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pluckyredhead · 7 months

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What the heck is going on in Batman/Gotham War?

I know a lot of people in fandom are confused and/or upset about what's been going on in Gotham War - why is Bruce acting like this, what is Selina doing, why are the Batkids taking sides. So I figured I would fill you all in on what's been happening in Batman and Catwoman since Chip Zdarsky took over with Batman #125, because it has been BONKERS and I have been enjoying the hell out of it.

Below, the quickest summary I can manage while still being comprehensive:

[Content warning: mental illness, abuse, suicide (...ish), LOTS of violence.]

The first arc, "Failsafe," starts with Batman and Robin (Tim, in this case) in pursuit of the Penguin, who is on a killing spree. In the very first issue, Tim gets shot in the neck. Bruce has to take him to the hospital, but first he has to strip him out of his costume and put him in civilian clothes to preserve their secret identities, triggering memories of when he had to do the same to Jason's dead body. There is LITERALLY NO PURPOSE TO ANY OF THIS EXCEPT WHUMP (Tim is back in action with a fucking BAND-AID on his neck very quickly), which is how I knew this was going to be good. Beat Tim up! Make Bruce cry about Jason! I want these men to suffer! (There is also SO much to be said about Tim's own Poor Mental Health Decisions throughout the entirety of Zdarsky's run so far, but that's for a separate meta post.)

Anyway. Bruce leaves Tim in the hospital and goes to confront Penguin, who turns out to be dying of mercury poisoning. He kills himself and makes it look like Batman did it, forcing Bruce to flee. (Penguin actually faked his death and is alive elsewhere under an alias, but that's not important right now.)

In the Batcave, a massive robot called Failsafe emerges. Failsafe attacks Bruce, who usually eats killer robots for breakfast, but he can't seem to get the upper hand on this one. Duke, Cass, Steph, and Dick show up to help, but Failsafe beats them all too, while Tim gets an injured Bruce away and to the Batcave.

In the Batcave, Bruce puts on a weird purple and red Batman costume and a new personality takes over: the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Now, Zur has a very complicated history going back to 1958, but for the purposes of this story, all you need to know is that when he was younger, Bruce decided it would be good to hang out in a sensory deprivation chamber until his mind created a secondary personality, Zur, who is essentially Batman without Bruce. Zur is pure efficiency who does not care about anything but the mission. He created Failsafe, for one purpose: to kill Bruce if Bruce ever crossed the line and killed someone. And right now, Failsafe believes that Bruce killed Penguin.

Failsafe nearly kills Tim, which Zur is okay with writing off as an expendable soldier's death, but this causes Bruce to take control of the body back because "Tim isn't my soldier...HE'S MY SON!" (Tim Nation, why are you not ALL OVER this story? It's catnip.)

Babs calls in the JLA (SuperBat fans, you will also want to read Bruce's adoring description of Clark when he shows up), but of course Failsafe has kryptonite, which it stabs Clark with. The League dumps Clark and Bruce into the JLA jet and distracts Failsafe while Tim flies Clark and Bruce to the Fortress of Solitude. Bruce tells Tim he's a good boy and jumps out of the jet and into the ocean so that Tim and Clark will be safe from Failsafe. He's rescued by Arthur, who takes him to Atlantis to heal. THIS HAS ALL ONLY BEEN FOUR ISSUES SO FAR.

Two weeks later, Bruce wakes up to discover that Failsafe has taken over Gotham. He teleports up to the JLA Watchtower on the moon to lure Failsafe there, then blows the Watchtower up, hoping to catch a ride on one of the Javelins. But Failsafe has already destroyed them, so Bruce RIDES A BOOSTER ROCKET BACK TO EARTH, OXYGEN MASK CLAPPED OVER HIS FACE. The whole thing has some powerful Scooty-Puff Jr energy.

The only tricky part is reentry, when Bruce starts to burn up - his costume is fireproof, of course, but his chin is exposed. SO HE TAKES OFF HIS LITTLE BAT-PANTIES AND PUTS THEM OVER HIS HEAD. I swear to god this happened in a real comic book and the entire "Bruce falls off the moon and survives" sequence is utterly delectable goofy nonsense and I truly cannot recall a time I've had more fun reading a comic book.

Anyway, Bruce lands directly outside of the Fortress, BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES, and runs inside to find Clark and Tim. While Clark keeps Failsafe distracted, Bruce and Tim program nanobots to inject compassion into Failsafe. I SWEAR TO GOD. They zap him with the nanobots, but Failsafe pulls a high tech space gun out of the Fortress and shoots Bruce with it anyway, apparently disintegrating him. Tim falls to his knees in the snow, weeping. TIM NATION, WAKE UP, THIS RUN IS CANDY FOR YOU.

But of course Bruce isn't dead! That wasn't a killing gun, it was a "zap you into another dimension" gun!!! THAT was the compassion!

So Bruce finds himself in a dystopian alternate Gotham, and I'll be honest, I didn't love this arc ("The Bat-Man of Gotham") as much as I loved "Failsafe," but it has its moments. In this Gotham, Bruce Wayne is dead, so Regular Bruce is like "Oh boy, time to Batman this place up." Also he's plagued by hallucinations of a skeleton version of Jim Gordon who is still wearing a trench coat AND A MUSTACHE. Like I said, it has its moments.

This Gotham is controlled by Arkham, and anyone who is diagnosed as "crazy" is locked up. A new villain, Red Mask, is in charge, and Selina and a Venomed-up Harvey Dent work for him. Bruce teams up with an orphan kid (of course) named Jewel and goes after Red Mask, who turns out to be some guy named Darwin Halliday and ALSO...the Joker. Well, he's the Joker who hasn't been Jokerized yet. But one time he breathed in some chemicals that let him see into the main reality of the DCU (???) and glimpsed Regular Joker and now he wants to build an interdimensional machine to mentally connect with Regular Joker across universes which he assumes will make him insane, NATURALLY.

Bruce attacks Red Mask, who sics a Venomed-up Ghost Maker on him. Ghost Maker cuts off Bruce's right hand. Bruce cauterizes it with an electroshock machine and ties some spikes on it (SERIOUSLY) and goes after Red Mask again. Meanwhile Red Mask mentally connects with an alternate dimensional Joker...but instead of it driving Red Mask insane, he's what drives the Joker insane. Desperate to become the Joker somehow, anyhow, he jumps into the interdimensional portal, and Morally Dubious Alternate Universe Selina kicks Bruce in after him.

Meanwhile, Tim is in full "I KNOW I SAW HIM DIE BUT HE'S NOT DEAD" mode, which: bless. So he teams up with Jon Kent, which...gosh, what an astonishingly boring duo. I love Jon, I love Tim, they're perfectly nice and normal around each other, I'm falling asleep. Anyway Tim fights Toyman for a while and then makes a VERY stupid costume where the entire torso is a giant light-up R, because "I want him to see that Robin is coming to save him." GET A THERAPY, TIM.

Bruce finds himself first in the Michael Keaton Batman universe, then the Red Rain universe, BTAS, Batman Beyond (yes I know they're the same universe but I guess he goes there twice), Silver Age, Kingdom Come, Gotham by Gaslight, and more. Adam West gives him a utility belt. The Dark Knight Returns Bruce builds him a robot hand.

Finally Bruce and Red Mask reach the end of the multiverse, which is a Gotham asteroid floating in space, surrounded by giant Jokerized sharks. LUCKILY BRUCE HAS BAT-SHARK REPELLANT IN HIS ADAM WEST UTILITY BELT!!! Honestly this whole arc was worth it for that moment.

Bruce knocks Red Mask out, but now he's stuck. He has a device from Batman Beyond Bruce to get home, but it's only good for one person, and he can't leave Red Mask there to die. Of course, that's when Tim shows up in his stupid giant glowing R costume and they hug it out, thereby fulfilling but also compounding all of Tim's issues since 1989.

Anyway things are fine now, right? Sure, Bruce is hallucinating that his family is on fire, and the Zur personality is not going neatly back into the box where it's been all these years, and he still has a robot hand (Damian, hilariously, immediately announces that he wants one too), but he's FINE. He is a little bit mad at Selina, because she broke out of jail (she was in jail because she killed her fuckbuddy because he was trying to kill Bruce), and also because she didn't tell him Penguin was alive and that would have stopped Failsafe, and also because Other Selina kicked into another universe. Selina, very fairly, is like "Well I'm not responsible for Other Selinas and also maybe don't build robots to kill yourself with and not tell anyone about them???"

THEN we got Knight Terrors, the summer event in which a villain called Nightmare caused everyone to fall asleep and, uh, have nightmares. Bruce, specifically, had a nightmare that he met an eight-year-old version of himself that vomited up a man-sized bat with a gun for a head. I laughed SO HARD. Bruce also had his body borrowed by Deadman for the duration of the event, so while he endured the psychological toll of nightmares like everyone else, he also endured the physical toll of everything Deadman was doing PLUS the mental toll of being aware of what was happening in the waking world even though he couldn't control his body. As soon as the event was over, he lapsed into a coma so that his body could get some damn rest.

