The Wayne doll house
Have some haunted doll au, since it's been bubbling away in my mind.
The bat cave is large and sprawling, many layers and tunnels and hollowed out cracks in the walls. It takes many years to fully reinforce to prevent stray kids from tripping into stagnant waters or fall down crags as he once did. The doll cave, as it becomes known, is in one of the deepest, darkest corners, one where the lights of the furnished caverns above don't reach.
It's one late night sitting at the computer when it suddenly occurs to Bruce that his first encounter with a doll was at the well entrance, many levels above.
There was nothing there when he went back.
-
The justice league stared at the subaru. The subaru, having no eyes, did not stare back.
The seven of them had just finished a very long, arduous mission, and narrowly escaped government censure after the base they'd been raiding had turned out to belong to some corrupt official. With the alert up, they couldn't escape through city airspace, or even in their hero suits.
So civilian it was.
Batman had hotwired some bloke's car while the rest of them ducked into alleys and shop bathrooms, but the problem remained. There was seven of them. And five seats.
"I can shift into something more suitable for being carried," suggested j'onn, "but I believe one of us might have to hide."
"Foot well?" Hal tried, and everyone looked around at the tall, bulky, broad heroes.
"Think they'd have to go in the boot," Barry finally said. Everyone immediately turned to him. "No."
Batman spoke up before the discussion could devolve.
"I think.... I would be best for that."
The team stared.
"Batsy?"
Having no lungs meant he could not drag in the tired sigh he wished, but whatever force allowed this body to talk was capable of approximating something suitably resigned.
"As I am, I am... incapable of fully passing as human. It would be best if I remained out of sight."
"So just? Go change? I swear we won't be weird about whoever you are under the mask. Even if you're like, bald."
"Thank you, Wally, but I'm afraid I'm being serious." Reaching for the mask in broad daylight was unpleasant, but the glue and wires held as he gave it a few thorough tugs. "It doesn't detach."
Everyone stared. Clark reached out as if he wanted to check, but withdrew.
"Do you even have a civilian identity??" Oliver eventually asked. "Because at this point I'm genuinely not sure."
Wayne Enterprises and Queen Industries had a meeting that same evening. "Hn."
"Can we go back to the 'incapable of passing as human' part?!"
"We can discuss it in the car," he snapped, stalking past Barry and popping the boot. "In case you haven't forgotten, we're on a time limit."
For once, that seemed to encourage them, and batman, with great dignity, folded his joints and cape into the small space, ignoring Hal's mutter of 'what kind of contortionist -' as he slammed the lid. With a little shuffling he managed to activate his comms.
"I will inform the watchtower of our delay."
"Batman, they're tapping all outgoing signals, you can't -"
"It won't trigger," he interrupted, before he twisted his consciousness and sent it spiralling across the country.
Bruce awoke with a groan, stretching his limbs and taking a moment to marinate in his annoyance before he reached for the comm and voice modulator on the beside table.
"Batman to watchtower, we've encountered delays. If the Texan state government calls we haven't entered the state in six weeks. Batman out."
-
"Alien?"
"No."
"Reanimated corpse?"
"No."
"Uh... Demon?"
"Hm. No."
"You're not just a meta human, are you?"
"No."
"Vampire?"
"No."
"Robot??"
"No."
"Batsy, please, someone's got to win the bet eventually. How do we even know you're not lying?!"
"You don't," Batman said, not looking up from his paperwork and Flash groaned, letting his sticky notes fall to the floor as he buried his head in his arms.
"One day," he bemoaned to the keyboard, "one day we'll figure it out."
"Until then please keep your eyes on the monitors."
Flash groaned again.
-
Robin ducked under superman's arm as he scuttled down the corridor, laden with the night's haul of snacks. The real problem wasn't getting them - stopping league members from raiding the kitchen would be extremely counterproductive - but keeping them until he could return home to his human body to eat them. Batman had started searching him each time they left and it was really cutting into his daily sugar intake. Unfair! Just because he didn't actually use energy to stay up my night to fight crime, it felt like he did!!
