#Meta Jazz

[raynewolferune]

Meta Jazz, the Arkham Intern Therapist Pt1

Update 5/16/2024: Congrats guys, gals, and others! You have planted the seeds and they have grown. Today I wrote another 46 pages on this story (the first section was only 9 pages ya'll). I'm working on splitting it up into smaller sections so I can post it now because tumblr said no to doing it as one piece. I'll be using the tag #Meta Jazz Arkham Intern Therapist if you want to follow it.

Original Note: I'm going to go ahead and apologize for how OOC Bane is in this. It originally was Joker but I couldn't see Jazz tolerating his proximity for more than a single millisecond so Bane it is.

~*~*~

The hardest thing about being a Meta in Gotham was responding appropriately during a Rouge's attack, Jazz mused to herself. Or perhaps that was just the hardest part about being a Meta intern at Arkham while studying psychology at Gotham University. Or maybe it was just her, she considered watching the guards and Dr. Rylie whom she'd been shadowing for the past 2 weeks wide eyed, pale, and shaking as theybstared at Bane behind her. It must just be her, Jazz decided, newbie guard Kyle Jennings was definitely a Meta after all. She should probably give him some tips on hiding his enhanced strength considering how often he broke mugs, door handles, and other delicate items used in daily life.

"Weapons down or I'll snap her skinny little neck." Bane growled out, shaking her slightly for emphasis. She very much doubted that. Liminials were built different than the standard Meta, stronger, faster, better endurance, and senses even if they could mostly appear to be standard humans on the outside.  As such, their bones and muscles were much were much denser than regular humans or even Meta humans. Technically, she could be considered "invulnerable" much like the Kryptonians are.

"Back up! Let him through!" Dr. Rylie  shouted at the guards. "She's my student! Let him through!" His voice was higher pitched than she could recall hearing it before.

Ah. That was panic.

Jazz sighed involuntarily and glanced over her shoulder at Bane. Why the man had grabbed the only person close to his own height nearby was a mystery to her - no, nevermind, he clearly meant to use her as a shield - but it made looking him in the eye more difficult than necessary.

"Mr. Bane, remove your hands from my person, please." Jazz stated calmly, channeling what Danny called her inner mom as she spoke. "I will give you to one to comply."

Bane looked stunned for a moment then laughed.

"Five."

The laughing continued. Jazz could sense a stir of uncertainty through her colleagues as they looked on.

"Four."

"Did you really think that would work?" Bane snorted out, arms tensing more around her.

"Three." She continued, indifferent to his words from her experiences raising her brother. Once the count down starts you mustn't respond to anything the kids do or say until they comply or the count is done.

"What cab you even do if I don't?" Bane asked darkly breathing directly in her ear. She kept her face expressionless despite the urge to express disgust.

"Two."

"Jasmine..."  Kyle whispered halfway across the hall from her looking on with a pained and horrified expression. Gun tilting towards the floor. Sloppy.

"One." She finished and Bane gave a derisive snort.

Then she was moving. Hauling the enormous man up and over her shoulder using the arm that had been wrapped around her neck. Bane hit the cold tile hard enough that the tiles, subfloor, structural supports, and part of the concrete foundation buckled beneath him. His shoulder popped out of joint, his wrist cracked - a hairline fracture by the sound of it -  and his breath was punched out of him from the force of impact. She released his arm as soon as his was embedded in the tiles and moved forward. Kneeling over him, support most of her weight on her left foot resting on the broken ground, her right knees pressed firmly across his throat without supporting any of her weight. The position put more strain on her muscles than she would've liked but at least Bane couldn't risk fighting back without crushing his own neck in the process. He could hardly throw her while flat on his back with a mangled arm.

"Now," Jazz began, looking directly into the behemoth's pained eyes. "Do you know what you've done wrong?" She asked like she would have done with Danny as a child.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bane choked out. Jazz heard movement and murmuring behind her. She didn't turn to look.

"What did you do wrong?" She asked. It was important to make sure children correctly understood why they were in trouble after all. There was a long pause as Bane appeared to cast around for the exact right answer as if he feared getting it wrong. A bad habit Danny still uses as well, Jazz thought to herself.

"I tried to hold you hostage," He choked out in a rush, words tumbling over one another as he tried to get them all out. "I scared you coworkers and it was very disrespectful."

So he'd gone for the grab-bag response. It wasn't wrong per sey but it did indicate a past history of abuse. The type of answer given by someone who expected to be harmed or ignored if they gave the "wrong" answer. Danny tended to use that method also and their parents had always been negligent at best.

"And are you going to do it again?" She asked giving him a Look as she did. Bane's eyes widened and he tried to frantically shake his head as much as possible with the pressure on his neck.

"No, Ma'am." He promised fervently.

"Alright then," Jazz said giving him a warm smile. She gestured vaguely towards the guards without turning to look at them. "Kyle here is going to take you to see the nurse and then back to your room then. I'm sure you'll behave for him?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I'll behave." Bane said. Jazz stood slowly asking sure not to put any additional pressure on his neck as she did. Kyle came and stood next to her as the giant of a man slowly pulled himself to his feet then led him away with 5 other guards.

Jazz heaved a sigh. Well, time to find out whether or not she could play all that off as normal, non-Meta human behavior.

[radiance1]

There was a new cafe open in Gotham.

Such thing would usually not be a problem whatsoever, except for the fact that the family that ran said bakery just appeared out of nowhere one day. No one knew who they were, not where they came from.

The two parents- Mr. and Mrs. Fenton seemed to be the usual case of brilliant scientists about to snap and go crazy, and yes, everyone who visited said store waited with baited breath for said thing to happen.

Except, it never did.

They were just being your normal (as you can get in Gotham) run of the mill parents taking care of their two kids while simultaneously running a bakery.

Almost made them feel silly for waiting for the other shoe to drop, but in Gotham you could never be too sure.

Their oldest child, Jasmine Fenton passed college with flying colors, and seemed to be your normal run of the mil teenage girl busy with taking care of school and stuff.

Their youngest and last child- Danny Fenton- was a bit of an enigma, to be honest. He didn't seem to be going to school, instead staying and helping run his parents' bakery alongside- or alone when they were busy with something else- his parents. The room noticeably got colder whenever he was around, his touch colder than the normal human should be, his breath a tad too cold whenever he was speaking over someone's shoulder, and his teeth literal fangs.

They assume him to be a meta, and if he didn't already have parents would have assumed him to be Mr. Freeze's long-lost child or something.

Everyone was determined to treat them like a normal family, maybe a tad weird but honestly, it wouldn't be inaccurate to say there was something weird about everyone who lived in Gotham.

They were just a normal family, maybe have a past they're running from, who are the Gothamites to judge. At least, until they were attacked by one of Gotham's rouges.

