#Jason eventually gets bored enough that he does color something for a while

[p1nkshield]

Bruce being just as guilty of introducing Jason to people like he is but a small little guy.

Bruce at gala supporting youth literary comprehension programs: Have you met my son Jason? As stubborn as kids can be I managed to get him to attend.

Beneficiary: oh that’s wonderful! Does your son enjoy literature?

Bruce: oh absolutely! That’s what convinced him to even come! He has so many respectable hobbies for someone his age. Kids these days rarely find value in the classics but not Jason! Honestly he reads more, and more in depth, than I do! He’s a little mechanic too! When I first saw him he was trying to take the tires off my car with a lug wrench that was bigger than him! It was quite a sight and a rather unconventional way to meet your son but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Beneficiary, blinks as they try to process all the proud dad info: …well that’s lovely, we have some activities for the children of the donors so that none of them get too bored!

Bruce: that’s great! I’ll let him know. Jason, can you come here for a moment?

A very tall, wide, and muscular man turns around and raises an eyebrow.

What a coincidence, that dude must also be named Jason.

He walks towards them

Jason: what do you want old man?

What

Bruce: there are activities at that table if you’re bored.

Huh

Jason: thanks for the memo but I’m not exactly at coloring book age anymore remember?

Bruce: I suppose you’re right :(

[visionofhope04]

Hii I was lowkey wondering if you would do something maybe like a one shot of neglected where reader is older (18-20) and dipped out of the house and became a singer and one of her songs basically exposed them for how they treated reader and in like an interview she full on tells them how she doesn’t even talk to them and like only Jason

This is literally perfect. I love this idea! I was planning on making a singer batsis reader anyway so here you go! I'll be making this part 4 of the series instead of a one shot. There’s a bit of angst. Btw, thanks so much for your support everyone! I'm glad you enjoy this series! Feel free to request anything you'd like besides smut as well!

This is the longest thing I have ever written so there will be a part 5. I planned on this being the last part but it's just so much. It’s not proofread and neither are all of the other parts because I post at 1 am most of the time lol. Hope you like it!

f/n = friend name

Y/G/N = your group name

N/S = news station

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 (Current) Part 5

---

You were sick of it. Sick of how even after confronting them about how you felt and almost dying because of it, they still neglected you. You couldn't wait to move out at the age of 18, even if it proved to be a struggle. You had taken mini jobs since you turned 15 and saved up since then. You just couldn't see them anymore as it would remind you of how they treated you that day at that hospital. None of them apologized either. They just pretended it never happened and continued to ignore you. The media had a field day with speculation of what had happened but eventually stopped because Bruce had claimed it was “just a bad case of the flu” which they believed.

Jason was always the only one that would talk to you. He was the only one that actually cared enough to make sure you were taking proper care of yourself and that you wouldn't have a repeat of what happened. He took you places, spent time with you and gave you advice. You even had a tradition where you'd always meet up at the manor's library every week at the same time that same day every week and just have a mini book club together. He always made time for you and never bailed on you.

So on your 18th birthday, he helped you move out. You managed to rent a small apartment in Star City with the money you had saved up. It wasn’t that close to the manor which was a good thing. The neighborhood wasn’t good but it wasn’t as bad as Gotham’s neighborhoods so you would be fine. You could handle yourself with your assassin training if needed. You also managed to get hired at a cafe which was about a five minutes walking distance from your apartment.

It had taken a while but eventually, you had packed all of your belongings into color coded containers and moved them into Jason’s car with his help. You didn’t say goodbye to anyone as you had no friends to say bye to and you knew that your so called “family” couldn’t care less about what you did with your life. ‘This is it, hopefully the last time I’ll ever be near this place.’ You thought. You didn’t plan on stepping foot in Gotham ever again after you left. It would bring back too many memories you prefer to keep buried away deep inside your mind.

The car ride to Star City was entertaining. You and Jason conversed the whole time, telling jokes and listening to his funny tales with the radio playing softly in the background. Eventually, a song you both loved came on and you both started yell-singing along to the lyrics. You wished those moments could be permanent. You were both so carefree and nothing else mattered besides having fun and enjoying yourselves.

You now stood in the doorway of your new apartment, admiring your new home. Jason and yourself had just finished unpacking all of your belongings. You really liked how it looked and thought you both did an amazing job at designing the place perfectly according to your style. Jason, unfortunately, had to leave in order to avoid raising suspicions. Once you both said your byes, he left you to your apartment.

Jason drove back home in silence. He hated to admit it but he would miss you dearly. You were always there for him and helped him with anything. You tried your best to always comfort him and make him feel better on his darkest days and it would always work. Somehow you seemed to always have the right words to say or knew exactly what to do to help him. Out of everyone he was closest to you. He assumed it was because he could relate to you the most. More so how you felt. He’d felt like the black sheep of the family before you came, and he was. When you came, you took that role from him. It pained him to see how much their insults would affect you, even if you were good at hiding it. He could just tell.

Jason made it back to the manor after a while and went straight to the library. He didn't want to deal with the others. After the whole hospital situation, he'd never really bother interacting with them. He hated how they treated you as if you didn’t exist and hated how much pain they had caused you and that they didn’t even care. He guessed that they'd probably be doing something for Damian's birthday and forgot that you were his twin. They probably couldn’t even remember that Damian had a twin.

He made it to the library and pulled out one of his favorite books. He’d read it so many times you’d often joke that he could probably recite the whole book by heart at this point. Sitting down in a chair, he started to read. However, he couldn’t bring himself to stop thinking about what it would’ve been like if they treated you how they did Damian. The both of you were Bruce’s real children. You both even looked like clones of him! At first, Jason thought you would’ve been the favorite twin due to your personality. Even though you were twins, your personalities were polar opposites. You even refused to kill! You were trained by the League so why didn’t you kill as Damian did?

Jason knew you would benefit them greatly if you joined. You had self control, didn’t kill, could act perfectly, lie perfectly, do well under pressure, and not to mention your skills. Being raised by the League may have been torture, but you managed to gain incredible skills out of it. You could take on at least ten guys who doubled you in size and beat them within five minutes. You even bested Damian in spars and he was supposedly dubbed the “better twin” by Talia, so why hadn’t they let you join their nightly crusades like they had let Damian when the both of you first arrived?

Damian passed by your room but noticed something was off. He decided to take a look. He twisted the doorknob and pushed. The room which was once occupied by you now looked extremely plain and bare, stripped of all of its accessories. The only things left were the bed itself, multiple dressers, and a vanity. It looked as if it had been vacant the whole time. It might as well have been. Damian couldn’t really remember what it had looked like since he’s never paid much mind to it but he could tell there was a drastic difference. He knew that you disliked just leaving your room plain unlike himself and wanted at least something to make it look less boring.

He couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. Had you finally been kicked out by Bruce? Did you get shipped off to a boarding school like he had been suggesting to your father for years? He decided to go ask. He exited the room and closed the door behind him, taking off for Bruce’s office. Walking down the hall, he suddenly remembered that he had seen you leave with Jason. This meant that you were not at a boarding school like he had originally thought. But then why was your room vacant?

Instead of going to see Bruce, he decided to go see Jason and bring up the matter with him instead. He changed directions and headed to the library where he knew he’d find Jason. It was no secret that Jason was a book worm so Damian had a fifty percent chance of finding him there.

He entered the library and was immediately greeted with the sight of Jason sitting comfortably on a chair, legs crossed with a book opened in his hands. Jason didn’t bother to look up from his book as he spoke.

“What do you want Demon Spawn?”

“I’ve come to obtain the whereabouts of my sister.”

“You mean my sister?”

“She’s not your sister!” Damian exclaimed.

“Well I act more like a brother than you do.”

“Where is Y/N? Her whole room is bare.”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Just tell me, you imbecile!” Damian said, growing increasingly frustrated by Jason’s blunt answers.

“She’s not here.”

“Then where is she?”

“Not here.”

“Just tell me already Todd, I have no time for your foolish games!”

“She moved out.” Jason said, giving in.

“What?! Where.” Damian demanded.

“Why would I tell you?”

“Because I demand to know!”

“Okay and?”

“Tell me!”

“No.”

“Why not!”

“Because you don’t even care.”

“And you do?”

“Yes, I actually do Damian! I’m there for her when she needs me the most. I’m there for her while she’s watching you live the perfect life that she’s just a background character in! While you and the others ignore that she even exists! I’m there for her when she breaks down and has panic attacks! And what were you all doing to try and help her? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!” Jason snapped.

“Y/N’s fine, I know my twin!” Damian screamed.

“Do you even know what her favorite color is?” Jason questioned in a harsh tone.

“...” Was Damian’s reply.

“Exactly! You don’t! You and the others have never cared about her, so why all of a sudden do you care now? You don’t know anything about her so don’t act like you do!” Jason then stood up and walked out of the room in a fit of rage.

Damian stood there, shocked. Had Jason just refused to answer his question? He was about to follow him but decided against it. Why was Damian going to chase Jason down just for her? She was just an annoyance, a mistake, imperfect. He had been wanting to get rid of her for so long, so why doesn’t he feel relieved? Why does he feel guilty? He decided to stop dwelling on it and get on with life. He figured it would happen eventually if it hadn’t happened then.

---

It had been a year since that day. The day you left your old life behind and started a new life, a better one. One where you weren’t constantly ignored. One where you actually had more than one person care about you. Instead of seeing yourself as a failure and disappointment, you now saw yourself as an amazing person (which you always were). You had been going to a community college in Star City. You made many friends there and started up a music career with three of them.

Their names were f/n, f/n and f/n. You all started off by taking random gigs anywhere you could. You performed covers of songs and would receive standing ovations all the time. Seeing as your group was well liked, you decided to write and produce your own songs. At the age of 19, Y/G/N released their first album. It went viral within a day and everyone was talking about it. After a week, several articles were posted, praising your work. News Stations talked about all the records Y/G/N managed to break. People started to stream it like crazy, and you couldn’t be happier with all the positive feedback you were receiving.

You had been a Wayne once, meaning you had experience in dealing with the media. Since you had already been used to it, you knew you’d all eventually be invited to interviews. So, when you had received an email stating how N/S wanted a one on one interview with you, you weren’t sure how to feel. You weren’t looking forward to interviews with your whole group, let alone one where you would be alone. You knew how unfiltered interviewers could be and didn’t feel comfortable with it.

However, you decided it would be best to go. So here you were, sitting in front of the interviewer in an uncomfortable chair preparing for the interview to start. You had somehow managed to keep a smile plastered on your face the entire time while you were a nervous wreck on the inside. You hoped none of the questions would be sexist as they usually were towards women. However, you had no more time to think about that. You heard clicking, signaling that you were about to go live. Once you heard the last click, you knew you were live and the interview had begun.

“Hello everyone, welcome back to N/S. My name is Jerald Tangleberry and I’m here today with songwriter, singer, and celebrity, Y/N Wayne! How are you?”

You waved to the camera and then answered, “Hello everyone! I’m doing good, how about you?”

“I’m doing great, thanks for asking! So by now I’d assume everyone knows that you’ve released an album with your group. How does it feel to gain more fame?”

“It doesn’t feel any different. Fame wasn’t our goal when we released the album. It was to express ourselves.”

“Mhm, well Ms. Wayne, what inspired you to write songs?”

“Well we know people may be in a tough spot in their life right now and want them to know they aren’t alone.”

“That’s so true. Some fans have been speculating that every member has three songs that specifically relate to them since there are twelve songs in total and three of the songs have the same group member as the introduction part of the song. Is this true?”

“Yes, it is true.”

“So all three of your songs relate to family issues of some sort. Is that hinting that you have family issues?”

“Yes, actually. My family isn’t the best. They ignored me all the time, even when they weren't busy. The only person who didn’t was Jason.”

“You’re saying it in the past tense.”

“I moved out about a year ago. When I was around 14, I suffered from anorexia. My family would always ignore me since they were either busy doing work or hanging out with each other. The only family member that acknowledged me was Jason. I assumed it was because there was something wrong with me. I started to hate myself so much to the point of starvation. One day, I passed out right before a gala and my oldest brother Dick found me passed out on the floor. They took me to the hospital and when I woke up, Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian started fussing about how I’d ruin their image if the media knew what actually happened. They started to yell at me and told me how I was a useless burden. I started to have a panic attack so I kicked them out. Jason stayed behind with me and comforted me. Ever since then I made a planed to save enough money so I could move out when I turned 18, which I did.”

“Oh, wow. So Jason was the only one who interacted with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like the Wayne family isn’t as perfect as they seem.”

“No family is actually perfect.”

“Did your family try contacting you at all after they found out about Y/G/N?”

“Not yet. They’re probably too busy or don’t care.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s alright, I got over it. What’s the next question.”

“Oh-” He cleared his throat and continued the interview. (So basically I don’t wanna bore you all lol)

---

Jason had woken up late into the afternoon that day. Patrol that morning had exhausted him. There was a huge breakout at Arkham they had assisted with. They successfully locked up every escapee, so today, Jason just wanted to relax until it would be time for patrol again. Even though he was exhausted, he knew he couldn’t take a break. The others wouldn’t and it would be unfair to them if he did.

He headed over to his couch with his phone and a bowl of popcorn in hand, ready to watch random movies the entirety of the day. He set down his phone on the coffee tables and grabbed the TV remote. When he turned on the TV, he almost dropped the popcorn and remote. You were sitting on a chair, giving an award winning smile while you politely answered the man’s questions. He was baffled. He didn’t know why you were being interviewed, let alone on TV at all! You made it clear you didn’t want to have any relations with your family any longer and you couldn’t stand publicity, so what were you doing?

He placed the bowl down and snatched his phone off the table. Unlocking his phone, he quickly dialed your phone number. However, he realized that the interview was live and that he would be interrupting it if he called you then. Deciding to wait, he placed his phone back down, picked up the bowl, and then got comfortable.

---

Tag list: @fake-id-69 @pepelachanel @loxbbg @what-0-life @yoongi-holland @omnivorousfangirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @sexysamsungl @iceddonuts @buginetye @portrait-ninja @azazel-nyx @alculai

[toastedside]

Call From Home

Tim Drake x Batmom!Reader

Warning: sad Tim Drake, him crying, feeling small, fluff in the end

Note: I always like and entertain the idea that Tim eventually finish his education and go to college. I wrote this back in 2019 when I was away for college and experiencing mild case of homesick. Enjoy!

College life was pretty exciting. At least Tim able to muster that out loud now, and no longer wallowing in constant denial how much he enjoyed being a college student. It does get pretty crazy at times. The chaos in the dorms, the shenanigans of bored college students, morning classes. It got its own rhythm, and Tim was proud that he able to blend and follow the rhythm pretty well.

He never imagined that he eventually able to live a life like this. Like this one. Not after him confronting Batman in his own house. Not after his parents’ death. Not after taking the mantle and split his life into day and night. He never imagined he get to party until late night, laughing his ass off whilst running on the campus ground at night, pulling all night for assignments, and running late to classes.

The Red Robin suit he carefully packed still untouched. Tucked carefully underneath his bed. He never got time to be Red Robin. Not with the piling assignments and constant nudging to socialize. He listened to the police’s radio from his dorm when he was alone from time to time, but in a city like this, it’s pretty calm and mild.

Compared to Gotham, this city is peaceful.

It’s loud, it’s colorful, it’s exciting. Perhaps that’s why he liked the thrill of being here. It reminded him of home. Of Wayne Manor that filled with too many people, too many vigilantes who never know when to lower their voices. And perhaps that’s why he grew relentless and anxious as the clock slowly tick by and it’s all quiet. Darren, his roommate, was gone to his parents for the weekend. Left him all alone with his thought.

Tim sighed as he punched the number on his phone screen. He didn’t know why he did it. But something behind his mind pushed him to do so.

“Hello?” the voice answered after the fifth rang. Tim wanted to smack his head. You were probably sleeping.

“Hi Mom,” Tim greeted. “It’s me.”

“Hi, honey!” your voice laced with a lot of excitement. Tim sat up on his bed, head leaned to the wall next to him as he closed his eyes. “How are you? How do you like college?”

Tim chuckled. “It’s exciting, yeah. The assignments were crazy. But it was fun.”

“It reminds me with my college days! One time, this one student flood the whole floor with detergent because he didn’t know how to wash his own clothes in the washing machine.”

“My God. Just last week a student accidentally pushed the fire alarm because she was drunk.”

Tim could hear you laughing. And then a faint sound of a silverware hitting a surface. You’re in the kitchen then. Or the dining room. There were no background noises and it was all quiet. You were probably alone in the kitchen; dug on the freezer to eat a pint of ice cream you always so cleverly hide from everyone.

“How are you doing, Timmy? You haven’t answered my question.”

Tim went quiet as he bit his lower lip. You often called him Timmy when he was upset or in dire need of comfort. A nickname you reserved for comfort and now his brain associated it with tenderness and comfort. And the warmth of your embrace.

All of sudden, he wanted to cry. His eyes started to sting and his chest heavy. He didn’t know why, but listening to his mother’s voice alone opened up something he had shoved to the back of his mind since the day he moved into his dorm.

“Timmy? Honey?” you called for him. He probably had unconsciously let a sob escaped his mouth. “Baby, are you okay?”

“I miss you,” Tim rasped between his sobs. Saying those out loud only made him want to cry harder. “I miss Alfred. I miss Bruce, Jason, Dick, Damian, Cass…” he trailed, sniffled as he harshly wiped his tears with his sleeve. “I miss home.”

Tim pulled his knees into his chest, curled himself into a ball. He wanted nothing but to sank into your embrace, enjoying the way your fingers would thread on his hair and your nails lightly scratched his scalp. He wanted nothing but to eat a homemade food, not the cheap, knocked off questionable foods he often got on campus.

He wanted home.

“I miss you too, honey,” you cooed. You heaved a sigh as you continued, “The house does get a little quieter without you here.”

“I- I thought I’d be okay. I like it here,” Tim sniffed. “But I miss you. I miss home. And – I want to go home.”

The line went quiet for a little while. He could hear you shuffling in the background, a sound of chair being pushed confirmed his suspicion of you being in the kitchen. He was both surprised and bashful about his sudden childish plea. He never thought he would miss Gotham out of all places. It stinks and raked of criminal. The air here was crisp and clear, he could hear the bird chirping on his way to his classes.

But one call to home and his body longed to be there. One call and his soul wished he was home.

His bed suddenly felt too small and stuffy. The mattress is too stiff and the duvet not warm enough. Tim pressed his head onto his knees, his eyes still producing saline tears as he quietly listened to you contemplating your answer.

“Baby, you know what? It’s okay to miss home. It’s okay for wanting to be home and liking where you are at the same time. I had severe homesick cases when I was away for college too,” you answered finally, with a quiet huff as Tim faintly heard you landed in a cushion. Perhaps the living room.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Tim could listen a smile seeped on your voice. “Listen. You live your life here, in Gotham, for almost all your life. You born and grew up here. You live here in this house. You fight for the city. Of course, you’d miss home. Of course, you’d want to be here.”

Tim sniffed as a response.

“And you’re adapting. Nobody expect you to immediately like where you are. Especially when you’re so far away from home, all alone, all by yourself. You’re starting a new chapter in your life. There will be hard times. But I always know you’re a fighter. And you’ll survive just fine. You can do this.”

Tim smiled as he wiped his tears.

“Besides, I believe your friends suffer the same homesick cases too.”

An involuntary laugh escaped him. He let out a wet chuckle as he wiped his tears with his sleeve again. Eyes spared glances into the empty bed across him. “Yeah. Darren is out visiting his parents’ house. Lucky for him his parents are only two hours away.”

“See? You know what I mean?” Tim practically could see the way your face would scrunch up. An expression he grew fond of. “You’re always welcome to come home anytime, honey. Remember wherever you are, no matter how far, you’re always welcome here whenever.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“You know what? This gives me an idea.”

“Idea?”

“For impromptu family weekend getaway,” you said thoughtfully. “What about you show the city around for us next week? Tell me places you like, good restaurants to eat, and places you visit the most.”

Tim blinked dumbly. “You’re visiting?”

“Yeah! Next week. I promise.”

Tim could feel a smile slowly crept up on his cheeks. He shifted on his bed out of excitement. “You know what? This also give me an idea.”

“Ooh, what is it?”

“That I should go cycling around and list down all places I want to show you,” Tim said as he hopped out of his bed. Already made a beeline towards his coat and shoe rack. “I think I need some fresh air too.”

“Alright, Atta Boy. Wear your jacket. It’s cold outside.”

“On it, Mom. I’ll call you later. See you next week.”

“See you next week, baby. I love you, bye.”

Tim was already halfway out of his room when he answered, “I love you too.”

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 11

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Snow globe~

Gabriel: Nathalie why haven't you canceled my card?! Nathalie: oh were you going to use that to pay my pay rise for moving to a different continent or to pay my last 6 years of overtime? Gabriel: Nathalie- Nathalie: You’re welcome to do it yourself sir. Gabriel:....... I can’t do anything without you can I? Nathalie: No you cant and make sure to remember that next pay day.

Ao3

First < Previous  > Next

------------

“So why are we here?” Damian asks getting dragged around the mall by the two.

“Because if we’re decorating the pet stores we need inspiration,” Marinette holds him by his elbow in case he tries to escape again, “And Adrien's having fun,”

“Why don’t we just hire someone for that?”

