#These are random impressions (fandom) Batman gives me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

black-streak · 4 years

Text

Waiting for the Worms - Run like Hell

Part 21

Turns out, I was so put off by my lack of writing over the last week or so and annoyed at my sickness that I decided to shove through this chapter as well. Took me so much less time to write than usual.

I only have... Two more chapters planned out for this fic and I'm pretty sure that'll be the end of this. Maybe snippets that didn't fit the story line or the likes will come after, but the official end is almost upon us.

CLOSED LIST of the following dedicated readers: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @emjrabbitwolf @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Old habits die hard when you try for cold turkey. Jason and the team knew that for a fact. It's why they ended up switching up miraculouses and patrolling random cities on intervals. It also helped in that it made their existence more world surfacing. Random sightings across a global scale of humanesque animal figures prowling the nights, taking out petty crooks and villains alike. Lurking in shadows and watching the nightlife unfold below them. Guardians to all. One miraculous never appeared with the same figure in one city for more than a few nights, not since Paris.

No one needed to know it was just their group becoming restless from inactivity.

For that same reason, it came second nature to switch hands and even travel to collect different kwamis that night for a patrol around the Gotham rooftops. Not a one of them commented on the assassin or little bird that followed them from a mile off. Marinette and Tim had the right to their own restlessness and surely Tim wished to study their team further. To determine how they worked together, their dynamic, their morals.

Damian had pitched a fit until Mari made him promise to stay home so as to keep his existence unknown to the Bat, allowing him to stay watch over the remaining kwamis for the night. The boy had settled down right away and curled up on the couch with his pocket sized pets.

Occasionally the two behind them would stop a little ways off, the assassin pointing out their figures as they made specific choices or movements and explaining how it worked, how they made the decision, and how to replicate it. The sheer trust she instilled in her bird companion threw them all for a loop, but they refused to question her in this, especially in front of him.

Other times, he stopped her to point out different aspects of the city that had changed or ask an opinion of her. They couldn't help but wonder if the boy knew they all had enhanced senses in this form and knew every word that came from their lips. If he did, he made the choice to allow them to hear, obviously trained enough to keep out of even animal hearing ranges if need be. Otherwise, he thought them far away enough or simply didn't care if they could. Jason hoped he knew, hoped Mari informed the bird and allowed him the choice. It was always a toss up on if she felt the need to be open and honest or to deceive those around her. Normally, Jason could tell, but not quite from this distance.

The comm unit Marinette picked up from Babs picked up halfway through their night, "B's in your route," Oracle informed.

"Any chance you can derail him?" Mari asked, as Jason turned to stare back at the twitching form of Robin. Nothing else gave him away, the face emotionless and stance as relaxed as a vigilantes could afford, except the slight twitch at the words being spoke into the two's ears.

"Not a chance. He's caught sight of a curly tailed figure in pink ahead."

Chloe.

"He's likely to run in to the bunch then. We'll split from here and make our way around," Mari responded as the bird took a step closer to her, hand reaching for his own ear.

"He's livid, isn't he?"

"Beyond so."

"Presumptuous over my disappearance?"

"Barely took note until a few nights ago. Now under the impression they stole you to get back at him."

Jason watched as the kid suppressed a flinch and ground his jaw instead, "He thought I went to the titans, didn't he?"

"Yup. Only made his second theory after a check in with them revealed you never came by. You know, for the world's supposed greatest detective, he refuses to use even a quarter of his brain towards people he claims to care about."

"When has he ever claimed to care about me?"

"Touche," the comm went quiet again as the two started in another direction and Jason began to turn towards where he knew Chloe would run into the man soon enough.

"Shit!" He whipped back around at Oracle's curse.

"He's caught sight of you, Robin. Sorry Tim, you've got to make your choice now, he's headed your way," she let off a stream of curses as everyone froze for a moment before everything went into motion once more.

Jason directed his team to intercept as the assassin gestured the bird forward, allowing him to run ahead of her away from Batman as the others took on the Bat, attempting to distract the man from his goal.

He hated the idea of forcing Tim into facing off with Bruce at this point. He deserved the time to make his mind up first. That however seemed to be off the table as the bat evaded them all as best he could, taking advantage of their using miraculous they were less familiar with to escape and continue his pursuit of the red, green, and yellow suit running away from the scene. At his juncture, all he could do was keep on the man's cape, following him leap for leap towards the two getaways.

The two were lithe and agile, keeping pace together as they bounded from rooftop to rooftop, slipping around corners and scurrying up walls with not a moment to spare as the Bat's size prevented him from making the same moves.

Robin would yank her down side alleys and up hidden ramps he left about the city as she guided him through the less savory parts of town that she grew up with Jason in, knowing hidden pathways and spaces too small and unknown for the bulk of the larger pursuants to follow, losing distance while trying to relocate the two without slowing down. Sure, Jason knew those paths as well as she did, but there was no way he would give that away, forcing the man to continue moving to evade him, even without a clear direction of which way they went.

At one point, Batman landed a hair too close, hand snagging into the cape of Robin's uniform. It was sheer luck on all of their parts that his companion noticed a second earlier and unclasped the damned thing a moment before, the cape coming loose in the man's hand right above a hundred foot drop, fueling the anger in Jason's blood at the blatant disregard for the boy's safety. He felt his eyes tilt green, but fought off the urge, forcing his focus on keeping up with the three to ensure the man never caught up with the two.

They swerved off path and Jason wished he could say he realized what was happening, but unfortunately couldn't as they landed directly in the path of the two, cutting them off from their escape.

Robin lurched back into the Assassin's chest, where she steadied him before offering for him to hide behind her despite the similarity in stature not offering much in the way of coverage. Jason gave props for the way Robin shook his head and stood firmly in place, once more emotionless. Not guilty as the first Robin might've been, nor defiant as he would've. Simply closed off in a glacier ice in contrast to Batman's thunderous storm.

"Robin. You look well," the bats eyes narrowed.

"Well thank you, I appreciate your noticing," he responded in the clipped tone of the backhanded socialites he was raised around, knowing how it irritated Bruce when the sarcasm was laced with sincerity.

"With such health, I must wonder why you've yet to return," Batman hedged, starting to put together the pieces.

"Simply observing all my options as I was advised. Would hate to miss out on a better opportunity due to negligence."

The man growled, hearing the accusation for what it was. Jason moved closer behind him, ready to intervene if needed. The figure behind Tim closed in as well, resting a careful hand on the boy's back. The man before them only seemed to tense up at this, lurching forward, only for the way to be blocked.

"Oh hey, Birdy. Looks like you have some interesting company here, mind introducing me?" Nightwing casually strolled over to Robin, draping his arm across smaller shoulders and leading him away, smiling at the assassin, eyes cutting to Batman in a challenge, "I'm sure the Bat won't mind seeing himself out so I can catch up with my baby brothers."

The man tensed up, taking in their figures, three of which he trained himself, another that received the same, if not more training than him. Then glancing up to the four dark figures watching from further up, ready to descend at a moment's notice. Looking back to his eldest, his scowl deepened, but he nodded and took off from the group.

Jason couldn't help but wonder if it were due to the likelihood of his loss or just not thinking Tim worth the effort. As much as the latter pissed him off, he couldn't help but be glad for the lack of a fight. He's not sure how long he could hold off the pit madness had it come to blows.

As soon as the Bat fell out of range, Robin looked up towards Nightwing, "You're here as well?"

"Oracle sent me in. I think we have some catching up to do," he smiled at the boy, then looked up towards Jason as though to include him in his words.

Marinette chose this moment to speak up from under her guise, "Oh hey, Richard. Fancy seeing you here."

#jasonette #maribat #ml x dc #WFTW #part 21 #two chapters left #has it really been two and a half months since i started this?#woah

338 notes · View notes

red-winters · 4 years

Text

*Batfam fic-recs

*Some are Tim Drake Centric

**Some links are not working in mobile (and ONLY mobile) for some reason? And some titles that were bolded in the original post are ALSO not displaying on mobile correctly. Idk what to do about that, but you can still look up the fic, I guess.

The Bat’s Crest - livierambles

Note: I will always keep recommending this fic. It’s epic, thrilling, and hilarious and sometimes angsty. Also, everyone is confused, including the ones doing the confusing. Maybe especially the ones doing the confusing. Also, some Tim and Damian bonding, which is always nice.

Summary: Tragedy strikes the hero community when Bruce Wayne commits a crime so heinous even the best start asking for blood. However, as the heroes try to recover from the hit and carry out justice for their friends, a random assortment of people start acting oddly, including the current Speedy Tim Drake, a child hostage in Gotham, and a young man from an unremarkable circus amongst others. All of them seem intent on saving Bruce Wayne from the grasp of the Justice League for no apparent reason, going as far as betraying their previous allegiances.

Unknown to the Justice League, these people are equally confused. Clearly they're stuck in another dimension, but how do they get back? How did they even get here? Who else is stuck in this world? And how long will Tim's patience last? Back home, the Bat was a planetary symbol that struck fear in the hearts of criminals. In this new world, it has no meaning, save for the handful of stranded souls.

In the Shadows - Kieron_ODuibhir

(shortened) Summary:

“I’m not like you.”

The cowl still looked like something he was wearing, but Clark knew it was not. It flexed like skin when Batman narrowed his blank white eyes and said, “I can see you know that.”

Chirp - AmariT

Summary: Every piece of the signal Tim unlocked revealed more locks, and by the time he broke through the last one, he was already mentally rehearsing his many upcoming talk show appearances. 'Yes,' he told the interviewer, 'it was difficult for me, a ten-year-old genius, to break open the worldwide alien conspiracy. That's why it took a whole hour.'

When the crackling audio started, he expected some weird alien language. Maybe squawks and high-pitched squeals mixed with musical woofs. Maybe they wouldn't talk at all, and images would beam directly into his mind. Maybe they'd talk in practiced English with a Midwestern drawl like their other resident alien.

Instead he heard a low, guttural voice growling out of his computer speakers. "Robin," it said. "Are you in position?"

A Better Cage - Mangaluva

Note: I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see a Young Justice Crossover with the Justice Lords (Earth-50) from the animated Justice League series, which is near and dear to my heart. I admit I haven’t really had much time to hunker down and read this, but even skimming, it’s an intriguing piece of work. Also, Justice Lords.

Summary: Wally's grateful to have woken up at all, really. He just doesn't know what to make of the world he's woken up in. At least they want to find a way to his world as much as he does, if not exactly for the same reasons...

Common People - AmariT

Note: The Bat boys are all Bruce’s blood sons, but it still feels very much like a found family. I haven’t really read everything in this series, but I feel the author has an amazing grip on all the characters. Lovely and heartwarming.

Summary: His whole life, Jason’s mom had told him his dad was Bruce Wayne, but he’d never been dumb enough to actually believe it. They lived in a rundown, one-room apartment in the worst part of town, and in every single picture he’d ever seen of that rich bastard he was wearing a suit or sipping champagne worth more than everything they’d ever owned.

But if he wasn’t Bruce Wayne’s kid, then what the hell was he doing sitting outside the man’s office in Wayne Towers?

Red Robin and the Hood - momoejaku

Note: Haven’t read this in a while, but it made an impression. Though it’s a fic set during the Red Robin arc, it very much is about both Tim and Jason. Plus, it fleshes out the Pru and Z a bit more, too.

Summary: Bruce Wayne is dead. Superman brought back his body, and the family mourned him, holding a quiet funeral in secret so that the legacy of Batman could live on. But not everyone has been able to put him to rest.

Reeling from the loss of Bruce, his identity as Robin and his trust in his family, Tim Drake sets out on a personal quest that will take him across the world to prove what he knows in his heart: that Bruce Wayne is alive.

Though intending to make his way alone, Tim reluctantly accepts help from his predecessor, Jason Todd, who knows from personal experience that death is not always as final as it seems.

Together, they are Red Robin and the Hood.

Liminal Spaces - Calamityjim

Note: Skimmed this only since I’ve been busy, BUT it does look well-written, and I’m always a sucker for alternate dimension/dimension travel intervention-type of fix-its. It’s a very specific trope.

Summary:

Bruce's habit of collecting strays is not limited by dimension.

When Young Justice Batman comes across an angsty, seemingly abandoned by his Batman Tim Drake, he decides to step up to the plate and parent the crap out of him.

Little Bird’s Vengeance - KatHarkness-Katara

Note: Crossover with Avengers. Awesome fic with Tim and Jason and some Outsider POV (via the Avengers) of these dimensional stragglers. I think Tim’s team shows up in the later chapters, too. If you’re reading on mobile, it’s still very much worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version.

Summary: Why is life never simple? Red Robin's ended up worlds away from home once again, and now what's he to do? What do the Avengers want from him; do SHIELD have another agenda; and is there any way back? Pre-New 52. No slash. Rated for inevitable language/violent themes.

A Displaced Red Robin - dragonprincess1988

Note: Worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version. Well-written fic! EMOTIONS! I love them. Younger Dick Grayson is adorable, Tim is a competent fixer-upper for other people but not so much himself. He’s kind of angsty and making YJ Dick want to keep him (and YJ Bruce, too, if you read between the lines). On the plus side, seems like he’s making good friends with Young Justice Roy. This fic was written before certain episodes of YJ came out, though, and the fic reflects/will continue to reflect that. Still, I give it five stars.