Okay. Now we're up to Gotham War.

(I know, I know. But for all of you who are like "How could Bruce do this???" about Gotham War...*points up* THAT'S HOW. HE IS NOT WELL.)

Bruce awakens from his coma and IMMEDIATELY decides to Fight A Crime even though Babs is like "Maybe don't?" But he can't find any crime, which is...weird. His kids confirm that Gotham's been super quiet since he's been out.

Selina hears that Bruce is awake and is like okay, time to pay the piper. She calls all of the Bats to a meeting and explains that she's the reason crime has been down. See, villains like Joker and Two-Face always have goons, right? But what if the goon supply dried up because the goons have better jobs? So Selina has trained All The Goons In Gotham to be...cat burglars. No violence, no stealing from anyone who can't afford it. More importantly, no helping Scarecrow or whoever commit mass murder.

All of the Batkids are like "Hmm...I feel uncertain about this, but it's working...I don't know what to think..." except for Jason, who thinks it's hilarious and is instantly Team Selina, and Damian, who is staunchly Team Bruce. Bruce, meanwhile, is like "No! NO! THIS IS CRIMES, AND CRIMES IS BAD!" and Selina's like "I mean, robbing from the rich is basically a victimless crime" and Bruce screams, I swear to god, "MY PARENTS WERE 'RICH'!" Inexplicable scare quotes and all. I laughed so hard.

Anyway this is the basis for Gotham War and it is endlessly hilarious to me because everyone in the Batfamily is supposed to be a genius and yet not one single character has pointed out that:

There are jobs the goons could be doing that AREN'T illegal. It's not just violent crime vs. nonviolent crime. There are in fact many other jobs! I am POSITIVE Gotham needs construction workers and hospital orderlies. (Yes, I know it's hard for people with records to get jobs. That isn't addressed.)

Being Batman is SUPER ILLEGAL.

They are all so stupid.

Selina's plan doesn't even work, because one of her thieves gets killed by a rich person defending their home, and Bruce is like "See? This is why crime is bad!" and like...pretty much snaps. He's particularly fixated on Jason, even (rhetorically) threatening to kill him, which is when the other kids jump into the fray on Jason's side, all except for Damian, who like I said is firmly Team Bruce. (This makes complete sense to me, Damian has been dealing with severe trauma and isolation pretty much nonstop since 2018 and he and Bruce have finally made a tenuous peace, so I can understand why he wouldn't want to lose that.)

Also, Vandal Savage buys Wayne Manor. It's so random and SO funny.

OKAY BATMAN #138. Bruce has kidnapped Jason and injected him with a variation on fear toxin which will be triggered whenever Jason's adrenaline spikes, the idea being that Jason is no longer capable of killing - but in practice, Jason is no longer capable of even getting up off the floor, he's so terrified. I want to be really, really clear here: Bruce is like 90% Zur here, and the only reason he goes this route and doesn't kill Jason is because the remaining 10% that's still Bruce loves Jason and is trying to help him. He's just incapable of good or humane help because Zur literally can't do feelings.

Dick knows something is up and is sneaking around Bruce's Secret Other House We've Never Heard Of to figure out what it is. Damian attacks him to protect Bruce. Tim attacks Damian so that Dick can do what he needs to do, and handcuffs Damian to a parking meter:

THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE!!! TIM GO TO THERAPY! DAMIAN GO TO THERAPY! EVERYONE GO TO THERAPY!!!!!

Dick figures out what Bruce did to Jason (it's on the computer, for...some reason?) and absolutely loses his shit on Bruce, beating the crap out of him, which tbh is the only thing that felt off to me in this run because frankly I don't think Dick likes Jason that much. BUT WHATEVER.

Tim pulls Dick off of Bruce. Bruce leaves them both tangled in a net and flees as the cops approach. Zur's like "Good, fuck 'em" in Bruce's head, because the cops will expose Dick, Tim, and Damian's secret identities and Bruce will be free of the dead weight of a family, but the little bit of Bruce still in there throws Dick a batarang so he can free them all in time.

Then Bruce leaves. Damian is devastated.

I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS PAGE. Damian really thought he could have Bruce's love and loyalty if he turned on everyone else! Tim is going to be a therapy dog to a Wayne even if he has to settle for the one he doesn't like! That unresisting, blank hug made me SCREAM when I turned the page. Incredible. (Also the art fucking S L A P S, god bless you Jorge Jimenez.)

ALSO it turns out that Selina's second in command has been Vandal Savage's daughter Scandal Savage the whole time and they are turning Selina's cat burglar army into their own personal army WHOOPS. (This also feels very OOC for Scandal but at this point I trust Zdarsky with my life so let's see where things go.)

SO THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON IN GOTHAM WAR. TL;DR:

Bruce is unhinged because he nearly died like 19 times in a week and it unlocked the smaller, meaner purple Batman that lives inside him.

Selina is unaware that you can get money legally.

Tim is going to have a nervous breakdown if he can't fix someone, ANYONE.

Damian needs a hug but ideally from someone he actually likes this time.

Jason is so scared.

THE END.

#batman #bruce wayne #gotham war #meta #i can't believe how long this is

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moodymelanist · 1 year

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The Places That You've Been

happy day 4 of @nestaarcheronweek, everyone! This fic has been bouncing around my brain for a long time so it felt good to finally get it out lol. Fic title came from Unholy by Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Hope you enjoy 💙

Summary: Cassian knows what he and Nesta have been doing is wrong. it doesn't stop him from doing it anyway.

Word Count: 5,045

TW for cheating. Smut lies ahead!

Read on AO3 here!

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Cassian

Cassian knew from the beginning that he shouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to Nesta Archeron, but he’d allowed himself to be sucked into her orbit anyway.

It all started innocently enough. He had to go to his editor’s fancy office in downtown Velaris to see the almost-final version of the newest book in his series — Lady Death and the Sword of Destiny — and he ended up taking the elevator up with an unfamiliar, but shockingly beautiful woman.

“What floor do you need?” he asked politely, using the question as a chance to study her more closely. She had on a dark blue dress with a high neckline that kept all the interesting parts covered, but did nothing to hide the sweeping curves underneath.

“Twelfth,” she responded just as politely. “Thank you.”

Cassian pressed the button and studied her further out of the corner of his eye. She was gorgeous, her golden-brown hair pulled into a low ponytail and her eyes looking even bluer from the color of her dress, and he idly wondered if she was new to the floor. With all the times he’d come to the office, he definitely would’ve remembered seeing someone who looked like that.

They got off on the same floor and Cassian motioned for her to go first. He got a quick smile for that, and as he followed her off the elevator, it didn’t take long for them to realize they were headed for the same place.

“Do you work at Velaris Editing, too?” the woman asked.

“Nah, I just have a meeting with one of the editors,” Cassian responded, pulling the door to the office floor open.

Their bewilderment only grew as they realized they were even headed for the same office. Cassian knocked on Mor’s open door and waved as she looked up, not a hair out of place on her pretty blonde head.

“Cassian,” Mor greeted him with a wide smile as he walked inside her office. It dimmed slightly when she realized he was standing next to the woman who’d ridden the elevator up with him. “I see you’ve met the newest addition to the editing team. Nesta, I’m sure you’re familiar with Mr. Valladares’ popular series.”

“Congrats on the new job,” Cassian told Nesta sincerely. He turned to make a face at Mor before adding, “And you know Cassian is just fine, Mor.”

“Thank you, sir,” Nesta replied, finding a solution that appeased everyone in the room. Cassian squashed down just how much he enjoyed hearing her call him sir so they could finish this conversation as professionally as possible. “My nephew's quite the fan of your books.”

“Yeah?” Cassian asked with a grin. “What’s his name?”

“Nyx,” Nesta answered with a long-suffering sigh. She looked like she wanted to say more, but then Mor cleared her throat. “I had a question about one of my assignments, but I can send you an email once I’m back in my office.”

“Sounds good, Nesta,” Mor told her. “I’ll keep an eye out for it.”

“Thank you, Mor,” Nesta said. She smiled politely at both of them before beginning to make her way out of Mor’s office. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Really, Cass?” Mor said the second Nesta had closed the door behind her. “You’re so predictable.”

“What?” Cassian replied incredulously. Everyone knew how much he hated all the formal bullshit, especially Mor, and he’d only been carrying the conversation forward like any decent person would. “It was the nice thing to do!”

“Shut the hell up and come open these boxes,” she demanded, completely ignoring what he’d said. “They’re heavy, and I know all those muscles aren’t for show.”

Cassian rolled his eyes but helped lift two heavy boxes onto the chairs in front of Mor’s desk. She grabbed a pair of scissors and sliced them open, revealing the shiny new covers of his latest release with a flourish. “Tada!”

“They look great, Mor,” he told her sincerely. He reached for a book and allowed himself a few seconds to remind himself of how far he’d come. “Really. I can’t wait until they’re released.”

“You and me both,” she replied. “Your fans have been hounding me on Twitter for weeks.”

