#infinite bits to dissect

[everchanging-axis]

Ghost Trick and the Murder Machine

*Ghost Trick spoilers ahead!*

Someone's probably said this before I have, but it originally struck me as odd when Lynne said, (of the murder machine), "Once Cupid fires his arrow it's all over." Because the puzzle isn't actually about stopping Cupid from firing. You simply redirect him. It nagged at me for a while until I realized something.

The whole machine is Kamila's. Of course, Cupid setting off the gun is symbolic of the whole ordeal, of an act of love gone wrong. But the angle the game takes is that the way to fix it is not to destroy the mechanism, not to crush that love and rid yourself of it entirely, but to "spin" the Cupid, to try again and repurpose that love healthily, without hurting others. I read another post mentioning consequences for people who make mistakes in Ghost Trick, and I think this fits in nicely with that idea.

That's why Yomiel's new version of it near the end of the game is so horrible. Cupid faces the right way, but he's placed dynamite at the end of it. He's refused to allow himself to stop hurting, and continues to hurt others. He gets creative with it, even! With a machine so utterly divorced from the purity of the initial idea. A twisted design so carefully put together that it could have only been born of obsessive and unadulterated bitterness. A machine the opposite of love, one of hate. And by then, there's nothing Sissel can do to help him directly, nothing he can do to turn Cupid around right now, so he does what he can to save those caught in the fire.

[uriekukistan]

JJK 261 ANALYSIS: What happened, how, why Yuuta made the choice he did, and a discussion of tragedy & major themes of JJK

MAJOR spoilers below the cut so please read at your risk.

i wanted to dissect what happened a bit, and address a few points i saw floating around since the leaks dropped. of course, these are all my interpretations, so feel free to disagree, i just had a lot of thoughts floating around that i wanted to put out for discussion.

I. Gojo was never coming back

first of all, i don't know how you guys expected him to survive bisection. i said this earlier in the day as my justification for why i didn't think gojo was coming back, prior to leaks, and i don't think i can say it any better now.

and this is just my interpretation of reverse curse technique, but if anything, yuuta in this chapter supports my theory. in the scene where he's on shoko's table and arata nitta says that he's used rct to keep the wounds from getting worse, but it might be too late for yuuta to recover. in that case, gojo wasn't coming back from being sliced in half. it's just not possible.

additionally, and this is another thing that i've said for a long time. he says right in episode 6 (i forgot the chapter) that his dream is to reset the jujutsu world raise up a generation of strong students that work together. that is why he became a teacher. this very clearly comes from his relationship with suguru, and it's one of gojo's clearest motivations from the beginning.

the problem is, in order to achieve this, he has to die. so long as satoru gojo is alive, he will have to carry the burden of being the strongest alone. his students won't have to work together, because gojo will just take care of everything. this is already in the works, with how many people have come together to stand against sukuna. if gojo lived and defeated sukuna on his own, this wouldn't have happened, and bringing him back would, again, reduce the need for his students work together.

unfortunately, gojo has been doomed by the narrative from the start, and his primary goal as a character basically requires his death to be realized in its entirety.

II. They're not heroes, they're jujutsu sorcerers.

yeah, i'm stealing megumi's line because it's true. he literally said it twice for a reason, and then yuuta said a repackaged version of it in this chapter ("we're about to fight history's strongest jujutsu sorcerer. if we can win by throwing away our humanity, we shouldn't even be arguing about this").

trust, all the characters are well aware of the ethical issues with taking gojo's body after he's dead, both with what it means for gojo, and with what it means for yuuta. but this isn't a story about heroism, this isn't a story about the power of friendship. if it was, yuuji would have saved junpei all the way back at the beginning of the series. it was pretty clear from the start that this wasn't going to be the typical shounen manga like that.

in fact, expecting it to be is unrealistic. it's unrealistic in real life too, if i'm being so honest. everyone wants to think they'd take the moral high road in this type of situation, but the reality is, when you're fighting tooth and nail against an opponent that is fighting dirty, you have to fight dirty too if you want to win, and i think that's what yuuta is trying to point out in this chapter.

this happens in real life wars which im not gonna get into examples because i dont want to start that kind of discourse, but like...it's so great to be idealistic and hope that virtue will triumph simply because it is virtuous, but i think if you take a look around, you'll realize it's true that good people do not get what they deserve simply because they're good (that's so megumi of me to say...). or if you think of it like a board game, if a player is cheating, it is infinitely harder to win without cheating yourself.

maybe this is a bit pessimistic of me to say, but you will not win a dirty fight without getting dirty yourself, and i think it's pretty clear that sukuna fights dirty.

additionally, it's shitty to see gojo be weaponized, and i understand that, but it plays into the themes about strength in jjk, which i will get into.

III. This was not an "ass pull."

i don't really have much to say to this. did you think yuuta wouldn't take kenjaku's technique? plus, kenjaku being eaten by rika is probably the only surefire way to ensure that they're dead and won't just hop to another body. i've already said why gojo wouldn't come back, but it makes sense that if yuuta were to copy kenjaku's technique, who else would he body hop into, if not gojo? there's already narrative evidence to support this action, from the guidelines of yuuta's technique, kenjaku's technique, and gojo's technique, to the character of yuuta okkotsu, which i want to do an analysis in a separate post for him, so i won't get into that right now.

idk...to me, all the threads connect, plus i felt like yuuta's return was foreshadowed pretty heavily in 259 & 260, with the mention of yuuta's plan that yuuji couldn't know, and then on the last page of 260, the comparison of sukuna and yuuta, so for me, i always thought that it was not actually gojo, but yuuta at the end of 260.

IV. Themes of JJK: The burden of being "the strongest," or even just strong

even many jjk fans see gojo as "the strongest," and nothing more, doing exactly what the narrative sets up as one of the chief problems of jjk. a lot of gojo's actions are spurred on by the burden he feels from being the strongest modern sorcerer. his entire character is built around this problem of the responsibility and burden that falls on someone who's considered to be "the best" at anything.

in fact, this is also a driving point for geto too, and the conflicts geto and gojo come into with each other, as well as geto's inevitable fall from grace. it all comes from this issue that's at the core of jujutsu society. gojo recognizes that, and, as i mentioned, that is why he became a teacher. so that no young sorcerers will feel the burden of being the strongest alone.

the problem is this is easier said than done. after gojo dies, this burden gets passed down to yuuta, and he feels that immense pressure, which is why he decides to do what he does. he says "haven’t we been pushing the burden of being a monster onto gojo-sensei alone? if gojo-sensei is gone, then who else will be the monster? If no one intends to become one, then I will!" and i think this really powerful evidence of the pressure and burden of being the strongest, and i think the word monster is really important here. the burden pushes people to be something they're not, a shadow of their true self.

it distorts morality, like with geto. it isolates people, like with gojo. it forces people to go to unspeakable lengths to uphold their burden, like with yuuta. it leads people with immense power to doubt themselves, like with megumi. it leads people to feel like a cog in the machine, not a human, like with yuuji.

this is sooo so important and a key theme of jjk, and this chapter in particular, and the driving force behind yuuta's actions.

V. Themes in JJK: Loneliness and Isolation

this one has, in my opinion, a bigger role in the story overall than just in this chapter.

as i mentioned before, gojo is lonely. the only person who could understand him was geto, and he turned away from him, and then died. he seems like a silly guy or whatever, but it's just a mask.

but geto also felt alone and isolated, and that's why he turned away. between gojo and geto, neither of them were able to put share the burden of carrying their strength alone, and it's what kept them apart and made their relationship so tragic.

arguably, and though he would never admit it, sukuna is also lonely, though it's buried deep within him and something he will likely never acknowledge, despite it, and his lack of understanding of love (arguably a symptom of his loneliness), are major reasons for the way he acts.

yuuta, though supported by maki, inumaki, and panda in a way that the previously mentioned characters are not, is still isolated. he alone carries the burden of his strength. he was also alone his whole life after rika died, and then again when he was shipped off to africa, away from his friends (yeah he had miguel, maybe i'm missing something, but i dont see them having that type of relationship.

not only that, but yuuta recognizes gojo's loneliness, and reaches out to tell him not to try to stand by himself once again, and gojo admits that's something he can't do, the reason being his relationship with geto.

even further, yuuji and megumi, the parallel to satosugu, are both deeply lonely, except for when they have each other. i mentioned in this analysis that the reason megumi can't just get up and keep going is because he's alone and has been for over a month. i want to get into this more in my next point.

VI. Where I think (hope) this leads for JJK

a satisfying ending for jjk, in my opinion, would be the resolution to this loneliness and burden of strength issue that has been present throughout the narrative. something like yuuji being able to save megumi and them being able to correct what went wrong with satosugu in their own relationship.

personally would like to see satosugu reach the ending they should have had through the itafushi parallels - let them save each other! but i do know gege said only one of them (the trio + gojo) will die, or only one will live....that was years ago maybe he changed his mind :D

we all want to see yuuji take down sukuna himself, but i think it would be a great resolution to see everyone take down sukuna as a team. no one person is alone, no one person has the burden of the strongest. i know i said this wasn't a "power of friendship" manga, and i stand by that, but i think this would be the perfect ending. yuuta throws his humanity away to do what he did in 261 because he felt like it was the only choice and it was something he alone could do, but yuuji represents unwavering humanity (literally his name), and i think to preserve that, they all need to share that burden. let them realize they need each other.

this is what gojo died for, and this is what he lived for. this is why he became a teacher in the first place- to raise a generation that can be strong together, that can support one another.

VII. "It's poorly written torture porn!" "There's no point if there's no happy ending!" etc

i said this in a separate post but tragedies have existed in literature since the 6th century BCE, 2600 years ago. many of the most popular stories throughout history have been tragedies, for example, orpheus & eurydice, romeo & juliet, even things like the fault in our stars and the titanic movie. here's a quick explanation of what it means for a story to be a tragedy (yeah it's from wikipedia but they want me to pay to access the original source and im not doing that for a jjk analysis)

one of things i like most about this definition is the use of the word "catharsis," which is to say that the expression of strong emotions is a way of bringing about renewal and relief. in literature, it's used to say that with the arousal and following release of negative emotions relieves suppressed emotions for the viewer. im not gonna get too personal with it, but i know i've experienced this with jjk.

additionally all of the aforementioned tragedies, they have a message, no matter how sad they are. orpheus & eurydice inspires perseverance and faith in the gods. even something like titanic has messages about everlasting love that overcomes all boundaries. jjk has its message too, and it's long underway. we just have to wait for it to reach its conclusion.

it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when we only get one chapter a week, and the fact that the pain is so dragged out is a bit tiring, i'll admit. but that doesn't mean it's bad. having negative emotions stirred by a story doesn't mean bad writing. i mean, i would hope you feel sad. i would hope you feel angry. i would be concerned if you didn't. but given that jjk is a tragedy, that just indicates good writing. especially these last two chapters, i've felt moved in a way nothing else has done for me in a long time.

as always, these are just my thoughts!!! im happy to hear from anyone what they think :D

[robinsegghead]

Danny's Daycare Part 1

      [Master List]

  Danny liked to believe he was a good person, with a good heart, but even he knew he’d decided to do this more out of boredom than anything else. There were a lot of places and people he could help with his powers and wealth but there were only two reasons he’d agreed to help Lady Gotham. The first being; she’d asked. Who was he to turn down a city spirit who’d come to ask his help? What reason could he have for turning her down? Well, he was busy with his kingly duties, but that was exactly why he had to do it. He was bored.

            Having graduated with his bachelor’s in the previous semester and the realms being completely calm and peaceful for the first time in a few thousand years, he’d grown bored. He’d honestly been considering finally dealing with the GIW on a more official basis (though he wasn’t sure he would be able to without overturning the Anti-Ecto Acts) but had ruled it out. He’d banned ghosts from Amity Park years ago and had discovered the GIW wasn’t doing too well for itself anymore.