Author’s Summary: Tim gets transported to the cartoon Young Justice world, and he's not sure he knows how to deal with it. Attention: If you want to know about Artemis or people from Tim's world the final note on my profile is for you. Also, a special thank you to angel-gidget over at Tumblr, who made the wonderful cover art for this story.

The Till-then From the Ever Since - Keiron O_Duibhir

Note: Fandom classic. Definitely a must-read for Batfam fans, in my humble opinion.

Summary: It began, or seemed to begin, with Jason.

Usually that would have meant something in the order of fire and explosion and probably at least one gunshot wound, but for once (as Tim said, sourly), it wasn't actually Jason's fault.

The Wayne Family Ghost - pupeez4eva

Note: Please read this. Especially if you’re sad or anxious or just have time. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s my go-to cheer-up fic. Absolutely hysterical.

Summary: In which Bruce realizes that having a legally dead son, who regularly hangs around the family, might be slightly problematic.

Bloodline - chibi_nightowl

Note: Complicated family dynamics, this time centering around Tim, Selina, Bruce and, surprisingly, Damian. Jason and Dick make an appearance as supportive big bros, too. It works. Take a read, it isn’t that long.

Summary:

“Mr. Drake, I can’t think of a better way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. This file is for your first adoption. By the Drakes.”

Tim blinked. “My what?”

“You were adopted as a newborn by Jack and Janet Drake.”

“Excuse me, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Talon!Tim AU Series by keeptogethernow

Note: Found family, from a different angle. Cool fic and well-written.

Summary of Tso’ape Mumbichi, first in the series: Ten years ago, two people made a deal with the devil--unlimited funds in exchange for their child. And now it's time to pay up. But there's no way to ensure that the child will cooperate.

Shutterbug Series by goldkirk

Note: Exactly what it says on the tin! Found family.

Summary:

Tim Drake is thirteen, runs the famous BatWatch blog that has spiraled hilariously out of control, has absentee parents that suit his purposes just fine, is training himself to run the streets at night, and is doing absolutely peachy, thank you.

Alfred and Jason disagree, and get Dick and Bruce involved in figuring out their weird next door neighbor kid’s life. Everything goes uphill from there.

Thursday’s Child - anthalogia

Note: Well-written and has found family and Tiny!Tim? Automatic win.

Summary:

He’s not the first child with nowhere else to go that Bruce Wayne has taken in. Dick Grayson was the first and the most high-profile – because no one would have thought Bruce Wayne was interested in ever raising a child, let alone the orphaned son of circus performers – but Jason was maybe just as much of a shock to society for being a street kid who came out of seemingly nowhere. Tim Drake is ordinary by comparison – his parents died in a plane accident. He can’t think of anything very special about him except that he met Bruce a few times when his parents hosted parties to keep in touch with Gotham society.

Or, tiny Tim Drake is adopted by the Waynes a little earlier than scheduled.

We’re Not Driving (How did we get here?) - TimTheToaster

Note: Short and sweet, a little angsty, and then very sweet.

Summary:

Tim stared at his phone, as if that would change what was on the screen.

Dick Grayson @FlyingDGrayson

It took some doing, and in some cases a little blackmail, but we've finally got the whole family together for a movie night! #WayneManor #movienight #familytime #schedulingisanightmare

15 minutes ago

Take It Back Now Y’all - TimTheToaster

Note: And Tiny!Jason has made his appearance. Also, Tim, I am begging you to please take care of yourself—ah, Bruce has made his appearance. Interesting. Also, I gotta say this author is good.

Summary:

There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.

Not possible.

Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.

(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)

Takes a Little Time, Takes a Lotta Twine (To Get Us Back Together) - TimTheToaster

Note: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, beginning of reconciliation, and brotherhood. A satisfying, cathartic moment during the Red Robin arc to soothe your heart.

Summary:

Tim was in Gotham.

Tim had pretty specifically been avoiding thinking about Dick as much as possible for the last few weeks.

For the last year, really. No need to open that can of carnivorous worms.

Dick had other plans.

Everybody’s Heard (Bird is the Word) - TimTheToaster

Red Robin Era ANGST, but like, deliciously well-written. Also, protective Dad Bruce is always epic. Light bashing of Green Arrow and BC, though. But considering the situation (in this fic), kind of warranted.

Summary:

5 times Batman heard other heroes talking about his wayward brother,

And 1 time they were talking about his son.

A Choice to Make - scorbusfics

Note: fresh and interesting premise! Cool world building, too.

Summary: They have to choose. Dick and Bruce have to choose one person each to save, and one to disappear through the door.

“Send one of us,” Dick says fiercely, not for the first time. His face is dark and angry and desperate, eyes flicking from brother to brother. “Send one of us instead. I won’t choose.”

“Neither will I,” Bruce says.

But Tim knows.

Secret Places - RenaRoo

It’s ANGST, but the author knows how to use it well. Also, Jason’s line at the end killed me. Damn.

Summary: Tim Drake goes missing. The search to find him begins.

#fic recs #batfam #tim drake fic rec #batfam fic rec

142 notes · View notes

gemstoneconstellations · 4 years

Note

I love your fanfics! And I was wondering do you have any tips for original fanfic writing or just writing fics in general?

wow this actually ended up a lot longer than i thought it would, but here we go!

Original fanfics, hmmmmmm....

What I generally do is base things off of my own personal experience. Like all my iida fics are stuff that happened between me and my husband before we got married. Can’t help falling in love fic with bakugo, that was a previous relationship i had (which there is more to that story). Caught with todoroki..... thats how i got out of a ticket with a cop and how i learned that when i half check someone out and half start thinking about what i would do to that fine man in uniform (curse my uniform kink) that i glare/make a suspicious face. and when he confronted me about what i was doing, ready to write some kind of ticket for whatever i was doing wrong, i was so embarrassed that i blurted out that i found him very attractive and what exactly was on my mind and how i wanted to take that uniform off him.... that has happened with a emt too, i missed the green light looking at his bulging biceps after he rolled up his sleeves to write on a clip board.... he waved and i proceeded to squat in my seat and slam my face against the stirring wheel. escape artist cat was actually a dream i had, someone was taking off my cat’s pretty ribbon collars and putting ugly ones on her and i woke up sooooo mad, but i turned that dream into a romance story (reality kuiper was taking her collars off herself cause she was a brat) Stories about yourself, no matter how small you think it is actually has great potential to become a fic.

its also okay to borrow ideas from other forms of media. I do. example, Silk Maiden, based off of an old batman episode from the early 2000s. its completely okay to do that. I’m not saying copy and paste the exact scenes. Just take the premises and then change it. some examples, like the movie Brave is the Scottish version of Aladdin. the princess who wants to be free and live her life beyond her princess duties needs to get married and she is not having it and wants to change the rules and runs away to find something new. premise is the same but how the story is told is different, one denies every prince and find her own prince in the streets of her kingdom and the other finds a cake that turns her mom into a bear that helps them understand each other and appreciate each other more. a weeb example is isekais. There are sooooo many isekais. japan, Korea, and china are all mass producing isekais right now. the premises are all the same, someone from one world now in another world primarily thanks to magical truck-kun who is probably could be branded as a mass serial killer at this point. I read a lot and i love korean isekai romance novels. I have read an isekai where the character was a villain who then was reincarnated with the memories of her villainous previous life who decided to live her new life by repenting by helping others but guess what? truck-kun came in the form of a airplane crash and she wakes up again in her first life’s preteen body before she became a villain. I’m reading an isekai isekai, author of an isekai met truck-kun and woke up inside the body of one of her characters in her isekai novel. all the same premise but told in a different way. i want to write an isekai for bnha! take a premise and write what you wanted to see happen between those characters if they were in that situation.

same for some fanfics, like you read a fanfic and you like the story that you read but you wished for something more. You like the idea but you wished that it went in this direction or you wanted different types of interaction, its okay to write your own fic with the same premises. i’ve done that. (side note: but if you are gonna base off of it where a lot of the stuff is the same the give the proper credit where it deserves. no stealing peoples hard work) thats what fanfic was originally made for, fans wanted something more from their favorite works or wants something different (Thank you star trek fandom who started all this). I’ve read a lot of villain deku fics and i was craving a specific type of villain fic where “he really isnt a villain but is one but there is a reason why hes being evil cause it is for the greater good cause of deku’s savior complex and border line martyr complex he’s had since he was a child” with a side of “hero/villain romance”, “surprise quirk” and “badass” and a healthy scoop of “bakugo becomes a better person on his own without deku at UA through the power of friendship cause he has that potential without deku’s constant interference”. no one had what i wanted, so i started writing it myself.

also dont worry about being original. you can write a common idea that everyone sees a thousand times a day, like isekai, and people will love it. focus on how you are telling your story, dont put so much effort in being different. actually, common or typical tropes/ideas help make the story more relatable. two books can be equally as good but one person can like book A over book B because they felt more connected to the characters in it. they could relate to the emotions that were being conveyed.

now writing tips....hmmmmm well not everything works for everyone but this is what i do

I write notes down, lots of them. I have notebooks full of notes for my fics. some people can just sit there and start writing, but i like notes to keep me on track and remind me of stuff i wanted to add. Writing it down makes it easier not to forget, cause you are just lying to yourself if you think you’ll remember the idea for later. i got dialogue, scenes, plots, random quirk ideas, diagrams, (12) oc profiles, outlines, lists, and a event idea that i have that i want to do some day, all in my notebook. If you are going to write a long fic i strongly encourage that you do this. Outlines are your friend, they are bones of the story Ex:

Hero By Another Name original outline:

meet at a fire, firefighter impresses kiri who will later seek her out

kiri is becoming popular and wants to share the fame

they bond some how(?)

firefighter kiri, kirishima needs to wear a firefighter uniform

firefighter turns out to be a mega fan of red riot

photoshoot

kirishima finds out shes a nerd and is cool with it

firefighter is now popular

camping with baku or bakusquad?

miscommunication

kirishima does a big confession

I always start off with the key things i want for sure to happen. then i start adding to it. I write out the scene i definitely want to see or i can see clearly in my head. i just keep adding to it till its at least three pages long of just outline that has some images, random dialogue i want someone to say or little summaries of the scene i want.

its okay to jump around when you write. there are some parts that you know you need in a story to help it move a long but it can be boring. so i write one scene that i want to happen next and then i think of what needs to happen to get to that point. like how in hero another name where kirishima shows up unannounced to her apartment and finds out she hoards all his hero merch while not wearing pants. how do you make that not sound creepy and have kirishima be okay with it? by adding bits of how much of a fan she is through out the story! when they first have dinner together i threw in that red riot shirt to help break the ice and that he would then know that she was a big enough fan to buy his merch and that she admires him and that he is an inspiration for her. then later adding that interview where she talks about how she became his fan shows that she has years of dedication to him as a hero. so when he sees all the merch she has, it would make sense to him that she had all of that and not go “huh, will i be able to leave this place if i enter?”

if you dont know it, look it up. research. i wrote a fic before where the reader was pregnant the entire time, i started at two months to birth. I knew nothing about pregnancy on how it can affect your daily life and what it feels like beyond what health class and child development class taught me. So i looked it up. there is seriously so much that doctors look for during those many ultrasounds cause there are so many things that can affect your health and the baby’s and did you know there is pregnancy diabetes? you can become diabetic only during pregnancy, like after you give birth it can go away or stay, the human body is just tripy. but thanks to that research, people who have had children before left comments going “yessss, i remember feeling that” or “god, this was my sister in this scene, it sucks”. Its that relatability i mentioned before that really helps and it makes the story more believable.

(this is just my personal opinion mainly here feel free to ignore) when it comes to smut, write what you know and not what you fantasize about. im not calling anyone out but i can tell from how someone writes sex that they never had it and they are most likely younger than me. i’ve experimented a lot in my 25 years of life and i find myself going “oh sweetie, thats not how the vagina/anus works” when i read fics sometimes. there are guides online that are very informative and tell you what the feelings are like that you would expect. dont rely on porn too much on how sex works physically, maybe for dialogue. (i think of porn as just live action fanfics for the human mating ritual fandom). its okay to use other smuts as reference tools as well, especially if you dont know anything of the bdsm lifestyle.

beta readers help a lot. if you are unsure of ideas that you have, talk it out with a friend. I sometimes do this for myself or help others with their fics. its actually a lot of fun with a group of people where you just keep shooting off ideas together about stuff and just go all out fangirlling to the point you are rolling on the ground smiling. this can help with writers block or motivate you to keep writing. also having another pair of eyes to look at your fics, not just for corrections but for input on the story can help make it better. someone can see things from a different angle and point stuff out to you, plot holes or things that you can add.

im not sure what else to say other than stuff like format and spacing. sometimes i see people who write too long of paragraphs or there is no clear separation between them. thats killer on the eyes and makes me not want to read at all cause all i see is this wall of text thats just overwhelming. i want to call who ever formatted textbooks cause thats how they do it and it makes it so hard to concentrate on reading and absorbing the info. if i see fics with no clear breaks or long running paragraphs, i usually give up half way cause i just cant do it. its hard to keep track where you are reading and you start trying to focus on it too much that the story is just lost on me. it is hard on people like me who have dyslexia (who ever called it that is just cruel to people who have it cause you can never spell it without spell check and pronouncing it is just ugggh)

i hope this helps

#my weebs

16 notes · View notes

rael-rider · 3 years

Note

For the (predictable) question in the Ask meme, I shall say...New Warriors in 001 (Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:).

