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anarcoqueer1994 · 2 months

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Never Have I Ever (Steddie Ficlet)

The older teens—Jonathan, Argyle, Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Eddie,-- had been hanging out drinking at Steve’s house. No one can remember whose idea it was, but they ended up playing “Never Have I Ever” with who ever being the one who has done it having to take a drink. It was fun, mostly dumb ones, like “Never have I ever been out of Indiana (excluding the Upside-Down) or “Never have I ever smoked weed.” It was one of Robin’s though, that nearly gave Eddie a heart attack.

She looked around the table, smirking, half tipsy. “Never have I ever slept with a guy.” She laughed. Eddie thought nothing of it. He figured she used this one to get as many people at the table to drink as possible. Eddie wasn’t surprised when Jonathan, Argyle (they are dating now, he thinks), and Nancy take a drink with him. What nearly causes him to choke on his own beer is seeing Steve also pick up his glass and take a sip.

His shock causes him to cough up his drink, and though his reaction may have been the most dramatic, but other than Robin, everyone else looked confused too. Steve was oblivious to the looks around the table though, only drunkenly turning to Robin saying “That’s not fair, dude. You knew you would be the only one not to drink.” He playfully complains.

Eddie clears his throat, being the one to ask the question everyone was wondering. “Harrington, you slept with a guy?”

Steve looks around, first confused with the reaction, slowly realizing that everyone was looking at him. They weren’t judgmental, of course, just surprised. He looks awkwardly at Robin who just shrugs her shoulders, before he says. “Oops I guess I forgot to tell you guys. Kind of figured you all knew since we are all…you know…queer. “

Robin laughs at the absurdness of his statement. “Aww Steve, they thought you were our token straight.” She sticks out her tongue.

Eddie doesn’t know why but he kind of feels…jealous. When he thought Steve was straight, it was easy for him to just accept that Steve in unattainable, that he doesn’t like guys. But knowing he does…changes things. Steve was into dudes, and he is a dude. But now he feels like Steve is unattainable in a new way…he is out of his league. Steve can’t want Eddie, no matter how big of a stupid crush he has on him. That hurt more. He can’t explain why he said what he said next, maybe he is a masochist. But his mouth works faster than his brain. “Who?”

“What?” Steve scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion, a strand of hair falling across his forehead. Eddie hates that this makes him more attractive.

He wishes he could pull the word back in, he wishes it would have stayed trapped against his teeth, but it didn’t so he has to go with it. “Um…I mean who was the lucky guy that slept with King Steve?” He tries play it off as a joke, like he’s teasing but honestly part of him wants to know what Steve’s type is.

“Oh, um a few guys, I guess. The first one was Tommy. Before Nance and I dated, I used to hook up with Tommy and Carol sometimes. Most of the time it was the three of us, but I have been with both of them separately.” Steve goes red, realizing all the attention is on him now.

“You were like a …throuple with Tommy and Carol?” Nancy asks in disbelief.

“No, nothing like that! What we did was just for fun. Those two were their own thing. “ He put his increasingly flushed face in his hands before continuing. “Let’s…uh move on from this embarrassing can of worms Robin has opened.

Everyone nods, but Eddie’s big mouth strikes again. “You said there was a few…”

“Eds, you really wanna know all the guys I slept with?” Steve raises his eyebrow, embarrassment going to amusement. He shoots Eddie a smirk before adding. “Why? You wanna be on that list?” He winks.

Shit. Eddie was too pushy. He doesn’t need to know. His face turns red. “Uh no. I’m sorry, I’m just being nosy. I’m sorry.” He repeats without his usual confidence. He continues to ramble apologies.

“Eddie…” Steve interrupts. “I’m just messing with you, man. It’s fine. I don’t have secrets with you guys. There were a few random hooks ups from the gay bar Robin, and I go to in Indianapolis, and um my senior year, I hooked up with one of the guys one the swim team. See no big secrets.” He laughs.

The tension Eddie was feeling dissipates with the sound of Steve’s laugh. Steve doesn’t care…Eddie is reading too much into this. “No big secrets.” He parrots back. And with that, they were back to the game, no one bringing up Steve’s “come out,” No mention of Eddie’s weird reaction, nothing that should make him nervous. But part of him swears he notices Steve staring him down more as the night goes on.

They end up all watching a movie, everyone passing out in the living room, half tipsy, and just feeling safe. Robin and Nancy are cuddled together on the couch while Jonathan and Argyle are tangled together on the love seat. Eddie had been on the chair and Steve was on the third cushion of the couch. They had been the only two still awake, neither very comfortable where they are. When the movie comes to an end, Steve whispers, “Eds…come on man. Let’s go upstairs.”

“up..stairs?” Eddie stutters out like some pathetic 13-year-old kid with a first crush. But he couldn’t help it. Was Steve asking his to go to bed with him? Maybe he wasn’t crazy. Maybe Steve was flirting with him earlier. Maybe he was staring.

Eddie watches as Steve stands up, walks closer and holds out his hand, Eddie instinctively responds, taking the other man’s hand, letting him pull him up. “Yea, upstairs. That chair is not comfortable.”

“No, its not.” Eddie agrees as they head for the steps, still hand in hand. When they get to the top of the stairs though, Steve lets go. He starts leading Eddie to the opposite end of the hallway from his bedroom. When they stop in front of the door at the end, Eddie understands. He feels his heart drop as Steve opens the door to the guest room. “Finally have an excuse to use this thing.” He softly laughs, before turning away, saying over his shoulder “Night, Eds. Let me know if you need anything.”

All Eddie can do is nod lamely, as he steps into his room for the night. He closes the door before collapsing on the bed. His brain is on an emotional roller coaster. He feels stupid thinking that Steve Harrington, queer or not, would be into him. Before he can spiral into self-deprivation, he is pulled back to reality by a knock on the door.

When he opens it, there is Steve Harrington, now clad only in the tiny red shorts he sleeps in. It takes every thing in him to keep his brain from short circuiting. “Steve? What’s up?” He hopes he sounds casual.

“Eddie, why did you react that way earlier when you found out I like guys?” Steve cuts to the chase.

“I..I told you man, just surprised.” He tells a half lie.

“I know, I know. You said that but why did you want to know who?” Steve continues, gears obvious turning in his, trying make the connections he thinks he sees.

“I don’t know.” Eddie looks down at his own feet. Looking at Steve feels dangerous right now, Like Steve could see right through him.”

“Eds? You don’t know?” Steve asks skeptically.

“Yea I don’t know. I just asked. Making conversation, man” Eddie deflects, still looking down.

“I don’t believe you.” Steve says back plainly. Eddie was about to protest, insist Steve was wrong. But before he can, he feels a gentle hand under his chin, pushing his head upwards, so Steve can meet his eyes. He’s frozen as Steve smirks whispering, “I think you wanted to be on that list too.”

Eddie can feel his cheeks going red. Without thinking he replies, “I want to be the end of that list.” As soon as the words leave him mouth, he wishes he could pull them back in. “Oh god, I am so sorry. I don’t expect you to just settle with me or anything. I’m sure you have better.’

“No Eddie. I wouldn’t be settling.” He lets out a sign. “ I should have phrased this better. Eddie, I want you. And not just for sex. Like don’t get me wrong, that’s part of it. You’re so fucking hot. But you are so funny and smart and dorky and such a good friend. I’ve been into you for so long. So um, what do you think?” All confidence and charismatic attitude is gone.

“You like me?” Eddie sputters out.

“Oh my god! Yes, Eds. I do. I like you. Honestly, I think I love you and I don’t know how else to spell it out to you. I just don’t get it, Eds? What more…” Steve is cut off by the soft lips pressed again his. It takes him a moment to realize Eddie is kissing him but when he does, he finds himself kissing back. His hands tangle in Eddie’s hair while Eddie wraps his arms around Steve’s waist.

