#supervillain sunday

[writerofweird]

The Easter Bunny and the Supervillain

The Easter Bunny hopped quickly,Completing his rounds,When all of a sudden, a man in a cape,Tumbled to the ground, The Easter Bunny approached the man,Asking, ‘Are you alright?’‘No,’ he sighed, ‘Dr. Gruesomegrave,Put up a good fight!’ Just then there descended,A small colourless spaceship,Out from it came a monster,Tentacle arms on her hips, She had fangs and giant eyes,And cackled at the…

[jonmcbrine-author]

Sci-fi Short Story Sunday!

Teenage sidekick Sidebar has been training under Judge Justice, the leader of the Super Society, and is itching for action. Sidebar gets more than he bargained for when he is face-to-face with one of the team’s deadliest villains. Separated only by a pane of glass, the young superhero must look evil in its eye - or in the case of the case of the dangerous villain Hotwire, an eerie faceless abyss. Can the heroes foil the criminal mastermind’s chaotic scheme, or will the city’s greatest defenders go to an extreme they must keep hidden for generations to come?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFYVPC7N?dplnkId=13c06fe6-e786-4f29-a911-d171397b3f15&nodl=1

[maxwell-grant]

There's a trend people have pointed out in superhero stories over the past 20 or so years that is the death of "regular" supporting casts, an increasing absence of un-powered sidekicks or people involved who aren't in the thick of the action or in the hero's secret. Everyone who interacts with superheroes is a couple issues away from becoming one, every story involves a supervillain encounter or several dozen, every hero's gotta have a lunchbox-ready "superhero family" made from these characters, and every side character that doesn't join them is either going to die or become a supervillain.

The defining example people use for this is Spider-Man's supporting cast, with every Spider-Man cast member short of Aunt May and J Jonah Jameson getting some kind of powered upgrade or symbiote, and I'm gonna say Amanda Waller is an excellent case study of how this kind of thing happens, and I think it helps to explain why Amanda Waller has been, Like That, for the past 30 years.

She’s wearing a grey shirt underneath a blue blazer and it’s tucked into a similarly blue skirt that stops at mid calf. She reminds me of the neighbourhood aunties I used to see leaving for church every Sunday morning.

My mom used to say that you are the company you keep. So what kind of person does it take to keep a variety of bruised, battered, and dangerous personalities in check? - Amanda Waller: DC's Most Terrifying Woman

To those of you who haven't read John Ostrander and Kim Yale's Suicide Squad, there once was a time where Amanda Waller was something more than a powerful antagonistic force able to butt heads with the biggest superheroes, and something other than a heartless establishment face out to make superheroes miserable for ill-defined reasons. Structurally speaking, Suicide Squad is a comic about marginal DCU characters forced to deal with actual real life problems, and it's central character is a marginalized person forced to deal with DCU problems and characters. The members of the Squad are a rolling parade of costumed misfits and maniacs assigned to go around the globe to fight and kill and die on dirty missions to deal with dirty laundry and stop war zones from erupting, while Amanda Waller is forced to shuffle around her cadre of D-list supervillains and disgraced superheroes and get into stand-offs with secret spy societies, living nukes, voodoo cartels, and Batman.

Amanda Waller neither looks nor acts like the kind of character that stars in a superhero comic, and she is the central character throughout the 66 issues of the run and we follow her character arc from beginning to end as she's forced to spin plates to accomplish her goals and prevent bad situations from getting worse. She is the most fully realized character in the run and everything rests on her shoulders. We spend a lot of time inside her head, her team, her associates, she is the center holding together an extremely chaotic book with no two characters on the same page. She is, and has to be, an extremely powerful person, someone who stands her ground no matter what, an unbeatable force of will because that is the only way she's going to survive the situations she's in, the only way she can be "The Wall", the kind of person who can repel Batman, command a platoon of monsters, talk her way out of Deadshot's contract, someone who can stare at Darkseid and credibly threaten the President into letting her live.

That's the part that everyone is more or less familiar. But there is, or at least used to be, much more to Amanda Waller than just being The Wall, not in the least because being The Wall is also hampering her effectiveness as well as straight up killing her.

"Amanda's toughness has taken her a long way" "It's taken her as far as it can. But it can't take her no further. It's actually starting to drag her down. I'm scared for my baby sister, rev - scared that the anger in her is congealing into hate." - Suicide Squad #31

We get to know her backstory, her plans, her points of contention with the system, her relationships with people around her, and how deeply she cares about things and people even as she sends them to the meatgrinder. From the start we learn that Waller staffs her team with people she's prone to getting into disagreements with, like Simon LaGrieve and Rick Flag, specifically so they can cover her moral blind spots and pick up the slack in emotional intelligence she's lacking, be the heroes that she can't afford to be. It is unspeakably crucial that the Squad is led by Rick Flag as well as Bronze Tiger, a fallen hero who owes Waller for his recovery who eventually takes Flag's baton. Waller stands up for her team, gets into fights with her superiors when they decide to terminate them, and takes the fall for them when necessary. Waller is a person who does Bad Things - but she is not a Bad Person.

The book in no uncertain terms frames the Suicide Squad's existence as monstrous in a scale Waller doesn't understand until the very end, and it digs deep into the unethical things Waller has to allow for and perpetrate in order to keep it running no matter how many lives it saves, and she spends the first half of the book on a downward spiral. But then there's the 2nd half of the book:

In the first 39 issues, Amanda’s flaws are her undoing. As she pushes away the people she hired to act as a balance, she grasped tighter and tighter to her uncompromised vision of the Suicide Squad despite the constant changes and derailment. Her choices had consequences: the death of Rick Flag, her demotion, employees quitting, and finally, the disbandment of the team.

