#and it’s one of my favorite issues from the mirage continuity because I love how it’s written!?

[transk0vsky]

No but seriously mirage Casey, 03 Casey and idw Casey are probably the best written versions of Casey

And it’s probably because those three get more time to be fleshed out (especially mirage and idw since they have solo issues that give them moments away from the rest of the group!) like just ughhh!!

[nerdyfangirl67]

Supposed to Be Easy - Criminal Minds Reader Insert

Pairing: Tony DiNozzo x reader, Spencer Reid x reader

Warning: language, angry!Spencer, brief moment of cheating

Word count: 1700

Requested:  @that-damn-clown-movie​

A/N: I hope this is what you were looking for darling! This story is a continuation of the Everywhere But On one-shot. It can be read as a stand-alone as well. A beautifully tragic moment for both NCIS and Criminal Minds fans. Guys, I don’t like the ending very much but was struggling to end it with either one or another character. As always, requests are open!

Six months, that’s how long it took for your life to completely change.  

You had become an established member of the white-collar crimes task force and had helped in the apprehension of major fraud criminals, famous art thieves, and bank robbers. You had been such an asset to your new team, with your background from various different FBI units, that you were being fast-tracked to become the next unit chief.

You had become a mom, not to a child, but to a stray cat that had wandered into your apartment through a window you had left cracked open by the fire escape after a near oven fire during a frigid, fall day. The next morning you had taken the cat to the vet for a microchip check, as well as a health check, and after finding nothing, you had not so reluctantly brought him home with you. The cat had come in and never left, quickly becoming attached to you, and you to him.

You had moved out of your crappy, three-room (the room count of which included the kitchen and bathroom) apartment into a posh, chic apartment that felt more like a house than an apartment. It was clean, the building manager was prompt with answering service calls, and the kind lady next door checked on your cat, whom you called Agent (for obvious reasons), and baked you sweets.

You had gotten a completely new hairstyle, one you’d been wanting for months but you’d been too scared and stuck in your look (because changing it meant leaving behind a part of you that was connected to Spencer, the love of your life). After much deliberation and a few mimosas, you’d booked the salon appointment for the next day and had forced yourself to go through with it. You were glad you had because you loved it.

-----

And on this particular day, a late Friday evening in the dead of winter, you were enjoying the fact that you had the weekend off by curling up on the couch in your favorite pajamas, wrapped in your warmest blanket, a mug of (possibly spiked) hot chocolate on the coffee table in front of you as you binge-watch your favorite TV show. Despite knowing you should have been to bed over an hour ago, you couldn’t bring yourself to be anything but content.

A knock on the door bursts the peaceful bubble you had built around yourself. You let out a soft groan of displeasure, knowing a visitor at this hour would only mean trouble. You heave out a frustrated sigh before climbing out of your warm cocoon on the couch.

As an FBI agent, you should have thought to look through the peephole on the door, but you didn’t. Instead, you pick up your standard-issue from where you keep it up on the coat rack, pull it out of its holster, and while holding it in one hand, use the other to open the door. Out of all the possibilities that had started circling around in your head since the knock, this was not one of them.

You were so surprised by him arriving at your door, that you hadn’t realized the grip on your gun had loosened, sending it clattering to the floor. After jolting you out of your stupor, you pick up your weapon, reholster it and place it back where it belongs. You grab his wrist, knowing if you twined your fingers with his you would lose your resolve, and pull him back out into the hallway, leaving the door open just a crack behind you.

“Spencer.” You say, hating the way your voice cracks and makes you sound, just as much as feel, vulnerable. You squeeze your eyes shut for a moment, hoping to either calm your now frayed nerves or make this horribly painful and confusing mirage go away. Upon reopening your eyes, you know that you succeeded in doing neither of those things. So instead you focus your attention on the man in front of you.

His slender, lanky figure feels smaller somehow, almost as if he has decreased in height, which you know isn’t right. His shoulders are hunched together as he unconsciously leans his body towards you. The next thing that catches your eyes is the way the material of his button-down dress shirt strains slightly across his chest and over his arms, in a way you hadn’t ever seen. His hair is just as unruly as it always is, and regardless of you wanting to card your fingers through it, it isn’t what was keeping your attention from what he was saying. Your eyes were currently fixated on the scruff that covered the lower half of his face.

You had never seen Spencer Reid with anything more than a five o’clock shadow and the very obvious beard on his face now was making it hard for you to concentrate. And being the genius that he was, he could tell that you hadn’t heard a word of what he said. He halted his talking, for how long you weren’t sure, because after what felt like hours, you finally realize that the low hum of Spencer’s voice in the background had stopped. Your intense scan of his appearance abruptly stops as you lift your eyes to connect with his.

Still, he was silent. Pent up feelings of frustration, hurt, rejection, and sorrow come to the surface as you snap at him. “What do you want Spencer? You said all you needed to say all those months ago.”

“I thought I did too. But after not being able to see you every day or talk to you like we used to, I realized that what I said didn’t match what I felt.” His voice is filled with something akin to guilt.

You clench your teeth together to prevent yourself from spitting out a few choice words, followed by a long buried truth. You chose to instead ignore his words and asked him the question that’s been running around in your head.

“How did you find me? I explicitly asked Garcia to not tell you.” As much as you loved your friend, she did have a knack for spilling secrets if she deemed it was for the ‘greater good.’

His face fell at your blatant neglect of his words before he answers, “Garcia didn’t tell me. After I went to your apartment and, after a few midnight visits found you weren’t there, I begged Garcia to tell me. When she wouldn’t I desperately tried to run into you at work. Finally though I went to HR and made something up so they’d tell me.”

Your heart squeezes painfully as you hear the despair and hopelessness in his voice. Again, you don’t answer because you know your facade would crumble if you did.

“Well if that’s all you came to say, I think it’s time for you to go. I am not in the mood to have the ‘friends but also I love you’ conversation with you Spencer. Now if you’ll excuse me.” You turn back towards your door, a hand on the knob when his voice stops you.

“We weren’t meant to just be friends and you fucking know that.” His voice is deeper and louder now, and you know you got under his skin. You don’t turn because you know if you do, you’d be in his arms before you could stop yourself.

“Look at me Y/N and tell me you don’t feel the same and I’ll go. I’ll leave you alone but I need to know if you do.” A hand on your waist has you spinning around into his chest. You move to shove away from him and suddenly his lips are on yours, kissing you passionately and fast. And not only are you enjoying it, a lot actually, but you’re kissing him back, just as intensely.

You can’t keep track of your hands, as they are rapidly roaming his body. Fingers through his hair, which is just as you remember, a hand on his chest, which is far more defined than you thought, a palm dragging over his beard, tickling your hand in the process.

You pull back when your need for air takes over your thoughts. His eyes are blazing, but with something other than anger, as he stares at you.

“Why didn’t you do that months ago?” You question brokenly, your heart pounding hard in your chest.

His eyes search yours as he runs a gentle thumb over your cheek. “I wish I had.” His words have tears collecting in your eyes, which you roughly brush away as you step back. You had to clear your head because the way this “conversation” was going, you knew it could become something more if you let it.

“I-I...I can’t do this Spencer. I lived a life that was so entwined with yours, I couldn’t see where mine ended and yours began. I’ve finally made a life that doesn’t focus on you and here you are, wanting in.” You answer, your voice cracking as you stare at your feet.

Neither of you say anything for a while before you lift your eyes to his. He is staring directly at you, a sea of emotions swirling in his hazy brown-green eyes. A few you can name, disappointment and love, but also a few you couldn’t.

The spell is broken when a voice sounds from deep inside your apartment, causing the two of you to rip away from each other's gaze. “Doll, where are you? You said you were going to come to bed an hour ago and I need you in my arms.” The voice of the man you’d come to love, albeit in a way entirely different than the way you loved the man in front of you, calls out to you.

You give Spencer a small shove, pushing him out of your doorway. “That’s Tony. You have to go Spencer.” Another hand pushes him away, although it lingers slightly as you release him. You return to the apartment, closing the door behind you. You didn’t know if that was the last time you’d see Spencer, causing your heart to squeeze tightly.

[prrplwtch]

Part 1

A/N: TW (updated) rape mention. 

P.S.: looks like I lied to nonnie, since I did not mention who Naamah’s father is , but he does appear in this chapter:) 

Our hearts’ desire. Part 2. Diavolo x f!MC

Barbatos, have you inquired about the Mirage Flowers?”

“Yes – they should be here in a few days, my lady,” he replied, even-toned, briefly looking up from the clipboard he’s holding in his hands, “As should the Crystal Roses.”

“Wonderful,” MC nodded, “We will have them planted right around the wedding tent.”

Diavolo had decided that the wedding of Naamah and Orias was to take place in the castle’s gardens. MC did not find the idea objectionable – the gardens were in full bloom, and with the addition of Mirage Flowers and Crystal Roses, everything was bound to look absolutely splendid. It was almost a pity that this ill-fated wedding was bound to be cut short.

Of course, she could not let anyone know.

As such, she dedicated herself fully to the wedding planning. Diavolo had assigned Barbatos to help her, and, though Barbatos went along with his lord’s orders, like he always did, it was clear that he was not at all thrilled about it.

The servants have finally finished putting up the wedding tent – it was gold and red and gleamed in the lights like an open fire.

“Marvelous,” she said, as she clasped her hands, “At times like this, it’s most important that the full splendor of the royal house if on display.”

MC could almost feel Barbatos roll his eyes behind her back.

“I’m afraid a display of finery may not be enough to resolve the current situation,” he offered quietly.

“It will not resolve it, but it’s a start,” MC insisted with a smile.

MC knew it was a lie, of course – the so-called “situation” will not be resolved until her daughter’s ascension to the throne, she’ll make sure of it.

“Have you made arrangements with the royal seamstress?” MC asked Barbatos after a momentary pause, “With the wedding so soon, it is imperative that she’ll start on Naamah’s dress immediately.”

“Of course,” Barbatos nodded, “She will be here tomorrow to attend to Naamah.”

“Delightful,” MC smiled, feeling a slight pang in her chest.

For her own safety, Naamah was not privy to the full details of MC’s plan.

“Just trust me, sweetling,” MC had told her after Diavolo announced that she was to wed Orias, “No harm will come to you, I’ll see to it.”

“Do I have to marry Orias?” Naamah asked her then, her dark eyes full of sadness.

“Remember the promise I made to you one day when you were very little?” MC said instead of answering Naamah’s question, “That you will be the queen one day, in your own right. This is me keeping my promise to you. But you have to trust me and do exactly as I say.”

“Very well,” Naamah answered after a momentary pause, “I trust you, mama. Even if that means I have to be Orias’s wife.”

My poor sweet girl – no one will ever lay their hands on you against your will.