The daughter was at school, well out of the fire zone.

Ms. Fenton calmly rang out a bell on the counter, while Mr. Fenton didn't even stop from where he was carrying multiple people's orders (with the help from small green beings the Fenton's call blob ghosts) and then out from the ceiling appeared what looked like extremely high-tech weapons and without a second's delay were they fired, the villain was not killed, but were knocked out cold.

Then their son appeared from the kitchen, dusting his hands off on his apron, calmly walked to the villain and proceeded to throw them out of the establishment as easy as breathing and walk back into the kitchen as if nothing had happened.

They knew there was another shoe just waiting to drop, and drop it did. They're just glad it wasn't the result of another villain added to the rogue's ranks.

And hey, they'll be turning a blind eye for as long as they could when said family makes some of the best pastries and meanest cups of coffee in Gotham.

(Two days after that was it made known that their daughter pulled out one of those same high-tech guns on the Red Hood.)

[seaglassdinosaur]

The guitar! The guitar belonging to the Twins’ abusive father and passing it onto Sammie! The one that to Smoke represents a generational curse and something they should shun and bury. He and Stack couldn’t cut the pain out of themselves, nor the struggles they’ve experienced as Black men in America, but Smoke thinks he can prevent it from being spread, if only Sammie will give up the Blues, become a respectable musician, and bury that fucking guitar.

Passing on the guitar is indicative of the older generation passing down trauma and history, but it’s also providing tools of transformation. Smoke and Stack couldn’t make anything of the guitar, nor spin their pain into art, but Sammie could.

In Sammie’s hands, that curse, the pain they carry becomes music and connection. Sammie has a way to process their suffering and struggle, and sings about love, sings about his own strained relationship with his father, and sings about the pull he feels between propriety and passion. He sings about culture. The guitar is more than just their family history, it’s their people’s history, and while Sammy cannot erase history, neither can he ignore it; he refuses to bury the guitar.

The idea Smoke pushes Sammie toward is that if it’s possible, it’s a blessing to cast off our painful, ugly history. To escape that history is to find freedom in the world.

But Sammie disagrees. He inherits the same history as them, the same connection to the evil of his uncle, the same ancestry and the guitar. Instead of running from it, trying to assimilate and be a ‘proper’ Black man as Smoke insists, he leans into his heritage, leans into all that impropriety, that history, and rebuilds that fucking guitar. The haunting instrument that’s brought them so much trauma and trouble, that Sammie set aside for so long—it’s been tucked away in a case as he aged, but was never let go of. It’s always ready to be played, always within arms reach. His pain, his past, his people, Sammie carries them with for the rest of his life.

[disformer]

(have a very bad headcold) I wa nt to see him smile :)

[racke7]

De-aged and injured Danny

Danny is found out by his parents. They don't take it well.

Clockwork is very upset about this, because he'd gambled on almost-certain odds of them being chill about it. So now he has to run damage-control before this very unlikely time-line goes even further off the deep end.

Unfortunately, Danny needs to be in the living world, not the Infinite Realms. Which means that Clockwork needs to put Danny somewhere safe. Somewhere where nobody will find him.

And double-unfortunately, the only place that remotely fits this bill is to contact Lady Gotham.

City-spirits aren't... super-reliable. They're Neverborns who very very rarely consider "humanoid shapes" worth figuring out. So they just kind of... exist. An ectoplasmic presence that's undeniable, but also extremely difficult to have a conversation with.

Thankfully, Lady Gotham is (for all of her... quirks) generally very hero-aligned. Which is why she's the best one to ask for sanctuary for Danny.

Danny who Clockwork de-aged as a way to "limit his injuries" of being vivisected.

Lady Gotham agrees, but she only has one "safe place" to put him. And her Knight is a little bit too paranoid for her to just dump an injured child in his lair, without causing more trouble than it's worth.

But it's hardly a difficult thing, to arrange a few things, and place Danny in a spot where his injuries will cause her Knight to hurry to his aid.

Such as... in a room filled with medical equipment, right next door to where Joker has just lost a fight with Batman.

Things escalate somewhat when Batman finds him and makes some assumptions about what Joker has been up to. Tempers run a bit high, someone loses a few extra teeth, someone else has to physically drag Bruce off Joker's body before he beats him to death, and the Joker considers the whole thing a grand old laugh (he has no idea what's going on, but it sure pissed off Batty, and that's always a treat).

Of course, the Batfam has to actually investigate the scene, evacuate Danny, give Danny medical aid, and then also ask Danny about what happened.

Danny wakes up and is very confused about a lot of things.

He's no longer being vivisected. Great. Love that part.

He's somewhere he doesn't recognize (the Batcave). Could be good, could be bad. At least the bed is pretty nice?

He's very small. This feels like a personal attack. He might not have gotten a good growth-spurt yet, but taking away what he had is cruel and unusual.

And there's a weirdo in an... armored bat-costume? Who isn't setting off his ghost-sense? What the hell kind of "normal" person wears something like that?

Still, Danny does answer the questions that Batman asks him, because... well, there's a green post-it-note in his pocket that says he shouldn't lie.

So Danny tells Batman about his parents cutting him up "for science". And Batman hears that the Joker somehow managed to hire two mad scientists who (upon the tiniest bit of suggestion from the Joker, who'd definitely seen the similarities between Danny and Jason and thought it would be a "funny prank") had leapt at the opportunity to vivisect their own son.

This is definitely worrying, because from the phrasing, they'd been "wanting to do it for a long time". And considering Danny's slow heartbeat and low body-temperature? They'd been wanting to do it because he was a meta.

So, somewhere out there (the Bats had found no trace of the two) were two deranged lunatics who wanted to cut open metas to "see how they worked".

Batman does the very reasonable thing and actually contacts the rest of the Justice League with their descriptions, just in case they'd managed to leave Gotham before the Bats had tracked them down.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 305

So. Uh. Danny feels like laughing hysterically, because? Ghostwriter was doing a thing, and one of Pandora’s curses escaped and erm, well, now the six of them are in a whole other dimension. At least this place has a lot of abandoned warehouses but still. And well, he guesses he’s no longer the only ‘monster’ now? 

But seriously they all need to find a way back home sooner rather than later, even if they might now be stuck in this world… Fuck.

[fashionredalert]

Was having tobirama brain rot so enjoy it with me

Was having some Tobirama thoughts and kept circling around the idea that Tobirama gets cold very easily also suffers from light anemia. Hashirama always tries to get him to eat his green veggies to which tobirama absolutely refuses, he hates them and always has and will have no qualms about pushing the unwanted greens to aside. He figures out a way to put little seals on them in order to banish them straight to the garbage much to Hashirama's dismay. He will compromise where and there depending on how much salt he's allowed to put on them. Tobirama. Loves. Salt.

