#SHE RA BREAKDOWN......

[doodleisdead]

Gay cat has a mental breakdown

But make it

✨Angelic✨

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

(i kept forgetting to make this post for a while and only remembered when i was reading @antispopausandstuff 's recent post; sorry for the tag!)

i have to say this: catra having a mental breakdown basically every single season was pathetic.

usually villains have a third-act breakdown where they realize that they're losing to the heroes or they're losing control over their own allies, and they spiral into anger and desperation.

azula's spiralling in s3 of atla is a clear example of this, as she goes from the level-headed, cunning prodigy to a child who has lost everyone in her life and is desperately trying to use fear to keep people around. it's tragic because yes, she's a horrible person who enjoys torturing people and seeing them in pain, but she's also a 13 year old who was groomed into the perfect soldier by her father.

not all third-act breakdowns are like this though. sometimes instead of feeling bad for the villain, we feel satisfied seeing their downfall, because they weren't a sympathetic character in the slightest and they deserved to have that realization right before getting their ass whooped.

with catra, i get neither of these. i guess i felt a little bad for her the first time and i felt satisfied the second time, but then it just got boring.

there was no need for her to have a meltdown in every single season, only for the writers to use it as an excuse to make catra do even worse shit and hurt more people.

not to mention, her mental state wasn't consistent enough during these breakdowns. let me explain. let's take the s3 one, for instance.

catra is clearly rattled by the knowledge that shadow weaver picked adora over her (which.. wow who would have thought. but whatever). she is dissociating as she walks back to scorpia, there are tears in her eyes, she's devastated.

but then, as soon as catra reaches the horde with adora as her prisoner, she seems perfectly fine. she's calm and smirking proudly as she throws a bound adora to the floor.

and then when entrapta tries to oppose catra's attempts at opening the portal, oh no! catra is not mentally well again and she electrocutes entrapta. and she threatens to do the same to scorpia.

and then she goes right back to being calm and tells hordak that entrapta betrayed him (i'm sorry i don't care how good at lying someone is, i doubt they can deliver such a convincing lie when they are in a poor mental state) and mocks him for trusting entrapta.

and then throughout the portal sequence, catra is oddly calm. not just during the false reality, when she was pretending that everything was normal, but even after that when she starts sadistically torturing adora.

this doesn't seem like a character who finally snapped and is doing horrible things in a desperate attempt to regain control. it reads as a character who always wanted to do horrible things and finally got the chance to do it.

i can't view catra's breakdown in s3 as sympathetic because her actions seemed so intentional. the writers didn't even try to make it look like catra was going through some serious mental health issues and was only making such a dangerous choice because of that.

coming back to my original point, repeating a trope (especially a one-time trope like this) quickly gets stale. and it's even funnier when you think about the fact that catra basically had a dedicated mental breakdown every season and still didn't learn her lesson.

you stop feeling sorry for her and start rolling your eyes, wondering what atrocities she's going to commit this time. it's just the same thing over and over again, and it's funny that the writers used this as a way to keep reminding viewers that catra is a poor traumatized baby who definitely didn't make the choices that led to all this.

it's just bad writing. sure, in real life, people may have multiple breakdowns if they going through some shit. i can certainly attest. but it just doesn't work from a story point of view, especially when the writers refuse to hold catra accountable for your actions. mental health issues or not, you are responsible for your actions and you should work on changing your unhealthy coping mechanisms.

[canibalistic-brownie]

Me: I'm gonna write a cute little one shot about how Glimmer crochets! teehee!

Me, 40,000 words later: “Was it her fault she was born into a higher income household? Did she actively choose to put down the lower class? Is it her fault or is she just a lottery winner in a classist system of oppression? Your feelings about the system itself are valid, Adora, but is it fair to blame every person who has benefited from that system? After all she had just as much decision about being born into it as you did.”

[steponmecatra]

Me: what, I don't have a type?

