#nelle rant

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Bring Back the Bombshells Batgirls!

In helping a friend of mine map out who all has been Batgirl across various DC continuities, I remembered a little jaunt to TVtropes where it mentioned that in a charming little number called Bombshells, the batgirl identity is shared by a baseball team.

This reminded me to actually go READ Bombshells, and oh. My. GOSH. It is the BEST FUCKING THING EVER!

What is Bombshells?

Basically, almost every male superhero got yeeted from the story or relegated to side character/civilian, while every female superhero takes the spotlight and gets to KICK SOME NAZI ASS (it's set during world war 2). Plenty of people get spotlight, but I'm gonna argue that the MAIN characters are probably Kate Kane's batwoman, Diana of Themyscira's Wonder Woman, Mera's Aquawoman (she hates that name, lol), Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Zatanna, and Kara Starikov's Supergirl. All the storylines tend to revolve around them.

Oh, also it's super gay. Like, every single character is a lesbian or bi, there's tons of ladies kissing and dating and having implied sex, and at least one character---one of the batgirls actually---is trans.

In summary, go read bombshells it's really good, but today I'm here to specifically talk about:

The Batgirls (and boys)

"One for the ribbon, two for the pearls! Three for the crimefighting---

So first off, Bombshells is an elseworld, so it can do whatever the fuck it wants with backstories and shit.

Subsequently; this version of Kate Kane is a major league baseball player, and her Batwoman costume is literally just a pallet swap of her baseball costume (plenty of people figure out her "secret" identity because of this, but she's not super concerned about it). She uses an actual bat as her main weapon as Batwoman, and it kicks ass. More fanfic writers, and hell, comics writers need to hand the Batfamily some baseball bats, because it gives us scenes like this:

Or this:

(Yes her bat has a gun, it's supplied by Amanda Waller through goverment money, don't question it. Her baseballs are also explosives).

Oh, and also this:

Anyway, point is, Batwoman has a bat and it's great. But this means when Gotham's bat-weilding protector gets drafted into the Bombshells to go fight Nazi's, some new faces have to pick up the slack in Gotham.

And so:

Inspired by their vigilante/baseball hero, Harper Row, Kathy Duquesne, and Nell Little pick up some bats of their own and start busting up crime! The three of them are mechanics, that old car is their batmobile, and they're the best of friends!

Of this original trio, Kathy is "the brass" or the leader, and she remains nominally in charge through the whole thing. Nell is "the brawn" and while every batgirl is good in a fight, Nell is a bit of a demolition specialist. Finally you have Harper, "the brain" who invents their gadgets, works on their batmobile, and also jokes that she's the mascot, as this whole thing was her idea.

They don't stay a trio for very long though! They're quickly joined by "the beauty" Alysia Yeoh, an old friend of Kathy's, in an effort to break Cullen Row out of a prison-like orphanage (she's the t-girl btw):

You may notice another girl crouched in the corner up there too! That's Bette Kane, Kate's niece and the rightful owner of Kane Industries who will forcibly take it over, clean it up, and use it for good on her 18th birthday in like a week!

In the meantime though, she heard about the batgirls and decided she wanted in! She crashes their jailbreak and helps them wreck shop! She mostly shares the "brass" role with Kathy---a leader in her own right.

Anyway, their now quintet quickly finds the awful headmistress of the Pinkney orphanage berating one Tim Drake, who still has a living dad somewhere, but was snatched up by a dirty cop because this whole city runs on Newsies rules (not even kidding, I'll get there in a sec). Turns out Tim and Alysia are old best friends. Anyway, Tim fills them in on the sitch: the headmisstress has been using the orphans as slave labor to build war robots for the nazis.

The batgirls (now including Tim!), bust up the basement and the robots, free all the orphanage kids, including Cullen, toss the awful headmistress and the dirty cop helping her to one Detectice Maggie Sawyer---Kate's wife---and the day is saved!

In the subsequent week, Bette takes over Kane Industries, starts funneling funds into housing for immigrants and refugees and relief and aid and all that good stuff, and also recruits the final batgirl of the team: Felicity Smoak (the chick in braids)! Thus we have a full team!

