#so i restarted from save like three times to try to recreate it by pausing at the exact same moment lmao

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | talanah 38/?

[ashintheairlikesnow]

I love chris and kauri and I’m excite to see more of their friendship 🥺

Tagging Chris and Kauri’s crews: @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings, @endless-whump, @whumpfigure , @astrobly, @newandfiguringitout, @doveotions, @pretty-face-breaker, @boxboysandotherwhump, @oops-its-whump @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @18-toe-beans, @giggly-evil-puppy, @whimpers-and-whumpers, @moose-teeth, @whump-it, @lumpofwhump, @pumpkinthefangirl,

TIMELINE: College Chris, summer break before sophomore year

“I, I, I don’t know what, what I’m doing,” Chris says nervously, looking down at himself. The sound of the music is too loud, bashing into his skin, trying to slide up under his shirt like fingertips and push into his ribs, rock the breath out of his lungs. “I don’t... I can’t do this. This is stupid, they, they just like the movie, it doesn’t mean-”

“Laken’s a giant musical nerd just like you are, and yes you can.” Kauri’s fingers grip his chin and lift it, and he raises nervous green eyes up to Kauri’s wide warm blue. There aren’t a lot of people whose eyes he can meet easily, where the way they look isn’t too much, doesn’t make him uncomfortable in ways that are nearly painful, but... Kauri is one of them.

All he sees, in Kauri, are his eyes.

“What, what, what if they think it’s, it’s, um, ridiculous?”

“Chris, I promise they’d rather see you do this as a birthday present than get some random something from a store. This takes time. This is you doing something new, for them. They’ll love that.”

Kauri turns with the remote in hand, restarting this part of the movie over again and pausing it before the big number at the end, what he’d asked Kauri to help him learn how to do. “You have rhythm, it’s natural to you, I’ve seen you practice the routines you saw on TV. Dancing is just like gymnastics, but nobody’s going to judge you on how well you do. Well, except me, but I judge on a curve when it comes to you.”

“No... no,” Chris whispers. He looks over at the TV, sees the frozen moment of nerves on the face of the main character, sitting and looking down at a wooden bar, thatch of deep brown hair on his head. The others behind him, leaning over in encouragement. “It’s, it’s, it’s-it’s not the same, it’s... not, Laken won’t-... I can’t dance like, like they can, I can’t-”

“Yes.” Kauri says it firmly, both hands on Chris’s face now, smiling at him as he turns the nervous expression back to meet his own calm certainty. “You can. You can dance, Chris. And you won’t need a bunch of alcohol to do it like some people around here.” He jerked his head towards the doorway, where the stairs were, leading up to the room where Jake sat pretending he wasn’t desperate to be down here helping, too.

“Kauri... this, this was stupid, I don’t... I don’t-”

“You got this.” Kauri took Chris’s hands in his, gave them a squeeze. “I’ll show you. Of course, I wasn’t taught dancing where I was the one leading, but... you know what, I’ll give it a shot. Better than trying to dance with the giant in the other room, right?”

“R... right,” Chris says, almost breathless with nerves. “Let, let me watch you once, yeah?”

“Yeah, okay. But don’t laugh.” Kauri’s eyes are sparkling as he waves Chris back to the couch to watch, hits the play button, and starts lip-syncing along with the main character. 

Watching delicate, lithe Kauri move and mouth the words while the actor’s deep, brassy baritone is what comes from the screen has Chris’s hands over his mouth to hide his laughter. 

“Oh, stop it,” Kauri says, good-naturedly. “We both know I can’t sing like your dumb ass can.”

Chris giggles.

Kauri only rolls his eyes and keeps moving, rolling his shoulders along with the rhythm of the song. He moves with innate grace, alluring in ways that aren’t planned or purposeful, not here with Chris. Without his ever-present zip-up over his shoulders, Chris can see the way his muscles shift, that he even has them, under everything. His shirt is short enough to show a flash of pale, bare stomach, his tank top exposes the wicked scar along his collarbone where Kauri made his own freedom real, where Kauri saved himself.

When the chorus starts, and the actors on the screen start dancing together, stomping their feet, Chris finds himself bouncing his own feet to the rhythm with them, eyes watching one of the actors drop down to move along the ground, kicking their legs and arms out, back parallel with the floor, in a motion so similar to some deep muscle memory he has of a gymnastics move that he thinks Kauri is right.

Dancing is just like the gymnastics he can still do, just...

Just fewer backflips, right? 

He’s recreated floor routines in the backyard, taught himself things his body knew but his mind had been forced to forget. If he can do a backflip and the splits to music Kauri sets up on Jake’s mp3 player and speaks in the yard, he can do this.

He’s been watching this one scene over and over and over and over for days, memorizing the movements of the actors, watching the way the scenery is set around them, how much space they need and which moves are done at what moment, who is paired up with who and how they complement each other. The stage-setting was what he watched this for originally, but then he’d had this idea, and...

He can do this.

It’s just like gymnastics. It’s just like yoga.

The main actor looks out at the dancers and says, with enthusiastic joy, “Yes!”, and it’s like he’s saying it right to Chris.

Chris stands up.

Kauri does a spin, turns and holds his hand out to Chris, jerking his head towards the TV to gesture to the actors, just as the music swells again and the key changes. 

Chris takes his hand, and when Kauri pulls him up he lets the older man spin him close, bursting out laughing when they simply smack into each other with an ‘oof’ and stumble backwards.

“Okay, okay, maybe I’m not as good at this as I thought I was,” Kauri says over the music, a little shame-faced. “You want to start over?”

“Yeah, I-I do. Let’s, let’s start...” Chris can’t stop laughing, dropping his head onto Kauri’s shoulder, feeling arms around him warm and loving and light. “Let’s start over. Laken’s going, going to fall over laughing at me, Kauri.”

“Nah. They’re going to think you’re badass for learning something new just for them. That’s how dating someone works.” Kauri’s smile is in his voice, even though nuzzled into his neck Chris can’t see his face. “Ask me how I know.”

Chris frowns against Kauri’s warm skin, thinking about the twisting scar that Kauri feels safe enough to show here. “How, how do you know?”

