Robin landed on the roof next to him and Bruce could already feel the headache building. They were looking down on a young blond man with pointed ears and a large halberd on his backriding on a white horse. The guy looked like he had come straight out of a fairytale. He knew that if this was a new rogue Damian would argue about keeping the horse. Actually he would probably want to keep the horse even if he wasn't a rogue.
Deciding the guy had gotten close enough they swooped down to confront him. The man, startled, stopped his horse and pulled the large halberd off his back. He held it in front of him, as if in warning. The man looked wary of them but not afraid. They stared at eachother for a moment before the man spoke in a language neither Batman not his Robin knew.
---
Link was having a wierd day. He had literally just saved Princess Zelda a week ago (and for the second time) when he encountered some kind of demon in black and white. The Master Sword glowed in the demons presence which was all Link needed to know before chasing after the being. The thing, looking like a teen in odd clothing that reminded him of links own rubber suit, bolted into a green portal it had created.
Not hesitating he had his horse leap into it. And now he was in a strange place with no sign of the demon. After getting attacked by a man yelling in a language he didn't recognize, he switched out his sword for a halberd for that extra reach on horseback and continued on his way, leaving the unconscious man on the road side behind him.
This place was odd. Parts of some walls would light up, showing images of people and places he didn't know along with a written language he didn't recognize. He came across many people who looked at him oddly...or at least he thought they were people. They looked like Hylians but most of them were taller than the average Hylian and to Links horror they had short rounded ears. How could they hear thier gods with such tiny ears?
He was scared, but he carried on anyway. Eventually he gets confronted by someone dressed as a monster and a child. They manage to settle thier...dispute?...without violence so that was nice. He pulled a few apples and swift carrots out of his tablet-to the curiosity of the duo- and hands them to the child. The kid caught on quickly and raced off to feed his horse her favorite snacks.
Link will have to figure out how to overcome this language barrier
Bruce however, has discovered this was not a man, but a teenager lost in a foreign world and is set on adopting him.
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grief is the defining force in "batman" as a title, but one thing that has always been utterly engrossing to me is that jay was once an outlier in what place this theme occupied in his narrative. for both bruce and dick, grief was motivational; grief was what pushed them into vigilantism. while they later utilised it in completely different ways; bruce became more stagnant and "frozen" in that moment, and for dick it was an impulse that made him more dynamic; they both viewed grief as a form of resolve (even if constituting a sisyphean task).
this is not the case for post-crisis robin jay.
jay enters the role of robin after standing up for justice that was based completely on his own moral intuitions and distaste for the criminal authority figure (the ma gunn' plotline). and while grief was there, it never served as an inspiration during his first missions.
the first time grief becomes entangled with his role as robin, it's in the two-face storyline ["batman" (1940) #410 – #411], when jay learns that bruce hid the fact that willis was murdered from him. he spends a day in his bed, before they encounter harvey on patrol, and jay tries at revenge. later, he merely cries, accusing bruce of "sparing him" knowledge of his father's demise– in other words, sparing him grief, while allowing him in the field at the same time. this is crucial in so far that jay doesn't seem to make a connection between combat and his grief. however, in response, bruce lectures jason about how grief inspires revenge, and how revenge has to be tempered into justice.
then grief becomes an important theme in the beginning of 'a death in the family,' something that i find to be often overlooked. first of all, jay is grieving after gloria. second of all, from the dialogue that is nowadays ignored because of all the retcons to the todd family story, we learn that jay is also still grieving after his parents. in "batman" (1940) #426 alfred informs: “i’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying.” to that, bruce contends: “in other words, i may have started jason as robin before he had a chance to come to grips with his parents' deaths.” and so bruce realises that the role of robin has not been beneficial for jay in grieving at all.
after years of mourning without closure, jason looks for the solution for his grief in moving on by finding a new family; since he thinks along with the role of robin, bruce is dismissing him as his son, he goes on the journey to find his biological mother instead. in my eyes, this has always been a salient moment. it shows that jay is still searching for relief in mourning in civilian life. this is his first intuition. of course, it does not stop him from turning to his secret identity when he realises sheila is in danger; it does not protect him from his death either.
but the lesson that bruce tried to teach jason in his early robin days was not lost. it was very much learned, and the consequences are tragic; the plot of the utrh is evidence of that. there, the narrative regarding grief aligns with what it has always been in "batman": it becomes a drive to vigilantism. jay is no longer pursuing closure in the civilian dimension. grief becomes something to be "tempered" into justice. and as bruce knows, the line between justice and vengeance is very thin.
so just as bruce is forever frozen in the loop of the memory of his parents' death, jason is now stuck in the moment of his death (and of the loss of his father.) both of their pleads are: no one else, never again. both of them seem to consider themselves exempt from this rule, subjecting themselves to reliving their pain to keep fighting.
still, the defining difference remains; jay's grief not only motivates his vigilantism. vigilantism is also the primary root of this grief. and years ago, he has not seen grief as a matter to be solved by vigilantism at all.
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Have a little snippet from my current wip that has accidentally ended up with the working title of 'tractor fic'. its not even about a tractor. the tractor plays a minor roll. there is ten thousand words about the tractor. (its about maria visiting clints farm and being incredibly awkward about it) (she visits to fix the tractor and then ends up staying much longer)
Cooper sits on the other side of the table as he munches on his own sandwich and he stares at Maria with all of the open intensity of an eight year old child. “Is this your boss?” he says to his dad without swallowing.
