#annika kosolov

[graythursday]

carla hissing to selina, “jesus christ, keep your voice down. what do you got a death wish?!” is so scary. selina’s mom worked 44 below and was killed. annika met the same fate— who knows how many girls have. carla probably knows girls who turned up dead or went missing, selina too. but she gets caught up in the moment frantically trying to find her friend, desperate to make sure she doesn’t meet the same fate her mother did, and she speaks a little too loudly. when oz and falcone approach the two of them their cadence immediately shifts. selina gets visibly smaller, almost shrinking down when she sees falcone. it makes my skin crawl!!!. that man got what he deserved in the end. thx eddie 😄🫰

[butcherlarry]

Weekly Fic Recs 65

I've been hesitant to do this, but I'm going to start tagging authors (and artists!) who I rec in these lists, if they are on Tumblr (and if I can find their blog and know for certain it's them). If I tag you and you do not want to be tagged for future reference, please let me know! If you see your fic on the list and notice you are not tagged properly, again, please let me know! I really enjoy the fics and the art inspired by the fics (and vice versa!), so I figured this is to let authors and artists know that I really enjoy the stories and art they create, and to let others know where they can go to support them!

More Than I Bargained For by Run_of_the_mill - Superbat, complete. An AU where Bruce and Kal travel the universe with their adopted alien son, Dick :)

Preening for Flight by Elegitre @elegitre - Batfam, complete. I LOVE wingfics, so I was SO EXCITED to see this one! Tim needs to preen his wings, Bruce is there to help

tiger by the tail by pomeloquat @pomeloquat - Superbat, complete. I think I've recced this fic before, but I saw @sreppub excellent art of Bruce with cat ears, so that inspired me to read this fic again!

you fall from the sky with several flowers by starshotplagues - Superbat, collection of small stories. Some short Superbat stories! The last one has Bruce with cat ears again, I think I have a theme going on...

Hey look, friend's material by Speechless_since_1998 @mylifeisfruk4ever - Batfam, complete. Young Tim makes a friend. He found him hiding in his house. Bruce has some questions, like "why is this new friend hiding in Tim's house" and "why is he a clone of Superman?"

The Day the Cough Took Over by Elegitre - Batfam, complete. Tim gets sick, Bruce is there to help. Tim is confused (but pleased) about this :)

Patchwork Pod by KtKat9 @ktkat99 - Superbat & Batfam, wip. More of the mer Bruce fic! Jason finds out about his parentage and Cass has some questions about how human Clark came to be a parent to all these mer children

a face full or rain by HuntedPrincess @huntedprincess - Superbat, wip. An AU of The Batman movie. Investigative journalist Clark Kent and Detective Kurt Malone (aka Bruce) are looking into the disappearance of Annika Kosolov.

unexpected scoops by sky_of_starflowers - Superbat, complete. Clark finds an injured Harley Quinn sitting on his couch in his apartment. It's ok though! Batman said she could crash there. Shenanigans ensue.

buy back the secrets by sundiscus @vinelark - Timkon, wip. A 5+1 fic where Superboy rescues Tim, and Tim rescues Superboy one time. I love the identity shenanigans (Tim knows who Superboy is but Kon doesn't know Tim is Robin), Kon inadvertently helping the batfam with their family issues (FAKE UNCLE?? REALLY TIM??), and Tim interacting with his siblings (drunk Tim getting a ride from Red Hood was GREAT). I started reading this fic and fell behind on the updates, but @januariat 's AMAZING ART helped me to catch up again! There is also a lot of other excellent art created by other talented artist linked at the bottom of each chapter, so be sure to check those out too!!!

Happy reading!

[voidsuites]

I know you gave context in your post but I’m dumb and haven’t seen Robert Pattinson’s Batman so can I have some more context for the Bruce and Selina bot 😓

no you’re okay! no worries :)

in the batman (2022) bruce is investigating the riddler who’s slowly been exposing different parts of gotham’s local gov/police department/etc. for being corrupt and working with its criminal underbelly behind closed doors to get rich, and the riddler has bruce/batman on a goose-chase of sorts throughout the entire movie.

user is supposed to be annika kosolov in this bot— a waitress/waitstaff that works/lives alongside selina at the iceberg lounge who was involved with one of the riddler’s targets, mayor don mitchell jr. when the riddler kills the mayor at the beginning of the movie, photos of him and annika are leaked to the public to tarnish his image. members of gotham’s criminal underbelly— specifically carmine falcone— then go after annika because they’re concerned she knows too much about their plans and don’t want any loose ends. annika dies in the movie but user obvi doesn’t.

