#Calvin rose the escape artist

[ghost-bxrd]

Oh even better

What if Calvin was taken in around the same Dick was by Bruce after the Flying Graysons ‘accident’ but he’s the one to suspect foul play involved first so he’s the one who encourages Dick ro sneak out at night along with him ( neither of them have any shoes or socks for better traction of course) to investigate along as the Circus was packing up and they both run into the Batman who was also investigating the case?

Oooo, so I think Calvin would already be very protective of Dick at this point. They grew up veery differently, and Calvin is hyper aware of the fact that Dick never had to learn to be wary of adults, or people in general. He‘s been sheltered in a way Calvin never was, so obviously he needs to keep him safe in the wake of this tragedy.

Sadly, Calvin‘s idea of “danger” is a little skewed (which is why canon him ended up with the Court), so hunting for the Grayson’s killer sounds like a marvelous plan (and a great way to get away from the maybe-maybe-not creep that took them in).

Batman is already hunting for Zucco and… is taken completely off guard when two awfully familiar children just kind of fall into his path.

And then his dad instincts kick in and he realizes those are HIS children and they’ve been traipsing around Gotham at night with no protection whatsoever, and feels his soul nearly leave his body.

He did not expect parenting to be this hard.

It doesn’t help that Calvin and Dick manage to slip away from him in the hot second it takes Bruce to get his bearings because H O W even!?

[blanddcheadcanons]

Mr. Miracle did a short stint with the circus as an escape artist. He performed with Calvin Rose, the only other escape artist on Earth who gives him any challenge.

‎

[theoestofocs]

very battrope at one WIP? 👀👀👀

@pathos-logical also wanted to know about this one! here is another fic i currently have no intent to publish, unless i manage to separate it out into a few different cohesive story-threads, but i keep trying to do that and it just Does Not work as well without all the clashing vibes of storylines i like

in this fic, thus far, damian has gone full murder-child in order to avenge the well-proven death of Nightwing (i still struggle to wrap my head around the "time travelling batman" plotline & fully believe tim got shafted by the batfam in it so i've opted to disregard it entirely for the purposes of this fic. however damian arrived vaguely early in the sequence of batfam canon, and bruce freaked out over the Literal Child Assassin he now had on his hands on top of Everything until dick just like, stealth-kidnapped him off to bludhaven, where he was pretty much living until the whole "disappearance and death" thing went down)

jason is building his crime empire, still unknown to the rest of the family except as an ominously-named minor threat, and has also rescued sasha grimm of the scarred face and sellout father. this is a character in canon that is almost entirely forgotten because the comics dropped her pretty fast (my theory is that DC didn't know what to do with a complex female character who wasn't Pretty. but that's just me) and i care about her. so much. she doesn't even have a canonical last name i made up "grimm" due to the etymology & vibes of it. she is however canonically jason's sidekick who goes by "Scarlet" and sees the red hood as family (because he rescued her when batman & robin promised to do so, and left her behind; because he rescued her when she had a horrific mask glued to her face and enough trauma to kill her own father, and didn't care if she was a monster, because she was also a kid. god i just care so much about sasha)

meanwhile tim is spiralling bc batman is once again self-destructing over a dead child, & this time tim isn't enough to fix it, so he's directed all his focus to solving the mystery of dick's death because maybe that'll help something, somehow. unfortunately he gets in over his head with one of black mask's henchman. fortunately, a begrudgingly moral crime lord is also staking out black mask at the time. robin is summarily kidnapped by the red hood, much to everyone's dismay, including jason's.

over in the increasingly dysfunctional manor, cass is near-constantly accompanied by steph & helena kyle - who was never given up for adoption in a misogynistic storyline that relied on catwoman becoming too much of a woman to be a good criminal when she had a kid. adoption is an extremely valid and loving choice for a birth parent to make but the rationale for these writers to make catwoman choose it was literally "unlike bruce wayne, who has a literal parade's worth of kids in his basement, catwoman can't juggle being a parent & having a (night) job without letting her Emotions and Womanly Irrationality get in the way of good crime work" so. helena kyle sticks around in my canon. daughter of batman & heir to the Cat, u guys, this character is SO underplayed

and duke - duke is just chillin in gotham, livin his life, for the time being. for the time being. the joker's about to break out of arkham again, though, and - well. let's just say i've opted to fix the meter of a certain chilling rhyme...

[northoftheroad]

Oh, I am just SO happy when you mentioned Calvin Rose in that last ask. He’s practically the one character made during the New 52 I want above all others to reappear. If there’s one gigantic missed opportunity for Calvin that could be corrected is the lack of interaction between him and Dick both in the present time and especially during their childhoods in Haly Circus. It’ll make too much sense for them being childhood friends (Calvin ran away to Haly’s at eight so I Headcanon that Dick was five when the former came by) separated by a great tragedy only to reunite years later after some…unique years in between for lack of better words. Say what will about the Calvin Rose Talon book in quality ( I’d thought it was good or at minimum interesting) but that’s what I think. Early in the New 52 run, Dick reunited with other Haly Circus friends so why not Calvin be among them?

Thoughts about this?

I don't know a lot about Calvin Rose so I've never given it any thought. I had to read up a bit, and I assume he was older than Dick. There's a panel in Talon #0 with a poster with Calvin the escape artist on the same wall as a poster of the pre-Dick Flying Graysons.

Granted, Dick could still have been born when Calvin was 13 and left for the Court. But I was under the impression that the Court would take one child every ten years (Batman says so, in Nightwing vol 3 # 7).

(On a side note, isn't it strange how the Court proposes to Calvin and he says yes. They sure didn't ask Raymond, whom they took when they couldn't get Dick, nicely.)

One might assume that Calvin was the Talon before Dick's generation – if it weren't for Batman: The Dark Knight vol 2 # 9, where we meet Carver, a Talon who knows he will be replaced by Dick.

Oh well, just another example of stories that don't match because different creators play with the same toy.

Anyway. I would guess that Dick and Calvin didn't know each other as children – if Dick had been born, he would have been so much younger they didn't interact a lot. But you could definitely do something interesting with the two of them as adults, when Dick had infiltrated and fought the Court.

