#he would of course say that mostly to piss off Slade

[alukardtheabysswalker]

I know his face was revealed in a dubious canon comic but it would be hilarious if Clark showed the titans a photo of what he looks like under the mask.

Beast Boy:"WHY IS HE HOT?"

Cyborg:"So he DOESN'T have the other eye, huh?"

Raven:"So he has white hair and tried to corrupt one of us? No wonder I hate him"

Starfire:"To think that such a young looking man could become such a bitter adult. Also why the swords"

Robin: *raises an eyebrow* "This was clearly years before I was even born, my father would never beat up such a teen"

The rest, in unison:"Wait, FATHER?"

[zutaralesbian]

If you're still doing the character thing: Anne Bonny, Azula, Karen Jackson

Anne Bonny:

My three favorite things about them:

Her loyalty. When Anne loves, she loves HARD. And you see that in her relationships with Jack and Max.

Her lack of ambition. While I LOVE ambition as a character trait (especially in female characters) Anne's lack of ambition is kind of refreshing in a show like Black Sails where almost all of the other characters are after something. At the end of the day Anne doesn't really care about treasure or power. She just cares about the people in her circle and supports them in their goals. (Those characters, again, mainly being Jack and Max.)

The way she's allowed to be dirty and say crude things. It's the trope of the grumpy warrior who is only soft for the people they care for....but in a female character. We really don't get female characters like Anne too often.

My three least favorite things about them:

I don't really like that the fact that she was the one who got Max captured by Vane in S1 was brushed over so fast. Yes she was the only person in Vane's crew that stood up for Max and she helped Eleanor free Max and murder her rapists, but she was part of the reason Max ended up there to begin with. Other than a brief comment about it from Max in S1, it wasn't even really acknowledged. Meanwhile the show allowed Anne to be angry at Max for betraying her and Jack for almost an entire season.

The fact that she killed poor Charlotte

????? I don't think I have anything else

My three favorite dynamics with them in it (romantic or platonic):

Anne/Max: Obviously! I love these two and their love story really spoke to me. I wish they had gotten a more explicit resolution :(

Anne/Jack: Another obvious choice. I think their relationship is a bit more unhealthy than some people like to admit (mostly the way she was an abuse and rape survivor and spent years feeling indebted to him because he saved her) but they are ride or die.

????? Anne didn't really have a lot of prominent relationships outside of Max and Jack. I do think her dynamic with Idelle was kind of compelling and I wish we had seen more of it. But I don't think it would have ever been a proper friendship since Idelle (rightfully) doesn't like Anne because she killed her friend.

My three favorite moments of theirs:

"I can't be your wife, Jack." I was just so proud of her

The scene where she opens up to Max about the abuse she suffered from her ex husband. It was so sad but very revealing :(

When she killed Max's rapists

Azula:

My three favorite things about them:

Her competence. I loved the fact that she was a villain that should be feared and she was not easily beaten. The other characters were always painfully aware of how easily she could win. And sometimes she did (ex: Ba Sing Se).

Her complexity, even though it makes me cry. Yes she was a great villain but she was also an abused teenage girl and a large part of her wants a sense of normalcy. We see that part really shine through in "The Beach" specifically :(

Her lines and dialogue. She truly has some of the most chilling (and iconic) lines on the show.

My three least favorite things about them:

The fandom discourse surrounding her. I feel like with Azula people are often either of two ways about her: They think she's an irredeemable monster or they think the way she ended up was everyone's fault but her own and use the fact that she was abused to excuse her of everything. I have a more middle opinion of her. I think she is deserving of sympathy and a shot at redemption since she was an abused child. BUT in doing so she would need to address the hurt she caused to people. (And yes Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee would all be on that list of people). She's a complicated character that deserves nuanced takes on her. Other than that though I don't think I have any issues with her.

My three favorite dynamics with them in it (romantic or platonic):

Azula/Zuko: Ugh this is one of the most interesting but tragic relationships on the whole show 😔

Azula/Mai/Ty Lee: Yes it ended in flames and was problematic but a trio of villainous girls kicking ass???? How could I not love that????

Azula/Ursa: I'm into this dynamic more for the potential? I so wish we had gotten to see more of it (that's not the comics lmao) because it could be so interesting and angsty. Idk. I think about Azula and her deeply complicated relationship with her mother a lot.

My three favorite moments of theirs:

"My own mother....thought I was a monster. She was right of course but it still hurt." And just every moment in "The Beach" tbh. Such a good Azula episode.

"Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player." ICONIC

Her breakdown when she hallucinated Ursa in the series finale. So intense and heartbreaking.

Karen Jackson:

My three favorite things about them:

Her love for Sheila. It was the first thing that drew me to her character in S1.

She's pretty funny a lot of the time. Idk. I just know that a good amount of the iconic scenes from the early seasons involved her.

Her strive to want to be successful. The scene where she asks Frank to come to her parent-teacher conference always breaks my heart because she wanted someone to be proud of her. It makes the way they wrote her character off even more infuriating to me.

My three least favorite things about them:

The fact that she raped Frank

Her ableism towards her baby. (To be clear I firmly believe that Karen had every right to not want to keep the baby. I just wasn't a fan of some of her comments.)

The way she was written off. Especially knowing it likely happened because Laura Slade Wiggins didn't want to do nude scenes anymore 😕

My three favorite dynamics with them in it (romantic or platonic):

Karen/Sheila: The relationship definitely wasn't the best at points (Sheila fucking the grown ass man that slept with her underaged daughter????) but I loved the fact that the show had a complex relationship between a mother and a daughter at one point. I miss them.

Karen/Lip: I don't ship them but their dynamic in S1 at least was honestly pretty cute. The 'I promise I don't love you' scene is one of the most memorable angst scenes from the show imo.

Karen didn't really get the chance to have any other prominent dynamics :( I will forever be pissed about the awful way they handled Karen and Mandy. They actually had a lot in common and in a better world they would have been girlfriends friends.

My three favorite moments of theirs:

Pissing on her father's grave. Iconic.

The 'I promise I don't love you' scene between her and Lip. Idk why I love that scene so much but I do. It was just so well acted.

The scene between her and Sheila where Sheila apologized to her for not always being a great mother. Just the EMOTIONS.

Thank you! :)

[thepoppypress]

The Battleline Between Good and Evil (Runs Through the Heart of Every Man)

Chapter 2: 

Dick raised a suspicious eyebrow at the two women in front of him.

“So,” he started slowly, “you want to kill this man,” he pointed to the man chained to a pole, squirming with fear, “because he slapped someone? Like slapped in the face?” Barbara rolled her eyes.

“Yes, Boy Wonder. Do keep up.” Dick’s eye twitched imperceptibly. Despite her being one of the only people who could sass a Wayne and get away with it, that didn’t mean it didn’t piss him off sometimes.

“Okay, fine. Why don’t I ask a better question. Why is my bastard of an ex here?” Three pairs of eyes slid over to where Deathstroke, in full uniform, lounged on a lone wooden crate. The man’s white eyebrow raised, his eyes full of amusement.

“That hurts, little bird. Here I thought we would be able to let by gones be by gones.” Dick grit his teeth.

“Keep that up, Slade and I’ll send Damian after you,” the dark haired man snarled, a sneer twisting his handsome features, “he’d be happy to get rid of you after last time.” This only made Slade laugh.

“The baby Wayne can try all he wants. He won’t be able to do anything.”

“He’s not so much of a baby anymore. He’s almost as tall as you with much more on his body count than you’ve ever had.” Dick looked up at the larger male’s 6’5 form, knowing that Damian was only, at most, an inch shorter. Of the many traits he had taken after his father, Damian Al Ghul Wayne, Ibn al Xu’ffasch, at the age of 19, far surpassed Bruce in height, now towering over his father at his full height of 6 '4, and matched him in the bulk department. Slade scoffed at the man.

