#everyone in metropolis is so dumb

[dnschmidt]

Clark Kent's Glasses Aren't Dumb

People love to make fun of Superman/Clark Kent for having a bad disguise. "Oh, he just puts on a pair of glasses? That's all? Everyone would know Clark is Supes! Lois must be an idiot!"

But no, that's not the case at all.

First of all, even if people did recognize that Clark Kent looks like Superman, that's about as far as it would go. People would think "Hey, that guy looks like Superman. Huh. Neat." And then they would go on with their day.

Superman is basically a god. Why would The God Of Punches pretend to be some random guy? There's absolutely nothing to indicate that he might have a secret identity. As far as anyone knows, he's Superman 24/7, and those blue pajamas are his only outfit.

Think about it. If you ordered a pizza, and the deliveryman looked like Tom Holland, would you think, "Oh, clearly Spider-Man movies don't pay as much as I thought, and Tom Holland was forced to get a side gig for Domino's"? No, you'd just think it was a weird coincidence, and that the pizza guy should totally start a Tom Holland impersonator business, or at least a Spidey-themed YouTube channel.

Secondly, let's say some Metropolis bad guys do figure it out. So what? Unless you're Lex Luthor or Doomsday, what the hell are you going to do?

Remember that scene in "The Dark Knight" where one of Bruce Wayne's employees figures out that Bruce is Bats and tries to blackmail him? Bruce's right hand man Lucius Fox implies that Bruce would just crush him financially or put on his bat onesie and beat him to death his with bare hands. The would-be blackmailer just gives up. Going up against Supes would be even dumber.

Let's say you're not fooled by Clark's glasses. You know who he is. Are you going to go mess with Supes just because he's wearing his nerd costume that day? He can still pick you up and hurl you into the sun.

Finally, the glasses aren't even the worst disguise in DC Comics. There are dozens of other characters who wear tiny little domino masks that do virtually nothing to conceal your identity. As Blake Lively pointed out in Green Lantern, people can still recognize you even when they can't see your cheekbones.

And then there's Jay Garrick. When he dresses up as the Flash, he doesn't even wear a mask. He just puts a hubcap on his head. Why not wear a lampshade? That would at least cover his face.

If you really want to hide your identity, wear a whole head mask like Spidey, or at least some KISS makeup.

#humor #funny stuff #superman #comics #disguise #dc comics #dcu #comic books #clark kent #glasses

[gatorbites-imagines]

This has been living rent free in my head and I need it to leave, lol.

So you know how like everyone loves Losis lane, flirting with her and all that?

What if a Rich Male Reader was going to a red carpet in Metropolis and he's a gentleman. However, instead of asking for Losis' company. He makes a casual beeline for Clark Kent, asking for his company for that evening. Kissing the back of Clark's hand in greeting.

I think Clark would be a flustered mess.

Clark Kent x male reader

Headcanons

I’m basing the reader off of a marvel oc of mine I’m pretty sure I’ve used in the past called Lockjaw, so you have a prosthetic jaw in this lmao. My head aches so much from doing chemistry homework, so I’m writing this as a reward.

You were a multi billionaire, rivaling Wayne in his riches and rank. But unlike Wayne, who was a big support to heroes like the justice league, you tended to stay neutral and not get too involved with the hero and villain world.

You were an incredible inventor though, standing side by side with the likes of Lex Luthor, but unlike Luthor you didn’t use your inventions for evil, but you didn’t use them for good either. You had been shunned and insulted by the world too much to love it as blindly as most heroes did.

Your prosthetic jaw was the cause of most of your childhood scorn. Your father had been what many called a crazy scientist, and in one of his wild experiments it had ended with your jaw being torn off your body.

Years passed without you showing yourself much to the public, until you appeared at 18, ready to take over your father’s juggernaut of a company, a black metal jaw and a cold look in your eyes.

The tabloids called you the ice king or even the ice emperor with how much power you carried, as you had never buckled under social pressure and had never been seen with a romantic partner.

But their most favorite name to call you was Lockjaw, because of your prosthetic. You had despised the name in the beginning because it made you remember the traumatic experience, but over time you made the name yours and yours alone.

You weren’t easy to manipulate like some rich people, you weren’t dumb, and you paid close attention to what happened around you, never letting someone get the upper hand.

You were extremely influential, single, and very handsome, so of course you were invited to most if not all large parties for the upper class, though you only went if it was something important. You didn’t party for fun, so when you showed up the place was always filled with more paparazzi than normal, trying to get a comment from you or a good picture.

Because of whom you are, you’ve had many run ins with heroes, and your extreme intellect has also made it that you needed to know about them. So, you most likely know the identities of most known heroes, villains, and anything in between. You have also fought many of them, especially villains, who think you are an easy target.

So, when you walked onto the red carpet to see not only Bruce Wayne but also Oliver Queen you couldn’t help but sneer, though your prosthetic jaw didn’t allow much movement of your mouth. Of course, you had never told them you knew their identities, why would you?

Out of all the heroes you liked Superman the most, so when you saw Clark Kent there, following close behind Lois Lane of all people, you almost couldn’t resist.

Lois of course wants a scoop of you as well because of your fame, but when she tries her usual tricks, she is sorely disappointed when none of them work. She, and everyone around you as well, are very surprised when you instead go to the big clumsy man following after her.

Clark is immediately flustered when you shake his hand, but also lift it to kiss the back of it. He had not expected you, the ice prince, Lockjaw, known for your dismissal of paparazzi and the outside world, to kiss his hand.

It’s not even an act when Clark starts blushing and looking around in confusion, because something must be wrong for that to happen.

Camera’s flash and people are yelling, asking all kinds of questions of course, because who was Clark and how did you two know each other? What had changed that got the ice prince to react like that?

But you don’t do much more than kiss the back of his hand and wink at Clark, before you are on your way again down the red carpet and into the party. Lois will immediately grill Clark for all he knows about you, and both Bruce and Oliver will be curious too as to why you picked Clark exactly.

After that the daily bugle would always send Clark to things you went too, hoping to get a good scoop or another world-shaking reaction. But you didn’t do much more than smile at him or wink, always flustering the kryptonian whenever you did it.

How else was he supposed to react to an extremely handsome, extremely rich, extremely sought after bachelor, who only seemed to have had this reaction towards Clark and no one else.

#male reader #dc #clark kent #superman #justice league #dc imagine #dc headcanon #dc x male reader #dc x reader #clark kent imagine #clark kent headcanon #clark kent x male reader #clark kent x reader #superman imagine #superman headcanon #superman x male reader #superman x reader #justice league x reader #justice league headcanon #justice league imagine #justice league x male reader

[chernobog13]

The Perils of Superman

This was the penultimate episode of the Adventures of Superman television series. In it a gang of crooks, wearing lead masks so Superman can't use his X-ray vision to identify them, terrorize Metropolis. Knowing they can't physically harm Superman, the crooks strike at him through his closest friends. Which in the case means the staff at The Daily Planet.

The episode title is a call-out to The Perils of Pauline, an early cliffhanger film serial in which every chapter ended with the heroine being threatened by a different death trap. The Planet staff find themselves in similar predicaments: Lois Lane is tied to railroad tracks with a speeding train headed toward her; Jimmy Olsen is left hanging from a cliff ledge after leaping out of his car, which has had the steering wheel and brakes sabotaged; Perry White is tied to a log about to be sliced up in a lumber mill; and Clark Kent is lowered into a vat of acid.

Luckily, the crooks don't know that Clark is Superman. He emerges from his acid bath unscathed, and manages to save everyone else in the nick of time.

The Perils of Superman was directed by Superman actor George Reeves, who directed the last three episodes of the series. It's a stand-out episode of the later seasons, when the stories were tamed down - some say dumbed down - considerably for the target audience of children. There's actually some real peril and excitement involved, and the lead masks make the crooks appear menacing and vaguely grotesque. Certainly a step up from the usual gangsters and crooks that were Superman's adversaries most of the time.

#Adventures of Superman #The Perils of Superman #Clark Kent #Superman #Perry White #DC Comics #George Reeves #John Hamilton

[skybristle]

FINALLY I HAVE ALL OF THESE CUNTS NAMED. i made a like 10 iterator local group [Echoing Strife] with dear mutual @arti-cat !!!!!!! its crazy !! most of them were born like yesteday so no designs but im gonna dump about them. the whole theme of their group is they're based on the echoes /their monolouges. also some ancients that are important [more info under cut]. rb and comment on my ramblings boy

Metropolis: Clawing at the 'Clouds' [senior] [he/him] Sky Islands: A Second of 'Silence' [they/them] Wall/Silent Construct: Relentless Earthly Cacophony ['Rec'] [any/all] Chimney Canopy: Three Binding 'Feathers' [he/she/aer] Shoreline: A Precipice of a 'Promise' [she/it] Shaded Citadel: Seeing Past 'Ichor' [he/him] Subterranean: Solitude of Uncovered 'Omens' [they/it] Undergrowth: [Undisclosed] 'Vex'ing Desires [he/ve] Farm Arrays: Joyful Envision of Tranquility ['Jet'] [he/him] Bitter Aerie: From the 'Depths' to the Heavens [they/any] + Ancients: A Thousand Flakes of 'Dust', One Resolute Cause [she/her] Tangled 'Kestrel', Clawing Desperately [they/she] Cacophony's Caw, 'Crows' Descend [he/him] [child] 'Cardinal' Descending from Afar [he/him] [child] 'Wrens' Hopping, Blissful Eve [she/her] [BABY]

clouds: no talk him he angy. once again one of my seniors sucks at their fucking job. theres a fire in his heart filled with cancers and poppy tarts /ref hes gonna fuck everything up as soon as shit goes wrong. he gets therapy from a cat though. go shitty lesbians go. sometimes reffered to as claw demeaningly

silence: Old Man /silly . they are the mediator and are very concerned with their younger iterators. ends up really fucking things up with the constant fighting between vex and omens [ill get to that] and vex maybe explodes them [silence has a very weak structure to begin with]. oh also silence can overhear echos. hehehehe

rec: haha dumb IDIOT gave himself the rot!!!! she kind of did it when she was young and dumb and has come to really regret it, but chooses to use the remaining time he has building a better life for the creatures around him rather than concern himself with his infection and past mistakes, much to the dismay of its fellow iterators

feathers: silly little guy!!! had a crush on one of aer techs [kestrel] and grew very close to them. maybe cried like a little bitch when she managed to sneak her kids [crow & cardinal [wren probably wasnt born yet]] down there when she couldnt find someone to babysit. imagine having an iterator be ur nini to help you with your homework . its really silly to me. Sure Hope Mass Ascension Doesn't Ruin Everything! [feathers bioengineers scugs like them to Cope. it does not help]

promise: just kind of bitter and angry. it did so much work for its city, gave up everything, all for nothing at all. just for her to be abandoned in the chase for ascension. accidentally pingpongs vex's beliefs REALLY TERRIBLY while shes just kind of awkward about it because she doesnt like omens on principle but doesnt side with vir either

ichor: funny little guy . loved by his citizens. Knew about the mass ascension before it happened but didnt tell anyone so everyone [especially feathers] is really really fucking pissed at him. oops king.

