#tim: didn’t seem relevant

[ditzybat]

jason: seriously grave robber —

tim: memorial case.

jason: i - hm?

tim: i robbed your memorial case, not your grave silly, you weren’t even in your grave for me to rob it!

jason: wait… did you check??

#tim: perhaps #jason: and you didn’t tell anybody??? #tim: didn’t seem relevant #dc #tim drake #jason todd #robin #red robin #red hood #batfam #batman #batbros

[vickozone]

The Magnus Archives

-S5 Notes-

<- previous notes

Handwriting translated below:

#161 old memories, tape that Gertrude should have gave them, Jon says “I love you”, they don’t need to eat to live

#162 Gertrude and Gerry bonding, Tim and Sasha talking about a very relevant subject and Jon and Martin are leaving the safe house.

#163 [VIETNAM FLASHBACKS] [BAGPIPES INTENSIFY]

#164 Gross statement about an infection in a town and Helen talking to Jon and Martin like a proud aunt is beautiful. “I knew you crazy kids would make it work!”

#165 “Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing.” The Stranger statement. Not!Sasha messed up!!

#166 Martin suddenly is on a murder episode and a dude turned into a worm. Helen says “Slay!”

#167 “Yes, Martin, you are my reason.” Sweet bonding and why Gertrude didn’t have anymore assists.

#168 “I’m not going to kill a man just because you’re jealous!” “Why not?” Oh, Martin. Oliver Banks shall live another day and we are crossing The End domain

#169 Let’s willingly run into a burning building, disregarding your boyfriend and getting revenge together! Jude is now dead and Martin was just struggling in the background. He chose revenge over his boyfriend. Interesting. “We’re burning!”

#170 “I’m Martin Blackwood, and I am not lonely anymore!” “Oh… Hello!”

#171 No way I just spent 23 minutes listening to Jon talk about skin flowers in a botanical garden. “That your boyfriend?” “It is, actually.” “Oh.”

#172 Creepy theatre show that made me genuinely uncomfortable with The Web

#173 Where do you think all of the children went? That’s right! The Dark with Callum! Yay!

#174 Simon calling Jon killing him “rude” is hilarious and immediately dipping is iconic. Weird Vast domain with big explosions. Helen loves some good gossip.

#175 The Extinction items, hate for umbrellas, and Martin’s squelchy couch. We’re going to The Hunt next. Oh no.

#176 Adoptive uncle Trevor and Julia are dead. AWESOME HUNT STATEMENT! And we got Basira! :D

#177 ‘Dr. David’ Jon is so hot. This episode has so many trigger warnings. Helen is so silly. Basira is rad, staying with her boys. Won’t let them have a moment tho

#178 More Flesh. Gross processing line and Jon admits that the thing that traumatized him the most was Daisy going to kill him in the woods. Poor babies.

#179 Daisy is shot and killed. Basira is on her own and I have a reason to give Jon a cane.

#180 I have never felt more serene in my life. I can’t even describe it. I was smiling, giggling, and everything feels okay. Salesa and Annabelle are here and I love Salesa’s voice and HE CAN PLAY THE PIANO! Teaholding fluff, om nom nom, this episode is one of my favorites. The I-Spy game <3

#181 They decide to stay at Upton House for a bit longer before leaving. Jon feels his powers again and forgets the whole experience of ignorance. Pity. Seemed like a nice place. I like Salesa.

#182 Anatomy Class student hospital and Breekon asks Jon to kill him. I feel bad for him. :(

#183 “I’m sure I love you.” “I love you too.” THEY SAID IT!! Helen was concerned for them. She’s like a wine aunt who acts motherly to them. Also, Martin’s domain…

#184 Jon made Jordan an entity. That’s a lotta ants! Jon is just… so complicated.

#185 Ouch. Police brutality and wrongful imprisonment are rough subjects. That guy pleading out to Martin HURT. Martin is… somewhere at the end. Alone again, oh, Jonny, I feel horrible.

#186 Martin went from being a joke in Jon’s anger to being one of the most well-developed characters. He is either going to kill himself of Jon. Martin legit talks to himself. Statement made me cry. This better end with them being happy together.

#187 HELEN! D: Aw, man… I liked her. That poor woman. Calm down, Jon! Helen was their friend till the end. Dang it, that was a nail-biter.

#188 We’re in London now! Eyes, man. They’re everywhere. We grieve for Helen a bit. Did I mention EYES?

#189 MEL AND GEORGIE! OMG! They… made a cult and can hide from The Eye. Great.

#190 Fresh take on modern dating! Antichrist plus one! Archivist mocks poems, beloved pet turned monster, and a blind prophet

#191 Jon sleeps with his eyes open. Georgie wants to avenge her cat (I think I’ve seen this film before), mystery can, and Jon and Martin discuss death. Sobbing atm.

#192 Rosie is literally just going with the flow. It’s weird to see someone else’s perspective on things. Jonah’s incantation is awesome and gosh, I love Martin

#193 Elias 'high as a kite' Bouchard’s origins. Jonah’s distorted voice is hot.

#194 THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT D: After a gruesome metamorphosis statement, Jon tried to find Martin to apologize only to find he was taken to HILL TOP FREAKIN ROAD

#195 Just Basira and Jon, catching up and trudging through water. Omg. The Mr. Spider tape.

#196 Earth shattering rip-in-space time crap. Annabelle is wicked cool. Martin keeps getting sucked into things AND THE TAPES!! ASDFEKGLZMV

#197 MARTIN! ANNABELLE! TAPES! THE LIGHTER! INTER-DIMENSIONAL PIT! WE NEED TO DESTROY JONAH AND THE EYE SIMULTANEOUSLY! LES GO!

#198 If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you too? Ew, bones reforming. Chill ep. Silly.

#199 Group agrees on plan after ten minute discussion. Martin consulting Jon while he cries in his arms HURT!! Also, Mel thanks Jon. This is going to end horribly, isn’t it?

#200 Statement ends.

Crying tally: |||| |||| (I cried ten [10] times listening to this stupid podcast)

#the magnus archives #tma #the magnus institute #tma jon #tma spoilers #tma season 5 #tma s5 #tma s5 spoilers #tma notes

[msfcatlover]

@fandomwandererer

im still like mid s3 in tma but im practically spoiled all the way to somewhere else, tell me more about the archivist tim story. is the not them even relevant if tim is already marked by the stranger? if it is who end up a not!them? tim would need a spider mark right? wonder what that is

*vibrating in place* ARCHIVIST!TIM STOKER, MY BELOVED!

You have no idea how much I love this AU. You have no idea how long I could talk about it. No, really. It took so many edits to keep this response reasonable.

(This is from my notes document on this AU, and does not include the lengthy conversation that originally spawned it. My adoration of Archivist!Tim cannot be overstated.)

Okay, okay. A couple things to establish. First: I cannot take full credit for this AU. @daydreamingofdragons & I came up with it together while bouncing ideas off eachother, and it spiraled (ha) out of control. This is just as much their monster as it is mine.

Second: Tim Stoker’s trauma is not defined by being from the Stranger. His tie to the Stranger hugely shapes his character, but not the Stranger itself. Tim’s trauma is defined by the feeling that he had multiple chances to save his brother and didn’t; that Tim watched Danny die, too close not to feel like Tim should’ve done something, and even though Tim consciously tries to argue with himself that there was nothing he could’ve done, Tim can never silence the part of him which says Tim’s actions (or lack thereof) indirectly killed his little brother. You don’t need the Stranger for that.

(a few post-s3 spoilers below cut, as well as other answers.)

Third: The purpose of the Archivist is to collect “marks” (scars/traumas) from each of the Entities. The Archivist is chosen for their potential to collect those marks, and how easy they seem like they’ll make it (translation: how much work Elias has to put in himself.) To make a viable Archivist candidate, you need to ask what mark/s they already have when they first arrive at the Institute, how Elias might manipulate them, and how much manipulation it would take for them to start putting “finding answers” above “personal safety.” (So Jon Sims is an exceptionally good candidate because he’s driven by a desperate need to understand, he has trouble trusting others, his self-worth was already garbage by the time he got to the Magnus Institute, a consequence of both being a tendency to do absolutely everything himself, and he walked in already marked by arguably the hardest Entity to manipulate into doing anything.)

While the Web would be needed eventually, it's not needed as a foundation. Any mark will do, though if anyone at the Institute is still marked by the Web, you need to give your chosen Archivist a mark just as (if not more) rare & dangerous to make them the more tempting prospect.

.

So, Tim is not marked by the Stranger; we actually had him marked by the End (full statement outlined,) and to compensate for how not Eye-aligned Tim is (canon!Tim wants answers about what happened to Danny, but beyond that curiosity is very much not one of Tim's defining character traits; he's not driven for want of knowledge the way Jon & Sasha are, he's driven by love for those closest to him & a need to find a guilty party who can be blamed & punished for any suffering they endure) we had each one of his assistants be marked by a different Entity. After all, if Tim doesn't care about answers or mysteries that don't affect people he cares about, the answer is to tie those mysteries to the personal struggles of those people he cares about.

Jon kept his Web mark (still Mr. Spider, and Jon was definitely the backup in case anything happened to Tim, but the End was always going to be the biggest risk to get a mark from, which makes it just too tempting even with Tim's temper & disposition taken into account.)

Sasha was marked by the Dark (the first time Tim uses his powers is to protect her from it, eventually leading Tim to directly help Basira & co with the lowercase-r ritual the People's Church performed in s2.)

Martin was marked by the Stranger (and also is the only assistant Tim didn't choose; Martin was Gertrude's last assistant, while Jon & Sasha were on a list of "pre-approved" potential assistants Elias gave Tim.)

(and yes, we fully figured out how Sasha & Martin were both impacted, and how it would tie into the plot & their respective arcs. Especially Martin & Jon's tragic enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story in this version.)

That gives Tim 4 different rabbits to chase down. By the time he's started to clear up even one of them, chances are other avatars would start to poke their noses into the archives' business. And then Tim's temper, need to protect those he deems to be his own, and need for retribution on any who would harm them would keep Tim locked solidly into the Archivist's role. He's not going to try to leave as long as they're still at risk, and he's always going to jump in front of that bus rather than throw any of his people under it. And once Tim figures out what's happening, he's far more likely to try to get ahead of things by taking the fight to the other avatars rather than try to slide beneath their notice the way Jon mostly did.

.