[thebetterbear]

Post Modern Art

Escaping Confines of Museum

City, Michael Heizer. Located in Garden Valley, a desert valley in rural Lincoln County in the U.S. state of Nevada. land art sculpture. 1970-2022

Collapsing Boundaries Between High and Low

Curious Kitten watercolor painting is a painting by Svetlana Novikova which was uploaded on February 23rd, 2013.

Rejecting Originality

Andy Warhol 1928–1987. Silkscreen ink and acrylic paint on 2 canvases. 1982

Jouissance

Fred Tomaselli, 2014, 60″ x 84″, photo-collage, leaves, acrylic and resin on wood panel, © 2014, courtesy of James Cohan Gallery and the artist

Working Collaboratively

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Adam Christopher

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Hybridizing

Untitled (Studio)2014

Kerry James Marshall

Simulating

Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987) 1962. Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases, Each canvas 20 x 16" (50.8 x 40.6 cm). Overall installation with 3" between each panel is 97" high x 163" wide

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Mama, Mummy and Mamma (Predecessors #2)

Njideka Akunyili Crosby. 2014

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Zephyrus Rising, 2022. Acrylic on Acrylic. 32 × 16 × 22 in Duncan McDaniel

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 Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, 1503-6; On Winnie: Denis Colomb stoles (worn as a headdress, top and sleeves) 

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Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad David Ayer 2016 (left), Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey Cathy Yann 2021 (right)

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Jane Alexander, Butcher Boys, 1985/86, mixed media (Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, photo: Goggins World, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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Irony, Parody, Parody Dissonance

A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby (2014). Kara Walker Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

are there any characters like very minor side characters, barely showed up in one comic maybe 2-3 times in total or who haven't been seen in YEARS who you're hung up on and better yet who you're like "damn that was such a cool idea/story, I want to totally rework it so it works!"

Calvin Rose aka Talon; a runaway who joined Haly Circus at Age 8 as an escape artist (on par with Mister Miracle to some extent), taken in by the Court of Owls after perfecting his escape artistry, trained as a Talon but eventually realized during his first mission how wicked the Court were and defected from them. Imagine the interactions he can have with Dick Grayson since they are apparently close in age and the fact both are the Talons that escaped the Court’s clutches

Seriously, check out the Talon series for more on Calvin Rose, you will not be disappointed XD

Another very minor character that peaks my interest for hidden story potential would be Colin Wilkes, an orphan who was once experiment on with Bane’s Venom formula before being rescued by Batman. As a result, he gained the ability to increase his height and muscle mass at will, granting him super durability and enhanced strength. Befriended Damian and aided him in taking down Victor Zsasz whose latest scheme involved a bunch of unfortunate orphans forced into gladiatorial combat, the winner of each then forced to fight him. For that storyline check out Streets of Gotham #7,10-11 and as for his first appearance Detective Comics #847-848. Also Lil’ Gotham.

Then of course there’s the two elseworld MVPs for me that are of course Mar’i and Jake Grayson from Kingdom Come and Nightwing New Order respectively. But also there’s an alternate world where….

Okay get this; a Conner Kent (90s version BTW) took over the Robin mantle after his world’s Tim Drake’s sacrifice. He appeared during the ‘Hypertension’ storyline of the Superboy solo book, issues #60-65. So yeah picture this guy popping in into the Young Justice Team’s HQ one random day, imagine the looks on especially Conner and Tim’s faces lol

Other than those guys, nothing in my noggin but it’s all very nice to talk about them all and bring them up when someone else wouldn’t XD

[ailelie]

I’m re-reading Talon and am remembering all the reasons I love Casey Washington. Single mom of a genius father who fell victim to his own intense paranoia while she was still a child and built a security empire from it. Targeted by the Court of Owls when they wanted to control said-empire after her father’s death. Escaped Gotham (with some help, admittedly) and instead of going on the run built an underground society and strike force in New York dedicated to helping others escape from criminal or at least shady organizations much more powerful than themselves and protecting them. She is extremely intelligent, a good strategist, great with computers, extremely driven, a good and loving mother, an amazing leader, and charismatic. How do you not love Casey Washington?

[oftalon]

Have you ever noticed that ( CALVIN ROSE ) from the ( DC UNIVERSE ) looks a lot like ( TYLER BLACKBURN  )? But ( HE ) also go/goes by ( TALON ). Having the ability of ( ELECTRUM ENHANCEMENT, EXPERT MARTIAL ARTS, SKILLED ACROBAT, ESCAPOLOGY) sure makes them a force to be reckoned with. They’re known to be ( METHODICAL) but also ( MANIPULATIVE ) and they’re ( 40 ) years old.

- INTRODUCING CALVIN ROSE

Life before the Court: Calvin Rose was eight years old when his father locked him in an old dog kennel and threw away the key. He kept hitting the chain to the gate with a rock for three nights with no progress. On the third night, he found the chain's weak spot and hit it off, running from his home until his legs gave out. He soon discovered an old man who performed at Haly's Circus, who took him in and trained him to become an escape artist.

Over that summer, he could pick any lock that you could throw at him. By age ten, he knew fourteen different ways to escape from a straitjacket. When the old man passed away, Calvin took over his act. When Calvin was thirteen, he was set for a star act of the Gotham spectacular: the biggest show of the year. However, Mr. Haly took him to a private performance for the Court of Owls. He did his usual performance, albeit in the dark. It was the first time since the kennel that Calvin felt trapped, but he manages to calm himself and escape. Mr. Haly gave him over to the man from the Court, where he agrees to join the court so that he can get rid of evil people.

- Grand Escape from the Court:

After undergoing years of training to become a Talon, Calvin is instructed to kill the Talon that he is meant to replace. As a final test, he is put into a maze that he must complete. However, he manages to escape from the maze (being the first one to ever do this) and is accepted into the Court.

He was sent on a mission to break into the apartment of the late Eric Washington, whose company Security had been developing the most advanced security systems for years. Since his death, the company - and his apartment - had been inherited by his twenty-three-year-old daughter Casey, much to the chagrin of his investors.