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Richard Rider (I’m predictable) but I love almost all the New Warriors.

Least Favorite character: Hindsight Lad, honestly I can’t make myself like him. I even felt bad for Andrew Chord when he had to betray the team but Hindsight Lad? Fuck him.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Rich and Nita, Vance and Angelica (first volume only, writers kind of ruined it later on), Vance and Kaine, Silhouette and Dwayne, I was liking Robbie and Aracely but it didn’t go anywhere. Also, this is more than five, but I could definitely see Nita and Angelica as well as Vance and Robbie.

Character I find most attractive: This is a hard one because the original New Warriors (and I include Silhouette) are all attractive.

Character I would marry: Namorita, definitely Nita.

Character I would be best friends with: Angelica and Silhouette

a random thought:

An unpopular opinion: New Warriors deserve love and respect seems to be an unpopular opinion with most of Marvel. Within the New Warriors fandom tho? I don’t think I have one, I guess I don’t care much for the NW stuff outside the first volume and Yost’s run. Is that unpopular? I don’t know

My Canon OTP: Rich and Nita. Honestly those two had chemistry with most of the team but I just loved their relationship.

My Non-canon OTP: I don’t think I have one.

Most Badass Character: Dwayne Taylor. This guy has no powers and a skateboard and yet he kicks so much ass that both the Punisher and Maestro were worried that this man with sick skating skills was going to take them down. He’s Batman but more badass since Bruce has to keep a scary image as Batman but Dwayne doesn’t give a shit what you think of him and people often underestimate him because he skates.

Most Epic Villain: Mad Thinker because he ended up having a soft spot for the Warriors and in his own way cared for them which made me like him (and if it was up to me I would have a story where he goes and kidnaps all of the Warriors for the purpose of just having a nice chat to see how they’re doing, he cares). I mean he’s still a villain and does villain things but he likes the Warriors and anyone who likes the Warriors is Epic.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Nita and Johnny Storm, technically happened outside the New Warriors but I couldn’t get into it and them getting together was just “We’re both famous”. Had no chemistry. I think everything that involves Hindsight Lad I would hate.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): One character? They were all screwed over past vol. 1 I think only Rich managed to save himself from Civil War thanks to Annihilation and managed to escape a lot of the shit the other Warriors still get from that event *cough* Outlawed*cough*.

Favourite Friendship: The original Warriors have the best friendship all together I like them all. I guess I was finding myself thinking about Dwayne and Rich’s friendship and how unique it is in Rich’s life. It has some echoes of Batman and Superman and the importance of trusting people and getting to know them past first impressions. Dwayne is secretive and rough around the edges which drives someone like Rich bonkers. Plus Dwayne did risk Rich’s life when they met and it took Rich awhile to forgive him but after Starlost Saga, the stuff with the Sphinx, and them being the people they are today, I think Dwayne could ask Rich to do something dangerous and be semi secretive about it and Rich would know there’s a good reason for it. I could continue talking about them more but I’m making this too long already.

Character I most identify with: Speedball was me when I was a kid, the stuff with his parents and his loneliness kind of hit home except I wasn’t in a rich household.

Character I wish I could be: They’re waaaaay to cool for me to be one of them. Lol.

#ask meme #wondyanswers

5 notes · View notes

gement · 4 years

Text

So I play this game with my fic statistics. I go to a tag on my fic, such as "Found Family," I sort the all-AO3 results by kudos, and I see how many pages down I am in the rankings. Then I filter the results to only the fandom "Batman - All Media Types," and I do it again. The second version takes me out of contention with Teen Wolf (always higher than me) and random indie video games (always lower than me). In general, my Batman-only rankings are lower because there are more tiny fandoms than powerhouse fandoms, compared to Batman.

This lets me think about two questions. On smaller tags, "how many pages would a browsing reader have to drill down to find me," and on all of them, "compared to everyone who's ever tagged this, how much attention is my work getting?" With me so far?

For a long while, my work floated at about 1/3 from the top in All and 1/2 in Batman. It's been crawling upward slowly, which is heartening. Given the major blocker of it being an OC romance, it's doing spectacularly. But today I realized I was accidentally measuring something about the tag popularity as well.

If my fic is much higher than average, it means other works with that tag haven't been as popular and vice versa. I'm way low in the Found Family rankings because the entire Batman fandom is made of found family fic, and it's no slouch across the board. People love them some team-as-family, they seek it out and they give it kudos. I'm way low on the SuperBat tag, which is totally fair because I myself am much more likely to seek out SuperBat fic than Batman/Some Dude.

Meanwhile, I have the third most popular Batman/OMC fic (of 24), beaten only by a sprawling vampire AU and a Superbat fic, neither of which are actually focused on that ship. Within my tiny niche, I'm doing absurdly well and am at the top of the class.

Today, I checked my rankings against the tag "Bruce Wayne." I figured it would come out exactly average since he's in the vast majority of it. Instead, I am substantially higher than usual. 1/4 instead of 1/3 overall, 1/3 instead of 1/2 in Batman.

This means that Bruce Wayne is not an appeal characteristic for the average Batman fic reader. This kinda blows my mind. It means the fics about only the Robins that eliminate Bruce from the page entirely are consistently more popular.

This kind of matched my impression, scrolling past the million new works of Damian/Marinette and Tim/Connor Kent and Jason-Todd-centric, punctuated by Joker shipping. But it's wild to have measurable numerical evidence for it. People (on average) are not reading Batman for Batman.

#batman #statistics #batman without batman #my writing #batman: millennials in love #bitter gymnasts

13 notes · View notes

k3y3ra · 4 years

Text

Tea with Dcdweeb: Fanon Dick Grayson

The phenomenon of fanon is when a fandom takes what is canon and try to reform it to their own interpretation. Now by the title we’re going to be talking about Fanon Dick Grayson. It is different from canon because this is how fans see Dick Grayson and traits they chose for them compare to his canon traits.

So, I’m going to list the most common fanon traits of Grayson that I see a lot on Tumblr.

Dick Grayson is the “happy” Robin. This is the most common trait of fanon Grayson out there, and in my opinion the most annoying. Writing him off as just “happy” is very one-dimensional. He has his trauma, he can get angry, he has insecurities, he feels pain. For a character who has been through so much in eighty years of existence, you think he’s rainbow and sunshine all the time? Not saying he doesn’t have happy moments because he does. Dick is obviously a positive influence in the hero community. C’mon put some respect on his character.

Dick Grayson the “womanizer”. Unfortunately the comics gives off this impression that Dick is always going from women to women. I know two situations shouldn’t been seen like that because of the non-consensual context. Anyway, I do believe it mostly has to do with the fact that he’s an attractive male character. Which is pretty shallow way to think about the character if you ask me. For a character who is known to be very loyal don’t you think that trait would be pass on to his love life? Hell, the man has two well-known and committed relationships. One more thing I want to include is someone in the fandom is calling Dick “Slutwing” now which further pushes the narrative that he sleeps with everyone he comes into contact to with.

His cereal addiction. This one seems so random? Like where did this even come from? Why cereal of all foods? I find this one stupidly funny until fans started to make it a personality trait, and it just became stale like old cereal.

Not the “smart” Robin. I personally blame Tim Drake stans for this one because they label him as the “smart and detective” Robin (even tho Dick is a great detective) and Dick gets dumb down. Dick was not the first Robin, leader of the first Titans group, hell I think he lead the Justice League, was Batman in all his eighty years of existence for y’all to disrespect him like that.

Dick Grayson is reckless. I blame the Grayson comic for this, escpecially the story that was included in the Robin 80th Anniversary issue. It’s the perfect example of how fans and even writers think that Dick just jump into situations without thinking first. If that was the case then he wouldn’t be a trusted leader to the Teen Titans and Titans and been trusted to be Batman. Seriously he deserves way more respect than that.

If I left out any other fanon traits please let me know in the comments. Remember this is not hate to anyone who likes this version of Dick Grayson, but as for someone who loves this character and is learning about his core traits, it gets frustrating to see how his character is perceived.

#dick grayson #nightwing #dick grayson fandom #tea with dcdweeb #Tea with Dcdweeb #teen titans #justice league #batman #batfamily

11 notes · View notes

purpleladyofthenight · 5 years

Text

I first saw Helena while watching tv on the couch one day and they had a JLU marathon on. I was really impressed by the other female superheroes, but Helena really caught my attention. I'm not sure what exactly it was about her, but I think probably her design and color scheme were the major influencers. I think the episode I saw was Double Date, and to my luck, they showed Question Authority and Grudge Match right after it, so I got a pretty good dose of my new favorite character. I remember afterwards I went to Wikipedia to learn more about her, which didn't have a ton on her, but it had the general stuff like her backstory, different versions of Huntress, etc. I loved her backstory! It was so similar to Batman's, but so different in a lot of ways. I also learned that she was one of the Batgirls (which at the time, I thought only one person was Batgirl). And then I kinda went on with my life.

Fast forward a few years and I'm part of the ATLA fandom on here, but I remember Helena and I go to see what's in the tags for her and I reblog a few things, and it's around after The Dark Knight Rises came out. A friend of mine tells me she's made an Alfred rp blog and I should make a rp blog for a DC character, which I was reluctant to because my only knowledge of comics were the DC comics cartoons, but she said I should try to rp Helena, so I decided to give it a chance, made the blog, met some awesome people. I also had a friend, who knew everything about everything in comics. She told me a lot about Helena being Catholic and being a teacher and a lot of the specifics. After I made the blog I also started to read more in depth stuff about Helena, look at comic scans with her, etc.

I saved the URL for this blog when I was doing an ask meme about giving your character a nickname based on your blog and this Tim blog said purpleladyofthenight, which I thought sounded really cool so I kept it. Then a few more years later, I finally got some money and found out about Comixology. I was really into Batman/Huntress and I wanted to read Detective Comics #38-40 and I found them on Comixology and bought them. I've also seen scans all over tumblr of different comics Helena was in, but they had no mention of where the scan is from so when I would see scans that I really liked, I had no clue where to look for more. So after having like 3 comics of Helena, I decided to start posting scans from what I've read and one goal was to have the title and number of the book on the post along with characters names so people who see the post and were newbies about comics as I was, could know who they're looking at or if the scans spark their interest, they can go get the book and read the whole story. I also bought a ton more comics, plus paper copies of all my favorite ones. Oh, and I was lucky enough to be able to have a small collection of merchandise of her (action figures mostly, and a painting).

It wasn't until I made the rp blog that Helena became a major part of my life. I used to write stories about her before that, too, but she wasn't an everyday kind of thing for me. She did become my favourite character after watching JLU that day. Like she kicked Batman from his #1 position and took the throne. I really admired Helena as a character and as I learned more, I thought she was even more amazing. My favourite thing about her is that her past and her struggles didn't make her bitter or loveless. She stayed a kind person despite everything that was thrown at her. She inspired me a lot while I was going through life and I met a lot of awesome people because of her. I'm really grateful I was watching tv randomly on a random day and got to find out about Helena.

#helena bertinelli #huntress #30 years of helena bertinelli #ramblings

5 notes · View notes

sassycassie-s-writing · 5 years

Text

He’s Alive

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood feat. Dick Grayson/Nightwing

Rating: PG-11/T- (minor violence)

Original Idea: Arkham Knight audio files

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) I don’t really know or care about the correctness of the difference between referring to Batman as Batman or The Batman, but sometimes Star Beam is just annoying to be annoying. @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes

^^^^^

I woke up tied to a chair.

I wish I could say it was an uncommon experience.

Or even the first time that happened.

But I couldn’t.

Because it wasn’t.

I grunted in displeasure and vague boredom as my eyes adjusted to the light. And by light I mean the dim incandescent lightbulb hanging bare from a cord on the ceiling. I blinked a few times until my eyes no longer burned from the light.

“Good morning, Star Beam,” an eerie voice said from the shadows. “Do I call you Miss Beam? Miss Star? Do you have a preference?”

“Fight me,” I snarled, struggling against the chains holding me to the chair.

“Oh, you’ll find that’s quite impossible. Those chains are fitted with a dampener chip that suppresses your metahuman powers, Miss Beam,” the same eerie voice informed me condescendingly. The face that belonged to the voice loomed from the shadows.

Or rather, the mask.

Scarecrow.

Great. This guy again. I’d already wiped the floor with that ugly burlap mask used to scare people on three separate occasions in the last year alone and I was really getting tired of him.

He was like that one guy in the friendzone who kept trying to escape it but he wasn’t actually in the friendzone, he was just in the Oh my WORD, go away dude zone. Almost every girl knows a guy like that eventually. And probably some guys know too—but I don’t really know since I’ve never asked.

“What do you want, Crane?” I demanded. “What was so important that you decided to invest in expensive power-dampeners to get fifteen minutes with me?”

Scarecrow scoffed. “You think that’s how long this is going to last?”

“Yup,” I said, popping the p just to be annoying.

“Nope,” Scarecrow retorted, also popping the p. “Miss Beam, you’re going to be here for ages, until such a time as I deem it right to release you.”

Like that’s going to happen, I thought while rolling my eyes.

Scarecrow got really up-close-and-personal in my face. “Now, tell me, Miss Star Beam, who is the Batman?”