omens: def the most devoted to ascension and the problem, while also studying past civilizations and Grand Cycles. viewed mass ascension as a good thing and is happy their creators moved on. watches vex spiral in Real Time and is kind of freaked out. theyre somewhat conjoined [not as much as moon&pebbs but they share a lot of systems particularly their comms arrays] which led to lots of fighting between them Constantly only driving them deeper into hatred and resentment. theres only a certain point when omens actually becomes Scared of him, however....

vex: ohhh you mentally ill little boy. fairly normal until Dust [the leader of a very violent and large anti-ascension movement] corrupted him as his mentor. uh. ve likes to believe it was beneficial and 'enlightened' vir but really it just turned him into an angry person, especially when mass ascension happened and dust got ascended which only cemented his beliefs. fights a fuckton with omens and believes in the holiness of the cycle. very unbecoming of an iterator. sure hope he doesnt do anything terrible!

jet: built at sea, collapsed due to a great flood/tsunami before mass ascension. believed to be dead and very distant from the group, they were a source of a lot of drama. hes actually alive though! he was built with Some waterproof measures in mind so hes functioning to an extent down there. in yuri we trust [with depths]

depths: originally built as spectacle + as a lighthouse to work alongside jet, but jet collapsed before they were completeted. oops. feels very hollow and purposeless, until a messenger from the sea shows up with a pearl . otherwise depths is very distant from the group [mainly distance and poor comms] and also when trying to learn about jets clouds found it insensitive with the wound being 'too fresh' and kind of exploded on them. woops.

#sky rambles #rain world #rain world oc #rw iterator #oh fuck the tagssssssss #story tag: echoing strife #oc tag: clawing at the clouds #oc tag: a second of silence #oc tag: relentless early cacophony #oc tag: three binding feathers #oc tag: a precipice of a promise #oc tag: seeing past ichor #oc tag: solitude of uncovered omens #oc tag: undisclosed vexing desires #oc tag: joyful envision of tranquility #oc tag: from the depths to the heavens #oc tag: dust #<- she basically never goes by her full name At All since. anti ascension #oc tag: tangled kestrel clawing desperately #oc tag: cacophonys caw crows descend #oc tag: cardinal descending from afar #oc tag: wrens hopping blissful eve #FUCK

[thebiggestwildcard]

I feel like clark should be like. minorly famous. not like bruce wayne famous or anything like that, but well-known enough.

cuz like, if you watch enough of a news station or wtv you'll start to see names over and over again and eventually you'll get used to their faces, and you'd be able to recognize them p well.

if you've watched cnn a lot, you might recognize names like anderson cooper, wolf blitzer, jake tapper, erin burnett (they have been burned into my brain . . . blame my parents) and I feel like that would be basically the same for clark.

like yeah, lois would definitely be recognized more often than clark, as she's most definitely won an award or two for her work, and just her overall style with writing and such.

but I feel like people who read the daily planet (and there's bound to be a lot of them . . . the daily planet seems like a fairly popular magazine, probably somewhere up there with nytimes or smth) and if you were to read enough of their articles, you would start to recognize a few names after seeing them repeatedly, like clark kent.

now, i'm not saying that he's gonna go places and ppl are gonna be like "omfg??? that's clark kent???" bc rlly who cares abt a reporter from smallville but I'm sure he'd be like in a grocery store somewhere and someone would like. drop their groceries and clark would help them pick it up (bc he'd totally do that) and then the person would look at him like . . . "aren't you clark? clark kent? journalist?" and he'd nod his head like yeah hahaha that's me and that would happen every once in a while bc yeah this is metropolis everyone's heard of the daily planet but not everyone knows what mr. ck looks like so.

this makes him totally notorious at galas and whatnot because the dumb white rich ppl honestly couldn't care less what clark looked like but everytime they hear he's there they start breaking out into a sweat because like. he's known to be ruthless whenever he wants information and does not hesitate to print whatever he wants and also like. never gets in trouble and when he does he always gets out (bc dumb rich guy bruce wayne always has a few bucks to spend on him) so like they're all terrified of him.

#clark kent #superman #for the first time ever I'm posting about superman and not the batfamily lmao #dc #rambles #but clark is totally 100% like minorly famous #but only in like metropolis or like maybe a lil bit of gotham bc they love reading him hate on lex in the papers #clark trying to peacefully get his groceries: 😅 #the cashier staring at him like 👁👁 after seeing his latest article in the news that day (it was 500 words of him him dragging lex): so uh. #lex luthor am I right? #clark leaves btw and doesn't come back to the store for like half a year #metropolis #daily planet #the daily planet #he's so great I love him actually

[nightmare-grass]

My Adventures With Superman: Where do we go from here?

- This show takes on the Superman origin story but focuses on his beginning as a young adult superhero, which is different from nearly every other depiction. He seems just out of college, like he’s 20 or 21. This would mean everyone else in the DC universe is younger too.

- People often compare Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent on equal grounds, like they’re supposed to be the same age, so maybe they’re going to be? I don’t know if this show is ever gonna branch out and show other superheroes, other places besides Smallville and Metropolis, but it’s a fun thought exercise.

- So maybe Bruce Wayne is also just starting his Batman journey. He might be in Gotham in a self-made suit, like in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, or he might be training all over the world still. We know Bruce is a genius, so he can learn any subject he wants in a shorter time than normal, so he might’ve skipped college to travel the world right after high school, training with the best fighters and the League of Assassins and studying college-level texts on the side because he’s just extra like that. 18 at the beginning of his training, and there’s varying accounts of how long his training took. Some say 7 years, some say 12 years, and that makes sense.

- If we want reporter Clark Kent interacting with billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne at all, we can’t have them be the same age. So! I propose a future season where we finally get more superheroes interacting with Superman so he can feel less alone in the world. For that, Bruce Wayne would just be returned home after a 7 year absence learning abroad. He’d be about 4 years older than Clark, but he’d be perturbed by their lack of height difference. Bruce wants to start his crusade against the criminal underbelly of his hometown, Gotham City, but to have the perfect cover story he needs to play up the rich fail son front of Bruce Wayne, and he’s not pleased about this perceptive reporter from Metropolis who’s built like a brick shithouse. See, Bruce isn’t dumb, and he keeps up on the news, especially about global security threats. Bruce knows about Superman, and he has his theories, but he develops a new theory once he meets Clark.

- Wonder Woman is immortal but people don’t necessarily know that. Wonder Woman is an urban legend Clark learned about in history class when talking about World War 1, World War 2, all the biggest global conflicts in human history. A goddess who comes out of nowhere, saves the day, and disappears for decades at a time. Diana Prince, however, is a mild mannered museum associate. As an immortal warrior born of clay, she always looks like a woman in her upper 20’s and speaks like a woman who is centuries wise. She keeps to herself mostly, but she keeps close tabs on global security threats, like Bruce does. She knew as soon as Superman came on the scene that she didn’t need to get involved as much anymore. She barely held herself back on Zero Day because the US government was all over that, and it would’ve been too high profile if she’d been involved. It didn’t even last long enough for her to fly over to help.

- In the comics, Bruce Wayne adopts the newly orphaned Dick Grayson when he’s 27. That means if I start Bruce Wayne at 18, give him 7 years of training, making him 25, and make him 3 years older than Clark at the beginning of the story, meaning Clark is 22 when Bruce is 25, then he gets to be Batman for 2 years before running into Dick Grayson, 10 year old, and adopting him. Then, he gives Dick a few months of training before letting him become Robin, so we have 27 year old Bruce, 10 year old Dick, and 24 year old Clark.

- The comics also say Bruce was 34 when he adopts a 12 year old Jason Todd. That means Dick was Robin for 7 years before he and Bruce had a falling out and Dick went solo, becoming Nightwing. Dick and Jason should have a 5 year age difference, if Dick was 17 when Jason was 12. Then, there’s a bit of time fuckery when it comes to Jason because he dies and gets resurrected as Red Hood. Jason dies at 15, and gets resurrected in the Lazarus Pit 3 years after his death, making him effectively 18 when he comes back. Bruce would be 39 at the time of Jason’s death, and 42 at the time of Jason’s resurrection.

- Superman would be 31 when Dick becomes Nightwing and Jason becomes Robin, then 36 when Jason dies, then 39 when Jason comes back as Red Hood. I think that fits rather well.

- Tim Drake came along only a short while after Jason’s death, like a month or so, so Bruce is 39 when a 14 year old Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. Clark would be 36 at this point still. And then Tim becomes Red Robin at age 17, following in the footsteps of his hero Nightwing who also went solo at 17. Tim spends 3 years being Robin, meaning he spends the time Jason is dead being the third Robin.

- Comics place Bruce meeting his son Damian at age 43, meaning it’s a year after Jason comes back and suddenly he’s got a new son he never knew about. Talia left Damian with Bruce when Damian was 10, following the grand Robin-adopting tradition. This means Damian was conceived when Bruce was 33, right before he met and adopted Jason Todd. Superman becomes 40 at the point where Damian is adopted as the new Robin.

- With this timeline, it’s difficult finding spaces for Barbara, Stephanie, Cassandra, Duke, and all the other important Bat Family members, but it’s not impossible.

#I call Nightwing Tim’s hero because he was a fan of the Flying Graysons and that’s how he discovered Robin’s secret identity and Batman’s #maws #my adventures with Superman #dcau #dc #Superman #Batman #bat family #Wonder Woman #dc superheroes

[th3sp4rr0w]

Day Eleven

A03 Link <- Starts at Chapter/Day One for those just joining us :))

Prompts For Day Eleven Fainting/Paralyzed/Adrenaline 

Alt. Prompt For Day Eleven Suffocation

Prompts Used for Day Eleven Paralyzed, Adrenaline, Suffocation

Tw's; Death/Child Death Mention, Suffocation, Panic Attacks, Gun mention, Medical Stuff, Dubious Medical Accuracy

Chapter Eleven under the cut :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

His body did everything on autopilot. Nightwing and Batgirl were yelling out as he felt the blanket of invisibility wrap him in its embrace.