The NotThem isn't actually that relevant, though we did play a bit with the idea of NotBasira. Instead, @daydreamingofdragons came up with a new creature who does the opposite: it steals identities by rendering people unrecognizable. Not like it replaces them or completely changes their appearance, but it's the cross-section of the fear of mistaking a stranger for someone you care about & the fear of being rejected by loved ones. This person claiming to be your brother is obviously not your brother---sure, at a distance you might mistake them for your brother, maybe they could even fool someone who doesn't know your brother that well, but you can very clearly see all the little differences that show this cannot possibly be your brother. Especially if you have a picture to compare. It's not your brother, you know it's not your brother, why is this complete stranger insisting that they're your brother? Why do they know so many things about your brother, why are they wearing his clothes, how did they get the lucky charm he never takes off? What did they DO to him?!?

(It is, in fact, your brother. He knows why you're acting like this, he can't recognize himself in the mirror, but it doesn't make your complete rejection of his identity hurt any less.)

I can't remember if we actually discussed this, but I've been calling it the "Innominate." Which is an adjective meaning "something anonymous or unnamed," but sounds like a word that could easily be a verb meaning "to un-name something, to render anonymous," and also works as a proper noun just fine.

It goes after Jon in mid-to-late s2. This leads to everyone needing to figure out whether or not they still trust Jon ("trust & love as an active choice," you're such a good theme and I love you so, so much,) Georgie joining the Institute to investigate Jon's "disappearance" (they reconnected after Jon did the follow-up on Melanie's statement in s1,) and Tim needing to save Jon from Daisy after they find Gertrude's body (s2 finale, rather than s1; but once the police are there, there is one person in this verse who is obviously skittish, out of place, and doesn't want to show identification to the cops, and it's not the Archivist. Tim's being nothing but coolly polite & helpful, because he's worried about his people and wants to get these cops out of his archives as soon as humanly possible.)

The antagonist for s1 is the Spiral rather than the Corruption, and after Michael (& co) invades the Archives, Tim ends up going to Hill Top Road for a guiding thread so he can rescue his friends. He hates it, but Tim recognizes the pattern, has no pre-existing hangups about the Web, and there's an original statement in there about a woman getting lost in the tunnels and following a thread of spider silk all the way to the trap door in the archives. With the help of the thread anchored in Tim's chest, he's able to trick a different Spiral ally into the heart of the Distortion and safely recover Sasha, Martin, & Jon from the chaotic, twisting halls. With the changed heart (and the loss of Michael's obsession) the Distortion retreats for a while.

#tma #the magnus archives #tma au #archivist swap au #archivist tim stoker #archivist!tim stoker #archivist timothy stoker #archivist!timothy stoker #tim stoker #timothy stoker #daydreamingofdragons #fandomwanderer #my writing #mine #my life

[cephalog0d]

Batfic - "Finders Keepers"

(For @dangerousdan-dan! I hope you enjoy! <3)

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Characters/Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Selina Kyle, mentioned Bruce Wayne, mentioned Tim Drake, mentioned Arthur Brown

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, (specifically 90's Spoiler), Selina Kyle is Catwoman, (specifically 90's Catwoman which is actually relevant), very lightly implied TimSteph (in an "early mutual crushes" sort of way), Stephanie Brown-centric, POV Stephanie Brown

Summary:

Stephanie Brown just wanted to stop her dumb dad from successfully carrying off his dumb heist. If Batman won't so much as listen to her, she's willing to consider other offers. Or: If Batman doesn't want this perfectly good sidekick, Catwoman will take her instead.

Steph watched the chunk of concrete sail out into the darkness and hit the harbor with a tiny, silver splash. It was not nearly as cathartic as actually hitting something solid would be, but she absolutely did not need to add “getting arrested in costume” to her Humiliation Bingo card tonight, so it beat breaking windows or going home and punching a hole in her wall.

She ought to be making a new plan. Just because her first one hadn’t quite worked out the way she wanted didn’t mean she could just give up. Besides, it had halfway worked, at least. She’d gotten Batman’s attention with all the clues and things. She just hadn’t managed to convince him she had anything to say worth listening to.

And she’d lost whatever secret identity she might have had.

So one step forward two steps back, really.

What else was there to do, though? That had been her best idea, and all it had gotten her was a dismissive and condescending lecture (plus some serious suspicion that she was part of her dad’s crew) that made her deeply glad her mask covered her whole face so no one could see how humiliated she was. Maybe Batman would figure things out in time to actually stop her asshole father’s asshole plan, but she wasn’t willing to just assume that was true and do nothing.

Of course, the only other plan she had was stopping her father’s plan herself, and if she thought that was a good idea she wouldn’t have bothered with stupid Batman and his stupid sidekick in the first place.

Steph hurled another concrete chunk out over the water and let out an inarticulate shout of frustration before collapsing back on her ass with her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped around her head. All she had wanted was to stop her dad from being a fucking criminal and getting people killed. Why did that have to be so hard?

“What did the harbor ever do to you?” asked an amused voice behind her. Steph startled wildly and flailed her way upright, raising her arms in some approximation of a defensive position before she realized that someone who had managed to sneak up on her could have already attacked her if that was their intention.

It still took a couple of seconds for her brain to fully process what she was seeing. Not so much because she didn’t know who she was looking at (the purple bodysuit, thigh high boots and large cat ears were pretty distinctive, even in Gotham), but because there was no universe in which she had anticipated Catwoman showing up to say hi while Steph had a mini-meltdown over what a shitshow her evening had been.

“That was a joke,” Catwoman said when Steph just gaped at her for several long seconds (once again grateful for the full face cover of her mask; who knew what her expression was doing).

Catwoman straightened from where she had been lounging against the wall and prowled closer. (Steph was maybe a little bit deeply jealous of how she could move like that, all pure grace and confidence. No amount of gymnastics lessons or clandestine costume practice ever seemed to get Steph to anything better than “mostly not tripping over her own feet��.)

“It’s the boots,” Catwoman said with a grin and a wink, which is how Steph learned she had said some part of that out loud. A full face mask was truly the best decision she had ever made, good grief. “Well, that and some practice.”

“I know! Uh. That that was a joke, I mean. I know. I just. What are you doing out here?” Steph finally pulled her brain together enough to form sentences on purpose, although she also immediately regretted it. How many costumed badasses could she thoroughly embarrass herself in front of in one evening?

(Cont. on AO3)

#ceph writes things #AU #Selina: it's free sidekick #(I really enjoy writing early days Spoiler!Steph because she's kind of a mess and I love her so much for it) #I just want Selina and Steph to be a Chaos Combo together and drive Tim and Bruce up the wall #So I'm being the change I want to see in the world #stephanie brown #spoiler #selina kyle #catwoman #Me low-key channeling Carla Gugino's character in Fall of the House of Usher as my mental Selina lol

[asmutwriter]

Welcome to the Freak Show (Part 2)

Part 3 coming as soon as I write it up

EDITING NOTE: I didn’t like the original ending so I changed it slightly but I hope you still enjoy

Eddie x Reader

WORD COUNT: 3517

From beginning / Previous / Next / Master List

WARNINGS: mentions of cheating, swearing, kissing, underage drinking, one of the characters is high, anything else let me know

DISCLAIMERS

- This chapter contains mentions of a sex scene that doesn’t involve Eddie. I’ve tried to keep it short but I feel it is semi relevant to the story

-  This is fiction. Please always talk to your partner before doing anything and make sure they are ok with what you are doing beforehand 

You wake up late the next day. It’s Saturday morning, about 10 ish and you hear your brother and his friends downstairs. You let out an annoyed groan as you just want to get back to sleep but after a while you get yourself out of bed and throw on an oversized jumper over your pyjamas. You walk downstairs, the guys all still in their pyjamas but playing the game. You smile as you head to the kitchen, turning the kettle on for your morning coffee. You rub your eyes as you feel sleep still trying to get the better of you. As you are pouring your drink you hear the home phone go. Knowing your brother would be with his friends you go and answer it. “Hello Elizabeth speaking”

“Liz!” your chest tightens as you hear Chris on the other side of the phone “I was wondering where you were? You said you’d be over about 9:15 and it’s nearly 10″

“Sorry. I must’ve over slept...” as if on cue you yawn. “I’ve only just gotten up”

“Are you ok? You sound... off”

“I’m ok. Just woke up feeling a bit ill” you bite your lip slightly “would it be ok if I came round later tonight rather than this morning? I know it might be difficult and I get that but I just have a bad headache and I’m hoping it’ll go away if I just rest tonight”

“Sure thing my love. Shall I come and pick you up from yours about 7?”

“That’d be perfect, Thank you”

“OK, see you then. Goodbye”

“Bye”

Clicking noise follows. You place the phone down, taking some deep breaths as you then take your cup and head into the living room.

“How is the game going?”

“It’s going good”

“We are failing massively” you laugh at the contradiction

“You guys are doing great at failing” they all glare at Eddie.

“I’m assuming your still the, what’s the word, leader? No that’s not it”

“Dungeon master” you click your finger and point at Tim who gave you the answer

“That’s it. The dungeon master” you smile at the long haired boy who nods at you, letting a small smile appear on his face.

“We’re just about to go into the Cave of Destruction” Michael says, in an overly dramatic and booming voice. You roll your eyes, taking a sip of your drink. 

“You guys are such nerds”

“Says you” your brother mocks, you swear at him “who was it on the phone?”

“Chris”

“Ooh lover boy” he makes a smoochy face at you to which you grab a cushion from the sofa and throw it at him.

“Absolute child. How are you the oldest?” he grins at you, your eyes catch with Eddies briefly. “He’s picking me up from here at 7. I’ll be back probably about 9 tomorrow” your brother nods

“We’ll still likely be here” you nod and smile at them.

“Have fun boys, I’m heading upstairs” you go upstairs, hearing them start to chatter again and play their game

-

7pm comes about and you have your bags packed and are waiting by the front door. Michael comes out, a few beers in his hands. “You know the rules, we can’t be seen together or he will disown me” he laughs at your words, but stops when he sense something is off about you. Normally you are giddy about your boyfriend coming round but you seem withdrawn. He places a hand on your shoulder

“Are you ok?” you nod and smile

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m living the dream aren’t I? Hot boyfriend with loving friends” you try and keep your voice stable but it wobbles a bit. Before he can pry anymore the guys call him from the living room

“Get your ass in here dude! These guys aren’t going to kill themselves”

“You have fun tonight” you say and smile at him. He nods and pats your shoulder

“You too sis”. He walks into the living room as you open the front door and head outside. You see the headlights of your boyfriend’s car. He pulls up and revs the engine

“Alright sexy girl. You wanna jump in?” you smile and get into the car. He kisses your cheek as you sit down, then starts driving to his house. “Are you feeling better now?” you nod

“I did some reading which seemed to help stop my headache” he nods, placing a hand on your thigh and squeezing it slightly. You smile slightly. Trying to forget the events of yesterday. When you get to his house you step inside. You have food with him and his parents then head upstairs to his room. You cuddle and watch movies, letting yourself fall asleep to ‘Bambi’. 

