#yeah yeah I know this could apply to a lot of dc characters

[farshootergotme]

Started thinking about how Dick lost the two most important people in his life at the age of 8 and since then death has never left him. It's just so heartbreaking because it will never stop affecting him. He can't stop caring, he can't possibly stop loving the people who enter his life no matter how high the chances he'll lose them too are. He could lose his whole family, all his friends ('s been close both, even if some eventually came back) and yet he would never stop welcoming people in his life because his heart is just so big and he has so much love to give.

[robinofgothamcity]

“You’re going to be a great experiment, one that I never want to stop working on.”

Character: Jonathan Crane / DC

Authors note: please read my reintroduction post <3 it would mean a lot, especially if you’re an older follower and if you’re a newer follower, that would be just as great because you’ll get a sense the reintroduction to my page! / anwayyy, god I’m such a whore for Jonathan Crane it’s ridiculous. Also, let me know if you’re interested in a second part to this? It seems like it could use one but idk, it really depends on how much you guys would like this part first.

Possible warnings: do want to add a warning for drug mentions and use of drug!

Being the newer doctor down at Arkham felt like you were the new kid that moved into a new school in the middle of the year. It was terrifying, a bit overwhelming considering the patients, and not to mention, your colleagues never spoke to anyone unless it was for work purposes. You couldn’t help but wonder if it was like this because of the environment you were in but even your time when working with prisoners for Arkham wasn’t as stuffy.

The only reason you decided to switch departments was because of the pay raise. You didn’t know that working with such uppity coworkers was going to be for you. You wanted to at lease make a few new friends in the department but you knew that was less than possible considering no one ever chased a conversation like you had hoped they would.

You opened the door, decided now would be the best time to take you lunch. You weren’t expecting any clients for the next hour and you figured you’d get a meal in before your next one arrived.

Just as you were about to close the door, you noticed Dr.Crane approaching you.

“Morning Dr.Crane! How’s your morning!” You asked cheerfully. He stepped inside your office, not responding to your question, “I’m hearing from one of my colleagues over at the forensics department that you’re staying late tonight?”

“Ah, yeah! I’m getting a few more clients soon and I haven’t gotten some spare time to look over their files so I figured it’d be better to just stay a bit late tonight so I can be ready for them next week,” you replied. Jonathan sighed, “do not overwork yourself, it does nothing but cause a stress in your life.”

You found it a bit strange that Jonathan was suddenly caring about your decisions to stay late considering this was one of the first times that Jonathan had ever approached you for something that wasn’t work related. You knew that Jonathan wasn’t one of the most approachable ones based on the fact that most of your colleagues had warned about how strange Jonathan was. They had all mentioned that if it wasn’t for the fact that Jonathan was one of the more tenured workers, Arkham would have fired him by now.

“Oh, okay,” you replied cautiously, “I appreciate the advice?” You responded.

Jonathan didn’t respond as he looked at the files of your newest clients, “I wouldn’t worry too much on these clients. Bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and anxiety patients tend to be one of the more easier clients especially when dealing with the population in Gotham,” he said as he flipped through the files. You gave him a smile, “oh I know, when dealing with Arkham prisoners, my biggest issue was murderers and I don’t know why they kept giving me them considering I made it very clear that I didn’t want to deal with them.”

“Is that why you left and switched to the psychology department?” He asked. You thought for a moment, “not really. I actually got offered a higher paying position in this department. I originally applied to just be a prison psychologist but I figured dealing with the regular population instead of notorious gangsters would cause less stress.”

Jonathan couldn’t help but chuckle at your response, “there is no regular population in Gotham.” This time, you couldn’t help but laugh at him, “unless you’ve worked with the ruthless gangsters and murderers that Gotham has produced, I can beg to differ,” you said as you noticed Jonathan finally stepping out. You really didn’t know what it was that he really wanted but considering this was the first time you’ve actually had a conversation that wasn’t exactly work related, you’d take it.

-

You looked over to the clock realizing that it read eight in the evening. You quickly realized that most of your coworkers were now gone and it must’ve been you and a few of a the janitors.

You put all of your things into a bag, hoping that you’d just get something quick to eat and make it home.

Once you approached the front doors, you noticed that Jonathan was at his desk writing a few things down. You gave him a small wave and made your way to the door to leave but as you were about to reach your car, you noticed Jonathan approaching you again.

“A few of my friends and I are catching a rather late dinner tonight, would you be interested in coming along with me?” You blinked at him in disbelief. This past afternoon was the first time you’ve actually had spoken to him in a friendly manner and now he was asking you to catch dinner? “Um, depends? I don’t really know anyone here and the few friends that work at Arkham I don’t think would know anyone in our department.”

“If I remember correctly, your close friends with Edward Nashton in forensics?” You gave him another look in disbelief, wondering how the hell he knew him, “he was the one that gave me a headd up about your application for the psychology department. We’ve been friends for a rather long time if you were wondering.

You were going to grab Eddie by the neck for not telling you that he was friends with Jonathan.

“I mean, that doesn’t sound too bad. Where were you guys thinking of having dinner?” Jonathan fixed his glasses as he looked down to his phone, “there’s this really nice diner downtown that Eddie and I frequent from time to time. How about you just follow me and we can walk there,” he responded.

You agreed, not really having another choice so you quickly put your things into your car and met with Jonathan.

“So, has anyone been giving you a hard time? I know some of our colleagues can be a bit odd especially with newer staff,” you shook your head no, “for the most part, no problems at all. I just wish everyone was more friendlier. Back when I was the psychiatrist for Arkham with the prisoners, all of the staff was very friendly and easy to conversational with but now it seems like everyone just hates it there and cannot keep a conversation to save their lives.”

Jonathan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Ah, so you have noticed the strange way of our coworkers to which I am not surprised by at all,” Jonathan replied. You clapped happily in agreement, “like I know I’m very talkative but it looks like it almost hurts them to speak unless it’s about work. I guess in a way that isn’t a bad thing considering that means there isn’t any workplace drama but I do miss having a friend to speak too.”

As the two of you approached the diner, you noticed that Eddie already had a table set for you.

“You moron, how come you didn’t tell me you knew Dr.Crane,” you said as you smacked him on the back of the head. Eddie looked to Jonathan and laughed, “well, you didn’t exactly ask. I just figured you’d end up becoming his friend anyway.”

You gave him one final look of disbelief before looking to the waiter. He looked no older than 22 and seemed like he wanted nothing more than to just leave the damn diner, “I’ll take your soup of the day if that isn’t too much,” he nodded as he slid you your water. As you went to grab a complimentary packet of crackers, you failed to see the look on Jonathan’s face as he looked at the waiter who was very much checking you out.

“Would you guys mind watching my bag? I need to run to the bathroom,” Edward nodded as he put it on the chair next to him. As soon as you were out of hearing range, Jonathan gave him a smirk, “I do like her so be nice with her,” Edward stated as Jonathan agreed, “she might be a little airy in the head but she seems like a good candidate for my newest drug.”

Edward shook his head.

“She’s very smart i do have to say. She graduated from Gotham with honors but I think she just likes to talk and be friendly with everyone. What is it with her and the drug you want to test out?” He asked. Jonathan held the small vile of liquid in his hand as he dropped it entirely into your water, “that is for you to find out Edward. She is in safe hands, I can promise you that but I just need to make sure that your friend here is a permanent yet perfect candidate for this experiment.”

Edward hummed in response as he slid the file that was in his bag over to Jonathan. It contained all of your personal information that you thought would only confidential to Arkham. It included your address, prior education history, former employers, and your tags for any social media you had. Edward and Jonathan had been conjuring up this little plan for over a year and while you were almost entirely clueless about it, they knew it wouldn’t take you long to realize it which is why Jonathan created the drug he spilled into your water to make you almost entirely oblivious to it.

“I can sense that my duty here is done?” Edward asked as he stood up from the table, “I’ll make sure to send her a message on my abrupt disappearance,” Edward added on as he quickly left the diner.

You walked out of the bathroom with your blazer now on your arm and your shirt being a bit more unbuttoned. Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh. The drug he had placed on the files, which he knew you were going to inevitably touch, was already making you more comfortable around him and he knew if you drank from the water, it would just give him a bigger advantage when it came to his endgame with his experiment.

Jonathan knew that finding love in the most conventional way was not in his ballpark. Jonathan wanted a woman with intelligence, someone he could speak to without feeling like he was talking to a brick wall and although there were plenty of women in Arkham who could fill that role, he knew that his plans as Scarecrow would turn all of them away and even get him in the hands of GCPD. Jonathan clearly did not want that but he also knew that he wanted someone who could rule beside him as a lover and as a second hand ‘assistant’ when it came to dealing with him as scarecrow as well as giving The Riddler and The Mad Hatter a hand when they needed it.

“Did Edward run to the bathroom as well?” You asked taking a drink of the water, “oh, Arkham had an emergency in the forensics department and he had to leave. He hoped that you wouldn’t mind,” Jonathan explained.

You shook your head nonchalantly, “no issue at all! But hey, isn’t it crazy that we were just coworkers not even a few hours ago and we’re now getting dinner?” You mentioned. Jonathan laugh, “crazy indeed. It looks like your dinner is here!” He replied as he picked at his own plate, not really in the mood to have dinner. He was more interested in seeing how long the drug would take to enter your system.

The two of you continued to talk over dinner, a casual conversation flowed between the two of you as you had no idea in the world that Jonathan now had his entire plan in motion. The more the two of you talked, the more you got closer. It started with you leaning over to him everything time he spoke and the way you were now, it was very clear his drug didn’t need a boost considering you were almost on the man.

Your shirt was down to the middle buttons and you were crossing your legs tightly.

“I do have a bottle of fine at my place if you want to continue the conversation there! I figure the diner might close soon but if you don’t feel comfortable with that, I’ll see you at work on Monday?” You asked. Jonathan grabbed your blazer along with your bag and held it on his arm, “lead the way to your apartment,” he said.

You instantly got up, making sure to leave a tip at the table for the waiter and took the lead for a second before you grabbed Jonathan’s arms and pushed him against the wall, “I know this is very straight forward but I just can’t continue to deny the fact that you are very attractive right now,” you whispered as you smashed your lips against his.

Bingo.

Jonathan ran his hands down your thigh as you jumped onto him. You wrapped your legs around his waist as you pushed your chest against his. Jonathan started to chuckle as felt you trying to unbutton his pants.

“I can’t help but agree with you,” Jonathan whispered in your ear as he started to play with the hem of your panties, “now how about we make it to your car and we can continue this session in your bedroom,” he continued. You agreed as you jumped off of him and practically dragged him over to your car.

Jonathan just needed to make sure he sent a thank you message over to Edward before the end of the night. His little experiment was now in his hands and he didn’t need to struggle much to achieve it.

[mamawasatesttube]

Technically I could google it, but what’s the deal with the new 52, and flashpoint, and rebirth etc… I think you’ve mentioned before that Kon has several different origins and stuff… wild.

so technically kon has one main origin that's just been altered by a couple of retcons, and then there's just a whole entire Other Fucking Guy dc made up and also named kon-el because they hate happiness. i'll get to that in a second sdfhdkjs

SO. "new 52", "precrisis", "postcrisis", and "rebirth" all refer to different periods of dc continuity! precrisis is the oldest and refers to comics written before crisis on infinite earths (1985). when anyone refers to "the crisis" you can generally assume they mean coie, as it's the Most Significant one. coie's meta purpose was to consolidate all of the timelines and not-really-in-continuity stories into a more cohesive overall dc universe.

thus we ended in the postcrisis universe, also known as new earth (after all the fuckery ended and some timelines kinda reset etc etc). a lot of titles like superman, wonder woman, etc., got relaunched in 1987 after coie ended. this is frankly, in my and also many other people's opinions, dc's best era (1987 - 2011); this is where we got storylines like the death and return of superman, saw characters like the cast of young justice '98 introduced, and followed a lot of different characters as they grew and developed, such as tim drake moving from 200+ issues of robin towards a new mantle (red robin) towards the end of the era.

unfortunately, for some reason, this guy working at dc named dan didio who was just like absolute god at coming up with terrible ideas, was like. hey so the timeline's getting cluttered and complicated again. i know what we need to do. another entire fucking universe reset! and this time we'll just absolutely bungle it. i'm talking edgier characterizations. throwing out established character relationships and dynamics. edgier everything actually. this will be fucking awesome.

spoiler alert it was not fucking awesome. this was the new 52 and it was massively unpopular. it was kicked off by an event called flashpoint (this is why sometimes you will see people referring to pre-n52 as pre-flashpoint). sales were pretty Not Stellar. it was a fucking mess with absolutely no preplanning or anything. for more on what a shitshow n52 was, here's an article.

and so new 52 kon specifically? yeah. not a clone of superman. a clone of some other guy (specifically, an alternate universe son of superman and lois lane named jon lane kent). this is where the "kon means abomination" thing came from (the author is scott lobdell and i throw tomatoes at him in my mind on the daily, for this and many many other crimes). it does not apply to main continuity kon because it got retconned out of existence and also literally did not happen to him because n52 kon is an Entirely Different Fucking Guy.

so all of five years after n52 happened, dc was like. okay everyone hates this and wants the postcrisis continuity back. uhhhh... okay! and so in 2016 they launched rebirth, also known as prime earth, in a story that more or less just undid flashpoint except not exactly. this restored a lot of the general broad strokes of postcrisis continuity (except where it didn't, and boy did a lot of things fall through those cracks, such as... the entire kon-el. he was not in continuity at all until young justice (2019). he just simply didn't exist anymore until this guy bendis was like well wait a minute we should bring that guy back! and proceeded to do it in the stupidest way possible... but i digress.)

thus kon really only has one origin: reign of the supermen. there have been some retcons that change the details of that origin (due to the byrne era "last son of krypton" mandate, the relaxation of that mandate, and then geoff johns being fucking stupid, in that order), but overall his origin has not changed. it's just that there is also some other guy out there named kon-el (who is.. currently not in continuity? i think? i don't really know. i haven't read any n52 superboy/titans stuff bc i was like well that's not my kon so i don't care slkdjf but i'll probably get there one day or another...)

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

Now that submissions are closed, we can talk stats. There were 881 valid, unique submissions for 474 characters! Woof, women have it rough out there!

The most submitted characters, with a relevant propaganda snippet included, are:

1. Sakura Haruno (Naruto): 28 [where do i even fucking begin]

2. Cordelia Chase (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel): 21 [OH SO MANY THINGS]

3. Misa Amane (Death Note): 20 [The author of Death Note invented new forms of misogyny just to apply them to Misa.]

4. Kaede Akamatsu (Danganronpa V3): 15 [Oh, you thought we would have a female main character in one of our mainline games? With a cool defining talent, no less? That's stupid of you]

5. TIE: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts): 14 [I'm so mad. I think she deserves a gun.]

5. TIE: Stephanie Brown (DC Comics): 14 [She does eventually get retconned as surviving the event and hiding out in Africa (don't ask, it does not make more sense in context)]

The canons with the most submissions, with a relevant propaganda snippet included, are:

1. DC Comics: 61 [DC has SO MUCH sexism it's laughable]

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: 35 [Fuck Joss Whedon, man.]

3. Naruto: 33 [because Kishimoto hates women]

4. Warrior Cats: 26 [Warriors is one of the most misogynistic children's series I've ever seen]

5. Danganronpa: 25 [I honestly had to think about it just to decide which woman is treated the worst because this series hates them so much]

The canons with the most characters submitted, with a relevant propaganda snippet for a specific character included, are:

1. DC Comics: 21 [Free her from the huge tits back breaking pose.]

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: 12 [Anyways she was so hot and for what. 10/10 my lesbian awakening.]

