#It practically writes itself. DC what are you doing

[theerurishipper]

I took upon myself the herculean task of compiling all Dick and Diana interactions.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #16

Nemesis: The Impostors #3

Nightwing (2016) #100

Titans (2016) Special 1

Titans (2016) Annual 1

Justice League (2011) #51

Wonder Woman (1987) #161

Wonder Woman (1987) #166

Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight #4

Nightwing (1996) Annual 2

Some honorary mentions:

These two ones where Diana doesn't interact with Dick one-on-one and is only a part of a larger group, but it's still a good way to show that she respects and trusts him as a leader.

The Brave and The Bold (2007) #15

Justice League: Generation Lost #1

This one where Dick isn't here but Diana shows appreciation for his skills and is very quick to accept that Nightwing should be honored by being in the League (also this isn't about him but I love Clark's "finally, someone easy." That's a proud uncle y'all).

Justice League of America (2006) #2

This one where Diana isn't here but she lets Dick use her Lasso, I think that counts.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #17

This one where Diana gifted Dick the fastest horse in the world, apparently.

Justice League (2018) #53

These from the 1966 Batman and 1977 Wonder Woman shows' crossover comic.

Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 #5

Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 #6

Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 #10

And then—

Then...

Yeah. That's about it. It's an unfortunately short list. But what little we do have shows that they have a bond of mutual trust and respect for each other. It's very interesting and I wish they explored it more.

[silverbeamcreations]

Part 3 When Duty Summons a DP x DC fic

I'm new to tumblr and new to fanfic writing at least anyway, so comments, hearts, theories, etc, are helpful in my motivation to write more, and I super appreciate it. Any tips for how tumblr works and any fandom and writing tips are welcome as well. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

When Duty Summons ((ooo look I gave it a title!))

DP x DC crossover fanfic

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 here

((Authors note: I was a little creative with this section and also wrote more than I expected on this scene... sorry for any bad grammar, etc, and let me know if the perspective being written a bit more by the scientists on this one works. ))

-----------

A quiet murmer echoed in the cavernous room. Figures hidden behind surgical mask and lab coats looked confused at the figure laying in the ritual circle. A glint from narrow spectacles caught the light as a figure in the back pointed.

"Steady. We make no assumed biases without facts and information. I need readings. NOW." The figures moved collectively. Some pulled out instruments from within coats pockets, others began looking over the glyphs depicted around the circle.

The spectacled man wiped a spot of dust off his glasses as he contemplated the slightly unexpected results. It seemed the longer he stayed in Gotham, the more interesting its surprises became.

The ambient echo within Gotham made him practically giddy with possibilities. He had spent almost a year sampling and discovering the supernatural around the gloomy streets. His colleagues assumed that his choice of location other than Amity was a demotion and that nothing could compare to the number one haunted city with a multitude of ghosts and one particular phantom. However, his luck seemed to continue on the rise as what just so happened to casually walk into his neighborhood? No one but the phantom ghost itself.

Thus, today's little experiment with some local techniques he had been researching.

He, of course, had little expectancy for the ghost vigilante to get caught in his little web, and yet something was here. The stated something reminded them of its presence when the subject stood up and threw a fist at one of the researchers who had tred a touch too close. A flashing pop and the smell of singed flesh like a piece of bacon dropped onto a hot iron skillet filled the air. The figure stood a little shakey frowning as it looked at its now charred knuckles.

"Hmmm, seems at least the barrier works as noted. Do we have the subjects' classification status yet?" He called out, his fingers clicking the end of his pen idly.

"Subject is positive for liminal readings, may be strong enough to warrent into ghost levels".

"Excellent seems I've caught a liable subject for our research. There is no need to worry about any human rights with this one."

The words seemed to trigger a response in the liminal creature as it looked up. Taking a deep breath, it put its hands up to push at the invisible barrier. Once again, the smell of cooked bacon filled the air. It pushed, gaining a few inches in its struggle. The smell turned dark from cooked to burnt as more skin slowly passed. The subjects face red with sweat and determination. Some of the fellow lab coats begin to grow nervous as at first inches, then one step, then two. Still, he stood firmly taking great note to study his new subjects' first reactions.

"Interesting" He quietly stated as the liminal broke free of the circle and began pummeling anyone within reach. The subject decked out two scientists the rest of them scrambling away from the escaped creature. Spotting the lead researcher standing still seemingly unbothered ad he watched. It stalked quickly over anger continuing to rise ignoring the burns covering every ounce of exposed skin. Which seemed like quite a bit as it raced over bare foot in long boxer shorts and a tank top in black. Or seemingly in black as they were covered in a layer of char or ash. The man made a quick note in his mental notes that the subjects head seemed the least burned as most of the skin there seemed more sunburnt then toasted, only the tips of its hair was singed, including a strange lock of white at his forehead. The glaring feature that seemed to validity the creatures liminality was its glowing green eyes as it screamed at him.

"Who the hell are you?!" It turned a fist aimed straight for his spectacles.

Safety measures in place, he raised a strangely smooth and rounded pistol up now at point blank range. Just before pulling the trigger, He answered.

"Call me Doctor Strange." The flash this time was concentrated in a blue burst as it hit the target just below it's collar bone. The subject gave a single jerking spasm, eyes rolling to the back of its head as it collapsed unconscious to the floor.

"I appreciate your submission to our research." Doctor Strange said as the first hint of a smile surfaced upon his features.

[to-the-stars8]

Can someone genuinely answer this ever lingering question as to why DC has such beef with Jason Todd?

They butcher his character and relationships, and for what? There’s so much fucking POTENTIAL not only with his character but with his story! There’s a way to actually write discourse in a relationship without making it so damn abusive. Maybe I’m missing something in the story or just in general, but it’s just so fucking irritating when it could be good.

You have a nice, good boy who only wants to help despite given the short hand in life who is then given a loving father who just so happens to be Batman. That boy is then murdered by Batman’s biggest enemy (don’t even get me started on the fucking Joker who essentially has become idolized in the worst ways by DC writers and directors) still trying to do the right thing despite being fucked over by the very person he so desperately wanted love from. Then, you have that same boy who’s just a little bit older, hurting and angry— acting out in every way he can against the man who loves him but couldn’t see past his own weaknesses. And what do DC writers do instead of making this complicated, intriguing and character growing relationship into something that’s not as fucking dumb and slightly out of character for Batman? They fuck him up.

It’s an extreme to say this, I know. And this isn’t against all DC writers, but you can’t deny a lie when it’s a pattern. It’s a cut and dry story that practically writes itself. You have a little boy who is so full of hope is growing along with the main character of the story (which, in my own personal opinion, Batman has Robin not as a soldiers—and omfg does that damn phrase make me violent—but as a potential, mutual factor of character growth) , who then gets a bit too cocky and distracted by his own hubris and need for love, to a hurt antagonist that goes against the man who he once called father. Like it’s too easy to not fuck this up, and yet DC seems to manages to do this every single time.

It’s almost like they want to portray Batman and Bruce Wayne as a man who is made “tougher” by his trauma (which has some patriarchal undertones if you catch my drift) instead of growing. Batman can grow. He can love. There’s one post that I’ve seen on Tumblr how Batman/Bruce does this whole vigilante thing out of love.

Which is why I don’t get why DC uses Bruce as a tool to hurt Jason when it isn’t really consistent. He loved Jason, and this is backed up by a lot of older and a few current issues. Don’t get me wrong, I get that their relationship post-UTRH is gonna be FUCKED. Yet, even the writing in that I can’t really agree with. KILLING (attempting to kill really) your son who had been dead for years, that you loved so much, and is acting out because YOU? Doesn’t make much sense, but, again, maybe I’m looking at this through a foggy lens.

This wasn’t meant to be a long post, but it’s just been on my mind and perhaps I could use another perspective. So, again, what’s DC’s deal with Jason and Bruce’s relationship, and Jason’s character as a whole?

[bucksangel]

Milk and Honey ask…

It doesn’t have to be this version of Stucky exactly it could be whatever you want but imagine Bucky and reader surprising Steve by setting up all his art supplies and then them posing for him.

I can imagine Bucky teasing him and being like “paint me like one of your French girls.” 🤭🤭🤭

I know you said Milk and Honey but this is giving me ideas for another au I’ve been thinking about writing, so I hope this is okay😭😭

Pairing: stucky x reader

Word count: 946

Summary: Steve has been in a little rut as to what to paint, so when he comes back from a weekend at DC, his loves have taken it upon themselves to help get him out of it.

