#courtesy of jack

[saiiboat]

give it up for disabled people with a complicated relationship with their disability

[petpetpinixy]

hi

[its-short-for-jackalope]

Robot tests hate him! this neurodivergent dude is overly cautious about which squares TECHNICALLY have part of a bike or a car in them so he fails the are you a robot? test a couple times in a row!

[sing-me-under]

I have unintentionally developed this whole post-Vol 2/pre-flashpoint timeline for Booster Gold and his little time travel family. There are three major components:

Rip Hunter is not around anymore. He’s not dead, obviously, but it’s reached a point in their personal timelines where they’re meant to separate. Rip can’t mentor the younger version of his dad forever nor should he. Booster has learned everything he needs to know from Rip, and now it’s time to part ways and make their own choices without the future influencing them. While Booster does occasionally come across younger and less experienced versions of Rip Hunter, all future Rips have effectively disappeared. Now separated, Booster sets up his own base elsewhere.

Booster and Michelle raise Rani in Neo-Gotham. Specifically the early 22nd century. This is Neo-Gotham at the end of Terry’s Batman career. It is more or less implied that sometime in the 22nd century, a nuclear war breaks out and gives way to the next dark ages. You can’t leave traces/ripples if they’re wiped from existence. Booster is still active in the 21st century by virtue of being an established hero there, but once keeping up appearances is over, he returns to the 22nd. Michelle stays in the 22nd century and just lives her life there.

Booster’s mystery future wife is Trixie Collins. After reuniting at some nebulous future date and going through a whole crisis together, Trixie can’t go back to her (unfulfilling) life, so Booster moves her to the 22nd century. At some point, she and Booster decide to act on the chemistry from their early years, and Rip is unintentionally conceived. Booster decides to retire from the 21st century hero scene, and they get married. But pretty early on, they realize that they’re not really romantically interested in each other. It’s partly acknowledgement of comphet society and that they’re both decidedly on the far side of the Kinsey Scale and also Booster is more or less too traumatized to truly emotionally connect to another person anymore. Booster and Trixie are still on good terms, so they stay married (and eventually come to consider each other best friends). And by virtue of being married, Trixie ends up getting more involved in Booster’s time cop thing and starts handling his logistics. They make a great team.

So from here, my brain came up with the following scenario:

Rani wants to become a superhero.

Rani-centric story idea under the cut. This one really got away from me.

The 22nd century is absolutely not a good time to get into heroics, and Rani knows that. That’s exactly why Booster chose it.

Rani has her own super power set, but it's not combat oriented. But there is this desire baked into her soul, so she takes a page (a whole chapter, really) from Booster Gold’s book. She steals a power suit and a time sphere and… doesn’t quite succeed as planned.

Instead of 1990s Metropolis, Rani finds herself in mid-21st century Gotham, the height of the legacy generation of heroes. Much to Rani's annoyance, Booster asked Nightwing and a not-quite-yet-retired Batman to keep an eye on her. It's mostly to prevent anyone else from solidly putting together that "Gold Star" is the infamous Booster Gold's daughter. Having the Bats' backing also means Rani isn't just plopped into the world with no legal records or emergency contacts.

Rani's story is mostly hijinks and heroics.

She's a D-list hero who frequently finds herself teaming up with other heroes, but she struggles to connect with any teams.

She keeps running into Legionnaires investigating some sort of intricate time travel plot and finds herself fighting alongside them to save the world. Unlike the 21st century heroes, Rani does connect with the 31st century heroes.

Sometimes, Rani also gets caught up in the Carter family business and gets swept away on a few time traveling adventurers with characters like Gold Beetle, a younger Rip Hunter (and Jack Soo), and even her baby brother, Junior.

In her downtime, Rani works part-time and does a few odd jobs here and there. Her saving grace is that she doesn't have to pay rent since she "inherited" Booster's townhouse.

Specific plot points include:

Booster's old JLI teammates immediately recognizing that Rani is Booster's daughter. They are equal parts glad that he's out there somewhere just living well instead of dead in a ditch, forgotten, and also hurt that Booster never introduced his family to them and that they had to find out from his teenage daughter.

In Time Masters: Vanishing Point #5, Booster warps their home to the end of time in order to lose the time assassins that had been chasing them. Time pirates also got to Rani in order to get the location of Vanishing Point from her, but she doesn't know it since Booster (with Trixie and Junior) abandoned the 22nd century shortly after Rani left. While the Carters frequently visit Rani, Rani doesn't have the means to visit them.