“There is also the matter of the guest list,” Barbatos said, distracting MC from her thoughts, “Per your request, I have made the initial chart, and…”

Suddenly, he paused, and MC knew immediately what it was – Diavolo was summoning him to the castle.

“Perhaps, you can look over this while I go attend to lord Diavolo,” Barbatos said, handing the papers over to MC, “And we could continue as soon as I return.”

“We’ll continue tomorrow,” MC said, looking at Barbatos, “Who knew that wedding planning could be this exhausting.”

He looked her for a moment before saying, “As you wish.”

With that he left.

MC had settled on one of the garden benches with the guest list and the seating chart. She did not want to look at it, but she knew she had to. The wedding planning must go on as normal. She glanced at a clock and felt worry rise in her chest. It was already quite late in the afternoon, and Astaroth had not returned yet. Whatever could be keeping her…

There was a sudden, bright flash of light right next to her, forcing MC to close her eyes for a moment. As soon as she opened them, she saw Astaroth standing right in front of her.

“Ah, here you are,” MC smiled at her.

“Apologies for being late,” Astaroth offered with a smile, “There were some…unexpected issues I had to attend to.”

“But all is well?” MC asked, a tense feeling rising in her chest.

“Of course,” Astaroth replied lightly.

“I’m glad to hear it,” MC said, getting up from the bench, “Walk with me. I’d like to show you what we did to the gardens in preparation to the wedding.”

As they walked through the maze of flowers, MC quickly looked over her shoulder to ensure that that none of the servants followed them. Luckily, it appeared they have not. Satisfied, MC quietly whispered a spell she’d learned long ago from Solomon to ensure that no one could eavesdrop on her conversation with Astaroth.

“So, how do you like the gardens now?” MC asked, turning to Astaroth.

“It’s beautiful,” Astaroth replied, as she glanced around.

“Did he give you what I asked for?” MC said quietly as soon as they were far enough from the servants.

“Of course,” Astaroth nodded, producing a tiny wooden box from her pocket, “But Solomon told me to warn you to be extremely careful with it – one drop and…”

“I have read his notes,” MC replied hastily, “So I’m aware of the dangers. What of the…other thing I’d asked for?”

“It’s not ready yet,” Astaroth told her, frowning, “I’ll have to return to the human realm again in about a week for it. Luckily, that should not be a problem – he can just summon me.”

MC nodded – she understood that her second request was much more complicated than the first, so it made sense that Solomon would need time.

“How is he doing?” MC asked as they stopped for a moment by the lake.

“He is well - still as brilliant and as insufferable as the day he left the Devildom,” Astaroth let out a breathless laugh, “He misses you, I think – he asks me about you every time I see him.”

MC smiled – she was very grateful to have Solomon – and Astaroth – in her life. Solomon was her oldest, most reliable ally, their friendship going as far as to her first days in the Devildom. He’d offered to help her too, when he learned of her situation all those years ago, but MC refused. In part, out of pride – she did not want to be a person who needs to be rescued – and in part, because her heart desired justice and vengeance for the grave humiliation that Diavolo had dealt her. Diavolo will pay one day – she’ll take everything from him and tread his legacy to dust.

Her friendship with Astaroth was far more surprising – MC never thought that she’d find such support in a member of Diavolo’s court, but, due to her history, Astaroth had a genuine sympathy in her heart for women who found themselves in position such as MC’s. Though their friendship took a while to blossom, these days MC trusted Astaroth with her life.

“Any news of Belial and his supporters?” MC asked, after a brief pause.

“Why yes,” Astaroth nodded with a smirk, “I made sure that the whispers have reached his ears, just like you wanted. He’s planning his move - and soon.”

“Good, just make sure it’s not too soon,” MC said, then added, “And when will Diavolo learn of this new and troubling developments?”

“I thought today might be a good day,” Astaroth replied, a hint of amusement apparent in her eyes.

“I agree,” MC said after a pause, feeling warmth rise in her chest – there were few things she liked more than cause Diavolo anguish.

“Excellent,” Astaroth smiled, then glanced at her phone screen, “Is there anything else you need my help with at the moment? If no, I have an appointment to keep, that I’d rather not be late to.”

“Nothing I can think of,” MC replied.

“Very well. Do let me know if something comes up,” Astaroth said.

Before she could disappear, MC reached out and took Astaroth by hand.

“Thank you,” she said, gently squeezing her palm, “For everything you are doing for me.”

“Of course,” Astaroth replied with a light smile, “You can always count on me.”

With that, she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving MC by herself in the garden. MC looked down at the small wooden box she was holding in her hand – she needed to hide it immediately. Though she wanted nothing more than to run to her room, MC knew that that would look suspicious, so instead, she made her way back to the castle at a leisurely pace.

As soon as she was back in her room, MC hurried to the window. There, on the left side of the windowsill was a loose stone that she could easily remove. MC quickly put the box in the empty space, then placed the stone back as she whispered a spell intended to conceal her hiding place from the eyes of others.

Once she was done, MC sat by her desk, resting for a moment. She knew that all she could do now was wait – and yet the fact that she was closer to her goal than she had been in centuries was making her restless. I need to be patient, if I want to succeed, MC scolded herself.

To occupy herself, she decided to head to the kitchens to ask the cook to prepare Naamah’s favorite dessert. MC felt guilty for involving her own daughter into her plan, but she knew that without Naamah it could not succeed. Please forgive me, sweetling.

As she made her way down to the kitchens, suddenly, she’d heard familiar voices. Carefully, MC approached the doors and looked in. Immediately there was a pang of sadness in her chest – she saw Beelzebub and Mammon there, with Evelyn – the new exchange student from the human world.

Diavolo was quite entertained by the exchange program and brought in human students every few years. Fortunately for them, he did not try to keep any of them in the Devildom the way he kept MC. Still, the sight of her former friends having fun baking something brought memories to MC’s mind that made her heart clench. Oh, what she would give up to return to that simple, innocent time.

It’s far too late, MC shook her head, I cannot waver now.

“What are they doing here?” she asked a servant that was passing by.

“Barbatos invited Evelyn for a baking lesson, since she loves to bake,” the servant told MC, “And she brought Mammon and Beelzebub with her.”

I see.

“Did you need something from the kitchens, my lady?” the servant asked.

It took a while for the demons in the castle to address her “my lady”, but, seeing how much Diavolo favored her over his wife, they’ve soon picked up the habit.

“Yes,” MC said, “Go tell the cook to prepare Naamah’s favorite dessert than have in brought to her rooms.”

“As you say,” the servant replied before leaving.

MC lingered in the corridor for a moment longer, listening to the happy chatter between her former friends, feeling deep, heavy longing settle in her chest. She shook her head, trying to chase away the unwelcome thoughts. No, that part of her life was over.

It seemed that fate enjoyed toying with her that day because, as MC was walking through the castle gallery on the way to her rooms, she ran into Lucifer. He looked exhausted and pale – more so than usual – and could hardly meet her eyes as he greeted her. But then again, it’s been ages since he’d looked her in the face. She passed by him quickly without so much as looking back at him – there was no use in lingering.

MC is hardly surprised when later in the evening there is an insistent knock on her door, and Diavolo comes in. He is stressed and distraught, she can tell by the fact that he is in his demon form. MC is pleased, though nothing in her face betrays that – of course he is, after the news he’d received today.

Diavolo only ever comes to her room for counsel or companionship in bed, and by the look on his face, MC knows that it is not her counsel he is seeking that evening. She does not want to lay with him – she never did, not from the day he’d told to that she was to be his mistress – but he’ll never know that. Her smile is practiced and perfect and inviting – and he is none the wiser.

When Diavolo leans in to kiss her, MC responds with trained eagerness, as her fingers snake through his hair. When he pushes her to bed, MC lets out a small gasp then laughs as she beckons him with her index finger. When his hands scrape obscenely on her bare skin as he shreds her nightgown and tangles her long hair in his fist, she simply smiles and moans, just the way she knows he likes.

MC has no illusions that the woman she was when she came into the Devildom would be repulsed by this – but she is not her, not anymore. And so, she writhes and gasps and moans as he pushes inside her – just the way he expects from her. As she finds her mind drifting, bored, MC forces herself to focus. She cannot have him doubt her feelings, not now.

It takes entirely too long before he rolls off of her, and there is nothing MC wants more than to be left alone. But her performance is not over – not yet – and so she moves closer to Diavolo and rests her head on his chest.

“Is everything alright, my love?” she asks, concern in her voice as genuine as she could muster, “You seem quite somber today.”

“It’s…everything,” Diavolo sighs, “I’ve come upon some quite disturbing news today, but also my wife is not making things any easier with the wedding…”

Ah.

“I take it she still haven’t warmed up to the idea,” MC says, looking Diavolo in the face.

“No,” he sighs, “She did not. I tried reasoning with her, tried telling her that this wedding is essential to secure our son’s position on the throne, and yet she would not hear it…I tell you, this woman loves me not.”

And whose fault is that? MC thinks.

She knows the queen, too, had no say when it came to her marriage to Diavolo. And he did hardly anything to secure her affections.

“I’m sure she just has a difficult time accepting that her son is growing,” MC says softly, “I do too – it is as though just yesterday Naamah was a child, and now she’s a woman grown, soon to be married.”

“You are too kind to my wife,” Diavolo sighs, as he takes her hand into his and brings it to his lips, “That’s what I love about you – your beautiful heart that lets you always see the best in people.”

MC smiles – if only he knew – but her face betrays nothing.  

“Is there anything I can do to help? About the troubling news you heard…or about the queen?”

“I’ll have your counsel on the morrow,” Diavolo presses soft kisses to her fingers, “But for now you should rest.”

With that he climbs out of her bed and begins getting dressed.

“Will you not stay with me, my love?” MC asks. She wants nothing more than to be left alone right now, but she knows she needs to ask.

“I’d love nothing more,” Diavolo says with a chagrinned smile, “But there are certain matters I need to attend to.”

“You should be kinder to yourself,” MC says softly.

“What would I do without you,” Diavolo replies, as he leans in and kisses her.  

When he finally leaves, MC falls back onto her pillows and smiles – it’s not too long now. Soon he will pay for all her suffering.

[bigskydreaming]

For the record: I fucking adore pre-Crisis Dick and Bruce and always have. And would have ZERO problems whatsoever with people focusing on the version of events surrounding Dick’s leaving home in that last reblog…if not for how often this is paired with the reactions and attitudes Dick was written as having in direct response to the OTHER version of events in which he was fired. Its literally just the mixing and matching that’s the problem for me. 

(And additionally for the record, this has absolutely nothing to do with that reblog or its OP or anything other than the fact that I’ve been trying to write this particular post for like two months and could never muster the spoons before now. But seriously, not really about that post at all, it just finally got the gears working in the direction I wanted them to go).

