#but ben is the actual dick in this friendship

[yellowocaballero]

Miguel is Fine, Actually (Being Spider-Man's Just Toxic As Hell)

Before I watched ATSV I said that I would defend my man Miguel O'Hara's actions no matter what, because he's always valid and I support women's wrongs. I was joking, and I did not actually expect to start defending him on Tumblr.edu. But I'm seeing a lot of commentary that's super reductive, so I do want to bring up another perspective on his character.

Miguel wasn't acting against the spirit of Spider-Man, or what being Spider-Man means. Miguel isn't meant to represent the antithesis of Spider-Man. Miles is the antithesis of Spider-Man. Miguel represents Spider-Man taken to its extreme.

Think about Miguel's actions from his perspective. If you were a hero who genuinely, legitimately, 100%, no doubt about it, believed that somebody is going to make a selfish decision that will destroy an entire universe and put the entire multiverse at severe risk - if you had an over-burdened sense of responsibility and believed in doing the right thing no matter what - you would also chase down the kid and put him in baby jail to try and prevent it. He believed that he was saving the multiverse, and that Miles was putting it in danger for selfish reasons. Which is completely unforgivable to him, because selfishness is what he hates the most. And then he goes completely out of pocket and starts beefing with a 15yo lmfaooo he's such a dick.

But why did Miguel believe that? Why did he believe that Miles choosing himself and his own happiness over the well-being of others was the worst possible thing? Why did he believe that tragedy was inevitable in their lives, and that without tragedy Spider-Man can't exist?

Because he's Spider-Man.

Peter Parker was once a fifteen year old who chose his own happiness over protecting others. It was the greatest regret of his life and he never forgave himself. Peter's ethos means that he will put himself last every time, and that he will sacrifice anything and everything in his life - his relationships, his health, his future - to protecting and helping others. Peter dropped out of college because it interfered with Spider-Man. He destroyed his own future for Spider-Man. He ruins friendships and romantic relationships because Spider-Man was more important. If Peter ever tries to protect himself and his own happiness, then he's a bad person.

That is intrinsic to Peter. Peter would not be Peter without it. A story that is not defined by Peter's unhappiness is not a Spider-Man story. If Peter doesn't make himself miserable, then he's just not Peter.

That is a Spider-Man story: that not only is tragedy inevitable, that if you don't allow yourself to be defined by your tragedy then you're a bad person. If you don't suffer, then you're a bad person. If you ever put anything above Spider-Man, then you're killing Uncle Ben all over again. Miguel isn't the only one that believes this - as we saw, every Spider-Man buys into what he's saying. There's no Spider-Man without these beliefs.

Miguel attempted to find his own happiness, and he was punished in the most extreme way. He got Uncle Ben'd x10000. He tried to be happy, and it literally destroyed his entire universe. It's the Spider-narrative taken to the extreme. Of course Miguel believes all of this. Of course he believes this so firmly. He's Spider-Man. That's his story. And the one time Miguel tried to fight against that story, he was punished. And like any Spider-Man, he'll slavishly obey that narrative no matter the evil it creates and perpetuates. Because if he doesn't, the narrative will punish him. The narrative will always punish him. It's a Spider-Man story.

I don't think the universal constant between Spider-Mans, the thing that makes them Spider-Man, is tragedy. I think it's the fact that they never forgive themselves. And Miguel is what that viewpoint creates. He doesn't believe this things because he's an awful, mean person. He believes them because he's a hero. He's a good person who hates himself.

Across the Spider-verse isn't really a Spider-Man story. It's a story about Spider-Man stories. Miguel's right: if this was a Spider-Man story, then Miles acting selfishly really would destroy the universe. But Miles' story isn't interested in punishing him. It pushes back against Peter's narrative that unhappiness is inevitable and that you have to suffer to be a good person. It says that sometimes we do the right thing from love and not fear, and that Peter's way of thinking is ultimately super toxic and unhappy. ITSV was about Miles deciding that he didn't need to be Peter Parker, that all he needed to be was Miles, and ATSV is about how being Peter Parker isn't such a good thing. Miguel shows that. Whatever toxic and unhealthy beliefs he holds - they're the exact same beliefs that any Spider-Man holds. He's a dick, but I don't think he's any more awful a person than Peter is.

TL;DR: Miguel isn't a bad person, he just has Spider-Man brainrot.

[ultimate-spiderman-stuff]

Web-Warriors x gn!reader headcanons please? How would they react when they'd befriend reader and then realize they have a crush on them?

Peter

Peter met you in school

He got assigned to sit next to you in history

You were drawing,not really paying attention to the class

He kinda was just tapping his pen awkwardly trying to think of a good conversation starter

Ends up blurting out something really randome like:

'Hey, did you know that barnacals have the largest dicks relative to their size?'

He practically dies inside

He hurriedly tries to back track,stumbling over his words

Then you just look up from your drawing,raising an eyebrow at him, nodding slowly

Peter just stays quiet for half the period then he decides to ask what your drawing

You turn the sketch book around to show him Darth Vader

Cue to both of you fangirling over Star Wars

After a while you guys started hanging out at breaks with Harry and MJ

The both of you have the kind of friendship where you'll say randome facts about stuff completely out of then blue

Finally the team gets so annoyed with the constant yapping that they don't bother asking Peter if he likes you, they tell him

You already knew you like him but was just waiting for the right time to ask him out

The next day after class you both confess at the same time

It was really awkward but wholsome

So you start dating

Flash

He met you at the gym

You were doing weights and he offered to spot for you

You gladly accepted his offer and you guys clicked instantly

At first he thought it would be a one time thing, but the next time he was there he saw you and instantly came over

Soon you both were sharing opinions of different artists to listen to,and walking home together

Soon he asked you out

You went out for smoothies

Miles

You were from the Red Room and was recently taken into SHIELD

SHIELD had given you some Red Dust so you were free from the Red Room

Miles had come over to hangout with you in the cafeteria and was currently talking your ear off about Ghostbusters

As annoying as his constant banter was the plot was quite interesting

You were always getting into fights with everyone but you found him just that little bit more tolerable

Miles also liked hanging out with you even though you frightened him a bit

But after awhile he began to not really be bothered by you

Soon he decided to ask Peter for some advice on what he was feeling

Peter wasn't quite his best decision to go to cos Peter is practically clueless in that category

But after a lot of researching and Google saying he was going to die of a heart condition, both of them found the answer

Ge was in love with you

Ot was a very sweet confection, the poor boy was so nervous

You had no idea about dating

But everything eventually worked out

Amadeus

He met you at SHIELD

And yes you were 13 the same age as Amadeus

You were a botanist like your parents so you were able to work in the labs

Amadeus might be the 7th smartest person in the world but plants were just not his thing

So when he found some new plant based material on patrol he asked you for help

It turns out he wasn't as much as a prick as everyone else said he was

But he was still annoying

After a couple of days he was becoming a bit less of a dick then before

After a couple of weeks the prodject was finished

He kept on finding reasons to go back to your lab and the relationship began

None of you guys actually said it, it kinda just happened

So like who knows you could just be really good friends who shares a lab and custody of a goldfish

Ben

Scarlet was on patrol when he saw a creepy dude with a gun go into the cafe you were working at

By the time he got there he saw you judo flip the guy

So he just sat back and watched the show

Once you were done with him, he webbed the guy up, staring at you suspiciously

'What? Did ya think I couldn't protect myself just because I have no powers?' You asked

'Did I say that, punk?' He muttered, glaring harder

You rolled your eyes at his attitude, giving him a hot chocolate

Once he left he had to say you peeked his interest

So when aunt May was having a bit of trouble finding where to go to for lunch he suggested the cafe you worked at

May noticed that he was staring at you more than he did at other people so made sure to go there more often

Sometimes he even goes there without May

He begins to go there almost every day so that he can see you

He starts to talk to you and and become somewhat friends

After awhile he confide in May

She was so excited that he was interested in someone

So when he decided to confess he was a blushing mess

You got what he was getting at and said yes

[crushedsweets]

Do you have and hcs of how Toby and Ben would act together? - Hoodie

YES SORT OF . u know the drill this is my au and bens story is one that i changed a lot so here we go :9

ok toby younger brother family trauma issues lonely grew up isolated etc. ben only child got killed by neighbor for absurd vr theory now inhabits a virus-ghost-form that he partially shares with several other dead kids.

toby and ben wouldnt have gotten along before ben died. only because ben was just. a 13 yr old boy addicted to video games ... those kids r mean, and toby was heavily bullied in his childhood. the ONLY reason bens not a huge dick anymore is bc his 'form' itself is fucked up (he glitches, he has an electronic vocal fry and occasional stutter from glitches, he has a weird glow to him, sickly drowned boy skin, veins look like those green code lines, red/black eyes, HE'S LITERALLY DRESSED LIKE LINK). bens not exactly insecure about any of this, but he knows damn well he cannot make fun of a tic without toby shooting back 10x harder.

which ok yeah kinda sad that ben has to look weird for him to not be mean but .. . like . . yeah. it is what it is.

they met mmm... maybe when toby was around 21? jeff would be 16, and ben wouldve been 14. SOOO toby doesnt really TRY to befriend ben. he's too old for him and has no interest in being besties w some kid. but he has a job to stop ben from tormenting people online and drawing attention to weird ghost sites and whatnot, so he started talking to all sorts of ai- cleverbot being the main, of course.

of all the proxies, tobys the only one ben likes. tobys a dick, but he has his moments where he's funny and gets distracted during a mission, so he's sat and rambled and bickered with the ai on slow nights. ben immediately knew everything about toby, because he has access to every single file on tobys computer, phone, etc.

ben SCARED THE SHIT out of toby upon their first meeting. he crawled out of tobys janky ass computer one day and toby nearly threw up from being so freaked out. yeah, he's killed people and whatever, BUT GHOSTS R FUCKING SCARY (and he has .trauma with ghosts and hallucinations of them (lyra)). ben already knew exactly who toby worked for, what toby was doing, and thought it was beyond funny. ben was the first being who already knew all the slenderman lore because he spends literally. every. second. on the internet. he is basically the internet. and he watches them, listens through their phones, watches, etc. he doesnt know the details perfectly tho cuz technology gets weird around slednerman/the operator. so toby thought that was helpful, in a sense.

so pretty quickly ben was fond of toby. thought he was like, that cool older brother of your friend. the main issue was the proxies at this time were trying to find and kill jeff because he was infected by the operator and slenderman deemed him 'too far gone.'

ben was actually the one who proposed the whole 'okay. so you want me to stop terrorizing kids online. fair. now ive noticed you keep trying to kill my friend(jeff). stop that and we can be cool :3'.

eventually they all came to some weird agreement where. ben will stop haunting people, the proxies will stop trying to kill jeff, jeff has to stop doing his 'full course' murders, and eventually, ben just likes them enough to start helping them with cctv, police files, etc. it was a complicated agreement that eventually ended in friendship, sort of?

they play video games together. eventually toby does see him as a little brother. it's kinda unsettling because the proxies realize just how much power ben has when it comes to just...... leaking everything. toby thinks that 'ok well, if ben leaks stuff about us, we leak stuff about jeff, and now he has no friends and is lonely, so he can't.' but tim and brian are legitimately freaked out at the thought of their lives being ruined anymore than they already are, so theyre pretty courteous to ben

ben will really just hang around. toby can just be eating breakfast and ben will pop up and ask whats up. he's annoying and clingy, and he can tell toby is biting his tongue half the time. . but toby is grateful sometimes. bens laid back and funny, and toby could use some laughs, so its a decent time for them both

again, overall, toby is just kinda too old for ben(although ben wouldve been a year older than toby if he was alive), but ben is really funny, he's nice to toby, he plays video games with him, he comes and checks in on him randomly. so toby appreciates having a freaky ghost little brother thing hanging around. bens one of his fave people (which is only saying so much when the other people he talks to are like . . jeff)

[gravity-barbie]

The Sparrows with a sibling they think doesn't have powers HCs

A/N: So sorry for the wait! And the lack of Christopher, I tried but I really suck at writing for him and I think it'd take another 3 months if I kept trying. Also fair warning this is on the angsty side.