-

You wake up early the next morning. Stretching and getting out of bed, heading to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. You brush your teeth and wash your face, heading back to the bedroom you see your boyfriend still fast asleep. You lie down next to him again, cuddling into him. He wraps his arms around you “Good morning love” he mumbles

“Good morning”

“Happy 4 years” you smile and hug him closer. 

“Happy 4 years...” he kisses your forehead before also rolling out of bed and going to the bathroom. You watch as he leaves his room. Then you see it. Your eyes spot a bra. You know it’s not yours as yours is pink and currently in your bag. The one that is hidden under his desk is bright red. You go over to it, grabbing the item and hiding it under your clothes in your bag. He comes in and sees you looking dishevelled. 

“What’s wrong?” he says, eyes scanning your face and the room. You don’t want him to look over to where the bra no longer is so instead you do the first thing your brain goes to. You kiss him. Deeply kissing him and running a hand through his hair. 

“I umm... I woke up needing you...” you say. He grins and walks you over to the bed, lying you down and getting on top. He begins kissing you and taking off each of your clothes. 

Once you’ve both finished he lies down, bringing you into him to hug. He kisses the top of your head “That’s a good way to start the day” you laugh slightly. “Shall I go and make you something to eat Je-Liz?” You feel your stomach tense. Did he nearly just call you Jessica? ‘For fucks sake’ is all you can think. You nod and force a smile. That little slip up just helped in your conclusion that their hook-up from a few nights ago wasn’t just a onetime thing. That’s what made you hurt the most. He gets up and goes and makes you some breakfast.

You both spend most of the day in his room, once again cuddling and watching films. You get up to have lunch and you both sit in the garden to have a fancy dinner. However the time comes when you need to leave. 

You both sit in his car. A comfortable silence filling the air. He kisses your hand once he pulls up to your house. “I will see you tomorrow my dear”

“See you tomorrow” you smile as he kisses you. Grabbing your bag from the back, you walk into your house. “I’m home” you call out, walking into the living room you see none of the boys have moved but more food and drink wrappers have appeared. You chuckle as they shush you, Eddie continuing the description. You roll your eyes at the warm welcome back, heading up to your room you place your bag on your bed. You pull out the red bra from your bag. Throwing it over the back of your chair you go downstairs into the shower, letting your tears fall with the water. You come out, dressed in your pyjamas and towel drying your hair. Michael smiles at you as just him and Eddie are in the room. Before you can ask your brother speaks

“They’ve gone to grab us some pizza. They’ll come back soon” he walks over to you, you can smell alcohol and god knows what else on his breath “I however am going to go and bathe” he bows to you both as he heads upstairs, you hear the upstairs bathroom shut and the water start to run.

“That idiot expects me to clean up doesn’t he?” Eddie asks more himself then you but you nod anyway

“I believe so. I can help though” you grab a black bin bag and hand him one. He takes it, starting to clear up the empty bottles and packets of food. A silence fills the room between the two of you. You speak first

 “I’m sorry if I’ve made things awkward between us, because of Friday” he shakes his head

“Not awkward at all. I’m just sorry you still seem to be with that prick” you chuckle

“I don’t really know how to confront him about it though. Like, what do I say? ‘Hey, thanks for fucking me and my best friend’“. He laughs slightly “What would you do?”

“If?”

“If you found your partner cheating on you?” he thinks for a moment, his tongue sticking out slightly as he concentrates.

“I’d make them feel embarrassed. I don’t have as much power as you at school but I’d try and ruin him in front of everyone. Speak out about it during lunch or something”

“What if people think I’m the joke though? Not him”

“You are one of the most popular girls at our school. Anyone would be lucky to even have you look at them. For them to know that your boyfriend cheated on you with someone lesser, he’ll be seen as the fool. Not you” you nod

“I will lose all of my friends though” he shrugs

“And? I told you, you’re becoming one of the freaks now. You can join us” you laugh

“Thanks Eddie” he smiles at you, both having cleaned the living room you go into the kitchen to throw the rubbish away “How is in here also messy?” he laughs, coming in to help you once again. 

You both clean the rest of the house, your brother coming down in a towel wrapped around his waist just as the guys come back with food. You all sit and eat, you ask them how their campaign is going and they say they still have a while to go and they will come back after school to play some more, considering your parents will be out still. You say goodnight to them and go to bed, you gnaw at your bottom lip. Inspecting the red bra still over your chair. You smile to yourself evilly. You go and grab it, placing it into your school bag. Oh you can’t wait for tomorrow.

-

You walk to your boyfriend’s house the next morning and see him talking to Jessica outside. You fight back the urge to react now. Smiling at them both you link fingers with Chris. “Shall we go to school?” they all nod and you all walk up together. 

The day goes past slowly. You are impatient for lunch. Watching the seconds tick by as you grow more and more worried. Finally, lunch time arrives. You go and sit at the table. Eating your food, your boyfriend and friends join you. You see ‘the freaks’ at their table. They don’t pay you guys any attention but one of your friends starts throwing stuff at their table. You try and make them stop, slapping the food out of their hands. “Stop being such a child” you say to your friend. They all just roll their eyes at you, you look at the table. Seeing them glare at your table. Jessica stands up

“I’ve got to go to the loo before next period. I’ll see you guys after school though” they all nod. You call out loudly.

“Oh Jessica, before I forget” you stand up and reach into your bag as you speak. You are both standing in the middle of the canteen, so although most of the people do ignore you it isn’t easy to block you speaking out. “You left your bra at my boyfriends”

“What?” the canteen starts to go quiet as you hook out the red under garment from your bag and hand it to her. 

“Your bra. I know it’s not mine. My size is a lot bigger then that one” you motion at it as she grabs it from you. Going the same shade as the item of clothing she is now shoving into her bag. Chris stands up as well, going over to you both

“Shall we talk about this in a more private setting?” he half whispers to you both

“Nope. Nothing else to speak about” you smile at him “Unless you want me to spell it out for you? It’s quite simple really. You were fucking my best friend, and now you are dumped. Have fun enjoying each other’s shitty company. I hope you don’t have to fake it like I did when you’re with each other” you smile at them both. The look of pure shock on their faces in the quiet canteen room. You blow them both kisses, ending the kiss by putting both your middle fingers up, grabbing your bag and heading out of the canteen. A slow applause starts to go round as you open the doors, walking to your next class you feel tears of joy and sadness prick your eyes. Wiping them away you go into your next class. Sitting down at your desk, you saw people walk in. One of your friends comes in, walking straight up to you and grabbing a hold of you by your shoulders 

“Oh my god Liz! You absolute badass! I can’t believe you put them both in their places like that! Why would he cheat on you? I mean, look at you” she motions “absolute dickhead... I say that we should get together tonight and get absolutely shitfaced together”

“Tonight? My umm... my brother is having some friends round tonight so I can’t. Maybe this weekend?” she rolls her eyes at you

“Such a spoil sport” she sits next to you as the teacher comes in. She starts the lesson and the rest of the day goes by as normal.

-

You start to walk home. Assuming your ex probably wouldn’t give you a lift back. About 10 minutes of walking you hear a horn honking. You turn and see your brother. “Get in shithead”, Eddie gets out the back of the car, motioning for you to get in. You look and see Tim and in the front and John the other side of the car. You get in, being squashed between the two guys in the back. “Why does Tim get the front seat?”

“He called shotgun” you roll your eyes as John says this beside you, his tone also obviously being annoyed by it. You look out the windows, the car being silent until you get to your house when everyone stays silent in the car.

“Are we going inside...?” you ask. Michael turns and faces you

“Do you want us to go and have a chat with Chris?”

“Oh Jesus no! Do not do that! I just want to get into the car and forget about that absolute wanker. Please” you place a hand on your brothers shoulder “Please?” he sighs and opens his car door. In turn, everyone else also gets out the car. You sigh, getting out as well. Going into the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water, the boys all go into the living room. Practically going straight into their game. You go upstairs, lying on your bed and doing your homework. 

-

You don’t realise you fell asleep until you wake up, extremely thirsty. You reach out for your glass from earlier, taking a sip from it you tiredly get up. Starting to take off your clothes from the day. Before you have time to process, the door swings open and the light turns on. You cover your chest. Thankfully you had only taken off your shirt and nothing else. But you still stood in front of one of your brothers friends in your bra and a skirt. Eddie covers his eyes as your hands go up to cover your chest “shit sorry” you playfully glare at him as he apologises some more and exits the room, hand firmly clasped over his eyes as he tries to fumble the door shut. You wait a little, making sure he won’t come in again. Changing into your pyjama top and bottoms a knock on the door alerts you again.

“Come in” Eddie walks in, covering his eyes still “It’s ok. I’m dressed now” he peeks through his fingers, smiling at you as he realises you are decent. “I’m surprised, you actually knocked that time” he laughs and moves his hand away

“I’m sorry. I actually came here to say sorry again. I thought this was the bathroom” he motions at the bathroom opposite your room “the one downstairs is being used” you nod and go and move your homework off of your bed 

“I can’t believe you actually did it today” you shrug and chuckle

“You helped give me the confidence” he smiles, hiding shyly behind his hair. You smile, going over to your desk and moving the paper from it, placing it in the box by the side of it. You turn around, seeing him watching you. “May I help?” he shakes his head and looks away 

“What are you going to do now that your part of the single life?” you shrug

“I dunno. God I don’t know what to do with my life now” you lean against the desk “I assumed we would stay together forever to be honest”

“I’m sorry this happened to you” you shrug, tilting your head to look at him

“It doesn’t matter, none of my family liked him anyway so it’s not that much of a loss” you tilt your head back, looking at your celling “How did your game go?”

