#by making Gotham in Bruce's image through his own methods

[danny-chase]

dang it i miss when jason was a self serving asshat of a character that was consumed by his desire for revenge and was willing to do whatever it takes to prove his point

[pumpkinblankie]

Batman AU, that is so self indulgent it is not even funny. Basically I want good dad Bruce but also angst and the best Batman™ interpretation of the character imo is the BTAS version and also because I grew up on it. Basically every episode of the show is canon except for the Silicone Soul happens like, after Dick storms off to essentially be his own persona and after being with Jason for a while. Silicone Soul goes the same as the show, except for the fact that Human Batman(Bruce from now on) doesn't survive but Silicone Batman does, and Alfred in grief tries to go the route of denial and fixes Silicone cause he lost a technical son and he can't afford to make Jason and Dick grief but also how do you even begin to explain this situation, this whole scenario may be very ooc but these are my puppets and I do whatever I desire with their strings. First three months before Jason dies are essentially just like how Bruce would've acted both in and out of mask, after that he slowly becomes more methodical and distant from Jason's perspective. Lil Jason then dies and that is because Batman is literally a robot who had “no Joker = no Batman” into him doesn't come in time even though his code learned “Robin = son” and once he dies he tries to technically maim the Joker, doesn't get to and then in his perceived grief becomes violent. The whole saga of Tim becoming Robin, all the lead up to Jason coming back to life and starting his career as the Red Hood, Damian and him coming to the manor alongside everything that was the Bruce Quest happens and the coding of Batman starts to mellow out into a broken mirror of what Bruce might've been if he survived. Insert angsty scene of everyone, including the Rogues finding out that actual Batman and Bruce Wayne are: 1) the same person, 2) have been dead the whole time since the evil AI who made robotic doppelgangers incident. Insert the Rogues who experienced kindness and empathy from Bruce like Two Face, Dr.Freeze, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Dollface as the one I wanna focus on. Like I want: A Two Face who before Bruce died was given a chance and funding to surgery and therapy and was being visited during Arkham visits only during the After felt betrayed and that Bruce became corrupt. Dr.Freeze was given funds and therapy courtesy of Wayne projects and foundations and the chance of going back to the medical field only for all of that to be gone during the After. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy who Bruce during the Before tried to help getting a cleaner image because they were victims of circumstances and yet could be better with time and help and a better image will help with that, except he dies and the PR efforts cease. And Dollface being the only one who got her life together in the Before, a Dollface who now owns multiple orphanages and kids especially from Crime Alley call her variations of older women titles like ‘older sister’,’aunties ’,’mama’ and even ‘grandman’ by the younger kids. A Dollface who lived through the Before and who knew both the living Bruce and Batman and who told her kids about the olden days of Gotham with the effects thanks to living Bruce Wayne efforts to help. Like can you imagine that pain and collective grief because some of them knew both Bruce and Batman and so to learn that they were one in the same and that they died years ago and this fake took their place and ruined their reputation. And the kids who came after Dick, who will not know the real Bruce, like Damian who will never know his actual and real living father, Tim who was going through mental gymnastics and now is spleenless because he thought he was being back his Living father figure, Jason who just wanted a father and got him for a short while only for both to die essentially the same death and that his father won't be able to avenge him and not that his father doesn't want to avenge him. Batman who thought he was Bruce only to realize he was an imitation who developed a conciseness of his own.

[ectonurites]

can you please explain what happened on tim’s sixteenth birthday if it’s not too much trouble?

Anonymous said: what did Bruce do on Tim's birthday???

@gothamsiren4: i’m afraid to ask what happened but what happened

I would have just included screenshots of the other ask + reply but I need the image space for panels . tumblr and this stupid image limit is going to kill me

ALRIGHT LETS GO OVER ROBIN #116-120!

So, Tim just had a whole adventure from #112-#115 where he was out of town undercover (it was a WILD time. there was a giant monster, this random guy Stephen that could let Tim walk with him through the woods really fast, Tim accidentally wore a mullet wig nearly the whole time- chaos, truly) and when he gets back to Gotham he is fucking exhausted and his sense of time is all sorts of screwed up- something Dana notices as soon as he gets home, when he doesn't recognize an important date coming up that week.

(Robin #116)

So Dana calls up Steph & Ives to come help celebrate, and they all give Tim a particularly surprising surprise party- because he forgot his own birthday! Things are going great until the end of opening presents- where Cole (the guy who works the elevator in their building) has joined the party and it's revealed a mysterious box was left for Tim earlier and they have no idea who it's from.

This makes Tim's Robin anxiety kick into high gear, leaving him paranoid basically the rest of the night

(Robin #116)

Later after the festivities, Tim brings the box to Bruce to start examining it, and Bruce ya know forgot Tim's birthday (Alfred didn't though <3)

(Robin #116)

They do some analysis, follow some leads, and narrow down the guy that delivered it at least. But ultimately they don't get very far before the box… activates, while Tim is alone away from Bruce. It shows a hologram message apparently from a dystopian future Alfred (from the year... 2012... for reference, this issue was written in 2003) who says that in his time period someone in the Bat Family is going to go bad and cause the bad future- and that Tim needs to stop them in present day before it’s too late. But the message is disrupted by Future!Alfred getting shot and killed with some laser thing before he can say who it was, right in front of Tim.

(Robin #117)

Which... well all of this is a lot on Tim's mind. He's torn between 'is it fake or real' and ultimately doesn't tell Bruce about what happened, instead deciding to try to handle this on his own. He at first thinks okay- it's gotta be fake, but who is trying to manipulate me with this and what are they trying to get me to do. He thinks someone is tailing him, and his prime suspect is Jaeger: a guy he'd gone up against a few times previously when dealing with monsters (Man-Bats and Charaxes). He runs into Dick (bc he wanted to wish Tim a happy belated birthday) who helps out- they stage a very convincing (they are ridiculous) fake fight to try to fool anyone potentially trailing Tim, this way Dick could then follow at a distance to observe and see if someone really was following him.

Ultimately though, nobody was tailing him, but Tim keeps investigating the Jaegar idea until eventually finding out he's actually in jail, so clearly not involved in this. When Tim gets home he's got an urgent message from Bruce, about some crazy new high-tech interrogation methods he used on the guy they tracked down, Yak, that had delivered the box to Tim's house and apparently unknowingly made it under a kind of hypnotic state.

(Robin #118)

And the voice from these recordings Bruce was able to get from Yak's mind, that gave him commands for building the box and delivering it? That's a voice Tim recognizes alright- it's the voice of the future Alfred! So now Tim is distressed because the hologram of future Alfred being real and him needing to stop a teammate going bad to prevent a bad future... is suddenly the most plausible scenario, and the only lead he's got.

Tim tries to go hook Yak back up to Bruce's new machine himself, to see if maybe the name that future Alfred got cut off from saying was somewhere hidden in his mind, but Yak had escaped his holding cell and in the ensuing fight he breaks the machine, so Tim can't use it. Instead he's stuck, forced to be paranoid about his friends- investigating them to see who could be the person that goes bad.

(However we do get a slight detour from the main plot to check in on some stuff with Steph- who'd been lying to Tim for the last few issues. Since finding out her dad died, rather than going home and facing her mom like she promised she would in Robin #111, she'd been renting a room on her own. Tim helps do some mediation with Steph and Crystal, so that she can feel comfortable going home again. Then that night he resumes investigation)

He trails Cass first (remember, this is 2003. She’s still like the newest Batfam member and the two of them aren't that close yet), but comes to no conclusions. He theorizes possible scenarios for how it could be Dick, then Babs, and we find out he spends about 10 days straight trailing basically all his Gotham allies trying to figure out who it could be.

He forms a plan to try to test his allies, by writing up a whole planned manifesto of the sort of ideals that led to the bad future according to that future Alfred, with the idea of showing/explaining it to each one and gauging their reaction (thinking that someone who didn't react extremely negatively could be the person who goes bad). However before trying this method out on anyone, he gets paranoid that maybe him doing this is the thing that plants the seed in someone's mind- and freaks out a bit... before-- WHAT?!

Future Alfred comes back- not just a hologram this time! A real physical person! He explains that more things happened in the future- yes Tim saw him die its okay they were able to fix it- but ultimately Tim starts noticing holes in his story, for example his robot arm suddenly being on a different hand than last time.

(Robin #120)

Tim rips off this guy's mask and it's- PRESENT DAY ALFRED?

(Robin #120)

The "Have a drink, sir. I don't care what your birthdate says-- after tonight, you are of age." as Alfred pulls out a flask fucking killed me the first time I read this, it's such a funny line in the middle of this tense mess.

But yeah, it's revealed this was all Bruce's doing. Tim calls it a trick, Bruce calls it training. The entire situation was basically a test of Tim's abilities, to take him to the "next level" and Bruce is overall pleased with how he did... despite then going on to point out some of the flaws in how Tim handled the situation.

(Robin #120)

"I mean really, time travel?" is infuriating. Bruce. You know damn well time travel has happened in this universe.

Timmy is, understandably, fucking pissed.

(Robin #120)

This is one of the not-too-common instances of Tim swearing (like, in a way that needs to be censored. That's what's rare for him, he uses 'damn' and 'hell' regularly like most teen characters). He kinda quits- and very seriously contemplates doing so for real because this whole thing seriously fucked with his head... but after venting to Steph about it, he ultimately decides to go back to Bruce.

But it uh... doesn't get... resolved. Bruce does not apologize. Tim doesn't ask him to. The story just... ends. The ending feels extremely rushed imo. This was the last issue of Lewis' run though (Willingham's run starts the next issue) so idk maybe he thought he'd have more time to spend on the aftermath and that just didn't happen, I don't really know how that transition between writers went since ya know it was 18 years ago.

But yes, anyways, while a lot of these events happen after the actual day, this all started with Bruce having the box delivered to Tim on his 16th birthday.

A slight side tangent to this already very long post- but I do wanna bring back up how Meghan Fitzmartin talked about picking Bernard for Sum of Our Parts because of Tim's mental/emotional state (feeling unsure about himself and his place in things) around the time he met Bernard... because this story is definitely something we could consider part of that. This birthday arc ends in Robin #120, and Tim first meets Bernard the following issue in Robin #121! Very shortly after that, Tim nearly decides to quit again- because he thinks he killed Johnny Warlock (in #123-124). When he gets out of that funk and decides to go full swing into Robin again- that's right when his dad finds out and makes him quit in #125 (Issues #126-128 are Steph's time as Robin... then we begin War Games. Tim goes back to Robin at the start of Act 2 of the event, in Detective Comics #798, so between Robin #129 and #130). As evidenced by this constant back and forth, this is absolutely a period where Tim is going through a lot of uncertainty and identity issues.

[imonthinice]

The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 18/?

Word Count: 2.5k

Author's Note: Y/N - your name, A/N - any name (your best friend's name)

Warnings: Mentions of court, mentions of Jason's injuries, swearing, No beta bitch we die like Jason Todd

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)

Jason walked out in a few minutes, just in his boxers. She looked at him before letting out a slight laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Don't laugh, you're the one who tore my clothes."

She sighed, "And you're going to have to go home in torn boxers, Bruce is going to kill you."

"God, don't remind me," he said before sitting beside her.

She laughed, "You could just not go home?"

"I wish. But I have a life. You have a life."

"It's unfortunate, isn't it. Can't spend all day with you but you're all I want to do."

"Funny."

"Thank you, I really tried," she thought, "You remember how I seem to have a fascination with vigilantes?"

"Yes, why?"

"I remembered why. So, when I was in high school, graduating year, I had law class. I was bored, so I did law, don't question it," she laughed. "Anyway, in my law class, they split us into groups. Specifically, Pro-Justice-League-Association and Anti-Justice-League-Association."

"Pro and Anti?"

"Yeah, apparently it was relevant? I guess the JLA doesn't use conventional methods to get evidence? Don't care though. Anyway, I was on the side of Pro, obviously."

"Obviously."

"Wait I'm not done! By the end of the class, I had debated every member of the Anti team and converted them. It actually introduced me to the Robin-Forums, which is just smack dab full of conspiracies."

"Robin-Forums?"

"Oh my god? You don't know those? You're all over them. Some people are convinced you're Kid Flash, some are convinced you're Robin, it's crazy."

"That is crazy but seems funny. What about my family?"

"Someone in my class posted "Why Clark Kent is Batman: An Essay" which has like, 20k likes? It's very popular."

"Well, I swear he isn't Batman. He's just very fond of the night."

"That's what I said, but that man is convinced otherwise."

"You would know if any of us were vigilantes. We're not good at hiding secrets."

"I'm sure you have your secrets, I just find it funny people think you have time to be Kid Flash."

"People spend all their time worrying about me, when will it end?"

"Ha! That's fair. Tabloids running your name probably doesn't help the conspiracies."

"I remember one of my ex-friends from high school mentioned me being Kid Flash, I was so confused, I guess it makes sense now. I'm going to have to show everyone that. They'll get a kick out of it."

"I bet they would. I'm waiting for the day I'm on it as someone who's a hero. Hoping they say I'm Wonder Woman or something. I think it would be funny."

"You get Miss Martin because everyone thinks you're too beautiful to be human."

"Aw. That's so corny that I hate it! Well done."

"Thank you. I learned it from Dick."

"Of course you did."

"Where else would I learn it from?"

"If you're genuinely asking, the internet, probably."

"That's fair. That's completely fair. I think Dick learns a lot of his lines from the internet, honestly."

"Oh yeah, there's no way he comes up with everything on his own. No way."

"So, what other dumb stories do you have?"

"Well, I think my sister is either a vigilante or really, really, weird."

"You think your sister is a vigilante?"

"Okay so, she's a businesswoman. No big deal, right? Wrong. She's always out, more often than she has to be, she's always spending nights away from home."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"Okay well Adrianna, Aria, whatever you want to call her, she's being suspicious."

"I'm sure you're looking too far into it."

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

The Night Jason Was Stabbed.

Aria clutched the scythe in her life hand. She had failed. She had worn her best dresses that she could hide beneath her capes, she had drugged him, she had stabbed him 6 bloody times, and he had still survived!

She was angry. She walked up to the Red Hood on his time off while he was catching a drink, looking stressed. She didn't care if he accepted her offer to go to her room, she just cared about that moment. The one where she could slip in the crushed-up pills and no one would stop her.

And she had done it. She waited until after he chugged the whole drink to strike. He was stumbling around, like an idiot. She hit his head with the back of her blade, knocking him to the ground where she proceeded to stab him 6 times in his right side.

She kissed his forehead before leaving, which required her to removed her mask a bit, saying "Goodnight, sweet Prince," before running into the darkness.

But the blue one, Nightwing. He got to the Red Hood before he could die. And she was pissed. All that hard work, just for him to not even die.

The scythe was still bloodied from the Red Hood. Her lips were still warm from his forehead. But now, he had possibly seen her face! Her plans were foiled every way when of her goblins came up to her.