When they finally pull apart, Eddie asks “So you wanna add me to that list?

“Yea, I do. Eventually. But for tonight I just want to cuddle with me…boyfriend?” He asks, worried he jumped the gun.

“Yea…I want to cuddle with my boyfriend, too.” He smiles, pulling Steve into the guestroom, closing the door behind them.

#steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #ficlet #steddie fanfic #past stommy #Past Starol #Is starol a thing? Shouldn't be #A dumb little ficlet to appease the head goblins #Did not proofread #sorry #stranger things #steve x eddie

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mysterycitrus · 6 months

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I personally think the whole “Dick is an asshole” thing is really overblown. I get not liking the current Dick and the one in fanon who is all smiles all the time but I genuinely do not think he’s an asshole, either. He CAN be an asshole sometimes and let his anger get the better of him but those aren’t common occurrences and happen when he’s under a lot of stress or pressure. For example, the whole beating the joker to death happened because he thought Tim was dead and was being taunted about it, not because he’s a loose fuse. He’s capable of being easygoing and cracking jokes and I’d argue that’s generally his default state if he’s not going through hell. Idk the whole binary people treat his character with irritates me. I like him because he’s nuanced.

i don’t disagree with you — but the reason i in specific talk about him being an asshole so much is because that part of him currently does not exist in many fan spaces or canon comics (excluding batman 138, recently). because he’s shoved into being an unquestionably happy person (who is often forced to apologise for things that aren’t his fault) it removes his autonomy to make any decisions that might hurt peoples feelings.

i don’t think it’s unfair to push back against that, even if it does too far in the other direction. you’re right — he is a nuanced character, but taylor’s interpretation of him has soured me to his softer side and now i just want to see him go apeshit.

what i think is weirder is when people try to frame him as robin as being unquestionably violent and angry. that’s just absurd. acting as if he didn’t create robin to symbolise hope is stupid. acting like he was an unhinged would-be murderer (to make another character look better cough) is also bad. dehumanising him on either end of the spectrum is bad writing.

like i specified in this post, dick doesn’t often actually lose his temper, but even when he’s cracking jokes or trying to take a load off he’s still in constant control of himself. he’s always ready to take action. that’s where i think a lot of interpretations of him get mixed up.

#dc comics #dick grayson #nightwing #batfam #the ask and the answer

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oh-stars · 2 months

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Her Steve

Coworkers

a Stobin Month 2024 prompt | 933 words | CW: misogyny | Rating: G

Robin kind of loves working at Family Video. It’s perfect in every way that Scoops Ahoy was a nightmare — excluding the last week she worked there, of course. The customers are more direct most of the time, either dropping off their rentals or swapping it out for something they know they want to watch, and when they don’t know what they want, they don't pester her about it. They’ll browse for a while, maybe ask a question here or there, and then be on their merry way once a selection is made. And sure she still has to clean, even more than she did before considering Family Video is almost double the Scoops Ahoy store, but it’s not the same. Vacuuming and wiping down the counters once a day (and even that’s iffy) is nothing compared to the forever sticky booths and having to sweep every hour at least so the store isn’t overrun with crushed waffle cones and sprinkles. Don’t even get her started on the uniforms.

And best of all? She still works with Steve!

But now instead of antagonizing him and making him the butt of the joke, they’re joking together and bitching about other people. They spend most of their shifts watching movies and talking shit about everything and nothing. It’s perfect really.

Another perk of Family Video being so different from Scoops? It’s actually dead during the summer. Sure, there’s a boost of people at the end of the day when parents are getting off work, and you’ll find the occasional wave of people throughout, but for the most part, it’s dead during the week. Except for rainy days, which is so not today.

They finished all their tasks on Monday morning, and they really haven’t seen a big wave of customers this week at all. Most of the people who show up are just dropping off the rentals they snagged for last week’s heat wave but now that the temperature isn’t melt-your-face-off hot, Hawkins is back to their regularly scheduled program of spending time outdoors when they can.

To say they’re bored is an understatement.

Which is why Robin created this oh so brilliant game. She checks the timer, still ticking away, and peeks up to see Steve practically vaulting over the shelves to get to the next movie he has to grab. They both made a list of ten movies — no genres and they only included the first letter of each title — to see who could get the most right in the fastest time. Steve just started his turn, pushing the go back cart so fast around the store the stuck wheel is about to pop off for good.

“C’mon Harrington,” Robin goads from her throne behind the counter. Her feet are propped up on the surface, laying back as much as she can in the computer chair they have. “You know that’s not what I picked.” She can’t see what he has in the cart or his hand, so she has no idea if he’s right.

They never promised each other a clean game.

She can hear Steve grumbling but the bell on the door stops him from shouting back. He doesn’t, however, stop running around.

Robin turns to find Jerry S. from band, a trombone player in her year. “Looking for something specific, Jerry?” Robin asks, not bothering to get up from her spot.

Jerry opens his mouth, then turns toward Steve’s grumbling form as he pushes the cart down the action aisle. “Is that Steve Harrington?”

“Yup.”

“That blows,” Jerry says as he leans against the counter, shaking his head. “I think I’d quit on the spot if my boss hired him.”

Robin crosses her arms and drops her feet from the counter. “Well its a good thing you’re not here for a job, isn’t it?”

Jerry gives her a funny look, like he’s actually surprised by her sharp tone and bored expression that barely contains the rage bubbling within her. “Don’t tell me you actually like him?”

“Yup,” she says again as her eyes narrow. “Are you getting a movie or not?”

“Jeez,” Jerry says, holding up his hands, “no need to be a bitch about it.”

“Alright,” Steve says, dropping the tapes into the cart and walking closer to Jerry. “That’s it. Out!” He makes shooing motions with his hand as he starts herding Jerry out the door. “You can say whatever you want about me, but you’re not going to disrespect Robin like that.”

“Are you serious?”

“Deadly,” Steve says. “You can’t say anything I haven’t heard before, but we have the right to refuse service to disrespectful clientele. And might I remind you this is the Family Video, so foul language is not permitted within these walls, dickwad. Don’t like it, take it up with the manager.”

“Fine,” Jerry says, shrugging Steve’s hands away from him and pushing on the door. “Who is the–”

Steve just flips him off and shuts the door behind him. He waits a beat, then spins back to Robin, clapping his hands. “I want a redo. I had like two more videos to grab and you weren’t paying attention to start the timer.”

Robin glances down at the egg timer still ticking. “Mmm. I don’t think so.”

“Oh come on!”

“Fine. Go to the break room so I can make a new list,” she huffs. “But you’re reshelving everything after.”

Steve just gives her a thumbs up as he passes to the break room, smirking.

Robin rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t really mean it. That’s her Steve and he better not forget it.

Thank you @lady-lostmind for beta reading!