“I haven't found a good babysitter yet,” Marinette smiles as she knows Damian glares at her, “The style of the store is the most important thing, it’s what people interact with the most and a representation of our company,”

“Tt,” Marinette smiles knowing she won. 

They follow Adrien into an incredibly overpriced knick-knacks store, exactly what they’re looking for. She jots down notes in her book looking at the glasswork on the figurines or the beautifully painted porcelain.

“I think every store should have the same color coordination for each section,” Marinette suggests writing down a potential palette based on the plates she was looking at, “So people always know where to find something no matter the store,”

“How many people do you think are going to multiple stores?” Damian scoffs.

“We will be, besides its a decorative thing, a bit of paint on the wall or shelf, hm maybe each section should have a range of shades to keep it from being too samey,”

“I take it you’re in charge of this part now?”

“Guess so,” Marinette hums looking over the shelves for more inspiration, Adrien looking over a large glass sculpture that she may have to talk him out of buying, “So did you talk to Adrien?”

“Oh no,” Damian catches her attention, “He talked I was expected to listen,”

“So you make any decisions?” She spots a little china doll on a high shelf.

“I’m not going to run away if that’s what you’re asking,” Damian reaches over her grabbing the doll before she knocks over shelves trying to jump up and reach it.

“But If you were-”

“I’m not,” Damian hands the doll over.

“But if you were,” He gives her a withered glare, “Where would you go?”

“… Somewhere I can paint I suppose,” He says after some consideration.

“That's a start!” Marinette exclaims, almost dropping the doll.

“I can paint anywhere,” Damian catches it before she can.

“Ah,” They go back to pursuing the shelves, Damian taking it upon himself to hold the delicate decorations for some reason.

“... Where would you go?” He asks eventually, Marinette tries to keep the smile to herself as to not scare him off.

“I used to think I’d like to go somewhere with lots of snow,”

“Is that so?” Damian hums consideringly.

“Yeah but then I came here and realized the cold sucks,” Marinette's jaw actually drops as Damian laughs, not a snort or a scoff and actual chuckle! “Hollll- did you just laugh?! Did I just get you to laugh!? Are there cameras around?! Do you think they’ll let me keep the footage?!”

“Calm down,” Damian places a hand on her head to stop her bouncing,  “Besides I think your friend is about to make a ludicrous purchase,”

“Adrien!” Marinette snaps as he tries to pay for a glass sculpture twice his size, “Can it fit on the back of a motorcycle?!”

“.... no,” Adrien hangs his head like a toddler being told off.

“Then put it down!” Marinette chides dragging him away from the sculpture and out of the store. She already had to fit three on them on hers. Damian is lagging behind, Marinette resigns herself to having to drag them both through the mall like children when he finally catches up.

“Here take this,” She startles a snow globe in a clear box being pressed into her hands, “Now you can look at the snow without getting cold,”

“That's so nice,” She bites down on the follow-up question of where the hell is Damian and what did you do with him.

“No, it’s bribery,” Ah there he is, “Don’t tell anyone I laughed,”

“So you admit you laughed,” Marinette smirks, letting Adrien go look at different stores.

“Besides,” Damian sharply changes the topic, “If you want to see the snow so badly just stay inside a cabin or something,”

“Well maybe you can come with me,” Marinette hums looking at the snowflakes fall over a winter forest, two little people by a campfire, “I bet it would be beautiful to paint,”

“Maybe so,” Damian agrees before giving her a side look, “Also you’re a horrible influence,”

“Who me? It’s not like I gave you the idea to run away,” He had come to her with that all on his own.

“No you didn’t,” Damian easily agrees, walking along with Marinette.

“Well if you’re still in the rebellion mood why don’t you join the pink hair squad?”

“I am not dying my hair pink,” Damian rolls his eyes.

“Just a little bit?” Marinette steps in front of him walking backward.

“No,” Damian brushes past her, Marinette lets him go ahead.

“Adrien I just had the best idea,” Marinette turns to her side where Adrien is not. Marinette looks behind her spotting Adrien in the crowd- getting picked up and carried away by a stranger! “ADRIEN!”

Damian hears her shout bolting forward. Grabbing a baton he apparently had the whole time. 

“Damian, watch out! They might have feelings!” Damian actually stops in his tracks, turning back to glare at her.

“...”

“...”

“Hey guys,” Adrien speaks up, “I’m kind of being kidnapped,”

“Right!” Marinette wipes the grin off her face, punching the kidnapper right on the jaw. He drops Adrien who lands on his feet, “Do I need a child leash for you young man?”

“Please don’t my Father had one of those for me,” Adrien brushes himself off as the kidnapped stumbles to the ground.

“Weren’t you never allowed out of the house?” Marinette asks as Damian steps forward to pull the kidnapper's arms behind their back.

“Exactly,”

“Not that this isn't riveting,” Damian says in the most bored tone, turning to the kidnapped, “Who hired you?”

“Garbeil Agreste sent me to fetch his son,”

“Yeah, here we call that kidnapping,” Adrien snarks back, “Great can’t the guy just leave me alone? What's his problem it’s like-”

“Nope!” Damian drops the kidnapper walking away, “Not today! Not again!”

“... well that's just rude,” Adrien huffs as someone calls the police.

“Don’t worry,” Marinette smiles, “As I was trying to tell you I have a plan,”

 ---

 “MARINETTE!”

“Hm wonder what that could be about,” Marinette flips the page, continuing to read peacefully while seated for breakfast with the rest of the Waynes.

“Dupain-Cheng I know you are responsible for this,” Damian leans over her, still in a towel and dripping wet, oh and with pink hair that bits kinda important.

“You did this to him?” Jason laughs, not so subtly taking pictures with glee.

“Relax it’s temporary dye,” Marinette grabs Damain’s shoulder before he can jump over the table and dismember Jason.

“How temporary?” Damian demands, Marinette just turns to a new page with no drips of water on it.

“Just wash it a few more times and it will come right out,” Damian huffs again stalking out of the room, all eyes on her.

“... I can’t believe you survived that,” Tim says with awe, “Actually even Damians not stupid enough to risk that,”

She’ll ask what he means later.

 ---

 “Temporary Dupain-cheng?” Damian glares at her, still very much pink and still very much angry.

“Alright maybe not,” Marinette tries to suppress a giggle, “It looks good tho,”

“Dupain-cheng you will fix this and you will fix this now,” She’s not lying he does look good and she does blush.

“Well, we could go to the hairdresser-”

“No,” Damian snaps, crossing his arms like it's final.

“Do you trust me to dye your hair myself?”

“Absolutely not,” at least not after this.

“Then you’re stuck like that,” Marinette shrugs, Damian groans sinking into the seat behind him.

“This is all your fault Dupain-cheng,”

“Ha, how long are you going to call me that?” Damian leans forward fixing her with a venomous glare.

“Forever,”

 ---

 “Hey Robin- are you wearing a swimming cap under your hood?” Ladybug cuts herself off trying to take off his hood.

“It’s a lightweight head protector,” Robin grabs her wrist, but Ladybug is stronger.

“Yeah no,” Ladybug pushes his hood off, “It’s a swimming cap, what is killer croc up to something?”

“You’re hilarious,” Robin scoffs looking away as if there isn’t a real smile tugging at his mouth.

“Well I can’t let Chat take all the glory,” Ladybug shrugs coming to sit next to him in what has become their usual spot, “So what's the deal? Gasp did you lose a dare?”

“Did you just say gasp?” Robin asks incredulously, “And no it’s not a dare it’s a rather unfortunate prank,”

“Oh please please tell me they did the same to Batman, Please,” Ladybug his holding both his shoulders, Robin completely turned towards her as she looks at him desperately.

“........ yes,”

 ---

 “Marinette,”

“Yes Bruc-” Marinette chokes then tries to choke down her laugh.

“I feel you may have gotten carried away, I would like to remind you-” 

“So sorry to interrupt,” Marinette interrupts, “But that wasn't me,”

“Are you sure?” Bruce is studying her.

“Yeah I only messed with Damian's  bathroom,” Marinette turns completely towards him, “Were you using Damian's bathroom?”

“No,”

“Then it wasn't me,” Marinette shrugs turning away.

“Then who did it?”

“A true mystery,”

 ---

 “So you’re sure you want me to do this,” Marinette asks again, the dye in one hand Damian sitting in front of her.

“Dupain-Cheng I swear-”

“Ah, if I help you, you have to stop calling me that,” She tells him, pulling the black dye away for extra effect.

“I only call you that because of what you did,” Damian glares at her reflection in the mirror, “If you want to get back in my good graces then do this,”

“Alright, you’re sure you don’t want to keep a little pink?”

“Marinette,”

“Alright, alright,” Marinette ruffles his hair while she can get away with it, “I did like your pink hair,”

“It got in the way of...” He trails off.

“Way of what?”

“Nothing,” Marinette drops it, the topic not the dye.

“Well Damian,” She spreads the dye through his hair, “Welcome to your first step of rebellion,”

Little did either realize how true that was.

--------

no tag list :P

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

loved your previous fic with dick & gar for the "hand-holding" prompt. if you're still taking prompts, then please do #12 - "pushing a strand of hair behind their ear" with dick and gar

Fandom: DC Titans

Title: Good Men and Women NOT Doing Nothing

Pairings/Relationships: Dick Grayson & Gar Logan, Dick Grayson & Rachel Roth

Summary: There's something different about Gar when he walks into the kitchen one morning and the reason behind it is deeper than Dick initially thought.

Touching | 12. pushing a strand of hair behind their ear, Dick & Gar - for @wanderingroundwonderland

Also tagging my besties @undertheknightwing and @wonderbatwayne 😘😘😘 and now I'm going to sleep 😂

____________________________________________

Dick liked getting up along with the sun, especially on a day like this when warm rays of sunshine filtered through the wide windows, coloring the inside of the Tower with a soft golden glow. It filled his body with much needed energy for the day and brightened his mind like not many other things could.

He was just flipping another pancake over when his attention was distracted by a long, loud yawn.

"Good morning." Rachel mumbled at him as she entered the kitchen, all messy hair and cute pajamas, heading straight for the coffee pot he had prepared for her beforehand.

"Good morning, sunshine!" He replied cheerfully, placing the pancake on the plate beside him. He reached for a can of whipped cream and squeezed a little on top of it, then decorated the meal with fresh strawberries - the way Rachel liked best. "How'd you sleep?" rolled off his tongue with ease as he offered her a portion while she sat down on the stool across from him, holding her favorite mug full of caffeine drink in her hand.

Rachel, rubbing her eyes to get rid of the rest of sleepiness, gave him a lazy smile and pulled the stack of pancakes towards her. "Fine." she shrugged and eagerly got to eating. She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the taste, which caused a wave of warmth swarming Dick's chest and made him smile to himself, pleased with both his growing cooking skills and her reaction. "But do you really have to kick us out of bed so early? I need my beauty sleep, Kory says it's very important."

"Of course she does." Dick muttered under his breath, trying not to pay attention to the fact that his heart twitched as if it was electrocuted at the mention of Kory. "Early morning means you have more time during the day."

"So what if we have more time when we can't even move after early training." a new voice joined their conversation, making Dick and Rachel simultaneously turn their heads in the direction it was coming from.

And Dick fell speechless, frozen with a pancake on a spatula in one hand and a plate in the other.

Gar walked in, stretching with his arms raised behind his head, fingers tangled together tightly. It wouldn't be anything unusual, that was a part of his morning routine, but what threw Dick off guard was that Gar looked… different.

"Good morning to you, too." Dick told him with a grin plastered to his face to mask his confusion when the boy dropped down next to Rachel, eyeing her pancakes longingly. The girl snickered and elbowed him in the arm, seemingly not surprised nor bothered by the sudden change.

Gar must have felt Dick's eyes boring into him because he stilled suddenly and turned to the older man.

"What?"

"Nothing, just…" Dick paused for a moment, not exactly sure what to say. "Uh, what's with the new haircut?" he finally blurted after handing the boy his own plate of pancakes.

Gar's eyes grew large like he just turned into a night owl - or more like one eye, the one Dick could see, because the other one was covered by a curtain of his green hair, brushed down on the side of his forehead. He blinked twice and just kept staring back until Rachel shoved her elbow in his side, harder this time.

"Ow! Uh, yeah… that." the boy stuttered, rubbing the hurting spot while shooting Rachel an annoyed glare. "I, uh… I decided to change things up a bit, experiment… yeah…" his words trailed off into an awkward silence and Gar shoved a big piece of pancake into his mouth to avoid talking. As he reached for a strawberry from a bowl on the counter, he didn't meet Dick's eyes.

He's embarrassed, Dick figured as he watched the boy putting all his focus on eating his breakfast to avoid going more into the topic. Rachel kept observing him as well, her stare warm and sympathetic, though Dick couldn't help but notice a hint of worry behind her eyes.

"Looks good to me." Dick commented finally, earnest and true. The change was unexpected, yes, but if Gar felt like wanting to change something about himself then he had every right to do it. And it really didn't look bad. His words got the boy to lift his eyes back up and he sent him a sheepish grin.

"What's up, people?" Jason announced his presence with an unnecessarily loud shout, making Rachel flinch in response.

"Damn it, Jason. It's 7 am, keep it down, would you?" she grumbled at him when he slid into a free seat on her other side.

He threw a glance at her coffee mug, then almost obnoxiously pushed it closer to her with his index finger "Looks like someone is in desperate need of more caffeine."

Dick couldn't resist a chuckle when she rolled her eyes so hard she must have seen the back of her skull.

"Shut up." she huffed as Jason stole a strawberry from her plate and threw it into his mouth, but then his eyes set on Gar.

"Cool haircut, bro." he said, his lips stretching into a smirk. "But that emo punk fringe was cool back in like 2009, y'know?"

Gar sent a death glare his way. "Very funny, Jason."

"Hey, it looks dope!" The other boy raised his hands in defence, but then leaned in closer again, eyes squinting mischievously. "It makes you look… mysterious. Like you got something to… hide."

This time it was Jason's side that became a target of Rachel's elbow and that plus the way he said it made Dick do a double take. There was an undertone to Jason's voice, an insinuation of a deeper meaning. Gar froze for a moment, unsure how to react. Eventually he opted to end the conversation by throwing Jason an awkward smile and got up from his seat, taking the empty plate with him and rounded the kitchen island to put it in the sink.

"You know, Dick," he started, inching closer to his side. "I checked out online this fighting style you mentioned during our last training, the uh… Okichitaw, yeah. And I'd really like to learn it. Some basics at least."

Dick put the last portion of pancakes - his own - on the plate and turned to the boy with a smile, feeling excitement rising slowly in his chest. He knew what Gar was really trying to do right now - change the course of the conversation, turn it away from him and his hair. Dick couldn't blame him for that. But Gar also wasn't lying, he really was eager to learn and Dick appreciated the fact that he even did a bit of his own research.

"Sure, buddy. We can start right away." he replied instantly and Gar beamed at him, buzzing with happiness. His head twitched in an attempt to get the hair out of his eye. It was clear getting accustomed to that new hairstyle is gonna take longer than the boy expected. Dick chuckled at his annoyed frown when the hair fell back on his face. "Now go get ready, we'll start in an hour."

He reached out to playfully ruffle the boy's hair but when he did, Gar unexpectedly flinched. He froze, his body taut as a string, jaw clenched to bite back a groan of pain. The kitchen suddenly became very quiet, no clattering of cutlery, not even breathing. Dick's hand stilled on the boy's head and he slowly took it away, looking at Gar who again was trying to avoid his eyes. Dick looked back at the other two teens, who sat still as statues in their seats, both nervous and waiting - Rachel was biting her lower lip nervously while Jason's eyes jumped between Dick and Gar, smirk tugging at his lips.

At first he hesitated, but eventually Dick reached out again, slowly and carefully this time and pushed the strand of hair out of the boy's face, tucking what he could behind his ear. The green curtain revealed a nasty long cut travelling in line with his hairline, held together by two small dressing plasters. It already stopped bleeding but it looked deep and was inflamed, the area around it red and swollen.

"Holy shit, Gar! When did this happen?" The man's voice rang out with worry as he stepped closer to take a better look. He brushed his fingers over the wound, his touch feather-light but Gar still twitched a little, face twisting in a grimace. He didn't answer, just looked to the side - right at Rachel - pleading for help with his eyes. Dick followed his gaze.

The girl sighed as she put her fork down and shook her head.

"I told you he was gonna notice." she told her friend. What was even more strange was that Jason actually agreed with her, nodding eagerly.

Confusion is not strong enough of a word to describe what was going on inside Dick's mind right now. How the hell did this happen? Was that during yesterday's training? No, he would notice. After? They had a free evening and he let the kids go out to have some fun in the city. A surge of fierce protectiveness washed over him as his eyes went back to Gar who looked so miserable Dick's heart almost broke on the spot. He let his hand slide under the boy's chin and he gently lifted his face up so their eyes could meet.

"What happened, Gar?" he asked, his voice calm and soft, but not without the tense undertone of someone who is ready to throw some punches with the reason behind that wound. "Who did this to you?"

Gar gulped down, eyes wide in fear and mouth dry, and looked at Rachel again - just a glance, but she noticed anyway.

"Tell him." she encouraged him softly. Gar nodded once and took a deep breath, bracing himself.

"Um, yesterday when… when we were at the mall, me and Rach passed by these guys in SFSU jerseys. Six of them, I think." he started, stumbling through the words. His fingers fumbled nervously with the hem of his t-shirt but he bravely held Dick's gaze as he spoke. "They started catcalling Rachel, saying some gross stuff I am not willing to ever repeat and… and I had to step in."

At first all Dick could hear was static after what he just heard. Then the sense of Gar's words slowly started coming to him and he staggered back.

"What?"

Now it wasn't just protectiveness, it was pure fire raging through Dick's veins. Rachel… getting catcalled? That was unacceptable. Unfathomable. It wasn't just crossing the line, it was breaking it like a dry twig and setting it on fire and whoever did that was really fucking lucky Dick wasn't there to hear it. He let go of Gar's chin and set his hand on his shoulder instead, trying to keep himself from shaking. His other hand already formed into a fist, fingers curled so tightly his knuckles turned white. He instantly looked at Rachel, searching for any signs of something being wrong, a series of questions already forming on his tongue, but she beat him to it and quickly shook her head.

"I'm okay, I swear. Nothing happened."

"You sure?" he insisted, his gut gnawing at him to learn more because maybe they are not telling him everything. "They didn't do anything? You're not hurt? Because I swear to God, if-"

"Dick, I'm okay." was her only reply, soft, quiet and calming.

"She wanted me to ignore them but they were very pushy." Gar continued, his gaze darting between her and Dick. "They surrounded us, one of them got too close to her and got… grabby, so to speak so I punched him."

Grabby? As in… no, that was too much. His fists were now itching to meet that person's face. To rip their insides out and wrap them around their neck. No one dares to lay a damn finger on her. No one.

"Fucking assholes." Jason muttered under his breath, shaking his head. He sent Rachel a sympathetic look and she smiled back at him, thanking silently.

"I would have been fine, I know how to handle myself." she insisted to Gar as she got up from her seat and walked up to him to lay a hand on his shoulder. He instantly turned to her.

"I know, but what was I supposed to do? Just stand there and do nothing? We're Titans now, remember? Men and women not doing nothing."

Dick honestly wanted to hug Gar in that moment, his chest filling with an insane amount of pride. He stood up for her, protected her, even if he got his ass kicked in the end. They can work on that and after what Dick just learned he will make damn sure that they will, but the intention was what mattered the most right now.

He squeezed Gar's shoulder gently and when the boy turned back to him, Dick leaned in to look him in the eyes.

"That was very brave of you, thank you. I'm proud of you, buddy." he said, noticing how Gar's eyes glazed over with tears after hearing the words. The boy chuckled softly, nodding in response. "But how did you get this?" He asked, pointing at his forehead.

"Well, that asshole punched back." Gar stated bluntly, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "He knocked me down pretty hard, I hit my head on the edge of a fountain, y'know that giant one in the main hall. I saw stars, for a moment I couldn't move-"

"You scared the hell out of me." Rachel whispered, sliding her arm around his shoulders.

"Sorry." Gar replied, bumping his head with hers. And immediately regretted it, flinching at the pain it caused to his forehead. "Anyway, after that they left us alone, walked away laughing. And before you ask-" he pointed his finger at Dick, seeing that the man was already gearing up to ask questions. "No, I don't know their names and no, you can't go find them and beat the shit out of them. I know you want to."

Dick snickered and shook his forehead.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Dude, you're basically vibrating with fury right now." Jason told him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Ooof, I wouldn't want to be on the other end of that wrath."

Dick decided to ignore his younger brother's remark, but couldn't deny the truth behind it - the fury he felt right now, if unleashed, could be deadly. It pulled a delicate string, knocked on a door he locked when he brought these three kids to San Francisco. It reminded him of the rage and violence of his Robin days. Dick wanted to put it away for good but to be honest it would really come in handy right now.

"I'm sorry," Gar suddenly whispered, which brought Dick back to the present - and caught completely off guard. The boy bowed his head down, letting the hair fall back on his forehead and cover the cut.

"For what?" Dick asked softly, moving his hand to the nape of Gar's neck.

"I should have done more. I would have but the Tiger started showing and… I couldn't risk it so I had to back down."

At first Dick just stared at him, same as Rachel, completely taken aback. Then he opened his arms and smiled at the two teenagers.