Rani overcomes her avoidance of the 31st century in order to save the world. While there, she becomes an official reserve member of the Legion. She returns to the 21st century anyway, not yet ready to give up on it.

Give me the Booster Gold: Convergence plot line, and Rani has to deal with the aftermath.. or maybe just ignore the whole Convergence thing and straight up rip off the time cancer subplot. Booster is bouncing through time uncontrollably, and Rani , Michelle, and an older Rip are chasing him down until they end up in the 90s (Rani finally gets a glimpse of the 90s and is disappointed) and find Booster in Ted's lab. Rani takes the place of N52 Booster in this. Everyone goes to Vanishing Point, and Booster transforms into Waverider. That has some wildly angsty potential.

The time cancer plot ends with Waverider returning everyone to their intended times. There's no universe-shattering crisis this time, so it's more like Waverider just isn't fully in-tune with his powers yet and fixed the anomalies by instinct rather than intent. It does mean that Rani finds herself in the 31st century and needs to be rescued from a dead planet and her own panic attack by the Legion.

Rani, fully attached to the Legion of Superheroes, officially-officially joins their group and decides to permanently stay in the 31st century as a hero.

Other notes:

There are also some implications that Booster may be nudging events in certain directions to keep the flow of time steady. Unbeknowst to Rani, Booster pre-programmed a different year and location for her to land in and disguised it as a glitch. He may or may have also arranged for some run-ins between her and some Legionnaires.

There’s a little hint at an abandoned Rani-centric plot thread towards the end of Vol 2. My guess is that there was supposed to be a 31st century arc for Booster Gold where he'd earn the trust and friendship of Braniac 5. I'm also guessing that Rani, who is shown to be a literal super genius, is more important than initially believed. She was probably supposed to be returned to the 31st century to fullfil some sort of essential role and subsequently not be adopted by the Carters because DC is allergic to happy parent-child relationships. I will be ignoring this guess.

Rani still has PTSD from Daxam's destruction and suffers from anxiety in her day-to-day. While she should have been returned to her intended place in the 31st century, she was too distressed by 1) being unadopted by Booster and 2) being in the time Daxam was destroyed and Emerald Empress is lose. Altogether, it was decided that Rani would stay with Booster and Michelle (and Rip as well, at the time). Either way, Rani refused to step foot in the 31st century, so Booster only ever brought his son of the two to visit Brainiac. Rani's knowledge of the Legion is restricted to what Booster and Junior have told her.

[humanmorph]

the movie night scene may be a season highlight so far. cori 🥺💗

[stoatunquote]

Guess who's got a new niche interestttttt

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Jack/Ava, really nice guy who hates only you.

[Do you know how happy I am to finally get part of their story down?It has taken so long]

Ava sees Crosby walk into the Officer's Club and lifts her hand. "Harry!" she calls, "we've got an extra chair!"

Crosby comes over and gives Ava the same flat, polite smile he always does. "I'm meeting some people," he says, giving Jack a nod. "But thank you."

Ava waits for Crosby to belly up to the bar before turning back to Jack. "See?" she says. 

Jack sighs. "This again?"

Ava puts her hands flat on the table and gives Jack a hard look. "He's the friendliest man on base to everyone else, but I've tried for weeks to get him to join us, and he always has an excuse."

"Because he's the friendliest man on base and always has plans," Jack says, tone flat. But there's a smile at the edge of his mouth. "He's never been anything but polite to you."

"He used to be nice to me," Ava replies. "Ask after the other nurses and if I've had word from home, but ever since you and I started setting each other, he's frozen me out."

"No, I'm sure that's not…"

Ava sips her whiskey and watches Jack's face as he thinks back over the last several weeks since they officially started courting. He can be hard to convince sometimes, but she appreciates that he will stop and think. It's also nice to watch him do it. The low, warm light in the O-Club softens the tired lines at his eyes and makes him glow a little. He's so handsome when he's relaxed, still upright in his posture, but languid in his movements. She imagines sometimes what it'll be like if they ever sneak away to London together. How relaxed could he get if he wasn't on or near base? 

"Okay," Jack says, pulling Ava from her thoughts. "Looking back on it, you have a point. He really has changed around you."

"I can't figure out why," Ava says. "Can you?"

Jack thinks again. He shakes his head. "No, I can't." He replies. He gives Ava a determined look. "So, I'll ask him."

Ava shoots out a hand and grabs his wrist. "What?! No!" 

Jack gives her a confused look. "But you want to know, don't you?"

