#supercrime

[rassilon-imprimatur]

Like, y’all know how in Venture Bros. the whole point of OSI vs the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the whole world being slave to this parodic, pastiche-laden game of “superheroes vs supervillains” is blatantly revealed to be so the villains don’t lose their minds and behave much worse? They’re locked in the games of their choosing, enabled and humored, so they don’t set the goddamn world on fire? That’s more of what Batman needs to blatantly be like. The pendulum swing of Westian camp and pop art to gory giallo, the kid fantasy of being Robin and being Batman’s best friend vs being a kid surrounded by dangerous, villainous egotists who see him as their nemesis. The villains are active threats that harm the innocent, but they wanna play games of death traps and capers and outsmarting their greatest foes, who happen to be Batman and a twelve-year-old. Bruce is just as much a scary, blood-soaked brute smashing these narcissists to pulp as he is reaching and begging “Please, let me help you.” Etc etc.

[charlescoded]

Hii is it alright to ask for this prompt for lestappen but with a dash of dc au (doesn't even have to be a full oneshot, you could just tell me what you'd do with lestappen in the dc universe 👉👈)

“never figured you for this much of a cuddler.”

Thank youu (and thank you for the fics, you're a good one and i love them)

I've been thinking about a bunch of dc-inspired fic ideas the last two days so this is perfect anon! You're very sweet, and thank you <3

FORCED PROXIMITY PROMPTS ˗ˏˋ꒰ 🐚 ꒱ -- found here!

Max flinches back at the sound of a gun going off, loud and much closer by than he would have liked. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to hold a race in the biggest, most supercrime-ridden city in the world was an idiot. He'd signed up to race, not to get in the middle of a gang war.

He peaks through the window and instantly steps back, heart in his throat. Fuck. They're getting closer.

"Come here," Max almost lets out a surprised shout when he hears a familiar voice behind him, Charles' voice. But when he turns around, he doesn't see anyone.

"What?" He whispers back, eyes wide.

Brown hair and a pair of green eyes emerge from a hole in the wall right next to him, and Max almost startles back again. Then a hand wraps around his wrist and Charles drags him inside the tight space.

"How did you--," Max starts, but Charles presses his hand over his mouth to stop him. Shhh, he hisses, and they stand there awkwardly, both on edge, their limbs in all the wrong places. It feels like an eternity before the sounds seem to draw away slightly.

When Charles takes his hand off Max's mouth, he places it on his shoulder instead. "They're going towards the dock..." He says absently, peering through the hole.

Max frowns. "What? How do you know?" He whispers back.

"I heard them talking, earlier, in Italian." Charles explain, and, oh. That makes sense. Finally, Charles looks back at him, the seriousness in his expression going soft around the edges. "Relax, Max... they're moving away from us."

"I know, I'm fine." He says tightly.

Charles looks like he wants to disagree. "Your heartbeat is going crazy." He points out softly.

He gives him an incredulous look. "What else should it be doing right now?"

Fingers flex on his shoulder, but there's no reply, and Max glances down to where Charles hand is clinging to his shirt. He presses his lips in a thin line, unsure of what to do. He's... he's scared, scared that they'll find him--them--, that they'll get hurt, that something bad is going to happen. And maybe... maybe Charles is scared too, no matter how tough he looks.

Max moves slowly, shifts until his back is pressed against some sort of wooden beam, his hands on Charles' hips to guide him along. He ignores the questioning noise, ignores how his heart is trying to beat out of his chest with every creaking sound he makes, ignores that a single wrong step could alert people of their presence.

It takes a full minute before he feels secure enough to move again, to wrap his arms around Charles' waist and drag him into a semi-comfortable embrace.

Charles seems to melt, then, finally understanding, his arms coming around Max's neck in return. It gives them more space to breath, to keep standing for a longer time if they need, but it isn't until Charles relaxes that Max realises how tense he was, too.

“I never figured you for this much of a cuddler.” Charles whispers wetly, and Max gently squeezes his side, knowing exactly what he's doing.