The Court had ordered Calvin to bring an end to the Washington bloodline. Until he had broken into the apartment and prepared himself for the murder he would have to commit, Calvin had not thought why the Court had not specifically asked him to target Casey Washington. This was because she had a two-year-old daughter named Sarah. He started to feel sick as he realized that these were not bad people, so he knocked Casey out and escaped with her and Sarah, fleeing the Court's wrath in the form of other Talons who wanted to bring him back and kill him in the process.

During this time Calvin changed his name to Alex Cain and found himself living with Theo Cain. He was able to get seven years of happiness before the Court of Owls hunted him down. Part of him was glad Theo was out so that he didn’t get killed by his past mistakes. When he refused to return to service they killed him making it look like he was just another sad case of Overdosing.

- Talon Lives Again:

After his death, Calvin's system was infused with a chemical compound called "Electrum" that could reanimate dead tissue and heal living tissue over and over again. This process was done in tantum of brainwashing process to turn Calvin back into the perfect weapon.  His memory is very faded given he can remember his training and missions but he doesn’t remember the 7 years he led a normal life with Theo or disobeying the Court initially.  

Due to the Electrum  coursing through his veins he must return to the Court to get another shot of Electrum to keep living. Being stronger then most he can go about four days without needing to be pushed back into the pod but he does have a dependence upon it making even more loyal to the Court of Owls.

Currently he was relocated to New York, while trying to get himself off the Electrum doses he feel into a deep coma. Their Talon not being actives he was moved to a facility out here to use what they could to replicate the success story he was with little results.

He has only just woken up and a side effect of the medicine and what he can only explain as being pushed into coma but he remembers everything about the fact he’d already escaped the Court once living a perfectly normal life with Theo Cain. With a new resolve to take back his life and break away from the Court.

If you’d like any Talon plots please feel free to hit me up I’m always down for anything.

[baby-grayson]

Sweet Enigma| Part 7

words: 2.7k tw: discussion of death/sickness, angst tags:  @wheezeatmedolans​ @styles-dolan​ @prettyboydolan​ @evergreendolan​ @baby-turtles​ @dolanstacoma​ @kombuchagray​ @not-gbd​ @graysavant​ @someonetogray​ @dolansficsandpics​ @batgirl009 @voguekristens @letsgoget-high​ @crossedbone-kat​ @graysonsdollface 

Ethan was angry. Ethan was very very angry at his brother. Outwardly, he knew to be understanding and compassionate in Grayson’s very trying time. But as a business partner, he silently wished that Grayson would end his romantic escapade with a past flame and return from Jersey to help Ethan launch two business endeavors: the lingerie & underwear line to extend their clothing company and the Wakeheart bath bomb launch.

When Ethan looked to Twitter, to find Sherry’s public break up with Grayson: all frustration left his heart. Even from 3,000 miles away, he could feel his twin brother crushed under the weight and impact of his own lovestruck decisions. Ethan managed to get him on the phone later that night, surprised to hear Grayson’s cool tone, “It’ll be alright E,” Ethan could hear some rustling from the background of the call, “I’m flying home—taking a red eye and I’ll be there in the morning.” 

“You’re coming back?” Ethan was surprised: at both how confident Grayson sounded but also how quickly he was turning from his impromptu escape.

“Yeah but—yeah you can wear that one—sorry, but I want to go see Sherry. I want—I want to apologize in person, maybe see if I can do anything to make this better on her.”

Ethan’s eyebrows raised when he heard a girl’s voice in the background. He hadn’t asked Grayson about the photos of him and Kate, but he never pegged his brother to be unfaithful, even in the rockiest relationship, “Make it better?” Ethan mentally swore at his brother for being so idealistic, “You were caught out chea—with another woman Gray,” Ethan groaned into the receiver, “Are you sure going to see her is the right thing?” “Yeah I am,” Grayson sighed in acceptance, “I have to try—to try to apologize more than anything.” Grayson eyed Kate’s back as she innocently left his bedroom, “and E—I wasn’t with her, not like that when I was with Sherry. We’ll talk more when I get home but—those pictures make it look a lot worse than what it was.” “So, you’re saying you tracked down an old girlfriend to be nothing but platonic?” Instead of trying to mask the disbelief in his voice, Ethan leaned into it—hoping the comic edge took the sting off his words.

“No—” Grayson made a grumbling noise over the phone, “got it on in the shower a few hours ago.” “Gray!” “I know—I know. But she’s—I know that I need to apologize to Sherry and sort through everything right now before we can—before I have a chance with her. But like I said, I wasn’t with her when I was with Sherry, I wouldn’t lie to you about that E.” “Okay yeah bro, you didn’t have sex with her—sure. But your heart wasn’t with her?”

Ethan’s observation struck a chord in Grayson’s heart: joining the symphony of guilt that had been building in his soul over the past few weeks. For someone as familiar with pain as Grayson was, he hated causing it in others, especially when he considered them good people. He considered Sherry a good person, for all her faults. She was loyal, dependable, and positive. Despite his growing feelings for Kate, he was genuinely broken when he tried to face the emotional trauma, he caused his former fiancé.

In a white and gold bedroom in a house on the hills, Sherry Maddox clutched a framed photograph in her hands. Her long nails clacked against the glass of the frame while she sneered down at a happier version of herself, Grayson, Ethan, and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend on a beach in Tasmania. The only physical photographs Sherry owned were of her and Grayson from the past 18 months. She much preferred Instagram, but Grayson’s nostalgia had inspired her to collect happy memories of the two of them: memories that transformed her heart into a tainted space, left empty by the memory of who she thought he was.

Huffing, she slipped the photo from the back of the frame and pulled it out. She set the rose gold aside on her nightstand, letting it lean on a pile of a dozen others. In a swift motion, she passed the photograph through a shredder and watched as dozens of little strips came out the other end. The edge of the strips was not yet released from the shredder’s blades when she reached for another frame and began the process over again. Earlier that day, she commissioned an artist to construct a mosaic of herself, made from the shreds of her memories with Grayson.