“What can I say? They’re a very dedicated group,” he responded, grinning. He wanted to say more, but then his phone beeped, reminding him of the meeting he’d actually come to the office for. “I gotta go, I can’t be late for my meeting with Emerie.”

“Before you leave, do I need to remind you of our non-fraternization policy?” Mor asked sweetly.

Cassian glared at her. “First of all, I don’t work for you, so I’m not subject to that policy. Second of all, I’m married.”

“Shouldn’t those have been in reverse order?” she fired back, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Like you’re one to talk,” he retorted. Mor and Emerie had gotten together at their last job before moving over to Velaris Publishing, so they both knew she was being a hypocrite. Not that it mattered, anyway — no matter how stilted things felt at home, he was still married.

“That’s exactly why I’m talking,” she replied with a knowing look. “I have unique expertise in the matter.”

Cassian stood and grabbed two books from the top of the box with a wink. “Don’t work too hard, yeah?”

“Bold of you to assume I work at all,” Mor fired back with her own wink. “Now get the hell out of my office. I have actual clients to help.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He left her office and walked across the hall to where Emerie was waiting for him, her own copy of his newest book already in hand. The sheer amount of tabs sticking out from between the pages should’ve been illegal, but she wasn’t one of the best in the business for no reason. “Nice of you to join me, Cassian. Close the door.”

“Why do I feel like I’m in the principal’s office?” Cassian joked. He shut the door behind him like she asked and settled into one of the plush chairs in front of Emerie. “You look nice. Hot date tonight?”

Emerie sat back in her chair, her perfectly tailored pantsuit moving with her. “You’re the only thing keeping me from my hot date, so let’s get a move on.”

He decided to stop fooling around and get down to business, the two of them moving quickly to identify any discrepancies in the printed versions before them. They’d learned the hard way to not double-check as many times as possible before sending a book off for a full print run, and there were only so many times he could take fans pointing out mistakes to him.

The moment Emerie shooed him out of her office, Cassian wound his way through the maze of the floor toward the elevators. He was about to press the down button before he realized he was still holding one of the books in his hands, and made a split-second decision to do something nice instead of going straight home.

“Excuse me,” Cassian said, turning around to face the young woman working the receptionist's desk. “Do you have a pen I can borrow?”

“Sure do,” she replied. She handed over a dark blue pen and went back to typing.

Cassian placed the book on the desk and flipped open to the first title page, using his borrowed pen to write a quick note as neatly as he could manage. He didn’t know how old Nesta’s nephew was, so he decided to keep the note pretty simple. To Nyx — I hope you have fun enjoying this adventure a little early!

He signed his name with a flourish and somehow managed to find Nesta’s office without getting too lost. She looked up the moment he knocked, a surprised expression flashing across her features before settling back into careful neutrality. “Is there something I can help you with, sir?”

“I just came to drop this off,” Cassian answered. He handed over the book he’d just signed with a little grin. “I hope your nephew enjoys it.”

Nesta’s eyes widened slightly as she took the book from him, her fingers cool as they quickly brushed his. “This is — are you sure?”

“I signed it in pen, so I can’t exactly take it back,” he joked.

“But it won't come out for another month,” she protested, still looking a little shocked. “You won’t get in trouble?”

“I wouldn’t get in trouble for something like this,” he told her with a shrug. He’d been handing out advance copies of his books since forever, and if he could make another kid’s day, who was he to deny them that joy? “Besides, the kid clearly needs some good things in his life with a name like that.”

“My sister was very into Greek mythology growing up,” she responded dryly, relaxing a little once she accepted the gift and put it in her purse. Her eyes twinkled with amusement for a few moments before she sobered. “Seriously though, thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to,” he told her with a little shrug. He wanted to say more but his phone was buzzing in his pocket, and he opened it to see Tanwyn asking if he’d be home for dinner tonight.

An excuse was ready on the tip of Cassian’s tongue to politely bow out of the conversation, but Nesta beat him to it. “I’ve taken up enough of your time. Thank you again for the book, sir.”

“You’re very welcome,” Cassian said back. “And really, just Cassian is fine. I hate all that formal sh— stuff. ”

“Alright, Cassian,” Nesta indulged him. “You just won me aunt of the year award, so if there’s anything I can do for you…”

Cassian knew she was just being polite, but it was hard not to let his mind wander toward all the things she could do for him, none of them appropriate to be thinking about right now. He forced all of that out of his mind as he made his way to the door. “I’ll keep that in mind. See you around, Nesta.”

She waved at him as he walked out of her office, and he made his way to the elevators as fast as he dared without looking suspicious.

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As life went on, Cassian supposed the worst part was how little his wife suspected was going on with him — actually, no. The worst part was how little he cared whether she knew what was going on. He knew he should give way more of a fuck about Tanwyn’s feelings, but it wasn’t like he’d actually betrayed her. He hadn’t laid a finger on Nesta, nor she on him, so what was a lingering stare here and there? What harm would a secretive little smile when he happened to see her before stopping into Mor’s office cause?

It turned out the answer was a hell of a lot.

Everything came to a head one night when Cassian was getting some work done in one of the empty offices at Velaris Editing. He had carte blanche to come into the office, use a free computer, and get some writing done whenever his home office wasn’t cutting it for him. He’d needed a serious location change after staring at the same group of mothers loop around his block for the fifth time, and he’d said fuck it and taken the short trip downtown to try and get something done here. He’d made a decent amount of progress on one of the chapters in his next book, enough for Mor to hopefully stop breathing down his neck about his next deadline, and he had been thinking about heading home when Nesta walked past the office he was using.

Cassian had been content to just ignore her and get back to work, but she’d done a double take as she’d walked by before walking back to lean against the doorframe.

“It’s late, Cassian,” Nesta said, the tiniest hint of suspicion leaking into her voice. “What are you doing here?”

Cassian shifted his headphones down, paused his music, and motioned to the computer in front of him. “Mor lets me use an empty office to get some writing done when I’m going crazy at home. A change of scenery does a lot for me sometimes.”

“Oh,” she replied, clearly caught off guard. “That’s… very generous of her.”

“Perks of being friends with the boss,” he fired back with a lazy grin. “What are you doing here so late?”

“One of my authors sent something in at the last minute, so I’m trying to get some edits in before the deadline,” she answered. She adjusted her position against the doorframe and his gaze immediately focused on the way her dress shifted slightly, revealing just the slightest bit more of her legs. “I usually try not to stay so late on Fridays, but it’s less work for next week.”

“Yeah,” he responded, internally cringing at his own words but too preoccupied with how badly he wanted her to do anything about it. “Hey, while I have you… do you mind showing me how to reformat some of these paragraphs? I think they updated the software since the last time I was here, so I have no clue what I’m doing.”

“Oh, sure,” she agreed. She came over to his desk and stood next to him, the sudden change in proximity practically making his head spin. “It’s pretty straightforward once you know what you’re doing.”

Cassian tuned out Nesta’s probably-helpful explanation as he warred between what he wanted to do and what he should do. She was just so gorgeous and he wanted her so badly that he wanted to throw caution to the wind, consequences be damned.

His heart pounded in his chest at the enormity of what he was about to do. What if he’d been reading all of Nesta’s signals wrong? What if they actually weren’t alone, and someone found out about what they were doing? Hell, what if someone he actually cared about found out about it?

Does it matter? he thought to himself. You’ve wanted her for months. You’ve been fantasizing about her ever since you saw her in that elevator. When’s the next time you’re going to get her alone like this?

Fuck, he was such a piece of shit. But she was so close, she smelled so good, she looked so good in her dress, and he wanted her so fucking much.

“Nesta,” Cassian murmured, his hand shaking as he reached out and touched the small of her back.

Nesta went rigid under his touch. “What are you doing?”

“If I’m reading this wrong, tell me,” he answered, deciding not to move his hand until he got a clear answer one way or the other. “I’ll fuck off and never talk to you again if I’m making you uncomfortable. But I don’t think I’m reading this wrong, sweetheart.”

“You’re married,” she protested. She hadn’t moved out from under his touch, though, and hope sparked in his chest despite what she was saying. “Won’t your wife be upset if she finds out?”

“Probably not,” he said much more nonchalantly than he felt. “We don’t even sleep in the same room anymore. I’m more excited about coming to the office and getting the chance to see you than I am about going home to her.”

“Cassian,” Nesta said quietly. “We can’t.”

“Why not?” Cassian asked. He started rubbing circles into her back and immediately noticed the way she leaned into it. “If you don’t want me, I’ll let you walk out of here right now. But if you do, and you’re just nervous…”

She was silent for so long that he thought the worst, but then she quietly told him, “No one can know about this.”

“They won’t,” he promised. He didn’t want anyone to find out about this any more than she did; she might get in trouble at work, but he could jeopardize his entire career if the world found out a beloved children’s author was cheating on his wife.

