#instead there will be a week of 408 text posts

[bethanyactually]

Nancy Drew + text posts (37/?)

4.08 || The Crooked Banister (1/5)

feat. @gorgeoussimplehousecat ♥︎

[stxleslyds]

What do you think about the theories that Jason was sexually abused as a child? Or even possibly while he was comatose after his resurrection?

Implications of this theory include his conversation with Mia (Speedy) and Bruce's message (Battle for the Cowl). In addition, when he was Robin he expressed what was then considered uncharacteristic rage towards the perpetrators of sex crimes.

Garzonas - unrepentant rapist who got no consequences

When a woman killed her sister's rapist and murderer (because Batman's evidence was not admissible in court), Batman said that she went too far with murder. Jason's disagreed with "Good riddance". Good for you, Jason.

His recklessness when dealing with a child sex trafficking ring.

I highly doubt that DC would ever confirm this theory. I would rather they leave it ambiguous because I don't trust them to not botch Jason... much less respectfully address the subject matter.

I have read so many thoughts on Jason that they're starting to blend together. So I apologize if you've already answered this before.

Hello friend! Aside from the fact that I took way too much time to answer your ask, this was also a hard question to come up with an answer to, I wanted to remain respectful of the subjects at hand even though I don’t second this headcanon. But before we keep going, let me put some trigger warnings in this post.

trigger warning: mentions of sexual abuse, child abuse, rape.

First, I would like to bring up these two concepts because I oftentimes mix them up when talking about these “ideas”.

Theory: a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something; an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.

Headcanon: Headcanon generally refers to ideas held by fans of series that are not explicitly supported by sanctioned text or other media. Fans maintain the ideas in their heads, outside of the accepted canon.

I think the idea of Jason having been sexually abused at any point in his lifetime is a mix between a theory and a headcanon. Why I am saying this? Because as you have put in the ask, there has been instances where fandom has found pieces of information that they have considered the base of this idea.

So, if we say that there is a piece of text that might support that idea and they build from that to justify a course of action we would be looking at a theory. In this case Jason having been abused would the reason as to why he acts in that strong and violent way towards cases of sexual abuse/harassment.

In the other hand those pieces of text might not support that idea so fandom headcanons that idea in order to build another layer to a character, in this case Jason having been abused would also justify his actions towards certain criminals.

The “text” (panels, issues, mentions) are most of the time ambiguous, which makes readers have different perspectives in what is being written and what then is made into a theory or headcanon.

Personally, I don’t like this theory or headcanon for various reasons (which I will explain later in the post), and I have read and understood those moments mentioned as Jason just having survived Crime Alley as something general, I don’t think he suffered that kind of abuse but I think he was made aware of that type of behaviour every day that he spent alone in the streets and that why we saw Jason in Batman #408 saying that he had “graduated a long time ago from the streets of crime alley”.

Having said that, I do understand that some of the moments mentioned can be seen as ambiguous and that’s what leads people to theorize/headcanon that idea, because of that I would like to show the panels mentioned in your ask so everyone can read them and make up their own conclusions and then I will talk about the reasons why I don’t like this particular theory/headcanon.

As Robin:

Batman (1940) #422

In these panels we can see Jason as Robin jumping in to defend a woman that was being attacked by a man. There I only see Jason acting like a vigilante would, maybe he was hitting too hard or whatever but Batman has hit people as much as Jason was doing it this time around, plus I, personally, don’t see any kind of problem with Jason beating a man that was harassing and threatening a woman with death.

Right beside we have Jason being on the side of the woman that killed her sister’s attacker. He didn’t see any problem with that woman seeking justice for her sister on her own when the police, Batman and himself couldn’t get the job done.

Here I see Jason having a big problem with authorities and justice system, which is not something new, in Batman #408, Jason says very clearly that he doesn’t trust the system in Gotham (the police, social workers and such), and he was also shown in that comic talking very fondly about his mother and about how much he cared for her when she was at her worst. Let’s remember that Jason loved his mother, he took care of her and resented his father for being abusive towards her and even introducing her to drugs.

Instead understanding these panels as Jason having been abused himself, I see it more as Jason having a humongous understanding of how much women and others suffer in Gotham due to the justice system’s lack of action. I also see Jason as the kind of boy that respected all women and could not sit and do nothing when people were hitting and abusing women just like his father did to his mother.

Batman (1940) #424

This issue starts by saying that Jason jumps into action as soon as he hears someone scream but that he wasn’t going to be prepared to see what was happening. This is the issue where all of us meet Felipe Garzonas, the abuser and rapist of many women. At first Jason doesn’t know what Felipe was doing but after he and Batman “defeat” Felipe, he goes to the room where he finds Gloria in a bed badly hurt and scared. Jason is shocked when he first finds her and after hearing her story in the police station, he becomes more and more happy about the fact that by having caught Felipe, he and Batman would be able to offer some peace and justice to Gloria after he goes to jail, but that doesn’t happen.

They had all the evidence to put Felipe in jail and the police could easily see that Gloria was the victim but because Felipe had someone to back his made-up story up, he was able to not be arrested and jailed.

Jason once again is baffled at the lack of action by the police or simply justice not being able to be made in favour of the true victim. Batman even says that he has noticed that Jason “had become to emotionally invested with the case” which could favour either idea (Jason having suffered sexual abuse or not), in my case I see this once again as Jason not being able to remain calm after doing everything to keep that woman safe and the justice system not being able to do it themselves in a more permanent way (jail time, or whatever).

But that’s not all because Jason being too emotional with that case was brought up as a way to show that Jason couldn’t see that Felipe had been under the influence of drugs, which is something that Jason can see in people very well (do to experience with his mother and his training with Batman). So, Felipe is now a rapist, an abuser, he does drugs and he also has a market for it.

Because Felipe was allowed to go back to his “normal” life he had Gloria be killed, and he kept abusing drugs and women, when Jason finds Gloria’s dead body and that Batman still seems to abide the justice system he snaps. He goes alone to see Felipe and that’s were this iconic panel comes from. The moments before Jason made his first kill and felt no remorse about it. I know this is kinda soft topic because Jason was a teenager, but good for him, kill that bitch. Gotham doesn’t need more people like him.

Batman (1940) #226

This is the issue where Jason attacks the men that were involved with some very nasty stuff involving children. Batman narrates and says that him and Jason had been working on this case for three weeks. Jason jumps into action suddenly and “recklessly” even though Batman considered their investigation wasn’t over, he also says that he thinks that Jason had been “acting oddly” and that he was very “moody, resentful and reckless” and that that attitude could “get him killed”.

This could be used as to add more proof of the abuse idea but I actually see it as build up to Jason’s death, that happened two issues later. Let’s remember that Jason found out of his birth mother and was desperate to find and save her from Joker, because he was a good son but also because he didn’t feel like Bruce loved, cared or appreciated him anymore. Ever since Jason made it clear that he didn’t see the world and justice in the same way that Batman did back in issue #422, Jason and Bruce’s relationship suffered, they just couldn’t see eye to eye on some subjects and Bruce’s neglect or lack of care for what Jason believed in drove Jason to act the way he did in the case involving his mother and the Joker.

Jason obviously has major issues with kids being abused and put in dangerous situations, he as the Red Hood (Winick’s Red Hood) is the same, he really wants kids to be taken far away from drugs so they cannot be manipulated, used and abused by Gotham’s Drug Lords. Here I can see some of the same thing, Jason being protective of those kids and getting fed up with how much time he and Batman had to wait to do anything about the subject, along side it I bet Jason wasn’t seeing the police or the justice system doing anything about the whole thing so that could have probably fuelled his desperate attack of those horrible people.