for the bot itself, selina enlists bruce’s help to get user back to her + user’s apartment after they’d been kidnapped. selina’s concerned about user’s well-being since they’d been missing for days, and bruce wants any intel that user might have on falcone/his plans/etc.

if u need me to elaborate more then just lmk! hopefully this helps— i’d probably just read a synopsis of the movie’s plot to kind of help u get the basic deets but hopefully i helped a lil :)

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

monstrum

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZMFdTVl by aristorias To be a girl is to be a monster. One does not exist without the other. Clawing her way out of the womb and into the wretched world, Corinne Delisle was taught to be a monster. To be manipulative but genuine, tempting but pure, special but average. And with the neverending expectations pulling apart the sinews and the tissue that bound her together as one, she needed nothing less than the lucid memories of her morose past to her haunt her in the shape of the one person who could have sown her back together and made her a little less monstrous and vile. But no matter how desperately hopeful she felt when those blue eyes looked at her with reminiscence and maybe even fondness, there was intent in her reckless actions and not even her beloved past could stop her from fighting her to the truth that she so desperately needed in order to move on. Longing she felt, but Corinne needed the truth more than she needed him. She needed it more than she needed Bruce Wayne. Words: 2360, Chapters: 1/80, Language: English Fandoms: The Batman (Movie 2022) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Annika Kosolov, Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Jim Gordon (DCU), Edward Nygma, Officer Martinez (The Batman Movie 2022), Joker (DCU), Harleen Quinzel, Carla Falcone, Don Mitchell Jr., Gil Colson, Pete Savage, Bella Reál Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Wayne & Original Character(s) Additional Tags: Batman Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Organized Crime, Slow Romance, Slow Build, Slow To Update, Blood and Violence, Psychological Torture, Childhood Trauma, Near Death Experiences, Abusive Parents, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Out of Character Carmine Falcone, Drama & Romance, Eventual Smut, Batmobile (DCU), Batcave (DCU), Mentioned Joker (DCU), Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mentioned Harleen Quinzel, Edward Nygma is the Riddler, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Protective Bruce Wayne, Childhood Friends, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Violent Thoughts, Non-Graphic Smut, Mild Smut, Bruce Wayne is a recluse and NOT a playboy, Hate the playboy version, Sad little Brucey, Bruce Needs a Hug read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZMFdTVl

[ao3feed-harleyquinn]

monstrum

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/eqHsQc9 by aristorias To be a girl is to be a monster. One does not exist without the other. Clawing her way out of the womb and into the wretched world, Corinne Delisle was taught to be a monster. To be manipulative but genuine, tempting but pure, special but average. And with the neverending expectations pulling apart the sinews and the tissue that bound her together as one, she needed nothing less than the lucid memories of her morose past to her haunt her in the shape of the one person who could have sown her back together and made her a little less monstrous and vile. But no matter how desperately hopeful she felt when those blue eyes looked at her with reminiscence and maybe even fondness, there was intent in her reckless actions and not even her beloved past could stop her from fighting her to the truth that she so desperately needed in order to move on. Longing she felt, but Corinne needed the truth more than she needed him. She needed it more than she needed Bruce Wayne. Words: 2360, Chapters: 1/80, Language: English Fandoms: The Batman (Movie 2022) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Annika Kosolov, Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Jim Gordon (DCU), Edward Nygma, Officer Martinez (The Batman Movie 2022), Joker (DCU), Harleen Quinzel, Carla Falcone, Don Mitchell Jr., Gil Colson, Pete Savage, Bella Reál Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Wayne & Original Character(s) Additional Tags: Batman Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Organized Crime, Slow Romance, Slow Build, Slow To Update, Blood and Violence, Psychological Torture, Childhood Trauma, Near Death Experiences, Abusive Parents, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Out of Character Carmine Falcone, Drama & Romance, Eventual Smut, Batmobile (DCU), Batcave (DCU), Mentioned Joker (DCU), Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mentioned Harleen Quinzel, Edward Nygma is the Riddler, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Protective Bruce Wayne, Childhood Friends, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Violent Thoughts, Non-Graphic Smut, Mild Smut, Bruce Wayne is a recluse and NOT a playboy, Hate the playboy version, Sad little Brucey, Bruce Needs a Hug read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/eqHsQc9

[litcityblues]

'The Batman' --A Review

I watched this on a whim, really. It's not that I dislike Batman, it's just that after umpteen movies and reboots and relaunches and everything else, I couldn't possibly imagine what yet another Batman movie would have to offer me that's actually new.

