#everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

I commissioned the talented @allyallyorange for Donna and Wally being buds. Look at these cuties! The best goofs!

#dc comics #donna troy #wally west #ginger army #everybody needs more donna troy in their life #this is my phone background now & i adore it

[prettylittlebrownskingyal]

Your commentary on titans 👌👌 give us the full review

My main problem with Titans is that there is (a.) no logical and solid justification for these characters and their actions and (b.) this may just be the film nerd in me— but there’s no emotional payoff.

 What irks me more is that the cast is incredible. They’re likeable and capable of handling emotion and they can clearly deal with more than they’re given.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure from writers to showrunners to directors and crew— a lot of work and time and energy has been put into the production of this show.  But these characters are so iconic and in my nitwit opinion, it’s almost painful to see their potential go to waste.

And I say potential because there are moments— mystical and magical, full of hope and wonder and rich comic goodness that make you want more. But they fall flat. 

“Families can be fucked up.”

Titans is supposed to be about family. They literally end the last episode with the song “We are Family.” So why would these people— who supposedly view each other as found family— abandon each other at every given opportunity?

They gang up on Jason in the tower when only moments before they were all fired up about saving the kid from Dr. Light. Gar gets left behind by himself with an unconscious, cleary dangerous super clone. Donna and Dawn fully agree to let Dick rot in prison.

These actions do not reflect people who care for each other. Who want to protect and keep each other safe. Why would this be the core emotional catalyst for any development whatsoever when no actual families are portrayed?

Also, here are two established families featured this season and there were no attempts to have them act as foils for each other even though that would have made clear sense. The Wilsons and the Waynes. Two kids that share stoic father figures that are linked to their trauma. Rose and Jericho have no relationship. No communication. No reason to trust each other. Also, why does Rose immediately give up her life for her father?

Dick and Jason’s relationship had some moments that could have been great to both of their character developments. Dick is his best when he’s being a big brother to Gar and Rachel. Why not let him be the same for Jason?

Here are some things I’d do differently.

1.) No Conner storyline

 Conner, Krypto and Eve’s episode (episode 6) was quite possibly the best of the season. It’s because a family dynamic is clearly established. (It’s a little weird, I’ll admit) But these characters rely on each other. They look out for each other. They care.  (“You didn’t abandon me”// “Can I call you mom?”// “Hot dogs? Get it?”– i ate that shit up)

That being said, it also feels like Conner was just created so they’d have someone to save Jason from his fall. 

The introduction of CADMUS as another antagonist when Slade is a major, overpowering one feels like too many things to juggle at once. If they’d held out, Conner and CADMUS would have been great as the main focal point for a whole season.

2.) More Jericho

Jericho was essentially the highlight of the season. I can’t tell if it was the way he was written or the way Chella portrayed him but that’s what Titans really needs. 

humanity. kindness. friendship and family ties. 

why couldn’t he have had more time with the Titans? why couldn’t he have a relationship with Rose? 

I’d have let him explore his abilities more. His relationship with his mom, with Slade, with each of the Titans. 

They needed to have actual bonding with him. Not just a shoddy backstory.

3.) Better treatment of Rose

Rose Wilson could have been so much more than just a plot point. More than an informant. All she did this season was eat cereal, say “i’m out” and then solve a major fight plot point in fifteen minutes. We needed more of her training, her relationships, her justifications to just pick and fall into a life of an assassin. 

She and Jason had some decent moments of believable cheesy teen behaviour between them but not enough to cover the gaping hole in Jason’s storyline.

4.) Jason needs more emotional moments!!

Not going to lie, I wasn’t sure Curran Walters could do big emotional scenes or make me care as much as he did. But he did. He’s got the bratty, troubled Jason down but he needs to be more fleshed out.

Like Rose, he feels like a caricature of a troubled teen. Where’s his interaction with Bruce? His backstory? His impulsivity and need to prove himself to Dick should be established but it’s not.

That scene where he learns that Rose has been using them all along? That was better than most of what we’ve seen him do.

5.) Donna as a big sister// Donna’s relationship with loss

You’re telling me “older smarter prettier”// “you can crash at my place” Donna Troy who took care of Dick would not look at these kids and want to help? After all Diana’s taught her? WACK

Also Donna and Garth’s relationship? It felt forced. He literally said “I love you” and then died. C’mon man, really? At least give them a pre-established relationship.

6.) Kory?? what happened y’all?

She felt so underutilized this season. Anna Diop is a star. She delivers her performance so well. The moment she heals Conner, her rushing to save Rachel— she has this essence of kindness that fits so well with her strength and the potency of her powers. 

She’s a gifted, royal powerhouse.

So why give her a runaround, stretched out storyline? Why make her kill someone she cared about? 

7.) Hank and Jason?//Dawn, Donna and Kory?// Dick & Gar

The dynamic between these characters whether seen or hinted at could have literally carried full episodes. Why consistently break them apart? Or make them fight or ignore each other? Why not let them play into each other, learn from each other? INTERACT??

8.) Bruce// Dick’s version of Bruce

I like Iain Glen as an older version of Bruce Wayne. I like that he’s a bit quirky, snarky, an asshole and he  says things like “no shit.” But he doesn’t serve much of a purpose and he feels like an instant solution in certain situations. Plus he has no interaction with Jason.

That being said, the use of him as Dick’s voice of reason/subconscious does hone in on the question that Dick keeps trying to run away from— “What would Batman do?” That works for his character. It works for his growth. Their dynamic is wonderful but ultimately, not necessary. 

9.) Donna dying?

That WHOLE scene was so out of place. Why would that have happened after the climax of the story? As an extra source of angst?

Again, the Titans are separated by death. Again, a sense of a family is built up and torn down. No one should have to die for a real sense of familial bond to be established.

10.) Deathstroke’s character//takedown

He’s supposed to be the main antagonist and they all have beef with him. Rightfully, everyone should have gotten a chance in that battle. It happened way too quickly and was very anticlimactic for the old Titans.

Also, Slade killing one of their friends with one, single bullet to the chest literally does nothing for me. Especially since Aqualad is supposed to be a Titan. There’s no real conflict, no tangible establishment of hate. Where’s the torture? the real hurt?

11.) Gar, Dick and Hank and their repeated storylines

they all went through the same arcs again. Dick with his Batman struggle. Hank and his own darkness. Gar and his struggle with control and being controlled and experimented on.

This season should have been about Dick coming into his own as Nightwing. About Gar finally having some normalcy and a place that he feels safe in. He should have gotten some redemption as a hero. Hank (and i hate to say, i hope i don’t sound ridiculous but) should have gotten some resolution with Dawn. Either they’re in or out because the back and forth they do with each other is incredibly toxic and they’ve been established as smart enough to see that.

It wasn’t all bad though and I’ll probably end up doing a re-watch sometime. Since I’ve pretty much spouted asshole nonsense, here are some of the best moments:

The end of the first episode where they’re all standing around their cars and laughing? GOLD. More of that cheesy, established friendship.

Jericho hugging Dick, Dick being unsure how to deal with warmth and forgiveness. Everybody say thank you to Chella for improvising that.

Kory and Donna being detectives and arguing over jelly doughnuts? Yes, please! I love them together. How they clearly knew each other, how they worked well together to take out Shimmer. 

Kory speaking Kryptonian. Anything that furthers her development brings me joy.

Conner saving Jason. That was pretty comic book like— I liked it. 

All the scenes Krypto’s in.