As Batman/Red Hood:

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3

Battle for the Cowl… yeah I am going to be brutally honest about this, if anyone thinks that this is someway or somehow proof that Jason had been abused in the past then I think we have very different ways of thinking how survivors must be treated or written in comics and other media.

This to me is pure bad writing, this is some of the worst things I have seen being written in comics. Whether or not this implies Jason being abused or not, Bruce’s message is absolutely disgusting and not at all helpful, it is even worse when you realise that Dick, a canon sexual assault survivor, is the one playing the message to Jason even though Jason explicitly said that he didn’t want to hear it again. That Book, issue, page and panel are extremely badly written and is one of the most terrible Jason and Dick characterizations ever.

So, I don’t really care if this panel is supposed to offer support to that theory or headcanon, I really dislike that speech and if it is actually referencing Jason as being a survivor of child abuse, then Tony S. Daniel needs to make an apology from today to the day he dies.

“Of all my failures, you have been my biggest” “You were broken and I thought I could put the pieces back together. I thought I could do for you what could never be done for me. Make you whole” “What happened to you as a child… the terror, the pain, the horrors” “You needed repair and instead I gave you an outlet to act out on”

Absolute garbage writing. Me, as Bruce is number one hater, know that that speech is even out of character for Bruce. Listen, if Jason had been a victim of sexual assault or just being a kid living alone in Crime Alley, no one should leave a message like that, telling a victim that they were broken and needed fixing, what the hell? No, thank you, this issue proves nothing except that Battle for the Cowl was a mistake as a whole.

Green Arrow (2001) #72

Judd Winick is clever I will always say that, and while I do see why people think that Jason is making the “child abuse idea” canon I still think that the way that he talks is still fairly ambiguous if not just him playing mind games with Mia.

I know it sounds wrong, but hear me out, Winick, in this arc makes Batman say that Jason distracted him and Oliver just to take Mia as a “hostage” because that was Jason’s way to mess with him. This arc happens right after UtRH and Jason is a bit more unhinged than ever. But he doesn’t harm Mia, he just talks to her, he tries to make her see why he acts the way he does and to do that he talks about how much he sees of himself in her. Do I believe that Jason suffered the same things Mia did? No. Do I think that their past is similar? Yes.

But Jason doesn’t only use the fact that they have similar pasts to make Mia rebel against her “no killing ways” and Oliver like he did with Bruce, but he also brings up the fact that their past is incredibly different to the lives of Bruce and Oliver, and that those differences are of importance.

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t see Jason bringing Mia’s past for anything other than manipulating her and kinda make her see Oliver in a negative light the way that he does Batman and Bruce. Jason was at a point in his life where all he wanted to do was deliver the same pain that he had gone through but he didn’t do it by physically harming anyone (Mia was left unscratched), he was just out there trying to play mind games so he could break more havoc in Batman’s name.

Mia’s past is just way too different to whatever we have seen in canon from Jason’s past. Maybe I am wrong, after all, I only read about Mia in that arc.

-

With all that having been said I think it’s pretty obvious that I just don’t think that Jason’ having been sexually abused as a child actually happened, and I also don’t like to think about his past in that way. His canon suffering could have made him act that violently against criminals involved with sexual attacks and drug-related crimes, but I also think that’s just how Jason was, he really disliked the justice system in Gotham and saw how much it failed to protect victims, so now that he had the training to help those who couldn’t do it for themselves, he tried his best to bring criminals to justice.

And when that didn’t work, he grew more and more frustrated with Batman’s methods which led him to be more unforgiving and violent.

I also don’t like the theory/headcanon as a whole because I think its one of those things that Fandom comes up with just for that extra angst factor in their favourite character’s story so they can make him suffer more and because of that no other Robin or character as a whole can ever understand his pain or whatever. In this fandom there is a lot of “competitive trauma” going on and I honestly dislike it a lot.

About Jason having been assaulted while he was in a coma, I don't really know, he was at a hospital for what I believe were six moths, maybe that idea comes from real life happenings but I have never thought of that happening in Jason's life and I would rather not give it much more thought.

Also, I believe that DC just like fandom would have never been able to handle the subject of Jason having been a sexual assault survivor with the respect and care that it actually needs. We have seen DC treat sexual harassment and abuse as nothing but a side plot or bringing it up in an extremely disturbing way. In Fandom some (very few) people end up glamorising or romanticising these subjects so, I don’t believe the comic world was or is ready to treat a backstory like this with the respect it needs.

Maybe I haven’t even treated the subject with the respect and care that it needs and if that’s the case then I am truly sorry.

I had never answered a question regarding this subject before and I really appreciate all the questions you send my way; they do make my brain happy. I am really sorry it took me this long to write an answer to you but I hope the post is good enough for all the time I made you wait!

I hope you have an amazing week!

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

Timeline: Batman

google doc / ao3

This is my best attempt at a post-crisis timeline based on age-- specifically Bruce’s age every time he adopted and/or met one of his children. 

List of events:

Bruce’s parents die

Bruce becomes Batman

Dick’s parents die

Dick becomes Robin

Jason becomes Robin and is adopted

Jason dies

Tim becomes Robin

Cass appears

Dick is adopted

Tim is adopted

Cass is adopted

Damian becomes Robin

I’ll be citing my work by issue and panel. This isn’t my most organized work, and I don’t know how well tumblr will let me translate it, so I do recommend the google doc. I imagine the image quality here won’t be great. 

Notes:

This is a post-crisis timeline (1986-2011). I’ll be referencing a few pre-crisis panels, but I won’t be touching the New 52 or anything after it. That’s a different game of ball with its own, extremely bad, timeline.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 1985-1986 series that rebooted the DC timeline and altered some backstories, including Jason’s. Pre-crisis, his backstory was almost identical to Dick’s. Post-crisis, he changed to the “steal the wheels off the Batmobile” origin. Anything written before 1986 is a weak source for my purposes. 

My original question centered around Bruce’s age through the process of meeting and acquiring his children. In this timeline, those children are (1) Dick Grayson, (2) Jason Todd, (3) Cassandra Cain, (4) Tim Drake, and (5) Damian Wayne. I was envisioning an interview where the kids explain their family timeline to outsiders. I did not anticipate the project taking this long. 

We’re talking about 72 years of content here, which means decades of contradiction, conflation, and rewrites. I’m pretty satisfied with my work product, but please understand that there are no perfect answers. I’m going to cite my sources, and I’ll do my best to explain why I chose those sources specifically, but it’s pretty likely that for every panel I pull, there will be others with different numbers. We’re all going to have to live with that. 

Event timeline

*I’m defining Jason’s age by the time elapsed since his birth, but you could make an argument for using time he has been alive, which is, of course, different. That’s why the parentheses are there. 

Age differences

As Robin

----------

Bruce’s parents die

Pretty consistently, Bruce is written as eight years old the night his parents died. 

Detective Comics #0 (1994)

This is a zero issue where Bruce thinks back on his origin story. It was written long after Crisis on Infinite Earths (1986), and I tend to give a lot of weight to ages written in summaries of past plot lines, my reasoning being that it’s easier to be consistent in one issue than it is to be consistent through a month to month story. 

Bruce first appeared as an adult in Detective Comics #27 (1939), and the Waynes were already dead at that point, so flashbacks are the only available material anyway. 

Gotham Knights #6 (2000)

The text is Hugo Strange talking about Bruce, and the image is Tim and Dick playing at Wayne Enterprises. 

I’ll take a second here to note that I did find at least one alternate age for Bruce— in Superman/Batman Secret Files & Origins (2003), Bruce was 10 when his parents died. I’m disregarding that in favor of the stronger 8 year old timeline, especially in light of Batman #404 (1987).