He hides his face into Charles hair. Focusing on Charles, on his hands clinging to Max's shoulders, the scent of his shampoo, the way he shivers when Max moves his hands, it makes it easier. It makes him feels safer.

"Just with you." Max murmurs back.

He doesn't know if they'll be alright, doesn't know if they'll be found by the right people or the wrong ones, but right now, with Charles in his arms, at least he doesn't feel so alone anymore.

Max breaths out softly. No, with Charles in his arms, he doesn't feel so scared anymore.

[batvvvvv]

next up is this guy!!! i went through...several cords trying to get my tablet to connect while i worked on this but here he is nonetheless! info below the cut once again

edward's parents wanted a daughter who was polite, patient, and well-behaved; someone to carry on their (so-called) respectable lineage. instead, they got a rude, loud-mouthed, and shockingly brilliant little girl who made it very clear he wouldn't be controlled.

it was clear from the start that school was... not for him. he was loud and inattentive, a smartass with no filter. a born problem child! but he wasn't trying to be troublesome; he just didn't understand. people, he would later learn, were just like puzzles. but this was one he couldn't solve yet.

in 6th grade he told his mom he was a boy; she told him he was being ridiculous and thought that'd be the end of it. eddie nashton, having named himself that day, felt otherwise. so he cut his hair and quit trying to please people. they thought he was obnoxious? good! they're all just jealous!

school was hell, between bullies and his own, rapidly declining mental health, but he bore it with a grin and eventually got out with a 4.0 gpa and a fuck-you to everyone. he changed his name to Edward Nygma, and vanished.

life on his own was... not easy, but eventually he scraped enough money together for his own place. then, his time was spent devouring every bit of news about the wave of heists that was hitting gotham, before supercrime was in fashion.

ed becomes obsessed with these crimes, how they were executed and, more importantly, how they failed. the criminals ALWAYS got caught! if they did it like this, they could've gotten away with it! then he thinks: hey, if i did it like this, i could get away with it! so, to prove how dumb these criminals are and because he's broke edward plans a heist.

it goes perfectly, until he's walking out the door. he knows he's done everything right but his head screams that he's going to be caught, unless he leaves something behind on purpose. so he scrawls a riddle on the floor and books it!!

they don't catch him. he'd left a CLUE, and those idiots still failed! with his ego in the stratosphere, he tries again! and again, and again, each time leaving a clue behind. the riddler hits the newspapers and, while he finds the name a bit silly, it's a kind of attention he didn't know he'd been dying for.

he upsizes. his crimes get more elaborate, until he's living in an apartment 2x the size, and everyone has heard the riddler's name. then he slips up, and the cops show up during his next exploit. he panics, takes a hostage, and sets off on a grandiose speech about how they're all BUGS, insignificant compared to the enigma. this buys him time to flee!

he tries to lay low, and finds he can't stop himself. he goes mad with the tedium of regular life, fearing he'll lose his mind if he doesn't do something.

so the riddler returns full-force, evolved into much more than a petty robber, and much more than anyone ever expected of him.

[fakesurprise]

The supervillain never committed a single supercrime, being too busy trying to improve all their skills and powers to actually take the time to fight superheroes. Over 20% of garnished wages in the country did, however, go into funding their base and equipment, but that wasn't the kind of foe superheroes knew how to fight.

[gothamcityneedsme]

arkham origins is so great because it really is just like. Here is what everyone was like and what the world was like before batman became the most important boy in the universe.

Like. joker is a crazy murderhappy guy but like hes totally on his way to getting himself killed for a joke and mostly hes just a crime lord. Bane isnt broken yet and has like a whole faction of people so loyal to him vs how alone he becomes in later arkham. enigma doesnt even call himself the riddler and doesn't even MAKE riddles. Hes like. Sane and has a slight moral focus to his work. He wants to destroy corruption (or control it). Ras is in the shadows, planning, which we see through the dignified but cruel Shiva. Sidonis is the old guard, old crime, being destroyed by the rise of the new 'supercrime'.

