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#i should probably read about Helena at some point
nexysworld · 6 months
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Summary: Things go awry when your undercover mission involves 'marrying' another agent - suffice it to say your boyfriend isn't thrilled. Based on this request. Pairing: RE6!Leon x DSO Fem!Reader Tags: Fluff, my poor attempt at humor, not beta read. No use of y/n WC: 1028
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"Are you sure you guys will tell him? I haven't been able to reach him yet." You felt ridiculous about the whole thing - a fake wedding? That was something right out of some cheesy made-for-tv movie. It honestly shouldn't even have bothered you that Leon hadn’t been made aware, it wasn't like you were actually cheating on him. Still though, it just felt like something he should know, since you would be kissing another man. Didn't help that it was Chris Redfield of all people too. "Of course, he's supposed to be getting back from that China mission today, right? We'll make sure he's in the loop." Helena assured, with a smile. If it hadn't been for your nerves and focus on the mission, you probably would've caught the way Sherry’s face contorted as she held back laughter, hiding behind the brunette woman. 
"Thanks, I really appreciate it." The rest of your time was spent having your hair teased and curled, layers upon layers of makeup being applied to your face. It felt like hours had passed before you were finally deemed worthy enough to be set loose for the main affair. All the while Helena and Sherry sat together cracking up over something that they spoke to each other in hushed whispers about. “What’s so funny?” You finally asked. “Oh nothing.” Was the only reply. “You wouldn’t get it, it's an inside joke.”
“Uh huh…” Not fully convinced by their statement, you wanted to pry further, but let it go not having the time to interrogate them.
 As you walked towards the makeshift altar, you couldn't help but steal a glance at Chris, who was looking just as uneasy as you felt. He was standing so stiff in the suit, more like a statue than a groom. Hopefully your acting was better than his, or this whole thing would be a bust. The doors to the side of the chapel opened, and much to your surprise you found Leon walking through. It was obvious that he was fresh off the plane by his messy-blonde locks and the fact he hadn't even taken his tactical gear off. You recognized the irritated look on his face, and it made your stomach drop.
The ceremony went by in a blur, mind racing with thoughts of Leon and how he was feeling. ‘Why does he look so upset? They had to have told him or he wouldn’t even be here.’ You barely registered the words being spoken by the officiant, speaking only when it was your turn. It had only just registered for you that it was time for the kiss. Chris leaned in, and you closed your eyes, trying to focus on the task at hand, and not to your boyfriend staring daggers from the pew. 
Before your lips connected though, you were interrupted by the sound of Leon's voice cutting through the air. "Alright, what the fuck is going on here?" 
A couple of gasps were heard from the crowd, you ignored them to make eye contact with the blonde who's boots loudly thrummed against the floor as he made his way over to you and your fake groom. "At what point were you planning on telling me that you were leaving me? Maybe I'll get a postcard from the honeymoon?" "Lee, I-" "I don’t care that I’m interrupting your little ceremony – save it. I can't believe you'd do this to me, and with Chris of all people?" "Leon, stop." You half whispered to him, trying to get him to calm down without alerting the crowd to anything suspicious. "I need you to calm down." "Calm down? I go away on a mission and when I come back you're getting married --" "Leon please, it's not what you think." You pleaded, trying to get him to lower his voice. "It's not real." He paused for a moment bewildered by what you said. "What do you mean it's not real?"
Letting out an exasperated sigh, you leaned in to whisper to him. "It's not a real wedding. It's for a mission Chris and I are working on, an undercover mission." "An undercover mission?" He repeated as if the words were foreign to him. There was a brief moment of silence before realization came washing over his features. ”Oh shit.” “Yeah oh shit.” You chided through gritted teeth. Any further discussion was cut off by the sound of Chris’ voice. “I’m sorry folks.” Chris said with a weary tone. “I think my fiancé and I need some time to work this situation out.” He put one hand on your back and the other on Leon’s ushering the two of you back to the dressing room. The moment the door closed, you were already going off again. “Did you seriously think I would just get married to someone else while you were away?” “Well, no… I guess not.” “You guess not?” You felt the vein above your right eyebrow begin to throb with annoyance. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me.” “For starters you were in China. But besides that, Rebecca and Sherry were supposed to tell you for me – wait a minute, if you weren’t told how did you even know to come to the church?”
“Well uh…” Leon reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. It took him a moment to unlock it before handing it over, revealing a message thread. The number said ‘Unknown’ and the only thing included was a picture of you in the gown along with the address. “What the –” 
The unmistakable sound of laughter filled the room as the two culprits decided to enter. “We’re sorry.” Sherry said. “We just thought it would be a little funny to keep Leon on his toes.” “Yeah, we figured it would be a little harmless fun, we didn’t expect him to get here so soon.” Helena added. “But man, the look on his face – priceless.” Leon’s mouth hung open at the girls’ words, you could tell his brain was working overtime to process the situation. You had to admit, it was funny to look at. Kissing him on the cheek you joined in the laughter.
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zahri-melitor · 11 months
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Was just reading some fic and realised with a start that I hadn’t consciously noticed how divergent the “I’ve just heard about this moment” version of Dick beating up Joker in the Last Laugh is to the comics.
I mean, I knew that the “Croc tries to drown Tim, Joker is blamed for killing Tim due to arranging the situation at Arkham” bit doesn’t get communicated properly and gets boiled down to “Dick thought Joker killed Tim”. But HOW and WHY Dick stops is also missed. 
Fandom telephone says “Bruce revived Joker” and I really don’t think it was anywhere near that simple (and also the simple version is more likely “Tim revived Joker”).
Like, we don’t GET details of the resuscitation, but there were five heroes present. Bruce, Helena and Steph arrived together. You’ve got Dick having a guilt breakdown and Tim who had to HANG OFF DICK’S ARM to get him to stop.
Panel staging suggests that the most likely situation was that it was Tim and Bruce who revived Joker (and probably Tim initially), but the idea that Helena and Dick were also taking turns is so goddamn tasty.
Because Helena, who was thinking she’d seen the remains of Tim being EATEN BY KILLER CROC, walking in to see Tim desperately trying to revive the Joker? That Helena, seeing the hero she considers a little brother, performing CPR? Helena, who’s standing closer to Joker than any of the others when he wakes up? Who says “we should have let him die”? She 100% could have felt that it was a wasted effort and still stepped up to help her little brother Tim, because he’s just a teen like the students she misses. She could have helped while still disagreeing with the outcome. She’s played by the rules while disagreeing with them plenty of times.
And did Dick? Does he just have his breakdown while Tim’s trying to revive the Joker, or does he step in to help out of guilt and because a team effort is more effective? Does Bruce order him to help as a way to try and get Dick out of his head? How does it feel to have the hands that punched Joker in the chest to the point that his heart stopped be the same hands that performed compressions to try and restart it?
(I largely suspect Steph did NOT participate and may have been sent to scout the rest of the Cathedral, due to her mask being in place, probably being the least CPR-qualified of the group AND she hadn’t had a chance to go “Tim you’re alive!” yet. Helena would have current first aid via teaching, and Bruce would be religious about it for himself, Tim and Dick. And Bruce IS training Steph at this exact point in canon, so would be across what he’s taught her and what he hasn’t)
Anyway, I’m having a lot of feels about Joker: Last Laugh today, because the character dynamics are so tasty. 
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tbcanary · 6 months
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Hi! Do you happen to have basic/simple/easy tutorials for editing comic panels to recommend?
i do not actually have one to refer you to, but i’m happy to write some things up! i’m assuming this is just for removing backgrounds and creating icons; if you want a how-to on the way i animate panels, that lives here.
i use photoshop cs6, but the same general principles should work in other editors. also, there are probably easier or faster ways to do the things i do. i like my methods and i’m comfortable with them, but i’d recommend experimenting to find what works best for you.
and... yeah! let's get into it.
step one: finding a panel
i save panels as i’m reading comics. they all live in one PSD file named “panels,” and i make a new one for each run. anything that seems pretty or thematically resonant gets copied and pasted in there. this way, i don’t have to dig through endless comic issues to find a specific image that stuck with me. i usually save the full page just so the edges are clean and everything is included.
let’s go with this page from birds of prey:
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step two: cropping
the way i crop the image depends on two things: what i’m hoping to make, and what the image looks like. here, i’m just doing a basic portrait, and helena is taller than she is wide. that makes it easy; let’s crop it so she takes up most of the frame.
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(my preferred ratios are 4x6 for smaller panel edits like this; for banners, i usually do 2x1, but if the framing works better as 3x2, I have done that, too. just feel it out. actual pixel sizes depend on the size of the original image.)
step three: removing the background
this part is, I think, the area with the most room for personal preference. we need to erase the background, and there are a LOT of tools to do this. each one varies depending on what the image itself looks like. there’s the magic selection tool, the eraser, or the lasso or magnetic selection tool. 
(i don’t use the lasso or magnet because they’re evil, to me, but they work reasonably well when you have a character on a mostly solid background and art with thick, defined lines. i have no real advice other than that.)
here, we can mix and match some things. i’m going to start by using the magic selection tool to grab all the white or solid colors and remove them with the delete key, like so:
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surprise! gone.
after that, for the more finicky areas, i am a perfectionist and i go in and erase pixels using the eraser tool at 4-5px width. i start by outlining the character, like so:
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from there, you can use the lasso tool to select all of the remaining background and delete it. i usually hide the white background layer at this step, too. (i'm also going to color the smoke and the man in the foreground black and redraw the crossbow string with the paintbrush tool. this ain't about him.)
you should end up with something like this:
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step four: cleaning the linework
this part is mostly using the layer style stroke and the tool refine edge.
so, because of how selection tools and erasers work, there are a bunch of hidden pixels throughout the image you can’t really see. this drives me absolutely bonkers. at this point, i combine all the layers of the paint i've done so far -- everything except for the transparent background. select the layer with the character — Helena — and apply the layer style stroke, set to “outside” at 3px.
