#i am NOT thinking about tim chasing after the love of his life

[vveakfish]

im not gna do it im not gna do it im not gna do it i

[thedragonqueen1998]

Today at work i got insanly inspired to write and once i got off work, i immidiently went on my phone to type it out. XD I just finished a 3 hour long writing ses(had a 15 minute food break in the middle). ^^ Probably just gonna forever gonna be a wip thing, but it was fun and i'm kinda proud of it. Despite it being rough in some parts, mostly because i wanted to rush to the 2nd half and i didn't wanna get stuck, i'm happy to share it. ^^

It's a kinda long, so i'm gonna add a Read more line to not fill your dash with text. Also, first time trying formatting out! XD

So, originally this post was just gonna be a "i actually wrote something! Look!" thing, just showing of some work i did, but after writing the reason why i wrote a line a certain way, it went into something very sad and kinda dark, so if you don't wanna read about death, a light mention of suicidal thought and grief... just stop after What even is my life.

Idk why i wrote it, but it took alot of effort and it feels... important to me, i guess. Part of processing and such. So, yeah. Read at your discretion. Thank you for your time. 💜

Ezio had many regrets in his long life. Not being there when his father and brothers were arrested. Of not being there more for his sister and mother. Of not trying to be together with Cristina. Not being able to save her. Or being able to save Uncle Mario and Monteriggioni. But biggest of all, not having spent more time with his family before the execution.

He had love, but didn't cherish it. Didn't truly feel it and took it for granted. But unlike so many others, Ezio could take those regrets and change them. Thanks to Desmond.

When he walked into the Library, he thought he might get an answer or two in return for many more. He truly didn't expect that calling out Desmonds name while the Apple bathed the walls in gold would result in it being answered by the being himself.

The being looked like a man, clad in a white light, eminating from a strange device under his right arm. His face looked like an exact replica of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's face, though his build was closer to his. Broad shoulders hidden underneath a strange hooded white doublet and long legs wearing strange tight fitted pants made from a material he did not recognise. Even the scar was the same as his! Was Ezio made in the image of the one he was the Prophet for? Was Altaïr the herald? All questions Ezio wondered, but not knowing if Desmond was like Minerva or not, he dared not waste any questions if the beings patient was thin.

But first: "Are you Desmond?" He had to know, have it confirmed, even if the being appeared after the name was called.

"Ezio? Is this the Library? Am i seriously bleeding while dying!?" Desmond was looking around at the empty tomb, before his eyes returned upon Ezio.

"Yes, this is Altaïr's library. You are bleeding? I do not see any blood and you are dying!? Is there anything i can do to help you? Please, my lord. Tell me what i need to do to save you." Ezio was desperate to know his purpose and if all his life lead to this moment, where he could save Desmonds life, he would fulfill it.

"There's nothing you can do. I am dying semi willingly and even if this is some Animus infused death hallucination, it is nice having my last moments with you, even if your not really here. I am so sorry i couldn't answer any of your questions or try to save you from losing everything. You never deserved any of it. In the end it didn't really even matter. I am sorry you wasted your time chasing riddles and ghosts." He looked so grieve struck while saying it and the look Desmond had while gazing down onto Ezio could only be described as lovingly.

"What do you mean? Could you have saved my uncle!? My father and brothers!? Why didn't you if you do not think i deserved it! I have served the Brotherhood almost my entire life, sacrificed so much trying to find out what Minerva meant and now your telling me that it was all for nothing!? If you think i wasted my time then give it back!"

Desmonds eye's widen before softly smiling and saying: "Your right, you wasted your time and sacrificed too much for nothing. Let's change that."

Before Ezio knew it, the world went white and he knew nothing more.

—————

When Ezio awoke, it was to a bed he hadn't seen in almost 40 years. His childhood bed and his room. He couldn't believe it. He was given a second chance. To live his life. To right wrongs. To save his family! To think going to the Library would result in this!

At the thought of the Library, Ezio suddenly remembered Sofia. To have forgotten her and even abandoned her without a second thought left Ezio feeling guilty. Would she wait outside the Library before realising he would never come back? Or because he is now in the past, a past where he intends to change the future, would she never meet him? Never exist? The thought of her hurt, but like so many others, Ezio knew that him being in her life would have risked hers. Even if she knew and accepted it, it is still better if she never got the chance to know him and inevitibly suffer because of it. Same with Cristina. Though he could now choose her, he knew that despite the many mistakes in his life, the Brotherhood was not one of them and his refusal to properly let her go killed her. Letting that life affect her once again was too cruel. It was for the better to just let her go.

Federico nudged him with his elbow. "Brother, what has you thinking so hard you look like you bit into something bitter?"

"Nothing much, just wondering what i should get." Ezio smiled and laughed. He was currently out with his family on a trip the market. The last time around, he had decided to sneak off to spend some time with a girl he didn't even remember the name of anymore instead of spending time with his loved ones, to his great shame and regret. This was the last thing his family had done together outside of dinners before the execution in 3 days. That he missed out on it was one of his biggest regrets, but Desmond let him change it.

That Ezio might never truly understand or know what or who Desmond is, how he watched him in the Vault or even what Minerva's people and the Pieces of Eden truly were will forever haunt him, but the trade to see his family again and to even be able to save them is a fair trade. He can go his life wondering these questions and maybe try to find them now that he will have more time, thanks to already knowing the Templars plans and who will be an enemy or ally.

He felt a finger poke him inbetween his eyebrows.

"There you go again Brother. Thinking too hard! Be careful or you might hurt yourself." Federico teased before yelping and then laughing when Ezio pushed him.

"Please don't start fighting now sons." Their father said before turning back to the stall owner to continue discussing what wares to buy and the prices.

"Sorry Father!" Ezio said before giving his brother a teasing look that promised this was not over.

Ezio remembered this day well enough. Not to remember the woman he decided to chase, but enough to know that when his family had been at the market a horse had run wild there and according to Claudia, nearly trampled her down in the confusion.

He was a bit sceptical to believe it was as close as she had made it out to be, but he knew horses much better now than he did before. After years of riding them to and from places in the chase for his targets, he knew that having one running towards you in a blind panic could scare anyone. Even though he knew to be wary of them and treat them with respecy during his original childhood, he didn't truly get how these gentle beings could be as scary as his sister had made the poor creature out to be.

According to his family, it had been a war horse, bloodied, running around in a blind panic, probably scared from a skirmish. Being chased by guards hadn't helped and eventually the guards got a good shot at it and put it down.

Ezio wanted to save his sister years of fearing horses, so he kept an eye and a ear out for any signs that the animal was on it's way.

There. A scream. Everyone stopped and looked around for the source. The source was still hidden by the crowds, but in the distance you could start seeing people moving away from something coming this way and the screams were getting closer.

Ezio breathed and slipped into his Second Sight, the Eagle Vision, as he now knew Altaïr had called it. Or more accuratly, Eagle Sense. With the years, his constant use and need for it had changed his Sight. It had become much stronger, letting him see farther, expanded his hearing, to let him hear his enemies heartbeat and even know what moves they were going to make. Even let him know where his enemies was going to go on a patrol route.

It truly was a gift and now he would use it to try and predict where the animal would go, as to lead his sister and family away from the danger. Then he saw it. The shine of something important. Something that glowed as strongly as the Apple of Eden had. The horse.

There was much about his Gift he could not explain. He had tried, but it is much like explaining sight to a blind person. Why things he didn't even know about could glow gold and lead him to the answer. Why allies glowed blue and enemies red, nor how he could tell friend from foe and now. His Sight told him, with the same intuition as telling friend from foe, that this horse was Desmond.

How is Desmond here? Why? Did he lie about dying? Or was certain death only a large chance that Desmond beat? Ezio supposed it did not matter. If he lets events play as they had before, Desmond would be struck down by an arrow within minutes. Oh, maybe Desmond had tried to prevent his father and brothers demise, but was struck down in the attempt? Though, why choose to do it as a rampaging horse? Either way, Desmond was clearly panicking, almost upon him now. If Ezio could not calm him down, his death was guaranteed.

But how? Ezio has just seconds now to plan a way to stop him before he is trampled down.

Then, he finally realises, that among the bright gold he shines, he also glowes blue. Such a deep colour which he has only seen in the greatest friends or closest family and he knows, Desmond would never harm him. The look of pure love on Desmonds face made more sense now.

So Ezio decides to not move and simple raise up his hands, as if to pet the horse.

"EZIO!"

————

Desmond was in pain. He knew that Juno lied about his death being quick and painless, but god, why did it have to hurt so much!? During his hallucination, it wasn't nearly so bad! And can't forget the weird nightmare he's having ontop of it. He's a goddamned horse on some battlefield. He was rearing up when the nightmare started, neighing as his rider was shot and killed by an arrow.

There's so much blood. The smell strikes fear in his heart. There's so much red. He slips into Eagle Vision and there's even more red. Not a spec of blue. A sword slides against the armor he is wearing and the screech of metal is too much. He bolts.

He needs to run. Away from the monsters with sharp sticks. Away from the smell of blood and death. Away from the shadows hiding hunters. They follow him. They chase him for a long time.

He is getting so tired.

He needs to get back to the barn. His owner would make everything alright. He would croon soft noises he did not understand, but the tone was soft and gentle. He would give him a treat while brushing him down after a hard days work.

He did ride him into scary battles he did not understand, but afterwards he would wash and groom him extra thoroughly, while feeding him the best apples, crooning more sounds in a happy tone. He would repeat one of the few sounds he understood, which meant "him" and "pay attention to me".

Dante.

But he wasn't on his back anymore and he didn't hear his voice. Just the loud, scary noises of more men in the shiny hard thing. They had the pointy sticks too and tried to take the things dangling from his mouth. Only his owner can touch that! Only he is to be trusted with them.

Running is getting harder, there is large, straight hills in the way and the path is narrower with many strangers in it.

There is still so much red. He can still smell the blood, feel it clotting his fur. Too much red!

Blue.

Suddenly there's blue in front of him. He knows blue means ally. Though why and how this person is blue confuses him. But he is Blue and running him over is not good, but why is he standing there!? Does he not see the red!? Smell it!? Does he not understand we need to run!?

"Desmond"

That single word pierces the fog of fear and wild panic that has flooded Desmonds mind. Ezio is in front of him, hand already gripping the reigns while the other rests on his muzzle.

"There we go Desmond, everything is alright."

Desmond still feels phantom threads of fear, but with Ezio's calming blue glow and his voice saying gentle reassurances, it feels far away.

