#cyborg Cassie few

[gwenbrightly]

(Re)Building the Future Chapter 8

“If I were an animatronic wolf with a horribly mangled kid, where would I go?” Gregory muses (ignoring the weird look the others give him for his graphic choice in words). He, Freddy, and Vanessa have arrived back in Roxy Raceway in record time, but there is no sign of Roxy or Cassie. Unless you count the occasional splatters of blood they keep finding, that is. Which tells them a lot while also telling them absolutely nothing.

“Roxanne is very smart,” Freddy says, “I am sure she will have found a first aid station and patched Cassie up by now.”

They locate the nearest first aid station and soon discover what Roxy has clearly already realized. It is completely empty of supplies. And so are all the others, upon further exploration.

“Wow. I guess Fazbear entertainment doesn’t care if people get hurt and die in here,” Gregory comments, kicking an empty cardboard box. When are they gonna find something that’s actually helpful? Cassie could be dead by now! (If the elevator didn’t kill her on impact). If they don’t find her in time, that just proves he’s a crappy friend.

“To be fair, no one is really supposed to be hanging around this place right now,” Vanessa points out, but it’s obvious she’s just as concerned by their lack of progress as he is.

“Perhaps she-” whatever Freddy is about to suggest is cut off by a crash somewhere nearby.

“Did anyone else hear that?” Gregory asks. Freddy and Vanessa nod. “Maybe it’s Roxy! We should totally check it out.”

She’ll be so distracted by Cassie being hurt that she’ll completely forget to hate me, Gregory tells himself. No need to worry about anything but the most important stuff. Which is Cassie not dying, obviously. (No matter how intimidating angry animatronics are)

As with many other things so far today, the crashing sound turns out to be a bit of a red herring. Nobody should be surprised to see Chica digging around in a garbage can. It’s one of her defining behaviors, after all. But to be honest, they’d kinda forgotten about her after not running into her at all on their way to the sinkhole.

“Chica?” Freddy says when they find the source of the noise. He’s not sure why it didn’t occur to him to seek her out sooner. Her caring nature will be a huge help, he can feel it!

“Um… hi?” Chica replies, looking a little unsure.

“You can talk?!” Gregory exclaims, partially hiding behind Freddy in case she decides to enact her revenge for that time he put her through a garbage compactor. And stole her voice box to get into restricted areas because Freddy’s lack of upgrades was lame. She looks way worse now, though. He has to resist the urge to puke at the sight of the rotten… cheese? And other bits of garbage caking her endoskeleton.

“Wait! I can!” Chica agrees, acting as though she’s only just noticed this, “Huh. That’s new. My new friend must have helped me with that! Ohmygosh, it has been so quiet and boring not being able to say anything! Not that there’s anyone to say things to, but still!”

“New friend?” Vanessa repeats. She ignores Chica’s rambling. “Did your new friend happen to be a little girl?”

“Yeah! I think so! It was pretty hard to tell the last time I saw her, let me tell ya. She looked kinda… broken.”

“Please tell me you saw where Roxy took her,” Gregory begs. Chica doesn’t seem interested in hurting him, so it’s probably safe(ish) to ask her for help.

Chica nods, which causes one of her eyes to jiggle unnaturally. Freaky.

“I did! I can totally show you if you want me to!”

“That would be great,” Vanessa tells her.

“Umm… this way! They went this way not too long ago! Follow me!” The animatronic speeds off through the maze of construction equipment that leads to what’s left of the main atrium. It’s dark and gloomy without the giant glowing holograms of Freddy and the rest of the Glamrocks that can usually be seen from pretty much anywhere in the room. The stage is completely blocked off by bright orange safety barriers, now, and half filled shipping crates and piles of debris make it just as difficult to navigate as everywhere else they’ve been. The stairs are missing steps. They remind Gregory of something out of one of those parkour challenge video where someone is always reading some over dramatic internet post in the background. The shutters for El Chip look like someone tried to drive a go cart through them… which is altogether possible, given some of the other crazy stuff that’s happened here. Nothing seems to have come out of the earthquake in one piece. Some of the graffiti is pretty impressive, though. Gregory is tempted to ask if Vanessa has any spray paint in that backpack of hers, but right now probably isn’t the best time for that.

They make it about halfway across the room before things start to get weird. Chica keeps making sharp turns and backtracking through the toughest areas. They lose sight of the darn chicken and spend upwards of half an hour searching before they finally spot her in the Cupcake Shoppe (of course). Is she leading them into a trap? Does she actually know where she’s going? Gregory isn’t sure which is more likely, but he’s beginning to get suspicious that something isn’t right.

“Sooo… uh, Chica, where exactly did Roxy and Cassie go?” Gregory asks when they find her again. Chica ignores him and continues weaving between pieces of abandoned baking equipment. Well, that’s just rude, Gregory thinks. She seemed so sweet and thoughtful earlier!

“Hey! Wait up!” Gregory shouts, out of breath. Man, he really needs to start exercising more and sitting around playing video games less… the stupid chicken speeds up. It’s like she doesn’t want them to catch up with her.

“Is everything alright, Chica?” Freddy calls after her. He stops trying to weave his way between objects delicately and shoves a rolling cart out of the way so he can get to her more quickly. She is not acting like herself. What if she hurts herself again?

“Will you quit it?!” Chica snaps, finally turning around.

“Quit what?” Freddy asks, confused. What have they done to offend his friend so deeply?

“Following me! I don’t even know you!” She exclaims.

“But… we are your friends…” Freddy protests. This is wrong, all wrong.

““Friends,” Chica repeats. “I don’t have any friends. Unless you count that guy,” she jerks her head towards the giant Mr, Cupcake, whose eyes glow ominously. Gregory doesn’t understand what she sees in the creepy thing. He’s pretty sure it’s not even sentient enough to hold a conversation with.

“Chica…” Freddy isn’t sure what to say to that.

“You said you knew where Cassie and Roxy were!” Gregory butts in. Involving the dumb chicken has been nothing but a waste of time.

“Cassie and Roxy.? Hm…” Chica thinks for a moment, “Cassie and Roxy! They went this way!” She points in a direction that is vaguely southeast.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Gregory demands to know. After all, she told them the same thing earlier and then led them on a wild goose (or chicken) chase.

“I…” Chica trails off.

“If this is a joke, it’s not funny! Someone could die because of you!”

“It’s not. I know it’s not funny. I am so, so, SOO sorry!” Chica tells them, looking beyond guilty.

Freddy, Vanessa, and Gregory glance at each other. No one is quite sure what to do with her bizarre behavior.

“I, um, might kinda sorta have… short term memory confusion?” She continues.

“Don’t you mean short term memory loss?” Gregory corrects. He’s 110% positive that ‘short term memory confusion’ isn’t a thing. Though, with the way that garbage compactor squashed her, he’d be surprised if she didn’t have some issues.

“That too!” Chica agrees.

“You’ve been having trouble with your memory?” Vanessa asks, feeling a little guilty. Why didn’t she think to demand that the techs try to repair the Glamrocks before everything went to heck and Corporate decided to abandon the Pizzaplex? If Chica is this bad off, she dreads seeing what the others are like.

“Yup! Sometimes those darn memories just go poof!” Chica waves exaggeratedly.

“That sounds dreadful,” Freddy comments. His poor friend.

“It sure is!” Chica announces before a look of confusion crosses her face. “Anywho - wait, what were we talking about, again?”

“Seriously?” Gregory facepalms. This is just sad. Vanessa frowns at him in disapproval, no doubt thinking he isn’t helping the situation - which, to be fair, he isn’t.

“You were just telling us about your short term memory loss,” she reminds Chica with way more patience than Gregory would be able to manage.

“Riiiight!”

“As much as I hate to say it,” Gregory turns to Freddy and whispers, “I don’t think Chica is gonna be much help with finding Roxy and Cassie.”

“I don’t know who that is, but you’re probably right,” Chica agrees, also whispering. She’s still not really sure what’s going on, but she likes feeling included.

“Sorry, Chica,” Vanessa says, but the chicken doesn’t seem to mind.

“I have been thinking about that and am wondering if, perhaps, Roxy traveled to the Superstar Daycare after Chica lost track of her,” Freddy tells them, changing the subject to avoid embarrassing Chica further. While she is welcome to join them on their venture, he knows the others are right. It would be difficult to get a coherent or accurate answer from her about where the pair were headed when she last saw them.

“The daycare? Why?” Gregory questions. He gives the bear a weird look. He’s still a little unnerved by both Sun and Moon after everything he’s been through.

“Well, as he works with the youngest children in the facility, the Daycare Attendant has more extensive first aid programming than the rest of the Glamrock animatronics,” Freddy explains, “it makes sense that Roxy would seek his guidance.”

“Not to mention the daycare is on the southeast side of the Pizzaplex, which seemed like the same direction Chica thought they were going,” Vanessa adds in agreement.

“I guess that makes sense,” Gregory decides, although the daycare is on his list of places he’d rather not revisit. Oh, well. He’s visited a lot of other places on that list today already. What’s one more?

“It is settled, then. We will go to Superstar Daycare and see if they are there,” Freddy announces. It is time to begin their journey once again.

[pinkiemachine]

OKA—Young Justice Time!

I’ve said once or twice before that I was hammering out which characters I would be including in each generation of YJ, and now I’ve done just that, and I am going to share what I landed on with you :3 (Sorry I don’t have finished posters for them yet tho…)

First off, just to make sure we all have the timeline straight, we have the Mighty Teen Titans, founded by Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) initially. The other members include Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg.

Then some time goes by, Cyborg gets promoted to The Justice League, and then the second wave of the Teen Titans hits, primarily founded by Robin III (Tim Drake). Other members include Spoiler, Wonder Girl II (Cassie Sandsmark), Aqualad II (Kaldur’ahm), Superboy (Conner Kent), Impulse, and Miss Martian.

While they are doing that, the old TT are founding Young Justice. As said before, Cyborg got to jump straight to being a JLA member (he was the oldest of all the OG TT by a few years anyway) which just leaves us with Dick Grayson (now going by Nightwing), Donna Troy (now going by Troya—idk, “Troia” looks weird), Starfire, Kid Flash, Beast Boy, and… maybe Raven? I can’t decide if I want her to stay or ride off into the sunset after defeating Trigon… but then who gets her spot? Is it Terra? Do we make her a fully fledged member? For the life of me I can’t decide. Would love feedback. Anyway, new members include Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Bumblebee, Aqualad (Garth), and Speedy.

So that’s that.

Fast forward a few more years and we get to the next phase. At this point, the Teen Titans are an institution, and Robin V (Damian Wayne) assumes command of a new team comprised of Superboy II (Jonathan Kent), Static Shock, Blue Beetle, Princess Amethyst, Jenny Hex, and Aquagirl II (Lorena).

And while that’s going on, Tim (now going by Red Robin) leads the next generation of Young Justice along with Aqualad II, and Miss Martian. Returning characters include Spoiler, Cassie Sandsmark (now going by Olympia), Impulse, and Superboy (who needs a new codename). New characters are Solstice, Hotspot, Batgirl II (Cassandra Cain) and Arrowette/Artemis from the YJ cartoon—yes, I’m basically mushing the two together because reasons, and she may be more of a sometimes character. You know? Kinda morally ambiguous at first, and a sometimes member. Potentially, since Cassandra isn’t big into being around people, we could leave her with the BatFam and Artemis can permanently take her place, but that’s up for debate. (I know it can maybe be a little confusing having a Cassie and a Cass on the same team, but that’s why in my universe it’s Cassandra Cain and *Cassidy* Sandsmark, rather than them both having the exact same first name.)

After that, no idea what will happen to the Teen Titans, but there sure isn’t gonna be a Robin leading them. So we move to the next gen of Young Justice years later. Currently being led by Robin V (Damian Wayne), Aquagirl II (Lorena), and Superboy II (Jon). Returning members include Blue Beetle, Static shock, and Jenny Hex (ooh, look, a typo). New characters include Jinx, Stargirl (who I’ve given a rough first draft makeover), Sideways, Rose Wilson, and potentially Jericho as our rogue YJ member.

So those are all the members I’ve got so far. What do you think?

[ew-selfish-art]

Dp x Dc AU: That one episode of teen titans where they all dress up as Robin + Tim being a gremlin about his legacy + Danny look alike/twin AU.

So there is that episode of Teen Titans where Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven all dress as Robin (Dick) while he's out and it's admitted that the outfit makes them feel cool. Imagine a young Tim hearing that story mentioned in passing by Dick while trying to manage what becomes Young Just-us. And then when Damain becomes Robin?? Gremlin mode activated.

Tim hosts regular 'Robin' Parties, where the idea is that you come in Robin colors, get a mask at the door and everyone gets to basically hang out in civilian clothes without the identity crises for those just getting started. "age appropriate" drinks, games, and good music are all staples. The parties become more frequent once Damian becomes Robin and he pointedly doesn't attend Tim's parties which... Neither of them are really happy about. Family is complicated, but finally, after a few years of cooling off, it's decided that Robin will actually host this years Robin party.

Meaning Tim shows up in casual clothes (MIT sweatshirt) and a mask, and Damian is actually dressed as Robin when the party is starting to get into the swing of things. The point of it is to make sure all the young heroes get to come and start to befriend each other, so there are a few people who show up and have to actually say that they're *insert alias* and this is met with basically "Dope, nice to meet you Robin" etc.

Insert Danny Twin AU (Or just look-alike fuckery) (for either brother but my brain is on Tim Twin au mode).

Danny decides to show up as his human self, grabs a mask at the door before coming in, and is slowly integrating himself into a conversation when someone grabs his arm- "Hey Red your brother is fighting with a newbie about meat products again-"

And Danny doesn't have a brother but my god has he heard this fight too many times with Sam and Tucker- He's going in and he's defusing this situation because he cannot handle the thought of this argument taking over his new friend group. He deals with it enough, okay?

