#dinah; head canons

[musemuseum]

Muses within the 2SLGBTQI+ community:

Pansexual 1/?

Tabitha Finnigan

Phoenix Jules

Ares Knight

Amaranthine Graves

Arlo Crawford (preference for men)

Bastian Merryweather

Beckett Marrin

Brynn Swanson

Corrine Plyth

Donovan Kole

Effie Solomon

Evan Calloway

Fievel Crowley

Ray Croft

Foster Fornell

Clancy Cleason

Jack Frost Junior

Ilsa Romanov

Lester Meeks

Lex Murphy

Dinah Crombie

Lucy Gray

Lucky Prachett

Virgo Patterson

Lyla Brooks

Flynn Flint

Morgana Rosenfield

Harold White (the white rabbit)

Chessa Felinia (the cheshire cat)

[annadeef]

local woman who’s barely holding it together is burdened with woman who is completely unhinged @artbytesslyn

[snirsty]

multitasking

plus a wip that i may or may not finish sigh...college moment

[papaiyatree]

aiya if u let my stupid comic stop you from making a sugar mommy babs post ill never forgive you

PLEASE it wasn't even gonna be all that, i was just going to say that dinah has a Type w the folks she dates/"dates"

[heroesriseandfall]

Jason Todd & Chronic Pain

I scrounged for the panels I know from Rebirth about Jason still having lingering pain and injuries from when the Joker killed him. We know Jason had substantial injuries and brain damage when he was resurrected, and Talia healed that with the Lazarus pit. But here’s some I know of being mentioned even after Talia healed him with the Lazarus pit.

The first I know of is when evil future Batman Tim targeted Jason’s hip because of a Joker-related injury that he claimed would eventually become debilitating for Jason. This move does take Jason out of the fight so it definitely seems like evil Tim successfully aggravated the injury.

Detective Comics #968 (Jan 2018) — earlier in #966 Batman Tim also mentioned future Jason would eventually lose an eye and a leg while fighting assassins.

More recently, regular, not-evil Tim referenced it while evaluating how to fight a Clayface Jason mimic:

Tim Drake: Robin #3 (Jan 2023) — Tim says the pit brought Jason back, which has sometimes been a thing. Originally Jason was only healed by the pit after he’d already been resurrected by something else.

This next one was black label, so it may or may not be canon (the creative team claims “it’s up to reader interpretation” and disagree on whether they personally think it is canon). I’m not a fan of the comic but it did pretty clearly indicate Jason had chronic pain from the Joker:

Batman: Three Jokers #2 (Nov 2020)

(There might be more than these—my reading of post flashpoint comics is kinda random and incomplete compared to my reading of post-Crisis. In post-Crisis though I think they mainly put emphasis on Jason’s destabilized mental health and didn’t really bring up physical aspects IIRC. His brain damage seemed healed and yet he seemed more affected after the pit than other one-time-in-the-pit characters like Dinah Lance or Cass Cain were.)

They haven’t bothered explaining how the pit didn’t heal them so far as I know (the pits kinda work to authorial convenience anyway). My route is usually to blame any weird Jason stuff on the strange, multiversal circumstances of his resurrection, but versions of his origin where he’s only brought back by the pit might not jive with that (which includes some Rebirth IIRC).

In any case, I do hope more writers pick up on this more and I love to see when it’s expanded upon a bit in fandom. I would already consider Jason’s mental health to be a disabling issue for him but it’s neat sometimes to have writers recognize chronic pain-related issues among DC characters. (I’d love to also see more expansion of Bruce mentioning he experienced chronic pain…it pops up every so often but rarely if ever in depth.)

Alt text is copied and expanded upon under read more below.

ID 1: Two panels from Detective Comics #968 showing Jason Todd as Red Hood leaping to fight evil future Batman Tim Drake. Jason says, “Sorry, Timmy, I don’t believe in Santa Claus.” Batman Tim slams his staff directly into Jason’s right hip joint, sending him flying back, and says, “Jason. In a few years you were going to learn that one of your bones never set right after the Joker killed you. There’s a growing debilitating bone spur in your hip joint. There, I found it for you you’re welcome.” They’re both in the batcave.

ID 2: A cropped panel from Tim Drake: Robin #3 showing a red narration box for Tim Drake which says: “The Lazarus Pit may have brought Jason back from the dead, but he’s still sensitive where The Joker killed him.”

ID 3: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2. A Joker leans in Jason Todd’s face, looking intense and serious. The Joker says, “Who is the Joker, really? We’re going to find out.” The word “out” is written in an extended sing-songy way. The Jokers put Jason’s Red Hood helmet over his head but they’ve decorated it with a wide Joker-style grin. The two Jokers laugh, then one says, “We’ve spent considerable time trying to best answer that question: who is the Joker? We found that judge. A serial killer. A surgeon. All rather predictable and uninspiring. And then there’s you. Tell me something. Why would you put on that helmet and call yourself Red Hood after what we did?” Jason, who is sitting naked tied to the wooden chair, says, “Come on. Is every one of you copycats gonna ask me the same thing? It’s a joke.” One of the Jokers holds up a crowbar as the other says, “A joke? We left you with brain damage and permanent nerve pain. Physical and emotional trauma so severe that the only relief you ever find is when you inflict pain on others.” The Joker holds the crowbar by Jason’s head. “You and me, boy…..We’re more alike than you’d care to admit.”

ID 4: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Jason Todd with no shirt on and small bandages on various parts of his arms and face. He looks at a calendar on a wall and reads the crossed out days that have physical therapy sessions written on them. He sees a stack of various healing and exercise books. The top book is titled Chronic Pain Management by Dr. D. Kresan. He picks it up. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl enters a different, dark room through a window.

ID 5: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Barbara Gordon as Batgirl entering her own bedroom. She says, “Jason?” She sees a book on her bed titled “Chronic Pain Management” by Dr. D. Kresan. Jason says, “Barbara?” and walks out of the attached bathroom with only a towel around his waist. Babs says, “I figured you’d left.” Jason says, “I hope it’s okay I used the shower and I…I didn’t mean to go through your things. The closet door was open and that book looked…useful.” Babs says, “It was. Are you okay?” Jason has small bandages and bruises on his face as he says, “I don’t think I’ve ever been okay.” Babs looks concerned. Jason continues saying, “What the Joker said��about how I’ve been on the path to being like them for years…they’re not wrong. I don’t want to be like them though. I really don’t. You believe that, right?” Babs says, “I’m willing to.” Then Jason says, “Can I ask you something?”

[thezombieprostitute]

My Man's an Undertaker

Summary: When your ex shows up, trying to win you back, you're not having it. And you know your current boyfriend has your back.

Warnings: Ex-boyfriend angst, Guns, Mild violence, Threats of murder. Please let me know if I missed any!

A/N: Inspired by the song "My Man's an Undertaker" by Dinah Washington.

A/N2: Soft-for-you Robert Pronge, not canon.

You were just settling in for the night when you hear a knocking at your door. It couldn't be Robert, he said he was working late at the funeral home. Maybe something came up and you forgot something at his place yesterday? Or maybe he had ordered you some delivery again, like the caring man he is.

Looking through the peephole you gasp, recognizing Charles, your deadbeat ex-boyfriend.

"What do you want, Charles," you growl through the door.

"I want to apologize to the best thing that ever happened to a loser like me," he says. "I got your favorite flowers. And some of those chocolates you like."

"Last I checked, you couldn't afford those things," you snap back. He'd always been hitting you up for money. Always promising to pay you back or make it up to you. Telling you he was going to get that high paying job, he just needed some money for a good suit for the interview. Promising you the best in life while taking away what little you had.

