#cass wrote a thing

[steddiealltheway]

Steve has a pre date routine that Robin always helps with which includes a checklist of different things like: hair looks nice, outfit looks nice, condom in wallet (Robin always cringes at this one), breath is good, etc.

But for some reason, Robin can’t be there to help before Steve’s upcoming date, and Eddie happens to be at Family Video when Steve finds out, so he’s practically forced into helping.

Later when Eddie goes to Steve’s and they’re finishing up the check list, Steve looks in the mirror, points at his upper lip, and asks, “Is this too much stubble? Like would this be uncomfortable to kiss?”

Eddie goes, “Let me see?” And they naturally fall into a kiss, and Eddie pulls away and says, “Nah, it feels great. You’re all set.”

And Steve slaps him on the shoulder and says, “Thanks, man.”

After Steve leaves, Eddie’s like “…wait.”

And then literally five minutes later, Steve shows up at his house and asks Eddie, “Can we try that again?”

And after they kiss again, Steve goes to the phone, calls and cancels the date, and immediately goes right back to Eddie.

[casscainmainly]

Cassandra Cain and Asian Stereotypes

So I've seen people debating whether Cass is a racist character or not because she falls into certain Asian stereotypes. While this discussion is valid and important, a lot of the conversation (on this website and beyond) is steered by White/non-Asian people, or people who haven't read a lot of Cass' stuff. This is my take on Cass and Asian stereotypes as a Chinese Cass fan. I do not speak for all Asians, or even all Chinese people, who are absolutely free to disagree with any of these arguments.

Stereotypes I will cover here: Silent Asian, Model Minority, and Hypersexuality.

The Silent Asian Stereotype

The most obvious stereotype Cass runs into is the Silent Asian. I would recommend reading the linked article for more information. Silent Asian characters are Asians who are part of a core cast, but rarely speak. Kimiko Miyashiro in The Boys, Lilly in Pitch Perfect, and Katana in Suicide Squad are all examples of this. The article also mentions Ben from Umbrella Academy, who can only communicate with one character, thus limiting his dialogue.

Why does this happen? Removing Asian characters' dialogue reflects the Western conception of Asians as demure, rule-following, and meek, never speaking up or acting out. It also means writers don't have to spend as much time writing these Asian characters, who are secondary to White protagonists.

The problem with the Silent Asian, then, is not the silence itself, but the consequences of silence. Mute Asians exist, as do Asians who don't speak much; in media, Silent Asians are harmful because they indicate an unwillingness to focus on the Asian character.

This is why Cass, even before she learns to speak longer sentences, is not a Silent Asian. While her conception undoubtedly has unfortunate echoes of this trope, she defies it by being the protagonist of the story. A protagonist cannot be a Silent Asian, because a requirement of the trope is being a secondary character. Cass' feelings and actions are the center of Batgirl (2000), so allegations of this stereotype don't actually make sense.

Furthermore, the trope is about passivity and acquiescence to a White authority. From her introduction, Cass is neither passive nor acquiescent - her origin story is literally about defying David Cain, a White male authority figure. Beyond her not speaking much, she ticks none of the boxes for this stereotype. I think it's time for people to stop mentioning this stereotype in conjunction with Cass, who in every possible way subverts it.

The Model Minority Stereotype

The model minority myth is the belief that Asians are more successful and talented than others, particularly other minoritised groups. Like the Silent Asian, the model minority myth paints Asians as obedient and submissive. This is, in many ways, more insidious than the Silent Asian - there are still people who believe this stereotype (and jokes like 'of course you're good at math, you're Asian') is somehow not racist.

Though this myth seems positive, make no mistake that White people invented this tale for two reasons: to put down Black and Brown communities, and to prevent Asians from ever fully assimilating into White culture.

Cass plays on this myth very interestingly. I've discussed in this post how David Cain and Bruce's assertion that she's 'perfect' is a blatant reference to the model minority myth - by describing her as 'perfect' to them, they are centering their own desires, erasing Cass' individuality.

This is partially why I don't like 'Cass is Bruce's favourite' and 'Cass is an angel who can do no wrong' interpretations when people are just saying it without context. Cass being Bruce's favourite, or Bruce seeing her as an angel, is not a good thing - it is a representation of his biased attitude towards her. He is unable to accept her being a murderer because he is trapped within the model minority mindset. This is not saying Bruce is a full-on racist, but that his actions and perspectives are coloured by his Whiteness.