Anyways. Batman fucks up all these people and puts a wrench in the works that just starts twisting. Because of Batman, Jim Gordon gets more recognition (through Jims own efforts as well but tbh some of the people Batman takes down would 1000% have gotten Jim dead i think. Its a team effort). And Gotham itself will change so much too. Part of it was crime already shifting but the Bat is such a huge fucking effect. Alfred is right when he sees how important Batman is (THE TWO OF THEM ARE!!)

mvp alfred in this game for real.

[bandnameserver]

Supercrime

[spoonyruncible]

I like to imagine that somewhere in Gotham lives a man named Rob Banks who has an incredibly ordinary civilian life.

[captaindibbzy]

Creating safe drama is actually REALLY difficult. The world is full of horrible things, and it’s easy to find horrible things in every newspaper you pick up. Finding the balance between drama that makes you go “GASP! OH NO!” and drama that could actually hurt someone is difficult. It is so incredibly easy to go grim dark and pick out these horrible situations and imagine awful atrocities. But to make a story that helps you get away from that while still taking you on a ride through danger that I believe is a real threat while not actually being a real threat? Cathartic. Amazing. Hard As Fuck To Write.

[heedra]

genuinely confused when ppl describe worm as being set in a crapsack world where everyone is a bastard because i straight-up dont see or understand this interpretation. granted the story is dark and there ARE some really bad people but imo most of the characters read as at least understandable and often fairly sympathetic. like, most people read as just being fairly typically human. idk.

[artbyblastweave]

From a worldbuilding perspective, I think that the Millarverse (Supercrooks, Jupiter’s Legacy, that shared universe) acts as an interesting foil to the Parahumans Universe. 

Both present a universe in which society is being upended by an exponential glut of new superhumans. In the Parahumans Universe, that translates to a decadish-long golden age in which powers look like they’ll be a net positive, followed by a slow societal death spiral as more and more would-be gangsters, warlords and mass murderers come into superpowers faster then society can adapt. The noblest heroes and most principled villians either die in the fracas or compromise their principles to the point that the hero/villian binary is largely a joke. The big challenge is getting the hundreds of disparate, distrustful factions on the same page and pointed at the very real apocalyptic threats facing the planet.

In the Millarverse, the exponential glut of new superhumans ultimately ends up nominally tipping the balance in favor of the heroes, because it’s a safer and more lucrative career path. After a golden age of genuine, principled hero-on-villian conflict, street-level supervillians gradually get squeezed out by the increasingly hegemonized, “big-tent” superhero community- which inevitably contains a host of horrific assholes who only cause marginally less damage as heroes than if they’d gone villian. Eventually, conventional supervilliany is squeezed out almost entirely, because supervillians are incapable of organizing into groups past eight or so without trying to kill each other and every attempt to organize against the heroes falls through. 

At that point, everything decisively goes to hell all at once, because without a baseline level of supercrime to fight, the massive superhero hegemony has the free time necessary to notice that it’s effectively running the world by default and splinters into brutal infighting between different flavors of self-righteous “Superhero” who think they know what’s best for the world, with the most monstrous and tyrannical inevitably winning out because of how far they’re willing to go for their brave new world.

[yourheartonfire]

A continuation of the villain discovering the hero is their best friend/crush - and taking advantage.

First part here. Thanks to @gingerly-writing for the original prompt!

At first it was fun, tormenting the hero under the guise of being a loving and concerned partner. The villain plied their friend - their partner now - with affection and comfort, home cooked meals and help with chores. And then, at just the right time, they'd drop a reference to the recent uptick in supercrime, or leave their phone open to a crowd fund campaign for [Villain] 's most recent victims. 

It worked every time. The hero would go pale and drawn, the villain would make loud noises about pain and flutter about with Tylenol and pillows, and the hero would force a smile and lie, even as they clung tighter and tighter to the villain with every passing day.

But... well, it was one thing to see hero suffer. It was another thing to see their friend racking themself with guilt and frustration at being grounded. Especially when it was so very easy to make them happy-

"Surprise!" yelled the hero as they flung open their apartment door.

The villain jumped. The hero was on both feet, the cast gone - ah, there was a plastic brace on their ankle and a cane. Only then did the villain notice the trays of take-out sushi on the coffee table behind them. From the villain's favorite restaurant.

