#this is the last of my doom patrol ideas

[wanderingmind867]

Issue #17: With earth beginning to go mad, we finally reintroduce Beast Boy into this story. He's one of the few people who's slightly immune to the plague. Possibly because of his connections to the Doom Patrol, he's got some resistance to the madness. It affects him, but not enough so he becomes a gibbering fanatic. Similarly, the teenage heroes the Doom Patrol had been training (Lodestone, Blaze, Karma, Sprite and the Mind-Grabber Kid) are also somewhat immune. So by pure chance, they end up finding each other and teaming up to try and deal with the madness.

Along the way, they find a handful of others who're seemingly immune to the plague of insanity: people like The Joker and Ambush Bug. Turns out people who're already insane can't be affected by more insanity. They're pretty much immune to the effects of the sanity drain. And sadly for all of us, The Joker, Ambush Bug and their fellow insane weirdos may be earth's last and best chance at survival. While the Doom Patrol and the Brotherhood of Evil try to find a way out of Mister Nobody's surrealist pocket dimension, these people have to hold down the fort and prevent earth from completely folding in upon itself.

Issue #18: The members of the Doom Patrol are finally all reunited, but the reunion is not nearly as positive everyone hoped it would be. For at least a full year (if not longer), Niles, Rita and Larry have been trapped in torture chambers of Mister Nobody's design. Wild torture chambers of surreal design, each one uniquely designed to prey on their worst fears. The Chief, Rita and Larry have really lost any mental stability.

The Chief now has crippling guilt over his every action, to the point where he can't think beyond crying. Rita was forced to imagine a world where she left the Doom Patrol and lived with Mento, accepted by society yet always knowing they mock her privately. It's given her severe paranoia and self doubt. And Larry…well, I liked how the Doom Patrol TV show made Larry a closeted gay man. I want his torture dimension to have had Mr. Nobody preying on that, making his self-loathing ten times stronger than it ever was before. So all three of the missing Doom Patrol members have lost their mental strength and fortitude. And now Mr. Nobody wants to give the same treatment to Robotman, the New Doom Patrol members, and the members of the Brotherhood of Evil.

But what Mr. Nobody never counted on was the outside world interfering, and running him ragged. He can't focus on maintaining his 5-10 different pocket dimensions; not when the people of the outside world are also trying to unravel his mysteries. He tries to handle all 11 tasks at once, but he simply can't. As the New Doom Patrol members begin losing their sense of self like the old ones, the dimensions all dissolve around them. And then they're flung back onto earth, free from his influence.

Issue #19: Now that Mr. Nobody's powers have been stretched thin, the Doom Patrol (plus the three members of the Brotherhood of Evil) team up with their teenage members and with the already insane denizens of earth to put a stop to Mr. Nobody's mad scheme to drain earth of all sanity. Despite their incredibly fragile mental states, Larry, Rita and The Chief join in the fight too.

And eventually, the Doom Patrol and their allies manage to stop Mr. Nobody. They restore sanity to earth, which also means Steve Dayton is freed from his months long stint of possession and mental manipulation. Still, Mr. Nobody isn't dead. He's just too weak to continue his attacks. But he'll be back one day. And next time, he'll remember to bring allies. So watch out, earth. Your days are numbered. Then he vanishes, before anyone has a chance to follow him.

And now that the earth has been saved and the Doom Patrol have been exonerated, they're all free to return to their Midway City headquarters. But still. Trouble is brewing, and it'll need to be addressed. Rita and Steve need to reassess their relationship and help each other through their mental crisis. The Chief needs to learn to trust himself again, and to open up to Arani. And Larry needs to put all the pieces of his life back together again. But they have the time to do that now. The Doom Patrol is back. And once they've recovered, they're gonna be bigger and better than ever!

[cheralith]

hi, love your writing and ive just wanted to say pirate reader and siren rin has been rotting my brain for the longest time imagine he’s been watching them from the ocean for a while and saves them from drowning

sorry about the blurb it was just been in the back of my mind for a bit

feat. itoshi rin (with itoshi sae) || wc: 1.1k wc: gn!reader, no pronouns used, siren/mermaid!rin, prince!rin, sailor!reader a/n: god nonnie u came to the right place because i have been truly itching to write something for rin for the longest time and you've opened a door for me to do so thank uuu, i hope this blurb is alright since i didnt rly know how to incorporate the pirate part in so i just made reader a regular sailor :')

The water embraces you within its grasp as you collide with it, a quiet sound that only Rin can hear from the distance he's been observing you.

It's worked, his cantabile song luring you into him like a moth to a flame. It wasn't his fault that you lead yourself to your own doom, you were getting much too close to his peoples' abode. Rin was just simply trying to protect his people on his patrol out this early evening, when he had spotted you and your ship sailing too close to his waters.

A determined human, you were, given by the look on your face that was scrawled with resolve as you steered your boat on steady waters that seemed to almost glide you along without much effort from your own end—shame that you didn't know it was Rin's doing, controlling the waves of the water to bring you closer to him so he could properly get rid of you.

Humans tainted everything they touched; from the land to the ocean, Mother Nature's creations she made from her own two hands would be soiled by the undoing from humans like yourselves. The second prince did not play into the idea that not all of them were bad—a foolish idea brought upon by Isagi and Bachira—because all he had ever known was the destruction and messes brought into the ocean by human hands. It didn't help his case that many of his people in his kingdom were captured by humans like yourselves to be considered some sort of trophy.

Rin didn't know who you were, and didn't want to take the chances had you been one of them, so before you were able to get rid of him or one of his people, he decided to get rid of you first. Nothing he wasn't used to—he's collected his fair share of drowned human corpses from the past. Just another to add to his aggregation.

He had watched from a safe distance in the small cavern his song lulled you into a trance, one that made you take your hands off the wheel of the boat and come closer to the edge of the boat, where you had eventually toppled over and into the depths of the sea, a hushed splash echoing.

Rin jumps from his place on the rocks and into the water, where the ocean greets him again. His tail propels him forward to where your ghostly figure floats like a phantom in the water, motionless and still, the last bit of sunlight still in the sky almost glorifying you with a spotlight in the empty sea.

He swims around your unconscious figure, his song still reverberating from him to ensure that he properly spellbinds you into the arms of death itself, where your body will run out oxygen without knowing and water will fill your lungs, pulling you into the dark depths of the ocean to rot away like the rest of the humans Rin had bewitched.

But as Rin comes closer to you, he realizes you're nothing he's seen before. There's this... allure about you. You're not like the brutish men he's lured to their death, the ones with contorted wrinkles and matted hair both on their heads and on their face. Your face is calm and smooth, eyelids closed, your separated limbs gently swaying in the water as your hair splays out. He squints, bringing his face closer to your own to examine you and your features. You look almost tranquil within the water, like you belong here.

He's fascinated. You were a rarity. A human, yes, but you were, dare he say it, seraphic in appearance—you almost rivaled the beauty of the ocean herself, though Rin knows better than to say that aloud.

This beauty that was as hypnotizing as his song being possessed by you. Rin's gills flutter as a webbed hand goes to press your pillowy lips, murmuring in surprise at their softness. He leans in, his own that frame jagged teeth nearly grazing against yours, ready to slither in his venom from his mouth to yours to temporarily paralyze you so he can properly take you back to his kingdom to present to Sae—this divine beauty of a human he can display somewhere as an early coronation gift from his little brother.

Suddenly, just as Rin's venom glands opened, your eyes shoot open and your consciousness gains back into your body. Rin pulls back in surprise, hissing when you blearily make out his appearance in the water, a strange fuzzy figure before with a long, shimmering purple tail despite half of him being human-like. A screech fails to erupt from you, and the water suffocates your throat.

Rin seethes as you thrash about the water, not knowing what to do until you choke out and the last bit of bubbles pulls the air from you, your body paralyzing. Death will come to you early, but now, Rin doesn't want that. Sae would want you alive so he could properly toy with your humanness. The imperial prince had always been fascinated by the workings of the human body, so Rin is sure that he needs to bring you alive to ensure Sae's satisfaction.

So Rin pulls you up, where the air meets the sea, where you can breathe properly. But when you remain in your current state within the pressures of the water, Rin ventures back to the cove where he had hid himself from view, pulling you onto the cool rocks, your body free from the chains of the water.

Irritation grows on his face when your chest refuses to heave again for awhile, but your body suddenly spits out the water held captive in your throat, spilling over and making you cough harshly from the lack of air. Rin jumps back from the harsh movement, watching as you regain your breath. Your eyes flutter close again from the exhaustion, but your breaths return to you, indicating you were still alive.

Rin hovers above you curiously, watching as you moan from the pain from your chest and hiccup, his hands brushing away a wet piece of hair so he could properly examine you again to make sure you were ripe enough to present to Sae in full, ensuring the water didn't make some sort of false visage.

Your eye squeeze abruptly and Rin takes away his hand in caution, freezing when he sees your eyes pry open hazily again. He watches warily as your bleary eyes take him in—the alien-like figure from before now pure and clear.

Oh, what a heavenly creature... those teal hues in a haunting pool of grey are especially enigmatic... framed by long black lashes that add a certain bewitching to them... you can't help but be so entranced.