Request

Masterlist

Marcus Hargreeves

-Both as a child and an adult Marcus barely acknowledges you exist, his life revolves around the sparrow academy which you've always existed just on the outskirts of

-As your sibling he does feel a loyalty to you though, he lets you stay at the academy and use Reginalds funds as much as the others so long as you don't cause any trouble

-Of course you're completely excluded from the sparrow academy, despite your siblings vast fame most people don't even know you exist and Marcus won't ever let you join any of the families 'buisness' talks

-So while he's not mean or malicious there is a lot of disrespect and neglect there that builds resentment inside of you

-He's as shocked as you are to learn you have powers (very strong ones at that) but he's quick to collect himself, trying to reason you into letting him integrate you into the sparrow academy and follow his lead like your siblings

-Marcus is good with people, he says exactly what you want to hear, first easing your fears about your new powers and then more importantly giving you a glimpse of the belonging and connection you've always been denied in an attempt to get you to fall in line

-However it's likely too little too late

-Marcus does care about you and he wants to resolve things peacefully, however if you prove to be a threat to the sparrow academy he's completely willing to make an enemy out of you

Ben Hargreeves

-Ben's always looked down on you and unlike Marcus he won't hesitate to verbalise that

-Despite that and generally not thinking you're worth his time he doesn't actually dislike you though, he sort of appreciates your gentler personality, not that he often let's that show

-You're the only sibling he doesn't have to compete with which may make him underestimate you but it also makes you the only person in the world he'll even slightly lower his guard around

-Which, play your cards right, could lead to a tentative friendship between you two, however friend or otherwise Ben is really no good for your self-esteem

-He feels personally betrayed to learn you have powers as crazy as that sounds, jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst of you

-His default is distrusting people so he feels like an idiot for ever not seeing you as a threat and it doesn't help that part of him is still loyal to Reginald so it's easy for him to believe the lies the old man tells about you

-Beneath his anger and confusion though, if Ben cares about you even a little bit that isn't going to change

Fei Hargreeves

-It would seem you're totally irrelevant to her, she barely acknowledges your existence as a child, and as an adult that's only slightly better

-Plus she's kind of a loner so since she's not forced to be around you like she is the others and she likes to spend her free time by herself it's only natural you hardly see each other, let alone talk

-However she actually knows you better than you realise, she's a careful and observant person and like your siblings you're not immune to her spying from time to time

-Because of her perceptiveness she's actually the first to suspect that there's something weird going on with you though she keeps that hunch to herself

-She's probably the most calm and reasonable about learning you have powers and tries to talk some sense into your more reactive siblings

-She encourages them to give you time and space to let this bombshell sink in before they get involved because that's what she would want in your position

-She herself doesn't bother you, not interacting with you any more than usual unless you initiate, she does however have a bird watching you at all times

Alphonso Hargreeves

-Alphonso can be a real dick to you sometimes, but unlike the others it's not because he feels some kind of sense of superiority over you, it's more out of jealousy

-He resents the fact that you don't have the same pressure on you or the same heavy workload and essentially feels like you got off easy compared to him and the others

-He doesn't tend to go out of his way to antagonize you or anything but for someone that's usually pretty easygoing his pointed coldness towards you stands out

-He's definitely blindsided to learn you have powers and it takes him a while to wrap his head around, but he is actually more willing to get your side of the story than some of your siblings

-He still doesn't really get where your pain is coming from because he'd switch childhoods with you in a heartbeat but now that he realises you are genuinely hurting he's a lot more open to understanding

-Ultimately despite being more sympathetic towards you than ever before Alphonso will still go along with however the other sparrows decide to deal with you, for better or for worse

Sloane Hargreeves

-Sloane is the nicest to you by far, partially because that's just who she is, but also because you're both different enough from your other siblings that you form an unspoken alliance

-However as kids you never got the chance to get too close as Reginald noticed your bond and kept separating you

-So while you're glad you can finally be friendly as adults you're still not as close as you could of been, you do try to catch up but the years of forced seperation has created a wall between you

-So has your apparent lack of powers, because though it's absolutely not her intention Sloane can be so patronizing and insensitive about your status as the ordinary one

-As shocked as she is to learn you have powers she's quick to look on the bright side and tries to encourage you to as well, though on the flipside she does also feel terrible to realise the depth of how manipulated and isolated you were

-She's an absolute blessing when it comes to helping you understand and control your power, as a literal genius with experience handling her own superpowers and the kindest person you know she's the best mentor you could hope for, things would of been so much worse without her

-She's firmly on your side throughout this whole ordeal, constantly vouching for you and prioritising what you need no matter what the others say or do

Jayme Hargreeves

-Obviously Jayme never gives you the time of day, but really it's not like she's more apathetic about you than she is about anything else in her life

-Honestly she even likes you more than numbers one to three because at least you never try to tell her what to do, so she's not totally against your company

-Actually she's kind of a very typical sister, you're not friends and she has no problem snarking you but you're family and she'll have your back if you need it

-Even though she had no idea about your powers she isn't all that surprised to learn the truth about you, mostly because she knows this is the exact kind of bullshit Reginald would do and she always thought him keeping you around was a bit suspicious

-She's calm but reasonably cautious when it comes to dealing with the new-you since she has to admit that that is one intense power you have

-Personally she has a hard time seeing you as a threat but like Alphonso she's not going to stick her neck out for you if the sparrow academy decides to do things the hard way

[katacreate]

I wrote this last year and never actually posted it, so here you go I guess

When I first watched Heartstopper I was kind of cautious. For some reason there was constantly an anxiety in the back of my head that I couldn't place. I didn't know why.

But now that I had some time to digest it, I realized what it was: I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I was waiting for Nick to ignore Charlie in school, for Tara and Darcy to eventually turn on Elle, for Imogen to be a dick about Nick and Charlie, for Tao to sabotage Charlie's and Nicks relationship, for Nick to cut of communication with Charlie after the kiss out of fear and confusion and so on and so forth.

Because these are tropes that are so well established in teen media, that my brain was just wired to expect them.

Instead what I got was constant good communication. Nick immediately shows up the next day after the kiss to explain, Tao tells Charlie about what he heard about the date, but doesn't try to sway him when he tells him he wants to keep staying friends with Nick, Nick actually does immediately admit he overhead them in the bathroom AND sets things straight with Imogen instead of leading her on, who takes it super well and doesn't make a big deal out of it, Tara and Darcy ARE actually nice and want to be friends with Elle, Charlie doesn't push, when Nick says he isn't ready yet to come out and Nick recognized that he's asking him basically the same thing Ben did and does feel bad about it, (though to be fair, I agree with Charlie that it's different in the sense that he does actually care about his feelings in all of this), and Nick does actually progress slowly towards being more comfortable with himself and is not scared to admit to close people what's going on between him and Charlie, they also don't push when Elle says that she just wants to keep her friendship with Tao.

It's just so healthy. Incredibly, incredibly healthy and I love it. It's amazing. People respecting each other and their boundaries. And just communicating instead of having stupid misunderstandings.

It's great.

[mr-independent]

EP 3 aka the Trent Crimm Manifesto. Lessgo

-- Ultimate Girlboss Rebecca is such a fun opener

-- i know fanfic ppl make fun of Ted for not exploring London but he went visiting Big Ben this ep so idk man. Tho i do love the trope of his British beau showing Mr Kansas the sights so I'll let it slide. This time.

-- Ted's hair keeps falling into his face so kudos to everyone who's called him 'boyish' yallre so right

-- and the start of the Coach Nate arc begins!

-- 'flattering silhouette' this episode, with the soft shoeing last episode.......no straight man from Kansas talks like this babe

-- the Ted/Keeley friendship really falls off at some point but my god is it entertaining

-- Colin and Isaac were right dicks in this episode holy hell. Colin i kinda get, hyper masculinity allows him to stay in the closet but Isaac??? For shame

-- ah Trent. The suit-converse combo, the big dick swagger, the little bemused self-satisfied smile whenever Ted makes a stupid joke........ I've said it before and I'll say it again, what I wouldn't give to peg that man

-- Roy loving Step Brothers is such a funny detail

-- Keeley wolf-whistling a shirtless Roy is iconic. Also Roy's impression of Ted is Fucking Hilarious

-- the chemistry with Roy and Keeley is palpable and i love it

-- there was actually no reason for Ted to be changing in his office with Trent right there. Not one.

-- Bi Keeley literally starts so early why was anyone surprised? She begged to see a pic of Rebecca's tits before they were even friends, then said multiple times that she couldn't stop thinking about them

-- Trent was forced to sit amongst the school kids at the school award ceremony which is fucking hilarious

-- he also knows the plot of A Wrinkle In Time off the top of his head and loves it. Trent is my fav character for a reason y'all.

-- i forgot their little date was to the restaurant of the chauffeur from ep 1 that's so cute 🥺

-- 'Trent, what do you love?' and Trent's face of absolute panic.... No one's ever asked him that before 🥺

-- Trent's slow realisation that Ted really is just so refreshingly earnest all the time... Poetry

-- 'I can't help but root for him' like i know the point is that Trent is the layman viewer, contextually as a standin for the average community member but in meta as a standin for the viewer of the tv show, someone who's most likely familiar with sports dramas, so Trent falling in love with Ted is actually a great allegory for fans of the show. Also I'm gay and want those middle aged men to fuck nasty on screen even if i know it's never gonna happen. That's simply my cross to bear 🫡

[zenjiiejiie]

No because neung is SO jealous and possessive over palm despite the fact that A: They aren't dating and B: HE FUCKING KISSED BEN?!

I am ALL for palmneung/neungpalm and I genuinely love love love their storyline so far but at this point I don't think neung and palm's relationship would be healthy if they started dating now.

I'm all for possessive and jealous bfs/gfs but only if it's in a healthy sane and consensual way for example someone being like "yeah that's MY bf/gf back off" but only if the s/os had and have open and clear communication between them so they won't hurt the other by accident.

I want to see neung grovel for palms forgiveness I want palm to be distant and cold yet respectful I want him to be /exactly/ what his father wants him to be just to spite neung and him only being that way with neung himself.

I want palm and chopper to be best friends who complain about the people they like being absolute dicks to them and the other agreeing because /fuck yeah he's a dick/ because ben has been nothing but cruel to palm and well chopper is neung's cousin ofc he shit talks him they're family! (Like 'I despise you' (affectionate) kinda thing)

But most of all I want palm and chopper to be with people who love a respect them despite whatever differences they may have. People who actually enjoy their company and want them in their lives and are willing to fight for them and with them. We all know neung will eventually be that person for palm but until then I want CHOPPERPALM!!!!

And if ben can't be that person for chopper then fuck him chopper deserves better but if he CAN- if ben can genuinely and wholeheartedly love chopper despite how different they are when hes already stated that he likes people similar to him. When he doesn't want to risk what he a chopper have /again/ after he almost lost it already (because I know ben missed chopper he missed their friendship and he missed /him/) then i will cry tears of joy and will walk them /both/ down the aisle.

[lookninjas]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

That's a lot of stars.

So I gave it a little bit of thought, and I think what I'm going to do is a breakdown of the edited version of Humdrum and Humble, since it's the most recent fic I've actually completed and posted that wasn't a very short one shot that can be boiled down to "I want to see everyone be nice to Rose Walker" or its natural converse "I want to see Roderick Burgess get kicked repeatedly in the dick." And as much as I'd like to get into something more recent, all I have that's recent is a couple of WIPs and any scenes I detail from those will almost certainly wind up missing from the deleted fic just because that's how it goes.

Also, I've already done a commentary on the original (mostly) unedited version of it, so it kind of feels nicely bookendish.

So let's dive in.

It starts in a theater lobby, while he’s paying for paper bags of rice and newspaper, playing cards and toast. He is out of his depth and trying to pretend he isn’t, in his old boots and a black button-down shirt, surrounded by sequins and pancake makeup and garishly bright wigs and fishnet stockings -- literally, everyone here seems to be in fishnets except for him and Poe. Even the silver-haired gentleman taking tickets has fishnet gloves on, and Ben feels like such a hick. And not, of course, that he feels like he belongs most places. That’s something that’s followed him his whole life. But this moment in particular, in this theater lobby, might be the worst so far. It certainly feels like it.

The first draft of this story was written during Rocky Horror season, specifically the week between our movie theater performance and our casino performance. At that point in the year, I'm understandably fucking breathing Rocky Horror. So that's a large part of where this scene comes from. I'd also referenced Toby playing Columbia once already, in Dead Souls, and sometimes when I was driving to or from work I'd mentally turn the idea of him and Poe interacting as part of a shadowcast around in my head for a few miles at a time. Rocky is kind of a liminal space where anything goes, and also the kind of place where Ben is going to feel decidedly off-kilter at first, even if he gets more comfortable as he goes along. So it just felt like a good place to start. Ben knew he was going to have a weird night. It just got weirder than he thought. But he also has Poe with him to guide him, and Poe has had experience in both these worlds -- Rocky Horror, and then also Torchwood, through that friendship with Toby that I dreamed up in my car driving through the middle of nowhere.

Sidenote: It's such a weird thing to try to write these situations where the main character has no idea what's going on, because you want to put some exposition in, but that's not how people have conversations. This scene was the worst for that, because of how minimal Ben's involvement is. As he gets more enmeshed in the plot, people take time to explain things to him. Right now, he just knows something weird went down at a synagogue once, and also sometimes people buy drugs from people with blowfish heads. But he's midwestern, you know, so he's just running with it. As you do.