He stumbled around. He started flying shakily and he couldn’t breathe, it was wrapped around his throat-

When things get hard, he’s supposed to stand up. He did stand up; he did things he never thought himself capable of doing. He fought ghosts. He befriended them. He died, and now he was trying to protect people that didn’t care.

He was beginning to see why some of the ghosts were the way they were. He’d probably be jaded towards humanity, too, if he still weren’t half human.

He’d done his best. Protecting Amity, going to school, trying to maintain an active social life while being relentlessly targeted and bullied. Putting up with the schoolyard crushes on his hero persona while he himself was never good enough for the people who had them. Teaching himself various first aid methods to keep himself and his team alive when his rogues and his own parents shot him.

The worst part is, he wasn’t angry about all of that. No. It was how the public had reacted.

The same public that had called him a troublemaker and a thief when Freakshow came around. The one that had never forgiven him. The same public that thought him capable of murdering a days-old baby and switching places with its corpse .

The public and the citizens of Amity Park had never cared for him, or his hero persona enough to realize he was just a kid. He wasn’t Robin, he hadn’t been trained for this life! He was just some kid from Illinois that made a dumb decision and now he was paying for it.

How many times had he helped them? Saved the school? Saved businesses? Saved their lives? Saved the world!

He vaguely registered it when he popped out of the ground. He was right- he was in someone’s house. He kept flying erratically.

Why did he have to go? Why was he the one punished? His parents are the ones that roll around in that thing that cannot be street legal and cause damage! And sure, the rogues do damage, but he tries to minimize it. He’s always tried not to cause too much damage. It wasn’t his fault that his rogues had no sense of mortal possession, and his parents and the GIW were too careless to realize what they were doing. It’s not his fault they blame him.

He was trapped in a nightmare. This couldn’t be happening to him. The one bit of help he might’ve been able to get, and it slips away from him the moment they start to get along.

They were going to go to the GIW. They’d know he was going to Metropolis next. They knew what he looked like. He was so screwed.

Now that he knows they’re real, he has to assume everything everyone online has ever said about them is, too. They probably were magic of some sort; they could capture him easily, and then they’d figure out halfas exist, and then...

Most of the town had ectoplasm exposure. He wondered if that meant that they’d capture the whole town and accuse them of being half ghost.

This was such a nightmare.

He was so angry. Why’d this have to happen to him? Why not literally anybody else who might want to be in this situation? People dreamed of being heroes all the time. He saw people online wax poetic about Superman’s position all the time , even knowing he was the last of his species. That had to be so hard. They didn’t get it. They’d never get it; to them, this wasn’t some game. It was life or death.

He was slowly remembering he didn’t need to breathe, and the invisible hands on his throat disappeared. Sometimes he forgot he wasn’t in his school’s hallway getting choked by Dash. He still couldn’t believe they’d never done anything. For a world so afraid, it was like they wanted to create ghosts.

Baby ghosts didn’t even need that much ectoplasm to start. Just a tiny bit and some time and boom, you’ve got a baby ghost. Ectoplasm can come from many things. People don’t realize that they make it themselves, though the concentrated stuff ghosts produce is much more potent.

All someone needs to make their stuff is a strong emotion. Although the happy stuff like joy and love wasn’t off the table, much more often it was fear and anger.

The attacks in Gotham often led to more ghosts in the zone. The fear and anger created stronger ghosts, of course, and their obsessions were often things like protection and vengeance. Many families had ghosts looking over them in the afterlife. Rumor has it that Bruce Wayne’s parents look over him, one obsessed with his protection and the other with getting comeuppance for their death.

Sometimes he’d think about it. Being a halfa, he hadn’t thought he’d had an obsession, then he met Vlad. He wasn’t sure what his was. He’d never had time to figure it out.

He slowed down. He wasn’t sure where he was. He spotted a roof top, flying down and sitting down on it, hidden from the world below by some big thing with a fan on the top and the door that probably lead to stairs or something.

He tilted his head back.

They weren’t kidding when they said you couldn’t see the stars from the city. His heart ached.

He had been little, and it was Christmas time. Most kids loved that time of year, the cookies and candy and presents. Other kids got to see family they hadn’t seen in forever and got to play with cousins and other relatives. They got to drink hot cocoa and be around a fire and watch movies, maybe go caroling. Not Danny.

Danny and Jazz listened to their parents fighting. That happened every year.

Maddie took the stance that even if Santa did exist, that he’d be some sort of ghost and they’d have to hunt him down. Jack would argue that he was magic and therefore not a ghost, and he also existed and was great. It never got violent, but it was loud. Their parents rarely fought about anything, so their insistence on this one big fight during what was supposed to be a happy time was upsetting for the kids.

Jazz would hold Danny in her lap. She would turn on the T.V. to drown out the noise. At the time, she liked watching some documentary channel, and Danny thought it was so dumb, but tonight was different.

It played a documentary about space. They sat there and learned about the moon, how it controlled the tides and why it changed shape. It explained natural eclipses, talked about the solar system and how the stars formed. It was like magic.

He’d been 3, and he knew right then what he wanted to do. He wanted to be an astronaut.

That year, he got glow stars as a present and he’d insisted on having constellations put on his ceiling. He and his parents spent ages pouring over different images of stars, mapping them out on their son’s ceiling. As far as he knew, they were still there.

All of his life, if there was a time he was upset, he could go upstairs into the observatory and see the stars. He could map them out wherever he went, telling their stories. His friends both had copies of the documentary downloaded to their computers. If he was upset and about to have a meltdown, the documentary went on.

It was something they could recite from memory.

He was constantly scrounging for every bit of information he could. He knew all about the different missions they’d had, followed the mars rover missions obsessively. He wanted to get tattoos mapping out all the stars like little freckles over his skin. Most days, it felt like he lived, breathed, and was space. It could never get old, talking about the stars and planets. More than once he wondered if he could go to different solar systems.

The accident took a lot from him. He was angry for a lot of the things that got taken. He could only mourn his dream of being an astronaut.

Unless he flew up there himself, assuming he could, he’d never see the stars or different systems. He’d never know how the milky way felt, how it looked close up. The day he’d connected that the accident changed his biology in such a drastic way that there was no way he would ever be cleared by the medical staff to go, his heart had ripped itself out of his chest. It felt like his very being had been torn.

Sitting here now, looking up at the sky and barely being able to see the waning moon, he felt like he’d been cheated somewhere.

He supposed he could send other people to space, but with his grades he’s not sure he’d ever be able to get into any self-respecting program. He didn’t blame them.

He’d studied every space accident there had ever been to find out what the mistakes were and how they could be avoided in the future. You had to have near-perfect records, otherwise you didn’t stand a chance. It felt like he’d never had a chance to stand.

He wanted to go back.

He missed the time he’d spent dreaming about space and having a shot at making them become reality. He was only 15 and he felt like his life had been ruined by a situation he didn’t have control of. Without this, could he even live a life that was worth living?

At least as a ghost, he could go to space. He may not have the need to breathe as a ghost, but he wasn’t sure if he could stand the pressure of space, being a halfa.

Maybe if he hadn’t been such an idiot he wouldn’t be in this situation now. Maybe if he’d said no. Maybe if he’d just come clean right then and didn’t make the situation harder than it needed to be.

He thought he could see the smog fade lightly. If he strained his eyes, he could just barely make out the beginnings of Leo Minor. He traced the stars with his finger, muttering under his breath. He could spot Praecipua at the tail. He could picture the little lion cub, about to pounce.

The lion had no story attached. He imagined it as the cub of the Leo constellation, forever playing with his dad. He imagined they got together with Ursa Major on occasion to talk and let the kids play. He bet it was a nice time.

He curled in on himself a bit more and tried not to think about how nice he thought it’d feel to be with his dad right now.

“Our sons already gone.”

He pressed his hands to his ears and thought of the documentary he’d watched so many years ago.

“We’ve raised this boy for 15 years already-”

Even though he couldn’t see them, he thought of the other two constellations that should be out right now. He imagined the cub getting into trouble, the adults right there to swoop in to fix everything.

“... He hasn’t done any damage.”

He didn’t want to think about that day. At this point, he wasn’t sure which one ruined his life more; the day he had the accident, or-

“Don’t ‘not in front of Jazz’ me!” he yelled. “You said it yourself; that thing killed our little boy!”

He could swear he heard his father’s voice in his ears. Out of everything that night, that’s what had hurt the most. His dad had time to think it through, had been willing to stick up for him, to love him. Had stood up to mom for him.

Then, he’d dropped him, just like that. Had taken a bat to his head and called him a thing. Had treated him like he was a monster, or something on the bottom of his shoe. That was the sort of thing that could make you feel like you weren’t worth sticking up for.

Oh, well. Things happen, right?

He wondered if this thing would even work, if the other vigilantes of the world could just look at one article and question everything that you’d been telling them. Maybe it was stupid of him to run, but he didn’t want to stick around long enough for them to put two and two together and get the GIW involved. Even with all his powers, they were bats. They were probably tracking him right now.

He forced himself to look at the stars he could just barely make out.

He was tired of running. Maybe, if he did get captured, things wouldn’t be so bad. He thought of Andromeda and Perseus.

Their story had always been one of his favorites. Andromeda lived as a sacrifice for her parent’s mistakes. Her mother had been arrogant and when faced with a punishment from Poseidon himself, her father sent her to die for their kingdom. The coward couldn’t even take responsibility for himself or his wife. They had cared for themselves and their kingdom, but not for their daughter.

Perseus, the son of Zeus, had spotted her and decided she was worth saving. Had talked to her father and got his blessing. He saved her with his sword arm, and they fell in love. Even with her safe, he never stopped fighting for her, turning her old betrothed into stone at their wedding with the head of Medusa.

The thing he liked best about the tale was that they lived happily ever after.

Hercules killed his wife in a fit of insanity and, when he attempted to take his own life to reunite with her, ended up blessed with Godhood instead. Orpheus, though he saved the world by convincing Hades to let Persephone back into the world, lost Euridice in the process. Achilles lost Patroclus, as well as his own life attempting to win the war. Had lost his mind to grief.

Perseus and Andromeda had kids. They grew old. They loved each other. They were the perfect fairytale.

Space, the stars, and the stories that surrounded them had blanketed him his whole life. A happy ending for a hero was seldom had, and he knew it. This life had been forced upon him. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was Andromeda or Perseus.

He thought back to just a few hours ago, when he’d been swinging on the rooftops with Nightwing. How happy he looked. The look on the spirit’s face when talking about her knights. He’d heard from the stories how heroes are beloved, almost sacred and untouchable. He’d never been that, not really.