Ao3 Link

#ohstars fic #steve harrington #stranger things #robin buckley #stobin month 2024 #ohstars posting challenge #platonic soulmates stobin #platonic stobin #stobin

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forestmossling · 13 days

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there’s one thing that i find incredibly unrealistic about robin’s canon (and fanon tbh) characterization. you’re telling me this girl speaks three languages fluently (excluding pig latin) and she never ever slips into any of them?? the only line in another language we ever get from her is “flambé”??

like, i fluently speak one foreign language, can more or less communicate in another and am in the process of learning a third, and i call bullshit. as a person who constantly struggles to articulate a point in my native language without using english words or phrases (and literally all people i know that are fluent in foreign languages are the same way) i do NOT believe that robin doesn’t just sometimes bluescreen because there’s a phrase in one of the languages she knows that would perfectly express what she wants to say that just doesn’t have an equivalent in english, but she can’t use it because nobody will understand her. or that she never subconsciously literally translates a phrase from another language in english because it’s so natural to her at this point that she just forgets words don’t collocate in english like that or there’s no such saying in english and steve just blinks at her and goes “yeah, literally nobody says that”.

and she’s a RAMBLER. it’s canon that she can’t control what comes out of her mouth half the time and you’re telling me she doesn’t unknowingly sprinkle in words and expressions in literally THREE FOREIGN LANGUAGES SHE’S FLUENT IN when she gets nervous or goes on a rant???????

and her just casually messing up the prepositions she uses with verbs from the models she learnt in other languages and the others understanding her perfectly but sensing there’s something wrong with the way she speaks without being able to pinpoint exactly what it is would just be so funny to see.

and just imagine her teaching steve some fun words that they use constantly like their own little secret code. the POSSIBILITIES. the POTENTIAL. because one of the coolest things about learning foreign languages, especially with other people, is being able to casually throw around phrases and words nobody else understands.

anyway, thank you for listening to my ted talk-

#once again #it’s time to project on your favorite fictional characters o’clock folks #and i’m not saying it’s just a st problem #trust me i have a lot more salty things to say about leo valdez’s very sad (and practically nonexistent) spanglish #this is not even all of my thoughts on robin knowing three other languages #trust me there are a lot more #i just didn’t want to drag this post out #robin buckley #robin buckley headcanons #robin buckley hc #stranger things hc #stranger things headcanons #stranger things #i am once again asking why you rob (hehe) robin of the possibility of being even more of a badass than she already is #and don’t let us linguistics and philology freaks relate to her even more #i just feel like a lot of situations in robin’s life objectively call for some dramatic yelling in spanish

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dukethomas · 1 year

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What's the non safe Duke controversial opinion? 👀

duke's familial relationship to the waynes is a lot more complicated & nuanced than people give it credit for. i do want to preface this by saying this isn't a fandom gripe i have, i understand the push for duke being unequivocally part of the family, which i do believe he is, bc racists will literally latch onto anything as proof that they shouldn't include characters of color. but the reality of it is that duke was fostered by bruce for about one year. a year and a half if you're pushing it. this all happened under the pretenses of training, and during this time duke’s parents resided on manor grounds. he sees some of the waynes as his siblings, but i think he absolutely does not consider himself part of the wayne family. (batfam is less of a family and more akin to coworkers, so the distinction between that & wayne family is important.)

like, he canonically considers cass his sister. jason has referred to him as one of his brothers (smth like “i have four brothers”) and they have a very friendly back and forth dynamic that gives credence to this. i like to believe duke and damian have a brotherly relationship based on their interactions in robin war. but that’s about it. dick and tim are more coworkers to duke than anything else, bc they simply. do not interact. (in fact, duke’s interactions with dick pre-fostering aren’t even positive. dick sold them out to cops.) esp not when duke was being fostered by bruce. and duke wouldn’t consider bruce a father in the slightest, because he has a perfectly good one already. (does bruce consider duke his son, though? yeah. he doesn’t say anything about it, though.) so yeah, duke has familial relationships with some of these people on an individual basis, but realistically he doesn’t think of himself as part of the wayne family. he’s a thomas through and through. he’s a core member of the batfam, & from an outside perspective he should definitely be considered as part of the waynes, but that’s more of a reactionary blanket statement that overshadows the nuances of the whole thing. i wish batfandom wasn’t so racist so that we could discuss the exact nuances of this all without having to be wary of those who would try to twist these arguments to exclude duke, but we do not live in a perfect world.

(but also, fanon prioritizes duke being part of the waynes over duke’s loyalty to his own family, which is also racist. duke’s parents are more important to him than any of the batfam. ffs, they also erase that he lived with his cousin jay. (lives? idk what his living situation is. he looks like he’s living alone in urban legends though.) both extremes on the spectrum of “is duke a wayne” are bad and racist and i don’t think fanon realizes that. probably because they’re too busy patting themselves on the back for including him.)

#ask #duke thomas #yeah idk if i worded this well enough but. I Just Think This Topic Has Layers #crys writes meta

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gothra · 8 months

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Please spill more tea on The Boys season 3 shitting the bed, too few people on here only give flack to the finale being shit and not enough on how they screwed up the whole thing.

I want to get my attempt to answer the question out of the way before I continue with my apology for not answering. This reply is going to be bare, and the rest of my post will explain why, but after I get the question out of the way.

I’m going to operate under the belief that, because you’re asking me for more complaining, you already understand the basic issues that I have with Season 3, the biggest being the Toxic Masculinity Bullshit. Not only have I grown to love Hughie Campbell very deeply, but I’ve come to appreciate his flaws and story more. His new arc as some sort of ego monster is so ill-fitting that it’s disrespectful. It’s disrespectful to Hughie, it’s disrespectful to the people who love his character, and it’s disrespectful to Robin, which leads me to The Robin Problem.

Fundamentally, I don’t believe that this issue I have with Hughie’s new arc would have merit if they respected Robin enough as a character to connect her to Hughie’s problems in the third season. They have effectively excluded and ignored Robin from the narrative. It’s one thing for Hughie to fall in love with another woman, it’s another thing to suddenly pretend that his first girlfriend’s violent death wasn’t traumatizing enough to shape his identity and flaws in the later season. Instead, he’s made out to be the guy who wants to reign over his new girlfriend and lock her up in a tower to protect her, ignoring her Ra-Ra Girl Power Rhetoric and stepping on her twinkly toes. He has to grovel to her, let her have her moment, and he doesn’t get any empathy, which means that Robin doesn’t either. She’s not special enough for Hughie to use as a starting point for his trauma. All she is is the catalyst for the entire story, not anything special (sarcasm).

Circling back to Annie, in what I call The Annie Issue. I don’t like Annie as a character. I’ve come to understand that more and more with the 3rd season. I thought she was a bit boring, sure, but I never write off a female character for being boring. I’m never quick to express dislike of female characters, but let me say, as quickly as possible, that I don’t like Annie. I don’t like what she does or what she represents, which seems to be a very infuriatingly middling stance at every important moment. There’s a sort of Midwestern flavor to everything she does, and it’s sour. She gives Hughie grief about wanting to protect her while she simultaneously complains about not feeling safe. She bags him for taking super drugs, and never once acknowledges that the reason he might be taking them is because he’s feeling unsafe, which is a valid thing to feel (I didn’t expect her to do that when the story won’t even do it, but it still sucks). She bites back at Victoria’s attempt to bribe her with a very manufactured millennial white feminist tagline about doing things her own way. Here’s the thing: she doesn’t do anything. There’s a moment in the last few episodes where she says something so stupid that it’s still a source of entertainment for me: she tells the rest of the gang that she’s is going to “save Hughie” (from the V, from Butcher, from Toxic Masculinity, from himself) whether he wants her to or not. The next time we see her, she’s in the car picking Hughie up from a gas station, alone, after Butcher punches him in the face to keep him from taking any more V, effectively saving him. Hughie even comes to that realization in the car, that Butcher saved his life by punching him in the face. Butcher was his savior, Annie was his ride home. She does basically nothing else for Hughie the rest of the season.

As far as the story goes, she’s useless as anything other than a narrative pull for Hughie to return to his former self and shut up about his personal trauma. She exists only to make Hughie look cool for dating her, and I’m bored of it and I’m bored of her. I’m tired of the neo-liberal gymnastics S3 was doing. I found her point of view pathetic and inefficient and I found the attempts of the writing to discredit Butcher’s successful work in her favor to be ridiculous. The guy is a piece of shit. He’s horrible. But he gets shit done. That’s the whole point of the story. Sometimes bad people have to do bad things to make good things happen. Annie just wants to be a good girl all the time, and I don’t like that her good girl status is what the writing wants us to prefer. I’m not stupid enough to fall for it.