Kauri pulls back, runs his hand through Chris’s hair to get it out of his face, and smiles at him. “Because I’ve dated like fifty people in five years.”

“You, you have not!”

“Guess that depends on what counts as ‘dating’,” Kauri says thoughtfully. “If I have to see them more than once, maybe... twenty?”

Chris finds his smile widening and shakes his head, pointing at the screen, where the credits are rolling now. They missed the whole big dance at the end. “You’re so, so weird, Kauri.”

“Welcome to the pet party, pal,” Kauri teases, and leans in to brush a fast, rough kiss across Chris’s forehead, before he turns back to the TV. “We’re all weird. It’s part of the recovery process. Okay, here we go. You picked one of the dancers to be?”

“Yeah, I, I, I... want to be the one with the, the big, um, the big white hair.”

“The big... yeah, okay, she’s cool. I’m the guy who spins her.” Kauri picks up the remote, hits the button to go back a chapter, then two, hits pause.

Same man, looking down sadly at the bar, with the people behind him about to help him remember what matters. 

“Ready? Laken’s gonna lose their shit when you show them you learned this whole thing just for them. They are gonna kiss you so much,” Kauri teases, until Chris smacks at him, flushing red. 

“Shut, shut up, Kauri.”

“Fuck no. You’re gorgeous when you blush. Laken thinks so, too, they told me.”

“They did not!”

“Did so. We text now, didn’t I tell you?”

“Wh... wh-what, um, what, what what what... about?”

“How cute you are.”

“Kauri...”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop. I promise. We text about thrift store clothes mostly. Come on.”

Chris takes a deep breath. Fixes his eyes on the actor he picked, in a pretty white dress and with pretty white hair falling like a waterfall all around them. He shifts around, gets into the same opening position they’re in when the dancing kicks in. “Ready. I’m, I’m, I’m ready, Kauri.”

“Okay. Starting in three... two... one.”

He hits PLAY and the man begins to sing, low and soft, as the people around him move closer. Kauri waits, and when the time comes, he holds his hand out to Chris, who takes it, and lets Kauri spin him close.

This time, they land it, and Kauri spins Chris out again, and he kicks out along with the actress, arms out, eyes closed, the beat of the song under his skin and over it, a comfort and warmth, not a weight.

Jake comes downstairs at some point. Chris doesn’t know when, maybe at the part where Chris drops down on the ground, kicking legs and arms in time, parallel to the floor. 

How long he watches, Chris isn’t sure.

All he knows is that, bathed in sweat, on their third run-through, he picks Kauri up with a careful balance and spins the other man with his legs out, Kauri laughing breathlessly and yelling for them to do this for Laken, they’ll go nuts at how strong he is, only to come to a stop when he sees Jake standing in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning against the frame.

When Chris holds out his hand, Jake shakes his head, but Chris only grins at him and gestures again. Come here. 

“I’ll knock something over and I haven’t had enough to drink,” Jake protests, but he’s already moving, and it’s a minute - maybe two, maybe three - before Jake and Kauri are dancing in the living room, hip-to-hip, dipping to one side and then the other with Kauri’s head tilted back to look up (and up and up) at the taller man while Chris spins by himself, stomping his feet in time, singing along.

When he’s singing along with the actors, clapping and stomping and pouring energy into matching their movements, he doesn’t stammer once. He never stammers when he’s singing, not when the energy has somewhere outside of him to go.

It’s only in a moment of quiet that he hears Jake say, softly, to Kauri, the two of them having settled into something far closer to a slow dance even as the movie’s music stays upbeat and fast-paced, “Stay here with us. Be part of the house.”

Kauri gives Jake a slight, faded smile. “Jake...”

“Kauri...” Jake’s voice it too low for Chris to hear. “Kauri, please.” Chris finishes a spin and stumbles to a stop just as Jake kisses Kauri’s forehead, hands on his face, lingering there. “Stay.”

Kauri hesitates, and his tongue is just behind his teeth, as though he’s ready to give some answer only to stop himself. He looks up at Jake - blue eyes on blue, two different colors of it, black hair and blond. “What do you want, Jake? What do you want me to do, to be, here?”

“Nothing. You. That’s all.”

The music drops, three people left sitting at the bar, singing softly to each other as they raise their glasses.

“Nothing, Kauri,” Jake repeats. “I just want you to be home.”

“Home is a locked door, Jake,” Kauri says. The two of them seem like they’ve forgotten Chris is even here, and he feels suddenly out of place, even though watching the movie was his whole thing, he’d asked Kauri to help him learn the dance in the first place. “Home is the place where he won’t let me leave.”

“No, Kaur,” Jake replies, shaking his head. “Home is the place where they leave the light on, even when you’re gone.”

"Jake... home has always been a locked door. Home’s always meant... it’s always meant-”

“Fear. I know. But it doesn’t mean that here.” Jake’s expression is serious, sincere. “My door stays open. For you, anyway. And Chris, and Antoni... my door stays open. Let this be home, Kauri.” 

Kauri takes a breath, and then closes his eyes, giving a slight smile. “I’ll think about it. I’ll, I’ll think...”

“From now on,” Jake whispers, “let this be home. With us. Come home and stay there, for a while.”

Kauri is silent for a second, then turns around and picks the remote back up, restarting the dance. “Come on, Jake. Dance again. Embarrass yourself with us.”

“Say you’ll stick around,” Jake counters, taking the remote and pressing pause. “For a month. As a trial. And I’ll dance with you again.”

Kauri frowns. “A week.”

“Three weeks.”

“Two.”

“Done.”

The two of them shake hands, and Kauri is nearly knocked over when Chris barrels into him in delight, arms tight around his waist, a blur of blue hair and happiness. 

“Hey, hey, okay, yeah, I’ll stick around for a while, okay.” Kauri sighs and looks at Jake, eyes narrowed, playfully. “You did this when I was here with him on purpose, didn’t you.”

“No. It’s just the first time you’ve stood still long enough for me to ask.” 

Jake hits the PLAY button and the song starts up again.