Anyway. Like I said, its the mixing and matching of cause and effects that are inherently just not MEANT to match up and go together, because the effect was not referring back to a specific cause, but rather a different one altogether....that’s the issue. That’s always been the issue.

Because when you leave out the key fact that Dick’s hostility in later stories is written with the explicit intention of referring back to stories in which Bruce instigated their estrangement, you make it look like Dick is just a spoiled brat who throws temper tantrums when things aren’t about him, when that is literally not the scenario he was being characterized that way in response to. 

My problem has never been with Dick and Bruce having a good relationship or Bruce being a good father who loves his eldest and expresses that in a myriad of ways. Its with the narratives that twist a specific sequence of cause and effect to shift the focus away from any possible reason Dick could have for being upset with Bruce….to spotlight SOLELY Dick’s upset, with all actual relevant context deliberately stripped away and replaced with the context of “Bruce is a good father who loves his eldest and never fails to express that in a myriad of ways.” 

And with the way this pattern has then been mirrored over the decades since it was initially applied by fandom to avoid dealing with the earliest stories where Bruce was written as abusive….and with the ripple effect consequentially being that it has become a fandom staple for the focus to be put entirely on what Dick’s doing at all times and never on WHY, so that he constantly keeps getting upheld as the problem even in situations where he was clearly the victim. Like with Spyral, like with Ric Grayson, like Mirage and tons of other times throughout this character’s history because once you establish a precedent and uphold it to the degree that we’ve so often seen with “Dick is really the mastermind of his own misery, because none of the things that he’s miserable about really happened to him, look see, Bruce is a fabulous father and always was”.....like, you get a lot of repetition at that point.

Because that, right there, ESPECIALLY when paired with the reality that the stories that this tendency is most commonly used to distract from, like Dick’s firing and NTT #55 and NW #30 and other issues where there were clear and obvious instances of abuse in how Bruce was written......intentionally or not, that replaces these narratives of abuse, but NOT with stories where everything’s all fine and dandy.....but rather, with a narrative of abuse apologism, even if it is largely unintentional.

Because when an abuse victim’s behavior in specific moments is called into question AT THE SAME TIME as the root cause of that specific behavior in those specific moments is shuffled offstage and KEPT out of focus, so that the abuse victim’s specific behavior is upheld as the ONLY issue at hand, leaving the abuser who they’re reacting to free to just keep on walking while no one pays them any attention now.....this is a fundamental cornerstone of abuse apologism in real life as much as in fiction. And it has nothing to do whatsoever if its INTENDED that way, its simply the reality of what results.

And its that last part that usually gets me and a lot of other fans so worked up because just like a lot of people turn to Bruce as their emotional support character because they relate to either his trauma or his coping mechanisms or a million other things about him.....there’s a shit ton of us who turn to Dick Grayson as our emotional support character because we relate to HIS trauma....which, like it or not, for many of us INCLUDES his at-times extremely shitty relationship with his parent.

The way people condescend about this in particular, acting like the ONLY POSSIBLE REASON anyone ever has for writing Bruce as abusive or writing fixes or codas or transformative response-takes on actual literal canon stories where he was written as abusive.....like, treating the situation as though people ONLY do this for the sake of angst porn or to smear Bruce’s character, like, they’re just in it for the drama and there’s absolutely no other possible reason to engage with those particular stories.....its aggravating as hell. 

Especially when this is paired with stuff like “oh, sorry I’m not addicted to making Bruce an abusive shithead, I have taste and am above click-bait angst lolol” like.....people really think they’re saying something there, but its probably not what they think they’re saying when you hold it up against the fact that most people saying this have ZERO problem with excessive angst and misery in literally any other context EXCEPT for ones where Bruce is to blame.

I like to refer back to the fact that people disparage any focus on Dick being fired as being ‘just a retcon’....because of how that coincides with the fact that Jason’s pre-Crisis stories were largely (though not completely) retconned as well. Because its not just the fact that Jason’s origin as an acrobat was retconned to him being a street kid that’s significant here....but rather, the fact that HOW he became Robin was retconned as well. Since originally, pre-Crisis, just like it was Dick who chose to move on from Robin himself, it was Dick who chose to make Robin the name Jason used as Batman’s partner as well. 

So I’d be fine with people being like “oh I don’t engage with the retcon of Dick being fired because it was just a retcon” except for the fact that they DO engage with a huge part of that retcon still. They engage with the part where Dick is bitter and resentful of not being Robin anymore, just not the REASONS for it, because they’ve supplanted all the history for the version of events where Dick is resentful with the history from when Bruce was nothing but supportive. And then ADDITIONALLY, they still engage with the part where it was Bruce who made Jason Robin, not Dick, as this is then linked in fanon to WHY Dick is allegedly so resentful of Jason as Robin.....even though that too is a retcon, and if they just went with the original story where Dick gave Jason his name and costume before Jason ever debuted as Robin for the very first time.....voila, no resentment or bitterness from Dick towards Jason would ever exist.

See what I’m saying? Its frustrating hearing over and over that people don’t like the firing retcon just because it was a retcon and they like the original....AT THE EXACT SAME TIME as they continue to interact with and engage with literally every part of the retcon EXCEPT for where Bruce did stuff that Dick understandably could be upset about.

And that people claim this is to avoid the more negative aspects of things between Bruce and Dick and make for a more positive family dynamic....except then they still KEEP Dick being estranged and not coming home and sniping at Bruce as WELL as keep Dick being resentful and bitter about Jason so its like.....Error 404, More Positive Family Dynamic Not Found, its almost like you’re totally fine with Dick being the fly in the family togetherness soup, just so long as Bruce comes across fine.

And this is the pattern we see over and over, and that’s why the frustration Dick Grayson’s fans have with a lot of the rest of fandom are not directly interchangeable with the frustrations fans of any character have when its their favorite character in the hotseat. Because its not the simple fact of other fans not liking his character or stories about his character, its the HOW and WHY of the reasoning, and how often that’s telling people who relate to parts of Dick’s narrative that include the uglier bits with Bruce, that like....the stories we’re upset about don’t matter, or aren’t relevant, or didn’t happen, lmfao.

Because here’s the thing: nobody has to engage with parts of canon they don’t like. We all come to these stories and characters for different reasons and if Bruce written abusively is totally counter to everything you love about the character, OF COURSE you don’t want to engage with those takes! Of course you find that out of character and view it as shitty writing that should never have happened. And that’s FINE!

But its not about whether or not you just choose not to engage with these stories or ones based on them.....its about how often people then TALK OVER the people who DO choose to engage with these stories or ones based on them.....and belittle their validity in existing at all, try and paper over the stuff that people are directly trying to address by way of fic by arguing points that aren’t in contention.....because we’re not disputing that there’s a version of events where Dick left home happily, we’re literally just saying THAT’S NOT THE STORY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT.

Like, if I go on a post where people are just having a good time with good wholesome father and son interactions between Bruce and Dick and say something like “wow wish this was real and that Bruce wasn’t actually an abusive shithead”....I’M THE ASSHOLE THERE. Lol, make no mistake. But the flip side of that is when people go on posts where people are talking about times and places and ways the dynamic between Bruce and Dick is shittier, and say stuff like “wow good thing this isn’t real and everyone with taste knows that this is just angst bait and Bruce is actually the Best Father”.....uh....what exactly is the difference here?

(Especially, and I CAN NOT stress the hilarious irony of this enough....when they then just go back to making another Whumptober entry. LOL that’s fine! The part that’s hilarious though is condescending to people who write abusive Bruce Wayne takes as just being in it for the misery business when like......umm. Like I have a point here, but I’ll let people reach it on their own. The dots though. They’re extremely connectable).

Also also, I would just like to point out that Batfandom in particular has always leaned heavily on the “sometimes people write things to cope” in regards to rape and incest fic, etc........so as long as certain corners of fandom are willing to lean heavily into that argument to defend any and all kinds of sexual content in fic, they might consider extending that very same logic to “sometimes people write things to cope” in regards to abuse survivors writing about abusive dynamics within the Batfam to work through their own shit with abuse.

But I’m just extremely tired with the “but its a retcon/its bad writing” arguments rearing their heads anywhere people are like “here is a canon story I would like to engage with because hey I thought fanfic was supposed to be about us being able to fix shitty canon or address shitty canon or just lampshade that shitty canon is shitty”.....particularly when that awareness of things being a retcon seem to be devoid of any awareness of how retcons WORK.

Because the thing is, we all know and get how retcons work. We understand that retcons act as an insertion point for a second version of events that later stories can refer back to or act upon INSTEAD of the original version of events.

This is why literally nobody in fandom writes stories about Jason as the Red Hood and tries to like....use them to make points about Jason’s childhood as a circus acrobat. Because everyone gets that the issue there isn’t whether or not Jason’s early childhood was retconned, and there only being ONE TRUE VERSION of that you can go with......no, people get that it doesn’t matter IF they for whatever reason prefer Jason’s original story.....literally no canon story about the Red Hood has been written with the intention of referring back to THAT origin instead of the street kid Jason origin. No story about the Red Hood is attempting to SAY anything about or DO anything with Jason the child acrobat instead of Jason the street kid.

So why does that awareness vanish the second that stories about how Dick RESPONDS to the retcon of being fired come under scrutiny....with people acting like they just don’t get how retcons work all of a sudden, and its fine to argue the point about how that second inserted sequence of events isn’t relevant and everyone knows this so clearly there’s no problem treating Dick’s reactions to those events as though they’re just reactions to Bruce and Dick fighting over college?

Every character has at least two versions of themselves, tbh. A canon version and a fanon version. And obviously with a shared universe as old and having passed through as many hands as DC has....you could argue that there are many canon versions of Dick’s character. 

I would argue however that there are two distinct fanon versions of Dick’s character as well. And to be clear, each of these fanon versions encompass a spectrum unto themselves, there’s a wide range of varying DEGREES of these two fanon takes.....but there’s two specific fanon Dick Grayson STARTING points.

One of these of course is the happy-go-lucky, air-headed, never worried about anything in his life, cereal-munching, fashion disaster, sails through everything without a care in the world other than his care for everyone but himself Dick Grayson. 

I mean, I don’t particularly care for that one, but it is what it is, and like I said, every character has that fanon take that has a lot of their fans going Lol wut a mess, like plz just no.

The fanon starting point I’m usually more concerned about is this one: the Dick Grayson who grew up in the lap of luxury but never really appreciated it or what he had, who is territorial and possessive, prone to fits of anger with very little provocation prompting people to walk on eggshells around him, who cares about other people but is often oblivious of his effect on them because he’s just so reckless, so impulsive, that frequently he jumps into situations without thinking about how other people will be impacted by what he says or does, and then is too proud to take it back.