“That doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to take me away from this.” At this, Dick glanced at the man with renewed interest and back at Slade with suspicion.

“Why the hell are you so interested in this, Slade? Working with people isn’t exactly your style and Barbara tells me you’re even doing this pro bono,” a bloodthirsty grin overtook Dick’s face, “whoever this is must be real special.” A threat resided in Dick’s voice, something that stiffened the other three people in the room. Before Slade could speak, Barbara cut in.

“Dick,” she started, and while he didn’t turn towards her, she knew he was listening. “It’s not just him. It’s us too.” She gestured to Stephanie and herself, Stephanie nodding to convince Dick it was really what they all wanted. Because, it genuinely was what they had wanted. The fact that both his unofficial sisters wanted this too made him falter a bit. Dick stared at the blonde and the redhead before turning back to glare at the man chained to the pole. He visibly paled and scrambled backwards, despite his back resting against the cool metal. A slight smile at the man’s obvious fear slipped over Dick’s face before it disappeared and he sighed.

“Fine,” he said, and his eyes darkened. Everyone else in the room straightened.

While he would deny it fervently, Slade felt a small shiver make its way down his back as he eyed his ex in arousal. He particularly loved it when he used to do that. Dick grinned again, teeth showing; a pretty smile. Dangerous. “But only if I get to watch.”

-----

“I wonder what’s happened to Mr. Stanley.” Peter didn’t have to see Stephanie stiffen. He heard her. Pretending as if he didn’t, he continued, “I hope he’s okay.” Stephanie coughed into her sleeve and he looked over at her in concern. How much of it was an act and how much of it was genuine worry, he didn’t know. Peter handed the blonde a napkin, who took it with a nod of thanks.

“Why would you want to know if he’s okay? He slapped you just last week!” Peter shrugged, uncaring of the odd look his now friend was sending him. Barbara apparently had some business to take care of so Stephanie came in alone. Harley was busy as well, running after her boyfriend. Peter’s lips twitched into a frown at the thought of Harley being hurt. Again.

Stephanie, who noticed his slight frown, concluded the wrong thing.

“Pete, you’re too good for this world.” Peter averted his eyes away from her, a sad look crossing his face. He remembers all the people he couldn’t save in his own world. The people he killed because he wasn’t old enough, experienced enough, prepared enough, good enough. Of all the things he was, good was not one of them.

“I’m really not, Steph. I’m really not.” Ignoring the imploring look his blonde friend sent his way, he said nothing and looked away. There was nothing to say anyway.

Steph left not long after that, saying that she had somewhere she needed to be. It had been a week and he had still not seen Mr. Stanley since he had slapped him. There wasn’t any doubt in Peter’s brain that Slade, Steph and possibly Barbara had been responsible for his disappearance. They must’ve been meticulous too, since no news report of a missing man has shown up at all. A shiver of both fear and warmth crept up Peter’s back at length they went to. He oddly felt scared yet safe at the same time, even though he still had his powers.

‘And the suit,’ his mind supplied. Peter glanced down at his wrist where the watch Mr. Stark had gifted him lay, wrapped around his wrist. He had come up with the idea not long after his nanobot suit came to fruition.

While it looked like a regular touch screen watch, it held all the nanobots needed to pull together his suit inside, even becoming a set of web slingers itself once the suit was deployed. There were two buttons side by side on the side of the watch, one being to turn the watch on and off and the other to activate the suit. Mr. Stark had instructed him to pull the second button out, listen for the clicking sound and watch for the screen of the watch to pop upwards before pushing down on the screen, which would deploy the suit. Peter had not taken out the suit since his arrival into this world. It was nice to know he had it in case of emergencies, however.

Barely two hours later, Peter was exhausted and just wanting to get back to the shelter so he could sleep. After three fights (which was three fights too many to break up) and demanding customers, even in broad daylight, he only wanted to be alone. Well, as alone as he could get. He threw the towel over his shoulder down onto the wood of the bar and stretching his arms upwards, his back cracking deliciously as he moaned in relief.

‘Thank God, my back was killing me,’ he thought as he continued to stretch his stiff muscles. Quiet footsteps lumbered towards his side of the bar, their heaviness and sound familiar enough to Peter for him to not open his eyes and realize who it was. Another little crack came from his spine and Peter moaned quietly. A huff of laughter sounded in front of him.

“Careful, sweetheart. People might get the wrong idea.” Peter cracked one eye open at Slade, letting his arms fall back down to his sides and levelling the mercenary with a deadpan stare, silently noting the quick and quiet steps that were approaching the two.

“The wrong idea about what, Slade? Stretching?” Slade’s one eye roved over Peter’s small frame hungrily, and while Peter did feel a bit endangered, he also felt fond. After a few days of conversation with Deathstroke, his Spidey Sense had calmed down significantly and Peter knew that Slade would never do whatever Peter didn’t want him to do. Slade shrugged.

“You never know, sweetheart.” A voice spoke behind Slade, lilting and teasing.

“Aww Slade. You’ve replaced me already?” Both men looked at the intruder, a very handsome man with tanner skin than Peter’s (though that’s not saying much. Peter was pretty pale), striking blue eyes and a wide, pretty smile. Peter supposes he should be falling for him or at least be flustered, but he can’t bring himself to be with his Spidey Sense starting to sound like a banging drum at the arrival of this man.

The smile seems to melt the people around them, mostly women and even some men, but Peter’s seen it a hundred times before. It was similar to Mr. Stark’s fake smiles at press events. The first he had been to was his inauguration into the Avengers and while he was convinced at first, Peter started seeing the smile’s ingenuousness more and more as he attended other press conferences and parties. Looking at this man’s smile was like a mirror image, leaving Peter more than convinced of some sort of ulterior motive.

“Little bird,” Slade murmured, eyes suspiciously downcast. Peter watched as the man’s smile became sharp for a fraction of a second before it was gone. If Peter hadn’t seen it with his senses, he would’ve thought it to be a trick of the light or something. The man’s striking eyes swiveled over to Peter and the curly brown haired boy had to stop himself from tensing up at the intensity of the gaze. He couldn’t help but feel like he was now a sort of lab rat to this man. His gaze held interest but it was the same kind of interest that one would give an ant on the street.

“Hello,” he greeted politely, “can I get you started with something?” The sharpness was there again and gone again before Peter could even blink.

“Why, yes you can,” he purred, dark hair falling into his face attractively as he sat down next to Slade. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter noticed that Slade tensed the tiniest bit. The man spoke again, getting Peter to focus on him again, “you can start by telling me your name, gorgeous.” Peter was a bit flustered at the nickname, though he tried not to give any outward indication that he was affected.

‘Seriously, what is up with people and giving me nicknames!’ Peter pointed at the name tag pinned to his shirt and watched as the man raised an eyebrow. “I meant tell me, gorgeous. Verbally.” Peter stared at him.

“Sir, I don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but you can read right?” A quiet snort came from Slade but both Peter and the man ignored him.

“Of course I can read, but I want you to tell me your name.” Peter searched this man’s face, his intentions unclear. It was obvious he had ulterior motives but what were they? Finally, he answered.

“Peter. Peter Parker.” He grinned like the cat who got the cream. He held his hand out which Peter took hesitantly, letting the man’s much larger hand engulf his own, noticing that despite the strength he obviously carried, he kept his grip surprisingly gentle.

‘Manipulative,’ his mind whispered, ‘careful.’