The rest of it is a handful of related things that I haven’t thought as hard about. I don’t like Soldier Boy, I think that his presence really made the fandom even more unbearable on every front. It brought a bunch of Jensen stannies into the fold, and Soldier Boy was all they cared about, to the point where their engagement drowned out content about other characters. And the way the men immediately did a Patrick Bateman and began to woobify and lust after him. That, combined with the fact that The Deep still isn’t dead like he should be, further exacerbated my frustration with the way they chose to progress with Hughie’s character. So Hughie has to be a lesson about toxic masculinity to a fandom that inherently revels in toxic masculinity (to the point where they had to be asked to stop harassing Erin about her cosmetic surgery) and clings to one of the most toxic characters ever to appear in the show, a show that keeps a rapist around as comedic relief? It’s patently unfair.

Anyway, that’s the best that I could do. I’m not good at being broad, so if there’s something specific you’d still like to know, feel free to come back and ask about it. I would 100% be fine if you brought up stuff in the comments or reblogged with whatever you want to talk about. I think I would be able to give you that tea you want on smaller scales. That being said, I have something else to say.

(I wrote the following part before I wrote the part above)

I’ve thought about this ask every day since you sent it. If you thought that I wasn’t answering it because I forgot, and that I forgot because I was on a tumblr hiatus, I want you to know that I was on a tumblr hiatus BECAUSE I didn’t want to do anything else until I could muster up a reply to this ask because I respected it so much. I have what is probably autism, and that means that I have a very strong attachment to tasks and projects. I don’t like to quit or abandon things, so I sat with this ask in my inbox for about 4 months. I wanted to do it justice and type up an essay, and really lash out at the writing like I’d done before, but I think two things were wrong with that desire: one, I’ve never conjured up a long form essay for the sake of media review before, so the task is a huge, exhausting, foreign undertaking and two, the ask came at the wrong time.

Now, that’s not an indictment on you or the question. It just came at an inconvenient time, because immediately before you asked it, I had already worn myself out discussing the flaws of Season 3 with other people. I have a bit of a battery when it comes to these things (that’s the best comparison I can make right now, I’m kind of tired) because I get so worked up and passionate about what I’m arguing about, that when I’m finished making the argument, I often get worn out and can immediately forget the argument or the focus of my frustration in the first place. It can take a long time to recharge that battery, and I still haven’t recharged it. It’s not that I’m not longer frustrated with Season 3, it’s that, before you even sent the ask, I ranted so thoroughly that I essentially burnt myself out. I essentially ranted the thoughts out of my brain.

But I wanted to answer the ask. I wanted to answer it so badly, that I just avoided tumblr altogether, because I didn’t want you to see my internet presence and think I was ignoring you. I even stopped playing TS4 because I knew I’d end up on tumblr, and you might see it and feel neglected. None of that is your fault, of course. That’s just me, and I’m apologizing now. I’m so sorry I left you hanging for so long.

I set aside a document to jot down the thoughts whenever they came to me, but I didn’t get much. If you’d like, I can definitely send you the outline and the bits and pieces that I had gotten to write, but there isn’t as much there as I really wanted to present to you.

#oh my god #I finally did it #the boys #hughie campbell #billy butcher #jack quaid #asks #gothra #IM BACK B WORDS

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hawkinsgirlnextdoor · 9 months

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okay but imagine dming a girls-only dnd campaign with Nancy, Robin, El, Max, and Erica

The D&D scene in Hawkins has always been kind of barren. A boys club if you will. Of course there was always the party and the Hellfire Club but you were always looking for a space where you could feel more comfortable playing with other girls.

When things become more stable in Hawkins you acquired a solid group of female friends. Nancy and Robin are your age, and while you definitely spend time with the boys, you’ve started to hang out just the three of you.

El and Max are younger than you but you always enjoy their company. You serve as a kind of older sister figure to the party and the two of them kind of look up to you.

You’ve only recently started hanging around Erica but you like her a lot and once she gets in to D&D you two start to bond.

It’s actually Erica’s idea to start the campaign in the first place.

All of the girls are coming in with different levels of experience.

Nancy has observed D&D through Mike for a good chunk of her life and has occasionally participated so she knows the basic mechanics and other random facts about the game.

Robin has never touched a 20 sided die in her life. The people that she’s hung out with before the summer of 85 were never the type to play D&D and she barley knew it existed before the whole Satanic Panic thing started to sweep Hawkins.

Max has always been a bit put off by D&D. At first it was something that was used to exclude her from the group and once she became friends with the party she would be insecure that she wasn’t as good at it as the boys were. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will had been playing forever and she feels like she doesn’t fit in.

When you pitch the idea to her you assure her that the majority of the participants are starting from square one and there's nothing to be worried about. That persuades her to give it a shot.

El is just happy to be doing something with other girls. Of course she’s friends with Max but she longs for more female company. She also knows a little about D&D due to how much Mike has tried to explain it to her.

Once Robin is introduced to D&D and learns the rules she’s super psyched about playing and creating her character. She also rolls her dice really weird (big Ally Beardsley ala Fantasy High energy).

Robin is obsessed with languages so she quickly tries to learn Elvish and uses it during role play. Her experience in drama also leads her to commit especially hard (sometimes too much lol).

As for classes and races: Robin plays as a teifling bard, Erica as a half-elf rouge, Max as a tabaxi barbarian (my first instinct was also rouge but Lady Applejack is already a rouge so gahhh), El as a half-elf mage, and Nancy as an elven duel class cleric and fighter.

Nancy is the resident note taker and jots down every detail, stat, and piece of inventory.

She also probably unravels all of your planning with her great detective work. Like you’ll spend ten hours crafting a mystery that's supposed to be revealed in the very last session and she cracks it by the third.

Erica spends hours hand painting minis for each character. The detail is astounding.

"Did you paint a tiny star in her eye?" "I'm thorough."

El is that player who cannot do basic addition for the life of her (aka me). Max always has her back though.

"I rolled an eighteen. Eighteen plus seven is ....." "Twenty five." "Thank you."

El is also proficient in animal handling and constantly adopts wildly dangerous creatures to be her pets.

You might think that Erica is a head-straight-into-battle kind of player due to the absolute powerhouse that is Lady Applejack but she's actually incredibly tactical. Her and Nancy tend to alternate as party leader.

Max and Robin on the other hand are the kind of players who crave chaos.

You: "The villager seems to know something about the creature that lives in the woods. You can see however that he's apprehensive to answer any of your questions."

Max: "This guy is totally shady." Robin: "Yeah you're right ... we should punch him." Max: "Oh my god you're so right. If I roll a nat 20 can a tooth fly out?"

As a DM you are very attentive to your players. You craft scenarios for each girl to shine and show their growth as a player. You also make little dice boxes and customize. You make their favorite treats and have them in the middle of the table every session.

You notice they all seem to be getting closer and more comfortable with the game which warms your heart.

Sessions are hosted on Friday nights and usually conclude with movies, pizza, and sleeping over someone's house based on the availability of their living room.

Each girl also gets to make her own mixtape to play during sessions. The vibes of which are all over the place. Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, Tiffany, Blondie. The works.

The environment of the campaign is so comfortable. Yes you're putting their characters through horrible danger and mental gymnastics but its out of love <3.

Your players are amazing. You feel so lucky that you're able to share something you love with the girls in your life and make it your own.

By the time you're nearing the end of your campaign Dustin and Lucas are begging to get in on the action for the next one, only to be disappointed when Robin slams the door in their faces clarifying that this party is "Ladies Only!".