And then some smaller notes: There's a bit about Aly getting hurt when he touches the person who took the drugs, which is notable because the skin on his left side is synthetic -- thicker and less sensitive than his real skin. It's also why his hand is cool in the second scene, at Pride. Poe saying "Stay safe out there," is a callback to Dead Souls, although I don't think the final draft used that saying as much as earlier versions did. Lastly, while I didn't edit much on this scene, I did add Jonah to it -- the silver-haired ticket taker in the fishnet gloves. Hilariously, Ben doesn't remember him being there, even though he'll later recognize the kid who took the drugs. Chalk it up to the kid being as conspicuous as possible, while Jonah's trying to blend in.

SECOND SCENE:

It’s Motor City Pride, which means it’s hot and it’s sticky and he’s got a ton of shit on his plate.

Fun fact: I have no idea what that conversation between Ben and Lando is supposed to be about, apart from people are trying to get Ben to do something and he really doesn't have time but is too polite to say no.

So this one is interesting, because it's our proper introduction to Jonah. In the last scene, we had Torchwood jumping in to a dangerous situation. This scene, we have Jonah in that position. His little conversation with Lando is one of my favorites, because it reveals so much about the two of them in a few lines:

Lando has worked with Torchwood enough that Jonah recognizes him on sight as someone who'd have their contact numbers.

Jonah knows Torchwood, but either doesn't have those numbers or is unwilling to call them.

Lando has encountered enough Time Agents to clock Jonah on sight.

The "Not Captain Jonah Hawthorne?" "Just Jonah" is our first clue that Jonah is trying to move on from his past.

And, of course, there's that echoing moment where Jonah puts his hand on Ben's shoulder, then Lando puts his hand on Ben's shoulder, and then Aly puts his hand on Ben's shoulder. Same basic playbook. Ben is more involved in this particular scene than he was the last, but he's still a civilian being treated as a civilian. He's helping with one person. They're handling the whole situation.

At the same time, his decision to help that one person winds up being crucial to how the story ends, which is the fun thing about it.

THIRD SCENE:

“-- scale of it,” Kai is saying, when Ben comes out of it. It’s dark, and there’s something cool and damp on his forehead. He feels okay with his eyes closed. He’s not sure how he’s going to feel when he finally makes his mind up to open them.

Ben, you're eavesdropping. Admit that you're eavesdropping.

Jonah mentions that John Hart had been in town -- this is a Torchwood Four story that I've toyed with for ages and never actually written out. Although one of my WIPs gets into it a little more. Whether John is cleaned up in canon is I think still fairly ambiguous, although I haven't really gotten much into the Big Finish audios. I do feel like Jonah, having known him from his worst days, would have his doubts. And Kai isn't that much more certain.

This also gets a little into what Jonah did with the Time Agency, at least for the latter part of his career -- he was the one to go after the rogue Time Agents when they went too rogue. Which is why, if a Time Agent were to be involved in this, things might get too personal too quickly.

One note: Poe's last full appearance in the fic here, and he has one of my favorite lines of the whole thing, even though it's sort of an odd choice -- “Toby always tells me it’s a very human response. I don’t even think he realizes how many times he’s told me that.” There's something unsettling to me about how the Torchwood Amnesia effect even affects Torchwood.

FOURTH SCENE:

Less than a month later, he finds himself sprinting down a crowded sidewalk, chasing a man who appears to have a bright red fish’s head where his human face should be.

This is the scene that made me want to write the fic -- Ben chasing an alien through the streets of Detroit. I just loved the image. I still love the image. No Torchwood, no Time Agent, just Ben being an incredibly brave moron.

I mean, he never does anything half-assed, so.

And judging by the blowfish's response, he's not even the first Detroit resident to pull something like this.

One of my favorite conversations in the whole fic is this one. I think it's easy to forget, reading through some of the other stories in the Children's Work universe, that Ben is tremendously unafraid of physical harm. He's been very traumatized, and he's very wary of certain emotional situations due to that trauma, but physically he'll absolutely throw himself into dangerous shit and not care at all. He's very secure here, even when he's alone and cornered and has a gun pointed at him. It doesn't bother him at all. He gets annoyed. He even challenges the blowfish at the end. “Just what kind of business is your boss involved in, exactly?”

And then Torchwood shows up to take over, and for the first time we get to see them dangerous, which is fun. I like how Kai basically unintentionally sums up the purpose of her Torchwood -- not arming against the future, or finding the Doctor, or weapons for the empire, but -- "You don’t kill kids in my town."

This is another part where the exposition gets interesting. First, we get the blowfish babbling about how Universe went down and there's no Torchwood in London anymore and there's a bitch in Wales (Hi Gwen!) Then Kai goes technobabble about vortex energy, and finally Toby steps in to explain things in English. Ben even gets a chance to ask some questions and receives a few answers, although they're brief and they lead to even more questions that he doesn't want answered.

And Mr. Universe/Ben Eugenides makes his return. I've kind of given up on doing a Torchwood Four story with this team that doesn't reference him -- I suppose as long as Aly's part of the team, that does go with the territory. Also, somewhere in writing this (and then continuing to work with the Jonah character), the idea of the death of Mr. Universe causing this hole in the extraterrestrial artifact black market became kind of an appealing hook for stories. If he was purchasing and selling (and releasing into the streets of Detroit) a lot of very dangerous alien artifacts, that creates a power vacuum that enterprising criminals would want to get into, as well as those who would be lured to the city by the promise of finding all of Mr. Universe's artifacts that Torchwood couldn't get to first.

Also, unstated in the story -- I have no doubt at all that Poe took Ben to Mr. Universe's shop at least once when they were kids, for incense or oils or tarot cards or something of that nature.

There's a brief nod to the fact that, since Dead Souls takes place in 2010, and Ben doesn't move to Detroit until 2016, Torchwood Four has outlived their standard expectancy by a little bit. (For the record, I imagine this story taking place around 2018.) But they're my characters, I love them, and they're not dying. Also, Aly doesn't count because he was born around 1916, but also went missing for about seventy years, and most likely spent that time in some kind of stasis. So he's not that much older than everyone else. He's pretty sure.

FIFTH SCENE

This time, there’s no room for forgetting.

Another good characterization moment for Ben right off the bat in this one: He keeps moving, and if the fear moves with him -- well. He’s used to that, isn’t he? Like an old familiar friend. I think part of what was interesting to me about this was this kind of moment for Ben, where he's in a very frightening situation and just kind of handles it. He keeps going, keeps living. Pays very close attention to what's around him and is aware of the ways in which he's in danger and is aware of the people trying to protect him and then also kind of... lets it go. And when the crisis can, he does what he can to call attention to the danger and then just walks right into it, knowing.

And trash-talks the woman who's threatening to kill him because he figures he's already pissed her off enough, so whatever.

Not like Jonah's better, calling his nemesis a cliche in the middle of their fight.

I had originally wanted Ben to take a more physically active role in the fight, but it didn't work out that way, and that's probably for the best. This is really more about the mental resilience of him and that particular fight -- having him throw punches would be a cop-out. He stays ready to get involved if he needs to, all the way up to holding a loaded gun at the ready in case he needs to shoot someone, but he's waiting until the need arises and trusting Jonah otherwise. There's even the very deliberate call-out to the fact that he could just eject the magazine, empty the last round out of the chamber, and throw the gun away, but he doesn't. He's fearless, but he's not dumb, and he'll do what he has to to save someone else.

That it doesn't come out that way is largely because of what he did to help the kid with the tie-dye in the second scene. He's not a good person -- he tazes Jonah for literally no reason -- but he bonded with Ben just enough in that hour at Pride that he changes the whole course of the story for it. It'd be sweet, if it weren't a fucked-up murder suicide pact in the end.

It's very interesting how much the kid does want to die. He takes the Sontaran Sunlight, he tazes Jonah, he claims to have set up a real bomb this time even though, at the end, it's another glitter bomb. He pretends he's disabled the panic buttons and then Torchwood shows up. He playacts the part of a villain, or attempts to, but in the end he makes a better victim.

And even with patchy exposition, Ben has still picked up enough info about Vortex Manipulators to realize that the Vortex Manipulator is the trigger to the bomb and that both the boy and the Time Agent have the ability to set it off. He might be an idiot when it comes to self-preservation, but he's sharp as a tack otherwise.

SIXTH SCENE

The butterfly bandages aren’t enough to patch Jonah’s face together where it’s split apart over his left eyebrow, and the glue is running low.

Ben finally in his element here. No chasing anything, no guns, no fighting. Just patching someone together so he can feed them.

This is the scene where I have to confront the O.C. in the room. What is the point of Jonah in specific? What is his arc, where is he going, and what does that say about Ben and his story? The entire time, Ben has been dipping his toe back into familiar uncomfortable waters. There is a crisis. The whole city, maybe even the whole world, could be in danger. Everything is lining up to make it look like it's his responsibility to stop the catastrophe. But in the end, it isn't a gunshot that makes the difference. It's the decision to sit with one person who really needed him, to take that time and take that care, that fixes things. That's where Jonah wants to be. He has been in the background of the story the entire time, wrestling with his decision to leave the Time Agency and just tidy up his corner of the universe for the time he has left. He just doesn't fully know how.

And Ben realizes that, and very directly offers to help him figure it out.

So we start with Ben fully out of his depth at Rocky Horror, and now he's back where he belongs at his own restaurant, doing what only he can with the experience that only he has. And it's that fearless side but also the compassionate side that has brought him where he is. And now Jonah's the one out of his depth and Ben will help him figure things out. Which is why it ends specifically with:

And it isn’t where the story ends, of course. But it isn’t a terrible place to start.

Which is also largely why I've been picking at various stories involving Jonah since then, because now I want to know how this works for him, because for all the similarities between himself and Ben, we're still talking about a sixty year-old Time Agent leaving the game as opposed to a teenager stealing a five year-old and moving to rural Northern Michigan, so there's going to be some changes.

One day. One day I'll finish a new fic.

I feel like I had more to say about some things; it's always different when you're thinking about it in the car than it is when you're actually sitting down to type shit out. But it's still fun to do this. I hadn't realized how tidy that arc was until just now, so that's fun. Sometimes I'm a better writer than I realize while I'm writing. I think that's true of most of us.

[ao3feed-narlie]

I Bit The Apple 'Cause I loved you And Why Would You Lie? And Then I Realized You're Just As Naive I am.

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/6E5VsGC by UncleIrohsTea Ben's a dick, Nick's going through it, and Sarah is babygirl.   -- idk I made this bc you actually can get trauma from witnessing something like this and Nick would def be affected by this sooooo yeah 😁 Words: 2309, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Heartstopper (Webcomic), Heartstopper (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Categories: M/M Characters: Sarah Nelson, David Nelson (Heartstopper), Benjamin "Ben" Hope, Imogen Heaney, Charles "Charlie" Spring (Heartstopper) Relationships: Nicholas "Nick" Nelson/Charles "Charlie" Spring, Benjamin "Ben" Hope/Charles "Charlie" Spring Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Charles "Charlie" Spring (Heartstopper), Past Benjamin "Ben" Hope/Charles "Charlie" Spring, Benjamin "Ben" Hope Being an Asshole, Benjamin "Ben" Hope Bashing, Imogen Heaney & Nicholas "Nick" Nelson Friendship, Nicholas "Nick" Nelson has Anxiety, Established Nicholas "Nick" Nelson/Charles "Charlie" Spring, Nicholas "Nick" Nelson Needs a Hug, Trauma, David Nelson Being an Asshole, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Supportive Charles "Charlie" Spring, Bisexual Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Bisexual Disaster Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Protective Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Supportive Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Nicholas "Nick" Nelson-Centric, Good Parent Sarah Nelson, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Sex read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/6E5VsGC

[invisiblegarters]

Never Let Me Go Ep 12 (Final)

Okay, that hostage pic of Nueng is hilarious. He looks so surly. I know I'm supposed to be worried and I know why Palm is, but honestly Nueng just kind of looks like he got sent to bed without dinner and he's mad about it.

Poor Chopper. Literally every time that boy turns around someone is accusing him of being evil. I do kind of wonder if we're gonna wind up in some sort of Chopper/Kit standoff again, and this time Chopper will have to pull the trigger. I hope not, because he's so sweet and I think it would break him.

And in a surprise twist that literally everyone saw coming, it was a trap.

This. This right here is why you don't hire a literal 18/19 year old as a bodyguard. This family.

OH okay now things are actually getting kind of fun. I didn't actually think that Kit would shoot Palm. And yeah, of course that's the thing that would work. Even though pretty sure Kit fully intends to kill both of them. Still getting the feeling that Kit is living his best life. Still like him in spite of myself.

And a wild Chopper appears! Guess he does have to shoot dad after all. And good for him for telling his dad what is what. He's really the best. Please don't shoot him Kit. I am honest to god worried for the first time that Chopper might not survive this. Kit does seem like the type to temper tantrum shoot his kid, you know?

Why do people keep saying that Kit killed both of Nueng's parents? Did Tanya die and I missed it?

Wow those ropes sure were already untied.

Palm will be fine. This was a fun mess, everyone got a little shot. And suddenly Ben is there? Did someone involve him or was his Chopper sense tingling?