Robin (like, the real one) looks at him curiously while Danny is talking down the other hero Robin (insert here), and the whole room notices when Robin doesn't take the opportunity to dismiss or belittle his older brother (Lmao because its danny). Damian cannot place his unease about Drake (again, Danny, who is not hiding his identity beyond a mask), and simply decides that this isn't worth the effort.

The party moves on but now instead of everyone calling themselves Robin, Danny is distinctly being called Red. It confuses him a bit, he didn't even know Red Robin was going to be at this party (he hasn't met the guy and doesn't know the lore), but he rolls with it because he's made fast friends with Robin (Bart), Robin (Cassie) and Robin (JON). The kid was full little bro energy and it made Danny laugh, he was so surprised when the real Robin joined them and fell into easy conversation with Robin (Jon).

Danny is playing games with a few others when someone goes to grab a broom to clean up- Turns out Red Robin and his boyfriend Kon had been making out in the closet for most of the party- and the whole room looks at Danny like he's tried to trick them. Tim is at first uneasy that so many people mistook him, but once he's in front of his dupe, puzzle pieces start to move around in his head.

"And who are you again, Robin?" Tim asks carefully, though he suspects he has his answer.

"Uh, Phantom, but you know, a lot of people were calling me Red tonight and I didn't get why until just now." Danny laughs nervously.

"Yeah I bet- Find me monday and we can see about a geneology test."

"That leaves us the whole weekend, to do what exactly? Fuck with people by pulling a parent trap style swap?"

"Nature vs. nuture and all but I don't know how you could be anything but my brother with a question like that." Tim grins and they get to scheming.

[gothamite-rambler]

Awkward Brother Hug

Nightwing and Red Robin side-hug each other, but Nightwing is doing more of the hugging, rocking slowly side to side as Red Robin awkwardly pats his arm and then clears his throat.

Red Robin (raising an eyebrow): Hm... Can you let me go now?

Nightwing (rubbing his brother's cheek): A few more seconds; there's no guarantee you won't die. Last time I went into space, Jason was dead and buried when I got back. And then everything else unfolded, and I cannot live with another version of that.

Red Robin (looking exasperated): Wing... he's alive and next to us.

Red Hood (smirking): I'm glad he's worried about you possibly dying like I did, though. That's oddly sweet.

Red Robin (attempting to slip out of his brother's grip): And because he's not hugging you?

Red Hood (typing on his phone): That's a plus.

Red Robin (blushing): All right, Nightwing, the moment has passed. I'll be fine; I won't fall for the same trick that got Jason killed.

Red Hood (smugly): He might turn you into a version of yourself because of your barely hidden insanity though.

Red Robin (side-glancing at his brother): At least I wasn't tricked by my deadbeat mom.

Red Hood shrugged, continuing to text on his phone.

Red Hood (chuckling dryly): Don’t make me insult you, kid. I'll hurt your feelings.

Nightwing shushed the bickering brothers while continuing to hug a very irritated Red Robin, who groaned because he knew his friends were watching this.

Nightwing: Shh, let’s just enjoy this family moment. I hope you guys don’t start fighting or die horribly... or do anything stupid.

Red Robin rolled his eyes. Red Hood chuckled because he knew it wasn't him this time that Dick was referring to.

Red Robin: I stopped embezzling money years ago! I wanted to meet Tony Hawk, and there was a fee! Stop bringing this up! Can I please go? The other Titans are watching this, and I swear one of them is taking a picture.

Bart (holding up his phone to record them): Nah, most of us are.

Red Robin (flustered): Okay, calling it then.

Red Robin wiggled away and slipped next to Red Hood, using him as a shield. Nightwing sniffled with a smile.

Nightwing (with a playful pout): Oh, I'm gonna miss you both! I hope none of you die and then get tossed in the Lazarus Pit! Family hug!

Nightwing managed to bring Red Hood and Red Robin into a forced group hug, but Red Robin slipped away, leaving only an aggravated Red Hood. His friends laughed at his expense as he held his head down, embarrassed. Cassie Sandsmark patted him on the shoulder, relating to that type of situation.

Red Hood oddly expected this, but he hated hugs like this. He lived, he died, he was brought back, and he didn’t want to be reminded of his first death or being hugged by a man in a tight bodysuit. The anti-hero patted his brother's arm, the rest of his body tense.

Red Hood (rolling his eyes): Mm-hm, mm-hm, I'll be fine. It can't happen twice... I think. Get off me!

Nightwing obliged and patted his brother’s helmet since he couldn't touch his hair.

Nightwing (in baby talk): I’m gonna see you soon, baby bro.

Red Hood: Don’t make me punch you. Bye.

Red Hood groaned and walked off, with Ravager following behind him.

Nightwing (calling after them): You guys don’t fight on your mission!

Ravager (grinning mischievously): We’ll try not to!

Red Hood (grumbling): Shush.

Nightwing (with enthusiasm): All right, ready to go, guys?

Nightwing walked off with the Titans, but Cyborg pulled Raven aside to ask her an important question.

Cyborg (whispering conspiratorially): Is he aware they’re hooking up?

Raven shook her head with a small smile.

Raven (curiously): When did you find out?

Cyborg (smirking): When Rose spent the night at the tower. Secret safe with us?

Cyborg held up a fist, and Raven bumped it with hers while chuckling. The two then headed off together, ready for a space mission.

[fastestmanalive333]

Rundown on my AU Earth-1987

Heavily based around New Earth.. a continuation in a sense accept for a few changes

-Bart Allen is the big resurrection instead of Barry, Conners resurrection in Legion of 3 Worlds stays intact Bart continues as the flash and gets the title but keeps his impulse and old personality unlike fastest man alive, Wally gives him a made up oath and goes goes to retire to be a dad and raise the twins, Bart is unsure of his New position.. he reconnects with Carol Bucklen..

-Roy Harper continues as Red Arrow Cry of Justice simply does not happen and Lian is still alive, he will even go on to join the Justice League

-The Justice League will be very much led by Dick Grayson the line up will consist of

-Nightwing, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Troia, Red Arrow, Jade, Obsidian, The Atom (Ryan Choi), The Flash (Bart Allen), and a New Green Lantern (Terry Berg) more on him later, Firestorm (Ronnie/Jason), Kendra Saunders(Hawkgirl) and Cyborg(Victor Stone)

-Titans will mostly consist of the YJ characters except Bart the line up will consist of Red Robin, Sentinel (Kon-El) he will now move on from the superboy moniker and become his own hero, Fury(Cassie Sandsmark) will be trained by Lyta Trevor the Fury of the newly reformed Earth Two and the daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve trevor her and Conner will be dating once again, Ravager (Rose Wilson), Red Devil(Eddie Bloomberg), Blue Beetle(Jaime Reyes), Static (Virgil Hawkins), Aquawoman(Lorena Marquez)

-Gar and Raven will join JL Dark along with Zatanna and others

-Batman: Batman will run batman incorporated Duke Thomas will be in this canon and will have met batman during no man's land as opposed to Zero Year, he will be Cass' best friend and will become The Signal, Gothams day protector unlike main continuity he will not be in the Batfamily, he will be his own unique hero, Jason Todd will have his pre crisis origin and hair color.. controversial ik.. but for the sake of preference that will be so, he will be an anti-villain crime boss controlling the drug trade, him and Bruce won't be at odds with each other, he simply does not approve of the path Jay has taken and it saddens him, Jay cares about Bruce too.. but he has chosen this life he will still be with Scarlet, Stephanie Brown will still be Batgirl, Barbara will still act as Oracle, Joker will have the doll maker remove his face and the court of owls will be introduced as Justice League villains instead of batman villains, they will very much be a worldwide illuminati type organization Damian will still act as Robin the bat fam will just be smaller and have Bruce, Dick, Damian, and Steph

-Green Lantern: Hal Jordan will marry Carol and Kyle Rayner will lead the corps, the mythos will be explored more, Terry Berg will be given kyles ring after kyle becomes a white lantern, Terry is Kyle Rayners assistant in Winicks run he will become The fifth earth lantern, kyle and Terry will get more bonding moments.. Kyle and Jade will get back together and marry for real this time, Terry's character will be explored more

-Superman: Kal will lead the Supermen of America a new team, Chris will be living with Clark and Lois again, he will be attending college classes with Thara and will be best friends with Duke Thomas, their dynamic will be like a swapped version of batman and superman.. Chris being the more serious super and Duke being the lighthearted bat, Chris will be able to control shadows and darkness, Duke controls light, him and Thara will be members of the JL Dark, Thara will assume the civillian identity, Claire Connor Lang acting as Karas sister, Kara Zor El/Linda Lang will still be living with lana and be on her last year of high school she will meet and team up with Linda Danvers her predecessor and they will quickly become friends, Conner will still be in Smallville now going to school at Kansas State.. the same college Chris goes too Kon will see him as a brother/Cousin, and they will be a duo in themselves they will all deal with the repercussions of zods war on earth

-The JSA: It will very much feature mostly the children and grandchildren of the jsa.. the remaining founding members will pass on.. except Jay and Carter Jay will act as mayor of NYC quitting the team giving guidance when needed, the JSA Hawkman will continue on with the JSA

Flash: Bart Allen will now be the main flash.. he will not be so sure he can do it again.. he failed.. he died.. and failed.. he will reconnect with his old friends in Manchester now all adults, him and Carol's relationship will spark, now working for Star Labs, Bart will get a job as a reporter at Picture News with Iris and we will see their relationship more Rival will return still possessing Max's body he will be the first big bad and it will give Bart and Max the closure they deserve, him and Bart will speak in the speed force where he will call him son before passing on, we will establish his rogues, the old rogues will still be on, barts old villains will hoin in too including White Lightning, Irey will become Barts Kid Flash

Wonder Woman: Diana will be working for the government and working to rebuild themysciras connection to earth, the amazons tactics have changed no visitors are welcome, Cassie will unleash her Olympian abilities more, she will cross over to earth two and meet Hippolyta Trevor the Daughter of Earth Two Wonder Woman, she will take on the name Fury, while Donna has uncovered a prophecy.. depicting the rise of an old God long defeated known as Typhon the Enemy of the Gods

Green Arrow: Ollie will still be married to Dinah, Robert Queen II will join the arrow family, Roy will gain a bigger role, Olivia Queen will be born

Aquaman: Arthur will retire with Mera, Garth will now be the king of atlantis, but he will not be the Aquaman.. Koryak will be the new Aquaman, a more brutal aquaman, although meaning well, it will feel like a tale of two brothers, Garth and Koryak will constantly butt heads.. Dolphin and Cerdian will be revealed to have not died but survived the destruction of atlantis in infinite crisis having been taken by atlan, Cerdian will have aged to 10 having been in the pocket dimension with atlan so long... the family will be reunited at last.. Cerdian will become Aqualad

Captain Marvel: Billy and Mary go on a quest to get their powers back which they do successfully, Freddy and Kit Freeman reunite the long lost freeman Brothers together at last they go on a journey through hell together

[bronzemettle]

Who were the original Teen Titans? Was it the Fab Five? The group from the Wolfman/Perez run? Some combination thereof? And how has the group evolved?

The original Teen Titans (g1, if you will) debuted in 2006 with Robin (Dick), Kid Flash (Wally), Wonder Girl (Donna), Cyborg (well, the younger half of him, anyway), Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, & Aqualad (Garth). Before the end of the year they'd be joined by Artemis (Crock), Terra, & Bumblebee. Just the next year would see Zatanna joining for a time, and more frequent if still-informal teamups with Roy Harper (haven't decided which moniker he'd be on at this point yet) and Supergirl (Kara).

(I'll note that Roy was already friends with Dick, Wally, & Garth from various semi-regular one-off teamups throughout the early years. Him signing up for the team a little late doesn't mean he's any less important because of it.)

Significantly, the team is created not long after Batman disappeared to parts of the world unknown after Knightfall. And it's years before the founding of the Justice League, Avengers, or Legends of Tomorrow. In fact, the only major American superhero team (not counting Family teams like the Fantastic Four, ArrowFam, or Team Go) of the 21st century to predate this generation of Titans are the X-Men. By the time the Justice League started, half of their kids were already best friends.

I don't have the total cycling in and out of g1 Titans members tracked out, but it's safe to say Roy joined officially at some point after the Terra stuff goes down, but before Donna leaves for the Legends of Tomorrow in 2010 (my excuse for aging her up to keep all the shipping non-creepy despite Amazons aging so much slower than all the other teens she started out as the oldest of), and Zatanna probably wasn't a full member for more than a few months, but has returned for one-off teamups periodically. Also yes she's a teen like them, but, only sometimes. She's also Batman's age sometimes. Zatanna's age is complciated. (short version: It's Magic.)

It's 2013 when they fully age out of the "teen" part of their name and become just the Titans, and the year after that the g2 Teen Titans debut, with Robin (Tim), Impulse (Bart), Blue Beetle (Jaime), Wonder Girl (Cassie), Superboy (Connor), Miss Martian, Aqualad (Kaldur), & Rocket.

[pin-crusher2000]

Earth 66 Headcanon Asks

1) Who do the New Young Justice consider their greatest arch enemies?

2) Similar to above but for Young Titans?

3) Since Robert and Jake dated for a while, what was their best date they ever had?

4) What was also Chris and Mar’i best date?

5) Are the teams monitored by any of the senior Titans I.e Beast Boy, Cyborg etc, The way how Red Tornado monitored YJ back then?

Good questions @paladin-of-nerd-fandom65

1: definitely Kid Amazo (from the super-sons comic), a OC named Pain (a character based on the old YJ villain Harm) & Vandal Savage & Felix Faust.

2: Kid Brainiac (who I mention a few times) another OC called Knuckle (mention in a previous ask) Abuse (Colin Wilkes) in a au, & maybe some teen titans villains such as cinderblock & mammoth. Also the court of owls in my universe.

3: one of the best dates (sometime during 2022-2024) was a movie date: they saw Sonic the hedgehog 2, got super hype for the “teaser” character ;)

4: hmmm a date on the Eiffel Tower in Paris in their late teens early adult. & a dance & make out session in the beautiful night sky with the full moon in the background.

