#i do not ship them outside of how arkham functions

[jcmorrigan]

@gavillain and @shadowx21, it turns out great minds think alike :-D

When/why did you start fanning over them?

When I first started watching The Batman, they became my two favorite rogues in the gallery. Not right away in Firefly’s case - I actually thought his intro ep was rather lackluster, and he became more endearing later (going back to “The Big Heat,” I can see why I thought that, since his personality did get more fleshed-out later, but no, he’s still good in that too). Ragdoll was love at first freaking sight. So, right off the bat, I have two villains that I like in a Rogues Gallery and that usually means a ship is coming, but I didn’t solidify it juuuuuust yet...

Then “The Big Chill” happened, and you cannot tell me that episode is not about Firefly falling hard for Mr. Freeze and then getting his heart broken when he found out Freeze just thought of him as a disposable, abusable tool. That was also the episode that really made Firefly charming to me (he stole. A SNOWGLOBE. Because IT REMINDED HIM. Of FREEZE. And then GAVE IT TO HIM. Which is not only incredibly flirty but just a power move that demonstrates his sense of humor). And I was like...no. I cannot let this go unresolved. Firefly needs a supervillain boyfriend who will actually treat him right. Somebody to replace his Boss Frost. Who’s available? And Ragdoll stood out to me because, well, favorite. But their personalities seemed quite complementary - they’re both fun-loving and quippy, with massive egos and a penchant for thievery. AT THIS POINT, I WAS ONLY INTO SEASON 2.

I actually got it spoiled for me that “Team Penguin” was going to feature them both WORKING TOGETHER. It was my fault. I was reading stuff I shouldn’t on Wikipedia pages. But I FLIPPED. And so then when that episode came around, I had my shipping goggles on for those two. And while they didn’t have any serious one-on-one time or anything, I feel like I got it definitely proven that their personalities play off each other SO well. They pass the ball back and forth when the opportunity comes up to make fun of Killer Moth. Firefly looks INCREDIBLY entertained by Ragdoll stealing Penguin’s hat. On separate occasions, they each try to rename the team - and no one else thinks to. At the VERY least, if you don’t ship it, you HAVE to admit they’re on really good terms in that ep and probably friends. 

Then “White Heat” happened and I...um...suffered some minor setbacks but it’s okay, I figured it out

I ended up storing up so many ideas for what their relationship would be like together that I started writing a fanfic just for them and the friendship I imagined they’d have with Harley Quinn - “Arsonist, Contortionist, Psychologist” (on ff.net and AO3 under the name JCMorrigan, hint hint, if you want reading material). That fic was originally supposed to be Ragdoll one-sided pining over Firefly and not actually getting to be with him (because “White Heat”), but then, gooooossssshhhhh, I put them in the same room over and over and their interactions were SO flirty that I was like...um...no, they’re going to get together by the end of this.

What makes you like this couple?

Basically what I already mentioned about their personalities playing well off each other. Also the fact that them being same-universe means they could have gotten up to SO much mischief behind the scenes in canon, and there’s so much room there to imagine them committing heists that just frustrate Batman to no end. And they’re like minds, being supervillains and all.

Is there anything you don’t like about this couple?

Not really?

What’s your favorite outfit on them?

Oof, this is tough. Because on one hand, both of their costumes for in-the-field villainy are just so inspired and dynamic

On the other hand, there’s just something so fun about seeing them in civilian clothes, too. Which doesn’t happen OFTEN but there is ONE BIG INSTANCE for each, and that’s Ragdoll/Peter (I assume his name is Peter in TBverse because both the comics Ragdolls are named Peter) in his freaking formal suit trying to look like he’s the head of some multimillion-dollar corporation

And Firefly/Garfield just chilling at home in this red shirt layer combo

Which we never see on him when he’s fully out of shadow, but we know what his face looks like, we can put the pieces together

So um I just showed you literally all the outfits they have, which went against the point of answering the question

It’s the birthday of one of them! How do they celebrate?