Sure, he’d been idolized. Nearly everybody at school either wanted to be him or to date him. It was like they’d never considered the horrors they’d have to experience. They’d never been faced with what it meant to be the hero.

There’s always some price to pay and paying it could very well cost you your soul.

It was knowing that there are some that can’t be saved. Innocent lives completely ruined and changed forever, all because of one act. It was being blamed for not being there in time. You were always going to be too slow; you were always going to miss something. There were some people that just didn’t want to be saved. It was you who had to go home and face yourself down in the mirror. At the end of the day, you still had to live with yourself, knowing that you couldn’t be perfect.

There was always going to be a bruise or a cut. A gaping wound. A life-changing accident that takes away your dreams is never a blessing in disguise.

It sucked. It hurt. Being in the portal was like going through hell. Some days it felt like he never left.

He was sick of running away. He was sick of feeling like he’d been chained to a rock. He was sick of feeling like he was still in the portal, getting electrocuted over and over again.

He was going to sit here. He was going to have a good cry about it, a heart-wrenching sobbing thing. He was going to find where the kid was and get his backpack back.

He was going to go to Metropolis, and he was going to fight for his people.

He couldn’t wait for his Perseus to show up and save him. At some point, he had to save himself. That didn’t mean he couldn’t feel upset about it, or anything like that. It just meant he wasn’t going to take it lying down anymore.

He was vaguely aware of the sun just beginning to rise when his tears finally slowed. He stood up from his spot when he heard sounds from the alley below.

“LET ME GO!” it shouted.

He peaked over the edge of the building. What he saw made his blood run cold.

It was Robin. He could make out the colorful uniform from here.

He looked a little different than he did in online renditions, which he was beginning to realize were probably actual pictures and not hyper-realistic drawings or staged shots. He had black leggings and a black facemask attached to his outfit.

He was trying to fight off some guys-in-white. Danny could see him struggling. He could feel something sending distress signals to him from here.

He had a choice to make. He could either help, or he could turn away and pretend he saw nothing.

He was so, so sick of running.

He floated a few inches from the ground. He took a deep breath. He was doing this.

“HEY!” he shouted, flying down and towards the danger. “LEAVE HIM ALONE! IT’S ME YOU WANT!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robin cursed as the plane shook.

Taking off had been rough as they dodged shots. It was scary, seeing Batman’s face when he ran towards the cockpit. They had only just managed to pull up and out of the air.

Helicopters flew after them, trying to shoot them down. Batman was focused on getting them to safety, leaving Robin to man their defenses, even as he scolded him and told him to get back to the cot.

Robin listened to the whistles and bangs outside. He went over evacuation plans in his head.

“Parachutes under the blanket cupboard if it goes completely down, this is the plane with the escape pods but those are only good if the people outside don’t know-”

The cacophony of noise outside turned up. There were bangs and shouts and he’s pretty sure they just launched a missile at them.

The bat pulled the plane close to one of the helicopters, moving it in the last seconds to make the projectile hit them instead. The craft went down. If Jason strained his ears, he could hear the splash as they hit the water.

He deployed the lasers, aiming for the helicopter’s rotor mast. He shot. They dodged.

It went on like that. Each party desperately trying to shoot the other out of the sky only to watch as the other did something to avoid their watery fate.

The bat was trying to hide it from him, but he could see they were running out of fuel. They had to act.

All at once, another plane approached them. The missiles they had were bigger than the ones that had been firing at them. Batman cursed.

“Robin,” he growled, “Get out of here. Take Talia with you.”

“No,” he said firmly. “If we get out of here, we do it together.”

“Robin-” the plane was aiming the missiles.

“No. I just got back. I’m not losing you this soon,” he insisted.

They just needed a little more time-

The other craft deployed their projectile.

Their plane wouldn’t be able to get out of the way that fast. Even if Robin managed to hit a missile with the laser, he still had two more coming at full speed and there’s no guarantee their plane wouldn’t get caught in the blast-

Robin braced both hands on the dash. He felt his entire body go weird. Why did he think he could do this, why did he think he could do anything?

He squeezed his eyes shut. Something weird happened.

It was like the plane was a part of him. He could feel every inch of the plane and the people in it. Three hearts beating in separate erratic rhythms, each hole caused by the bullets, every single piece of equipment they had stashed in various parts of the plane.

They all felt weird, like he could feel their weight in his hands, but he couldn’t see them. It was like something important had been stripped from their very being. He didn’t know what was happening, but he had a feeling he better keep it up.

He felt something going through the plane. It passed cleanly through, no holes or scratches. It hadn’t even made a noise.

Robin kept his hands planted firmly on the dash. Batman had looked at him, probably barking orders. He closed his eyes tight, focusing on the feeling.

Whatever had entered the plane had gone. He pulled his hands from the dash like they were on fire, he was… catching his breath?

“’obin? Robin! Report!”

He stood still for a second, then spoke. “When I pressed my hands on the dash, everything felt off. I think I might’ve just made the plane untouchable for a minute.”

The plane jerked. “What?” he growled.

Robin shrugged. “I have no clue. Whatever just happened has me, um,” he blinked back spots. His mouth felt impossibly dry. “I think my blood sugar’s low,” he said, gripping onto his chair.

Batman grunted. “Go get a snack and a drink, make it juice if we have it,” he flipped a few switches and checked around them. “I’m going to see about losing our tail and landing. Welcome back, Robin.”

He grinned. That was the old man he knew. “Roger that. Good to be back, Batman.”

The plane shook once more as he made his way into the cabin of the plane, where Talia sat buckled into her seat. She looked almost like she was questioning her existence.

He got some apple juice first. He had to stop a couple times, trying to keep himself from passing out. This was so weird.

What had just happened? He didn’t understand it and he had the feeling that, once he did, there would be more life-changing complications that, as of right now, being chased thousands of feet into the air by fuck knows how many helicopters and another plane that had an unknown number of missiles on it? This moment? He didn’t have the emotional availability to be able to process the fact that he just phased a missile through an aircraft. Or whatever the opposite would be.

He sat down next to Talia, who had started staring at him. Again. He ignored her and opened the juice.

It was one of those character juices with the plastic figure on top. It was the only kind Nightwing would drink, so the bat bought it in bulk. For someone who wanted to seem so mature, that man had some weird quirks and awful ideas. He’d been going out for months in that awful ‘Disco-wing’ suit before he and Batgirl double teamed relentlessly making fun of him until he changed it. Even then he’d only done so because Alfred showed up, and nobody could deny Alfred.

He took a sip. It was weird swallowing around the tube. He vaguely wondered if he should be doing this before he remembered all the times Dickface had ended up on one of these and had his speedster friend bring him all sorts of different fast food. The bat had just shook his head and told him he wasn’t helping him hide this from Alfred.

He figured he was fine to be drinking juice. He continued sipping.

The weird feeling after the second weird feeling had been, without a doubt, a blood sugar issue. He drank the juice greedily, finishing the bottle within seconds. He went for a second.

“So,” he began, trying to sound casual. “Any idea why there are people chasing us down right now?”

The plane shook as something impacted it. Seconds later, a helicopter fell out of the sky past the window. They watched it hit the water below.

“My father found out about the pit, and that I helped you. I do not know how.”

He took a deep breath. “Cool, cool. I’m gonna go let Batman know.”

Talia stood up. “Let me come with you, habibi,” her voice was uncharacteristically soft, “I have a plan.”

He nodded.

They made their way into the cockpit, Robin going for the chair that was closest to all the weapons buttons. Talia sat next to the bat.

Robin took over attempting to blast the assholes chasing them as Talia talked lowly with Batman. He didn’t want to know, thinking of the many times eavesdropping on the bat with Selina ended poorly for him. He stuck his attention to the helicopters and the plane behind them and didn’t refocus it anywhere else for his own sanity.

He shot down two of the helicopters. They almost seemed to throw themselves in front of the other plane, never allowing anything he threw at it to touch it. It wouldn’t have made sense if Talia hadn’t filled in the blanks earlier.

The bangs were beginning to permeate his brain. He kept expecting to feel the heat of a blast and the sheer freezing sensation after. His scars throbbed in beat with the noises around them, flaring up as if they were fresh. He pretended he wasn’t nauseous and kept his focus on the people hunting them down. The adrenaline that pumped through his veins kept telling him to run, but there was nowhere to go. Even if he did grab a parachute from the cupboard below the blankets, he’d be in the freezing ocean, and hypothermia would set in. His joints themselves would be paralyzed by the cold and he would slip under the waves and then he’d truly never see his family ever again.

He sipped from his juice and pretended he was playing video games in that one teacher’s room with the baby bird. If he pretended hard enough, he could picture his cute face scrunched up in concentration as he kicked his ass. It was almost insulting how good that kid was at videogames.

He cursed as they began shooting at them again. The same weird feeling from earlier bubbled up in his stomach.

He pressed his foot to the floor, curious. He, once again, could feel everything and everyone in the plane. He could feel bullets go through without causing any damage. He swore he could feel one going through the bat’s throat. It likely would’ve stuck in the metal of the plane, but the flash of fear he felt with that realization kept him motivated to latch onto the feeling.

He had no idea how he was doing it, which would normally make him nuts. Instead, he was grateful; whatever it was, it was keeping them alive.

Batman said something about how Talia had another island. Robin was so sick of Talia’s islands, given the circumstances, but there was nearly no choice. They were running out of fuel and the plane wasn’t safe anymore; the outside surely looked like Swiss cheese and it was a miracle that the plane hadn’t gone down yet.

The panic that had threatened to wrap him up was beginning to lap at his heels. He swallowed it. He couldn’t afford to think of what happened just a few... how long was he out?

He pushed that down too.

A new weird feeling bubbled up. When he next opened his eyes, he couldn’t see anything.

Let him rephrase. He could see the dark, inky waters. If he looked out to the distance, he could see a mass of land. When he looked behind him, he saw the plane and its fleet of helicopters going past them, not even stuttering as they went.

He turned where he heard muffled voices. He couldn’t tell if they were muffled because of the blood in his ears and the awful feelings he was getting, or if they were doing it to obscure his hearing of them.

He didn’t see them. He couldn’t see them, or the walls of the plane, or the plane’s dashboard. He could feel every apple juice container in the fridge. He could feel the blankets and Flynn in the cupboard above the parachutes. He could feel the bat and Talia next to him. He could see none of it.

He took a deep breath, deciding to keep the weird feelings until they dipped below the tops of the trees. When he dropped it, he was sweating.

… That was freaky. His vision swam, and he vaguely went for his apple juice. He felt the bat’s hand on the back of his head.