Batman #404 is the beginning of Batman: Year One, which was explicitly written to clarify the Batman timeline post-crisis, and it’s the basis of most of my calculations for Bruce and Dick’s ages.

----------

Bruce becomes Batman

According to Year One, Bruce was 26 years old when he became Batman. I’m using his age at his parents’ deaths, his age when he returned to Gotham, and his 18 year timeline.

Batman #404 puts Bruce at age 25 when he returned to Gotham in January. 

Batman #404 (1987)

Bruce gives his dramatic, “Yes, Father, I will become a bat,” line in March. In the same scene, he says that it has been 18 years since his parents’ deaths. Knowing that they died when Bruce was eight, that puts Bruce at 26 years old the day he became Batman, which makes sense considering Bruce’s birthday is usually set at February 19th. 

He was 25 in January, turned 26 in February, and became Batman at 26, 18 years after his parents’ death. 

Batman #404 (1987)

Post-crisis, DC built timelines off the “Year” model. Year One is Batman’s beginning, and events after that are measured by how far away they are from the year Bruce became Batman. I’ll be using the Year model for Dick’s life events next. 

----------

Dick’s parents die

The Graysons died in Year Two. Using the Year Model, Dick was 12 when his parents died, and Bruce was 37. 

Year timelines appear a fair amount, especially in issues titled “Secret Files & Origins.” I pulled this bit from Batman Secret Files & Origins (1997) because it was the easiest to screenshot. 

Batman Secret Files & Origins (1997)

Year Two would place Bruce at 27 years old. I’m calculating Dick’s age backwards, based on him being 13 years old during Year Three. 

Batman Secret Files & Origins (1997) 

----------

Dick becomes Robin

Dick became Robin in Year Three, when he was 13 years old and Bruce was 28. I’m using two different issues to calculate the number. 

Batman #441 (1989)

Batman #441 is from Tim’s introduction story. It takes place “months” after Jason’s death. We’ll get to that part. In Batman #441, Tim asked Dick to be Robin again in order to help Bruce, who was visibly unstable after Jason’s death. Dick says that he can’t go back to being Robin, just like he can’t go back to being 13 years old. The strong implication there is that Dick became Robin at 13, which corresponds to Dick’s statements in Batman #416 (1988). 

In Batman #416, Dick as Nightwing returns to confront Bruce about Jason becoming Robin. He says that he was Robin for six years, and he stopped being Robin at 19.

Batman #416 (1988)

If Dick stopped being Robin at 19, after 6 years, that would put him at 13 when he debuted as Robin, the same number from Batman #441 (1989).

Dick was 13 during Year Three, so 12 during Year Two, the year his parents died. Those numbers answer the first bit of my original question. I wanted to know how old Dick and Bruce were when Dick became his child. It’s a bit more of a complicated question for Dick, since he was originally Bruce’s ward, then adopted as an adult. 

Based on the timeline so far, Dick became Bruce’s ward at 12 years old, while Bruce was 27.  

----------

Jason becomes Robin and is adopted

As previously discussed (see Notes), Jason’s timeline is complicated by Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986). Pre-crisis, Jason first appeared in Batman #336 (1983) as a former circus acrobat very similar to Dick.

Jason’s origin story reboots at Batman #408 (1987), which describes the switch-off between Dick and Jason. I’m building a lot of my timeline off of that issue. At the beginning, Dick gets shot by the Joker, and as Bruce carries him away, the media ask if Robin is dead. Dick isn’t dead, but back at the manor, Bruce decides to retire Robin as a role, based on the idea that crimefighting is too dangerous for a child. 

Batman #408 (1987)

This version is more or less from Bruce’s point of view, but there’s a contrasting version from Dick’s point of view later, in Batman #416 (1987). That one has a significantly different tone, and I already cited it once (page 13) because Dick talks about his age and the amount of time he was Robin.  

Batman #408 (1987)

The second part of the issue takes place “weeks” later. Bruce goes to Crime Alley to mourn his parents on the anniversary of their death. He comes back to find that somebody stole the wheels off the Batmobile. The somebody was Jason, and by the end of Batman #409 (1987), Bruce is calling Jason “Robin.”

Batman #408 (1987) seems to divide Dick’s departure and Jason’s introduction by only “weeks,” in the post-crisis reboot. Dick’s version of the story in Batman #416 (1987) is much less charitable to Bruce— instead of ending on a panel of Bruce smiling, it shows the aftermath of Dick in tears as Bruce walks away. Dick goes on to describe leaving the house, going to college for a semester, then dropping out. According to Dick, Bruce didn’t even say goodbye. 

Batman #416 (1987)

I don’t think the stories are contradictory; they’re just different experiences of the same events, separated by only eight issues. Dick tells us that he was 19 when he left Wayne Manor, and Bruce chooses his new Robin “weeks” later. 

As a summary, we know that Bruce’s parents died when he was eight, and that 18 years passed before he became Batman at 26. One year later, Dick’s parents died while Bruce was 27. One year after that, Dick became Robin at the age of 13. From those facts, Bruce is 15 years older than Dick. 

All of my calculations of Bruce’s age are based off of the age gap between him and Dick. Dick was 19 when Jason became Robin, so we know that at that time, Bruce was 34. We also know that at that time, Jason was 12. 

I can’t show a source for that number because it appears on the letter page of Batman #408 (1987), Jason’s introduction.

Even after a significant amount of investigation, I can’t find a copy of the letter page, but it’s cited by enough secondary sources for me to be comfortable using it. That issue is specifically written to show Jason’s origin, so it makes sense that it would contain Jason’s age at inception, even if the number wasn’t in the actual exposition. 

From Jason being 12, we can establish a seven-year age gap between Jason and Dick, who was 19 at the time. Now we know Bruce, Dick, and Jason’s ages, and the age differences between them.

Back to my original question— when did Bruce acquire Jason? We know that Bruce was 34 when Jason became his ward, and Jason was 12. The next question, however, is when did Bruce adopt Jason? On this one, I’m making an educated guess. 

Again we have to differentiate between pre-crisis and post-crisis timelines. Pre-crisis, there’s a full storyline about the fact that Bruce did not adopt Jason, although not for lack of trying. In Batman #374 (1984), the Child Welfare Bureau investigates Bruce when it notices that Bruce has not adopted Jason— and is not even, in fact, his legal guardian. 

Batman #374 (1984)

The rest of the storyline is about Jason’s custody. A villain named Natalia Knight (Nocturna) adopts Jason in an attempt to get Bruce to marry her in order to become Jason’s father. In the court scene in Batman #377 (1984), Bruce says that he filed to adopt Jason sometime beforehand, although it’s unclear to me whether he means he filed between those issues or the CWB documents were incomplete.

Natalia does adopt Jason in Batman #378 (1984), and he briefly lives with her before returning to Wayne Manor in Batman #381 (1985), directly before the reboot. 

I’m including all of that for two reasons: first, I do think it’s important to clarify both this version and the post-crisis version I’m about to address. Second, I spent years under the impression that Bruce adopted Jason pre-crisis because of one, well-known scene. 

Batman #377 (1984)

Batman #378 (1984)

Batman #381 (1985)

Donna Troy gets married in Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (1985). At the wedding, Bruce and Dick have a conversation about Jason and about their own relationship. A few of those panels get spread around because they contain what I would consider a defining moment between Dick and Bruce. 

I’m certainly not complaining about the amount of times I’ve seen the wedding conversation, but I think that, in regards to Jason, seeing just those panels has created a misconception.

Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (1985)

Without context, it looks, at least to me, like Dick is saying that Bruce has adopted Jason pre-crisis, which isn’t true. This issue takes place between the Natalia adoption in Batman #378 (1984) and Jason’s return to the manor in Batman #381 (1985), and the panels directly before the exchange make that clear. I just didn’t see those panels until I looked through the whole issue for this project. 

I’m reasonably certain that in the past, I publicly cited this issue as evidence of Jason’s adoption, and I was wrong about that. [Note: As it turns out, I was only partially wrong. See section Correction.]

Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (1985)

As we see, the wedding conversation is in the context of the Natalia adoption. With that cleared up, and with the pre-crisis timeline filled out, let’s move to post-crisis. 

In my brief read-through of Batman #404-427 (1987-1988), I didn’t find any direct references to Jason’s status. Those issues begin at the reboot and end at Jason’s death. However, Dick and Jason’s statements after the fact do tell us that post-crisis, Bruce did adopt Jason. 

In Batman #436 (1989), Dick returns to the manor in the direct aftermath of Jason’s death, and while he is there, he sees that Bruce removed any trace of Jason from the house. There aren’t any trophies in the Batcave, and there aren’t any pictures of Jason on the nightstand displaying Bruce’s family photos. 

Dick says that Jason was Bruce’s son.

Batman #436 (1989)

I think it’s fair to ask whether Dick is being literal here, because even if Bruce hadn’t legally adopted Jason, it would still be more than appropriate to call them father and son. I’m not going to place my opinion solely on this kind of statement, even if it does appear pretty regularly from 1988 to the end of the timeline.

Green Arrow/Black Canary #4 (2007)

We get a more definite answer later, during Tim’s first appearance. In Tim’s origin story, he deduces Batman and Robin’s secret identities after he sees footage of Robin doing a type of flip that only the Flying Graysons could do. Tim was at the circus the night Dick’s parents died, so he saw Dick do the flip there, then saw Dick become an orphan. 

Because Tim knew that Dick was the first Robin, he correctly identified Bruce as Batman and Jason as the second Robin. He tells Dick all of this in Batman #441 (1989).

Batman #441 (1989)

Tim does specifically use the word “adopts” here, and that’s good enough for me. The last part is guesswork— I don’t know for certain how old Jason and Bruce were when the adoption took place, but I’m electing to say Jason was 12, the same age as he was when he became Robin. 

I picked that number both out of convenience and because Tim seems to be putting Jason’s adoption and the second Robin’s appearance at around the same time. With that in mind, I think that Jason was 12 years old both when he became Robin and when Bruce adopted him. Using the age gap we already established, that would put Bruce at age 34. 

Circling back to my original question, Dick became Bruce’s ward when Dick was 12 and Bruce was 27. Jason became Bruce’s ward, then adoptive son when Jason was 12 and Bruce was 34. 

At this point in the timeline, Bruce is 34 with one former ward and one adopted son. 

----------

Correction 

A few days after I wrote my section about Jason’s appearance and adoption, I realized that I was missing a panel citation in my discussion of Jason’s death. The panel is from New Titan #55 (1989), and you’ll see me cite it when I talk about Jason’s death certificate. 

New Titans #55 (1989) is the issue where Dick, who is with the Teen Titans,  finds out about Jason’s death. While I was combing through the issue for the panels I wanted, I reread a scene I had completely forgotten about. Dick goes back to the manor to speak to Bruce, and it doesn’t go well.

New Titans #55 (1989)

I have three comments here. First, I do think this scene is inconsistent with the simultaneous story in the Batman title. In this version, Dick and Bruce have a very aggressive confrontation, but in Batman #436 (1989), Dick appears to be returning to the manor for the first time since Jason died, and there isn’t any reference to a prior fight. 

Putting that aside, Bruce does explicitly say that he adopted Jason, and that’s more, stronger verification of a post-crisis adoption. Lastly, it’s pretty clear that Bruce and Dick are talking about the wedding scene. 

I already explained that the wedding scene is pre-crisis, and in the original text, that conversation is about Bruce wanting to, but not being able to, adopt Jason. New Titans #55 (1989) carries the wedding scene into post-crisis canon, changing the language in the process. In this version, Bruce has adopted Jason. 

I was still wrong about the wedding scene because in the past, I used it as evidence of a pre-crisis adoption. It isn’t pre-crisis evidence, but it is, in a roundabout way, evidence of the post-crisis adoption. I wanted to clear that up before I move on to Jason’s death. 

----------

Jason dies

Jason’s death is by far the shakiest point on my timeline, but I’ve chosen to put him at 15 the day he died in Batman #427 (1988). 

I think it’s safe to say that Jason was either 14 or 15 when he died, and my basic conclusion is that running numbers doesn’t give me a definite answer. There’s a cop-out option based on an extraordinarily poor source, and I’m taking the cop-out. 

The general consensus seems to be that Jason was 15 at his death, citation to Jason’s death certificate. Jason’s death certificate appears in two different places, and I think most folks conflate the two. 

To my knowledge, the only copy of Jason’s death certificate in full appears in The Batman Files (2011), where it does list Jason’s age as 15. 

The Batman Files (2011)

Now there is a partial copy in Batman Annual #25 (2006), which I would argue is a very reliable reference when it comes to Jason. That issue is part of the Under the Red Hood story, the one where Jason returns to Gotham for the first time after his resurrection. In fact, the specific annual issue has a timeline for Jason’s events counting forward from his death. 

Here’s the problem: the issue doesn’t say his age at death. The partial copy of his death certificate looks like this. 

Batman Annual #25 (2006) 

I think that when most folks remember a death certificate, they think of this one, the one from a very important issue, instead of The Batman Files (2011) which, as noted, is a very bad source. 

I have three issues with The Batman Files (2011): the format, the publishing date, and the other information on the certificate. First, The Batman Files (2011) isn’t a comic book at all. It’s a commemorative book published in collaboration with DC in 2011. Now I don’t think that fact completely removes the book as a source, but it certainly damages its value as one. 

My problem with that date, 2011, is that it’s the year the New 52 premiered. I called it a commemorative book because it’s meant to be a look back at a fully complete timeline, a kind of “this is us saying goodbye” product. The date and format alone make me hesitant to cite the certificate, but on top of that, the certificate is inconsistent with prior canon. 

I am intimately familiar with retcons and conflicting numbers in the DC timeline. I made a point at the beginning of this paper to tell you that although this is my best attempt to make a cohesive timeline, assuming that I can carve out a cohesive timeline is fundamentally flawed. 

I’m not saying that a single contradictory number is enough to make me disregard a source. I am saying that in this particular conversation about an already suspect source, I’m going to take inconsistency into account. 

In New Titans #55 (1989), the issue from Corrections, Dick finds out about Jason’s death because a team member notices Jason’s status is set at “unknown.” Dick uses Bruce’s passcode to access restricted information, and he and the Titans see that Jason’s real status is “deceased.” 

The death certificate in The Batman Files (2011) marks Jason’s height at 4’6 and his age at 15. In contrast, Dick’s scene puts Jason at 5’4, and its only reference to Jason’s age is a very relatable question from Donna. “How old was he, anyway?”

New Titans #55 (1989)

There’s a substantial difference between the two heights, and I think it’s also worth noting that for a 15 year old American male, 4’6 is in the 0.1 height percentile. In the past, I and many others have tried to justify that height along the lines of Jason being malnourished or similarly afflicted. Personally, I liked the parallel between this height for Jason and Damian’s height at his own death in 2013, and I know I’ve talked about that in the past.

I’m not criticizing anyone for using the 4’6 number, but I do think the unlikelihood of a 15 year old that size is worth bringing up. 

