#this is my first time ever doing like an actual attempt at dc-

[sasswonfp]

This joke came to me in a fit of laughter (ALT description provided :3!)

#superman #batman #the flash #flash #wally west #bruce wayne #clark kent #justice leauge unlimited #justice league #abruptly I was hit with this joke when I made one abt myself being always 2 seconds away from crying and realised it worked oh so well #i had so much fun drawing this #esp bc i was really trying to find a good medium between my style and the jlu style #super blocky but also a bit more realistic than jlu #batman is so shape and i fucking love it #literally i just drew his outline i didn't even bother with the rest of it #gremlin fucking creature. man who is just an object #this is my first time ever doing like an actual attempt at dc- #homegrown art

[spacedace]

Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.

Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.

Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.

They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).

They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).

And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.

(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.

Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!

Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.

Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.

Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)

I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.

(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).

#batman #ra's al ghul #al ghul family #talia al ghul #nyssa raatko #cheshire dc #sensei dc #no more racism and fucked up dark family dynamics #the al ghuls aggressively adore each other #violence and schemes is their love language #in the full au version of all of this i'd like to imagine how canon plot points change with the al ghuls having these vibes #Just imagine Damian still trying to kill Tim when he first ends up in Bruce's care #but instead of it being a ploy to get rid of a threat its because he's just so excited to meet one of his big brothers #and attempted murder is just how you tell someone in your family that you love them #Tim just SO CONFUSED because Damian is talking so animatedly about how happy he is to get to have some brotherly bonding with Tim #while ACTIVELY trying to run him through with a sword #idk how things change with Cass exactly but i feel like they would in this #like either David Cain isn't an absolute monster or the al ghuls catch wind of what he's doing & are like #This is NOT how al ghuls treat family! what is this shameful behavior! She can't even insult you while you fight! #fighting and violence is a perfectly healthy way to express your love but only if there's actually LOVE involved! #The Heretic & other Damian clones still get made but only because Talia just misses her son so much that she makes more of him #Nyssa has just been bopping around the world for a few centuries & pops up every now and then to have a death match with her baby sister #i just have a lot of strong feelings about the al ghuls deserving better and combined that with the vibes of my favorite unhinged family #Dick still hates Talia but Talia takes all his insults as her darling step son telling her how much he loves her #which only drives Dick even crazier #Tim rocks up to the League of Assassins during his whole trying to prove Bruce is alive thing already seen as an al ghul #Oh yeah that's Cousin Timothy he's one of Talia's kids - never met a truer al ghul in your life #You see how he blew up all those bases? Ra's cried he was so proud #Ra's spoils his grandkids absolutely rotten which is giving Bruce SO MANY gray hairs

[mercurygray]

So I Hear You Liked...World War Two Dramas

What's that? You said you wanted a World War Two series where women actually speak to each other? Have I got a deal for you!

When Band of Brothers first came out, I did not have cable, but what I did have was a card at a library that owned seemingly every PBS drama ever broadcast. I know and love a lot of these shows, and I hope you do, too.

As we wait for Masters of the Air to join us, maybe you can fill some time with one of these!

Classic: These shows were made in the 70s and 80s and while the production values are not the same as something made more recently, they're all fun to watch.

Danger UXB - daily life in a bomb disposal unit.

Dad's Army - comedy show about the Home Guard.

Hogan's Heroes - situational comedy about life in a POW camp.

Piece of Cake - follows British pilots stationed in France as the Phony War begins.

Homefront Perspectives:

✨Housewife, 49 - Based on the wartime diary of Nella Last, who participated in the Mass Observation project. One of my favorites.

✨Foyle’s War - procedural crime drama following DCS Foyle and hsi team as he solves murders in wartime Britain. Another favorite.

Island at War - Wartime life on the Channel Islands during the German occupation

Land Girls - Follows the lives of a group of Land Girls working on an estate farm.

Bomb Girls - Follows the lives of a group of workers in a Toronto munitions factory.

Home Fires - Life in a small British town near an air base. Based on a book.

World On Fire - Follows the disparate lives of several people in several countries as the war begins.

✨All Creatures Great and Small - The life of Yorkshire Vet James Herriot, based on the book series of the same title. A favorite, both the 1970s original and the 2020 version.

A French Village - Daily life in a French village is upended as the Germans invade. Follows the same village through the entire war.

My Mother and Other Strangers - An Irish village deals with the introduction of an American Air Force base.

Colditz - life in one of the war's most infamous POW camps. Features Damian Lewis!!

Atlantic Crossing - the life of Crown Princess Marta of Norway as she tries to advocate for her country while living in the United States.

The Halycon - Life in a posh London hotel during the 1940s

Spies and Science:

X Company - Canadian drama about life overseas for spies

Resistance - French wartime drama about a woman in the French underground movement

Restless - Postwar drama about a woman who spied for the Russians in England during the war.

✨Manhattan - If you liked Oppenheimer, have I got a show for you!! Follows the lives of several scientists and their families as they move to Los Alamos. A favorite.

✨The Heavy Water War - Norwegian/British operations Grouse and Gunnerside to destroy German heavy water plant. A favorite.

The Twelfth Man - Norwegian sabotage operation gets shot down in occupied Norway.

✨Generation War - German experience of war from variety of perspectives. This show is excellent. Everyone should watch this.

✨SAS: Rogue Heroes - Follows the foundation of a parachute regiment in North Africa that would eventually become the basis for Britain's commando units. A favorite.

Postwar:

A Place to Call Home - very soapy Australian post-war drama about an upperclass family.

Our Wonder Years - Follows three sisters in post-war Germany as they attempt to confront the past.

Tannbach - Follows a family whose German town is split in two along the new East-West border.

The Defeated - Crime drama following a policeman trying to find his brother in post-war Berlin

Small Island- a Jamaican woman moves to London after the war and tries to adjust to a country that doesn't want her there

Call the Midwife - Social drama in the 1960s addressing the health and lives of the post-war poor of London.

#band of brothers #so i hear you liked #i'm gonna rec it #masters of the air

[bigtreefest]

I dare you to write a piece using a character that you want to, but have never had a chance to write for before. With the sentence "Well that was a surprise."

Saint or Sinner?

College! Lloyd Hansen x Reader

Word Count: 1,331

A/N: Amber!!! Thank you for tickling my brain with this dare! I honestly wanted to do Andy so badly, but this quote was screaming Lloyd to me and I couldn’t resist. To be completely honest, I had no intention of writing him, but my fingers tip-tapped away and I lost all control. I might’ve been possessed.

I also always plan on writing a Drabble, and then it ends up being as long as one of my fic chapters, but anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI, Smut (oral, m receiving), use of pet names, sociopathic tendencies, mean Lloyd, a twist?

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Ever since you were old enough date, you’ve been happily independent. You grew up in a small town, surrounded by blue collar families, including most of the members of your own.

You’d always had a keen ability to fit in anywhere, which you attribute to your upbringing. Your mom worked a corporate job, while your dad spent all day in a mechanic shop.

You were well off, but not raised like it, and you’d never judge those who had less than you, even though that’s what a lot of people expected.

Once you graduated high school, you got into Harvard where you met Lloyd. Lloyd was someone who was good at keeping his distance. You noticed it at first when you invited him to join a study group you had started with some other members of your cohort.

You received a terse “No thanks, Pumpkin,” punctuated with a curt nod and a wink, before he went to hang out with his other friends and his team.

You had made multiple attempts to include him in group activities, or engage in conversation when you could nab a seat next to him in class, but after some time, you stopped seeing him altogether. You could tell he was avoiding you and the study group you had become closer with. You’d probably actually call them your friends, becoming just as close as you were to some people back home. They picked up on the same things too, seeing that you were humble, and carried yourself in such a proper manner, earning you the nickname “the Saint.”

When word of that got around to Lloyd, he rolled his eyes. You were the complete opposite of him. Kind, welcoming, calculated, while he was cold, unpredictable, sociopathic. He couldn’t stand how successful you were, too. Professors and students alike constantly praised you, more than willing to help you in any way through your academic journey and career beyond. Where he schmoozed, you gracefully existed and got just as far.

You were perfect in everyone’s eyes, including his own, which is what infuriated him. There had to be a weak spot, somewhere where your surface would crack, and he had initially tried to find it by turning you down all those times, but it was unsuccessful.

None of the manipulation tactics he had worked so hard on perfecting for so long made you budge, either. He’d pluck out a random friend from your group to join his. Nothing. He’d sabotage your flash drive for your presentation, you’d have a backup in your email, ready to go. After you’d gone, you wished him luck and no technical difficulties like you had, with a giggle! He was enraged.

After being at the top of your class, the two of you were selected to go to a conference in DC. It was hardly supervised by your professor who had booked two rooms for you next to each other, getting himself a suite a few floors above.

You knocked on Lloyd’s door in the late afternoon, the day before your presentation. He opened it just enough to peek his head through.

“What do you want?”

You sighed with your signature smile on your face. “Did you want to go over everything one more time before dinner?”

He looked you up and down, face as stern as it ever was when he was dealing with you. “Not really, Sunshine.” He slammed the door in your face.

What Lloyd didn’t know was that all his little tactics were really chipping away at you. All you wanted was to spend time with him, to get close. You couldn’t help it. You’d be lying if you said it was in your usual friendship way, too.

No, you wanted more. There was something about how aloof he was that drew you in. You were obsessed and not willing to give up until you got what you wanted, what you deserved.

His little tendencies weren’t upsetting because he was rude, they were upsetting because they were keeping you away from what your body and the deep, dark recesses of your mind were screaming for.

The door slamming in your face was the last straw. Lloyd wouldn’t get away with this any longer. You could see what he was trying to do, and if you had any say, you’d make sure it failed. You were going to be the winner of the little mind game he was playing.

To be honest, by this point, Lloyd had given up, thinking you’d never break. You were just too sweet, a true Saint. Treating you like this had just become habit, which is why he was almost confused when he heard muttering on the other side of his door.

You had taken the magnetic clip out of your hair and maneuvered it against the hotel key card reader until it unlocked. The door flew open and your eyes landed on Lloyd, stomping towards him and pinning him with his back against the nearest wall.

He looked down at you, face unreadable beside his eyes being slightly wider than usual.

“Why are you being like this!? What did I do!?” You gritted out, your tone threatening.

Lloyd didn’t say anything, only the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.

“Tell. Me.” You slammed your hands against the wall, arms framing his head as you looked up into his eyes, your stomach pressed against his cock that was growing rock hard.

“Am I going to have to pull it out of you? Suck it out of you, myself?” Lloyd found himself at a loss for words for once. All he could do was part his lips slightly and give a small nod like he always did.

You began to unbuckle the belt of his ridiculously expensive pants, shoving them down just enough that you could see the hard-on pressing against his boxer briefs.

“Huh? Is that what you want? That what you need, Pumpkin?” You spat back at him, mocking his previous words.

His brain was finally beginning to catch up with the situation as he nodded down to you and you got on your knees.

“Yeah, do it. I know you want to. Suck me off.”

You didn’t need much more prompting, fueled by rage and control. You pulled down his underwear, his dick springing free.

You gave him no time to prepare, immediately licking from the base of his length to the tip before fully taking him into your mouth. Your mouth was stretching to accommodate his girth, but it was nothing for you in the lust of the moment. You set a vigorous pace, Lloyd’s head thrown back against the wall as he moaned loudly.

He pulled his head forward as his abs tensed, already close with the debauchery of the situation. He tangled his ringed fingers in your hair, helping to guide you along his length.

“That’s it. Keep going. Not such a Saint, are you?”

You hummed against his length in response, saliva dripping down your chin and his balls that you were lightly tugging in you hand. The other hand had its nails dug into his thigh, causing a slight sting that heightened the pleasure for Lloyd.

Before he knew it, he was coming down your throat. You pulled away as you swallowed his salty release, looking up at him and wiping off your face before standing up.

You caught his gaze again and Lloyd looked at you with bewilderment mixed with his post-orgasmic haze.