Who's who in the alt text

I'm only halfway through Bombshells, but the batgirls and their adventures are a recurring plot thread, since protecting Gotham is entirely up to them while Kate is away. They gain lots of other allies and enemies (including one hispanic immigrant Lois Lane who does straight up help them pull a newsies and make their own newspaper with the real news in it at one point), and their sections are probably one of my favorite parts about the comic. It just feels so sweet and high school, while still feeling Batman-esque/Gotham-typical.

Why You Should Care:

Now. I may only be halfway through Bombshells, but I am in LOVE. With the story and the characterizations and everything!!! And the batgirls are a personal fave of mine cuz I'm a sucker for found family and teens fighting crime and bat-weilding superheroes!

But my point is: for all that fanfic loves these tropes too, there is NO fanfiction for them (or at least not on ao3). There's practically nothing for the Bombshells continuity PERIOD, which is a shame, but also to be expected for an elseworld.

But that's why I'm here and telling you about it!

You guys! This is fanfiction! We love flinging the batfamily through alternate universes and making lots of different characters take on the familiar Batgirl and Robin roles!

Why not bring forth the Bombshells Batgirls?

If you're writing your own elseworld, I suggest you nab this adorable team, or something like it! If you're writing an alt universe crossover, feature these guys!

They are the Batfamily found family you want! They CALL THEMSELVES a Bat-family! They all move in together! They loooooovvveee each other! And, as is the nature of the Batgirl mantle, they do what they do largely as independent operatives without adult supervision!

I would really love to see these guys yeeted into an alternate universe and have to cope with just HOW different their continuity is. Not only will they inevitably be flung way into the future, since they're around in the 40s, but in most continuities they're completely unconnected from each other and are absolutely not a team of bat-weilding crime fighters! It would be so baffling for any mainline batgirl and robin to meet a team that is so disconnected from them and so unconditionally supportive of each other and so Badass Adorable!

In Summary:

I may have lost the plot a little with this, but my points are:

Bombshells is really good and you should all go read it

Bombshells has a team of adorable bat-weilding batgirls that has all the found family crime fighting tropes you could want without the bad blood of the mainline batfam

More people should write fanfiction for Bombshells

The Bombshells!Batgirls in particular I think are a great place to start with that. Nab the premise of a baseball team being crime fighters, or Gotham being protected by a group of scrappy children whenever the big bad vigilantes are away, or give these colorful kids their Bombshells!backstories.

Also use the Bombshells universe in particular when you're flinging bats across the multiverse. Yeet these babies into a mainline comics verse and let the juxtaposition and chaos run WILD! There's a million and one of these fics for the Young Justice cartoon, I know ya'll can do it for Bombshells

Also. Take every opportunity to give your Batfamily, and your Batgirls in particular, an actual bat. It'll be so much fun, I promise

Anyway, I'll probably be back with another Bombshells rant later, PEACE!

[all-about-the-tea-parties]

The haunting of hill house being about how the kitchen is the heart of the house, because that’s where we spend the most time together, and the red room is the stomach, and it’s where we spend the least time together, and how the place where you eat is where you love and when you haven’t been in home in a long while, you confuse being eaten for being loved

I mean how could you tell the difference? Your mother fed you and now your mother feeds on you and isn’t that what love is? If I can’t have the heart, I’ll have the stomach. That’s the way to the heart anyways. That’s where everything goes.

Food is everything and every child would be swallowed up by a wolf if it meant being everything to something.

Every child just wants to come home. Be welcomed home. Be called home. They’ll offer up space inside themselves to do it. Lonely and starving and wanting to prove they can share.

Nell hopes for coffee.

Luke buys burgers.

Theo eats with Shirley.

Shirley insists on family dinner.

Steven is an eater. He eats stories. (Stories live longer than people. Stories keep people alive).

Hill house makes eating sound cruel, to make the kids feel guilty for being hungry, to make them hungrier, and make them choose being eaten over eating.

But the kitchen is the heart of the house.

It’s where they eat. (where they give and take and share and keep and indulge and provide love).

Steven is shared stories, and in turn shares them.