"Come here, you two."

He pulled them into his arms, pressing them tightly to his chest. Gar froze at first, surprised but then tucked his face into his shoulder and breathed deeply. Rachel nestled into his other side, he could feel her smiling against his neck when her arms circled his middle. He put his hands in their hair, cradling their heads and pulling them closer as he spoke.

"Gar, you have nothing to apologize for, okay?" he insisted, turning his face to the boy. "You did the right thing. I'm proud of you and you have no idea how happy I am that you were with her back then." When Gar nodded, Dick turned to Rachel and she lifted her head to look at him. "And you. I'm glad you're okay. To be honest, I was scared something like this would happen someday but thankfully Gar was with you. But if it ever happens again, you go straight to me, got it? You shout, you call, whatever means necessary. I'll be there in a heartbeat."

Rachel gave him a single nod, a soft smile turning her lips upwards.

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Dick sighed, finally feeling his anger subsiding and disappearing completely. He pulled back, brushing his palms over the kids' cheeks. He turned to Gar, who again was fiddling with his bangs and reached out to tuck it behind the boy's ear, laughing. "Alright, now let's get you properly patched up, huh? I'm sorry, but whoever did this-" he pointed at the plasters that were barely holding onto the skin. "-did a terrible job."

Jason scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Ouch, harsh."

[jinmukangwrites]

Whumptober 2020, Day 1

Waking Up Restrained / Shackled / Hanging

Ao3

Warnings: descriptions of torture, violence, dislocated shoulders, referenced child trafficking. This fic is mature. Please read responsibly.

-o-o-o-o-

When Dick wakes up, he's on his side; his cheek pressed against cold and grimy cement and his shoulders pulsing with a discomforting ache. 

He groans, his body feeling like tar has been stuffed between each of his joints—which makes it difficult to begin moving. His stomach rolls, and the sharp pain near the temple of his skull isn't helping much. 

What… happened?

He remembers… he remembers patrol. Leaving his apartment and swinging towards the streets to fight the constant stream of crime Blüdhaven is so willing to supply. His memories get hazy the more he tries to think about what happened during and after the patrol, making the pain in his head twinge torturously. 

Deciding that there's not much he can remember at the moment, he resolves to try and figure out his situation—because even though he has little memory, just the information that he was on patrol is enough for him to realize he's in his Nightwing suit. He recognizes the familiar skin tight feeling of the kevlar. 

What he notices immediately with just a few agonizingly slow movements is that his gauntlets and boots are missing. Which is not good. He twitches his nose and he relaxes only slightly when he feels the sharp edges of his mask. His anxiety, however, only rises when he realizes that his hands are stuck behind his back.

Okay. Captured and restrained. The cuffs are heavy and thick, at least a few centimeters thick. There's a small length of chain between the cuffs that can hardly be called a "length". There's not much space between his two wrists, perhaps only three or four thick chain links spanning between the shackles. 

He goes to move his fingers and test just how tight the shackles are on his wrists, but he realizes quickly that his fingers are stuck; curled into an uncomfortable fist and held in place with something cold and plastic. 

Okay. Alright. This is fine. Dick can still work with this.

He opens his eyes, slowly, to not agitate his headache nor his rolling stomach. He figures that if no one has revealed themselves to Dick so far then he must be alone. He hasn't exactly been quiet walking up, which is something Bruce might be disappointed by but come on. There's only so much Dick can do when confronted with what's definitely wavering effects of some sort of tranquilizer. Nausea, aches, groggy and slow movements, feeling like shit in general. 

The first thing he sees through half-lidded eyes is the grimy floor he's laying on top of, and since there's really not much to see here he moves on to the rest of the room.

And scratch that. There's not a whole lot to see in the room at all… at least, not from his position on the ground. Nothing but walls in front of him that are made of dark brick stone. 

Dick shifts, curling up slightly to get his shoulder positioned under him so he can work his way up so he's sitting. It takes a minute, a minute filled with panting breaths and barely contained gagging that makes his stomach want to show him what he had for dinner. Eventually, he makes it, his back pressed against the wall and his legs strewn out in front of him and his head leaned back so he can catch his breath and try to make his stomach settle.

Don't throw up, Dick. He doesn't want to be covered in his own sickness by the time his captors decide to show themselves. It will be totally embarrassing and Dick had a cool, pretty boy reputation to keep up after all. 

And besides, when he blinks his eyes to look at the rest of the room he's in he finds that it's rather small and compact; throwing up here would make the smell linger horribly. 

His stomach rolls and he decides to do his best to not think about throwing up. Starting… now.

He brushes his eyes throughout the room he's woken up in. Besides the stone wall and the heavy looking door, there's not much to see besides a singular bulb installed in the center of the room above him. 

That; and a chain hanging right besides it. 

He frowns at the chain. The end has a singular clip hook attached to it. From where it's hanging—about three feet from the ground—it travels up to some sort of makeshift pulley system; composed of various eye hooks that run along the ceiling so the other end of the chain latches next to the door. 

The clip at the end looks strong too. Something that would be used for lifting heavy equipment.

Now that he's studied the room to its extent, he shifts so he's looking over his shoulders to his hands. Duct tape, he finds, is what's keeping his hands in a fist; multiple layers of aluminum colored tape preventing him from messing with the shackles or breaking a joint to slip out of them. 

Alrighty then. 

He should probably work on getting his hands in front of him. Just to give himself a little bit more of a fighters chance. 

And of course, when he goes to do so, his hands are stopped by another freaking chain that he hasn't noticed till now. It's attached to the tether between his wrists and then it connects to the wall; like a leash, but an infuriatingly short one. There's hardly any give. He's stuck to the wall and he's not going anywhere. 

He lets his head fall back against the bricks behind him once again, cursing that sometimes criminals are smart about things. 

Then, with that flawless dramatic timing most criminals often have, the door opens.

Dick brings his legs up to his chest, positioning himself so he's less vulnerable, as a group of three masked men—judging by their body types—make their way inside the room he's trapped in. He glares at the one that steps closer to Nightwing as the other two hang back. One by the door, one by the chain connecting to the wall. 

One man, who must surely be the leader, stops just outside of Dick's kicking range and kneels down to the balls of his feet. The balaclava he's wearing covers his entire face besides a section for his dark eyes, but Dick gets the feeling he's smirking. 

"Alright," Dick says, shifting so he's sitting straighter while making sure his tone is unbothered and bored and not at all as groggy as he feels, "let's get this out of the way. M'names Nightwing, I like long walks on the beach, and I'm not going to tell you any secret identities."

"Which would be a shame," the man in front of him says, "if we cared for secret identities."

A bolt of confusion shoots through Dick at the sentence as the man stands up, folding his arms across his chest and tilting his head. He isn't interested in secret identities? That's… a new one. Most villains who capture him practically beg for his name, that way they can get Batman's name. The first time Dick's been beaten with the reasons of secret identities, it was scary, sure, but now that he's older he's just sorta… gotten used to it at this point. A villain who wants to know his name is a predictable villain. 

One who wants something different is a dangerous villain.

"You see, Nightwing," the man continues, "all we want is information. We have a couple questions for you, and if you cooperate you won't be hurt."

There's no we'll let you go . Just you won't be hurt . Dick doesn't know who these guys are or what they want, but whatever it is, it can't be good. 

Dick flashes a toothy smile. "Oh, a few questions? Is that all? Ask away."

"Does the name The Silence ring any bells?" The man asks, and Dick fights a scowl because it does ring a few bells.

They are an international, underground human trafficking organization. Grabbing kids from all over the globe and selling them to various rich assholes for a multitude of disgusting reasons. Dick's fought them before, in fact, they had a station in Blüdhaven that he worked with the police to raid and rescue the kids trapped inside. 

But that was three weeks ago. 

"It sounds familiar," Dick replies slowly, wishing the man wasn't wearing the stupid balaclava so he could judge the facial expressions better. He can't tell anything with just the eyes. "But they were taken down weeks ago."

Keep it vague. Do not let them know that you know more than the bare minimum.

"We both know that's not true, Nightwing," the man says with a sigh. "The Silence has reaches across the entire globe and for the past decade they have gone entirely unnoticed. Until now, where you took down the base in Blüdhaven twenty days ago." He pauses, then gives Dick a hard look. "Until when, just a day ago, another base in San Francisco was taken down by none other than Red Robin and all those other powered brats."

Shit. Shit . They caught on way quicker than what anyone was planning. The moves on them were supposed to be "accidental". Like Dick "stumbling" upon the warehouse, expecting to find some other crime and instead finding a massive group of child kidnappers and sellers. Like Tim and his team just happening to catch wind of the base and taking it out because it was in his city. Bruce really isn't going to be happy about this one. Dick really hopes Jason's okay. He's the one who's undercover and getting the base locations. 

"Look, I don't know anything about this, I just saw what was happening and took it out of my city," Dick says, flexing his fingers in the tape they're wrapped in. This is going to get messy fast, he can tell. 

"Anyone with a brain can see the bats are connected to this," the man says with a sharp edge to his voice. "And I'm not in the mood to pretend you don't know anything. What we want to know, Nightwing, is where you're getting your information and how many other bases you know about."

So… Jason hasn't been found out yet. Good. That's good. There's no way Dick will sell him out, not when they have close to fifteen other major locations and are currently working with the local authorities to take them out in one fell swoop. 

 Dick takes a breath. "I really have nothing to tell you."

The eyes of his captor hardens and Dick fights to keep his heart steady. He knows where it goes from here. Even before the leader motions to the other two men. "Then you have decided to make this difficult for yourself."

Then, the two other men approach. The moment one of them gets close enough, Dick lashes out with his legs, kicking him in the shins. But, because this guy is 1. Huge and 2. Has a friend , Dick's quickly overpowered as his shoulders are grabbed and he's shoved so far forward his nose almost slams into his knees. His shoulders protest angrily as his wrists remain attached to the wall by the short leash, but that discomfort doesn't last long before his shackles are disconnected from the wall and he's hefted up to his feet by two pairs of meaty hands on his biceps. 

His head spins as they frogmarch him past the leader into the middle of the room, right next to where the chain is dangling. The lightheadedness quickly fades though with a dosage of adrenaline as he's held stiffly in place. 

When his hands are grabbed and he's turned so his back is to the chain, he fights down a fit of panic and desperately ignores his rolling stomach. "What are you doing?" 

There's the clinking of metal links, a snap, then one moment turns into another and Dick is left standing in the middle of the room with the slack between his shackles attached to the hanging chain. 

He glares at the leader and watches out of the corner of his eyes as the two other men return to their positions—one by the door, the other by where the very chain Dick is now tethered to is latched to the wall. 

He has a very bad feeling about this.

A very bad feeling that he knows exactly where this is going. 

"Last chance, Nightwing," the leader says, "tell us what we want to know and you won't be harmed."

Dick shuffles his feet and rolls his shoulders, mentally preparing himself for what's about to happen. This is going to suck .

"I'm telling you, I don't know anything," Dick tries, making his voice sound as genuine as he can so hopefully they believe him and not torture him for the next who knows how long. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, he has no such luck as the leader turns towards the man by the chain and nods. 

Now Dick, he isn't lightweight. Sure, he's short for his age and quite lean compared to most people, but that flat stomach and slim shoulders are made entirely out of muscle . And muscles are, in fact, heavy . Yeah, he's nowhere near Bruce's record weight of 210 pounds, nor around Jason's outstanding 230, but come on. Dick's almost six feet of pure 145 pounds and that's heavy . 

Which is why it shocks him so much that Mr Man over there takes the chain from the wall it's connected too and manages to successfully yank the chain down so hard that Dick's feet leave the floor for a minute. He just manages to curl up with his back keeping contact with his fisted hands, but without the purchase of his fingers added with the weight of his own body, he quickly finds his shoulders burning with strain. 

Dick's an acrobat. He can hang from many positions safely for long periods of time, but there's nothing safe about strappado. His shoulders are on fire, and it's only been a few seconds. His chest is tight and the metal bites into the skin of his wrists, and just when he feels like his ribcage is going to burst he finds his knees hitting the floor roughly. 

He's painfully aware of every nerve and cell in his shoulders, he can feel the blood pulsing with a sharp agony that has him swallowing gasps. 

And of course, before he can even recover, the chain is yanked again loudly and violently that has him stumbling to his feet, his wrists held so high above him that he's forced to bend forward and stand on his tip toes. 

Dick's flexible. He can twist and contort unlike anyone other. 

But let it be put on the record that some joints are not meant to bend certain ways. The shoulders shouldn't be pulled back and up like this. 

It's agonizing. A pain that's way more biting than what he expected. He hasn't been tortured like this before—which admittedly is a terrible thing to say because it implies he's been tortured before but in other ways… which is a correct assumption, but still —and honest to the gods and to mother nature, it's like his entire upper body is on fire. 

His stomach threatens rebellion as he's held upright in this new stress position. His chin is suddenly grabbed and Dick soon finds himself glaring through the strands of his bangs at the man in charge of this fun play date. Dick wants to vomit on him. 

He keeps that just to his thoughts. He'd actually rather not. 

"Where did you get your information?" The man asks, eyes cold and glaring. Dick bites back a wince as the chain jerks slightly, sending pings of pain into his shoulders and neck. 

"No one," Dick hisses through clenched teeth. "No one told me. I was scoping out the warehouse and just happened to find- Ahg-!"

His chin is released and he's in the air with one mighty tug. He chokes back a cry as he's suspended awkwardly above the ground. It's even more painful this time. It came more of a surprise and he didn't get to prepare himself. His abs strain as he attempts to curl up to relieve a little bit of the tension in the socket's of his shoulders that are bending way too far in the wrong direction. He just manages to catch sight of the two other men both holding the chain before his vision is obscured by the leader approaching him. 

If Dick wasn't so concerned with not having his shoulders ripped from the socket's, he could kick him in the face right now. 

But he doesn't, he can only force himself to not cry out and keep his face a straining level of nonchalant as the man speaks above the ringing in his ears. 

"Where did you get your information?"

Dick grinds his teeth and shakes his head. 

Which is thankfully answer enough, Dick's pretty sure if he opens his mouth he'll scream. 

Though, because it's the answer they don't want, Dick's lowered just a bit and then jerked right back up.

He'd be lying if he says he doesn't release a choked off shout. It's horrible . The strain, the tugging, the constricting, the weight. It's a miracle he hasn't dislocated a shoulder or two yet. 

He's held up there for what feels like an eternity but in reality must have been just another minute or so before he's lowered back to his feet. He tries to keep standing, but his mind is so hazed over with pain that he falls to his knees once more, his heels hitting his ass as he leans forward and gags—the nausea in his stomach finally winning. 

Thankfully, it's more like just an acidy spit-up. No past meals to be seen. Regardless, there's a horrible taste in his mouth to match the horrible ache in his body and the humiliation of throwing up at the feet of a captor. 

A hand in his hair. A tug on the chain.

"Where did you get your information."

Dick doesn't bother answering, and the force of the chain lifting him up is so great that he feels the back of his biceps hit his head right before…

Crack .

Pure, unhinged agony pounds into him as his left shoulder finally gives out. He yells through clenched teeth, his feet scrambling for purchase that isn't there, and then, there's a second horrible pop as his other shoulder dislocates as well, and he's not able to hold back this scream. 

Dick's hanging now, his wrists fully above his head in the worst way imaginable, gasping choking on his spit—his upper arms and the area around his neck burn like hellfire. He can't breathe. He can't even try. It's all pain pain pain pain that sends bolts to his fingertips and down his ribs. The meat of his shoulders press against his ears, and all he can do is dangle as his brain tries to process the horrible signals that's being sent though every burning nerve. 

"Was wondering when that would happen," someone says all faraway. The leader or one of the other two, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that his eyes are blurry and he can't focus on anything other than the dislocated joints that are already becoming oh-so-worryingly numb. 

He's dislocated his shoulders before. He has . But this is different. This is awful. This is… this is…

"Where did you get your information, Nightwing," the leader yells through the haze. Dick blinks rapidly, trying to focus, trying to find the present though the maze that is torture. His head hangs, the nerves in his neck feeling like he's pinched them all individually, but he does manage to at least look up and mumble. 

"What was that?" Someone asks. 

Dick tries again, but only mumbles and grunts escape. 

The leader leans forward and Dick does the only thing he can do, he spits the biggest wad of phlegm he could gather right onto his enemy's face. 

The leader howls in disgust, yelling something too loud for Dick to process. He only has a moment to silently celebrate a victory when the tension holding him suspended in the air is suddenly lost, causing him to once again fall to the floor. Only this time, he crumbles all the way down, landing awkwardly onto his feet, down to his knees, over to his side and right on top of his right shoulder. 

Everything goes white then. Ringing. Nothing but lightning bolts of angry, poisonous red as the pain envelops him. 

He gasps, choking on air, trying to crawl back to his eyes and ears to see what is going on around him, trying to ignore the invisible knives that slice into his upper body. 

He fails. Dramatically so. He passes out from the pain, and the pain remains even in sleep. 

So much so, that the only reason he can tell time has moved when he wakes up is that he's no longer in the middle of the room, but shoved back against the wall. He's laying on his side, but he can't feel anything in his shoulders. His fingers itch below the layers of tape and he doesn't have any strength left to even check to see if he's connected to the wall again. 

He releases a shaky breath and remains limp on the ground, praying that someone will come and that this will all be over soon. 

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #413

“i figured it out: the bigger the river, the bigger the drought”

When was the last time you felt like “getting into someone’s pants”? Years ago. What is your favorite energy drink, if you have a favorite at all? I don't enjoy energy drinks. Would you have kids with the last person you kissed? Neither of us want kids, so obviously no. Do you know someone who threatens to kill themselves? No. Would you ever completely dye your hair the color green? Noooo, that would look so awful on me. Have you ever been in a long-distance relationship before? Yep. What is your favorite food to eat around Christmas? Chocolate-covered peanuts. I have warm memories tied to snacking on those at a lights show one year. Do the people in your town speak like rednecks? Oh yeah. When was the last time you cried happy tears? I couldn't possibly tell you. How liberal are you? Considerably, but I'm not incredibly far into the spectrum, but I become more liberal as time goes on, I've found. Would you mind living near large predatory animals? Not really. So long as they're not coming into my house or anything. Have you ever experienced altitude sickness? No. Just ears popping. What’s your biggest priority right now? Reach a mental state where I can handle a job. If you’ve stayed overnight in a hospital, how did you entertain yourself? A loooot of reading... Are your hands unsteady? Very. I have bad tremors in my hands. Do you listen to a lot of mainstream music? Not at all. Do you think you’re pretty? No. Have you ever added someone you don’t know on Facebook? It's funny, the one instance where that's happened was with Jason, because I mistook him for a Jason I actually knew of and wanted to be friends with. I have friends on there I haven't met in person, I say I "know" them. Do you have dirty pictures in your phone? No. Have you ever looked up porn on the internet? No; I just don't get the appeal. Would you ever shoot someone right in the face? In a case of self-defense where I was clearly trying to be killed, that's right where I would aim. But otherwise, of course I wouldn't. Have you ever sold drugs? No. I'd prefer to stay outta jail. Did you ever try cutting yourself? Yes, and it does nothing but make the situation worse. Who’s the last guy you texted? My dad. Who do you know that wears the most make up? Probably my friend Summer, but I mean, she is a cosmetologist. Do any of your friends have kids? Lots do. Have you ever been tied up? No. How many times have you been cussed out? One. Are you anyone’s first love? I think. Have you ever had an out-of-body experience? No. Do you have more than one personality? No. Do you prefer gory horror films or the psychological ones? Psychological. Do you have a favorite YouTuber or do you not watch much YouTube? I survive off of YouTube, and Markiplier is *obviously* my favorite. Are you a good dancer? Even when I WAS a dancer, I don't think I was great, except in clogging. If you could find one long-lost friend of the past, who would it be? Megan. Was your sixth grade teacher a man or a woman? I had multiple instructors for different subjects. Have you ever had any teeth pulled? No. Do you wash your hair or your body first when taking a shower? Hair. Have you ever been to a nursing home? Yes. Have you ever lived in a house that has been broken into? No, but the Bloods gang tried to while my sister and her best friend were home alone in my childhood home. Thank the fucking Lord they couldn't manage. They just left a flag at our doorstep. If I remember the timeline correctly, that was the final straw for us moving. Is there someone in your life you don’t want in it? No. How many different people of the opposite sex have you cried over? Just one, in the romantic sense. I've cried over my dad when he left us too, though. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? Sara. Has anyone ever told you they were in love with you? Yes. Pretending to “never get the text” from someone who annoys you. Is that you? I've done it before, but I really don't get texts from anyone who annoys me. If your ex came up to you and asked you to take them back, what would you say? I know I say I shouldn't be in a relationship right now, but I know I still would with one, and if it was Jason, he'd have a LOT of proving himself to do before I take him back. Do you prefer boys to shave down there? I prefer men to do whatever the hell they want with their own bodies to feel comfortable and at home in it. How much does your mother know about your sex life (or lack thereof)? Not a lot, because I find the subject extremely uncomfortable to talk about. She knows my "idk if I'm *actually* a virgin" crisis I had, because I was so upset with not knowing and wanted her opinion, but that's just about it. Do you enjoy watching cooking shows? I mean I don't hate them, but I don't really watch TV. Do you worry about gaining weight? I'm terrified of the idea I might keep gaining weight. Have you ever seen the movie A Walk to Remember? Cliche or worth watching? Yes, and I think it's a wonderful movie. The book was excellent, too. What’s one event your town has that you don’t like to participate in? I don't participate in any event my town has organized. Are any of your siblings married? What are their spouses' names? There's Josh, Franky, and Nick. Do you like being home alone or does it freak you out? I like it for a while. I eventually get lonely, though. Did you lose friends when you started dating someone? No. Did you leave milk and cookies for Santa when you were little? Yeah. To who did you last give the finger to? Some driver being fucking stupid. Do you talk in your sleep? A lot. Do you have a good relationship with your parents? Yes. Have you ever been a featured member on any website? Yeah, a SH fansite. Do you feel that your previous relationships were a waste of time? Only one was. Do you prefer hot chocolate with or without marshmallows? Without. Which do you like better: Regular cakes or cookie cakes? Regular, for sure. I mean I like cookie cakes, they're just... kinda boring as "cakes." Have you ever been hit by the opposite sex? No. If your significant other cheated on you, would you take them back? Nnnnnope. What was the last song you listened to? A slowed version of "Daddy" by PSY. Shut up. What do you look for most in a friendship? I guess the #1 trait would be... uhhh... supportive, maybe. There's obviously much more to a good friendship than just that, though. If the Internet never existed, what do you think you'd be doing now? Reading. I think I'd be a much more avid reader without the Internet. Have you tried something new at a restaurant lately? No. If your skin could be any color of your choice, which would it be? Ugh, I'd love to have like, porcelain skin that has like no flaws to it. Do you know any German words? A decent amount, seeing as I took four semesters of the language. Vegetables: Better raw or cooked? Uhhh idk. I don't like enough vegetables. What is the cutest animal? Maybe I'm biased, but meerkats. Would you mind dating someone significantly shorter than you? No, and the idea that some people have actual cut-offs for how short their partner can be disgusts me. Who the fuck cares how tall someone is. It's not like they have any say WHATSOEVER in it. Have you ever swam in the Atlantic Ocean? Yes. The Pacific? No. Can you make yourself cry? No. Have you ever held a starfish? I know I haven't held a live one. Have you ever been ghosted before? No. Did you ever play Imvu? No. Did you ever get caught watching porn? No, considering I've never watched it. What's the worst feeling in the world? Heartbreak. Not being good enough to someone whose opinion you deeply cherish. What's the BEST feeling? Love bringing people together, hence why I love things like Pride parades and such. As well as when you accomplish something you've really worked hard for. Do you think weed culture is annoying? Some people can definitely take it too far to where it's like the only thing that matters to them. People who say weed isn't addicting have NOT met the people I know. I'm not against use of marijuana, but goddamn, a drug should not be your entire world. Have you ever stayed in a relationship even though you didn't love that person? No. If I'm not into you, I'm out. Do you ever listen to "lo-fi hip hop" on YouTube? No. What's the worst prank someone has ever done to you? I've never had a real prank pulled on me. What color hair did your first crush have? Brown. What type of shoes do you find the most comfortable? Nice sneakers. I really only wear flip flops, though. Do you know a lot of people who have the same middle name as you? Yes, considering it's ridiculously common. Do you like your middle name? I mean it's pretty, but waaaaay too unoriginal. Would you ever audition for American Idol? Nope. Have you ever visited your state's capitol building? No. Have you ever visited your nation's capitol building? No. Have you ever felt an earthquake? No. Have you made any huge mistakes? Yeah. Do you believe anyone is asexual? Um, yes???? Do you do all the chores yourself? No.