Also me:

[neon-in-the-night-time]

will be ending 2023 doing what i love (watching a descendants movie)

[jessicafnstary]

[thenicedevil]

I need a fic of Nancy wheeler just breaking down. I need her to let her walls down I need l people to see her feelings

[desafrey]

you were always sure of yourself. / alt cult verse? 👉🏻👈🏻

there’s a slight twitch of fingers against stripped shirt. ‘ that’s what it looks like, isn’t it ? i have everything together. even when i pretend i have no idea what he’s doing. ’ but she does. she's known for a while. the people that filter in and around the house, the late nights, and the secrecy. it's just to get people to follow under him, they don't mean anything. it doesn't change the amount of repressed rage, and jealousy that's boiled over the kettle top. ' i'm very sure of myself when i say i want meadow gone. if i hear her incessant yipping over my husband again - '

[raayllum]

Sometimes it hits just how tonally different The Dragon Prince is from virtually every other kids show on TV and I lose my mind. I'd argue something like Infinity Train gets closest with its emphasis on psychological horror and morality, or even Transformers: Prime (if you know, you know) with its severe focus on war (aka one of the more lowkey episodes is a main character having a suicide bomb forcibly strapped to their chest). Steven Universe Future and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaeceous/Chaos Theory are also probably honourable mentions.

All of these shows have mature content in them, which isn't different from more popular shows like Owl House, She-Ra, or even ATLA, but often times in aforementioned three that content is presented in lighter ways and/or interrupted by bathos (this is true for She-Ra in particular). Most of TOH's heaviness is reserved for S2 Hunter or S3 Luz; ATLA has some episodes that particularly emotionally heavy (The Southern Raiders, Zuko Alone, the Southern Air Temple) or are quite hitting in exploring themes of colonization (Imprisoned, City of Walls and Secrets, Northern Air Temple), but a good deal, I'd say even the majority, are also pretty fun shenanigans, too. To be clear as well, a lighter tone is not a Problem never mind a negative (ATLA has a very strong thematic point to its own about the sanctity of children and childhood amid the horrors of how imperialism strips it away), but it is a tonal difference.

And it's not as though TDP doesn't have episodes where there are fun shenanigans (Callum and Rayla's initial exploration of Xadia in 3x02 is nothing but fluff, Soren and Corvus are a more gay comedic duo in 6x02) but the series more or less operates like "What if every episode was The Southern Raiders?" due to its consistent emphasis on grief and morality. They use words like kill and death and murder all the time.

From the pilot / opening episodes

and to when characters are having breakdowns because they murdered someone (and we're still supposed to like them) or have done horrible things, with the show's heaviness ramping up particularly from S4 onwards.

When loved ones die (and the show has a body count of 20+ named characters who have died, six seasons in, some even being children) the show depicts mourning in all its stages and ugly glory. The sadness, the anger, the revenge, the desperation, shifting blame and cognitive dissonances, thinking you had moved on only for that wound (which never fully healed) to be ripped wide open again.

Characters get tortured by being electrocuted or having their blood frozen in their veins or beaten up (5x08). There are successful assassination attempts (1x03, 3x02). People, even children younger than the main cast of characters, are put on trial with the death penalty (4x06, 6x09). Within the first three episodes, a character is running down stairs and tripping over dead bodies.

Sometimes three different characters in one episode will be having a breakdown or dealing with something absolutely devastating to their emotional state (2x08, 3x07, 6x01, 6x09, 7x01). The magic system is a trolley problem on steroids. Do you kill a monster to feed starving kingdoms, or to save yourself, or to save someone you love? What makes it a monster? What if the monster isn't a monster? What if you have to kill a child? What if it means killing your child? What if it means killing yourself?

There are two characters who canonically have cannibalized other people, one being a blood-drinker / vampire variant.

This doesn't mean the show isn't fun or funny. One character consistently thinks bathroom humour is funny (while being one of the most tragic characters in the entire show). The characters cheer each other up, take care of each other, are goofy, etc. The show is ultimately hopeful.

But the emotional weight afforded to the choices the characters are making, even good-intentioned ones with unforeseen disastrous consequences, the way show focuses on their emotional processing (or lack of) is very unique in the landscape of western animation, especially to this degree, I think. Never mind the increasing amounts of blood. Nor does this make the show inappropriate for children! Tiny me was morbid as fuck at 7 years old, I would've loved it, and I know many kids from ages 7-12 who do in my work as a tutor. But when people say "TDP isn't like most kids shows," I think what that means is sometimes lost in translation in conflating it with what people usually say aren't 'just kids shows,' when TDP... really, really isn't.

The show begins with assassins sent by a grieving mother to execute a father and his child in revenge for the father killing her partner and child, and it never lets you forget it.

[gafurtle]

Amena, Murderbot, and Violence

Thinking today about Amena and violence in The Murderbot Diaries.

