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weyassinebentalb · 4 years ago

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Gaza Conflict Stokes 'Identity Crisis' for Young American Jews

Dan Kleinman does not know quite how to feel.

As a child in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, he was taught to revere Israel as the protector of Jews everywhere, the “Jewish superman who would come out of the sky to save us” when things got bad, he said.

It was a refuge in his mind when white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted “Jews will not replace us,” or kids in college grabbed his shirt, mimicking a “South Park” episode to steal his “Jew gold.”

But his feelings have grown muddier as he has gotten older, especially now as he watches violence unfold in Israel and Gaza. His moral compass tells him to help the Palestinians, but he cannot shake an ingrained paranoia every time he hears someone make anti-Israel statements.

“It is an identity crisis,” Kleinman, 33, said. “Very small in comparison to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, but it is still something very strange and weird.”

As the violence escalates in the Middle East, turmoil of a different kind is growing across the Atlantic. Many young American Jews are confronting the region’s long-standing strife in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

The Israel of their lifetime has been powerful, no longer appearing to some to be under constant existential threat. The violence comes after a year when mass protests across the United States have changed how many Americans see issues of racial and social justice. The pro-Palestinian position has become more common, with prominent progressive members of Congress offering impassioned speeches in defense of the Palestinians on the House floor. At the same time, reports of anti-Semitism are rising across the country.

Divides between some American Jews and Israel’s right-wing government have been growing for more than a decade, but under the Trump administration those fractures that many hoped would heal became a crevasse. Politics in Israel have also remained fraught, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-tenured government forged allegiances with Washington. For young people who came of age during the Trump years, political polarization over the issue only deepened.

Many Jews in America remain unreservedly supportive of Israel and its government. Still, the events of recent weeks have left some families struggling to navigate both the crisis abroad and the wide-ranging response from American Jews at home. What is at stake is not just geopolitical, but deeply personal. Fractures are intensifying along lines of age, observance and partisan affiliation.

In suburban Livingston, New Jersey, Meara Ashtivker, 38, has been afraid for her father-in-law in Israel, who has a disability and is not able to rush to the stairwell to shelter when he hears the air-raid sirens. She is also scared as she sees people in her progressive circles suddenly seem anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, she said.

Ashtivker, whose husband is Israeli, said she loved and supported Israel, even when she did not always agree with the government and its actions.

“It’s really hard being an American Jew right now,” she said. “It is exhausting and scary.”

Some young, liberal Jewish activists have found common cause with Black Lives Matter, which explicitly advocates for Palestinian liberation, concerning others who see that allegiance as anti-Semitic.

The recent turmoil is the first major outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza for which Aviva Davis, who graduated this spring from Brandeis University, has been “socially conscious.”

“I’m on a search for the truth, but what’s the truth when everyone has a different way of looking at things?” Davis said.

Alyssa Rubin, 26, who volunteers in Boston with IfNotNow, a network of Jewish activists who want to end Jewish American support for Israeli occupation, has found protesting for the Palestinian cause to be its own form of religious observance.

She said she and her 89-year-old grandfather ultimately both want the same thing, Jewish safety. But “he is really entrenched in this narrative that the only way we can be safe is by having a country,” she said, while her generation has seen that “the inequality has become more exacerbated.”

In the protest movements last summer, “a whole new wave of people were really primed to see the connection and understand racism more explicitly,” she said, “understanding the ways racism plays out here, and then looking at Israel/Palestine and realizing it is the exact same system.”

But that comparison is exactly what worries many other American Jews, who say the history of white American slaveholders is not the correct frame for viewing the Israeli government or the global Jewish experience of oppression.

At Temple Concord, a Reform synagogue in Syracuse, New York, teenager after teenager started calling Rabbi Daniel Fellman last week, wondering how to process seeing Black Lives Matter activists they marched with last summer attack Israel as “an apartheid state.”

“The reaction today is different because of what has occurred with the past year, year and a half, here,” Fellman said. “As a Jewish community, we are looking at it through slightly different eyes.”

Nearby at Sha’arei Torah Orthodox Congregation of Syracuse, teenagers were reflecting on their visits to Israel and on their family in the region.

“They see it as Hamas being a terrorist organization that is shooting missiles onto civilian areas,” Rabbi Evan Shore said. “They can’t understand why the world seems to be supporting terrorism over Israel.”

In Colorado, a high school senior at Denver Jewish Day School said he was frustrated at the lack of nuance in the public conversation. When his social media apps filled with pro-Palestinian memes last week, slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Zionism is a call for an apartheid state,” he deactivated his accounts.

“The conversation is so unproductive, and so aggressive, that it really stresses you out,” Jonas Rosenthal, 18, said. “I don’t think that using that message is helpful for convincing the Israelis to stop bombing Gaza.”

Compared with their elders, younger American Jews are overrepresented on the ends of the religious affiliation spectrum: a higher share are secular, and a higher share are Orthodox.

