#and he's NOT safe and sound lol

[meymey-draws]

I won't do day 18 of Justober bc I'm not sure what to do, and also I don't care much of the betas stuff, sorry...

So here's a shitpost in compensation

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[domokunrainbowkinz]

You’re wasting all your faith on me

[ardentpoop]

you guys really don’t get him tbfh

[not0a0mundane]

Y'all weren't lying when I heard that Kallus is still a spoilsport in the rebellion.

Take a rest mulletman

[mer-se]

We love a gay cowboy with the prettiest smile 🐎🖤

[jichanxo]

how it started:

how it's going:

[rivangel]

i’ve done sooOoO many productive things. but i’m so tired atp that i don’t even wanna rail levi , i want to fall asleep in his arms why is this so much to ask

[cold-neon-ocean]

What compels you about Baatar Jr.?

Oh goodness, I do love talking about why I like him I cannot lie! (foreshadowing for the length of this, I come back to ominously warn retrospectively..)

Honestly even back when the show was initially airing, he was a character I always liked. Being big into anime in middle and high school I was 100% a "megane man" enjoyer lol which is just to glasses men XD (they get a special genre title because they are apparently very popular in Japanese anime communities which honestly, based) so that was the first thing (not to mention he's voiced by Todd Haberkorn who I knew from anime dubs since he's in so many).

But okay so what I find compelling about Baatar. I think he had such potential to be a very interesting character and one that could have been really put to use in the story. He had such interesting groundwork to me, especially in tandem with Kuvira. You can always trust me to stan the troubled eldest sibling lol, in Baatar's particular case I call it "eldest sibling inferiority complex" (idk if anyone has coined that phrase but I'm claiming it until proven otherwise) but it's something I relate to a lot. Baatar being the first "heir" essentially of the metal bending capitol of the world, founded by the metal bending daughter of the inventor of metal bending itself Toph Beifong, and he isn't a bender in any regard is something I think about way too much, I don't care whatever way you slice it I know that must have SUCKED for him because he was just.. inherently kind of a disappointment? Like he came into the world with the "Oh, shame he isn't a bender." tagline on his life. And then the brother he gets soon after IS a metal bender which I can imagine practically felt like an instant replacement because he wasn't "enough". Ofc that may not have been why Su and Sr. had Huan but I can see Baatar feeling that way. Then the twins ofc have metal bending and Opal later on gets air bending and he's just pushed further and further into irrelevance in the family. Like history will always talk about the Beifong family, the inventors and masters of metal bending, Suyin's younger sons all being prodigies in their own right, her daughter later being blessed with air bending, but what would ever be said about Baatar? He was just "the one who was a non-bender". I thought so so much about how being in a position like that would feel. And even the framing of the writing of the show itself always felt so dismissive of him. When Su is introducing all her kids he gets the least mention, no one ever says his name even, he only has 3 scenes in the entirety of season 3 and only in 1 is he even animated. It just always felt rather sad to me, he really was in line to just become the Beifong family's forgotten son.

I've talked about how I wish something had been said with Baatar and Huan and how starkly contrasting they are. Baatar feels trapped in his father's shadow with nothing of his own, not his own name, nothing of his own to leave an impact with and just quietly relegating himself to the background, meanwhile Huan is so obsessed with his self expression and individuality. I can imagine Huan seeing Baatar and how miserable he was when they were younger and not wanting to end up like that so he takes a hard turn into the opposite direction.

I really think Baatar was the perfect character to bring back the discussion of disparity between benders and non-benders, from a villain standpoint of course, because he is a character who- even from his seat of clear privilege, still has to deal with the effects of it. Like the world of Avatar really is for benders and non-benders are just allowed to live in it. I don't think Baatar actually wants bending, I actually think quite the opposite. I think he just doesn't want to be seen as lesser than for not having it, and prove that he doesn't need it in his life. That's why I love the setup of his relationship with Kuvira so much. I genuinely think the two of them were accidentally written and created so perfect for each other and the writers just.. did it by sheer accident and didn't even notice and thus squandered them completely. They give each other exactly what the other needs. Kuvira wants acceptance and to feel genuinely wanted which Baatar gives her, and Baatar wants recognition and to feel appreciated for who he is and that's what Kuvira gives him. She is one of the most skilled metal benders in the world but grew up in a family that didn't want her or care about her (ignoring Ruins entirely, Ruins of the Empire my beloathed), and Baatar grew up in one of the richest families in the world, the family whose whole identity is metal-bending, born into the lap of luxury but was still written off somewhat because he was a non-bender and thus the family legacy really didn't have anything to do with him. And when Su takes Kuvira under her wing they're both living in what is considered a "utopia" but are both still unhappy because they always feel "outside" of it, and they are able to relate to each other in that way and validate each others' feelings. Having Kuvira choose him- someone considered very remarkable choosing someone most consider very unremarkable, and him being the first person to ever genuinely truly want her and all of her is my Roman Empire, it is the hill I will die on. Like idk how the LoK writers had all that literally right in front of them and chose to do nothing with it, it bothers me so much lol.