"My treat tonight," said the hero with a warm kiss to the villain's cheek. "As a thank you."

"You can't afford this!" the villain blurted out.

The hero rocked back on their heels, considered the villain a long moment. 

"Mm hm," they said finally, pulling the villain in and closing the door firmly behind them. "First of all, I'm aware whatever you do in banking pays more than grad school but I can budget for special occasions. Second, this is to butter you up. Because we do need to talk."

"Oh," said the villain cautiously as they followed the limping hero to the sofa. Through the plastic box lids, they could see the hero had gotten most of their favorite rolls and their extra wasabi. "What... is something wrong, sugar?"

The hero sat and took villain's hands. "You've been so amazing and supportive the past few weeks. And I need you to dial it back."

"What?" The villain blinked.

"Don't get me wrong, I love it when you take care of me." The hero smiled. "But you need to let me take care of you too. It's really clear you are exhausted and stressed to the max."

"No I'm not," the villain said automatically, trying to pull away. "I mean, I've been worried about you pushing yourself too fast-"

The hero sighed. "See, this is exactly what I mean. Every time I want to talk about your needs, you turn it back around to mine."

"My needs? I don't have any neeee..." The villain trailed off mid-word. The hero raised their eyebrows. "Oh," said the villain again, feeling uncomfortably exposed. 

Damn it, this was not supposed to be about them. The villain felt themselves going hot and furious again. How dare the hero lecture them when the hero was the liar!

"Look, I don't think it's a coincidence this started right after my accident," the hero went on, oblivious to the villain's building anger. "You must be, like, off the charts in 'acts of service' as your love language." The hero traced their hand along the edge of the villain's face, in that way that would've sent shivers down the villain's spine if this all wasn't a lie. "But that can't be the only dynamic in our relationship - you giving and me taking. Especially when I'm so close to getting this thing off."

"You still have a lot of physical therapy," the villain started. The hero gave them another look. "Right. I'm turning it around on you again." The villain closed their eyes and took a breath. "Okay. I'll do better. More dynamics. We'll be a dynamic duo."

"Starting now," the hero said, and swung their leg across the villain's lap, gazing adoringly down at them. "Tonight let me take care of you, okay?" They tilted the villain's head up into a soft kiss. 

This was much easier to handle. The villain let themselves relax as the hero took the lead. Their hand ghosted over the thin plastic shell around the hero's ankle. Still healing, still so fragile and vulnerable.

"You set me up," the villain murmured between kisses. "You knew I'd say something about the sushi, you could segue in..." The hero chuckled and the villain pulled them closer to nibble on their ear. "Another of your clever traps," they growled playfully.

The blow hit them across the chest like a train, knocking them back. The hero was on their feet in a crash of movement, eyes wide as headlights and fists clenched. "What did you say?" they gasped.

Oh shit. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck and shit.

"I... said, 'another of your clever traps?'" the villain replied, careful not to lower their voice this time, to make it sound a bit corny and staged. "Like that show you were watching about [Villain] last week, it was something they said, right?" they said, sitting up with their best puzzled expression, rubbing their chest where the hero had knocked them away. "Sugar, what's wrong? You're shaking like a leaf."

"Oh Jesus," the hero said, a hand to their mouth. "You sounded just like-" Belatedly they noticed the villain's position. "Oh my god! Did I hurt you? And - oh no!"

This last was directed at the coffee table, knocked upside down and the food scattered across the floor.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm okay," the villain soothed. They reached out for their partner and the hero shied away.

"Let me go, uh, get something to clean this up," they said, backing towards the kitchen with hitched steps and a shaky smile. "Just... don't do that voice again, okay? You're scary good at it."

"Okay," the villain said. Their heart was hammering in their chest, even 10 minutes later after the hero finished fussing around and settled back at the villain's side, pale and drawn and tucking themselves close. That had been too close, unforgivably sloppy.

The next night their partner begged off their date, claiming extra papers to grade, and the hero was back out in costume and reinforced ankle boots. 