The image of Kate shined in Grayson’s eyes, but her words made no sense to him, “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

His voice held the full weight of a dubious question, as if the letters did not belong sitting next to each other in the words they formed. His eyes looked down at Kate, not wanting to accept the truth that they would be separated, if just for a short while, after being reunited for the first time in years. Having her again just reminded his heart of how difficult it was to be without her. She nodded and assured him, “I need to go see my mom. For real. And you need to—you have stuff you need to do without me anyway.” Kate reached up to a hand through his hair and down the side of his face.

On the drive to Philadelphia from New Jersey, Kate thought long and hard about whether or not to tell her mother about Grayson. She considered the possibility that her mother might have seen the pictures of her and Grayson in the tabloids but decided that her mother never knew when a royal wedding was happening, much less when a scandal hit the papers. She tossed any thoughts of Grayson talk out of her head: it was not official enough to put on her mother’s radar. Instead, she spent the next few days at her mother’s bedside.

She held her mother’s hand and reminisced about the good old days. She told stories about California until she saw her mother’s eyes close, welcoming the sweet embrace of sleep. Kate tiptoed out of the room and gracefully closed the door behind her. She welcomed the warm aroma of pumpkin soup as she made her way down the stairs of the brownstone and to her grandmother in the kitchen. When she let her anxieties out and asked why this had to happen to their family, their tiny family who didn’t have people to spare, her grandmother put a knowing hand on her shoulder.

In a semi-hoarse, but loving tone Bethel insisted, “Family is more than the souls you share this Earth with dear. They’re the inspiration and the aspiration of everything you want to be and everything you can be. Your mother gave you everything you need to soar in this life and the next: I should know, I taught her everything she knows.” A few of Kate’s tears spilled onto the black and white tile of the kitchen floor while Bethel continued, “Your home isn’t an anchor: it’s a port in a storm, a refuge from the hardest of times but not a forever shelter because you were always meant to sail harder and farther than the rest of us.”

As Kate’s heart wrenched with the acceptance of the hardest parts of her life, Grayson’s twisted in agony on the other side of the country for a much different reason. Impulsive and filled with hubris, Grayson never formulated a plan for what he wanted to say to Sherry: he expected inspiration to strike him with brilliance in the moment. This is how he stupidly ended up pulling the door knocker on the Maddox West Coast home and waiting on the front steps.

Grayson’s eyes went wide with fear when the door cracked to reveal the lanky figure of Calvin Maddox standing afront of two massive security guards.

“Don’t you know when to quit?” Calvin’s voice was sharp as his elbows from where he crossed his arms.

Grayson stammered and twitched his jaw, his eyes excavating the scene for some kind of a way out.

“Now,” Calvin started with his low Southern drawl. He peered down his nose at Grayson, twisting his upper lip as he spoke “Let me tell you how this is –”

“—Daddy!” Sherry’s voice cut the tension with a shrill acidic screech. She moved between the security to stand in front of her father with crossed arms, in an identical pose to him. Grayson’s mouth went dry. “I’ll take care of it,” she asserted. Minding her father’s disappointed look, she turned to the security guards and waved with her hands, “Shoo.”

Sherry gracefully stepped out of the threshold and closed the door behind her, careful to match her father’s antagonistic stare. She huffed out of her nose and closed her eyes, her hand rested on the doorknob. She looked like she was about to open the door and go back inside when she said, “What could possibly be left for you here?”

Grayson opened his mouth to start to speak but was cut off by her harsh tone, “I mean—don’t try to tell me you want me back. I would never. I could never after you embarrassed me like that—no woman who knows her worth would return to a man who pulled your kind of stunt.” Her words fired from her lips like projectiles that battered at the sack of guilt Grayson had forged in his own stomach.

Grayson nodded and balled his mouth into a tight knot, “I know. You’re better than that. And I will say this until the day I die, but I’m so sorry Sherry. I—I –I—” Grayson reached out for something imaginary in the air, “I was fighting a war in my mind and I took you down with me as collateral and you—you never deserved that. You were never anything but good to me,” Grayson’s eyes welled in kindness and sadness. Sherry stared at him coldly and narrowed her eyes: still not convinced he wasn’t about to ask for her back.

“I would never want to be yours again,” Sherry retorted, trying to anticipate his next move, “The world would never believe it. The entire world would look at me like some kind of doe eyed, brainless Nancy.”

“You have every right,” Grayson nodded, breathing heavily and feeling his chest tighten with every syllable, “You—you ended us and you had every right to Sher—”

“Every right to?” her words came so slow they were slick on her tongue. “I had no choice to. What was I supposed to do?” she sneered, “post motivation quotes on Instagram and keep telling my family that it was just a phase?”

Grayson nodded and his sweaty palms found a home in his pockets. He looked at the floor, where he noticed an obtuse patch of dirt on the toe of his shoe. “I’m sorry,” his voice was barely above a whisper, “I’m so sorry. I’ll always be Sherry. I can only imagine what I put you through—and you didn’t deserve any of it.”

Grayson was shocked when she laid a delicate, graceful hand on his jaw. She drew him in and placed a puckered kiss on his cheek, “Grayson,” she stepped away from him, “you made me an underdog,” she placed a hand on the door knob, “and everyone loves an underdog.”

She turned to leave but twisted her upper body in his direction, “Was that all?” her tone was flat and devoid of any emotion.

Grayson gnawed at his lip and circled his head, “If—well—those pictures weren’t what it looked like—that girl, she’s—”

Sherry held out an intimidating, long, perfectly manicured finger in his direction. She spoke through gritted teeth, “Don’t.” She unlocked her jaw, “Don’t tell me a single word about her. I’m not about to spend the rest of my life swimming in those kinds of comparisons.” Sherry made a calculated move to swing her backside while walking away and closing the door behind her.