I was quite happy to be proven wrong.

It's not often talked about, but you see it lurking on the covers of old-school Batman comics. "The World's Greatest Detective" it proclaims and after seven movies (I'm going from 1989 on- I know there were a few before that in various forms) at no point has anyone actually leaned into that concept in a hardcore way- until now.

Yes, The Batman is pretty much all about Batman (Robert Pattinson) getting his Detective skills on and trying to find out who murdered the Mayor of Gotham City, Don Mitchell Jr. (Rupert Percy-Jones) A previously unknown villain, calling himself The Riddler (Paul Dano) takes responsibility for the murder and, after Lt. James Gordan (Jeffrey Wright) summons Batman to the scene, it's revealed that The Riddler has left him a message. The next night, The Riddler strikes again, killing Commissioner Pete Savage (Alex Ferns) and leaving Batman another message.

Working with Gordan and Alfred (Andy Serkis) Batman begins to unravel the mystery The Riddler is providing- leading them to a trove of pictures of the former mayor in the company of a woman, Annika Kosolov (Hanna Hrzic) at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub run by Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) one of Mob Boss Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) Lieutenants. Her roommate, Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) also wants to know what happened to her, as she's missing.

The ring of corruption deepens, as Batman and Company discover that Savage was on Falcone's payroll as well as District Attorney Gil Colson- who is next to be kidnapped and sent to interrupt the funeral of the former mayor, Mitchell. The Riddler calls Colson's phone and threatens to detonate the bomb around his neck unless he can answer three riddles. Colson refuses to give up the name of the informant who took down former Mob boss Salvatore Maroni and is killed. Batman and Gordon initially think that the informant is the Penguin, but what they find- along with Annika's corpse is that Moroni's operation merely transferred to Falcone's control along with many corrupt Gotham City Officers helping out along the way.

Batman's past (because it can't be a Batman movie without talking about Batman's past) comes into view. Alfred is almost taken out by a letter bomb addressed to Bruce and The Riddler leaks evidence that Thomas Wayne hired Falcone to kill a journalist while he was running for Mayor- as revelations about Martha's family history of mental illness were about to be revealed. Alfred insists that Thomas only wanted the journalist silenced, not killed, and was going to turn himself in to the police and is convinced Falcone killed them both to keep them quiet.

The pieces come together quickly after that-- The Riddler strikes one final time before being unmasked and arrested, where he taunts Batman with the revelation of his final plan: the destruction of Gotham's sea wall and an attempt to kill the new Mayor-- Batman prevents one, but can only aid in the recovery efforts of the flood- but doing so, finds new purpose- to inspire hope in Gotham City.

Overall: Best Batman movie I've seen in years. I wasn't sure how I felt about Pattinson in the role as he seemed very emo in the previews, but he channels a ludicrous amount of intensity into it. This is a young Batman, just starting out on his superhero journey and he's learning and making mistakes and all of that is just refreshing as hell. The cast is excellent - Andy Serkis brings a new take to Alfred Pennyworth that works really, really well- I love it. Jeffrey Wright works perfectly as Lt. Gordon. Colin Farrell is incredible and absolutely unrecognizable as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin. But the best part about this movie is that it's shot and feels like a thriller and not a superhero movie. You could absolutely put this up against any number of thrillers and it would hold its own. A movie that is not weighed down by the superhero of it all and doesn't trip over its own cape? Now that's worth watching. My Grade: **** out of ****

[punkpterodactyl]

smth I’ve been working on…

Face to Face

Selina has known rage for a long time, kept it close, letting Gotham feed it like a pet. Even when she’s holding Annika late in the night when the homesickness and tightening vice of the 44 Below – the expectations of working at the 44 Below – squeezing ever tighter causes her to shatter, the rage is there. When Annika comes home with bruises Selina has to curl her nails into her palms, only stopping when the red crescents fill with blood. It’s only the sting that pulls her away from her thoughts of brute forcing her way into getting what Annika needs.