“Okay, I’m gonna correct you there. He is not the Batman. He’s just Batman, got it?” I snapped. “Honestly, it drives me crazy that everyone’s always like, ‘the Batman.’ It makes him sound like he’s half-bat half-human. Which is ridiculous and false.” I struggled against the chains again, trying to remember the escapology Bruce had showed me. I hadn’t paid very good attention back then because I’d thought I’d always have my powers so I could use them to pick locks and such.

I’d need to run a refresher course when I got back to the cave.

IF you get back to the cave, idiot, a snide voice of self-doubt hissed in the back of my mind.

Shut up, I retorted.

Well whose fault was it that you ended up captured in the first place?

Zip it.

“You didn’t answer my question, Star Beam. Who. Is. Batman?” Scarecrow pressed.

I arched my back and squirmed, trying to stretch out. I was stiff from being lashed to the chair. “Why do you assume I even know? You really think Batman would have a security risk like that running around?” I was rambling. Stalling for time. If I didn’t report back to Alfred every half-hour, he’d send Batman after the chip in my suit—which I was still wearing. Thank the heavens this wasn’t one of the times I woke up tied to a chair in my underwear and sports bra. “Like, seriously. One of the best detective minds in the world who’s just gonna be like, ‘Oh yeah, this little girl with weird powers can totally know who I am under this mask. I’m sure that won’t be a problem,’” I growled in my best Batman voice.

Okay, so my Batman impression wasn’t stellar, but it wasn’t terrible either.

Scarecrow stared at me. I wondered vaguely what his expression looked like underneath the mask. Was he irritated? Angry? I couldn’t tell.

He sighed finally. “Shame. I was so hoping my preferred method wasn’t going to be necessary. That you’d give up the information willingly. Though, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. The Batman somehow manages to instill a strange sense of loyalty in his followers.”

“You say that like he’s an internet personality,” I remarked.

Scarecrow revealed one of the syringes on his hand—the kind that would inject me with a concentrated dose of his fear toxin that would probably nearly kill me. “Enough of your silly little games, Star Beam,” he snapped. “You’re going to tell me who Batman is, and you’re going to do it now.” He lifted the syringe and held it toward me.

The door was kicked open. “Get the H*&% away from her!” a voice ordered.

The newcomer was tall. Not quite as tall as Bruce, but only shorter by a couple inches. He was also absolutely ripped—to the point where I thought it looked uncomfortable.

But I couldn’t describe his face because I couldn’t see it. He wore a scarlet helmet over his entire head. Frustrating, not to know who was under there. I supposed that was how a lot of people felt about Batman. Hmm.

Scarecrow snickered and backed away. “As you wish, Red Hood.”

“Let me talk to her. Alone. See if I can get it out of her in a different way,” Red Hood said.

Scarecrow moved to leave. “Alright. But when she proves uncooperative, we’ll do this my way.” He slid out and slammed the metal door behind him.

Red Hood sat opposite me on another metal chair, lounging on it casually. He tsked. “Oh Star Beam. You’ve really gotten yourself in a pickle this time, haven’t you?”

I wriggled and leaned my head back away from him. “Uh… I guess?” I said.

He sighed and shook his head, looking down. “No, no. You’re doing it wrong. You’re supposed to keep me talking. Or talk yourself. That’s what Bruce taught you to do right? Bide your time till he shows up to get you.”

I blinked. “B-Bruce?” I stammered.

Red Hood snickered. “Yeah. Scarecrow doesn’t know that I know. Let’s just keep it our little secret, okay?” he asked.

I cleared my throat. “Who are you?” I asked.

I heard an exhale that could have counted as a snort of amusement. “You don’t even recognize my voice anymore. I suppose that’s okay. It’s been a long time since the last time you heard it. I was just a teenager back then.”

Red Hood pressed the side of his helmet. The mask at the front opened up.

I gasped and lurched backward, the legs of my chair screeching on the concrete floor. “J-Jason?”

A leather-gloved hand reached up and stroked my face, pausing with fingertips at the seam where my mask met skin. I really hoped he wasn’t going to remove it. That wouldn’t be good. “Hey Star Beam,” he greeted, voice soft and gentle but with an underlying hostility and aggression I didn’t trust at all.

“You’re… you’re supposed to be dead,” I breathed, unable to think of anything else to say.

Jason shrugged. “Didn’t take,” he said. “Listen, don’t count on Batman to come save you. I thought he’d save me too but that didn’t turn out so well. Figure out how to get out on your own.”

“I’m trying. There’s a power-dampener on the chains. I can’t pick the lock with my telekinesis.”

“Well try harder. I don’t want Scarecrow to have you in here.”

“Oh, so just because it’s me you want to help.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“For my survival, yes. But what if it was Dick? Or some random civilian? Would you be encouraging them to escape?”

“Unknown, Star Beam. Because they’re not here and you are.” He reached forward and pulled the bobby pin out of my hair and slid it down my arm and into my hand where it was tied behind my back. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I still love you.”

“Don’t want to hear that my boyfriend from when I was fifteen still loves me even though he’s allied himself with one of my enemies. Hmm,” I said.

“Pick the lock, escape the dampener, and then you high-tail it out of here, you hear? My alliance with Scarecrow is necessary. You don’t know what happened to me when I was brought back to life. I’d been hollowed out. Still am. The only thing that’s left of who I was is my love for you. Somehow that survived.” He kissed my forehead. “Now go.” He straightened up, shut his helmet, and left the room. “Give her a few minutes to stew over my threat in solitude, she’ll come around,” Jason said to Scarecrow. The metal door slammed with a heavy thunk!

I fiddled with the bobby pin, breaking it to use as a lock-pick. Lucky for me picking locks was about feeling and not seeing because I couldn’t see what I was doing. Just had to feel for the tumblers.

The locks released. I sighed in relief and quietly slid out of the chains, trying to make them clink as little as possible.

I rolled my wrists, stretching them out and calling on my powers. Silver-white light danced around my fingers. I grinned. “I’m back,” I whispered.

I stole over to the window. The bars were too narrow for me to slip through and the glass appeared to be ballistic glass—bulletproof.

I smirked. “Good thing my powers have nothing to do with bullets,” I mused.

I bent my knees and made a telekinetic shield in front of me.

With a single shove of my hands in which I touched nothing, I tore the bars and glass out of the window. There was a horrible wrenching and crashing noise as the bars and glass broke free. The rubble ricocheted off my shield.

The door burst open behind me. The shield swung around to protect my back. “Get her!” Scarecrow shouted. “This is why telekinetics are cheaters, Hood!”

I laughed and launched myself out the window. I didn’t even care where I was or how high up. I was getting out. “Woooooo-Hoooooo!” I called as I fell through the air. A cushion of silver-white telekinetic energy pillowed my landing, but I tuck-and-rolled anyway for the sake of my knees and the fact that I was really stiff from sitting in that chair for too long.

Bullets followed after me as I took cover with an, “Eeep!” and threw up another shield.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” I heard Jason shout. The bullets ceased. “Anyone hurts her and they’re gonna deal with me!”

I did a quick stretch and took off running. “GO AFTER HER!” Scarecrow shrieked.

“But don’t you dare shoot her!” Red Hood added.

I leapt over a busy street of cars with the help of my powers and kept running. I had to get out of the city. Into the woods… if I could make it up into the branches of the canopy they’d have a harder time tracking me… get back to the Batcave.

I careened around a corner—

Only to be grabbed, a hand wrapping around my mouth to muffle my shriek and throwing me against a wall.

A familiar figure towered over me, holding me still and keeping my mouth shut. There was a smile on his face and a blue domino mask over his eyes—which were blue underneath. His hair was black. He was about five-ten and slender—fluid lines and lean muscle. Not bulky and jacked like Jason.

I pushed his hand off my mouth. “Dick?!” I scream-whispered.

“Hey Star Beam. Who’re you running from?” he asked. “I haven’t seen you that scared since the first time you sparred with B on Beast Mode.”

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to stop panting. “I’m running… from… Jason,” I got out through my heavy breathing. “Because… y’know… no one bothered to tell me that he’s still alive.” Dick took a step back, letting me go completely.

“Well, technically, he’s not ‘still’ alive. He did actually die. But then he got brought back. Long story. Quick version: reality got a little altered which brought him back to life and then he took a dip in the Lazarus Pit to heal,” Dick explained. I blinked. This was a lot to process. I wasn’t feeling too hot anyway, but this was a lot. I leaned against the wall and put my hand on the bricks behind me, looking for solidarity.

I took another deep breath. “Okay…” I breathed. “And no one thought to tell me this… why?!” It took all my self-control not to lose my cool. Not to scream at him and shout. But we were still hiding from Scarecrow and Jason’s goons.

“I, uh, I’ll have to let B explain that one. C’mon. Let’s get out of here. You good to keep moving?”

“Yeah I’m good.”

“Okay great. Let’s move.”

I followed him up the fire escape of the building he’d pinned me to. We leapt over rooftops and across alleys with agility—and telekinesis in my case—before coming to a stop in Crime Alley. Below us, in an alley, was the Batmobile. Dick took the fire escape down. I just jumped and used my powers to cushion my fall.

“Now what?” I asked, upon finding the Batmobile was empty.

“We wait for approximately fifteen seconds,” Dick said.

One. Two. Three…

Jason was alive. What was I supposed to be thinking?

Four. Five. Six…

More than just alive—working with Scarecrow as the Red Hood.

Seven. Eight. Nine…

He’d had guns strapped to his thighs. Guns. Jason hadn’t been taught how to fight with guns. What was going on?

Ten. Eleven. Twelve…

I was too overwhelmed for any of this. I needed to go home and get some sleep.

Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen…

“Okay. It’s been fifteen seconds and he’s still not here,” I said to Dick. “Now what?”

Sixteen. Seventeen. Eight—

“Nightwing. Star Beam. What are you doing here?” a deep voice said. I whirled around to see Batman looming in the darkness of the alley.

Dick leaned against the Batmobile, spinning one eskrima stick around his hand casually. “Hey B. Guess who just found out your son is alive?”

Batman looked at me. “Are you going to lash out or are you going to let me explain?” he asked.

“Both?” I suggested.

“Alright. Let’s get somewhere safe first. Pile in, you two.”

#He's Alive #Jason Todd #Jason Todd Imagine #Jason Todd FanFiction #Red Hood #Red Hood Imagine #Red Hood FanFiction #DC #DC Imagine #DC FanFiction #BatFam #BatFam Imagine #BatFam FanFiction #featuring #Dick Grayson #Nightwing

8 notes · View notes

liquidpinkandblue · 6 years

Text

Akward Flirting AKA Why The Dating Scene Freaks Me Out

Lemme preface this with this simple fact, I am a fairly romantic person. Or at least you know the fantasy type of romantic person who reads romantic stuff and gushes about how adorable it is. However, reality never quite lives up to the fantasy, especially when it comes to straight boys. So yesterday I was at the gym, sadly due to the use of spandex, it's not like I can only present as female. I had briefly considered the idea of getting hit on at the gym and found it at least a little adorable, however I did not take into consideration how creepy it can actually kind of be. This interaction in particular was extra creepy. I had just barely got into the gym when I did my usual ritual of going to the water fountain and filling up my water bottle. By random happenstance this guy was also coming up to get water from the fountain. Cute setup, badly badly executed. First, let me go before him, I thought it was fairly nice for him to wait for me to open up my water bottle to go first, if slightly awkward because my hands were full with my iPod, my key, and my water bottle. He takes this opportunity to ask me if I go there often (kinda cliche), what my name is and where I'm from. Now I work out in fandom shirts, carry around a Nightwing water bottle, and a Batman lanyard. I give people plenty of opportunity to notice things and come up with conversation. This guy however jumped right into asking for my number. I had not shown any interest in really talking to him, and felt a little trapped, because there is only one water fountain and I was kind of stuck until my water bottle was full. Luckily, I left my phone in my locker so I told him I did not have my phone on me, to which he responded " me either babe, see you around". Am I overreacting? The Babe part really creeped me out, he honestly didn't seem interested in me per se, he just seemed interested in how I looked. Which actually kind of pissed me off. I was telling my friends that if I'm going to be flirted with at least come to me humbly, be friendly, show interest in the things I'm obviously into , and don't assume that you can impress me just because you're wearing a sleeveless shirt. This kind of brought up my other underlying nerves about dating because tragically I'm attracted to men and most guys are like this. So it's actually kind of scary thinking about dating anyone really, with masculinity being so fragile, and me switching to feeling masculine and presenting masculine randomly. Let's add to this the fact that am Christian and would like to date someone Christian and most Christian men do not embrace participating in any form of queer relationships, from friendship to romantic relationships. I don't know, it just doesn't feel like dating could be for me for that particular reason. It would be nice to have someone who actually checks on me, spoils me, and indulges me in my interests. But that might also just be selfishness, who knows. Either way, it would be nice to not feel alone. Thanks for listening to my rant, rant over

#liquidpinkandblue #genderfluid #just me #queer christian #lonely #maybe I just need attention #or for someone to want to talk to me #someone who actually wants to listen to me #who won't just give me one word answers until it's their turn to talk #cause at least in a romance you don't get ignored for another person #Or maybe I just need to disappear for a while #who knows

1 note · View note

starspatter · 6 years

Text

Heroes and Thieves, Ch. 6

Title: Heroes and Thieves Fandom/Universe: BTAS, pre/post-RotJ flashback

Summary: A story about second chances, healing, and having hope.