"I've got a decent job," he cheerfully announces. "Been working hard so I can keep my promises to you."

"What's the job?" you know you can't trust him and you're not above calling his supposed place of employment to verify his story.

"It's nothing big," he says.

"I don't care, what is the job?"

"Look, I came here to try to romance you, earn you back," he deflects. "Please give me a chance, sweetheart. Let me in."

Not a chance in hell, you think. You send a text to Robert, telling him what's happening. The police have a bad reputation around here regarding listening to women but they'd listen to him.

"You need to leave, Charles," you tell him through the door. "I've got a better man in my life. Treats me like a queen, steady job, doesn't lie through his teeth. You know, all the things you never did."

"Please don't do this," he groans. "I did what you told me to and got a job. Isn't that enough of a start?"

"Not until you can pay me back the money and the time you stole from me. Now go away or I call the police."

"It doesn't have to be like this, honey," he pleads. "Just let me in. I'll make you feel good all over. I still remember that trick with my tongue that made you go all starry eyed."

"Go away Charles. This conversation is over and that door is not opening."

You grab your security bat and walk further into your apartment where you can't hear him so well. Maybe he'll make such a ruckus your neighbors call the cops on him for disturbing the peace.

Checking your phone there's a text from Robert saying that he's on his way. That helps you relax a little. Robert's definitely bigger and stronger than you, and much more likely to get Charles to leave you alone.

There's a noise near the door making you look up. Charles is standing there, a bouquet in one hand, a lockpick in the other. You drop your phone and place both hands on your bat, taking a defensive stance.

"It didn't have to be like this," Charles shakes his head. He drops the lockpick and grabs a gun from the inside of his coat. "Drop the bat, sweetheart. And let's just sit and have a nice chat."

You do as he says and sit at the little table in the kitchen. Charles sets the bouquet on the table before taking the seat across from you.

"That's Robert's seat," you grumble.

"Mine now," Charles smiles. "Besides, clearly you can do better, babe. If he was really a 'better man' than me, he'd be here taking care of you. Protecting you."

"He's an undertaker," you say nonchalantly. "He's got late hours."

Charles snorts at that, "an undertaker? Really? That's cute."

You're grateful for the shake of his head so he doesn't see you perk up at the door opening behind him. Robert peeks out from behind the door to take in the scene and gestures for you to keep quiet.

"He is cute," you comment, keeping your eyes on Charles. "Way cuter than you ever could be. He actually remembers what my favorite flowers are."

"He works with stiffs all day," he scoffs. "Bet he's into some weird shit in bed. Didn't realize you were such a fr---"

Charles gets cut off by a blow to the head, making him drop the gun. You immediately get away, grabbing your bat while Robert slams Charles's face into the table, dazing him. Robert pulls out the duct tape he'd snuck out of the tool bag in the coat closet and uses it to tie Charles's hands behind his back.

"And yes," Robert calmly says, "I already called the police. I'm on their good side so they'll be here shortly."

Setting the bat down and taking a deep breath, "thank you for thinking of that."

Robert moves over to you and takes you in his arms. "It's okay, my Dahlia. You're safe now."

Charles looks around, confused. This doesn't look like the usual interrogation room. He should know, he's been in several of them. It's decidedly colder than it should be as well. His teeth have almost started chattering.

When the door finally opens he vaguely recognizes the man who attacked him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Charles demands. "Shouldn't I be given a phone call? A lawyer?"

Robert doesn't respond, simply walking over to a table that was against the wall. Charles had figured it was a side table for recording instruments, but then Robert lifts the cloth on the table and reveals many sharp objects. Charles can't identify them, but he can guess their purpose and he starts shaking from more than just the cold.

"You know one of the benefits of being an undertaker?" Robert asks without looking at Charles. "I get to do 'favors' for the local police department. Sometimes it's simply helping a slain officer get a proper burial without breaking the bank. Other times it's burying some evidence."

Charles can't take his eyes off the utensils. He knows what's going to happen.

"Dahlia has been a rare light in my cold, dark world," Robert continues. "She's a kind heart. One of the very few people who isn't afraid of me because of my job."

Robert selects one of the cutting implements, a smaller blade, and moves to sit across from Charles.

"She was so closed off for so long," Robert muses. "I had to work hard to earn her trust. It was very much worth it. She told me about you, Charles. All the leeching, the lying, the false promises. I was tempted to call in a favor and have you brought in. But you were in her past. She wanted to just forget you and I respected her wishes."

Robert leans forward so he's face to face with Charles. "But then you showed up at her place. You threatened her with a gun. You scared her. That is unforgivable."

Charles starts crying, trying to babble apologies but Robert isn't hearing it. He sticks the blade to Charles's neck and smiles. "I've got a coffin just your size."

Tagging: @alicedopey; @delicatebarness; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @lokislady82; @ronearoundblindly

[nerdytextileartist]

Random DC Comics Head Canons- Roy Harper #3

Roy started playing the drums after his therapist recommended music therapy as a supplement to his rehabilitation after quitting heroin. His first kit was a refurbished set that Dinah bought for him as a 19th birthday present.

He considers playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live the high point of his music career.

He got back into playing drums after working as a roustabout for the band Black Canary, where he displayed his (albeit rusty) aptitude to the rest of the band backstage.

For his recent birthday, he received an electronic drum set as a group present from Dinah, Connor, Lian, Emiko, Mia, and (secretly) Ollie.

Aaaaand bonus pic! If you recognize the shirt, pat yourself on the back.

[starlight-lesbians]

Dinah seems like the type of person who just always has a project going. She’s writing new recipes, sewing a new apron, painting a picture, making a quilt, literally anything.

She’s very self fulfilled I think because of that, she has all her little hobbies that keep her occupied and out of her own head. I see her as a serious overthinker so all her activities keep her from digging herself into a hold of anxiety

In post canon, Dinah definitely drags Greaseball into her hobbies as well, she has a lot less to do now that she isn’t racing, and it turns out she’s great at helping with things. She holds the spool of yarn while Dinah crochets, helps her pick fabric scraps for quilts, taste tests for her recipes, sits still for hours so Dinah can paint her, all kinds of things. It’s partially to make Dinah happy of course, but she really does grow to enjoy the little domestic things that she didn’t see much of as a kid

brb crying over them. Greaseball starting out just humoring Dinah and then starting to actually have a ton of fun just chatting with her while she does her thing. Domestic Greasedinah is the love of my life

[fuscorooni]

Head canon: Oliver Queen is that family member that takes “candid” pictures of you at inopportune times in order to “realistically capture the moment”.

Dinah

Roy & Lian

Mia

Connor

Emiko

Bonus:

Oliver, accidentally activating front facing camera

[pluckyredhead]

☕️ what if I want the rant about ollie cheating now (or whenever you're up for it)

Oh good, because I mentioned it as bait and I'm glad someone took me up on it. 😂

CW: Sexual assault.

Yeah so here's the thing: Ollie has definitely canonically cheated on Dinah at least once, maybe twice depending on your definition. But the idea of Ollie as a serial cheater and womanizer comes from a story where he is raped. Which uhhhh is absolutely NOT cheating.

So for nearly 30 years, Ollie had exactly zero love interests. The closest he came was Miss Arrowette/Bonnie King (Cissie's mom), who appears in exactly 3 stories in the early 60s where Ollie only regards her as a pest...but in a 1969 issue of JLA where all the Leaguers bring dates to a carnival, he brings Bonnie because up to that point, she was literally the only woman he had interacted with besides Wonder Woman.