“Oh it went well. We finished about half an hour ago, the guys have gone to bed” you nod 

“Did they manage to kill your character you made?” he shakes his head and grins at you 

“Nope. They wounded him but didn’t kill him. They ran away instead” he lets out a small laugh, making you look at him again. He’s leaning against the door frame, arms folded. He looks around your room from where he stands, pointing at the poster on your wall. “I did not strike you as someone who likes the Sex Pistols”

“Honestly I love them. My mum doesn’t like me having it up in my room though. She says it’s ‘not ladylike’ to have the word sex or pistol my wall” he chuckles slightly

“Is that-?” he walks into your room, arms staying folded as he looks at the picture next to it. Your ‘Grease’ poster directly contrasting your ‘Sex Pistols’ one. He lets out a laugh. “I can’t believe you have these in your room, let alone next to each other” you glare at him as he now scans the rest of your walls more closely. He goes over to your bookshelf, his index finger gently running along the spines of each book. He walks round the entirety of your room, lastly going to your desk. He leans beside you, head tilting to look at the paperwork on your desk. He turns and smiles at you. Such a genuine smile. Not forced or fake, he truly is happy to be in your company. You smile at him, completely innocently. You notice that, just before he breaks eye contact to look ahead, his eyes dart to your lips. If you’d blinked in that split second you would’ve missed it. But you were well aware. You also face forward, hands resting on the hard surface of the desk behind you as your cheeks turn a slight shade of pink. You ground yourself, both leaning against the desk as silence fills the room. You both go to say something but someone yells up before you can speak.

“Ed! I’m out now if you needed to go” you hear one of them yell from downstairs. 

“I need to go” you nod slightly. “See you tomorrow,” he takes your hand and kisses the back of it “my queen” he murmurs before going out the door and waving to you as he closes it behind him. You let out a breath, hands going to your flushed cheeks as you process what just happened. Did he just call you his queen? No it must’ve been your imagination. You bite your lip slightly before shaking your head. It was all in your head, he must’ve said ‘sweet dreams’ instead of ‘my queen’. Yeah, that’s it

TAGS

@karma2223​ 

#eddie munson #eddie munson smut #eddie smut #eddie x reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x reader smut #eddie munson fluff #smut #fluff #stranger things #stranger things smut #stranger things eddie munson #stranger things eddie #stranger things eddie smut #stranger things fluff #stranger things eddie fluff

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into the Unknown, Part 50

First

Previous

Listen. If you live in Gotham long enough, eventually, you’re going to get jumped. Tim knew this. He had lived there his whole life, of course he knew. Hell, he had been mugged a frankly embarrassing amount of times himself.

However. It was a little weird being picked on for ‘wearing the wrong color’, though.

He groaned as his back hit an alley wall. He was a self-defense instructor and a vigilante (or should he say ex-vigilante?) to boot, this was all true, but any self-defense instructor worth their weight in salt would tell you that you absolutely should not use what they teach you unless you have no other options. You shouldn’t risk your life based on a couple of choreographed moves, not when you don’t know the other person’s experience level, and especially not when you can avoid it altogether. You can make the money back, you can’t come back from the dead.

Knowing this didn’t make it any less frustrating, though.

“Man, I’m already late for work, don’t do this to me,” he said, letting his head tip back against the wall with a deep sigh.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have worn blue here, then, if you didn’t want to deal with ‘this’.”

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “You got something against the color blue? Because I have some bad news about the sky, and water, and...” He blanked. However, the rule of threes had him in a chokehold and he desperately needed to ‘finish’ the sentence. “... blue…” He blinked as the situation finally finished processing. “Wait, you’re mugging me because I’m wearing a blue shirt?”

“Because blue is the color of a rival gang, actually,” the person said with way too much haughtiness considering what was happening.

“It’s a blue shirt,” Tim said incredulously. Never mind the fact that he was part of a gang, that wasn’t relevant.

“Don’t pull that shit with me. You’re wearing a leather jacket, too.”

Apparently, he’d chosen the wrong day to try and reclaim his jacket from Marinette.

“It’s my wife’s.”

That gave the person pause. The pressure on his neck lightened. “Huh?”

Tim lifted his hands in a kind of shrug. “Exactly what I said. What, do you think that it’s fashionable for men to wear cropped leather jackets? It’s not.”

(No one tell Jason.)

The person tipped their head to the side consideringly. “I’m gonna be honest, man, I kinda thought you were a woman.”

“I’ll be sure to tell my wife that later. She’ll get a kick out of it.” He started to continue trying to talk them out of mugging him, only to stop with a frown. “Wait. What’re your pronouns? Just to check.”

“They/them.”

“Oh. Cool. Nice to meet you.”

“You too!”

They shook on it.

And then the knife was pressed to his neck again. Right. The mugging. Tim had almost forgotten about that.

“Sorry about this, man, you seem like a great guy, but I really need your wallet.”

Tim shrugged and waved them off, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. “Eh, it’s fine. Can I just give you the cash? I have a couple of drawings my kid made in here and I can’t lose them.”

“Oh, yeah, obviously. I’m not a monster.”

Tim nodded and handed over the cash. He hadn’t had that much on hand – no one that lived in Gotham ever did – but the person didn’t seem to mind as they hummed happily and backed off.

“It’s been nice, but I should get back.”

“And I should get to work,” he agreed lightly, reaching behind himself to pat off some of the dust that had gotten on his jacket. Marinette would kill him if it got damaged. “See ya later.”

“Haha, yeah, no, let’s hope not.”

Tim inclined his head in the direction that he was going to go and the person gave the slightest of nods before walking the other way.

“Oh, and make sure not to wear blue again!” The person said, waving as they disappeared around the bend. Thank god. Tim didn’t want to have to try and come up with an excuse as to why he had to wear blue.

He yawned to himself, rolling his aching shoulders before heading off.

The moment he stepped through the door, he found Graham’s face close to his own. Tim usually came a bit late, it wasn’t easy to predict how long it would take to close shop on any given day, but the man never seemed to stop worrying.

Tim smiled a little. “Got mugged by someone in red, but it’s fine. They were cool,” Tim said, absently rubbing his throat. He was pleased to find that the person hadn’t even broken the skin. Thank god. He did not want to have to deal with another lecture from Marinette about his ‘inability to be safe’.

But it seemed he was going to get a lecture regardless. He got cuffed over the head by Terry. “Stop making friends with the enemy.”

He sputtered. “But they’re nice!”

“This is the third time this month!”

~

Marinette hummed as she leaned back against the park bench. Frank lay curled up by her feet, her business done. The two ladies in the family watched Damian enjoy playing on the jungle gym with some of the other kids. It was a nice, sunny day, and she might have tipped her head back to bask in the sun if it were not for the fact that she had a child to care for. She took this very seriously, and so she opted to wait until her kid was safely within reach to do so.

Not that he was less safe at the jungle gym. The area underneath it was padded, a rarity in places like this, but she still found herself watching to make sure he didn’t fall and hurt himself. The kids were racing, and accidents happen.

But, much to her surprise, Damian ran over with teary eyes only a few moments later. She frowned down at him, trying to figure out how he had gotten hurt without her noticing, only to have him barrel into her stomach.

She was quick to hug back him, of course, didn’t even have to snap out of it, her arms were around him the moment he was within hugging distance… but still.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Frank almost seemed to frown as well, licking Damian’s cheek.

That earned a little giggle, at least, so Damian wasn’t that torn up about it.

Damian balled his hands in her shirt. “I lost!” He whined.

Oh.

Marinette fought off a small smile. “That’s okay, sweetie, everyone loses sometimes.”

“But I wanted to win!” he huffed.

“Aw, sweetie…” She knelt to pick him up, pressing a kiss to the top of his head as she positioned him on her hip. He really was getting too big for this nowadays, but she was more than willing to do a little lifting if that meant that she could continue to hold her kid. “How about we stop and get some ice cream on the way home?”

Damian seemed to forget about his sadness immediately.

~

Tim hummed as he rested his head on Marinette’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She barely even blinked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be having your weekly bitching session with Bernard?” He said.

She snorted. “It’s not a ‘bitching session’.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Okay, yeah, it is,” she admitted, turning her head to press a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth before going back to concentrating on the gumbo recipe she was trying out. “And I can’t. Jimothy’s parents are in town.”

Whatever amusement Tim began to feel at the reminder that Marinette called Worse!Tim Jimothy of all things faded immediately.

His parents.

Tim’s relationship with his parents was complicated for many reasons. Not least of all was the fact that the people that brought him into the world were dead. But also because… well, they weren’t great. They were always away, doing archaeology. And he understood the idea of wanting to enjoy your hobbies, understood now more than ever that it was difficult to take care of a kid and yourself at the same time… but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t deserve to be treated the way he had.

And don’t get him wrong. He had known, intellectually, that his parents were alive in this world.

That didn’t stop the complicated wave of emotions from bowling him over, though.

His parents were alive here. With a quick ride on his bike, he could see them. Could find the minute wrinkles that had never come to be in his timeline. Could yell at them for all of the ways they had failed him. Could hug them one more time and get the closure he never got with their otherworld counterparts.

He swallowed thickly and buried his face in the crook of her neck.

She tensed momentarily, and he heard the click of the stovetop when she turned it off so she could twist in his grip and wrap her arms around him as well.

“Tim?” She asked, her voice soft.

He sighed against her skin. “According to the multiverse theory, there are a countless number of realities where they were good.”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” she mumbled. “Torturing yourself with what could have been isn’t going to do you any good.”

He hugged her tighter. “I could have grown up and been well-adjusted.”

She gave a quiet hum. A hand came up to play with the ends of his hair. “Well, I think you turned out pretty great. And I’m sure Dami would agree, if he understood what that all meant.”

He gave a tiny, wet laugh. “Sometimes I’m scared I’ll end up like them.”

“Well, if you start leaving to go on archaeological digs, I’ll make sure to punch some sense into you.”

He snorted. “Stop making a joke about this. I’m crying. Being all… I dunno. Vulnerable and shit.”

“Yikes.”

He groaned and pulled back to give her a light glare. “In countless other realities, I could have had a partner that knows how to deal with emotional moments.”

She smiled back at him, her expression soft. “Well, I rather like this one.”

Tim considered that for a moment.

And then he cracked a smile, tentative as it was. “Me too.”

~

“3…”

A quiet giggle floated over to her.

“2…”

There was a loud bang.

“1…”

She whipped around, and her eyes landed on Damian instantly. Despite his best efforts to hide, it seemed that he hadn’t yet mastered the concept of ‘just because you are unable to see them does not necessarily mean that they can not see you, too’. He had pulled a lampshade over his head and had gone still like a character in a cartoon. Marinette pressed her hands to her mouth to stifle the coo that threatened to bubble out of her.

“Oh…” She cooed anyways, before scrambling to cover it: “I wonder where he could be?” She said.

She slowly made her way around the apartment, making sure to scuff her feet on the floor and toss things around as loudly as possible as she ‘looked’ for him. She took a moment to right the lamp that he had knocked over for a ‘disguise’.

“Hm… I wonder…”

Damian trembled with the effort to not laugh.

She felt much the same, tapping her finger to her chin as she circled around the chair he was next to…

Damian squealed as she hooked her arms around him and dragged him into the air, kicking and screaming.