Ava nods because, yes, she does. But also, no, she doesn't. What if she's committed some faux pas she's not aware of? What if she said something he wasn't meant to overhear but he heard it anyway? What if he thinks she's not good enough for Jack?

"Ava," Jack murmurs. He lays his hand over hers on his wrist. "Harry's a nice person. He must have a reason, or he doesn't realize he's changed his behavior."

Or he thinks I'm just a trampy hick, and you deserve someone better, Ava thinks. The thought makes her grimace, and her fear slips away into annoyance at herself. "You're right," she says. "It's easiest to ask him."

Jack takes her hand from his wrist and kisses her knuckles. "I'll be right back," he says. He stands and picks up his nearly empty glass. "Want another while I'm up?"

Ava downs the rest of her drink and passes him the glass. She watches him walk up to the bar, where Harry's got replacement navigators collecting around him like he's the main attraction at the county fair. Ava holds her hands, one in the other, and tries not to think too much as Jack places their drink order, then wades into the crowd of navigators and pulls Harry aside. 

It's not that she really thinks she's not good enough for Jack. She knows her own worth. Really. And she's explained to Jack why she gets nervous about it sometimes. How growing up how she did and the rumors about her stick to her like burrs even though she knows those rumors aren't true and that some people just need to push others in the mud for their own amusement. 

But she and Harry got along before. They really did. And the only thing that's changed is that now she wears the sweetheart brooch Jack got her. It's heart-shaped with a B-17 etched on the outside. His graduation photo from flight school is in there. The moment she's off-shift, she attaches it to her dress or her blouse and doesn't take it off until lights out. And ever since she started wearing it, Harry's been distant. 

Jack comes back to the table. He sets down their drinks before taking his seat. He's got a look on his face like he's been slapped. 

"Well?" Ava asks, never one for a long silence when there are questions to be answered. 

Jack blinks and shakes his head, then looks at her. There's a tenderness on his face that she's never seen before. Like he's just realized something very important. "Um, he doesn't hate you. You haven't done anything wrong," he says. He clears his throat, then reaches for her hand. She gladly gives it. "It's…" 

He looks at her again. Ava bites her lip to keep from demanding an answer. "We remind him of his early days with Jean," Jack finally says. "He says we both look completely smitten when we look at each other, and it's just hard for him to appreciate it with her so far away."

Ava blinks a few times. "Oh," she says. She presses her fingers to her mouth. "Oh, that's…that's quite the compliment," she manages. 

Jack nods. "I agree," he says. He takes a drink of his whiskey and squeezes her hand. "And as he was telling me, I was thinking, 'Well, that's not bad at all; that's a nice thought, really'."

"It is," she says. She clutches her glass and watches his face. The way he can't stop looking at her with this new tenderness. Like maybe he's just realized they could have something very permanent. It's something Ava hasn't let herself hope for just yet, even with his photo in her brooch. But now she feels the want of it, deep in her body. "It's a very nice thought,"  she adds. "I feel like I could think it for a long time."

The smile that blooms on Jack's face makes her almost cry. He looks so pleased. So content. So truly happy. She's done that. Her saying that made him do that. 

"Me, too," Jack agrees. 

Ava smiles back, hoping it's even half as obvious how much she cares about him as his smile was for her. They sit and they hold hands and they sip their drinks, and when the music starts, Jack leads her to the dance floor and holds her close, and Ava thinks that, yes, this is something she wants to think about very much.

[rowanthestrange]

Wait.

Donna’s thing with the tie was smart.

But I mean Fourteen didn’t exactly put those clothes on though. So who is to say whether or not they are actually…real.

[daveyfvckingjacobs]

I could make the circle tweets race is in trouble for but it’s kinda funnier if I leave it up to interpretation

[pliablehead]

[saiiboat]

is she single..

[quietwingsinthesky]

for your fic prompts, sam taking care of baby jack?

He's so small, and Sam wishes he cried more if only because he'd know what to do to help him, feed him, change him, rock him. At least he knows this, that Jack can't fall asleep, or stay asleep, unless Sam is holding him, and Sam is the only one who can, after Dean tried and nearly dropped Jack on the floor, fingers frostbitten and expression furious while Sam cradled Jack close and stumbled over excuses ("He's a baby, Dean, he wasn't trying to hurt you, he didn't know, he didn't know.")

But even though Sam is sleep deprived and riddled through with anxiety taking care of his- of Jack, he still can't help how much he loves him, how much he'd give for Jack to have a good life, safe and happy and loved, and every day, he gets more and more scared that he's not going to be able to give that to him.