Your vision blurs again, haze going in and out as you try to focus on Rin, and you unconsciously reach out to pull away a long noir bang from his face so you can properly see him in full. You don't notice the way he winces at your oddly gentle touch. A soft smile displays on your colorless lips, this peacefulness upon you.

"You're so beautiful," you murmur out to the creature, just before your world turns to black again.

[revalition]

OCT 19 - SHIVERS Raise the hair on your neck. Tune in to the city.

shivers my beloved!!! I love her so much!

Here is my favourite shivers quote since I didn't include it in the image this time:

SHIVERS - FOR THREE HUNDRED YEARS I HAVE BEEN HERE. VOLATILE AND LUMINOUS. MADE OF SODIUM AND RAIN.

weeps... <333 not only is it such a gorgeous quote but it was also my first time hearing from la revacholiere... You need shivers of 5 to get it but luckily my first playthrough I had FYS of 4 and I got the patrol cloak the first day so I guess that's 5.. so when I was messing with the electronic doorbell on the first day and eventually got this line!!!!! I had NO IDEA what was happening but I was immediately fascinated by this skill.

also if Kim isn't with you, you can ask yourself what just happened and not a soul answers. your skills *never* just leave you in silence like that...

afterwards she also says:

SHIVERS - IF YOU WANT ME YOU CAN FIND ME ON THE BEACH, DANS LE DERNIER BAL.

which, like. what does that mean. the last ball? the last dance maybe? and then when you do the shivers check in the church there's a modifier that just says "+2 FIND ME ON THE BEACH"

anyway... no it's not oct 19 but that's the naming convention I set when I started so that's how it's going to stay. tbh I had no idea what to do with shivers which is why this isn't anything like my other skilltober posts but hopefully it still does her justice

lots of quotes under the cut as always

what's this? actual screenshots from the game??

this scene was just. so amazing. the worst part is how easy it is to miss! if your inland empire is too low you don't get the dialogue that lets you even try the shivers check (found that out the hard way in my second playthrough >:( and you only need 2 IE to get it) and then the shivers check is quite difficult too... the two people I know who played it, neither got to talk to the city! but that also made it feel very special

I remember screenshotting my game when I got this dialogue so I could go look for it! and then finding the body on the boardwalk and looking all around there and going ah, guess I can't get under the boardwalk and it was just flavour text. and forgetting about it.

and then finding it down there!!! it's my favourite I wore it the rest of the playthrough. also the modifier on it!! +1 Shivers: Gift from La Revacholiere 😭 shivers... shivers ily...

shivers memories of your mom?

she's so helpful

this one kills me every time I read it

also I've been angry with shivers about the humiliation of the shivers fail in front of neha the dicemaker where you take your pants of... and I went to grab a screenshot and it... was Harry all along? all shivers says is that you don't feel anything and it's a bit too warm, and Harry does the rest... sigh. of course he does.

this is a dialogue you can get after talking to Plaisance about the curse after you investigated the doomed commercial area... I know you can come to the conclusion that the curse of the doomed commercial area is caused by being so close to the pale, but that fact that Shivers can pick it up so early on...

I love when she humours you...

this damages your endurance! shivers scolding you can make you *die*

this one damages endurance too... but inland recognizing that shivers isn't one of your skills...!!!

there are a bunch of these (unsure if they're implemented in the game or not, I've never encountered them at least) of your patrol cloak talking to you through shivers!

Kim trying to convince you not to leave in the airship is heart-wrenching on its own, but La Revacholiere begging you not to forsake her...? sobs

this one has to be in here... the three skill checks are godly difficulty. urgh it hurts my heart

the miracle!! she protects the phasmid too, watches over it. observes it skating across the water, opening the buoy to retrieve the passport...

my two supranatural skills bringing you to the precinct! this dialogue has their names, even (usually EdC just relays it to you)

harry and the city are inseparable...

this one hurts me. the church sidequest is my favourite in the game, but there's always this underlying sadness to it that things cannot exist in that church...

fuck...

shivers is so poetic... In my first playthrough, all of their information on the surrounding area was overwhelming. And I didn't have high enough shivers my second playthrough to get the dialogue... but looking through it again now, it makes so much more sense after playing once.

Revachol forever.

this brings me great comfort... the city with pocket it for you. and you can finally move forward.

I don't know what this means... but I wish my city loved me the way revachol loves harry. you also need to pass a godly logic passive to deduce that the world is the thought reader...

that's only 27 screenshots but I don't have any others to add right now... so here is shivers from the spring storm WIP since I havent shared one of these in a bit

dont mind empathy and pain thresh photo bombing it...

and here is my personal shivers skill portrait, which conceptualization drew...

i'm not sure if it's weird to add this but screenshot from our shared discord, but it's kind of cool. they're often silly or rude to eachother but they have their moments. re: shivers suggesting moving to toronto (there is a bit more before this that I was contributing to).

I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard from my shivers... the first time was actually *in* toronto when I was there for a concert. the way Harry loves his city isn't the way I love my city, but it does make me wonder if I could feel that way about somewhere else...

anyway weird note to end this post on but. that's okay. half light next... hopefully tomorrow

[igotanidea]

The fear : Jason Todd x fem!reader part 8

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

***

„You good?” Damian asked taking in her pale face and hurt eye expression.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She muttered, obviously lying. Even despite her experience-enhanced skills in the art of deceiving it was impossible to cover up for the fact that unwanted, unneeded and unwelcomed encounter with Jason took a huge tool on her mentality. And it lasted no longer than an hour.

An hour, that took turn from open hostility to a little unexpected heart to heart that opened old wounds. Reminding of the past mistakes, lost things and casted wounds. Ruined relationship that was doomed from the very beginning.

But even though-

They fought for it.

They fought to the best of their limited abilities, despite the world that was conspiring against them and throwing obstacles their way. Damn that tears that started flowing down her face when she started dwelling in the past. There was no denying she still held strong feelings for him, though couldn’t quite define if they were good ones or the bad ones.

“Y/N…”

“I’m fine, Damian. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine…” she repeated as some sort of spell. A lie told a hundred times becoming a reality.

“Let’s get you upstairs first. We’ll watch some silly movies so you could stop telling me bullshit.”

“Hey! Language!”

“I’m 15, you can’t tell me what to do.”

“15 my ass. Still the same nasty little boy as always only with a fouler mouth.”

“It’s good to see you again Y/N.” Damian smirked

“Yeah, you too, kiddo.”

“You do realise you won’t be heading back home tonight, right?”

“What? Huh! You’re gonna keep me captive now or something?”

“You voluntarily got yourself in the house full of vigilantes, the heck were you thinking?”

“I could argue on that voluntarily part but-“

Regardless of what she said, it was evident that Damian has grown during the time they didn’t see each other. Not only in height, but also mentally. And it only made her realise the full amount of things she lost.

Not just the man she loved, but also priceless time with her best friends Wayne boys.

While Y/N was getting drunk and laughed with Dick, Tim and Damian upstairs, Jason refused to step a foot out the batcave as long as she was still in the manor.

Fuck her.

Fuck her help, her words, her gestures, her eyes and hair, her smile and her coming for the rescue attitude. Who the hell she thought she was?! Paw patrol?!

The anger started boiling in him again, threatening to take over.

Anger at everything, but mostly at himself for getting so vulnerable and honest with her, to the point when he asked her to fucking take him back.

Pathetic. Foolish. Idiot.

“Aghghhg!” he jumped from the chair kicking it with all the rage he had, nearly breaking the metal.

Fighting the urge to destroy all that stupid batcave ��� the real reason of his fucked up life and psyche. He could have been a normal boy being in a relationship with the girl of his dreams. Instead he had to die (leaving her in tears), come back (leaving her in tears), suffering from the Pit madness (leaving her in tears) and due to this fucking fear gas incident loose her again (leaving her in tears)

“FUCK!” he grabbed the chair and threw it on the floor “FUCK!” he yelled, throwing all the stuff from the nearest desk “FUCK!!!” he pulled at his hair, hard enough he could be left bald.

He had no idea what he wanted.

So fucking angry, horn-mad, charged with hands itching to punch something, someone, to destroy, hurt, kill…

Stop…

“Huh?! Get the fuck out of my head Y/N!!” he yelled in the air, his voice echoing through the empty space.

Stop, Jason…

Right. Stop. He was past his killing days. He was not a monster. Not a beast.

He changed. He grew up, matured, became a man and not a boy.

He had to get a hold of himself.

Move past the past.

If he couldn’t have her he might as well spend the evening with his crazy asses brothers, giving them his attitude, using the bad mood to banter and bicker and pick up on someone else to make himself feel better.

So he emerged from the batcave, almost in the same way he did emerge from the Pit.

Slowly heading upstairs.

To the main room, filled with surprising silence. Deafening silence that formed goosebumps on his arms and immediately put him on alert, searching for some kind of threat.

Vigilante instincts never fail.

There was some movement on the couch.

Two people, a man and a woman judging by the silhouettes.

Girl sitting on man's lap, straddling him, their hands all over each other, their lips moving together, the room filled with soft whines of pleasure and sweet whispers.

“Y/N…” the man whispered.

