#a vigilante having a code against killing people is a good thing! right to fair trial is important!

[stars-obsession-pit]

Hello! Can do a chapter fic off this fic prompt Danny phantom x dc: https://www.tumblr.com/corkinavoid/767516270934556672/dpxdc-legal-power?source=share

This isn’t a one-to-one recreation of that dialogue but it’s based on that as a framework/premise

Batman dropped down into the room behind a pair of figures—a teenage boy and a slumped adult—letting his landing create an audible thump to alert them of his presence.

If the teen noticed, he didn’t react. Even as Bruce approached, he continued to stare impassively at the wheezing figure on the ground, an old wooden bat with flaking green paint on its side loosely held in his right hand. Bruce had already suspected who the figure would be since he arrived, but seeing the Joker so broken was still bizarre. No laughing, no schemes. He didn’t even seem to be attempting to escape his binds, just… lying there, almost as if pinned in place.

Bruce paused a step behind the teen. “I don’t know what the Joker did to you, but this isn’t the right way to go about this.”

The teen scoffed, and Bruce felt a painful lurch in his chest as he was reminded oh so strongly of his son Jason. “And what, let him go kill more people?”

“I know he deserves to face justice, but not like this. Everyone deserves a right to fair trial. No one person should be judge, jury, and executioner.”

The teen turned to look at him with glowing green eyes, and Batman felt himself freeze. He had faced gods before, yet even using that as a comparison felt like an understatement. The boy’s eyes belonged to someone far older than his teenage form implied, and they radiated power. Inevitability.

When the teen—no, the entity—spoke again, his words carried an unearthly echo. “Perhaps, but I’m not acting for just myself.” He paused, glanced down at the Joker, then asked almost conversationally, “Do you know how many people he’s killed?”

Another pause, but before Bruce could even try to answer, the entity continued, “Eight hundred and fifty-six. He’s ended the lives of eight hundred and fifty-six human souls. I can tell you about every single one, if you want. About who they were, what their dreams were before he killed them. About the pain they felt at his hands.”

He punctuated the word ‘pain’ by raising up the wooden bat in his hands and ramming its end down onto the Joker’s arm. He let out a wheeze, muffled by the gag in his mouth.

“I have a duty to my people. I am the King of the In-Between and of all the souls that pass through it—even ones whose stays were as brief as his. I am the rightful arbiter of his fate. And with that power, I sentence him to death.”

He raised the bat again, adjusting his grip so he’d hit with the side rather than the end this time, then paused and let out a chuckle. “Of course, just because it’s based on some justice doesn’t mean I can’t have a bit of fun with it too.” He swung the bat down, slamming it into the Joker’s side, then hooked it under the clown’s torso and flicked him up through the air to slam into the wall. “We all really hate this guy.”

With the entity’s attention fully turned away from him as he sauntered towards the Joker’s slumped figure, Bruce could finally unfreeze himself.

Even if the Ghost King did have the right to pass judgement on Joker, Bruce still couldn’t let torture go on like this. He wouldn’t win a direct fight, but he could hopefully at least grab the Joker and bring him over to the police. Carefully, he reached for some of the smoke bombs and batarangs on his belt and readied his grapple. He’d have to do this very, very fast.

But before he could move, another figure entered the scene. Red Hood, emerging from the shadows on the far side of the room, an unexpected bit of a pep to his step.

“Nice to see someone else who gets that that bastard needs to die. But if I may make a suggestion, how ‘bout you use a crowbar instead of that old bat? It’d be a bit more… fitting.”

[prince-of-elsinore]

On Gunslingers, the "March of Progress," and Leaving a Legacy

An analysis of themes in Supernatural Season 12

In a previous post rambling about season 12, I stumbled onto the idea of American Hunters vs. the British Men of Letters as a classic Western set-up: the lone gunslinger who lives by his wits, skill, grit, and personal moral code, vs. the advance of "civilization" colonizing and "taming" the West, effectively pushing out the gunslinger and making him obsolete. The land becomes a more inhabitable place (for white settlers), but with the comforts and safety of civil society come society's norms and mores, which leave no space for the shades of gray in which the vigilante gunslinger operates. If we take the BMOL mission at face value, they are attempting the same sort of colonization of "wild" (monster-infested) America. Britain is "civilized" (monster-free) thanks to the BMOL, whereas in the US, lone operator hunters (gunslingers) rove the country, sometimes saving people, but not all the people, and always operating according to their personal judgment, faulty as it may be (see Gordon, Roy and Walt, Martin, to name a few). Leaving aside the question of whether the BMOL's goal of ridding the country of monsters is realistic (the US in not an island like Britain), their aim, if achieved, would undoubtedly make the US a safer country for its human residents.

(I'm aware that this analogy is problematic for equating monsters with native inhabitants who must be wiped out or assimilated, and humans with white colonizers. This is an implication that the show itself makes. This post isn't about the problematic and ethically inconsistent portrayal of monsters in Supernatural, though, which is a huge topic in and of itself, so I acknowledge that it is an issue, but one I don't aim to address here.)

What the US would lose if the BMOL succeeded is the "rugged individualism" of the hunter ethos, and the nuances that their personal codes allow--a second chance for the psychic Magdas and werewolf Claire Novaks of the world. The show, of course, wants us to side with the hunters, the good ol' fashioned gunslingers. It makes it easy (too easy) for us to do by presenting the BMOL as caricaturish villains with a cruelly rigid code. This has the effect of aligning the audience against the "march of progress" (just as many Westerns implicitly do--therein lies the genre's subversive potential).

Let's take a closer look at 12x14 "The Raid" in this light. The Alpha vampire has been drawn out of retirement by the BMOL's meddling:

Alpha: I'm old. I like living quietly. You've been making my life awfully noisy lately. You've killed so many of my children. I've seen your work. In England, I didn't get involved because, well, it's England. But America, yes. America is my home. And it's time that you get off my lawn.

Clearly, America holds a privileged position in monsters' minds, or at least in this particular very, very old monster's mind. It is still the "Wild West," and it is "home" for monsters. No reason is given for this; it's safe to say it's a purely ideological impulse on the part of the show.

This exchange between Sam and the Alpha follows:

Sam: My family and I, we kill vamps when they get out of line. And you've let us. Alpha: I have many children, Sam. What's one, two, here or there? Sam: Exactly. So? Let my mom and me go. We'll walk away, go back to the way things were, to the way things are supposed to be. Hunters and vampires, cops and robbers, a fair fight.

"Cowboys and Indians" could just as easily fill in for "cops and robbers" there--in fact, the obvious absence of that analogy is a ringing silence. The show is skirting dangerously close around the edges of its uncomfortable premise.

What I want to draw attention to, though, is Sam's assertion that this is a "fair fight." What he's proposing is a return to the status quo, where some people, by default, will die. Of course, Sam is bluffing--he does plan to kill the Alpha here and now, hardly "fighting fair" (hm, just as European settlers made so many underhanded deals with Native Americans)--and at the end of the episode he does team up with the BMOL. By the end of the season, though, with the hunters uniting to drive out the British invaders, this is precisely the status quo the Americans are fighting for: one where many people who don't deserve will die at the hands of monsters, but perhaps a few others will live whom the BMOL would have killed. The protracted struggle between humans and monsters is thereby positioned as a sort of natural symbiosis, part of the circle of life. This allows for the perpetuation of the mythic "Wild West," which is necessary for the very existence of the show, and especially for the hunters to be seen as the "good guys." The show convinces us to reject "civilization" and embrace vigilantism as better than the alternative. It's impossible to pinpoint this ideology as exclusively conservative or progressive; it has implications in either direction. The world of hunters and monsters was never a perfect metaphor, after all, but one thing is clear in season 12: hunters are the heroes.

This brings me to another central theme of the season: legacy. After season 11, it seems that the show wanted to "correct course." Season 11 is entirely about Sam and Dean cleaning up a mess (the Darkness) they directly caused, after all, and after that narrowly-averted apocalypse, it's fair to ask the question, "do Sam and Dean really do more good than harm"? Season 12 gives us a resounding "yes," over and over again. The message is that hunting, for all its hardships and messiness, is worth it.

In 12x06 "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox" (which I've written about previously) we get a taste of the sort of legacy Sam and Dean are making for themselves. It might come as a surprise, after seeing hunters hunt down Sam and Dean in previous seasons (Gordon and Kubrick in season 2, Roy and Walt in season 5), that other hunters now welcome Sam and Dean in their midsts and even revere them. One might rightfully ask, what would they do if they knew Sam and Dean and their codependency nearly caused another apocalypse not too long ago? Inconsistencies aside, it's apparent that Sam and Dean are appreciated as something like heroes in their own world. In the episode, they share this exchange:

Sam: Did you know people tell stories about us? Dean: Yeah. Apparently we’re a little bit legendary. Sam: Yeah, but, I mean, so was Asa. Then a hunt went bad, and he ended up hanging from a tree, alone in the woods.

Sam still wonders, characteristically, if the heroism is worth it. But in 12x09 "First Blood," he's the one with this iconic line:

SAM: We’re the guys that save the world.

This is a statement of identity, in response to the question "who are you?" Sam might as well say, "we're the heroes."

In 12x11 "Regarding Dean," Dean has his moment to affirm that their line of work is worth its toll. Talking about the curse that made Dean lose his memory, Sam makes this comment:

Sam: Some of the things we've done, we've had this weight for... forever. And seeing it gone, uh, you looked happy. Dean: Huh. Well, look, was it nice to drop our baggage? Yeah, maybe. Hell, probably. But it wasn't just the crap that got lost. I mean, it was everything. It was us, it was what we do, you know? All of it. So... that's what being happy looks like? I think I'll pass.

Again, Dean is making a statement of identity. The Winchesters are what they do, and what they do is the right thing, and that is worth giving up happiness for.

One common complaint about season 12 is that it heroizes Sam and Dean too much. They were never meant to be the Big Damn Heroes, the "guys who save the world," as if it's a day job--they're meant to be the underdogs, the messy humans doing their best, sometimes failing, but rising to the occasion when it counts most, despite the terrible costs. Perhaps this is true, and perhaps this season does go overboard in trying to smooth over the messy cracks in the heroic facade. The show could have done better than to make the heroes and villains so black and white, certainly. Perhaps the show does lose some of its identity in erasing the moral ambiguities that always made it so intriguing.

There are moments, however, that are still thematically resonant with the show as a whole--more understated moments that remember the bigger picture. One such moment is when legacy is explicitly addressed in 12x18 "The Memory Remains":

Dean: What do you think our legacy's gonna be? When we're gone, I mean, after all the stuff we've done, you think folks will remember us? You know, like, a hundred years from now? Sam: No. Dean: Oh, that's nice. Sam: Well, I mean... Guys like us, we're not exactly the type of people they write about in history books, you know? Dean: Mm. Sam: But the people we saved, they're our legacy. And they'll remember us and then I guess... We'll eventually fade away, too. That's fine, because we left the world better than we found it, you know.

This exchange presents Sam and Dean's heroism on a human scale. They're not the guys that save the whole world--even if they did do that, a few times. They're the guys that save individual human lives, time and again. That's who they are, and it's what matters most. Sam's right: in the world of Supernatural, few people 100 years on will know the names of Sam and Dean Winchester. Perhaps a few hunter stories will still be passed around, and maybe a new resident of the bunker will piece together some old information. But everyone that the Winchesters saved will remember them for the rest of their lives, and those very lives they get to live are the Winchesters' legacy. Once those people pass away, Sam and Dean will fade from memory, but for them, it was never about being remembered; it was always about doing good--a common aim to which they are equally committed, at this point. Sam and Dean's greatest redemption has never been in saving the world (often from problems they themselves caused), but in saving people, and this holds true to the very end of the show.

[gothamslimpestwrist]

s1e3 the balloonman

killcount: 

davis lamond: ronald danzer, bill cranston, dog walking lady (on accident), cardinal quinn

oswald cobblepot: mob mook who tried to sell him back to fish, dish washer @ bamonte’s

butch gilzean (offscreen, on orders from fish mooney): “natalia” (falcone’s girl), “lazlo” (fish’s lover)

episode total: 8 total count: 20

the dark knight rises: lots. this is the first vigilante villain in the show, and the response to him going after corruption foreshadows a city willing to accept the protection of a batman. the cops are bad; we see cranston, who beats suspects w/ his “partner o’brien” (a trophy). harvey goes out of his way to emphasize that cranston’s not that bad, which is probably true for cop standards. he beats a suspect in custody and a drug dealer he’s got a deal with. and that’s not nearly the worst of the shit this city has seen. oswald returns and sees a kid picking pockets, a cop taking “protection” money, a mugger running off with a purse, and some hookers soliciting, pretty much in the same 30 seconds. 

the city is sick. it needs someone. 

on bruce’s end, though, he’s like...legit not doing so well. he’s starving himself now, and he’s obsessed w/ the pictures he got of his parents’ dead bodies. he says he’s looking for clues (to which alfred snarks, “oh, so you’re a detective now?” ...yeah, the World’s Greatest Detective), but if you think about the sword fighting scene, alfred is trying to turn the “training” into something productive and channel bruce’s feelings, but bruce repeatedly states that he doesn’t want to do this, while alfred continues to hit him anyway. alfred is trying, you know? but he’s not yet a substitute for a real parent, much less a psychiatrist. he’s the one who pushes bruce toward actually training and fighting and repressing his emotions, rather than going to a therapist and being treated and learning to move on. i would argue that one of the things the first season does rather well is illustrate alfred in that role--bruce has, perhaps, the potential to become batman from the start, but alfred is the one who pushes him down that path by closing down the other ones.

gotham, in its infinite subtleties, does two more things with the balloonman: set up bruce’s “no kill” rule (although the gentle art of making enemies does this again and better) by having him comment that, because the balloonman killed people, he was no better than the criminals. (to be fair, this is more acceptable coming from a sheltered, traumatized 14 year old who just saw his parents murdered than it is from jim, a literal murderer, who espouses the same logic), and establish the need for batman with the question by reporter: “now that the balloonman is gone, who will defend the people of gotham?” 

who, indeed.