[365days365movies]

March 18, 2021: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) (Part One)

Look, it’s Woody Allen again! Why is this elephant here?

Ah, right. The documentary on HBO, which I have not watched since I last talked about Woody Allen? Why? Well, from what I’ve heard, it’s not the most accurate documentary, and has a bit of bias loaded into it. And again, I don’t know nearly enough about the whole situation, but...I’m also not interested in potentially biased accounts. So, I’ll take the time to educate myself.

Shame that I rarely have any time, then.

Yeah, I just made one of the oldest jokes on the internet ever. Sue me. SUE ME I DARE YOU

You may be asking, then, why am I doing the whole movie thing? Well, in truth, this is a form of escapism for me. I mean, who doesn’t like sitting down and watching a good movie, putting away your worldly cares for about 2 hours so that you can dive into another world entirely? I mean, the worlds that’ve been built by film over the last century never ceases to amaze me.

From Avatar’s Pandora to Mustafar in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, to the Great Barrier Reef in Finding Nemo, or the world of Monsters, Inc. There are so many unique worlds, not to mention the characters who inhabit them, and the directors and filmmakers who craft and show them. I just love movies, honestly. Which I could literally be in the world of some of them, even for just 2 hours.

But enough of that, what’s this film about? Eh, whatever, LET’S JUST GET INTO IT! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

We’re brought in on “Cheek to Cheek”, as sung by Fred Astaire, which is, not gonna lie, a guilty pleasure song of mine that I find myself singing in quiet moments. This leads us to a movie poster for the film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, which is being admired by Cecilia (Mia...Farrow). Ohhhhh.

You may remember Mrs. Farrow from her eponymous voice role in The Last Unicorn, which was made a few years before this film. And she’s also known for Rosemary’s Baby, The Great Gatsby, and...her marriage to Woody Allen, which ended in divorce and a massive lawsuit. Said lawsuit involved Farrow’s accusation of sexual abuse to their adopted daughter, Dylan. And that’s what the HBO documentary is about!

WOW. AWKWARD. Apparently, the two got married in 1980, and made thirteen films together, this one included. Which seems both awkward, and like straight-up nepotism, but whatever. Tim Burton did the same thing with Helena Bonham Carter, so whatever; it’s not unprecedented, is what I’m saying. Back to the movie, though.

Cecilia is a waitress, along with her sister (played by Stephanie Farrow, Mia’s actual sister). She’s new at the job, and not great at it. But, her and her sister still have nice conversations about films, as Cecilia’s quite the cinephile. After work, Cecilia meets her husband Monk (Danny Aiello), an abusive gambler who’s unemployed and not doing much about it. It’s the middle of the Great Depression, and things are hard all over. Monk seems to handle this by playing dice, and not particularly well.

Cecilia unsuccessfully tries to get Monk to see the newest movie with her, so she goes to see it alone that night. The film itself is a comedy about a rich Manhattanite named Henry (Edward Herrmann), alongside his wife Rita (Deborah Rush) and friend Jason (John Wood). They take a trip to Cairo, where they meet a young archaeologist named Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), who’s there to seek the mythical Purple Rose of Cairo. They invite him back to New York with them, and he accepts. There, he falls in love with Kitty Haynes (Karen Ackers), a singer at the Copacabana.

Cecilia is head over heels in love with the movie itself, and dreams about it at work, before going to see it again with her sister. They go to an early showing, and when she comes home, Monk’s drunk and spending time with a woman named Olga. Understandably enraged by this, Cecilia packs up her belongings to move out. Monk tries to get her to stay, the abusive cheating douchebag that he is. She notes that he hits her, and he defends his actions. Monk’s a real piece of shit. And she leaves, despite his absolute shit. God, I hope she stays away.

Unfortunately, she’s essentially forced to come back to the apartment that night, and returns to work as well. But not for long, as she’s basically immediately fired. Now jobless and stuck in an extremely shitty marriage, she has nowhere to go...except for the movies. And she goes back over...and over...and over again, five times in a row that day.

But the seventh time she sees the movie...something happens. Something fascinatingly unusual. The film, specifically Tom Baxter himself, watches her back.

Holy shit, that’s awesome! Tom Baxter notices Cecilia in the audience, and before his “madcap Manhattan weekend” is set to begin, Tom notes that she must really love this movie, and also that he’s noticed her all 6 previous times she’s seen the film. And then...he leaves. He leaves the movie!

He turns to color, and he jumps out of the screen to sweep Cecilia off of her feet. And EVERYBODY sees this, including the people IN the movie and in the theatre. I also love the fact that as soon as he turns to color, a woman faints, which is super fucking funny to me for some reason. Tom runs off with Cecilia, free after 2,000 monotonous performances.

Now that Tom’s met Cecilia, he’s never going back. The audience and the film stars are in complete disarray, and without Tom present, the movie can’t go forward, and the film characters descend into arguments about whose movie this actually is. It’s uh...it’s fucking hilarious, actually.

The enthusiastic Tom Baxter goes with Cecilia to a closed amusement park, where Cecilia once again expresses confusion at the whole affair. He notes that she’s been looking at her with every one of his performances, although she doesn’t understand why. But he calls her fetching, and is clearly quite smitten with her. And she appears to be returning that affection.

When Tom tells her that Cecilia is in love with him, she notes that she’s married. Still, he asks her to meet him that night at the amusement park. After all, how many times does a movie character leave a movie to meet somebody? Not an everyday occurrence.

Meanwhile, the film characters continue to be freaking the fuck out. The Countess (Zoe Caldwell) and Larry Wilde (Van Johnson) show up as well. The audience appears to be enjoying this less than I am, and they start to backtalk the movie, calling it boring. The movie backtalks the audience right back, and it continues to be hilarious.

Eventually, this becomes an attraction in and of itself. They suggest turning the movie off, but that risks stranding Tom Baxter outside. It also means that the film characters wouldn’t exist, which Henry is EXTREMELY upset about. As the news arrives to cover the small theatre’s anomaly, the people in the film itself start to play pinochle, as a few people linger around to watch and interact with the characters. The theatre manager (Irving Metzman) calls the production company, RKO, and they get on the phone with a Gil Shepherd.

Meanwhile, Cecilia manages to get out of the house, despite Monk trying to keep her there to massage his back, the absolute douchebag. She goes and meets Tom, and they go dancing together. This is just as the actor who plays Tom, Gil Shepherd (Jeff Daniels) is called by RKO while he’s at a party. Gil seems like kind of a typical Hollywood jerk, but he’s interrupted by an agent, who tells him that they need to get control of...well, whatever the hell this is.

Apparently, RKO is telling Gil that if he can’t get “his creation” under control, then he’ll essentially be blacklisted, especially considering that there’s no telling what Tom’s doing out there. And what Tom is doing is attempting to pay for a meal with Cecilia, only to find that his money isn’t real money. The two dine-and-dash, and they escape in a car back to the amusement park. 

There, the two kiss, with Tom expecting the screen to fade out in preparation for them to make love. He’s surprised when it doesn’t happen, and it’s neat to see his adjustment to the world outside of films. He wants to continue with the lovemaking, but she’s still faithful to her husband. He stays at the park, and she returns home, where she still hasn’t told Monk about her new unemployment status.

The next morning, Gil and co. arrive at the small New Jersey town, and Gil ends up running into Cecilia, who confuses him for Tom. Gil realizes exactly what’s going on, and reveals who he is to her. The two start to talk, and Cecilia just fangirls EVERWHERE. She agrees to take him to meet his character.

Great place to pause, I think! See you in Part Two!

[bigskydreaming]

Also friendly reminder that Dick never thought that Tim was crazy for refusing to believe Bruce was dead, he thought Tim was stressed and exhausted and not coping well and needed to take a fucking break, and this is all very understandable when you keep in mind that Dick ISN’T an asshole who never pays attention to anyone but himself. That in fact, its the exact opposite, and its BECAUSE Dick pays attention to Tim and worries about stuff like, oh, his mental health and wellbeing, that he was probably thinking about the fact that the LAST time Tim refused to accept a loved one’s death.....

HE TRIED TO CLONE HIS DEAD BFF IN HIS BASEMENT.

Tim, historically, DOES NOT COPE WELL, with loss. Dick, historically, IS VERY AWARE OF THIS.

Dick being concerned about Tim when Tim starts spouting off about how corpse or no corpse, Bruce isn’t really dead, just lost in the timestream (without offering up any evidence at the time of these confrontations).....

like....it is not the betrayal and abandonment of trust that fandom makes it out to be.

Its like, a grieving, stressed and overworked older brother simply being very fucking worried about his little brother and how he’s dealing or NOT dealing with all the things Dick himself is struggling with at the moment.

Also, really wish people would provide context for the ‘Dick suggested Tim go to ARKHAM and Dick locked Jason up in Arkham where he could’ve been right next to the Joker and Dick just walked away and didn’t even care’ shit.

No. That’s not remotely what happened. Arkham BLEW UP in Battle for the Cowl. And one of the first things Dick did as acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises was BUY the contract for the Arkham remodel, because due to being painfully aware of how bad and shitty and totally ineffective it was since he was like, eight....Dick wanted to try and use his new position and resources to make Arkham an ACTUAL working and effective mental health facility. Dick literally went ON SITE in multiple issues, to oversee the remodel in person? He had supervisory access? 

So when he suggested things IN THOSE SAME ISSUES like Tim going to Arkham to take a break, or PULLING STRINGS to make sure that when the GCPD arrested Jason, he was transferred to Arkham instead of Blackgate.....what Dick was ACTUALLY doing was looking out for his little brothers as best he could, DESPITE the fact that they both actively hated him at the moment, by trying to get them help/keep them safe in a location HE COULD ENSURE WAS ACTUALLY SAFE AT THE MOMENT. 

Sanctuary didn’t exist back then, there was no superhero facility for vigilantes who were dealing with enormous shit that would give ANYONE a breakdown, and it wasn’t like a public figure like Tim, well known in BOTH his superhero identity AND his civilian one, could just wander into any mental health facility and say hi, I need a place to have a total meltdown in peace and quiet, thanks. The only real option for that was like....the one mental health facility Dick was pouring his time and resources into MAKING USEFUL and had enough pull at to like....keep him off the books.

Same thing with Jason? Because of the whole...Arkham just BLEW UP last year, all the big name Gotham Rogues....weren’t at Arkham at the time. Joker was NOWHERE NEAR the place the entire time Jason was there, which Dick was very aware of since like....HE WAS THERE. Constantly. It was literally just Dick’s way of keeping Jason locked up where he wouldn’t KEEP TRYING TO KILL THEIR LITTLE BROTHERS, since asking him to stop (something Dick had literally tried multiple times lol) was not effective at all....while at the same time, it kept Jason out of prison population AND didn’t require keeping him in some kinda fucked up isolation cell in a prison just for safekeeping. In fact, after Bruce came back and took over from Dick again, and BRUCE went to visit Jason in Arkham...Jason’s biggest CANON complaint was that he was BORED. He wanted to be transferred to an actual prison because all he was doing here was being giving weekly psych evaluations that he passed in flying colors (again, no forcible drugging or treatment or electroshock therapy or any other Jason whump people have written and blamed Dick for). 

And when Bruce agreed, what did Jason do? He poisoned the prison cafeteria and killed like eighty people with no regard for their level of criminal behavior or whatever, which is shitty Jason writing, and was of course just part of Jason’s plan to escape, which he did with Scarlet’s help, AND Dick and Damian’s when Jason’s escape plans were hijacked by some other bad guys who then kidnapped him. And the second Jason prioritized running away with Scarlet over trying to kill Dick and Damian again, Dick held Damian back from going after them, because ALL HE HAD WANTED ALL ALONG was just a SIGN that Jason might eventually find other things more important than like...trying to kill their little brothers at every opportunity.

LOLOLOL so to recap: Bruce pays no attention to how Tim handles his grief, Tim tries to clone Kon in a basement. Dick worries about how Tim handles his grief and tries to convince him to take a break somewhere safe and private that Dick can make sure nobody knows about....OMG WHAT AN AWFUL HUMAN BEING.

Bruce literally cuts Jason’s throat with a batarang rather than let him kill the Joker, does absolutely nothing to search for Jason as Jason runs around for a couple years occasionally trying to kill his siblings. Dick locks Jason up in a safe and private facility where he can’t kill his siblings but also is safe from people with an axe to grind against the Red Hood, or like, corrupt police brutality.....OMG WHAT AN AWFUL HUMAN BEING.

Like....c’mon people.

(Oh another thing that REALLY bugs me about people not having any context for the Arkham stuff, is the last arc before Bruce’s death, Batman RIP - literally had DICK locked up in Arkham, in a straitjacket, drugged to the gills and foaming at the mouth while the group that kidnapped him to get to Bruce planned to lobotomize him. All those whump stories people write about all the terrible things that might have happened to Jason and/or Tim in Arkham because of Dick....and that were NEVER a possibility...BECAUSE of Dick....yeah, those actually more accurately describe.....what actually happened to Dick. Himself. Like, two months before all of this. I mean, how much do you have to hate Dick Grayson and be convinced he’s just an awful human being in order to believe that after going through that HIMSELF, one of his first acts as Batman would be to thoughtlessly inflict similar treatment on his own brothers, who....he’s literally shown prioritizing at every other turn, to the extent that he’s actively begging Jason to let him help him during Battle for the Cowl even WHILE Jason’s in the process of trying to kill him).

[onthepyre]

cats

the second part of this is basically what i did last night but connor is a lot braver than me. anyway.

Evan does this at least once a week.

He gets home, and for whatever reason, whether it be the smile Connor gave him during lunch that lasted a bit too long or that romantic-looking restaurant he walked by on the way home, he's feeling sappy.  And he walks straight to his room, lays down on the floor, and listens to Cavetown.

The amount of time Evan spends on the floor is directly proportional to how many times he caught Connor looking at him during science class. Sometimes he counts; the record so far is 23 times in one class period. He spent two hours on the floor that day, staring at the ceiling.  

As soon as he's home, he's settled on his carpet with the soft sounds of a guitar playing in his headphones.  It's peaceful, quiet. There are only a few things that Evan thinks about, and number one on his list is how much better it would be if Connor was here.

His heart talks about Connor a lot.  His mind objects, but Evan's heart seems to beat with his name.  Connor Murphy Connor Murphy Connor Murphy.  Evan never gets tired of it.  His heart talks about Connor's hair, his eyes, his smile, his hands-

Don't get him started on Connor's hands.

Evan has watched Connor draw before.  The style of his art matches him well.  It's sharp, fast, messy, perfect. But when he's drawing, Evan watches Connor's hands rather than the piece. 

They're fluid.  They glide.

Connor Murphy does not glide.  He stomps, he runs, he marches, but he does not glide.  But when he's drawing, his hands float. They look the same, as angular as Connor himself, but they're different.  Softer. Evan figures Connor's face is the same, but he's always been too focused to look.

Evan often considers what Connor's hands feel like.  They look strong, but Evan is certain they're lighter than they seem.  He wonders what it would be like to hold Connor's hand. Is he one of those people that would hang on too tight?  Would he barely touch Evan's hand? Would he be grossed out by Evan's sweaty palms?

Evan also, more tentatively, thinks about Connor's hands on his face.  In his hair. Looped around his waist. These thoughts, of course, are more focused on where Connor's mouth would be at the moment, but there is attention to his hands then, too.

And Connor's mouth.  Of course. His lips are always chapped and often bleeding because Connor picks at them when he gets bored and Evan knows this because he stares at Connor during French class and he knows Connor hates French.  Connor bites his lips a lot, too. It isn't meant to be nearly as swoon-worthy as it makes Evan feel, but it nearly breaks him every time Connor chews on his lip. Evan's fairly certain this is something he does when he's bored, too, although it might be a nervous habit.

Connor has a lot of nervous habits, from what Evan's seen.  He spins his pen, taps his foot, braids little strands of his hair — the list goes on.  Evan knows each and every one of them.

—— 

Connor has his own sort of ritual.  After begging Zoe to stop at Tim Hortons so they could get coffee, he sits at the window in the den and watches Law & Order SVU.  He had never seen it until Zoe showed him the John Mulaney bit about Ice-T and now he's addicted. It's a problem.

Unbeknownst to either, Connor's SVU marathons are the equivalent of Evan's Cavetown sessions.  Evan thinks about Connor and Connor thinks about Ice-T. And Evan. Mostly Evan. 

Connor has a thing for the way Evan talks.  He knows that Evan himself hates it and most of the school thinks he's annoying, but Connor thinks it's adorable.

Evan has to say exactly what he wants to say, and if he messes it up, he will start over.  He messes up a lot.  It doesn't help that sometimes his tongue catches on words and he gets stuck on a certain sound and has to go back to the beginning of the sentence.  It takes active listening to understand what he's saying but it makes Connor melt.

That's the thing that makes Connor think so hard.  He's supposed to be the mopey badass, the scary emo, the aloof rebel-without-a-cause.  He has a reputation to uphold, even if it's less punk and more school shooter (okay, less punk and more sad).  He may be openly bisexual, yes, but he shouldn't be falling for a tiny tree-obsessed nerd.  

And the fact that Evan of all people is the one his heart decided on is, well, bad.  Connor's too worried that Evan isn't into him to do anything other than stare and Evan can't take a fucking hint.  Connor may think his cluelessness is cute, but it's also really inconvenient.  Connor thinks a lot of things about Evan are cute but inconvenient.

Evan is really, really good at accidentally blocking people's paths and then moving out of the way at the same time the other person does, thus blocking them again.  Evan hates it and Connor thinks it's funny. If it goes on for long enough, Evan starts blushing, and Connor starts falling apart.

And oh my god, when Evan blushes.  It's not like it's uncommon, Evan is both awkward and incredibly aware of it, but Connor still thinks it's adorable.  It brings out his freckles and colors the tops of his ears pink. If Evan is especially embarrassed, he'll try to hide in his hands, but his fingertips are always tinged with the same rose-colored mortification. 

