered interesting or sought-after since the war was over. See, Cosmos was a mini bot.”

And then the type is one shot, but it is part of a series. This is actually the second part of this- of uh, one I recommended earlier called, “Quiet.” It it's all part of the- the same series of Soundwave/Cosmos stuff.

S: I’ve read this one, it’s good, I liked it.

O: Ah, yeah, I like their stuff. [laughs]

S: And then I believe we also have art for you to recommend.

O: Yes, our recommendation for today is for Rikuta. They seemed like they were primarily doing Prime. They have a Tumblr, a Pixiv, and the Twitter, at least as of the last time I checked. They have some really cute Prime artwork, in particular I like their Knockout, uh, Breakdown stuff. Today we've linked some artwork of Knockout and Breakdown making flower crowns, a Cyclonus/Tailgate comic, and some Megatron/Optimus art which is- uh, I love all of it. [laughs] But uh, yeah, just, Cyclonus and Tailgate being Cyclonus and Tailgate. And uh, cute Knockout/Breakdown stuff, and uh, Optimus and Megatron from Prime.

S: I’ve seen their art, I liked it.

O: Yeah, I did too.

S: And that just about wraps it up for us today. Remember to check us out on Tumblr and Pillowfort as the Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word), and various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast, such as AO3, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and YouTube, just to name a few. Till next time, I'm Specs.

O: And I’m Owls!

S: Toodles.

[Outro Music]

#transcript #afterspark podcast #afterspark #g1 episode 27

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bluboothalassophile · 6 years

Note

Hi Blu! So i recently heard a cover of the song Creep and the chorus: "And I wish I was special You're so fuckin' special. But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here," really had me thinking of both Raven and Jason and i was wondering if you'd write a story of them constantly thinking this thought through their lives and it's hitting them hard and they finally open up and its to each other. I really just war to see them react yup each other crying. Thx u

Hello,

I don’t know what happened, other than I couldn’t seem to go on an angst story for some reason with your request. So I hope you still enjoy it. =)

An Outlaw Now…

She sighed as she took a swig of her whiskey and justbreathed.

It’d been a shitty excuse of a day, and rather than beresponsible, because she was totally over being responsible, she was here inthis dive nursing her third whiskey, and a beer. She had just received anotherscathing lecture from the JL about her behavior and her reckless use of herabilities; as she had shielded an entire city from an oncoming tsunami.

Sorry, she wasn’t perfect, she hadn’t saved everyone! Shehad tried, and she had saved as many lives as she could.

Still, she had to hear about how Superman, or Dr. Fate, orZatanna would have done it all better. And as much as Raven hated to hear that,she thought the Justice League should shove it up their asses. Hell, she hadeven said as much; right to the face of Bats and Supes! It had felt unbelievablyfan-fucking-tastic!

She had been so furious she had shouted she quit, stomped onher communicator and stormed out of the Watch Tower, not even bothering to usethe zeta tube. She had stormed through the ranks of the Titans, watching themwatch her leave, and she didn’t give a shit.

Raven was exhausted.

The unrealistic expectation that everyone could be saved,while a nice dream, was an impossibility. One the Justice League seemed tostill have a difficulty accepting. And the Titans as well. And if it made her acreep, or a weirdo for thinking that then so be it, she was damned to hellalready.

There was a stranger hunched over at the corner of the bar, nearher, and he was nursing his own whiskey, as far as she could tell and he lookedso miserable and alone she sighed as she got up and moved over a stool.

“What you moping for?” she hummed tiredly.

His eyes flicked up to her and she recognized Jason Todd.

“Nothing, you?”

“Justice League is being an asshole, so I told them theycould shove it up their ass and walked out,” she answered bluntly.

He blinked a few times.

“I got reamed for not saving a child molester today,” he answered.

“Oh, you too?” she asked.

“Fucker deserved what he got, why the fuck should I savehim? I had to save the kid, and there was fire everywhere, what does it matterif he’s dead? He was killing that kid?” Jason demanded.

“You cannot save everyone, and some monsters deserve death,”she said solemnly as she took a sip of her drink.

“What’d you do?”

“I didn’t save everyone, I was trying to stop a fuckingtsunami, where was my team? Battling a monster? Who was left with collateral andcivilian clean up? Just me, only one person. I couldn’t save everyone, I tried,”she sighed. “I’m a bloody demon, not a fucking angel, I wouldn’t have been ableto save them all if I tried,” she muttered.

“How many did you save?”

“The city,” she answered.

“And the still reamed you?”

“Of course,” she shrugged as she rolled her eyes. It wasdifficult to be a member of the hero community if one did not fit their cookiecutter mold of goodie two shoes. It didn’t matter that there were other JLmembers with greater failures than hers, all that mattered was she was a creep,a demon, a weirdo, and different, so they were going to berate her attempts atsaving people. She was so tired of it.

“I think you’re pretty fucking special if you could singlehandedly save a city from a tsunami,” Jason said.

“And I think you’re pretty awesome if you saved a kid from aburning building,” she replied. There was a pinkening of his cheeks which hadher smiling as she sipped her whiskey.