"Ma'am, your weapon."

She passed it over without second thought. She wanted it rid of the blood of a living man, she wanted it soaked in the blood of a dead man.

Her plague doctor mask fell a bit as she began to tear up. She had failed. She had never failed at knocking "Heroes" down a peg.

Call it crazy, but she knew the fights between her and the Red Hood were far from over. She even felt as they'd grow closer.

As she looked at the walls covered in the photos of the vigilantes of the world, she knew this was only the first battle. The war was hers. They didn't know what was going to hit them.

But there was an issue. Her sister, Y/N had become close with one of the Waynes. She needed the Waynes to get to the "Heroes" which meant possibly hurting her sister.

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

"I hope I'm looking too far into it."

She wasn't.

One night when they were both 17, it was just Aria and Y/N in the house when Y/N was awoken by a loud crash from the downstairs window.

She went to investigate, bat in hand, to find her sister, stumbling over the coffee table. Bleeding out and clutching her side from the blood. Stabbed.

Y/N took no hesitation to take care of Aria. Stitching her up like they had as kids when Y/N would sitch up Aria after shut cut herself on skates, or if Y/N ran straight into a car.

Those images still dance in Y/N's mind to this day. Something was up with the way that her sister had a mask, a long bird-Esque plague doctor mask. A cloak. Knives. Guns. A scythe.

The best outcome would be her sister was attacked while LARPing in the park. The worst? She was a villain. Midway? A hero of the night, a vigilante. Anything was better than a villain.

If only she knew the pain Aria had caused her until this point. The fact that Aria was the one who drugged and tried to kill Jason. The pieces of the story were unravelling in front of everyone's eyes, they just needed to connect them properly.

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

Aria had a plan. Kidnap her sister and her lover's family. Get ransom. Get them hurting. Locate the "Heroes". The only issue was that Y/N would recognise the cloak, the mask. She knew the get-up.

Aria was not about to redesign her entire outfit for the sake of not alerting her sister. She figured it would be unlikely that Y/N would focus on the cloak when she's being used for ransom money.

Or at least she hoped. She wasn't certain her plan would even work. Breaking into the Wayne Manor, after one of the kids had been stabbed, in a mugging was going to be difficult.

They had employed security, something that was never common at the Wayne Manor before this moment. She was upset. If only her sister had met the Waynes before the stabbing.

Then she thought.

Red Hood is a Wayne?

It made sense, sure. They got stabbed at the same time. But was it reasonable? She didn't know. Why would an 18-20-year-old be a vigilante? He couldn't even legally drink?

She thought it didn't make sense. That the Red Hood was never, could never be the Wayne kid. But if he was, what could that mean?

She was certain he wasn't. But the thoughts swirled in her mind as if beckoning her to come to the conclusion.

She was crazy, she knew that. She was obviously crazy, she became the villain, the opposite of her twin in every way. She was insane. Arkham would like her. But there was something about the Red Hood being a Wayne that kept coming back to her. Haunting her like the night she was stabbed by Green Arrow back in Metropolis.

She was on their radar. They knew her. They would come to get the Waynes.

She knew the Justice League Association knew of her. But the people didn't. This stunt would make the people know of her.

The name Hour will ring through the streets of Gotham. The streets of Metropolis. Smallville. Anywhere she could get her hands on. She would begin her reign of terror.

No one could stop her now.

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

Jason had left after Bruce had called him. She assumed he needed to work or one of his siblings did a dumbass move. It was upsetting that they couldn't spend every moment together, but she knew that it was par for the course with Jason.

She was bored. She didn't have a job, her parents paid her bills if she focused on school. But she wasn't something to do, a reason to be having down days. She knew school gave her this, but it wasn't like it was every damn day.

A job would be every damn day. Hopefully. A reason to do so much in her life.

She figured she could work at Wayne Enterprises. But she didn't want to be that girl. The one who's fucking the CEO and is subsequently untouchable. You can't befriend her and talk sit, she'll tattle.

She wanted to be a normal working person. A colleague, not a boss.

Wayne Enterprises was a last resort for her. If she couldn't get hired anywhere else, she'd go apply thee. You don't fuck company property, she thought.

But she also thought fucking Wanye Enterprises "Property" was fun. and no one was really going to stop her, not even Bruce. Even though Bruce tried to lecture her and Jason, there was only so much he'd do. Barbara and Dick both worked at Wayne Enterprises and hadn't been reprimanded for that.

And obviously, they were having sex. They had been together for a while, Jason said.

Which, obviously they were having sex if they were together for that long.

She scrolled a little while for jobs, marking down a few she'd look further into. Not really anything exciting, she was still young, 1st year in college, a freshman. Not many prestigious places would hire someone her age. Especially while they're still in school.

There were only unpaid intern jobs in her field. And she wasn't about to fuck with not getting paid, even if it was her line of schooling. She didn't think it was worth it to put all of your efforts into a job that you weren't getting paid for.

A lot of kids thought her way, including her sister. Both of them grew up thinking that getting paid for work was necessary, her parents had always told them that. Even if her parents had strict religious views, they would still back her up if someone wasn't paying her, even if they fell out.

She thought if Bruce felt the same, that kids should be paid for what they do. He figured he did since he employed all of his kids once they were old enough to work at Wayne Enterprises.

She noticed Lexcorp, who had recently put up a building in Gotham, was hiring. She thought it would be funny if she went to work for her boyfriend's dad's competitor. She was tempted.

Worst comes to worst, she'd be a Lexcorp employee.

She, of course, would have to dress up for these interviews, and she had the clothes to do so, but she didn't, per se, want to wear them.

She also didn't want to go outside when trials were still raging. So, she figured she'd call Christopher's parents about getting him a lawyer and then scroll the pages for shopping. His parents finally had the time to deal with their son, because Christopher didn't want to interrupt his parents with him being an idiot.

She dialled.

"Hello?" his mom asked.

"Hey, Laura. It's Y/N."

"Y/N! Sweetheart, we've been wondering about you ever since, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. We can talk about it later I swear. So, I already told you about what Christopher did, right?"

"You did."

"He needs a lawyer, the man is pressing charges."

"Well, that's stupid. He has no right."

"Apparently he does."

"We'll get Christopher a lawyer. But how are you, darling?"

"I'm okay. Could be a hell of a lot better. I have faith in the court system."

"We're all worried about you, kiddo. You've wrapped yourself up in a lot of a mess recently."

"I know. It's weird. But I swear I'm strong enough to pull through, you've known me for what, 13 years? Give or take? I know how to handle myself."

"That doesn't mean we can't worry."

"I know, new city, new people. I swear behind the scandals I'm in that I actually have friends."

"I assume we'll meet this Jason eventually?"

"Eventually. We need to find the time between court dates, work. Adulting."

"You don't have a job?"

"Jason does. And I'm thinking about getting one to pass the time."

"Working to pass the time is a new thing, fascinating, you kids are."

"Nothing can make sense of all these things I've done, I know."

"Those sound like song lyrics."

"Sometimes songs are the best way to get all your thoughts compiled into one place, you know. I starred as Katherine Howard, Laura. I know how to convey emotion through art."

"I know. That's still one of the performances Metropolis holds on to, you know."

"I wish they didn't. But it is what it is."

"It's a good performance, kiddo."

She laughed, "Anyway. You get onto that lawyer. Christopher needs it right now."

"I will. Be safe. We love you."

"I love you lot."

Click. She thought about Christopher, and the bullshit he went through to save her.

She brushed the thoughts off and pulled out her journal. Scribbling down her sister's bird mask. She couldn't get that off of her mind. She could have sworn her sister made the thing out of actual bone.

It was like she threw a steampunk aesthetic into a plague doctor. She was certain there was more to it that she didn't know.

Literally Aria LMFAO

[air-in-words]

Badger Snakes and The "Red-Stained Ledger"

Since my recent announcement identifying as a Badger Snake (don't @ me if I change my primary at some point lol still going back over that one,) I've looked up some characters that have been identified as Badger Snakes, and found two things:

1) There weren't very many in fiction and

2) most go through the same personal journey I had described in my previous post.

By that, I mean, a very similar feeling of self-loathing or feeling as though you have some dirty secret to hide, AKA the Red-Stained Ledger Natasha Romanoff refers to. The two main ones that have been agreed upon I'll be focusing on are Woody from Toy Story and the aforementioned Black Widow, but I'll also be bringing two new characters into the fray, one that's been sorted as such based on the portrayal, and one that I've discovered on my own. They are Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman and Dewey Finn from School of Rock.

It's interesting to find the similar plotlines that certain sortings are given consistently in media, and The Power Behind the Throne AKA Badger Snake seems to pretty much only have the one: They fight for the group that they are loyal to, but they can't seem to help but do so in a way that they aren't proud of, one that they're sure would lead said group to shun them.

I'm sure someone could point out a character I'm not referencing here that doesn't have that plot, but at the very least, this plot dominates the sorting.

Woody in the first movie goes through exactly that issue. He only wants to fight for Andy's toys, and in many ways, all toys he comes across. He makes choices that he believes will benefit everyone, and prides himself on being able to make the "tough choices." But, he ends up having to do so in a "duplicitous" way, when he seeks to manipulate Buzz Lightyear out of his group. This is a horrible, dirty secret to him, and he feels almost as if he could never return to them, never show his face again because of how he chooses to fight. In the end, he reaffirms that his actions come from a good place, a place of love for his group, and finds ways to use his crafty talents that are slightly more constructive and a little less "cloak and dagger."

Natasha Romanoff has given me the namesake for this Badger Snake element: the Red-Stained Ledger. She describes her desire to fight for her country, for her family, but struggles with what she knows she's good at. She believes she's inherently a bad person and is determined to remain a loner due to her "badness," due to the "monster" she is. Good people don't lie or manipulate. Good people... uh... I dunno, bake cakes or something? Work humble jobs? But, her contribution to the world, her ability to be clever and tricky, means that holding her group, her country, her family, the Avengers themselves, only in her heart and not in her hands. But, her true colors are shown in her never-ending dedication to the cause, down to her being willing to give her life so that no one else has to do it. In a way, it's sad, because she died believing she in some way deserved it. But, none of her teammates felt that way about her. She may have been crafty, a master manipulator, and a skillful liar, but she was the farthest thing from bad.

Now, onto the two newer additions. I've seen Selina Kyle sorted as Double Snake, and I would agree that there are many interpretations that could fit the bill. But, if you ask me, the truest interpretation of her is as The Power Behind the Throne, the Robin Hood with no loud cause to shout from the rooftops; only a desire to help the people of Gotham. She uses her skills as a thief to act as a sort of "guardian angel" to the poorest in Gotham, but she has no grand statement to make. She sees people hurting, her group, the underdogs of Gotham, and came to their aid. But she does so quietly, secretly, because she believes in her heart that the way she has done so is not worthy of praise. She's a con and a thief, but, she places people above all else. She, in some interpretations, is one of the main people to open Bruce's eyes to the fact that not all criminals are necessarily bad people. Some of them are just in terrible situations they can't get out of. And yet, she won't afford that benefit of the doubt to herself, believing she is simply a broken toy not worth fixing. Her occasionally lackadaisical attitude towards killing may seem to make Badger primary unlikely, but Badgers are not always loyal to ALL humans. Her group is the poor and downtrodden, and those who act against them are less than human in her eyes.

Now, we come to my personal favorite, my own personal discovery: Dewey Finn from one of my favorite movies, School of Rock.

Dewey is a fabulous example of a Badger Snake, in my personal opinion. His chosen group is Rock with a Capital R and "the band," whichever band that may currently be. He may have some sort of Burnt Snake primary performance/model going on, wanting to play the part of a "rock star" that truly only cares about himself, but his true loyalty is very clear. He is worried about doing his chosen group justice in every way, making sure that Rock is being well-represented and that he's serving his current band the very best he has to offer. Being kicked out of his band at the very beginning is earth-shattering to him, not because he has a Snake primary style devotion to only them, but because they told him he let them down, and implying that he wasn't representing Rock the way he should. His Snake primary performance/model melts away as he bonds to his new band, the kids he teaches. He brings them into his chosen group of Rock and creates a new bonded group with them in particular as they form a band. He actually finds himself liberated by taking a backseat to the children (a very Badger primary thing to enjoy,) allowing Zack to play his song, guiding Freddie away from making bad choices, helping Tamika find her voice, encouraging fellow Snake secondary Summer how to use her shrewdness, and, using a method I believe is best utilized by Badger Snakes, helping Principal Mullins find her chill. Lol.

Badger Snakes, more than any other Snake secondary type, will rely on the "we aren't so different you and I" approach to get what they want. He finds out Mullins also enjoys Rock. This is something they have in common! Let's create a situation where we "naturally" find out we have this thing in common, placing us both in the same group. Although other primaries don't glorify groups as much as Badger primaries do, all people are more likely to listen to or help out someone they feel is like them in some way. So, Dewey puts some Stevie Nicks on the jukebox and gets Mullins on his side.

In a similar fashion to the characters listed above, Dewey believes he is truly a loser and has nothing of any actual value or goodness to provide. But, the children help him see he's wrong, and he finds a way to utilize his talents in a way that truly fulfills him.

In conclusion, although seemingly unrepresented, I think there actually may be quite a few more Badger Snakes hiding in media, and, perhaps, they can be outed by looking for the Red-Stained Ledger plotline. Badger primaries are more likely, in my opinion, to be disturbed by their actions than say a Lion primary, due to where their loyalties truly lie. Although Lions may fight for the right thing, and that right thing may involve people's rights or serving a group, they serve that right thing before any of the people they may steamroll over to achieve it. Badgers, by definition, serve things. And, usually, lying, cheating, or otherwise being crafty is viewed as the worst possible way to serve someone or something. They do care about the things they may hurt or damage through their actions, and how they use their talents does, in fact, matter to them immensely.

So, to my Badger Snakes out there struggling with their own so-called "Red-Stained Ledgers", just remember that Dewey Finn would think you're kick-ass.

EDIT: Sorry, was thinking about it, and had to put an edit. Another way to think of this plotline/character archetype is mentioned in School of Rock as well as in a musical I know very well. I wouldn't use this moniker as the name for this plotline, only because it describes a very specific Snake secondary, one that is playful and light-hearted, and not all Snake secondaries are like this.

Zack's song refers to Dewey as The Magic Man, a person that swoops in and, almost by magic (in actuality, manipulation) brings out the best in the people around them. In the aforementioned musical, this character is called The Music Man.

Harold Hill may very well be another Badger Snake, although one more heavily disguised than Dewey Finn. I won't go too deep into his characterization here, but know he's a conman who claims to be a band instructor, while he has no musical talent himself, planning on taking the money for the uniforms and instruments and running. Instead, almost without realizing it, he encourages and manipulates the people of the town he enters into becoming better versions of what they are now. And, the most tragic part of his character is revealed once another character, one of the children he's conned, points out that there isn't a band, and never has been one. Harold tells him "I always think there's a band, kid."

