#ambiguous anyway

[pukner]

I just had a thought sorry for spilling it here but platonic stobin s5 steve death with orpheus & eurydice-style plotline of robin pulling some improbable scientific and supernatural strings to get steve back and hahahahah um surprise eddie is there too & he’s been helping steve survive in whatever underlayer of life/death they’ve found themselves in because he’s been navigating it for a bit now

hey anon. Anon don't apologize can u please elaborate I'm losing it????

god, robin loving Steve so much she rends apart the veil between life and death. Maybe Steve dies in the Upside-Down. Maybe she feels like some part of her died with him. Maybe she was screaming as the gate closed, reaching out desperately for the other half of her heart, maybe she had to be held back, had to be told, robin, you can't bring him back. Robin, please, he's dead already, please.

Maybe it's like Robin died. Maybe she's the one doing the haunting. Maybe she's being haunted. She hears him laugh in her ear as she fumbles a conversation. Hears him hum his favorite song when it comes on the radio. She smells his shampoo in the breeze. She can't sleep, because sometimes she feels the weight of him against her back, like they're lying back-to-back again, like they did in Starcourt. Back when they were giggling children waiting to die.

Maybe she looks drawn and pale and won't talk to anyone. No one sounds right. No one gets it. She has a Walkman, plays his favorite song on a loop, like she's been cursed.

She hears his voice on the radio instead of Dancing in the Dark. She follows his laughter in the wind, bad dad jokes and terrible puns, down to the scar where the gate was.

She doesn't know how she gets through. All she has is Springsteen and his bat. She can't sleep without either. She doesn't sleep much anyway.

She wanders this corpse of a world, empty without Henry to fuel it, and waits. Sings Total Eclipse of the Heart in a stupid muppet voice. Sings Springsteen. Narrates all the things that have happened since the gate closed, but only the funny bits. The happy bits. Not that she's been there for them, but.

She hears him sing back, croaky and amused. She doesn't dare look. She hears him laugh when she fumbles the words. She can't hear to turn her head to where the voice is coming from. Can't bear to see nothing at all.

Slowly, she gets up and walks to the gate. She hears footsteps, someone singing with her, and she can't bear to look, and she's shaking and she thinks she might've lost her mind.

You sit around getting older, she whispers, voice hoarse. It's been hours, she thinks. Days, maybe.

There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me, Steve sings back, and he sounds real. And then--

I'll shake this world off my shoulders, someone else joins in, and Robin shakes.

Come on, baby, the laugh's on me, they all sing, and they sound like home.

She makes it through the gate on unsteady legs. She stumbles forward, into the burning sunlight, into a world alive. Nearly plants on her face, but then strong, real arms catch her. Someone laughs in her ear, warm breath on her face.

"Oh, Rob," says Steve, and she can feels his tears on her shoulder, "Oh, bud. I gotcha. I got--"

She spins around and hugs him, a sob ripping out of her throat. Another pair of arms encircle them, and she looks up. Eddie Munson, haggard and worse for wear, grins down at her.

"Heya, Buckley," he says, "Hope you didn't mind me crashing your cute little lovers' reunion."

"Gross," she says, instead of bursting into further tears, "We're not like that."

"Yeah," says Steve, tucking her face into his neck, where she can smell salt and iron and dirt, "She's, like. The other half of my heart or whatever, doesn't mean we're dating."

"Oh, good," says Eddie, brightly, from where he's plastered to the pair of them like a gangly limpet, "Because I've spent all of our shared undeath sucking face with the other half of your heart, Buckley, and that might make things awkward."

Robin snorts out a laugh, and alright, now she's crying again. She tightens her grip on Steve, listens to his heartbeat, feels the pulse in the hollow of his throat, the rumble of his chest as he tells Eddie Munson to shut the fuck up.

Her Walkman's still playing. She's holding her heart, and his annoying boyfriend. She's no longer haunted, no longer haunting.

[rystiel]

i keep seeing people say the doctor shouldn’t have feelings for rogue because he’s married to river…? river song… who has also married multiple people… one of the most polyamorous characters in the show…?

[dreamdripdistance]

smiles :) grins :)

[flowersforthemachines]

What home smells like (Crossroads comments)

Note: judging by the audio I extracted and the conversation file, Bellara and Taash don't have lines for that event (if they actually have lines and I missed them, pls lmk).