Now with his mind fully human and not driven by horse instincts or memories, the question becomes: How and why the fuck is he a horse in 15th century Italy with Ezio!?

What even is his life.

————

So, a couple parts i'm stupidly happy about is the "He had love, but didn't cherish it. Didn't truly feel it and took it for granted." part. This, as you can probably tell was inspired by the famous quote "When I was a young man, I had liberty, but I did not see it. I had time, but I did not know it. And I had love, but I did not feel it."

I believe Ezio didn't fully understand liberty until he tried to live a peaceful life with Sofia and realised he would always fear Templars taking revenge on his family and time, because the knowledge that he would never see his children grow up to adults had never been a concern before he met Sofia. He probably thought he wouldn't have a family at all.

But love. Love he would understand what he missed. He would understand it just days after he lost his father and brothers. Those moments you missed out on. Of opportunities to spend time that you squandered away. Time you will never get back, because in real life we don't have time travel.

And now i understand it. Before the end of the last year, i was like Ezio before the loss. Before i lost my grandparents only a few weeks apart.

Those opportunities to spend time was rare and thankfully i took most of them, but i still squandered it away by not actually spending time with them. I just visited and hid away in my room, wasting the time by sitting on the phone.

I will forever regret that because ny memory is shit and besides a few childhood ones, i have no memories of them. I still remember their voices, they were pretty distinct thankfully, but how long until i forget that.

It hurts and as someone who is afraid of death and it's finality, such a reminder that time and love is finite is soulcrushing. It is only recently that i have truly started to think of my grandparents and i guess try to process the fact they are gone forever.

When we first got the news that my grandpa had died, i was even more glued to my phone, not wanting to acknowledge what was happening. I also didn't wanna sleep and only got some when i passed out from exhaustion. We even went to the doctor to get time of work and some sleep medication i didn't dare end up taking.

I even had thoughts of just taking all the pills and just sleeping, to get away from the pain forever. But i'm thankfully too much of a coward, so it just stayed thoughts. I'm doing much better now and as i mentioned, i think i'm starting to process the fact that they are gone.

So, yeah. This post went in a direction i didn't expect. But it feels important and maybe in a few years i can look back at this post and see a snapshot of who i was and reflect on who i am now. So, here's to the future me and anyone else who needs to hear it:

I hope things are going well and if they're not... well, things get better. They always do. You're loved and even if your loved ones are gone, they live on in you. You will carry that love with you, for the rest of your life. 💜

[simcardiac-arrested]

day 5746373 thinking about the theme of choice in the magnus archives, it’s so cold and dark in here. the slaughter didn’t make melanie angry or hurt jon, oh no no no, she chose to. daisy was a sadistic murderer long before the hunt aligned with her, she made an active choice to do these things and then had to make an active choice to stop. the lonely didn’t make martin distant, he already chose a long time ago to not truly connect with anyone.

jon? jon wants so badly to believe that he is being controlled by something. someone, anyone. elias, the eye, the web. he wouldn’t just choose to hurt other people, he wouldn’t just choose to become this. but the reality of the situation is that when the abyss stared at him, he chose to stare back. he chose to know, to see, to understand. no one else was pulling his strings but himself.

and on the other end of the spectrum we have elias, who puts so much emphasis on not being controlled: “it’s very important to me you understand that no action i have taken has been controlled, i have done everything because i wished to.” “it’s very important to me, in a personal capacity, that you understand i’m answering you of my own free will”. and when everyone tells him they don’t care about that, he says: But i do. choices matter so much to him. even if he has been twisted into something not fully human, he still needs to make sure everyone knows he’s still himself. he’s not doing any of this because the eye wants him to, or because your mind-controlling powers want him to, or or anything. he’s the one making the decisions.

is it a control thing? sure, i think, to a degree. elias loves control so much, having power over others while no one has any power over him, manipulating the pieces to fall into place however he wants. but that’s not fully it, is it? he’s not lying when he says that it is important to him in a personal capacity. being able to make your own choices, still being yourself even if another person or entity might be influencing you, is something that elias believes in wholeheartedly. “our world is made of choices, and very rarely do we truly know what they mean, but we make them nonetheless”. and i think this philosophy is precisely why he chooses jon.

jon is driven by his choice to Find Out. the world around him doesn’t make sense and he is always choosing to try and understand it. to try and solve every mystery, to tie up every loose end. when he sees something that scares him he chooses not to look away. because really, it’s not the eye or the web or the archivist position or what have you that “made” jon read the statements, made him chase after every dangerous entity, made him go down every rabbit hole and made him traumatize innocent bystanders.

jon, in fact, wanted to do all that! he wanted to know so, so badly. he wanted to know what happened. he wanted to know what happens next. And he wanted to see it all. because elias is right. at a thousand thresholds, at a thousand moments, there was every incentive for jon to just…turn back. to abandon his job like tim or melanie, to just not play along with elias’ or any of the entities’ games. to turn a blind eye to it and try to stop it any other way that wasn’t looking harder.

…but that’s the irony (and tragedy) of his character, isn’t it? he couldn’t. he could never abandon a gleam of information that he knew he was capable of getting. not in the beginning, when it was just miscellaneous statements. not during the gertrude investigation, even when it put his life in active danger and pushed others away. not in season 2, 3, 4, not in the middle or the end, not when he was just jon and not when he was the archivist. he could never just let something be.

and i’m not saying that jon wasn’t manipulated. of course he was. there were so many things that were out of his control, and it was by design that he was kept in the dark about everything, especially the plan happening with him at the centre of it all.

then, what am i trying to say? well. while everyone else was perfectly happy not pointing any lights towards said dark, jon shone a lighthouse lamp on it every single time. im trying to say that elias did not mold the archivist from scratch, that he didn’t make jon into anyone or anything that he already wasn’t. that even twisted by the eye, jon remains himself and continues making choices of his own volition, choices as heavy as killing someone, even the finale is about what jon chooses.

what im trying to say is, that jon can imagine what a sculptor’s apprentice is capable of. because he was not always an unwilling one.

[jewishrizahawkeye]

hello! welcome to my FMA Characters as Taylor Swift albums!!! we’re going to start out with one of her best albums still to this DAY:

Taylor Swift (Bonus Track Edition)

Winry Rockbell

- debut has some of taylor's best lyrics to date and can cut glass (cold as you still gives me chills)

- the primary theme of the album is about who will i become and first loves while also having a common theme of radio and music being used to describe love. which is important to taylor's character as she was obsessed (and still is) with country music, so her saying "his smiles like the radio" is her evoking a specific feeling of her listening to music on the radio and sharing that to the audience that when her boyfriend smiles it makes her feel like she's listening to her favorite songs on the radio. i definitely over explained it but it's a very sweet and beautiful line to describe how in love you are with a person and how they feel to you

- this idea, while drastically different from winrys loves and goals, radiates her character though

- both winry and taylor had big dreams ever since they were young and went out into the world to make it a reality still at a young age. for taylor, she was able to release her first album at 16 and would later win album of the year on her second album (which i don't think people realize is FUCKING INSANE TO DO ON YOUR SOPHMORE ALBUM AND IT BEING A COUNTRY ALBUM). similarly though, winry starts working at her family's automail shop when she's young, already being ed's full time mechanic at the age of 14, and later takes up an apprenticeship in rush valley and gains a loyal customer base very quickly for her time there. for a girl that young to achieve something like that is INSANE. she's already got her dreams met at the age of 15 and it can only go up from there for her

- but tieing back into the primary theme of the album being "who am i and who will i become" and how that resonates with winrys character. winry is trying to not only find herself in her youth but also how to help ed and al after their accident. her life was shaken after it and she's doing everything she can to help them. if y'all would let me quote a song here, she's "just a girl trying to find a place in this world"

- also songs like TDOMG, Tim McGraw, Invisible, Mary's Song and so many others can be read as edwin coded as they're about a young love that sticks around but not always seeing the other as a potential option until it's to late, or maybe it isn't. you'll never know until you tell them

- at its core debut is just a young girl getting to follow her dreams and do what she loves while not knowing what the future will hold for her. which fits winry going to rush valley and her story arc. she doesn't know what will come but gets to chase her dream very young and only grow from there. especially in the wake of ed and al since her world was shaken and she didn't know what would or could happen to them or her. she doesn't know what will come but gets to chase her dream very young and only grow from there.

[justicekitten]

I had this really strange dream with Batman. Or where I was Batman/Bruce (?).

As per usual, people were trying to kill him. But in this universe, people found out Batman was Bruce Wayne, and all bets were off to get him done dead, ans many people tried to do it. Civilians, crime lords, even vigilants.

And among the vigilants were... Robins. A few of them.

On the beginning, it was Dick/Nightwing who saved Bruce from having his ass killed, as the news of who he was just got out, and he was getting out of Wayne Enterprises when some criminals started chasing them. I think Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles helped them escape. Idk why he was there but...

Going forth with the story.

Maybe Red Hood goons were chasing them as well, but I got the impression that either Jason was dead here, or he wasn't wanting to kill Bruce For Some Reason.

Bruce (me) and Dick make it to Oracle's stronghold. Bruce had a moment of tearful thankfulness, love and regret (for putting Dick into this life) that Dick was happy to be by his side as the world tried to off Bruce Wayne. He was even somehow having fun.

Anyway, me as Bruce decided to get there because Barbara was by our side, and we knew most enemies were not stupid enough to mess with her, and other robins liked her enough to not want to kill her even if she was harboring Bruce.

She welcomed us warmly.

One person did enter her fortress, though, and she only had time to put on her cowl when Cassie came in. She was pissed. I have no idea what Bruce did but whatever it was, I think Cassy was within her rights. She said something along the lines, "you know what to do to apologize, father" in a very Batman voice, and I'm not sure it didn't involve killing Bruce.

(She looked like she wanted to but ultimately wouldn't. Probably.)

She left after dropping something. Maybe something that would help Bruce, actually. I'm not sure where she stood on the matters of wanting to kill Bruce, but apparently a good part of her didn't want to. She was in good terms with Barbara though.

She left.

After that, there was a warning that Damian was trying to break into the defenses of Oracle's stronghold, and on this dream I knew he had not been in contact with Bruce yet, just that his mother had sent him to try and kill him. Bruce seemed happy though (or I felt that he/I was) as maybe there was a chance of meeting his son and becoming friendly.

No idea where Tim was. I am under the impression he was not a Robin yet. Maybe he was just stalking?

(Steph and Duke were also missing. Maybe they were also not Robins yet. Or they were trying to kill Bruce too. Lol)

As for who revealed Batman's identity, I think it was the Joker.