“Well that was a surprise.” He said between heavy breaths, pulling up his underwear and pants, buckling his belt again. Oh, he had no idea the tactics you had in store for him.

Your hands pressed against his abs in his knitted shirt. One stayed there as the other traced up his firm pec, past his collar and found purchase around his neck, lightly squeezing.

“So are you finally going to tell me what’s going on in the head behind that ridiculous mustache?”

Bonus A/N: Um… I don’t really know what happened. I think I blacked out.

#ST’s 100 follower truth or dare game #100 follower truth or dare game #truth or dare #dare #lloyd Hansen #lloyd Hansen x reader #lloyd Hansen x you #lloyd hansen smut #the gray man #Chris Evans #st answers

[aalghul]

Nice post about Roy I like how kind your response was. But yeah as a Roy fan I find the idea that he would hate anyone but the man who killed his daughter to be silly. Cause like thing is Roy has a line till he doesn’t. Like you said Roy draws a line for himself with Cheshire but he never ever 100 percent commits. Even after the bombing and her holding a gun to Lian and threatening to shoot her while trying to escape prison, in his time with the League he still is hinted to love her and still lets Lian visit her. Flash forward to now they are still on again off again lovers/enemies. The old Titans ‘Roy breaks up with Cheshire’ story was written like it was the full end of their relationship but DC loves that concept and in comics they will always come back.

With Mia or people hurting his family Roy would not care at the end of the day unless that family member died sorry. Roy forgave a woman who babysat Lian and helped terrorists kidnap her and then broke his leg in an attempt to kill Cheshire. No he didn’t just forgive her he offered to let her keep babysitting Lian saying he didn’t think he had the right to judge anyone.

People other than Roy say he belongs in the light but Roy kind of hates that about himself and actively denies and resists it because he thinks the dirty work is the real important work. He worked in fantasy superhero CIA for years and even killed for them, left and made the Outsiders, initially didn’t want to leave and basically stayed till the last second till his mental health gave in, joined the League and didn’t actually have a great time with the group or ever really believe he belonged, had a horrible ending with that group and became a straight up villain after the ROA fiasco and worked on a team of villains all of whom except Slade he expressed some sort of sympathy for.

Roy just doesn’t give up on people and kind of really wants to do antihero work and tries to again and again. The age/maturity thing kind of gets it but that only matters where you connect Roy and Jason, they are peers and work together in some fashion off screen for a year in Outsiders, put a ROA recovering villain Roy with really any post UTRH Jason save Morrison Jason and you could write an intergenerational friendship arc easy.

People forget but before 52 first started a lot of people wanted a Jason Roy book. It was floated around as an idea for ages and rumor was even Winick made a pitch but can’t confirm. When 52 was first announced a lot of people thought not only that RHATO made sense and only Kory didn’t belong but thought the comic had real potential. And really it might have since Roy and Cheshire at one point would not have made sense for either character and notably everything about their relationship happened off screen. We give things a pass because of how well the stories are written. I think most issues with comics are people moralizing about the characters and saying they would never do this or that when 9 times out of 10 the writer just shat over the execution of a concept and the writing as is was shit.

-- i’m just going to include my thoughts down here --

I agree with everything you said about Roy just not being the person who holds a lot of hatred for people. He comes off as strict and even angry sometimes, but at heart, he’s one of the most understanding characters.

I always took Roy’s failed attempts at being an anti-hero as proof that it’s not what he’s meant to do. He keeps trying because he sees his sympathy and desire to do more as a sign that he needs to get his hands dirtier, but each time leaves him with the realization that he can’t be doing that type of work. He was reluctant to leave the Outsiders because he didn’t want to abandon them, that’s why he does leave as soon as Ollie provides funding for them (which he also does specifically because he knows Roy wouldn’t leave, no matter how much he wanted to, otherwise). The Outsiders did end in Roy himself realizing he couldn’t stay there.

I think Roy has always worked best in the various Titans teams he’s been part of. Unfortunately, Teen Titans (2003) set a new status quo with enough of the original Titans leaving and the team working under the leadership of younger members even when more experienced Titans were present. So we could never really go back to the titans as they were in any of the iterations prior to that.

I don’t think Jason and Roy worked together for a whole year; it was just Jason reaching out to Dick, and then subsequently teaming up with him and Roy to give them information of Black Lightning. Which definitely worked to let Roy know the type of person that Jason is (i.e. not a villain), but it was also very much through Dick, so it would again be a reminder of the time that Jason, as a child, teamed up with Roy and the others. Roy’s affinity to taking a guiding role when he works with team members significantly younger than him is just such an important part of who he is that I can’t get past it. I don’t mean to say that Roy’s going to treat Jason like a child, but that there’s going to be a significant gap between their friendship as compared to the friendship that post-flashpoint gave them. Roy is just at a completely different stage from Jason, who is essentially just beginning to catch up on life as a teenager. That difference can’t be ignored easily.

I didn’t read comics back then (and was also a very little kid lol) so I didn’t know about that being something people wanted back then! It must be disappointing to see how it’s turned out.

At the end of the day, I personally think that Roy and Jason could work together very well short-term, and then it would have to end in them walking their separate ways because Roy can never stay in the dark too long, whether he admits it or not. I get what you’re saying about good execution making all the difference, though! I just want to stay as consistent to Roy’s character as possible, so Jason and Roy as best friends/a long-term anti-hero duo never quite works out.

#submited by #anonroyfan #and there is also the fact that a lot of roy's writing post lian's death was just. bad. lazy at many parts #i hope this is coherent bc there are a lot of words and i proof read none of them

[willow-springpaw592]

My thoughts on the newest main story quests, some positive and some...slightly on the fence:

First of all, I like that Linda is shown to actually have a backbone and will snap back at people if they insult her. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but for a while it seemed like she was just the token intelligent one of the group who never got into conflicts. So I really liked seeing her stand up for herself this time against the dark riders!

I like how the druids can send messages via runestones to each other in times of crisis. It's something I never would've thought of, and although the way the runestones just grow out of the ground could seem silly and nonsensical in a way for some, I personally really like it!

Also, the magnetising void! It was so cool! I wonder what past Soul Rider performed it with Concorde? I would say Elizabeth, but that just seems too obvious. I love that we got to see a more dangerous side to the magic of the Sun Circle, and I really hope that this is something they will continue with for the rest of the Circles. Maybe for the Moon Circle, Linda could be able to cast dangerous illusions to confuse the dark riders? Or send visions that can drive people mad? It's probably too 'evil' for the Soul Rider circles, but I think it would be cool to see the dark side of the Keepers' magical abilities.

Now, onto the bombing of Dark Core Headquarters. I find it really difficult to believe that DC was never actually drilling any oil. They couldn't have partnered with GED forever, could they've? How could they have made money otherwise? At some point in history they must have drilled for oil, and then stopped for some reason. Maybe to put all their money into the equipment to build the Hadal gate (which btw confirms that Garnoks prison is indeed super deep under the sea, and not in some untouched corner of Pandoria) Anyways, I really hope this is not SSEs attempt at portraying DC as somewhat redeemable with 'oh no they actually weren't polluting the island at all, they were doing nothing wrong!', nevermind the fact that they are working towards releasing Garnok, who has made it very clear by now in regards to his plans for the island.

Well whatever, moving on from that, Erissa! Finally! I was hoping she'd have some lines of dialogue, but I did love her cartwheel/flip coming out of the portal. It's nice to see that Mr Sands is back in action again after not being present in the story for damn, what 5, 6 years now?! I though he and the Dark Riders would've been a bit more annoyed about the oil rig's destruction, so I guess the Soul Riders have got their war crime charges dropped for now at least.

Now for the obligatory Darko mention. With every new release of the main story, I get increasingly more worried about what SSE is planning on doing with him now. He should've been in the ending of this quest, yet he wasn't, and there's been absolutely zero mentions of him ever since the saving Anne quests from other characters, even though he was probably a massive source of trauma for Anne if he was the one who guarded her prison cell, and she seemed to have a very deep hatred of him going off of her mentions of him at past seasonal events. I can't find my screenshot of her one at Midsummer but she said something along the lines of, "What do you think happened to Darko? He had better still be alive. I won't let him take away my chance for revenge." Yes I know, I remembered one line of dialogue at an event years ago, can you tell I'm obsessed yet? I want to say that they're planning something big with him and the Nightmare Institute, but I've got this horrible feeling that they'll either reveal he's dead( even though the soul riding missions are proof that he isn't) or they'll just totally write him out of the story from now on because they've got the new Dark Rider models now, so they can do more with them. I know most people hate him, but I think he has the potential to be a really interesting irredeemable mad scientist type character, so I really hope they haven't given up on him yet. I'm probably being really over dramatic right now XD, but he's been my no.1 character hyperfixation since 2018 so that's my excuse lol.

I really didn't think this would be so long but to summarise: Anne and Linda are badass, I want Avalon to deck someone across the face, and I want Darko to make his dramatic appearance again someday :''(

Well, goodnight! Please share your own opinions with me if you'd like, I'd love to know everyone else's thoughts!

#ssoblr #sso anne #sso linda #sso mr sands #sso avalon #sso darko #sso soul riders #sso dark riders #sso spoilers #sso

[pixelgirlsworld]

Luthor’s Soldier (Jason Todd x Reader)

Joy’s notes: hellooo my loves, welcome to my first one shot on this account, actually first work ever on this account. I’ll be fixing my blog and navigation soon, so sorry if everything looks a little wonky atm, hope you enjoy this!

Pairing: Jason Todd x Female Reader! Titans!verse, angst, fluff, possible grammar and writing errors, trauma, detailed descriptions of trauma, inspired by the winter soldier concept, no collision of DC and Marvel universes.

WC: 7.1k words, oneshot

“He’s quiet. I should’ve gone with them, maybe the mission would’ve gone smoother” Dick said, staring at the ground, kicking at nothing in particular.

“You can’t blame yourself for a mission that never went through in the first place. Tim and Jason always put saving civilians first, stop stressing, we’ll try again in a few days.” Bruce responded, putting his hand on Dick’s shoulder.

Jason was in the far corner of the bat cave, messing with his guns, fingers swiping over the blood that stained his chest holster. Touching it gave him flashbacks, made him think back to that morning.

“Jason! The girl!” Tim shouted, shoving off a goon that tried to overpower him.

Jason whipped around, eyes darting, searching for the girl in a blue sweatshirt that was in trouble. He saw her, in the alley, struggling against a large man who attempted to subdue her. Jason quickly jumped down from the rooftop, kicking down the attacker and knocking him out in one swift motion. He turned to the girl, wanting to make sure she hadn’t suffered any injuries, but he froze in his tracks. She was almost the spitting image of you. She stared at him, wide-eyed. He wanted to flinch, to touch her, to cringe back, to hug her, to ask if she was okay, hell anything. He wanted to do anything, but he couldn’t.

“Jason!” Tim shouted, watching as six more goons had shown up, three of them in front of him.

Jason heard Tim, but not really. His voice was muffled, the sound of loud, messy footsteps racing towards them becoming white noise. A ringing in his ear started. He couldn’t react when the world went blurry, the girl was getting attacked in front of him, rough hands were gripping his jacket. Only when a harsh blow landed to the side of his face did he manage to somewhat come back to Earth, but not in time to save the girl. The girl in the blue sweatshirt. The girl who looked like you.

Tim jumped down from the rooftop, slightly battered and bruised from fighting. He fought off the last men who kept attacking Jason, running to his brother in worry.

“Jason. Jason! Jason, talk to me, what happened? Are you okay?” Tim grabbed him by the shoulders.

Jason was out of it, quite obviously. Tim dragged him out of the alley, calling out to Dick on their comms. Jason kept looking back, looking at the girl in the blue sweatshirt, now dead and it was all his fault. Just like last time. Just like how you were his fault. He looked down and saw her blood that had splattered on his chest holster. The deep red tinting the dark brown leather.

“Jason.” Dick said.

