#It's probably those actions that made Hal fall in love with Barry. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

colehasapen · 3 years

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(ONE SHOT) I tried hating you but the anger is gone DC COMICS

A03

Barry remembers what it's like to be in love. He remembers the fluttery, soft feeling in his stomach when their hands brushed, the warmth in his cheeks when their eyes met across crowded rooms. He remembers gentle words and whispered promises, and he remembers holding his whole world in his hands. He remembers thinking to himself that they'd always have each other, that they'd be together through thick and thin.

Barry remembers being in love, and he remembers learning that love wasn't always good enough. Love wouldn't survive everything, and people wouldn't either.

Once, Barry had held his whole world in his hands, but that had made it all the more painful for it all to be ripped away. One thing after another, until there had been nothing left but tears, and rage, and suffering - his own, and that of others. It hadn't filled the gaping hole in his chest, hadn't made him feel better, but he had told himself no one else would feel that pain again if he could help it.

No one else would lose their child. No one else would have to see the boy they'd raised and loved like their own turn to dust in front of their eyes. No one else would have to sacrifice themselves.

No one else would have their mentor, the closest thing to a father they’d had for a long time targeted because of who they were connected to.

No one else would see a city reduced to rubble, and then learn afterwards that a member of their own family had burned with it, unable to outrun the blast.

No else else would have to want so desperately for the little life inside of them to grow up big and strong, only for it to be taken away from them because some bastard wanted them to hurt.

So Barry had stood back. He had stepped aside and stayed quiet and done as he was told because it meant that no more innocents would have to suffer. He'd beaten down his own morals and ripped away everything that made him a hero, because he'd sacrifice himself so that no one else would have to.

He'd turn himself into a monster if it meant that the fighting would end.

He could understand Superman's pain, his rage and anger, because Barry had felt them both, first when Wally had died to save the world, and again when Zoom had stolen that little blossom of hope he'd held inside of him. He could understand why Joker had to die, he could understand the leap in logic Clark had followed, because Lois and her baby had been innocent.

Innocence hadn't saved them, but Superman had promised them a world where it wouldn't happen again, if only they followed him.

Barry had always been a follower.

A follower, and a coward.

So Barry had followed. He’d followed Superman, he’d followed Hal; he followed them so far that he almost doesn’t recognize himself anymore. He’d once thought to himself that he’d follow them into hell, but he’d never thought it would be a hell of his own making. Barry had walked himself into failure, all while telling himself that he was trying to make the world a better place.

He’d lied to himself. He lied to himself after every death, after every injury and cruelty. He’d kept lying to himself, unwilling to see past his own suffering to see others hurting just as much because of his own actions. He’d clung so tightly to the illusion of peace that he’d ignored the bodies he was stepping over to get there.

He’d already lost Wally, he’d lost Jay, he'd lost Bart, he’d lost the baby, he'd even lost the Rogues, and he hadn’t wanted to lose anyone else.

But then he lost Iris.

Barry’d been in love with Iris for so long that he almost didn’t remember how not to love her, but she’d seen him for what he truly was, what he had been trying so desperately not to look at; a monster and a coward. She looked him in the eye and laid it all out, every single one of his failures, and then she walked away, and for once in his life, Barry hadn’t followed. He’d been angry, and hurt, and it had been a painful knot in his chest that made it hurt to breath as all those soft fluttery feelings turned caustic and poisonous.

Barry had been in denial, but his eyes had begun to see past the illusions he’d made himself.

Nothing she had said was a lie.

When Iris had left them, Barry had turned around and clung so tightly to Hal that he’s surprised he hadn’t choked the Lantern. He knows now that Hal had been struggling just as much as he had been, had been floundering after the loss of Wally, their child, and then Iris, but all Barry had seen at the time was someone to hold onto. He’d been grabbing for any stability he could, and Hal had been there. Hal had always been his rock, just as Barry had always been a beacon to guide him home, but loss had sent them both into free fall, and neither of them knew that they didn’t have a safety net until they hit the unforgiving ground.

This time, it was Barry who walked away.

Shazam - Billy’s death had been the last straw. He had been the one to finally shatter the world Barry had built for himself.

Superman had killed a child.

Barry couldn’t look away anymore, he couldn’t avert his eyes or plug out the sounds again.

So he had started to listen again, he started to act instead of follow.

Barry saves people again, and it had started with Batman, back even before Billy. It had started with Bruce; Bruce who was Barry’s friend, Bruce who Barry was supposed to hate - but Barry’s too empty for hatred.

He had been angry for so long that he wonders if he’ll ever feel anything again.

Changing sides isn’t easy, but Barry never thought it would be. He turns his back, he walks away from Hal. He asks Hal to come, to leave Superman behind and become a hero again, and when he refuses Barry ignores Hal pleading with him to stay with him. It hurts to leave Hal, it’s agony to hear the terror in his voice when he’d told him there was no leaving Superman, but Barry can’t stay anymore. Hal won’t come with him, and Barry walks away. He knows he’s not going to be welcomed among Batman’s rebellion with open arms, he’s spent too long following behind Superman for that to happen, but he doesn’t let the cold reception get to him, doesn’t let the ache in his jaw stop him.

He needs to make it right after all, even if it’s likely none of them will ever trust him again. Even if it’s likely he’ll never wash the blood from his hands, the least he can do is try to prove to them that he’s genuine. To prove that he wants to repent for what he let happen, for what he did, and the people who died because Barry was too cowardly to make his voice heard, or too blind to see.