3. Supernatural: 11 [Yeah, she got randomly killed off-screen for shock value and manpain, but she sent an email right before she died so at least her death wasn't in vain, right?]

4. TIE: Star Trek: 9 [She literally gets teleported out of her clothes in one episode.]

4. TIE: Yu-Gi-Oh!: 9 [One loss is particularly brutal as she falls from a large height directly onto her head and goes into a coma (again. yes this was the second time).]

5. TIE: Warrior Cats: 8 [I'm sure she'll get submitted again just ask any reasonable fan they'll tell you about her and her sister]

5. TIE: Attack on Titan: 8 [As a child soldier, she does commit some war crimes]

And here are some charts to show how some of these entries fucked the scale on my charts:

Look at Sakura, fucking up my chart with her numbers.

On a similar note...

Good god, DC, I know what you did, but add fucking up my charts to your list of crimes.

And now, enjoy some rankings of my favorite things:

My favorite universal sentiment quotes from propaganda are:

She lived she served cunt and then she got killed off super early so that the male characters could experience man pain and also because I guess she would have been too powerful if left alive. [Wen Qing (Mo Dao Zu Shi)]

That design. Dear god. I don't want to live on this planet anymore. [Mitzi (The Queen's Corgi)]

In the end she may have girlbossed too close to the sun, but I support her anger. [Ling Wen (Heaven Official's Blessing)]

the victim of “writer doesn’t understand women and also hates them” disease. [Naomi Misora (Death Note)]

She could 100% kill somebody but nobody ever effing lets her. Rip queen. [Kairi (Kingdom Hearts)]

My favorite raging at a writer quotes from propaganda are:

1. You took every single protagonist to weird lion heaven, Clive, but suddenly Susan isn't good enough. [Susan Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)]

2. Being a woman written by Joss Whedon should automatically entitle her to financial compensation tbh. [River Tam (Firefly)]

3. A lot can be summed up in a couple words, namely, "Furman, why?" [Arcee (Transformers)]

4. Can you tell respect women juice ran in Tolstoy's veins. [Lise Bolkonskaya (War and Peace)]

5. TIE: (specifically a guy called Dan Didio, who we all hate) [Stephanie Brown (DC Comics)]

5. TIE: until Geoff motherfucking Johns comes into the picture [Pantha (DC Comics)]

My favorite quotes from propaganda that have nothing to do with misogyny, y'all are just funny:

I wish I could use bold here, because there's no such thing as uppercase numbers. [Arcee (Transformers)]

the most convoluted and lore dense piece of media this side of the afton criticality. [Jane Crocker (Homestuck)]

ended up starting a gang war by accident [Stephanie Brown (DC Comics)]

Ashfur, who later turns out to be a murderous incel [Squirrelflight (Warrior Cats)]

Hawkfrost is actively seeing Brambleclaw and his evil father in cat hell. [Squirrelflight (Warrior Cats)]

[chaotic-tired-fox]

I can say now with relative certainty that I know Hunk’s identity and in this post I’ll show you how because literally no one else is talking about this!

Strap in folks as I unload some of the best evidence I’ve found for Resi’s most elusive character.

This idea was first put into my head by a comment made by Evil Blitz in this video:

https://youtu.be/pyoW-FLqh1o

He suggests that because Hunk can keep his identity hidden so well he would have no need to flee prosecution. At the end of RE7 Blue Umbrella shows up, all of which are wearing masks to conceal their identities. Now this isn’t solid information alone but there’s more.

Blue Umbrella was said to be made up by people who used to work for the original Umbrella just as Hunk did and being as highly skilled as he is it would make sense for him to begin working with them.

Evil Blitz also suggested the same could be said about Chris’s Hound Wolf Squad all of which are highly skilled and, like Chris, survive a good 16 years after the events of Village as we discover in the DLC meaning they really are the best of the best.

Who else do we know who’s good at avoiding death? Oh yeah, The Grim Reaper himself. Hunk.

The HWS also all hide their faces but with the use of mods we can still see what they look like. We’ll come back to that later.

Two of the oldest members of the HWS are Umber Eyes and Lobo whom I guess to be around the same age as Chris. We can already rule out Umber Eyes as Hunk is already known to be Caucasian. That leaves Lobo AKA John Perlman, the machine gunner.

Now out of everyone on the squad, Lobo went through the biggest design change from concept art to character model.

His original design appeared to look more like a biker which I think is a reference to DC’s space biker Lobo whom he shares a name with.

But like I said his character model which appears in game and is canon is drastically different with exception of his eye scars which are an important detail we’ll circle back to.

(Credit: @loneghostwolf for the image)

Here we see Lobo has silver hair, stubble, dark eyes and eye scars.

Now let’s compare him to Hunk’s canon unmasking in Resident Evil 3’s Epilogue scenes.

Old quality aside we can clearly see the same hair, stubble, dark eyes and yes, The Eye Scar.

Now between these two pictures around 24 years have passed but that doesn’t rule out that they aren’t the same. Let me draw your attention to his stubble.

In the older image it is pretty apparent that Hunk is blond judging by his stubble and if we look at the shadow we can assume that his hair is too.

But also Blond people are known to go grey a lot faster compared to dark haired people so we can assume that even 24 years before, Hunk was already getting greyer hair.

Let’s compare the two side by side again:

Out of everything the eye scar is the most damning evidence I’ve seen. It’s position is slightly different but we all know Capcom is rather loose when it comes to characters staying true to their appearances (just look at Chris lol) The same applies to his face shape.

Can’t see the scar? Here’s a draw over:

Now let’s talk about personality because between Hunk and Lobo there are some differences I’d like to discuss.

Hunk is known to be cold, calculating and emotionless but that isn’t the case with Lobo.

Lobo, based on his dialogue in RE8 is more laidback and playful, referring to the raid on the village as ‘fun’. Now you may think this blows holes in my theory but allow me to direct your attention to Chris Redfield.

Is Chris Redfield in RE1 anything like Chris Redfield in RE8?

Nope! And that’s called character growth.

Chris has lost a lot of his playfulness over the years because of his repeated trauma and experiences. We can assume the same happened to Hunk but rather in reverse.

Hunk’s origin is still a complete mystery but being a cold emotionless killer is definitely the result of his job at Umbrella. The mission is always top priority and nothing else matters. He was trained to believe that on Rockfort which is the earliest information we have on him.

His behaviors are on par with other Umbrella characters like Wesker and especially Birkin. His job is his life and all he knows.

Your surroundings can drastically change your personality and reaction to things and I strongly believe that once Hunk was freed from Umbrella he began to understand his own sense of self and who he was as a person rather than as a weapon.

Blue Umbrella was the perfect place for him to discover himself even if no one else knew who he used to be. Surrounded by Ex-Umbrella employees living with their own regrets and trying to fix their mistakes would make Hunk question his own after all him stealing the G-Virus caused a chain reaction across the whole series.

His choices are directly responsible for the majority of the outbreaks following. If anything it’s possible he’s trying to make things right again and atone.

Being at Chris’s side is also beneficial regardless of whether or not his captain knows his identity which wouldn’t matter anyways anymore. They are both men who’s actions had resulted in the loss of their whole teams and by the end of Shadow of Rose it appears that both their curses have finally been broken.

But wait! There’s more.

Lobo in RE8 says this to Chris:

“Been a while since we fought together Captain. When was it last, the desert?”

This is a reference to Heavenly Island, a comic that takes place after RE6 but before RE7 meaning the two worked together previously in the Mojave Desert.

Because of this we can easily assume Chris hand picked him personally for the HWS based on these previous experiences of seeing him in battle.

This cannot be said about any other HWS member as it’s never revealed how they were recruited and who by.

Anyways Lobo is Hunk, here’s my evidence and thanks for listening. PLEASE tell me your thoughts and spread this around to get more people talking about this!

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Eyes and Ears

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam

Summary: An AU where Barbara finds Jason instead of Bruce.

Chapters: 12/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Sheila Haywood, Original Character(s)

Relationship(s): Jason Todd/Original Character(s), Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Older SIbling Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd-centric, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Jason Todd is NOT Robin, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Has a Crush, Adopted Siblings

Chapter Twelve: Application Time

Barbara took a nap on the couch, and Jason came and nudged her awake. She opened her eyes. "Barbara... I—."

"I lied to you. I'm sorry... But how did you know?" Barbara asked.

"I finally thought about it... Dick was like twelve. Maybe thirteen. I don't think he was running around with some random guy. I wasn't just mad about the lying. I was pissed because it felt like you don't really trust me, and I tell you whatever you wanna know about me. I don't know what else I could possibly do to make you trust me. Pop trusts me," Jason whispered. Barbara sat up completely, and Jason sat next to her. "I just want you to feel like you can trust me."

"I do. Jason, I just made a promise that I had to keep... What were you doing in the cemetery with Bruce Wayne?" she asked. Jason looked at her, and she softened. "Oh... Jason, I'm sorry. Is that where you always go?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't. Sometimes I go home, sometimes I go to the cemetery... Other times I go to the docks," Jason replied. Barbara looked at him. "No more going to the docks at night, please," she requested. Jason softened a little and nodded. "And Jason, I meant it. We are a team."

The doorbell rang, and Barbara got up to answer. "Bruce?" she whispered.

"Would both of you mind coming with me?" Bruce asked. Jason looked at Barbara.

"Go put your shoes on," Barbara whispered. He went back to his room, and Barbara cocked her head. "He isn't gonna tell anyone. Jason's a good kid."

"I know. I spent two hours talking to Jason last night... He's a charming kid. He's also a funny kid. You didn't tell me he tried to steal my tires," Bruce smiled at the thought.

"He told you that?" Barbara asked. Bruce nodded.

"We had a lot to talk about once he sort of figured things out. He wasn't bragging... He was apologizing—."

"Don't put my brother to the test just to crush him," Barbara whispered, "I'm not putting him in the field. I discussed that with him already."

Jason came out of his room dressed and ready to go, and he slipped his shoes on. They went out front to the car and rode out to the manor. "No school today?" Bruce asked.

"I'm in homeschool. Pop wants me to go to public school for my freshman year, though," Jason answered.

Barbara turned around in the car and looked at him. "Dad wants you to go to public school?" Barbara's voice went up an octave.

"I don't think it's a bad idea," Jason replied, "I was only in home school to catch up, but now I'm a little ahead... I might as well go to public school."

"Central?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not sure. I would've gone to Heights when I lived on Park Row... Central High is closer to home," Jason answered. He fidgeted with his seatbelt. "Unless by magic I get into the Academy, I'm going to end up going to Central. And that's cool and everything, but I don't know anybody in this part of Gotham."

"You know kids at Gotham Academy?" Bruce asked.

Jason shrugged. "A lot of smart people come out of Park Row," Jason mumbled.

"You applied to get into the school?" Barbara asked.

Jason made a soft noise. "Yeah... Maybe we should change the subject. Did you want my sister to be Batgirl when she started out?" Jason asked.

"Absolutely not. I wanted Barbara to quit," Bruce answered.

"He didn't just want me to quit. He actively discouraged me," Barbara added, "It took almost a year to convince him that I was up for the job."

Once they got to the manor, Bruce led them upstairs, and they entered the cave. Jason marveled at Batman's many trophies as Bruce took him on a tour of the cave. Barbara started to get antsy as she realized what Bruce was doing. As they neared the training simulator, Barbara walked ahead of Bruce after whispering a single warning, "He doesn't need to be tested."

"You trained him. Don't you want to see how he holds his own without you," Bruce whispered. Barbara clenched her jaw and remained silent. Bruce let Jason walk into the training simulator to look around as he described what it does.

"Whoa! I bet it took forever to build this!" Jason exclaimed.

"Would you like to give it a spin?" Bruce asked. Jason nodded, his mouth agape as he stood there in awe. "Go on," Bruce nudged him.

Barbara waited until Jason was out of earshot to say, "I already talked to him. He's not going out in the field. He's too—." The simulation started, and Barbara hoped that Bruce's idea of failure wouldn't crush Jason.

She could only imagine how Jason would fare. Barbara fearfully watched as Jason made his way through the first part of the simulation. As difficulty increased, Barbara crossed her arms and whispered for Bruce to shut off the simulation. "Something's wrong," Bruce stated calmly, "Isn't he right-handed?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with-. If there's something wrong—."

"Just watch him," Bruce interrupted. Barbara watched closely, and a smile spread across her face. "Leading away from civilians."

"What a ham," she chuckled as she watched Jason, "He knows this is a test."

As the simulation came to an end, Barbara looked up to notice that Bruce was smiling. Jason stepped out of the room and crossed his arms. Jason looked to Barbara for approval rather than Bruce. "What did I do wrong?" Jason asked.

Barbara smiled at him. "Excessive force," she whispered as she pulled him into a hug. "It takes six weeks to heal a fractured jaw. He can't talk if he can't speak." Jason couldn't help but smile as he noted the warm prideful tone of her voice. "But other than that, you were great."

Jason smiled as he pulled away. "And Mr. Wayne, I know I'm not ready. She'll tell me when I am," Jason replied. Bruce smiled and nodded.

"You can call me Bruce... She's doing a great job training you," Bruce commended Barbara and Jason both. Bruce invited them to stay for lunch, and Jason waited for Barbara's answer. She nodded, and they went back upstairs and had lunch with Bruce. Jason's phone rang, and he excused himself to answer Jim's call.

"Hi, Pop," Jason answered calmly.

"Hi, Jason. I'm going to the store in an hour or two. I just wanted to check in and see if you wanted anything," Jim replied, "And how are you and Barbara doing?"

"We're good... And can we have sloppy joes for dinner?" Jason asked.

"Read my mind... Listen, you know that we're your family no matter what... And can we talk about high school later?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, why?" Jason asked.

"Because I just got an email, and I didn't want to open it until we could sit down together," Jim answered. Jason let out a breath of air as he pushed a hand through his curls.

"An email? From?" Jason asked.

"Gotham Academy. I've had my fingers crossed for you since I got it. I love you. Tell your sister I love her too, will ya?" Jim asked.

"Can do, Pop. I love you too, bye," Jason replied, and Jim hung up. Jason collected himself before sitting back down at the table.

[themyscirah]

Okay so mixed reviews on the kung fu trio movie. Let's break it down

FIRST.

#1 biggest problem with this movie was their treatment of Ben, especially in flashbacks. I think they blew the "anger issue" thing way out of proportion (ESPECIALLY with the part of the timeline they were working with. On god) and also used that to make him like a "sassy" stereotype or whatever. Like guys thats racist come on. This came out in 2021 we are trying to DEstereotype people why are you applying new ones to characters who already had a stereotyping problem. Oh my god.

Anyways yeah I'll just say in general as a big Ben fan I don't think this movie was really fair to him in that sense, although there are a few moments I do like with him, such as most of the Broze Tiger montage, or when he comforts his student outside his dojo. Also mixed bag on him using 70s slang I think there are times where it was fun and worked and also times where it played into the above which 😡

ALSO on the topic of the 70s!!!!! I LOVED the fact that this movie was set in the 70s and that was acknowledged with style and slang and everything. I thought that was so fun (the sideburns omg) and after seeing it set that way I literally couldn't imagine a movie with them existing that wasn't set then. Like it's literally their era and the era of their genre.

