#Roy Harper Cos

[ditzybat]

Jason: am I tweaking or is that Dick, dabbing up Simone Biles, before getting ready to perform high beam?

Tim: I dunno, but is that Roy for team USA in the archery category?

Jason: fuck I should’ve competed for shooting

Tim: I should’ve competed for judo, boo 🍅

[covertblizzard]

Teen Titans Chronology

Era 1: Superhero Names & Funky Nicknames

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #54 The Brave and the Bold (1955) #60 Showcase #59 Teen Titans (1966) #1-20 The Brave and the Bold (1955) #83 Teen Titans (1966) #21-22

This is the peak silly era. Goofy nicknames, (mostly) goofy one-off villains, occasional team-up, etc. As far as I'm aware, none of their real names are ever mentioned within their own title and it's just their superhero names.

It starts with Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad (in the first Brave and Bold), with Wonder Girl being the first addition when they are officially first called the Teen Titans (in the second Brave and Bold), so I'm counting the Fab Foursome (Cool Quartet? Fantabulous Foursome?) of them as the starting point. They're a team up to #18 with occasional guests from Speedy (#4 - with notes that there were an "avalanche of mail" asking for his inclusion, #11), Beast Boy (#6 - rejected by the Teen Titans and apparently previously the Doom Patrol for not having a guardian's permission slip, interesting note that he already had movie offers here), and Starfire (#18 - definitely not who you're thinking of and instead a Russian boy).

Issue #19 is when they become "Fab-Four-Sometime Five" where Roy joins and Garth takes a break, so the main four changed. There are then two more team ups with Jericho (#20 - also not who you're thinking of but some boy name Joshua) and with Hawk and Dove (#21).

I think only Mad Mod became a long-term villain (?) but the list includes: Mr Twister, the Astounding Separated Man, Beast-God of Xochatan, Akkuru, Ding Dong Daddy Dowd (Demon Dragster), Diablo, The Ant (less villain and more blackmailed by Mr Krask), Mr Baltzer, Mad Mod, Honey Bun (and a spy Karl Larner), Captain Tiger, The Scorcher, The Gargoyle (who makes a reappearance in #35), Captain Rumble, The Dimensional Caper (from Dimension X), Le Blanc, Punch (Sylvester Sepastopol), Fat Cat.

Era 2: Real Names, New Teammates, Mr Jupiter, and Solo Storylines

Teen Titans (1966) #22-31 The Brave and the Bold (1955) #94 Teen Titans (1966) #32-34 World's Finest Comics #205 Teen Titans (1966) #35-39 The Brave and the Bold (1955) #102 Teen Titans (1966) #40-43

This part of the story starts to have a bit more personality and it is a lot more character-driven as opposed to (short) plot-driven stories. Their real names are finally used and they're shown to hangout as civilians and not just superheroes.

This starts at the end of #22 when Donna Troy is given a name, a backstory (one of many), a new apartment, a roommate Sharon, and a makeover. Dick and Wally was previously named in #83 of The Brave and the Bold, but Roy gets named in #24. In a way, this makes Donna feel very much like the living center of the Titans for me, her development begins with the Titans and she's intrinsically tied to it very personally (and this also feels reflected in how Garth views Donna as the "TITANS FOREVER" among all of them). After all, at this point, there's no separate comics she is in unlike the other 4 main titans. She is also the only single character that appears in every single comic with no exception (other than the very first, but they weren't known as Teen Titans then either).

There aren't so much guests as much as two new permanent members - Lilith who joins right before Mr Jupiter comes into the picture in #25 and Mal who joins right after in #26. During this time, 6 of them are mostly all there and are led and trained by Mr Jupiter. The longest disappearance is when Dick goes to college (from #25-32 except for a single appearance in #28) and occasional disappearance when they stay behind to take care of Mr Jupiter's lab (sometimes it is unexplained but I chalk most disappearance up to this). From #26 onwards, all but 6 issues are not related to Mr Jupiter (#28-29 led by Garth, #31 led by Wally, #34 and #42 led by Donna, and #43). This era also seems to establish Wally (and Donna) as de-facto leader when Dick is not around.

All other guests are really more part-time members such as Hank and Don who do their summer stint from #25-#30, Gnarrk who first appears in #32-33 and comes back in #39, and Garth who appears in #28-29 and #40.

For the first time (as far as I'm aware), a known villain gets brought into the story - Ocean Master (Orm) and an alien leader Mofo in #28-29 with Garth going after him. This part also established the easy-to-get-into-fights, easy-to-get-out-of-fights (among themselves) dynamics that I associate with the Titans. They start to place more importance on their insecurities and friendship.

There are also 2 main "friends get brainwashed" (for extended period) type storyline during this period of time (which later seems to become quite commonplace among the Titans): once with Donna (#34 which Wally doesn't see) and once with Garth (#40).

This is also the only era which has quite a lot of additional separate solo storylines. It start with Donna if you count "The Origin of Wonder Girl" in #22 (although it's kind of more like an additional story where everyone appears), and then Wally and Garth (with Tula) in #30. Garth (#30, #35, #36, #38) and Lilith (#36, #38, #41, #43) have the most with 4 each, Roy (#35, #38) and Hank&Don (#31, #39) have two each, and Mal (#35) and Dick (#36) have one each (like Donna and Wally). Superboy (young Clark) actually also has two - one with Dick (#36) and one with young Ollie (#37) that doesn't even have any of the Titans in it.

Crucially, contrary to how modern comics love to portray Batman and Robin's view on the Teen Titans, Batman actually fully supports the Teen Titans in the original and has never been shown to do otherwise almost at all. In fact, he is the one with the most team-ups with the Teen Titans and the team-ups almost always happen because he needs helps "relating to the teens" and he specifically calls on them, with full respect for them (even purposely allowing Wally and Donna to punch him real hard that one time to solidify their cover). The only mentor who does show disapproval is actually Aquaman (in Era 3), who does so because Garth gets mysteriously sick which he blames on the Teen Titans (sort of half-correctly).

Interestingly, up to this point there are actually more team appearances of what I'm calling Alternative 5 or Alt5 (Wally, Donna, Roy, Lilith Mal) than of Fab5 (Dick, Wally, Donna, Garth, Roy). In fact, up to this point there were 12 appearances of Alt5 over 5 appearances of Fab5. This is mostly because Roy and Garth actually have very little team-ups because Roy became a permanent basically the same time that Garth stopped being a permanent member.

Titans Villains (other than Ocean Master hat one time) in this era: Hell's Hawks, Harry Tout, Dr Pauling, Councilman Buckminster (Santa Claus), Demoness possessing Magda Drachwyck (Miss Wickersham), Calibano Della Loggia (x2), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Black Earl of Moray, Captain Barstow's Phantom, Lord Beetle

Era 3: When Fab5 was Defined, More Teammates, Teen Titans West, and Splitting Up

Teen Titans (1966) #44-53 The Brave and the Bold (1955) #149

There was a more than 3 years gap from the last issue #43 in February 1973 to issue #44 in November 1976 which translated to a 2 year in-comic hiatus of the Teen Titans. There's also a change of regular writer from (mostly) Bob Haney to Bob Rozakis. All this culminated in a change in tone of the characters being a bit more aggressive and antagonistic towards each other, especially with Roy (note: Snowbirds Don't Fly happened in 1971 so it's not because that occurred in between the break since it actually happened before the break). They fight a lot more this era and the storylines are longer and bleed more into one another.

Another obvious change is that Wally is shown to be way more into Donna than before (in his thoughts especially) instead of their more casual flirting. Wally does eventually confess to Donna who rejects him in this era. The other "official" relationships are Mal/Karen and Lilith/Gnarrk (funnily because Mal/Lilith was a thing for a bit).

In story, Mr Jupiter decides to close shop (unknown reason) and so they broke up, with Mal taking care of the labs and the rest pursuing their individual careers instead as they agreed upon (but Mal is unhappy about). This... doesn't really make sense because I'm not sure what "individual career" Donna has, but never mind.

Lilith is no longer in the main team (later explained that she settled in the West Coast with Gnarrk which is very contradictory to her last statement in #43 that the Teen Titans is her family). Garth comes back from #45 when he is mysteriously summoned by Mal's horn and it's like he never left. He wants to resign in #51 because his insecurities making him physically sick, but he agrees to finish the mission and they all ended up disbanding anyway. Karen appears first in #45 as Mal's girlfriend and joins as Bumblebee in #49, but Duela joins the team first in #46. Because of these lineup changes, Fab5 appearances started to catch up to Alt5 until eventually Alt5 (15 appearances) just barely edges out Fab5 (13 appearances). Interestingly, Dick-Wally-Donna-Roy-Mal actually end up appearing most (17 appearances).

They (it's honestly mostly Dick, Wally, and Donna) discuss the idea of a new headquarters first suggested by Donna in #45 (like I said, she's very much the living centre of the Titans). Dick makes the decision (because he is Leader-Man and Bruce is funding it) to have their headquarters as a restaurant front, Gabriel's Horn (named after Mal's horn given by the angel Gabriel in #45), run by Mal and Roy (the jobless duo apparently) in #46 and they set it up in #49. Mal and Roy also started forming the rock band The Great Frog (a job!) in #45 which plays in their restaurant.