Shirley makes family dinners.

Theo prefers to eat with her sister.

Luke fills someone’s stomach.

Nell is asked out for coffee.

[shvroyism]

I hate VOICE NOTES, I hate them so bad. If you want me to hate you instantly, just send me a voice note (bonus points if its over 2 minutes long, that would get me to actually pray for your downfall)

[1dream-of-me]

i might be so out of lane here but I genuinely ship Polly/Lady Eularia for so many reasons, and honestly here’s why;

For one, Nell has no interest in Polly which she shows on multiple occasions like not reacting to the kiss, never wondering where Polly is/what she’s doing, and not thinking about her after everything is done and over and they’re all ready to go home—hell, Nell plans to live towns away from Polly anyways in the Talbot, long distance relationships are practically nonexistent in this time period unless they’ve been together before the distance. (This is not dissing on Polly/Nell, it’s lowkey a cute ship, I’m just showing why I back this particular ship). Quite frankly Nell hasn’t put a stop to it because she’s not the kind of woman who would. She relishes in it because she’s likely never had an adoring fan before, and simply doesn’t know how to handle the dynamic, so she lets it be.

besides, Polly doesn’t actually desire Nell. Nell likely knows that. After all Polly and Nell have hardly had a complete conversation, and every imagination Polly has of Nell is out of character for her. Polly doesn’t know Nell, she knows the idea of her that gives Polly the sense of adventure and passion she craves.

there’s also the fact that Polly was raised with wealth, Nell doesn’t have wealth and presumably never has (though she has very fine clothing when we first meet her, that might just be because she’s the MC). Polly hasn’t thought about the fact she has no technical wealth (as it all belongs to her father who wants to marry her off into a wealthy family instead), and neither does Nell. That’d mean no fancy dresses, nice bed, warm baths with the oils she likely uses as she’s a Lady. There aren’t any luxuries that would come with, and if she ever saw behind the red-heart glasses she’d see that this badass woman Nell is would be terrifying to be in a relationship with solely because she’d be constantly worried about her wife’s/gf’s health and well being. Also, she’d have to work. Likely at the Talbot or doing something else so they could have money. Polly has never worked a day in her life for anything, not until she gets hired at the paper, which I also have notices on.

Eularia actually sees Polly. She genuinely sees her talent with words and writing, and she knows she would be a good replacement for her last editor. It wasn’t a temporary job, it was permanent one. She could’ve just said “i need this spot filled while I find another”, and that’d be it until she found another editor, but no—she wanted Polly. Nell only recognized Polly’s writing because it was complimenting her eyes in a way that seemed foreign to her, not necessarily that it was good or anything, she had just been put in the limelight. It was a compliment, and while we don’t really know what Nell was thinking, she walked right past that too.

another note about Polly having never worked a day in her life, this job is her passion. She likes reading and writing, it’s the perfect place for her. There’s no forcing herself through a painful task, she’d genuinely enjoy it, and in the spot she has she’d have control over things. Offices like that have high energy and constant working, the kind of feeling she wanted to feel. Not only that Eularia is a tough boss, if Polly liked the way Nell acted when she first met her, how do we think she’d like Eularia’s demanding and commanding persona amongst all the writers in the workplace?

a note on Eularia’s nature is that she is a very dominant woman. That’s just it. We see her and Charles’ dynamic, and we see how much power she proudly wields over him. She enjoys being in control and has a strong personality that makes room for passion. She also craves a younger person who has the energy to meet her level of not exceed it when it comes to romance and lust—I understand Polly is the “innocent” character, but she matches that. Charles has no interest in Eularia, and she’s smart, she knows that. She sees it, and while it may be a poor thing to point out, I genuinely think she’s insecure of her age (though just barely), it’s enough for her to think that Charles is the best she could get. Hence all the effort she puts in for someone she knows deep down doesn’t want her.