Like, Amena is from Preservation, a planet whose murder rate is barely above that of an uninhabited planet, where finding an unexpected dead body is so shocking that they close the entire space station IMMEDIATELY. And the other characters from Preservation tend to...let's say look askance at Murderbot's murdering. There's Gurathin challenging whether Murderbot has the right to kill Mensah's captors or Thiago being really upset at the thought that Murderbot might have killed the raiders who were trying to kidnap and/or murder the survey crew. There's also the moment that Murderbot thinks about how it's never killed anyone directly in front of Ratthi, and how it wants to keep it that way, so that Ratthi will keep thinking the best of it.

And Amena was raised on this planet, and so far as I know hadn't really left up until the survey assignment in Network Effect, who suddenly finds herself kidnapped along with Murderbot. And Murderbot is losing it because it thinks ART is dead, and ends up ripping one of the Target's lungs out in front of Amena while messily murdering it.

And Amena's response is...shockingly chill? Like, I guess she's also in shock and scared and Murderbot is the only person on her side at the moment, but it's still an incredibly violent killing done right in front of her and she never really seems to blink at it. Later, the very second that Ras shoots Murderbot, Amena jumps onto his back and tries to choke him out. Like, that's her first and immediate reaction--and this is like 30 minutes after the "Murderbot rips someone's lungs out" thing.

And there is something touching about how "ride or die" Amena is with Murderbot even though she thinks it doesn't like her. And about how willing Amena is to deal with whatever is happening. How at the end of that day, when they've been in a space battle and kidnapped and Murderbot did some murdering and Ras died and Eletra was almost fried and Murderbot was having multiple emotional breakdowns...Amena is worried that Murderbot is mad because she didn't defend it enough when Ras & Eletra were being verbally mean. Like, THAT'S what she thinks might affect their relationship.

I don't know what I'm getting at, exactly, except that I think Amena is a fascinating character.

Things Amena gets upset about:

Murderbot interrupting her date with a predator

Murderbot forgetting to talk in stressful situations

Casual racism (bot-ism?) from Ras & Eletra

Murderbot & ART not talking

Things Amena does NOT get upset about

Murderbot doing the killing

[hello-eden]

-Stopped rebirth-

Pain, rage, work, sleep

pain, rage, work, sleep

a cycle that goes on and on and on.

Jason doesn't know how to say anything to his family anymore. He knows some of it's his fault for how he came back but he also refuses to believe it's entirely his fault. 

Jason knows he shouldn't come back all right; he knows the Lazarus Pit rewrote his original Resurrection. He has no idea how he knows that's what happened but he does. Memories that make no sense that are popping up on the outside of his vision. Seeing people and thinking of names that are not their own. Doing things that feel like a habit that he has never started.

Jason knows something has been wrong for a long time and he tries not to rage at his family for not seeing it. The days where he fakes missions and just lays on his bed in agony. Feeling as though he has been hit by a thousand bolts of lightning only for it to relent then start again.

For him to feel nothing when he sees the glowing green eyes in the mirror but anytime someone else brings them up he feels like he's on the brink of a breakdown. Hitting harder than he should when he confuses the people in front of him for others. The urge to fight whatever is in front of him whether it be Friend or Foe. The knowledge that he doesn't quite believe he's human anymore that he keeps to himself.

The bone deep terror that Jason feels whenever Bruce mentioned something Jason didn't have before. The rage that fuels Jason's very being whenever Bruce reminisces. Insults on the tip of his tongue that Jason feels like are not for Bruce. The feeling of wanting to cry in the arms of the only father figure he has ever felt safe with only for Bruce to show again that he is not safe.

Wanting to scream that he did not want this, that the bubbling green under his veins is more corrupt than even Ras himself knows. The knowledge that Bruce’s obsession with protecting his home city is the one thing that brought Jason back. Unfortunate knowledge that Jason holds that he could never tell Bruce because the self blame he will inflict on himself would slowly drive him to Madness.

The flinches that Jason sees whenever one of his siblings gets a little too close. The knowledge that he can never do anything about it. He will spew insults at Dick but they will never be seen as playful as he means them.

That he will never be able to play fight with Tim as he wants to as those instincts that told him to bond went too far.

He will never be able to get close with Stephanie as all she has ever heard has been his horror stories.

He will never be able to have a sister in Cass as she has been in the middle of his violence for far longer than she ever should have been.

He will never be able to get close with Damien again as every single member of their family has made sure they are never left alone in a room together.