Baatar descending (ascending truly in my opinion lol) into his villain era when he is finally away from home because he is reacting out of spite, paranoia, and existential dread because this is his chance to be known for something in his own right and not for anything to do with his family and slowly becoming the instrument of his own destruction is my bread and butter, I love it so much. I hate the fanon that he left Zaofu only to pad after Kuvira, I truly think he saw his one chance to leave with someone he cares about and financial stability and took it. I don't think he's very altruistic, like if I'm being frank I don't think he gives a hoot or a holler about the Empire itself LOL like he is absolutely here to support Kuvira and help her achieve her goals but to him the Empire is just something he can cultivate to facilitate himself and his needs. It's more of a symbiotic relationship to him where he'll always prioritize himself but will do what he needs to to keep the host happy. I do think that when he initially left he DID have good intentions they just were also very self serving, and then as time went on he leaned further and further into the self serving and see's himself as "doing the right thing for them because it is the right thing for me so no one can get mad :)" lol like yes darling, you are the moment, give us everything and nothing. I love love love the thought of him really leaning into the fame and attention because he's actually getting recognition, people are interested in what he's doing, he has the facilities to work on things he wants to work on, and can really just do as he pleases. One thing you will not see me do is say that he was trying his best for the Empire's sake the whole time lol like the man truly was out here in his Applause by Lady Gaga era. The idea that he does in fact do good for the people but for selfish reasons is just so funny to me. He's like "Do you think I'm out here bringing running water and irrigation to rural towns out of the goodness of my heart? No bitch, I'm just not about to get giardia in the name of freedom." LMAOO like yeah he is a little bit wretched but I'm still stanning, I'm still streaming, my shower is working so I have to thank him. Like I do genuinely find the idea of "guy who is doing good things for selfish reasons but is still doing good things regardless" very interesting to think about. Like what does it matter where his heart is at if he's still doing humanitarian work because it provides him in return with accolades and material wealth lmao. In his case though I can see him melting a bit when he sees the good impact his work can have but he has to keep up his big sassy bitch face bc he has a reputation to maintain.

Also withing the Empire era, that is like my peak Baatar contemplation era because wow it was so rife with potential for him. A non-bender being second in command of what was probably the biggest military force in the world at the time must have been an insane line for him to walk. Because all his authority is superficial. Because Kuvira gave it to him and for almost no other reason. No matter what he does, he will always be weaker than the weakest bender inherently, but he still has to command respect because everyone KNOWS THAT. Him walking through their camps he literally has his life on the line at every second because anyone could just decide to kill him at any moment for no reason and there's nothing he could do to defend himself. So he has to be smart, he has to be scary, he has to be mean, he has to be intimidating because if he doesn't he has nothing else to shield himself with. He can't let his anxiety over it show either because every bender would be able to hear it through the ground. The idea of Baatar having genuine anxiety regarding benders all his life is something that is so important to me. Even in his own home, his heart rate couldn't be something that was private. I love to hc that he quickly learned to become an Azula tier liar like you could never catch him lying because he needed to learn how otherwise his own emotions couldn't even be private. Aiwei could never catch this man and he hated it so much lol Baatar loved every second of it. He would just say lies to Aiwei's face and they both would know he was lying but Aiwei couldn't ever really know and it made him so mad.