Sometime she hates the indirect approach, but its how she’s always functioned. Everyone takes, she’s just better at it. So – after weeks of deliberation and research – she finds herself on the roof of the mayor’s mansion staring through the glass into the office. Annika told her where she would find her passport, it won’t be easy but it won’t be hard. She’s always stolen what she needed to get by, barely scrapping together a life, she wasn’t going to let anyone take that from her. Annika was a part of that life.

She doesn’t hear him, he’s even quieter than she is she really didn’t think that was possible. The rage at being caught makes her fly straight into fight. He has no right to take this from her. He has no right to take this from Annika.

She attempts to vault off the walls in a kick, but she underestimates his speed and instead he catches her. She’s heard of him, she thinks as he towers over, holding her wrists as he presses her into the table. She squirms under him trying to break from his grasp, but its not that he’s stronger, it’s that he has the upper hand. This is the boogeyman, the boogeyman is staring her right in the face. The boogeyman is taking Annika’s passport from her hands.

That same urge to fight rears its rageful head as he walks away studying the passport.

“Hey! Give me that,” she says hitting in on the shoulder, he doesn’t even register it.

“Kosolov, Annika,” he rasps, “her hurt her? That’s why you killed him?”

“What?” she acts as if she hasn’t thought of doing that exact thing, “oh, please. Just give me the goddamn-“

Then suddenly he grabs her and pulls himself against the wall. If wasn’t wearing gloves she would sink her teeth into the flesh of his palm, she wanted to bite enough to tear. Damned gloves. He shushes her soothingly like she’s a child and that makes her angrier until she hears the guard. She can barely breathe through her mask and his thick gloves and it makes her woozy. As soon as the guard leaves, she pulls away and he lets her go.

“Listen, honey, you got the wrong idea, okay?” She leans against the table feeling defiant, “I didn’t kill anybody, I’m here for my friend. She’s trying to get the hell out of here and this son of bitch stole her passport.”

“What does she know?”

“Whatever it is, it’s got her so spooked she won’t even tell me.”

“She did seem upset,” he pauses momentarily and she realizes before he says it, “Back at your place.”

She wants to kick him in the mouth, if only because it’s the only spot that’s not covered in armor. The complete invasion of any privacy she has ever been allowed in this world has been taken by this asshole in this stupid fucking suit. She would have preferred if he would have just questioned her at the club or outside. Not following her home. She chooses to scowl at him as he says that their going to go talk to Annika. 

At some point between their ride to her apartment she remembers that he followed her home before following her to the mansion.  She doesn’t know how to feel about that, so she revs her bike and weaves further into traffic, testing him. He knows the way he’ll still find her.

When they arrive at the apartment, fear and dread coil closely around her heart and squeeze so tight at the sight of the open door. She can barely breathe. She hates to be feeling this in front of him, it’s just another invasion of privacy. A little door that she’s only opened for Annika. Never for the people that she let in her arms and bed except Annika.

She calls for her as the news blares on the tv. She completely forgets about the boogeyman.

It takes a moment for her to remember him as still as he is in front of her tv. She’s only looking for her phone where she was sure she left it. She always left it behind, never took it because it was a digital footprint and she didn’t any trace of what she did.

The new masked asshole on the tv has killed another privileged asshole cop. But then they air the video before the rats and her skin itches and she shuffles as she watches.

She doesn’t know why she offers the 44 Below. A part of her is hopeful that he exacts the type of violence that he did just in the entrance of the Iceberg. Her father could do with a heavy punch in the face.

She also doesn’t know why she says that thing about the strays. Or why she chooses to really look at him in that moment. But he might help her find Annika if she helps him with what he needs. But he gives her a subtle once over, for a moment the stark contrast of his eyes disappears and its just black and she can appreciate the dedication to cover every inch of that stretch of skin. She notices something oddly soft about the way he looked her over. Not in the normal way she was used to being visually appraised. He didn’t linger anywhere, didn’t move closer, just looked at her.

Then she’s alone.   

Sunspots

When Bruce meets Selina later it is raining, he has watched footage of her in the moments that he has to spare with the threat looming. He has to watch footage of her, it’s for research. But another part recognizes this part of himself. Bruce had dated a little throughout college. Often falling head first at lightening speed too quickly too fast. Too wrong. He had long since given up on anything that might expose him like that since he had become Vengeance. And Selina was distracting, she was pretty that wasn’t a question, but he had been surprised to learn how much more she was.

