#runaway kon

[radioactive-earthshine]

The Adventures of Superman (1987) #501

Watch how fast Kon would have had immediate, blatant, minor-status if Cadmus really did put the order for him to return. Kon would have had an ID stating 15 years old, a legal guardian, a curfew, the whole shebang.

There would have been no nebulous gray area due to 'being a clone', Kon would have had someone claim 'he's a minor and he's a runaway' probably instantly and it would have changed his entire narrative probably. That or they would have pulled a 'well he's a clone he's technically property so y'know, he needs to stay here and what are ya gonna do about it?'

They actually wanted to recall him but didn't because he was too public of a figure already. I wonder sometimes how his story might have gone had he NOT sensationalized himself all within a day of being alive. How fast he might have been targeted for recall by Cadmus, if they would have enlisted the help of other heroes to try and fetch him. It's an interesting thought to play with that I am ping-ponging in my head.

[bixels]

Now that Ghibli's new movie is coming out soon, I've been thinking about anime films and wanna talk about my favorite animated movie ever, Tokyo Godfathers.

TG is a 2003 tragicomedy by Satoshi Kon, following three unhoused people––an alcoholic, a runaway girl, an a trans woman––who find a baby in a dumpster and set off across Tokyo to reunite her with her parents.

If you like the sound of that, go watch it because the rest of this post is spoilers and I have FEELINGS about this movie.

URGHH, the fact that only two moments of true kindness, generosity, and care given to the three protagonists without any expectation of reciprocity are given by a Latin-American immigrant couple and a drag club full of queens and trans women. The fact that, despite her loud and dramatic personality, Hana is the glue that holds the team together and the heart of the whole movie. The fact that this movie pulls no punches at showing the violence and inhumanity committed by "civilized Japanese society" against the unhoused. The fact that Miyuki craves to be loved by her parents and ends up seeing Hana as her true mother. The fact that Miyuki starts off accidentally using transphobic language against Hana, but slowly begins calling her "Miss Hana" out of respect. The fact that, according to Kon, Hana's role in the story is as a mythological trickster god and "disturb the morality and order of society, but also play a role in revitalizing culture." The fact that Hana so desperately wants to be part of a true family, yet is willing to sacrifice her found family so they can be with their own, and is rewarded for her good deeds in the end by becoming a godmother. The fact that, throughout the movie, wind and light have been used to signify the presence of god's hand/influence (this movie's about nondenominational faith––faith in yourself, faith in others, faith in a higher power. Lots of religious are referenced, such as Buddhism/Hinduism, Christianity, and Shintoism), and in the climax of the film, as Hana jumps off a building to save a baby that isn't hers, a gust of wind and a shower of light save her from death. The fact that god saves a trans woman's life because she proved herself a mother, and that shit makes me CRY.

[bloggerspam]

THIS MASTERPOST WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED

Please go to my new sideblog, @ficcerspam for an updated list, and for new things from here on out!

Danny Phantom Masterlist

I realized I've accidentally become a Danny Phantom fic writer and I don't know what to do with this information...other than make a masterlist, i guess.

I add on parts via reblog, so I will put the lastest date when i update the link in MM.DD.YY format! (*) denotes completion, for now. Extras (ie. ** or ***) denotes bonus updates I hadn't planned on!

============================================

Magician!Danny AU - 9.27.23*

Danny learns sleight of hand and goes through Hijinks and Shenanigans. There are some DC offshoots where Zatanna is involved, with some inevitable angst from another user.

In the Interest of Medical Attention Addition - 10.02.23*

DCxDP - Red Hood goes missing. Danny, an eldritch horror tourist, just wants to be helpful. These two things are, unfortunately, related.

De-Aged Danny Angst Addition - 10.06.23*

DCxDP - Danny, having been capture and experimented on, gets de-aged with memory loss and some...physical complications. One of the Bats finds him. Dad!Dick Grayson implied.

Booo-merang Trouble Addition - 10.10.23

DCxDP - Jason gives off an ecto-signature, and tries to find a runaway/hiding/injured Danny in Gotham.

Baby Danny vs. The Joker Additions - 10.16.23*

DCxDP - De-aged Danny in a bat onesie wreaking havoc on the Joker for Funsies, and sort of getting adopted by Jason. There are a plethora of other reblogs that aren't included in the link, but this is where I've mentally stopped the AU at (personally). Highly recommend going through them for the fanart!

Candy Crush AU Additions - 10.31.23*

DCxDP - Additions written for @long-live-astronerd-ghost-king's Candy Crush AU. Dead on Main. LOTS of other reblogs that aren't included in the link, but this is where I've mentally stopped the AU at (personally).

Luck Rush AU Additions - 12.02.23*

DCxDP - Additions written for @virgamsysxvolumes's Lucky Rush AU. Please go read it, it's so good!!! I've also designed some stuff for this AU, but Vivi has released some official art for the AU in the masterlist too!

Phantom Siblings and the Batfam - 12.05.23*

DCxDP - Prompt fill: Danny and Ellie are de aged. Dan and Jazz are co-parenting as the older siblings. Completely unrelated, half the batfam are flirting independently at Jazz/Dan, and the other half are dealing with the chaos gremlins.

Super Strength Shenanigans - 12.10.23* [AO3]

DCxDP - When Danny gets an internship in Gotham, concerned for his and his identity's safety they figure out he has super strength he can't control for human-standard fights. Shenanigans ensue.

Horror Movie Child!Danny AU - 12.18.23* [AO3]

DCxDP - Danny is adopted into the batfam having a coming of age movie, whilst the Batfam are going through Summer Horror Special.

Puppy!Danny AU - 12.28.23* [AO3]

DCxDP - Danny is Ace the Bathound AU! With Bonus Dan as Titus, Dani as Haley/Bitewing, and Jazz as Sparky and Dog. There have been multiple tags for this, so please be warned you WILL cry at part 3. Now with meme post. Any additional non-story posts will be under "phantom pups" tag!

Villain!Jazz AU - 04.07.23* [AO3]

**Disclaimer, NOT Jazz centered and heavily DP leaning** After lots of thought this AU will be exclusively updated on AO3 from now on! Please subscribe to it on AO3 instead of following it here :)

He’s fine… right..? - 02.05.24** [AO3]

Two-shot psychological horror based off some fanart of Danny crying melty tears.

Casseroles and Confrontations Additions- 03.10.24

DCxDP - Batman sends a few of the Batfam to Amity Park to investigate the ghost sightings. When they get there, however, Jason refuses to step into the town due to some instinctual feeling he has. Check "#casseroles and confrontations" tag for non-story lore!

NOW WITH AMAZING FANART by @animal-123-crazy

MORE CUTE FANART by @jamiethebee

Kon-El and the Phantoms - 02.07.24

YJxDP - Young Justice, specifically Kon-El, meets their newest member, Phantom's clone. Who just so happens to be a big fan.

Mama Canary AU - 06.19.24 [AO3]

JLxDP - Suddenly de-aged Danny meet Black Canary and accidentally ghost-wails at her...except all it does is push her back a couple feet, and make her think he's the cutest lil' canary in the world. Eventual Dead On Main.

Preschool Teacher Danny AU - 02.18.24* [AO3}

JLxDP - Clark comes across a meta-teacher with a class of seemingly meta toddlers. He asks if there's any room for Jon. Not sure if I will continue on Tumblr or continue on AO3, or both. Will update when I decide--this will probably be mostly ongoing as Naynay gives me more stories of her gremlins!

Sunshine and Stardust - 02.16.24 [AO3]

YJxDP - Danny is a clone of Superman AU, but he's a failure, a test dummy. Amidst the days of pain and experimentation, he hears another clone is being made.

Teen Titans and the Lost Boy Addition - 05.17.24

TTxDP - "After being on the run for a long time, Danny somehow stumbles his way into the middle of a fight. This leads to him joining the Teen Titans (much to his confusion)."

Thoughts about Death - 03.27.24*

"Do you ever think about how sacred life must be for Danny?" Oneshot.

Grunkle John AU - 06.24.24* [AO3]

JLxDP - Batman finds out that John Constantine is basically Danny Phantom(high level threat, ghost king)'s weird uncle. I tell you the story of how that came to be.

