boyfridged

[boyfridged]

"it's a summer day, and i want to be wanted more than anything else in the world."

- homosexuality (frank o'hara)

this quote felt fitting, but it's the last line of a poem and it feels wrong to take it out of context like this. here's the whole thing.

i also considered animating the whole thing, but i wanted this to stay fun for me, so. here's this

[boyfridged]

love finds you in the middle of a field

[boyfridged]

"I feel so normal about him" well I dont. move

[boyfridged]

theyre letting me crawl out of the grave tomorrow

[boyfridged]

Would you survive the thing that killed your favourite character with a confirmed death?

[boyfridged]

I kinda wanna see Willis make that phone call to Shiva. Not even to kill Bruce I just want to see them talk. While Willis doesn’t know Cass’s story and is being unfair to Bruce in that moment I do love that his 1st thought was “how many children has he stolen” when he saw Cass with Shiva’s face

I know that the whole point of this story is that no amount of compensation can repay for what happened to Jason (culminating beautifully in Bruce literally burning money over Jason’s grave and Willis telling him to fuck off), but the evil petty part of my brain that says that you should always exploit rich people for money no matter what still kind of wants to see this universe’s Willis pursue a wrongful death lawsuit. Bruce would settle immediately and Willis could give the money to Arlo and Kieu for them to set up their kid’s college fund and buy a house or something, I’m sure Jason wouldn’t mind 🙈 (2/2)

okay sorry i'm back home so i can finally answer to the other part of your ask!!

honestly, i really wanted to try to sneak in some willis & shiva interaction, even as a flashback, but sadly it did not work out as it would disturb the flow... maybe one day i will write at least a ficlet about them... and yes! willis is being unfair to bruce in that moment, but he also has no context for cass' being with him (and tbh if he had context for cass' presence at the cemetery on that day specifically and knew why bruce brought her here he might have been even harsher in his evaluation... for a good reason this time...)

as to the second point -- honestly, that would be delightful, though i doubt they would accept the money... and i don't think jay would mind, but willis is being just a bit petty and ignoring the voice at the back of his head that tells him what jason would want, too.

i'm also really happy that arlo and kieu came up, and that you thought about them in this context specifically because the whole reason for their presence in the story is that they are young and in love and about to have a baby... and nothing hurts. their life is about to begin really. there, in the crime alley.

well, the only thing that hurts is that it was willis once, too. and that he is aware how quick it all can go wrong-- (which would also be a good reason to make a use of bruce wayne's money. alas, willis has some pride left too.)

[boyfridged]

I finished burning money and I have several disparate thoughts to spew in your inbox

I don’t know if it’s ironic or extremely fitting for the institution of The Bat to be brought down by a father’s love but I love it 

I’m hoping (and assuming) that Willis’s involvement + exposure of the bats changes the timeline enough for Steph to avoid horrific torture/“death” but god imagine the crash out that would occur if that were not the case (1/2)

tee! hi! thank you so much for reading!!

and oh, you're the second person to assume that willis does go through with exposing batman... and it is an open ending, of course, so you are free to assume as you wish -- but to be honest, i did not really intend to imply that?

willis comes to the cemetery on the anniversary with a gun as a sort of plan B, because he does realise that exposing bruce would not truly be possible (and he sort of knew that from the beginning) or rather, exposing bruce would not fix anything at all. especially that steph also told him she was done with robin, so that is not truly an emergency; and as to what happens with steph after... i wanted to hint at a brighter future for her by willis telling bruce to apologise. if he does or not, is up to the reader -- again, it is an open ending!, but personally i do imagine willis does tell her about jay too, and steph comes to conclusion that batman/bruce wayne is really not worth almost killing herself for. this is a sole fix-it in this au, really...

but now i see it's possible i was not clear enough about willis dropping his plan. well, a part of it is also that willis sees that bruce does want to be punished, and he is not willing to entertain it on any level. bruce's guilt is a mirror of his own and it is an infuriating thing... and willis himself knows that there is no redemption for any that happens. now, nothing.

[boyfridged]

i'm trying to be less negative on here. i'm trying to be positive, and not negative [hands start shaking, diastolic pressure increases by 8 millimeters] and gracious too

[boyfridged]

u can count on me to do the wrong thing

[boyfridged]

I just read your new fic, I wish I could say more but GOD I just love how you wrote Steph and all the other people of Crime Alley. I don’t see a lot of fics or sometimes even comics willing to give so much depth to their civilians. I love it when Gotham feels alive.

i always intend my fanfics to be gotham love letters — which is sometimes difficult to achieve given all the grief, which in case of willis’ pov in burning money also happens to subdue the world around, so i am really glad it came through via other characters nevertheless! i was also somewhat nervous about my ocs and steph (since i never posted any fanfic with her before!) so it really means the world to me.

thank you for reading!