The reason I’m bothered so much by THIS fanon Dick Grayson is because I flat out don’t believe we get to him by looking at canon....but rather by extremely selectively AVOIDING looking at canon, but only specific PARTS of canon.

And thus we get a Dick Grayson who never really appreciated his childhood or what he had.....as evidenced by the Dick Grayson who at times takes shots at Bruce for how he raised Dick......but without ANY examination of or awareness that the way those shots are written in canon, are with the intention of referring back to specific stories in which Bruce DID fuck up in certain ways while raising Dick....rather than a Bruce who was nothing but supportive and nurturing and did no wrong ever.

And thus we get a Dick Grayson who is territorial and possessive....as evidenced by the way he’s been less than graceful about ‘sharing’ Robin with certain of his siblings, or even Bruce himself......but without ANY examination of or awareness that the reason he’s written as ungracious about these things in these specific moments is because they were written with the intention of referring back to specific stories where something he built from the ground up - Robin - was stripped from him and given away without consulting him, or when he had to watch others enjoy a specific aspect of their relationship with Bruce that he was never (or at least not yet) ever offered himself......rather than just because Dick’s spoiled and selfish and never learned to share because he has only child syndrome.

And thus we get a Dick Grayson who is prone to fits of anger with very little provocation prompting people to walk on eggshells around him.....as evidenced by the way he blows up at certain people at certain times....but without ANY examination of what they said or did to him just BEFORE he blew up at them, or awareness that the reason he said awful things or displayed such anger is because he was specifically being written as reacting to things that very understandably PROMPT such anger, or he was written standing up for himself in the face of people saying or doing shitty things as well, or even outright attacking him......rather than just because Dick has a hair-trigger temper and anger management issues, and nobody’s ever said or done anything that justifies him getting angry at them ever.

And thus we get a Dick Grayson who is oblivious to his effect on other people because he’s just so reckless and impulsive that he jumps into situations without thinking about how they’ll be impacted....as evidenced by the way he does things like fake his death without thinking through what this will do to others......but without ANY examination of the fact that the stories in which he’s originally written MAKING the decisions to do these things, he DOES think through how others will be impacted, like how in NW #30 he did nothing BUT argue how it would affect his siblings and Barbara, or awareness of the fact that the reasons these arguments don’t change the outcome of events is because they’re deliberately written as not being ALLOWED to change the outcome, as Dick’s objections and concerns for other people are actively overriden and over-ruled.....rather than because he doesn’t make these objections in the first place or think through how other people will be impacted by things.

And thus we get a Dick Grayson who is just too proud to take things back when he fucks up.....as evidenced by the way that he either doesn’t apologize for certain things, or his apology seems hollow or insincere, or his apology doesn’t preclude him from doing something similar again later down the line....but without ANY examination of the fact that the reasons for all of these more often have to do with the fact that the crimes aren’t his to apologize for in the first place, its often him that’s owed the actual apology, and he simply won’t be ALLOWED to not get into the same situation in the future because the entire reason this pattern persists so frequently is because there’s zero sincere examination of what the pattern actually consists OF and just WHY it is that Dick in specific is so frequently stuck in this particular pattern....rather than just because Dick’s simply too proud to ever acknowledge when he fucks up.

Does that specific fanon interpretation of Dick Grayson sound at ALL familiar to anyone else?

And can you understand how the frustration with it could stem from not simply the fact that it exists, or that its not canon based....but rather the fact that it in order to exist at all, it REQUIRES building upon a foundational cornerstone of abuse apologism and outright ignoring and disregarding stories where he is the one victimized in order to prioritize that no blowback for the canon instances of abuse impact or reflect badly upon the actual victimizing characters in fandom conversations about these things?

Because speaking solely for myself now....this is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN, the ONLY issue I have in this matter. I have zero problems with good dad Bruce Wayne content, with prioritizing takes where Dick wasn’t actually fired, with simply not wanting to engage with canon or fan content where Bruce is abusive....none of these things have EVER been my problem or ever will be....as long as they like....don’t go hand in hand with making an abuse victim his own victimizer and everyone else his hapless victim whenever the specific instances of when he’s been a victim of other characters in canon comes up either in fic, headcanons, meta or just casual conversation.

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis, an Overview: Let Me Get Weirdly Serious About This Book For A Sec

HOLY SHIT WHAT A RIDE.

So, let’s recap what we’ve learned over the last 282 pages.

In 2001, James Roberts published nearly 300 pages of fictional prose, based in the established franchise of Transformers, specifically the Marvel UK comic continuity. This novel tells the story of the Transformers, in their dwindling numbers, being attacked, not by their opposing factions, but by an outside force hellbent on revenge. Those who are captured by this force- the Quintessons- are stripped of their very individuality, forced into servitude until the moment they die of exhaustion. Everyone is pushed to- and in some cases beyond- their limits, the horrors of a literal genocide beating down on them like a tidal wave. Only by casting aside their differences and banding together can they hope to survive the nightmare that is the Eugenesis Wars.

But people don’t really talk about all that, even though it’s a majority of what the book’s about. No, people only talk about what happens after the Quintessons are defeated. People only talk about the robots getting pregnant, because honestly it is the most bizarre thing.

Not because the idea itself is terribly odd- I mean, at least it’s in line with the lore the comics set up. It’s bizarre in how we get to that point. All the torture, all the suicide and death and depression and destruction of entire belief systems, leads up to these robots getting pregnant. Almost like that was the whole point. And considering that this story is presenting to us a bridge for the gap between the classic Transformers and the Beast-Era ones, it could have very well been.

I won’t say fetish, because that doesn’t feel quite right, but our dear author seems to have a sort of… obscene fascination with the concept of mechpreg. A fascination that will carry on well into his career as a professional comic scriptwriter, setting readers on edge for the duration of his run with IDW.

Comparing Eugenesis to More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light, you get an interesting view of Roberts’ growth, as both a writer and a human being. Eugenesis is the work of what Billy Joel might call an "angry young man”, focusing on the despair of wartime and the futility of one’s struggle against the flow of time and mortality. The theme of time only being perceived as linear, and being in actuality an unending plane where all moments are equal and eternal might seem oddly specific, but it’s reflected upon by multiple characters within the story of Eugenesis. Perhaps this is why he has Brainstorm and Perceptor collectively and completely jack up time itself in the Elegant Chaos storyline.

Character moments sprinkled throughout the narrative give us a glimpse of the relationships that would be written later on- some of the most compelling scene writing happens between Quark and Rev-Tone, two original characters who have such a delightful dynamic between them, they very quickly became some of my favorites. You truly believe that they care so strongly for one another, they would do just about anything to keep the other safe. And they do, in a couple cases.

Then there’s all the death. There’s a lot of death in Eugenesis, and none of it is by way of natural causes- you’ve either got suicide, murder, or suicide-by-way-of-murder. You really see Roberts shine in these death scenes, both then and now, as he captures the utter, raw tranquility as one stares down their own demise, and on the other side of the coin, the complete annihilation of one’s very heart as someone they love is destroyed. It’s downright poetic how he handles these scenes.

Still, there is a difference in how the aftermath is handled. When someone dies in the MTMTE/LL run, there’s always meaning and purpose to it- nobody dies just to die, and those who are left behind are left at least something to comfort them.

A message of love.

The return of a friend.

A chance to keep living.

A chance to be a better person.

You don’t get that in Eugenesis. In most cases, there’s no salve for the wound, only more hurting. There’s no time to even mourn, as the fight rages on and on and on. Any happiness pulled from the narrative for the characters is laced with a bittersweet understanding that these folks probably aren’t going to make it, and they’re just as aware of that fact as the reader is.

And yet there’s something kind of beautiful about that, in a twisted sort of way.

Eugenesis is a sort of love letter to those dark thoughts hiding in our heads, those deeply scary intrusive visions of everything we care about being ripped away from us. It’s a book make up of catharsis, of hurting that begs for some sort of outlet. The characters in this story are lost, and scared, and hollowed out before the mass extinction even arrives, and are put through wringer after wringer, like some sort of distanced facsimile of self-harm.

Perhaps I’m reading a bit too into this, but with how intense things get, with self-insert characters no less, I can’t help but wonder if the James Roberts who was writing Eugenesis truly needed this outlet in more than just a creative sense.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with this novel just because it was a vessel for catharsis. Pacing can end up going so rapidly it feels as if you’re being pushed towards the edge of a cliff, then stutter to a halt to the point where continuing on feels like an absolute slog. But it always seems just as you’re about to put the thing down and give up, something completely thrilling, completely insane and powerful and profoundly attention-grabbing happens, pulling you right back in. If nothing else, this book demands one’s attention.

There are also some other, more interesting issues with Eugenesis. Issues I wasn’t really expecting to run into. To highlight one such issue, we’re going to play a game.

The game is called Guess That Character Design!

Hey Transformers fandom, got a new quandary for y’all to fight over. Forget the Frenzy/Rumble color debate, forget the Bombshell/Skywarp is Cyclonus debate, it’s time for the What The Actual Everloving Fuck Is Quark Supposed To Look Like debate! Do we follow the comic and its script, which show him as being either about on par with Rev-Tone and Mirage or taller, but fails to note any sort of color because it’s in black-and-white? Or do we follow the novel, which states he’s short exactly once, and crimson? And if he’s red, where did the blue paint chips come from in Part Five? They sure didn’t come from Rev-Tone, who I know is mostly red- not because the novel told me, but because I’ve seen art of him outside of this. Honestly, other than him having big honkin’ shoulders and a bust to match, nothing about Quark’s visual aesthetic is concrete.

Now, I could tell you all about his quirks and mannerisms, how he holds himself, how he talks, how he interacts with others, all sorts of stuff. Nothing wrong with the writing there, characterization’s great! I just couldn’t tell you for the life of me how his body is supposed to look. Rev-Tone’s in the same boat, except it’d be even worse without the helpful input of some friends. Did you know he has a visor? Because I sure as shit didn’t until someone showed me. It’s never mentioned in the book. You can barely see it in the prequel comic art if you’re looking for it, and the script is less than helpful to me because I’m not Matt friggin’ Dallas, nor have I had the pleasure of reading Transtrip. All the information presented in the novel about his looks involves his mouth.

Hell, some of the writing in Eugenesis seems to imply that he actually just has normal eyeballs.

What I’m getting at here is that Roberts leans a bit too much on the reader knowing exactly as much as he does about the characters, the plot points, the lore. And he knows A LOT about Transformers.

This book essentially requires the reader to have the wiki open with multiple tabs at all times. Roberts put his heart and soul into the prose, but the world-building had his nerdy little brains smeared all over it, because there are some obscure references in here, not to mention the sci-fi jargon. You basically NEED an internet connection to get through this- I’ve never read a novel that pretty much forbid an acoustic reading, but here it is, in all its glory.