I really do think a lot of what Baatar does comes from a place of genuine hurt, and wanting to feel like he has some form of control in his life and he expresses it through anger because his anger is the only power he feels like he has but he lets it eat away at him until he just has this void in him that will never be satisfied. He wants his family to understand how he feels, why he feels so hurt, and for them to acknowledge it, but he needs them to realize it themselves without him saying it because if he has to tell them then it must not be real. Plus how could they understand when they're free of the experience that makes him feel this way. They'll never know that feeling of being a disappointment on arrival. Opal did, but she's beyond it all now. Thinking about his relationship with his father, I think he actually loves his father so much, he was a daddy's boy from day one and still is, he wants his father to feel similarly as himself, not the anger but just acknowledge that "yes, the world really does revolve around benders, and it's okay that you feel scared and unnerved by that reality, there's nothing wrong with your feelings it's okay for you to have them" but his father doesn't feel that way and Baatar takes it as almost a kind of betrayal. In his mind he needs that shared experience because it tells him that if someone else feels like this then his feelings are real and he isn't just making shit up, he can feel that way even if he never acts on it, just knowing someone else feels the same. He doesn't go about it in a healthy way at all and I am by no means defending his actions or blaming his family for everything bad that he's done, you'll never catch me doing that, Baatar 100% engineers his own downfall by choosing to feed into his anger for catharsis. The fact that he did everything he ever did because he didn't want to be forgotten by history, only to get his wish, he'll indeed be remembered forever, but remembered as the engineer of monstrosities is the perfect poetic irony to me and his most perfect kind of villain arc in my eyes. He is so consumed by his anger and paranoia. His fear of being forgotten by time because to him being forgotten means there was never any point to his existence to begin with.

Also okay yes let us briefly discuss my buff Baatar lol I do have reason for it I swear! So okay yes, I do that for me because I love big beefy glasses men okay, sue me, i am indeed an animal in that way. But also I do think it just kinda makes sense for him??? Like he is someone with some clear anger issues and exercise is in fact a very good way to relieve anger and stress. I think it's funny that he just gave that a try because he needed to vent his anger on something and it became his primary anger management and now he's just massive lol but also this is also him making a statement of like "I can take my body even this far but I'd still always be at an inherent disadvantage", he'd have a lot of reasons for doing it- his own vanity, his self-esteem of always feeling unimpressive or unremarkable, wanting to feel like he could in even the smallest way be something of a protective force for Kuvira. Plus him having the kangaroo effect on people between seasons 3 and 4 is so funny, where when people think about kangaroos they're like "aaw cute lill hoppy fellas c:"(season 3) and then they actually see a kangaroo and are like "bitch what the fuck is that"(season 4) lmao like have you seen how jacked kangaroos actually are? Everyone is like "Yeah we know what Baatar looks like" and then they see him for the first time in season 4 and are like "Who the fuck is that?" LMAOO Also yeah he just looks nice that way to me.

God I just scrolled up this to see where I was at and this ended up way longer than I intended alksjdf I'll stop myself here I'm so sorry, I just truly cannot Shut Up about this man. He genuinely means so much to me. For so long I didn't talk about liking him or did any art of him because in the early days of the fandom and even relatively recently, the hate for him was so... vitriolic and cruel it genuinely made me so uncomfortable. I'd see rare pieces of fanart of him and the comments would always have people expressing their hate for him in them, I've even gotten comments like that on my own art. It really has always baffled me tbh, even the writers and Bryan himself are not shy about talking about their hate for him, one of the s4 episode writers called him "the worst character in the entire franchise" and it just hurts my heart so much. Like they wrote him already down and just continue kicking him while he's there like they weren't the ones who put him there. In that way Baatar's spite and anger feels almost all encompassing as corny as that sounds. I just love angry sad men and Baatar is the angriest saddest man of my heart haha if he has no fans I am dead. I really cannot express how much it means to me to hear that people have become to like him more because of my portrayal of him, I've even had people who used to hate him tell me they love him now because of me and I truly could cry about it, I really could.

[lqcb97]

[aerticent]

I want to preface this by saying that I am in no way shape or form saying that any of this is excusing Elara and the shit she did to Maven. I think she's a pos who deserved what she got. That being said her and Maven's relationship is so interesting to me!!

I hate when people paint Elara as hateful towards Maven and like she viewed him as inadequate because I just don't think that's true. I think she understood Maven's position as the second born and as her son specifically. I think she understood that despite him being innocent regarding everything that happened to Coriane, he would always be antagonized by their family and he would always be othered by his father. I think because of this she conflated every "flaw" as something major even if it's as small as him learning to walk later than everyone else. Those "flaws" would always follow him, he wasn't given the same leeway as Cal. Obviously this doesn't excuse what she did to him, nothing will, but I do think it's interesting to think about how she reached the conclusion that what she was doing to him was okay.

I also like how there are instances in the books themselves of her being caring towards Maven in a very motherly way. There are two instances that come to mind of this happening. After the Sun Shooting Mare sees her clinging onto him. I think it's because she finds comfort in him and she was also worried for him, because even though the shooting was planned it was still something that could've killed him. There was also when Mare mentioned Thomas during the betrayal scene. Mare brings Thomas up and even though Maven brushes her off she can see she hurt him. Elara immediately reached towards Maven and told him to say goodbye. I don't see this as her being scared of Mare getting through to him, but instead her being worried because she knows more than anyone how much Thomas still effected him. I've always interpreted her taking his ability to dream away as a desperate attempt to help her son who was grieving. She was likely the only person to ever see Maven's grief and how much it was hurting him and the only thing she could do was try to remove any trace of Thomas from Maven. Even though it didn't fully work, if anything it left him worse off, I do think it was her trying to help her child in any way she could.