Teen Titans West first meet up and is established in #50 with some familiar faces (Gar, Hank, Don, Lilith, Gnarrk) and some complete newbies (Bette, Ch'al) to the roster. Issues #51 and #52 have the East and West team up, resulting in basically every Titans ever joining with the exception of Tula (but then again, at this point she only appeared in Garth solo story and never in the main storyline). At the end of which, they have a big feast (sponsored by Dick) and decided to part ways to improve and work towards eventually becoming the future Justice League (as they were always meant to).

The final story #53 establishes their origin and formation story which includes Roy, but had Roy basically saying he wanted to be involved only whenever he wanted and not permanently (ahem commitment issues), establishing Fab5 as the clear founders of the Teen Titans in the last issue.

There is a third "friends get brainwashed/used" (for extended period) type storyline with Lilith (#50-52), except she's not evil, but her powers are manipulated for evil. With Duela, there is also the first instance of villain's children in the Titans (in future there is Joey and Rose most prominently), setting up the stage for Titans raising villain's children. They actually brought Two-Face in to visit Duela at least once (right after a crime too???) which is... interesting?

This era has many more appearances of known villains including Dr Light, The Fiddler, Two-Face, and Mr Esper (Captain Calamity). The final issue is where Antithesis first appear (he is a recurring villain or at least comes back in future issues), and the remaining unimportant ones are: The Wreckers, Flamesplasher (x2), Sizematic (x2), Darklight (x2), and Rocket Rollers led by Brian the Brain.

Finally, there are some unexplained mysteries. Where the hell did Mal's horn go since it went missing in #49? Who is the blonde "Little Queen" that Garth meets from #36 (because I don't think it's Nirka McDuff from #40)? Who are Lilith's parents? What's up with Mr Jupiter? Is he Donna's dad (#35)? Do they ever make use of the possibly haunted mansion and fortune they inherited in #43? Why did Mr Jupiter not bother to make Roy, Wally, and Lilith face their fears (#38)? Does he think redheads have no fears? Are we going to address the fact that Lilith is apparently Juliet reborn (#35-36) and decided to give up Romeo (who she was very enamored by for a while) for Gnarrk?

To be continued~

Some Statistics (For Fun)

Most to least appearances, we have:

Donna (60) - only missing from the very first story before they were coined the Teen Titans

Wally (58) - missing from 3 stories all during Mr Jupiter era (twice unknown reasons and once because he is watching the lab)

Dick (54) - missing from 6 issues for his college

Roy (41)

Garth (37)

Mal (28)

Lilith (22)

Mr Jupiter (12) - not a Titan but I was curious so I counted him

Hank and Don (11)

Karen and Duela (8)

Gnarrk (5)

Gar (4)

Bette and Ch'al (3)

Tula (1)

Most to least trio appearances (within Fab5):

Dick-Wally-Donna (50)

Wally-Donna-Roy (38) - the love triangle lmao

Dick-Donna-Roy (33)

Dick/Donna-Wally-Garth (32)

Dick-Donna-Garth / Dick-Wally-Roy trio (31) - DWDG and DWDR limiting factor

Wally/Donna-Garth-Roy (14) - Roy/Wally-Donna-Mal/Lilith have more than this (25, 23, 19, 18)

Dick-Garth-Roy (13) - Fab5 limiting factor

For quartets, Dick-Wally-Donna-Garth (DWDG) quartet (31) ends up exactly equal to Dick-Wally-Donna-Roy (DWDR) quartet (31).

Special note that because of Lilith separation in Era 3, even though Garth is brought back, the Rebirth "OG" line up (Fab 5 + Lilith) actually only has 3 appearances together. On the other hand, Alt 5 + Dick have 9 appearances (but no Garth). World's Finest line up (Fab5 + Karen) have 7 appearances but only 4 of which Karen is actually Bumblebee and fighting with them, while the Silver Age Final line up (Fab5 + Mal) has the most with 10 appearances.

Ultimately, Lilith does still make more sense to me than Karen to balance the team with more girls, because she definitely was there earlier, had more appearance than Karen, and also doesn't have the additional association of joining because of Mal since she predates Mal. That said, the girl with the most Fab5 teamup might actually be Duela who also has 7 appearances with Fab5, all of which she is on their side (although half their issue was trust which wouldn't make so much sense if she was with them from the beginning). The person with most Fab5 teamup is unquestionably Mal though (10). It's curious to see what is more "valid" but my personal opinion is that there is no point in making a Fab6 just let leave it be and acknowledge it as product of its time.

If you want to have a look at the data out of curiosity, it's here.

[irl]

this is all they do every time the titans disband

[wanderingmind867]

My new take on Martian Manhunter pt. 2

While J'onn was handling all of his solo adventures, such as dealing with the Idol Head of Diabolu and with infiltrating Vulture, he was also an active member of the Justice League of America. He had pretty good relationships with almost every member of the team, although there were some people he was closer to than others. Him and Superman got along really well, for example. Being two aliens, they could relate to feeling sometimes out of place on earth. J'onn more than Clark (since J'onn actually has a living family on Mars), but still.

Whereas him and Wonder Woman had a more contentious relationship, initially (he was a patron of Mars, while Ares/Mars was one of Wonder Woman's biggest enemies). The Roman in J'onn vs the Greek in Diana made for some very icy relations, initially. Eventually they learned to work past it. But there's still a sort of lighthearted rivalry that exists between them, even now.

Another member of the team J'onn became really close to: Green Arrow. After their first few missions together, they became inseparable. Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter and Speedy were like an inseparable trio. Like Batman and Superman, except with more of a mutual trust. J'onn became just as much a father to Roy as Oliver. J'onn even began to see Roy like one of his own kids back home on mars. And Zook was like the weird family pet, even accompanying Roy on a solo mission or two.

In short, J'onn was the heart of the team. He was the one responsible for it's founding, he was the one who was always on call, he was just the one really holding the team together. So when he left to go back to Mars, it really devastated the team dynamics. They managed to survive, but as i'll show later: things really went to hell without J'onn around.

But J'onn finally heads back to Mars, homesick after years on earth. He can't wait to get back to M'yri'ah and the kids. And to introduce them to Zook, his new interdimensional sidekick. He was in really good spirits as he flew back to earth, anticipating nothing but happy things. But what he finds there on Mars is enough to haunt him for the rest of his years.

[enretrogue]

𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗬 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗙𝗜𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗦 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝟭

༝༚༝༚ = Black/POC Works ⎢ 24’ Fic Rec M.List

a/n: to all of my formula 1 authors, your work has gotten me through this summer semester and i thank you 🫡. what started as a curiosity, grew into a love for a sport i didn't know existed until a month ago and i love you all. (also i apologize for spamming y'all, pls don't block me 🙏🏽🩷)

ATTACK ON TITAN:

Multi-Character

You Went Out Looking a Lil Bit Too Good — @morgluvsconnie ༝༚༝༚

Singing ��I’d Rather Fuck on My Ex Again” and Posting it on Your Story — @loveforeren ༝༚༝༚

“But I didn’t shave” So what? — @tasiawrites ༝༚༝༚

“She’s busy”— @luvacookie ༝༚༝༚

Armin Arlert

Toxic!Armin⎢More Toxic!Armin⎢— @chrollohearttags ༝༚༝༚

The Baby Trapper — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Ms. Attitude — @pynkfairyheart ༝༚༝༚

Fatal Attraction — @luminiamore ༝༚༝༚

Stress Relief — @prettygirl222 ༝༚༝༚

Connie Springer

Messages w/ Connie as Your BF! — @morgluvsconnie ༝༚༝༚

Bound⎢ Ch.1⎢ Ch.2⎢ Ch.3⎢ Ch.4⎢ Ch.5⎢ Ch.6⎢ Ch.7⎢ Ch.8⎢ Ch.9⎢ Ch.10⎢ Ch.11 — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Positive — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Sundress SZN — @alanaaii ༝༚༝༚

Cookies ‘n Cream — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Touch Me, Tease Me, Feel Me Up — @loveforeren ༝༚༝༚

24 Hours, Someone There When She Need — @2neaky ༝༚༝༚

Eren Jaeger

Plug!Eren Being Such a Pornographic Whore — @merakidoll ༝༚༝༚

Rockstar Boyfriends!Eren + Geto — ^ ༝༚༝༚

#FREEHIM — @bladebarbie ༝༚༝༚

SUCKER — @luminiamore ༝༚༝༚

Driftin’ and Kissin’ — @st4rbwrry ༝༚༝༚

Eren Loves Thunderstorms — @bunnisari ༝༚༝༚

 Think She Grippin’ on My Dick but That’s My Gun Baby — @gloxk ༝༚༝༚

Spoil You — @backwzzds ༝༚༝༚

Telling Possessive!Eren You Need a Break — @roseloon ༝༚༝༚

Maybe Opposites Do Attract — @wintrrxxo ༝༚༝༚

Under the Influence — @chrollohearttags ༝༚༝༚

Why You Touchin’ Me — @monstas1ut ༝༚༝༚

Wax — @prettygirl222 ༝༚༝༚

Jean Kirstein

Size Kink — @co-psycho

Stalker!Jean HCs — ^

Parenting HCs — @ye4gerism ༝༚༝༚

Mikasa Ackerman

CHARM’D — @chrollohearttags ༝༚༝༚

Onyankopon

SOUL⎢Part 2 — @luminiamore ༝༚༝༚

TRIP — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Ony Fingering You — @hanwiore ༝༚༝༚