In summary, The Batman Files (2011) is so bad of a source that I’m only willing to use it as a last resort. Unfortunately, it’s time for a last resort. 

I mentioned a timeline in Batman Annual #25 (2006) that counts forward from Jason’s death. I’m not going to use image cites here because they’re just isolated text boxes labeled either “six months later” or “one year later.”

Using that timeline, we know that Jason’s resurrection took place six months after his death. He spent one year in a coma, then one year on the street, then one year with the League of Assassins. Finally, he spent a nebulous time training before he returned to Gotham. 

We know that Jason was gone for a minimum of three and a half years, then whatever time “training” includes. Personally, I’m applying my best attempt at comic logic to say he was missing for somewhere between three and four years. 

To understand the next bit, I need to point out that from Jason’s death on, I’m going to be using Tim’s age to track time in the same way I’ve been using Dick’s so far. 

As a reminder, I know what age Bruce was when Dick became Robin (28), and I know Dick’s age at the same point (13), so I know there’s a 15 year age difference. As I track Dick’s age through the timeline, I add 15 to get Bruce’s. 

In the same way, I know what age Dick was when Jason became Robin (19), and I know Jason’s age at the same point (12), so I know there’s a 7 year age difference. I can use that number ongoing. 

I know that Tim was 13 when he made his first appearance as Robin, and I’ll get into that in the next section. After that, I’m placing Dick, Tim, and Cass’s adoptions based on Tim’s age. 

To do that, I need to know how much older Dick is than Tim, and I can only get that by knowing Jason’s age at his death, sort of. 

How long was Jason Robin? If I had that information, I could establish Jason’s age by counting up from 12, the age when he became Robin, then establish Tim’s age from there.  

I can’t really answer that question. There is a panel from Batman #436 where Dick, apparently in his first time at the manor since Jason’s death says the following. 

Batman #436 (1989)

My instinctual interpretation is it’s been two years since he stopped being Robin at 19, making Dick 21 and Jason 14. In my opinion, that’s straightforward plain language, but it seems like I’m in the minority on that one, and most folks read it as Dick saying it’s been two years since he was last at the manor. We know from Batman #416 (1988) that Dick’s last visit to the manor was 18 months after Dick left home. 

Batman #136 (1988)

I think the most honest thing to say is that Jason was Robin for an indeterminate amount of time that was somewhere between two and three years. I don’t know which number is closer. I also, if you remember, think that Jason was gone from Gotham for somewhere between three and four years, but I don’t know where in that range the real number is. 

Here’s why absolutely nothing I’ve said in the past seven pages matters: I need to build my timeline based on the age gap between Jason and Tim. 

I don’t know how old Tim was when Jason died. 

I know how old Tim was at his first appearance as Robin, and that’s a different number. 

We’ll finish this conversation in a moment.

----------

Tim becomes Robin

We begin, thankfully, with a straightforward fact. Tim’s first storyline spans Batman #440-442 (1989). The arc is called A Lonely Place of Dying, and we already talked about it. Tim, having watched Batman and Robin from the shadows for years, comes forwards in the aftermath of Jason’s death in an attempt to convince Dick to become Robin for a second time.

Batman #441 (1989)

We know that Tim was 13 years old at the time, but I do need to clarify exactly what time that was— an indeterminate amount of time after Jason’s death. 

The word that pops up a couple of time in Tim’s first arc is “months,” from Tim and Two-Face. How many months? Who’s to say. 

Batman #442 (1989)

So, from the top. We know that Bruce was eight when his parents died, 26 when he became Batman, 27 when he met Dick, 28 when Dick became Robin, and 34 when he met Jason.

Dick was 12 when he met Bruce, 13 when he became Robin, 19 when he left home and Jason became Robin. 

Jason was 12 when he became Robin.

Bruce is 15 years older than Dick. Bruce is 22 years older than Jason. 

Dick is 7 years older than Jason.

How long was Jason Robin? Unknown, but somewhere between two and three years. At that point, he died. “Months” after that, Tim was 13. 

Here, we need to acknowledge that Jason could have been either 14 or 15 at his death, and at the same time, Tim was either 12 or 13. We need to know how far they are apart to calculate Tim’s age in relation to Jason, Dick, and Bruce— ongoing, we will always know exactly how old Tim is, so (if we know how far apart Jason and Tim are) we will always know Bruce, Dick, and Jason’s age from there. 

How much older than Tim is Jason? Somewhere between one and three years, I guess, but I can’t really go beyond a well-researched guess. In my opinion, there isn’t a straightforward answer for this one.

Having presented my facts, here is my conclusion. Jason was 15 when he died. At the same time, Tim was 13. They are two years apart. 

Why? To begin, I’m more comfortable using the number we already have for Tim, 13, than I am dropping him to 12 on the mere possibility that he could have been 12. 

Second, even though The Batman Files (2011) is a terrible source, it does at least sort of indicate that the official DC position is a Jason who was 15 years old at his death. 

Third, visually speaking, Jason looks closer to 15 than 14 at his death. Is that good evidence? No, absolutely not. Comic book art is definitionally variable, but I am going to pull a few panels for you to look over. 

Batman #427 (1988)

Finally, I feel that Jason and Tim are, in later works, treated as if they are different ages. I’m not going to go into much detail on that one because it is purely a personal reaction, but I would refer to Teen Titans #29 (2005) as an example. That issue has Jason and Tim’s first meeting, after Jason comes to the tower specifically to attack Tim. 

Teen Titans #27 (2005)

Another well-known issue to check out is Teen Titans #47 (2007).

My basic position is that there are so many ways, all uncertain, to slice Jason and Tim’s ages that I can take my pick. I chose the ones that most closely mirror later canon, fall most squarely into the possible range, and feel the most intuitively right. 

They also have the benefit of simplicity, which was very much a factor. 

Don’t agree with me? Fair enough. I think I’ve given you enough information to make an educated judgment, and I’ve also gone ahead and made a timeline in the alternative. In this one, Jason was 14 at death, and he and Tim are only one year apart. 

----------

In the Alternative

----------

Cass appears

Having progressed beyond Jason and Tim’s age gap, we reenter simple canon. I hope you’re as pleased as I am. 

Cass was 17 years old at her first appearance, which we can establish easily based on two different issues. Cass first appears in Batman #567 (1999), during an arc called No Man’s Land. At the time, she is working for Barbara Gordon in the aftermath of an earthquake that destroyed most of Gotham. We learn Cass’s backstory through that issue. 

Cass’s biological father is David Cain, a villain, who raised Cass in isolation, never exposing her to a verbal language or allowing any kind of socialization. By comic book logic, her upbringing gave her a near-superhuman ability to understand and anticipate physical actions, as those actions are her only form of communication. 

Cain trained her as a child assassin, then took her to her first kill. Cass murdered a man and experienced, through his body language, the pain he felt at his death. Immediately afterward, she ran away from her father.

Batgirl #62 (2005)

We know that Cass was eight years old when she killed and ran. We also know that her first appearance in Gotham was nine years after she ran, thanks to Barbara Gordon’s file. 

Batgirl #1 (2000)

Simple enough. She was 17. How old was everybody else? We find out from Tim’s timeline. 

This next bit will come up a few times. We know that Tim was 15 from at least 1993 to 2003, established by three different issues. We know from Detective Comics #668 (1993) that Tim was 15 during Knightquest, the arc where Jean-Paul Valley was briefly Batman. Barbara tells us in 2002 that Tim is still 15, and Tim turns 16 on-panel in 2003. 

In Knightquest, Tim gets his driver’s license early, at age 15, because Jack Drake is in a wheelchair. I suppose the wording here is ambiguous on a technicality, but I don’t think there’s any significant argument against Tim being 15; if he was only 14, the language would be different.  