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those little black dots are what we're after. there aren't too many right now, because this was a fairly clean edit; sometimes, it looks scary and messy, but that’s okay. the layer style has just outlined all those invisible pixels. i go through and erase them — especially in tight places like corners. for example, this pesky area between strands of hair:
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(before vs. after)
once you’ve erased all of those pixels and cleaned up the image, you can go back into the stroke layer style.
you’ve done a lot of erasing and feathering and cleaning up, so chances are, the line work is not nearly as crisp as it looked in the original panel. that’s fine! shift the settings to “inside” and 1px, like so:
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sometimes it’ll need to be 2-3 px, sometimes it’ll need to be center-aligned, and sometimes you might even decide it looks better outside or without the stroke style at all! this is all personal preference. do whatever you like.
once it's where you want it to be, i like to duplicate the layer -- to save the one without the new outline in case anything goes wonky. then right click the copy of the layer and "rasterize style" to get a flat image with new linework.
your workspace should look something like this:
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if it happens to feel like the edges are a little harsh — which happens sometimes! especially when using selection instead of eraser — you can select the whole image and use refine edge. this softens it. you don’t need to do much; i usually do 2-3px of feathering, a couple pixels of smoothing, and some contrast, depending on how it looks. see below:
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you'll have three layers now. it gets confusing, so try to keep track of which one is your active layer. you can delete old ones, if you want; i generally don't, just in case.
there isn’t a hard and fast rule for this part. do what you think looks good. and if you want to refine the edge before you add the new linework, that can work! do another stroke layer style after the first round! test things out and find out what you like. most of the time, it depends on the image and your preference.
after all that, this is the helena we now have:
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step five: creating a new background!
this part is easy. create a new layer, pick a color you like — i tend to pull from the actual background using an eye dropper tool, or if it’s for a multiple-part edit, I use the swatches i’ve decided on for the color scheme of the whole thing — and paint bucket that thing right on there. this is some of the blue that was behind her originally:
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i don’t like flat colors, pretty much ever, because they feel harsh to me. so i go back and add artistic touches and mess around with the filters a lot. sometimes i pull text or accents from other panels and follow the same steps as above to incorporate them into the edit; sometimes, i don’t. no rules just vibes.
in this case, i want it to be pretty simple. so i’ll make a new layer, then fill it in with a gradient tool. i usually make a custom gradient; one side is the color of the background and the other side is either black or white, depending on the vibe I want.
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i do an orbital gradient most of the time — circles are your friend — and focus the center on something that I want to draw the eye to. here, i’m going to do helena’s face.
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then i mess around with the opacity until it looks the way i want it to. like this:
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step six: final steps
congrats! you have an edited panel! you’re perfectly fine to post/share/use it at this point, but there are a couple other things i like to do to give it that final polish:
if you want to jazz up your edits, try messing around with outer glow, or drop shadow. both of those layer styles can add some emphasis to your focal point. (i prefer those be kept at a low opacity, when i use them, which isn’t often.)
i'd also recommend messing around with gradient maps if you want to superimpose a larger silhouette over the background. that would take more room than i have left in this already far too long guide, but it does add something to have it in there.
i dislike having text bubbles in my edits unless i specifically put them there, so i do have a process for removing them, much like the smoke or the man in the foreground. again, we are running long already, so i won't get into that here. my recommendation if you don't want to deal with entirely removing a bubble is to just paint over the text inside with white so you have an empty text box or speech bubble instead. it's simpler, quicker, and honestly the more common practice based on what i've seen.
that being said, if you want to know how i paint over them -- or how to do anything i didn't get into here -- feel free to ask. i don't mind writing these up.
i have a guide on how i size my images here, which walks through the exporting process. it’s not strictly necessary, but i like for my edits to remain consistent in size, so i do usually follow it.
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and that’s it! you’re now ready to edit comic panels to your heart’s content. happy cropping and so on, and thanks for asking me. <3
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fancyfade · 1 year
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NGL I do love pre 2011 batfam all having such different internal motivation around killing (and if they agree it's never OK, the why it is not OK is different for people).
Like Bruce has rules that he tries to follow. these are for many reasons, some to keep himself in check, some because if the entire point of Batman is that no other family is torn apart him killing people is literally defeating that point, it reads as generally ideology based. and I think that Bruce's character traits in the 70s or 80s where even if he doesn't kill people he isn't super distraught if they die is kind of interesting and it's a shame the writers dropped it. tho IG it could also be character development. (should note: he also has accidentally killed people but doesn't blame himself for it in some 80s comics like son of the demon)
Cass's rhetoric is based on her compassion and perfectionism and just. it's wrong period. no one deserves to die, and since she always has to be perfect, she always has to be able to save everyone even people who are trying to kill her. i feel like even if there was a case where someone had to kill someone else in self defense, cass would never view that as acceptable for herself because she should always be able to solve everything perfectly.
babs is sometimes vocally anti-killing people but i think it's fucking fascinating that she is also shown as being willing to potentially kill someone pretty often (at least pre new 52 when they removed 95 percent of her personality). not wanting to be faced with the prospect of being a victim again, she lures thinker into a trap with the intention of killing him. even after she's gotten more solid footing, she still is willing to kill to protect other people (she starts getting ready to snipe black mask when she thinks he will kill someone who was working for her in no man's land, before helena as batman shows up) and she is willing to authorize huntress to use lethal force to protect tim.
and tim's rhetoric for not killing people is very 'becuase bruce said so'. no seriously like (link) his rhetoric for a lot of what he does as robin is based on following The Rules ™. who made the rules? Bruce. and if he breaks the rules he feels unworthy. it would've been cool if the writers had acknowledged this way they wrote him so he could develop his own moral code, but I'm not sure they did in what I read. generally bruce was right because he's batman, so tim following bruce's rules for the most part is tim being right. no need to think of it further
dick is very anti-murder in ntt because heroes don't do that ™ and he seems less so in later comics. like he beats himself up a ton for nearly beating the joker to death but in later nightwing issues he's fine with people getting hit by ricochet when they are shooting at him and it is unclear if he maybe causes this guy to get hit by lightning, which kills him (but he had to do it to save a baby). i guess like with tomasi's run on nightwing and late new earth continuity, he just seems in general unconcerned with the whole debate and like. he doesn't use lethal force b/c that's not what you do, but he also doesn't let himself get too concerned about it, and when he was in NTT it was very much just. those are the rules (like tim)
damian's rhetoric starts out opposite from everyone's because killing your enemies is just what you do. like not even out of malice if writers are keeping anything consistent from the original LoS/LoA goal it should be to save people/the world. and he evolves from there. post R:SoB, fter his character arc, he seems to be one of the more anti-killing members of the batfam, probably behind cass, and a lot of it is based in the belief in people to change and his own feeling of guilt and empathizing with the people they fight because! Why was I any different from them? (he does not accept that he was a kid as a reason for why he should be held less responsible). and it's not just a case of 'not killing people b/c they are like me' he often tries to get them to reform. cass does this too.
and you have helena who is portrayed in batfam comics as like. having a super high body count but its fucking hilarious if you read her solo b/c she really doesn't. and she does kill 2 people in her solo, a lot of the time it seems to be based on even if they are a bad person and by her rhetoric they deserve to die, how she is feeling when it is going down. like she was going to rescue one of the guys responsible for killing her parents before he said something indicating he was intending on using her or something that triggered her (I can't remember the exact dialogue) which like what an IDIOT. and she also killed a serial killer, but i believe she felt personally responsible for the serial killer since she had inadvertently provided him with the means to escape from prison and failed to stop him before. i feel like even if she goes in a situation thinking "I am definitely going to kill this guy" she does not always do it, and frequently she can lean to leniency barring external circumstances. but she doesn't consider herself as someone who considers killing automatically wrong, even though there isn't a ton of things different from her situation than from dick or babs's, both of whom who have either been ready to kill people or been unconcerned if people they were fighting died or both.
and then obviously you have jason who is very pro-murder (i'm only going w/ pre flashpoint continuity b/c that's the one i've read more of), who does not care if people who aren't 100% deserving to die by his standards are killed by him (he kills drug dealers w/o giving them a chance to follow his rules to intimidate people or b/c he has no need of them after consolidating his power, he poisons people he can't control who he is poisoning in prison, causing many people to die -- both of these written by winick, generally regarded as the 'good' pre FP jason writer), because he is acting from a place of trauma and pain but believes that if he can control crime correctly he can 'fix' things -- but his reasoning is very based on his own personal experiences and not in compassion for others, or at least the people he allegedly is helping are very abstract and not real for him. and like. it's an interesting character trait because LOTS of batfam members' motives aren't really even tied into compassion when talking about not killing (dick's aren't, tim's aren't, babs's aren't), and some also have their personal experiences highly motivating them (babs, cass, damian).
i realize that steph is not on here but she is also like. really changing based on the writer (so do the others, but her evolution felt harder to track). i feel like pre batgirl-ing, she definitely feels some people deserve to die and might kill someone in anger if they reminded her of her dad and no one stopped her. batgirling, her writing is different, the writer wants to portray her as a little 'softer', more based on hope, but the writer does not actually show us how she changed, which is frustrating.
anyway i just think they're all so interesting and i love them
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amtrak12 · 3 months
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Hey hi! I read your Helena Wells meta earlier, from ten years ago, and I found it so interesting and spot on, and at the end you were so sad that you felt like you didn't have a good grasp on the character - do you feel that has changed, since then? And if so, how? Or, what do you think of Helena these days?
(the meta you posted and linked here: https://www.tumblr.com/purlturtle/736985181321314304/your-helena-tangent-got-me-thinking-and-yes-this )
Oooo fun and deep questions! :D Thank you!!
Obviously, that was 2.5 high schools ago so I had to reread my original meta to refresh my memory. My first thought is: OMFG LEARN PARAGRAPH BREAKS!! O_O But then, as I kept reading and saw how many spaces were missing after periods and how the sentences after the missing space read like a new paragraph -- my second thought is, I think Tumblr did me dirty at some point in the last 10 years of formatting changes and I actually did use appropriate paragraph breaks originally. Rude. -_-
But on the point of your actual questions! lol
I don't remember writing that exact post, but being nervous and uncertain about my Helena characterization does ring a bell. I was DEFINITELY more confident in analyzing/meta-ing Myka or Pete (if it was in relation to Myka). HG made me nervous and that was only like 10% because she's British and I'm American.
Some of my uncertainty probably came from my lack of historical knowledge (which has not improved. Fun fact: this is why I nearly never invented an artifact for fic). A not-insignificant portion of my uncertainty probably also came from how confident the rest of the fandom spoke about Helena. It seemed like she was meta-ed more often and by more people than Myka was. (Which makes sense as -- in general -- Helena was/probably still is the more popular character in the B&W ship.) I don't remember ever feeling like someone was way off base or out of character with Helena, but I do remember reading meta/fic sometimes and struggling to decide if I disagreed with a character trait/action that the person assigned her or if it was an accurate aspect of Helena's character that I hadn't internalized yet.
Basically I had Opinions about how Myka (and Pete for that matter) should be written and definitely noticed when a fic disagreed with me. But figuring out HG was like the wild west to me and I could never pin her down with firm barriers on who her character is and isn't.
I am very, very rusty on my Warehouse 13 knowledge because it's been nearly a decade since I was deep in my analyzation of the show. So, I wouldn't say I have a better grasp on Helena's characterization today than I did in 2014. But there are some aspects I feel like I could understand better if I took the time to rewatch and meta.
Loss of a child -- look I don't have children, but I do have niblings now that I adore. I'm also raising a dog who taught me I do not have the energy or anxiety coping mechanisms to raise a human child, because worrying about her almost does me in on its own. And I'm in my mid-30's now and seem to have a better understanding of parent-child relationships (or I'm at least way more interested in exploring them now, both from the view of the child and the view of the parent). So, exploring Christina's death and just how much that affected Helena would absolutely be on my list of deep-dives. I never ignored this before, but I'm certain I could pull more out of this backstory today than I could've in 2014.