(birthday 3 sentence ficathon! come toss a prompt!)

[soullessjack]

have you heard of Alex calvert. I think I might be a tiny bit queer about him

cant say I’ve ever heard of him

[animangalover-writes]

I feel like people usually assume Jack Crawford is straight, but that man gives me the biggest tired bi energy

[pikagatogirltits]

Custom Magic Cards: Forgotten Companions Pt. 1

I've decided to design some custom Magic cards for the various Doctor's companions who missed out on getting cards for various reasons. My main rules I gave myself were that:

1) They should fit the design constraints of the official Doctor's companions, chiefly in that they're all monocolor.

2) They should try and synergize with both the deck their corresponding Doctor is in, but also synergize with the card of their respective Doctor as well when possible.

3) I'm holding off on designing the cards until after I get to know the companion in question, so I'm waiting to finish the bulk of a companion's run to make the card. I started my Classic Who watching with the Third Doctor, so I'm skipping any of 1 or 2's missing companions for now, and I haven't even finished 3 yet so it'll be a while before I hit the other classic companions.

So without further preamble, here's my cards!

Notes: I was really disappointed to see Jack get left out of the Commander decks, which is kind of what kickstarted this project. I knew my biggest motivations going into this card were to find some way to represent his immortality that didn't rehash how they made Me's card and to make him mostly compatible with the 9/10/11 deck (he's chiefly a 9/10 companion) but try and make him compatible with the 12/13 deck as well (he appears a few times in 13's run.)

I picked red for his color identity both because it let him fit into both decks and because I felt like Jack as a character is pretty strongly driven by his emotions (lust is an emotion.) Plus, red gets phoenixes so it can get creatures that can revive themselves. After giving it some thought I remembered that there's usually a few second delay before he revives himself, so I came up with the idea of him suspending himself whenever he dies. This let him synergize with both 9/10 (extra upkeeps and time travel letting you revive Jack faster) and 13 (suspend causes him to cast from exile.) I then added the "cast from anywhere other than your hand" trigger because I felt like I needed to give him something other than the revival effect so he could be more than an infinite chump blocker. Direct damage felt appropriate for Jack's heavy usage of guns.

Jack was also the only character I could find a piece of official art for from the comics that looked decent as a Magic card.

Notes: Ah, poor poor Liz Shaw. The Third Doctor's oft forgotten original companion. Fun fact: some later EU stuff revealed that she eventually married a woman, retroactively making her the Doctor's first ever gay companion!

I knew she'd be blue because the entire core of her character is that she's a scientist. I wanted her to make artifact tokens to let her work well with 3's card, and I decided on her caring about legendary creatures attacking to tie into the historic matter theme of the classic Doctors deck. I wound up specifically using investigate because it fit well with her role as the Doctor's lab assistant, often helping him analyze clues to figure out a mystery at hand.

Notes: With 15's first season over and done with, I feel like this is a perfect time to pay tribute to Ruby. I rather liked her as a companion, and I really wish we had more than 9 episodes with her. Here's hoping she makes some fun return appearances in the future.

Ruby presented an interesting challenge because 15 was from the Secret Lair and didn't have an associated deck. This meant I had to focus entirely on trying to synergize her with 15's card and couldn't lean into the themes of the deck to help fill in the gaps.

First up was figuring her color identity. I thought it would be a nice touch to let the 15/Ruby pair lead a 3-color deck, so I knew I would be leaning towards green or white, which both felt appropriate given the strong emphasis on family Ruby's character has. I ultimately wound up leaning towards green, both because the recurring motifs around memory that surrounded Ruby felt more green than white and because I wanted to lean into 15 being a self mill/reanimator type deck and green felt like the better support color. This also influenced what direction I wanted to take Ruby's mechanics. I decided to mostly riff on Ruby's role in the finale and theme her card around the idea of "digging up memories." Caring about cards leaving your graveyard felt like a good way to do this, and I went with a fairly straight forward for green reward with the +1/+1 counters. I felt like this added some nice synergy with 15 because his effect triggers on both ETB and attack, so with Ruby you can potentially buff 15 when he sends artifacts he mills back to your hand, making him more likely to survive when he attacks.

And there you have it! These are all the ones I've done so far. As I get further in my Classic Who watching I'll probably make cards for more classic companions. I definitely want to do a Mel Bush card, but I want it to be based off her appearances in Classic Who rather than necessarily her New Who appearances so I'm waiting for now. Plus I can do something for the new companion we're getting next season.