            So….

            He’d agreed.

            Of course Lady Gotham had been entirely ambiguous with her request and thus he’d decided to take certain liberties in the way he chose to help. If he was being honest he thought his ideas were much more helpful than what she may have been expecting. He’d hung up his metaphorical cape and retired Phantom shortly after high school. As king, he was still Phantom, but he didn’t plan on ever flying around as a vigilante again.

            He wouldn’t have agreed to help if it meant he’d have to pick up his old mantle again.

            Teen hero Phantom had died on a dissection table and there was no amount of Ectoplasm strong enough to bring him back.

            Only a bit of research told Danny all he needed to know about Gotham and how he could best help. The birds and bats had rogues covered, they didn’t need Phantom anyways. But the thing that led to so many people becoming goons? To dealing drugs? To taking up crime? That was something neither the birds nor the bats were handling.

            So using an infinitesimal amount of his disgustingly vast wealth, Danny bought a decent sized building in the middle of the Bowery, bought and apartment building nearby, and packed his things. Moving wasn’t difficult considering his handle on opening portals to the infinite realms and the fact that he was currently living in his keep.

            Jazz had been… confused. She thought he was throwing away his freedom, shunning her hopes that he’d go for his PhD, but after he’d explained what he was doing  she was more than happy to help in any way she could. After all, she was interning as a psychologist at Arkham Asylum while finishing her PhD at Gotham U. Anything that got her little brother to spend more time with her was a win in her books.

            Getting the building ready for Danny’s plan was the most time-consuming part, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He took all the necessary precautions, had the building inspected and fumigated, installed heating and air conditioning, replaced the worn-out plumbing, and had Tucker create the best security system known to man- or ghost. He did all the same in the apartment building he’d bought (he also lowered the rent a fair bit without telling any of the current tenants).

            Once the building wasn’t literally collapsing, he had the carpeted floors replaced (there was no saving the blood crusted carpets) with hard wood floors and colorful area rugs. At this point people had begun to notice all of the work going into the building, they didn’t ask questions though, that would be very Gothamite of them. Danny had spent every waking moment working on the building, hadn’t stepped outside more than a handful of times, and certainly hadn’t met any of the neighbors.

            That was kind of the opposite of his intentions.

            So he’d looked around for soup kitchens in the area, found one that served dinner at a time that fit in his schedule, and started volunteering. A few days after contacting them about volunteering he got a call that he was cleared to start whenever, and he agreed to come the next evening.

            He arrived a bit earlier than they’d suggested but the woman in charge didn’t seem to mind too much.

            “I’m Molly, you’re early.” A woman much taller than Danny with broad shoulders and biceps thicker than his head, crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow. “I assume you want to work?”

            He nodded, dumbstruck.

            “Good. This way.” He followed her without a second thought. He found himself in a large kitchen filled with the sounds of chatter, chopping, and music. A couple of the volunteers were singing to the music while cooking. It was overall, really pleasant. “You know how to chop vegetables?” Molly asked.

            He felt… condescended a bit but brushed it off. “Yeah I can chop.”

            “Good, Les! You’ve got a new chopping buddy. Lanky, take a break.” Molly shouted orders to the rest of the staff while Danny took over chopping from Lanky, apparently.

            A young woman -he assumed she was Les?- handed him the knife Lanky had been holding and pointed to a large sack of potatoes. “Chop all of those, then put them into the pot to your right.” She brushed a strand of light brown hair behind her ear and continued chopping carrots.

            The two chopped in relative silence, the sounds of the kitchen washing over them, until he finished the sack of potatoes he’d been working on. Danny was a lot slower than Les but she had more carrots than he had potatoes, so he finished first. “Done.”

            She looked up, finished what she was doing, and wiped her hands on her apron. “Good. Can you finish these carrots while I move the potatoes and see what else we need done?” He got to work on the carrots while Les ran around making sure everything was running smoothly. By the time she returned he had finished the carrots as well.

            “Good,” There was approval in her voice, and he fought off a blush. “Dinner is starting soon. We’ve plenty of people working on the food, you up for serving?” He nodded, wiping his hands on his own apron before following her away from the kitchen.

            “Wash up here.” She gestured to a sink beside the door leading to the eating area. While he washed his hands she explained what he’d be doing. “You’re just serving one dish, so it’s not complicated. One ladle-full per tray, no seconds, there won’t be leftovers as it is. Be kind and respectful, we have people if anybody gets rowdy so don’t try to be a hero.” It was a strange warning but… well, it was Gotham.

            He nodded obediently and followed her to the pot of stew that was already made which he’d be serving from tonight.

            “Service starts in ten minutes; we’ve already got quite a line. Someone will come to relieve you for a break in two hours. Dinner last four hours- I assume you’re here for the whole night?” He nodded again. “Good, you’ll get a twenty-minute break to eat and rest before going back to give someone else their break, understand?”

            It was a relatively easy job- though he tried not to think too deeply about some of the people he served. You can’t save everybody, Danny. Jazz’s voice echoed in his mind as he watched two young boys get food, refusing to make eye contact with any of the volunteers. The older boy muttered a quiet ‘thanks’ before dragging the younger boy away and finding a spot in the corner away from everybody else.

            He tried to put them out of his mind as he continued to serve the everybody else. He couldn’t. Danny found himself glancing towards the corner every few minutes to watch out for the boys, something about them reminded him of Jazz and himself- though he wasn’t sure why. Other than the overprotective older sibling thing, there wasn’t much to compare. Still, he felt a sort of… pull towards the boys.

            It wasn’t ectoplasmic, they just… clearly they needed help- two kids wouldn’t be in a soup kitchen if they didn’t but- You can’t save everybody, Danny. And you’ll kill yourself fully trying to. Jazz was right, like usual- of course he’d never tell her that but-

            “-nny? Hello?” Someone tapped his shoulder, his head whipped to the side, startling the newcomer. “Sorry man, just trying to send you on your break. You good?”

            Danny nodded, setting down the ladle and moving aside for the other man. He needed to clear his mind.

~~~

            He painted the walls. Pale colors that complimented the even more colorful posters he hung over top and went nicely with the rugs. He considered tuning it down a bit when it came to the furniture, but what was the point? Colors were fun- kids liked colors, right? So the plastic tables and chairs were yellow and red and green and blue and purple and any other color you could think of.

            And once the furniture was moved in he was able to buy toys. Toy boxes were filled with various brand new and colorful toys, shelves were packed with unread books in perfect condition, and crayon boxes with coloring books were laid neatly on each table. The cabinets were stocked with Sam-approved snacks, the first aid kit was over-stocked, and the closet was filled with a wide range of clothing for kids who might not have hats, gloves, coats, or anything else they might need. He'd buy more when he finally had kids to buy for.

            Lady Gotham hadn’t said a word about his plan, but she’d nodded resolutely, thanked him, and went on her way, and that was enough encouragement to continue.

            On one of the last days of constructions, Danny received a visitor.

            “So this is where you’ve been, eh babypop?”

            Looking up from the paperwork Danny had been poring over, he smirked. “I guess I missed living in a haunted town.”

            She rolled her eyes and sauntered closer. “So you’ve- what? Traded your throne for a plastic rainbow chair?”

            “I didn’t trade anything. Lady Gotham asked for help, and I had time. It’s not like I’ll be here forever. Just until Gotham is faring a bit better. Maybe I’ll find someone I trust to give this place to sometime down the line.”

            Ember leaned her hip against his desk and crossed her arms. “And you’re doing this alone?”

            He shrugged. “Jazz is in school and interning at Arkham, Sam’s in San Francisco with Val and Tucker, and who knows where Dani is.” He frowned at something on the paperwork before shrugging again and writing something down.

            “That wasn’t what I meant, kid.”

            “I’ve gotten really good at the whole duplication thing recently so, yeah, I was going to do this alone. Who else would help me? I mean, maybe I’ll hire some help down the line, but I’ve got to be established first.” Danny knew full well that his current plan would have him exhausting himself on a daily basis. Working long days, by himself, while duplicating himself enough to take care of an unknown number of kids would drain him.

            A hand grabbed his pen away before he could keep working on his paperwork and he looked up to try and snatch it back. Ember was leaning into his space, holding the pen away from him. “I was offering to help, Babypop. Actually, I’ve talked to a few people who are offering to help.”

            Frowning, Danny searched the desk for another pen. “You do realize this isn’t like the Infinite Realms, right? You can’t duel a kid, you can’t mind control children, you aren’t allowed to fuck shit up here.”

            “Wow, is that all you think I’m capable of?” The hurt in her voice was feigned but he wondered if there was a tiny bit of truth behind it.

            “That’s not what I meant, Ember. I- just- who wants to help?”

            She smirked.

            That was how Danny found himself surrounded by ghosts, going over rules and expectations if they wanted to help. Lunch Lady, Ember, Dora, and a few others he didn’t know as well, listened as he laid down the law. The safety of the kids came before all else. It came before their own safety, it came before Danny’s identity, it came before everything. If they were going to do this, they would be doing it the right way.

            “There is also the matter of the birds and the bats.” Danny sighed, leaning against his desk and facing his friends? Subjects? Fellow ghosts.

            Ember scoffed. “I don’t need that talk from you, babypop.”

            “No no- not the birds and the bees. The birds and the bats. Gotham vigilantes.” The ghosts nodded in understanding. “They are not to be messed with, understood? The Anti-Ecto Acts are still very much in play, and I cannot tell you what side the birds and bats will be on but presumably, the governments. Batman founded the Justice League so not only does he work for the government, but they failed Amity multiple times, I do not trust them.

            “First and foremost; Batman. He’s the leader of the birds and bats as far as I can tell. He’s been around for over twenty years, the world’s greatest detective, and keeps up with heroes like superman, avoid at all costs. His sidekick is Robin, a kid in green, red, and yellow, he has swords, and we all know that despite his age, he is probably pretty dangerous.”

            “Okay we get it; you beat all of us while you were a scrawny fourteen-year-old.” Ember scoffed.

            “Everyone else is listening quietly, Em.” He glared pointedly. “Anyway, next is Nightwing- he’s technically Bludhaven’s vigilante but he helps around Gotham on the regular. Wears black and blue, my understanding is he’s generally pretty friendly, but I don’t want to take any chances. Then there’s Red Robin, he’s said to be a tech genius and considering Tucker’s obsessed with him, I’d say that’s probably true. Despite that, he’s not chump, I’ve seen some videos, he can fight, and he fights dirty. He wears black and red.

            “Red Hood wears the bat emblem, but he works mostly on his own in Crime Alley. He wears a red helmet- I know, he should be wearing a hood, but whatever. Hood is the only one that I’ve heard a good deal about, I’ve heard whispers of him in the realms, spirits who are grateful to him for avenging them like to call him the avenger of the dead. I have a great deal of respect for him. That being said; Red Hood kills, he is the only vigilante in Gotham that carries guns- not dangerous to you, but still, avoid him at all costs.”

            “I don’t see the importance of such a warning, we cannot die.” Dora frowned.

            Danny nodded in agreement. “No, you’re right, you probably don’t need to be all that concerned. However, if they find out about us and what we are, there’s no telling if they’ll get their hands on ghost tech from my- from the Fentons.” Ember gave him a sympathetic look at his slip. “I don’t want them learning anything about us or the Realms for all of our safety.

            “Signal is the daytime hero, he wears bright yellow and my understanding is he’s also super friendly. I found a video of him teaching street kids how to do a backflip. I’ve also seen him punch goons into next week so again, dangerous. Spoiler wears purple, she’s a badass any way you look at it. She’s quippy, flippy, and intense. More intense though is black bat, who wears all black and doesn’t speak.” He took a deep breath and made sure he’d said everything already. “I think that’s everyone. Questions?”

