#some elements of

[wanderingmind867]

A story idea I had recently:

Professor Hugo Strange is testing a new machine, designed to put his brain inside of Batman's body. But just at that crucial moment, The Joker breaks in (the reasons aren't really important right now). Meanwhile (high in the distant night sky), the demoness Tala spies Hugo Strange and Batman, and she decides to use them as pawns in a new competition against the Phantom Stranger.

She uses her magic to make the machine backfire, and she helps it rewrite reality to match her vision. She also surrounds gotham with a magical barrier, so their "game" wouldn't disturb all the other mortals. The Joker and Batman have swapped identities. Only Tala and The Phantom Stranger seem aware of what's going on, as Tala tries to use this game to prove (once and for all) that darkness can triumph over the light!

So…now I need to explain how things changed regarding Bruce Wayne and Jack Napier on this earth. So let me try my best to explain all of that. I'll go through each of the two of them, and I'll explain how their lives changed and diverged on this world here.

The Joker (Bruce Wayne): In this altered reality, Bruce Wayne lost everyone that night in Crime Alley. Alfred and his parents were all shot, and then the Falcones had his Uncle Phillip snuffed out too. With no remaining living family, Carmine Falcone adopts Bruce Wayne. And under Carmine's tutelage, the Waynes are kept firmly within the corrupt family business.

But Bruce Wayne can't be corrupted that easily. By the time that he's a teenager, he's realized what the Falcones and Hills do for a living. He wants no part in it. He starts making friends with reformist public figures, like Harvey Dent and James Gordon. Angry that he's betraying the family, Carmine Falcone drugs his adopted son with sleeping pills, and then leaves his men to dispose of Bruce's body.

In the end, Bruce's body is thrown into the abandoned chemical vats at Ace Chemicals. He's left for dead, seen as a lost cause. But he lives. The chemicals completely break his sanity, but he lives. In the time he's recovering, Falcone and Hill ruin Dent and Gordon's careers, so in retaliation, "Joker" kills Falcone and Hill, setting himself up as the boss Mayor and head of Gotham City. And from here onwards, we pretty much just have a world where Bruce Wayne is The Joker. But what happened to the real joker, one Jack Napier? Well…

Batman (Jack Napier): Jack Napier was a down on his luck comedian, currently writing for a brand new sitcom starring actor Basil Karlo. Jack was one of the lower level writers on the show, but at least he always had a home to come back to. His wife Jean and his son Mark were the pride and joy of his life. As Gotham went to ruins at the hands of the Falcones and Hills, the Napier family was getting by. And Jack Napier was even beginning to slowly make a name for himself.

In Season Two of the show, ratings were beginning to dip. Turns out Karlo wasn't as good at comedy as he was hoping he'd be, so they need a new comedic character. So Jack comes up with the idea of a weird relative of the family, who comes to stay and live with them. Jack is given a chance to play the character as the show gets retooled, and people love it. He slowly begins overtaking Basil Karlo in popularity, but Mr. Karlo doesn't mind (especially since it means he gets to go back to dramatic acting). The Basil Karlo show does Four seasons, and then it gets a spin-off all about "Jeffery Cesar Richardson" and his family.

The Richardsons becomes a hit tv sitcom, written and created by Jack Napier himself. He finally has total freedom. His wife and son finally get the life that they deserve. But one night (shortly after filming the premiere episode of season 2), the studio is held hostage by burglars. Nobody wants to stand up to them, but Jack manages to think of an idea. He sneaks away to his dressing room, works out a stunningly haphazard costume, and then tries to intimidate the burglars into leaving. Through pure coincidence, he manages to defeat them all bare handed. Now being billed as "Batman", Gotham has a new masked man of mystery to protect them.

So now the pieces are all in place. Tala has her Joker, a rich and ruthless madman with all the cunning and trickery of the original universe's Batman. Meanwhile, Jack Napier is a clumsy fool who stumbled into superheroics by accident, and would really much rather be a TV star. Can good and light triumph over darkness and evil, even in this world where the odds are stacked against them? With The Phantom Stranger's aid, anything is possible.

In the end, The Phantom Stranger and Jack Napier win the bet. Tala bitterly undoes her magic spell, turning everything in Gotham back to the way it was. The only thing left for anyone to remember anything by is a photo The Phantom Stranger managed to hold onto underneath his hat, a photo of Jack Napier smiling with his wife and child. He gives it to the Joker, then fades back into the mist to which he always returns. The Joker keeps the picture, though. He doesn't know why, but he does.