“Richard Grayson. But you can call me Dick.” Peter’s eyebrows raised in surprise and a light giggle left his lips, shocking not only himself but Slade as well. It was interesting but he latched onto the name.

“Okay, Dick,” he put emphasis on the name, watching for any reaction that would accompany his subtle insult. There was none. “What can I get you?”

“Virgin mojito with ice. Thanks.” As Peter worked on making the drink for Dick, he kept a super sense ear towards their conversation.

“What are you doing here, little bird?” He heard Slade whisper.

“Seeing what all the fuss was about.” When he was done, Peter gave the glass to Dick who turned his attention towards the superhero-turned-bartender.

“So,” Dick started as Peter wiped down some wet glasses, “where do you live?” Peter glanced up and saw that Dick was leaning closer towards him, eyes sparking in interest.

“Why?”

“So I can take you on a date.” Peter barely stopped himself from scoffing.

“I just met you.” Dick nodded, his face portraying the question, ‘so?’ “So, I’m not going to tell you where I live.” The dark haired man shifted to one side, Peter’s eyes following him.

“You’re saying you don’t trust me?” The sharp grin was back, only this time it was on full display. ‘People obviously can’t tell the difference between pretty and danger,’ Peter thought as he watched more and more people start paying attention to the ridiculously attractive man sitting at the bar.

“Of course not,” he answered simply, his eyes straying to Slade for a quick moment. Dick’s eyes were analyzing and somehow, Peter felt like he knew more about Peter than Peter did himself. Even then, Peter refused to be daunted. ‘It’s not how Mr. Stark would be.’ Dick, noticing that Peter looked at Slade, suddenly looked like Christmas had come early.

“You know,” he purred, “Slade here isn’t exactly someone you should trust either.”

“How do you know I trust him?”

“You call him by his first name. Although common, he doesn’t enjoy just anyone calling him that.” Peter recalled the moment when Dick had slid into their conversation unannounced.

“If that’s the case, then you must be close to him too.” Surprisingly, Dick was startled for a quick second before he started rolling with the punches. It made Peter proud in a way. He gets the vibe that this man doesn’t get surprised easily.

“Maybe once upon a time. But still.” Peter sighed.

“Why shouldn't I trust him?” Dick leaned forward, his hand beckoning Peter to as well, which he did reluctantly. Slade tensed a bit more next to Dick.

“He’s a mercenary for hire.” It was whispered as if it was a great secret. Peter didn’t react. At all.

“Yeah, I know.” A moment passed as Slade’s shoulders slumped and Dick tilted his head in curiosity. “Besides, he’s never been anything but transparent about his job, even if he didn’t tell me. If there’s anyone I shouldn’t trust, Mr. Grayson,” Dick’s eyebrows raised to his hairline at the formality, “it would be you. You may be able to charm everyone else here but I’m not fooled. Your pretty smile and flowery words are fake enough for me to see through.” Dick was about to reply but a sharp rap on the door to the interior of the bar caught their attention.

“You’re off, Parker,” his manager rasped, clearly still hungover. He turned back to the two men sitting in front of him.

“Well, I’ll see you later Slade.” The older man nodded.

“See you, sweetheart.” Peter flashed a blinding smile towards him, making sure to leave Dick out of it. Said man was aware and huffed a laugh at Peter’s antics.

“What about me?” He pointed to himself. Peter shot him a deadpan look.

“I hope to never see you again.” With that, he walked off and out of the bar, hearing quiet chuckling but not quite noticing the interested looks from the man that would soon become one of the many thorns in his side. Fucking Parker Luck.

-----

Peter’s eye twitched as Dick sat down beside him, for once not alone. Babs followed behind him. It seemed that today it was Steph who was missing. It was barely even a week after their first meeting at the bar and he already couldn’t stand the sight of the other man. The fact that he kept appearing at all ofPeter’s shifts didn’t help. Dick smiled that pretty smile that Peter was sure tricked so many other people into selling their soul.

“Peter! What a coincidence!” A discreet glance at the red head behind Dick told Peter that this meeting was anything but a coincidence. The brown eyed boy didn’t answer, causing the darker haired man to pout. Instead, Peter met Barbara’s eyes and waved.

“How’re you, Babs?” Barbara’s soft smile lessened his irritation slightly. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’m good, Peter. Thanks for asking.” Peter nodded and went back to checking his phone, his break almost over. He’d be damned if he let Dick Grayson take up all his time. Ignoring the heat that dominated the side of his face, he sent a text to Harley.

To Harley: Are you going to be meeting me at the club today?

It wasn’t even a minute later that Harley texted back.

To Puppy: I can’t today, puppy. Mr. J has a job and wants me to help! Wish me luck! <3

Peter sighed, causing Dick to not-so-subtly turn to him in curiosity.

To Harley: Okay. Good luck. Stay safe.

Peter logged out of the app and checked his bank account, deflating at the meager number. ‘Only $329.53. How am I ever going to get out of the shelter?’ He needed so much food on a daily basis that he barely had much money left over. Momentarily distracted, Peter left his phone screen open for anyone to see, even the annoying man sitting next to him. Dick whistled.

“That’s a low number.” Peter shot him an irritated glance.

“Don’t you have anything else to do, other than stalking me?” Dick pretended to think about it for a moment, before shaking his head, his blue eyes filled with mirth.

“Nope. Looks like you’re stuck with me for the rest of the night.” The brown haired boy clenched his hand, balling it into a fist. His eye twitched again. Taking a visible breath, Peter walked behind the bar, avoiding looking at the handsome man.

‘Just another hour, Parker,’ he thinks, though his rising annoyance made him want to flee, ‘just another hour, and you’ll be fine.’

-----

After an hour of Dick blatantly staring at him (and no one, not even the security guards, questioned it. He thought it was odd), Peter was finally free to go. Babs had left within the first fifteen minutes, saying she had some late night errands to run. He practically flew into the back room to change into the clothes he wore before getting into uniform, and made it outside the club in record time, avoiding Dick when he surged up from his seat as Peter briskly walked past.

The cool air hit him, causing him to shiver and clutched his hoodie. He scolded himself for not believing the forecast this morning. Gritting his teeth, he started walking in the direction of the shelter, purposefully starting on a light jog as he heard heavier set footsteps behind him.

“Hey! Peter!” Dick called, following closely behind. Too close in Peter’s personal opinion, but before he could speed up, a strong hand grabbed his upper arm, and insane strength (at least, by normal human standards, but Peter was far from normal) halted his path. Because he had been running, physics decided to be a bitch (like it always was), and he crashed into Dick’s chest, the side of his head bouncing off the other man’s sternum.

Using it to his advantage, Peter rammed his shoulder back into his chest, managing to hit Dick’s solar plexus. It should’ve been enough to get the taller man to let go, but instead, his grip tightened on Peter’s upper arm and before Peter knew it, he was being hoisted up, an arm cinching around his waist as he was bodily carried into a nearby alleyway.

Now, Peter knew he was short and incredibly skinny, even after his transformation, but to hear it from someone else was a bit embarrassing in his books. Especially someone who had at least five inches on him, if not more.

“Jesus, do you eat? You’re tiny.” Dick hissed as Peter’s free arm came down on his shoulder blades and arms, anywhere he could reach. Funnily enough, Peter was barely putting any of his real strength into the hits, but he knew it was enough to bruise Dick for the next couple weeks. “Hey- ow! Peter!” He yelled but Peter continued to hit him. “Peter! Stop!”

“Let me go, Dick!” It seemed that Dick had had enough because next thing he knew, he was being pushed against a brick wall, the expanse of his chest pushed uncomfortably against the bricks by one if Dick’s long forearms and his upper arm had been let go in favor of capturing both of his wrists in one hand. Peter was about to stomp his foot onto Dick’s, probably breaking it, but Dick’s shout stopped him before he could.