Ari Hart, 39, an Orthodox rabbi in Skokie, Illinois, has accepted the fact that his Zionism makes him unwelcome in some activist spaces where he would otherwise be comfortable. College students in his congregation are awakening to that same tension, he said. “You go to a college campus and want to get involved in anti-racism or social justice work, but if you support the state of Israel, you’re the problem,” he said.

Hart sees increasing skepticism in liberal Jewish circles over Israel’s right to exist. “This is a generation who are very moved and inspired by social justice causes and want to be on the right side of justice,” Hart said. “But they’re falling into overly simplistic narratives, and narratives driven by true enemies of the Jewish people.”

Overall, younger American Jews are less attached to Israel than older generations: About half of Jewish adults under 30 describe themselves as emotionally connected to Israel, compared with about two-thirds of Jews over age 64, according to a major survey published last week by the Pew Research Center.

And though the U.S. Jewish population is 92% white, with all other races combined accounting for 8%, among Jews ages 18 to 29 that rises to 15%.

In Los Angeles, Rachel Sumekh, 29, a first-generation Iranian American Jew, sees complicated layers in the story of her own Persian family. Her mother escaped Iran on the back of a camel, traveling by night until she got to Pakistan, where she was taken in as a refugee. She then found asylum in Israel. She believes Israel has a right to self-determination, but she also found it “horrifying” to hear an Israeli ambassador suggest other Arab countries should take in Palestinians.

“That is what happened to my people and created this intergenerational trauma of losing our homeland because of hatred,” she said.

The entire situation feels too volatile and dangerous for many people to even want to discuss, especially publicly.

Violence against Jews is increasingly close to home. Last year the third-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States were recorded since the Anti-Defamation League began cataloging them in 1979, according to a report released by the civil rights group last month. The ADL recorded more than 1,200 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment in 2020, a 10% increase from the previous year. In Los Angeles, the police are investigating a sprawling attack on sidewalk diners at a sushi restaurant Tuesday as an anti-Semitic hate crime.

Outside Cleveland, Jennifer Kaplan, 39, who grew up in a modern Orthodox family and who considers herself a centrist Democrat and a Zionist, remembered studying abroad at Hebrew University in 2002, and being in the cafeteria minutes before it was bombed. Now she wondered how the Trump era had affected her inclination to see the humanity in others, and she wished her young children were a bit older so she could talk with them about what is happening.

“I want them to understand that this is a really complicated situation, and they should question things,” she said. “I want them to understand that this isn’t just a, I don’t know, I guess, utopia of Jewish religion.”

Esther Katz, the performing arts director at the Jewish Community Center in Omaha, Nebraska, has spent significant time in Israel. She also attended Black Lives Matter protests in Omaha last summer and has signs supporting the movement in the windows of her home.

She has watched with a sense of betrayal as some of her allies in that movement have posted online about their apparently unequivocal support for the Palestinians, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. “I’ve had some really tough conversations,” said Katz, a Conservative Jew. “They’re not seeing the facts, they’re just reading the propaganda.”

Her three children, who range in age from 7 to 13, are now wary of a country that is for Katz one of the most important places in the world. “They’re like, ‘I don’t understand why anyone would want to live in Israel, or even visit,’” she said. “That breaks my heart.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

source https://www.techno-90.com/2021/05/gaza-conflict-stokes-identity-crisis.html

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Dark Knight Trilogy: Horrifying Scenes That Still Make Us Cringe

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Later this month, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is hitting HBO Max. Despite the anticipation and a near-guaranteed positive reception from the vocal #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fan contingent, this will likely be Snyder’s last foray in the DC Universe. Indeed, one of the studio’s chief complaints with Snyder’s vision, which they believe impacted box office receipts, was his darker tone when compared with the quippier MCU. However, Snyder’s approach only mirrored many of DC’s most popular storylines, from Frank Miller’s violent The Dark Knight Returns to the on-screen The Dark Knight Trilogy from director Christopher Nolan. Snyder can hardly be blamed for expanding on what audiences were already responding to when it came to DC characters on film.

Less than a decade ago, Warner Brothers was hot off of the success of Nolan’s trio of films that no one would describe as light-hearted or quippy. The Batman of Nolan’s films was not inspired by the kid-friendly or campy iterations of the character found in the Batman TV series from the ‘60s or Joel Schumacher’s films, but by Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween. That is to say Nolan and Christian Bale’s Batman sought to be a street-level, gritty, interpretation of the character that emphasized noir and a grounded reality.

Snyder didn’t make Batman too dark for film audiences, that was already done by Nolan. Below are just a few examples of the darkest, most horrific moments from The Dark Knight Trilogy.

“Swear to me!” – Batman Begins

Audiences knew they were in for a different type of Batman from the moment they heard Bale’s gravelly voice while he was in the suit. Whether Bale goes too far with his growly tenor and into comedic territory is up for debate, but the choice is certainly memorable.

