#The Duke of Making a Mess

[lets-hue-this]

Like uncle like nephews 🥺

[stardynamite]

While rewatching ducktales, I realised that they looove foreshadowing, they do it all the time, sometimes they even give the whole plot of an episode in the very first scenes without the viewer noticing lol.

Anyway, I realised that they foreshadowed the whole “duke of making a mess” thing that Huey had in the sword of swanstantine episode!

THE THING IS, EVEN on my first watch, I could tell that this was supposed to be a multiple episode arc but they HAD to make it shorter because ducktales was getting cancelled and I’m PISSED. LIKE ALL OF MY FAVOURITE CARTOONS, THIS COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH MORE.

DEWEY had his own arc where he’s trying to uncover his mom’s dissaperance with Webby. LOUIE had his own arc where he was struggling with his place in the family and HUEY. DIDN’T.

Ughhh they foreshadowed the Duke of making a mess in the intern episode and even in Scrooge’s birthday!!

Those are BOTH season 1 episodes (I’m not gonna list more foreshadowing because you get my point) SO THEY’VE BEEN BUILDING UP THIS ARC SINCE THE BEGINNING AND THEY DIDNT GET TO CASH IT INNNNN RAHHHHHH 🗣️‼️‼️‼️‼️

When watching the ONE episode where he appears, you could IMMEDIATELY tell that it should’ve been a bigger deal. I mean come onnnn, they enter Huey’s mind scape and there’s a huge closed up door??? With locks??? DUUUDE THAT WOULD’VE BEEN AWESOMMMMEEE

I’m saying all of this but this is just to vent some frustration about how animation shows will just be cancelled without the chance to say all that they’ve wanted to say… and as the one who wants to hear it: *cries and wails and pees on the floor*

Ducktales was planning so many more seasons and only got 3, like every other great animation show nowadays i fear

[brotherly-lov3]

[ducktales-four-years]

YES BITE EAT CONSUME DEVOUR

[r0sy-maple-m0th]

ever after academy

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

(note; you dont need to have watched ever after high to understand this, its not going to be an exact clone of eah, just inspired! as long as you know grimms fairytales, you should be able to understand this stuff. i do highly reccommend the show if you havent seen it though :>)

R E B E L S

Lenore — Daughter of the Evil Queen, Lenore accidentally finds herself as some sort of leader to the Rebels after publicly denying her horrid destiny to poison the one she's not meant to love.

Duke — Son of the Dark Fairy, Duke doesn't care much for his destiny, choosing to ignore it entirely as he much prefers to use his talents for entertainment.

Pluto — Son of the Chesire Cat, Pluto often finds himself falling into the background and going unnoticed. That is, until his roommate casts him aside and he stumbles upon a place he can finally be himself without worry; his home with the Rebels.

Eulalie — Daughter of the Mad Hatter, Eulalie is often looked down upon and treated as if she were a child simply because of her unique understanding of the world. She hopes that her new friends, the Rebels, will be able to understand her better.

Berenice — Daughter of Little Red Riding Hood, Berenice would consider herself to be pretty outspoken, refusing to let anyones status get in the way of what they deserve to hear. ((i wasn't going to add notes here, i feel like it kills the immersion, BUT I GENUINELY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO WRITE FOR HER INTRO. i feel like i know nothing about her jfshjf))

R O Y B E L

Morella — Daughter of Goldilocks, Morella is often pulled between groups. Shes incredibily loyal to all of her friends, but her not-quite-royal not-quite-rebel lineage leads her to questioning with who she truly belongs.

R O Y A L S

Annabel Lee — Daughter of Snow White, Annabel Lee, being the future queen means that eyes are always on her, and so she must constantly maintain her perfect porcelain persona. Its for this reason that she finds herself naturally adopting the role of leader for the Royals.

Prospero — Son of Prince Charming, Prospero is the most eligible bachelor in all of Ever After Academy-- much to his chagrin. To avoid the unwanted attention without disregarding his destiny, he agrees to a mutually beneficial fake-relationship with his best friend Annabel.

Ada — Daughter of the Swan Queen, Ada is rather discontent with her destiny, desiring to be more like the fairytale pioneers she'd grown up adoring. If there was any way for her to be percieved as more than she is, she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Montresor — Son of the Queen of Hearts, Montresor is not what most would consider a 'typical royal', his callous personality leading many to first believe him to be a rebel. The Wonderland students say he gets it from his mother.