Helena's guilt -- I started rambling at the end of that post about which things Helena felt guilty about and whether she felt guilty at all. As far as I remember, I usually wrote her as feeling some measure of guilt for her past actions. (Although I was also usually writing full AU settings so it was a moot point.) But I also wasn't wrong when I pointed out how she didn't show any obvious signs of regret over her S2 actions, unless it was something that had hurt Myka. If I was going to go back and meta WH13, I would explore this topic deeper for sure.
Interestingly, it's not something I could've explored deeper prior to 2022-ish. But now I've watched the series Lucifer which deals entirely with guilt and has a protagonist with shut down emotions who doesn't regret things and then, through incremental changes over 6 seasons, opens up, learns to feel every emotion again, unpacks a lot of shit etc. And I have been FASCINATED by how the writers pulled that off, because on the surface it is not a show (or a protagonist) that I should care about. (And if I had watched it from ep 1.01 instead of completely ass backwards, I wouldn't have cared about him.) BUT I DO CARE! And I want to know how they pulled off Lucifer's character arc. And then I want to use some of the techniques they used to explore guilt and pain and apply them to Helena to see what emerges in her character. Because I think it would be really interesting.
And then finally, I'm not sure I have anything new to bring to the conversation around what Helena's future with the warehouse and/or happy ending looks like. But I could also never make up my mind on what would work best for her. Does she return as an agent? Does she become a regent? (Probably not, but you never know.) Does she just become the live-in inventor who doesn't venture into the field unless absolutely necessary? I have absolutely no idea what her future with the warehouse would look like if a romantic relationship with Myka is her happy ending. (Which is my personal goal obviously lol).
Because -- and this is where my Opinions on Myka come into play -- our girl Myka Bering is not leaving that warehouse. Ever. She is the new Artie. She will take over as the lead agent when he retires/partially retires. And then she will die there. In South Dakota of old age (because I refuse to let her die on a mission). Pete? Oh, my boy Pete will meet an awesome lady and retire to be a stay at home dad. He'll walk away one day. Myka? Absolutely never. You're burying her at the warehouse. Which means Helena will have to have some kind of relationship with it again, and I would have to figure out what that looks like because both today and in 2014, I can't decide what option fits her best.
I hope this answers your question! It was so deep and I love it :D I just don't have new thoughts on WH13 yet because I haven't looped back around to a full blown obsession with it yet. (It will happen. Round 2 of BERING AND WELLS ARE THE BEST THING EVER will absolutely happen at some point in my life because that's how I roll and they are.) So this is less meta about how my thoughts on Helena have changed, and more about how my approach to her character would change given the experience I've gained in the last ten years.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK!
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tmmyhug · 8 months
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bestie (nicest way possible) as someone who was new to the fandom last September I wouldn’t recommend making a sideblog and like talking about comics/batfam/etc if you haven’t read the comics? people get really touchy about that, because fanfic interpretation tend to be really far from how characters are in canon (and character relationships get butchered and softened and straight up invented for plot, which once again, creative liberty + that can be fun but often tends to be incredibly ooc & excludes women (cass, helena, steph, etc) or poc (duke (though his case is different considering when he was introduced), cass, damian’s poc but isn’t really ignored) in favor of white boys (jason especially, who shows up far later than said women & isn’t really close to the fam yet fandom tends to give him their relationships with the family) so like...you’ll probably be mostly wrong and people are rather unforgiving about that because they’re tired of people that haven’t read comics talking about the characters (incorrectly) while refusing to interact w/ source material, and it’s a huge problem & very prevalent so I can’t really blame them? idk I just don’t think it’s a good idea unless you want to reblog just art and stuff, which is fine! but like...everything's really confusing w/out proper research if you want to get into the fandom (everything post-reboot/post-2011 is largely ignored unless said otherwise because the reboot was so awful), so i just want to point that out! but I don’t want to be mean, just some advice :) (if you ever change your mind about comics, just give the say so! we’re (and i) am very glad to help you out with what to read and in what order, and take it from someone who was in your position six months ago, they are truly really fun!) /gen /nm
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not to worry my friend this sounds pretty much exactly like the dsmp experience where new people never properly interacted with the canon content and the fanon got more and more bastardized over time as a result and everyone got touchy abt it. including me . you could say im familiar . im just on the other side now (oblivious newbie) which should be interesting. i have no intention of treading on anyone’s toes or making assumptions or even talking abt the characters with any sort of authority. if i do make a sideblog it’ll be just to reblog art n stuff.
plus i am ah. very aware that the fanon im consuming is an extremely warped perspective of the actual comics. and with how many different “canons” there are i’m sure it’s a mess. at least in dsmp we could always point back to just the og streams. here i’m gathering there’s 174958637 comics + 284871 writers + movies + live action AND animated tv shows + multiple video games and they ALL have intersecting characters and possible canons it’s giving me a headache just thinking abt it dear lord
so yeah. i’m perfectly happy sequestering myself in an oblivious fanon corner and not claiming to know anything. normally for a new fandom i would seek out the full source material and examine it thoroughly but theres just. too much. and i also just don’t enjoy reading comics. at least not the superhero ones. (i think the art doesn’t appeal to me? and something about the combination of written word and still visual art like. rankles at my sense of pacing and story <- just guessing though) i did watch the under the red hood movie tjough and it was cool so i may do more of those!
i’m glad you said you like talking abt this cause i just wrote you a whole essay lol. if i may ask do you know of any good fanon/fanfic content i could check out that stays mostly true to the comics canon? i’m curious ! but regardless thank you for the very nice message and warning it’s appreciated mwah
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aeon is so crazy to me cuz i’ll be honest, i did NOT like it at first. i wasn’t a fan of ada and i just couldnt think of it as anything but annoying. but now i have such a strange like thought process
like now i’m so in love with ada like completely separate from leon and the ship itself. i dont know who i wanna be more, ada to be with leon or leon to be with ada
i mean i know it isn’t healthy and i almost believe it can be seen as toxic, but like the way i’m still like in love with the content and lore has me GOINGG 😭
i’ve gone with the thought of like it’s been 20 years and it’s been such a push and pull that they either need to just figure something out between the both of them and stop budding around or give themselves some type of closure with each other. like just an understanding of feelings, even if it’s the decision to just kinda not do it anymore type thing?? which like highly doubt that would ever happen in canon but like my brain wants them to have CLOSURE whether it’s from ending up together or not cuz they DESERVE IT
they just- they deserve love bro together or not and I think they just gotta figure it out. i feel like if canon ever comes to a conclusion with this, i most likely believe it will be like finally canon and they end up together if we’re given some kind of “ending” to their push and pull. which GOD would be so cute and honestly probably the closure i would prefer they end with cuz ugh they just THEY DESERVE TO BE HAPPY IT HURTSSS
anyway, just wanted to talk about aeon cuz they make my heart feel things
i just typed out my thoughts and didn’t really read over it if there’s mistakes or it doesn’t make sense just pretend to not see it
TO BE HONEST
I WAS ALSO NOT A FAN OF THE SHIP
I WAS DUMB AND SHIPPED LEON WITH HELENA LOL
but that was because i only knew re6 at the time. and i never saw ada's campaign.
the bisexual agenda is wanting to be with leon AND Ada lol
i think the word toxic has been overused for the ship. both of them are adults and consensually chase each other. just because it's not clean and easy doesn't mean it's toxic. toxic implies that one or the other actually abuses the each other. neither of them do. both of them obviously care for each other. and before people get all nuts about re4r, it's literally their second time seeing each other. use your brain. there's so many more years between re4 and damnation and re6.
both of them canonically share feelings with each other, but their circumstances just make it so that they can't be on the same side. but we see that wall getting smaller and smaller as the years go by. and both of them going against what they were meant to be doing to save the other. by the time it's re6, they are both actively saving each other.
i have a feeling that they might be wanting to retire leon at some point, and if they could even just imply that it's with ada, i think that would be enough. we see ada take on a job in re6 at the end, and i think that they could be planning for them to step away from everything. by the time it' vendetta, he's already tired. both of them are sick of everything and should just be together already.
people who think that aeon stans don't like angst, just fundamentally don't know or understand what the ship is.
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roseandgold137 · 3 months
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Sorry there are so many but i am sooo curious 👀👀👀
For the fanfic writer emoji asks:
😅🤡😈✍️🎢🎶⛔🌞❌🧐🏆📈🦅👀💞🧠(<- for Tim)🤩🤲🎉⌛🤯
😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?
hmmm none come to mind immediately bc I mean I’m pretty chill with everything I’ve made existing, but I suppose if I were to write Meet the Family again I’d definitely change a few bits that kinda make me :/ now lol
🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?
“… Janet had money. And Helena’s birthday was soon… though a summer home seemed a bit extreme. Perhaps just a holiday would be enough.”
every so often I think of this line again and realise I’ll never actually live up to it
😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?
hmmm if nothing else I think I do plan to be lmao
✍ Do you have a beta reader?
not in the slightest everyone is just lucky if I even give it a second look before posting, that’s why I have to constantly go back and fix misspellings bc I never double check 😅
🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?
Definitely Every Good Gold Digger, I mean it has the most going on (pretty sure it makes up over half of my total word count on ao3) and if you actually stop to consider the premise it’s literally two people that never meet in canon going through the most frustrating speed dating slow burn I can create while also being interspersed with random time jumps so I can tell a story that takes place over several years. So I’d say the rest is pretty tame haha
🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?
Not often actually bc most of my writing actually happens in classes where my background sound is the teacher I should be listening to lol
⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?
Wire Bird was supposed to get a chapter two but it was frustrating me to no end so I just abandoned it
🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?
No, just whenever I have the time and motivation I suppose
❌ What's a trope you will never write?
Bad parents Jack and Janet drake my beloathed. I can’t even read it without having a physical reaction like literally I get completely thrown out of the story and just need to like cool off 😭 drake defender til I die
🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?
I start writing and then the research happens on the go 💪💪 I didn’t even know Brassempouy existed before chapter three of EGGD
🏆 What's your most popular fic? 
Based on hits, Every Good Gold Digger. Based on kudos, Meet the Family. But considering EGGD has far more subscriptions by far and also it’s definitely the one I’m more well known for so I’m going to give it the crown
📈 How many fics do you have?
On ao3, 24, and then there’s another from an ask I’ve been meaning to upload, and then there’s various half-finished wips that may or may not turn into anything lol
🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?
TECHNICALLY some of them have had outlines but very few of them remain true to them so mostly I make it up so long as I have the main story beats in mind
👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!
still working on the dick kidnapping one, so far he’s on patrol with Bruce and living his best reckless life. In version one anyways. Version two has him already caught and he is a significantly grumpier teen lmao we’ll see which version wins out
💞 Who's your comfort character?