WITH A CRIME WAVE THE LIKES OF WHICH GOTHAM HAS NEVER SEEN. Whoever’s birthday it is is the person who gets to pick the heist targets. The other will more than likely swipe a few things they know the one blessed by birthday will really like (e.g. Garfield mentioned his watch was broken a few days ago and Peter just stuffs the most CLASSY watch into his pocket when no one is looking and presents it to Garfield later and he’s just...I...I didn’t know you were going to get that big of a thing for me). 

How would they react in an embarrassing situation?

Ragdoll will laugh it off, no matter how sheepish he feels. He’ll get right back on his feet. Firefly will be a lot grumpier about being made a fool of and Ragdoll will have to reassure him that nobody saw/cared, or, if they did, they SHOULDN’T.

What do you think they’ll be like in the near future?

FIREFLY GETS CURED OF BEING PHOSPHORUS. I DEMAND IT. After which, he and Ragdoll just continue striking out as villains. Firefly might SAY he’ll be done with crime once he’s saved up enough, but let’s be real: he loves the rush. The two of them are villains to the end. Though being Phosphorus will have left Firefly with some...mental issues, but Ragdoll is fine with this and very patient. 

What’s an ideal date for them?

HEISTS. ROBBERY. DUELING CRIMEFIGHTERS.

Who/what gets in the way of your ship?

The entire episode “White Heat.” First of all, the fact that Firefly is dating someone completely else. Which hit me like a ton of bricks because, as I said, I was doing FireDoll as of season 2, and Blaze doesn’t show up until SEASON 5. But that is easily overcome; their breakup was baaaaaaad, and Blaze, I think, needs someone who isn’t as villainously inclined. The bigger obstacle is Phosphorus himself - the fact that his physical form destroyed everything he touched and couldn’t so much as survive anywhere outside the max-security wing of Arkham, and the fact that while he was Phosphorus, Garfield tried to actively blow up the entirety of Gotham, Ragdoll included. Which I have determined wouldn’t be something Garfield would have done if he were thinking clearly - it was a combination of 1) the radiation messing with his brain and 2) his inability to interact with the world without destroying what he touched giving him a frustration that resulted in a thought pattern of “I can’t have it, so it might as well not exist” and possibly “I can’t live a functional life, so I don’t even care if I live or die.” I do like to think he was eventually cured because I want him to be happy, gosh DANG IT. But I do think he would be left with scars. Scars that would fade over time, but he would have to learn how to overcome destructive intrusive thoughts, especially when his guard was down. And then there’s the fact that Ragdoll would have to learn what Phosphorus almost did. Which would break his heart. But still...I think they could move past it. He’d understand that Garfield was going through a tough time mentally. 

What is something they could do that would make your life complete?

The show is over. There’s nothing more they can do. The best I can hope for is that there’s some kind of voice actor reunion panel for The Batman at some convention (which won’t happen because apparently nobody liked The Batman) and Jeff and Jason will both put in an appearance and make some kind of reference to how well Firefly and Ragdoll got along on Team Penguin. (I would go to that hypothetical nonexistent panel my own self and ask them if those two were friends. NOT ABOUT THE SHIP; THEY WOULDN’T ACKNOWLEDGE THE SHIP AND I KNOW IT.) Beyond that, if any other fanwork for this ship ever appears, I want to know all about it.

#the batman #ragdoll #firefly #firedoll #garfield lynns #peter merkel

[lookatthisdork]

Meditations of Jason Todd (Draft)

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I’ve made several attempts at drafting different fic ideas, which inevitably meant blocks of Batfam fanfic drabbles that don’t have any coherent plot, flow or continuity. They’re all basically unfit for internet consumption right now, except for this first attempt at writing in Jason’s voice. 

(Um, I’m still reading Pre-Crisis and 90s comics in my free-time, so the only canon Red Hood I have is his single animated movie. Since this is set significantly after that in his character arc, I’m not super confident when writing him. I have a problem writing characters I haven’t read the canon for, honestly.)