“Peter! Wait! I just wanted to take you home!” That caused Peter to pause, looking up at Dick. None of his senses told him that Dick was lying, so instead of attacking him, Peter asked through clenched teeth.

“Why?” Peter glared up at Dick, and while he knew that his expression was about as threatening as a kitten and that he probably faced worse faces than Peter’s, he still watched in satisfaction as the taller actually seemed nervous now. His heartbeat also conveyed his anxiety.

“Gotham’s dangerous at night. And I think I’ve known you long enough to be at least a little worried,” Dick’s demeanor suddenly shifted, a smirk lighting up his face, “Besides, I don’t want my new favorite friend to get killed. Then who will glare at me with such a cute face?”

Now that Peter was closer to him, he could see why people seemed to fall for him wherever he went. Dick was very handsome, with a cheerful, if not cocky attitude. But Peter refused to be one of those people.

“I don’t need an escort. I can take care of myself.”

“You look like a breeze could knock you over.” Peter bristled.

“Are you saying that I need your help? ‘Cause I really don’t.”

“You couldn’t get me to let you go. Do you think that anyone else on the street, who are mostly larger than you and me, wouldn’t be able to take you down?” Peter scoffed, and using some more of his super strength, he shoved Dick back, the other man stumbling all the way to the other side of the alleyway. Dick braced himself on the wall, looking at Peter with wide eyes.

“Look, I appreciate your concern, Dick, but I can take care of myself. Whether or not you see it.” With that, he walked out of the alleyway and back towards the shelter. He heard no footsteps following him this time.

-----

Dick massaged his chest, still leaning against the wall that Peter had shoved him against. It was almost out of nowhere that his strength came and managed to successfully get Dick to let him go. He didn’t run after Peter, but he was resolved to escort Peter home safely. Afterall, if Steph and Babs liked him so much, Dick would probably like him too.

‘Yeah, he did not disappoint.’

His first time meeting Peter was rather weird for Dick. His first impression was ‘cute.’ The guy had one of the largest sets of honey brown eyes he’d ever seen. His hair was curly and fluffy, and Dick was tempted to card a hand through the light brown locks to prove their softness. He was small, too, with a short stature and skinny arms. Basically, he looked defenseless and naive, if not adorably so.

However, nearly everyone he met that wasn’t an assassin, mafioso, terrorist, whathaveyou, had fallen for his charms. Sometimes, even the assassin, mafioso, terrorist (etc.) had fallen for him. But Peter was different. The instant Peter spotted him next to Slade, his guard was put up quickly and he wasn’t fooled by charming smiles and pretty words. If that wasn’t enough to prove his oddity, the fact that he had said it straight to Dick’s face, even when Slade was right next to him, just made him more interesting to Dick.

So sue him if he was slightly concerned about someone so defenseless looking roaming around at night. He was a son of the Wayne Mafioso branch, largest crime family on the East Coast, and Gotham and her inhabitants were his to help, protect, and punish if he so pleased.

Pushing off the wall, Dick decided that this particular inhabitant was also his to help and protect, even if it was against his will.

Dick suddenly realized that Peter must’ve been new to Gotham, seeing as he didn’t recognize him as Bruce Wayne’s first, adopted son, which only served to make Dick want to protect him from the streets even more.

“Okay, it’s only been a couple minutes since he left. He can’t be that fast,” Dick muttered as he started on the path that Peter took to go home. A couple blocks up, Dick could see the heel of Peter’s shoe as he turned the street. Following quickly, he ran the couple blocks and turned the corner, as well, seeing Peter crossing a crosswalk to the other side of the street. He followed as well and all the way to a place that looked unfamiliar to him. It wasn’t an apartment building. Peter entered through the doors.

‘A homeless shelter?’

-----

A couple days passed since the little scuffle with Dick and Peter was thankful that the man had at least some common sense to know when he wasn’t welcome. Peter hasn’t seen him at all the past few days and he couldn’t be happier. Harley noticed.

“Whatcha so happy about, Pup?” She asked when they were hanging out at her apartment. Peter smiled beamingly at Harley who covered her eyes like she was looking into the sun. Both of them giggled.

“Just happy. Hey, Harley?”

��Hmm?” Harley played with the stick of the lollipop in her mouth, absently listening.

“Do you know Slade personally?” The platinum blonde shook her head.

“Nope. Why? You finally admitting yer’ feelin’s for him?” Peter huffed, giving his friend a knowing look.

“No, I’m not into him. Like I said, too old. Not exactly my type.” Harley hummed but looked skeptical. “Anyway, even if you don’t know him personally, do you know who he works with?” His friend thought about it for a minute, swinging her legs back and forth in her seat at her kitchen table.

“Some. Why?”

“Just wondering if you knew someone named Dick Grayson?” Harley froze, a terrified look dawning on her face. Peter frowned and was about to ask her if she was alright but Harley suddenly surged forward and grabbed Peter by the arms, her grip tight.

“Where did you hear that name?!” Peter, now more concerned, drew his eyebrows tight.

“I met him the other day, when you weren’t at the bar. He came in alone and talked with Slade. He came in another day too, with Babs.” Harley’s eyes searched his own wildly, as if trying to see whether or not he was telling the truth.

Her blue eyes widened when she saw that he was completely serious. Slowly, she let go of Peter’s arms and sat back down in her seat. She put her head into her hands, leaning over the counter for a minute, so silent that Peter started to become even more worried. Silence was uncharacteristic of Harley Quinn.

“Okay,” she spoke up after a couple minutes, “I want you to promise me something, okay, Peter?” Honey brown eyes widened a bit. She used his real name. This was serious.

“Anything, Harls.”

“I want you to stay away from Dick Grayson and anyone he associates with.” Peter blinked.

“What about Slade?”

“Yup.”

“And Babs? And Steph?” If Barbara Gordon knew Dick Grayson, then it was likely that Stephanie Brown knew him too.

“Them too. We’re going to move. Mista J won’t mind. We’ll move closer to the border, nearer Canada and-” she continued muttering, more to herself than Peter, but Peter had enough.

“Harley, we can’t move. I can’t move. I have two jobs and other commitments. I can’t just drop everything and move.” Harley gave him a desperate look.

“But-” He cut her off.

“But nothing, Harls. I know you’re worried. I knew he was dangerous the minute I met him. I can take care of myself. I’m much stronger than you think I am.” His friend didn’t move for a few moments, staring into his completely serious face and then deflated.

“I just worry,” she murmured, apology evident in her tone. Peter walked around the kitchen counter to hug his friend, who embraced him just as tightly.

“I know you do.” The hug lasted for a few more minutes, both basking in the comfort of the other before it was time for Peter to leave. He grabbed his coat off one of the small chairs at a round dinner table and said his goodbyes.

“Be safe!” Harley called after him as he left her apartment. He waved back with assurances he would be careful. He chose to walk, despite the cold and damp weather, seeing as his bank account couldn’t suffer anymore in terms of small spendings. ‘Besides,’ he reasoned with himself, ‘I need some more exercise.’

It was about 30 minutes later that he finally reached the shelter, his coat somewhat damp. Entering the door, and feeling some warmth descend upon him made him want to groan in relief. However, after that feeling had passed, another, colder feeling lay itself upon him like a blanket. Something was wrong. Peter looked around, trying to see any potential dangers but there were none he could see or hear.