It's interesting that, in both of these cases, they are associated with music and an almost mystical ability to bring out the best in others. I might do a more in-depth look at Harold Hill at some point, since I've been planning on doing some musical characters for a bit.

If thinking about having a Red-Stained Ledger is too negative for your own self-image, think of yourself as The Music Man. Your friends and the people around you may actually see you as an almost mystical force for good, someone who always seems to know the right thing to say or do to bring out the best in them. :)

[dented-nado]

Well since you specifically asked: Twiddler

“Yah I like Eddie but he’s straight // BAD LUCK, HUH?”

“No he’s not”

“NO IM NOT??”

Shenanigans

I’m dying right now, the ol’ Harv(ey) stubbornly thinks that Edward fucking Nygma is s  t r a  I g ht love it.  Still one of my fave convos we’ve ever had.

==================

Eddie’s POV

 =====================

It had been about a year since he had joined the sort of halfway home that Bruce Wayne had opened up for Ex-Rogues. However Eddie was somewhat convinced the billionaire he now realized had been Batman the whole time (pfft, he totally could have figured that out… he just… hadn’t…) rather liked having he, Harley, and Harv(ey) as a sort of odd band of roommates. And well… a literal mansion wasn’t a bad place to stay in by any stretch of the imagination.

He certainly had expected (and been quietly and not so quietly jealous) that because Harv(ey) and Bruce had apparently been close as far back as when they were children, Wayne would certainly be ecstatic to have Two-Face hanging around. He still was a little bit taken a back that well… anyone would want him around.

But he really was trying to reform. Maybe part of it was because the routine had gotten boring and he’d started finding more quiet and less destructive games and puzzles more entertaining these days. Besides, he realized he could have more fun with such things when he wasn’t being hauled back to Arkham because he’d taken things a little too far so often.

That being said, he had a new focus, a new goal.

And that was the previously mentioned Harv(ey) Dent. The giant, the absolute unit that towered over him.

Two souls for the price of one. Harvey was quietly intelligent (though sometimes a little bit delightfully oblivious), kind, and soft. Then Harv, he was bold, had a wonderfully fun fashion sense, and had a gravelly voice that admittedly caused Eddie’s mind to pull a blank at times.

They were a man that could have half their face burned to a crisp with acid and still be the only man that had been in Arkham (in Edward’s opinion) that could really get it.

He still remembered the first time “two-face” had been escorted into Arkham, the sight of them had knocked the wind right out of him, completely stopped his plotting for his next attempt to outsmart Batman.

Sure, perhaps he had heard and sort of seen images of Harvey Dent, the famous distract attorney that had been nicknamed Gotham’s “white knight” on the tiny, crappy TV they were occasionally allowed to watch when they were let out of their cells. But that never did him justice.

Seeing him here? Up close?

What a man. A handsome man, carved by angels and blessed by the devil

Now if only he could get Harv(ey) Dent to notice him.

Since that day he’d tried time and time again under the hope that maybe just maybe… this giant of a man would consider a relationship of sorts.

He tried to impress them with his vast intellect, sitting close to him and going off about any fact or subject he happened to know. He then tried to drill Harvey about his knowledge as a lawyer (which he thought also might just be interesting to know). They were certainly a good listener… and Harvey warmed up to talking about legal jargon and the pains of law school with Eddie eventually.

He was able to talk to Harv about their mutual love of fun patterns and bright colors and agreed that anyone who dissed it just didn’t understand fashion. He also realized soon that Harv loved to talk when he was acknowledged, and Eddie was more than happy to encourage him to and lightly swoon at that voice.

However, they were still only on a ‘good pals’ basis.

Which maybe Eddie could have accepted, except he caught Harvey staring at him at times, smiling slightly whenever Eddie would talk about what interested him. And Harv, he had gotten Harv to laugh a few times.

There was something there, he knew it, but for some reason he couldn’t puzzle out, Dent wasn’t acting on it.

It continued to this day. Harley had suggested to Edward he simply outright tell Harv(ey) Dent he was interested in them. But that wasn’t fun or interesting, and certainly not as romantic as Eddie would like.

So, after years of frustration now, he decided he’d go to the one person who had known Harv(ey) Dent their whole life for advice.

 ============

Bruce’s POV

============

“So, that’s my dilemma.”  Edward finished, pushing up his glasses in a very matter-of-fact way.

Bruce sighed. The only person who had ever rivaled his own stubbornness and… stupidity when it came to others having an romantic interest in them, was in fact Harv(ey) Dent. This would no doubt be difficult.

He wasn’t even sure how he managed to get into a relationship with Clark and Diana, so he wasn’t sure how much of a help he’d be trying to get Harv(ey) and Eddie to pair up.

“I’m decently sure he’s interested in you.” He replied.

“I’m quite sure too, however nothing I do seems to get them to do anything.” Eddie expressed, looking completely exasperated.

“hrrn....” Bruce grumbled thoughtfully. “What have you tried so far?”

“Well… I’ve given them gifts, flowers seemed like a sure-fire method- yet he seemed to somehow take them as a platonic gift.”

Bruce stared at Eddie for a long moment. “Who gives flowers platonically?”

Eddie shrugged.

Bruce sighed. “Dammit Harvey… Harv…” He mumbled under his breath. “I could try talking to them, get some better idea of what’s going on their head, could be Harvey and Harv keep arguing on how they want to respond.” He suggested.

Eddie nodded thoughtfully. “That may be the case, that is a possibility I had not considered… thank you for your assistance batma….. ah… Bruce…” He corrected with a slight grin.

Bruce half smiled back.

Batman was on the case.

====

“So… Harv…. Harvey…” Bruce began wandering over to where they were sitting.

They were seemingly switching between drinking a hot coffee and a Frappuccino.

Harvey had complained more than once that because of their disagreements Harv ended up making them consume way too much sugar. Too much caffeine in this case it seemed.

Their eyes flicked over to him.

“Hi Bruce.”

“What’s up Pretty Boy?”

Bruce sat down across from them. “Eddie seems to be interested in you.”

Never hurt to be blunt with a lawyer.

Harvey snorted. “That’d be nice… he is really cute but…”

“I’m sure Eddie is straight, just our luck, right?”

Bruce had never been so shocked in all his life.

Straight?

Eddie…

Straight?! E d  d I  e.

Str a I ght, Edward Nygma E Nygam s t ra ight

The two concepts being put together caused a complete error in Bruce’s mind that was slowly beginning to fry.

Who could possibly conclude that Edward was s t r aight?

The riddler…. The riddler who for a while greeted Batman like he was lowkey interested in a literal love-hate relationship

Edward

Str a I ght.

“Are you… fucking kidding me?” Bruce ended up stammering before he even realized it. “He’s not… at all!”

Harvey blinked at him a few times in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

Bruce gaped at them. They couldn’t be serious.

“Harvey… I… Harv… he… he’s not exactly subtle about it. In fact he’s very open, very much out and proud, flaming even. I’m sure he’d agree.”

Harvey looked at Bruce through squinted eyes. “Are you sure Bruce?”

“Sure, maybe he’s a bit more flashy than your average guy, but that doesn’t mean gay.” Harv added with a shrug.

“He calls you handsome at least 3 times a day.” Bruce said still staring at Harv(ey) like they were absolutely insane.

“Lots of people do.”

“Have you ever seen him even flirt with any women??” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“No but… well there’s always been more men in Arkham, and when do you even have time for that?”

Bruce was somewhere in-between wanting to laugh at them and slap them.

“He’s given you flowers.”

“Pretty sure he’s just being friendly.”

“Friendly…” Bruce wheezed.

This conversation was taking years off his life at this point. He shook his head and texted Edward.

“Get in here (the living room downstairs) It’s important”

Edward slid in and sat peppily down on the couch with Bruce within a few minutes, causing Harv(ey) to look between Eddie and Bruce in confusion.

“You rang Mr. Wayne~?” Eddie asked with a cheeky grin as he leaned his head against his hand.

“You know what these men just said to me?” Bruce began folding his hands together.

“Bruce nooo…” Harvey pleaded.

“No no, I think he should know.” Bruce insisted.

Eddie raised his eyebrows comically high. “Well don’t keep me waiting, what’s the tea?”

Bruce cleared his throat. “They said… they’re sure you’re straight.”

Eddie stared at Bruce for a minute, eyes widening.

“Me?” He asked completely baffled.

Bruce nodded.

Eddie threw back his head and laughed until his face turned red and he had trouble breathing.

Harv(ey) looked on stiffly, feeling as if they had made a mistake somewhere as the dawning realization slapped them in the face.

 ============

Harv(ey)’s POV

===================

It was bad enough they had put themselves in denial so far they had missed out starting something with the small bean-pole riddle-man much earlier…

But now because they had convinced themselves Eddie was straight and therefore could have no interest in them… Eddie and Bruce were refusing to let them live it down.

And Bruce seemed to have gotten literally everyone in on the joke. Anyone Bruce hadn’t told between his partners and his massive family, Eddie had told.

Harley had begun kissing Ivy in front of them while they both traded off saying “no homo tho” between kisses until Harv(ey) groaned and left the room in a huff, leaving them both laughing maniacally.

Eddie had begun dramatically entering a room with a flourish announcing “Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys, Gals, and Non-binary pals, the straightest man alive has arrived, you may all start the party.”

Even when they first slept together, Edward had started quietly laughing and mumbling about “how straight, and very much not gay at all this occurrence was.”

Bruce hadn’t been able to look at them in weeks without breaking out into a full on belly laugh at his expense, mumbling something along the lines of “The Riddler, st r a I ght, good lord...”

On one hand they were happy Bruce was laughing more but god dammit…

They felt a bit dumb about it to say the least.

“How did we ever think Eddie was straight?” Harvey thought to himself.

“I don’t fucking know. I really… really… don’t.”                                                                                          

Well… maybe giving everyone a little levity while still being able to date a cute red-head that seemed to know the strangest facts about almost everything that they could enjoy listening to him babble about for hours happily…. Was all worth it. Even if they were embarrassed by their comically stupid brand of denile.

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

Dick reached as high as his eleven year old legs could take him, towards a set of pots in the cabinet. It wasn’t enough, but Bruce stepped over to help him, setting the pots down on the kitchen island.

“Okay,” Bruce said. “Review the rules for me again?”

“Alfred gives us three ingredients,” Dick explained, “and we have to make something that has all three in it.”

“How much time do I get?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“And I have to present it, right?”

“Yeah. Alfred’s the judge.”

“And then?”

“He puts the dish that loses under a cover, and we wait for a dramatic reveal.”

“Oh, drama. Good.”

Dick gave Bruce a look. “I’m gonna be the announcer.”

“I thought you were doing it with me?”

“I’ll be a contestant too.”

“Is that going to work?”

“Oh yeah,” said Dick, smiling brightly. “It’ll be great. Ready to start?”

“I guess.”

Dick ran to the other side of the kitchen, flipped off the light switch, did a quick twirl, and flipped it back on. He slid into the middle of the kitchen on his sock feet. 

“Good evening!” he said, in his best commentator voice. “And welcome back to Chopped at the Wayne Tower penthouse. I’m your host, Dick Grayson, and today I’ll be competing against Mr. Bruce Wayne!”

Dick struck a confident pose, motioning for Bruce to do the same. Bruce half-laughed and stepped forward into what Dick recognized as his Batman-overlooking-the-city stance. 

The image cracked Dick’s persona, and he laughed so hard he had to bend over and breathe for a few seconds. He got back to business. 

“Let me introduce you to our judge, the honorable Alfred Pennyworth! Let’s give him a round of applause, folks!”

Alfred gave a solemn nod from his place at the dining room table. Dick ducked to the other side of the island, clapping his hands loudly to simulate a fake audience. Bruce joined in.

“Contestants, grab your baskets!” Dick pulled his own cloth covered basket, the one Alfred prepared for him, from the island counter. It had some heft to it. He wondered what was inside. 

“Let’s take a look! Mr. Wayne?”

Bruce flipped open the matching basket on his counter and lifted out a glass jar. “Cherries,” he said, holding them up. 

“And?”

“Chocolate chips.”

“And last?”

“Uh.” Bruce examined another jar, this one plastic, and set it back down. “Cinnamon peanut butter.”

“Hm,” said Dick. “Interesting. A dessert round.”

“Oh yes,” Alfred confirmed. 

“Do you have the stop-watch?”

“I do, Master Richard.”

“Okay then— on your mark, get set… go!”

Dick ran towards the pantry, but Bruce stepped in front of him, blocking the way. 

“Hey!” Dick complained. 

“Sabotage,” said Bruce, grinning, before he let Dick pass. 

Dick pulled the bag of pancake mix from a shelf and scooted sideways, holding it behind his back so Bruce couldn’t see. Unnecessary, he realized, since he was going to announce his choice anyway. 

“Dick Grayson takes an early lead in speed! He has selected a bag of breakfast mix! Mr. Grayson, what do you plan to make?”

“Waffles!” said Dick, answering his own question. He slid over to the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk and a container of heavy whipping cream. “I’ll be making chocolate chip waffles using the cherry juice for color and flavor, with the fruits themselves on top.”

“What about the peanut butter?” asked Bruce. 

“Flavor for whipped cream.”

“Oh. That’s clever.”

“No copy-cats. That’s cheating.”

“Right.” 

“What about you, Mr. Wayne? Ideas?” Dick pushed himself off the island and held a spatula up at Bruce’s face like a microphone.

Bruce held up a packet of something. 

“Ah!” Dick nodded in approval. “Can you tell us— why Jell-O?”

“It has instructions on the box.”

“You make good points.”

“I’m using the Speed-Set method. It’s highly technical.”

“I’m sure it is.” 

“But I’m still not positive it’s going to set in time.”

“I guess we’ll see?” said Dick. “It’s a good idea anyway.”

“Thank you.”

“Alfred will taste this jello, and you will taste defeat.”

“Okay.”

Dick ran back to his island with a mixing bowl stolen from Bruce’s side of the kitchen. 

“Hey!” Bruce complained. 

“Sabotage,” said Dick, grinning. 

Dick stirred his milk into the waffle mix, then dumped in a generous pour of cherry juice. The mixture turned a delightful shade of bright pink. Dick left it for a few moments to slide back to Bruce’s side of the room. He overshot slightly and collided softly with the counter. 

“Whoops. Mr. Wayne, how does it go at station number two?”

“Well,” said Bruce. “I’m using the cherries in this jello, but I don’t really know what to do with the other two ingredients.”

“Thought process?”

“None.”

“Oh, sure.”

“I bet chocolate and peanut butter go together,” Bruce mused. 

“Yeah.”

“But in what?”

“I dunno.” Dick stepped back into the kitchen center. “Time?” he yelled.

“Eighteen minutes left,” said Alfred. 

Bruce hurriedly shoved a few glasses of red jello into the freezer. Dick returned to his station to pour his chocolate chips into his mixture. 