Not so Little Merperson - 05.02.24*

YJ/JLxDP - Superboy gets Prince Eric'd by Space Whale Danny, and all Kon wants to do is find the smoking hot not-so-little-merperson that saved him. If he has to pester Aquaman for it, so be it. Oneshot.

Estranged Brothers Dick and Danny Addition - 05.06.24*

DCxDP - Mr. Haley summons Danny to act in the circus, not expecting the Grayson's to take such a shine to him. The Grayson's die and Dick is adopted by Bruce, but Danny has to stay... Oneshot.

Baby's First Kidnapping - 06.09.24*

DCxDP - Jazz gets kidnapped by cultists who want to summon the Ghost King. The Bats are confused af when Jazz laughs in the cultists' faces. Oneshot

Phic Phight 2024 Phics:

Forgotten Fire: A little bit on who Ember McLain was, when she was alive. Complete.

Open Secrets: Everyone knows AU. (except, Danny doesn't know they know). Complete.

In Front of My Cereal? Crackfic for the prompt: Danny shuddered. The old man yaoi energy at that table was insufferable. Complete.

[minnesota-fats]

The Ghost and the Runaway

Tim, done with the constant degrading comments from Damian and his older brother and father figure both downplaying the atempts on his life he decided he was done. And what better way to show that than going out in a blaze of glory. He sets a building to explode with everyone believing he was inside before walking away.

He makes Kon promise not to out him cuz his heartbeat. Kon agrees cuz tim if better off somewhere where his isn’t in constant danger. And attending his own funeral was more fun in a way he never thought possible! He hated to admit it, but he as glad to see how distraught everyone seemed; even damian.

He travels back and forth across the world, keeping tabs on everyone from his old life. At 18 he finds himself in amity park, meeting a ghost boy who makes him feel seen in a way he has never felt before.

Then said ghost boy is revealed to be the son of the local ghost hunters and abducted. Tim goes to the only people he knows can help him, the bats.

Feel free to take this idea and run with it!

—

And now, an unedited start of draft that I’m probably not gonna finish:

Tim has had enough!

He has had enough for a long time, but this was the last straw!

Damian had entered his room during patol and threw Tim’s camera onto the floor, shattering it to pieces. He didn't know why the brat did that, nor did he care—but if he could guess it was probably how, for once, Dick chose Tim over Damian for patrol. The reason he knew it was Damian who did it was because of the hidden camera’s he had stashed all over Wayne Manor. Sure, he could buy a new camera, maybe even repair the one he left laying on the ground as he pulled out his laptop to investigate. But this camera was given to him by his parents, years ago. It was the last thing he really had left of them. They may not have been the most present, but they still showed their love in the only way they knew best: material gifts.

Tim closed his laptop and set it on his bed before he slowly stood. He crossed the room in a few steps and stared down at the broken camera. He didn't realize he was crying until he saw droplets of tears hit his socked foot as well as the hardwood floor. When it dawned on her he took a shaky breath before saying out loud, “kon, I need you.” He knew if he didn't have a buffer right now, he might do something that would really get him into trouble.

After a few deep breaths Tim turned at the tapping at his widow where superboy floated just outside in the dark. He waved but faltered when he saw the tears in Tim’s eyes. Tim walked over to the widow, disarming the basic traps, before opening it for the super. Kon entered quickly and pulled Tim into a hug. At the warmth, Tim felt himself melt into the firm yet gentle embrace. He wrapped his arms around Kon and buried his face into his neck, letting out a shaky breath.

Kon picked Tim up and walked over to the bed so they could lay down and cuddle him. Kon’s eyes flared red when he finally spotted the broken camera, he forced his eyes shut to keep from burning a hole into the floor. Kon took a deep breath before stepping over the camera and continuing to the bed. He lifted the covers and layed Tim down first before removing his own shoes and following after him. As he laid down Tim curled up into his side and began to let out silent little gasps and sobs.

For as long as Kon knew Tim, Tim had never been a loud cryer. Later he found out that that was because of his parents before Bruce. Despite the past neglect, Kon knew Tim still loved his parents. Kon also knows that he only kept a few things from his parents, one item being an older camera that now layed broken on the floor.

When Tim’s sobs lessened, Kon spoke up. “Rob, what happened?”

Tim didn't answer, only looking up at his laptop weakly. Kon pulled away slightly to grab the item before returning to Tim’s grasp. He opened the laptop and typed the password in not knowing what to expect. Yet when he saw the video frozen on Tim’s little demon of a brother holding the camera above his head and about to throw it on the ground, Kon couldn't bring himself to be surprised.

From all that he has witnessed and heard about the brat, he had decided that he hated the little monster and was angry on Tim’s behalf.

[brucewaynehater101]

So I was reading "Kidnapping Tim's dignity" by Sophie_Vers and "Suffer in Vogue" by InkpotSprite, which btw, mind the tags and content warnings in the endnotes before reading because holy fuck!

And while they aren't the first to depict Tim being the exception to Jason's 'Protect Kids' schtick, it got me thinking of the principle of "if one of us isn't safe, none of us are safe"

So here's some loosely connected ideas exploring that. Bending canon ahead

Also I fused that Mafia!Tim idea with this because it's fire

Feel free, but not pressured, to add on however you want

==========

Titans Tower occurs before Stephanie becomes Robin. It, + other incidents, convince Bruce to bench Tim for the foreseeable future

Steph becomes the Fourth Robin and has the help of Tim for training, the batcomputer + more

Stephanie's dies during her run as Robin and is buried, Bruce at least has the decency to pay off the bills for the funeral eve if she wasn't legally adopted

How does she get revived? Let's say Tim is experimenting with Lazarus Water. If it can bring back Jason, it can bring back his friend

And since he succeeded at reviving Stephanie, if anybody else (like say, Kon & Bart) dies, he can just whip out the pit juice

Since Stephanie died under Batman's tutelage, she makes the decision to hide her revival from Batman, and Tim helps set her up with a new identity

At some point between Tim trying to revive Stephanie and helping her get a new ID, Duke joins the fray. Idk how but they meet & he gets in the know about Steph's revival

Then his parents being Joker Gassed happens, and Bruce—thanks to a little red robin whispering in his ear—takes him in as his ward/foster/adopted kid

Fuck it, let's add in Cassandra as well, girl speedruns hopping into Gotham like another League runaway she's heard of and comes under Batman's wing in no time

And you don't hide shit from her so Cass and Duke are in on Stephanie's resurrection and are trusted Secret Keepers

==========

Despite all that's happened, Stephanie isn't going to let go of being a vigilante, but she doesn't want Batman looming over her either

Plus the others are up for some teenage rebellion so they copy after their Big Brother Jason and become crime lords

Introducing the gang; The Undying Carrion

(named them after Carrion Crow, which is very intelligent and a scavenger)

Works like Tim Gang in the Gang AU but with Tim, Steph, Cass and Duke as shared leaders

They need leader names, fuck

Lemme think . . .

Introducing, the Carrion Crows!

Stephanie / Carrion Violence

Tim / Carrion Thread

Duke / Carrion Light

Cassandra / Carrion Promise

Explanation Times!!

// (Violence - nce) + t = violet, which is purple!!

Hence why Stephanie calls herself violence! Okay that's a Canon Event but there's also other meanings to the name

Stephanie didn't just die, she was killed or murdered, an act of violence

Stephanie is on the field more than the rest of the Carrion, and knows how to rock your shit, she's well trained in—and expecting—violence

She's motivated partially by Jason's violence against Tim

Why call themselves Carrions? Stephanie started this all after being returned from death

// Tim became Robin because what little faith in Batman remained was a thin, fragile thread, and while he restored Gotham's into a tightknit spider web, his own faith degenerated into a thread that snapped with Stephanie's death

Likewise, his adoration for Jason, the Second Robin, is hanging by a thread, especially as the other three voice their disdain for Jason's more recent action in Titans Tower

Plus the logic Jason has for hating Tim, Batman has for abusing Tim, and he has for loving those two still, barely has a thread of logic to them

Like spider webs, he's able to take mere threads and weave them into inescapable traps, make unseen firewalls and find the thinnest threads of knowledge on the internet

He makes a secure spiderweb of safety nets and contingencies for the gang for countless possible situations

// Behind Stephanie, Duke is the most well-known of the Carrion Crows, he's like a lighthouse of directions for the gang

He is also able to lead mass swaths of people at once, while Stephanie is better with smaller groups, or doing it one-to-one

Because he leads a larger statistic of people at once, foes tend to be lured to him like moths to a flame, thinking if they take him down, the whole operation comes toppling

Even if they do put Duke out of action, they're in for a rude awakening when the rest of the Carrion Crows come to the rescue

He and Steph know how to put all eyes on themselves so that Tim and Cass's activities go unnoticed

Why think of mysteries with too little clues to wonder about, when you can look at this spectacle of a spotlight and galore of violence?