Sexy Hot Nasty Smut — ^ ༝༚༝༚

“Let’s Talk In Person” — @dilfl0v3rss ༝༚༝༚

Mutuals⎢ Part 2 — @anucalor ༝༚༝༚

On the Run — @xiamentshoneypot ༝༚༝༚

Don’t You Know I Love You — @wintrrxxo ༝༚༝༚

I’ll Miss You — @awill2live ༝༚༝༚

Accusations and Apologies — @pynkfairyheart ༝༚༝༚

What Goes Around Comes Around — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Prettiest Thing⎢Part 2 — @pwinkprincess ༝༚༝༚

Imagine Onyankopon as Your Boyfriend — @shaguro ༝༚༝༚

Missing Curfew — @klipkillakai ༝༚༝༚

Dad!Ony Blurb — @morgluvsconnie ༝༚༝༚

Any Means Necessary⎢ Part 1⎢ Part 2⎢ Part 3 — @cupidzboww ༝༚༝༚

BLEACH:

Kenpachi Zaraki

Make Me Feel Love — @actuallusaiyan

DC:

Multi-Character

Size Kinks [Bruce + Jason (SEPARATE)]— @arkhamslvts ༝༚༝༚

Batmom

Thunderstorm — @teddypines ༝༚༝༚

Batsis

Roy Asking Batfam Members for Their Blessings to Marry Batsis [+ Roy Harper]— @c-nstantine ༝༚༝༚

Bruce Wayne/Batman

PR Relationship — @c-nstantine ༝༚༝༚

Vampire King!Bruce Wayne — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Jealous!Bruce — ^ ༝༚༝༚

Bruce Being Lovestruck — ^ ༝༚༝༚

ONE CHICAGO:

Jay Halstead

Echoes of Redemption — @berberriescorner ༝༚༝༚

Jay Dating a Younger Woman — @cutielando

Upstead Foster Daughter⎢Chapter 3 — @uptondixon

Kevin Atwater

If I Took You Home⎢Part 2 — @megamindsecretlair ༝༚༝༚

PEAKY BLINDERS:

Thomas Shelby

Scary? My God You’re Divine — @kat-mobile

Tommy With a Wife Who’s His Complete Opposite — ^

Chance Meetings — @myers-meadow

No Negotiations — @fallatyourfeet

A New Day — @garrison-girl-08

Moved On — @storiesforallfandoms

[gothamite-rambler]

Koriand'r: Dick, light of my life, we need to discuss somethingz

Dick (hiding the engagement ring): What is it?

Koriand'r: I love you so much and I'm happy that we've been together for five years. I love you more than I've had for any other man. We've been together for a long time and since we're taking this relationship to the next level and ending our open relationship, I wanted to talk about some partners I've slept with who are close to you.

Dick: Roy Harper. I already knew.

Kori: Oh?

Dick (not upset): He confessed the moment we met up. Roy apologized, said he offered, you said yes.

Dick: You- You didn't did you?

Kori: I did and it wasn't eventful, honestly very boring.

Dick: I figured, but no worries. We weren't together and we're on great terms.

Kori: Dark days I agree. As for Jason-

Kori: I was getting to that, I never did. He tried to proposition me, but he's your brother and- Dick.

Dick (left eye twitching): He propositioned you for sex?

Kori (laughing): Yes, it was so adorable, but I always turned him down. I loved you too much and I always saw him as the little Robin even as Red Hood.

Dick: That's great. Amazing. I will be back in a minute. Okay?

Kori: Okay.

Dick runs out of the apartment with his car keys leaving a blissfully unaware Kori.

Kori: I love our new co-habitation and relationship.

Meanwhile Dick tracks Jason to Wayne Manor, storms into the house enraged.

Dick: WHERE IS HE!

Tim: That doesn't sound good.

Dick: JASON!

Damian: That doesn't either.

Jason: What the fuck, let go of me!

Damian and Tim rush out the library and find Dick has Jason in a headlock.

Jason: What... Is this about?

Dick: You propositioned my soon to be fiance for SEX!

Tim: Oh dear.

Jason: She said no. Numerous... times.

Dick: NUMEROUS TIMES!

Bruce pulls the two away from each other causing Jason to faceplant on the ground, struggling to breathe.

Bruce: Let it go! Relax!

Bruce drags Dick Grayson away as the man tries to swipe at Jason.

Jason: Is he gone yet?

Tim: Yeah, Bruce took him to his office.

Jason: I'm just going to lay here for a few more minutes.

Damian: That's for the best.

[ao3sbatfamily]

any fics where jason takes in a teenage girl? like he takes care of her as an older brother/father figure?

He co-parents an aged up Lian

'You're Gonna Go Far, Kid' by thegreatestsun

Author: @itslovingconnerkenthours

Lian Harper, age thirteen. She’d say she had a pretty normal life. She lived with her dad in a nice, despite it being cheap, apartment in Star City, she went to her local middle school, and she was learning archery as much as possible.

It was kind of a family tradition, as her dad was incredible, and her grandpa was even more so. Apparently. She wasn’t sure, she’d never seen an example.

Yep, completely normal life. 

Another big part of Lian’s life was one Jason Todd, also known as ‘Uncle Jay’. He and Roy were the best of friends, so he’d been around a lot as Lian grew up. He was also her dad, in a way.

She’d stayed at his Gotham apartment before quite a few times, and he had babysat her more times than she could count. Jason was a constant in her life, so when he randomly showed up at their apartment two weeks into the summer break, Lian thought nothing of it. 

This is my favorite little Lian fic. For funzies

'Too Blind To See' by Sun_Moon_Stars_Jedi

Author: @sun-moon-stars-jedi

“Oh, yes, hello,” Jason says, straightening up where he’d been stooped over to see if he could make out Lian in one of the photographs. “I’m here to pick up Lian Harper. She’s in the frog group.”

The woman standing several feet away from Jason is looking him up and down, her mouth twisting when she takes in his leather jacket and the bruise still wrapping around Jason’s eye.

“And who are you?”

“Jason Todd,” Jason answers, fighting down the urge to stand up to his full height in the face of her condescending tone — his physique has its advantages when he’s out as Red Hood, but in civilian life it often makes him seem threatening without him even trying.

“And you expect me to just hand a stranger like you a child?”

[jbuffyangel]

The Love We Deserve: Arrow 2x06 Review (Keep Your Enemies Closer)

This is the episode I knew the writers were going THERE with Olicity. I wasn’t sure about endgame. I certainly did not know how Oliver and Felicity’s story would unfold, but “Keep Your Enemies Closer” confirmed we were in this, fam. We were in this all the way.

2013 Jen's live reaction:

Let’s dig in…

Olicity

The first scene immediately sets up this juxtaposition between Felicity, Oliver and Isabel and it carries through the episode. It’s not a love triangle. Isabel doesn’t matter enough to warrant a point on a triangle, but they use her (quite effectively I might add) to show Oliver and Felicity are anything but “just friends.”

Isabel is bitching at Oliver for whatever-he-failed-to-do-this-week and Felicity is trying to get his attention for some arrow (Roy Harper) related business. Initially, she tries using “Mr. Queen” in a very boss/employee way, but ultimately is fed up with being ignored and yells “Oliver!”

Isabel barely tosses Felicity a glance, but Oliver ends the Co-CEO argument to leave with Felicity. Trust me when I say, Isabel clocks this decision.

Source: @okmcintyre

Oliver and Felicity join Diggle in his search for Lyla Michaels. She went to Russia to search for Deadshot and now she’s missing. Oliver uses a Queen Consolidated subsidiary in Moscow as their cover story and use of the company jet. Unfortunately, Isabel tags along. She believes Oliver is meeting with their overseas partners behind her back. Once she discovered Oliver didn’t have any meetings planned with their subsidiary in Moscow, her accusations shift to Felicity.

Oliver: I’m not this person you think I am.

Isabel: That depends.

Oliver: On what?

Isabel: On if I think you used the corporate jet for a weekend of fun with your assistant.

Oliver: Excuse me?

He does his very best to look incredulous at the idea of hooking up with Felicity while on a romantic weekend in Moscow. I really wouldn’t put Russia on my Top 10 list of romantic getaways. Tahiti made a lot more sense, but whatever. The point is – Oliver’s feathers are immediately ruffled. Did I see him blushing? Oliver lies all day every day both professionally and personally, but this line of questioning has him quite tongue tied.

Isabel: A blonde IT girl all of a sudden gets promoted to be assistant to the CEO? There are only two ways that happens. One is nepotism and she doesn’t look like your cousin.

Source: Paigeota

It absolutely should be happening, Oliver.

Isabel: What were her qualifications aside from an abundance of short skirts?

Source: Paigeota

This scene is incredibly important because A) it’s hilarious and B) this is the first time Arrow has addressed OUTLOUD Felicity Smoak as a love interest for Oliver Queen. Everything up until now has been gazing, fervent glances, shoulder touches, soft tones, sexual innuendo and the electric chemistry between Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards. But Isabel puts her money on the table and flat out accuses Oliver of sleeping with Felicity.

We, the audience, know Oliver and Felicity are not having sex (much to our horror and disappointment), but Isabel presents the one question we’ve been dying to ask Oliver – does he WANT to sleep with Felicity? And his answer is… glorious.

First he laughs, uncomfortably, like this is the most INSANE line of questioning to ever take place. Keep in mind this man was tortured on Lian Yu for information about bombs, planes, the location of a Chinese archer and Japanese soldiers bones from WWII. But nope, Oliver is shocked – SHOCKED I TELL YOU – that anyone would ever think he’s having sex with Felicity. Methinks he doth protest too much.