Bruce’s people don’t trust him, but Barry doesn’t blame them. He doesn’t even trust himself anymore. He lets them put the monitor on him, he lets them glare and whisper. He can feel them watching him, he sees the way they shy away, he knows the doubt. He doubts himself too, he wonders, sometimes, that if it starts getting too hard, will he fall back into the habits he’d developed? Will he kill again if things get too slow, too irritating?

Who will suffer if Barry has a bad day?

They’re afraid of him.

Barry’s afraid of him too. He’s afraid of what he could do, he’s afraid of what he’s done. He’s afraid that someday he’ll go too far again, and he’s afraid that once he starts on that road again, he won’t be able to turn back. He’s already lost everything, and he’s afraid that someday, he’ll decide to throw away whatever is left.

Some days, all that fear gets to be too much for him to handle. Everything gets to be too much. The memories and the what-ifs rise in a tidal wave that not even he can outrun, and they sweep him back out to the sea of misery. He drowns in it.

He just wants it all to end.

It’s during one of these episodes that Batman finds him.

Barry’s folded himself into a dark corner, his head buried in his knees as everything gets to be too much. Sometime, in between the moment his heart and started hammering in his chest and the world had started to get fuzzy, he’d ripped off the helmet, and his hands had found their way into his hair where he’d started to pull as the weight on his chest grew to be crushing. He’s probably vibrating, a distant part of Barry knows, and it’s probably set off one of the many alarms Batman has linked to him, but Barry can’t bring himself to care. All he can think of is the empty yellow and red suit, the warped helmet, the hole where Metropolis used to be. All he can hear is the ragged sound of his own breathing and the voices of the doctors telling him the baby hadn’t survived Zoom’s attack.

He remembers that kid, the one who had thought he was strong enough to fight back, the one who had wanted to do the right thing, and the sound of his back breaking when Wonder Woman and Superman put him down with the intention of keeping him down.

Barry could have stopped them.

But he didn’t.

All he did was watch, and then run away when it got too much and he’d seen the face of a kid who learned that his idols weren’t heroes any more.

He wants it to stop.

“Flash.”

He’d go back if he could. Bruce had told him to restart everything, but Barry had been too scared then, that he’d just make everything worse.

“Flash!”

Why shouldn’t he? It would be easy to just start running. He’d erase himself from the timeline, and maybe the next Barry would be better . Maybe the next Barry wouldn’t fail everything and everyone.

Maybe the next Barry would be fast enough.

“Allen!”

Better yet, maybe the Speed Force would decide that he was unworthy, and Barry Allen wouldn’t survive the lab accident that had given him his powers.

“God dammit - Barry! Snap out of it.”

Barry comes back to himself with a stinging cheek and a gasp. He feels like there’s cotton stuffed in his head, like there’s a vice in his chest and a knife in his guts. Batman - no, that’s Bruce, the helmet is off - is kneeling in front of him, hands on Barry’s shoulders and expression drawn with stress, making the premature age lines all the more obvious around his stormy eyes.

“I-” Barry wheezes, blinking tears out of his eyes as he stares at Bruce in shock, then at where the vigilante’s hands are resting on his shoulders. The warmth of the touch is seeping through his costume, it makes his skin tingle even with the layers between them, and Barry wonders almost hysterically how long it had been since someone had willingly touched him without intending to hurt him. “Bruce?” His voice is a choked rasp, and with a panic dissipating, the numbness starts to set in again.

The touch, however, stops it from settling in.

Bruce is frowning at him. When was the last time he had smiled? When was the last time any of them had had something to smile about?

Barry used to like it when he smiled.

“What just happened?” Bruce demands, but despite the harsh tone, the hands on his shoulders are still gentle, and Barry can only blink at him, a little dumbly. He’s a little too busy thinking about how nice the warmth of another person’s touch is to really give Bruce’s words much thought. “Barry.”

Barry jolts, “I - uh-” he stutters, “-sorry.”

Bruce’s frown is easing slightly, back into that emotionless mask that he’d been wearing for - how long had he been wearing it? He’s studying Barry now, like he’s trying to gauge how much of a threat he is now that Bruce had seen him panicking. “Does that happen often?” He asks blankly, and Barry shakes his head, a little frantic.

“No!” He says desperately; he needs to stay on Batman’s good side. He needs to put his best foot forward, after all the shit he’s put Bruce through over the years. He just wants to do at least one thing right in his life.

Hal and Iris aren’t here to guide him through his attacks. He doesn’t have a lightning rod to draw him back anymore.

“No - no, it’s just - I’ll be fine once the shaking stops.” Barry tells him, “I’m sorry.”

Bruce is still staring at him, “How long has it been happening?”

Barry lets out a bitter, shaky laugh, “Years.” He says, arms moving to curl around his stomach, and he sees Bruce’s eyes follow the movement, sees the moment Earth’s greatest detective connects the dots. He’d had a front row seat to what state Barry had been in after Zoom’s attack had almost killed him. Barry knows he’d been in the Watchtower when Barry had been brought in, covered in blood and barely hanging onto consciousness because he hadn’t been able to fight back against the other speedster. Batman would have seen the medical reports when they’d been added to his file, would have known the extent of the damage Barry’s body had taken.