THE FUCK!?

Jason stomped inside without a care in the world, making the couple break the intense make-out session and look at him with terrified expressions.

“Grayson!!!” he yelled taking in the scene, his fury immediately raising head again. “Y/N!!!”

He was right.

There was someone else in her life already.

And that someone was the fuckboy - his older adoptive-brother.

[otherone12]

What Would They Do, If They Just Knew

(P!ATD reference lol)

Gerard Way × Reader

-> Masterlist

A/N: Hey!! This is the most basic plot ever, but it was 2am and I wanted to write something. I tried to make this with more feelings, idk I liked this one. If you have any request, I'll be happy to write it :)

A/N 2: I'm writting a Frank x Reader imagine. Idk how to finish, but i will post it soon.

Summary: You are a famous actress who was dating Gerard for about 2 years, but you haven't turned your relationship public yet, because of all the issues that this could bring to your career. However, you both were hired to some Comic-Con, and you don't know whether or not this is the right time to tell'em about it.

- Word Count: 1,905

- Warnings: Big age gap (again, 'cause I love it)

- Ps: I'll not use y/n…

- Ps2: I'm brazilian, so english is not my first language ... sorry if i wrote something wrong.

___________________________________________

1st person POV

   Being famous is such a complicated thing, and dating another celebrity is a mess. All the fear of how fans will react, and how the media will turn more invasive about our personal lives just freak us out. That's why Gerard and I keeped our relationship out of the lights for so long. 

    Yesterday, I got a call from my agent. She asked me if I was up for being one of the guests of the Comic-Con this year, together with my co-star, who had already agreed to participate. 

    Prior to answering anything, I had a mind to ask Gerard what he thinks about it, and if he wanted to go with me. 

    Before I could call him, my phone started to ring. I knew who was by the name of the contact, but hearing his voice always make butterflies in my stomach.

    -Hey, sugar! Got a sec? I need to ask you something. If you aren't busy, of course.

   - Hi, babe! Yeah, I was about to call you too… - I giggled a bit by the coincidence - But you go first. What's shakin’?

    The moment he started to talk, I got up from my bed and started to walk through my bedroom. I don't know why, but I do this every time I answer a call.

   -So… the staff of Comic-Con want me there to talk concerning Doom Patrol and meet some fans. - He sounded really excited and I couldn't help but let a smile grow on my face. - I was wondering if you'd like to go with me. 

   - Well… They want me there too, so I think we're going together though!

   - Really?! - He practically screamed at the phone. - That's awesome! 

   - You know, I was wondering if isn't this the moment to tell'em about us. - I started to speak and notice that I will have to be the most convincing I could. - Will be very suspicious if we appear together without an explanation, so I thought that the easier way to do this was to tell them. 

   The silence lasted for a few seconds, so the best thing I might think of to try to take all this pressure off him, was to show that I understood whatever his decision was. 

   - But if you don't think it's a good idea…

    I sounded the most calm I could. 

   - I wanna tell the world about you, about us, but… you know how this could end. - He sighed. - We kinda belong to different worlds, and the age gap doesn't help at all. 

    -You're right. Sorry… - I didn't know how to feel, half of me longed that he wanted to turn this public, but the other half are relieved he doesn't want to. - I must have been out of my mind and… Well, I have to tell my agent that I'm in. l call you back later? 

   - I'll have the rest of the day free. I'll be there so we can talk properly. What you think?

    “Talk properly”? About this? I thought that he was sure that wasn't a good idea. Even so, the prospect of seeing Gerard cheered me up. 

   -Sure! - The last time we could spend more than a dinner together was about a month ago. - You gonna stay here?

   - If you don't mind…

   - I'd love to! - I literally jumped for joy 

   - Gotta go now, catch you later, babe!

   - Bye! 

   He turned off the phone, and I called back my agent, confirming my presentear the Comic Con. 

   I couldn't wait till Gerard came here. Maybe it is a bit silly to be that excited about a simple thing like this, but we were so busy in the last months and barely had time for each other. Of course we call and text each other every day, but I miss the nights we spend together, laughing, cuddling and… you know

   Anyways, the sensation of waiting made me bored for the first time in years. I'm again overthinking over the conversation, and what “talk properly” means. 

   All the possible scenarios end up with a confused blur in my mind. The boredom gradually turned into an anguish that slowly consumed me.  

   Before things got worse, I heard the bell and went downstairs to open the door. The moment the creaking of the door echoed in my ears, I looked up only to meet his eyes. Standing in front of my door, Gerard looked pretty as always, the smell of coffee emanated from his green coat and all my worries left my mind when I felt his arms around my body.

   - Hey 

    Gerard’s calm voice in my ear and his warm arms holding me, made me feel better than I have in weeks. 

   - Hey 

    I mutter with my face buried in his chest. 

He let go from me, but still close, he held my chin with his finger and brought his lips closer to mine slowly. I felt a shiver down my spine when our lips finally met and he grabbed my hips pulling me even closer. I melted against him, letting myself get lost in the moment and forget that we weren't supposed to do that at the front door.

    Finally, we pulled back, breathless and slightly dazed, his kind gaze almost made me kiss him again.

   - I missed you - Ahead of i could do anything, Gerard looked deep in my eyes and all the colors of his iris were glowing. - I missed you so much fucking.

   - So did I - I smiled back at him and grabbed his hand. - Come in!

   I closed the door behind him, he gave me his coat and I put it on a hanger next to the door.    

   I took a record from my collection and put it on. while Gerard sit on the couch. As soon as the ambient music started, I fell by his side and stayed next to him. I laid my head on his shoulder and, with a heavy sigh, he began to bring up the subject that he wanted to “talk properly”.

    - So… about the call, I've been thinking - I couldn't read his gaze this time, so I felt my stomach doing a few flips and I started to get worried again. - I know that this is gonna have to happen someday, but now?

    - Well, it's a place full of fans, so I think that they'll support, Right? 

    I didn't move from his shoulder, so he wrapped his arm around my back. I never thought I'd be by my boyfriend's side, trying to figure out if we will or won't tell our fans that we're dating. Such a weird situation.

    - If they don’t? - I’m not used to the serious tone he used. - I mean, you’re half of my age… your fans will be a bit mad with this.

    - If they are real fans, they will understand that if i'm happy they have no reason to be mad. - I took a second to think of another possibility - On the other hand, reporters and gossip magazines will freak out over this, and probably the sensationalism will make our names trending topics.

    He moved his head to face me, and with a shy smile, he said:

    - I think you are worth the risk.

    I turned my gaze to him and smiled back:

    - Are you sure? 

    - Totally. - Gerard kissed my forehead, and his soft smile turned out that serious look again. - How will we do that?

    - Well, I'll have to answer some fans' questions and always someone asks me about relationships. I could bring you to the stage and formally introduce you.

    - Sounds like a plan to me.

*** time skip ***

   Today is gonna be the day. I dressed up in comfortable clothes, which matched the warm weather. Gerard and I decided to go in different cars, so people will know just when we tell’em. All the event is cool, pretty cosplays and kind people everywhere. I saw Gerard in the comics section, and a kilometer line of fans, waiting to get an autograph.

    On my way to the stage, I noticed that the presenter was talking with my co-star. He saw me and waved with a big smile on his face. We've worked together for eight seasons, and always had a strong friendship connection, even though our characters were each other's romantic interests.

    Finally, it was time to answer the fans' questions. So we, my co-star and I, went to the stage with microphones and bottles of water then we started. The first question was about the new season, the second was over my new haircut, but the third one was exactly the question I wanted to answer.

   - Hi! I’m Anna, and before asking you my question, I want to say that I'm a huge fan of both of you. I've watched your series like a hundred times. - The teen girl giggles and keeps talking. - And I also have a bunch of posters of you in my room. 

    - We’re happy to hear it! - He says, looking at the girl and smiling - What’s your question, Anna?

   - The question is for both of you. You have so much chemistry, why don't you both try dating?

    I looked at him and we laughed a bit.

    - We’re good friends. - He said, trying not to be rude with the girl - But I really don’t think we’d work together, you know. 

    - Yeah, and I also have a boyfriend for about two years. 

   I took a deep breath and got the courage to move my gaze from the girl to the crowd. I saw a lot of confused faces and shocked gazes. 

    - Neither did I knew that! - My co-star wasn’t that different from the rest of the people there. - Can we know who this mysterious guy is?

  - Guys, you really want to know? - I asked the crowd with a teasing tone. - ‘Cause he is right here backstage…  

     I pointed to the curtains behind me and the loud screams made me laugh. I walked through the people who take care of the sound and lighting on the stage, and found Gerard, who was looking at me with a fake confidence smile. 

    - You’re ready? 

    I standing my hand to him, he take it and after some instats he said: 

    - I think I'm alright. 

    Hand in hand, we walked back to the stage. I thought I was about to throw up, but as long as he was still with me, I'll be fine.

    - NO WAY! - My co-star said with wide eyes - I mean, literally “The Way”. 

    We laughed, but the crowd was still very confused.

    - So… guys, here’s my boyfriend, Gerard Way. 

    I gave a brief look to him and back to the fans, but I wasn't expecting what was coming.