The problem with trading and selling drugs in a city like Gotham is that no matter how careful you were with recruitment, no matter how high your people’s morale and loyalty, you inevitably have to get your hands dirty to keep the money flowing. There are always incentives for both defectors and saboteurs to take pot shots at your stake. Offing a boss could mean a bigger piece of the pie for yourself, better job security (in the short-term, if your employment was tenuous), averting your boss throwing you under the bus for a job gone wrong. If the guy up top doesn’t maintain an aura of invulnerability, a willingness to crush any dissent under his boot, he quickly finds himself faced with with mutiny.

Dealing in drugs always ends in blood, one way or another. Jason was well aware of this. He was also aware of the fact that if you wanted to finance something really expensive quietly and quickly, drug money was the most sure-fire way of getting what you wanted.

(Actually, well-done white-collar fraud was the most sure-fire way, but if there was one thing he’d absorbed from watching Oracle, it was that fraud was never as secure as people made it out to be. It only took one individual with a computer and more skill than you to blow your operation to bits. Maybe it was old-fashioned, but at least drug-money was a physical object that couldn’t be “lost” with a few keystrokes.)

(Also, fraud was boring as a sole source of income. Too much time behind a screen, not enough explosions and punching people in the face.)

The Red Hood had been a damn-good drug lord, Jason liked to think. He’d run a tight ship, and the “severed heads in the duffel bag” shtick had quickly established just how out-of-their-league everyone else in the game was. Sure, he hadn’t stayed in business all that long for several good reasons (only one of which was Bruce), but extorting organized crime bosses was like riding a bicycle – really hard to forget. There was no practical reason for why he shouldn’t just recycle his old plan in a new city for some fast cash. Wasn’t like the shit-hole he was stuck in had anyone equipped to take him down.

Of course, striking fear into the hearts of criminals by decapitating their peers wasn’t the best strategy to use when your little brothers had front row seats to the carnage via helmet-cam.

He could just disable the cam for that part, of course. But the brats would definitely put two-and-two together and hatch some plot in response. An unnecessary headache when there was no Dick to foist them off on.

And...Jason wasn’t the best role-model in the world. He could admit to that. He used the phrase “little brothers” to refer to Tim and Damian very, very lightly in deference to the uncomfortable number of murder attempts among the three of them. Nowadays, he did regret all the stabbing and shooting and general dickery. Even though Damian was genetically engineered to be the most aggravating child on the planet and Tim kept stealing Jason’s alter-egos out from under him (unrepentantly now, the little shit). They were still better than uninterested-and-unhelpful-unless-I’m-sending-you-to-Arkham Dick and fucking Bruce. They didn’t deserve half the shit they were dealing with.

But his regret didn’t magically fix everything. There were 100-to-1 odds that neither kid saw Jason as anything more than “that one fuck-up that we don’t discuss in polite company.” Fair enough. Still, didn’t mean that the Red Hood had to live down to their expectations. He could do better – be the responsible adult, make sure they were fed and watered regularly, maybe (maybe) address their allotted emotional-expression-of-the-week.

Jason blamed his previously non-existent brotherly streak on Cassandra. She’d not only spoiled him by re-familiarizing him with friendly human contact, but she also subtly planted in his mind the idea that hey, you know who else would appreciate Jason’s company when Cassandra was busy? Tim and Damian. And you know who would benefit most from Jason’s unique perspective on life? Who needed a reprieve from Bruce and Dick and all of their frankly impossible expectations? Who could always use another person watching their backs, making sure they end up in an early grave?

(Honestly, Dick should watch Cass in Big Sister Mode and take notes.)

A soft huff of static came through the comm in his ear without warning, followed by the ridiculously-identifiable Damian’s click of the tongue. (Bruce was trying to train him out of doing it in costume so people wouldn’t catch on - with no success, of course.) “Todd, have your remaining neurons finally ceased to function? You’ve been standing outside the warehouse for five minutes. Are you ready or not?”