5:

Young Titans: besides parents; Raven, cyborg, Changling (beast boy) monitor them. (Sometimes the old YJ group watches them too, gets very chaotic XD)

(New) Young Justice: mostly Conner & Cassie, but the rest & Red tornado (sometimes for him) watches the new group.

Let me know if you got more ;)

[tritogeneia]

Fan Casting James Gunn's DC Universe's Teen Titans

I have been on Tumblr for about 10 years now(good god I'm ancient) and have mostly reblogged but today have decided to put my comic knowledge to the test: by fan casting James Gunn's DC Universe's Teen Titans because why not. I will be including pictures and links to Youtube videos when I reference them, but otherwise, enjoy. This was mostly fueled because Creature Feature or whatever it's called had a still that included Starfire, confirming her existence in this universe.

Side note: there's like 50 members of the Teen Titans across comics and I ain't doing all that so to make it easier for me(and you), here is the team I've made to make it more digestible.

Also, I want to make it clear that ages don't really matter here, because this is tumblr, but I do mention them just for sometimes. However, I did try my hardest to actually get actors and actresses in, and not just models because not all models can act, and also because they are called the TEEN Titans, but several of them were on the team when they were in college and not teens anymore.

Obviously, there's the Perez + Wolfman team of Nightwing, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven & Cyborg, but also some of the other obvious ones: Arsenal(Roy Harper), Wally West, Rose Wilson/Ravager, Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl II, Speedy II, Miss Martian, Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle III, Bart Allen/Kid Flash, Kiran Singh/Solstice and, of course, Tara Markov/Terra. That's a lot of people so let's get into it!

Dick Grayson/Robin I/Nightwing

So, there aren't a lot of Romani actors that are both

a) young enough/alive to play Dick

and/or

b) actually able to match his skill set

So, I decided to think outside the box a little bit. A youtube video I watched recently casted an actor from the Ms. Marvel show, the one who played the love interest character for Kamala Khan as Dick Grayson. And while I don't think it's necessarily a bad choice, I just don't think it's one that I personally would pick because the actor himself is pretty beefed up. I honestly would have him play Jason instead because of his build. Anyways, for my pick, I decided to essentially look at old maps of Romani populations pre-World War 2, because that's when their populations in Eastern Europe would've been the largest. Romania housed the largest population of Romani people pre-World War 2, and Romania was apart of the Ottoman Empire, and Romani people had civil rights in the Ottoman Empire dating back to the 15th Century.

With all that said, I decided that a Romanian actor would probably be a little bit more fitting, since it was a little more historically relevant(unless a young Romani actor becomes huge in the next few years, in which I will edit this and add them in here instead). Without further ado, my choice for the role of Dick Grayson is... Stefan Iancu.

Stefan is 27, and has starred in a number of projects since the age of four. Most notably, for people in the states, he was in Killing Eve! I chose him mostly for the reasons above, but also because a lot of his projects have been either physically active projects(such as war/spy/historical wartime projects) and also because he has won several awards in Romania for his acting prowess.

~~~

Koriand'r/Starfire

Okay, so this isn't going to be controversial because while I have never seen the show Titans(mostly because half the time the screen is basically pitch black so you can't watch it anyways), I actually don't mind Anna Diop as Starfire. And ever since I saw Megan Thee Stallion's Starfire cosplay for Halloween last year I was FLOORED. So no, I am NOT in the "black women can't play Starfire" camp. I think a black woman SHOULD play Starfire. But who?

To start, she should be tall. Most incarnations of Starfire show her as being as tall as or even taller than Dick. Stefan Iancu is 5'7"(sorry anyone who uses the Metric System- that's about 1.702 meters). So we're aiming for someone who is 5'7 at least or taller. And that person is Tati Gabrielle. So I did originally want someone taller, but Tati is the same height as Stefan and also while I don't exactly love the idea of wedge heels , regular degular heels will also work, or shoe inserts.

She is slated to play the protagonist in the newest Naughty Dog game, and also starred in You season 3, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Uncharted(movie) and so much more! Miss girl IS the moment.

~~~

Garfield Logan/Beast Boy

So Beast Boy is a little bit of an interesting case. For Dick and Kori, their backstories are pretty cut and dry. But Garfield's is pretty long and complicated, and also he's been around since the 60's, and he was a member of the Doom Patrol, and also he was experimented on(but sometimes he's not? Comics are weird), but he's smart, but he's also not. And he has a healing factor, but then he doesn't.

So, yeah. For Garfield, I think it would be better to just give him the most basic of basic backstories, and just do that. Since I know this will(probably) only be read by like four people anyways, I will continue on as if you, the reader, know this already. Garfield comes from a family of scientists who live in Africa studying animals and sometimes they're trying to bring back extinct species, and sometimes they run animal sanctuaries. Either way, they are animal lovers. His race isn't necessarily a huge part of his identity, considering he's... you know... GREEN. So honestly any actor will do here.

And that actor, I have decided is going to be Josh Heuston. So this man is Australian(and tall at 5'11), and he's also very pretty. I am very slightly tempted to switch this man and Stefan Iancu, because LOOK AT HIS EYES AND JAWLINE. But, I stand by my decision, because I did all that research and I'll be damned if I let it go to waste. I think him having green eyes is just the cherry on top. Now, let's move on!

~~~

Rachel Roth/Raven

Raven isn't hard to get right and I am tired of people acting like it is. Raven isn't a teenager who is looking for attention or some random kid that's just losing her mind for fun, she's a tormented soul. Her powers are connected to her emotions, so she genuinely can't allow herself to feel any emotion, positive or negative. Think of trying to jumpstart a car. You have to be careful because if you're not you could hurt yourself or mess up your car, right? That's Raven's power in a nutshell. I have OCD, and so I can relate to having that shadow hanging behind me, saying "you are everything bad they think you are", which is still something I struggle with. All in all, Raven isn't someone who just has these crazy freak outs- she loses control because Trigon deliberately makes her by controlling her mind.

Anyways, rant over. Raven is one of my favorite characters of all time so this was more of a passion rant than anything else. My pick to play Raven is Barbie Ferreira!

Now, I have never seen Euphoria, I honestly haven't really been interested in watching it. It's always felt kind of fetishy and exploitative to me and I don't want to consume content like that anyways, so it's never really been on my radar. But, from the snippets I've seen on social media, I think Barbie can really pull it off, because it seems like she has a skill that I also share- no one ever knows what I'm ever feeling. I'm very good at chameleoning my way through life, and no one can ever read my body language or facial expressions very accurately, because I've mastered just... not giving them up. So Barbie is my choice.

~~~

Victor Stone/Cyborg

Victor is definitely one of those characters who needs to be the most human of the team. Getting him right means getting the reason why the Titans work so well right. If you've seen the teaser trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie and saw how they behaved and talked around the Thing/Ben Grimm, Victor is essentially the Titans' version of Ben. He holds the team down, and he also knows what humanity means, even though he's surrounded by Gods and Monsters and often feels like a monster himself. Anyways, for Victor, I have chosen the amazingly talented Jharell Jerome! I was originally going to go with John Boyega, but then decided to go with Jharell because he's from the Bronx, and it was really important for me that for Cyborg at least, that he was African American, so that there was that cultural understanding of POCs in the US and already not trusting police or law enforcement.

With Victor, he basically goes into hiding immediately after his transformation, and it was important for me to have that connection of why he would be so afraid to go outside(aside from the normal, I'm now half robot stuff) and why he would be such a rock for the Titans, and it would give him motivation to be that person for others as well.

~~~~~

Okay so now that we have the MAIN FIVE Titans out of the way, I'm going to start going into the other Titans that I want to see and would love to see be included, as well as my dream casting for them.

So to start, there's Roy Harper/Arsenal, Wally West and Donna Troy, who are all founding members of the original Titans but haven't been members in decades(looking at you Wally and Donna). Donna I am keeping off this list because her comic background is just so weird and confusing that even I don't get it(and that's saying something), so for everyone's sanity I am keeping her off this list.

For Wally, most of the comics have him either die or "disappear into the speed force" before returning after a while, so I'm thinking of either having him as a background character that's mentioned as dead already OR have him actually just be the Flash because for a really long time Barry Allen actually was just dead for a while and Wally was the Flash.

Roy is simply Roy. He's had three names, has a daughter with Cheshire(this is important later), and sometimes is a clone, sometimes is the original and has 3 other clones, and sometimes he's hooking up with Starfire who's also hooking up with Jason Todd(THANK YOU NEW 52 #THENEW52SUCKS). So let's just take it easy and start with Wally.

So don't throw pitchforks at me, but I actually hate when studios change red headed characters from red headed to people of color. NOT because they're now people of color but because it's really lazy. Like, really? You couldn't just CREATE a new charater with a similar-ish name and call it a day? MCU's Spiderman did it with Michelle Jones-Watson, and it worked perfectly because she's not MJ. Sure, her name is MJ, but it's not Mary-Jane.

Anyways, all this to say that Wally, Roy and Miss Martian will be sporting their red hair because those are my rules. Bart has brown hair so he doesn't count. And Starfire was already established to basically be a woman of color at her creation anyways so she also doesn't count. So, interlude over, let's continue.

~~~

Wally West/Kid Flash

So, for Wally, I actually was pretty quick with choosing him because apparently there's an abundance of ginger actors in Hollywood but also I already had someone in mind. And that someone is Cameron Monaghan!

Now, not only was he hilarious on Shameless, but he's just genuinely talented in general. Most people consider him to be a GOOD Joker in Gotham until the writers did the split personality type thing and ruined all the plot they had built up. And that's a feat few people have under their belt. Especially for a pretty "meh it's okay" TV show. I think he would work as Wally either as the Flash or even as a flashback because he just is able to adapt as an actor, which is what makes him so talented.

~~~

Roy Harper/Arsenal

So I also got Roy figured out pretty quick, only because I was looking for someone who just kind looks rough. Roy in the comics usually has a past with addictions, and also he is almost always portrayed with long hair and a trucker hat. So for Roy, I found someone who has long red hair and looks a little rough around the edges(which is fine, I also look rough about 90% of the time). And that person is Caleb Landry Jones!

Caleb is most well known for being in Get Out, but he's been in other films and projects since then. He was pretty menacing in Get Out, which is also why I picked him, because Roy has a pretty complicated relationship with Green Arrow and even the other Titans at certain points in the comics.

~~~

Rose Wilson/Ravager

Okay, so this one might be my magnum opus. Rose Wilson is the second child and only daughter of Deathstroke. As a child, he wanted her to be exactly like him so he blinded her in one eye to match his. Rose has enhanced strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, reflexes, senses, intellect, accelerated healing and decelerated aging. She's also an expert marksman and swordsman like her father.

Originally I was going to try and find a Black woman with albinism to portray Rose, because Rose has stark white hair, just like Deathstroke. But there sadly aren't any actresses that fit the part. So we are going to have to break the mold a little bit.

Thando Hopa. She's a South African model with albinism. She is the first person with albinism to strike the cover of Vogue magazine. She's a little older than my age cutoff, but honestly she's clearly been blessed with the no-age gene because she looks like she's in her early 20s

~~~

Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl II

Wonder Woman is my favorite superhero. There, I said it. She is the moment, and Cassie is probably my favorite sidekick ever because she's just so unique. Something that the writers at DC did that really surprised me is that they actually took tropes from Ancient Greek myths when they wrote Cassie's stories in the early 2000s.

One of Cassie's follies is rage. Like the story of Heracles, she becomes enraged to easily and often just relies on her strength and lets her anger fuel it. So, naturally, Ares gives her a lasso that can channel Zeus' lightning bolts, but only when she gets angry. Ares wants Cassie to be his champion, and often tries to fuel her own anger to convince her to join his side.

Obviously, this is metal as hell and needs to be a plot point, so we need an actress that can actually portray mad. Who can portray that primal feeling of anger and show no remorse for nearly leveling a town because of it. And that can only be done by one person specifically(at least for this role): Samara Weaving.

I don't know if you guys have seen Ready or Not but she absolutely slays the house DOWN in this. She takes no prisoners, kicks ass, and has no remorse for it. She is absolutely perfect for this role.

~~~

M'gann M'orzz/Miss Martian

Hoo boy. You thought my rant on Raven was bad? Put your seatbelts on, we are about to enter a new level of rant.

I grew up watching Young Justice. It was the show I would watch everyday before going to school. And M'gann's story of desperately wanting to fit in and doing anything to achieve that? Yeah, super felt. Being constantly rejected or left behind left me clinging to this character like a life line, waiting for life to reel me back in. And honestly? I'm kind of still waiting.

But anyways, M'gann is one of my favorite animated characters, and she is so complex. Her motivations, wants, needs and even attributes are all in an attempt to hide her true Martian heritage.

In DC lore, there are 2 main races of Martians on Mars. Green Martians(duh) and White Martians. They were once the same, some stuff happened, they split, and now they're somehow the same but different? Comics are weird. Anyways, M'gann is a White Martian that 'disguises' herself as a Green so that she can have more acceptance due to the constant rejection and bullying she received as a child. So, she uses the name Miss Martian and shapeshifts her skin green.

This is a SUPER important part to her character and cannot be fudged up. It's the ultimate motivation for her, and her slowly coming to accept it and be more open with her true self.

The reason why I say her appearance is so important is because in the Young Justice show, she ties her appearance to a show that her uncle, Martian Manhunter, used to send to Mars when she was a kid that she latched onto. So, her appearance is super important and it's why whenever I see her being played by someone who just kind of looks normal or doesn't look recognizable, it does a giant disservice to M'gann and her character. So, I chose Sadie Sink as the actress to play M'gann.