Polly has the heart to look past anything. Absolutely anything. She walked right past the fact Nell wasn’t a man, and accepted it because she cared more for how she felt. She feels so deeply and completely that’d she be a wonderful match for Eularia who can provide and love and respect her as a woman while also checking all of the right boxes in her interests such as passion and dominant personalities that crave romance. Eularia wants that. She wants the cute nicknames Charles gives her and the romance she is promised but doesn’t quite receive. They would mesh wonderfully, and especially in a high energy office with close proximity to one another.

honestly I might write a one-shot just for them, because there isn’t really an issue in the age gap if we think about it. For one, from what I understand, Polly is in her twenties. Her father is already wanting to marry her off, and in this time period the marriage age is rather low (even lower than mid-twenties), Polly was also willing to run off with someone who looked at least eight to fifteen years older than her, and Polly doesn’t seem to have an issue with appearances so much as she does hygiene and personality. So pretty much Self Respect.

all of this to say, Polly/Lady Eularia could so happen and I kind of want it to.

[shinyobservationtree]

I think trying to be realistic in art is like, a creativity killer

[quiet-nocturne]

okay so I've been seriously considering participating in febuwhump for royai (because whump = royai, obv, and I've been itching to write some angst/hurt/comfort), and earlier I was screaming over the prompts because they're so royai. Also, there's one for bees (day 9), which I can totally do a scene inspired by the bee scene in xfiles (*cackles, screams, jumps for joy*), as I will never shut up about how royai and mulder/scully are coded the same.

anyway, I was freaking out about this to my husband, who has to Deal With All My Shit (™), and I was reading him the list of prompts and at day 16 (came back wrong), he goes, "'Came back wrong'? That's so fullmetal alchemist." And I was like "right?????"

The prompts are so good - "suffering in silence"? "Killing in self defense"?? "Blood stained tiles"??? "You weren't meant to be there"???? "Not allowed to die"????? Like, royai, hello??????? *flails* I'm thinking I'll likely do drabbles, between a few hundred words to max 1k, just to keep it concise and not burn out (especially because I'm hoping to do the royai big bang as well - and I'm planning to have all the prompts done for febuwhump finished before the end of january, so it won't overlap). If I did my usual 5-7k words for each day, I'd die lmao. Some self-preservation is needed.

anyway, febuwhump is likely imminent lmao. #feralroyaigoblin 🙋‍♀️

[greencloakedfae]

Sometimes all u need to push away the big sads is to infodump about Renegade Nell's costuming

[landosjpg]

do you ever just have a bad day and want to delete your whole existence

[the-butch-of-blaviken]

I’m tempted to write about Philippa/Dijkstra next but am i fucked up enough to write about the contender for #1 most fucked up couple of the witcher universe like. Have i experienced enough things in life to write about this catastrophe of a ship (affectionate)

[just-about-nothing]

realizing anew that y.t. and nell are kinda the blueprint for how i think about cool women

i read snow crash first & like. wanted to live in y.t.’s world so badly like she’s still p much one of the coolest female characters in my book

what’s funny tho thinking about it is juanita’s approach to life has had the bigger influence on me. her & nell are really more like how i am. whereas y.t. is almost more like the sorta girl i fall for. dunno what that tells you about me

[sorryimlatecapt]

me, so so sleepy at 7 pm: it is too early. i will think about The Character™ until 10. it is the perfect time to sleep and i will wake up a well adjusted member of society

me, wide awake and 2k words into a new wip at 1 am: by talos this can't be happening

[journalerthecricket]

forest legend au

Sun and Moon are both funny little creatures that live in a marshy forest. Sun is a Will-O-Wisp and Moon is (of course) mothman kinda thing.

also a kid gives them salt and they rob hikers of all glowy things

They befriend a kid (her name is Nell and I just made her up 3 days ago but I love her) who thinks they're cool and gives them salt and stuff (hush the salt is important I promise) and lives on the edge of their forest with her dad (Cason) who's a biologist and Does Not Believe in those legends thank you very much

(cue Nell stealing salt for Sun and Cason's just like: what do you need that much salt for? Nell: *continues shoveling salt in a bag* reasons Cason: o kay don't take all of it??? *finds the salt container empty later* )

anyways they're both just mischeivious little guys who trick people who come into the forest and mess with them (and steal all their shiny/glowy stuff because Moon likes it and why not) but they both love kids and actually help them instead of scaring them

Why salt? you ask

well if you add certain minerals/chemicals to fire, it will make it burn different colors, and because will-o-wisps are basically fireballs here, they feed on different minerals to sustain them

and the mineral differs depending on their color, for example, Sun, as a yellow will-o-wisp consumes salt (specifically NaCl aka table salt aka halite)

[shvroyism]

hotd is the last time i love any piece of media ever again. If you see me obsessing over something else in the future, no you didn’t.