[cowboysmp3]

there’s something sooo sickening about how dunmeshis whole energy is like sometimes something terrible and awful happens to you and it changes you forever and nothing can make you the person you were before but there’s still love and there’s still sharing a meal together and there’s still living

[canisalbus]

[sulfurzee]

Isha if she got to grow up?

[neutral-towards-mindmaps]

can't stop thinking about tamsyn muir's choice to present her deep, morally and politically complex science fantasy world with a central web of magic, secrets and lies reaching back ten thousand years through the eyes of three characters who:

1. tune out and start thinking about hot women whenever the magic system or worldbuilding are being explained

2. experience hallucinations on a daily basis, have brain damage and are being deceived and misled by their peers, authority figures, themselves and God

3. don't know who they are, have spent their entire life in one place and are, on all levels but physical, six months old

[hinamie]

oversaturate

[heilos]

Finally started watching The Owl House. I like these sillies a lot.

[marciaillust]

trapped in amber

[inkskinned]

in internet posts it is easy to cut them out of your life. they are hurting you! they aren't listening to you!

they held your hair back. they lent you lipstick. they held your hand at the train station and got you home safe. they rounded on your bully, got loud, said get fucked, spitting-mad in your defense.

they also cut the hair off again. told you that you should really think twice before wearing something like that. took you for granted. took your insecurities and threw them in your face again.

you know logically it should be easy. all the internet advice comments always read it will feel better. like an equation - if a person is rotten, you just remove them. you pull the tooth that's hurting.

but it was never a big flare-up moment. you don't live in a sitcom. they never tried to take your boyfriend or steal from your apartment. they showed up to birthdays and they wrote songs about you and bring you water without you asking. once you found out they carry an emergency inhaler for you, even though you haven't had an asthma attack in years - just in case.

where is the line? people fuck up. sometimes they fuck up badly. sometimes people have raw personalities, like a powerline, and being around them is dangerous. addicting. sometimes they can't help themselves, but you know they're trying. sometimes they are just rough-around-the-edges. sometimes they don't even realize how they sounded when they said that. sometimes it's just - you've both loved each other for so long now, the way this thing hurts goes back to the root.

and that's the fucked up part. you have pushed your fingers against the sweetheart of memory. things these days are electric, tense, harrowing. they didn't used to be. there were a lot of good days in there. sometimes you want to just close your eyes and say can this be over yet? do we still need to be fighting?

doing that would give up any chance you get of getting an apology, but you don't always know that you need an apology, you love them. once they flaked on your birthday party. once they told you to get over it, people are always dying. they also let you crash on their couch for a week after the breakup, handfeeding you when you were so sad you couldn't eat. they are also judgmental about everything, occasionally react to banal statements with an attitude that is weird and fiery. they also love you like a lighthouse sometimes, so strong they cut the storm like lightning.

but the problem is that you might be storm. you might be the thing that needs breaking. what if you are two forces who are desperately, horribly drawn to each other, shaped by the other person's passions, and both good for each other and bad in equal measure.

what if you're both just people, and you're no saint neither.

just cut them off! swallowing the saltwater, you catch yourself in the mirror. you've been shaking more than usual. there's an ache in you that is oblique, loud, impossible to soothe. is this what it looks like? when life is "easier"?

your mouth will always have a hole, is the thing, if you remove the tooth.

[uncharted-constellations]

~What i couldve been~

I was just gonna do the adult timeline zelda but im so enchanted by the idea of these two versions of the same character. People always talk about how link would be changed but never zelda.

[wasyago]

salmon pearl 🤔

[raepliica]

[henrykudhirai]

man I love clara oswald. just consistently a weird little freak incapable of being normal about her relationships. has a bunch of versions of her just dying all over the place. first time she ever gets seriously properly mad onscreen, it's at someone implying she doesn't want to fuck old men. collects immortal situationships like pokemon. idolises robin hood. has the best wardrobe of any new who companion. made out with jane austen. pathological liar and unhinged adrenaline junkie who is literally out there in victorian london having the worst day of her life while daydreaming about people fucking none of you were ready for my girl

[theellipelli]

yq design for nostalgic chill! he's two years older than canon, so he's a little larger and more confident.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Charcuterie Board, as designed by your votes! Thank you to everyone who participated; this was a fun challenge!

[jaynuu]