I woke up not long after Oracle said something about Superman. He was on his way, I think, and surprise! Not to kill Bruce. Something something Clark was in love with Bruce, but Bruce didn't know. Superbat Robin Apocalypse fic. The end.

[havendance]

Okay, I'm finally returning to the AU where Jason and Barbara are swapped so that she dies in a Killing Joker and Jason is paralyzed in A death in the family.

The simplest way to set up this AU (and why over-complicate things yet?) is to have it so that when Barbara Gordon opens the door, the Joker shoots to kill. However long later, when Jason is beaten half to death by the Joker, he survives the bomb, but he’s left paralyzed from the waist down. The Doctors say he’ll never walk again.

For now, Barbara Gordon is dead and we shall leave her there. She doesn’t haunt the narrative in the same way that Jason did. She was an adult when she died, removed from her former mantle. She wasn’t Bruce’s daughter. Her death weighs on Gordon, but then Sarah Essen returns to his life and his dead daughter fades into the background. Bruce, Dick, and Jason remember her, but there is no Batgirl memorial in the cave. She is just another symbol of the dangers they face. She comes up in vague aborted references and heavy silences.

(Now that I think about it, in a world where Barbara Gordon’s dead, I bet Helena ends up as Dick’s second primary love interest…)

Meanwhile, with Jason, we have a fairly standard Jason Lives!AU with the slight caveat that he’s in a wheelchair and can never become Robin again.

We’re not going to spend long on that because it could go any number of ways and I don’t want to be here all day, but to his some major points:

A Lonely Place of Dying doesn’t get triggered. Batman without Robin when Jason is paralyzed is worse, but not bad enough for Tim to feel the need to interfere. His parents probably still die in Rites of Passage because Batman is highly unlikely to leave Gotham to chase after some random kidnapping for ransom when he’s being overprotective of his recently paralyzed son. Or just have the Drakes die in a plane crash and skip the racism.

Jason as Robin is a character who doesn’t have many ties outside of Batman. Stuck in a wheelchair, he struggles even more with dilation. Barbara’s dead. Dick’s around more, but he still spends most of his time with the titans. He can’t be Robin and that means that he feels like he can’t be part of that community, losing the few connections he had there. On the civilian front, his injuries lead him to being held back a year. He doesn’t know any of his classmates, and stuck in the hormonal battleground of high school, he acutely feels the way that being stuck in a wheelchair makes him different.

I still need to read Oracle: Year One, but Jason is initially attracted to computers because of the anonymity the internet offers. On it, he can pretend to be normal; people don’t see the chair before they see him. From there, it expands into a way he can still help Bruce and be involved in the mission. Bruce says he doesn’t need to do anything, but with so much of their relationship tied up in being Batman and Robin, Jason wants to.

There is another Robin eventually. Dealer’s choice as to who. You can make an argument for Tim (the classic option), Steph (Girl power + Steph & Jason friendship) or, I don’t know, Lonnie ( I know he has fans, though, in full disclosure, I am ambivalent towards him). Whoever the choice, it’s alternatively important that they have the approval of both Dick, who originated the mantle, and Jason, who left it vacant.

But that’s enough about Jason. You want to know who I really want to talk about in this AU? You guessed it! Helena Bertinelli and Cassandra Cain.

It’s time for No Man’s Land baby~ (absolutely no one is surprised.)

Bruce leaves on an international guilt trip and brings his son with him, much to Jason’s annoyance. It’s over three months before he’s able to convince Bruce to return, and even then it’s only on the condition that Jason enrolls in a boarding school where it’s safe. (Jason is so looking forward to turning 18 when he can finally prove to Bruce that he can take care of himself.)

Meanwhile, Huntress is the sole vigilante presence in No Man's Land. It isn’t long before she recognizes the limits of her own mantle and takes on the mantle of the Bat. In this universe, she is called Batwoman.

It is as Batwoman that she runs into Cassandra, who has been living on the streets of Gotham.

No wait, better idea. Headcanon time: In between acting as two separate vigilantes, Helena also somehow finds the time to run a makeshift classroom for some of the kids stranded in No Man's Land. She recruits them to do odd jobs and in exchange,, she shares some of the food she has stashed wavy and tries to make sure they have at least some education. 

Cassandra is curious and comes first for the food and then for the stories and the reading/writing lessons she doesn’t understand. When she sees Batwoman for the first time and makes the connection, she becomes even more intrigued.

When Batman enters and starts working with Helena, Cassandra saves them both in a handmade costume and ends up as the new Batgirl.

Helena remains as Batwoman after the end of No Man’s Land in this AU. She misses being the Huntress, at the end, but she has Cass to look after now. They grew close in the chaos of No Man’s Land and now the girl’s moved in with her. Helena needs to be better for Cass. She can’t go back to killing because, on one level, Cass wouldn’t let her. On another, she doesn’t want to betray her trust. So she holds the line. She stops her more self-destructive tendencies and tries to do the best for Cass despite the fact that she doesn’t understand her on a fundamental level.

This all leads to her being a more integrated part of the batfam. She's featured in more Bat comics and plays a major supporting role in Batgirl.

Post-No Man’s Land, Jason turns 18, moves off to college, and starts his own Birds of Prey type team. Bruce stalks him, Jason yells at him for it, etc etc.

And now, we’ve arrived at the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Red Hood!Barbara Gordon!

Barbara Gordon’s Under the Red Hood arc is a narrative commentary on fridging and is ideally written by a female author. In this universe, Barbara Gordon was a character who was killed off and vanishes from the narrative. She was a thing pre-crisis but never really a presence post. She is a tombstone next to Sarah Essen. A name mentioned when arguing about the Joker, quickly forgotten to focus on his paralyzing of Jason.

She comes back loud and angry, insisting on being remembered. Look at me, she shouts. Look at my pain. My story should be about me. She sets up a series of circumstances and clues all point to her. To the terrible things that happened to her. Bruce and Gordon have made her death about them, she’s taking it back. Reclaiming it for herself.

She also torments and antagonizes Helena and Cass. They replaced her, they took her place. They don't even know what they've done. They are the first to see her face and they don’t even recognize her. They don’t know the legacy they have claimed. Barbara Gordon rages.

And then, of course, future writers ruin that shining star of an arc by making her ~evil~ and ~crazy~. It’s probably all because coming back from the dead made her infertile and she can’t ever be a mother. Women, am I right? (eyeroll)

Anyway, I want a Red Hood!Barbara Gordon arc now.

[popculturebuffet]

Batman The Animated Series: Christmas With the Joker Review (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Happy Holidays all you happy people! Christmas Season is here, and why wait to december when I can spread some holiday cheer now?

So to begin our holly jolly holiday coverage this year, i'm taking a look at a christmas classic i'm honestly baffled it's taken me this long to revisit. I grew up with this episode and fondly remember it being on the batman tape I had or rented back then. I just simply forget sometimes I have Batman the Animated Series right there and cant really take that for granted since the person in charge of Warner Bros thinks it's "brave" to burn down content for the insurance money.

For those who haven't experienced this holiday classic, Christmas With the Joker is the second episode of batman the animated series, though it aired later in broadcast order to line up with the timing. IT's also our first exposure to the magic that's Mark Hamill as joker, it certainly was mine thanks to aforementioned Tape.

Hamill got the role thanks to serendipity: The crew had initally cast Tim Curry, god on earth, to play the part. It SEEMS like perfect casting.. but it just didn't quite fit, as we can see from what footage of Curry as joker we have. Tim wasn't bad and I could see his joker working and him playing the part again sometime had he not sadly had to retire. The problem is his version didn't quite match what the team was going for with Mr. J. Curry's joker is one who jokes and what not, but comes off like a bastard who makes the bad jokes half heartedly as an excuse to do mayhem. The DCAU joker is the best of both worlds: he GENUINELY loves his bad puns, his craft: he lives in his own demented world where everything's a joke. When Curry's joker doe sa bit or a line, it feels like he's putting on an act, with Hamil's it's a PERFORMANCE. It's what he does. He's an entertainer, he's a comedian, he's a clown, he's going to give em a hell of a show and the death, horror and other mayhem that comes along with it is part of the act. It's key to it. It's the spice to him. Tim Curry didn't do BAD, he just didn't fit the bill. Hamill by contrast when auditioing for the now open part saw Joker's laugh as an INSTURMENT. You could tell what he was feelilng just by it's inflection. Hamill understood the character and tha'ts why he's the best at playing him: He gets just how to play Mr J, every nuance and fascet. Just as Conroy felt batman rise.. the joker's laugh escaped out of mark hamill and never went back until sadly, there just wasn't a batman to chase anymore.

The episode itself is something diffrent from the previous 3 batman the animated series episodes i've covered: I Am the Night and Two-Face were psycological adventures, the former going literally into bruce's head and showing the pain in his life, and the latter showing the gradual downfall of a man who simply needed help but wouldn't let himself get as much as needed, who put duty over himself.

Christmas With The Joker.. is a wacky christmas adventure. It has stakes and what not, but it's ultimately Batman and Robin not getting christmas eve off after the Joker decides to hyjack the airwaves with a demented holiday special. Yet.. it's still so damn good. Sometimes you need a fairly deep character study of batman or one of his foes.. and sometimes you just need the Joker deciding to do a holiday special with recurring characters as the hostages, and Batman and Robin on a deadline to stop him. Just let Mark Hamill ham it up, let Batman punch some people. BTAS has some truly stunning masterpieces.. but it also knew how to just have fun and lay back once in a while. This episode's just .. pure fun and i'll show you why under the cut.

We open at Arkham Asylum, the happiest crime against psychatric care on earth as it's Christmas Eve and Joker gets one of the best character entrances of all time. While I forgot a detail or too about this episode i've never forgotten this intro: the inmates are all singing carols, no one we'd know yet as most of Batman's Rogue's haven't been introduced. It's something I liked about Batman TAS and that seems to have stuck for the comics afterword: Anytime we visit arkham we usually see some of Batman's other rogues even if we're there for say the Joker finding out someone did a copyright infringment on him, so it's weird to see no one else present yet.

So the Joker enters the series singing that classic version of Jingle Bells. If you haven't heard it, there's only one proper way to introduce you to the best version of the song outside of this episode. TAKE IT AWAY ROBERT GOULET!

That's brilliant enough... but then he hops on the christmas tree, turns it into a rocket, and flies off laughing all the way. AHAHAHHEEHAHAHAHAHAA. It's a perfect joker move: it's overly complicated, required a ton of prep work, a ton of money we don't know how he got..