I do like that Chopper went straight for his dad when he got shot. Look, Kit is (was?) a dick and a half, but he was dad, and for most of Chopper's life he probably treated him fairly well, actually. I also like that Ben went right for Chopper.

I am liking Nueng breaking down.

Yay, the Nueng and Chopper scene is what I've been wanting the whole drama. I'm so glad. I always did like their friendship - from the very beginning they always got on, despite their parents. And Chopper finally gets that hug he's needed for like, eight episodes now.

The Chopper/Ben scene is adorable. And ha, okay, yes Chopper did text ben. And AW, the look on Chopper's face when Ben says that he wants to stay by his side. Say what you want to say about Perth, boy does pining like no one's business. He could give lessons. And the hug was adorable, my goodness. I still don't know how I feel about Perth & Chimon as a pair - they work well together and have good chemistry but I'm not sure it translates into the romantic kind. Guess we have to wait for Dangerous Romance to really tell, huh? And I will.

Okay, this is unexpected. I kind of thought that Palm would wake up without a scra - oh. Temporarily paralyzed. Should have known. Can't actually have our heroes hurt permanently. Not that I necessarily want them to be, but come on. Shot in the knee and the back and he's gonna be perfectly A-ok? Sure.

"What if my leg doesn't go back to normal?" Pfft you're not in that kind of drama, my dude.

Aw, I want these four to be friends. For real. Can they, can they?

CHOPPER WILL YOU PLEASE STOP APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR AWFUL DAD. He wants to badly to atone for something that he didn't even do. This kid. I guess though that that's what makes him so great.

I make fun, but I do think that it's kind of sad that Palm seems to be breaking down not because of the way his life will change if he can't walk properly, but because he can't take care of Nueng if his leg is messed up. Although that's not entirely accurate, I can understand the mentality. I just wish that he still wasn't so wrapped up in taking care of Nueng at the cost of all else. I guess that's just his personality, though.

See? Tanya's not dead. She's here to throw yet another wrench into things. Dammit, Tanya.

She's not wrong about Nueng changing. He's much less the spoiled brat that he used to be.

Hm. I honestly can't tell if she realizes what she did when she said that she was releasing Palm and that he could go back to his own life now. Or when she said that she hoped that there would be no more obstacles in Nueng's life.

These two and their disappearing acts and their notes, I swear.

Ooh I really like the song playing over this though. Anyone know what it is?

*quick google later*

Oooh never mind found it! it's If You Still Wanted to Be Loved by Candelion. *adds to playlist rotation*

Part of me is annoyed with Palm. I get not wanting to be a burden on Nueng but also, there's nothing inherently weak in needing help. Although it does feel less manufactured than it could, since Palm's identity for so long has been wrapped up in how much he can do for Nueng and his family. How useful he can be and how well he can protect him.

So I guess Tanya didn't mean to send Palm off. That's good - like I said I was waffling on whether or not that was what she was going for. It didn't fit with the loving mom but then again who knows when it comes to dramas.

I do think that it's nice this time it's Nueng going after Palm, though. Good for Palm to know that he's wanted for himself. And also good for Nueng to be able to help take care of Palm. Like he could have always backed him financially, but I do think that he really started changing for the better when he had to start doing some work on the island, and when he and Palm were on more even footing than they'd ever been before.

Pfft, I don’t Nueng cares about having to be practically on top of you, Palm.

And then a montage of frolicking on the beach and running the new place. The fact that Palm named it after Nueng is entirely in character and entirely eyeroll inducing.

I love that Nueng is like "dude. I was flirting with you nonstop when you lived at my place." We all knew, Nueng. Well, not Palm I guess. But I'm not entirely sure I buy that either. He was very definitely a little too smirky on occasion not to have had some idea.

They're cute, though, and I have to admit that I was expecting a far more angsty version of the lonely cowherd and the maiden story. I don't get the impression that the separation will be permanent, for one. And I do think that it's good that Nueng goes off to pursue his drams.

And dear lord we finally got Palm quitting it with the Mr. Nuengs. Of course it would be the last five minutes of the drama.

This was a fun ride. I had a good time pretty much all the way through, and I think that the chemistry between the leads actually improved as we went along, which was nice (it was good to begin with but it definitely got better). Kit was a fun villain actually, and again, the fact that he was clearly having a grand time made me like him even when I thought that he might be pointing a gun at Chopper, which is just not on. Chopper was my favorite pretty much from moment one, he was the best and I am glad that in the end he was happy. My emotional journey on Ben went up and down a lot. Chanon sucks.

I really did like Nueng's journey in the end. He starts off an isolated, spoiled little brat with more balls than sense and becomes a decent boss and hard worker with a solid friend group, a boyfriend, and more balls than sense. I liked that part though so I make no complaints.

I wish Palm had been a little more present in the middle eps - he was in every scene, practically, and yet his character felt a little passive and one note for too long. Although I do feel like much of that can be attributed to the (unfair) job he was given by his dad and his hangups around that. His teasing banter with Nueng was almost always great, though.

Final: 7/10. I had a good time overall, but I do feel like it could have been better. Probably part of that was that I didn’t really get the kind of angst that I personally wanted. I wanted more bodyguard angst, more of Nueng questioning what Palm really feels, how sincere he is being vs how he feels he has to act as someone who has sworn to protect Nueng and his heart. I wanted Palm to be more worried that Nueng was only going for him because he was there, even though we could all tell that was never the case. Nueng wasn’t kidding when he said he’d been after Palm from pretty much day one. Instead I got them both running off on the other and leaving sappy “live your life free of me” letters. It’s fine but it’s not the meal I was craving.

I admit I was also kind of annoyed with Palm taking off in the last act. We all knew that this was going to come back to the yearly meeting at the island, of course, but getting there felt kind of like an afterthought. Like the writers were like “oh, crap, we almost forgot that they have to separate. How do? Oh I know, have Palm make a bullshit ‘sacrifice’, that always works.” I don’t know. It just didn’t gel for me personally. It wasn’t melodramatic enough on the whole for me to buy into that bit. I’d still recommend it so long as you don’t take it too seriously.

In summation, Chopper is still the best and should get all the things he wants. 

[inamindfarfaraway]

Who's the first AK that Mina befriends and why? Which AK is the last for Mina to warm up to, and why? And which AKs will she never be friends with?

The first is Chelsea. Mina is mildly impressed that she volunteered to room with a VK, after getting a wary reception from some other AKs. Chelsea confesses that she didn't get on with her previous roommate, so it didn’t seem like that a hard of a decision, and they talk about being disabled and bullied and left behind and arbitrary AK social norms and hey, Chelsea’s funny, and actually gets Mina’s sharp sense of humour, and with healthy plants and wildlife being so alien to her Mina is more than happy to hear all her swamp facts and holy shit, she can do magic, that’s badass and -

oh. They’re friends. Wow. It happens a lot more naturally than either of them anticipated. They’re very sweet together. I love them. They have sleepovers at each other’s houses in the school holidays, because even by the first one they’re so used to and comfortable sharing a bedroom. Chelsea loves playing with the Foxworth pets. She visits the shelter and helps Mina sometimes, and Mina visits New Orleans and the swamp to watch Chelsea learn magic.

I think she'd get along pretty well with most canon AKs. They’re all generally good people, except Chad and to an extent, mostly formerly Audrey. Chad’s always come across as worse to Audrey than me, so his character growth would be slower and more begrudging and he plays a minor antagonist to Mina and other VKs; he’s too afraid of his parents, Ben and Mal making him face more serious consequences for his actions than the discipline he’s already got to try anything really bad, though. He is fundamentally a coward whose bark is much worse than his bite. And everyone can see that. He’s too pathetic, unintelligent and uncreative to be an effective bully. A minority of other AKs who share his malice aren’t, however, and not all of them change their ways. There are many AKs that Mina just never clicks with or warms up to because that’s how people work, with no such malice or judgment necessary.

It takes her and Terry surprisingly long to become proper friends. That’s why even after the time skip, I haven’t described them as friends in their bios. The reason is that I specifically created him to be Mina’s foil. Their personalities and roles are as different as can be, and she has trust issues and he’s bad at compromise, among other traits and attitudes that, by design, rub each other the wrong way. They both regret how awkward this is for Chelsea and want to be friends. But they just don’t get each other. Resolving this impasse is the result of their character development, particularly Terry’s, who’s more invested in befriending Mina. It requires him to slow down, acknowledge his flaws, listen to and learn from someone else’s perspective and put effort into building something despite knowing that it won’t be perfect. Mina is isn’t perfect, and neither is he. Neither is their friendship. But it’s still good. Yeah. Still good.

The last AK Mina warms up to is Audrey. Audrey has spent the six months since the movie having a big arc of unlearning her prejudices and callous, competitive, selfish worldview, which has involved coming to be on good terms with Mal, glad and grateful that she makes her best friend happy, and quite a messy breakup with Chad due to her no longer respecting him being a dick or liking that he enables and encourages her being a bitch. He swings between being bitter and desperate for her to take him back. She’s just tired of him. By Cotillion, her family is fracturing too: Leah refuses to change her views on VK no matter how unpopular they get or how much the whole rest of her family disagrees with her, and Aurora finally demands that if she can’t be trusted to look after all her citizens, she has to abdicate the throne. Phillip backs her up. In Audrey’s mind, Leah is her beloved, doting grandmother who’s always been there for her (a little critical and controlling, maybe, but all in the name of helping Audrey be everything she needs to be, right? There’s totally no toxicity in that dynamic that she also needs to unpack now, right? Please?) But… though it breaks her heart, she agrees with her parents. Leah is not taking any of this well. So Audrey’s under a lot of stress at the moment. Mina observes this from the sidelines and realizes that Audrey is not a shallow prissy princess/popular girl stereotype, but a Person with Feelings. Feelings about relatable stuff like a family member being awful. Now that, a VK can’t help but sympathize with. They have their first really open and honest conversation after that when Mina steps in to offer the appreciated sentiment of ‘you’re not alone and you’ll get through this, keep going’ and the less appreciated promise to sic her dogs on her grandma if she wants. Then Audrey ends up turning to the Core Four and Uma’s crew for empathy and experienced help processing and healing from Leah’s years of emotional abuse and thus forges a much stronger bond with all of them. Leah is forced to give up the throne, don’t worry.

It actually takes Mina longer to officially forgive Mal than to enter Audrey’s good books. She really does hold a grudge!

[ao3feed--reylo]

Lost

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/uVhjCQK

by RaeleiaL, TheRavenSpeaks

A chance encounter with a little girl lost in the park changes Ben's life for the better. What started out as a deep friendship slowly evolves as they grow older.

Distance will take them away from each other, but what happens when they come together later in life?

Song Inspiration:

LosT - Bring Me The Horizon

Graphic Music Video but it's alot of fun!

Words: 1731, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Poe Dameron, Rey (Star Wars), Ben Solo, Rose Tico, Paige Tico, Finn (Star Wars), Leia Organa, Maz Kanata, Amilyn Holdo, Tico Family, Armitage Hux, Phasma (Star Wars), Bazine Netal, Other Character Tags to Be Added

Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Leia Organa/Han Solo, Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker

Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers, Best Friends, Soulmates, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Nothing Happens When Rey is a Child, Slow Romance, Eventual Relationships, Friendship/Love, Protective Ben Solo, Rey's Parents Abandoned Rey (Star Wars), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Age Difference, Adopted Rey, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey & Rose Tico Friendship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, No Beta, Eventual Smut, Hux is a dick but not completely irredeemable, Rey and Ben have other relationships

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/uVhjCQK

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

The thing is (rambling about my own OCs like they're Media I'm In The Fandom For) Neo+Ben's friendship is entertaining, but it's deeply about Neo not being willing to admit he's been seduced by Ben (platonically.) It's Neo thinking "fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyou" but running to him for protection. Post Chapter 1, though Ben can see in Neo's attitude that he's reticent, what Neo actually says to him is mostly caring. This is very reciprocal, in that Ben also keeps his distance in some aspects while outwardly asking for Neo's friendship in others. Basically, Neo's hater side is mostly shown through his attitude and not through his words.

What makes Neo+Keith a fantastic pair is that Neo is actually willing to be a fucking dick to him.

[skylarstark4826]

“Want to take a dunk in the reservoir?”

It’s high summer, and they are sweating bullets. Rey’s hives are properly installed in the backyard of her new place and they are sitting on her—presently empty—back porch, staring over the similarly empty garden, watching as her bees buzz hither and thither, trying to get used to the newness of their environment.

“Yeah,” Rey says, tilting her face up towards the sun. She likes the sun up north. It’s not so brutal and dry, and it doesn’t make her skin crack, except when she forgets to wear sunscreen too early in the autumn. She shoots Finn a look. “How long do we want to go for? Worth stopping and getting some hard lemonade?”

Finn’s face splits into a grin, and he gets to his feet and the two of them make their way through Rey’s empty house and back out to his car. They’ve left the windows open in case any of the bees hadn’t made it out of the car, and so it’s not ridiculously overheated despite sitting in the sun for the past hour. Rey kicks off her shoes and pops her feet onto the dashboard of the car stretching.