He pulled the waffle iron from the cabinet under the counter, sprayed it with the bottle of no-stick, plugged it in, and waited for it to heat up. While he did, he wandered over to Alfred’s table with his spatula. He held it out to Alfred. 

“Judge Pennyworth, your impressions?”

“I believe this will be interesting if nothing else.”

“Are you hungry?”

“I have not decided at this point.”

Dick nodded. “Time?”

“Fourteen minutes.”

“Oh, I better get back.”

Waffle iron ready, Dick gave his pink mixture a final stir and poured it in. He did spill some over the side of the bowl, and the counter, and the iron, but that was okay by him. The waffle iron steamed cheerily. 

Dick rummaged through the drawers for a whisk. He added vanilla and powdered sugar to his cream, then scooped in a few spoonfuls of peanut butter, then began to whisk as quickly as possible.

While he did, he went to investigate the other side of the kitchen. 

“Mr. Wayne! Have you formed a plan?”

“I think I’m going to make hot chocolate. With peanut butter.”

“And jello?”

“Served with jello.”

“That doesn’t really… go together.”

“I’m aware. It’ll have to do.”

“Okay, I guess. I gotta flip my waffle.”

Bruce nodded. Dick spun around a few times, just because, and flipped his waffle. He returned to his whisk. 

“Time?” Bruce called.

“Eight minutes.”

“Thanks.” When Dick looked over, Bruce had the milk. Bruce poured it into a mug, studied it for a few moments, and stuck it in the microwave. He hesitated again before punching in a number.

One minute. Dick shrugged. He didn’t know how long to put it in either. Alfred always made the hot chocolate at home, and before that, Dick’s dad. Bruce’s guess was as good as his. 

The microwave hummed as Dick’s whipped cream began to peak. He hummed along with the microwave in satisfaction. 

“Six minutes,” said Alfred. 

Dick’s waffle came out just fine, if not as pretty as he wanted. The chocolate chips that landed on the outside of the waffle marred the color a little bit, but the rest was suitably bright, and Dick liked it.

He set the waffle on a plate, stuck a few cherries on top, and slid to Bruce’s side again. Wait until the last moment to put on the whipped cream, he figured. That way it wouldn’t wilt. 

“Mr. Wayne appears to be stirring in chocolate chips and peanut butter,” Dick narrated. “Any comments, Mr. Wayne?”

“I hope my jello set.”

“I do too. Are you going to pull it out now?”

“I suppose.” Bruce stepped over to the freezer and removed his glasses. The red at the bottom of the glasses jiggled a little bit over the cherries settled at the bottom.

“Hm,” said Bruce. 

“I think it set.”

“Maybe.”

“One minute,” said Alfred. 

Dick heaped on a dollop of peanut butter whipped cream and set his plate on the table in front of Alfred. Bruce followed with a glass of jello and a gently steaming mug of hot chocolate. 

“Time,” said Alfred.

“Folks, it’s time for Judge Pennyworth to make his comments. Judge Pennyworth?”

“I comment,” said Alfred, “that this is surprisingly competent on Mr. Wayne’s part.”

Bruce took a bow. 

“We’ll start with Mr. Grayson’s dish. It’s a lovely color.”

“Thank you,” Dick said, smiling. 

“And for taste…” Alfred scooped off a section of whipped cream and nodded thoughtfully. “This is very nice. Let us taste the waffle.”

Dick beckoned Alfred onward. 

“This also is very nice,” Alfred decided. “Well done, Master Richard. We will now move to Mr. Wayne’s dish. Hm. Jello does not go with hot chocolate.”

“I know,” Bruce groaned. 

“But the fine glass goblets are a nice touch.”

“Thank you.”

“Your jello does appear to be set.”

“Thank God.”

“And this hot chocolate is ah,” Alfred took a sip, “a little flavorless, actually. I might suggest more chocolate next time.”

“Hm,” said Bruce. “I will take that into account every other time I do this.”

“Your sarcasm is unappreciated. If you could both leave the room?”

“Okay!” Dick grabbed Bruce’s arm and pulled him out through the living room and into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. 

“Was it fun?” Dick asked. 

“Sure.”

“You don’t sound excited.”

“As long as you’re having fun, I’m having fun.”

“I am ready,” said Alfred’s voice.

They hurried back into the dining room, where Alfred sat at his table with a large, covered platter in front of him. 

“Yes!” Dick exclaimed. He hopped in front of the table with his spatula. 

“Before we show a winner, let’s talk about our experience. Mr. Wayne! You put on a great show today. Why did you join this contest?”

“Oh thank you, I was forced to be here.”

“Forced by your love of cooking?”

“Absolutely.”

“Are you proud of your dish?”

“I am, actually. That’s the best I’ve done in years.”

“I can confirm,” said Alfred. 

“You’re in fine form today,” said Bruce. 

“Okay!” said Dick. “Whose dish… is on the chopping block? Judge Pennyworth?”

Alfred lifted his cover to reveal a goblet of jello and a mug of hot chocolate.

“It was a hard decision, but alas, one I had to make.”

Dick grinned. 

“Bruce Wayne! Gotham nobility, the guillotine has come.”

“Dark,” said Bruce. 

“You have been chopped.”

“Okay.” 

“I receive honor and glory as my prize.”

“You receive clean-up duty,” said Alfred. “Both of you.”

[what-if-i-imagine]

I’m writing a series of my own idea of RHatO, and here is my basic set up in the series chronicle order:

1) Team One/The Beginning: Jason is still 18 in this, so this takes place directly after UtRH. In this universe, right after the fight with Bruce Jason leaves Gotham and has no intention of ever returning to it or the Batfam. He has seen what happened in his absence, and as fearful as he is for Tim’s life, he can not mentally handle being around a Bruce who no longer loves him because he’s too caught up in a memory to see his present self.

When the explosion happens at the end of UtRH, Jason manages to make his way to the docs bleeding out from his neck and severely wounded still from the explosion. He ends up sneaking on a boat, discovers it’s a smuggling boat for nuclear weapons and takes it down. Kori rescues him from the water and she and Jason save Roy from execution same as the comics.

The difference is, I keep the cannon of Roy and Dick being friends, but they became estranged after Roy became a bit more radical than the Titans cared for, and Kori and Roy are still friends who remember each other. (Kori also still remembers meeting Jason when he was first adopted, but at first does not recognize this as the same Jason. Neither does Roy, and he grew a friendship with Jason when Dick would have to drag him along and to his knowledge that Jason is dead).

In this version Roy’s character doesn’t get absolutely botched and Lian exists but he doesn’t know about her yet. A good portion of this story is a three of them running towards their own futures together that doesn’t involve their past (no Batfam, Oliver or saving Tamaran, just their own character growth as a found family away from their past).

Jason and Kori help Roy through recovering from drug/alcohol addiction. Jason and Roy help Kori find her footing on earth as an alien and as a survivor of her trauma. Kori and Roy realize who Jason is and help him overcome the Lazarus rage and redefine himself as he wants to be without Bruce, Talia or Ducra’s influences.

This is much more a story about survivors overcoming their trauma together and learning to be happy with their little found family than it is a story about a group of Antiheroes looking for redemption.

2) This is about a year and a half after the first team started. Kori has to go off world for the Tamaran plot and Roy is overseas trying to figure out the situation with Lian who he just learned exists. Jason is left alone again with just the promise that their small family will get back together. I actually have no problems with the Rebirth team, so they basically get together same as they did in the comics.

Found family trying to break away from the image of “The Dark Trinity” to be themselves and their own heroes. They aren’t Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman but dark. They are Jason, Artemis and Bizzaro. They care for each other and do their jobs as anti-heroes.

3) The second Outlaw team has to also do a temporary dispan of the team with their Justice League counterparts chasing after them. During this time, 22 year old Jason accidentally runs into two familiar faces from his past who are also on the run, but from the Titans.

Rose and Eddie has run away from the Titans after Eddie took up Neron on becoming a sort of protege of his instead of signing his soul away and Rose broke the no killing rule (again). Eddie and Jason were best friends as kids, and Jason and Rose has become friends behind Dick’s back while he was training her as a hero.

Together they team up while on the run, making it into a sort of mercenaries/heroes for hire gig while also being a child hood friend reunion.

4) This is where the All-Caste and Untitled plot comes into use (because I actually loved that bit of New-52 Jason and hated how under used it went). Kori is back on world with Artemis and Biz safely hidden on her island. Jason and the third Outlaw team make their way to the island to hide out with them after a mission gone wrong revealed their position. Essence appears to Jason and tells him aboyt Ducra’s death soon after he arrives, and he leaves with her to go see for himself.

Jason and Essence go on their crusade against the Untitled together as sort of sibling figures to each other. It’s them against the last remaining members of the Untitled, taking them out once and for all.

During their crusade they run into Cass (who is Jason’s cousin with her mom and his dad being the children of Ma Gunn in this). She helps out for a little bit, and convinced a Jason to finally let the Batfam into his life when this is all over before parting ways.

Another person they run into is none other than Joseph Wilson. They put their crusade on hold to help him straighten out his mind. Joey ends up coming to trust them and when he hears that his sister is a good friend of theirs, he tags along and helps with the rest of their crusade.

5) Generation Outlaw and Ma Gunn happens somewhere? I’m not sure it will be before or after the four teams combine.

6) The teams converge into one wth Roy returning to the island with Lian. They end up building an actual base underneath the island that safely houses all of them (including Generation Outlaw who they are raising as anti-heroes instead of villains). Roy rarely works in the feild anymore, instead becoming a sort of Oracle/Man in the Chair for the Outlaws who makes their weapons, fixes up the ships and all that other stuff that keeps him safe so that he can be there to watch Lian grow while still making a difference.

I forgot to mention, in each story both Kyle and Sasha will be making guest appearances.

Kyle is sent out by the JL every story in the series to capture/stop the Outlaws and keeps “accidentally” letting them get away. (He May not agree with their methods, but he’d have to be blind to not see the positive results).

Sasha is basically the young girl Jason adopts right after UtRH. She’s much younger in this (around nine at the start so that Jason can legally adopt her), but her story plays out about exactly the same. In the first story she pops in a few times but is kept safe in the island for the most part while she traines as Scarlett. Begrudgingly by story two Jason sends her off with Ducra to be under what he knows is safe protection and good training while he’s on the run. In story three Sasha is running around in her own adventures following the same Overnight Crime Lord path that Jason took right after his All-Caste training, checking in with Jason on the phone at a set time every week so he knows she’s safe (at first Rose judges his parenting style, but realizes upon her first in person meeting of Sasha that he is doing just fine with his tiny Russian crime lord). She’s there for some of the Untitled crusade, but for the most part she knows she would only get in Jason and Essence’s way if she wasn’t on the island because they would be constantly worrying about her.

The ships will be Jayroy, and possible parings with the others I haven’t decided on, but the romances will always be very much background things going on. This series is first and foremost about platonic love among a found family of individuals who find healing and safety in each other. In my opinion that’s what a RHatO story should really be about.

[hood-ex]

Hi! Love your blog and your fic! You seem like a really nice person who's also pretty knowledgeable about dc so I thought maybe you could give me some advice? I've recently gotten into Batman comics and have some ideas for fics I want to try, but I've never been so scared to write for a fandom before. There's just so much canon I haven't gotten into and I really want to get characters right. Its also kind of an intimidating fandom to get into. Do you have any tips that might help me out?

Sure, yeah! I totally understand how you feel btw. I was so nervous to start writing fics in this fandom for the same exact reason. 

One important thing to keep in mind is that your fic doesn’t have to encapsulate every single trait that a character has across all comics. You can pick and choose a few to focus on. 

For example, if I want to write about Damian then I can choose to focus on his brash attitude and his hesitance to partake in something considered fun or childish. I don’t have to include his love of animals, his insane intellect, his tendency to insult/belittle people, his moments of compassion, his desire to be accepted, his insecurity of being rejected/replaced, etc. 

Another way to make Damian sound more like Damian is to reference little things about him from the comics. For example, Damian likes to play a video game called Cheese Viking. Throwing that into a conversation will make the readers feel like you know this character on a deeper level (even if you don’t). 

What you get is something like this:

“Get out of my way, Todd! The time I’ve wasted on talking to you could have been spent doing far more productive things like getting to the next level on Cheese Viking!” 

Also, try and find moments in comics (or individual panels you find) that will give you an example of what a character acts like when they’re happy, sad, mad, stressed, etc. Base your own reactions off of those moments. 

For example, if I want to write a scene of Dick comforting someone, I’ll try and find a scene in a comic where he’s doing that. I can then analyze whether Dick uses touch to comfort someone, if he throws a few encouraging words at them, or if he stops and listens to their troubles. Comics are good for using as a base or outline on how you can make a character react to a situation. 

Now if you don’t have time to read a bunch of comics to look for that kind of info then I’ll share a little trick with you. There are blogs on Tumblr who post the most important, relevant, and impactful scenes from comics. 

My advice to you would be to find one of these blogs that posts a lot of comic panels, type in a character’s name into the search bar of their blog (or look at their archive), and if the blog has a good enough tagging system, tons and tons of panels that have the character you typed in will pop up. 

Browse through them. Pay attention to how the character speaks, how they react to certain situations, and how they interact with other characters. Take little notes on their behavior if you want. 

Another way to go about this is simply by typing random shit into the Tumblr search bar like “Dick Grayson sad” or “Bruce Wayne fight.” Sometimes you’ll get tons of results to browse through. A lot of it will be art or text posts, but there will also be comic panels included in the search. You can also do random comic issue searches to pull up comic panels for you to analyze. I used to just type stuff like “Nightwing 145″ or “Gotham Knights 37.” 

You can also do this with Google images as well as Pinterest. Pinterest has a shit ton of comic panels too. I see them all the time in the Google search results when I’m hunting for a specific comic. Seriously, just pick a comic and start searching for random issue numbers or keywords. Stuff will pop up. Read what comes up, takes notes if you want, and absorb that info into your character building arsenal. That way you don’t have to waste time reading the entire comic, you can just look at the most important bits from the comics and base your characters off of that to get you started. 

You’ll start to notice patterns of the character’s behavior and you may even be able to spot whether something sounds OOC or not. The only bad thing about that method is you may not be able to tell if a character is acting OOC based on a panel that is out of context. In time, the more comics you read, the more you’ll be able to deduce whether something is IC or OOC. 

Now, obviously, if you’re wanting to write about a specific comic event then you should definitely read the comic to get all the details and to understand what the characters are saying to each other in context. 

Anyways, just remember that most people are pretty lenient when it comes to batfam characterization in fics (hence why there are so many fanon takes). Even in canon, the characters aren’t always consistent because they’re written by so many different people who don’t all write them the same way. So you definitely have wiggle room for trial and error when it comes to characterization while you’re still in the process of learning about the characters. Just have fun and experiment! Trust me, it doesn’t have to be perfect at first. And if you’re still hesitant, try and emulate the vibe you get from one of your favorite batfam fics. That will at least give you a place to start. 