[diyunho]

The Joker x Reader - “The One That Got Away” Part 2

The terrorist attack targeting Wayne National Bank nearly three years ago left only one survivor behind: Y/N almost died from the injuries, but she was lucky enough to wake up at the hospital days later. It was so hard to cope with the news: on top of losing her eyesight, the young woman lost her co-workers also and strangely enough the one responsible for the entire tragedy wasn’t The Clown Prince of Crime.

Four weeks later

“Now we’re going up five steps,” Bruce announces and you carefully walk holding on to his arm. “Almost there. Do you want more champagne or a cocktail?”

“Actually Mister Wayne, I would like a shot of whiskey,” you reply and he signals the bartender.

“I wouldn’t mind one either,” he adds and orders: “Two shots of whiskey please!”

“How long do we have to be here?” you exhale, enjoying the ambiance nevertheless. You wish this could be one of the instances when you are able to see; it must be a really fancy venue. Unfortunately, your vision didn’t return at all after the incident leading up to The Joker saving you from the Triple Star gang.

“Maybe another hour or so, unless you don’t feel well and then I can drive you back to your apartment.”

“I’m ok, no worries. It’s just a bit weird: I’m not used to this kind of stuff,” a nervous Y/N confesses.

“Charity balls can be overwhelming,” Bruce nods in agreement. “Everyone talks and talks, eats, drinks and talks some more. The purpose is to make these rich people give up on their money for good causes so it’s worth it.”

You laugh at his honesty, making sure to underline you’re grateful for the opportunity:

“Thank you for including my charity; I really appreciate it and it means a lot. I will be able to help more people.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Bruce sighs, grabbing the drinks from the bartender. “Here you go,” the glass is given to you. “Since this year it was my turn to organize the event, might as well use the hype from what happened to the Angel of Gotham and get you more funding. Sorry, I don’t want to sound insensitive,” he apologizes when he notices the change in your mood. “That was stupid to say,” Bruce admonishes himself and you try to stir the conversation towards another topic.

“It’s fine; I understand what you mean, Mister Wayne,” you taste a sip of alcohol and continue. “If you want to ask any questions about what happened… you can.”

The billionaire puckers his lips, debating on the unexpected chance to dig out some information that could shed some light on your abduction and surprising intervention from The Clown Prince of Crime. He did read the police report with your statement courtesy of Commissar Gordon, yet off the record discussion is more than welcomed.  

“Let’s go on the terrace then for more privacy,” he suggests and you take Bruce’s arm again, following his guidance.

You pass by people engaged in several chats, hoping nobody will stop you for trivial interrogations you’re not comfortable answering.  

“Did they… did they…e-hem… do… anything…ummm…to you?” Bruce stutters because he has no idea how to convey the inquiry without sounding like a total jerk invading your personal life.

“I said it to the cops also: no, I wasn’t sexually assaulted,” you reaffirm and he grumbles, relieved.

“Thank goodness,” the 35 year old taps your fingers. “I don’t even know why my mouth even uttered such rubbish…I know it’s none of my business,” and he immediately corrects the sentence. “As in of course I would care about something like that, but I shouldn’t force you to share.”

“You’re digging your own grave, Mister Wayne,” you interrupt his tirade since he doesn’t know how to handle the situation.

“Uh, I know. I’m sorry Y/N,” and you laughter makes him chuckle too. “Bad luck,“ Bruce concludes as soon as you are both on the patio. “There are lots of people outside; do you mind using the small conference room? It’s empty,” he gazes through the opened glass doors and you follow him, compliant.

“Of course, no problem.”

“Let’s take a sit on this purple couch,” he urges and you oblige, smiling:

“So many purple items around here,” Y/N has to emphasize because Bruce kept on describing the environment to her and that stood out. “A splash of color never hurts; it must be really nice.”

“I like purple; it’s my favorite color,” he stares at you, searching for a reaction when the tip of the knife he’s holding almost touches your cornea. But there’s no reflex and the man smirks, returning the blade to his pocket. He drinks some more, restarting the debriefing:

“Do you know where you were taken? I mean, I know you are not able to see, still did anything catch your attention? Any noises? Particular smells?”

“No, nothing” you pout. “I assume it was outside town: it was quiet and Gotham is never silent. They transported me in a van, a larger vehicle. I’m sure of that since there were several individuals with me. A few moments after being kidnapped I was hit in the head and passed out.”

And when you woke up you were blind again, not that Bruce needs to know.

“I think I was locked in a basement, very tiny space…I was given some food and water. I lost track of time and at one point I heard someone yelling that The Joker arrived, then a lot of turmoil and a harsh argument. It worsened and almost lost my mind when the shooting started: I was so scared and had no clue about what the hell was happening.”

You pause and gulp, the memory of the frightful circumstances making you shrug.

“My apologies,” Bruce remorsefully hums. “I shouldn’t make you recall such an unpleasant experience… I will get us some grape juice on ice.”

“Grape juice?...” you take advantage of the welcomed change  in topic. Great way to divert your attention from the anxiety you feel while saying out loud what you already disclosed to the cops.

“It’s such a refreshing beverage; I can’t live without it,” he admits and tries to stand up but you stop him.

“Please don’t go; if someone stumbles upon this room in your absence it will be awkward for me; you’re the only person I know at this reception.”

“Of course,” Bruce agrees right away. “I’m definitely not in my best shape today; we can go and get the drinks together.”

“That’s better,” you smile yet don’t show any signs you want to move so he patiently waits; the philanthropist assumes there’s more you wish to say and he doesn’t push for a continuation of your story.

Y/N finishes the drink and glares at the man veiled in darkness just like everything else surrounding her.  

“Do you know what the scariest part was, Mister Wayne?”

Complete stillness and you whisper:

“When I heard somebody screamed: Grenade! It was such a powerful explosion, it reminded me of what happened that day at the bank…”

Bruce doesn’t respond and a tearful Y/N wraps up her story in a way that makes her date impatient for the grand finale:

“The air was so thick I couldn’t even breathe and I fainted. I remember hands digging me out from under the rubble, words and sentences I couldn’t comprehend since I was drifting in and out of consciousness. And then I woke up at the hospital…”

“Mmm…” Bruce pouts. “Do you have any idea why The Joker saved you?”