Will — Son of Sleeping Beauty, Will knows he isn't what was intended for his destiny, and if hes being honest with himself, he doesn't even really want it. He'd much prefer to live his own life while one of his many sisters got to follow in their mothers footsteps instead.

EAH inspiration and explanations below the cut lmk your thoughts + if youd do anything differently! im still open to changing things if any better ideas come up :>

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

gender is a social construct, dont mind the fact everyone but prospero is based on a girl 😭😭there wasnt a whole lot of male characters to pick from, and the ones that were there didn't suit anyone ;p

ALSOO LAST QUICK NOTE! i know that some characters would definetely suit others best (ex. like montresor couldve easily been someone like faybelle or courtly, but i ended up picking lizzie instead), HOWEVER i really wanted their status as a royal/rebel to match the nevermore groups. so the misfits are all rebels, and the posh gang, i forget what they get called lol, are all royals even if logically montresor should be a rebel because he is a horrific human being!! oh and ofc morella is stuck in the middle, being both royal and rebel.

OKAY END OF TANGENT, heres my thought process;

Lenore — Raven Queen; i dont think i need to explain this one, it just felt right. plus she already has tons of raven imagery + even had a pet dragon named nevermore! it was too perfect lol

Duke — Faybelle Thorn; struggled a bit with him, but ended on faybelle since it suits him being a magician. hes definetely not as mean as her unless its warranted, we all know he has a mean streak, cough attempted to murder annabel, cough cough. but yeah, i think the misfit magician/fairy vibe works.

Pluto — Kitty Chesire; between the cat motif, gloomier color pallete, as well as the ability to disappear and go unnoticed, i thought this worked as a nice parallel!

Eulalie — Madeline Hatter; its the weird girl aura to be completely honest lmfao. eulalie definetely isnt as mad as maddie, but you cant tell me they wouldnt be best friends. and the color schemes arent a complete match, but i think maddies colors would look SO good on eula!

Berenice — Cerise Hood; honestly. this was mostly vibes, i think she'd look good with a red cape LOL. but it also works in the sense that shes kind of a tomboyish free spirit. lmk your thoughts on if she should be half wolf like cerise is, because i actually dunno if we should keep that in the au ;p

Morella — Blondie Locks; there were probably hundreds of better choices, but i was stumped. i needed someone that was both a royal and rebel, and the only options i could think of were blondie and poppy. between the two blondie was a better choice, morella doesnt have much of a rapunzel vibe.

Annabel Lee — Apple White; same thing as lenore, do i really gotta explain this one?😭 visually and storywise it just works so perfectly! theyre both the top of their class, both the leader of their respective groups, ANDD they both pretend to be straight. your honor i rest my case

Prospero — Daring Charming; so like. prospero is very much not daring-esque. like at all lmfao. and im aware of that! but it works in the sense that he'd be annabels 'prince' and a lot of people fawn over him (much to his disliking, aroace rep lets gooo).

Ada — Duchess Swan; this was one of the original ideas that sparked this whole au cause WOW THEYRE SIMILAR! both of them desire to be higher class than they really are, and are willing to change the way they behave to reflect that. ada probably wouldnt try to steal destinies in this au, but she definetely would get buddy-buddy with all of the more popular royals (which would be why she falls so hard for prospero)

Montresor — Lizzie Hearts; THIS ONE. THIS WAS TOUGH. im still not 100% sure if this was the right choice, but its a start! basically the thought process was lizzie is a royal who could still be perceived as cruel. add in the mommy issues (this queen of hearts would be a worse parent than lizzies) and firey red color scheme, it felt like the best choice for him. i did consider sparrow hood at one point but lowkey i dont think im ready for that combination LOL. which is fine cause i forgot sparrow was a rebel and that makes the whole idea fall apart, sigh

Will — Briar Beauty; this actually started as a joke since he sleeps through classes, but then it kind of grew on me lmao. it also works in the sense that theyre both unsatisfied with the life they lived/the life they need to live. originally he was going to be alistair wonderland, since theyre both kind of just normal guys, but i feel like theres less story potentional with that idea. so im sticking with briar unless someone convinces me otherwise ;p

[everwalldigan]

Ok so the popular consensus is that the bat brood will absolutely terrorise any guests any of them have over but what if we take that concept and tweak it a little bit.