Which is why Hashirama is so stingy with leaving it within Tobirama's reach. As such Tobirama also refuses to take his vitamins that Hashirama prescribes him, he's like a feral wet cat about them and will straight up just turn around and walk away from them the second he hears the pill bottle shake in Hashirama's hand.

The sun is not his friend and will burn him very easily and he will look like a red blotchy mess if left out in the sun for too long. Unfortunately Tobirama loves the heat and will take random naps outside only to wake up looking like an overboiled lobster and no it's not his fault Anija he fell asleep in the shade, the sun moved and that's how he got burned.

His fur is actually made out of special fibers that generate heat and Hashirama despairs that he only wears it when going into battle rather than using it as an every day item like it was intended to. In fact, when Hashirama first presented it to Tobirama he told him it was meant to be worn at home or in the office since he gets so cold so easily.

Only, Tobirama wears it to battle because it smells like home and it's a reminder for Tobirama to keep going, to keep fighting until his very last breath. The comforts of home will never be too far from him so long as he can turn his nose and catch the scent of everything that ever mattered to him in the fibers.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

"Mr. Bubbles, Mr. Bubbles-"

A little boy's voice--the first little boy that Tim had discovered in the labyrinth city below Gotham--echoed through the cavernous halls. Tim crept over the rubble of a broken stalagmite that had fallen through the ceiling, destroying the white and gold decor and dripping water inside. The room up ahead was lit only from glowing green tubes of liquid that lined every wall of Amity, the ectoplasm that powered the entire city.

"Are you there? Are you there?"

He peeked out from behind a crumbled wall. On his own, the little boy was crouched over corpse, fresh enough that it's blood was still wet on the floor. The boy's giant needle, the go-to weapon of all the Little Sisters that Tim had seen so far, was jabbed into the corpse's stomach and, slowly, ectoplasm and blood filled the glass jar on the end.

"Bring me a lolli-"

There was no sign of a Big Daddy, but Tim knew there was one nearby. These children were never without their protectors after all.

"Bring me a toffee-"

And at this point, Tim had killed enough of them to know for certain that one was around.

His left arm, marked all over with the needle marks of constant Plasm and ecto-dejecto injections, tingled, like there were ants under his skin. Or more accurate, he mused grimly, electricity-

Don't Think About It.

"Teddy bear, teddy bear."

He kicked his bare feet excitedly as he finished harvesting ectoplasm. Screwing off the jar, the child lifted it up to his lips like a cup and drank the viscus liquid down in huge, chest-heaving gulps like his life depended on it. Unlike Little Sisters who wore gore-covered dresses, the Little Brother was dressed in a white medical gown, relatively clean considering his filthy surroundings. His arms and face were free from dirt or blood, and even his hair looked suspiciously washed and combed.

Tim tightened his grip on his gun.

The Little Brother sighed, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Brushing off his skirt, he yanked the needle out of the corpse. Then, like he could sense him, the boy looked straight at Tim. He froze.

Blank eyes covered in a green flim stared at him... and the Little Brother smiled at him, his teeth stained brown from the muck. "Mr. Helper! There you are, I've been waiting soooo long! Big Sister thought you'd never catch up!"

[skymallnine]

Rom’s self-replication tech proves that it’s possible to replicate objects larger than the original replicator. Therefore it follows that I can use a replicator to make a slightly bigger replicator. Replicating larger and larger replicators until I get one the size of a planet. Who needs terraforming when I can burp an entire M-class planet out of my big beefy boy orbiting replicator?

[raynewolferune]

Meta Jazz, the Arkham Intern Therapist Pt 2.1

Note: The writing bug bit me while wading through the comments and replies so you guys get more! 😁 Special thanks to @the-scarecrow-of-aus & @starlightcat04 for helping spark this continuation!

Also, so you're not confused, this part is from Kon's POV and backtracks to before the Bane incident to explain how Kon started going undercover in Arkham. Pt 2.2 has the Bane incident from Kon's POV.

~*~*~

When Kon got the call from Tim asking if he'd be willing to do a favor for him, he hadn't expected it to be an undercover assignment in the infamous Arkham Asylum itself.

"You want me to do what?" He asked staring at Tim in disbelief once he reached the Nest to debrief.

"Go undercover as a new guard in Arkham." Tim repeated with a deadpan expression looking over his shoulder at Kon from his computer chair. Holy fuck, his eyebags were bad. 

"Have you slept in the past week, Tim?" Kon asked, taking in his best friend's appearance.

Tim frowned at the question. 

"I don't see how that's relevant but yes." He answered, heartbeat unchanging. Which didn't really mean anything since it was Tim but Kon decided he'd believe him. 

For now. 

Kon sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, I'll do it." He said. "Can you tell me why we need someone undercover at least?" 

Tim eyes widened, startled by the question like he was surprised Kon didn't know yet even though Tim hadn't told him yet. Okay, deep breaths, calm down, Tim clearly hasn't slept in at least two days. Kon coached himself as his temper flared up at the evidence that Tim wasn't taking care of himself again. All the Supers agreed: sometimes you just wish you could beat some sense into the Bats and make them take care of themselves like normal human beings.

"Ah. Right." Tim said, turning back to the computer and pulling up some files as he explained. "Two thing have occured within roughly fifteen days of each other that together are rather suspicious. First, Dr. Thomas Rylie, Jonathan Crane's undergraduate roommate and classmate throughout undergrad and grad school, was hired to work as one of the new in house psychiatrists at Arkham Asylum. They also got their doctorates from the same school during the same time frame and both focused on the impact fear has on the brain. Dr. Rylie's focus was on fear conditioning and Dr. Crane's focus was on fear responses." Well, that sounds suspicious. 

"Second, Gotham University lost their minds and began an undergraduate and graduate internship program partnering with Arkham Asylum." 

Kon went cold. They did what?

Pictures of the Asylum, University, and three people -presumably Scarecrow, Dr. Rylie, and a young woman- filled the computer screen now. 

"The internship program has only one applicant so far and she'd already started working at the Arkham. Her name is Jasmine Fenton and her background is...sparse, to say the least." Tim turned in his chair to face Kon.

"I'm too recognizable in Gotham and among the rogues to successfully go undercover in Arkham so I've set you up with an apartment and ID as 'Kyle Jennings.' You're scheduled to start work at Arkham as a new guard tomorrow morning."

"Okay," Kon said with a nod. "What do you need confirmed? What are the primary objectives?" He prodded Tim again since his friend's sleep deprived brain seemed to think that was enough information for debriefing. It wasn't. Definitely not. A lot was implied but it wouldn't be the first time Tim had completely different intentions than what Kon had understood from his briefing. Sleep deprived Tim frequently assumed others could read his mind or something. Sleep deprived Tim was wrong.