Probably Tim or Janet I’m very partial to them, though Bart definitely appears as my art blorbo he’s everywhere in my sketchbooks so I suppose the three of them. I’m not very good at narrowing things down
🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them. (Tim)
Ooooo. You know considering how often I think about him this question should probably be far easier but alas. He’s a total mama’s boy, but that’s basically canon, so I won’t count that. I think he ate crayons as a kid, but that’s not a favourite headcanon. I like to imagine him as an animal lover, because I genuinely can’t really imagine someone not like that, so I suppose that would be my favourite, bc it’s the trait I always give him even if I never say it
🤩 Who is your favorite character to write? 
Tim definitely I never stop thinking about him which makes the whole process very streamlined
🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?
of course I would
“ “We didn’t do much golf, to be honest,” Jack murmured, dropping his head into his hands suddenly. “Janet. Janny. I made out with Bruce Wayne in the golf range bathrooms.” He peeked at her through his fingers. “Stop laughing at me.” ”
I’m just going to leave you all with that 👍👍
🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?
When I link it to here and everyone gets excited in the notes 💪💪💪 those first five minutes after posting is like ambrosia to me
⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?
It varies so widely, some chapters get done in a matter of hours meanwhile I’m on like two weeks for this one lmao
🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?
I mean before I would have said romance but I actually think I’m doing pretty well at it, so maybe action honestly? My strength is definitely slice of life and fluff so sometimes I feel like my action can feel a bit off pace yknow
Thank you so much for the ask <3 it was very fun going through them all :)
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jobrookekarev · 4 months
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The Beating of Two Hearts: Chapter Eleven
Chapter: Elven of Twelve
Words: 1,880
Summary: Jo and Alex make up and talk things through as they finally agree to go home with their girls.
Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy.
Relationship: Alex Karev/Jo Wilson.
Characters: Alex Karev, Jo Wilson, Luna Wilson, and Helena Karev.
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences.
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Drama, Domestic, Hurt/Comfort, Pregnancy, Food, Communication. 
Read at AO3
Read at FFN
…………………………………………………………………
Alex went back to Jo’s room, knowing she had cooled off by now, and he held the mac and cheese in his hand. Although it was cold now as he had just pulled it from the fridge in his office. Alex wasn’t sure if Jo would even want to eat it now, as she probably had snacked during her escape on forbidden foods like her favorite chips. 
He took a deep breath as he knocked on her door. He felt like a teenage boy knocking on his girlfriend's door. Things were always awkward between them after a fight. Although they fought enough to know how this dance went in the aftermath. They were good at fighting but they were also good at making it. 
“Come in,” Jo said, already knowing that it was him. 
He opened the door and found her sitting in bed watching TV with her notebook in her lap although she wasn't writing. The OB intern babysitting her was sitting across from her and looked bored as they did chart work on the table tray. Alex nodded at them to go and they quickly scurried up and gathered their things as they left. 
A quietness settled around them and Alex treaded carefully as he went to sit in the chair next to her. He put the mac and cheese bowl on the nightstand next to her. Jo glanced at it with curious eyes but quickly shifted back. She was still mad at him, something she displayed as she crossed her arms. 
“I'm sorry,” Alex started with a gentle tone.
Jo quickly snapped at him. “You should be.”
“Jo please,” Alex said, frustrated as she still glared at him.
Jo took a deep breath and loosened her posture, uncrossing her arms. “I'm sorry too.”
“I'm still scared for you. It's something that I haven't fully processed and every time you escape, that… anxiety gets stirred up inside of me. I worry about you so much, Jo. I still feel like I could lose you and the baby and I don't want that to happen.”
“I know,” Jo said with a nod, reaching out and grasping his hand. “And I'm sorry for sneaking off, but I don't think you realize how strong I am. I feel good, I feel strong, and I just want my life back. When you keep insisting I rest and recover, you’re invalidating the way I feel. I'm not pushing myself. I promise, I just want to do something other than sit in this room alone.”
“I know and it's time I stopped treating you like you're made of glass,” Alex said with a smile.
“Really?” Jo said as she sat up straighter and looked over at him, hope filling her eyes.
“Yeah,” Alex said as he truly looked at his wife. 
She moved to the side of her bed as gracefully as she could while heavily pregnant and patted the spot she made for him next to her. He smiled and climbed up next to her, wrapping one arm around her as she smiled and leaned against him. 
She was so full of life again. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkled, and her smile was so happy. She was full of energy and trouble, but she always had been. Suddenly, the memory of her fainting in the bed, barely able to move and staring up at him with glassy eyes before she was rushed into surgery was nothing but a memory. He was still scared, but it felt more manageable now.
“I talked with Cristina and Carina and they both agreed that you're ready to be discharged. So you and I are going to take maternity and paternity leave. The girls can stay in daycare part-time, so it’s easier for us, but we can still get some family time. It’s not going to be like it was before you got sick, but we can find a new normal. But if it comes to a point where Carina wants you monitored and on bed rest in the hospital, you have to comply. You have to agree to take it easy, Jo, for your own health and for the sake of our baby, please.”
“I will, I promise,” Jo said, agreeing to it with ease, and he knew it was a step in the right direction. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” Alex said with a little smile as he watched Jo before she looked at the container on the nightstand.
“Well, are you going to tell me what that is?” Jo asked curiously, eyeing it.
“I got you mac and cheese, your favorite,” Alex said as he pulled back the cover on the mac and cheese bowl and handed her a fork. 
“It's cold,” Jo complained as she poked at it with the fork.
“Yeah well, it would have been warm if you had been in your room where you were supposed to be,” Alex said although Jo just shrugged. “I'll go warm it up for you.” 
Alex took the mac and cheese and came back with it a few minutes later. He got back into bed with her and put his arm around her again. Jo leaned into him as she ate before she put her head on his shoulders as her eyes fluttered. He knew she was going to take a nap. Her naps were the last lingering symptom of her heart surgery and her pregnancy.
“Hey I love you,” Alex said, leaning down to kiss her forehead. 
“I love you too,” Jo said with a smile. “Even though you're annoying and constantly worrying about me too much.” 
“And I love you even when you run away and evade your doctors, which is why I worry so much,” Alex said, leaning in to kiss her as Jo kissed him back with a giggle. 
She fell asleep in his arms and he slipped out and laid the bed back down. He knew she’d only nap for a couple of hours as it was still early in the evening and she slept through the night later. He and Carina could relax as they knew where she was until she made her escape again. 
A little while later, Carina and Cristina came over to do her check-up. Jo was the perfect patient, of course, and complied with all their tests. They did another echo and a stress test on both her and the baby. Of course, she passed with flying colors and Cristina and Karina agreed that she could both go home. They sent her home with a portable heart and fetal monitor that would be checked biweekly at her OB appointments. Jo was absolutely elated and started packing immediately. While Alex went to get their other daughters so they could go home.
…………………………………………………………………
It was towards the end of dinner time at the daycare, although Luna was already asleep. He walked in as they were all eating and talking about the day they had with Ms. Daisy as the night teacher Mrs. Lareen, a tall Muslim woman, who talked to them in a kind voice. 
“Daddy!” Helena pointed at him as he walked into the classroom. She instantly got up and walked over to him, still holding her chicken nugget with ketchup all over her face and hands.
“Hey baby girl,” Alex said as he picked her up and held her out in front of him before she could get him dirty. “Are you all done?”
“Yeah, we go home?” Helena asked as she reached out for him. 
“Yeah we're going home, but let's get you cleaned up first,” Alex said as he carried her over to the little sink and helped her wash her hands and face. 
Alex had already talked with the daycare director about the girls going to part-time and updated Mrs. Lareen. She told him the girls had a good day, although Luna was tired because she hadn't napped for very long that afternoon. While Helena got her coat, Alex then went over to her and gently woke her up.
“Hey Little Moon,” Alex whispered to her as he rubbed her back and gently roused her. 
She opened her eyes and looked up at him, still blinking the sleep out of her eyes. “Daddy?” 
“Hey sweet girl, are you ready to go home with Mommy?” Alex asked as he smiled at her.
“Yeah, I want Mama,” Luna said sleepily before he reached down and picked her up.
She laid her head on his shoulder, too tired to do anything else. Luna always slept the most and went down easily. He carried Luna and held Helena's hand as he got their stuff from Mrs. Lareen. Then they went back up to the Maternity Ward to meet up with Jo. As they walked down the hall he spotted a familiar pregnant bump waddling in a dark pair of scrubs.
“Josephine Karev,” Alex called out to her as she turned around, looking like a deer in the headlights as she spotted them before she plastered on a smile. Alex sighed as he walked over to her, even though she had been discharged she still pushed the boundaries. 
“There's my babies, I was looking for you,” Jo said to the girls as she held out her arms for them.
“Mama,” the girls both yelled at her as Helena wiggled out of his grasp and ran to her and Luna picked up her head and reached out for Jo. 
“Hi sweet girl,” Jo said, leaning down to pick up Helena despite how she wasn't supposed to. 
“Jo, please,” Alex said as he quickly ran up and took Helena out of her arms, giving Jo a glare. 
“What, I can't hold my baby now,” Jo sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Not when you still have stitches in your leg,” Alex said as he turned to let her at least hug Luna although she tried to hold her as well.
“Well, are we ready to go home?” Jo said as she smiled at the three of them genuinely. 
“Yep, let's go home,” Alex said to Jo.
“Alright,” Jo said, with a large smile across her face.
He still wasn't sure about how she would feel being cooped up at home rather than at the hospital, but he hoped she would finally relax. Jo leaned in, putting her hand on his cheek as she kissed him. Enthusiasm radiated off of her lips as he kissed her back. She pulled back before kissing him again and again, giving him a series of little excited kisses. However, Luna pushed on his cheek and pulled them apart before leaning in and wrapping her arms around Jo and kissing her cheek.
“Oh thank you love bug,” Jo said, holding her as much as she could. 
Alex just laughed as he looked over at Helena and she kissed his cheek. “At least one of them is a daddy's girl.”
“I wonder what this one will be?” Jo said, rubbing her belly. 
“We'll have to wait and see.”
“Alright girls, let's get Mommy home.”
“Home Mama, Home Mama, Let's go!” Luna said as she got down and tugged on Jo's hand.
“Sounds good to me,” Alex said as he steered Jo back to her hospital room where they packed up all of Jo's stuff and headed home.
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alto-tenure · 8 months
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okay so: there are a decent amount of timber fics that pit Tim and Bernard against each other as enemies in some way. some variations of this include Bernard getting possessed, Tim as Joker Junior, or Bernard as a mob heir. but, you know, we are missing one scenario: evil gun Batman.
but this post is not about timber + evil gun batman!tim. this post is about the circumstances that it would take to get Tim to agree to being Batman in the first place, which are many because of our current set of characters. but first, let's discuss our theoretical worldstate.