“So what now for you?” he asked.

“I’m thinking home,” she said tiredly. She would go home,she was tired of being the freak and monster, she would just go home, fuck all ofthem, she could live a quiet life on Azar and not have to fight monsters,demons, or villains, she could just go live. “I’m too much of a freak to doanything outside the hero world, too much of a monster to belong in the hero world, and too evil to go to thedark side. I think I’ll just go home,” she sighed.

“You could be an Outlaw,” Jason said.

She looked over at him.

“No pressure, just an offer, you’re pretty fucking amazing,and I’m out a team,” he said carefully.

She smiled a bit. “Not scared of me are you?”

“Are you scared of me?”

“I’m a demon, Jason, I don’t do fear,” she retorted.

“And I’m an aboniation, I don’t do fear either, sunshine,”he smiled.

“A sorry pair we be,” she sighed.

“Yes, a sorry pair indeed.”

“Fuck it, I’m in, when do we start?” she asked.

“We’re Outlaws, we’re going to sit here and have anotherbeer, then we’ll go find some trouble to get up into.”

“I like this plan.”

“Fuck the Bats, and the JL,” Jason cheered.

“They can shove their pompous double standards up theirfucking asses,” she cheered.

“Jason Todd,” he held out his hand.

“Raven, nice to officially meet you,” she smiled.

“Nice to meet you too,” he decided.

She smiled as she took another sip of her drink. They wereboth content to sit there for the moment, and for a moment, Raven would admitshe didn’t feel as much like a freak as she normally did. everyone was alwaysstandoffish with her being a demon.

Jason and she just sat there and she wondered if this wasall worth it. If this is where she could belong, and for a change, not haveunrealistic expectations shoved onto her shoulders.

Raven could be as strong as Atlas, she had done it before, butshe didn’t think she could bear the weight of the world alone; and the JusticeLeague and the Titans always made her stand alone.

She hoped the Outlaws would be different.

#bluboothalassophile #fanfic #one shot #jason todd #raven

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homelanderdsm · 3 years

Text

It has been a few years since I became the leader of the Seven. With the face of a movie star and the power of the best God. It goes without saying that he’s the only one who’s qualified for this position despite his young age. Surely, there are other superheroes, some are powerful, others have quite unique powers, but Homelander is unequivocally the strongest and most durable supe the world has ever seen; a walking weapon of mass destruction without any weaknesses.

On the surface, he’s perfect, affable and sincere, the mbodiment of America. Nothing is what it seems, though; terror, trauma and pain lie beneath the surface. Even as a child already, he’s tested how far he can go. He’s always known what he’s capable of and just wants to see how much he can get away with.

And the answer is everything. He can get away with everything. His actions never have consequences.

Occasionally, Vought International tried to control him and his outbursts, but it mostly ended up in another dead person; a small price to pay for having the most powerful superhero alive on their side. There’s no one above him, no one to look up to for guidance, no one that can control him— until he met her, Madelyn Stillwell, the new Senior Vice President of the hero management. She’s different than the superiors before her, he’s noticed it the first time he met her several weeks ago.

To no one’s surprise, today was one of these days again when Homelander lashed out at one of the employees of Vought. The man came to him, dared to say something wrong, thought he could tell him what to do. Within a matter of seconds, he was dead. He honestly just wanted to scare him a bit, play his games, but he choked him a little too firmly and ended up literally crushing his throat. Well, these things just happen. Luckily, there were no witnesses, but he’d left an ugly mess behind.

Usually, Vought would just silently accept it, clean up the mess and act like it was just another accident at work, but today it would be different. He was sent to the Vice President’s office, obviously annoyed already. Without even knocking, he opened the door and walked into her office.

“I honestly have better things to do — and so do you, I assume. So, why am I here?”, he asked.

They say women couldn’t be able to handle a man’s tantrums but boy they were wrong, Madelyn who has worked with many and dare say many men all throughout her entire career even though most of them wanted to bring her down none of them succeeded that’s why she is good no, great at what she does best with of course the help of her ruthless efficiency when it comes to things that she wants to happen and should happen in the future. When the news got to her that Vought International is finding a new Senior Vice President for hero management because one of the Supes is hard to handle or rather no one dared to even level themselves with this one Supe who just causes all kinds of trouble and get away with everything, which in her view maybe that person just did something that he or she thinks is applicable then knowing Vought and what they are capable of, she would have thought about it either wise thus Madelyn Stillwell decided to accept the offer because it seems that it’ll be once in a life time to have, so why the hell not right? Until she met Homelander, the Supe that’s been causing Vought pretty much everything and not wanting their all time American hero that mostly kids looked up too. Sure it intimidates her to be handling America’s favorite group but something about him is different, in that moment Madelyn knew that she can control him or at least use and take advantage of whatever missing piece of someone to him and the brunette could be the replacement, it’ll be easy all it needed is ruthless efficiency. And it is one of those days yet again that Homelander lashed out

at someone and ended up killing them in the process, no press or anyone would get the real and whole story about how it happened, it is usually the accident of a clumsy employee that touched this or that. And this time there’s a task that is needed to be set and that’s the goal for that day and in the following days of her as a Senior Vice President. Watching him waltz into her office without even knocking, a small smile appears on her lips as she walks over to the door, closing it. “You know why you are here, Homelander, and you know what you’ve done; maybe you could get away with it with Vought but not me, so you and I will talk; our better things to do can wait.”