But Oliver trips up at the mention of skirts. He stutters his way through defending Felicity. It is damn near gallant of him to argue they are an appropriate length. No ma'am, the skirts are not too short. Not for Oliver Queen!

We can chalk this up to Oliver being a flesh and blood heterosexual man. The day they stop looking is the day they die. But this is the first time anyone has asked Oliver if he is sexually attracted to Felicity. He blushes, laughs, protests and stammers his way through his answer like a 13 year old boy.

Also, it’s extremely important to remember one episode prior Oliver was rejecting Laurel Lance in her apartment hallway after she tried to kiss him - his primary female love interest. Then the very next episode, the writers are crafting a scene forcing Oliver to address a romantic relationship with Felicity.

Is it a funny scene? Yes, but the real win for Olicity shippers is the question is being ASKED. The answer is even better. Yes, Oliver has noticed the skirts and the spectacular legs that go with them. You don’t say that about a character who is going to remain a platonic, comic relief Girl Wednesday.

We are so far from done. Diggle infiltrates the Russian prison where Lyla is being held while Oliver and Felicity meet up with Anatoly to purchase a Russian police car as part of their escape plan. Felicity is extremely anxious about Diggle, so Oliver offers her some witty banter and a shoulder touch as reassurance.

When the Russians try to fleece Oliver he threatens to make their children orphans in Russian.

It’s all very Bratva Oliver and menacing, but with Felicity he makes a little joke and winks! One could say his demeanor is quite light hearted – dare I say flirting?

Source: Paigeota

Oliver returns to the hotel and has a drink with Isabel. Bizarrely, he brings up Felicity again – unprompted. He couldn’t wiggle out of this line of questioning fast enough and now he can’t stop bringing it up! Pick a lane, my dude.

Oliver: Does everyone really think that Felicity and I are…

EXPLAIN THE DOT DOT DOT OLIVER! LET'S BE SPECIFIC!

Isabel: No. Just everyone who works at Queen Consolidated.

My kingdom to hang out by the water cooler in that office.

More with the loud chuckling. Nothing to see here but friendship. Look at all the friendship. Hardy har har.

Isabel: You don’t seem like the kind of man who has female friends.

That’s the understatement of the century. Putting Oliver’s sexual partners aside for the moment - Felicity is in a unique position. Oliver doesn’t have a lot of friends let alone female friends. Felicity is also the only female in his life who knows he’s the Arrow. Has he told her everything about his past? No, but relax. We’re only on Season 2. 

Oliver has shared quite a lot with Felicity in a relatively short amount of time. He trusts her (as much as he's capable of) and Oliver does not trust easily. Felicity is the only woman Oliver can be completely and authentically himself with. This makes her more than unique – it makes Felicity special. I think Oliver understands that and he approaches their friendship with reverence. He toes a very strict line with Felicity – for a very good reason which he will reveal later on in the episode.

Isabel: Underneath that swagger, I see you pretty clearly. You’re intelligent, driven and lonely.

Isabel reveals she doesn’t buy Oliver’s bad boy routine and instead believes she shares a lot in common with him. We can take this conversation one of two ways – 1) two people connecting over vodka and a shared ability to speak Russian or 2) Oliver is working Isabel to keep the real reason for this trip a secret. Bonus? He gets laid in the process.

Clearly, I’m going with option 2. He feeds her a line about loneliness in Russian and Isabel practically races Oliver back to the hotel room.

Mercifully, we don’t have to watch them have sex. Oliver is pressed for time because they need to save Diggle, but Isabel is fine with the wham bam thank you ma'am. Oliver thinks he left enough time, but as he opens the door to his hotel there stands Felicity just about to knock.

Oliver left Isabel undressed and in his bed, but the woman finds her clothes with lightning speed when she hears Felicity at the door and purposefully makes her exit then.

If Isabel bought Oliver’s “we’re just friends” speech then doing this would not be necessary. Isabel wants Felicity to know they slept together. Regardless of what people at Queen Consolidated think, Isabel knows there’s more going on between them than Oliver will admit. She wants to hurt Felicity. Isabel is marking her territory and I would encourage you to listen to Stephen Amell’s thoughts on why. #Cosigned.

However, this is NOT information Oliver wants Felicity to know. He is so embarrassed he can’t even look at Felicity as Isabel walks out the door.

Felicity is stunned. She’s actually speechless. Oliver tries to offer up some feeble explanation, but he doesn’t get very far. 

Felicity immediately makes a joke to alleviate the tension, but as she turns we can see her hurt and anger.

She cannot fathom a reason why Oliver would sleep with this woman. Whether or not Oliver heard Felicity’s remarks – he grimaces because he knows he screwed up. BIG TIME. It is so awkward and painful.

But again, the viewers must ask a fundamental question – why is this scene being written like Felicity caught Oliver cheating on her? Oliver is single. Isabel is single. Felicity is single. Nobody is dating anybody. And yet, the Arrow writers make it clear Felicity is hurt by this encounter – like she’s been betrayed.

As for Oliver, he absolutely did NOT want Felicity to know he slept with Isabel. He knows it will hurt her. This shows Oliver is somewhat aware Felicity has feelings for him. Congratulations, Oliver you’re not a total pine tree.

What’s more telling is Oliver’s reaction. He acts like Felicity caught him doing something wrong. If he didn’t return Felicity’s feelings then her opinion wouldn’t really matter. It’s never stopped him from dating or sleeping with other women before. And this is just a one night stand. Not even – it was a quickie. But Oliver is ashamed. This makes him look bad. Generally speaking, when you have romantic feelings for someone you don’t want that person to see you hooking up with someone else. It sends a very mixed message.

THIS IS NOT HOW YOU WRITE A PLATONIC COUPLE!!!

Felicity Smoak wears her heart on her sleeve. She can’t let it go. It’s not just that Oliver slept with someone. It’s that he slept with ISABEL. The woman who is trying to steal his company. Her bitchiness is embedded in her DNA, so Felicity’s work environment probably less than fun. Felicity cannot stand Isabel and Oliver slept with her. HER. 

Felicity: Over 64 million women over the age of consent in Russia and you sleep with her.

But this time it is Oliver’s turn to make a joke to deflect. The entire vibe is couple’s fight.

Source: Paigeota

But Felicity is not joking when they get home and she’s tired of the mixed messages. So ask the question point blank. God bless her. No sexual innuendos, stammers, deflections, furtive glances or unspoken truths.

 Source: Paigeota

Oliver’s initial response is kind of flippant to be honest.

 Source: Paigeota

He gives Felicity a very generic “It just happened,” which is the exact non-explanation cheaters use. Sex doesn’t “just happen.” It’s a decision. Oliver made a choice and Felicity is trying to understand why because maybe if she understands then it will hurt less. Even worse, he says it didn’t mean anything. The problem is it meant something to Felicity. Take it away Willow Rosenberg.

Xander: We were just kissing. It doesn't mean that much.

Willow: No. It just means you'd rather be with someone you hate, than be with me. - BTVS "Innocence"

Truly one of the most devastating lines in television history delivered by an equally heart wrenching performance by Alyson Hannigan. What Felicity is truly asking Oliver is not, “Why her?” but rather, “Why not me?”

Felicity’s disappointment in Oliver’s response is palpable and feels very similar to their scene in 1x12 when she asked Oliver if she could trust him. She didn’t want a flip answer then and she doesn’t want one now.

Source: Paigeota

Oliver lowers his voice into his gentle Felicity tone and says, “Hey,” so she’ll look at him again. The real intimacy between them is revealed in a single word. He cannot wiggle out of this, so Oliver is approaching her question, and pain, with the reverence she deserves. Felicity closes her eyes for a moment before she meets Oliver’s gaze again, like she’s steeling herself against whatever explanation is coming next. This time the answer will be honest, but it will hurt more.

Source: Paigeota

Oliver speaks hypothetically of course, in an attempt to discuss what he feels for Felicity without really discussing it. It keeps their friendship in this little protective bubble as Oliver takes an infinitesimally small step over the strict line he has drawn between them. Oliver feels life as The Arrow, and his proximity to danger, prevents him being in a loving relationship. He slept with Isobel because he doesn’t care about her. Oliver won’t be with Felicity because he does care about her.

What is MONUMENTALLY IMPORTANT about this scene is Oliver acknowledges the elephant in the room for the very first time. He feels more than friendship for Felicity.  Does Oliver Queen love Felicity Smoak? Yes. Is he ready to admit that to himself - let alone to her? No. Oliver believes his love endangers Felicity. He cannot lose her, so he will not allow himself to love her. As frustrating as Oliver’s answer is it’s not difficult to understand why he feels this way - especially after losing Tommy.

Felicity gives a little nod like this was the explanation she expected, but still needed to hear. Despite the hypothetical, they both know Oliver is speaking about her. Rather than a meaningful relationship, Oliver has resigned himself to a life of loneliness. He may have hook ups and one night stands to fill his bed and relieve an urge, but he withholds access to his heart. This is not just about Oliver’s refusal to truly love someone. It’s also about his refusal to allow anyone to love him in return.

He's taken bullets that hurt less than this.

In the end, it’s Felicity’s response that truly packs the emotional punch. She believes Oliver deserves better, regardless of his way of life. He deserves more than empty affairs and lonely, dark and violent nights.