Rook: That scent… I can't place it. Neve: For a moment… it smelled like Dock Town after it rains. Lucanis: Coffee. Like Illario and I smelled in the kitchen where we grew up. But that cannot be right. Harding: That's my ma's apple cake! But… how? Davrin: That's smoke from my old clan's campfire. But… how do I even know that? Emmrich: It's reminiscent of the mortuary's perfumes, but… ah. Of course. Emmrich: There's small enchantments around this place. From the old elves, welcoming their kindred home.

My DAVG Extracted Audio Masterlist

[casscainmainly]

A Deep Dive Into Why Cass Threw Dick Out A Window

If you've been here long enough you've probably seen or heard of this moment, which is super hilarious and iconic. It's mostly discussed in reference to Dick and Cass' relationship. However, in my opinion Cass throwing Dick out a window had very little to do with her opinion of him, or even of Barbara; it has more to do with her understanding of romance and love. I briefly touched on this in my gender/sexuality post, but I'm going to explain more in depth my interpretation of how Dick functions in Batgirl (2000) as a whole. (This moment is very open to interpretation though, this is just my opinion!). So let's try to answer Dick's question: what was that all about?

Love, Language, and DickBabs

While Puckett's run is notable for not having Cass date anyone, romantic love does play a role in Cass' early understanding of the world. It's the impetus that spurs her to write: in issue 2, she sees a wife read a letter from her deceased husband, and her reaction affects Cass so strongly she immediately starts trying to write. (She also kisses the husband on the cheek earlier, which may or may not be a crush). Romance, and the ability to communicate your love, is a fundamental part of Cass' desire to learn language.

So we have Cass, who has experienced neither love nor language, living with Babs, who's in a relationship with Dick. This telephone conversation in #4 (the issue where a metahuman changes Cass' brain into understanding language) again links romance to communication. Dick and Babs are talking on the phone, unable to see each other but understanding each other perfectly; Cass and Babs, on the other hand, live together and can't understand each other at all.

"She can't talk, so it's not all that different [to living alone]." Babs is telling an eavesdropping Cass that her inability to speak prevents her from love and connection - a love and connection symbolised by one of the first romantic relationships Cass is consistently around, Dick and Barbara.

Dick as an Ideal

There's a debate whether Cass likes Dick or not because half the time they're friendly, and half the time she's punching him or throwing him out windows. This disparity makes sense if you consider that Cass strongly associates DickBabs with communication, understanding, love - very idealised notions - but she does not associate Dick as a person with them. Her interactions with Dick (sans Babs) are cute and normal - Batgirl #29 and Nightwing #81 feature some very adorable Dick-Cass moments, with no real tension whatsoever.

It's only when Cass sees Dick in a romantic light (as in associated with Babs) that she makes him into a symbol.

Cass often tries to copy Babs, thinking it's the 'correct' thing to do - in DC First: Batgirl/Joker, she goes after Joker because that's what Barbara did; later in Horrocks' run she'll wear Barbara's outfit. In a way, Cass' affairs with Tai'Darshan and Kon - as much as I do think Tai'Darshan was genuine attraction - is another way to 'copy' Barbara. In #42, Cass stares at a picture of Dick and Babs while asking if Babs likes boys. Obviously Cass knows the answer is yes, but see what she asks next, and how Barbara responds:

She shifts from 'like' to 'love', and Babs responds that she 'care[s]' about him. For Cass, whose arc in Horrocks' run is about parsing out the nuances of attraction, understanding the difference between like, love, and care is incredibly difficult. She struggles to separate familial from romantic (Bruce in #50) or romantic from platonic (Kon, and in somewhat the reverse way Steph). In this conversation, Cass comes to associate Dick with like, love, and care - DickBabs becomes not just a symbol of romantic love, but of any connection whatsoever.

The Old Costume

I've discussed elsewhere that Cass wearing Babs' old costume in #45 is a representation of her desire to be 'girly', and how she associates girlhood with someone other than herself, discarding her own costume for Babs'. But putting on a costume is not the only prerequisite for being a 'girl'. In Babs' speech to Cass, she emphasises being sexually attractive to men, with her final comment being about this "particular look Dick used to give [her]". For Cass, visual language is incredibly important; putting on Babs' costume is not about being or feeling like a girl, but about being perceived as one. Dick is symbolic of the perceiver: the one who can essentially 'grant' women their femininity.