Eugenesis is a dark, morbid, conflicted story with the oddest little bright spots in it. Within five pages, you’ll go from some of the most horridly bleak death scenes to someone accidentally burning a hole in their hand like a cartoon character. But never once, in nearly 300 pages, does it ever stop trying. It may not succeed in what it’s attempting 100% of the time, but goddamn does it go as hard as it can. This isn’t something that was done for money, or fame, or anything like that. Eugenesis is a passion project in the purest sense, and you can really feel it in the way it’s been crafted. For all the frustration it put me through, never once did I think “man, this guy just doesn’t care.” The ambition Roberts shows in the prose, in the world-building, in all the funny little moments that show just so much personality within the story, truly were harbingers for what was to come just a decade later.

Ambitious. Bleak. Brutal. Weird. Ultimately unforgettable. That’s James Roberts’ Eugenesis.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter, shall we? The one question that truly matters for any novel: is it worth reading?

Well, that depends.

If you had a hard time with the darker parts of MTMTE/LL, I really couldn’t recommend that you read Eugenesis. You will have an awful time, because most of it is Grindcore x100 levels of depressing and brutal. There were a couple points where I had to take a break because things got so intense- and I’m not exactly squeamish. Maybe stick to a breakdown- like this one!- or try a group read-along. Friends make everything better, after all.

If you like Roberts work and want to see where he came from, like I did, I highly recommend you find a copy- digital of course, there are only a few hundred physical copies in existence. I recommend you find the 2nd edition, which includes Telefunken and fixes some of the more glaring continuity mistakes and typos.

It’s a good read. Just... it’s a lot at times.

Like, a lot.

Up next-

Oh, what? You didn’t think that was it, did you? This url is way too sweet to just be done with so soon.

Next, I’ll be taking a gander at Children of a Lesser Matrix, which is something that was never finished by Roberts, but is still floating around the internet because hey! It’s the internet.

If anyone has any other somewhat obscure writings from JRo, feel free to send them my way. Especially if you have any of the TMUK zines from back in the day. I wish to consume all the works.

[dottie-wan-kenobi]

Titans (comics) for the fandom ask meme!

tysm!!! I’m gonna just do the Wolfman/Perez stuff if that’s okay? it’s the only Titans comics I’ve read a substantial amount of

my favorite female character: KORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kory Kory Kory she is such an amazing character, she is so interesting, the things she goes through and the way she reacts to them is so much fun to see. I love how she’s tall and strong and smart and beautiful, and I love her relationship with Donna, who is by far my second fave

my favorite male character: as much as I love Dick (and Joey and Roy lol), I have to pick Vic Stone. He’s just so cool, like his powers and his personality and how he still acts like a teenager even while being this amazing superhero. His stories have so much emotion in them, and he’s such a great friend. Plus I like that he has hair in the comics lol, being bald isn’t a bad look but I prefer him having at least a lil hair

my favorite book/season/etc: I’m gonna go with Tales of The Teen Titans volume 1. I just find it more interesting and palatable than what came before it  (the early NTT stuff is so. unrealistic. Wally falling in love with Raven thru dreams just feels weird). It also introduced Joey as part of the team!!! The depressing characters (Raven and Wally, coincidentally) aren’t around much!!! Roy is there!!!!

my favorite episode (if its a tv show) issue: I don’t remember the issue number but it’s the one where Dick and Donna find out about Donna’s past. They’re platonic soulmates and it was so so so nice to see them going on this journey together. Dick had some great moments thinking about Kory (and also called himself ‘Deadeye Dick’ because that’s normal), but mostly I loved this because Donna was so central to it!! She got her family back! 

my favorite cast member: lmao George Perez. Thank you for your service, sir

my favorite ship: HANDS DOWN Dick/Kory. They are meant to freaking BE. From the very beginning, they were curious about each other, and they progressed naturally and so sweetly into a relationship that was just so healthy and amazing. They really loved each other, it was ride or die, and they WERE GOING TO BE MARRIED ffs!!!!! 

a character I’d die defending: JOEY. I love him so much. He is so good despite everything, and SO sweet and cute and just. fdksjhfjkshkjskah I hate how much Gar doesn’t like him!! I will break the fourth wall and fight him on Joey’s behalf dammit

a character I just can’t sympathize with: Terry. I fucking hate him so much...........like. he’s a grown man (28 years old, I think) dating a 19 year old................and he calls 19 year olds children..............and then all the bullshit with the kids and holding Donna back............perish, bitch

a character I grew to love: Gar. It’s kind of the opposite, actually? I love him in the cartoons and found him cute and interesting in NTT, but as time has gone on, he just continues to sexually harass his teammates, especially Kory. I do love him, but I find this behavior really gross and it makes it hard to read issues with him. 

my anti otp: Donna/Terry, or really, Terry/being alive. Also Mirage and Dick. Donna and Dick both deserve so much better

[tessatechaitea]

Young Heroes in Love #6

I was expecting Monstergirl to spin webs but not from her fingers.

Growing up, I thought the word "betrayal" was a command so every kid in my class named Al hated my fucking guts. Also, I'm constantly confused by the name Al because whenever anybody named Al accomplishes anything, I first think that some super smart robot AI just accomplished it. This issue is called "You'll Never Walk Alone into the Furnace of Unstable Molecules." I have not been discussing the names of the issues. You might be able to guess why. They're all like that. Issue #1: "Your Lips! Your Eyes! Your Nuclear Breath Vision!" Issue #2: "Look Before You Leap into the Telekinetic Proto-Bomb!" Issue #3: "Two Hearts Beat as One Giant Undead Guy!" Issue #4: "Cry Me a River of Nigh Irresistible Beams!" Issue #5: "Out of the Frying Pan and into the Trans-Universal Galacto-Storm!" They're probably secret messages which need the Young Heroes in Love secret decoder butt plug to decipher. Sure, I own it so I could decipher the messages but it's kind of being used right now for its other intended purpose. The issue begins not with Bonfire exposing Hard Drive's manipulations of the Young Heroes but Bonfire waking up in bed having been mind controlled to forget that she was exposing Hard Drive's secrets. Or she did expose them and later, after Hard Drive recovered his spent powers, he simply mind controlled everybody to forget it and now everything is back to normal. At least until Tara realizes what Willow has done and then sings a duet with Giles about how she was violated by Willow and then everything will fucking just fall apart. Seriously, just stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer after the musical. Just pretend it all works out for the best. Because it eventually does! At least until Angel brings about the end of the world. With dragons!

With sexual applications!

I mean, I don't have a clitoris but I'm just going to assume that doing anything to it is good. Yeah? Meanwhile, a villain team known as The Ratpack are busy extorting a school for three thousand dollars. The members of the Ratpack: Mongoose Lord, Doc Ferret, She-Weasel, Flying Squirrel, King Rat, Gerbil-Girl, Whiskers the Living Hamster, and Captain Kangaroo Rat. It's like a meta(l)gene bomb exploded in a pet store. Being that I'm a fucking weirdo who isn't afraid to admit that he has sexual fantasies about comic book characters, I'd just like to say that I've already imagined three different sexy scenarios involving me and Gerbil-Girl. Also, what the fuck does Whiskers think Hamsters are? Zombies? Why is he the "living" hamster?

Gerbil-Girl is so mad at my dick.

The school contacts the Young Heroes because even though they don't think the money is too much of a hassle, they fucking hate filthy rats. Nobody likes rats! At least not the metaphorical ones. You know the saying: whiskers get stichers. But real rats are adorable. At least the ones that pet stores sell and not the ones that climb out of your toilet in the middle of the night. While the team stakes out the school waiting for the Ratpack, they get to discuss relationship problems! It's the entire reason for this comic book to exist. Bonfire is all, "I want to fuck Thunderhead but I'm not sure I'm ready to fuck Thunderhead, you know?" And Monstergirl is all, "I love fucking Hard Drive but I'm not sure I want to be with Hard Drive!" And Bonfire is all, "I don't even remember that I want to fuck Frostbite!" And Monstergirl is all, "I know, right?!" And Grunion Guy is all, "Our initials are exactly the same! I know Gerbil-Girl and I will be happy together forever!" Before any of the better drama can happen, like Off-ramp telling Frostbite that he wants to kiss him in a really bad place, the Ratpack crawl out of the sewers! And they almost instantly get beaten up by the Young Heroes. That's because the Young Heroes are on Issue #6 which means they're basically Level 2 or 3 and battling rats in the sewers is a total Level 1 adventure.

"Insert two fingers, Gerbilgirl! Insert two fingers!"

After the battle, Bonfire takes Thunderhead to the library because Bonfire doesn't know what libraries are for.

Outrageous! Throwing their chewing gum wrapper on the floor!

Oh no! I just read the last page of this issue and it turns out Bonfire wasn't Bonfire at all! It was Monstergirl pretending to be Bonfire! That's like, um, rape or something! Am I not allowed to like Monstergirl's ass now that it's the ass of a rapist?! I hope Bonfire doesn't treat Thunderhead the way Starfire treated Nightwing when Mirage did this to him! That was some totally unfair blaming the victim shit. Not that Nightwing was much of a victim. Look, I know this is a controversial thing to say but getting fucked by a shapeshifter who is pretending to be the person you want to fuck isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person! I wish I were friends with some horny and unethical shapeshifters right now! Young Heroes in Love #6 Rating: A. It's too bad I can't continue to like Monstergirl anymore because she was my favorite. I could say she's even more my favorite now but that would look bad so instead I'm saying, "Gee. What a terribly unethical person. Doesn't she understand consent? She not only violated Thunderhead but Bonfire as well! In fact, now that I think about what she did to Bonfire, I'm really beginning to not like her as opposed to just saying I don't like her so that people don't tell me I'm gross. Poor Bonfire! Now her relationship with Thunderhead is tainted before it even had a chance to begin? Also, what if Monstergirl made her vagina look horrible?! Monstergirl really is a monster!" In summation, I think what Monstergirl did was super wrong so don't judge me! But Thunderhead still got laid so, I mean, was it that wrong? I mean, it was! So wrong! Terrible! The worst even!

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of July 17th, 2019

Best of this Week: Uncanny X-Men #22 (Legacy #644) - Matthew Rosenberg, Salvador Larroca, David Messina, GURU-eFX and Joe Caramagna

It’s the end of an era and for once, I’m terrified.

I’ve been a fan of the X-Men for a long time. I’d even go so far as to say that they’re my favorite team in all of comics ever because of the range that their stories can go, from tales of marginalization to various stories of abuse and moral relativism, the X-Men have been amazing so why has it taken them so long to feel relevant again? At some point even the best books run out of good stories to tell or end up retreading old waters for a drink of nostalgia and that’s been the X-Men for the last five to six years. 