I hope that helps you out a little! Let me know if you need any more advice!

[primeemeraldheiress]

Brönte's Forgotten Child

(You did say to keep it coming) 

Her mother loved Emma. Those first lines were everything she ever wanted to be

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.” 

She wanted that.

The life of the socialites. Of Gotham’s beloved children that seemed inhuman for their beauty.

They garbed themselves in riches that she couldn’t attain, couldn’t even afford to dream.

So she tripped.

She tripped hard. 

She disconnected herself from the world and it’s cursed reality and pretended she was Emma Woodhouse being cathered and pampered instead of Catherine Todd laying on her own vomit in her run down little apartment in Crime Alley, new bruised eye from her Mr. Darcy, and her daughter trying to clean her up.

Her daughter.

Her Jane.

Catherine never wanted children.

But just like everything that involved Willis she either had to accept it or get bruised. 

“All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever.”

Jane Petra Todd was every bit of Sheila and every bit of Willis.

Willful, stubborn, obstinate, tenacious, dangerous, cunning little devil child with a heart too damn soft for this world.

She had come to her as a little girl with a profound scowl and pretty bows in her hair.

Her mother had ran away from a lawsuit after a botched abortion.

Talk about a contraceptive method.

Catherine never wanted children. 

She especially never wanted a girl.

If push ever came to shove (which it did most days with Willis drunk off his ass), she wanted a boy.

A strong, self-sufficient boy.

One she would make sure to raise right, away from the influence of her poisonous father.

Away from Crime Alley.

Away from this Hell.

He would be chivalrous and educated and well read and well spoken. He would be every bit the gentleman that managed to break through Elizabeth’s wall.

She always did like the name Jason.

“You — you strange — you almost unearthly thing! — I love as my own flesh. You — poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are”

Instead she got a Jane.

Soft, brittle, little Jane withe dark hair that fell in curls and bright blue eyes that made the Gotham sky seem dull. 

Catherine never wanted children.

But she loved her Jane. 

“I knew, you would do me good, in some way, at some time;- I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you”

Catherine always knew she would die with a needle in her arm.

Rehab never worked.

It didn’t matter how many times she tried. 

How many books she read.

What words Elizabeth, or Emma, or Jane, or anyone said to her.

Willis would always show up with a little white powder and once again she was lost.

Jane always forgave her.

Looked after her.

Cleaned her.

Tucked her into bed.

Made sure she drank water.

Soft, brittle, little Jane who cried because kids made fun of her name. Stupid, selfish Catherine who took her into her arms and showed her the miracle that was Jane Austen.

Catherine always knew she would die with a needle in her arm.

She thought everything would be cold and dark.

Instead it was warm and bright.

The image of her sitting on the couch, little Gothamite princess in her arms, reading at loud:

“I desired more...than was within my reach. Who blames me? Many call me discontented. I couldn't help it: the restlessness is in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.”

Daddy dearest died not too long after, a job with Two-Face gone wrong.

She was officially an orphan, and ran away before CPS came for her.

Jane wouldn’t be caught dead in foster care.

She barely survived her family.

She wouldn’t survive another one like that.

She was better off alone anyways. 

Soft, brittle, little Jane died the day she found Catherine overdosed on the bathroom floor.

Feral, menacing, savage Jay was born that same day.

She always did hate her name anyways. 

 “I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.”

These glimpses of who she once was, of the life she left behind haunted her day and night.

Nagging, bugging, exhausting swarm of bees, that never fell silent, not even in her sleep.

Nightmares of mother, and ma.

Dreams of father and pa. 

Ironic that two men so different could be the same.

Violent, and proud with their heads shoved so far up their asses they could never see how they hurt everyone around them….or was it that they didn’t care?

                            “Am I hideous, Jane?

                   “Very, sir: you always were, you know.” 

She always hated her name.

Catherine appeased the hatred for a while, reminding her that Austen was an unbreakable woman. An unstoppable cyclone who wouldn’t budge at the circumstances.

Who wouldn’t budge, who wouldn’t bend, who didn’t just survive but THRIVE. 

Then again, fate always seemed to like to play jokes on her. God (if there was one) always found her pain very amusing.

She wasn’t Jane Austen.

She was Jane Eyre. 

“I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing.” 

She was the ghost that haunted Wayne Manor.

The failed Robin. The wayward child. The lost daughter. The absolute scourge of evil.

The cursed mark upon Batman’s perfect record. The problem child of Bruce Wayne.

The fucking blemish upon the family name. 

Her catastrophe etched on the walls of the place she once called home.

Her debacle immortalized in the cave that saw her grow.

Her fucking name forgotten, erased letter by letter and tossed in the air.

She lived now in the attic; Edward Rochester’s best kept secret, and burning shame.

Her screams and cries were ignored as they resonated in the halls. Her calls of justice silenced once for all.

“Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned”

He locked her in the attic, let her memory haunt the place.

He locked her in the attic, let her memory fade.

He locked her in the attic, let her name never be displayed.

He locked her in the attic, let her go fucking insane. 

                      “Remorse is the poison of life.”

Jane always hated her name, Bruce never once called her “Jay”

One more reason to hate him. 

And hate everything he built after her.

The life that blossomed above her grave, flowers nourished by her corpse.

She hated him.

She hated all of them.

She hated Gotham, and her villains, hated her crime and her corruption.

But most of all she hated herself.

She hated her lack-luster hair, and the single white stripe on it, her dead eyes, with green specks bleeding through the blue. Hated her scars, covered by a million tattoos.

She hated herself.

Because despite it all.

She couldn't hate him too. 

“I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me.”

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

Em here:

Excuse me?

Excuse me, where the fuck have you been hiding?!

This god damn knock-my-fucking-socks-off-amazing!

Is there an AO3 account out there I'm missing?! Holy shit!

I need more of your writing, do you hear me? MORE!

[aconitemare]

[jaydick-flashfic: atonement] Vitality Begun

AO3

For @jaydick-flashfic

Summary: But Dick didn’t know at the time that his job was more than playing bait and doing high-kicks. It was to mollify Bruce, keep him grounded. Human. Remind him of how fragile life is, how careful he has to be to walk his line. And Jason — brave, bold, invincible Jason — wasn’t up for that task. He shouldn’t have had to be at fifteen, young enough to think he’ll live forever and strong enough to fool Bruce.

A timeline in snapshots of Dick processing Jason's death.

Dick stumbles into his room at 3am to one new message on his answering machine. The number is Bruce’s personal. Dick presses play like ripping off a bandaid, stripping off his Nightwing suit as he moves towards his closetspace. He’s already rehearsing his excuse for not attending the funeral, the excuse he came up with after the invitation, the excuse he’ll deliver to Bruce when he has to call him back.

He sits on the edge of his bed and slips off his boots. The answering machine announces static, pure and void. He unzips the suit down his back, patiently waiting, and then removes his gloves too. He can detect faint breaths on the other line. Dick peels off his mask last. Bruce suddenly hitches on an intake of breath; Dick pauses, mask balanced between his fingers, for the words to follow.

Instead the line goes dead. Something in the click of the phone, the robotic No New Messages, turns Dick’s stomach icy cold.

Dick glides his thumb over the smooth material of his shiny black mask. He likes his Nightwing costume, the little thrill it still sends him to be his own man, his own hero, but it can’t compete with the sheer pride he felt first donning that simple domino with the yellow cape. Being Robin had meant the world to him.

It meant the world to Jason, too, Dick knows. He wonders if he was still wearing that simple domino when Bruce dug him out of the rubble last week. Dick begins to shake. He recognizes the symptoms of panic taking over his body, helpless to stop them. He puts in the effort anyway, reminding himself of the futility of grief and the importance of moving on. He tries to even his breathing and a sob bursts from his throat.

He hears his own strangled cry like sighting an animal through the scope of a rifle and instantly thinks of his incredible vulnerability, of the open wound making home in his chest. And once the thought is there, he may as well be a child who, upon scraping their knee, slowly realizes their blood it outside their body and trembles after stunned delay. That is to say, once the thought is there, Dick can’t stop the next cry or the quick, shallow breaths that claw for air without taking any in.

He collapses onto his side in the fetal position. He’s curling deeper and deeper in on himself as if eventually he might turn inside out and hide all this external weakness, tuck in these quivering limbs and wet eyes so the world can’t find the delicate, fleshy, human parts of him and hurt them further.

He can’t get Jason’s face out from behind his eyes. He’s seared there like a second sight. Jason smiles then, smiles like he did last Dick saw him, and Dick screams.

He has no memory of falling asleep. He must have lay there like a blister on his bed for hours, just oozing and repulsive, an open sore. It’s night again when his eyes open. He can’t breathe through his nose anymore. Jason is behind his eyes still but Dick doesn’t let him smile now. He puts his suit back on instead. He glues on his mask, fingers barely touching anything, feeling nothing, and heads out the Titan Tower like a ghost in search of another haunt. He slips through his teammates, untouchable, as they hold out their hands only for him to pass through them, leaving them in shivers.

The guilt arrives later in gentle waves. This is fortunate because it allows Dick to process his emotions like toes edging into cool waters. Dick cannot afford to go into shock, nor does he have the freedom to drown as much as he craves it sometimes. The days since Jason’s funeral pass by in a state of half-reality. He hasn’t heard from Bruce after that silent voicemail. Initially Dick is grateful for this, sure that the only conversation they could have would be one of mutual accusation and blame. They were shaky before Jason and downright volatile during the new Robin’s reign — but they nonetheless had Jason in common. Now they have nothing.

Dick doesn’t even realize he misses Bruce until he’s on the phone with Alfred and hears Bruce in the background. Dick ends the call earlier than he really wants, but it’s too late; Bruce’s voice is trapped in his ears, calling him home.

Dick follows the urge. He envisions Bruce welcoming his back with open arms. The image is so warm Dick can even sort of quell the anger has thrummed beneath the skin of their interactions for over a year. His homecoming does not pan out so neatly as he hopes.

For one, Bruce is not at the Manor when Dick arrives. Alfred made a copy of the keys Bruce took from him the day he was fired, and he knows Bruce knows Alfred did that, but it still feels uncomfortable using this mockery of trust, this replacement of something Dick was never supposed to lose. When he steps inside the house, he honestly wishes it felt more nostalgic. But Wayne Manor is like a cardboard cut-out of his childhood. There are no pictures of Dick or Jason, Alfred or Bruce — no stains he can attribute to a youthful memory. It is impersonal in the living room as it is in the ballroom or any number of Brucie Wayne’s public halls.

Dick should have called ahead and made sure Bruce would be around. Yet that’s not what family does — right? Admittedly, Dick’s knowledge of familial etiquette comes mainly from second-hand experiences with Wally. So Dick adopts the “fake it til ya’ make it” method, thinking perhaps if they act like family, they’ll become one. He wonders, wandering around the many rooms until he finds Alfred, if Wally ever enters his home when it’s empty and feels like he’s breaking and entering.

Dick sighs in relief when he finally encounters the one other living being at Wayne Manor. Alfred pulls him into a tight embrace that stretches on and on, trying to catching to Dick’s grief and contain it all in the space between their arms.

Dick cries into Alfred’s slender shoulders, gulping in his sandalwood scent with scrambling, desperate breaths. He knows he blubbers Jason’s name a few times, but it’s more than that. It’s everything Dick has lost, from his parents to Bruce to Robin to Jason. He cries because he’s lonely and angry and scared that Bruce might not always be right after all, and if Bruce can be wrong then Dick can’t be confident he’s doing right either. He cries because he knows he’s not alone in his tragedy yet he clings to loneliness anyway, pushing away friends even as he lectures them on trust and support on the field. He cries because even though Alfred is here for him more than anyone else, he still wishes it was Bruce or his parents holding him together.

Mostly, Dick cries because he can.

When Bruce does return, Dick has been sleeping in his old bedroom for three days. It’s the only warm room in the house and even though logically the Manor is vast enough to not warrant freeing up unused space, Dick is grateful that Bruce preserved his little corner. Alfred has kept it dust-free and aired out, so it’s exactly the way Dick last left it in a huff a year ago. The Flying Graysons flyer, the FIFA poster, prints from his favorite martial arts movies, photobooth pictures of him and Koriand’r…

Dick’s life was never simple, but it was simpler. He lifts the corner of a newspaper cut-out taped above his desk, slipping a thumb beneath the thin paper to better examine the one color image nestled among grainy black ink. The Teen Titans grin for their first post-mission photo-op.

Dick smiles back at them. His eyes well up, as they’ve been doing a lot the past three days, and Dick barely keeps the tears from touching his cheeks. He’s in the privacy of his bedroom yet he has this strange compulsion to save his tears as if he might need them later and they’ll all be gone.

Dick hopes to meet Bruce in the kitchen or in some other neutral, non-Bat territory. Unfortunately Bruce immediately stows himself away in the cave and Dick doesn’t have the patience to wait him out.

They hurt each other again and pretend it’s all about Jason even though they both know — or, at least, Dick knows — it’s everything between them. They draw emotional blood and can’t seem to stop reopening the wounds. The blood never clots, just pools and pools until there’s a stream and then a river and then an ocean between them.

This time, though, Dick doesn’t give up and run away. This time, Bruce doesn’t close the door. Some days they help each other heal. Other days, they hit where it hurts. But then they heal again, slowly, stubbornly, bridging the rift. It takes them a while, doesn’t happen in the course of a night or a month or even a year — but they learn to stop picking at the scabs, which helps.

 Tim also helps. Dick is hesitant initially, but Tim comes like a punctuation mark to a sentence that’s run on too long. His reclamation of Robin takes the weight off Dick’s shoulders to be something he’s not anymore. And Tim soothes Bruce in a way Dick just couldn’t after Jason. And if he’s being honest, being there to bless the passage of the mantle makes the experience a whole lot less painful than when Dick had just run into another him on Gotham streets. Tim respects Dick, appreciates his expertise despite not really needing it unlike Jason. Bruce even starts putting pictures up around the house. It’s a fragile, tentative thing, delicate and exciting as a newborn, but their family has its first heartbeat.

 Bruce and Dick celebrate Jason’s birthday on their own with as much physical distance as they can get between each other. Dick knows it’s wrong, that this is no way to honor a Robin, but the only people Dick knows who knew Jason personally are Alfred and Bruce. Alfred belongs with Bruce on this day, and Bruce — Dick still blames him. He doesn’t think he’ll ever fully forgive Bruce, so it’s best Dick keep away right now. He doesn’t trust himself not to undo all their progress.

So Jason remains a private ache in Dick’s heart, a lonely memory that rears its head every now and then to wrap its arms around him and hold him back from the rest of the world. Dick celebrates Jason by keeping busy. He doesn’t sleep, just finds petty trouble on the streets and makes mountains out of molehill missions. He imagines Jason by his side by accident a few times. He wonders what kind of man Jason would have become. If he still would’ve smiled with reckless sincerity and radiant light.