#stranger things headcanons #robin buckley #robin buckley headcanons #nancy wheeler #nancy wheeler headcanons #erica sinclair #erica sinclair headcanons #el hopper #el hopper headcanons #max mayfield #max mayfield headcanons #stranger things x reader #self insert #just girly things #i love my girls #stranger things #rebel robin

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daigina-3 · 2 years

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Listen. It starts with Eddie being dense as hell. Or Robin being way too obvious- or so obvious that she circles back around to not at all obvious? No, let’s just go with Eddie being dense as hell.

Because one day while fucking around Family Video, Eddie mentions Queen- the band, not the old lady- and Steve comments that Queen wasn’t something he thought Eddie would be into. And it’s true, Queen isn’t Eddie’s style at ALL, but you gotta respect QUEEN, y’know? And he says as much.

And Robin zeros in on him like a hawk. It’s like she’s hit over the head and she suddenly won’t shut about Queen. “Yeah, yeah.. gotta love Queen. Or do you? Do you? Why? What’s so good about Queen? That Freddie Mercury guy sure is cool. Or is he? What do you like about him so much, Eddie?”

And Eddie’s not usually a really defensive guy- or, okay maybe he is. Especially when someone’s asking him why he has any interest in Freddie Mercury while eyeing him up and down. Eddie’s gotten several of Those Looks before- never good- the ones that start as weary of his hair and his leather jacket and chains and then it clicks that it’s not just the clothes they have to worry about. And so he gets a little skeptical.

Eddie notices that Robin, every time he sees her, won’t shut up about- well, gay shit. It’s like she’s trying to catch him out and it makes Eddie want to turn tail and run. He thought she was cool, but maybe he should have known anyone who would date Steve Harrington isn’t that cool- or cool like THAT, anyway- although Eddie thought Steve had changed.. maybe he hadn’t. Maybe Robin was trying to get Eddie to slip and then she and her boy toy Harrington could play a rousing game of kick-the-queer. It wouldn’t be the first time someone Eddie thought was safe turned on him..

So, after the third time Robin loudly mentions that Rocky Horror Picture Show was rented out again, asking Eddie if he’d ever seen it (Eddie dodges the question every time) he does what he does best and turns tail and runs.

(Of course he has though- he’s driven the two hours to Indianapolis twice just for midnight viewings.)

And it sucks- it sucks a lot. It sucks when he drives Max to school and she asks why Eddie’s parking so far away from his usual spot- to avoid Harrington’s car, of course. It sucks when he sees Dustin in the hall and has to make up something about Hellfire prep with Garrett because he was invited to go out but fucking Buckley and Harrington are of course also coming. It sucks when Harrington himself approaches Eddie and he swears he sees Harrington’s hair deflate in disappointment when Eddie once again makes up some reason he can’t join in some movie night.

Eddie has to remind himself that if Harrington’s determined girlfriend catches him out, he’d be lucky just to be excluded. He’s become an outcast and stone-throwing target- and for everyone else it would be expected, but from Dustin? Max? Harrington? He doesn’t know if he could take it. So, distance it is.

And then Buckley corners him. In the parking lot, no less, of Hawkins High- after a late night Hellfire session, Eddie for once wasn’t driving anyone home and was the last out of the building, the street lights shining against the wet black pavement of the empty lot.

Or, empty he thought. He goes to open his car door and a hand reaches out and slams the door shut again. He almost pisses himself but then there she is- Robin Buckley, looking like she’s sharpening her homo-hunting knife right in front of him.

“Jesus H. CHRIST,” Eddie shouts, and his keys go up in the air but he manages to catch them, fumbling, bringing them close to his chest- and Robin doesn’t flinch.

“What is wrong with you?” She says.

“Excuse me? I’m not the one assaulting innocent people in parking lots, Buckley!”

“I’m not *assaulting* you,” she raises her eyebrows and then scrunches them up in her confused kinda way. “I’m calmly asking you why you’re avoiding me and Steve and everyone- it’s been like a month and I can’t help but feel like, I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with-“

He cuts her off- “Where the fuck were you hiding, anyway? Coming out of nowhere like a goddamn ghost!”

Her eyebrows go back up. “Eddie, Steve’s car is like, right behind you.”

He turns around slowly and sure as shit, there it is- headlights on and Harrington in the drivers’ seat, hand raised in an awkward hello. He could have sworn- well, he looks down when he walks a lot- whatever.

He turns back to Robin and she looks up at him, almost sheepish. “I just- listen I know I come on strong and I don’t know when to shut up- I mean if anyone could understand that I thought it would be you-“

He raises his own eyebrows. Not untrue.

“- but I didn’t mean to scare you off, I just thought, you know it would be really cool to have someone else around who- I mean, Steve is nice and all but he doesn’t *get it* get it, you know? So I was just trying to see if- I mean maybe I was wrong, I mean that happens, and if you’re mad at me for assuming, I’m really sorry- but also if you’re avoiding us because of me being gay that’s kind of an asshole move, like I’d expect that from a lot of people but not-“

What?

“You’re gay?” Eddie asks. And he just has to hear it again because.. what?

Robin looks at him like he grew a second head. “Uh. Yeah. Was it not obvious? I mean, not to everyone- most people don’t think girls even can be gay- but the Queen? The Bowie? Rocky Horror? I literally joked about Judy Garland being my good pal- I really thought that was laying it on thick.”

“Holy shit-“

Eddie’s brain floats away and his stomachs sinks into the ground. An epiphany. Holy shit.

“Listen, if I misread something, I’m sorry- but you can’t go around telling people-“

“I’m an idiot,” Eddie all but slams himself against his van, his head making a loud *bang* reverberate through the parking lot. It’s quiet for a minute, Robin staring at him. After a thought occurs to him, he whips his head back round to face her. “Wait, so you’re not dating Steve?”

Instant disgust as Robin twists her face, like Eddie forced her to eat a rotten lemon. “Steve? And ME? Good lord, no, we are platonic! The most platonic! Capitol P, pla-ton-ic!” She sounds it out for him like he’s a kindergartner. And for a second Eddie thinks maybe that’s where he belongs, because he is so *stupid.*

“You’re gay,” he says, his voice almost quiet with stupid disbelief. “And all this time I thought you were trying to pin me so you and Harrington could- I don’t know. Oh my God I’m so. Stupid.”

Robin looks like Christmas morning. “Wait, so- I wasn’t wrong? My sad attempts at gay bonding weren’t misplaced?”

“Gay bonding?!” Eddie has to laugh. And he does- Robin laughs too, mostly just following his lead.

And from there it’s easy. It’s hilarious, actually, how Eddie missed all the usual queues and how Robin overstepped every queue in the book in her haste to make a Real Gay Friend (unheard of in Hawkins). They talk and they double over, laughing, and talk some more, until Steve is honking his horn and yelling out the window. Robin and Eddie lock eyes and there’s still so much to say but it’s already almost 11. They don’t say anything to each other but Robin just knows, so she runs over to him and tells him he’s released from his duties as chauffeur.

Eddie drives her home, and they talk the whole way there. Robin tells Eddie about Steve confessing to her and how awful she felt, drugged up, beaten up, thinking she was going to lose Steve right there, sitting on the tile of that bathroom floor. But she told him, and it was one of the best things to ever happen to her. And when Eddie talks about trips to bars, close scrapes with some weirdos, his uncle finding dirty mags under his mattress and being so incredibly cool about it- she listens. And it’s so cool.

Eddie still can’t believe it, even as Robin waves goodnight from her porch and he’s pulling away.

Gay bonding. Something he never thought was something he would have- not in Hawkins. And over the next few days and weeks, Eddie is at Family Video more than ever; loud, obnoxious, comfortable. He leans over the counter and shares looks with Robin that confuses Steve until he has to throw his hands up. Eddie jokes about Robin getting a girlfriend who can decipher Robin Speak and she says he should be one to talk- who would date a guy who looks like he’s never met a brush in his life? And Steve laughs at that one, adding a point to the notebook he keeps that has “YOU RULE/YOU SUCK” written in big letters on one of the pages.