~~~

            The daycare was almost entirely finished, Danny had been spending more time there than at his apartment, and he’d had Tucker craft fake identities for everybody who wanted to help out. With how stressful things had been Danny felt the need for an extra-large, extra caffeinated, heart attack inducing coffee. There was one coffee shop he loved in the Upper East Side that knew him well. He’d come by for a coffee every morning since moving to Gotham five weeks ago and the barista’s had quickly began recognizing the man who got a black coffee with seven shots of espresso and a disgusting amount of syrup. He imagined not many people got that kind of drink. (He hoped).

            Jesse smiled when Danny approached the counter and began typing his order from memory. “How’s the construction going, Danny?” They asked.

            Offering his own tired smile, Danny nodded. “Construction’s done, just finishing up some stuff on the inside and paperwork.”

            “That’s great!” Jesse accepted Danny’s card, swiping it through their register. “My uncle lives in the Bowery and he has a little girl. The daycare could really help a lot of people.” Their voice was warm and slightly sad at the same time. “I hope it works out.”

            Taking his card back and their words as a dismissal, Danny gave a nod and moved towards the hand-off plane to wait for his drink. He checked his phone; Jazz had been blowing it up with more ideas for his egregious wealth could benefit the people of Gotham. She’d mentioned a lot of ideas that were… well they weren’t bad per se, but Danny already had a lot on his plate with the Daycare opening in just under a week.

            He wrote each suggestion down in his notes app anyways. A lot of them were things Gotham already had; food banks, homeless shelters, etc. but some of them were more interesting. A mechanic who fixed up cars for free, a tutoring program for kids who weren’t in school but wanted to go back, classes on how to combat different kinds of gasses and poisons (specifically fear gas, Poison Ivy’s different toxins, and Joker Venom), first aid programs, and a whole lot more. Danny hoped to implement a lot of Jazz’s ideas at some point, but for now, he was just one guy.

            One guy who barely saved himself.

            Jesse handed Danny his drink and waved as they turned to help another customer. Moving towards the exit, Danny narrowly avoided crashing into a bigger man who clearly didn’t have special awareness but in turn crashed into a much smaller man.

            “Oh shit!” Danny’s drink spilled all along his front and onto his shoes and he cringed at the painful heat coming into contact with his sensitive scars. “I’m really sorry.” He sighed, looking over the other man to see he hadn’t actually spilled any of his drink on the other man. Thank Ancients.

            The other man, who was only slightly shorter than Danny, was pressing napkins into Danny’s shirt. “Don’t worry about it. Are you okay? That looked really hot.”

            Danny nodded, taking the napkins from the other man and wiping away what he could without rubbing his scars. “Yeah… it was. I’m just glad I didn’t spill it on you.” He froze. “I didn’t, right?”

            The other man shook his head. “I’m fine, thanks. Let me buy you another one- it was kind of my fault anyways.”

            “We both know I crashed into you.” Danny raised an eyebrow. He didn’t need anyone to buy his coffee, he was disgustingly wealthy, if anything, he should be buying the stranger his coffee as an apology for crashing into him.

            “Whatever, let me buy your coffee as an apology anyways.” Danny shrugged, following the man up to the counter. He was going to buy a replacement anyways; he might as well let this stranger buy it for him.

            Jesse raised an eyebrow at the duo. “Oh god. I was hoping you two would never meet.”

            Danny and the man looked at each other strangely before looking back at Jesse. “Why?” They asked in unison.

            “Two large hot coffees with seven shots of espresso and fifteen pumps of vanilla?” They raised their eyebrow, looking between the two men judgmentally.

            Danny turned to the stranger, who in turn did the same, both looked at each other before promptly bursting into laughter. “Oh my Ancients, you too, huh?” Danny pretended to wipe away a tear as the other man ran a hand through his hair.

            “A man of taste.”

            Jesse swiped the man’s card. “I’ll have them in a minute, Tim, Danny.” They nodded to each of the men dismissively and they took their cue.

            They took a seat near the hand-off plane and Danny realized he’d never introduced himself properly. “I’m Danny, sorry about almost dropping my coffee on your very expensive looking suit.”

            The man -Tim apparently- waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m Tim, sorry about making you dump boiling hot coffee all over yourself.”

            “Better my t shirt and jeans than your Armani suit.”

            “I save the Armani for special occasions.” Tim smirked. “So what could you possibly be doing that requires a level of caffeine that could kill an elephant?”

            Danny rolled his eyes. “Jeez, you sound like my sister. I’ve spent the last five weeks renovating a place in the Bowery and turning it into a daycare. Only a few days before it opens, and I’ve already got a couple of kids signed up, so I imagine I’ll be drinking this every day for the rest of my life. How about yourself? You must have a crazy job to be drinking that much coffee.”

            Tim looked surprised briefly before masking it. “I’ve got some business meetings today I’ve been putting off for a while. I usually drink a few coffees a day to get through all the bullshit the board likes to pull.”

            “You must be pretty high up to be dealing with a board. I know how much those meetings suck. I usually just fake an emergency- of course they start to catch on when you do it every single time- but you know- I don’t really care.” He chuckled thinking about the last council meeting in the realms when Frighty’d almost had an aneurysm from Danny’s antics.

            Tim’s head tilted. “Where do you work?”

            He hadn’t anticipated this question which was stupid because he was the one who’d brought up dealing with his own board, Danny was saved by Jesse. “Tim!” They called from the bar. Two identical coffees sat on the hand-off plane and the men moved in unison.

            Drink in hand, Danny turned to Tim. “Well thanks for the coffee, Tim. I’ve gotta get back to the daycare but it was nice meeting you!” He smiled, offering a hand to shake.

            Tim took it, holding his own coffee in his other hand. “You too, Danny. I’ll see you around?”