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses,” he said as he checked the indicators for the explosives one last time. (Still all green, ready and able to wreck a certain someone’s next fiscal quarter.) “I was just reminiscing about the good old days, back when we all hated each other’s guts and I still blew up drug dens with the dealers inside instead of out. Ever miss those times?” he asked, heavy on the sarcasm.

Tim’s voice was dry as a desert, even with the slightly-tinny reception. “I miss them as much as I miss the knife that was embedded in my spleen.”

“Well, you have to admit, a knife in your spleen was probably the most exciting thing that happened to you that week, even if it was bad for your health long-term.”

“Clearly Todd’s mental dysfunction is worsening,” Damian said. As usual, his tone gave no indication if that was meant to be a joke or an insult.

Probably both, actually. Kid got a kick out of riling people who weren’t Dick up.

At least it was a joke clearly aimed to get a chuckle out of Tim instead of a joke at his expense. If there was one thing this months-long jaunt into the multiverse was doing, it was driving the boys together through their shared survival instinct and the fact that Jason deprived them of all baked goods whenever he had to break up their fights.

(Bribing his brothers with freshly-made cakes and brownies in exchange for good behavior was really the only reason they were three months into this shit-show with no major casualties.)

“Ain’t that a shame,” Jason replied. “It’ll just be you and Tim, stuck all alone in Not-Gotham. What a perfect opportunity for you two to bond.”

No,” both boys said at the same time.

Then the sound of Damian trying to land a hit on Tim (and failing judging from the lack of a pained grunt) filtered through Jason’s headpiece. Because Damian couldn’t stand to agree with Tim on anything for more than 10 seconds without ruining the moment.

Well, whatever. The brotherly-bond was a work in progress. “Stop fist-fighting so we can finish this,” he said. “I’ve got Falcone’s heroin wired up to an irresponsible amount of explosives, and I’d like to get our racket money before dawn.”

What I just wrote makes no sense out of context, but since this is the only thing I have written for this AU, I’ll just explain here:

This is from the “Jason-Tim-Damian get stuck in Flashpoint” AU I mentioned at some point, a few months into their impromptu stranding. How they got there isn’t super important, and I’m handwaving intervention from standard Earth not being able to get them back home in a timely manner. (Note: Bruce, Dick, Cass and everyone else aren’t trying really hard to get them back; it’s just not working for Reasons.) 

After thinking about these three in a strange Not-Gotham for a while, I came to the conclusion that they’d lay low and avoid drawing attention to themselves instead of trying to approach Thomas-Batman or Alt-Cyborg or someone else. Things might be different if Dick or Cass were the oldest sibling on the ground, but Jason’s much slower to trust, as are Tim and Damian. A virtual stranger that also happens to be Batman would be the last person Jason would trust with his and his brothers’ safety. 

Naturally, that means the guys need to find a source of income and a place to hole up. The former, Jason gets by extorting the local organized crime - charging money to sabotage competitors and charging money to not sabotage his employers. Lighter on the murder than his first return to Gotham, but Tim and Damian noticeably don’t bring that subject up anyway. I imagine they picked a spot that was an auxiliary batcave on their Earth and fix it up as a temporary base where Tim is trying to engineer something to send them back to their Earth (funded by Jason’s extortion racket). Damian is stuck as the odd-jobs kid, which he handles with as much patience as he can. (Hint: he’s not a very patient person.)

It would be a waste of the setting not to get the three of them involved with Thomas-Batman and possibly even the main plot of Flashpoint, so this scene would be a sort of in-between-scene prologue before the status-quo changes. I’m leaning towards either Red Hood crashing one of the Cyborg-Batman scenes because he needs tech only Cyborg has or one of the guys interrupting Martha-Joker’s last crime.

Of course, this premise requires a long-form fic, which I’ve never written before. This is all wild speculation, really. I’ll probably never write all of this out.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BUT IF I DO, you can count on Jason finding out that in a world with no Bruce and no Robin, he STILL ended up dead and resurrected. The multiverse just has it out for him, clearly.