His name is also a nod to the fact that despite all the trauma he's went through, he has more childhood innocence compared to the rest of the four; more light in his eyes so to speak

// Cassandra, the renegade, the renegade . . .

She made a promise to herself even before she met The Bat; She will not kill, for it is wrong, all have the right to live, and none the right to revoke it

She does not kill for all deserve a sufficient judgement; all victims the ability to gain closure how they see fit (this sets up possible future arguments between Jason and her)

Where as the other Carrion may take the liberty to transform 'No Killing' into a fate worse than death?

She is the only one who's made this promise, and thus the only one you can trust to not make you beg for death due to it transforming into mercy

And if you make a promise to the Carrion? You better go through with it, because she'll know when you've broken it

==========

The gang starts off as basically welfare.

Here's free lessons of essential life skills, here's free nursing and doctor training, here's free education and shelter— legality? Who cares?

Eventually, however, they meet bottlenecks of lacking legal options as illegal gangs do

So Tim starts looking into ways to circumvent this. lo and behold, the Drake Industries he is set in inherit

Tim starts catching up on everything he'll need to know to be CEO as a fricking teenager and starts discussing the possibility of even doing so under eighteen

For plot convenience, Jack and Janet are ecstatic that he appears to be so passionate about this and help him speedrun inheritance

Badabing badaboom, with Tim weaving in the Undying Carrion and Drake Industries together, business is booming on both sides as they feed into eachothers growth and profits

The Drake's, in the dark, are wiping tears above their smiles. They're so proud of their boy!

Tim unfortunately has to play Loving Son™ more than ever, but hey, worth it

Fuck it, it's helping Gotham, so Tim even enlists Kon, Cassie and Bart as honorary and substitute leaders in case of emergencies, gets them up to speed

(hey maybe even have Bart info dump about the Undying Carrion when introduced to it be it due to history lessons or it's place in the future)

Idk what their Carrion Titles would be lol

Also how will they utilize their powers without giving themselves away? 🤔🤔🤔

==========

Oh yeah, what do they all do as the heads of their gang?

Well, they're very remote and hands off in practice due to civilian and bat-vigilante lives, so unless they can find the time;

Tim is the tech genius, encrypting and hacking like no tomorrow. Plus his ability to gather information is like no other

He can even double as an info broker when nessecery

He does most of the bureaucracy when it comes to working Drake Industries and Undying Carcasses both at once, but others help him shoulder the burden

Cassandra specializes in getting a read on people with her knowledge in body language

She can tell who works best where, who to trust, who to play, who to investigate, etc.

Duke does most of leadership possible remotely. He also utilizes his meta powers without outing himself as Signal

Stephanie—with an undone death—is able to act as a physically present leader for the gang, and is the one on the field if nessecery

In a nutshell, Tim does tech + organization and DI & UC, Cass passes judgements, Duke does remote leadership, and Stephanie does fieldwork and physical leadership

As the four leaders, they have meetings and discuss how to proceed with their gang

==========

So yeah, Batman + non-criminal allies and Red Hood are sniffing around the Undying Carrion because, hello? New gang? Who dis?

Especially if one of them catches a look at Stephanie's eyes as Violence and sees them flash Lazarus Green, giving the name 'Undying Carrion' a whole 'nother meaning

That also boosts their motivation to uncover what the fucking is going on here

==========

Anyways Jason slander because I'm a Hater™

Stephanie proposed becoming a crime lord since she didn't want to work under Batman, still wanted to help people, and crime is still a big fucking problem so "if you can't beat 'em, join em"

However, she is also aware of the mess that is Batman and Jason's relationship after the latter revived, plus Jason beating Tim up to high hell, and fills in Cass and Duke about this

And having never met Jason nor caring about his Robin days nearly as much as Tim Drake, she has a very low opinion of the Second Robin

Especially with Jason's audacity to claim he protects kids whilst doing the Titans Tower

And whatever the hell he was pulling didn't stop her from biting the dust

So yeah, she's a hater and she makes it KNOWN

She's super vocal about her criticism towards Batman and Red Hood

"Batman's second Robin died due to circumstances out of his control, so I won't grill him for that, but to allow Red Hood to break into Titans Tower and beat the Third Robin to near death and later allow the Fourth to die is something else entirely!"

"Speaking of Red Hood, what happened to 'protecting the children'? look at you! You beat Robin—a teenager—into the dirt for daring to care about his community! for feeling obligated for throwing away his childhood so he could play Therapist for Batman!"

"Shouldn't you be throwing hands with Batman instead? The Third Robin threw away so much for him and the Fourth Robin gave her own life!"

"Or is the problem that they do care for their communities, and have the power to fight for them and defend ourselves?"

"Was the Third Robin not only exempted from your rules, but actively targeted by you because he could defend himself? Do only protect children when they can't fight back? When they're utterly helpless? In Gotham?"

"Forget being an exception, why did you see fit to grant the idea that children should be protected from harm an exception? Are the kids in Crime Alley safe from you at all?"

"Argue all you want for yourself, but the fact remains that you've displayed not the power, but the willingness to torture those you claim to protect, and we won't stand for it, I least of all."

"If one of us isn't safe, none of us are safe."

Maybe Stephanie's slip for the tongue "one of us" can clue Red Hold in on Carrion Violence being a teenager, whoopsie daisies

But yeah, arguments for those under Red Hood or The Undying Carrion abound

Lord help you of you're under Red Hood, and The Undying Carrion

I'm thinking about the Twitter Wars . . .

==========

Hey maybe she even whispers the idea that Red Hood is infact a copycat of The Joker and is just playing the long con, building a reputation and trust so he can burn it all away and watch the improving community collapse and despair

It'd explain why he brutalized the Third Robin like how The Joker did the Second Robin but has yet to do the same with Batman and is obsessed like the Joker is, she's just saying . . . 👀👀👀👀

Not as Carrion Violence of course, that'd be the biggest target in her back yet!

It's small suggestions here and there only Tim would be able to trace back to her

I'm just saying, with the Carrion Crows being Waynes (not matter how unofficial) and Tim running Drake Industries they're experience with PR could be weaponized *handrub*

Jason has to throw in his own rustic abilities but it's gonna be tough, woof

==========

Is Cluemaster still isn't jailed yet, he's done for with the Carrion Crows on his ass

==========

The four are also gonna beat Jay's ass into the dirt when they find out he knew about Damian since he was under Talia's care and never brought him up

Or maybe not, Red Hood isn't on good terms with Batfam or Carrion, and if he did go single father he'd have assassin's on his undertrained ass

But also

That kid's in a fucking cult for fucks sake what the hell man?

==========

Oh yeah, the Batclan side of things.

Given the disastrous trend of Robins biting the dust or being brutalized by previous ones, Robin is benched indefinitely, especially with Tim admitting that he's going to focus more on his civilian life

Particularly getting that CEO status in Drake Industries and playing the Prodigy Image for PR

Also the Carrion stuff but Batman doesn't know that

Bruce sort of has his hands full simultaneously training daylight hero Signal and recent partner Batgirl

as do they but he doesn't need to know why

Batman is sweating bullets after learning about the rapidly growing Undying Carrion and realizing they have to investigate this. Especially if he knows about Carrion Violence's Lazarus eyes

Cassandra and Duke meanwhile are sweating because they have to investigate themselves without getting caught

Just because Tim is benched doesn't mean he's wholly out of the game

He does lots of duty on the batcomputer as he did during Stephanie's Robin time

Plus, since he's gone Computer Man, he spends more time with Barbara and learning technology with her

Which is later exploited by Carrion Thread

So yeah, with the Batfamily infested with three moles, It's gonna be rough not raising suspicion but slightly easier with each other to trust

Plus they can do some espionage for the Carrion side of things

==========

Suffice to say that the Carrion Crows and maybe even Young Justice become much closer thanks to this, so if something real bad happens like Tim's Sixteenth birthday, he'll trust them to have his back and to give a shoulder to cry on

And to think this started off as Jason Todd hate . . . And also Batman hating . . .