Pain, rage, work, sleep, repeat

[brucewaynehater101]

Janet who has been brought back from the dead by Talia and is now a researcher and Talia's lover, when Talia isn't trying to get her Beloved, isn't actually all that happy with her position or relationship. She's not happy with having her movements and research monitored and even hampered by the very clear skewing of data. She's an academic, she absolutely considers the biases and prejudices of her sources, except when it comes to information from the people she cares for. And she does care for Talia a great deal but Talia was never going to be Janet's forever person just like Janet knows that Talia doesn't consider Janet her forever person, her Beloved. She feels guilty though, like she owes Talia for bringing her back from the dead, owes Talia for keeping an eye on Drake Industries. She feels that she can't go back to Jack and Tim because Jack has moved on and, supposedly, Dana makes both of her boys happy. She misses her son desperately but she knows he's nearly all grown up and believes, thanks to incorrect information, that he has a new mother figure he's accepted in his life and she doesn't want to mess that up for him.

Then a wall blows up and there's her baby looking far too thin and on the edge of a breakdown and Janet now has access to ALL the information, including every little thing that Talia has been hiding.

Janet was not at all happy. Janet decided that she was going to be happy. And the first step in that happiness was going to be a very clear and permanent break up with Talia that consisted of a lot of explosions. Bonus that the breakup would inconvenience Ra's who had always been a bit of a dick and never listened to any of her reports unless she'd had a male underling present the information. Then some long overdue bonding with her son and discovering just what has been going on with his life. Followed by asking that one assassin trainer that had given her a few tips, Sandra Wun San, out for coffee.

[I fucking love you so much. Previous Janet/Talia into Sandra/Janet? Gods you're amazing]

Janet wants what's best for her kid so she, stupidly, stays away from him. She doesn't want to dredge up the pain of her death by reappearing before him. He has a decent mother now who is actually around for him.

Jack seems happy and is making more efforts for Tim. It's all Janet could want for them. She may no longer feel romantic love for Jack, but she still cares about him. She's glad he and their son are doing well.

Then Tim waltzes into Janet's room, is understandably shocked by her presence (particularly because her status as alive was never utilized against Tim by Ra's), and is dressed in some gods awful leather cowl. He's pale, severely underfed, and has eyes emptier than a water basin in the Sahara desert.

Talia lied to Janet.

Janet knew that she was being manipulated and that the information wasn't entirely accurate, but this is a level she did not perceive. Her girlfriend ex-girlfriend is going to pay for hiding Tim's condition.

Janet makes her escape with Tim and hears Ra's threatening him. It's another tally the mother adds against the man.

Tim is reluctant to do what he needs to do (and when the fuck did he become a vigilante?), but Janet promises to meet up with him after he solves the imminent issues/destruction.

In the meantime, she researches the hell out of everything she missed.

Jack is dead. Jack, someone she was so happy to see thriving, was murdered. Robin, Janet's boy, found his father's body.

Janet is going to fucking murder Talia.

The mother doesn't blame Dana for not being able to take care of Tim, but gods does it burn that Tim lost another set of parents at once (Tim temporarily lost Jack when Janet died and he now has lost Dana when Jack died).

To add on, Bruce, Tim's adoptive father, is also declared dead.

Her poor son. He deserves so much better than that. She should've double checked the information. She shouldn't have trusted her lover at her word. She should've gone to Tim sooner.

Janet can't live in regrets. For now, she needs to prepare to be there for Tim. She can't control him, put limits on him, or tell him what to do. She hasn't been an active parent in his life in a long while. Furthermore, he's almost an adult. He would not appreciate his independency being restricted.

Instead, Janet scours the news for all Robin related informational. It's not the most trustworthy or accurate of source, but she doesn't have any others. What she does find (her child has been doing this since he was thirteen?!?!?) leaves her with more questions.

There is one interesting French news article Janet stumbles upon (what was a thirteen year old doing in a foreign country alone???? She's going to be having words with Batman).

Janet's old trainer, Sandra Wu-San, apparently assisted Robin in taking down King Snake.

When Janet had met the woman, she was enamored by her strength, resilience, and power. If the archeologist hadn't been with Talia, she would have entertained the way Sandra's hands lingered when correcting Janet's form and the weight of her stare as the trainee practiced.