He felt the bottle being pressed to his lips. He reached up with shaking hands to take it, drinking it like he hadn’t downed one earlier. He drank like it was the nectar of the gods instead of cheap apple juice with a little plastic Blue on it. His senses slowly came back online to Batman talking him through it.

“That’s it, Robin, just drink and breathe, chum. You did great,” he rubbed his shoulder. “When did that start?” he asked when he noticed Robin heard him that time.

“I....” he slurred and drank more juice. “Um. Just now. Like, today,” he said.

A sharp inhale made itself known. “Talia-”

“Are you going to accuse me of doing something again, Bruce?” she sniffed.

He glared at her and grunted. “I was going to ask if this had ever happened before.”

“No,” she said simply. She did not elaborate.

The bat hummed.

When Talia landed the plane safely, they stood up. Robin swayed and Batman held him by his shoulders until he didn’t anymore. They made their way to the cabin and began grabbing supplies.

The bat grabbed various character juices. Robin made his way back into the small medical area, getting into the cabinet to grab Flynn. He stumbled back into the cabin to find the bat already looking for him, walking briskly towards him to shove an opened apple juice in his hand and urged him to drink. He grabbed a bag seemingly out of nowhere to stalk back to their snack cabinets, popping one open to fill with the seemingly endless supply of cookies and crackers Nightwing had stuck in there. That felt like eons ago.

While Batman did that, he set Flynn down on a chair and dropped to his knees in front of the clothes cabinet. He grabbed a hoodie Dick had shoved in there, as well as a pair of his own sweats. He put them on over his suit. He was so cold.

Now dressed warmly, he made sure to grab Flynn before he followed Talia and Batman off the plane. He was still Robin.

He was just Robin with all of Jason’s comforts.

And maybe that meant he was compromised. Maybe he was.

After all he’d gone through the last time he was Robin, he felt he was entitled to it. He didn’t want to take the suit off just in case he had to fight again, but the soft fabric against his hands and legs made it easier to remind himself that he wasn’t there. There was no cigarette smoke and there was no manic laughter.

The bat placed a hand on his shoulder to guide him to Talia’s helicopter. He’d already finished the second container of apple juice. He’d tried to shove it into the pocket of the hoodie, but the bat had caught his hand before he could and softly asked Talia where to put it. She’d looked at it a moment, reaching out almost as if to touch it. She said something that sounded like “colorful” before she called for a servant. They whisked it away as if it had never existed.

The bat handed him a new, somehow opened juice and a Ziplock bag with a portion of animal cookies. Nightwing was going to be mad. Robin opened the bag and plucked an elephant out of the bag, chomping on its head before he went for the legs. Talia watched him. He decided to hide in the bat’s cape.

He didn’t like it when people stared at him, especially when it was someone who’d participated in trying to kill them before.

He still didn’t know where he stood with Talia. Her relationship with Bruce was a weird one, way more complicated than it had ever been with Selina. He thought she was beginning to warm up to him, the way she’d tried so hard to save his life and held him when he had that embarrassing breakdown. Maybe she was just conflicted that he’d just gotten revived, and he was already working as Robin? Batman definitely was.

The man didn’t usually watch over them this much. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, or that he didn’t care for them. He was normally more focused on solving whatever case he’d deemed worth his attention, on solving it and saving the day. He normally didn’t have to worry about them this much, and he was incredibly guilty for worrying him as much as he had. He couldn’t imagine how Dick and Alfred were feeling right now.

Instead of up front with Talia, the bat stayed in the back with him. He made sure he was feeling better, feeding him animal crackers and juice. He was almost certain that when they got home, he’d be obsessing over his blood. His sugars, his pressure, white cell count, red cell count, the whole works. He’d probably run tests for hours. He already had a headache thinking about it.

He knew Alfred would try to stop the bat from putting him through it, but the bat would do what the bat does. He’d pretend to be annoyed by it, but he would be secretly grateful for the attention. He’d have to remind the bat to call Nightwing and Batgirl. They’d want to know he was back and they’d want to help him make the bat a target for their teasing. It was their favorite bonding activity.

He would probably explain what happened to Nightwing and prevent the whole “the bat and Nightwing are mad at each other and it’s your job to be the in between” thing. He hated it when they did that.

He couldn’t wait to get in his own bed. He then wrinkled his nose. He’d almost forgotten he’d rushed packing and left food in his room. Something told him it’s been a lot longer than a few days; the bat wouldn’t be desperate enough to rely on the pits from the get-go. He didn’t even want to know how gross the food was by now. He’d have to apologize to Alfred for the dishes.

He stroked Flynn’s mane. Maybe he was too old for stuffed toys; he was almost 16 now. He didn’t care. It was his life; it’s not like he hung around anybody who could make fun of him for it. He knew Dick still had Zitka on his bed, and Babs had never made fun of him for it.

It was usually an unspoken rule that they didn’t make fun of each other for having comfort items. They didn’t want to be those people, and in most cases in the hero community, it was highly hypocritical.

They flew into Gotham and began their descent. Jason started feeling giddy; he couldn’t wait to see the look on their faces. The trio landed the helicopter on the pad.

When they walked into the cave, they came upon an unusual scene. Dick and Babs were pacing in front of the computer. Alfred was next to them, trying to calm them down. Abandoned food lay on the table next to them.

“What happened?” Batman growled out.

Dick and Babs looked at him. Alfred didn’t say anything. Dick had tear tracks under his eyes, his mask off.

“I got a hit!” Babs suddenly yelled out.

“A hit on what?” the bat asked. “What happened? Hey- what happened?”

“Guys!” Jason shouted. Everybody stopped in their tracks, looking down at him.

He suddenly felt like he was a much smaller child playing dress-up in his older brother’s clothes.

He straightened, ignoring the feeling. “What happened?”

Still, nobody answered.

“What happened?”

Dick looked at Babs. Babs looked at Dick.

“You’re okay,” he breathed.

“Dick, you need to tell us what happened,” he insisted.

“There was a boy,” Babs started. “’Wing found him on a rooftop. He was panicking and dissociative. He brought him back to the cave.”

“He mentioned something about how there was a government agency that invaded his hometown,” Dick continued, keeping his eyes on Jason. “He said that they were hunting ghosts-”

“Ghosts,” Batman deadpanned.

“I wouldn’t believe it either,” he said, “Except, when I looked some things up, the kid got scared. He was so scared the whole time, and I made it worse. I made it worse, B,” he said, voice breaking. “I think he was a ghost. A little kid, about Jason’s age,” he added. “Looked nearly exactly like him, but the hair and eye color was wrong. He ran. We’ve been trying to find him.”

Jason’s blood ran cold. “Looked nearly exactly like him...”

They didn’t notice as he left the room.

He went into the changing area, managing to find a pair of kevlar leggings Babs had for her costume ages ago that no longer fit. He took off his sweats and his shorts, putting them on before pulling the shorts over his legs. He folded his sweats and placed Flynn gently on top of them.

He remembered that he had a black face mask in his locker and began to dig for it. When he found it and went to put it on, his fingers hit his tube.

He knew nobody would remove it for him if he was going to go out tonight. He pealed the tape off himself and started gently pulling on the tube.

He finally got it out and walked to the med bay to throw it out. He took of the stolen hoodie and carefully removed his I.V. lines, sticking some of the Bluey band aids Dick insisted on getting over the bleeding holes. He made sure his gloves were in place, that his domino was secured, and put the face mask on.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked as ready as he’d ever be.

He walked out to them fighting. He wasn’t doing this today.

He wasn’t going to let his experience with Sheila ruin anything else for him. If he had a twin, and if that twin was in trouble, he was going to help him, everybody else be dammed.

He walked over to the computer to see the location. He grabbed a com and popped it into his ear, then switched ears when he noticed his left was screwy. It worked fine in his right.

He turned to face the rest. Alfred was the only one who’d noticed his presence, giving him one of his patented “I don’t approve but I know you’ll do it anyways, so be safe” looks.

“Hey!” he shouted. Everybody turned to him. “I’m leaving, whether you like it or not. No matter what’s happening with him right now, he’s a kid in trouble,” he said, holding a hand up when Dick went to interrupt him. “I’m going. So, are you guys coming or what?”

#ailesswhumptober2023 #dp x dc #jason todd #danny fenton #danny phantom #dc robin #robin #batman #ai less whumptober day eleven #kite flies over the nightingale nest

[selkienight60]

🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️〰️🦸‍♂️

birthday bash by yeeyee123

Kon’s pumped that Clark has brought him in to help put together Jon’s 8th birthday party. No really, he is! Just don’t ask him directly about it, or he may need to go leave the room and take a breather. Inhaling helium gas from all those balloons isn’t good for you, you know?

But still your secrets (I will keep) by JUBE514

“What the hell is that, Batman.” Kal’s still not moving but he does look back now. “Because if I didn’t know any better I would say that was me.” “We have intel from a deserter at LexCorp that Luthor had gotten ahold of some of your DNA.” Bruce doesn’t know how to explain this without it … without it being terrible. “Through a fight, through his own strange methods, through kryptonite, who knows. He tried to clone it, but failed-” Kal’s jaw tightens “Bizzaro.” “This is a combination of your genes and a human donor, with some of J’onn’s DNA to hold it together.” Bruce can trace the Martian's contribution with the barest hint of the way the clone’s eye is shaped. Just an impression, a barest hint that would never be connected if Bruce hadn’t seen the files for himself. Kal bites in a terrible sound that emits from somewhere in his chest, a pitched keen that makes the hair on Bruce’s neck stand straight up. “Where is he?” -- Sure, Kryptonians look human enough, but underneath all that flawless tanned human skin rests a creature that came from the stars.

of worry by adelfie

Kon stares at him. “I’ve been dying, and you’ve been doing”— he peers at the monitor to see the last puzzle— “Sudoku?” Tim shrugs. "I'm kind of amazing at it." -- Trapped with Tim and surrounded by kryptonite, Kon's not looking forward to being told off by Superman for all the things he's done wrong. (Or, Kon and Tim annoy a villain and Clark is a Good Dad)

straight on 'til morning by merils

“All children, except one, grow up.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan Kon hasn't been a kid in a long time - he's not stuck at sixteen anymore, and he hasn't been for years; he's twenty-three and living his best life. But the past has funny ways of coming back to haunt everyone when they least expect it, and there's no predicting the storm on the horizon for him. It starts simply, as do most things. Jon turns sixteen. Jon turns sixteen, and Kon suddenly realizes that if anyone were to treat him the way he was treated at sixteen, he'd tear the world apart. The revelations, unfortunately, don't stop there.

tell me that i'm alright by stiless__halee

Jon already gets everything. He gets Metropolis and Smallville and Ma and Lois and Clark with his dumb goofy smiles. Now he’s getting this special version of Superman just because he was lucky enough to come from Lois, the parent who Clark loved. Jon doesn’t have to spend months striving for perfection just to earn Superman’s tolerance. Jon just exists, and that’s enough for Clark. Well, Kon never asked to exist. He never asked for Luthor to make him, and it isn’t fair that he’s the one who’s being punished for it. or The baby of the family never realizes how good they get it.

you found me when no one else was looking by suzukiblu

The boy lifts the torn collar of his shirt and Clark sees a symbol that is so familiar he doesn’t even recognize it, like he wouldn’t recognize his own face if he saw it—like he doesn’t, for a moment—but Kal-El does not care about the symbol or the face, Kal-El cares about the boy.