Detective Comics #668 (1993)

Next, in Batgirl #24 (2002), Barbara says she’s “sending a 15 year old” as she reaches for Tim’s com line.

Batgirl #24 (2002)

We could stop here for Cassandra’s appearance, since that happened in 1999, between the 1993 issue and the 2002 reference. For completion’s sake, however, let’s note that Robin #116 (2003) is about Tim’s 16th birthday. He forgets about it, so his step-mother throws a surprise party. 

Robin #116 (2003)

Okay, so Tim was 15 when Cass appeared at age 17. That puts Bruce at 39, Dick at 24, and Jason at 17 if you’re counting by years elapsed since his birth. 

Bruce met his daughter when he was 39 and she was 17, in reference to my original question. Cass is 22 years younger than Bruce, seven years younger than Dick, the same age as Jason, and two years older than Tim. 

----------

Dick is adopted

This one, having already established Tim’s timeline, is very simple. Dick was adopted in Gotham Knights #17 (2001).

Gotham Knights #17 (2001)

Again, Tim was 15 from 1993 to 2003, and 2001 falls within that range. Tim was 15, which makes Dick 24 and Bruce 39. 

At this point in the timeline, Bruce, a 39 year old, has two adopted children, one of whom is deceased as far as Bruce is concerned. His adopted children are (17) and 24. He has already met two of his future children, Cass and Tim. 

----------

This is PART ONE. I’ll reblog Part Two onto this post when I wake up, which should be around the same time this posts. 

[aion-rsa]

Zodiac Killer Code Cracked After 51 Years

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

An international team of private citizens and codebreakers have cracked the Zodiac Killer’s mysterious “340 Cipher” 51 years after it landed on the FBI’s desk. The Zodiac Killer attacked at least eight people in California between 1966 and 1969. He taunted investigators in the aftermath of his spree, sending letters and puzzles about his unsolved cases. He claimed to have killed at least 37 people, although only five of those deaths can be definitively attributed to the killer. While the Zodiac Killer has never been caught, his case is still active. But now one major mystery has been solved.

Zodiac had a habit of taunting police by sending letters to the press, and several of those contained intricate codes, some of which he claimed would ultimately reveal his identity. This marks the second coded message to be broken by civilians. In July of 1969, a puzzle sent in pieces to The San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and Vallejo Times-Herald newspapers in 1969, was cracked by a school teacher from Salinas, Calif., and his wife. The puzzle was known as the 408 cipher after the number of characters it depicted. This first cipher laid out what was essentially the Zodiac Killer’s manifesto, with lines such as “I like killing because it is so much fun.”

This second cipher came to be known as the “340 Cipher,” and was sent in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle in November of 1969.

“I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME,” reads the message, according to David Oranchak, a member of the team which deciphered the cryptogram. “THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME, I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER, BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER, BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME, WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE, SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH. I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH.” 

The coded message contains 340 characters, but no obvious clues.

The section which says “That wasn’t me on the TV show” refers to an episode of Bay Area television talk show, The Jim Dunbar Show, where attorney Melvin Belli was the guest. Someone claiming to be the Zodiac called the Oakland police station on Oct. 22, 1969, demanding Belli, or Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey, appear on the show. While the show was being broadcast, the station received several calls from a man who called himself “Sam,” and kept hanging up in order to stop police from tracing the calls. 

The cryptic message was sent two and a half weeks later.  On Dec. 20, 1969, Belli received a letter from the Zodiac at his home. To confirm he was the killer, a portion of a victim’s bloodstained shirt was included in the envelope. The message was interpreted as the Zodiac Killer’s way of saying Sam was an imposter.

The coded message was first submitted to the FBI Laboratory on Nov. 13, 1969. Their Cryptographic and Racketeering Records Unit reviewed numerous proposed solutions over the past 51 years, but none had merit. On Friday, Oranchak posted a video on YouTube detailing how he, Sam Blake of Australia and Jarl Van Eycke of Belgium cracked the code. “Last weekend, a team I’m on solved the 340 and submitted it to the FBI,” Oranchak told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They have confirmed the solution. No joke! This is the real deal.”

To break the cipher, the team collected information about variations in the cipher text. 

“My main contribution here was actually enumerating many possible reading directions through the cipher, in total over 650,000,” Sam Blake told ZodiacKillerFacts.com. “David and I both ran these through azdecrypt and zkdecrypto respectively. Interestingly, only azdecrypt was able to find the fragments of the complete solution. It was a needle in a haystack. Even finding the right haystack to search in was lucky.”

The three experts checked and expanded each other’s work extensively before submitting their findings to the authorities on Friday, Dec. 4. The bureau called Oranchak three times on Saturday morning. 

“When I talked to the FBI, they only needed to make one change to the solution.” Oranchak told ZodiacKillerFacts.com. The team deciphered a six-letter section as “soo her.” Oranchak said the FBI’s “cryptanalyst called me and she said she thinks it’s supposed to say, ‘sooner’” instead.”

The FBI confirmed the cryptologic researchers’ claims about the cipher popularly known as Z340. “The FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by private citizens,” the FBI’s San Francisco office tweeted Friday.  “The Zodiac Killer case remains an ongoing investigation for the FBI San Francisco and our local law enforcement partners. The Zodiac Killer terrorized multiple communities across Northern California, and even though decades have gone by, we continue to seek justice for the victims of these brutal crimes.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

While the Zodiac Killer was never caught, the most likely suspect remains Arthur Leigh Allen, who died of a heart attack in 1992 having never been formally charged with the killings. But other suspects have held the attention of amateur sleuths through the years, although only a small handful have appeared credible. Perhaps the cracking of the latest Zodiac code will finally bring investigators a step closer to solving the case.

The post Zodiac Killer Code Cracked After 51 Years appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3r0zx7k

[trasheddie]

Help Me Out

(A/N: so this is a little fic about the Holy Trinity because I love them and I need all three of them to be okay. Also, the fight scene fallout is based on the headcanon I posted for it on here earlier. Can also be read on AO3.)

ONSDAG 12:25

Isak wasn’t there when she walked into class.

She’d known there was a good chance he wasn’t going to be, considering he probably had a broken nose and she hadn’t seen him around the previous two days, but it still hurt when her eyes landed on his empty seat. Sana had spent the better part of the weekend drowning in guilt over what happened at the karaoke bar. Visions of sticky, blood-covered hands stained the backs of her eyelids every time she closed them, along with ones of Noora’s disappointed face and Yousef’s frame pressed against hers. It had been a hellish way to end what was supposed to be a nice afternoon.

Sana sighed and plopped down at the table. It felt empty without the blond boy next to her. She never realized how much she enjoyed their friendly banter until he wasn’t around, and it left her with a sick feeling in her stomach knowing that it was her brother’s fist that was responsible for his absence. She hadn’t bothered trying to talk to Elias about the fight. He had already shut himself in his room by the time she’d gotten home Friday night, and at that point she’d been too drained to bring it up anyway. He wasn’t acting like himself lately. Instead of being the sporty, fun-loving big brother that she knew, Elias was getting drunk and starting brawls with teenagers. Sana was officially worried about him.

The teacher called the students’ attention up to the board to begin class. Sana pulled out her textbook and resolved that, at the very least, she could take some notes for Isak so he wouldn’t fall behind. The boy was ridiculous when it came to passing biology, even if he liked to pretend that he never stressed about anything school related. Sana remembered seeing him nearly blow a gasket the one time he missed a pop quiz on a sick day. She rolled her eyes at the memory and smiled a little. Maybe focusing on work would help take her mind off her disastrous social life for a while.