Cass' abrasive personality, willingness to defy Bruce and David, and very real flaws (her inability to see grey areas, communication difficulties, etc.) make her avoid this stereotype. Additionally, her close relationships with Black characters like Onyx and Duke are essential to combating the anti-Blackness at the core of the model minority myth. Her character evokes the stereotype (perfect martial arts silent fighter), but ultimately defies it through being the star of her own story (and also not being good at math. The fact she doesn't have anything to do with tech is actually one of my favourite aspects of her character, because I am TIRED of tech Asian characters).

The Hypersexual Asian Woman Stereotype

Asian women are often exoticised and fetishised as the ideal sexual partner; think of the term 'yellow fever', which describes men lusting after Asian women. The hypersexualisation of Asian women in media once again goes hand-in-hand with Asians being submissive. They are seen as innocent and child-like, while simultaneously being seductive and sexually experienced.

This stereotype is genuinely perpetuated in Batgirl (2000), mainly by the art in Horrocks' run. Where in Puckett's run there is refreshingly little sexualisation of Cass, once you hit Horrocks' run you get a LOT more shots of her lying down, sexually suggestive covers, etc. People have discussed this already, probably to more effect than I will do here.

However, as I wrote in my Gender and Sexuality posts, the writing is actually fairly defiant of this trope. Cass is vocally uncomfortable with hypersexualisation, and neither of her male love interests stick around. The problem with the Hypersexual Asian Woman is the focus on White sexual interests, where the woman is objectified for the White male gaze. Simply because Cass is the protagonist, the writing focuses on her sexual interests, and in the end it's about gaining control of her gender presentation and sexuality.

Cassandra Cain Vs. Asian Stereotypes

The through-line that connects all these Asian stereotypes is a lack of agency. There's a reason passiveness is the main trait for all of these tropes- the Asian body must be weaker than their White counterparts, in order to be tools or weapons against other minoritised groups.

Cassandra Cain, a character born from a choice that defies White male authority, rises above this passiveness with flying colours. The details of her character certainly fall into some of the above tropes, and the way her character is handled later (evil Cass, New 52), is certainly racist. However, the reason she means so much to me is because at its core, her story is a story of Asian agency. And that in itself is unstereotypical.

[taterthepotato]

IM GOING FERAL. FOREVER 17 TIM. DAMIAN GETTING OLDER THAN HIM. LIKE JUST- DAMIAN BEING PROTECTIVE OF HIS NOW YOUNGER BROTHER HHHHHHHH. TIM IS THE BABY, THE DANGEROUS AND GENUIS BABY. I LOVE HIM AHHHHHHHHH. rando scenario time because im going fucking feral and i dont think a fic like what i require exists

Stranger: *is flirting with Tim*

Tim: *Is trying to politely excuse himself* (mostly because he doesn't want to cause a scene, he's probably in a very public place? idfk)

*Stranger just keeps pushing until they hear a cough from behind them.*

They fucking turn around to see the entire gaggle of batkids glaring at them. Motherfucker would probably piss their pants.

I bet Damian would be twirling a dagger in his fingers while glaring down at this fucker.

Dick has this smile that says 'I am going to politely eviscerate your intestines.'

Jason cracking his knuckles with a nasty grin on his face, probably about to beat this fucker up

The other ones are there too, but i dont trust my grasp on my interpretation of their personalities yet to say what they'd be doing other than beating the dude up or getting tim away, lol

[lar-mx]

El murciélago bañado por las sombras y el ángel de la muerte (Nombre temporal).

Entonces tengo esta idea loca desde hace unas horas.

El Surgimiento de la idea:

en algún momento escuche este concepto de que cada persona tiene su propio ángel de la muerte el cual se encarga de recoger el alma de la persona fallecida cuando llega su hora, a veces cuando alguien enfrenta una situación en la que casi muere, realmente muere por un tiempo o uno de esos momento donde su vida pasa frente a sus ojos por así decirlo pueden verlo.

la mayoría no lo recuerda y los pocos que si lo hacen no hablan de ello.

esto anterior mas un recuerdo vago de un capitulo de un fic de DP donde danny escribe un poema acerca de una platica que tubo con la muerte donde esta le dice que no puede llevarse a danny (aunque no recuerdo si es porque danny es el rey fantasma o por ser un halfa).

La Idea como tal:

de estas dos ideas se me ocurrió lo siguiente.

Danny siendo el angel de la muerte de cass, pero si bien danny es el angel de la muerte de cass el nunca podra llevarla al lugar que le corresponda para descansar por la eternidad y si te preguntas el porque pues porque el destino y la vida se niegan a dejar morir y descansar a ciertas personas.