Oh yeah, I never established wtf Stephanie"s fake ID was, just that Tim helped her get one, should probably toss that in as well

Tim doing experiments until he can, in cases of emergency, revive his family with Pit water makes sense.

I do love that this AU focuses on Steph, Duke, and Cass because they can be overlooked by fandom and canon (I'm glad Tim is a focus as well, but he's not nearly as overlooked as the other three).

I'm always down for Bruce bashing, and I like the idea that they are slowly driving him nuts. He has no clue why this new gang is always ahead of him, and he just wants to figure it out. Fuck him, though.

The role for Steph in this is great. I think that Bruce is too limiting for her character. She should be able to make her own decisions with support, not dictations of lines. She's too used to making her own decisions for some random ass man to tell her what she can and can't do. It doesn't matter that Bruce is Batman and a billionaire. Steph deserves the respect to be a leading decision maker of her own life.

In this AU, she's able to shine as the brilliant, fierce, and strong person she is while being able to lean on Duke, Cass, and Tim.

Duke and Cass have it rough with two separate vigilante (ish) personas, but you did mention they kind if work not as frequently as Steph is able to.

As far as Jason, there's very few fics that address how his attack on Tim would affect his reputation in Crime Alley. That, more than anything, would devastate the man. The kids of Crime Alley, whose trust is hard earned, losing faith in him. I don't remember which fics address this, but even fewer actually have Crime Alley find out about Red Hood attacking Robin. That whole situation is tricky to navigate as a fan of both Tim and Jason.

Anyways, I love the amount of detail you put into this AU. What part of Gotham would they control? Would they be fighting with Red Hood for Crime Alley, or would they set up territory in another section? Or do they not have territory?

I'd be down to hear more about this AU. Stuff like what their outfits are like, what missions they tackle, how the public treats them, etc.

[zahri-melitor]

One of these days I will write a definitive post on why all those "The Justice League meets a Robin and their Mind Is Blown" posts drive me bonkers, but for the interim have a bunch of points:-

The League probably met Dick around the same time they were all fostering their OWN wards. You know the OT Teen Titans existed for a reason, right? RIGHT?

In fact we have versions of the 'League meets Dick' that are literally 'everyone brought their sidekicks in for playtime' (Robin & Batman notably goes straight for this).

When Jason was a Robin, Cynthia Reynolds was literally 14 years old and on the Justice League. You're trying to tell me anyone is going to be mindblown about Jason's existence during Justice League Detroit?? Cindy is right there!!! Nobody thinks Bruce is doing anything unusual!

(Also Cindy's ALSO a runaway from a broken abusive household. Just saying)

When Tim became Robin, not only did a good chunk of the League not even realise Jason had died (because Bruce...didn't tell them) and they assumed Tim was Jason in pants, this confusion between the two existed up until at LEAST 2001 and Quiver.

Also Tim became Robin in one of the messier periods for the Justice League, between JLI, Justice League Europe, Justice League Task Force, Extreme Justice and so on. There were multiple heroes under the age of 20 operating on various Justice Leagues during this period. The only thing anyone ever noticed was whether it was Batman or Nightwing accompanying Robin to the call up event.

Nobody met Steph as Robin. Nobody knew Steph was Robin. It was 71 days (of which three weeks she spent on the bench), the Teen Titans barely realised Steph was Robin. If anyone had any feelings about it that we don't see on page (see Kon's reaction) it was probably in the category of 'eh there are a lot of vigilantes in Gotham these days'.

The Justice League at the time Damian became Robin was... firstly the goddamn mess that ended up resulting in Cry for Justice, and then newly formed one that was led by Dick and Donna. I. Uh. Don't think they were having any of the reactions to Damian that you think other than going "Dick, are you sure you're not doing this as a punishment to yourself? You're allowed to deal with the fact that your father died".

[yuesya]

Bastard AU has consumed my brain. Imagine a Satoru raised by Toji Fucking Fushiguro (would he even be a Fushiguro in this scenario? I don’t think he would take Hina’s name, that would just be swapping one clan name for another, would they just randomly choose a common surname and that’s it). I’m hoping like hell this is a fluffy AU because after the Angst that is Twins AU I think Shiki deserves at least one world where everything is rainbows and unicorns - or at least as much as we can get in jujutsu kaisen. Even Toji deserves to become a family man, an adoring husband who takes way too much pleasure in embarrassing his kids. And Hina certainly deserves everything.

Hina and Toji would definitely cast away their clan names and choose something completely unrelated. Maybe Fushiguro? Let's just go with Fushiguro haha.

So. Toji steals Hina and Satoru! As you might imagine, towing around a pregnant woman and a one year old toddler while hiding from the outraged Gojo Clan isn't exactly an easy task. But Zenin Fushiguro Toji, in another world, was known as the Sorcerer Killer. There are some close calls, but he's able to defeat their pursuers and protect Hina.

Somewhere along their mad run across the entire country, they end up saving Kon Shiu, who got on the wrong end of mediating between his clients. The man ends up helping them hide for the last stretch of Hina's pregnancy, and Shiki is born. Both mother and child are safe.

Now, if it was just Hina and Shiki, the Gojo Clan probably would've made some efforts to get her back, but retreat in the end after Toji proves himself too difficult to be worth the effort. With Gojo Satoru involved, however, it's outright war. Due to formerly being of the Zenin Clan, the runaway family has both the Gojo and Zenin Clans hunting them down.

Toji ends up training Satoru how to fight through a combination of practical battle experience against curse users and the pursuers sent by the clans. Satoru probably isn't as skilled with his cursed technique as he was in canon, but he's a lot more skilled in hand-to-hand battle.

[thisisyourdriverspeaking]

Summer break and I'm kinda sorta missing F1 so here are the UK number one songs when drivers got their first Grand Prix win. Enjoy 😊

Giuseppe Farina (1950 British GP - 13th May), Juan Manuel Fangio (1950 Monaco GP - 21st May) & Johnnie Parsons (1950 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Billy Eckstine - My Foolish Heart

Lee Wallard (1951 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Les Paul & Mary Ford - Mockin' Bird Hill

Luigi Fagioli (1951 French GP - 1st July) & Jose Froilan Gonzalez (1951 British GP - 14th July) - Nelson Eddy & Jo Stafford - With These Hands

Alberto Ascari (1951 German GP - 29th July) - Hoagy Carmichael - My Resistance Is Low

Piero Taruffi (1952 Swiss GP - 18th May) - Nat 'King' Cole - Unforgettable

Troy Ruttman (1952 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Jo Stafford - Ay-Round The Corner

Bill Vukovich (1953 Indy 500 - 30th May) & Mike Hawthorn (1953 French GP - 5th July) - Frankie Laine - I Believe

Maurice Trintignant (1955 Monaco GP - 22nd May) - Tony Bennett - Stranger In Paradise

Bob Sweikert (1955 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Eddie Calvert - Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White

Stirling Moss (1955 British GP - 16th July) - Alma Cogan - Dreamboat

Luigi Musso (1956 Argentine GP - 22nd January) - Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons

Pat Flaherty (1956 Indy 500 - 30th May) & Peter Collins (1956 Belgian GP - 3rd June) - Ronnie Hilton - No Other Love

Sam Hanks (1957 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Andy Williams - Butterfly

Tony Brooks (1957 British GP - 20th July) - Elvis Presley - All Shook Up

Jimmy Bryan (1958 Indy 500 - 30th May) - Connie Francis - Who's Sorry Now

Jack Brabham (1959 Monaco GP - 10th May) - Buddy Holly - It Doesn't Matter Anymore

Rodger Ward (1959 Indy 500 - 30th May) & Jo Bonnier (1959 Dutch GP - 31st May) - Elvis Presley - A Fool Such As I

Bruce McLaren (1959 US GP - 12th December) - Adam Faith - What Do You Want?