"We need to determine if Dr. Rylie is here working for Scarecrow as part of some new scheme. We need to determine if Jasmine Fenton is complicit. We need to know if Gotham U is also in on it. And we need to find out what exactly Scarecrow is the planning." Tim stated automatically as he ticked each one off on his fingers.

"Got it. Guess I'll head over to my new apartment then and start prepping for tomorrow." Kon said, heading towards the exit. Tim hummed in agreement waving a hand in his direction as he left. That dumbass was probably already absorbed in the next case. Kon sighed, hopefully Tim would at least pass out sometime later tonight.

~*~*~

Kon's first day at Arkham wasn't anything special. He didn't see Jasmine, Dr. Rylie, or Scarecrow. He didn't see any rogues or doctors at all. It was just a really Gotham kind of orientation. 

"This is where we keep a cache of stun grenades, long-range scope rifles, tranquilizer rounds, and rubber bullets." His new supervisor and guide through orientation, Alex Fhizer, said as he showed Kon how to access, inventory, lock, and re-conceal the cache. "Everytime you pass by a cache on patrol, you will check the inventory again and sign off on it with the date and time. If anything is different from the previous inventory entry, you will immediately radio the tower and the island will be put on lockdown." Greyish Hazel eyes peered out of a weathered face staring Kon down. "You will never neglect to inventory a cache while on patrol. You will never neglect to report an inventory discrepancy. The first time you do you will be fired immediately and you can count yourself damn lucky if that's all that happens to you." 

Fhizer was intense, man.

"Yes, Sir." Kon answered. Fhizer's hard look lasted another long moment before the older man gave a firm nod and continued showing Kon the ropes.

~*~*~

The second day was no where near as chill as the first. Hell, his brain was already starting to warp, there hadn't been anything chill about that orientation.

Kon started his second day by boarding the Arkham transport bus with the rest of the staff and early morning visitors to the island. That was where he saw Jasmine Fenton in the flesh for the first time. 

She has got to be part Amazonian, was his first thought upon seeing her. She was around 6ft tall with a thick mane of red hair tightly braided reaching all the way down to her waist. Jasmine was wearing teal stud earrings, a silver bangle type bracelet on her left wrist, a white blouse, black slacks, and black flats. She carried a small, clear purse that only held a small notepad, pen, house key, chapstick, and a thin teal wallet that presumably contained her IDs, debit cards, and a small amount of cash. Damn, she was tall.

Kon's concentration was broken by the quiet sound of metal crunching slightly beneath his fingers. He immediately loosened his grip on the hand rail, checking for damage with a wince. He breathed a soft sigh of relief when he saw the damage was almost entirely unnoticeable to the naked eye. He'd have to mind his strength more closely. Kon was too used to the farm and facilities that were all reinforced to handle casual use from people with super strength. 

Tim's notes indicated Arkham wasn't reinforced for super strength anywhere. Not even along the outer walls. The facility had opted to use suppression collars on their meta inmates instead since they were cheaper and easier to repair and replace according to the official reports. However, Tim's notes had also mentioned that Arkham had reinforced the outer walls to account for super strength at one point. They'd poured nearly every dime the facility could spare into the project for months until the Joker himself had taken it personally. The madman had absolutely obliterated the reinforced outer walls until no part of them remained standing. Given Joker had destroyed the walls without having any meta powers at all and his history of viciously attacking -damn near mauling- anyone that tried to put him in a straight jacket, Kon didn't really blame Arkham for stopping while they were ahead.

Kon looked up as the bus jolted to a stop. The other passengers filing off around him. He watched as Jasmine Fenton was met by Dr. Rylie in front of the bus as he waited to disembark. 

"Ms. Jasmine!" Dr. Rylie greeted her enthusiastically with a broad open grin and beaming eyes. He reached towards her with both arms, hands open and she reached back. Their right hands clasped as their left hands landed on the other's upper arms as the two greeted one another openly. Kon wasn't very familiar with intern-mentor relationships nor what would be considered normal or professional for them, but it looked like a rather affectionate greeting for them having been strangers two weeks ago. That was strange, wasn't it? Was Tim right to be worried about them?

"Ms. Jasmine is the first and only applicant for Dr. Rylie, Director Keener, and Dean Byle's hairbrained idea to hire more doctors for this place." One of the older guards that had been standing just behind him on the bus explained having apparently noticed Kon watching the pair.

"They just seemed rather affectionate for Gotham." Kon shrugged dismissively as he turned to look over his shoulder at his new colleague. The shorter man laughed.

"A bit, yeah." He agreed. "I think Dr. Rylie is just desperate for this program to work out." He continued as they finally managed to get off the bus. Dr. Rylie and Ms. Fenton were gone now. "Pretty much everyone's been treating her like a princess." 

"That doesn't seem fair to everyone else." Kon commented, dropping back a bit to let the older man lead the way to the guards room for morning debriefing and to get their assignments. He'd already memorized the layouts but 'Kyle Jennings' shouldn't have yet.

"Who cares about fair as long as it works?" The guard answered. "If treating her like a princess scores more interns for the program in the long run, and if one intern every year ends up interested in sticking around, I'll be happy to cater to every single one of them." He confessed, stopping in the middle of the hall to turn and face Kon directly. Kon glimpsed the name Ryans as the silver name badge flashed the briefly reflecting the overhead lights. "You non-gothamites just don't get it. We're desperate for whatever help we can get." 

"That's why I applied here." Kon lied. "Going to school across the bay, I heard a lot about what went down over here while I was in college. I want to help." 

Ryans gave a short solemn nod then turned and led the rest of the way to the break room. 

~*~*~

Day four undercover was when Kon officially met Jasmine Fenton. 

Everything had been going well so far with his undercover assignment. He'd settled in to the role of Kyle Jennings, been getting along well with his new coworkers including Ryans and Fhizer, and hadn't yet managed to screw up inventorying the caches during the outer patrol loops. That being said, Kon was having other issues.

The worst part of being an unstable Kryptonian clone was that his strength tended to fluctuate. It normally wasn't much of an issue when he was surrounded by reinforced everything in his daily life but here at Arkham it was becoming a problem. Case in point, Kon thought to himself with an exhausted groan as his freshly made coffee mug shattered in his hand.

"Oh come on." He sighed snatching a handful of paper towels from the counter and bending to wipe up the coffee and ceramic shards on the floor. At least he was the only one in the room when it shattered. The door clicked softly behind him and Kon jumped twisting to look. 

Jasmine Fenton stood behind him having just closed the door to the break room after entering.