Walking swiftly, Peter reached his cot, still eyeing his environment in suspicion. When he still found nothing out of the ordinary, he finally looked down on his cot to see a single white rose and an envelope sitting across his now neatly made cot. Someone had been there and messed with it. The thought made him shiver and with shaking hands he picked up the rose in one hand and the envelope in the other. He peeled the flap and opened it to see the contents. Two small, folded slips of paper sat inside.

‘Sort of anticlimactic,’ Peter thought, his face filled with confusion. He pulled out the larger of the two slips of paper, and unfolded it. And then proceeded to drop everything in his hands. The rose, the envelope and the check for $100,000 fell quietly onto his cot. His wide eyes stared down at the pale piece of paper.

‘What the fuck,’ he thought with shock. Then he remembered that there was another piece of paper in the envelope. Taking the envelope in hand, he tucked the check inside and pulled out the other slip. Unfolding it, he saw that it was a note.

‘The first of many. -D.G.’

The envelope once again fell from his hands, and Peter felt another wave of emotion crash over him. However, this time, it wasn’t shock or fear. No, it was rage.

‘Motherfucker.’

Previous: Part 1 

Next: Part 3 

[bigskydreaming]

DC should bring back Shrike. He’s a great foil to Nightwing and their dynamic hits so many of the most popular tropes. He was a villain from the pre-Flashpoint Nightwing series, but his origin is from the Robin: Year One comic.

So in Robin: Y1, Batman and Robin went up against Two-Face, who captured them both when they were trying to rescue this judge. Two-Face then rigged things so he could kill either Batman or the Judge, and then told Dick he’d flip a coin to see which one died, and Dick had to choose heads or tails. Dick tried to trick Two-Face, but miscalculated as he didn’t understand yet that the only way to beat Two-Face is to just not play his games at all, because they’re always rigged. He picked saving the Judge, trusting Batman to get out on his own, but Two-Face just killed the judge another way as soon as Dick made his choice, before Bruce had time to get free. Then Two-Face beat Dick almost to death before Bruce got loose and got Dick out of there and to Leslie, in time to save him.

This is the story people reference about how Bruce benched Dick because of how badly Two-Face hurt him, only actually Bruce fired him in this comic. (Yup, Dick was actually fired as Robin twice, here and then when the Joker shot him when he was 16). Bruce of course was just freaking out about almost losing Dick, and Commissioner Gordon had warned him if anything happened to Robin, he was going to make sure Robin ended up in child protective services (like that had done Dick a lot of good the first time). Of course, Bruce didn’t actually say any of this to Dick, but instead flipped out on him, said he was done as Robin, and literally told Dick it was his fault a man was dead, because he didn’t listen to orders and followed Bruce to fight Two-Face instead of leaving. 

So, as soon as he was healed, Dick ran away. Left a note saying he didn’t know what point there was in him being there anymore if he couldn’t be Batman’s partner, since Bruce didn’t need a son. He spent an indeterminate amount of time living on the streets and eventually took down Mister Freeze all on his own, handing him over to Gordon and then telling him don’t worry, Robin’s done now. And then at some point after that, he was found by a guy named Shrike and some of his men. Dick fought against them and did well enough to catch Shrike’s interest, and they abducted him and took him back to something the other boys there called “Vengeance Academy.”

Here, for several weeks, Dick and a bunch of other boys abducted off the streets were trained as assassins. Dick didn’t want anyone connecting him to Bruce (and he hadn’t been in the public eye much at that point before running away), so he said his name was Freddy Lloyd - Lloyd was his mom’s maiden name. Don’t remember if the Freddy had significance, but whatever. Anyway, Dick of course excelled here, and his chief rival was another kid named Boone. Shrike pitted them against each other, encouraged their rivalry. Like they were sent out on one mission, and Dick stopped Boone from killing a guard, which pissed him off, but when they got back, Shrike praised Dick for it, saying you should never kill anyone other than your intended target or something like that. Point was, Boone hated Dick, and especially hated how Shrike seemed to favor Dick.

Eventually Dick was able to sneak away long enough to slip a note into the Batcave, telling Bruce about the Academy and where to find it and hopefully bring it down, and then went back because of course then he was gonna try and do it on his own in case Bruce didn’t get the message or was busy with other missions. Except Shrike then sent Dick out on his first kill mission, and clearly knew more about Dick than he’d realized, because not so coincidentally, that contract was to kill Two-Face.

Dick and Boone and a couple others went on the mission together, with Dick supposed to take point, and it ended up with Dick about to shoot Two-Face, having him at his mercy and pointing a gun at him...before ultimately throwing the gun out the window because this wasn’t who Bruce had taught him to be. 

Of course Boone is quick to turn on Dick then and with the other boys are able to knock him out and drag him back to Shrike, where he’s being tortured as a traitor/failure when Batman arrives and busts it up. Chaos ensues, Dick gets loose, Two-Face shows up having tracked Boone and the little punks who tried to kill him back to the Academy, and then at some point Two-Face shoots Shrike a bunch of times right before Shrike confronts Dick up on this catwalk near the ceiling...and Shrike falls and is impaled on his own sword, dying. Boone saw just enough to be convinced that Dick killed Shrike.

Dick goes home with Bruce, they patch things up, Bruce says he can be Robin again, he smooths things over with Gordon, blah blah blah, etc. At the end of the story though, Boone is shown being approached by Talia, with it being revealed that Shrike had been a member of the League of Shadows, and the Academy was meant to find the most promising young candidates to induct into the League. 

Boone was trained by the League and then years later, as an adult, struck out on his own as a mercenary and he took the name Shrike in honor of the teacher he’d idolized. And then he showed up in Bludhaven targeting Nightwing, who he’d recognized as his old rival, thanks to his fighting style. (The Academy was where Dick supposedly learned to fight with his escrima sticks, which he only started using regularly as Nightwing).  

But basically, Boone and Dick have a lot of the same dynamics that people like with him and Slade, or him and Jason, only Boone’s the same age as Dick and not part of his family, lol. They have significant history together as rivals who trained under the same teacher, Boone likes to call him Freddy to fuck with him because he knows its a reminder of a time Dick hates thinking about, and Boone knows his secret identity. None of them had worn masks at the Academy, so it wasn’t hard for Boone to later connect his old rival to the Dick Grayson he saw in the tabloids. BUT Boone has never told anyone Nightwing’s real name, not to protect him but rather because he doesn’t want to make it easier for anyone else to kill Dick, since that’s like....his main goal. He hates Dick because he blames him for the death of his teacher, the original Shrike, who Boone greatly looked up to even though he always seemed to favor Dick, with the latter being ungrateful and not caring that he had the approval Boone desperately wanted. And also, Boone is obsessed with proving once and for all that he’s better than Dick.

The last time Shrike showed up that I can think of pre-Flashpoint was when he joined the Secret Society of Supervillains or whatever the fuck that was called.....right around the time that Dick infiltrated it in his faked villain persona as Renegade. Unfortunately nobody ever really did anything with Shrike’s presence there as they instead focused on Slade, but there was a lot of missed potential there IMO.

But yeah, I have no idea how all that would work with the Rebirth continuity - mostly because I refuse to TRY and make sense of Rebirth continuity/origins, they make no sense, what are timelines and ages even - but would be great for a version of R:Y1 to be established again and Shrike brought back. He’s practically tailor made to be the perfect archnemesis for Dick.

[geneshaven]

Arrow, Season 6 (Threads of Discord)

The following breakdown of Season 6 has been churning around in my addled brain since 623 ended two weeks ago, and today I felt compelled to bring it out into the light of day.  I am not agreeing or disagreeing with anybody else’s take on the season. I’m only putting it down in black and white, because quite frankly, it’s a way for me to make sense of what was served up to us this season. I was left with some discombobulated thoughts and feelings when 623 was over, so much so that the next night I felt an immediate need to write a fic, (The Distance Between Two Hearts, *plug, plug*) to give everything  a happy ending and to help it all go down smoother. So, here is my final take on the Season as a whole.