Moving the bees is the first step. Tonight, she’ll bring over her mattress and some of her clothes and begin the emotional work of actually moving out of the house she’s lived in for the past five years and into a new one. The house that has been home to her, that she’s become herself in, a place of safety and friendship and, most importantly, Finn. “It’s only a ten-minute drive,” she tells herself under guise of telling Finn as he pulls the car into the parking lot of the general store down the road. “It’s not like I’ll never see you again.”

“You won’t be rid of me that easily. And you won’t be alone, remember?” He waggles his eyebrows at her suggestively and she half-blushes. She knows he’s making an effort. She knows he’s never really liked Ben, or understood what she does. “Besides, we both know you’ll be on my couch for the next few weeks until Big Dick—”

“Don’t call him that.”

“—gets here with the furniture. I’m buying,” he adds. “Stay here.”

So she does.

She likes this car, likes the way it smells, likes the memories she has of it—two am tacos, road tripping to meet Jessika’s aunt who grows her own weed, rainy day carpooling and the sound of drops thrumming peace into her mind in a way she’d never known in the desert. She has her own car—a hunk of junk she’d cobbled together over the course of several years. Not particularly gas efficient, but it had been free in the making and that’s what had mattered. And Ben’ll have his car, when he gets here.

She pulls out her phone and texts him.

Just got the bees set up. This is real.

She tucks her phone away. It’s still early out west, and Ben sleeps late. He’s probably not even up yet. She brings her knees to her chest and watches Finn in the convenience store. He’s chatting with the cashier and a moment later he comes out with two six packs of hard lemonade which he puts in the second seat.

“No cooler, so we’ll have to drink them fast,” he tells her as he buckles up and starts the car up.

“Daydrinking and swimming. Perfect summer activities.”

“Amen, sister.”

The reservoir isn’t actually a reservoir, but Rey’s never known it to be called anything else. It’s huge, and lined with stone in a section near the road and it’s a great place to come and cool off in the summer. She hadn’t brought her swimsuit with her, but her underwear is dark and elastic enough to be mistaken for a swimsuit and she’ll keep her t-shirt on when she goes in the water and that’ll be fine enough for a Saturday in the late morning.

The water is perfect when she dives in and swims out into the middle of the reservoir. She expects that Finn’s right behind her. Finn’s always behind her, always racing her to the other side—two kids who’d never had siblings being wildly competitive with one another as always.

But when she gets to the center of the reservoir, she turns and Finn’s not there.

He’s standing under a tree, still on shore chatting with a girl in a t-shirt and shorts and big dark sunglasses. Rey is too far away to make out whether it’s a welcome conversation or one she needs to run interference on. He hasn’t got his arms crossed, so she suspects it’s the former and turns back to her swim, finishing the path to the far side of the reservoir before turning back. She can’t remember the last time Finn had actually talked to a girl. She’d asked him once, bluntly, if he were gay, and he’d shrugged and shaken his head and that had been that. So she can’t help but feel a little bit excited at the possibility that he’s chatting someone up right now.

Her muscles are tired and her heart is pounding by the time she makes it back to the tree and she is ready for some hard lemonade. Finn is sitting down with the girl and one of the girl’s friends—or so Rey presumes.

“Rey!” Finn says, waving, “This is Rose and her sister Paige. Rose, Paige—this is Rey.”

Rose is still wearing sunglasses, but she has a nice enough smile as Rey waves and bends down to grab some lemonade. Paige is watching her closely, and there’s something sharp to her eyes.

“Hi,” Rey says, a little breathless, sitting down next to Finn. Automatically, her hand reaches for her phone to check her notifications, to see if Ben’s texted her back. He hasn’t and she tosses it back onto her shorts before asking, “How’d you all meet then?”

“Last week at a bar when I was out with Poe,” Finn tells her. “When you were out west.” She pops the top off her hard lemonade and begins to drink it down. Finn got the brand that’s too sweet because he likes it more, which is probably why he offered to pay.

“Troublemaker, that Poe Dameron,” Rey says between sips. She’s thirstier than she wants to be, which means she’ll be drunker than she should be before long. Not that that matters too much. It’s Saturday, and she just set up her beehives in her new house, and soon she’ll have a mattress there. And she probably should buy groceries. Very adult, she is.

“Seems like it,” Paige says. She’s still got her eyes on Rey, but the moment that Rey looks her way, she turns to her sister. “Did you still want to head to the farmer’s market?”

“The one over on Westhill?” Rey asks, and Rose nods.

“Is it any good?” Rose asks her.

“Not after noon,” Finn says, “Most of the stuff’ll be gone by now—you’ll be left with the not very ripe stuff.”

“Still better than grocery store stuff, though, right?” Rose asks. “Supports local farmers and all that?”

“Sure,” Finn says, “But you’d better get going if that’s what you want.”

Rose looks at Paige and Paige gives her what Rey could only assume was a sisterly significant look. Then Rose gets to her feet.

“It was great seeing you again, Finn! And nice to meet you Rey.”

“And you!” Rey says, smiling up at her. Paige waves by way of farewell, and the sisters are off towards their car.

When they’re out of earshot, Rey glances at Finn. “They seem nice. You met at a bar?”

“Yeah,” Finn replies, stripping off his shirt and jerking his head towards the water. He hasn’t swum yet, and he gets hotter faster than Rey. She takes one final swig of her lemonade, emptying it before heading down to the water with him.

“I’m not going as far out as you,” she tells him, knowing her limits.

“Fine,” he shrugs. “Yeah, we met them down at Maz’s while you were fucking your brains out.” Rey doesn’t even bother denying that that was what she’d been doing out west. Sure, she’d been helping Ben pack, but she knows—she knows—he’s made more headway since she’d left than he had while she’d been there. Even if it takes him the rest of the month, which it just might, given the work schedule Snoke’s been forcing on him lately. “They just moved here. Rose is working at a children’s justice clinic and Paige is…I want to say she’s working in…tech?” He shrugs off Rey’s snort. “Poe was talking more to Paige. I only caught bits and pieces.”

“Only caught bits and pieces?” Rey asks, elbowing him. “Is that what the kids are—”

“It’s not like that,” Finn says, rolling his eyes and sounding suddenly defensive, which only makes Rey even more convinced that it was just like that, but she stops all the same. She doesn’t want Finn to get mad at her, right when she’s moving out. She doesn’t want to even begin to antagonize him, because what if it breaks everything, and sure, Ben’s moving east, and will be here in a few weeks, but she couldn’t bear it if anything breaks in her friendship with Finn. Finn stood by her, always, even if he doesn’t like Ben, even if he thinks it’s a mistake that they’re moving in together without a grace period of Ben being in the same town to see if short distance works as well as long distance, even if—

She stops that thought before she lets it get out of hand. Finn was the first person in her life who made her feel not worthless. She isn’t even going to let herself begin to think of worthlessness and Finn in the same sentence.

So instead of prodding him more, she swims at his side and asks him what other shenanigans he had gotten up to with Poe, and if she needs to be worried as worried about his future roommate as he’s worried about hers.

-

“Oh, lilies! I love lilies!” Rey says delightedly as she runs towards them, bending her nose down to smell.

“Lilies?” Finn says, writing them down in his phone. Ordinarily, they share the note taker role when they run errands. But when Rey’s around flowers, she loses her head a little bit.

“Lilies. And I want to get peony bulbs now that I live in a place that can grow peonies. And Roses. Lots and lots of roses.”

She catches it when she says the word roses, that flicker of Finn’s eyes, the way he looks around. “The flower, Finn.”

“Yeah, I know,” he mutters. “I didn’t take it any other way.”

“Sure.”

“You’re seeing things that aren’t there,” he tells her, but he’s avoiding her eyes.

“Am I?” the question is quiet, gentle, and when Finn looks at her, his face is soft.

“She’s nice. And I do like her. I do. But I don’t like herlike her. At least, I don’t think I do.”

“Have you ever liked liked anyone?” Rey asks. Because as long as she’s known Finn, and she’s known Finn for a long time at this point, she’s never seen him like like anyone.

Finn shakes his head.

“So how would you know?”

Finn glances at her. “Because it feels sort of like when I first met you. And I didn’t end up liking liking you, did I?”

Rey goes a bit cold, and crosses her arms over her chest. The smell of plants and dirt and living things filling the garden center becomes that much more pronounced.

A moment later, Finn’s arm is around her. “I’m not replacing you just because you’re moving out.”

“That’s not what I—”

“Sure it’s not,” he says and there’s a knowingness to his voice that is, frankly, unfair. Only Finn and Ben can pull this I know you better than you know yourself so cut the crap, will you? tone that almost always makes Rey feel off balanced.

It’s also why she loves them both so much. They make her feel balanced again.

She gives him a small smile and then turns back to the flowers. “Anyway,” she says, trying to pretend she hadn’t just been caught having a minor freak out by her best friend. “Roses.”

“Gotta love ‘em.”

“The queen of flowers.”

“You got it.”

-

Finn might have been joking, but he had also been right: even though Rey has moved out and Poe has moved in, Rey spends more time in the house than Poe does. She continues to flop about on the couch watching TV with Finn, or help him cook, or fix the faucet on the kitchen sink which always ends up busted because Finn isn’t careful with it when he’s turning the water off.

That’s how she meets Paige for the second time. Late one night as she and Finn are cuddled up on the couch together, trying to decide if they’re going to watch another movie or if they’re going to call it quits, Poe gets home and in his car is Paige.

“Hi!” Rey grins up at her, glancing between Paige and Poe. Paige waves at her. She looks a bit tired and glances at Poe, clearly unsure of how to proceed.

“Want something to drink?” he asks her and the two of them disappear into the kitchen.

“Should we make ourselves scarce?” Rey asks Finn.

“Probably,” Finn says. “Here’s hoping that Poe’s sex noises will be less traumatizing than you and—”

“Stop.”

“Ben Big Dick Solo.”

“One time I mention how big his dick is and you are never going to let it go.”

“Listen, whatever helps me understand that relationship,” Finn teases.

“Yes, because I’m so the type of person who dates someone because of how big their dick is.” From the kitchen she hears Paige talking about flying for the Air Force, and Poe sounding very impressed with that.

“I know you’re not dating him for his dick,” Finn says. “That’s why I call him Big Dick.” He pats her shoulder conciliatorily. “And it’s not like I should be judgmental, I suppose. You at least have someone who makes you happy.”

As if the gods had heard the comment, Paige’s voice drifts in from the kitchen saying, “Yeah, it was just me and Rose. Nothing ages you quite like having to help your kid sister through school.”

“It must be wonderful to be so close,” Poe says.

“She’s the best part of everything,” Paige says very seriously.

“We should make ourselves scarce,” Rey says now, because she hears what sounds very much like a breath hitching and a sigh. “Hope it’s not too traumatic for you.” She gets up off the couch and slips out the front door, hearing Finn’s door shut behind him as she goes.

She gets a stream of texts from Finn as she drives.

Still traumatic, even when it’s not you and Ben.

Rey grins at her phone.

In the middle of the night, she wakes up for water and sees another text from Finn.

Fuck, I think I like like Rose.

Please tell me this isn’t because you just heard your roommate banging her sister and it gave you ideas.

She expects Finn to be asleep, but he starts typing right away.

Ew, no.

God why would you say that?

Mostly to give you shit about Big Dick.

Ugh. I suppose I’ll have earned the mockery, won’t I?

Yes. But I’ll give you a grace period from here on out until you actually get with her.

That’s good of you.

I’ve never actually dated anyone before. I have no idea what I’m doing.

What if I wasn’t meant for this?

And there it is—she sees it now. The reason that Finn had never seemed interested in anyone, the reason that he’d never tried dating apps, or picking up people in bars. Finn, like Rey, was a child of loneliness, a child of abandonment, and there’s nothing like abandonment to make you afraid to make connections. Afraid of committing to someone who wouldn’t commit back.

I didn’t either. I don’t think anyone ever really does. It’ll be ok. I’m here for you.

<3

Rey tucks her phone to her chest as if she’s hugging Finn now. This is big. She knows it. This is bigger than anything he’s ever done—admitting to himself that he wants to connect to someone. She’s so proud of him.

And she’s also scared for him.

-

Rey gets a text from Finn right as she’s getting out of work.

Rose invited me to participate in a charity race she’s helping to organize. Want to join?

Sure!

When?

Next Saturday.

Rey is wide open next Saturday. She is wide open until Ben finally drives across the country with all his furniture. She’d planned on getting her garden set up after placing her flower orders, but that can wait until Sunday.

Will I be third wheeling?

No—she asked if I wanted to invite you, so it would be weird if I didn’t, right?

I could still flake.

Yeah, but if I’m going for it, she also has to get to know you. You’re a done deal in my life.

<3

Ok I’ll come, but we both know I run faster than you so I will…casually run faster than you after a while so you can let the adrenaline and the companionship take over.