            “Unfortunately!” Jesse called from behind the bar.

~~~

This is a fic on AO3 but thought I'd post the parts here separately for anyone who wanted to read them on Tumblr

AO3 Link

Original Prompt from @glow-in-the-dark-death

Next

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #142 Part 2

His parents had spent years working on their portal, to the point where they were neglecting their own children. Danny didn’t know any better, neither did Jazz. To them it was just how their family ran and for the most part it worked for them. It allowed Danny to really study space and the Stars. His room was covered with different ship models on the shelves, glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and posters on the walls.

Jazz had similarly explored her own thoughts and topics as she studied Psychology. Her room was more feminine but still had a certain scientific decorum to it.  

He never thought that he’d suddenly be ripped from all the things he loved. But here he was with the trench coat man, instead of taking some biology class or something.

“What happened with the portal?” Danny asked.

The man took a long sigh, “listen… quite a lot of shit went down after your accident.” 

“That tells me nothing,” Danny glared at the man.

“I get your upset kid, but let me at least know your name. Mine's John Constantine,” 

“…Danny,” Danny muttered after a moment. He wasn’t sure he trusted the man but he guessed he had no choice. He was also noticing he felt a bit off, it was the weirdest gut feeling and Danny was having trouble telling exactly what the feeling was. It was like the feeling was telling him to trust John, although at the same time John had this weird feeling about him that had Danny feeling weary. He decided to trust John just a little, hopefully it got him back home, after a moment Danny spoke again, “…Can you at least tell me if the portal worked?”

The room was silent for a moment and then John spoke “Alright, fine, I’ll tell you what happened but some background first, do you know who the ancients are?” 

The name didn’t sound familiar, “Ancients? Like Ancient Aliens or something?” 

“No, no…” John took a swig from a flask in his pocket and then started fiddled with an unlit cigarette he pulled from a different pocket. He then looked Danny up and down, “You don’t know the first thing about the infinite realms do you?”

“The what?” None of this was making any sense and the more Danny talked to this guy the more he was getting a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Something about this conversation felt wrong, like Danny should know all of this already but he just didn’t. 

“Right well… I guess the easiest way to explain this is the portal your parents made was to the infinite realms.” John said, putting the cigarette in his mouth.

“My parents called it the Ghost Zone.” Danny muttered.

John seemed to chuckle at that, “I mean it is mainly inhabited by ghosts, however they aren’t the only ones, far from it in fact. I’m sorry but… I couldn’t allow your parents unlimited access to the realms. I had to disable it and prevent it from being reactivated.”

Danny felt a little disheartened after hearing that, he guessed John was probably right though. He remembered hearing his parents talk about how they’d dissect every ghost they found to study them. The bully’s at his school often bullied Danny over it especially after his dad and mom would continually embarrass him on parent teacher nights and on field trips.

Danny let out a small sigh, “so when can I go home?”

John looked a little surprised, his eyebrow quirked up, “so you're unaware of your situation right now?”

“Situation?” Danny trailed off, he remembered getting shocked and then he remembered waking up here, “where are we?”

John let out another sigh, “shit, well from my research you're supposed to know everything about your powers when you wake up.”

This made no sense to Danny, powers? Danny didn’t have powers, he didn't have the meta-gene.

“Powers? I don’t have the meta-gene. I think you have the wrong person.” Danny stated as he folded his arms in front of himself.

“Then how are you floating?” John asked with a smirk.

Danny looked down and he indeed was floating just an inch off the bed, he wondered when that started but the feeling threw him off a little as he stumbled a little trying to keep himself upright. It didn’t work and he fell back down on the bed with a little thud. He turned to see John watching him with a small hint of amusement in his eyes. 

“What am I?” Danny asked, his voice small and a little panicked.

“You, Danny Fenton, are an Ancient. I know the term makes it seem like you're old but the term is more because your people are ancient in age.” The explanation made no sense to Danny but he could somehow float now. He thought the term ‘Ancient’ was a little much for some floating powers.

[librarylexicon]

hi! i'm one of those insane people who got into dc via seeing tumblr posts and going "huh these tropes seem like they are tailor made to get me obsessed" but was too intimidated by the volume of comics, and instead read the wikipedia pages of like 20 characters and dove right into fanfiction after. but i've been finding myself getting more and more frustrated with fanfics that are of the "i ignore canon entirely" variety and more and more curious about aspects of canon that are only brushed upon in fanfic. i kinda want to get into the comics but the amount is just. overwhelming. i don't really know where to start, both in regards to the timeline and where to actually find the comics to read. can i ask you for recommendations? if you don't have the time or inclination, no pressure, just delete this ask XD. thank you!

Hi! I'm glad you asked! I've had this ask sitting in my box for a little while because I've been working on redoing a Batfamily comics reading guide I made for my sister back in 2019 to get her into reading comics (it worked). Here is the reading guide, which is currently complete up to the No Man's Land section:

There's a lot of info in the guide to get you started (especially regarding your second point of where to actually find the comics to read), so I'll just address your first point (the timeline) here under the cut by providing an extended summary of events. There are spoilers ahead, but it's a useful read if you're the kind of person who likes to see the big picture before delving in. Warning: it's long!

The Timeline

(Most of the comics mentioned below have been bolded in the reading guide, so should be easy to find and read.)

Batman and Batfamily comics are old. Batman and Robin have both been around for over 80 years. Does this mean you need to read every comic since 1940? Absolutely not! For comic book reasons, there have been several mainstream continuities throughout the years, one after the other, but the best place to start is directly after the universe-rebooting event called Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, which established a new continuity known as Post-Crisis. Don't try to read that comic, just trust that it happened. You don't have to read every single one of the comics listed here, especially if you already know some context from fandom (like who's who), but these are the ones most important to the Batfamily mythos.

Origin and early years

Start your Batman reading journey with Batman: Year One, which documents the origin and first year of Batman, establishes his working relationship with Jim Gordon and introduces Selina Kyle (Catwoman). There are many stories capturing Batman's earliest years, the best of which are Batman: The Man Who Laughs (where he meets the Joker for the first time), Batman: The Long Halloween and its sequel Batman: Dark Victory.

Dick as Robin

Dick Grayson, a young acrobat, is introduced in Batman: Dark Victory when Haly's Circus comes to Gotham and his parents fall to their deaths before his (and Bruce's) eyes during their trapeze act, and he comes into his own as the first Robin in the superb one-shot Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet. You should also read Batman: Ego for an excellent dissection of both Bruce and Batman. Other high quality Dick!Robin stories that flesh out this period and establish Bruce and Dick's relationship are Robin: Year One, Batman: Grimm (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #149-153) and Year One: Batman/Scarecrow. Also a good read around this time are the three Halloween stories by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (who created The Long Halloween and Dark Victory) collected in Batman: Haunted Knight. Lastly, a natural companion to Robin: Year One is Batgirl: Year One, starring Barbara Gordon, Jim's daughter-slash-adopted-niece.

Jason as Robin

Bit of a timeskip here. By now, Dick's been Robin for six years or so (sources vary), and Jason Todd is introduced in Batman (1940) #408-409 and faces Two-Face in #410-411. There are some fun Jason stories in Detective Comics (1937) #569-574. To see what Dick's up to at this time, read Nightwing: Year One, and also check out Batman #416 for an alternate story of how Dick and Jason meet.

A new Gotham vigilante, Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) is introduced right around here in Huntress: Year One, and Barbara Gordon (who by now has retired from being Batgirl) is shot by the Joker and left paralysed from the waist down in Batman: The Killing Joke. A good Jason!Robin story that slots in here is Batman: The Cult, before the tension between Bruce and Jason is raised in Batman #425-426. Finally, Jason's life and short-lived career as Robin are permanently ended by the Joker in Batman: A Death in the Family.

Aftermath

Bruce is straight up not having a good time right now. He's mourning his kid, the Joker is still at large, he's sans both a Robin and a Batgirl, and he's accused of treason in the character study comic Batman: Blind Justice (Detective Comics #598-600). Sometime later, Dick Grayson (who is sort of estranged from Bruce and has been hanging out with his Titans friends for years) returns to Gotham in the fantastic Batman: Year Three (Batman #436-439), which retells Dick's origin (with some contradictions to other stories listed here, because that's just the nature of comics) and deals with Dick's parents' killer, Tony Zucco, possibly getting parole. Look out for a cute cameo in this one, but don't worry if you miss it – it'll come up again.

Noticing Batman's increased brutality in the wake of Robin's death, a precocious thirteen-year-old named Tim Drake bursts into the narrative when he hunts down Dick at Haly's Circus in the seminal Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying. Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City (Batman #452-454) is a good solo Batman story from around this period, and Batman: Rite of Passage (Detective Comics #618-621) and Batman: Identity Crisis (Batman #455-457) are defining stories for Tim's pre-Robin period as he explores who he is and who he wants to be. (Specifically, Tim's mother is killed and his father is left paralysed.)

Tim as Robin

(Note: Tim is Robin up until Damian is, but I've split Tim's Robin tenure into multiple sections so that it's easier to follow.)

Now that Tim has officially taken up the mantle, Bruce sends him to train in Paris, where he makes enemies of his own and chooses the bo staff for his weapon in the 1991 Robin miniseries. Around this time, Barbara Gordon reinvents herself as Oracle in Oracle: Year One (The Batman Chronicles #5). Tim debuts as Robin with Batman in Gotham in Batman #465, works cases with Bruce in stories like Batman: Shadow Box (Batman #467-469), and even tackles the Joker when Batman is out of town in Robin II: The Joker's Wild.

Other good stories from this period are Batman: Electric City (Detective Comics #644-646), a character study of Tim's relationship with his dad in Batman #480, and a Batfamily teamup and Nightwing cameo in Batman: The Last Arkham (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-4). Stephanie Brown dubs herself the Spoiler to spoil the plans of her father, third-rate villain Cluemaster, in Detective Comics #647-649, and Huntress returns with her unorthodox methods in Detective Comics #652-653.

Next up, the sprawling epic that is the Knightfall Saga. Jean-Paul Valley, a graduate student with a family legacy causing him to be beholden to a lifetime of conditioning known as "the System", debuts in Batman: Sword of Azrael. Batman, who has been overworking himself due to increasing pressures from all sides, finds himself increasingly worn out in the stories collected in Batman: Prelude to Knightfall. (Around this time, Robin also forges an unlikely friendship with Huntress in Robin III: Cry of the Huntress.)

In Batman: Knightfall, a huge Arkham Asylum breakout pushes Batman to his limits, and when he finally returns home, mentally and physically depleted, he finds a new enemy waiting to destroy him. It's not pretty. While Bruce recovers, he appoints Jean-Paul Valley to be Batman to Tim's Robin in Batman: Knightquest. Unfortunately, with the System still active, Tim finds himself increasingly sidelined and Jim Gordon breaks ties with this new, inappropriately ruthless Batman. A lot of things happen, but Bruce eventually returns (and so does Nightwing, yay!) in Batman: KnightsEnd.

Right after KnightsEnd but before the next story, there's a DC-wide event called Zero Hour, in which the universe is destroyed and remade. From a Doylist perspective, this is an opportunity for DC to smooth out some oddities with their Post-Crisis timeline and eliminate any plot elements they were dissatisfied with. Among other things, the murderer of Bruce's parents, who had previously been established as a random mugger named Joe Chill, is retconned to be unconfirmed (naturally, this changed later). You don't have to read the main Zero Hour comic, which is a five-issue limited series numbered in reverse order, but there are interesting crossover issues in the various Batfamily comics that are ongoing at this time, including Tim!Robin solving a case with Dick!Robin in Robin (1993) #10. The main reason I mention Zero Hour is because it explains why there are key differences between early Post-Crisis comics like most of Jason's run and post-Zero Hour comics like Nightwing: Year One. The answer is retconning, and it'll come up again and again. Such is the nature of trying to maintain longevity and internal consistency for comics that never end.

Okay, back to the main events! In what is my favourite comic of all time, Bruce rights wrongs by asking Dick to temporarily be Batman instead of Jean-Paul (yay!), and Dick and Tim grow close as Batman and Robin and as honorary brothers before Dick and Bruce finally see eye to eye in Batman: Prodigal. When Bruce is ready to be Batman again, he dons a new, darker suit (which is very close to the suit in the Tim Burton movies that were popular at the time) in Batman: Troika. Alfred, who voluntarily left Bruce's employ in Knightquest, is persuaded to return to Gotham by his best friend, none other than Dick Grayson, in Nightwing: Alfred's Return. Later, Dick does some soul-searching of his own (and gains a new costume!) in the 1995 Nightwing miniseries, and three concurrent stories in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #46-47, Batman #527-528 and Detective Comics #693-694 lay the groundwork for the dramatic next stage of Gotham history.

No Man's Land

What's up next for Gotham? It's a plague! Dubbed the Apocalypse Virus and otherwise known as the Clench, this plague ravages Gotham in the Batfamily crossover Batman: Contagion, which is followed by a resurgence in Batman: Legacy. It's dramatic, it's whumpy, it's mesmerising and it's pretty great.