“I’m serious, Cassian,” she continued like he hadn’t said anything. “I could lose my job over this.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to keep this between us, won’t we?” he asked. He slid his hand down and took a moment to appreciate the curve of her ass, squeezing it through the black fabric of her dress before smacking it once. “Go close the door.”

Nesta whipped around to glare at him, but she straightened up and did what he asked anyway. The sound of the door shutting suddenly made it feel even more real, and Cassian made himself take a deep breath before motioning for her to come closer.

“You always look so good in these dresses,” he told her, reaching out to grab her once she was close enough. “How am I supposed to get anything done with you looking like that?”

“I don’t wear them for you,” she replied, but she let him pull her close anyway. He ran his hands over the fabric of her dress, humming appreciatively as he searched for the zipper and started pulling it down.

“Yeah? And who do you wear these for?” he asked once her dress slid to the floor. She had on a matching bra and underwear, all that black lace practically screaming for him to rip it off her, but he forced himself to have at least some self-control.

“It’s not a crime to look nice underneath my work clothes,” she answered primly. She kicked her dress away and stepped out of her shoes, the loss of a few inches only bringing her closer to him.

“And thank God for that.” He reached out to cup her breasts through her bra, appreciating the view before him for a few moments before reaching back to unclasp her bra. “Fucking gorgeous.”

Seeing Nesta in those tight dresses was one thing, but it was nothing compared to seeing her out of them. Cassian was nearly overwhelmed by all of that pale, creamy skin suddenly on display for him, and he almost didn’t know where to start.

“Are you just going to look at me all day?” Nesta asked, breaking the spell.

“Can’t a guy appreciate a good thing in front of him?” Cassian retorted with a smirk. He pulled her down to sit in his lap and had to bite back a groan at how she felt pressed against his cock even through two layers of fabric.

“Only if you’re multitasking,” she replied, reaching out to start unbuttoning his shirt. He’d thrown on a white shirt and dark slacks on his way out of the house, and the sight of her fingers nimbly working at all those buttons made anticipation thrum through his entire body. “Jesus, how many buttons does this thing have?”

“Sorry.” He would’ve offered to help, but that would mean letting go of her, which wasn’t an option. “Next time I just won’t wear anything.”

She shot him a withering look before moving onto his pants, yanking open his belt and working quickly to free his cock. “Very funny.”

“I don’t think my dick is anything to laugh about,” he said, groaning as she wrapped her hand around it and started pumping. Her fingers looked even better on him than he’d dreamed. “Fuck, that’s good.”

She stroked him just as hard and tight as he liked, and it didn’t take long for him to start battling the urge to fuck into her hand.

“Do you have a condom?” she asked, cutting directly to the chase.

“Yeah,” he answered. He knew it would really make him look like an asshole, but he’d been carrying them around for the last couple of days, dangerously hoping that this exact kind of thing would happen to them. “In my wallet.”

She slowed her fast pace on his cock but thankfully didn’t completely stop stroking him. “Wishful thinking?”

“Something like that,” he replied. Not wanting to dwell on how terrible of a person he was for much longer, he looked away from her and started thinking about where he wanted to fuck her instead. “How do you feel about getting fucked on my desk?”

“It’s a borrowed desk,” she corrected him immediately, “but I feel pretty good about it.”

The desk was big enough that once they disentangled their bodies and moved the computer stuff to the side, Nesta had more than enough room to hop onto the desk and look at him expectantly. “Well?”

Cassian grabbed the condom out of his wallet and tossed it onto the desk next to her before sinking down to his knees, pressing a kiss to the inside of one of her pale thighs. Her skin was just as smooth and soft as he’d imagined and he just couldn’t get enough.

“What are you doing?” Nesta asked warily.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he answered. He pulled down her underwear and tossed it without a care for where it landed, practically drooling at the sight of her bare before him. “If you don’t want me to, I don’t have to, but… I really want to return the favor.”

“Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but we don’t have that kind of time,” she replied, looking at him a little incredulously. “Stop messing around.”

He sighed, recognizing her point but hating that she was right anyway. “Okay.”

“Don’t be so sad about it,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. The second he got to his feet, she reached out, grabbed one of his hands, and placed it squarely between her legs. “You can still return the favor. Just be quick.”

Cassian cataloged every sound that left Nesta’s mouth and every expression that flitted across her face as plunged a finger inside her. She was so wet that it was nothing to add a second finger, and the way she let her head fall back with a long moan went straight to his painfully-hard cock. The way she was riding his fingers didn’t make it hard to imagine how she would look doing that on his cock, and part of him wished they had more time so he could make that fantasy a reality.

The other part of him wasn’t going to squander the opportunity in front of him.

“Fuck,” he groaned, continuing to pump his fingers in and out of her. “Taking me so well, sweetheart.”

“I’ll take your dick even better,” she replied breathily. She reached down and pulled his hand away, bringing his soaked fingers to her mouth so she could suck them clean. She gave him a hell of a show as she tasted herself, bobbing her head up and down before she let his fingers go with an audible pop. “Mhmmm. Delicious.”

“You’re gonna kill me,” he muttered. She just looked up at him with a smug expression that he promised to himself he’d wipe off one way or the other. “Lay down on your back.”

Nesta laid all the way down onto the desk and Cassian stepped in between her legs, adjusting them so they were loosely wrapped around his waist. “How do you want it?”

“Hard,” she answered with a challenging smirk, “and fast.”

“Won’t be a problem,” he told her with a smirk of his own. He reached for the condom and made quick work of getting it on, making sure it was rolled all the way down and secure. “You ready?”

“I’ve been ready,” she answered, moving her legs so they were wrapped more tightly around his middle.

Cassian rubbed his cock against her clit a few times just to make her squirm before he lined himself up and pushed inside her with a loud groan. She was so tight and wet and hot around his cock that he knew he’d have to really focus so he wouldn’t come too soon. “Fuck, you’re so tight.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Nesta moaned, her breath coming in little pants as he slowly but surely made her take every inch.

“Just me and you here, sweetheart,” he retorted cheekily. Her mouth had fallen open into a silent oh, and he knew he’d never forget that expression for the rest of his life. “So pretty, taking all of me like this.”

“Less talking, more fucking,” she demanded.

He didn’t dignify that with a verbal reply, instead pulling out and thrusting back into her over and over until he’d built up a steady pace. He knew they were technically racing the clock, but he was going to savor every moment that he could spare.

“Come on, come on,” she pleaded, digging her heels into his ass to spur him into moving faster. “Fuck me like you mean it.”

“Don’t wanna hurt you,” he replied. Still, he sped up the pace, grabbing her hips so she wouldn’t go flying off the desk from the force of his thrusts.

“I like when it hurts.” She reached down and grabbed his forearms, encouraging him to press down on her hips even harder. “Oh, God… need you to use me.”

“And I thought I was the naughty one.”

“What?”

“You thought I wouldn’t notice the way you fucking looked at me?” Cassian asked, really letting himself go now that he knew she liked it. Nesta was finally a moaning, writhing mess underneath him, and he was going to wring every drop of pleasure out of her that he possibly could. “All those times you called me sir? What was I supposed to think, sweetheart?”

“You — oh, fuck — you looked at me first,” Nesta panted. Her breasts looked so good bouncing back and forth from the force of his thrusts that he couldn’t help but reach out and palm one roughly, pulling another moan out of her. “Jesus… always fucking staring at me.”

“Can you blame me?” he fired back. She felt so perfect on his cock that he knew it wouldn’t be much longer for him, and he was determined to bring her over the edge right along with him. “Everyone thinks you’re so innocent. Good thing I know the truth.”

She whimpered, arching up into his touch before one of her hands dipped between her legs. He almost couldn’t decide where to look, but her face was so open with her pleasure that he couldn’t look away from it. “Fuck, Cassian, don’t stop, don’t stop—”

Cassian swore as Nesta clenched hard around him, her body locking up from the force of her orgasm, and he only got a few more thrusts in before he was coming too. It swept over him like a wave, one that he couldn’t help but ride out by thrusting as deep inside her as he could and grinding their hips together. He wanted to live in this moment forever, from the little moans and whimpers she was making to the feel of her warm skin under his hands.

He knew they couldn’t, but a man could dream.

They laid there for a few moments, their pants eventually giving way to regular breathing. She hissed as he pulled out and handled the condom, but otherwise didn’t say anything as she watched him. He thought about saying something — maybe cracking a joke to break the tension — but he didn’t even know what he would say. Thanks for some amazing sex, we should do this again sometime?

He didn’t even get the chance, though; the silence was broken at the sound of the elevator going off from down the hall. Nesta’s eyes went almost comically wide as she sat up and pushed him away so she could hop off the desk, Cassian missing the shape of her body against his the moment she left.

He was completely and utterly fucked.

“Shit,” Nesta hissed. She frantically started looking for her clothes, not even bothering to put her underwear back on before she put her bra on and shimmied into her dress. “The cleaning people are here. We need to be out of here before they see us together.”

Cassian matched her sense of urgency immediately. He grabbed his shirt and started buttoning it back up before shoving his pants back on, the sound of his belt clinking together almost too loud in the sudden silence. “Let me know when you get home?”