Cyclops had become what Magneto was, young versions of the original five were brought to the future, villains like Mojo and Exodus were brought back, Sentinel threats reemerged, X-Men died and were brought back. In the grand scheme of things, it was all a mess with no cohesive direction and Marvel noticed. In comes Matthew Rosenberg who, I admittedly, was very wary of because I hated both his time on Astonishing X-Men and the Multiple Man mini-series. I don’t know if it was all his idea, but he decided to wipe the slate clean with a new Uncanny X-Men series and… it was stupendous from start to finish.

In the aftermath of Emma Frost’s actions from the last issue, the X-Men that are still on our Earth have found a peace that Mutants have never known. With humanities knowledge of mutants erased, Scott Summers is at a loss and questioning what his role in life is now that no one needs protecting. He and Dani Moonstar, aka Mirage, wax poetic on the nature of mutations and what their next course of action is. Scott is morose, seeing as his mutation made him function primarily as a weapon to fight back against humanity as it tried to destroy him, but now that they don’t know he exists, what is he good for?

The dynamic between them is interesting. Scott has been fighting since he was a teenager and he’s only ever seen this life as one big war. Dani is still young, but has the experience of several lifetimes and all that she can think of is helping people. Both of them have experienced loss but process it differently. Scott sees all of his friends as soldiers in the fight where Dani sees them as family. Of course this is because Scott has been leading everyone for so long and Dani has gone through thick and thin with the New Mutants, the Fearless Defenders and the X-Men themselves. 

This causes a disagreement between the two and she simply walks away from him as Alex Summers, aka Havok, speaks with his brother about the freedom of being ignored over being targeted. On their way back to the Hellfire Mansion, Alex explains that every bit of leadership he’s ever had to exhibit was learned from Scott. Even with all of his brooding, Scott has been a great leader and it definitely helped when Alex was an Avenger, and he lets his brother know that he’s thankful for it before they’re attacked by some kind of golden Sentinel.

Scott’s unable to damage it and Alex surmises that they’ll never make it back to the mansion before the Sentinel kills them both, so in an act of self sacrifice, knowing that his powers won’t affect Scott, he self destructs and destroys the evil machine. Soon after, more arrive under the control of the General that originally help Emma Frost captive and target the remaining mutants. The battle is hard fought with heavy casualties before the rest of the X-Men return from Nate Grey’s utopian world, winning the battle for mutantkind.

This is the final issue of Uncanny X-Men and it ends on a bittersweet note.

*Slight SPOILERS BELOW*

Havok, a man who was on top of the world, brought low and tried to climb his way back up made the ultimate sacrifice just so that his brother could continue being the leader he is. Madrox, who was just brought back to life has met yet another grisly end, but the status quo has reset though very similarly to the Astonishing X-Men or Mutopia eras in a way. Jean Grey has returned to Scott, Emma and Magneto appear to be on the side of angels again and the X-Men are choosing not to hide anymore.

Shifting focus from this amazingly written and fantastically drawn book, I want to look towards the future and the threads left untied. House of X begins next week and I don’t know how to make heads or tails of things. Who is the man with the giant globe on his head? Is it professor X who had recently taken over the body of Fantomex and is now known as X? Will Magneto ever make use of the Brotherhood he established late last year? What will happen to Illyana now that she’s a demon again? I don’t know, but I am very excited.

This run was great. Rosenberg wrote everything in the most dire way possible given the situation and it fit each and every month. Scott remained hopeful in the face of ever present adversity, flanked by Logan who back up almost all of his actions. Characterizations were great from Dani acting as a voice of reason and Hope being a militaristic badass and the surprisingly black humored Jamie. Larroca’s art never faltered in being action packed but also still and dark.

Whatever comes next from this team, I have high hopes for.

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

The “Superior” Spider-Man is actually starting to live up to the ideal.

Runner Up: The Superior Spider-Man #9 (Legacy #42) - Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

After the events of the War of the Realms, the Spider-Man of San Francisco is awarded the key to the city for his efforts in making sure that there were zero casualties as Frost Giants stomped their way across SanFran. He accepts the gesture, but “crime” calls him away, only it’s not a crime, he simply thinks he has better things to do with his time than deal with the trivialities of ceremonies. He heads back to his lab and converses with Anna Maria about her making him go to the ceremony and summarily dismisses his colleague Emma after she apologizes for freaking out on him on their first date. 

Otto seems to be in a bigger huff than usual and takes his frustrations out on a minor villain by the name of Turner D. Century. Century’s quickly defeated after a savage beating by Otto and the surprise appearance by Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Peter shows up at the request of Anna Maria and being one of the men who knows Otto best, he simply asks what’s wrong. Otto has been irritable, moody and angry since he saved the city and he obviously has no one to talk to.

He immediately spills to Peter that while he was able to keep San Francisco safe, thousands of people still died in the US, more abroad. He removes his mask and Hawthorne paints the face of a man that’s tortured by guilt and doubt. Otto feels that he’s the greatest mind in the world and that he should have thought of something. He doesn’t want to hear Pete say that he can’t save everyone, but it’s eating him up inside that he can’t. 

By far, this is some of the best character work and advancement that we’ve seen from Otto in a while. He tried to become a hero, tried to be a good guy while he was inhabiting Peter’s body, but now that he’s doing it on his own and seeing the fruits and consequences of his labors, he sees how hard it is. He’s becoming a good guy and I’m here for it.

After Peter tells him that he’s doing the hero thing right, Emma shows up on the roof that they’ve swung up to and Otto breaks down in tears in front of her. He tries to posture that he’s a loner and asks if he looks like someone that needs anything from anyone before being held by her. He cries in her arms and they finally go on a second date with a surprising enemy spying on them.

I love it when heroes become good guys, no matter how brief it might be, watching Otto rise before his inevitable fall is interesting. I love the fact that he’s sort of mended fences with Anna Maria, I love that he’s found a near intellectual equal in Emma. He has a life and is using his smarts as a teacher and a hero in San Francisco. His ego is still huge, but he’s finally starting to see his faults, becoming Superior than Doctor Octopus.

Mike Hawthorne’s art is stellar. He has a talent for faces and body language. Otto expresses frustration, annoyance and grief; not only in his face, but with the slumping of his shoulders, the shaking in his hands and the tension in his fists. He even somehow finds a way to differentiate between Peter and Otto's bodies given that Otto's is cloned.

This Superior Spider-Man has far more emotion in this one issue than Otto's had in the many years since the original run. It's a joy to see the once horrible villain embrace his own good emotions for the benefit of others. This is a definite high recommend!

[brightlotusmoon]

Mikey the Unpredictable Wild Child

Oh, a thought about Michelangelo after the epic power move that was the IDW Macro Issue.

I'm still so happy at him. My only problem is now everyone knows exactly what he can do so he can't really be a Protect The Baby anymore. Unless it's Protect The Killer Cinnamon Roll So He Can Continue Being Amazing.

I was then assured that they know what he's capable of and that he really just doesn't like going Super Saiyan for his own reasons - reluctance to kill, his empathy, etc. Even back when Mirage initially portrayed him as very similar to Raph just with more naive childlike wonder before the micro series with Klunk, Mikey had that streak of atypical divergence that refused to be summed up in one or two noun words. The leader, the brains, the muscle... and who? The party dude? The wise guy? The wild one? The pizza lover? The comedian? What does that mean?

Mikey was neurodivergent before it was a word (coined in 2005 by the woman who would become my autistic mentor). And in the world of neurotypical abled average ordinary normalcy, even among mutants, those qualities are seen as.... not quite right. Goofy. Ridiculous. Worthy of light smacks to stop him quipping seemingly insensitive things. See, In the 1980s and 90s, the very concept of ADHD was very narrow but Michelangelo was popular with outsider underdogs for reasons we couldn't quite identify, because we didn't have the words we have now. We didn't have those labels to give ourselves, not until we were decades older, scared confused adults with cptsd who weren't sure of much beyond how our favorite quirky character comforted us. And like him, we knew we were holding back. We had to. We had to protect our oddness.

In 2003 especially, it was said that Mikey has the most natural talent, a raw potential greater than his brothers combined. Apparently, according to his bio, the Ancient One had said Michelangelo was the one with the Brightest Fire. I don't remember that in the show but I believe it. I may complain about the writing of his character in 2003 but I'm grateful that it opened up so much discourse in the fandom.

2003 Mikey was written with a burden of comic relief, goofy humor, nearly intense levels of being teased, and rare moments of insight and power specifically so other characters could marvel at how the apparently brainless doofus could pull such tricks off while acting like a class clown. The episodes and dialogue proved that the family was well aware that Michelangelo was deliberately masking his clever, intuitive, interpersonal emotional intelligence by being a loudmouth egoistic ham, to help distract from the darkness of their lives. They knew he was better, and it was what drove the Battle Nexus tournament, the grudge match, the graduation day. However, at the time when I was a naive 20 something who barely knew what neurodivergence was, literally all I could focus on was Mikey being teased, pushed around, smacked, mocked given terrible jokes. As an only child, a disabled child who was adored and sheltered by my family, I didn't know that those head smacks were exaggerated love taps that Mikey overreacted to. I got snarling snarky defensive. When 2012 aired and it was the same bunch of tropes, with Mikey having the term Buttmonkey ascribed to him, I found more social media and other fans who thought like me and I felt validation. The 2014 movie happened, and Mikey became a silly, hammy, class clown embodiment of flooding teenage dude hormones. It was kind of cringey despite his being written as the beloved little brother who could hold his own, deflect tranquilizer darts with a laugh, be silly and sweet without his brothers yelling at him. 2016 just continued that lovely trend and his overeager arrogant bluntness was seen as adorable. Well, there was also the 2007 film but he was not very multidimensional and he embodied a lot of annoying stereotypes. I'm still upset that the sequels were never made, because he would have been front and center and badass. But then 2018 came along and mixed Mirage with IDW to bring us a Mikey we needed. And as for IDW itself, begun in 2011, it was kind of brushed aside for 2012 until more fans begin to realize how beautifully Mikey was being written. This macro issue is like a culmination.

I went off on a tangent, sorry. My whole point is that Michelangelo has completed a circuit and I'm super proud of my lifelong imaginary friend coping mechanism who is someone else's intellectual property but who has been completely molded and shaped by fandom like no other.

[gurguliare]

Anyway I finally finally finished the TM post-mortem so have one last rundown

Really loved: Signet’s stupid relics runway show, Ali describing the Mirage/Splice resolution as “the most amazing Gift of the Magi fuckup,” and, oddly, Keith’s reflections on anarchism, though idk if enough of that made it legibly into the season---which is one of the ways Gig was underserved, I guess.