He thinks about Jason’s smile the most. The truth is that Dick knows it’s not just Bruce’s fault. Dick practically wiped his hands clean of the two. He knew Bruce was exploiting Jason, pushing him onto the field too early, and Dick let it happen out of spite. Because Bruce didn’t want Dick’s opinion and Dick maybe wanted them both to suffer for it. To realize Bruce’s mistake the hard way. Because he trusted bruce to never have to learn. He really, really trusted Bruce — and that’s where Dick begins to blame him all over again.

Even though Dick let it happen. But Dick didn’t know at the time that his job was more than playing bait and doing high-kicks. It was to mollify Bruce, keep him grounded. Human. Remind him of how fragile life is, how careful he has to be to walk his line. And Jason — brave, bold, invincible Jason — wasn’t up for that task. He shouldn’t have had to be at fifteen, young enough to think he’ll live forever and strong enough to fool Bruce.

Dick collapses thirty-six hours after Jason’s birthday, falls asleep in his shitty Bludhaven apartment to the knowledge he let him die. He wakes up, drool on his face, evening BPD shift alarm blaring. Dick turns it off and blinks blearily at his sun-soaked curtains. He shoves Jason’s smile out of his head and promises to be less angry — to never again let his emotions endanger others. It’s a promise that will guide his future actions, solidify his forever partnership with Bruce, and make him an impeccable leader, a forgiving friend, and a smooth liar.

His need for control becomes a sort of lifestyle, but Dick fancies it’s half the reason people like him so much. He is a beacon of forgiveness and second chances, always up for a joke at the worst of times. His good moods aren’t interrupted by extreme lows anymore; he keeps himself in check.

Dick thinks he might actually be a better person because of Jason. Of course, he feels like a real asshole for thinking it. He shouldn’t be able to come out the other side of Jason’s death a happier person.

“It’s not that you’re happier because Jason is gone,” Dinah once tells him during the Titans’ obligatory biannual therapy session. Dick shifts uncomfortably in the giant cushy chair. He avoids eye contact, which he apologizes for but Dinah assures him it’s about his comfort. So Dick looks everywhere but at her. “It’s that you’ve learned to handle your emotional responses better. You said you try not to hold onto anger so you can be there for people, right?”

Dick shrugs because Dinah makes it sound more righteous than it feels. Then he nods, the barest tilt of his chin signaling she’s right.

“Then think of this as your form of atonement.”

“To Jason?”

“Yes.”

Dick observes the tiny dots of suede on the chair’s arm. He shakes his head. “It can’t be. It’s too late for me to make things right with him. He’s not any better for me deciding to be a decent person now.”

He hears Dinah set her pencil down on her notepad. His eyes shift towards her feet in almost recognition of her.

“Sometimes,” she says softly, “it’s enough to be better for a person, regardless of if they know you are.”

Dick’s eyes shut and he breathes in deeply. He thinks, it’s going to have to be enough, isn’t it? and then exhales, pushing the thought out from his body. He lets it fill the room so later he can close the door and leave Jason behind for the day.

[comebackolivia]

I have some feelings on how Stephanie and Jason get treated in canon and wanted to explore that, so here. Have some character exploration of my two favs. 

Posted on my AO3 as chapter 5 of F*ck This Family. 

Jason stumbled out of his bedroom, reeking of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke, still dressed in the hoodie he’d been wearing the night before, but it was on backwards and his boots were on the wrong feet. He was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and overall, he looked like death warmed over as he trudged into his kitchen, gaze trained on the coffeemaker.

He startled, then grimaced when he noticed her sitting on his countertop munching away on a pop-tart.

It took him a bit, but after he’d poured himself a mug of black as pitch coffee and downed half of it, he managed to croak out some words.

“The temptation will be to judge me. Don’t.”

Stephanie smirked, amused. “I got a very interesting text message this morning.” He shot her a glare that was very unimpressive on his hangover from hell complexion, so she continued, undeterred. “Roy asked me to drop by this morning to check that you were still alive and hadn’t choked on your own vomit. Apparently, you drunk dialed him a few times last night, and since he’s all the way across the country, he couldn’t come and check on you himself. How do you feel?”

“How does it fucking look like I feel?” he snapped, and Stephanie’s smirk morphed into a frown. Jason was a lot of things, but he wasn’t usually mean. Not to her at least. He didn’t get roaring drunk either, which meant he’d probably been given a good reason to go out and get wasted.

She’d bet good money it was a fight with someone in the family.

“Who was it?” she asked, more seriously. “Bruce?”

Jason scowled and turned away to rummage through his fridge. After a moment, he corrected, “Dick.”

Stephanie hummed sympathetically. “What happened?”

“He said something stupid and I got pissed off. Then we screamed a lot.”

She grimaced, glad she’d missed that. From what she’d seen lately, Dick had been stretching himself thin and was feeling the pressure. Prolonged stress made him crabby and shortened his temper, which was always more explosive than people believed of him. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to snap at his brother, and Jason never took that kind of thing well.

“Wanna talk about it?” Steph offered after a moment of silence.

Jason laid some strips of bacon on a hot pan and turned his attention to scrambling some eggs. “He’s a fucking dick. What else is there to say?”

Stephanie pursed her lips. As much as he joked around about it, the second Robin didn’t tend to drink in excess. Not with their lifestyles and not with his personal history. He’d told her once that his father had been a mean drunk. She knew what that was like, and knew it likely meant avoiding getting drunk altogether for Jason, at least until shit hit the fan.

“Whatever he said, he’s wrong,” she piped up, making Jason’s shoulders stiffen where he stood at the stove with his back to her. She probably shouldn’t have said anything. It wasn’t her business and Jason and Dick didn’t need her butting in, but she knew what it was like, to never be fully part of this family—to be considered the problem child—the easy target when the others were passing around blame.

From the beginning she’d had to fight her way out of the shadow of Jason Todd. She’d been compared to him left and right, told she was too much like him and it would get her killed one day. She was constantly looked down on as not good enough, too wild, untrainable. Whatever. How much worse was it for Jason who was the standard of badness she’d been judged against?

It was bullshit and she’d raged against it more than once. Because now that she knew him, she could see that she and Jason were nothing alike. Sure, they had similar backgrounds, their personalities meshed well together, and they made a great team in boardgames, but they operated completely differently. Jason was a planner, always had his eye on the prize, a big picture thinker. But, he wasn’t tied to it. He could shift or adapt if he needed to, and the second he felt that the victim was more important than the big picture, he’d throw the big picture right out the window. She respected the hell out of that, because what was the point of it all if they weren’t helping the victims? The individuals. The people who deserved justice, but couldn’t be heard amidst the bureaucracy, corruption, and bullshit. She might not always like his methods, she’d never approve of him killing, but she respected his motivation. She felt that same drive.

But that’s where the similarities ended. They had the same compassion, but where Jason was a planner, Stephanie wore her heart on her sleeve and followed wherever it took her. Jason only appeared impulsive. Stephanie actually was. Over time though, she’d been able to turn it into a strength. Impulsiveness transitioned to adaptability and that was a major asset to have in the field.

The fact that she still took crap for it drove her nuts. The fact that she was still constantly compared to Jason drove her even more nuts.

It wasn’t fair to either of them. They operated differently, had different strengths that helped them be effective in the field. What the others did and said diminished them. It ignored their strengths and compounded their weaknesses. And it was total and utter bullshit. Neither of them got enough credit. They were both good at what they did, and they were good in different ways. The fact that the rest of the family, some of the smartest people on the planet, couldn’t see that? Well, it pissed her the hell off.

So whatever Dick had said, even if it had been coming from a place of stress and exhaustion, she knew it was wrong. Jason needed to know that too.

“You ever get sick of it?” he asked after a moment, voice scratchy and shoulders hunched. He still hadn’t turned away from the stove.

“Of what?”

“Being the family punching bags,” he retorted. “The ones they lash out at when they’re feeling pissy. Bruce does it all the fucking time. Dick too. He won’t with Tim, Damian, or Cass, but you and me are fair game. Every time.”

Her gaze darkened. She knew exactly what he was talking about. She’d experienced it countless times. Bruce was stressed so he’d ream her out for something she did in the field. Something small and insignificant that hadn’t affected anything whatsoever, but still wasn’t what Bruce would have done so clearly it was stupid, impulsive, childish, whatever. Barbara had a tendency to do it as well—snap at her whenever she was stressed. Chew her out for something that had nothing to do with anything. She didn’t get a lot of it from Dick, but she had been snapped at by him plenty of times. And yeah, they didn’t tend to handle their stress in functional, healthy ways, and she’d seen Damian and Tim get snapped at plenty of times. But it wasn’t the same. It was never quite so acidic with them.

“Yes,” she answered plainly because it was true. She often found herself wondering what the hell she was even doing with them when it was so clear she would never fit the way they wanted her too. She almost hadn’t come back after Black Mask, and sometimes she questioned why she had at all. She had her reasons of course, but in her weaker moments she wondered if it was worth it.

At her reply, Jason finally turned from the stove to face her. His face was still pale, and she thought that maybe his red eyes were a little waterier than they’d been when he first walked in. Her stomach clenched in sympathy.

“You ever consider saying ‘fuck ‘em’ and walking away from it all?”

It was like he was reading her mind. “Yes,” she admitted.

Jason frowned and turned back to the stove. Steph watched, suddenly feeling tired as he loaded a plate with bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. She was surprised when he handed the plate to her and fixed another one for herself.

They ate in silence.

“I don’t want to let them be right about me,” she spoke up once they were almost finished.

“They’re not,” Jason answered immediately. “Spite’s a hell of a motivator though, so keep proving them wrong.”

Stephanie smirked, feeling the heaviness that had settled in the room finally lift a little. “I am a kickass vigilante fueled by bitterness and spite,” she declared wryly.

Jason snorted into his coffee, then raised the mug. “Here, here.”

“Seriously though, you okay?” she asked after another smaller stretch of silence. There was a little more color in his face after eating breakfast. Greasy breakfast foods weren’t her go to hangover cure, but it seemed to do a decent job of dragging Jason back from the brink of hangover death.

“Yeah. It’s only a matter of time before Dick tracks me down or finds my new number and apologizes. It’ll take longer for me to accept the apology though. I’ll probably hold off until he starts bringing me food and shit.”

“Nice,” Stephanie replied, bobbing her head in approval. Then she paused and asked, “When did you get a new number?”

“I haven’t yet, but I vaguely remember chucking my phone of the roof of a building last night, so I’ll have to do that at some point.”

Stephanie snorted. She couldn’t help it. The mental image of grumpy, drunk Jason throwing a phone off a Gotham roof was hilarious. He was so overly dramatic.

“What the hell were you doing on top of a building wasted? That’s a health and safety no-no, you know,” she retorted with a teasing smirk. “What were you doing, serenading the pigeons?”

“Performing Hamlet with the gargoyles if you must know.”

“Oh god,” she exclaimed, cracking up at just the thought of drunk off his ass Jason dramatically declaring “To be or not to be” to a gargoyle audience. “You have no idea how much I’d give to have seen that.”

“Yeah, well it was a one time performance so you snooze you lose, Blondie.”

“Yeah, well your hoodie is on backwards,” she retorted, snickering at his surprised look as he realized it was actually on backwards.

“The fuck?” he wondered quietly, pulling at the hood that had been settled at his neck. How he missed this while eating was beyond Steph.

“And your boots are on the wrong feet.”

Jason looked down and groaned loudly, much to Stephanie’s delight. “Fucking hell. I knew something felt off.”

“You also stink. Like horrendously. What’d you do? Bathe in vodka and cigarette ash?”

“Shut up. I fed you and this is the thanks I get?”

“Yeah, you fed me, but does it really count if there weren’t waffles?”

“Yes, it absolutely counts.”

“Whatever. Go shower. I’ll find something for us to watch on Netflix.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jason said, standing up and heading towards the bathroom. “But it better not be one of those sad wildlife documentaries where the baby animals die.”

“That was one time!” she called back. “I didn’t know they were going to die!”

Still, as she settled into the couch, she googled the next episode of Planet Earth to make sure there’d be no surprises. All the while, a warmth spread through her chest because Jason was letting her keep him company. They might sometimes be the punching bags for the rest of the family, but it was nice to know that she had his back and he had hers. They could handle the others.

[bat-losers-inc]

Kintsugi: Chapter 3

Warnings: drug use

Summary: Final Crisis/Red Robin AU. Dick admits Tim to a psychiatric facility after Bruce is lost in time. Jason finds him suffering at the hands of a Scarecrow-copycat and breaks him out. While safe in Jason’s apartment, Tim still struggles with panic attacks and drug withdrawal. At a loss for what to do, Jason calls Roy Harper.

Pairings: Jason Todd & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Roy Harper, Roy Harper & Jason Todd.

Author’s Note: Hey I was listening to “This is the last time” by the National on repeat while writing this chapter. Do the same while reading this chapter if you want to get emotionally wrecked. I DARE YOU.

Jason emerged onto the parking garage level with Tim slung across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. With one hand keeping a tight hold on Tim’s limbs where they crossed his chest, Jason used his free hand to test the doors in a section of parked cars. He was more than a little relieved when one car door opened against his experimental yank. Tim was small but compact and Jason was panting under his weight. His recent decision to ditch his weight routine in favor of some added cardio during his weekly workout seemed a poor choice now.

Jason let Tim sprawl across the backseat and rolled out his sore shoulders. “Hey, Jason? Remember the good ol’ days when you had to chase Bane across half the rooftops in the Narrows? Betcha didn’t think you’d miss that, huh?”

Jason ducked his head under the dash and played with the wires until the car engine jumped to life with a mechanical purr. “Nowadays, patrols are all small peanuts—  impromptu rescue missions and copycat criminals— while Dickhead and the Demon Brat fry all the big fish in Gotham.”  

Jason pulled out onto the city streets and glanced in the rear view mirror at Tim. The kid was still asleep in the backseat— though now only partially tucked into the hospital blanket Jason had wrapped him in on the way out. “Eh. But maybe a change of pace will be good for you. Plus, it’ll be nice to have some company for once.”

Jason drove out of Bludhaven with equal amounts of speed and caution. After all, he’d just broken Tim out of a mental hospital that Dick had put him in. Breckenridge could sound the alarm bells at any moment and send word to Dickhead. Jason’s window of opportunity for an unnoticed getaway could slam shut right this very moment or it could last all the way till morning. Either way, Tim wasn’t in a good place to have a reunion with Dickhead and if the Red Hood got pulled over for a speeding ticket while driving a stolen car, it was only going to make it that much easier for Dick to track them down.

Jason owed Tim for breaking him out of Arkham and that debt wouldn’t be fully repaid until Tim was secure inside Jason’s safehouse in Gotham Proper. It was completely on the other side of Gotham from their current location, not to mention, one of Jason’s least lived-in safehouses, but it was also one of the few areas of Gotham where Batman and Robin would be hard pressed to find them. Unofficially under the control of Killer Croc, the only reason Jason was allowed a safe-house there was through his friendship with Roy, and therefore by-proxy, Killer Croc who was Roy’s current sponsor.