“I was told about the incident at my Soup Kitchen…and I was shocked. I have no idea why he did that…” you reveal not mentioning you spent countless hours debating about it.

“Possibly because he’s sick and tired of The Triple Star gang meddling with his plans? What kind of stupid name is that anyway? Triple Star!!” he hisses. “Do you know they all have three star tattooed on their backs?! Who does that anymore?! What are they?! Kindergarten brats?!”

Why is Bruce getting so mad?!

“The Joker owns Gotham! Nobody else!!!”

You’re a bit uncomfortable with his rant and it shows.

“Mister Wayne…”

He has no more patience and you get cut off:

“You know why The Joker rescued you? Because he needs you for something, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered. And to prove he’s in charge and not the competition!”

“Mister Wayne, please calm down. You’re making me nervous…” a concerned Y/N pleads.

The man scoffs, straining to regain control over himself.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he chuckles and takes your hand into his, amused by what he’s about to divulge. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Y-yes, of course,” you stammer and want to continue when he reaches over and kisses you, biting your lower lip seconds afterwards.

You wince in pain, freezing when the tone changes to one you hoped you won’t hear again:

“Oh my; am I too rough, sugar?”

You yank your hands away but he won’t let go.

“What is this?!” you pant, struggling to distance yourself from The Joker without success.

He laughs with all his heart, enjoying your stunned attitude.

“It’s your old pal J with the best voice synthesizer money can buy. It’s not that hard to copy someone’s voice with these things, especially since you can find interviews online with the pretty boy.”

You stop fighting his clasp and carefully listen to the wireless mike hidden in your ear:

“Remain calm, Y/N! No matter what you do, don’t set him off!”

The Clown Prince of Crime though has to brag about his achievement and makes sure to bring you up to speed:

“I picked you up in my limo before he did; the rich boy probably wondered where you were when he showed up at your apartment. Congratulations, sugar: you just stood up a billionaire,” the green haired madman snickers. “I have plenty of resources to recreate a party and people that work for me to pose as guests. You’re not at a charity ball, sugar; I simply took you to one of my humble abodes.”    

You feel so exposed, yet your current situation demands a strong determination to help maintain the appearances. The Joker’s fingers suddenly go around your neck, the immediate threat resonating in the room:

“You will do money laundering for me! You will do as I say or I’ll make your life a living hell to the point of you now knowing what’s real and what’s not! Do I make myself clear?!!” he snaps and you nod a yes, obedient to his request.

“Good girl,” he sniffs your scent. “Now I should take you back, I’m tired with the charade; it was fun but exhausting,” he grins and can’t shut up: “The pretty boy must be wondering where you are.”

You want to hold in the defiant remark but can’t:

“What makes you think Mister Wayne doesn’t know where I am?”

“Oh shit!” you hear in your ear. “We’re moving in!”

The Joker frowns, intrigued: the red dots focusing on his chest are an affirmation of snipers ready to take him out.

“What did you do, sugar?” he barks and takes the knife out of his pocket, stabbing your abdomen: the resistance he encounters gives another clue he got played. Y/N is wearing a customized bullet proof vest under her cocktail dress but it’s not enough to stop the blade.

“T-thank you…” you have time to tell him before they barge in.

“For what?” he resentfully snarls, removing the knife from your body.

“For proving you don’t deserve to be saved,” you admit with such serenity he’s thrown off for once.

The noise of broken glass and shattered objects makes you jump as you moan in pain.

“On your knees!!!” the squad barges in, aiming their rifles at The Joker. “Drop the weapon! NOW!”

The gun shots echoing throughout the house are a logical testimony that the SWAT team is swiping out the premises, taking out those from The Joker’s crew daring to fight back.

“Hands above your head!” the team leader shouts and the kneeled King of Gotham obeys with a demented smirk as the knife he dropped is being kicked away from him.

“Civilian hurt, requiring medical assistance!” another team member requests, pressing on your wound. “Don’t worry Miss, you’ll be fine. OK?” the guy reassures. “You were very brave,” he praises your skills. You lay down on the couch, shaking from the throbbing ache. 

“I don’t feel very brave…”

**************

5 Months Later, Arkham Asylum

The buzz lets you know the 6th gate for Level 1 Clarence is opened and you can pass towards you final destination: the highest security area inside the Arkham Asylum reserved for the most dangerous criminally insane.

“Here she is,” the guard points at the one of the screens depicting Y/N searching the space in front of her with the cane. “Punctual as always,” he tries to joke with Bruce Wayne.

“I know,” he flatly responds. “I’m the one that brings her here.”

The head of security gives the guard a disapproving gaze and the subaltern shuts it down, pretending not to notice the sour expression on his boss’s face.

The four men present watch the monitors in silence while a geared up staff helps you enter the interrogation room where The Joker already awaits, tight up in his straightjacket and chained up to the floor. You take a sit across from his chair, the white table separating the two people being the only object standing out in the padded room.

The Clown intensely stares at the table and you blankly glare at him; that’s how every visit goes: 10 minutes every week on Wednesdays, perfect quietness since he didn’t articulate a single word after he was captured 5 months ago.

The Arkham Asylum patients are not allowed to have visitors, yet Bruce Wayne and his lawyers found a loophole that allows Y/N to briefly visit The King of Gotham once every seven days. That’s all they were able to obtain without going to court and it was fine with you: it’s better than nothing so you didn’t argue.

The Joker has the right to refuse the visit but he never does: he shows up for the short meetings, not talking nor looking your way. Who knows what’s going on in his brain besides the obvious insanity?...

“I admire her courage,” the head of security addresses Commissar Gordon since he’s the fourth person there. “Even if I don’t get it: why would she want to be around a crazy psychopath? He tried to murder her!”

Jim scratches his chin, sharing a theory him and Bruce talked about:

“He didn’t aim to kill, otherwise he would have cut her throat or stabbed her in the head. I suppose that in his twisted mind he sees Y/N as a worthy adversary because I’m sure he didn’t expect a blind woman to give him so much trouble. We’ve been trying to catch him for a long time and we finally succeeded thanks to her agreeing to be the bait. When we approached Y/N with the idea, we knew he might target her after he saved her from the kidnappers. There’s no way The Joker would do something like that without a purpose. We discretely guarded her 24/7 and made sure to stay out of sight in order not to arise any suspicions since he was watching for sure. He’s not stupid: he planned his scheme carefully and maybe we had sheer luck with the whole operation. Who knows?”