Jason looked up, startled that he’d been pulled out of his thoughts.

“It’s unlike you to get in your head while on a mission. What happened out there?” Dick pried, sitting across Jason with his hands folded in his lap.

Jason could only shake his head; how could he defend himself? Was he supposed to say that he saw someone who looked like you and froze? That he let her die because he couldn’t keep it together? He knew that having this conversation with Dick would only end in an argument, nasty, with harsh words that neither party would mean to say. Dick stood up after waiting a few moments, walking to the tunnel of the bat cave, where Tim waited for him. In the distance, Jason could hear Tim explaining the situation, but he tuned it out, knowing that listening would cause him to have another flashback, and that weight was just something he couldn’t bear any more of at the moment.

Later that night, Jason took one of Bruce’s jets to RC-14, RC referring to a remote center which held the most dangerous objects that Bruce had ever encountered as a result of his endeavors on the field as Batman. Jason was checked and scanned, his handprint on the door opening to a lab. He entered, the steel structure making him feel claustrophobic. He stepped closer to the center of the room, holding onto the railing in front of him. He looked down through the glass window, seeing doctors and scientists in white coats, surrounding a girl on a lab table.

You, still as beautiful as ever, your hair much longer since the last time he’d seen you, your body much thinner, your face much paler. The doctors were connecting more wires to the sides of your head, the scientists were putting something on the metal that was your left arm and right leg. He assumes they’re trying to figure out if the metal was coating your actual skin, or if they were just your limbs now. He smiled a bit to himself, he knows exactly what you would say if you were awake, with all those people surrounding you. ‘Ah, what the fuck! There’s too many people near me, guys I feel crowded, can everyone move a bit?’

Alas, as much as he could imagine it, you were not going to wake up while still on the gas that the scientists had manufactured specifically to keep you asleep. He wonders again, for the nth time, if you’ll ever wake up, and if you’ll even wake up to be the girl he had fallen in love with when he was just 18 years old.

He still remembers the day you were taken from him, how it was all his fault, how it should’ve been him. Lex Luthor was determined to get his hands on Red Hood, he wanted to test his latest experiments on Jason, whom he thought would be the perfect test subject as a result of coming out of the pit. You two were on a date, celebrating your 2 year anniversary. You were inside a fancy restaurant, golden walls, with some fancy name Jason couldn’t pronounce, but he loved the way you laughed when he tried. The waiter was just about to bring your food over, but the sound of metal plates hitting the ground caused you and Jason to be on your feet quickly. Jason’s eyes scanned the restaurant, seeing many of Luthor’s men circling the restaurant and knocking out many of the customers.

“I don’t see him here boss!” One of them shouted.

“He’ll be there, he was seen scouting the area earlier.” Luthor’s voice was heard over the earpieces of his men.

Shit. Jason had been in his costume to scout the area earlier that day, he wanted to make sure no bad guys were around to ruin your perfect date together. He wanted your anniversary to be perfect. You didn’t miss a beat when he gave you that look, taking his helmet out from your purse and tossing it over to him. He was ready to fight them as Red Hood if it meant you and the rest of the people in the restaurant could make it out safely. You called to Dick over comms while Jason did his best to fight off anyone who tried to make their way to you two.

In almost no time, Dick, Tim, and Bruce were all in the restaurant, fighting with Jason. They had never seen so many of Luthor’s men in one place before.

“There’s too many of them boss!” One of the goons shouted, three of them attacking Bruce.

“Grab the girl.” Luthor said.

You were hiding near the table, although Jason insisted that you trained with him a few times, you were nowhere near combat ready. Luthor’s men made a play to overpower Jason, Dick, Tim, and Bruce to make sure they wouldn’t realize that their new plan was to kidnap you. Jason was being held by six men at once, feeling their weights crush him, he felt as though he might crack under the pressure. That was, until he heard you scream.

“Jason!” You reached for him, your red dress being torn and grabbed at by multiple men

He instantly broke free and fought though many men to get to you, you kept calling out to him but more and more men barricaded him from you. Bruce, Tim, and Dick were also being pulled away, Luthor had really exhausted his resources trying to capture Jason.

“(Y/N)! I’ll find you, I swear, if it’s the last thing I do!” Jason screamed, so loud he felt his throat tighten up.

He could only watch as the men dragged you out of the restaurant, he’d never forget the fear in your eyes.

Jason and his family did indeed try to find you. Jason exhausted every day and night for months tracking Luthor’s men, following small leads, interrogating men, all of them leading to nothing. He remembers when Dick called out to him on comms, his voice was chilling, almost frightened.

“Jason. Get down to the bridge, now.”

He was quick on his feet, he’d only heard Dick use such a voice in dire situations. He made his way to the bridge, only to see Dick, Bruce, and Tim all standing, frozen. Their jaws might as well have been dropped too with how wide their eyes were. He questioned them, hearing the distinct fighting noises from below them, but seeing that his family had not been in on the action. Dick could only point towards the bridge below them, the action almost comic.

Jason scoffed a bit, thinking that their foe on the bridge would prove to be no big deal, that his family had just been overreacting. Jason follows his finger which directs his line of sight to a girl on the bridge, her left arm completely made out of metal. She was fighting a policeman on the bridge, clearly winning with ease. He immediately recognized you, he was already quick on his feet to run to you, but not before Bruce put his arm out on his chest to stop him.

“She’s been fighting off the Gotham PD since she broke one of the streetlights and swung it into a car.” Bruce said.

“What? Was anyone hurt?” Jason asked, his voice full of concern, his eyes clouded in disbelief.

You? Break a streetlight? Injure people? Hit a car? You could barely throw a punch. You would never hurt anyone.

“Thankfully, no. I was able to get to the car before it swerved off the bridge, Gotham PD tried to bring her in but she was quick to put up a fight.” Dick said, his eyes still fixed onto you.

“You have to let me try to talk to her.” Jason said, he knew that if anyone could get you to come to your senses, it’d be him.

Bruce and Dick exchanged a look, knowing they had already tried but Jason would have a much higher chance than they ever did. Bruce nodded, giving Jason the green light to jump down from the bridge and make his way to you.

“(Y/N)! God, I thought I’d lost you.” He called out, still making his way closer to you.

You knocked out the policeman you had been fighting, turning your attention to him. Your eyes glared into him, it was as if you hadn’t recognized him at all.

“(Y/N)? Honey, you’ve gotta come home. If you stop now, we can help you fix it, we’ll make it better, Batman will work something out with the PD, but you need to stop and come back home with me so we can do that, okay?” Jason said, noticing your demeanor.

You disregarded his words as he walked up to you. Jason put a hand up to try and touch your face but you were quicker, grabbing his wrist and twisting it back. He parried your movements until you both were gripping each others arms.

“What are you doing? (Y/N), stop!” Jason didn’t want to fight you, he couldn’t bear the thought of doing such a thing.

You ignored him, but he managed to pull you close while continuing to dodge your movements.

“I. Don’t. Know. Who. That. Is. And I don’t. Know who you are.” Your voice was almost robotic, free of emotion.

As soon as you broke free of Jason’s hold, the rest of the team had jumped down from the bridge, ready to use force to bring you in. Jason pleaded to Bruce not to harm you, but it was quite clear you would harm them. As Bruce denied his request and said they would try their best, Jason bit his tongue, he knew you weren’t going to stop. He didn’t know what Luthor did to you but he would damn well find out once they were able to bring you in.

Dick was the first to go after you, with you parrying his movements effortlessly. One by one they went after you, Jason being last, obviously. It hurt him to see his family land a few blows on you once a while, way more than yours on them. It hurt him to have to fight with you, to have to inflict any pain on you. Jason tried to pull his punches, but one miscalculation led to him punching you in the nose, your head flinched back and you looked back at him with blood dripping from your nostril.

“Baby, I did not mean that, I am so, so sorry.” He started, immediately softening to reach for you again.

“(Y/N). Come in. Fall back. That’s an order.” Luthor spoke on your comms.

You listened and took one last look at the team, at Jason. For a second he could’ve sworn that you recognized him, but you turned and disappeared, quick as the wind.

“Are you liking my new toy, Hood?” Luthor teased over the phone.

Jason fought the urge to scream, scrunching his fist against the table. Luthor had been sending you on multiple missions to destroy parts of the city. Each time, you were too quick for the team to catch up to you.

“Cut the act Luthor. What did you do the girl?” Bruce said, his voice hard.

“Wouldn’t you like to know Batman? Aren’t you the clever one, I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Cut the bullshit.” Jason sneered.

“Getting a little irritated, are we, Hood? I’ll admit, going for your girlfriend wasn’t my first choice, but she is quite stylish, isn’t she? Don’t worry, all in due time fellas, for now, you’re busy.” He laughed.

A red dot beeped on the map that was on the console of the batcave. Luthor’s low chuckle could be heard as the team ran off to see what had been happening at the location of the marker.

There you stood, slamming various objects into the windows of a bank, causing a complete ruckus. It must’ve been your third attack just in that week. The shattering glass left you unfazed, Luthor’s men circled around you to wreak havoc on the inside of the bank. Jason leapt from the top of the building, landing on his feet at the entrance of the bank; or least, what had been left of it. The rest of the team had followed shortly, nervousness rising in their veins as they took in the damage of the bank. They wondered if you had killed anyone. If you would really go that far.

Jason found you, your metal arm slamming a wooden table in half, you were angry with one of Luthor’s men, ordering him to do something. You were obviously fuming, and it made Jason nervous. He couldn’t let you hurt anyone. The team stealthily made their way closer to you, waiting for all of Luthor’s men to leave your side. Dick, as per usual, went in on you first. You put up a fight, parrying his movements almost as perfectly as you had the last time. They knew you wouldn’t be able to take all of them at once, so they quickly overpowered you. It took all four of them to subdue you, with Jason having the last hit on you. As Jason put pressure onto your shoulder, you looked at him, eyes wide.

“J-Jason?” You said weakly.

He could’ve melted at that moment. He could’ve frozen, he could’ve fallen for you all over again.

Could’ve.

“Jason!” Bruce shouted.

He lands a blow into the right side of your face, hard enough of knock you out. Dick carried you out of the building over his shoulder. Jason had lagged, looking at his hand, unclenching his fist and feeling like a monster had taken over his body because never would he have imagined having to hurt you on purpose.

You were laid out on a table in the batcave, large steel cuffs holding down all of your limbs. You were still knocked out, sporting a purple bruise that had blossomed over your cheek. Jason could barely look at you, unsure if he could handle whatever was going to happen.

“Rachel, I know you’re not exactly comfortable with this but we need to know what happened to her, she’s been missing for 8 months.” Dick pleaded, following Rachel into the cave.

“You know this could hurt her, right? What if you don’t like the truth? What if I don’t?” Rachel basically threatened, knowing her emotions could cause her powers to take down the entire building.

“That won’t happen, we need to know so we can save her. The (Y/N) we know wasn’t even capable of hitting someone, but we saw her in full combat.” Dick pleaded again.

Jason watched quietly as Rachel sighed in defeat, walking over to where you rested. She looked up at Jason as if to ask ‘are you sure about this?’ But he could only give her a slight nod. She proceeded to put her hands on either side of your head, letting her magic allow her to see into your memories. Everyone watched as Rachel’s blackened purple magic surrounded the area. Suddenly, Rachel started screaming, her hands shaking.

“She’s resisting me, I can’t do it!”

“Yes you can. Talk to her, the real her.” Dick exclaimed.

Rachel frantically called out to you, asking if you remembered her, remembered when you had first met. You were laughing at something Jason had said and dropped your ice cream but she had used her powers to keep it from hitting the floor. Jason smiled hearing Rachel retell the story, boy would you have let him hear it to the end of his days if it was his fault that your favorite strawberry Nutella ice cream covered in sugar had fallen to the floor, even though he thought it was disgusting.

Rachel calmed down, her eyes turning red as she opened them. She gasped periodically for a few minutes before pulling back, wincing at the strain she felt from having exhausted her powers.