1) Approximate ages
Tim is 24. Steph is 25, Cass and Jason are both ~26, Dick is like...31?, Duke is 22, and Damian is 18. I don't know how old Babs is in the current canon but we'll assume that she's, like, a couple years older than Dick. Helena Bertinelli (who will matter later in this) is between Dick and Barbara. Bruce is in his 40s and we'll just leave it at that.
2) Hero mantles
It's pretty much what you would expect, but I'll detail a couple things: Cass and Steph are still sharing Batgirl, but Babs has stopped the mantle entirely and is Oracle full-time, as she should be. Damian is still Robin but he's not happy about it and is on the verge of quitting to become someone else/leave Gotham/whatever. Tim is...it's complicated, okay? It's not that Tim doesn't want to be a vigilante. He definitely has a healthy civilian-vigilante life balance! I think right now he's not really patrolling formally, but he does do stuff for the vigilante network that Babs doesn't because she's busy with the Birds of Prey/non-Bat projects she's working on right now and can't keep track of vigilantes in Gotham who aren't the Bats. People like Xanthe, Helena, Claire (Gotham Girl), some non-Duke We Are Robin alumns, etc.
3) Other miscellaneous stuff
Kate is in the Bat-circle, but falls more under Tim's purview of "vigilantes operating out of Gotham who aren't really part of the Batfam" than under Bruce's purview of "Batfam leader". She's still Batwoman, though. Darcy Thomas is still friends with Tim and operating as Sparrow, but with an actual vigilante costume and not just a purple hoodie and a domino mask. Tim operates out of a larger version of the murder houseboat.
Okay, now: why is Tim Batman, again?
Tim does not want to be Batman. This is important. This is also preceded by a giant conga line of tragedies. For this to happen, Dick, Cass, and Bruce all either real-die or fake-die. I imagine Bruce is not really dead because he's not allowed to die. He just got lost in the multiverse because of a glitchy portal or something. Cass died in the line of fire trying to protect someone, because if she did try to dodge the bullets someone would die. Not sure about Dick yet. Maybe he had to fake his death again to go undercover. (Tim will absolutely call him an asshole for this.) The order of events is probably that Dick is the first one, then Bruce, then Cass. Cass ends up surviving the injury miraculously, but is in a coma/stuck in physical therapy/unable to do vigilante work. Damian is at a point in his character development where he no longer wants to be Batman. Helena does not want to do that again. Jason is like "fuck Batman we do not need Batman".
Duke asks if there's anyone else who's ever been Batman. Tim has flashbacks to Azbats. But then he does have a brainwave and attempts to reach Helena, but Babs says she's out on an important thing for the Birds of Prey and won't be back for a while. >:(
Nobody wants to be Batman, but Tim is exactly the kind of character who would do it anyways because Gotham needs a Batman. (Someone who is better read on Damian would be able to talk about how this impacts him, but I'm sure it would not be pretty, especially considering the character developments I've given him for this scenario. He does not want to be Robin anymore! He was already approaching that point when Bruce disappeared!)
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Pesadilla Navidad (part 1)
Once again it was Christmas time in chaldea, and almost everyone was getting ready to celebrate. Of course with every Christmas there was to come another Santa servant. Last year's was Nightingale, now it was her turn to pick someone else to take the role of Santa. Meanwhile the two masters of chaldea made their own preparations.
"So is there any in particular you'd like for Christmas?" Rex asked his cousin, Nota.
Nota slumped on a couch in the room they were in before answering "Oh there's a lot of things I'd like. But to narrow it down would be so difficult." 
"Well you better get to it then! I can't read your mind after all." He told her, somewhat annoyed.
Rex started to decorate the room with appropriate Christmas decorations. While Nota suddenly got a thought in her head. "Hey? Do you know if Nightingale picked this year's Santa yet?" 
Rex, not looking up from what he was doing, answered his cousin. "Not that I know of." 
Nota's face suddenly started smirking. "Oh really? That's interesting." She said as she clearly had something in mind.
"Do I wanna know what you're thinking?" Rex asked her.
"It's probably best that you do, cause you're vital to it." She responded to her cousin.
Rex got a concerned look on his face. "What the hell are you thinking?" He asked, while putting down the decor.
"So I was thinking, what if we became this year's Santas?!" She said, with the biggest grin on her face.
Rex was a bit dumbfounded when she said that. "I-is that even allowed?" Can we do that?" He questioned.
"Well at no point did anyone say we can't! So I don't see why not at least try!" She told him. 
"Why do you even want to be Santa, anyways?" He questioned her, not really understanding what caused her to want this all of a sudden.
"Every year, we play second fiddle to the Santa servants as their "reindeer" I say this year, we should be in charge!" Nota said, brimming with pride and confidence.
"Huh… well I guess you have a bit of a point. Don't hate the other Santas but being reindeer can be annoying. But Mi Amor never made us do that!" Rex thought aloud.
"You didn't let me get involved much with that incident." Nota reminded Rex.
"Can we not get into that right now?" Rex asked her.
"Well are you in or what?" Nota asked of Rex.
Rex pondered it for some time. "Well, it does sound interesting but I'm still not exactly sure to be perfectly honest." He told her.
Nota then thought of something to tell him. "Well remember when Quetz was Santa? And how good that felt? How happy she seemed and you seemed too? I think we should try that again, but we get to be Santa! We can make people happy! Especially the ones we love!" Nota told him.
Rex thought more about what Nota told him. "Fuck, you make a pretty good point actually. It would be nice to make people happy. Fuck it! Let's try!"
"That's what I like to hear! Now let's go ask Nightingale!" Nota said, with excitement in her voice.
The two left and found Nightingale in her Santa outfit. "Hello Head Nurse!" Nota said aloud. 
The head nurse turned towards the two masters. "Oh hello you two. What brings you all here?" She asked them.
"Oh we were wondering if you had chosen your Santa successor yet?" Nota asked her.
"Oh I was just thinking about that." She said, "There are a few good candidates. Like Helena, Suzuka, Fran and even Karna. They all seem interested and decent candidates."
"Oh! Very interesting." Rex said to her.
"Any particular reason you ask?" Nightingale questioned the two.
"Well, we were actually wondering if you'd maybe consider us for that? I think we'd make great Santas!" Nota said, attempting to be convincing to Nightingale.
"Y-you two? You want to be Santa?" She questioned.
"Yeah, sure. Why not? No one ever said we can't." Rex said, also trying to be convincing.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, to be very honest." She told them. "It can be very dangerous, given how something crazy always happens on Christmas." 
"Y-you do realize we're always involved and right in the action every year, right?" Nota pointed out.
"Well yes, but us Santa servants are still in the most danger, since we servants can handle it better. I'm not changing my mind." She said, forcefully.
"Well fine, I guess we'll stop asking." Nota said to Nightingale.
"Wait really?" Rex asked.
Nota then pulled him by the arm. "Yes really! Now let's get going." She said, taking him outside, as Nightingale watches them leave.
Back in another room, Rex was confused. "Why'd you give up so easily? You're normally much more stubborn about this stuff."
"Shhhh. We're not gonna be convincing enough, so we gotta try a different approach." Nota told him. "But I think we'll need a bit of help first." She says, as she points in the direction of the summoning room.
"Oooh!" Rex says, following her there.
And that's part 1 of an X-mas series I'm working on! Hope you guys enjoyed this, and look forward to future installments.
Tags!
@hasbbdoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong @hasspartacusdoneanythingwrong @littleminxthings @madillhethen @syracusemoon @exmeowstic @chaldeamage-neo @violette-dreams @hasarjunadoneanythingwrong
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clay-cuttlefish · 7 months
Text
Gotham Central 1-24 and the stories in between, splitting it where The Question 2005 starts. I feel so incredibly normal about this era. Definitely not putting off my school readings for this. (In my defense Plato is a long-winded bitch.)
In the Line of Duty (GC #1-2)
This is a really strong start. Gotham Central works because it makes dealing with supervillains feel meaningful to the average person in Gotham - sure, Batman shows up and gets them eventually, but that doesn't mean everything just goes back to normal.
Freeze is barely in this and he's unsettling as hell. The cold gun is creepy!
Dead Reckoning (Ted #777-782)
Immediately derailed by a Tec story. It's a good one, at least.
I like that Gordon became a teacher, even if he's not qualified at all.
Why does Arkham have an isolation cage.
I'm with Two-Face here, if he can drive an Arkham employee to a nervous breakdown it's probably better that he do it instead of Scarecrow or whoever.
Harvey ignoring his coin for Gordon's sake... they are friends...
As a guy who loves the imposter Two-Faces and the pile of miscellanous Clayfaces I love this story.
All the side villains are very fun here. Scrungly gossip Riddler, wacky self-sabotaging Joker, no-nonsense Penguin, mad scientist Scarecrow... I like these guys a lot.
Harvey's out. That's probably fine.
Motive (GC #3-5)
Mostly Reneeless. A good episode of a cop show. Idk what to say about it.
The Queen is Dead (Gotham Knights #38-39)
Helena's been kidnapped by Checkmate, and Vic shows up to tell Nightwing about it and beat up a goon. I miss them.
Half a Life (GC #6-10)
Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc.
Renee's talk with Maggie about their different experiences being out is a really good moment.
God I don't have coherent thoughts about this it just kills me.
Crispus. Dude. She's been framed for murder and you're annoyed she didn't come out to you?
At least Josie's here.
HARVEY YOU SON OF A BITCH. You don't get to blame Two-Face for this one! This is on you for being a creepy possessive fuck to the point you were flipping on it!
"You've been living two lives, and I've broken down the wall between them" we're still a few years out from that one and she'll do it of her own volition with some help actually but thanks
"I don't see what that has to do with us." I am going to put my head through the drywall. What are you talking about! What am I supposed to do with this!
"You're welcome." Bruce I will actually kill you.
Soft Targets (GC #12-15)
Renee's back! Nothing too major for her here, but she's... levelled out, I guess.
Hub City mentioned! As the one police department more corrupt than Gotham. Sounds about right.
I'm not generally a fan of the Joker but this is a pretty good story. it's an elaborate scheme to mess with Batman that hurts a lot of people along the way.
Maggie should've killed him. I am not on the "Batman should just kill the Joker" train but she shot him like five times and at that point him surviving is just overkill.
Life is Full of Disappointments (GC #16-18)
No Renee but Helena's here! Just for a moment to ask Mafia questions.
Unresolved (GC #19-22)
There's a Previously On segment now, this really is Law and Order: Gotham.
I don't have it in me to feel bad for Bullock. He's been an awful bastard this entire time and trying to pretend he was a "good cop" just makes me like him less.
Thank you, Josie, for being the voice of reason.
Ohhh my god girl why are you immediately willing to defend him.
Corrigan (GC #23-24)
Crispus bringing his wife and kids to Renee and Daria's for brunch... this is the one real friendship Renee has.
Unfortunately Renee getting a nice thing means her life immediately gets worse.