When Lian Yu blew up at the end of Season 5, the writers of Arrow left a few storylines up in the air; mainly, Oliver and Felicity and their momentum of getting back together. A lot of fans just assumed it was a done deal. They kissed. They hugged. They made a promise to one another that after the smoke cleared; they would talk about being in each other’s lives again. (I’ve thought recently that the visual of Lian Yu exploding into larger fireballs could be a great summation of Season 6.)

So, hiatus came upon us in the summer of 2017 and the writers tried to pull a fast one, leaving all our beloved characters fates up in the air via a lame cliffhanger. Oliver saved William from Chase’s clutches. Samantha was killed, giving life to one of the plot lines for Season 6. Thea was caught in the explosions, blasted into a coma; a colossal waste of her character and of Willa’s acting abilities. John was injured, setting up yet another ill-conceived plot line for Dig. The Newbies---well, they survived, but a lot of fans might have wished they were blown up. Quentin survived, only to be killed off after stringing him and us along with a lunatic fringe thing with Black Siren---another waste of a good character and actor. And Felicity? Of course she would survive. But how did she survive? A really great potential scene was wasted by the writers not having Oliver searching for and finding the love of his life safe and in need of a hug. She was last seen running for cover; then after five months of hiatus, she reappeared at the Bunker with food orders from Big Belly Burger for the guys. There was a brief scene with her and Oliver alone in the Bunker, with UST hovering over them like an image of the salmon ladder calling out to them. Instead, they danced around each other and gave us an ever briefer talk about William, how they had agreed to stay apart in order for the boy to adjust to his new life. “Not tonight, another night,” Felicity promised Oliver. Had that been going on for five months? Were cold showers to be the norm for them in the unforeseeable future?

It was not to be, and plot took the lead over character for the bulk of the season. As a result, the stories were paper thin and patience thin.

To be fair, not all the episodes were terrible. There were a handful that had glimmers of promise. 603 and Olicity finally coming back together with one big kiss was pretty okay. 604 is a front-runner for me, coming in as a favorite episode. It was a rare example of character over plot, which is why it worked so well. Having Oliver and Felicity switch places, (due to another plot driven story line of Oliver giving up being the Green Arrow and passing the torch on to John) with Felicity out in the field and Oliver taking up the Overwatch mantle---it was inspired writing. Yet, having John in the Green Arrow suit and leading the charge, as well as turning him into a drug addict; it was so out of tune, sending the fandom into a tail-spin. And the Newbies? Didn’t they get blown up?

So after 604, we got some filler episodes, giving the writers more time to strengthen their plots. Slade Wilson and his mission to save his son, and dragging Oliver along with him was not a good idea, story wise. I always liked Slade Wilson’s character; the good and the bad. But the writers missed another chance to send him out with a good and final story.

We got a very brief look at Oliver getting arrested in 607, on Thanksgiving no less. It would come back to haunt everybody in 623.

The Crossover. Nazi’s. Doppelgangers. Evil Oliver as the Fuhrer. Supergirl as Eva Braun. Felicity as a victimized Jew. Quentin as the Gestapo.  The WestAllen wedding ceremony and the destruction it suffered. Whoever paid for the event probably felt the economic hurt more than the invasion. It would have been more believable than the racist crap MG and AK came up with.

Then at the end, it was a shout-out to Oliver telling Barry guys like them don’t get the girl. They were married to their loves, side by side in an impromptu ceremony. Okay, because I am an Olicity shipper, it was good to see them happy and all in with their love for one another. No rings, no wedding apparel and no vows. Just a beautiful fall day by a lake. It worked for some and was a travesty for others.

Olicity’s reception in 609 took some of the sting away from their unconceivable double wedding. We got a lot of pretty, (Oliver and Felicity dressing up) an ill-advised toast from Rene, (Rene, really? If I were John, I would have been pissed by that demotion) music and dancing, cake-cutting and bouquet-throwing---and god help us; the Hoffman’s.

So 610, to the end of the season, was nothing short of the worst writing to ever find its way onto the show. It was a flight of fancy and preference for Marc and Wendy. The whole civil war thing between OTA and NTA---how could they think that would be entertaining? And killing off Cayden James, who had the potential of being a good villain and replacing him with Ricardo Diaz---it was the writers shooting themselves in the foot and the fans in the back. Rene shooting at Felicity and taking an axe to Oliver, Curtis intentionally hurting John to get intel and Dinah just generally pissed at everyone---it was all a swirling, nauseating mess of WTF.

Then John and Oliver throwing each other around the Bunker like kids in a schoolyard? John brings out some pent-up resentments and disapprovals over Oliver’s leadership abilities. Really? It was just more piling on on Oliver to keep the plot going. Oliver is now a husband and a father, and maybe even a role model. He has earned all that makes his life full, through blood, sweat and tears. He has virtually erased the angry, violent juggernaut we all met in Season 1. He doesn’t deserve to be blamed for everyone else’s short-comings and issues. It was just backwards writing all around.

Diaz. One big yawn. A non-threatening blow-hard who’s only real menace was being a big whiner and killing you with annoyance. I’m still shaking my head that he is coming back for Season 7.

About Season 7. Marc, Wendy and a large part of their toxic writing staff are gone. A new showrunner (Beth) is in place, along with a new, mostly female writer’s room. Do we get more character and less plot? Can they do enough damage control to salvage the mess they inherited? I hope so. Will Diaz meet an early demise; say in the first act of 701? Will Oliver be released from prison by some lawyerly trickery? Will the Newbies get blown up? Okay, I didn’t want to push things too far.

Thea and Lance are gone (insert tears here.) But Roy is coming back, and there are rumors of an Olicity baby. The Big Bad? Well, a litter of kittens would be scarier than Dias. And cuter too.

Five months. Damn. Maybe I will rewatch Season 6, you know, to pass the time.

Just kidding. I’m not into self-torture.  

@it-was-a-red-heeler @memcjo @almondblossomme @hope-for-olicity @wordslovedreams @olicityinmyheart @olicityotp-always @swordandarrow @cruzrogue @ruwithmeguys @gabriellamarie97 @bandanab310 @dmichellewrites @wanhani @1106angel

[canyousevmyheavydirtysoul]

*Halloween* I Hate You, I Love You. (Part 2) (Ryan Ross x Reader)

Request: a user on Wattpad: ‘Matching costumes with ryan Ross’

Prompt 7: Costumes

It was three months after you’d played the final show of the Pretty. Odd. tour. After the whole ‘breakdown-on-stage-and-scream-at-Ryan-Ross that you hate him’ thing, the remaining months of touring were hell, to say the least. You and Ryan both made conscious efforts to try and avoid one another as much as possible, but obviously, it was no easy feat. Despite playing shows with Panic! every night, there were photo shoots, press conferences and interviews that you were under obligation to do – some of which you were forced to interact with Ryan during – all while trying your best to avoid any more rumours erupting in your fanbase (they were still trying to come up with a conclusion as to why you cried on stage). So, yeah, life was hard during those few months.

The morning after the final show, you were so eager to get home that you were up at the crack of dawn, despite being enormously tired, and you were the first one on the tour bus that morning, as well as the first one to board the plane that would bring you your salvation, i.e. take you far away from Ryan Ross.

With the exception of a few ‘hey how are you’ texts and some random tweets at each other, you hadn’t spoken to any of the members of Panic! over the past three months, so when you received an out of the blue phone call from Brendon while you were getting a morning pick-me-up from Starbucks, you were understandably a little apprehensive about answering.