Bale really gets to rough up his vocal cords during a specific scene in Batman Begins where the Dark Knight confronts crooked cop Arnold Flass about Dr. Jonathan Crane’s mysterious drug shipments. After failing to strike fear in Flass, Batman hangs the portly man upside down from a building. When Flass swears to God that he doesn’t know anything, Batman replies, “Swear to me!” his face tremoring with rage. This is the opposite of one of George Clooney’s one-liners during his time under the cowl. Bale’s Batman establishes himself as something to be scared of and as an all-seeing force to be reckoned with.

The Demon Bat – Batman Begins

While horror has seeped its way into Batman comics many times, particularly during Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s recent run with the character, there hasn’t been a ton of nightmarish imagery present in the film adaptations of the character. However, the hands down scariest portrayal of the Caped Crusader on screen comes in Batman Begins. When Bruce Wayne said he wanted to strike fear in the hearts of criminals, this must have been what he was talking about.

In the climax of the film, when Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow attempts to poison Gotham City’s water supply with his fear toxin, the good doctor is confronted by Batman and given a taste of his own medicine. The fear toxin takes effect and Crane begins to see Batman as a demonic, literal interpretation of the Batman, with black goo dripping from his mouth and jet-black eyes. This monster version of the Bat was certainly a step in the right direction for comic fans hoping the Batman films would get the terror element of the character right.

Bruce Attempts to Kill Joe Chill – Batman Begins

This scene from the first film in Nolan’s trilogy is the darkest because of how real it feels for the main characters. The moment happens not when Bruce Wayne is masquerading as a vigilante dressed as a bat, but when he’s a young man still trying to come to grips with the murder of his parents. Bruce learns that Joe Chill has been paroled so that he can testify against Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce waits outside of the courtroom with a gun, intending to kill Chill after his testimony. But when Chill arrives at the public lobby, one of Falcone’s goons beats Bruce to the punch, shooting Chill dead.

Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes discovers Bruce’s intentions and slaps him across the face. She berates Bruce and tells him that his father would be ashamed of him, something that undoubtedly must be hard to hear for the angry, grieving young Bruce. This moment serves as a sort of rock bottom for the character before he decides to leave Gotham behind and travel the globe, immersing himself in the criminal underworld, a journey that would inevitably lead to him becoming… the Batman.

Joker’s Pencil Trick – The Dark Knight

No one needs to spill more ink about how brilliant Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker, was in The Dark Knight. It’s an iconic performance that has forever shaded the public’s perception of Batman’s greatest nemesis. He’s simultaneously funny and scary, brutal and sniveling, chaotic and cunning. He can make you smile then suddenly want to shield your eyes.

It’s all right there from his first real introduction in the film when he struts into a meeting between Gotham’s crime lords and offers his services in killing the Batman. Nailing the core components of the character, his penchant for showmanship, his violent tendencies, and his twisted sense of humor, the Joker pulls off a “magic trick” by slamming a gangster’s head through a pencil that was stuck upright on a desk. Not exactly the kind of party trick that you’ll see Ant-Man performing in the MCU!

The Death of Rachel Dawes – The Dark Knight

While the Joker hatches many unsettling schemes in The Dark Knight, like televising himself murdering Batman imposters, threatening to blow up hospitals, and the game theory ferry experiment, his most despicable crime is also his most personal one. After being taken into custody, the Joker reveals that he has set up a no-win trap for Batman, forcing him to choose between Rachel, his love, and Gotham’s White Knight, district attorney Harvey Dent. The Joker has them tied up in different locations, rigged to explode on the same timer, and Batman only has time to save one of them. Joker gives the hero their addresses, but in a cruel twist, switches who is where. Bruce believes that he’s saving Rachel but saves Harvey instead. Meanwhile, the GCPD tried to rescue Harvey, but arrives just in time to watch the building holding Rachel burst into flames.

While Rachel may have been an underserved character, only really used as a victim and love interest until her ultimate fridging, her death was still a shock and a dark turn that other superhero movies, barring the otherwise forgettable The Amazing Spider-Man 2, have always refused to make. Rachel served somewhat as Bruce’s moral compass, and her death left the vigilante adrift and prone to his darkest impulses.

The Transformation of Harvey Dent – The Dark Knight

The flipside to the above is that Batman’s last-minute rescue of Harvey Dent leaves him scarred, traumatized, angry, and fundamentally changed. It’s not just that Harvey loses half of his face and becomes a grotesque victim; it’s that the minute Rachel dies, all of his idealism and motivation to be a force for good and change dies with her. With one act, the Joker takes away the hero that Gotham really needs to end corruption and injustice.

It’s not just that Dent falls; he falls hard. He murders police officers (corrupt though they may be), kidnaps children, and introduces as much anarchy into Gotham as the Joker. Ultimately, he’s stopped by Batman, but his death and fall from grace is a demoralizing moment, and the decision to lie and prop up Dent as the hero he was rather than the monster he became is a necessary but deeply troubling withholding of the truth. Don’t let the triumphant score and imagery at the end of The Dark Knight fool you; this is a supremely downbeat ending.

