#Lady Arsenic | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

christaspirit · 9 months ago

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Izzie Blake- wait no, Indigo Screen, she was technically on duty, even if she wasn’t in costume- frowned at her phone screen.

Her private Discord, the one used for school friends (she hadn’t seen them in a year now…) and family, had been added to a new server. It appeared that Jamie, her younger sibling, had added her.

But why was this server called ‘villain team ups or something idk’?

Letting out a huff, Indigo made it so she appeared offline even though she was looking at the chat, and entered the server. Scrolling through…

Plans of attack, from a few villain team ups, and even some solo plans, with cooperation… a villain group chat. She grimaced, recognizing some of the past plans. There were several future plans as well, and Indigo jotted those down on a post-it. But the latest conversation under ‘planning-thread’…

Poison_not_fire: tips on blackmailing the rich to get money?

I just hated Jack and Rose: get something scandalous on them

Yes fire: kidnap their child

No_I’m_not_your_mom: don’t go after a target closely associated to the heroes

No_I’m_not_your_mom: that’s a good way to get caught and get nothing but a beating

No_I’m_not_your_mom: also whatever you do don’t go after Viper

No_I’m_not_your_mom: he’ll kill you

Totally_not_catwoman: just steal from them

Poison_not_fire: I think I’ll stick to some scandalous

Poison_not_fire: could I get continuous money from them that way?

No_I’m_not_your_mom: possibly

No_I’m_not_your_mom: a bit risky

No_I’m_not_your_mom: who’s the target?

Poison_not_fire: don’t know the name, but my sister is living with some rich girl

Poison_not_fire: I’m after the rich girl

I just hated Jack and Rose: I thought you liked your sister?

Poison_not_fire: …

Yes fire: you could kidnap your sister

Poison_not_fire: I could…

Poison_not_fire: but she’s closely connected with the heroes in her city and an adult hero

Poison_not_fire: but the adult is a bit dumb…

PurplePaint: hey remember that time you kidnapped me?

Poison_not_fire: I said I was sorry!

PurplePaint: remember what we agreed to?

Poison_not_fire: no more kidnapping, I know

Poison_not_fire: sorry…

PurplePaint: why are you blackmailing her mom anyway? Is it the attention thing again?

Poison_not_fire: No.

Yes fire: punctuation she’s mad~

Poison_not_fire: >:(

There hadn’t been anything more recent.

But PurplePaint… that was Jamie’s handle. Why were they associating with villains? Poison_not_fire must’ve been Lady Arsenic, why was Jamie working with her?

Had… had Jamie gone evil?

Indigo took a deep breath, and hacked the private messages. There were some between several of the different people- villains- but she was most interested in the one between Lady Arsenic and Jamie. Locating it, Indigo scrolled to the top, and started reading.

Poison_not_fire: this working?

PurplePaint: yes!

Poison_not_fire: :)

Poison_not_fire: Gonna short out all tech in the downtown area

PurplePaint: thx

PurplePaint: u ok?

PurplePaint: you haven’t done anything in a few weeks

Poison_not_fire: fine just planning

PurplePaint: nothing too sinister I hope

Poison_not_fire: no one will die

Poison_not_fire: well, no one should

Poison_not_fire: I’m teaming up with some others

PurplePaint: don’t go overboard

Poison_not_fire: I won’t

PurplePaint: that was the definition of overboard

PurplePaint: 1 death and 20 injuries?!

Poison_not_fire: …someone died?

PurplePaint: you didn’t know?!

Poison_not_fire: I got dragged away from the action early on

PurplePaint: why did it go so far?

Poison_not_fire: the others kept making it worse

PurplePaint: don’t work with them again

Poison_not_fire: I won’t

Poison_not_fire: I’m sorry…

Poison_not_fire: Jamie…?

Poison_not_fire: Jamie, I’m really sorry

Poison_not_fire: please, talk to me

PurplePaint: you kidnapped my brother

PurplePaint: when they finally rescued him he had a broken arm!

Poison_not_fire: I’m sorry…

PurplePaint: sorry doesn’t cut it!

PurplePaint: you promised to tell me if your plans affected me!

Poison_not_fire: …the others told me to do it

PurplePaint: the villains you told me you’d stop associating with?

Poison_not_fire: …

PurplePaint: don’t talk to me

Poison_not_fire: can we meet up?

Poison_not_fire: in person?

Poison_not_fire: I really want to apologize

PurplePaint: you planning to come with the cat mask?

Poison_not_fire: no I’ll be in normal clothes

PurplePaint: where do you want to meet up?