Warnings: this is just an overwhelming amount of fluff, titanic references, steve and bucky are retired, hinted smut at the end so 18+ minors DNI

main masterlist | tip jar | commission me

It’s just past three in the afternoon when Steve steps out of his truck, and for a moment, he just leans against it, staring up at his little cottage with a fond smile. He’s just gotten back from a short trip to DC so he could go to a kids' charity event he was requested to be at and he is tired. Now, he could’ve said ‘no’, he is retired after all, but saying no to helping those in need is just not who Steve is. So, even though he had to leave the loves of his life for a few days, the smiles of joy on the kids’ faces when he’d walked into the building almost made it worth it.

As his eyes roam over the newly added fairy lights intertwined with the posts on the porch he hears a shriek of laughter – loud and boisterous and happy. The front door swings open, and a head of dark brown hair pokes out before looking back inside.

“Stevie’s back!”

Steve smiles wider, no doubt sporting heart eyes when the door opens wider as you practically shove Bucky aside so you can go rushing down the stairs. Steve steps away from the truck, opening his arms and laughing when you launch at him – and he’s just glad he’s a super soldier or else you would have knocked him to the ground.

“Hey, baby. You missed me?” Your arms wrap around Steve’s torso and your face tucks into his neck so even though he can’t see it, he knows you’re rolling your eyes. When you simply huff, he pokes your side, then grabs the backs of your thighs so he can hoist you up and wrap your legs around his waist. “I was only gone for a couple of days.”

“So?” Bucky comes jogging up behind you, stopping right next to you. “You can’t say that you didn’t miss us too.”

It’s Steve’s turn to roll his eyes, but he quickly closes them when Bucky puts his metal hand on the back of his neck and tugs – pulling him into a kiss. The kiss lasts for about five seconds, soft and chaste before Steve has to lean back and swat at Bucky’s hand that dropped down to grab his ass.

“Of course, I missed you guys,” Steve says fondly, adjusting you to rest on his hip so he can wrap his free arm around Bucky’s waist. In turn, Bucky places his metal hand back on Steve’s neck, and he has to suppress a shiver when he feels the ring on Bucky’s hand.

After five years of marriage, he would have thought the excitement would wear off, that maybe he’d become used to coming home to both of you, or doing mundane things together just as an excuse to be with each other. But it hasn’t, and Steve has never taken for granted the warm feeling in his chest whenever he’s with you, even if you’re together all day or haven’t seen him in a week.

Steve just loves you both more than life itself, he can’t help it, okay?

“My turn,” you whine, lifting your head up and puckering your lips so Steve can dip down and kiss you as well. “Now, c’mon, Stevie. Let’s go inside,” You say happily when he pulls back.

“We have a surprise for you.” Bucky’s smiling wide, looking over at you. When you nod, Bucky bolts into the house, shouting “We’ll get your bags later!” behind him.

Steve is a little apprehensive to go inside. Lord only knows what you two have gotten up to while he was away. But then you kiss his cheek, and the look of excitement in your eyes breaks down his walls and he makes his way towards the house as well.

He doesn’t know what he was expecting when he walked through the threshold and into the living room, but it wasn’t this. Most of the furniture has been pushed off to the side, and in its place is his easel, a few canvases, and the cart he keeps all of his paints and brushes in. With the curtains open, it’s perfectly positioned to give him the best lighting. Sitting opposite from the setup is one of their comfiest couches.

“What’s all this for?”

“You’ve been in a rut with painting, so we wanted to try to help with that.” You giggle at Bucky’s response, your face tucking back into Steve’s neck. And he can tell Bucky is trying to hide his mischievous smirk.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Steve finally sets you down, though you keep your arms around him.

“Well…” You trail off, playing with the short hairs at the base of your husband’s neck. “Remember when we watched Titanic last week?”

Steve rolls his eyes and groans. He knows exactly what scene you’re talking about. And, while he does feel like you both might somehow manage to give him a heart attack with your schemes and pranks, it’s moments like this that makes him think that it’d be worth it.

He’s so loved.

He feels it in his bones, at his core he knows that you and Bucky want him to be happy.

“Come on, Stevie baby,” Bucky says, saddling up behind his husband. “Paint us like one of your French girls.”

Steve can’t help but snort, and he feels Bucky smile into his neck. He takes a long pause, pretending to think it over even though he’s dying to say yes. He scrunches up his face like he’s thinking really hard, and that’s when you poke his side.

“Well,” Steve chuckles. “I guess you guys better get undressed then.”

stucky taglist: @justsebstan

main taglist: @lilyalone | @goldylions | @yeehawbrothers | @buckyssweetheart | @buckysprettybaby | @sushiseoks | @heytheredelulu | @somnorvos | @ozwriterchick | @pxgeturner | @gentlelimerence | @buckysbarne

[glitter-stained]

Starfire: Solar Winds

So at the end of the last arc of Outlaws, Star Collapse (info here) Kory absorbed an amount of transformed solar power she struggled to contain and went to space to try and get a handle of it.

Rough Plot

We follow Kory floating in space as she looks for a way to control or minimise her new powers. At first she's attempting to get rid of it, then she's attempting to repress her emotions. We get the reverse of a training montage, where she practices a lot of skills she already knows (meditation she'd learnt from Raven, stuff that helped her in the past) and goes to all her old teachers, and yet nothing helps and she's spiralling.

Then she decides to say fuck it and throws herself into situations where her anger is righteous and her power can serve her, wrestles with her right to be angry for herself Vs for others, and eventually she learns to accept her terror and her anger and her grief and all her emotions and look for ways for them to serve her, rather than fighting them or putting rules on them because she's been taught that she wasn't allowed, that she needs to be proper and dignified. We also have a reflection on the role Kory's family played into her abuse and how that betrayal shaped the way she viewed herself as a person, with questions like "what did I do to deserve this, is there something inherently wrong with me etc etc." and her sense of duty to her people and her family -and we get mentions/references/ a reflection to what part of these were unlearnt/healed vs what parts were not.

This new power-up is also examined in light of the psion's experimentation on her, as "a violation of her body" VS this choice/sacrifice she made in Star Collapse and how it changed her without her consent, challenging her idea of agency- with, around the moment she gives up on repressing her emotions, this internal dialogue:

"I can fly. I can fight. No matter what I do, things happen to me, always. And then..." *pause to show her unleashing a big, destructive AOE attack, head tilted back eyes closed and mouth agape* "...I happen to the world."

Main cast ideas:

-Raven -> I feel like in her "I need to manage/repress/control my emotions" era she definitely goes to Raven for help. Also the parallels.

-Kara Zor'el -> I need to check if they've had interactions before, but rn I really would love this to be the start of a friendship between them. Whether it's in terms of themes (Kara having been a red lantern and flying into space to not hurt people), power mechanics (a Kara/Starfire team up would work so well) or symbolism (Kara taking off the red ring but surviving she was inside the sun)...

-Donna Troy : idk what to tell you man I just want Donna to be there.

Continuity

=> After the mini is over, she should get her own long running title. I wanted this to be a mini because I wanted the story to be kinda like Like yes it could work just as well as the first arc of a Starfire comic, and if this were real dc I wouldn't take the risk of limiting her to it, but this is my dc where I'm boss and I say she gets a mini and a long solo run. I want the mini to be top high quality start to finish and just contain itself and be a short, intense read that can work as a introduction to Kory and a pivot moment for her. And then she gets a big, big comic, plus presence in certain titans missions, appearances in other people's comics (including Troia 2026 and Supergirl 2027) and of course her presence as an essential member of the team in certain arcs of Outlaws Rebirth.

I haven't thought that much about the Starfire long run comic because as the new head of dc my conversation with the amazing @malfiora about it convinced me that I needed to hire her to write the comic and this is now her baby, but just know that, as malfiora pitched it, the comic would begin with an arc of a group of people deciding Kory is a Goddess and worshipping her as such.

Art and Visuals

Visually, since getting her power-up in Star Collapse, Kory perpetually has a light glowing from inside her ribcage (think like Karlach from Baldur Gate 3).