With the underground network of low-grade criminals who lived there on the lookout, it was the closest thing that Jason was going to get to an early warning system. Jason made sure to flag down one of his usual informers and send out the word once he’d reached the Dixon Docks. As payment for services rendered, Jason gave the man his stolen car and carried Tim the rest of the way into the waterfront warehouse that hid his safe-house.

Jason smacked some of the dust off of the couch before settling Tim down on top of it. While the kid slept, Jason made his rounds throughout the safehouse, checking the security measures and doing a bit of cleaning up along the way. He took stock of his medical supplies and the dry good in the kitchen cabinets and found both wanting. He’d need to put together a list and go shopping, but before he could do that he’d need to know what he was shopping for. Jason sighed and glanced over the back of the couch. From his faraway spot beside the kitchen counter, all that was visible of the successor to his mantle was a tangle of greasy hair and a single flung out arm, it’s pale skin marred by bruises and dirt alike.

Jason tapped his index finger on the kitchen counter and chewed the inside of his cheek. He really didn’t want to be playing geriatric nurse— sponge bath and all, but he couldn’t figure a way around it. He needed to see the full extent of the damage. Otherwise, how could he fix it?

Dick would do it, he reminded himself as he picked Tim up and carried him into the bathroom. Though, based on recent events, it seemed that Jason shouldn’t follow Dick’s example in all things where Tim was concerned.

Jason cranked the shower up to hot and sat Tim down on the bath mat with his back resting against the wicker hamper. As the bathroom filled up with warm steamy air he pulled the blanket away from Tim’s shoulders and reached for the hem of his shirt. “Don’t punch me. Don’t punch me. Please please please…”

But Tim’s hands remained as limp as dead fish against the bathroom floor and Jason was able to remove the hospital shirt and sweatpants without any bodily harm. He stripped quickly down to his own briefs, eager to hurry this along as professionally as possible. Jason was just glad that he’d had the foresight to build a tiled bench into his shower when converting the space into a bathroom. While usually put to use when Jason was too battered to stand up straight, it was incredibly helpful to him now as he propped Tim against the ledge and angled the spray down on them.

Jason knelt on the shower floor in from of him and angled Tim’s head forward to catch the spray. He nearly fell on his ass when Tim jerked awake under the warm water and struggled sluggishly to free his himself from Jason’s hold on his face. Jason was quick to tip Tim’s head out of the spray until he could meet Tim’s half-lidded gaze.

“It’s okay. Everything’s okay,” Jason stroked Tim’s cheek with his wet fingers and shushed him until his panicked noises subsided into a toneless murmur. “Are you with me? Tim?”

Tim’s eyes drifted away from Jason’s face to the bar of soap on the shelf by Jason’s shoulder, but Jason knew he wasn’t really seeing it. A moment later Tim blinked once, tried for a second attempt only to fail.

“Timmy?” Jason slicked back the other boy’s wet bangs. “C’mon, stay awake. Please, I- I can’t—”  

Tim’s head dipped heavily into Jason’s palm. His murmuring slipped away into a silence that was soon drowned out by the hot water that pelted against Jason’s neck and back.

Jason pressed his hand hard against his mouth and fought back the cry that threatened to spill past his tight-pressed lips. He swallowed it back, swatted his wet hair out of his eyes, and returned to his previous task of massaging the shampoo through Tim’s dark locks until the water ran clean.

With washcloth in hand, Jason made methodical work of cleaning away the rest of the dirt and grime. Even with the filth washed away, the skin under Jason’s fingers gleamed back at him sooty and stained— like Japanese ink spilled across paper. A dark stain here at the thigh. There, along the slim column of Tim’s forearm, a long pale streak where the ink had thinned. On the inside of the elbows the tiny splatters from a bristle brush.

They’ll heal, he reminded himself. Yet still he picked up the bath towel and wrapped Tim in it, hiding his bruised skin from view. He didn’t want to see it.

In the end it was all too much—  too much responsibility, too much of a painful trip down memory lane.

Jason escaped to the roof and called Roy.  

The other man answered on the third ring and listened silently as Jason told him the whole messed up tale— right up until the moment in the bathroom when Jason felt like he’d crumble under the weight of his own memories.

“It’s nothing that I haven’t done before. I should have been able to handle it with ease, you know? But then… he woke up, just for a second, and stared right through me with those half-dead eyes. And they were her eyes, staring up at me through a drug haze.”

When Roy eventually spoke, his took on the same solemn tone of a funeral minister. And like Jason’s personal priest, one he’d spent years confessing his darkest secrets to, Roy knew exactly who he meant. “Your Mom?”

“Yeah,” Jason smiled despite himself. “I never could get that image of her out of my head.”

Roy’s sigh was audible on the other end of the line. “I know you feel you need to do this for Tim. To repay him. But I think it’ll do more harm than good for the both of you. Jason… you need to bring him to a rehab clinic.”

Jason stubbed out the cigarette he’d been working on and blew the smoke out harshly. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not? The people who work there are medical professional who can give Tim the attention and care he needs to get better.”

“Roy, no,” said Jason. “Dick put him in an institution and that’s how he got addicted in the first place.”

“Fine, I can recommend you some of the places I was treated at and—”

“He was given fear toxin while in a closed ward, Roy. Placing him in another one might send him spiralling into an anxiety attack. I’ll treat him here, in a place that feels like a home, not a prison cell.”

“For fucks sake, Jason! Don’t be an idiot. Do—” Roy cut himself off with a groan.

“No, say it.”   

“I just- I don’t want you to be doing this as some messed up redo attempt with your mom. Look, you’re my best friend, Jason. I know you loved her and it killed you not being able to save her when she overdosed, but this isn’t fair to Tim. You aren’t qualified to treat this on your own.”

“I know how to treat withdrawal, asshole. If I recall correctly, I’ve helped you through it on more than one occasion.”

“No— fuck— see this is what I’m talking about, Jason! Benzo addictions aren’t like other addictions. You can’t just cut Tim off from the drugs cold turkey. He could suffer a serious anxiety attack. He could seize, Jason. You’re fucking around with things you know nothing about.”

“Then help me.”

“What? No, I can’t—”

“Help me. Come down for a day. Just to set up and make sure I know everything I need to do this correctly. Roy, please.”

“I—” Roy paused for so long that Jason feared he’d simply put down his phone and walked away. “I-yeah… alright. But, just one day. Promise?”

Jason couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he tossed the remains of his cigarette over the edge of the roof. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”  

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Gotham s5ep3 “Penguin, Our Hero” Personal Review

 “His methods will be our salvation.”    Warning spoilers below   

“Mr. Penn´s head” So MR. PENN shielded Oswald from the state of things? “I simply couldn't stand seeing you upset while you were recovering.” Which really makes me wonder, either he did it before too, just not wanting to deal with Penguins outbursts which would partly explain Oswald´s distorted view of what´s going on but with the way he was pressing on the issues of food, starvation, failing bullets in 5x01 that seems highly unlikely, which either means the outbursts got to a critical point where it was unbearable or he actually cared about Oswald´s well being? Which kind of fits that he apologized to Oswald after being shot but that means that it must have been terrible difficult for him to work for Oswald, Sofia and Carmine at the same time also why? How did Oswald win him over? I wannt to know everything, and as far as I´m concerned he is still there.  Also Penn still directing the (former Gertrud Kapelput Memorial Choir) choir might suggest he had a leading role in getting the people to Haven? I´d really like to have seen him in a position of reason that gets people out of a precarious situation but the episode made it look like he only did it because now it was specifically his head on the line. (Unless, that was something that Oswald said every 27 minutes, which .. is also likely) OSWALD COBBLEPOT okay so looks like Oswald wasn´t at all meant to be cruel, merely delusional? It seems Oswald really cared about Penn, thinking it would have been good for him to stay with him. He really believed his people were in a better situation than the slaves of other gangs.  He genuinely doesn´t seem to get why people would prefer Haven instead of his territory.  //  “I'm sorry, Mr. Cobblepot.” “You fool! This never would have happened if you stayed with me. Why did you leave?” “Everyone hated you.”  // “They probably go back to being slaves, I guess. My people, on the other hand, will go back to their regular lives, with their bellies full of gruel and their heads full of wonderful thoughts about their grand protector, me.”  //  “I kept people safe. I protected them from chaos. They should have loved me. Instead, they came here, to this pigsty, to be covered in fleas and filth. Why? What makes this place so special?” Oswald does´t think he´s a dictator or authoritarian he thinks he is living the “Great man theory” I´m glad that history moved past this and recognized that there is so much more to reality than a “great man” after another. Sadly that notion is one that´s hard to kill. You still have people thinking they benefit from a “strong” leader ruling with a firm hand. A strong man that´s guiding the nation is the only way to be protected and thrive. Someone that does act, someone that does do something! Not that It really matters much what that something is, as long as it isn´t weak. That way you get people praising Putin instead of being worried about the devaluation of democracy, that way you get orange fools that scream for a great wall instead of caring about facts, that way you get people saying Duterte doing good for his nation while soaking it´s soil with blood.  At leas the show didn´t portray his underlings buying into this, they just showed Oswald believing it. Which is still .. ?? Oswald was living the “Strong man politics” (okay with the cult of personality tuned up on the higher setting) and I´m kind of glad they showed how there´s nothing behind it but I can´t believe that Oswald wouldn´t know that, that people need more than someone to praise and the general assurance that yes they are a strong nation, be proud and quit complaining!  I like that Oswald not understanding why his approach didn´t work could maybe be meant to be a faint warning for people who call for men that lead like that? Okay I´m reading too much into this but can´t you see Trump being like why U no love me when I want the wall to protect you, when I kept your bellies full with the best fast food  .. ?  Just that it´s not a good fit for the Character previous Oswald was perceptive, seeing what people need and want and love. It wasn´t just about what he needs “the love of the people”, even when it was about his selfish gains he still had a strong grip on understanding the needs of others (and better than a bland abstract “they want safety and protection”) and used them.  Like I could get that he´s just done, paranoid and afraid and just not able to deal with the issues, brushing the needs of others aside, everyone can get to a point where it´s too much, but this way it just looks like he really did care and believed he was doing good .. which  means he was just being stupid.  On the other hand when Oswald went into politics he had to be convinced that people want him there and genuinely like him. Granted there was plenty of reason for Oswald to not quite believe this. Now we have him not believing that people hate him. Which is a nice circle but the second half doesn´t make any sense.   “Hope can only go so far.” And sometimes it runs circles. They really had JIM GORDON give another unreasonable promise to a CHILD but now he had BRUCE WAYNE sitting on his side, not only going along with it but with asking Jim to talk to the boy kind of being the reason for that to happen. I´m sure there´s more to say about this .. * “That's a good point. We didn't really think this through.” Street Demonz guys really got a talent to get to the heart of things with stating the obvious. “Well, whoever did just started one hell of a war.” (Tank 5x02) * Same with the “But, uh, they have guns.” comment “So do I and mine is most certainly loaded.” And I really thought, uh Oswald do you really want to point a gun on all the people round you? But wow he got a point with that. * I know it was short lived but for a moment I was like awwwww not both Oswald and Edward have their own personal STREET DEMON(Z) * What I liked is that they still have OSWALD COBBLEPOT be damn good at reframing and changing narratives. He´s out of people and needs others? Ah, nope wrong they are actually lucky to help him, let me tell you why “You're in luck, my friend. .as our interests are now aligned, I have decided that you may live.” * “You return our people and Edward”  I´m kind of ehh with the dog thing but that distinction made me giggle. *  “Rumors say pup went willingly.” Oh Olga  “I'm not yours to lose. You can't stop me from going after Jeremiah. But I am asking you for help.”   I saw that SELINA KYLE line somewhere online and thought oh no but turns out she teamed up with BRUCE WAYNE and it was actually nice. For a while. Sure that Selina getting murderous business is going to be a problem but I´m gonna ignore it as long as possible. Also yes! Jeremiah shot her because of Bruce .. rubbish .. I live for Selina rejecting the whole premise of that. I´m not overly fond of revenge but I like that they made it hers and not about Bruce in any way. (well, for now. Selina wasn´t too keen on Bridgit Firefly Pike roasting that kidnapper ring alive I guess that kind of reservation is over now) I feared that the line might be in the context of them going different paths but that it was followed by them agreeing to work together just made it more impactful. There is a possible relationship there but it´s not on these icky anyone belongs to anyone terms! I also liked that Selina didn´t just go out into the chaos but investigated. “These people come from all over Gotham, Bruce. Someone has to know something.” For all her reclusive attitude she obviously networked back in the early seasons, so she got to have a talent to talk/connect to people, I´d like to have seen more of this in that episode.

* “You didn't have to hurt him like that.” “He was trying to kill me, Bruce, just like Jeremiah tried to kill me. So as far as I'm concerned he got off easy.”  Bruce subscribed to the JIM GORDONs way of things Selina to HARVEY BULLOCKs [“Three months ago, I would’ve lost my badge for that.” ..  “You want rules for this game? I’ll tell you. I’ll make it simple, okay? You win or you die. Next time, shoot to kill.”  5x01]  * Selina´s fight choreography against the Mutant Leader was awesome! A catoreography! * Selina sweeping a curtsey and playing along with the The Church of Jeremiah Valeska theatrics was equally awesome.  * Oddly I didn´t like ECCO/HARLEY, her eyebrow is cool but for once I thought he acting was not stellar .. but that´s probably just me? The Ping didn´t impress me .. * One of the church boys is wearing a skirt, least their dresscode is better * Whoever blew up Haven: Fuck You! * CRACK THEORY:  It might be Jeremiah acting through the Mutants. The Mutant leader said “Kill you. Kill Jeremiah.” but elaborated  “Old Town North, okay? We don't mess with him.” so a contradictory statement. I guess the first was just posing, trying to keep the threatful appearance and the second statement the truth. They might still work for him, refusing it might count as messing with him?  Oddly they guy talking to Selina about the rumours said that: “If you go to the Dark Zone, Jeremiah is the least of your worries. Everyone there is insane. Look at what they did to my friend.” which would suggest Jeremiah is less of a threat but that might just be perspective, Jeremiah might cultivate his church/cult image, laying low on the chaos and mayhem front for a while, while still having others creating it for him in that area.  What I want to say I don´t think the Mutants have a motive for the destruction of Haven but I need them to be connected to it because I found it odd that they chased a person with an explosive device and watched that guy blow up in the same episode. They, if Selina is right are also responsible for the carved up person in Haven “Now we know who carved "kill" into that guy's chest.” So I´m naturally suspicious. What if the “kill” carvings were just meant to conceal the cuts where someone put explosives into that person? People bombs! (With Pyg we already had a grenade in a belly) Problem1: This needed more people like that. Which someone might have noticed, also why would they have been spread out in the buildings, I guess the medic area was just in one place. Problem2: I think Jeremiah has a motive, he put Gotham into this state and Haven is trying to remedy this aka. undoing/undermining his work, to it would naturally be a target but why would he not just do it himself? Problem3: The “Edward” and Street Demonz thing got Oswald to got there, it would be odd if an explosion right after that issue would be an unconnected coincidence * BARBARA KEAN remembers Season 1 and undermines the (repeated) Jim the Hero narrative, although there would be better arguments even talking to Harvey Bullock. “He, the idealistic rookie. You, the cynical veteran.” “You were sane.” “Now you carry his laundry. Do you ever wonder what your life might've been like if you'd never met Jim Gordon? I'd be dead, or wishing I was.” “You're delusional, Harvey. Just like all the sad saps who think the government is just gonna sail in and save them.” “Maybe.”