Poison_not_fire: there’s this little coffee shop in the downtown area

Indigo stopped reading there. The date on this exchange… two months ago?

“Jamie said they were getting coffee with a friend we didn’t know…” Indigo muttered. “Why…?”

Lady Arsenic… she seemed off. She’d been off since coming back from the dead…

She seemed like a teenager.

Indigo’s stomach dropped.

There was a new message in the private chat, and Indigo scrolled down to it.

Poison_not_fire: who’s the new person in chat?

PurplePaint: you think I know?

Poison_not_fire: any of the others would’ve introduced them

PurplePaint: fine

PurplePaint: it’s my sister

Poison_not_fire: why?!

Poison_not_fire: which one?

PurplePaint: because clearly you’re having some issues

PurplePaint: a hero keeping an eye on things might keep you from doing something more sinister

Poison_not_fire: or maybe I’ll stop talking about things to these guys!

PurplePaint: your plans barely worked before

PurplePaint: I’m just worried about you

Poison_not_fire: you could’ve told me ahead of time

PurplePaint: sorry not sorry

Poison_not_fire: I will block you

PurplePaint: no you won’t 😎

Poison_not_fire: …I won’t

Poison_not_fire: which sister?

Poison_not_fire: I seem to recall you having 3

PurplePaint: I’ll just say she’s probably active right now even though it says she isn’t

PurplePaint: and probably reading this chat

Poison_not_fire: seriously?

Poison_not_fire: Indigo?

PurplePaint: look

PurplePaint: she’s the most likely to keep this a secret and she’s the only family who still talks to me

Indigo’s stomach churned. No, they talked to Jamie… right?

…when Jamie had been kidnapped it took them until the ransom video came two days later to realized they were gone.

Poison_not_fire: honestly not that different from my upbringing…

PurplePaint: promise me you won’t go overboard?

Poison_not_fire: alright

Poison_not_fire: I won’t go after the girl raising my sister

PurplePaint: why did you want to anyway?

Poison_not_fire: I…

Poison_not_fire: I came across Kitty the other day and she just seemed so… happy

PurplePaint: so you are jealous

Poison_not_fire: …maybe

PurplePaint: you need to talk to her!

Poison_not_fire: she wouldn’t want anything to do with me

PurplePaint: I promise she will

Poison_not_fire: she hates me

Poison_not_fire: and we haven’t had a proper conversation since before she was expelled

Poison_not_fire: there was a fight…

PurplePaint: at least consider it

PurplePaint: anyway I got homework to do

PurplePaint: ttyl!

Poison_not_fire: ttyl

Indigo continued to stare at the screen, even when both members of the private chat went offline.

Kitty? That was a name…

There was a young teen hero in a nearby city. It didn’t have much crime, but there was a small band of heroes who took care of the crime all the same, Kitty often acting as leader. She’d also worked with Fern’s team a few times. She must be the sister…

Lady Arsenic was a teen. That much was clear.

If she could figure out who Kitty was, she could figure out Lady Arsenic. The League could finally take her down-

She was Jamie’s friend.

…could Indigo tell the League?

What did she know about either? Not much about Lady Arsenic… she’d had three henchmen but they’d vanished not long after Jamie had been rescued. Her plans had been failing, but they’ve been successful more recently.

Kitty… among Ferns team she was closest to Silverwolf (L’ynx, alien shapeshifter) and Cardinal (unknown, no info). She certainly acted closer to Silverwolf, but…

Silverwolf wasn’t dumb. If anyone on Fern’s team had earned that descriptor it was Cardinal. Unless there was another hero she wasn’t aware of, it had to be Cardinal that Kitty was mentored under.

But Cardinal wasn’t active in the same city… usually she stuck to where Fern was based.

It would help a lot if she knew Cardinal’s identity, but her mask scrambled every facial recognition software. It was great technology usually, Indigo knew which suit designer always put it in. But for a hero with so many unknowns…

Fern didn’t even know.

She was getting off track.

Indigo stared at the post it note. She knew more than the others…

This felt wrong.

Indigo- Izzie left her room, going down the hall to knock on Jamie’s door.

“Come in!”

Izzie twisted the knob, and opened to Jamie’s room.

The room was painted beige, but anything else that could be purple, was purple. Bed, dresser, all of it. Jamie had an eisel with an unfinished painting near the window, getting natural light. Their tablet was sitting on the dresser. Jamie themself was laying on their bed, laptop open to some kind of assignment. Music was blasting from speakers, and Jamie was laying on their bed casually doing homework.