Janet isn't ready to jump into another relationship, especially with another assassin, but surely a coffee couldn't hurt

[iwannakisskissyoureyesagain]

more percy jackson headcanons

- there’s a small communal kitchen in the big house. it’s usually used for cabin dinners as a bonding activity, but percy and annabeth like to use it when they visit so they can cook and catch up with their friends

- percy loves to cook and he’s really good at it. sally started teaching him in montauk and now he does it whenever he’s stressed. now he’s teaching annabeth so they can do it together. she’s not as good as him, but she’s a fast learner

- nico and hazel like to watch gravity falls together

- reyna is like a sleeper agent when it comes to makeup. she learned a lot on circe’s island, though she doesn’t wear it a lot herself anymore, now that she’s a hunter. it’s not uncommon to find her and some of the aphrodite girls giving each other makeovers whenever she visits camp

- will and piper are both totally obsessed with short & sweet; his favorites are “slim pickins” (unsurprisingly) and “don’t smile,” and hers are “bed chem” and “please please please”

- will keeps trying to convince nico to dress as sabrina and jenna for halloween with him

- almost everyone who interacts with percy at new rome university ends up falling head-over-heels for him. he has no idea until they tell him, and he kindly has to explain that he has a girlfriend. he’s very flustered and confused every time it happens and immediately iris messages annabeth if she’s not with him. she thinks it’s hilarious every time

- annabeth and her roommate manage to hide a stray dog that annabeth found on the street in their college dorm for a week. annabeth cries when her ra finds and confiscates him, until it turns out that his owners have been putting up missing dog signs around new rome and she just kidnapped some poor family’s dog by accident

- piper dyes her hair cherry-cola-red and makes nico, will, annabeth, and percy help her/hang out in the big house bathroom for hours with her. chiron tries to come in and finds five teenagers sitting around a bathroom that literally looks like a murder scene, piper’s hands and neck and nico’s hands and arms splattered with red dye that will’s trying to scrub off, percy sitting on the toilet seat with his legs crossed and clenched because he’s had to pee for the past thirty minutes and no one would let him, and annabeth actually trying to tackle the dye in and around the sink. chiron made an announcement at breakfast the next morning that the big house bathroom was off-limits for hair dye and anything else that stains

- drew is a dress to impress FIEND

- sally watched the waitress proshot when it was in theaters and sobbed

- annabeth and sally carry around emergency spray bottles of water, partly because demigods are always in danger, but mostly because percy is accident-prone and falls off his skateboard or down the stairs on a daily basis

- sally and paul get annabeth a folklore cardigan for christmas and she sobs

- calypso LOVES ethel cain

- frank teaches hazel and ella about wikipedia. no one sees or hears from either of them for the rest of the day

- will is astounded to learn that nico doesn’t wear his seatbelt

- piper has a hat that says “women want me, fish fear me,” percy has one that says “women want me, fish want me too,” and leo has one that says “fish fear me, me fear women”

- percy and hazel like to sit in the stables and gossip with the pegasi whenever hazel visits chb

- meg has a breakdown when she learns that pigeons are considered feral instead of wild because they were domesticated and then abandoned by humans

- when estelle’s old enough to visit montauk, sally and percy take her, annabeth, and paul out there for a week because sally has never taken paul and percy has been saving annabeth’s first trip for when they can take estelle. percy lets estelle bury his legs in the sand and annabeth sculpts him a mermaid tail

pt. 1

pt. 2

[rad-batson]

The Robins as RA’s Because I Said So

Credentials: I’m an RA, trust me.

Dick Grayson: The “Cool” RA

His friends told him he’d be great at it so he applied

Holds your hair back when you’re throwing up in the bathroom

Gives life lessons at every opportunity even when you don’t want them

Sees his residents in the hallway and proceeds to talk their ear off

Knocks on your door if he hasn’t seen you in a few days to make sure you’re doing alright

Has the “I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed” face on point

You actually feel bad when he catches you drinking in the halls :(

Jason Todd: The Cool RA

Wanted something to pad his resume so he applied

Will help you hide a body. “Just ask.” You didn’t, but you can’t remember how it came up either

Doesn’t care about the Rules, per se, but he will judge you for lacking common sense

“You know what, Derek? I’m writing you up just for being stupid. You could have at least put it in a paper bag.”

Organizes all of his events last minute, best attendance in the building

One day, he lets it slip that he has a 4.3 GPA

No one believes him until he actually shows them with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face

Tim Drake: The Invisible RA

Didn’t want to go apartment hunting so he applied for the free housing

Do you even have an RA? Does he even live here?