Jim Rathmann (1960 Indy 500 - 30th May) - The Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown

Phil Hill (1960 Italian GP - 4th September) - The Shadows - Apache

Wolfgang Von Trips (1961 Dutch GP - 22nd May) - Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound

Giancarlo Baghetti (1961 French GP - 2nd July) - Del Shannon - Runaway

Innes Ireland (1961 US GP - 8th October) - The Shadows - Kon-Tiki

Graham Hill (1962 Dutch GP - 20th May) - B Bumble & The Stingers - Nut Rocker

Jim Clark (1962 Belgian GP - 17th June) - Elvis Presley - Good Luck Charm

Dan Gurney (1962 French GP - 8th July) - Mike Sarne & Wendy Richard - Come Outside

John Surtees (1963 German GP - 4th August) - Elvis Presley - Devil In Disguise

Lorenzo Bandini (1964 Austrian GP - 23rd August) - Manfred Man - Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Jackie Stewart (1965 Italian GP - 12th September) - The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Richie Ginther (1965 Mexican GP - 24th October) - Ken Dodd - Tears

Ludovico Scarfiotti (1966 Italian GP - 4th September) - The Beatles - Yellow Submarine

Pedro Rodriguez (1967 South African GP - 2nd January) - Tom Jones - Green Green Grass Of Home

Denny Hulme (1967 Monaco GP - 7th May) - Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String

Jacky Ickx (1968 French GP - 7th July) & Jo Siffert (1968 British GP - 20th July) - Equals - Baby Come Back

Jochen Rindt (1969 US GP - 5th October) - Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Je T'aime... Mon Non Plus

Clay Regazzoni (1970 Italian GP - 6th September) - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Tears Of A Clown

Emerson Fittipaldi (1970 US GP - 4th October) - Freda Payne - Band Of Gold

Mario Andretti (1971 South African GP - 6th March) - Mungo Jerry - Baby Jump

Peter Gethin (1971 Italian GP - 5th September) - Diana Ross - I'm Still Waiting

Francois Cevert (1971 US GP - 3rd October) - Rod Stewart - Maggie May

Jean-Pierre Beltoise (1972 Monaco GP - 14th May) - T-Rex - Metal Guru

Ronnie Peterson (1973 French GP - 1st July) - Donny Osmond - Young Love

Peter Revson (1973 British GP - 14th July) - Slade - Skweeze Me Pleeze Me

Carlos Reutemann (1974 South African GP - 30th March) - Paper Lace - Billy Don't Be A Hero

Niki Lauda (1974 Spanish GP - 28th April) - Abba - Waterloo

Jody Scheckter (1974 Swedish GP - 9th June) - Ray Stevens - The Streak

Jose Carlos Pace (1975 Brazilian GP - 26th January) - Pilot - January

Jochen Mass - (1975 Spanish GP - 27th April) - Mud - Oh Boy

James Hunt (1975 Dutch GP - 22nd June) - 10CC - I'm Not In Love

Vittorio Brambilla (1975 Austrian GP - 17th August) - The Stylistics - I Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)

John Watson (1976 Austrian GP - 15th August) - Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Gunnar Nilsson (1977 Belgian GP - 5th June) - Rod Stewart - I Don't Want To Talk About It

Jacques Laffite (1977 Swedish GP - 19th June) - The Jacksons - Show You The Way To Go

Alan Jones (1977 Austrian GP - 14th August) - Brotherhood Of Man - Angelo

Patrick Depailler (1978 Monaco GP - 7th May) - Boney M - Rivers Of Babylon

Gilles Villeneuve (1978 Canadian GP - 8th October) - John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - Summer Nights

Jean-Pierre Jabouille (1979 French GP - 1st July) - Tubeway Army - Are 'Friends' Electric?

Rene Arnoux (1980 Brazilian GP - 27th January) - The Specials - Too Much Too Young

Nelson Piquet (1980 US GP - March 30) - The Jam - Going Underground

Didier Pironi (1980 Belgian GP - 4th May) - Dexy's Midnight Runners - Geno

Alain Prost (1981 French GP - 5th July) - The Specials - Ghost Town

Riccardo Patrese (1982 Monaco GP - 23rd May) - Madness - House Of Fun

Patrick Tambay (1982 German GP - 8th August) & Elio De Angelis (1982 Austrian GP) - Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen

Keke Rosberg (1982 Swiss GP - 29th August) & Michele Alboreto (1982 Caesers Palace GP) - Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger

Ayrton Senna (1985 Portuguese GP - 21st April) - USA For Africa - We Are The World

Nigel Mansell (1985 European GP - 6th October) - Jennifer Rush - The Power Of Love

Gerhard Berger (1986 Mexican GP - 12th October) - Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins

Thierry Boutsen (1989 Canadian GP - 18th June) - Soul II Soul - Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)

Alessandro Nannini (1989 Japanese GP - 22nd October) - Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - That's What I Like

Michael Schumacher (1992 Belgian GP - 30th August) - Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer

Damon Hill (1993 Hungarian GP - 15th August) - Freddie Mercury - Living On My Own

Jean Alesi (1995 Canadian GP - 11th June) - Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody

Johnny Herbert (1995 British GP - 16th July) - Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom

David Coulthard (1995 Portuguese GP - 24th September) - Simply Red - Fairground

Olivier Panis (1996 Monaco GP - 19th May) - Gina G - Ooh Ahh... Just A Little Bit

Jacques Villeneuve (1996 European GP - 28th April) - George Michael - Fastlove

Heinz-Harald Frentzen (1997 San Marino GP) - Michael Jackson - Blood On The Dance Floor

Mika Hakkinen (1997 European GP - 26th October) - Aqua - Barbie Girl

Eddie Irvine (1999 Australian GP - 7th March) - Boyzone - When The Going Gets Tough

Ruben Barrichello (2000 German GP - 30th July) - Craig David - 7 Days

Ralf Schumacher (2001 San Marino GP - 15th April) - Emma Bunton - What Took You So Long?

Juan Pablo Montoya (2001 Italian GP - 16th September) - DJ Otzi - Hey Baby

Kimi Raikkonen (2003 Malaysian GP - 23rd March) - Gareth Gates ft The Kumars - Spirit In The Sky

Giancarlo Fisichella (2003 Brazilian GP - 6th April) - Room 5 ft Oliver Cheatham - Make Luv

Fernando Alonso (2003 Hungarian GP - 24th August) - Blu Cantrell ft Sean Paul - Breathe

Jarno Trulli (2004 Monaco GP - 23rd May) - Frankee - F.U.R.B (F U Right Back

Jenson Button (2006 Hungarian GP - 6th August) - Shakira ft Wyclef Jean - Hips Don't Lie

Felipe Massa (2006 Turkish GP - 27th August) - Beyonce ft Jay-Z - Deja Vu

Lewis Hamilton (2007 Canadian GP - 10th June) - Rihanna ft Jay-Z - Umbrella

Robert Kubica (2008 Canadian GP - 8th June) - Mint Royale - Singin' In The Rain

Heikki Kovalainen (2008 Hungarian GP - 3rd August) - Dizzee Rascal ft Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me

Sebastian Vettel (2008 Italian GP - 14th September) - Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire

Mark Webber (2009 German GP - 12th July) - Cascada - Evacuate The Dancefloor

Nico Rosberg (2012 Chinese GP - 15th April) - Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

Pastor Maldonado (2012 Spanish GP - 13th May) - Rita Ora ft Tinie Tempah - R.I.P.

Daniel Ricciardo (2014 Canadian GP - 8th June) - Ed Sheeran - Sing

Max Verstappen (2016 Spanish GP - 15th May) - Drake ft Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance

Valtteri Bottas (2017 Russian GP - 30th April) - Clean Bandit ft Zara Larsson - Symphony

Charles Leclerc (2019 Belgian GP - 1st September) - Ed Sheeran ft Stormzy - Take Me Back To London

Pierre Gasly (2020 Italian GP - 6th September) - Cardi B ft Megan Thee Stallion - WAP

Sergio Perez (2020 Sakhir GP - 6th December) - Ariana Grande - Positions

Esteban Ocon (2021 Hungarian GP - 1st August) - Ed Sheeran - Bad Habits

Carlos Sainz Jr (2022 British GP - 3rd July) - Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

George Russell (2022 Brazilian GP - 13th November) - Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero

Lando Norris (2024 Miami GP - 5th May) & Oscar Piastri (2024 Hungarian GP - 21st July) - Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso

And yes, I've created a Spotify playlist for these tunes 😊😊

[canmom]

l'aventure d'canmom à annecy épisode DEUX - lundi - partie 1

sure hope everyone knows the days of the week in French.