Hearing her words, Homelander grits his teeth and scoffs. This woman is so extremely calm and sure of herself, he doesn’t like it, isn’t used to such a behavior towards him. Usually, people immediately give in whenever he wants something, too frightened of him to confront him with anything.

Nevertheless, he would lie if he said that it wasn’t a quite pleasant change. He isn’t able to sense a hint of fear in Madelyn, and when he casually uses his superhuman hearing to detect her heartbeat, he only finds out that it’s as normal as a heartbeat should be— no anxiety or anything of that sort. This certainly awakens his interest because he hasn’t met many people at Vought before who aren’t scared of him. In fact, there’s only one he could think of now: his creator.

“Look, I know you’re new to this job so you’re overambitious and take this whole ‘managing the supes’ thing a little too serious. You wanna impress Vought, I get that, but there’s absolutely nothing to talk about.”

An amused smile breaks across his smug face, icy-blue eyes remain directly fixed upon her. “Just silently accept it like the rest. There’s not really anything else you can do. Accidents just happen,” he then says and shrugs indifferently.

To say that this is going to be difficult is something that she finds challenging though Madelyn didn’t even bat that sense of fear nor anxiety or even distress that she has to deal with one of America’s favorite Super although there have been talks about how this particular Super would just intimidate people so that they’ll just accept it. Thus she has decided to study Homelander beforehand to at least prepare herself for whatever wrath that she’s going to be able to take from the man himself; a master of being calm on certain situations without actually getting pressed into doing something irrational about it that’s why this is the job for her. Instead of being offended by the man to just asked her face to face to accept it like the rest of the staff and everyone from the company would she laughs it off, more likely it could and would annoy him more. “Homelander, you and I both know that there’s a lot to talk about and if you think I can just accept it like the rest then you’re in for a wrong thing, dear.” Thus the woman approaches him and guides him with her hands to let him sit down on the couch before sitting down beside him; her hands are placed on her lap before she speaks once more. “You might have gotten used to of my past predecessors of silently accepting this fact that you can get away with it but I don’t, people look up to you as a God, someone who has descended from somewhere and they love everything about you.” Making him realize how if that goes out to the public people will look the other way otherwise; without even hesitating Madelyn decided to put her hands on either side of his cheek; almost as

if she’s taking advantage of her own calm demure. “Let’s help each other.”

Homelander was about to protest, to tell her that she was wrong. Gods are cruel, they require blood and dispense suffering without reason. And he, this human creation that is so close to being a god, might as well have ascended from hell. The people of America worship the wrong messiah.

However, when he suddenly felt her warm hands against his cheeks, he instantly flinched and pulled away, unfamiliar to such a gentle touch. From one moment to the other, he went from extremely confident to tensed and confused. It was a mere touch, but he acted as if it burned him in some way.

He furrowed his brows and didn’t really know how to react as her touch momentarily took his mind back to childhood memories, to all the women he’d killed (sometimes accidentally, sometimes not) when being locked up in that laboratory, the ones he had frantically wanted to be his mother, to love him and care about him. After all, it’s the mother who loved them first, whom they loved first. If there’s one permanent fixture in a boy’s life, it is his mother. But he never had that and obviously didn’t get over it, even after all these years. Instead of trying to find a way to deal with it, he suppressed his trauma and memories; the lack of a mother in addition to his godlike powers turned him into a monster.

“What is this? What are you doing? Why would you assume that I need your help? You want something from me, not the other way around,” retorted the superhero through clenched teeth.

Madelyn knows that the best way for him to believe her on what she’s doing is something also surprising to her even though she knows in herself that there’s this window time to understand this human creation that has the Godlike ability to do anything he wants; seeing how the warm hands of hers against his cheeks made him flinch because of how gentle it was, because of how comforting it was to someone who has never experienced physical let alone confinement in those touches. ( faking) a wide eyes from the woman as if she also didn’t know what she has done; if he wants a mother? Then she’d be willing to do just that thus Madelyn then gave him a soft yet calmed look; knowing that he can end her right then and there but of course the always optimistic look from her prevails. “Homelander, I didn’t know that you’d react that way, my apologies; perhaps I want something from you but that’s only because I want to help you with this, I know not everyone understands what you’ve been through as a kid but I can. You don’t have to be afraid of me, I promise to be there for you always even give you all my time and attention.” And even her undivided attention towards him if it means to wrap her fingers around him like he’s some puppet. “I’m not afraid of you.” He scoffed at her words and looked away, not wanting her to see the look in his eyes. For her other words struck him, deeper than they should have. He didn’t like to be confronted with his past, preferred to suppress it. So Madelyn mentioning it was certainly a bold move, one others would likely regret. He would briefly lose it, throw a tantrum or end up doing even worse like earlier that day, but right now he seemed rather calm— as calm as could be expected under the circumstances. Maybe it was because of her soothing voice or the promise she’d just made.