[douxreviews]

Gotham - ‘Penguin, Our Hero’ Review

Selina: "So this is the Dark Zone? They should call it the dull zone."

Gotham lately has put me in a very troubled position as a writer; 'Trespassers' last week left me with the sourest of aftertastes, and yet as eager as I was for the oncoming episodes to redeem the season's quality, I also knew that any misstep 'Penguin, Our Hero' took could shatter this eagerness like a cut-rate drinking glass.

And while I confess my enthusiasm now sports cracks and fractures along its glass circumference after my viewing of 'Penguin, Our Hero', because I'm a good sport, I feel it's important to stay as objective as possible, and give even the best of the bad lot its day in the sun.

Like 'Trespassers', this week's episode is also diverged entirely into two plots: Gordon and the GCPD work to protect Haven - the community of civilians taking refuge from the rest of the city's mayhem - from Oswald and his own goons, and Bruce and Selina go hunting for Jeremiah. Back in Season 4, 'One Bad Day' attempted to sell its own twist on The Killing Joke comic, albeit with Gotham swapping out Barbara Gordon for Selina. 'Penguin, Our Hero' quite neatly succeeds in the first half of its run by continuing its homage to Alan Moore's story, this time with the positions of Batman and James Gordon being replaced respectively by Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne; Selina's got the bloodlust bad for Jeremiah's head, yet Bruce insists that he and Selina pursue him by the books, so that Jeremiah may face true justice for what he has done. In my Season 1 reviews, I mentioned once that I never grow bored when Gotham creates scenes like this to remind us that Bruce and Selina come from entirely separate upbringings. What's more, Bruce now has wisdom, reasoning, and even a bit of experience to back his assertions to Selina that sending Jeremiah to Belize isn't in her best interests.

Expanding upon Bruce and Selina's story, they learn that they may have a chance of finding Jeremiah in the 'Dark Zone', a sector of territory where Jeremiah rules over those crazy enough to be inhabitants. The grisly deformities and almost-outlandish costumes (which are major nods to The Dark Knight Returns) were able to capture a small sense of what it was I was expecting to see when Gotham City became a no man's land. It's grisly, it's a little zany, and it absolutely gave off a sense that Bruce and Selina could be goners had they stepped into this territory uninformed and unprepared.

It's a tad odd for me hearing Selina remark on and on to Bruce about how she's changed, and how she's now a different person after taking Ivy's magical medicine last week; in fact, Selina is every bit as quippy, as acrobatic, and as badass as I remember her in her prime. Gotham's showrunners have been insistent this year that Selina will be making additional and gradual changes as she moves closer to her destiny as Catwoman, but I think they might be scratching at the bottom of the barrel if they really want to come through on that promise; Selina has the whip, she has the claws, she has the spandex, she's already the spitting image of Gotham City's infamous cat burglar. So I personally think Gotham can take a break from all this prattle about how much more Selina has to 'change' before she starts wearing cat-ears and making poorly timed feline-themed puns.

Meanwhile, Oswald discovers that most of his thugs and followers have defected to Haven to seek protection from the GCPD. So naturally, Oswald handles this 'betrayal' the way he handles everything - by overreacting. I suspect though that all Oswald really cared about was getting his bulldog Edward back from Haven, above anyone else. The fact that Gordon wouldn't even give the pooch up actually had me siding with Oswald for a majority of this episode. As always, Robin Lord Taylor's scene-chewing here is a delight and a half, even if he is still strangely lacking a shotgun-umbrella. And when it's evident that Oswald's goons have double-crossed him, he resorts to teaming up with Gordon to drive the gangsters out of Haven for good. Gotham seems to have forgotten already that an alliance seemed to be brewing between Gordon and Barbara last week, and so instead we get the first of hopefully many more team-ups between Gordon and Oswald. I also suspect this turn of events sets into motion a domino effect leading to the prelude we saw at the beginning of 'Year Zero' depicting Gordon, Bullock, Oswald and Nygma teaming up against an unknown army.

With the good set aside, now we must come to both the bad and, characterization-wise, the ugly. Specifically, it's one of my biggest gripes with Gotham in years. In regards to portrayal, I haven't seen Gotham so poorly deconstruct one of its most memorable rouges since the introduction of Victor Fries way back in Season 2. I'm talking about this series' rendition of Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn is unique among Batman rouges because she actually made her debut way back when during the airing of Batman: The Animated Series. She was a character created exclusively for the cartoons before her fusing into mainstream comics, and mainly operated as the Joker's No. 2, though as the series continued, she was fleshed out even further, shown to have once been a psychiatrist that treated the Joker at Arkham Asylum, before ultimately becoming exploited and manipulated by the Joker to turn to a life of crime.

Alternatively, last year, Gotham introduced Ecco, a mysterious subordinate of Jeremiah Valeska who, quite frankly, followed him into battle unquestionably, and in this season, into no man's land as well. Gotham hasn't outright referred to her yet as 'Harley Quinn', but the use of her catchphrase 'Puddin' in this week's episode, as well as the colors of red and black scattered along her clothing is very much a dead giveaway.

Gotham has had difficulties in the past trying to incorporate their own iteration of Harley Quinn into the series. It's come out that there were plans at the end of Season 3 to turn Barbara Kean into the character. There were also rumors that the little girl Bruce saved in an alleyway, also at the end of Season 3, would also grow up to become Harley. To this day, I absolutely believe the inclusion of Harley Quinn isn't an essential factor to Gotham's gutsy, spunky narrative. Simply put, she's a character best saved for a day when the city actually has a properly established Joker (and Batman for that matter), but at best, shelving the character for another time would mean that we would get to be spared Gotham's rendition at...whatever Ecco is supposed to be. And whatever Gotham's intentions were for this character, they've managed to make Ecco everything Harley Quinn is not. Traditionally, Harley does not earn every reader/viewer's sympathy, but the character always steals the show whenever she shows up. She can be funny, she can be entertaining in her own demented methods, it's actually a little unsettling as the viewer to stay tuned with the character as she gets joy out of the most twisted and sadistic things. Even Margot Robbie's portrayal of the character in Suicide Squad remains a personal highlight for me in an otherwise hopeless film because though she brings her own attributes to the character, there are still plenty of homages written into her role that evoked a bit of nostalgia in me for that classic animated series.

Gotham's rendition of Harley Quinn by the end of it is tragically boring, but worse than that, Francesca Root-Dodson's performance fails to share any likeness either with the characteristics of Harley. She's more akin to a hype man (or hype woman in this case) for Jeremiah, much like how Ebony Maw was to Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, minus the chilling motion capture and dainty fingers. A week ago, I had a hope that Gotham could learn to better blend all of its characters into a single narrative this season, but now I'm left with a single and very potent desire outweighing all others, and that is that Ecco's appearance this week was a one-time occurrence only. Any further appearances down the winding road will all result in a dogged struggle to sit through her scenes, which felt like being stuck in a room with a Harley Quinn cosplayer whose only knowledge of the character comes from what Warner Brothers advertises on t-shirts.

Aaron Studer loves spending his time reading, writing and defending the existence of cryptids because they can’t do it themselves.

[thecomicsnexus]

Detective Comics #475-476. February/April, 1978. By Steve Englehart, Roger Marshall and Terry Austin.

It is night time in Gotham City and Batman swings across the rooftops until he comes to the apartment window of Silver St. Cloud. After being invited in, Batman inquires whether or not Miss Cloud had anything to speak to him about. The look she had given him the previous evening expressed something akin to recognition. Silver stares back at him and confirm her suspicions that the Batman is Bruce Wayne. Batman, in turn, suspects that Silver may know the truth. An uncomfortable moment passes between the two, but Silver gives no signs of recognizing the real man, which is an act, since she doesn't want to lose Bruce Wayne's affection and trust. Moments later after Batman has left, he telephones Silver as Bruce Wayne, asking her to postpone their next date and Silver cancels the date altogether before she decides to leave town for a while.

Batman continues patrolling the city and eventually swoops down towards the Gotham docks. A stevedore approaches him and shows him barrels of freshly caught fish. Ordinarily, this mundane incident would not rouse the Batman's attention but for the fact that all of the fish bear faces similar to that of the Joker. The fisherman asks Batman why someone would want to create fish with Joker faces, but Batman discourages the inquiry, saying that Joker's methods are similar to his own madness.

The following morning, the Joker and his henchmen barge into the office of the city Copyright Commission. The Joker introduces himself to a clerk named G. Carl Francis, indicating that he wishes to trademark his designer Joker Fish. The man is clearly terrified by the Joker's presence, but tells him that nobody can register a copyright on a natural resource – even one as mutated as the macabre Joker Fish. The Joker scoffs at Francis and tells him that he has until midnight to make his desires a reality or else he will be dead.

The Joker leaves the office to confer with his underlings. As he is wont to do, he arbitrarily pushes one of them out into oncoming traffic where they are struck and killed by a truck.

Later, at the Tobacconists' Club, Rupert Thorne grows extremely nervous. His aide Marko comes to greet him, but his presence only serves to agitate Thorne even further. He goes to the restroom to wash his face when suddenly he is accosted by the Joker. The Joker knows that Thorne was involved with the mysterious death of Hugo Strange and wonders if Strange may have told him the true identity of the Batman. So far as the Joker is concerned, his greatest adversary has no identity other than being the Batman. However, he is satisfied that Thorne knows nothing and leaves him be. Frightened, Rupert scrambles out of the building, hops into his sedan and drives off.

That evening, Batman is summoned by Commissioner Gordon to the home of G. Carl Francis, who sought police protection against the Joker. Batman inspects the place for traps or hidden weapons, but he finds nothing suspicious. Then, the Joker broadcasts a message across television waves, declaring that he will kill Francis at 12:00 am. The three men maintain their vigil well into the evening, but at the stroke of midnight, Francis' study begins to fill with noxious gas. Batman quickly slides a re-breather into Francis' mouth, but it does no good. As the smoke clears, G. Carl Francis is dead, a grotesque smile etched across his face – the calling card of the Joker. Batman deduces that the gas that filled the room was one part of a binary compound, otherwise harmless unless mixed with another agent. He determines that the Joker must have sprayed Francis with the secondary agent when he visited his office earlier that day.

Later, Rupert Thorne continues driving across the state in the dark, rainy weather when he picks up a hitchhiker – Silver St. Cloud.

Batman and Commissioner Gordon know that the Joker will target another city bureaucrat in his mad effort to copyright his chemically-altered Joker Fish. As per another televised threat, his next target is a man named Thomas Jackson. As before, Batman, Gordon and a squad of police officers hole up inside of Jackson's mansion. Batman has Jackson don one of his costumes while he disguises himself to take Jackson's place. That way, if the Joker chooses to attack him, he will actually be attacking the Batman.

As luck would have it, Jackson's cat, Ernest, lopes into the study carrying a poisoned Joker Fish inside of his mouth. The venom has now infected the cat and her bears the striking rictus grin that most associate with the Joker. Batman dives after the animal, but the cat launches itself at Jackson (still wearing the Batman costume) and bites him across the face. The venom spreads into Jackson's bloodstream and he dies moments later. The television comes on and the Joker takes credit for ending the life of Thomas Jackson.

Batman leaves to track down the transmitting station that the Joker is broadcasting from. As he bounds through the nearby forests he spies a spectral image – seemingly, the ghost of his old foe, Hugo Strange. The image disappears, but Batman discovers a vapor analysis meter in the underbrush.

At his Ha-Hacienda, the Joker delights in his latest kill. He ponders to himself the fun to be had by mass-marketing his Joker Fish. He even considers using his special chemicals to infect cattle. "Joker-Burgers!" he cries. "Outrageous!"

Meanwhile, Rupert Thorne picks up a hitchhiking Silver St. Cloud. He barely remembers her from a previous exchange and pays little attention to her now. His mind is on Hugo Strange. Turning on the radio, Rupert and Silver learn about the most recent debacle involving the Joker as well as Batman's approach to the crimes. Rupert has no interest in hearing about Batman and angrily shuts the radio off. Silver expresses her support for the Caped Crusader and Thorne kicks her out of the car. Moments later, the ghost of Hugo Strange attacks him anew.

Two hours later, Batman and Commissioner Gordon meet back at police headquarters. They discuss strategies, but quickly discover that the Joker is impersonating one of the officers. The Joker tries spraying Batman with acid from a false police officer's badge, but Batman dodges the attack and the Joker escapes through the window. Batman follows him up the fire escape and the two adversaries chase one another up the side of the building as rain and lightning begin to pour down on top of them. The Joker leaps from the fire escape to a nearby construction scaffold and the Batman follows suit. Joker tries to get the upper hand on Batman by spraying acid on the cable holding the girder in which they both are standing. With a supreme effort, Batman jumps off the girder to the construction site and at that precise moment, a lightning strikes at the girder, shocking Joker and making him lose balance and plunging to the waters below. Moments later, Batman realizes that nothing has come out of the water, but he doubts this would be the last they hear from the Joker.

At that moment, Silver St. Cloud, who has since returned to Gotham and witnessed Batman's battle against the Joker, confronts him and tells him that she cannot involve herself with someone who lives such a dangerous lifestyle. During her attempt to break up with him, Silver's resolution breaks and the two of them embrace in a loving kiss for a few moments. When the passion fades, Silver finally breaks up with him. As Silver leaves, Commissioner Gordon approaches Batman and tells him that local cops had picked up Rupert Thorne, who is now confessing to all of his various crimes and has revealed that he is behind the public vetoing of Batman. However, Batman has already pulled his disappearing act on Gordon and he retreats to the shadows at the break of dawn.

From DC Wikia

I really appreciate how Silver was treated by the writer. She is not just a lady to rescue, and she can even face the same villains Batman faces. Her story with Thorne is actually very good.

Now, the Joker story is a classic and while Batman is a bit extreme in these stories, it feels like something that could happen in any run, making the story a bit timeless.

I found the use of the cat as a weapon very clever.

Now, I am not sure how Silver could sneak upon Batman like that at the end, or how was she able to find him that easily, in any case, it feels like a nice send-off for the character (as Englehart leaves the series).

I give the story a score of 8.