The reason why I chose Sadie is because Sadie is recognizable. You know what she looks like and can instantly say "oh, that's Sadie Sink". I think that either Stranger Things or something similar that Sadie has been in that is very recognizable to the audience should be the reason why M'gann uses this as her "face" essentially, because then it would be more relatable to the audience, and make M'gann's reasonings and motivations more clear. And, they could literally just essentially paint Sadie green it would still work- that's how committed M'gann is to keeping her true form a secret. She doesn't need to be unrecognizable, she needs to look like Sadie Sink but green.

~~~

Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle III

Oh Jaime, how thankful I am that the Blue Beetle movie exists. Xolo Maridueña is somehow my dream casting and the perfect role for Jaime, so thanks for doing my job for me, Blue Beetle movie!

~~~

Bart Allen/Impulse/Kid Flash

Sooooo, two speedsters on one list? Shocking, I know. But Bart is one of the funniest characters known to comics(at least for speedsters) and that's saying something because Wally exists. There's this great comic of Bart getting a Green Lantern tattoo or something(because he can't get a Flash one, that would give away his secret identity, duh!) and from just him going from tattoo shop to the Titans Tower, he shows the team(who are all thoroughly unimpressed) and it literally disappears due to his metabolism and healing factor. 100 bucks down the drain, my guy.

This makes me laugh every time I think about it. Truly one for the ages. Also those bangs and headband combo on Cassie? Iconic.

Anyways, I think that Wyatt Oleff would make a great Bart, just because of his one-liners in It and It Part II. I think with a good script, it would be a match made in heaven.

~~~

Kiran Singh/Solstice

So Kiran is someone who is really important because good Desi representation in Western media is lacking, and with the release of Ms. Marvel, that gaping hole of Desi representation is becoming more and more visible. So, I added Kiran because we need good Desi and good South East Asian representation. Kiran has been described by her creators as "a positive spirit - influenced by the various cultures she’s encountered during her travels throughout the world. She embraces life and all the adventure and experiences it offers". She manipulates light and can fly. She basically can blast you with light, and therefore I believe she should be played by someone who just radiates kindness and light and smiles as bright as the sun.

And obviously is Desi or Indian. I was kind of stuck trying to find an actress that fit into this idea that I had until I found her- the brightest star(because all suns are stars) in the galaxy of actresses who could play Kiran- Alia Bhatt.

She is SO gorgeous and just has that radiant energy, even through pictures. She is also the moment.

~~~

Tara Markov/Terra

Alright, now we have a heavy hitter. Terra is definitely one of those characters that is both a good character and a bad character. At her worst, she is a CSA victim that is used and abused by Deathstroke and then tossed aside when he has no more use for her, only for her to then take revenge at the last second, killing both herself and Deathstroke in an act of... self sacrifice? At her best, she is a complicated, abused character who has questionable motive and is manipulated by Deathstroke into betraying her family/team because he has convinced her that he is the only one that actually cares, only for her to break free of those chains and redeem herself and become a hero(thank you Young Justice season 3).

Terra is another one of those characters who you really have to understand to get right. If you don't get her right, then you're misunderstanding why The Judas Contract was such a big deal for the Titans history and why it keeps being adapted. Terra herself is both a martyr and a villain, but she's also someone who makes mistakes and has to work hard to earn forgiveness for those mistakes.

Now, do I prefer her and Beast Boy together or Beast Boy and Raven together? Honestly, I prefer Terra to be Beast Boy's first love- the one that got away, the one that he really thought was going to last forever and it just... didn't. Raven and Terra are so opposite from each other, but they're also very similar.

Anyways, rant aside, I truly believe that Terra needs to be played by a scream queen, because that girl is extremely emotionally stunted(which is totally okay and makes sense with her history) and has these outbursts a lot. So, I chose Jenna Ortega to play her.

If you haven't seen the clip of Jenna screaming in X, then you need to see it because that girl KNOWS how to scream like she means it.

~~~

Mia Dearden/Speedy(aka Artemis Crock/Tigress)

Okay LISTEN. You really didn't expect me to just not include my girl Artemis in this list? Hell no.

So, Artemis in the comics is actually a villain. Like a super crazy big villain. She's actually married to Icicle Jr.. Her father is Sportsmaster, her sister IS Cheshire/Jade Nguyen(told you she'd come back!). But, Artemis has mostly been unused since, which sucks because the Young Justice did such a good job with her. So, I'm bringing her here. I'm kind of mashing both Mia Dearden and Artemis Crock together, mostly because Artemis was never a hero in the comics.

Mia's backstory is really dark- she's also a victim of CSA, and a victim of human trafficking. Now, Mia is eventually rescued by Green Arrow and becomes 'Speedy'. So, I'm kind of mashing their characters, with Artemis' origins being the same, but having her taking the Speedy mantle. So, Artemis is half Vietnamese, half White, but I'm choosing to just have a Vietnamese actress play her, because wigs exist but also, like I've said- South East Asian representation matters. So, I chose Lana Condor(who is Vietnamese) to play Artemis.

I think it would also be a good subversion of what we're used to seeing from Lana, we're used to seeing her play these rom-coms, and seeing her play a tough and mean character that fights dirty is something that I think that would ultimately boost her even more. Sis can ACT, okay, and I want to see her in more roles, not just the To All the Boys type films.

~~~

Alright, so that was all my picks for the 2025 Teen Titans draft. I tried to include as many POCs as possible, but if you have any other suggestions let me know!

[maxwell-grant]

What did you think of Mortal Kombat X, and the new characters introduced there?

Never really played it compared to it's predecessor and successor, came out at a time where I had kinda fallen out of keeping up with MK. I did go back to catch up more to it and watch the entire Story Mode and all but, just never really did much for me. I barely even play Mortal Kombat as is and I completely forget this even had a big Story Mode, even now I couldn't tell you anything that happens in it besides Johnny Cage getting tortured by bees and later beating Shinnok, and the D'Vorah parts, because D'Vorah rules obviously.

Still, I like the Variation system, at the time I thought it was a really cool idea and I enjoyed trying these out the few times I played the game. Custom movesets and special variants are allright but I liked the idea of every character having between 3 optional movesets and playstyles to choose from. I also like some of the choices the took with the characters here (what they did with Mileena's teeth was total cowardice though, frankly way worse than killing her off right as they're taking her character somewhere interesting). I definitely appreciate their commitment to creating lots of new characters instead of immediately padding out the roster with the 3D era revamps of has-beens and never-weres

Really it's just the characters I have thoughts on when it comes to these so let's get to them (won't be using any images of them in X and instead just talking about them in general, man was everybody ugly in X now that I'm looking back on it)

Cassie Cage: ...you know what, she grew on me a bit in MK11. She is pretty much the Mortal Kombat version of Luke and I hated her for most of the same reasons but, 11 had her take the backseat a little and patched up some things and generally made her funny and occasionally cool enough, with some fairly good Fatalities, that she grew on me. I like her better than Sonya, which isn't a lot but it's something.

Jacqui Briggs: Pretty cool, I like her the most out of the new heroes and she got the mother of all glow-ups in 11. I like the contrast between her and Jax and how her moves and gameplay are very different from Jax while also having basically the same powers. I like that she's a kickboxer and that she has no innate magic abilities and instead gets by on enhanced gauntlets and tech, makes it feel like she's always at a lot more risk than the other fighters. I really wish she had more of an identity besides Jax, Jax is great but they overplay it to the point I think it drags her down a bit. Still, easily the best of the new heroes.

Takeda and Kung Jin: They're allright, cool weapons, you could do worse for the first confirmed gay character in Mortal Kombat, but I completely forget these guys exist most of the time, I have their profiles in hand right now and still couldn't tell you much of anything about him. Idk man most of MKX is just a memory hole for me and these guys weren't anywhere close to the most interesting things about it.

Triborg: Not a character so much as an excuse to feature all the cyborg ninjas without having to cram them into a narrative role, and fine, there could be worse ways to go on about it, the cyborg ninjas are a staple of the series with individually fun playstyles, so putting them all together via the Variation system is a practical and good solution. Only really bummer for me is that I like Cyrax as a character quite a bit and would have like for him to stay around, but I get it.

Ferra/Torr: Vaguely uncomfortable? Really don't care much for when Mortal Kombat flirts with fantasy race worldbuilding and I hope Ferra's not supposed to be like, an actual pygmy, we're probably only gonna get clarification when she shows up in MK1. I feel like they could have used an extra turn on the drawing board before being put in game but putting these aside though, pretty allright, borrowing from Mad Max freakshows feels like a no-brainer for MK and they're a fairly novel idea for a fighting game two-in-one character.

Kotal Kahn: Kotal's pretty great. He's the heart ripper to end all heart rippers a killer design and silhouette, he's got some pretty cool ideas for special moves, he is a fairly great fighting game character design. He's used to glue plenty of separate storyline threads together and he's a very solid midcard character, in that he can and frequently does job to just about anyone but can still get individually cool moments like his takedown of Goro and amazing Fatalities enough to justify him being enough of a threat in-universe to be Emperor. He is fairly novel in being The Next Emperor of Outworld who isn't a wholly evil bastard like Shao, even if he is very much kind of a bastard a lot of the time. Phil Lamarr's excellent voice work does most of the heavy lifting in making him seem a lot more cool and honorable than he actually is.

He isn't really "noble" so much as he's just regal in a cool way, and humble and honorable enough to not be at cross-purposes with the protagonists most of the time or at least own up to his mistakes, and having that bare minimum of decency is enough to make even a murderous heart-eating violent warlord who executes and enslaves people for petty thievery comparatively a great guy next to the ones that came before him, the guy who relinquishes the throne to Kitana as someone who was far better than Shao Kahn, but not good enough to properly heal Outworld from Shao. His romance with Jade is pretty allright as well.

Erron Black: I'm frankly shocked that it took Mortal Kombat that long to add a Cowboy to the roster, seriously you'd think that archetype would have shown up in the wacky MK3 years or something. Erron's pretty great and I feel like his appeal is fairly self-explanatory and everybody's more or less on the same page that he's great, so I don't have as much to say on him. They get a lot of mileage out of him as a wildcard mercenary dirtbag, who is just different enough from Kano and Kabal and the lesser variants of those two that popped up over the years that he works in storylines with, and against them. Obviously his named bullet X-Ray is the sickest shit and they do a surprisingly amount of cool stuff for his moveset, I love that he's a total scavenger and it shows in his specials. Also love his voice work, love how mysterious they keep his background.

Gunslingers tend to get a bad rep in fighting games because of how cheap their options can be, but frankly I think gunslingers nearly always tend to make for cool characters because of how much they have to be designed around game design limitations and having to give them movesets besides The Schut. Erron's easily the most iconic of the new characters and I think he's the only one who's more or less guaranteed to keep showing up, I'd be surprised if they didn't add him to MK1.

D'Vorah: People have no taste whatsoever, D'Vorah fucking rules completely. If I'll give NRS one thing, is them not capitulating to fan outcry and diminishing her in 11. The fandom went nuts over her killing Mileena in X, and so for the sequel, they let her get away with taunting Shao Kahn to his face about killing his daughter and then killing fucking Scorpion, absolute queen shit.

Women characters designed to look cool and fearsome over looking attractive are already goddamn unicorns in videogame/fighting game economy, and designed to look unapologetically monstrous and unsympathetic and horrifying, let alone all of these in one and more, are much rarer still. But disgusting? A rotting parasitic baby-eating scavenger with flaky, cracked open exoskeleton skin, filthy rags, appendages and spikes everywhere leaking gooey poison, whose belly tears open for her to caress giant maggots before the fight? I don't think any other major fighting game franchise would pull off D'Vorah's design the way they did. She only looks like a naked yellow alien lady from a split-second distance before you actually look at what's going on there, and that dissonance makes her work even better than if she was a shapeless or purely-insectoid monster. She looks just close enough to all the other bikini-clad women that it makes what she actually is and does stand out more.

It's not even like D'Vorah is that much new ground for the series besides her design, because for the most part she is just one among many backstabbing sadists with agendas looking to get a leg up by throwing their lot with the villains (that was basically Mileena's role for the longest time, which is why D'Vorah has to one-up her in grossness and kill her), it's just that unlike Mileena and most of the others, D'Vorah actually gets to follow through with backstabbing fuckers and playing them for chumps instead of getting trampled in the sidelines (and she is beatable, yes, but she's very good at last-minute dirty tricks with bug swarms and poison and scurrying away). She is every bit as much of a disgusting dirtbag heel as Kano tuned in a completely opposite direction from Kano's funnyman sellout antics, driven by a fierce blood loyalty to the hive that she embodies alone and far more capable of killing you than you ever would be towards her

I think D'Vorah is easily best female character design in the series, she's one of the finest heels in fighting games, her Fatalities are some of the best in the series, she is beauty she is grace and her maggots will melt your face, in 11 she's got the cutest voice ever, and I think she should get to kill and feed to her bugs as many of your beloved characters as she wants to. As a treat for her and her babies.

[linkspooky]

TITANS #1: OUT OF THE SHADOWS, THOUGHTS. 

I’m evolving from a manga blogger to my final form a comic book blogger. If you know anything about me, you know Teen Titans is my favorite thing ever, so after neglecting the Teen Titans and pushing them to the side for years DC’s push to finally put the Teen Titans in the spotlight has me really excited. So I’ll be trying to write up my monthly thoughts for each new issue as long as the comic is running!

Happy comic book Tuesday everyone! My thoughts on the first issue below!

First and foremost, after two successive reboots the newest run of Titans has returned to the original New Teen Titans lineup, Nightwing, Donna, Starfire,  Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, with Wally as a member at least on rotation. 

How much of the old continuity is back has yet to be seen, but considering Roy and Lian are back in the Green Arrow comics, they mention that Garth, Donna and Dick are founding members of the original Titans Team I am going to assume they’re bringing back old continuity. 

From what I can tell, Infinite Frontier did a sort of soft reset of both of the New 52, and Rebirth Teen Titans series, and our current team is continuing on from what was probably a few years after the events in (2003). 

I base this off the fact that the newest Young Justice comics also mention the fact that Tim, Connor, Bart and Cassie all were on the Teen Titans at one point before they went back and reformed Young Justice, so graduation day still happened. 

The fact that Beast Boy and Raven are dating too is something that indicates we’re continuing from the events of (2003), because them officially getting back together is the last thing they did on panel before the reboot hit. 