Like for example, even now when she was preparing to be his eyes and ears she was angry that she was doing that. She would be vulnerable, he would be there but there was no feasible way that he could come up with that he could get to her in time should something happen. But like she said, she could take care of herself and so far she had done an exceptional job of it. Watching subtle movements and expressions and even the way she fought, Bruce knew that she could more than take care of herself.

Then she accuses him of not caring. And he moves to tower over her, which would feel powerful and right if it wasn’t her, he thinks.

“Look at me,” he keeps his voice soft.

And she does, she actually looks him in the eyes like earlier in her apartment and a part of him panics, but he looks deeper, leaning in closer, “Looks good, here.”

He notices her face shift slightly as she takes the ear buds.

Listening to her voice is soothing, even though she is angry with him. He cannot figure out what it is exactly that he did to make her angry, but he’s observed others enough to recognize anger. He wants desperately to close his eyes and let her voice wrap around him, but he cannot close his eyes as he catalogs every face that the contact scans. He has a mission.

Colson is a good thread to follow, but she drops it and follows her own thread and a part of him is very angry. He needed her to be his eyes, but she is looking anywhere but where he would.

Then there was Falcone. Falcone represented the rot that Bruce was trying to weed out of Gotham root and stem. Seeing Falcone made Bruce angrier then Falcone talked to Selina. He talked to Selina like they knew each other. Intimately. His face was the only face that Bruce could see in her contact and he wanted to put his fist through the screen, but he didn’t. Then he had to question her about Falcone and that made her even angrier.

She stares at him for a moment in the mirror of the women’s restroom, hands gripping the sink and she severs the connection between the two of them.

And Bruce is left alone.

Bruce is used to being alone, but when he gets back to the cave and peels off his suit in the early hours of the morning, he watches her at the sink over and over again. Even though she’s angry, so angry that he knows that he needs to leave her alone instead of rushing to her, he lets her voice wash over him like a calming wave. Her voice pulls him into sleep and Bruce sleeps for about an hour.

He rewatches the previous night in the morning, cataloging everything from the night before. When he gets to her in the mirror, he rewatches a few times. Just watches her, studying her anger. Alfred startles him when he comments on her almost as if he was doing something less innocuous than studying her.

Bruce hasn’t been to a funeral since his parents died. This one is different though, instead of the public display of mourning that surrounded his parents… this is surrounded by protests. Then he hears Oswald Cobblepot and he sees those black boots. And he wants to see her in that moment, he even forgets that she wouldn’t know who he is aside from Bruce Wayne, but he needs to know that she is okay. He needs to see her. When the woman turns and its not her, he feels conflicted; foolish, disappointed and relieved.

When he jumps off the roof of the GCPD she’s the first person that he thinks of telling. She’s the only person that he thinks of telling, not that he clipped the end of an overpass and a bus, hit a trash can and limped away, but that he survived jumping off a building. But he tucks that feeling away and chooses to ignore it.

He’s surprised to see her at the recycling plant and he’s relieved that she is okay and angry that she is here. He’s also excited, he hasn’t raced in a while.

Then Alfred is harmed and he doesn’t allow himself to think of her. He lets the mystery of the Riddler completely consume him. He has to solve this. He’s in the middle of reading some boring renewal file and she wants to talk to him. A part of him is relieved that she wants that and also scared that she wants that.

He is still angry about Falcone, angry that it had to be her that knew Falcone like that. And the rise of anger that he gets out of her causes him to fall into a wry smirk. She almost leaves and he grabs her arm, worried that she’ll leave and also wanting to know how exactly she knows Falcone. His possessive treacherous mind came up with ways.

Then she says he’s her father and he grapples with it for a moment. He wants to hold her, but doesn’t know if she would want that nor if he could get his body to follow through with the thought. But she approaches him and she touches him, gently and asks him to help her and he wants to help. Fuck, he would do anything she asks of him. But he has to do it right and he has to keep her safe and he’s telling her as much when she kisses him.

He hasn’t kissed anyone in three years. It could have been longer, he doesn’t really remember. He leans into it, he wants to deepen it to kiss until their both gasping for air, but she pulls away and he stays still, frozen.