He knows what Barry had lost. He knows just how much Barry had personally related to Superman.

Bruce is quiet for a long moment, studying Barry as the shaking slows, and his hands stay on his shoulders, a grounding influence that helps the speedster drag himself out of the storm of emotions he had fallen into. Bruce has always been good at it, helping Barry slow down; it’s always been something that Barry’s been grateful for, and he’s been missing the other man’s influence and presence in the last years.

Back when he’d first noticed that Superman wasn’t listening to them anymore, he’d wished that Batman were there, because Bruce had always been the one that Superman would turn to. The one they’d all turn to if they needed someone to talk them down from something, to point out when their logic was flawed; Bruce had always been the best of them, no matter how much the man hadn’t believed them when they’d said it.

None of this would have happened if they’d just listened to Bruce.

“You told me once to change the timeline.” Barry says helplessly, staring up at Bruce with pleading eyes. What he’s pleading for, he doesn’t know; condemnation? Permission? Just someone to hold him?

Slowly, Bruce nods his head, an acknowledgement of the statement, “And you told me that it was something you’d only consider once we’d already exhausted all of our options.” He points out.

Barry’s laugh is almost hysterical in response, “I could just make everything worse.” He says shakily, “But what difference would that make? Everything’s already fallen apart.”

“True.” Bruce agrees, “But there’s still hope we can do better. That we can fix this. We can’t give up that chance just yet.”

It’s almost ironic hearing this from Bruce, a known realist. Barry had always been the hopeless dreamer, the one who always tried to see the bright side in a situation, the one who always urged the others to do the same. But now? After everything that had happened, everything he had lost, everyone who had suffered? Barry can’t see any possible light in their dark world.

“We’re not just fighting for ourselves, Barry. Or the people we’ve lost.” Bruce’s hands tighten on his shoulders, “We’re fighting for a future for everyone else on this planet. A future where they can make their own choices and no one has to live in fear of being heard saying the wrong thing.”

“I don’t know what the right thing to do is anymore.” He admits, “I don’t know how I can fix what I’ve done.”

“All any of us can do is try.” Bruce tells him quietly, and Barry meets his eyes, blue to blue. He sees the sadness there, the numbness and helplessness that he knows all too well. They’d both lost everything; their children, their friends, their futures. Anything they had planned for themselves had fallen apart. They’d lost love and friendship to anger, and to hate, and then they’d lost that too.

What more could they lose?

When Bruce starts pulling away from him, Barry rocks forward almost desperately, not wanting to lose the tiny connection they had made, not wanting to let Bruce slip away from him again after getting a glimpse at the man he had cared for after so long of nothing. He stops at the last second, however, and he stays where he lands on his knees, staring up at Bruce as the man slowly offers him a hand.

“Come on.” Bruce’s voice washes over him, “We’ve got work to do.” Bruce is watching him with a quiet seriousness, the same loneliness Barry feels echoed in his eyes.

He’s offering him a choice.

And Barry?

He takes the hand, and he chooses the future Bruce sees.

#cole writes #DC comics #injustice: gods among us #brubarry #bruce wayne #Barry Allen #trans barry allen #halbarry #westallen #bruce wayne/barry allen #barry allen/bruce wayne

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m00nslippers · 5 years

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Everyone Crushing on Jason AU 3

Read on AO3!

Hal wasn't sure how the situation had devolved to the point that he now had an alliance with Guy Gardner of all people, but even the extra back-up hadn't been enough to separate Jason Todd from the iron curtain of admirers that had sprung up around the man the instant he'd left Hal's sight.

The original plan had been to blandish the Supers until they changed targets to Hal himself as he slipped into their place beside Jason, but that had only resulted in Kara's eyes glowing terrifyingly red in preparation for a heat-vision blast with Hal as a target, while Superboy ignored him entirely. Meanwhile, Arsenal and Starfire had Red Hood's undivided attention for as long as they were in the man's vicinity and neither had taken kindly to Guy butting in. Arsenal and Guy had ended up in a fist fight that resulted in Red Hood himself slamming both men's heads together and leaving the two in a pile as he left the infirmary with Orphan and Nightwing, Starfire shaking her head over them both as Hal realized he'd severely miscalculated the difficulty of the task he'd taken on.

But seriously, how did some no-name beefcake he'd never heard of until minutes before already have an impenetrable wall of prominent superheroes policing his personal space? It was completely unfair! Like dangling a prize in front of Hal’s face before telling him it was on the other side of a death trap. He'd been way too naive to think someone this damn sexy wouldn't already have a slew of people ready to fight for the honor of being squeezed between those muscled thighs. Clearly there was more to Red Hood than an amazing body and bad boy aura and Hal needed to find out all he could to secure a victory against his rivals.

“We've got to change tactics,” Hal told Guy in a secluded, empty meeting room on the Watchtower satellite the next day.

Guy nodded to himself, eyes narrowed and distant with consideration. “Yeah, you're right,” his fellow Lantern acknowledged, rubbing his chin. “I should wear cologne. Something that smells like, I don't know, wood or something. But what kind of wood? Mahogany, teak, sandalwood? It's a tough decision, man.”

The only thing keeping Hal from slapping himself or slapping Guy was that he couldn’t decide which he wanted to do more in that moment.