The New Cyborg comic that came out today as well also mentions that the first team he was ever on was the Teen Titans, with a flashback that looked like the 80s lineup.

Anyway, I went out of my way to establish what continuity I think we are working with, because since we’re back at the New Teen Titans lineup, there’s a lot of interesting parallels in this first issue. 

1. Garfield Logan / Beast Boy

A pretty commonly overlooked fact about Beast Boy is that he suffers from  C-PTSD, and depression. He’s basically been orphaned twice. This was especially prevalent in the start of New Teen Titans, because when the Doom Patrol had just recently died when Garfield joined the team. 

Garfield’s mental illness is more disguised because unlike other comic book characters that tend to lash out a lot more (like say, no one is ever going to argue about the fact that Jason Todd has c-ptsd it’s pretty hard to miss there), Garfield instead spends most of his time playing off his trauma like it’s nothing to him. 

That’s not to say Garfield doesn’t lash out, he has multiple times. He’s tried to kill Slade Wilson, he nearly killed Madame Rogue (and then she died anyway). However, Garfield tends to spend a lot of time trying to hide his symptoms, so he can come off as a friendly, safe, reliable person to be around. 

Which is what makes Garfield so unique of a character to me, his unaddressed trauma manifests in subtle ways. Beast Boy’s immature, and kind of an eternal child because he doesn’t want to grow past his trauma since that would require facing it. He’s also like, compared to Dick Grayson who is a well-oiled machine who is THE LEADER, the HERO, a lot more incompetent and whiny. Which is because they have similiar traumas that manifest in different ways, Dick’s trauma makes him overwork himself to death trying to be good at his job as a hero because that’s the one thing he does well, and Beast Boy’s trauma makes him self sabotage. 

Beast Boy’s writing is unique because his trauma stunts his growth in a way that’s really down to earth and realistic. A lot of people complain about how fifteen year old Beast Boy is constantly making women uncomfortable by hitting on them, or how his relationship with Terra is about HIS FEELINGS and not hers and therefore selfish, and yeah, both of those things are true but it’s because Beast Boy is a child who doesn’t know how to behave that’s looking for validation and in this case he’s looking for it from women in his life. 

New Teen Titans isn’t the most progressive comic in the world, but the writers were aware of the fact Beast Boy’s behavior was not alright, he gets called a chauvinist multiple times. So Garfield is capable of being immature, selfish, and he can even have some toxic attitudes and deeply repressed anger and these things are all deeply hidden under the surface, because he’s also Beast Boy and he’s Baby. 

The new Titans run has said that Beast Boy’s trauma from being shot by Slade Wilson in Dark Crisis is going to be one of the themes explored starting out in Titans, and as I’ve established above Beast Boy’s always been a sufferer of CPTSD. 

The fact that it was Slade specifically who shot him too is interesting, because Beast Boy had a pretty long running relationship with Slade in new Teen Titans (more of a relationship than he ever did with Dick, TBH). Starting with the fact that Slade nearly murdered him, Beast Boy’s relationship with Terra, all led to a point where Beast Boy tried to murder Slade out of vengeance.

Which is where I once again bring up the point that, Beast Boy’s just repressed all of his trauma he has not processed literally any of it. However, when Beast Boy tries to kill him, of all things what happens is they end up sitting down at a diner and talking things out. I have mixed opinions on this scene I definitely do not like the victim blaming of Terra that goes on, but there is something about Slade having just enough humanity to talk Beast Boy down off of a ledge. The gist of the conversation is more or less “Don’t become like me Beast Boy, I’m not a good person.” I credit Slade “I hate children, I’m glad I was never one of them” Wilson with having at least that much self-awareness. 

It’s actually a pretty nuanced take to point out that Beast Boy only wanted to murder Slade, because he wanted to vent all of the hatred and anger he was holding inside of himself because he didn’t have any way to express it, and killing Slade for those reasons would not have made him feel better. 

After that conversation, Slade and Beast Boy have a weird relationship where Beast Boy starts seeing him as more human, to the point where when Slade becomes Deathstroke again post Titans Hunt he’s really disappointed in him because he wanted to see the good in him. Which makes sense because Beast Boy has like no healthy role models for masculinity in his life, of course he’d cling to one guy who was kind of nice to him once when he was at a low point. 

So Beast Boy being shot by Slade of all people, and then rocking an eyepatch covering the same eye that Slade has missing is a neat visual parallel to Slade considering all their history. Which is interesting because Slade is an interesting foil to Beast Boy. Beast Boy has some hidden toxicity inside of him as a result of his trauma he has trouble processing, and which often causes him to act out, and Slade Wilson is toxic masculinity personified. 

Slade is also a sufferer from PTSD, he’s a vietnam vet, and evil captain america, he’s said multiple times in his series that coming back from war he basically felt nothing which is what made him adopt the Deathstroke persona. Slade’s like the worst, most toxic possible future for Beast Boy, the bad ending fromt he darkest timeline. It’s why he was the one who talked Beast Boy down from that ledge originally because Slade knew, that violence never fixed anything about him. 

In action comics 1051 they dive inside Beast Boy’s mind because post-dark crisis he’s been losing control of his transformation, and his inner world is represented by several angry animals lashing out to defend their territory, and then a little baby boy. Because Beast Boy is Baby, but like once again Beast Boy will act incredibly aggressive and violent to defend the child within himself. 

Because Beast Boy’s reaction to his trauma has always been about hiding it. Which is more or less why the child within hasn’t grown up. So considering all of his past trauma, if they’re still in continuity then you could even look at being shot by Slade as him being re-traumatized. Especially since he’s almost been killed by Slade in the past before, and it was a pretty major trauma for him at the time too. 

It seems like in this issue, Beast Boy’s way of dealing it so far has been his usual one too, which is just to you know, avoidance and passing himself off as fine. He transforms into a mouse in his sleep because Beast Boy wants to pass himself as harmless and someone its okay to be around. 

The sentiment in this first panel though, sort of reminds me of what Beast Boy said to Raven in the last issue of the 2003 Teen Titans run, about taking the good with the bad. 

Which you know if we’re really just continuing Beast Boy and Raven’s relationship from where they were in 2003, growth for Beast Boy because he’s not just seeking validation in a relationship as a way to fix himself, he’s just looking for comfort and support from his partner. 

Okay, that was the longest section of the post, but I like Beast Boy so I’m biased. Moving on!

2. Raven / Rachel Roth 

Raven’s New Teen Titans characterization, and her post revival in 2003 characterization are wildly different. This might just be me wanting her old characterization back, but I caught a couple of signs of old Raven in this first issue? The first is the way she talks, she’s not being snippy or sarcastic she’s talking in a kind of reserved, stiff and formal way. 

The second thing is she’s not throwing things around with telekinesis or participating in the fight, while everyone else was fighting we saw her doing crowd control and teleporting which is what New Teen Titans Raven did. She had two moves which was teleporting in and out of places, and calming people down. 

3. Dick Grayson / Nightwing

There’s not much character work for Dick per-se in this first issue, but the push DC is doing to have the Titans finally step up and act in the place of the new Justice League has a lot of implication for Dick’s character. 

Number one, the move to Bludhaven means that for the first time in decades being the leader of the Titans is a big priority for Dick’s character again. Basically post Dick quitting the team, and the Chuck Dixon era, Dick operated solo in Bludhaven for a long time, and even when the team reformed with Dick as a leader he was still operating solo out of the Bludhaven which I always thought didn’t make a lot of sense to split his focus like that. 

Moving the Titans Tower to Bludhaven pretty much solves that problem, it allows Dick to still have solo Nightwing things in Bludhaven, but also make being team leader a priority of his character as it ought to be. Not only does most of Dick’s character development come from separating himself from Batman and being with the Teen Titans, it’s also just Dick’s greatest strength as a character is his leadership skills so when he’s separated from the TItans he loses that aspect of his character. 

Number two, the Titans replacing the Justice League as the mai defender of worldwide threats. Which is again, another good move for Dick’s character. Dick was never going to join the justice league, he can’t be Batman because honestly he’s already better than him. If DC actually sticks to their guns here and lets the Titans actually step up it’s a pretty interesting premise. 

The Titans have handled worldwide threats before, so it’s not really a problem of whether or not they’re strong enough. The Titans in their prime weren’t really a one-city team, they flew all over the place and got into all sorts of adventures. The lack of members isn’t really a problem either, unless you’re watching Justice League unlimited, it’s usually just one core team of members with the Titans, and the Titans have a bunch of auxiliary members they can call on. However, there is one pretty big difference between the League and the Titans which would make them function differently. 

The League are Earth’s Greatest Heroes, they’re like the All-Star Team that gets handpicked from the best of the major leaguers. They don’t really have the kind of complex in-group relationships that the Titans do. The Titans on the other hand are just kind of a bunch of traumatized kids who were thrown together at one point. As a whole too, the Titans are more likely to work without the system than within it. 

So, there is an interesting conflict you could set up for Dick which is to have the Titans take on the level responsibility that the Justice League had, but with a team that functions in almost an entirely different way than the Justice League did, because they’re living together and they all grew up together. The Titans solving the Justice League level problems, but learning to do it in the Titans way. 

4. Aqualad / Garth

So, Garth’s totally been brainwashed by Brother Blood, right? 

On a more serious note, the scene with Garth is interesting because both Garth and Roy have been despite being founding members, more like sixth stringers of the Teen Titans as a whole throughout most of the Titans runs. Basically the only run where they are regular members of the team is the Titans run in the 90s. 

One of the events that caused the breakup of the original Teen Titans from the silver age is the fact that Garth was so insecure about his place on the team that he literally faked an illness so he wouldn’t have to go out on missions. 

If he’s not being brainwashed though, Tom Taylor has explored ideas of the atlanteans being a little more extreme about environmentalism before in the Injustice 2 comic. It’s a potentially interesting plot-thread considering DC recently has been taking a more sympathetic view of environmental extremists like Poison Ivy making them lean more into being anti-villains / anti-heroes. 

It could be an interesting turn for Garth, because he is a distant member of the team, and he’s also got other priorities besides being a hero on the surface. I for one, think it would be great if Garth turned into Namor, but that’s just my huge crush on Namor speaking. 

That’s pretty much all of my thoughts for now. If you enjoyed me rambling about Beast Boy, and some other nerds whatever their names were, please feel free to send me asks!

[moonieshinesims]

Generation One - Chapter Fifty Five

It is time for River and Ichiban to move off to the facility to get it live-in ready for Michiko. It was going to be a while, since Havarti and Cassie had already started research, but they were more than confident that they'd be seeing her in a few weeks...

Of course, the day they were leaving just had to be Michiko's birthday... She'd been warned about it for weeks, and her parents kept asking her over and over if she was okay with that.

Really, why did it have to be on her birthday? Couldn't it have been the day after? The week after? The month after? Never?

She knew her parents weren't abandoning her, but for some reason, it sure felt like they were.

Ako had been over more recently, trying to get to know Michiko more. Get used to being around her. He didn't have a lot of experience with kids, so both he and Michiko felt like it was going to be an awkward experience.

Michiko was excited to see this facility her parents kept talking about. It was going to be their base of operations from now on. Her parents were criminals, but high ranking ones. She wasn't too keen on the inner workings of the Simkuza or crime rings, but one day she figured she'd have to know all that stuff. After all, her dad kept saying it was a "family business".

"We love you so much, don't forget that. You have our phone number, so you can call us anytime you need us! And we'll call you every night. Okay?"

Michiko nodded, silently and watched them walk out the door...

Over at the facility, Cassandra and Havarti had pretty much cleaned the place up. They were both extremely stoked to have a ginormous piece of property to do their experimenting on and in.

Both of them had gone a bit haywire over the years with their research...

Cassandra had come back from space feeling ill and weird... Only to recover shortly after. Her skin, however, had a strange purple hue to it, and her eyes glowed purple as well. She said she'd ingested something in space, and that now she had "alien properties", but nobody knew what that meant yet.

She was very excited to see.

And Havarti had gone full on trans-siminist and had a fellow robotics machinist help turn her into a cyborg. River and Cassie were shocked when she came back home, half metal, and weren't sure where exactly she'd got the idea from.

River secretly wondered if the strange plants in Strangerville had driven them both insane...

After all, Cassie had always been good at physics, but to build a rocket by herself and use it to go on a one woman mission into space?

And Havarti... She was always into robotics and engineering, but where had the idea to turn herself into a robot come from?

These thoughts plagued River's mind, and she figured the answers lied in the strange plants... She knew first and foremost she was supposed to be running a villain empire, but if she could harness the powers of the plants and exploit it...

Who knows how unstoppable they would be?

The new facility was coming along nicely, the living quarters that was. She knew if she was going to eventually bring Michiko there, the place had to have some semblance of a home. Michiko would need a place to do school-work, and place to exercise, and play.

The research facility was already fully functional, and Havarti and Cassie spent most of their days there.

While River did most of her work in the containment lab where the strange plants were held.

Ichiban wasn't exactly the brainiest member of this group, so he was more focused on combat and business.

It'd been about three weeks since they'd officially moved in. River and Ichiban followed through on their promise to call Michiko every night. She really missed them, and they really missed her. She and Ako were getting along though, so that was good.

River thought she was about to make a breakthrough with her research on the strange plants, when one day...

She looked up from her work and saw the plant was moving more than usual. They always pulsed and shuddered, which really grossed her out. But this time it was seizing and shaking something fierce!

Then, right out of the center of the giant disgusting flower, something floated into the air...

River wanted to back out of the room, to give herself another layer or protection from this thing, but she couldn't move. She was frozen in place.

Ichiban, Cassie, and Havarti ran into the containment lab and stopped in their tracks.

"Ŧħ€ ş€ćř€ŧş…"

The room shook.

"Ŧħ€¥ đø ňøŧ β€łøňǥ ŧø ¥øu."

"Is that her...!? Is her hand glowing?"

"What's going on?!"