(sidenote: this has been a set piece since episode 1, but i did want to discuss the oath of the horatii in the wayne manor living room. i took art history once in high school and it made me insufferable for the rest of my life.

so, like, the painting depicts 3 brothers pledging to defend this city state with their lives--very subtle. but also, as backstory, of the 3 brothers, only 1 survives to actually do that. i would argue that this is sort of a showcase to the origins of batman. three potential defenders: thomas wayne, jim gordon, and bruce. thomas wayne, obviously, is dead. jim isn’t, but we all know that eventually there will be a moral failure that ends with his ideology also failing to protect the city. meanwhile, bruce will “survive” to become the dark knight....

oh, and the lady in the corner crying over there is the sister of these brothers, who was to be engaged to one of the men who they’re going out to kill. no matter who wins, she’s going to lose someone she loves, and i think that’s also about bruce’s path for the show... he can save the city or he can’t, but no one is coming out of this happily.)

continuity: oswald makes it back to gotham. now shit gets serious <3

he weasels his way into the dishwasher position at bamonte’s, maroni’s favorite restaurant. we meet maroni, falcone’s strongest competitor, who we heard of last time. oswald’s just a dishwasher for now... but he’s got plans. moving on up. meanwhile, both maroni and falcone make vague references to arkham, without yet revealing why it’s important. it’s just this Thing, and it’s gonna change the city. jim is confronted by montoya, worries about the way that she and allen are investigating the death of oswald. harvey says, “end of the day, nobody cares about cobblepot.” oh, if only he knew what the one piece of the puzzle could do... if only he saw things like oswald, in fact, who affirms, “gotham needs me! i am its future!” he’s... partially right. but not just you, sugarpot. really, mostly, bruce.

fish’s lover lazlo returns for the dead; fish has him killed for “bringing down the mood” after the beating he got in 1x2. so there’s confirmation; those tears weren’t for him, they were for what the action from falcone against her signified. fish turns montoya and allen onto jim gordon for cobblepot’s murder (in an act that comes full circle--penguin having started this cycle of revenge by turning montoya and allen onto fish and the gcpd at large for the murder of mario pepper), while mostly trying to push them against falcone, just a little. 

on a less plot-y note, lamond was a juvenile services worker whose last straw was the mayor using the childsnatchers from last episode to lock up gotham’s youth. so, 1x2 directly caused 1x3, and dollmaker caused 1x2. the wheels turn...

oh! and jim places selina at the scene of the wayne murder. so that plot moves.

sliding scale of barbara kean’s sanity: the stress of living with jim gordon is starting to get to her. she tries to lift him up, but once he’s gone, she gets high. montoya visits, and they rehash some old history before montoya tells her that jim killed oswald cobblepot. so that’s out... she also kisses barbara, and cracks are forming in her stable facade. how much longer can she last?

jim gordon trauma count: he falls like 20 feet onto a car. he should be a lot more fucked up than he is; lamond makes almost the same fall and breaks his neck. i think he at least got some cracked ribs, or something. 

characterization: interesting one for jim. we explore a bit of the way he thinks; he’s troubled by the fact that people only cared about what the balloonman was doing (in such a way that they were moved to stop him) when he killed a cop & not when he killed a corrupt politician, bc he thinks Murder Is Wrong. at the same time, the first guy really wouldn’t have seen the inside of a jail cell. so what does that mean for jim’s ideology? he clings to The Law bc that’s what he thinks separates good and bad--but that’s a copout (cop out, haha). that’s the moral complexities of a child, james. if he clings to the law, then he has someone else deciding what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s moral and just. but what if the laws are bad, or can’t protect people, even when upheld exactly to the letter? what then? jim got so used to following orders that he forgot how to make his own moral code--or he’s too scared to. But, we see hints of him doing it anyway. he’s troubled when barbara tries to praise him for his heroism, but maybe just bc he broke the law & got away with it. “everyone matters, or no one does” is a good start, jim. just examine who the laws are really made to help. 

for oswald: he gives his name as paolo to maroni when he’s trying to gain his confidence. i made a meta post about this on my other blog (which i plan to link in my next post), but the short version is that, for me, the name recalled paolo malatesta (a historical figure, but most notable for being one of the sinners in dante’s inferno), who was once said to be “a romantic sort, a man not really interested in the world around him.” ...this being oswald’s cover name when he wants maroni to think that he’s not paying any attention to what goes on around him at all. there’s also the more tenuous link of him giving his name as “dmitri,” which is derived from the greek goddess demeter, to the fish mook who recognizes him; demeter being the goddess of fertility, health, law, gotham’s future...

gobblepot: “hello, james. old friend.” oswald comes back to gotham and the immediate first thing he does after ensuring his sneaky little scheme is visiting jim--before gertrud, no less. and at jim’s girlfriend’s apartment. hm!!!

[dat-fandom-losertown]

Happy NHPC Day!

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Chapter 2

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Spideypool / Peter Parker + Wade Wilson

Warnings: None, unless you click the first link in this chapter. It’s just a flower, but it’s mildly NSFW?

Word Count: 4,862

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Previous <~

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A/N: Heyy... 😅 It's way past Feb. 15th now, but the 15th was my brother's 15th birthday, and I got roped into the activities (for the literal first time in 10 years lmao), then later that evening there was a power outage due to a huge wind storm. As for the rest of the days, I kinda just... didn't post the finished product for some reason? Like, I rewrote this thing, like, four times (and I still hate this but it's whatever at this point I guess), then I thought I posted it on the 16th but didn't?? So I was checking my other work and saw this was uncompleted?? So here! Take the late chapter! Better late than never I guess? 😅😂

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{ Yellow } [ White ]

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    The first and only thing Wade notices when he wakes up is that Peter is still in his arms. He rubs his face along Peter’s bare back and neck, enjoying the warmth and softness of his skin.

    [ That’s strange. He’s usually up early. ]

    { Yea. One of those nasty “Early to bed, Early to rise” people. Honestly, don’t they see the appeal of nighttime? }

    The second thing Wade notices when he wakes up are those fucking boxes, and the blissful “I just woke up and can’t remember much” feeling is gone instantly.

    { Uh, rude! }

    [ No, that’s fair. You’re an idiot ]

    { Again, rude! And hypocritical! }

    He ignores them both in favor of hugging his boyfriend tighter. Once he does, Peter exits out of whatever app he had on his phone and rolls over in his arms so their noses almost touch.

    “Good morning.” he says lowly, looking like he just woke up but sounding like he’s been up for a while. He must have just never gotten out of bed.

    “Mmm… Mornin’ hot stuff.” Wade can’t resist kissing him sweetly. “What has you in bed still? Hm?”

    Peter smiles, and it lights up his beautiful brown eyes. Whoever says that brown eyes aren’t beautiful can go fuck themselves. Peter is living proof that eyes like that may as well be the most delicious chocolate, they’re so alluring.

    [ I don’t think you’d describe chocolate as alluring… ]

    { Speak for yourself. My problem is that now I can’t stop thinking about that trend where couples would lick each other’s eyeballs. Please don’t tell me you’re going to do that to Petey, are you? }

    [ Even I know to have more confidence in him than that. Maybe. ]

    “Didn’t people die from that? Or go blind?” Wade murmurs out loud, knowing Peter doesn’t care when he does.

    “What did?” he asks back.

    “People licking other people’s eyeballs.”

    Peter gets that look on his face that he denies having. The one that says “I really wanna question where that came from because that was completely random and unrelated to our conversation, but I also don’t want to know the answer because I’m scared of the rabbit trail that lead you to it.” He rarely asks how he got to whatever topic he randomly brought up, but he always humors Wade and answers him as if he was talking to him and not the voices in his head.

    His expression turns to one of hesitant acceptance. “What are you talking about?”

    “When people were licking each other’s eyeballs for that one trend.”

    Peter just nods. “I think people went blind, but I don’t think anyone died. It was a risk, but wasn’t that back in, like, 2013 or something?”

    Wade shrugs and kisses Peter again. “Dunno. Yellow mentioned it cause your eyes look like chocolate. No worries, though, licking eyes is nasty.” he adds at Peter’s concerned and disgusted look.

    “Good, cause I’d never allow it.”

    “Same here.”

    There’s a minute of peaceful, comfortable silence before Peter breaks it.

    “Why the hell do all of our morning conversations end up like this?”

    [ Because you have even less of a filter than you normally do, which shouldn’t even be possible, but it is. Honestly, it’s terrifying. ]

    “White says it’s because we have less of a head to mouth filter than normal when we’re first waking up.” Wade paraphrases.

    Peter nods again, “Yeah… It’s probably a good thing you rarely see me when I first get up.”

    { He probably says some really cute things! Or maybe it would be much dirtier ;) }

    [ I can’t tell if you said “colon end parenthesis” out loud or just implanted a picture of a winky face in our heads and it’s making me uncomfortable. ]

    { Well technically you don’t have a head to implant that to. And I’ll do whatever the hell I want, so the readers won’t even get to know the answer to your inquiry. }

    [ Ooo, big word for you. ]

    { Yeah, bigger than your tiny– }

    “Wade, are the voices bothering you?” Peter interrupts, causing Wade to smile.

    “Nah, honey, they’re bothering each other more than me.”

    He affectionately bumps his forehead on his Peter’s and leaves it there, basking in the warmth.

    { You should ask Peter! }

    “Ask him what?” Wade almost groans.

    { If he says cute or dirty thing, of course! }

    “No. Later. ‘M warm.”

    { Pansy. }

    [ Right now he looks more like an Orchis italica than a Pansy, really. ]

    “Do I wanna know what those look like?”

    “What?” Peter pulls back.

    { Yesss! Nirlan left the links there for a reason! }

    [ Who the fuck is Nirlan? ]

    { Gasp! How dare you not know the name of the author of this fanfic! }

    [ There’s so many authors and artists out there, how are we supposed to ever keep up with them? ]

    “Can we not? It’s too early to be breaking this many walls…” Wade complains because hot damn the boxes are getting annoying, and, quite frankly, they’re taking over the fic at this point.

    The boxes don’t even get to respond before Peter is on Wade, kissing him in a way that is neither soft nor chaste.

    “Need a distraction?” he asks with that sexy smirk of his.

    “Always.”

    { I guess it’s dirty things, heheh ;) }

    [ I swear to god– ]

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    “And you’re sure that two hours is enough time for you to browse around? And you won’t get something absurdly expensive, even though we can afford it?” Peter asks for the third time right before they split up. Wade doesn’t even blame him for asking. They both know how he can get sometimes when shopping without a list.

    “I promise I won’t get distracted and show up three hours late with nothing or too much to show for it.” He hesitates, “Well, I can’t promise on the late part, but if I am late, I’ll have a really good present to make up for it!” He says it in his usual joking manner, but they both know that he’ll be on time unless something super-vigilante-y (‘cause he may be super, but he ain’t no hero) happens.

    Peter smiles in a way he can only describe as fond. Wade remembers when he was shocked every time he saw it on the other’s face, back when their relationship was newer and Wade’s self-esteem at an almost all-time low. Now, though, it only brings a rush of warmth. This person, this beautiful, humble, kind, strong man loves him– Him! A mess of a barely-if-at-all-human being that used to kill a shit ton of people for money and fun (even though they were all baddies, it still goes against the “Spidey Code”)– enough to smile all dopily at seemingly random times. Like, how did he ever get so lucky? What did he do in his past life do deserve such a sweet reward for going through the horrors he has?

    [ Maybe it’s less about previous lives and more about karma. You used to be an asshole and killed almost indiscriminately, so karma punished you. But then you started killing only people who had no right being alive, and here we are. ]

    { White! Did you just call Wade a good person! I thought you didn’t care! }

    [ Shut the hell up. The only thing I did was say that maybe karma realized that it went a little too far. I mean– ]

    “Wade, you alright?” Peter voices, holding Wade’s wrist and looking far more concerned than he should.

    “Yeah.” He shakes his head. “Yeah, actually. I think White just indirectly called me a good person.”

    [ I did fucking not! ]

    “Or, well, that I’m a good enough person now that karma decided I deserved one last good thing after all the shit it’s been giving me all my life. But close enough, right?”

    And there goes Peter, smiling that same fond smile as before, even if it has a touch more worry in it than it did before. Wade practically melts.

    “Of course you’re a good person. I don’t date just anyone, you know.” Peter kisses him quickly before letting go of his wrist. “Now we really should go get those presents. Meet back at the apartment in two hours, or sooner if we find something before then?”

    “You know it.” Wade blows him a large kiss with a wink.

    Peter catches it in a fist, which he then kisses and puts in his pocket before turning around. Wade follows his lead and turns to jog across the street while the crosswalk sign is still green. The bounce in his step doesn’t leave even as he slows to a casual stroll, or as casual as it can be in the middle of fucking New York City.

    God, never in a million years did he think he’d be a part of that couple. The couples who shamelessly blow kisses and make goo-goo eyes at each other in public. At least, not when it’s no longer the obnoxious honeymoon phase with someone he doesn’t really care for and he’s trying to subtly drive them away. He and Peter certainly aren’t in the honeymoon phase anymore, and Wade is actually trying his best to keep his boyfriend around for as long as possible this time before he inevitably ups and leaves.

    [ At least you’re self aware in that aspect. Nothing lasts forever. Even if you and him did, you realize that chances of you outliving him just because he ages is extremely likely, if not certain? ]

    { So you should get him a present now! A really, really good one! Not like your prank anniversary gift. }

    “Hell no, nothing like that. I was cleaning slime and glitter for weeks.”

    [ It was only four days. ]

    “Yeah. Like I said, weeks.”

    { So what should we get Peter? }

    [ We? ]

    { Yes we! I want to get him one too this time! He’s the only person besides Wade who tries to talk to us! }

    [I suppose that’s true… ]

    Wade can practically feel White thinking this over, but he already knows that there’s no swaying Yellow about this. He doubts (hopes) that Peter doesn’t mind that they got him stuff too. He already has plenty of reminders that Wade is insane as it is.

    { A blanket won’t do! And he doesn’t like stuffed animals like we do! }

    [ And he doesn’t like shoes or socks around the house because he falls off the ceiling easier. Mittens and gloves are out of the picture for the same reason. ]

    Huh, so White is planning to get Peter something, then.

    [ If I’m forced to, then a new camera. It’s functional and he’s been wanting that new Canon one. ]

    That is very true. Back when he and Peter were first moving into their current apartment (which is way nicer than either of them had before, Wade because he had no self-respect, and Peter because he had no money) found his old camera and eventually got back into the hobby. When he bought a more professional upgrade so he could dabble in selling some of his stuff, it ended up having a built in flash that turned on whenever it was darker than “in direct sunlight” unless he put it on the shitty “No Flash” setting. He returned it pretty quickly, but he still hasn’t bought a new one yet.

    Fuck, that would have actually been a really cool gift idea, and if White’s taking it–

    [ We’ll share it. ]

    Wade stumbles in the middle of the sidewalk.. Did he just hear that right?

    { Holy shit, I think you did! }

    [ Fuck off. You guys are hopeless. This is an offer of pity. ]

    { And that sounded very tsundere of you. }

    [ And I’m not going to grace that with a response. ]

    { Let it be known that White actually cares! }

    [ Do you never listen? ]

    Wade tunes the boxes out while they argue. As much as the camera is such a good idea– and he will be getting that; he’s on his way to a store he vaguely knows of to check for the one he thinks he remembers Peter wanting– he doesn’t like the idea of getting Peter something that White thought of before he did. It doesn’t exactly shout “I’m a good boyfriend” to buy something someone else suggested, even if he’s positive he would have thought of it eventually, if given some time.

    By the time he reaches the store, interrogates a knowledgeable employee and the internet for what the best Canon camera for Peter might be, buys a camera, extra lenses, a small, foldable camera stand, a reflector of the same variety, and a large, red and grey camera bag, and walks out of the store with several bags, the boxes have moved on from arguing and are strangely into the whole gift-giving thing. It was actually Yellow’s idea to get the stand and backpack, and White’s idea to get the extra lenses.

    He finds an empty alleyway to dump all of this stuff out and organize the goods into the backpack. He’s not stupid, he knows that alleys are usually where various crimes happen, but he’s also not so stupid as to let someone sneak up on him, either. This alley is completely empty, and it will stay that way either because no one comes around, or he returns it to its empty state. No one’s stealing his baby boy’s Half-Priced Candy Day present on his watch.

    It doesn’t take nearly as long to organize everything into and on the bag as Wade thought. Just put the default lense on the body of the camera and stuff that and the charger into the biggest hole in the bag, the other lenses get caps on both ends and they get put in the smaller ones. The reflector get is put on top of those and the bag still closes just fine, and the collapsible stand can be strapped to the side of this particular bag. He tosses all the boxes and bags into the nearby dumpster after pulling the camera bag on like a backpack and he’s ready to go.

    He casually heads out and starts making his way towards Target. That place usually has unique games that he and Peter sometimes play with a couple of other friends. That, and they usually have sinfully soft pillows, blankets, and sheets. He would get an indoor hammock chair, but they don’t own their current apartment and he doesn’t want to risk ruining the ceiling in order to hang it up. Besides, he doesn’t feel like carrying something like that back from Target by foot.