I'm gonna be writing throughout the day today because there's gonna be a lot!

this morning i wasted my reservation for The Most Precious of Cargoes by not showing up early enough, rip. As a consolation I went into Grad Films 1! These kinda slapped! ...mostly anyway.

first up, we had Sheep Out by Zofia Klamka, which was pure style. a severely dressed animator has her routine disrupted by a runaway cartoon sheep, taking her on a crazy chase through the ads and posters of the city. edited tight as fuck, the initial routine montage of match cuts transitioning perfectly into crazy smears, wacky perspectives and some really playful shots with the characters running through posters at different scales and interacting with the real world. calls to mind Kon. hell of an opener.

Apartment 203 was a bit of a dud for me. Found footage style about a serial killer, it explains the premise in text at the outset so there is little tension, and it's just a camera looking around a dirty CG with foley of breathing, music, and offscreen violence and screams.

Luckily such misses were not the rule in this block!

Echoes by Robinson Drossos used a very strong sketchy traditional animation style to depict a boy descending into a sewer that becomes an increasingly surreal cave. The pencil texture and strength of drawing and movement do a ton for this one, i fully winced when the boy falls down a shaft hitting his head on every surface.

Carrotica by Daniel Sterlin-Altman was a blast. It's about the desires and fantasies of a single mum obsessed with her carrot research and her repressed gay son who writes erotica in his notebooks, all depicted in stop motion. Excellent naturalistic voice acting and a script that is both funny and very genuine.

Humantis by Paris Baillie from Calarts was a really cool stop motion one about flower petal creatures which engage in strange formal dances, and one of these creatures whose white petals start becoming corrupted with green. The creature tears petals from the others to try to hide its condition but inevitably gets found out, only to discover other green humantises. Yet in the final shot of the film, we see that it still mourns its white petals. I loved the visual style here - really imaginative creature designs.

You are the truck and I am the deer was not really to my taste - poetry over abstract imagery of corruption and trauma, i kinda get it, but it felt a bit too generic for me.

Yapalaponky by Masataka Kihara... I'm sure glad I can post a picture so I don't have to describe the creature. The film depicts a series of cute/funny little interactions between the man and the creature, good visual gags around weight and such, eventually pulling back to a child in a car on the way to a funeral (I think). Always interesting to see jp animation outside the anime bubble - I appreciate the visual imagination of these weird guys with their う faces.

The Time Botanist by Glenn Paul-Parvenu is a delightful tribute to rubber hose and earlier animation, with its mc getting sneezed back into older and older styles by her anthropomorphised time machine. Good concept, nails the execution!

The Last Visit by Keawalee Warutkomain is a meditation on grief, animated in the pages of a book. Foregrounding its process this much, it led me inevitably to think about the act of making a film to grieve someone. I made a short animation when Fall died - it was really rough, but I felt moved to use the art I was making at the time to commemorate her somehow. I always felt a little ashamed that I didn't make something better, but like... as if she'd care! And it makes me wonder like, the stuff about technical execution, how it relates to something so personal as a film about grief - but then, it's not just a personal project, it's being screened for others here. What is the right way to make art 'for' someone who has died? I really don't know.

In this case, Warutkomain is mourning her aunt. The film is more about the experience of grief than the aunt herself, and it felt a little too long for what it had as such an abstract film, but like, it feels cruel to make that kind of criticism. It certainly provoked thought of my own experience of grief, but the subject is inherently resonant - I realised I was getting lost in my head and missing the film. I don't know what to make of it all. Certainly the animation in the pages of a book was a cool effect.

Adiós by José Prats seemed like another such personal film, but in this case a tight drama. A father is struggling to accept the departure of his son, the dialogue full of loaded lines about leaving him behind. They go out hunting, but their dog accidentally eats poison; the father is resigned to losing the dog, but the son runs to fetch salt instead of staying at their side - and this turns out to be the right call, since the dog is saved, and the father finally accepts his son's decision. Strongly executed stop motion, this was a very solid note to end on.

I love student films, because there are few other cases where people get to create with such few restraints. Which isn't to say there aren't pressures - students are trying to impress future employers and their instructors and so forth, and they draw inspiration from other student films so you get certain genres - but I'm always impressed by the sheer variety of stuff that people can cook up in just a year. Definitely a strong block, can't wait for more. (Also some of the directors were present, I hope they appreciated the applause - living the dream of getting a film into annecy. one day.)

[radioactive-earthshine]

Oh yeah, this AU is turning out GREAT

Kon "So if I'm Peter Pan then who are you? Wendy?" Bart "No. Wendy had a family that wanted her. I'm just another lost boy."

[chiyana]

HA yeah that was…that was from Tuesday night so you know a dude had to be a little sedated

But in ANY case, I for one am happy to have another chapter in this trying time! Regardless of thematic coincidences!

And I’ve thought about it more, and I think Kryptonians would definitely use fluorescent based sequencing, as opposed to something chemistry based, because they’re such a heavily wavelength based species and sequencing using flashing colors detection really fits that, you know? They seem like they would utilize lasers forever and for everything

And while I’m sure they have something to do whole genome sequencing that’s faster than we currently have (tho we are limited by how fast chemistry can you know. Chemical), I like to think Tim’s sequencing was done using Sanger sequencing, or the equivalent, because it’s fairly easy, fairly accurate, and it’s confirmed they already have sequenced something similar before so they would have the materials already (and you know, now that I think about it, Kon being a hybrid and in canon Kal having a half/half kid does indicate Kryptonian DNA has the same if not chemically compatible bases to humans)

If I had a heavy hunch about the identity of a sequence AND I already had the materials from before, it would take me like….personally 4-5 hours from start to finish to confirm Tim was human, and that’s from using my 2005 sequencer. If I needed more information/more sequence, I would use a next gen sequencer of some kind, but those take a lot longer to set up, like…hmmm at least a day (you can way more info, like in depth population analysis or a Whole Entire Genome, but they don’t NEED that right now)

Also I just love Sanger sequencing a lot, it’s so neat how it works. It’s like. It’s like you place a train on a track, and the train is a short DNA sequence you know (or hope) matches somewhere in your sample. And that train goes forward, replicating the strand of DNA it’s on (the train track). And every so often, the train will get stopped in its path by a glowing DNA base, 4 different colors for the 4 different bases. And this train does this thousands and thousands of times, getting stopped randomly at any point in the track with a glowing base. And when it’s done, you use an electric/magnetic current to separate the different train paths, from shortest (train gets stopped immediately) to longest (train gets stopped a solid mile down the track). And then look. At which color each track glows. Because they’re in order of size now! So you can see what the sequence of the whole track is by checking the order of the glowing bases from smallest to largest! I love it, I want to be buried in a Sanger sequencer when I die

Anyway. I actually love how you write your fic because you put just enough science in it to entice me and make me think, but not so much that it kills suspension of disbelief. It’s the perfect amount of explanation for me, unlike other shows that shall not be named

Ooh! I like the idea of them using fluorescent based sequencing, since yeah considering how heavily light/the sun ties into them conceptually and thematically, they absolutely would use lasers for everything forever XD

I didn't know about different kinds of sequencing, but Sanger sequencing does sound really cool! I like learning about neat tricks in science used to gather data quickly and accurately and then organize it to sort through and understand :)

Thank you so much for sharing, and I'm glad you like the fic! Also, if you want sci-fi world-building that really gets into the weeds of things like different genes and chemical structures, I recommend checking out Jay Eaton and Runaway to the Stars! It's a currently updating webcomic, but they're on Tumblr as well as jayrockin. The story follows a hypercarnivore alien/aerospace engineer named Talita who gets involved in fixing a pirate ship and running off to have space adventures. There's SO MUCH world building and thought gone into the world of the story that I think you would be interested in (if you haven't heard about it already).