You do not run faster than me.

I do.

And in this case, you’d better be glad I do.

-

Rey knows that she’s not supposed to check on her bees too frequently, but she can’t help it in the first week after she moves. She puts on her whites and her netted hat and goes over to her hives, listening carefully to the gentle thrumming of more bees than she can count doing their little bee thing in the hives that she’s set up towards the back of the garden.

It’s early evening, the sun is going down and purple and red streaks slash their way across the sky. She takes a picture of it and texts it to Ben.

Can’t wait to spend evenings here with you.

Nothing makes me want to get in my car and go more than that.

Do you have an updated ETD?

No. Snoke’s trying to get me to change my departure date.

You’re considering it?

He doesn’t reply immediately, and she knows he is. She sighs. “Ben, just get out of there.”

If it’s like…a week I will. It’ll make the financial transition that much smoother. If it’s more than that, it’s a no, but he’s dragging his feet on specifics.

I don’t see how that benefits him.

He tends to make dumbass choices that don’t always benefit him. Especially around me.

I’m so glad you’re quitting.

I miss you.

Love you.

I’ll be there soon I promise.

-

Rey wakes up way too early on Saturday and drives over to—to Finn’s.   God it’s weird thinking about that place as Finn’s. Not hers. Hers is the house devoid of furniture and the one with bees in the backyard, not the one with the broken faucet and Poe’s sex noises. She waits in the driveway for ten minutes until Finn shows up in shorts and a t-shirt, looking particularly grumpy.

“Remind me why I’m doing this?”

“Because proceeds will help children in the foster system and the girl you’re trying to get with is organizing it.”

“It’s six in the morning,” he whines.

“It is,” Rey agrees. “We have time to stop for coffee if you like.”

“The last time I ran after coffee I thought my heart was going to explode.”

“If you run with Rose, you’ll have the same feeling.”

“I thought there was a moratorium on teasing.”

“Oops. Yes. Sorry.”

They drive in silence. The roads are mostly empty of other cars, but as they approach the kickoff of the race, they start to see tons of cars parked along the road. “Something tells me,” Finn begins slowly, squinting as he looks down the road, scanning for a parking spot.

“Yup,” Rey sighs and she pulls over, parks, and cracks the windows. “It’ll be a warm up,” she tells Finn as they get out of the car. “My legs are still too stiff.”

“How do you always manage to be so positive?” Finn mutters as they walk along the road.

“Years of self-delusion that my parents actually cared about me?” Finn throws an arm over her shoulder and squeezes. “Come on, let’s go.”

They arrive at the registration, get their numbers, stretch, and it’s only with five minutes left before the race starts that Rose appears at Finn’s shoulder.

“Hi!” she says. She sounds tired. “Sorry—one of our volunteers called in sick so I needed to help out.”

“All good,” Finn says cheerily. “Hope it wasn’t too much.”

Rose shrugs. “It’s always too much, but someone’s got to do it, right?” She smiles at Rey. “How’s your morning going? Thanks so much for coming. I know it’s early.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Rey smiles at Rose. Like getting you and Finn together. “And I’m sort of a morning person so up a little bit earlier isn’t the worst in the world.”

The race begins and they’re off amidst a throng of people. Almost immediately, the long-time runners take off ahead of the rest of the joggers. “I can’t imagine being a runner like that,” Rose says. “I mean, it’s good and all, but to have the stamina for that…”

Finn casts Rey a look and she almost elbows him. Ben’s a runner. Not just a jogger, someone fit—he can go for miles and hours, legs flying without seeming to break a sweat at all. “You can work towards it,” Finn says. “Rey’s been dragging me out for the past few years and at first I could barely manage a mile. Now, though…”

“I can only get myself out for things like this,” Rose says. She’s already panting, but she looks determined. “If I know that it’s going to help, I’ll do it. Especially if it’s like…what’s the worst that can happen? My muscles are super sore? That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason not to. But getting myself out of bed for regular jogging…” she laughs.

“We’ll just have to organize more charity runs to get you out,” teases Rey. Rose is a slow runner. Slower even than Finn. Ben would already have ditched her.

“How’s your week been?” Finn asks, and Rey can hear subtle nervousness in his voice, as though he is afraid of letting any conversation fall apart.

Rose heaves a sigh. “Long,” she says. “I only just started, but this race was so badly organized and they could tell I wouldn’t say no to tackling it.” She sighs—or rather tries to. It comes out more as a pant. “And I don’t mind. Really I don’t. Anything to help out, and get the lay of the land. But still—”

“Stressful.”

“Yeah,” Rose gives him a smile, cheeks flushed, forehead shining with sweat. “It won’t be this bad again. I’ll own things from the beginning and won’t get dropped in in the middle to clean up other people’s messes.”

Rey decides it’s as good a time as any to pull ahead so she does, trying to imagine Ben’s voice in her head as she goes. They don’t run together frequently—mostly because he’s a runner and Rey’s not—but every time they do, he’s always encouraging. She can just imagine his reaction to the text she’ll send him when this is all over I just ran a 5k and you’re not out of bed yet. Did we bodyswap or something?

Every now and then, she checks over her shoulder to see how far back Finn and Rose are. The answer is: increasingly far back. Rose’s pace only seems to be slowing and Finn is matching her. They look good together, Rey thinks, and already gleeful. Finn has a crush. Finn has a crush. Finn has a crush!

And Rose seems like she has a good head on her shoulders—at least based on the very minimal conversations Rey has had with her. Finn’s talked to her more extensively, and he has good taste in people. Like Rey, he’s not too quick to trust.

But he trusts Rose.

And more importantly, he likes likes Rose.

Rey finishes the race a good twenty minutes before they do. She grabs water, sits in the sunshine, and sends Ben a selfie as a “pics, it happened” proof that she had just run a 5k. By the time Finn and Rose show up, they are walking, and Rose’s hand is clamped over her side in the exact place that a stitch would happen.

They’re still talking, and she watches as Finn gets Rose a water, which she downs quickly before they both look around for Rey.

“Sorry about the stitch,” Rey says, and Rose smiles at her, flushing a little.

“I got some shin splints too, so it’s best you ran ahead,” Finn teases.

“Oh no. Ill-fated race,” Rey says. “Apart from everything running smoothly for the cause,” she adds with a smile at Rose. “Pancakes? My treat for abandoning you?”

Both are eager, and Rose texts Paige to say she doesn’t need to be picked up and they make their way back to Rey’s car.

There’s some awkwardness getting in the car. Finn tries to get into the back seat with Rose so that she’s not sitting by herself, but Rose ends up thinking he’s offering her the front. Rey shoots Finn a look in the rearview as she pulls out, and he shrugs.

Pancakes are ordered and, for Finn, some overdue coffee. Rey runs off to the bathroom for a moment and when she returns, she finds the two of them deep in conversation already.

“It was hard,” Rose says, “Especially when Paige was in the Air Force. Not having parents to support you and having your base pulled away was…well, I grew up,” she shrugs sadly.

Rey slides into the booth next to Finn. “If I can ask,” she says quietly, “What happened to your parents?”

“They died when I was very little,” Rose says and there’s anger in her eyes suddenly. “We lived near this factory that dumped all sorts of shit in the water. And it killed my parents. My grandma was living with us and she always boiled and filtered the water before letting us drink it, but my parents thought she was being ridiculous.”

“I’m so sorry,” Rey says.

“Thanks.” Rose sighs and looks out at the window. Her eyes are a bit bright, and she looks like she’s trying to get hold of herself again. Rey knows that feeling very well. “Nothing ever happened with the company that did it. They still are dumping shit in the water as far as I know. Because, you know, money is more important to them than people’s lives.” She turns back from the window and pulls a smile on her face that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Capitalism’s the worst,” she says forcefully.

“It is,” Rey agrees darkly, taking a sip of her water, determinedly not letting herself remember years of poverty that she had endured for no reason that made any logical sense at all. “You’re lucky you had your sister. She seems wonderful.”

“She is!” Rose says and the anger fades almost instantly from her face. “She makes me think I can do anything. She’s the former pilot, but she’s never once made me feel as though that’s cooler than what I’m doing.”

“What you’re doing is cool,” Finn tells her. “Wanting to help people in need, trying to make people’s lives better—that is cool. That’s the kind of shit that I wish I’d gotten when I was growing up. That we both did,” he adds, nodding to Rey.

Rose looks at Rey curiously, but it’s Finn who tells her. “Rey’s in the no-parents club too. We met in foster care.”

“Oh,” Rose says slowly looking between the two of them. But whatever it is that she’s thinking, she does not say. Instead, her gaze turns behind Finn’s and Rey’s backs and she says, “I think pancakes are incoming.”

They are, and they’re delicious, and it’s not long before Finn and Rose are laughing about Paige and Poe, who have apparently been ridiculously all over one another in the past week.

Finn heads to the bathroom before they head out and Rey and Rose head out to the car to wait for him. “He’s a good guy,” Rose says. “You’re lucky to have him.”

“I am,” Rey says. “I don’t know where I’d be without Finn. He’s the best person I know.” Because it’s the truth. He is—by far and away—the best person she knows, and she doesn’t know where she’d be without him. Probably still in that junk yard.

They smile and nod, and now is when Rey feels how she’s been pulling back from the conversation so that Finn can talk to Rose because she doesn’t know what to say at all. Luckily, it’s not long before Finn joins them and she takes them all back towards their various homes.

-

She said you’re a good guy, thought you should know.

Rey texts Finn after she gets out of the shower. He’d been too busy gushing about Rose in the five minutes between her house and his, analyzing every interaction they’d had from the race through to pancakes for Rey to tell him in person.

He doesn’t reply right away, so she figures he’s in the shower still. But when he does reply, it’s not quite what she expects.

Is it normal to feel this anxious about someone? Like I feel like I’m going to be sick.

This isn’t sustainable.

Finn has never been one for waiting. Rey’s the patient one—Finn’s flighty. And his flightiness is showing.

It’s normal.

I promise. 

She likes you. It’s so obvious.

You should ask her out.

She expects him to react with a thumb’s up, or maybe with a “ok I’m gonna do it,” because Finn’s always been decisive about doing things that he wants to do.

But instead,

What if she says no? I can’t.

I couldn’t handle that.

I don’t think she’ll say no.

But what if she does?

Why would she say no? She thinks you’re a great guy.

What if she just thinks that I was trying to be friends with her in order to get in her pants.

If she says no, would you still want to be her friend?

Yes.

And would you begrudge her saying no?

Fuck no.

Then she’d be an idiot to think that.

<3 

Take a deep breath. You can do it.

The worst that can happen is that you’ve made a new friend, right?

He doesn’t reply.

Because she knows him well enough to know that the worst that can happen is he’ll take it as a sign that maybe he wasn’t meant to be loved. They’re too much alike like that. The no-parents club, he’d jokingly called it. He’s less open than Rey is about the impact of his parents, but she sees it strong as sunlight in moments like this when he’s worried he’s unloveable.

As if he even could be unloveable.

“Finn,” she whispers at her phone, but he doesn’t reply, and after a few minutes she sighs, and puts the thing down, and goes out to the garden to work on planting. She sweats in the sunlight for a few hours before she goes back inside and sees Finn’s reply.

I’m gonna ask her. Or try to. Knowing me I’ll fuck it up. Lol.

You’re not going to fuck it up. You’re going to do great.

And she’ll be lucky to have you.

-

I tried.

I don’t think it worked.

I don’t think I made it clear.

Rey stares at her phone and decides that calling is better than texting in this instance, so she does.

“Ok,” Finn says without preamble when he picks up. “I ran into her at the grocery store just now, and we chatted and shopped together. And I brought up that Poe is throwing a party this weekend,” he laughs bitterly, “Which of course she already knew because Paige is going and it’s definitely a way to introduce Paige to all of Poe’s friends as well as house-warming him or whatever. So I tell her this,” and he takes a deep breath, “And I was like, you should come, and she was like ‘sure’ before I could even say ‘with me’ and then she asked if you were going to be there too, and before I even knew what to say, I said yes, so you should come and help me drown my misery and humiliation.”

“Of course I’ll be there,” Rey says loyally. “I’ll be there talking you up the whole time.”

“Thanks,” Finn mumbles on the other end of the phone. Then he lets out a frustrated groan. “It’s easier to not care about people. Why did I decide to care about people?”

“Because you’re not a heartless, soulless stiff?” Rey suggests. “Because you’re more than people told you you could be your whole life? Because you’re—”

“I get it, I get it,” Finn says. She can hear the embarrassed insecurity in his voice.

“Trust me I could go on for hours.”

Finn’s quiet for a moment, before he says. “Save it for Rose, ok?”

“On it, boss,” she smiles.

-

The party at Finn’s place is nothing like any party at Finn’s place that Rey has ever attended—entirely because it’s not her and Finn throwing it: it’s Poe.