This guy being named Jim Corrigan is. A choice? I get it when there's last name overlap between characters, or when it's minor characters overlapping, but the Spectre's not niche. Maybe it's intentional foreshadowing of Crispus' time as the Spectre but I seriously doubt that was on the table at this point.
Her and Daria's relationship makes me implode.
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havendance · 1 year
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More on my Reverse Robins AU, this time with the Batgirls. Going off the general premise of this AU (Namely setting aside anything after Damian’s introduction/ the Batman reborn era for now. (I might come back to it… idk)), we’re not counting Stephanie’s time as Batgirl which means we’ve got two Batgirls (three if you count Helena’s brief stint, but she’s in the middle so it doesn’t change.) My ideas for this part is much looser since I’m only about 20 issues into her Batgirl run. Ideas from people who know about her are welcome.
Cass is the first Batgirl. She’s older than Steph, shows up in Gotham as a young adult a few years into her tenure as Batkid. Becomes Batgirl independently of Batman. Maybe she wants to emulate him as part of her drive for redemption. I’m just not sure what exactly her time as Batgirl looks like. There’s probably still the meta re-writes her brain so she can understand language plot point. I’m really liking her relationship with Barbara so far in the Batgirl comics, but that’s obviously not happening here. I’m not sure if she’s got someone else like that in her life and if so who it would be. She isn’t adopted by Batman in this AU, but they work together as allies on occasion. (Steph thinks she’s kick-ass and cool. Probably has more than a little hero-worship for her.)
It’s not the Joker who forcibly retires her. He was after Barbara because of her connection to Joker. (Also, I’ve decided the Joker is a c-tier batman rogue at best in this AU prior to it’s version of the Under the Red Hood Arc) Possibly it’s Shiva. The details are still fuzzy.
I can’t see Cass taking on the Hacker/Information Broker roll in the same way that Barabara did as Oracle. At least not with computers, too much reading and text there. I could see her being an information nexus in a more word-of-mouth type way. Maybe she has a network of all the people she’s ever beaten up who owe her favors. Maybe she does consulting with her ability to read body language. I think her working with the suicide squad could have some interesting stories. (Though I haven’t actually read any suicide squad comics, so idk.) I could also see her as the sort of weathered martial arts master master who has a steady stream of students who come to learn from her. Maybe she uses them Birds of Prey style to fight crime. I do think Cass should be friends with Dinah Lance though. I think they would have a fun dynamic.
What this brings us to is No Man’s Land, a comics arc that I care about a perfectly normal amount.
Barbara Gordon, freshly graduated from high school, volunteers to stay with her father and step-mother in No Man’s Land out of a stubborn sense of civic pride. She wants to help desperately but as one of the youngest people in the Boys in Blue contingent and also the commissioner’s daughter, they keep her as sheltered as they can. She ventures out further into Gotham on her own, scavenging, keeping her head low, looking for information. It’s on one of these expeditions that she runs into Cass.
 Cass stayed behind in Gotham. She’s running her own little corner of it. She’s convinced by Barbara’s determination and enthusiasm to start training her. Later, won over by her heart and the necessity of acting when Cain is sent after Jim Gordon, she gives her the Batgirl Mantle.
(In this AU, I don’t think Helena takes on the Bat mantle even though I do love that plot point. Steph stays in Gotham when Batman vanishes. She never quite left the city in the way that Dick did. She was Batman/Batwoman (haven’t decided yet) during the Knightfall saga, she takes on some of that again.)
(If Helena does take up the bat and is treated as Batgirl like she was in comics, Cass takes exception with her claiming of the mantel on grounds of her moral code.)
Barbara does not tell her father about Batgirl. For one, that’s her dad and she’s an adult now. For another, Gordon is in the middle of his mad at Batman phase and she’s just not going to get involved with that.
She continues to act as Batgirl throughout No Man’s Land, receiving mentorship not only from Cass, but also working with Spoiler and Azrael on occasion. Batman knows who she is. He makes some pointed comments but honestly isn’t as much of an ass to her as he could be.
Regrettable, I think Sarah Essen still dies during No Man’s Land. Not at the hands of the Joker because he’s dead in the universe, but whoever Batman’s number 1 evil rogue is. Batgirl isn’t able to save her in time. She internalizes that.
Barbara continues to act as Batgirl after No Man’s Land, fighting crime, kicking ass, and receiving mentorship from Cass. She goes back to college, at Gotham University this time instead of the Ivy League school she was originally accepted into. (She left when No Man’s Land happened, making the idealistic sort of stand teenagers are prone to doing.) She hangs out, fights crime, and occasionally flirts with Robin who’s cute if a little young for her. At some point she probably learns that Bruce Wayne is Batman and has to process that fact. Still doesn’t tell her dad anything. Fun times, fun times.
Widely hated Evil!Babs character assassination arc and Dick becomes Batgirl during the Batman!Reborn era
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anandabrat · 2 years
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So my dear friend @ride2fly has been locked out of her Tumblr because, possibly, her email is in the system incorrectly, but anyway she has given me the honor of posting her contribution to Bering and Wells Appreciation Week!
This is her very first fic, and was originally written to only me, perhaps in self-defense as I often send her my own mad ravings and scribbles. She says she hopes you all enjoy her silly idea, and that she wrote it for me because I'm her favorite (aww, blush.)
Anyway, without further ado...
Bering and Wells, Gay Pirate edition!
“I mean. Mutiny is the only answer. “
“We can’t keep following this guy. “
“She’s a lady.
“Is she though? Like can you be a lady if you just abandoned your husband and child and just like peaced out to be a pirate?”
Claud says nothing of course, but he does look up from under his broad hat to give Steven Jinks a hard look.
Olu clears his throat, breaking the weird silent tension between his ship mates.
“She pays us though. Like. Really well.”
“Yeah but we haven’t even done anything. We are pirates man. We should be pillaging. When I was on Blackbeards’ crew —“
The collective moan cuts off Black Pete from whatever lie he was about to tell. He blusters but no one wants to hear it.
“We don’t have to do anything. She pays us for nothing. I mean really it’s a sweet gig,” Frenchie squints into the sun while he says this, not fully committing in any way.
“Is it though? Like is it really? It feels to me like we have truly hit bottom. There is no where lower we could sink than working for a woman pretending to be a pirate.” Jinx looks hard at Claud again. And Claud again says nothing since Claud is a mute.
“Steven Jinx my good man! Can you come here for a moment I’m in need of a scribe!”
The crew moans a little, less concerned with nearly being caught talking of mutiny than you would have imagined them to be. Jinx stands up and saunters off as well as you can on a boat. Everyone watches him leave because why wouldn’t you.
“He makes some good points,” Wee John starts. “Sailing with a woman is bad luck. “
“Unless that woman is Blackbeard,” Black Pete starts but everyone starts shouting at once about how Blackbeard doesn’t count since she made a deal with the Devil, since she is ghost, she’s not a real woman she’s a siren, she’s both male and female, and loudest of all is Artie shouting that Black Pete never sailed with Blackbeard anyways so what would he know.
Black Pete rubs a hand over his bald head. His cleft palette gives him a slight lisp but no one says shit about it because they are pirates not bullies.
“You can bet Blackbeard is not paying her crew for not pillaging that’s all I’m saying. Captain’s gotta go. “
~*~
Steve opens the door to the captain’s rooms. They are resplendent. The walls are shelved and the shelves are full of books. Beautiful, leather bound books. The kind of books no one should have on a ship, and the kind of books one should certainly not lend out to the crew if they want some “light reading”. Steve is pretty certain he is the only member of the crew who can read. If Captain knew that she would probably start lessons. Then there would be mutiny for sure.
“Ah Steve, there you are. Thank you for your promptness,” the Captain is seated at her desk, maps spread all over it. She takes off a pair of reading glass, folds them with a snap, sets them inside their case but doesn’t shut it. She pushes her chair and stands up, smoothing her hands over the peacock blue silk of her mantua, fluffing her sleeves ever so slightly. Her costume is a much slimmed down version of what she used to wear daily — she has a hooped petticoat or two with her of course but she doesn’t wear one on the ship. Her dark hair is up off of her neck in an attractive twist, pearl drops hang from her ears and a locket is around her neck.
Helena Wells left her husband six months ago. Society believes she was killed in a tragic accident while riding side saddle in the woods on the land her family stole from the Spanish, who stole it from the Kalinigo people. In fact she did not die but was spirited away and deposited on her ship, the Revenge.
Christopher had just turned 15 the previous winter. Helena and Martin commissioned the ship with the intent that Helena and Christopher would sail together when it was finished. Mother and son were both enthusiastic about being out on the ocean, but Martin had no stomach for sailing or desire to explore outside of his set of rooms.
Helena hoped she would have the ship finished and crewed quickly enough to get the heck out of Barbados before the Royal Navy got wind of her sweet boy who possessed a fierce talent for navigation as well as a knack for languages. The Royal Navy had been stealing — impressment they called it — young men in Barbados with a knack for sailing. They claimed to not take anyone younger than 18, but they were known to take boys as young as 14.
She was too late, a mistake she would not be making again.
“Did you have a task for me, Captain?” Please let there be a letter to write or more clouds to draw. Steve sends a silent prayer to the heavens. Please don’t ask about crew morale.
“How is the crew? Everyone adjusting well enough?”
Steve takes a breath, hesitating for less than a beat before replying, “Artie keeps licking the air.”
“I’m beginning to suspect he is a witch,” Captain Wells her tone bright and bemused. “I’ve never observed anyone else uses all their senses to navigate — and his accuracy is supernatural. A witch for certain. Splendid.”
“Have you known many navigators?” Steve probes. All he knows — all anyone knows — is that Helena Wells was born a wealthy lady and appears to have lost her freaking mind to become a pirate queen. Only she doesn’t seems to be crazy at all — in fact she is possibly the smartest person Steve has spent any length of time with. Her knowledge of sailing, navigation, astronomy, and modern medicine is almost as unbelievable as Artie being able to sense weather changes with his oral faculties.
Her motives for abandoning her family and taking to the sea are the source of much speculation among the crew.
“Probably she was just bored,” is always Olu’s response when the other ask him what he thinks drove the lady over the edge and into the sea. Claud says nothing of course, but his shoulders tend to get stiff and then he finds something to do elsewhere.
“I bet she was slowly poisoning her husband and he got wise to her and she bugged out before he could kill her a proper way. With a knife. In the heart.” Black Pete’s imagination is not boundless and his stories usually include stabbing of some sort.
“Poisoning is a woman’s way,” Frenchie agrees. “But I don’t think you could catch her if she put her mind to it. Probably she was having an affair and was supposed to meet him here on the ship and he never showed. She’s got that lost love look to her. Always rubbing that locket.”
This sets everyone back on their heels a bit and then they start trying to guess to themselves which if any of them could be the Captain’s secret lover. Which then makes everyone rather jumpy over the next few days.
Artie is the only one who knows more than he is saying. Mostly because he knows more about pretty much everything and everyone else talks too much. Except for Claud.