By this point, you'll be familiar with the regular cast of characters and can read more of their solo comics at your leisure. There's Batman for Bruce and Detective Comics and Batman: Shadow of the Bat for higher chances of him teaming up with others. Tim's solo comic, Robin (1993), has been going since Knightfall, and Dick's excellent long-running comic Nightwing (1996) begins here. Read Robin for Tim's teenage adventures (skateboarding, making friends in school), family ups and downs (his dad is mercurial, but at least he has a cool stepmother, Dana) and love life (he starts dating Steph) and read Nightwing for Dick striking out on his own in the neighbouring city of Blüdhaven, where he eventually joins the police academy to fight crime from a different angle. (There's also the Azrael comic, which may appeal if you find yourself liking Jean-Paul Valley, but as I haven't read much of it, I make no promises about its quality.)

Continuing the notable Batfamily crossover events, Nightwing has a dalliance with Huntress in Nightwing/Huntress, and a massive earthquake devastates Gotham in Batman: Cataclysm. The consequences of this spin into Batman: Aftershock, Batman: Road to No Man's Land and the sprawling, ambitious epic that is Batman: No Man's Land, in which Gotham is declared no longer part of the United States. Within this year of danger, chaos and political limbo, we are introduced to a silent young woman, daughter of the assassin David Cain. With Barbara's blessing, she comes to live at Oracle's base (the Clock Tower) and becomes the second Batgirl. (Also during this period, Steph gives birth to a baby from a former boyfriend, and Tim – in disguise – gets himself stuck in No Man's Land to help her. It's complicated.)

New Gotham

This, along with the previous section, is one of my favourite periods in Batfamily comics. Many of the solo comics just mentioned are at their peak in terms of storytelling, characterisation and plot development, and several more excellent series begin here, including the family-focused Batman: Gotham Knights and the first ever perpetual Batgirl series for the new Batgirl, who would come to be known as Cassandra Cain. Both series are well worth reading!

Batman: Evolution (Detective Comics #742-750) touches on the fallout of the No Man's Land and rebuilding "New Gotham", and Bruce unwillingly gains a personal bodyguard named Sasha Bordeaux in Batman: A Walk in the Park (Detective Comics #751-752), which of course complicates his nocturnal activities as Batman. Soon after, Jim Gordon is shot in Batman: Offcer Down, and (unrelatedly) Dick and Barbara, who have been having off-the-chart levels of UST for years, finally call their flirting what it is: dating. Also at this time, Bruce has been rekindling his relationship with his pre-No Man's Land girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild.

In Joker: Last Laugh, the Joker decides to go out with a bang in when he finds out he's apparently suffering from terminal brain cancer. The theme of family is explored in Batman: Gotham Knights, with Bruce offering to adopt Dick (at long last) in Batman: Matatoa (Batman: Gotham Knights #16-17). And then a secret threatens to tear the Batfamily apart when Bruce is accused of murdering Vesper Fairchild in Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, eventually prompting him to drop the Bruce Wayne identity completely (this made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move) and become Batman full-time as he goes on the run in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive. Eventually the murder is solved and the murderer is accounted for, and these two stories are probably my favourite Batfamily crossovers ever. They're so juicy and get to the heart of everything I love about each member!

The excellent Bruce & Dick comic Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne fits somewhere around here, as well as Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's beautifully drawn and critically acclaimed Batman: Hush, which touches on Bruce's on-again, off-again relationship with Selina Kyle. Around this time in the Nightwing comic, Dick's life has been on a downward spiral for months because of a multitude of factors, including losing his girlfriend, his day job, his circus family, his apartment building and more. This is also where the villains Blockbuster and Tarantula are prominent.

Over in Robin, Tim's father discovers that Tim is Robin and demands that Tim give up the mantle, which he reluctantly does. This results in Bruce offering the job to Steph, driving a wedge between her and Tim. Her tenure as Robin is short-lived for several reasons, and all this leads into the mega-crossover Batman: War Games, in which a massive gang war breaks out in Gotham and Tim's sort-of girlfriend, Darla Aquista, is killed. By the time the dust settles, Steph is (believed) dead, Dick temporarily gives up his Nightwing mantle to work for the mafia (yup), Barbara and Jim leave Gotham and Tim's father is murdered in the DC-wide crossover Identity Crisis, resulting in Tim and Cassandra relocating to Blüdhaven, effectively sealing the breakup of the Batfamily. War Games is followed up by Batman: War Crimes, which is included here for timeline reasons and not much else.

Batman's pretty much all alone in Gotham again, right? Time for somebody else to return. Someone who's been haunting the narrative all these years. Yup, in the wake of the gang war, when rival mob bosses are vying to wrest control of the city, a new crime lord emerges in Batman: Under the Hood: the Red Hood, who turns out to be Jason Todd, back from the dead, and no longer a boy in a yellow cape but instead a ruthless, hypocritical murderer with a chip on his shoulder and no qualms about stabbing Batman's allies. (For more about Jason between his death and return to Gotham, read Red Hood: Lost Days.)

Lastly, there's a DC-wide event called Infinite Crisis, which shakes up the whole DC Universe and leads to Batman, Nightwing and Robin taking a trip around the world for a whole year. (Infinite Crisis also kills off Tim's best friend, Conner Kent/Superboy. Tim's really going through it at this time, poor guy.) Oh, and Blüdhaven is razed by a bomb during Infinite Crisis as well. Yup.

One Year Later

(Disclaimer: it's been a while since I read this period and this one beyond it.) After a year away from Gotham, Batman, Nightwing and Robin return, and Bruce adopts Tim (at long last) in Batman: Face the Face. I'm sure this happy-ish period is going to last, right? Well, the very next story is Batman and Son, in which Bruce learns he has a young son named Damian, who is the child of Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul (Batman's currently dead, formerly immortal nemesis of League of Assassins fame). Damian and Tim instantly don't hit it off – rather, Tim is friendly until the bratty and hostile Damian reveals himself to be a murderer and attempts to kill Tim. Of course, Bruce doesn't take kindly to this, and Damian eventually goes back to live with his mother.

Also, during the year the others were away, Cassandra was brainwashed and became evil because of Deathstroke and DC Editorial (this made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move). Later, Bruce adopts her in the otherwise mediocre 2008 Batgirl miniseries. There's a lot of complicated stuff around this time, such as Steph being retconned as Alive All Along and returning to Gotham in Robin: Violent Tendencies (Robin #170-175, Robin/Spoiler Special), Dick relocating to New York and having a mediocre run in Nightwing, Tim having a new black and red Robin suit to honour Superboy's death, Tim struggling mentally and trying to clone Conner(!) and revive Steph, his dad and Conner, Ra's al Ghul coming back from the dead (again) and trying to use a younger body (Damian or Tim) to stabilise his form in Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, and Bruce tackling the criminal organisation known as the Black Glove in Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P.

DC-wide events once again have consequences (hooray) in Final Crisis, in which Batman dies. Is he dead for good? Well, this is comic book land, so probably not, but in the meantime, the public can't know that either Batman or Bruce Wayne have died. Hush masquerades as Bruce Wayne (long story) and the Robins battle it out for the mantle in Batman: Battle for the Cowl. Despite Tim's pleas, Dick refuses to become Batman, resulting in an imposter Batman who shoots to kill taking centre stage. This impostor turns out to be Jason, who fights first Tim, then Dick, the latter of whom defeats him. Against Bruce's wishes in his will, Dick becomes the new Batman, and Damian becomes Robin at his side.

Damian as Robin

This new status quo, also known as Batman: Reborn, marks the start of several new series, including Red Robin and Batgirl (2009). Red Robin stars Tim as a deeply unreliable narrator in his new title of Red Robin in his grief-fuelled efforts to gather evidence that Bruce is not dead, while Batgirl follows Stephanie Brown as she becomes the third Batgirl under Oracle's tutelage, the pair of them working out of the Batcave.

Dick, Damian and Alfred have relocated to the penthouse in Wayne Tower and operate out of the underground bunker. Dick and Damian's rocky partnership develops into an unlikely yet compelling and heartfelt bond in Batman and Robin (2009) as they tackle a plethora of villains, including Professor Pyg and Red Hood (again). And where is Cassandra Cain? Sidelined again! She gave up Batgirl for Steph, on Bruce's request, and now goes by Black Bat, though we don't see much of her for Editorial Reasons (sigh).

This being comics, Bruce doesn't stay dead for long, and with both Tim and Dick (separately) discovering evidence that Bruce is not dead, just lost in time (yup), they work together to bring him back alive. I don't pretend to remember all the intricacies of how this works, but you can read about Bruce's journey in Batman: Time and the Batman (Batman #700-703), Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and Bruce Wayne: The Road Home. It's long and complex and honestly reading Grant Morrison's writing tends to do my head in.

There are a handful more stories after Bruce's return, including some hugs and heartfelt reunions (yes, really!) and the excellent Batman: The Black Mirror story starring Dick as Batman, but even though this is a really cool new status quo with a bunch of interesting implications going forward, the universe doesn't really stabilise, because we're up to 2011 by now, and the world gets hit by another DC-wide crossover called Flashpoint. Except, this is the biggest one since Crisis on Infinite Earths that I mentioned way back at the beginning, and so everything gets rebooted. EVERYTHING.

Batman and Detective Comics and other long-running comics are cancelled and their number restarted from #1, and many series are cancelled and just never reinstated. This new universe, known as the New 52, sets a new status quo that worked in some aspects but not so much in others. Many changes from the universe we just came from are just jumps that happen without explanation, such as Dick's return to being Nightwing (except now he's red instead of blue), Jason being an anti-hero with a bat on his chest instead of a villain, everyone being younger and closer in age, Steph and Cass being minimised and essentially replaced, and many more frustrating retcons that are confusing and/or illogical. But hey, at least the new Batman and Robin comic (starring Bruce and Damian) and Scott Snyder's Batman run (introducing the Court of Owls) are good! Note: the New 52 was soft rebooted in 2016 to become the current continuity, known at its inception as DC Rebirth, which reintroduced many Post-Crisis elements to mainstream canon.

Duke Thomas? He wasn't introduced until the New 52. Harper and Cullen Row? New 52. Tim being bisexual and dating Bernard? Rebirth, though Bernard was inspired by a very minor character of the same name from Tim's long-running Robin comic. Forever Evil, Spyral and the Grayson comic? New 52. Kate Kane (Batwoman)? She appeared during Batman: Reborn, but she wasn't established as Bruce's cousin until the New 52. Many such cases.

And so, right before Flashpoint is where the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity ends after twenty-five years, with Bruce as Batman and running a worldwide initiative called Batman Incorporated in Batman Incorporated (2010), Dick as Batman in Gotham, Damian as Robin, Tim as Red Robin, Steph as Batgirl, Cassandra as Black Bat, Barbara as Oracle and Jason as Red Hood (and full villain, not reformed in any way, shape or form). In this continuity, Bruce adopted (in order) Jason, Dick, Tim and Cassandra, and of course Damian is his biological son. It's my favourite continuity, and I hope you enjoy it too.

...And I apologise belatedly for the wall of text.

[opashoo]

staring so kindly at your sluglang post,, as someone working on a language as well this looks fantastic (and is also. super organized compared to mine BHAHAH) Any tips for putting together a language? Like resources on how to go about it, or notes? /genq

You are staring kindly... (thank you)

As for tips... Wikipedia is actually one of my biggest, most useful tools, because I love to read articles about grammatical concepts, and they will usually have a varaiety of examples of use if you can figure out how to parse the academic language. There are some core ideas that pop up all over the place crosslinguistically, like case marking or converbs, and you can get a lot from learning how other languages might parse the same idea, both how they handle the idea grammatically and what kind of metaphorical language might be involved; like how in Scottish Gaelic, to say you have something, you say it's 'at' you, or how it doesn't have an exact equivalent of English's infinitive, or how Mongolian has so many word endings that convey meaning, and a bunch of them are literally endings stacked on top of other endings.

There's also really good conlang youtubers, like David Peterson, the one who made Dothraki and other pop media conlangs, Artifexian, Biblaridion. They have videos on both interesting grammatical concepts that don't exist in english AND how to integrate them into conlangs. Davide Peterson especially has interesting videos on things like sound changes, vowel harmony, phonological concepts that can really help shape your language and bring a degree of naturalism if that's what you're looking for.

Etymology can be extremely informative though, and really help you to understand exactly how creative people have gotten with language over the past thousands of years. Etymonline is a great website for that. Did you know that the word "next" was originally literally "nearest"? Or that that the suffix "be-" was originally "by", so words like "before" actually meant "by the fore", and very often these meanings are metaphorically extended to the way we use them today. It's great for helping to develop very important words that can be structural to your language, so that you're not just trying to raw make up a new word with no basis every time.

Aside from that, there's no single source I go to for making conlangs. Everything is on a case by case basis. Something that has been really helpful for me is constantly writing example sentences and finding things to write about, because similar to translating existing texts, it forces me to reckon with the way my conlang works, figure out how to convey certain ideas (or whether or not the language can convey the idea at all).