The glowing grew larger and larger. They could hear the sounds of white noise and hissing all around them. The electronics in the facility were being affected by this thing. This creature.

"GET OUT! WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!" River could barely hear herself screaming over the strange noises surrounding them.

They all tried to turn and leave, but were enveloped in a bright purple light.

And then...

Nothing.

TO BE CONTINUED IN GEN 2

[pinkiemachine]

Hi! So, I was wondering... You said all heroes before 24 are in the YJ, where does that leave the original team of the NTT? Are they in the JL now? Do the Outsiders exist anymore? (and if you don't have this all figured out or have a different plan for canon it is okay, I just overthink things)

So, I’m a little confused by your question—the “original” team was the Mighty Teen Titans, the second gen was the New Teen Titans. Typo? Idk.

ANYWAY—REGARDLESS—I’ll try to answer your question as best I can :)

So, one of my main objectives when it comes to the superhero teams is trying to keep things simple. I don’t want there to be a whole bunch of different teams for people to try and keep track of all the time, because that makes it harder on the average viewer. At the moment, the only teams I’ve greenlit so far are The Justice League (there will be a few “generations” for them as well. Changing members over the years, like Aquaman leaving to become king of Atlantis and being replaced by Green Arrow and Black Canary), the Teen Titans (I’ve posted plenty about them, but yeah, there’s three distinct generations for them, each led by a different Robin, and yes, Jason would have gone on to lead his own team if he hadn’t sadly passed away), speaking of which, the Outlaws, led by Red Hood. Additional members: Arsenal, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, and Bizarro. Then, there’s the Green Lanterns of Earth. (Yeah, that whole “each sector has only ONE Lantern” thing doesn’t really sit well with me. Besides, it’s not like DC listens to that rule anyway, lol.) So, the team consists of five members: Hal Jordon, Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Kelli Quintella, and is led by John Stewart. While he leads the Lantern team, Hal is the active representative on the Justice League, helping them on missions periodically when the rest of the Lanterns are preoccupied. Kyle Rayner comes in later, during the adaption of the Emerald Twilight arc, leading up to Blackest Night.

Finally, there’s Young Justice, which unfortunately is the least fleshed out of the teams right now, but it too will have distinct “generations.” However, which members are included will vary depending on the characters themselves. For example, among the original Teen Titans—Robin/Nightwing, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Cyborg—Cyborg went on ahead and became part of the Justice League before Young Justice was founded, leaving Nightwing and Starfire to lead the new young adult team along with newcomers like Batgirl and Supergirl. I’ve been thinking maybe once Raven finishes her arc and defeats her father, Trigon, she can go ride off into the sunset, maybe by going back to Azarath. Either way, the point is she moves on. I haven’t decided about the rest yet. After that, some of them, like Nightwing and Starfire, go on to be part of the Justice League. Then, the next gen of YJ comes along: Robin/Red Robin (Tim Drake), Spoiler, Cassie Sandsmark (who’s usually Wonder Girl 2.0 but to avoid another “multiple Robins” or “multiple Superboys” fiasco, I decided to make her an original hero called Olympia), Miss Martian, Conner Kent Superboy (I’m also looking for a potential new name for him, but I’m coming up dry), Aqualad 2.0 (Kaldur), and Impulse. I have not written anything for this gen of YJ yet, nor for the generation after them, and I can’t say when I will.

What I can say is that I have no plans currently to include the Outsiders. That may change, but personally it seems like a bit too much to include them on top of having the Teen Titans and Young Justice and The Justice League. If there are to be more superhero teams, they really, really, really need to justify their existence by having a specific goal or reason for being.

Thanks for asking :) I enjoy the questions.

[whalehouse1]

Alright, and only because it does matter since this AU is technically part of my larger AU, I do have some of the teams already "planned" out. Justice League is the usual crowd (Hal and John are the Green Lanterns, Guy is off on ??? since I'm not a big fan of his), Kyle is on the Outsiders, Jessica and Simon I don't have on a team yet, but I keep going to the Outlaws, but I don't think it suits either so I don't really have a plce for them, and Tai is with the kids {Damien, Jon, Cassius Clay, Jai, Irey, etc.). Now the Titans, since I absolutely love the original TT and Dicckori I have extreme biases here. They started with Dick, Wally and Garth teaming up and Donna eventually joining them before they added Roy and Kara to the team. At this point Garth would have been called back to Atlantis for one reason or another, only because he and Roy were never really permanent members together. Cyborg and Starfire join them as do Jericho and a few of the other side characters like Lilith (I hate precogs, but besides her powerset, I don't mind her too much), Crystal Girl and Bumble Bee. Obviously they change from time to time but Dick, Wally, Donna, Garth, and Roy are the main members, Cyborg and Starfire are the new members and the others come and go depending.

Young Justice is the original cast, Tim, Kon, Bart, Cassie, Gerta, Cissie, Slobo (he didn't die, shut up) and Anita. Cissie 100% retires but stays in touch because she is not leaving this universe if I can help it. Jaime , M'Gann and Beast Boy get added later on, solely because lets be honest, DC is going to mandate a Judas Contract even in fanfic/fancomic AUS.

Now the previous ones are all more "these groups of friends got together and joined a vigilante club", The Outsiders, the Outlaws and so on are more just teams that came about and people get added to randomly. So The Outsiders includes Jefferson Pierce and his two daughters, Grace Choi, Katana, Metamorpho, Duke, Geo-Force, Looker, Creeper, Halo, Dr. Light (female one), Jade, Indigo and Connor. Obviously, with how the Outsiders work it would be more akin to a Brave and the Bold with different combos of heroes. I think this would be good for Connor, since he could get away from the farm to help people and there's a lot of older heroes here who would be able to help him since he would be the one least adapted to the outside world. Also I want to see Jefferson tell Clark that Connor is his kid now and Clark constantly getting tired of people thinking he's a deadbeat dad when Connor was the one clone he had no idea existed util he was already well acquiantied with the third clone form fighting his son.

The Outlaws are Red Hood, the Wonder Twins, Kyle Rayner, Rose Wilson and Zachary Zatara. Not really anything unique here with that team. Then, not because I think she doesn't belong on the Outsiders, I did start making a team for Cass, which was her, Yara, Connor Hawke, and honestly that's as far as I got but there's a few more I could add, it was just made super early and I just found out about a few others who could be on this team, like Mary Marvel and Mia Dearden. Then there's another team (solely started out of spite from Spoiler when Tim said she couldn't join YJ), it's her, Ray (he got ticked off that YJ just left him off of every mission), Captain Marvel Jr. (cause I ship him and Steph), Sideways, Red Canary, City Boy and I know there was another but I'm forgetting who. Also, only because he's a weird fit in terms of not being redundant on other teams, Ace West. He'd ideally be on YJ, but I can't see the OGs wanting to deal with another Speedster in addition to Bart. There's limits. Then the kids Damian, Jon, Jai, Irey, Nobody, Monkey Prince, etc. end up on a team together but at the moment it's a hot mess with logistics of kids traveling across the country to team up. But they do have a chat group. This is the most likely where Maik could end up, but as he gets older, there are still other options. I know it's a lot, but this is where I mainly cement my AU within the teams. It's not an A+ plan, but it's better than blowing up the multiverses and restarting everything 500 times.

Now for the Superboys, the control thing was just bad wording on my part. Kon is the least controlled, Connor is only controlled by the dependency on the stickers and then Maik is the most controlled. And I know you said you don't care about the cybernetics, but that following your description of Matrix revealed itself in a beautiful epiphany. Since the goal is to fill up Ma and Pa Kent's farm with a Thanksgiving field that would stretch across Kansas itself, what would be wrong if we brought in Matrix and she was basically cybernetic power based Supergirl? We could even name her Paige to show we bare no ill-will to the Powergirl writer (a lie, but still). We get cybernetic Lex making a cyborg teenage girl (because lets keep making him creepier when it's so easy). And Kara is with the Danvers regardless, she's their daughter and they all go to the Kents for Thanksgiving, I won't change my mind on that. So even if Kara is out of college, honestly she could be down on her luck and living with her parents still while helping out Maik. Honestly the ages are all a bit fluid, the only thing I have concrete is Dick is 5 years older than Jason and Cass and those two are 5 years older than Tim and Time is 2 years older than Duke and 3.5 older than Damian. And Babs is closer in age to Bruce than Dick, but that's me having a lot of issues with her deaging, but this a Super thread.

Now this might get complicated on the creators and I'll need your help. CADMUS can be US owned and Lex Genetics could be its own thing. Now, would it be possible in an AU that Contessa funded Donovan's first experiment in a way to use him for leverage to get into Lex's purse or pants? And when the project "failed", Donovan managed to do some fancy paperwork to get Connor in a secret vault or something at Cadmus or Lex Genetics that he would be able to still teach him through the clone tube? Or would that be too much? Contessa could have given up after the first failure and so she could be off the clones after Connor, leaving Westfield to make Kon and Lex to make Maik?

@thefaeriefeatherdark Sorry, I just haven't had either the time nor the energy to write up a response to your thoughts on the AU and I apologize because this is basically stream of consciousness and not edited, but a few things about my 3 Superboys AU, which thanks to Jon is technically 5 but another time.

Okay, the Superboy AU has actually gotten worse thanks to Leah Williamson (long story, but now we have two Jons). But to answer your questions as best I can given my limited Super family knowlege. Connor is a Cadmus creation, he is straight up the series origins. Made by Cadmus with Lex's funding with Lex's and Clark's DNA. The main difference is he is the first attempt at being cloned and Cadmus lies and tells Lex the clone had deteriorated once he was out of his clone tube. If you want to add Contessa to this, you could have her doing this to spite Lex. I know nothing about her besides what you said in your post, but I'm sure she has good reasons to be spiteful to Lex. And you know to try to keep and groom a Superboy on her own.

As for Lena Thorul, I know nothing about her, but since I am a fan of random characters from Kara's original series (I want that trade if it will ever exist), I don't see any issue with her being involved. My only issue with Kara in your idea, is I hc her around the ages of the original Teen Titans from the comics. At most a year younger, only because I think it's funny that Dick will call her an old hag even though he's physically older, but she's older than even Clark by a decent amount.

I mean all three are Clark and Lex clones, so they will look alike, but as Connor and Kon do have other's DNA mixed in with them (Maik is the only 100% just those two's DNA), they're can be variation. I think Connor looks distinct enough, it could have just been the cartoon style, but he seems more muscular and taller. He's more of a football player, while Kon is more Baseball player in terms of general build (it's a very bad description, but the best way I can explain it without drawing it, sorry). And Maik is 12, he's baby shaped. But he's basically built thicker than Jon, but not really by much since again, babies. Connor doesn't have the earring like the other two do, but I think Maik in terms of appearance does get mistook as Kon's younger brother since they look a lot alike. Maik has much better fashion sense though, cause is it Kon if he is dressed well? Maik has the gray eyes from the movie cause they're very striking compared to everyone else's bright blue ones. I also just like grey eyes and there's not a lot of of them in comics. So Kon and Maik will look alike and will argue about who stole whose look, but it comes down to just their age and clothing. I think Maik will end up looking a bit more different when he gets older, but I think those two will resemble each other the most with the eyes and fashion being their difference sadly. As for their outfits, don't they all need those super awesome jackets? Connor sadly gets his black shirt and pants, it's boring, but you know which Super it is when you see this. I did liker Kon's outfit in Kelly's run and YJ98, but Maik's would start out as the same as in the movie, but I think he would keep a more subdued coloration in his outfit. I also think as he gets older, he would make his costume more punk-rock than just spiked shoulders. I'm not sure how exactly, but I like him having a music industry plant type of idea behind his creation and so I want to incorporate music styles into his older costume if that makes sense.

Well, we have how many Flashes now? It should be fine, right (laughing in DC's inability to give codenames to established heroes for mantle passing)? They would get new codenames, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Also their names would have to use some of their personality and stories (Nightwing coming from Clark's story, Troia coming from Donna's stay on the Greek Moon planet thingy, Tempest coming from his water magic, etc.). So that would take a bit to get a good codename for them. But them and both Jons would evolve into having their own codename. Kara at last could go for Superwoman (since as far as I know there isn't one running around (watch me be wrong and there's like 5).

Oh, I completely forgot about Matrix. I want to say since the goal of this AU is to give Ma and Pa Kent the biggest amount of grandchildren, I want to at first instinct say yes, but from what I remember about that, it's still just Kara just merged with another. Also, I just didn't enjoy the bits I've seen of it. But since I haven't read the whole story, I'm not going to say definitively no, but that was just a weird bit of Supergirl's history to me, but not enough for me to just, "yay, no" it. If you want those, ask me about Nightwing XD.

As for the "it's gotten more complicated" it might actually be more fun for you, since you like the paternity bit more, but again I haven't had a chance to read Kon's solo yet (I've been reading from the beginning and I haven't made it to Superman comics yet and until the 90's, there's not really any writer who I'm just going to skip (I can't with Dixon anymore. He can write good plots, but he's such an awful garbage person and it bleeds through too much for me. And actually between him and Fitzmartin, I almost started to hate Tim, but one of his fans actually helped me with that), so I still have awhile and time is a dick. But to the actual point, Connor is the first actual clone, but he isn't "alive" to the world as Contessa is keeping him a secret from Lex and so Lex decides to cut his losses and tries again and that's how we get Kon, but Kon on top of Lex and Luthor's DNA also has Westfield's DNA in the mix. So he'sd the first clone the world gets to know. As for where Contessa and Cadmus is storing Connor, I'm not 100%, since I really, really hated the clone tube, so they probably have a facility underground that they "trained" him in so that he would be perfect for their nefarious schemes. He 100% will keep Wolf, I don't know if it would be from an Outsiders' mission or a one off mission with the Titans, but he's getting Wolf. And I'm fine with him on the farm, the Supers can come and go from there and since it's centrally located, it's not a bad place for him to join up with others. He doesn't have flight, but he's fast and can jump. Also he can get the stickers from Lex again and one of the heroes could probably figure out a way to replicate them without the addiction issue, there's enough scientist to figure it out. I know absolutely nothing about Indigo, but as long as she isn't going to take him to the Legion of Superheroes I'm fine with it (still bitter about that arc with Kara in the show, it just never sat right with me). But I do like your idea of him staying at the Outsiders HQ until Clark invites him to the farm. I think Connor has more of a relationship with the Kents than Clark, because Clark just doesn't know him and after Kon doesn't know how to deal with this new, but older clone. And he has to deal with raising Jon, so he can't just drop everything to help raise this kid he never knew existed. I think it makes him more understandable than what YJ did with him where he just came off as a prick. The powers are right, the heat vision and cold breath aren't as strong as Clark or Kara's, but that can be enhanced with the shields and that's ofc where the flight comes in as well. I do think he has the most strength out of the three in terms of raw physical power. Kon's TTK though obviously wins in terms of actual strength.