'Oh, you're broken, Robin, oh, don't go out until the glue has fully set, Robin' his arm was fine! It wasn't like there was much crime to be fought on the watchtower anyway! At least not physically.
So he was pretty pleased with himself until he went to set the snacks down and found that the tar like glue they used had soaked through the sleeve and gotten all over his chocolates.
With his other hand, he tried to pry them off, wincing as the wrappers tore and stuck. He tried to shake it, ignoring the way his elbow rattled in the joint.
"Come on, come on - aw, cheezits."
The arm fell off. Robin stared despondently at the limb, surrounded by torn wrappers and dripping black glue where it connected to the elbow. The sour stink of formaldehyde filled the air.
He was going to be in such trouble with Bruce.
The click of the door jerked his head up.
Flash stood in the doorway, wide eyed. Robin stared back.
Flash screamed.
Oh yeah @dehydratedmockingbird have a thing
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i finally started reading the high republic books! i finished light of the jedi last night, so here are a few of my (non-spoilery) thoughts:
jedi doing cool shit with the force is my favorite thing and there is SO much good jedi doing cool shit with the force content
also the way the force was described was just, really beautiful. it's been a while since any visual star wars medium has really made me feel in awe of the force, but this did the job so well.
the little worldbuilding aspects were really cool. (hypserspace travel still being developed, bacta isn't mass-produced yet, etc.) this book was just a really nice reminder about how cool and strange and fun the star wars galaxy can be (when actual effort is put into making it that way)
on that note, god it felt good to have good star wars content. like this was SO. GOOD. (and i'm so so excited to move onto the next books, but i kind of didn't want this one to end bc charles soule is such a beautiful writer. and he made every pov interesting and engaging; i was never bored)
i think maybe my favorite pov to read from was bell's. he made me laugh, and soule wrote him in such a way that was youthful but not childish, and it was just such a joy reading his pov. i felt so connected to him immediately, and was so proud of him by the end of the book! can't wait to see where his story goes. (also i love his and loden's relationship and i have SO many feelings about the end of the book like..... iykyk.)
avar and elzar. avar and elzar. AVAR AND ELZAR. they've got me down so. bad. help.....i love both of them individually, and their dynamic together is everything to me actually. (i have so many more thoughts on them, but i’ll come back to them later)
another bullet point to again say how much i LOVE jedi doing cool shit with the force, and relating it to elzar and a) how he describes the force as an endless sea.... yeah. i'm in love w that description; and b) him wanting to push boundaries, explore all that the force is capable, is just really really cool.
the epilogue. I have not stopped thinking about it. like i got yearning and terrifying force visions all in one chapter?? charles soule did that for ME <3
i'm reading the main books for phase one in order, so next up is test of courage, then into the dark. (even though i reallyyyy want to just go right to the rising storm lol)
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Apparently I have autism so now Kyoko has autism. Sorry I don't make the rules, I just enforce them
Assorted Kyoko headcanons below:
(Sorry for the double-bullet point formatting. Tumblr refuses to put Regular spaces between bullet points and it would be hard to read otherwise)
First of all Kyoko has no idea she has autism until she's an adult. I don't think her grandfather even considered it when she was younger
Since she lived with him since she was 6, her special interest is in detective work. She also genuinely loves mystery stories outside of that
Also she says she’s secretly passionate about coffee, which she must’ve picked up from her grandfather. She probably has particular brands she prefers and has her own coffee maker because it’s her lifeblood, and can give a full analysis on whatever cup she tries if you ask
I can’t confirm but it seems like Kyoko doesn't have any friends at the all-girls school outside of Yui in DRK when she's 13, so yeah. Probably kept to herself for most of her time in school as a kid because she wasn't encouraged to make friends, and her main focus was on becoming a detective
This definitely leads to her talking to everyone like they're an adult coworker, regardless of age
When she first joins Hope’s Peak she barely speaks to anyone unless prompted to. Multiple students probably think Kyoko dislikes them because of that and how direct her responses can be, but she warms up to the rest of the class over the course of the months and some mandatory group activities