    Gerard turned to me and held my face with his hands. I looked up at him, knowing what he was about to do. I wrapped my arms around his neck and we kissed, on the Comic-Con stage. 

    The sound of applause, along with screams and one or two isolated boos echoed throughout the event.  Some camera clicks were also audible. But we didn’t mind, and kept kissing until we lost our breath.

    - Now they know. 

   I whispered. smiling at him and a feeling similar to quickly removing a band-aid came over me. I think we can call this feeling relief.

    -  I think so - He smiled back and gave me a quick kiss. - What about now?

    - Now we wait till tomorrow, and check our social media. 

   I’ll not lie, I'm really nervous about it.

___________________________________________

~ So... that's it. lemme know if you enjoyed ;)

Part 2

[spacetrashpile]

so everything i know abt dc (very little) has come from my mutuals' posts (mostly yours) and i wanted to say congrats on your special guy's return!!! but also i had a few questions! kid eternity's previous iterations were all boys right? is this the debut of a new one or has she been around a while? at first i thought they may have made her trans but then i realized how unlikely that was for a long-standing character, even a minor one. what's her backstory? does her canon coincide with any previous versions? (i'm vaguely recalling a post of yours with 4 versions of this character over the years.)

i'm probably never gonna read any of the comics myself but i think she seems really cool and i really like hearing about comic character lore, so if you're up for an infodump i'd love to hear it :D

HI THANK YOU I'M ECSTATIC. YOU'VE ALSO ACTIVATED MY AUTISM TRAP CARD WITH THE TRANS THING. AND ALSO THE OTHER STUFF BUT THE TRANS THING SPECIFICALLY.

So you are correct, all the previous Kid Eternity incarnations have been guys! And yes, there have been a couple versions of him across the years (four or five, depending on who you ask/how we're drawing lines). This is the opener image I made for my "all Kid Eternity appearances" spreadsheet (still a WIP) that I made, and I feel like that helps give a quick reference for him. (It's not full opacity, but unfortunately I no longer have the original file and can't change that.)

So, this new Kid Eternity seems to be an entirely new iteration of the character. One, she's got a new costume (though it's riffing heavily on the 90s/early 2000s version of the character), and two, everyone is pretty sure she's a girl, which is insanely exciting for me specifically. This JSA issue, which came out today, is her first appearance ever, and that page I've posted like twice now is her only appearance in the actual issue, since it happens right at the end. As such, we have no idea what her deal is, or how she lines up with Kid's past appearances. However, that means it's time to speculate wildly!

A quick note about the trans thing- you're right that making any longstanding character trans would be kinda crazy for DC, even a character like Kid who's had less than 100 appearances under DC's ownership, but if it was going to happen to anyone, I could see it happening here. One, Kid is wildly minor. Like I said, less than 100 appearances while under DC's copyright, and when you add in the comics from when he was owned by Quality Comics, he still doesn't cross the 200 appearances line. So while making a character that's existed since the 1940s trans would be kinda crazy, if you're gonna pick any character to do it to, you may as well pick one that everyone forgot existed back in the 90s.

Furthermore, Kid is a character who's played a lot with concepts of gender and sexuality. You'll notice that the two pictures in the middle of the above image feature Kid with long hair (and in the costume closest to the kid we saw in the new JSA), for one, but the second image is a cover from Kid's third solo, which was published under the Vertigo imprint. Vertigo was an imprint that DC started back in the 90s that focused on publishing adult content that wasn't necessarily suitable for DC's primary audience. This means stuff like sex, nudity, drug use, etc. but it also means a lot of queer characters and story lines were published under this imprint. Just to name a few, John Constantine/Hellblazer, the Doom Patrol, and Sandman are pretty famously queer characters/groups, and they were some of Vertigo's big names back in the 90s.

Kid is never explicitly trans in his Vertigo run, and no actual trans characters ever appear to my memory, but they do play with his gender just a bit (particularly, in my opinion, in issue 9, "Hysteria Knows No Gender", but it's not much, just a fun possible read). The comic also deals very heavily with homophobia and hate crimes in some of the last few issues, and don't shy away from the idea of queerness at all. (Genuinely, issues 10-12 of this comic are harrowing reads. Issue 10 deals with violence against women while issues 11 and 12 deal with homophobia and my god are they heavy.)

Also a point that has less to do with Kid and more with the comic itself, but still something worth bringin up- this is happening in JSA (2024), and the JSA has made a couple longstanding and/or much more important characters (in the grand scheme of things) queer in the past! Notably, Todd Rice (obsidian) (first appearance 1983) was revealed to be gay in 2006 and Alan Scott (the first green lantern) (first appearance 1940) was revealed to be gay within like, the last 5 years. Still no trans retcons to my knowledge (though I'm not super up to date on the JSA, so if I may be missing some important stuff), but that's still pretty notable in my opinion.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY that while Kid has never been trans before, this Kid being trans genuinely doesn't feel out of the question to me. I'm not gonna get my hopes up or anything, but hey, wouldn't it be cool???

Anyways, the other questions you asked! Like I said, we ultimately know nothing about this version of Kid Eternity right now, except what she looks like, and that she's in Hell (par for the course for Kid, to be quite honest.) Judging from which comic she features in and what her costume looks like, however, I think I can solidly say that the backstory they'll be drawing on is the 90s era backstory, so I'll give a quick rundown of that!

Kid's initial backstory, from the 1940s, boils down to this: Kid was a child on a sailing ship that ran afoul of a Nazi sub during WW2. Kid and the rest of the crew, including his grandfather, died and went to a place called "Eternity" (legally distinct Heaven). Upon their arrival, however, it was found that Kid had arrived about 60 years before his time. In return for the mistake, he is sent back to earth with new powers and a spiritual guardian from Eternity, Mr. Keeper. These new powers allow him to shout the word "Eternity" and call on any historical, mythological, or fictional characters and summon their ghosts to help him solve problems. The fictional characters fall by the wayside after a certain point because of copy right concerns, I imagine, but I have to bring it up because it's always comical. Shout out to the time he summoned Jean Valjean to talk a thief out of stealing a loaf of bread and when that didn't work he summoned Javert and then Javert and Valjean beat each other up until he sent them back.

The 90s backstory, which is introduced by Grant Morrison in a horror mini series, builds on this backstory with a few retcons. Most notably, Kid never actually went to "Eternity" or any sort of heaven. Instead, he went to hell, where he was picked up by a staple of the DC magical mythos called the Lords of Chaos (which are exactly as bad as they sound), specifically by the one who paraded himself as Mr. Keeper. He was lied to about what happened to him when he died, about what was happening to him upon his arrival in Hell, and was strung along to do the Lords of Chaos' bidding for decades before he was able to free himself in a really complicated series of retcons and dumb writing choices across about 20 comics written and released over about two decades so we won't get into the weeds of that part.

The Lords of Chaos are opposed by a group called the Lords of Order (who could've guessed!) who are very important to the Justice Society, primarily to Dr. Fate, a key member, because Dr. Fate is a Lord of Order possessing/manifesting through a human person (and a helmet). Not only that, but this new Kid has appeared in JSA volume 2. The first JSA came out in 1999, and y'know who appears (and dies but that's less important) in the first issue of that comic: 90s Kid Eternity! It's a part of this whole plot regarding agents of the Lords of Chaos and Order, and since the current plot of this comic has a lot to do with Dr. Fate, I imagine that Kid is being pulled from that original JSA comic to be introduced as a potential foil to the current Dr. Fate (a young man who seems to be close in age to this version of Kid) and/or as another wrinkle in the Everything that's going on.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY! We really don't know much yet, but Kid Eternity is literally one of my nichest favorite characters of all time, and I am beyond ecstatic to see them running around again (fun fact, post New 52 reboot in 2011, Kid has had a whole thirteen appearances, and 6 of those appearances weren't even in the mainline universe. It was dire out here!)

[jaggedwolf]

tlou s2e2 opinions, full spoilers for the second game below

that's one way to solve a housing crisis

stuff I liked

Ellie says to Jesse, casually and confidently, dude we all know that you're going to run Jackson one day, and damn if that didn't break my heart. Jesse's been great, btw, loved the replication of the morning doorway conversation

Ellie dragging herself closer to dead Joel...pressing herself as physically close to him as she can...I almost wish that was the last we saw of him and her this episode...

Ellie yelling get up Joel get the fuck up immediately brought me back to that scene in that game

that and Dina getting drugged I thought were nice ways around the "conveniently knocked out for the appropriate amount of time" trope that also elevated the lodge scene

golf club remained! golfing jokes will continue until morale is crushed to zero

very good job displaying the discord within WLF squad, especially Mel

zombies hiding under a snowy layer of dead zombies is fucking creepy and stressed the fuck out of me, good job show

even frostbitten Dina trying to understand what's going on with lodge crew and asking about the WLF patch, going no no no about being drugged...protect her...

I wasn't unmoved by Maria and Tommy in the game but I think I am more attached to them in the show and this is gonna be rough bro. Emphasizing their and Joel's role in Jackson as a community has been a really good aspect of these episode.