Connor's thoughts drift as he pulls out his phone and scrolls through instagram, but Evan is still there in the back of his mind.  He's always there, no matter what Connor is doing. He spots Evan in the shadows created by the trees in the backyard; sees Evan's worried smile on his mother's face; catches himself doodling Evan's silhouette in the background of drawings. Evan, Evan, Evan.

Connor's phone buzzes in his hand as he scrolls past a collection of Bee Movie memes.  He opens the message, noting it's from Evan.

hhey

He's still typing, but Connor replies anyway.

whats up

The typing bubble disappears for a moment, then pops back up

what r u duing

Connor takes a moment to grin at the misspelling before he responds.

watching svu

do u eanna come see cats with ne 

uhh?? no but absolutely yes im coming, what time

theres a show jn half an hour 

cool see you then

Connor tucks his phone into his pocket and pulls his hands through his hair.  He's going on a date. With Evan. But it's not a date, his mind says.  Connor ignores it.

He's out the door in no time, stopping only to grab a half-eaten bag of twix and shove it in the pocket of his hoodie.  

——

Evan arrives at the theater before Connor does, and sits down next to a claw machine after buying his ticket.  He thinks about texting Connor, but his energy for starting conversations is nearly gone — he barely stuttered his way through asking for a medium popcorn, so he's decided to recharge for a bit while he waits for Connor.

Connor bursts through the door a few minutes later, then stops to look around.  He breaks into a smile when he spots Evan, who lifts his hand in a tired wave. Evan watches Connor talk to the woman at the ticket booth, then the man at the concession stand.  He approaches Evan with a bag of Sprees in his hand.  

"Hey," he says.

"Hi."

"I know Sprees are the worst, but they're the only food that seems to last past the previews, so."  Evan nods, trying to hide the already partially eaten bag of popcorn sitting next to him. "Well, shall we?" Connor reaches down to pull Evan up from the bench.  Evan smiles as thanks, but Connor doesn't let go of his hand. His mind moves at the speed of light, even though there are only two thoughts in his head: Connor Connor Connor and hand.

Connor holds onto him all the way to the screening room, where he tugs Evan into the back row.  He drops Evan's hand as they sit. Connor drops the Sprees into the cupholder on his left and pulls out the Twix, which he starts inhaling immediately.

When the movie starts, there's only one other person in the room: an old man in the front row, who Connor insists is Andrew Lloyd Webber himself, and it's not an issue if they talk because Webber started this whole fiasco and deserves to hear their "critiques."  

The moment the first cat appears on the screen, Connor is laughing.  "Why does she have boobs?" he whispers.  

"Connor!" 

"If they're going to give her boobs, she should have six, not two."

"Connor, talk quieter!"

"Are we supposed to be attracted to the cats?"

Defeated, Evan drops his face into his hands while Connor cackles next to him.  

They make it to Rum-Tum-Tugger without any other mishaps, but as soon as the new cat starts singing, Connor loses it again.  

"Why is he wearing a fur coat?  That's terrifying!"

"What?" 

"You'd be scared if you saw someone wearing a coat made of skin."  Evan looks over at him with a desperate expression on his face.

"Connor, please," he begs, "let's just… let's appreciate cat Jason Derulo."

Connor nods, still wheezing, and calms down a bit.  Until cat Jason Derulo whips off his fur coat in a display of his cat muscles.

Connor drops his head onto Evan's shoulder.  "I can't do this," he says through a fit of giggles.  

But Evan is more focused on the fact that Connor's head is on his shoulder oh my god.  And Evan hears Connor's foot tap, tap, tapping on the floor.  Nervous habit. And once again, Connor's hand finds his. 

"Gotta ground myself.  Make sure we're not dead, y'know."  So Evan, with as much bravery as he can muster, squeezes Connor's hand.  And Connor squeezes back.

But Connor doesn't move.  He stays there, his head on Evan's shoulder, his hand in Evan's hand.  And Evan can't focus on the movie anymore. He eventually picks his head up to laugh at Mr. Mistoffelees, but Connor hangs onto Evan's hand for the rest of the movie.  He's soft, softer than Evan expected, and evidently doesn't mind his sweaty palms, so Evan doesn't complain.

As the credits roll, Evan gathers the bits of courage he has left and look over at Connor.  "Is, uh, was this, like a date? Or did I, um, completely misinterpret what's- did I misunderstand this? B-because-"

Connor cuts him off.  "Do you want this to be a date?" He's quiet, much quieter than normal.

Evan's voice is even smaller when he answers.  "Um. Yeah." He stares down at his free hand, trying to avoid the one Connor still has a firm grip on.

"Great.  Then it was a date."  Evan can hear the smile in Connor's voice.  He looks up, and Connor is beaming, and Evan can hear his foot tapping the floor again.  And Connor's hand is on his jaw and Evan is leaning forward and their lips are pressed together.

It's different than Evan had imagined.  Slower. Gentler. But he's kissing Connor Murphy and Connor Murphy is kissing him back.

Evan is the first to pull away.  He knows his face is a bright shade of pink, but he doesn't really care.  His phone buzzes in his pocket.

"Oh, uh, my mom's here."  He thinks he sees Connor's face fall for half a second, but he isn't sure. 

"Oh.  Alright.  See you soon."  

Evan leans over and pecks his cheek.  "Thanks."

[rhcdesx]

( gregg sulkin, cismale ) hey ! have you seen KIERAN RHODES around ? HE works as a CHEF AT THE BIG BEAR BISTRO at big bear resort, but they must be off their shift by now. well, if you do see them can you let me know ? they’re 22 years old & they’ve been working here for TWO MONTHS. they tend to be +ALLURING & +DAUNTLESS, but can also be -ARROGANT & -CALLOUS. the other employees have labeled them THE LOTHARIO. thanks a lot ! 

basics:

name : kieran archer rhodes

nicknames : kier, k

age : twenty-two

birthday : 20 august (leo)

sexuality : heterosexual

born : london, england

relocated : manhattan, nyc

height : 5′9

favorite color : teal

accent : english

fluent in : french, italian, latin

hogwarts house : slytherin

when not at big bear : studies pre-law at columbia university

job : chef

hobbies : football, soccer, swimming, cooking

aesthetics : bruised kiss marks on necks, bruised knuckles, mischievous grins, & late night soaks in the hot tub.

family:

mother : freya davenport-rhodes (42)  †

father : oliver rhodes (43)

step mother : katherine rhodes ( née mccoy ) (39)

siblings : ezra rhodes (24)

step siblings : theodore mccoy (20)

half sibings : isabella rhodes (6)

about:

growing up kieran was no stranger to money. hearing the term ‘born with a silver spoon in their mouth’ referred to him better than anyone else he knew. it was all thanks to the empire his grandfather started to stay in the UK. the man had ended up falling for an english woman when he was studying abroad at columbia, he fell in love and needed something impressive to not have to the leave the woman he loved.

the hotel business was a very fortunate one. after his grandfather sent his son (kieran’s father) to america to follow his footsteps at the same university he was able to come back, sign on to be a partner and launch their empire worldwide.

even with being spoiled all his life, it was clear to him that his mother preferred his brother. ezra was the golden child, the first born son blah blah, he could do no wrong in his mother’s eyes. where as kieran found trouble so easily, needing money more often to get himself out of things rather than being rewarded.

most of the time his father was busy working and his mother would give him however much money he requested so he'd go away and not have to dealt with. though he was still required to show up to whatever hotel events, galas, or charity auctions that required strong family representation. they couldn’t been seen as less than perfect when they were all together.

though during those events he’d always find someone to sneak off with, whether it was to do drugs in the bathroom or a hot hookup. the boy liked to be entertained and often found himself easily bored, plus if it pissed off his parents it was a no brainer.

going behind the scenes further, you’d know that not only did his mother prefer his older brother, she didn’t really like his father very much either. they were only married because she got pregnant, a dumb fling sparked from hate, and he felt obligated to stand by her, plus it didn’t hurt that she wouldn’t be able to testify against him in court. they played the happy family for a while, she enjoyed using the money to her advantage.

it wasn’t long before kieran’s dad found himself a mistress, they ended up meeting in fact at a party at the dean’s house while ezra was in columbia. kieran was the one who spotted them, and the fact that she was already pregnant at the party. but perfect families had to go on. his father made sure kieran’s supply of money was constant, anything to keep the boy quiet.

his mother was in a car accident, she didn’t survive. kieran’s dad used the excuse of wanting to find out who was behind it to keep him family in new york. enough time passed and the case had turned cold, which soon led kieran to have a step mother and a half sister.

of course now that his father had the wife he always wanted, the boy was even more invisible which only made him more careless, reckless. his father would make sure that their reputation was in tact.

he finished off his junior year of hs in new york, along with his senior year before being accepted into columbia himself. sure his family has been making donations to the school for generations, but the boy is smart. the money did help clear up anything he was bound to get himself into eventually though.

facts relevant now:

he’s messed up any real relationship he’s ever had whether it was with cheating or something else. he hasn’t met anyone that’s wanted him to stay committed.

he uses sports to channel his anger, when he can’t use sex and basically uses sex for anything else.

kieran acts first and asks questions later, probably why he ends up in so much shit but he can’t help himself.

his family frequently vacationed at big bear resort, the owner being in business with his family.

he’ll try really hard to convince you he’s heartless, he’s not actually but it’s buried deep beneath his surface.

when he wasn’t causing trouble ( & still being ignored ) he picked up cooking, the channels being on an endless loop late at night and he found he was actually pretty good at it. not that he’d let anyone from home find that out.

he got really drunk one night and decided racing the porsche was a good idea and ended up crashing it into the living room. now while his family pays for repairs, kieran was forced to work at the lodge while the rest of the family vacations in paris. his father made it so the boy would finally have to own up to something, so it was either prison or work for his dad’s dear old partner. the choice was simple.

he figured something he’d actually be good at that also allowed him to hide in the back of the bistro was perfect, thus landing himself the job as the chef. 

connections:

bromance/roommate : leo takanashi. two dumbasses together under one roof, what could possibly go wrong? double trouble, always fueling each other to do stupid things. most of the time the stupid things are done together. 

best female friend : aylie monroe. possibly an ex that didn’t go sour. sees the best in him even though he’ll never see it himself. willing to smack him in the head if he needs it.

best bro : ryder monroe. he’s been around forever and always down to do stupid shit with kieran. the two of them are a dangerous stupid mix but it’s never dull and the laughs never stop. 

good friends : jason callahan. open. i know it’s surprising that an asshole like kieran has these, but by some odd reason he does.

mom friend : open. the girl who’s constantly giving him shit, lecturing him, trying to get him to see the error in his ways.

confidant : open. they get high together or get drunk and spill their guts. they both have info on each other so they know how crucial it is to keep each other’s secrets.

his soft spot : cleo ortiz. every asshole has a weakness -- she’s the one who can get to him like no one else can. a close friend. looks out for him while calling him out on his shit, though he just laughs it off, possibly romantic as well?

sexual tension :  open. the tension between the two of them is so undeniable though neither of them have given in...yet.

fwb/frequent hookups/flirtationships : ingrid kelly. callie macdermot. open. open. pretty self explanatory seeing as kieran and relationships don’t mix well. he’s more than likely to send them all the said booty call text and see which one answers the fastest.

one night stand : open. one night of passion, giving in to temptation. possible things are awkward now or they can’t get enough now.

pregnancy scare : open. with all the messing around he does, it was bound to happen.

ex girlfriend : callie macdermot. the one and only. it only lasted a month and the two mutually ended it, just the label part anyway. they both couldn’t see themselves in a relationship but they still like being around each other. 

ex hookups/flings : open. open. relationships that fizzled out, run there course, or more than likely kieran ruined by saying/doing something stupid.

childhood friends : aylie monroe. ryder monroe. they grew up together. the people who would more than likely know about his real mother and what she was like when she was alive.

playful frenemies : open. constant back and forth, flirting he can’t help. she denies him and only makes him want to play with her more. built up tension to where only a kiss can shut him up, though she’s going to act like nothing ever happened.

friendships turned enemies : roman walsh . he had a girlfriend who was kind of a bitch, very persistent and even though kieran turned the girl down she wouldn’t stop, cornering him when he was drunk and his will wasn’t as strong. long story short, kieran helped the girl cheat on his friend and they haven’t been cool since. 

unlikely friends/ current rivals : marco di angelo. these two are always butting heads, who even knows where it stems from, but they have more in common than they realize.

mutual bad influences : ivan anderson. open. pretty self explanatory. they cause double the trouble when they’re together and have a great time doing it and fueling each other’s horrible ideas.

good influence : open.  the person who keeps his head on straight. the good influence friend every mess needs to find balance.

anything else tbh, i’m open to anything and everything.

[semicolonthefifth]

CROSS ch.2 - Bad Moon Rising

The night was still strong, and the moon past the mountains helped shine the way.

For 3 hours now Jason Cross had been driving down the Black Road. On the drive since, Sid had been weakly banging against the car for the first hour before stopping on the second - at least that’s what Jason was sure had happened. Throughout the drive, Jason had been listening to the radio. Every now and then he’d switch the channels whenever a song failed to capture his attention. He’d mostly been ignoring Sid’s antics from within the trunk, and had been in the need for something to fill his mind till he reaches his destination.

So many stations littered the airways, from Calberi to Moresatta - all throughout the Black Road passage. Dozens of stations settled along the road, and all of them had the same idea on what to play. Humanity isn’t creative anymore, all they want are the oldies - the kind of stuff that used to play back on the Old Earth. Way back when, before they left for far off stars, only to then realize what a mistake it was; before they had settled on so many worlds, got into as many problems, and wished greatly that they hadn’t forgotten the way back. So, every station plays the oldies - the songs from the far ago generations.

You’d have such stations as: “Classics of the Great Wars”, “Music of the Groovy Times”, “3R’s Real Revolition Radio”, “The Legends of Rock n’ Roll”, and even “Electric Orchestras of the 2nd Millennium”. Most of the stations Jason had blocked out - he’s listened to them all, especially the ones off “Country Listenings” some time back. He’d stop listening to them altogether, maybe find a station making new stuff - if they ever come to existence. Though till then, “60’s Power Radio” still had some things he hadn’t yet listened to as much.

A couple turns of the dial, and he had come into the station just as when a favorite of his came on: “Bad Moon Rising”, by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The moment the tune picks up, Jason’s stresses from the long drive started to fade away. Though he hated to admit it, the feeling was nice. He began to ease up on his grip of the wheel, and allowed himself a chance to relax when the lyrics came into play - and slowly he sung it to himself.

“I see the Bad Moon Rising…”

“I see trouble on the way…”

“I see earthquakes and lightning”

“I see bad times today.”

His singing became almost automatic - it always felt like that with songs he has in his head longer than he should. He recalls seeing adverts and news clippings, all about what some experts from the cities call the “Nostalgic Disease”. It isn’t like an actual sickness, it was something Jason would refer to as ‘being all in the head’. It affects plenty of folks, especially in the cities. Those affected claw over whatever they can from the Old World, and then get hooked on it. They listen to a song 40, 80 times in a sitting, trying to capture that ‘magic’ off those stories they hear about from the old homeworld. They want more though, and soon enough they try to live it.

Jason recalls a story he heard once: a man became so addicted to the music from some millennia old musician named Elvis Presley that he was convinced he was the guy himself. The man paid millions for surgeries to look the part, using a couple of surviving photographs off a museum. Even went as far as to get an artificial voice box installed so he’d have a voice straight off the radio, crackle and all. Last he heard, the copycat ate himself to death as soon as a gray hair got through the fake ones. The worst part of it all was that it wasn’t the only story of its kind - there’d been many others, many copycats - changing themselves to copy ancient figures, celebrities and even fictional characters alike.

Jason laughs to himself a bit when thinking back, but then realizes that he’s singing the final lyrics to the song. He realizes where he is at the moment, and immediately switches the radio off. It’s good timing at least, as further down the Black Road he could see a set of white buildings off to the side. After a quick shake of his head to wake his senses, he grips the wheel tight and gets ready for the turn off the Road.

The Black Road has always been the greatest landmark in the arid wastes of Aurora, in both size and importance. Ever since the United Republic of Earth colonized and settled down here, the road has been the deciding factor for easier trade and travel between its two cities on what is often a sun-blasted desert. Although the alien natives aren’t subtle about their hatred for the road, every human loves the seemingly endless stretch of pure black pavement that has helped them settle these lands. All the humans love this road, especially those wanting to cause trouble for everyone around them.

With the creation of the road came the bandit and the raider - groups who constantly harass and devastate the various settlements that line the Black Road. For as far as Jason could remember, there have always been raiders murdering and setting fires along the road. There has been an ever-increasing level of violence along the wastes of colonized Aurora, and furthermore an increase of groups who set themselves to fight back - and in response, an act from the UROE had to be made. To ensure that the worst of humanity are to be dealt with, and that the best are sufficiently rewarded, they settled the bounty offices - a way to put a mark on any bandits in the area, and pay off those willing to do the job.

One such office, a mile off the Black Road - stationed the same distance either way between the two major cities at the ends of the Road - was set in the middle of the open plains. It was close to the Eastern mountainous wall that runs parallel to the road, visible in the night through the twinkling lights in the pitch darkness.

It was easy to make out. The buildings of the site was painted a bright white, which appeared clearly against the mountains and dunes. Within the site there was a main two-floor office facing South with another, smaller building nearby. The office appeared boring and simple, with little other features aside from some windows and utilities to keep it functional. The side building meanwhile only possessed a door and a singular window, but no light was shown to be coming from it. Remaining to note was an appropriately sized water silo, a generator, several solar panels, and a discreet radio tower barely peeking from the office roof. All of which were encircled by a vast perimeter of chain-link fencing guarded by a single guard post. A flag of the UROE flew proudly - bluish green in color, with a white emblem of the Earth surrounded by stars and the various flags of the Republic’s states. It stands out, even against the brightness of the office it decorates.

The drive takes a while, but Jason’s car soon rolls up towards the post. He quickly rolls down the windows and presents his license and contract, allowing himself through and towards the main office itself. He stops right in front of it, turning the car off once he’s parked.

Before Jason gets out, he suddenly remembers the gun he had taken from Sid at the bar - and for a moment he takes some time to examine it.

It was a seemingly impressive thing: the custom decoration had a ‘cool’ look to it, as Jason though, and it appeared that the metal trims appeared legit. It all depicted a road waving wildly, with a road-sign reading ‘66’ at the center - etched on both sides, practically mirroring each other. However, as Jason turned it over, he began to notice some issues. It had a pretty face, but nothing more. The grip felt loose- the trigger stuck badly; there were indications of grime and dust that was only cleaned surface deep. The way the gun jostled and clicked when waved, you’d figure the thing would’ve blown the man’s groin much sooner.

He carefully tosses the gun aside, but not before skimping the leftover ammunition and storing it into the glovebox. He can’t use it, as badly as he would’ve needed to. Almost any gun would be better than no gun - yet in this case, he liked to have one that actually worked.

Jason finally leaves out the car, and as he makes way for the office he gives a smack of his hand against the back where Sid’s been kept. “Don’t you let me catching you leaving any time soon.” He snarks aloud, chuckling before whistling a tune.

5 seconds into his whistling he recognizes it as “Bad Moon Rising”.

He stops immediately after.

Eventually he enters through the door, and the moment he does so he can feel a jet of cool air hit him square in the face. He barely stifles a low, soft moan before giving into a bit of shaky laughter. He happily calls out, “Damn Barry! When were you gonna tell me you got that AC fixed!?”

Jason stands right under the open vent, an easy feat considering how high he stands. Cool air blows across the main floor office: a fairly open, presentable area with a half-wall barrier blocking off a series of desks lining the floor. To the sides are doorways leading to other, smaller officers, with only a singular staircase off to the back. The place was for show, for the most part - all but one of the offices were empty with only the standard supplies atop the desks. Only one office, towards the side, had decor that was easily seen from the main entry-way.

From where Jason stood, he could see various knick-knacks, some maps, and one man.

The man exits out, giving Jason a hefty smile and a jolly chuckle.

“Just recently!” He shouts, making his way over

He is a graying, blond-haired man whose as wide as he is tall. His complexion is that of a man barely touched by the Auroran sun, only made slightly pink in color. A gray collared shit wraps around his body, tightly tucked into a set of dark grey pants complete with well-shined black laced shoes. On his chest is a small badge, clipped to his left with a photo of himself and his name - “Garry Barr”.

Immediately he goes to Jason for a handshake, and Jason allows it without an inkling of complaint. Barry then proceeds to push far close into Jason’s space, giving the young man a strong slap to the shoulder fueled by celebratory glee.

“Jason Cross you bastard! Thought for a moment you wouldn’t be back so soon. You got Sid, right? Got him good?”

Cocky, Jason shrugs and gives a comical grin. He looks down at Barr with about half the amusement. “Of course! I told ya I’d get the bounty. The fucker put me through a whole lotta runnin’ across the road and back, but I did get him.”

“And just for that, I’m grateful. Absolutely touched. Just as happy as can be!” Barr lets out another bit of laughter before proceeding to hook Jason over and direct him to his office. He speaks further before Jason could get a word in. “You want a drink? I can get you a drink. We ought to get a drink, a smoke - something!”

Jason chuckles awkwardly, but tries to answer through Barr’s rambling, “Had enough, actually. You mind calmin’ down? What’s the occasion anyways?”