ONSDAG 13:30

Sana headed straight to her locker when the bell rang. Usually she would grab a bite to eat and sit with her friends, but the thought of facing Noora and Vilde after everything that happened made her gut twist unpleasantly, so she decided against it. She considered looking for Eva, or possibly Chris instead. They had been distant recently and she missed them a lot. Out of all the girls, those two were the easiest to talk to and right now she could use a distraction.

Sana walked out the front doors and in the direction of the courtyard where most kids hung out for lunch, but stopped short when she heard a familiar high pitched giggle. Her gaze zeroed in on the blonde hair and pink jacket immediately, situated in a sea of similar looking girls, all with trilling laughs. Vilde looked like she was having the time of her life. Noora and Eva flanked her sides, with Chris not far away, smiles bright and gleaming. Another ten of the twenty Pepsi-Max crew sat around them in a circle, including Ingrid and Sara, who completed the ensemble.

Sana felt a vicious stab in her abdomen as she looked at the scene. This was her worst nightmare. Tears gathered in her eyes and she had to tilt her head up to keep them from falling.

They don’t need you, she thought.

They don’t want you.

She quickly turned and rushed for the gate of the school. She couldn’t be here, it was too much. She needed to get away.

ONSDAG 14:00

Wandering around the streets of Oslo proved to do very little for Sana’s mood. It had started to rain about ten minutes into her escape and she hadn’t brought a coat or an umbrella, meaning she was now completely defenceless against the chill that was setting in. Her makeup was running from tears and her shoes were soaked through to the point where her socks had gone soggy. She’d also somehow managed to walk in the opposite direction of her house, giving her nowhere to go for shelter other than a local coffee shop. She was debating on whether to just brace herself and walk in looking like a mess when the street sign caught her eye. Sana thought she recognized the name from somewhere. Skovveien, huh.

She dug her phone out of her pocket and flicked through her messages, trying her best not to get more droplets of water on the screen. Sure enough, there it was in a text conversation with Isak from just a few weeks prior.

(Fra Isak)

                  Heiii

(Til Isak)

                  What do you want?

(Fra Isak)

                  Rude. Are you helping us move today?

(Til Isak)

                  Depends. What’s in it for me?

(Fra Isak)

                   My everlasting gratitude?

(Til Isak)

                   Haha no but really

(Fra Isak)

                    Free pizza? :)

(Til Isak)

                    Hmm… I’ll think about it

                    What’s the address?

(Fra Isak)

                   The Kollektivet first

                   But then Bygdøy allé

                   Right off of Skovveien

                   There’s a little back alleyway

(Til Isak)

                   I’ll check my schedule

(Fra Isak)

                   How kind of you Sanasol

                   I’m honoured

(Til Isak)

                   You should be, I’m very busy you know

                 Sana bit her lip. The last thing she wanted to do was cause Isak and Even more trouble; they had enough going on as it was. One of them was injured physically, and the other was probably dealing with the emotional trauma that comes from seeing one’s ex-best friends in public, but Sana was freezing and wet and really didn’t want to catch a cold. She grit her teeth together. It wasn’t like her life could get much worse anyway. With as much composure as she could muster, she steeled herself and walked in the direction of the apartment.  

                 She reached the door within a minute. Sana didn’t have to guess which buzzer was theirs; there was a rainbow flag on it, right next to the number 408. Despite the swirling chaos inside her head, she found herself grinning. To think that six months ago Isak was the kind of guy who kissed girls in bathrooms during parties and acted like a stereotypical hetero bro. He’d changed so much in such a short period of time and Sana was secretly very proud of him, even if she had trouble showing it.

She hesitated with her finger over the button. Would they let her in if she called up?  They might ignore it all together if they were trying to hide from the world. They didn’t come to school for a reason, Sana. Luckily, she didn’t have much time to stew in her thoughts, because suddenly the door to the stairwell was being pushed open by an elderly lady. She looked crotchety, with an old cable knit sweater wrapped around her shoulders and a face that said, “I’m old and not afraid to complain”. The woman made brief eye contact with Sana, giving her a once over and Sana had to hold her breath for fear she might say something to set her off. However, instead of making an ignorant comment, the lady shot her a small smile and held the door open wider for her. Sana blinked, but tried her best to grin back, nodding at her as she passed through.

                 With what was left of her nerve, she began to climb the stairs. It almost felt as if she was having an out of body experience. She was aware of her feet moving, of her heavy breathing and the constant dripping of water onto the carpeted floor, but she was simultaneously detached; like she was watching herself in a movie. Before she knew it, she was already at the door and her hand was poised to knock. She gave the wood one quick rapt with her knuckles and let her arms fall limply at her sides. Suddenly, the whole thing seemed like a terrible idea. She was only going to inconvenience the boys. What were you thinking?

There was shuffling on the other side of the door, a slight thump like someone had tripped and then the entrance was swinging open to reveal a very disheveled, very tired looking Even Bech Næsheim. He was wearing a pair of striped blue pyjama pants and a t-shirt that must have been Isak’s because it was a bit too short for his torso. His blonde hair was sticking up in several different directions, obviously lacking its usual product, and his blue eyes were sleepy.

“Sana,” he said, surprise evident in his voice. “What are you doing here?”

Sana tried not to squirm under his gaze. She hadn’t thought of what to say when she got to this stage of her plan.

“I, uh- well Isak wasn’t at school and neither were you and I just- I have biology notes for him,” she tried.

“Sana, you’re soaking wet,” Even said.

His eyebrows were creased with concern and it made guilt flare up in Sana’s stomach again. She didn’t come here to worry him. But why did she come here then? She started to back track as fast as she could.

“You know what, it’s no big deal, I can give it to him another day. I’ll just go.”

“Whoa, whoa, hey,” Even said, grabbing her shoulder lightly to stop her from turning away. “It’s fine. Come inside before you make yourself sick.”

He opened the door further and ushered her inside the apartment. She’d seen a few pictures of the place on Instagram and Facebook, but it looked much smaller in person. There were piles of boxes stacked throughout the living room and front hallway, teetering dangerously, like miniature models of the leaning tower of Pisa. The walls were cream and mostly bare, save for a few movie posters that were obviously Even’s, (the amount of Baz Luhrmann merch he had was almost concerning), and a lamp stood in the corner next to an old but comfortable looking couch that had a Star Wars blanket thrown over one of the arms. It was a little messy, and cramped, but very much Isak and Even.

Even disappeared for a moment and leaving Sana to drip awkwardly onto their hardwood floor. When he returned, he had an armful of towels and a sweater in his hands.

“We don’t have tons of clean clothes right now because there is something wrong with the dryer,” he said, huffing out a laugh. “But this should at least be a bit warmer than what you are wearing now.”

He smiled kindly at her and Sana’s heart swelled with gratitude.

“The bathroom is just down the hall if you wanna go change,” he said, pointing around the corner and towards the kitchen.

“Thank-you,” Sana said.

She quickly slipped inside and switched out of her wet shirt. She also tried to ring out her hijab the best she could and re-wrapped it so that it wasn’t clinging to her neck anymore. After washing her face and wiping away her streaky makeup, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her reflection stared back, tired and numb. She wasn’t sure she recognized the girl in front of her anymore. With a sigh, Sana hung her shirt over the side of the tub to dry and walked back out into the living room.

Even was waiting for her on the couch when she got there, two mugs of tea balanced on the edge of the coffee table. He glanced up at her, a tentative smile on his lips and patted the spot next him. Sana quietly obliged.

“Where’s Isak?” she asked, picking up one of the cups gingerly.