Hal groaned at the ceiling, willing some sympathetic god to strike him down and end his misery. “That is not what I meant, I'm talking about information.”

“Information?” Guy repeated with a raised brow. “What kinda information and how do you say we get it? We could barely get within ten feet of the man! We're at a real disadvantage here, Jordan. We seem to be comin' in late to the game.”

Guy scratched the back of his head anxiously, looking more troubled than Hal was used to seeing his fellow Lantern. Normally the man was all ‘go’ all the time. He never seemed to have any doubts, even when the odds were stacked against him. Hal didn't know why or how it had happened, but when it came to Jason Todd, Guy seemed to have fallen hard and fast enough to start second-guessing himself. Gardner was almost stupidly cocky, but when it came to the Red Hood it seemed his confidence might be failing him. While normally anything that took the other Lantern down a peg was something Hal wholeheartedly supported, watching the man's enthusiasm plummet made Hal realize he really didn't want to see the man moping around about lost love.

“You wimping out on me, Guy?” Hal egged on with a raised a brow. No Green Lantern could resist a jibe like that. It would set the other man straight. “Because if you want to bow out of the running I'm all for it. Less competition for me.”

“I ain't saying that,” Guy assured him, standing up straighter. “It's just usually you've only got to worry about somethin' stupid coming outta your mouth at the wrong moment, or forgetting to wear deodorant in front of the person you like. You know, normal shit. Not a damn cadre of bodyguards enforcing a six-foot perimeter. I mean, I figure with cologne at least maybe I smell good enough to lure him in close...”

Hal rolled his eyes. “He's not a shark lured by the scent of blood, cologne isn't going to do anything. We need some tangible reconnaissance to fall back on.” Hal ticked off fingers as he listed, “Conversation topics, likes and dislikes, who his friends are, where all these gatekeepers are coming from and how to get them off our backs.”

Guy bit the inside of his cheek, looking thoughtful as he warmed to the idea. “Okay, yeah I get where you're coming from with this, Jordan. We've got to investigate. Really use our heads.”

As far as Hal could tell, Guy had only ever used his head as a blunt instrument of violence, so he felt perfectly justified in asking, “That's not going to be too difficult for you, is it Guy?”

Guy punched him in the shoulder hard enough to have Hal grab it and whine an “Ow...”

“Ha ha,” Guy deadpanned without humor. “Sure, insult my intelligence.You're the one whose had your brain turned into scrambled eggs by Parallax more than once, but I'm the dumb one of the two of us. Yeah, that makes sense.”

Hal held his hands up, absolving himself of responsibility. “Hey, you said it not me.”

Guy huffed, but suddenly looked smug and knowing as he said, “If I'm just so dumb, then why do I know exactly who we've got to hit up first for information?”

He'd already had a few people in mind when he suggested the course of action, but Hal figured hearing Guy's take could make for a good laugh. “Fine, I'll bite. Who?”

Snapping his finger with a grin, Guy revealed, “Our boy, Rayner! He and Hood seemed pretty tight yesterday. If nothing else he can probably point us in the direction of someone else to interrogate.”

Kyle, huh? Hal had honestly been thinking of going to Barry, just because his friend seemed to always have answers when he needed them. Or maybe Nightwing, since he and Red Hood were clearly close by the way he glared Hal down while stitching up Red Hood's side with full trust, but Kyle was probably an even better bet. They had so much more blackmail material on Kyle than they did on Barry or Nightwing. For once, Guy had a good idea.

“You're right...yeah, let's hit him up,” Hal agreed. “I thought I saw him in the Watchtower Canteen just earlier.”

“I call 'bad space-cop',” Guy said immediately, forcing Hal to scowl in response.

“We're not going to 'good space-cop'-'bad space-cop' another Lantern!” he protested.

Guy shrugged. “You say that now, but you'll be singin' a different tune when he clams up.”

Personally, Hal was skeptical that Kyle could resist telling them anything about the Red Hood. Kyle had his moments of stubbornness and snark but he generally liked to live up to expectations. He was a good kid. Not to mention bad-mouthing Jason Todd seemed to be a secret hobby of his that no one had known about, and Kyle really enjoyed his hobbies. Look at how often they found the guy doodling super heroes between meetings.

“Well if that ever happens, I call badder space-cop,” Hal decided, mostly just because he knew it would get a reaction from Guy.

Of course Guy's brows snapped together instantly and his face flushed with anger. “Like hell! You can't do that, I already called bad space-cop!”

Hal threw up his hands with no shame, internally grinning. “Can. Did.”

With an irritated snort, Guy growled, “Fine, then we'll just ask him normally. Jeez, you've just gotta ruin everything, don't you Jordan?”

Hal smirked. “It's what I live for.”

- - -

Kyle didn't look up from his sketchbook as Guy and Hal took seats across from him in the Watchtower canteen. He just focused on fleshing out the lines and curves, adding shape and depth and shading, breathing life into his work. When the lines began to take familiar paths, the image clarifying into someone recognizable, he frowned to himself and purposefully changed the design, trying to deviate from the real-life inspiration making itself known on his page.

Lately he was growing increasingly frustrated with how suspiciously similar his random character sketches were becoming to a certain vigilante with a red helmet. Despite all the references and inspiration at his fingertips from being a member of the Justice League, all his hand seemed to draw was an idiot by the name of Jason Todd with his dumb smirk and his stupid white streak and his sexy thighs and—

Kyle swallowed the urge to smack his head against the table and instead just roughly flipped his sketch book closed so no one could see the evidence concerning what was preoccupying his mind. There was no way in hell he was going to become one of the Jason-groupies that seemed have coalesced from the aether the instant the man had been accepted into the League.

