#Cory Caspers TAACC

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

it’s very important to me that you know Charge’s first costume was literally just a blue dress with some lighting bolts badly stitched on and a cape

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

I don't know if I've brought this up but Cory is very passionate about feminism. Like her origin story is that she was kicked out of her parents home as a teen because she refused to give up her passion to settle down as a housewife, she's very outspoken about it.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

Failsafe and Charge are very similar seeming at first, but they are fundamentally rooted in a different place.

If both of them were to get an arc in which they stopped doing vigilantism, Charge’s would be realizing that she’s been hurting people far more than she’s helped, but you would have to convince Failsafe that they are getting nowhere with this, something that would be incredibly hard to convince them of considering how powerful it makes them feel.

because it isn’t about morality or doing good for them- it’s about being the one on the other side of the tragedy for once. Sure, they only strike people who ‘deserve it’, but that’s an excuse. It was never about the danger they posed.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

Being Robin- TAACC peice I wrote for lit class, slightly out of date characterization wise but whatever

Warning for suicide, child abuse, loosely implied self-destructive behavior

The house was never really in a state of disrepair, it was just- disturbed.

If you didn’t know anything about the occupants, you would think that it was the house of a larger-than-life family- unmade beds, a thousand papers strewn over the coffee table at all times and the pantry consisting of mostly quick, packaged snacks.

But only two people at a time had ever lived there at once. Or, three, if you counted Harper’s sporadic visits from downtown. 

(It wasn’t a house where there were too many people to keep it clean, it was a house where there was always something more important.)

It was the first strange thing about the house. But the more obvious one, perhaps, was that the walls were absolutely plastered in newspaper clippings about a certain trio of superheroes. Some of the bigger ones framed: Who is the Masked Hero known as Charge, Charge and her New Sidekick, Cause of the Recent Earthquakes Behind Bars! The smaller victories just tacked onto the wall: Charge and Magma Save the Day, Highlighter busts drug case, Another Crime Boss Bites the Dust!

(Cory Caspers, the owner of said house, didn’t display all of them, obviously. There was no room, although she tried to make it, hanging some in our bedrooms and then in a filing cabinet in hers. Most of them were eventually recycled: Highlighter’s Funeral to Be Private, Magma De-Masks and Renounces Heroism.)

The most strange thing, probably, was that I was going back.

Cory, Harper and I always celebrated Christmas together. None of us were Christian or even really religious- but when I was fourteen, I started missing celebrating winter holidays like when I was little and I mentioned it to her, and the next day, there was a little plastic Christmas tree on the coffee table. The next year, we invited Harper over for it. The next year, we had a tradition- a big breakfast of pancakes on the 25th, a little tree in the living room, and a yearly watching of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie.

(Burglaries increase drastically on Christmas Eve- something about Santa. We were always tired the whole day from getting called out at 3 AM the night before- and a lot of times Cory would dip in the middle of the day to patrol. Nothing more important than the safety of San Sobelle, she used to tell me when I protested.)

Harper isn’t going to be around to crack jokes about Cory’s decorating skills this Christmas. And things have been unbearably strained since even before that August- 

But it’s always been her favorite time of year since we started celebrating. And the thought of her alone in the house gets to me, because I know if there’s no one else around she spends all her time at home in the basement, working on a case. 

���To tell the truth, I had never liked townhouses. There was nothing wrong with them, I just- they felt trapped. Constricting. This one especially, dull blue and unassuming, now that I hadn't been inside in… What. Five years?

She hugged me when she opened the door, that lazy smile she always wore steady on her face. There was something under it.

I remembered the first time I stepped into the hallway. I was twelve, and nothing made sense anymore. Dead parents. New powers. Fire always creeping at the edges of my vision and an itching heat under my skin. Charge had crouched down to me in the hospital the day after I heard the news: You’re an orphan now. Your grandparents won’t take you.

What’s your name? She’d asked, calm about the whole thing. And I’d answered: Maggie Mendoza.

Do you know who I am? She’d asked. Of course I knew. She was the protector of the city, the one who showed up when things went wrong. She’d put the guy responsible for the recent rash of earthquakes in prison just the other week. I nodded.

Well, I was told you got some powers out of this whole… thing. She’d gestured, uncomfortable. She was never good at anything to do with family. That’s the one thing I blame on her parents. And don’t have anyone to take care of you. And I happen to have a spare room and need a sidekick.

And so it started. That’s how Magma was born- The teen super with the power to transform into the stuff. We were never good at superhero names, I know. Highlighter didn’t even make sense as a name for someone with precognition.