Okay we know exactly how he got it we just can't talk about it on a children's show, and it's hilaroious. in less than a minute we know the Joker's a madman, he's clever, and his crimes are over the top because it's just more FUN that way. It's what seperates the joker from most other Batman TAS villians: the others are, with exceptions like Penguin or Rupert Thorne, sympathetic on some level: Mr Freeze just wants his wife back after a corrupt rich asshole tried to kill her and made him a popsicle, Poison Ivy wants to save the planet no matter who she has to kill, Two Face's DiD consumed him, Baby Doll was traumitzed by being stuck in a body she didn't want, Killer Croc is an alligator man, which sounds boss on paper but really isn't.

The Joker is diffrent in that we don't know WHY he does this. It didn't hit me till this watch that he's one of the few foes in TAS who isn't given a full backstory upfront. While I love the film, I honestly forgot for a second that Mask of the Phantasm revealed him to have been a plainclothes gangster before he became the clown prince of crime.. and even THEN we don't know what made him like this. Maybe he's always been this way, maybe some trauma shaped him, we don't know. And that's what works: that mystique: we dont' know why the joker is the way he is, he just.. is. It's what makes him the perfect counterpart to Batman: Bruce is a man trying to take a chaotic world and give it order, give it someone who can provide justice where the law can't or simply is outnumbered to, all in the hope that one day no kid will ever loose his parents like he did, even if the quest to eats him alive (and at least in this contiunity as seen with his older self it certainly has in some ways). Joker simply wants to have fun, to put on a show... it's just his show is chaos, death and funny only to him. What he finds funny is frankly disturbing. He's the only one in on his jokes and he's happy that way.

This episode emphasies that, as well as the contrast: Batman is worked up that christmas eve, worried the Joker will pull something. Robin, being less experinced with the joker and costumed punching people what good brushes it off, thinking no one would possibly work on christmas. Bruce gets that maybe the theatrical clown who escaped on a christmas tree rocket he smuggled into a psychatic hospital has other christmas plans and they aren't good.

While Bruce is on edge partly because he's a workaholic, to the point he nearly stops a guy returning a package to an old lady on suspcion he's a mugger, he's not WRONG: the Joker is flashy. The bigger the audience, the better the show. It's why he frequently hyjacks the airwaves in this show: EVERYONE has to watch. He's fine with a small audience , but it has to be carefully curated... i.e. he's fine if it's just bats as bats is the perfect straight man. The perfect grim brick wall to play off of and someone he knows will never end his shit entirely for a simple reason.

So he's not going to stop baiting him. Bruce's mistake.. is SEARCHING for the joker. See while Batman knows the Joker... the Joker knows Batman. He made an audacious exit so Batman would KNOW he was out there and sweat it out trying to find him... but he also knows Bats well enough to avoid detection right away. To wait till it's time to start the show. Then it's fair play and Brucey can have all the clues he wants, it's an even match. But to Joker nothing would be less fun than batman spoiling his fun ahead of time. It's part simply how the game works for him and part simply being the kind of person who HAS to control the game. It has to be played by his rules , it's his show, he planned this, batman is simply performing it.

So Bruce gives up, has a nice christmas dinner for once, and everything's fine.... until he and Dick sit down to watch it's a wonderful life. I like the joke of Bruce not watching it because of the title. It's not only a common problem, many assume the film is super cheery because of it's title, but the idea of one man being important enough to make a diffrence is bruce's whole life. Of course the idea of a film where someone doubts that wouldn't be something he'd go to voluntarily. To him it's all about control.

Bruce's first watch of It's a Wonderful Life is interrupted by a holiday special.. CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOKER! Live from.. somewhere in Gotham, Joker's doing a cheesy holiday special, the kind I haven't seen a lot of , but that caked the 70's, down tow earin ga sweater ala bing crosby. He taught joker everything he knows about being terrible.

Naturally Joker needs a studio audience and while his awesome audience of cutouts, including batman and robin themselves, is fun and all, he needs some live hostages. Really ties the room together. So he kidnapped Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Bullock.. and Summer Gleason

Summer is Gotham's reporter. If you forgot her, huzzah! It means it wasn't just me... but it's also fair as she really is just there for exposition and dosen't have Kent Brockman's lunacy or Perd Hapley's mastery of the worm

So it's easy to forget she exists, and weird she's here instead of Renee Montoya. Maybe they wanted a civlliann with the cops, maybe they thought of doing the mayor as one of these but found Gordon and Bullock both too fun to let out. Maybe she was supposed to be bigger in the series and just never quite hit it with the writers. We don't really know, though if I had to guess it'd be the last one. It feels like they intended to have more for Summer to do as she shows up more in the earlier episodes.. but it became clear they didn't really need her for more than just the ocasional smattering of news exposition, and even then really didn't need news exposition THAT often as Batman often did his own research better and used newspapers more.

Joker's kindapped the "Awful Lawfuls" as his requisite hostages and plans to kill them if Batman dosen't find him by midnight. Batman does trace the broadcast.. but when Robin points out it's easy, Bats counters it's NEVER this easy with the joker.

The Joker.. dosen't let Bruce down, as while their headed to the scene they not only have to deal with the giant toys rampaging through gotham.. but also a train. The train .. is easily the weakest part of this episode. It just.. stops for a bit so Batman and Robin can save a train. That's it. I forgot this entire sequence and it's easy to see why: in an episode full of colorful joker chaos and him in the best christmas sweater ever, it's just... a train. I love me a good train, and most trains are good trains. Except Gordon he's an asshat. But this is just.. filler. It feels like the episode went under time in scripting so they added a set piece.

Thankfully the episode picks right back up from this derailment with our dynamic duo heading to the gotham observatory.. naturally.. this is a trap and joker has turned the observiatory into a canon.

So Batman distracts it while Robin battles some joker themed tin soldiers inside. overall it's fucking amazing as it is out of left field. But unlike the train not being really jokery as a crime, this fits him perfectly. Turning an observatory into a laser.. simply because he can.

While stopping it is rad as shit, it dosen't get our heroes anywhere closer to the Joker. Thankfully the joker throws Batman a Bone, as this just isn't fun if Batman entirely misses the deadline and isn't there to either save the hostages just in the knick of time.. or watch as they die horribly in person. It just isn't the same on tv it has to be life dammit. SO he holds up a doll that Batman instantly identifies and know's it's factory shut down years ago.

Batman's Doll Trivia saves the day though as our heroes arrive and we get an awesome bit as Joker plays the nutcracker sweet as he sends out an army of weaponized toy, a beautifully animated utterly awesome sequence.

Turns out though Joker was just waiting for his cue, revealing himself via curtain dropping, of course, to have all the hostages suspended over a vat of.. acid? lava? it's something what hurts bad is the point so he forces Bats to open a present. It's a pie to the face!

This leads to a chase as Joker naturally cuts the cord anyway, but Bats manages to rescue them in time and chases joker on rollerskates.. and saves him when he almost dicks himself into the generic murder vat.

With that Bats can actually enjoy christmas.. as much as Bruce can enjoy anything, with him genuinely loving i'ts a wonderful life and christmas with his grown man boy wonder. Meanwhile the joker sings to himself in Arkham, entirely happy to pick this up again another day.

Christmas With the Joker is mostly an action set piece, but it's a well done one: in one ep we get who the joker is, why he's a match fo rbatman and how this whole game of cat and also cat works for him. It's a wonderfuly demented holiday special and if you haven't seen it it's more than worth your time.

[71kedi-yip]

yes. Also I am so sorry to turn your wonnderfull warm post into angst but this made me think about how it must have felt when Kon died. 'Cause you are right.

Tim did not have anyone to back him up for majority of his life, and not only in a fighting sense but, in general. Like none of us can imagine his parents coming to a school meeting or taking his side in an argument. And personally, I can't imagine anyone from the batfam(except maybe Cass) who will either. (it might be because they are bad at being a family or because they think he doesn't need it depending on the universe)

And for him, young justice was probably the first people to be on his side, to be his back up, in any and every matter as much as they can. His back up, his emotional support people, his right hand people, his people to bounce ideas off of, his people to lend him a shoulder when he needed to cry, his people whom will listen to him.

And he lost Kon and Bart (we all know it), but he lost Cassie too. Kon and Bart was dead and he did not believe that Cassie would listen to him anymore( and let's be real, had Cassie not lost her people as well, had she not been burdened with the same grief he had, had she not thought Dick -Tim's brother- was on Tim's side, things would be different, but allas). He became aware of how little people he had on his side, how little people were here to listen to him, how little people would be here for him even if he was wrong.

and here he was, without anyone on his side again. Without anyone to be his back up, anyone to be his emotional support, anyone to be his right hand person, anyone to bounce ideas off of, anyone to lend him a shoulder when he needed to cry(and oh, did he need to cry), without anyone to listen to him.

Had he been a different person with different life experiences, he probably would have broke down, or let whom he once thought of as his people convice him of what he knew to be wrong. But under the 17(16?15?) year old whom had lost his people, he still was the 9 year old whom did not have anyone, ever. He was still the same person(child, because even at his oldest, 17, that is still a child) whom had gone out to the night of the most crime ridden city of the world, whom ran after the ones chasing the crime, whom knew something and didn't let anyone or anything convince him otherwise.

And thus he jumped into something no person whom had anyone on his side would jump, again. And again, he won (if there can ever be a way to win in something like that), and again just like last time(Kon, Cassie, Bart, Dick) he gained new people(Tam, Pru, Z, Owens)

And this, is the point where I refuse to be convinced by cannon. Cause to me, a person whom did not have anyone, got people, lost those people and got new people, wouldn't stop. He would keep collecting, maybe a good parental figure here, maybe a powerfull ally there, an emotional support person, someone to get his back on a pinch... Or maybe, just maybe, he would want power, power is harder to take away compered to people. Maybe he would look at his one enemy, look at his people and just, take them for himself. And maybe he would look in the eyes of the people whom took his people away(his people, the first ones, whom did not became his because of power, or because they thought he was always right, but because of him, because they cared for him, because they loved him, because he loved them) and watch as they slowly realized that no amount of back up, no amount of people on their side would ever be enough.

So I have gotten into this before but I find it fascinating that with one word the Bats can have the Supers at their door.

Like think about it with one scream a racing heart the most powerful men in the world are running to you. They can catch bullets move at the speed of sound shoot lasers out of their eyes hear all around the world. Yet every second of the day they are listening and waiting for a call.

A call that they will drop everything for.

Kon will race to Gotham to catch Tim before he falls from a building.

Clark will grab Bruce out of the middle of a hostage situation.

Damian jumps into the air and Jon grabs him before he hits the ground.