Hank telling Dawn that he knows what Jason’s probably feeling. That was emotional and heartfelt. Also, Hank going “Atta boy” when they were on the phone with Slade. I’m really upset they couldn’t have a brotherly relationship because their characters are quite similar.

Gar, Jason and Rachel interacting like friends/teammates/siblings. Their dynamic works. I’d love to have seen the three of them take on a challenge together.

#ar.txt #asks #prettylilanons #ar watches Titans #i have more thoughts but i can't form them right now. #Anonymous #titans #dc’s titans

[bcywonder]

CHARACTER SHEET repost. do not reblog.

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME.     richard john grayson NICKNAME / ALIAS.     dick, nightwing, robin, batman, agent 37 GENDER.     cis man HEIGHT.     5′10 AGE.   26/7 ZODIAC.     aries LANGUAGES.    fluent ; english, spanish, russian, mandarin, cantonese, tameranian - conversational ; asl, french, italian, perisan, kikuyu

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR.     black EYE COLOR.     blue SKIN TONE.       tan BODY TYPE.     athletic + slim - an acrobat’s build ACCENT.     it’s really all over the place, and dependent on who he’s talking to.  his neutral accent is a standard america, but it gets more new york the closer to gotham and blüdhaven he is, and lighter when he’s further away  VOICE.     tenor ; he doesn’t have an incredibly deep voice, but if he needs to sound intimidating - as nightwing or batman - he very easily can  DOMINANT HAND.     left for writing, right for shooting, ambidextrous generaly POSTURE.    he’s gone out of his way to make sure his walk is incredibly non-distinctive when he’s in civilian mode.  as nightwing it’s a lot lighter, more often jogging or running than actually walking ; as batman his footfalls are heavier, partially for intimidation, partially because the boots are heavier  SCARS.     too many to count ; his torso is littered with them - bye bye bikini - and his upper thighs have taken a couple knives in their time TATTOOS.     no BIRTHMARKS.      no MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S).    his smile! it can light up a room

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH.   unclear ; his citizenship technically denotes him as french, because haly’s was passing through at the time, but for all dick knows that could just be where they registered him HOMETOWN.     gotham city technically BIRTH WEIGHT.     7lbs BIRTH HEIGHT.     50cm MANNER OF BIRTH. home birth...technically  FIRST WORDS.     mama SIBLINGS.        no birth siblings - adopted, jason todd, tim drake, cassandra cain, stephanie brown, damian wayne ( some technically, some just...incidentally ) PARENTS.        mary and john grayson  ; bruce wayne  PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT.      incredibly involved ; dick was an absolute angel for his parents, never wanted them to be anything but proud of him.  after they passed, bruce was pretty involved with his life too, once he became robin 

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION.      police officer + vigilante  CURRENT RESIDENCE.          blüdhave CLOSE FRIENDS.          barbara gordon, wally west, donna troy, roy harper  RELATIONSHIP STATUS.             verse dependent ; most of the time w/barbara  FINANCIAL STATUS.               he’s got bruce as a parent so he’s never desolate, but he does rely on his own money more often than not so his apartment is horrendous and he runs out of money for necessities a lot DRIVER’S LICENSE.               yes CRIMINAL RECORD.              not that anyone can find - he’s friends with oracle VICES.               anger, righteousness 

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION.               bisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION.               bi PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE.         submissive |  dominant | switch. PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE.             submissive  |  dominant | switch. LIBIDO.                easy to ignore, but definitely high  TURN ONS.               praise, being treated gently, being asked what he wants, being able to know his partners needs/wants/dislikes, hickies, bondage TURN OFFS.           harm in a way that was not previous discussed, not being able to see his partner  LOVE LANGUAGE.               primarily physical - he’s very tactile - but he also loves to tell the person he’s with what he loves about them and why and how and 100000 other things RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES.              100% committed.  the person he’s with in that moment is the person he is absolutely devoted to, no matter what.  he gives everything in relationships, which often leads to him getting let down or disappointed.  he’s not even a little bit afraid of commitment, which in his line of work is a little dangerous 

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG.     lethargy by bastille ( get up get up pressure pressure / run away as fast as you can go / everyday your friends and lovers / give the answers everybody knows ) HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.               if he’s not on the job - either job - or working out, he’s working on old cases to pass the time.  he’s not good at staying still and taking down time  MENTAL ILLNESSES.             ptsd, depression, probably more PHYSICAL ILLNESSES.         not many ; he deals with aches and pains in general because of his profession, but he’s good at ignoring it  LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED.          mostly left-brained PHOBIAS.         drowning, losing people SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.          pretty high up there, if it comes to physicality.  emotionally...eh VULNERABILITIES.          everyone he cares about, everyone he needs to save, his family

TAGGED BY.  @hoodedmenace TAGGING.   @gothamdad @smallvxlle @kryptonfresh i cant think of any other friends that aren’t already tagged

#( about tag. ) #THIS WAS SO LONG RONNIE

[tessatechaitea]

Team Titans #21

Team Titans is an anagram for a tit stamen.

In this modern era, anything you say online can eventually come back to haunt you. But back before the Internet existed (or was mostly just drunk assholes and minors in AOL chat rooms), the main thing that could come back to haunt a person was writing into a comic book and asking for a pin-up issue. Sure, I had young person crushes on a few comic book characters. But I never wrote to Mike W. Barr and asked him to write a story where Halo spends most of the issue in her underwear. No, I wrote that letter to Jim Aparo. "Come on, Jim! Just have her coming out of the shower in some scene! I can't prove this yet because it's 1984 but it'll probably become common practice to draw characters in towels getting out of showers when artists like David Finch and Tony S. Daniel become popular! And their renditions of adult women will look even younger than your rendition of Halo!" I find the amount of "Ooh la la"s and "Ha cha cha cha"s I've had to read in the letters pages of The New Titans since they published a swimsuit shot of the women of the Titans incomprehensible. And I'd find it incomprehensible even if that amount were just one. Which it was not. I wouldn't be too flabbergasted if I didn't think mostly grown ass men wrote to comic books. I know kids did too! Take Roy Thomas as an example. But no way are young people the majority of letter writers. Speaking of comic books, I just read Terry Moore's "Five Years" and it pissed me off. Mostly because eight out of the twenty pages were blank. After the first blank page, I thought, "That was a weird choice." But it kind of fit because it was squarely at the point in the narrative where the phi bomb goes off in Katchoo's dream. But then a few pages later, it was a double spread of blank pages. Being a Master Comic Book Reader, I thought, "This can't be right." And it wasn't right! Not at all! Now I have to purchase a new copy so I can see what I missed. And, no, I won't be taking this copy back to the comic book store. It has my greasy fingerprints all over that stupid glossy black cover that Terry Moore insists on doing! Not that I think the store would resell it. But I do know they'd have a great set of my fingerprints to use for nefarious purposes. Or possibly legal purposes that would just get me in trouble. At least "Five Years #1" had blank pages so I knew something was missing. It took me 20 years to finish reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman because I didn't realize there were something like eighteen pages missing from The Kindly Ones trade paperback I own. This issue begins with the U.S. military surveying the damage from the Team Titans battle with Lazarium.

Being that Lazarium was only killing Titans, this means the Team Titans have killed 36 more civilians than Lazarium. Way to go, heroes!