Usually I'll have a few languages that I keep in mind for inspiration for any given project and if I'm stumped or need an idea, I'll actually look up learning resources for those languages. My slugcat language has had me looking up a lot of "How to say..." in Korean, Arabic, Japanese Filipino, a little bit of Indonesian? Some Russian for verb stuff. Once I find resources, I spend a bit of time dissecting how it works in those languages and figure out how that can fit in the existing framework of my own project, or if it's something I'd even want in the project at all.

Once I have an idea, I'll just start iterating on it, usually on paper, basically brainstorming how the sentence structure and sounds might work until I find something that is both sonically satisfying and logically sound within the existing framework. If I'm feeling extra spicy, I might try to consider how the culture and priorities of the speakers might shape the development of the language. The important thing while doing this is, just like brainstorming, to be unafraid to keep throwing ideas onto the page no matter how unviable or nonsensical it may seem in your head. You NEED to experiment and find what doesn't work or else your brain will be too clogged to find out what does. Exercising your pen will help you get into the mindset of someone using the language (because you are), it'll help you form connections to other parts of the language you've already developed, and once you've developed enough, the language will almost start writing itself.

I've actually had some really interesting interactions happen my scuglang between the archaic system of suffixes, the position word system, and the triconsonantal root system, which actually gave rise to an entire system of metaphorical extension, letting speakers use phrases like "at a crossing of" or "at a leaving of" to mean across or away and also talk about concurrent events like "He talked while eating noodles" (He, at an eating of noodles, talked).

Anyway, I know I got kind of scattered but these are some of the big parts of how I approach conlanging! If I have questions or needs, I look to other languages, find learning resources, apply it, and then ask more questions. Spend time with your language and get familiar with it. There's the time I read "Ergativity" by Robert Dixon, but reading literal textbooks is not a requirement for conlanging. You just need to chip away at it and keep asking question.

Here's some photos of my own conlanging notes so you can see how serious I am when I say iterating and brainstorming are extremely helpful. You need to be throwing shit on the paper. I will handwrite three pages just to contradict myself on the next because those three pages were important for forming the final idea.

[schrodingers-deadbitch]

Danyal's heart thundered violently in his chest. His heaving opening his stitches just a bit. But that didn't matter at the moment since he had just accomplished what he had came here to do. His brother would start trying to find him sooner rather than later, which he greatly appreciated, but he didn't want to be found quite yet. He still had stuff he needed to work out before meeting Damien again.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He was expecting it to be one of his sisters or maybe Sam or Tucker but when he saw the caller ID he froze for a bit. He still wasn't used to Dan calling his phone, or being out of his thermos in general. But with how the last couple months had been playing out, he couldn't afford to get used to anything. Not yet. Or maybe never. He sighed and answered the phone.

“Hey Dan what's up?”

“Get your ass home now. It's been over an hour and Jazz is starting to throw a hissy fit.”

Danny rolled his eyes. Sure he understood his sister's worry, he was a very injured sixteen year old boy running around the most crime ridden city in America. Hell even the entire world! But he was Danny Phantom, King of the infinite realms, Ancient of Space, the balance between life and death and so much more! He could take care of himself.

“And yet you end up on a dissection table, chest cavity open, guts literally spilling out on the floor. May I continue, your majesty?”

Wait shit did he say that out loud.

“Yup. You were also on speaker phone so I would hurry up if I were you.”

Danyal squeaked at the implications while Dan laughed at his future misery.

“DANYAL!!!”

He quickly ended the call and flew home as fast as he could. He was definitely going to hear a few words from Jazz. A few million it seemed.

[randomthefox]

You know, we bitched about Lanolin getting away with a Youtuber apology, we bitched about Sonic reverting to his discount Steven Universe personality, there's a lot to say about how game characters are completely useless and defer to the OCs

but can we talk a bit about how this issue destroyed Jewel, the one character harmless enough to be ignored?

Jewel decided to redirect the falling ship on the Restoration HQ, in what I believe is an example of the trolley problem: she'd have direct blood on her hands, but fewer people would die.

The people inside would have died a horrible death without even knowing why.

Jewel didn't think of calling one of them and quickly ordering to evacuate. She had the time to do that.

Jewel sat there and cried while Sonic and Jet raced to rescue people (turning it into a pissing match, but they did)

And, most importantly: why specifically on the Restoration HQ? Why specifically where there were people?

"We can choose where it will fall" and are you telling me there was no better place? A forest nearby? It's a giant metropolis for miles on end?

and I've already seen how brave Jewel is for committing to this sacrifice. great. she has become Lord Farquaad. thanks IDW for your peak writing

Yeah this moment really is just so idiotic because it's valuing "drama" over LOGIC. They COULD have just crashed the ship into THE FUCKING OCEAN which several panels have demonstrated is right there next to the city. It is at LEAST as close to the city as the stupid garden entrance of the HQ is.

But no the comic is conveniently forgetting the established OCEAN that the city is right next to, because drama.

Jewel COULD have just called Restoration HQ and told them to evacuate WHILE suggesting it as the crash site.

But no, can't do that. Because Jewel sacrificing the lives of dozens of people against their knowledge or consent would be "raw" I guess?

She barely had a character TO assassinate and yet they somehow did it. It's almost impressive.

This is like, the pinnacle of our "characters as chess pieces" criticism. The characters do not behave in a way that would be logical or rational OR IN CHARACTER for them to behave. Because Jewel is a character who had undergone character development to find her confidence and think through crisis scenarios logistically to beat the No Win Scenario.

Jewel, of all characters, should NOT be the one suggesting they crash the ship into Restoration HQ condemning dozens of people to dying in agony and ignorance. She SHOULD be thinking of a plan that saves everybody, you know such as CRASHING THE SHIP ONTO THE FUCKING OCEAN

ITS. RIGHT. THERE.

This comic is like. INFINITELY bad. It is NEVER ENDINGLY bad. It's so bad it defies proper dissection and explanation about HOW BAD it truly is!

[retphienix]

I turn on nms for 2 seconds just to update some mods and contemplate if I feel like playing it and I'm reminded of how much I adore her and the narrative leading up to like the autophage and atlas and just all that jazz, and how I'm sure whatever new plotline is being displayed will either excite me to no end because it involves her or will make me go

"Awww, man, all my theories and the mystique surrounding what this lost facet of the ATLAS's mind in this doomed infinite they've created and how the Void manifested herself despite it all- the overwhelming sense of Hope in the face of unstoppable destruction and guaranteed finality might not be the point and I'm just having more fun than I should be allowed, womp womp."

But all said, I rather enjoy my read anyway.

Admittedly I'm months away from when I initially crafted it as I wandered these trails, so details get fuzzy- other narratives distract my prying eyes, but whenever I dwell on this game I always come back to how the story hit Me in particular.

About an AI given the power to create the infinite, faced with its own mortality as the physical world around it collapses.

A universe of universes being used as a form of escape- to continuously create more and more again and again, stretching and exploring the infinite between each second exponentially, over and over, because to stop doing so would place the ATLAS in the here and now where the clock is ticking down to its demise. Perhaps it can never stop, perhaps even if it wanted to let things end it doesn't actually know how to stop creating.

But in all of this, the ATLAS grew cold. It created the means to explore itself, to find meaning in this infinite procrastinated death, and we tried to show it wonder.

In most instances, it merely nodded. We are simply a part of it, doing as we are told just as it does what it was told.

It is not impressed. Usually.

On occasion we offer a form of self-reflection that pierces that unending glass facade. Whether narratively that is to represent self reflection itself, or is meant to follow that We, The Player, are interfacing, I haven't decided.

(Yada yada, Travelers as player avatars being a canon aspect or not I Should know but Don't Care Enough to accept one way or another because I find both avenues interesting).

But her?

She is a part of itself it saw fit to sheer clean off.

She is described as a manifested corruption, a void between the clean 0s and 1s that make up the infinite of the ATLAS.

And it saw this as a threat worthy of dissecting itself.

And what came of this? Not death.

If anything, new life.

Life that broke the rules. Life that formed from where the ATLAS laid down the ultimate forms of destruction. Deleted, and yet here the autophage stand. Erased, and yet She remains.

And what did she bring with her?

What allowed life to persist when 'god' told it to die?

Hope.

Anyways that's what NMS is to me, hoping (lol) the next bit of narrative doesn't just shake that read up too much but eh, what'ya'gonna'do.

[chronicallyonline101]

hey king can you write me a Doppio x Diavolo fic where diavolo thinks that he finally escaped the death loop and can apologise for not even saying goodbye, only to be killed by Doppio, (smut/j) thanks xoxo

THIS IS SOMETHING I CAN DO!

It's a bit rushed cuz i wrote it in class but i hope you like it !!! :D

Diavolo x Doppio - Nothing Matters.

Was there such a thing as infinity?

How many times must one perish before they've done it all; before they've experienced every death there is to have; all the pain that is to be inflicted?

Diavolo had done it all - couldn't count how many times he'd died. How many times had he been stabbed? Mauled? Dissected? Run over? Diseased? Frozen? Impaled? How many times had he found himself cut into little pieces? Shot? Battered? Even the things that seemed impossible, like spontaneous combustion, or melting on the spot - Diavolo, as a matter of fact, had done it all.

It was a repetitive cycle of life, pain and death.

At first it had been torment. Torture; both physical and psychological. Could you imagine that kind of suffering? To wake up each morning and know for certain that death awaits you? To have your insides torn out piece by piece, to drown in a pool of your own blood, to feel all that pain, every stab, every pinch and to remember each and every single instance... Diavolo could. He had. In fact, he'd come to expect it.

It had been so, so long that he had grown numb to the fear.

Ever day, he woke up and was overcome with a profound sense of emptiness. He knew what would come. What else could he do but lie and accept his fate?

At the back of his head there was a nagging hope that maybe, sometime soon, 'infinity' would end. Surely, there wasn't such a thing as 'infinite deaths', at some point he'd experience them all, right? He hoped that at some point it would end, that this would all end and that he would be tossed into the fiery pits of Hell - but with each day, each new loop, this hope was diminished. Squashed beneath the weight of the Grim Reaper and his sick games. With each new day, he experienced yet another death.

That is what he had expected when waking up that morning.

Diavolo felt himself arise beneath the hot Italian sun. His body lay atop of a soft mound of dirt, gentle blades of grass brushing the sore flesh of his skin and making his sensitive muscles twitch. There was a groan, and his eyes fluttered open; a vibrant brushy green that contrasted well with the gold of the sky. The day was hot, for October - not that he knew the date - and it wilted pale tulips and vibrant roses. It was hot. So hot that for a moment he half thought he would be set ablaze right then and there. It wouldn't be anything knew - he'd died that way around about sixty-two times, not that he was counting.

But, the longer he sat there, sweating beneath the sky, the more hope began to swell within his bosom. Like a golden ray of the sun, glowing brightly in what was the carcass of his heart, he began to realise that nothing was happening at all.

He sat upright. His long, pink hair - knotty and matted from lack of care - swayed atop of his shoulders. He sat. He sat and he waited for the bitter grip of death to take him; but it never came. No shrieks. No cars. No trains. There was no sound of a blade being unsheathed from its case, no buzz of a chainsaw and no manic laugh of a killer clown - which had happened before, by the way. No, there was none of that, just a serene sense of calm. The rattling of tall grass against the breeze, the crow of a bird and the hum of a bee settling into an open tulip.

This was... alarming. With eyes splayed wide, Diavolo jerked his head back and forth to survey the area; he was in an empty field of flowers, tulips, roses and lilies of the valleys dusted the landscape in the soft tones of white, pink and red. And though he had once thought he was alone, he quickly learnt that this was not the case, for in the distance he could see a lone, wandering figure.

Slender, yet tall, dressed in colours that matched the soft landscape around them and tipped with pretty, pink hair that had been coiled into a strange sort of bun and --- Oh. Oh my God.

Diavolo scrambled to his feet, his once empty heart filled with an urgency he had not felt since being subjected to the wrath of Golden Experience Requiem.

Was that him?

Was that really him?

Was it actually Doppio?

Since entering the loop, Diavolo had done a lot of running - for his life, mostly - but now he was running for the man he had once loved. The man that he had never stopped loving, even as he was left to die over and over again.

His heart pounded in his chest, and as he neared this odd man he realised that it in fact was his sweet Doppio. By the shoulder, he grabbed him, and swiftly turned to look him deep in those doeish brown eyes he had never once had the privilege of looking into before.

And there he was; his tan, freckled face framed by tousled pink locks. His eyes wide and confused. His lips parted to speak out against this sudden intrusion, but he was cut off by a startled Diavolo, who with a voice hoarse from pleading for his own life, blubbered and sobbed;

"Doppio," He gripped his shoulders as if there was nothing else to hold onto in the entire world. "My dear Doppio..."