The definition of you call I come.

I am a sucker for Tim shouting Kon and he's there with a bullet bouncing off his chest before the gun is even cool.

Tim who knows as long as Kon alive he's never alone he's never without backup there is always someone who will come. A kid who grew up chasing his heroes looking out for himself now never has to actually fight a battle alone because there will be a boy who will come flying his Superman who won't let him fall.

It's amazing

[audible--silence]

I feel more nervous about money than i do about paragliding

Mierenneuker - ant fucker: someone too focused on small insignificant details

Mela pela - no fucks given

El que tenga miedo que no nazca - if you’re scared to die, dont be born

“She’s more the heart and im more the brain”

“People are like shooting stars while traveling, they shine brightly past you and then they’re gone”

“I dont think I’d be able to make sense of the things that i see and experience without writing and shooting”

“PLEASE someone put a banana in me…

- on the topic of fried plantains

“I think its quite cute. I find myself cute”

“Turns out you actually have to search for the people you like”

“Dumb and dumber but we’re just taking turns swapping who’s who

I hope i dont get used to it all

None of the best times of my life have ever come without doubts and regrets. The hindsight is always positive on those memories while the future is still bright

“Yeah some people are definitely profiting off of second wave feminism”

“Like trans men”

“French men?”

“TRANS MEN. But probably Frenchmen too”

Anyone with a head on their shoulders and a heart in their chest will agree that meeting someone on the same wavelength as you is a feeling that is very hard to beat.

Today consisted of finding a bus that wasn’t on google, crossing a border with no idea what legality was require, subsequently received no stamp in my passport which I suspect will eventually be a problem, no actual currency for the new country, no sim card and no idea how to find a place to stay, eventually borrowing some lads phone to maps myself to a hostel, walking there from memory, got circled and nearly attacked by dogs on a back alley dirt road then arriving at the hostel to discover some friends from Guat here.

And now, tomorrow I am apparently riding on the back of a motorbike with a british girl who’s never ridden a motorbike before and also never driven on the wrong side of the road before going to hike up a waterfall.

Another day in the fuckin life hey

How do you go back to reality after charming taco stands at 1am on a Tuesday with strangers, hammocks on a remote beach and surfing till your shorts tear, strange small towns on the way to somewhere else and big fuckoff cities full of class and grandeur, a volcano erupting during a lightning storm, people you share years of experience with but have known for a week and fighting off dogs to get to the home you’ve never been and everything else that happens in a day away from what you thought you knew.

“My bank wouldn’t give me a new card so I joined the cartel”

“Jacque really taught me that wisdom is knowing when to break the rules”

“Just dootdododootdoing my way down the continent!”

“Thank Something” - when ur not sure what god looks like

You just learn things you didn’t know you had to learn

Things you didn’t know you needed to know

My vans be lookin a lil worse for wear these days but i know they smilin.

And so am i.

We seen some shit together.

“Oh i love Tim! He made me smoke human ashes!

It was his best mate and we smoked him”

“You speak dutch?”

“Sweetie im from belgium”

“Why dont you speak waffle then”

If you know three languages its because you have to swear in a lot of them

“Yeah whenever i feel shit while traveling i just call home and that reminds me how good I’ve got it. It feels very weird to feel shit about nothing but thats sometimes good to remind yourself of it”

“If you cut me open and took a pint of my blood, id probably still drink it because it’s a pint”

“I need to move out here! Everyone just vibin!”

“Do you reckon it ever packs out?”

“Maybe on weekends?”

“It’s Saturday…”

“I find you a bit annoying”

“Thats ok. I really dont give a fuck”

“I want sticky pants” - on chasing surf

“The coke can of the energy levels has been open a lil too long”

Whats the difference between god and a surgeon?

God knows he’s not a surgeon

[creepy-spooghetti]

heyoo pillow fight with tim hoodie ben red angel candy pop 😁🤪

And tag me please

I mean if you write it

Cheeeesseee🤡🤡🤡

@simligul

Heya, so I'm not sure if you looked at my rules or not, but I only write up to four Creeps with headcanons, and Red Angel is not on my list of characters, so I am doing this just with Candy, Brian, Tim, and Ben.

Also I'm assuming that you wanted separate headcanons for these characters, as there's no way I can imagine them all having a pillow fight at the same time with each other 😆

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Tim

This dude is ruthless, I mean absolutely ruthless.

You wouldn't think such a quiet, seemingly gentle guy would have it in him but life is full of surprises.

So if you hit him at all with a pillow, even lightly, I hope you're prepared to go down.

He will literally tackle you and make sure you can't go anywhere as he beats you over the head with this stuffed object, laughing at your pleas and shrieks for help.

You will not get the upper hand on him because he's so damn good at dodging. Any attempt you make will be met with ten times the force. He just can't help getting swept up in the moment, ya know? It feels good actually having fun for once.

Brian

Not nearly as bloodthirsty as the former, though he will still wreck your shit if you annoy him for long enough.

Just smack him in the shoulder with a pillow, go ahead. See what happens.

He may reciprocate, he may not. Just depends on his mood really. If you're lucky, he'll chuckle at your childish behavior and go about his business. He might even grab a pillow and playfully smack you back.

However, you catch him when he's feeling mischievous, uh oh. You're in trouble now.

If he gives a warning at all, it will be a plain and simple "don't do that again". Yeah. That's all you get, better take it and run.

Ben

As you can probably imagine, ghost boy is fond of playful activities like this. He craves a sense of normalcy, being dead and all.

So it's no shocker at all that he's usually the initiator; why would he stick to his job when he could be peeving you off instead?

More of a "take your shot and run for the hills" kind of attacker, so he'll be long gone before you can even get up to chase after him.

Even though he's an apparition, he can still feel most physical things, so he isn't off-limits. And he knows that.

If you manage to catch him, he's already giggling and throwing his hands in front of his face as a meek form of protection against your inevitable revenge.

Candy Pop

Okay okay, despite the violence that he may commit whenever Night Terrors shows his ugly little face, Candy is, at heart, a playful, fun-loving person who isn't afraid to have a good time.

Which is why he will greedily accept any challenge you toss his way. 

Since he's so big, it's admittedly difficult to get the jump on him, as he can just worm his way out of your hold with zero effort and do to you what you were trying to do to him.

He's nice though, so there are moments he'll let you think you're winning and accept his 'defeat', just so you feel good about yourself. He wouldn't want you to think you were a total failure, after all.

Over half of the time though he'll happily whack you until you're a huddled-up pile on the floor, crying, "You win! You win, I give up!"

[outoftheframework]

my proposal for tropes we as a fandom should adopt in all fanworks going forward: Duke Thomas edition

So every fandom has tropes and characterization quirks that have been generally accepted into fanon and, like, maybe? they were originally based on some obscure comic panel from the 80s or something but it doesn’t really matter because we’re all just,,, cool with it? Like for example- in the dc comics fandom, an art piece could show 3 of the bats that look virtually identical except one of them is holding a box of cereal so that one is obviously Dick Grayson. . . Y’know?

Anyway, these things usually come up naturally I guess but I’ve been here a while and it’s finally time to put my foot down. It’s high time for Duke Thomas to be more in fanon than “the sane one.” Because he might be the relatively new guy but he is certainly fears no gods or laws of the land just as much as the other bats, lemme tell ya. 

TL;DR here are character quirks (”canon-based” or otherwise) that we should all really latch onto seriously I’m begging y’all to make at least one of these happen-

Duke “Habitually Jumping Out of Moving Vehicles” Thomas

This one’s actually based in canon y’all; Duke did indeed yeet himself out of the back of a cop car and off of a bridge (in We Are... Robin). Normalize Duke’s wearing knee and elbow pads as Signal because jumping out of a car turns out relatively fine once and then suddenly Batman’s rooftop disappearing act seems mellow compared to the amount of times Gordon has whipped his head around to see a now Signal-less backseat. 

Like, he’s going 60 mph?? And he didn’t even hear the door open?? and tHE DOORS ARE STILL LOCKED??

Imagine this leaking into civilian life and Bruce waking up to a blurry photo of Duke mid-escape from a limousine on the front page of the Gotham Gazette.

(more under cut)

Duke “Puzzles are my Passion” Thomas

Duke is ~canonically~ very skilled at both solving and concocting riddles (as a child during that time where The Riddler just,,, controlled Gotham, he worked non-stop on riddles, trying to make the perfect one). Please y’all- let Duke solve puzzles. Have the other bats ask him for help after 36 hours straight of brooding over some brainteaser that Duke works out within the half-hour. He texts a picture of the solution scribbled out on loose leaf in the margins of his pre-calc homework because this boy shows his work. 

My guy is a word-cross FIEND. A mind-sweeper speed-runner. That guy who mails into the Gazette to correct a solution in the “fun & games” section and also ps that photo is not of me I am simply a polite young man who is much too busy writing into the paper in the year 2021 to jump out of limos-

I also would love to see this integrated into the type of cases he investigates / runs into on his daytime patrol. Like, obviously the criminal activity is going to dramatically differ before and after sundown, but that doesn’t make Duke’s work any easier or less important. It’s a different skillset; he has to work differently. Instead of jumping into fights, halting mob meetings, saving civilians in dark allies, etc. Duke has to sort through all of the moving pieces before they all converge into something catastrophic. 

It’s a known fact that criminal organizations in Gotham make and execute a lot of behind-the-scenes plans during the day specifically not to run into the bats. And Duke knows and monitors this shit all by himself; his work is crucial to logistics and information gathering for the bats as a whole. Now criminals have like, a 2 hour gap between bat-shifts to try and get stuff done. But Duke would 100% set traps on timers or lead them on this pre-set convoluted goose chase  to distract them until the night bats come out and to let himself enjoy the whole thing playing out on the news while he finishes homework that’s due at midnight.

Duke “I Know a Guy” Thomas

So in going off of the basic concept for the “We Are. . . Robin” run in combination to his general likability, Duke has a lot of friends all around Gotham. Okay, sure, he doesn’t have a Super best friend or a Speedster on speed dial, but he does know this guy who details cars up on West 35th and will tell them all about the new mods on Black Mask’s transport vans if they come through the third floor window and bring takeout. 

Bruce and Tim will be waiting for the facial recognition software to identify at least a partial match off of security cam footage when Duke pulls into the cave, takes one look at the screen, and says “Oh, that’s <insert name, address, abridged life story, and known associates here>.” This also brings in the opportunity for Duke to have some sort of perfect recall for faces, voices, names, etc. which I think could be a really cool element for his position as the batfamily member who has a lot more personal interaction with the people of Gotham.