Clint laughs as he finishes making Lila’s lunch and Maria takes a sip of the lemonade if only so that she doesn’t have to answer. It’s a little tart, but sweet enough that it goes down easy. She isn’t sure she could make better lemonade herself.
“I guess she is, yeah,” Clint says eventually, folding ham neatly within the borders of the bread. “She’s sort of everyone’s boss.”
“Everyone?” Cooper swallows his mouthful at last. “She can’t be everyone’s boss.”
Natasha places her drink down in front of her, sitting a space away from Maria and directly opposite him. She leans forward ever so slightly, conspirational over the table as she lowers her voice. “Oh, she is. She even tells the president what to do sometimes. If someone has a boss, it’s her. Even your mom.”
She straightens up again with a glance to Maria, picking her drink back up to hide her smirk around the straw. Maria tries not to roll her eyes as Cooper gawks. She downs the rest of her lemonade, avoiding eye contact as long as possible, and the moment she sets it back down, Laura is there beside her to fill it up again. She’s trying not to laugh along with everyone else and it makes it that much harder for Maria to keep a straight face too.
“That’s right,” Clint says from the kitchen counter. Maria watches him cut the crusts off of the bread before handing the plate to Lila. “That means you have to listen to everything she says when you’re in the barn.”
Cooper nods into another bite of his sandwich, his eyes wide, and Maria gives him a tight sort of smile. Natasha is still looking at her too, even as she eats her own lunch, and Maria suddenly feels like a bit of a spectacle. It makes Natasha’s eyes crinkle, just so, and that really doesn’t help.
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Another reminder, because apparently reading comprehension is utterly failing online:
Do not follow me if you are under the age of 18.
I've had a spattering of minors trying to follow me and all up on my inbox lately, and look, I get it. I get the curiosity. I read inappropriate shit when I was your age too. Here's the thing, though. I'm an adult. This is not Twitter. I'm not your mommy, your babysitter, or your friend. I'm not here to give you sex-ed, and nor will I be responsible for it in any way. You make me uncomfortable, and I'm fairly certain it would make your mommy and daddy real fuckin' uncomfortable to see you here, and that's just not some shit I need right now.
The content of my work is not for you. I do not want you following me, reading my pieces, or interacting with me in any way.
If you won't have some semblance of respect for me, my work, and my rules, you sure as shit are not mature enough to be here in the first place.
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Granted I have the overall geographical and cultural knowledge of a 4th grader but from what I can tell the nuclear family model really does seem to be a white colonial invention
Different cultures have different approaches but I mainly hear about either large family units where multiple generations support each other and raise their children and grandchildren together or an "it takes a village" approach where children are raised somewhat communally
And I can't really speak on it much or claim that these families were free of abuse or that children aren't often an oppressed group basically everywhere I know of but the way ownership of your children is so engrained into white society is so bizarre
Like once you notice it you can't unnotice it even the most loving well meaning parents don't know what to do about it because everyone is so isolated from their own families and their own communities so you wind up with 1-2 parents who have full legal ownership of their child and are raised in a culture where you don't have personhood until you're 18 and all attempts at self actualization before them are seen as clueless rebellion. Like our culture is so divorced from the concept that a parent is someone who is helping mentor and care for their child so they can thrive as a fellow human being and it's actually so alarming
And ik this problem isn't unique to white and colonized people but it's honestly really soothing to hear about how other cultures approach and view parenting and community as a whole and to internalize it doesn't have to be this way
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i am the last person who wants to make a visualization of the abyss because there is something so cosmic horror about a realm where time is inconsistent and specifically draws in persons of great ambition, only to drastically change who they are simply by existing in there. but because i cannot get it out of my head, i keep thinking back to childe's eyes being lightless as a result of being in the void for three months (arguably more because time in the void just doesn't flow right) and how a realm could be so horrific to change a child to bloodthirsty warrior, hand-in-hand with his introduction to skirk...
and then i got to thinking about this webtoon that i read where you can technically, physically go to the heavens where a god will await adventurers who dare. but the character had to cross an area of this endless blue where neither light nor shadows reach. it also got me to thinking about the final world in kingdom hearts 3 where it's just. the sky itself without end, the ground a reflection of the skies, and how this area acted as a purgatory of lost souls.
& it got me thinking of genshin's abyss in the same vein: an endless blue, depriving its residents of their five senses. there's only blue where the eyes can see, the ground is too perfectly flat, there isnt a breeze to whistle in your ear, it's just... all too perfectly, inhumanely, maddeningly blue. blue like childe's lightless gaze.
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How do I explain to a parent that, while I understand that their educational experience was that homework was required and multiple hours a night, their disabled son who is exhausted from all the work he does at school (my classroom gives almost zero down time due to the curriculum design) does not need to do homework after school? He needs to rest and play and be a kid.
It's really hard to explain to parents that their child's disability isn't a lack of effort, or a moral failing, or "fixable" by doing extra. They will always be themself. Their disability is part of who they are, and respecting, loving, and supporting them knowing it's part of them is beyond important. Homework will exhaust your child further, and his progress will slow in school because he'll burn out by the middle of third grade. I'll give little activities for basic practice from time to time to my munchkins, especially if they personally ask for it. I encourage reading with their child daily, engaging them in cooking and shopping and basic day to day tasks, but daily homework has never been proven to work. And, for kids who consistently work harder due to learning not coming easily to them, home time needs to be a break from it.
School is their full time job. Let them come home and turn off.
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