~*~
Meanwhile… across the ocean a ways, aboard a vessel feared by all, a woman dressed in black, aches for a way out of her dull, predicable life.
~*~
Artie knocks on Captain’s door. He has another missive that just arrived via his best friend, familiar, and Seagull, Karl. Helena and Christopher have been communicating by secret feathered post
for a few months now. Christopher is currently safe at a British outpost nearby where they send the young men born of high society to fast track them to being officers. While not high born, Christopher’s captain quickly realized that he would be wasted serving on a ship as cannon fodder. Helena taught him languages, navigation, and basic cartography skills. She is thankful that these skills have kept her boy off of a warship, but her plans to rescue him have grown tangled. She has finally come to the conclusion that she has to sit and wait for an opportunity. And also probably learn some piracy so that she can keep her crew alive.
“It’s best that we put into harbor for a few days. Republic of Pirates is nearby,” Artie informs her. “We need to make a wee bit of racket there. Just a very wee bit — just enough that no one takes it in there head to pick us off and steal the ship.”
“Excellent plan. I’m sure the crew could do with some shore leave as well. Plot the course and make it so, number one!” Helena is positively jovial after a message from Christopher. They write short messages in a secret code that pretty much add up to “I’m fine I love you,” but that’s enough.
~*~
The Republic of Pirates does not smell like Helena thought it would. She was imagining it to be more of a rum and body oder situation. Instead it smells like fermenting peppers, spicy and bitter. She is completely second guessing her outfit choice but there is nothing she can do about it now, so she throws her shoulders back and holds her head high. She’s wearing a dress of the finest silk, pale pink in color, with a black lace stomacher. She did not dawn her wig which she is very grateful for right now, her hair is low on her neck, curls falling across her shoulders.
The crew makes their way through the streets, stopping and chatting to people they know. All the pirates know each other, it seems. There is some chatter about going in a bar and before she knows it, Helena is stooping and squinting in the dark of Mrs. F’s Bar.
It is a greasy grimy place. The vinegar smell is now overpowering. Helena stands in the doorway, flanked on either side by Steve and Artie. Claud and Olu have disappeared into the darkest corner of the bar. Claud is somehow hiding even more of his face with his hat, which seemed impossible but maybe he made the brim bigger.
Helena clears her throat and walks into the dark room to the bar at the center rear. There are large jars with various flotsam floating in them. She goes about her business, ordering a nasty drink that nearly gives Steve a coronary, making a big show of being the new bossy lady in town. She does a fair job — took some theater in her youth — and for the most part, she is believed.
But. Deep in the darkest corner of the bar, a man sits. He swirls his drink in his glass and drinks the whole thing in one gulp. He reaches for his leather gloves and pulls them on, flexing his fingers. He’s seen what he came to see, and now it is time to report back to the boss.
Artie gives Helena a signal, letting her know that he thinks she has accomplished their mission. She misses the signal though because the witch is always playing with his nose so finally he has to cough and harrumph loudly to get her attention. They exit the bar, confident that they have avoided future confrontations with their fellow pirates for the time being.
Less confident about avoiding food poisoning.
~*~
“She’s hiding something.” The man from the bar had entered the hold of a ship. It is dark and musty smelling. He stands in the doorway. A figure is curled up in the round window at the stern of the room. When Pete Lattimer speaks, she unfurls herself like a lion and shakes out her mane before wrapping a dirty bandana around her forehead.
“Everyone is hiding something — that means literally nothing,” she replies with her back to him. Pete rolls his eyes. Takes a deep breath before replying:
“Okay, fair. She’s hiding a big something but she’s… She’s like… you ever play that game? With the little wooden pieces on the board?”
“Chess.” She shakes out a shirt that was once white and sniffs it.
“No… "
“Checkers.” She throws the shirt back on the floor.
“No it’s got the funny name. “
“Backgammon.” She continues to rummage, looking for something cleaner to wear but she is only fooling herself. The black leather pants and the tightly laced vest she wears will most likely dress her corpse.
“No. Fuck. Nine Men’s Morris. That’s the one. She’s got the game memorized. She plays from memory but like… she’s got no improv.”
“And she thinks she is already endgame.” She loops a belt around her waist and tucks a pistol into a holster.
“Exactly.”
“Dangerous?” She unsheathes her blade and sees her face reflected there, hollow and glassy eyed. She replaces the blade with a snap.
Pete snorts. He is picturing Helena in her fine pink silk, playing pirate.
“The Lady Pirate? Unlikely. But.”
Myka Bering finally turns and faces him. Pete Lattimer is a thief, a murderer, a teetotaler, and a brother.
“You’ve got a vibe.”
“There is something wrong here. With her.”
“Excellent.” Myka grins wickedly and follows Pete out the door into the bitter air.
~*~
The crew sees the dingy leave the large ship off the starboard bow. Three figures dressed in black.
“What do you suppose they’re up to?” Frenchie muses out loud after his turn with the spyglass.
“Could be anything,” Black Pete murmurs.
“Anything? Really?” Olu scoffs. “I’m pretty sure it’s just one thing. They’re coming over here to negotiate a surrender.”
“Shut up!“ Artie barks. He only yells when he is scared. “Someone go wake the Captain.”
Frenchie draws the short straw. He opens the door to the captain’s quarters. The shades are drawn over the large windows. Helena has been very, very sick since drinking God knows what at Mrs. F’s bar. Steve was not ill because he had the good sense to spit. However he has been pretending to be sick and is currently holed up in Claud and Oluwande’s room after seeing something he wasn’t supposed to (namely Claud’s boobs. Which they have because they were assigned female at birth. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the crew figures it out but for this moment, Steve’s lips are sealed.)
“Captain,” Frenchie calls into the dark. “We’ve got a situation. There’s a dingy headed right for us. And the ship she hails from. She’s big captain. And mean. The colors she’s flying… it’s Blackbeard. We’re certain.”
Helena is pretty sure she is gonna die here, on this boat, of dysentery. She read about treating such sickness with water laced with salt slowly and consistently. Roach recommended a banana so Helena somehow got that down as well. Still. She was pretty sure she might never leave this bed.
But. She is the Captain. And the Captain must be present when someone is boarding her boat. Especially if that someone is Blackbeard. So Helena girds her loins and throws on robe, cinches it tight, and makes it all the way to the doorway before she passes out.
French calls for help and Olu helps him get Helena back into bed.
“Well. Been nice knowing you.”
“Same.”
~*~
They do not get murdered by the pirates (the other pirates) at this time. Instead everyone of them is so completely starstruck, they’ve completely forgotten that just moments ago they were pretty sure they were about to be murdered.
“Why do they call her Blackbeard though?” Steve asks his shipmates. They are all sitting together, still a little unsure if they are about to be murdered, but mostly just having the time of their lives. “ She’s not Black and she doesn’t have a beard nor is she a beard… I don’t get that vibe off Pete.”
Pete Lattimer has hushed bent together with another pirate. He growls at the prisoners to shut up but he is ignored.
“Well I'm Black Pete and I’m not Black either.”
“Yeah I also don’t get that,” Steve smirks.
“A story for another time. Blackbeard is called Blackbeard because all anyone could see when she was murdering them was that gorgeous hair blowing around all sexy it just looked like a beard. Flowing. In the wind.”
“That can’t be it,” Wee John protests.
Frenchie agrees, “yeah that doesn’t sound right at all. Where did she even go? She moves like a ghost?”
“I think she’s in with the captain,” Steve is pretty she he should also be in there recording everything but alas.
“Captain is gonna get a shock when she wakes up to find fucking Blackbeard standing over her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she drops dead,” Black Pete had more to say but once again the crew is throwing shit at him telling him to shut up.
~*~
Myka isn’t sure what she was expecting to feel when she saw Helena, but she knows that she isn’t feeling it. She thought… all she knows she feels like crying. Like you do when you’re a child and you’ve skinned your knee and you don’t cry until your mother scoops you up. You don’t cry until you feel safe.
She sits beside Helena for a little over an hour. Watching her sleep, and then looking around the ridiculous room. She runs her hands over the leather-bound spines of the books but she doesn’t pull any of them out to turn the pages. her hands are too dirty for that.
Finally Helena stirs. Myka reaches out for her hands to soothe her, to make sure she’s not afraid when she wakes up, and then pulls back at the last second. Helena opens her eyes.
“It’s you,” she says.
Myka, for just a beat, wonders if she herself is dreaming and that this is what Prince Charming must feel. She feels an unfamiliar smile start to break her face apart and she smothers it.
“You’re fevered,” she finally croaks.
“Do you work for Blackbeard?”
Myka nearly laughs but then she furrows her brow.
“Yeah, I guess I do. Hadn’t really thought of it that way.” Somehow this wasn’t the conversation she thought they would be having. She tried to imagine this part so many times and it can go so many different ways.
“I’m Helena. Helena Wells. I’m more than a little embarrassed about the state I’m in.” Helena sits up with Myka’s help and mops her brow with a white handkerchief.
Uncertain of what to do next, a most unusual feeling for her, makes Myka chokes a little as she returns the handshake and says “I’m Myka Bering.” Helena doesn’t react to her name, and a dagger is plunged into Myka’s breast.
“Yes, well. I seem to have recovered to enough to go down with the ship. Does Blackbeard only employ women? I’ve heard she is remarkable. Read mostly.”
Myka hesitates for a moment. Part of her knows she should end this game and put her Blackbeard pants back on. But the other part. The part that has been bored fucking silly. The part that she left behind when she left home as a teenager, to find her fortune and maybe some fame, to return home triumphant. The part that longs for a happy ending for herself however unlikely that might be. That part of her wins because she wants to be with Helena a moment longer. Life is pain and sometimes the pain reminds us we are alive.
“You’ll meet her soon enough. She does employ a lot of women but men, too. Whoever can stomach the work really.” Myka stands up and lifts her arms over head, shaking herself out like a rumpled blanket. “You have so many books. It’s just...”
“Amazing isn’t it?” Helena reaches for her robe and drapes it around herself, belting it with its gold sash. The robe is deep scarlet and makes the fevered flush of her cheeks more pronounced.
“Yeah sure but also. Boat. Water. Books. Not the most practical plan but then you….” Myka looks at Helena and then looks away again, pretending to be peering at titles. “You must be a great reader.”
“I love books. Windows into other times and places… so many different lives to live. Nothing is better than a good mystery, a romance.”
“You’re a romantic? And you became a pirate? Did you read the job description?”
Helena grins and walks over to the bookcase on the closest wall. “A job is what you make of it and life deserves some romantic adventure!” She reaches for a book but when she pulls it out, a secret door to her left opens inward. She turns to Myka, triumphant.
Myka laughs. Full on from the belly laughter. “You have to be fucking kidding me. Are you insane?”
“Life’s a story right? If I get to write my own there will surely be secret passages,” Helena replies laughing along with Myka, her fever forgotten. What a sound! She would do anything to make this person laugh like that again. “You wanna see inside?”