Eddie thinks his hair is a work of art, requiring a lot of complicated back combing techniques that Robin could never understand. Steve nods his approval and adds another point in a newly added column- “YOUR HAIR RULES/ YOUR HAIR SUCKS.” There’s two points in the “HAIR RULES” column and one point in the “HAIR SUCKS” column and no one has to question whose point is where.

Robin pencils in “FUCK YOU”

And Eddie laughs, doubled over, so incredibly happy.

#this was supposed to be a short text post as a precursor to a story I might write #and then it became an actual. story. oops #If I’d don’t just bag this out on my phone in an hour and we’re at a real computer I’d do more but I’m just typing on tumblr and it’s 1 am #I just love Eddie and Robin so much and I want them to be. HAPPY #stranger things #st4 #eddie munson #robin buckley #eddie & robin #Steve is there too #I wanted to put in actual Steddie but I’m sleepy maybe later #I mean steddie is possible always #and let’s be real they happen later I just can’t get to it rn

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dailycass-cain · 1 year

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How do you take a minority character in Cassandra Cain, who had an ongoing series that lasted over seventy issues, was part of the core cast at the time, downgrade them from an "A-list" (to me she was) hero to D level, and her importance gone? DC Comics found a way. Tonight let's talk about it.

(2022 me: I wrote these series of tweets back in 2020. Originally, I posted my original essay of this in five parts waaaay back in 2015. Here’s part 1).

Like many things, it wasn't just a singular major cut but several ones, and lots of smaller ones that ousted the character from said position, and probably ran the fandom for the character to other places.

The first big cut is THE story of Batman in the early 2000s, Hush. Many people's "go to" or favorite story for Batman universe. Why? because it features almost every single Bat-Family and major rogues at the time appeared in it. Save for Bane and-- Batgirl.

For Bane it's quite understandable, he was in a story at Gotham Knights at the time. So his story was "being played" out elsewhere. Cass however, the story is notorious for excluding her. I believe even to this day because of the lack of appearance is a key reason why we're here.

Everything "birthed" from Hush has ruled the Batman comics roost for years since it's publication. You might say even to this day, Batman comics cannot escape the shadow of the story or some of the bad characterization within it (2022 note: Oh how right I was back in 2020 when I wrote all of this. We’ve gotten yet another addition of this story, a new omnibus, published this year with a new five page story from the same creative team).

Key among them is this mythical level that the story puts Babs' time as Batgirl. It along with the Tommy and Jason portions are given Bruce's justification for wanting to kill the Joker in it.

There is this thing. This myth that Barbara was the greatest Batgirl ever because simply, she was the one who was in live-action. The one in Batman: The Animated Series. That she should still be Batgirl was played out by writers during this period.

As I said earlier today she was given this chance. Where as Cassandra never really has ever been given a chance save for cameos and some really bad video games. But even then, Tim was in those too? Yet how did he get a pass but Cass did not?

There also lies a rather confession from now former publisher at DC for his distain for legacy characters. How they "age" characters up. I believe this also pertains why Barbara is always Batgirl as well. Since it ages her and Bruce up.

.The irony is, we always get the Robins (save poor Stephanie) in media too. So it's rather-- hypocritical and kind of sexist really that all the boys get their time in the spotlight but the gals do not? Why is that? This myth for Babs as Batgirl and viewpoint on legacies already puts a great hinder on Cassandra as a character. You already have factors going against the character. But wait there's more.

There-in lies the second big cut. A great famous comic writer once told me on a forum, if he didn't like a character he'd just ignore them. Better ignore than write them badly. This sort of thing does make sense but-- in Cassandra's case for one writer it was taken to an extreme.

After War Games event in 2004 does anyone want to play a guess how many times Cassandra appeared in the mainline Batman comics to the end of her ongoing in 2009?

The answer isn't much, just a handful. Not to mention the love affair over returning Jason as well was all over the place. Jason this and Jason that. A fact that this was so metaly pointed out in Batgirl Vol. 2 #1.

There-in lies a revelation tonight I had. I always wondered why the writer of Batgirl Vol. 2 wrote Nightwing so awful in it. Then it hit me across the face tonight: the book's writer at the time. The thing from 2006 to even now there's been an editor/writer who kind of obviously doesn't like the character of Cassandra. In fact his own contribution to this happened in Nightwing as Batgirl Vol. 2 was ending. The whole "family" subplot throughout his entire Batman run.

There in lies the second major cut, the ending of Cassandra's ongoing. Why was it canceled? Not due to sales. Other comics that survived/relaunched into OYL were selling worse than Batgirl. No it was canceled to make room for a Batwoman ongoing.

A Batwoman ongoing (by Devin Grayson) that would never see the light of day. The inker of #73 confirmed this because I guess one female Bat comic was one too many for that day and age. Oh, the sexism was high at DC.

Of course, the third major cut came not too long after. Turning Cassandra into a "dragon lady" villain.

So you take everything fans loved and adored the character. And take it into the trash to give us the worst stereotypical character ever. Worse, is the aftermath following in Robin #152.

Why is it worse? Because it downplays Cassandra's importance in the family to now being a "sad troubled" girl. .....

Fans didn't take well to this all at all during the time period. Cue this article from Wizard #182 (which came out October 2006) when fans were ticked and higher ups threw the Robin writer under the bus at conventions.

And that would come in Titans East over in Teen Titans in early 2007 where we get this crazy retcon to explain it all.

With some extra padding in some oneshots of 52 to show, "Hey Cass did good things in the missing year. Things we'll never see." Aka devaluing her story unlike say Tim who we got to see the complete tale of him at the time.

Back to Titans East, throughout the story neither Tim/Dick help Cass in her problems they instead hinder her more after learning the truth. Thankfully for Tim that characterization would later be course corrected. Dick-- not so much.

So DC said they had "plans" for Cassandra. After East we were teased things in Black Canary mini in the summer of 2007 that Cass had feld from her sect of the League of Assasins.

And as I let you all know here. Well, we all know where Cassandra ended up, as a supporting character in Batman & the Outsiders.

But this in line also ties into DC Nation blurbs where we were teased in Batman & the Outsiders #3 we would be getting a new mini for Cass.

So interesting to note during this period as you know Chuck Dixon was writing Batman & the Outsiders. He really laid out his plans for both this and Robin on podcasts (and one issue of Robin slipped into solicitations).

When I personally attended the Wizardworld Chicago 2009, Dan DiDio said at the DC panel when the subject of why eventual writer for Batgirl Vol. 2, Adam Beechen was person writing this comic. DiDio answered by saying Beechen was the only creative at DC giving him pitches on Cass.

Turns out, DiDio lied as prior to that year in December 2008, Dixon went on the Word Balloon podcast and talked about a “filler” issue of Detective Comics that could include Cassandra Cain.

Of course, as we got said mini with one hand, on the other hand several Bat Family comics were winding down. Those included Robin, Nightwing, and Birds of Prey. And as #6 was closing things out so this was being teased in the final issue of Nightwing.

That is so not Cass, but Barbara as Batgirl kissing Dick in his current Nightwing costume. The heck? Well, at it turns out (as we later learn). Higher ups already were planning Cassandra's ousting from Batgirl even though they gave us a mini. So DC giveth and DC taketh away.

However, prelim hype around the book teased Cass would be Batgirl going in. Note the bulletin board on who was listed as Batgirl (courtesy of IGN, but here’s the Multiversity article on it).

Of course, DC didn’t know WHO was going to Batgirl even at the time this article was posted as they were debating all over the place at this point. Much so in fact it made it to another DC Nation (after Stephanie was chosen):

"2010 will have big plans for our favorite non-lethal assassin".