“Sorry to interrupt,” the guard gestures at the screen. “I think he said something!”

“Holy crap!” Gordon blurs out. “Rewind and turn up the volume!”

The camera feed is replayed for the small group watching the short conversation that just took place.

“Can I help you?” The Joker’s husky tone is discerned.

“No,” the indifferent Y/N instantly replies.

“I’ll be damned!” the guard opens his mouth in amazement. “He talked to her!”

The monitor reverts to live broadcast and everyone holds their breath when you get up from your chair and J protests:

“Your 10 minutes aren’t up yet!”

You’re still standing and he wiggles in his straightjacket, uncomfortable.

“I have this strand of hair tickling my cheek; drives me nuts. Would you fix my locks? I can’t do it myself since I’m in a little bit of predicament for the moment.”

They watch you walk around the table and searching around with your hands while the madman grins, actually guiding you.

“Two more steps to your left. Now one more straight forwards. Another one. Jackpot!” he purrs when your fingers search for the strand of green hair you cannot see, but it’s not that hard to find.

“Alert the wards to intervene!” the head of security orders but Gordon has a different opinion:

“No, let her do it if she wants to.”

You caress his hair a few times, turning around to go back to your chair.

“Thank you sugar,” J sarcastically offers fake gratitude. “I truly don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Yes, you’re fortunate The Angel of Gotham took pity on you and got rid of that horrible itch.”

The Joker can’t hold in a disturbing laugh since he finds your statement entertaining by his quirky standards.

“I’m honored. Hey... hey, come back here: I have another itch you can scratch!”

You get ready to criticize his remark and he’s aware.

“It’s my collar bone, sugar! I’m not a perv, don’t get worked up for nothing!” The Clown pretends to get angry at your assumption.

You return by his side and bury your fingers in his jacket, gently scratching the soft skin.

“That’s moooore like it,” he purrs louder, the satisfying groan making you retract your arm. “Ahhh, so nice of you to help a friend in need,” the entitled silver smile dies out on his lips once you interrupt:

“We’re not friends!”

“Of course we are,” he sneers. “I stabbed you: that’s how I seal the deal.”

Gordon furrows his eyebrows, totally captivated by the chat.

“What is she doing?...” he asks as a rhetorical question and Bruce enlightens everyone anyway:

“Playing his game…”

Back in the padded room you stump back to your spot and grab your cane, preparing to bail.  

“Are you gonna come see me again?” The Joker curiously demands to know.

“No.”

“Why not?”

You huff and he cackles, entertained:

“That’s fine, I’ll survive: just like you survived the Wayne Bank terrorist attack and the basement I dug you out of.”

It’s so hard not to fight his venomous barking.

But you keep it together and the custodian opens the door, a weary Y/N emerging from her weekly visit with The Joker yelling and squirming behind her, enraged he cannot escape confinement:

“Who dug you out, huh? Who dug you out? Was it The Batman? The police? Or me?”

He’s becoming more and more agitated, the chief of security pressing a button that opens a sealed exit to The Joker’s left.

“Sedate him,” he commands the six caretakers rushing in while The Clown keeps screaming:

“Get back here!! That’s an order!!” and your disobedience prompts another tantrum as they inject him with the sleep medicine: “Who do you think you are, hm?” he shouts so loud it finally triggers a reaction from your part; you slowly spin towards him, making sure to articulate the perfect words:

“I’m the one that got away.”

 Part 1: diyunho(.)tumblr(.)com/post/185672114796/the-joker-x-reader-the-one-that-got-away-part-1

Also read: MASTERLIST

diyunho(.)tumblr(.)com/post/153664676321/joker-x-reader-masterlist

You can also follow me on AO3 and Wattpad under the same blog name: Diyunho.

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 4)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Read the pages for part 4 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

This is a rare glimpse into how I tackle action scenes!! It’s rare because I rarely do it. Action is honestly one of the hardest things for me to draw, and as I’m sure I’ve said here many times before, I have the utmost respect for shounen manga artists whose works are steeped in them. It’s a really impressive skill to be able to do it well - to create a cinematic, dynamic sense of motion that doesn’t dissolve into visual confusion and incomprehensibleness.

This was as interesting for me to document my thought process as it hopefully is for you to read and discover what the heck was going on in my head (a big honking mess, that’s what). There was much screaming and crying while working on this hahaha.

Aside from Hokushin’s beautiful face (lmao), Part 4 is packed with things I don’t usually draw. Specifically: action, things taking place in the dark, and corpses. For things taking place in the dark, I heavily referenced the dark room rounds from the tournament for Genkai’s successor in volume 4, because it involves action and Togashi used practically zero screentones in it and I didn’t want to either. For the dead rokurokubi, I looked up photos of skulls and drew on my memory of various horror comics I’ve read, like Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. (At one point I also googled photos of rotting skulls, but TBH I didn’t really want to spend a lot of time looking at detailed photographic references of corpse and decomposing bodies for obvious reasons, especially as I usually work on these comics late at night before I go to bed. The last thing I need is for images to get stuck in my brain when I’m sleeping.)

The rest of this post focuses mainly on action and redrawing things.

Script

The original script for this section actually ran a little further in the story than what’s shown here, but in order to convey the sequence effectively, I ended up stretching a number of key moments out and have booted the later ones to be completed for Part 5.

Thumbnails

In the thumbnails above, you’ll notice quite a few are redraws of the same page as I struggle - pages 31-33 repeat immediately in the rows after, page 37 was attempted three times, etc.

Page count growth

A script of 8 pages turned into 10 pages at the thumbnail stage, and then ultimately netted out at 12 pages in the final version that was posted. As you can see, effective action sequences generally take me more pages than I think they will. With an exception (documented below).