Now, because I just want to make things over complicated for no reason, I get you like cybernatics, but as I'm not a big sci-fi fan, when Maik was being cloned, in an attempt to see if they could remove the kryptonite weakness, they had some red kyrptonite in the room where they were cloning him. He still has the weakness, but instead it warped his Kryptonian abilities to an extent. So for example, he has heat breath and frost vision. His superstrength isn't as strong as the others, but (thanks to your boiling water Kara thing), I think he has the strongest durability out of the Supers. This wasn't meant to contradict you, I just think it's funny Kara doesn't want to get him hurt, but if he's not around kryptonite, the kid could get punched by every other Super at full strength and he'd barely feel it. He's still strong and could punch a hole through a solid steel building without a problem, but he's losing the arm wrestling contests. He is also the one Lex had the most see-over on though so he is the smartest since he was basically being taught by Lex approved tutors and that. He also since he actually is the one clone that "got to be a kid" and if the aging thing was retconned, I'm fine with it, he started out as an actual kid, so he and Jon actually are one year apart (Jon's a year older, kid Jon, not teen Jon, as I said it got complicated, but another day), and he would have absorbed some of Lex's "morals", so he could have a good character arc of growing out of that greed inspired mindset and learning to see humans as humans. I do think the Danvers would be a great set for this. The Kents would be too, and they 100% get to help with their grandson, but the Danvers had Kara, who was a teen when they adopted her, with (depending on the timeline) good or bad Kryptonian ideaolgies and previous connotations on Earth and its inhabitants. So they have more experience with that than the Kents. Also, since he and Jon are essentially the same age and Maik starting as an antagonist, that would be a good start for them since it would give a chance of kids figuring out things and influencing each other and given what Jon has been through, it's not like he's 100% rainbows, unicorns and sunshine. He's been through the ringer, possibly more than any other Super, 3 years under Ultraman torture will do that to a person. More so, being left for dead and having to watch that person living your life. But yes, as Kon would have YJ and Connor would be best (for me personally) for the Outsiders with helping out the Titans and YJ at times, Maik would fit in perfectly with the amount of child heroes that exist right now. He might feel redundant if he joined up with Damian and Jon and the people I have on their youth team I have, but what's the harm in having two supers? But even excluding that fact, there's a large amount to make a team out of. And heck, he could even start on my Damian team, butt heads with him (not hard to do) and take a few with him to make his own team and get some of the others Damian couldn't recruit. Even more fun if it splits up the West twins so Wally and Linda have to listen to who has the better team at dinner at least twice a week. And for villains, they would have to fit a theme for him to grow, so if I were to write stories for him, I would want to figure out a good balance for that. I would have to think of a few examples, but someone targeting him for being Lex's son, clone, "hero", "weapon" wouldn't be bad, someone who isn't able to control their actions for one reason or another, I think an evil Toyman would be good to as well, a villain who wants the spotlight (like Punchline, but not as annoying, sorry I just don't like her), he'd be very good for a social media type of villain or a eugenics villain. There's potential for others, but for villains, I think the moral theme for the story should come before their gimmick for a good story (can you tell I'm a batbrat?).

As for the DNA samples, I think it'd be a cute story that Maik and Jon are wanting to be the babies (the twins come in after this so it's all pointless), and also just worried that since Cadmus and Lex both have had access to controlling all three clones, with each one being a stronger control (Maik even having a microchip just in case that Kara made inert whether through Kandor or heat vision, doesn't matter, but one of those), teaming up and Jon using some lockpicking skills he get from Damian and Maik knowing the layout of the building, breaking and entering and destroying the DNA samples Lex has and scanning the building for anything he could possibly use for more DNA and eradicating it. It doesn't even have to be a stressful comic, just a fun little one of them having fun destroying untold and unsolvable property damage to Lex Corp. Everyone wins. And I'll give you this for the cybernetics and Lex being more involved with him, we can give him electric touch. So he could be a human taser or stronger. Lightning has been shown able to incapacitate the Supers, so it wouldn't be a bad thing for Lex to put into the one he has the most control over, until he defects. But now relooking at the timeline you gave me, I don't know if Contessa could have been around for all three cloning attempts. If so, Maik could be the one she doesn't lie about to Lex, but if she couldn't have been in charge for Connor, the pettiness isn't needed. But I do like them lying to Lex that Connor was a failure, so when he finds out he's still alive and functioning, he tries to be a "good" dad with the stickers and to give him resources that Connor knows better than to accept after the incident with the stickers.

[bitimdrake]

hi! i read your dc timeline (fantastic job btw) and had trouble following all the titans/teen titans/young justice/outsiders stuff. so i was wondering what's the difference between those four groups/how many iterations of each group there were/who were their members?

Thanks! The differences between these groups is fairly easy to answer. The membership and iterations...not so much. I will first link to my (Teen) Titans reading order, which gives the gist of each era, and my Young Justice reading order (both preboot only).

Like any teams that last more than a few years, all four of those teams have had various iterations with various lineups. At the most basic level:

"Teen Titans" was initially a team of the original sidekicks (think Dick, Donna, Wally, etc), but has since become the default name for DC's current team of young heroes, whoever they may be.

"Titans" is specifically used for teams with that original generation of sidekicks, but now grown up as adults.

"Young Justice" is for the 90s generation of kid heroes (okay, some introduced in the 80s; think Tim, Bart, Cassie, etc), and has really only been used as a name for that group/generation.

And "Outsiders" is actually typically a Batman-led team of fully adult heroes that has the least overlap here--except for one particular iteration of the team in 2003 with young adult heroes, including Dick, Roy, and Kory.

tl;dr: The Titans and Young Justice are based on specific groups, the Teen Titans are any kid heroes, and the Outsiders are mostly irrelevant just with one major exception.

This means that:

Young Justice and the Titans have existed at the same time, one as the teen generation of Tim/Bart/etc, one as the young adult generation of Dick/Donna etc.

The Teen Titans and the Titans have existed at the same time. Though the naming is more confusing here, the idea is the same: the Teen Titans are the teen heroes (typically Tim-generation for this, maybe even younger), and the Titans are the Dick-generation young adults.

In recent years, the Teen Titans and Young Justice have existed at the same time. Young Justice remains the Tim-generation, and the Teen Titans are either an even newer, younger team (think Damian, Crush), or just DC's latest attempt at capitalizing on the famous name (typically with the characters known from the animated show: Raven, Cyborg, etc).

The Outsiders may or may not have existed in conjunction with any number of these, because they usually draw from a whole different set of potential characters.

As for the number of iterations and list of members...Yeah. Putting that under a cut.

A Pre-Flashpoint History

I’m going to thoroughly cover Titans/Teen Titans/Young Justice here, but I will be a lot less detailed on the Outsiders because I don’t know them as well.

The Teen Titans I (60s, 70s) sprang out of a team up between Dick Grayson/Robin, Wally West/Kid Flash, and Garth/Aqualad. The team was officially founded and formed by the fab five: those three, plus Donna Troy/Wonder Girl and Roy Harper/Speedy.

This team would have like a dozen other members at various points over the years, including Lilith Clay, Mal Duncan/Guardian/Herald, and Hank and Don Hall/Hawk and Dove.

They also briefly had a mostly-offscreen spinoff, the Titans West, which included such members as Gar Logan/Beast Boy, Bette Kane/Flamebird, and Hawk and Dove.

The Teen Titan got together in mid adolescence, and had a lot of cheesy adventures against such foes as Mad Mod and Ding Dong Daddy. They broke up when many members starting going off to college or otherwise moving on in life.

The New (Teen) Titans (80s), reassembled by Raven to fight her father, were half a reformation of old members (Dick, Donna, Wally, plus Gar now going by Changeling) and half new members (Raven, Koriand'r/Starfire, Vic Stone/Cyborg). As they were already all 18-19 when the team started--minus youngster Gar--the "Teen" was soon dropped from the name. Wally would end up leaving this team, and others like Joey Wilson/Jericho, Kole, and Danny Chase would join. Former Titans and allies, like Roy and Garth, would periodically show up to help out as well.

This run took a more serious tone and had a lot of character progression. It's when many of the first generation of sidekicks changed identities: Robin to Nightwing, Wonder Girl to Troia and later no codename, Speedy to Arsenal, etc. It also introduced such villains as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (including the famous Judas Contract story with Terra), HIVE, Brother Blood, and Komand'r/Blackfire.

The original Outsiders I were also formed in the 80s, led by Batman and including iconic members like Black Lightning and Katana.

In the early 90s, the New Titans fell apart for a variety of terrible reasons and had massive shifts in membership. Half of them left or died or were completely changed; others like Leonid Kovar/Red Star, Pantha, and Miriam Delgado/Mirage joined, and the whole thing was a mess.

After a lot of spiraling, the team was almost entirely swapped to a largely new group funded by the government and led by Roy/Arsenal, including Gar, Miriam, Grant Emerson/Damage, Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern, Bart Allen/Impulse, Rose Wilson, Martix Supergirl, a maybe-new-maybe-not version of Terra, and more. This group was still under the New Titans name and in the same run, despite little member overlap. They split up when the government pulled funding.

Apparently there was another iteration of the Outsiders II briefly in the mid-90s, but I truly cannot tell you much about it. Still unrelated to the younger generations.

The Teen Titans II (mid 90s) were the first group to use the name with zero tie to the founders. Led by a de-aged Ray Palmer/Atom, this group consisted of teens kidnapped by aliens and genetically modified--Toni Monetti/Argent, Isiah Crockett/Joto, Audrey Spears/Prysm, and Cody Discoll/Risk. This run only lasted a couple years.

Young Justice I (late 90s/early 00s) sprang out of a team up between Tim Drake/Robin, Superboy (later named Kon-el), Bart Allen/Impulse, and Secret. The team shortly added Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl and Cissie King-Jones/Arrowette, and later Anita Fite/Empress, Slobo, and Ray Terril/Ray. Under the vague mentorship of Red Tornado, this group had wacky coming of age adventures.

This is also when teams start to overlap:

The Titans I (late 90s/early 00s) formed out of the original (teen) Titans just really missing each other, okay? This team melded together the original fab five (Wally now the Flash; Garth now Tempest), Cyborg and Starfire of the original New Titans, Grant/Damage of Arsenal's New Titans, Toni/Argent of the second Teen Titans, and new-to-the-titans Jesse Quick. Other old Titans appeared here and there (Rose Wilson as Lian's babysitter <3), and a number of the starting group left along the way.

Events in 2003 broke up both Young Justice and the Titans simultaneously, and members shuffled around.

A few of the now-former Titans joined the Outsiders III (mid 00s), the one version of that team relevant here. The team was formed by Roy and initially led by Dick, and included members like Grace Choi, Anissa Pierce/Thunder, Metamorpho/Shift, and later Jennifer-Lynn Hayden/Jade and Kory/Starfire. This team was kind of a disaster (compliment) and the series took an adult tone with mature themes.

(Note: I dig the 2003 Outsiders, but there was no reason for them to be called the Outsiders. It’s just hollow name reuse for no reason.)

Meanwhile, the Teen Titans III (mid 00s-early 10s) formed with a combination of older members from the New Titans--like Kory, Vic, and Gar (Beast Boy again)--and younger members from Young Justice--Tim, Cassie, Kon-El Conner Kent, and Bart. Others like Raven and Mia Dearden/Speedy joined later.

Honestly I’m having a hard time cleanly describing the tone/identity of this series. It was a superheroes series about a team of young heroes/sidekicks. Idk. It exists and ran for a long time.

After the Infinite Crisis in 2006, everything in DC jumped One Year Later. Over the course of that missing year, the Teen Titans had a variety of rotating, mostly second-string members. But that’s really just briefly seen in 52 and never had any real appearances, so whatever.

After One Year Later, the team did have a major shake up. All the young adult members left, leaving just the teens, and many new members joined. And left. And joined. And left. I think Cassie is the only consistent member. There is a lot of turnover in the back half of this series, but some Teen Titans here include: Rose Wilson/Ravager, M’gann Morzz/Miss Martian, Eddie Bloomberg/Kid Devil/Red Devil, Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle, and Amy Allen/Bombshell.

This constantly-rotating team would last all the way until the New 52.

Meanwhile the older generation kept switching:

The Outsiders also had a shake up after One Year Later, when it turned out they were all now fugitives for accidentally maybe doing some bad stuff. (Most important to me, Roy left so what is even the point now. “Dick is still there,” yeah but he’s not being a bitch (entertaining) anymore; he’s just grumpy.) Much of the team was gone by now, but they added Owen Mercer/Captain Boomerang Jr and Katana.

Only like a year (irl) later, Batman decided he wanted this to be his team again, and almost the entirety of the team swapped out for the Outsiders IV, which was more like the original/standard line-up, with only a few from the unusual 2003 iteration.

With the Outsiders a team of real adults again, many of the young adults were freed up. And you know what that means! Titans II (late 00s): these friends truly cannot stay away from each other. It’s a combination of the original team and the NTT: Dick, Roy (now Red Arrow), Donna, Wally, Kory, and Vic.

And also Gar and Raven kept moving between the Titans and the Teen Titans, because DC couldn’t decide how old they were supposed to be after Raven’s de-aging.