Also all of the KFT had crippling depression, anger, and guilt complexes post 70s so there def would have been issues involved w that

Speaking again about the 70s, I feel like a lot of the other problems I had with the movie could have been solved by taking more plot elements from their precrisis comic.

Like these are more comic accuracy critiques but like why would you have there be a cursed sword (named soul breaker. That's literally two letters off from soultaker like could you be less subtle when ripping off other characters) when you could just be creative and use stuff from the O'Neil series instead. Like the O-Sensei gave Richard Dragon the Dragon's Claw so just have that be your artifact. Or if they really wanted a weapon for Shiva to be the Guardian of just make up a dagger that the Dragon's Claw could combine with and have both get stolen. Like I think there were better ways that plot could have been done.

Also speaking of Shiva I was really bummed that there were 0 Carolyn mentions in this movie, especially when the opportunity was RIGHT THERE. like they literally had a fellow student get killed in flashback to open the demon gate or whatever and instead of having it be Carolyn, for some reason it's Jade Nguyen instead (what is with DC adaptations and randomly inserting Jade with character groups she's not a part of??????). The only good thing from that decision was the absolutely hilarious moment of Jade accusing Shiva of not having what it takes to kill. Like BABE do you know who you are talking to. Most wrong anyone has ever been.

No but like I think killing (or even mentioning) Carolyn would have been a way better choice for the movie, especially in terms of Sandra. Especially because they were trying to do a "Shiva has changed, she's not the girl you knew" thing post-flashback. Like Carolyn's death would have been a PERFECT reason for this. To be fair, it would have made this movie super dark and pretty gory because post Carolyn Shiva is NOT to be fucked with ever but like they were already having people be murdered barehanded (with blood) and mild cursing so like they should have gone for it.

Side note: who was the target audience for these movies??? Like it's animated so you think younger but there's lots of violence and straight up murder by the protagonists (with gore) so like I don't even know.

Anyways yeah they should have killed Carolyn. OR had Shiva's blood relation to the O-Sensei be a thing still. Like listen. If you are going to make a movie based on a 70s comic like don't be afraid to take plot elements from that. Like ik the og comic has been made non-canon like twice by now but who cares. When was the last time the KFT backstory was actually talked about anyways? 2008? Just go for it bro. Make them related for extra drama and also legacy stuff. Shiva his (grand-niece? goddaughter? Idk) being his pride and joy but turning against his legacy into one of violence and blood which Richard, his psuedo-son (at least here. I don't remember the details of their og relationship) instead begins to rise and fill that instead.

Also I think they could have highlighted this shift in terms of Shiva's name. Ben and Richard are really the only people (besides Carolyn, rip Carolyn) she's Sandra to, so I think having her go by that at while training (which they called Nanda Parbat or smth similar btw which ????????? No???????) Would have made her shift into Shiva more meaningful, and their kind of denial of this transofrmation as well, as they continue to call her Sandra occasionally after they reunite. (Bruce would always call her Shiva post-flashback).

Also why did they have Shiva run a gang in Gotham to signify her evil(ish) status. They should have had her doing her normal thing. Like introduce her by having her challenge Batman (not knowing he was Bruce) but then win, stopping and sparing him once she realized their (movie-canon) friendship. That would also give us a cool fight scene out of it too.

Um feel like I covered most of the changes I would make- OH! I actually really liked how they did Richard in this. Which surprised me because he's my least favorite by far and I usually don't like him that much??? I think in canon it's definitely a case of the white guy learns martial arts, beats Asian people at it stereotype. I also just think things get weird and more like racist stereotypes start coming into play in terms of his original canon interactions with Ben, Carolyn, Sandra, etc. So I thought the choice to have him be Asian in this film was a really good one. Also they had him be interesting too. And like kind of cool. Idk this movie and his VA and all that actually made me really enjoy watching Richard Dragon. Which was weird as hell

Idk so mixed feelings on this movie in general. I really liked the premise of making a kung fu trio movie set so deeply in the 70s, I adore that, and I thought the addition of having Batman there and having known them actually worked really well. I'm very glad they did it that way. It obviously helped the movie itself get made and also in my ideal version BATMAN would honestly be the good mental health friend of the group by the end of the movie which is actually wild. Canon KFT trauma you are so insane and compelling to me actually.

My biggest issue with the movie (whose real name is like Batman: Soul of the Sword or something, [edit: it's called Soul of the Dragon] I love how I haven't mentioned it once [it's the kung fu trio movie to ME <3]) was definitely the portrayal of Ben. I'm definitely not suggesting we have him fall into the Black best friend stereotype he suffers from in the 70s comic but like. Just be better with it??? Thought his best moments of the film was where it went into his canon story and struggles and all that so just like. Do more of that idk. Just don't be racist abt it.

Otherwise my main gripes can all generally be summed up to this. When there's a point in a story where it feels like the adaptation has to diverge from canon to tell this story, 9 times out of 10 I believe it can actually be told better by moving closer towards canon, or by consulting a slightly different canon (precrisis vs preboot, etc.) In place of that.

[beyourownanchor6]

Yeah I thinj supergirl being on a separate universe really messed things up. I liked it when after Crisis On Infinite Earths they brought her inti earth prime. But by then the shows were ending, and because of covid the endings weren't even satisfying. But as a stand alone show Supergirl was one of my favorites, even with the plot holes.

Oh I actually disagree there, I think the CWDCTV universe was better than the MCU in that you could just watch parts of it and jump in at any time without needing previous knowledge of the franchise. Like I slowly dropped the shows one at a time and it still didn't impact my enjoyment of the shows/movies I wanted to watch. Meanwhile my bff wanted to watch Wandavision and asked me what else he needed to know to understand Wandavision and when I told him all the movies he had to watch, sometime just for a like 5 minutes of Wanda backstory, he asked me what he had to watch to understand those and we kept going like that and basically reverse engineering "you need to watch most of the MCU." Like he had to watch Guardians to understand their part in Infinity War, and he had to watch Infinity War to understand how Wanda lost Vision. Like it was a lot of backtracking just to understand one tv show, ya know? And like, i haven't watched most of the Thor movies, i watched one captain america movie, i didn't watch the antman movies... so a lot of stuff in the big crossover events goes over my head. Like i was watching The Marvels and at the end Kamala goes after Some Girl to start a team that I *think* will be the young avengers, and I don't know who that girl is because i didn't watch Hawkeye. I'm gonna watch thunderbolts but i already know that a lot of the backstory will go over my head cause I didn't watch Hawkeye or Black Widow.

Yeah we do. And oh, I loved it too, even if it made me very angry. It wasn't triggering or anything. But i hated how they closed Justin's arc (no spoilers in case you haven't finished it yet). And that's what my bff says! Lol me to, i've had the hots for mr. Bates since i was a teen. And yeeeees i loved Bates Motel. I shipped Norman and Dylan (i was freshly coming out of supernatural's Wincest, and hey, at least these two are only half brothers). Yeah since that last message i've thought about it more and i'm excited. The best part will be managing my diet. I'll eat so much ramen jesus christ.

Yeah, it's gonna be weird to have daredevil without foggy. Nice, glad you like punisher. He definitely is hot. And lol same.

I used beans with my mom and she understood it better! So thanks!

Oh yay for a trip, but sorry you got sunburned! Do you have moisturizer? Living in brazil i get terrible sunburns on the summer (not even like at the beach or anything. Just leaving the house to do errands is enough to get sunburned) and applying moisturizer to the sun burns always helps. My week was cool. I hooe yours was too!

rambling under the cut ���

yea i don't remember what went on with most of those shows at the end bc i left lol. and i think arrow finished before the pandemic and was still a shitty ending lmao. well it was going downhill before that but, lol

ohhh i meant just more in the story/plot lines that marvel is better. and they always seem to have a bigger budget or something lol. idk dc movies always seem ehhh in comparison, at least to me lol. i also never really got that into most of the dc characters, so that could be a lot of it. i like some of the movies, just overall i think marvel is better. but definitely agree marvel is hard to just watch one thing randomly bc they all go together 😅 i took a couple years off a while back and had to catch up on a lot. i still haven't seen a lot of the shows and a couple of movies, but i've seen enough to understand the general plot. i usually just say whatever and go along with it if i missed something/don't understand 😆 i really enjoyed hawkeye! personally i thought black widow was ehh and unnecessary for the most part

oh yea, i hate that too 😭 that felt so unnecessary for multiple reasons. idk if you watched sons of anarchy, but i loved seeing ryan hurst again! i don't even remember his character or most of the plot of bates motel, but i did enjoy it lol. also love vera farmiga. lots of good actors in there. and of course max thieriot. he plays in that show fire country now, idk if you've heard of/watched that but it's really good! i think you'd like it if you love 911

i saw a really bad quality video of a trailer for the new daredevil and i saw foggy and the punisher in it! i definitely am more excited for that now lol

oh that's awesome! glad she understood beans 😊

thanks, and i do! i ordered one that has aloe in it too and that seems to be helping. i look less like a tomato today than i have the last couple days, so there's that 😆 hope you're having a good week so far!

[long-live-astronerd-ghost-king]

Many thanks to everyone who defended the authors' right to write a fanon.

'If you don't like it, don't use it?'Lol. Well, we don’t use those parts of the canon that are not interesting to us. How about if you don't like it, don't read it then? Try it, it might be cool.

Jedipirateking, Frankly, I would have simply ignored this divergence in our tastes. But honestly, this whole fight in comments and reblogs is rude, yes. I don't care at all if you want to debate in one of my posts.It's always cool to hear someone else's opinion but you seem to find some satisfaction in your supposed superiority. I wish you all the best, but wasting time trying to prove something to a person who is not going to listen is simply pointless. This applies to both sides. You have one life, don’t waste it on such unworthy things. If you don’t like what most authors write then just make more content yourself. You don’t look rude because you want to use the canon, only because you think that everyone must do it too.

I don’t think a stranger’s opinion means anything to you, and believe me, I feel the same way. But just to respect the time of those people who spent time defending my interests, I can’t help but put in my two cents.

You really have interesting thoughts but try somehow not to consider your opinion the only correct one. I don't want to block you because you know a lot of interesting things about the fandom but a more sensitive person might actually be hurt that you're so desperate to make him understand his thoughts a bullshit. Try to be gentler in educating people, please.

Where is the law prohibiting us from writing a story with ready-made characters the way we want? For example, I’m not a fan of Batman x Joker but I would never shame those who write about it. I think the character would never do this so I don't write about it. But that doesn't mean another writer shouldn't do it.  If you want the canon to be used more often, the best thing you can do is write more about it yourself so that your thoughts become popular.

Readers are good at avoiding things that irritate them. Try it too maybe. If some things are a trigger for me, I just close a page but I never write comments on ao3 or here about how mad it makes me. I remain happy and an author remains happy that he receives a response from people who share his opinion. Criticism is also a wonderful thing but it shouldn't sound like hate.

~~~~~~

A good knowledge of a canon is a thing that’s always impressive but it’s not a canon. Some people just like overpowered characters. So? We all have favorites.

Fanfiction is made to give as ability to do what is not possible in the original story. I don’t care what laws the DC universe operates under. In this corner of Tumblr I am the Ancients and the Creator in one person.

You want to see a good rationale for the characters? Write it. Even in a reblog. Obviously you know a lot and have a good writing style and read your version will be wonderful. But don’t make other people think that they must put their life to know all about fandom before making fun prompts. Because that’s not how it works.  There’s nothing more beautiful than getting to know your favorite characters gradually. Newcomers have the right to participate, not look from the outside for a year when their knowledge is good enough for them to do it. Also some people just do not like canon and want to change it, so what? Maybe I admire some characters but not the world around them. This is fine.

Your comments are cool and helpful, but they go with "bullshit" and other not nice notes. I don’t think you were trying to be really rude, but your way of conveying your thoughts didn’t seem very polite, no offense.

Who made the law that prevents me from considering the Infinite Realms as the Kingdom of all the dead?

One alien? Yeah, it’s like there’s no dead Kryptonians in the Infinite Realms. Clark is not special. (But Danny and Dan are special for me.) If the boy could fight Pariah Dark using amplifiers, and Dan could subdue Fright Knight who served this Tyrannical King without them, then even if Snyder himself told me that Phantom would not defeat Superman, I would be a wall from a meme where dude trying to explain something to it. That's how simping works. His the best for me no matter what.

Also, I swear I didn’t mean that it would be easy for Dark Phantom to get rid of Superman. (even if I keep thinking about a possibility of a fusion with Clockwork for this mission). A long battle? Of course. Casualties? Sure. But when Superman kills Valerie, the last connection to his past self, Dan's just explodes with rage.

Maybe in the DC universe ghosts are some kind of magic users but I reserve the right to consider this a convergent evolution, nothing more. Not everything that is not subject to the laws of physics is magic.

If I wanted to, I could write that Danny called his asian uncle Xie Lian and he came and beat a Kryptonian with a stick while Hua Cheng and Phantom cheered, you know? And this would be quite canonical for the fandom he comes from but it is unlikely that you would be happy with such an opportunity either.

I’m not going to be ashamed of myself for making characters different from the original story. Of course, there are boundaries that I’m not willing to cross too but I’m certainly not going to tell other people that he should do the same thing.

~~~~~~

I must confess that, as a person who thinks Jason is my lil meow meow, I was the most perplexed by the comment that Batarang wasn’t Batman's. If we’re not going to ignore Clark’s power limit in my another post then let’s not give all the credit to Damian.

Batman: Under the Red Hood comic book exist. And the Batman: Three Jokers exist too. Not all Bruce versions are good. Was he trying to kill him? No, I don't think so. But this Batman done something worse than killing. He preferred the Clown to his boy. Not all Jasons can have WFA!Bruce and be happy.

Whether you’ve studied anatomy or not doesn’t really matter, any sane person knows that a human who bleeds from a neck can die in seconds or in minutes. Seriously, arterial bleeding, pulsatile! bleeding, is the most serious type that looks like a fountain, and how hard it is to stop it from a large vessel on a neck just can’t be said.

What's even worse, in the venous vessels of the neck, the pressure is lower than outside the body. So when the wound occurs, the air enters the brain vessels and clogs them. Within seconds, death comes.

Whatever how first-rate Batman’s skills are, there was no guarantee that Todd would survive the incident if the comic book obeyed the laws of normal physiology.

Batman doesn’t kill? Batman is one of the best DC heroes, but he’s not perfect, he’s not a saint. There are different versions of Bruce, and that’s why I love and hate this character at the same time.

Superman was the only reason why Batman didn’t avenge Robin’s death (Batman: A Death in the Family). And Batman actually does kill the Joker in Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three.

~~~~~

No offense, but talking about "this dude can’t be stronger than this one because yada yada" is completely pointless, at least because it's a fanfiction. It’s not math where you really need to justify that you're not mad if 2-7=15. We’re all here to have fun, right? It’s always cool to have an ability to explore different scenarios. >:)

DPXDC prompt. Dead on main.

Okay, Danny’s revenge for Jason through the Joker murder is fine.

But imagine the wrath of the Ghost King who responds to a call for help from his boyfriend and finds Red Hood with his throat cut and bleeding. Aside from it, there’s a bloody batarang on the roof. And it just pisses the Phantom off. Bat just left main treasure of his core to die.

Danny is still terrified even when Frostbite confirms that Jason will survive. Dan’s future is still fresh in his memory. That’s probably why when the councilman takes him off hospital ward duty to clarify what His Majesty wants as the guarantor of the Peace Treaty with demon race and what price to set for summons from cults Danny answers without a second thought.

Phantom: Batman.

Ghost: From a cult, Your Majesty?

Councillors have long been accustomed to Phantom giving strange requests so that people would not have the opportunity to really summon him.

Phantom: From the cult, from demons, ghosts or elves. Whatever. I need Batman and I need him yesterday. I give any reward to whoever delivers him to me, the price will be fair.

Ghost: Your word is our command.