    [ So by process of elimination, you’re getting yet another soft blanket or pillow? ]

    “Listen, I don’t need your sass. There is no such thing as too many soft things, and Peter completely agrees.” he responds out loud. He is far beyond not giving a fuck about what other people (who aren’t Peter, of course) think about him.

    { That may be so, but, like, this is your chance to buy matching onesies? }

    “Peter doesn’t like onesies. They get too hot for him too fast, and they usually fall under the ‘no shoes or socks’ thing.” Wade gasps, “Gloves! He doesn’t like gloves because they cover his fingertips!”

    [ Yes, we all knew this Wade– ]

    “So finger-less gloves should be fine, right? I could buy a pair or two or seven for him!”

    { All different colors and patterns! And they’re still soft! }

    Wade hums happily as he skips into Target. He walks in with the resolve to buy at least five pairs of finger-less gloves, but probably more. After a while of looking around and mild complaining and raving, though, he ends up walking out with two pairs of finger-less gloves (one black and one mitten-convertible pair that are navy blue), an expansion pack for Exploding Kittens, some discount candy, a case of Peter’s favorite soda, and a grey teddy bear that is soft soft he couldn’t not get it (he made sure to get the one with the wonky face, though, because he and Peter always grab the ones with “personality”).

    A glance at his watch tells him that he’s already 15 minutes late, and he still has to walk home.

    “Shit!”

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    Wade bursts through the apartment door, panting. Sprinting up the stairs instead of waiting a minute for the elevator probably wasn’t the best call.

    “Peter?” he calls out before he even gets inside.

    “I’ll be right out!” he hears from their bedroom.

    He heaves a sigh, closing the door behind him.

    “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I took so long.” he says at a normal, indoor volume, knowing Peter can still hear him clear as day, “I really didn’t mean to be late this time, but when I finally got out of Target I was already ten minutes late and I didn’t want to run and accidentally drop something, y’know?”

    Peter walks out of the bedroom, and Wade notes how he carefully kept the door closed just enough to where he can’t see inside.

    { Ooo!! I wonder what it is! Maybe a new comforter? }

    [ God, there’s no more fucking room in the closet for this shit. ]

    “Hi, honey.” Wade greets softly. His face feels warm and soft, so he knows he’s making heart-eyes at Peter, but he just can’t help it!

    “Hey, love.” Peter greets back, stepping forward and taking Wade’s face in his hands.

    They meet in the middle in a soft kiss, then lean each other’s foreheads against one another. It makes Wade suddenly aware of how much he missed Peter. Like, he normally isn’t this clingy, but NHPC day is meant for sleeping and cuddles and all Petey time.

    “As much as I liked trying to find surprises for you, I don’t think I want to do this again.”

    Peter hums, getting Wade’s unspoken message. “I agree. I missed you, too.”

    They stand there for a while, swaying slightly together with Peter cupping his cheeks and Wade pressing as close to his other as he can without the bags becoming awkward to hold. Peter kisses his nose, then both of his cheekbones, then his cheeks, then his mouth and lingers there. When they pull away, Peter takes a step back.

    “So, what’s all this?”

    He wrings his hands together as he tries to inspect the bags. He’s nervous or anxious about something, and, honestly, Wade doesn’t blame him for being worried about what’s in the numerous bags. Not after their last anniversary and April Fools, anyway.

    “Nothing bad, I promise. Should we move this to the bed?–”

    “Couch is fine!” Peter says a tad too enthusiastically and spins to go sit on the couch.

    Well, that just means there's something in the bedroom, but he can be patient if it’s for his Petey.

    He settles everything onto the floor before sliding the bag off of his back and handing it to Peter. The vigilante stares at it with wide eyes, and takes it extremely carefully, as if the bag will fall apart if he so much as moves it too fast.

    “So, normally, people open the biggest thing last so they aren’t disappointed with everything else, but…”

    Peter takes the hint and sets it on the ground so he can unzip it and open the flap. He removes the round reflector and suddenly freezes. Wade can’t tell if it’s a good freeze or a bad one, and that in itself is decidedly not good.

    “I don’t know if this camera is too advanced or too shitty for you so...” Wade trails off again, not sure what to say.

    Peter picks up the camera and inspects it. He tries to turn it on, but it still needs to be charged, so he assumes the screen remains black. He flips it around to look at it and uncap the lense, flips it back to hold it and maybe find the buttons. He looks through the camera and manually adjusts the focus. After that, he adjusts the focus back to where it was, puts the camera safely back into the bag.

    A split second later, Wade has a lap and armful of Peter.

    “Woah! Okay, I take it you like it?” Wade curls his arms around Peter’s middle while his abdomen, in return, is squeezed.

    “Thank you.” Peter whispers into his neck.

    Wade squeezes him tighter. “You’re welcome, love.”

    Upon hearing the seldom-used name, Peter kisses Wade one more time. It quickly becomes much less than innocent, and as much as Wade is loving this, he still has a few other gifts to give, and at least one thing to get in return.Therefore, he reluctantly pulls away, softly stopping Peter from following his lips.

    “You still have a couple gifts from me.”

    Peter does not move. “Describe them.”

    Damn if Wade doesn’t like it when Peter gets like this. Any other time he would have given in to that sinful look on the other’s face, but not this time. He’ll prove he has at least some self control.

    “As much as I would love to– and I really would– I wanna see your reaction to two of the other things I got.”

    Peter huffs and sits back with a slight pout. “Fine.”

    He quickly eyes the Target bags and gathers his presents. He politely thanks Wade for buying the candy and soda because he didn’t have time to for a reason he didn’t state. He finds the expansion pack and smiles at it, and challenges Wade to a game as soon as they’re done with gifts and snuggles. Then he finds the bear with the wonky face.

    “I actually got you something similar to this.”

    He seems nervous again, almost more so than before. It has Wade becoming concerned.

    “Hey, you know it’s alright if all you got me was a stuffie, right?” He reaches over and grabs Peter’s hand. “It isn’t a competition.”

    He smiles fondly in return. “I know.” He gets up and offers Wade a hand. “Time for my presents.”

    Wade accepts his hand, but barely uses it to get up. Peter doesn’t let go once he’s standing on his own and the ex-merc finds himself being led to the bedroom.

    { What do you think it’s going to be! I vote for the room being covered in petals and Peter offering himself as a gift! }

    [ Peter has stated many times that he has more dignity than that, so no. ]

    { Aww, you’re such a party pooper… I can still dream, you know! }

    [ That’s what I worry about the most. ]

    { Hey! }

    Peter opens their bedroom door and what Wade finally sees inside almost makes his jaw drop.

    There are colored fairy lights strung up simply around the room, just like he’s always wanted, but either forgot the lights or lacked the motivation to try setting it up. The bed is made with a new bed set that is predominantly apple red with accents of maroon, and when Wade strokes his hand across it, it is extremely soft, but doesn’t feel like it’ll overheat them and irritate his scars. On the center of the bed are a little Spiderman and Deadpool tsum tsum-looking plushies laying right next to each other. It’s perfect.

    “How did you even have time to do all of this?” Wade asks as he takes in the lights while stroking the comforter.

    “I was banking on you being a bit late, actually.” Peter clears his throat– another obvious show of nerves. “Do you like it?”

    “I love it.” Wade doesn’t hesitate, “This is beautiful. Where did you even find all this?”

    “Uh, you know, at the store.” Peter sounds more anxious than before, so Wade turns around to ensure that everything is perfect–

    This can’t be happening. Wade feels his eyes widen and his jaw properly drop. This can’t be real. There’s no way.

    { This isn’t another hallucination, is it? }

    [ I don’t think so. No one is trying to kill us. ]

    Peter is on one knee right in front of him. Those stupidly handsome eyes flicker around his face, and his shoulders are tense in a way that broadcasts he’s nervous. They’re standing in their gorgeous room that’s in their shared apartment, they’re both in the comfiest clothes that are still appropriate to go out in public in, and Peter is kneeling in front of him while holding out a ring that’s made of rose gold with a large, deep-red center gem with tiny black ones swirling around it.

    This can’t be fucking real. This is way too good to be–

    “Judging by your face, this is completely unexpected, but this is something I just realized recently that I’ve been wanting for a while. And I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I think you know what I’m talking about anyway.”

    Peter didn’t ask for a response or acknowledgement, but Wade nods anyway. He understands the feeling. Peter’s gaze moves to the walls and the floor, purposefully avoiding Wade now. That isn’t a great sign.

    “Like, everyone else I dated I kinda new from the start wouldn’t last? But with you, everything feels natural, and we work really well together, in suits and out of them, and I just– I was thinking about something or other, and I imagined trying to live a life that didn’t have you in it, and I couldn’t do it. As disgustingly cheesy as this is going to sound, I don’t think I can live without you anymore, at least without it being torturous, ‘cause you’re the one who literally knows the most about me and you help me stay away from especially bad habits but don’t treat me like a child when I do something stupid. And, like, the only way you can leave my life permanently is if we broke up– well I guess we could still technically get a divorce, or you could just say ‘no’ right now and break up with me eventually–”

    “Yes.” Wade hears himself say, quietly. Peter doesn’t register it, so Wade doesn’t try to use words again. He’s too caught up in his head. He kneels down to Peter’s height and reaches around Peter’s outstretched hands to cup his cheeks. Peter blinks, looks into Wade’s eyes, and lowers the ring closer to their chests, but never stops speaking.

    “–but anyway. You’re actually the best thing that’s happened to me since Spiderman and it would really mean the world and more to me if you say–”

    Wade cuts him off with a slow, soft kiss. He slowly pulls away when his own smiling makes it too hard to continue, but keeps their faces close.

    “Yes.”

    Peter blinks hopefully. “Yes?”

    Wade yanks him into a tight hug. “Of course! Why would I ever say no?– Actually, don’t answer that. But god, yes! Fuck, I love you so much!” Wade suddenly pulls back. “Lemme see the ring! How did you even get something this nice on such short notice?”

    Peter takes his left hand– and oh, if that doesn’t send a pleasant thrill up his spine then he doesn’t know what will– and gently slides the ring on– actually, that right there would– and then doesn’t let go of his hand.

    The ring looks more feminine on his finger than it did in the little, velvet box, but if anyone knows Wade, it’s that he doesn’t give a flying fuck. He actually really loves it. It’s rather unique, especially compared to the classic “white diamond(s) on a silver band” engagement rings. And while Wade would have loved a ring like that if Peter got him one, he probably would have only liked it for what it symbolized, rather than actually liking the ring itself like he does this one.

    “I did some research during the late night patrols yesterday, and found this one online this morning before you were up. I just went to pick it up after it got sized.”

    “It’s beautiful.”

    “I was worried it wasn’t flashy enough–”

    “Nonsense, Peter!” he exaggerates an accent.

    “–then I was worried it was too flashy for just in case you wanted to wear it under your Deadpool suit–”

    “Of course I will!”

    “–and I didn’t want it to irritate your scars, but, again, I didn’t want to be super simple or flat. That just isn’t the Spiderman and Deadpool way, after all.”

    “No, it really isn’t.” he confirms fondly.

    Wade looks back down at the ring. It hasn’t quite hit him yet that they’re officially engaged.

    “So…” Wade starts seductively, “How about we try out these new sheets?”

    Peter perks up. “Snuggle day time?”

    Wade’s smile turns into a large grin. “You go get the candy and soda, I’ll rearrange the pillows.”

    “Maximum effort!” Peter says as he jumps up to sprint out of the room.

    Wade gets up too. “Hey! That’s my thing! And this is mediocre effort at best!”

    As Peter’s laugh rings pleasantly through the apartment, all Wade can think is that this is hopefully going to be the rest of his life. He’ll get to have moments like these for years and years to come, snuggles and candy with someone he loves and someone who loves him back for years and years to come. And since the boxes aren’t arguing anything, that must mean it’s true on some level, at least.

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <~

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

A/N: Heyo! I still hate this chapter but I've given up trying to make it better, so here we are. I hope y'all didn't totally hate it though! I had an idea for a beginning and an end, but not the middle, so it's all kinds of bleh XD Anyway, I hope you all have a pleasant day/night, and thank you for checking this fic out! <3

[rezares]

Spill The Tea || Aurora and Fadela Kasraoui-Muller

tl;dr: Reza’s dumb ass leaves something incriminating lying around, and the middle sibling is thrilled to spill some tea.

@spindlesandrosethorns 

WORD COUNT: 3036

DATED: August 22, 2019

FADELA KASRAOUI-MULLER 

 If you asked Fadela (which nobody ever did) she would tell you her older brother was Booboo The Fool. Lucky for the world, Fadela wasn’t a woman who sat still and waited for her cue to speak, so she made her opinion on her brother known regardless. To his face, no less.

 Had she been born a Hamdi instead of a Fadela he would have punched her. But Reza was too noble to hit a woman, even one who he knew could and would hit him back twice as hard, or who sometimes hit him first when the mood was right. 

 Her dumbass brother sometimes needed a mild ass-kicking to get his shit together. She was always happy to oblige. 

 And in true Booboo The Fool fashion Reza had done the one thing you’re not supposed to do with someone else’s unrequited love and acknowledged it. Not only did he acknowledge it, but he confronted it head on. Like a car crash. And yallah. The fallout was simply glorious!

 Er, no Fadela. That’s bitchy. We’re working on our empathy these days.

 Correction: the fallout provided astounding reagents for Fadela to collect on the sly, but was simply tragic for poor Aurora. Not origin story of a serial killer tragic but certainly origin story of an old spinster worthy. 

 How she still managed to face him at least twice a week to study magic was beyond her. If Fadela had a heart to be broken, she couldn’t face the man who broke her heart so casually for the sake of honesty. What was Reza trying to accomplish anyway? Clear some guilty conscience?

 “Psh. Idiot.” Fadela snorted aloud, going back to reading the grimoire in her little corner of the workshop.

 Aurora

 Aurora had almost gotten used to having a broken heart.

 It no longer horrified her to see the black bruises and fissures spread out across her chest and shoulders. She was used to the dull pain being around Reza and Sabiha caused her. She had stopped trying to force herself to smile.

 It wasn't a good thing to be used to, but being accustomed to it meant the pain couldn't take her by surprise anymore. Especially since she was being stupid and coming back at least twice a week to have her heart broken again.

 She still let herself in, only now she didn't announce herself with a warm greeting. Her entrances now were silent things; just a shadow making herself at home where she would never belong. Once her things were dropped by the front door of the workshop, Aurora made her way quietly through the cottage. It was still a mess from the last lesson, and she sighed softly as she began to straighten up before Reza could join them. She waved a hello to Fadela, then got to work.

 The cottage was nearly neat and tidy again when Aurora went to put some jars left on Reza's desk back on the shelf, and was surprised to find a picture of a man she had never seen before staring up at her from under the jar. Something about his portrait set off warning bells in the back of Aurora's mind - a sixth sense she had picked up not from magic, but from a lifetime of observing from the sidelines - and she began to clear the desk even further.

 Was it probably an invasion of privacy? A little. But desk tops were fair game, Reza knew that. He so rarely told her anything, less so now than before, so she had to get her information in other ways.

 FADELA KASRAOUI-MÜLLER

 Fadela waved back at her brother’s apprentice but otherwise paid her about as much attention as one does a fruit fly. Ears tuned for buzzing, but not particularly interested. 

But the buzzing didn’t come. 