***

Later that night, Kate hung up the phone with Grayson as she leaned her backpacks against the dresser in her childhood bedroom. She dropped on her bed and eyed the science fair ribbons and faded polaroids strung on her wall. One of them showed her old cat, sleeping contently on a dusty couch. A few of them featured her friend Tabby: each iteration of Tabby wearing a different hair color. Kate never had many friends: tending toward shyness and introversion. Her eyes locked on one on the far left. She sat up and reached out for it. She thumbed the faded glossy surface carefully. The photo showed her and her mom on her 16th birthday: in front of a grocery store cake decorated with a few candles. She thumbed the surface again but standing up and walking over to put it in her bag to bring to California.

On her nightstand, her phone started ringing. She stared at the unknown number flashing across the screen. She questioned the chance of a paparazzi being on the other end: she swallowed hard and pushed the thought away that it might be Sherry. Throwing caution to the wind, she picked it up “Hello?”

“Hey..Kate. How are you?” Even three years down the line, she could tell the difference between Grayson’s voice and Ethan’s.

“Hi Ethan! Oh my god, how are you?” She turned on the speaker phone and sat cross legged on her bed: mimicking a pose she used to take when Tabby would come over to gush about boys. She hunched forward, leaning in as if Ethan was in the room with her. “I’m good.” Ethan started plainly, “Gray told me you were flying back tomorrow?”

“Yeah I should be there by lunch, I’m leaving at like 6 in the morning,” she started. She sighed and looked down at the phone. In that moment, she was struck by the fact that Grayson and her had yet to share the details of their mundane lives in the past few weeks, that had been anything but mundane. “Do you two still live together?”

“Yup,” Ethan let out a breathy chuckle, “I get to smell him every morning.” Ethan sucked in his top lip, wondering if it was too soon to make that joke in their relationship. “Um but yeah I wanted to call you, say hi.” He shrugged from where he stood, “Let you know that if you need anything, I’m here.” He was silent for a moment. “I’m happy the big guy came to his senses and found you again. I think the best version of my brother happened when he was with you.”

“That means more than you know Ethan.” Kate sighed and fell back against her pillows, “I just—this is so complicated. You don’t think that’s a bad sign or anything?” She spoke openly, feeling relief to have a place to candidly think out loud about the situation for the first time.

Ethan breathed through his nose and picked his words carefully, “It’s what you make of it. And as his brother, I know I’m--I’m biased, but all he wants is just an honest chance. He’ll come through if you let him. Just because things are twisted, doesn’t mean they’re broken.” “Thanks Ethan, that means more than you know.” Kate’s words fell heavy onto the phone. She sat up, as if somehow powered by the idea that twisted did not equal broken.

“Don’t stress about,” Ethan’s voice came with a promise, “If anything, you two taught me something about love last time around. You shouldn’t be worry about it.”

  A/N: I feel like this part is kinda boring and I am sorry!

[kuipernebula]

I’m also mad that Calvin Rose was made straight. He had a cool premise and I liked his world’s best escape artist shtick. How can I make them bring him back but make him gay.

[ghost-bxrd]

Going for a bit more angst in the Calvin and Dick were friends angle....

What if Calvin resents Dick?

Dick was supposed to be the one taken, Calvin might have been spared all the hell he went through - he was taken instead of Dick.

Dick escaped. He got adopted by a billionaire. He has a family, has a happy life (wonder whether Calvin will be more or less resentful if he knows about the Batfam stuff...)

And Calvin had to take his place as the Court's pawn...

In the comics it’s actually a whole thing that Calvin went willingly with the Court. (But he was like— eight, so they baited him with promises of grandeur and “helping” Gotham.) And for the longest time he didn’t hate the Court or what they did, even believed in their ideals. (Until they wanted him to go and kill a young mother and her two year old daughter at which point he noped the hell out.)

It’s a huge part of Calvin’s character that he’s got a very strong moral compass and, on multiple occasions, decides to throw himself directly into the line of fire to save even his enemies if he feels like they’ve been manipulated/hurt/lied to.

So for him to hate Dick, something would have had to happen beforehand. Maybe some kind of argument that ended with Dick saying something really hurtful— that he never got to apologize for before Calvin went with the Court.

But essentially with his character as it is, I don’t think he’d ever wish what happened to him on anybody. Least of all someone he cares/cared about. For all he knows, Dick lucked out and never had to see the truly dark side of humanity. And his mere presence in Dick’s life may end up destroying that.

[blanddcheadcanons]

Scott Free and Calvin Rose are internet friends. They like to talk about different methods they use as escape artists so that they can learn from each other.

They also love talking about their kick butt partners.

[corhore]

Follow up: Well if you liked the The Court of Owls storyline and the Talons, in short summary: Calvin Rose is a former escape artist (kinda like Mr. Miracle) who got recruited/trained to be a Talon who ends up on the run from the court. Eventually he encounters another runaway Talon named Stryx (whose kinda like Cassandra Cain). Unfortunately DC Has done nothing with these two since rebirth (as far as I know).

They sound like they could be cool characters if they weren't New52 characters. 

[pariswasawoman]

Sara Murphy (born Sara Sherman Wiborg), along with husband Gerald Murphy, was a wealthy, expatriate American couple who moved to the French Riviera in the early 20th century and who, with their generous hospitality and flair for parties, created a vibrant social circle, particularly in the 1920s, that included a great number of artists and writers of the Lost Generation.

Sara Sherman Wiborg (November 7, 1883 – October 10, 1975) was born in Ohio into the wealthy Wiborg family.  Raised in Cincinnati, her family moved to Germany for several years when she was a teenager, so her father could concentrate on the European expansion of his company. The Wiborg family was easily accepted into the high society community of 20th-century Europe. While in Europe, Sara and her sisters sang together at high-class assemblies. Upon returning to the United States, the Wiborgs spent most of their time in New York City, and later East Hampton, where they built the 30-room mansion "The Dunes" on 600 acres just west of the Maidstone Club in 1912. It was the largest estate in East Hampton up to that time. 

Gerald was born in Boston, of an Irish American background. Gerald was an aesthete from his childhood. He was never comfortable in the boardrooms and clubs for which his father was grooming him. He failed the entrance exams at Yale three times before matriculating, although he performed respectably there. He joined DKE and the Skull and Bones society. He befriended a young freshman named Cole Porter and brought him into DKE. Murphy also introduced Porter to his friends, propelling him into writing music for Yale musicals.