“I’ll get right to it!” Barr happily shouts, still leading Jason on.

He’s soon brought to a chair, though Jason kindly rejects and opts instead to lean against the doorframe while Barr moves to his desk. The man bends down and retrieves a box kept in the lower shelf, all the while Jason’s eyes wander around the room.

Barr’s office is full of memorabilia of the Old Earth. Model tanks line the shelves by chronological order, all positioned at the same direction and without a bit of dust to ruin their clean, pristine appearance. Several posters of films and wars from the 40’s covered the walls - all of which contained behind glass frames to protect their quality. They mostly covered topics like “War Bonds” and “Liberty”, but Barr didn’t care for the aboutism - he was more drawn to the looks. Lastly, hanging right behind his desk was a  replica shotgun, locked behind a glass case with but one plaque reading, “Winchester Model 1987. Trench Gun”.

Jason’s eyes shifted back to see Barr open the box, and from it he nearly brings out a small rectangular bottle with an amber colored liquid and a yellowish-green cap, along with a tin lined with cigars. The tin advertised “Babe Ruth Smokes; Great Vintage Taste from a Great Vintage Era”. with a picture of a grey colored man in striped pajamas.

Barr sat down nice and comfy, rubbed his hands and delightfully waved his fingers over the items laid upon his desk. He sniffed the air, savoring it even from afar. Jason taps the doorway, breaking Barr from his ecstasy.

“Uhh, Barry? What’s the… uh, situation here?” Jason asked, his smile still uncomfortably kept, but his tone presented as respectful as can be.

Finally, Barr answers, with exhaled excitement, “Promotion. I am getting a promotion. All thanks to you.”

“Me?” Jason responds, confused. His face contorts in surprise before returning to his previous expression as he continues, “Uh, I don’t see what you’re talking about here.”

“That bounty you brought in: Sid Leibers. We’ve been looking for him, and here you are. You bring him in to us, and now I’m finally going to get my dues for once in my life. So for that, yes! You boy, I thank! Now then, do you still want the smokes? You ain’t too old yet to celebrate, and I hope you got the taste for cigars. They say these got the old taste right - exactly how it’s described in the old archives.”

“Again, pass.” Says Jason. He brings his hand up to scratch his head, still unsure exactly on what is going on. He then asks the question that had been running through his mind every now and then. “You know Barry, now that you mention it - why have you guys been hounding for Sid so badly? I mean, 850 creds? I know he killed some people, but the worst murderers and arsonists I’ve seen get a bounty of at most 400 alive. Least those people got about a dozen more bodies under their names, and they’re way more sadistic and messed up than this guy ever was.”

Barr leans over his desk, takes a long look towards the hall outside his door and then to the window before looking back at Jason. He whispers, with a wide-eyed look, “You really want to know?”

Jason pauses, jokingly pulls a similar look, and replies in the same tone, “Sure.”

Barr sits back, chuckling lightly for a bit as he then explains - all while his fingers come and rest upon each other.  He begins, “I shouldn’t tell you, honestly, but might as well since it’s going to be old news soon. You hear about some gang making a big hit further along the Western mountain ridge?”

Jason shakes his head.

“Well, they’re causing a mighty fine problem for a lot of people along the Black Road. Plenty of hits, ranging from kidnappings and ransoms, arson, murder - just about everything. For the past few months they’ve been pressing the villages for protection money, else they’ll come back and cause even more damage.”

“Sounds to me like your typical, small raider band.” Jason states.

“Not quite.” Counters Barry, elaborating more seriously now. His tone shifts to faithfully present the rank and affiliation he holds within the government on Aurora. “Now they’re not as sadistic as a raider or as large, but they’re smart - at least, whoever is leading them is. They have a good understanding of the environment, and are able to move about without anyone being able to track them. The gang’s hiding out within the ridge, but every time we get to a base they’ve already moved out days before. Not to mention this isn’t like those raiders; these guys can stay put in the mountains for weeks at a time, and we suspect that they possess enough of a survivalist skillset to make use of the wastes without issue. From what reports we’ve managed to scrounge up from those willing to talk, their numbers range from around 12 to 20 men. Not big, but we’re still running blind with what we got on them. Many of the villages affected are too scared to talk, and others ain’t much trusting of our offices to say anything anyways. The guard we have here at the nearest outpost can’t do anything unless we get further intel on the enemy - the command won’t devote manpower to what they see as ineffective searching.”

Jason nods and nods, taking in the information but ultimately not really caring. He keeps his opinion to himself that these guys don’t sound special - no different from any gang he’s dealt with in the past. Folks will join any group if the money’s available, and smarts don’t matter a thing if all they do is the same thing by running around like a bunch of crooks. Still, none of what Barr said had satisfied Jason’s question. “Ok, but what does this have to do with Sid? He’s just some punk, nothing else.”

“You’re right, he is just a pink,” Barry agrees, but his tone becomes progressively chipper. “But - he’s a punk with the right connections. See, what we managed to get from one village is that Sid had recently become a member of this gang. Now, he is dangerous, but he’s thankfully an idiot as well. The bastard was bragging about how he had just gotten in with the gang, completely away from the ears of his operation. With him looking to be our best chance, I commissioned the Bounty Board team to issue a large price on him - alive. Once he’s in our hands, we can interrogate him for all he’s worth.”

There it was, the answer - and Jason had to admit it: it felt good knowing that now. He did some good, albeit without having a clue about it beforehand Of course, the price was what really mattered. “Smart move.” He comments, smiling, “I got to say, you guys are awfully clever. But, how’re you sure he’ll talk? Man ain’t exactly lookin’ to be the agreeable sort.”

“We’ve got out ways, Jason. Man’s an idiot, like I said - and, from the profile we got on him, this ain’t exactly the longest he’s been with a gang. He’ll crack to something, sooner or later, and when he does we’ll have what it takes to nail those fuckers for good.”

“Then congrats to you, friend.” Jason remarks, giving a half-assed salute, though his smile tells Barr that he genuinely does mean well.

“No, thank you. Still! We should toast!” Barr exclaims, rising from his desk with the cheeriest of attitudes. “How about we get Sid out the car and give him a ‘congratulations’ drink? Let him know he’ll be in good hands.”

He starts power-walking out the door towards the front, with Jason following after at a slower pace. Jason comments, “Sure, might as well give him a chance to stretch his legs.”

The two exit out the front and right outside, and almost immediately Jason starts to miss the cold breeze.

With keys in hand, Jason moves around to the back of the car with Barr, and with a wide grin on his face he starts to unlock the trunk. Barr is barely able to contain his excitement, so much so he’s practically hopping in place and thinking past 10 different ways to greet the creep. With a CLICK the trunk swings open, and the two men stare inside - then when they see Sid, their expressions sink.

A long moment of silence falls between them, but especially Sid. The punk lays in a puddle of his own blood from within the trunk, his hands limply placed against his crotch. All color had drained from his body, with the last bit of it being the dark mellow blues of his eyes and lips. His eyes stared off at nothing, not registering one bit to the two men staring at their owner, whose expression is utterly blank.

Barr then breaks the silence, stating dryly, “Well thanks a-fucking-lot, Jason. You killed our man - way to go.”

“Now wait a minute.” Jason starts, holding a finger up as his eyes are kept locked onto the body in the trunk. He doesn’t say anything else, or for that matter can’t find a good reason to right now. With an open palm, and some slight hesitation, he reaches forward and gives Sid a couple smacks across the face. Twice, thrice, four and five times he does this. The slaps get a bit harder, but the body doesn’t move.

He turns sharply towards Barr, momentarily at a loss for words. Barr looks back, his once jolly expression giving way to an equally strong frown. Jason holds his hands up a bit and attempts to make a point, “Let me explain… he was alive when I brought him here.”

“Yeah, well he ain’t alive anymore.” Barr shoots back.

“The dude was banging the trunk door on the way here. He was causing all sorts of a fuss! For all I knew, when coming here, he was still pretty much alive.”

“And in that time.” Barr replies, almost about to blow, “Did you, at any point, dress this man’s wounds?”

“I… didn’t think it was serious.” Jason mumbles.

“The man’s balls are shot off!” Barr screams, his face turning a hot pink. “I think that calls for a fucking band-aid at the very least! Goddammit!” He yells, even louder - to the point his voice began turning course. He slams the trunk, causing Jason to jump back while Barr storms off back towards the office.

“Come on Barry!” Jason pleads, following after the man before Barr does a 180 and stops him dead in his tracks.

“Don’t you ‘Barry’ me, ya moron! This was supposed to be my break. MY promotion! Best chance I’d get to saying goodbye and good riddance to this hell blasted planet!”

“Now that ain’t fair, Barry…”

Barr resumes back into the office and is just about ready to shut the front door when, suddenly, Jason grips it from the outside. Jason peaks in, crying out, “Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Barr listens, and after a moment Jason calms down before asking politely, “What about my payment?”

Barr’s eyes grow wide, his mouth agape, and the punks on his face become a peppery red. He stammers, “You just-- I don’t-- Why’d you-- I should strangle the fuck out of you! Fucking payment?! Read the damn contract! ALIVE! You get the bounty if he comes alive! Alive - Payment! Dead - hit the dirt and LEAVE!”

Then with a quick pull he slams the door, right onto Jason’s fingers. Jason lets out a harsh scream, but doesn’t let go. It takes another three slams from the door before he finally releases, as he trips onto the dirt and holds tight to numb the furious pain going on in his fingers. Barr finally shuts the door and locks it, before walking off into his office in pure rage.

Jason shakes the pain away as best he could, right before looking back at the office door. He yells and begs, “Barry! You can’t leave me with this body, Barry! It’s gonna stink my damn car!”

After a minute of getting not a single answer from Barry, Jason curses and nurses his injured fingers. He lightly blows on his bruised digits, all the while slowly making his way to the back of his car. Stopping, he looked with disgust at the dead body attracting flies in his car. Delvitely he slams the trunk shit, wincing from the pain in his hands, before finally getting into the front seat to drive on out of there.

He speeds on out of the gated area, setting course for the Black Road.

First on his agenda: finding a place off the side to dump the body.

Second: looking somewhere to get some ice - for both his hands, and his drink.

[calliecat93]

Callie Reviews: TMNT 2012 Season One (Part Three)

(Part One) (Part Two)

Here is where we look at the season as a whole. For this, I will be looking at four things: Animation, Voice Acting, Characters (Heroes, Villains), and Story. I’ll be going more into depths about some stuff I skimmed over here as well. So lets dig in!

Animation

This is the Turtles first CGI show... okay yeah the 2007 movie was CGI, but that was a movie. When I first heard this, I was reluctant as I felt like 2D was becoming more and more of a lost out. But the CGI was really good! Mind you it looks a tad bit dated now as every season they pushed more and more to improve it. But still, it’s very well done. I can’t recall any point where I thought it looked bad or cringy...aside form when they wanted you to cringe anyways. What helps is that the show does add in some 2D elements, There’s the comic-style flashbacks of course, but even past that. They use these anime-like quirks like the sweatdrop, blushing, wide blank eyes when reacting in shock, vein burst when a character is angry, all these tiny little things that give it a more cartoony feel. I can’t recall any other Nickelodeon CGI shows that were doing this prior, so it helped it stand out among the other shows.

Another plus side? The character designs. Aside from a few background characters they re-colored, none of the important characters look the same. Like I know that some don’t like April’s design, but at least they gave her and Karai their own distinct character designs. Then there are the Turtles. Something I don’t like about the upcoming show is how much.. accessorizing they add in to make the Turtles look distinctive. 2k12 kept it very simple. Different heights, eye color, shade of green, and of course body build. For example Donnie, the genius who is mroe invested with machines than training, is both the tallest and most slender. Raph, the strongest, is the most buff and Mikey, the youngest, has larger eyes and freckles to show his child-like nature.And even with Raph,a ll four boys have kind of high school athlete-like builds. Nothing over the top like say... the Michael Bay films. Basically, I can believe that these guys can do the ninja-like agility more than I can with the overly buff, giant versions that have been used.

When ti comes to the mutants, the animators get creative. There are so many unique mutant sin the show. Snakeweed, Spyder Bytez, Dogpound, Fishface, Splinter, Leatherhead, all the mutants have their own unique design that work for them. They also know when to get creepy, like with the mish-mash... thing... from The Alien Agenda. That was disturbing as heck, and it’s not even the creepiest one they come up with! Oh just wait for next season, haha... but yeah, mutant designs are great!

Now the settings are kinda... meh. I mean The Lair is cool, but it’s mostly just either the the Lair, the New York landscape, Shredder’s lair, or an empty warehouse most of the time. It’s nothing really... creative I guess is the right word. We also don’t explore new York much, mainly settling on skyscrapers as the setting. It’s understandable why since New York is the setting, but still it juts gets kind of boring after awhile. But for what it’s worth, they do try to do creative stuff when they can like in Baxter’s Gambit with the black and white screens.

And of course, there is the fight choreography. As I said before, it’s fantastic. All the fights in the series are fluid, well-paced, and fun to watch. If I had to give some examples off the top of my head, there’s New Friend, Old Enemy when the Turtles rise form the water. The mix of black and red is absolutely perfect. There’s the first fight against Shredder in The Gauntlet which despite the boys getting constantly knocked down by Shredder, they give it everything they have. It looks freakin’ badass. Then there is any Splinter fight scene. There’s not many, only about three in this season (It Came From the Depths, I, Monster, The Showdown two-parter) but they are excellent. I said that the Splinter vs Shredder fight was the best and nothing after ever topped it, right?

So yeah, if I was going to rate the animation on a 1-5 scale...

Rating: 4.5

Voice Acting

The series was voice directed by veteran Andrea Romano, so you know that the performances are gonna be solid. As far as casting goes, they got in a LOT of big names both in the voice acting industry and out. There’s of course Greg Cipes (Mikey), Mae Whitman (April), Nolan North (The Kraang), Kevin Michael Richardson (Shredder), Phil Lamar (Stockman), Clancy Brown (Dogpound) and of course Rob Paulsen (Donnie). Rob’s casting was actually a pretty big deal as along with being a veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, he was also the voice of Raph in the original 80′s show. So getting him back even as a different Turtle? Yeah... that’s pretty big!

Then you have more well-known on-screen actors, like Sean Astin (Raph) and Kelly Hu (Karai). Now they both actually have very solid VA-ing careers and still do voice work to this day, but if you’re say... a Lord of the Rings fan and known Sean only for that, this may entice you. The newcomers to voice acting are Jason Biggs (Leo), Christian Lanz (Fishface) and Hoon Lee (Splinter). There’s also guest actors like Jeffrey Combs (The Rat King) and Roseanne Barr (Kraang Prime), so a solid mix of professional voice actors and a few newcomers. The result?

The voice acting is fantastic. Like even as the show goes on and you see more and more mixed reception, the acting is NEVER one of the things you see go down. If anything, it is one aspect that continues to improve episode by episode. All four Turtle actors do an amazing job conveying their characters, able to go from comedic to dramatic in a split second. I’d say that out of everyone, Hoon Lee impressed me the most since he’s the only one aside from Biggs (and... e’ll talk more about him next season) I hadn’t heard of. And he gave a very solid performance. Everyone did. Even for just minor characters like Pulverizer (Roger Craig Smith... yes Pulverizer is Sonic the Hedgehog) or some of the villains like Snake (Danny Jacob who voices King Julian outside the Madacgascar films) or Spyder Byte (Lewis Black), they convey their characters perfectly. Like Black’s character is a rude slob you want to punch, and he does such a great job in making you feel that way!

So yeah, you got a strong cast, a veteran voice director, and a crazy group of characters for them to voice. All of them nail it. And just wait, this is only the S1 cast. Wait until you see who they bring in for future seasons!

Rating: 5

Characters

As I said in Part One, this is the best part of the show. I know a lot of people who fell off TMNT as it went on, but still kept interest because of the characters. To me, this is always the most important part of storytelling. Yes having a good story itself is important, but a good story will be nothing without likeable characters to move it. A cliched story may be annoying, but if the characters are likeable and strongly written, people are usually more forgiving because they care about the cast. This show is no different. To this day, the thing that kept me attracted to the show was the Turtles, April, and Splinter and what they’d get into next. All of them have strong personalities that get you to care about them, or at least see where they’re coming from. I could gush about each of them one by one... so on we go!

Lets start with Mikey because he is the least developed this season... and most of the show sadly. I’d even say that his focus episodes dropped massively in quality after this season as he was forced mroe and mroe into the comedy relief/designated victim/little brother role. It’s a shame too because this season did an excellent job in balancing out both the comedy relief and the more innocent side of the character. Mikey is the most naive of the brothers and the least serious among them. It’s not to say that he can’t take situations seriously, it’s just that he’s more easy-going and fun-seeking than the other three. His biggest problem is his inability to focus and goof around, which has caused several instances of accidentally setting off alarms. 

While not the best of the four, Mikey is a talented ninja and the best at going off just raw talent. He doesn’t think through fighting moves, he can just go with the flow and be perfectly fine. His strongest skill hpwever is his empathy and desire to make friends. While this has backfired on him before, like in New Friend, Old Enemy, where Bradford used and then kidnapped him for a trap, Mikey is incredibly non-judgemental and open-minded. It’s why he could befriend Leatherhead so easily in It Came From the Depths. He saw that the Kraang were attacking him and decided to simply talk to him like he would anyone else, even pointing out that maybe LH only acts like a monster because that’s how he was treated for so long. Mikey may not be book smart, but he’s very emotionally smart. As I said, Mikey’s character sadly devolves into annoying comedy relief as it goes, but for this season he had a strong start. No meaningful development aside form slow progression on paying attention (Parasitica being the final payoff... also if you’re afraid of wasps then avoid that one), but his character is strong enough to carry him through.

Raph is the brawler of the group and the quickest to anger. Hie’s the strongest fighter and incredibly confident... unless he has to deal with bugs. His biggest flaws are his both his anger and his jealous towards Leo. The first half of the season has Raph frequently back-talks and argue with Leo all because he got made the leader over him. For example, in Never Say Xever he is unhappy with Leo using mercy because bad guys don’t deserve it. Leo does eventually use the more Raph-like approach when kidnapping Bradford... and it fails miserably. What saves them? Leo’s act of mercy causing the Purple Dragon to repay the favor sand saving their shells. While he does slowly get a better grip on his temper once Splinter tells him of how dangerous it can be (Turtle Temper), it takes until New Girl in Town for him to overcome his jealousy once and for all. It’s very well done too by having Leo finally get fed up and give Raph what he wanted. Ultimately Raph can’t handle the pressure once things get rough and comes to understand both what Leo deals with essentially every day and how his own actions made it worst.

After that, Raph becomes the perfect example of a follower. While he’s still question Leo, he has good reasons for it, like everything involving Karai for instance. But he actively looks out for him more and stops mocking him outside just brotherly messing around. And even during that point, while Raph could be an insensitive jerk, he does love his family and will make amends when he goes too far. When he mocked Mikey wanting friends in New Friend, Old Enemy, at the end he comforted him after the fallout with Bradford and assured him that he’s a good person. When he mocked Donnie’s crush in Operation: Break-Out and led to Donnie going on a mission solo, Raph was worried about him, realized that he way too harsh, and tried to make amends by giving Donnie all the credit once back home. While Raph doesn’t conquer his temper completely, over the season he does get a better grip on it, can admit when he goes to far, became overall nicer, and by the end is a much better person. It was good stuff!

Donnie is probably the most... divisive of the four. Not because he’s badly written per say. He’s intelligent, but also high-strung and prone to stress. He’s not a bad ninja, but because of his focus on machinery, he’s the least skilled. The two episodes that focus on this are Metalhead and Monkey Brains. Metalhead has an admittedly meh plot where he gets sick of his bo staff and therefore creates the robot Metalhead to act as his weapon. The ‘meh’ plot is IDT it addresses the message of ‘the weapon doesn't make you a good fighter, you do’ very well, ut still Monkey Brains does a much better job, demonstrating Donnie’s tendency to over-think everything and how that is detrimental in a fight. By the climax, he’s able to get himself to rely on his instincts against a mind-reading villain (we’ll get to him later) and kick his ass.

Then there’s The Pulverizer episodes, which are the most interesting but sadly don’t go anywhere after this season. It has Donnie accept Pulverizer as an apprentice of sort, mainly so the kid can have some form of self-defense if he’s going to put himself into danger. It’s ultimately ineffective, but mainly because of Pulverizer wanting to rush and not listening properly. The most important part though is Splinter telling Donnie that by doing this, anything that happens involving him after will be his responsibility. Which we see in The Pulverizer Returns where Pulverizer decides ot let the Foot mutate him to gain awesome mutant powers. Donnie tries to save him, but sadly he fails and Pulverier.. it’s not pretty. While Donnie does still save him after, he’s left with the guilt of ultimately failing his student. I’ll go into mroe about how horribly the writers wasted this next season, but here? It was interesting to give Donnie this plot since you’d expect t to go to say... Leo. I think it really worked for what it was worth and let us see a side of Donnie outside just being the smart one.