Thank you again for the ask!

[roskirambles]

(Archive) Christmas Movie of the Day: Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Originally posted: December 10th, 2021

Ah, Christmas. A holiday marked by prosperity. Where families gather together to sing and dine, where children laugh while they exchange presents and colorful lights envelop the celebration. So what does a man like Satoshi Kon do for such a season? A film that is none of these things yet still manages to surpass most movies about this festivity by a landslide.

Well, to say there's none of those things is a bit of a hyperbole, but let's be real: this is a movie about outcasts, a group of people that can't afford them for one reason or another. It's an alcoholic hobo, a transsexual and a runaway teenager finding an abandoned baby. On Christmas eve. So… joy to the world!

Don't underestimate this offbeat set up, however, as it isn't just off beat for off beat's sake. It allows the story to delve into the parts of society people often forget, even in the times where it's said people should look out for the poor. A tale of the marginalized getting a glimpse of where they don't fit while also showing them with sincerity and humanity, never looking down on them. And the thing is, despite the lacks and needs of some people, the personal flaws of others and some heart-wrenching hardships they have to endure, the film is still hopeful, heartwarming and genuinely funny.

Seriously, when this movie isn't tugging your heartstrings it's making you laugh with some outlandish gags and deadpan humor. The main trio really bounces off each other in funny and compelling ways; the more you learn about them, the more you want them to heal the issues they carry with them. And there is a hopeful light waiting for them.

It's a movie about reunions, compassion, doing the right thing expecting no reward, and finding the ways to forgive yourself. In a nutshell, Satoshi Kon captured what many fail to even grasp in more pompous attempts: What is universally meaningful about Christmas and what makes for a good Christmas miracle.

[zeequicks]

kennel for strays

decided the zee & kon besties verse needed more love. so here is another one! inspired by zee's intro scene in young justice where she dips mid conversation to stroke the giant fluffy canine. (1.2k words, G-rated) | read on ao3

Summary:

Zatanna gets distracted by animals, Conner quickly notes, in all situations and scenarios. (Or, the one in which Conner and Zatanna are unlikely besties and bond over animals.)

Over the years, Conner realises that Zatanna has a habit of. . . pulling a disappearing act. (And no, that was not a Dick Grayson pun, thank you very much.)

The first time Zatanna is introduced to the team, she disappears mid-conversation when the adults start talking. Everyone whips their head around the room, only to find Zatanna curled up against Wolf on the floor. She strokes his fluffy coat, scratching underneath his neck and belly, as his tail swishes around.

Conner doesn’t think anything of it, at first.

-

Zatanna gets distracted by animals, Conner quickly notes, in all situations and scenarios.

Conner is fighting off monkeys, standing in the way between them and the secret base they’re meant to be finding in the Sumatran rainforest, when Zatanna throws herself in between them and says, “No! Don’t hurt them!”

Artemis was also wrestling with one, voice jumping an octave to argue against Zatanna’s protest, “Zee, these things bite!”

“Just—” Zatanna pushes her gloved hands out, says some sort of spell, which puts all of the two dozen monkeys around them to sleep. Conner shakes off the one on his hand, as it drops to the ground.

Zatanna disappears off into the forest before anyone else can even notice, and Conner actually has to use his super-hearing to track her down.

She finds one baby monkey left on the ground, fully knocked out. Her spell must have affected a larger area than she intended. It’s clearly separated from its mother. Zatanna picks it up and scans the trees for signs of her.

“Seniv dliub a esacriats,” she says, and Conner catches that one—because she’s used it before.

“We don’t have time for this,” Wally zips over and complains. “The rest of the team are getting a move on!”

Zatanna won’t have it. “We’ll catch up,” she says, still scaling those vines with the sleepy mammal safely pressed into her chest.

“Are you sure?” Wally says, punctuating each word like a last-ditch attempt to not have to explain this to the rest of the team.

“Yes, it’s fine. Conner is fast. He’ll get us there. Won’t you, Conner?” she says, head fully in the trees now. Conner can’t see her face, but he sure as hell can see the smile on it. “Or, I could portal us there.”

Wally groans in resignation. “Fine, just stay on the comms!” He then zips away, leaving the two of them in total silence.

When Zatanna manages to reunite the pair, Conner helps her down the tree. She looks at Conner, curious and impressed at his choice to stay, but mostly grateful, above everything else.

“I—” she hesitates, uncharacteristically. “I hope that wasn’t too much trouble for the mission.”

He shakes his head. “No problem. Just a short detour. I still don’t like magical portals, so I—uh, I could carry you. If that’s OK with you. You’re not running through the woods in those things,” he points at her shoes.

She does not mind at all.

-

Conner walks into the kitchen one day and nearly immediately walks back out.

Wally is fighting a bright green parrot over a baguette and losing spectacularly. Has Conner mentioned that there is a parrot in the kitchen?

“I swear if this is one of Dick’s runaway circus animals—ow, let go of my hand!”

Zatanna walks in and rushes over to intervene, “Elfie, stop! Let go of Wally.” She offers the bird an arm to perch on.  

It—the bird, the bird named Elfie—rapidly loses interest in the battle over the baguette and flaps its wings as Zatanna reaches into her coat pocket for a handful of nuts.

Zatanna can sense when Conner has a question, even before he asks.

“I might have taken in a stray when we were on our last mission,” she admits, with only the tiniest bit of reticence. “I ran it past Black Canary. She says she knows how to take care of birds, and she says she’ll try to get Green Arrow to buy a better enclosure for Elfie.”

Conner can understand Zatanna’s motivations. He took in Wolf under similar circumstances, after all. “I don’t have a problem with birds. We should get Elfie introduced to Wolf, to avoid any territorial disputes.”

Her eyes light up at the encouragement. “Elfie is short for Elphaba, you know, from Wicked?”

Neither of the boys understand this reference.

-

Conner and Zatanna become very good friends. He gets along well with her, more than most people would expect them to, but despite that, they still don’t talk much about their personal lives. Conner likes that about their friendship, likes the fact that he can trust her to have his back without having to pry into his mind, or his emotions, which he doesn’t always have a grip on—and he thinks she likes that about him, too.

But when Zatanna’s dad dies, she shuts them all out. She pulls another disappearing act. He knows not to take it personally. He understands. He always does.

Still, the walls in Mount Justice are thin for a Kryptonian with super-hearing.

Conner decides that he can’t take another day of listening to his friend crying all by herself in her room, because she didn’t just lose her dad, she lost her home, her entire life.

So, Conner knocks one evening, with Wolf by his side and a pack of his favourite treats.

“It’s me, Zatanna.”

Silence.

“Can I come in?” he tries again, and for good measure, adds, “Wolf wants to see you. He misses his favourite walking buddy.”

She sniffles and blows into a tissue, muttering a spell Conner can’t quite make out. He hears boxes moving across the room and realises that she must be tidying the room. Conner chuckles, and the door flies open.

“Do you say that to all the girls?” Zatanna says, and there’s a tired rasp to her voice, but Conner is only glad that she’s making jokes again.

Inside, they still don’t talk about what she’s been through much. Conner isn’t the best at offering advice, or knowing what the right words are to say, but Zatanna doesn’t seem to care.

She feeds Wolf the treats Conner has been saving for her, and surprises even Conner when she commands Wolf to perform a new trick. He rolls onto his back and plays dead, only getting up when she says the words, “Where’s my standing ovation?”

Wolf gets up and drums his paws on the floor, before leaping up into her arms and licking her face in a giant, sloppy show of affection. She laughs, like this is just another night, and Conner forgets for a moment why he hasn’t heard her laugh in so long.

“Thank you, Conner,” she says, with both her arms wrapped around the canine and her head buried in his fur. Conner’s reminded of the first time they met, now.

“For what?”

“For bringing the best distraction from heartbreak a girl could ask for,” she plants another kiss onto Wolf’s neck, then then glances up at Conner, “and for being you, of course.”

Conner doesn’t know why, or how, but Zatanna has a way of making people feel like they’re exactly who they should be.

“I’ll always be me,” Conner says, and it sounds like an affirmation to himself.