“Are you okay? Tell us what you saw.” Tim said, rushing over to hold her arms up for stability.

Rachel looked to everyone’s longing faces in horror and shock. Jason worried, his chest tightened so much he thought he might explode at that very moment. Rachel explained what had happened to you in the last 8 months. Lex Luthor had kidnapped you, and injected you with multiple serums as a result of not being able to capture Red Hood. He thought you would’ve died from the agony, as normal human blood shouldn’t have been able to take the effects of the serums, but Luthor was itching for a test subject and settled for you. When you had passed the first few trials of the serums, you began to change, and Luthor was able to control you just with a few commanding words. You were complete with enhanced abilities such as a super-memory, which was how you were able to fight off Dick, Bruce, and Tim so well, Luthor had you watch videos of them in combat. You were battered, fought against, weaponized, trained, and brainwashed.

“But why are her arm and leg covered in metal?” Bruce questioned.

“I don’t know, I didn’t see that part.” Rachel looked down at the ground, disappointed.

“Brainwashed? She doesn’t…remember us? Remember me?” Jason asked, studying your face for anything he could find.

“I don’t think so. She remembers bits and pieces but Luthor injected her with more serum every time her conscience would surface.”

“Oh God, if that serum did this to just her, imagine how much he can do with it if he keeps making it.” Dick said, running his hands through his hair frustratedly.

“(Y/N) has the last of it in her blood, Luthor needed her alive to test her blood to perfect the formula. Without her, he can’t make a perfected formula.” Rachel said, hopeful.

Bruce explained that you would have to be kept safe and away from the world in order for the team to take down Luthor’s entire serum operation, all while they also searched for a way to cure you.

Months later, though they had taken down Luthor and his scientists, they still could not find a cure, Rachel came in daily to keep you in a constant dreaming state, you laid on the table, sound asleep, although Jason couldn’t talk to you directly, he still talked to you on most days, talked about everything you had missed in the last year, his 21st birthday, Tim breaking his ankle, Bruce buying Dick a really small, ugly car. He knew you probably couldn’t hear him, but on the off chance that you could, he wanted to make sure you felt like you hadn’t missed a thing. Every time they had tried to talk to you while you were awake, you would only try to break free, nearly breaking the cuffs and your limbs just to try and destroy the place.

Bruce came in one day, Tim, Dick, Jason, and Rachel all in the room. Rachel had her hands near your head, stabilizing you as Bruce spoke. He said he had a temporary solution to you having the serum in your body. It wasn’t a good solution but he managed to develop a gas to keep you under while he worked on an anti-serum that would slowly bring you back and help you regain your body.

“How is that a solution at all? Have you tested the gas? We don’t even need it, we have Rachel!” Jason yelled.

“It’s a solution because Rachel is exhausting her powers everyday, it’s affecting her in the field, and her power constantly going into (Y/N)’s mind is causing her memories to drive further and further away. Do you really want her to end up waking up with no recollection of you at all?” Dick drove into Jason like a screwdriver, immediately regretting his choice of words.

Jason was silent for a long moment, shaking his head as tears stung in his eyes.

“How long?”

“I can’t answer that.” Bruce said.

“How. Long.” Jason repeated.

“I. Can’t. Answer that! It could be months, it could be years, it could be forever!” Bruce shouted.

The team watched as the young son and his father exchanged harsh words at loud volumes. Eventually Jason agreed, it took him a long time to accept the fact that you’d really be gone, possibly forever, and at a remote facility just so you couldn’t hurt many people if you did wake up. He remembers the day they used the gas on you, you were awake in a tube-like container, and he spoke to you as the gas entered the chamber.

“Hey baby, so, you’re going to go to sleep for a while, but we’re going to work day and night to cure you, and you’ll be good as new, even better, alright? You just rest up, I promise when you get back, I’ll tell you all about it. I swear.” He forced a smile, seeing you panic as the gas caused your eyes to shut.

He broke down into tears once you were under, Dick and Rachel hugging him tightly as the young man gripped on the railing in front of him, slamming his fists down onto the console. He would just have to believe in you, and that Bruce would develop an anti-serum that would wake you up eventually.

That was 3 years ago. Jason was 24 now, a bit taller, voice slightly deeper, he looked grown up but still felt like the same kid Bruce picked off the streets. He stared at you, you were beautiful now. You were beautiful then. You’re still as beautiful as the day he lost you. He knows you’ll still be beautiful on the day that you find him.

“Figured I’d find you here.” Dick’s voice came through.

Jason looked over his shoulder, seeing his brother slowly walk up to be next to him.

“I take it Tim told you everything?” Jason scoffed, rubbing the back of his neck.

Dick only smiled and looked at the ground, easily forgiving his younger brother. Hell, if it had been him, he would’ve frozen up too.

“They’ve been injecting her with multiple forms of the anti-serum, the wires are to see how her brain reacts to them, and if they’re helping her regain her consciousness. They’re getting closer Jay, don’t worry.” Dick said, sounding hopeful.

Jason had a hard time believing him, people always said that to him, that you’d be fine, that you’ll be back soon. Not that he had given up on you and seeing you again, he knew you were strong, but he also knew you wouldn’t want him to stop living his life, to stop seeing the world. He tried to live everyday for you, most days he wondered what you’d order at new shops that opened up in Gotham, how long you and Rachel would’ve stayed up playing new video games, how much whining Dick would have to do to get you to train with him. He even made friends with the nice old lady who opened a coffee shop around the corner, Mrs. Bennett. But above all, he wondered what it would be like to be in your arms again, and have you in his. He misses watching you sleep, kissing your head and dragging his hands mindlessly up and down your back.

He gets so lost in his reverie he doesn’t realize Dick is pulling at his shirt and calling out to him.

“Oh my god, Jason, look. Jason!”

There you were, on the table, eyes opening, squinting at the bright lights that shone on you.

“Fuck, that is bright, can you guys turn that down?”

Gasps could be heard from all the scientists around you, all of them crowding up to you, pulling the wires at your head, adjusting the cuffs around your wrist, drawing needles into your skin.

Jason had never moved so quickly in his life, he ran down to the lab entrance, Dick following him suit, trying his best to stop his younger brother. Jason pounded on the door, calling out to you through the soundproof glass.

“Dick, man, you’ve gotta open this lab, I need to see her, I need to.” Jason turned around, practically begging.

“I can’t, we need to let them run some tests, just because she’s awake doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.” Dick explained, overwhelmed, looking at you as you studied the room you were in.

You were obviously confused by your surroundings, but Dick could not let Jason see you if you hadn’t been completely analyzed yet. It took a while to convince Jason to give it a rest, go back to the tower with him and wait for Bruce’s updates.

Jason bounced his knee up and down, anxious. It had been days. Days since he saw you wake up. Days since Dick told him Bruce would come back with news about you. What if you had gone back to sleep? What if you didn’t remember him? What if you went berserk and destroyed the lab? What if you died? What if-

“Jason.” Dick called out.

He stood up immediately, running over to where he was called. Everyone was gathered near Bruce, anxiously waiting for the man to speak.

“She’s stable,” everyone sighed, letting out a breath they didn’t know they held. “All the tests were run, her blood, some memory tests, her strength, her control over her body. She’s completely fine, but some trace of the enhanced abilities the serum Luthor gave her is still there, and we are unsure how much or how little she remembers, if that memory will come back over time, and how it’ll affect her.”

“Where is she?” Rachel asked.

Almost as if on cue, you walked into the batcave, the metal no longer on your limbs. Your steps were delicate, your hair way outgrown, your black boots heavy on your feet. All eyes were on you as you came in, jaws slack in disbelief. Tim even stood in slight alarm that you were going to try and kill all of them.

Jason ran to you, hugging you in a bone-crushing deathgrip and lifting you off the ground. You giggled a bit, holding onto him as he put you down quickly to put his hands on either side of your face to get a good look at you.

“Hey handsome,” God, your voice, he’d almost forgotten what you sounded like. “You look good.”

“I’ve been way better.” He responded.

He kissed you, hard and sweet, forgetting about everyone in the room, melting into the touch you returned. When Dick cleared his throat, Jason parted from you, apologizing quietly while still looking at you and running his hands over your face and hair. He shed a few tears but wiped them away quickly as to not look weak in front of everyone. He had kept it together for so long. He let go of you so you could hug everyone, greeting them with a small smile on your face.

“So, (Y/N), what powers do you have now?” Rachel asked.

“I, um. I can still fight, I remember all my combat training, I still have super-memory, and super strength.” You said, unsure of what else you may still have.

The giddy looks built up on Tim and Dick’s faces, so excited to be able to train with you, and add you to the team, even if that was wishful thinking or them moving way too fast. Everyone’s faces were lit up as they took your presence in, you felt appreciated, albeit still confused from not remembering much, you only knew that you had caused some serious damage as Luthor’s soldier.

The team gathered around the console, the projector showing footage of you wrecking the bank and throwing entire cars across the street. You winced as you heard the screams of people. You caused their pain, their suffering. Jason watched from behind the projector as your eyes began to glass over, he stood up.

“Okay, I think that’s enough.” He said, walking up to you and wrapping his entire frame around you.

He wishes he could shield you from it all. Although you don’t remember any of it for now, it didn’t change the fact that you had done it. You both knew that. He rubbed his hand up and down your back, you could practically feel the stress off of everyone in the room.

“How are we supposed to fix this?” You blurted.

“(Y/N)-“

“No, Jason. Really, how are we supposed to fix this?,” You pulled away from him. “I don’t remember doing any of this, I don’t remember anything past being grabbed at that dinner, yet somehow, I can fight like you guys, I hurt so many people, I destroyed entire buildings with my own hands, how are we supposed to fix this?” You rambled, voice getting quieter towards the end.

“I’ve set up with the Gotham PD to obtain all footage of the attacks, if you wanted to go back to your normal life, by changing your hair and the fact that you don’t have metal limbs anymore, you could get away with it. But if you wanted to use your abilities to help people, to be on this team, then other measures need to be taken.” Bruce offered.

You were left speechless, how could Bruce want you to be part of the team after everything? Could you really do something like that? You didn’t even recall any of the attacks, it felt like you were a stranger in your own body.

“I-I, um. I-I need some time, if that’s okay. I-I j-just need to think.” You managed to get out.

Bruce and the others comforted you, telling you to take all the time you need while they make preparations and continue shielding any knowledge of your actions as Luthor’s soldier. Jason took your hand and led you to his room in the manor, it was emptier than it had been before, much cleaner too. You walked in and sat on the bed while Jason stood at the door, eyes on the floor as if he couldn’t believe his eyes if he looked at you.

“It’s…clean. Which means you don’t really spend much time in here.” You laughed airily.

“I guess I just couldn’t really be alone after what happened, needed to be outside as much as possible.” He said, honestly.

His honesty had you taken aback, it was unlike Jason to be so…straightforward, and honest with his feelings. I suppose things change, especially when you’ve been gone for 4 years.

“So, 24, huh?” You asked, trying to lighten up the mood.

“24.”

“What’s 24 like?”

“Like 20, 21, 22, and 23, but just 24.” He said, putting his finger to his chin as if he were thinking.

You giggled a bit, and he closed the door to walk over to you, wanting to hug you and feel you as if he’d lose you all over again tomorrow. He laid down and you moved to lay on his chest, feeling the anxiety wash away with each stroke of his hands on your back. He was calming, soothing, just as he’d always been. You take a good look at his face while he’s holding you, he almost looked the same as that night you were taken. The bags under his eyes more prominent, the crows feet at his eyes deepened slightly.

“Do I look different?” He asked, noticing how you observed his features.

“A bit, but it’s not a bad thing, handsome. After all, I haven’t seen you in a few years. What about me?” You asked.

“Still beautiful,” He mused. “I like your hair.”

“You always like my hair.”

“I think I just always like you.”