“Hello?”

“Hey, (Y/N/N)!” Brendon’s energy radiated through the phone, and you couldn’t stop the smile from forming on your face; you had to admit that you’d missed the over-hyped man-child. “How are you?”

“Uh,” you reached forward and took your order, mouthing a thank you to the barista, ��I’m good, all things considering,” you turned and headed to nearby empty table, “How’re you?”

“I’m great. Although, I would be even better if you came to the Halloween costume party I’m throwing.”

Ah, so that’s why he called.

“Is Ryan gonna be there?”

“No.” You narrowed your eyes, and even though he couldn’t see you, Brendon knew exactly what you were doing, prompting him to continue. “He really isn’t! He’s taking a trip to see his grandma or whatever.”

You tapped a finger on your coffee cup as you contemplated whether or not to agree. You hadn’t been out in a while; a party sounded lovely. And you truly did miss the members of Panic! – bar Ryan, of course. And since he wouldn’t be attending, you decided you would.

“Okay.”

“Yeah! Oh, and bring the rest of the guys too!”

You took a sip from your coffee. “I’ll extend the invite to the group chat.”

“Can’t wait to see you!”

“You too, Bren,” you smiled, before hanging up and walking out of the Starbucks.

Now to find a costume.

~

“So are you in?”

“Yeah, of course,” Ryan nodded as he and Brendon exited the studio, “It’s on Halloween night, right?” Brendon nodded. “Then yeah, I’ll definitely be there. Wait,” he frowned when a thought struck him. “Did you invite (Y/N)?”

“No,” Brendon scoffed, “Of course not.”

“Brendon?”

“Yes?”

“Stop lying to me.”

Brendon stopped walking and threw his hands outwards, an offended look on his face. “Why does no one believe me when I tell them stuff?”

“I always believe you when you tell me stuff… mostly. But after your attempts to set us up, I don’t trust you when it comes to (Y/N).”

“Dude, I haven’t spoken to her in months. I didn’t invite her.”

Ryan stared at his friend thoughtfully before finally nodding. “Alright. I believe you.”

“Thank you,” Brendon breathed, moving to place an arm over Ryan’s shoulder and starting to walk again. “Now, let’s talk costumes. I was thinking Lord of The Rings vibes for you. Like a hobbit or something.”

~

“Do I look okay?” you turned to Jesy and Leighton, who were standing next to you on Brendon’s porch.

“Smoking,” Leighton clicked his tongue against his teeth.

“Someone’s defs gonna get lucky tonight,” Jesy smirked, playfully nudging you in the arm.  

“I hope so. Lord knows I need it,” you sighed, ringing the doorbell.

“By the end of the night, forget ‘Mother of Dragons’,” Leighton gestured to your costume; you were Daenerys, your outfit crazily accurate, right down to a dragon on your shoulder, “you’ll be the ‘Mother of Banging’.”

“Oh, my god.”

You and Jesy burst into laughter at his comment, and not too soon after, Brendon opened the door, clad in a Batman costume.

“Yeah! It’s my bitches!” he laughed happily and engulfed all three of you in an uncomfortable group hug. “Aw, I missed you guys so much!”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Jesy chuckled, patting him on the head.

Brendon beamed, but it soon turned into a frown when he noticed the absence of the fourth member of your band. “Where’s Slade?”

“Food poisoning hit him hard,” Leighton replied, shaking his head as flashbacks of Slade throwing up entered his mind, “Word of advice: Do not buy hotdogs from a food truck that has a cat as a co-chef.”

Brendon let out a laugh and moved to the side of the doorway, gesturing for you to enter, which you did. The place was packed, and you smiled to yourself; with all of these people here tonight, there was no way you wouldn’t find someone to leave with.

~

A full hour into the party and you were still standing alone, grumpily eating pretzels from the snack table, utterly despondent.

It wasn’t that no one was interested – countless guests had expressed a liking towards you – but no one was ~doing it~ for you. Maybe it’s because you set such high standards for yourself. If you lowered those a little bit, you could’ve had sex with five different people in the past hour. Not that you’d ever do something like that – you respected yourself far too much – but still, the principle stands.

Or maybe you haven’t hooked up with anyone yet because none of them are Ryan.

Oh, fuck off, brain! Why did you have to be so self-destructive? You hadn’t thought about Ryan in a long time – since this morning; it was your longest streak and now you’ve broken it. Why did his stupid face have to keep creeping into your head?

Ugh, you hated him.

“Still nothing?” Jesy joined you.

You shook your head solemnly. “Nada.”

“Well, I did see a Jon Snow somewhere over there. I didn’t see his face, but he had a nice butt. You should go talk to him.”

“Yeah,” you frowned, straightening up and snapping out of your depressive state, “yeah, I should. I’m going.”

“That’s my girl,” Jesy smirked, “Wait!” she pulled you back when you started to walk and adjusted your costume, particularly around the chest area. “There. Knock ‘em dead, babe.” She shot you a wink and pushed you off.

You spotted the Jon Snow a little way away and gathered yourself as you sauntered over, tapping him lightly on the shoulder.

“Hey,” you put on your flirtiest voice, “I noticed you’re the only Jon Snow here, and- ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING RIGHT NOW?”

“Nice to know nothing’s changed, (Y/N),” Ryan scoffed, sending you a sarcastic smile, “Still as charming as ever.”

“What are you doing here?” you demanded.

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Brendon said he hadn’t spoken to you in months.”

“He hadn’t. Up until last week when he called to invite me. That’s also when he said that you were gonna be visiting your grandm- Wait,” you breathed out in disbelief. “Oh, Urie, you motherfucker.”

“I can’t believe he did this,” Ryan shook his head, “you think he’d learn by now but nooooo.”

“I need a drink,” you rubbed your eyes.

“Same.”

~

One drink turned into three, which turned into six, and before you knew it, you were sitting at the kitchen table next to Ryan, both of you considerably drunk.

You were currently laughing uncontrollably at something he had said, and he smiled admiringly at you. There was no denying that you looked insanely hot tonight, and even though he’d always found you attractive, tonight… whew.

“You have a very nice laugh, (Y/N),” he whispered, staring seriously at you, “And you look amazing tonight.”

Your laughing stopped, and you stared back at him just as seriously. “Thank you, Ryan. But you know what?”

“What?”

“I still hate you.”

His eyes widened and he stared at you with those cursed puppy-eyes that were now full of hurt. Seeing him like that, you couldn’t hold it in anymore and you let out the most adorable giggle Ryan had ever heard in his life.

“I’m joking, silly,” you slurred through laughter and he relaxed, letting out a chuckle of his own.

“You sure? I mean, you’ve told me you hate me lots of times.”

“I don’t really hate you. I was pissed at you because you kissed that girl, then made me drink, which made me make-out with one of my best friends, then I cried on stage, then my fans started harassing me, and after all of that, I still wasn’t your girlfriend! That made me upset,” you frowned.

God, you really were a fucking train wreck when you were drunk. Did anything you just said even make any sense?

It did to Ryan, apparently.

“Wait, so you really do like me?”

You nodded eagerly.

“I thought you were kidding when you told Brendon.”

“Why would you think that?” you cocked your heart to the side.

“Because I saw you make-out with Slade at the club. And then when I tried to comfort you after you cried on stage, you told me you hate me, so I figured you didn’t really mean it.”

“I only did all of that because you were with that girl,” you grumbled. “She was all over you. I didn’t like it.”

A smile formed on Ryan’s face. “Wow. We should get you drunk more often. It’s way easier to get you to talk about everything you’re feeling when you’re like this.”