Then she brings him Mitchell. Once he saw how many cats she had he made sure to learn everything he could and it felt like a cat bringing a dead mouse – except this mouse was kicking and screaming – to something that didn’t know how to hunt. She wanted him to help her, she wanted him to participate and this was the one thing he wouldn’t give her. Then she leaves for Falcone and all he can think about is Falcone’s hands around Annika’s neck. Except it’s Selina’s neck and that boiling anger in her eyes melts away and she turns limp and lifeless.

He came up with a plan to get into the 44 Below when he went there himself. He knew he had to cut the lights, but not all the power so he could operate the elevator still. He knew he had to be fast and brutal. He had to move quickly to get to her. He won’t let her be murdered by her father and he won’t let her kill herself by hurting her father.

“You don’t have to pay with him,” he says forcing her to face him, “you’ve paid enough.”

And she lets him, she lets him take the gun from her hands.

Then Falcone is dead and it clicks. It finally clicks.

History of Touches (where the canon slightly diverts)

When the sea walls crumble Selina thinks of Vengeance. He’s no longer the boogeyman, the boogeyman doesn’t taste like Vengeance does. Initially she is seeking shelter and then she sees him. She sees him, endlessly fighting. So she joins. He helped her, it’s only fair.

Then for the second time in as many days someone is squeezing the air from her. She wishes they would just point that big gun at her and just get the ordeal over with if they’re going to kill her.  Her vision blurs and she can hear Vengeance struggling somewhere near her feet. And suddenly the pressure is lifted and Vengeance is pummeling the man into the catwalk, she watches anticipating the moment he stops, he always stops. But he doesn’t. It takes Gordon and even then she sees the rage in him, the way he almost attacks Gordon next.

Then suddenly he throws himself at the feet of Gotham again and cuts the wire dangling precariously over the rushing waters. That’s when she realizes that she can never have him truly in the way that she wants him. They might physically fit together – something that she finds herself thinking about more and more often – but he will never truly be hers. She will always be second.

But she lets him find her when she’s leaving. She lets him find her at her mother’s grave and she almost lets him kiss her. She can tell that’s what he wants from the way he stares at her lips and the way that he tilts his head. She considers giving him what he wants, what she wants, but instead she asks him to come with her.

He declines and she resigns herself to leaving alone. She’s fine alone.

Only then, when she’s almost to Bludhaven, so far away from him that there’s no way he can know that she is crying. She cries.

Then she gets an apartment, an all cash deposit studio apartment because Bludhaven is expensive. And every one charges pet rent. She gets another job at another club. She also starts planning ways to supplement her income and she tries to forget about him.

It takes three fucking months to stop the occasional dream. In her dreams he comes to her and unmasks himself, in her dream he is always different. His features shift and change like sand.

One time in her dream she asks him to put the mask back on, knowing that the only time he’s solidly there is when he’s wearing it.

It takes three more months to stop the want, too. It was one fucking kiss and sometimes she will find herself daydreaming about it. He was soft when she wasn’t expecting him to be soft. It was likely the surprise, but when she thought about it more he felt soft. His figurative and sometimes literal armor encasing a vulnerable core. Sometimes, when she was bored, she daydreamed about finding the hidden connections keeping his breast plate on and running her fingers down his chest.

Jesus, she didn’t even know what he looked like expect for the lower half of his face. She needed to get her shit together.

It took her three more months to come back. She did so in a daze, telling herself that she wasn’t really coming back for him the whole while, then telling herself that she wasn’t really coming back at all. Then suddenly she was breaking her lease and renting a uhaul and this time properly moving the cats and making an appointment to look at an apartment in Gotham. She took the first one she found, not caring about the area or the size just that they didn’t have stupid fucking pet rent.

She deliberated on going out into the night again, it had been nine months, a lot can change in nine months. She wants to play the cat and mouse game that they had going on, but a part of her wants to make sure that he hasn’t completely sacrificed himself for this city yet. So she goes to the unfinished tower and she turns on the light.

She waits for hours, before giving up and going home. She’s sitting in front of her open window smoking a joint, blowing the air out onto the fire escape, petting a sleek black stray that she has yet to name when he emerges from the shadows. She stifles down a smile, angry that he hadn’t shown up earlier.

“You used the signal,” he states always so quiet always so concise.

“I missed you too, baby,” she says and takes another drag before realizing who she’s talking to, “don’t tell me you bought the DARE shit in middle school.”