The villain was ready. Now things were really going to get interesting.

Part 3 here and part 4 here!

[bigfan-fanfic]

How’s life like after Bruce retires from being Batman

I’m not going to lie - it’s probably the toughest four weeks in your life. With the Batman vanished, everyone goes paranoid and freaked out - there’s a collective deep breath as the supervillains escalate to try and draw the Bat out. But Bruce and Batdad are wise to the game - if they engage, it only draws things out; most of the villains only operate because they have opposition in Batman.

The Joker drops off first. No Bat means he has no reason to exist and he simply vanishes one day, leaving the Joker Gang rudderless. It is now that Batdad’s tactics can truly shine. Victor Fries is given a job in Wayne Medical’s R&D department, his wife properly frozen and a slew of doctors ready to examine her and work with Fries to explore new treatments. Pamela Isley is requested as an environmental consultant and she actually helps WayneTech develop a new biofuel using compost and vegetable oils that in the long run greatly decrease emissions. The Riddler, with no one he can match wits with, vanishes. Penguin is at a loss with what to do because with all his villainous allies are melting away - he briefly tries to resurrect the crime families of Gotham’s past, but they’re still too afraid of the Bat. Some Robins still fly on patrol, but it is the Joker Gang that truly runs the streets now - but as more of a Guardian Angels-style group. 

Basically, Gotham stays weird and wacky and slightly oppressive, but the crime rate plummets and supercrime falls to basically zero. Out of some kind of “respect” for Batman, the villains of Gotham leave the playing field as well, not even accepting offers to work for Lex Luthor.

The League of Shadows is reeling from the sudden disappearance. It causes a rift - because the League for so long has been focused on Bruce, turning him into the next Demon’s Head, and then Damian, but with both retired... it seems it was all for nothing. Confusion reigns, and infighting begins.

For the Wayne family, things start to settle into a normal, almost boring, routine. But there’s something new. With the skills it requires to lead a double life, but only having to live one, there’s SO much free time. They can do things as a family and then super-quickly finish other work. Dick is working on a double major in college, Jason is writing in his spare time, Damian actually has free moments for hobbies and play - their lives are so much richer and enjoyable - they are finding new meanings to their lives. Bruce has found that he REALLY hates galas but loves getting to meet people he likes and help them through charity, and he’s realized that when he doesn’t have to be Batman, he’s actually a rather nice person to be around - even at the League.

[thehollowsoldat]

Your portrayal is magnificent! I love-love-love how you write Bucky, he's been dehumanized so much on screen but you take a humanistic, loving, honest approach and complement his complexity with your own experiences. To where I feel it's Bucky at his true self: a man who still has the same good heart underneath all the things and patterns he has to unlearn from his time as the Winter Soldier. Keep up the ~marvel~ous work!

Thank you so much!!! I've been reading and rereading this ever since it came in. <3 Now, I don't know exactly how a veteran with C-PTSD and brainwashing feels. But I do relate to the 'things I'm not at fault for but I feel responsible for' that's baked into Bucky.

While my Steve has been off and on throughout the years, I never really stopped playing Bucky, even when I was off of tumblr. (I'm terrified my Steve is lousy but people keep saying he's good so I'm doing something right???)

Random thoughts that got out of hand under the cut.

Things I try and keep in mind when I write Bucky:

To not woobify Bucky. Fanon!Woobie!Bucky drives me up the wall. Hopefully I succeed! His response to his own pain is to get angry and attempt to do something about it. Usually with violence.

(Bucky's response to 'poor lil meow meow' is a horrified look and a "fuck off.")

Play with the blank slate and dehumanization angles of Winter Soldier but Bucky is also in there. Winter Soldier is not a robot.

Keep Bucky as good-hearted but constantly fighting his Winter Soldier role. Either being hypervigilant or breaking a lot of things in his life because he's trying to fix the thing. He's the Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier is himself. It's easy to fall back into form because he never left.

His traumas have traumas. His trust issues have trust issues. He hates himself. People say he's a good man, that it wasn't his fault, that he's redeemed himself. But he'll never believe any of that. Any good parts of his life are constantly kicked out from under him. Then he gets used to the bad as the new normal.