I have a suspicion about where the Eugene stuff is heading and I'm very into it.

stuff i'm silly/neutral on

rip bigot sandwiches. did they make Seth more genuinely remorseful here or am I misremembering? will find out when I replay the game

i'm neutral on swapping Dina for Tommy as Joels' patrol partner. There never needed to be an excuse for name disclosure, and the idea that Dina had insufficient motivations for going with Ellie in the game is a very foolish idea - even if they weren't dating, Ellie is her best friend. of course she would. same reason Jesse does.

But Dina being able to recognize the WLFs is intriguing, and given the parallels between the characters it tickles my brain to have Dina and Mel be so physically close this episode

I will absolutely be annoyed if Ellie and Dina are not together together before the departure for Seattle though, that'd be dumb. I don't need a getting together story for these two. (oh god, or if we don't get Ellie/Dina banging but maintain the explicitness of the Abby/Owen scene. I'm fine if we skip both.)

Jackson simultaneously readying themselves for an attack, sending out pair patrols, and working on pipes, all while a blizzard was raging felt a tad stupid to me. It's a completely random day in the game, and IIRC, the weather doesn't look bad enough for anyone to comment on it while patrols leave Jackson.

This is what happens when you don't take New Years Day off people, don't let it happen to you

Tommy having all the runners ignore him as he baited the bloater was him stealing all of Joel's plot armor, I've decided.

Yet I do enjoy the indications here that even Tommy and Maria are not immune to the human flaw that drives the plot of TLOU - my person over duty, my person over my community, my person over your people, my person over the fucking world.

I understand you hired Kaitlyn Dever and Pedro Pascal and Isabela Merced and so you want to show off their faces as much as possible, but it is impossible for me to take them seriously when they run around outside in a blizzard with zero covering of their faces or mouths. From what I've seen, all three are capable of acting with their eyes. Maybe let them do that?

This is probably just a reality of the set, but RIP staircase down to door of doom

stuff I did not like

okay...oh boy...first let me say nothing I say in this section is criticism against the actors and their acting abilities/choices. I think every actor is knocking it out of the park with what they're given

but I think it's completely fair to be displeased with the casting of Dever as Abby, and anyone going "people were upset Abby was muscular and now they're upset she isn't, how stupid" or "HDU criticize an actress's looks, very sexist of you" isn't worth listening to.

Abby's physicality in the game served gameplay purposes, yes, but it also (1) indicated the level of determination she'd approached her revenge mission (2) indicated her rigor in her WLF work (3) was frankly satisfying to see, given the general tendency for even action-hero female characters to be skinny and/or small and/or physically unimposing (4) made the first fight between Ellie and Abby interesting in their respective advantages (5) made the final state that we see Abby in sobering. Losing these, especially (3), is a bummer.

People saying that it is impossible to find a buff actress or even an actress that is noticeably more physically imposing than Ramsey that is good at acting...be for real. I had my writing critiques for Brienne in GoT but even there they managed to find Big Girl.

All of that said, Dever is mostly very good in the lodge scene. The way she conveys Abby's violence and vulnerability, her frustration with her friends and which of them she cajoles, her delivery of lines from the game

but the monologue to Joel felt very silly. Did you know the doctor was my dad?? Have you already guessed that??? uh how on earth would he have guessed that. why are you making Dever say these lines when she would've done a very good job with game!Abby getting interrupted sooner.

Oh god, and she doesn't get to declare game!Abby's final decision that they are leaving Ellie (and Dina or Tommy) alive, that they are Done, which helps her "We let you both live, and you wasted it!" rage later on.

why are you having Abby balk at torture, when in the game it's heavily implied Abby's done it before but doesn't want to confess that to Lev. why do that soft-pedal.

If the intention of the early revelation of the Fireflies or dead dad was to add sympathy for Abby early in place of the early focus on Ellie in the game, I both think that's wrongheaded and that it doesn't work, because murdering Joel overrides that sympathy.

The game does it smartly by having the Fireflies reveal, however obvious, be explicitly stated right when Ellie is being extraordinarily cruel to Nora, and the Abby's dad reveal happen right before we are stuck spending time with Abby and cannot escape her PoV.

Neither does Ellie escape the show's insistence on Loudly Stating Exactly What Feelings Are Happening right now, because we basically get her telling Jesse that she and Joel have made up. Why. Why do that. Let Ramsey react more subtly to a casual mention of Joel and Dina out on patrol together. An explicit update on Ellie's Joel feelings is not needed for that brilliant burst of grief and sorrow at seeing Joel gone.

[tobiasdrake]

A lot of people have already sung the praises of Baldur's Gate 3 but I gotta say, it is really good at offering the player flexibility of puzzle-solving.

I was in a base full of enemies who were not yet hostile to me because my Bard is good at chatting our way into things, but that I ultimately did need to clear out. I was also on a time crunch where if I took a Long Rest, hostages might die. And I only had one Short Rest in me. Facing the obstacle of clearing an entire base full of enemies the same level as me without a single Long Rest was daunting.

But then I found a big ol' cliff.

Just a big ol' cliff.

And then I got an idea.

So I set my warlock and cleric Wyll and Shadowheart at the bottom of the cliff. Left the barbarian Karlach chilling at the top of the cliff. And I sprang into action.

A Minor Illusion to bring a patrolling guard over to the edge of the cliff to investigate. And then Karlach shoved her off the cliff. She hit the ground hard and before she could get up and react to what just happened, Wyll and Shadowheart struck and executed her last few hit points.

...so, naturally, I had to keep doing it. One by one, isolating enemies. Sometimes two or three would investigate the kitty cat, but if I chatted up the one I was targeting, the others would head back and I could continue the trail of Minor Illusions leading a single doomed adversary to the fatal clifftop.

Lure. Shove. Execute. Lure. Shove. Execute. Lure. Shove. Execute.

My party of level 5 characters slaughtered a good 8 or 9 level 5 enemies with a cantrip. All without exposing to the rest of the base that we were hostile. And when the boss was down to only 2 guys left in the room with her, then we struck. Kicking off hostilities by pushing one of them into a lava pit.

10/10 Have not had that much fun in an RPG video game in a long time.

[honourablejester]

Heart: The City Beneath

For reasons, I’m assuming because I’ve been watching actual plays of various ttrpgs lately (Legends of Avantris playing D&D 5e, Nobody Wake the Bugbear playing Mothership, several others), I was recommended a video on a game called Heart: The City Beneath. Just a basic overview video, themes, tone, talking the game up a bit. But it sounded interesting, so I went to look up what the 9 playable classes were, just to see what kind of ideas we’re working with, you know?

And. Just from that online write-up. There was one particular class that caught my eye enough to go buy the actual game. Now, having read in more detail, there are several other classes that also sound really cool, but I still want to talk about the thing that caught my eye.

The Vermissian Knight.

Now. I would not ordinarily go for a very martial class when magical-type classes are an option. It’s just not usually how I roll. But the classes in Heart are all very, very setting-related, and all very, very weird, and the thing with the Vermissian Knight …

Okay. The setting for this game is Heart. The, well, City Beneath. There is a mile high surface city called the Spire, and then there is a vast living beating realm of something beneath it, called Heart. It is alive. It may be an extradimensional benevolent parasite. It might be a god-cocoon. It might be a seed of terraforming fuel. It might be a lot of things. But it’s definitely alive and weird and warps reality the further down into it you go.

The city above it, Spire, was run for ages by arrogant elves. And at some point, those elves decided that the city needed a mass transit system. A railway network, called the Vermissian. Right? But it wasn’t working, it was a lot of infrastructure, and funding was complicated, and power supply was an issue, and they wanted a way to hook the whole thing together and power it mystically. Right? So, what did they do? What does any arrogant race sitting on top of a magical weirdness bomb do when they suddenly need power? Yeah. They decided to core down into the Heart Itself, this mystical, weird-as-shit, possible god parked under their city, and they decided to hook their mass transit passenger network right the fuck into it.

It went, as you might imagine, horribly wrong. The reality-breaking weirdness of the Heart smashed up through the transit network of the Vermissian and nearly corrupted all of Spire above, save that the warding glyphs on the transit tunnels kept it confined. Within the system, time and space and reality got smashed and thrown about higgledy piggledy, and batshit monsters crept about the tunnels. The entire network was cut off, the stations abandoned, and Spire did its best to pretend there was never an attempted transit project to begin with. Just shove the whole mistake behind some condemned signs and pretend it never happened, boyos!

But the network is still there. The tunnels, the trains, the monsters. It’s hidden in Spire, but down in the Heart, the stations stand unguarded. Stuff leaking out. And people venturing in.

And the Vermissian Knight, as a character class, is someone who seeks to understand and patrol that network, to explore it and protect people from it. The class is built around armour, armour built from scavenged parts of eldritch trains. And the class builds …

Okay. In Heart, all characters are doomed. It’s a whole thing. This is not a long-form campaign sort of game. You will not last. Your character will die. So levelling is … you’re not building towards power, you’re building towards a climax. You’re building towards a spectacular end. Not necessarily death, but something that will take your character very dramatically off the board. And the Knights. Their Zenith Abilities, their capstone, dramatic ends, should they survive long enough to reach them. They can either bind themselves to a landmark, potentially a station on the line, or they can become a techno-organic titan, a biological perpetual motion machine that stalks the Heart and can be summoned by your surviving party as a deus ex machine, OR …

Or they can cast a death rite that summons the last surviving Vermissian train to tear its way through to them and crush them under its wheels, while also wiping out anything else in its path. Like. Your last, taking-you-with-me stand as a Vermissian knight is summoning a hell engine from a warped extra-dimensional transit network to plough through your enemies.