There is so much this man cannot forgive himself for and the guilt is overwhelming. Oliver believes he has no right to happiness. Loneliness is his penance.  When all you experience is pain and loss it can be difficult to imagine a life without it.

"We accept the love we think we deserve." - Perks of Being a Wallflower

Oliver hurt Felicity deeply by sleeping with Isabel.  They both know it. He continues to hurt her by drawing this line in the sand between them. Yet, in the face of that pain, Felicity dreams a life for Oliver that’s more than the one he’s resigned himself to. It is forgiveness, compassion and unconditional love in action. He does not feel worthy of Felicity Smoak, but those are the lies Oliver’s guilt tells him. She knows the truth.

Source: Paigeota

The stunned look on his face says it all - no one has ever told Oliver Queen he deserves to be loved. 

John Diggle

Contrary to the previous six pages, this is actually a John Diggle focused episode. And boy, does he drop a bomb on Oliver and Felicity.

Oliver didn’t immediately recognize Lyla’s name, which is fine because I don’t think they’ve shared a scene. Felicity reminds him Lyla is John’s ARGUS girlfriend and I had whiplash at that status update. Girlfriend? When did we get to girlfriend? I feel more comfortable with super spy sexy time friend.

Diggle lowers the boom. Lyla Michaels is his ex-wife. SAY WHAT??!

Felicity: Explain that sentence.

Honestly, how do Oliver and Felicity not know this yet? What do they talk about in the bunker? It can’t always be about crimes and arrows. Sharing is caring OTA – embrace it.

Diggle: We couldn’t figure out how to stay married without a war to fight.

Diggle and Lyla were married while on tour in Afghanistan, but divorced shortly after returning home. Lyla joined ARGUS and Diggle went back for another tour.

Diggle and Oliver hook up with Anatoly (!!!) and he informs them Lyla was trying to break into the worst prison in Russia on a tip that Deadshot was being held there. Unfortunately, she was captured. It hasn’t been a pleasant stay given how battered Lyla is looking.

The only way in Gulag is to be a prisoner, so Diggle volunteers. Oliver balks at that, but Diggle needs him on the outside make the moves necessary for an escape. Also, Lyla is Diggle’s woman and he's going to save her, damn it. SWOON. Find you a man with a hero's complex. They make divine husbands. I speak from experience.

Anatoly provides enough drugs to land Diggle in prison for 400 years. Oliver and Felicity are nervous about this plan. In one of the sweetest moments between Diggle and Felicity, she gently kisses him on the cheek and wraps his scarf around his neck. It’s a good luck kiss, but everyone is clearly worried it’s a goodbye.

Of course, once John is inside he runs right into Deadshot. He sure is easy to find for a globetrotting criminal mastermind. Deadshot knows where Lyla is being held and wants in on the escape plan in exchange for her location. After Deadshot kills Anatoly’s guard, John has no choice but to team up with him.

Lyla: You came for me.

Diggle: I always have and I always will.

This is what stellar ships are made of folks. This is the content we're here for.

Of course, Oliver and Felicity rescue Diggle, Lyla and Deadshot, but the pinnacle of the episode for John is when they dump Deadshot on the side of the road. They’ll help him get out of prison, but not out of the country. John holds a gun on him – ready to pull the trigger to avenge his brother’s death, but he can’t do it.

Deadshot: That’s the thing about honor, John. You can’t turn it on and off.

What a great line! I love that line!!! It’s so fully encapsulates John Diggle’s character. I’m sorry I know he’s a killer, but between Deadshot bringing Olicity together with the ridden computer and this moment with John– I’m really starting to like this guy.

Deadshot offers John some additional information about his brother’s death. A thank you for not killing him I guess. He asks John how he thought Andy was killed.

Diggle: You shot at a client that Andy was protecting and you missed.

Deadshot: I don’t miss. Your brother was the contract.

Diggle: Who would want to kill Andy?

Deadshot: I don’t know their names, just an alias. H.I.V.E.

The plot thickens! I’m sure all the comic fans were excited about the introduction of H.I.V.E. I was clueless, but with a quick Google you’ll discover H.I.V.E is a terrorist organization. So, this means one of two things, John’s brother was an honorable man who ticked off a terrorist organization or Andy was not as honorable as his brother and ticked off a terrorist organization. This adds a layer of complexity the Diggle vs. Deadshot storyline desperately needed. It was running a little stale.

Diggle: You know me and Carly broke up because I couldn’t love her and hate him at the same time.

Lyla: I’m honored to be the exception.

Diggle: Lyla, you were always the exception.

Ok, I’m onboard the SS Dyla. Let’s get remarried. I’m ready.  

We go from the Dyla love scene directly to Olicity’s final scene in the office. This is not a mistake. John guides Oliver on his path. This also includes his romantic life and one of the ways Diggle guides Oliver is by example. Dyla always points the way.

Stray Thoughts

This is the first episode we meet Amanda Waller. She’s loyal to Lyla Michaels and knows about Oliver and Diggle’s vigilante operation, so she’s arriving on the scene as a fully formed bad ass.  

Diggle refused Anatoly’s vodka. Based on the look Oliver gave him I’m guessing that was a very bad idea. Drink the vodka, John.

“I wouldn’t mind a drink.” I mean honestly the boys could be so sexist sometimes. Felicity likes booze too!

“I will take care of her.” Snort. Yeah, I’ll bet Oliver.

Isobel immediately jumps to the conclusion that Felicity is sleeping her way up to the top. Way to be supportive of your fellow female coworkers and fighting that glass ceiling together, Isobel. This just makes her more evil in my opinion.

Sara left town. That’s fine I need a break from the Lance drama.

Quentin lets Roy go because he's working with the Arrow too, so I'm counting Lance as part of the team.

No Laurel. Hallelujah. Did you even notice she was gone? Nope. This character lifts right out.

There’s this whole weird subplot where Moira’s lawyer wants Thea to dump Roy because he’s a felon and it makes Moira look bad. Sure, Roy Harper is the problem. Not the 500 people who died. Even Moira thinks this plot line is ridiculously stupid and gets these crazy kids back together. Can we be done with the Theroy breakups? I’m tired. Find these two an actual storyline.

Slade: I will not be the reason something happens to you.

Shado: When I care about someone there's nothing I won't do for them.

Slade is in rough freaking shape after being burned over half his body, but he gets snuggle time with Shado so it isn’t all bad.

Never trust a Russian woman. Has Oliver ever seen a movie?

Flashback Sara betrays Oliver and gives Ivo the location of Slade, Shado and the soldier bones. Let's go with Stockholm syndrome to explain this insanity. Or she's just completely terrified of Ivo. Either works. But still - dick move Sara.

Why does David Ramsey wear shirts? It’s really a crime against humanity.

Listen to the Watchover podcast reaction to 2x06!!!

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me!

[violetomnivore]

Fresh Catch

its come to my notice that a lot of ppl missed out on these MerMay bits I did last year so here a repost

Okay so for this mermaid AU All those years ago Gotham never got built so where it should be sitting is actually still the original fishing village. Flotsam pop ~11,000. The township as it is now sits on the rocky shoreline. The bridges were never built so the islands are basically not inhabited and still filled with suspicious largely unexplored underwater caves. Rumors that supernatural creatures lurk in the dark waters there.

The township of flotsam is the home of Kent & Kyle fishing Co. Clark Kent 41 carries on his adopted parents' business. A few years ago after the passing of his wife he took on a Business Partner Selena Kyle 38, Clark believes that Selena is a bit shady but good hearted. He hasn't caught Selena doing anything illegal yet, but she is Smuggling a little on the side. Together they have two boats ( The Lois, & Fatkitty) and a pair of crews made up of Clark's sons ( Conner 20, Jon & Jordan 16), and Selena's strays ( Roy Harper 24, Jason Todd 20, Stephanie 18)

There is a second village hidden in the caves under the isles. Its population ( ~100) is made up of Mermen/ Mermaids and ruled by King Bruce 45. Among his royal family is Dickie 24, Cassandra 20, Tim 18, and Damian 15. For the safety of his people King Bruce has always has strict rules against association with the surface folk. ( Even if there are a few he watches from a distance himself ) Dick has always pushed back against Bruce's Hypocritical Rules. He likes to swim close to the surface and play pranks on the fishermen boats. Sometimes his younger brothers sneakily follow him.

Okay that's my brain rot. Sorry. Too bad I'm rubbish at putting together actual story.

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers

Episode 1 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 2 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 6 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Apologies for the late posts, A LOT happened like Arleen Sorkin's passing and Kamen Rider Geats ending. So I needed to take a break, but I am back. SPOILERS if you havent seen episode 8 obviously.

We start things off with the captured villains letting out of their prison. We got Silver Banshee, Roundhouse, Heatwave, Livewire, and then eventually we seen Ivo/Parasite and Mist who luckily escaped and is trying to get his friend and sister back. I talked more about in their respective episodes so if you want to read up more about them click on their names.

Task Force X/Suicide Squad is known for exploding the heads of their prisoners teammates if they fuck up a mission (you might have seen it in the live action movies, animated movies, or even read the comics) and MAwS solution to not have it be so gory is to use shock collars.

Cut to Clark who developed super hearing and has not slept for a few days and is on caffeine so he can help the people of Metropolis. The idea of Superman 24/7 has been thrown around in the comics for a while usually saying no Clark deserves a break. He needs to be Clark and not Superman when he can get the chance. If you want to check out the comics that does it I recommend reading Superman #296 to 299 (1979), Who Took the Super out of Superman by writers,Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggins, penciler, Curt Swan, inker, Bob Oskner, colorist, Carl Gafford, and letterer Ben Oda.