“No,” she denied him without hesitation. She somehow managed to get most of her dress zipped up without any of his help, and he silently mourned the loss of all that skin on display. “We’re not doing that, Cassian. This was a one-time thing, and we’re never talking about it again. You’re going to go home to your wife and act like you give a shit, and I’m going to keep being normal so I don’t lose my job. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yeah,” he answered, swallowing down his irritation. How was he supposed to pretend like everything was normal now that he’d gotten a taste? “Crystal fucking clear.”

“Great.” Nesta did a final sweep before locating her shoes and shoving her feet into them. “Have a good night, Cassian.”

He stood there for a few moments in dumbfounded silence before forcing himself to move, her last words echoing in his head as he did a final sweep of the room. He didn’t want to get her in trouble any more than he wanted to get himself in trouble, but he already knew having her once wouldn’t be enough. He knew what her skin felt like underneath his hands, how tight she clenched around his cock when she came. If this was all he could have, he would take it gratefully, but he had a feeling this wouldn’t be the end of it.

For fuck’s sake, he hadn’t even kissed her. There was no way that could be the end of it.

Cassian spotted something black and lacy in the corner of the room, and he smiled to himself as he realized Nesta had been moving so hastily that she’d forgotten to grab her underwear. He picked them up and pocketed them, already thinking about all the things he could do with them as he walked out of the building.

#acotar #acosf #nessian #nesta archeron #cassian #NestaWeek2023 #moodymelanistwrites

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tangledinink · 1 year

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i love cass's apocalypse series so much and it has brought so much joy to me but with this latest arc (which I also love, don't get me wrong) it's like.

idk, my dashboard is just filled with art and writing about it and how sad and horrible it is to watch someone you love die. and about how sad and horrible it is that leo is gonna lose his twin brother. and like. it's so cool that it's inspired so many people (and I'm one of them, for the record, I've made art about it too!) and everything but now I'm just sitting here THINKING about it like.

.... yeah. it was really sad and horrible to watch my dad die. he was in hospice for over a year. and he was sick for a lot longer than that, back before he was rejected for a lung transplant, and when we still thought he would get better.

and it was really sad and horrible when my twin brother died, too. i just had my first birthday without him earlier this month and it sucked. it'll be one year officially since we lost him on may 11th and I'm sooo not ready for it.

and i do trust cass that there will be a happy ending and everything. but there's sadly no one storyboarding my reality so. that's not really true anywhere else.

and the WORST PART!!! is i can't even go talk to people about this!! which is the only reason I'm here in the first place lmao. coz like. what am i supposed to do like? "hey in order for you to understand why I'm upset right now I'm gonna have to explain the extended tmnt universe, the plot of the movie, and also can you read these fan comics for me?" like!!! FUCK!!!!! but then cass just posted the last page >:( (it's beautiful btw they did gr8) and I straight up curled up and sobbed for like. a good five minutes. coz. like. fuck!!! it just!!! I'm sad!!!! I'm sad donnie is dead and that his family will suffer for it but.

fuck. at least he was surrounded by his family when he went.

i wasn't there when my daddy died.

my brother died alone.

and neither of them are coming back.

and that's, like. so cowabummer, dude.

#vent #personal #im just sad right now and i don't have anywhere to put it #cw grief #cw death #im sad about turtles and i dont know what to do about it right now #like frfr #>:(#this is stupid actually

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silentcrowsilentravens · 2 years

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raven this is so stupid and i can't stop thinking about it:

resi 8 villains trying a carolina reaper

Oh god. You just want them to suffer, huh?

Mother Miranda, Alcina Dimitrescu, Bela Dimitrescu, Cassandra Dimitrescu, Daniela Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and Karl Heisenberg trying a Carolina Reaper.

Warnings: mention of vomiting.

Masterlists here!

Mother Miranda

You know what? Screw going through the effort of taking Miranda down with guns like Ethan did. Just give her a Carolina Reaper. It'll get the job done faster.

Listen. Mild salsa is way too spicy for this woman to handle. She would just like. Die. Immediately.

Violently coughing, tears streaming down her face, nose running, looking about as red as the pepper itself. The works.

Probably ends up with a hoarse voice afterward. Never again.

Alcina Dimitrescu

Alcina has doubts about the true intensity of the Reaper.

She's also overly confident in her spice tolerance. As if most of the food she eats isn't entirely unseasoned.

Alcina hates looking undignified. She tries so hard to not have an overt reaction.

She's wearing the expression of somebody attempting to repress a cough, but she is, in fact, coughing. A lot.

As the heat climbs, so does Alcina's temper. Whoever introduced her to that pepper is going to die.

Like Miranda, ends up with a hoarse voice afterward.

Bela Dimitrescu

Bela's first thought is simply "no".

She starts shaking her head, stares at the floor, gets really stiff, sniffles about ten times, and squints her watery eyes. Great. Now her makeup is going to be more messed up.

She doesn't know what to do with herself. She forgets how to function and starts slowly dissolving into flies.

Cassandra Dimitrescu

Cass strikes me as the type of person who, upon learning about the pepper, would be into eating them as a challenge. It's like an endurance test! And mother didn't raise no bitch.

Look at how long she can tolerate the agony before shoving bread into her mouth!

She's barely even teary-eyed, right? Right!?

Watch her try and handle two at once!

Daniela Dimitrescu

The Reaper is one of those things Dani tries with little forethought and then regrets immediately.

Screams. Deadass just screams. Her family thinks she's being murdered or something and instead finds her running around in circles, fanning her mouth and crying.

She clutches onto one of her sisters, relying on them to support her weight as she lets her knees give out beneath her. "I'm dying!" she tells them, over half-serious.

Donna Beneviento

Donna handles it... better than most.

Yeah. The burn hurts. But you wouldn't properly gauge just how much it does by the look on her face.

Her expression is just... slight discomfort.

Her eye is watering.

Face is a little flushed.

That's it.

After about a minute, she gets up, calmly walks to her fridge, and grabs the milk.

Salvatore Moreau

Poor Salvatore would puke the very moment the heat initially hits.

Sticks his head straight into the reservoir's waters in an attempt to find relief.

It doesn't help. It only makes it worse! And it probably triggers a transformation into his (more) mutated form.

He has spice hiccups for a long while afterward.

Karl Heisenberg

Psh, how bad can it be? Karl thinks it's all an exaggeration and tries the pepper without hesitation.

Oh.

Oh no.

Karl attempts to keep his reaction minimal. He can't.

He's cursing up a storm.

He's banging his fist on the nearest surface.

He's pacing back and forth, only to eventually stop and lean over with his hands on his knees.

Just starts spitting and drooling onto the ground, not caring if it's gross to do so.

#mother miranda #alcina dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #donna beneviento #salvatore moreau #karl heisenberg #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #dimitrescu daughters #lady dimitrescu #lord heisenberg #lady beneviento #lord moreau

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incomingalbatross · 11 months

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Hello, I hope you're doing well.

I really love your content, especially the Catholic BatFamily stuff, because being a Catholic myself, I was always really interested in the parallels between Christian Catholic beliefs and Batman's morals.

So, could we get more Catholic BatFamily content? There's so much more I want to know, like how would Jason and Bruce reconcile, does Bruce bring Steph into the faith after a few years, whether would Duke become Catholic or whether would he be Episcopalian (because his parents seemed to have taught him good morals growing up), does Bruce bond with Helena B. (Huntress) a bit more because of their faith, how is Selina in the middle of all of this, and more. Please, I need answers!! (if you want to, of course).

Oooh, also, I think St Joan of Arc is perfect for Cassandra (or Maria Faustina, or Jude Thaddeus)

Again, love what you do, keep doing it, and have a good one!!

Hi! I'm doing well. Hope you are too.

Thank you! I'm glad you like it. It's just...there's so much virtue in this mythos, and so much suffering. In Bruce's life particularly. And the heroism and the iconography and... YEAH. I might have run out of words today. :P But Catholic Batfamily holds a lot of meaning for me.

Unfortunately, I haven't been really actively into Batfamily stuff recently, so the ideas aren't flowing! "How do Jason and Bruce reconcile" is a question that has SO many potential narratives in its answer, of course, and I think I go back and forth on whether Jason would reconcile with the Church or with Bruce first. One would lead to the other, I think, but which first? I don't know. I AM a big fan of Jason having wanted to be a priest as a teenager and eventually fulfilling his vocation, though. Father Jason Todd is good.

...I also think Jason ought to go to Lourdes. I'm honestly unclear if Pit Madness is canon or purely fanon, but either way the waters of Lourdes as spiritual healing for the Lazarus Pit boy just sounds right.

I don't know about Steph either! I'm inclined to say she's more likely to go to church with Tim or Barbara, or walk into her campus ministry one day and go from there, but I don't know where she's at.

—and okay, I am remembering that SOMEONE on my dash or very close to it was doing a whole series of Batfam members paired with corporal works of mercy?? I can't FIND it but the one I'm remembering has Stephanie and a soup kitchen and it's very good. Augh.