He's not a serial killer or unhinged. He's not going to murder hobo his way through life. He's good at killing. People sometimes just need to die. But it's never thoughtless or without purpose. He won't lose sleep over it. Sometimes it terrifies him how good he's at and easy it is to kill.

He fucks up! Regularly! In canon. Which is 100% way more interesting than a woobie. Tries to do everything alone. Atonement as a way forward but also self-harm.

Examples:

Bar Fights Random Dudes who badmouth Cap. Everyone gets knocked out and Bucky's standing going "Cap would be disappointed in me. And that makes me miss him even more."

Ditches the Captain America suit, shield, and Natasha to go fight The Man With No Face as the Winter Soldier. Jim Hammond's/Original Human Torch corpse and Namor were on the line. Not to mention, the whole world. Plus, he had been sent to kill TMWNF's boss back in the 1960s and wound up killing the boss' wife. oops.

The whole Black Widow Hunt in 616 (Editorial Mandated BuckyNat breakup). He's unraveling. Beats up so many people badly. Plays right into Bad Guy's hands and willingly conditions himself to be Soviet Winter Soldier in a desperate attempt to find Natasha. Her memories of him are wiped completely. So he walks away in a mix of respect for Natasha's agency and self-hate (but very much Editorial Mandated Breakup. Someone should have told her that she was missing a person and see what she said about it).

RJ (kid trained by HYDRA to be Bucky/Winter Soldier). At first, things are pretty good. They're bonding, Bucky's showing RJ a way forward. Not having to be a killer. When RJ's dad shows up, Bucky accidentally alienates RJ when trying to protect him (granted, RJ's dad has bad intentions but still).

The whole Zemo thing and how he treats Sam in TFATWS!

I really love how 616 made him a Fixer. (as of Winter Soldier 2018). The guy who helps people out of supercrime. He's actively working on his issues. He's mostly doing the right thing for probably the right reasons. But a chunk of it is trying to save himself and remind himself that he's worth saving.

He loves so hard and much. Bucky will do everything he possibly can for his loved ones, even to sacrifice himself. Like Steve, he's always ready to throw down his life.

Steve and Bucky are two sides of the same coin. Anger issues, avoids therapy and bleeding on people, fierce in love, a good man who tries to do the right thing. Steve just hides his issues under the Cap Persona. Bucky considers Steve to be the better man because Steve is moral, just, and Good.

/fin?

[whetstonefires]

I do actually think a really cool thing about Steph is that her reason for hating crime was that her dad did it.

She wasn’t mad at her dad for doing crime, which was bad, except inasmuch as him getting himself jailed left her and her mom in terrible financial straits and open to derision. She was mad at crime for being a thing associated with her father. Whom she hated.

Like, she’s never been a bad person, even as badly as she was sometimes written as behaving in Robin because her story role then was as a foil, goad, and source of drama in Tim’s life. And she grew into caring a lot about protecting and helping, via making the very short leap to identifying with victims.

But her initial motivation for the cape game was that very narrow grudge, and she’s not invested in legality for its own sake, but because its targets align with her own. Steph is one of the most firmly chaotic members of the batfam, probably the most.

And if Arthur Brown had still been Cluemaster but a really awesome, supportive dad whom she loved, as a kid she’d probably have been nearly as mad at the legal system for taking him away.

I kind of really want to read or write (but won’t because I’m dying of WIP and this is a plottier concept than I can just dash off) an examination of that, of the route that AU version of Steph would take, and where she’d reach forks in it.

Places where she could escalate in her urge to defend someone she loved, and paint herself into a corner of teenage supervillainy; places where she could realize that as much as she cared about him and as good as he was to her, his actions had unacceptable consequences for other people, other families, and she couldn’t support him any further.

(I feel like I’ve seen this general story done before, but usually with the greys of it muted by making sure the parent is horrifically evil to other people, or betrays the child first, or the kid didn’t know about the crimes, to make a sharper divide between the perceived beloved parent and the True Badness than realistically exists much of the time, and usually making the kid passive against everything but the parent.