Bane Breaks the Bat’s Back – The Dark Knight Rises

Batman is a badass who is rarely bested on screen. Even in Zack Snyder’s interpretation of the character, he’s able to subdue a figurative god in Superman. However, in Nolan’s third and final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman finally meets his match, and it’s not pretty. After being lured into the sewers by Selina Kyle, Batman walks right into a trap and fight with Bane, the jacked terrorist who was excommunicated from the League of Shadows, and is every bit as badass as Batman. After eight years sitting on the shelf and a career of crime fighting that has left him battered, Batman is absolutely demolished by Bane, who pummels Bruce before finally picking the hero up over his head and snapping his back over his knee. Heroes occasionally lose on screen, but not like this.

Alfred’s Arc – The Dark Knight Rises

Alfred Pennyworth is a crucial character in the Batman mythos, and he’s typically portrayed as a compliant, if slightly disapproving, enabler. However, that’s not so in The Dark Knight Rises. Portrayed by Michael Caine, Alfred breaks hearts by revealing to Bruce that Rachel intended on marrying Harvey Dent and sternly telling his surrogate son that his war with Bane will eventually lead to his death and that he “won’t bury” another member of the Wayne family.

It’s one of the most emotional moments of the film. Alfred basically abandons Bruce, a decision that heightens Bruce’s isolation and hero’s journey. Alfred only returns toward the end of the film for Bruce’s funeral where he tearfully confesses to the late Waynes’ gravestones that he “failed” them. While Alfred’s story ends on a hopeful note, with him spotting Bruce alive and well in Italy, it’s still quite the breakup between Master Bruce and his most loyal advisor.

The Story of Talia al Ghul and Bane – The Dark Knight Rises

While the best villains typically have sympathetic backstories, few have as a traumatic and scarring one as The Dark Knight Rises’ villains, Talia al Ghul and Bane. Toward the end of the film, it’s revealed that Talia grew up in the same place that Bruce found himself in after Bane broke his back. Born in a primitive prison known as the Pit, Talia watched as her mother was assaulted and killed by the other prisoners. The pair were placed in the Pit in exchange for Ra’s al Ghul, with Talia’s mother agreeing to take his place in exchange for his freedom. Talia only survived through the protection of Bane, who eventually helps Talia escape the prison, but he’s badly beaten and disfigured in the process.

Following Talia’s escape, she locates her father and he returned with the League of Shadows to exact revenge on the prisoners that killed his wife and the men who put her there. Afterward, Ra’s and the League saw to the treatment of Bane, but were unable to stop the continual pain he experienced. Eventually, Bane is recruited into the League, wherein he is given a mask which supplies him with analgesic gas to curb the constant pain from the injuries he sustained while protecting Talia. If you thought Bruce had a traumatizing backstory, you must have merely adopted the dark.

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bow-down-im-your-queen-now · 6 years ago

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It’s Not What it Looks Like

Prompt: The relationship between you and Barry Allen was something that was complicated and hard to explain. He was dead set on keeping you a perfect secret tucked away from the world of superpowers and villains and being apart of a super league. His team has other ideas however. Of in which the justice league walks in on a scene that inst quite what they think it is, or is it?

Paring: Ezra!Barry Allan x Reader

Fandom: DCEU, Justice League

Word count: 3K

Warnings: Language

A/N: Was justice league a bad movie? That’s subjective but yeah kinda. Do i still love it anyways? Hell yeah. Ezra did such a good job and i just adore him so Ta-da. Enjoy and feedback is much appreciated!

Barry Allan slept like he was dead to the world. Whenever he actually found the time to just rest and go to sleep he did, hard. He could pass out for twelve hours straight and not move once if he didn’t set enough alarms. There needed to be at least five of them to stir him awake. And yet despite all of that, never mind how exhausted his mind and muscles were he could never find himself falling into a deep sleep when he was laying next to you.

Maybe it was because he was too scared of falling asleep and missing something, or possibly because he was too afraid to let his guard down, too scared to put you in danger. There was the horrifying possibility that he could drool or snore or made an ugly face in his sleep, not that you would care. Of course, there was also the fact that he couldn’t help but find you beautiful when you slept. The soft peaceful look that came across your face was everything to him. He could lay there for hours watching your eyes flicker behind your eyes, a constant stream of dreams causing a smile to twitch upon your lips momentarily. He knew this put him at an equal level of creepiness as Edward Cullen but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

He wasn’t sure what to call whatever this was. Was it a study date, does that make it an actual date? Would you go on a date with him? He figured that whatever it was as you laid in bed next to him, having changed out of your day clothes into a tee shirt and losing your pants in the process somehow made this something not platonic. But then again what did he know maybe this is what happens in platonic male-female friendships, you sleep pant less in the same bed after a ‘study date’.

He had been dozing in and out of consciousness when he heard the movement in his apartment. It sounded as if it had echoed from the kitchen and tension immediately worked its way through him. Of course, of all the nights for an intruder to break in they chose the night that you had passed out curled up against Barry, clutching onto his shirt as you snuggled against him.