I’m also into the idea of a lot of people knowing/telling stories about Duke. Not to reference the Chuck Norris meme but almost like the Chuck Norris meme lmao. Think about Jason mentioning his brother to someone and she replies, “Duke Thomas? Like that Duke Thomas? The one who swam across the harbor because he said it’d be faster than the subway and it actually was?” These stories have varying levels of truth to them but Duke will never confirm nor deny when he gets random calls from family members yelling “you dID WHAT”

So those are my top three, and the following is a little speed-round of headcanons :)

Duke has a super expressive face. Like when he’s relaxed around family, you can tell exactly what he’s thinking and how he’s feeling by his visual reactions to things

Duke rotates through picking up new and revisiting old hobbies at a pretty rapid pace. Some hobbies include: bullet journaling, origami, viola, cello, synth, conversational basics in multiple languages, up-cycling and embroidering clothes

Duke has a really fucking adorable smile. He can’t help it. He’ll try to grin sarcastically or smug to be annoying but his smile just cannot be anything other than endearing. He also has a very specific booming laugh that’s an absolute treasure to hear, because it’s the most genuinely happy thing ever. 

Duke unironically enjoys Signal by Twice even though the first time he heard it was after Steph had set it as his morning alarm.

So.

Come and get your food, I guess.

Feel free to add on if you’d like! I’d love to see anything you guys write/draw/etc. based on anything from here if you feel compelled to do so!

Stay safe and be well :) 

[linktoo]

MAG S5

You have to understand I really really wanted to like this season. I knew it was a different structure from seasons 1-4 and I LIKED THAT IT WAS, OK???

God. I know people said they didn’t like all of S5 but the beginning was set up so well. As someone who genuinely is not a fan of apocalypses in fiction, they did such a good job with act 1. Jon’s weariness as he learns to figure out his newfound powers but different from S4, as it is much more powerful, and that he has to navigate literal nightmare logic. The tapes he listens to over and over is so poignant. Hearing people in the past and trying to recontextualize it all after everything they’ve been through. The Birthday Tape. The Tim and Sasha comments about Jon being appointed as the archivist being seen as sexist is SO PERFECT it’s so powerful it’s such a natural convo. I’m obsessed. Of course it was taken that way and it turned out it’s just because Jon was chosen by an eldritch being. Dramatic irony at its peak.

And don’t get me started on Gerry and Gertrude. Their back and forth comments are so sly, the fact they hide a lot from each other but engage with each other on the same level. You can see the difference between that and Gertrude and Michael, where there was much more of an unequal power dynamic. Gertrude is not afraid to be herself with Gerry, and it is wonderful.

And FUCK god I was so into the abstract statements. I know people said they didn’t like them compared to the statements from S1-S4 but hoooly fuck I loved them. They were more retrospective and honed on fears more. The fact they had different Writing Structures was so clever, Jonny really focused on the creativity of the statements (at least for the first half of S5). I am seriously not usually one for poetry but it fucked so hard.

My favourites I remember in particular:

1) The stranger (Revolutions/The Merry-Go-Round statement)

wow. the stranger statement is.. wow. it's really good. I'm . I'm really not someone who's good at analyzing poetry on a technical level but the rhythm jonny uses in this.... is really impressive. powerful. draws from that spiralling, ebbing, flowing nature of that fear. I love your slam poetry Jon.

the fear of rapid change. constant. you're forced on the highest highs but lowest lows. you lose sight of who you are you want to stop but you can't and at the end of the day what were you chasing in the first place?

This specifically for the stranger really hones in on the idea of identity and losing parts of yourself and being unable to relate to our own concepts anymore

2) Martin’s Lonely statements (both of them)

A great retrospective on how Martin sees himself 

and him desperately but slowly learning little aspects about himself and promptly forgetting and losing himself and over and over. Just very cool.

Martin coming to terms with being glad his mom died is something… very personal. Very specific that I love very much. I wish we got to explore it a bit more outside of his domain. 

3) The Web (Strung Out)

"pause for laughter" gets me every time holy fucking shit it's so measured and cold. Neutral

The limbs being hooked in each limb representing every person in their life forcing them to act. Forcing them to be someone they're not. Blood is trickling everywhere. The bottle at the end really bringing back the "addiction is one of the strongest vectors of control there is" in S4.

I think this is the best exploration of the web in S5. 

My heart also really ached for Jon’s moments of humanity. His excitement when he realized there was a blind spot to his powers and that he just Doesn’t Know. The fact that he wasn’t allowed to remember the time with Martin in their little oasis break. His little moments of banter with Martin were so sweet. 

Now time to get into the issues of S5. It's definitely missing having other characters to bounce off of since there's not A plot + B plot. It's all A plot because it's just Jon and Martin the whole time, and while it's good, it's also difficult to take a break from it all. Martin/Martin in the Lonely and Jon/Helen was a good solution for a bit and the tapes in the very beginning, too. I think it could have been pushed way morem but the structure of S5 makes it inherently very hard to do that. 

Martin and Jon were Very Cute in the beginning and middle. Somewhere along the way, I do understand the touches of maintaining a healthy relationship in a high stress situation but something about the last act felt off. I saw people complaining that Jon and Martin bickered way too much and were “incompatible” and I kind of understand what they were getting at? It was all just “I love you” and focus on sacrificing themselves for the other without getting into more nuance, I think. I think especially with ‘new romance’ you have to establish and verify what exactly they are fond of for each other and that’s why it feels so strained later on. It’s why I know some people described S5 as very “pandery” for JonMartin content. It makes me sad because I genuinely think they would work, but the writing does miss it a tiny bit. I’d say OFMD is a good show that properly explores why Ed and Stede work together so well in comparison; honouring the good traits they see in each other that make them so admirable. 

I also think it's weird they reset Melanie's whole attitude to Jon back to "I hate him" because the last time he saw her she said she was there for him, that she is a friend. The cult was lackluster too, they were introduced too late into the season then get taken away to raise the stakes

The ending was rough. It was really, really rough, I’d say… episodes 190-200 I think. I can’t quite pinpoint where the concerns in the back of my mind started coming in slowly, but I do know that ep 200 really did it for me. I was seriously forced to realize how little payoff everything had compared to the earlier seasons. It is agonizing to know that all the plot beats were setup, but the execution was… not good. 

I think they heavily missed the mark and the catharsis wasn’t there. Anabelle was not as clever as she was set up to be. The idea of the web being the one to set up the tapes takes away from it being Jon’s thing in the end. “Mr. Spider wants more” never really felt earned, it just ended up being kinda spooky and they were never intending to kill Martin anyway. The cult just got taken away off-screen to raise the stakes just as they were introduced to explore prophet “worship”. 

Jonah/Elias was no threat at the end, Jon just kills him and that’s that. No fun showdown between Elias and Jon. You don’t even get to the buildup of Jon deciding to take his selfish choice at the end. I liked the statement that comes from how the fears are born, but I just really wanted some more back and forth, more push and pull between Jon and him as the final showdown. 

But Elias is just seen as this weak little puppet that Eye uses and Jon is still himself when he takes over as the pupil and Martin just kills him. They don’t even talk about the poetic reason Martin having to kill Jon, the one he loves at the end after being marked with so many fears or anything! It’s just “kill me and we’ll be okay. I hope”. I knew what would happen at the end, I knew it would be open, I knew Martin would kill Jon!!! And yet… it felt so robotic.

There’s no buildup at all to Jon’s decision to betray the rest of the group, it’s just… it’s just so all of a sudden. And it’s hard. It’s hard how abruptly they end and it’s hard how abruptly open it is, especially compared to the catharsis and reveal of S4. Because at the end of the day, TMA is a horror AND mystery podcast and there was basically… just supernatural spooky powers at the end of it, and that’s it. It felt rushed, it felt like the themes explored just didn’t quite hit its mark, and it’s devastating to finish S5 and feel like I’ve just kinda hit a dead end. It didn’t explore the final characters and their humanity and felt like a big rushed fight. I’m seriously still trying to understand my feelings after finishing tma. They said they had planned 200 episodes, starting from the end and yet the end was BY FAR the weakest part of the entire podcast!!! I was reeling for like 5 hours just completely unsure how I even got here!!

 It was disappointing, but at the end of the day I will heavily pack up my feelings for tma and still conclude.. It was a good podcast. I don't want to forget what made it loveable and brilliant in the first place.

I just wish I didn’t feel like the ending was as shallow as it felt.

==

[Masterlist] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] 

(thank you for everyone's nice comments and thoughts, it makes me smile)

[zalrb]

OTH 2x15 Rewatch

1. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DON’T WANNA BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT I’VE BEEN TRYNA BE LATELYYYYYYYYYYYYY

2.

3. And it’s not that I don’t understand what Nathan’s mindset is and it’s not that I’m unsympathetic it’s that James’ acting isn’t good so rarely does it seem like he’s going through something, it just seems like general teenage angst and in the back of my head I’m screaming, enough already. Which is my issue with a lot of the acting and/or writing on this show, it lacks nuance and makes a lot of the characters insufferable a lot of the time.

4. “In 1955, students at Tree Hill High School created a time capsule which was to be opened in 50 years. They were simply asked to talk about their lives. Isn’t it interesting how things haven’t changed much?” Yes, except, you know, civil rights. But, details. Amirite?

5. Imagine giving THIS up

for LEYTON.

6. HA.

7. Keith buying Jules a house, men stay buying houses for their love interests in shows.

8. Jules, WHAT is your endgame here? Like how did you see this life going?

9. She didn’t even know your middle name, Lucas.

10. This makes me laugh

You couldn’t just take the picture down, Nathan? BUT IT WOULDN’T BE A STATEMENT.

11. Karen is annoying, but I just don’t like Moira Kelly as an actress, I was happy when they got rid of her on The West Wing.

12. Tim!

13. “Don’t be a dick and drive drunk!” “I’m not even buzzed!” “IT’S STILL AN OPEN CONTAINER!” I think the message here, kids, is that it’s wrong to drive drunk.

14. Jake saying he had to call in a few favours for the breeze and the stars to be perfect for Peyton would be insufferably corny if Bryan and Hilarie didn’t have chemistry and if Bryan’s delivery didn’t hit the right note of banter and casualness, so instead it’s just charming.

15. LMAO you couldn’t even move to the side! EVERYONE WALK AROUND THE TWO TEENAGERS MAKING OUT

16. If this was a basketball town, they would not be arrested. In FNL, Tim goes to a beer store and his fake ID straight up says Sgt. Tim Riggins and the owner is like “Have a nice night, Mr. Riggins” knowing FULL WELL who he is.