We see in the hologram projector/data sphere thing that Lois took from the League of Lois Lane's displaying Overman wrecking the city. I talked more about him here

We then see Perry asking Lois to help out with Vicki Vale who is asked to be a guest writer on the Daily Planet, we later see in the ep that she's got ulterior motives for this. I talked a bit about her here. In the comics Vicki is usually a journalist for the Gotham Gazette and is sometimes in a relationship with Bruce Wayne. Her comic counterpart is usually very ethical when it comes to journalism much like Lois Lane, but here in MAwS, she's very conniving. Never meet your heroes sometimes I guess, huh MAwS Lois?

Lois talks about the things Vicki wrote for the Gazette and name drops Queen Industries. If you know your DC universe, that is the last name of Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow.

Oliver Queen and Roy Harper aka Speedy, make their first appearance in More Fun Comics #73 (1941) co-created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp who did the panel here. Robin Hood was an obvious inspiration for Oliver in terms of design but also his ethics in a sense. Despite the wealth, Oliver would be left wing and fight for the people arguably more so than Bruce Wayne. You can see in the panel that Oliver doesn't have his signature goatee you'll see that happen later when Neal Adams pencils Ollie in the Brave and the Bold #85 (1969)

who also redesigned Ollies costume too. Check out Green Lantern/Green Arrow series to see Oliver's liberal stances on what was going on in the world in the early 1980s. Nowadays, Oliver's been redesigned to to wear a hood instead of the Robin Hood cap, but he's still the left wing hero that we adore

Fantastic cover to the 80 years of Green Arrow hardcover book by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair.

The Falcones get a mention as one of the stories Vicki Vale wrote about. The Falcones make their first appearance in Batman #405 (1987) created by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli in the Batman Year One storyline.

The man with the pipe in the second panel, by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, Richmond Lewis, and Todd Klein, is the head of the head of the Falcones, Gotham's biggest mob family, Carmine "the Roman" Falcone. He and his family gets expanded explored in Batman: The Long Halloween. Both it and Batman Year One are fantastic reads, highly recommended.

The Gotham Gazette, and in a roundabout way, Gotham, gets a name drop from Perry White. The paper make its first appearance in Batman #4 (1940) and Vicki Vale is employed by them as the photojournalist.

Perry asks Lois and Jimmy to help Vicki out with a story about smearing Superman and they decide to interview people. First up is Captain Immonen who Clark saved in episode 3. The captain's last name is a reference to...

comic book artist, Stuart Immonen. He's worked on various Superman-related titles like Action Comics or the Adventures of Superman.

Probably the Superman book I enjoyed his work in, and highly recommend checking out for everyone who reads this is, Superman: Secret Identity (cover art here by Stuart Immonen) with writer Kurt Busiek about a teen who happens to be named Clark Kent in his world where there are no superheroes, only in the comic books, but somehow slowly develops powers on his own. Very cool non-canon story that is a fresh take on the Superman mythology.

The next interviewee I have to assume based on the credits at the end of the episode is, Mrs. Quietly who is a reference to...

comic book artist, Frank Quitely. You may know his name on the New X-Men with Grant Morrison, but in terms of Superman, he was the penciler for All-Star Superman (cover by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant)...

the comic series that got an animated movie adaptation and will be the inspiration for the upcoming Superman: Legacy live action movie. The book has Superman dying thanks to Luthor and has Clark live out his final days saving the world and the future in a sense one last time. It's a great read! And speaking of Grant Morrison...

Grant Morrison got their reference through the name of a pawn shop in Metropolis.

Grant Morrison, fantastic writer, has worked on a lot of comics. As mentioned before Morrison worked with Frank Quitely on New X-Men but in terms of Superman, is best known for writing All-Star Superman with Quitely. Both have also worked on Batman and Robin together and equally great series if you want to see Dick Grayson as Batman try to wrangle in Damian Wayne as Robin.

We see Lex Luthor Alex here as the final interviewee who says Superman is a menace for ruining his job and destroyed the building he worked in. Will he lose his hair and go into business? I don't know, but when Alex gets a confirmed last name, most likely Luthor, I'll take more about him.

Later in the episode we seen screen names, LoriLemaris59 and Bibbo87 streaming videos of Superman getting his but handed to him by Task Force X. Both names are references to characters in the Superman comics.

Lori Lemaris first appeared in Superman #129 (1959) by Bill Finger, Wayne Boring, and Stan Kaye. She and Clark met in college where she posed as a wheelchair-using student and both took interest in each other, however when they're out on dates, Lori would cut the date short because of her mermaid nature. Clark tried to propose to her, but she turned him down because both are from two different worlds and it wouldn't work out. She also knew Clark was Superman because her people could read minds but she's totally cool with keeping it a secret for him. Jimmy, in MAwS, mentioned mermaids, but I did not want to point it out until we get a Lori Lemaris reference in and lo and behold it came true! The other name is a reference to Bibbo Bibbowski one of the supporting cast for Superman.

Bibbo Bibbowski makes his first appearance in the Adventures of Superman #428 (1987) by Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Tom Ziuko, and John Costanza. Superman arrives at the Ace O' Club's bar asking for information on Perry White's son, Jerry who was kidnapped. Bibbo, thinking Superman is just some guy in a costume punches Superman, gets his hand busted, and finds a new respect for him.

As mentioned before Task Force X is out to capture Superman as he and Mist try to save his sister and friend, but it turns out they are more than willing get revenge on Superman for their freedom. Even though in this universe they are Task Force X, a majority of the team is made up of Superman villains so in a sense you can make an argument that this is a Superman Revenge Squad. The first use of the team name is from the silver age, in Superman #94 (1961) where the squad was a group of aliens. The Superman villains teaming up together to get revenge on Superman first appeared in the Adventures of Superman #543 (1997). Parasite (Rudy Jones), who was part of that team, shares names with a Superman villain in MAwS here.

I think someone on the MAwS team is a fan of the X-Men arcade game cuz Livewire flies the same way Magneto does in that game.

Again very sorry for the delay in this, but if you made it this far down, be sure to check out my other posts about the easter eggs in My Adventures with Superman:

Episode 1 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 2 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 6 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[3-cats-in-a-coat]

Songs in the album To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey as random characters that they remind me of:

To Bring You My Love (the song): Lily Evans Potter, Regulus Black, Sirius Black (in PoA), Lady Gotham, Talia al Ghul, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Jason Todd, baby!stalker!Tim Drake and (regretfully because contrary to how much she shows up in this list, I don’t actually think she’s in any way innocent but I unfortunately can’t deny the amount of vibes) Bellatrix Black Lestrange.

Meet Ze Monsta: Regulus Black, Lily Evans, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lady Gotham, and (only in CoS) Ginny Weasley.

Working For The Man: Bellatrix Lestrange, Barty Crouch jr (I still hate him for what he did to Neville and his parents), Lady Gotham, Bucky Barnes, Lily Evans (it’s more like she’s dating ‘The Man’ but), Talia al Ghul (she’s trying to stop though), Bruce Wayne as Batman (‘The Man’ is actually Lady Gotham but who cares), and lastly Jason Todd as Red Hood (he is ‘The Man’).

C’mon Billy: Talia al Ghul (to Bruce, the son is Damian), Lily Evans and James Potter (to Regulus, the son is Harry, Jegulily), Tonks (to Remus, the son is Teddy, I don’t ship them but I love Teddy), Remus Lupin (wishing Sirius was alive so he could meet Teddy), and Lady Gotham (giving Bruce Wayne yet another child).

Teclo: Jason Todd, Roy Harper, Tim Drake, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Lily Evans, James Potter, Regulus Black, Bucky Barnes, and Steve Rogers.

Long Snake Moan: Lily Evans, Remus Lupin (usually just before his time of the month), Marlene McKinnon, and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Down By The Water: (trans?) Regulus Black (obviously), Walburga Black (after Regulus died, I still hate her for what she did to her children), Sirius Black (if he saved Regulus), Lily Evans, Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Talia al Ghul (when she dunked Jason in The Pit), Lady Gotham, and Bucky Barnes.

I Think I’m a Mother: Lily Evans, Walburga Black, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lady Gotham, and Talia al Ghul.

Send His Love To Me: Lily Evans, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Jason Todd, and Bucky Barnes.

The Dancer: Bruce Wayne, Lily Evans, Regulus Black, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes.

[pluckyredhead]

Damijon Boy Band AU or Johnnywyatt Teachers AU, please 😊

I'll do the first one!

This all started with Dick, obviously, who was the heartthrob in the Teen Titans, an extremely wholesome Disney Channel-esque co-ed group as a teenager. A decade later Tim was in the rebooted group, just called Titans to try and make it slightly edgier. He was supposed to be the heartthrob but Kon was there, so... (Jason had a solo hit - think "Baby" by Justin Bieber - and then he disappeared for years while a lot of bad things happened that the Waynes Don't Talk About. He came back as an extremely edgy punk artist and formed a band with former Teen Titan/tabloid scandal Roy Harper and Dick's ex-girlfriend.) Bruce is a music mogul who does genuinely love his children but doesn't quite understand that turning them all into child stars is like...maybe not the healthiest option? Clark is a music journalist.