~~~~~

In Gotham it’s 4 AM when Constantine is calling an emergency Justice League meeting.

'What did you do, Bats?' Shazam asks with undisguised concern.

~~~~~

Bonus points if Jason has to teleport himself directly to the JL space station and stop his feral lover from murder. Yeah, this is definitely not how he planned to reveal who was hiding under the Red Hood.

[bigskydreaming]

Do you ever feel like you're pushing a boulder up a hill defending characters against the same whole-hearted misinformation that keeps getting repeated again & again as if it's canon? I tried 4 times in a chat thread where people kept insisting that Dick Grayson and even the Teen Titans were jerks to Jason Todd when he was Robin. I don't know how you do it. No matter what you say, it just keeps going. No canon is ever enough. Why are some fans so set on the idea that everyone ostracized Jason?

Ooof yeah, that’s a whole barrel of annoying. The big gripe for me, in both my major fandoms, is that so much of the misinformation comes paired with this contradictory insistence on how much people don’t give a fuck about canon.....even while willfully trying to reinvent canon to say what they want it to say, in order to back up their version of events or take on various characters!

Its like, if you don’t give a fuck about canon, THEN DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT CANON. Don’t TELL me you don’t give a fuck about canon, and then GO OFF on how canon does all these things that canon most definitely does not do, thereby casting MUCH MUCH doubt upon your claims of not giving a fuck about canon, and suggesting that in fact, you do give quite a bit of fucks about canon, actually.

Y’know?

fahsklfhalfhkafl

But honestly, I’m not the person to give advice on this front because oof, I make bad choices here. LOLOLOL, no but for real, I can’t really tell you how to just deal with this because I’m like, I do not have mastery of that skillset myself. I have however long since exhausted myself of any illusions about CHANGING the minds of people who are particularly insistent upon things that never happened informing their particular view of characters, because like.....the reality is, people who come into fandoms emotionally invested in views of characters that they derived from other fics or fanons, like......it doesn’t matter that those things aren’t canon, what matters is their emotional investment in this particular fandom is entirely bound up in those particular views no matter WHERE they originated from, and so most of them aren’t changing their minds any time soon because they don’t WANT another viewpoint, their original one is the reason they’re here and invested in the first place. 

BUT at the same time, everybody wants to feel validated in their viewpoints, so the more that viewpoint is challenged by people being like uh no, here’s a thing that says you’re wrong, look, its here, its clear, the facts say shhhhhh the marketing campaign for all the Hateorade you’ve drunk about this character is based entirely on The Sky Is Green If We Say It Is logic.....the more people are like, determined to prove they’re right, even if their own personal conviction ORIGINALLY was not dependent on canon whatsoever and it only retroactively started mattering to them not as a source point for how they view characters but like, rather, a data point for Here’s How I Can Still Win This Argument.

And here’s where being in a comics fandom gets really fucking annoying:

Because there are so damn many comics.

And like, a lot of people in comics fandoms don’t even read the comics, and say so - and I mean, this is fine? If you’re here for the characters you don’t need to be here for the comics, so if you don’t actually like comics, like don’t read the comics, just read fic. Its whatever. BUT the bigger issue in my experience is like.....people arguing about comics canon even when they haven’t read the comics, like....often project onto everyone they’re arguing with, like, their own stance on comics.

What I mean by that is a lot of the people arguing about comics canon even when they proudly haven’t read a comic in their life because there are so many where would they even start and also, eww, I’m not doing all that.....like....there’s this presumption evident in a lot of arguments that the same holds true for everyone else in comics fandoms.....that none of the rest of us have read all those comics either, because how could anyone? There’s so many of them!

Forgetting of course, that many of us come into these fandoms from entirely different trajectories. If you come into a comics fandom because of fanfics, or a cartoon adaptation, or the movies.....upon your first day in fandom, when you look at all the comics canon that’s out there, you’re like holy shit that’s a lot, nobody could ever read all that, I’m certainly not going to read all that, I’m going back to fics.

BUT for those of us who came into these fandoms from the direction of reading the comics......our perspective was entirely different, because it was never some singular monolithic VASTNESS of unread comics that nobody could ever tackle because where would we even begin. For those of us who were reading comics for years or most of our lives......its been a handful of issues a month, month after month, year after year, rather than all in one sitting.

So the point of conflict becomes the presumption from a lot of fans who AREN’T here because of the comics, that comic book canon is this untapped cornucopia of potential validation, Schrodinger’s Canon, it can be basically whatever they want it to be, because who’s to say it ISN’T? If they can’t read all of that, nobody can read all of that, so when you think about it, its entirely plausible that the thing they insist happened in canon actually DID happen in canon, SOMEWHERE in all of that.....because just because they don’t know where it is and can’t point to it as explicitly existing, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist either. Who’s to say, really?

Well. Umm. People who in fact actually HAVE read all or most of the RELEVANT comics. Like yeah nobody’s read every comic ever I bet, lolol, but for lifelong DC readers, canon ISN’T this vast uncharted territory that can potentially contain everything.....its actually quite charted, and there are people who absolutely do know what it does and does not contain.

And this I think is at the heart of the insistence on particular points of argument, like Jason was always perpetually mistreated and Dick and the Titans hated him on sight and that’s why the Knights of the Order of Protection for the Smol Jason Bean hate Dick, because he was a giant jerkface to a little kid who never did anything to him ever. Like it doesn’t matter how much we point out that no, this did not in fact happen and is untrue, COMPLETELY, like.....people who came into fandom because of fics about Jason in which the entire perspective upon his character is uniformly, with virtually no exception, that he was scapegoated by Dick from Day One and he and Dick will always be eternally at odds because of the remnants of what a jerk and failure of a brother Dick was to him at first.......like, I feel like there’s this conviction lying underneath all those arguments, no matter how much canon they’re presented with, that there still exists out there SOMEWHERE, some untapped treasure trove of panels proving what a buttface Dick was to his first little brother, validating everything they’ve ever believed and thought ever, because look all those depictions of Dick being a giant assbutt to Jason in fics had to come from SOMEWHERE after all, didn’t they?

Well, yeah. They did come from somewhere. They came from the writers who wrote those fics that way because they either just hated Dick’s character or they were working through their own sibling angst and projected certain dynamics onto the characters or someone told them this is what things were like in the comics and they didn’t know any different or just didn’t care or a hundred million other possible reasons for why they wrote them that way with none of those reasons being Cuz Canon Said So.....and then those particular depictions caught on and multiplied fruitfully like the offspring of rabbits doing it sans contraceptives.

Because its not like “perpetual black sheep of the family so unfairly hated, so misunderstood, especially by the family’s favored son, the golden boy” is a fan favorite trope on its own, regardless of whether or not the characters said trope is applied to actually FIT that trope.

So in the end, the painful irony was not only did canon have nothing to do with that trend, canon COULD do nothing about that trend, because the reasons people turned to it, despite how often canon gets brought into it....really had nothing to do with canon.

So tbh, my personal stance these days is the best defense to fic-borne and originating views of the characters and their dynamics is NOT canon, its....more fic. Fic that presents a counter-narrative to the ones that are so often the first thing people see when they enter fandom, and thus become engrained as Truth. So that there’s at least more variety out there, because where there’s variety, there’s varied points of view, and the more people internalize THAT, that there are variations to be found in how these characters relate to each other and their shared histories......the more people have to make a CHOICE about what variations they most want to adhere to, from among the OPTIONS they’re presented with, instead of just doubling down on the first thing that clicks for them, no opposition in sight.

And if these counter “Dick’s just the worst like what an uber asshole gonna give a five star rating for Sucking At Life to that guy” fics happen to be inspired largely by canon rather than fanon like....oh no, how strange and unknowable, that’s not the Process, we’re doing it wrong but hey whatever.

But does that mean its not still frustrating as hell to see people just parroting the Dick and the Titans were mean to Jason truism as fact, especially when you know damn well its not? Hell no. That’s annoying as fuck. But don’t worry so much about trying to change peoples’ minds, I say, and instead just find people who ARE open to canon or familiar with it, and just have a good rant. Its fun!

 Here, I’ll start:

UGH AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT THIS WHOLE “DICK WAS SUCH A JERK TO JASON AND THE TITANS ALL FOLLOWED HIS LEAD” CRAPOLA SUMMER SALES EVENT:

Where would that even have happened???

Like what really chuffs my chopped onions here is when people are so suuuuuuuure that the gatekeepers of comic book fandom are keeping the real juicy anti-Dick panels hidden every time they ask “Hey Siri show me proof Dick’s a jerkmonster to Jason”....because like...they’re just SO SURE these panels are out there and its like lololol but where would they even come from? 

Because everybody overlooks that in proper Dickens fashion, pre-Flashpoint Jason was a Tale of Two Jasons, the pre-Crisis adorable child of sunshine and whee, and the post-Crisis I have smoker’s lung at age twelve Jason......and these two Jasons can and do and are MEANT to co-exist within the same body! They’re the same Jason, in hindsight!

See, post-Crisis Jason only existed for like, less than TWO YEARS real world time, before A Death in the Family! People have this assumption that because of how rock-solid the post-Crisis origin for him is and how solidly that’s informed his characterization and stories moving forward, like.....there was this HUGE foundation for it back in the day that was built upon.....but no! We’re talking like, less than twenty four issues IN TOTAL. Post-Crisis Jason was a drop in the bucket compared to pre-Crisis Jason.

So why then, is post-Crisis Jason so much more firmly cemented in peoples’ minds than pre-Crisis Jason even though pre-Crisis Jason had way more material written about him?

Because for once in DC’s existence, they were SMART about a retcon. They didn’t TRY to pit post-Crisis Jason versus pre-Crisis Jason and make people pick between them. Post-Crisis Jason wasn’t an attempt at overwriting pre-Crisis Jason and making it so he never existed. Instead, what they did with their limited amount of time writing post-Crisis Jason was overwrite only two stories specifically: his actual pre-Crisis origin, and how he and Dick first met....and then they let everything else from pre-Crisis stay! It just got folded IN BETWEEN Jason’s new post-Crisis origin and everything that came after that, thanks to some handy non-linear storytelling and flashbacks.

So rather than Jason having two entirely separate storylines and directions, they still kept him at just one....and his post-Crisis origin and A Death in the Family became BOOKENDS surrounding not just the twenty issues in between those two stories......but ALSO surrounding ALL the pre-Crisis issues featuring Jason.....including the times he interacted with Dick and the Titans.

And that’s why there’s no untapped treasure trove of potentially vilifying issues showcasing Dick being such a can of Jerkola to Jason.......

Because post-Crisis only amounted to a grand total of like twenty something issues.....in which Jason interacted with Dick once and only once....the issue which ends with Dick giving Jason his blessing as Robin, his costume, and his phone number to call him if he ever has any problems with Bruce.

But simultaneously, because all those pre-Crisis issues still existed, were still relevant, were still in continuity (as evidenced by Jason himself when he came back as the Red Hood and fought Tim at Titans Tower, referencing how he was briefly a Titan himself.......aka those issues in which he teamed up with the Titans, which ONLY happened before his new origin)....we similarly know that it wasn’t like Dick and Jason never had any contact after their first post-Crisis encounter....we just never saw Jason use that phone number on the page AFTER that issue (because again, there was no time before he was killed off in the comics TO engineer another on the page meet-up, like both characters were busy in unrelated stories in the course of the mere year between that issue and ADITF). BUT by the power of retcon, we do know that Jason still must have used it at some point, or else Dick reached out to him again at some later point off the page......because Dick and Jason’s easy familiarity with each other pre-Crisis STILL EXISTED AS WELL. They had a sibling relationship post-Crisis because they had a sibling relationship pre-Crisis...AND IT WAS THE SAME RELATIONSHIP.

And this is Part Two of why no untapped treasure trove of Jerk Dick and Poor Jason panels exists......because other than that one post-Crisis issue, all their other interactions hail from the pre-Crisis era....where Dick adored Jason and so did the rest of the Titans.

Jason wasn’t resentful of the Titans or scared of them or nursing grudges, he thought getting to hang out with his big brother’s friends WAS THE COOLEST FUCKING THING IN THE WORLD and you could practically see him bouncing on the page the times it happened. He glowed when Dick would ruffle his hair playfully or compliment him, and the Titans’ collective energy towards Jason was very much OH OUR FRIEND’S BABY BRO IS THE MOST ADORABLE SMALL CHILD EVER AND WE WILL PROTECT HIM WITH OUR LIVES.

Like people WILLFULLY misconstrue this one issue where Jason teamed up with the Original Titans other than Dick for a mission against Cheshire, and claim like “oh see, this is the proof that the Titans were mean to Jason because of Dick, they kept giving him shit for not being Dick and hated him for replacing Dick....” which omg noooooooooooo, that is so odiously NOT what happened in that issue. First off, NOBODY blamed Jason for replacing Dick back then, because at the time those issues were written, he DIDN’T....this was when Dick had given Robin to Jason himself, when choosing to move on as Nightwing. And even RETROACTIVELY looking at this issue in light of the retcon where Dick was fired as Robin, this STILL changes nothing about Dick and Jason’s dynamic at this particular time or how the rest of the Titans would have viewed Jason as of this issue.....because that’s where the post-Crisis issue specifically writing Dick and Jason’s new introduction to each other on the page matters so much. As now the ultimate takeaway is even while not making Jason Robin himself, this issue STILL showed Dick giving Jason his blessing.....thus maintaining and stabilizing every pre-Crisis interaction between Jason and the Titans and ensuring that this whole “they resented him on Dick’s behalf” scenario wouldn’t throw any retroactive curveballs into how they were with Jason...because now there still was no need for anything on Dick’s behalf, as far as Jason was concerned, because Dick had given his A-Ok.

So that just flat out never happened, not originally, pre-Crisis, and not even in hindsight after the post-Crisis retcons were factored in, because the HOW of the post-Crisis retcons specifically factored in an avoidance of this potential tangle.

And in fact, what DID happen in the arc where Jason teamed up with the Titans without Dick, to go up against Cheshire.......is that Donna, who was in charge of the team at the time, kept trying to defer to Jason-as-Robin, because subconsciously she was insecure about her leadership at the time and having a Robin at her side was making her think of when Dick had been in that role, and simultaneously been their leader, and thus she was trying to lean into the familiar comforts of being able to turn to a Robin for direction.

And Jason CALLED HER OUT ON THIS. Politely. And cutely. No for real it was adorable. But like, he did it with poise and self-confidence and deliberation, and SHE HEARD HIM. She snapped out of it. Jason laid out exactly what she was doing and why and Donna was like oh shit, you’re right, I HAVE been doing that. And Jason was like, and that’s not fair to me. And Donna was like no, you’re absolutely right, that isn’t fair to you, I’m sorry. And Jason’s like, I can’t be the leader here, I don’t have the experience that Dick does. But you do, and you can be the leader. And Donna was like. You’re three for three kiddo, damn you’re good at this.

AND THEN THEY WENT AND KICKED BAD GUY ASS TOGETHER AND EVERYTHING WAS HUNKY-DORY BECAUSE THE POINT OF THAT ENTIRE PLOT WAS NOT “EVERYONE IS MEAN TO POOR JASON BECAUSE DICK MADE A CONSPIRACY OF MEANNESS” IT WAS “JASON’S A KICK-ASS LITTLE GO-GETTER WHO KNOWS HIS STRENGTHS AND HIS STRENGTH IS TELLING PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE BEING DUMB AND THEY NEED TO STOP THAT.”