“There’s bigger things than that,” he says and she moves from her seat by the window – really just a pile of blankets and pillows – and gives him space to come in through her window like a secret lover. She thinks about running her nails down his chest again. She stifles the thought when he’s in the fully in the room. He makes the space feel small.

And then he moves closer, she wasn’t expecting that. She’s been the one to invade his space, save his voyeur moment, never him. He tilts his head and studies her and she lets him. She lets his eyes roam over her still looking at her differently than she’s really been looked at before. There something in the way that he looks at her that scares her. It makes the rage in her want to pound it’s fists against his chest until he goes away. Until he gets the fuck away from her.

“Did you think about me?” she asks as he moves closer with the same fluidity that she’s seen him fight.

“A lot,” he says softly stopping in front of her and waiting for her to close the space and she does.

She closes that space and instead of last time where he awkwardly puts his hands on her waist, instead he pulls her to him tight and she wishes there wasn’t fucking armor in between them because she hasn’t felt closeness to anyone since Annika and she wants to feel skin on skin. Not in a sexual way entirely, but as comfort. She thinks about nights when she couldn’t sleep and her mother would rhythmically rub her back in slow circles while she laid belly down on her bed.

And this time he kisses her back, it feels like he’s been starving. She doesn’t let many people in so she knows how it is to starve for affection, to starve for touch, to starve for connection. They pull away to breathe and as soon as they catch their breath, he pulls her back in. She doesn’t know how long it is, but it feels like an eternity of kissing until they have to come up for air panting but never stopping for long.

She drags his bottom lip between her teeth and he lets out a soft groan, something that she almost missed until she does it again. His groan is louder this time and he pulls away.

“A little too much?” she asks and he steps back.

He looks at her for a minute before looking her in the eyes, his lips pulling up ever so slightly into a lopsided smirk, “yes.”

“Good,” she says and grabs her dying joint from the floor, she’s lucky they didn’t set fire to the carpet. The whole thing is wasted.

She moves away from the window to the fridge opens it and then looks at him over the door, “we could continue. See just how far we could go. I won’t even make you take the mask off.”

He looks away and clears his throat, “no.”

“No fun,” she says and closes the fridge, it’s empty anyway, she hasn’t bought any groceries yet since arriving.

“I can’t,” he starts and then looks directly at her, intense but calm, “It’s not that I don’t want to, Selina,” he says her name almost like a prayer, “I don’t want to like this.”

“Then how do you want to do this?” she asks, ever direct and to the point. She wants this and she’s become very good at getting what she wants.

“I don’t know,” he still continues to look at her.

“Can you tell me when you figure it out?” she asks hating the sound of it as soon as it leaves her mouth.

He nods.

[wlwgif]

Listen, baby, we’re gonna get the hell out of here, okay? I promise. If we have to leave earlier, we’ll leave tonight.

SELINA KYLE & ANNIKA KOSOLOV | The Batman (2022) dir. Matt Reeves

[cern1cal0]

Senses Loaded!

[la-rata-alada]

I find it funny that riddlebat haters tag their shit as riddlebat. Like haha my Riddler x Batman x Selina x Annika x Martinez headcanon go bRRr hahaha.

[graythursday]

photos on riddler's thumb drive

[imagine--if]

Am I the only one who wants these boots so bad?? I'll literally be dramatic as hell when I step out any vehicle 🤣🤣

[valkerymillenia]

How can some fuckboys still say Annika wasn't Selina's girlfriend?

They lived together with cats, she calls her baby, honey, Anni, and so on, AND they were making plans to run away together.

What, do you need an actual kiss to prove it?