Instead of them doing weird shit openly, how about they act totally normal HOWEVER they do weird little unsettling things that suddenly disappear if you do a double take. The guest leaves really unsettled but with no tangible reason they can name to explain it. Allow me to provide some examples:

Dick: has spent an obscene amount of hours practicing “delayed speech glitch” where his mouth moves, sounding out words before he vocalises them.

Duke: manipulates the lights to shine like a stage light on whoever is speaking at that moment, sometimes douses any family member who has pissed him off in darkness until the guest notices and immediately retracts it when they look back. (This backfires sometimes cause they enjoy pretending to brood in the shadows. Its genetic)

Damian: makes his animals appear in random corners and then disappear just as quickly. (His best feat was when he successfully pulled it off with the batcow and Wally left so fucking confused)

Cass: utilises her body language reading skills to give the guest what they want before they have the chance to ask for it. They spend the entire evening carefully monitoring their thoughts cause they’re 100% convinced she’s a mind reader

[lets-hue-this]

A reminder that Huey is the one who fixed the instability in Gyro's invention, for which Gyro tried to scrap the Gizmoduck armor

It took him seconds to solve a huge part of Della's mystery, that Dewey and Webby spent the whole season trying to figure out

Also, he was able to beat someone much stronger than him when he combined his smartness with the Duke's mess

Huey is smarter than the smarties!!!

[brotherly-lov3]

THIS DUDE!!! I need more of this dude

[kazoosandfannypacks]

it wasn't until after I posted this that I remembered the most obvious connection I could've made here, which is that the uncle in question in both stories is named Donald.

so i was chatting with meg and realized a thing

[ducktales-four-years]

Huey doodles!

[theredcuyo]

I might be crazy with this one but hear me out

Batfamily PLATONIC soulmarks

Were it's a black blob that starts to take color that gives away it's form when you met said people, the more people you'll get, the bigger it is

At first, Bruce's parents were slightly worried upon seeing their son's mark, one that covered his whole torso, back and front, with only a little blank space in the place of his heart, where a tangle of lines seemed to met

Nor Thomas, with his years of medical experience, Martha with her wisdom or Alfred, who had seen far more than many, had ever look at something similar, although, they we're soon relieved, "Bruce will deeply love many people, and many people will return said love"

When the boy started to gain cognition, some color finally appeared in between all the black, a collar of pearls, like Martha's favorite, an scalpel, the one Thomas works with, and to Alfred's surprise, a cup of tea, mirroring the one he was drinking when they discocevered it, one that also connects all three to the tangle of lines around the heart

After that night, though, Bruce thinks it's impossible he'll ever get more, he doesn't want to get more, if it means he'll feel the same pain as now if he loses more of the people they represent

Then, many years later, after taking Dick in, a blue bird mid fly colors itself, a faint line joins the tangle.

He sighs whenever he sees it, after his son is not at home anymore, it doesn't faint, but will it really get better?

It happens again, when he finds a boy trying to steal his tires, it's another bird, a red one, it looks as if it were giving you his back, but it still connects to the hearth

It hurts to look at it, it's worse than before, he gets why it doesn't look at him now, he failed Jason-

Then, a few weeks into adjusting to Tim, he sees a new mark, and- it's a lighter tone of red

Another bird. This one is on a branch, it is making a nest

Then, when a girl comes in too, another bird, a purple one, sits on the branch with Tim's, this one also seems to be looking away

Just like Steph, he thinks

Along them, the shape of a smiling bat hangs upside down from the same branch, black but visible by golden edges that give away it's form, Cass

There are few more, here and there, hints of green when he met Barbara and Jim, Babs seem to fake the form of a hand next to Steph's and Cass's

Yellow, red and blue combine into two familiar symbols after he mets Clark and Diana, the only time he ever complains to his mark, why these people, why them, they're idiots

They're his best friends, but still idiots, he will never tell them, but they probably know anyway

Then, a new bird appears, and so does a color, a deep shade of green, this one looks like it's about to attack a prey

But, as Bruce gets time to know Damian, he realizes, it's not attacking, it's protecting the rest of the picture

A yellow figure of the sun gives it light, when he mets Duke

Maybe all the lines in the tangle have color then, maybe not

[melon-cat-cult]

Dragon Damian Au!

Tim is on the case

pt 1.