“Found you!” She crowed.

Damian removed the lampshade from his head to pout at her with maximum effectiveness.

She smiled and pressed a kiss to his hairline.

“Round seventeen? I think this is the one.”

He nodded, smiling a smile so bright she thought for a moment that he really did look like the lamp he had been impersonating.

~

Tim sighed. He knew that it was all pointless, that this was one of the few fights he could never dream of winning, but…

“Can we please watch something other than the Lego Movie? I think I can quote the whole thing from memory at this point.”

As expected, Damian frowned up at him.

And then the doorknob jingled.

Tim had just a moment to register the evil grin on his kid’s face before Damian burst into tears and ran to the door.

Marinette jolted just slightly. And then she rushed to pick him up, not even bothering to kick off her shoes as kissing the kid’s forehead was far more important.

“Oh, sweetie,” she cooed, pushing the door shut with her foot. “What? What do you want?”

“Want dad to do the Lego Movie!” Damian said, pausing in his tears to point an accusatory finger at him. And then he started crying again. In earnest.

“Oh, of course we can watch it again,” Marinette said, combing her fingers through his hair.

Tim shook his head exasperatedly. “That’s not what he’s asking. I exaggerated in saying that I could quote the movie, since he makes us watch it every day, and now he wants me to do it.”

“Well, if you said it…” Marinette said.

Damian, tucked away beneath her chin, sent him a smug look.

Tim groaned to himself before leaning back, letting himself sink into the plush sofa.