Apparently, he’s like triple-majoring or something, but like…no one knows what for. Or how. (He's really Undecided)

Does the bare minimum, but somehow still excels at his job

Everyone who sees him has a completely different description of what he looks like

One person starts the rumor that he’s a vampire, which is only made worse when someone sees him looking ghostly pale while chugging some weird red drink (Ultra Red Monster) in the middle of the night

Stephanie Brown: The Best Friend RA

One of those people who actually likes living in student housing so she applied

Gossips with everyone

“You didn’t hear this from me but-“ and “What am I, your mother?” are her most common phrases

Will probably get fired just because of how many university secrets she’s spilled

Keeps her door open at all times, her room is super cute too

One of her residents walks in and says, “You won’t believe what my boyfriend did this time!” Stephanie is already popping popcorn.

Will let you get away with shit if you make a good case for yourself

Damian Wayne: The Try-Hard RA

It’s a tradition in his family now, and he takes those very seriously, so he applied

A troublemaker’s worst nightmare

He will catch you drinking. No one knows how. Even his boss thinks it’s suspicious.

Seconds from a mental breakdown at all times of the day

Absolutely livid when the event he spent the least amount of effort on gets the best attendance (He just brought all of his art supplies to the lounge and taught people how to draw)

Writes incident reports like they’re addressed to the Pentagon

A resident comes to his door crying because her grandmother passed away, and Damian completely blanks on what to do so he lets her into his room and gives her a really long hug while she calms down, then he sits her down and lets her vent for an hour. A week later, she comes back and thanks him for being there when she needed it. It sticks with him for years.

[night-night-stories-before-bed]

Don’t take my sunshine away.