That. That is just so cool? Just. That whole concept. It’s so cool.

There are other classes in this game, and they are also pretty cool, don’t get me wrong. The Deadwalker, a person who died and came back haunted by the personification of their own death, able to potentially slip into the afterlife while living and bring people along for the ride. The Deep Apiarist, a person so determined to fight against the living chaos of the Heart that they have allowed themselves to become colonised by a megaconsciousness of order-inducing bees, in the most body-horror way possible (the bees go in through your nose and convert at least one of your organs to wax and paper to inhabit your body)(the Sunless Sea vibes are so strong with this one). The Hound, a group of mercenaries aided (and potentially possessed) by the spirits of the cursed survivors of a massacred army once sent to invade the Heart. The Junk Mage, magic addicts that eat scraps of power and make bargains with eldritch entities. There are a lot of cool classes in this game.

But the train knights. Just. The train knights. The image just enchants me. A cursed railway network, a twisted tangle of tunnels and weirdness, and the armoured paladins who seek to explore, understand, and protect those who encounter it.

I love it so much. I’m not fully sure why, what it is about that concept, that image, that so bowls me over, but …

I wanna play a train knight. A gnoll train knight, seeking enlightenment. Answers. I’m down here, in this strange, twisted place, because I want to know. What is it down here, in the Heart, that could do that to our network? What actually did happen to the network? I want to explore and I want to know.

(The Calling system is what you’re down in Heart looking for. Your class is what you are, your calling is what you want. There are five options: Adventure, Enlightenment, Forced, Heartsong, Penitent. You came for adventure, you came for answers, you came because you were forced to, you came because the Heart itself called you, or you came because you fucked up very badly and this is the only way to make up for it. Each calling gives you story beats that you can choose from along your quest for a suitable climax, and they’re really cool, and many of them encourage you to act, shall we say, incautiously. You’re not going to survive this, honey. Nobody comes down here who’s sane or sensible and likely to live long. So do something mad and dangerous and interesting with your time here. I actually really like that part of the system a lot).

Yeah. A Vermissian Knight, seeking Enlightenment. I would totally play that.

This is a boss-ass game, you know that? The setting is really cool.

[alexwilltellyouthings]

1, 8, 9, 13 for the dbd ask game

Thank you anon!

1. Who is your favourite character?

Charles. I love Edwin very much and sometimes I almost change my mind, but Charles... he's everything to me, really.

8. A headcanon you have (that you havent seen talked about yet)!

Oh I just answered that, it's the last post!

9. Have you seen/read any of the other Dead Boy Detectives media? Which?

I never actually read the comics, just saw panels. But I did see the Doom Patrol episode exclusively for them, and I really liked it. Not the same of course, but they were cute and sad as they should. Also I never got rid of that Crystal's voice in my head saying "whatever the fuck, Charles".

13. Favourite case we see the detectives do?

At first I thought the Devlin House, but that's mostly because of the emotional impact on Charles and the idea of a trauma loop (which is amazing). But as the actual case, Two Dead Dragons. We see them actively investigating, working together, we find new information with them. It's also very emotional and it connects to the boys and Crystal, of course, but it felt more like its own thing, you know? Also the girls (the one who killed herself and the one who killed the jocks) both hit hard for me. It's a great case.

[ladyorlandodream]

Finally, the day has come — a year and five months later, but who’s counting — to put into words my thoughts on the series finale of Doom Patrol. Long post!

Let’s start with this: I didn’t write anything right away because I was emotionally wrecked. This series came into my life during a very tough time, and as a longtime Brendan Fraser fan, seeing him return as the epic Cliff Steele was incredible. That monologue with the Sisterhood of Dada in Season 3? Chef’s kiss. And then there’s my overwhelming love for Rita — I was speechless.

To give you an idea: the first time I watched the finale, I was out in the field for work. I drove five hours on the highway just to get home past midnight, so I could watch the last three episodes in peace, alone, while everyone else slept. By minute five, I was already tearing up. And when it ended with “I am home,” I was sobbing so hard I had to step outside. I cried in the garden for at least two hours, one of my dogs sitting beside me, completely confused as to why I was falling apart.

I didn’t expect it to hit me that hard.

So, I waited. And with time, I decided to rewatch the whole thing — though I couldn’t bring myself to rewatch the final episode until much later.

And now, here we are. Let’s talk about those last episodes: tragic-comedic-tragic-comedic and then tragic again. Classic Doom Patrol, with a sprinkle of nonsense like the singing butts — because, fuck it, why not?

Let’s begin with the characters I liked the least, starting with Victor. Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I never really liked him. In the beginning, he was incredibly selfish — let’s not forget how harshly he criticized Rita for her wanting to be a superhero, telling her she wasn’t good enough. Sure, he tried to train her, but he wasn’t exactly helpful. A lot of his behavior struck me as childish. Toward the end, he redeemed himself a little, finally understanding his purpose as Cyborg. Still, he remains my least favorite. Personal taste, of course.

Then there’s Madame Rouge. She had so much potential (comic readers will know how powerful she truly is). I mean, she may have been the one — unknowingly, maybe even later — who gave Niles the file on Rita for Project Immortus. Remember how she hands him those documents while he’s toying with the green liquid the very same we see in the first episode? That was a huge twist. I wonder if the version of Rouge who arrived in the future without memory was actually the same one who had been attacked years before by our future Rouge. That whole scene was intense and really well done. But I can’t forgive her for something: she jumped on the Immortus train to regain immortality for everyone, but the moment she saw Isabel’s show, she flipped back into her “conquer-the-world” mode like nothing happened. Sure, she eventually got back on track, but that dark part of her is always there. Still, her ending worked for me. She’d lost everything, so destroying the Bureau with a flamethrower and that psychotic expression? Chef’s kiss.

Now the Fantastic Four.

Let’s acknowledge that this last season was poorly treated: obviously low budget, they didn’t capitalize on Brendan’s Oscar win, and marketing was nonexistent. The final season felt rushed. Still...

Larry, sweet Larry. Because of that rush, they just dropped Rama into the plot. Lovely character, sure, and I get the “love at first sight” angle, but their connection felt totally unearned. It needed more time to develop. (Though Cliff’s line about feeling “tension” between them cracked me up.) Also, what the hell happened when they exploded? And the original Negative Man could talk this whole time?! After seasons of just glowing?! Season 4 didn’t treat Larry well — and he didn’t even get proper closure with Rita. They didn’t hug, because she was a ghost. They say goodbye to each other, showing that they truly are soulmates in the friends way, but I felt something was missing. I found it so disappointing that, for his best friend of decades, the only thing he chose to burn with his body was so superficial… that? Really?

Jane: Her ending with the Kaleidoscope was beautiful. Seeing all the personas together was powerful and emotional. K is finally “healed” or at least allowed to grow. And against Immortus, thanks to this merge, we saw a return of K’s powers — which we hadn’t seen in ages! I screamed. But Dr. Harrison’s death? Completely unexplained. Season 3 ended with tension between her and Jane, hinting at a future clash of powerful personas. But with the show being cut short, that plot was axed — and H just died. No explanation. What a waste. Also... Jane and Shelley not staying together broke my heart. I adore Shelley. She waited for Jane… and maybe still is? But suddenly Jane is with Casey? After meeting during the musical episode?? Love already?! How?! Why?! When?! No logic. So rushed. And the goodbye with Cliff — not knowing it was the last time they’d talk — that hit hard. Their final drive together, neither of them able to drive due to Parkinson’s and dementia, was poetic. They understood each other. They knew they had to go home. To end with the others. Their parent-child dynamic is pure bittersweet gold.

Cliff: My treasure. My robot bear. Let’s talk about the foreshadowing — “I wanna die in peace with my daughter and my grandson.” I only caught it on rewatch, and it shattered me. And “Hey Zuul”? A nod for the Ghostbusters fans. Genius. The backstory with Niles was amazing — how Niles ended up in a wheelchair, the anger, the disbelief. The memory potion (possibly the same used later on Jane?), and Willoughby telling Cliff not to strip someone of immortality right after breaking their back — amazing. And Von Fuchs’ minions showing up? Total first-season nostalgia. Cliff being the first to say, “We have to save Rita,” just because “It’s Rita,” melted me. She taught him breathing techniques to handle anxiety — which he uses throughout the series. She helped him when he was a megarobot, just like he helped her when she became that city-devouring mega blob. I wanna go home. If Rita’s in danger, she gets saved. No questions asked. This is what Cliff says, no matter the danger or the risk of his skin. And his ending, guys, what can I say, is chilling. Immortus' gift of the gem is indescribable. Small note: Cliff "Swallowed" Isabel's nail, but unfortunately this could not stop her illness, the Parkinson’s still winning despite it all. I liked the fact that we were not shown a totally happy life… Claire having cancer, Rory repeating Cliff’s own life mistakes, but then returning to be there for his daughter — joy and sorrow, just like life, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it...and the fact that in the end he died with his daughter and grandson, simply saying "I'm home" and his eyes turning off. Pure poetry. A beautiful ending for a character full of highs and lows. It was sad, but undoubtedly wonderful.