#Bb asked for these so I guess I have to post this now

[teamdarkweek]

Let us consult the text of origin together:

My thoughts under the cut, but you can just enjoy the video.

General observations:

Let us never forget Rouge's wings are pink here. In sa2 they were black, they have since been purple. I think it's possible she covers her wings in some kind of think fabric or latex to match her outfits and maybe protect her - but primarily for the matchy matchy

In the shiny toy-ish style of heroes, Omega looks incredible. He looks so much better than everyone else.

Team Dark take in turns to be the most determined; it genuinely feels to me like they all do want this. Nobody is just in it for the loyalty or ride.

Team Dark should get to fight Team Rose. I would love them to duke it out with the Girl Scout commander and his two most loyal members.

Opening Cutscene:

First let us appreciate: Rouge just broke in to Eggman's again. Iirc she inserts herself into SA2 basically the same way. Plot driving queen.

It is odd to me that Rouge had no idea what she was finding, but did know the code. This 'happening upon' Shadow has always seemed strange to me and I am suspicious of it. It seems to me they might have wanted her to be looking for him, but bottled it at the last chance. Especially because she doesn't seem to be working for GUN here, this is just very convenient.

Omega is legitimately scary when he's first introduced, with a lot of the hallmarks of classic horror monsters in this first sighting of him (the close ups, the prey-through-predators eyes shot, all the action shots to keep you confused, minimal speaking etc.. I have no statement on this, it's just neat.

It must be quite a traumatising thing to wake up to, but Shadow takes little time to react. I really like that he doesn't recognize his name when Rouge says it.

It is weird to me Rouge just sits in shock at being shot. Was she not expecting a trap? Perhaps she got hit in the head or something?

Omega's aiming just before Rouge splits them up is so funny. I said I wouldn't use screenshots so this post doesn't become too slow to load but look at this:

His hands just circle around wildly. Shadow is going straight for you. Either you're not aiming for him or you're not calibrated correctly my love.

Rouge's exhausted and shocked face is adorable and I love it so so so much. This is peak Rouge IMO

The fact we see Eggman's base trashed - loudly trashed - and he does nothing about it could be a first nod at his current predicament we see in the Chaotix story, but I may be reaching.

I love the start of the chorus as they're coming to an understanding. I love This Machine, maybe more than I love my boyfriend but not more than I love my cat. It's so up there though.

Rouge bounced Shadow off Imega when she scooped him over and he rebounds into a defensive stance. No notes just cute.

Shadow's eye roll as she makes them all put hands together. You just woke up how are you so sassy? Amazing. No notes.

The actual skipped conversation must have been quite short, since Shadow knows nothing and Omega is a new robot, but I hope it included Omega inteoducing himself at least a bit. They don't say his name in this cutscene, or Rouge's but the audience probably knows her. Its just odd to me because I feel like team sonic say eachothers name a lot, but my memory may be faulty.

Seaside Hill + Ocean Palace + Egg Hawk

"Immediate destruction if distracted." Omega fully threatens to kill them if they don't work hard enough. I am not complaining, but he is a scary boy and we should remember this.

We should have known this wasn't Eggman because he reacts to Omega (an obvious E series robot) and not Shadow (a literal living weapon he had had locked away that should not be walking around). But me personally was a dumb kid who was too bad at video games to get to play team darks story before I had to go home so here we are.

Grand Metropolis + Power Plant + TC

Rouge has the least reason to be targetting Eggman, but she is quite determined here. I would suppose it is on behalf of Shadow, since she doesn't know Omega that well to be heart broken for his plight. It's nice to see that she too expresses her sentiment by violence, something often reserved in fanon for Omega and arguably Shadow.

Further to the above: she starts a fight with Team Chaotix literally and only because she is in a fighty mood. They were fr walking away, minding their own business. I also think that Espio's assumption that they might have it in for the client is valid, since they've probably been jumped by enemies of clients before. Rouge is literally just on a warpath and mad at the world. Iconic of her.

Casino Park + Bingo Highway + Robot Carnival

I do wonder what Rouge was wondering. If she was wrong, perhaps? Or what the Chaotix were doing? She couldn't suspect they're working for Eggman, could she?

Omega works in metres because he is no fool

Shadow is actually very calm talking to Eggman here. It suggests that either Rouge has not filled him in on anything much about Eggman, and/or he wants to learn for himself and isn't taking her and Omega's hatred at face value. This may make him seem a bit dozy here, but I actually think it's a sign of how untrusting he is, and with good reason. I have often seen the take that Rouge should have told him what's going on, but I propose that it is possible she told him some, he didn't believe her easily, and so she stopped telling him before the crazier stuff, because he'd never believe that. A bit of a leap I know.

Rail Canyon + Bullet Station + Egg Albatross:

This is the first time I think Shadow seems really determined. I propose it's because Eggman snubbed and disregarded him, and that is literally a tortuable offense. Joking aside, it's nice to hear the change in his voice now he's more set on his target.

Rouge is less sure of herself now. Tbh, it's probably been a really stressful day for her. She may need a rest.

Shadow offering Omega his revenge instead of fighting him for it is a nice touch. What a good team player!

Omega's shaking fist at the fake Eggman gets me. I love it. It's so ott and goofy but also a great way to communicate with his limited face.

The Shadow Android scene is actually quite frightening, like with Omega's introduction it has a little touch of horror. Imagine how you'd feel, if it were my android clone I would feel pretty nauseous and scared.

'Ultimate Life Form Data' - Metal answers the question of 'is Shadow a Robot?' As soon as it was asked, but nobody has ever listened to Metal Sonic about anything, and they aren't about to start today 🥰❤️. But did Metal know what Shadow was? We presume it had seen the Shandroids, and knew they weren't him, otherwise Metal would have just copied one of them.

(Frog Forest + Lost Jungle) + TS

"Talk about being stubborn and full of surprises" is so uncalled for from Shadow's perspective. He's never met this guy, how dare he read him like that.

This fight is so stupid, I almost believe it's just them being friendly. You know Sonic's pretty freaked out at seeing Shadow again, but I have had kittens before and sometimes they just have to show their excitement with biting. I think this might be that? Because Rouge left no particularly bad blood with Sonic. Now if she and Knuckles started it, I would understand the hostility, but Shadow and Sonic totally start this one.

Do you think Sonic felt bad that he went straight in to fight Shadow when Shadow fully just had no facts in his head to help him make good choices? I'd feel bad lol.

Hang Castle + Mystic Mansion + Robot Storm

Shadow tefuses to answer Rouge's question then proceeds to loudly answer it to himself with her just metres away. Keep being you, Shadow.

I like that they refer to Omega to ask if it's the real one, even though he can't - nice team trust moment.

Egg Fleet + Final Fortress + Egg Emperor

'Even if I'm not real - I'm still the Ultimate Life Form' resolving Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) before it even begins. In seriousness, it's quite a contradictory statement, probably because he doesn't know much about what that means. Has Rouge told him? We haven't seen someone explain that in the cutscenes, so I presume so.

Rouge immediately turning away from Eggman's body is so funny to me. 'K cool bye'

The first time I'd forgiven her not seeing that it was clearly Shadow in the goo. But Rouge, come on now. Why would they all be the exact same alien goo container with a spiky starshaped thing in them? You have seen Shadow Android. This shock is not necessary.

Why is there not enough goo to cover the ears? They can hear you guys.

'Hey Omega, did I ever tell you that Shadow is a Robot? And, well, nevermind - good luck." ARE YOU TRYING TO GET HIM KILLED? I also have to presume she genuinely believes this here. It's such a weird line.

Omega is so smart. He has been dumbed down of late, but he's not stupid anywhere here. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that the one kept separately with it's own guard robot is at least more important than all these mass stored without an E unit dedicated to protecting it.

"Some things never change, do they?" How would you know? Did she tell you this? That's such a funny portrait of herself for Rouge to paint. Forever unsuccessfully trying to steal chaos and master emeralds, generally predisposed to being rude and disobedient? Or did he just observe that himself.

They leave it off like Omega may not be a recurring character from here. I wonder if they weren't sure if he'd be liked, since in SA2 they killed off a character that ended up being the most popular thing they'd made since the series began. Nobody is competing with Shadow's cult fanbase, but I wish more people like me loved big robot boy.

#shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e-123 omega #team dark #text post #video #long post #Youtube

[sea-owl]

So I made a post that sums up my besties Clark and Kori posts are just basically himbo and bimbo friendship and I just laugh at the thought that they purposely play that up around the human lovers/family. Because those two are actually smart, everyone just sees their kindess and alien strength then immediately lables them as dumb.

Just imagine the bats are working on a case they can't seem to crack. Meanwhile Clark and Kori are talking in some obscure alien language with each other.

Kori: How long do you think it will take until they realize it's Riddler? I mean his logo is right there on the evidence, literally.

Clark: *shrugs* Who knows, they should hurry up though. I've been listening to Riddler all night and he plans to move bases soon.

Kori: How mad do you think they'll be if we just picked Riddler up and left him on Arkham's doorstep?

Clark: *cocks his head in the general direction of Riddler* If we wait an hour Riddler would technically be outside of Gotham's city limits and closer to Metropolis. Makes him fair game.

Kori: *stands and stretches* Well I say we go for a flight.

Or someone insults their intelligence in front of their lovers.

Rando Rich Boy: Honestly I don't see why the bats keep two dumb aliens around. Their are plenty of humans who can lift stuff for them if they need it.

Bruce, Dick, and Babs: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY SPOUCE?!?!

Meanwhile Clark and Kori have a gentle looking hold on their spouces, reminding them that their in public as civilans, and giving the rando smiles.

In their alien language they say:

Clark: The Daily Planet is gonna have a new article soon about his shady deals.

Kori: *analyzing rando's body language* Check for alien trafficking too. That snear he had makes me think he believes us to be less than humans. I might have to go hunting with Shayera later.