But Cass is disgusted when Tim calls her hot, which adds to her confusion - why should Dick being attracted to Babs make Babs happy, but Tim (who's not a sibling at this time) perceiving her like that grosses her out? Cass' inability to feel good - to feel 'feminine' - through the male gaze is another sign, to her, of her failure to be a woman.

Which finally brings us to issue 46...

That Ableist Kon Comment

Cass finds out Dick breaks Babs' heart and then starts hallucinating on a drug. One of the things she hallucinates is Kon saying "who wants to date a cripple? Ain't that right, Nightwing?" and Nightwing responding "not me--at least, not anymore."

For the first time, we get to the heart of why DickBabs mattered to Cass: it was an example of a disabled person in a loving, romantic relationship. It goes back to that phone call in #4, where Babs implies that Cass is hard to care about because she can't speak. The Kon comment suggests Cass has carried that with her all this time, trying to find proof that she can be loved, no matter her disability. DickBabs showed her it could be done - the break-up shows her now that it can't be done.

Dick's hallucination mocks her disability: "look at her--she can't even read!" Attributing this mockery to Dick (whose real-life counterpart, unlike the other hallucinations, has never said anything remotely like this) shows that this 'Dick-as-ideal' is intrinsically tied to Cass' self-worth.

Honestly this whole post stemmed from me thinking about this one panel. There is no real reason, from Cass' view of Dick as a person, for her to think he's brave and noble and kind (more so than anyone else). But it's in the DickBabs context - that Dick seemed to love, wholeheartedly, a disabled woman - that makes Cass think this way. And now that DickBabs is broken up, it shows that she, too, is rotten to the core; that someone like her cannot be loved.

And so when Dick shows up, she throws him out the window.

Conclusion

In this moment, Cass isn't just reacting to Dick breaking up with Barbara, she's reacting to what it means to her. If Dick can't stay with Barbara, then that means Cass, as another disabled woman, is also unable to be loved. This all leads up to #50, which features another Cass punch to Dick's face, but more importantly is when Bruce and Cass reconcile through Cass' first language. It's a confirmation that though her verbal skills may not be fully developed, she still can communicate, and she can love and be loved.

I don't think a lot of the ideas I touched on here are fully developed, or conclude cleanly. For example, how does Cass' 'failure' to be a woman relate to her inability to be loved? Is she able to have a stable romantic relationship? There are lots more questions, but the role Dick specifically plays in Cass' understanding of romance is probably not going to develop further. I just think it's interesting how Horrocks uses the Dick-Babs relationship to explore Cass' identity.

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[majickth]

sometimes you just gotta spend your last moments chasing wardens with your ex-turned-roommate-slash-teammate

[umbrvx]

[batboopp]

one of my favorite things about selina is the fact that she’s one of the most successful ‘criminals’ in gotham for one very, very important reason-when she commits a crime, she does not leave little bullshit clues or threatens kids or whatever other thing gotham criminals usually do. she gets in there, does what she needs, kicks ass very efficiently if she has too, and she gets the fuck out of there. I think most importantly to mention though is that when she steals, she goes out of her way to donate to charities-predominantly charities helping poc women or just women in general. it makes me think that most DC writers refer to her as a thief rather than a criminal or villain; to be a true gotham criminal, you need to not care about people outside of your mission at all. selina, even though she is far from perfect, loves and cares for others. a tiny part of herself hates her for that. but an even bigger part of her loves how she’ll claw the face off of some asshole that threatened a little girl on one of her crime sprees.

[freyadragonlord]

Finished Heavenly Tyrant and my first comment is.........

......... Qin Zheng was WAY too funny for how much he sucked. Made me feel so conflicted.

Anyways, Heavenly Tyrant is an amazing book, highly reccomend!!!

Power to the people ✊️

[theminecraftbee]

In the Permit Office they have security cameras to keep an eye on the exiles.