Also in 1969, he meets Dinah. Within a few issues, he's declaring his love:

Note that there's nothing to indicate that Ollie knows Bruce is stalling for time. He's just down bad.

Anyway, Ollie and Dinah are soon in a committed relationship and remain that way for over 20 years. Starting in the 80s, various writers introduced a couple of brief relationships with other women in Ollie's pre-Green Arrow past, but that's not cheating either - he dated them before he knew Dinah.

Then in 1987, DC introduced Shado, a Yakuza assassin and the best archer in the world, better than Ollie. Ollie and Shado have an immediate and intense emotional connection, but he is in a committed relationship, and neither Ollie nor Shado even vaguely hints at him leaving Dinah for her.

But then Shado shoots Ollie (long story), and then nurses him back to health through his injury-induced fever and delirium. And a little while after that, she turns up with a son, Robert, who looks a lot like Ollie. Dinah is suspicious, so Shado tells her that Ollie didn't cheat on her: Shado had sex with Ollie while he was delirious and thought she was Dinah, and Ollie has no memory of it and has no idea that Robert is his son.

To be clear: this was rape. The story doesn't treat it like rape, and it's clear the writer didn't understand that it was rape. To this day, no comic has acknowledged that Shado raped Ollie. In fact, when Ollie finds out about it years later, he's happy, because he wanted a biological son (this was pre-Connor).

(My feelings about Shado are complicated. I think she's a really interesting character, and I'm loath to discard her because of this one incident that was not intended to be interpreted as rape, but I also think it's really important that we acknowledge that it was rape because our culture is not good about consent. I think we can hold multiple ideas in our heads at once, like "Shado is interesting and cool" and "this is a fucked up story and male survivors should be supported and believed.")

The original comic also didn't treat it as cheating, but subsequent writers did. It didn't help that in the early 90s, there was a scene where Ollie (canonically in the back half of his 40s) is kissed by a college-age girl named Marianne who has a crush on him, and kisses her back. Dinah caught them and eventually broke up with Ollie over it (among other reasons). I think this is one of those things where some people would consider it cheating and some wouldn't, so YMMV.

Ollie was then killed off and replaced by Connor, and Connor's book was written by Chuck Dixon, who really hyped up Ollie's legacy of sluttiness (citation needed, Chuck) in contrast to Connor's virginal but definitely totally heterosexual purity. (Lollll sucks to suck, Chuck.)

Then Ollie was brought back. And as much as I love Quiver, the story that brings him back, it absolutely depicts what happened with Shado as Ollie cheating, which: NO, KEVIN SMITH. IT WAS RAPE. (Interestingly, Dinah seems to consider what happened with Marianne to be cheating, while Roy does not.)

This was also at the start of the post-9/11 era, where there was a real preoccupation with depicting heroes as deeply flawed, dishonest, and generally harmful, with feet of clay - just generally fucking up and being assholes pretty much all the time. (See Identity Crisis, Civil War.) And so Ollie then definitively cheated on Dinah, having sex with Black Lightning's niece Joanna, who was almost immediately murdered by a supervillain afterwards which was also largely framed as Ollie's fault because superheroes ruin everything. (And because Joanna was a triple threat of female, Black, and sexually active, so she HAD to be fridged.)

Dinah dumped Ollie again, and the way Ollie was talked about in the comics - and outside of them - rapidly escalated, with basically every character constantly describing him as a cheating horndog who couldn't keep it in his pants. This dovetailed with Ollie being portrayed as worse and worse in flashbacks around Connor's conception and birth - originally he didn't even know about Connor, then he knew but lied to everyone, then he was actively cruel to Connor's mother, etc.

I think the peak (or nadir) of all this for me was when Dinah told Babs she was marrying Ollie and Babs shrieked that she couldn't because Ollie was a CHEATER who had "fathered Connor with that Shado woman!" Um, Connor's mother is Sandra Hawke, Connor is a good 15 years older than Robert Jr., Ollie had not even met Dinah at that point, and I don't remember who wrote that issue of BoP but if you can't tell the difference between two entirely different Asian women, you're a racist hack.

Thanks to the New 52, this is all pretty much in the past (the New 52 had entirely different Green Arrow problems, including him being raped again but a completely different woman).

But in conclusion: yes, it's canon that Ollie has cheated on Dinah. However, he only cheated after getting a reputation as a cheater when he was in fact a victim of rape. Before that, he was a horndog, but specifically for Dinah and Dinah alone, and he was faithful. And I'm glad that the discourse on this has shifted so much in the past decade or so, because Ollie has done plenty of things we should blame him for, but this wasn't one of them.

[spider-jaysart]

Character ask: Damian Wayne (duh!)

@venetiangoldroz

Lolll

1. How I feel about this character:

Small boy!! Very intelligent, has a good heart that he usually tries not to show off too often but it is always there with him, sweet animal lover, and is a cool, crazy, weird kid that I love so much lmao

2. All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Jon Kent

3. My non romantic otp for this character:

Jon Kent

4. My unpopular opinion for this character:

Some fans don't like that Damian is a fan of Dinah Lance as a singer, but I personally like it lol. I don't like how silly he was made to be about it though, like singing one of the songs out loud in public for example, because he would never actually do that all lmaooo, he would keep that to ONLY himself lol. Also, I'm hearing now that it was actually a crush he was having on her, which I hate. Like, yes, he's an adult in that specific comic, but I'm tired of DC making him fall for almost every female and older woman that he interacts with, like just let him be normal about them already!!! I just like him being a fan of her music and that's it

5. One thing I wish would happen/had happen with this character in canon:

Not just one thing, cause I'mma list them all here

Start getting the respect he deserves after so much😤, cause like he literally changed himself and went through so much development for years now, but it's still not enough for DC writers or even some fans!! Like, just what do you want from him anymore????? He's been trying so much for too long now!!

For writers to stop treating him like he's nothing but evil, because he's not!! He's just a kid who grew up with a kind of life that's VERY different from everyone else's and was just taught ever since from a really young age to see things in other ways because of that. He does have a heart, it's the reason why he's made so much effort to become the person and hero he is today now and has left the whole League life behind. And about him being a tough person, that's just literally his dang personality, it's not something that adds to him being "evil" at all either

For DC to also just let him choose and make his own path as a hero when he grows up. He shouldn't become the next Batman by force or go through with becoming head of the Loa either, one of the big parts about his character is about discovering who HE actually is and figuring out what he really wants for himself instead, so he deserves to make his own choices by his own will. He should also become a vetinarian when it comes to getting a career

Stop with the white washing and start consistently representing his Arab side more, just like how the artist Gleb Melnikov did very boldly and also wonderfully in Robin 2021 when drawing him

And another one for the writers is to also stop making him crush on older woman!!!! PLEASE!! Just cut it out already!!! This entire thing has been going on ever since he was just 10 years old and nothing about it has ever been "cute!" or whatever they think of it as! It's just freaking weird and I don't understand why DC writers keep doing that to him! He's just a kid, not a grown man, so treat him like it!!! And stop deaging woman who were also already much older just to be with him and stop setting him up with his own female family members too! That one's already happened twice now (Mar'i and Cassandra) and now I'm scared that the writers of the second Supersons movie are gonna push that into there too with Cassandra AGAIN and ruin the film that way, which I really HOPE that doesn't happen AT ALL!😖

Let him have an actual relationship with his Mother instead of keeping them distant so much! Damian deserves to have her in his life too, not just Bruce as his Father, and she also deserves to have him in hers as well. Despite how things may be, they really love eachother a lot and it's not fair that they don't get to be as close as they were before, which is also really heartbreaking to think about honestly

Damian should also get to have a relationship with Respawn too that can develop into a sibling one at some point if ever he ever does appear again in the future

Never let him act like a normal person, let him forever be his weird, strange self, because that's literally one of the biggest things that MAKES HIM DAMIAN and I love him for it lol. Batman and Robin 2023 tried to change this about him in it's protayal and I hated it, it felt like some imposter, which just frustrated me a lot and made some things boring too. This goes for other kinds of mischaracterizations that were done to him too, like Gotham War as the most recent example, which was a big time failure at doing it well in a different way. Writers need to learn how to get to know him better first before actually writing him in their stories, deciding how he will react and treat things that happen in said story and it's plot. Here's something else much better too, he needs to start getting writers who actually like/love, respect, and actually understand him!