Thumbnailing/storyboarding things out should theoretically minimize the page count creep! But because I tend to treat my thumbnails as such a loose stage (to avoid later disappointment when I can’t recreate it as nicely in the final page), I rush through them. Unfortunately, action sequences require me to think a lot more carefully through the scene as a director - staging the shot and the experience of the motion and coordinating people’s limbs and all the items in the scene more carefully and whatnot than, say, just a couple of heads talking. So inevitably, when I rush to get ahead to the finished pages, that’s when I realize it doesn’t flow as well as I was imagining (or not really imagining it).

As a result, the actual “live” pages turn into constant mental checks and runthroughs of the panels, realizing it’s not flowing as well as I’d like, and restarting. By restarting I mean mentally reenvisioning the sequence, sometimes quickly doodling alternate thumbnails (I didn’t bother in this case, so I have no alternate examples from after I started redrawing), and erasing and redrawing and adding pages. I guess I could probably avoid this if I just stop and put more time into thinking through the thumbnails… but it seems like I end up revising no matter what. So, constant juggling forever.

The evolution of the key action sequence

In my head, the main sequence was:

Hokushin lands.

He gets up and feels something in the dark.

He discovers the rokurokubi corpse.

He turns around to discover a swarm of hands in the dark!

Ahhh hands!! Ahhhh!!

Then he gets sealed and stringed up. End action sequence, back to people standing - or hanging out, I guess - and talking.

I roughed out my panels and pencils for all the pages following my thumbnails instead of doing one page at a time, because I’m impatient and also tend to think of all the pages as a wholistic narrative and then drilling down to the details on each page (big to small perspective).

As I went back over each page and detailing the base pencil art more, I began noticing more issues with the flow of the action and the pagination. Things started really shifting and changing at point 4. Here’s essentially how my thinking played out as I drew:

He turns around to discover a swarm of hands in the dark! - WAIT he just sees the corpse and then turns around? I should have him sense something is behind him first to get you more into his head and experience. OK, insert another panel of him sensing and whatever. THEN he can turn around. This is also good because I can erase the panel where he’s turning around and give the first panel a bit more room so I can draw more of his body in the first one and make his startled falling back motion a bit clearer.

HANDS!! AHHH HANDS!! - Wait, I have hands coming from BEHIND him and don’t effectively show that before they just appear to grab his hair. Which I suppose they do, but when I review panel flow it seems jarring, like a poorly directed cut and something was missing. Let’s try adding some hands behind him in the panel where he looks shocked. Never mind, this looks dumb and he looks dumb and basically seems even more like an afterthought. Ooh, better idea: let’s have him dodge the first wave of hands. That’ll be kinda cool and more interesting. And then he can land and be like OH SHIT MORE HANDS FROM EVERY DIRECTION

Ahhh hands!! Ahhhh!! - Hmm, maybe I should add a page here to better capture his dodge sequence. So the panels will be hands, dodge, and then the next page is he lands, then he realizes there are more hands behind him. How crouched down should he be? I guess in the later pages I basically drew him in a practically fully upright position… eh.. Working this out...

*starts drawing extra page* … Mmm, thinking about this again, no. It stretches things out too much. Now it feels like he lands, the new page adds an extra pause that could be interpreted unconsciously as he thinks he’s ok, then he gets attacked by hands from behind. But that’s ridiculous because he’s a rokurokubi, he KNOWS the hands can come back around or whatever, and he’s a good and cautious fighter, the extra pause doesn’t seem to fit. Thinking this through, basically I need it to feel faster - he lands (typed “he hands” there first time around haha), and he doesn’t have a chance to react again before it turns out hands are coming from all directions. So, I’ll keep it to the one original page and draw the reaction to the sound of the hands coming from everywhere. Done. (one of the few instances where I reduce page count in an action sequence)

Oh yeah, I forgot about his arms and legs getting sealed. Er, add another page. OK done.

For comparison, below are photos of the pencils for pages 35 and 36 before the above process:

... and after:

Redraws

I generally try to avoid redrawing an entire image/page from scratch if I don’t have to.  Even if I don’t like the overall drawing, I’m still terrified of effing up the parts that turned out OK the first time around. However, sometimes you gotta know when to cut your losses and start anew and save yourself time and grief (I’m definitely still learning how to know lol). I do have a few strategies to ease my mind - I often take photos of something before I proceed to the next step or change direction (which is where many of these wip photos come from). This helps calm me down because at least now I have a reference for what it was before I took the leap of faith to move forward. Another option is to just leave it and draw on a completely new blank page.

Page 37, where Hokushin is getting his head pulled back by the hands, was an incredibly rare instance of the pencils for a page turning out almost exactly how I wanted on the first try, so I was loathe to redraw or adjust it. This means I basically forced myself to shuffle things before and after to accommodate not having to change it.

On the flipside, page 40, where the shot backs away so you can see Hokushin tied up with the hands, is one I full-on redrew from scratch. I was having a hard time with his pose and how all the hands were wrapped around him and how everything was actually working. I wasn’t happy with the drawing the first time around, but inked it anyways to see if I would like it better the next morning (sometimes this works, to wait and look at it with a distanced frame of mind). Spoiler, I didn’t lol. However, the process of inking the entire thing helped me better hone in on what parts I liked and didn’t like, so when I sketched it out again I was better able to adjust.

This photo shows the original (with the words REDRAW :/ at the bottom), a sketch I did trying to figure out his posture and where all the hands were/how the wrapping actually worked, and then the pencils of the redraw.

Final miscellaneous things

The end page of Part 4 is once again a last minute addition that resulted because I was facing a blank page (again!) after adding the page where Hokushin gets his arms and legs sealed. I changed the spoken line multiple times. First it was a line that’s been pushed to the upcoming part 5, then it was the “You certainly found my “treasure room” quickly” (that’s on the previous page). In the end, I just wrote a completely new line for it. It seemed to work better with the panel and closing off this part at a good point.