Despite the great line-up, these Titans were not to last, as DC was making a lot of changes and half the characters had other things to do. Dick had to replace a missing Bruce as Batman. Wally was always over-taxed as the Flash on the JLA and the Titans. Roy’s daughter was killed, leading him to relapse, in what everyone naively thought was the worst writing Roy would ever have before the New 52 proved just how much worse it could get. The team fell apart.

Slade Wilson/Deathstroke swooped in to form the Titans: Villains for Hire (early 10s) a team of villains and morally grey characters like Cheshire, Osiris, and [deep sigh] downward spiral Roy (now Arsenal once again), all with their own agendas.

(Note: it’s dumb as hell that this team was called the Titans. It was even more hollow name re-use. Come on, DC, just make up a new name for once.)

In the very end, the villain part split and there was a glimmer that a healing Roy and a resurrected/not evil (long story) Joey Wilson might make a new Titans team, an abandoned idea that lingers in my mind to this day...

But t’was not to be because--

A Prime Earth History

Flashpoint blew up and rebooted the entire universe.

This recap will be shakier, as I have not read anything from the latter part of it. (Still trapped in the New 52 over here.) Also I’m going to stop recapping the Outsiders entirely, sorry.

In the New 52, all history and most of what made DC good was erased. The Titans had never existed.

The (New 52) Teen Titans IV (early/mid 10s) were, in their continuity, the first team of that name. This team included rebooted, in-name only versions of Tim Drake [redacted]/Red Robin, Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl, Kon-El/Superboy, Bart Allen Bar Torr/Kid Flash, Kiran Singh/Solstice, Miguel Barragan/Bunker, etc.

The theme of this run was “bad writing” and the tone was “awful”. Somehow it lasted the entire New 52 and into Rebirth.

My knowledge is really, really shaky after this:

The (Rebirth) Titans III (late 10s) formed with the original generation finally reunited, after fans revolted in the face of DC trying to erase Wally West from existence. This team had the fab five and fellow original (Teen) Titan, Lilith/Omen.

Then the (Rebirth) Teen Titans V (late 10s) formed, with a bunch of iconic young adult characters like Kory, Vic, and Gar, plus teenager Wallace West/Kid Flash (not that one; there are two Wally Wests now) and Damian Wayne/Robin. Apparently Damian is the leader of this team despite being the only child on it and. why. I don’t understand.

At some point that team revamped and became entirely a team of youngsters like Damian, Wallace, the new Red Arrow/Emiko Queen, and Xiomara Rojas/Crush.

Young Justice II (late 10s/early 20s) reformed after a while, with the universe slowly restoring bits from New Earth. This team was Kon, Bart, Tim, Cassie, and a few new peers like Jinny Hex and Teen Lantern.

The (Teen?) Titans Academy (early 20s) I believed formed with the idea of older, established Titans like Vic, Donna, Kory, etc mentoring a whole bunch of very new young heroes who I’m looking at the wiki list for and boy that’s a lot of names. Huh. I think this one is still ongoing?

Which means we have reached the present, and my list now ends.

I wonder if this makes the top 5 for my longest posts.

[awhitehead17]

Whumptober 2022: Day 13 - Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few legs

Prompt: Dislocation

Summary: Kon has a hard time coping with the fact he’s got a dislocated shoulder after the battle. His team are both supportive and yet not in the situation at hand.

Enjoy! :D

Kon’s seen a lot of nasty stuff in his time. Unfortunately that’s just part of being in the superhero gig, they see some pretty gruesome stuff. It certainly varies from gross substances to questioning the humanity of some people. In between all that he’s also seen some pretty cringy and nauseating things too. However, this, this certainly makes it into his top ten of things he wishes he’d never experienced.

“Kon you’re being dramatic. Stop it.”

Kon admits perhaps he is currently being dramatic but he thinks the situation warrants it. He’s freaking out.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve seen a dislocated shoulder Kon.”

Kon’s attention snaps to the person currently speaking to him. It’s Tim. It’s his wonderful boyfriend who he knows he can’t live without, who also happens to be staring at him with such indifference that Kon couldn’t help but feel a little offended by his lack of concern.

He pouts at Tim. “Maybe not, but it’s sure enough is the first time I’ve had a dislocated shoulder! It’s fucking hurts dude.”

Tim waves his hands around in frustration. “Because you keep moving around! Sit down and don’t move. Let me inspect the damage.”

Feeling like he’s a child who’s just been told off by their parent, Kon plops himself down on a nearby piece of debris and lets Tim in his personal space so he could start his inspection with tender touches.

Opposite them Cassie approaches them with an amused look on her face, clearly finding his suffering funny. “Right so battle seems to have ended and clear up has started. Cyborg’s radioed in that we can head back and don’t have to help out.” In response to her Kon hums and Tim makes a noncommittal sound. “Kon what happened? How have you of all people got a dislocated shoulder?”

Kon narrows her eyes at her but the look is broken when he suddenly lets out a hiss when Tim presses slightly too hard on the injury. “I got thrown into several buildings. Guess I landed wrong. Christ I haven’t felt pain like this in a long time.”

A gust of wind then hits them and Bart materializes out of nowhere. “Yeah I saw that! You looked like a rag dolls, or one of those crash test dummies.”

At Bart’s grin Kon rolls his eyes huffing. “Gee, thanks Bart, I love to know that I - ow! Tim!”

Kon flinches and reels back while pushing Tim away from him. His boyfriend had pushed down too hard, causing a ripple of pain to shoot through his body. Normally he doesn’t feel pain like this but for whatever reason this injury is particularly tender. He thinks back over the week, knowing he hasn’t had the chance to be in the sun much and knows he’s beyond exhausted after the battle, his body is probably struggling to recuperate as quickly as normal because of that.

He glares at Tim who stares back with a frown. “Knock it off, it hurts alright!”

Tim huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “It’s going to hurt because it’s out of place Kon. I’m trying to feel for where it’s out of place so I can pop it back into place. We need to do it soon or else your body either won’t heal or it’ll heal wrong.”

Kon feels his stomach drop at the idea of putting it back into place. The thought of it already being out of place is enough to freak out Kon but now the idea of them putting it back into place is nearly enough to send him over the edge.

Both childishly and stubbornly Kon shakes his head in denial. He gets up off the debris and holds out his good hand to Tim to keep him a distance away. “No. Absolutely not. We’re not – just, just no!”

All three of his teammates are sending him identical looks of exasperation and disbelief.

“Kon putting it back in place is literally the only way it’s going to get better. The pain will eventually reside.” Cassie tells him purposely. “What’s with the sudden fear and dramatics over this? You’ve seen Tim put his shoulder back in before, why’s this any different.”

Kon gawks at her. “That’s different! It isn’t me, seeing it happen to someone else is different than when it actually happens to you.”

Bart pipes up then, he lifts a finger like he’s just had a brilliant idea. “Oh yeah! Do you remember that time we were in South America last year and Tim just casually dug that bullet out of his thigh and carried on like nothing ever happened. Then not long afterwards when he dug out of metal shards out of his calf from that bear-trap type thing he walked into.”

The three of them all turn to look at Bart, blinking at him. It takes a moment for Bart to realise what he said before he’s smiling sheepishly and shrugging. “Sorry, but it’s true.”

Trying to not be annoyed at Bart for bringing that particular trip up, Kon grits his teeth. “Yes I remember. That’s still a completely different situation compared to now.”

He does remember that trip because only days later of Tim giving himself rough medical attention, he ended up being on the edge of death because his injuries got infected and he fell incredibly ill. That too, is in his top ten of things he wished he’d never experienced.

Tim lets out a heavy sigh and runs a hand over his face. “Kon please, just let me set it back in place and then we can go and get it checked out properly. I can only do so much.”

Kon stares at Tim, not wanting to let him get close but very much wanting to respond to that almost pleading tone he's speaking with. This whole thing is freaking him out. The fact he even got this badly injured alone is panicking him.

After thinking about it, Kon finally hangs his head in defeat and staggers back over to the piece of debris to sit down on it. Once there Tim immediately steps in close, his boyfriend presses a kiss to his cheek which only gives Kon the smallest amount of comfort before he's gently tugging Kon’s shirt off his body in order to get to the injury better.

Once it seems like Tim knows what he's doing, Tim braces himself on Kon’s injured side with his hands on either side of his shoulder. When he doesn’t do anything for several beats Kon sends him a raised eyebrow.

“You’re too tense, I need you to relax.” Tim explains patiently.

Kon rolls his eyes. “Of course I’m tense, you realise what you’re about to do right? That’s not exactly an easy thought to drift away to the fairies with.”

Next to him Bart steps up and holds up his hand with a mocking grin on his face. “Would you like to hold my hand?”

He was about to tell Bart to fuck off but better thinks of it, instead he wordlessly grabs the speedster’s hands and takes a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

Opposite him Cassie snickers. “He’ll probably break your hand Bart.”

Bart seems completely unaffected by the possibility. Grinning widely he shrugs, “I’ll heal.”

Kon was about to retort to his comment but stops when pain flares up in his shoulder and sends tingling sensations through his entire body. Jerking hard and letting out a yell Kon tries to curl in on himself but is stopped by several hands holding him in place upright.

“Fuck!” Kon grits his teeth trying to get through the pain. His whole arm is a mixture of being numb and tingling at the same time. He glares to the side at Tim who’s busy sorting out what looks like bandages. “You could have warned me!”

Tim glances at him and sends him an amused smile which tells Kon he’s not at all sorry for the treatment he’s given. “If I warned you, you would have only tensed up. Better to do it when you weren’t expecting it. Bart how’s your hand.”

Next to them the speedster is wearing a small frown and is shaking out his hand which Kon had now let go of. “It’s not broken, just bruised and numb. I’ll live.”

“Boys,” Cassie shakes her head at them, her tone fond yet unimpressed. Kon’s come to notice that it’s her default tone when it comes to dealing with the three of them. “Tim how long until we can go?”

“Just let me strap his arm up then we’re good to move.”

“Good, once we’re back we’ll get Kon straight to the infirmary to get checked.”

“I’m right here,” Kon points out with a pout. From the corner of his eye he sees Tim move in closer and he instantly leans away from his boyfriend, he narrows his eyes at him, “you’re not going to hurt me again are you?”

Tim doesn’t take the bait, he steps in closer and forces Kon still as he starts strapping up his bad arm to keep it mobile. As he ties off the bandage, Tim leans in close to Kon, putting his lips to his ear as he whispers, “I’ll make it up to you later on, only if you behave while being examined.”

Kon feels his breath hitch at what Tim is implying. Before he could respond Tim is pulling away from him with a knowing smirk on his face. Being so wrapped up in Tim’s words Kon completely misses the next exchange his team has and only snaps out of them when hands are grabbing him, helping him to stand up. Now having Tim pressed to his side, Kon slings his good shoulder over his boyfriend and with Cassie and Bart at their sides the four of them all start heading back to base where they can finally unwind from the day.

[mk-writes-stuff]

Oof. I hope he’ll feel better? I feel bad for the poor guy

And yeah I assume a lot of people would picture Cassie with a full robot hand. I hope you don’t mind me rambling about her arm for a minute on your post :) (if you do I can remove it and make it its own thing)

Basically when I was designing Cassie’s robot arm I really didn’t want it to feel like she just had her old arm but metal. She’s an amputee - a futuristic cyborg amputee but still an amputee - and I didn’t want to make that unnoticeable. I don’t know if I did a good job but I came up with a few caveats for the metal arm

1) it doesn’t do detail work well. It’s pretty good most of the time, but small detailed movements are really hard to get right. Cassie doesn’t usually need super-precise detail work - it’s not far enough off to hinder her in a fight, usually - but she for example can’t handwrite with her right hand (once she learns to write)

2) her arm basically has four inputs. That was all she was able to get wired into her nerves. One does elbow rotation, two do wrist rotation (because the wrist rotated on two axes), and the last one wires into whatever hand she has attached. So she only really gets one input to whatever hand she has, so one action. She usually wears the clamp hand, which uses that signal for how closed or open it is, but other hands use it for other things (like the grappling hook/winch she gets for book 2, which uses it for extension) or not at all (like the metal-ball hand she uses for fistfights). But signal limitations simply couldn’t handle something as complex as an entire articulated hand

Apologies for the rambling and I hope I don’t feel like I’m nitpicking, because it really was a very fair assumption that she’d have a robot hand, I haven’t made it clear. I just got the urge to ramble about her robot arm, so I hope you enjoy it :)

Thanks for the tag @mk-writes-stuff!

Rewrite Tag

My line: The line idled. Cassie amused herself fidgeting with her mane of hair and popping her various hands on and off of her mechanical arm from their holsters in her belt. The hair tangled in her wrist joint, and she spent several minutes freeing it – with limited success, as there were several blonde strands still tangled in the dark grey metal of her wrist even after she was done. Her wrist buzzed irritably when she turned it – she’d need to get that cleaned out when she had some spare time. Maybe if she didn’t die, the cute mechanic girl would help her fix it.

My rewrite: Cassie had a fair many strong suits, but waiting in line was certainly not one of them. She sighed and shifted from foot to foot, running her fingers through her mane of curls. This turned out to be a poor idea, given that her fingers were made of metal. Muttering a curse, she popped off her metal hand with a dull thunk and tried to disentangle the blond strands from the gears. Her efforts were met with moderate success. Or, successful enough in her books. Her wrist squeaked annoyingly as she twisted it back into place, a few sunny hair still dangling. She needed to get the fucking thing cleaned again. Her mind drifted to the cute mechanic lady who'd fixed her up the last time. Maybe if she didn't die tomorrow, she could pay a visit.

Your line: The man’s brain crawled with words of blame, of self-loathing, squirming and pressing like maggots over ripe carrion. They leaked from his ears, buzzed behind his eyes, clawed at his skull, all trying to escape in one awful rush too large for release.

@elsie-writes @cssnder @foyle-writes-things @inkhelm, y'all want in?