You spent a long time talking, you weren’t sure where you began, but you ended with talking about Mrs. Bennett, the nice old lady who owns the coffee shop down the street. He spent a good chunk of his time swinging by as Jason Todd, buying coffee and pastries from the old woman while she sat with him and listened to his stories about you.

“You gushed over me to an 80 year old woman?”

“She’s 65, and yes. She makes a mean chocolate chip cookie, how am I supposed to say no to that?” Jason responded, as if it was obvious.

You laughed. And he missed it. He wished he could freeze this moment with you, forget the entire outside world existed because his entire world was right in front of him. You questioned if he had ever found someone else while you were under. Even if you didn’t admit it, a tinge of jealousy swirled in your chest. You knew it was somewhat unreasonable though, you were literally asleep for years. You didn’t want him to feel obligated to stay with you after all this time. You decided to keep quiet, now really wasn’t the time to discuss that.

There was an alarm that sounded over the speakers throughout the entire house. Jason was on his feet in an instant, fear overtaking him. He asked you to stay put, safe in the manor with Alfred. You couldn’t help but feel benched, even if you hadn’t exactly accepted Bruce’s offer to join the team. It was probably best you don’t go with them, you didn’t want to distract Jason any more than you already had.

Jason’s desk had been littered with pictures from over the years, him smiling in birthday photos, him at the lab with Dick and Bruce, him half asleep with Tim startling him awake. He had lived his life without you here, and that thought made your heart clench, so happy that your lover had such good memories. You’d laid down in Jason’s bed, falling fast asleep after the alarms stopped, clutching a picture of the entire team together in your hands, the family you’d missed so much.

Jason returned hours later, the Joker made a play to open up Arkham Asylum, but it proved to be a hoax when the team had arrived. Jason made his way up the stairs to his room, in full surprise to see that you weren’t there.

“Alfred, do you know where (Y/N) is?”

“I assumed she was in your room, Master Todd, she never left.”

Jason’s head whipped back around to scan his room, now noticing that the window was open. He pulls out his communicator to call out to everyone, letting them know you had escaped. But why would you leave? You were just fine when he had left, maybe you got worried about him and left to see if you could find him? He knew you wouldn’t have just left for no reason.

The team scoured the streets of Gotham, the dead of the knight leaving no trace of shadows, the flickering streetlights causing an uneasy, eerie feeling.

“Look out!” Rachel gasped.

Dick ducked on instinct, a car flying over his head and crashing into a wall near him. Jason ran in the direction from which it came from, seeing you stumble around the street, pushing things out of your way and throwing your arms in every direction. The team tried to call out to you but as they approached you, they noticed you had been completely asleep.

“Is she…sleep walking?” Rachel asked, almost incredulously.

“More like sleep fighting.” Gar snickered.

“Easily and completely not the time, Gar.”

The green haired boy shrugged and transformed, running to subdue you, but you easily flung your arm out, colliding with him and sending him backwards. Dick snapped his staff in half, ready to fight you. Rachel opened her arms to let her shadow flow from her body. Jason stuck his arm out and shook his head. He ran up to you and parried your movements, eventually pulling you to his chest and grabbing a hold of your face. You were muttering, mumbling, fighting something in your own head.

“You’re safe, honey. I’ve brought you home, you found me. We are home, you’re safe. He will never get to you again, I promise.” He whispered into your ear, clutching you so closely to his chest so that you couldn’t break free, try as you might.

He kept whispering words of comfort, of your safety, of how you were his family. Eventually you stopped mumbling, and woke up confused, rubbing your eyes.

“Jason? God, where are we? My arms are killing me.” You said, rubbing your arms.

You looked around and saw the team staring at you.

“You kinda, sorta, definitely slept walked your way into the city and started destroying shit.” Gar said.

Rachel nudged him with her elbow and he gave her a ‘what-did-I-do’ look. You panicked, dropping to knees, you thought you were fighting, you saw Luthor in your dream, he chanted the words to put you under his command again, you thought you were fighting to see Jason again.

“Oh god.”

You were silent for a long time when the team brought you back home. You sat silently on Jason’s bed while he walked around, changing, cleaning up, distracting himself. He finally sat down next to you when he heard your weight shift.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

“Okay.”

You told him about the dream, more like nightmare that you had when you had fallen asleep. Luthor had you in his grasp again, chanting the words that would put you under his command. He prodded that you would never see the team again, never see Jason again, and this time he’d inject enough serum for you to not even remember your own name. It had felt so real, and you assume it must’ve triggered something in your body that made you sleep walk.

You cried as you told him. You worried for yourself, for the team; you questioned if you were a danger to yourself, to him, to his family, your family. He held you tightly, listening and thinking to himself, wondering if there was anything he could do to make your life easier, to take all your pain away. You feel sudden fear of how Bruce will react, no way he’ll let you stay with Jason with you sleep walking.

“I think I should sleep in one of the suit capsules in the cave tonight.”

“No, what the hell, no. That’s not happening.” Jason immediately retorted.

“Jason, listen, what happened tonight was lucky. Do you get that? It was lucky. I could’ve hurt someone, I could’ve killed someone, I could’ve- what if you- what if I-“ You lost your words, unable to fathom the possibility of you injuring Jason let alone killing him.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll stay with you.”

You both walked down to the cave, Jason told Bruce you were on your way and that this would be your solution until they were able to run more tests on the remnants of the serum in your blood. You gave Jason a quick kiss before stepping into an empty suit capsule, the air pockets at the top making it breathable, but still small. Jason held his breath when he saw you step into it, flashbacks of having to watch the gas put you to sleep coming back to him. His breathing got faster, his heartbeat raced quicker. No. No. Keep it together. Keep it together.

“You know, handsome, it’d be rude not to stare when your favorite person ever is literally on display.” You teased.

“Right, because it’s not like I stare all the time anyway.” He laughed.

You were both clearly masking your fear for what was to come, and maybe it would be distrastrous, but for now, Jason had you back, and that was more than enough for him.

#jason todd x reader #dick grayson x reader #jason todd fluff #jason todd #Jason todd x female reader #titans x reader #red hood

[whalehouse1]

@thefaeriefeatherdark Sorry, I just haven't had either the time nor the energy to write up a response to your thoughts on the AU and I apologize because this is basically stream of consciousness and not edited, but a few things about my 3 Superboys AU, which thanks to Jon is technically 5 but another time.

Okay, the Superboy AU has actually gotten worse thanks to Leah Williamson (long story, but now we have two Jons). But to answer your questions as best I can given my limited Super family knowlege. Connor is a Cadmus creation, he is straight up the series origins. Made by Cadmus with Lex's funding with Lex's and Clark's DNA. The main difference is he is the first attempt at being cloned and Cadmus lies and tells Lex the clone had deteriorated once he was out of his clone tube. If you want to add Contessa to this, you could have her doing this to spite Lex. I know nothing about her besides what you said in your post, but I'm sure she has good reasons to be spiteful to Lex. And you know to try to keep and groom a Superboy on her own.

As for Lena Thorul, I know nothing about her, but since I am a fan of random characters from Kara's original series (I want that trade if it will ever exist), I don't see any issue with her being involved. My only issue with Kara in your idea, is I hc her around the ages of the original Teen Titans from the comics. At most a year younger, only because I think it's funny that Dick will call her an old hag even though he's physically older, but she's older than even Clark by a decent amount.

I mean all three are Clark and Lex clones, so they will look alike, but as Connor and Kon do have other's DNA mixed in with them (Maik is the only 100% just those two's DNA), they're can be variation. I think Connor looks distinct enough, it could have just been the cartoon style, but he seems more muscular and taller. He's more of a football player, while Kon is more Baseball player in terms of general build (it's a very bad description, but the best way I can explain it without drawing it, sorry). And Maik is 12, he's baby shaped. But he's basically built thicker than Jon, but not really by much since again, babies. Connor doesn't have the earring like the other two do, but I think Maik in terms of appearance does get mistook as Kon's younger brother since they look a lot alike. Maik has much better fashion sense though, cause is it Kon if he is dressed well? Maik has the gray eyes from the movie cause they're very striking compared to everyone else's bright blue ones. I also just like grey eyes and there's not a lot of of them in comics. So Kon and Maik will look alike and will argue about who stole whose look, but it comes down to just their age and clothing. I think Maik will end up looking a bit more different when he gets older, but I think those two will resemble each other the most with the eyes and fashion being their difference sadly. As for their outfits, don't they all need those super awesome jackets? Connor sadly gets his black shirt and pants, it's boring, but you know which Super it is when you see this. I did liker Kon's outfit in Kelly's run and YJ98, but Maik's would start out as the same as in the movie, but I think he would keep a more subdued coloration in his outfit. I also think as he gets older, he would make his costume more punk-rock than just spiked shoulders. I'm not sure how exactly, but I like him having a music industry plant type of idea behind his creation and so I want to incorporate music styles into his older costume if that makes sense.

Well, we have how many Flashes now? It should be fine, right (laughing in DC's inability to give codenames to established heroes for mantle passing)? They would get new codenames, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Also their names would have to use some of their personality and stories (Nightwing coming from Clark's story, Troia coming from Donna's stay on the Greek Moon planet thingy, Tempest coming from his water magic, etc.). So that would take a bit to get a good codename for them. But them and both Jons would evolve into having their own codename. Kara at last could go for Superwoman (since as far as I know there isn't one running around (watch me be wrong and there's like 5).

Oh, I completely forgot about Matrix. I want to say since the goal of this AU is to give Ma and Pa Kent the biggest amount of grandchildren, I want to at first instinct say yes, but from what I remember about that, it's still just Kara just merged with another. Also, I just didn't enjoy the bits I've seen of it. But since I haven't read the whole story, I'm not going to say definitively no, but that was just a weird bit of Supergirl's history to me, but not enough for me to just, "yay, no" it. If you want those, ask me about Nightwing XD.

As for the "it's gotten more complicated" it might actually be more fun for you, since you like the paternity bit more, but again I haven't had a chance to read Kon's solo yet (I've been reading from the beginning and I haven't made it to Superman comics yet and until the 90's, there's not really any writer who I'm just going to skip (I can't with Dixon anymore. He can write good plots, but he's such an awful garbage person and it bleeds through too much for me. And actually between him and Fitzmartin, I almost started to hate Tim, but one of his fans actually helped me with that), so I still have awhile and time is a dick. But to the actual point, Connor is the first actual clone, but he isn't "alive" to the world as Contessa is keeping him a secret from Lex and so Lex decides to cut his losses and tries again and that's how we get Kon, but Kon on top of Lex and Luthor's DNA also has Westfield's DNA in the mix. So he'sd the first clone the world gets to know. As for where Contessa and Cadmus is storing Connor, I'm not 100%, since I really, really hated the clone tube, so they probably have a facility underground that they "trained" him in so that he would be perfect for their nefarious schemes. He 100% will keep Wolf, I don't know if it would be from an Outsiders' mission or a one off mission with the Titans, but he's getting Wolf. And I'm fine with him on the farm, the Supers can come and go from there and since it's centrally located, it's not a bad place for him to join up with others. He doesn't have flight, but he's fast and can jump. Also he can get the stickers from Lex again and one of the heroes could probably figure out a way to replicate them without the addiction issue, there's enough scientist to figure it out. I know absolutely nothing about Indigo, but as long as she isn't going to take him to the Legion of Superheroes I'm fine with it (still bitter about that arc with Kara in the show, it just never sat right with me). But I do like your idea of him staying at the Outsiders HQ until Clark invites him to the farm. I think Connor has more of a relationship with the Kents than Clark, because Clark just doesn't know him and after Kon doesn't know how to deal with this new, but older clone. And he has to deal with raising Jon, so he can't just drop everything to help raise this kid he never knew existed. I think it makes him more understandable than what YJ did with him where he just came off as a prick. The powers are right, the heat vision and cold breath aren't as strong as Clark or Kara's, but that can be enhanced with the shields and that's ofc where the flight comes in as well. I do think he has the most strength out of the three in terms of raw physical power. Kon's TTK though obviously wins in terms of actual strength.