I also enjoyed and appreciated the discussion of TM’s utopianism as monumental artistic challenge. I obviously have criticisms wrt execution and I disagree with some of their analysis of TM’s failures and shortcomings, but I thought everyone was refreshingly honest about the sheer scale of the task, in a way that I often missed during the series proper---when the tone sometimes tended more toward “we’ve set ‘depicting a utopia’ as our goal, and of course we share a coherent (static) vision of what that entails, and know exactly how to get from here to there.”

I was dissatisfied at best with the conversation about redemption vs rehabilitation. I might be more convinced by the distinction if Austin had ever stopped saying “sin”... which, among other things, helps to selectively blur together abuse and other forms of violence. (I’ve given up on even dreaming of a world in which FATT covers its ass better in re: Christian-centric, frankly Catholic-centric readings of both morality and faith, and maybe it’s for the best that they lack the wherewithal to mask that.) That said, I think it’s very striking that Even Gardner’s violence and militarism seems dealt with in-story almost exclusively as a form of trauma and a thing that happens to Even Gardner, while Fourteen’s history with Castlerose is discussed (up to the time of the finale) almost exclusively in terms of Sins Fourteen Committed. I’m not saying those framings are ~flipped, but the ratio does seem off. Even has a fuckton of choices at every step of the way and experiences basically no material repercussions or visible change of heart, other than “once there are no Advent people left I’ll stop targeting Advent.” He’s also, notably, “brought back from the edge” by a played-straight romantic relationship, for some reason. Fourteen has like... half of a narrative about turning bad habits and even obsolete ideas to constructive ends, and half a narrative about reclaiming agency once safely away from your abuser, even at the cost of losing access to huge swathes of your life... but it’s an arc that goes so unacknowledged or unseen by the other characters that it never connects back up to the idea that, well, bound up in the problem of rehabilitation is the problem of forgiveness---or if we don’t like that language, then acceptance. It’s never clear on what terms Fourteen is judged and reintegrated into their community, and how and where their self-image aligns with others’ view of them.

Which is very, very lonely, and raises huge questions for me about the whole issue of Fourteen as ~disability representation and specifically as a test case for what terminal illness might look like in a utopia. It is just not clear what anyone’s goals were, as far as showing Fourteen supported in a systemic way and not just on the level of relationships. It’s very odd. I’m still puzzled by Jack and Austin’s remarks on this, especially the focus on what Jack had or hadn’t done with Fourteen in play. Literally every NPC (who has a stance on the issue at all) responds to Fourteen with undisguised horror at their memory dysfunction---the most sympathetic version of this is a lecture about integrating assistive technology into their daily routine! and the least sympathetic is the point-blank statement that Fourteen not remembering who they’ve killed is worse than killing those people in the first place. Like, what the hell? That’s a vision of morality that is entirely premised on repentance, and on the idea that expiation for a crime only comes with appropriate helpings of guilt. And it never really receives an in-universe challenge.

It was also weird to me that Grand didn’t come up at all in that part of the discussion. But then again it seemed like no one wanted to comment seriously on Grand’s arc in general; maybe Art was making really sad faces on the call or something. It’s a shame though, since you’d think it would be a good opportunity to go on some bullshit about “salvation NOT through good works,” or rather, salvation definitely through good works but everyone feels a little weird about it. Three bombs? Three bombs?

Finally, it is important that I dissect all remarks on shipping. I was a little perturbed by the discussion of Fourteen/Tender; I thought Ali’s IC reasons were perfectly valid but I found Jack’s slightly suspect, because I don’t think, uh, “this person flirts all the time but is too busy dying to pursue new romantic projects” really jives---either with Fourteen’s profound, active engagement with others (more active and deeper engagement the longer the season went on) or with Jack’s stated goal of presenting a dying person who, without being embroiled in regret or bitterness in the face of death, still loves their life. Obviously I don’t think romantic relationships are a requirement for that, but the blanket statement that Fourteen is Not That Person gave me trouble. Also, I just don’t think you can drop the “platonic relationship representation is so important” line in there without a LOT more unpacking of the pros and cons of that---who are the characters involved in that relationship, and are they people for whom nonsexual relationships are a top-of-the-line representation deficit? Also, is nonsexual vs sexual really the paradigm you want to cleave to here, in a discussion of the chemistry between an internet goddess and a hunk of data?

I’m a hypocrite though bc when they got to echogrand and went on about how it was important that Echo’s arc not center on romance I was like RIGHT ON

...

Okay. One more thing. Janine shooting down Signet/Blueberry; I was fond of this, though I obviously do not care about her opinion and will continue to do what I want---I don’t like “parental” as the trajectory for a dynamic whose foundational moment is the younger weaker party saving the older, that doesn’t do it for me. Of course children can save their parents, but they shouldn’t have to, and that certainly shouldn’t be the pattern that defines the relationship. And for Signet and Blueberry I think it really is; Signet offers Blueberry apologies, Blueberry offers Signet things Signet actually needs. That’s not parental. Nevertheless, I was fond bc it made me think about what a wealth of fun mentorship dynamics this season offered otherwise---with Tender and Morning’s Observation, and Fourteen and Sho, there are these really precious internal movements, or moments of slippage, from distrust to empathy and from faith to disillusionment, that I treasured as real, organic, slippery pieces of character writing and of writing about growth... My favorite example of this is when Morning’s Observation is FURIOUS with Tender after the fucking... rooftop debacle early on in the Wind’s Poem arc. And then again, more seriously, later, after he’s been essentially abandoned and has to save the day by drawing on parts of himself he wanted to give up. That feels like a moment of roleswap between “guardian” and “child” that is presented as appropriately bittersweet, pivotal, and rupturing, and which therefore preserves the logic of the original relationship even as it expands it. And I also love Grand’s awkward interference there, haha... esp in the context of Grand managing to disappoint Morning separately later on, when by that point it’s lost most of its oomph just because Morning has learned not to have expectations of these fucking geniuses. Which is its own mixed result.

(I wish there had been a bit more followup with Morning in the finale, actually, I don’t think he really got resolution on some stuff and I think “happy at the Brink with his moms” is more avoidant copout than anything, though not implausible or unreasonable avoidance from a character perspective. But like, the fucking... part in the Feast of Patina where it becomes increasingly apparent, throughout Morning’s glad monologue, that he did, in fact, do many of the same things as Grand? He betrayed former allies for an enemy faction in the name of convenience! That’s not all Grand did, but it’s not nothing. And everyone has to fall back on “but the Advent Group are fascists! Morning didn’t turn coat and join fascists!” when it’s like, well, would he have, if they had offered him spaghetti?

Not that I think Morning’s and Grand’s choices are remotely equivalent. But it was a very funny parallel for them to try to wriggle out of on the fly, and I wish they hadn’t---I wish they’d leaned into Morning’s lingering doubts, which would if anything have served to highlight that he does have good reason to stay. It’s just that those reasons don’t cancel out the doubts.)

[transfemmbeatrice]

Where should I start listening to Friends at the Table?

A short novella by me

Friends at the Table is one of the best actual play podcasts out there and you should listen to it because they tell amazing stories with both diverse characters and a diverse cast (the GM is a queer black man and almost everyone at the table is some flavor of queer). They put character development and good storytelling at the forefront while creating incredible and complex worlds to play in. They make you laugh, cry, and laugh so hard you cry (and also give you chills on occasion) and I genuinely cannot recommend them highly enough. Whether you like a good story, characters to fall in love with, learning new ttrpg mechanics, or listening to friends have a good time together, FatT is for you.

FatT also has an enormous backlog that can make it hard to dive in so here is a handy guide for when you want to listen don’t know where tf to begin.

The Friends have provided some resources for this: there is a flowchart that gives you the quick and dirty deets (though it hasn’t been updated to reflect their current season) and also Austin made a 20 minute ep of him explaining the show and stuff and put it at the beginning of the podcast feed which could also be helpful (which I haven’t actually listened to bc they put it out after I was already deep into the show)...but this is my over detailed take.

There are currently 4 seasons of FatT. In order: Autumn in Hieron, Counter/Weight, Marielda/Winter in Hieron, and Twilight Mirage. Marielda is a mini season that takes place in the Hieron universe but before the Hieron seasons; Counterweight and Twilight Mirage are both standalone but do take place in the same universe, tens or hundreds of thousands of years apart. 

Twilight Mirage is approaching its endpoint and will be followed by Spring in Hieron which should be the last Hieron season. There are pros and cons for starting with any of these seasons so depending on your taste and preferences you can take your pick!

(Also, each new season begins with an Episode 00 which is just the friends discussing the setting and pitching characters. It’s not required listening and they’re pretty long so you can skip them if you want but for people like me who live for worldbuilding and behind the scenes, they’re great prefaces to each season!)

Autumn in Hieron: The very beginning! This is where I started because I’m a hardcore chronological completionist. There is definitely something very fun and satisfying about watching them develop over the past 4 years, in confidence and skill and in production quality! They’ve been amazing since the beginning but it only gets better. 

However, because it’s early, the audio quality is not great, so if that’s an issue for you, this probably isn’t your best starting point. Some extremely good shit goes down in this game and I highly recommend listening to it if you can parse the bad audio. Also, starting at episode 5, they split into two smaller groups and the audio improves, so if you want to start here but find the sound unbearable at the start, you can try skipping to here to see if it works better for you! The first few episodes are just a mini quest and it’s definitely fun but not deeply plot relevant so you’ll be fine to skip it. This is also a season potentially worth returning to even if you don’t start here because as I said, it’s good, and the bad audio might be more listenable once you know the players’ voices better. But if you absolutely can’t, no worries! They recap this season at the beginning of Winter in Hieron so if you don’t listen to it you won’t be lost as the story continues!

Hieron is a high fantasy setting in what Austin describes as the post-post-apocalypse. It’s been long enough that they’re past just surviving and have rebuilt tons but it’s still a wild world out there, and no one alive really remembers what apocalyptic event happened, but they all know something bad went down. Over the two (and a half, counting Marielda) seasons they’ve done they have really built out the world. It explores a lot about the concepts of divinity and entropy and so much more. I think Hieron is a great place to start because fantasy is the usual setting for actual play podcasts so it’s a familiar touchstone. And also just, really fucking good.

Counter/Weight: Welcome to SPACE. The second season of FatT is a good starting point because it’s self contained--it’s longer than the Hieron seasons but when you reach the finale, you’ve gotten the whole story. It starts off a little slow as they adjust to a new system and new characters for the first time...but there are some hilarious bits in those first couple of missions that I love. Then they switch systems again to something that fits more what they are doing and things pick up from there. 