Yes, we did get Cass in 2010 but just in Red Robin #17. Such a "big plan" that was. A single appearance. Well, okay we did get the retcon on why Cass wasn't Batgirl any longer too. But there wasn't much at all.

So you have DC downplaying the character. And then you get Black Bat.

But as I said before a few days ago, any importance of Cassandra that was coming from the new Batman writer was short-lived as the New 52 rolled out fully on Babs back as Batgirl. Many got their wish (higher ups included) Babs was back as Batgirl. The "myth" was a reality again.

At the very least, Stephanie got one final adventure as Batgirl even if, plans were in place to make her Spoiler just in case her as Batgirl wasn't allowed.

What followed was an agonizing three years of DC downplaying the two characters completely. Why you ask? The easiest answer: jealousy and sexism. Look at how loyal we fans of the two characters are. What if that love was directed at them instead of Babs.

I guess you could say now "two" female Bats were okay, but FOUR?! FOUR iS SIMPLY OUTRAGOUS!!!!

Course the controversy would be a embargo of the two characters by DC. Embargo that hit Stephanie more with the online Smallville comic and Lil Gotham.

I'm also reminded the mindset of DC higher ups at the time period post Battle for the Cowl as we recently learned from the SDCC: Batgirls panel (2020): Higher Ups: "Cassandra leaves." Writer: "WHY?!" Higher Ups: "Cause she just does-- so your book can exist."

Suddenly this begins to explain Lady Shiva and the lack of Cassandra Cain in Batman: Hush now.

That's the cruel mindset DC higher ups had with Cassandra and eventually Stephanie. So when you say, not to give either character a chance. This is what people you're defending.

So you add ALL OF THAT, four years is quite a long time. A long time for fans to move on or just forget DC Comics. But we Cass/Steph fans persisted. Better we did get them in 2014 even if it was an alternate reality (and Gail's final issue).

BUT... Cass in the main universe? Yeah, Stephanie can be slotted in because she has the Spoiler identity to fall onto. But Cass? She was Batgirl. So what do you do when you have a Batgirl, but can't use Cass?

Simply you just create a new identity, Orphan. But by not making her Batgirl you take away three key things away from the character. #1 Who she's truly loyal toward.

#2 Who mentors her.

#3 Where she is in the Family order. By including Babs as the new "daughter" figure in Bruce's life. You take away Cassandra's. Why do you think a certain DC Direct statue with the family earns my ire anytime I see it? For that.

Babs is no daughter figure to Bruce, she's an equal. That's a downgrade to her role in the family. But it is rather curious two ongoings with Barbara and not a single appearance of Cass in them (so far). Makes you wonder?

So you take away Cassandra's importance in the family, you downgrade her identity, don't give her a bat symbol, take away her mentors. What does that leave you?

You wonder why. Why do I'd stick around? I mean honestly, there are probably really vocal Cass fans out there in this world still. One of whom did a retrospective multipart video earlier this year of Cass (and he comes to the EXACT same conclusions).

Because as I said quite recently, "What is the greatest lesson for Cass fans in Batman media given all the mess DC and Warner Bros. does in treating this character?

It took almost TEN YEARS to finally see Cass in her OG Batgirl suit earlier this year. Almost TEN YEARS to see a solo story which-- dammit was like the greatest gift to us. Like seriously to all those involved going thru all of this.

I really hope the creative team realizes just how special that graphic novel is to the fans. Like literally, it showed all the greatest things we love about the character. The fighting is just the added bonus. I bow and try not to cry at being so grateful to this creative team.

But this is the road we fans and the character of Cassandra Cain have to endure. So if you're wondering why we're ticked at the Gotham Knights video game (2022) not including her outright? This is our reason.

This is why I am still grateful for BoP movie. It may not have been the role I wanted to see of Cass as the damsel in distress, but goddammit we got so much Cass comic content this year because of it. JUST FOR THAT ALONE-- I'm grateful.

That's why if any person in media can hear me. Just give Cass a chance. A short. A main role in the video game. Heck, an episode. JUST GIVE CASSANDRA A CHANCE PLEASE! You might be surprised at what you get.

Just know that Cassandra will NEVER be a placeholder. She is Batgirl, and dammit she deserves that role and that role so BADLY. I know Stephanie is too.

Gods I love Stephanie too. But I just always hate that DC did that to both characters. Pitting their fans against one another. It guts me. Like the lowest thing for DC to do is pit these two close friends against one another.

That's why it kills me. Part of me YEARNS for a new Cass ongoing, but goddammit Stephanie got screwed too in this. So if both get ongoing with Babs I am okay with this. Because dammit these characters need love, not freaking hatred.

DC really does owe it to both characters and their fans this. THEY REALLY OWE THEM for the hell these characters had to endure because of idiotic higher-ups who had horrible agendas and wanted to push a fast buck.

So now you know how DC did it. How they took this character who was a major fixture in the Batman comics and downplayed her SOOOOOOO much with bad storytelling and shuffling her off to be a side character.

I'm mentally exhausted worn now. I just hope you take these lessons to heart. To learn this shady stuff that DC Comics did and turned an amazing character-- to something less. How fans want more from that character again.

Update July 2021: Gail Simone’s tweet (that she deleted soon after) on this nugget of how the character of Cass was changed due to studio higher ups.

Update September 2021:

....

Here I go again with an UPDATE. After all these years. Confirmation at last (even if they aren't mentioned). We all know WHICH characters by now Dan DiDio is talking about here.

(You can read the whole interview here.)

#cassandra cain #dc comics #the tragedy of cassandra cain

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hbyrde36 · 10 months

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Chapter 7!

ao3 link

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

CW character death, canon typical violence

Steve returned to the center at 8:55pm. He was once again forced to enter the building unarmed, due to their security. You would think being attacked at a place in broad daylight would exclude a guy from those types of measures, but apparently not. Granted, Steve had taken the attacker out with his bare hands. Maybe the powers-that-be assumed he could do it again if necessary, or maybe they were the kind of people who didn’t expect two bad things to happen in only one day. Oh to be so blessed.

Thankfully, there was a different receptionist on duty at the desk this evening, so he wouldn’t have to deal with Andy asking after Robin because he’d forced her to stay home. It was a young girl. She looked nervous as Steve approached and he couldn’t blame her. Surely she’d have heard what happened there earlier in the day. Honestly he was surprised the place hadn’t canceled its programming for the night.

“The order welcomes you.” She said, with a tight-lipped smile. “How can I help you today?”

“I’m here to see Jason Carver.”

She nodded, checking something on her monitor.

“Right this way Mr. Harrington.”

She waved him through a side door that led to a set of offices, the largest of which bore a placard that read, Order Leader Jason Carver.

Steve pushed the door open, revealing a young man with blonde hair sitting behind a modest oak desk. Carver may have appeared to be the same age as Steve, but he knew for a fact that the vampire before him was quite a bit older than he looked. His boyish face screamed innocence, it was the perfect camouflage for a blood sucking predator. Steve suspected it was also what allowed him to amass a following of this size without being officially accused of starting a cult.

“Harrington.” Jason greeted him with a curt nod.

“Carver.” Steve replied, holding the other man’s gaze for a long moment before taking the seat across from him.

Jason quirked his head to the side like a curious dog. “I have to say, waking up to find your name in my appointments was quite the surprise. I didn’t think you’d ever grace us with your presence without the police being involved.”

“I may not be here on official business today, but that doesn’t mean this is a social call.” Steve snapped. Unable to keep his disdain for the man out of his voice.

“Why are you always so hostile towards me, Steve? What have I, or my people, ever done to deserve that?” Carver asked, frowning. He looked for all the world as if his feelings had actually been hurt.