(karlach from bg3 with the glowing fire inside her chest)

@malfiora also suggested that when unleashing her AOE, Kory's look should be reminiscent of the tamaranean goddess X'Hal.

And finally, here's a bunch of amazing Kory fanarts that inspire me for the mini!

Shout-out to these incredible artists, and thanks to everyone in the poll for helping me choose a title!!

[mochi-kitty]

Being an impulse fan is like walking the edge of a knife sometimes

Rant about cartoon impulse that morphs into complaints about the young justice show itself.

Please scroll I just needed to complain a little

cuz on one hand that’s my boy. My complicated driven and violent creature who sometimes doesn’t understand that danger is realTM… and to see him animated is a dream but the only place he’s really animated is in a half anime half cartoon low effort art style series that sorta got him right in the season they introduced him in but then when the show got rebooted they turned his cringe dial allllll the way up and it’s kind of painful to rewatch because they didn’t hold onto a single bit of his story in the reboot after season 2 and if you thought they hated writing him in the newer comics well they also hate to do it in animation (as said previously they just never know what to do with the flashes hence why Wally barely appeared in Justice league unlimited). Season 2 impulse was okay, I was happy with what I got. Season 3 kid flash was unbearable. Season 4 kid flash was better but not as good as season 2 and they brushed over his involvement like nothing.

It just sucks so much because an impulse series is never going to happen. The TV Industry is too far into other genres like Harley Quinn and kiteman to even attempt spending money on adapting the impulse comics even if it would find a small audience, the fandom is just too divided between the multiple interpretations that were created for Bart Allen over the years. From aging him down when he shouldn’t have been to making him more adult and then never using him or killing him off to make him young again.

And it SUCKS so much because was keeping his comic personality in the young Justice show too much to ask for? Could the writers really not find any use for him past season 2? Could they not be bothered to read up on his lore? Not even from the wiki?

I keep thinking of what it would be like if the show directors had just a little more wiggle room to work with. Like if they didn’t HAVE to keep a central plot involving 30 different characters to wrap up a 24 episode season with a big battle at the end only to remember in hindsight that they A. forgot some characters still had holes in their plots and B. no one got character development that was substantial enough to matter. We had up to nearly a decade between season 2 and season 3 and it was a miracle in itself that it even got this chance in the first place. Even I admit I was too excited to care at the time but now it’s kind of painful to find all the faults in it when it’s been left again on the back burner of a greedy studio. From the time skips to introducing SO MANY new characters all in one season,,, the show practically dug itself in a hole and I will die on this hill. I understand the time constraints, the money issues, the audience reacting to a new season years after the last one when we’ve turned the internet into a harsher judgement zone. They wanted to include every character DC ever created, if only to please that one DC fan who even knew about Halo or dolphins existence and then add in real world issues on top of that to make it relatable.

IMO they bit off more then they could chew. Despite what redditers will tell you, the time skips were a cheap way to avoid certain parts of the characters development and they hindered more then they helped. Not only did we not get to grow with our original team of hero’s, we had to accept that we wouldn’t get to see 7 years of their growth (not even in flashbacks). And it just kept happening in a lesser volume with each season. Add on top of that we had the 20 new people they’d introduce who’d get the same no development treatment. Season 4, of course, tried to course correct and made little arcs for the original characters to get developed. Almost 9 years within the story later and with one of the original dead for no reason.

I just keep wondering if they hadn’t done any of that, what it would be like. Even the big rolling up hill plot of 24 episodes that crests 14 minutes into the last 20 minute episode with the remaining 6 minutes being the down time. If we had it more like the original Justice league cartoon with part 1-2 episodes focusing on one major plot or issue with all or most team members showing up. Or if we had kept it like season 1 with the monster of the week style of episodes (see supernatural season 1 to know monster of the week better) would we have gotten better character development? Would it have paced out the big bad reveal at the end more efficiently? Would it have forced the writers to actually read up on the characters they were adapting past their surface level personality? We’ll never know.

I can’t even hate the young justice plot that much either because it’s not terrible, it just the way they play dolls with the characters that hurts because I want to love it. My fav has been animated and I can see them move past their still comic pages and hear them actually talk on screen, that alone should be enough but it’s not.

Not when I can’t rewatch any of it without the high chance of getting second hand embarrassment if I don’t pay attention to when I have to skip ahead. An issue that wouldn’t even be a thing if the writers had JUST ORGANIZED THEMSELVES A LITTLE BETTER AND READ THE DAMN CHARACTERS COMICS A LITTLE.

I can’t even talk about the outfits or art style or the battle animations or the relationships or the specific character based plot holes or the change of priority the reboot brought or idk maybe Wally’s death??

[shizukateal]

Miraculous Ladybug Magical Girl Fashion Review -Part 1

Preamble

Ok, so. What do you people generally think of as a "superhero outfit"? Spandex, right? Tight-skinned, uninterrupted spandex covering almost all the body, or at least not straying away from the body line if you're a girl and only get a swimsuit. Maybe a cape (hood optional) depending on how dramatic you are to add some flow or, if you're a woman, your hairstyle will do that job. Otherwise you can have some form of helmet or headpiece to distinguish yourself, and that's it. That's the extent of options you have. If you're extremely lucky, they might allow you to wear a jacket.

While this description might be a bit of an exaggeration (not by much, though) I think we can all agree that this is a very restrictive set of rules to work with. It's very hard to make something that completely contours to the body visually compelling. It's hard to distribute colors and shapes and patterns in a neat way that makes you stand out when you have to compete with thousands of millions of characters with the same 3 allowed bodytypes (lean, broad, or Woman™️). Which is why we should clap even more at designs like the DC holy trinity and especially Spiderman, who not only has a fantastic design in spite of how alienating it should be, but whose look is also currently inspiring thousands of artists to make their own variations, technically also including today's very own Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

This is all a very lengthy way to say that some of the MLB people wear their fursuits better than the rest. Skin-tight onesies with fur patterns are not something everyone can pull off. Doubly so with how inconsistent the art direction in the show is, with everyone in the cast reaching different levels of uncanny valley and swagless drip. I personally think that many of them would do better if they thought a bit outside that box of "standard superhero fashion" and went for something more specific to the personalities of the characters, but there are some winners amongst the rabble. Much like the writing of the show itself, the show's design averages into a trashy sludge pile that still manages to look tempting thanks to some unexpected moments of competence. Let's sort through the pile *cracks knuckles*

Ladybug (standard and ultimate version)

You'd think it would be easy for me to just say "yeah, the bland, near fully uninterrupted polkadot bodypaint onesie is both boring and silly and the other more balanced version is a LOT better by comparison" and leave it at that, but unfortunately I also have to talk about the hairstyle. And the hairstyle is wrong in a very specific way which I don't have concise terms for, so I need you to pay attention and stay with me here.

The pigtails work well for Marinette. They are distinct, practical, realistic enough while bordering just slightly on the fantastic, and their mild childishness enhances Mari's romantic nature. In theory they also match the polka-dot theme and they are not impractical considering the function of Ladybug's suit, but they still go against what it's trying to do. There's probably a concrete term in shape and action line theory that better educated people than me know about, but to give you the gist of what I mean I'm gonna do another Shitty Paint Edit™️ so I don't go in too many circles explaining myself:

Ok, you get what I'm trying to say here now? The pigtails match the balance of this specific pose, but the suit is too skin-tight and it highlights Marinette's neck, so they interrupt the buildup. They don't even work well as pieces of flow for contrast, because the hair is so stiff and the ribbons are barely noticeable. Compare to itsanarkee's cosplay and how much better she looks because she has an updo. The worst part of it all is that, usually, matching a body-paint suit with a hairstyle to provide contrast in a female superhero is, like, babyshit, the bread and butter of superheroine costumes, but Astruc managed to find the one hairstyle in the world to make it work wrong because he was to proud about Marinette's design to change anything. Just give her the fucking buns already.

Chat Noir

He serves cunt. Pops pussy, if you will. The only very mild itch it gives me is that I can't see what his ears are attached to and it bothers me, although he's not the only one with that feature and I understand why they would want to hide a hair band especially in his design. I can forgive that when everything else in this design is genius. The belt tail. The way his mask sharpens his features alongside the hair and ears. The flaps on his boots and gloves that highlight how his movements put more weight in his joints. The acrylic claws, the paws on his boots. The lines that highlight his figure in just the right way. The fucking bell. Chat is easily the best design amongst the heroes.

