#Although when I think about it green is more common for Under Another's Influence isn't it? :0 Or is that just the Evil X talking?? Lol

[sysig]

They’re too cute, I can’t stop (Patreon)

[evilwickedme]

I'm only just getting into the comics and haven't read much yet, but is Pit Madness an actual thing in canon or just widespread fanon? Bc yeah, I don't like it either but there's so much of it I assumed it was rooted in the text

I've never seen it in a Jason comic, although I don't exactly have an encyclopedic knowledge of his appearances (reminder that I'm doing my best, but I've only been reading DC comics for less than a year). I understand that it's mentioned in comics related to Ra's Al Ghul, but the Pit is used rarely both in and out of text and is one of those things that works however the writer wants it to work.

I can tell you that in the comics I've read that are pre-N52 Jason is extremely angry, but he's also calm and calculated about it, and in n52 comics that I've read he's extremely angry, but mostly reads as impulsive, not sadistic. I haven't gotten to post rebirth Jason comics yet except for a few panels here and there and the Robins: Being Robin comic which was pretty bad in general don't read it, but my impression is they haven't stopped trying to retcon him into "the angry robin" (which, uh, fuck that) but have leaned more into his emotional side as a core aspect of him in recent years, which I in general approve of. Either way, I have never seen a mention of pit rage, only of him being thrown in the Pit to heal his medically impossible walking coma (but this is comics and he gets healed by green goo, so let's not take medical accuracy too seriously).

I understand the appeal of pit madness in two ways: the first is that it makes for an easy motivator. You throw him in the pit, he gets Angry™, and you can use that to tell a pretty interesting story (Red Robin Hood likens it to an addiction, for example, which I found really interesting actually).

But the second is the one I suspect is more common. I think people are uncomfortable with liking a character who is genuinely unremorseful about killing. It directly negates their values. On the one hand, it's super badass when Jason throws that duffel bag of heads onto the table of drug lords in the beginning of under the red hood - on the other hand, gross, right? This is why so many pit rage stories focus on him "getting better". Whether that means being literally magically healed from the pit's effects or if that means learning that killing is wrong, actually, the pit's influence, by the end of the fic, is gone, and the batfam forgives him for all the murder because it wasn't REALLY Jason, it was the Pit!

But like... No it isn't? Like there is zero evidence of the Pit ever influencing any of Jason's actions. Like, if anything, one of my favorite things about UTRH as a story is the fact that Jason is calm, calculated, AND IN THE RIGHT. Not that Batman is necessarily wrong - I mean, I think his particular reasoning is stupid, it's not a fucking slippery slope for most of us, but I also think that murder is, you know, wrong. But Jason is also right - he came back to life to find that nothing had changed in the batfam and Gotham, or if it had, it had changed for the worse! The Joker has done nothing but become more and more threatening as a villain and Bruce has done nothing to amend his methods of dealing with the Joker at all.

Jason's solution is simple, elegant - kill the Joker, he can no longer hurt anyone else. And in a system like Gotham's where corruption makes both rehabilitation and straight up locking someone away for good impossibilities, the genuinely most logical solution is to kill the Joker. Not necessarily the most moral from your or my point of view. But one that makes sense when you look at it through Jason's eyes as a deeply traumatized victim.

I think that if the Pit really had influenced Jason, the best way to use it as a narrative device is as another source of trauma - something that I have seen extremely occasionally in fics. Not as something that influenced his actions, necessarily, but maybe as something that was forced upon him, a kind of loss of bodily autonomy.

But at the end of the day, most of the time the point of pit madness in Jason Todd/batfam fic is to excuse extreme abusive behavior and make it all okay in the end, and I think it's because so many of the people writing him don't understand why and how he uses extreme violence in the ways he does and who feel extremely uncomfortable being fans of someone who genuinely believes that some people deserve to die.

[chaoticvampirejedi]

This doll isn't haunted

Tbb! 20's paranormal AU | w/c 960

Remember when I said I wasn't going to write any fanfiction about this AU? Well... Jokes on me I guess.

Summary: Another day with no new case. One creepy porcelain doll that is definitely no haunted and one very stupid idea. After all, it's just a stupid joke, what can go wrong?

Warning: only mentions of some paranormal things; haunted dolls.

So @gokyacetakal asked me about Crosshair's fear of porcelain dolls and this idea came to my mind. This is just a very short story about bad batchers, a porcelain doll, and a very childish joke that I wrote for fun. Also, English isn't my first language and I'm very talented at making stupid mistakes, so don't hesitate to correct me.

"And you're sure that it isn't haunted?" Echo asked, looking at the toy. It was an ordinary porcelain doll, with green eyes, ginger, curly hair framing her pale face and an old-fashioned pink dress.