Rating: PG-13, for references to character death, child psychological torture and trauma.

Genre: Romance/Family/Friendship/Hurt/Comfort

Word Count: 3,791 Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Also on ff.net and AO3. In which Dick is surprisingly racist towards clones.

Two birds on a wire One says "come on" and the other says "I'm tired" The sky is overcast and I'm sorry One more or one less Nobody's worried

-Regina Spektor, "Two Birds"

Then.

Once their guest had left, Tim turned to Dick with a wounded air.

“How about giving me some warning next time before someone shows up, huh? A little heads-up would’ve been nice.”

Dick’s smile didn’t falter.

“What, did she catch you doing something embarrassing?”

Tim skewered him a look of disgust.

“Do you have to make everything sound dirty?”

“Sorry, sorry. …I’m surprised you’re still doing ‘that’ after all these years though.”

Tim shrugged with a heavy sigh. “Was just testing to see if I still could, I guess. I messed up on the landing anyway.”

“You probably just need to work on your form some more. It has been a while since I last saw you brush up on any techniques, they’re bound to get a bit rusty. If you want, I can still coach you…”

Tim’s lips tightened.

“Forget it. It’s not worth it.”

“Are you sure? That girl seemed pretty impressed by it. She’s the one you were talking about earlier, right?” Dick nodded in sage observation. “She’s cute; nice face, decent rack- ow!” He rubbed his arm as it was abruptly met with an annoyed punch. “Hey, it was a compliment.”

“…Didn’t sound like one.”

“Would you prefer I said she has a mighty fine ass?” He waggled his brows and grinned provocatively, despite wincing from the pain. Kid could still hit pretty hard when he wanted to. “Not as fine as mine though.”

“Shut up before I shove a dumbbell up there.”

Dick clutched his behind in mock dread at the threat.

“Seriously though, she’s obviously into you.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “The way I see it, from where I’m standing, she’s more into you.”

“Oh ho, do I detect a note of jealousy?”

“No,” Tim denied hotly, though his cheeks told a different story. “It’s just that you’re being super-gross about it. You know you’re acting like Bruce by coming onto every giddy schoolgirl and her mom who walks in through the door.”

Dick’s smirk jerked slightly.

“Wow, okay dude, we’re really going there.” It was his turn to be hurt by insensitivity. “You didn’t need to go that far. I’ll have you know this and that are completely different.”

“How so?”

“I approach these things from a sole marketing perspective. Purely professional. It’s called ‘show business’, bro.”

“Uh-huh. This coming from the guy who just lied about his scars to make himself look good. I suppose ‘that’s’ also part of your advertising strategy?”

“Hey, it’s not like it was a total lie. That really did happen, you know – minus the ‘falling debris’ part. …Besides, what else would you have me say?”

Tim shook his head, keeping his voice low. “…I don’t know.”

Dick seized on the telling silence. “You are attracted to her, aren’t you?”

“I am not.”

“It’s okay, I can see why. It’s all right to admit these things, you know. You don’t have to hide it.”

“I’m not hiding anything.”

The firm, yet flustered defiance only further confirmed Dick’s suspicion.

“Heh heh, little Timmy’s got a crush~”

He tousled Tim’s hair teasingly, to which the boy scowled.

“I do not.” He pushed the invading hand away in indignation. “Will you cut that out already? I’m not a kid anymore.”

Dick lowered his limb in disappointment.

“Okay, okay. Sorry.” Despite insistence otherwise, it delighted Dick that Tim was finally exhibiting some of the youthful desire – if not exuberance – he’d missed out on through his teenage years. “Trust me though, I have no interest in someone her age. She’s all yours.”

“Look, will you just drop it?” Tim snapped bluntly. “It’s none of your freakin’ business.”

Dick exhaled, clicking his tongue. If only Tim could be more honest with his feelings, true to himself – though he was painfully aware of how excruciatingly difficult that must be, what with everything the boy had been through. To be fair, he had his own troubles genuinely opening his heart to others, after all the times it had been broken and betrayed before. …He could only imagine how terrifying it must be for Tim, to allow someone else – a complete and total stranger – to get close by entering into his currently (semi-)stable and secure – if supremely secluded life, experience that kind of risky emotion again. Breach the many walls and defensive barriers he had set up around himself, upset the plainly precarious balance that was still a struggle to barely maintain. So as much as he wanted to continue coaxing and clowning – kidding around, he agreed to leave it alone for now, raising both palms in admitted defeat.

“Okay, I get it. I won’t bother you about it anymore.”

The subject successfully dismissed, Tim attuned towards the boxes in the back.

“So did you want me to help with moving this stuff or what?”

“Yeah, I needed to clear out some old things to make space for new equipment. Trying to tidy up the place more, getting rid of useless junk and whatnot. …Although most of it’s probably going up to the storeroom in the attic anyway. Sorry to bother you for this; I’d do all the lifting myself, but with my back…”

“Don’t mention it, it’s the least I can do to repay you.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Tim knelt by one of the cartons as Dick set to work sifting and sorting, organizing according to some arbitrary system that ostensibly only made sense to him.

“Christ, how much crap do you have here? Seriously, what even is half this junk? I knew you had all kinds of odd ends lying around, but I didn’t realize it amounted to this much. Do you ever throw anything away?”

Dick shrugged.

“What can I say, I’m a hoarder by nature. Keeping keepsakes is my hobby. …Well, more like a habit, I guess. Why do you think we had a trophy room in the basement? It wasn’t originally Bruce’s idea, I can tell you that.”

Tim remained quiet as he poked through a large collection of CDs, containing a few recognizable but mostly random titles by various indie bands and artists he’d never heard of.

“Man, you’ve got weird taste in music.”

“Hey, don’t knock the classics. Those are precious goods, be careful with those.”

In spite of his scoffing, Tim picked up one of the discs that appealed to him, and was almost about to subconsciously slip the item under his oversized hoodie – an old, old habit of his own – before remembering he didn’t have to resort to sneaking or stealing when he could just ask.

“Can I borrow this?”

Dick didn’t even twist to look, implicitly trusting in his little brother’s judgment. “Yeah sure, go ahead.”

Tim breathed out in relief as he pocketed the prize with permission. That was a close call. Borderline kleptomaniac compulsions hadn’t surfaced like that in a long time, but then, it was only another minor checkbox on the extensive, exhaustive list of psychotic symptoms he was suffering from today.

There was another entry that caught his eye, different from the others. It had no hard case or album cover; just a plain, simple jacket labeled with marker:

For Babs.

Tim wondered if it was a mix tape – surely Dick wouldn’t have tried to record something himself? He couldn’t tell whether it was a gift Dick planned to give but never worked up the courage to – or something Barbara sent back after (one of numerous) breakup(s).

…Maybe Joker was right. Being in love with someone seemed like way more hassle than it was worth. Hell, just watching those two go back and forth between affection and anger even back then was tiring. Aggravating.

At any rate, he left burning curiosity alone, not wanting to intrude too much on Dick’s privacy (years ago he would’ve taunted his brother with the juicy bit of exposing bait himself, but that was then, when he was less mature and still found amusement in such things), and moved on to another container. As soon as he saw the contents inside, he balked a bit, heartbeat spiking. Aching. It was a family photo album, full of fond memories from the Flying Graysons’ circus days. His hands trembled as he flipped tentatively through the pages, unable to tear away even though it made him uncomfortable for a number of reasons. Paranoid of polaroids. Anything involving camerawork tended to make him queasy, though he could typically tolerate homages to others at least. These were different from the blown-up, polished posters on the wall though; the images portrayed within were more intimate, unscripted. Candid, captured moments of a close-knit clan, happy as a clam – treasured remnants of childhood innocence and bliss combined with parental pampering.

“This must have been such a cool place to grow up.”

“…It was.”

Glancing back at the receptacle, buried at the bottom was another set of snapshots: a framed photograph of Dick and Barbara together (him smiling smugly straight at her in puppy-like adoration while she beamed brightly at the viewer instead), and a worn print of the former in graduation garb next to Bruce, who had his paw wrapped proudly on the other’s shoulder. Scrawled on the top left-hand corner in Bruce’s surprisingly haphazard handwriting was a short congratulatory message:

Good luck at college, Dick.

Tim recalled how Dick told him the story of Bruce missing his graduation from Gotham State University, shortly before the two split up as Batman and Robin. (…The old man never even bothered to come to his own high school ceremony – not that Tim was expecting him to – although Dick and Barbara both did attend at least, albeit sitting at opposite ends of the auditorium.)

“It was building for a long time. I realize that now. …It was never really right. I mean, this isn’t exactly a normal childhood.”

He hadn’t really comprehended the notion then, but Tim understood now what those words meant – unfortunately all too well.

Tim sensed a shadow behind him, and for a brief instant, he half-envisioned it being Bruce from the way it loomed – but of course when he revolved around it was only Dick instead.

“Yo, you all right? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Tim looked down at the scrapbook in his lap, a wistful mist in his eyes. “I was just… thinking I don’t really have any pictures of my folks. At least none where we’re all together.” Or that isn’t a mugshot, he thought sullenly to himself. “I never saw my dad keep any mementos of Mom after she died. To be honest, I’m not sure I even still remember what she looks like.”

Dick plopped down on the ground next to him, resting a hand on the boy’s sagged shoulder.

“Listen, I hope you know: No matter what, you can always think of the two of us as family at least. I know I haven’t exactly been that much of a great guardian myself, that I could never replace what you lost either… But you are still a brother to me. Hell, I consider you the closest thing to a real relative I’ve had since then.”

Tim simply nodded, swallowing a lump in his gorge. Dick patted his back with a thump.

“Us guys, we gotta stick together, right? Through thick and thin.”

“Yeah.” Tim ducked his neck towards his collar, surreptitiously drying ducts on his sweatshirt. “…Thanks, you know, for letting me stay here so long. Roy and Conner too.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” A pause. “…How’s Conner doing by the way?”

Tim snorted, the caution in the other’s tone not escaping his notice. “What do you care? You never liked him anyway.”

“That’s not true. It’s just… The whole idea of cloning someone kinda wigs me out, okay? I dunno, imagining there being a duplicate copy of you running around is freaky enough, but one of Superman? It still doesn’t sit well with me to leave him loose like that, after all the underhanded crap Cadmus has pulled. Something about it just doesn’t seem right. Who’s to say he doesn’t have some secret kill switch that’ll make him go rogue like Supergirl’s doppelganger? Gotham may be full of crazies and creeps, but at least we never really had to deal with stuff of metahuman caliber aside from Ivy and Clayface, or Kirk when he took the serum.” Dick intentionally didn’t include Killer Croc on the atypical rogues roster; guy was too dumb a criminal to count. “We’re on the high end of the ‘weird’ scale, sure, but not even Batman’s equipped to take down a serious superpowered menace alone.”

Tim glared at him in disbelief.

“Is that you talking, or the old man?”

“…Maybe a bit of both,” Dick willingly conceded. “Look, I’m just worried, that’s all.”

“Yeah well, don’t be. I’ve got Mr. Kent on speed-dial, and Kon gave me his full consent to use the Kryptonite at my discretion as part of our ‘roommate agreement’. If anything happens, he told me himself he wants me to hit him with it as hard as I can.” …Even if it meant killing him – although Tim knew he could never go through with that. Not again. “Besides, it’s not him you’re actually worried about, is it?”

“Tim…”

“No, you know what this is?” Tim clenched his fist, drawing away from contact again. “You look at him with the same way you do me – like some ticking time bomb about to explode. I’m getting real sick and tired of it.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Sure it isn’t. Look, for your information, Conner’s doing fine. Hell, he pretty much behaves just like you; he’s probably getting wasted and chasing after chicks at some mixer right now. …That’s what you call a ‘normal college life’, isn’t it?”

Dick cleared his throat, aversely acknowledging hypocrisy.

“…What about you? How is school going? Do you like it there?”

Tim shrugged.

“It’s okay.”

“You know you didn’t have to just stick locally around here. If you wanted to go someplace else I would’ve sponsored you. I mean, I chose to stay close to Gotham because of that… ‘part-time job’ stuff, but you’re smart, you could’ve gone anywhere better.”

“I told you, I’m fine with this.”

“What about taking that girl’s suggestion at least? Life doesn’t just have to be about books and studying for tests all the time either, you know. Look at it this way: You’ve got the time and opportunity now to be a part of after-class club activities that I never had. Why not take advantage of it, get out there and socialize. Enjoy the excitement of your youth and all that.”

Tim stared, trying unsuccessfully to read the other’s expression. He couldn’t deduce whether the dude was just being humorously sarcastic, or genuinely envious and attempting to live vicariously through him. Either way, he wasn’t falling for it.

“I said forget it.”

Dick kept pressing despite disengagement, earnest in his endeavor to tempt Tim to pursue what used to fill the boy with fervent passion, desperately hoping to rekindle some kind of joyful spark.

“Come on, I’m sure it’ll be fun. I bet I could even still teach you to do a quadruple somersault if you’re interested.”

“Why? I suck at it.”

“You just need more practice. …Besides, it’d be kind of a shame to let a legacy die out without passing it on to at least one person.”

Tim wavered at the sincere, if somewhat scheming statement.