And doing it with Steph, who already has so much established personality, appeals to me for the usual conversation-with-canon elements fanfiction offers.)

It’s really common, of course, for people who are horrible in general and people who are horrible to their families to be the same people, because quite often the being awful comes from the same set of behaviors, presumptions, and philosophies in both cases. Just, carried through.

But it’s not always the case. People aren’t that simple. Charitable pillars of society can make their children’s lives hell. People up to their necks in the worst kinds of violent crime can go home to their spouses and be desperately tender.

And there’s nothing about the Cluemaster shtick that requires him to be a very terrible person. Canonically Arthur Brown very much is, but that was largely established re: Steph, and his supervillain identity is almost tangential to that. He’s the Riddler but dumber, in a worse suit, with a stronger profit motive.

He steals things, mainly. Which is an activity that admits of a wide range of moral constitutions.

It doesn’t break the basic concept of Cluemaster or his role in the supercrime ecology, to flip him around so that he will say in all sincerity that he’s doing everything for his wife and baby girl.

(It’s a reality our prison-industrial complex likes us to flinch away from, that many men sitting in prison for real actual crimes are beloved, faithful, and adoring members of families. Who incidentally are charged an arm and a leg to contact the imprisoned, what the fuck.)

Which is what makes this AU concept so interesting to me, because it means it’s possible to change almost nothing about the setting and story outside the confines of the Brown family home, right up to the point where Steph makes contact with the Batfamily.

Which I guess would be most elegantly done by her finding out that her dad, having served his sentence and come home, can’t find work as a felon and so is getting up to super-crimes again.

And being like oh daddy you promised and assigning her own barely-fifteen-year-old ass to be his secret bodyguard and run interference with the Bats and sneak in to remove the stupid clues....

[zaritarazi]

another thing i feel like i’m missing about batwoman s1 is like. okay sure beth-alice is out of her mind and had an elaborate revenge scheme and killed her step mom and killed her dad(?) and literally anywhere else i could see kate deciding she’s past the point of saving but like,,, you live in gotham. if you abandon all your family members that are directly involve with supercrime you won’t have any family left and like sure maybe beth-alice was forced to live in a comically hellish environment but like, gotham has a rate of children living in desolate conditions that grow up to be bizarrely themed super villains that is 2000x higher than the national average

i just need batwoman to not take this super seriously because when you’re in a bat-comic of any kind the unspoken rule is that everything in this horrible, horrible city is terrible and over the top but hey. it’s ours, it’s all we’ve got- my wife might be a supervillain known as “Monster Truckia” and she might’ve killed 18 - 27 people depending on when the coroner’s report gets back but i love her, and she loves me,

[astrodances]

F.O.W.L. Case Files: Owning the Town

Okay, so I was theorizing earlier (and I’ve seen others mention this, too) about Isabella’s lost Fountain of Youth, and how I’m betting on its episode will center around Scrooge, Rockerduck, and (hopefully) Goldie in a sort of “Outlaw” follow-up, because I’m sure after all that time on ice (he “ain’t lookin great these days”), Rockerduck will need a new way to stay young and all that so he can help F.O.W.L. larceny against the world. (And he also wants “REVENGE!”)

But once Rockerduck gets back on his feet (whether through the fountain or otherwise), he’ll probably be assigned a new mission, or will take up whatever mission he was working on before he got frozen (assuming that’s why he was frozen in the first place - probably something to do with being competition for Scrooge for the title of richest duck in the world - perhaps he was frozen right after Scrooge got the title/started McDuck Enterprises? Like I’ve said before, and from what we’ve learned: F.O.W.L. = long game). Anyway, whatever the reason, I think bad ol’ Johnny’s mission is going to center on this:

Rockerduck essentially stole Gumption and all its gold from the townsfolk, and what is F.O.W.L.’s main objective?

(Putting the rest under a cut!)