Writer Jeff Jensen didn't have the balls to kill all of the extra Titans in the black hole so he decides to have most of the survivors attack Battalion and the other Titans. Enough comic book readers accept the premise that at least half of the battles in comic books have to be good guy against good guy, no matter how stupid the reason. And the reason doesn't get any stupider than having a bunch of Titans that were just battling alongside Battlion to suddenly decide the only sane reaction to Battalion suggesting they clean up the mess is to shoot Donna Troy in the face. At the very least, it gives Mirage a chance to mention that 500 Titans just died. After coming up with Wonder Boy and Two Gallon Hat and Liquid Joe, Jensen realized he was out of ideas so he just killed most of the others. And yet he seemed so excited to build a new Titans universe with hundreds of new characters! I wonder if he did come up with five hundred characters whose names were even worse than Liquid Joe and Two Gallon Hat, so the editors told him he was fucking crazy if he thought DC was going to use any of them. The Titans seek refuges at the Justice League Embassy in New York. I forgot there was a time when the Justice League forwent their headquarters to run embassies all over the world. Giffen and DeMatteis must have thought there'd be big bureaucratic Marx Brothers type laughs in trying to run an embassy. And I suppose there could have been! Did they ever do a story with some Assange-like villain like Calendar Man or The Riddler seeking asylum from Batman's fists? At the embassy, Donna Troy works out a sweet deal with the government to allow the Titans a life free from being blamed for every little problem that crops up in New York.

Great negotiating, Donna! "Do whatever the government wants or be hunted like vermin!" She's the fucking Trump of the Titans.

The government's deal amounts to the same deal the Team Titans had already accepted in their future life. The government will provide them with basic necessities and education in exchange for working in small military groups united under some mysterious leader. They all jump at the chance to not do anything different with their lives, especially considering that the other option was to be shot on sight whenever they mentioned their stupid names. The government, with the help of gossip reporter Cokie Roberts, concoct a story to cover up the Titans murder of two hundred people. I know it was reported earlier by me that they only killed three dozen non-Titans. But it turns out, according to Cokie and the government, two hundred non-Titans were killed by the black hole. I suppose they're including all of Lazarium's henchmen and also all the people the government killed when they realized they had the perfect excuse to disappear them with the Titans' black hole. It's interesting that nobody worries about all the people killed in the black hole because that was an "accident" and yet everybody loses their minds when they think about Nightrider killing the guy ultimately responsible for it all. Maybe they're all just grossed out that he drank blood.

I'm just going to assume the Wonder Woman look-a-like's name is Frottage Girl.

Mirage feels badly about deceiving the public since she pretended to be Lazarium so that the world wouldn't know the Team Titans killed him. But Cokie Walters is all, "Don't fucking worry about it, slut! The news lies all the time!" I guess when you're a celebrity gossip reporter, you don't really worry too much about journalistic ethics. A proper reporter wouldn't have lied about this story. They would have just interviewed some government agent who would lie about the story and then they'd shrug their shoulders and go, "Well, I guess that's one side of the issue! If only there were somebody who could investigate the story to find out how true it is. I don't know who that would be though. A doctor? Or an astronaut? It's a mystery!" While the Team Titans film another puff piece with Cokie Walters, Donna Troy approaches Wonder Woman with a problem: she wants her powers back.

If the graph of an argument doesn't look like an ouroboros, Donna Troy wants no part of that argument.

Donna wants to petition the Greek Gods to get her powers back and she needs Diana to be her arbiter. Diana says, "You have my support in everything you do," and now I don't know why I'm so aroused.

Maybe it's due to panels like these that I can't help reading out of context.

Donna confronts the Titans, pleading with them to return her powers. But the Gods have a law: "No take backs. Too bad, so sad." So they send her back to Earth where she lands in the yard of Terry Long's ex-wife. She looks in the window and sees a happy family scene starring Terry and his ex-wife and Terry's daughter and their son. She lets her low self-esteem get the better of her and runs away thinking her marriage is probably over before she can hear Terry yell at his ex-wife for being a snarky jerk. So a happy ending for once! Team Titans #21 Rating:: C-. My main question for Marv Wolfman and Jeff Jensen is this: how the fuck did you manage to make a comic book with this much potential so fucking tedious?! Maybe you need to have a teenager's sense of drama to find any enjoyment out of this comic book at all. Killowat loves Mirage but he's a racist and she's all, "No way! Probably! We'll talk!" And Nightrider needs to eat people but he won't so he almost dies but then he eats a person! Donna Troy was happily married until she saw Terry and his ex-wife getting along for five seconds and now their marriage might be over! Battalion constantly calls people cheeseheads and their heads aren't even really made out of cheese! Terra loves Gar but Gar is all, "The boner you give me makes me feel guilty! Go away!" Redwing is all, "Prester Jon, my brother! We can finally hug!" But Prester Jon is all, "Ew! You're gross with the pointy ears and talons and veiny wings! Get away!" Also, what happened to Deathwing? I really hope Mirage dismembered him. Hopefully Jensen will devote a full issue for a flashback of that scene.

#Team Titans #Teen Titans #DC Comics #DC #Comic Book Review

[notspeedy-blog1]

–– 𝚁𝙾𝚈 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙿𝙴𝚁, 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴 𝙲𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶𝙴𝚁.

( aka howdy folks! i’m cee and i’ll be writing everybody’s favourite walking disaster otherwise known as roy harper ! here’s one hell of a hot mess of an intro post. )

okay so hello hello everyone!! i can already warn you all that this will be ramble-y and i apologise profusely in advance for that. i’ll be mixing elements of n52 and pre52 into my portrayal of roy! i will be making a few changes here and there to his backstory n past struggles with details from the good ol’ pre52 times, such as his addiction history. ( aka he’ll have had his heroin addiction rather than an alcohol addiction because What The Fuck Lobdell Addictions Are Not Interchangeable You Wild Man. ) when it comes to roy’s personality, he will have his more positive outlook on life that he has in the n52, but he will not be dumbed down to the almost shocking level he’s been reduced to in his rhato run. ( don’t get me wrong, i adore the series! but roy is better than what lobdell has given us. can you hear me sharpening my knives yet. ) because i’ve been blessed with the level of power only dc writers usually have, roy’s timeline here will be an accumulation of all sorts. i’ll stop rambling and get on with the show! 

also !! if you’re the mun of any of the characters i’ve mentioned below and would like to plot a flashback around anything or would be interested in having me change some of the details, feel free to message me either here or on discord and we can plan some things! i’m always down! :+) ( just ignore how nervous i can get around new people !! )

trigger warnings for: mentions of death, drug use/addiction and abuse.

when roy was very young, his father, a forest ranger, died in a forest fire on a navajo reservation. roy was then consequently taken in by a navajo medicine man named brave bow in return for roy’s father saving his life. it was under brave bow’s wing that roy began to practice archery and marksmanship.

as he grew older and his skills grew with each passing day, roy came to idolise another archer who, essentially, was a modern day robin hood in terms of his methods and beliefs. ( hi there, ollie. ) in a desperate attempt to prove himself to the green arrow, roy entered an archery competition being held relatively close to the reservation.

despite losing the competition, oliver recognised the talent and determination within the young boy and took him under his wing to act as his partner. ( and so, the nickname speedy was born! roy picked it solely because he was faster than ollie. that’s it. that’s all there is to it. bless this dork’s heart. )

following the events of brave bow’s death, roy officially became oliver’s ward.

after some time of working with ollie, roy felt the need for independence and a change and so joined the teen titans.

for some time, things were going well for roy. the teen titans were going strong as a group and he had begun a relationship with donna troy. however, things failed to continue going so smoothly. roy and donna broke up and the team disbanded. along with oliver neglecting roy at the time due to losing his fortune. it was at this point that roy began using heroin, to which he would soon become addicted.

when oliver discovered roy’s habit, he flew into a rage. unable to see through his anger, he lashed out at roy, physically hitting him before kicking him out, leaving roy homeless and alone in the world. 

roy eventually find solace in an abandoned apartment and remained there for a short amount of time before he was found by hal jordan. 

concerned for roy’s safety and well-being, hal suggested taking roy to rehab but roy refused, saying he wished to kick the habit himself so that he could prove to oliver that he was just as strong as he was and so that he could rub it in oliver’s face. reluctantly, hal respected roy’s wishes and took him to dinah lance, oliver’s girlfriend at the time, so that he had somewhere safe to stay whilst going through withdrawals. 