Still, Homelander was convinced that her concern was anything but genuine. How could she understand what he’d been going through? She couldn’t, no one could. And she came far too late if she thought she could help him with anything. He was a lost cause.

He then brought his icy blue gaze back to hers, a hint of pain visible in his eyes. “How the fuck could you possibly understand what I’ve been through? You see a few videos, hear some stories, and think you know everything about me. There’s nothing you can help me with. So you can now stop acting like you care.”

Of course he would refuse to talk about his problems at first, he would never admit that he needs help. He himself doesn’t even realize that he has great issues due to the isolation-induced depression he’s never dealt with.

Penetrating someone through words and promises is already harder than actually making it up to them in a sense though she didn’t want to stop rather would want to take that to the advantage as someone would say the ball is in her court or getting there in a sense. It is indeed a bold move yet she didn’t seem to have that apologetic look thus this all seem so easy for her to do; waiting for him to do what he has done to that poor man earlier yet minutes passed and none of that happened slowly she understands that Homelander is just going to trust her one way or another.

“It isn’t because of that, partially but I can read people, you have to trust me for what will I do is for you and I can help you with anything you want.” A small pause before briefly cracking a small smile; ah that kind of care because of the soothing voice.

“I care for you, I really do and you need help and I am here to do that.”

Insisting on doing so which Madelyn just slowly yet tentatively touches his hand once again, soothing it.

His blue gaze dropped to her hand on his gloved one. He didn’t flinch this time nor pull away from her touch, he just sat there silently for a few moments, thinking about her words. No one had ever told him that, and while he partly still believed that this was nothing but a

way to manipulate him into trusting her, he also wanted to believe that it was the truth. He felt something he hadn’t felt in a very long time, something he had searched for ever since he was just a boy. He was about to give in, slowly but surely.

Nevertheless, he refused to admit out loud that he needed help in any way. His jaw clenched, eyes still not directed at her. “Nice fucking speech, really,” he then said ironically. “Vogelbaum’s behind this, isn’t he? All his constant talk about me being too unpredictable. He must be behind this. He told you to do this, didn’t he?” Finally his gaze met hers once more. Homelander was visibly upset. “I refuse to believe this is coming from you”

Why else would someone suddenly care about his problems? The only thing Vought cared about was their reputation and money,

nothing else.