Last but not least, I somehow broke my pen inking this part lmao. Fortunately it’s a Muji pen so I only broke the tip off the cartridge somehow, probably in my intense scribbling/shading at some point. It’s not super clear in the photo but if you look closely at the point you’ll see this thin line coming out of the tip of the pen - it was this metal filament that basically scratched the paper without any ink coming out. I had to make an emergency run to two Mujis, neither of which had the black refills, so I ended up just buying two pens with similar thicknesses. Worst case scenario, I would have just inked with my blue cartridge, since the scanning would turn everything black and white anyways... the original pages would have just looked weird.

Phew! Hopefully it worked out and isn’t a totally incoherent mess!

[infotainmentplus-blog]

Using Android Architecture Components: Lifecycles and SQLite made easy Before Google I/O 2017, Google avoided recommending any particular architecture for Android development. You could use Model View Presenter (MVP), Model View Controller (MVC), Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), some other pattern, or even no pattern at all. With the release of the Android Architecture Components project, we finally have an official recommendation for Android Application Architecture, and all the components we need to implement it. The Android Architecture Components project spans a number of libraries, but since Room and Lifecycles recently saw their first stable release, I’ll focus on how to set up and use both of these production-ready libraries. By the end of this tutorial, you should know how to avoid memory leaks and application crashes by creating components that are capable of managing their own lifecycles, and how to store data locally in SQLite using much less boilerplate code. >> An SQLite primer for Android app developers Creating lifecycle-aware components Most Android components have a lifecycle associated with them. You used to be responsible for managing your application’s lifecycle, which wasn’t always easy, especially if your application featured multiple asynchronous calls happening simultaneously. Failing to manage application lifecycles correctly can result in all kinds of issues, ranging from memory leaks, to your application losing the user’s progress, and even outright application crashes. Even if you managed the lifecycle correctly, implementing all of that lifecycle-dependent code in your lifecycle methods (such as onStart and onStop) could make them bloated and complex. This makes methods difficult to read, maintain, and test. The Lifecycles library offers a new approach to lifecycle management, by providing all the classes and interfaces needed to create lifecycle-aware components that adjust their behavior automatically, and even perform different actions in response to lifecycle events. As of Support Library 26.1.0, Fragments and Activities have a Lifecycle object attached to them, which lets them broadcast their lifecycle state to other components within your application. For example, if an Activity features video content, then you can use this new lifecycle awareness to detect and pause the video automatically whenever the Activity loses focus, and restart it as soon as your application regains the foreground. Since this process is automated, Lifecycles helps you avoid many problems caused by lifecycle mismanagement. Since you’re not cramming all of that lifecycle-dependent code into your lifecycle methods, your code is going to be much more organized, so it’ll be easier to read, maintain, and test. To use the Lifecycles library, you need to add the following to your module-level build.gradle file: dependencies { implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:runtime:1.0.3" annotationProcessor "android.arch.lifecycle:compiler:1.0.0" If you want to use Java 8.0 with the Lifecycles library, then you’ll also need to add the following: implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:common-java8:1.0.0" The Lifecycles library introduces the following components: Lifecycle – An abstract class that has an Android Lifecycle attached to it. Objects can observe this state and act accordingly. LifecycleOwner – An interface that’s implemented by objects with a Lifecycle. Fragments and Activities already implement the LifecycleOwner interface (in Support Library 26.1.0+), and are therefore LifecycleOwners by default. You can observe LifecycleOwners— and any class that extends a LifecycleOwner— using a LifecycleObsever. LifecycleObserver – LifecycleObserver receives updates about LifecycleOwner events. Prior to the Lifecycles library, you could only react to methods that were triggered by lifecycle events, like onCreate and onDestroy, but now you can create methods that are triggered by changes in a LifecycleOwner’s state. You can make a method lifecycle-aware by adding the @OnLifecycleEvent annotation. Observer – An Observer receives an update whenever their assigned LifecycleOwner enters a new lifecycle state. An Observer that’s assigned to an Activity will be notified when this Activity enters a paused state, and again when it enters a resumed state. You add an Observer to a lifecycle, using lifecycle.addObserver(this). The @OnLifecycleEvent annotation can react to the following lifecycle events: ON_CREATE. ON_DESTROY. ON_PAUSE. ON_RESUME. ON_START. ON_STOP . ON_ANY. ON_ANY is triggered by any lifecycle event. If you use Lifecycle.Event.ON_ANY, then the method should expect a LifecycleOwner and Lifecycle.Event argument. Let’s look at how you’d create a LifecycleObserver that responds to changes in an Activity’s state. In the following code, we’re printing a message to Android Studio’s Logcat whenever the associated LifecycleOwner (MainActivity) enters a started or stopped state: import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.arch.lifecycle.Lifecycle; import android.arch.lifecycle.LifecycleObserver; import android.util.Log; import android.arch.lifecycle.OnLifecycleEvent; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity { private static final String TAG = "MainActivity"; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); //Associate the LifecycleOwner with the LifecycleObserver, using getLifecycle().addObserver// getLifecycle().addObserver(new Observer()); } //Create an Observer that implements the LifecycleObserver interface// public class Observer implements LifecycleObserver { //Use @OnLifecycleEvent to listen for different lifecycle events// @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_START) public void onStart() { Log.e(TAG, "ON_START"); } @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP) public void onStop() { Log.e(TAG, "ON_STOP"); } } } You can also handle multiple lifecycle events within the same method: @OnLifecycleEvent({ON_STOP, ON_START}) If your project already has methods that handle lifecycle events, you can add the @OnLifecycleEvent annotation to these existing methods, rather than re-writing your current implementation. Performing operations based on the Lifecycle state You’ll usually only want to perform an operation when a Lifecycle is in a certain state. For example, if you attempt to perform a FragmentTransaction after an Activity state has been saved, then the FragmentManager is going to throw an exception. By using getState.isAtLeast, you can ensure this operation only happens when the Lifecycle is in a compatible state: public void startFragmentTransaction() { if (lifecycle.getState.isAtLeast(STARTED)) { //Perform the transaction// } } The isAtLeast method can check for the following Lifecycle states: INITIALIZED. CREATED. STARTED. RESUMED. DESTROYED. You can also retrieve the current lifecycle state by calling getCurrentState(). LiveData: Keep track of changing data The Lifecycles library also provides the foundation for additional Android Architecture Components, including