He didn’t want to move. My god, he didn’t want to move. He wanted to just pretend that he hadn’t heard anything maybe then the intruder would just go away. Yeah, that’s it maybe if he was quiet enough whoever was breaking in would realize just how shitty the majority of his belongings were and just decide not to steal anything. It was a foolish thought but still, he considered it. But the thought of putting you in harm's way was even scarier than the possibility of never being this close to you again.

He carefully undid your lose grip on his shirt and moved your head from his chest to a pillow as cautiously as possible as he slid out of the bed. You hardly noticed and snuggled more into the pillow and Barry fought the urge to be jealous of an inanimate object. It didn’t take him long, of course, to rush from his bedroom to the conjoined dining room, living room, and open kitchen where he figured the noises stemmed from. Turns out there wasn’t just one intruder, it was five and on top of that, they weren't robbers ready to take his dated DVD collection but instead his team members.

“What is going on?” He whispered harshly gaining everyone’s attention.

“There you are.” Arthur blurted as he looked up from where he was raiding Barry’s fridge. “Get dressed.”

“What are you doing?” He continued to whisper frantically. “Why are you here?”

“You weren’t answering your phone.” Victor said bluntly.

“I was asleep.” Barry snapped. “Lower your voice.”

“We need to go.” Bruce finally interjected.

“Why?” Barry still felt half asleep and was struggling to process what he was hearing.

“There is a situation in Tokyo I will explain it more on the way there. We need to go now.” Bruce’s tone left little room for argument and yet that was exactly what the man was about to do.

“What? No.” He couldn’t help but scramble to say. Their timing couldn’t have been worse if they tried.

“Kid, Let's go.” Arthur called out loudly, his voice echoing through the apartment.

“Shhhh.” Barry snapped frantically, looking around his apartment quickly. Most of the group shrugged his spastic behavior off, it was nothing new. And yet Diana caught it, she saw the careful was his gaze lingered on the hallway leading to his bedroom just a little bit too long.

“What’s your problem man, we gotta go.” It was Vic who spoke up this time, his voice a bit softer but not by much.

“Can you all lower your voices?” Barry whispered again harshly. “It’s three am.”

“Are the walls that paper thin in this shithole?” Diana couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Arthur tactless question and blunt tone.

“No there uh- yes I have neighbors.” Barry scrambled to answer tripping over his words. It was at that point that Diana glanced towards Bruce who was already looking in her direction. A quick look between them confirmed that they were thinking the same thing. Barry Allan was hiding something, very poorly at that.

“Barry is everything alright?” Diana started quietly, her voice soft and low much to his obvious relief.

“Pff, yeah of course. Look I’ll meet you guys there okay. I gotta get my suit on and brush my teeth, and-“

“You can do that on the plane jackass come on we need to go.” Arthur cut him off.

“I’m fast I’ll meet you guys there.” Barry insisted flinched at how loud the other man was.

“You're going to run all the way to Tokyo?” Bruce pointed out.

Barry realized the flaw in his argument. Sure he could but he would be exhausted and no help to the group after. But still, he couldn't just get up and leave.

“Pff, yeah why not.”

It was at that point that Bruce decided to get whatever needed to be talked about out in the open. Barry wanted them to be quiet, well... in a quick and casual motion he pushed a glass of the counter and as if in slow motion it fell over the edge. Barry noticed a moment too late and rushed to grab it but for the first time in a long time, he simply wasn’t fast enough. The glass shattered loudly on the tile and echoed through the apartment.

“Damn,” Arthur exclaimed and Bruce tried to hide the satisfied smirk on his face.

“My bad.” He offered up sounding all to unapologetic.

The footsteps were quiet, the sound of them almost nonexistent and Diana probably wouldn’t have heard them if her hearing wasn’t so good. Clark must have picked up on them too turning his head in the direction of the hallway as well.

Barry opened his mouth to say something to Bruce but was cut off by another soft and sleep filled voice.

“Barry?” All heads shot in the direction of the hallway and in the dim lighting the could make out a figure. They were all able to see you easily in the shadows, even the oh so human Bruce (years spent in a dark cave having some advantages). Barry was the only one in the group with normal vision but he didn't need to turn to see who it was.

You walked a little more into the room speaking again. “Barry, what’s going on?”

As you spoke you reached over flicking on a light switch. You had been rubbing the sleep from your eyes as you spoke but when you lowered your hand you jumped slightly at the slight of the five new strangers in the middle of the room.

“Oh shit.” The words left you mouth softly as your gaze jumped from person to person. You knew who they were, even despite the ‘civilian’ clothing they wore in place of their armor. Barry had told you all about them but seeing them all here in person, staring at you was a shock, to say the least.

As for the rest of the league, they all took you in slowly, shocked as well. An over sized red shirt with a flash logo being the only thing partially covering your torso. Barry hated the shirt, you had bought it for him jokingly from one if those stands set up randomly throughout Gotham, still stocked with the ‘Superman isn’t dead’ shirts and plenty of Batman magnets. You wrapped your arms around yourself suddenly aware that the fabric only stretched to the top of your tights.

“______, I’m sorry we didn’t mean to wake you.” Barry started. His cheeks were beet red and nervousness was written all over his posture.