The last 27 issues have Amanda rising up from the ashes after a year in jail. She’s less in her own way – she communicates, her anger isn’t driving her, she’s more receptive of alternative perspective and recognizes when she’s wrong in real time – but she’s still just as scary.

Waller rebuilds her relationships with the people she drove away, takes a different tack to how the team works, and starts going out into the frontlines with the Squad. She brings Oracle (who actually made her debut in this comic) into the fold, saves her life and plays a big role in Barbara making progress in overcoming her Joker trauma. She genuinely puts in the work to improve as a person and do things a better way than before, even if there is an inescapable immorality to the very existence of the Squad and what they do. That immorality never goes away, and it only further horrifies her when learning how badly her project has gone. In fact, it's that very inescapable immorality that ends her arc.

She learns that the CIA has started using a new Suicide Squad to support a brutal regime in South America, and when faced with the full extent of her complicity in Western imperialism? She decides right then and there to end the Suicide Squad for good after they liberate the population of said regime from said Squad. She is the only person who gives a shit about the country enough to start the assignment for free once she knows about it, force the Squad along, lead the mission in field, and personally (and even gently) usher the villain to his death at the end, to end what began with her.

She does bad things, and she does good things. She cares about people, and she uses people. Her decisions ruin as well as save the world. She spins a million plates to match wills and wits with the strongest, wickedest, most cunning humans and superhumans alike, and she still has superiors to answer to and people close to her she hires to judge her for what she does. She endured racism and misogyny and poverty for decades and rode whatever she could to attain as much power over her own life as someone like her could possibly attain, and to have it, she must be a willing tool of the state and bend the knee to Ronald Reagan, the man she derides for what he did to her community, hating every minute of it.

She lost her family to sexual and racial violence, and now she wrangles a penal battalion comprised of some of the worst people on the planet to inflict violence on her orders. She has saved and redeemed people, and she's haunted by the corpses she's left in her wake. She is oppressed and oppressor, someone who could only escape the ravages of American imperialism by becoming one of it's chief enforcers, and still she rebuilds herself into a better person from it upon confronting and challenging her role in it. She is not a bad person, she is not a good person either, she is just afforded a degree of agency and complexity unpowered characters in superhero books simply don't get.

Okay cool, now what is she up to these days?

That, I guess. That is what a strong but unpowered person who does not allow themselves to be bossed around by superheroes or supervillains looks like now. Everytime there's a call for a military bad guy, Waller gets tagged in to be DC's Henry Gyrich. There was a point where Waller was made to contrast the likes of Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling, someone who butted heads with them because she was a well-meaning person working for and committing evil as often as she attempted to stop it. These days, the most consistent beat with her is that she is the most dangerous person alive and worse than the villains she wrangles into working for her. She is a thing to be overcome, a hypocrite to be exposed, a challenge to the natural order of the universe, and she is too terrific at it to be shuffled off quietly. She is a Bad Person and so everything she says and does is Bad (and thus can be ignored).

Integral to Suicide Squad's structure was the fact that Waller was the center holding everything together, the ultimate third party: spinning plates working with, for and against all of the others so she can bend rules and be bent by them. Bent, but never broken, because The Wall doesn't break, others break first. Waller was a one-of-a-kind character, and that broke her, because beating Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling at their own game means replacing Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling. Waller doesn't look like them, she doesn't look like the superheroes either, and so she can't be one of them. She can't even look like herself a lot of the time, they try to slim her up everytime they think they can get away with it.

Suicide Squad was preoccupied with exploring a perspective from a world outside the superhero worldview, but we no longer have her perspective or that of people around her, we only know her through the superheroes she inherently defies and has had an adversarial relationship against from day one. She is someone with a viewpoint that is charitable to neither superheroes nor institutions, and thus, the universe is increasingly less sympathetic to her, the less utility she has to the grander narrative where everyone has to pick between one of two options. If she wasn't powerful and assertive, she'd be another Leslie Thompkins, another Jiminy Cricket the heroes passively ignore. But because she is powerful and doing morally compromised things without asking Batman's permission, she must have a personal grudge. She must be a government monster. She must attack the superheroes for no reason, no ideology, no motive.

So now she's just The Wall 24/7, the mean icy establishment boot who is strong and clever and cruel and hates superheroes and wants to destroy superheroes and rule the world from the shadows. Everything she does is a fuck-up she refuses to take responsability for, everyone is right to hate and distrust mean old Waller, and now everyone gets to look good by dunking on her. They couldn't make her a superhero, so they made her a generic supervillain instead. And now that she's a bad guy, she no longer has to believe anything, she doesn't really have to mean anything, they don't have to write stories about something other than superheroes and supervillains, and they don't have to let a fat woman of color take up space and screentime they could be giving to Harley Quinn and Slade Wilson instead.

Even by the time of Waller's debut on the tail end of the 80s, her career opportunities were on their way to extinction

Days Of Future Past marks the triumph of the superhero comic that's pretty much concerned with no-one but superheroes. Where Ditko and Lee's Spider-Man featured a single costumed crimefighter in the context of a commonplace existence, the X-Men of the 80s focused on a huge cast of mutants who had little if any lasting involvement in the everyday world.

By the 21st century, the corporate superhero comic would largely - if not exclusively - concern itself with little beyond a large class of superhumans and their fantastical existence. I suspect there's a significant correlation between that and the continuing cultural  peripherilisation of the superhero comic - Colin Smith

Amanda Waller is one of the strongest characters in all of comics, she was as powerful as an non-superpowered character given center stage could possibly be, a perfectly designed character from which an entire corner of a shared universe was developed out of with her as the center making it work, but as the room for civilian casts and unpowered protagonists got smaller and smaller, so did Waller's options. If she was a Spider-Man character and somehow didn't get killed or made into a villain, they would have slimmed her up and given her a symbiote, because you're nobody unless you're web-swinging. Characters didn't look or act like Amanda Waller, and unfortunately, they still don't. It's just instead of making more characters like her, they gutted Waller to be more like the rest. If she couldn't make it, who else even could.