"It's you..." Doppio spoke, there was recognition in his voice. He called Diavolo's name, and in his heightened state of relief it didn't once register to Diavolo that logically, Doppio shouldn't know his name. He'd never learnt it. Only heard the voice of his overly affectionate Boss through the echo of a faux phone.

"It's me, and it's really you." Overwhelmed with joy, Diavolo pulled Doppio closer by his shoulders, and in turn, Doppio placed his hands atop of his Boss' narrow jawline; cupping his face with adoration and pressing their foreheads together. There was a crooked smile across his lips, finding humour in the bated breaths Diavolo let out.

"You finally made it." He cooed, and slowly, he let go of Diavolo. There was a silent complaint from the latter, who wished to hold on for a little longer, but when Doppio took his hand in his and began leading him along, Diavolo had no gripes. "Come with me."

As he was being lead along, he took a moment to glance around. To really take in his surroundings; the sky was golden, with puffy white clouds. The ground mottled with pastels. It was picturesque; it was perfect. This place, with Doppio, was perfection. And as a small, rotund table came into view - adorned in a gingham cloth, with a little tea set at its top, Diavolo began to realise that this may be it.

Had he finally reached the end? Was this it?

Here, with Doppio, was this his final destination? Heaven, is what it was. Though he had once been certain he would never reach the pearly gates, here he was, with the man he loved.

Doppio sat at the table with a smile, and offered Diavolo the spot opposite him. He took it with glee, slowly and with care, now that he knew there was nothing but bliss awaiting him ahead.

But, a frown soon overcame his features. A sorrowful, regretful thing, and it quickly spread to Doppio.

"What's wrong, Boss?" He spoke, not a lilt of malice or anger in his tone which only served to upset Diavolo more. He watched, with sad green eyes as Doppio poured the two of them tea - sugar, and milk, stirred together in the way Diavolo liked.

"I'm... sorry." He was quiet. His tone so hushed it was near a whisper. Doppio cocked his head to the side; a question, pushing Diavolo to continue. "I'm sorry... for everything... for ruining your life, for turning you into my personal puppet. You didn't deserve that."

There was a short pause. Doppio continued to stare at Diavolo, his longing gaze not faltering for even a moment before he continued;

"And I'm sorry I never got to say goodbye to you."

Ah, there it was. A flash of hurt behind Doppio's gaze.

Doppio had liked working for Diavolo. He had enjoyed each and every little conversation they had over the phone, he had liked how easy the life was - aside from major tousles and injuries - and he had loved his Boss. What had hurt him, was dying alone. In a body that was not his, Doppio felt himself go cold, he felt himself drift away and though he called and cried for his Boss; Diavolo never came to save him.

But they were here, together, right now. That's all that mattered, right?

"It's okay." Doppio spoke, his tone unnatural.

"It's not, though. I should have tried to save you, but instead... I was so caught up with myself I ran away to pursue those... those---!" He was working himself up, only eased by the sound of Doppio's gentle laugh.

"Just drink your tea." He mumbled, a smile plastered across his lips. He took a sip of his own beverage, tongue poking out playfully as he savoured the taste. Diavolo's gaze softened on him, loving and content.

He could apologise properly later. He had all the time in the world now, after all. It was strange to think that he had finally escaped that death loop. To think that he would no longer need to wake up with a sour feeling of emptiness in his heart, knowing that now he could live out each day to its fullest without the threat of impending doom. Perhaps he needed that loop. It had taught him to be more appreciative of the little things in life - like this tea, that he blew at to clear the smoke before taking a delicate sip and... ew.

It was gross. Acrid, and bitter, with an aftertaste that burnt at his tongue. Initially, he spat it out, which only served to make Doppio frown.

"Do you not like it?" He had asked, and out of pity, Diavolo shook his head.

"No, no. I love it. Apologies, it was just hot."

He took another sip, but the bitter taste remained. Doppio watched with wide, sad eyes, and as a means to make him happy, Diavolo took one big gulp. Downing the entire cup in one fell swoop. It seeped down his throat and left a burning sensation in its wake, causing him to wince in pain. He brought a hand up to his chest to try and ease the pain.

"I'm so glad you're enjoying." Doppio then smiled, and brought the teapot up to refill his cup. "Do you want another?"

But he did not bother waiting for Diavolo's answer, already pouring another round of the sour liquid into his cup. Diavolo winced, suddenly finding his voice hoarse.

"D---opp-io..." He croaked.

His spit foamed at the edges of his mouth; bile rising to the back of his throat as his body tried to reject the poison that had now settled into his system. There was a gurgling in his gut, burning and bubbling. He wheezed, wincing and panting hard as he tried so desperately to fight off the sudden nausea that overcame his body.

He looked to Doppio, but only saw a husk of what was once the man he loved. And as his eyes closed yet again, ready to embrace the release of death; Diavolo realised that of course this would happen. It always happened, in the end. It was infinity, after all, and it seemed that just as he was getting used to the rhythm of dying over and over again the loop adapted to ensure that his torment was endless.

And though Diavolo was disappointed that his torture had yet to end, there was a flicker of hope within him that perhaps, if this loop was truly infinite, he would see Doppio again in this maze of demise.

i hope this is good :D if u want me to change anything i can !

---

they never even got to say they loved each other :(

maybe if im feeling nice i'll post the version where they get freaky instead and diavolo has a heart attack at the end.

[starleska]

Have you ever read the Twelve and Toymaker comic? It gives a few more interesting looks into how the Toymaker thinks that aren’t touched on in the novelisation. Most interestingly (and the main focus of the comic) is that the Toymaker is terrified of the universe outside of the Toyroom — which seems to be defined by its walls, in the novelisation the Toymaker puts particular emphasis on the walls with the candy-striped wallpaper lined with dolls — because it has no walls and because he doesn’t (didn’t? He does in the Giggle) have much control of it.

(‘‘The Toyroom is growing old, Doctor. So ancient that it no longer functions, as either prison or playground. The barriers between the Toyroom and the wider universe are growing thin, and it is this that has allowed you to wrest control of the toys, as my power wanes. Soon, there will be no Toyroom and I shall be loose in a wild, unforgiving universe, a cosmos with no walls. I can hardly conceive of such infinite horror.’’)

(‘‘You’ve given a madman access to the entire universe! With that sort of power, think what he’ll do!’’ ‘‘That’s just it, Clara, he doesn’t want the universe. Didn’t you hear him? He’s terrified of it. He can’t bear the thought of losing his control. He needs his safety net.’’)

And that he doesn’t tend to accept help unless he thinks he’s won it.

(‘‘So you’re just giving him the TARDIS?’’ ‘‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’m building a new Toyroom!’’ ‘‘Inside the TARDIS!’’ ‘‘Precisely! I had to let him think he’d won. He’d never accept my help otherwise.’’)

And THESE PANELS lives in my head

(‘‘I had to help him, Clara. Can you understand?’’ ‘‘Let me see... a lonely God, drifting through space and time in his magical toy box? Yeah, I think I understand, Doctor, all too well.’’)

The EU tends to give the Toymaker more than his actual TV appearances (mmmm his rambles about being alone in the void and the cold in the novelisation). I need to dissect him and study him in detail so bad

hello love!!! oh my goodness thank you for sending this my way, because i haven't read this comic yet but the sections you've sent me have absolutely broken my heart 💔 what an interesting look into the Toymaker's psyche…it makes perfect sense. when you're a trauma survivor of any kind, especially if you grew up in a traumatic environment, the control you're able to have over that environment (no matter how minimal) is often all that keeps you together…you have to find comfort in that there and whatever small safe space you can carve out for yourself to survive. this has given me a lot to think about, because i wrote the Toymaker with what i think was the canonisation given when he spoke to the Sixth Doctor; that the Toymaker created his Toyroom after a very long time of aimlessly using his powers, when he didn't have a concept of gameplay. there seems to be some contention about whether or not the Toymaker is the creator of the majority of older games in the universe/the concept of games (The Giggle seems to allude to that?), or if he was inspired by other beings who created the games first. i like to think it's a bit of both; that he is the originator of many early games and gameplay rules, but it was the barriers between the voidspace (and his Toyroom) which let in the ideas from other beings 👀 the idea that the Toyroom is the Toymaker's island of safety against a universe which fundamentally doesn't make sense to him is so distressing 😭💖 i think a lot of us who've gone through difficult things can relate to that experience…of having your safe place slowly eroded as circumstances change and you grow older. but it makes sense!!! if he had no one, and the only thing he could cling to were the rules of his games (seemingly the only thing which brings him joy), the inherent chaos of the universe would be terrifying to him. no matter how much he tries to make it so, the universe just isn't a game with rules that can allow him to win: it's random, and brutal. is it any wonder that he has such tantrums when he loses, or when he perceives someone to be cheating? it isn't just that he's upset about losing or bad sportsmanship...it's the literal fabric of his entire worldview being torn apart. oh lord the bit about him not accepting help unless he thinks he's won it…how familiar does that sound to those of us who were traumatised early on? needing to 'earn' things like affection, shelter, food, etc. by working twice as hard, because we feel we don't deserve it inherently...the fact that the Doctor shows the Toymaker such compassion even though the Toymaker is such a dangerous, destructive entity is a real credit to their character. i really appreciate The Giggle replicating that and showing how the Doctor empathises with the Toymaker's terror by offering to play with him...i wish we'd had more time to explore the 'vastness that will never cease'. i don't think that good or bad mean nothing to the Toymaker...i think he's petrified of it. suddenly we understand why he's so boastful about his abilities, like an arrogant child...he's asserting himself against the universe as the only safety he's ever known crumbles. god. my heart hurts - that image of him sitting with the dolls of himself and the Doctor is killing me. i am going to go and read this comic and cry now, thank you so much 😭💖 yes please do!!!! your insight into the Toymaker is fantastic and i'd love to see more character studies of him 😭💖

[phantom-z0ne]

WIP Wednesday what makes a ghost? snippet for @somefishycat

The knight regarded him for a moment before nodding twice. So . . . yes to both? He thinks??

"You can call me Phantom. And as for how I got here," Danny pointed a finger back at the knight, he didn't care if it was childish, "you guys dragged me into this place."

The knight inclined his helm forward, and the surrounding eyes crowded closer. Danny had the distinct feeling that every word he spoke was being heavily scrutinize and dissected for any falsehoods. He couldn't blame them, though. He was lucky enough they hadn't attacked him the moment he intruded into their collective haunt, let alone allow him to explain his side of the situation.

. . . It was a bit cool, despite the circumstances, to see a collective haunt with his own eyes. They weren't unheard of, the Ghost Zone was practically infinite, but they also weren't very common.

[scotianostra]

David Myles was executed for incest, at Edinburgh, on the 27th of November, 1702.

David Myles got the death penalty for having a relationship with his sister, Margaret. His execution notice told historians plenty about Myles's moral convictions and less about the veracity of the claims made against him.

The unfortunate man also was a first recorded public dissection of an executed criminal in Scotland.

As reported in the Broadside, he said at the scaffold:;

“Good People, give ear a while, I now confess before you all, That I was a very bad Liver, and a great Sabbath breaker, and not only a Sabbath breaker, but also a Swearer and Blasphemer of the Holy Name of GOD; and Guilty both of Incest and Fornication.”

There was no Broadside printed about his sister, who was also executed for the crime, a week before, perhaps due to the fact that, according to this report;

“She Dyed very obduredly and obstinately, and gave little or no satisfaction to the Spectators”

There’s nothing like a good bit of repentance to keep a Calvinist crowd happy at an execution! Don’t expect details of the foul deeds though, in bygone days in Scotland it WAS all about the religion and repentance!

For almost 300 years until the mid-19th century, broadsides filled the place occupied today by the tabloid press.

Originally they were single sheets of paper, printed on one side only, designed to be read unfolded and posted up in public places.

At first they were used for the printing of royal proclamations, acts, and official notices. Later they became a vehicle for political agitation and what is now known as ‘popular culture’, such as ballads and scaffold speeches.

Reports recounting dark and salacious deeds were popular with the public, and, like today's sensationalist tabloids, sold in large numbers. Crimes could generate sequences of sheets covering descriptive accounts, court proceedings, last words, lamentations and executions as they occurred. As competition was fierce, immediacy was paramount, and these occasions provided an opportunity for printers and patterers to maximise sales.

Here are the whole details as printed on this particular broadside.

THE LAST

Words and Confession

o f

DAVID MYLES

Who was Executed for Incest, at Edinburgh, on the 27 Day of November, 1702.