#batman au #au #fanfic #mine #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #flashpoint au

[componentplanet]

Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020

We used to view the idea of gaming on a laptop as a virtual contradiction in terms, at least for anyone who didn’t want to invest in a so-called ‘desktop replacement.’ Over the last decade, we’ve seen a lot more laptops shipping with integrated graphics that are capable of at least some light gaming and a proliferation of indie titles with less aggressive requirements. Put the two together, and you’ve got a lot more options for low-end gaming today than 10-20 years ago.

In this list of our favorites, we’ve tried to blend a mixture of modern titles and a handful of older classics. If you’ve been gaming for a number of years, we strongly suggest Googling “best games of X,” to remind yourself what hidden gems you might have missed the first time around. A game that required a midrange PC to play in 2011 likely runs just fine on an integrated GPU in 2019, especially if you’ve got an Ice Lake-based notebook or Ryzen APU-based laptop.

Since the last time we refreshed the list, we’ve trimmed a few titles off, kept a few, and added some new games. The PC gaming news cycle often doesn’t serve the interests of the larger PC gaming community when it comes to game discovery. This is particularly and sadly true for low-end gamers. Lost in the endless churn of new titles is the fact that there are literally thousands of amazing PC titles released long before you bought your system. Don’t be afraid to go digging for gems you might have missed in previous generations.

One way to express a love of PC gaming is certainly by investing lots of money in gaming hardware, but it’s certainly not the only one. What matters isn’t the amount of money you can plow into the hobby. It’s how much you enjoy it in the process.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

This XCOM-meets-Fallout title is based on the tabletop Mutant Year Zero game. If you’ve played the modern XCOM games, you’ll be familiar with most of the gameplay elements, though Mutant Year Zero gives you direct control of your squad outside of combat and fuses XCOM’s gameplay with some light RPG elements.

The worst thing we can say about Mutant Year Zero is that you’ll have to do some Googling to figure out which buttons are tied to which keyboard functions. The game’s plot and post-apocalyptic setting recall the best parts of Fallout, and while the game isn’t as deep as one of those sprawling titles, it still feels like a spiritual sequel. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden feels a bit like a “AA” game, for lack of a better phrase. Reasonably well-polished with solid aspirations, but you won’t mistake it for a 400-hour dungeon crawler.

World of Warcraft Classic

I had long since intended to have my WoW Classic reviews done by now, but the reality of leveling and my own crazy schedule have kept me working on my Classic Paladin and the slow climb to Lvl 40. Christmas is coming, which makes this a perfect time to revisit the best-loved MMO of Christmas, 2004.

Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains. Left is Retail, right is Classic.

It’s World of Warcraft: Classic, which is to say, #NoChanges (except for a few of the changes, but really, there aren’t that many). I might be leveling at the speed of grass growing, but by God, I am leveling. There’s a lot to love in the original version of Blizzard’s MMO classic, especially if you like games of this era in the first place. It may use the modern WoW engine, but Blizzard re-used original WoW’s textures and assets. The result is a game that runs just fine on a low-end PC, including Carrizo-powered AMD ultrabooks and Intel integrated graphics.

Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose Game challenges you to find the Canadian goose inside yourself. Yup. This is a game about being an unrepentant asshole. Since the joys of honking and flapping don’t require a high-end PC, Untitled Goose Game is another game that’ll run on just about any toaster you can drag out of storage or cajole into running.

Honk. Flap. Steal objects, trick humans, annoy pets, wash, rinse, and repeat if necessary. It’s a brilliant game for people turned off by “typical” titles looking for a silly, funny, low-key experience.

Arkham City

I’ve decided to switch my low-end PC recommendation from Arkham Asylum to the later Arkham City. Arkham Asylum is, to be sure, still an excellent game, and it runs on an even lower-spec system than Arkham City. But between the two of them, Arkham City is the better overall Batman game. Batman’s overall bag of tricks gets polished and AC offers you playing time as characters like Catwoman, with her own distinct moveset and animation style.

Arkham City feels as though it genuinely captures what it would be like to “be” Batman, with a clever twist on why you face a never-ending army of thugs. If you want to find out if you’re going to like the Arkham game series, I’d say this is the best one to try. If you need something even gentler on system specs, try the original Arkham Asylum.