The downstairs hadn’t changed. 

The basement door was disguised to look like a backdoor, despite us having nothing of the sort, because if you climbed down the stairs you would find the basement- also known as Charge’s hideout. Harper used to joke and call it the family room, Which. It wasn’t like we spent a lot of time in the rest of the house.

(The secrecy was completely unneeded. The only people who were ever allowed inside the house were us and very rarely, other heroes. I have long since suspected that this and the fact that she never sent me to school are some of the reasons I don’t have any friends.)

The kitchen was still the same. Bags of goldfish on the counter, a stove that probably hadn’t been used in years. There was no time for cooking when there were crimes to stop- the only thing Cory could make was Mac and Cheese and Meatloaf, anyway. I was always the chef in the family, even if I’ve only really started cooking since I left the house.

Perhaps it’s odd that going upstairs was what struck me the most. Not seeing the upstairs- the staircase itself.

I was an eavesdropper when I was a kid. Probably would have been a motormouth if I had anyone my age to talk to. The amount of time I spent crouching on the middle of the steps, listening to the conversations Harper and Cory had after they thought I was asleep was ridiculous.

(In the later years, it mostly consisted of Cory being concerned for him. It was an endless back and forth of Are you okay? I’m fine, really. This isn’t healthy. I’d stop if I didn’t want it. Once, she’d gotten frustrated. You’re acting like a whore and I know it isn’t because you are one.

He’d been planning to stay a week that time. He left the next morning, quiet and frustrated.

I’d thought at the time that it was just Cory being a prick about him flirting a lot. She was being a prick. 

But then August happened. So something was wrong, even if she was horrible about it.

Harper didn’t talk about it, and he always seemed so happy. But apparently something was wrong and it must have been eating at him and Cory was the only one who’d noticed it.)

And then, all of a sudden, Harper was gone.

On an unusually chilly August morning, in 2018, my big brother took the toaster- the toaster that he’d bought the week before, that he’d said was so he could make me something that wasn’t burnt when I crashed at his place- and he drew a bath. Plugged the toaster in the bathroom outlet.

When they found him, he was wearing his super suit. 

(Harper didn’t mean anything by the method. Even if he did resent Charge, he never would have said so. But when your adoptive mom is the superhero best known for having the power to shock everyone within five feet of her to death, it makes a statement to electrocute yourself. Cory looked like she was going to die when she found out how he did it- the only time she looked worse was when she found out it happened in the first place.)

(He might have meant something by the suit. No way to know. Charge had him buried under the name Highlighter, and when I found out I wrote Harper Harris on his grave with a sharpie and didn’t answer any calls from her for the next two months.)

I took a deep breath, and climbed the stairs.

The downstairs looked the same, but the upstairs was a time capsule. 

My room was exactly how I left it, and it almost felt wrong to disturb it as I placed my bag down and sat on the bed. 

Almost everything I’d had as a kid was still there- the night I left was full of yelling and anger and the only things I thought to pack were my laptop, my teddy bear, and some clothes. The dresser still had its drawers half opened, a green sweater I’d always thought was ugly hanging out of the top one.

The bed wasn’t remotely made- Harper was the only one in the family who’d bothered with his, he was almost obsessive with how clean he was. Cory only cared about messes if they got in her way, and I’ve always been a downright slob.

The mug with a bi flag on it was still sitting in the corner of my desk.  (When I told her, she shrugged. I don’t see why it needs to be a big thing. She’d said. But if you’re happy, fine. But the next June, when we were at Target to get something for a case, she’d silently grabbed the mug and put it in the basket. We’d never spoken about it again, in the exact same way as how we never spoke about Harper’s constant dates with people older than him.)

(I had always felt weird about how the two were treated the same, but it was only recently that I was able to articulate why.)

***

Christmas breakfast was painfully awkward. I made the pancakes like always- I’d taken up baking as a hobby once I left. (Once I started having nightmares, about fighting people twice my size and the faces of people who weren’t here anymore because of us, it helped to have something predictable to focus on. Measure three cups out. Mix until smooth. Check the next step.)

(This family rots you from the inside out.)

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

The Amazing Adventures of Charge (and Co.)

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

What are all the TAACC character’s favorite foods?

ALL of them??? hoo boy here we go

Maggie- you would think she would have some fancy choice, being a chef in her spare time, but no- nothing is ever going to top a big, melty ice cream sunday for her. Especially in the summer, since she's always a little uncomfortably warm. If that's not an option, frozen fruit.