( wiggles my tiny hands in the fashion of jazz hands  –– this is where i’m gonna alter his backstory a little to encourage growth and development within the group !! )

after getting clean and staying sober for well over a year, roy vowed to find his independence with a newfound ferocity. reclaiming the alias of arsenal, he’s currently juggling the direction of his life between mercenary and vigilante ( the line can’t get much thinner ) to pass the time, traveling from place to place or wherever his contract requires. despite having enough work to reach up to his eyeballs, roy still feels as if he’s lacking something. i guess you could say he’s just here for a good time for now. wink.

#united intro #➶ –– headcanon ! #[ this got... como se dice... lengthy ] #[ if anyone would like to plot or anything pls don't hesitate to send an im or message me on discord !! ] #[ i'm just gonna sit back and pretend i'm not SUPER intimidated by everyone gfdhjdfh YIKES @ me ] #[ me: posts this me: runS FOR THE HILLS ]

[thotyssey]

On Point With: Queen Robert

Hilarious, oddball antics and high-meets-low-meets-intergalactic fashions do away with the need for some funny-punny drag name for this performer. Whether she’s interjecting with a slaying quip while screening a classic film, or giving you the whole Big Ang Experience in a high stakes lip sync battle, or just being funny and fierce, this queen is giving you life. God Save Queen Robert!

Thotyssey: Greetings, Queen! How is Pride Week treating you so far?

Queen Robert: Hello! Thank you! I've been looking forward to gabbing with you. Pride has been good to me so far! It's been chaotic, but extremely gratifying, and we're only half way through! I also started bartending at the Rosemont this month, so even when I'm not out in drag I'm still out on the scene. It's an exhausting month for anyone working in nightlife.

Wow, that is a lot of nightlife. You must never see the sun!

I actually sat out at the Christopher Pier a couple of days ago while on my way back from a costume fitting. I looked like a vampire amongst all those honey-glazed hunks. I definitely prefer the light of the moon.

It's much more flattering, for sure. So speaking of the Rosemont, you just guest performed for Lucy Ball's show there last week.

I adore Lucy. She's a total weirdo. Her transformations set her apart from anyone working in Brooklyn. Did you see her Lambchop and Cryptkeeper? Incredible. Patti Spliff, another genius, was also performing that night. The three of us each have monthly Tuesday parties at The Rosemont, so it was fun to get together for a show. I did Donna Summer, farted on a cake and then pressed my face into it....because...drag.

You should do kids' parties! 

So, how did this all begin... where's your hometown, and what were you into growing up?

I'm from a small town not worth mentioning, in south central New Jersey. New York was always just on the horizon, like the Emerald City in Oz. I often wonder how this all began myself. There's a few memories that come right to the surface: my first wig, a green one from Universal Studios Orlando at age 5; my first two concerts at 7, Cher and Bette Midler; religiously renting The Rocky Horror Picture Show on VHS from blockbuster at 9; my mom playing Queen's Greatest Hits in the kitchen and telling me that Freddie Mercury was the coolest man who ever lived.

I always went big for Halloween--really big, I'm talking prosthetics by third grade and gender play by sixth. Then I got into theater, film, and eventually ended up in Manhattan for college, where I was able to release all of my passions without the constraints of small town life. 

Growing up, I was into everything spooky and queer that defied the norm. It wasn't a conscious rejection of heteronormativity, it was simply who I was from the very beginning. Anyone who thinks I'm new to this type of lifestyle and culture is in denial of my entire existence.

So movies were always there! Besides Rocky Horror, what are some other favorites?

Creature features will always have a special place in my heart. I find them to be a metaphor for anyone who has ever felt they had something to hide about themselves. American Werewolf in London, The Fly, Carrie, Gremlins, anything from the minds of Stephen King, John Carpenter, and John Waters. Oh, and the Chucky franchise has always been a favorite of mine. I have all the dolls.

Did you see that Carrie remake, like, 5 years ago? It was dumb. Well, there are two remakes: an early 2000's TV movie, the 2013 Julianne Moore remake, and a 90's sequel to the original. All have their charm, but the best part of each incarnation is surely the role of Margaret White, Carrie's psycho momma. Gays really seem to relate to that film, and the character Carrie. I know I did. She's the ultimate outcast who gets the greatest revenge on her abusers. My first drag performance in Brooklyn was actually a parody of Carrie, where I played both mother and daughter, appropriately set to the music of Madonna and Britney. Metropolitan [Bar] wasn't thrilled with the blood, though.

Was drag just the best venue for you to explore these aesthetics and interests, or was there something else about it that strongly appealed to you?

I moved to NYC to pursue a career in film, and while on that journey came to desperately miss performing. So, yes, drag was the best way to jump back in the performance ring while combining politics, pop culture, and aesthetics. It was hard at first to build an audience for my film work before drag. Now I'm in this creative community where anything is possible, and I can get back behind the camera and generate content that has an audience. Drag is a powerful platform, and I'm excited to see what other avenues it may lead me down.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Why don’t you have a wackier drag name than “Queen Robert?” I mean, it is kind of funny in a minimalist sorta way.

I get that all the time! I have a whole list of wacky drag names, and I'd love to utilize them for some more character driven work / alter egos (Gaggatha Christie is my evil twin; I keep her locked up, though).

My drag, isn't necessarily female impersonation, I have a beard, I don't wear a bra, I'm never out here trying to be "fish." I'm a camp queen, so my personality is wacky enough. I never liked my name Robert, until one day I threw "Queen" in front of it and I was like, "oh yeah, that's better!” I'm a butch queen; I embrace my femininity and masculinity. Robert is a very masculine name... but honey, I'm a damn queen! Drag for me hasn't been about inventing a new personality and a new name; it's about being my ultimate creative self.

Also, there's so many repeat names in the drag business, it's annoying to constantly have to clarify which artist you're talking about depending on first or last name. I'm the only Queen Robert: unless you wanna try to compare my name to Bob the Drag Queen--but that would be silly, her real name is Caldwell!

So, how did you begin hosting “Screen Queen” at the Rosemont?

Troy at the Rosemont took interest in my pop culture numbers and said he had a monthly slot available. Being a film buff, I naturally turned the night into a celebration of local queer filmmakers and popular movies in the LGBT community.

What’s your personal strategy of “screen queening,” particularly with the classics? Do you share anecdotes during the movie, do you wait til it’s over, or do you just let it speak for itself?

It's a fun night! I show the film early, chime in from time to time with fun anecdotes or conversation with the audience about their experiences with the film. Then we jump into shows inspired by the film. This month was Pink Flamingos, and this got filthy! Lee VaLone was licking shoes. Pepto Dismal shit eggs on a hot plate. Misty Menthol puked on Coma White. People were actually gagging. Divine would have been proud. Next month is the much more family friendly Mamma Mia.

Yikes, I can’t wait for you to do Showgirls! What have been some of the films that affected you as far as those made by local filmmakers that you’ve screened?