Like in canon, Damian didn't know Bruce until he was 10, and he feels intense competition with his older brothers, so he's determined to become a bigger star than any of them. But his solo career absolutely TANKS because while he is extremely musically gifted, he has basically zero charisma because he refuses to unbend.

And then Bruce is over for dinner at his good friend Clark's house and he hears Jon singing along to an old Titans song and is like "...I have an idea." Clark is very, very unsure about it.

Damian does NOT like the idea but the first few performances as World's Finest actually go really well and he's begrudgingly willing to do what it takes. Jon doesn't fully win him over until they discover that he's a pretty good lyricist to Damian's composer. And then he realizes how skillfully Jon cheerfully deflects any prying questions about Damian's mother, or Jason, or anything Damian wouldn't want to talk about, and he starts to trust him.

Jon, of course, has been desperately in love with Damian since the first time he heard his voice.

Bonus: Ra's or someone offers Damian a solo record contract and he allllllmost signs it and Jon finds out and is very hurt and it's all very dramatic but Damian decides to stay with Jon and then they kiss onstage at the Grammy's or something.

[totally-not-peter-parker]

ooc: hey im officially working on a 'family tree' of sorts for every blog involved in this rp group so would you mind telling me who your characters are connected to and where theyre living with tags so I can keep everything organized? Connection list is: Parent/child Grandparent/grandchild Great grandparent/great grandchild Siblings Dating Married/engaged pibling/nibling (gender neutral terms for aunt/uncle and niece/nephew)

(repeating this for all the blogs you run would be appreciated)

if you have any questions just ask!

@morningstarscratch

Oh God. So, he's living in the Queen Estate Parents are @dont-hate-the-goatee and @hallsjordanss Siblings: @totally-not-soupernova @giovanna-freshly-adopted @roy-todd-harper and @robin-gives-me--magic (co-parenting?? Jay) @speedywithadhd (very hesitantly, he'd say @thebetterrobin) Not dating anyone, current crush is @thebestofwaynes Uncles are @anonymous-bastard @wheelbarrowofstagefourcancer (Wade said so) and I'm sure there's a few I'm missing

[vechter]

for the “top 5” ask game! -> top 5 characters/relationships, top 5 books or quotes, top 5 songs, and top 5 smells :)

omg this is gonna be soooo difficult ily for asking me soooo many <3

characters:

1) dick grayson my absolute fav boy ever. his brand of mental illness and neurotic control-freakism captured my heart n soul unfortunately and i have been unable to be normal about him since (in that, i, too, am like bruce wayne). he learned to walk on sawdust, his first word was rube! he was never going to be a normal, well-adjusted, white picket fence guy. he's a performer, and even those closest to him fall prey to his act. he had the worst imaginable thing happen to him as a kid and one man saved him from that grief eating him alive (could u be normal about ur pseudo-father/brother/mentor figure if he did that for u?) and he will spend the rest of his life making sure the same doesn't happen to anyone else. 2) roy harper my fav dad ever. his daughter saved him from the worst of his impulses. when ollie was dead, he liked to pretend ollie was off on another road trip and then just got mad that ollie left him behind. as usual. his aim is true and so is his heart. he doesn't miss. everything is a weapon in his hand. he loves lian more than anything in the world. he will do right by her. he can't help but love the mother of his child bc where would he be without her? 3) dick grayson and bruce wayne you've seen my web weaves i am not normal about their relationship. they're both changed irretrievably for knowing each other. it isn't always for the better. sometimes, nightwing is the only thing i think i did right. you make a vow to a man like a god when you're a grieving, orphaned kid and you devote yourself to it to a degree it's debilitating. you will never recover from that kind of devotion. dick used to make him laugh. after the fight. you look at your robin, forever your boy, your son and you miss the times when you were the dynamic duo. it's hard to be around each other for that. your father has never let go of anything without leaving claw marks. i could go on and on sadly 4) dick grayson and donna troy you've loved each other your whole lives. you think you were born knowing each other. no one can hurt you or love you the way they seem to. losing donna broke something fundamental in dick. he walked her down the aisle on her wedding day. he loves her in each and every universe because she's donna. platonic, co-dependent, insane. truly the dynamic of all time. 5) cassandra cain. you are your father's daughter. but you are also your mother's daughter. you would choose being perfect for a year over a life-time of being mediocre. you killed a man when you were a child and you will never forgive yourself for it. you will save anyone, even if they don't deserve to be saved. especially, then. some people can't tell where it hurts. they can't stop howling. character of all time truly i stuck to dc for this but honourable mentions to those in other fandoms: shiv roy, succession- she is her father's daughter and it's the worst and best thing to happen to her. her entire world of a father.

clarke griffin, the 100- sometimes there are no bad guys, just good people making bad choices. you save your people, over and over. it's a thankless job. but you do it anyway. you are a doctor and a killer. you know which one you don't want to be.

elena gilbert, the vampire diaries. what price are you willing to pay for those you love? is there a price that is too high? would you even know it? you are a girl monster doppelgänger. your story was always going to end this way.

percy jackson. i imprinted on him as a teenager and he will always have a soft spot in my heart. angry boy with a heart of gold. the sea takes.

sally draper and betty draper, mad men. when sally said "i am so many people" i fear she changed my brain chemistry irrevocably. i will never be normal about her or her dynamic with either of her parents. i'm going to do quotes bc i truly don't think i could pick 5 books. i wouldn't even know where to start but here are some quotes in no particular order:

"Sometimes I see the real God, in a wide-hemmed butcher’s apron, wiping his hands and trembling. It’s your cut, he says. Fry it, eat it raw. I don’t care. My line is too long for these kinds of games. Look behind you. All of those people know what they want.”

— mike young, none of it grace

Sometimes you get so close to someone you end up on the other side of them.

— richard siken

the worst thing about love is i remember it. i walk around all day thinking: i’m going to die in the universe you loved me in. i get so jealous of euthanized dogs.

— june gehringer, i love you, it looks like rain

I am always moving toward you. On my bad days, I say to myself: “then you.” Sure, this now. But then you.

— trista mateer, “laugh lines” in the dogs i have kissed 

So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

— robert frost, nothing gold can stay

phew. that was way more difficult than i anticipated. there are so many that I think about way too often. top 5 songs is unfortunately impossible for me to do. i avg 150,000 min listening to music on spotify for my wrapped. i spend way too much time listening to music, and even if you asked me to pick based on specific categories like top 5 rap songs, top 5 songs that give you immense nostalgia, top 5 songs with phenomenal lyrics, etc, i would be stunned into immediate mental paralysis i just can't sorry ily

top 5 smells, in no particular order:

the smell of petrol (i knooow but something about how sharp and overpowering it is. it just hits right somewhere), clean sheets (u know when u can smell how crisp and fresh they are? even without a strong-smelling detergent), emblem by mont blanc, daisy by marc jacobs (i am forever lamenting they changed the scent slightly) and the smell of the first rain (i live in a mostly desert-y, arid city now so the way the ground feels and smells after the relief of rain, it's amazing, show-stopping even)

[helenaheissner]

Comic Review: Green Arrow by Joshua Williamson Volume 1: Reunion

As a longtime Green Arrow fan, I had been looking forward to reading the first trade paperback of the current ongoing series by Joshua Williamson for a few months now. Williamson's been having something of a moment lately- his also ongoing run on Superman has been widely-lauded and very much enjoyed by me personally, and while I've not yet read his Batman & Robin series, the snippets I've seen online make it look very much up my alley.

In the wake of a recent event storyline titled Dark Crisis (also written by Williamson, and which I've not read either), Oliver Queen, rich brat turned hardcore survivalist turned bow-wielding man of the people superhero, is missing, stranded on an alien world for reasons he knows not why. So he does what he does best: survive.

The drive to survive is something I consider an inherent part of Ollie's character: he's motivated not by a desire for justice, vengeance, or familial obligations like many other DC heroes, but by an iron will to survive implanted by his being stranded on the not-so deserted island of Lian Yu for several years. He wants to survive, by any means, and he wants that for everyone around him as well. That is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness, because sometimes by choosing survival over all else, he neglects to let himself truly live the life he wants with the family he has built, or otherwise cross moral lines for the sake of his (admittedly very noble) concept of a greater good. That dissonance is a huge part of what drives this six-issue opening act. Because while Oliver is doing what he does on the other end of universe, his family- specifically his adoptive son and former sidekick Roy Harper/Arsenal; the on/off love of his life and mainstay of the JLA, JSA, and Birds of Prey, Dinah Lance/Black Canary; and his illegitimate biological son, former Buddhist Monk turned co-Green Arrow, Connor Hawke.

It's on their hunt that they find trace of Roy's presumed-dead daughter by an unrepentant supervillain, Lian, and a touching father-daughter reunion happens... Only for Lian to suddenly vanish in a rush of light, and rematerialize on the same world where Oliver has been stranded.

Let's talk about the Arrow Family for a moment, shall we? The Arrow Family is freaking great! Oliver and Dinah are genuinely one of my favorite ships in all of comics, Roy is a Teen Titans mainstay who's undergone some of the best character development in all of comics, Connor is a brilliant example of a legacy superhero done well, and Oliver's adoptive daughter and other sidekick, Mia Dearden/Speedy, as well as his other-other sidekick and much younger half-sister Emiko Queen/Red Arrow, are two of the most criminally underrated heroines in the DCU. But due to several questionable editorial mandates and a few baffling writing choices over the past twenty or so years, the family has been scattered. Lian was straight-up dead for over a decade in real time, Connor and Mia were stranded in the proverbial comic book limbo after a continuity reboot in the early 2010s (long story), Roy and Dinah were on the outs with Ollie at various points in the past two decades, and while Emiko has gotten to hang around pretty consistently, the character wasn't created until 2013 and didn't became her big brother's sidekick until 2017. And this is without even getting into all the instances of Oliver being an idiot about his personal life and isolating himself from his family in the process.