Seriously though, when had Jason freaking Todd become so popular?

“No,” Kyle said as soon as Guy opened his mouth.

Guy's face wrinkled in an angry pout as Hal snickered next to him. “I didn't even—” he began but Kyle cut him off again. Guy always seemed to be able to talk him into things, he had to shut this line of questioning down quick.

“Nope!” Kyle insisted and finally opened the bag of chips he'd been neglecting for twenty minutes as his sketches stole his attention. “I'm not spilling my guts about Jason. No way, no how, I don't want anything to do with the guy.”

And as if to drive that fact home, Kyle loudly chewed on his potato chips at a volume his mother would absolutely disapprove of.

But of course there was no drowning out Hal. That man was used to talking over the sounds of an airfield with fighter-jets going in and out all day, so crunchy chips weren't even a challenge.

Hal smirked, waving an accusatory finger at Kyle as he pitched his voice louder. “See, you say that but the sexual tension between you two yesterday was palpable.” Kyle nearly choked and spat out his chips, as Guy smirked and Hal just kept talking, unconcerned that Kyle might be choking or that more than one person in the cafeteria had started paying too much attention to their conversation. “You're just trying to get rid of the competition and while I admire your strategic mind, I question your integrity as a Green Lantern—because that's just not fair play!”

Kyle coughed a few more times and smacked his chest before he managed to sputter, “'Sexual tension?' I do not have sexual tension with Jason freaking Todd, of all people!” And he'll admit his voice was tinged with an edge of hysteria but this was a serious accusation!

Hal was clearly not buying what Kyle was selling as he crossed his arms and eyed the younger man incredulously. “Oh really? So you don't think he's hot.”

Kyle rolled his eyes because admitting Jason was hot only proved he had functional vision. If Jason hadn't been a walking wet dream then Kyle wouldn't have been so terrified when the man started hanging around Kyle's at-the-time ex-girlfriend, Donna. And it wasn't even just his looks—Jason was smart, and talented, and well-read and was respectful to women and rode a motorcycle—basically a really cliche romance novel love interest.

“Of course I think he's hot,” Kyle freely admitted, starting to feel himself get angry as he remembered everything about the man that made him feel inadequate. “Have you seen those honking thighs? You know he has to buy a bigger size pant and take it up in the waist to fit? And he does it himself, the multifaceted piece of shit...” Seriously, why was Jason so dang good at everything? It wasn't fair, how was a normal guy supposed to measure-up?

Guy slapped the table, eyes huge as if he'd just been told he'd won an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. “Oh my God, he can sew? Damn, that's wife-material, right there.”

Hal ignored Guy and instead frowned, leaning over the table and trying to loom threateningly. “How do you know all of this, Kyle? We are your mentors, you owe us this.”

Kyle felt his temper pique at the idea that he owed anyone an explanation regarding himself and Jason Todd. He didn't like the guy, didn't want to think about him or talk about him. And yet the man was everywhere he went all of a sudden. Now Kyle couldn't even eat his chips and draw in peace because every time he put pencil to paper it turned into Jason Todd and people got in his face demanding he tell all when there wasn't much to tell to begin with.

In an incredulous tone, Kyle said, “'Mentors'?” Raising his hand, he tapped the glowing green ring on his finger with emphasis. “When I got this ring, I was the only Green Lantern in the galaxy. By the time there were any other Lanterns around, I was already an expert. You guys are like...senior colleagues at best.”

Hal whistled. “Ouch. That hurts, Kyle.” He seemed impressed at Kyle's level of shit-talk, which was unsurprising because shit-talk was Hal's first language and the form of communication he seemed to respond the best to.

But Guy on the other hand did not look impressed. He looked angry and hurt, his hands on the table tightening into fists, his cheeks and forehead flushing red beneath freckles as his eyes lit with fire and the overzealous passion he always put into everything. All at once Kyle felt awful about what he'd said and wanted to take it all back.

“Come on, man!” Guy demanded, lip lifted in a snarl. “Screw being mentors or colleagues, I thought we were friends! I gave you the 'friends-and-family discount' on your tab at my bar!”

“You get a discount?” Hal interjected. He turned to Guy and complained. “Why does Kyle get a discount? I don't even get a discount...”

Completely ignoring Hal, Guy stabbed Kyle right in the conscience as he slapped his own chest with emotion, the ache of betrayal in his expression. “That meant something to me, I thought it meant something to you too...”

And now Kyle felt like a total piece of shit. He really wasn't like this. He wasn't snappy and snarky and angry. It was only when the Red Hood was around that his personality did this one-eighty. He'd been joking about the mentor thing, he really did look up to Hal and Guy. Kyle was letting his frustration with Jason-Jackass-Todd get the better of him and that wasn't okay.

“No, you're right, Guy,” Kyle agreed running a hand through his hair. “We're friends and that's important me.”

Guy's expression was mulish, not quite ready to forgive him. “And friends tell each other shit, especially about their future significant-others, right?”

Kyle sighed and nodded agreement, though the idea of Jason being Guy's future wife seemed like a joke with no basis in reality. “Yeah, I get it. What did you want to know?”