“He’s just in the other room sleeping,” Even said. “He’s had a rough couple of days.”

Sana grimaced. She knew the other boy was probably exhausted. She still didn’t know the extent of the damage, but judging by the look on his face when she’d pressed her fingers to his nose, he had definitely been in a state of shock. He probably had a mild concussion as well.

“Is he… alright?” she asked.

Even nodded, but a shadow passed over his face.

“His nose isn’t broken, thankfully. He took a couple of good hits, though. He’s also slightly concussed, but apart from that it’s mostly just bruises and cuts.”

Sana felt tears well up in her eyes again. Things were never supposed to end this way. She felt so incredibly stupid for inviting her brother and his friends. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Isak and Even would be there with their school mates. If she’d just thought ahead, none of this would have happened. She was about to open her mouth to say so when another tiny voice called down the hall.

“Evi, who is it? Where’d you go?”

Isak’s lanky frame came into view and Sana’s heart stopped all together. His face was a mottled canvas of blues, purples and blacks. His left eye, which was usually a clear moss green, was cloudy and nearly swollen shut. Burst blood vessels ran down his cheek in crisscrossed patterns, matching a nasty red gash that split his lip. He looked very pale and tired and a whole lot smaller than someone over six feet should. Sana had to force herself not to look away.

Even stood up and went over to him, pressing a feather light kiss on his forehead.

“Sorry, baby,” he said. “I didn’t want to wake you. Sana came for a visit and to drop off some notes for you.”

Isak’s eyes drifted over to the slightly damp girl sitting on their couch. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but his lips broadened into a soft smile.

“Ah, Sanasol. How sweet of you. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I would have put on something nicer,” he joked, gesturing to his sweatpants and wrinkled t-shirt.

Sana shrugged her shoulders.

“I didn’t really plan it. It just sort of happened,” she said.  

She turned her gaze down to lap and fiddled with the string of Even’s hoodie. She didn’t know what to say or how to act. A large part of her was shocked that neither of the boys were yelling at her or telling her to leave. After all, she was the reason Isak’s face looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. She watched her hosts exchange a worried glance out of the corner of her eye. She felt Isak settle onto the couch next to her and saw Even’s feet move to do the same. A careful hand came up to her shoulder and squeezed lightly.

“Is everything alright, Sana?” Isak asked.

Sana wanted to laugh. Things had never felt less alright in her entire life. One of her best friends was pissed at her and another had stabbed her in the back. She was being ousted from her own bus, ostracized by her classmates and her crush had gone ahead and kissed another girl after making her think that he liked her. Not to mention her brother had slammed his fist into one of the only people she felt she could trust and she had managed to bring up ugly past aggressions between Even and the balloon boys. The world had been crumbling around her for weeks and now it was all just laying at her feet in a giant heap. She didn’t realize she was crying again until Isak’s grip got tighter.

“Hey, hey, Sana, what’s wrong?” he asked, worry seeping into his voice.

Even shifted from where he was sitting and kneeled in front of her, offering up a box of tissues. Sana pulled a couple out and blew her nose.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“For what?” Isak asked.

Sana did laugh this time, but it was devoid of humour.

“For everything,” she said. “For your face, for the karaoke bar, for showing up at your doorstep and dumping my shit on you when you’ve already had a hard week.”

Isak shook his head vigorously and rubbed his hand up and down her arm.

“You don’t have to apologize for any of that. What happened was not your fault, okay? It had nothing to do with you.”

“But it did,” Sana took a shaky breath. “Elias is my brother.”

Isak let out a chuckle and tilted his head to the side.

“Yeah, I know,” he said.

“You know?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, Even told me.”

Sana glanced at the boy kneeling in front of her. He was staring up at her with big, incredibly blue eyes, apology and regret written all over his face. For someone so young, he had experienced more than his fair share of pain and heartbreak. Sana cared about him an exuberant amount.

“You…” she started.

“Not everything,” Even said, his gaze landing on his boyfriend. “But most of it. An overview, at least.”

“I shouldn’t have invited them,” Sana said. “I didn’t think about it. I was being selfish. I wanted to see… well either way, it was stupid and I’m sorry.”

Even put his hand on her knee and gave her a soft, sad smile.

“There we go with that word again. Sana, listen to me. The fight wasn’t your fault. That was me and Mikael and Elias. You couldn’t have known that was going to happen, so please stop blaming yourself for it.”

Even punctuated the last part of the sentence by making her look directly into his eyes. Sana sniffled and accepted yet another tissue. Isak gently kicked out his foot to tap his boyfriend on the leg, catching the older boy’s attention.

“Okay, don’t you go blaming yourself either, dickhead,” he said. “I was the one who shoved him and Elias was the one who started throwing punches, so you had no part in it.”

If it had been anyone else saying it, the words would have probably sounded rude, but coming from Isak it only sounded fond. Leave it to a seventeen-year-old boy to make an insult seem endearing. Sana smiled a little despite herself. She really did love these boys.

“Alright, good. So now that we have that out of the way, do you wanna tell us why you skipped class and took an impromptu walk in the rain?”

ONSDAG 17:00

After pouring her heart out to the two of them about the Russ bus and Vilde and even about Yousef, Sana felt marginally better. Isak and Even had listened intently the whole time, offering noises of indigence and confusion at different moments and graciously not commenting when her voice cracked over certain parts. It was nice to let it all out and more importantly to have someone care enough to pay attention. By the time she had finished it had begun to grow dark outside.

“Screw them, Sanasol,” Isak finally said, his long fingers playing with Even’s pant leg.

At some point during her speech, Even had migrated back to the couch and wrapped himself around his boyfriend, so that they were now in a tangle of limbs. Sana usually hated PDA, but they looked so cozy and happy that she couldn’t even fault them for it. There was something about their interactions that made all her qualms about relationships melt away. Sana liked that they gave her space while simultaneously making her feel welcome and she liked that even though they were stupidly in love, they didn’t shove it down her throat the way Vilde and Magnus did. She was comfortable around them.

She smiled at Isak and his outburst.

“That’s easy for you to say, Isabell. They aren’t your friends.”

Isak spluttered and put his hand on his chest in mock offence.

“They are too my friends. Eva and I are best buddies. And Noora was my roommate not even a month and a half ago.”

“Yeah, but you don’t see them every day. And you have other people to hang out with. Like Jonas and Mahdi.”

“So, come hang out with us.” Isak said, pushing his toe into Sana’s thigh. “We’re your friends, you know.”

Sana fake glared and poked his foot, but felt her heart warm at the offer. Maybe she didn’t have to do this alone after all.

“But what about Elias and Mikael and Yousef?” she asked, risking a glance at Even.

He met her gaze softly. There were obvious nerves showing in his expression, but he still grinned at her. He brushed his fingers through Isak’s hair gently.

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “We can deal with it when the time comes. For now, let’s just worry about the next minute.”

He and Isak shared some sort of private smile at the words and though it should have made Sana feel left out, it didn’t. She just smiled along with them.

“Okay,” she said. “Yeah, I can do that.”

[bethanyactually]

Nancy Drew + text posts (38/?)

4.08 || The Crooked Banister (2/5)

feat. @acesnancy ♥︎

[bethanyactually]

Nancy Drew + text posts (41/?)

4.08 || The Crooked Banister (5/5)

feat. @catty-words and @fierycavalier ♥︎

[bethanyactually]

Nancy Drew + text posts (40/?)

4.08 || The Crooked Banister (4/5)

thanks, @runaway-horses, for the assist with Iain Thomas! ♥︎

[bethanyactually]

Nancy Drew + text posts (39/?)

4.08 || The Crooked Banister (3/5)