0 notes

fuck-customers · 7 years

Text

I just had the WORST day at work and I really need to vent. This is probably gonna be pretty long, fair warning and apologies. So it’s always kind of a crapshoot when I first get to work, especially after having a day off, whether or not I’m gonna be grumpy first thing, mainly due to nothing being put away, no notes about ongoing things, no communication, that sort of thing. Plus people moving stuff around and that. Today wasn’t too, too bad, but then right off the bat started getting shitty customers. First there was some lady who was just dyyyyying to use some weird online coupon with no scan code--which, hey, that’s fine. I had called a manager over for an override already since we had manually marked down a product she was buying and I had to adjust it (as instructed) with the manager’s permission in the computer. Then, since he was already there, he handled the coupon thing (which I could have done no problem but whatever) and even though I had told her at least twice we’d need to put in the coupon code (and thus need to keep looking at her smartphone where the coupon was) she put it away before he could finish entering the “event number” which is where the code’s supposed to go. He kind of muttered, “we’ll make something up,” and I replied, “use the date?” since there’s something else we do that for occasionally. He didn’t do that, fine, I didn’t care, but as everything’s processing, he says to me, “you have to stop doing that.” Slightly confused, I asked stop what? He says putting in the date for the coupon thing. All I said was, I don’t do that for coupons, I put the code. The date thing is for something else and I couldn’t even remember what it was since I’ve done it so infrequently, which I told him. He says there’s some report that says it’s been happening, and I said, well, it’s not me, man. Note that this “manager” is really only a supervisor, and not even my direct supe at that, and he’s also younger than I am so we kid around a lot, and I know for sure he didn’t care about me saying any of that stuff. However, the customer tells me I shouldn’t “argue” with my supervisor in front of customers. I wasn’t really arguing??? Just kind of defending myself lightly, and he wasn’t mad, I wasn’t mad, it wasn’t like a heated discussion or anything. I really had no response to her, so I said nothing. She waits a beat, then tells me how mad she’d be if one of HER employees did that. And I was like, so mad, though I said nothing to her, but internally, I was like, well I don’t work for you, you don’t know our policy, our personal dynamics, and it’s not like I yelled or swore or something in front of her?? Just said, hey I don’t do what you’re saying I’m doing, in a very casual way to someone who did not care that I said it. SO that ticked me off, then I had a guy complaining that we didn’t have the same exact kind of BIC pens in black he’d been using for 20 years. I told him everything is controlled by corporate and we don’t know when or if something’s going to come back into stock, and it may well be that the company of BIC itself might be discontinuing that particular pen since they have been pushing their newer products pretty hard in-store and I wouldn’t be surprised. The box of blue ones he brought to show me what kind they were was the only box in the store left, so who knows? But he got all shirty and said they’ve been making them for 20 years and they wouldn’t just stop etc. etc. even though bruh, that shit happens all the time! And Bic has plenty of other kinds of pens to shill, so it is extremely possible, but whatever. Then I get a guy come up to the register with my co-worker, who sets down a printer without a word to me, and walks off. I was dealing with another situation at the same time, so I was trying to assess for a second what to do to best help everyone, and I decide I can ring this guy’s other, smaller items + the printer as I’m talking to the person I’d been speaking with immediately prior. Decided, I grab a package of pens he had and he turns his head and BARKS at me, “I’M NOT READY YET!” I immediately set his pens down and apologize, but he was right in the middle of the small counter I check people out at with a bunch of stuff?? Just standing there?? Like, no one else could’ve checked out until he moved??? Anyway, I go back to the first person, keep dealing with that, then see my co-worker return with a laptop, and the guy grabs his stuff, goes to the other register, and has my co-worker ring him through. And I knew he wasn’t like a friend of my co-worker’s or anything based on previous comments from said co-worker, so he just was waiting for the computer from lock-up. Like okay, but it only took a second to bring it out, and in the meantime I could have rang up his small stuff and bagged it, entered his rewards number, signed him up for a protection plan on the printer if he wanted it….there was absolutely ZILCH reason to yell at me for trying to deliver quick service?? So all night I just had these icky people being rude for no reason and I was kind of already bugged by it. Then, I go to put some stuff away from the returns bin which I normally can’t do as front-end but since we had an extra person tonight AND we were really slow, I could leave front-end to do it, and of course, I find like three aisles completely messy and a bunch more stuff out of place, and at this point it’s getting later in the evening and I had asked my co-worker earlier if the store needed faced, and he a) was like, I just faced it last night! (even though it’s supposed to be done daily AND it was like 6 when I asked so a lot of stuff probably had been messed up by then) and then b) said he’d do it before close, but then when I go to put stuff away everything’s still a mess and there’s not a ton of time left to do it PLUS I would have done it if he’d not said he would do it earlier (even though it’s not my responsibility as a cashier). On top of this, he and the other person who was training did some returns a while before I did, and a calendar I had handed to him to put away at that time (because he almost forgot to grab it) was just sitting on top of some random display of storage bins. So not one, but TWO of my fellow employees neglected to put away something they were supposed to, and had plenty of time to do so, and left it sitting out randomly, where I found it, and then I had to put it away. The real kicker is the endcap where it belonged was like maybe two feet away from where they had ditched it. Everything was just irritating me after that, but whatever, I was trying to soldier through. We just got a list of daily chores for each position that are supposed to be done, and I checked mine and it said remove cobwebs from entrance. So okay, I go to do that, and since most of the really bad cobwebs are way up high in the corners, and I’m not that tall and our broom is short, I was jumping up and down to get them, and I could both see and kind of hear my co-workers laughing at me--even though two of them are taller than I am and could have offered to help me, but nooooooo. Then, everyone else ordered in Chinese food without even asking me if I wanted anything, and then went to the manager’s office to eat it, once again (because this happens A LOT) leaving me alone to deal with every single customer that came through the place. Now granted, we were pretty dead, but that’s not always the case and it was just really aggravating that they just plain didn’t ask if I wanted food and then went and ate it without asking me if I was okay by myself or if I wanted some, or literally anything. Finally, end of the night rolls around, I go to clean the counters, and the brand-new bottle of 409 I had gotten store-used the last shift I worked (Sunday) was now (Tuesday) missing from where all the cleaning supplies are kept. I had no other cleaning liquids to use, and I was really annoyed that I couldn’t do what I am supposed to do because in the ONE DAY I had off it had disappeared, because of course, NOBODY PUTS THINGS BACK WHERE THEY GO WHEN THEY ARE DONE WITH THEM. So ofc, I start looking and it is NOWHERE. Checked every drawer and cupboard in the break room, both bathrooms, back in receiving, on the desks in the furniture area, and when I went to take out the garbage in the manager’s office, I checked the little cupboard in there and looked on the counter--nothing. I checked every register, on the tech bench, even went back to the print center and looked under all their counters--nothing. I checked the shelf against the inventory numbers to see if for some dumb reason it had been put back out. I asked my supervisor, who had begun counting out, to check the cashier’s office for me (since it’s locked) when he went in. FINALLY--after a great deal of rage and looking--I go back to the manager’s office to ask him if it was in the locked office, and I see it! It was tucked away next to a binder that was angled so I couldn’t see it where I was standing before, but saw it when standing perfectly straight across. So I hurry up and do the counters, and as I am, realize that three different people were in and out of that office all night, eating their fucking food and all, and everyone knew I was looking in a panic for the stupid 409, and not only did none of those fuckers even OFFER to help me look or actually help, none of them saw it in there all night?????? And I bet if they had helped me look one of us would have seen it sooner. And I have helped people look for things more than once--one time I went through garbages that had already been checked and found a key for another co-worker!!! SO at this point I have MCFREAKING LOST IT and since there’s no customers I’m ranting and raving to myself, but still out loud about everything. Everyone , as is their general habit, isn’t even listening or caring or anything. The last thing I did before clocking out was I had to take a returned printer to the damaged and defective product lock-up (which is different than our regular lock-up room) and so I ask over the radio to be let into both lock-up and dnd lock-up. Supervisor comes and lets me into regular lock-up, and even though he could see I only had very few things to put away in there, doesn’t wait for me so he can let me into the other lock-up. But I figure he’ll be there in a second, since I already told him I needed into both AND he was the one whom I had asked if the printer needed to even go into dnd lock-up, which he said it did. So I make my way back there, half-expecting him to maybe have already gone back in anticipation of my arrival, and he’s not there, so just in case he forgot, I radio him again to let me in. After a minute or two, with radio silence the whole time, I radio again, PLEASE let me into lock-up. After another several minutes, he finally comes and says, “oh did you radio me? I took my radio off! I was wondering where you went!” as if I hadn’t told him IN THE FIRST PLACE WHEN HE HEARD ME ON THE RADIO BECAUSE HE LET ME INTO REGULAR LOCK-UP I ALSO NEEDED INTO THE OTHER ONE. then, I go to clock out, and ofc everyone else besides me and the supe have left, and they didn’t even leave the clock-out window open for me, so I had to log all the way back in from the customer portal to the employee one. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal or anything, but after this long whole night of shitty customers and shitty lack of consideration on the part of my co-workers the fucking LEAST they could do is leave the damn clock-out window open for a bitch. I just can’t believe how fucking oblivious and self-centered and just downright RUDE people can be. I am not always the nicest person, but I try to do a good job and be a good team player and help people out when they’re clearly upset about something (i.e. the unnecessary search for cleaning products) and at least uphold the little social niceties like asking everyone before ordering food if they want!! It just rankles me really badly how things went tonight. I mean the crap from the customers, if annoying, is at least par for the course and could be overlooked, but when I get treated like that by my co-workers, it just sends me over the edge! How hard is it to not be a dick or to put things back where they go? Anyway, rant over.