Okay, one caveat here. I must confess, its killing me....there is ONE Titan who was a jerk to Jason.

But uh....that Titan was Hank Hall aka Hawk. And he’s a jerk to everybody. Its kinda his superpower.

And he most certainly didn’t do it on Dick’s behalf, as Hank hates Dick and Dick hates Hank asfhilfhalfhalf. Seriously, they’re basically the hateship that ppl keep trying to make Dick and Jason into, only without the incest makes it spicy or whatever element, but like, if you’re not hung up on that and can ship people without them being related, oh no, oh woe, oh say it ain’t so, like, DickHank is the unsung hateship of dreaaaaaaaaaaams. They’re like:

Hank: As it is a day ending in y, I feel now is the perfect time to let you know, without prompting, that I hate your guts because people like you. And I hate people and everything they like, on account of people are the worst.

Dick: Well, you’re people, and you’re the worst, so that tracks.

Hank: So we’re agreed. I hate you. You hate me.....

Dick: Our hate is so in harmony.

Donna: What is even happening here and do I want to know.

Roy: In reverse order, no, probably not, and I’m not sure, but I THINK they’re getting hate married, and exchanging vows to hate each other in sickness and in health, forever and ever.

Wally: *skidding around corner* I CALL BEST MAN.

Donna: Its not a real wedding Wally.

Roy: Idk they seem pretty serious about it. Which means the best man position should be valid here, which means it should be me, because suck it West, only way you’ll ever be Dick’s best man is over my dead body.

Wally: Get ready to throw down then, Robin Hood, and just call me the Sheriff of Notachanceinhell, that best man position is MINE.

Garth: Whoa, hold up, I have an agreement IN WRITING from when we were THIRTEEN for Dick and I to be each other’s best men at our weddings, so I’m gonna need you both to stand down, I LITERALLY CALLED DIBS. Look. ITS IN WRITING.

Donna: Oh for fuck’s sake, you collective pluralization of buffoons, STOP TREATING THIS AS A REAL THING. ITS NOT A REAL THING.

Dick, eyes dead-locked on Hank: Oh this is real Donna. This is happening.

Hank, stepping forward, eyes equally locked: I have never been more serious about anything in my life. 

Lilith: Sure, you’ve only both saved the world but hey why should that matter. This is definitely the real shit.

Hank: Please. I only did that to prove I could do it better than Dick could. I hate the world.

Dick: Aww, and did you cry yourself to sleep when that flopped?

Hank: Wouldn’t know. It didn’t happen.

Donna: I swear by every god on Mt. Olympus, the first one of you to say I know you are but what am I is getting flung into orbit.

Anyway. I might have gotten distracted somewhere in there. What was your question again and did I answer it? I think I did....fahlkfhaklfhalhfa.

[maxwell-grant]

So, we've talked about teaming up The Shadow with Superman, and with Batman. How would a team-up with Wonder Woman work?

I've sat on this ask for a while to catch up on the character and talked a bit with @jcogginsa about it to get some thoughts in order, although if anyone else would like to chime in feel free to do so. So here goes: I think a team up between The Shadow and Wonder Woman has a lot of ways it could go wrong for fans of either character, but if done right, I think it could be perhaps a much more substantial story than crossing over The Shadow with Superman or Batman again.

You'd be hard pressed to pair two characters as diametrically opposite to each other visually as The Shadow and Wonder Woman, a very casual viewer might even be confused as to why the hell is Wonder Woman standing next to this Freddy Krueger looking weirdo. Much of what I said about the immediate contrasts between Superman and The Shadow are applied more so here, because here we have two characters who dig back further than the superhero in their domains. Wonder Woman is a superhero, but she is rooted in a realm of folklore and myth and fairy tales, archetypal and dream-like and with strongly defined morals, with Diana as the classic heroine who takes all of the male fears of powerful women present in the old Amazon stories, and subverts them into a powerful feminist statement and a mission of love and peace minded towards a progressive future. The Shadow's stories, as I've argued in turn, were less hard-hitting crime tales and more urban fairy tales told in an urban setting, where the streets of New York City replacing the dark forests of yore and everything's gone so topsy-turvy that the Big Bad Wolf has to become the one to save us from those that would oppress and destroy us. Dracula meets King Arthur, as his creator described him, here to fight to protect us for little reason other than he can and it's the right thing to do, by turning the tools of evil against itself.

Sadly, the two of them also have a long, long and miserable history of being misrepresented and mischaracterized past their initial eras.

I've remarked often enough on The Shadow's downfall, how the clever, thoughtful, compassionate, even humorous and outright friendly (if theatrical about it) Shadow of the pulps, has been so far removed from those traits over decades of adaptations, that I have to link posts where I point out that these traits used to be there in the first place, because they've all been eclipsed by the image of a trigger-happy butcher if not outright barking fascist. And it's worse for Wonder Woman, because her main defining trait was her pacifism and kindness and loving diplomacy, the lasso as a tool for careful and non-violent submission when necessary, whose very first story goes to such lengths to describe the contrast between the Amazons and Mars, the stupid and brutish god of war who points a sword at the world where Aphrodite would point a finger proclaiming love, and now, The Sword has become an irrevocable part of Wonder Woman's image, as is the jokes about her being the member of the Justice League willing to snap necks and rip spines if necessary, the most direct anti-thesis of everything that defined her initially.

Perhaps you could tell a story about the conciliation of these traits, the how and why these have become such commonplace for the two. They may still be heroes and agents of justice and good and whatnot, but something has clearly been missing from them for decades, a spark of humanity and imagination and care that's made the two of them so, so much worse off for the lack of it.

Perhaps there could be a story about the two helping each other find it again. Perhaps no one knows better the dangers of getting lost in the darkness of man's world than The Shadow, and perhaps there's no DC hero that could cut through the darkness to pull it back moreso than Wonder Woman. Idealism and reality, light and dark, the way things are vs the way they could be, and most of all, Knowledge and Truth coming together in the fight for a better world that the two have been immersed in for so long.

There are some better opportunities for the two to meet compared to Superman and Batman, as Wonder Woman has usually been grounded in real life events around The Shadow's time period. The movie has placed her debut during The Great War, and several stories have been told about Wonder Woman fighting during World War 2, two conflicts that The Shadow lived through, the first of which being a highly integral part of his characterization. Little adjustments would be necessary to explain their intrusions into each other's worlds. Past the initial distrust and a conciliation of their differences? I could see the two getting along better actually than The Shadow might with Superman and Batman, or Wonder Woman with other pulp heroes. They are soldiers who chose to pick their battles, who only found their true calling once they've exhausted all other options as to what they could be, and who take on a myriad of roles for the sake of their missions. They confront the darkest aspects of the world in their own ways as they are both shaped by it, and they affect the world in their own ways, one far more discreetly than the other

So yeah I actually think there's a lot you could do with crossing these two, maybe more so even than crossing over The Shadow with Batman or Superman again. I was surprised over the course of researching for this ask at just how much I find myself liking Wonder Woman even better than the other two, and frustrated at the sheer mishandling of the character. I'd like these two to meet, maybe punch some Nazis together, maybe help each other reconnect with their original missions.

Or alternative, @jcogginsa pitched me the idea of Wonder Woman just taking The Shadow on a vacation to get him to chill out a little. Probably not on Themyscira, even if they let men in, the Amazons would be asking Diana why is she letting this unholy ghost from Tartarus or servant of Hades anywhere near the island, but somewhere where she knows how to set up a good party. I love when Diana's allowed to have fun, and she might be the only superhero strong enough to successfully force The Shadow to loosen up a bit, let him interact with the world on less controlling terms for a change.

Also I desperately want a crossover between The Holiday Girls and The Agents. I want Etta Candy and Margo to go shopping or shoot some Nazis together, either way works but I will not accept any crossover between The Shadow and Wonder Woman that doesn't let their long-neglected supporting casts shine.

[littlebabytimmybird]

The Thing About  Teen Heroes

Look, I love kid heroes, ok? But as a young teen myself, I just don’t find the way they’re portrayed to be realistic. Which isn’t always a bad thing, since comic books were meant to be an escape from reality, but I, personally like it when fictional universes actually address their in-universe problems. I’m going to be talking about comics Young Justice in particular, since they’re the ones I’m most familiar with, but honestly this could apply to a lot of characters.

Kids just don’t have the same mindset about things. Because we’re still learning, a lot of things that would be completely out of the norm for an adult seem normal to us. This could actually be useful for someone in the DC universe, as they have to deal with seemingly impossible things all the time. But at the same time, this makes the possibility of becoming jaded extremely likely for a child. Not just to the strange things, but to the horrible ones as well. Sure, the adult heroes try to protect the kids, but YJ spend a lot of time on their own. They’re a group of fiercely independent kids who are desperate to prove they can handle things on their own. To my knowledge, they do not once call for adult assistance in the entirety of the 90′s YJ run. They see something happening, and they go deal with it, simple as that. Even if they know somethings too much for them to handle, they don’t call for help. They see something horrifying? Pfft. They’re not gonna go running to the grownups about it! They’re not babies, they can deal with this themselves. And if you don’t talk about the event itself, why would you talk about the nightmares it brought?

The thing is, I don’t even think they would try to hide it. Except maybe Kon and Cissie since they try to maintain a ‘tough guy’ act and don’t really have anyone to talk to about it anyways, the others probably don’t even think it’s worth mentioning. But things that bother you tend to slip out in one form or another.

Tim walks down to the Batcave clearly exhausted, but ready for patrol nonetheless. 

“Trouble sleeping?”

Tim fails to hide a yawn. “Yeah, just this annoying reoccurring dream I’ve been having. A case that my team covered a while back, we saw some guy get burnt to death.”

Bruce calls off patrol for the night and tells Tim to go home. Tim assumes he did something wrong and tries not to bring up his nightmares around Bruce again. 

Diana tells Cassie to go home for a particularly gruesome crime scene they’ve just arrived at. “What for?” Cassie asks “I saw something just like this with Young Justice once. Except in that one their heads had been bashed in as well.”

Diana actually carried Cassie home after she said that.

Bart is having dinner when Helen asks him about a weird scar on his arm. Bart shrugs. “We got caught in a warzone once. I would have just dodged the bullet, but Superboy distracted me and I tripped over a corpse.”

Max drops his fork in shock, Helen gasps, and Bart asks if he said something wrong.”

No one asks Kon, Cissie, or Greta any questions, so no one ever learns.

The other thing though? Who do you think patched them up when they were staying at the cave by themselves? Red Tornado trusts them, one could arguably say, too much. I doubt he would help unless they asked him too, and they wouldn’t. He’s also not there all the time. There would have been times when the kids dragged themselves back to the cave, too tired even for banter and covered in bruises and scrapes. Times when they collapsed on the couches, halfheartedly trying to patch themselves up until eventually they fall asleep, six children in torn costumes surrounded by medical supplies. They sleep fitfully, often waking up because of their own or others nightmares. They always do a bad job at dressing their wounds on nights like that, to the point where they have a running joke about trying to put bandaids over every wound, no matter how bad. Tim gets a long gash in one of the fights where the JLA and YJ work together. Batman rushes over to make sure he’s ok, but Kon laughs and says “That’s gonna need a shit ton of bandaids.” Still high on post-battle adrenaline, YJ cracks up, laughing till they’re crying. The JLA don’t understand, shrugging it off as a “You had to be there” joke.

They never learn the reason behind it.

[buckybeardreams]

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: James “Rhodey” Rhodes/Tony Stark

Characters: Tony Stark, James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Sam Wilson (Marvel), James “Bucky” Barnes

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drinking, Protective James “Rhodey” Rhodes, James “Rhodey” Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, Bottom Tony Stark, Top James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Tony Stark is a Pillow Princess, Romantic Fluff, Short & Sweet, Minor Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Drunk Sex, Come Swallowing, Come Eating, Spit As Lube, kinda voyeurism, Bucky Barnes & Tony Stark Friendship, Sappy, Tony’s a brat, Rhodey loves to spoil him, Sweet Tony Stark, Adorable Tony Stark, 1980s, Established Relationship, Non-Explicit Sex, Light Dom/Sub

Summary:

Tony and Rhodey have been together since the end of freshman year at MIT and there’s no doubt in either of their minds that they’re in love with each other.

They’re perfect for each other in everyway.

Tony is wild and reckless and Rhodey is protective and doting. Tony likes to fly high and throw away all of his cares, but it’s okay because Rhodey keeps him grounded. After all, Tony may be the life of the party, but he’s definitely the light of Rhodey’s life and Rhodey wouldn’t have it any other way.

Word Count: 5886

AC/DC was blasting through the speakers, bodies jumping around, people singing along, nodding their heads or grabbing someone up close to feel them up. Tony was knocking back drinks at the bar with Rhodey, laughing over some joke that wasn't nearly funny enough to have them cracking up the way they were. Alcohol was coursing through their veins, their inhibitions all but gone as they refilled their shot glasses.

The room was dimly lit by black lights, but the walls were lit up with smattered white paint that glowed in the fluorescent lighting. Tony’s Black Sabbath shirt was lit up like a glowstick and his face was lit up with a grin. He let out a holler, climbing up on the bar top, bouncing on his toes to the beat, his hands reaching up to the ceiling as his bouncing turned into swaying.

"I love this song!" Tony screamed so Rhodey could hear him over the bass that practically shook the ground.

Rhodey's hand smacked against the bar as he cracked up again. They were fucked up and having a blast and when Tony fell off the bar and landed on his ass, Rhodey scrambling off his stool to check on him, Tony just popped back up and burst into a fit of giggles.

"I love you, Rhodeybear!"

Rhodey did his best to control the laughter that wanted to bubble back up and to switch over from party mode to must-protect-Tony-from-himself-at-all-costs mode. Rhodey tugged him close, nuzzling at his cheek.

"Love you too, Tones,” He murmured softly in his ear. “Why don't we go grab some snacks, hm?"

Tony sighed dramatically, wrapping his arms around Rhodey’s neck.

"You're no fun, Rhodey."

Rhodey just rolled his eyes.

"Come on, pretty boy. I don't need you throwing up all over me again, so let me get you something to settle your stomach."

Tony protested a bit, but otherwise let Rhodey tug him into the kitchen of - well, Tony wasn't entirely sure who's house they were at. Rhodey easily lifted him up onto the counter before rifling through the cupboards for something he could feed to his boyfriend. Tony was grinning, giggling intermittently and humming off tune even though the music was muffled by the walls.

"Thanks, honeybear," Tony cooed when Rhodey handed him a packet of saltines. "You're such a good provider."

Rhodey snorted.

"I know, I worked so hard to hunt down that prepackaged snack for you, baby," Rhodey said sarcastically.

"Mmhmm," Tony hummed in agreement, munching through a cracker. "You know pretty girls like men that can provide for them."

Rhodey raised a brow at him, nudging Tony's legs apart until he could nestle himself between them, his palms flat on the countertop.

"Yeah? And what about pretty boys?"

Tony's eyes sparkled and he tossed the saltines aside in favor of wrapping his arms around Rhodey's neck. Tony licked his lips in a way that he hoped was seductive and moaned softly in his ear.

"Us boys are totally self-sufficient, babe. We don't show emotions unless it's for artistic purposes. We love shaggy hair, bangles, and pants so tight it shows off our bulges and our tight asses, but we can provide for ourselves and all the pretty girls that hang off our arms just fine. Thank you very much."

Rhodey poked at his side and Tony giggled.