“Izzie!” Jamie grabbed their phone and paused the music, before assuming an upright position. “Thought I’d see you soon.”

Izzie smiled weakly. When had she last come to visit her sibling?

“I’m assuming this is about… well…” Jamie held up their phone, vaguely gesturing at it.

“Why didn’t you have to add me?” Izzie asked. She shut the door and sat on Jamie’s desk chair. The desk itself was never used for homework, but there were a variety of different types of sketchbooks on the desk.

Jamie grimaced.

“I’m just… worried about her.”

“Why are you friends with her to begin with!” Izzie said, “She’s a villain, working with other villains-!”

“She doesn’t actually want it.”

Izzie stared at her younger sibling.

“What?”

“She doesn’t want it,” Jamie repeated. “She thinks she does, and I can’t convince her otherwise, but… she just wants the attention.”

Izzie swallowed hard and looked to the floor.

In another life… maybe even in this life… Jamie could‘be gone down the same path.

“Why?” Izzie asked. “What… made her think this was the way?”

“If I tell you, will you tell the league?”

…she should. She was a league of heroes member, she was supposed to tell them everything.

But…

Jamie had added her personal account. This wasn’t a matter brought to Indigo Screen.

This was a younger sibling, asking for their sister’s help.

“I won’t tell.”

Jamie nodded.

“Her… her mom is the original Lady Arsenic. The one the league… offed.” Jamie looked uncomfortable.

Izzie had been 11 when the decision had been made. She wasn’t told the details for why… she’d only barely joined the league, and she wasn’t even a full member. But mom had been the one to do it.

“I didn’t know she had kids.”

If the league knew, they didn’t say anything.

“She wasn’t a great mom,” Jamie said, wringing their hands in their lap. “Always busy doing villain stuff… the two kids were neglected. Leilei… the current Lady Arsenic that is… she wanted her mom’s attention. She was desperate for it, and thinks that if she acts like her, her mom will finally be proud of her.

“I’ve tried to tell her that it’s not worth it. She doesn’t have the stomach for anything actually bad. But… I can’t convince her.”

“What about her sister?” Izzie asked. “Kitty, was it? Isn’t she a hero?”

“From what I can tell, she wants nothing to do with their mom,” Jamie said. “Leilei and her got into arguments a lot at the boarding school they were sent to after their mom died, and after a big fight they never reconciled, and then Kitty got expelled. I don’t know much about Leilei’s time at the school, but I don’t think it was good… especially considering they got sent to the School for Future Villains.”

Izzie muttered curses under her breath. The League knew of the school, but without a location, they couldn’t do anything to shut it down.

“Please, can you just… promise me you’ll keep an eye on her?” Jamie asked.

Izzie clenched her hands together.

“I will, promise.”

She owed that much to her little sibling…

You’ve just figured out what the bad guy’s plans are because you were accidentally added to their group chat. You’ll go out and stop them, but reading through the group chat couldn’t hurt, right?

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kettlefire · 4 months ago

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As Good as Good Gets (DP X DC Snippet)

Richard "Dick" Grayson is the golden child. In the eyes of the public, and in the eyes of the league. Dick is a sweet, caring son, a man who went from being a sidekick to being a hero. The pipeline from Robin to Nightwing had many people applauding his dedication to keeping Gotham safe.

No one knew the full story, not truly. No one but Bruce Wayne himself. And maybe a certain butler. Many don't know that Dick only became Robin to stop him from hunting down and killing the man who killed his parents.

No one really knows about the harsh fights and arguments he has had with Bruce. The times when Dick would find himself cut off from the Wayne name for a week or so. No one knows that the first person Dick warmed up to was Alfred. Having been bribed with cookies.

Things weren't always this good, trusting, happy relationship between Bruce and Dick. It had been a rough ride, a complicated one. But that was okay, because it got better.

Dick stopped being so moody and angsty. He grew up, he learned, and he changed. He became an older brother, found people that needed him. Needed him in a way that the citizens of Gotham didn't need him.

His brothers like to call him annoying. A goody two shoes who Bruce trusted more than everyone else. They couldn't fathom how someone like Dick could be so stupid and bubbly at all times.

All times, except when shit hits the fans. Despite the name calling, despite coining Dick as the stupid Wayne. They all knew better. They knew that when it mattered, Dick Grayson always pulled through. He was a force to be reckoned with when needed.

The whole Wayne family was a force to be reckoned with when called for. It didn't have to be under the guise of costumes and vigilante acts. Whether he was Officer Grayson or Nightwing, Dick was a man with his morals and values.