Myka breathes out in a big slow breath. “Hell yes,” she hears herself answer. Myka’s heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high. She felt as though she and Helena were standing atop the walls having flown there from a great distance. She was pretty sure they were about to fall. Was it the walls crumbling, or were they being pushed?
*~*
“You’re a witch,” the pirate who called herself Myka Bering says after looking around for a moment.
“No. Artie is the witch. I’m an alchemist. I like knowing how things work and why and I study the stars. I also dabble — dabble mind you — in medicine. This is my equipment. My laboratory.” Helena has not shown another soul this room. She is not embarrassed, rather she is so proud that she doesn’t want anyone else to shatter her joy. Why she is trusting this Myka person with this secret… she blames the fever. Who is this woman? She’s like flying too close to the sun.
“Wow. A Lady Pirate, a secret lab. You are full of surprises,” Myka grins at her and raises one eyebrow. Helena fells flushed and again tells herself it is the fever. Myka smirks as though she has read her mind. The moment is spoiled when they hear a noise from the other room.
Another pirate has entered the room and calls for Myka. She is dark skinned and has long curly dark hair. She also wears leather from head to toe and has a long wicked looking blade at her hip.
Helena peers at her through the secret peep hole (naturally) and whispers to Myka. “Is that Blackbeard?”
“No. That’s Leena. I’m Blackbeard.”
Helena turns her back on the peep hole and stares open mouthed at Myka. Myka cannot help it — she feels wicked from head to toe — and she winks at Helena. This and the fever that still grips Helena causes her to sway slightly and Myka is instantly by her side, her arm around Helena’s back, her rough hands taking Helena’s.
“I swear I’m not going to faint on you. My pride could not bare it,” she whispers.
“I promise not to tell if you do,” Myka whispers back.
Leena has given up on finding Blackbeard by now and the coast is clear. Myka leaves her arm around Helena, holds open the passage door, and helps her to the large sofa. Myka paces around, inebriated and agitated, finally coming to stand at Helena’s desk.
“Is this supposed to be me?”Myka squints incredulously at the pen and ink illustration in the tome Helena has open, resting on all of her maps. The imfamous Blackbeard the caption reads. The drawing has Myka standing on the bow of a burning ship, a saber in her hand, her hair blowing out and across her face. Her skirts are tattered and blowing open, revealing her legs to the knees. She is barefoot, bareheaded, and well… very very little of her breasts are not showing. The illustrator has pictured Myka about three times as well endowed as she is and her ample bosum is spilling from her stays.
“This is ridiculous. Who could fight in that? Barefoot have they ever been in a battle? There is shit and blood everywhere you don’t wanna step in that in your barefeet. And my boobs. What is going on — am I a wet nurse on the weekends? Holy hell.”
Helena laughs, a throatier laugh than Myka was expecting. She would rather like to hear that laugh again.
“Your actual costume is something I fear no man could conjure up from imagination. I don’t think I’ve ever seen full leather breeches on anyone, man or woman. And your vest…”
“So it is actually quite practical. Leather protects you from most glancing blows. Even a sharp sword has a little trouble.”
TO BE CONTINUED
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signalwatch · 1 year
Text
Holmes Watch: Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
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Watched:  11/14/2022
Format:  Netflix
Viewing:  First
Director:  Harry Bradbeer
One of the side-effects of streaming 99% of what I see is that movies are far less of an event.  There is no comparison between what I would do and think about en route to see Avengers: Endgame and choosing Enola Holmes 2 (2022) as prime time viewing on a Monday night.  
It is unlikely I would see a spin-off Sherlock Holmes movie on my own dime, but I did watch the first Enola Holmes, enjoyed it enough, and was game for the sequel.  Had I returned to the original and were my memories of it particularly intact?  Absolutely not.
But it is interesting to have a 2-hour option with a considerable budget, a solid cast and whatnot available that was never released theatrically.  It's not merely content - it is a movie into which care and love was poured.  It could have been released to screens and drawn some small box office (and I wonder sometimes if Netflix will one day partner with AMC or something and just make releases like this a thing they do as a matter of course to earn a few extra bucks).  Henry Cavill probably should have been a bigger big screen star than the DC movies and pandemic allowed, and it's time for Millie Bobby Brown to be tested as a young woman on screen. 
But those models may now be completely exploded and irrelevant.
As a movie, Enola Holmes 2 is a perfectly entertaining and serviceable film that tries a *lot* of things, and mostly connects with every swing, even if some balls are pop flies.  Like a modern series of books, there's also an obvious intention to be an episodic and ongoing serial which we'll get in installments every year or two, pushing various stories along, which is model I fully endorse.  It's easier than another TV show and dumping money into something this lavish is a good idea, imho.
This is a Holmes mystery film, and this one contains an A Mystery and B Mystery - which seasoned viewers will immediately know (1) will dovetail and (2) will reveal Moriarty based simply on the notion that the B Mystery belongs to Sherlock Holmes and he cannot solve the mystery immediately.  If this is a spoiler, I am sorry 13 year old reader.  Everyone else:  go read some Holmes or watch any of 10,000 adaptations.
The A Mystery is about a missing girl from the matchstick factory and the B Mystery is Holmes trying to figure out what's going on with shady banking transfers (all of which seems unlikely in a non-digital environment, but whatever).   
We also have Enola's budding romance/ frustration with Lord Tewkesbury, desire to be seen as an independent figure, and probably things I'm forgetting.  We also have the ongoing light-terrorism of Mrs. Holmes as portrayed by a still way-too-young Helena Bonham Carter in the name of suffrage - which is never mentioned in the film.  Just that she's some sort of urban terrorist, which is a weird thing for England to take lightly given (gestures at the 1980's).  And, the film also wants to do a late-inning insertion of worker's rights that isn't exactly unmotivated, but it is a bit unearned.  
While the film never feels sluggish, it does feel unfocused.  I expect twists and winding and red herrings in my mysteries, but I think the overall impact is that the movie wants to be so many things.  And they're lucky that Millie Bobby Brown is such an amazing talent and that the Fleabag-style commentary works as well as it does to keep everything sort of glued together.  That said, when Enola is sent to the gallows, all of that felt like it was underplayed as a set-up to what they really wanted to do, which was a jailbreak - which causes fundamentally way, waaaay more problems for our characters than one can count and which never come up again.  And inserting "oh yeah, real historical struggle here!" as a flashcard at the end was a hell of a flex.  What was the movie THAT could have been?
But that's not the point.  If the audience goes and Googles that ending, good on them!  This isn't a biopic. I just felt like - hey, a lot of more weight could have been put on this world of the match factory and you would have had a more memorable picture, perhaps.
The film has two technical decisions I fully did not like.  
1)  At the ball, the music always feels non-diegetic.  And sometimes it is, and sometimes it's not, but it's also not a Waltz of the era.  And that seems to be an obvious thing to do as a musical choice - have the diegetic and non-diegetic music work together, and instead - they just went with making me wonder what the story was with the music in the middle of a plot point.
2)  The final fight takes place in the dark in a theater - or, rather, partial light which seems totally unmotivated.   This is not CGI's monsters, these are actors and stunt performers slugging away.  They're not hiding anything, but I literally couldn't follow the action at times.  I think they had some idea that "when the lights come on, it's symbolic of our heroes' victory!" But even more symbolic would have been our heroes just winning the fight in clear view.
But, hey, the mysteries overall worked for me.  The cast is excellent - including the inclusion of David Thewlis who is playing near camp-level-Thewlis here.  The CGI Victorian London is convincing enough.  
I confess it is much easier to write about complaints, and so it seems like I don't like this movie - but I did!  It was fun, fast-paced, charming and balanced character and adventure extremely well.  And while I was maybe a step or two ahead once or twice, I was not spoiled for the reveal.
A lot of this just works.  The scene at the ball with iffy music choices, and as sort of trope-y as it was, is packed with multiple layers of information, and accomplishes quite a bit, narratively.  If you're going to have multiple plotlines - be sure to have places where they intersect!  And do it organically!  Cavill and Brown are quite good together, and the nuance in their relationship established last movie carries through quite well without exposition.  And plenty more!
I do hope there's more of these.  It feels weirdly mid-20th Century in it's delivery  - Rathbone did like 14 Holmes movies for comparison.  But maybe that product of vertical integration has some mirrors in THIS form of vertical integration.
SPOILERS
One challenge the movie does have is that - look, Cavill may not be what I think of as as my platonic ideal of Holmes, but he is *good* at whatever this movie is doing with Sherlock Holmes.  Introducing a fairly major actor as Dr. Watson at the end (Himesh Patel) just... makes me want to watch those two go about the usual Sherlocking.  A Holmes mystery is a Holmes mystery, and if they made a movie about these two, I would be just as ready to tune in for their adventures.  That doesn't exactly take anything away from Enola Holmes, but it does speak to keeping focus on your franchise here.  Especially when the Doyle estate is already looking at you sideways.
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countdraluka · 2 years
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Were there discourses again? What did I miss? Apart of what I read on your post. I would like to add that moths a to , someone on instagram commented that lady d is straight and Helena posted an instagram story with an illustration of carmilla with the caption "did you know the first vampire was a lesbian?" in response. They where talking about lady d being gay on her instagram and someone said "lady d is straight" and then, Helena post that instagram history.
Reply under the cut because I can't imagine most of my followers enjoy discourse talk first thing in the morning lol
I am probably not the best person to ask since my contact with the Twitter side of the fandom is pretty limited, and I do not really engage with the VA stuff besides interviews at this point, but from my vague understanding of it, someone at SDCC got upset at Maggie Robertson during her signing event over a previous interaction they had and supposedly called her out for it on camera. The added rumor was that this person had also had some issues with the staff of one of the more popular Discord servers prior to this, but I do not know if that is true.
I feel like this is a situation where "none of my business" would apply, but I will say I felt a bit conflicted over the reaction that I saw.
On one hand, VAs should absolutely be respected as people and fans desperately need to understand that buying prints/taking photos/getting anything customized by them is not equivalent to becoming their best friend, and that this relationship is parasocial at best. Just basic fandom etiquette when dealing with people involved in the production, especially public figures like actors.
On the other, though, I feel like it is the convention's responsibility to make sure that the actors are safe to do their work (and Streamily's when it comes to lives, as they are the actual service provider of the equation and the ones profiting off it) and should be the ones the accountability relies upon, rather than this duty falling on fans spamming "be nice or else" in the comments and setting up some arbitrary police for moderating these interactions. The person must have gotten mass-blocked judging from some of the posts I saw, which I am not 100% sure is something I agree with given the vague descriptions of the incident that were available to me and therefore likely most others as well. It is very easy to ruin someone's fandom life over a misunderstanding, unfortunately, which is why I wish we'd be more cautious as a whole over these discussions.
Then again, maybe my ignorance is at fault here and what happened had its justification, so take this with a grain of salt.
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