[hysterical-and-uselesss]

Questa cosa mi provoca un travaso di bile perché è proprio ingiusto.

Hanno visto un video del photocall in cui l'attore protagonista - mentre stavano palesemente scherzando tutti insieme! - dava una spintarella a Damiano e di conseguenza non poteva essere altro che un bullo (!!!!!), lui e pure gli altri del cast, tutti cani incapaci sfigati e invidiosi di Damiano della sua bellezza della sua bravura della sua rilevanza.

Ma il problema è ancora precedente, perché la vera ragione per cui hanno detto peste e corna di questi ragazzi e soprattutto di Jason è che a loro non è andato giù che il protagonista non fosse Damiano. Dal modo in cui la serie fu annunciata pareva che dovesse effettivamente esserlo, e loro invece di sudare freddo davanti a questa notizia gioivano - penso principalmente a causa dell'ignoranza (d'altronde nemmeno la giornalista de La Stampa che coprì l'uscita della serie sapeva che Otello fosse nero e no, non sto scherzando), ma forse concedere il beneficio del dubbio è troppo generoso (e comunque non sarebbe una giustificazione perché Wikipedia è gratis). Fatto sta che hanno avuto il dente avvelenato da quando è uscito il nome del protagonista, e il germe della solfa del "pIù RiLeVaNtE" è nato allora. A me Damiano piace molto come attore e penso che abbia fatto un bel lavoro, ma non è assolutamente il più "rilevante" (santiddio cancellerei questa parola dal vocabolario) della stagione.

Perché la verità è che questa serie è BELLA, dall'inizio alla fine. Fatta bene, da gente competente che ha lavorato con cura in ogni ambito. Sono stati bravi gli attori (magari qualcuno spicca di più ma assolutamente nessuno è cane), è stata bravissima la regista, ma soprattutto sono stati bravissimi gli sceneggiatori. Questi tre eroi hanno saputo adattare perfettamente la tragedia al contesto moderno e teen, riprendendola quasi scena per scena, lasciando spazio alla maturazione dei personaggi come è giusto che sia in un teen drama, ma rimanendo assolutamente fedeli allo spirito dell'opera. Non era un'impresa facile, tutt'altro. Purtroppo però hanno dato le perle ai porci perché il commento medio è stato "mA qUeStI pErSoNaGgI sOnO tRoPpO tOsSiCi" e questa cosa mi fa proprio smattare!!!! è Otello perdio!!!!! Non potrò mai dimenticare un tweet che diceva tipo "eh ma Gaia ha drogato il suo amico, Shakespeare non l'avrebbe mai scritto" E INVECE!!!!! INVECE!!!!! GUESS WHAT!!!!

E mi fa smattare ancora di più il fatto che non è assolutamente necessario conoscere l'Otello per apprezzare Shake, perché prima di essere un ottimo adattamento è innanzitutto una bella serie. Una bella serie che meritava di raggiungere un pubblico più vasto dotato di un minimo di media literacy e che non la guardasse a occhi chiusi, e purtroppo raiplay non è riuscita a procurarglielo. Almeno ha avuto una nomination ai Nastri, però che mestizia. Ero molto curiosa ed emozionata di scoprire come avrebbero adattato Amleto e di vedere Damiano in quel ruolo, sarebbe stata una bella prova per lui. Che peccato e che spreco.