I think that's all for now loll but Thank you for the ask, @venetiangoldroz !! Sorry about the little delay btw, but I enjoyed answering this!!!

[roseworth]

You are both an Arrowfamily and Jason Todd fan account so I thought you would be the best person to ask this but: What do you think the Arrowfamily members opinion on Jason are?

ooooh i love this question.. i think a lot of people jump straight to "they would hate him" because of his fight with mia but!!! i don't think thats entirely true!!!!! some of them would hate him but not all of them </3 i feel like the people that claim they would all hate him have a fundamental misunderstanding of the arrows and what they stand for, not to mention deliberately misconstruing what the the jason & mia fight actually was and pretending it was a lot worse than what actually happened. but thats just my opinion

ollie absolutely would hate him though lmao. he would never get over the fact that jason kidnapped, fought, & tried to blow up his daughter. no forgiveness ever. if jason HADNT fought mia though i think ollie would like him or at the very least tolerate him. ollie very clearly has no issue with murdering bad guys (as seen in ga88) and would be completely on board with anyone who goes out of his way to fuck with batman constantly <3 also in my humble opinion ollie shouldve been a cosmic mistake in countdown due to him coming back to life because parallax put him back together, which would have been hilarious and would absolutely have ended in them getting along (until jason goes through like his fifth breakdown in that book, because he would absolutely lash out at ollie after watching that one version of bruce die. but thats a whole separate tangent)

dinah also would hate him for trying to kill mia, but probably not as intensely as ollie. but even without that issue i dont think dinah would like him, mostly because hes the worst and i dont think dinah would have the patience to put up with him. she wouldnt have a huge problem with the killing (she wouldnt NOT have a problem with it but i really dont think it would be an unforgivable issue for her), but she would just think hes kind of an asshole about it and she wouldnt like him at all. i also think theres a panel somewhere where jason says that dinah told him she hates him personally?? idk ive only seen screenshots of it but i think its funny so im incorporating it into my belief system

with roy... i feel like there are so many people that see rhato and swing to the opposite side of the pendulum and say that roy would hate jason but i dont think thats true at all. im a rhato hater because that is Not Roy so we're disregarding that, but i still think they would get along tbh! given that roy is deeply in love with a serial killer i think that the people who say he would hate jason are misunderstanding who roy is. i think when theyre both in character they actually have personalities that would mesh well together and they COULD get along really well. i dont see roy having a Big Problem with jason killing people (he would try to stop him from doing it but murder wouldnt be a dealbreaker for roy) so i think its fair to say they would actually get along!!! but i bitch and complain every time they show up in the same panel because now the damage has been done from rhato so i dont want them to interact in canon. only in the secret world in my head. in regards to jason fighting mia, i dont know how to say it but,,, i dont think roy would have a huge issue with it. he certainly wouldnt be happy about it but also he wasnt there so i feel like all he would know about it was that jason kidnapped mia one time but mia was fine. honestly i think that he would be more interested in brothers in blood bc dick would def mention that jason murdered people in a nightwing costume then turned into a tentacle monster and tried to eat someone but dick forgave him anyway. and once he hears that suddenly the mia thing seems inconsequential in comparison

with connor... i cant lie im a little biased because connor is a member of my dream outlaws team but i really think they would at least kind of get along! connor is not the type of person to hold a grudge at all so once mia forgives him (which ill get into in a sec) connor wouldnt have a problem with him. he WOULD have a problem with jason killing people but he's close with eddie so clearly he doesnt have that much of an issue with working with people who have killed before as long as they dont kill in front of him. and i think that jason has a healthy respect for anyone who can beat him in a fight and because of that he would not kill anyone when hes around connor. i also think that connor and jason would never fight because connor would never throw the first punch and jason would never start a fight that he knows he cant win (but thats once again a whole separate tangent). basically i dont think they'd be besties or anything, i dont think theres a world where they'd ever even consider themselves friends. but i do think they'd get along well enough to not hate each other

okay now finally mia. kind of a controversial take but i really think she'd forgive him for kidnapping her! she absolutely would not forgive him IMMEDIATELY because it fucked her up so she would be pissed about it for a while, but also? i think she completely understood what he was trying to do. he wasnt really hurting her specifically (like yeah he hurt her but he made it a fair fight and he wasnt beating down on her or anything. she also hit him so it evens out) and he was actually trying to talk TO her and relate to her. and it was working!!! he didnt force her to do anything except fight (in a fight where he untied her and gave her her weapons), so once she got some distance from the event i think she'd forgive him. it would take a while for her to actually forgive him enough for them to actually get along, but i genuinely think they would. theyre extremely similar people and i think they would really be good friends if given the chance, but it would take a looooong time for mia to be comfortable enough to be around him enough to consider him a friend since the fight definitely fucked her up. but it is possible for them to eventually be close, and i think they could be really good friends

honorable mentions: - i dont know emiko well enough to know for sure (i havent read new52 or rebirth green arrow so i havent read much with her </3) but from what i know i think they would get along - lian would have no opinion of him whatsoever. at most she sees him as her uncle's brother. i truly dont think she'd care enough about him to form a positive or negative opinion about him - i dont like sienna so i dont want to acknowledge her but for the sake of the post. she doesnt like jason because dinah doesnt like jason and she says "i hate everyone that black canary hates <3" - cissie is not a member of the arrowfamily but she wouldnt like him because she absolutely would have an issue with any murderous vigilante given that she almost killed someone one time and had a huge breakdown, so anyone that kills people for the Greater Good and continues to do so would not sit right with her - i have absolutely no basis for this but shado would hate him for no reason. no specific beef with him about his morals or his actions, she just wouldnt like his vibes. sorry to talk about rose (no im not) but she would see rose hanging out with jason and go "im so happy for you and your ugly fucking boyfriend im serious" - eddie and jason would get along like a housefire. there is not a doubt in my mind that they would bond instantly (ok not instantly because they both hate everyone and would probably start with trying fight each other. THEN they would bond) and it would be catastrophic for everyone involved 🫶

ok i think thats everyone. or at least everyone that matters. never forget that all my opinions are 100% correct at all times

[ewingstan]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9-11 for whatever Worm characters come to mind! (Or Sophia/Calvert/Taylor/Krouse if you have any thoughts!)

Fuck it. All of em for all of em.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Sophia: I'll be real I don't feel super strongly about her. She's written to be hateable in an effective way, but she's less of a full character than Emma despite being in much more of the story. And her shit kinda gets bogged down by racist writing (a lot of the worst of it happening right before Aisha's introduction, which is also pretty racist). She's involved in a lot of cool and interesting moments but they're rarely interesting because of her.