Elara, more than anyone, was aware of the way everyone in that court viewed Maven. Even though she knew Cal loved him, I wouldn't blame her if she had the fear that Cal would turn on him given that all of Cal's family openly showed their disdain for Maven. I also think that the treatment Cal received compared to Maven reaffirmed her belief that any "flaw" Maven had would follow him always. For example, Cal was never very good at politics and, despite politics being something he would need to be competent at, he was always given leeway when it came to it. It was understood that even though Cal struggled with politics he would receive help from his council. Compare this to Maven. Maven struggled heavily with combat, he was competent enough with it to defend himself but he was by no means great. It felt like there was a sense a shame that surrounded the fact that Maven needed protection. That even if he wanted to, he couldn't fight in a battle the way Cal could. Maven's strengths were always cast aside because of his weaknesses, whereas Cal's were accepted and he was given the resources he needed without any sense of any major insult.

I wonder what an average day was like for Maven when he was growing up and what his relationship with his mother was like day to day. I don't think Elara was in his head making changes everyday, so I wonder what their day to day interactions entailed. I wonder if she was openly motherly to him or if she restricted it private interactions only. I wonder how exactly she felt when Maven would go to Cal for comfort instead of her. I wonder how she felt knowing that everyone (atleast on Tibe's side smh I NEED more on the Merandus') outside of their immediate family at best couldn't care less about Maven and at worst hated him simply for existing. I wonder how she felt watching Tibe emotionally neglect Maven. I think most of all I want to know if she ever did feel bad for what she was doing to him. Did she ever feel guilt or shame for changing things about him? Was there any instances where she didn't want to make the changes but felt she had to for his safety in the court? Did she have limits/changes she would not make no matter what? Were there any changes she regretted?

I think in general the story could've benefited as a whole if there was more insight to Elara and her mentality when it came to Maven simply because it would've fleshed out two of the central antagonists more. I think just getting the conversation where she told Maven the plan regarding his engagement to Mare from her perspective could've added some insight to their relationship and Maven's character as a whole.

I also think Maven's feelings towards his mother are wonderfully written. I love that he understands she's hurt him and he still loves her. He tells Mare about how she forced him to walk and told her that Elara only told him because she felt it proved her love for him. He understands that what she did wasn't love because all it did was hurt him, but he still loves her. He still wants to be buried next to her and he still misses her. It's heartbreaking to know that the only reason he loves her as much as he does is because he feels he has no one else. She hurt him but she was the only one who cared enough to do anything at all.

I would feel wrong not mentioning Cal as he is the only other character who was with Maven through all of this and he certainly did care. Obviously it isn't Cal's fault he wasn't able to help Maven. They were both children, to expect Cal to have been able to do something when they were both children is stupid. But I do see how Maven could rationalize this as him not caring enough. He loved Cal so much and actively sought him out for comfort, so I can understand how Maven would feel betrayed when Cal wasn't able to notice the changes occurring. Once again, it isn't Cal's fault in the slightest but I understand how Maven reached the conclusion he didn't care enough. (not to mention he had his ability to love Cal taken but I have mixed feelings on that whole ordeal)

I want to once again mention, none of this excuses Elara's actions. What she did to Maven is unforgivable even if she did think she was helping him. I think it's interesting to think about why she did everything she did and how she justified it to herself.

I probably missed a few things, it's been a while since I read these books. (I'm rereading them soon so maybe I'll make a follow up afterwards with any new thoughts I have) I've been thinking a lot about the relationship a mother can have with her child and naturally my mind drifted to these two lol.

[strangeauthor]

fuck georgia drivers

[gothiethefairy]

i understand the important role milsiril has in kabru's life and everything

that said, she still kinda makes me uncomfortable. it's her vibes. they're so off lol.

[dutybcrne]

Thunderings are happening, my brain has funneled off into hcs mode

[binders-and-beanies]

.

[spacemanxpaninis]

My therapist is so supportive 😭 last week I told her I had a crush on a coworker & she was like you should get his number 👍🏻 then this week I admitted it was two & told her about the other one & she said he sounds like he could be a nice match too lmao thanks girl you are a real one