Joe Sulsenti's Fishy was a highlight. It's an animation starring Amanda Lepore. There's so many talented artists that I've been able to screen, I love them all. Sweaty Eddie, Chris of Hur, Amber Alert, Marcel Saleta, Miwa Sakulrat, Chris Crompton. Everybody has such a unique voice and style. It's wonderful hearing their process.

Werk! So I was in the house for the last session of the Lady Liberty drag competition at the Ace Hotel a few months ago. It was a “Snatch Game” celebrity impersonation edition, and you appeared as a clean-shaven Big Ang with ginormous bazooms! It was a hilarious and affectionate portrayal, and it got you in the top two. What made you decide to enter that completion as her? My lesbian bestie Daniella in New Jersey and I would religiously watch Mob Wives and Big Ang together. I regret so deeply I didn't go to her bar in Staten Island, The Drunken Monkey, to meet her before she passed. She's one of my spirit animals (her and Kathy Bates). Everyone said I shouldn't do her for “Snatch Game” because of Pearl's portrayal on Drag Race. But, I have been impersonating her in some sense for years, so I felt it was necessary. And I know her family saw my portrayal and they said she would have loved it. Party everyday, because you never know when you're gonna go!

Lady Liberty returns for a Pride edition this Friday to the Ace Hotel, and you’re gonna be back there too! How do you think it’s gonna go!? I think that they are expecting to get another "Big Ang" moment, and that's simply not what I have cooking. They'll be getting something uniquely me. I hope it goes well!

I bet it will! 

And looking a little bit ahead, you'll be at Bizarre on post-Pride Tuesday for a special edition of Lee Valone's BEEF, with a bunch of cool people like The Brides of Burlesque, Pierretta Viktori, Devo Monique and Viktor Devonne. Have you turned it on that stage before?

I love performing at Bizarre! They really have a proper stage, which does help heighten numbers. BEEF Show is a damn riot, always diverse, always entertaining, and I'm thrilled to join this month's cast.

June 28th, you'll be throwing your wig into the June installment of the Mx Mont Rose comedy queen pageant at the Rosemont! That's gonna be quite a lineup. No spoilers, but did you know what you wanted to do immediately for that one?

Comedy is hard. There's a fine line to walk. People are very sensitive. One safe bet is to make fun of yourself. I'm hoping to give you something like the result of Joan Rivers topping Robin Williams after a drunken night at The Rosemont.

That’s all any of us want! Good luck! Anything else coming up to mention?

There's always something. Tuesday, July 3rd at The Rosemont, Screen Queen: MAMMA MIA featuring my sisters Chutney Spears, Tiffany Jones Sterling, Flower Tortilla, and Jessica Rose. [And I’m doing] FAILURE, July 5th at Bizarre.

But what's really exciting is the music video I'm directing for Crystal Mesh this summer. I'll give you a hint... there's gonna be lots of chlorine and cum.

Gag! One last question: what advice do you have for new NYC Pride-goers this week?

More glitter. Less clothes. Stay hydrated. Tip your performers AND bartenders! Have fun and be safe! Oh... and be sure your Pride merch benefits the community or a cause, and not some capitalist corporation that doesn't truly support the LGBT community!

The Queen has spoken! Thank you!

Queen Robert hosts “Screen Queen” every first Thursday at the Rosemont (10pm). Check Thotyssey’s calendar for all her scheduled gigs, and follow the Queen on Facebook and Instagram.

On Point Archives

#onpointwith #queenrobert

[omg-chronoscontracter]

Pain and ‘The Beetle in the Box’

Introduction

I should say this will not be a long piece but rather a brief play of some of my recent ideas.

I shall explore the notion of pain once more in a more linguistic and philosophical sense. I shall briefly cover a history of pain and then consider briefly the Descartes dichotomy between mind and body. By defining pain in some detail, I shall go on to look at linguistics, more so semiotics, and explore the notion of pain in reference to the Wittgenstein’s metaphor of the ‘beetle in the box’. I hope to provide an insightful and different discussion on pain, one that highlights the complexity, but also links the linguistic importance of making the connection between pain and description.

 How Far Have We Come?

For over 300 years, the human understanding of pain has changed dramatically. Even today, we still do not understand everything there is to know. What can be accepted is that pain is a unique experience, different for everyone. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as;

‘Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of that damage’

(IASP, 2007).

 Whilst interesting, perhaps this definition has developed McCaffreys (1979) definition of pain that recognises its experience as one that defies objectivist notions of definition and description. For McCaffrey, pain is a subjective experience, it is an experience that exists as a person says it does and ‘existing whenever the person says it does’. Whilst an interesting sentiment, the idea of a scientific study of pain cannot fully comprehend a singular definition. As pain is multimodal, and on extension multi-experiential, science can only begin to define pain as a process within the body.

For those who can understand the language of science and medicine, pain is a process termed ‘nociception’. Nociception is process from the body coming into contact with a painful stimulus and the perception of pain for the individual. Whilst the process is complex, it takes merely seconds for the perception of pain to occur, making it a conscious experience. In a nutshell, pain and the central nervous system are key to understanding how as people we come to experience and understand pain. A simple explanation is that pain travels along the spinal cord and the brain processes the signals that have travelled the spinal cord.

In 1677, Rene Descartes developed his notion of cartesian dualism. For Descartes, the mind and body are two entirely separate entities. Whilst there was some initial understanding of pain, the body as a physiological being was not understood. Descartes famous image of the man and fire (further explanation in my previous blog ‘Bodies in Pain: Time to Destroy Discourse’) was able to highlight that a painful stimuli caused an experience of pain as a painful stimulus travelled through fibres in the body. What does this have to do with the dualist notion of the body? In this framework, the body was dead matter that had a soul, located in the brain. Descartes deduced that pain was real, but it was a phantom limb in pain. This phantom limb would create pain but this was felt within the soul and not the body, therefore in its basic conclusion, the brain perceived pain and not the body. Now, we are talking about a time where it was also proposed that spirit animals and and fibres were causing pain. This comparison was no different from pulling a cord to a bell, the body as machine. Whilst science can see fallibility in the descriptions, this began the scientific understandings of pain and has lead to ideas of what we call nociceptive impulses.

Whether we take a more philosophical-scientific understanding or the scientific understanding, one thing is certain. The body and pain are intrinsically linked. What I hope to explore in the coming paragraphs is the link between pain and language, the link between discourse and experience. Is pain a simple scientific definition? What does Scarrys (1985) notion of pain as a discourse destroying phenomenon? Is there a link between pain and language? Can pain ‘simply be spoken of simply as pain’? as per Latham’s notion. Does Wittgenstein’s analogy of the ‘Beetle in the Box’ highlight a significant error in our linguistic thinking? It is these issues I hope to elaborate on.

 ‘Let Pain Be Spoken Simply As Pain’

Whilst Scarry (1985) has influenced my own approach to work and interest, she falls into a very unfavourable position of treating the metaphoric ways of conceiving such as suffering as a an ‘actual entity’ (Bourke, 2014), and whilst many would give a life to pain, it cannot be seen purely as a literal entity and not a part of an individuals life. In my view, pain is always a subjected subjection to individual interpretation, either as a sufferer or observer. Perhaps Latham’s understanding of pain would be better, that pain is a philosophical, linguistic and pathophysiological experience, physiological in the final sense of perception. Pain involves great significance within these terms and I hope to briefly highlight this issue.