The anger and hurt finally seemed to bleed out of Guy, but he still answered with a forceful, “Everything. You're gonna earn that discount, Rayner!”

Hal's eyes were narrowed at Guy as he promised, “We'll talk about discounts and why I don't get one later. For now let's start at the beginning. We'd never even seen him until yesterday, so how do you know Jason? Unless you're spending way more hours Earth-side than I know you are, you wouldn't have had enough contact to be slinging sexually charged insults at each other unless something fishy was going on.”

Kyle nearly started choking again on nothing but air. 'Sexually charged insults'? Not even! Jason had a smart mouth and hot lips but he wouldn't know attraction if it hit him over the head with a crowbar. Kyle had seen enough sad losers make passes on Jason to know the man was denser than concrete when it came to the subject. The ungrateful asshole had men and women hanging on him left and right and he didn't even seem to notice.

“There is nothing going on between Jason and me—Never was, never will be!” Kyle assured his fellow Lanterns. “Me and Jason were never even friends, okay? We got stuck doing this reality-traversing gig with Donna and some jerk named Bob to save the multiverse together in an alternate timeline. Then the universes merged and everything we did technically hadn't happened anymore but we still had the memories intact since it all took place outside our world.”

While Hal stared at him in wonder, processing the ridiculous but true explanation regarding Kyle's association with Jason Todd, Guy's face was screwed up in something between confusion and outrage.

Guy held up a hand. “Wait wait wait...So you went on a universe-hopping adventure to save the very fabric of reality, with your ex-girlfriend and Jason Todd, that got erased from history and you never told your buddy Guy Gardner?”

Okay, when put like that Kyle admitted it was the sort of thing he should have mentioned to his friends. Especially Green Lantern friends who were used to branching timelines and multiversal weirdness and wouldn't even question his story.

“Well...” he trailed uselessly.

Clearly Kyle's response was not adequate because Guy shook his head at the table and muttered to himself, “I feel so betrayed...giving you the ‘friends-and-family discount’ is supposed to mean more than this...”

Kyle blushed with shame. “I'm sorry, okay? It just...didn't seem relevant.”

Hal smacked the table with a frown. “A piece of man-meat that sexy is always relevant, Kyle!”

“Not to me. Most of the time I try to pretend he doesn't exist,” Kyle confessed.

Guy tapped his chin, eying Kyle with suspicion. “Oh really? You just seem territorial, to me.”

Kyle scoffed. 'Territorial'? Over Jason Todd? Pff, that was just...no way, that could ever...Kyle shook his head. No way was he feeling territorial over Jason. The fact that he'd known Jason way before any of the people suddenly following him around like a lost puppy had appeared, back when Red Hood had no positive connections to anyone, in a universe where no one showed any interest in him, was no reason to think he was territorial now. It really just had no bearing on anything...

Seriously, it didn't!

“I am not territorial,” Kyle hastily assured them with a sniff of contempt at the very idea. “I just don't want to see you guys waste your time trying to go after Jason Todd when I can tell you from experience that it isn't going to go anywhere good.”

“Experience. Right,” Hal deadpanned. “This experience that took place outside our universe in an alternate timeline that no longer exists.”

Shrugging, Guy said, “Eh. I wouldn’t put it on your resume, kid.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “The world might be different, but Jason Todd is still the same. He acts like a jerk just to prove he's unfit for company. He's an all-mission-all-the-time bat who doesn't see a problem with shooting people in the back when it suits his agenda,” he tried to explain. This Jason might have Batman fooled somehow, but the Jason that Kyle knew, the one that still seemed to know him, was contrary for the sake of it and did bad just to push people away. He couldn’t imagine the man had really changed all that much in a few years and a few timeline tweaks.

Guy just raised a brow, what Kyle was trying to get across completely going over his head as if he'd translated everything his friend said into, 'he's a streetwise sensitive loner' and couldn't figure out the downside. But at the mention of Red Hood's mission-obsessive tendencies, Hal seemed to hesitate. It was common knowledge the first Earth Lantern had an issue with Batman, mostly regarding the Gotham vigilante’s patronizing seriousness and intensity, which grated on his nerves. When the mission was on, the Red Hood was just as bad and he didn't appreciate perceived incompetence. He'd never seen Jason Todd relaxed. Kyle wasn't certain he was capable of it.

After a moment of consideration, Hal shook his head, his interest seeming to rally. “Let's set aside whether or not Guy and I are wasting our time and get down to the real nitty-gritty details. Like, does Jason Todd like men? Is he single? Which position does he like? How many dates with him does it take to get to fourth base? Will I have to fight Batman in a cage match for his honor, because I think I would be open to that.”

Kyle was fairly sure Hal had no chance in a cage match with Batman. He also had no idea why Hal thought Kyle could answer any of those questions. “Don't know. No idea. As far as I know, he's never really dated,” he answered.

Hal groaned and pulled his hands down his face with exaggerated frustration. “Ugh, dammit Kyle, you were supposed to be our fount of knowledge!”

“Well I don't know anything like that and even if I did it would be outdated information because this is a different universe,” Kyle reminded the man, trying not to get angry.

“So what can you tell us?” Guy asked, with an edge of impatience. “Anything at all. Favorite color, or favorite band, or hobbies or something.”