Poe has a louder taste in parties. He was in a frat in college, and tends to invite his frat bros to things, and that means there’s a lot more beer and a lot more shouting and a lot more loud music than the get-togethers that she and Finn had hosted.

Rey tries not to take it personally when she sees one of Poe’s friends downing beer as though he were nineteen and getting so drunk that he spills his next solo cup all over the floor. It’s not her place. She doesn’t have to clean it up later.

Rose and Paige arrive about an hour after Rey does, at which point Poe and most of his friends are at that glassy-eyed slurred-word stage of drunk. Paige seems to take it in stride, though, heading into the kitchen where Poe plants a wet kiss on her cheek and taking two shots—one right after the other.

“Not much your scene?” Rose asks. Rey’s sitting on the couch that had once been hers with a cup of beer in her hand, wallflowering.

“Not too much,” she replies. “But what can you do?” She raises her beer to her lips and tries to smile into it. She’s going slow. She always goes slow. She’s a handsy drunk, and when Ben’s far away, she ends up a lonely drunk too. Finn’s usually good at assuaging that, but tonight is about Finn and Rose, and she wouldn’t dare monopolize him. He’s in the kitchen with Poe—not quite as drunk as the others, but—even as Rey glances at him, she watches him take a deep drink of beer.

“It’s good of you to be here,” Rose says, sitting down next to her.

“Do you want something to drink?” Rey asks her.

“Nah. Not yet,” Rose replies.

“And I wouldn’t miss it,” Rey adds in response to Rose’s first comment. “Wouldn’t leave Finn to this on his own.”

Rose grins. “Not much his scene either?”

“More his than mine,” Rey shrugs, “but still. Never good to leave anyone alone to that crowd for too long. Good thing you’re here to keep an eye on Paige.”

“She can handle herself,” Rose says proudly. “I’ve seen her deck drunken assholes who’ve tried to grope her before.”

“A true hero,” Rey replies. “She’ll need it, if she’s going to be with Poe.”

“What do you mean?” Rose asks quickly, her eyes flashing at anything that might mean trouble for Paige.

“Oh—not like that,” Rey says at once. “Poe’s a good guy. Finn wouldn’t be friends with him if he weren’t.” There, weaving Finn in. Just like she’d promised. “But his friends can be…a lot.”

As if to prove her point for her, Snap uses his skull to crush a beer can. Rose grimaces.

“Something tells me I won’t be coming to a lot of these,” Rose says. “I love Paige, but this…isn’t my scene.”

“You’ve got to, though,” Rey says at once. “You can’t leave Finn alone to it.”

She watches Rose’s eyes land on Finn, watches the way Rose’s face softens, and then stiffens. She looks sad, all of a sudden.

“I’m going to get a drink,” she says, getting to her feet. “Do you want more of anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Rey says, waving her solo cup. She pulls out her phone and takes a sip and texts Ben.

I’m getting increasingly drunk and I miss you.

She doesn’t expect him to reply straight away. He’s packing, and she’s sure he’s listening to loud music as he does so because he focuses better when there’s loud music playing. She wonders what he’d be like if he were here now, too. Probably curled around her on this couch, or maybe looming over Poe’s friends—taller and angrier than all of them. She sighs. Yeah, the loneliness is setting in.

She glances at the kitchen. Finn and Rose are chatting happily, and Paige has taken another shot and is arguing loudly with Oddy. I could leave, she thinks. No one would miss me.

Stop being a sad drunk, she berates herself. Just because Finn’s got his eyes on someone else doesn’t mean he wouldn’t miss you if you were gone.

As if he knew, somewhere across the country, that she was lonely, Ben texts her back.

I miss you too. I’ll be there soon. Are you having fun?

She doesn’t type out, Not really, because that would be giving into the drunkenness, so instead she replies with,

Not as much as I would if you were here.

I bet.

She can hear him snorting at her, see him rolling his eyes, and wishes he were there to soften both with a kiss to her temple.

She sighs, and gets up, and goes to the bathroom. She’s had enough beer to mean that peeing should happen sometime soon.

She keeps texting Ben from the toilet.

I miss you.

I miss you too and you already said that.

Are you just saying it because you’re feeling frisky? How drunk are you?

She smiles fondly at her screen. She wonders if he knows how low she’s feeling and is trying to lighten it all for her. Her throat tightens.

You know me too well.

She gets up, flushes, washes her hand and as she’s leaving, three things happen at once.

The first is that Ben texts her a dick pic—which he’s typed the words thinking of you onto.

The second is that she walks straight into Paige Tico who clearly also wanted to use the bathroom.

And the third is that her phone drops out of her hand, landing face up.

“Sorry,” she and Paige say in unison as they both bend down to grab her phone.

Paige freezes when her eyes land on the screen and Rey is blushing furiously as she grabs it and tucks it into her pocket, straightening.

Before she knows what’s happening, Paige has shoved her into the bathroom, slamming the door. She looks livid.

“Are you cheating on Finn?” she hisses, her grip tightening on Rey’s wrist.

“I—what?”

“Because I spent two hours today trying to convince my sister that her crushing on a taken guy wasn’t worth the broken heart that she’s got, and that she should just be friends with him and be happy with that because he’s got this top-notch girlfriend who he cares the world about. So are you fucking cheating on him?”

Rey stares at Paige.

Then, because she’s drunk and because she can’t help it at all, she starts to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Paige snarls.

Rey pulls her phone back out and cancels out of the text thread with Ben. She opens her camera roll from her trip out west a few weeks ago and starts scrolling through it—selfies she’d taken with him looking grumpy, pictures of him when he didn’t think she was paying attention. She’s too drunk to care that there’s a picture of Ben’s ass in there. It’s not like Paige hadn’t just seen a picture of his dick, after all. “This is my boyfriend, Ben,” she says. “I’ve been dating him for three years. The reason I moved out of this house is because he and I are moving in together when he gets east. So no, I’m not cheating on Finn. I’m really not cheating on Finn. Now Finn doesn’t like Ben, but I don’t think that’s jealousy, I think that’s because Ben has a tendency to be an asshole and used to be more possessive than he is now,” she glances up at Paige. “I knocked that out of him pretty fast. I’m not a possession.”

“You moved out?” Paige repeats slowly, her eyes still narrow. It is clear she is sizing up what Rey has just told her, running through every time she’d seen Rey curled up on the couch with Finn when she was over to see Poe.

“Yeah, almost a month ago. Poe’s in my old room. He didn’t tell you?”

“We focused on other things,” Paige says coolly, and she looks distinctly as though she’s going to heat back up and maybe start snarling again but there’s a knock on the door. “Paige?” comes Rose’s voice. She sounds miserable and Paige glares at Rey as though that misery is entirely her fault and opens the door. “Can we go?” Rose asks quietly, but Paige grabs Rose and the bathroom is much too small for three people but Paige does not care at all.

“You’re telling her what you just told me,” Paige glares at Rey as though daring her to lie.

Rey scrolls back through her pictures to a selfie she’d taken with Ben on the beach. “This is my boyfriend,” she tells Rose. “Not Finn. Finn’s my best friend in the whole world and I will fight anyone to the death for him. But he’s not my boyfriend. I love him, but I’m not in love with him.”

Rose stares at the picture of Ben and Rey for a long while, then looks back at Rey. She looks like she’s processing it all through a haze, and Rey glances back at Paige, who still looks like she’s fuming. “You,” Rey says at last, tucking her phone away again and placing both hands on Rose’s shoulders, “Should go get him.” Rose doesn’t say a word and Rey continues. “You really should. Like, really, really—”

Rose turns away from her sharply and opens the door. Paige shoots Rey a whole new kind of glare as the two of them follow Rose out of the bathroom. Rose is making a beeline for the kitchen, and a moment later Rey and Paige stop dead in their tracks because she’s grabbed Finn by the front of his t-shirt and is kissing him, hard.

Finn stiffens. He’s not one for public displays of affection, and as far as Rey’s aware, he’s never been kissed in his life. Karé lets out a whistle and Rose jumps back, away from him. Rey can’t see her face, but she’s looking up at Finn and Finn is staring at her like he can’t look away.

Then he grabs her hand and pulls her out of the kitchen and onto the back deck and a modicum of privacy.

Rey turns back to Paige. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let it get that far,” Rey tells her. She doesn’t have a sister, but if this sort of confusion had been happening to Finn, well—she’d need to hear it too. “I promise. I’ve been talking him up for days, trying to get him to ask her out.”

She can tell that Paige is going to need to walk it off. She can’t really begrudge her that, though, and lets her go off to the kitchen, and more shots, and Poe and his friends.

Rey pulls her phone back out and texts Finn.

Heading out. I want details but don’t you dare give them to me now. Focus on Rose.

I also have a story for you when it’s not tonight.

She calls a rideshare and waits on the front porch. She opens her text thread with Ben again and looks at the picture he’d sent earlier, and the message he’d sent right after.

Call me when you get home. It’ll still be early out here.

She smiles to herself, and looks up at the stars, and the fear of loneliness from earlier in the night fades as she lets the sound of crickets overtake her thoughts.

-

Rey wakes to about ninety text messages from Finn.

She kissed me!!!

I mean

You probably saw that??

But she kissed me!!

And then we talked a lot

She thought you were my girlfriend??

(Weird.)

And apparently has liked me this whole time and was just confused.

Because she thought you were my girlfriend.

She told me about how you told her about Ben

(How did she not know about Big Dick you talk about him all the time?)

Rey snorts at that, but keeps reading.

Anyway, we’re getting dinner tonight. 

And seeing a movie. 

And you are NOT invited this time.

What was the story you had for me?

It’s still fairly early and Rey makes herself a cup of tea with some of last year’s honey before going out onto her back deck, the gentle hum of her bees and the aroma of her garden enveloping her as she begins to type.

You’ll have to thank Big Dick when he gets east because it’s a picture of his Big Dick that caused Paige to think I was cheating on you because she saw it.

I thought she’d murder me.

Finn starts replying and Rey frowns at her phone.

Why are you up weren’t you wooing your lady last night?

Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about how all of this worked.

And ugh, do I really have to thank Big Dick?

No. I won’t even say you’re forever indebted.

Just that it’s made two very important ladies in your life very happy.

STOP

Rey laughs and sends him a string of heart emojis and an eggplant for good measure.

I’m so happy for you. I can’t stop smiling.

I can’t either. 

I can’t believe this is real.

Tell her that, not me.

Get in the habit of telling her things.

She’s not replacing you.

No, but if you don’t get in the habit of telling her things you want to tell me, it’s not going to last. 

You can tell them to me too. 

Just make sure you’re not only telling me.

Love you.

Love you too.

Have fun at your movie tonight.

Also the moratorium is now over and I get to make lots of fun of you now.

She sends him a few more eggplants before leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes, feeling perfectly content.

-

“Just how much stuff does he have?” Rose asks, staring at the moving truck. They’re standing on the sidewalk in front of her—her and Ben’s—house, having refused all of Rey’s “you don’t have to”s when they’d offered to help her unpack all of Ben’s shit. (“I seem to have an honor debt or something,” Finn had groaned, rolling his eyes.)

“You’ve seen her house, right?” Finn teases Rose, his arm thrown over her shoulders. “Like—she doesn’t even have a bedframe. She has a mattress and some lawn chairs and her bees. That’s it.”

Ben’s getting out of his car which is loaded with stuff too. Rey leaves Finn and Rose behind as she hurries towards him, and a moment later, she’s in his arms, standing on the tips of her toes to kiss him.

“Hi,” she tells him.

“Hi,” he replies, smiling down at her. He’s got dark circles under his eyes and looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, but he’s here, and solid, and so comfortingly warm even in the late summer heat.

“Welcome home,” she tells him, and kisses him again.

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 072 Silvermane Dies (SSM 69-71)

MASTERPOST

Hehe, 69...

In this post, we some some guests back, and I analyze Peter Parker's mindset post-first Clone Saga (=after Conway's run).

Also, I get really, really tired of Debra Whitman.

Hey, that's a cool cover!

And a gorgeous top half of the first page.

And the trend continues.

So the Cloak and Dagger investigate drugs, which apparently come from Silvermane...

I'm sorry but this issue is so gorgeous!

Peter reminisces about Uncle Ben in his old house, which May wants to refurbish to make into a "boarding house for oldsters".

Nathan Lubenski notices Spidey leaving the house and is curious about that. He also has a plan to get money and make of May's dream a reality.

After an unproductive encounter with our mysterious duo, Peter's back in class, having trouble following what Dr Sloan's teaching.

He's a dick to each one of his colleagues, particularly to Debra, who knows his secret...

But I do love his outfit so I forgive him.

I think it's pretty clear that Peter's downright avoiding any sort of social interaction by pretexting he needs to be Spider-Man and arrest some goons any time he feels stressed. It's a coping mecanism, and we see more and more how terrible it is. He doesn't have any actual friendship with any of his colleague; his old friends are nowhere to be seen. Ever since the clone debacle, Peter has had no solid relationship.