Por fortuna(?) la mayoría de los héroes son algunas de estas personas y por desgracia(?) un buen numero de villanos también.

la situación es tal que no importa el que o el como pero esa persona selecciona escapara de apenas con vida de una muerte segura o volverá a la vida unos segundo, unos minutos o algunos meses e incluso algunos años después.

el método para que vuelvan puede ser cualquiera pero al final siempre escapan de las manos de su ángel de la muerte.

cass es una de esas pocas personas que pueden recordar a su ángel de la muerte.

aquí es donde por mi parte pierdo el hilo de como quiero escribir ( jaja no puedo escribirlo aunque mi vida dependa de ello) esta idea.

Porque por un lado me encantaría que esto fuera un cass x danny donde los únicos momento donde ellos pueden interactuar y hablar es cuando cass esta en una situación cercana a la muerte pero nunca podran estar verdaderamente juntos por que el destino y las propias convicciones de cass le impiden morir o permanecer muerta.

lo que me lleva a la idea de que cass escriba cartas o poemas para su ángel(?) para dárselos en esos raros momento en los que se encuentran, pero el problema es que cass es demasiado buena para enfrentar regularmente ese tipo de situaciones donde se puedan encontrar.

y por otro lado esta la idea de que sean algo asi como amigos y/o danny sea una especie de mentor de cass desde que ella era joven y escapo de las garras de su progenitor.

ya que cuando era mas joven enfrento varias llamadas cercanas debido a la desnutrición y/o enfermedades debido andar escapando la mayor parte del tiempo de la persecución de david (creo que así se llama).

estoy seguro que existen otras rutas para llevar esto e incluso otros barcos, pero con mis habilidades actuales no puedo llevar a cabo esta idea asique la comparto con ustedes para que agreguen o la usen a su antojo.

Saludos.

tag some people I follow, in case they like the concept.->

@satoshy12 @zylev-blog @bet-on-me-13 @hdgnj @dcxdpdabbles @wandixx

[blackbatcass]

NEVER write cass cain fanfiction oh my god

[luvo27]

I have very bad cursive handwriting!! To demonstrate, a little behind the scenes for you: Here’s a page from my fic notebook!! For the last and final edits for the last chapters of the thing i was working on, i ended up saving them as drafts in ao3 where i then read them through and took notes on the things i wanted to change before going back in to edit, which is what this page is from.

plus, sticky note i made for myself regarding cass's characterization:

[cluescorner]

They fucking did it again those bastards. Jason Todd fucking dies 2: Electric Boogaloo. Fuck it, let's go for a threepeat at this point. It'll be funny as hell.

[fallenangelblade]

It’s only a queen-size bed, but the distance between their bodies feels as wide and treacherous as the Grand Canyon. Tentatively, Castiel inches his good hand out into the empty space. He’s careful not to reach past the invisible halfway point, not to take what does not belong to him. The heater kicks on, its fan filling the motel room with a low, droning note. Outside, the hum of the highway. The buzz of neon. It creates a dissonant chord that resonates in his molars. After a moment, the blankets jostle slightly as Dean’s hand extends out towards the middle of the bed. Their pinky fingers touch, just barely. A pinprick of warmth amidst the cold expanse of the sheets. Something like the beginning of a smile graces Castiel’s lips. He’s glad for the lack of light, that it is not witnessed. The heater shuts off, and the silence it leaves makes the room seem to stretch out, endless, encompassing. Outside, rhythmic, toneless bass, thumping out the suggestion of a beat, pouring thick from the subwoofer of a car driving through the parking lot. The edges of the curtains glow white, then red, headlights and taillights sweeping past. Further away, the engine cuts, the music disappearing abruptly with it. The room fades back to darkness, quiet. Pinky fingers touching. Here, the world beyond feels a million miles away. Here, sanctuary. It could be ten minutes or two hours before Dean speaks, his voice little more than a whisper, sweet and warm and sorrowful as honey whiskey. “I still pray to you, sometimes.”

an excerpt from the same WIP as this for WIP wednesday

[arvoze]

you can tell they're related to eachother based on their move mastery decisions

[belphieslilcow]

belphie's fucking gay and jealous

epic pre relationship caphie / 900 something words <3 FEATURING ASHER APPEARANCE, HE'S IN CASSICANON NOW‼️

Belphegor almost felt like he was back in the Celestial Realm, no, it was even better than that. Nothing beat having Cassian all to himself, but it was so much better when they were in the human world together, and especially when Belphie came by himself. Not that he was supposed to come down here, but he missed his human and could deal with Lucifer’s bitching later. At the moment he was happy snuggling on the couch with the blond in his apartment, he had an anime movie on and was excitingly explaining all the details Belphie didn’t get. He wondered if this is what it was like when he talked about the stories of the constellations when they went stargazing, he hoped Cass loved listening to his talking half as much as Belphie loved listening to his. Nothing could ruin this moment between them…. he thought anyway. 