“It’s okay.” You smiled softly, the expression only lasted so long though as it slipped from your face. “I should probably go.”

“No no it’s okay you don’t have to go, I just, I've gotta...” he tailed off rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“It’s fine I didn’t mean to crash here anyway, I have to get ready for work in a few hours.” You reassured glancing over towards the digital clock on his DVR, you had to be up at six anyway.

“Right, right. Okay uhh.” He glanced around nervously as if unsure of what to do next.

At this, a soft laugh left you, with a roll of the eyes you only shook your head and then turned to pad back down the hallway.

Arthur and Vic check your ass out unabashed, the two of them exchanging a quick look in approval. Diana once again found herself rolling her eyes and sending them a hard glare but she wasn’t the only one with a nasty look on her face. Barry looked less than pleased though it was more than obvious he was trying to hide it as he sent a look their way having caught their wandering glance.

No one said anything for a long moment and Barry couldn’t help but squirm under everyone’s scrutiny.

“It’s not what it looks like.” His mouth moved faster than his brain and before he could think out and explain he found himself blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “We didn’t have sex.”

He was truly endearing and Diana couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face. Clark seemed to share a similar sentiment and she even caught a ghost of a smile on Bruce’s face, you had to look closely to see it.

As for Arthur and Vic, well they lost it. A quick look between the two of them and they were practically bent over. Barry was squirming again scratching the back of his neck.

“Shocker.” Arthur’s tone was teasing. “She’s hot. Way out of your league.”

Vic nodded and Barry seemed conflicted in wanting to tell him to ‘fuck off’ or nod in agreement as well. Meanwhile, Bruce’s momentary amusement was gone in a flash and just like that he was back to the grim voice of reasoning.

“Are we just going to pretend that’s it’s okay that she was totally unfazed with us being here.” Bruce started roughly. “Does she know?”

“Well uh... know what exactly?” Barry flinched slightly at his tone.

“About you, about us?”

“Yes.” Barry finally admitted sheepishly.

“You told her?” It was in that moment that Barry realized he really had fucked up somewhere along the lines. He has known you since forever, you were the first to hear about his powers, you went to class together. Barry’s life was so intertwined with yours it just made sense to go ahead and mention that he was apart of the league. You would have found out anyways by simply turning the evening news on.

As for the whole revealing of everyone’s identities, he probably could have kept that to himself but he couldn’t help it. Bruce fucking Wayne was Batman, he had to tell someone. And of course, you had so many questions he couldn’t find it in himself to tell you no. He trusted you.

He was thankful for your timing before he could say anything you reappeared.

“We will talk about this later.” Was all Bruce grunted crossing his arms as you returned. Barry gulped nervously and turned to face you fully.

You had replaced the over sized tee shirt with an outfit you had been wearing the day before. Your backpack was slung over your shoulder.

“You need to eat.” Was all you finally said breaking the silence as you walked into the room heading for the man.

“Oh yeah, I will. Don’t worry.” Barry tried to assure you, so many nerves twisted through him he couldn’t even imagine eating.

“I’m serious Allan. You burned a lot of calories.” You huffed crossing your arms. Once again Diana found herself amused, you were just as endearing as Barry.

“Burned lots of calories last night huh?” Arthur teased, snickering. “Doing what?”

You couldn’t help but peak around Barry letting your gaze fall on the man behind him. You could tell that there was no malice in his tone and had Barry not been so flustered he probably would have heard the yet again endearing amusement.

A smile spread across your lips as you winked at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Your tone was chalked full of faux innocent thrown off by the smirk still playing on your lips and for a brief second everyone was questioning whether Barry had been telling the truth of not earlier.

Arthur was at a loss for a brief second and you turned back to Barry.

“Please be careful.” You mumbled softly, the shift in your tone was drastic.

“Always,” Barry promised with a nervous laugh.

The hug you wrapped him in was tight and once again the team standing behind them was confused as to what was going on. Barry didn’t hesitate to hug you back, his hands clutching at the fabric of your shirt tightly. The hug lasted a second too long to be anything platonic and the quick kiss you pressed to his cheek as you pulled away even further solidified that.

You stepped away and it almost seemed like Barry wanted to follow. He managed to keep himself rooted in the spot and once again his nervous laughter bubbles out of him.

“so uh call me.” Barry finally blurted out.

You could only roll your eyes playfully at him finally moving towards the door. “I will.”

“Or maybe I should call you. Would that be easier? Yeah, I’ll just call you. Or text.” He continues to ramble.

“Bye Barry.” You laughed

“Right, I’ll talk to you later, I’ll uh call you.”

“Promise?”

“Yes.” He was quick to say and a flush spread across his cheeks. You save him one last sweet smile and finally turned around to talk away.

The league watched you like hawks and you fought the urge to shiver under their gaze. The only other woman in the room seemed to have the nicest expression on her face as you made eye contact with her.

“Please make sure he eats.” You couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Of course.” She promised genuinely.

“Thanks.” You returner her friendly smile and continued to approach the door.