TL;DR: customers are rude; co-workers are shitty; this girl loses her mind for a night about it.

#submissions #fuck customers #cashier problems #fuck co-workers #submission

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jayne-writes · 7 years

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Mirror

A/N Here is a new story with my OC Marlow Taylor.Thank you @royslittleharper for helping me create Mirror! I’m excited to see where shes going to go and what I can come up with. Enjoy!

Tags: @speedypan @the-shadow-of-atlantis @insideoflit

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz

Turning over, Marlow Taylor looked at her alarm clock. 3:06 am. Shit. Blindly reaching for her phone, a few more curses leaving her lips as the flashing device fell, before she finally grasped it. ‘The League’ read the bright screen. Of course. Only the League would be calling her this late. Or early. Or whatever this time of night was called.

Swiping left, the woman answered, expecting to hear the gruff voice of Batman.

“Yeah, Batshit? What’s going on?”

“Ahh, this is Superman…” Marlow had never felt so embarrassed. The first time she talks to the ‘Big Man’ she calls him Batshit. Of freaking course.

“Shit. Sorry Superman. Usually it’s the Bat that calls me this late. Sorry.” Suddenly awake, Marlow sapped her hand on her forehead, wondering how the hell she was ever going to come back from this.

“It’s ok, Miss. I understand why you would think that. I’m sorry to call so late, but the League urgently needs your help.” Suddenly in business mode, the brunette sat up straight, grabbing the notepad and pen she kept on her bedside table for such late night calls.

“Go ahead. What do you need?”

“Lex Luthor has done something to the International Space Station. Can you go to the secure League page and try to find out what happened? We aren’t having much luck. The people in the station don’t have much time from what we can tell.”

Urgent. Superman sounded urgent, and it wasn’t right. Nodding her head, Marlow left the comfort of her bed, and crept past her daughter’s room, and over to her laptop.

“No problems, Supes. I’m just hacking in now. Switching to comms.” Reaching over her keyboard, Marlow snatched the small earpiece that Batman insisted she have. Thinking back, it was a weird day she got them. She came home from dinner, with a tired Violet in her arms and nearly ran into Batman. In her living room. Apparently he was making she her home was secure (security was now an issue she had because of working with the league) and her equipment was good enough for his standards.

3 hours later, Marlow’s fingers were aching. She had hacked into the International Space Station, Lexcorp and the Pentagon. It was a long night.

“And done. The station should be receiving their controls again and a paper trail has been sent to the Pentagon. They should be able to take care of Luther in the morning.”

“Thank you, Mirror,” came Superman’s tired voice over her comms. “We really do appreciate all the work you do.”

“No worries, Supes. Now if you don’t mind I can see my daughter stumbling down the hall so I better go and make her some breakfast before day care. Until next time.”

With that, Marlow turned her earpiece off, and threw it over to its case.

“Hi, sweetheart. How did you sleep?” The woman asked, turning around to welcome a hug from her 4 year old.

“Good, Ma. I had a dream about a horse. That was pretty cool. Did you have to work tonight?” The little girl mumbled, sleepily rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah, I did Vi. Did i wake you?”