Kyle had to think because his most memorable experiences with Jason involved wanting to ring his neck the instant he opened his mouth. What he'd actually said had been secondary to how annoyed Kyle was the moment he looked into the man's handsomely brooding face.

“Um...I know he listens to the band Cheap Trick. It's really annoying,” Kyle revealed. “And he reads a lot, and quotes at you like a smartass. Also, you don't want to play poker with him because you will lose. Badly. Even if you think you're winning, you're actually not. By the end of the game, you will be broke”

Hal stared at Kyle in silence until the younger man began to feel self-conscious, eventually he said, “Right. So now that we've established that Kyle knows absolutely nothing of value, who do you know that we can actually go to for information that would be something approximating useful?”

Kyle almost opened his mouth to protest, but then he remembered he'd never wanted any part in this to begin with and knowing nothing about Jason Todd was his ideal state of being. So instead he just answered, “The Bats, of course. But good luck with that, you know as well as I do that it's pulling teeth to get anything from those guys. He's really close with Arsenal and Starfire, too. They started a hero team in this universe, I also heard they might have been...involved in some way.”

Hal perked up, mouth spreading in a leer. “Like a threesome? Hot!”

“That explains why those two were around yesterday,” Guy remarked with narrowed eyes, drumming his fingers on his arm unhappily.

“I don't know, that's their business,” Kyle said with a shrug. “You could also ask Donna, I guess. She knew him when he was a kid, he was on her Teen Titans team. Apparently they were really close back then. Also the team members he's got now—Artemis of Bana-Migdhall and Bizarro. That's kind of it. He thinks the lone wolf lifestyle is cool or something.” Kyle snorted in derision. Todd was such an edgy idiot.

“Alright, well that's a place to start, I guess.” Raising a solemn hand to his chest, Hal humbly declared, “As much as I hate the guy, I will take one for the team. I will confront grouchy old Batman about why all his kids are such freaking hotties. How did the genes that produced his brooding goth ass produce such perfect specimens as Nightwing and Red Hood? This I will find out.”

Kyle couldn’t tell how serious Hal was being. “They didn't, Hal. All the bat kids are adopted.”

Hal's tut of sympathy, made it clear he thought Kyle was being naïve. “Sure they are. So while I'm focusing on that, Kyle is going to get us an in with his ex-girlfriend Donna. And Guy? You're going to hit up your fellow gingers Arsenal and Starfire.”

“No way, let's switch!” Guy protested, pointing at his face as he said, “Arsenal about gave me a black eye yesterday, he's not gonna talk to me.”

As Kyle was trying to figure out how he'd missed seeing Arsenal try to deck Guy Gardner, Hal batted an uninterested hand at Guy and said, “Figure it out. Unless you want to hunt down Artemis and Bizarro, but I've honestly never heard of either of them, so good luck.”

Guy grumbled but seemed to be resigned to his assigned.

“Wait a minute, why am I involved in this strategy?” Kyle asked as he realized Hal had casually involved him in his outrageous plans. “I'm not the one trying to get in Jason's pants here, leave me out of it.”

“Green Lantern solidarity, Kyle. We're in this together,” Hal said easily. He didn't seem to care that his statement was completely lacking in logic.

“I don't see how getting either of you laid has anything to do with Green Lantern solidarity,” Kyle argued.

Guy reached across the table and squeezed Kyle's shoulder, pinning him with his intense stare. “Friends-and-Family discount,” he reminded Kyle. “Are you a friend? Are you family? Because someone who was either would help a brother out.”

Fuck, Kyle thought vehemently. He might get a few credits off on drinks and appetizers, but apparently he was paying for it with freaking blood. Kyle wasn't sure this nonsense was worth a discount he only got to use on Oa at Guy’s admittedly pretty good bar which was the only establishment on the planet that served Earth cuisine.

But it was probably worth it for their friendship. It might be worth it for the laughs, too. And it would put him in a prime position to beat Jason senseless if he stomped on either of his friends’ hearts.

“Damn it, fine,” Kyle caved, as his fellow Lanterns grinned.

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lookatthisdork · 7 years

Text

Opinion piece: DC House of Horror (2017)

First of all SPOILERS for DC House of Horror!

Second, this is only my OPINION. It might be unpopular. It might even be offensive. But I want to talk about this before going back to my normally scheduled “hey look at this cool stuff” and “it’s stupid AU time!” content.

I did not read the Green Arrow and Captain Marvel/Shazam stories since I’m not currently invested in those characters. *shrugs*

The rest are...meh. The whole series seems to have Keith Giffen credited with the plot ideas, but each story has a different script writer. So I have no idea who I’m criticizing in each of these blurbs. Probably Keith. I don’t know.

Bump in the Night (feat Superman; by Edward Lee)

I have admittedly little experience with horror movie conventions, but I’m pretty sure this was aiming for the opening of a monster movie. Creepy, dangerous alien falls from space, kills the locals before making its way to more populated areas. The poor schmuck that finds it first always dies quickly and painfully, which is what happened to Pa Kent here. Kind of a cheap death, but it fits the genre convention.

The dramatic irony of Martha Kent trying to call her husband and her refusing to leave the house when something strange is happening outside were pulled off pretty well. Overall, I think she reads as a spirited but ultimately doomed horror protagonist.