Odd, Fadela had to admit, but again — fruit fly. It’s not that Fadela didn’t like Aurora (she didn’t like anybody) it was just Aurora didn’t come around for her.

While Aurora shuffled things on Reza’s workstation, Fadela was immersed in her own work. 

 AURORA

Aurora didn’t have to dig far at all to find the rest of the paperwork to go with the picture, which was better for her sense of guilt if anything else. This wasn’t buried, this wasn’t hidden. Just… forgotten.

Why did Reza have a picture of a man with such sinister eyes on his desk?

There was a whole folder that followed the picture, and Aurora sat at Reza’s desk - which often doubled as hers as well - as she began to flip through it. News clippings, hand written notes, maps - most written in what Aurora recognized as Reza’s personal code. It wasn’t something Aurora knew how to translate by any stretch of the imagination, but she had seen his notes often enough to pick up familiar words. Sorcerer… Tunisia… missing....

Aurora flipped through the pages quirker now, until she found an article in English, printed off an international news website. The article was about the death of a family of five in Tunisia, outlining all but the most brutal of details and still making Aurora’s skin crawl regardless. Some talk about the crime, the investigation, and then, a single, fuzzy shot from a security camera…

The same man from the portrait, looking dead ahead as he was caught, mid-pace leaving the crime scene.

Aurora’s stomach bottomed out, the young woman flipping back to the map and looking at the littering of ‘x’s and ‘o’s across its surface, like Reza was tracking something… or someone.

That thought was enough to get Aurora out of her chair, crossing over to Fadela’s workspace and setting the photo down in front of her. “Who’s this?” she asked quietly.

 FADELA KASRAOUI-MÜLLER

A rustling of papers had reached her ears but was just as quickly forgotten. The sorcerers shared a desk, it wasn’t uncommon for them to read the other’s work. 

It wasn’t until a photo of a sorcerer Fadela hadn’t seen in years appeared in front of her that she thought ah, I should’ve turned around. Then again it was her idiot brother’s own fault. Shouldn’t have left the Mekki file laying about. Did he forget so easily how meddlesome his apprentice was?

The older woman tsked and shook her head at the photo before casting a sideways glance at Reza’s desk. 

“I see the dumbass left his murder file out in the open again.”

 AURORA

 Shockingly, Aurora wasn’t in the mood for the patented Kasroui-Muller brand of Cryptic Sarcasm and Nonanswers.

 “Not a name, Fadela,” she said, not moving the picture from the desk or her eyes from Fadela. “Who is this man and why does Reza have an encoded ‘murder file’ on him.”

 FADELA 

Ah, well. If her brother left his dirty laundry out for the world to see, was it really a crime for Fadela to organize it?

“Mekki Masmoudi. He was the old Rory, once upon a time.”

 AURORA

Mekki Masmoudi?

(Put that on the list of names Aurora’s Accent wouldn’t let her pronounce.)

Aurora took the photo slowly back, looking at the face staring back at her and feeling dread dripping down her spine. The old Rory… he must have been one of Reza’s old apprentices, then. He'd mentioned he'd taught a few. But then…

"Define 'murder file'," she asked, not looking away from the picture.

 FADELA

“Did I fucking stutter?” The middle Kasraoui-Müller sibling deadpanned, spinning around in her spinny chair to look at Aurora.

Fadela crossed her arms over her chest and gestured to Reza’s desk with her chin. Oh, he was so lucky his young apprentice who just idolized him couldn’t read Arabic. If only she knew what Fadela knew. 

And if Aurora asked the right questions she’d tell her. 

“I mean, Reza’s hunting him like a deer. And intends to kill him.”

 AURORA

Seriously, the sass? Unnecessary. Aurora silently rolled her eyes, giving Fadela a flat look when she spun around. She waited for older woman’s reply, and her eyes went wide at the blunt answer. Reza intended… to what?

Her eyes jumped back to the file, to the article she had left on the top on the desk. A family of five, killed in their home. By a man Reza had taught. She had only skimmed the article, hadn’t gone too deep into the details until her stomach had turned, but if Reza was trying…

Had he…. Was Mekki using magic to kill people?

“I…” Aurora said softly, mind churning rapidly. Questions breeding questions upon questions such that Aurora didn’t even have time to ask the first bunch. 

Just ask a question! Reza… he could be callous, but he wasn’t cruel. He was a good man; she still believed that. There had to be a reason!

“How long has Reza been hunting him?” Aurora asked quietly.

 FADELA

The older woman watched as the wheels turned in the younger’s head, briefly glancing longingly at the gorgeous wisp of Pure Panic that floated from her that Fadela knew better than to leap up and bottle. It’s only make her angry.

“Mm. Mekki went Dark about se...ven? Seven years, yeah. Reza even hunted him from his hospital bed and wheelchair in Austria.”

Reza was many things, but he didn’t half-ass anything. Even his murder plans.

 AURORA

Seven years. That was barely a year after Sabiha had been born. For a moment, Aurora imagined how terrifying it must have been to have an infant daughter and a murder happy apprentice running around, and suddenly the murder file made a little more sense.

Aurora dropped into her seat, resting her head in the hand that wasn’t holding Mekki’s photograph. This was… a lot. “Let me guess, he’s not going to authorities because the government is anti-Magick trash,” she sighed after a moment, tossing Mekki’s photo on to the desk before pressing both hands together over her mouth. So. The man she was (against all better judgement) in love with was actively hunting down a murderer to kill him and exact vigilante justice.

Oh, her life was so much fun!

“If… if the file is out, does that mean he found new information?” she asked after several silent minutes. She wasn’t sure why Fadela was being so forthcoming, but hopefully, she could get just a few more answers out of her.

 FADELA

Did it mean that? Not necessarily. Sometimes when Reza drank the file came out. Alcohol could make him particularly eager to graffiti Hammamet with Mekki Masmoudi’s blood. This time though? 

“Oh habibi. He’s closing in on the sick bastard. Reza’s tracked him across eight countries over the years and he’s popped back up in Tunisia after two years away. My brother is like a cobra, gearing up to strike.”

 AURORA

You know, of all the things to get caught on while being told about her friend’s premeditated murder plans, nicknames shouldn’t be one of them. But here she was, feeling that familiar cracking across her chest as Fadela casually used the nickname Reza had given her, the one that had used to make Aurora feel, well… a little special. It was cute, it was such a beautiful word to hear in his accent, and apparently it meant nothing if Fadela was casually whipping it out.

Further proof that Reza never had and never would see something more in Aurora. Fuck, one day that was going to stop hurting.

Focus, Aurora, your friend is plotting a murder. You can get sad and heartbroken later.

Soon, huh? Aurora walked back to the desk and to the file, looking at the map that had been covered in ‘x’s and ‘o’s. One of those marks was Mekki. One of those marks was a man Reza fully intended to kill.  

 FADELA

“Reza’s traced him to Al Huwariyah, which is near our home city. Seriously. Less than a two hour drive from Hammamet if traffic’s light.” Fadela continued, taking Aurora’s stunned silence as an invitation to elaborate. “Reza and I have made a day trip out to there before.”

“Which is odd. Mekki has no connections or history there. I doubt he’s going to stay there for long, it’s a pretty small town. Probably just a pitstop.” She sighed and shrugged a shoulder. “But who’s to say?”

Mekki was unpredictable even when he wasn’t a dark sorcerer. 

And truthfully, Fadela wasn’t all that invested in this. Mekki was Reza’s pet homicide project, not hers. She only cared insofar as it pertained to her big brother. His pain over his former apprentice’s betrayal still weighed heavily on her. She’d been Mekki’s friend once. She’d seen but ignored the signs. And it ended up hurting her brother deeply.

“Anyway. Hopefully Reza’s not going to go all soft and pussy out this time. Damn near got himself killed before, the idiot.”

 AURORA

Aurora listened carefully to Fadela, grateful she wasn't just throwing town names around with no description or context. It helped her keep everything straight in her mind.

(An idea was starting to form; a tiny whisper from deep in her heart that was no doubt a bad plan. She tried to ignore it.)

Her head snapped around at Fadela's last comment, eyebrows furrowing. "He's caught him before?" she asked before realizing it was a dumb question. They had to have fought if Mekki had hurt Reza and nearly killed him. And now Reza was going after him again. Alone. She braced herself against the desk, staring out the window with a thoughtful frown.

(The whispering got louder, the gentle nudge against her mind still there despite the magical bruises and fractures that implied there was nothing left in her heart at all.)

(But what if he wasn't alone, this time?)

"So he has to move soon if he wants to get this guy," Aurora said quietly, one hand fiddling with her necklace.

 FADELA

“Mm. He caught up to him in Tataouine— which is deep in the desert, on the total other end of the country. Like. Five...and a halfish hours’ drive in good traffic. Sabiha was three, for our timeline of murder here.” Fadela then paused, letting the memories come back fresh. 

She should’ve gone with him. Her brother was too soft to be the hardened warrior he had to force himself to become. 

“Reza explained it like this. He had a chance to kill him and had even gone in for the kill initially. But Mekki was a young boy when Reza first met him and first mentored him. When he was about to end him, Mekki’s younger face flashed in his mind and he tried to give him one last chance to surrender and reform. My brother almost paid for his kindness.”

It didn’t take a sorceress to see the Rage physically surrounding Fadela. 

“He won’t make that mistake again. Mekki Masmoudi has used up all of his chances.”

Again, Fadela shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe he’ll wait until he thinks he’s more stationary. Reza has eyes all over the Maghreb and the rest of the MENA region. He was hunting him even when he couldn’t walk.”

 AURORA

Listening to Fadela tell the story, Aurora almost couldn’t believe it was real. It didn’t feel real. And honestly, Aurora would not put it past Fadela to make all this up just to fuck with her. But there was no hint of deceit in her voice or in the magic around her, no red flags that assured her this was just a bad prank.

 There was a very dangerous man out there who one of her best friends was determined to kill, and who had only just survived the first attempt to do so.

Aurora had begun to pull on a thick strand of hair, pressing it to her lips as she thought. “I… at the risk of sounding like an idiot, why doesn’t Reza take this to the police in Tunisa?” she asked. “I know the government doesn’t like Magicks but if this man is that dangerous…” 

 FADELA 

Fadela let out a mirthless chuckle at Rory’s question. “My brother has a few magic related charges on his record. He needs to avoid the police, and also not get arrested and tortured again.” She was truly so innocent that Fadela felt bad for exposing the ugliness of the reality for sorcerers from their neck of the woods. 

“Sorcerers have our own justice system, our own customs, laws, and judges, juries, and executioners.” Fadela explained. “There’s no courthouse or bailiff or fancy robes, but we handle delivering justice to our own. And Mekki is Reza’s own more than anybody else’s.”

“Reza has recognized some of his spellwork in Mekki’s crimes. It’s been modified of course for his purposes, but it’s very obviously bastardized from Reza’s work. He taught him all he knew and blames himself. Reza created this monster, and he’s determined to fix it.”

“He’ll kill him more mercifully than any Tunisian cop would.”

 AURORA

Aurora listened to Fadela’s answer and nodded faintly, still playing with the strand of hair she had pressed to her mouth. She wanted to say a lot of very unkind things about the system that left Reza with the impression that anything he had personally done had caused this, but now wasn’t the time.

“Fair,” she murmured, not looking away from the windows. She took a deep breath before letting it out slow. “Thank you, for telling me all of this,” she said, finally looking towards Fadela.

 FADELA

Fadela narrowed her eyes at Aurora and considered her response. No, she wasn’t ready to admit she liked her, and Aurora did not get to know Fadela did this because she thought she should know. Plan B it was.

“You know there’s nothing I love more in this world than talking shit about my brother, and sharing the dirt on him. It’s because he’s a better person than I am. Less blood on his hands, less moody, less of a bitch.” Fadela sighed, examining her nails. “You didn’t miss the bit about the blood though, did you?”

She didn’t wait for a response. “Good. Of course you didn’t, habibi. Now give me the murder file, I’ll put it in its not even remotely secret spot.”

[argentdandelion]

Flaws of SOUL Traits

Made with consulting from Flyingwerekitty, Cinnamonazzy, and Kindled-blue-soul.

Six out of the seven SOUL colors featured in Undertale are associated with specific traits. (The Red SOUL’s trait is unclear.) These traits, rather than being personality traits, seem to correspond with various virtues, such as patience and bravery.

As an example, if green is associated with kindness, logically, someone with a green SOUL would be characterized by kindness. However, as covered in a previous post (see "The Green SOUL Could be a Meaniehead", at bottom) different people have different definitions of what entails kindness. In fact, following a virtue to the letter all the time may not actually benefit the person, and may even irritate others.

After all, according to famed Greek philosopher Aristotle, vice (the opposite of virtue) results from both an insufficiency and excess of virtue.

Patience

In the Snowdin ball game, the color light blue (or "cyan", in common Undertale parlance) is associated with patience. The description of "You waited, still, for this opportunity, then dethroned "Ball" with a sharp attack" suggests cyan SOULs are not passive, or at least not purely so.

Still, in some situations, waiting, rather than acting, can be ineffective, and patience can be abused. For example, trying to wait out relationship troubles rather than confronting someone about it may keep someone in a dissatisfying relationship, and waiting on the customer service line for a company with bad service may not pay off. Waiting for just the right moment may irritate others, as would disregarding advice to speed things up.

Example(s):

In The Six Who Fell Before You, the Cyan SOUL was strolling on Mt. Ebott with her parents. When her parents ignored her while talking to each other, she patiently stayed in one spot until they would pay attention. They didn’t, and were so consumed in their argument they lost track of her entirely.

Integrity

One definition of integrity is: “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” Clinging to a personal code of honor at all times might cause social problems. For example, a Kantian consistency to never lie, ever, might lead to brutal honesty.

Yet, in some situations, things that are generally bad can be morally good, or at least completely justified in the pursuit of higher moral priorities. For example, lying is generally wrong, but if a sinister axe-wielding man comes up to one’s door asking about the location of one’s friend, should one tell the truth? In addition, very consistent honesty might lead to being critical of deceptive behavior, which might alienate people. It would be even worse if the individual with a Blue SOUL is so morally principled and ostentatious about it that the person seems holier-than-thou.

Example(s):

In Day by Day, the Blue SOUL is an unhinged, murderous ballerina poised to kill Asgore. When Asgore asks if she killed Toriel too, she's shocked at the very notion: Toriel was kind to her, so what kind of person would she be to kill her? Whether it’s from her skewed moral principles or deranged mental state, she didn’t feel she was performing any violation of her principles.

Justice:

“Justice” has multiple definitions; the most applicable one is “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair”. Embodying this quality may lead to problems, both for a Yellow SOUL and to those around the person.

For example, in tiny disputes, such as both kids getting punished regardless of who started hitting the other, the person might not accept anything but the most just, impartial, and fair treatment. A functional resolution considered “good enough” may not be satisfactory, and the person might do vigilante justice. This could get especially worrisome if the person’s view of “justice” is drastically different from the view others hold.

Example(s):

In The Anomaly, Tir, one of the seven magicians who sealed monsters away, has a yellow SOUL. In this work, those who practice the associated type of magic, yellow magic, may enter a morally reckless “cowboy mode” and perform vigilante justice. This happened to Tir; she let her quest for justice turn into a full-blown war against monsters.

Bravery:

Bravery is one of the easiest SOUL traits to find flaws for: SOULs defined by bravery might be easily persuaded to do things to prove they’re not cowardly. While the trait of bravery would be obviously appreciated when attacking a genuine threat, disregarding fear could also lead to bad outcomes. The person might not care about the consequences of doing something silly, unwise, or seemingly insane, such as going out in public with a hideous or embarrassing outfit. Similarly, the person might say unpopular opinions or statements, which would likely lead to bad outcomes for them even if it’s for the greater good.