Tim, unfortunately, never knew how to leave a mystery alone, mainly when he accidentally develops a hyperfixation on said mystery, so when Bruce brought home a new child, his own kid, this time not one he picked out of the trash. Tim was intrigued, then the little shit stabbed him randomly when he got too close to Bruce, it pissed Tim off of course but he noticed something when Damian had stabbed him he couldn’t see the color of his eyes like his pupils where blown wide, like he was high, but as fast as it had happed the bright Green of the Al ghul’s lazuraze eyes where back, and TIm knew he had a new mystery.

That was how it started. It's been a few years with Damiain in the manor, and he’s still not any closer to finding out what's off with the Demon brat. He is less stabby, though. However, it's more accurate to say that the family has learned what not to touch unless they want to be stabbed. He's been gathering evidence, but the most significant piece of evidence came when Duke and Damian.

The family that wasn’t busy was in the manor to welcome Duke. Tim was sitting next to Steph, her legs across his lap, his laptop on her legs, her head in Cass’s lap while Cass was painting her nails. Bruce and Alfred were still talking with Duke and his social worker while they gave them a tour. When they got to the living room and the Social worker left, Damian came in from the barn. Duke was in the middle of talking about some things he liked; Alfred asked so he could add some of Duke’s comfort meals into his weekly menus. Duke stopped mid-sentence, his eyes glowing slightly, and looked at Damian wide-eyed. No one wanted to admit it, but they tensed, readying to stop Damian if needed. The two stared at each other, and Damian let out a growl, it was a usual thing from him, but Tim caught it, that growl sounded more like an animal than the other ones usually did. Duke held up his hands in peace and shook his head, which seemed to calm Damian: the subtle way his jaw unclenched like B’s does. Damian nodded and sat down next to B, and Duke went back to talking, subtly looking at Damian ever so slightly before he moved closer to anyone, like asking for permission. It took about a month before that stopped. The day it did, Duke was smiling and teasing Damian and not getting stabbed for it, and that caused Tim to pick back up the mystery. Because, yes, Duke was cool, skateboarding with Duke had become one of Tim’s favorite activities. Still, Tim has been Damian’s older brother longer, so he should be above Duke in the Damian favoritism scale. Duke hasn’t even been stabbed yet!

[wooo-oo]

the H in huey stands for Hate

….and high blood pressure

[unfinishedslurs]

every robin gets a freebie

reverse robins in the aftermath of the death of filipe garzonas

A CD was in the mail within the next week, blank but for a note that slipped out when the envelope was opened. You should really trust in your birds more often, B. Learn from your mistakes for once. 

Jason felt bile in his throat. It was body cam footage, blurry and half obscured, of Robin and Garzonas on the roof. Footage that still clearly showed Garzonas taking a too-far step back, Robin lunging to reach him, and then…

But that’s not what happened, Jason doesn’t say. His tongue feels swollen and thick in his mouth. 

Batman takes off the cowl solemnly. “Jaylad,” he says. “Jason. I’m so sorry for doubting you. I never should have…”

He can’t be here anymore. He can’t be in this cave, can’t stand Bruce looking at him like that, can’t stand to even be in the vicinity of the Robin uniform he no longer deserves. 

He bolts for the exit.

“Jason!” he hears Bruce call, but he doesn’t stop. He can’t. Not even when he nearly runs into Alfred, not when Damian tries to grasp his arm, not when Duke asks him what’s wrong or when Tim yelps in surprise and drops his cane jumping out of the way. He just runs, out the manor door and into the night. 

For a split second the figure on the roof is overlaid with Gloria. Beautiful, resigned Gloria, who was so scared of what Felipe would do to her that she would do anything to stop it. 

Then he blinks, and he’s on the rooftop with the Spoiler. 

“Relax,” Spoiler says, “I’m not gonna jump. I'm only three steps into my five-step plan for world dominance. Can’t leave that unfinished. Imagine the paperwork.”

“I dunno.” Jason’s hands are shaking. “You seem like the kinda freak who would enjoy that.”

Spoiler lowers her mask, and Stephanie Brown smiles at him. 

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“You know.” His voice wavers. “You know. You know what I did. How did you…why did you…what was the reason?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes!”

“Call it tradition then, I guess.” Steph sounds almost amused. “Robin’s flock together.”

“But you don’t like me.”

“Who told you that?”