Clark: Can't wait to hear how you two break his ego.

Meanwhile the whole time their spouces have completely forgot they're suppsed to be behaving and have gone on a tangent about how smart Clark and Kori are.

#besties clark and kori #clark kent #superman #koriandr #kori anders #starfire #superbats #superbat #dickkori #dickkory #dickkoribabs #dickkorybabs #dcu #dc comics

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

Okay so idk as much about the Superfam (I’ve read like, a single comic with a Super as a main character and it was a YJ one, and I’ve watched most animated shows and the CW Lois and Clark one) but tbh, their whole thing is SUCH a good allegory for immigrants, esp like people escaping from places of violence. Like obviously there’s Kal-El/Clark Kent, who’s like a second gen immigrant, bc he has this whole other culture and home he never will get to know and he still has parts of it in him he doesn’t understand and he knows it scares other people or makes them disgusted (and especially growing up in Midwestern USA - not the most accepting place ever, even if Ma and Pa kent were awesome, as they were) so he learns to only show the parts people are comfortable with while still not really understanding them himself right?

But there’s always gonna be this part of him that needs to be the ideal, to fit everyone’s perception of him, like, and that causes sm friction w the other Superfam members?? Like Kara and Karen (they’re the same person but from different universes right- am I just dumb or) GREW UP on Krypton, they’re first gen immigrants, forced to leave somewhere they knew and come somewhere that no one knows their culture and even Clark is called ‘the last son of Krypton’ even when he’s not Kryptonian ENOUGH bc he didn’t grow up there, to them at least, and bc stuff like ‘the S means hope’ when it’s not an S at all?? But Clark has learned to say and sue stuff like that to make people more comfortable with him, and like, HOW does that not cause friction??

And then obviously there’s like, Chris and Jon and Kon and even Jordan if we include him, and Mia, like so many superkids, but the ones ik most are Kon, Jon, and Jordan. So like Jon and Jordan are really also second gen/third gen, right, like they both want to learn more about who they are and where they came form but there’s only so much they can use to connect to it with and they still feel all distant from it and stuff. Like Jordan has powers, so there’s him trying to connect with a place he wasn’t born in, that has never even EXISTED at the same time as him, but he still has such obvious markers he isn’t ‘normal’ aka like everyone else (ahem immigrants) but he can’t link himself to the place they come from fully. That applies to Jon in the comics. And Jon in CW is even more that - he’s like, he doesn’t even have the same connection Jordan does, he doesn’t even have that ability to connect to such a vital part of who he is, and he seems like he could be ‘normal’ but he’s still not fully human and has this whole other part of himself he doesn’t know how to deal with because no one’s there to tell him about it, he doesn’t know it.

And like, they’re all SO repressed. Repression is literally a key part of all their characters. They’re all, esp Clark, so desperate to keep up the image they’re ‘just like everyone else’ and they go from small Midwestern US town to Metropolis, which my best description of the vibes I’ve always gotten is like, yk those gentrified neighborhoods? The ones where they tear down usually POC lower income neighborhoods and kick people out and build overly glossy, minimalist homes on the backs of all those people with so much below the surface of bleached white countertops etc?? Yeah, that’s what Metropolis reminds me of - there’s so much cruelty and stuff (Lex Luthor lmao) below the shining surface it seems to want to present. And don’t even get me started on small Midwestern USA towns - I’m an immigrant, my cousin is second gen and lives in a Small Midwestern Town, and it is SO bad. “Out of the ordinary” isn’t really a thing people like there.

And SUPERMAN IS A REFLECTION OF THAT, and of IMMIGRANTS. He’s so obsessed with making sure he seems like ‘everyone else’, he and the rest of the superfam just... repress. Like aside from how violating it probably is to have you’re DNA used to make a... whole other being... without your KNOWLEDGE (and the um... comparisons to certain things that could be made), I like to think there’s 100% and element of that Kon is something out of this ‘ordinary’ Clark has forced himself to keep, and that like, scares him, right? He’s spent so long hiding who he is, not really trusting anyone (HIS BASE IS CALLED THE FORTRESS OF S O L I T U D E CMON-), trying to be ‘normal’, and Kon is some random kid who was made in such a violating manner and how can he explain where he came from, how can he make sure he hides everyone that makes him ‘alien’, how can he be sure Kon won’t mess it up- YOU GET IT?

Like everyone in the superfam is so lonely and repressed and none of them talk about it because they have to be shining beacons, paragons, there’s so many complicated dynamics behind the scenes. It’s a story of hiding parts of yourself because you’re never sure what parts will be welcomed at this point. A story about longing for a place you’ve never known, will never know, will never understand, because you aren’t of there, really, but you’re not of where you were raised either, because there’s parts of you that will never mesh with the ‘normal’ they have here. It’s a story about missing a place you had to leave, and feeling alienated and like everything is so DIFFERENT yet everyone acts like you’re abnormal, even when the things that have always been normal to you are shunned even by your own family. It’s a story about trying to connect with parts of yourself you can barely understand, can barely see, about being rejected out of fear of what will happen if you ‘mess up the image’. It’s a story about repressing all your trauma and expectations and keep smiling and being a hero, because they need to want us here, they need to trust us, because you know on some level you’re never really welcome and they need to keep wanting you and that’s what matters.

It’s an immigrant story and I want to see more angst about it please.

#dc #dcau #superfam #superman #clark kent #jon kent #connor kent #superboy #kara zor el #kon el kent #kal el kent #kara danvers #supergirl #karen starr #immigrants #trauma #repression #fanfic recs if you have them #please im. #starved.

[hurgablurg]

I think Sgt. Johnson was a favorite character of everyone’s for a reason. He was chipper, entertainingly brash, and just plain cool to be sure, but what I think people never really consciously absorbed was that he was a pretty kind person.

Barring the Insurrection-era character assassination ONI shit that the novel writers thought would make him more sympathetic (when really they just needed simple survivor’s guilt and his dead aunty), Johnson has always been surprisingly supportive for a marine sergeant. The major clue is his in-game dialogue. 

I’ve scrounged and searched, and there’s about ONE time I could find in the games where Johnson demeans or insults someone under his command, and that’s during CE in 343 Guilty Spark when the marines are ambushed by the worst thing you can imagine.

Every other line of dialogue is a one-liner, a threat against someone trying to kill him, exposition, a friendly tease that doesn’t attack ability or identity, only actions, or a genuinely supportive speech. Every such speech he makes, he never attacks the self-esteem or emotions of his marines, only ever encouraging them and urging them to find their inner strengths. First Cutscene on Metropolis in H2, when one of the two marines suggests a retreat, Johnson doesn’t denigrate him for being scared, but gets him to find courage by pointing out the tank and Spartan who just showed up, and how he’s already had the courage to join the war, so he has the courage now to chase after a giant metal spider.

Johnson knows that humanity is on the backfoot, and that there would be no point in making people who are already certainly going to be traumatized feel even worse. The best way to keep their spirits up IS to keep their spirits up. People need heroes. No matter how directly or indirectly, his words are always supportive.

And hell, Johnson being so willingly personable is WHY humanity survived at all. Without teaming up with Thel, humanity wouldn’t have had the backing of the Separatists to finish off the Covenant. Heck, in their last scene of H2, he seemed pretty willing to even let Tartarus and the brutes join the party, even after the imprisonment and threats. And notice how after the alliance, all the “dumb bug” comments about the sangheili ceased. He knows how to make friends and show respect.

And I think in a genre so bloated with pissy, CoD-style “make the racist hard choice” American jingoism and unemotional machismo, having a character like Johnson is so refreshing.

#halo #sergeant johnson #avery johnson #halo ce #halo 2 #halo 3

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

This show sucks.

I looked up the Romulan villains last night because the woman keeps calling the man her brother, but she also acts jealous of the android lady he's seducing for information. Also she choked him in the previous episode, and in a pretty kinky sort of way. "They can't really be siblings," I thought to myself. I must have misheard, or it's some term of endearment in Romulan double-secret police parlance. Nope, they're blood relatives! The show is just pushing the envelope in the hackiest ways imaginable.

For example, this episode has a cameo from Icheb, the lovable Borg teen from the tail end of Star Trek: Voyager. Icheb wasn't my favorite character on the show, but he was a pretty good dude. Picard Season 1 Episode 5 opens with Icheb getting his eye yanked out by a bad guy! They show it and everything! Then Seven of Nine shows up to rescue him, but she has to shoot him to put him out of his misery! It's so fucking edgy! This ain't your daddy's Star Trek, fanboy!

So now Seven is a gun-toting vigilante! No seriously, they even use the word "vigilante" in the show! Several times! Picard expresses admiration for her goals and motives, but is disapproving of her extreme methods. "Gotham City is different from Metropolis," Seven tells Picard. I should also point out that every phaser in this show looks like a dumb 90's comic book gun, so Seven looks even more like a parody when she tricks Picard and goes back down to the planet to complete her bloody mission of revenge. The joke is supposed to be Picard's cheesy disguise, which involves him wearing an eyepatch and talking with an absurd French accent, but no. Punisher Seven of Nine makes everything else pale by comparison.

You know what I liked? The time Seven wore a blue Starfleet uniform in an episode of Voyager.

I feel like there might have been a second episode where she rocked this look in a holodeck simulation or something, but the one I'm thinking of had her get recruited by the timeship Relativity to rescue Voyager from a chroniton explosion or something. They send her to infiltrate Voyager on its first day of service, so she has to wear the uniform to keep a low profile. But I like the look a lot, because I'm a scientist and I have a certain sentimental attachment to the science blue uniforms. I know Seven wore a goofy catsuit most of the time to make the show sexier, but this is easily the character's hottest look. It hints at a possible happy ending for the character, where she regained more of her humanity and became a Starfleet officer like her Voyager pals. And of course she's a blueshirt because she's a science queen all the way. I see Blue Shirt Seven and immediately understand why everyone had a crush on Spock in the 60s.

But no, Picard took the character in a different direction and turned her into a brooding loner who doesn't play by the rules. And you know, I like this sort of fare. I maintain Larry Hama's run on Wolverine is an underrated classic. All this shady stuff with big guns and revenge and eye-yanking and scenery-chewing? That's fine... until you try to put it in friggin' Star Trek, where it just ends up looking dumb as fuck. It's like putting Wolverine in the skants from TNG Season 1. Sure, he's got the legs for it, but it's just not his style, bub.

I'd like to give this episode some credit for not cutting away to more scenes aboard the Borg Reclamation Cube or whatever they call it, because I have no fucking idea what the point of that place is or why I'm supposed to care about what goes on there. Except I'm pretty sure this is just a temporary reprieve before we go back there in the next episode, which is sure to piss me off even more. You can't win with this show. Everyone's miserable all the time and everywhere they go looks like a dump.