Example(s):

In Caretaker of the Ruins, the Orange SOUL ventured up Mt. Ebott, the mountain people are said never to return from, to prove their bravery to their big brothers and tag along with them later. Being brave and feeling threatened by a monster is a bad combination: the child kills at least one monster. Later, in their boldness, they attack and utterly destroy Asriel (who didn't die as a child here), leading Chara (who also didn’t die) to kill the Orange SOUL in revenge. A reload happens, but once again their bravery leads them to attack, and once more get killed.

Kindness

Someone defined by kindness might find it difficult to stop being kind, for the sake of conserving resources. An affinity for kindness might lead to an inability to say no to requests, and as a likely consequence, a commitment to emotional overwork out of sheer kindness. A Green SOUL might avoid saying anything potentially mean, even if necessary (e.g., pointing out a friend’s body odor), or talks in circles around a hurtful issue to the point of confusing and frustrating people. Kids with green SOULs might donate their entire allowance to random panhandlers1, or, as adults, lose an excessive amount of money through loans or charity.

Perseverance

“Perseverance”, by itself, is little-studied, but “grit” is a very similar concept and is much better-studied. If “grit” is synonymous with the SOUL trait of perseverance, then, at least for students, persevering in goals that are extrinsically (that is, not motivating in itself) motivated, unimportant, or in some way inappropriate to the student may have harmful effects on long-term well-being.

A Purple SOUL might repeatedly disregard social engagements to solve problems as quickly as possible, such as when self-testing on study material until it’s absolutely perfect. Related to this is working so hard, the individual forgets to eat/doesn’t eat well, or sticks to particular regimens (e.g., health regimens) without regard for health complications that result. Purple SOULs might also be the activist/salesperson type, who’s so persistent it’s annoying.

Overlapping with a flaw of one interpretation of the red SOUL’s trait, a purple SOUL might persist at a task even if physically or psychologically unable to endure or outlast something in it.

The Red SOUL

Determination

Determination is not actually a trait of its own, but something all humans SOULs produce. However, as some Undertale works consider it a distinct trait anyway, its flaws will be discussed. Unlike perseverance, determination is defined as the “resolve to change fate”. A Red SOUL, in this interpretation, would be motivated to get what they want, no matter what...regardless of any bad consequences of that desire. Fixation on goals would likely isolate them from others, and cause them to lose empathy with those who don’t share that goal.

Example(s):

In several fanfictions (e.g., One by One) Frisk is shown as so determined in achieving goals it frustrates and baffles others, and may lead to unintended consequences. In some works, a determination-fueled goal of saving or restoring Asriel can cause others to suffer.

Sincerity/Being-yourself-ness:

The blog Nochocolate points out an alternate interpretation for the trait of red SOULs: “being yourself” (or, in one word, “sincerity”):

“being yourself” may seem synonymous with integrity, but there is a difference. integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” while both are a quality of being honest, there is a difference to what that honesty is towards. those with integrity are righteous, fair, and of good character. however, integrity is not needed to be yourself. being yourself is to stay true to who you are, regardless of what that may be. perhaps a word for this could be “individuality,” “nonconformity,” or “sincerity.”

This trait likely means Red SOULs won't change who they are or how thery act, no matter how awkward or silly it is. It might also frustrate people who want changes in behavior or beliefs.

Example(s):

In The Anomaly, each of humanity's seven greatest magicians has one of the seven SOUL colors shown. The Anomaly goes by the interpretation the trait of Red SOULs is being really, really determined, both in the sense of the behavior and the substance. However, for Day, the magician with the Red SOUL, “sincerity/being-yourself-ness” also applies. No matter how much Day tries to vary his typical presentation with an “edgy” persona, he quickly reverts to a more lighthearted, arguably silly one.

(Frisk, too, stays consistent: though now much older, Frisk has the same personality and tendencies as in canon)

For more like this, see:

The Green SOUL Could be a Meaniehead

(By Coffeelemental) Anomaly Lore: Types of Humans (especially paragraph 4)

On a related note, nice people (or, in personality research terms, agreeable people) are at greater risk of financial hardships and bankruptcy, not because they are more cooperative, but because they don't value money as much. ↩︎

[iphoenixrising]

Window Seat

My soulmate @satire-please deserves all the love, so a bit more little Timmy with the Bats from here.

 **

The house is always quiet. Even when his mom and dad were home or Mrs. Mac was in the kitchen when he got home from school, the upstairs is always silent, like the museums where his parents donate what they find on digs. He thinks it’s always been like that.

No one ever goes to the upstairs attic, though. The dust is thick and settled, its’ own niche in Drake Manor. There’s one window to look out the back yard and off into the sea (and if you looked really, really hard, you could almost see Wayne Manor up on the bluffs, a dark silhouette in the dawn). The nights he didn’t go out into Gotham with his camera, he usually wound up here, squeezed into the non-existent seat to watch for the headlights of the large, black car that was unmistakable even in full dark.

And tonight, a few days after Robin saved him from a bad fall, and the extraordinary turn of events that put him in their direct path rather than an outsider that just knew their secret, he’s still waiting. At the time, he grudgingly turned over the box of photographs when Robin (Jason) and Nightwing (Dick) brought him home. They were working a hard case and would be gone for a few days, so he did what he was probably expected to do: promised to go to school and stay out of trouble.

He hasn’t gone out into Gotham, and hasn’t heard or bothered them since.  Which…is okay. It’s not a problem for him. He’s used to these kinds of things. Promises from grownups that never come to fruition. Coming home for his birthday. Taking him with them during Christmas break. Being there for the Science Fair.

Sometimes expectations fail. Sometimes you need another plan. Sometimes other things have to take precedent. All the real world truths.

So, it’s really okay. He gets it.

The vigilantes didn’t expect a kid to figure them out, not when they’ve got the whole world fooled. It makes sense they would want to give him something to look forward to, a “reward” for keeping quiet about their secret identities. (And it isn’t like he doesn’t realize how dangerous it is to know, how many of Batman’s enemies would come looking for him just to get the secret, how dangerous he is to them now just because he was too smart for his own good. He’s…he’s a liability.)

By the second night with no word, he’s convinced himself the whole thing is going to amount to checking in on him quarterly to make sure he keeps out of trouble, doesn’t call any attention to himself or them. It’s the adult thing to do. So, he’s going to give it a few weeks, wait until they’ve all but forgotten, and go back to his old haunts. He’ll have to be more careful they don’t catch him so he can’t slip up and accidentally almost kill himself again.

It’ll be fine. He’s got darker clothes to stay closer to the shadows and has been tinkering around with a shooting grapple gun like Robin used. He thinks he might have figured it out, but testing is really going to be the problem.

And…and it is fine (it’s disappointing but inevitable). They didn’t need some kid hanging around when they had criminals to stop and a city to save.

He’s sleepily convinced himself it was all for the best, he already had the one chance to live the life and shouldn’t be too greedy because the reality is nothing but trouble could come from stepping into their world. He could get hurt or die, he could get them hurt if he got caught and they had to come save him. Or they would finally get tired of dealing with him, his endless questions and terrible hand/eye coordination, his fanboy awe and clumsy stumbles, the odd moments when he can fit in the most awkward spaces to hide (like right now).

Eventually…it be the same as with his mom and dad. They’d just start leaving.

Tim sighs and forces himself to be reasonable because of course it’s better this way. Nothing would change (it’s okay, it could be worse). Besides, it was better than never coming back.

Right?

When the rumbling goes by the house, goes further, deeper into the woods, toward the only other home, he can let his eyes slide closed, glad they made it back from another night, and let himself drift off a little. No school tomorrow, no Mrs. Mac, no reason to get up early and make an appearance.

He’d probably read more on the coding manual he’d picked up from the library, ride his bike into the city for pizza and to hang out with Ives, then come back home before his curfew. He would wait it out a few weeks and then jump back to old habits, keeping out of their way, and staying in the shadows. Life would just—

Go on.

The world gets fuzzy and soft and dark, and even with the minor ache in his neck and back from the odd angle, even in the quiet upstairs, even though he knows it’s too cold to be sleeping up here, the dream starts out anyway…

“—glad we found him, Big Wing.” That’s…that’s Jason, isn’t it? (Jason, here? Nah)

“I wonder how long he’s been up here all alone?”

(It has to be a dream because they came looking for him…)

“Musta been a while. He’s freezin’.” The dream hand is warm on his forehead, so nice, not enough to make him want to come to reality, so he just snuffles against his arm and hums, not trying to swim to the surface of awake, not yet.

“Okay, okay. Not leaving Timmy by himself at night anymore. Check.” Dick sighs, his breath a puff in the cold, and cranes his neck to eye the configuration the kid squeezed through to get to the wide window ledge.

“B’s gonna talk ta his folks when they make it back ta town anyhow.” And Jason shakes his head, burrowing a little deeper in his jacket with bare face (doms keep the eyes warm, you feel him?). “Kid his age shouldn’t be left alone anyhow.”

“Nope, just circus brats and street kids, right Little Wing?” Dick glances over at his replacement with a wide grin (and if B is serious about keeping Timmy now that the business with Two-Face is over, he’s going to have to come around more to help corral two younger brothers).

“Yeah, some a’ us can take care of business, Dick. This kid? He don’t need ta be in a house alone like this. Ain’t right.” The current Robin just frowns at the small silhouette, eyebrows drawing together.

“Alfred has his room ready, so at least he’ll have somewhere warm with a window. How did he even get in there?” And Dick? Is an acrobat and this configuration is making him flinch.

But Jay just smirks back, “Wiry little shit, apparently. Already fittin’ in.”

“Apparently. Let’s get him out of there, shall we Robin?”

And he huffs drowsily, swimming in and out of consciousness, the lack of sleep in the last few days making him sink further down where the voices are muffled, muted.

He might make some grunting sound when dream hands lift his heavy limbs, weightlessness like this a foreign concept, but it’s not like dreams where you step down abruptly and jar awake. It’s warm and smells like leather, Kevlar, and musk. And his brain gives him what he wants in the dream, soft cotton to fist his hands into without having to do anything more than sigh.

“Poor little guy is tuckered out. We shouldn’t have left him so long. It doesn’t look like he’s been sleeping.”

The transition is down, steps, his blurry mind supplies.

“He chases us through Gotham, yeah? Sleep probably ain’t even in his vocabulary.”

“He’s so small, Little Wing. He needs to sleep.”

“He needs goddamned parents, Dickie.”

“It’s okay,” is breathed against his hair, “he has us now.”

“Sure, sure. Lotta grown ass men what dress up in tights n’ masks. Normal as they come.”

“Hey! It’s not a bad life, you know. I turned out just fine, thank-you very much.”

A grunt in reply and something warm tucked around him before the air shifts and it’s cold, making his small body tighten again, start to swim a little closer to consciousness. But he’s snuggled higher, closer to strength and warmth.

(All the good things)

“Ah. I see you two have managed to ferret out the missing Master then?”

“Shoulda seen ‘im, Alf. Alla way up in the attic window.”

“You have a similar propensity for small spaces, Master Jason. Master Dick as well if memory serves. Very high, small spaces to be precise.”

“Not my fault there’s so many in the Manor, Alfred. Those are the perfect places to explore.”

“Hm,” the car doors close as Alfred Pennyworth shuts his young charges in (three now, not including you, Master Bruce. He is not getting any younger, you understand?) and moves to the driver’s side through the chill.

Master Jason and Master Dick continue a quiet conversation while the child sleeps on and the dark forests pass them by. Alfred inputs when necessary with the usual plans on the next few nights of patrol ahead of them sans the Batman, and it does the butler’s heart good to see them finally getting along. Just as he told the worrywart that is his eldest charge, the two needed time to find their own way. Time and exposure, more appropriately.

As Alfred is well aware, the life his family leads, one of the night, one of pain and bruises and burns, one of trauma after trauma with only the strength of will and people in need to drive them, it required a certain amount of humanity to maintain. The strength of their bonds, to lean on one another in times of need, had been the hardest lesson for Master Bruce to learn as the Batman,, and one he would daresay he failed to pass it down to his sons. Fortunately, when a certain little robin that lost something so precious so young, the lesson for Master Bruce had begun and would continue for a second so in need, he would take on any fight just to survive, and would, of course, extend to the small one they are carrying up the staircase of Wayne Manor as he sleeps the sleep of the innocent.

Alfred and Master Dick take his shoes off and manage pajama bottoms, tucking the little boy in with care.

Only once did he wake up slightly, blinking fuzzily without move his heavy head from the pillow.

“This is such a nice dream, Mr. Alfred.”

A gentle hand to his head, smoothing down his too long hair, “go back to sleep, Young Sir. We shall be here when you wake in the morning.”

And Timmy hums again, smiling, snuggling down into the comfortable mattress and pillow. He’s fine sleeping until morning, to keep the dream for as long as he can (and maybe….maybe it would be okay to just not have to wake up).

[imagining-supernatural]

As It Seems: Chapter 17

Table of Contents

Según Parece: Lista De Contenidos

Summary: You and Dean finally get to his apartment where you find that you’re not alone

Word Count: 2915

Warnings: None

Beta’d by: @kclaire1

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

~Dean’s POV~

“Oh, baby I’ve missed you.” My fingers danced over the cool metal of the gorgeous Impala in front of me. It was as if I could hear the comforting, familiar rumble of her engine even as she sat in the reserved stall in the parking garage. She was just itching to get on the road again, and I was itching to be behind her wheel.

“I think I’ll give you two some alone time,” Y/N said with a small, tired smile. After two days of driving and an interlude to a hotel where not much sleeping happened at all, if you get my drift, we were both exhausted.

But I’d missed my car too much to head straight up to my apartment.

“Okay. I’ll see you up there. The code for the alarm is—”

“Dude. I’m your assistant. I had that system installed. If the alarm gets tripped, it’s set up for the company to call me before they call you. Just enjoy your car.”

“Right.” It was hard to figure out exactly how the dynamics between the two timelines fit in. In this one, we just barely started dating. In the other one, I’d been ready to marry her. But in this one, she was my assistant for longer that we’d been dating. As my assistant, she obviously knew my alarm codes, but since we just started dating in this one, it seemed kind of weird that she would practically have a key to my place. But we were also going to get married.

Thinking about the timelines made my head hurt.

“I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“I’ll be asleep.” I didn’t doubt that one bit. She came over and gave me a brief kiss. “G’night, babe.”

I watched her walk to the elevators, the slight slump in her shoulders and lethargic movements of her legs showing just how tired she was. I briefly thought about the threat of Crowley or the dark government organization that we faced, but forced myself to relax. If someone was waiting for her, she could handle them, even as tired as she obviously was. That was just one of the many reasons I loved her.

And turning my attention back to my first love, I unlocked the doors and slid into the front seat. Just curling my fingers around the steering wheel seemed to center me and the stress from the last week seemed so far away. Memories from both timelines crowded in my head. Whether the memory was driving my baby towards a hunt, or driving her up to a black-tie event among all of the limousines that couldn’t hold a candle to her, I loved her just the same.

My impala, my brother, and my girl were the only constants between the timelines. As long as I had all three, I could handle anything life threw my way.

After a few more minutes of sitting in the heavy silence of the underground garage, I made my way upstairs. There was going to be a shit storm of things to handle at work tomorrow, but I was reunited with my car and I was going to wake up next to Y/N. I couldn’t ask for more.