"Oh really?" Rhodey teased. "I was under the impression that it was only those neon shirt wearing, disco dancing boys that still want to provide for the pretty girls."

Tony threw his head back and laughed, happy and carefree. Rhodey loved that sound and he grinned at the beautiful boy pressed up close to him. He still couldn’t believe that Tony wanted him sometimes, but damn was he thrilled to be able to hold him close. His hands left the counter gripping at Tony's thighs and Tony's legs wrapped around him, his arms tightening around his neck and his hips lifting off the counter to rock against Rhodey.

Rhodey's lips fell to his neck, sucking on the pale skin and Tony whimpered, tilting his head to give him more room to suck and lick, his teeth nipping lightly right below Tony's ear and pulling a moan from his lips. Tony's hands clutched at his shirt and he ducked his head into Rhodey's neck, nuzzling against him sweetly and Rhodey groaned, tugging him closer, wanting to have Tony pressed up against him, wanting to feel all of Tony.

"Rhodey," Tony whimpered. "Need you."

"Shh, I've got you, baby. Why don't we head off to bed? I think the party's dying out anyways."

That was a blatant lie. People were still partying hard and probably would keep going until the day broke and people had to start worrying about the homework they would need to rush to finish, and the jobs they needed to get to so they could afford to continue being a university student. Rhodey was mostly saying it for Tony's sake, to appease his boyfriend, because Tony hated to leave the party.

Partying to Tony was a way of life, the best way to live life really, and Rhodey would do whatever he could to keep Tony safe while still letting him have all the fun he desired. Realistically, Rhodey wasn't great at telling Tony no. Especially when all Tony had to do was pout and Rhodey couldn't help but give him what he wanted.

Tony accepted the lie eagerly though, resting his head on Rhodey's shoulder when he was lifted into his arms. Rhodey kept one hand securely on Tony's thigh, even though Tony was clinging to him and definitely not going anywhere. He snatched up the pack of saltines in his other hand. Tony would probably want to eat more after they fucked.

Tony barely remembers the walk back to their dorm. He has a vague recollection of whining about the cold breeze brushing against his skin and Rhodey cooing at him like he was adorable or something. Tony was not adorable. He refused to accept that assessment. He was hot as hell and totally fuckable, but he was not cute or adorable or, God forbid, sweet. It didn't matter how many times Rhodey said otherwise, it just wasn't true. Tony refused to believe it.

Tony was pulled out of his thoughts by Rhodey laying him down on his bed. They used to be roommates, that's actually how they met in their freshman year at MIT, but now they had separate dorms. Tony's roommate Sam was probably still out partying with his own boyfriend, but Tony wouldn't be surprised if they showed up at some point. Not that Tony was concerned about them walking in on him and Rhodey. Tony was anything but prude. 

He knew he looked great and he had exactly zero shame. Which is why he had been so willing to streak across the campus in broad daylight when Natasha dared him to. He hadn’t even been drunk at the time and he’d made a lot of new friends that day. There was no better ice breaker than hey, I’ve seen your ass before. Rhodey found the whole incident far less funny than Tony had, mostly because the dean threatened to expel him for it.

"What are you thinking about, pretty boy?" Rhodey murmured, brushing his fingers through Tony’s hair and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Tony blinked, focusing on Rhodey and glancing around the room like he was only just acknowledging where they were. Rhodey was hovering over him and Tony felt safe under him. Rhodey was a solid presence in his life, always there, his love never wavering, a consistent source of adoration and on top of that he knew how to get Tony all soft under him. Rhodey damn near worshipped Tony's body and Tony never had to worry about being left unsatisfied.

Tony had a lot of sex in high school, but what he had with Rhodey was so much more than just sex. The sex was amazing, sure, but Tony was convinced that it was so much better because they really loved each other. That and the fact that they both had experience and knew what not to do after all their shitty hook ups and short lived relationships in high school. There was also the aftercare that had never really existed in high school for Tony. Rhodey always cuddled Tony up close and brushed his fingers through his sweaty hair, telling him how perfect and pretty he was. Tony loved that part almost more than he loved the actual sex itself.

The foreplay leading up to sex, the during, the after, it was all perfect with Rhodey. He was the perfect combination of protective and in control while still being caring and more than willing to spoil Tony. It worked out well for both of them, because Tony was a bit of a pillow princess and Rhodey was happy to do all the work for him. 

Then there was their day-to-day relationship. The easy teasing, the shameless flirting, the banter and inside jokes that no one else understood. The way Tony's eyes sparkled when Rhodey walked into the room and Rhodey smiled softly the moment he saw Tony. The way Tony didn't think about anything before he did it and it only works because Rhodey overthinks everything. Tony was a wild child, bold and spontaneous and way too reckless for anyone's good. Rhodey leveled him out by being serious when the situation called for it, giving Tony his way whenever he could, and when he couldn't he would pull him close and kiss his pouty lips in apology. 

They really were two parts of a whole and if Tony believed in soulmates he would believe they were meant to be together. Rhodey definitely believed in soulmates and he was convinced that his whole life had led up to that moment when his eyes locked with Tony's from across the room and his body lit up like fireworks. He knew from that moment on that nothing before that had really mattered except as a stepping stone that would take him to that moment with Tony. Tony thought that was ridiculous. He may be spoiled, but Tony was brilliant and logical, unless it came to dares and drinking, and he insisted that there was no solid proof that souls even existed, let alone that they could find deep and meaningful connections in other souls.

Tony may not believe in soulmates, but he did know that he loved Rhodey more than he would ever love anyone else and as far as he was concerned that's all that mattered.

"I love you, honeybear."

Rhodey looked amused but fond as he kissed Tony, soft and sweet.

"That's what you're thinking about? Loving me?"

Tony nodded, whimpering.

"Thinking about you, Rhodey. Always thinking about you," Tony breathed out softly, the words barely more than a whisper, a gentle caress against Rhodey’s ear that made his body light up all warm and fuzzy like he was warming himself in front of the hearth.

Rhodey's eyes were sparkling and he looked a little in awe like Tony had just gifted him the moon and the stars.

"Fuck, you're just the sweetest little thing, baby," Rhodey groaned, trailing kisses down Tony's jaw and neck.

"Not sweet, just horny," Tony corrected.

Even to his alcohol addled brain Tony knew that his statement fell flat. All the evidence pointed to him being sweet on Rhodey and though he would never deny loving Rhodey, he was not going to admit to being sweet. Rhodey snorted, letting the knee in between Tony's legs press against the hard line in Tony's skin tight pants.

"Yeah, I can tell, baby. You're so hard for me." Rhodey's hand groped at Tony through his pants, making him grunt and his hips jerk up into his touch. "Jesus, you're wet too, baby."

Tony whined, shutting his eyes tight as his cheeks lit up in embarrassment. There was definitely a sizable wet patch growing on the front of his pants and the fabric felt uncomfortable against Tony’s skin, but he was too drunk to really care about that.

"Rhodey!" Tony squeaked.

"Shh, it's okay, baby. You know I like it when you make a mess for me."

Tony made a sound somewhere between a sob and a moan and Rhodey just chuckled, shifting so he was in between Tony’s legs and settled back on his knees so he could undo Tony's pants.

"I got you, angel. You just lay there and look pretty for me. I'll take good care of you."

Tony bit his lip, his eyes hooded as he peered down at Rhodey, not even attempting to help him as Rhodey tugged his pants down. Rhodey cursed when he realized that Tony was going commando. Really he should have known. When Tony was wearing pants that tight he didn't like to wear underwear.

Rhodey didn't wear pants that tight, because he refused to have his junk pressed up against metal. Tony said it was worth it because they made his ass look so fucking good, but he had come to Rhodey crying on more than one occasion after catching skin while zipping up his pants. Rhodey was always quick to tug him into his arms and soothe him, but the moment that Tony had recovered from the traumatic experience Rhodey was teasing him about it. It never seemed to deter Tony from wiggling his way into another pair the next night they went out though.

As much as Rhodey loved the way that Tony looked in his skinny jeans, they sure were a pain to get off of him, especially since Tony was basically deadweight under him. Tony was just about as spoiled as it got, though to be fair Rhodey played into it by never demanding that he do anything on his own. Sometimes Tony liked to be independent and if he decided he was going to do something by himself then he was stubborn about it. On the other hand, Tony was equally as committed when he decided to not do something.

Tony's hand was above his head, brushing idly over the wooden headboard, only half paying attention to Rhodey undressing him. It wasn't until his pants had been thrown on the ground and Rhodey started to kiss his way up his leg, his hand wrapped around Tony's ankle, that Tony's focus snapped back to him. He squirmed as Rhodey got closer and closer to his weeping dick and when Rhodey finally wrapped his lips around it, Tony cried out.

Rhodey let Tony's leg fall back to the bed as he sucked softly at Tony's tip, lapping up precum, before pulling away and nuzzling at his balls. Tony's toes were curling and uncurling, his hands clawing at the sheets, and small moans and whimpers were falling off his lips. Rhodey was thorough in his exploration of Tony's body, sucking his balls into his mouth and worshipping them properly before kissing and licking at Tony's smooth thighs, sucking hickeys into the unblemished skin.

Rhodey loved how easily he could mark up Tony. He also loved that by the time the next weekend rolled around the bruises would be gone and Tony's skin would be a blank canvas, just waiting for Rhodey to turn it into a work of art. Everything about Tony really was a work of art all on its own, from his round ass that was perfect for grabbing at and his tight little hole, so pink and pretty, just begging for attention. 

He was short, damn near pocket-size, his body was slim and he had zero muscle mass on him, but his skin was pale enough to glow in the sunlight and Rhodey thought it was just about the prettiest thing ever when he saw his hickeys adorning his otherwise flawless skin. Tony's hands were soft, just the slightest of calluses on them from tinkering in the lab, and Rhodey loved to feel them roaming all over his much larger body. Rhodey was strong, his arms muscular, and his abs hard, but Tony still liked to use him as a pillow, so Rhodey had no complaints about it.

Tony's eyes were just about the prettiest eyes ever, dark and never ending. Rhodey could stare into them all day and never tire of staring into their depths. Tony's hair wasn't exactly long, but it wasn't short either, and Rhodey loved the way it stuck to his forehead after sex, all slick from sweat. It should have been gross, but nothing about Tony was gross. Rhodey could spend all day brushing his fingers through Tony's hair, sweaty or not. Rhodey didn't really care one way or another.

He loved the curve of Tony's nose, the dimples in his cheeks when he grinned, the way he arched his back so pretty and how his hands and feet were so tiny compared to Rhodey's own. Rhodey loved Tony's cock too, large enough to not be tiny, but still slight. Rhodey's hands were large enough that it sure looked tiny when Rhodey wrapped a hand around it.

Bottom line was that Rhodey was head over heels madly in love with Tony Stark. Had been since the moment they met and he doubted that would ever change. Tony could be stubborn to the point of being damn near infuriating. He was a mess and had zero direction in life beyond the party he had been invited to next weekend. He was in his third year of college, but still hadn’t settled on a degree yet. Which mostly exasperated Rhodey, because Tony was brilliant enough to pass any class and clearly obsessed with engineering and mechanics and everything maths or science related, but he couldn't make his mind up for the life of him. Despite all of that Rhodey absolutely adored him to the point where it was a little ridiculous just how in love with this boy he was.

Rhodey took Tony back into his mouth and reveled in the way Tony damn near screamed, his back arching off the mattress and his hands trying to find purchase on Rhodey's head. Rhodey's hair was a buzz cut so Tony couldn't exactly hold onto it, but that didn't stop him from trying. Rhodey just grunted when Tony clawed at his scalp and grabbed Tony's wrists, pinning them above his head.

Tony pouted, because not only was he unable to touch Rhodey now, but Rhodey had pulled off of him again. Tony peered up at Rhodey, his lips all pouty and his eyes all round and pretty just the way Rhodey loved.

"Rhodey!" Tony whined.

"You're fine, Tony. You just gotta be a good boy for me. You can do that can't you?"

Tony huffed in annoyance, but pursed his lips for a kiss. Rhodey chuckled and gave him what he wanted, because he really hated telling Tony no. Tony smiled into the kiss, forgetting all about being annoyed. Rhodey had a way of distracting Tony to the point that he was truly astonished that he could ever think about anything other than Rhodey and his touch and the way his smile was so fond and his words so affectionate.

"Keep your hands up here, okay, angel?"

Tony hummed, nodding his head, and Rhodey squeezed his wrists lightly before letting go and sliding back down to suck him off. Tony dropped his hands a couple of times, but Rhodey had the patience of a saint and each time he would just pull off and grab Tony's hands, putting them back where he wanted them before continuing.

It really didn't take all that long before Tony was screaming through his release. Rhodey didn't pull off that time when Tony's hands returned to his head. He did grab his wrists in one hand, holding them securely to Tony's chest instead, but he didn't stop swallowing down Tony's load and his free hand slipped down, his finger swiping through the saliva that was making Tony's balls glisten, before pressing into him and milking his prostate.

Tony's thighs clenched around Rhodey's head as he finished, the last bit of cum dribbling out of his slit. Rhodey eagerly licked at it and Tony whined, his legs falling open. His muscles went slack and his limbs felt like jello, or noodles, or any other food related metaphor for feeling boneless. Rhodey showed him some mercy when Tony jerked away from his tongue, feeling way too sensitive to be played with. Even Rhodey’s breath, all warm and tingly, was a lot when it brushed over Tony’s dick. Tony was relieved when Rhodey turned his attention elsewhere, pressing kisses to his thigh and sucking more hickeys into the slightly less sensitive skin.

"Fuck, you're so pretty like this, baby. So pretty all laid out for me. So soft and sweet for me."

Tony would have protested against being called soft and sweet, except he felt like he was floating and couldn't really find it in himself to care. If anything it just made him feel kinda fuzzy and warm inside. So Tony just hummed in agreement and reached out for Rhodey. Rhodey cooed at him and crawled back up to kiss Tony. It wasn't exactly the most coordinated kiss, because Tony's tongue felt heavy in his mouth and he felt like he was moving in slow motion, but Rhodey thought he was so fucking cute all fucked out like this.

Rhodey gave Tony a few minutes to just enjoy the after effects of his orgasm, murmuring soft words in his ear and shifting until Tony was cuddled up into his side. His fingers brushed through Tony's hair while Tony drew patterns on his skin. His head was resting on Rhodey's chest and his leg was thrown over his hips. Tony felt like he was in heaven.

"You okay, pretty boy?" Rhodey asked softly.

"S'good, Rhodey. Feel good."

"Yeah? You ready for more?"

Tony whimpered, pressing his face into Rhodey's chest and clutching at his shirt. Rhodey was still fully clothed and Tony was still wearing a shirt, but Tony didn't care. The fabric didn't feel like it was hindering them. He still felt just as close to Rhodey, like they couldn't possibly get any closer than they were now. He knew logically that what he was feeling wasn't just about physically being close to Rhodey, but about feeling emotionally connected to him. Rhodey would say it was a soul connection and in moments like this Tony was almost inclined to agree with him.

"No, just want you to hold me," Tony mumbled.

Rhodey smiled, his eyes adoring as he watched Tony rub his face against his shirt before huffing and shifting until he could bury his nose in Rhodey's neck and sniff at his skin. Rhodey chuckled affectionately, gripping lightly at the hair on the nape of his neck.

"Like the way you smell."

"Yeah? What do I smell like? Sweat?"

Tony shook his head slightly.

"Just smells good."

"Well, I love how sweet you get after you cum. You're so beautiful, baby."

Tony just hummed in response and Rhodey held him close until Tony lifted his head and looked around the room.

"What are you looking for, Tones?"

"Crackers?"

Rhodey glanced over at the packet on the side table, but didn't hand them to Tony, instead he untangled their limbs, shifting Tony off of him despite Tony’s protesting whines and obvious distaste for the new seating arrangement. Rhodey was now sitting on the edge of the bed and Tony gave him the most offended look. 