And while this my purely subjective interpretation, I truly do think it's understated how much this outfit manages to sell Adrien's clark kenting. It makes complete and perfect sense to me at least that Marinette wouldn't recognize him like this. Adrien is just slightly generically pretty enough that you wouldn't assume they are the same person just because they're both blonde bishies, and the contrast between the two personas is high enough that it could be realistic that some people wouldn't put them together if they are not looking for that connection. Doubly so for Marinette, who is way too enamored with Adrien's personality of generic un-disruptive niceness with a touch of rich boy angst to fully reconcile it with Chat's outright spicier demeanor lightened with Pathetic Wet Beast Energy for potability.

Rena Rogue vs Volpina

Yeah, this one merits a comparison. It's a perfect example to elaborate on my first rule. Lila already stands out as another of the best human designs amongst the cast, and the sleaze she exudes lends itself a lot better to this slick body-paint tightness and form-highlighting curves. The tail-sash around her waist is also brilliant. She'd probably look even better in something more grounded, but the fact that she's already pulling the outfit off like this is still an accomplishment.

Rena Rogue on the other hand... well, everything around her head is very good and cute, and I especially appreciate the eyebrows on her mask. On paper I also like the top with its longtail, but overall Alya looks a lot blander than Volpina, because her outfit doesn't reflect her personality the way it does Lila's. It's not ugly, even if the patch of white starts to bother me because it has no interruptions as it goes down. In fact it succeeds in making Rena look kind of adorable, really, but Alya is not a cutesy girl, and tbh the overall general texture of the outfit is a lot more body spray-painting-ish than Volpina's, which also makes it look cheaper in a bad way.

The Fox miraculous may be summarized as the power of Illusion, but both girls represent two facets elaborating on that concept: where Lila is the Fox as Deceit, Alya is the Fox as Cleverness. So Lila may be... smart manipulative -Ok, sincerely speaking Lila Rossi is the single most blatant Villain Sue I have ever seen put onscreen, but what I'm trying to get at is that while she -supposedly- has some cunning, her pettiness and eagerness to speak on the fly is -or rather should be- a contrast to Alya, who goes around sniffing for the truth and thus always has a fuller picture. Because remember: the best liars tell the truth. So Rena's outfit should reflect that. It should be less slick and more street-savvy, something that the pendant with its long chain is especially well suited to.

Speaking of all these thematic parallels, am I the only one in the fandom who is extremely weirded out that Lila isn't a rival to Alya? Like, aren't they extremely obvious foils beyond both of them being fox-themed? The girl who bases her clout on lies vs the one who searches for the truth? The girl who pretends to be friends with Ladybug while bullying her civilian identity vs the girl who is friends with both? Have the writers ever exploited this ever since I stopped watching?

Carapace

Nino is almost perfect. I am genuinely impressed at how well they chose the angle of this costume. It's so easy for me to imagine a much shittier version with an ugly cowl/spiderman wannabe facemask -because other characters in this series take that approach-, but taking a page out of spider-gwen's book instead paid amazing dividends. He looks great as teenage not-mutant ninja turtle.

He only has two significant faults. One is that I feel his goggles should be tinted opaque orange, and he should wear a mask over his mouth and nose. You know, make the clark kenting a little easier, the stealth more pointed, maybe he can have a cool graffiti of a turtle beak over the mask for a sprinkle of his actual personality. The second is that the partition he chose for his crotch area is a bit iffy and yes, I am very sorry to talk about this. The shape of the partition itself is not bad but it's the same color, so it doesn't actually help the transition all that much and instead, sadly, it only brings more attention to the middle. My suggestion is that he should take a page out of Rise of the TMNT's book and make the plastron into actual armor that goes from his chest to his navel, instead of just a logo on the front. Then he can either wear black shorts or he can go the Rise!Casey Jones route and wear pants that are slightly baggy but still cinch to his ankles.

Then there's only one last thing he needs to be completely perfect and that is having an actual relationship with Master Fu since he is the direct successor of his miraculous and one of the first characters to be akumatized on account of his resentment towards adults, so I feel like there's a whole bunch of narrative foiling potential not being explored there, you get me?

Queen Bee vs Vesperia

Zoe's face is more interesting and I appreciate that, as well as the design team giving her a braid, but Chloe still wins this one. Vesperia's outfit is reasonably cool on its own, but it does very little aesthetically for her. Perhaps if the colors of her top and pants were inverted it could work, but there's something about the aggressive sharpness of its lines that Zoe's bubbly face is not matching, made worse by the black being at the forefront. That might not be a problem in civilian outfit, but only because that look is balanced with other colors. Or rather, I think she also needs a more casual fit to pull it off instead of a skin-tight jacket. I also get what they're trying to do with her bangs and I would love it were it not for the fact that it doesn't look good in this artstyle. Chloe also has that problem with her hair, but Queen Bee's style fits her a lot better in a much obvious way, and for added points I think Queen Bee wears the cord as a belt better too., so congrats to Chloe on her one win, I do hope the writing allows her to have proper character development later instead of constantly resetting her to square one for conflict.

[goddesspharo]

For the Fanfiction Writing Asks: 35, 36, 40, 46, 56, and 75. A lot, but you’re a fave and I’m so curious!

[fic writing asks!]

Thanks for asking!

35. What's your favorite fic you've posted?

Definitely can't fake what you can't break up with, which I will finish soon. (I think I'm so slow about writing-not writing the last chapter because there's a part of me that doesn't want it to end because it has been so much fun to write! It's been a ton of fun to take a very trope-y soapy concept (drunk married in Vegas, continued marriage For Reasons) and spin it out into all the things. It's also ridiculously long so this year when NaNoWriMo rolls around and I say that I can't do it because I can't possibly meet that type of word count in a month, it'll be a bold-faced lie.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

Probably not every conversation is a new grenade, a post-The Batman fic that was, up until then, the longest fic I'd ever written at like 16k (I wish I could keep things that short these days!) after like a five year gap of not writing any fic. There would be a point during the writing process in the past when I'd just get tired of writing a thing and finish it while leaving a bunch of things I wanted to incorporate on the cutting room floor, but I really saw this one through. I'd only watched The Batman once (maybe twice?) before sitting down to write this - it was pretty early into the theatrical release so WB hadn't kicked it onto Max yet - so I'm particularly pleased with how on point the voices were. I also love nearly every iteration of Bruce/Selina and therefore don't write them as much (it's the old Austenian "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more") because I cannot be objective about how they should just be together, why won't you just let them be together, DC so probably the biggest accomplishment of all is that I even wrote this. It was also just a blast to do and gave me an excuse to bust out the 90s grunge playlist at the very beginning and then just listen to so much BANKS that I could not stop for weeks afterwards.

40. What is your favorite world that you've created for a fic?

The Bear as a band AU in put in in a zip-lock bag. Interestingly, a very natural stretch to transplant people from a chaotic kitchen setting to a chaotic, dysfunctional band setting. Mikey as a Kurt Cobain figure practically writes itself. Years of Behind the Music made this possible! I loved the experience of writing that fic and I loved that world! Everyone could be quietly devastated without burning down the kitchen (no promises about the Lollapalooza stage though).

46. If you could only write one type of AU for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I was going to say Enemies-to-Lovers, hands down, but that's not an AU, I guess. It would be boring to write one type of AU forever, but if I had to choose I'd go with the tried and true spy AU. (...she says as she still has her current spy!AU remains in WIP hell.) As Sydney Bristow has taught us, Spy!Barbie can be anything so you could theoretically have an AU within your one AU and game the system. Also spies are the best! All popped collars and dead drops and so much guilt about the things they've done and the people they've let down. God, we need Alias back and by that I mean put the original show on streaming with the original music since every replacement track they used because they couldn't get licensing for streaming is terrible.

56. Are there any fics that you would change or rewrite if given the chance?

That is one spiral I refuse to go down! Once it's out there, it is what it is. I've never wanted to go back and change any fics in a big way (I have gone back and fixed a grammatical error here and there that escaped notice during the editing process) because I wouldn't post it if I wasn't happy with it at the time. There are fics that I wish I had maybe finished before posting (ah, TGM!spy!AU, why are you so elusive?) because now they are albatrosses that I want to finish, know exactly how to finish, and yet can't finish.

75. Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn't expect?

I never know how anything will be received so I don't even try to guess. I operate on a "don't time the market" philosophy except about fic - it is beyond my control so why perseverate over it? I guess I was surprised by how much traction deflect and absorb got. I don't know why, but I think we were all riding the high of a new Jurassic Park movie after like fifteen years (longer if you ignore Jurassic Park III) and had yet to experience "The Worst Chris" burnout (ugh, he really is the worst though) when Jurassic World came out. It was definitely my big dumb blockbuster that summer! In 2015, it wasn't automatically guaranteed that everything would get a handful of shitty sequels so you could live in the space of just enjoying a movie for what it was without thinking about how they were going to mess it up by stretching it out past the expiration date.

[cleromancy]

one thing ive been thinking about a lot lately is just that. even if i did think that it was possible for a corporation to be a good or effective custodian for intellectual property *at all,* much less a sprawling long-running collaborative universe like dc comics, dc has proven itself a zillion times over to be actively hostile to both the creatives and the story itself

i think a lot of canon vs fanon arguments about the dcu specifically are silly bc people come to the argument without bothering to acknowledge that, or the fact that even if youre exclusively talking about the mainline continuity you still have to pick and choose from a deeply inconsistent and self-condradicting canon, and everyone has to take their own approach to what *is* canon to them. and that doesn't even start getting into what the difference between canon and fanon even *is* when some of these characters date back 80+ years ago and are practically unrecognizable from their first iterations, and moreover we *like them that way.*

and its like. okay. sometimes we just want to complain about fanon or interpretations we don't vibe with and aren't actually sitting down to have an intellectually honest conversation about story or character or transformative works. other times we just want to complain about the new guy dc has writing our blorbo who is doing a total dogshit job and driving them away from the stories that came before that were actually good, and again, aren't trying to make definitive sweeping statements on what writers cannot or should not do with established characters.

but other times people definitely are, and this is always where i think we need to actually hit pause and rewind and address our individual beliefs on who has the right to tell what story or do what with what idea. bc if we don't start there its inevitable we're going to be talking in circles around each other having two totally different conversations.

bc ultimately i think a lot of issues come down to like, "was this character choice deliberate and purposeful, what function does it have in the story, and is it well-executed within the story it tells; also, what impact does it have/will it have on the stories that follow?" rather than an issue of factual *accuracy* with what came before in the source material.

i think a lot of people just want the legitimacy of saying "this is canon" while also feeling free to dismiss canon that contradicts or overwrites it as "not really canon" (in instances where it literally *is*), and. man. you are just not coming to that conversation from an intellectually honest place.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Leaning on a Blue Door by Alice Lee Timmins

On SALE: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/leaning-on-a-blue-door-by-alice-timmins/

Ancestors and newborns crisscross these poems, comfortably slip in and out of one another’s lives. There are celebrations, elegy, meditations on #nature, #family, #history, #science. The poet has created a jazz-like improvisation: voices from the last millennium call to the first quarter of the new and receive messages back. The variety of poetic forms in this short volume share an undercurrent: antidotes from divisive turmoil toward a welcoming rest. #poetry

Alice has been engaged in service-oriented careers – In Washington, DC with a women’s advocacy non-profit; in Maryland and Colorado as a secondary social studies teacher, and with a Masters Degree in Education and Counseling, she counseled numerous students in various public schools on both sides of the Mississippi River. Her final position was Coordinator of Adult Volunteers at the Denver Art Museum. Now retired to her beloved Maine, Alice writes poetry from a sunny desk at a cottage on the Great Works River in South Berwick. Daily she walks with her partner Margaret and their beloved dog Quincy. She stays extremely active creating textile art pieces, installing art at the Kittery Art Association Gallery, playing pickleball, hiking with artistic and spiritually-minded friends. Alice also spends long afternoons cutting firewood from felled trees on acres of her property’s forest floor.

PRAISE FOR Leaning on a Blue Door by Alice Lee Timmins:

“The poems collected in Alice Timmins‘s Leaning on a Blue Door forge subtle connections between the present and the past, the personal and collective, the natural and technological. Poems about a beloved’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, and another about the fate of the Voyager spacecraft, echo one another in ways that continue to haunt me. Poems about a woman running alone on a back road at dusk, and another about Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault testimony in 2018, have nothing, and everything, to do with each other. And poems about who and what we are responsible for—our homes and communities—are tied by a dark thread to poems about how we betray one another in small and large ways. What holds all this together? The poet’s sympathy for what’s fragile, yes, but also her trust that what’s true, in and through time, is unbreakable.”

–Kimberly Cloutier Green, author of The Next Hunger; former Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire

“Like the many artworks scattered through this beautiful collection, Alice Timmins’ poems paint pictures of exquisite grace and light. Her “bell of awareness” rings loud on every page, showing meticulous attention to, and celebration of, so many aspects of our glorious lives—love, sickness, birth, death, the joy and pain of friendship, and precise details of the natural world around us. With a well-tuned ear for the music of birds, the ocean, and most of all language itself, she writes intimate slivers of lovely stillness—like catching a finch or butterfly for an instant in your hand. While many of the poems are imbued with a deep sense of rootedness in loving partnership, in family, and in her New England home, the poems of section two blossom out to global and even astronomical perspectives, but with the same intense desire to reveal truth and find compassion. These poems will wake you to wonder and make you stop to listen again and again.”

–Brian Evans-Jones, former Poet Laureate of Hampshire, UK, and winner of the Maureen Egan Award from Poets & Writers.

With color, texture and exquisite detail, this artful collection invites me to see, feel, and practically touch what the author has experienced. Words, like watercolor on the page, invite me into longing, grief and healing; draw me toward fresh fields and earthen pathways; startle me into the “humble now” of heart truths I’d practically forgotten. I am grateful for these poems. I think you will be too.

–Rev. Ellen Quaadgras ~Minister, South Church, Portsmouth, NH

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #family #life #history #science #relationships #grief #healing

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #660

Top Ten Witches

Oooooooooooo, it’s Halloween! Don’t you feel spooky? Ooky? Kooky? No? Just me then.

Because it’s Halloween, that means – by law – that it is also the Season of the Witch. As such, to celebrate the most macabre of holidays, I’ve decided to get my witch on and rank my favourite fictional witches. It’s entirely possible – okay, almost certain – that this focus on our broom-riding sisters was inspired by the rather fantastic Agatha All Along, which flies to its spooktacular conclusion this coming week (double episode finale on Thursday!). Agatha is not just a terrific show in and of itself, but it’s also super witchy, focusing on a makeshift coven getting up to all kinds of magical mischief. The most recent episode had the gang cosplaying as everyone from Maleficent to the Wicked Witch. So witches have been on my mind.

What is a witch? That’s a question that’s preoccupied me whilst writing. Because there are a couple of characters here who are, basically, supernatural beings; are they still witches? Or does a witch have to be essentially a human who does magic? Is it cheating if you’re already the daughter of an actual demon? Or a fairy? Or, well, a sort of octopus lady? Basically, I’ve just gone with vibes; even in the MCU there seems to be an unspoken differential between the “sorcerers” of Doctor Strange and the witches of Agatha All Along, but you generally wouldn’t confuse the two. So these are all characters that just seem pretty witchy.

Also, as an aside: a lot of Disney characters here. Yes, because of an overall souring, there’s a certain famous “witchy” franchise that I just can’t recommend, so there are a few characters that might otherwise have appeared on here; don’t blame me, I’m not the billionaire bigot in this scenario. Also it’s been absolutely ages since I’ve seen Practical Magic or The Craft, and – sorry – Hocus Pocus isn’t really a masterpiece. So those famous witches sadly didn’t make the cut. But even so, who knew Disney made such great witches? They’re not necessarily a company you really think of as being particularly witchy. But most of their greatest villains are, it turns out, witch-adjacent, and they’ve ended up owning Marvel, who do good witch.

Anyway. Grab your broom and your pointy hat, get your hubble bubble on, and join me down the Witches’ Road. Happy Halloween, hags!

The Three Witches (Macbeth, 1606): absolute legends in the field; three creepy crones who speak in rhymes and riddles, tell the future, but do it basically just for a lark to ruin Macbeth’s life. Are they agents of fate, or agents of chaos? I dunno, I didn’t actually study Macbeth at uni. But they are really cool, and their whole “eye of newt” deal arguably set the stage for the sort of cauldron-stirring iconography for modern witches.