LiveData, which you can use alongside the Room data persistence library. LiveData is an observable wrapper that can hold any data, including Lists. Once a LiveData has a value, it’ll notify its assigned Observers whenever that value changes. However, unlike a regular Observable, LiveData is lifecycle-aware, so it only updates Observers that are in an “active” state (i.e STARTED or RESUMED). If the LifecycleOwner reaches a Lifecycle.State.DESTROYED state, then the LiveData will remove the Observer automatically. This lifecycle-awareness helps you avoid the crashes and errors that can occur if you try to update a stopped Activity or Fragment. Whenever a component enters the STARTED state, it automatically receives the most recent value from the LiveData object it’s observing. If an Activity or Fragment is resumed, or recreated as part of a configuration change, then it’ll receive the latest data. To use the LiveData component in your project, you’ll need to add the following to your module-level build.gradle file: implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:1.0.0" Easier data storage with Room If your app handles a significant amount of structured data, you can often improve the user experience by caching some of this data locally. If you persist all of your app’s most important data then users will be able to continue using your application, even when they don’t have an internet connection. While Android has supported the SQLite data persistence solution since version 1.0, the built-in APIs are fairly low-level and implementing them requires a significant amount of time, effort, and boilerplate code. There’s also no compile-time verification of raw SQL queries, and if the data changes then you’ll need to manually update your SQL queries to reflect these changes, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. Room is an SQLite mapping library which aims to lower the barrier to using SQLite on Android. Room abstracts some of the underlying implementation details of creating and managing an SQLite database and lets you query data without having to use Cursors or Loaders. Room also provides compile-time validation of queries and entities, and forces you to perform database operations on a background thread, so you don’t inadvertently wind up blocking Android’s all-important main UI thread. To use Room, add the following to your project’s module-level build.gradle file: compile "android.arch.persistence.room:runtime:1.0.0-alpha1" annotationProcessor "android.arch.persistence.room:compiler:1.0.0-alpha1" In Room, operations such as Insert, Update and Delete are annotated, which is why we need to add the annotation processor as a project dependency. There are three major Room components: 1. Database The @Database class provides the bridge between your application and SQLite. Your @Database class must be an abstract class that extends RoomDatabase, which defines tables present in your database, provides Data Access Objects (DAO) classes, and includes a list of entities associated with the database. //List the entities contained in your database. Separate multiple entities with a comma// @Database(entities = {List.class}, version = 1) //Define an abstract class that extends RoomDatabase// public abstract class MyDatabase extends RoomDatabase { //Declare your DAO(s) as abstract methods// public abstract ItemDao itemDao(); } You can acquire an instance of Database by calling Room.databaseBuilder() or Room.inMemoryDatabaseBuilder(). 2. Entity Room creates a table for each class that you annotate with @Entity, where each field corresponds to a column in the table. Entity classes are usually small model classes that don’t contain any logic. Room can only persist fields it has access to, so you either need to make a field public, or provide getter and setter methods. Each entity also needs to define at least one field as a primary key. Even if there’s only a single field, you’ll still need to annotate that field with @PrimaryKey. @Entity //Unless we specify otherwise, the table name will be List// public class List { @PrimaryKey //The column name will be id// private int id; private String item; public String getItem() { return item; } public void setItem(String item) { this.item = item; } Room uses the class name as the database table name, unless you override it using the tableName property: @Entity(tableName = "list") Room also derives the column name from the field name, unless you explicitly define the column name using the @ColumnInfo(name = “column_name”) annotation, for example: @ColumnInfo(name = "productName") Room creates a column for each field that’s defined in the entity. If there’s a field you don’t want to persist, then you’ll need to annotate it with @Ignore. @Entity public class List { ... ... ... @Ignore Bitmap image; } Even though most object-relational mapping libraries let you map relationships from a database to the respective object model, Room doesn’t allow object references. The reasoning behind this restriction is that this type of lazy loading typically occurs on Android’s main UI thread, which can result in unresponsive user interfaces and application crashes. Instead, you’ll need to explicitly request the data your app requires. 3. DAO You access your data via Data Access Objects (DAO), which can either be an interface or an abstract class, but must contain all the methods you want to use in your database queries. These annotated methods generate the corresponding SQL at compile time, reducing the amount of boilerplate you need to write and maintain. There’s several convenience queries you can use with DAOs, including: @Insert. When you annotate a DAO method with @Insert, Room generates an implementation inserting all entries into the database in a single transaction. @Update. Modifies entities in the database. @Delete. Removes entities from the database. @Query. This is the main annotation you’ll use in your DAO classes and it’s how you’ll perform all your read/write operations. The following DAO interface contains various operations that we can perform on our table: @Dao public interface ItemDao { //We don’t need to write all that Cursor related code; instead, define queries using annotation// @Query("SELECT * FROM List") List fetchAllData(); @Update void update(List list); @Delete void delete(List list); } Each @Query method is checked against the table schemas at compile time. If there’s a problem with a query, you’ll get a compilation error rather than a runtime failure. When performing queries, you’ll often want your application to update automatically when the data changes. You can achieve this by using Room in combination with LiveData – specifically, by using a return value of type LiveData in your query method. Room will then generate all the code necessary to update the LiveData when the database is updated. @Query("SELECT * FROM List") LiveData> fetchAllData(); Room and RxJava If you’re using the RxJava library in your project, you can create Room queries that return a backpressure-aware Flowable. Flowable is a new addition to RxJava 2.0 that helps you avoid the issue of a source Observable emitting items too quickly for the downstream Observer to process. This can result in a backlog of unconsumed, memory-hogging items. To use RxJava with Room, you’ll need to add the following dependency to your module-level build.gradle file: implementation "android.arch.persistence.room:rxjava2:1.0.0" If you’re interested in learning more about using RxJava 2.0 in combination with the Room library, then Google has published a Room and RxJava Sample app. Wrapping up Even though Room is Google’s recommended approach for working with databases, Android still supports direct database access using SQLite, so you don’t need to switch to Room. Are you happy with Android’s default SQLite implementation? Will you be migrating to Room? Let us know in the comments! , via Android Authority http://ift.tt/2jMIing