17. “Wow, your own mom can’t stand you.” Lol, Nathan.

18. LMAO it took me a minute to get this when I was younger

19. OTH’s favourite word is threatened. “Were you with Chris?” “Why are you threatened by him?” “You’ve been spending time with Taylor.” “Why, are you threatened by her?” “You’re chasing after a father who doesn’t even want you and I’m pathetic?” “Would you just let it go? Why are you so threatened by that?”

20. It bothered me so much that they changed Brooke’s confessional to her showing her boobs.

21. But iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’m flying so hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

22. Hilarie’s face is priceless

23. I also like this scene because in the commentary Bryan was talking about how Mark wrote this really poetic, long speech for Jake to say about how they should wait and Bryan was like that’s not really who Jake is, why doesn’t he just say “let’s go slow” and Mark doesn’t change the script for anyone but he changed it this time because Bryan was right.

24. I also like this scene because Bryan was like you have this whole “let’s go slow” thing and we’re going at it like rabbits in the next episode!

25. I’M NOT ONE OF THOSE GIRLS. WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? BROOKE???

26. I like how Jake having a daughter means that he’s “way more experienced”, you only have to have sex once to make a baby, guys.

27. BUT THEY’RE SO CUTE

28.

I might lose cool points for listening to your concerns and making you feel safe and comfortable and not pressuring you at all. This is how you know a man wrote this episode, jesus christ.

29. Where is Hilarie Burton from? I always thought I heard an accent in this scene.

30. Ah, Virginia.

31. They’re super lusty though

32. I just wanted Relationship Brucas and Relationship Jeyton AT THE SAME TIME.

33. So, what happened Jules? You were like, Dan, meet me at church? OK.

34. I mean, it’s not like a service is happening and it’s not like anyone else is here, Jules. It’s a conveniently empty church for you two to have this conversation and for the imagery, calm down.

35. “I just ended up here, back in the closet.” WORDPLAY.

36.

I swear, Lucas is the only one who appreciates how funny Brooke actually is 

37. Maybe Julian does, idk.

38. Nathan, these are all your family members, it’s your dad, your uncle, and your mother.

39. I think what it is, is Nathan should be like Connor when Wes died in HTGAWM, like Connor was an asshole during that period and he said some pretty unforgivable things but Jack’s acting made it so clear that Connor was drowning, he was lost, he was sad, guilty

and i’m just getting

40. This is my favourite Nathan/Lucas moment (and when they play basketball later) though because Lucas actually says something REAL as Peyton would say

41. OTH also does something that works with Brooke/Lucas/Felix. When Brooke runs her campaign, Felix tells her to go negative

while Lucas tells her to be honest,

she goes Lucas’ route and it works for her.

He also helps her with her speech by showing her a book with a speech and telling her to just be who she is

At the beginning of this episode, Lucas gives Brooke a book of quotations that has the same speech in there,

while Felix decides to throw her a party.

Brooke gets to the party and realizes that at this moment she’s outgrown that aspect of her life

and when Felix visits her in her room, she’s reading the book that Lucas got her,

which furthers her individual development while also linking it with Lucas. She even starts quoting obnoxiously like he does

This is much stronger writing than Criminal Minds-esque webcam stalking. But Lucas didn’t say ‘your art matters’ so idk.

42. Legit, the only time I feel like they’re brothers.

43. The ending reveal with Whitey would mean something to me if I liked his character.

[woodchoc-magnum]

Lone Star Hate Watch - 3x03

Disclaimer: As always - I hate this show, you love it! Please don't read this and have a wonderful day

Eddie Diaz to bless us with his beautifulness before we descend into misery:

Let's suffer together:

Okay I can barely remember what happened in the last episode but here we go

The snow makes this show looks awful

What are the chances that Marjan crashed right where Owen is with all the migrants

Wow the ol' bait and switch, did they teach Owen those fighting skills on the mean streets of Manhattan

Oh great TK's in a coma and now we have to suffer through his subconscious just fucking kill me now

Lisa Edelstein, you deserve better than this show

She also deserves an acting partner who can, you know, act

Like he actually can't act. It's embarrassing

Oh maybe he's dying?! Please? Fingers crossed?

Why is Carlos keeping vigil, like honestly Carlos, you deserve so much better than fucking TK

"It's pretty clear where this is headed?" – do they all think TK is going to die?

Why is this show getting my hopes up

Also I'm just going to point out that at no point did Nancy or Tommy do anything to warm TK up after he nearly froze to death so like… yeah.

"Because of me someone's kid is dying" – babe yeah you should've warmed him up just saying

"How am I supposed to face Owen" – this is assuming Owen will actually care that TK is dying

You know, if it's not to do with his hair or his skin routine does it even matter

I'm really sick of this snow storyline

This guy taking off on his own is going to die

Oh I forgot Paul nearly froze to death as well

I love Judd so much

I was just like "who the fuck are these people visiting Paul?" and it's Lindsay's parents and 100% they're rich

So this is how they get the firehouse back huh

"Would you like a Maserati?" fucking calm down bro

The special effects are sometimes laughably bad

Oh just like I called it, the guy is going to get killed – and I think the police are IN ON IT

And now Marjan is here?

Now the bad cop is chasing Marjan who is in a very easily camouflaged pink outfit, doesn't stand out at all in the snow

Oh great now we're back to TK fucking kill me

You can buy toffee in a jar in the US? What kind of sorcery

"I always be that little boy mom, I still am" TK says in a monotone

"You are surrounded by love" – this fucking reminds me of Taylor saying to Buck that his life is nothing but meaningful relationships

I can't believe Tim is focusing on this show rather than the OG, it's SO BAD.

This toffee in a jar thing… I'm stuck on that. Oh is it like caramel pieces? Do Americans call caramel "toffee"? you guys honestly I am side-eyeing this

"Can we please have a little more time Mom?" can he not go and visit her in New York

I'm so glad they didn't do this for Eddie, my god, it's so dumb

It's so fucking dumb

This Sheriff dude is bad news. You know people talk a lot of smack about Billy but at least he's not a people smuggler, like he could be worse

Julie Benz has gotten herself into a real fucking mess hanging out with Owen Strand let me tell you

Oh dispatch throwing Grace a baby shower

She is TWO WEEKS OUT FROM HAVING BABIES AND STILL AT WORK? My god

Oh she's definitely going into labour in the middle of the snow storm right

Somehow I'm only 22 minutes in

Owen has let the bad cop into his house

Maybe he kills Owen? Fingers crossed!

Marjan should steal the police car

Look I'm just going to say that Owen's hair is looking fucking terrible right now

God I hope this storyline doesn't drag into another episode

Don't you fucking hurt Julie Benz YOU MONSTER

Isn't enough that she died in Buffy, Angel and Dexter HASN'T SHE HAD ENOUGH

This bad cop is such an asshole let me just say

I know this is meant to be tense but I'm so bored

I'm so sick of the ugly snow effect

God damn them for using good music in this show fuck you Lone Star

Roy Orbison? YOU BASTARDS

You know it's funny, I watched Rob Lowe do Hot Ones and he didn't talk about Lone Star once

He's happy to star in it but he doesn't hype it up

Grace I swear to fucking god IF YOU FALL OFF THAT LADDER I WILL FREAK OUT

Oh it's Billy

My favourite 😍

This is how Grace goes into labour, Billy is going to antagonise her into it

Billy wants Judd to be a captain but we all know he won't take that job even though it totally makes fucking sense

Because he's going to go back to the 126 and be second to fucking Owen Strand and that doesn't make sense

And also – like, I know this show is pushing Billy as the villain here BUT he's really not? If you think about it, what he's doing makes total sense? The 126 burned down, it doesn't make sense to rebuild it if they have enough fire stations to cover the city, he's offering Judd a fucking promotion like… ?????? I'm sorry but you will never convince me he's a villain. He's opportunistic, sure, but like, I love him. So I'm fine with it.

I have loved Billy Burke for SO LONG, I will NEVER STOP LOVING HIM

Judd and Billy were BEST FRIENDS? When? Did I know that? Wtf

"The Department would've gone bankrupt trying to rebuild it" – I'm sorry but he's just talking a lot of sense and I think they're all being salty little bitches

Oh was Billy at the 126 with Judd before the place was decimated in Season 1? Okay okay that makes sense

God I love Grace even though I think her anger is misplaced

Oh shit her water broke but thank god she didn't fall off the ladder right

Billy is trying to do the right thing here, like I'm sorry

But you will NEVER CONVINCE ME HE'S A BAD GUY

Five minutes to go come on we can do this

"The universe is shouting in your ear and you can't hear a thing" bitch you are just fucking STEALING LINES FROM THE OG AT THIS POINT

Ugh seriously this fucking annoys me so much

It's lazy fucking writing

Oh fuckkkk now they're fucking singing

FUCK I HATE THIS SHOW SO MUCH

I fast forwarded it I'm sorry guys I can't

TK could die! Fingers crossed!

There's an awful lot of praying in this show which I think is one of the reasons I don't like it

One of the many reasons I don't like it

Billy and Grace are definitely going to end up in a car crash aren't they

Oh no they're stuck in the snow or something? How does she have an SUV with no four wheel drive, I thought that was the whole point

Is Billy going to deliver Grace's baby? Fuck that would be hilarious

Also it's finished thank god

In summation - Judd and Grace (and Billy) continue to be the best parts of the show, I cared for literally nothing else

Eddie Diaz for cleansing energy:

Lone Star needs to get some new fucking material is all I'm saying

Bonus Billy Burke!