"What happened here?" She asked, sounding bewildered with slightly wide eyes as she took in the mess on the floor. Thank God. She didn't see it.

"Guess I was a bit more tired than I thought." He said with a forced laugh in order to hide his nerves. "Slipped right through my fingers."

She nodded, accepting his words at face value. 

"I've done that more than a few times close to finals." She admitted. "You guys have 10 hour shifts, right? You must be exhausted. When's your next day off?"

"The day after tomorrow." Kon said. "This is day 3 for me since orientation doesn't count."

"You get 2 days off followed by an on-call day, right?" She asked.

"Right," Kon agreed. "AKA 2 days of freedom and a day chained to the Bowery." He joked.

"Absolutely terrible, they may as well put an ankle monitor on you." She cracked back grinning. Kon snickered. The door opened again.

"I see you found another non-gothamite here." Dr. Rylie said striding into the break room with a wide grin.

"Sounds like that makes three of us." Kon agreed. Outside of Joker, he had never seen a gothamite grin that wide in his life.

"Dr. Thomas Rylie, a pleasure to meet you." Dr. Rylie introduced himself holding out his hand to shake. Kon shook his hand as gently as possible, mindful his strength was on the fritz.

"Kyle Jennings, nice to meet you. I just started as a guard earlier this week." He said then held his hand out to shake Jasmine's.

"Jasmine Fenton, I'm an intern therapist. This is my second week here." She greeted with a warm smile shaking Kon's hand. She didn't say anything about being glad to meet him, Kon noted. It wasn't exactly strange behavior but something made him take note of it anyway. Like by not saying it she was saying she hadn't decided whether meeting him was a good or bad thing yet. Dr. Rylie didn't seem to notice anything off with the interaction though as he went about making his own coffee. The three of them made idle small talk as they made their own coffees. Once his new cup was ready, Kon bid them both goodbye and went on his way. While they were his main objective, lingering too long this early into their aquantiantship would probably be strange.

He had several other small friendly interactions with both of them over the next few days. Taking the time for greetings, small talk, and sharing small bits of casual background info from Kyle Jennings's past to encourage them both to open up to him. He also broke a clipboard, two more coffee cups, several pens, and a doorknob during that time as his strength continued to fluctuate. The doorknob had been particularly embarrassing. He had gone to open the door for Jasmine when he saw her with her arms full of files and somehow managed to twist it in such a way that the screws holding it in place sheered off and the knob came off in his hand. Collins, his partner for building patrol that day, burst out laughing hysterically as Kon stared at the doorknob in horror.

"No worries, man." Collins said, clapping Kon on the shoulder still snickering. "Someone else probably broke it and put it back so they wouldn't get scolded or something."

"Yeah," Kon said with a nervous laugh. "That must be what happened."

Jasmine's eyes flicked between the two of them then she grinned.

"And here I thought you just really hated that door." She teased Kon. He felt his face heat up as Collins laughed at him again.

"It is an ugly door." Collins agreed enthusiastically smirking.

"Terribly ugly. Hideous even," Jasmine said with a smile.

"Possibly even traumatizing to behold," Collins continued to smirk.

"You've got me. I have a deep rooted traumatic fear of metal taupe doors." Kon deadpanned ears burning. Jasmine snickered as Kon got the door open for her and they went their separate ways.

~*~*~

"What have you found so far?" Tim asked. Kon did not have the words to express how much he didn't want to be at the Nest at 3am on his first day off from undercover work. If it was anyone other than Tim he wouldn't have even answered the phone.

"Literally nothing," Kon said dryly. "I am still the newest of newbies at Arkham. I practically spent the whole week being babysat by senior guardsmen." He sighed, reminding himself that it wasn't Tim's fault that he was a little insomniac goblin and that Kon really did love his friend and would be sad if he hurt Tim's feelings. Eventually. When he woke up again in the morning. "I did start befriending them both though. It's slow going since we're in different areas but nearly being the only non-gothamites there seems to be helping me make some headway at least." 

There was one other non-gothamite on staff, a medical nurse named Sharon Earley. She was in her mid-thirties and the most sour and unpleasant person Kon had had the displeasure of meeting so far on Arkham's staff. Not that Kon could blame her for that. Not when she had several large ragged scars spanning from her chin and down both of her arms from when Zsazz had gotten hold of her alone after dark her second year at Arkham. It was a damn miracle she'd survived him. Kon didn't know how she managed it but he wouldn't try to find out either. Ryans had taken him aside right before he first met Nurse Earley and warned him not to stare or ask about any of it and then explained the bare basics of what happened to her after they'd left. 

Tim probably had a file with every detail of that night as well as information about Sharon Earley's life both before and after that night somewhere on his computer. The thought made Kon nauseous. 

"Good, good," Tim said absently as he updated the mission file on his computer. The keys clicked so rapidly that Kon again reconsidered whether or not his best friend had super speed. "Better to keep them from suspecting than to rush in anyway." 

"Exactly." 

Tim continued asking questions about every little detail he could think of concerning Dr. Rylie, Jasmine Fenton, and the rogues currently in Arkham.

"They don't let me near those guys yet. I'm too new." Kon said when Tim asked if Scarecrow looked to be plotting more than usual.

"They don't?" Tim sounded surprised, going so far as to stop typing so he could turn and stare at Kon. The clone was amused to note something about his statement had managed to wake Tim up enough to be visibly shocked instead blank-faced with exhaustion.

"Of course not," Kon answered trying to keep the amusement from his voice as much as possible. "As many times as your rogues have broken out they're leary of letting new hires near them in case they're goons in disguise." 

Tim sank back into his chair looking like Kon had uprooted his whole world by proving the Earth really was flat via actual science.

"That's impossible." Tim said sounding faint. "Everytime there's a mass breakout, we always hear that some of the guards helped them escape. How?..." He trailed off, eyes darting rapidly like he was tracking lines of an invisible conspiracy board in the air in front of him. Kon shrugged, uncomfortable with this new information.

"Scuttlebutt is that the people helping them escape are visitors. The guards get blamed because the goons visit wearing clothes similar to the guard uniform from a distance. All blue polo shirts and black pants look similar at a distance." Kon explained. "It also doesn't help that the guards can't really do much to stop the escape attempts since they only have stun grenades, tranquilizer darts, batons, low voltage tazers, and rubber bullets to fight back with. So as long as enough people are involved in the escape attempt at least some of them will make it out even if the guards manage to to tranquilize several of them." 

Tim still looked like Kon was blowing his mind. It was such a rare experience that Kon had to continue.

"Plus the tranquilizer darts and the rubber bullets have to be fired from different hardware." Kon told him. "Which sucks because you have to carry twice the amount of weight while chasing after the escapees which slows you down and it takes longer to swap between them."