Now, because I just want to make things over complicated for no reason, I get you like cybernatics, but as I'm not a big sci-fi fan, when Maik was being cloned, in an attempt to see if they could remove the kryptonite weakness, they had some red kyrptonite in the room where they were cloning him. He still has the weakness, but instead it warped his Kryptonian abilities to an extent. So for example, he has heat breath and frost vision. His superstrength isn't as strong as the others, but (thanks to your boiling water Kara thing), I think he has the strongest durability out of the Supers. This wasn't meant to contradict you, I just think it's funny Kara doesn't want to get him hurt, but if he's not around kryptonite, the kid could get punched by every other Super at full strength and he'd barely feel it. He's still strong and could punch a hole through a solid steel building without a problem, but he's losing the arm wrestling contests. He is also the one Lex had the most see-over on though so he is the smartest since he was basically being taught by Lex approved tutors and that. He also since he actually is the one clone that "got to be a kid" and if the aging thing was retconned, I'm fine with it, he started out as an actual kid, so he and Jon actually are one year apart (Jon's a year older, kid Jon, not teen Jon, as I said it got complicated, but another day), and he would have absorbed some of Lex's "morals", so he could have a good character arc of growing out of that greed inspired mindset and learning to see humans as humans. I do think the Danvers would be a great set for this. The Kents would be too, and they 100% get to help with their grandson, but the Danvers had Kara, who was a teen when they adopted her, with (depending on the timeline) good or bad Kryptonian ideaolgies and previous connotations on Earth and its inhabitants. So they have more experience with that than the Kents. Also, since he and Jon are essentially the same age and Maik starting as an antagonist, that would be a good start for them since it would give a chance of kids figuring out things and influencing each other and given what Jon has been through, it's not like he's 100% rainbows, unicorns and sunshine. He's been through the ringer, possibly more than any other Super, 3 years under Ultraman torture will do that to a person. More so, being left for dead and having to watch that person living your life. But yes, as Kon would have YJ and Connor would be best (for me personally) for the Outsiders with helping out the Titans and YJ at times, Maik would fit in perfectly with the amount of child heroes that exist right now. He might feel redundant if he joined up with Damian and Jon and the people I have on their youth team I have, but what's the harm in having two supers? But even excluding that fact, there's a large amount to make a team out of. And heck, he could even start on my Damian team, butt heads with him (not hard to do) and take a few with him to make his own team and get some of the others Damian couldn't recruit. Even more fun if it splits up the West twins so Wally and Linda have to listen to who has the better team at dinner at least twice a week. And for villains, they would have to fit a theme for him to grow, so if I were to write stories for him, I would want to figure out a good balance for that. I would have to think of a few examples, but someone targeting him for being Lex's son, clone, "hero", "weapon" wouldn't be bad, someone who isn't able to control their actions for one reason or another, I think an evil Toyman would be good to as well, a villain who wants the spotlight (like Punchline, but not as annoying, sorry I just don't like her), he'd be very good for a social media type of villain or a eugenics villain. There's potential for others, but for villains, I think the moral theme for the story should come before their gimmick for a good story (can you tell I'm a batbrat?).

As for the DNA samples, I think it'd be a cute story that Maik and Jon are wanting to be the babies (the twins come in after this so it's all pointless), and also just worried that since Cadmus and Lex both have had access to controlling all three clones, with each one being a stronger control (Maik even having a microchip just in case that Kara made inert whether through Kandor or heat vision, doesn't matter, but one of those), teaming up and Jon using some lockpicking skills he get from Damian and Maik knowing the layout of the building, breaking and entering and destroying the DNA samples Lex has and scanning the building for anything he could possibly use for more DNA and eradicating it. It doesn't even have to be a stressful comic, just a fun little one of them having fun destroying untold and unsolvable property damage to Lex Corp. Everyone wins. And I'll give you this for the cybernetics and Lex being more involved with him, we can give him electric touch. So he could be a human taser or stronger. Lightning has been shown able to incapacitate the Supers, so it wouldn't be a bad thing for Lex to put into the one he has the most control over, until he defects. But now relooking at the timeline you gave me, I don't know if Contessa could have been around for all three cloning attempts. If so, Maik could be the one she doesn't lie about to Lex, but if she couldn't have been in charge for Connor, the pettiness isn't needed. But I do like them lying to Lex that Connor was a failure, so when he finds out he's still alive and functioning, he tries to be a "good" dad with the stickers and to give him resources that Connor knows better than to accept after the incident with the stickers.

#kon kent #connor kent #michael kent #kon el #maik el #superboy #superboy au #3 superboy au #the saddest part is the Jon thing isn't even hard to explain but separate post and I really want to write it #cause kid Jon gets to go ballistic on Teen Jon and Clark but Clark didn't do anything wrong #and it gets rid of the creep that is Jay #I just know I spelt Kandor or Candor wrong but I'm not looking it up I know comics change spellings #and I'm not saying Maik has to be tied into music #but I do like the idea of music being used for inspiration for him in a way but not the big thing if that makes sense

[monstersdownthepath]

Sorry to pause the infernal march for a time, but Pathfinder’s continued insistence on hiding the most bonkers-wild bits of lore in tiny, unassuming modules before unceremoniously brushing them aside and never exploring them again continues to vex and haunt me

A single blue link on the Wiki--the page for the Muted God--sent me on a rabbithole adventure across several books before finally settling on the most important one, the one-shot Society Scenario Hands of the Muted God.

It’s a simple scenario, one that begins and ends as many do: the Pathfinders Association has lost yet another group of no-name explorers and your party has to go looking for them, as you usually do. What they were investigating was a holy site devoted to the titular Muted God, a silent demagogue (not those Demagogues) who attempted to take the Test of the Starstone and failed... or did he?

The book--as well as every other shred of lore about him as far up as his brief paragraph in Adventure Path: Agents of Edgewatch: Ruins of the Radiant Siege--is deliberately ambiguous as to whether or not he’s actually an Ascended and simply remained characteristically quiet about the whole affair.

Anyway, the PFs are investigating because his cult, which as small and unassuming as one would think a cult devoted to an ostensibly dead god of silence and meditation would be, has suddenly been performing miracles! Healing wounds, doing magic, even bringing back the dead!

I’m gonna skip past a bunch of useless investigative fluff to get to the bonkers-wild part: So there's a demon lord, Abraxas, who knows the Final Incantation, the period at the end of any sentence about magic. He says it, magic stops. it's Mage’s Disjunction on steroids. Other demon lords tend to leave him the alone because they don't want their magic turned off.

Well the Muted God, in his placid meditations, discovered the opposite end of that: the Zero Incantation. It's the pause for breath at the start of the sentence about magic, a "silent word" that generates an infinite font of magic energy. And you find that! You find his holy site and in it, this font of magic that can recharge any wand, staff, or other magic item that relies on charges. Just fill that sucker to max immediately upon dipping it into the fun crystal pool. Battery 100%! But if anyone makes any noise at all for any reason, even as quiet as a whisper and even from dipping the item in the water in the first place (you gotta be real careful dipping something in, but the entire charging ritual can be soundlessly done with a DC 30 Stealth check... or, you know, the application of Silence), the magic font shatters and the entire thing becomes a useless cave pond. The book says that even if the players don't destroy it, the PF agents sent in to double-check their work will, if only to keep it out of the hands of Abraxas' cult since he wants it for himself... because not even he knew about the Zero Incantation. So here we have: A dude who found out how to create infinite magic, who may or may not be a silent god somewhere, whose cult may or may not know how to create these fonts. And you hand their notes on the phenomena over to the Pathfinder’s Association to slowly decrypt, so they may one day themselves learn the Zero Incantation, something that Abraxas now knows exists, likely knows the PF Association has information on, and badly desires for his own designs. Is this ever brought up outside this low-level one-shot or explored in any way again? of course not. I’m ripping my hair out as we speak.

#pathfinder

[watchingeverydcmovie]

Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

I am watching every movie based on a DC publication in release order, for more information, see my pinned post.

First movie, Adventures of Captain Marvel from 1941.

Release Date: 3/28/1941 (This is the offical release date but also confusingly not the date the film was released, but instead the date that the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.) IMDB Rating: 7.2 Age Rating: Passed Runtime: 3 Hours, 36 Minutes/12 Chapters

GENERAL -

Adventures of Captain Marvel is considered the first comic book character adaptation ever. Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam) was not owned by DC at the time of this serials released.

In general, the plot is about Billy Batson going on an archological expodition with a team, meeting a wizard, gaining superpowers, and then his team steals this artifact and then they're hunted down by a masked villan called the Scorpian who they very quickly realize is a member of their own group.

MY REVIEW -

Is this movie good? Questionable.

It has not aged well, and I wasn't expecting it to have, but oh boy, is there a lot of rascim in this thing. Otherwise, it's engaging enough, if repetative, and it's very often uninentionally funny. The format that serials of the time used means that every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, which often leads to unnecessary drama being added that you can guess the resolution to before watching the next part. This also didn't need to be as long as it is, and there are often plot points that were definitely added just to add runtime.

That being said, I think Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy is an extremely likeable lead. He's generally sweet and charasmatic, and I like the movie most when Billy, the female lead Betty, and their friend Whitey are together.

I think the action scenes are well choreographed if a little silly, and all of the actors are pretty good overall.

Final Rating: 4.5/10

Would I watch this again? No. Maybe if it was shorter.

RANDOM THOUGHTS -

Billy Batson spends this entire movie getting knocked unconcious. In fact, all of the characters do. There is so much head trauma in this movie, it's unreasonable, but extremely unintentinally funny. I wish I had coutned how many scenes end with or contain a character just getting knocked on the head and going unconcious, it has to be upward of twenty. Also, when Billy wakes up, he's always gaged, even if other charcters who are with him aren't. This makes sense considered that he has to say the word "Shazam" in order to turn into Captain Marvel. However, it absolutely *doesn't* make sense when you add the knowlege that absolutely nobody knows he's Captain Marvel or that Captain Marvel needs to speak to use his superpowers.

There's one scene where Captain Marvel rescues Betty from a group that kidnapped her and then turns back to Billy before she wakes up. Before she got kidnapped, she was attempting to get to a certain location before the bad guys, and Billy assures that he'll get there faster on his plane, and then brushes her off when she attempts to go with him. I saw this and was thinking "Ah, yes, Billy Batson, who is Captain Marvel, who can fly, does not actually own a plane, and will instead turn into Captain Marvel and simply fly there with his superpowers." Imagine my surprise, when Billy then goes to airport and gets into an actual fucking airplane. Why did that do that?? What was the point??????? The man can FLY.

I think I am far to used to modern superhero comics and movies where, like, "should the hero kill the villain" is posed as a tough moral quandry and the answer is usually "absolutely not", because Captain Marvel kills SO MANY PEOPLE. And not even the main villain, someone else kills the main villain, Billy just throws a henchman off the roof of a parking garage at some point. He gets his powers and immidiately goes lethal.

I'm also extremely used to the Captain Marvel/Shazam narrative of "very young boy gets superpowers and looks like an adult", which means that this movie's "young adult man gets superpowers and turns into a just slightly older but different man" is very funny.

FUN FACTS -

To achieve the special effect of Captain Marvel's transformation, the production team apparently put a trough of flash powder in front of Frank Coghlan, Jr. who played Billy and ignited it, which apparently lead to Frank Coghlan, Jr. losing a few eyebrows if the wind was particularly unfavorable.

Frank Coghlan, Jr. also apparently did not know who Captain Marvel or Billy Batson were before getting the role.

They used a paper mache dummy to achieve the flying effects from far away. It is incredibly obvious when they do this and also very funny.