And she doesn’t like small talk, like she says in-game. I feel like she was raised thinking there had to be a clear point to conversations, and gets actively frustrated/confused when people try to talk to her about meaningless things
Even though she came to Hope’s Peak just to settle things with Jin, she avoids him like the plague and barely speaks to him the whole first year. Every time she considers it she realizes that’s a lot of emotional baggage and does not know how to deal with it, so avoids it entirely instead. During the break she has more time to think and over the course of the second year, they're on speaking terms
She stims without really knowing it. When her hands are free she's either fiddling with her braid, her sleeves, or thumbing over the studs on her gloves. She also bounces her leg sometimes if she's working at her desk
And her hands. First of all in DRK it does say her nerves weren't damaged, luckily. But look with how scarred they still visibly are in DR1 and the fact that she was caught in a literal explosion I call BS. I imagine there's some permanent damage and the gloves help deal with the sensitivity
She probably deals with random pains and involuntary movements that get better over the years, but still deal with occasionally dropping/knocking over things
She can do most things fine, but writing can be difficult/painful. She still feels the need to take notes on anything important, so that doesn't stop her, but her handwriting is slightly hard to read unless she writes slowly. When she's older she probably figures out it's easier to use a computer
She hates any sort of loud or sudden noise. Just in general I think she loves being in silence and finds it comforting, but usually uses quiet music when she’s working. (Once she gets her hands on some noise-canceling headphones tho… she’ll never take them off and you might never hear from her again)
She really likes the dark too. Like in her own house she would hardly have the lights on when she isn’t reading or working bc she loves sitting in the void, it’s just relaxing
And she gets real attached to her personal belongings. She doesn’t own much but keeps the things she gets forever. Gifts are like prized possessions to her. And even with things like her work shirts, she will be personally hurt if one of them gets stained or torn. As soon as she can fix it she’ll calm down but she’s very protective of her stuff
She takes getting hurt or betrayed very seriously too. Even just opening up to someone is a big step, so if she trusts you and you break it the rejection sensitivity hurts bad. She’ll get very upset and shut down emotionally, completely avoiding you until she can process her feelings (Like did u see how she treated Makoto for keeping one thing to himself once she didn’t even wanna eat in the same room with him at breakfast)
She hates crowds and loud spaces, she finds them both overwhelming and irritating and will not hesitate to find a way to leave or step out for a while if she can. If she needs to she’ll endure them anyway but anyone who knows her does not expect her to stay long at most events
And she finds the heat unbearable. She will complain internally if it's anything above 80 degrees, and it probably makes wearing her gloves uncomfortable. (Also when Makoto mentions how humid it is in the garden room she immediately says it's pretty uncomfortable and leaves)
She loves the cold tho, like she actively enjoys snowy weather and looks forward to it every year. And in general she keeps her room at like icebox temperatures
She admits she likes plain cereal for breakfast already so… I don’t need to elaborate. Kyoko probably has like five meal options she cycles between but basically still eats the same thing everyday. Especially if she lives on her own I think she has no idea how to cook beyond anything w basic instructions so she’ll buy 20 packs of something premade or microwaveable and hope it’ll last her some weeks
Also Kyoko gets so offended when you ask if she likes cup ramen and she says the thought of it makes her ill so… probably certain kinds of tastes and smells she cannot handle(Edit: Like coriander. Whether that's cilantro or the spice is up to your imagination!). Like she mentions being sensitive to fragrances so perfumes probably give her a headache if they’re too strong
And I think she does the thing of always looking like she frowning slightly about something, but not because she’s upset, just because there’s always some slightly uncomfortable sensation outside the comfort of her room. Either that or a blank stare, depending on her mood
Thats it. If you somehow made it to the end of the post, congrats and thank you for listening to my kyoko thoughts!
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