Perhaps a turn towards Wittgenstein’s linguistic idea of the beetle in the box is a useful way to understand my point. He asks a question arguing that we do not speak of sensations such as pain everyday, so what is the fuss? He turns towards a more founding understanding of linguistics, the cultural understanding of language that is learnt by different groups within society (to put it modestly). For Wittgenstein;

 ‘…how is the connection between the name and thing set up? This question is the same as: how does a human learn the meaning of the names of sensations? – of the word ‘pain’ for example.’

One would need a simple understanding of semiotics to understand this adaptation of the basic principles of the linguistics of semiotics. One can perhaps refer to my previous blog on pain and discourse to understand the definition in more detail. The basic understands come from Saussure’s A Course in General Linguistics (1916). What Saussure argues is that language is a cultural mechanism and not natural. Semiotics is defined a system of signs and this forms language. A sign requires two core concepts, a signifier (a concept) and signified (a thing). By putting these signs together in an order forms language. Whilst the signified does not change within language, the actual verbal expression does. Simply, put it for example, the number 3 in English is pronounced as “three”, whereas in France it is pronounced as “trois”. Understand this basic concept, the rest of this blog will fall into place.

‘…words are connected with the primitive, the natural expressions of sensations and are used in their place. A child has hurt himself and he cries; and then the adults talk to him and teach him exclamations and, later, sentences. They teach the child new pain-behaviour.’

Perhaps this idea could be linked to Donna Haraways semiotic materialism in her work within the field of actor network theory, which is not something I will discuss here. However, Wittgenstein’s philosophy can ask questions such as does pain mean crying? Consider the above definition, a child will cry when is hurt but do the two things mean the same? Bourke (2014) considers having a diary. Imagine a world where we could not communicate pain. Each person would write ‘S’ each time the particular sensation was felt. But what does this mean? How do we define this? How would others communicate this? A simple explanation could side with this kind of theory if we consider the difficulty in trying to define pain in the first place. Wittgenstein argues, in the world of words for feelings, that pain is ‘inter-subjective’ and such acts had to be learnt to be given meaning.

Consider the idea of the beetle in the box? Everybody could have a box, and everybody could connect with the idea of the box as each person had a box or some representation of a box. Now add a beetle to the box and further add that only the person with that beetle and box could peer into the box. People could only understand what a beetle was by looking into their own boxes. In theory, it is plausible to consider that each person referred to the ‘beetle’ as something entirely different. Consider having an empty box, this could still be a beetle. Essentially, the term “beetle” could be used as communication with no meaning or have no physical, or even psychical, relation to anything. As Bourke (2014) goes on to explore, it is not just the linguistic nature of pain that is important, but rather the role of ‘the beetle in the box’ in relation to a public experience of pain. As the previous metaphor shows, pain must be a private experience if we consider the story told above.

Consider the interchangability of the word “pain” and “beetle”. What if they meant the same? Could this be better understood. Consider removing the “S” and replacing this with “beetle”. It would be of the utmost importance to have a shared language that is understandable. Wittgenstein says;

‘…mental language is rendered significant not by virtue of its capacity to reveal, makr, or describe mental states, but its function in social interaction.’

A simple lesson from history is that different languages and the interactions they play must be understood in ordered to make ‘educated’ cases about the ways their beetles have been understood, packaged and protected. This idea can be applied to pain as Douglas puts it, we describe the noxious stimuli away from how it feels, such as a “sharp” knife injury. By arguing that we have  a sharp sensation, we are qualifying a nerve over a noun. In a nutshell, pain describes an experience but not what is experienced. The knife is not a property of the injured area, but not a property of the injured area. Through this we could argue that we perceive things rather than a thing in itself (Bourke, 2014). It is good to remember, pain is a way of experiencing a sensation and not the sensation, how we evaluate the experience.

One way to consider this issue of pain is how do people do pain? From when we are born, as exemplified by the quotation previously, we learn pain and interaction based upon the interaction of others. We can interpret based upon what we have observed or seen. The issue arises when pain is explored within a cultural, social, familial context (for example. Due to these complexities, pain involves a complex barrage of relationships and outcomes, activities and expectations;

‘Pain, itself a thing of life, can only be tested by its effects upon life, and the function of life. And whether it be a small or great (so to speak), or to whatever degree, it is to its effect upon life and the functions of life that we must look.’ (Latham).

 In Summary

Pain is always understood as being in pain. It effects the self and the states of self that we experience and perceive within our own lives. Pain is very complex, multifactorial and multimodal. Much of what we call ‘pain’ is still being understood. There is a core link between the self and language of pain. One extreme would be to consider pain as an entity, as in the literalisation of language proposed by Scarry, another way is to consider pain is to consider it as part of someone, the private, the psychical, where understanding is not fully understood and no one else can fully understand. In order to understand pain, one way to explore it is to understand how pain has been done in the past, again this is much interpretation. Whilst this is true, pain is not purely a perception based experience, as if this was the case, pain would be purely mind and not physical.

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

five phones on the table

DCU, Titans Rating: Gen 1,077 words AO3 A look at the fab five by looking at their phones. Sometimes you want to try something weird with your writing style so you get an idea and call it a character study. This is what comes of that.

The long table with its numerous chairs was, by proximity to the kitchen, a dining table but due to the nature of the building it occupied doubled as a meeting and strategy table. The small net, paddles, and light plastic balls stored in an innocuous box in the kitchen meant it tripled as a ping pong table.

Currently, its occupants were not any number of the young heroes who were welcome in the halls. No one sat eating breakfast, though a ring of coffee and stray bit of egg would need to be cleaned off, or tinkering with anything from weaponry or gadgets to video game controllers or motorcycle parts. No drops of blood from emergency triage covered the top or powdery strings from aerosol cans thanks to prank wars.

Instead, five cell phones lay abandoned in the otherwise empty rooms. As useful as they can be, even just to stave off boredom on a stakeout, their owners weren’t in the habit of grabbing them when danger called and they rushed to face it. While their owners had grown in time with the rapid developments of cellular phones — and regularly used and fought the cutting edge of technology — these were not like the phones they started off with. They were much more fragile. Their first cell phones had survived punches, drops, outer space, and arguably a bullet from Deathstroke the Terminator. Even the ones built by WayneTech now had a tendency to shatter when slipping off the kitchen counter. 

The first of the phones was indeed a WayneTech phone, one that technically speaking was still in the design phases of development and wouldn’t even have a prototype for another two years. Yet, on the table it sat in a sturdy black case that was nicked and worn. A once bright red and blue S in a shield sticker was on the back, though it had faded and begun to fray with age. The screen flickered to life every few seconds with a notification coming in. The small rectangles showed only the app the messages came from and the name of the sender, nothing more. Small bat: Little Bro. Small bat: Little Bro. Yellow ghost: Babs. Green speech bubble: Amy. Green speech bubble: Alfred. Small bat: Boss Man. The picture that was barely visible through the notifications was of an elephant dressed in finery, a big top circus tent blurry in the background.

The next phone was older and more beat up than the first. It was made by a company that used a fruit for its name and image. The owner had been given it and it had been gotten for free, part of a family cellular plan years ago. The red case it called home was just as worn as the phone itself with its cracked screen. Though it was slim and light with a chipped yellow lightning bolt painted on the back. The spiderwebbing lightning bolt in the glass showed a young woman’s sly grin as she stared down the camera with her arms crossed. “Linda Calling” framed her. When no one answered, the image changed to a picture of three people with their arms loose on each other’s shoulders. A man with bright, tangled red hair and sparks of freckles, the same dark haired young woman with almost perfect teeth, and another man with long, pale orange hair and a wry, almost annoyed expression. Their faces were covered quickly by the “Missed Call: Linda” notification.