Coil: Works really well as the first overarching villain in Taylor's story. He's able to sell the "I'm a bad guy but in an excusable way that's not really too bad" well enough, but also has a lot of obvious red flags even before the Dinah reveal. So you can understand perfectly well why Taylor, a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control, would go along with him. But you can also take a step back and say Jesus, only a kid who really wanted to continue hanging out with the undersiders and do things that made her feel like she had any control would go along with him.

Taylor: Wildbow has a reoccurring tendency to focus on characters who are both incredibly smart and can get an incredible amount of info quickly, but only in specific limited ways. Its true of Taylor, Lisa, Sylvester, Kenzie, Mia—a lot of my favorites. But the interesting thing is that they're never smart in the same ways, never collect the same sort of info. Lisa has general super-induction but no great skill at making plans. Sylvester can read and manipulate people to a superhuman level but is constantly getting blinded by his own resentments and desires. Taylor's hyper-vigilance gave her the ability to see and react to everything external around her, but no means or real incentive to know whats going on internally with people around her. And it makes sense! She's incredibly afraid of letting people in who'll end up hurting her; people who've genuinely been kind to her in the past have used their previous closeness to hurt her later! Knowing that someone doesn't mean her harm now isn't gonna reassure her, so its safer to assume everyone's a threat and not worry too much about what they're actually thinking.

And then there's Rachel, who she not only connects with emotionally, but is the only person who's able to make an emotional connection with her! And since you understand why its not the norm, its all the more incredible to see!

Krouse: oh I'm glad you asked

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: I like that she and Lung both get wrapped back up in the end for Skitter's Gold Morning missions. I wish she got to do more in those, but I do like it as a story beat.

Coil: How high he got and how far he fell.

Taylor: Man the escape from Coil's trap is a fucking great chapter. She's a one-woman horror movie. Single-handedly sells her as a villain who'd get national attention, and its not even a moment the public knows about. And its in such a great place in the story too, where all the tricks she's using have been established so its not feeling like a weird escalation in her abilities, but she hasn't all employed them at once or to such incredible effect yet. It’s the real culmination of her taking “lessons” from Bakuda about being scary.

Krouse: One of the moments that really sold me on him was when he was getting attacked by Case 53s, and immediately started thinking about how he could take them down, before he interrupts his own thoughts to go "wait, what am I doing, I should just run away." It just sells so much of his whole deal. He's a great on-his-feat thinker, he can be an incredible strategist when he's on his own, but he also doesn't share Taylor's suicidal urge to face any problem head-on. Its kind of the inverse of one of Taylor's early establishing moments: after getting attacked by Rachel, she reaches for a reason to calm down, realizes she doesn't have one, and immediately retaliates hard enough to get blood on her boots. God they're such good foils, its weird that the extent of their relationship is mutually disliking each other. Not even intense dislike in either case.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Sophia: That the black member of the trio is the one that consistently gets physically violent, is characterized as the athletic one compared to the others in general (instead of "the cute one" or "the prep" she's "the track star"), gets described as being savage multiple times, doesn't have much of a character outside of sucking despite being in a work that's otherwise really good at giving internality to people who act shitty, all that jazz.

Coil: How little sense we got of what Calvert's dominion would really look like. That we didn't get much of his takeover without other disasters interfering actually works—it fits the themes of constant conflict interfering with stability and safety. But I still want more of a sense of what Calvert wanted.

Taylor: I didn't care about her reunification with her mom. I say a lot that the ending of Worm is one of the best endings of any story I've read, and that's true of Gold Morning as a whole, but I don't actually care much about the last epilogue. The Brian reveal certainly doesn't help there.

Krouse: Do you know how much it sucks that when people ask me who my favorite worm character is, the tumblr sexyman is in contention?

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Sophia: any story that takes her basic parts, gets rid of the obviously shitty stuff, and develops her into a real character.

Coil: Disney Channel sitcom

Taylor: Well I already tried expy-ing Khepri into my tabletop campaign, and that got mixed results, so I'll take TTRPGs off the list. I'd be interested in her getting put in a medium where you'd have to be creative with how to represent the bug cloud, like live theater.

Krouse: I was gonna say Mob Psycho but then I remembered that they already had a guy who teleported around being a jackass. But I would like too see a well-animated version of his fighting style.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Sophia: I'll Make You Sorry by Screaming Females

Coil: For some reason I get an Everything Everything vibe from him? Maybe Photoshop Handsome or Breadwinner.

Taylor: I don't actually read her as trans but Dysphoria Hoodie is what immediately came to mind. I'm at least theoretically still making a Cicada Days animatic about her. I think portions of BCNR's Sunglasses fits with whats going on internally with her in the Mannequin fight

Krouse: Want to make a Prowl Great Cain AMV for him one day. Lyrics fit perfectly, and the way its sung gets the same otherwise inexpressable intensity of how I feel about him. Darnielle said “This is a song about betrayal. A lot of songs about betrayal are about betrayal and redemption. Not this one.” And yeah, that's Krouse!

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Sophia: Oh, no

Coil: It would prolly be fine except for how he'd torture a branch of my psychological continuity and then effectively kill it by destroying that reality whenever I leave the dishes out too long. Don't correct me on how his powers work

Taylor: Uhhh probably not. Even if I wasn't much older, I don't really talk to my roommates unless they're the talkative sort. She's been stuck living with clamshells before, it wasn't good for her.

Krouse: I'd have to kill him

10 and 11: alright these are "could you be best friends with" and "would you date" and in both cases the fact that I'm 23 means no. I don't have Blake's ability to form rich friendships with people much younger than me. And I'm not interested in Calvert as a friend or a lover.

[sunshinerory]

could you do some hurt/comfort hcs for greasedinah?

a/n : omg ofc ofc! I wasn’t sure of the scenario you’d want so I went with the aftermath of canon, so like right after everything :)) hope you like!

Hurt/Comfort with Greasedinah

warnings: talk about insecurities

Even though Dinah forgave Greaseball and decided to give their relationship another shot, she’s still really hurting.

The love of her life up and dropped her for her best friend just to win a stupid race, of course she’d be emotionally conflicted!

In the days following the race Dinah is kind of distant and sad, her insecurities eating her up from the inside.

In the past Dinah pulling away and seeming sad wouldn’t have fazed Greaseball, she never was very good with other people’s feelings. But now that she was working on being a better girlfriend, she started to notice how different Dinah was acting

“You feeling okay doll?” Greaseball came into their shared room to find Dinah curled up on the bed with that same dejected expression she’d been wearing for days.

“Of course, never better.” Dinah fixed her face into a clearly forced smile, trying not to burden Greaseball with her worries. In her mind, if she was less of a burden she’d be easier to keep around.

Greaseball came and sat next to her on the bed, taking a deep breath, “You’re sure? You seem…I don’t know, sad.” It made sense for Dinah to be hurt and sad over what happened, she felt horrible for causing her that kind of pain to begin with.

Dinah sniffed a little, trying to keep the floodgates from opening back up. She’d been crying on and off for days, and since her and Pearl were still not really made up, she didn’t have her usual person to vent to at present, “I’m fine, just tired is all.” Her voice broke, shattering the mask she’d been trying to hold up

Greaseball watched helplessly as tears fell down Dinah’s pretty face. Starlight, she was terrible at comforting people, but Dinah clearly needed it. “Dinah, you’re not okay, just talk to me, okay doll?”

Dinah shook her head, wiping her tears quickly, “It’s stupid, you don’t need to worry yourself about it.” The little sobs that interrupted her words made her seem supremely unconvincing.