No one, but she doesn’t exactly go out of her way to talk to Jason. He just kind of assumed. 

Tim’s awkward around him. Sometimes they’re fine, like when he wandered into the library where Jason was and asked if he wanted to get ice cream together. Other times he wouldn’t see him for three weeks. Jason tries not to think about the nights Tim has had dreams that left him cackling loud enough to wake Jason up the couple times he’s stayed the night at the Nest, or the things he heard Tim shout about little birds and broken nests when he was fear gassed. 

It kind of sucks, being your brother's biggest trigger. 

(Those three weeks may be a case of mutual avoidance, but Jason will never admit it.)

When he doesn’t say anything, Steph sighs. “How much do you know about when I was Robin?”

“Uh,” he says, caught off guard, “not much, I guess?” He knows that it was because something was going on with Tim. That’s about it, really. He asked once, when he was still new to Robin and the Manor. He didn’t ask again after he saw the look on Tim’s face. 

“Bruce didn’t really want me. Damian didn’t think I was worthy of the mantle, and took every chance he could to remind me. Tim was pissed at me for it. None of them wanted me there, and I tried so hard to prove them wrong. To be the Robin I knew I could be.”

That…can’t be right. The few times he had asked about Stephanie Brown, Tim had nothing but good words to say. Bruce and Damian spent so much time wallowing in their regrets it was insane. For her to say nobody wanted her there, when her absence was a shadow that followed them constantly around Wayne Manor, was baffling. 

Steph looks down at the helmet in her hands. “All I wanted was their approval, and it made me stupid. I overestimated myself. That’s how you get killed in this game, kid. Don’t get too cocky for your britches, and all that.”

Jason is shaking again by the time they get to the Nest. He hesitates at the window, sending a pleading look to Spoiler that she completely ignores ushering him in. 

Tim spins around in his tricked out gaming chair, frown pulling oddly against the wide scars on his cheeks. He flicks his comm off. “Steph?” Then his eyes found Jason. “Jason! Thank God, we were starting to get worried about you. Duke told everyone to give you space, but…”

His mouth is too dry to say anything in response, so he just shrugs. Tim tilts his head, examining him, before looking at Spoiler questioningly. 

She takes off her mask again, lowering her hood and shaking out her hair. “We need some help,” she explains, and nudges Jason forward. 

He stays stubbornly in his place, head tilted towards the floor. Steph sighs. “If you don’t tell him,” she says, “I will.”

He whips his head around. “You promised!”

“My name is literally The Spoiler.” She bares her teeth at him. “I get that you’re nervous, kid, but I do not have time for this.”

“For what?” Tim says. God, Tim’s going to be like a dog with a bone with this. He’s never met a mystery he didn’t want to solve. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I killed Filipe!” He blurts out and freezes, moving immediately to hide behind Spoiler. She doesn’t let him, grabbing his shoulder and holding him firmly to the spot. 

Tim gapes at him. “You…” he trails off, slowly turning to Steph, who holds his gaze steadily. “The footage?”  

“I have connections.”

“Of course you do.” He rubs a hand over his face. “How are we playing this?

What?

“We keep going along with what’s been presented to him,” Spoiler responds without hesitation. “B’s paranoid, but he’s also the king of denial. There’s no doctoring on the tape itself, he won’t look any deeper.”

“And Damian?”

“Like he gives a shit.”

“True,” he admits. “Duke wouldn’t care enough to check either way, so that just leaves Cass.”

Steph swears. “Fuck, Cass. Do you think she’ll say something?”

“Yes. Ugh, yes she will. Fuck.”

“Think you can talk some sense into her?”

“Maybe.” He squints at Jason. “I’ll probably play up the ‘ridden by guilt’ and ‘will never happen again’ angle. He definitely reads it.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Jason finally says, lungs fighting for air. “I—I killed someone!”

“Not according to Bruce, you didn’t.” Tim tells him. 

“You want me to lie?”

“Yes.”

He looks at Steph imploringly, begging her to explain, but she doesn’t even look at him. “Chill out, kid,” she says, “We all get a freebie.”

“Damian got more than a freebie,” Tim points out. 

“He’d tell you it was his right as the blood son.”

“Stop joking!” He shouts, chest heaving for air. “Just—stop it! Why aren’t you telling Bruce? Why are you making plans to lie to him? What’s wrong with you?”