The elevator door slid open silently, but my apartment wasn’t silent when I walked in. Y/N’s voice drew me towards the hallway with the bedroom. Was she on the phone? I thought she was going to go straight to sleep.

“No, no. It’s totally fine. You guys stay in the guest room. I was going to sleep with Dean in his room anyway—but not like, sleep with, sleep with. Not tonight, anyway, because it’s really late and we have to catch up at work tomorrow but—Dean!” She caught sight of me when I rounded the corner and cut off her exhausted babbling. I tilted my head at her in question for a second before I noted the other two people in the hallway. “Your parents are here.”

Oh.

Yeah.

“Shit, I forgot. You guys are here for that work conference, right, mom?” I covered the distance between us in two short steps and gathered my mom into my arms, holding on tightly.

She wasn’t dead here. She was very much alive and raised me and Sam and wasn’t killed by the yellow-eyed bastard.

God, it felt so good to hug her.

“I called you Sunday night when we showed up and you weren’t here. You told me that you were at Bobby’s with your team for a few days, remember?” She pulled back and looked up at me with a concerned and confused expression. “Are you okay? Is everything okay?”

This was definitely not an encounter I had planned for yet. It was like all of my timelines and realities and fantasies and nightmares were colliding. I dragged a hand down my face and tried to get the blood flowing again so I would stay awake long enough to explain everything to them.

“Yeah, sorry. We just drove two days straight and it was a stressful few days before that. It slipped my mind.” I avoided mentioning the bullet wound. Figured that wouldn’t help my mom sleep too well tonight.

“Seems like you forgot to mention to Y/N here that we were staying here too.” Dad pulled me in for a hug and I had the feeling that he was watching Y/N over my shoulder.

“No, no,” she quickly jumped in. “I actually bought your airplane tickets and Dean said not to get you a hotel room because you would be staying with him. I just… forgot too. It’s been a crazy few days.”

What an understatement.

“I’ll say,” my dad insinuated, linking me and Y/N with a meaningful look and waiting for an explanation.

Well, guess I should get this over with. “Mom, dad… Y/N and I are together.”

Y/N must have seen the calculating and doubtful look from my dad because she jumped in to clarify. Well, try to clarify anyway. She was great at handling her sleep deprivation in the professional workplace, but it seemed like a personal conversation with her boyfriend’s parents was a little out of reach.

“Like, dating-together. Not just sleeping together. Though, I mean, that’s also—shit, I really should shut up now.”

Thankfully, to balance out my dad’s dubiousness, my mom simply looked amused. “Sounds like you two could use a solid few hours of sleep before we get the full story.”

“Oh, God, yes,” Y/N breathed thankfully. I reached behind me and grabbed her hand. Just that small movement upset her balance and she took half a step forward to lean against me. “Sleep is all I can think about right now.”

“Then we should let you two get to it. We’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.” Mom didn’t phrase it like a question. I nearly argued that Y/N and I would have to go into the office early to get things done, but I knew I would get nowhere. Mom had latched onto the news that her playboy son might be settling down with one woman, and she wasn’t going to let me go that easily. I would bet that she was already imagining what her grandkids would look like.

Kids.

Shit.

Y/N and I could actually start a family here and not worry about demons, angels, or monsters using the kids as bait or weapons against us.

I have no idea what kind of look was on my face when I looked at her, but it was enough to break through her exhaustion and make her tilt her head. “What?”

“Nothing,” I quickly shook my head and tried to shake the image of a little Y/N or Dean Jr. But that wasn’t an image that seemed to be leaving my head anytime soon. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed. I’ll talk to my parents for a few more minutes.”

Relief flooded her eyes and she looked beyond me to where mom and dad were watching us very closely. “I’ll see you guys in the morning. Sleep well.”

“You too, Y/N. It really is good to see you again,” mom said with a smile.

Dad just nodded. I knew it was his personality to be cautious around people, and I knew that I didn’t have the best track record when it came to woman and real relationships, but it bugged me how he looked at Y/N like she wasn’t going to stick around much longer.

So when she took a few steps towards my bedroom door and her hand slipped out of mine, I decided to hell with it and stopped her just before she could disappear into the safety of the room. One of my hands landed on her hip and the other one rested on her jaw to guide her lips up to mine. Even that brief kiss sent shock waves through my body.

“I’ll be in in a minute, okay?”

She glanced behind me at my parents for a second before returning her eyes to mine. “Take your time. I’ll be fine.”

She slipped into my room—our room. Our room.

“So, this thing between you two is pretty serious, then?” Dad’s gruff voice drew me away from the closed door.

“I’m going to marry her.”

Okay, so there was probably a better way to break the news to them. I could have probably been more tactful, given them more time to get used to the idea that I was in a serious relationship, tell them that Y/N was moving in first, before throwing that bomb on them, but I was quickly finding that holding in how I felt about Y/N wasn’t easy. I wanted the world to know.

*****

~Reader’s POV~

“That son of mine still asleep?” John’s gruff voice startled me out of my pre-coffee haze.

“Huh? Oh, no. He’s in the shower.”

John just inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Good. Don’t want him lazing around.”

That very nearly made me laugh. Dean lazing around? Sure, he enjoyed a drink often enough. And sure, he was known for sleeping around his fair share. But being lazy? He was the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company, and some secret vigilante on the side. Lazy was only in Dean’s dictionary when he was sick, which had only happened once in the year that I’d known him in this timeline.

“So, Y/N. Why are you with my son?”

It was a good thing that I hadn’t taken a drink of my coffee yet because I would have definitely choked on it. I hadn’t been expecting the interrogation until breakfast when all four of us were sitting down.

“Excuse me, what?”

“Is it for his money? His status?”

That’s what John thought about me? Sure, I wasn’t the best person. And I definitely wasn’t even close to being a good person in the other timeline. But to make assumptions like that?

I thought back to Dean’s declaration after I escaped to his room and decided to eavesdrop for a few more minutes. He’d just come right out and told his parents that he was going to marry me. No build-up, nothing. Just a slap in the face with the truth.

Well, maybe that’s what I needed to do. I needed to gather the confidence that had been shredded since I got my memories from the other timeline and start acting like I was good enough for Dean. Because like Sam said, we act like we are, then eventually we become it.

“I love him. I am in love with your son, John. He’s the best man I have ever known. If he lost everything today, I would still marry him. I would run out to the nearest courthouse and marry him today, if we could.”

“Now there’s an idea,” Dean said from the doorway. He strolled over and wrapped his arm around my waist, dipping his head long enough to peck me on the cheek. “Let’s just forget work and go to the courthouse today.”

With his hair a shade darker from the shower and the intoxicating scent of his body wash surrounding him, it was more tempting than he knew. Hell, if we weren’t in this timeline, I would be dragging him out of here.

But we were in this timeline.

“We can’t rob your mom of helping plan her oldest kid’s wedding,” I pointed out, trying to push away the uncomfortable feeling that was creeping in with John’s eyes on me and his son. I was good enough for Dean. John might not think so, and I might not completely believe it, but we would both have to get over that. Because I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Plus I think Addy wouldn’t be too happy if she couldn’t be the flower girl, right?”

Warmth flooded me, washing away the cold doubt from a few moments before. “Right. We gotta get her and my brother out here first.”

“Addy?” John asked.

“My niece. She’s the cutest kid ever.”

“Until I get some grandkids, right?” Mary asked, making quite the entrance.

Once again, I was glad I hadn’t taken a drink of coffee yet. Grandkids? I was trying to forget that I’d killed a daughter in the other timeline. I was trying to believe that I was good enough to marry Dean. I was trying to figure out how to balance my life. And grandkids? What?

“Patience, mom,” Dean’s fingers pressed into my hip reassuringly. “We’ve gotta get hitched first.”

“I gotta have my coffee first,” I mumbled just as the coffee pot finished. I untangled myself from Dean’s arm and poured myself a big mug full of the miracle bean juice.

“You mind pouring some for this old man too?”

I grabbed another mug for John. “Not at all. Mary?”

“I’m fine, but thank you, Y/N.” She leaned against the counter by John and eyed me up and down, no doubt trying to figure out if I had the right hips to bear her bow-legged grandchildren.

Kids.

Honestly.

Before I could delve too deep into the issue, which would inevitably lead to me reliving the dark days from the other timeline with my daughter, I poured the two mugs of coffee and handed one to John. Just after I took my first drink, Dean stole the mug from my hand and took a long drag.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

“You didn’t ask me if I wanted one, so I figured you wanted to share.” God, that infuriatingly attractive smirk made it difficult to argue.

“You should know better than to steal a girl’s coffee.”

“But you’re my girl.” As if that made it better.

I fixed him with my best arched eyebrow boy you thought look as I snatched the mug back. “I won’t be for much longer if you keep stealing my coffee.”

He grinned and held up his hands in a playful surrender. Walking around me towards the cupboard with the mugs, he kissed my forehead as he passed. To think that just a few days ago I had been pushing him away. If I’d been successful, I wouldn’t have felt the sparkling bubbles dancing through my veins at his little gestures of affection like that.

“So, I was thinking we could get breakfast at Ralph’s,” Dean said as he poured himself some coffee. “Good food. Quick service. And it’s right down the street from our work, so we can spend a few extra minutes with you guys without feeling guilty or too rushed.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mary chimed in and I had to bite my tongue to stop from snarking at John about how responsible and not lazy Dean was, no matter what he still though of his oldest son.

With our plans finalized and coffee in most of our systems, Dean and I headed to his room—our room, to finish getting ready, and John and Mary headed to the guest room.

As soon as we were alone, Dean turned to me with bright eyes. “Call your brother. See if he and Addy can come this weekend. I’ll pay for their flights, they can stay at your place, I’ll get Sam out here. We can get married this weekend.”

So maybe the coffee hadn’t quite kicked in, because I probably wasn’t hearing him correctly. “You want to pull off a wedding in one week? Dean, it’s Saturday. We’re going to be working practically non-stop for the entire weekend and most of next week just to catch up on the last week!”

“So? I’m sure mom will stay to help plan it. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. Just our families in a church. We can have a bigger ceremony in a few months with the photographers and flowers and dress and tux and guests. But I just… I want to get married now. I don’t want to wait.”

Was he feeling the same urgency that I was? All of this talk of timelines must have made my internal systems go on the fritz because I was losing track of time and feeling the weight of it so much more acutely.

But maybe he was right. Why put off a wedding? We were going to get married anyway. And both of us seemed to only want our family there so…

“Okay. I’ll call him. But you’re going to tell your parents that we’re getting married only a week after they found out that we’re dating.”

NEXT CHAPTER

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Best Quotes from The Dark Knight Trilogy – ‘Why so serious?’

  Here is our list of the best quotes from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, which are ranked as some of the greatest superhero movies made.

  1. Batman Begins (2005)

Nolan’s birth of Batman, in an origin story where we follow Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) traveling to the Far East, to train in the martial arts by Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows. When Ghul reveals the League’s true purpose, the complete destruction of Gotham City, Wayne returns to Gotham intent on cleaning up the city without resorting to murder. With the help of his loyal butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a tech expert at Wayne Enterprises, Batman is born.

‘Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you.’ – Ra’s al Ghul (Batman Begins) Click To Tweet

  [Bruce looks defeated as Wayne Manor is burning down] Bruce Wayne: I wanted to save Gotham. I failed. Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up. Bruce Wayne: You still haven’t given up on me? Alfred Pennyworth: Never.

  Bruce Wayne: People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.

  Rachel Dawes: Wait! You could die. At least tell me your name. [Bruce pauses for a moment] Bruce Wayne: It’s not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me. Rachel Dawes: Bruce?

  Rachel Dawes: [to Bruce] Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.

  Rachel Dawes: You’re not talking about justice. You’re talking about revenge. Bruce Wayne: Sometimes they’re the same. Rachel Dawes: No, they’re never the same, Bruce. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better. It’s why we have an impartial system.

  Carmine Falcone: [to Bruce] This is a world you’ll never understand. And you always fear what you don’t understand.

  Ra’s al Ghul: What are you seeking? Bruce Wayne: I seek the means to fight injustice. To turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. Ra’s al Ghul: To manipulate the fears in others you must first master your own. Are you ready to begin? Bruce Wayne: I can barely stand. Ra’s al Ghul: Death does not wait for you to be ready! Death is not considerate or fair! And make no mistake, here you face death.

  Alfred Pennyworth: Strange injuries a non-existent social life, these things beg the question as to what exactly does Bruce Wayne do with his time and his money. Bruce Wayne: And what does someone like me do? Alfred Pennyworth: Drive sports cars, date movie stars, buy things that are not for sale, who knows, Master Wayne, you start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident.

  [trying to lift a burning roof beam off of Bruce] Alfred Pennyworth: What is the point of all those push-ups if you can’t even lift a bloody log!

  Earle: Bruce? You’re supposed to be dead. Bruce Wayne: Sorry to disappoint.

  [as Batman is about leave] Jim Gordon: I never said thank you. Batman: And you’ll never have to.

  1. The Dark Knight (2008)

Nolan’s sequel, which is now widely considered to be one of the best sequels ever made. The story follows Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in his continuing war on crime. With the help of allies Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman has been able to keep a tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a menace knows as the Joker (Heath Ledger) emerges, he starts to wreak havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham. Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice and begins to tread a fine line between heroism and vigilantism.

‘If you’re good at something, never do it for free.’ – The Joker (The Dark Knight) Click To Tweet

  The Joker: I believe whatever doesn’t kill you, simply makes you stranger.

  Alfred Pennyworth: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of the tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never met anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away. Bruce Wayne: So why steal them? Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

  The Joker: want to know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker. And a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not one bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it! He turns to me, and he says, “Why so serious, son?” Comes at me with the knife, “Why so serious?” He sticks the blade in my mouth, “Let’s put a smile on that face!” And, why so serious?

  Bruce Wayne: Let her go! [Joker dangles Rachel out of a window] The Joker: Very poor choice of words… [then let’s Rachel drop]

  Bruce Wayne: Then why do you want to kill me? The Joker: [laughs] I don’t, I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, no! No. You, you complete me.

  Bruce Wayne: You’re garbage who kills for money. The Joker: Don’t talk like one of them. You’re not! Even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these, uh, these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.

  The Joker: [to Det. Stephens] Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can’t savor all the little emotions. In, you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are.

  The Joker: [to Harvey Dent] You know, you know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan”. Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.” But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

  [Joker hands Dent a gun and points it at himself] The Joker: Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair!

  Bruce Wayne: What were you hoping to prove? That, deep down, everyone’s as ugly as you? You’re alone! The Joker: Can’t rely on anyone these days, you got to do to everything yourself. Don’t we!

  The Joker: [to Bruce] I took Gotham’s white knight and I brought him down to our level. It wasn’t hard. You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.

  Bruce Wayne: [voice over] Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes, people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

  [referring to Batman] James Gordon Jr.: He didn’t do anything wrong. Lt. James Gordon: Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight.

  3. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Final installment in Nolan’s trilogy, where we see Bruce Wayne living as a recluse in Wayne Manor, seen only by the trusted Alfred. Gotham appears at peace, with organized crime dropping, however, the arrival of a cunning cat burglar, Selina (Anne Hathaway), and a merciless terrorist named Bane (Tom Hardy), forces Batman out of exile and into a battle he may not be able to win.