The “ground” game (the majority of the episodes with characters going on adventures as usual) is interspersed with the “faction” game--Austin and two other players not in the other half of the game zoom out and use mechanics and roleplaying to decide what the big factions/corporations/etc are doing around the sector, and eventually we see these events trickle down to effect the player characters in the other half of the game. These are a bit slow, especially when they first start, but I recommend listening to them because it’s cool to see how things are moving around on a more macro scale than one little crew of fixers, and it really informs the world they’re operating in. It’s not strictly necessary if you really find these episodes untenable, but you’ll definitely be able to follow along better if you’ve heard them. Also, around the 3rd or so faction game session, they cut down the number of factions significantly so it goes a lot smoother. I’ll also put in here that Counterweight is probably my favorite season of the show at least thus far even though I wasn’t sure I would like it at all when I first started it, for what that’s worth.

Counter/Weight is a cyberpunk/scifi setting somewhere in the Milky Way. It is set less than a decade after a war in which two rival powers united in an uneasy alliance to drive back an Empire. They succeeded, but now things have settled into a good old fashioned cold war. There are lots of robots and mechs and they use the cyberpunk genre to explore labor and capitalism and feeling small and helpless in the face of such massive, powerful corruption. Or, sadness and robots in space. (Also, literally none of the PCs ended up being cishet.)

Marielda: Marielda is a mini season they did right before Winter in Hieron. Set in Hieron before the events of the other seasons, it provides some context to the world. It’s also fucking delightful. This is probably the most recommended starting point for FatT because it’s short, has high production quality, and some of their best work. It really encapsulates what this show is so if you’re unsure if this is the podcast for you, this is a great starting point. 

Since it takes place long before Autumn in Hieron, you don’t need to have listened to it to follow along; but I do find it somewhat helpful because there are callbacks to the events of that season as they show how some of the things they encountered then came to be in the first place. Marielda (and Winter in Hieron) were made with new listeners in mind, so Autumn definitely isn’t required.

Marielda is of course also high fantasy, but it has a tinge of steampunk too because this island has more technology for....reasons that will be revealed as you listen. The only train in Hieron is there, and the crew stages a heist on it, and it’s amazing. Marielda has two parts--the first couple episodes are some of the players playing The Quiet Year, a collaborative mapdrawing game, to build this city. Then the other players played a few missions in Blades in the Dark as scoundrels who steal information to sell to the highest bidder. Their shenanigans are hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking and I’ve relistened to it so many times.

Winter in Hieron: Hieron season two of three! Winter begins with two episodes recapping the events of Autumn in Hieron, so if you skipped Autumn you can listen to them and be good to go, and if you didn’t...you can skip the recaps! (Unless maybe you listened to Counterweight in between and you need a refresher). There are two new PCs in Winter because Andi and Janine joined between Autumn and this season, and they only make Hieron better.

This season is a little heavier than Autumn because it’s Winter and...Winter is usually darker than Autumn. I’m in the middle of relistening to it now, though, and it’s still incredible the second time through and a great starting point. I would not recommend starting with Winter without listening to Marielda first, partly because Marielda is so good, but also because Marielda informs so much of what happens in Winter. 

Since Twilight Mirage is getting close to finishing up (as of writing this, anyway) if being Current In The Fandom is something that’s important to you, I’d start with Hieron (whether that be Autumn or Marielda/Winter). After Twilight Mirage wraps up, they are reportedly planning to return to Hieron for its final season--Spring, so if you start catching up now you can be ready! I don’t know for sure yet but so much has happened at this point that I find it hard to imagine that they’ll do a recap before Spring that lets you jump in there very easily. I could be proven wrong but even if I am....I don’t recommend it. You’ll miss too much Seasons of Hieron is a joy to listen to.

Twilight Mirage: The current season! Usually I say to start here if you find the backlog intimidating--it’s current and you can jump in to what’s happening now and get to the rest when you feel ready. And that’s still somewhat true, but Twilight Mirage has gotten pretty long so it’s potentially still intimidating? And they have said they’re nearing the endgame, but I have no idea if that means weeks or months. But regardless, it’s still less to get through than starting further back, and it is a standalone season so it’s a great starting place!

Twilight Mirage is another game in space. It is set in the same universe as Counterweight, and there are some callbacks to it, but it’s set far in the future from the events of that season and was intentionally made so that people who hadn’t heard Counterweight could listen fine. It’s more like easter eggs than important backstory.

The premise is a dying utopia: a massive fleet that has slowly been whittled down, still home to millions of people, but they’re starting to look for somewhere to hopefully colonize. This game does a great job of questioning what a utopia would look like--what does prison look like in a utopia? how do we treat synthetic beings?--and exploring the themes of self/identity and colonization and so much more. It’s the most philosophical FatT season to date but the narrative is also great and stands on its own--you can engage at whatever level you want. (I, for instance, don’t get a lot of the philosophy referenced, but I’m still deeply enjoying it because it’s a great story and I love all the characters!) So much shit happens to alter the original premise and it’s fascinating to see the characters have to adapt to all these evolving circumstances and question their values as they themselves also change. Also, lots of robots and mechs and aliens and shit. One of the PCs is just a cat person. One of the PCs is a downloadable hitman who is losing their memory every time they die and get downloaded into a new body. It’s A Good Season, they friends are extra af (more than usual, even) and it’s a Delight.

And that’s my answer to the age old question, where do I start listening to Friends at the Table?, answered in more detail than anyone ever wanted. If you have any questions or anything feel free to shoot me an ask or a message, I’m literally always here to talk about FatT!

[bigskydreaming]

I will always prefer the Titans (literally any of their lineups, though my faves will always be the first gen Titans, and by that I mean everyone from the original five down through Red Star, Jesse Quick and the like) over the Justice League.

And so like, I’m really big on family vibes in my comic books of choice, so on the one hand I do like and am interested in the fact that over the past fifteen years, DC has given pretty much every one of the major Justice League heroes kids and marriages and families of their own, when previously, they were kept for decades as fairly solitary figures with supporting casts that included love interests but refused to ever let their heroes like...actually commit to any of those love interests in definitive, inarguable ways. (The major exception of course being Batman and his perpetual motion adoption machine, because he lives to screw the curve in any given context, and Hal because he sucks and who would marry him or reproduce with him ever, eww, why. Bring back Kyle 2kforever).

BUT.

On the other hand.

I’m SUPER eternally cranky (and also side-eyeing DC) about the fact that ALSO over the same period of the last fifteen years......DC has systematically killed off or erased every single one of the Titans’ kids, when like, the entire POINT of the Titans and what made them different from the Justice League is that they were more of a family than a superteam, and due to buttressing each other’s emotional growth in ways their emotionally constipated mentors were incapable of, a sizable number of the core Titans had settled down and gotten married and had kids like.....way back while their mentors were still trying to figure out how dating apps worked or whatever.

They killed Roy’s daughter.

They killed Garth’s wife and son.

They erased Wally’s wife and twin children.

They killed Donna’s son and ex-husband (though to be fair, this happened outside of that fifteen year time frame I referenced for everything else, but like, whatever, I’m still mad, Bobby was adorable, you suck DC).

They divorced Mal and Karen before they rebooted continuity with the New 52, FINALLY brought them back in Rebirth, had them married again and had Karen give birth to a daughter....and then promptly wrote them out of any active books and haven’t referenced them in the several years since they did that.

They killed Pantha and Baby Wildebeest, who aside from being Titans in their own right, were Leonid’s long time girlfriend-basically-married-in-all-but-name and basically-adopted kid.

And don’t even get me STARTED on all the shit they did to Grant, who before Geoff Johns decided ‘hey, I’m gonna move him over to the JSA and make him my new favorite torture doll to play with’ was practically Roy’s foster son in all but name.**

And then of course, every few years they teased Dick and Kory getting back together for an arc or two, waved references to their future daughter Ma’ri from the Kingdom Come universe like oh hey remember her (while also bringing over like, every other kid from the KC continuity, like, they made Offspring a thing, they introduced Damian who let’s be real, is basically Ibn, and etc. Like every one of that generation from KC has been introduced into main DC continuity at some point now EXCEPT for Ma’ri. They even introduced freaking MAGOG in the JSA book and used him for like, years. Wtf. MAGOG. Srsly). Because of course, each time they bring Dick and Kory back together they then turn right back around and make a point of writing how psych! Dick and Kory will never ever actually be a COUPLE again, they just sleep together occasionally, because lol right, like they were ever capable of putting their emotions aside and just doing a friends with benefits thing. Its DICK. And KORY. The two most emotional freaking people in the entire DC universe. Kory’s powers are literally FUELED by her emotions, specifically her positive emotions. Dick and Kory are not CAPABLE of dialing down their emotions around each other, that was always their PROBLEM in the first place. But I mean, whatever. 

But yeah. So.

I just find it funny that Clark now has a kid and Bruce has three more kids and Arthur and Mera are having baby Artur again now for what, the fourth time? Seriously, that kid has been born four times, in like four different consecutive continuities. You know, if you guys would quit rebooting shit every five years, one of these times he MIGHT even make it to kindergarten before you regress him back to zygote stage and start that cycle all over again.

But meanwhile, in that exact same time period, DC managed (and felt it necessary) to either kill off, erase or write out the Titans’ EIGHT already existing kids and kill off, erase or write out FOUR of their already existing spouses.

Everything they’ve spent the last two decades building up the Justice League, their ‘main’ heroes to have, the Titans had ALREADY HAD since like, literally back in the 80s. Lian, Baby Wildebeest and Bobby were all born/created back in the 80s, Wally and Linda’s twins and Cerdian were created/born in the 90s, like most of these kids were around for twenty fucking years.

Ugh. Its so regressive and just...bad writing, bad creative decisions, and the more I think about why I have so much trouble getting back into any DC comics other than a couple of Batfamily titles, the more I trace it all back to the complete wipeout of like, the original Titans’ almost entire extended family. Because the Titans, as a unit, were practically a primary family group unto themselves, with their own individual extended families being like, secondary entities at times, by comparison.

And DC just....killed them all off, wiped out an entire generation of children of like, the only group of heroes’ that have ever managed to functionally have and maintain strong family units outside of the ones they originated with.

Whose idea was that? And why?

Its so dumb.

Ugh.

** And you REALLY don’t want to get me started on Kyle and Saarko and how I feel about THAT whole fucking shitstorm of a story. Hey who was it who thought that after everything else you’ve done to Kyle’s character, he really needed you to give him a kid who came back from the future intent on destroying everything and force Kyle to kill him to save the universe and only find out AFTER he did that that the guy he just killed was his future son, who now would never be born because two issues later you decided to have his girlfriend aka mother of his future son find out, blame Kyle, and freaking BRAND him while vowing unholy vengeance upon him and every other Green Lantern for what he’d unknowingly done? Like, seriously. Who came up with that story? I just wanna talk!

****Also, I know that Mirage has a daughter too, but on this blog, we don’t acknowledge Mirage as a Titan, or like, literally anything to do with her, because she’s a rapist and rapists can’t be Titans, its the law.