So with that said, why is he divisive? Well... it’s because another major part of his character is his crush on April. He doe snot... manage it well, to say the least. He is rather, well... stupid and kinda creepy with it. But I do want to point this out. Yes, it is annoying but I think there’s a good reason for it: he’s an awkward teenager. Yeah him asking her to feel his goosebumps (Metalhead), accidentally calling her ‘his April (The Gauntlet), accidentally saying awkward things when she acknowledges him (pick any episode) are incredibly facepalm worthy at best. And yeah, they should have done better setup than have him just find her pretty when seeing her once. However he does genuinely care about her and int he premiere, he was driven more because he saw an innocent girl scared and was unable to help than his newfound crush. The feelings are genuine and Donnie being awkward about is because... well, Donnie is awkward in general and he does slowly improve. Honestly I’ll have mroe to discuss about this next season cause haha... boy is THAT a clusterfuck. But ultimately while Donnie can be annoying, overall it’s pretty bearable and he has plenty of positive traits to balance it out.

Finally, we get Leo. He’s the group leader, but unlike the past series where he pretty much grew up with that role, here he gets the role halfway through the first episode. He starts as a goody-two-shoes with a mischievous side who had a very basic view of leadership. He see sit as a position of authority, greatness, and unstoppable. That’s not to say that he doesn’t take the role seriously, he does. He devises plans, does his best to keep his brothers focused, and frequently asks Splinter for advice on how to best do things. But he also frequently uses cheesy one-liners and does his best to be as over the top with his heroics as possible, thinking it’s cool when it isn’t. It gives Leo a more naive feel to him, someone who is serious but also is still a teenaged kid who has a lot of learning to do.

The pressures of leadership are Leo’s primary focus as a character. While he has some doubts, the biggest blow to his confident comes in The Gauntlet after there massive defeat against Shredder. The following episode has him unsure of if he can properly lead the team and feeling guilty when things go wrong. But the ultimate meltdown comes in New Girl in Town where Raph finally pushes him too hard and he quits. He’s realized at this point that leadership is not like it is on TV. it’s unforgiving, stressful, and you’re gonna be the one facing the consequences when things go wrong. His difficulty dealing with this is what attracts him to Karai. She’s fun, does whatever she wants, and doesn’t care about the rules. She offers him a form of freedom that he hasn’t had before. It’s why he tries to get her to change sides, he doesn’t want her to be an enemy. Unfortunately things end badly between them this season, but you can see where Leo is coming form no matter how naive he was about it.

Leo evolved a lot over the season. He went from a naive teenager who quoted old TV episodes to a serious, determined leader who was willing to do whatever it took to get his team through. He never quit being optimistic and he does still have his stress with leadership later down the road. But the season is about him easing not the role an understanding the weight of that role. It’s very easy to feel bad for Leo because he tries incredibly hard, but he doesn’t receive a lot of gratitude or payoff, and he just has to accept that. By the finale, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure both success and his family's safety... something that becomes a bit of an issue in later seasons (looking at you Space Arc). I’d say that because we got to see Leo actually having to come to terms with the role, it makes this imo the best version of the character. We actually have to see him accept the role and how he hate show it limits his free time, something IDT the past versions really did. And all while having this dorky, idealistic side that keeps him likable and all the mroe relateable. Overall, I’d say that the leader in blue was handeled very well here!

April is my favorite character in the show, but her writing this season has some issues. Now as a character herself, she’s perfectly fine. She’s an independent sixteen year old and incredibly proactive. Whenever she finds info on the Kraang or about her dad, she looks into it. When everyone is ready to quit in Panic in the Sewers, she’s the only one who actively tries to do something and get everyone else to not give up. When Splinter offers to train her, she accepts it and we see bits and pieces of her progressing. But it’s done realistically as demonstrated in Karai’s Vendetta where it’s very clear that April is nowhere near her level. But it also demonstrates her determination and how she never gives up, getting back up after every blow and at east trying to put up a fight. While she’s forced to sit most things out and does on occasion get kidnapped, she still tries to be an asset and does very well as an intel gatherer. She’s also incredibly stubborn and can get in over her head without thinking things through, like in Metalhead and the finale episodes. But ultimately her proactiveness and need to take action are her strongest traits and what makes her a useful ally.

The issues with April are in the writing of the plot. I already mentioned how the early episodes could have done mroe in having her ease into the group. There’s also after Karai’s Vendetta where despite living with the guys, we don’t see her until the penultimate episode. We see her express hating it in that episode, but we don’t get to explore the fallout of her losing her normal life. In fact we...d on’t see April’s life outside Turtle stuff until next season, and even then not by much. Now of course the show is about the Turtles and you gotta keep the focus on them, but still we get a bunch of ‘show, don’t tell’ problems with April. We’re told things like she’s living with her aunt, but we never see them interact. Hell, IDT April’s aunt is ever mentioned outside the pilot. We also find out that April is the Kraang’s target... and we never see how she feels about it. If she’s scared, if she’s worried. We can assume that she has some stress about it, as indicated when she vents in Karai’s Vendetta, but little to no showcase of how she feels about it. Mind you we don’t with the Turtles either, but still. Still, overall April is a solid character imo.

That brings us to Master Splinter, the best written character by far. Splinter is the perfect balance of a mentor and a father. He’s firm, strict, and not afraid to dish out punishment when it’s necessary. But he’s also gentle, patient, knows how to give his sons proper guidance, and when to let them figure things out for themselves. He’s also snarky as Hell, so it’s good that he has a sense of humor. He’s also a flawed person. He lost his wife and daughter because of hat is essentially a sibling rivalry that went WAAAY too far and his own inability to control himself worsened things. He lost his family and then his humanity, ending his life as Hamato Yoshi. Since then, he’s hidden int he sewers and tried to focus his energy on raising and protecting his sons. It makes letting them go topside difficult, as it is for any parent whose children are growing up. He can make mistakes, like letting his fear control him and press his sons far too hard in Panic in the Sewers, but he can admit those mistakes.

Splintr’s largest plot in the season, outside mentoring the boys and April, is accepting his mutant status and overcoming his fears. Many epsiodes such as the premiere, Turtle Temper, Monkey Brains, Panic in the Sewers and the finale show how much pain the rat master carries and while he’s move don to a new life, it still haunts him. The episode that best displays this however is a filler episode called I, Monster. In it we get this version of the Rat King, the mind reading villain from Monkey Brains, who uses his power to swarm New York. When he senses Splinter, he proceeds to try and brainwash him too. The episode does an amazing job at showcasing all of Splinter’s fears. The boys outgrowing him, his past tragedies, ending up alone, and the Rat King slowly uses all of it to break him down. Splinter fights back, but the thought of the boys moving on without him is ultimately what defeats him until the boys remind him of who he is. He is Hamato Yoshi, Master Splinter, but most of all their father. They need him and always will. Which lets Splinter overcome the mind control and essentially Airbend Rat King through a wall. It was awesome~

Despite that episode being filler, it’s one of the season's best. It is a strong character exploration piece about a father who has gone through Hell and is faced with the fear of his kids not needing him. It is very relatable and makes Splinter all the mroe sympathetic. And we see Splinter truly embody who he is now when faced with the Shredder again and upon learning that his daughter had survived. He went into full rat mode and gave Shredder the beating that we all wanted. And the season ends on a perfect lead in for the next one. Splinter now knows that Karai is his daughter while she was raised to hate him. It’s any parent’s worst nightmare. He now has to deal with that revelation as well as how he’s going to break it to his students. Splinter has some solid growth int he season, something that a lot of mentor figures in cartoons don’t get, and it’s done perfectly. He has his flaws, but is still a strong father figure to his sons. Add that to Hoon Lee’s absolute perfect performance and you have what is in my opinion the best incarnation of Master Splinter in any TMNT series.

While the main cast is strong, the supporting cast and villains are... not so much. There isn’t really a supporting cast honestly. The best we have is Leatherhead, who is awesome. He’s a damaged character. One treated like a monster and tortured for who knows how long. It left him damaged and prone to trauma-induced outbursts. But he is a good person who knows that what happened to him was wrong and can be quite sweet when given the chance. He didn’t have to save humanity, especially since most would scream and run if they saw him, but he didn’t want anyone else to endure what he did. It’s best exemplified with his sacrifice in TCRI, going back to Dimension X and knowing fully well what’ll await him there. But he does so to save his friends and give them the chance to save the Earth. LH is freakin’ badass and I love him!

The villains though are... kinda boring. Most of the mutants, while the designs are cool, are incredibly one-note. Not all of them, like the Rat King is so dramatic and twisted and his VA does such a great job with the delivery that you both love him and want to strangle him. But others like Snakeweed or Spyder Bytez are just... well, evil for the heck of it. The Kraang are the worst though since at least the mutants are only in like one or two episodes. The Kraang are annoying as HELL. They can be dangerous but the redundant speech pattern and all fo them having essentially the same personality (aka none) is so... boring. Min you in Season 4 we kind of get an explanation to why, but it doesn't change how grating they can get. That being said in large groups they can be dangerous and with things like the Technodrome, they’re not to be taken lightly. Still, GAH I HATE THEM!!!

The Foot are somewhat better. Stockman is pathetic and remains pathetic throughout the entire series. Bradford is a pompous asshole. Xever is a little more interesting in that he kidn of was forced to work for Shredder or go to jail... but sadly after that reveal, he reverts to typical henchman status sadly. Shredder is the Big Bad and a no-nonsense leader. He has no empathy and is more than willing to inflict physical violence on his troops if they fail him. He even threatens to harm Karai, his daughter (kinda...) if she questions him. He is a very single minded perosn, his only goal beign to kill Splinter and his students by any means necessary. Hell. he only starts caring about the Kraang when he realizes that they can advance his goal, but has zero issues letting humanity fall to them. Oh, and there’s his glee when Karai tries to kill Splinter. WOrst? THis isn’t even the worst that he does int he show. Oh just wait for next season. JUST WAIT. Otherwise though, while a powerful fighter, he just mopes in his throne for most of the season, but Richardson’s badass voice acting was nice to hear.

The most interesting villain by far is Karai, and Thank God for it. While Leo is a good-good, Karai is a bad girl. She’s laid-back, does what she wants her way, and doesn’t play by the rules. She’s introduced as a competent fighter, but unlike the other Foot she’s more interesting in talking to the Turtles than killing them. I think she did become genuinely fond of Leo, but ultimately she’s going to be loyal to what she thinks is her family. She also started off realizing that there were bugger problems, like the Kraang, that required more attention over the vendetta until the Turtles betrayed her. Then she pretty much went ‘screw it’ and decided to go with the vendetta, which only got worst when she met Splinter for the first time. Still, ti was nice to have someone actually question Shredder and try to be sensible. She’s definite the most well-written of the villains, and the revelation about her being Splinter’s daughter means that there is MUCH more to come for her. Like I said, just wait for Season 2!

Okay, this section was a LOOOT longer than I thought. So I’ll just finish by saying that the villains aren't all that interesting, but the main characters are very well written. They have strong personalities, plenty of room for growth, and their interactions always gel really well. Very well done!

Rating: 4.5

Story

The main plot threads are the Turtles against the Foot, and the Turtles feud against the Kraang. All with some subplots, like Pulverizer and the mutant of the week stuff, and filler episodes thrown in. I say that the plots are handled very well. For example well go with... say two or three Kraang-centric episodes. Then we may or may not get a filler episode before shifting over to the Foot Clan for awhile. It never felt like we got smothered with one faction over the other, which is good. The plots also slowly intertwined and it felt like they came together at just the right time during the last six or so episodes. Hence hwy the finale worked so well, giving some kind of payoff on both ends.

Many of the episodes were very basic and outright bizarre. Like Cockroach Terminator having a mutant cockroach tr to murder Raph... it’s kinda gross, but entertaining! Every episode normally has at least something small that’ll carry over as the story goes along. For example, Donnie built Metalhead in... well, Metalhead and brought him back in the finale, plus it helped him learn mroe about Kraang tech. In Baxter’s Gambit, April finally gets her own weapon and she attempts to use it in Karai’s Vendetta. The episodes all play a part, even if just minor, in the larger narrative and I feel some of the later seasons kind of slacked on that. This season had a perfect balance.

That’s not to say that it was perfect. Like at the end of TCRI, we find out that April is the Kraang’s true target which makes us wonder why... and the next episode is about Raph’s fear of bugs! So TCRI was episode 17, we don’t even mention this fact again until Karai’s Vendetta, which is episode 21. Five episodes later, and even then we get one tiny hint (April doesn't get damaged by mutagen-laced water) and... that’s it. The.show has a bit of an issue with not exploring fallout, which is weird because Panic in the Sewers did and id it excellently. Maybe it’s because they have to make episodes to sell toys, IDK. It doesn't do too much damage, but it makes it feel like they both wasted character opportunities and like there’s something missing. But at the very least the episodes remain entertaining, so there’s that.

Rating: 4

Final Thoughts

You know what I like about this series and why I ran it above the other ones? Well it does something that I feel that the previous incarnations lacked: The Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles felt like teenagers. They felt like a bunch of kids truly entering the world for the first time. They screw up, they have problems to overcome, and they don’t always learn it immideatly. Like their cockiness is a frequent pain in the shell for example. But the reason that I like pretty much all of the episodes aside form Episode 11 is because it feels like we’re watching a group of kids truly starting to grow up and learn about how rough life can be. How they have to change, how they have to fix their mistakes, and just become better people. As a nineteen year old who was just staring to figure my life out, when I started the show, that drew me in. I related to these characters so much. I felt like I was growing with them and coming to understand who I was due to it.

It felt really nostalgic to go back over this season. Imo, it still holds up big time. It’s funny, action-heavy, well animated, and the characters are just as enjoyable as I remember. Would I call this the best season? Hmm... maybe. I still have three more to look over. But it was a really fun ride and it got TMNT 2012 off on the right track. Can they stay on it during Season 2? Come back next week, and we shall see!

[whitelippedviper]

Pop Comics #5: Astonishing X-men #3. Is Clarity Enough?

This article originally appeared on my patreon, which you can subscribe to for as little as one dollar a month.  As a patreon subscriber you get to see these and other articles sometimes weeks before everyone else.  Subscribe now.

Pop Comics is a series of articles I am doing on the most popular comics according to Comixology’s weekly top 10 list.  This week I am writing about Astonishing X-men #3 which is written by Charles Soule, penciled by Ed McGuinness, inked by Mark Morales, colored by Jason Keith and lettered by Clayton Cowles. Astonishing X-men #3 is basically like...a game of Heroclix between The Shadow King and Professor X.  The comic starts out with Old Man Logan climbing through an icy astral plane whining about how in an alternate past he killed all the x-men yada yada.  There’s a side game where Professor X is trying to get Logan to something or other, without the shadow king knowing.

Meanwhile in, London(you can tell because it says so you see)…

Psylocke, Bishop, and Angel are protecting the X-men in the astral plane from alarmed local authorities.  Of course the London police are pretty concerned about the X-men being there--which, I’m thinking of all of the other times the X-men have fought some huge battle or tried to do similar things without the authorities ever really showing up--and so...good on the London police.  Eventually the x-men send Angel out to try and calm the situation, but the police shoot him with a razor net or something.  Angel starts to wig out but eventually refrains from doing anything; instead he offers to do some kind of hostage swap where an officer goes down to the roof and he goes into their helicopter--which doesn’t seem like a good idea on anyone’s part.  And of course, it turns out it’s not.  As Logan is taken over by the Shadow King, awakens, and promptly kills the police officer who has came down to talk to aforementioned x-folk.  The comic of course ends at this moment.

That’s probably the strongest image from the comic as well.  It really captures the distress of the dude, and the sort of dark elf appearance of possessed Logan kind of accentuates the “uh oh-ness” of the moment to a sufficient degree. On the whole, it’s a solid comic to be honest.  Everything that happens in it is very clear.  You are told very overtly who people are, where they are, and why they are there, so even though I am reading this in issue #3 I know exactly what is happening. In that way it is a very functional workmanlike comic that meets the quota of being a thing that came out this month and appropriately updates the story of your favorite characters. But let’s say you weren’t an X-men fan.  And just wanted to read a good comic--I don’t know that it is that.  McGuinness figures aren’t that dynamic to look at, and kind of just look like pictures of toys more than they do flamboyant characters locked into an extradimensional fight that defies the laws of reality.  I think X-men: Heroclix is an adequate description of how all of the characters look.  Which again, is fine.  But I mean if you’re an adult, maybe you should be buying those 3A figures instead?  Just sayin. I think the main thing that was interesting to me reading this, was the parts with Logan in the astral plane which are meant to take place in a very snowy cold creation of Logan’s imagination.

The story tells us that Logan has made this place for him to traverse because he likes pain.  So in theory this is like the worst snow that Logan can imagine.  His idea of painful snow.  But the depiction of this is very lacking.  There’s this blue gradient easing you from the whites to the blues in the sky sometimes into black, which is very soft.  And while it denotes coolness, does it really hit as COLD?  Add to this, there aren’t very many snowflakes.  Logan himself is not even bundled up, just wearing a normal jacket, bare hands, exposed white tank top, some jeans.  The choice to keep Logan in this costume undercuts one’s ability to visually apprehend this as a cold place, because dude isn’t even zipping up his jacket.  And then there aren’t many physical signs on Logan himself that he is in snow.  His hands look frostbitten a little bit on the very first page, but never after that. None of the snow is really sticking to him.  And then there’s not much of an attempt to show the scale of him trudging through an endless snowy battle towards a fortress in the distance.  As an idea that is very epic and if I just told you it was a snow comic where Logan killed his way through all of his old enemies on the astral plane--I think you’d picture a really rad comic--but there’s nothing like that in this. Compare all of that to Barry Windsor-Smith’s snow in Weapon X:

Which, it’s not fair to compare anyone to Barry Windsor-Smith in comics(though it is worth using his work as a measuring stick to ask for more from artists)--but I think there are some basic principles here that if they had been implemented would have really turned up the volume on Astonishing X-men #3.  First of all, note how much snow is flurrying around on the BWS pages.  There’s not even space for a colorist to run in here and drop gradients.  What is the point?  The snow has a physical force in these panels that impacts the figure within it.  The environment is impacting what it contains, which creates a much richer sensation as a reader because you have to recognize the impact of this environmental force--wherein the astonishing pages you an just glance over it.  Look at how the snow is stuck into Weapon-X’s hair.  And look how it freezes to his face.  This is the same character! And we are led to believe in Astonishing X-men #3 that that snow is the worst that the same character as BWS has drawn can imagine??  It defies belief.  

The great thing about setting something in the astral plane is that the rules of reality don’t have to apply.  So everything can be extreme.  Everything is the mental dream or nightmare of the image. The most insane unreality.  So to set something there, and then to be so boring that you don’t even draw more than a few snowflakes is insane.  There are more snowflakes on these two pages in Weapon X than the whole of Astonishing X-men #3.  It’s all just lumped into the colorist’s hands, and I know we live in an age where colorists are considered so important--but I don’t think that the best artists in comics are worse than the average colorist--so I don’t get where the trust comes from.  The artist should be leading the way not laying back in the cut letting the book live or die based upon the colorist ability to finish up the environments.  There are very few colorists who have that level of skill.  Like I could see if you were working with Dean White who was going to paint the whole thing for you--but in this case it seems lazy and rushed.  Which is crazy--because if you rock it correctly, snow issues should be pretty low on the workload! You can leave so much white!  Also--having the word balloons a whiter white than a lot of the snow...doesn’t help visually! These problems with the setting continue into the London parts of the book, which...don’t really evoke London.  I mean...I assume the buildings that are drawn there are actually there.  But the buildings don’t look any different than NYC, and the London Police and their superiors don��t really have any kind visual signifiers that make you think they are not American.  Which is fine.  It just means as a reader, that aspect of the book has no weight to it.  So what we’re left with in this book is everything is hinging upon how dramatic the writing can pit the stakes between these action figures. My other thing, which is a more general taste thing is “floaty panels”--they are all over here:

I call them floaty panels, where panels are just stacked randomly over each other and then over a bottom image, and then somehow you call it a day, and say “composition”.  To me it’s goofy.  Like look at the above page.  The most background image is Angel starting to freak out, and the panels are basically placed down across his wing.  That image is kind of the dramatic underpinning of the whole page--so from a logical point of view   it make sense to then visually have that actualized.  But all you’ve really done is covered up art and crowded out the most dramatic moment.  It’s a taste thing, but I feel that if this page had been on a grid, and the last long rectangular panel was just this unclouded image of Angel about to go nuts--it would have hit harder.  Also there’s never any attempt to try and make Angel flying around these helicopters look cool.  He literally could still be standing on the building in that first panel and you wouldn’t bat an eye.  The bald dude literally looks like he’s just peering out his office door telling people to get to work.  But then you look at it, and are like “where would you even show the cool panel of Angel hovering dangerously between these armed helicopters? There’s no space?”  

Also...I don’t get it...the net cuts his wing?  Perhaps showing this dangerous knived net would have helped?  Or just have someone use a gun?  Maybe it’s because the story needs a reason for Angel to go crazy, so the net has to cut him?  The way that it’s done, it’s the same problem as the Logan stuff in the Astral plane; you are being told by the story that there are stakes, but those stakes aren’t really being shown with any kind of weight.  And weightless stakes are not the best thing when you are talking about stories largely about characters that everyone knows can’t really progress beyond their static movie IP stage. But again.  This isn’t a bad comic.  It’s just very focused on clarity and the mission of conveying a plot. a plot.  Without offering much beyond that.  Which I think a lot of editors in comics see as a goal to shoot for.  Philosophically I think clarity for its own sake is just treading water. Just because you can see something doesn’t mean it’s worth looking at.  Rather than clarity, I think value should be a larger goal.  How do I create value in you looking at this thing?  Because you can have two images of a chair, right?  But which one is the one you are drawn to? Is it the one that just looks exactly like a chair?  Or is it the one that makes you really examine the chair, and think about your own internal image of the chair to compare?  And I mean there are an infinity of things that can spin out of a chair.  And that’s just a chair.  Surely the astral idea of snow from the perspective of a man like Logan can be more interesting than even a chair.  Or we should at least ask for it to be.