Rita: My love since the pilot. A woman whose mood changes with the wind. Her growth through the series has been applause-worthy, and it truly shows in the final episodes. Let’s step back for a second though: her behavior toward Larry after returning from the past was awful. She kept saying she’d lost the most important person in her life, completely disregarding Larry — who had always stood by her through light and darkness. He didn’t deserve that. Thankfully, things got better, especially in part of their farewell. That dinner scene, when she finally broke down and explained why eating together was important and why the “Team Leader” title mattered to her — it wasn’t superficial, it was about family. For her, it’s always been the three of them: Larry, Cliff, and Jane.

The scene in the kitchen, her vulnerability as she talks with Rouge — so sad but so beautiful. April Bowlby perfectly portrays an aging woman: the movements, the stiffness, the pain in her joints, turning into the blob — the thing she hates most — just to feel relief. Her voice, her body language, everything spoke of fragility. Even forgiving Isabel showed her growth. And Rouge watching her, knowing her friend is aging faster than the others. The fireplace scene, remembering their best moments, felt like April herself was speaking — as if she was saying goodbye, not just Rita. The music as she dozes off at the table during breakfast was the quiet signal that something was coming. And then… her death. It hit me as hard as Cliff’s. Her decision not to be saved made sense, in her way. She was the glue holding them all together. Now it was time for everyone to live their own lives. Tragic words, but true. Beautiful. Devastating. She died holding her uniform, the colors of her family. And of course, Doom Patrol can’t go out without a bit of humor: the pyre scene, the stink, the farts — hilarious. Though I hated how meaningless the friends’ chosen items were. And the end with Malcolm? Please. That man knew Bendy, not Rita. Not the full life of Elasti-Girl, but the woman he met without memories. I get that it was meant as the best ending for her, but Bendy is only a part of who Rita was. I’ll end this part with her final words, her trademark, the ones she used to lie about being ok…those words, for the first time, she used them to truly comfort her friends.

It’s fine. It’s totally fine.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten so much, but this is already long enough. Many things remain — and will remain — unexplained. What happened to the Sisterhood, with their incredible potential wasted in Season 3? Where’s Dorothy? Danny — is he still an ambulance or back to being a street? And my biggest heartbreak of Season 4: the absence of my other bear, Flex Mentallo. He deserved one last appearance. The man who nearly ended the world by giving Rita a super-orgasm. The sweetest man in the universe.

So many things. But I’ll stop here.

Thank you Doom Patrol for what you were, and still are. I’m catching up with the comics now, so our story isn’t over. Only the show is, but never say never. But Thank You for showing that no one is perfect, and even so, you can find a family who will always accept you.

I’ll close with my heroine’s final words to the team in the livingroom:

The Doom Patrol is no longer.

[musical-chick-13]

Why can't people ve normal about female characters 😭😭😭

I am ALLLLLWAYS asking this.

I feel like anything I say beyond this point is just. Repeating myself, so I'm going to link to a post I made about how I personally judge a work in regard to how it handles its female characters.

here it is

Wait, apparently I do have one last thing to say upon rediscovering this post. Which is that...yes, obviously some writers mishandle their female characters because of misogyny. They don't let them do anything, or they villainize them when whatever they did wasn't comparatively that bad when stacked against the other characters' actions, or they intentionally give them less backstory/glimpses into their inner emotional world/realistic human flaws that are important to the story, or they use them to make "commentary" on how all women are shrill or unreliable or manipulative or stupid or [insert sexist descriptor here]. I'm not disputing this claim, no group of people--including artists/creators--is immune from perpetuating misogynistic ideas and behaviors.

BUT!!!! This is. My God, it is NOT the case every time. There are plenty of people out there writing interesting women who do interesting things. There are plenty of romance arcs involving women (one OR more of them!!!) that are satisfying and compelling and narratively important, actually. Everyone is going to find some duds occasionally (see: how even I couldn't manage to finish Ore.shura and my continued hatred of Cit.rus, despite those both ostensibly putting objectionable, flawed female characters center-stage. And also my uh. Highly controversial takes on a certain Toy Movie, which I promise I will actually get into at some point.) But to act like it's just...a fact of life that NO female character is going to live up to her male counterparts.............for one, that's wrong. (Go watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!! Go watch Doom Patrol!! Go watch The Apothecary Diaries or Search Party or Kaguya-sama: Love Is War or, LITERALLY ANY NUMBER OF THINGS.) And for another...well. You know what "because of things out of my control, a woman in a given context can never truly reach the level of a man" sounds like right.

Honestly, I think that a big part of this is the continued refusal to look at things with nuance. You know the post I linked? That was actually about Kill la Kill. The show has...some pretty egregious issues (to the point where people are always surprised when I say that I like it). There are plenty of things about it that I would change. But you know what ELSE it has? A core cast of three interesting and entertaining female characters (and one genderless piece of sentient clothing) who drive the narrative, have dynamic relationships with other characters, and have distinct personalities and ways of looking at the world. People can argue night and day about whether this is a good show (I personally happen to think it is, overall, in spite of its flaws, but I am very much only one person), but the three main girls ARE good characters. It was clear Studio Trigger cared about them and saw them as worthy of the audience's attention, sympathy, and investment. I'm not going to call it a feminist masterpiece. But it DOES do a quality job at writing interesting female characters with clear arcs and emotional complexity.

I could also make a similar case about GoT. I'll be the first to admit this show has. God, SO many problems. Not the least of which is the way it shoehorns in all sorts of nudity and violence against women for literally no reason. But all the female characters are different. They have important effects on the story, they have realistic flaws, they have different and engaging relationships with the people around them and the world at large. If you cut any of them out (aside from...probably Ros, sorry girl), the story becomes incomplete. There are pieces that won't fit together, themes that won't get full commentary or crystallization. It's completely fair to say this show isn't for you, that the flaws it has outweigh the good, that you can't stomach the way it handles certain topics. What isn't fair is to say that the women in it are shallow or one-dimensional, or to solely reduce them to one or two qualities that the viewer finds annoying. The women are better than that (the story and its themes straight-up don't make sense if they aren't). Not being willing to recognize that fact is a you problem. (<-general "you," not "you" the anon)

A piece of media can have plenty of issues (even misogynistic ones) and still have interesting women worthy of analysis and consideration in it. A piece of media can handle some topics well while handling other topics poorly. A piece of media can be too flawed for one person while giving something incredibly valuable to another. But, as always, women enter the picture and any general attempt at nuance goes out the window.

[paragonrobits]

there's been some real drama with that Youtuber I Hate and a youtuber whom i have come to greatly respect and honestly its been a delight seeing that youtuber i dont like going full circle on 'fuck around and find out' and apparently rapid-fire switching between constantly crying about being victimized and being a vicious and hateful person to apparently EVERYONE who interacts with her (follower or not) and it's a real case of a kind of internet personality i find exhausting but its made me realize a few things:

one is she apparently considers superhero comics an inherently Bad genre without artistic value (a bold statement coming from someone whose big media opinons are 'the entirety of Japan are man-children who do sex crimes' and 'i'm going to hate on these cartoons for not turning into a murder frenzy at the last second'). i'd say she's clearly never read Magneto's story arc under Claremont, or anything to do with the Morrison run on Doom Patrol (its artistic, demented, filled with coming to terms with horrific trauma, your own depersonalization, and also the primary antagonist is literal nonsense) or the famous story God Loves Man Kills but i ain't holding my breath

the second thing is that apparently she's under the belief that once you have been victimized, it excuses all your actions. This lines up with some common elements i've seen in fandom, especially those who fixate on villlains as the True Heroes, similar to some of my other thoughts on how people seem to tihnk a compelling/tragic origin justifies anything the character does. This is the mentality of completely divorcing a character's moral place in a narrative from their actions, and instead based on their victimhood. It really explains the whole idea i keep seeing there, and its something to address in my story concepts.

Third thing is more important, more profound. Its hard for me to articulate WHY people like this bother me so much; that they're so unrelentingly unpleasant, cruel to everyone around them, and even similar attitudes of people who are just casually rude. Even if there's no harm meant, you can just... not talk like that. You don't have to be mean with every single word you say, and you can resist the urge to turn every exchange or observation into an opportunity to sound like a smart ass; that's how you get stuff after James Earl Jones dies, you post pictures of Mufasa's death and then fail to understand why people are upset by you immediately making a joke about an inoffensive, much beloved voice actor who never did anything to you.

So i think about how to describe this... or perhaps how to AVOID this. How to talk and act in ways that's softer and doesn't hurt people for a quick joke or jibe, or acts like they can't understand why its wrong. And then I remember the game Undertale, where in the Pacifist route (the only route I've ever played), Sans will warmly tell a player who has actively refused to ever kill or hurt a single monster by saying that 'it just means you kept tenderness in your heart', and i think that's a good way to do it.