There was something similar to mystified horror spreading across his friend's face now.

"Speaking if swapping between them, they have different ranges too." Kon continued gleefully. Half because it was fun wrecking Tim's worldview and half to actually impart the information. "Batons are short-range. Tranquilializer darts and stun grenades are mid-range. Rubber bullet riffles are long-range."

"If that's all it is, WE can fund then better gear to control the inmates." Tim interrupted turning back to the computer and swiftly typing out a list of things to send Arkham. Kon shook his head.

"That won't work." He disagreed gently. "They aren't failing because of the gear itself."

Tim turned back around to face him, confused. This was not going to be a fun conversation, Kon swallowed hard and forced himself to continue.

"The problem is that if you fire the rubber bullet riffles from mid or short range you could seriously injury or even kill the patient. If they get past mid-range, you'll miss them completely using tranquilizer darts or stun grenades. If you try to use either of those at short-range it'll be bad for you whether it's because they'll get hold of you before the tranquilizer knocks them out or because you'll stun yourself too."

Comprehension and trepidation began to dawn on Tim's face. He deflated in his chair, sinking lower and lower as he stared off into nowhere.

"You also can't hit them with more than one tranquilizer dart in a four hour window because you could accidently kill them that way. That also means even though you have a baton, you typically can't do enough damage to them to keept them from escaping because that might potentially kill them." Kon said completely solemn now as he relayed the information. "Because regardless of the reputation Arkham has or what the patients have done, it is still a hospital and they are still patients." 

Tim was staring directly at Kon now. Mouth open, face slack, eyes wide with a kind of numbed shock. Kon held his gaze.

"Yeah," Kon said after a moment. "Yeah, that's how I reacted too." He looked down, picking at his nails for a moment before forcing himself to stop and meet Tim's gaze again. "Phizer, my new 'boss', made sure to drill that into my head during orientation. 'Arkham's guards exist first and foremost to protect the patients. Arkham isn't supposed to be a prison. It's a medical facility. The patients are confined to the premises because their affliction has made them dangerous and they have to stay so that we can keep them and others safe from further harm. We are here to keep the patients and staff from hurting each other, themselves, or being hurt by people outside of Arkham's walls.' Not gonna lie, man." Kon said quirking a bitter grin as his did. "Hearing that kind of fucked me up a bit."

Tim sucked in a huge heaving breath then slowly let it out before he responded.

"I can't say I ever thought about it like that." He admitted in a soft strained voice. "Can't say I ever wanted to either." There was a bitter tinge to his words.

"Yeah, neither did I." Kon answered, shoulders slumping a bit. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask me? I kind of want to head back and sleep a bit."

Tim shook his head slowly.

"No, I think we're good at the moment." He said looking twice as exhausted and drained now as he did when Kon first got there. Kon nodded.

"Good night then. I'll see you later, man." He said, pushing off the wall he'd been leaning against and heading for the door.

"Be safe, Kon." Tim answered softly turning back to his computer.

[satoshy12]

Tall Girl Jazz x Jason

Jason had already spent a few days in this city called Amity Park. He was planning to take a break, and this place was far away from villains and similar places as it was so isolated.

As he walked down the street, he bumped into someone. It was a woman, a very tall woman—he would say over 2 meters tall—with aqua blue eyes and long orange hair. And it was love at first sight.

"You must be new? Sorry, I didn't see you."

Jason worked fast:" No, no, no, it was my fault. How about making up for it with a cafe?"

She smiled at him with a bit of surprise, and he saw tiny fangs. "Sounds good; my name is Jazz Fenton, and yours is."

"Jason Todd, my name is Jason Todd."

+

The Ectoplasm in Amity Park had such effects on the people that all of them are now Metas.

Jazz is as tall as Alcina Dimitrescu, who is 2,9 m tall.

Jason is 1,82 m tall.

[nelkcats]

Wrong Ticket

Danny bought a plane ticket to travel to Goshen, Indiana to visit his father's family. Apparently his aunt was very excited to meet him, and Jazz was excited to send him away from the lab after his accident.

She was worried that she would have to spend a few days scouting colleges, and Danny would be left home unguarded (she wouldn't make that mistake twice, her parents didn't count as good guards and Danny would be too bored since he was on school holidays), so the invitation from their uncles was like a miracle fallen from heaven.

Unfortunately for Danny, his family didn't check the ticket after purchasing it, and therefore they didn't notice the error where "Goshen, Indiana" was changed to "Gotham, New Jersey," so when the airline called his flight, Danny didn't notice his destination. He practically fell asleep a few seconds after entering the plane.

Danny wished he had been paying attention when a few hours later he found himself stranded on the streets of Gotham with nothing but his luggage and a little money. Though that last seemed more of a risk than a benefit if he took into account the way they watched him as he passed.

As if that wasn't enough, it seemed that something strange was starting to happen to him, there were moments where his backpack would slip from his grip, almost as if he was walking through it, and others where he felt invisible. This did not go unnoticed by the denizens of Gotham, who were assessing him with clear interest.

Red Hood, who had noticed the guy (possibly meta) stumbling into his territory, sighed and offered him a temporary place to stay. Danny, who just met the strange guy in the red helmet, was relieved to have temporary lodging, though he would probably look for another place the next day. Just in case.

[chocolateisbrainfood]

Okay so this is something I've been debating talking about but I do think it's important. Because it was something I noticed a lot in older TF fanfics and then fell off but I'm starting to see it come up again. Not trying to call anyone out, but I do think it's important to get into the context of this and how it relates to Jazz as a character, and the black community.

See this? This is how G1 Jazz talks. He obviously speaks using interesting metaphors and phrases and is kind of a dork with his language. And yes, obviously he has an accent.

No, he is not using a stereotyped BLACK-CCENT as a lot of people like to put on him. He's using a specific kind of accent from a specific black community (aka the early pre-and-post WWII era Jazz community) and mixing/meshing it to fit with the character's own culture/vibe. This character who was written this way because he was literally written with Scatman Crothers, a well known black voice actor and musician, in mind. You'll see the same style of accent/tone used in a a bunch of Crothers' roles during the 70s/80s.

But do you see the words used here? Jazz says "I." Jazz does not say "Ah." And I'm not saying that to be pedantic. I'm being serious. This isn't an argument about how you should write an accent the way it would be written, not the way it sounds kind of thing, because some words do end up becoming enmeshed that much in the language anyway (like "ya" being used here). This is just about how Jazz himself talks.

Jazz's "I" does not sound like "Ah." He's not Rogue from X-men. That's not how his accent works (that's more in line with many versions of Ironhide tbh). Jazz usually emphasizes vowel sounds when he talks. His pitch goes UP when he uses the Long I vowel sound to emphasize on that "I" sound. Same as he does with long "A"s and "E"s. Jazz's accent emphasizes those sounds, not softens them into being extended versions of short vowels.