Bruce Wayne in the flesh seemed to look in your way. The Batman. He was taller than you expected and powered radiated from him. His expression was indifferent yet the look in his eyes gleamed with a harsh judgment.

“Please tell me your getting him to pay your student debt off.” You teased turned back to Barry. He seemed to flustered to say anything but the others around the room cracked a few smiled and laughs.

As you glanced back to Bruce you half expected a nasty glare but instead your reserved an expression that you could only imagine was mild approval.

“Nice to meet you all.” Was all you finally said looked at each and everyone of them one last time before slipping past the towering man and out the door.

Everyone waited for the latch to softly click shut and then almost immediately all eyes were on Barry. He could practically see the questions forming in their brain and a slinky panic filed him.

“I like her.” Diana was the first to speak. Arthur grunted while both Victor and Clark nodded all in agreement with her. Bruce was the only one to show no sight of approval.

“Yeah me too.” Was all Barry said breathlessly his gaze still settled on the door.

“We need to leave.” Bruce finally grumbled sending Barry a hard look. “This conversation isn’t over.”

He began to move toward the door and Victor and Clark fell in step behind him, soon followed by Arthur but not before he sent a shark tooth grin to Barry. He sent one last wild look around his apartment before speeding through and turning off all the lights because god knew he could hardly afford his electric bill as it was. When he returned to the living room this time wearing actual clothes instead of his pajamas Diana was still lingering the now dark apartment.

“Oh uh, hi there. Ready?”

“Whenever you are.” She reassured.

It was as they were walking toward stage door that Diana draped an arm over Barry’s shoulder pulling him closer.

“Well, Who is she? Tell me everything.” Was all she said a small smile on her lips. A small groan left his lips and he knew there was no shaking the questioning of a determined Amazonian.

Barry almost dreaded the plane ride to Tokyo. Almost.

#my work #My writing #dc #dceu #justice league #barry allen #ezra miller #ezra!barry #justice league x reader #barry allen x reader #reader insert #batman #bruce wayne

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intothelazarus · 6 years ago

Text

this 1,631 word thing here is my novel. jk, jk, no but really its basically a novel. trying to cram all of sara’s life into one thing was very hard to do. i cut short and out lots of parts, believe it or not. it took me like three days to do this, lol. anyway, this is long overdue but here it is. this is my baby, sara. all of the details including laurel were worked out with megan, laurel’s mun and our amazing admin. thank you for all of your help. and thank you all for coming to my ted talk. enjoy the read, hehe. it’s a long one.

TW: Death & Violence

Biography

It was a snowy Christmas day in New York City and slightly older sister, Laurel, was not happy with her parents. They were supposed to be home opening presents, yet here they were in the hospital on Christmas morning welcoming their newest addition to the Lance family. Baby Sara was born to Quentin and Dinah Lance Christmas morning. Sara grew a happy kid. She played with her sister all the time (along with the occasional fight), attended dance classes and had this pet canary that her father bought her. Sara loved the bird but it drove everyone else crazy. The yellow canary was a part of their lives for quite a few years before Sara accidentally let it out of it’s cage and her sister’s cat ate her.

Sara never forgave Laurel for her canary’s death (although it was really Sara’s fault for letting the bird out anyway). This bitterness turned the young girl into a pretty rebellious teenager. Her trouble making ways often got her into tricky situations and often put her at odds with her father. She dated a lot of “bad boys”, much to her father’s chagrin, from whom she learned many things like how to hot-wire a car. Sara got into a lot of fights with her bullies, often with her sister’s help. The frequent occurrences of harassment created behavioral issues in Sara and caused her grades to drop, worrying her parents. This led to her father teaching both Sara and Laurel how to defend themselves.

The time she spent learning to fight with her father left an influential impact on Sara’s life. She went off to college and majored in Criminal Justice. She wanted to become a detective and although she spent most of her four years away partying, Sara managed to graduate on time. She returned home to celebrate her accomplishments with her family however, she was invited out on a boat trip with friends from college. She figured she’d have all the time in the world to be with her family so she didn’t think twice about saying yes to the trip.

Sara said goodbye to her family and headed off to celebrate with her friends. She was having one hell of a time but was somewhat nervous about the storm that developed. Her friends assured her they were fine so she shrugged it off. Out of nowhere, the yacht sank and Sara was pulled under, causing some of her friends who survived to believe that she had drowned. However, Sara managed to swim to the surface on the other side of the wreck and was marooned on a piece of the ship for days.

A few days after their boat sank, Sara was found by a ship called the Amazo, who took her on board but they imprisoned her in a cell. Days later, the crew dragged Sara out of her cell and were going to take her away, but were stopped by a grey haired man who took Sara to his quarters instead. This man introduced himself as Dr. Anthony Ivo. He told Sara he was going to save the human race, and asked if she would join him. Anthony explained to Sara that he was looking for a serum created by the Japanese in World War II called Mirakuru (Japanese for Miracle) which could increase muscle strength, enhance senses and regenerate cells, but the submarine sank somewhere in the chain of islands nearby. For the next year, Anthony protected Sara from the cruelty of his men and taught her many skills in the fields of biology, chemistry and technology. After her near-death experience and her time spent with Dr. Ivo after being rescued by him, Sara became more apathetic and cold, more technology and science savvy. She assisted Anthony in torturing his prisoners, though only because she was secretly terrified she would be the next test subject. However, Sara still felt a sense of loyalty towards Anthony for saving her life, no matter how cruel he became.