Just keep some tenderness in your heart. Let yourself be open and be gentle as much as you can. A thing that is tender ache when it hurts something or hits something pretty much at all, so its important to keep that tenderness so you DON'T hurt others too.

The world is sad and unpleasant enough as it is. You don't need to make things worse just so you can feel better about yourself.

[bimboficationblues]

Comic pitch asks: Wally West, the Doom Patrol, Daredevil, Doctor Fate, The Legion of Super Heroes, and Spider-Man.

Daredevil - I have this rough concept in my head for IMMORTAL DAREDEVIL, kind of a cross between Ken Russell’s The Devils and the Court of Owls storyline from Batman, which sees Matt increasingly drawn into an underground esoteric conspiracy, and counters it with his own Conspiracy of Equals, eventually resulting in him being put on trial by the faceless rulers of this underworld. Also Daredevil gets really into Evgeny Pashukanis and the commodity-form theory of law.

The Flash (Wally West): having just finished Johns’ Flash and being disappointed by how the Rogues are deployed in relation to Wally, I think a little miniseries where the Rogues rope Wally into doing a Steel Ball Run type race/heist situation with them could be fun.

Spider-Man: After my obligatory dispatching of One More Day so Aunt May can have some damn peace and Peter can face up to his actions, Peter goes on a global vision quest to pay tribute to his aunt (or maybe run from it) and come to grips with what Spider-Man will mean for him in the wake of losing his last major parental figure.

no specific ideas for the other three, alas!

[thepurplemartian]

Lovers Rock

Possibly the last chapter for my little 2012 Casey x Donnie fic. Unless there's high demand for more.

Casey’s P.O.V.

When I woke up the next morning I wasn’t surprised with the absence of Donnie. Not saying that I have the best memory of last night but I do think we were a little closer than either of us would like to admit. But I wasn’t going to let something as silly as essentially cuddling get in the way of today, but I think we all know Don would. 

After stumbling over a couple loose projects I finally made my way out of the dimly lit lab and into the equally familiar environment of the entrance of the lair. 

I could both hear and feel the turtles training in the dojo, so without any goodbye’s I left, walking through the sewers as though I didn’t have a care in the world. My hands practically froze to the ladder as I was climbing up so the rest of my walk home was already doomed. 

Pausing in front of my apartment door I took a moment to reset. My house was normally quiet, especially when compared to the Hamato household. So considering the time, not even six a.m. yet, and how I stayed at a friend's house last night I should probably make breakfast for the three of us. Silently I turned the doorknob and crept into the dark living room, making sure to not step on any of the floorboards that I knew would cause any form of auditory disturbance. 

Angel, my little sister, slept in the room closest to the entrance, followed by my dad then me. The kitchen and bathroom were on the wall opposite to the bedrooms so I had to be ever so careful with what my next move would be, but because of my experience I worked mainly off of muscle memory, making my Dad’s meal first because his alarm should be going off soon. Next I would make mine, and last I would make Angels. Once everyone was awake, and soon gone I had the apartment to myself.

Hours passed and I barely did anything. The turtles didn’t need me for patrol today and April was coming back tomorrow so all I could do was stay here; and there is nothing to do here. Except for sleep.

Considering how little I slept last night it sounded pretty good. Sprawling onto the living room couch I mentally imagined how the rest of the day should go. Angel is staying at our grandparents house so no need to worry about picking her up today, and dad is going on another business trip so I could sleep however long I wanted. 

‘Someone is watching me.’

I stumbled off of my cramped sleeping arrangement to try and calm my nerves, I was home alone, so why did it feel like I was being watched? That however was resolved as quickly as the green brown and purple flash that sprinted into my room. Why is Donnie here? My eyes quickly found the small digital clock beneath the T.V. damn seven P.M. a four and a half hour nap was probably not the best idea, but that wasn’t my biggest concern right now. 

“Donnie?”

I called out, putting on my favorite record, turning it up enough to fill the emptiness of the apartment in a pleasant way. Peering into my bedroom I wasn’t surprised to see the oh so familiar mutant sitting on my bed, even though they couldn’t say the same. Their eyes and mouth blasted open at the sight of me, although surprised to see me in my own home. 

“Hey Don, I’m surprised you're not sick of me yet.”

They chuckled and shook their head, calming down a little but they still looked uncomfortable.  

“Would you like to be?”

The bed creaked under my added weight as I sat next to them. 

“You know what I said the other day on patrol, about how “charming you were? Well what I meant by that was-”

Being the idiot I was while stumbling over my words I didn’t notice them leaning in, and eventually meeting their lips with mine. A short, but extremely effective way to shut me up I suppose. The kiss however got interrupted by the sound of my record skipping, Donnie got up and flipped it over, but when they sat back down, I didn’t fail to notice how they were slightly closer to me. 

“You’ve already said that, asshole.”

Donnie muttered, moving their hand on top of mine. I felt like I was on fire, and if I weren't the Casey Jones I probably would’ve exploded from all of the emotions at once, but instead, matching their tone I mumbled.  

“I might let you stay, but just for tonight, Birdbrain.”

They chuckled into the second kiss, this time it was longer.

“Now, how many men have you kissed?”

We pulled apart, but still touched our foreheads.

“Very few.”

A short answer.

“But you offered me a kiss, why?”

I positioned myself to meet eye to eye, full of adoration. 

“Such a foolish reason I’m afraid, I just wanted to kiss you.”

12:10 a.m. Jan 1 2024 So, yeah. Not sure how to feel, Happy New years everyone!

[slashingdisneypasta]

For when you want... I thought of something very cursed while closing last night. What would happen if the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit went through a Dorothy Must Die scenario.

Don't ask me where this came from, I don't even know how it'd work 😭 but what I briefly thought of last night was that, for some reason, the world of toons gets blocked off from humanity (maybe they were considered too dangerous after the story of Theadore Valient got out?). And Doom, instead of trying to enact his plan to replace Toontown with a freeway, decides this is the perfect opportunity to take over and control the toons instead. So basically, Doom is DmD!Dorothy (I did not need the image of Doom in the gingham dress, but my brain went there 😭)

This was mainly imagining the Toon Patrol as the DmD trio, admittedly 😅 being Doom's enforcers and striking fear into the residents of Toontown in this AU. Psycho and Greasy are like Scarecrow, being the two most feared of the patrol for similar and different reasons. Smartass and Stupid could be similar to the Lion, being more on the dumb side, but also not questioning Doom and happy with his position as his seargent. That leaves Wheezy most like Tinman; deep down, he knows that all this is wrong, but he doesn't try to stop Doom or Smartass for his own reasons. They use DIP to scare the citizens into obeying these new laws, but they're far more grusome and dangerous here, just like the trio are in DmD. Can you imagine that bubble gun Tin's soldier used on Indigo, but with DIP?? (Ngl, I've been having fun imaging Greasy as the Scarecrow in particular).

I'm not sure who Amy Gumm would be, probably Eddie if he ever decides to visit the tunnel again or somehow got a job that required him to get close to Toontown and he got captured. Or it could be an original character. But Jessica and Roger are part of the rebellion to take Doom and his patrol down, along with various other characters. They're war torn and traumatized, but they're still kicking.

I have no idea why I thought this, but here you go 😅😅😅😅

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS!! Especially Scarecrow!Greasy, oh my g o d. Let me just- let me just- *gets out copy of Dorothy Must Die, which is heavily sticky-noted and thick from rereads already, and starts reading through all of Scare's bits imagining my favourite weasel* ... would it be crazy of me to write fanfiction of this concept!?? XD

YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME.

The only thing 'cursed' about this is Doom in gingham 🤣🤣🤣 But its all just 👌👌👌 Perfect! This was such a gem to wake up to XDD

I also love Stupid getting a main character part for once!! We too often let him fade into the background and this weighs heavily upon my soul, as I'm sure it does yours 😰Lion!Stupid would be so adorable!! Lion!Stupid developing a particular interest in a servant at the palace; them of course becoming his Favourite. Lion!Stupid struggling between his sexual appetite and his hunger for blood, licking and sucking and tasting his S/O any time that they're intimate; whimpering when they bleed because he got too rough with them; wanting to eat them. He wants to tear them apart and feast on their flesh, feel his teeth sink into their fat. Lion!Stupid feeling curious about this desire- because he loves them, doesn't he?? He doesn't understand. Lion!Stupid going to his good, old, most trustworthy, most intelligent friend Scarecrow!Greasy asking about it. Scarecrow!Greasy saying basically that he doesn't blame him- Stupid is an animal, after all. And that Y/N... is a delicious little morsel~ Do what feels right, Greasy tells him absentmindedly, going back to his work (Greasy never did alot the Lion much of his precious time, anymore, since Dorothy came back. Sometimes Stupid wondered why everything had changed). Follow your excellent, leonine instincts. Lion!Stupid returning to his lovers bed that night and doing exactly as his good comrade told him. Lion!Stupid eating what he loves (Lion!Stupid never losing the perfect taste off his tongue). Tin Woodman!Wheezy giving him a word of advice, later; that old friend of ours is crafty and cruel, Stu. Everything's different, now. 'ts best if ya don't trust any of us.