#dc comics #dcu #shazam #captain marvel #movie review #movies #billy batson #1940s movies #watching every DC movie even if it kills me #seriously this is the first one and I'm already losing my mind just a bit

[dysfunctional-family-fight]

Propaganda for the Batfamily

"Constantly fighting, and trying to kill each other. Also are fighting the mentally I’ll at 2 in the morning while wearing glorified tights and bat ears"

"*gestures vaguely at every batfam story ever* No but like they’ve got so many issues idk where to start. Jason’s death and all the shit he started post resurrection? Damian straight up trying to kill Tim for while back in the day? Bruce’s questionable and inconsistently written parenting skills? Also they’re all vigilantes which in Gotham means they definitely have issues"

"Thomas and Martha Wayne got murdered and it's all been downhill from there"

"Bruce dresses up as a bat to fight crime and Alfred, failing to stop him, adopts a "well if you're going to do it then at least do it where I can see that you'll be safe" attitude and helps from behind the scenes. Bruce in turn adopts a child called Dick. And then a child called Jason. And then a Cass and a Tim and a Duke. It doesn't really work out with a Steph but she's family anyway. Damian doesn't need adopting because he's Bruce's bio kid that he didn't know existed for ten years. And all of the children are SO determined to fight crime that the combined forces of Bruce and Alfred aren't enough to stop them, and one by one they all become vigilantes (Bruce also adopting Alfred's attitude from before). Most of them die at least once. None of them are good at coping OR communicating OR feelings OR being a member of a functioning family but by god if they aren't trying to help. Sometimes the world, sometimes each other. They usually fare better with the former. Bruce and Dick yell at each other about everything under the sun that parents and eldest children yell at each other about. Jason is angry at Bruce because the Joker is still alive after he killed Jason. Bruce is angry at Jason for killing people. Cass is away from home a lot. Tim takes even worse care of himself than the others (on page). Duke is... actually doing pretty okay if not counting the fact that his parents got jokerised and his new family is This. Damian struggles with not killing people and a rampant animal adoption addiction. They all struggle with abandonment issues. The rest of them struggle for screentime. It's like that one vine with the girl who goes "please god, let me have just one good day" and god answers "oh my god you again? give it a rest buddy" where the family (both as a collective and as individuals) is the girl and DC Comics is god."

1 all of them have tried to kill each other at least once

2 bruce wayne is a kind of shitty dad

3 everyone but bruce and alfred were child soldiers (ish)

4 dick grayson has beefed with multiple 12 year olds after he had already grown up and moved out

5 cannot overemphasize the murders and bodily harm

6 one time bruce got lost in the timestream (comics) and everyone but tim thought he was dead and tim was like “hes alive” and everyone kinda bullied the shit out of him for it

7 one time jason got murdered by a guy and then several years later dick put him in prison down the hall from the guy

8 one time bruce beat the everloving shit out of jason for shooting a guy with a blank

9 another time bruce refused to tell jason about who killed his dad despite knowing full well

10 bruce is the main reason jason died at age 15 in the first place

11 the amount of beatings dick grayson took throughout the 50s and 60s is frankly absurd

12 in the injustice universe damian got dick killed and then bruce screamed at damian for “killing his son” despite damian also being his son. then damian joined the league of super fascists against his dad (who beat him up a lot) and then his dad put him in prison

13 bruces uncle isnt in the batfamily but after bruces traumatic orphaning his uncle did more traumatic stuff to him

"Several attempted murders, several arrests of each other, general disdain and massive fights, love that is destructive to all parties, and an inability to communicate"

"they're a family full of extremely traumatized child soldiers whose primary coping mechanism is vigilante justice. many of them have tried to kill each other multiple times. some of them have died & come back wrong. they try their best and they do care about each other but they also get into big blowout fights a lot. they all came from some form of traumatized background before being taken in. the oldest sibling (Dick) had to be a father to the youngest sibling (Damian) for a not insignificant period of time when the dad (Bruce) disappeared; this was immediately after Damian (Bruce's only biological child) had started living with them after being raised in an assassin cult by his mother for the first like decade of his life. Jason died, came back wrong, was groomed by assassins, became a drug lord, & tried to kill multiple members of his family."

"i don't think i can summarise the 80 years of familial dysfunction. my best is just. Batman is the best parental figure some of these kids have ever had. Batman."

"Take your pick of issues. Dead parents, absent parents, abusive parents, addict parents, distant parents, assassin parents. How many people are in the family? Who knows? Everyone deals with personal issues by dressing up and fighting crime in the most depressing city possible. Bruce may or may not have adopted all the kids/plays favorites."

"Bruce is addicted to adopting kids. Bruce. quit putting children into crime fighting. One of them died like how did you not learn. Dick (the first robin) is a huge ass to the next one that comes along (this is the one that died like. Super graphically and horrifically) because Bruce basically fires him as his son and Dick leaves. The one that died rose from the grave, was kidnapped/manipulated for years and has supernatural anger issues (but rightfully should be angry) tries to kill brother Tim who became robin after him for replacing him. He becomes a drug lord and starts cutting off heads. Uses guns for the bit specifically (really funny) (bruce has trauma with guns from dead parents). Bruce mean to Tim when he first comes, then finds out oh shit I have a bio kid raised by assassins that really thinks he’s epic and tries to kill Tim a bunch. It’s practically tradition for his brothers to try and kill him. I love Damian but damn babe. That’s a lot king. He also genetically got the addiction to adopting but for pets. He’s pulling up with cows and shit and keeping them. Cass is perfect and we love her. Duke has a really funny relationship with Jason, and also does some out of pocket shit in the comics (by that i mean like. Dangerous/crazy stuff but in a good way) Alfred is perpetually exhausted with them, mostly bruce. Bruce is emotionally constipated so bad, like crazy bad. This man cannot communicate and is a bad dad a lot bc of it. But he’s really trying and loves them."

#propaganda #batfamily #batman

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Since the utter disappointment of YJ and the way they treated, Wally, I’m trying to slowly get back into Flash comics, but I’m almost a decade plus behind. So knowing this, what’s the deal with Barry’s kids. Other than Don being Bart’s dad and living in the future, what else is really known of them? When was the last time they were really relevant? Irey and Jai seem to have been around forever (pre New 52 of course) but barely a mention of Barry’s kids. Am I wrong? Like I said before, way..way behind. Thanks.

Alright, first of all: sorry this took so long to answer 😅 I have a lot of asks I want to get to but I want to make sure I give them all my full energy to do deep dives and fully engage, ect so it's... taking a bit lmao

Without further ado, let's get into the Tornado Twin lore:

So interestingly enough the Tornado Twins first appeared in Adventure Comics #373 as the descendants of Barry Allen. They were listed as non-metas (aka, they didn't have powers) in the government database and were said to have just gained temporary superspeed from an experiment. They seemed to have a shaky history keeping any powers they got and eventually seemed to lose them entirely.

All of this (being descendants, not having powers, ect) is later explained/retconned in the Flash when Wally time travels and meets them. He finds out that the Thawnes are hunting them down and that Iris had forbade the twins from using their powers publicly (hence why they had to say they only had temporary powers) and from revealing that they were Barry's children.

Wally has a few adventures with the Twins in the future. They... don't get along well. Don and Dawn are jealous of Wally's father/son relationship with Barry (Barry died before they were born and they'd never even met him) and Wally was jealous that they were actually Barry's flesh and blood children. All three of them kinda get over it and can be friendly but it's still always there in the background.

Now the twins had been raised solely by Iris in an apocalyptic future and as soon as they were able to, they went out and started fighting in space wars and fighting with the Legion and helping their time traveling cousin fight crime. Dawn got married and had her daughter Jenni. Don got married to the daughter of the man trying to kill his family, Meloni Thawne, and together they became pregnant with one Bart Allen.

Before Bart was born Meloni's father put a hit out on the Allen family. The Dominators took the contract and killed Don and Dawn. They attempted to kill Jenni and her father as well but failed and Jenni and her father went into hiding. Jenni was eventually forgotten about/dismissed as they thought she didn't have powers. Bart was kidnapped by Dominators and then by President Thawne, his own grandfather, and they stuck him in a VR world hoping that he'd die of old age within a few years. (How sad is it that Barry died saving the world and never got to meet his children and then Don goes and does the same thing? If Bart ever has a kid he needs to be put on house arrest)

Now Thawne fucked with this timeline because of course he did and he intercepted the twins when they were still in that angry preteen phase. He kidnapped them, brainwashed them and then set them loose on Barry in the past. This was technically Barry's first time meeting his children. Bart reset this timeline with the power of love and now this never happened.

That's the long and short of it all. The twins only have 30 appearances in DC comics and honestly not a lot has been done with them. My current theory is that Iris is pregnant with the twins right now because she said that she had "two surprises for Barry" and now she's just waiting for him to get back from saving the multiverse to tell him but who knows with DC?

#dc #the flash #kid flash #dc comics #impulse #don allen #dawn allen #tornado twins #barry allen #jenni ognats #bart allen #iris west

[captainsjack]

📓 describe a fic any fic. mayhaps something mi??

hngngg ok ok this is so hard to just pick one, but the one i'm currently most thinking about (and have written a total of 0%) is my fake death au!

so basically, it takes place around the same time as fallout, sort of in place of it. and benji and ethan have been dating for a while (idk how long maybe a year or two). it's all ethan pov btw. and one day benji goes to the grocery store and ethan's at home cooking dinner and he's waiting for benji to come back. but then he gets a call from the hospital saying benji's been in a crash and he needs to come down there. except when ethan gets there they tell him benji was pronounced dead on the scene and there wasn't anything they could do.

so like ethan goes back home to this cold, half-cooked dinner and is completely numb. he isolates himself and lays in bed and just. barely exists for a few days before luther & brandt come over looking for him and benji bc they haven't been at work for a while. and they find ethan in bed, barely moving, and eventually he tells them that benji died. ("where's benji?" "the crematorium. i'm supposed to pick him up on tuesday.")

(i forgot to mention that after these first few days, ethan takes a ring from benji's laptop case and puts it on. benji was going to propose to him. he hadn't yet, and he didn't know ethan knew he was going to, but ethan had figured it out weeks ago and was forcing himself to wait for benji to actually propose and not just say yes the moment he figured it out. only now, benji will never get the chance. and so ethan puts on the ring in an attempt to tell benji yes, yes of course he wants to marry him, it's the only thing he's ever wanted, even though benji isn't there to hear him say yes).

then basically like yeah. it's just about ethan going through the stages of grief (i was thinking maybe a chapter per stage??). luther, brandt, & ilsa plan the funeral and take care of ethan because he's not himself. ethan refuses to write the eulogy and luther has to beg him to because this is benji, and it shouldn't come from anyone else. eventually ethan agrees, but he isn't actually able to write anything other than 'benji' at the top of the paper and nothing else. there's the funeral. ethan speaks last. he gets up to the podium and stares at the almost blank sheet of paper. he looks out at the crowd for a few moments, and then just walks away. he leaves. drives for days, weeks, out to california. stops in random safe houses and lives there sometimes. he ditches his phone and all communication. goes through the anger and bargaining stages until he gets to california. gets an apartment there. sends all his stuff over from dc but can't unpack any of it because it's all benji's too. so he lives in this empty apartment full of boxes and can't even sleep in the bed because it's the bed he shared with benji. he slips into this deep deep depression, and it's not until like 6 months later that he actually speaks to another human being because luther shows up at his door one night. ("i've already lost one friend. i didn't think i was going to lose two.")

and so luther stays. for months. ethan's not receptive at first, but luther takes care of him and gets him into therapy, and, slowly, ethan gets better. he feels sort of alive again. luther eventually moves out and into his own apartment a few blocks away from ethan. on the one year anniversary of benji's death, ethan visits his grave for the first time. (he and luther fly back to dc for a visit. ethan sees ilsa and brandt for the first time in a year too).

then ethan finally reaches acceptance and has to learn how to live his life without benji. about two years in, ethan goes back to the imf, but stays located in california. he still can't go back to dc for more than a few days because each place there holds too many memories of benji. luther retired when benji died, and he still lives in california with ethan. ilsa and brandt visit them frequently. ethan visits benji each anniversary of his passing. he still wears the ring.