Raven (DC Comics, 1980): the first of my “is she a witch or is she just magic?” characters, but I’ve allowed her partly because of her whole “Wednesday Addams with a spellbook” vibe, the fact that she actually does have a spellbook, and the fact that – at least in the eighties – her friends in the Teen Titans literally referred to her as a witch. And she’s awesome, one of my favourite DC characters; a moody teen who has fantastic style and a nice line in sarcasm. Although her various animated appearances have given her iconic moments and lines to spare, I’ve always been a fond this quote: “My father was a demon. That doesn’t make me a Goth. I like all kinds of music”. And for that we thank Grant Morrison.

The Grand High Witch (The Witches, 1983): so far we’ve dealt with agents of chaos and actual superheroes, but this lady is evil. She’s a proper baddy, and she’s supremely freaky and terrifying. The novel The Witches was a seminal book for me as a kid (partly because of the bittersweet end), but the seductive nature combined with utter monstrosity of the Grand High Witch is one of the reasons I love it so. Yes, okay, the “ugly equals bad” thing is hella problematic, but everything else about her is Peak Villainy.

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty, 1959): a contender for Sexiest Disney Character and also – unquestionably – their most iconic villain. A slinky seductive presence, as far away from the warty crone of Snow White as you can get; she’s a proper glamourpuss and a drama queen, and probably did as much to influence the general direction of witches in the second half of the twentieth century as Macbeth’s witches did for the previous three hundred years. A masterpiece of character design, animation, and voice. Yes, okay, she’s technically a fairy who turns into a dragon. But she’s definitely witchy, yeah?

Eglantine Price (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971): phew, back to the nice ones – although still at Disney! Miss Price is Angela Landsbury’s character, a wannabe witch who has more power than she realises. She’s got a nice dose of classic British governess about her, but she’s a kindly presence with a heroic streak. And, look, she literally fights the Nazis. I can’t overstate this enough: this witch repels the Far Right. We need more Prices around right now.

Agatha Harkness (Marvel Cinematic Universe, 2021): is it recency bias? I dunno, but I frickin’ love Agatha. Kathryn Hahn’s performance (and yes, I’m just looking to her MCU portrayal, because quite frankly I don’t think I’d heard of the character before WandaVision) is just delightful, full of sarky one-liners and sassy expressions, but all of that seems to hide depth and sadness. Her story is ongoing, so quite how the character will turn out – tragic hero or empathetic villain – is uncertain; but she deserves a place just for the song.

Witch Hazel (Looney Tunes, 1954): on the one hand, she has what amounts to a stylised interpretation of the stereotypical witch image: she’s a green crone with a huge nose and chin, dressed in a dark smock with a pointy hat. But the off-kilter design – huge, bulbous head, tiny spindly legs; small hat all squashed and crooked; frazzled hair coming off in all angles – gives her a unique, rather kooky edge, reflective of where Looney Tunes was in the fifties. Plus she’s just super-funny, a worthy adversary to Bugs, June Foray’s performance is sublime, and I adore the fact that whenever she darts off-screen she leaves behind a small cloud of hair-pins.

Ursula (The Little Mermaid, 1989): not just a sea witch; she’s the sea witch. Famously – and fabulously – modelled on Divine, she’s a plus-sized queen with tentacles-full of charisma, wicked charm, sensuality, and – yes – more than enough camp. Her voice (big up Pat Carroll) is tremendous, and the way she lolls and rolls about, tentacles swaying, is incredible to see. Plus she’s just a bad-ass octopus lady who makes dark magic spells and turns people into weird scrawny plant-things. What’s not to like?

Lady Jessica (Dune, 2021): again we get into the “is she technically a witch?” area. But the Bene Gesserit have what may as well be magic powers; especially when they get really into the Fremen of it all, and the Water of Life. Is it some kind of chemical reaction that causes hallucinations? Or is it, like, magic that lets her see the future? I mean, the whole twisty-turny timey-wimey stuff in Dune is bonkers as it is, and Jessica is right at the centre. But outside of all that, it’s her voice, and her ability to control people, Obi-Wan style, that suggests witchiness. And I’m focusing on Rebecca Ferguson’s portrayal in the movies specifically, because she imbues Jessica with an earnestness and a sorrow, as well as an uncanny aura of dread, that I didn’t get as strongly from the book.

The Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz, 1939): sadly just edging out classic picture-book witches Meg and Winnie is this great green crone; because, really, I feel she defines so much of what a “witch” is. I think Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal in the film is so iconic, it helped solidify the notion of a witch for much of the twentieth century. She’s an evil magic-user who wears black and has a sweet hat, and gets to hang out with a bunch of flying monkeys. She has a natty cackle and a nice way with a nasty one-liner. I’ve not read the books, if I’m honest, but as a movie witch, she’s pretty great.

A cracking four witches from Disney properties, against two from (proper) WB films; or three if we allow Lady Jessica as a WB character. Anyway, who’d have thought that nicey-nicey Disney would go so hard for witches? And I didn’t even feature Bette Midler.

[about-faces]

I'm glad to see someone taking the time to point out the details of DC's fuckery. Most of the reactions I'm seeing to this are from people who clearly didn't actually read Willingham's Substack, so they boil down to either "wow, ballsy move!" or "Willingham's a serious asshole for (lists of legitimate problems with the man)." But there's very few scrutiny about this rare, candid peek at DC's shitty business practices, and how they--like Marvel--seek to screw over creators.

What I find particularly interesting was Willingham giving measured praise to his original team of editors and publishers. But once Dan DiDio took over, it was back to the usual sneaky shit that caused Alan Moore to sour on DC in the first place, not to mention creators going all the way back to DC's beginnings like Siegel, Shuster, and Finger. Now, with comics being little more than glorified content farms for WB/Disney, creators need recognition and protection for their work. They really need to finally unionize now, especially now or never, but I fear it'll never happen. But at least Willingham is... er... willing to kick the hornet's nest.

I may not like Willingham personally, nor his work (count me in with the chorus of people who preferred The Wolf Among Us to Fables, especially because I liked playing a kinder Bigby than his canon counterpart), but even though he's an asshole, I'm glad he's asshole enough to open up about this shit and take a stand. I just wish more people would be willing to look past the property and its problematic creator to the finer points of how the Big Two pulls shit like this all the time.

And that's especially important now that DC has responded with a "Nuh-uh, you can't do that, Fables is actually ours" statement, opening the door to an ugly sparring match that could put creators' rights in even more jeopardy. Or it may not go anywhere at all, since Willingham--despite writing one of DC's most popular and successful runs--can't even afford to sue. Which itself should fuckin' tell you something about how DC treats their creators!

HOLY SHIT WHAT???

[jadeile-writes]

Fanfic Progress Update 158

Hello, peeps! The last Saturday of the year 2023 and thus my last post of the year. Wild. So let's see what I've got here, and then I'll see you again on 2024! Stay tuned for a sneak-peek for A Sign that you're important at the bottom of this post!

Current WIPs:

A Sign that you're important

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog, movieverse

Summary: One month upon his assigment as Doctor Robotnik's assitant, Agent Stone is told to learn sign language. He doesn't know why, and isn't suicidal enough to ask, so he simply rolls with it. Turns out, it's not just a whimsy of the eccentric doctor, even though that doesn't stop the doctor from utilizing it like one.

Progress: The latest chapter aka chapter 2 was posted on 28th of December. The third chapter will be posted on 4th of January aka the next Thursday. Chapter 4 is almost finished. This fic will most likely have five chapters, maybe six if I get epilogue-happy or smth.

The Christmas hassle really cut into my writing time, ngl. Let's hope chapter 5 practically writes itself when I get to it so that I can keep up with the schedule nicely and perhaps get new things cooking. Or maybe just focus on Lab Life, I'm starting to feel self-conscious about writing everything but my "main project", even tho that's by design.

-----

Life at the laboratory

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog, movieverse

Summary:

"Wanted: a yesman who is capable of operating an espresso machine, has at least a higher IQ than your average amoeba, and is willing to put work before having a personal life, or indeed a life, period. The extra in your pathetic paycheck is good, but the strain in your psyche will make up for the positives. Forfeit your basic human rights and apply today if this sounds like you." 