“I don’t know…”

“Trust me, it’s easy once you get the hang of it.”

“Maybe for you.” He bitterly bit his tongue under his breath. “I’d like to see you try to concentrate on keeping your balance with the Joker as a peanut gallery.”

“What was that?”

“…Nothing.”

Dick held his gaze for a second.

“Tim, I didn’t want to bring this up, but… Conner called me the other day. He told me, about the lab incident. He says you haven’t been sleeping or eating much either.”

Tim grit his jaw, feeling like a dagger had just been thrust in his gut. He couldn’t believe his best (perhaps only) bud in the world would betray him like that.

“Damnit, Kon.”

“Don’t blame him, he’s just worried about you too. I told you: You don’t need to keep hiding things from us. We’re here to help if you need anything. Babs too. If something’s troubling you, you can talk to us.”

“It’s fine, I’m handling it.”

Dick wouldn’t desist, determined to get the truth out of him.

“Tim, I heard you yelling earlier. …He’s back again, isn’t he?”

The boy sighed in surrender, eyes slanting stage right. “…To your left, making faces.”

His partner fixed him with stern concern.

“Are you off your meds again?”

“They don’t work. Not as well as they used to.”

“That doesn’t mean you should just stop taking them.”

“For what? So I can only experience the side effects?”

“So talk to Leslie. Ask her to adjust the dosage.”

Tim made a hollow noise. “I’m already on the highest strength that’s considered ‘safe’ for human consumption.”

Dick pulled out his phone anyway and began dialing her number.

“I’m contacting her. There must be at least something else we can try.”

“Not Dr. Thompkins,” Tim whined, as if a toddler throwing a tantrum.

“Look, either you call to make an appointment, or I will.”

Tim seethed, grinding his teeth. “All right, fine. Jeeze. God, you and Barbara still both treat me like a fucking child.”

“Yeah well, maybe if you stop acting like one.”

“Whatever. Just hand me the phone. I’ll talk to her.”

Dick extended the cell towards Tim, who took it with all the enthusiasm of accepting a dirty sock.

“It’s ringing.”

He listened closely in on the conversation to confirm a meeting time was set up, before Tim returned the receiver.

“Here. She wants to talk to you.”

Dick lifted the mobile to his ear.

“Hey, doc.”

“Hello, Richard. It’s good to hear from you boys. How’s the back treating you?”

“Fine.” He didn’t want to dwell too much on his own health status, so he moved on to the matter at hand. “Is there anything we can do to help Tim?”

“In such a rare and unusual case as this, it’s hard to say. It’d be beneficial to start by identifying the root of his relapse. Once we pinpoint that, it’ll be easier to formulate a treatment plan. It’s possible it could just be due to the stress of moving to a new environment. It’s good that you’ve been able to help support him through high school, but now that he’s becoming independent it may be triggering a stronger separation anxiety response in him. Even if consciously he rejects it, the Joker ingrained himself as a parental figure in Tim’s mind. Essentially, he equates that kind of attention with the nurturing love and protection he never properly received growing up. It’s common for child victims of abuse to form a disorganized attachment to the caregiver, especially when the caregiver behaves in an inconsistent manner. The conflict of the caregiver being both a source of comfort and distress can cause the child to display contradictory patterns when faced with a stressful situation; instinct tells him to simultaneously avoid and approach the one who is mistreating him. In the absence of a familiar atmosphere he’s accustomed to, he’s likely seeking alternate methods of coping as a survival mechanism. Has he been under any kind of particular pressure lately?”

Dick relayed the events leading up to the fainting spell, with little input from Tim beyond affirmative nods.

“I see. It’s certainly a sign of progress that he’s trying to face his fears, but a heads-on approach might not be the best tactic.”

“I tried to tell him that. He won’t listen.”

“I’ll have a chat with him about it when I see him, hopefully we can find a way for him to succeed in his studies without compromising his sense of safety. One more question, this is important: Has he tried to harm himself?”

“I… don’t think so. I’ll check, and let you know.”

“Please do.”

As Dick temporarily terminated the exchange, he rotated to see Tim had stood up and was headed towards the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Out for a smoke – walk – whatever. Just text me when you need me.”

“Hold it.” The harsh bark arrested the boy before he was halfway to the exit. “Wrists.”

Tim swiveled with a sour countenance.

“Seriously? Do we really have to do this?”

“Show me.”

He hissed, but obediently rolled up his sleeves, revealing bare but apparently unmarked skin.

“Satisfied?”

Dick advanced and examined him all over anyway, before nodding.

“All right. Now empty your pockets.”

Tim tsked, feeling as violated as when the staff at the detention center frisked him on admittance for any concealed contraband. He dug through his possessions, retrieving objects one by one: phone, wallet, CD player, lighter, cigarettes, and finally – under Dick’s demanding eye – the hidden pocketblade.

“Give me the knife.”

He hesitated.

“Don’t make me wrestle it from you.”

Relinquishing, he slapped the weapon into Dick’s grip without a word.

“Thank you. You can go, but try to keep near.”

“Sure thing, Mom.”

Dick deliberately chose to ignore the sardonic retort, used to receiving attitude by now. (For a fleeting moment, he mused if he ever gave Bruce this much frustration, although no doubt Alfred would certainly attest to it.)

After Tim left, Dick hit redial to reassuringly inform Leslie on the observed lack of self-inflicted damage to the patient’s physical condition at least – and preemptive confiscation of means just to be safe – before bidding goodbye with a final beep. He sighed as he rubbed his neck, hoping his “tough love” hadn’t come off as too deterring. He really wasn’t good with this whole “parenting” thing, considering the primary role model he had for nearly half of his life after early adolescence.

As he picked up the memoir from the floor, he caressed his fingers feather-light over the cover, brushing off collected dust and disenchantment before delicately placing it on a shelf for easy viewing access. The rest he unceremoniously dumped in the “to toss” pile, purposefully cramming as much trash as he could on top. …After a few minutes though he fished them out again, rescuing from the base of the rubbish heap with ambivalent reluctance, restoring to the original package and sealing tightly with tape. They could remain upstairs for now at least – like his ruined Nightwing costume – evidence of old wounds and shattered bonds shuttered behind closed panel; tucked away in the dark recesses of his conscience, lurking and lingering deep in the shadows off-screen.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Two birds of a feather Say that they're always gonna stay together But one's never going to let go of that wire He says that he will But he's just a liar

#TimSteph #Tim Drake #Timmy Todd #Stephanie Brown #Dick Grayson #Batman the Animated Series #Batman Beyond #DCAU #Return of the Joker #fanfiction #starstories #Ironically Dick later gets a clone himself in the 'Hush Beyond' comic story arc #which is a mess in all sorts of ways but I'm considering canon for the sake of keeping 'continuity'#on the subject of the tie in comics though one thing I love about Gotham Adventures is how they highlight Dick's fondness for music #wherein his musical knowledge actually comes in handy to help solve a couple cases #if you haven't read the series I highly recommend doing so for a lot more extra character development and wonderful BatFam interactions <3 #also FYI all the photographs appeared in the show at some point #cookie to whoever guesses which ep each is from ;O #P.S. Happy Father's Day

1 note · View note

daleisgreat · 4 years

Text

Last Action Hero

Today’s entry will result in one of the quickest turnaround times of an older movie in my backlog box yet. A couple weeks ago I noticed Uproxx posted an article on how 1993’s Last Action Hero (trailer) was way ahead of its time (click or press here for the Uproxx piece). Once I noticed this story I tracked down a BluRay copy of it off Amazon and promptly watched it within 24 hours of its delivery. I did not read the Uproxx entry yet, but I will after I finish proofing this entry to prevent it from altering my current thoughts I am about to deliver and will post a little addendum at the end of this look back at Last Action Hero for some extra insight on how my take compares with Uproxx’s. I cannot remember how many times I watched Last Action Hero as a kid, but my gut tells me it may be near the double digits. Our family had the HBO and Starz movie channels as part of our cable package back then, and the way those channels primarily were programmed back then was a specific amount of newer and older movies were highlighted each month, and they would play each movie once every day or two to the best of my recollection. I remember being stoked for Last Action Hero. The turnaround time on movies from the theater back then in the early 90s was it would take about five to six months after the cinema release for a film to hit Pay-Per-View and home video. Several months later, or roughly a year after release it would hit the premium cable movie channels like HBO, Starz and Cinemax in their original form. Another year or two after that it would be available for local and basic cable channels, but usually in an edited and censored/FCC friendly format. Our family could only afford trips to the theater and video rentals so many times a year, so if we missed a movie in either of those formats and it wound up on HBO/Starz it was kind of a guilty pleasure in my childhood boredom days to pick an anticipated movie like Last Action Hero and watch it as many times as possible the first month it was available.

I have not seen it since then however when I was 11 and have not thought much about it since LAH is not as highly regarded as other Arnold Schwarzenegger classics even though it hit at the tail end of Arnold’s prime (which I consider to be from 1984’s original Terminator through 1994’s True Lies). When it hit theaters in 1993 I remember a ton of hype for it getting ubiquitous advertising and the requisite hot-summer-movie-licensed videogame and pinball table. The pinball table is part of the many licensed tables included in Pinball Arcade on PS4 which I also played a few rounds of before diving into the movie. In 1993 Arnold was the big name action star fresh off his Terminator 2 success. He also dabbled in the occasional comedy like Kindergarten Cop and Jingle All the Way. LAH marked Arnold’s first action comedy however. Schwarzenegger portrays big name action movie star ‘Jack Slater.’ Danny (Austin O’Brien) is Slater’s #1 fan on top of being a middle school film guru where he routinely cuts class to catch flicks at the local cinema where he is best friends with the old-timer projectionist there, Nick (Robert Prosky). Daniel is promised by Nick an after-hours exclusive showing of the wildly anticipated Jack Slater IV. To celebrate the special showing, Nick gives Danny a special ‘magical’ movie ticket that Nick states he got from legendary magician Houdini himself as a kid, but was too afraid to use it. Through cinema magic, the ticket activates and Danny is warped into the movie world of Jack Slater IV as his new reality when he winds up magically transported into the backseat of Slater’s ride in the middle of a cliché action movie car chase.

Danny is thrilled being immersed in an action movie world filled with the clichés and tropes of the genre that he gleefully points out and references past film lore to help Jack track down his latest bad guy. Slater has none of it and takes in Danny in for questioning. Slater’s over-the-top-gruffy captain, Dekker (Frank McRae) is impressed with Danny’s knowledge and makes him Slater’s new partner. Slater begrudgingly works together with Danny to track down Slater’s current most wanted baddie, Benedict (Charles Dance). The film unravels from there in a world jam-packed with the aforementioned clichés that Danny constantly breaks the fourth wall by showing off his action movie fandom by pointing out how all the women in this universe are hyper-sexualized, indulging Slater’s gratuitous one-liners, how Slater instantly pops up from battles unscathed and how the bad guy stereotypically monologues too long to give Slater a chance to make the heroic comeback. 11 year-old-Dale was the perfect target age for LAH when I first saw it in 1994. I experienced the filmed vicariously through Danny and I was right there with Danny for how wicked it would be to magically transport alongside your movie hero in his latest summer blockbuster and helping him bust bad guys and be in the middle of an extravagant chase scenes overstuffed with special effects. I think a big part of me held off forever re-watching this again because I dismissed LAH as a satire film over the years that I loved as a kid, but thought I thought I would outgrow over the years. After my recent re-watch however, I emerged surprised how wrong I was. Seeing it with a grown-up’s set of eyes significantly helped with a new understanding of filmmaking references and other off-color jokes that went right over my childhood head. I also got a whole new appreciation of the scene where Danny takes Slater to a video store in his universe to show him how awesome he is in Terminator 2 only to instead see in that world Sylvester Stallone landed the role.

Speaking of guest stars, the cameos are through the roof in LAH. There are some blink and you miss it surprise cameos, and then there are exponentially more in the final act where Danny takes Slater back into the ‘real’ world in time for the red carpet movie premiere of Jack Slater IV. The premiere sees the likes of Little Richard, MC Hammer, Jean Claude Van Damme and a few other recognizable celebrities of that era. Back in 1994 I was probably only lucky enough to recognize Van Damme from his role as Guile in the underappreciated Street Fighter, but reliving it again with a new set of eyes made that scene pop in a whole new way. Needless to say, Last Action Hero was a surprise delight to experience in 2020. If I had any nitpicks it is that it was not as brisk a watch as I recalled as it clocks in a little over two hours and I came out of it feeling they could have trimmed at least a good 10 minutes or so off. For as big a deal LAH was when it hit in 1993 it was a bit of a buzzkill to see the no-frills BluRay have a complete lack of extras. I would have loved all-star action movie director John McTiernan (Predator, the good Die Hard films) do a commentary track with Arnold and a few other bonus extras, but it regrettably was not meant to be. At least I have this Uproxx take I can now peruse that will have to suffice for a bonus of some degree…..