Into the Breach

Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game that takes place on small maps of 8×8 grids. From the makers of FTL, Into the Breach challenges you to beat back waves of attackers in turn-based combat. There are no XCOM-style probability fields to deal with here — you get full transparency into what actions will be taken by both your own characters and the enemies you engage with.

Into the Breach launched in 2018, but it’s still winning recognition for its unique approach to turn-based combat today. Definitely worth checking out, if you’re looking for some turn-based combat options.

West of Loathing

West of Loathing is a “graphical” adventure game that could run on a Lite-Brite. Don’t let the black-and-white stick-based graphics fool you — under the hood is a classic adventure game with RPG elements, killer clowns, demon cows, snake oil salesman, and a heap of spittoons to dig through in search of loot. The dialog is laugh-out-loud funny and the game’s irreverent humor recalls the best adventure game writing of earlier eras.

West of Loathing came out at the end of 2017, but it’s still a top pick if you need a game that runs on anything and offers some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series of video games but adds its own spin on the concept. Explore Pelican Town, make friends, fall in love, and restore your grandfather’s farm to health in a gentle, open-ended title that will tease your curiosity as opposed to yanking you hither and yon with frantic quest demands.

Stardew Valley recently received a major endgame update in Patch 1.4, with new monsters, fish ponds, a new mystery to solve, various bug-fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and similar updates. Multiplayer support is also now available.

Cuphead

Cuphead’s visual aesthetic is truly unique — it’s the only game we’ve ever seen that mimics the “rubber hose” animation style of the early 1930s in a frenetic run-and-gun shooter. You’ll need sharp reflexes to beat the game, but not much in the way of PC horsepower.

Cuphead is a great game for someone looking for a game you might fairly call “Nintendo hard,” particularly if they enjoy its animation.

Minecraft

The open-world sandbox of Minecraft has been used to create everything from 1:1 scale models of the starship Enterprise to functional (if simple) CPUs. In between, there’s an easily accessible game with a rich crafting system, dangerous mobs, and huge worlds to explore. If your ideas of gameplay run more towards “give me a big space and lots of tools,” and less towards coherent narrative and story-driven play, you may find Minecraft much to your liking.

That doesn’t actually tell you nearly enough about Minecraft, a game that’s inspired millions of people to spend billions of hours stacking blocks on top of each other to build everything from an exact replica of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek to actual working computers. Minecraft is a phenomenal crafting and building game.

Orcs Must Die, Orcs Must Die 2

Orcs Must Die and Orcs Must Die 2 are some of our favorite titles for mindless slaughtery goodness and have a permanent space on my hard drive. This hybrid tower-defense/action game tasks you with burning, blasting, freezing, smashing, dissolving, shooting, and generally wreaking mayhem against wave after wave of orcs, trolls, ogres, and other various bad guys as they seek to invade your home. It’s easy to learn and sometimes surprisingly difficult to master.

I recommend both, but OMD2 is definitely the better game.

Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon is a 2D, side-scrolling dungeon crawler with a side helping of Lovecraftian horror and a mental health management simulator. As your heroes wind their way through the stygian abyss, they’ll face the dripping claws and rasping moans of the eons-damned creatures that dwell beyond the stars. Safeguard them carefully, or you’ll find the abyss staring back at you when you least expect it…

Darkest Dungeon can be legitimately annoying, but if you love mods like “Longest War” for XCOM, this series is a treasure. DD doesn’t pull punches, and if you think you’ve figured the game out, that probably means there’s a DLC or difficulty level waiting to kneecap you around the corner.

So that’s our list. Feel free to chime in with your own. What older games or titles still have a cherished spot on your hard drive, and what games do you find yourself returning to, long after they’ve supposedly been surpassed by more recent releases?

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/269774-best-games-you-can-play-on-laptops-and-low-end-pcs from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2019/12/best-games-for-laptops-and-low-end-pcs.html

#Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020