Maybe it said something about Agent Stone - and probably not good things - that the poster in the cafeteria's pin board piqued his interest more than any of his official assignments had for a good long while. 

Dr. Robotnik, huh?

Progress: This one will be part one of a two-parter longfic, the first part probably... 10-ish chapters? It's a bit hard to estimate at this point, so the number is subject to change - will probably end up being increased tbh. My weekly writing hour (as in, a specific hour when I sit down and write, no excuses [other than not being home]) is devoted to this fic.

I have the first four chapters completely written now. Chapter 5 is 3/4ths done. Let it be known that this chapter is difficult to write, because it involves so much research for things that nobody else will even care about and are basically just background details (actually, that applies to this whole fic tbh). It would be so much easier if I was less of a stickler for details, lol XD As a sidenote that's actually not relevant to this particular chapter, I'm failing miserably at learning to do latte art. The milk foam just turns into milk with hard whip on top. I need to invest in better equipment and fattier milk and give it another shot. The magic tricks I learned in my Hazbin fic research were so much easier >.>

I also have two halfway written chapters that don't yet know their exact placement within the fic (they're scenes that will be slotted in to wherever they feel natural, once we get Stone settled in.)

-----  

Other WIPs I’m not currently working on but intend to get back to Someday™:

PoE Drabbles (Pillars of Eternity)

DC Drabbles (Justice League)

Diaphanous Relations (Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore’s books)

Rolling with it (Zelda: BotW)

Hah, our afterlife is the most hilarious bushwa, dearest! (Hazbin Hotel)

-----

That’s it for the WIPs! Here’s the promised sneak-peek into A Sign that you're important (Note: the text may end up slightly different in the fic itself due to more editing happening before publishing). Enjoy!

Robotnik let out a deep, exhausted sigh of relief upon the hotel room door closing behind him. Finally, finally the mission was as good as over, with only the paperwork and hopefully avoidable in-person debriefings left, and those were tomorrow's problems. Tonight, all that was expected of him was sleeping, and after days of planning, organizing, and finally the careful execution of the plan he was ready to give his brilliant mind a much deserved break.

"Stone, unpack the bags, order something edible and light from the room service, and ignore any and all messages and calls from the government", he said, taking off his outdoor clothes while his assistant worked in the background. He wanted a shower to wash out the sweat, grime, and the faint smell of a musty warehouse.

As soon as Stone had his pajamas laid out on his bed, he snatched them up and claimed their en-suite bathroom for himself. He couldn't get out of his nasty day clothes fast enough, and after taking out and carefully laying his hearing aids on the edge of the sink – as far away from the danger of falling in as he could manage with the limited options at hand – he hopped in the shower and let the warm water wash out the grime and stress in the blissful silence.

-----

That’s it this time. See you next Saturday!

Links:

My AO3   My FFnet   My Ko-fi    Radiohusk Discord Server

[percontaion-points]

The Chemist chapter 2

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 2

Her bathtub mixture was not the same thing they’d used for Barnaby, but it was close enough. It was the simplest way she knew to kill someone so swiftly and so painfully. And it was a renewable resource, unlike many of her weapons. All she needed was a good stock of peaches and a pool-supply store. Nothing that required restricted access or even a mailing address, nothing that her pursuers could track.

She says shit like this, yet in chapter one, she told the readers that she needed to take private contracting jobs so that she could buy her lab equipment and chemicals. 

I get that fake IDs cost a lot of money. But if she’s whipping this shit up in her bathtub with a peach pit and common pool chemicals, then there’s literally no need for her to endlessly put herself at risk by continuing to stay in her former occupation. 

If Carston was lying to her—which she was 97 percent sure he was— and arranging an ambush, then everything he’d said was a lie.

This is why I can’t take her seriously as a protagonist. Because I would not risk my life for that 3% chance that the entire thing wasn’t yet another trap to murder me. 

Casey went back to her room and changed into the clothes she’d kept inside the briefcase…

It’s not that I don’t mind the fact that our MC is constantly using fake IDs. I don’t even mind that the narration drops a name, especially when it goes on to explain to us WHY MC is going out of her way to intentionally use gender-neutral names. 

But what I cannot even begin to comprehend is why in the name of sanity does the narration itself randomly rename her every single time a new ID is flashed about? 

Like her name isn’t fucking Chris or Taylor or Casey. PICK ONE NAME AND FUCKING GODDAMNED USE IT FOR THE DURATION OF THE STORY. 

Next, the earrings, which she always handled with delicate care. She wouldn’t risk wearing them for this part of the journey; she would wait until she was closer to her target. Once they were in, she had to move her head very deliberately. They looked like simple glass globes, but the glass was so thin that a high note could shatter it, especially as the little spheres were already under pressure from the inside. If anyone grabbed her by the neck or head, the glass would burst with a quiet pop. She would hold her breath —which she could do for a minute fifteen, easy—and close her eyes if possible. Her attacker would not know to do that.

This is 100% written by somebody who is only thinking of how cool that it is, rather than the practicality of it all. 

One wrong head turn from our dear MC, and it’s all over for her. Why the fuck would anybody risk something like that?

“I don’t suppose you have the files on you,” she said.

Chapter 2 summary: The next day, Chris’s anger reaches a boiling point. She goes out and rents a car, and drives out to the DC area, where she rents a second car and goes to a hotel. On the way there, she tells the readers about the first attempt on her life.

Her mentor, Dr. Barnaby, had seen the writing on the wall. The two of them had been preparing for their own ends… and how to avoid it for as long as possible. But in the end, it was Chris’s small bladder and an urgent need to pee that saved her life; nothing but dumb luck. They’d used a poison gas through the vent system into the lab where the two of them worked. After that, they’d sent 3 hit-men, all of whom had been killed by the poison gas in the bed system Chris explained to us in the first chapter. 

At the hotel, Chris talks to the manager and spins a tale of being a battered woman, of how the police weren’t helping, and neither were the restraining orders. I don’t know what any of this is doing, since it’s never explained. 

We then spend the next THREE pages going over all of the cool murder gadgets that Chris has. It’s beyond tedious to read, and could have been completely and utterly cut, since none of it currently serves any purpose at all. 

She then goes to the park where she told Carston to meet her. Even though she’s early, the dude has a security-breach level of daily patterns by eating lunch at the same restaurant. Three costume changes later, and she slides into the seat across from him. 

Her actual name is finally introduced as Juliana (Julie), so that’s what I’m going to fucking call her, since the goddamned book changes her name every time a new fake ID is used. Carston says all of this garbage about how “there were so many untrustworthy people who didn’t believe that honest people could exist!” The only thing Julie can think of is that he’s quick to put the blame onto a mysterious third party, and never the fact that he himself was complacent in letting Dr. B be killed. 

Eventually, Carston gets around to telling Julie about this great danger that’s so urgent it trumps their need to have a hit on HER. The usual buzz words are thrown around, like “terrorists” and “biological”. Julie sits and thinks about this for a full page before asking if he has the files. 

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

Ironically, the word ‘verb’ is a noun.

In Dubai, you can Uber a helicopter!

Music helps keep your memories alive.

We forget 80% of what we learn every day.

Obesity is now a bigger killer than malnutrition.

Masturbation dates back at least 40 million years.

23% of men and 17% of women never get married.

The scent that lingers after heavy rain is called petrichor.

When a cockroach touches a human it runs to safety to clean itself.

White-Stemmed Bramble has the Latin name ‘Rubus Cockburnianus’.

In 1847, a woman was sent to Aberdeen lunatic asylum for "abuse of tea."

The ideal time to make a joke about something horrible is 36 days later.

More than 1000 different languages are spoken on the continent of Africa.

People who enjoy dark humour tend to be more intelligent. Need I say more?

In his autobiography. Andre Agassi admitted that he has always hated tennis.

More than one in five Americans believes that the world will end in their lifetime.

If someone truly loves you, they tend to hug you for at least five seconds or more.

Viagra has been shown to revive drooping flowers and make them stand up straight.

The man who voiced Tigger in ‘Winnie The Pooh’ also invented the first artificial heart.

The ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ uses the word ‘fuck’ 569 times, a rate of 3.16 times per minute.

The best person in your life is the one that first comes to mind after reading this sentence.

People with imposter syndrome are actually better at their jobs than people without imposter syndrome.