Sara went with Dr. Anthony Ivo and the crew of the Amazo onto an island called Lian Yu via a plane in search of the ship wreck. However when they arrived on the island, Anthony became extremely violent killing his crew members and guards in search of the Mirakuru. Sara freaked when he turned on her but she managed to get one good punch in knocking him out long enough for her to escape. She ran giving herself as much distance as she could from Anthony and spent at least a year on Lian Yu trying to avoid being captured when she was found by a strange woman. Although strange, this woman was mesmerizing and Sara didn’t turn her down when she offered her protection and a roof over her head.

What Sara didn’t know was that this woman was part of this secret organization called the League of Assassins. Its purpose is to hunt down and kill people deemed a danger to society and the world at large. The woman took her to this city called Nanda Parbat where Sara trained with the League and became an assassin herself by swearing her allegiance to them. When Sara was told to “choose a new name”, she chose “Ta-er al-Sahfer” which is Arabic for canary, reminiscent of the canary her father got her when she was ten. Soon after she was recruited into the League of Assassins, Sara became a cold-hearted killer, assassin, and proficient warrior becoming more capable, headstrong and confident. At some point during her four years with the League she and the woman became lovers. Despite this, Sara never forgot about her family and still cared deeply for them, but became afraid to reveal the fact that she was alive, fearing that they’ll reject what she had become.

Six years later, Sara left the organization and returned to Starling City when she found out that her family was in danger. Under the vigilante moniker ‘the Canary’, a translation of her League name, she stayed to protect them, before she was forced to leave due to the League following her, trying to bring her back. She was eventually released from the League of Assassins by her lover. She came back to Starling City and revealed to her family that she was indeed alive. Her parents were so grateful to have her back home however, her sister Laurel felt probably the exact opposite. She was pissed at her sister and Laurel blamed Sara for everything that happened to their family over the past several years.

Although their relationship started off rocky, Laurel eventually came around. They spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with one another as well as sharing stories from the past six years. Both sisters had changed tremendously, especially Sara. She was more quiet and reserved than ever before, being haunted and burdened by her traumatic experiences and warrior lifestyle. Sara, not being able to give up all of her old ways, decided to continue as a vigilante in secret while working her way up the police force. She was promoted to Police Corporal and about a year and a half later, she was promoted to Lieutenant all while continuing her work as a vigilante.

One night, while out as the Canary, she came into another vigilante going after a guy that was causing a lot of havoc in the city. Sara figured why not jump in with an assist. Being the Canary, she felt totally at ease and had complete confidence in herself. That would leave Sara feeling a bit reckless and a little cocky to the point where she had gotten careless. She let herself get distracted, shot and killed in the process. Sara was buried in her once empty casket from several years ago when they were first led to believe that she was dead.

Almost a year after her death, Sara’s corpse was dug up by her sister and taken to Nanda Parbat. When Sara returned home from the island, she told Laurel many stories about her time there including ones about the Lazarus Pit. It’s a pool of regenerative waters that allowed the user to heal themselves of any wounds, or even prevent aging to a certain extent. Well, at least that’s what she was told. As it turns out, the rumors were true. As soon as Laurel had Sara resurrected using the pit, she went after everyone, but was restrained. Sara was, in short, a monster. Laurel contacted a magical friend of Sara’s who performed a ritual to restore Sara’s soul to her body. She was soon happily reunited with her family.

Even after Sara’s soul was restored, the side effects of the Lazarus Pit remained for a while. She became extremely aggressive and bloodthirsty to the point of being unstable and unpredictable. Sara was so horrified when she nearly beat someone to death that she almost quit her job as Police Lieutenant. When the effects finally started to wear off, Sara became far more humane, optimistic and moral, seemingly having become against killing her enemies in general. She then decided to continue as a vigilante but with a new identity. Thus the White Canary was born.

It’s been about a year and a half since Sara’s resurrection. She’s been promoted to Police Captain down at the precinct and still goes out at night as a vigilante. The details of her death are still a little fuzzy to her and even now, she doesn’t know that Laurel knows about her work as a vigilante. Sara is very outspoken and she knows how to have a great time, she’ll more than likely drink you under the table. Beneath her cold exterior, you’ll find a kind-hearted young lady who is very protective of her family and friends.

Little Tidbits

She loves to party and is usually upbeat.

She’s a dog person; she likes them dumb and loyal.

She loves horror movies and Halloween is one of her favorite holidays.

She started off as a vigilante originally called the ‘Canary’ as opposed to ‘White Canary’.

#nehqsintro #sorry this is soooo late #and long lol #tw: death #tw: violence

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