How can you hate this man, I love him? I don't get it

[jewishrizahawkeye]

alright hello!

a month or so back i was sent these asks in september telling me about a series that @megthemighty did on what taylor swift albums are fullmetal alchemist characters! and the anon wanted to hear my opinions since my brand is just liking taylor swift and enjoying fullmetal alchemist a completely normal amount (you can trust me, i promise). and i thought the idea was very cool and wanted to share my thoughts on each album! so after working on this for two months (don’t ask) i finally finished the list!!

i also went off on this at times because i would either word vomit about an album/song or a character and ended up making something that’s INCREDIBLY long. so i decided it would be best to post it one at a time in a chain post style (so i don’t like overwhelm myself or others). so i’m going to slowly chain post over the ne t few days this with each album and character! so without further ado:

Taylor Swift (Bonus Track Version):

Winry Rockbell

- debut has some of taylor’s best lyrics to date and can cut glass (cold as you still gives me chills)

- the primary theme of the album is about who will i become and first loves while also having a common theme of radio and music being used to describe love. which is important to taylor’s character as she was obsessed (and still is) with country music, so her saying “his smiles like the radio” is her evoking a specific feeling of her listening to music on the radio and sharing that to the audience that when her boyfriend smiles it makes her feel like she’s listening to her favorite songs on the radio. i definitely over explained it but it’s a very sweet and beautiful line to describe how in love you are with a person and how they feel to you

- this idea, while drastically different from winrys loves and goals, radiates her character though

- both winry and taylor had big dreams ever since they were young and went out into the world to make it a reality still at a young age. for taylor, she was able to release her first album at 16 and would later win album of the year on her second album (which i don’t think people realize is FUCKING INSANE TO DO ON YOUR SOPHMORE ALBUM AND IT BEING A COUNTRY ALBUM). similarly though, winry starts working at her family’s automail shop when she’s young, already being ed’s full time mechanic at the age of 14, and later takes up an apprenticeship in rush valley and gains a loyal customer base very quickly for her time there. for a girl that young to achieve something like that is INSANE. she’s already got her dreams met at the age of 15 and it can only go up from there for her

- but tying back into the primary theme of the album being “who am i and who will i become” and how that resonates with winrys character. winry is trying to not only find herself in her youth but also how to help ed and al after their accident. her life was shaken after it and she’s doing everything she can to help them. if y’all would let me quote a song here, she’s “just a girl trying to find a place in this world”

- also songs like TDOMG, Tim McGraw, Invisible, Mary’s Song and so many others can be read as edwin coded as they’re about a young love that sticks around but not always seeing the other as a potential option until it’s to late, or maybe it isn’t. you’ll never know until you tell them

- at its core debut is just a young girl getting to follow her dreams and do what she loves while not knowing what the future will hold for her. which fits winry going to rush valley and her story arc. she doesn’t know what will come but gets to chase her dream very young and only grow from there. especially in the wake of ed and al since her world was shaken and she didn’t know what would or could happen to them or her. she doesn’t know what will come but gets to chase her dream very young and only grow from there.

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

You’ll Have To Come and Find Me - fic

Characters: Tim Drake, Damian Wayne Summary: Damian runs into someone on his way to the League of Lazarus’ tournament. The last person he wanted to see. The last person who should have been looking for him. A/N: Just a thought in my brain that wouldn’t quit. Dialogue heavy. Shittily written idk. ‘Polarize’ by TwentyOne Pilots is such a Damian song to me, and was in my head while writing this, so inspired the title. Might continue this idea a little bit as the Robin series continues, who knows.

~~

He was counting the money from his fight with King Snake as he walked into the café. That’s why he didn’t notice. That’s why he didn’t see.

That’s what he told himself.

But after he walked in the door, he found himself freezing as he looked up.

No.

He’d been so careful, so deliberate. He didn’t leave any traces. He knew he didn’t. There was no way they could find him.

And of course, he couldn’t even back out now. Couldn’t sneak back out of the restaurant, back into the darkness. Because Timothy Drake was already lowering his cup of tea and raising his head to look at him.

They stared at each other for a second. Two. Three. Four. Five. Faces blank, mouths shut.

Then Tim smiled, turned towards the café’s counter and waved. The barista nodded and started on a drink.

Nope. No turning back now.

“How did you find me?” Damian demanded as he stomped forward. Tim motioned to the empty, waiting, chair across from him. A glass of water was already there, as was an empty plate.

Tim shrugged. “Wasn’t that hard.”

“Liar.” Damian spat. “I covered my tracks. I made sure-”

“You made sure Bruce couldn’t find you.” Tim countered, pulling his napkin onto his lap. “And I am not Bruce.”

“…Oracle is smarter than you.” Damian tried.

“Absolutely.” Tim took another sip of his tea. “But I know you better.”

“You don’t know me at all.” Damian crossed his arms. He nodded a thanks to the waiter as he brought Damian’s drink, and a basket of bread. It was tea, like Tim’s, and he could see two sugar cubes dissolving in the bottom.

…His preferred preparation.

He never told Tim how he liked his tea. He never told Tim he liked tea at all.

He glanced up to the elder. Tim smiled behind his own cup and raised his eyebrows. See?

Damian huffed, taking the drink. “What do you want?”

“To find you. Duh.”

“To what, mock me? Remind me of my failures? Rub it in my face that once again you prove you’re better than me?” Damian listed. But as he spoke, Tim’s amused face fell back into stoic, blank.

“No. I wouldn’t do that in the first place. Not…” He lowered his cup once more, stared into the liquid. “Not now, anyway.”

Damian narrowed his eyes, gaze bouncing around Tim’s face, trying to read it. Trying to figure his predecessor out.

“Really?” Damian drawled in disbelief. “So, you’re not here to gloat about how Father gave you Robin back?”

Damian was surprised to see Tim’s face darken, just a little. “I didn’t want it back. He forced it on me in a weird grief-fueled crusade after you disappeared.” Tim glanced up. “A lot’s happened since you left.”

“I’ve been back since I renounced Robin. All this tracking me and you didn’t know that?”

“No, I mean, even since then.” Tim sighed. “…Did you know Dick had regained his memories before you helped save him and the family?”

Damian pursed his lips, stared at the basket of bread. “…No.”

“…How are you feeling about that?” Tim asked softly.

“I don’t need your pathetic brand of therapy, Drake.” Damian snapped.

“I’m not trying to play therapist, I’m just trying to make sure my little brother is okay.” Tim shot back just as harshly. “Especially since he’s running off to some secret tournament that he could die in.”

Tim’s mouth clamped shut then, and Damian watched him. “…How did you know about that?”

“That’s not important, here, okay, I just-”

“It is to me.” Damian countered. “Tell me or I’m leaving.”

Tim glowered back at him. “I’ll follow you.”

“Not if I break your leg.”

“Why do you…!” Tim cut himself off in a sigh, slumped back in his chair. “I got word Talia was in town, followed her tracks. Saw the security footage from her apartment when you went and met her. Heard about that League of Lazarus thing and looked into it.”

“How did you look into it?” Damian asked. “Even I didn’t know about it. And if Mother wasn’t forthcoming with me, I can’t see her being a source of information for you.”

Now it was Tim’s turn to cross his arms and look away.

Damian studied him for a moment, then let his eyes go wide. “…You didn’t.”

“Look, I said it didn’t matter-”

“You did not contact Grandfather for information.” Damian practically begged. “Drake!”

“You know as well as I do he’ll give me anything I want if I’m the one to reach out to him.” Tim reassured quickly. “And sorry if my brother’s safety is a good reason for me to contact an enemy!”

Damian glared at him for a moment before looking at the clean white plate. “…Stop calling me your brother.”

“Oh, for god’s sake, Damian-”

“Because after what I’ve done, I don’t deserve the title.”

Tim paused then, stared right back. Sighed and leaned forward to grab his tea again.

“What happened wasn’t your fault.” Tim whispered. “Definitely not Dick, not Alfred…especially not Alfred…I know you think it is, and trust me, I get that. I felt the same back when my dad died. Bruce.” A moment. “…You.”

Damian glanced up at him.

“I get that you think it was. Because you were there, because you’re supposed to be a hero, that’s what the world thinks you are, but…It’s not, Damian. It never was. You’re just a kid. A kid in a shitty, traumatic situation.” Tim hesitated, and Damian watched as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “And we just want you to come home.”

“Why?” Damian asked quietly. “I’ll do nothing but hurt all of you.”

“Can I make a counterpoint to that?” Tim asked. “What do you think you’re doing to us now? Disappearing? We don’t know how you are, or if you’re even alive. Don’t you think that’s hurting us too?”

“…It shouldn’t.”

“Well. It does.” Tim sniffed. “That’s why I’m here. That’s part of why Babs became Oracle again. That’s why Dick wants to use the fortune Alfred left him to find you.”

“Forget about me.” Damian shook his head. “You’ll all be better off. Grayson especially.”

“A matter of personal opinion. An opinion I highly disagree with.” Tim shrugged. “And just because Dick, arguably, loves you the most, therefore is the most heartbroken with you not there, doesn’t mean he’ll be better off if you just…vanish from his life like you weren’t ever there in the first place.”

“He thrived without any memories of me as the cab driver, so we have proof that he would be.” Damian explained. “Besides. Time heals all wounds. Or whatever. You’ll all forget about me if you give yourself the chance to.”

“And I think you dying is proof that we won’t, and can’t.” Tim leaned forward more, reaching for Damian’s hand. Damian allowed him to take it. “Which is why I’m here.”

“I’m not going back to Gotham, Drake. I can’t.” Damian murmured, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I’m not…I can’t be there. Right now.”

“I know. I know I said we want you home, but I never said I was taking you back. I told you I’m out here to find you.”

“Well. Congratulations.” Damian said bitterly. “You did.”

Tim smiled. “Great.” He squeezed Damian’s hand and released it. “So, where’s this island? For the tournament?”

Damian furrowed his brows. “What?”

“I’m not taking you home. I promise.” Tim let his grin widen, become just a little too shit-eating. “But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you.”

“…You’re not serious.”

“My goal was to find you. And not lose you again. The only way to do that is to not leave you, in my deductions.” Tim winked. “Besides, you were right – this Lazarus Tournament sounds interesting. And concerning. You’re gonna need backup. More than the folks we know who are gonna be there already, anyway.”

“…How do you know who’s in the tournament?” Damian asked slowly. Tim just pursed his lips, blinked, and grinned. Damian sighed. “After this tournament, I’m making sure my grandfather never contacts you again.”

“Hey, sometimes it’s nice having a super-villain obsessed with you.” Tim shrugged. “Helped me get you back, after all.”

“All the more reason I’ll have to kill him.”

Tim laughed at that, took a piece of bread for himself. “…You okay with me tagging along?”

Damian sipped his tea. “Not in the slightest.”

“Good.” Tim glanced at his watch. “About an hour until your boat arrives. That’s enough time for you to rest a little while we figure out an outline of a plan to take out this League of Lazarus.”

At that, Tim turned, digging in the backpack he had hanging off his chair. Damian watched him as he pulled out papers and notebooks, dropping them on the table between them.

And he didn’t want it. Didn’t deserve it. His family deserved better. Drake deserved better. Drake had better things to do than chase him, a failure, across the world, and hardly for either of their own sakes. All for the sake of their family. Because Tim loved them. Because Damian loved them. Because Tim loved Damian too.

“…Drake?” Damian whispered. Tim glanced up. “…Thank you for finding me.”

Tim blinked, and let his face drop into a smile. “Any time, little brother.”