‘There are always people you care about. You just don’t realize how much until they’re gone.’ – Bruce Wayne (The Dark Knight Rises) Click To Tweet

  Blake: [to Bruce] To be angry. In your bones. I mean, they understand. Foster parents, everybody, understands, for a while. But then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can’t do. To move on. So after a while they stop understanding and they send the angry kid to a boys home. I figured it out too late. You got to learn to hide the anger, and practice smiling in the mirror. It’s like putting on a mask. So you showed up this one day in a cool car, pretty girl on your arm. We were so excited. Bruce Wayne, billionaire orphan! We used to make up stories about you, man. Legends. And you know, to the other kids that’s all it was, just stories. But, right when I saw you I knew who you really were.

  Bruce Wayne: You’re afraid that if I go back out there, I’ll fail. Alfred: No. I’m afraid that you want to.

  Alfred: [to Bruce] I am using the truth, Master Wayne. Maybe it’s time we all stopped trying to outsmart the truth and just let it have its day. I’m sorry!

  Bane: Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

  Bruce Wayne: Hope you didn’t like me for my money. Miranda: Suffering builds character.

  Bruce Wayne: Why didn’t you just kill me? Bane: You don’t fear death, you welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe. Bruce Wayne: You’re a torturer. Bane: Yes. But not of your body. Of your soul.

  Blind Prisoner: Fear is why you fail. Bruce Wayne: No, I’m not afraid. I’m angry.

  Bruce Wayne: If you’re working alone, wear a mask. Blake: I’m not afraid to be seen standing up to these guys. Bruce Wayne: The mask is not for you. It’s to protect the people you care about.

  Bruce Wayne: A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders, to let him know the world hadn’t ended.

[jbuffyangel]

Misfire: Arrow 5x13 Review (Spectre of the Gun)

This isn't going to be a typical review because, honestly, I don't even know what to do with this episode.  (Thanks for the gif suggestion @lipstickandwifi)

Let's dig in...

Everyone except Thea Queen

Back in the day, when television shows had "very special episodes" it served as a time out. The show would depart from their usual format and address a serious issue in present day society. For example, a "friend" would offer Punky Brewster drugs, forcing her to stop joking around and face a crisis. She would wonder what to do until Mrs. Reagan showed up at her front door to tell her, "Just say no." Mrs. Reagan would provide a concrete avenue to address Punky's problem and a solution to them as well.  All's well that ends well. We could go back to our regularly scheduled slapstick comedy routine next week.

"Spectre of the Gun" isn't that. Television has evolved past the kind of “very special episodes” I described above, but that doesn’t mean the endeavor is always successful. While I admire Arrow for attempting to address a relevant social issue, the episode fails on multiple levels for me for multiple reasons. It is uneven, contradictory, and characters acted out of character to become mouthpieces for political ideologies. I don't feel Arrow adds anything new to the discussion and, even worse, I don't think they offer any solutions as we move forward.

Is Arrow the right show to address gun violence? Well... yes and no. Certainly yes because gun violence is so prolific on the show, but also no for the exact same reason.  As James Edlund begins shooting up the mayoral office, and the camera closes in dramatically on the carnage he leaves in his wake, I found myself asking, "How is this violence any different than the violence we've seen in the other 112 episodes?"

The answer is simple. There isn't any difference, but this is a "very special episode" of Arrow, so now they are going to address it as an issue. But next week we'll go right back to dropping bodies with guns.

So, I do take issue with Oliver Queen hopping up on his moral high horse about gun control. I don't think he is the right character to voice that side of the debate. In anything it should be Oliver who is the silent character, while perhaps other characters like Felicity (a victim of gun violence), could argue for the gun control.

Why do I say this? Because I watched Oliver drop 12 men, without a second thought, with a gun last week during a flashback. He broke someone's neck in the premiere. 

Oliver is a killer and he's embraced that side of himself again. He's going to kill when necessary and he will determine the terms of that necessity. Not the law. I've had a beef with this for awhile, so anyone who reads my reviews on the regular won't be shocked by this attitude. I find this whole "gray zone" particularly frustrating because Arrow willfully ignores an easily achievable middle ground: Lian Yu and the ARGUS prison that holds Slade. 

Why can't we use that again? Oh that's right. Because we're not at the end of the fifth season. Sigh.

"That's not your call to make."

Oliver argues with Edlund that despite his anger and pain he does not have the right to decide who lives or dies. The Green Arrow finds himself in a similar moral debate with The Vigilante after he guns down a criminal Oliver tied up and interrogated.

"I'm you. The only difference between us is I use a more efficient weapon."

Here's the problem. Oliver is making life and death decisions on a nightly basis. He has elected himself judge, jury and executioner. 

Is killing only okay when Oliver does it? Is he the only one who has the corner on life and death decisions? Isn't Prometheus’ entire beef with Oliver that he cannot see his own hypocrisy? Yes, of course, and that is the problem in "Spectre of the Gun." While Oliver is willing to address gun violence, he isn’t willing to address his own history of violence. When the hero makes you think the Big Bad has a point, you've got yourself a narrative issue.

Perhaps this is intended to push Oliver towards an enlightened moral code that he embraces at the end of the season once he becomes the Green Arrow. That's all well and good, and wholly welcomed by yours truly, but it doesn't make Oliver's perspective in "Spectre of the Gun" any easier to swallow.

My second issue is the contradictions. Edlund's family is killed during a mass shooting. He believes if Star City had pushed through the gun registry it would have protected his family. So... he shoots up city hall and the hospital to make it happen. WHAT??? 

Then, in his face to face with Oliver, it's revealed the shooter bought his gun legally, so there was nothing the city could have done to protect Edlund's family. His response is, "I know." Again, I say...

Then why is he going around shooting everyone? It makes absolutely no sense. If Edlund is mentally disturbed, then no gun registry or gun control law is going to stop him either.  His motives are illogical and contradictory thus rendering them, from a narrative perspective, pointless.

My third issue is with balance. Marc Guggenheim promised a fair and balanced debate. We listen to Curtis lecture Felicity about the wonders of fair and balanced debate. Arrow committed itself to presenting both sides of the issues.

I don't love guns.  I wouldn't have a problem if every handgun, semi automatic, automatic, etc. was confiscated. However, I am also an "originalist" (the constitution should be interpreted as closely as possible to the way America’s founders conceived it. ) Even though the 2nd Amendment isn't my favorite amendment, I recognize the right to bear arms. We don't get to pick and choose which amendments we follow. I've grown up around responsible gun owners, friends and family alike, who use guns for hunting and sport. These people are also ardent 2nd Amendment advocates and they have legitimate points of concern, as do people who are proponents of more gun control. 

However, Arrow did not present the "pro gun" argument tonight. Marc Guggenheim is an admitted unapologetic progressive, which is absolutely his right, but what is presented is the unapologetic progressive's version of the "pro gun" argument. This is an entirely different thing.

Essentially, “pro gun control” Oliver goes head to head with a city councilwoman who is for 2nd Amendment protection. Oliver is concerned with doing the right thing, while the councilwoman is more concerned with the political fallout (a not so subtle dig at the NRA and anyone who argues 2nd Amendment rights). While she argues 2nd Amendment protection, she never quite articulates those concerns in a concrete way. I believe Marc gave it his level best, but this falls short of the balanced realm.

"Spectre of the Gun"  is essentially a PSA for gun control. However, I don't think Arrow added anything new to the argument, which is a massive missed opportunity in my mind. Rehashing points made in other forums isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I was hoping there’d be a little more new blood injected into the discussion.

My fourth issue is with solutions. Arrow spent a great deal of time talking around the concept of a gun registry, but they don't really delve into any details on how this limits gun violence.

The entire point of Arrow, the entire reason Oliver is the Green Arrow, is because he believes the system doesn't  work. That's why a vigilante is required. 

“It does need to stop, and if it's not gonna be the courts and it's not gonna be the cops... Then it's gonna be me.” - Oliver Queen, “An Innocent Man” 1x04

Now that Oliver is mayor he is the system. So, I was rather interested in seeing what solutions he was able to come up with.

Keep in mind this isn't "Earshot" on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy isn't talking Jonathan down while he holds a high powered rifle in the school clock tower. 

This isn't One Tree Hill when a student opens fire on the school. 

The entire episode takes place within the political construct of the mayoral office. The whole point is to see Oliver solve a problem as mayor. Marc and Wendy repeatedly said in promotion the concept is for Oliver to go an episode without wearing the Green Arrow suit. Although, he wore the suit, so color me mystified.

And then, we arrive at the climax, and what the episode has been building towards. Pro Gun Control Oliver and 2nd Amendment Defender Rene, come up with a gun control policy that protects people against gun violence, but doesn't limit the freedom of gun owners. Arrow beats its might chest because they manage to find a solution that serves both sides. Everybody leaves happy.

And the new gun control policies are...? And they achieve both by doing what...? 

No details are given. 

I read all the interviews before I watched the episode. I know Marc and Wendy were going for a nondescript, even debate, without providing any solutions. "Spectre of the Gun" is our Rorschach test.

Umm... or it was a freaking cop out. 

When the entire episode is built towards finding a political solution and then you fail to offer that political solution, that is an EPIC fail. 

This is a fantasy world. Make it up! If there is an easy way to achieve BOTH (gun control that protects 2nd Amendment rights) then PRESENT IT. Let some good come out of this. Throw it in the debate mix. Let's get it in front of Congress. Let's use this vehicle we call television to actually DO SOMETHING.

Here's why Arrow didn't present their mystical "everybody gets want they want" solution. It's not easy to achieve both. That's why this issue is so controversial. That's why this war rages on and on and on. At least when Punky Brewster said no to drugs, you understood how she was going to do it. Mrs. Reagan gave her the road map.  Sometimes she even brought visual aids. Arrow wants the neat bow, and feel good wrap up, Mrs. Reagan provided without actually showing the visual aids. Nope. 

If the audience isn’t meant to receive any easy answers, then neither should the characters. Instead, Oliver & company find the answer, but we don’t get to know what it is.

Perhaps, Arrow's intent is to simply spark the debate. This ties in closely with Curtis' lecture to Felicity about the necessity of healthy debate. I agree with Curtis. Healthy debate is a necessity and is the life blood of a democratic society. However, I don't agree that we've stopped talking to one another. I don't think Arrow needed to jump start this debate again. This debate has been waging for decades now. Talking isn't the problem. The problem is... we've stopped LISTENING to one another.

I didn't see a lot of listening on Curtis' part in that "debate" with Felicity. Rather, it is Felicity being lectured to. I don't necessarily think Felicity is the right character to represent the "talking about politics is impolite" group. A strong stance about gun control would have made a little more sense to me coming from Felicity, the person who uses weapons the least on Arrow, rather than Oliver.

However, Felicity can, on occasion, shut down and retreat. So, I didn't find it wildly out of character, but it is frustrating. Instead of being talked to, it feels like she was being talked at. Once again, it feels like Felicity is being silenced to prop other characters. The reason why many get particularly upset about Felicity is because she is the female lead of Arrow. We heard from Dinah, who has all of two episodes under her belt. We heard from random councilwoman. Yet, we didn't get a clear view on Felicity's perspective. She is the front and center female character on Arrow. Her silence feels a little illogical. In an episode that's all about characters' viewpoints, we'd like to hear from the primary leads.

That's not to say Felicity didn't have some legit points. She did. Healthy debate is all well and good, but it also has an appropriate time and place. That's not always the workplace for some people, or other environments in which they don't feel comfortable discussing something as personal as political views. This doesn't suddenly make them a problem. It doesn't suddenly make them less American either, which I felt Arrow implies by Curtis' lecture.

This debate is also prohibiting actual work from getting done. The work is more important than Curtis and Rene's differing views on guns and Felicity calling attention to this fact doesn't make her any less engaged or concerned about the issue.  

Diggle is also conspicuously silent too. He is too busy finding Dinah an apartment with a garden. Well, that is a crisis. Best get on that. 

I found this shocking as well. Most military people I know have strong opinions about guns. Does leaving two of three members of Original Team Arrow out of the discussion feel odd to anyone else? It felt odd to me. Perhaps this is a protective technique? They don't want to embroil some of their fan favorite characters in such a sensitive issue and risk alienating audience members? So they offer secondary characters like Curtis and Rene as sacrificial lambs? Perhaps. No real way of knowing.

I did enjoy Wild Dog. While some characters felt like they were taking a leave of absence from their bodies to become political mouthpieces, Wild Dog did not. His attitude and perspective made a lot of sense, especially when we see his flashback. Rene going for his gun in the safe is an argument I've had with many friends and family who keep guns in the home. I've always questioned the logistical ability to get to the gun and load it, when an intruder is in the home. Arrow did a good job of showing that.

That said, they lost me at the random bullet killing his wife. The argument presented is the bullet wouldn't have fired if Rene didn't fire his gun. It's an unbelievably heavy handed commentary on keeping a gun in the home in an already heavy handed pro gun control episode. Subtle isn't Arrow's strong suit, but this was bad even for them.

They've also left room for Wild Dog's exit without having to kill him. He could get custody of his daughter again and want to leave all of this "violence" behind to give her the safe environment he craves. We shall see.

While the attempt is valiant, ultimately “Spectre of the Gun” is a misfire for me. This episode is a massive pause on all character storylines and development. Hopefully, next week we can return to our regularly schedule programming. And the next time Arrow feels the urge to do a “very special episode” let’s just... not.

Thea Queen

I pledge my allegiance to Thea because she is QUEEN. Where she goes so goes my nation. Oh my darling girl, how I have missed you. Come here to me.

I live for Thea's insanely on point snark. 

Susan was the absolute WORST to Thea. So, she is well within her rights to believe Susan is shady. Also, Susan is shady. (Quit telling me she's not Arrow because she is.)

"She's a good at her job and she's a good person. So there."

I really can't even believe Oliver ended an argument with "so there." 

ARE YOU SIX? Feels like a Stephen Amell adlib.

If we're defining "good at her job" as using her sexapades with Oliver to investigate him, then Susan gets a gold star. 

While Oliver isn't comfortable leveraging his personal relationship with Susan for political gain, she has no problem leveraging their personal relationship for PROFFESIONAL gain. These two might want to have a talk.

It's a little mind boggling to me how Oliver willfully ignores the obscene conflict of interest with dating a reporter. Though, to be fair, on the list of stupid things Oliver has done, it doesn't even rank in the top 5. I can also recognize dating the exactly wrong person occupation wise is intentional on Arrow's part. Still, it's irritating.

Thea's unrelenting distaste for Susan, in spite of Oliver's increasing anger over her attitude, is pretty freaking fantastic. Thea respects Oliver's right to date whoever he wants. That doesn't mean Thea has to like her. I am pleased Thea is holding her ground on this issue. She's not interfering. She's not actively trying to break them up. Thea is just being honest and, as I've said, she has good reason to feel how she feels about Susan.

Thea is generally supportive of anyone Oliver dates, so I think the bigger misstep here is on his part. Maybe he should be paying attention to some of those red flags Thea is drawing attention to. Will there eventually come a point when Thea needs to zip it? Sure, but we're nowhere near that point. Nor do I believe Susan and Oliver will be together long enough to reach that point. Thea is essentially the audience's ambassador. She is us. We are Thea. She is our mouthpiece, so we can swallow the remaining few episodes of this Olicity roadblock masquerading as a relationship. Bless you Thea. You are doing God's work.

Stray Thoughts

I see no problem with the term Dragon Lady. Feels on point to me. Dragon Lady it is.

Curtis being the counterpoint to Rene’s perspective is a nice continuation of their evolving partnership. It builds off their opposite personalities, and their banter/bickering, shown in previous eps well.

Feel like Quentin could have remarked on Dinah thing. Cause it's a thing.

I liked that Oliver, and not the Green Arrow, talked Edlund down. It’s a step in the right direction. 