“He is coming,” he began in the most unenthused voice he could muster. “Cover your butt.”

~~~~~

Next

@unoriginalmess @hammalammadamdam @astrynyx @laurcad123 @927roses-and-stuff @toodaloo-kangaroo @queenz-z @imarivers8 @jeminiikrystal @adrestar @twsssmlmaa @literaryhiraeth @trippingovermyfeet @ev-cupcake @its-maemain

#so uh #hands arent healed #and my motivation for this fic is on the outs #so the updates for this are gonna be Sporadic #not apologizing its more of a heads up #anyways #maribat #into the unknown #timari #timmari #shutterbug #timinette #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #red robin #tim drake

[regicidal-defenestration]

Mechtober Day 22 - TBI

@mechtober2022

The Mechanisms were watching the Yggdrasil system die, camped out on a nameless asteroid that was "probably far away enough", according to Marius.

Planets split, turned inside out, folded over and over on themselves. Great shadows danced between them, twisting into shapes that hurt to look out directly. The star shone red, then black, then thousands of impossible colours, refracting and shattering its own light.

It might have all been beautiful, if you didn't know why.

"Still is beautiful, even when you do" Jonny said, reaching over Tim to grab another handful of popcorn.

This statement was met with groans from the other Mechanisms.

"Stop talking to the omniscient third person narrator!" Marius complained. "You'll give it another crisis."

Jonny sniped back what might have been a cutting remark, if his mouth hadn't been full and any of those words had been intelligible.

"Nope," Marius said, which seemed a pretty safe bet regardless.

"I said," Jonny tried again. "Bold words from the man with the- whatever the fuck your deal with that Lyfrassir was."

He swore as a piece of popcorn hit him square in the eye.

"Your change in topic has no relevance," Ivy said, throwing another piece at him for good measure.

“Anyway, watch out for the glass house as you throw stones.”

Jonny would have lunged at her, had Tim not grabbed him by the collar.

“Do you mind? Some of us are trying to watch as unknown things that have never felt before the light of stars destroy this sane reality.”

He hissed in response, and received more popcorn to the head for his troubles.

“Ivy,” Brian protested, in the voice of someone who didn’t especially care what was happening to Jonny, but would appreciate it if all the popcorn didn’t get wasted.

“You don’t even eat, shut up- no, Tim I will take a bite out of you if you do that,” Jonny interrupted himself, in an oddly calm voice.

Tim stopped, hand halfway to covering Jonny’s mouth. Experience had taught that Jonny would have exactly no qualms about doing just that. He muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath, but let the other man go.

“If you two have quite finished,” Marius said pointedly. “Can we watch the end of the world in peace?”

Jonny just leaned back, resting his head on Raphaella’s shoulder and grinning at him.

“We’ll get it out of you some day, Marius, don’t you worry. You two as well,” he added, pointing at Ivy and elbowing Raphaella, in case they had started feeling too comfortable.

And they would tell the story about what had happened in Yggdrasil, what they had heard of Odin, and what had happened during their 60 year stint in jail; whether through incessant needling or through the ever present need to put on a performance, the others would find out.

Marius very deliberately ignored all that for now though, shifting to get comfortable as he lay down on the rocky ground. It was a problem for future him, which meant present him had absolutely no need to be concerned.

They lapsed into silence and, above them all, the sky bled rainbows.

#marius voice I'm Sure This Is Fine #the mechanisms #mechtober 2022 #writing

[turboacek-blog]

Who would be DC’s Spider-Man equivalent?

Just something to think about as Spider-Man with Superman and Batman are the most popular

Marvel kinda has some equivalents for Superman and Batman that have more similarities and discussion I feel

So I was curious who would be or should be the Spider-Man equivalent of DC comics

Black Spider

To get it out the way the Black Spider from Young Justice shown above is definitely the DC version of Spider-Man but they did the thing where he’s a villain which I think is cool but I’m more talking about the role of Spider-Man not just the literal power set which Black Spider definitely has

The hero candidates: (imo)

Nightwing

Blue Beetle

Sideways

Robin

Static Shock

Nightwing

The first Robin, the most recognizable outside the Robin costume

The one that has had the most success as a solo hero from the ones I listed

Has some similarities to Spider-Man such as the acrobatics, young hero, complicated romance life etc

The cons of Nightwing is that he despite the relative success doesn’t have a rogues gallery, no real stand out stories, to tied into the Batman character and world and despite the fan base loving him hasn’t really affected pop culture too much

Nightwing is a character that on paper would be a great equal but due to things not really in the characters control it’s hard to pick him

Blue Beetle

Has the bug theme, has stand alone qualities, young hero, rising popularity

The Jaime Reyes iteration has grown a lot over the years

He obviously existed before but Young Justice made him more known along with other characters from the show like Miss Martian and Artemis

So he’s been in multiple cartoons comics and is now kinda seen as the cyborg replacement in the Teen Titans since Cyborg is now more Justice League now

Blue beetle shares a lot of the same problems as Nightwing, despite the relative success doesn’t have much individual story to stand out, no rogues gallery, the scarab backstory and general mantle of blue beetle isn’t solid yet

The popularity can always change with the new movie coming out as the fact Blue Beetle got a movie before Nightwing, Static, and just other Justice league members like Martian Manhunter, Cyborg, Green Arrow etc does show there’s potential

I do think it relies on the movie, as if it excels then it could have a Harley Quinn effect

And if it bombs could relegate the character back to just purely for comics and cartoons

And just normal would just mean they might try again a decade from now

He’s not a clone of Spider-Man as in many aspects he has a lot in common with other marvel heroes like Iron Nan for example but he does have a lot of the same similarities without the exact same power set

Sideways

So this was the literal Spider-man equivalent they tried to make back in like 2018

I don’t know much about him but it seems that it just didn’t catch on as they probably would of hoped

Other characters like Damage who was seen as the Hulk equivalent seemed more relevant

He does look the most like Spider-Man and from what I understand dies gave a similarish story

I can see in the future for those obscure characters that James Gunn likes to highlight Sideways being chosen as a way to either capitalize or play off the recent Spider-Man success

Otherwise I can’t see it unless some new project makes him relevant again as even being seen as the equivalent his role in DC comics itself isn’t comparable to Spider-Man in Marvel

Robin

So this is just the mantle of Robin and not any specific Robin like Dick Grayson/Nightwing

Robin is the most famous sidekick and more famous the most heroes

Even in the DC/Marvel crossover comic the Robin (which was Tim Drake at the time iirc) was paired with Spider-Man making them seem like the equivalents

And yes based on popularity Robin is probably the closest outside of Batman and Superman to rival Spider-Man

The catch is even moreso than Nightwing Robin is too tied to Batman to have Robin as the Spiderman equivalent as Robin comics don’t stand out on their own and many of the robins individual stories shine when they take up their other mantle (Nightwing, Red Hood, Black Bat etc)

Even in a more Robin focused stories it still has Batman majorly in some way

For Robin they excel in team settings such as Teen Titans, Young Justice, Outsiders etc as they usually have the traits of a leader and etc so if counting some of the team stuff as Robin stories could help but then it’s like debating Justice League or Teen Titans against the Avengers or X-Men

So I think if they could make Robin more solo and it excel then the highest probability otherwise could be the least due to being the permanent sidekick in eyes of most people

Static Shock

So this is a interesting one imo

If this was back in the 2000s even early 2010s I would say would be the obvious choice

The success from the Tv show basically made Static the DCAU Spiderman as he was the young hero amongst the adults and had the quips, could beat them at times, had the closely connected rogues gallery, etc etc

Popularity not as high as JL and JLU but the connection to them, Batman Beyond and etc definitely made most around that time at least aware of the character

The problem is that due to mostly legal ownership stuff because Static wasn’t technically DC (kinda like the Hulk with the MCU stuff) they never got to truly capitalize off that success and when they finally got to do something with the character it didn’t excel

And they thrown him on teams like the titans but again never stood out whether due to writing as a whole or they just didn’t utilize his character

Even in the current young Justice show, they had a decent story line with the runaways and him then he’s just another member of the team and might as well just be anyone with Lightning based powers

Despite all that Static is compared to Spider-Man even in more recently memory Miles Morales Spider-Man due to being black and having electric powers shown in their death battle

So in a sense he already is the Spiderman equivalent lol

So who is the Spider-Man Equivalent in DC comics?

Robin I guess lol

He’s the most popular and at the end of the day that’s kinda what matters as otherwise the equivalent would be a Sideways or Black Spider from Young Justice lol

And things like Teen Titans might as well be Robin stories at certain points

In an ideal scenario Blue Beetle or Static Shock would be the equivalent

Both are young, non white, non side kicks (mostly) heroes that has a different power set from the Trinity

Batman no powers, gadgets intelligence more vigilante

Wonder Woman, some magic, some godly abilities, weapons more ethereal

Superman, alien superhuman abilities the main super hero

Blue Beetle would be the more tech based one along with some alien depending on Superman and the iteration

Static Shock the more meta human based one

All they need is one comic run to be revered and then have it adapted to an animated movie or something and I feel the buzz will eventually catch on

So yea I think the young comic book character that a majority knows and has a big part in their universe would be Robin

For the potential growth into being that type of hero and notoriety: Blue Beetle and Static Shock

Literal look a like: sideways

And comic success: Nightwing

Who would you pick?

#dc universe #dc comics #spiderman #nightwing #blue beetle #static shock #dc robin #sideways #dc talk

[vavandeveresfan]

Re: Beetlejuice 2

I agree. I think it's going to be very much not good. Not everything needs a sequel, and this is one of those things. I feel Warner Brothers is banking on nostalgia to put butts in seats at the expense of something good. The fact that Seth Grahame-Smith's who wrote one script in 2011 that was rejected, saying this about it in 2021: "It’s funny, when I had met with Tim about it last, and we’re talking about five years ago at this point, the reason that it’s so hard to get going is because so many people love it and because there are 10 million ways to get that sequel wrong and four ways to get it right. It’s such a very fine needle to thread that I certainly like, didn’t get it there, on the script side. I didn’t thread the needle. There are things that were cool and some interesting ideas. I’ve certainly emotionally moved on from it and just said, 'If it happens someday, it happens.' Yeah. Michael Keaton is just as relevant as ever and, and Tim Burton is just as relevant as ever, but you have to have both of those people excited about something to do it. I couldn’t get it there personally, as a writer, but maybe somebody else can."

But he's credited as the screenwriter for the sequel? To me that does not bode well. Keaton's old. Maybe they'll de-age him with CGI. Burton hasn't done anything original (with the exception of two things: Corpse Bride and the remake of Frankenweenie) since 1994's Ed Wood; everything since then as been based on books or other source material. All in all, I won't be seeing this in the theater unless it really blows people out of the water. I think it will do okay opening weekend, but after that it'll fade away +/- be another example of "Hollywood is out of ideas".

Grahame-Smith's publisher, Hachette, sued him for half the advance for a manuscript he gave them because, in essence, it was so bad it didn't live up to the quality they expected.

Imagine your writing being so shitty that your own publisher sues your ass?

So I do not have any confidence in his ability to produce anything near the quality of the original, even working with other screenwriters.

That quote is great. Thanks for posting it, I've never seen it before.

I agree with you completely on both Keaton and Burton. And I also won't see it in theaters unless the reviewers are glowing.

But then, I've seen a movies with enthusiastic reviews and hated them.

Hollywood could walk into any decent-sized library and find material to adapt, if Hollywood knew what a library was. As for screenwriters with original ideas, my impression is young writers -- and I can speak for those I've met who have MFAs -- are taught how to write in very specific, pre-programmed formulas that are "popular." Screenwriters never seem to study classic movies made before 2000; never heard of "Sunset Boulevard" or "The Third Man." I tried to get a young screenwriter to watch "A Man for All Seasons," and he said it was too long and boring.

Anyway, I'm ranting now.

Thank you for the Ask and your reply, anon.

#Beetlejuice #Beetlejuice sequel #Michael Keaton #Tim Burton #things that should never be made

[roseandgold137]

For the fandom meme:

F, G, I, N, O, P, Q, R

👀👀👀👀👀👀

F- (edit bc I accidentally deleted this at some point and didn’t notice) Percy Jackson was probably my longest fandom bc I got into it young and I still engage with it pretty regularly. I’m definitely going to buy the sun and the star and I’ve read all the spin off series as well so I’m pretty confident saying that’s my longest fandom. My fav spin off was Magnus Chase

G- okay so as a kid I had like a lot of casual ships but first OTP was probably Percabeth. I submitted a fanfiction of them for a school assignment when I was nine. I think that’s all we really need to hear to know that they’re the answer.

I- I don’t think so? Like. I’ll come back to this if I remember any but I’m pretty sure we’re good on this one

N- okay fandom: dc

I know that in my circle of dc fan logs there’s a lot of Timber content but the wider community seems to still be mostly hung up on TimKon. And I get it, they’d be really cute and all but Timber

More Teen Titans (fab five) bc I think mostly when people talk about the teen titans they’re usually talking abt the cartoon series

put some respect on the names of female characters! And the queer characters! And the poc characters! So many problems in my life could be solved if people weren’t so fixated on the straight white males of the franchise

O- Song is Bubble Pop Electric by Gwen Stefani, it is very Birdflash or really any speedster ship to me, very nice bouncy beat reminds me of Bart also

P- AU: Canary Tim - I’ll elaborate on this bc it is one of my aus and is kind of the reason that some of my second gen bat ocs exist so it’s kind of relevant.

First Black Canary - Dinah Drake. Married Larry Lance, daughter was Dinah Lance, who became the next Black Canary. Do you see where I’m going with this. Tim Drake. Dinah Drake. There’s a very weak connection there technically so I just made Dinah his aunt. Based off of Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance, we can assume the canary meta gene is hereditary, ergo we’ll just send it Tim’s way as well.

He won’t have his activated until his late teens though bc I want him to have atrocious voice control for a good while so he gets shipped off to train with Black Canary until he won’t accidentally deafen everyone around him.