“Baby, if it’s upsetting you this much, it isn’t stupid, I want to know so I can help. Even if it’s something I did, especially if I did something actually.” Greaseball held Dinah’s hands, squeezing them gently. She was glad to see her sobs were starting to subside.

Dinah paused and thought for a moment, finally deciding to just tell her and hope for the best. “It is related to everything with the race a few days ago? But I’ve just been in my head making myself worry.” She looked down at her lap and pulled one of her hands away to pick at her skirt.

Greaseball looked puzzled for a moment, “Making yourself worry about what?” She had promised Dinah nothing like that would ever happen again, so what was she worrying about?

“Um, I guess seeing you with Pearl kind of made me think about how she’s all shiny and pretty and perfect, and I’m just not so much.” Dinah sighed, she knew she was pretty, but she just never felt pretty enough anymore.

Greaseball was taken aback, Dinah thought she wasn’t as pretty as Pearl? How was that even possible? “Baby, you’re like, insanely pretty, it doesn’t matter if Pearl is shiny and new, she’s not you.” She held Dinah’s cheek in her palm, rubbing the tears off with her thumb.

“I spent a long time wondering when you were going to realize I wasn’t good enough and go find someone new, and I guess I thought that day had come. I’m glad it didn’t, and I’m happy we’re trying again, believe me, but I guess I just worry that I’m not special or interesting enough.” Dinah sighed, wiping her eyes and leaning into Greaseball’s hand.

“If anything, you’re too good for me, I’ve never thought you weren’t good enough, and I don’t think anyone else would either, not that their opinion should matter.” Greaseball couldn’t even wrap her head around Dinah, the kindest most wonderful person she knew, genuinely believing she wasn’t good enough for her.

Greaseball knew that may be partially her fault, races made her irritable and antsy, and she definitely had been dismissive towards Dinah leading up to this race, “If I ever, and I mean ever make you feel like you aren’t good enough, I want you to smack me, because clearly I forgot just how amazing I have it with you.” She was absolutely serious too, Dinah deserved to know how loved she was.

Dinah laughed and wrapped her arms around Greaseball tightly, burying her face in the crook of her neck, “I love you.” her muffled voice declared, followed by Greaseball kissing her head and grinning at her now much more relaxed girlfriend.

“Can we cuddle for a bit? I missed it.” Dinah looked up at Greaseball with pleading eyes, and she was helpless to resist.

“Of course, c’mon.” She scooped Dinah up and placed her on her lap, squeezing her tightly against her torso so she could kiss her face and make her laugh.

They stayed like that for the rest of the night, and Dinah finally seemed back to her usual happy self again.

Hope you liked! I know it’s a bit long lol

[lailaliquorice]

I push my luck (it shows)

the shiny gay trains got to me, a'ight? this is @casual-crispy's fault <3 a starlight express canon divergence fic: part one of I take the events of the final race and make them *cracks knuckles* worse title lyrics from 'I love you I'm sorry' by gracie abrams, which has the saddest greasedinah vibes

Crashes were normal.

Dinah had thought that when Pearl came uncoupled from Greaseball and was sent spinning off the track. She’d been hot on Belle and Tassita’s wheels as they tried to follow their friend from the yard, delayed momentarily by an unbecoming mixture of smugness and relief that Dinah was still Greaseball’s better race partner. That Pearl really was only taking her for one race and not taking her away. The thought left a sick, selfish feeling in her chest.

Screeching metal stopped her in her tracks. The grunt of pain that accompanied the collision was undoubtedly Greaseball’s, she’d recognise it anywhere. Electra’s high-pitched shriek followed. Crashes were normal, Dinah still thought, her priority still with trying to find where Pearl had run away to. Both engines had a reputation for complaining, they’d be fine.

It was only when Momma started shouting that Dinah looked around. “Get the fire truck and a medic!” Momma ordered, the commanding tone far cry from her usual relaxed warmth.

“Greaseball,” Dinah whispered, abandoning the other coaches. The diesel was trying to push herself up on her elbows from where she’d skidded just off the track, panting heavily with eyes wide in panic. Electra was sprawled out a few feet away, a sizeable crack in their helmet that made Dinah grimace. Greaseball was mouthing words that Dinah couldn’t hear; she reached out to grab Electra by the wrist and shake them roughly, until their head lifted with a shrill shriek.

Dinah looked away with a gasp as she was momentarily blinded by Electra’s mainframe sparking. The urgency around her seemed to increase whilst she stood with eyes shielded, Momma shouting again for someone to fetch the fire truck and the other diesels insisting that Orange Flash was on her way back.

“Help us!” Slick’s voice shouted. Dinah looked to see the fuel truck scrabbling away from Electra, hands pressed to her pipes to try and stem the oil that seeped through her fingers and pooled around her.

Flashbacks of the first final spun through her mind like a horror-scape of rising flames; this wasn’t a normal crash. She had to get Greaseball out of there.

Electra screamed as they sparked again. Dinah didn’t know much about how electric engines worked, despite having electric wiring herself, but she knew enough to guess that the whirring noise getting ever-louder from Electra’s fans couldn’t be good. The smell of burned wires made her retch as she skated closer. Greaseball was swearing viciously as her hands recoiled from the sparks, still trying to grapple for a grasp on Electra’s chassis to pull them away from the oil spill.

Strong arms grabbed Dinah around her waist, almost sweeping both her and her attacker completely off their wheels. “Let me go!” Dinah wailed, hands thrashing as she still reached out for Greaseball.

“Absolutely not!” Momma panted, “it’s gonna-“

Momma twisted abruptly to shield Dinah with her body, as the racetrack ignited.

~

Greaseball didn’t dare open her eyes until she’d determined that her fuel tank wasn’t about to explode.  

When she did finally lift her head, all she could see was white. That, accompanied by the ringing in her ears didn’t help in convincing herself that she wasn’t in pieces, coughing harshly as the smoke and white haze from the fire extinguisher blew into her engine. Her arm ached as she covered her mouth with a hand, uncomfortably aware of exposed flesh from where her metal plating had eroded away in the fall. The painful sting made her want to cry.

Electra’s reedy cry cut through the haze, muffled by the droning noise of their fans as well as the high-pitched hum in Greaseball’s ears.  Greaseball grunted with effort as she pulled herself towards Electra’s lights, still shining after the crash though one panel was flickering erratically. She was only able to hear panicked hyperventilating under the cacophony when she was back within touching distance of Electra; she didn’t realise how far the explosive ignition had tossed her until she’d had to crawl the distance on shaky limbs.

“Stop that, you’re fine,” she said roughly, closing her fingers around their wrist to shake them again. Thankfully they’d stopped sparking, no doubt due to whoever had been quick to couple up to the fire truck.

As the smog cleared, she saw the singe marks that marred their formerly flawless exterior. There was some kind of thick fluid oozing from a cracked dent near their hip. The flickering light she’d seen was one of their shoulder plates that had all but snapped off, attached only by a couple of wires. Greaseball nearly gagged at the sight.

Electra continued to wheeze in panic, the dented edges of their exterior grinding together and further impairing their breathing. “It’s alright, Dinah is coming,” Greaseball said through gritted teeth, only to be silenced by a sick feeling in her tank.

Greaseball had abandoned her. Dinah wasn’t coming.

The thought left her feeling paralyzed.

A siren wailing added to the assaults on her hearing, accompanied by the ragged relief of knowing there were medics arriving. Two of Electra’s components were first on scene; Volta’s comforting hands upon Electra’s shoulders was what finally calmed their panic, while Wrench wasted no time in attending to her boss’ head injury. Upon Wrench removing their helmet, Greaseball caught sight of their silver hair drenched in muddy-red liquid that she could only assume was Electra’s equivalent of engine oil. She touched her own hairline in sympathy, staring blankly when her hand came back caked in black.