Keep your eyes peeled for this summer when she'll team up with two meaningless robot baddies to burn down the Justice League and I guess the universe for the next reboot or something.

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

You Didn't Save me (I begged You Not To)

Lex Luthor is not a good man.

He is a literal supervillain, he's also more than aware of the consent issues of what he did when he created Connor.

Yet he is surprised by how furious Superman is making him.

Not that he isn't always angry with Superman but before it wasn't quite so personal.

It was a bigger issue what Superman stood for what he was but right now he's not picking the fight with Superman but with Clark Kent.

He has spent as much time as possible studying everything about kryptonian's from their weakness to their language.

Essentially, Superman should keep better track of his belongings.

Kon-El means abomination.

Lionel Luthor was never a kind man he knows exactly why he is who he is today. He still has slight scars from his fathers belt. Cruel words that years after his father's death, will still haunt his memories.

When he was younger he was friends with Bruce Wayne before being a Villain was his priority.

He remembers hiding at Wayne Manor a feeling of safety he had never felt before.

He's also more than aware that his old friend is running around as a Bat.

Bruce Wayne even as a child always stood for hope was always ready to change the world to stand for something better.

That's is why years later Lex Luthor is knocking on a door that he's not hundred percent sure he won't be turned away from.

Yet Kon-El means abomination.

"Mr. Luthor I was unaware Master Bruce was expecting you?"

Alfred looks older than Lex remembers for some reason the man always seemed above aging untouchable even by time.

"He's not, I need to speak with him please it's urgent."

He is a Luthor begging is below him, but right now he feels fourteen again, with the belief that the people within Wayne Manor can fix anything.

"Of course. Master Bruce is in his study, I will lead you please follow me Mr. Luthor."

He doesn't bring up how he knows the way. That he once ran chasing after Bruce hiding in that very study. That they had broken a vase playing like little boys did. He doesn't bring up crying, terrified that Alfred had promised him no harm should come to him in these halls.

He doesn't correct how he used to be Master Lex. He lost that privilege long ago.

It's been a very long time since he has laid eyes on Bruce Wayne he's seen the tabloids, even a passing glance at a gala but for some reason he didn't picture slight gray hair, a dark black suit, he imagined a Gotham Academy Uniform or a Nirvana Shirt that Lex always wanted to steel but never quite worked up the courage.

He doesn't even hear Alfred's depart he can't tear his eyes away from Bruce.

His throat is dry like all the moisture has somehow left since he walked through the doors.

He is Lex Luthor but right now he doesn't remember what that means.

"Kon-El means abomination did you know that?"

His voice weak. Bruce's face doesn't change, blank.

" I am not my Father. I don't know what to do but I refuse for my child to think he isn't loved by at least one of his parents."

He breathes.

"All those year ago, you told me that you would help that all I had to do was ask, I was an idiot, it's too late for me but not for him."

Bruce's voice startles him he hasn't realized how deep in his own mind he had sank.

"All you had to do was ask."

Bruce's face painted in the same smirk as if they were eighteen again smoking on the manors roof.

Lex Luthor is not a good person, but for Connor Luthor he will try he will rebuild bridges, bend his pride he will beg on his knees.

He never understood how a parent should be or what it really meant to wake up everyday and have your whole being dedicated to loving and protecting something.

As he watches the rise and fall of his child's chest wrapped in the arms of the third Robin safe in his penthouse behind security straight from Wayne Enterprises and he doesn't regret it.

He know's he would do it all over again and when next Sunday comes and he gets a invite to brunch that he never throught he would see again he knows it was all for the better.

[trendywaifus]

SKETCHY (aha get it?) HALLOWEEN PROMO!

how did her fox ears and all that hair even fit inside of that mask? it’s like she’s one of those hot supervillains who unmasks themselves at the end of some shitty hero movie.

meanwhile ghostface! feixiao after shanking two gays:

wanted to do some promo and did a quick 30 min sketch!

screampied is coming on sunday, the 6th! . .midnight maybe

[mlbigbang]

2023 Adrinette Fic Rec List

It’s the end of the year which means it’s finally time for the ML Big Bang’s yearly fic rec lists! We’re really excited to bring you our contributors’ favourite fics started this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you’re waiting for the Big Bang fics’ publication in January.

Fate, Destiny... A Hamster by @mostmagical

After finally moving into his very first apartment per Ladybug’s suggestion, Adrien discovers something no movie or TV show could have ever prepared him for: someone else's hamster. Marinette was so excited to have her first pet. If only it would stop escaping! At least now there’s an excuse to talk to the new neighbor. (Adrinette Never Met AU)

This fic is peak adrinette identity shenanigans! Adrien and Marinette star as the next door neighbors losing and finding the titular hamster, falling in love, and avoiding an identity reveal like the plague.

If I Let Myself Love You by @uptoolateart

It’s hard to be a normal girl with a normal life when your mother has terminal cancer. And when fashion model Adrien Agreste moves back to Paris and wants to be Marinette’s friend – or maybe even more – her life is turned upside down again. How can she risk opening her heart to love when her whole world is falling apart? Especially when Adrien is hiding a dark secret of his own…. - COMPLETE FIC – updates on Sundays *** No kwamis AU - 100% Adrinette. About half of it is fluffy and half heavy. Please read tags for trigger warnings. ***

It is such an incredible balance of beautiful, heart-wrenching and funny! I adored the relationship between Adrien and Marinette, how it developed throughout, how natural it was, how they both helped each other through their grief. Just beautiful.

hearth by @asukiess

Because how do you describe a dream once you wake up, when it’s fleeting and slipping through the cracks in your mind like it’s a sieve? You can barely wrap your lips around the concepts and words before you realize it has slipped through like water, and what lay in your hands is just a pang in your chest? When every moment away from it clouds your mind just a little more, until the memories are threadbare? or: Adrien understands what it means to have a home.

call it even by @sha-nwa & @anna-scribbles

After a year of dating, there is one thing Marinette knows for certain: it's her and Adrien against the world. Through it all, Adrien is kind, patient, and endlessly understanding—even as she tries her best to keep her secret superhero identity hidden from him along with the rest of the world. Nothing could ruin it, not even the supervillains of Paris: Hawkmoth and Chat Noir. (adrinette dating // ladynoir enemies au)

A really well-written Adrienette fic featuring Ladynoir as enemies.

All the Missing Pieces by @uptoolateart

At 14, Adrien stepped into the time burrow and saw the truth no one could have guessed. When he came out, he was changed forever. And after defeating his father, he was finally free...or was he? At 37, Adrien has everything he ever dreamed of – married to Marinette, three kids, the hamster – but none of it has turned out as expected. Marinette’s career is such a success that she’s never home, Hugo is an angsty difficult teenager, and Adrien is still struggling with his secret identity as a sentimonster. And now, Lila Rossi is back after more than 20 years. But has time changed her? Or is she up to her old tricks?

It's my actual life (except I'm not good looking lol), and I vouch for how WILDLY accurate its treatment of the emotional issues of stay-at-home-dad stuff. I just cannot recommend highly enough how it handles jealousy, isolation, parenting struggles, etc. Not me in the comments every chapter telling the author how she got the feels so perfectly right.

If I Let Myself Love You by @uptoolateart

It’s hard to be a normal girl with a normal life when your mother has terminal cancer. And when fashion model Adrien Agreste moves back to Paris and wants to be Marinette’s friend – or maybe even more – her life is turned upside down again. How can she risk opening her heart to love when her whole world is falling apart? Especially when Adrien is hiding a dark secret of his own…

So absolutely sweet. So emotionally devastating. Gets meta by taking advantage of how AO3 works at one point. Next level in every way. I loved the developing Adrienette friendship. I loved Marinette and her father. I loved Marinette's feelings about her sick mother. Please everyone read this fic your face will melt with emotion, and you weren't really using your face, were you?

Our Tales are Endless (That's Why I Tell Them) by joonapeach

Marinette lives a simple life - one surrounded by pretty dresses, fresh macaroons, and the calming view of Paris. It's a life she thinks she has always fit in. And yet sometimes, when a certain boy comes by her shop with a flower and a new adventurous story, she can't help but wonder if there's something else she's missing.

you don't even know me at all (but i was made for loving you) by @ladyofthenoodle

They didn’t remember each other. The hospital told them there’d been an accident—brain damage—but Alya had told them the truth, later. Who’d they’d been to each other. What they’d given up, and why. But even with their memories of each other gone, Adrien and Marinette are still inextricably tied together—by law, by their social circles, and by their hearts. And in the apartment they share, there's only one bed.

If you like amnesia AUs, angst with a happy ending, married adrinette, and only one bed scenarios, you need to read this fic! It's beautifully bittersweet and will break your heart before putting it back together.

[sarahscribbles]

A soft drabble of waking up next to Loki in the morning? 🥺

Of course, love!!!

•••

Sunday mornings are your favourite. There’s no stupidly early training sessions or mission briefings, there’s no planning or plotting how to take down the latest supervillain.

There’s just you and Loki.

He’s still sound asleep next to you, broad chest rising and falling with each deep breath he takes. You can hear his heartbeat in your ear from where you’re tucked in next to him - strong and solid and a constant reassurance that he’s here and he’s alive.

And he’s yours.

You curl in closer to his side, wrapping an arm protectively across his stomach and nuzzling a kiss to his cheek. He twitches momentarily at your touch and you feel his arm squeeze just slightly around your waist.

“Go back to sleep,” he mumbles groggily, not even opening his eyes, but you can hear the slight smile in his words.

You shift in his arms with a puff of laughter, trying to wrap yourself even closer around him. Loki’s hand tucks you under his chin and you feel his drowsy kiss to the crown of your head.

“I love you,” you say quietly, tangling your legs with his beneath the sheets.

Loki hums against your forehead and tired fingers trace over your forearm, coaxing you back to sleep. “I love you.”

You’re safe against his chest. Safe and protected and drowned in so much love it sometimes makes you dizzy.

He was your whole heart and more.

He was enough.

(Sorry this is not great but I wanted some soft even though it’s almost 10pm with me 😅)

Whores: @cheekyscamp @the-lady-amphitrite @loopsisloops @lunarnights95 @fictive-sl0th @currish-rosewolfe @give-me-a-moose @lokisgoodgirl @maple-seed

[vestsfriends]

Questions Post Penacony Finale

-Why was Sparkle here in the first place?? Why did she serve such little purpose in the end of it all?

-Why didn’t we speak to her after she set off her “bomb?”

-Why didn’t we say goodbye to anyone besides Acheron and the dead people?

-didn’t we need to wake everyone up from the dream?? There’s still a shit ton of people in it, and virtually no one really left.

-Wasn’t there memoria leaking into reality? Welt said that the influx of memoria was leaking into reality, why wasn’t it brought up again? Because I’m pretty sure that’s still an issue.

-Why didn’t we see a conclusion between the IPC and Old Oti? I know they mention it in passing, but what was the point of making such a unique model and design for Old Oti just for him to appear in two scenes?

-How do we know we’re not still in the dream?

-Why did Gallagher’s “death” happen off screen? And why didn’t we learn anything about his origin?

-Will Elio be upset with Firefly now that she’s deviated from the script?

-Is Black Swan coming with us to Ampherous?

-Why didn’t they show us what Jade was going to do to Sunday?

-Wtf ever happened to Sampo?

-Why is Jade so nonchalantly a supervillain?

-Why did Silver Wolf never appear?

-What exactly was going to occur during the original Charmony festival pre-Sparkle bomb threat? Like, originally-originally. Robin just said some thanks then gave the Trailblazer the airship.

-Why did never learn about the stuff with ‘Oswaldo Schneider?’ Boothill was pretty emotional about it but then he just mentioned it in passing with Aventurine, pushing it aside.

-Cy Yu (Alejandro Saab) said that he read the script for this quest and sobbed. But Jing Yuan wasn’t in it tho..? And sure, it was kinda sad, but in a “aw it’s ending :(“ kind of way, not in a “omg someone died” kind of way. But I just could be reading into it.

I have many questions but my main one is just: huh?? What??

[things-arent-what-they-seem66]

“My little slut to ruin.”

Smth small with this in the Supervillain x Assistant AU maybe?

Craving for good smut here

Friendo that is a great request hehe 😈

"Ahhh!~" Adam couldn't keep the chorus of moans from slipping out of his mouth as his hot boss railed him. He was currently bent over the arm of their couch, Adam holding onto a cushion for dear life as he saw stars.

Lucifer smirked as he held onto Adams hips, Sundays were relaxation days meaning sex days.

Fuck did he enjoy sex with his lovely assistant.

"That's it. You're all mine.~ Say it."

"I-I'm all yours!"

"That's right, my little slut to ruin. You won't want any other cock once I'm done with you.~" Lucifer purred and he hit that perfect spot inside of Adam.

Adam didn't mind, honestly he wouldn't want anyone else even if they did sleep together. It's a good thing Lucifer couldn't see his face in this position, his boss might see the hearts in his eyes.

Fuck he needed to cum.

Lucifer could sense it. "Be a good boy and cum for me.~" Adam didn't need to be told twice, he let himself cum with a cry as Lucifer continued to pump into him.

Adam moaned weakly when he finally felt his boss cum inside him, a soothing hand running up and down his back.

If this was all he could have of Lucifer, then Adam would drink up every drop.

[murninatair]

The first strip of my new weekly series The Close Encounter just released!! Please go check it it out, it's on webtoons and on its own tumblr blog.

It's a slice of life comedy about supervillains, contains lots of cartoon blood, updates on sundays!

Here's the Webtoons and Tumblr blog.

[mith-gifs-wrestling]

Kevin being Logan Paul's supervillain origin story is fantastic. (Kevin's response being pretty much "For you, it was the humiliation of a lifetime. For me, it was Sunday" was even more fantastic).

[jeffrey-anderson]

Gotham City's Reliance on Playboy-Billionaire Bruce Wayne

Playboy, billionaire, philanthropist. Bruce Wayne - or Brucie, as those who read the Gotham Gazette may know him by - is a common sight in Gotham newspapers. For good or for bad, he will be there. Some recent headlines (pictures attached) that Wayne has found himself at the forefront of would be a shock if it were anybody else, but since it’s Gotham City’s favourite wealthman, nobody bats an eye.

See this? Apparently - according to search statistics from Gotham City - this charity is nothing to applaud. 

Here in Gotham, I’ve noticed we seem to have this thing about normalizing things that would be otherwise insane in other places - of course, I can’t speak without being a hypocrite. As a Gothamite myself, it’s much too frequently that I find myself irritated instead of horrified that there’s been an explosion on a subway line, exasperated instead of aghast that man-bats are delaying the buses. But I digress.

In the first newspaper headline I’ve included, we can see Wayne’s incredibly generous donation to Klimate and Kryptonite, a charity dedicated to areas affected ecologically by aliens or other space matter. Everywhere else - anyone else - this 1.5 million donation would have caused a ripple of turning heads and discussion about change. But on that Sunday? Nothing. Nada. Bruce Wayne’s support of our city’s ecosystem is deep-seated - and far too little talked about. If you’ve ever been to a hospital here in Gotham (I’m assuming you have, we have the highest mugging rates in the USA) you’d notice that there is a distinctive ‘W’ logo on almost every piece of medical equipment in the hospital. Yep, that’s him again. Wayne Biotech plays a fairly large piece in supplying medical equipment at prices cheaper than most competitors - because as the man said himself, ‘healthcare should be affordable if not free’. 

Take a step back for a second and picture Gotham without Bruce Wayne. Medical prices would be sky-high; innocent citizens would be in crippling debt over minor accidents, unable to leave poverty. The waterways and skies would be clogged with even more trash than there already is. Buildings destroyed by terrorists like the Joker would take at least three times as long to rebuild.

This leads me to my next point. Why are our actual city officials not doing anything?

Yeah, you already know the answer. Corruption. 

In the last three years, six highly-ranking members of either the GCPD or the city government were fined or arrested for misuse of funds, money laundering or taking bribes. The rampant fraud that is occurring among the people we are meant to trust with our city creates a power vacuum that is only filled by crime. Yes, the Wayne Foundation (and Wayne’s parents’ charities, the Thomas and Martha Wayne Foundation respectively) are doing tremendous amounts of work to help provide free healthcare and shelter while simultaneously countering social issues. It’s good, of course, but doesn’t anybody get the feeling that maybe our government-sanctioned officials should be the ones fixing these problems, not charities?

Crime is running rampant, and our political leaders are too lazy and too compliant to respond.

We need to make a push for change. Protest (in ways that are helpful, not harmful - we don’t need another supervillain running around Gotham trying to ‘help’) for our rights to have honest authorities. Talk about the change you want to see in our city, and spread the word. We are no longer standing by for lazy and corrupt government officials to do what they want with Gotham. We can no longer stay stagnant.

-Jeffrey Anderson

[pigeonwhumps]

Introduction and masterlist

Hi! I'm Ruth, they/them pronouns, 25, and I enjoy most types of whump! I do art, graphic design and writing.

I try my best to tag, but if I miss a content warning you'd like added, please just shoot me an ask! I won't tag lady whump as a content warning, but anything else I will if you ask.

Favourite tropes:

RECOVERY WHUMP!!!

Found family

Gagging

Muzzles

Pet whump

Whumper pressing down on whumpee's back to keep them from getting up

Branding

Whipping

Caretaker turned whumpee/whumpee turned caretaker

Hero/villain whump

Tall whumpee/small caretaker (or vice versa)

Tall whumpee/small whumper

G/t whump

Whumpee thinks caretaker is their new whumper

Incompetent/clueless caretaker (they're trying their best but they have no idea they're doing)

Non-human whumpee

Immortal whumpee

Human weapon

Picky:

Major character death

Mouth whump

Pregnancy whump

Squicks:

Graphic tooth whump

Everything taglist: @painful-pooch @i-eat-worlds @a-funeral-romance @rainydaywhump

Other taglists part 1 / part 2

Masterlist

↓ under cut ↓

BBU masterlist

General contents: pet whump, dehumanisation, amnesia, PTSD

Sam and Lucan 'verse

In a world where non-humans are enslaved, our characters are just trying to live out their lives in peace. And failing, mostly.

General contents: non-human characters, institutionalised slavery, fantasy racism, dehumanisation, PTSD

A Death in the Family

When his estranged father dies, Tristam, against his better judgement, attends the will reading, and ends up leaving with long-term bloodbag Sunday Afolayan and Eldrida, his father's former employee (and a terribly mistreated one at that, it turns out).

Even with Aileen and Evelyn's expert advice and friendship, it's tricky to bring Sunday back from the depths of his enthrallment, and Eldrida's struggling too. Six years under the cruel fist of Barnabas Sharpe was hard to survive.

It's a difficult recovery for both of them. But surely, things can't get worse now.

Contains: vampire whumper, non-human whumpee (vampire), lady whump, conditioned whumpee, disabled characters (Tristam has ADHD, Eldrida has anophthalmia, and Sunday has joint problems, a badly-healed arm, and an absence epilepsy-like condition), recovery whump, multiple whumpees

Botanist Whumpee

When the rich and powerful Sebastian Beaumont offers Alyssa a place to stay, she doesn’t expect to become his captive for three years. And when Silver rescues her at a party… well, the only thing she’s absolutely sure is better is that they don’t have a basement. They don’t have much of anything, actually. And she doesn’t know whether she can trust them or not, but she stays anyway. With no-one left to care about her, and Beaumont using all his money and connections to search for the pair of them, where else is she supposed to go?

Contains: recovery whump, captivity, lady whump, somewhat defiant whumpee, found family, intimate whumper

Cian and Row

In a world where superpowers are real, heroes and villains exist, and there's a large black market in powered people, Rowan's been enslaved for as long as they can remember. They're befriended when they're three by Cian Sinclair, a local empathic five year old, and at the age of eleven is rescued and adopted by the Sinclairs. Years later they become a supervillain, disappear for five years and reappear to reunite with their family, and attract another enemy, one far more powerful than their previous captors and obsessed with their healing powers.

Contains: slavery, PTSD, minor whump, past minor whump, immortal whumpee, discrimination, villain whump

Immortal Cannon Fodder

Phoenix, an immortal hero, joins a team that hurts them and uses them as cannon fodder. But their teammates are only doing what's necessary to help them all survive. Phoenix's regular sacrifices are necessary. And it's not like they've got anywhere else to go anyway.

It takes the arrival of Kai, a wolf-shifter and telekinetic, to help them see what's going on. But a friendship and a promised eventual transfer can't fix everything.

Contains: hero whump, abuse, past abuse, immortal whumpee

MD-264N

When MD-264N, the government's best weapon, runs to avoid being decommissioned and collapses on the doorstep of a small ragtag team of rebels, it's a surprise to everyone. But despite resistance, the weapon, now known as Morgan, starts to find their place, and the rebels soon find that they'll do anything to keep them free.

Out of the Frying Pan

Contains: living weapon, found family, dehumanisation/self dehumanisation, team dynamics, reluctant caretaker (not the main caretaker), recovery whump, caretaker whump, disabled caretaker (forearm amputee)

Operation Badger

In the year 2037, Earth is invaded by the Stex. 14 years later, superpowers start appearing in teenagers, and are apparently humanity's best defence against the aliens. What is Earth Security to do but train these people up as weapons?

Contains: sci-fi, living weapons, team whump, multiple whumpees, minor whump, aliens, disabled character

Five years ago Elis, former bodyguard and weapon of Lord Wulfric, was rescued from a fiery death by Col and Sæwin. He now lives in relative peace with them in Sorestan, a peace that's abruptly disrupted after an unwelcome visitor brings his past colliding with the present.

Contains: medieval whump, fantasy elements, living weapon

Out of the Water

Túathal, a merman, is captured and kept prisoner by pirates for his valuable scales. While Robyn, the youngest of the crew and not very popular, takes care of him, the others only bother with his scales (and anything that makes their extraction easier). Especially James. And once the rest of the pirates discover that Robyn and Túathal have become fond of each other, things only get worse.

Contains: merwhump, pirate whump, mutual caretaking, language barrier, outcast whumpee, defiant whumpee

Survival Skills

Whumpee is captured by a Whumper who wants to teach them survival skills. Painfully.

Contains: survival skills whump, sadistic whumper

The Greatest Show on Earth

Damon and Pythias are an unwilling two-person sideshow act in The Greatest Show on Earth, Pythias forced to kill Damon multiple times a day for the entertainment of paying circus patrons. Damon has been in captivity since birth, Pythias not quite so long (although certainly long enough), and they're both ready to get out.

But the outside world is even trickier to navigate than they imagined.

Contains: non-human whumpees, multiple whumpees, immortal whumpee, lady whump, circus whump, public whump, captivity, recovery whump, temporary character death (both implied and shown at times), guilty whumpee, whumpee as caretaker

Other writing:

Non-series whump masterlist

Miscellaneous writing, art and graphics

Fanfic/fanart (AO3)

BBC Merlin, Good Omens, Doctor Who, The Sandman, The Murderbot Diaries

Other stuff:

Whumpmas in July 2022 masterlist

Prompts

Ask games

Bad Things Happen Bingo

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Gestation 1.3 Live Reactions

(This is me, writing reactions as I read, because why the fuck not. They're not complete, mature thoughts taken after I sit back and evaluate what I've read. Consider them as such)

My training schedule consisted of running every morning and every other afternoon.  In the process, I had picked up a pretty good knowledge of the east side of the city.  Growing up in Brockton Bay, my parents had told me stuff like “stick to the Boardwalk”.  Even on my runs, I had scrupulously stayed on the Boardwalk and avoided the bad part of town.  Now it was Sunday night and I was in costume and breaking the rules.

Running off the boardwalk in the middle of the night in costume looking for crime to fight feels like the least of your rulebreaking, Taylor.

Just moving from one block to the next, you could see the change in the area.  As I made my way into the Docks, I could see the quality of my surroundings decline steeply.  There were enough warehouses and apartments in the area for even the most destitute to find shelter, so the only people on the streets were unconscious drunks, whores and gang members.  I steered clear of any and all people I saw and ventured further into the area.

I always love it in stories where the setting becomes a character, and from what I hear, that's definitely going to be the case for the city of Brockton Bay.

 Anyone paying attention to the local cockroach population might think something was up,

That, I think, would be a list that would include exactly zero people at this point. Even exterminators wouldn't be 'paying attention' to the cockroach population, per se.

I knew who these guys were.  They were members from the local gang that left the tags ‘Azn Bad Boys’, ABB for short, all over the East end of the city.  More than a few went to my school.  As far as the criminal element in Brockton Bay went, they weren’t small potatoes.  While the typical gang members were just Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese forcibly recruited from Brockton Bay’s high schools and lower class neighborhoods, the gang was led by a couple of people with powers.  Gangs didn’t tend to be that racially inclusive as far as who joined, so it said something that their leader had the ability to draw in members from so many different nationalities and keep them in line.

Ah yes, the ABB. One of the parts of Worm that I gather ages poorly, and may not have been all that well thought out. But that's hardly surprising, nor a black mark against Wildbow or Worm.

As for it being so ethnically diverse, I'd say that has as much to do with how everyone is grouped together under the 'Asian' heading here in the US, rather than Lung being particularly open-minded. Though I could be wrong.

He went by ‘Lung’, had successfully gone toe to toe with whole teams of heroes and had managed to keep himself out of jail, as evidenced by his presence here.  As for his powers, I only knew what I could scrounge up online, and there were no guarantees there.  I mean, for all I knew, he could have misled people about what his powers did, he could have a power he was keeping up his sleeve for an emergency, or he could even have a very subtle power that people couldn’t see at work.

Another cool choice, especially given what I gather is Taylor's penchant for Puzzle-boss wins later on, as it were. Also one of the reasons why information really is so vitally useful in Worm, and how Taylor's powers are key for that.

Most conventional superhero verses I'm familiar with definitely lend themselves more to an approach where a supervillain or superhero's powerset is largely established - obviously DC and Marvel can't avoid that, but even other superhero media seems to have that too.

But the internet is full of lies, mistakes and misrepresentations. Really makes you wonder what the in-universe wikipedia entry for Superman is like tho.

I decided to move away from where I was and find a better vantage point to monitor their conversation, which seemed like a good compromise between my curiosity and my self preservation. 

Very fair. Going against the fire-breathing armored dude who can eventually become a dragon does seem hazardous to one's health.

They were going to kill kids?

And so the Wormverse turns. Had she not heard the word 'Children', or had Lung used a different word, or just said 'The Undersiders' or whatever...

1.3 doesn't really seem to have a whole lot going on honestly but it isn't nothing, and sometimes you just need a bit of a bridging chapter.

[milkiematcha]

college student!jeno x reader

the first time you met him, it was a shocker he’d managed to make it to college at all. the ruffled hair tucked under a light blue hood, eyes drooping in obvious exhaustion despite the class being just before lunch. and on the second day, too.

his absolute absence from any memories of last sunday’s class would suggest that he didnt even bother to be present for the first day. but whatever. it’s not like this class was a great opportunity despite it’s screwy scheduling. it’s not like the professor had come out of retirement just to teach this class. whatever.

this isnt even your business.

glancing back up at the professor was enough to show you that you had already missed half the class, content wise. and your notebook was shockingly bare, the thin lines only decorated with the name of the unit in neat black pen rather than the usually lines and lines of detailed notes.

shit.

not a great way to start the semester. not a start at all, judging by the fact that the writing of the title was smudged and just the slightest bit crooked- the h in human tilted to the left in a way that sent the whole word out of line. the mounting urge to yank the whole sheet out replaced with a flash of shock as the blue hooded boy snaps his fingers in front of you.