Part 4

Warning ⚠️; Blood, murder, mental breakdown

Pairing; Bruce Wayne/Male Reader

Summary; Ra’s al Ghul is in Gotham, escaping Batman, Nightwing and Robin only to face you and you have to face the ugly truth when you realize someone stole Jason’s body.

~~~~~~~~~~~

To say you hated Ra’s al Ghul and his league would be a euphemism. Bruce was still marked by his time among them, his flesh still covered in scars and his sleep with nightmares. Not only that but Ra’s had more than once been a pain in your ass. He and his daughter, both were on your list of most hated people.

Thankfully, Bruce always knew how to reassure you and make you safe when they were around. After all, Thalia was his ex from before Bruce and you fell in love and she always was flirting with him. You trusted Bruce and knew he was faithful no matter his past, but Thalia easily got on your nerves by going after your husband.

And that week you could only remember your hate and disgust of them as Ra’s was spotted with his assassins. Dick came to help the second he heard the news. Every night, Bruce went out with the boys trying to find and catch him. The thought of Tim facing a master assassin filled you with dread and fear. What if you were to lose another son?

No.

Bruce would never let something like that happen again. He wouldn't let Tim get hurt. After losing Jason and almost you and Tim, Bruce had changed. He still was against killing but had become more reckless, marking the worst kind of criminal with his sigil. They would often die in jail.

It had deepened the rift between Bruce and Clark, leading to many disagreements and altercations between the two heroes. You had always stood by Bruce, telling him he was doing the right thing.

And now you could only wonder if it was the reason behind Ra’s presence in the city.

That morning when the boys came back from patrol, you could see on their faces that Ra’s had once more escaped their grasp. You welcomed them back with open arms and the first aid kit ready. Thankfully only Bruce needed some care, the boys were fine but upset and you understood them.

Once they were tucked into bed and you were alone with Bruce in yours, your husband broke down. You held him in your arms as he held you for dear life. You whispered sweet words in his ear, caressing his hair and kissing his face. You were careful around his injuries and bruises, not wanting to cause more pain. Once Bruce had calmed down, he stayed in your embrace as he explained himself.

Ra’s didn't target him that night, instead, he went after Tim and Dick. Bruce was still shaking up, body shaking as the adrenaline slowly disappeared and the reality hit him. You held your husband tighter.

- “But nothing happened to them, Bruce. They don't have a single scratch on them, you protected them from Ra’s. You are a good dad.” You told him, your voice barely a whisper as you dried his cheeks. “Do you hear me? You are a good dad and you kept our kids safe and I know you will always bring them back home.”

Bruce had smiled weakly, thanking you. You two cuddled more and you admired him under the morning light. So many scars and bruises and you knew each of them by heart. You could even name what or who caused them.

You stayed awake, watching over Bruce as he slept in your arms. His head rested on your chest as he listened to your heartbeat before falling asleep. You kept brushing his hair with your fingers, making sure no nightmare disturbed him.

Of course, nothing could stay calm forever.

The following night, you couldn't sleep at all. Bruce’s story kept replaying in your head and how everything could have gone wrong. You also wondered why Ra’s had targeted the kids. It wasn't in his nature to go for the weakest, so why did he?

You sat in the living room, facing the cheminee as you drank some tea while thinking about everything when you heard the floor cracking. You immediately knew it wasn't Alfred, the butler would have announced himself sooner and Bruce definitely was still out.

You froze in fear as you heard Ra’s voice filling the room.

- “Looks like Bruce left you alone, defenceless… at my mercy.”

- “I am anything but defenceless, Ra’s.” You spat back as you slowly got up before turning around to face the assassin.

Ra’s stood tall wrapped in greenish clothes. Your eyes immediately found his sword and you felt fear slowly crawl inside your heart. Bruce had taught you how to defend yourself and you knew how to use a gun, but against Ra’s? You stood no chance of getting out alive.

Your only comfort was that Bruce would avenge you and soon you would be reunited with Jason.

- “What do you want?” You asked, voice colder than ice. “Why did you try to hurt my kids?”

- “So many questions and yet none are the right ones.” Ra’s mocked Ashe approached you. You moved, keeping a safe distance from him, making the other man smile. “Bruce taught you well.”

- “Just like he taught our sons. You won't get away with killing me, Ra’s. If Bruce doesn't avenge me, I know my children will.”

It only made Ra’s chuckles as he shook his head. You two walked around the room, still facing each other. You could feel your heart racing in your chest, hoping it wouldn't be an agonizing death.

- “I see where Jason got it all, not from Bruce, but you. He really is his papa’s son.” Ra’s said almost mockingly.

His words enraged you. Not only was the fucker talking as if Jason was still alive, but also as if he knew your son. Never would Jason stay around people like Ra, if he was alive you knew he would come back to you and Bruce.

So how dare he speak of Jason? How dare he act as if your son was still alive?

- “Shut up! You speak as if you knew my son as if he was still alive. He is dead so keep his name out of your filthy mouth!” You snapped.

- “Are you sure about it?” Ra’s asked, smirking.

It was too much for you.

The disrespect, the mockery and the cruelty of his words made you see red. You didn't think twice and raced toward Ra’s. The man was too surprised by your reaction and you were able to land a punch.

You two fell on the ground, thrashing around and trying to dominate the other. You bit and scratched Ra’s when he had you pinned down. The snake got a few punches on you as well and you felt your mouth filling with blood.

You had managed to throw away his sword and it got stuck under the sofa. Ra’s hands grabbed your neck and you managed to hit him in the balls with your knees. No matter the pain, Ra’s didn't let go and you began running out of air. Lungs burning, you felt your sight get blurry as the assassin was about tonl break your neck. You closed your eyes, awaiting death.

To your biggest shame, you screamed when you heard a gunshot and warm blood splattered all over your face. You fell on the ground with Ra’s in a loud thud, gasping for air as you crawled away. Two strong hands grasped your shoulders and you tensed until you heard Alfred’s voice.

- “Master (Y/N), thank God you are fine. Here, let me help you.” The soft voice of Alfred was enough to calm your nerves as he cleaned your face from the blood. “Why didn't you call for me? Ah! You two are really made for each other, aren't you!”