then it's almost four years since benji died. ethan's called on a mission. they're tracking down the last group of the apostles. when ethan infiltrates their base, he comes face to face with none other than benji. (i have this really cool scene in my head where the apostles attack ethan and hold him captive for a hot sec and tell benji to kill him and get rid of him. and ethan thinks he's gonna do it but then six shots fire and all the apostles drop dead and it's just him and benji left standing there. benji had saved him and ethan doesn't know why. then ethan comes at him and attacks him and yells at him to take of the mask ("take it off." "take what off?" "your mask. take it off right now. and if you ever use that face again, i swear i will kill you."). and benji has to convince ethan that it's really him, he's here, alive, and not someone else wearing benji as a mask. ethan only believes him when he slices benji's cheek with a knife and he bleeds, pure and true, with no layer of mask against his skin.)

then ethan's so overwhelmed that benji's here and alive and there's still a mission to focus on and he doesn't even know how to process this. benji tells him they need to go, because there's more of them downstairs, and so ethan and benji take care of the rest of the apostles and then the mission's over and benji comes back with ethan and his team.

and this is already so long djfkjjd i didn't mean to go into so much detail, but basically then ethan has to reach acceptance all over again, has to accept the fact that the past four years of his life weren't even real and he had to go through all of that for nothing. (benji tells him it wasn't for nothing, because it kept ethan alive. the apostles had kidnapped him and told him that if he didn't come work with them, that ethan would die, and benji tried to think of any way to get out of it but couldn't. so he had followed their instructions and faked his death and become a part of their group. ethan was safe and that's all that had mattered) (“leaving you was the hardest thing i have ever had to do. but i would do it again in a heartbeat, knowing it saved your life.” “it didn’t.”)

so then benji moves to california with ethan and they relearn how to be a part of each other's lives and work though everything that went down the past four years, and it takes a lot of work, but eventually, they're happy and together (and finally get married) (and also they retire).

-

ask me about my wips!

#jsdkfdfjskjbk im obsessed with this anon #u don't know how hard it was to resist writing some of the scenes flat out here in this ask #thank u for letting me talk about it!!! #bc i love this one so much and have like 90% of it written word for word in my head #but am putting off writing it until i feel confident i can pull it off #bc it is. deep. to say the least. and i want to be able to do it justice u know? #anyways yeah i hope u think it sounds cool! #mission impossible #benthan #my writing #sort of #anon #answered

[distort-opia]

social media encourages not engaging with the primary source. fandom spaces, in our want to change the canon, pushed it to the point where it is not even important anymore to read the text you keep on referencing.

how many fans today have not even watched the show, read the book, the article, and are still writing " literary analysis" based on second hand fandom interpretations given in the form of a viral funny post, fan art, fan fiction, tumblr tags and comments.

this goes hand in hand with wanting to fit in. it doesn't matter whether you read what you are talking about or not, as long as you share a popular belief.

once upon a time altering canon and fitting in our own social ideas was done because of lack of representation. it still, sadly, had and has bad consequences. because if you've ever been on any booktube, book twitter, film twitter tags... my god... your average reader doesn't know how to look for universal themes, how to analyse a character as a narrative device and by their type, refuses to understand there are genre conventions, parrots what they already heard without giving their own examples... it is as if we are living through the dark ages of literary criticism based only on second hand first impression.

not to mention disrespect to the actual writers. sure, DC writers fuck up, and sometimes they fuck up BAD. but why are you dismissing their capabilities and putting them all in the same box just because you hate a character.

and this doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. what matters is these same ways of " reading" when it comes to the news, to political and social studies, to the propaganda. some called this the era of anti intellectualism and i do think the wording can be a bit harsh. we are all looking for escapism, and i get that. problem is when you claim your personal feelings as some objective statement, call it an analysis, try and hunt other fans for your version of a media that you didn't even explore yourself.

This is an excellent analysis of this phenomenon in fandom spaces, especially in recent times. I barely have anything else to add. The rapid pace of consuming "content" in social media platforms like Tiktok, Instagram or Twitter has done a lot of harm; people seem to quickly cycle from one show to another, from one book to another, have this sense of "what's the next trend? what's the next popular thing?" and this obviously doesn't allow for slower analysis or a genuine attempt at understanding the material. This sentiment of "I gotta watch/read/listen to this now because it's popular" or genuinely seeing people apologize when they talk about something old and saying "I know this is from years ago, but..." is disheartening.

[sigh] It's just a saddening thing to see, even if we understand the factors leading to it.

#I especially feel the booktok/booktube stuff. once upon a time I wanted to become a published writer #but the more I saw what being a writer in today's world entails the more discouraged I got #in a way it all boils down to the increasing commodification of art of all kinds #it's become a product to be sold. designed to be eaten up quickly and then discarded #asks #fandom negativity #personal

[yvtro]

Not hatred or arguing: just like confusion

Why do you like Jason Todd? Like everything youve talked about is stuff that just seems unlikeable do you like his potential or like what? Also somewhat related are you a Helena Bertenelli fan because I could not get into Jaosn because of what I expected but she's literally fanon Jason

easy: i love 80s robin jason. i reread these comics a couple of times a year; his main run in 'batman', barr’s detective comics (which are my favourite!), his cameos in 'teen titans', 'the cult' etc. i love even the stories written by starlin, because there's somehow still so much sympathy and sensitivity for his background there (that current mainstream comics lack).

i love that his (post-crisis) origin story has to do with his natural drive to intervene in case of injustice. he is such a relentlessly kind and caring character, that unlike most other superheroes/vigilantes doesn't start his career as a form of vendetta. his background is absolutely dreadful, but even as a kid he is so mature about it, so considerate about his family's struggles; there's barely any resentfullness towards people in his own community, if any at all. despite what bruce says about taking him off the streets and giving him robin to make sure he wouldn't end up a criminal, throughout the whole run you see that jason was not made 'irredeemable' by poverty. he did what he had to survive, he is rather emotional when it comes to power dynamics (as he should be tbh), but there's no inherent innocence loss. he is still portrayed as a kid, who is maybe a bit incompetent sometimes, but ultimately his strenght lies in his compassion.

then starlin comes in, and messes things up a bit, but at the end of the day even he doesn't ever show jason as someone with any deep-rooted malice nor anger. jay's progression into becoming more "unlikable" is marked by his frustration with not being able to protect people. with his insecurity and need for a stable family. even when killed off, he dies trying to save someone who put him in this situation in the first place.

and besides the moral dimension and his heroism, there's other stuff that i adore. his thirst for knowledge. how he deals with trying to fill in dick's shoes. how he naively worships him still. his first attempts at detective work. there's so much charm to these stories and his character there.

so the jason i like is not just his potential; it's very much an exisiting character, even if he was not written in this way for decades.

i don't love the way jason is handled post his resurrection and it's no secret, but that doesn't mean i think he is completely unlikable. there's some of his personality that preserves even through retcons: how desperate he is for love, his abandonment issues, how his idealism gradually descends into cynicism. the delusional need to achieve justice. there are some new themes that i'm really interested in as well, because i *love* a character who gnaws at their own wounds, i love tragedy of people who walk backwards into what they sought to destroy. what i don't enjoy is how the writers completely got rid of nuance in his stories and made him into a stereotype. and the reason for which i want his development to go into a completely new direction is 1. because there has to be something done with the classism 2. in all honesty, it's becoming boring (if wasn't boring for years) and i love a good twist and a reconstruction 3. most importantly, i want his personality to be reconciled with his 80s runs personality.

so i'd say i like jason because i like his original (post-crisis) characterisation, and i actually love his comics from that era too. this is precisely why i whine about post-2005 stuff so much.

but, tbh, i think it's a case for *many* fans who like older comics; most of dick fans i know can't stand his current characterisation. my other favourite character is talia and i could also spend hours complaining about the treatment dc comics gives her. bruce's character has been off the rails for years. for kon there is progress in going back to his old personality, but his origin story (which is in my opinion one of the most interesting plotlines in the history of dc) has been erased since like 2000s.

i guess my point is that there are plenty of characters who's been completely retconned so you can't expect people to enjoy all of their content on the same level. and well, i have some posts about stuff that i love about jason, and that i find immensly interesting, but things like that naturally don't get as much traction as me bitching about poor creative decisions. and people tend to ask about stuff that has to do with my criticism rather than praise (so thank you for an opportunity to do the opposite this time).

also i never really got into helena's comics, but since you said that, i now have to! thanks for recommending that, i'm actually really excited for it. is there any particular book you think i should start with?

#i will not be sorry for complaining so much about jason content im eastern european #this is simply how we communicate #but also thank you for this ask as i said im happy i could talk about 80s jay!! #answered #dc comics #jason todd #jay meta

[finitevoid]

Finally able to organize my thoughts on the blue beetle movie. so here they are:

-I think the concept of a destined chosen hero is antithetical to jaime reyes as a character. khaji da is not some heavensent agent of destiny, they’re a weapon of mass destruction developed by a colonial empire and sent to mass enslave other planets. The reason jaime is blue beetle as opposed to anyone else is mostly chance, and the fact that jaime happened to be the first person khaji da came into contact with that they didn’t find repulsive, hence them “choosing” him

-I like that they live on el paso street, that was cute

-I like that they made jaime’s little sister a cynical pessimist to counteract jaime’s glittering optimism. Also she’s goth a+

-the fact that jaime attended gotham university not only sent me into hysterics but is continuing to haunt me. Jaime reyes gotham u pre law graduate. Whew

-I was really surprised when they announced this movie because Whatever section of the dc company is in charge of greenlighting these movies seem rather attached to gen 1, year 1 origin stories. we’ve had Two (2) movies about year 1 batman in the past decade, not to mention man of steel and the wonder woman movie taking place during ww1 etc. they’re not even touching the gen 2 sidekicks let ALONE gen 3, so when I saw the blue beetle movie was about jaime and not ted kord I was pogging. However, adapting a Generation Three hero’s origin story into a self-contained story that Actively shies away from the context of the wider dcu seems to be an exercise in futility, because when my father and I watched it he came out so confused as to what had happened in that movie that I spent 30 minutes explaining infinite crisis to him in an attempt to make sense of the movie’s allergy to exposition. while I’m not expecting an adaptation of jaime to, like, completely adapt the utter insanity that is infinite crisis, I do think that the way they went about it ultimately harmed the film more than anything else. while a bit more boring, I think yjtv did a better job by just having khaji da break tf out of their cage and latch onto jaime as a means of escape. It makes more sense than couching the whole movie in a really weirdly unsubtle jesus metaphor

-when George lopez said “batman’s a fascist!” I scream laughed

-I liked that jaime spent the whole time haggardly being like NO MURDER while his entire family was so Utterly down for murder. Truly that is the vibe of the reyes family

-anyway the movie did tackle things that comics, I think, would never be able to. discussions of class and race that blunt would get shut down in (modern) comics, so I enjoyed them taking this opportunity to go there. I liked how believably the reyes family acts like a family, from how they smoothly interact with one another, reference things together, reference past events and even have, you know, thoughts and feelings about their place in their family. jaime’s always been an outlier in comics for having a family that isn’t dead, but I think comics will always struggle to portray a family that Feels like a family (because the writers will always be bogged down by portraying people other than the heroes are surface level cardboard cutouts) so having actual actors take that out of their hands was cool

-“it’s like batman’s stuff but shittier” is the greatest thing jaime’s ever almost said

-I didn’t like the romance subplot

-How did they manage to make one of the most batshit, buckwild and whacky origin stories and make it into a cookie-cutter superhero movie with a bland social justice flavoring. Jaime spends half his comic fighting with an alien parasite on his back, getting mindcontrolled by said alien parasite, fighting robots and Going Into Space To Topple An Alien Colonial Empire and this movie was just so. Predictable. yeah ok he’s the chosen one who’s hunted for his chosen status dead dad become one with your destiny beat the bad guy who isn’t bad so he can beat the bad guy who is. Yeah. Ok man

#he didn’t even get mind controlled into being a weapon of mass destruction :(