Anyway! I like Helena Wayne Huntresses more than Helena B. Huntresses, so my own universe would probably be more like "And this is Huntress, who is not-coincidentally also Catholic, because she's Bruce's daughter from an alternate Earth." :P But if you have thoughts on Bruce and Helena B., go for it!!

Joan of Arc does sound like someone who would resonate with Cass. The valiance, the purity, the determination to Do Her Duty no matter the obstacles... yeah. Or the others! I shamefully know St. Maria Faustina less than half as well as I should, but yes. And honestly, I think St. Jude might be the patron saint of Gotham. :P

Thank you very much, again! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed my thoughts.

#catholic batfamily #(gonna have to check if that's the right tag)#asks #anon asks #if somebody could point me toward the Corporal Works of Mercy Batfamily Series I would greatly appreciate it

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dailycass-cain · 8 months

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This week the GOTHAM WAR has begun. Is the basis for this "war" for Catwoman/Batman work? How does Cass fit into this? I'll give my thoughts on it...

So the basis of the event is Catwoman is training the "hired help" of Gotham. Instead of working for Scarface, the Riddler, or Two-Face. They're off doing their own things in robbing the rich. But already there's a problem with that...

Not just the easy answer. Court of Owls.

Sure, maybe a few of them use mooks. This very issue brings up Professor Pyg as using "hired" help, but it feels kind of wrong for Pyg to do this sort of thing.

When Dollotrons have been his modus operandi. Why need thugs when breaking folks into nothing is far cheaper?

What's to stop Pyg from doing that exactly again? Nothing really. So all Selina is replacing is Pyg from going to hired back to his old ways.

That's not good at all. That's kind of why Batman and the Bat-Family are needed.

That isn't bringing up the "biggest" bad himself, the Joker. There have been numerous stories of the Joker just by himself making Gotham a literal hell without any hired help.

The Joker at his scariest is when he's by himself. Even then he's causing all sorts of harm in Gotham.

Those are the "easy" examples.

What about the other villains who already have an operating gang say Punchline and the Royal Flush Gang? It feels like writers Chip Zdarsky and Trini Howard make Selina's case paper thin.

That's not to say Batman's side is any better, "My parents were rich line." Was not the intended dramatic moment the book had. More made me chuckle as it could've easily been photoshopped with, "MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!" instead.

Likewise, is Selina's retort. Literally, again there are so many examples of Bruce showing compassion to folks by using his fortune.

Just alone in Batgirl (#63), we had this scene. That's just one moment that easily popped in my head.

It just feels so wrong for the basis of this "war" to be so flimsy when there are better ways for it. Aka the bot that literally subjugated all of Gotham because Batman took "a life" (that turned out to be false).

There's so much to see Selina's side of things when Failsafe had domain over the city. We have barely seen the city or ANYONE react to that.

Like that alone is more a cause for SOMETHING than what we're getting initially here.

I digress I could go on and on poking the holes into the fight itself, but how does it relate to Cass? Well, already she should be against Selina's plan.

A life is a life.

No matter what Selina's way will take lives. So…

The fact this is all glossed over with her being silent. Just says it all for me that her part in this is already "planned".

I'll probably hate it.

I'll probably despise it.

I thought long and hard about what the best course of action during this event would be for me. I really do love the artists attached to this event. I do love Cass. However, I do not like the context of the event AT ALL.

The answer is kind of right in front of me. Well, three answers. Birds of Prey (out next week), Spirit World, and Detective Comics. I adore two of these and by all things considered with the preview, I'm gonna probably LOVE BoP.

So instead of going into long rants and give myself stress I shouldn't need. I'm just gonna enjoy the good art.

If there are bad moments (which I'm sure there will be) in this event. I'm gonna call it like I see it.

But as for going into detailed thoughts like this? That's it. This is all this event is getting out of me. I have too much enjoyment else to give my focus too.

I just feel sorry for the fans of Duke, Tim, Stephanie, and Barbara. Those fans gotta suffer thru this as Damian, Cass, Kate, Luke, and Dick get to play outside this "sandbox" of woe.

This comic was garbage. This story is garbage. It's just best for me to look away for the most part and enjoy the stuff with Cass that I do have outside "the war".

That's my thoughts on it all. 😁

Now to enjoy a BETTER COMIC next week.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts

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zahri-melitor · 1 year

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Ok, I have now mopped up every extraneous storyline in my reread and I HAVE to start War Drums and War Games (and then I’ll do Identity Crisis afterwards, because goddamn is 2004 the start of the Grim Times)

Last thing I finished today was Nightwing #91-#95, so you know, I have been having some thoughts about Devin Grayson as a writer.

I’m very fond of Devin Grayson’s run on Gotham Knights, putting aside #16-17 and #20-21, the four issues focused on Dick Grayson only. I…don’t think that’s unusual; I think it shows the issue at hand.

I don’t think she’s a bad comics writer. She has objectively written clever, interesting comics that I have enjoyed reading. Most people would say GK Transference and 24/7 are great comic stories. After some thought, I think the issue for many DC fans is primarily that Dick Grayson is her all time fave but her headcanons about Dick long since departed from what other writers were doing with the character and she’s largely a fan of the secret Dick Grayson who lives in her head. And then she was handed the Dick Grayson book to write. It was a situation doomed to cause issues.

I’m not having a go at anyone for having “secret better version of a character who lives in your head”, we’ve all fallen foul to it on occasion. But the test case for whether letting someone who feels this way about a character write their comics is “are the fandom willing to go along with this”. Sometimes they are (please see Wally West’s backstory and supporting cast reappearing by sheer stubbornness of the fans and a handful of writers). Sometimes you’ve just pissed off your entire fandom while writing a whump storyline because you want to torture your favourite before getting to the catharsis (Devin Grayson).

Heck, if you look at what was the probable pitch for Grayson’s run up to #95, it’s…just a break the cutie whump run. Dick’s life falls apart, orchestrated by one of his nemeses, as his entire rogues gallery get the chance to attack him. We’ve all read this before. It’s the plot of Knightfall. The Maxine Michaels plot is supposed to be a Vicky Vale/Vesper Fairchild style story. We’ve seen these stories work and enjoyed them; the major difference is that they had resolutions. Devin Grayson never got to the redemption/catharsis bit of the story. I don’t know why.

The EXECUTION of the whump run however went far too hard in killing off supporting cast members and became egregious in parts (no really, why are we blowing up Haly’s Circus. And the apartment block. Why) and then, you know, #93-95 happened. But the starting idea wasn’t necessarily bad.

There’s even two issues in Grayson’s run up to #95 that I really like (#76 and #81) and I think that entirely comes down to the fact the storytelling picks up immediately when Devin Grayson is focusing on a character OTHER than Dick (Amy Rohrbach and Cass, respectively).

The issue isn’t so much “Devin Grayson is a bad writer”. The issue is that “Devin Grayson should not have been allowed to be Dick Grayson’s primary writer” and she should instead have been given books about characters she’s less obsessed with and worked out her desires to make her fave suffer by writing more fanfic.

#dc #z canon read throughs #the things Devin Grayson has done to characters

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fancyfade · 2 years

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Invisibly disabled characters? Multiple with mental illnesses. Batman and like, three Robins suffer depression. (Erased in Dick's case.) Roy's an addict. Joey and Rose...well, their disabilities were also erased. It's like WB and Dan Didio don't like disabled people. (I hate to paraphrase Kanye in 2022, but there you go.) Toss in paint-by-numbers characterization and, yeah. Some of this isn't new; I maintain that DC spent the late 90s wallpapering her being a compassionate foil to Waller.

look NGL, I do agree that DC has some canonically invisibly disabled characters. Joey is mute, you mentioned Roy being an addict, Rose has 1 eye...

but I don't really count characters who are frequently headcannoned as mentally ill, but not stated to be so in text, as invisible disability rep. even if the headcanons are getting something from somewhere, like this character is clearly traumatized and exhibiting symptoms of PTSD... if the writers don't commit to it, it's hard to tell how much is intentional VS reader extrapolation, and people ALWAYS are way more ready to diagnose their faves which is fine -- i have more headcanons about my faves too -- but that's also the fans putting in the work, not the writers.

So Bruce isn't invisibly disabled rep, Dick isn't (anymore), Tim isn't, whichever Robins you were thinking of... Tim's depression was not really medical and more related in a response to a temporary situation. Dick's depression did not get erased if it's just a fan-headcanon. his traumatic brain injury did (was the depression like? associated with that? IDK I didn't read the Ric arc)

anyway sorry if this comes off as harsh, I just do sometimes think that fans get so wrapped up in our headcanons that we forget what is actually canon. like I think that Damian, Babs, and Cass are all autistic, but Cass is the only one who has been treated as clearly neurodivergent by the text, and IIRC word of god said she was neurodivergent in rebirth, even though there are things Damian and Babs do that read as very autistic (and in Damian's case, very 'kid with C-PTSD') to me. So a writer writing him differently is boring, and I hate it, but it's not really ableist or erasing a disability, and it is not a good idea to conflate fan-headcanons no longer having as much of a potential-base due to the characters being written differently with erasure of canonically disabled characters.