She thought she might have heard her name, barely audible with her damaged hearing. She didn’t react until desperate hands were grabbing her own, smearing oil all over the newcomer’s hands and fabric sleeves. “Greaseball?” she thought she heard Dinah’s voice again; thought she recognised the bleary silhouette in front of her. But Dinah wasn’t coming. It couldn’t have been her.

“Greaseball! It’s Dinah, please look at me?”

Her love’s name sounded like a beacon through the noise. “Dinah,” she muttered, dragging her gaze up from their hands to look at her. There was white powder clinging to the ends of Dinah’s hair, undoubtedly from standing too close to the fire extinguisher. But, thank Starlight, she seemed unhurt.

“You’re hurt,” Dinah sobbed, clearly catching sight of the gashes in Greaseball’s exterior.

Greaseball tried to shake her head, but an explosion of pain from the back of her head forced her to screw her eyes closed. “Dinah, please don’t cry,” she whispered, gripping her hands even harder.

She tensed up from where her body had been sagging subconsciously towards Dinah as she felt someone else crouching down behind her. “It’s alright, it’s just Momma,” Dinah reassured her, holding Greaseball’s eye contact as Momma removed her helmet. The cold air through her damp hair made her shiver involuntarily.

“Don’t touch me,” Greaseball slurred, the ringing in her ears getting somehow louder as Electra screamed somewhere nearby. “Only Dinah’s allowed to touch me.”

“You gotta let the medic look at you kiddo, once they’ve finished with Slick,” Momma insisted, rubbing Greaseball’s upper back with a firm hand. “I’m not hurting you, I’m just trying to keep your engine circulating. You just keep looking at Dinah’s pretty face.”

Greaseball did as she was told, refusing to admit that the attention was helping keep her grounded. She could feel her heart slowing down as the adrenaline started to wear off, her eyelids growing heavy as she sagged towards Dinah again. “Dinah,” she plead, unable to summon the energy to lift her head again. Suddenly she felt so, so cold.

“Sweetheart?” Dinah called, her voice sounding like an echo through Greaseball’s pounding head. “Stay here with me, please?”

Even Dinah’s pleas and her persistent squeezing of Greaseball’s hands didn’t do much to chase the stars from her vision. “I can’t see,” she whined, head lolling to one side.

The voices around her grew more frantic but less distinct. Dinah’s hands moved from her hands to supporting her upper arms, thankfully avoiding the raw skin over her triceps. Her eyes refused to focus on anything, her entire body weight leaned into Dinah, her heartbeat pulsed in the back of her skull.

Nothing turned into everything as Momma’s hands took hold of her torso to help keep her upright. The pressure on her engine, albeit gentle, caused a cracked piston to snap and displace horribly.

White hot pain shot through her framework. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming. Voices shouted around her as she fell backwards and out of consciousness.

~

Momma was tired.

The crash site had been cleared, and she’d found the space to sit down for the first time in what felt like several hours. The crowd had cleared away from the trackside, and finally it was quiet.

Needing something to fill her brain, she started to take stock of the evening. It wasn’t often that they used the Downhill Track for races, and some of the rails had been in poor repair. Combine that with how recklessly the three engines had been racing, each desperate with something to prove, it was unsurprising that Greaseball and Electra had both derailed while squabbling around a sharp corner.

Momma knew she couldn’t exactly chastise them with how she’d raced with every last puff of steam in her tank earlier that same night, but she still allowed herself to mutter “Damn those young-uns”.

She’d been too distracted watching Rusty racing to have directly seen the initial crash, but the Marshals had filled her in. Greaseball had snapped an axel while scrapping with Electra, skidding off the track and losing a few wheels in the process. Electra and Slick took the corner too sharply in pursuit and crashed into the overhead wire pylon, causing Electra to short-circuit and cracking Slick’s oil pipes. The combination of Slick’s fuel leak and Electra sparking uncontrollably had ignited the oil and caused the blast.

Wrench’s report was grim, but she and the medic were both content that all three would recover back to full capacity. Slick’s burns were the most serious, given that she’d been the source of the spill and therefore couldn’t escape the combustion. Electra had suffered a severe brake fluid leak from the impact of hitting the pylon, but Wrench was confident that the fire hadn’t damaged their internal wiring. They’d be fine with some soldering and new fuses.

But they wouldn’t have been fine if Greaseball hadn’t pulled them away from the oil as best she could. Greaseball, who Momma would have accused not the hour before of being willing to sacrifice her fellow engine if it would grant her the championship. Her injuries were far from the worst she’d faced in her career, but the concussion and broken piston would still warrant a significant time off the track. Let alone the cosmetic damage that Momma suspected would be far more bothersome to the proud engine.

Sighing deeply, Momma stood with a groan and skated towards the repair shed. The shutters were still open, so she knocked briefly on the sliding door to catch Wrench’s attention before letting herself straight in. Greaseball, Electra, and Slick were all either asleep or unconscious – hopefully the former – on a flatbed truck, while Wrench bustled around gathering up supplies she needed. The repair shed usually belonged to the yard’s fleet of diesel medics and mechanics, but the electric mech-tech looked to have made herself right at home.

“Can I help?” Momma asked softly.

Despite her intentions, Wrench still startled at the unexpected voice. “No,” she said, smiling wearily as she continued her tasks. “I’m only trying to sort out my equipment for tomorrow before taking a rest. There’s no point in jumping into surgery with no daylight left.”

Momma nodded, recognising a few of the tools that were laid out by each flatbed. Electra’s were the most foreign to her, casting her eye over the various shapes of circuit board, but she was no stranger to a soldering iron after her own lengthy racing career.

The most notable addition to Greaseball’s flatbed, however, was Dinah. The coach was all but curled around her engine as they both slept, clearly exhausted by the emotional whirlwind of being cast aside and then desperately needed in the space of one night. Momma hoped that the two of them could sit together and actually talk to each other once Greaseball was in better shape for conversation; Starlight knew they both needed it.

Dinah had been all but inconsolable when Greaseball’s body had given out from the pain, collapsing like a broken scaffold into Momma’s arms. She’d just about regained consciousness once Wrench and the medic had loaded her onto a flatbed to transport her back to the shed, Dinah plainly refusing to leave her side. After being encouraged to drink some coolant and murmuring several minutes of incoherencies to Dinah, as well as at Silver Bullet who was pulling her truck, she’d drifted back into a more controlled rest.

“Do you need anything, Momma?” Wrench interrupted her unpleasant reverie.

“Hmm? Oh, no, sorry kid. I just wanted to check on this lost before I check out for the night,” Momma apologised, recognising the well-disguised request for solitude. “Come get me if anything changes, alright?”

After forcing Wrench to agree, she left the component to finish her work and drifted into the yard. Now she only had one last task to complete before she risked falling asleep on her wheels; making sure that Belle and Tassita had been successful in tracking down Pearl and Rusty.

Starlight, she was going to wring her boy’s neck if he wasn’t already asleep in his shed.

[mags-writes]

Sunlight || Part V

Summary: frank contemplates homicide

Series Warnings: canon typical violence, canon typical swearing, first time writing x reader, no use of y/n, no beta readers we die like ray nadeem

Pairing: frank castle x fem!reader

Authors Note: lots of angst for this one

PROLOGUE/MASTERLIST || PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV || PART V || PART VI

"She's here." Matt calls out.