“Nope,” The small girl smiled. “It was just time to wake up,” Violet said matter of factly.

“I think so too. Aunty Mera say hi, by the way. She’s going to come visit this week I think. Now, should we have toast or cereal?”

“Toast Mommy! Toast!”

“Ok, you head to the kitchen and we’ll get started. I love you Vi. You know that right?”

“I know Ma, and I love you too!”

Hearing her baby say that made Marlow’s hard work worth it. The late nights helping the league gave her and Violet the life they had. Quaint but homey, and definitely not extravagant. The perfect place to raise her daughter.

#Marlow Taylor #Violet taylor #oc #dc #dc comics #justice league #imagine #superman #clark kent #kal el #superman x oc #clark kent x oc #kal el x oc

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echoeternally · 7 years

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Bats/Supes (JL Cartoon)

To preface this, probably a bad idea, but: I write fanfics as an amateur writer and like watching shows to learn about character development. This long post is basically a small, but impulsive, character critique based on something that I’m not done viewing, but I can’t let go.

This has probably been written somewhere before, but here goes. I am watching the Justice League for the first time in full (didn’t keep up as a kid), and I’m just so awed by something that happened between Batman and Superman between episodes The Savage Time and Twilight:

They suddenly hated each other.

Now, I’m kind of an amateur writer myself, this show is dated (started in 2001), and I like comics & relations, but I’m not super invested in them. (Pun maybe intended.) So, I’m probably missing information, and I’ll apologize for that in advance.

But holy crap, this was such a hard stop to character development between the two, and I just had to note it for my own reference. And it comes conveniently around the same year that the Justice League movie comes out, because I totally am watching it before the movie hits in November. (Bonus: Injustice 2.)

For those that don’t know, since I don’t regularly post about the DC shows and cartoons, Justice League starts by following the footsteps of the classic 90s animated series (Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman) and reaches out to the wider DC universe.

To keep it short, evil threatens the world, superheroes investigate and ultimately join forces, creating the Justice League. It spawns a critically acclaimed cartoon series that is loved by everyone for years, and for good reasons: the storytelling is great, the art is appealing, and the characters are fun to follow. It’s also mature enough that adult audiences will enjoy it, but completely safe for kids to enjoy watching it too.

That’s the abridged outline that barely describes the show, hooray. I’m not here to tell you to support or loathe this show, because I’m very late to that party. The only bit I want to focus on is what I’m calling a “hard stop” to the relationship between the two popular characters of Batman and Superman. It’s kind of just an emotional, knee-jerk reaction without doing any research or re-watching of the older shows first. (Aka, I skipped rewatching Batman and Superman’s animated series.) Even still, I think I can make this assessment without having reviewed them.

Season 1 of Justice League concludes with a series of episodes titled The Savage Time (series as in it’s 1 story broken into 2 or 3 parts, this one being 3), where the Justice League travels back in time to prevent an immortal dictator from changing history. (Which causes issues in my mind, because they change history, but it’s a cartoon first, so it’s just for fun.) Batman is the only one that doesn’t go with them, because his life was altered by said time changes. By the episode’s end, the heroes prevail, time goes back to normal, and they’re elated to see Batman back to normal. Big adorable moment: Superman flies over and gives Batman a big hug. Batman frowns and doesn’t reciprocate, but he doesn’t push out of it and kind of accepts it. Cue “aw.”

Season 2 opens with Twilight (2 parts), where Superman’s nemeses Darkseid and Brainiac emerge as big villains to develop season arcs and ongoing stories. Superman very much hates these guys and takes everything about them very personally. A little out of character for him, but it’s justified.

What bothers me is how fast and abrupt his relationship with Batman deteriorates. And both spend the episode either directly berating one another, or insulting each other behind one another’s backs.

Batman, who spends Season 1 a little outside of the spotlight because new heroes, was originally at a “respected colleagues” to “friends” relationship with Superman and the team in general. He’s Batman, so we’ve accepted that he’s emotionally removed from even his allies and has trust issues, but is willing to put those aside to cooperate with other heroes. So, nothing unusual.

Superman is pretty much how one would expect him too: full powers, very strong, nice guy, wants to help everyone, the good stuff. Something that Season 1 did was feature Superman in a lot of fights...where he gets his butt kicked, surprisingly.

But, what’s most noticeable is how very empathetic and sympathetic Superman is, one of his strongest characteristics. He’s develops a bond to Martian Manhunter, another alien heralded as “the last of his kind,” like Superman himself. Very specifically in The Savage Time, he shows insight to Batman’s history: When the time-altered Batman realizes the the heroes can go back in time and change history, he notes that it could save his parents. Superman pauses, it’s a gut-punch, because he and the audience know that’s not happening. He even ends with, “I can’t promise that” to Batman. Regardless, you know the results.

That’s why later, at the end of the trio of episodes, when Superman hugs Batman, it’s two-fold: he’s very relieved to see his friend back to normal, but he’s also showing that he’s loved and cared about. And this isn’t taken as, “OMG, THEY’RE GUYS HUGGING, SQUEE!!” It’s taken as, “Oh wow, aw, they really care about each other.” That’s something that the Justice League cartoon goes lengths to show, the team developing real attachments to one another, creating bonds that mean something, and realizing that they’re not alone.