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

monstrum

by aristorias To be a girl is to be a monster. One does not exist without the other. Clawing her way out of the womb and into the wretched world, Corinne Delisle was taught to be a monster. To be manipulative but genuine, tempting but pure, special but average. And with the neverending expectations pulling apart the sinews and the tissue that bound her together as one, she needed nothing less than the lucid memories of her morose past to her haunt her in the shape of the one person who could have sown her back together and made her a little less monstrous and vile. But no matter how desperately hopeful she felt when those blue eyes looked at her with reminiscence and maybe even fondness, there was intent in her reckless actions and not even her beloved past could stop her from fighting her to the truth that she so desperately needed in order to move on. Longing she felt, but Corinne needed the truth more than she needed him. She needed it more than she needed Bruce Wayne. Words: 2360, Chapters: 1/80, Language: English Fandoms: The Batman (Movie 2022) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Annika Kosolov, Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Jim Gordon (DCU), Edward Nygma, Officer Martinez (The Batman Movie 2022), Joker (DCU), Harleen Quinzel, Carla Falcone, Don Mitchell Jr., Gil Colson, Pete Savage, Bella Reál Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Wayne & Original Character(s) Additional Tags: Batman Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Organized Crime, Slow Romance, Slow Build, Slow To Update, Blood and Violence, Psychological Torture, Childhood Trauma, Near Death Experiences, Abusive Parents, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Out of Character Carmine Falcone, Drama & Romance, Eventual Smut, Batmobile (DCU), Batcave (DCU), Mentioned Joker (DCU), Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mentioned Harleen Quinzel, Edward Nygma is the Riddler, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Protective Bruce Wayne, Childhood Friends, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Violent Thoughts, Non-Graphic Smut, Mild Smut, Bruce Wayne is a recluse and NOT a playboy, Hate the playboy version, Sad little Brucey, Bruce Needs a Hug via https://ift.tt/ZMFdTVl

[ao3feed-harleyquinn]

monstrum

by aristorias To be a girl is to be a monster. One does not exist without the other. Clawing her way out of the womb and into the wretched world, Corinne Delisle was taught to be a monster. To be manipulative but genuine, tempting but pure, special but average. And with the neverending expectations pulling apart the sinews and the tissue that bound her together as one, she needed nothing less than the lucid memories of her morose past to her haunt her in the shape of the one person who could have sown her back together and made her a little less monstrous and vile. But no matter how desperately hopeful she felt when those blue eyes looked at her with reminiscence and maybe even fondness, there was intent in her reckless actions and not even her beloved past could stop her from fighting her to the truth that she so desperately needed in order to move on. Longing she felt, but Corinne needed the truth more than she needed him. She needed it more than she needed Bruce Wayne. Words: 2360, Chapters: 1/80, Language: English Fandoms: The Batman (Movie 2022) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Annika Kosolov, Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Jim Gordon (DCU), Edward Nygma, Officer Martinez (The Batman Movie 2022), Joker (DCU), Harleen Quinzel, Carla Falcone, Don Mitchell Jr., Gil Colson, Pete Savage, Bella Reál Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Wayne & Original Character(s) Additional Tags: Batman Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Organized Crime, Slow Romance, Slow Build, Slow To Update, Blood and Violence, Psychological Torture, Childhood Trauma, Near Death Experiences, Abusive Parents, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, Out of Character Carmine Falcone, Drama & Romance, Eventual Smut, Batmobile (DCU), Batcave (DCU), Mentioned Joker (DCU), Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mentioned Harleen Quinzel, Edward Nygma is the Riddler, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Protective Bruce Wayne, Childhood Friends, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Violent Thoughts, Non-Graphic Smut, Mild Smut, Bruce Wayne is a recluse and NOT a playboy, Hate the playboy version, Sad little Brucey, Bruce Needs a Hug via https://ift.tt/eqHsQc9

[myimaginationplain]

I'm digging up old discourse I know, but I still think that the whole "were Selina and Annika a couple or not" debacle was so strange. Because the only evidence for the two of them being a couple was Selina calling her "baby" once or twice, which is a whole bunch of nothing. I, a bisexual woman myself, have platonically referred to my friends as all kinds of "baby" or "sweetheart", no romantic context required. Part of me thinks this was an example of white fandom plain old not understanding the way African American women speak.

If you actually watch and pay attention to Selina's behavior in the film, it should be obvious that she was not written with the intention of having been Annika's lover; she starts flirting with Batman within, what, a day of knowing him? And kisses him not soon after. Absolutely none of her behavior would make sense coming from a person who's girlfriend had gone missing. It would be strangely callous & cruel of her, which Selina absolutely is not.

All in all, the insistence on this well developed, fully realized lead character, being in a romantic relationship with a woman who got less than five minutes of screen time and zero real characterization for the sake of some wack ass """""representation""""" that would ultimately go nowhere, because she had already been brutally murdered, was really fucking weird. That would not be representation, nor would it be good storytelling. Please want better for yourselves.

(Also, I can't ignore the tint of misogynoire some of it had, coming from people who very plainly wanted Selina out of the way for the sake of r*ddlebat or just couldn't stand the sight of half-black girl in a genuine romance with the dreamy white male lead.)