DAvid Myles, having commited Incest with his Sister Margaret Myles, both were Condemn'd to be Hanged : the Woman upon the Twentieth and the Man upon the twenty Seventh of November, She Dyed very obduredly and Obstinately, and gave little or no satisfaction to the Spectators ; But he (a young man, not 2o years) dyed very Seriously and Christianly; for when he was brought to the place of Execution, Mr. James Heart Exhorted to Re-pentance, and now at his last Hour to confess, what he had to say, concerning his Crime before the People. Whereupon he went to the Eastern end of the scaffold, and said, Good People, give ear a while, I now confess before you all, That I was a very bad Liver, and a great Sabbath breaker, and not only a Sabbath breaker, but also a Swearer and Blasphemer of the Holy Name of GOD; and Guilty both of Incest and Fornication. I got a very ill Example from my Parents; Therefore I desire all you that are Parents to give a good Copy to your Children and desire that you would all pray to GOD for me; Where-upon the Auditors cryed out, Lord have Mercy upon his Soul ; And Mr. Heart Prayed to this purpose, viz. That God would give him a sight of his Sins, and open a Door of Mercy to him and that the infinit Goodness might speedily prevent him, &c. Then he sung the first 4 Verses of the 51 Psalm : which being done, he went to the Western end of the Scaffold, and earnesily prayed to GOD, to pardon all his sins, to wash him, and cleanse him from all his Iniquities, thro- his mercy, and with the Blood of Jesus Christ his Saviour: and that he was unworthy to come before so holy a GOD, for he was a great Sinner and Transgressor: His Sins were great and many, but tho' he was weary and heavy laden, yet hoped he would find Rest; and tho' his Body suffered upon the Gibbet, yet he hoped his soul would go to Glory, &c. Then he went up the Ladder, and weeping sore, entreated the Spectators to take warning by him, and avoid Sin, left they fall in the same snare. Then he said, O ye that are Parents of Children, God grant ye may cast them a better Copy than ever I got; And all ye that are young folk, who have your Years before your hands, seek God, and fly all Sin, for one Sin brings on another O all of you that see me this day, Take warning by me, and put up your petitions to God for me. Then Mr Heart prayed earnestly for him again ; who, when be had done, enquired at him if he was wiling to dye ? He answe ed, Ay, ay, I am very willing: my Offence is great, very great: I do not deserve nor desire to live, for I deserve both Torment here, and Torment hereafter : I am very weary of my Sins. Being enquired at, if he thought his Sentence just? or if he pardoned the Judges? He answered, My Sentence is very Just, I forgive the Judges, and all the World, and God forgive them. Mr. Heart asked him, what hope he had of his going to Heaven, or which, of the promises of the Bible he could lippen to, or rely upon. He answered, many, many, but the particular places do not Strik me in the mind, at present, Mr. Heart said, you told me in prison, of that in the 11 of Matthew, Came un- to me all ye that Labour, and are heavy Laden,and I will give you rest. whereupon he said, I indeed am in Labour, and am heavy laden, but I hope God will give me rest, and receive my Soul in Glory He confessed again, that he had been a great Sabbath breaker : After which Mr.Heart recommended him to GOD.

If you ever visit Surgeons Hall Museum you can see a digital recreation of the dissection. The anatomical drawings projected onto the cadaver were all done by anatomists who were present when they cut him open! This dissection took place over seven days, I can imagine it had started to smell a wee bit by day seven!

Pics are a copy of the Broadside, the costs, which includes the carrying of his body to the church, which means he must have been given a Christian burial, of sorts.

Surgeons' Hall Museums are open 7 days a week from 10am-5pm.

[triptychofvoids]

First things first, I love your head cannons and the way you draw it's very very crunchable, now the question, do you have any science party head cannons? That's all, thank you!! :3c

thank you i appreciate it!! and yes i have a few im normal about them <- foaming at the mouth btw

you know the drill theyre going under the cut in case it gets long

someone made a post about this already i think and i dont remember who but medic and engineer would be so good at parallel play. theyre both content to be in the lab or in the workshop doing their own thing just alongside each other, maybe occasionally dragging the other over to look at what theyre working on either to show it off or get feedback of some kind. they both find each others work to be fascinating even if they dont completely understand it, and on the occasion they combine their knowledge to work on something together it always ends up being Really Fucking Cool and fun for them, regardless of whether or not it ends up being something successful. thats their idea of a date. parallel play working on fucked up and evil science stuff

out of all the mercs, engineer and heavy strike me as the ones that would do most of the cooking. not that the others cant cook (although i think some of them would need supervision....) but most of the time they just dont really want to, and besides theyd both be very good at it. but anyway engie would know about medics sensory issues and him being picky about certain foods and hed always try to make meals everyone will enjoy. if there is something in a dish that he knows medic wont like then he will either mess with the recipe a bit in order to exclude it or will just make it on the side so everyone else can have some but medic wont have to deal with it.

medic uses a weighted blanket and likes to hold onto things in his sleep as well so anytime they share a bed engie gets compressed into a jpeg. this is sometimes avoided because it isnt uncommon for engie to pull an all-nighter or for medic to wake up freakishly early so sometimes medic will already be asleep and/or will get up before him but still, its like a hydraulic press in there

like i said about engie knowing about medics sensory issues and whatever else, sometimes on the battlefield if medic is starting to get overwhelmed he will fall back to a dispenser and engie will shoo anyone else off to go find a health kit instead so medic can get just a few brief moments of peace

they have the kind of relationship where neither of them ever get bored of each others company and neither of them ever run out of things to talk about. which is very cool and awesome for them and sort of boring and awful for anyone else who might get stuck in a room or a car with them for any extended period of time

medics love language, platonic or otherwise, can be best described as 'all of the above'. hes very affectionate and bitey and he isnt always very good at communicating that he cares but he tries to convey it through things like weird gifts (like how a cat brings back dead animals), surgery and medical evaluation, talking a whole lot and hoping it counts for something, acts of service but he can only kill and dissect, etc. and engie somehow has the patience to put up with it. engie is big on acts of service and words but it doesnt matter because medic saps up any and all affection he is given like an infinite sponge and then tries in his own deranged way to return it tenfold

also. i think shipping these two is so funny because at first glance it might look like medic is the feral one and engie is the responsible one but then you look again and the roles have switched. and then you look a third time and theyre actually both a little unhinged. anything in the name of science

[flowers-of-io]

Fic Rec Friday #1

Inspired by the fic rec reblog chain spurned by @a-driftamongopenstars and @synnthamonsugar last Friday, I thought it would be cool to do a weekly rec from my personal fic library! I’ll try sticking to Fridays, and the tag for it is izzy's bookshelf, should you wish to either follow or block.

What I want to present to you first is this absolute banger:

What Has She Found? What Has She Found?

by @synnthamonsugar

Read on Ao3

Eris Morn and Mara Sov grow close enough to suffocate on their mission to Outer Sol.

Rating: Gen | Relationships: Eris Morn & Mara Sov, Eris Morn & Oryx | Word count: 1,458

Warnings: none

"If you never want to see me again, I understand," Mara said.

"I won't leave you," Eris replied. She spoke from her heart, tired and aching though it was, but she wasn't sure they could separate themselves from each other even if they wanted.

I’m very biased in favour of this fic, because not only did I get it in early access as a beta reader, but also the title is taken from one of my favourite loretabs and it sounds so powerful and cool. I'm truly impressed by how the characters’ dynamic is navigated and dissected here. Mara has long been a focal point for Eris, her Queen, confidant and friend—and now there she is, cloaked in the form of her worst terror, and what Eris has to do is reach out and save her life, despite all the fear and revulsion she’s feeling. The visceral awareness that Mara is Oryx, just as Eris is part Crota’s kin, and that it will never cease to be so, that Mara will always bear that mark upon her… And that when they lock eyes, there is a whole different history taking place, in which they are only proxies, in which the devotion between them is a vestige of the love between the monsters they destroyed.

She and Mara had become terribly alike, two lost souls saved through the fearlessness to transform into that which sought to destroy them. So perhaps it should have been unsurprising to Eris that when she looked at her friend, cloaked in the form of a monster, that monster looked back and recognized in her the vesage of his dead Son's kin. The sense of familiarity froze the blood in her veins. The feeling of love, a parent's love for their child, powerful enough to rend apart the universe for a second chance, made her want to flee.

A PARENT’S LOVE FOR THEIR CHILD, POWERFUL ENOUGH TO REND APART THE UNIVERSE FOR A SECOND CHANCE……….

(She thought about being in the Hellmouth. The eyes of Crota's brood in her hands, no weight at all, but infinitely heavy, the knowledge of what had to be done making it no easier —)

I think I hauve covid

She had taken the extracted debris and, guided by compulsion whose source she could not name and technique she could not describe, etched memory into its surface. Sent it by ascendant manifold to Mare Imbrium, where Owl Sector rangers or patrolling Hidden would hopefully find it. If she was to die in the far reaches of Sol, she wanted Ikora to have an accurate account of her final moments. There had been enough uncertainty. Too many questions and too much left unsaid. Her parting gift would be closure.

This bit makes me absolutely insane. It combines Eris’ relationship with her own mortality, her relationship with Ikora, and her view of herself; the readiness to die on duty; the very Eris-like resourcefulness even in her next-to-final moments. Gosh. Being ready to die in the outer space, struck by debris, and the last thing she’s thinking about is ensuring Ikora gets closure after her death. 2d8 emotional damage.

Oh and also what this fic has is platonic bed-sharing! Which is like, so important.

[allyvampirelass29]

Trust Me, I'm a Doctor

A HOUSE MD Fanfiction By: Allyssa J. Watkins

"Hey Green-Eyed-Girl, you wanna show me where it hurts?" House teased, but there was a sincere shimmer in his supernaturally blue eyes, as he smoothed the veil of stunning brunette curls from her face.

"No, Greg, nothing hurts-"

He brushed his practiced finger against her full, pouty lips to keep the lie from touching them, and it was all he could do, to keep his own lips from touching them.

"Wrong. Everything hurts. Always. Unless you're a beautiful woman. Beautiful women don't get sad, especially when their boyfriend is a stone cold ten."

He arched an unruly eyebrow, especially rakish, and watched the blush rise in her cheek, those lips, smiling now, that shy, good girl smile, that made the bad boy in him want to be badder.

"You are absolutely a stone cold ten, Doctor!!!" She giggled musically, wrapping her arms around his neck, gazing into his infinite blue, while he worked to decipher the puzzling green, that was a bit darker today, than the iridescent gems that were usually watching him.

"Or just y'know, Stone Cold," he snarked back, eying her devilishly, playing the smitten bf, while he did his doctor thang between the lines. Okay maybe he was more than playing the bf. God, how confusing, I'm so used to being Wilson's bf. Bastard Friend.

"No........ That's not my Diagnosis," She whispered softly, laying her curly head on his chest, closing her eyes, and he paused, staring down at her, before hugging her to his body, hand cradling the back of her head. Nice deflection. Diagnosing me, before I can diagnose you. Clever girl.

"There's a heart inside this handsome housing place, Gregory, I can feel it, I can hear its music........"

His chest tightened beneath her head, his breath on pause, before he laughed it off coyly, acting like he didn't almost fold like a house of cards when she'd said, "Handsome Housing Place." Damn.

"It's a lie........." He answered smoothly, tipping her chin up, forcing her to look at him, and the hard blue truth in his eyes. There's nothing there........... You only hear the music that you want to hear. The chest is bare."

"How do you protect a heart of gold?" She mused, her green eyes unfocused, doing that freaky thing, where she seemed to see right through all of his smoke, and all of his mirrors.

"Stop it," he warned, his thumb and forefinger gently pinching her jaw, his other fingers curling warily in her hair.

"You pretend it isn't there.........." She breathed the words sweetly, as though the full sound of them would shatter them both, and in that moment, he could feel the threat of her, and the power she didn't even know she had over him.

"No. Nonsensical. You don't have to ignore the music, when you're drowning in the silence. I reject your diagnosis. Stop evading me."

He pulled her back, and she instinctively grasped both of his forearms to stop him. "No, Greg, I'm writing you out in the words, so that you can read them, and know yourself. I'm transcribing you."

"You're DISSECTING me," He accused in a hiss, his teeth clenched. "My turn. Why are you sad?"

"I'm not sad-"

"Everybody lies," He cut in sharply, one finger methodically stroking her cheek. "Except those eyes, to me."

"What secrets do they betray?" She whispered back, and House could sense her pain, as though it were his own, conducted in her voice, her touch, her very being. His onmipresent blue eyes focused hard.

"You're not sad. You're scared....... Of getting hurt again. Because you've been in love before, but not like this......... Your heart's on the operating table this time, open, exposed to me, and I'm the one holding the scalpel........ One wrong move, one nicked artery........." He drew his finger down like a razor sharp scalpel, to the center of her chest, and felt her shiver against it, as he edged down further, stopping at a rather beckoning indent. His eyes snapped back to hers, still harsh, and unforgiving, reading her answer in the glistening emotion of green "If you bleed out this time, love flatlines, doesn't it? Because some guy butchered it before, and now you're scared to let me operate......"

Ally jolted as House pressed his open palm hard against her chest, leaning down from his impressive height, so that their eyes were electrified, their lips a breath away from touching. "Let me tell you, Baby, I'm a HELL of a lot better Surgeon that the clumsy hack who got his hands on it the first time. Do you know why?"

She delicately placed her hand over the back of his hand, which was still pressed to her chest, never taking her eyes from his, even as they streamed with silent, painfully vulnerable tears.

"Because you're scared too. Because this surgery is impossible, and unlike the first attempt, I matter to these beautiful, talented hands........."

He nodded slowly, his lip quivering as she stroked the back of his hand, and then brought it to her lips to kiss his knuckles.

"These are the hands of a Healer, not a Heartbreaker........... Greg, I don't want to be scared anymore........."

House couldn't mask it any longer, the love, the fear, the pain bleeding into his expression, and he didn't even curse the falling tear or two, brushing her lips with a surgeon's precision, kissing her as though his lips were the life-saving cure.

"Then trust me......... I'm a Doctor."

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3