You could almost write meta about it, because it's been a constant thing for what, 6 years of publication now? Some of it may be accidental, some of it may just be the writer's impression of how Peter behaved before, but I feel like it's been much worse for a while now.

Peter Parker has been depressed ever since Gwen's death, the clone saga seriously messed him up, and developing relationships has probably felt (unconsciously?) impossible.

Like sure, Wein's run was mostly action. Wolfman's run wasn't much better. Meanwhile, Spectacular has been quite flat, static, and uninteresting. I'm latching onto any social aspect, but it's far from fascinating like the Coffee Bean Gang could be.

Stern, you CAN do something about it. But I'm not sure you plan to. And Bill Mantlo's SSM issues so far aren't stellar.

I don't know, I feel like at this point, it's been a phase of his life, where Peter's meandering and mostly fights unconsequential fights.

...

Anyway.

To find Silvermane, Jean DeWolff tells Spidey he has to go talk to the Kingpin, whose adress is no secret.

Hello, handsome.

The Kingpin gladly gives him the address. He's likeable now! I like him. I'm not asking for more Kingpin, but if "more Kingpin" = "more Kingpin like this", I won't mind!

Anyway, Silvermane's in a pretty sorry state, and the Dagger ends up killing him.

Blood, again! (See last post.)

Spidey's getting GRUESOME. Edgy? I don't know, it still feels weird.

In #70, Silvermane's doctor attempts to revive him and Peter has to escape.

Alright, I'll accept it.

That's a great expression.

Anyway, what happened with Saruman?

This is frankly disgusting.

Could Peter's teachers stop being assholes? I know it's give exposition, but there's a moment where constant reminding of some things throughout some characters really sounds awful.

However, he calls Biff "preppy" and I'll take that as another confirmation of his bisexuality.

Anyway...

This is miserable. These characters are miserable and that storyline is miserable. I can't imagine following the magazine at the time of publication. 6+ years of pushing poor Debra around with little to no progress. Jeez.

Apparently, she leaves in SSM 74, and to be honest, I can't wait because this whole thing has been sad to witness.

Anyway, Silvermane "dies" "again" ("probably") and everything ends well.

She has a teddy bear, which is great, but goddamnit girl, get a hold of yourself!

Alright, 71 time.

During a robbery, the victim shoots a thief dead while Spidey attempts to resolve the situation.

Then: a discussion on gun violence.

Quick, someone tell Robbie 1980 is not happening anytime soon because Gwen died, like, two years ago at this point.

The discussion reads like baby's first "guns in the US" debate, it lacks subtlety but at the same time, I welcome the message. It's a shame things are no different 4 decades later.

The subject is upfront throughout the entire issue. Very upfront. I think the shocking aspect works, at the very least.

Anyway, the weapons are found.

I just like seeing angsty Peter.

[loopyarts]

Yes yes thousands times yes you get it and I wholeheartedly agree with you. 👏👏👏

Here mate let me give you a few more examples of them seeing each other as father and son. It honestly baffles me how people think this is somehow a modern concept to their relationship. That some folks even imply that DC in the modern day is making them this way because of heteronormative means and American nuclear family values. Or in an attempt to erase a deep male friendship or the original intention of them being brothers and that they were never supposed to be read as father and son which is simply isn’t true.

Seriously shot me, like I went out of my way to fact check just to make sure that I wasn’t second guessing myself. Like here is the truth about them they were always all three dammit bestie/brothers/father/son this is how they always were. 👏👏👏

The Trial of Bruce Wayne.”Batman #57 By Bill Finger, art Dick Sprang and Charles Paris released in 1950 Golden Age. Here’s an example of an outsider saying that Bruce loves that kid like he was his own son and an example of Dick saying you’re like a father to me to Bruce.

Not having father/son relationship coding in the comics they say, they're only brothers they say, they’re only partners/good friends they say. Like come on people can you not read subtext it’s right bloody there. One of the most on the nose example was from Batman #66 written by Bill finger art Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Charles Paris released in August-September 1951 Golden Age.

Also worth noting Bruce being an overbearing and controlling father figure at times with Dick is nothing new as well. Dick’s perfectionism and wanting to please his father figure who he idolises is something that goes way back even to his Golden Age and Silver Age version of the character.

Panels from Detective Comics #228, Written by Jack Schiff Henry Boltinoff Jack Miller art by Win Mortimer, Bob Kane, Ruben Moreira, Henry Boltinoff, Joe Certa, Ira Schnapp, editor Whitney Ellsworth released in December 20, 1955-February 1956 Golden Age.

Here’s another example of Dick acknowledging that he see Bruce like a father. Also I added the panel of Dick punching Bruce because one I thought it was funny and two he totally deserves a good socking every once in a while.

Robin’s new boss Batman #137 written by Bill Finger, art by Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris released in February, 1961 Silver Age. Bruce again saying he’s like a father to Dick.

Another example from the Silver age era is World’s Finest #195 by written by Jack Miller, Bob Haney, art by Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Howard Sherman, editors Mort Weisinger, E. Nelson Bridwell released in August 1970. Like damn even in the bloody Silver Age where they were written to be seen as brothers mostly the father/son thing still pops up.

Batman #339 by Written by Gerry Conway, Pencilers Irv Novick, Inkers Steve Mitchell, Colorists Adrienne Roy, Letterers Ben Oda, Editors Dick Giordano, Dave Manak released in September, 1981 Bronze Age. Man this comic page is so beautiful to me. Also an example of Dick seeing his mother and father within Bruce and how he sees him like a second father.

Batman #438 by Written by Marv Wolfman, Penciler Pat Broderick, Inker John Beatty, Colorist Adrienne Roy, Letterer John Costanza released in September 1989 Modern Age.

An example of Dick saying he was like a father to me and how he loves his second father despite well Bruce being mostly an ass in the Modern Age era of comics.

Batman #439 written by Marv Wolfman, art Pat Broderick and Michael Bair released in September 1989 Modern Age.

The main conflict of the adoption drama was honestly more recent than one would think. Marv Wolfman was the one who started this whole Dick not wanting Bruce as a father and that he already has a father John Grayson making it be an actually issue; when it really wasn’t beforehand. Like as I have shown in the Golden Age and Silver Age even the Bronze Age examples Dick wasn’t necessarily that shy about letting it slip every once in a while that he viewed Bruce as like a second father.

But then again Dick was a freshly traumatised young lad, when this court of custody was happening within this comic universe. But even so this blend of Bronze and Modern Age Dick still viewed Bruce as a father figure despite being so bitter and hurt by how he was treated by him in this era. A mediocre to rubbish dad is still well a dad.

But overall the father/son thing was pretty consistent in all of the eras of comics with them. Which makes sense to me after all one of Batman main cores of his character is being father/parental figure and without Robin/Dick Grayson that would have never happened.

Batman #340 by Written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, Penciler Gene Colan, Inker Adrian Gonzales, Colorist Adrienne Roy, Letterer Ben Oda released in July 9, 1981 Bronze Age.

Slightly off topic but thank you Bronze Age Bruce. So at least in this comic it nice to know they were using an older version of the Law of Wardship. Here’s a link to a paper that dives into USA Wardship/Guardianship in the 1900s it’s a very interesting read. :3c

https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=law_faculty

Now about the brothers thing I think what has happened is that people have taken Bill finger interview from 1972 recently rediscovered in 2011 to heart. Here’s a quote from that interview ‘I thought of it in terms of … Frank Merriwell and Dick Merriwell, his half-brother, who was the kid he was taking care of. …’.

Here’s a link to the interview if care to read it for yourself. I cry because the ghost of that book author still haunts Bruce and Dick to this very day.

https://www.noblemania.com/2012/02/batman-and-robin-gay-bill-finger-said.html

But what I have noticed is that people seemed to have missed something about what he was saying. Frank Merriwell was taking care of his little half brother Dick Merriwell perhaps as a parental figure to him. I have no idea because I haven’t read the books, so I am not completely too sure myself on that front. But it would seem to me that maybe Bill was interested in the parental angle of their relationship. 🤔

Also, I do wish to say that I don’t think Bill was not completely sure on how to describe Bruce and Dick relationship. However, that doesn’t change the fact that in the comics he did write them as father/son as well.

I feel maybe when he was first starting out writing them as characters. He thought of them as Hero/sidekick, mentor/mentee, friends or just brothers but overtime he started to see them as father and son too and begin to write them as such. It is normal for a creative idea or concept of characters to change and evolve overtime as they come to understand said characters. Another thing I should say is this is just Bill perspective on things and his words are not the be all end all but that’s just me.

I also think it’s good to keep in mind that adoption for a single men was next to impossible back then and only couples and potentially single women could have adopted but that in itself was rare as well. I’m too lazy to want to go over these two adoption history so here some links to some posts about it.

I do wonder if the cause of this misinformation about them in the comics being just only good friends was caused by folks who only knew Batman and Robin from the 60s to 80s the show and cartoons where Dick in the Batman 1966 show was fifteen year old teenager rather then an 8-10 year old child and was also played an adult actor Burt ward and well of course no one was going to buy that this adult man was a teenage ward. 

In the cartoon The Adventures Of Batman at least Dick looked somewhat like a teenager but again. He was only referred to as Bruce’s ward, partner or his friend. Their relationship was the dynamic duo. Super Friends as well referred to their relationship as the dynamic duo or friends or again Bruce’s ward. 

By the 90s we finally got Dick as a child in Robin Reckoning in Batman The Animated Series which meant the father and son vibes were on full display. But still he’s just Bruce’s ward and friend but there are tie in comics which do give some content in terms of baby Robin Dick Grayson and Bruce being a father figure to him. 

And so on so on. Only the movies Batman Forever and Batman and Robin made Dick an older teen play again by an adult actor so them being just friends would be suitable. Then again cough those films are full of gay subtext and well I am not surprised by that given that the director was a gay man. But again this is an adaptation which has nothing to do with the comics and honestly is very different overall from said comics.

More modern cartoons like Teen Titans, The Batman 2004 and Young Justice. All have father and son subtext to them. Which makes sense they were more closer to the spirit of the comics overall. Teen Titans Dick Grayson even though we don’t see Batman in the show the episode called the apprentice heavily implies when he said I already have a father to be Batman given the bat imagery after it was said. 

Okay enough of the very brief history lesson on the show and cartoons of Batman. But again these are at the end of day adaptations which nothing to do with the comic canon and are in their own separate continuity from the comics. However I can see why it was easy at least back in early days to make that mistake and to think of them being father/son was somehow a new thing if they hadn’t never pick up a comic book or even read up on the golden and silver age comics overall. 

Oh another thing worth mentioning is the fact comics the Golden, Silver and Bronze Age were not fully preserved most of them were thrown away because they weren’t seen as important literature at the time and thanks to the infamous book if you know you know. Well it caused a lot of parents to throw out or burns most of their kids comic book collections which is why so many older comics of today are so rare. So with that in mind it could be that back then without a way to fact check comics through an archive or the internet, I could see how this misinformation could have been spread.

It an absolute miracle that almost all of the Golden and Silver Batman and Robin comics were preserved. Although, sadly the Bronze Age of Batman comics is still sadly missing some issues to this day.

Seriously, people have no idea how much damage that book caused and the comic code in general. It shattered the comic book industry and made most of the genres that were not superhero comics die out and even then comics were still treated like junk literature despite the code being in place which kept most comics from being seen as nothing more but a children medium for a very long time and having little to no value outside of that. Comic books fans need to thank the people from the Bronze Age era and the underground Comix movement for pushing against the code and being finally able to tell deeper and more complex stories with comics and do different types of comic book genres again overall in America again. Without that push I would say comics wouldn’t be where they’re today. 

So I will forgive all the older folks who did not know this was a thing given that most comics were throw away after said child was done reading it back then. However what I will not forgive is the ones who know this was a thing and lie about it. What so you have to gain about lying about comic book lore and history behind the characters of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

Anyway, that was my kind of essay and my overall thoughts and opinions on the matter. 😅

"Bruce and Dick weren't always like father and son in the comics." "The idea of Bruce and Dick being like father and son came much later." "They were supposed to be like brothers, originally."

An issue from the 40's:

Batman #20, published by DC Comics in December 1943 and January 1944.

Narrator: [...] Since that day, the mutual affection between this man and the boy has been as strong as that between father and son! [...]

I'm not saying their relationship was like father and son from the very beginning since they met. They would've needed time to develop that kind of bond in-universe. And I'm not denying their relationship being similar to that of brothers as well, since they've been described like that, too. From Dick's perspective, specially, I can see why some might think calling them brothers would be more fitting.

That said, it's still incorrect to claim the writers didn't intend them to be like father and son in the first years since their first comic appearance together. It's very clear they wanted to portray that kind of relationship with them. Although, it might be more explicit from Bruce's POV, since it appears that to Dick Bruce was more of a close friend, and it took longer for him to see Bruce as a father.

Anyway, I respect any opinions on the matter. I just made this post to keep in mind what's canon in the comics.