Left-handed people tend to have more emotional and behavioural problems than right-handed people.

The rate of sexually transmitted disease in London is more than double that of any other English region.

On his deathbed, surgeon Joseph Henry Green was checking his pulse and his last word was “Stopped!”

According to a study from the University of Vienna, you not only look like your dog, you look like your car!

The first bus in Britain to be powered by human excrement ran from Bristol to Bath on the Number 2 route.

In 2007, a married couple divorced after realizing they were cheating on each other in an online chatroom with each other.

People think about you more than you think they do and they also like you more than you think they do. Awww, thanks!

Brazilian footballer Argélico Fuchs spent much of his life spelling his name Argélico Fucks, resulting in headlines such as "Fucks Off To Benfica."

In Japan, napping at work won't get you fired. In fact, taking time out for a snooze is seen as honourable and a sign of diligence by employers.

In Japan, people commonly practice the act of pretending not to be home when an unwanted visitor knocks at the door. So much so they even have a word for it: Irusu.

Male koalas don't chase females. Instead, usually between 12-3, they lay back, make themselves comfortable, and bellow loudly at any females in the area to come and join them.

“I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same.” (Angus Young, guitarist of AC/DC)

Real bees were used during the filming of cult horror classic ‘Candyman’. Before accepting the role, actor Tony Todd negotiated a $1,000 bonus every time he was stung. He said he was stung 23 times.

Guinness has a world record for the ‘Most Successful Chimpanzee On Wall Street’. The chimp chose stocks by throwing darts at a list of companies. In 1999, she was briefly the 22nd most successful banker in the USA.

Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher got his name from a shopping trip. When Child retrieved a can from a high shelf his wife said, “Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket.”

After the two hurdlers Belgium brought to the European Team Championships were injured, the team desperately needed someone to run the 100-meter race. Jolien Boumkwo, a shot-putter, stepped onto the track to save her team from disqualification.

At around age 23, the average person falls off what the researcher Jennifer Aaker calls ‘the humour cliff’: we start to laugh and smile less and less. The average four-year-old laughs and smiles 300 times a day, the average 40-year-old: 300 times every 75 days.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[therehavebeenstranger]

thank you so much for this thoughtful response! a lot of what you're saying is really resonating with me. it's so interesting (i know we already said it, but--two jews, three opinions) but some of what you raise as a positive is what i find frustrating--because bruce being somebody who is halachically jewish* but raised entirely cut off from jewish community and practice is very interesting, which makes it all the more frustrating that it isn't explored (a frustration you seem to share somewhat--i apologize if i'm putting incorrect words in your mouth). so i'm of these two minds where bruce becoming jewish feels like, as you said, rushed and halfhearted, but i do think it's also frustrating because it's an underdeveloped avenue for storytelling (which is why im so grateful to you and other dc writers who write interesting jewish bruce stories!)

you nailed a lot of my reservations with why i struggle with the retcon. i'd like to offer my other main ones, just in case they're interesting i guess? to me, bruce's WASP-ness feels like it was deeply fundamental to his character and how we understand the waynes and their influence. like. northeastern wasp family with historical great influence on their city? that's an important american archetype, and i think it's interesting to kind of figure bruce and batman inside of that. the darker underbelly of this is that dc has, purely by accident and (i believe) with zero intentional malice, turned batman into a massively wealthy jewish man who kinda sorta runs a secret cabal in his city. and that's a little bit of an ick for me!

(my other issue is actually not an issue with the decision itself, more another place where i'm frustrated with the fact that this is so under-explored. and it's like...kinda fucked up, but i grew up around wasps and even the not-massively-rich ones like....a lot of them don't like us! and i find it difficult to suspend my disbelief that somebody from a family like the waynes would ever be allowed to marry a jewish girl, no matter how rich she is. this is less an actual complaint and more me begging dc to let me write a oneshot about martha kane's complicated feelings about being forced to convert for love and having to raise her son without judaism. maybe interspersed with alfred's guilt about not knowing how to give bruce this part of his parents' legacy. dc editors my dms are soooo open)

anyway, i really like your phrasing of this as a "happy accident." i find that personally pretty useful in navigating some of these mixed feelings--because part of me obviously does think it's cool that batman is jewish, duh!

thank you so much again for taking the time. i hope other people chime in. in conclusion they should really retcon clark as jewish next i mean come ON he's practically a rabbi and his dad is a JONATHAN instead of a JOHN like hello cant you just imagine clark kent in one of those BIG tallits that dads at shul wear like hello!!!!

(*whenever the issue of halachic/matrilineal judaism comes up i feel the need to say that, while i think it's worth understanding the vast cultural trauma that the idea of matrilineal judaism comes from, i personally find the idea of discounting patrilineal jews pretty gross! if you have a jewish parent, you're jewish!)

if you feel like it (and if this question even ends up making sense lol), would you mind talking about how you feel about bruce being jewish? not like the idea of jewish bruce wayne, i mean the fact that in 2011 or so he was retconned kind of accidentally into being jewish. i ask bc i, as a jewish person, have a lot of mixed to negative feelings about the whole thing, and you seem not to. i really hope this doesn't come out as like judgy. i don't think you should feel negatively about it. i'm genuinely just interested in your thoughts and feelings about this. two jews, three opinions, lol

It's not judgy! As you said, two Jews, three opinions -- there's no right answer here.

As I mentioned in my Jewish Bruce post, the likely accidental ret-con of Bruce to likely being Jewish is a tricky subject. It's simultaneously a good moment for Jews who want to feel represented, and a bad one for those who think Bruce's story is not an adequate or appropriate vehicle to convey Judaism.

The reality is, Bruce isn't visibly Jewish now, nor is he practicing or displaying overt cultural, ethnic, or religious influences. He's Jewish by halacha, which is its own mess of significance for Jews.

Personally, I feel that Bruce's emergence as a Jew by halacha, and not by practiced religion or culture, is an important discussion to be had in our modern, interfaith, assimilating culture.

Barring the Orthodox communities, the number of young observant Jews is dropping. Jews are increasingly marrying into other faiths, assimilating, and raising their children outside of the faith. When Jews do stay in their communities, they tend to stay in more "liberal" ones such as Reconstructionist or Reform congregations. You can read more about this at the Pew site.

There are, and will continue to be, many people who find themselves cut off from Judaism and either halachically or ethnically Jewish in the next few years, with little to no connection to the religion, ethnicity, or cultural traditions.

So in this respect, Bruce being cut off from Judaism by nature of his family structure and abridged childhood is good to see, because it's representative of a new generation of Jewish children or interfaith families. Or it will be?

But. There are many Jews who do not identify with this at all -- who grew up in the community with strong ethnic, religious, and cultural ties, who see Bruce's (accidental?) ret-con to Judaism as rushed, dissatisfying, half-hearted, a million other words.

I don't want to assume what you or other Jews are thinking about this, but I can guess. It's not fun to see your religious identity thrown around somewhat flimsily, especially when there remains such a deep and consistent Jewish influence throughout the DC comics.

Why Bruce? Why not Hal? Why hint at it, or make him somewhat Jewish? Why not have a fully-Jewish character? Why not have a character who embraces Judaism as a belief system?

I think the mixed feelings over Bruce's ret-con highlight the growing divide within the Jewish community over who is, and isn't Jewish, and by which standards we judge those who are peripheral to the community.

Having worked with many converts and patrilineal Jews, I have deep sympathy for those cut off from the Jewish community, especially when it is by halachic rule. How can someone who was raised by a Jewish father, who is 50% Ashkenazi, who had a Bar Mitzvah and attends shul regularly, not be as Jewish as someone who was born to a Jewish mother and rarely, if ever, practiced the religion?

We make conversion to Judaism a tricky, difficult, and conditional process. Reform marriages and conversions are questioned by Orthodox rabbis and not considered valid by others. Some people are Jewish in one synagogue and not Jewish enough in another. It's so hard.

So yeah, in my other post linked above I think I called this a happy accident, which is how I'm trying to view it. It makes me happy to have a character to push Jewish headcanons and fic ideas into to, and to tease out the themes of community and what it means to truly be Jewish from Bruce's story. But I don't expect that to be everyone's else's experience at all.

I'd be curious to hear your, and anyone else's, thoughts on this. Again, two Jews, three opinions -- nobody is right here, and we all change our minds a LOT.