Tim exchanges a heavy look at Steph, before reaching his hand out to Jason. Jason takes it, trembling. 

“Plenty of vigilantes have to make hard choices when it comes to stopping people the law can’t touch,” he tells Jason gently. “I work with people who all choose different things. When it comes to people like Garzonas, who will keep doing it over and over with no remorse…it’s not a method I recommend, but sometimes there’s only one way to stop them. If Robin made that choice, I wouldn’t blame him.”

He can’t stop the tears from welling in his eyes, because this is Tim Drake saying it. Damian was the first Robin, yeah, and Steph left her undeniable mark with her cheer and wit, but Tim wore the mantle twice. He made it into something new, something a bit brighter in the dark nights. Then, after Steph, he made it into a memory. Bright yellow for her hair. Red for Superboy. Even after they both came back Jason wore their colors, because Robin was persistence, and spirit, and clever words followed by hard punches, and bravery and a million other things, but it was also hope and love and remembrance for the lost. 

He wouldn’t forget that. “Why are you so okay with this?”

“You know I’ve had to make that choice too.”

Jason almost laughs, but refrains. He’s heard the stories. “Never sounded like much of a choice.”

“It was.” His eyes snap to Tim’s at the sudden edge to his voice, and Tim meets his eyes carefully. “I was fully aware of what I was doing. It’s not something I’ll ever do again, but it was my choice, and I won’t have that taken from me.” 

“I don’t think I can be Robin anymore.”

“Well, we all have to give it up sometimes.”

“Are we really doing this?” Tim asks, after he thinks Jason has fallen asleep. 

Jokes on him, Jason doesn’t think he’s gonna sleep ever again. 

“Are you seriously getting cold feet now? I thought you loved lying to Bruce.”

“I don’t love lying to Bruce, it’s just—“

“‘—necessary sometimes,’” she finishes. “Whatever. Like you don’t love the thrill of it.”

Tim doesn’t bother denying it. “This isn’t just lying to B, Steph. This is—are we really going to cover up a murder?”

The room drops ten degrees. 

“If you’re not going to back me on this, we can go somewhere else. Don’t want you getting your hands dirty or anything,” she sneers. 

“You know I’ve always got your back,” Tim says. Jason thinks back to what Spoiler told him earlier about her time as Robin, and wonders if that might not be as irrefutable a truth as he’d always thought it was. “I’m worried about Jason.”

“You wouldn’t need to be if you would just help him out—“

“You saw him. The kid looks like a ghost. He looks like I did. Don’t—no, Steph, I’m serious. I’m worried about him. At least I didn’t have to hide that I killed the Joker. You think keeping this bottled up will be good for him? It’s going to kill him.”

“The alternative is telling Batman that his precious Robin killed someone. You remember how that went last time?”

There’s a long pause, and then he hears Tim hiss an exhalation behind clenched teeth. “Don’t bring that into this. Jason’s not me.”

“That’s the fucking problem. You were his golden boy—“

“Seriously? You think I was the golden boy?”

“I’m hardly his favorite,” Tim scoffs. “Jason is.”

There’s a shocked silence. Then Stephanie scoffs. “You can’t seriously be jealous.“

“I’m trying to tell you it’ll be different from me. Have you seen him with Jason?” He waits, but Steph doesn’t answer. “He laughs. He laughs, he smiles, he’s fucking…happy. Jason makes him happy. I never did that. None of us ever—“

“Jesus, Tim,” Steph says roughly. “You made him plenty happy. Damian, Cass, Duke, you all make him laugh—“

“Not like Jason does.”

“You willing to risk the kid on that?”

A beat, and Tim sighs. “No. But it’s different now. Jason has us. All of us. It wouldn’t be like last time.”

“Jason’s not me.” He pauses, almost like he’s debating what he’ll say next, before he says, “He’s not you, either.”

Steph stays silent for so long Jason wonders if she climbed out the window and left. 

Finally, she exhales. “He’s not you, and he’s not me,” she agrees, “but Bruce is always going to be Bruce.”

They sit in silence for a long moment. Finally Steph speaks up. “Are you really jealous of him?”

“No, Steph. Jesus.”

“You’re such a liar.” It’s affectionate this time, though, clearly poking fun. 