#mike watches picard #sheer fucking hubris

[batstorm93672]

Jason felt nausea as he opened his eyes, no bright light and yet it hurt his eyes as he squinted. He turned to see Nightwing and Red Robin in the same position as he. Trapped in a cage of sorts. What happened again?

A case... dead people in which their death was cause of torture... getting a lead and Hood ran into the two... no... wait no that's not right. Three, he ran into the three. Batman? No... no that can't be it. Batman was meeting in Metropolis for something, who-

"You're all awake, good. I thought it would take forever to wait"

Nightwing looked around in a rush "Where's Robin?"

Fuck

It's Robin, the third was Robin.

"The boy had thrown a tantrum, I was gonna go from oldest to youngest. Then he decided to punch me and almost got me out, so he's gonna go first. Lucky for you all, you get to watch"

Who was this man? The name... on the tip of Jason's tongue.

The sound of a wheelchair made it's way over, the person who sat, bruised and bleeding was Robin. All three of them tensed and Nightwing writhed in anger "Let him go!"

"You are all so predictable, one member gets threatened and you come undone"

Roman...

Shit shit shit shit! No! He was told to be dead, Jason was sure of it! How the fuck is Black Mask alive?!

"So Robin, anything you wanna say?" Robin stirred awake, Black Mask taking off the gag over his mouth. "Tt, Go... to hell you piece of shit" Black Mask frowned "For such a young boy you sure have a big mouth. Time to fix that shall we?" A group of men wheeled something in... an electric chair. He surely wouldn't do... no he would he fucking would.

Robin was sluggish as his restraints were undone, they drugged him. Nightwing looked as if he wanted to rip the bars apart. Black Mask wasn't dumb, he knows how to get about keeping hostages, of course the cages they were kept in were protected and strong. As Robin was placed on the chair, more restraints being put back on and it looked as if the drugs wore off cause he looked alert now. Black Mask sat down on a chair holding a device in his hands as he grinned. "So let us begin shall we? Once Batman finds his sidekicks dead, then I'll have him"

The dial was turned on and Robin did nothing, everyone shouted for him, but Robin's done this before. He was trained by the best to withstand it all.

Black Mask wasn't pleased, Jason looked at Robin trying to signal that if he plays off that he's in pain then it won't get worse for a time. "Seems the little boy is good at hiding the pain. Let's change that up, hm?" He turned it up and Robin still held his ground, whether it be his stubbornness or damn pride in the way. Nightwing shook the bars in protest and Red Robin was trying to pick the lock as best as he could. Then it died down again, Robin was... he was trembling, but he balled his hands into fists in protest of it all. From the sound of the clicks, it was raised twice more. The electricity sparked and illuminated the room, Robin was writhing in pain yet no noise came out.

"So close to full power and yet you still manage to keep some dignity. Let's see how you do now"

Three clicks and Black Mask started it.

Then the scream... so loud that the others had to cover their ears as Black Mask smiled. "There we are, who knew someone was so good at being tortured. I might keep him around to amuse me more"

"STOP IT" Jason couldn't stop himself from yelling, but it did nothing as Roman kept it going. Everything went white for a few moments and Robin was sobbing for him to stop, that would only fuel it. Finally it died down, Nightwing had tears in his eyes. Red Robin kept pounding on the cage in rage. Jason was spitting out every curse he knows.

Robin went limp for a mere moment and the restraints broke the next. Robin's eyes burned green, he lost himself in the influence.

"Wha-" Before Roman could even get up, Robin leaped like a wild animal and punched him square in the face. Then stomping down on his chest, holding his foot down on Roman's windpipe. The man was losing air until all noise from his struggle stopped, he was out.

As his goons came in with guns, Robin yelled and charged at them, one person managed to shoot him in the side, but he didn't care. Robin kicked the man in the jaw, then pressed his foot down and twisted to his other foot to kick the other in the face, some teeth flying out.

"What the hell is happening to him?"

Jason answered, it doesn't even seem that Dick had an answer "The Lazarus Pit influence is running through him, he manages to stabilize it at times, but he snapped now"

"I've- He never acted like this..."

"As I said, he stabilizes it much more"

"How did you know?"

"He's told me, I know what it's like after all"

Jason shouted to Robin as he finished off the goons "Robin! You gotta find yourself, it's over now!"

Robin stood eerily still, then approaching the cages, he held a tight grip and Jason was sure his knuckles turned white as Robin ripped the bars off of Dick's cage. Then doing the same for Tim and Jason next, Tim looked wary at the boy "Robin?" Robin chest heaved with every step, blood blooming at the side of his tunic, if Robin could feel it he made no indication to it. Robin looked at the doorway and narrowed his eyes, stalking over to it, the sounds of footsteps getting closer.

Robin watched carefully, the door swung open and he slammed his fist into their face. Another unfortunate soul of a goon to be met by Damian going crazy on the Lazarus Pit. "Robin. It's okay, calm down" Robin snapped his direction to Dick who tried to calm him. Robin punched Dick in the gut, the man almost doubled over, but he kept his footing. Robin went to swing again and Dick blocked it then grabbed his other hand in time as Robin tried to use the other next. "Robin, stop it"

Robin opened his mouth and out came spit as he coughed. "Dami?" He kept coughing and then collapsed on the spot, the bullet wound. Dick carried Damian in his arms gently "We have to leave immediately"

.

.

.

He should have done better

Something so weak as torture made him lose it..?

Pathetic

He can do better

So what made him so weak?

Emotions

He was afraid to snap and end up doing something he might regret

Why is he in pain?

Well the electricity for one, then the gunshot

He ignored it when it happened

The Lazarus Pit gives strength to those who go in

.

Damian sat up, startled as he cried out, then a group surrounded him.

"It's okay"

"You're okay"

"Relax, we're at the cave"

Damian breath was shaky as he breathed out, moving his hands frantically around his body as if he was testing if it felt like him. "Mmback?" "Yeah your back, we got the bullet out and stitched the wound" "Wasn't me... I didn't... I didn't do anything right?" "No, you didn't do anything bad. You saved us and stopped Black Mask"

"Weren't... supposed to see that... only Todd"

"Sorry kid, the cat's out of the bag now"

"Scary... drowning in"

"It's okay now Dames, you won't be hurt any longer"

"Wanna..." Damian almost bit the words back, but his mind was a mess so he kept speaking "...hug, please?" Who was Dick to deny his little brother a hug? He was most definitely willing to give him a hug anytime.

"Mmsorry you saw... that side"

"I don't care, I'm just glad you're safe. We all are" Tim and Jason joined in the hug and Damian closed his eyes as he yearned the warmth.

#damian wayne #damian wayne has feelings and he wont admit it #jason todd #robin #tim drake #red hood #dick grayson #nightwing #red robin #tw torture #tw electrocution

[cloethetealsnake]

Ok random idea for a show (animated or other) but what if you used relevance as a visual thing. Like I know lots of shows use like shaded out background characters to show people are there but irrelevant other than you knowing they're an existence.

But what if you took it further?

Bear with me here ok?

So I've been submerged in the danny phantom fandom lately so I'm gonna use that show as an example:

So in the beginning of the show you see alot of non-reaction from the regular people cause they haven't processed what's actually happening. Later you get good shots of the natural fear creeping in of a ghost attack happening and you see people booking it out of the area for safety. Now crowds are important here cause Danny has an identity to protect so they are shown. Later the specifics of the people goes down as seeing who is there isn't the problem but rather the public setting being the point. But what happens as time goes on and people figure shit out (like not everyone is dumb like in Metropolis and the whole superman thing. Danny only changes volour palette).

This is where things can be fun cause you can separate character pov from viewer pov. Like instead of having vague blobs as people just have the audio: the people themselves aren't relevant so don't put them in frame.

But show the surrounding to change like we can see them.

I.e. show a icecream bobbing as someone lives it in the park. Show the Frisbees in the park. The coffee the office worker just grabbed from a Cafe or food truck, just no people themselves.

But don't make it noticeable. Make that shit like gravity falls subtle. It's all background stuff. Phase it into the show's look till people know something is different but it's just "show aesthetic".

It could look real cool too cause if you have someone rushing through a crowd you can get really creative about how you show it. It looks like an empty street but you can hear the chatter and cars. Them someone bursts forward and suddenly there's these invisible things they hit as they scramble through the street. You see the eyes take in the surroundings you can't see and knock a tray of drinks out of a dudes hands and you suddenly see them perfectly as they get splashed and yell after the person.

But as the shaded out cops chasing the person hits this clear person they disappear again as they become irrelevant again.

Idk it's like 5 am and I haven't slept in a hot second. If I remember I wrote this I might delete it later but give me thoughts.

And if you make anything with this shit tag me in it cause I wanna see

:)

#writing #writing prompt #show concept #danny phantom #make a thing if you wanna #idk its 5 am #5 am thoughts #this was inspired by the dp in universe memes #whoops

[sulietsexual]

I’m of a torn opinion about Lana. Like yes I agree that it’s shitty that Clark constantly shuts her out and yo-yos with her emotions (even though it’s really not his fault), and that if he can’t do what (to Lana’s mind) is a simple task of being honest, then maybe they’re better off not being so close. She’s honest with him all the time…but at the same time, being sad about her boyfriend joining the army is not NEARLY close to the same level as being a superpowered alien being. Also, people are entitled to their privacy. If your friend keeping some things to themselves is a boundary you can’t handle, then you should gtfo of that relationship. (The real problem is that the “keeping my identity a secret from my loved ones to protect them” superhero story trope is dumb.)

Okay, I feel like using one example of Lana's continued ongoing trauma to compare to Clark's secret doesn't quite work.

It wasn't just that Lana wanted Clark to be honest with her. Of course everyone is entitled to their privacy. But it went beyond that.

Clark continually lied to Lana, even in situations where it was clear she knew he was lying, such as when he saved her from the tornado and she questioned him about being there. He often inadvertently gaslights her in trying to shield his secret, and refuses to offer proper explanations for bad situations he puts her in, such as when he's on Red Kryptonite and he asks her out then ditches her in a seedy bar or when he runs off to Metropolis and then dumps her in the aftermath.

Now we as the audience know that Clark is not entirely at fault and is protecting his secret (for good reason) but Lana doesn't know that, and instead, all she sees is a guy who continually lies to her, lets her down, professes his feelings then takes them back and makes her feel crazy.

So it's not about boundaries or privacy, but about Clark's treatment of Lana and his continued lack of honesty and communication.

#answered #anonymous #smallville