He was right. You’d never in a million years say any of the things you were saying now if you were sober.

“I’m not very good at voicing my feelings,” you admitted.

“Neither am I,” he shrugged, scooting closer to you and gently grabbing your face in his hands. “But I could show you, if that’s okay?”

As soon as you nodded, his mouth was on yours, and oh goodness.

Ryan’s lips were as soft as you’d expected them to be, but his kiss was hard and dominant – a direct contrast to the tenderness of his lips.

He broke away far too soon for your liking, and almost immediately after his lips left yours, you pulled him back, making him smile into the kiss.

Leighton walked past the kitchen while on his way over to the snack table; he got three steps past the doorway before he backtracked, poking his head inside. Stifling a hoot, he whipped out his phone and snapped the two of you mid-kiss.

“What’re you doing?” Jesy whispered, coming up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder to steady herself while she leaned forward and smiled on at you and Ryan.

“She wants the fans to stop harassing her about the breakdown on stage, doesn’t she? Well, I’m sure this’ll make them forget all about it.”

_______________________________

Thank you for reading x

[ruhigknight]

TT: Judas Contract Review

Beware spoilers along with rage and some positivity.

Okay I'm going to get this huge big thing out of the way and then go on with the mostly pleasantly surprised positive reviews towards just about everything else.

The Jericho-like character's sole purpose in this film is to demonstrate how Brother Blood's power su king/granting machine works. Does it on himself he comes out seemingly invulnerable and strong (doesn't feel getting hit by pipe and bends said pipe). Then once his services are done Mother Mayhem shoots him in the head...yeah I don't care if this wasn't a character I wasn't super invested in this is Grade A example of doing really disrespectful cameos of characters up there with BvS's handling of Jimmy Olsen. You got a hero, a disabled recently revealed to be bisexual in current comics hero, who was introduced in the original story to help save the day and his cameo in the story's film adaption is to aid the main villain and seemingly be killed off. A big hardy fuck you movie. BUT WAIT APPARENTLY I WAS TOO HASTY AS THE END CREDITS REVEALS JERICHO-LIKE CHARATCER IS ALIVE AND IS JERICHO AND THE MACHINE GRANTED HIM GLOWY GREEN EYES. So judging by the use of end credits indicating the next movie, Jericho is playing a role in the next TT movie. Or this is like Lex Luther recruiting Ocean Master at the end of ToA which we are still waiting for the pay off. Which is odd as I know I read somewhere that the hypothetical third TT movie will be focused on Kory and Blackfire. Or scarily we might get Titans Hunt but that story itself was a weaker retread of Judas Contract so maybe something remotely original.

So yeah, in a Judas Contract movie Titans who had  less or diddly squat to do with the original story are handled more respectfully than Jericho. Goddammit, KEVIN SMITH'S CAMEO IS TREATED BETTER THAN JERICHO'S. ALSO HI YJ VOICE CAMEOS.

AND IT'S A DAMN SHAME THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE MOVIE (Except most of Slade's character but later) IS HANDLED REALLY WELL. It balances the various plot threads nicely between Kory and DIck's relationship on and off the team, Jaime's struggle with the scarab and of course Tara's character arc which is I am  very happy with how they handled it. Ultimately, it's tragic and messy yes but in a more satisfying way I guess? They approach her as a multifaced character taking a lot from the original Terra but here she's an abrasive loner with a traumatic backstory that she flashes back when those memories are triggered. She's revealed happily working with Slade but being around people who are genuinely nice and care about her confuses her and if you weren't aware of versions of her story before it would keep you doubting. SHe's loyal to Slade for saving her life and thinks of him the only person she trusts and when he breaks it....she tries to break him. Not exactly another side change but her fighting because she's pissed off and she basically lost any trust and companionship she had especially from the one she thought she did love. And as a final act of fucking with the feels Tara saves Gar as rocks fall on her. I know many are going go argue about how evil Terra should be and how true this is to the original JC but this version succeeded in pulling of the "sucker punch" really damn well. Obviously, Slade/Terra is there but made clear they didn't "do it." I figured they'd want that uncomfortable aspect still in this version but didn't want to make their fanboy Assassin wet dream look that awful. He does tell Tara after they take care of the Titans they will be together but that can easily handwaived as him lying to use her. Ultimately, this version of Slade/Terra feel like a skeevy, manipulative version of Leon/Mathilda from the film "Leon the Professional" (high recommend plus proof that Gary Oldman could've been a good Joker as well as a good Commissioner Gordon). Gar and Tara's relationship is also handled well, sticking close to the original comic's version of it being rather one-sided and Gar being annoying but his behavior is called out by others and when he actually stops being a flirty jerk he's great and Tara honestly opens to him. There's even a nice reference to the TT cartoon BBT with the two sitting on the beach outside the tower complete with rock skipping.

Also about shipping,  HALLELUJAH NO TRACE OF BBR ANYWHERE IN THIS MOVIE. Unless you count them standing next to one another, exchanging dialogue about how clueless Gar is, and basic human compassion as BBR hints than yes. Also Traci 13! Or at least a girl named Traci with 13 on her shirts.

In other terms of adapting, there were plenty of lines and scenarios lifted from the book from how the Titans were taking down (Gar's is still hilarious, Jaime basically got Vic's, and sadly we were cheated out of a Terra vs Raven fight with just seeing Tara standing over Raven) to even Slade hitting on Starfire almost word for word. Of course with out Joey or Addie Dick is the one to single handedly infiltrate the HIVE/Blood Cult to rescue them because he's Dick Grayson :/ It's impressive but also makes the big deviations with the Wilsons more annoying.

Next to Joey, the other character to get cheated here is Slade sans not committing statutory rape in this version. Of course we're stuck with the Slade who's main reason for capturing the Titans was avenging his son. Here it's for money and the only family is the LoA that Damian "stole" from him. Really there isn't even any hints about other family here even with Joey in the damn film....if Joey is utilized again here how will they explain that? It didn't even seem that hard to adapt some kind of Wilson family drama into this movie with the time they're given. They missed out on what could've been a poignant scene if instead of money Slade gave HIVE Terra to take Nightwing's place in the power sucking machine it was him choosing his son and being a semi-decent father. But nope this Slade is a petty, boring sleazy bastard just caring about power AND money. Because we needed Damian to have something cool to do and take out Slade's eye and make him a generic assassin more tied to the Bat family because yes the Bat Family needs more interesting villains. Yes I'm still pissed at that and safe to say this is another reason I'm ranking Damian low on "Favorite Robins" lists.

However, we still get "A new Titan takes Terra's place on team and hints at hopeful future" with.....Donna Troy! As one of the Titans cursed to be deaged to Damian's age group because we're ignoring Cassie who comics are doing that anyway. Here it seems no one in Tim's generation existed anyway. Really I'm happy Donna gets to be animated with the Titans but given she probably never was part of the Fab Five and instead Damian's "generation" now and how this is another reason they could've given Joey a more faithful role...the excitement was kind of nulled.

Other than all that, the animation at the end seemed....odd. Like trying to over-emote and drive home how intense the scenes were especially with Terra and Brother Blood.

 Overall, as a Terra fan I am actually satisfied yet still sad but as a Jericho fan I am frustrated and worried for the future. Even when I'm starting to warm up to this version of Titans despite trying to recreate the 03 cartoon around Damian there's always a bit in these movies that's going to massively disappoint me and ruin almost everything else about the movies. Last time was how they handled Raven and Arella's relationship in one of the worst ways possible here it's spitting on Joey's contributions and maybe bringing him back as a villain...god please let that not be the case.