#idk if that made sense #ableism #dc comics

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acourtofthought · 1 year

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Azriel is very incorrectly characterized as sad emo baby who just needs some love.

- He spent 11 years in complete darkness and silence.

- Was only allowed to see him mom for one hour every day, but how much love can his mother fit in just one hour (when she herself was going through hell)?

- Saw his mother get mistreated and was unable to do anything about it. It’s never explicitly stated, but since his father was married with 2 sons and his mother was a servant (slave?), it’s safe to assume Azriel was not the product of consensual sex.

- His brothers tormented him for fun. I can’t even imagine the trauma and fear after they burned his hands.

- At 11 he was taken from a dark, silent place and thrown into Windhaven. He was surrounded by other kids who were probably not overtly friendly. Cue in the scars and shadows… even Rhys and Cassian bullied him. Rhys’s mom is probably the only reason he survived.

- No idea when his mom was freed or if he was able to see her after going to Windhaven.

- Rhys’s father separated the three of them and kept Azriel. He was taken away from his support system and who knows what Rhys’s father had him do?

I’m not even gonna touch the Mor/Cassian situation (that should have never been allowed to go on for so long). Purposely being touchy with Mor in front of Azriel just becomes cruel at one point. She doesn’t have to come out before she’s ready, but saying she likes things the way they are is fucked up.

He needs to heal and accept that just like everyone else, he’s not all good or all bad. The trauma Azriel has isn’t gonna go away if he gets a mate, because then his self-worth will be based on what one specific person thinks of him. That just means he’ll spiral and go back to self-loathing every time they fight or have a disagreement, especially if the mate remains angry with him. That’s just not a HEA to me.

"The trauma Azriel has isn’t gonna go away if he gets a mate, because then his self-worth will be based on what one specific person thinks of him. That just means he’ll spiral and go back to self-loathing every time they fight or have a disagreement, especially if the mate remains angry with him. That’s just not a HEA to me." That's really perceptive of you and a really excellent reason why him ending up with Mor or Elain isn't the best thing for him. There are many, many other reasons why he's not well matched to either of those females but one major problem is he's now tied his self worth into the two of them. He feels like there's something wrong with him because he didn't get a bond when Rhys, Cass and Lucien did. He feels like the females are too pure and bright for he and his darkness and true self and that must be why. And him suddenly ending up with either of them when he's become so fixated on them as the thing that he wants above all else (a Mating Bond. He didn't get one with Mor so now he's wondering why he also didn't get one with Elain even though he's still not completely over Mor) would be an instant and euphoric shot of "I am worthy!" but it would only last for so long because it doesn't really fix the problem, just temporarily masks it. And the relationship would suffer (like you said) because any tiny threat to the relationship would cause Az to go berserk, even typical arguments. Az doesn't just need love, Az has love and it's still not been enough. He's decided his entire happiness revolves around a bond even though he has an entire group of people who care about him and would die for him. But his childhood definitely messed him up and definitely not in a sad emo baby who needs cuddles kind of way. Az is angry and full of rage and really, no female interested in a relationship with him should be anywhere near that until he gets it under control. I'm not a big fan of the grown man child who needs to be mothered. I want a partner who has his shit together because while his neediness / clinginess might seem cute at first, it gets old real quick when you're going about your business like a grown ass adult and your partner is still wrapped up in himself. I do think Gwyn will be the right person for him, they already read as healthier than how he behaves with Elain or Mor. But it would be nice for Az to have a personality for an entire book where he's not fixated on unattainable females. (side note, I do agree that the Mor / Cass / Az situation was a mess of epic proportions and I really wish it wouldn't have been written that way. Because Mor owes him nothing but to write her so she actively flirts with others in front of Az just to prove a point even though it's not what she wants is 😬)

#anti e/riel #anti azriel #anti azriel in terms of his current problems with women

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pacifymebby · 10 months

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what about the other way around? Apart from the times there's been girlfriends (Saskia, Cassie) are the boys sleeping with anyone else eg. fans etc. Or is it exclusively miss groupie? Does she feel threatened at all by the idea of other girls?

Hmmm so i dont really know because I've never thought about it until now, and honestly maybe thats a dynamic i should introduce?

I think Jamie would shock you because I reckon that until y/n he HADN'T cheated on Saskia and wouldn't dream of it. Like its y/n that got under his skin and corrupted him etc and thats definitely what fuels his self righteous vitriol hes always throwing at her, like the hatred he feels for her stems purely from the fact that she's the one he really blames for the end of his engagement and for the falling apart of his perfect relationship.

I think that Harri has probably had messy nights with other girls on tour, perhaps not necessarily fans because I feel like he's too grounded for the "rock n roll" lifestyle in that sense. Like i dont think he'd be doing that with fans, but definitely with girls he meets in bars and stuff whilst on tour. Hes a free spirit like y/n and so i think he's partial to a one night stand.

I can imagine y/n slipping out of Aarons bed one morning to see another girls underwear on the floor by Harris bed and smirking. Maybe when she meets the other girl she makes some passive comment like "girl you look shattered... Was he fidgetting again? You should see the bruises I've got from that boy..." like shes not exactly jealous but she is letting the other lass know not to get her hopes up.

Also this is y/n we're talking about... Shes definitely going to flirt with the girl, maybe even try to charm her way into a threesome.

I don't think she was jealous of Cassie so much because Cassie and Billys relationship was so innocent and pure... Like she wouldn't have wanted their relationship for herself... But she would have wanted Billys attention for herself? And maybe part of the reason she gets so mad at Cassie for betraying Billy is for this reason? Because she would lowkey kill to have a lad like Billy be so devoted to her, because she's been trying to get him to look at her for so long and he's only ever had eyes for Cass...

Eddie definitely shags other lassies and y/n Definitely talks to him about his conquests, definitely wingmans, definitely tells him when he could do better etc. He has used her to make another girl jealous before and its definitely worked.

She would probably get territorial over Aaron, like if another girl showed up and started being cute with him, cuddling up to him and stuff she would feel a little slighted... Shes definitely the kind of girl who wants to have her cake and eat it to you know? Like she should be able to fuck around but she wants to be the center of attention at all times and doesnt like the thought of being replaced...

It could be another reason she wont commit to anyone, like, she wants the attentions of many men so that she is never on her own and so that she knows she wont ever have to suffer the humiliation of having no one to go to. She keeps herself in high demand never letting herself have it all, because to have a lot of options for just half of something is better than to having nothing at all. Or to want everything from one person and wind up rejected...

I honestly think that if Rhys started to make eyes at another girl shit would hit the fan, y/n would go insane, like not to rhys but probably to harri, she'd be sulky, paranoid, tearful, genuinely inconsolable...

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mrleopard25 · 1 year

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Doctor Who Regeneration Series Revisited: The Eighth Regeneration

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Ohila: “She would beg your help, as we beg your help now. The universe stands on the brink. Will you let it fall? Fast or strong, wise or angry. What do you need now?” The Eighth Doctor: “Warrior.” Ohila: “Warrior?” The Eighth Doctor: “I don't suppose there's a need for a doctor any more. Make me a warrior now.” Ohila: “I took the liberty of preparing this one myself.” The Eighth Doctor: “Get out. Get out! All of you. Will it hurt?” Ohila: “Yes.” The Eighth Doctor: “Good. Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, Molly, friends, companions I've known, I salute you. And Cass, I apologize. Physician, heal thyself.”

Story (from “Night Of The Doctor):

A gunship is heavily damaged and on a collision course with a planet. The lone occupant, Cass, had seen to the evacuation of the rest of the crew but was left behind. Trying to balance sending out a distress call, debating the ship’s computer, and fighting the controls for some form of navigation, she is surprised by the Eighth Doctor’s appearance behind her.

The Doctor tries to help regain control of the ship, but soon finds that it is hopeless. Cass explains the situation and he resolves to have the two escape in his TARDIS. Upon seeing the TARDIS, Cass quickly deduces what it is and who he is. She refuses his aid and he is shocked.

Cass is suffering trauma from the ongoing Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and will not accept any help from the Doctor. He pleads with her to let him rescue her, but she seals him in the hold with the TARDIS. While he tries to convince her to open the door the ship crashes on the planet below, killing both the Doctor and Cass.

Fortunately the planet is Karn, and the Sisterhood of Karn are expecting the Doctor’s arrival. Using their Elixir of Life, they revive the Doctor but only for four minutes. Unfortunately Cass is too far gone to be saved. Ohila of the Sisterhood pleads with the Doctor to join the Time War and end it, knowing that if anyone can do so it would be him. But the Doctor refuses. He explains that he helps where he can, but will not engage in warfare.