Alrighty, I just finished the Uproxx 27 years later take on LAH and we share a lot of similarities. Uproxx’s Mike Ryan thesis is that LAH was too meta and ahead of its time in 1993, but perfect for a 2020 viewing experience. I could not agree with him more, and he grinds out the little references and meta-details more eloquently than I can here, so I highly urge you all to give his editorial a perusal. One key takeaway from Ryan’s article on why Last Action Hero came and went back then was because it made the big time mistake of releasing one week after Jurassic Park. No wonder it is not brought up with other classic Arnold films over the years. I am right there with Ryan on how LAH is an absolute marvel of a film, and if it has slipped by you all these years later then now is the perfect time to watch it in these pandemic times with zero movies hitting theaters nowadays. 1993’s Last Action Hero is the ideal 2020 summer blockbuster! BONUS EXTRAS TO COMPENSATE FOR BLURAY’S ABSENCE OF ANY Click or press here to check out this awesomely through ‘Did You Know’ style breakdown of facts and backstage filming secrects from Mental Floss Here is an incredibly thorough two part oral history of LAH complete with interview excerpts from the cast and crew And I will leave you with Cinemassacre’s ‘Rental Review’ roundtable of Last Action Hero….

youtube

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #last action hero #arnold schwarzenegger #austin o'brien #robert prosky #john mctiernan

1 note · View note

plaid-lover-bay25 · 7 years

Text

100 Follower Milestone

YAY! So I have decided to have some fun with this big milestone that I have finally hit. Since all of you lovely people are so amazing, I would love to hear your ideas. I’m going to do a little drabble request list. Below are the rules. Make sure to read before you submit.

Rule 1: Chose a word/phrase/feeling from the list below. Just one.

Rule 2: Chose your Supernatural pairing. It can be general, canon, non-canon, real life, doesn’t matter. (I will not do wincest)

Rule 3: Send me an ask with your choices. Multiple people can chose the same word/phrase/feeling. Won’t bother me.

Rule 4: All drabbles will be SFW. I don’t write smut. Sorry.

Rule 5: Make sure I have your word and pairing by Sunday morning. I’ll be writing the drabbles on Sunday and Monday while I finally have a break from work. If you send it in later that’s fine but I might not get to it.

Rule 6: Let’s have some fun! And you do not have to follow me to participate but following me would be nice.

Word:

1.Batman

2.Hot Pocket

3.Child

4.Baby (impala)

5.Dog

6.Candy

7.Video Game

8.Pillow

9.Drive

10.Shots(alcohol)

11.Candy Corn

12.Straw Walrus

13.Disney

14.Roses

15.Ice cycle

16.Loophole

17.Picnic

18.Hippopotamus

19.Hamster

20.Rainfall

21.Ladybug

22.Colt

Phrase:

1.Potato Sundays

2.Uh... no

3.As if

4.Super duper

5.Would you stop that

6.Put that thing back where it came from or so help me

7.I swear to Chuck

8.Do Angels get vacation days?

9.Did you have to mention pie?

10.Pie’s not that great

11.Shit. Sorry.

12.What are you listening to?

13.Are you two? Are you together?

14.Did you have to make him cry?

15.He’s gonna be pissed!

16.Now, what did we learn?

17.Let’s never do that again.

18.You did what?

19.Is that super glue?

20.Netflix and Chill

21.Can you not

22.What happened here?

Feeling:

1.Adoration

2.Anger

3.Guilt

4.Regret

5.Worried

6.Aloof

7.Somber

8.Chocolate Wasted

9.Migraine

10.Anxious

11.Distracted

12.Stubborn

13.Lonely

14.Overwhelmed

15.Grateful

16.Satisfied

17.Sick

18.Impressed

19.Playful

20.Uncomfortable

21.Grief

22.Bashful

Have fun with your choice. Can’t wait to see what y’all give me. If you don’t want to participate that’s fine but please share! Thanks!

tags(random): @impalaimagining @thisisnowmylife-gdi @grace-for-sale @katymacsupernatural @sammyneedsadog @myfand0msandm0re @kittenofdoomage @pinknerdpanda @essie1876 @hetaliameow @deanwinchesterforpromqueen @motherofangst @aimgilmore23 @frenchybell @justjessiehere @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms @heart-shivy @deaths-maiden @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid

#100 follower milestone #drabble request celebration #baylea writes #Bay hit 100 #send me things #celebration #100 followers #so excited

22 notes · View notes

circuspierrot-blog · 7 years

Text

I recently hit 150 followers on this blog, so as a thank you I have decided to create a bias list/follow forever/whatever you want to call this! If you are not on here I’m sorry, this was created off the top of my head and as a result it is inevitable that I miss some people. Just know that I appreciate every single one of you (except the p.orn blogs) and that I look forward to being more active on here!

But before I start the bias list, there’s some special people that I just need to have a bit of a rant about. So, in no particular order:

🎪 @facadesmiled - you’ve mentioned several times that you’ve been RPing as Joker since 2014, and it shows. The depth you give to his character is simply astounding! You have gone above and beyond the little canon information on him and developed your muse into someone that’s honestly a lot more human. He is suffering, he is hurt and, perhaps most importantly, you show that Joker is not inherently bad. Your writing (especially the Father’s Day drabble that you posted recently) really works to emphasise Kelvin’s influence over not just Joker, but the circus as a whole, and that really helps broaden your muse’s character. 🎪 @kniifethrower - the thing I like best about your blog is definitely how well you capture Dagger’s personality. He’s such an energetic, excitable character, and you manage to portray that really well through the dialogue you use. Even if it’s just a dashboard commentary or a one-liner, everything is so accurate to how he’s been presented in canon, and because of that your writing is a lot of fun to read! Not to mention that the way you write his accent is so cute. 🎪 @tameratrix - your Beast is amazing! She’s so well rounded and well thought out! She’s more than willing to stand up for herself and has a love-hate relationship with Betty, but at the same time she’s protective of her family and gets flustered and is just such a brilliantly thought out character. It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of effort into her character. 🎪 @pupacirci - I absolutely adore your Doll! A lot of your writing seems to emphasise her more childish qualities, and it really makes the reader think about her in a different light. A lot of the time Doll is seen as the ‘baby sister’ of the other First-Tiers, and your emphasis of her childish nature really shows that despite everything she’s been through she is still a child and she is the ‘baby’ of the group. However, you do play the more serious aspects of her personality very well too, creating a good balance between the two sides of her character. 🎪 @xircrocodile - scrEAMS IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION. Where do I even start??? You play Crocodile perfectly (so perfectly, in fact, that you are the reason I got into One Piece)and honestly you’re just a joy to talk to. Your writing is on point, you’re a great friend, and it’s amazing how even when you get the most random, out of place anons you still manage to stay 110% in character! You balance dialogue and description very well in your writing, and it’s fascinating to watch as your muses develop. 🎪 @jzsketch - your art style is adorable! All of your OCs have such creative designs, and your work is such a delight to see on the dashboard. The expressions, the colour palette, everything just works so well together, and your pictures are always a joy to look at! 🎪 @knoxsu - your writing is such a joy to see on the dashboard! Your Ronald is just so accurate to canon, it’s clear that you must have put a great deal of thought into how to write his character. The accent is perfect, and I think that the icon style you use works really well with your blog. 🎪 @aka-freckles - you’re someone who I followed very soon after making the blog, and I could not be happier that I did. Your Doll is true to canon, the description you use is always detailed and able to paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind, and every time you use an icon the expression perfectly corresponds with the emotion she’s showing in the thread. (An impressive feat, considering that she’s minor character and so has less icons available). 🎪 @sassygreytea - we’ve been mutuals for a few months now, and throughout that time you have actually made me like Grey’s character much more than I did initially. You play him so well, and I always enjoy talking with you, be it IC or OOC. I read through your threads even if I’m not involved in them because your characterisation is so interesting and your writing is always gripping. 🎪 @oflicorice - I can not tell you how great it is to see a minor character get so much attention from the fandom. Your Othello is laid back and gets straight to the point, and your writing is so fun to read. We haven’t gotten the chance to speak OOC much, but from what I’ve seen you seem like a great person! 🎪 @ask-peter-ofnoahsarkcircus - I’m so glad that Peter’s getting some attention within the fandom. Even though he featured very little in the actual circus arc, your writing brings him to life and gives some much-needed attention to a very underrated character. I always enjoy talking with you ooc, and our character interactions are always fun to write. 🎪 @erebus-cheslock - your writing is enjoyable to read not just because of how well you portray Cheslock, but also because of how developed his character is. He is someone who (unfortunately) does not have a lot of personality development in canon, yet the life you breathe into his character makes it seem as though he was a major part of the manga. His back story, the AUs, everything has clearly had so much time and effort into it and it shows how much you care about making your muse a more well-rounded, interesting character and not reduce him down to being just an upper-class musician who went to Weston.

Now, onto the bias list!

@ancerest (I’m so happy that Irene’s getting some attention, and your portrayal is 11/10) 🎪 @collapsahr (great url btw, and what I’ve seen of your writing is A+) 🎪 @domina-gladiis (you could literally write Elizabeth’s canon dialogue since you play her character so well) 🎪 @morsance (it’s fantastic to see you consider all aspects of Alois’ complex character in your writing as opposed to reducing him down to just a few key traits) 🎪 @thorncladreaper (reading your portrayal of Alan is always enjoyable, especially since he’s a character that’s often overlooked by the fandom) 🎪 @kodomokira (both your characterisation of Sachiko and your mobile banner are astounding tbh) 🎪 @ask-badly-drawn-sebastian (that mobile banner says it all. This blog is a masterpiece and should be cherished) 🎪 @fxtedtemsik (I love Ghost Trick, and I really like the way that you portray Yomiel) 🎪 @maurlce (your characterisation is so on point, it breathes a lot of life into your muse and really makes your writing a delight to read) 🎪 @deviliciious (I really love your portrayal of Sebastian’s demon form, it’s very creative) 🎪 @raajasii (you do Soma’s character so much justice! You clearly understand his character well) 🎪 @sugxrlips (you have a fascinating OC, both in terms of his personality and design, and I look forward to interacting with you) 🎪 @sullyxwan (we’ve never interacted, but I admire how well you play your muse) 🎪 @offearitself (we only became mutuals recently and by ‘recently’ I mean yesterday and although I don’t have much knowledge of Batman I find your portrayal of Jonathan to be very interesting and enjoyable to read) 🎪 @vphantomhive (can we all just take a moment to appreciate your aesthetic reblogs because they fit Vincent perfectly) 🎪 @hismaster-demanding (your threads are very interesting to read, and you always keep Ciel in character) 🎪 @moartea-rosie (the way you play Grelle is amazing, and I love the friendship her and my Ronald have)🎪 @mcdararui (I don’t actually know much about your character, but you’re very nice to talk to and I look forward to interacting with you IC)🎪 @hxpelesszetsubx (you play Junko so well, and I enjoy talking OOC with you)

Once again, I’m sorry if you’re not included on here, but just know that I appreciate you and feel free to interact with me anytime!

#▄█▌ sнε ωнσ ℓιεs вεүση∂ тнε εүεs σғ тнε αυ∂ιεηcε (ooc)#under a read more because of length #also if you have multiple blogs i focused on the one I've interacted with more or your main one #but let me know if you'd like my comments on the others and I'll add them :)

25 notes · View notes

tsubameongaku · 7 years

Text

{Fanfiction} Age of Innocence

Title: Age of Innocence Author: Tsubame Ongaku Fandom: Riverdale and BUGHEAD Rating: T Disclaimer: The series belong to CW with characters belonging to its respective artists.

Summary: [Pre-Series] Jughead and Archie reminisce on their past and understand the meaning of innocence.

Innocence.

A word often used on while we were young. But what does it mean? And whom does it really apply? Does this really only refer to those youths that don’t seem to know any better? Those without guile, cunning and dark agendas behind the eyes of the adults that no child sees or understands until they become one themselves …

“So, what are you writing?”

Forsythe “Jughead” Jones III looks up from his laptop screen to his bestfriend, Archie Andrews slipping into the seat in front of him. He was still wearing his football jacket and his hair was still slightly wet and slicked back from the shower that he most likely just had after practice.

The two were in Pop’s Diner to discuss their upcoming camping plans. To people watching them, no two people could be different. Archie was the smiling boy-next-door that everyone instantly liked. The other boy, Jughead Jones, was brooding and seemed very difficult to approach.

Jughead shrugged and took a bite of his burger before he responds. “Nothing much. I was bored. What did your dad say? Are we still on this weekend?”

Archie nodded and grinned. He has been excited for this trip for months and it would be the first time his father would let them go camping without his adult supervision. “Can you believe it? Maybe there is something about being sixteen that makes parents stop seeing you as a kid.”

Jughead became very quiet and couldn’t help but think that his friend still looked like he always had for the last ten years. He still looked … young to Jughead. Archie still believed in doing the right thing, justice in the justice system and that people are still innately good. So … innocent.

At the same time, he knew that Archie had stopped being innocent the day he and himself watched their first porn video at twelve years of age while his father was away. Since then, Archie began looking at girls very differently.

However, there it was. A very young Archie Andrews, whose biggest problem at the moment was probably who to take to the school dance and passing Chemistry pop quizzes.

It made Jughead wonder when he started feeling so old. When did he essentially lost his innocence? Because he lost it long before Archie lost his.

“You got quiet all of a sudden,” Archie said, interrupting Jughead’s thoughts.

“I was just thinking really,” he answered dismissively. As much as he knew that his boy-scout bestfriend would try his best to understand, Jughead knew he never really would. “Do you remember when we were kids, we used to think how cool it was how Superman could do all those stuff in the comics?”