So to me, in spite of knowing the legendary “Batman VS Superman” rivalry, I lowered my guard and was like, “Oh yeah, they can be showed as caring about one another, how nice. This is good character development.” And that’s why it becomes immediately jarring to see how venomous the two become in the very next episode after.

Sure, granted, Batman didn’t go through the time adventure with the rest of his team. But prior to Twilight, he wasn’t exactly going out of his way to upset the others in any capacity and didn’t directly insult them. Throughout Season 2′s first episode? He immediately berates Superman the first instant he shows an out of character hatred towards his enemies, something Batman unabashedly does. He insults Superman’s intelligence left and right when the opportunity presents itself over the course of the two episodes. Even when he rescues Superman from an explosion at the end of the episode, it’s more “this is for your own good” as opposed to “we need and care about you.” Understandably, this is Batman’s usual character, but this isn’t what the series led viewers into for their relationship.

The fault doesn’t fall squarely on Batman at all. When met with opposition from his teammates for his anger, Superman pushes back and insists that he knows his villains, that they’re (shockingly) very bad people/aliens. When Batman pushes back harder, Superman doesn’t take it well. He holds this cold glare contest with Batman, he sends Batman off on another part of the mission rather than taking his help directly, and by episode’s end, he calls out Batman on his behavior with a “you’re not always right” bomb. This comes after the fact that Superman, alien with powers of super strength, punches Batman, the guy with no super powers besides his ridiculous intellect. And he punches Batman because the latter tried to save him from a huge explosion. Granted, tension was running hot, and Superman was fighting against Darkseid, but still.

If this had a softer lead-in, more episodes that remind the audience, “Hey, these two don’t always see eye-to-eye,” sure, then it would make sense. But these clashes between the two come hot off the heels of their powerful bonds from the previous episodes. And that’s what makes it so strange to me personally, because the show was going in a perfect direction to build their friendship up, but did nothing when it was time to have it crumble. It just fell apart upon Superman being angry and Batman being a jerk. That’s why it’s such a hard stop against their character development, as if the writers were like, “Whoa, wait a minute, they can’t get along! They have to butt heads!”

Granted, I have a lot more to watch, so I’m expecting more highs and lows between the two super friends. And this isn’t so much a, “Gosh, how awful, look at how bad this series is!” Not by any means, because it’s great. It’s more of a, “Wait, they were doing that justice, what happened?” (Pun fully intended.) It was such a jarring moment, and notable because it was like the two biggest main (and male) characters on the show couldn’t get away with showing sensitivity to each other. That wasn’t allowed to stand by unopposed. They had to fight to the point of hating each other, even if they’re allies, even if they know each other.

The smoother way to build into such a hard stop so that it makes sense is to build those rifts, not just in the shows before, but on the current one as well. Sure, Justice League was concerned with developing new characters for its first number of episodes, specifically Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and (very recently) Hawkgirl. Still, it would have done better to include at least one or two episodes where Batman and Superman have disagreements. Or, if this had to be the first, they could have at least shown more attempts to reason with one another and see things eye-to-eye.

Obviously it won’t be as forward-thinking as a show made today would be, though, and it’s accurate to how that type of relationship would be looked at over a decade ago. It’s just something that I wanted to point out to myself and realize, specifically because I’m still learning how to write balanced character relationships. I understand it’s from a script that has little luxury on what gets submitted, follows a half hour or less show format, and it’s aged quite a bit.

But that’s the point: it’s something to learn from, and it shows something to improve past. And it is very important to think about how to deliver it better, because the audience wants to follow smooth transitions with their characters. It’s ok for good friends to have conflicting viewpoints, and makes for excellent drama. Yet, it can’t come abruptly with little build-up, because then viewers feel cheated. And it can’t be because, “Well, of course they wouldn’t agree,” as that’s completely nonsense and shows lack of development, or even “un-development,” if you will.

Sharing this does good for some fellow writers too, because it shows that you can learn both strong and weak aspects of great works. Not everything highly praised is without its glaring faults; this doesn’t make the work weaker, but it’s a noteworthy flaw. And this helps for newcomers too, because if they can spot things like that, they can learn faster about how to improve it. This shows that we can all make mistakes and missteps, not just with grammatical errors or art style inconsistencies, but with overall tone and direction of a story.

So, going forward, I’m going to look out to see if the character relationships move along at a steadier pace, or if they stop as hard as the Batman/Superman friendship just did. I’m very curious about the Hawkgirl/Green Lantern romance, because I can see the idea of it from Season 1, but it still hasn’t exactly screamed, “THEM, THEY’RE A COUPLE!!” Because, that certainly needs time and better development, I’m hoping. Aside from that, I’ll over-analyze others and go from there too. It’s fun!

#character development #analysis #justice league cartoon #superheroes #batman #superman #justice league #writing #reference #friendship #drama #friend drama #critique #long post #personal assistence

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