"And with two minutes to spare!" Amy calls out looking at her phone before high-fiving Dinah. "Your girl's punctual."

The sound of a suitcase rolling through the halls caught Frank's attention but he instead decided to ruffle Amy's hair as you walked through the door.

"Oh my god!" Karen exclaimed, making Frank snap to attention.

"What?" Matt asked confused.

What he saw made a whirlwind of emotions torment his mind.

"Holy shit." He distantly heard Amy whisper to herself.

"What?" He said more worried.

There you stood at the door holding a tray with four coffees, a backpack on your back, and a huge heavy-looking suitcase. The left side of your face was bruised, while the right side had a busted lip and rough-looking cut along your cheekbone with a nasty bruise under both. You look completely at ease and even rolled your eyes at Karen and Amy's reactions, putting the coffee down on the table next to the door and letting your backpack fall down next to them with a loud thud. You turn back to the group, mouth open and ready to say something but then something shifts in your expression.

Your eyes widen, your shoulders bunch up and suddenly the only thing about you that's moving is the harsh rise and fall of your chest as your breathing picks up. Fear, Frank realises, is what's taken over your body. Pure fear as your hands curl into fists to stop them from shaking. He starts walking towards you slowly, putting his hands up to show he doesn't have anything in them.

"Hey," He says softly, trying to draw your attention to him.

"That's John Pilgrim." You say, eyes not leaving the spot beside Frank's head.

He turns to see that John has turned from whatever quiet conversation he was having with Dinah to look at you.

Frank makes it to you, putting his hands on your shoulders heavily and turning your body away. You didn't take your eyes off John, fear still seizing your body.

"Hey, hey," Frank called out softly. "Look at me, sweetheart." You brought your hands up to his chest, gripping the jacket there in a grip no one could break away from. When you still didn't look at him he gripped your chin in his fingers and forced you to look away, to focus on him instead of John. "What'd he do? Hm? Hey, you can tell me. What'd he do?"

It was a simple enough question but your eyes held a lifetime of pain in them. He knew what that was like, to have something so horrible happen in the past and have to live the rest of your life carrying it with you. You searched for that in his own eyes, the understanding, the sharing of grief, the fucked up world you left for the fucked up world he lived in.

You let go of his jacket and held your hands up, palms facing you, to show him the scars you never talked about. His eyes went straight to the bruises adorning your knuckles, feeling a swell of pride swell up in him that whatever happened, you made it out alive. But he knew that wasn't what you were talking about. And he felt the pride slip when he met your eyes again.

"You ever seen a crucifixion?"

The realisation hit him in full force and for just a second he contemplated strangling the life out of John for you to watch. To bash his head against the ground until it split open. To carve his heart out of his chest with his bare hands. He briefly closed his eyes, turning his head before bringing you in closer to kiss your forehead instead. He kept you there longer than he usually does, letting you choose when to pull away.

"I've been informed of your situation, miss," John speaks up at probably the most inopportune moment making you turn your head back to him but not leave Frank's comfort. "Whatever this face and name have done to you, I sincerely apologise."

"Don't bother. It was one of my less violent kidnappings anyway." You reply but in Hebrew now. Frank frowns at the change as you pull away, Matt tilts his head in that puppy dog way he usually does when he shows he's listening to you, and John simply looks on in interest. You stepped away from Frank, a frown set in place as you spoke a language he didn't know. "The John Pilgrim I knew was a murdering, psychotic lunatic that nailed me to a cross for knowing and helping Daredevil, who murdered my baby brother. Who are you?"

"I am a father to kidnapped sons." He answered flawlessly in the same manner. "Widower to a wife taken from me by cancer. I'm just trying to get them back so we can live in peace."

"Do you consider yourself a righteous man, John?" You sneered.

"I believe God works through me when he needs me." He answered.

You stared at him for a long while, staring intensely into his eyes with a rage John had never seen before. He looks away first, bowing his head to you in respect. You let out a sigh, letting some of the tension in your shoulders ebb away before taking a step back and holding out your hand. John looked back into your eyes in surprise. He's not one to look a gift horse in the mouth so he takes your hand, letting your firm hold lead into a strong shake.

"We can get along." You said, letting his hand go and then shrugging. "The John Pilgrim I knew didn't even know Hebrew so you're already doing better than him."

"He didn't?" John asked bewildered making you lightly grimace.

"I have a degree in Bible studies," You made a disgruntled noise, looking at him with a look like he'd know this pain. "I think the most painful part of getting nailed to a cross was him quoting the Bible wrong."

Amy barked out a laugh, quickly covering her mouth to stifle her remaining giggles and Dinah shot out an arm to give her a light smack. John, despite himself, allows himself to smile at your words with a small, breathy chuckle leaving him. He gives you a look that said he respected you and you nodded to him in acknowledgment before turning. You walked back over to where you had put the coffee on the table and Frank followed you.

When you went to reach for the normal-looking coffee cup, while the others were iced, you saw your scars again. Usually, it wasn't a problem. But usually, you weren't in the same room as John fucking Pilgrim. Your hands started shaking uncontrollably and you curled them into fists. Bringing them to your chest as you took some deep breaths with your eyes closed. You could feel Frank's powerful presence next to you and you tilted your head a certain way, wordlessly asking for something he would give you freely for the rest of his life.

He kissed your temple, pulling back and keeping his eyes on you. Trying to ignore the fact that Amy was openly staring at you both with a shit-eating grin on her face. You let out a particularly deep breath before reaching for the coffee again. Turning to Frank and giving it to him without a word. He frowned down at it, taking it from your grasp and making sure to brush his fingers over yours before taking a sip.

Liquid. Gold.

A solid black coffee with nothing else in it.

He stopped himself from moaning at the taste but he couldn't stop his eyes briefly rolling into the back of his head. He opened his eyes at your giggle, the sweetest sound he'd ever heard and he melted at your smile. He leaned in again, kissing your forehead and staying close to speak quietly.

"Don't think this means I'm not lookin' at that face." He said lowly, leaning back out of your space again to see you avoid eye contact with him.

"Of course you're lookin' at this face, baby, I'm gorgeous." You tried joking, lifting a hand to pick at a spec of dust that wasn't there on Frank's shirt. "I'll explain later. When there isn't a cop in the room."

"Hi." You jumped at the voice, turning to see Dinah had walked up behind you. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine." You said, briefly leaning on Frank as you turned to face her before straightening up.

"I just wanted you to know that this is an official case, so anything that's happened starting this morning will fall under this case and you won't get in trouble." She explained gently, looking at you expectantly.

"I fell down the stairs." You lied casually. "Though on my way over I saw a dead body in a dumpster so you might wanna look into that."

"You killed someone?" Amy, the little sticky beak, had overheard you and walked over to where the three of you were standing.

"No," You lied again, frowning and shaking your head like you were talking to a child. "He probably died from his injuries." You paused, looking at Dinah and keeping up your lie. "Immediately upon receiving them."

"What..." Dinah blinked at the stupidity of the situation. "What injuries?"

"You know, I can't say for sure," You crossed your arms and frowned in fake contemplation making Frank fight a smile. "But I think he might've fallen three stories and landed on his head." Dinah looked at you with slightly widened eyes and her mouth open like she wanted to say something but couldn't move. "I'm no expert though."

Frank chuckles from behind you, bringing his arm across your shoulders and squeezing you to his side.

"Ease up, Madani," Frank said, breaking her from her trance. "At least she told you about the body," He then gave her a shit-eating grin. "I haven't."