From there, he’ll graduate Robin to become some kind of Songbird. It was originally going to be Galah (bc pink) but I changed it to Blackbird so his kids could call him B and it would be very emotional for Bruce to watch history repeat itself with the nickname and whatnot. Also this way tim gets to keep his red black and gold colour scheme.

that’s the au part but the part where my oc Jasper couldn’t really exist outside of this au is bc he’s a meta with a voice ability, that’s similar to the Canary meta gene but he’s not related to any of them. He’s Australian so he travels to America to look for Black Canary. He can’t find her, he keeps on missing her by like a handful of minutes or hours, but he does find Tim, and at this point he’s fed up of looking for Dinah and settles for the 19-year-old Blackbird in front of him. Tim, who only really got control of his powers around two weeks ago, chooses not to mention his inexperience and accepts that he’s a dad now

okay wow I didn’t expect to ramble that much but yeah that’s basically the au

Q- hate to say it but I don’t really ship stephCass. I used to, but I hc Cass as older by a bit too much for me to comfortable shipping them in my own au yknow? I wouldn’t say I’ve abandoned them completely though, but the only other ships I really could have put here were ones where I saw art of them, thought it looked sort of cute and then found out they were pro ship, so uh

anyways I think they are cute and would absolutely celebrate if they were made canon but it’s not really for me is all

R- hmmmm. Well I’ll start off with one that I think very few people ship. Steph and Bailey, who has one appearance in the Robin/Spoiler Annual. And I know I’m not the only one bc I’m pretty sure it was @aliteralchicken’s blog where I saw them for the first time, if not whoops

I also have a lot of Janet Drake ships bc I love her and given that most people do not love her I think it’s safe to say that Janet x Selina, Janet x Talia and Janet x Dana aren’t exactly popular ships

I’m trying to think of an m/m ship bc sapphic ships are hard to come by anyways, I’m thinking Bart x Preston but that’s mostly bc I haven’t really been looking for content of them so that would make them seem like a rare pair

oh also Darla Aquista/Laura Fell and Ariana Dzerchenko. Idk I think they’d be cute, and Ariana could really only upgrade from Tim let’s be honest

#ask game #this was fun :) #I spent like fifteen minutes on this it was very enriching most of the time was spent just typing up the au in a coherent way

[taceolsaol]

MAG 100-106

What is even happening anymore??

Okay so in 100 we had the team taking, frankly awful, statements after Jonathan was kidnapped by The Circus.

101

Michael! Is it bad how much I love that weird creature? I mean before (and still) he’s mostly been a mystery and definitely one of the cooler monsters, but his backstory! Poor actual Michael was fucking sacrificed by Gertrude.

Seriously? I understand she was under pressure to stop the end of the world, but that was a cold hearted woman. Michael obviously respected and cared for her and she literally sacrificed him to a monster. It’s weird to hear Michael talk from the perspective of whatever he is now as separate and the same as being Michael the Assistant.

Also, him both taking this opportunity to kill Jon and offering him a better solution than The Circus. And Jon taking him up on the offer!! Then getting saved by Helen because she locked Michael out of his own door. The one time Jon was nice to a statement giver and she eventually comes back to save him as a monster (this is why we don’t burn bridges).

102

Elias is cocky as hell. I cannot believe Jon was kidnapped for a month and he just tries a casual “whoops, my bad.” And he didn’t tell anyone? I mean, I don’t think anyone would have cared except Martin (which Elias didn’t tell him because he would have cares too much <3) but still. What about Georgie? She can’t be happy because to her Jon just vanished! And Melanie with the shitty murder attempts, get it together!

The statement, although gross af, doesn’t feel insanely relevant right now. Although, I’m super jealous of the knowing other languages power.

And his talk with Martin!! They were so akward, but Jon was clearly trying. Checking in on Martin and everyone, even if he has to keep referencing it back to work. Especially him worrying about Martin giving statements! Martin was worried Jon would be jealous and instead he was just worried about his health 😭 Those stupid boys, I love them.

103

The flesh/meat statements are the worst. They aren’t that scary, but they’re disgusting.

The only other thing is Jon getting Daisy to protect the squad. He must be worried for them if he’s going to Daisy! It is fun that Jon is going out to figure out what the hell Gertrude was doing, but also this seems like a bad call.

104

Tim… oh, Tim. This poor guy has been through hell. I’m glad Martin was able to get him to talk and I really hope Tim got the “giving a statement” benefits where people feel better after. I know it was to Martin, but Martin seems to have some Eye powers or something. Obviously not like Jon, but still.

No wonder Tim is so angry about The Circus and not being told. Martin is right though, Tim hasn’t exactly been interested in what they’re researching.

I’m hoping this is a moment that gets Tim going again, because I’m really worried about him. Challenging Elias like that isn’t gonna end well, but I appreciate the passion.

105

This one was so depressing. I mean for obvious reasons. I guess a good reminder that humans can be just as bad as any of the fears all on our own.

It is so cool to have Jon casually speaking Mandarin? with the librarian. And now Jon on his way to America? He’s gonna hate that…

#the magnus archives #the magnus archives spoilers #tma spoilers #tma #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #tim stoker #elias bouchard #melanie king #daisy tonner #basira hussain

[seeminglyseph]

I think I’m gonna watch some reviews and summaries before watching this season of the boys if only because I’m not feeling in the mood to be surprised by something awful and I already know the Deep has another gratuitous animal death scene which is probably my least favourite running gag. As it’s seemingly mostly supposed to be darkly funny, not uncomfortable commentary. (I think Stormfront really did need to be that awful to get the point across. The show is about showing the worst of humanity, if the nazi didn’t do atrocities and spout racist bullshit then you run the risk of making her seem sympathetic. Laying out that she’s a deluded and hateful woman from a shameful time which has become startlingly relevant to modern times, who truly believes the vile bullshit she’s spewing makes beating the ever loving piss out of her much more satisfactory. But I can understand wanting to be prepared to deal with those scenes beforehand so that’s why I’m like… checking the water)

I just don’t really feel like getting trapped in a mental picture of accidentally murdering your lover by growing big inside them too fast. I know it was a Thanos vs Antman reference but honestly I read Identity Crisis I have experienced a comic about accidentally murdering your traumatized friend by shrinking into her brain and then growing too much too big and basically becoming an aneurysm via shrink belt. It was already a concept explored in something at least trying to be serious.

Not that Identity Crisis was particularly good, but as a Tim Drake fan I did need to read the book where his dad dies tragically on the phone with him, leaving Tim just in time to find to find his corpse on their kitchen floor. Segments of good ideas woven clumsily together…

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Just finished listening to the Russell Howard episode of the Comedian’s Comedian podcast. That’s the thirteenth episode I’ve heard so far (fourteenth if you count the fact that Tim Key’s was divided into two parts, because that one also got really into things and is very worth checking out for anyone who’s interested in him), and it was the hardest to listen to. Most of these have made for very easy listening, because the host Stuart Goldsmith has a great knack for making guests comfortable, and that sort of translates for the listener. The only other one that was a little difficult to hear was Andy Zaltzman’s, and that’s just because I’m not used to hearing him out of character and expressing anything without irony, and it upset me to find out that he’s ever tried to and failed to accomplish anything in his career because how could anyone not recognize his genius?

Russell Howard’s episode was tough to listen to because, despite the best of Stuart Goldsmith’s skills, Russell sounded very uncomfortable the entire time. Similar to the way he sounded on the Taskmaster podcast, or for that matter on all of Taskmaster. Out of his comfort zone and disliking not having control over the situation. Except that, you know, trying to give sincere answers to questions about his psyche is rather a different type of outside-the-comfort-zone challenge than trying to draw a picture of a hat he couldn’t see.

Having said that, it was a very good episode. It was good enough for me to decide it was worth money, as I got to the end of the main bit and immediately decided I needed to hear the extra 50 minutes that were only available to people who’d paid for a membership. So now I’m on the Comedian’s Comedian podcast mailing list and can log in and see all the extra money-costing content. All because I wanted to hear the rest of that Russell Howard interview (though I don’t mind keeping it going for a while, since I’ve got a lot of enjoyment out of this podcast so far and throwing it a little money is the least I can do).

This episode made me want to give a lot of credit to Stuart Goldsmith as an interviewer, because that was clearly a tricky one. Talking to someone who’s that successful and has that much to say, but is clearly hesitant to go anywhere not on his own terms. There were a few points when things got particularly tense (not tense as in I think Russell was angry at him for asking those questions, just seemed to be having difficulty answering them), and I wondered whether Stuart Goldsmith would try to push farther on a difficult topic or follow a cue to back off. He clearly had good instincts because I think the decision he made ended up being right every time.

There was one bit when Goldsmith hesitated a little before saying he wonders if when someone spends as much time as Russell Howard does telling us how great everything in his family is, that might be covering up the fact that actually it isn’t so great. Which is something I might think while watching Russell’s stand-up, in fact it’s something I have thought, but I haven’t posted it on Tumblr because it seems like too presumptuous a thing to put into public discourse, even in a place that no one relevant to it will ever read. When I heard Stuart Goldsmith actually say it to his face, I caught my breath and said, “Oh shit, he’s taking a shot there.” But it paid off. Got an interesting answer (the answer was “sometimes, it’s complicated”, like most answers to most questions, and I like how this podcast gives room to explain that), and Russell didn’t sound too offended by the question, at least.

Actually, I’m re-listening to bits as I write this and just heard a quote that I shall relay out of context to convey just how many calculated risks Stuart Goldsmith took in this one. Near the end, once they’d established something of a rhythm and I think he’d gotten a feel for how much he could push things, Stuart Goldsmith said the words: “Hang on, I’m just going to challenge you on that slightly, because I think really, the reason you went and had a cry, is not to do with the idea that… You know what I mean? You’ve raised a really interesting thing, and then you’ve slightly joked your way out of it.”

I mean, that’s a bold thing to say to an interviewee who’s very famous and successful, and has been very careful with all his answers and clearly doesn’t want to open up that much. But again, the risk paid off and it led to a more interesting discussion.

The interview itself gave me a number of things I could add to the list in this post, but to pick just one, the list of jarringly contrary-to-his-persona bleak things said by Russell Howard should now contain:

Stuart Goldsmith: Are you [happy]?

Russell Howard: Um… no. I remember my dad said this to me, when I was fourteen. We were in his car and he went, “The trouble with you, son, you’ll never be happy. And that’s the way it is.” Because I’m so much like my dad, I’m my dad’s son, and I am driven completely by fear. And I am so loathe to fix that, because I think, then I won’t be me, and I won’t be funny, and I won’t be able to do the things… so, obviously I have moments of utter joy, and I’m incredibly lucky and I get to do loads and loads of cool things. But, it’s all driven by fear. You don’t come off stage at the O2 going, “Nailed it.” You come off stage at the O2 going, “[exhales with relief] Fucking hell. Whew. Was that all right?”

So that’s an idea of how the conversation generally went. It caught Russell Howard at an interesting time in his career, after the end of Good News and before the beginning of The Russell Howard Hour. After he got very famous, before he started inviting on Richard Branson and Steven Pinker and Matthew McConaughey and Jordan Fucking Peterson and other just really weird choices for an ostensibly lefty comedy show.

I wrote the above paragraph without really thinking about it, and now I look at it and see it may as well read as: “Before he sold out completely.” And I don’t mean that, not really. Selling out is a nebulous concept that I think actually applies much less often than it's alleged, and I don’t think it applies here. But… the point is that I’m quite sure that the Russell Howard from his 2006-2008 radio show would make fun of some of the stuff the Russell Howard of recent years has embraced. Some things that are really harmful, and some things that are just generally weird and stupid. Something changed to turn Russell Howard from the person who laughs at those things to the person who interviews their representatives on his chat show, and I think this podcast caught him in an interesting middle ground, during that change.

There was a whole bit in that interview when they discussed how Russell had recently gotten so big that he was “too mainstream” for some of the people who’d liked him in his early days, that some people disliked him just because it wasn’t cool or interesting to like someone who was so popular. Russell said he liked performing in America, because he wasn’t so popular there and got to still be “cool” in a way mainstream popularity is not. They had an interesting discussion about how much the change in the way people perceived him was down to a change in his material versus just the fact that he got more famous.

This topic in particular seemed to make Russell really defensive; I think the most prickly he got in the whole interview was when Stuart Goldsmith sort of implied that his popularity is down to luck. Russell was quick to acknowledge that luck plays a big part, but also sounded like he’s heard a lot of people say he got famous because he got lucky, and is tired of people discounting all the hard work and skill that’s involved as well.

Actually, what I just said isn’t quite true – the most prickly he got was when he talked about a reviewer who defined his whole set by one insignificant joke, and then got into the larger issue of people who define him and comedians like him by the fact that they wear t-shirts. I think that’s fair enough. I’ve started reading comedy articles more often in the last little while, and there’s a lot of really weird reductive language. Stuff that groups people based on very superficial things and ignores the substance. It’s understandable that Russell Howard in particular is upset about that because I think it happens to him a lot, with people who write about him implying that he’s shallow in same paragraph in which they define him by his physical appearance.

So those were particularly prickly moments, but Russell sounded defensive and on edge for a lot of the discussion. I’ve written in a few previous posts about how you can feel it when a comedian has a chip on their shoulder about something (and that’s something I like, is comedy that comes from a chip on a shoulder), and this interview really underlined the fact that Russell Howard’s shoulder chip is like an iceberg – 90% below the surface. He’s built up so much of the comedian-who’s-made-of-sunshine persona, used that to cover so much of the chip, and he did not have an easy time with Stuart Goldsmith going at it with a shovel to try to see what’s underneath.