Tim sighs, heavier than the teasing warrants. “It’s not him. It’s not him, and it’s not you, I just…I was never able to give up Robin on my own terms. I never…I never got to feel like I was putting it down. It never stopped feeling like—“

Stephanie doesn’t say anything. Eventually, one of the chairs slides back, and Jason hears a cane clacking on the ground. A cabinet opens. “Did you want coffee?”

“What happened to those awful sodas you were addicted to?”

“I assumed you wouldn’t want one,” Tim responds, voice dry. There’s no indication of their discussion in either of their tones. “Considering the first thing you ever did in this apartment was go through all my stuff and make fun of my taste.”

“Fuck it. I’m feeling abominable tonight, I should have something to fit the mood.”

“Shut up.” The fridge opens and shuts, and there’s a quiet thunk like a hand catching something out of midair. Then two drinks crack open. 

“God, I forgot how awful these were.”

(some undetermined amount of time later)

Bruce: Dick you can’t kill Tony Zucco. Batman and Robin do not kill.

Dick: Steph said Robin gets a freebie >:(

Bruce: 

Bruce:

Bruce: STEPHANIE-

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Unlucky Tug's season 13 & Hero of the Rails Retrospective video got me thinking about Spencer... As a character we really don't have much on him do we? (Which is ironically fitting since he's a private engine)

Come to think of it, most of what we know of Spencer are a handful of crumbs you can count off your fingers (that he's proud of being a speedster, that he enjoys his work as a private engine, that he's not overly fond of Sodor's engines, etc...), and just a few personality traits you can parse from watching how he interacts with others (which often amounts to him being a pompous jerk who cares more about his status than actually behaving in a way that upholds that status with grace). Other than that, we don't really know who he is or what he did before he became the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's privately owned engine...

Sure, he's an A4 Pacific but... Is he meant to be a specific one?

Every engine in the railway series and the tv shows has a proper basis one can refer to. Even if some of them are fictional members of a specific line of engines or heavily altered (Gordon as his class's imperfect but no less endearing prototype, Edward being a surviving member of his class despite all of the Larger Seagulls having been scrapped in actuality, James being a custom fleshed out in the series, and Henry being a personification of one class configuration being rebuilt into another, etc...the list is never ending here!) they still have a concrete basis you can look at and equate them to.

With that in mind... Is Spencer supposed to be one of the Silvers? The first batch of A4s that pulled the Silver Jubelee and didn't escape scrapping? If so, is he meant to be a fifth fictional member of the Silvers or is he actually one of them under a new identity?

I've seen the latter idea being toyed with a lot (and I do vibe with it because second chances at life freaking slap as a character arc!), but the former idea... The one where maybe he's a secret fifth member that was never really in prominence compared to his older siblings (overlooked and ignored)... It also does seem fitting doesn't it?

Especially considering none of his fellow Silvers survived.

What I'm getting at, is that Spencer strikes me as someone who's deeply insecure to the point he'll latch onto what he thinks is his (his status for example), and protects it with such jealous ferocity that it makes him a very difficult engine to get along with.

If he were one of the Silvers who somehow miraculously got bought by the Duke and Duchess of Boxford when he was going to be scrapped, it definitely makes sense why he tries to seem like he's more than he really is. Making himself out to be important would ensure he continues to remain useful enough that he won't see the cutter's torch so soon...

But it also makes him a potentially very unstable and volatile individual if he gets it in his funnel that someone is threatening his position/existence. Literally anything minor can be blown out of proportion. Including something as harmless as a cheeky little tank engine trying to show him up, and humiliating him in front of his lifeline...

Because trying to get a fellow steam engine scrapped due to a wounded ego is DEFINITELY a disproportional response to his petty squabble with Thomas. And his later reaction when Hiro rescues him shows this too. If Spencer were that much of a jerk that he is all for getting someone else scrapped, he wouldn't have changed his mind so easily.

Spencer's lack of a backstory not only bothers me, it also makes his behavior all that much more interesting to study under a microscope... Just what did he go through that THAT was the only way he thought was appropriate to get back at Thomas? Especially when later it becomes very apparent he didn't mean it...

Who were you Spencer? What did you see?

[arualthecolorfulfreak]

I was rewaching ducktales and this episode with Duke of making a mess. I knew what I needed to draw. I think I know how to draw duck better than turtles :') also i might have some kind of obsession with drawing insane people with axes, but well, who cares, at least it's fun

And if you're interested, the feral Huey was from season 3, episode 15