Write his accent the way it actually sounds not the way you assume a black person talks. That's edging up real close to the -ism I'm not allowed to bring up without a fight starting, but if you're not thinking critically about why you write Jazz speaking that way, maybe you should think about that for a bit yourself right now. If you don't know how his accent sounds, listen to it more. Do a voice review! Scatman Crothers isn't the only voice of Jazz around now (even if the character was literally written with him and his style in mind so like...if you're doing a G1-esque Jazz that IS the voice you should be taking inspiration from), Jazz has had plenty of voice actors over the decades. He's been WRITTEN by many writers over the decades. Rarely ever do I hear/read him speak in the way so many people write him.

I am not judging people who write Jazz's accent out more obviously. I do it myself! I have to remind myself to tone it down since writing an accent exactly how you hear it isn't always what works best in a story, and can be jarring for the readers. You gotta know when and how to do it and not overuse it. I don't always succeed but I try. This isn't about people who add different flourishes into their own Jazz's speech/dialogue. I do that too! We all do that with our faves, it's just a fanfiction thing. We put a little (or a lot, depending on the story) of our interpretation into the characters when we write.

This is mostly about people who are doing it and just not getting his accent at all. That's not how Jazz speaks. Those are not what those words would sound like coming out of his mouth. That's not his accent. And if you do think that is or should be his accent in your story...why. Why is that extremely stereotyped black-ccent what you think Jazz should sound like? Think about that a bit for yourself.

Please LISTEN to the character's voice before you write all of that. Pick your preferred Jazz and give him a real good listen (except the white guys who voice him by trying to emulate Crothers. It's weird. That they have white guys voicing Jazz is just weird. Having them do it by copying the black guy who first voiced him is weirder and I'm gonna keep saying it's weird).

In the words of Jazz himself: "It's all about the tone."

And...I'm done sorry for the long ramble. You can totally go about your day ignoring this.

[your-soup-overlord]

A tiny look into one of the fics called It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Why don’t you just tell them?” Jazz asks Danny once she sits down on his bed, pushing aside his blankets and patting beside her.

“Mom and Dad love you, metagene or not.” She continues.

“Seriously, Jazz, we’ve been over this.” Danny sighs, sitting next to his sister as she turns to face him better, “They hate ghosts, and have threatened to rip phantom apart molecule by molecule. If they’re willing to do that, then what makes you think they’ll stop once they find out their son is a ghost?”

Jazz frowns, “Danny, I know the accident was terrible and horrifying for you, but you’re not a ghost. You need to accept the fact that it simply activated your dormant metagene and gave you ghost adjacent powers.”

“How can I have a metagene when both mom and dad don’t have one! Jazz, I know you don’t want to believe it but-“

“No Danny,” Jazz exclaims as she cuts him off, “ You’re alive. You can’t be a ghost, because ghosts are unfeeling and-“

“Jazz, just stop!” Danny yells, slightly teary. He stands up off the bed, putting some place between him and Jazz as she also stands up with a deepening frown.

“I know you don’t want to believe it but I am a ghost, I died in that accident. I know you don’t want to believe it, but if I can somehow come to terms with it then why can’t you?”

Jazz just stares him down with her disappointed stare. After a few quiet seconds she then sighs, looking exasperated and somehow even more disappointed as she levels him with a harsh glare.

“Even Sam and Tuck agree, Danny. You’re going to far with this ghost thing! I don’t care what that yeti says, or any of those other creatures! You’re not dead. You have a heartbeat and most importantly, you care. You’re not evil, and all this death talk is beginning to freak Tucker out!  And you especially need to stop around Sam. They’ve begun talking to me about it, and about how you’re scaring them. And, well, we’ve all agree that you need to stop fighting those ghosts. Mom and Dad are perfectly capable of getting them, so from now on you’re benched. Those horrible things have been filling your head with lies, and it’s becoming a problem.”

Jazz declares before she walks out, keeping that awful disappointed glare on him.

Danny slams the door behind her, silently seething and holding back tears. They talk about his death so easily! Yet they don’t care to acknowledge it. Danny died, whether they want to accept it or not, and there was nothing they could do about it.

[jazzmckay]

crossroads mythal's test of worthiness

i got talking with @broodwoof on discord about how mythal presents herself and how much we can dig into what she says and how she says it. then i thought, "already did the hard part, i should clean this up and put it on tumblr". so here we are!

the following quote from morrigan/morrithal will be referenced frequently and is the jumping off point for how i read mythal's character:

Morrigan: She will demand respect but detest flattery. She appreciates righteous anger but will not tolerate pity. She is, for want of better phrasing, prickly. But if you are determined to try, then I wish you luck.

wanting respect, but not flattery, says a lot about mythal and the kind of leader she is--as well as the kind of leader she values. after testing a few different paths in the conversation with mythal, i found that her desire for respect isn't necessarily a show of egotism. i do think she has a bit of that edge, but not like elgar'nan wanting people to bow to him in complete deference. she just wants to be treated as the powerful figure she is, plain and simple, and going past that to flattery will make her see you as utterly lacking in backbone. a suck-up. incapable of free thought. but treat her with respect while still holding your own and proving yourself (maybe even as on the same level as her!) and that's the sweet spot. she does not want you to grovel and beg, she wants to see your worth.

because what's going on here is mythal deciding whether or not to give herself to you. this is a huge deal. mythal has spent an eon in the crossroads, alone and watching. before that, she was a ruler for centuries, one of the leaders with the most power. and rook is asking her to basically enter their service. most players won't conceive of it that way, they aren't seeing their rook as being in control of mythal, but mythal's essence is in rook's hands entirely. it is up to rook how, when, and if mythal comes forth again.

so i largely see this entire conversation as a test. mythal needs to know you're worthy before she puts herself in your hands. mythal knows what can happen when one person asks another to aid them in this way, because this is what she did to solas, and she knows it broke him, yet she's willing to consider giving her essence to you anyway. this is massive, a decision she can't make lightly.

Mythal: [...] did you come to ask your god to sacrifice herself to help you defeat the monsters Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain have become?

"sacrifice" is, in essence, what rook's asking for. mythal doesn't end up dying, so how it turned out wasn't really a sacrifice, but she doesn't know that. rook doesn't even know that. in the end, it just as easily could have been rook bringing mythal out on tearstone island. rook could have brought mythal out for a fight, for a true sacrifice of some kind. instead, she comes out to speak with solas, which i think is the ideal outcome for this mythal. she got her bit of vengeance against the blighted dragon, but vengeance isn't all she needs. she also wants to see solas ("He keeps me here, yet has not visited since waking from his slumber.") and i think she wants closure for both of them ("The many wrongs we did, we did together. I release you from my service."), but, again, nobody knows that's how it'll shake out. you very well could be asking herself to die for you. needing to test rook before making such a commitment makes complete sense.