The third was newer than the last and though made by the same manufacturer as the first it was older than that one. In a hopeful optimism of its owner, there was no case. Which was odd as the camera was one of the best found in a mobile phone and many with the same model took great pains to protect it. Which isn’t to say that the owner wasn’t careful and didn’t go through great pains to care for it. The layers of metallic colored stars that stuck to the back helped to prove this as one fell into wear, another bright shine took its place. The photo on the screen of the other side had been taken using that excellent camera by the owner. A large group of people, all carefully posed yet laughing and antsy at the experience, at a picnic or a party. The people all called this building home and the people who moved through it family. A single text message came through from a “Diana” that began with “Dear Sister,” and then was cut off.

The fourth phone was bulkier, chunkier, than the others. It was carefully custom made to withstand the pressure and depths of the deepest seas. One of just a few in the world. It lived in an airtight waterproof case and was kept charged due to what some could only describe as magic. Despite the practicality of the case, it still managed to impart some individuality. A deep, almost royal blue, it was covered in a swirling pattern that some might think of as waves, and others flowers. Its screen stayed dark, though there was a message from much earlier. A small note of encouragement from a “Dolphin” overlaid on a serene image of crystal blue water shining in a lake surrounded by verdant trees.

The fifth and final phone was in as bad of shape as the second. An almost out of date model by Queen Industries, a company that no longer existed or at least not in that capacity. Though the owner would regularly take the small device apart, tinkering and updating the small wires and computer chips within. A thick, almost violently pink case had taken the actual brunt of the wear. Most of the back was covered by a sticker that was the image of a tweet with the immortal phrase “Help me obi Juan whoever the fuck you are.... You're my only ho.” The image on the screen was a young girl in a princess dress and a yellow Robin Hood hat grinning and waving at the camera. It was easy to assume her name was Lian as the text from an “Oliver” could be read saying “Daddy it’s Lian. Love you. Stay safe.”

It might be a few hours and a few battery percentages later, but eventually the owners would come and collect them. Would respond to the notifications. Maybe clean up the bit of egg and the coffee ring on the table.

#dc comics #teen titans #titans #fab five #dick grayson #wally west #donna troy #garth #roy harper #writing #own writing #my fic #batbros #ginger army #everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

Donna Troy is Dick's sister and he loves her but sometimes his name fits her a little better than it fits him. But then again, sometimes it fits him perfectly.

#dc comics #dick grayson #donna troy #batbros #everybody needs more donna troy in their life #teen titans #my fics #writing #own writing

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

My left arm for Tired Millenial fab five titan content.

#dc comics #teen titans #fab five #batbros #ginger army #everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

Minor DC Character Aesthetics 3/?: Donna Troy - Wonder Girl/Troia

“On Paradise Island, I was a girl scout, amazon class.”

#dc comics #Donna Troy #troia #Wonder Girl #teen titans #aesthetic #minor character aesthtics #Wonder Woman #everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

Red Hood and the Outlaws is a great team but wouldn't exactly make sense in pre52 continuity, unless of course it was Donna Troy who brought them together. Jason gets picked up in Gotham and must deal with not only the dangers that come from being a superhero but also trying to change the opinions of his big brother's best friends. And change his own opinions of them.

It has been almost a year since I updated this fic but I humbly offer up 2 new chapters with intentions to keep going? I am seeing this thing through to the end.

#dc comics #batbros #ginger army #everybody needs more donna troy in their life #jason todd #roy harper #starfire #Donna Troy #fanfiction #fanfic #my fic #own writing #writing

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

Red Hood and the Outlaws is a great team but wouldn't exactly make sense in pre52 continuity, unless of course it was Donna Troy who brought them together. Jason gets picked up in Gotham and must deal with not only the dangers that come from being a superhero but also trying to change the opinions of his big brother's best friends. And change his own opinions of them.

Hey guys! So I’ve talked about this a bit on here before but I’m really excited to share because as of today it’s the longest fic I’ve written! I’m pretty proud of it and how I’ve been growing as a writer through it. So, if you’re interested give it a read and drop me a line cause I love hearing feedback.

#dc comics #red hood #jason todd #donna troy #troia #arsenal #roy harper #starfire #koriand'r #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #my fic #own writing #batbros #everybody needs more donna troy in their life #ginger army #pre52

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

What are 5 Brotp's you wish DC could've had?

Could’ve, Should’ve, Would’ve are like my favorite things to complain about with DC. (That and bad characterization.) These are mainly Brotps that had a pretty good foundation before N52 ruined it with some just plain old wishful thinking.

Rose Wilson and Damian Wayne: See their time in the Teen Titans together, it was legen - wait for it - dary. They both have come to terms with their pasts while at the same time still have issues with the “hero rules” and respecting authority. Not to mention their personalities and fighting styles really compliment each other. And I could see Rose acting as a sort of big sister/cautionary tale for Damian whenever he gets annoyed with the other bats. But DC doesn’t want Damian to have friends? Thank god they let him have Jon at the mo.

Irey West and Lian Harper: Those girls were tight, growing up together around the Titans will do that, and also set up to be the daughters eventually taking over their father’s roles which is super cool imo but then Lian was killed and N52 erased Irey and it looks like DC has just forgotten about them both at this point. 

Damian Wayne and Lian Harper: They would’ve driven all the adults NUTS.Like just imagine the antics! Recruiting Mia to help piss off Tim, setting Bruce and Ollie at each other’s throats even more often, just annoying the living daylights out of Dick and Roy. So much potential! It would’ve been great but see my above complaints about Lian and Damian. *glares at DC on my kiddos’ behalf*

Donna Troy and Jason Todd: Weird pairing, I know, but Jay had a huge crush on her as Wonder Girl (but like all the guys did sooo) and they both went thru dying and coming back and traveled the multiverse together and I totally think it would’ve made more sense (had N52 just not been a thing) for her to be a part of the Outlaws cause Kori and her are besties, her and Roy are super close, and if she and Jason were besties too then that would make more sense for the four of them to be a team rather than just throwing Jason in with half of Dick’s ginger army. Not to mention their personalities compliment each other.

Conner Kent and Jon Kent: This has so much potential! And DC! Just isn’t seeing it! Big brother Kon helping Jon with his powers and training, encouraging his friendship with Damian (”Cause every Super needs a Bat Jon. I’ve got Tim, Clark’s got Bruce, Kara’s got Steph; it’s just common sense!”), helping babysit him (cause the kid is ten) while Lois and Clark have date night or deadlines for the Planet or saving the planet, them playing with Krypto together! I’m going to force myself to stop there cause I just want them to be brothers so badly.

#dc comics #headcanon #meta #batbros #lian harper deserves better #irey west should be impulse 2kforever #everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

@fuyunoakegata tagged me to copy and paste the last sentence I wrote on a work in progress and then tag as many people are there are words in the sentence. The last line I wrote is actually the end of the latest chapter in a multi-chapter fic I’m slowly working on so while the chapter itself is posted it’s still part of a wip. Technically. 

“When it comes to the bats it’s always a competition and you know it.” Donna laughed and followed him as they hurried their way to the top. -Donna Troy and the Outlaws

That’s 27 words though so I’m gonna only tag a few people, and by no means feel obligated to participate. @sqoiler, @queerbatgirl, @super-batgirl, @bambis-baby

#personal #kinda #my fic #dc comics #everybody needs more donna troy in their life

[thelittleredheadedmusician]

This School Is So Weird

So @super-batgirl has encouraged me to write more about my Titans Academy  AU and I finally did! It’s a fun AU that I hope to keep coming back to. You can also fin it here on my ao3. Note about the science used:  Also, unlike Wally I'm not a science person at all, this whole thing is based off of those indoor sky diving places but I'm pretty positive you can't actually turn a wind tunnel into one of those unless the fan is one the floor and tbh even then I'm not sure. So since these are comic book characters let's just say this works cause of comic book science even though this is a No Capes AU. Rating: G Words: 1,412  Gen

Cassie was heading back to her dorm when she got cornered by her sister. “Come with me! You’re not gonna want to miss this!” Donna said, grabbing Cassie and pulling her back towards the mountain.