"C'mere, baby. Sit with me and you can have some crackers."

Tony pouted and made grabby hands at Rhodey.

"Want my Rhodey!" Tony whined.

"Aw, I know you do, angel. Come sit with me," Rhodey coaxed.

Tony just whined and Rhodey raised an unimpressed brow at him.

"If you want something you need to be a big boy and ask for it, Tony."

Tony huffed in annoyance, pushing up until he was sitting up and glared at Rhodey like he had done something especially cruel. Tony hated being told off and he hated not being given what he wanted, especially when what he wanted was Rhodey.

"Help me," Tony demanded.

Rhodey just clicked his tongue and Tony whined again, a high pitched needy sound that perfectly conveyed just how little he wanted to do anything on his own right now.

"Please, Rhodey." Tony made grabby hands at him again and pouted, batting his eyes in the way that he knew was irresistible for Rhodey to deny him what he wanted.

"Aw, do you want my help, baby? Here, let me help you," Rhodey cooed at him, standing up and scooping Tony up off the bed before settling back on the edge.

Tony curled up in his lap happily and opened his mouth expectantly, letting Rhodey feed him crackers until the packet was almost empty. Rhodey kissed away the crumbs at the corners of his lips before laying Tony back down and pressing his fingers into Tony's mouth. Tony sucked on them obediently, eager to have Rhodey open him up. Tony, despite what the media might say, really didn’t just have sex all the time. When you lived in the spotlight the way Tony did anytime you were seen with a woman you ended up on the headlines, people gossiping about your latest fling like they actually knew something. 

In reality, Tony hadn’t slept with anyone but Rhodey since they started dating in freshman year and they didn’t even fuck every night. While Tony was the life of the party and definitely a social bug, Rhodey was much more studious. He accompanied Tony to parties on the weekends when Tony really let go and partied the hardest and it usually ended in sex. To Tony there wasn’t that big of a difference between a Monday morning and a Saturday night, except that Rhodey had classes on Monday mornings so there was no sex to be had. Still Rhodey convinced him to keep his weekday partying to a minimum. 

Tony complained about it frequently, because it wasn’t like he was failing any of his classes. They all knew Tony could show up hungover to every single one of his classes and still be the top student. Teachers loved him, his peers were eager to be put in a group with him, and only half of that was due to Tony’s charm and never ending string of jokes and sarcasm. Tony was brilliant through and through and he could spend an hour on a paper and score better than the kid sitting next to him who fretted over it for an entire week.

As much as Tony whined and pouted he loved knowing that Rhodey cared about him. He wanted Tony to have fun and be happy, but he also wanted Tony to be healthy and drinking through a bottle of liquor every night just wasn’t healthy by any standards. Tony was also pretty reckless in general, but add alcohol on top of that and Tony, even as smart as he was, was more than willing to do the stupidest shit like make photocopies of his ass with Clint and hang them up around the campus or jump off a two story balcony, because Bucky swore he could catch him. Tony had luckily not got too injured since the bushes cushioned his fall, but he had definitely bruised more than just his ego.

So Tony could see some validity in Rhodey’s concern about him having a little too much fun sometimes, and quite frankly he loved that Rhodey cared about his well-being. No one else really cared about Tony that way. Sure his friends cared about him, but they also were equally as prone to making dumbass decisions with him that ended in Tony promising to never do it again while Rhodey fretted over him and scolded him. It was a little annoying sometimes, but also endearing and Tony wouldn’t change it for the world.

Rhodey pulled his fingers out of Tony’s mouth and circled them lightly around his rim, pressing ever so slightly.

“Rhodey?” Tony murmured, mouthing at his jaw.

“What is it, baby?”

“Want you.”

“You have me, Tones.”

Tony smiled, a light blush on his cheeks at the promise behind those words. He laid there, not entirely still because he couldn’t help but squirm around a bit while Rhodey worked him open, but Tony let Rhodey do all of the work. He knew that Rhodey would take good care of him, he always did. So Tony just let Rhodey have his way, only begging for more a couple of times when Rhodey was taking way too long. Mostly he let Rhodey have his fun though, knowing that Rhodey loved to take things slow and torment Tony by teasing him. As much as Tony whined and begged, he really did love it and Rhodey was very aware of this.

When Rhodey did finally pull his fingers out and replaced them with his cock, flipping Tony over and lifting his hips to slip inside of his thoroughly loosened hole, Tony’s mouth fell open in a silent cry and his hands clutched at the sheets. Rhodey started out slow, easing himself in and out until Tony was whining and desperate for more. Rhodey didn’t speed up much, but he made his thrusts harder, mouthing at Tony’s back and shoulder as he took him apart little by little. Tony was an absolute mess under him, moaning into the pillow and unsure of whether he wanted to press back into Rhodey and demand that he pound him into the mattress like he did last weekend, or just go limp and let Rhodey have his way with him.

Tony settled on a combination of the two, his muscles feeling way too noodly and his head feeling too dizzy for him to really want to put effort into holding himself up. So he let Rhodey hold his hips up, otherwise melting into the bed, more than happy to just let Rhodey run the show. He did beg for more though and whine when Rhodey just chuckled in his ear and told him to be a good boy and take what he was given. By the time Rhodey finished inside of him Tony was glistening with sweat and barely able to open his eyes. He did little more than whimper when he felt Rhodey’s hips still, his hands gripping at Tony’s hips hard enough to bruise, and Tony moaned at the feeling of his cum painting his walls and making him feel all hot inside.

It was almost too much and Tony was just glad that Rhodey didn’t try to get Tony off again, because he was not ready for another orgasm. His body already felt lit up and hot to the point of feverish and he was pretty sure that if he hadn’t eaten those crackers that he would have thrown up by now. Rhodey seemed to understand that Tony had reached his limit though and didn’t attempt to push him any further. Instead he just flopped down next to Tony and pulled him into his arms, cradling his head to his chest. Rhodey tried to cover them up, knowing that Tony’s roommate would probably show up soon, but he gave up on that attempt when Tony complained it was too hot and just shoved the sheets back off.

That’s how Sam found them, showing up shortly after that. Tony didn’t even lift his head in acknowledgement when the door opened. He knew it was Sam, because he was the only other person with a key, so he wasn’t exactly concerned about it. Besides, Tony was far too comfortable all cuddled up to Rhodey and his head had finally stopped spinning, so he didn’t want to risk lifting it back up quite yet.

Bucky tugged Sam into the room, giggling and flirting, seemingly unaware of Rhodey and Tony. Sam noticed them and definitely noticed that they were naked, but he really didn't care. This was definitely not the first time he had walked in on Tony in a compromising position. Not to mention that Tony had no shame where his body was concerned and tended to lounge around in nothing but a band tee, seeming totally unperturbed when it rode up to reveal a whole lot more than just smooth thighs. Sam was much more focused on his boyfriend who was ready for his own post party fun.

Tony decided it was worth trying to move since Bucky was there. Bucky and Tony hadn’t gotten along all that well when they first met. There was a very mild jello incident where they both insisted that the other had maliciously taken the last jello cup from the cafeteria that led to a not so mild rivalry. It wasn’t until a drunken night of partying a few months into freshman year led to them making out and then bonding over equally awful hangovers that they set aside their differences. They’d been thick as thieves ever since and they’re make out session morphed into a lasting friendship.

"Bucky! Sammy!" Tony tried to squirm his way out of Rhodey's arms. "Want my friends, Rhodey!"

Rhodey just chuckled at his whining and nuzzled against his neck like Tony was the most precious thing in the world.

"No, baby, you're not going anywhere while my cum is still leaking out of you."

"Rhodey!" Tony whined, reaching his hand out for Bucky who looked over at him and blinked in surprise, like he honestly hadn't noticed he was there until that moment.

"Bucky's busy, Tony. You can cuddle with him when we're done."

Tony pouted at Sam's words, but Bucky's eyes fell shut and his back arched beautifully off the bed when Sam pressed a spit slicked finger inside of him. Tony didn't get to focus on them for long, even though he definitely had no qualms with watching them together. Rhodey slipped down and settled back between his legs, pulling Tony's legs up over his shoulders and lifting his hips up.

Tony squealed in surprise when Rhodey licked at him, his head straining to watch as he sucked and slurped the cum out of him. His squeal turned into a moan and his head fell back onto the bed. Just like that Tony lost himself in pleasure again and when it was done and Rhodey had him all curled up in his arms once more, Tony was way too out of it to care about cuddling with Bucky. He was practically asleep and more than happy to be in Rhodey's arms.

Bucky was in a similar state when Sam finished fucking him and he mumbled something about cuddles being able to wait until the morning, making a vague gesture towards Tony's bed. Sam and Rhodey just chuckled and reached over to switch off the lamps on the side tables. In the morning Tony and Bucky got to bond over their shitty hangovers again, becoming reacquainted with the toilet bowl, before curling up in Sam’s bed while their boyfriends bonded over just how adorable they were and an equally strong desire to fetch them breakfast and water and just in general coo and fret over them.

Can also read on AO3

[ectonurites]

Batcest shippers read comics, actually. And they write them, and draw for them. Please continue to make a fool of yourself pretending otherwise.

i got ranty here so the tldr: yeah no shit, you’re taking something i tweeted entirely out of context, i’m well aware of those facts and im not ‘pretending’ anything lmao

onto my full response:

i see you must have come from my twitter! and yeah, i’m unfortunately aware there are people who ship batcest working for dc, its super upsetting! the person who designed the current red hood outfit just posted j*ydick on their twitter today, which is horrifying to see.

like listen im not... im not gonna go out and harass people for shipping batcest. I literally do not have the energy, and I know I’m not gonna be convincing anyone of anything bc the people who chose to ship batcest have made their choice there.

but I’m always gonna advocate for like, those people TAGGING THEIR SHIT so that especially minors but also anyone else who doesn’t want to see fuckin’ incest doesn’t need to. And like, the creation of lists of what creators are making that stuff so people can block and move on? I also think that’s good. Like I don’t think people should go harass anyone over this because its just... theres no point. But letting people who don’t want to see it know who to block so they can move on? that’s a good thing.

The comments of mine I think you’re specifically talking about were about a specific but common type of fanon batcest shipper, because like... immabe real! its very clear a lot of the batfam community on here in general don’t read the comics, (like, as in many people will OPENLY ADMIT that they don’t) and thats not even an inherently bad thing, like people are allowed to interact with media how they want to! But when people get so divorced from canon by only reading fanworks or versions of characters that have been altered and their relationships altered, its easy for misconceptions about all of it to spread, and people to be shipping pairings that literally bear no resemblance to the canon versions/relations of the characters. This isn’t even exclusive to the people shipping batcest. However with the people shipping batcest like... its when those relationships in canon get blurred by just a fanon game of telephone that it becomes easier for them to justify shipping it, you know? That was the point I was trying to make on twitter (i think it was last night? this morning? i dont remember. its 1am rn time is fake)

but like, i’m sorry but in current canon Jason, Dick, Tim, and Damian all consider each other siblings (and Jason had even made a comment at one point in rhato about having four brothers, meaning he probably includes Duke too!). That is... canon. You can see multiple instances of this if you’re reading current comics. And while they have complicated relationships with Bruce, they do all consider him a father (even when Jason says he doesn’t- he literally flip flops on it depending on how he feels in a given day because of his trauma and stuff, but like there will be times only a few issues apart where he will or won’t admit Bruce is his dad). All of these characters have been adopted (or in Damian’s case obv adoption wasn’t necessary) by Bruce in canon at different times (and Cass also, but that’s only in pre new 52 as of right now)

If you are chosing to ship any of the siblings together (or any of them with bruce) you are chosing to ship incest. That is an active choice you are making, and you have to accept the consequences of that. Any judgement/backlash you face for shipping incest is something you are accepting by chosing to ship it.

And if you go “oh but they’re only adopted siblings not REAL siblings-“ you’re an asshole, because adopted siblings are real siblings. I don’t care if they didn’t grow up together, do you realize how invalidating that is towards like, real life people? The amount of people I’ve seen who are adopted themselves get insanely triggered and upset by that kind of content (not just in this fandom btw!) because it just shows people don’t see those familal bonds as being real? It’s not insignificant.

I know ‘media affects reality’ is a controvercial topic, and like obviously ‘i see this thing in media thus i will do it’ is NOT how it works, but the things you normalize/glorify in media you consume says a lot about your thoughts on the topics. Framing matters. Like obviously ‘haha i watch hannibal, gonna go eat people now-‘ is not the case. especially because that media doesn’t frame it as a good thing. That’s the thing I think people miss in these discussions a lot of the time. If you are like ‘i am going to explore how traumatizing incestual relationships could be through these characters’ with batcest? like go off! that could be interesting honestly, and that’s not glorifying it. But acting like ‘omg i just think its so romantic ❤️’ with stuff between characters who canonically are siblings... again you are accepting the judgement that may come your way by publicly doing that.

anyways, i’m well aware of how prevalent batcest is both in the comics industry and around here, i’m aware plenty of them do read comics, and you definitely missed the context in my tweets of me saying things like “a lot” “it feels like many” etc when saying batcest shippers don’t read comics. Context matters my dude ✌️ (also wanna point out, a lot of really gross people work in comics. Racist people, antisemetic people [even today there was some controversy abt that in some hulk comic i believe?] these people being in those industries is... not a good thing even if its normalized???)

But really I think its kinda funny to uh call me a ‘fool’ for something you think I’m doing because you took my words out of context. And maybe you weren’t trying to come off as smug but you absolutely do here and it just strikes me as very funny that you like... are acting like you’re smarter than me or better than me for being okay with incest being normalized in a fandom for superhero comics, a type of media that MANY KIDS READ AND PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION ABOUT, while I’m bothered by it.

I don’t talk about this stuff much on here because again, I don’t want to fight about it, I’m not gonna go out of my way to try to change people’s minds on any of it because I know that won’t accomplish anything, I much prefer to just... ignore the content I don’t want to see, maybe warn other people especially minors who also don’t want to see it, and move on with my life. You really didn’t need to bring this to my inbox here, but like go off I guess 🤷

editing this quick just to add in the tweets i made i think this anon is referencing that i very clearly started with ‘so many of them’, not me saying it applies to all of them

[cosmicheromp3]

let’s talk about snowbirds don’t fly for a second, shall we: the arc where roy’s addiction was first introduced, and how it actually affected the relationship between roy and ollie.

people’s perception of snowbirds don’t fly and the events surrounding it is so... weird, to the point where it often makes me wonder whether they’ve actually read the comic (and roy’s appearances right after, but i realize those might be less known) or whether they’re just going off a few very specific panels and inaccurate recounts – usually from people that will twist anything in their favour to call ollie a bad guy.

because, if you pieced together what most people seem to think happened – and this is what i was expecting to find once i decided to read it myself –, in snowbirds we should see: roy, not yet an adult and still under the active care of ollie, starts using drugs, and oliver’s so caught up in himself and negligent that he doesn’t notice what’s happening. when he finally finds out, he lashes out, hits roy and kicks him out of the house, leaving roy without a home. this makes their relationship crumble, and roy starts hating ollie because of it. they don’t speak to each other, and leave in awful terms.

