#Roots and Leaves

[scaryscarecrows]

Hood's shivering despite the electric blanket. Dove's not sure whether to chalk it up to shock, genuine chill, or both...but she's leaning both.

What the fuck, Harley...

Harley used to be...less dangerous, is the thing. Well. Considering she had terrible taste in men, anyway. But she didn't used to be so...unhinged. She got fucked up, at some point down the line, and now she's just...well, fucked up. The Harley of ten years ago wouldn't have gone this far.

Somebody should have killed that bastard his first night out. Would have spared everyone a lot of trouble. Penguin had known it, the first time the clown hit the news. Even Scarecrow had preferred to give him a wide berth unless he deemed it necessary.

Somebody should have killed him sooner.

Hood pulls in a stuttering gasp and rolls onto his back, one hand going to his chest where, if Dove's memory is correct, Joker had put a bullet in him on fucking camera.

('If', she says, like it's not, like that thing didn't make the rounds with some stupid helium girl singing in the background, Jesus Christ--)

"Get some rest, kid," she murmurs, straightening the blanket out. "Bat'll be here soon."

[yellydany]

Nightmare Scarecrow Design commission🍂🐦

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dungeon Meshi: The RPG

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but James Vowles criticising how Red Bull has treated their drivers in the past, only to go and then treat Logan far worse while pulling the exact same shit Red Bull did, ie the exact behaviour he criticised and called them out for, is so freaking infuriating like the sheer hypocrisy -

[fluentisonus]

speaking of polydorus. playing around w embroidery

[ed13d1]

finding my roots

[oatberrytea]

[cosmicxd]

Being a DHMIS fan be like

[ruby-pink]

to the fairy portal in the woods x

[scaryscarecrows]

I'm Fine. I Prom...

Sheila blinks and she’s not in her apartment. Harley’s nowhere to be found, she doesn’t recognize her surroundings, and Jason’s not--no. Jason is here, actually. He’s on the couch, with blankets on him, staring hazily at a framed photograph of the...oh, that’s the Iceberg Lounge, but it’s an old picture; Cobblepot doesn’t have the bottle in his eye, even.

Where are they?

“Jason,” she says, and her voice sounds...urgent. Scared. She’s not scared. She’s confused, that’s all. Harley was there, she had a gun, she promised to leave Mother alone if Sheila brought her Jason. “Jason, what happened?”

He doesn’t answer, and Sheila gets the shock of her life when another woman walks right through her and crouches down near his head.

“Hey, kid,” the stranger says, like she didn’t step straight through Sheila’s chest, “I called Jim, okay? He’s gonna get Bats to come get you.”

What is going on.

“Hrm…?”

“You with me?” She gives him a little shake. “C’mon, honey.”

Jason blinks and his left hand emerges from the blankets to rub at his face. It’s bandaged from fingertip to wrist but Sheila doesn’t care because she’s been walked through .

“Batman?”

“Coming soon. You wanna sleep, ‘til he gets here?”

Jason’s hazy and he’s not looking at Sheila or the woman. But he nods, slow and careful, and closes his eyes when she bends down to kiss his forehead.

“Okay, honey. Sweet dreams.”

“T’anks…”

“Shh.”

Apropos of nothing, she remembers a gunshot. Harley had had a gun, yes, and Jason had stepped in front of her. Idiot. But a gun had been fired. Not hers, because it wasn’t loaded, but a gun. Probably Harley’s, because she doesn’t remember Jason having one.

She thinks she might be dead.

Oh God, she thinks she might be dead.

“Jason,” she says again. “Jason, what happened? Where are we?”

“He can’t hear you.”

Oh, no.

Sheila met Catherine Johnson one time. It was at a party that Willis had dragged her to. She hadn’t stayed long-hadn’t been feeling well, which, in hindsight, had been pregnancy caused-, but he’d flung his arms around them both, laughing, and said, “Cath, this is my best girl Sheila! Sheila, this’s Cathy!”

She’d suspected, then, that he’d been cheating on her. She hadn’t really cared. Will was never the man she’d wanted to marry.

But what’s going on?

Catherine doesn’t look like the fresh-faced girl Sheila almost remembers. She’s older, worn, and...and just a little bit faded, like a sun-bleached photograph.

“What?”

“He can’t hear you,” Catherine says again, perching on the arm of the couch by Jason’s head. Jason’s breathing is deliberately even and he’s still staring off at the old picture on the wall. “I’ve tried.”

“What’s going on?”

“You died, apparently.” Catherine’s voice is dry and incredibly unamused. “Harley Quinn blew your brains out.”

“What?”

“I don’t know what you thought would happen.”

“What are you doing here?”

The look she gets is furious and she remembers, just now, thinking that Cathy Johnson was fully capable of winning a bar fight.

“Checking on my son,” she hisses. “Who you put here.”

“I--”

“This is your goddamn fault!” The venom in Catherine’s voice makes Sheila take a step back. “What is wrong with you?”

“Willis gave him to you? ”

“He’s your--” Catherine laughs, an angry, half-hysterical thing. “Well. Maybe he made a smart choice, after all.”

“You don’t seem to be doing too hot, yourself,” Sheila shoots back, unsure why she’s so defensive. Jason’s fine, he’s right fucking there. “So--”

“I didn’t hand him over to a psychopath--”

“Mm…”

They both shut up. Jason twists and burrows further under the blankets, breath stuttering and eyes flicking around the room. Catherine sighs and leans over, flickering oddly the closer she gets to him.

“Sh-sh, baby.”

He groans and all of a sudden, his body just goes slack and his eyes slide shut. His breathing evens and slows and, when his head drops to the side, Sheila gets a better look at the brand on his cheek. He’d kept it in shadow, when they talked, never giving her a full look at it, and she can understand why.

She represses a sympathetic shudder-it looks like it hurt like a bitch to get-and fixes her eyes on Catherine.

“What the hell is going on--”

“Get the hell out!” Catherine snaps. “Just get out! This is your fucking fault!”

You know what, she’s going to. She didn’t ask to be here. She doesn’t care about Jason, not...not really. Not the way Catherine seems to think she should.

And that seems to do it, because she blinks, and Jason and Catherine and the strange apartment are all gone.

THE END

[ninevehsage]

Roots

Photograph from October 3rd, 2024

[julianplum]

🐞 🌱 🥕 🪱 ✨ // garden & rainbow: prompt 9/10 for bring on spring art, a little late! gouache on hot press paper.

There’s no radish emoji, so pretend the carrot is doing it

[the-kipsabian]

[ducksdoughnuts]

Gege and his fuckery again

[sopafia]

It’s me and my love for misunderstood fictional women against the world 🫡

[transkingcobra]

Halsin crying over his firstborn

He’s been the last of his family for so long

But now he has a family again