- “Alfred? Alfred! W-what happened? Ra’s al Ghul, he…” you tried to speak, but your throat hurt like hell.

- “Dead. Thankfully I didn't touch you when I shot his head, but what a mess I made. It will take me hours before getting all that blood off the floor.”

You opened your eyes and looked around. You quickly found Ra’s body lying on the floor in a poodle of blood, half his head missing. Heart racing in your chest, you shivered at the thought of what would have happened if Alfred hadn't shown up.

- “Alfred, you need to…” You began, voice shaking as the butler helped you up before sitting you on the sofa.

- “Already done. Master Bruce and the children are coming back and I have already told the police about the break-in.”

You nodded feeling a weight lifting off your shoulders. You kept your eyes on Ra’s body as if he was going to come back to life. His words kept repeating in your head, filling you with doubt.

Before long Bruce and the boys were back and you melted in your husband’s arms as he held you tightly just like Tim. Dick covered Ra’s corpse, making sure you couldn't see it anymore. He stayed behind you, a silent support once the police arrived.

Gordon was at lost for words and you couldn't explain to him the full story. You stayed on the story of the break-in and that you didn't know him, and could not understand why that man tried to kill you. Thankfully Gordon didn't suspect anything and believed you. After all, Gotham was a hellhole so such things weren't out of the ordinary.

But once the police were gone with Ra’s body, you explained the whole story to your family. You kept quiet about how you had accepted your demise and emphasized how Ra’s said Jason was still alive even tho it was impossible.

Just like you, Bruce and Dick were outraged at the thought, denying the possibility. Only Tim believed it. There were so many weird things they saw and fought about, could it really be impossible for Ra’s to have brought Jason back to life?

The idea that that assassin had played Frankenstein with your son terrified you and you almost threw up on the spot. Bruce chastised Tim, but Dick got on his side.

What if…

What if…

The simple possibility was enough for you to need confirmation that Jason was still resting in peace. With the three of you against him, Bruce had no other choice but to agree to dig up Jason’s tomb. It was disgusting, horrible and needed.

You were all silent as you went to Jason’s last resting place carrying each a shovel. It didn't take you long before his coffin was in sight. You almost had a panic attack and it only thanks to Bruce and Tim if you didn't. They held you as Dick opened the coffin and froze before looking at you.

- “It's empty. Its.…” Dick said, voice shaking as you gasped for air. “Jason…”

- “Dick, stop it!” Bruce snapped and got up, walking toward the opened grave. “That unnecessary cruel and…”

You felt your heart drop as you saw Bruce froze and just knew. You got up on shaking legs and ran up to see. Bruce grabbed you, trying to stop you, but you said it. The coffin was dirty and, worse, completely empty. You cried, tears rolling down your cheeks.

- “Where is he? Where is my son?” You screamed, fingers digging in Bruce’s arms as your own body protested in pain. “Who took? Where is my baby?”

- “Easy my love, easy. We are going to find the truth, we are going to find Jason okay? Please calm down my love.” Bruce whispered in your neck as he held you tightly.

You collapsed in Bruce's arms, crying and clinging to him. The boys were talking but you understood nothing. Only your husband's sweet voice reached you even tho you couldn't calm down. The thought that someone had stolen Jason’s body horrified you and you wondered why. Why steal him? Why not let him rest in peace?

But Bruce’s promises were enough to comfort you and you knew your husband would do everything and anything to find back your son. Whoever did it was in for a beating, because such a crime wouldn't be left unpunished.

[stupidphototricks]

Roundup of my favorite quotes from Men at Arms. (There are so many. This is after editing it down by at least half.)

And then her gaze met that of a small, non-descript mongrel dog watching her very intently from under a cart. In fact non-descript was not what it was. It was very easy to descript. It looked like halitosis with a wet nose. -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Angua picked out the bottle and looked at the label. "C. M. O. T. Dibbler's Genuine Authentic Soggy Mountain Dew," she read. "He's going to die! It says, 'One hundred and fifty percent proof'!" "Nah, that's just old Dibbler's advertising," said Nobby. "It ain't got no proof. Just circumstantial evidence." -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

He liked people who loved and respected books, and the best way to do that, in the Librarian's opinion, was to leave them on the shelves where Nature intended them to be. -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Someone thumped at the door. "That's probably an angry mob right now," said Nobby. Carrot opened the door. "It's not an angry mob," he announced. "Ook." "It's an orangutan carrying a stunned dwarf followed by a troll. But he is quite angry, if that's any help." -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

"[H]as there been, in your opinion, an irreparable breakdown of law and order in the city?" "They turned over Throat Dibbler's barrow and made him eat two of his own sausages-inna-bun!" "Oh, I say!" said Colon. "Without mustard!" "I think we can call that a Yes," said Carrot. -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards. -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

"This your club with a nail in it. You will eat it. You will sleep on it! When Detritus say Jump, you say... what color!" -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

"Clothing has never been what you might call a thingy of dog wossname." Gaspode scratched his ear. "Two metasyntactic variables there. Sorry." -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

"As I was a-walking along Lower Broadway, The recruiting party came picking up people by their ankles and saying they were going to volunteer to join the Watch unless they wanted their goohuloog heads kicked in, So I went via Peach Pie Street and Holofernes instead, Singing: Too-ra-li, etc." -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Despite his deep distrust of magic, he quite liked the wizards. They didn't cause trouble. At least, they didn't cause his kind of trouble. True, occasionally they fractured the time/space continuum or took the canoe of reality too close to the white waters of chaos, but they never broke the actual law. -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

"Would he accept?" "Is the High Priest an Offlian? Does a dragon explode in the woods?" -- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms