#this is some time post-nml

[magenta-somethings]

trick or treat!

treat! (aka a snippet fic i ended up writing on the bus about tim asking yj for advice re: the huntress/nightwing/oracle situation)

“So, wait, Nightwing is dating Huntress?” asks Cassie.

“I don’t know what they’re doing!” Tim replies. “That’s half the problem.”

“And do we like Huntress?” asks Cissie.

“Yes—no—it’s complicated,” Tim replies. He’s doing a lot of replying and he doesn’t entirely like it—more out of an instinctual avoidance of being on the interrogatee side of an interrogation than anything else—but he had been the one to ask for advice. Which, in hindsight, may have been a mistake, but it’s one he’s now committed to. “I do like her. But she struggles with following Batman’s rules. I mean, we all do, but she struggles with the no killing aspect of it specifically.”

“But has she, like, actually killed anyone?” Kon asks. He’s floating in the air, cross-legged, with one of Cassie’s pillows hugged to his chest. It’s kind of cute—especially with his oversized Superman t-shirt, because, thankfully, he doesn’t actually sleep in his costume.

Not that Tim would ever say it’s cute out loud. 

“No, not since we started working together properly.”

Kon shrugs. “Then I don’t see the problem? Yeah, it’s majorly screwed that she’s killed but it also sounds like she’s changed." Tim might be imagining it, but he almost sounds wistful? "And being able to stand up to the bat seems like a point in her favour more than anything.” He pauses. “Plus, based on the picture you have of her, she’s a total babe.”

Tim just knew visual aids would be a mistake. This is on him for not being able to resist a corkboard. Cassie, acting on behalf of the team, throws a pillow at Kon. It does smack him in the face—he still needs to practice his catches—but before it can fall to the ground his TTK catches it and now he’s hugging two pillows and maybe that backfired slightly. 

Tim puts his corkboard face-down on principle. Huntress probably doesn’t even know he has the photo—her foot in the middle of kicking a bad guy’s face, her fist breaking the jaw of another. He doesn’t have much time for photography anymore, but sometimes he just itches to go out and capture Gotham and its heroes.  The photo of Nightwing, meanwhile, is him shoving his face full of pizza, a hand reaching out to try, in vain, to block the camera lens. 

Oracle, of course, is represented by her icon. He still hasn’t started thinking of her as Barbara.

“It’s not all about looks,” says Cassie. “Even if she is really hot.” She pauses. “Like, really hot.”

“Okay!” interrupts Tim. “That’s enough of that.” He did not need his friends calling his co-worker hot.

“Yeah, it really doesn’t matter,” agrees Cissie, and of course he can count on her to have his back. “Especially since Nightwing is way hotter than her.”

A part of Tim dies inside. Just shrivels up and expires, there and then.

“Okay, but Nightwing is hotter than, like, everyone,” points out Kon. That part of Tim is currently being cremated. “And cooler, and more badass. Or whatever.” 

“Most documentaries on 20th-21st century heroes talk about Nightwing’s attractiveness at least once,” says Bart offhandedly from the corner where he’s playing Polyp-mon. It’s one of his first contributions to the conversation. The part of Tim that died earlier is now having a funeral held in its honour. Suzie, at least, is still absorbed in the game. She’s spent the conversation peering over Bart’s shoulder, occasionally asking him to catch a specific polyp-mon. Though he doubts her additions would be worse than what is currently passing for advice.

“Guys, please,” Tim says, desperately trying to course-correct the conversation. God, it’s so much worse having them talk about how hot this co-worker is. “Stay focused on the problem.”

“Is that you like Oracle more?” asks Cissie.

Tim hesitates. Oracle is one of the most impressive people he knows, and getting to actually spend time with her—especially when it’s her teaching him about tech—is awesome, and she’s saved his life more times than he count or probably even knows about. But he’s only known her face-to-face for a short time, while he’s been fighting side-by-side with Huntress almost as long as he’s been acting properly as Robin. 

“That’s not what’s important,” he deflects. “What’s important is what’s best for Nightwing.”

“Right,” says Cissie. 

“What if they all just dated each other?” asks Bart

“You can do that?” asks Kon, at the same time as Tim says, “I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fix it. In fact, I’m pretty sure that would make it worse.”

The silence stretches. 

“Well, good luck with that!” declares Cassie. “Now, who wants to watch Xena?”

Tim sighs, but let’s the hang-out move on. What’s happening with Nightwing, Huntress and Oracle is such a mess that there’s no way a bunch of teenagers are going to be able to untangle it, especially when most of them don’t have much experience in romance or life or both. Tim certainly doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to having non-messy relationships. He’s sure Dick will figure it out. Eventually.

Kon floats down next to him as Cassie and Cissie go looking for the VHS, with that grin on his face that Tim just knows means he’s come up with some terrible joke. “Look on the brightside! When the divorce happens, you’ll have not one, not two, but three Christmases. Not four, because I’m pretty sure Batman doesn’t celebrate, but three is still pretty good.” 

“Yay,” says Tim, voice as flat as he can make it.

[zahri-melitor]

Poking at timeline stuff again:

So Kon was ‘born’ in 1993, and hatched from his tube aged… 15ish? He turned 1 in Nov 1995 (Superboy Annual #2 of his series) – note Kon is STILL AGING here, and after this point he’s usually described as 16 physically. His age ‘froze’ in July 1997 (Superboy #41) and then started aging again after Sins of Youth in May 2000 (Superboy #74) Kon died in May 2006 (Infinite Crisis #6) Kon returned in June 2009 (Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #4)

2000-2006 is about a year in Comics Time. I think it’s 100% fair to say Kon was physically 17 year old, at his youngest, as at his death, and mentally 17-18.

Kon enrolled in Smallville High on his revival – he’s almost certainly in Year 12/a Senior – and 2009ish is known as the ‘start’ of a school year by a bunch of correlating factors (Steph starting college is one). Flashpoint interrupts and this school year likely never finished. He may or may not have celebrated his 18th birthday before Flashpoint but it either happened or was due imminently.

Known timegaps – Kon lost slightly over a year between Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. His aging stopped either for over a year (if you use Bat timelines) or more like 6 months (given it was 3 years real time). In total I want to say Kon’s ‘age’ went backwards about 18 months to two years over this period. His mental age, however, probably only lost 15 months or so.

By Flashpoint, Kon probably was due to celebrate his 18th birthday in his personal timeline.

In comparison: Jason Todd died aged 15 (if you take canon at its word) or 14 years 9 months (if you use the canonical birthday and death day dates). He was officially dead for 6 months before getting resurrected (- 6 months) and then in a coma for a year (-12 months). He then had a fun amnesiac period which does not have a defined length of time before Talia got sick of it and pushed Jason into a Pit.

Using Bat timelines, 18 months after Jason’s death is probably some time around Contagion or Legacy. Legacy in particular makes a lot of sense for Talia to see Jason in Gotham and pick him up to take home with her. He probably had to go into a Lazarus Pit during No Man’s Land, given Bane and Bruce start the ‘destroy all the Lazarus Pits’ campaign post-NML, culminating in Death and the Maidens in 2003-2004.

Either way, Jason Todd is still mentally 15 years old as of 2000.

Jason’s not in a position to return to Gotham with Talia’s urging until AFTER the rebuild for the famous bomb the Batmobile moment (realistically probably 2000-2001), and from the rebuild process IN DC comics 2001 is a better call than 2000 if you don’t still want rubble everywhere (they didn’t manage to get Ivy out of Robinson Park until Jan 2001)

He then does his world travel training trip… but is back in Gotham for September 2003 and Hush (and Tim’s 16th birthday).

Given Tim’s birthday is canonically on 19 July, the longest Jason’s world training trip can be is 6 months, and is probably more like 3-4 months given the required futzing time either side.

Jason doesn’t legally turn 18 until March 2004 (Tec #790). He’s still almost certainly mentally 16 years old here. He’s arguably physically 17.5 here.

A set of preboot timeline facts from all of this that is hilarious (to me):-

Jason and Tim are mentally about the same age, given their canonical 23 month age gap by date of birth. Depending on how long a period Talia keeps Jason around as an amnesiac, Tim may actually be mentally older.

Yes. The Titans Tower fight was essentially two 16 year olds having a spat.

Kon, despite also having fun death times, is 100% mentally older than Jason for all periods, though they’re close to drawing even after Final Crisis. He’s probably close to physically the same age as Jason for a lot of the time up to Infinite Crisis.

Tim may actually have spent a similar amount of time training in Paris (between Robin I and some time during Legacy and the summer leading up to Cataclysm) as Jason did on his Lost Days world trip.

Anyone who questions how Tim can be one of the greatest bo staff fighters in the world when he’s working off the same time frame of intense training from masters as Jason is (and has a far more substantial training time with Bruce and Dick) is honestly discounting that Tim has more extensive vigilante experience than Jason does, particularly in terms of Gotham-focused skills.

Kon and Tim end up by Flashpoint as within a few months of each other in age.

[imustbenuts]

reading trigun in japanese - baseball and nuclear warheads thoughts

gonna tag these post as #trigunbookclub so for my mutuals and followers who arent into this feel free to mute as you will... let me lose my mind for a while the horrors are getting to me ;;

disclaimer: all translations i give in my posts will be mine and in a more unrefined, raw form. this is for 'triangulation' reading purposes, nothing else.

anyway, i think meryl and nightow both have a fascination with baseball. theres this line where meryl says in JP thats really caught my attention for reasons in this post.

"It's like letting children play a game of baseball with nuclear warheads. Mess up and the whole town gets wiped out!"

fascinating. this implies meryl has experience with baseball herself, but i wonder how thats played in NML? considering theres sand everywhere. maybe old baseball videos are a thing? they archived those?

and also this scene from stampede. did it come from this panel?

to yap: i know baseball in japan was a HUGE thing back around 1990s to 2010s. what with the sport being on national tv, and 2 big baseball related meme worthy news hit the japanese public consciousness that i know of: The Hanshin Tigers' Colonel Sanders Curse In The Dotonbori River Canal, and Ichiro Suzuki's Famous Laser Beam... but the guy debuted in Japan in 1992. very fun stuff to read up on.

also, i believe trigun came after a time where 2 bad stuff were happening in japan. these are the hanshin earthquake and the tokyo sarin gas attack, both in 1995, so the mention of a nuclear warhead here is... something... possibly speaking about some kind of cultural trauma. (not to mention the 90s bubble burst but im getting lost in the sauce)

[havendance]

hello mem!! i just finished reading the entirety of no man’s land, and im trying to figure out where to go from there. online searching hasn’t really been helpful 😭 this is the list i found, im just not sure about the order:

- batman by ed brubaker vol 1

- new gotham vol 1

- officer down

- new gotham vol 2

- bruce wayne murderer/fugitive

- gotham central

- catwoman???? not sure which comics tho

where does vol 2 of batman by ed brubaker fit into this?? is this even the right order?? i’d truly appreciate your help 🥺

I'll do my best to straighten you out!

After No Man's Land, all of the Bat titles go their own way (before joining up back together for Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murder/Fugitive).

New Gotham Volume 1 collects Greg Rucka's run on Detective Comics between the end of No Man's Land and Officer Down.

(Following the end of NML, Batman was written by Larry Hama for a little bit, and all of those stories are just kind of fine and also not collected anywhere that I know of so don't worry about that. This bullet point is mainly to explain why Batman by Ed Brubaker does not cover the same span of time as New Gotham.)

The first four issues collected Batman by Ed Brubaker vol 1 take place BEFORE Officer Down. The rest take place afterward.

This was not on your list, but I do also recommend reading Gotham Knights: Transference which collects the first 12 issues of Gotham Knights. This also takes place between the end of No Man's Land and Officer Down. Gotham Knights is comic that does a good job of showcasing the Bats as an ensemble so if you like Batman working with his allies, this is the book for you. Also, Transference is just really good, and Gotham Knights as a whole contributes to everything leading up to Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive.

Catwoman does not have any collected editions for this period.

Officer Down goes here.

After Officer Down goes New Gotham Volume 2. This collects all of Detective Comics between Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murderer.

Batman by Ed Brubaker vol 1 also covers most of this ground. This is where things start getting a little (more) complicated though. The first issue collected in Batman by Ed Brubaker vol 2 takes place BEFORE Bruce Wayne: Murderer. It then proceeds to collect the tie-in issues of Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive that Brubaker wrote. I would honestly just skip this volume. The first issue is a christmas issue with like an evil (fake) Santa Claus or something and it's not that important. The other issues will be easier to read in other collected editions.

I also recommend you read Gotham Knights: Contested which collects the issues of Gotham Knights between Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive. The final issue of the does take place AFTER Bruce Wayne: Murder/Fugitive but the rest of it takes place before.

This is where you read Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne Fugitive. I think there's a new omnibus collecting it all coming out soon, but I'm not sure how useful that is to you.

Gotham Central starts a few months or so after the conclusion of Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, but there's not really anything else you need to read before you can start this.

To look ahead a little after this, Hush starts to run in Batman and Brubaker start doing some other stuff in Detective Comics that doesn't get collected. And then (unfortunately) the next major event is War Games. But there's plenty of comics for you to read up to this point, so we'll stop here for now.

Other notes:

Catwoman does not really tie in to Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive but around the time that event is starting up, Brubaker is relaunching Catwoman. This is where she gets the black leather catsuit and this IS collected in Catwoman Vol. 1: Trail of the Catwoman. I have not read this, but I've heard that it's good. It's also getting reprinted soon I believe.

Robin does not really have any collected editions post NML. If you want to read him, you're going to need to do it some other way. His event tie in issues are collected though.

Nightwing DOES have some collected editions if you're interested in him though. Nightwing Vol. 5: The Hunt for Oracle overlaps with No Man's Land, but it also collects the start of what he's up to afterward. Following that, Vol. 6 collects the rest of the way up to Officer Down. Vol. 7 and the first 4 issues collected in Vol.8 collect the stuff between Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive.

Birds of Prey gets hooked in to events, but the comics themselves don't really contribute to the larger Gotham narrative going on. I still think they're fun though. Birds of Prey vol. 3 collects the Birds of Prey comics between the end of NML and Officer Down. There aren't any collected editions for the Dixon run after this though.

Batgirl! We can't forget Batgirl, it's very good. It does get roped into events, but most of it is standalone. Batgirl Vol. 1: Silent Knight collects the comics between the end of NML and Officer Down as well as Cass' Officer Down tie in. This volume is harder to track down/more expensive on the resale market, but if your library as Hoopla, it's available there. (Most of these trades that I'm mentioning are as far as I'm aware.) Vol. 2 collects the comics leading up to Bruce Wayne: Murderer and then a couple, and Vol 3 collects a couple of the tie ins for Fugitive I believe and then beyond. They can largely be read on their own terms.

I would be remiss if I didn't recommend that you also read Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood. This is a six issue mini-series takes place relatively shortly after NML and was recently reprinted as Birds of Prey: Huntress. Definitely read this! It is good! Also you can see what Helena's up to after NML.

Finally, at a point in time between Officer Down and Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Joker: Last Laugh happens which is the event where Dick kills the Joker and Bruce revives him. Every comic has a tie-in where they have to fight Jokerized villains and honestly that could be the extent of your engagement with this comic. The main issues of this event are theoretically collected but also I've never seen this trade anywhere and also it's not on Hoopla (which is how I read most of my trades) so that might prove an issue.

To summarize all of this (I'm using bolded entries to demarcate crossover events. You can jump around between entries in this list between them as they largely run concurrently.) (the exception being like Nightwing vol 5 and 6. The Hunt for Oracle Crossover between Nightwing and Birds of Prey is also collected in both Nightwing vol 5 and Birds of Prey vol. 3):

New Gotham vol. 1

Gotham Knights: Transferrence

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood

Batgirl vol. 1

Nightwing vol. 5 and vol. 6

Batman by Ed Brubaker vol. 1 (first 4 issues)

Officer Down

The rest of Batman by Ed Brubaker vol. 1

New Gotham vol. 2

Gotham Knights: Contested

Batgirl vol. 2

Nightwing vol. 7 and Nightwing vol. 8 (first 4 issues)

Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive

Catwoman Volume 1: The Trail of Catwoman (Running roughly concurrently with Murderer/Fugitive)

Batgirl vol. 3

Gotham Central vol. 1

Batman: Hush

etc etc

I think that's it, but I'm sure that if I missed anything one of my lovely and knowledgeable mutuals will point it out.

Clear as mud? But seriously, I hoped this cleared things up for you and please do not hesitate to ask follow up questions! If this list is overwhelming, I would say, Nightwing, Birds of Prey, Batgirl, and Cry for Blood (though as a Helena fan, I really do think you should read Cry for Blood) are less essential to the building Gotham plot that leads up to Murder/Fugitive, but I really do think you should read Gotham Knights. There's some really fun comics in this era, I hope you enjoy!

[tallochar]

Inspired, in part, by this post by @mzminola but also something I've been ruminating on for a couple of years now.

Talking about pre New52 canon here mostly, though opinions about New52 or post Rebirth canon are also welcome to be added on, just specify it so we don't talk at cross purposes?

One of the thing that messes with me as an adult thinking back on comics is that you simply cannot put Alfred as the single member of staff who is dealing with all of the Manor.

I mean you can, comic logic, Alfred Is Not Of This World, whatever you want personally want.

Me personally, I cannot.

I need Harold to be down in the Batcave dealing with that part of the property until he dies in the 2000s at the very least, but also, consider how many hours there are in each day and how much Alfred has to do and how he's always serving dinner in time and laundry is done and everything is restocked and yet he also has the time to be personally chaffeuring the members of the family around and someone is also going to be having to deal with the household expenses and count balancing and -- and --

Like all of that PLUS keeping up with the superhero stuff PLUS cooking what sometimes are LAVISH spreads (WHICH TAKES TIME! PREP WORK TAKES TIME! COOKING TAKES TIME! ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE ONE PERSON AND ALSO HAVE TO GO PICK THESE PEOPLE UP AND MAKE SURE THEY HAVE THEIR LAUNDRY DONE AND THE GARDEN IS NOT OVERGROWN AND THE HOUSE IS CLEAN AND -- AUGH)

I cannot just accept that Alfred is doing it all, on his own, with the occasional WE-affiliated-and-vetted company called in to deal with, say, catering for a big event or whatever.

Especially not if Bruce is young and Alfred's supposed to be raising him, like oh god no, which is why the idea @mzminola talked about in their post (Bruce raised by his relatives) has taken root in my brain and is now my own personal very much cherished headcanon and a source of plenty of excuses for Bruce but also varied and eclectic skills and connections.

But okay, let's say that Alfred got left in charge of just managing things for Bruce until Bruce is of age and can take over things himself (in theory, in practice Bruce definitely pushes all he doesn't want to deal with about the house on Alfred and all he doesn't want to deal with about the company on Lucius Fox and sets up a contingency to get Tim to deal with shit for Bruce if Bruce were to be unavailable / unsteady / acting sus), while Bruce is being passed around from relative to relative.

There's still the staff that the Manor had before the death of Thomas and Martha to deal with. Gotta downsize that but you cannot just boot everyone and close shop.

I mean, yeah you can, but also, some of those people were probably there for a long time and Alfred wasn't just going to throw them out.

The way things work out in my brain is if Alfred is the "face" of the staff and the only one who, usually, interacts directly with The Family, while the others are in the background minding their own business, asking no questions at all.

They probably lost some people in NML during the Manor collapse, and the staff had to go through the harrowing process of getting new people that they didn't know nor trust in and then do their own version of vetting and making sure there was nothing hinky about any of them and that they understood the importance of the privacy of their employers, etc. etc.

Some of them must have retired at some point or moved on and were let go with more than fair compensantion and retirement packages and some stuff actually got outsourced a bit as technology progressed and things changed.

Especially after NML, actually.

Alfred is not going to hire someone just to come by to do all of the laundry, but he might have a trustworthy laundry service that is Bristol-based and is used to dealing with Rich People without asking questions.

And I am not say that they have to be In The Know life Alfred and Harold.

Actually, I prefer the idea that they aren't and that they just have this cushy job and loyalty to the Waynes and are all well compensated for being quiet and dealing with stuff on their own.

Sure, Alfred deals with the supernatural side of things, absolutely, and I am sure he has state of art machinery for, say, dealing with the costumes after patrol, but the Manor is huge and the upkeed is time consuming and exhausting and Alfred is too busy to do everything on his own.

So basically what I am saying is:

I have a might need for Alfred and his skeleton crew of long-time, trusted employees who keep the Manor running and stay out of the way of the bosses and everyone lives better like that.

I need Alfred's list of Trusted People who can deal with the family's laundry without messing it up and come do repairs when they are needed Upstairs since Harold won't leave the cave.

Give me Bruce's different childrens' different relationship's with said skeleton crew and Bruce's own distant relationship with them too and their reactions to things.

Allow me to have the skeleton crew sticking around and keeping the Manor up and running whenever Alfred is off around the world with Bruce for recovery / training / support purposes or who are still there and keeping things going when Alfred is too busy feuding with Bruce to look after everything else.

[somereaderinblue]

It's already Day 6 of Trigun Fanfiction Appreciation Week. I don't want any regrets so here goes: I give you a VW mpreg rec list. If this isn't your cup of tea, that's fine. If it is:

what I am trying to cultivate… by Altered-Havoc (Altered_Karma)

100/10, I've lost count on how many times I reread this. Both of them have suffered & after everything, they finally get a soft epilogue. Angst? Who dat? This is 80% comfort to me.

Surprise, Wolfwood! It's A Bouncing Baby Plant! by @attackofthezee, rated T

WW returns from the dead & there's a surprise waiting for him. 3 guesses as to what it is.

Until The End by squishycake, rated E

“Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.” – Richard Siken A bittersweet fic wherein an aging WW makes peace with his mortality but not before Vash two new lives.

Innocent Souls by NaughtyJacks (JackalJamboree), rated T

In a quiet moment, Vash asks WW to bless the two blessings he carries. Vash knows WW is still keeping secrets from him, but he also knows that he's decided to choose Vash & his kids over them. And that only makes him love him more.

o' light, won't you shine (upon souls of youth) by seventhgiver (fifthgiver), rated T

Another bittersweet fic wherein WW still faces his canon death, but Meryl & Milly are there to support Vash through thick & thin. There's angst, but it really does have a happy ending.

dear star and spring bud, my preachers by elemmacil, rated T

Post-canon AU where VW have a child. Does a great job at depicting their awe over the fact that they were allowed to make this dream their reailty.

I've Taken to Calling Him Nico by mak000000, rated G

Short one-shot wherein Vash tells WW that the little boy he assumed to be Lina's baby brother is in fact someone's kid. 3 guesses as to who's the father.

i’d give you the sun (i’d give you the sun) by justotherdays, rated M

Set post-Trimax, full of nothing but tenderness & a much deserved happy ending.

This is not humanity's song, this is ours by O_ToJoy, rated M & T

An AU where Knives's victory is short-live & WW has to pick up the pieces, one of said pieces being Nikolai. He's 16 years too late, but that won't stop him from trying.

Talk About Timing by lucifergooseifer (Lucifergooseifer), rated M

A small detour causes everything to NOT go according to plan. BUT! Nothing (too) bad happens, I swear.

A Black Angel at Your Side by hazeltea (madlovescience), rated E

I would've listed this at the top but then I read it, cried, & slapped it here. I want to devour this but also throw up. On a side note, I like how this fic depicts Livio's still somewhat religious view on Plants & how said view is deeply embedded in NML's culture, which causes conflict with the Earth Federation. There's also a Meryl POV chapter where she justifiably remains wary of Livio/Razlo, which really individualizes her. Also has fanart.

Flower Dew, Deep Waters, Desert Thirst & Use My Heart by cloudbureiku, rated E & M

Aside from smut, there's also tender caring & non-sexual intimacy, all of which are three of many reasons why VW is our bread & butter.

Lavender by @vaporame

Gotta love it when Plant pregnancy involves markings & telepathic bonds. Totally makes breaking the news to your s/o less nerve-wracking. Their other VW works are also recommended.

Modern AUs

To Build a Home by hielhue, rated G

Everyone is alive & happy, and WW narrates how he met Vash, fell in love & started a family.

cause everything else is a substitute for your love by @sascake, rated M

VW have a bad history when it comes to using protection despite one of them ironically owning a sex shop. They're not perfect but they make it work.

little moment verse by justotherdays, rated G & M

VW's journey as parents. In the second fic in the series, the author isn't afraid to write how some parents, no matter how much they love their child, still inevitably struggle. Which is why it's important to have support.

devil on your shoulder (or the angel laying on your tummy) & paint the town red by cloudbureiku, not rated & G

The former guest stars the one & only Kuroneko while the latter shows us why it really isn't advisable for heavily pregnant parents to sit on the floor.

[cincreblog]

My random thoughts on Isekai!Reader in Trigun

Would the food on No Man’s Land taste the same as our food on Earth?

I know the Plants can create practically anything from nothing, but I can’t help but wonder if the food they can create is same as food on Earth or if it tastes more…artificial?

It might just be something the reader notices since they didn’t grow up eating the food the people on No Man’s Land (& perhaps the people pre-Fall) did.

The flavor would be kinda (but also not really) subtle. The food is still good, but there’s just this…odd aftertaste that you can’t seem to describe (and if you tried to explain it to any of the characters, they wouldn’t know what you were talking about XP)

Reader would likely die unless they get taken in by a town or something.

I know this issue can be resolved through plot relevance (since you know, fanfic), but realistically a person from our world wouldn’t survive a day in the desert that is No Man’s Land.

Like we can barely handle it when the temperature goes above 100 degrees on Earth, I can only imagine how hot it gets on NML, especially with two suns.

Idk if evolution/natural selection works that fast, but how the hell did humanity not burn to a crisp over the past 150+ years??

On top of that, would reader even be able to live off of the air there? There’s not a single sliver of vegetation on NML, so how are people breathing? Is there a Plant that’s creating oxygen for the whole planet or is that just a detail Nightow disregarded when he created Trigun?

I feel like people would understand our slang, but it’s so old that they would wonder if we were nuts or something.

(Note I’m basing this off of the Plant twins’ birth year, which is 2455 in the wiki)

For all I know the history of Earth was completely different in Trigun, but for the sake of this question imma say that our time predates the entirety of the story.

I know in my previous Isekai!Reader post I said that the characters wouldn’t understand our memes/slang, but the more I thought about it I think they actually would (kinda).

But since we’re like 4-5 centuries from the past, they would wonder why we’re using language so ancient (assuming memes are even a thing on NML)

What if we switched up how the reader gets isekaied into Trigun?

In all the fics I’ve seen so far, we always die and wake up in the middle of the desert XP

Why not pull an Owl House and have the reader find some kind of portal thingy that brings them to the Trigun universe (mainly thinking Tristamp, but any iteration is fine too)

Also give the reader a different place to appear, like Ship 3! The people there seem like they’d be the safest to approach compared to the rest of NML.

(Also coming from someone with health conditions, I feel like Ship 3 would be the safest location for an Isekai!Reader since they’ll likely have advanced medical equipment that can help treat the reader for anything they may have. I don’t know what the doctors are like on NML, but I feel like they wouldn’t have the technology or medicine that would work

And since reader is (kinda) from the past, people will wonder why they use medicines that either don’t exist or are very, very old.)

You think the reader would end up getting a bounty of their own just by how they talk?

I’ve only just realized how people in our generation  talk about violence and barely bat an eye since people don’t mean what they say (or not most of the time at least).

And considering how trigger happy people in Trigun are, I think the reader would end up getting in a lot of trouble by trying to scare someone off by threatening violence that they aren’t capable of committing.

Like people are struggling to survive in No Man’s Land. If they hear a threat they’re going to take it seriously.

Reader carries a notebook/sketchbook where they write down any kind of unconfirmed lore they learn about while traveling w/ the characters.

When I find something I’m interested in, I intend on becoming nearly an expert on it.

Like I have to know every little detail about the subject, even the stuff that would serve absolutely no purpose other than being interesting.

And I have so many questions about the lore in Trigun. There’s so much we don’t know about the Plants that I really really want to.

But as much as I’d like to list them all here on a whim, that isn’t what this section is about X(

I imagine myself in reader’s shoes; whenever they hear about/find something about the universe that was never confirmed/revealed before, they would jot it down on a page (or maybe on their phone if it works) so that they don’t forget it.

On the off chance they reveal who they really are to the characters, they would write down as much about them & the universe as they can.

(The main cast might become a little concerned with how curious reader is about their lives & the things they experienced)

I feel like reader would have a blast listening to Vash tell stories about his adventures around No Man’s Land (at least the less traumatizing ones 😅)

(Bonus to this one, when reader gets back home, they post about their discoveries online, but since people would think they’re just joking/delusional, they disguise them as merely extremely detailed headcanons.

(This one applies to Tristamp specifically) They’d have to be careful tho, bc when the next season comes out & a majority of (if not all) their “headcanons” end up being canon, people will become suspicious (or just think of reader as some kind of fandom wizard idk))

That’s about all I have for now. If I come up with more, I’ll make another post :P

[mysteriousbeetle]

comics situation update (summer 2024)

this is mainly from june onwards

comics i've finished so far (kind of in order):

new teen titans (1980)

the question (1987)

the question quarterly

the question returns

azrael plus the question

the omac project (2005)

52

checkmate (2006)

crime bible: five lessons of blood

final crisis: revelations

azrael (1995)

azrael/ash

arsenal (1998)

so it's been the summer of the question for me. it seems like i've been reading a lot of greg rucka and dennis o'neil too. azrael plus the question (and also knightquest) is what got me interested in reading azrael comics. i wanted to try reading checkmate because mem made it seem intriguing and i read the omac project because they recommended reading that first :]. also arsenal 1998!!! was so cute and nice!!! roy and lian are the father daughter duo of all time <3. yeah. i've also just been reading titans comics while on public transport so i finally got to the end of ntt (1980) at the beginning of the month.

comics that i'm in the middle of (not including ongoings):

hardware (1993)

birds of prey (1999)

the new teen titans (1984)

batman: no man's land

batman: knightfall saga

deathstroke (2016)

i think that's it. they're all pretty good and i read them at different paces.

comics i want to read (not in any particular order):

wonder woman (1987)

books of magic (idk which one but i'll investigate)

the question: convergence

lois lane (2019)

hellblazer (1988)

batman: gotham knights

i've just been meaning to read wonder woman and hellblazer for a while. also gotham knights but i'll probably hold off on that at least until i've finished nml. the question: convergence and lois lane are next on my renee reading journey. and izzy's book of magic posts were intriguing so i'm going to give it a try :].

comics i want to reread (not in any particular order):

the question: pipelines

batman/huntress: cry for blood

maybe batgirl (2000) too hehe

i might try rereading pipelines before starting the question: convergence because i think they might be connected? but also i've just been wanting to revisit it after reading more renee stories. i just love cry for blood and i want to read it again now that i've read huntress (1989) and the question (1987) because i feel like i might understand it/like it even more now with added context. batgirl 2000!!! and now i can read physical copies for puckett's run and some other parts too. but idk. maybe i'll wait a little longer.

anyway i think that's all :D

[androxys]

WIP Census 12/16/24 (and also tag game!)

I was tagged by @havendance to make a WIP post! I figured it was about time to do a WIP census overall, too, so here we go!

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

Similarly to Havendance, I'm going to classify these as "active development" and "backburner" projects.

Active Development:

Wonder Woman Fic

Oracle Year One

Ken and Barbie

Backburner Projects:

A Perfectly Planned, Beautifully Foreseen Wedding

(Cat)Walking Wayne Manor

Wayne Pearl Heist

Ghost Dragon

Steph Neron Deal

NML Rooftop Frowns

JPV Black Mercy

And then there are some other documents that are either 1) abandoned completely but I'm going to use the writing there for other projects later or 2) are ideas that I want to return to but with completely different writing. Those aren't worth mentioning here, I don't think.

As for tagging folks (this is always the hard part for me, and apologies for anyone being tagged multiple times) @zahri-melitor, @scintillyyy, @upswings, @aliteralchicken, @themyscirah, @umbrellajam, @mintchocochipsposts. That's not a full ten, but if anyone sees this and wants to participate, consider this your tag! We'll call it good from there. If you make a post, please tag me back so I can see everyone's fun WIPs!

Here's to a charming (and hopefully word-filled) 2025!

[fancyfade]

I thought I’d just ask you. Do you think you could do on Cyborg and Babs. They’re personalities and fighting styles. I don’t think I get any where with them.😅

like? Just a run-down on what I think their personalities are? :P

Vic in NTT* is portrayed as insecure in his place in the world and his body, due to having suddenly become disabled in a traumatic accident that also killed his mother. He wakes up to find his body modified (cybernetics) which is dad did to save his life -- there wasn't really a way to get Vic conscious and say "oh hey are you ok with this?" -- but understandable Vic is upset since like. His mom is dead and his body is completely different, he has to re-learn how to walk and do everything, and he views himself as one of his dad's 'science experiments'. (part of this is b/c his parents did do some experiments in his youth to increase his intelligence IIRC).

Vic is also pretty good at reading people. In NTT's first arc, he can tell that Wally cares about Raven (but is mad at her) and he kind of manipulates Wally to get him to help save people :P

People often view him as angry, and well, he does have lots of anger on the surface due to his insecurity and trauma, but I wouldn't say he has more than many of the other titans. He's actually not very likely to yell at people, he mostly just withdraws and avoids confronting emotions, like when he's feeling guilty that his civilian friend (Sarah Simms) got kidnapped by deathstroke and he was worried about her, he avoids the issue and just like. ghosts her I guess but ghosting wasn't invented yet as a term :P

Vic generally has positive rapport with most of the Titans, he calls people nicknames and oftentimes they seem slightly insulting on the outside (but like :P Lots of Titans do that, so he's not unique here) but they are affectionate. That's just how the Titans bond :P

He seems to have lots of rapport with Kory, they agree on a lot in terms of action, both being very direct people . Which makes it funny when Vic is like "for once I agree with you, Goldie". I'm like. VIc. You agree with Kory ALL THE TIME.

Vic also volunteers with Sarah Simms, who is a teacher for disabled children, some of whom have protheses and look up to him and admire him. He's portrayed as very patient and caring around the kids. He does have a strong connection to the disabled community here, and his comics are strongest when that is emphasized IMO. Here's a scene in ToT (link) that I liked that emphasized that

Less fighting style emphasis here, sorry.

Also: Link to a post (link) where I talked some about his relationship w/ his body and his parents.

Ok so Babs time:

Babs is a pretty direct woman, she reads as kind of autistic to me :P Lots of her conflicts with Dinah in BoP are kind of like a "logical vs emotional" thing, though maybe that's a bit of a simplified explanation? Like babs is normally a long-term thinker and risk adverse, Dinah is much less risk adverse (which makes sense, b/c Dinah is the one putting her life on her line, and superheroes seem more willing to risk their own lives in general than other people's :P)

She is not super open with her feelings, and it leads to some friction. she generally pushes people away. When Dinah gets captured and injured by Savant, Babs pushes her away emotionally, saying she should not go out in the field. She also in general pushes Dick away early on in BoP and keeps him at arms' length. Babs in general is a person who does not like to be emotionally vulnerable.

Somewhat related to this: the way babs processes trauma is oriented around control (link). She processes trauma in a way we see more male characters written with, where there is a lot less emphasis on her being afraid, she does not allow people to comfort her, and there is more emphasis on her getting mad and getting better.

She is a Planner ™. All her bases are super well defended, as we see in Hunt for Oracle and some NML comics. They have different lines of defense for different stages and threat levels.

She also is a huge believer in second chances and redemption, even in her pre-Oracle Batgirl days. (1 of my fave babs quotes is pre Oracle: "I’ll always believe in second chances. I’m too flawed myself not to"). I think that matters a lot because a) she does try to give other people second chances a lot and b) she does mess up a lot and try to get better. Like she apologizes after pushing Dinah away, and admits it was her own issues, and not Dinah. She is manipulative of Helena, trying to get her to change her morality without telling her, and also does apologize and make amends and stick in helena's corner. So she's a character with a lot of flaws, but she always tries to do better, and she extends that opportunity to other people, too.

Fighting style stuff later, I had this in drafts for a bit and it was getting long :P

*for many characters who debuted in New Teen Titans, NTT is my go-to reference :P

[sporkberries]

Do you have any Huntress/Helena Bertinelli issue or comic run recs? 👉👈 you have infected me with helena brainrot (positive)

So There are a two ways I can answer this question, the way i did previously with just the comics I'd recommend to get started or a full timeline for her- This time ill go with the full timeline. If you just wanna dip your metaphorical toes in the water check out this post, if you want to read her story from start to finish this is the post for you.

FIRST SOME CONTEXT ON HELENA BERTINELLI'S CHARACTER CREATION. Pre Crisis on Infinite Earth's there was a character known as Helena Wayne, she was the daughter of Earth Two's Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle and was The Huntress. She was fairly popular but the whole uhh massive crisis event erased her from continuity. The problem was people still wanted Huntress she was a recognizable name and also just people liked her so Helena Bertinelli was created. Despite sharing a first name and a superhero name Helena B and Helena W are INCREDIBLY different characters in personality and just.. in like every conceivable way. Alrighty now lets get started, Helena Bertinelli makes her first ever appearance in The Huntress(1989) I really like this comic run. It's pretty intense dealing with both CSA as well as SA but i think it does it pretty respectfully and well. Overall I really like this comic, that being said the art is a bit... rough, so i understand not wanting to read it. The Huntress(1989) 'era' of Helena ends with Justice League International Special 2, which btw if anyone has an actual good scan of this please let me know because my scan is ASS Then we got Detective comics #652-653 which has Helena's new costume and a team up with B-Man himself. Now its time for Robin III: Cry Of the Huntress- This is the first Helena and Tim team up!! I love them so much they r so silly so I consider this book required reading, also Helena has an awful mullet it's amazing Helena also has another story with Tim around this time in Benedictions which is a three part story in Dc Showcase 1994 # 5, Robin(1993) #6 , Showcase #6. Azrael is also running around as Batman during this so thats fun and quirky(i like azbat okay)

Next is Dixon's Helena with Huntress(1994) ERMM this is a comic that exists. It has some panels I like but i don't think its required reading it's uhh... Dixon!! and WOagh no wayyy another tim team up its almost like they are siblings bffs 5ever this is crazy Detective Comics #685-686 and Robin #17 also sidenote i like Lynx's 90's design a lot sighh Next is a string of complicated and long story lines. With Batman Contagion, Batman Legacy, Batman Catacylsm, and Batman No Man's Land. Also she gets her best outfit here yayyy :). Now parsing through all this stuff I don't really care that much about Batman: Legacy and I'm not gonna lie to you and say I've read Contagion in it's entirety because I haven't. Just know that Gotham gets hit by a mutated ebola virus and it sucks and is bad for everybody sjdkfbasdkg. Also again cool new Helena outfit top ten epic moments. Before all the No Man's Land stuff there is Birds Of Prey: ManHunt and Nightwing/Huntress. I do not like the latter and have no strong opinion on the former other than it's the start of a long line of Babs treating Helena like shit. ManHunt does have Dinah and Helena interactions though so :) yippeee Almost forgot this but Read Detective Comics #703 its a really cute Helena and Tim story read it right now thank you XOXOOXO I consider Cataclysm and No Man's Land, No Man's Land especially, CRITICAL HELENA READING. HELENA IS SO GOOD IN NML OH MY GOD. Cataclysm is kinda the set up to No Man's Land and also has a cool Helena/Steph teamup in Blunt Trauma. But No Man's Land is where the really juicy stuff is. I'm not really gonna say what specific issues Helena shows up in because you should really read all of or most of No Man's Land as its not only an important Helena story but THE MOST IMPORTANT Gotham story(in modern times anyway). I read the 5 trades but I've heard good things about the Omnibus as well. If you need further help with No Mans Land and how to read it just shoot me an ask or smth. READ NO MAN'S LAND Okay now after NML Huntres Joins the Justice Leauge of America in JLA #16. I have not read all of Helena's JLA stuff so i cant really comment on it I'm a failure sorry... NOW FOR THE RUCKA STUFF GREG RUCKA LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!! So First check out Batman Chronicles #15, it's not all Helena but it does have a Helena story which is her first meeting with The Question so erm go read that !!! Now time for one of my fave huntress stories, Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood. THIS STORY IS SO FUCKING GOOD. It does retcon Helena's previous backstory which i have mixed opinions on but the new backstory is far from bad and also its just soosososo good i love greg rucka so much go read it right fucking now. Now I have bad news for you gamers. We have the Hush storyline wherein Jim Lee introduced the dreaded Helena Ab Window. Hush is generally pretty good but that outfit is uhhh an outfit!! she starts showing up in Batman #609 Generally speaking I do like this storyline so I would recommend the whole thing. Helena regularly starts appearing as a main character in Birds Of Prey at issue 56. Birds Of Prey IS a mixed bag but most of Helena's appearances from here on are in there so... Be prepared for a healthy dose of sexism though. Outside of BOP check out The Question: Pipelines which is a story in Detective Comics 854-864 written by love of my life Rucka of course. Helena is not in the whole thing but its a good story and her and Renee are a great Duo so I recommend it. While your out it also check out both issues of The Question: Convergence. Also written by Rucka and featuring Helena, its good :). Now I did leave some shit out like Battle for the Cowl but thats because I dont like battle for the cowl and also I don't think Helena is very central in those stories so TA DAA here is my list enjoy anon sorry for any spelling errors Tutorial on how i read comics safely

[senorscotty]

tracking helena over the course of no man’s land and really watching her push herself into the bat silhouette is so devastating. huntress to her is so much of her own strength idealized - a version of herself that reaches a helping hand out instead of retracting it from fear. by the time we get to no man’s land, she’s pretty resolute about what the mask means and the burden it comes with. huntress vol. 1 (1989) lays pretty comprehensive groundwork as to what keeps compelling her to don the mask beyond a notion of heroism and following stories pre nml further establish that. she’s aware of what the mask has given her and aware that she cannot just leave the mask behind, but there are no DELUSIONS OF SAINTHOOD! there isn’t this strong desire to be a symbol or cast her shadow across gotham in the way the bats do, huntress appears when blood calls for it.

she takes on a cowl that isn’t hers because she understands what the bat is to gotham at the beginning of nml. (“as long as there are people in the city. there will always be a bat.”) but there are several points of tension going into her interactions with bruce, barbara, and even dick to certain degrees. post huntress vol.1 certain writers frame her as either having a desire to be accepted by the bat OR being a part of his inner circle, and that being her primary source of character development. then, a more obvious point is that she uses the bat as its symbol, for its relationship with gotham as a city, and doesn’t have the same personal agenda behind it as bruce and barbara. and as she uses the bat as a symbol, bruce manages to stick a pedestal underneath her (that she’s tried so hard to avoid! she’s not anyone’s martyr or saint or lost love!). he gives her an impossible task and expects her to fall perfectly into the silhouette of the bat bc that’s what he wants the bat to be, and have her embody a symbol that isn’t her.

and the breaking point in nml between her and bruce as both of them are seeping in guilt and remorse about failures (no matter how inevitable) on both of their ends. she chose to be the bat for the city, and through the symbol, i think she does consider her notions of sanctity. bruce expects the impossible when she takes on the bat and it’s so fucked up that he uses her guilt and disappointment of shattering the pedestal under her feet to have her keep petit in line. she starts nml with a certain amount of agency, but that agency is so quickly lost when she intertwines herself with the cowl. even the rest of nml is heartbreaking as she’s back as huntress, yes she regains her strength through her own mask, but she becomes this pawn to bruce in a way she’s been avoiding her whole life. and she only regains the bat’s validation when she nearly dies saving innocent lives, a heroic sacrifice necessary for redemption in their eyes (whereas it’s not been about redemption to her, while it might have wavered, she’s been aware that some of her actions were worth going to hell for from the beginning).

for a character that has done everything she could to pull her agency back from the mafia, her family, her father, and her own fear, to have bruce take that away from her under the guise of absolving her guilt - her hostility towards him afterward is understandable! and the events of no man’s land really do shape her desire to protect and call for vengeance into a unique oath in cry for blood (2000). cavalieri was insane in ’89 for titling her post-origin story arc “plaster saints” as it’s such a prevalent theme for her. she’s no plaster saint nor does she ever think she IS!

note that this is just scratching against the personal dilemmas of the mask - there are some ethical and moral lines that i wish were more explored in nml with helena. i think one REALLY interesting thing about her is that she did grow up on the other side of the law, and thinking about how that compounds her sense of retribution and justice compared to the bats. nml provides this opportunity as the law doesn’t exist in the same way it did prior, and it would have been interesting to see more push and pull between her and bats about it.

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics (this is the best week of the month, no lie)

Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight #1: this is fun. I like the way Bruce and Damian are written together. I am annoyed Babs is out as Batgirl. I'm amused that Tim is very specifically excluded from the story that involves real Santa given he'd not be wondering 'ooh oooh is Santa real' like Dick is here.

Someone had better give Darkseid some coal, is all I can say.

Batman #139: …so we really are running Batman and Batman & Robin with contradictory plots right now. Cmon. There was even a way to finagle this so that Damian could be living with Bruce and have Zdarsky’s plot still work! Grump.

“I’m coming for you, Joker. I’m coming for all three of you. For the last time.” (actually there’s a printing error in this line and the letterer has ‘For the the last time’) I disbelieve this Zdarsky, sorry, though if you could figure out a way to get Joker out of the Bat books for a few years I think everyone would enjoy that.

Now that aside, I do want to note that apparently my decision to (re)read all of Henri Ducard’s appearances seems to have been prescient, given Zdarsky has just referred to ‘manhunting’, ‘training when I was young’ and ‘Paris’ all together. That’s Ducard. That trio is 100% Ducard. Sounds like I need to finish Henri Ducard’s post-2016 appearances, which I was delaying. So Batman: The Detective and Batman: The Knight are jumping up my reading list. (And a quick look at ‘Lucie Chesson’ says she’s from Batman: The Knight, so yep, gotta read)

Joker + dolls always makes me think of NML Endgame, personally.

Birds of Prey #3: Damn this continues to just be a solid read. Thompson keeps hitting yet another 'look I can be trusted' target every issue.

I could do with at least 30% less Harley commentary in this book, but I do acknowledge that at least half the team are unlikely to talk much in a combat situation. Future!Maps is cute and as I slowly approach Maps content I’m excited to meet her more. Also… SIN MY SWEETHEART. I have been waiting for this hug for SIXTEEN YEARS. (Literally. I was in DC fandom in 2007 when they were torn apart). Also loooooooooool Ollie got curbstomped by Diana, sucks to be you Ollie.

Blue Beetle #3: Oh I couldn’t help myself (in terms of how many panels I already posted), but Blue Beetle is doing such interesting things right now. Victoria’s finally being acknowledged on page as being super sus and villainous (rather than just slinking around being sus and concerning me deeply). I’m getting more and more worried about the identity of the Red Beetle. We got Traci back! Which from what I hear means that Trujillo is glossing over some of Traci’s recent characterisation, but we’ll see how this tracks (and in any case, re-establishing Jaime’s connections to the magic/dark side of DC via Traci is helpful if we’re about to do a Dan Garrett story).

Free my girl Dani Garrett if we’re doing a Dan Garrett storyline, she’s an autistic mildly amoral archaeologist and I desperately, DESPERATELY want to see her arguing with Victoria Kord over who ‘owns’ the scarab while Jaime’s standing in the middle going ‘excuse me nobody owns Khaji Da, it’s its own being! And my friend!’

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3: hello Jimmy Olsen! Hello Turtle Jimmy lore! (I love how silly this book is. I do enjoy JLI stuff that doesn’t take itself seriously) I’m getting attached to a few of the new villains, particularly Linka Grodd.

Shazam! #5: MARY SIGHTING. Darla remains tiny and adorable and I love her too. This comic remains committed to ridiculous fun villains (and Waid and Mora have apparently been off raiding the ‘underused weird Silver Age villains’ list). Mr Dinosaur is an amazing addition to the canon. (And yes. Billy rebuilt the moon. Oh Shazam!) Also I see we are still back firmly in the ‘jealous Freddie’ plot that’s been hanging around for a while.

Warlord #25: this week we check back in with Tara, Mariah and Machiste. Grell’s done some fabulous art for the splash page that I really really like.

Travis is fighting *checks notes* snow giants as he's still too ashamed to come hang out with his friends and partner after the whole 'I killed Joshua' incident a few issues back. He's also cutting all sort of things with his Damascus Steel sword which I have to remind everyone and note is highly suspicious damascus steel, because it's made from a RIFLE and there is no way the type of steel used was able to be worked as damascene, given it likely was alloyed wrong.

I love Ashir here (the guy actually wearing clothes) as firstly, look! A rare appearance of someone with most of their skin covered! Secondly, Travis' burn of "I didn't know you had character".

Anyway, Travis is moping a bit here about being a lone warrior. You could go and hang out with your friends any time you want, Travis. You're the one who left, not them.

[havendance]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag Game

Thanks to @androxys for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

81! A fair number of those are drabbles, but still. Writing fic for (checks notes) 8 years really adds up.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

335,515

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I am very invested in writing for DC comics and not doing much else, but in the past I've flitted from fandom to fandom, writing for various cartoons/tv shows and video games mainly.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

v) #Justice4Gotham -- My NML epistulary/blog fic. I think this one has the advantage of being a social media AU of sorts, but I really am quite happy that one of my No Man's Land fics made it into the top five. I still think this one is very fun.

vi) You Can't Spell Kuzon without Zuko -- My Zuko and Aang are childhood friends fic. I do like this fic and I'm glad that I was finally able to finish it after sitting blocked on it for nearly two years, but I honestly don't consider it one of my top fics in terms of response. It clearly has picked up a good number of kudos, but it felt like commenters were more interested what potentially happened next rather than the Aang and Zuko of what I'd put on the page that was what compelled me to write it in the first place.

iii) One Scar to Find Them -- This was my AtlA platonic soulmate AU where the entire gaang shares scars. I really liked soulmate AUs when I was younger, mainly because I liked all the various mechanics and I think this was the last hurrah of that. And also I thought it would be wild if everyone had Zuko's scar. I remember writing this all out in my notebook in bright pink pen and then letting it sit there for ages before I finally cleaned it up.

ii) Let's Steal a Fire Prince -- My Leverage x AtLA crossover. This was the first multi-chapter fic I actually finished so I am proud of it for that, even if looking back I can see some of my growing pains. I was really glad that other people loved this crossover idea as much as I did and I would've loved to come back to this universe more if I a) could actually write heists and b) didn't get sucked into other fandoms 😅

i) Former Hopes and Future Scars -- Another AtLA fic. I'm not surprised that this is my top fic since it's a) focused on Zuko, b) features Time Travel, and c) is a contained one-shot under 2k .

All but one of these are for Avatar: the Last Airbender which I think is a reflection of me writing during the pandemic-era AtLA renaissance and it also just being more broadly approachable compared to my comics stuff.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yep! I wasn't always super consistent with it, but I try and respond to every comment now.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, this one's a hard one, there are so many good contenders! Probably You Will Live Forever (the dragonslayer!Willow fic I co-wrote with my bro Baz for the Owl House), but I would also like to give an honorable mention to I just keep falling now that you're gone the angsty next generation Miraculous Ladybug fic I wrote early in my fanfic writing career in which Adrien becomes the next Hawkmoth and his and Marinette's kids have to go up against him.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably some supremely fluffy fic I wrote for a ship event back when I was doing those. Other than that, maybe Robins Don't Make Great Roommates or Top 10 Secret Identity Fails? I don't think I really write super fluffy/happy endings.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never really gotten hate per se on the fics themselves. I did get a review on a fic I posted to fanfiction.net once that was complaining that I had rated it K but used like, a single swear word I think. I also got a couple of anons on tumblr that were really didn't like the premise of one of my fics, but I just thought it was kind of silly that they were that upset about it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not my thing.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yes. I have written so many crossovers. I'm honestly a little surprised the crossover bug hasn't bitten me for my comics fic more. I've done a couple Batman/Sandman crossover fics, but it feels different with them both being comics and also both published by DC.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of fortunately!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have written several Owl House fics with my beloved bro and co-conspirator @horatiocomehome. I'd love to cowrite something with him again some time but we are sadly currently obsessed with different fandoms. I'm also not opposed to trying co-writing with someone new!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I'm not super into shipping so this one's kind of tricky. If I had to choose maybe Ireneides from the Queen's Thief series or Celes/Locke from FFVI. I was also deeply committed to Sakura/Kaze from Fire Emblem: Fates, when I was younger, but the secret super AU version with a ton of lore from the elaborate AUs I daydreamed up.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

For wips I have published, I'm either confident in my ability to finish them, or else have just excepted that I won't. In terms of wips that haven't made it to the light of day: Black Queen. I started writing this and got stuck but oh, it would be so fun.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think coming up with AUs. I like playing with all the pieces and figuring out how things ripple and change.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't think I've done much with this, but if I did I'd probably use dialogue tags so like "'My name is john," John said in Chinese' if the narrator knew the language and "John said something in Chinese' if they didn't.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Fire Emblem: Fates, baby

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Picking favorites is so hard ;; It would be a lie to say I love all my fics equally, but I do think I can say that I do love them all, even the very first ones I wrote. I guess for purposes of this game, I'll go with World Gone MAD because I am still very satisfied with how it turned out, but because I can't just pick one, I'd also like to give a shout out to Neither Heir nor Spare (The Sole Survivor) for being the fic that I think is pretty up there in terms of ones I reread the most and Turnabout Traitor! for being a very fun She Ra x Ace Attorney crossover.

Tagging, uhhh, @horatiocomehome, @acediscowlng, @dustorange and if anyone else is interested, consider yourselves tagged in spirit!

[hiding-in-the-vault]

what

which of your c!dream desings is the most difficult to draw and the easiest?

PD: I hope you have a great time at the drocert, it's going to be amazing!!!

Most difficult is this guy. This is what I’d call my canon post-prison c!Dream design but I never draw the full thing because Armor Detail™️😭 (another variation) the detail level isn’t even that bad compared to some things, and yet. I got spoiled by ‘guy in a hoodie.’ Which is the easiest. Pre-prison c!dream, ig.

You’d think one of my AU designs would be somewhere but I think those are all in the middle. I typically make an effort to make designs fairly simple when I plan on drawing them a lot, like in comic format. When I actually get to that point, Nml!Dream will probably become more difficult over time after he finally takes the dang cloak off. But at least his outfit is layered in ways I can easily simplify, if that makes any sense.

[gamesception]

Sception reads Cass Cain #8

Azrael: Agent of the Bat #60, 61, 66 written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Roger Robinson

The last time Cass appeared in A:AotB it was for a pretty goofy and very 90s little side story. Not much was done with Cass but it established a pretty nice baseline of what ~Comics Were Like~ at the time to contrast Cass's eventual solo title against. This time I'm getting the rest of Cass's A:AotB appearances out of the way. #60 is a fun stand alone story in its own right, and there's actually a fair bit more going on with Cass in #61. They each could have been their own post, but I'm eager to get to Cass's Solo title, so this will just be a long post.

It took a while for the Joker to show up in NML, but by A:AotB #60 he had claimed a territory of his own, and gathered a small gang of Harley & some clown goons. Right now they're rounding up street people - homeless, starving, mentally ill, anyone too out-of-it to resist - and painting them up in joker faces, too. Later on they'll be used as decoys when the police raid their territory. Pretty grim stuff, but that hasn't happened yet.

Batman knows the police are planning to raid the Joker's territory soon, and sends Jean-Paul and Cass get to evacuate as many innocent people from the area as they can before the shooting starts.

They get the order on this page from Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93, which we looked at last time.

In this issue, Jean-Paul and Cass evacuate like a dozen people including some kids - so much for the 'over a thousand people' bit. Then they fight some of Joker's goons in clown makeup, one particularly eager volunteer in a full joker get up, purple suit and all. Jean thinks it's actually the joker, until Cass knocks the guy out and he realizes the white face was just makeup.

Meanwhile Joker finds a kid who was left behind, and grabs her as a potential hostage. Jean-Paul and Cass bump into them when they come back looking for the girl.

I think I mentioned this last time we looked at Azrael: Agent of the Bat, but Robinson draws some ridiculous facial expressions and I kind of love them.

Jean-Paul assumes the real joker is another fake, and Mr. J. is so affronted that he just sort of stands there while Azrael and Batgirl take the kid and walk off. It's honestly pretty funny, just a stand alone comic story that doesn't really advance the overall mega crossover narrative much. I think it was even left out of the trade compilations, but it's also a more enjoyable issue overall than the Nick Scratch stuff from Cass's last guest appearance in Azrael's book. There's something to be said for plain old one off comic book adventures, even in the middle of a mega crossover event.

That said, it is a bit of an odd, brief, rather underplayed encounter for what is technically the first meeting between the new Batgirl and the Joker. Something you might otherwise expect to be treated with a bit more gravity given the Joker's history with the previous Batgirl.

Later on there is a stand alone comic making a bigger deal of that, so it's not like we're missing out or anything.

...

As for Cass, well, as with her previous appearance in Azrael's book, she doesn't really get to convey much of her personality here. But we do get this nice moment of Barbara worrying about her, in particular with regard to the Joker and her own past there. It's a nice little character beat, touching on a relationship that would be one of the pillars of Cass's solo title.

...

The real meat in terms of characterization for Cass out of all of her A:AotB appearances is here in issue 61.

In the time since the last issue, the Police raided Joker's territory and murdered a bunch of innocent hostages in clown makeup while Batman's crew struggled to stop the bloodshed. With the cops and the capes tied up, Joker's actual crew spread out through the city kidnapping as many infants as possible, with Joker's plan being to kill them as sort of a holiday prank.

Yeesh. Very dark, especially coming off the relatively lighthearted previous issue. He was stopped in the end, of course, but ended up killing Commissioner Gordon's wife in a pretty shitty bit of fridging, and frankly it was such a huge mistake to end No Man's Land on such a downer. I don't always hate dark or violent moments or deaths in superhero books, but the whole year-long No Mans Land crossover had been this struggle from the darkness of the Cataclysm into a long midnight of Batman and his crew and the Commissioner being at each other's throats into an eventual dawn of everyone starting to work together again and the eventual daybreak of hope and restoration for Gotham. The mean-spirited ending was a sour note that deeply undermined the entire thrust of the story.

But back to this issue, Jean-Paul is spending more time with Bat-Clan "moral conscience" Dr. Thompkins when Cass shows up with orders from Bruce. This art for her... again, it's not ~bad~ by 90's female character standards, but it doesn't really convey Cass's age or personality very well, imo.

I'm mostly here just to talk about Cass, but these panels of Jean-Paul reacting to the news really does capture the gravity of the situation. Just some good comic art worth calling out, since I've been maybe a bit overly critical of this team.

This issue puts a lot more effort into characterizing Cass, and building something like a meaningful rapport between her and Azrael, starting by explicitly calling out the parallels in their backgrounds. Also, again, I really like the art in these panels. The coloring work by Rob Ro and Alex Bleyaert is very nice here, with the stark white snowfield contrasting sharply with Azrael's red and Batgirls deep blue - which in turn contrast nicely with each other - Azraels angelic aesthetic against with Cass's more demonic look, with the extra twist of their personalities kind of being opposite to that, at least in costume.

Speaking of, there's even some personality showing on Cass's face as she's turned to look up at Jean-Paul here, like she's realizing this aspect of shared history or trauma for the first time.

It's good. It's actually good.

That bit about 'Batman saved me... but never told me how to get my father's voice out of my head' bit is a good line in terms of conveying what Jean-Paul is about on a character level. It almost makes me care about this character who I have never had any interest in otherwise. And while this is mostly establishing Jean-Paul's character more than Cass's, the 'You're a good listener' line is treating Cass as more than just Batman's silent enforcer.

And it leads to at least one panel of Cass without the mask. It's a nice moment.

Jean-Paul and Cass stop off by Oracle for more detailed orders - they're to search Lex-corp's camp (it was a thing, don't worry about it) to see if Joker has the kids there. Which seems unlikely, but... Joker. There's also some additional bad news in that Batman believes Joker has somehow gotten his hands on a bunch of high explosives. Before they head out, Babs gives the two Christmas gifts - perfume for Cass, which, whatever I guess, and a harmonica for Jean-Paul.

Which leads to another nice moment outside. With her body-reading gimmick of course Cass would take to dance - something I think post reboot depictions of Cass made more and better use of. One area at least where the reboot improved on the original. That the A:AotB crew had thought of it as a natural character beat makes the relative lack of dance as a theme in Cass's own early book stand out more.

Anyway, Azrael & Batgirl make it to the Lexcorp compound, fight through some guards to get in, and find that someone has redecorated the Lescorp Christmas tree with what first seems to be babies as ornaments - though they turn out to be just dolls.

But the tree is rigged with the stolen explosives, And Azrael just barely has time to jump in front of Cass and Luthor's enforcer Mercy Graves - yet another character from the cartoons iirc.

Jean-Paul survives, barely, and even through the pain notices something and grabs it before he passes out.

Another nice moment between Jean-Paul and Cass to end out the issue on. I wouldn't have wanted to see a romantic relationship between the two, but this issue really goes a long way towards establishing what could have been a strong dynamic between them. I don't think I recall ever seeing the ornament in the background of Cass's book, but since this story is new to me I'm not sure I would have noticed it before.

....

Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for Cass and Jean-Paul working together. Injuries from the explosion basically took Valley out of the action for the remainder of No Man's Land, and after the mega crossover ended his and Cass's respective creative teams took their characters in different directions. We're skipping ahead a good bit to look at issue 66 here, but there's not much to her appearance here so I figure it's better to get it out of the way now.

Cass shows up for a couple pages in this issue to check on how Jean-Paul is doing...

But gets frustrated at his inability to understand her and leaves. As far as I know that's the last she shows up in his book, and I don't recall him ever showing up in hers.

Kind of a shame, honestly.