I’ve mentioned before in a reply to another theory of mine (before we knew about the buzzards being F.O.W.L.) what I think might be F.O.W.L.’s bigger plot (seeing as how we thought they were running things from St. Canard, which is known for “supercrime” - and that probably is still the case). For convenience, here’s what I wrote:

I didn’t even consider this when I wrote it in my original post, but you know what I’m now thinking the “possibly as part of a bigger plot” bit that I mentioned could be for F.O.W.L. using the buzzards to take over McDuck Industries? They want to take over Duckburg as well, and Scrooge owns the deed to the town. If they take the company, then they’re that much closer to their goal, since McDuck Industries provides power, water, and so much more for Duckburg.

(Heck, I think the only thing that would be stopping them at that point is that, I’m *pretty sure*, the deed is privately held by Scrooge, not the company. After all, Ma Beagle was looking for the deed in McDuck Manor as if it’s a personal item of his. But if not…oh boy.)

So building on this, if the buzzards’ focus is on gaining control of McDuck Industries, as the business-oriented birds that they are, then Rockerduck seems perfectly suited to go after Duckburg (especially considering that he - or his family - already have Rockerduck Estates).

It’ll be a perfect one-two punch for F.O.W.L. Add in @alliterative-albatross​’ original buzzard conspiracy theory that the buzzards sabotaged Scrooge’s attempts to rescue Della so they could ultimately control the company (along with the future potential angst that the whole Spear of Selene-family situation is bound to bring), and they really have clear shots at Scrooge’s heart, wallet + bin, and leadership.

All F.O.W.L. has to do is keep pushing their dominoes.

Getting back to Rockerduck, I want to bring up the below tweet, where Frank said that Rockerduck is “looking to exact revenge against those that wronged him in Gumption.” (While I still think/want to see Scrooge, Goldie, and Rockerduck go tête-à-tête in the Fountain of Youth episode, I could also see them doing this when Rockerduck goes after the town.)

That need for revenge will be perfect motivation for him to help with F.O.W.L.’s plot: Scrooge took (back) Rockerduck’s gold, essentially his investment in/ownership of Gumption - now Rockerduck will return the favor with Duckburg.

Ooooh bonus twist: building off of their existing parallels of being rich guys and all that, what if Rockerduck is actually a freelance operative for F.O.W.L, just like Scrooge is a freelance agent for S.H.U.S.H.? That would give the show an even greater angle to really hone in on his need for revenge.

Sort of branching off into and yet sewing together multiple theories simultaneously now (please bear with me haha)...

F.O.W.L. and Rockerduck want the town/deed...

F.O.W.L. also wants “access to the most mysterious relics lost to time” (from Isabella’s journal), and are now racing the McDucks to do so...

Circling back to the first gif, Rockerduck’s revenge will likely entail trying to gain ownership of everything *under* Duckburg, and he’ll probably want some personal compensation for the Rockerduck Nugget from Scrooge...

And in just what location would Scrooge likely keep important documents, such as deeds, and his most mysterious non-money treasures, relics, etc., that just so happens to be underground?

The Other Bin. Where Scrooge “puts all his most dangerous finds and artifacts to keep them from prying hands.”

Yet the Other Bin sure seems like something that absolutely no one outside the family (except for a scheming shadow witch with an inside spy to get her foot in the door) would know about, right? Surely not even F.O.W.L. could get in there.

Unless they also had the appropriate inside man.

I’ll let my addition to this post speak for itself, but to add to it and tie it into this as the “how” for Rockerduck’s plan, Duckworth would be the perfect inside man. After all, he was the one cleaning the Other Bin for who knows how long (see his cleaning schedule below) - he knows what’s in there (and will probably be seeing many of the relics from Isabella’s journal go in there), how it’s laid out, and now as a ghost, access to it is probably easier than ever for him, as is reporting to F.O.W.L. High Command.

If Duckworth can at least get them/Rockerduck the deed, and/or get them access inside the Other Bin secretly, then they could take whatever they want, including any of Isabella’s lost relics that Scrooge got first.

When Bradford says that F.O.W.L.’s going to steal the world “out from underneath McDuck’s nose,” I think he really, truly means "under,” and Rockerduck will be fully ready and willing to help see that through.