“class is over.” his voice has a slight rasp, like he’s just at the tail end of a bad sore throat and didn’t bother to drink enough tea. “you’ve been staring at that paper like it owes you money.”

“it does.” 

the deadpan response leaves your lips without your permission, a silent moment hanging in the air before the boy’s eyebrow quirks upwards, a slightly amused expression pulling at his face.

it’s nice.

he doesn’t look half as useless like this. his cheekbones are strong, and his eyes crinkle just a bit when his lips move into a half smile. and his hood has slipped back a bit, his hair slipping over his forehead. he’s pretty, the dark strands of his hair adding to the look, same with the heavy dark lashes framing his eyes. he moves back, stretching out, the bottom of his hoodie pulling up to reveal that he probably works out.

scratch that, he probably skipped the first class to work out.

“well, you can take that paper to court then. see if the case pans out.” he quips back, finally standing. he’s rather tall, or maybe you were just used to him being half laid out on the desk.

“i already set up the court date. it won’t get away with this.”

you feel the urge to shake your fist at the paper, like a supervillain scorned by defeat, but you resist, not wanting to come off as stranger than you already did. after all, glaring at a piece of lined paper after class ends is not the best way to seem like a well-adjusted adult.

he picks up his bag, which is sagging with the weight of whatever’s inside, the material so stretched it looks like it’s going to collapse. sleeping in class with a bag full of... books? unlikely, since he slept through class, but it’s the only thing that could make even an inkling of sense.

he’s walking backwards now, his bag now slung over one of his shoulders, the smile still on his lips. “i’ll be there. gotta make sure my seatmate wins their case.”

you open your mouth to respond, but he’s already turned around and disappeared behind the door without another sound.

who the hell was that?

[supermanshield]

superbat fic where theyre trying to wrangle everyones busy schedule? jl meetings, galas, someones birthday dinner, someones recital, theres a lot to account for lol

Oh anon, you know this is my favourite trope for superbat! <3 Thank you for the ask and sorry it took a while, but here it is. And I really let myself go, didn't count the words but it's way more than 100.

-------------------------------------

"Tonight?"

"I can't, Damian's teacher wants to speak to me. Again." Bruce sighed and flicked through the calendar on his phone. Almost every day was completely filled with appointments, meetings, league meetings, monitor duty, patrol time. Hmm... "How about Saturday morning?"

"I go running with Lois, you know that. And you probably won't be awake, anyway."

"You could just... start without me."

"Bruce!" The people at the table next to them looked up. Clark shut his mouth and sat back, embarrassed. Bruce went back to his phone. Clark still carried around a paper agenda, for some reason, and flicked through that.

"Saturday evening is Cass' ballet recital...."

"We definitely can't miss that," Clark confirmed. Bruce shook his head in agreement.

"Sunday you've got the annual Zenith Awards and Gala. Hmm."

Clark groaned. "I wouldn’t mind missing that one. Or sneak out during. I don't need to hear Luthor talk all evening."

"As one of the nominees? Clark, no. I'll be there to cheer you on, and protect you from the big bad Lex by talking over him."

Clark chuckled. "You're the best." His face lit up. "Oh. So after, we could sneak out together..."

"Won't do. It'll be too late by then.” He lowered his voice. “and I'll have to go straight to patrol."

"And Monday I've got a late monitor shift. Tuesday Dick's coming over for dinner, Wednesday..."

"Board meeting, you know that."

Clark nodded. "Right. Thursday I promised to help Jon... up north," he said, indicating the direction of the fortress with his eyebrows. He sat back, defeated, staring at his agenda. "So that's it, no time at all this week? Not even a little gap somewhere? I can be quick."

"And that's not always a good thing, Kent." Clark almost choked on his coffee. If he could. "And this is not even counting any..." Bruce looked over at the other table, lowered his volume so only Clark could hear. "Any of the unexpected things we deal with." Clark nodded solemnly, and leaned over the table closer to Bruce. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Supervillains could visit, or break out, or natural disasters could occur. They were used to dropping everything at a moment's notice when they were needed. It was the rest of their lives that were so busy. 

"This was to be expected with four full-time jobs and 9 children between us," Bruce concluded, leaning over the table as well, meeting Clark halfway to put his glasses back on his face.

"I can't believe it's come to this already. We have to plan our sex time."

"If you call it sex time again, we might not have to plan it at all anymore, Clark."

Clark couldn't hold back a laugh at that. He brushed some hair out of Bruce's face. His mouth was curved in a genuine smile, a smirk he usually only saw in the bedroom. He still couldn't believe they had finally gotten together, and he was so happy with Bruce in his life, but it was hard sometimes, to keep meeting halfway and around their schedules, between battles and fights and missions, and daily life.

Bruce perked up suddenly, eyes opening wide. "Clark," he said. "What are we doing?"

Clark frowned. "A date? Just two regular guys on a date?"

"And what could we be doing."

A lightbulb came on in Clark's head, but he wasn't convinced yet. "Hey, a date is important too. I don't want our relationship to only consist of quickies in the broom closet."

"I agree," Bruce said hastily, and it warmed Clark's heart. "But we just established that you won't get any of me for at least a week, so I choose sex. Right now. We still have an hour." He stared intently into Clark’s eyes.

"Okay." Clark took a sip of the coffee that they were about to abandon, and held up one finger. "But only if you stay in bed with me after."

“Fine,” Bruce grumbled, but the skip in his heartbeat was unmistakable. 

Bruce paid for their coffees quickly, while Clark waited with his jacket by the door. As they left the little café, he could hear the couple that had sat next to them talking over their food.

“Ahh, young love,” the woman mused.

“Dear, those guys were at least in their forties.”

“You have no sense of romance, Derrick.” 

Clark smiled, jogging after Bruce into the alleyway to take him home.