Failsafe- you know that weird recipe your great aunt used to always bring to family reunions, something like jello salad? That's Failsafe's favorite food. More specifically: Marshmallow Mac and Cheese.

Harper: Meatloaf. Specifically the recipe Cory used on the rare occasion she cooked. He honestly could go either way on the taste.

Cory: chocolate chip cookies. the more melty and fresh out of the oven the better. she swears there's no memories attached.

Bella: mall pretzels. the first time she had one was just after she moved to Beachwood with little Archer- whenever they went to the mall and had the money, they would get one to share and sit on this one bench and people watch. It's one of her favorite memories.

Archer: there's this chocolate they sell in the UK, called Aero. it's normal chocolate, but with air bubbles. He got some on their first trip to Europe (thought obviously not the UK, as it doesn't exist in this universe) and he buys it whenever he can now.

Kylie: boiled peanuts! the crunchy kind.

Leander: Mini donuts. He never buys them.

Livia: there's this coffee shop near the Kallistic hideout, that throws out their pastries at the end of every day. she enjoys the croissants when they're salvageable.

Winnie: bacon, with a little bit of melted cheese sprinkled on top.

Wanda: idk, honestly. i'll figure it out one of these days

Queenie: one word: mango. mango anything. smoothie, plain, yogurt, ice cream, dried. she loves them.

Mezi: pickles ::)

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

literally the only even quasi-romantic couple i have in TAACC are doomed lesbians. one of them is straight and murders the other.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

things that are canon to TAACC that I haven't mentioned yet:

-Mezi is related to Bella and Archer, but Mezi's parents were disowned for being in an interracial relationship before Bella was born, so they don't know each other

-Failsafe is vaguely mormon, in that they don't really care but they still parrot the beliefs bc its what they've been raised with

-Christina Connor is Cory's ex-best friend and originally her partner in vigilantism. They were besties in high/middle school, but Christy watched as Cory was consumed by heroism and eventually turned to being a supervillian in an effort to pull her back. It didn't work.

-Harper is very protective of his hair. Cory didn't know how to take care of it when she first got him so she buzzed it until he could take care of it himself. this is another thing they don't talk about.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

honestly the thing Harper and Cory had going on about his promiscuity was by far the most insane argument they had solely bc of how close they were to actually addressing some of Harper’s issues for once. Harper is hypersexual as a coping mechanism while disliking actually having sex, and Cory dislikes that he’s doing that, but in a like. Raised in the 70s way and so she just ends up slutshaming him. And it’s like. So close! You are so close!!! Please have an honest conversation!!!!!

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

I want to emphasize that if Cory’s own story were to be told from her perspective, Harper and Maggie would barely show up at the end, if even that. At best, they would be in a closing shot of the ‘ride off into the sunset’ ending, just another reassurance that there will always be a vigilante in San Sobelle. The vast majority of it? It would be about her teenage years, the stuff with her family and with Christina. She sees that as the most important parts of her life.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

Cory is, actually, contrary to Maggie’s remarks in Being Robin, Christian. But it’s such an insignificant part of her identity that no one knows about it except her and maybe Bella- she doesn’t worship, she doesn’t pray, she just passively believes in god.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

Folly, Failsafe’s original mantle, wasn’t just an alter ego. It was their identity. They don’t feel like Fern and they honestly never have- Folly was the version of them that they wanted to be. They were attached to that name. And they changed it, for Charge, because of the promise of family and love and care. They made a new identity because Charge asked them to, and they wanted to please her.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

i feel i havent accurately portrayed the sheer explosion that was the fallout of Harper's suicide. Winnie was the one who found his body and she promptly drove halfway back to Arizona in shock before getting in a car crash bc she wasn't paying attention. It only occurred to her to tell his family right after she hit the person in front of her so Cory found out by a phonecall regularly interspersed with "hang on the cops wanna ask me something" Maggie found out two days after by way of Cory breaking down at the breakfast table after poorly hiding something was wrong for 2 days, and she immediately started one of their most explosive arguments, ending with her packing her bag the same night she found out and walking out the door while still in a screaming match. this whole time his body was still in his apartment.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

Harper and Cory are both decent seamstresses- Cory sewed the whole family’s costumes and Harper started making alterations to his own as he grew.

[heather-chandlers-weirder-cousin]

you know, depending on how this timeline shakes out, Cory might end up being better at ignoring obvious abuse going on in the Armstice-Burns household than the actual members of the family.