Okay, I think this actually is too presumptuous for me to put on the internet, too far into speculating about what goes on in the mind of a person I’ve never met. But inspired by Stuart Goldsmith’s bravery in throwing his assumptions out there to the actual Russell Howard, I’ll put this on a Tumblr post he’ll never read: that is exactly the sort of person who gets taken in by Jordan Peterson. People who are trying to find anything to do with the chip on their shoulder besides deal with it directly. People who are driven by fear and looking for an answer that says if they do things right then that will make things okay. And sometimes, people can look for that so hard that they will accept it from anyone who offers it to them, even if that means overlooking a lot of bigotry and straight-up repackaged Nazi rhetoric (to respond to the voice of my brother who lives in my head, no of course I’m not saying Jordan Peterson is an actual Nazi, I’m saying it’s well documented that a number of the key claims that are the basis of most of his underlying philosophy can be traced back to Nazi roots, especially around eugenics, and… okay I’m not going to turn this whole post into that but it’s really fucking insidious and dangerous). I’ve seen it happen with people I know.

Actually, I’ve decided I’m going to go slightly father than that in terms of presumptuously assuming I know what’s going on in a stranger’s head, and then I swear I’ll stop. The extra presumption thing I will add is that I work with a lot of athletes, and therefore I know that people who think a lot about how to turn their bodies into what they want are also especially likely to get get taken in by Jordan Peterson. It’s not just an aesthetic thing, it’s about health and physical and mental control and all kinds of other shit, and Jordan Peterson offers a lot of answers to that. I can’t/shouldn’t speculate about specifically what Russell Howard does or feels in relation to how his body looks, but I do know that people don’t go from how he looked in 2006 to how he looked in 2016 without a lot of intentional effort, put in for one reason or another (or, more often, quite a few complex reasons). And a lot of the reasons are, or can be, good! Being athletic and in physical shape is a good thing! It just can be tied up with bad things, which I’ve seen a lot in many years of being involved in sport.

The point is that a lot of the reasons why someone might get into doing that, from self-consciousness about appearance to fear of health outcomes, can also be reasons why someone might look for answers in Jordan Peterson’s philosophies. And the effort that’s involved in making the body look that way can cause someone to fall down the sort of rabbit holes that lead toward Jordan Peterson, among other things. I have personally watched it happen to a lot of athletes, and it’s never easy. And that is actually the end of how far I’m willing to go in speculating about the inner workings of a person I don’t know. That’s some stuff I’ve avoided saying before, but if Stuart Goldsmith can make guesses about his internal motivations, then fuck it, so can I.

Anyway, I highly recommend this interview to anyone who is interested in… well, in anything I’ve written about in this post. You have to pay for the extra bit but there’s still plenty of good stuff in the free version. It was very interesting all around and I’m definitely going to end up listening to it again. But for now, I have to say I’m glad that the main thing I’m in the middle of is No More Jockeys, an incredibly lighthearted fun show that is very easy to watch. If you do listen to that Russell Howard interview, I recommend following it with something where the most tension they get is in an argument about whether Penelope Pitstop raced cars as a career or as a hobby, just to bring the mood back up.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

pictures of girls are not for me

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/VCX7sAj by living_la_vida_lesbian “But that’s what Steph was. A fighter. People seemed to believe that people were either fighters or lovers, and they didn’t realize that those two ideas are the same. People fight for what they love, regardless of whether what they love is good for them or for anyone else. Steph fought for herself and all the other girls like her- Crime Alley kids with no money or fame to keep them going. All they had was the will to keep going. Steph fought for those kids, the kids who would never get that kind of recognition from anyone else.” Stephanie Brown rocked Cassandra Cain’s world. This is not always a good thing. (OR: Cass and Steph’s relationship and how it develops.) Words: 13165, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen Characters: Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne, Minor:, Crystal Brown, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Arthur Brown, David Cain Relationships: Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, (past), Cassandra Cain & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Cassandra Cain is Batgirl, Cassandra Cain Needs a Hug, Stephanie Brown Needs a Hug, Stephanie Brown is Robin, (and Spoiler but her being Robin is more relevant), Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, he’s an asshole to Steph because he wants to scare her off, he doesn’t want her to end up like Jason, idk he’s a good person but he does a lot of questionable things, Past Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, Angst, Hurt/Comfort read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/VCX7sAj

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the caped crusader #the dark knight #dcu #ao3 #ao3feed

[xtruss]

Who’s Laughing Now? China’s Shrewd Planning Paved Way for Manufacturing Dominance! The Success of China in a Number of Areas Owes to the Country’s Unique Economic System, Unlike Anything Else in the World.

— By John Miles | Sputnik International | Sunday February 25, 2024

© Sputnik/Anna Ratkoglo/Go to the Mediabank

Among the many adjectives that could be used to describe tech magnate Elon Musk, “Humble” is not one of them.

When a US journalist warned Musk in 2011 that Chinese company BYD Auto sought to compete in the Electric Vehicle (EV) space, the Tesla CEO literally laughed off the prospect.

“Have you seen their car?” Musk asked derisively, adding he didn’t see the upstart manufacturer as a competitor at all.

Some 13 years later, the more relevant question may be whether BYD should view Musk as a threat as China’s EV industry seems poised to dominate the global market.

The numbers are striking. After years of double-digit increases, EV sales in China accounted for 60% of global purchases in 2022. Last year BYD surpassed Tesla in total electric vehicles sold worldwide. One-third of EVs purchased anywhere are BYD cars.

High-Tech Innovations Drive China's Auto Sector Advances!

Now, trade barriers against the domestic sale of Chinese vehicles are the primary factor preventing BYD from dominating the US market as well, as the Xi'an-based manufacturer rolls out affordable cars unmatched by anything from Musk. That’s set to change as BYD explores assembling vehicles in North America.

How was BYD able to turn the tide so quickly? The answer lies in smart industrial planning that has allowed China to lead in the manufacture of everything from smartphones to solar panels.

As former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping pursued economic reform in the 1980s, Western leaders declared victory. Won over by the efficiency and superiority of US capitalism, China had abandoned communist dogma and would soon join the ranks of the “free world,” we were told. With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama claimed human civilization had reached “the end of history,” with the only remaining questions pertaining to minor tweaks and refinements of the free-market system.

Those paying closer attention knew China never abandoned Marxist analysis, but rather sought a contingency that allowed the developing country to access global investment and technology. Offering cheap labor and little regulation, Beijing was able to lure global manufactures eastward, learning Western methods in the process.

Decades later China’s efforts have paid off as the country has built the largest middle class in the world. With trillions of dollars of wealth at his disposal, President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed shared prosperity as China’s guiding principle, claiming the world power will develop into a modern socialist society in the years to come.

“What does any of this have to do with eclectic vehicles?” you may ask. The answer is that China’s success in this area was only made possible by its unique economic system. China threw open the doors to global market forces in the 1980s but maintained the leading role of the Communist Party. As a result, its government is able to quickly and effectively launch new industries through the provision of grants and subsidies.

But China’s newfound financial largess isn’t the only factor at play. State ownership of the country’s largest banks allows leaders to funnel profits towards infrastructure that makes China the best place in the world to manufacture goods. Shrewd planning has allowed the country to maintain its competitive edge even as workers enjoy rising wages.

Additionally, China makes great efforts to ensure its workforce is trained to meet the needs of businesses worldwide. Apple CEO Tim Cook summed up the reason for China’s success in a 2015 interview, noting simply, “It's skill.”

“China put an enormous focus on manufacturing, in what you and I would call vocational kind of skills,” Cook said. “I mean you could take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in the room that we're currently sitting in. In China you would have to have multiple football fields.”

Understanding the magnitude of the country’s growing economic dominance provides insight into why relations between China and the United States have reached almost Cold War levels of hostility. The United States lacks the will or capability to transform its economic system overnight. What it does have is Westerners’ fear of the communist-ruled country, which it can endlessly stoke to enforce sanctions and erect barriers to trade.

It also has a ruthless military and intelligence complex capable of undermining perceived enemies around the globe. “We will coup whoever we want!” declared Musk on X (formerly Twitter) in the wake of a 2019 US-backed putsch in Bolivia that set the stage for Tesla and other Western companies to exploit the South American nation’s vast lithium reserves.

Chinese leaders have made it clear their country will not succumb to the same fate. “The US will not stop the rejuvenation of China,” said the country’s foreign minister recently, warning of the “catastrophic consequences” of US aggression.

War with China’s population of 1.4 billion would indeed make mutually-assured destruction certain. Still the question remains whether the hubris of US leaders will make it inevitable.

#Analysis | Elon Musk | Tim Cook | China 🇨🇳 | North America | Beijing | Communist Party #Tesla | Apple 🍏 🍎 | Electric Car 🚗 🚙 🚘 | Electric⚡️Vehicles 🚗 | Manufacturing Industry | Economic Policy #Socialism | US🇺🇸 — China 🇨🇳 Relations

[jamiekb]

Listening to TMA for the first time (Part IV)

Part I II III

41- 46

#41 Too Deep: damn I didn’t think John could get worse but I don’t blame him. Those tunnels don’t help and I still have my theory that they might connect to some rooms/fenomena described in other episodes. Also cool change to the format, getting John's perspective and feelings on the whole story is gonna be interesting, wonder if the others will do something similar. I would like to at least listen to Martin do the same. Oh and is whatever spoke to him the same that took that hiker/sister?

#42 Grifter's Bone: that is actually a really cool name for a band. So like a siren that incites violence. The descriptions of the characters are very peculiar, thin as bone and with coats. Also I do wonder what Martin is hiding, could be something unexpected.

#43 Section 31: oooooh that’s pretty cool to know about the police work into the supernatural. More on the side that there are things to connect to statements from the institute like the arson victims from the hospital (if I understood which case it was) and I’m sure that spider husks things and the guy that shot himself will come up later on. Oh and the comment about clown dolls, caught me off guard. In the meantime it’ll be interesting to hear about this tapes that Gertrude apparently left behind.

#44 Tightrope: is that actually Gertrude?? Yes it is interesting. Is this gonna be related to the grandpa and weird instrument? Yes it is, nice. Ok now I have actually listen to it. It is interesting that Gertrude just knows about the circus. She know how dangerous they are, how they work and even remarks that they got off easy. Hopefully we’ll learn more about later on.

#45 Blood Bag: don’t like that, more bugs ugh. Again the visuals that the show is able to convey are incredible. Never would have thought how much mosquitos just releasing blood into could be sooo creepy. So I’m guessing that it’s Not-Sasha who’s sneaking around John’s things? Sure we don’t know much about Tim at this point but he doesn’t particularly strike me as spy or something. Who knows, I’ve still got plenty of episodes ahead of me.

#46 Literary Heights: Ok so I thought it was related to the episode with the guy that bought the weird leather book but apparently it’s actually the episode about the librarian and the book he found. But the name of the book is familiar as are the woodcut things. There’s a lot of details that I’m vaguely familiar but just can’t get the picture together, the book, Michael Crew, the lightning scar and the smell of ozone. Also I can’t believe that we are gonna go back to bugs now, seems like not very subtle foreshadowing that spider eating the worm carcasses.

I'll just go back to the details and try to make sense of that episode that way, so:

• Episode 4 Pageturner: case #0132806. The book Ex Altiora is mentioned. And I believe this is the first time that the library of Jurgen Leitner is mentioned. It has odd woodcuts and gives the feeling of vertigo. There is also the mention of an object “Key of Solomon 1863 owned by McGregor Mathers and Jorgen Leitner”, I don’t think this is relevant yet but I want to make note of it. Ok now that looking through it again there are so many details. This does indeed have the smell of ozone associated with Keays, the drawing of an eye and a weird quote. Ah ok. So the lightning pattern (Lightenberg figure) is mentioned and gives us the “origins” of Michael Crew. And Gerard Keay, son of Mary whom he murdered, burns this book that had been given as an anonymous donation in 2012. Which is many years after the statement from episode 46.

So before moving onto the weird figure which I’m almost positive has showed up before I went back to episode 46, to bring back a few facts.

• Michael Crew was struck by lightning at age 8, received a Lightenberg scar. He’s been in possession of two books from the Jurgen Leitner library.

• He was first in possession of The Boneturner's Tale which he left in a library and involved a creature of flesh but sharp and unnatural. The second one was Ex Altiora that led to his supposed disappearance after jumping out of a window in the bell chamber of the local cathedral.

•John mentions that Mr Know didn’t mention the woodcut of the sky with the Lightenberg figure, however it is present many years after just before the book is destroyed. Since this is the second time that the sky just eats the people I’m gonna say they are somehow related. And furthermore that many of the woodcuts are actually places or images related to people that the book has killed?? eaten??? done something to them in any case.

•Jorgun Lietner is dangerous in some way, knows about tunnels and things that shouldn’t be possible. His books bring only tragedy and must be dealt with.

Maybe I could bring some more details together but it’s nearly 3am so I'll just leave it be before the witching hour. It really feels that they want me to bring together every single weird details from past episodes and form them into a coherent blob. Can’t wait for more!

#tma #the magnus archives #hey this is my stuff #experiencing media