She beams, emitting that signature Zatanna smile that puts Conner at ease when he goes back to bed that evening, trusting that Wolf will keep her company for the rest of the night.  

[cyberphuck]

Anime Club!

Seb and I are starting a two-person anime club where we each recommend an anime and watch one episode of each every day (or most days) and jot down some thoughts about it. (very, very, VERY old friends of mine might recall Saturday Night Anime Club, which was a weekly livestream I used to have where we'd watch four or five episodes of different series. I watched a lot of series back then that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.) We’re starting with Serial Experiments Lain and THE BIG O!

Serial Experiments Lain E01

Prewatch: I've been sort of avoiding watching this series because I have a loathing of 2000's era anime (why are the colors so washed out, please, it's okay to make something red), but that era is the one Seb grew up with, so a lot of these series are close to his heart and he kept encouraging me to watch at least one of them. I've heard of Serial Experiments Lain, but I have absolutely no idea what it's about, so I'm going in blind.

My Episode Summary: First of all, the opening theme sounds like it was sung by The Cranberries?? Like it's not them but it sounds exactly like them. The opening is a mix of the main character floating around with a sleepy look on her face.

Seb: Trans girls really like this series.

The episode opens with a schoolgirl committing suicide by jumping off a building. Later, Lain sees one of her classmates crying, and hears that the "dead" girl has been sending emails to her friends, who think it's a cruel prank.

Me: *Lain is taking off her jacket* are we gonna get schoolgirl nakedness? This seems like a schoolgirl nakedness kind of show

When Lain gets home (to her weirdly sparse room), she puts on her Internet Bear Hat and logs into her futuristic email, where she finds she's also received a message from the dead girl, who says her body is gone but she's still alive, and that she's with God.

Me: If you're a protagonist in a serious 2000's anime, your parents hate you and each other.

Lain goes to her dad, who is surrounded by computer monitors, surfing the web (and looking at headless people?). He laments that Lain's mom doesn't seem to understand that the internet is the wave of the future, but is delighted when Lain asks for a better computer.

Me: Seriously Lain's expression is always "oh my god I'm so high right now"

On the train to school, the cars suddenly jolt to a stop and the conductor announces there's been an "accident." Later Lain either hallucinates, visualizes, or witnesses another one of her female classmates committing suicide by train. Her face warps eerily just before the train hits her.

Later, Lain sees the building-suicide girl walking on the road and stops to talk to her, asking her "where are you?"

Me: Runaway train never goin back, school girl on a Japanese track Seb: You don't know what's happening yet but-- Me: I definitely don't know what's happening in this show

Thoughts: I got a lot of Satoshi Kon vibes, especially from the opening scene. The actual art style is just bog-standard 2000's stuff but the blocky background cut outs are actually really cool.

I'm really intrigued by the premise of this show, even though Lain is always wearing O_O face. Something about anime schoolgirls comitting suicide is just engaging. The series is only 13 episodes, so I'm looking forward to a lot of weird shit happening in a short period of time.

BIG O E01

Prewatch: Seb described this as "the show that looks like Batman the Animated Series" and we both remember it being referenced on 2003 Teen Titans. It was on Toonami when I was a teenager so seeing clips from it is kind of jarring. I've seen one or two episodes from this series and I know it's about a guy, a girl, a giant robot, and like. A train?? But I don't remember much else.

My Episode Summary:

Me: Are buttons the main export of this city?

"I'm Roger Smith. I'm very good at my job." *Proceeds to be extremely bad at his job*

Roger Smith is a negotiator; the show opens on him pulling into an abandoned hangar and exchanging a briefcase full of money for a young girl. When the young girl's father shows up,  however, he says that's not his daughter, it's an android who looks like her. Roger tries to get the money back by detonating a bomb inside the briefcase and then flying it out of the bad guys' car, but it gets shot open and the money spills everywhere. Fail.

Seb's right, this artstyle looks *just* like BtAS.

Me: Wait go back, *what* happened and everyone lost their memory? *rewinds* Oh, right, nothing happened and everyone lost their memory.

Roger returns to his home and talks to his butler, who informs him that a young lady has come to see him. It's "Dorothy," the android that isn't the old dude's daughter. She says that she needs Roger to be her bodyguard and refuses to take no for an answer.

Seb: He does have like the yaoi proportions

(During an important action scene, Seb and I got the giggles and suddenly everything that was happening was the funniest thing ever.)

Roger and Dorothy go to an abandoned warehouse, where they find the old dude dying. He greets Dorothy as "Dorothy II" and says she's his real daughter (??) and then fukken dies. Roger gets an alert on his "about to be hit by a missle" watch and shoves Dorothy out of the way, then tells her to go and be bait for the bad guys since she's an android and she's stronger than a human.

Dorothy runs superduper fast as the bad guys shoot at her. While they're distracted, Roger blows them the FUCK up with two missiles shot from his car, which is something his car can do apparently. Then they get word from their cop friend-- a giant robot is attacking the Mint!

They get in the car and floor it to the Mint, where a giant robot is indeed trying to get the minting plates. Dorothy says something like "father, stop this!" and Roger gets out of the car, turns on his watch, and summons a giant robot.

(the crowd goes "yaaaay!" which was particularly funny to me.)

Big O and Crab Robot (also known as Dorothy I) battle in the street, wrecking a bunch of buildings in the process, which is probably bad. Dorothy II is still freaking out and goes running towards them, her arms making unsettling jiggly motions. The cop friend chases after *her,* telling her to get out of the way.

Meanwhile, Big O blows a hole in Crab Robot's chest. It falls down, straight towards Dorothy I and cop friend, while Roger goes "oh no!!" as if he's not sitting in the cockpit of a giant robot that could easily stop them from being crushed.

...why does the ending theme sound like a Boys II Men/Mariah Carey collaboration

Thoughts: This anime absolutely doesn't take itself seriously and I love it. The artstyle is fun to look at, though the action scenes are a little lackluster. The giant robots don't really have a big fight, they just kind of grab each other, which I guess is more realistic but not as exciting to watch. Still, I'm sure they're gonna get up to some interesting shenanigans over the course of the series. Of the two, I’m most interested in what happens in Lain. I hope Big O gets more exciting as the series goes on.

[zahri-melitor]

Actually I want to wank this a bit:

Pre-Crisis: probably a tie, maybe win to Bruce

Arthur: Arthur Jr, maybe Garth (2)

Clark: nobody (0)

Bruce: Jason, maybe Dick (2)

Post-Crisis: probable win for Bruce in that Bruce is the only one who’ll admit to 5, but I’d judge them as a tie and if you want to play ‘clones made from half your dna are inherently kids’ you can get to 6 and give Arthur and Clark the win

Arthur: Arthur Jr, Koryak, maybe Garth, maybe AJ (4)

Clark: Chris, include Kon if you really want to get into clone politics (1)

Bruce: Dick, Cass, Jason, Tim, Damian (5)

N52: resounding win for Bruce here

Arthur: what’s a kid? (Fine, Garth shows up 6 minutes before midnight for the lead into Titans Hunt. I’m not counting it) (0)

Clark: Jon Lane Kent. Maybe this version of Kon counts? Who knows. (1)

Bruce: wildly Dick, Tim and Damian definitely count here, screw you Lobdell, Tim’s in the portrait in Batman. Jason probably counts. (4)

Rebirth: still runaway for Bruce

Arthur: aaaand we’re back to maybe Garth (1)

Clark: Jon Samuel Kent. Very much not Kon, he places himself as a brother from arrival (1)

Bruce: Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian and Duke, temporarily (5)

Infinite Frontier: oh now we get to have fun. It’s Arthur and Clark or at best a tie

Arthur: Arthur Jr, Andy, maybe Garth. (3)

Clark: Jon Samuel, Otho-Ra, Osul-Ra (3)

Bruce: Dick, Cass, Jason, Tim, Damian (5) Duke’s once again not counted, Helena W is…dubious though kinda in continuity

Cmon DC, recanonise Koryak and/or New Earth Chris and make Infinite Frontier an unassailable victory for Arthur and Clark!

(In who I consider in my own set up for who exists across multiple continuities, Arthur and Clark definitely win)