Skizz, frankly, isn’t really sure how they have them set up. Cub had waved a hand and said something about how they were necessary for the plot. This is a patently insane thing to say, but Skizz has been around the block long enough to simply roll with it. The cameras are up and work because they’re necessary to the plot. He and Scar sit in front of them and eat popcorn and boo Jevin when he seems to not be getting the lesson. Skizz brings in donuts also. These, too, seem necessary for the plot as far as Skizz is concerned; he’s hungry!

It’s when he’s watching the cameras and eating donuts that he first notices Jevin shouting something at the world border.

Really, it shouldn’t be worrying. Sure, Jevin’s been going rapidly mad in isolation, but Skizz has been assured that it’s all okay. It’s necessary in service of the higher-ups, the story, and sanctity of the shopping district, and honestly like, fuck Jevin. He’s not supposed to swear as an officer of the law, but he thinks the sentiment is fine. He’d been ruining their system! Rebelling against the shopping district! So what if Jevin’s talking to a dead fish head? People have been doing that since the start of the season!

It’s just—

“Do you think he’s looking at something specific?” Skizz asks.

“What? Nah,” Scar says as Jevin yells once again at something just across the barrier that separates the world from the non-world. “See, there’s nothing there!”

And Scar’s right. Scar’s right. There’s nothing there. It’s just—Skizz is pretty good at reading faces. People think he’s not but he is! And Jevin’s eyes, they’re… tracking something. They move back and forth in the way only someone who’s tracking something would move his eyes.

He’s just—cracking under pressure. That’s all. That’s the point! He’s supposed to crack under pressure, go to the comfort room, and fall in line with the higher-ups. It should be simple. Easy.

Skizz stops eating the donuts. His stomach doesn’t feel good.

“I’m not paid to worry about that,” Grian says. “Ask Cub. I don’t know. The higher-ups want the shopping district put together. This sort of thing is good for viewer numbers. For the plot, you know?”

Skizz stares at Grian. Grian does not give him a real answer. He rolls his eyes. “Okay, yeah, sure dude. Whatever you say.”

He tries not to worry about it. Even Jevin’s allies don’t seem as worried as they should. Sending one of them out after their so-called friend seems logical, given how unafraid of their authority they’re acting. It really grinds Skizz’s gears, how Beef and Joe and Cleo are so clearly conspiring against the permit office! They’d all agreed to this. They’d agreed! And the higher-ups say so!

He rants about this to Doc. Doc seems mostly confused, but says something about the Ore Snatcher and revenge and expectations and—

Jevin is having conversations with the world border in the camera. His eyes track something Skizz thinks he can’t see. There’s—there’s nothing there, right?

“There’s nothing there,” Skizz mutters.

“Yeah, man, that’s the point of exile,” Cub says.

“Hey, do you think…”

Skizz trails off.

“What?”

“He just—he looks bad,” Skizz says. “Maybe—”

“Nah. He’s bounced back from worse. Hah. Bounced.”

Cub leaves. Skizz watches the cameras for a long time.

The next morning, when Scar berates him for turning them off, Skizz says: “He was taking a dump, man! I don’t wanna see that.”

“Gross,” Scar says.

Jevin waves hello to the something that moves beyond the world border. It casts a long shadow.

“I’m patrolling the shopping district,” Skizz says, shaking.

“Actual work you weren’t bribed into? You feeling okay, buddy?”

No.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Skizz says. “Just—whatever.”

The thing beyond the world border laughs. Skizz flees the room. He doesn’t think he’s fled the cameras. He patrols harder than he’s ever patrolled before. He has to do everything perfectly, he thinks. He has to make sure the higher-ups are happy with their numbers.

He’s starting to understand why exile is a punishment.

[iggyshippingcorner]

alright cozy stobotnik hug before i go to work

stone’s fractal scarring a la chaos emerald is directly inspired by doctor_wumbo on tiktok because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about his art since I saw it <3

[cbge]

похороните меня рядом

с моей последней неудачей

я на неё уставлюсь взглядом

и возликую, и заплачу

[the-meme-monarch]

my brother has been watching sonic underground and. three siblings who are in a band with an evil monarch who banned music huh. sounds familiar

[kkoct-ik]

finally scratching the skill cabinet itch

[rystiel]

bro’s about to do something stupid (and likely illegal)