Archie frowned. This was a bit random of Jughead, especially since he stopped reading comics a long time ago. Also, he was still a pretty big fan of comics, so he still thought that Superman was still pretty cool. He did remember though the time they were both still fans of that world. Jughead had often came over to his house after school where they would both read comics. Even back then, Jughead was more of a fan of Batman but lately Jughead was more interested in writing his own stories than reading someone else’s work. “Yeah, I remember. What is this about?”

“As kids we really never thought about all the people that had have been killed by the bad guys, like people that died from the Joker gas or the collateral damage from fights in the city or the victims of abuse. We just seemed to shrug it off.”

Archie thought about this. He hated to admit it, but he still didn’t. He liked a cool story just as much as the next guy he supposed. It wasn’t like something like in the comic books was really going to happen in a place like Riverdale anyway. “We were young I guess…”

His reply was pretty lame and Archie knew it.

Jughead didn’t seem to think so. He just nodded as if to agree with him. “I wonder how the people left behind feel, especially those people that died so brutally. What is their story? Vengeance? Grudges? They should also have a story to tell right?”

“Where are you going with this, Jug?”

“Innocence … I suppose. Where does it begin? More importantly, where does it end?”

Archie looked at his friend and thought about this. He could tell that knowing was important to his friend. However, he couldn’t say he was sure himself. Even though it has only been a few years since he was a kid, it already felt much longer.

He did remember that as a kid, comics had been an escape for him.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the ring of someone’s cell phone. It was Betty texting to let them know she would be finished with her tutoring soon. She would be catching up to them soon.

Archie smiled and told Jughead. “I guess it really ends when you start looking at things differently.”

“Like what?”

“Life? Girls?”

“You mean sex.”

Leave it to Jughead to be very blunt about it. “Maybe not just that. Even things like death. We don’t really think much about it since as kids we really only think about our heroes and every time our hero dies in the comics, they just come back so you could say we developed this naïve outlook of life and death.”

“And sex? When did you start looking at Betty differently?”

Archie blinked. Jughead was really laying it on him. “Betty? What are you talking about? I don’t see her differently.”

“You said when you start seeing girls differently and as we all know. Betty is a girl.”

“Betty’s different!” Archie said all too quickly. “She’s not just a girl. She’s my bestfriend.”

Jughead just stared at him for a moment and frowned. It was a weak argument and he could sense that even Archie knew it. It was clear to even him that he just refuses to see Betty as a girl. He’s seen Archie eye plenty of girls in school but the one girl Jughead believed who probably was the best person he knew was just off the table. “My friend, as long as she has an X and Y chromosome, she is, by all means, female.”

“You don’t understand.”

Jughead made a little shrug again. He already knew how stubborn Archie was. “You’re right. I probably don’t. She’s a great girl.”

“The best,” Archie agreed. “Which is why she deserves better…”

“But she wants you …” Jughead didn’t say that out loud. He sensed Archie probably knew this little detail anyway and it is probably why he was avoiding the subject. Betty had always had eyes for Archie since they were kids. He had always been on the outside looking in when they were together. “Maybe, but maybe you just probably don’t love her enough to fight for her.”

“What do you mean by that?” Archie actually looked angry this time. While it wasn’t unusual of Jughead to be painfully blunt, and usually Archie was too used to it to really mind, this time he was so mad his face was almost as red as his hair.

“Exactly as it sounds.” He didn’t feel obligated to lie to his bestfriend. “Arch, don’t be a coward. You will regret it.”

“I am not a coward. I care about Betty too much to … well dirty this.”

“Dirty what?”

“Our friendship. Her.” He wanted Jughead to understand. All his life, a lot of people probably already thought he and Betty were “endgame”. They have been together for so long and friends for so long. He knew better. Betty had a real future not tied to this town. In fact, last night she told him of an internship she had out of town. “She’s too smart … too innocent for someone like me.”

“And maybe that is your problem.” Jughead smirked. “You put Betty on some kind of pedestal. If you think Betty is simply just pure and perfect, then you probably don’t really know her at all.”

Archie became quiet as Jughead began finishing the burger he had been eating. He just didn’t know what Jughead was talking about. Of course Betty was perfect. He should know — they have been together almost their whole lives. He has seen Betty impress teachers after getting the highest grade in their class, lead charity drives for cancer patients and provide free tutoring to kids that can’t afford it.

Jughead knew that Archie just didn’t get it. While he sees what Archie sees and knows that she would never hurt her friends, he has also seen how her eyes darkened when someone from the football team says something out of line. It didn’t escape his notice how she has no qualms with getting even either, such as offering to tutor and teach the things that couldn’t possibly come out of the test.

No. Betty wasn’t perfect … nor was she as innocent as Archie seems to think. Then again, he was always the first to notice things about her. Such as … the innocence that Archie seems to think she has been lost long before Archie lost his …

“Why all this sudden interest in girls anyway?”

He gives another shrug. “I can’t say I am interested in girls per se. We’re talking about Betty aren’t we?”

Archie looked as his watch and began getting ready to leave. “I got to go. I am supposed to help dad at the construction. You’re going to be okay here?”

“Of course. Who do you think you are talking to?”

Archie leaves a few minutes later, again leaving Jughead to himself to write …

—

However, is the loss of innocence such a misfortune? After all, they gain something infinitely more precious.

The moment a child loses the stars in their eyes and their rose-tinted glasses they gain something very few will truly appreciate…

… they become wise.

—

He didn’t know how long he had been writing before Betty walked in with her books and bag in tow. She looked a little stressed out but there still wasn’t a hair out of place. Betty looked perfect and maybe that was why the world sees her as such, he realised.

She smiled when she saw him and he found himself smiling back.

She slid into the seat Archie vacated not long ago and gave a deep sigh. It has clearly been a long day for her. “Hi, Juggie. Did Archie leave?” She tried not to look disappointed but Jughead knew her too well to not notice.

“Yeah. He had to get back and help his dad,“ he told her. “Congratulations getting that internship by the way.”

She brightened. “Thanks, Juggie. That means a lot to me.”

“I know,” he nodded. “He’s happy for you too, Betts.”

She nodded knowing he meant Archie. She began rummaging through her bag, looking for her notes to start with her homework when something fell out of her bag. Jughead bends down to pick it up and finds that it was a pill bottle with Betty’s name on it.

“Are you seriously still taking these?” Jughead asked quietly, slipping them into her bag. It wasn’t the first time he’s seen them. He had seen in her room a few times when he sneaked into her room to visit. “Betts, you have to stop.”

Betty looked troubled but didn’t say anything. She knew he was right and she wanted to stop too. However, sometimes when the hurt was too much she get too weak to resist the temptation. “I can handle it. You don’t have to worry,” she assured him. “You worry too much.”

“And by the looks of it, you don’t worry enough.”

Instead of replying, Betty simply pulled out her notebook and began to work on her assignment. He would offer to let her copy off his, but he knew that she would always prefer to do it herself.

While the world saw Betty’s grades and her charities. Jughead saw little girl that was scared to go home because she was afraid to show her mother her test paper that didn’t have a perfect score. He saw the girl that cried into her pillow because she failed to raise enough money to save a little boy dying with Stage 4 cancer. He has seen her rage at the doctors for refusing to allow her one last visit before he died.

Perfect?

Archie doesn’t see it and Jughead doesn’t blame him. Betty Cooper wasn’t perfect … and that was why he loved her.

“Juggie?”

“Yeah?” he answered, not looking up from his computer screen.

“You’re playing Rebel without a Cause at the drive-in this weekend, right?”

He smiled behind the screen knowing that she wouldn’t see it. “Yeah. I guess I will see you there.”

She smiled. “It’s a date.”

#bughead #riverdale #michifics #fanfiction #fanfics #betty x jughead #jughead jones #betty cooper #fanworks #archie andrews #archie comics

47 notes · View notes

daleisgreat · 4 years

Text

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

youtube

The time has come to put a bookend to keeping up with Kevin Smith with today’s entry focusing on his latest film, 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (trailer). Before we get there, I feel obligated to say I was a huge fan of his first half of his career, primarily of his old ‘View Askew-niverse’ days when he first started off with affable stoner characters, Jay & Silent Bob being carryover characters in his first several films. I think I saw Clerks and Mallrats at least five times each and feel safe in saying those two would stand the test of time, especially Clerks. I dug Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when they originally released in my teenager days, but cannot help but think I outgrew Smith’s style of verbiage and humor he honed in on by that point, and have a feeling I would cringe at going back to them. I think I would like Zack & Miri and Clerks 2 more if some certain scenes got nixed. I thought Jersey Girl and Copout were not among his best, but both solid studio comedies and a nice way to mix it up from his regular output at the time. Red State felt like a hard left turn for Smith, and some parts I detested, but it kind of came together towards the end. Tusk however was absolute dreck and upon hearing how his follow up Yoga Hosers was an all-in spinoff of Tusk caused me to avoid Yoga Hosers at all costs and casually back away from the Kevin Smith fandom. This brings us to Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The sequel/reboot to 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. 18 year-old Dale, eagerly anticipated Strike Back, rushed out to see it opening weekend and poured through the DVD in multiple viewings of it and all its extras in the weeks after it hit home video. 37 year-old Dale however ignored Reboot during Smith’s nationwide tour where the only way to see it for several months was when Smith was touring it to boutique arthouse theaters and doing a Q&A afterwards for around $50-80. I only reluctantly picked up Reboot a few weeks after it hit video when I noticed it was on sale for half off and thought for that price I could get my fill out of it with some expected callbacks and cameos that were a big standout in Strike Back and I hope would save Reboot….and that is essentially what happened.

Reboot kicks off with Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) up to their old shenanigans loitering outside the Quick Stop, until they are promptly arrested, but saved in court thanks in part to their attorney. The attorney then informs he just tricked them into signing away their names to big budget Hollywood studios who want to reboot the Bluntman & Chronic movie Jay & Silent Bob failed at preventing in Strike Back. Worst of all, the reboot will be directed by Kevin Smith who is advertising fans to attend a fan fest in Hollywood to audition for a cameo! This leads to the duo condemning Kevin Smith, and travelling across the nation to stop Hollywood once again. Conflicts arise during their journey when they run into Jay’s old flame, Justice (Shannon Elizabeth) who informs Jay that he is now a dad. He soon meets his daughter Milly (Harley Quinn Smith), who brings her friends to tag along in order to win that cameo spot in the movie contest. I do not want to be a downer, but the actual core movie I did not care for that much. Jay’s potty-mouth humor had me in stitches in its small doses when he was a side character in the early Smith films, but it is agonizingly overkill here. There are the occasional gags that landed, like a certain free bonus a cab driver offered that appeared a handful of times throughout and Kevin Smith is legitimately good at portraying a kind of over-the-top grating version of himself at the fan convention. Jay eventually putting in an earnest effort at being a good dad in some of the final scenes culminated in some touching moments with Milly. These core parts of the movie that I enjoyed though are only peppered throughout, but what wound up saving Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was the avalanche of cameos littered from beginning to end.

There are some expected cameos from Jason Lee and Ben Affleck coming back as their former View Askew-niverse personas as Brodie and Holden, respectively. I feel safe saying that is not a spoiler since those two had extended cameos relative to the core plot in Strike Back and more-or-less do the same in Reboot. However for the rest of the film, well….I think Kevin Smith dialed in a lot of favors because this is one of the most impressive deluge of cameos in a film yet. Some play amped up versions of themselves, while others are quirky shillers for Funko Pops. During those struggling first two acts of the film, the saving grace was seeing who would pop up next and what Smith had in store for them. There are countless blink and miss it callbacks and references to other View Askew lore and Smith fandom throughout, especially at the convention in the end. I remember Kevin Smith’s early movies being loaded with extra features, and while there is a fair smattering here, it is comparatively lackluster to the deluxe sets from yore. I was stunned the BluRay omits a commentary track which are usually present in most of Smith’s home video releases. I do not blame him since he re-watched it dozens of times on his nationwide tour, but……hold on scratch that after a quick Google search it appears a month ago Smith released a special quarantined-themed commentary track for the film for free on YouTube that can be found right here. Good on him for that! Actual extras on the BluRay are highlighted by a near hour-long bonus merely titled ‘Cast Interviews.’ It is a barrage of two-to-three minute interviews from nearly all the major and minor/cameo players from the film. Lots of good little anecdotes in there and well worth your time! Following that is a half hour extra where Mewes and Smith interview a variety of the cast and crew which a third of is dedicated to….one major cameo I shall not name here. I will give props to Mewes for randomly getting quick interviews from some of the behind-the-scenes crew to make sure they get their proper due. Wrapping up the bonuses is the requisite blooper reel that does not disappoint and a two minute Hair Reel which is solely of Smith and Mewes adjusting their hair between takes.

Part of me wanted to say Reboot was the ideal farewell film of Kevin Smith to watch, but I see he has Clerks III in the pipeline, so I will ultimately have to cave and check that out too. Regardless, if you are a lapsed Kevin Smith fan and wanted one last trek with his style of comedy you grew up with, you kind of get that here and you also get why you left that in the past too. Regardless, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot does have its moments, and the cameos make it well worth riding this out until the end….including all the bonus shots/alt footage in the credits, lots of gold in there too including one last cameo I did not anticipate. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #jay and silent bob #jay and silent bob reboot #kevin smith #jason mewes #ben affleck #jason lee #shannon elizabeth #harley quinn smith

0 notes