In East Hampton Sara Wiborg and Gerald Murphy met when they were both adolescents. Gerald was five years younger than Sara, and for many years they were more familiar companions than romantically attached; they became engaged in 1915, when Sara was 32 years old. Sara's parents did not approve of their daughter marrying someone "in trade," and Gerald's parents were not much happier with the prospect, seemingly because his father found it difficult to approve anything that Gerald did.

After marrying they lived in New York City, where they had three children. In 1921 they moved to Paris to escape the strictures of New York and their families' mutual dissatisfaction with their marriage. In Paris Gerald took up painting, and they began to make the acquaintances for which they became famous. Eventually they moved to the French Riviera, where they became the center of a large circle of artists and writers of later fame, especially Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Fernand Léger, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Archibald MacLeish, John O'Hara, Cole Porter, Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.

Prior to their arrival on the French Riviera, the region was experiencing a period when the fashionable only wintered there, abandoning the region during the high summer months. However, the activities of the Murphys fueled the same renaissance in arts and letters as did the excitement of Paris, especially among the cafés of Montparnasse. In 1923 the Murphys convinced the Hotel du Cap to stay open for the summer so that they might entertain their friends, sparking a new era for the French Riviera as a summer haven. The Murphys eventually purchased a villa in Cap d'Antibes and named it Villa America, where they resided for many years. When the Murphys arrived on the Riviera, lying on the beach merely to enjoy the sun was not a common activity. Occasionally, someone went swimming, but the joys of being at the beach just for sun were still unknown at the time. The Murphys, with their long forays and picnics at La Garoupe, introduced sunbathing on the beach as a fashionable activity.

They had three children, Baoth, Patrick, and Honoria. In 1929, Patrick was diagnosed with tuberculosis. They took him to Switzerland, and then returned to the U.S. in 1934, where Gerald stayed in Manhattan to run Mark Cross, serving as president of the company from 1934 to 1956; he never painted again. Sara settled in Saranac Lake, New York to nurse Patrick, and Baoth and Honoria were put in boarding schools. In 1935, Baoth died unexpectedly of meningitis as a complication of measles, and Patrick succumbed to TB in 1937.

Later they lived at The Dunes. By 1941, the house proved impossible to rent, sell or even maintain; the Murphys had it demolished, and they moved to the renovated dairy barn. Gerald died October 17, 1964 in East Hampton, two days after his friend Cole Porter. Sara died on October 10, 1975 in Arlington, Virginia.

Nicole and Dick Diver of Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald are widely recognized as having been based on the Murphys, mainly from the marked physical similarities, although many of their friends, as well as the Murphys themselves, saw as much or more of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald's relationship and personalities in the couple than those of the Murphys. Ernest Hemingway's couple in The Garden of Eden is not explicitly based on this pair, but given the similarities of the setting (Nice) and of the type of social group portrayed, there is clearly some basis for such an assumption. Guests of the Murphys often swam at Eden Roc, an event emulated in Hemingway's narrative.

Calvin Tomkins's biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy Living Well Is the Best Revenge was published in The New Yorker in 1962, and Amanda Vaill documented their lives in the 1995 book Everybody Was So Young. Both accounts are balanced, unlike some of the portrayals in the memoirs and fictitious works by their friends, including Fitzgerald and Hemingway. In 1982, Honoria Murphy Donnelly, the Murphys' daughter, with Richard N. Billings, wrote Sara & Gerald: Villa America and After.

Pablo Picasso, a friend of Sara's, painted her in several of his 1923 works: Femme assise les bras croisés, Portrait de Sarah Murphy, Buste de Femme (Sara Murphy), Femme assise en bleu et rose, and Woman Seated in an Armchair.

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

If I may…

The Following is what I would’ve done with Nightwing in the period Post-Forever Evil yet Pre-Rebirth:

- First of All, Both Published and Unpublished versions of Nightwing #30 that we did get and supposedly finales to the Nightwing book get are scrapped right then and there, why? Because neither are going to be the finale to this book. In fact, the book is not getting cancelled at all, Issue #30 would be a jumping-on issue instead. On that note…

- My version of Nightwing Vol 3 #30‘s plot concerns a Press Conference called by Wayne Enterprise, with Dick Grayson himself doing the speaking. In long story short, Dick confirms that he is Nightwing and reports of his supposed death in the events of Forever Evil are over exaggerated. He lets the Public and the rest of the Superheroes know he’s perfectly okay and he’s resuming his Nightwing duties. When inevitability asked about his connection with Batman and that guy’s secret identity, Dick clarifies by saying Batman is actually just a close confidant of Bruce Wayne and him (in manner like how say for the longest time at the marvelous competition, Tony Stark claims Iron Man was his bodyguard) who trained him as Robin which eventually led to his transition to Nightwing years later.

- Whem asked about what he’ll do now that secret identity is public, Dick announces that with his stock in Wayne Enterprises, he’ll officially restart Batman Inc, only now renamed to Nightwing Inc. with a similar premise: Training, Equipment and Funding of various Nightwing-esqué crime fighters around the globe. Behind the scenes, after much pressing and standing his ground verbally, Dick convinced Bruce to allow such a thing on the condition he’s able to successfully cover and protect the rest of the Batfamily’s secret identities.

- As for his core staff of this new venture (I.e. his core supporting cast from this issue onward), they will act as his crime fighting team whom if they have secret identities of their own, they’ll maintain:

Koriand’r of Tamaran aka Starfire (acknowledging her suit change and escapades in her solo book going on at the same time)

Barbara Gordon as Batgirl (Keeps the Burnside suit but maintains her characterization under Gail Simone)

Calvin Rose aka Talon, and

Mary Turner aka Strix

- Nightwing Inc.’s Headquarters would be in Bludhaven, in particular a tower within Downtown with a Nightwing emblem akin to Marvel’s Baxter Building.

- As for recurring antagonists Dick and his team will face, I’d favor Deathstroke, Blockbuster, the Court of Owls and Lex Luthor, especially the latter two given their unique connections they have with Dick as of then and the potential that can be used for conflict.