Cassian startled as his phone on the coffee table vibrated, playing what Belphie assumed was one of the default ringtones. He quickly paused the movie with an apology to the demon and answered the call. 

“Hello? Oh, yeah you did. I totally forgot to bring it to you yesterday, sorry.” 

Belphie raised an eyebrow at the conversation, he couldn’t hear what the other person was saying, but by Cassian’s demeanor he could tell they were fairly close. 

“Uhm, hold on one sec.” The human lowered the phone and turned to Belphie, “Is it okay if one of my friends stops by really quick? He won’t be here for long, he just forgot something last time he was here.” 

“That’s fine.” 

Cass gave a soft smile and put his phone back to his ear, “Yeah, you can come grab it right quick. Oh, uhm… I have someone over so… oh shut up… I’ll see you in a few, bye bye.” 

His face was slightly pink and sighed as he hung up the call. “Sorry about that.” 

“Eh, it’s okay. Who was that?” 

“Oh, uhm, that was my friend Asher, he was my co-worker before I came to the Devildom and we started actually hanging out when I got back here. It’s kinda sad, but he was the only one who seemed to notice I was gone.” 

Belphie nodded and smirked, “I guess you were really lonely without me there for you, huh?” 

Cass covered his face with his hands. “M-maybe.” 

“Hehe.” 

It wasn’t long until the doorbell rang and Cassian got up to answer it, Belphie peeked over the couch to the doorway, he didn’t necessarily care about other humans besides Cass anymore, but that’s exactly why he felt the need to observe this friend of his. With how easily he trusted him in the attic, he was worried that he might’ve made friends with someone shady. 

It definitely wasn’t also because he was feeling jealous and wanted to make sure this new human didn’t try anything. 

Definitely not. 

The door opened and as Cass greeted him, Belphie could finally see what he looked like. He had shaggy green hair, obviously dyed from the looks of the black roots, matching olive green eyes, freckles going across his nose and cheeks, and quite a few piercings. He dressed like a mix between a skater and those e-boys that Asmo sends him on FabSnap, saying it’s what he should wear. 

“I’ll go grab your charger, be right back!” Cass ran to the room he uses as an “office” which is really just a glorified gaming room. 

The human looked around as he stood by the door, jumping when he noticed Belphie on the couch. “Oh, you scared me, man. I didn’t notice you there.” 

Belphie stared at him. 

He scratched the back of his head. “Soooo, you’re, like, Cass’s new boyfriend, yeah?” 

“Boyfriend?” 

“Oh, did I get that wrong? The way Cass talks about you I assumed you were, sorry about that.” He gave an embarrassed smile.  

Luckily Cass came back in before any other awkward conversation could be had, “Sorry I took so long, I forgot which one is yours.” He held out a few wrapped colorful cables to the other human. 

“Haha, it’s the yellow one.” He grabbed and shoved into his jacket pocket. “Well I guess I should get going. It was nice to meet you, Belphie.” He gave a wave as he opened and walked out the door, Cassian saying goodbye as he did. 

Belphie narrowed his eyes at the man using a nickname for him, but quickly tried to hide his annoyance as Cass sat back on the couch with him, sighing. “Sorry again… I should’ve brought it to him yesterday but I totally forgot. At least it didn’t take too long.” He smiled sweetly at the demon. 

“You apologize too much, you know?” He patted his fluffy hair. 

“Wahh…” 

Belphie reached for the remote, handing it over to Cass, he was already in a better mood. “C’mon, you still have to finish telling me about this guy’s illness.” 

Cassian's eyes seemed to almost sparkle as Belphie remembered what he was talking about. “O-okay. So I looked it up one time and I didn’t think humans could actually have bad reactions to the sun like that, but apparently…” 

Belphie smiled and felt his body relax as he listened to him infodump, and his mind started to wander slightly. That guy thought he and Cass were a couple. He wondered what kind of things Cassian said about him. Belphegor knew he had feelings for the blond for months, but could never put it together if it was mutual or if being affectionate was just how Cass was. 

Boyfriends, huh? He leaned onto Cass’s arm as he pressed play on the remote. Silently noting the other's flushed face as he did so. He liked the sound of that.

[cephalog0d]

(Crossposted from AO3)

[tomwaterbabies]

kind of blessed to have gotten into tts/vat7k After The Show Ended. the discourse would have driven me insane im sure. cassunzel is so real btw

[gasps-inspanish]

From “Strawberry Milkshake - Director’s Cut”. Idk if/when I’ll post the whole thing, but have some the brothers ever!