"Yes, we've checked it twice. It's just some old doll. Nothing unusual," Hunter sighed, playing with his knife; they hadn't had any real case for two weeks, and it was starting to annoy everyone, including him.

Echo raised his eyebrows.

"So why is it here then?" 

"We couldn't convince the owner that the doll was harmless, so she asked us to take it," Tech explained, adjusting his glasses. "But at least she paid us and promised she would recommend us to her friend. He also appears to have… some intriguing problems with his childhood toy."

"So what? Another pointles case?"

"Probably."

Echo just sighed and put the doll down on the table where everyone was sitting.

"Listen," Hunter cleared his throat. "I know the last few weeks have been rough, but Crosshair is talking to that new client right now, maybe this will finally be a real case."

"Yeah, It better be." Wrecker crossed his arms. "If I visit one more haunted house with rats instead of ghosts, I swear I'll break something!"

"Please don't," Tech muttered, already looking through something in one of his notebooks. "Our current financial situation doesn't allow us to thoughtlessly destroy things under the influence of emotions. And speaking of money, I think we should sell this doll."

"I don't know," Hunter took the porcelain toy from the table and looked at it closely. "I thought we could give it to Omega when she comes back from a walk with Gonky. She would like it and..."

"No way!" Wrecker interrupted his brother before he could say anything else "I don't want this thing around me. It makes me nervous! And can you imagine Crosshair's reaction? You know he hates it even more than me."

When Wrecker finished there was a moment of silence.

"Yeah…" Hunter said, still holding the doll in his hands and thinking about something. "His reaction would be… interesting."

Wrecker immediately understood what he meant.

"Yes, very interesting." 

"Especially if he found it in his closet without expecting it."

"Oh, that would be so fun to watch."

"But we wouldn't do this right? We shouldn't. That would be stupid."

"Yes! Definitely!" Echo shouted. "This idea is childish and stupid! Crosshair will be furious as if we hadn't had enough arguing with him lately "

"You know what? Echo's got a point." Wrecker took the doll from Hunter's hand.

"Wait? Really? You think I'm right?"

"What? No! But you're right that Crosshair has been more annoying than usual lately. I mean, today at breakfast he called Omega a demon three times, he deserved a little punishment."

"May I notice that if Crosshair sees this doll in his bedroom, there is a high probability that this apartment will be in chaos?" Tech finally looked away from his notebook.

"Yes! Thank you!" For one amazing moment, Echo was relieved that at least one of his cousins has some common sense; of course, his happiness didn't last long.

"Although I must admit that I'm curious enough about his reaction that I'm willing to take the risk."

"Oh my god, no!."

"Ok, let's do it." Hunter made his final decision. "Wrecker, hide the doll in the closet, but don't make it look more creepy. We don't want him to be scared to death."

"Got it!" his brother ran to the room he shared with Crosshair and after a while, he returned with a broad smile on his face. "This is going to be perfect."

Suddenly the door opened as Crosshair burst into the apartment. One look was enough for Hunter to tell that his youngest brother was in a bad mood and that the meeting with the client didn't go as planned. Crosshair took off his black coat and angrily tossed it over one of the armchairs, cursing under his breath.

"So what happened?" Hunter finally asked, but Cross didn't answer him, passed Wrecker, entered their room, slamming the door, and then turned the key.

At that very moment, Hunter began to have doubts. What if Echo was right? Recently Crosshair was constantly arguing with all of them and this joke could only worsen this situation. Maybe that was a bad idea after all.

"You know what? Maybe we shouldn't…"

Too late. It was too late.

They all heard a loud scream, and then the sound of the breaking porcelain.

And then something crashed.

And then something crashed again.

And again.

And again.

And then some items fell off the shell.

And then Crosshair definitely threw the doll against the wall.

Something fell on the floor again; it was probably one of the paintings.

No, not one painting; the noise was way too big for that.

It was very likely that they had just lost their mirror too.

And a lamp. There was no way that the lamp made it.

All this time Hunter kept staring at the table, his lips bitten, to avoid Echo's disappointed but murderous gaze. 

"Well… at least he didn't shoot at it," Wrecker said hesitantly, and just then a shot rang out.

"Throw a book at me one more time, and I'll shoot you again!"

For a few very long seconds, everyone fell silent, trying to understand what they had just heard.

"The doll throwing a book at someone?" Wrecker frowned. "This doesn't make any sense, unless…"

"Unless…"  Hunter repeated quietly.

They looked at each other and jumped up from their chairs. Everything suddenly made sense.

The doll was haunted. Crosshair was locked in the room with it, Echo was right and they were idiots.