Comunque che ridere la gente che ha passato tutto aprile 2023 a insultare il cast di shake e scrivere di quanto facesse cagare e ora piange perché non l'hanno rinnovata

[thesefuckinggaypirates]

Um, can I rant about Renegade Nell for a sec? (spoilers below the cut)

When she robbed the fancy carriage and Polly fell in love, I was like 😱 omg is this going to be gay? And then she thought Nell was a guy, and I was like, oh yeah that makes sense. They're going to make it a joke. And then she becomes the ultimate fan girl and I'm thinking, okay well at least it's cute. Then she found out Nell was a lady and the look of bi panic on her face was perfection. And then the kiss?!! Like, it IS gay? I seriously felt the same tingles as the moment I realized they were going to let ofmd actually be gay. But also, now I'm afraid to lose this show too! I have so many feelings 😭 Thank you for coming to my rant.

[heromaker-if]

do you have any other ifs that we can read whilst we wait😭😭🫶🫶

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask and your patience! 🥰

I do have some other IFs that I worked on in the past but I don't recommend playing them (I was still learning how to write at that time, so they aren't great). But if you want some IF reccs, I can recommend some IFs I've read recently.

(Sorry for the tags friends, and for the rants!)

(Released) My all time favourite is The Fernweh Saga by @lacunafiction - it's just genuinely so good and it always gives me the vibes of one of those shows you watch after dinner, that becomes part of your routine and you want to see desperately what happens after, and the characters become part of your memories, almost like people. It's just UGH such a good IF. If you like nostalgic hometown horrors, this IF is for you.

(Released) Very close favourite is Blood Moon by @barbwritesstuff - WEREWOLVES GUYS!! I've replayed this game so many times. It's one of those games that after you finish, no matter how long of a break you take from it, you always return to it. I love the "found family" of this game, even though it's not really found, it's just... family. I miss them! The romance in this story is also written so beautifully.

(Released) Another fav is The Golden Rose by @anathemafiction - it was one of my favs while it was still in WIP and after it's released I took so long to play it cause I never wanted to finish it. Like, I grew so attached to its story that I didn't want to let it go. 😭 Very well written characters and the descriptions of things, places, feelings, expressions, mannerisms, is so endearing and eye-catching, never a second where I skipped a line, I was CAUGHT. If you like a story with ominous beginnings, middles and ends, this is for you, not to mention the whole religion themes that are so interesting to dive into.

(Released) I miss this one so much but The Soul Stone War by @intimidatingpuffinstudios - there's two books out for this one already and each one is better than the previous. It's fantasy and about powers and there's a dragon lady that you can romance, and the POLY IN THIS IS BEAUTIFUL! Very soulmate-y romance and just generally captivating storytelling.

(Released) Nothing will ever hit the same as The Passenger by @the-passenger-if - there's just something so familiar, so memorable about this story. I don't think in my next lifetime I will ever forget it. It's about an eldritch horror battling with humanity and it's raw primal role as a monster. It feels short but only because you're so into it that time passes you by, but the tone and the flow of this story is very well done (as well as the characters! 🥰).

(WIP) I feel like everyone and their mothers know about Infamous by @infamous-if - but I'm going to talk about it anyways. It's a BAND IF, yes, music, yes, adrenaline, fame, and all the bad decisions that come with it. It's only one chapter out right now, but it's very worth it. I guarantee you the brainrot you will get from this game is going to consume your life.

(WIP) A somewhat popular one as well is Body Count by @bodycountgame - I haven't seen a game do the whole modern reality TV show with a tinge of horrifying brutal horror as well as Nell has, and even though it's still in its early stages, it's very well done and interesting. Lots of ROs to choose from, and genuinely funny humour to laugh about in between the crying sessions of a favourite character dying.

(WIP) Haven't heard that many people talking about this one to be fair but Chop Shop by @losergames - Also a very early stages game, but it's very adrenaline inducing and has so much potential that has me shaking in my seat. I'm already half in love with the cast and I can't wait to go need for speed and play a super chaotic individual.

Also any game by @hpowellsmith, they're amazing at creating consistent well written stories that have such great characters and even better representation. They do it so well, and I've been a fan of them for years now, definitely one of my role models!

I'm sure there are many more IFs out there that you NEED to play/read, but my mind is blank right now, and these are the only ones I could think of. I also don't have as much time to get into an IF, but I'm getting there (thinking of getting into Shepherds of Haven - which you should!)