Dick was the first uninvited guest to arrive. He had been shocked to see Jason there, almost as shocked as when Jason had taken off his helmet the first time. He stood frozen as he stared at Jason from where he stood in the front door. It was almost as if he had seen a ghost.

Jason was a ghost.

He wanted to glare, roll his eyes, do something to try to show how Dick unaffected he was by this. But being in this stupid fucking house with Dick looking at him again made him feel like the 12 year old boy who stood at the top of the stairs again, peaking with wide eyes over the banister as Dick burst into the manor to yell at Bruce about a new Robin.

He had looked at Jason with a similar look of shock then.

Jason didn’t have time to wonder how Dick would react when Cass started signing. Dick assessed Jason with serious eyes before grinning at him.

“Oh a birthday dinner? Sweet” Dick said as he stepped into the manor, shutting the door behind him.

“You're not invited,” Jason said automatically. Dick’s jaw dropped as he stared at Jason in horror.

“Fend for yourself tonight” Cass said and Dick dropped his bag on the floor.

“I have to starve!” Dick sighed dramatically.

Jason could see what he was doing. He was being over dramatic on purpose, making a fool of himself to make Jason more comfortable. He had done it all the time when Jason was a kid.

It still fucking worked.

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

Hi my name’s Cassandra Cain and I’m the daughter of the Bat. I have short black hair and eyes that change color depending on the artist and I’m 5’something and super skinny but I can beat up a guy who’s thrice my size because I was raised to be the most badass assassin ever by my abusive father but I feel super bad about killing someone so now I’m angst-ridden about it. I met Batman when I was seventeen and he thought I was super cool and relatable so he helped me beat up my dad and then asked me to become his Batgirl. I said yes <3 Now we sit on gargoyles next to each other and brood after we finish punching criminals together all night long. Also Batman invited me to live in his giant mansion with a butler.

[aingeal98]

Long rant post but stepping outside my fandom bubble and seeing people call stephcass sisters is always so jarring like I could be wrong but I feel like most of the people saying that haven't actually read the comics they star in and just consume fanon content where the "batfamily" is a monolith. That or they're just throwing the generic homophobic dismissal at them.

(Disclaimer that this is not me saying everyone should ship stephcass and that they hate the characters if they don't. I know a lot of cool Steph and Cass fans who don't care for the romance between them, and that's fine. People are allowed have different opinions and readings on characters and this is not a personal attack on any individual, just a late night ramble on an annoying fandom trend I've noticed.)

No one should be forced to like a ship and I understand complaints that recently they're treated as a bland duo with one personality trait each instead of the complex characters they used to be, but at the same time... Based on canon storylines so far for the past 20 years or so I genuinely can't think of a better love interest for Cass. I can't think of anyone who moved her development along more as a character outside of her actual family. And for Steph, I understand if people like Timsteph, but the feeling I got reading Batgirl-2000 compared to Tim focused stories is that the writers and the narrative respected Steph more. Even after she died. Also its like. Ridiculously easy to read most of their storylines as romantically coded. (batgirl 2000 mostly accidentally, future state deliberately like they were literally canon in that au, batgirls deliberately while also insisting that they're just besties) And even if you don't want to see it that way, saying they're sisters when a) they're not. Like canonically, they are in no way related they're just best friends who hallucinate each other and die in each others arms. And b) Cass explicitly defined Stephanie as a relationship outside of her familial bonds to Bruce, Babs, Tim, etc is just... Idk I've been in too many fandoms that hated f/f ships it gives me the ick.

Harper comes second imo in terms of best Cass romances based on what we've actually seen in comics, and recently yeah stephcass is being marketed as a duo to try and justify the lack of care towards them individually. But it just frustrates me that a decent amount of the dismissal towards them as 'batcest' or 'sisters' comes from the same place as the general dc fan attitude towards them. Which is that it's not worth it to actually get to know these characters and their stories outside of their assigned place in the batfamily fanon. It's why so many fans like to lump Steph in as another one of Bruce's kids and ignore her actual family and the complex and fraught history she has with both them and Batman. (DC does this too sometimes, but imo fanon did it first back during the Dickbats era.)

Obviously a lot of it is general stigma towards female characters and especially female friends who always get hit with the "let gals be pals" trope, but idk. I guess I'm just tired of seeing people talk about stephcass when they don't even care about them as more than side characters. If you're going to say you hate the ship because they're better off as besties at least give me some actual interesting thoughts on their dynamic beyond "Cute sisters who never fight or cause drama! We love women supporting women platonically 💜💜"

[midnightduel]

Should I be working on yesterday? Yes. Am I writing (more) domestic Raph & Cassandra anyway? Also yes.