- Speqking of the Court, other than probably Kory and Babs, the strongest interaction throughout this hypothetical portion of the Nightwing run would be between Dick, Strix and Calvin given the fact all three, while differing in personas, all in common are the Talons that escaped the clutches of the Court so imagine such for storytelling potential and bonding between the three.

- As for writing and artistic duties; if Kyle Higgins can remain on board, I allow him and other than the set up described above, I’ll allow him a great amount of creative control*. If not, then I’d hire either James Tynion IV, Gail Simone, Jeff Lemire, Paul Dini, or Peter Tomasi. For artwork, I commission Meghan Hetrick for most issues. One issues Hetrick cannot fulfill, they’ll go to either Eddy Barrows or Guillem March.

* As for romantic issues, if Mr Higgins (or any of the writers) pair up Dick with Kory, Wonderful. If Dick and Barbara (or any other love interest), while not my favorite at all, I’d respect it and allow it. All that being said though….NO MATTER WHO DICK ENDS UP WITH, LIVE TRIANGLES ARE ABSOLUTE HARD NO. A love triangle will diminish our reader base in the long run due to its cheap usage but also be tantamount to character assassination to all involved within it. So, NO LOVE TRIANGLES PLEASE.

All the above would be more or less my status quo with Nightwing Post-Forever Evil until inevitably his secret identity is restored.

Just a few thoughts I have. If you have any opinions or criticisms about all the above, Please Reblog/Reply. I’m more than happy to hear from you ;-)

@fuyunoakegata, @bigskydreaming, @meara-eldestofthemall, @romanticism-is-maudlinism, @northoftheroad @fireflyxrebel-writes @lightdusk96 @nightwings-bussy

[dukereviewsxtra]

Duke Reviews Xtra: A Kid In King Arthur's Court

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Xtra Where We Continue Our Look At Disney...

And Last Sunday, I Reviewed The Sword And The Stone, So, Since There's No Direct To DVD Sequel Or Remake To This...Yet..., I'm Reviewing The Only Other King Arthur Film Made By Disney That Wasn't Made By Jerry Bruckheimer, A Kid In King Arthur's Court...

This Film Sees Merlin's Ghost Sending A Dude From The 90's To Camelot To Save It From King Arthur's Evil Advisor Who Wants To Marry Rose From Titanic...

And Believe Me When I Say Billy Zane Was The Better Suitor Compared To This Guy...

Will Calvin Be Able To Save Camelot And Get Arthur Back To His Heroic Self?

Let's Find Out As We Watch A Kid In King Arthur's Court..

The Film Starts With Merlin's Ghost (Played By Fagin From Oliver) Summoning A Great Knight Which Is When We Cut To The 90's Where We Meet Calvin Fuller, A Nerdy Young Boy Who Plays For A Baseball Team Called The Knights...

But As We See He's Not Quite The Best Player On The Team...

However, An Earthquake Happens Causing Calvin To Fall Down...

(Singing)

Down...

Deep Below...

To The Late...1800s....

Landing On A Black Knight, Calvin Scares Him Off And Gives Back The Money The Guy Stole To Some Of Arthur's Knights As He Runs...

Arthur (Played By DeNomolos From Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey) Wishes To Thank The Boy So He Sends The Knights To Find Him, Eventually Finding Calvin In The City They Bring Him Before Arthur And His 2 Daughters, Katie And Sarah (Played By Winslet)...

Who Invite Him To Have Dinner With Them, But Arthur's Aide (And Our Villain For This Movie) Lord Belasco Believes Calvin To Be In League With The Black Knight, So Giving Calvin A Chance To Defend His Honor By Combat...

But While Belasco Chooses A Sword, Calvin (Realizing He's Not Good With Weapons) Uses The Only Thing He Does Like, Rock And Roll And Wins...

Dubing Him Calvin Fuller Of Reseda, He Discovers The Round Table Is Non Existant As Sarah Asks Her Father To Let Sir Kane (Played By James Bond)...

Which One?

Daniel Craig

Oh...

Train Calvin In Fighting, And He Agrees, And Let's Calvin Stay In Their Castle...

But He Doesn't Exactly Get Any Rest As When He Goes Exploring The Castle, Belasco Nearly Kills Him, So He Practices His Karate Only To Catch Arthur's Daughter, Katie Watching Him...

They Get To Know Each Other Through A Bunch Of Exposition...

Before Katie Takes Calvin To Merlin's Quarters In An Effort To Get Him Home...

Hearing A Noise, Katie Leaves With Calvin And Has Him Escort Her Back To Her Room, But He Returns To Merlin's Quarters Afterwards And Merlin's Ghost, Who Believes He's Made A Mistake When He Looks At Calvin..

But Realizing That He's The Knight He Summoned, He Tells Him That Arthur Is In Trouble With His Kingdom Being Shattered By The Fist Of Lord Belasco, Who Intends To Steal Camelot From Arthur And It's Now Up To Calvin To Stop Him...

I Bet He Wishes He Was Obi Wan Kenobi...

With Calvin Believing Merlin Has The Wrong Person, Merlin Makes A Deal With Him That If He Helps Arthur He'll Send Him Home...

The Next Morning, Calvin Begins Training With Sir Kane By Starting Out With Attacking On Horseback, (Where He Throws An Axe Out Of A Window) Before Moving On To Archery Where...

Well, Let's Just Say Calvin Won't Be As Good As Oliver Queen Any Time Soon...

Meanwhile, Lord Belasco Talks With Sarah To Try To Seduce Her In An Effort To Drop The Tournament And Marry Him, But Sarah Refuses, Stating That The Tournament Will Decide For Her...

Visiting A Blacksmith, Calvin Asks If He Can Make Him A Pair Of Roller Skates For Katie, And In Doing So, She Absolutely Loves Them...

Meanwhile At The New "Round Table" Belasco Talks With Arthur To Make Him Cancel The Tournament And Let Sarah Be His Wife, As Katie And Calvin Arrive To His Displeasure...