[kuh-boose]

eeeey!!! Time to share about my OCs some more! Next in the line up is Kelli Amelia Belrose! Kelli is honestly two separate characters. Her initial appearance in my head began with a little story I started in class in high school because I was bored and have not touched in years now. Initial Kelli, who we’ll call Kelly (with a y), is internally nervous and externally snarky, and has an incredibly dry and kind of self-deprecating sense of humor when she’s not being kind of distant. She’s always frustrated with her situation and has a voice in her head name Aries who doesn’t help. And she’s a badass that’s rather confused and annoyed that she’s a badass. She swears quite a bit.  Current Kelli is placed into the DC universe, particularly with the Red Hood and Batman. This Kelli is far sweeter, almost stubbornly so, despite having undergone a bit more trauma. She’s the one I’m gonna talk about in this post. 

Kelli was born to Coralynn (Cory) Belrose. Before we get to Kelli I wanna take some time on Cory. Cory grew up in France with a devoted father and an absent mother. Her father was military and it led to her moving about quite a bit, though Cory generally didn’t mind. Her father was diligent on six things: kindness, education, patience, discipline, preparedness, and courage. These would be the same things that Cory would desperately instill into her daughter. Cory grew up to be a number of things as it turned out. She simply wasn’t satisfied with just one, but eventually narrowed down to first a ballerina, then into a neuroscientist when she realized ballet couldn’t be maintained into her old age. 

I wish I could say Kelli was a child born of a deep love between two people, but... I’m too twisted for that. 

Cory became the target for, honestly, a man I don’t have a name for yet so we’ll just call him Victor because why not. Victor is... well, incredibly paranoid and his goal in a world filled with super people and super monsters and threats from space and other dimensions was to create a super thing of his own. His plan? Create a human weapon. After years of amassing supplies and staff, he kidnapped some of--what he thought--were the best humans humanity had to offer. Coralynn fit that description. She was taken, impregnated through artificial means, and then gave birth to Kelli. Initially, Kelli was one of the “guinea pigs:” children who were born within the facility and were simply beta testing for the methods they would use on the actual products. This allowed Kelli to remain with her mother in what was essentially an apartment-like prison cell. Kelli was taken, often daily, for experiments and testing. On these trips out of their cell, Coralynn would get Kelli to observe everything she could and report back to her, despite how much it hurt for them to take her (the for the first few months she tried to fight it, but that only resulted in a ton of beatings and tranquilization). By the time Kelli was four Coralynn managed to get them out, though by the time she got to safety and blew the whistle on Victor and his assistants, the facility was destroyed, hundred of charred bodies found at the site. 

Buckle up kids, it only gets worse. 

Coralynn got five years with her daughter. They lived in Paris, moved into different places around the city frequently since Coralynn never really trusted anything, even with personal protection provided by the government. But they loved each other so much. After a rough adjustment period to being back on the outside, Coralynn made certain her daughter had experiences and taught her to be kind and smart and strong and to see hope when everything was all darkness and despair. She kept fresh flowers and plants in their home, read to Kelli every night and climbed trees with her in the park and went to bakeries in the mornings to share the cookies she helped Kelli make the night before with the bakers. They visited libraries frequently and visited Kelli’s grandfather when they could manage it. Cory even maintained a ritual they had in the cell: dancing. 

They had a kind of content bliss like this for five years. One evening Coralynn and one of the personal guards was shot in an alleyway by some men in suits. Kelli tried to pull her mom up until the other guard pulled her away and got her to safety. Despite protective custody, she was kidnapped during a transport and found herself back under Victor's thumb. Victor began using what was left of his guinea pigs and desperately trying to turn them into the final product he had dreamed of for years. Kelli spent years being tortured through cruel experiments and attempts at psychological molding but clung fiercely to the memories and lessons of her mother. These experiments pushed her closer towards the weapon Victor wanted, strong, quick reflexes and stunningly agile, but not significantly past that of a human at peak condition. And for all his efforts Kelli wasn’t budging in her willingness for cruelty (at this point it was mostly out of spite and luckily there was one or two of the staff that managed to be at least little decent to her and encourage her decisions). 

The experiments turned her skin and hair white, drained the color from her eyes from brown to a pale gray, and strengthened her muscles, teeth, bones, and skin. Still, it wasn’t enough. Finally, Victor managed, through a full year process, to give her something no one else had, and that he himself didn’t fully understand (he would never admit he used alien tech to do it). Kelli was “outfitted” with glands (and a chemically changed body that would respond to them) that would produce god-only-knows-what. This mysterious stuff would “charge” Kelli, making her always kind of prominent purple veins glow and produce some kind of energy. In a state when it’s active Kelli is stronger, faster, smarter, and more ruthless, but she overheats quickly, to the point where her skin will begin to burn from the outside in. Luckily it heals relatively quickly but is still excruciating and if she uses it too much she’s out for days in a feverish and unconscious state. No one is sure if it can kill or her not.

All the while, Kelli’s grandfather (Coralynn’s father) is still looking for her, long after everyone else has given up. Eventually, he released a number of the videos of Kelli and her mother had made together on their adventures around Paris, desperate to renew public interest in finding her. Victor the asshole strikes again and poor grandpa dies of a “heart attack” while trying to gather some old acquaintances in Gotham city who can “find just about anyone.” This brings about the attention of the world’s greatest detective, AKA Batman, AKA the ONLY DC SUPERHERO THAT MATTERS (besides all his kids and like, wonder woman). After, y’know, doin what batman does, he and Robin find and take out Victor's operation (though Vic manages to escape with a good chunk of data), with Kelli being the only survivor left, unbeknownst to her (harming the others was a frequent threat used on her). It’s actually Robin (Jason Todd) who finds her in her cell near death after a particularly harsh test and actually convinces Batman to let her stay with them while she recovers. By this time she’s seventeen.

It’s with Jason and Alfred that she kind of reacclimates to being treated like a person, but it doesn’t last all that long before Bruce, with Kelli’s permission, admits her to an organization that will study and try to cure her. As is always the case in comics, that organization turns out to have some not so great backings and Kelli almost finds herself in hot water again, except she escapes this time, only to return to Gotham find out that Jason has died. She kind of just leaves then, a bit numb that her first friend since her kidnapping is just gone she just wanders the world a bit. In true Kelli fashion, she offers help where ever it’s asked of her and this eventually turns into a life of heroism, albeit a very humble and almost sneaky version since she tends to keep a low profile with it.

 Eventually, she meets three important people in her life. Vera Martin, and older woman with an elegant face and a stocky frame who refuses to share her real last name but is an older woman who grew up in the countryside of who-knows-where and eventually fell into mercenary work. At least that’s as far as anyone can guess. She tends to be pretty briefly spoken, but she keeps a locket of a man and a young woman around her neck and is very, very, very fiercely protective of Kelli. All that Kelli cares about is that Vera is very much a good person with compassion and wisdom that comes from years of experience. Vera tends to smack Kelli when she does something reckless and gets hurt, but bandages her up with the precision of a full medical staff. She also kisses Kelli’s forehead when Kelli is asleep and provides some support of particularly tough missions. She gives Kelli classic books every holiday, no matter how little, and writes her own commentary in the margins. They’re usually very snarky and clever jokes. The two others are Joseph and Harold. Harold is an active mercenary, and Joseph is his boyfr--tech support. Harold is sweet pea with a mean face, and he uses it to his advantage. As talented of a mercenary as he is, he has a soft spot for kids and kind of wishes he had gone on to be a teacher instead but opts for making children’s books in his spare time under a pen name. Kelli loves making him baked goods and reading his books and just generally being in his company. Joseph is a mastermind at anything, honestly, and he loves having Kelli test his armor, weapons, and disguises (which come in handy since Kelli stands out quite a bit otherwise). Vera tends to get kind of annoyed and insist Kelli looks fine as she is, to which Joseph will reply “I think so too, hon, but to the populous at large, she’s Frosty the Undead.” 

Vera tends to “accidentally” break a lot of Joseph’s things when he’s not looking. 

But that’s okay because Joseph replaces all of her black cloths with pastels. (Harold switches them back because, tbh, Vera kind of scares him.)

Woah! With that over lets get some fun stuff in here:

Kelli. Loves. Strawberry. Strawberry cake, icing, milk, jelly, milkshakes. You name it. If it’s strawberry, she loves it. She even has a strawberry print shirt and raincoat. 

She likes sleeping in “cramped” spaces. Under beds, in cabinets, boxes, crates, etc.

Despite liking cramped spaces, Kelli still gets a bit panicky being confined to places like room. The easiest way to freak her out are putting her in a public shower setting or having her lay back flat on a table. She can manage it for a little bit with some breathing exercises, but after about ten minutes she goes nuts. 

She enjoys libraries, and actually, lives in an old one filled with books from all over the world and those picked up at yard sales and free boxes. She sleeps in a hammock under a stained glass skylight strung high up amongst the shelves and keeps a few personal items on a shelf next to her.

Her headquarters of sorts is under the library in the basement.

Out of all vehicles, she prefers motorcycles for the maneuverability. 

She is crazy agile and flexible. Like contortionist level flexible. 

She has a crow named Cherise and an opossum named Pêche. Though since she runs around quite a bit they tend to hang out with Vera a lot. 

She still loves to dance, any style, but ballet is her favorite. 

She has a ring with a bird on it and a necklace with a sunflower on it. They’re recreations of ones her mother had and they were made for her by Alfred and Jason. She never lets them far from her and doesn’t take them off at all if she can help it. 

She also has a sunflower tattoo on her shoulder and a bird tattoo on her shoulder blade. 

That’s enough for now, this got really long (story of my life). Thanks for reading!

[its-just-like-the-movies]

Date Night!: Death Note (17, F)

I think part of the reason it’s so much harder to really analyze a perfect film than a perfectly shitty one is that a great film leaves you wondering how they did it. What geniuses had the decision to write that score, to edit in this style, to write that character in such a way, to interpret them so fully? I can’t imagine how much time I’ve spent wringing my hands at Annette Bening in 20th Century Women, trying to understand Dorothea Fields as a creation, as a conscious work of art by way of multiple collaborators as well as the actress playing her, amidst a film that feels utterly human and alive, and without seams in any way. I bring up this film here because I had this thought watching Adam Wingard’s disgusting, dull take on Death Note only a few nights ago. You may be asking “Why is it that both of your Date Night pieces have been centered around demonstrably monstrous acts of garbage?” and I say wait a minute, we’ve seen good things. One day I’ll talk about Shin Godzilla. But that’s just me postponing the inevitable. Tommy and I, and our very good friend David, sat down on the first of September and decided to watch a train wreck that was even worse than we could have imagined. It hasn’t just been whitewashed, but striped of all the source material’s morality and mythology, about as far removed as one could be from anything in the original series while vaguely needing to use certain character names and still actually having a death note, and Americanized in the worst possible way. But it steals baldly from other films and makes it central character completely unbearable while everyone else is vaguely more interesting and doomed to the sidelines of the story. No one wanted this film, necessarily, but is it too much to ask that it be good?

The first immediate example we get of the film’s selective pilfering of its Japanese source material is that our central character is named Light Turner. It’s not in any way a typical American name, especially for white boys with dye-blond hair, but because the source material starred a dude named Light, why not? They couldn’t let that central character stay Japanese, though, because this is America, so it has to be about a white dude and his white girlfriend trying to dodge the world’s greatest detective, a young black man who is still called “L”. The white soon-to-be girlfriend is named Mia, and we know that she is Serious and Not Like Other Girls Or Whatever because we see her looking Hardcore and Bored and Over It during cheerleading practice, a brunette in a sea of blondes, who finally just starts smoking rather than letting the Other Girls catapult her in the air. This is probably because they wouldn’t hurl her into the sun itself, which is the only thing Hardcore enough for her to join. And we know Light is Hardcore and Over It but Still Has Morals because we see him doing another student’s homework and later trying to save another student from the most college-graduate-looking motherfuckers who ever decided to teleport from the 90’s to now and bully someone.

It’s almost too easy to tear down this shambling mess of a film. Wingard shoots Ryuk as though the filmmakers either couldn’t afford to make him look presentable or were just embarrassed to look at him. Light is a terribly bland protagonist, made even blander by the far more interesting sociopathic tendencies of said soon-to-be girlfriend Mia and the truly bizarre spectacle of Wingard’s remodeled L. This version of L is at least someone interesting to watch, even if it’s in such a conventional way as to have almost no resemblance to the original version of the character. Mia, on the other hand, is only altered insofar as her obsession with Light is really just an obsession with the death note itself, and a desire to kill off people more indiscriminately than he does. There’s something deeply uncomfortable about how Mia and Ryuk are eventually aligned as the villains of the piece for lacking a moral compass, especially when Light’s feels superficially arbitrary and utterly dull, and even moreso given that Mia’s eventual betrayal of Light feels like some version of “bitches be crazy”, but both are still the most captivating characters on the screen. If Ryuk has almost no real reason to be there after his introduction, Willem Dafoe’s self-satisfied line readings make the character a welcome presence. That this character egs on Light to commit his first killings was perhaps the biggest sticking point to David early on, given the manga version’s role as an excited but impartial audience surrogate more than anything else, but his presence is still entertaining. Dafoe’s reading of the line “Humans are so interesting!”, one of the few moments where Ryuk got an actual close-up, was also the only actual chill I got during the whole 100 minutes, though credit must partially be given to my shock that any line from the manga - let alone one of its best, in the early going - even made it into the film.

My previous interactions with the Death Note media empire is having gotten partway through the manga and the anime dub in early high school, losing interest a little while after the death of a major character, though not necessarily because that character died. Maybe it felt like the end of the series, or maybe I just straight up lost interest, or moved on to a different property. That being said, I still remember Death Note and its characters fairly well, and certainly well enough to know how butchered this abominable film was. It’s astonishing how much Wingard tries to alter these characters away from any resemblance to their source material, but it brings up what strikes me as the largest question I have about this film, and all the grossest politics and connotations I can think of surrounding the terms “whitewashing” and “Americanizing”. Of course America’s version of Death Note had to star a white boy in the lead role, because Hollywood can’t just have a leading character of color for no reason at all. Of course he had to be saddled with a faux, crummy version of “morals” with a faux-tragic backstory behind his killings while his girlfriend is giving the depravity that made the original so noteworthy and framed as the eventual Big Bad for it. Mia Sutton is perhaps the only character Death Note has going for itself, a genuine female sociopath on film who barely seems motivated by her hubby-in-crime and is more than willing to ditch him once he gets cold feet. Apparently Wingard credits Mia as having more of Original Light’s traits instead of Misa Amane’s, which makes sense to think about but speaks plenty about Wingard’s seeming disinterest in actually adapting his source material. I kept thinking about The Hateful Eight’s Daisy Domergue, featuring another case of villainous characters whose only point of agreement is that the lone lady of the bunch is the worst of them all, though there her crimes are left mainly vague, her threats treated like bluffs once she has the room to say them rather than getting smacked around by her walrus-moustached captor. It’s the film’s most toxic element, one that I’m not convinced Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance makes the right decisions about in portraying her. The Hateful Eight is also a much better film than Death Note - what film isn’t? - albeit with its own, significant flaws, but in Death Note Mia’s crimes and the crimes of her allies and enemies are all equally defined, because the film is so awful it needs her amorality if only to give the viewer someone compelling to root for, as my squad saw it, because Margaret Qualley commits to her character and makes us sad to see her go. I don’t mean to imply that Qualley is a better actress than Leigh, nor is her performance necessarily stronger in these respective films. But sometimes mere competence in a shitty film is easier to like than a commendable misfire in an uneven one, and Qualley’s work is one of the few umbrellas we can run under in this heaving shitstorm of a film.

I truly don’t know how to engage with L, who seems like the most conspicuous victim of Wingard’s rewrites. LaKeith Stanfield is clearly giving his all to the performance, and if you told me he was the only person on set who’d ever read the manga I’d believe you in a heartbeat. But all the intrigue of his work, the intensity it achieves in certain moments, is drowned out in how overly mannered this character is. Repeatedly L is seen sloppily eating gummy bears ascribed with ingredients that enhance thinking capabilities, rather than strawberry shortcake because it’s fucking delicious, that’s why. Twitchy behaviors are augmented by the character’s complete lack of chill, rather than the naturally super-intelligent, laid-back L the manga gave us, one in terrible physical shape and complete physically incompetence. Here, L gets a chase scene by car and by foot, and brandishes a firearm. Here, L gets a traveling Victorian set to be imported into the middle of the San Diego Police Department’s office area. At least he still gets to keep his own brand of amorality, perfectly content as he is to use some criminals as bait to see where “Kira” is based, but he’s not the savvy liar and manipulator detective of yore. This character is conventionally compelling, but perhaps the most emblematic case of Wingard’s seeming desire to write a Death Note film that doesn’t actually resemble any previous Death Note property. Who knows why this character was cast with a black actor in a shocking white version of San Diego - or even if there was a “reason”, and Wingard just liked Stanfield’s ideas about the character - but the spectacle of him being placed in a chokehold by SDPD chief Light’s Dad was easily the grossest thing Death Note had in store. I can’t help but wonder what Stanfield really saw in this opportunity, how much he got out of it, and what the disparity is for having highlight roles in the best and worst horror films of 2017.

And then there’s Light, remixed from a type-A, grade A model student into an angsty loner who has literally nothing going for him but a wonky dye job and being lucky enough to get a handheld killing machine. Putting a hat on the guy makes him instantly the blandest man alive, and he as much as anyone else is shorn of the traits that made the character such an interesting protagonist. Yes, Mia gets so many of Light Yagami’s traits, but can Light Turner have anything going for him? Can he not nearly shit himself once Ryuk (in such a bitchy spectacle of an arrival) storms onto the scene? Can he not have a motivation so forgettably stitched on the film all but abandons it twenty minutes in, and can his morals actually be interestingly complicated instead of bland, Americanly contrived? Nat Wolff’s Light, possibly the worst performance of the year, is such a guileless goon that his last-act transformation into a criminal who’s actually capable of planning out a long con to save his own life and kill one of his enemies is easily the least believable part of the film. It’s astonishing how much the want of having Evan Peters and Emma Roberts in the lead roles is present in how Light is styled and in how much Margaret Qualley just fucking looks like a less actively bitchy version of Emma Roberts. There’s even a little card that says “Normal People Scare Me” in the American Horror Story font in Light’s locker, like some emo kid in 2011, which gets to the heart of this character’s deep mischaracterization. Why make this kid into a Tate Langdon-type who’s so blatantly angry at the world it’s honestly shocking his father takes as long as he does to realize his son is a fucking mass murderer? How is it in any way a bold, difficult statement that the valedictorian can be a sociopath, that kids with ostensibly no real problems can also want to end the world themselves? There’s a lot I didn’t like about the fourth season of AHS but at least it gave us an emblem of corrupted white, heterosexual male privilege and prejudice that this film just can’t recognize, or won’t.

A funny, somewhat poignant, and very quick moment in Okja sees a character flash a newly made tattoo on his arm that says “Translation is Sacred”. Death Note is not just an abominable act of translation, but of adaptation, of fidelity to a source material’s characters and themes. Outside of its vaguely compelling supporting cast, a lot of Death Note feels haphazardly cobbled together from a multitude of sources and bad ideas all meant on making the film more palatable to an audience that only wanted this film because the source material was so rich, most notably that killings in the Death Note seem to be primarily carried out by Final Destination, Rube Goldberg spectacle-type accidents, rather than simple, mundane accidents. Why make a Death Note film if you’re not going to make it resemble Death Note at all? It feels late in the game to say that I’m not fundamentally against molding source material to suit an adaptation, especially with something as dense as Death Note into a feature film under two hours. But there’s not a single alteration that this film makes to the material that helps it in any conceivable way, no small high point worth the heaps of garbage you have to sift through to get it. It’s not so much a misfire as a willful rejection of any sharp edges or idiosyncrasies that made the original property the hit that it became. It’s also, hopefully, the kind of misfire that kills a hoped-for sequel dead in its tracks. If there’s one thing we can do to reckon with the fact that this shambling corpse of a film exists, the best thing we as a viewing audience and as people who want adaptations of ambitious, international properties can shout from the rooftops that hypnotized FBI agents are leaping off of like synchronized divers. We liked them for a reason, and if you shear off that reason to be more appealing, all you’re left with is a boring white boy nattering on about his schemes in a hospital bed, outshone by a demon barely in focus, and failing in every way to live up to that demon’s last, great line. In the world of Adam Wingard’s Death Note, humans aren’t interesting. They’re cardboard cutouts of characters that aren’t tarnished by association, but shine a little brighter in comparison. You couldn’t ask for a less ambitious take on this property, no one did, but we got in anyways, and if no one will bother to learn from it, then all we can do with this maddening pile of shit is heave it straight into the sun and hope it burns into an even greater state of nothingness than the film has achieved just by existing in this neutered state.