This comic makes that a driving tension in a very literal sense- something is causing the members of the Arrow Family to teleport away from each other when they're near each other, causing Oliver to conclude that the only way they can all survive is to be apart.

He's wrong, of course. And he realizes he's wrong. And I won't spoil why, other than a very clever reveal of just who from Oliver's personal history would want to mess with him, as well as setting up a new potential archnemesis for the entire Arrow Family going forward in Amanda Waller (which, frankly, is a move that makes so much sense thematically it's surprising it took so long for someone to try it, given the potential contrast between Oliver's humanistic progressivism and Waller's authoritarian patriotism). What I will say that when truly pushed, when truly forced to choose between survival and family, Oliver sticks to his guns (so to speak) and chooses his family, chooses to take a chance on all of them being together no matter what risk there is for something to go wrong. Because when you're hardwired for survival above all else, the idea of letting someone, anyone, let alone a whole family of someones, into your heart is TERRIFYING. But Oliver Queen is not a coward, and he wants very much to be able to prove wrong all the many, MANY people who think that he is a bad man. He wants to be able to look in them in the face and tell the unblinking truth when he says 'no, I am a good man. Fuck you.'

And he does. And it is GLORIOUSLY CATHARTIC.

This book also does emotional beats very well. We get two parent-child reunions in this story, between Roy and Lian and then later Ollie and Connor, and both of them bring on the warm and fuzzies something fierce as these people who have been through so much together put aside all the hurt feelings and bad memories and are just thrilled to see each other once more. And then there's Ollie and Dinah's reunion... Let's just say I swooned. I swooned something fierce when my OTP got a spectacular (and rather hot) kiss scene.

This book also does banter and superhero lunacy very well (Roy and Peacemaker getting into a shoot-off becomes a plot point, and Oliver fights literal alien corporate fat-cats while in space) while still balancing it all in real emotion and a compelling personal story with personal stakes. It's aided by superb artwork from Sean Izaaske, who not only provides fantastic panel layouts, action scenes, and facial expressions, but also does several fun stylistic shifts when representing different periods in Ollie's history. It builds on established lore and character arcs without actually requiring you to know the storylines they originally came from (which is not always easy in superhero comics). Basically, it's very, VERY good, and I recommend it highly.

***

Thank you for reading! If you like this and want to support my work, you can give me a like, a repost, and a share! You can also become a paid subscriber to my Patreon in exchange for advance chapters of my stories and other exclusive content:

or by leaving a tip via Tumblr or Ko-Fi:

[bluejaysandblackbats]

blood on your altar

Fandom: DC Comics, Titans (fab five), Aquafam, Arrowfam

Summary: Roy Harper is haunted by a strange sight he witnessed while on holiday by the seaside.

Chapters: 1/?

Characters: Roy Harper, Garth, Oliver Queen, Hal Jordan, Dinah Lance

Relationships: Roy Harper/Garth

Additional Tags: Cannibal Mermaid AU, Sacrifice, Cannibalism as a Metaphor, Secrets, Angst, Romance, Horror, 1950's AU

Chapter One: Stained Glass

I watched the thing, meat in its teeth, blood dribbling down its chin as it growled and moaned. Wretched thing. Beautiful thing. Blood drunk. Red drunk. Like wine. My strange beast slurped flesh off the bone as it became more of a man and less of a thing. Claws became fingers. Dark reflective scales like abalone shells became flesh. Its eyes were man's eyes. First, they were bright candles behind amethyst stained glass windows, and then... Dark and dull indigo like a boy's. He wiped the blood from his lips, pretty and pink, before lying on his back in the sand. He spread his arms and legs in a shameful display, unashamed of his nakedness. He writhed pleasurably as the waves lapped at his bare skin. I gripped the fabric of my jacket, swallowing the lump in my throat as I watched my boy-creature. 

I knew it was wrong to watch the way I did, but the blood in my body rushing south only encouraged my voyeurism. I continued, guiltily watching my creature amid a lustful act, his now-human hands poking and tickling his loins, then flapping it back and forth, then as if he'd figured it out, he began to stroke and squeeze and gasp. I couldn't bear to look away. Hungry, dreadful, sinful curiosity captured me. It swallowed me whole, making parts of me long for a man in ways that I'd never imagined. I watched until he dribbled, then spurted alabaster white onto pink-blue flesh. Cold flesh from the looks of it. Then something changed. His man eyes flashed back to their stained-glass amethyst, shining brightly in my direction. I hid behind a boulder, holding my breath. I dropped to my knees and peeked around the corner, watching him crawl to the ocean. Cover his nakedness. Cover his acts. He glanced in my direction, still unable to see me while I hid again. “Who's thir?” he shouted. “Who's thir?” It was a strange accent, but not completely unintelligible. I didn't move. I didn't breathe. 

I stayed there until his honey-sweet voice stopped calling. By that time, he was already inside me. His eyes, his voice, his flesh. His chin was soaked with blood. Every little detail seeped into my brain and my heart, and I couldn't stand it. “I willny haert ye…” 

I crawled on my hands and knees until I bumped into Ollie’s shins. He groaned, bracing himself as he crouched. “Having fun down there?” Ollie asked. I couldn’t stand up. The creature burrowed into my mind, chilling me to the bone. Ollie extended a hand. He worried about me. It wasn’t without reason. He took me out of California to clear my head. Dinah and Hal suggested a trip to the seaside would improve my health. 

“Did you hear someone yelling?” I asked. Ollie shook his head as he pulled me to my feet. 

“It’s getting late, kid… Let’s go inside,” Ollie suggested. I followed him up the carved stone steps to the house. The faded pale green-grey house with its old beat-up hemlock green shutters. The windchimes blew around, singing hollow wood songs in the cool night breeze. Ollie asked me to go inside and shut the inner shutters to prepare for the coming storm. As I stepped inside the house, the boy-creature’s face faded from my memory. Seeing him felt like no more than a strange dream.

Dinah sat beside the radio with a glass of wine. She hummed to the radio’s tune. It always calmed my nerves. I sat on the floor by Dinah’s feet, and Ollie sat beside her. “What spooked you, Roy?” Hal asked. He noticed. I must’ve looked ill. “Were you out on the beach tonight?” 

“Don’t fill his head with all those ghost stories, Hal,” Ollie warned him. Dinah took a sip and smiled. 

“Awww, come on, Ollie. I wanna hear it,” Dinah replied. She kicked off her shoes and threw her feet over Ollie’s lap. He discreetly ran her thumb across her calf.

“Tell your story, Hal,” Dinah smiled. 

“You must beware of nighttime swims in coastal towns and cities. There are women… Women who dwell in the waters like fish. Some are as vicious as they are lovely. They swim to the surface at night, luring men in—.”

“Are they all women?” I interrupted. Ollie and Hal squinted at me. Dinah smiled and raised her glass. 

“Yes! Do the mermaids have meddling merfathers?” Dinah teased. Ollie playfully nipped at her. 

“I guess there could be male creatures… I could imagine male creatures of that sort are in short supply, though,” Hal answered. Ollie scoffed. He was neither superstitious nor interested in fantasy. “I’d imagine they’re much more dangerous and desperate than their female counterparts. Without the ease of allure, they might rely on speed and force to catch their prey, hiding underwater and dragging their poor victims beneath the waves to tear them limb from limb.”

I covered my mouth. “It’s only a story, Roy. Cut it out, Hal. You’re scaring the poor kid senseless… It’s getting late,” Ollie announced. It was his way of telling me to go to sleep. I left the room and bathed. I sank into the warm water and shut my eyes. My mind strayed to the gore and sweet hunger of the dark-haired thing. I lathered with soap as my hands strayed to my privates. I imagined his bloodstained lips kissing me all over. They couldn’t hear me over the radio. So, I moaned freely. I could almost feel his skin against mine. The warm bathwater was the entire ocean. His skin must’ve been soft like a woman’s. It felt more natural than anything I’d ever experienced… But it didn’t feel common. No. 

I could only feel this way in passing. Soon, it’d be nothing more than a dream to me. I spat white paint onto my speckled canvas. I shuddered as I thought of him doing the same. He writhed shamelessly, almost glowing under the moonlight as he delighted himself. The creature bore himself into my skull and wouldn’t leave me. He was ceaseless… And I was insatiable. I knew someone would worry if I took too long, so I collected myself, dressing in my robe and pajamas before hiding away in bed. 

Ollie was right. The storm set in after I laid down. The wind and rain shook the outer shutters, and thunder shook the house. I loved listening to storms when I didn’t have to go out in them, but something about this one seemed strange. I had a dreadful feeling wash over me as the kisses I imagined turned into bites. Devastatingly sharp and taking chunks out of my skin. I didn’t fight back. I didn’t want to. That’s what frightened me most. I would’ve let him eat me whole if he wanted to. I fell into a deep sleep, so deep I didn’t want to wake up. 

I couldn’t remember dreaming. So, I could’ve been dead… Or perhaps… Perhaps my boy-creature was a dream as well.