“Uh… What?” Cassie asked as she stumbled after Donna.

“Shhh. Just trust me,” Donna grinned. They wove through the halls and down into the depths of the mountain turned school. Cassie recognized some of the science labs meant for the more advanced classes but they never went into to any of them. Finally, they turned down a hall that dead ended at a heavy steel door covered in warning signs. Cassie froze and gave Donna her best not gonna happen look, the one that normally got her out of doing Donna’s chores. “I promise this is going to be worth it,” Donna said with a smile before turning and knocking on the door.

It swung open to reveal Donna’s friend Kori, her hair long red hair was piled into a bun on top of her head and her green eyes sparkled as she smiled. “You made it! Excellent! Come in, hurry,” Kori waved them through the door and pressed a hair tie into each of their hands.

Cassie looked at it in confusion before turning her gaze to Donna and Kori, both of whom were already walking deeper into the room. Donna was twisting her dark hair up into a bun of her own when she glanced over her shoulder at Cassie. “Well don’t stand there looking like a dead fish! C’mon!” Donna giggled.

Reluctantly Cassie skipped after the older girls and pulled her own hair up into a bun. “Where is Dick? He has been dying to try this for ages,” Kori asked.

“He’s gonna hate us but he’s at practice and I am not waiting on this,” Donna shrugged.

Cassie’s eyes adjusted to the room, the only light was coming through a window that looked into a huge chamber. It spilled across what looked like control panels straight from NASA. A desk just covered in dials and switches and buttons and screens. Two boys sat in front of it and the one chuckled before speaking. “C’mon Kori? How else do you think Babs and I managed to finally crack it? She’s been home sick all day and her dad is working on some big case, otherwise this would’ve taken at least another month between our schedules.”

“I know Vic, but still,” Kori frowned. That’s when Cassie recognized the boys, Donna’s friends Vic and Wally.

Donna rolled her eyes. “He’ll get over it. Anyway, think of this as a test flight.” She gave them a wicked grin and Cassie immediately became ten times more suspicious of her sister.

“Well the calculations are all sound. Babs cracked the override codes this afternoon and Vic and I have been running the math and double checking with her ever since. We’ve definitely got it,” Wally beamed, brushing the red hair that had fallen into his face as he spoke. “It’s pretty much now or never guys.”

“I’m in. Kori?”

“Oh most certainly.”

Donna turned to Cassie then. “You in?”

“What are you all talking about?! You grabbed me after fencing and just- I dunno- sisternapped me!” She threw her arms out, nearly smacking Wally in the process as she stared Donna down.

“You didn’t tell her?” Vic sounded incredulous.

Donna shrugged, having the good sense to at least look slightly guilty. “I wanted to surprise. I admit, not my best call.”

Wally snorted and Kori just shook her head. “I am so thankful my siblings chose not to attend school with me. Between you two and the trouble Dick and Jason and the others make…”

“Ok, I get it. Making it up to her,” Donna held her hands up in a placating gesture to her friends before turning to Cassie. “So this is a wind tunnel, it’s used by some of the physics classes to test aerodynamics. There was a rumor our freshman year that some of the seniors managed to turn it into one of those indoor skydiving things and Dick got super curious,” she chuckled at the memory.

“He used to be an acrobat and has always dreamt of flying, like really flying, so he latched onto it. Us being the supportive friends we are we started looking into it. Turns out just getting into this place is like hacking Fort Knox, not to mention the physics involved to get some of us safely airborne.

“Anyway, as of today all the pieces fell together so I thought you’d like to try it with us,” she smiled as Cassie blinked. Behind Donna the others gave her looks of encouragement.

Cassie pushed out a sigh in a huff. “That… I really wanna call bull on this but like I’ve been hanging out with Steph and Kara too much and you all by association to doubt it. Ok. What the heck. It’s not every day you get to play Peter Pan.”

Donna positively beamed at her while Kori gave an enthusiastic clap of her hands. “Sweet! I’m going to swipe some jumpsuits and goggles from one of the chem labs. Back in a flash!” Wally called as he ran off.

“This at least explains the hair tie,” Cassie tried with a smile.

Donna smiled and gave her a quick hug before walking towards the control panel. She and Vic began talking over the physics as Cassie drifted towards the window looking into the wind tunnel.

“I am very glad that you have decided to join in on our little experiment,” Kori said. Cassie glanced over at where Kori stood beside her. The other girl gave her a warm smile that Cassie returned.

“Alright! Got ‘em!” Wally said as he skidded back into the room, supplies in hand.

“Alright, let’s suit up!” Donna said, grabbing one of the jumpsuits Wally had and passing it to Kori. The three girls pulled them on over her clothes and slipping the goggles on.

They got to the door before Vic stopped them. “Ok, so I’m going to start it slow and begin amping it up. You three need to hold onto each other the whole time or else there won’t be enough air resistance and you’ll go… well you’ll go splat.”

“That’s… I really didn’t need to know that,” Cassie could feel the blood drain from her face.

“Don’t worry about it. Babs and Vic are never wrong with this sort of thing. Plus I helped and I’m a genius,” Wally reassured her.

“And so very modest. Who was it who helped you with your history homework all last year?” Donna giggled.

“Lookit, I’m a science guy ok?” Wally sounded wounded and yet he was still smiling. So Cassie figured he wasn’t too upset with Donna.

“Do not worry Cassie, it will be wonderful,” Kori smiled.

Cassie took a deep breath before nodding, grabbing Donna’s hand who in turned grabbed Kori’s as they opened the door and stepped into the wind tunnel together. Wally latched the door behind them and Donna gave Vic the thumbs up as he turned on the fan.

It began as a light breeze, barely lifting the hair that had come loose from Cassie’s bun. Soon, it was growing increasingly stronger and Cassie was having trouble keeping her footing. “Hold on tight! Any second now!” Donna yelled over the roar. Cassie squeezed Donna’s hand as her feet slipped out from under her. Suddenly she was weightless. Cassie laughed, she was flying. Her sister and her friends had actually made it work.

As Vic turned down the fan the three girls struggled to get their footing and ended up in a small heap on the floor of the wind tunnel, Wally and Vic rushing in to help them to their feet.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Cassie laughed. “Next time can I bring Steph and Kara?”

“Oh for sure. I’m guessing once Babs gets better and Dick hears about this the Wayne gang is all going to want to try it,” Donna said, slightly breathless.

“Most definitely. As will Raven and Garfield and all of the others,” Kori’s eyes glittered.

“Good thing Babs and I already hacked the security feed so the none of the administrators find out about this,” Vic told them, seeming rather proud of himself. “And now we know it works we can do this anytime we want.”

“This school is awesome,” Cassie whispered. “But also very weird. Definitely weird.”

#dc comics #own writing #writing #my fic #teen titans #young justice #titans academy au #cassie sandsmark #donna troy #koriand'r #wally west #victor stone #other characters mentioned #no capes au #everybody needs more donna troy in their life #everybody needs more wondergals period #the blonde brigade #ginger army