Mythal: [...] Convince me. Make your case, and I will yield my essence willingly […] Fail, and I shall kill you for wasting my time. Or you will kill me and obtain my essence in doing so… a harder-edged, simpler version.

what i think is important about this line is that ultimately, chances are you will have her essence. it's a video game, so if rook dies to mythal, you just reload and try again. no matter what, you will have mythal. in-verse, though, this is like:

a) you prove yourself, and she yields

b) you prove yourself in combat, and you still get her

c) you fail to impress with words or with might, so good riddance, hopefully someone better than you will defeat the gods

rook technically has two chances to prove themself, either as strong-willed and serving "good" (just like mythal, originally), or by being competent in a fight. either way, you may actually pull off the battle against elgar'nan and ghilan'nain. mythal acknowledges that either is an option. she doesn't just stop at "waste my time and i'll kill you". she knows she could be killed, and if that's how it plays out, shes accepts that. i think this is an indication that she already knows this is going one of two ways, and the conversation is mostly about whether she's willing to yield or if she's going to make you work harder to obtain her help/power.

Rook: If I don’t stop the gods, the whole world will be corrupted by the blight. Mythal: That is why you must succeed. So tell me why I must help you.

what's being said here, in my opinion, is that she does think the gods need to be stopped. her reluctance to immediately side with rook isn't a lack of care. that is why you must succeed. she supports your side without second thought. she knows they need to be stopped. she wants them to be stopped. the question isn't whether or not your fight is necessary, but whether or not you're worthy of her willing assistance. this isn't her saying "why should i care about the blight?", it's her saying, "why do you care about the blight?" she wants to know what matters to rook. why rook considers this fight necessary. if she's going to align herself with you, she needs to know your motivations.

on the more personal side, we also have:

Rook: Stopping the blight mattered enough for you to talk with Solas even after he rebelled against you. It mattered enough for you to stand against the other gods. Mythal: And I was struck down for doing so, betrayed by those I had ruled beside for centuries.

first of all, this further reinforces that she does, in fact, care about the blight. you could argue that she doesn't feel the same way after millennia in the crossroads, but that isn't my takeaway based on her other dialogue. i do think she still cares. but the thing here is that she points out she was killed the last time she took this stance--the stance you're asking her to take again. she was betrayed. whatever kind of relationship you think mythal had with them, whether it was love, familial, just politics, whatever, they were rulers together, at each other's side for centuries. and they killed her. she's obviously still bitter about it, and you're asking her to put herself in that position again. that's a big ask. if she does this again, she needs to know it's worth it.

Mythal: [...] Besides, why should I esteem the Dread Wolf’s approbation? He rebelled against me. Rook: But the two of you stayed close… Mythal: Until he killed the tattered fragment of me who hid inside the human swamp witch.

the subtext here is that mythal considered them close… all the way up until ten years ago. mythal essentially says "why should i care about what solas thinks?" and rook immediately rebuffs her with the knowledge that they remained close. mythal doesn't deny it. she confirms it. her only response for why she might not care about joining solas' side of the fight here is that ten years ago, he killed flemythal. ten years is a blink of an eye for these two. ten years is nothing. this means she held full fondness for him the entire time she was in the crossroads until dai. it's solas not visiting her and then killing flemythal that gets her back up, and that was a measly decade ago. and she's still not 100% spurned, i don't think. she's angry, but at the end, she still calls him friend, still owns up to her part in what they did wrong together, still grants him what he needs to finally let go. mythal absolutely still loves solas, no matter what she tries to say to rook.

again, what she wants to hear is how you feel about solas. she wants to know your take on everything they did, everything that happened between them and because of them. she wants to know if you thought solas was right or not. do you think he had a righteous cause? as morrithal says, mythal values righteous anger, but not pity. she doesn't want to hear you pity her for what happened, she wants to understand your opinion, your values. what would you have done in solas' place? deferred to her, or done the right thing?

Mythal: […] they were ever flawed, as all rulers are…

this quote intrigues me simply for the fact that she says all rulers are flawed. she could have just said they (elgar'nan & ghilan'nain, or the evanuris in general) were flawed, but no, she continues and says all rulers are flawed. she is flawed. this is a blink and miss it moment compared to how she otherwise makes no apologies and makes you fight for every bit of recognition she gives you, but it's there. she's acknowledging that she is flawed. this is reinforced at the end when she talks about her failures and the mistakes she and solas made together, but it's worth noting that she's willing to say this to rook themself.

Rook: You deserve justice, and they deserve to be punished for misusing their power and killing you when you tried to check them. Mythal: Your arguments are… compelling

i imagine the order you go in impacts how this moment lands, that the "your arguments are… compelling" line can come immediately after each point and it would add weight to whichever is "last". for me, this was the third and final point i made, so for my playthrough/perspective, it was significant that she says it specifically in response to rook pointing out that she tried to keep the evanuris in check. you're pointing out that she had lines she wouldn't cross, that she wanted to be a benevolent ruler. and by point it out, rook is aligning with her, saying she was right to do that, and that they would have done the same. this is a "respect, but not flattery" moment where rook doesn't talk about how terrible and unfair it was, they specifically say she upheld her own values and paid the price for it, and you think she deserves justice for that. this is a huge moment of rook saying their values are the same as mythal's values. and to have this be the moment where mythal yields felt especially poignant. she sees that you are of the same mind. and finally,

Mythal: Use it to protect this world with kindness when possible and cunning when necessary.

a perfect summary of what mythal stands for, and what she believes rook stands for as well. she gives herself freely because at this point rook has proved themself to want to do good, to be respectful of not just her, but solas, to care about the same things she cares about. she is willing to end her vigil and return to the fight, because she believes in rook. she believes her power won't be misused. and she needs to know that her power won't be misused, after what the evanuris became, after what they did. if you pass the test, she understands that you won't use her essence for something she wouldn't support. this is a lot of trust she's placing in rook, which is assuredly a big deal for an ancient god who was betrayed how she was. this whole conversation is her getting a feel for rook and their goals, and in the end, she'll either approve of them and assist them willingly, or deem them unfit and potentially as corrupt as the gods she tried to stop, forcing you to take her essence by force, because she will not willingly stand by someone who does not meet her standards of benevolence and righteousness.

[alfhildr-the-word-weaver]

Shoutout to Long Face by the Vampire Lestat for being an actual real song that actually made it onto my top 100 songs this year btw. Do you think Lestat will make one of those little "thank you fans" videos to thank all of us who streamed his music?