One night on patrol as Officer Grayson, Dick found someone who needed that force. A force willing to protect and care for the innocent. The hurt. The damaged, yet still good.

It started like any other night. A call of shots fired by an empty warehouse. There was no sighting or knowledge of any rouges being there, so Dick took the call. Told the team he'll contact them if it seems more than just a civilian incident.

The warehouse was dark, reeked of copper and oil. It didn't take long for Dick to find the trail. The liquid he found looked like the person had been dragged before walking. There was a clear struggle, even with the mess and emptiness that was the warehouse.

That wasn't Dick's biggest concern. The concern lay in just how much blood there was. Too much for any normal person to lose and still manage to stumble through the warehouse.

It wasn't just blood. It wasn't that much, but Dick could spot the strangeness in the liquid. The mixed in green that had an eerily similar color and glow as a certain pit.

Without thinking, Dick followed the trail. Barely remembering to make contact with his family. Give them an update on what he found. Words telling him to stay put for backup went in one ear and out the other.

Something in Dick's gut was telling him he couldn't wait. He needed to find the source. Whoever was currently bleeding out in this warehouse. He silenced the comm, moving further through the dimly lit building.

Then Dick found it. Or more so, he found him. It was just a boy. A boy that reminded Dick too much of the youngest Wayne. A boy sat against a wall, looking pale and weak.

Red and green coated the front of the boy's shirt, arms wrapped tightly around his middle. An attempt to stem the bleeding. A puddle had already started to form beneath the boy, and Dick moved without thinking once again.

He quickly found himself kneeling beside the boy, hands carefully reaching out. Before Dick even touched him, the boy flinched. Eyelids suddenly opened, wide and terrified blue eyes landed on Dick's.

In just that one look, Dick knew what he had to do. The haunting, terrified, and pained look in the boy's eyes told Dick everything he needed to know. The boy was in danger. Someone had hurt this kid, and it was clear it wasn't the first time.

The boy struggled weakly against Dick's touch, terrified whimpers, and barely coherent pleas spilled from the kid's lips. It had Dick's heart aching, clear as day the poor kid has been through hell and back.

It took a lot of reassurance, gentle touches, and promises of help before the kid let Dick take a look at the bleeding wound. A promise on Dick's soul had been the final thing that earned him any semblance of trust. A strange promise, but Dick was willing to make it.

That concern turned to pure anger the moment Dick managed to pull the sticky shirt away from the wound. The sight of a Y-incision cut perfectly into the skin, stitches tight on the skin, but blood still leaking heavily from the wound.

It didn't take long for Dick to realize why. Despite the perfect surgical care of the wound, a good couple of stitches had broken. Leaving gaping spots for that red and green liquid to pour out of.

The boy was deathly silent, tears streaking down his cheek as wide blue eyes stayed trained on Dick. In that moment, Dick knew he had to help. Had to get the kid to safety, patch him up, and find out what kind of monster would do this.

It didn't matter if the kid was human or not. It didn't matter if the kid had special abilities or not. No one, absolutely no one, deserved to be vivisected.

The kid was shrouded in mystery, but that mystery only seemed to grow and become clearer when Bruce had entered the scene. The boy had tensed, eyes flashing a bright glowing green.

Lazarus pit green.

It set a pit of dread in Dick's gut. His mind brings forward memories of Jason. Jason, after his revival, after his dip in that cursed pit. The same flash that his brother would get if he got too angry. Too emotional.

As much as Dick wanted to focus on finding who did this, if it had any connection to Ra's al Ghul. He couldn't. Not when the kid tried to get up, to pull away as Bruce and the others made their way closer.

Right now, Dick only cared about making sure the boy was okay. Fixing those stitches, getting him a meal, and a warm bed.

He needed to get this kid someplace where he felt safe and secure. Comfortable and protected. Dick wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the promise he had made, but he wasn't letting anyone get to the kid.

That included his family. As strange as it seemed, Dick put himself between the others and the kid. Shooting them all a glare that they had only ever seen a handful of times.

Dick lifted the poor boy up in his arms, cradling the crying child close as he led the way out of the warehouse. Ignoring the questions or confusion coming from Bruce and the others. As Dick walked, feeling the trembling boy clinging to him, he made a rather obvious realization.

Maybe the eldest son really was more like Bruce than he expected. Just a few short moments the the boy, a boy that Dick didn't know his name, and he was ready to pull out adoption papers. To give the boy a safety he so desperately needs.

Give him the chance that Bruce had given him all those years ago.