Later At Training With Kane And Katie, They Are Interrupted By Belasco Who Is Tired Of Calvin And Decides To Fight Him Again, But When Calvin Is Basically Beat, He Kicks Belasco In The Jewels...

Giving Him A Grand Supper For Winning, Calvin Says Fine As Long As He Does The Cooking...

Yeah, Even I Admit That Pork Head Can Get Tiring After A While..

So, He Makes Them 2 Big Macs...

Meanwhile, In The Throne Room, The King Tells Katie That She Will Marry Lord Belasco, However Sarah Is Determined To Let The Tournament Decide But The Next Day It Is Revealed That Katie Is In Love With Sir Kane...

I Don't See James Bond As Your Type, Sarah, But I Can Suggest An Artist Named Dawson For You...

With Katie And Calvin Seeing The Entire Thing, She Makes Calvin Swear Not To Say A Word To Anyone On Her Honor...

With Kane Believing That Calvin Is Ready To Joust, Calvin Isn't So Sure, So He Places Super Glue? On His Saddle And When He Hits The Target, The Saddle Falls Off The Horse...

Katie Goes To Check Calvin Who Looks Injured Only For Calvin To Slip Her A Kiss, To Her Displeasure...

Realizing He Might Have Made Katie Mad...

No, Really?

Calvin Visits The Blacksmith Again, Only This Time Calvin Wants Him To Make A Bike For Katie...

While Katie Talks With Sarah Who Figures Out That She's In Love With Calvin Even Though She Doesn't Realize It...

(Start At 9:52, End At 10:33)

Really, Man, They're Sisters! Get A Grip!

Anyway, The Next Day, After Calvin Teaches Arthur How To Eat Bubble Gum, He Tells Belasco That The Tournament Is Still On And That If He Wants To Win Her He Must Do It There, But Not Wanting To, He Moves To Plan B...

But Before I Go On To That, Let's Check On Calvin And Katie...

Seeing Calvin In The Garden, He Gives Her The Bike So They Can Go On A Picnic Together...

On Their Way Back To The Castle Calvin And Katie Discover That The Black Knight Is Actually One Of The Good Guys, When He Gives The Townspeople A Cart Filled With Food...

Taking Katie Back To Her Room, We Meet Belasco's Plan B: Kidnap Katie As A Barter For Sarah To Marry Him...

After Telling Sarah About Katie, Belasco Visits Calvin And Frames Him For Kidnapping Katie (Oh, Sorry Murder), But When Calvin Gets Away, He Runs Into Sarah Who Tells Him What Happened To Katie And What Belasco Wants...

Eventually Going To Arthur's Chambers, Calvin Tells Him Everything But He Still Believes That Belasco Wouldn't Hurt A Fly However, When Calvin Shows Arthur Something That Sarah Gave Him, He Buys The Story And Protects Calvin From Belasco...

Escaping With Calvin Into The City, They Go Undercover, As Arthur Discovers That He's Not As Loved Throughout The Kingdom As He Thought As Belasco Has Been Stealing From Them For Years...

Vowing To Be A Better King, Arthur And Calvin Go To Save Katie From Belasco's Dungeon, But Before Going In Calvin Renews Arthur's Will To Fight By Giving Him Excalibur (Which Was Given To Him By Merlin)

However, When They Release Katie, She Gets Kidnapped Again By Belasco's Second In Command And Is Held Hostage Over A Moat, This Leads Calvin To Use The Laser On His CD Player To Blind The Guard And Cause Him To Fall To His Death...

Now, I Hate To Say This But I Got To Agree With The Nostalgia Critic When He Said That A Laser On A CD Player Doesn't Work Like That...

Escaping The Castle, Arthur Knights Calvin As A Knight Of The Round Table, Before Returning To The Castle And..,Letting Belasco Go?

Yeah, Even I Kind Of Think Letting Him Is Kind Of Stupid...

However, Arthur Has A Point, With The Guards Loyal To Belasco And The People Believing Arthur To Be An Idiot, The Best Thing To Do Is To Bide Their Time So When The Time Is Right They Can Nail Him...

Later At The Tournament, Arthur Makes A Speech That He Never Betray His People Again And Declares That The Tournament Shall Be Open To All Free Men (Mainly So Kane Can Enter The Competition)...

Defeating Every Opponent That Comes His Way, Kane Ends Up Facing Off Against Belasco In The Final Battle, But Using The Crystal On His Armor, Belasco Blinds Kane And Knocks Him Out...

But Seeing How Kane Did Not Fall Off His Horse, He Is Still In The Competition, However, When Kane Returns The Joust Continues....

But Everyone Soon Gets A Scare, When Belasco Hits Kane In The Head And Discovers He Has No Head...

Well, How's He Going To Have His Vodka Martini Now?

With A Now Headless Kane Continuing, He Ends Up Winning And Knocking Belasco Off Of His Horse...

Which Leads To It Being Revealed That It Wasn't Kane, But Calvin All Along. Pissed Off At His Defeat, Belasco Attempts To Kill Calvin, But Luckily, Calvin Is Saved By The Black Knight Who Is Revealed To Have Been Sarah This Whole Time..

So, With Calvin Forfeiting His Victory To Sarah, Arthur Grants Her The Right To Choose Whoever She Wants To Marry And Banishes Belasco From His Kingdom Forever As Merlin Keeps His Word And Sends Calvin Back To His Time, Saying Farewell To Arthur And Katie..

Arriving Before The Earthquake, Calvin Goes Up To The Plate And Hits A Home Run. Arriving Back On Home Plate, He Is Greeted By His Teammates, Including A Girl Who Looks Like Katie, As A Spectator Who Looks Like Arthur Watches In The Crowd As Our Movie Ends..,

And That's A Kid In King Arthur's Court, And While It Does Have It's Stupid Moments, It Is A Decent Movie...

The Story Is Good, The Comedy Can Be Funny At Times, And I Liked The Fighting Scenes In It, So, Yeah, I'm Going To Say See It...

Tune In To Duke Reviews Next Week As We Look At The Jungle Book, But Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...