Ohila counters that the Time War is so destructive that there won’t be much left of the universe by the time it finishes. The Doctor finally reconsiders, resolving the end the Time War by whatever means he can. Ohila brings another elixir to trigger his regeneration, but by design it will allow him to become a warrior. Taking the elixir he regenerates painfully. Putting on Cass’s baldric, he denounces his name of the Doctor and chooses to be the Warrior, setting off to go join Gallifrey and defeat the Daleks.

Production:

Since the relaunch of the series in 2005 there was a good deal of fan speculation as to what happened to the Eighth Doctor. The general consensus, though unconfirmed until the Tenth Doctor’s run, was that he had regenerated at some point into the Ninth Doctor, and fairly recently before the series premier of “Rose”. Once we began to learn more during the Ninth Doctor’s run about the Time War, it seemed to be fairly obvious that it was the Eighth Doctor who had fought in the war and that he had regenerated into the Ninth right at the end.

This assumption began to inform the writing of the series. In episodes like “Human Nature” and “The Next Doctor”, even up to “The Eleventh Hour”, any flashbacks or references would show the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth with nothing in between. Coming up to the 50th anniversary of the show in 2013 during the Eleventh Doctor’s run, showrunner Steven Moffat began conceiving a story that would honor the legacy of the show and finally fill in the history of the Time War.

There was a problem though. During the writing of the script, the producers were able to secure Matt Smith (as the Eleventh Doctor), David Tennant (as the Tenth Doctor), but not Christopher Eccleston (as the Ninth Doctor). Eccleston gave it serious consideration when approached and at one point I heard that he had requested that one of the directors from his tenure be brought back to direct as a condition.... but I can’t find any reference to that (which is why I’m not sure which director it was he wanted - Joe Ahearne maybe?). From all that I can see in various articles, Eccleston was still feeling slighted with how he was treated during and after his stint on the show by the production team. He even felt that his own feelings were being mischaracterized.

So ultimately he declined. This meant massive rewrites were needed with less than a few months to pull it all together. For the May 2013 broadcast of the last episode of Series 7, “The Name Of The Doctor”, the last shot of the episode features an appearance of an incarnation of the Doctor never seen before buried deep in the Eleventh Doctor’s mind: The War Doctor. Fan speculation went nuts.

To lead into “The Day Of The Doctor”, the 50th anniversary story, Moffat and the rest of the production company decided to also release two mini-episodes to whet the appetite of the fans: “The Last Day”, which takes place on Gallifrey and does not feature the Doctor, and “The Night Of The Doctor”. Paul McGann was secretly recruited to reprise his role as the Eighth Doctor to explain the Doctor’s involvement in the Time War and who the War Doctor was.

The short mini-episode aired on November 14, 2013, online and just over a week away from the 50th anniversary special. All told, it is about six and a half minutes, and in that time it accomplishes everything the production team hoped. Fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with many praising McGann’s return to the role after 17 years (televised anyway; he had been doing the audio dramas for quite a few years). McGann enjoyed the short as well and even noted that the version of the costume he wore in it was by far his favorite.

As far as the regeneration goes, it is completely in line with the way regenerations are shown since the relaunch of the series with a yellow glow radiating outwards during a video mix. Except that since John Hurt was already quite elderly and the appearance of the War Doctor is to him as a younger man, we cut away from seeing him directly. Instead we get his face reflected in a surface, de-aged through CGI. Although I’ll mention this in future articles, I should note that when the show relaunched in 2005 there was a deliberate choice to have the regenerations be consistent in terms of effects. So we’ll see some variation of this effect each time going forward.

Analysis:

I remember when this special aired quite distinctly (and I’m also not ready to talk about how that was almost 10 years ago). I was at my Mom’s apartment just surfing the web when I saw several people sharing the video on Facebook. I called my brother over to show him and we began watching it. Within a minute or so, my stepfather couldn’t believe his ears at the voice of Paul McGann reprising the role of the Doctor and came rushing over. So we restarted the video and away we went.

There was no indication this was coming, really. I had been keeping close tabs on the news of the series and the releases, and I was completely blindsided. And that was by design, so I have to give hearty props to Moffat and his team. It would also have been so tempting to indulge and make a full length episode, but they showed remarkable restraint by ensuring that this was just supplementary material. You didn’t need to see it to watch the upcoming special, but it was a treat for Whovians to enjoy (and fill in some plot points).

The story itself is fairly bare bones, which it should be, and the focus is all on continuity. So let’s look at that. The first and most tangible link to the classic series is the setting of Karn. It has only been seen once before, and that was with the Fourth Doctor story “The Brain of Morbius”. Morbius was a Time Lord criminal who was basically vivisected by the Time Lords as punishment. A mad scientist and one of his disciples decided to try to revive Morbius by building him a new body and the Sisterhood of Karn have command over life and death (mostly anyway). It’s a very rich story on its own with continuity jampacked into it.

More on Karn. The planet was said to be “only a few billion miles from Gallifrey” in “The Brain of Morbius” which has led many to believe that it’s in the same system as Gallifrey. This would make sense, as the Time Lords would often seek out the Sisterhood’s aid for regeneration difficulties. The Sisterhood is very well-versed in time as well and would be the most logical choice to serve as observers to the Time War. The Sisterhood also owe the Doctor a tremendous debt of gratitude for not only helping them against the machinations of Morbius, but also in reigniting their Sacred Flame (although it was a silly solution).

Now what had the Eighth Doctor been up to this entire time? Well look no further than the Big Finish audio dramas! Because before the Doctor drinks the regeneration potion, he salutes his companions from the audio dramas by name. So this seems to canonize those dramas. Since the air date of this episode, further audio dramas from this time have been produced.

Now hold up.... I can already hear some of you getting riled up and cracking your knuckles for a keyboard war. “Canon doesn’t matter in Doctor Who!” you may be ready to say. And this is SUPER complicated, so I’ll say both yes and no. The short answer is that no single timeline will definitively exist, BUT the effects from those timelines AFFECT and INFORM the actions of the Doctor - so they are STILL relevant. The best example off-hand is from “The Curse Of Fenric”. Fenric recruits the Ancient Onem a haemovore from an alternate Earth where pollution and destruction have reduced the planet to a wasteland. This never came to pass but the Doctor had visited (and perhaps prevented) the time line and Fenric was able to access it. Anyway I think I’ll write an article about Doctor Who canon after this regeneration series. You may think it’s a waste of time but fans get really heated about it, and a little unnecessarily defensive.

On that note I do think it’s worth mentioning the story from the novels, because not only does it inform some aspects of the Time War but it also dodges some of the canon arguments. All through out the Eight Doctor’s travels, he was noticing the sudden appearance of paradoxes and traps laid out for him, in such a devious manner that it was undoubtedly from an enemy he had never before faced. Soon the enemy is revealed as the Faction Paradox; a segment of Time Lord society who had decided on anarchy and felt the Time Lord order must be eradicated. A brutal civil war ensued, and the Doctor came face-to-face with their leader, Grandfather Paradox, who was the embodiment of a paradox (and may be an alternate version of himself). It was revealed that he had travelled back in time and murdered his grandfather, and the resulting paradox had corrupted him entirely.

It is revealed in the last novel of the Eighth Doctor series, “The Gallifrey Chronicles” that during the civil war between the Time Lords and the Faction Paradox, the Doctor spearheaded the defense. In a moment of desperation, when it seemed all of creation was on the point of destruction, the Doctor destroyed the Faction entirely but at the expense of annihilating Gallifrey as well. The Doctor, as the lone survivor, had uploaded the Matrix into his mind to save what was left of Time Lord society. However the process gave him selective amnesia, which burdened him through the rest of the novels. Another Time Lord in exile, Marnal, builds a visualiser to witness the past and future events surrounding the Doctor and Gallifrey, and decides he must kill the Doctor as punishment. While watching through the future events, he notices several time streams stemming from the Eighth Doctor, with several alternate Ninth forms.

Now if the Faction Paradox have masterminded paradoxes and meddled directly in the Eighth Doctor’s life, we can easily say that the original time line was the audio drama line and that the novel line is an alternate time stream. If Marnal saw the Time Lords restored, it’s possible that the Faction Paradox were erased from existence in the future and the original time line was restored. This also helps explain the official BBC drama “Scream of the Shalka” released in 2003 - it was (up to that point) an official continuation of the series with a new Ninth Doctor played by Richard E. Grant. Now with this Faction Paradox meddling that story would be from a timeline where the Time War never happened, as the Doctor is on a (begrudging) assignment from the Time Lords.

It’s a lot to take in, I know, so suffice to say if you want to ignore the novels that might reduce some of the headache. And then you can ignore “Scream Of The Shalka” too. And there is some question as to how the Faction Paradox war would then lead into the Time War... maybe one of the sides invoked the Daleks as a weapon? Who knows. With the Faction Paradox, the Time Lords, AND the Daleks all constantly rewriting history, anything could have happened.

And Another Thing...

It seems strange to me that the Daleks never destroyed Karn.

Ohila: “Is it done?” The War Doctor: “Doctor no more.”

#doctor who #Eighth Doctor #war doctor #john hurt #TARDIS #Regeneration #review #the night of the doctor #Paul McGann

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