and... in many aspects, that’s so far from the events you'll see if you actually go read green lantern #85 (snowbirds don’t fly) and #86 (they say it’ll kill me... but then won’t say when!). i’m assuming a lot of misconceptions happen because of a) writers with a grudge against ollie who retroactively, and unfairly, painted him in a bad light, and people took this at face value, and b) retcons that came with the new 52 reboot – but, i'll be honest, i don’t care enough to go read that mess even for this post. in general, i’m pretty sure we all agree that we ignore out of character comics; let’s not make roy and ollie the exception to that, yeah?

first i want to get something out of the way, that i feel like i need to mention even though there’s probably people that have talked about it better than i could. when we analyze this comic we should keep in mind that the characters in the story were meant to fill specific roles for the sort of... PSA comic that dc was trying to make, and in the 70s, at that. considering this, both roy and ollie are plot devices.

the creative team behind the story (o’neil and adams) have said that they chose roy to be the average “good” teen who fell into drugs – as a way to say “this could happen to anyone, even to this reputable superhero”. ollie was the caring but imperfect parent who missed the signs – not abusive but distant at the moment, he was meant to be more like a nudge to parents to pay closer attention. it was written to play as a sort of “this could happen to the best of us” situation. and in that context, ollie is made to react in a way that is at most "not ideal" for the standards of its time: he hits roy, and denies to himself that roy’s addiction is a real problem that needs to be dealt with delicately. this is used to send the message of “don’t react like this”.

that isn’t exactly the point of this post, and i don’t want to downplay the harm ollie did with his reaction or absolve him of any blame. the point of this post is: people seem to think that’s where the storyline ended, that was ollie’s final reaction, and those are the terms in which ollie and roy parted; which is just not true.

instead, ollie hitting roy happens in the very first page of green lantern #86 – we have an entire issue in which ollie is faced with his initial reaction and made to confront his mistake (which is more than we can say for, um, other father superheroes that have hit their children. i won’t name names.) the only moment you could read as him “kicking roy out” – which is the phrasing i’ve seen applied to this – happens the very next page, where ollie tells roy to “get out”.

the thing is, roy was not living with ollie at the moment. there was nowhere that ollie could kick him out from. “get out” means just that: get out of this room (and ollie didn’t intend anything more than that with his words.) the comic makes a point of stressing that roy is, by that point, independent, and old enough to be living without a guardian.

ollie, right after roy leaves, thinks: “but he shouldn’t need attention–at his age”. ollie is in the wrong here because of his close-minded view of addiction and because he’s not considering that, though a legal adult, roy is still young and needs care, but it still shows that roy was largely on his own by then. ollie’s reaction is definitively negative and a rejection, but can’t in any way be seen as “kicking roy out”, because it isn’t. (note, also, how ollie’s first thought is that he failed roy, but his denial and stubbornness get in the way and he shifts the blame. he’ll eventually have to get over this and change.)

we see that ollie plays the role of the father that reacts poorly, and he is directly contrasted with the adults who do take responsibility for roy – hal at first, and dinah after, are the ones who play the role of “this is how you should react.”

hal finds roy without knowing what happened between him and ollie, and his first reaction is to take roy to a doctor; he immediately recognizes that what roy needs is help – and will later say so to ollie. when roy refuses, saying he wants to kick the addiction on his own – to prove himself to ollie, because even though he doesn’t think ollie was right he still values his opinion and their relationship, but i’d say there’s something he’s trying to prove to himself, too –, hal recognizes that he doesn’t know anything about drug withdrawal or addiction, and he’s receptive to roy, asking him questions and listening without judgement.

so he takes roy to dinah, who is the one that (very kindly, might i add, because dinah and roy weren’t that close at the time) cares for roy while he goes cold turkey. roy, possibly rather unrealistically, though i’m no expert, kicks the addiction in the span of a few pages. before the ending of this arc, roy has already gone clean.

there’s a one week timeskip there, where we assume that out of the characters featured in this story, roy only interacts with dinah, and ollie’s been with hal. then, before the conclusion of this story, roy is given a place to confront ollie and call him out for his mistakes. roy calls him out for turning his back on him, and he gets to tell him – and show him, punching him in a scene where it’s implied that ollie completely deserves it, unlike the opposite situation that this issue started with – about the pain he’s been in. we are given, in text, a moment where roy can express to ollie what he’s been going through, what he did wrong, and how it affected him.

(this is a moment where the intentions of the comic are very clear, not only because roy practically turns to the camera to deliver the PSA, but also because of the wording: roy told ollie that he turned his back on him, and in the same page he talks about society turning its back on drug addicts, same wording twice. ollie and roy are both meant to represent something other than just themselves, even if this happened in continuity and ended up affecting their characters in the long run.)

and ollie – unlike in that first page, now ollie is shown to listen and understand. he’s not in the same place or mindset he was in when everything started. in the beginning, ollie thought that there must be something inherently bad about a person who does drugs, in a reflection of society’s – and parents’ – views of the issue. and that shows in his initial denial and reaction: ‘how could my son, who’s a good person, do this?’ then, in this scene, when roy tells him he beat the addiction, he answers “good boy” – roy immediately rejects this notion, and emphasizes that there’s more to it than his own goodness: what’s important is the help he received, namely from hal and dinah, and a caring environment. ollie, at the very least, begins to understand this, and in doing so understands very clearly what he needs to change about their relationship if he wants roy back.

this means that ollie starts undergoing character development in this one issue alone. the thing about ollie, in regards to his relationship with roy, is that he has made mistakes and the narrative acknowledges it; but, when well written, he realizes and admits it, making a point of learning from his mistakes. roy knows that ollie has fucked up, too, and doesn’t let him off the hook for it, but he also recognizes that he makes an effort to be better. especially after snowbirds, this informs their relationship a lot.

by the end of the issue they’re not hugging, and roy is leaving on his own, but that’s completely of his own accord. and these are the last panels in the entire issue:

the whole original comic, but mostly these panels specifically, is what makes me wonder about people’s perception of these events, and the misconceptions i previously mentioned – because i really am confused as to how you could reconcile these two opposite readings. unless, you know... people are speaking without ever touching the original comic. (i don’t want to blame anyone for not reading older comics, but please, if you’re gonna speak, especially if it’s to shit on a character or call them abusive the way people do with ollie, do it in an informed way.)

so, right after the events of snowbirds, because roy was allowed to speak up and ollie was made to listen, at least as much as can be expected through his stubbornness, they’re in much better terms than people usually think. if you look at roy’s chronology, he interacts with ollie in his next few appearances (barring the teen titans ones), teaming up as they normally would, with the one difference being the emphasis that’s put into the fact that roy has grown away from ollie – in the same way as any young adult would grow away from a parent. there’s also roy’s resentment for ollie’s actions, but this resentment is portrayed as deserved and it doesn’t turn their interactions into something negative. it’s still clear that they both care for each other, and there’s certainly no hate.

[from action comics #436/2]

this first one takes place a few months after roy goes his own way. roy is in the middle of working a case when ollie gets involved, and they work on it together. green lantern #100/2 is their next appearance and has a similar plot, this time with dinah working with them as well. in both of these, they still work well together, are able to communicate in action and have each other’s backs.

in the action comics issue, ollie insists that roy is still welcome by his side, and that he should still feel free to ask for help whenever he needs it. roy refuses in the way that’s shown in the panels above – saying that he needs to “be a loner for a while” and build a life of his own (though it’s not an exact parallel, because ollie is ollie and takes “loner” to a whole other level, the wording here reminds me of the way ollie tends to leave on his own whenever he feels like he needs to find himself). you’ll see that these interactions aren’t hostile at all – quite the opposite.

world’s finest #251/3 might be the one where their interactions are the most tense, and that’s mostly just in the end. when they’re done with the usual superhero team-up, ollie shows willingness to talk to roy:

“i can’t help out. roy’s back, and, well– we’ve got a lot of talking to do.” through these issues, we realize that ollie has learned: his previous mistake was not paying enough attention to roy, and not showing him that he could always count on ollie (both in noticing roy’s addiction, but also before, in not taking enough care so roy wouldn’t get to that point). he tries to make up for it every chance he has, but it’s always on roy’s terms. everyone is aware that ollie is the one who was in the wrong, and it’s up to roy to forgive him or not, but no one ever pressures roy to do so. when roy doesn’t want to stay and talk, ollie accepts it.

ollie atones again and again, and their relationship isn’t magically fixed and they don’t go back to being close without effort – effort which rightfully has to be done, again, mostly on ollie’s part. but they never, ever go so far as to hate each other.

then, in green arrow (1988) #75, ollie feels so bad about what happened between them, about the way he screwed up, he essentially says to roy that he wouldn’t fault him for wanting to shoot him. “so go ahead. god knows, you’ve got plenty of reason.” roy has been brainwashed here; he breaks through it because of ollie’s words. 

and, after this whole ordeal is done, this is how they part ways:

by this point, roy already has lian and a life of his own. he’s gone back to being speedy and then arsenal, he’s in the titans again and he will become a renowned hero in his own right. he might have forgiven ollie a long time ago, but now that he has found himself – like he set off to do at first – he seems more prepared to make amends and see where he stands with him (maybe i’m attributing more consistency among these issues, that happen years apart, than we should actually give them credit for, but i can’t help trying to find the common themes.)

after these, which are the most immediate interactions after snowbirds, we have multiple instances of them being close again. it’s in every small moment they have together, really, but off the top of my head, a couple that are illustrative for their relationship are green arrow: the archer’s quest and justice league of america (2006) #7, even though they don’t directly interact in this last one. i was gonna include panels from both, but this is getting long enough; i urge you to read them, especially if you followed along reading the issues i’ve mentioned, because they’re great. what i am gonna include, cause it’s amazing, is this panel from justice league of america wedding special.

in my opinion, these misconceptions around ollie and roy not only are a disservice to their characters but also mean that people are missing out on what i think is a really interesting relationship. it’s almost rare to see a relationship evolve in a way that feels so organic in comics, not only because the interpersonal conflict here is shown to have real, tangible consequences but also because the characters are allowed to grow in a way that is gradual and natural and even satisfying.

ollie and roy's relationship might have never been the exact same after snowbirds – but which father-son relationship stays the same after the son grows up? and i think it's a testament to the strength of their bond that without ever ignoring these events (because, as i’ve shown, they’re very much acknowledged again and again) they not only never stop loving each other, but are also able to keep building something meaningful going forward.

[seijorhi]

asks

alright i’m compiling these because today was a lot 

i dont think there was even any negative stereotizing of black men bc all of the men in your fics do dark things??? pls ppl be looking for crumbs to hate 😭😭😭

i mean that’s kind of my view. if you’re writing like mainstream fics and characterising aran (and aran alone) as somebody who’s aggressive and rapey and all of that, absolutely, that’s a real red flag, but everybody is equally as awful in my fics. i don’t do fluff or any kind of safe, sane and consensual so??

 Who is aran? And what fandom?

aran is from haikyuu, he’s an outside hitter for inarizaki :)

Please bb write that Aran fic! That man is sexy af and there is not enough content out there for daddy Aran! Please! I’ll give you my whole heart if you write it out of spite!

haha i’m honestly tempted 👀

Lol maybe the aran anon sent to the apology to the wrong creator 😂 

I don’t think it’s nice to tell people to delete their fics cause that uncomfortable. Also it’s not your only JUST writing Aran fics 😂

yeah idk the ask felt very half cocked but it’s whatever

I’m sorry there are people being mean to u :( is there anything I can do to help? Is there a way for you to blog that aran anon?

it’s okay, i’m not really bothered by it – mostly because it doesn’t actually apply to me but anyway lol

Anon, if you don’t like dark content then use the content AND tag filter to block it. I don’t think you understand how both HATEFUL and RUDE it is to demand a writer to delete their fic. If you really dislike their content, then block it. Every single writer does not exist to cater to YOUR preferences. Sorry you’re getting this rude and ridiculous anon Rhi! Thank you so much for writing amazing pieces 💕

it’s all good, bby, but i do agree. tumblr has a blocking system, people should use. also i would never delete a fic just because somebody came to complain to me about it

What’s a moot? Sorry i should know this

a mutual - somebody who you follow and who follows you back :))

Did anon think you were just writing yandere fics for Aran or smth👀 Did they ignore the entire masterlist full of other characters

i don’t think they bothered to think about it, just went straight to jumping down my throat after making an assumption over blindsided

To Aran Anon, don’t you think intentionally excluding the black characters of haikyuu in fanfic writing is inherently ✨ r a c i s t ✨?

I think anon needs a pair of glasses, cause I don’t think they see the bigger picture of this issue.

i understand where they’re coming from i just think that their viewpoint (at least in this case) kinda doesn’t make sense, but hey, they’re entitled to feel how they feel, i’m more irritated that they came up and asked me to delete a fic over it

first time sending something in but i gotta bc wtf is that aran anon on?? like i get that it can be seen as demonizing black men but does anon not know that literally almost every other character is asian lmao dont pick and choose which group of poc can or cant be in dc fics its all in good fun and horniness at the end of the day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ also i love you youre one of the few haikyuu dc creators thatll always have me entertained keep it up babes <3

yeah, it’s just all a bit ??? but what’re you gonna do. 

also i love you too thanks for this bby!

Pretty sure I just bombed my Math exam 😢

Please send one good vibe my way it would be appreciated (also big fan of your work, please never stop being great!!!)

aw i’m sorry bby, i’m sending you all the good vibes and love 💕

I’m writing for Oikawa rn and I need help because your yandere Oikawa is so...amazing. What nicknames do you think he uses with reader? Like darling, cutie, sweetheart...anything?

sweetheart, cutie & babe/baby are my go-to’s for oiks :) but darling works too!

hello this is the anon who u made simp for oikawa even tho ive never having seen haikyuu dropping by to say you are my favorite writer!! i picked this flower for u ✿

I LOVE YOU!!!

omg i would love a second fic for final girl! the whole story and concept is super interesting ALSO i love bo kuroo and akaashi 🤍 (i love your fics and ideas in general ily)

well it’s currently winning with 354 votes so :))

So I voted for Final Girl but I'm sure whatever fic wins it will still be a masterpiece but what fic are you rooting for Rhi?

honestly i think i could go for a blindsided part 2 or et tu part 2 efbhjvkl i just wanna write more manager au’s

don't mind me, just coming here say that y'all are really sleeping on Good Girl 😟 It's a total chef's kiss 1000/10 fic.

fdhcbjiewrkoviwhrtj my first hq fic 

Do you read manga or watch anime? 🥺 Where do you watch you’re anime (if you do), I can’t find anywhere to watch after kiss anime was shut down 😭

i watch animes across crunchyroll, hidive and netflix. manga’s i just google but i’ve only read a few

Istg the way you write these fanfics are

I M M A C U L A T E

We love you!

I LOVE YOU TOO THANK YOU SM BBY!