This line is exceptionally beautiful and shows how much Oliver has learned over the years. He’s starting to realize what a real legacy is about. 

How many Canaries has Diggle rehabilitated now? He should form an official non profit and take the tax deduction.

"So, we needed to find Dinah a place to live, but can someone tell me where OLIVER lives?" - @callistawolf asks the important questions y'all.

I liked Canaries (3x13) better. CANARIES Y'ALL. That's how much I disliked 5x13.

*** I questioned whether I was even going to write a review, primarily because this is such a hot button issue. My goal in writing it is simply to critique the episode and move on. Not ignite a gun control debate on the blog. If others want to continue the discussion in the comments, please keep it respectful. I will be moderating, but this is probably where I tap out. As always, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. 

[throwingideasatthewall]

Clone Wars    The Jedi Who Knew Too Much

            (Terrorize a                  woman)

               An adult

             Also wait       I thought they said no one was killed?.

             Like back near the ending they were like                 “he was the only one,”

                  [Working                         With?]

     ??

              So Force 

                That it was never ever brought up that they were dead or what happened to them or just whatever

                  ...    

               Oh joy a funeral 

              with a shade of                        Eugenics

                  Dear                        Frick

                 (This is why I hate    funerals; Bad enough that someone died in such a terrible way that they couldn’t be accountable in return to their        home (which they should     have) and had as close to a peaceful       death knowing that they hadn’t inflicted further pain and suffering on their fellow man,

          No let’s just parade that shit around and make everyone feel as miserable as possible while encouraging that misery

        (Not imagine reminding them about        soon their life will be over)

                     Dic                         k-                         .                         Re-                      mem-ber                            -                          Oh yeah I really care about all those   unnamed people-                           -                            Also yeah let’s try to remember how they were [in life] well the fact that they are dead is robbed in their faces

                        And guilt-tripped

                   Dick.

               [Ahsoka stop being an assumptious dick during a moment of                      silence,]

                   Well I may not respect the concept of funerals        But I do respect the concept of                    If there were rules for an established event                       That you decide to participate in                           You should probably follow                         them,

                       [Empathy circle,                            Asking if sad

                       No shit Sher                             Lock,]

                         It’s a                                Funeral]

[also why does      Ahsoka,        Single               out        Barisse?          She isn’t crying or seems noticeably more upset than any one else,

    “My            Light saber,”

     My mentor         was doing          nothing,

        I know, “younglings”              But for the age we see them          learning about light sabers              There’s little to no chance that someone she learned besides,                 Could teach her anything,

           “ Live for the living Jedi,”

           Then why did you drag the body out of here and make people stare        at it?

        [like live for the living      that’s all good and good,             But part of that includes              not being a dick,            Doing your role to make the world a habitable and decent place,                And being accountable,                 (If you’re inches away from death                  maybe stay home).                 And while this is going                  old fashion murder,                            You’d would assume they would’ve sectioned it off if they were anything resemb                      ling decent                      People,

                 Like not just one place (lane).     for this dude to operate,

                  And in case of       sociality,                   This place wasn’t closed off (permanent) for multiple reasons

                 (Like seriously you guys want to gather around a place where someone died?)

      Point being;           Living for the           living means being          acc-ountable                  And not subjecting people to           staring              at your           dead body,        -

  Live through     us     . . .   Er-

 [But-   they already did their fair share of     living-

[apologies for the “gallows”      humor,

   Just...following       the conclusion of the episodes         focus on,

        Death

   [Point being; you can’t make me feel bad for someone who literally decided   fuck the environment        fuck life     fuck humanity,      i’m going to be a self-destructive       asshole,            And it kicked them in the          ass,

       [Like yeah yeah           loss of life very           tragic,             World is a            wor           -ser,             But that’s a            quick moment-              -] 

           -            [Also yeah                 Jedi life,                   ]

              Like screw all the cleaning                staff,

            Do they even get burials?                   (Weird hierarchy)

               Also, those were all                Jedi?

             (Like seriously          what were they doing down there?)

             Also yeah no wonder             everyone was suspicious,

             Like five Jedi down there for no                 established                     reason

             Weird glowy

              Barisse

              [Where’s                Luminara?

              You know,                      Barisse’s            “Men-tor,”            Authority             assumer,

                  Known                        for                        . . .                 being on top of                    things.                       . . .                            And control                        -ling-                             -                             Micro manage                              -                                “Mov,

                          Seriously     can anyone        leave       this woman alone        for five seconds. .

      Excuses she was already            terrorized enough by              Sky               walker                    .                    Still sucks,

              Why?

               Re-                public

               Jedi-

                How is Ahsoka part of the space military and doesn’t know that they answer to the space government?

                 [Did she think       they were just going to keep them locked up in the same       cell forever?

    No space trial?

     Like this seems       like a very stupid           excuse-          To get Ahsoka involved,            (And overly sus)              And terror      -ize this poor woman further

      (Note I know what she did was            downright shitty,

      (Assuming she didn’t give a false confession          under duress)

       That doesn’t excuse the      tox,-

      Clones kil-

    Seriously when      and why does everyone care about the         clones?

     Like ‘oh no the      (ex) child soldiers died!

        Yeah?

    Like they were “actual” people             (By their standards)        and Jedi            (Who seem to rank up pretty high on the standards, even get a separate burial, and getting a statement ranking their lives only              (Assumed authority             is shit)           right there,

      Ad-miral

     Also yeah      they have different legal systems       for different groups of people,          (We’re just going to paint                that as fine,)

           Like I know this is              assumed authority,               But that’s adding another layer of tox that I think should be             acknowledged -

          She’s guilty-

             Fair-

          Dealt with                    Did-

    Did Ahsoka just advocate for the       death penalty-          !?

     Like her hand moved in that         “over the neck,”             expression,                  .                   Revenge

       Dude this is more than venting 

      this is murder

     (Focus on the don’t         murder          part, before the painting with          broad strokes-          ,         (You’d think one of the older Jedi would be advocating for this           shit)

    A-hsoka

    Could’ve        been a nice moment,

     But the tone was off

     And it didn’t make sense

       ‘ The evid-ence              seems clear’?

       How would the      evidence have changed anything?

          ‘ things will never change,’

        Weird statement,

         - -            Military

        That’s a damn good idea considering they’re          peacekeepers

     (Oh yeah that’s the thing that’s thrown around pretty sparsely;               These guys are supposed to keep the peace,

          (Yet from the itchy trigger finger you wouldn’t think that)

           Never mind Anakin’s suddenly developed                    terrorizing tendencies,

          What would be good...

          If they played              it up for evil,

           And didn’t ignore the        unfortunate implications,

        “Peace Keeper(s);

    Hey, they actually called       them out for that bullshit,

     That’s good

     And yeah she is 100% deserves to be ashamed,          For enabling Anakin          last round,              And possibly            brutalizing,

   Note, there’s a difference between venting       and brutalizing,

    (Mostly decided by     emotions,)

    But still they killed more people         than is acceptable either way                              (0)

       Oh never mind she’s just bitter and completely ignoring the consequences of her actions

         (Yeah!)

   (This is not accountability      this is            Vigilante justice,              Trying to solve everybody’s problems            for them,           Which is the just not how it works,             You can’t assume               accountability for               someone else

             You              aren’t                 them

 [Author-ity]

    Strate-gy-

     Um?

    [What?]  Is.

    Is she    a master now,

     If not then where is          Luminara?

      And just           tasks?

       [i’m sorry but Luminara doesn’t seem like the type to assign that kind of work,

     Being pretty controlling

     And high on everything rule -abiding even their elitist attitude -        towards the jedi-

     Pretty sure    she would’ve sent a bot       or a servant        or something              . . .                Not      an     apprentice?             . . .?             ?   Literally nothing about Luminara?

       “friend”

   Assuming a lot that made they’ve only interacted       once and nearly died that      time,

     Also, comfort?

    Ahsoka is the only one that seems particularly    disturbed-

    Yeah      Barisse is soft-spoken             -                But         not really sad that I can tell

   [all of her speech has been well actively non-consequential and      nonsensical,

  That vague]

  Also yeah     Ahsoka feels bad,           After just say          -ing            Screw              You              To a general that reasonably pointed out that they’re peace keepers, and shouldn’t be interfering so much and so aggressively, in other people’s     lives

   (And that’s fair with Lord terrorizer but painted as it’s no big     deal,”          Over there)

     So yeah you can’t really make me sympathize with someone who just a essentially said “Screw being an accountable person,  I want to hurt people         (Beyond reasonable venting         parameters),          And possibly kill them,

    Yeah, no sympathy

    Young

     More so psychopathic,

      [Like pretty sure      she insinuated murder there,]

       What’s with the cell phone music?

         Seriously, look;   

 She’s fine

  This,

  Also     geez she’s jumping right into the         baggage?

  Like poor Barrisse,        She just wanted to go for a walk      and get some tasks      done    and this person is bringing in the tox,

   [Like seriously you don’t just randomly launch into a rant about the abusers and the system they created,

    Everyone already          knows,

    Stick to the talking when there’s something actually good to    share,

   [excluding         rare     occasions,           - ]

Dear frick      what have       I got myself.       into?]

   Damn poor Barrisse      is trying to get out of this            conversation..

     Like dude that’s against code...

     Dude..

    Haha, you’re so cool

   * through gritted teeth,           *please help me*,

      Genoisse

     * Dear god you’re bringing up that             terrible             situation*?

         -         

        [Help ME]

             ?

            Oh yeah that’s not a completely weird thing to say to             someone after a               mur-der      

                  -    

                  ?     

            [Ahsoka’s           projecting fucking..  

              HARD

               Please                     Leave

        Ha, ha , ha

        [that is a why-do-I-hang-out-with-you       ex       -pression-     -         Like Ahsoka clearly got the talent of starting a long rambling rant about random nonsense and subjecting the nearest person to it” trait from      Anakin         [Pre-quel]              -    

[Here’s a reminder that Barisse just wanted a book or some   shit

   To do her    “tasks,”          And got       subjected        to that,       -    

 [Wait this was an        all-call meeting-

       [Apologies for the           abundance of pictures           but I have a lot of thoughts             ,]

          [Why did Luminara and Barisse              get snubbed?

           How is Ahsoka?                  [there are                 -multiple things wrong                   with this-]

        Anyway-

           L-eto

       Because you’re a gosh             darn terrorist,             And out of the two Jedi she             probably knows-           Ahsoka is the least likely to go            {immediate death mode}.                    Probably             she is kind of death mody now,                         -                        Com-mander                             Tano,                        Really?                            -                                  Besides all the normal,                    not Jedi guards,?                                -             Because that smells of plot                      convenience,                           -                          Like she and Ahsoka barely had one conversation,            Where she enabled Anakin’s crazy assumptions and tyran          -ical ruling,              -            ?             -             [It’s-       a nice         shot-]          -          Whelp,            -           The      guarding system are real         weird here;           Sometimes it’s the      Centurions,         This is the real first time          we’re        see-ing           arc             -          Overly          competent,

        Also like      five people dude, chill

      Also the feck    are you telling her            this?

          Oh                —               Guilt?                 (Good)                     .                     ?                       .      [None of them have a red button            except for one,

                               Hm,     Oh yes it just completely open.    the door with no shields   and let the unarmed person go first,

��    -           Also yeah      dick move       Ahsoka,

      You were     the Jedi to contact          -          Seriously,   not your attorney

      Oh heck even one of the older Jedi?

     The ap-prentice-            ?

      This is getting to               Mary Sue               levels                  of          “fecking unlikely,”.                   And             “unrealistic,”                   To establish how much of an      unrealistic unbelievable bad ass       Ahsoka              Is,

        Which, congrats,  I don’t believe it

       That a person living in subsequent poverty would know the name of one of the young to-be Jedis, Who reach-       ed such        renown       after            a few short missions,                Where not much was actually done,

             And she never had an official staring                   role, on her own,

      That’s pure wish fulfillment      and it’s pure bullshit

              [You know what would’ve made more sense?                      And I’m not excusing the story in any way                      I fecking         hate                it at this point,

            But,                    What if she was someone screwed over by some people                 smugglers?

                Who saw some serious crime getting committed,

                  And knew the name                     “Ahsoka,”

                    From stories of the other people that got screwed over                        by people                          smug                             glers,

                          Building on the past mythos;                                    Her adventures with the others

                           Esta-blishing herself as a                                smaller crime fighter,

                          Typically.                              asso-ciated with people smugglers,

                          And allowing her to get up a bit of reputation

                           Form her                               own name.                                -                                     Just                                  -a thought                                      -                                     Time

                                Wow Ahsoka’s a bitch                                               [derogatory                                                     non-identification)

                                  The animation...                                       is not helping,

                                         Mine,                                            Yeah you mentioned it,

                                                    Before                                                    She did                                               you fuckin watermelon,

Also,     

[Apologies.         I meant     to make it    smaller, Didn’t;     Happen,]         But point      being she really         is trash; 

    Over - judgemental

     Willing to go farther than          humane

     Willing to assume           authority,

          And yeah lady did terrible            shit,  

      But it was         five        people,       in a            war;

      If that’s what set Ahsoka off, she’s really not up to hearing about the boomer war

        Because yeah        boomer is far from innocent,

        But these are         boomers this shit is expected,  

         And certainly didn’t         add or require that kind of tone                or behavior;

  That’s          A        “You        Suck,”        And         a trip           to      accoun       -tability

            Also yeah let’s talk about the              tone here for multiple reasons;

               The Boomer isn’t the victim either

                But by God, does it try to fame it as such,

              When we come in,  

                 [and I’m not            doing pictures for obvious                      reasons,]                         They are cur-led up in a corner-                           Tone just barely making it about childify                            -ication

                        And I got to say this                           tone is fucking backwards,

                       With the elder boomer criminal,                             Portrayed                               with a unsteady unsure                                  scared tone,

                          Meanwhile Ahsoka,

  For my complaints     of being portrayed         Too young       for her actions,           Too old         for the        -tone,

       Is now portrayed                 even older,                With cyn-                   icism and defen-                  siveness-                      -                           Which doesn’t make sense since the        present Gen doesn’t have anything to defend,                      And has the un-certain tone                          (Usually hope-ful)                              The tones are completely wrong

                                       Right after it being said that Ahsoka acts young in many ways

    Instead of        acting           Like an old person who’s already         done their thing                 And has something to be        defensive about

   [not even the most toxic person       in present Gen,         Loses the uncertain tone         until their time is up,]

        And continues a constant theme of the series not having any patience and not taking the time to develop anything

       They want to have   , Ahsoka be cool and bad ass and say certain lines but don’t have the patience to work-       To develop it         properly,

    Causing everything to fall        extremely           flat;

   Re;verse          (With      correct          Tone,          Ass-      uming this is a          trap,)

     O; What are you doing here?

    A:   What you?

          [Door             closes             behind]

      O; [crack      Guess you’re not the only one              les;]             to fall into their trap,

       A; [Lifts        Tell me or -or              up]

        O;         Or- or                        what?!

                     It’s not                   in your character                         ,child

        A;        Maybe ��       [Slump      not         Ing]                           -     -           That at least feels natural             and not like a              body switch,                - - -                [also now you’re playing the death theme after he brutalized several people?]

            Like,               [Wow that was quite possibly the most pointless set up I’ve ever seen,                With several                   easy resolvable instances -                        Play it straight                             with not a drop of self-awareness to drink,

                         And because Ahsoka acted like a complete jerk ass I have no interest,

          Especially when they can switch her tone to                old by gone enabler

             [Good job taking any tension                or suspension of               belief, out of                 your story]

             ...