[boyfridged]

tumblr might’ve eaten my ask in the process of submitting it so i want to send it again just in case but i loved burning money! it was so so so good! something that was interesting to me was mai (and the others’) disgruntlement with the foundation—which makes sense, big corporation encroaching on small community—but it’s the first time i’ve really seen a stance like that in fics? so i was curious about your thoughts on it! mostly because the foundation is usually depicted as doing good and nothing else, which isn’t true, of course, there is more depth to it, and i really liked and thought your depiction was interesting (even if it was intended to be a one-off thing) so i wanted to ask you about it :) if you don’t mind!

it seems it did eat it, so i'm glad you sent it again!

i absolutely do not mind, and i am happy to elaborate on that -- not only in the context of the fanfic, but also in terms what i think of the canon and fanon depiction of the work of the wayne foundation, and bruce's philanthropy.

that scene in burning money is, after all, symptomatic of my own politics. but as i always say, there was also a time when dc attempted to take in-world politics seriously -- leslie is a sign of that! so i do not see why i should not, given batman is an inherently political text, more so than most superhero comics (where the power fantasy elements are not as pronounced in their relation to class and the category of crime). and batman is just impossible to read without a consideration for these elements of discourse.

the love that contemporary comics (and i do think it's much more emphasised nowadays; the editorial seems to feel a need to continuously justify bruce, and there is not an ounce of modesty in how charity is portrayed) and fanon have for the foundation is something i find perturbing; the excitement regarding it even in the more progressive fandom spaces, the willingness to indulge this narrative of saviourism is really hard to ignore. and that is a narrative i have little patience for -- i, personally, like bruce as a multi-dimensional character, his flaws included. and that does not exclude keeping in mind that he is in a position of power.

the wayne foundation is not a grassroots organisation; and as such it is bound to have it's problems at the very core of its mission. the main issue is that it has a huge potential to become an instrument of biopower; that is to say, that people in charge get to say what sort of help the area will 'benefit' from most; and that is often a calculated choice that has little to do with the existing structures and even simply the wishes of people in question. while not directly related to the foundation, this is also something that i wanted to come across in the paragraph about the plan to make the crime alley into the entertainment district (btw, my rundown of the history of east end is by no means a canon one; i took different elements and mentions from comics and even adaptations into it, since it all remains vague otherwise). even when providing the people with a new (albeit limited; there was another bit that i ended up cutting out, about crystal being a nurse and the foundation putting a lot of money into nurse training programmes, since it is productive) range of opportunities, what it often leads to is yanking the populace around according to their latest charitable ideas, rather than providing long-time support.

here is also another thing to consider, that being -- no matter bruce's best intentions, he also cannot control everything that goes on in the foundation (which again, he should not -- but that also means that his 'stellar morals' will not save it from corruption and even just administrative troubles -- like the 'queues' that arlo mentions in burning money).

and about the scene you bring up in particular -- i want to say that this principled (!) reluctance to engage with the foundation it is not supposed to reflect the attitude of the community as a whole, but some part of it. mai, especially, has a personal connection to willis (and jason); this is very much a matter of pride and resentment regarding jason's death.

i have another wip with a scene of a somewhat similar, if not more open, conversation -- that one starring benny harlowe, who mentions that after jason's death the foundation seems to have doubled down in their efforts to 'fix' the alley (a trope somewhat popular in fanon, along with catherine todd/jason todd foundations), and he says: "The whole time I was thinking, why now? What was it, our boy’s trust fund? They murder our kid and then come back with a check?"

while I do not (obv) think the whole crime alley knew Jason (neither as jason nor robin; canon does not give us much reason to think that bruce would approve of robin-era jay venturing into the alley), nor do I subscribe to modern-era exaggeration of bruce's celebrity status, I do think most people in east end would hear about a billionaire adopting a child off the streets and the child dying not that long after; and there is surely some bitterness and distrust to come with that knowledge. is this what they are -- disposable charity cases? this is, needless to say, not true to bruce's feelings -- but what does it matter? there is little dignity to be found in this whole situation (with the system) to begin with.

this got ridiculously long... sorry about that! and thank you for reading!

[boyfridged]

Thoughts on star sapphire jason?

delightful! i don't think it's necessarily productive as an exploration of anything in particular canon-commentary-wise (it is a very straightforward representation of what jason stands for -- love and its terrifying implications/consequences), but i am rather fond of these aus and i admit to have enjoyed a couple of fanfics:)

[boyfridged]

Jason keeps him humble

[boyfridged]

[ID: Three icons, one of a dead Martha Wayne, a grieving 8 year old Bruce Wayne, and a dead Thomas Wayne. End ID.]

matching pfps 💕

[boyfridged]

back at it with some rancid dickroy angst, happy holidays <3

[boyfridged]

render yourself incompatible with this world. then stay

[boyfridged]

dc used to stand for disorders and cocaine comics. there was still really awful propaganda but you used to be able to see BATMAN have PSYCHOSEXUAL ISSUES and drive a shard of glass COMPLETELY through his hand about it. nowadays if batman had psychosexual issues tom king from the cia would write an issue where the batfam all took him to therapy about it while delivering witty quips. and barbara gordon would be wearing a shirt that says big [picture of dick grayson] energy and then those shirts would be sold in real life. because nobody is doing any more fucking cocaine and everybody with interesting disorders quit