My problem with this is that the alien (”Clark/Baby Superman”) reads as a complete cardboard-cutout monster cliche. Why did he kill Pa and Ma Kent? No reason is even alluded to. He just kills them because they’re there.

(If I were writing this, I would have played up the naive-creepy-child factor. Have Clark accidentally kill Jonathan Kent since he’s a child who doesn’t know his own strength and has never seen a dead person before. If you want to keep the alien-vibe, have him not recognize that he killed a person. Imagine a kid using a magnifying glass on an ant, then replace the ant with Pa and Ma Kent. I like to think that would have been more memorable.)

Man’s World (feat Wonder Woman; by Mary Sangiovanni)

Well, they definitely have the aesthetic they were going for. The mixed chronology is actually not as confusing as I was expecting since the artists made good use of the colors and a wardrobe change to help guide the reader through the flashbacks. I actually felt creeped out by this one.

The only problem is...this doesn’t read like Diana AT ALL. Having Diana not speak English is a great way to keep her menacing, but it also destroys any ability for the audience to know what’s going on in her head. Without her words, we have only her actions, and...she’s just going around killing people? Who haven’t done anything?? (Except the last guy, but he’s one out of six on-page deaths.)

What is her motivation? Why is she doing these things? What happened to Wonder Woman, righteous warrior and defender of the innocent?

(This would have been excellent if it was a villain character instead of Diana, just saying.)

Crazy for You (feat Harley Quinn; by Bryan Smith and Brian Keene)

Is it a ghost? Or is it a hallucination? Both? I’m not sure, and I love that I’m not sure.

That said, I’m definitely not a Harley expert...does she read in-character? I don’t know, she feels flat to me. And something about cutting hard away from witnessing the murders. Unreliable narrator is in effect, I want more concrete details of the murders from Chuck’s point of view.

Last Laugh (feat Batman; by Nick Cutter)

Ha. Hahaha. This is the one I reblogged panels from yesterday.

Good things first: capitalizing on Batman-Joker parallels has been done since forever, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think the opening and closing scenes are well-narrated and well-composed. The much smaller batcave and the gun are good hints that something’s very different about this universe. The Joker’s voice was pretty good, for the most part. I wouldn’t change much of anything in the first half of this.

The second half...hahaha.

My beef with this one isn’t that Jason was killed; it was that he was killed for shock value and as an undisguised reference to super-(in)famous Death in the Family. It does not add constructively to the narrative at all. Last Laugh is clearly a hard AU with only the barest resemblance to canon; leaning so hard on canon that you only have one panel (technically two panels) with Jason in your story means that I just get angry instead of mournfully distraught when Jason is killed. It’s cheap and unearned in my opinion.

More broadly, there’s mixed signals as to the nature of Bruce’s delusion. Is he going around beating/killing people dressed as Batman? Or does he do his murders specifically dressed as the Joker? The later red panels indicate the former while the zoom-in on his locker at the end implies the latter. This whole story would have been much stronger if the writer had picked one interpretation and stuck with it from beginning to end.

(I would go with a strong Batman/Joker divide where Batman is still the vigilante and the Joker is the only “one” doing the crimes. Have the blue and red panels read as Batman vs Joker for most of the first read-through, but also have them consistently show Delusion vs Truth for the second read-through. I would also have Joker’s call-outs be a little more ambiguous so the twist actually sneaks up on you as opposed to be super obvious from the first red panel on.

And goddamn, if you’re going to kill Jason, at least have him show up in the narrative beforehand as Robin in the Delusion panel and ordinary-child-Jason in the Truth panel. Have him walk in on something he shouldn’t have, which leads to his murder and Bruce’s subsequent final mental break. Hell, maybe even imply that Robin was never really a thing outside Bruce’s head to really hammer home the death of a child who did nothing wrong.

Work for the tragedy, is all I’m saying.)

Blackest Day (feat Hal Jordan and Justice League; by Brian Keene)

In my opinion, this is the strongest of the lot. Zombie Barry compromising the moon base - because he was looking for help and didn’t realize he was already doomed - is excellent. And terrifying, because Zombie Barry could start the apocalypse by himself, imagine how many people he could bite in a minute. Liked how Hal held onto hope all the way up until he felt himself changing, then decided to take a Last Stand rather than let himself become part of the problem.

Superman being off-planet was cheap. The timeline for the End of the World seems super contracted based on Constantine’s transmission and the way the moon base was wholly in the dark. Wonder Woman and J’onn died very easily. Would have liked more fighting off the zombies, but this was short enough that there wasn’t a lot of time for that.

Having the World actually End...I’m never a fan of complete annihilation by zombies. (And what about Themyscira? Atlantis? Is DC Earth really completely depopulated?)

(I’m just saying, post-zombie-apocalypse AU. I’d read it.)

Unmasked (feat Two Face; by Wrath James White...that’s a weird name)

I think this one’s the weakest of the ones I read. I may not be the most well-read when it comes to Havey/Two-Face, but ugh. Serial Killer Harvey is something I don’t need in an official AU. Not to mention that that is not how skinning a person works - connective tissue between the skin and the muscle would mean that peeling each face would take way more time than shown.

The Leviathan thing also takes up way too many panels and accomplishes nothing. NOTHING.

#meta #opinion #idle thoughts #dc house of horror #spoilers #in summary: meh #interesting ideas #middling to poor execution #superman #wonder woman #batman #joker #justice league #two-face #harley quinn

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