Steve raised an eyebrow. He didn’t buy the act, and could think of many things that creatures like Jason Carver and his followers had done to earn his bad opinion of them. His body was littered with scars, real physical evidence of the harm vampires could cause. Of course, lately, because of Dustin, Steve had begun to accept the fact that maybe not all of them were inherently bad. The jury was still out on Eddie, as far as he was concerned, but the dark haired vampire had helped Steve as much as he was able, and that counted for something. However, he wasn’t ready to extend those new feelings of good will towards a prick like this.

When Steve remained quiet, Carver continued. “I can understand, because of your line of work, why you would be predisposed not to trust my kind, but I can assure you none of my people attack humans or feed from them without consent. Not once they join the order. That is not our way.”

“How can you be sure of that? What happens to a member if they do break the rules? Are they punished? Kicked out? Do you report them to the police?” Steve asked, genuinely curious. The order was very popular and their membership grew larger every day. As the leader, and a master vampire, that meant Jason was in charge of them all. How was he maintaining control?

“I am not here to mete out punishment or treat my followers like children. That’s the problem with the old ways. There is no free will or middle ground when it comes to vampires. If you’re not on the top, you're on the bottom, and at the mercy of whatever your master wishes. I am trying to do something different here. So no, I don’t torture or threaten my people into following the rules. Every vampire or pre-transition human, upon joining the order, signs a moral contract. It is a binding promise between them, and whatever higher power they believe in, to cause no harm, and to only feed in a manner that respects the gift that is being given, among other things.”

Steve snorted. “Right, because no one has ever broken a contract before, or, y'know, lied.”

“That is how free will works, Harrington.”

It was almost admirable, Steve thought begrudgingly. It was a nice idea, in theory, what Jason was trying to accomplish, but It was also completely unrealistic. Steve might be willing to accept that there were a few good vampires out there, but he still believed that the majority of them were decidedly not good, and needed someone to hold their leash.

“So you can’t actually assure me that none of your people have ever stepped out of line. You wouldn’t know, per se, if any of them had something to do with the vampire murders?"

“Ah, so the reason for this little visit becomes clear at last.” Jason actually had the nerve to laugh. “What would make you think my people had anything to do with that? We are non-violent. That doesn’t exactly go hand-in-hand with murder.”

“Non-violent. Right. Does that mean you have no idea that your followers carried out a protest that looked more like a riot at a freak party last night? Guns were fired, Carver. People were hurt.”

Jason’s face twisted in disgust. “The order takes quite an issue with the freak community, and the way they sexualize what we are, and what we consume to survive. It’s sickening. Depraved.”

Steve felt a flash of shame, realizing that not long ago he would have agreed with this man. Now he scowled, thinking of Chrissy and of the others who had been so nice to him at the party. They didn’t deserve that kind of judgment and hatred.

Carver kept going, unaware of Steve’s inner turmoil. “There is a small faction of my followers that have grown tired of waiting for the courts to rule those types of get togethers illegal, and have taken matters into their own hands. While I may agree with them, I do not condone their actions. I’ll see what I can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

It wasn’t anywhere near good enough, but Steve would take it over nothing. “And the murders?” He prompted.

Jason leveled him with a challenging stare, which he returned, only flinching when the other man moved to grab his wrist where it rested on the desk between them. The action was a blur, so fast that Steve’s mind barely knew what was happening, yet still he managed to get out of reach in time.

“What are you doing?” Steve accused.

“Testing a theory.” Carver said, casually. “Do you even realize that you’ve been looking me in the eyes this whole time?”

Steve hadn’t realized that actually, and it was a dumb move on his part for a lot of reasons. Namely, that he couldn’t afford getting used to this new level of ability when he planned to do whatever he could to get rid of this thing with Eddie as soon as possible.

“I have some natural immunity, and it's not as if you are trying to bespell me.” Steve deflected.

The vampire narrowed his eyes. “Yet you’ve never trusted that fact before. What’s different now?”

Steve kept his mouth shut. He felt like this was a test. Like Carver already knew something and was just waiting for him to give it away.

“Not to mention the fact that you came here to accuse, or at least heavily imply that me and my people are murderers. Seems like an odd time to relax your stance on eye contact.” Jason considered, studying Steve’s face. “Who do you belong to?” he asked, finally.

“Myself.” Steve declared. The answer came naturally and without hesitation.

“If you truly believe that, you are living in serious denial. I would say you’ve been given at least the first mark. I can’t deny being curious about who could have convinced a vampire hunter to tie themselves to one of us.”

Steve blinked, again unsure of how to respond. Apparently his face had done it for him.

“Oh. You didn’t agree to this, did you?”

“It’s complicated.” Steve said, defensively.

Jason gave him a knowing smile. “I’m sure she’s very pretty, but if you find yourself in need of assistance with the situation, the order would be happy to help”

He would never be desperate enough to take Carver up on that offer, and honestly, Steve couldn’t help pushing. He resented the assumption, and just had to know if the poster boy for vampire purity was also a homophobe.

“While he is very pretty, this was done to save my life, and I have the situation handled. Thanks for the concern.”

Jason frowned again. “Attending freak parties and bonding yourself with a male vampire, I wonder what your father thinks of all this. He must be terribly concerned about you.”

It wasn’t quite the gotcha move Jason thought it was. He wasn’t surprised to find out Carver was acquainted with his father, and Steve already knew he was the family disappointment. This would change nothing even if it did get back to his dad. Still, he’d reached his limit of bullshit for the evening.

“Enough of this, Carver. I didn’t come here to talk about my private life. Multiple master level vampires have been murdered in this city, all of them belonging to Billy. Not a single victim has been from your organization. You can't say that isn’t suspicious.”

“How do you know the perpetrator isn’t human? You yourself have killed, how many vampires now?”

Steve shook his head. “I’ve seen the bodies, no human has that kind of strength.”

“I would know if one of my people had done such a thing.” Carver stated, sounding so sure of himself.

“Maybe you do and you’re trying to protect them.” Steve speculated. “Or maybe you yourself gave the order. I haven't learned much here tonight, but I bet if I took that little theory to Hopper, he’d be more than happy to shut you down for a while and give things a thorough investigation.”

Steve didn’t really think Carver had the balls for something like this, but he did think it was more than possible that someone connected to his organization was involved.

Carver stiffened. “No need for threats, I will talk to my people.”

“What good would that do?”

“I have.. ways to know if they are being truthful. I promise to pass along any pertinent information to you, as long as you don’t send the police to my door.”

Steve nodded, and rose to leave, knowing that was the best he would get tonight. Before opening the office door he turned back to Carver. “You should know, I was attacked today in your lobby. Someone doesn’t want me to solve this case, and they knew I was here.”

It wasn't until Steve was walking back down the hall that he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He scrambled for it but didn’t manage to pick up in time. The screen told him it was the 3rd missed call from Dustin in the last few minutes. Shit.

He quickly hit the call back button and raced out of the building towards his car. Dustin answered on the first ring.

“Steve? Steve! You gotta get over here quick. Billy has Chrissy. It’s…it’s bad.” He sobbed, dropping his voice to a whisper as he continued. “They hurt her.”

“Where are you?” Steve asked, frantic.

The only reply he got were the sounds of a struggle on the other end of the call. He screamed into the phone, “Dustin! .. Dustin!”

After a long stretch of silence he was greeted with the sound of deep male laughter.

“Oh, Stevie-boy.” Billy crooned. “Maybe if you’d spent more time investigating the murders, like I asked you to do, and less time helping my people betray me, it wouldn’t have come to this. But, here we are! Come to the coffin, if you dare, and see what I've done to your pretty little bitch.”

“I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch!” Steve growled into the phone, but it was no use. Billy had already hung up.

Steve double parked in front of the theater, not willing to waste even one second looking for a parking spot. They could tow him for all he cared, none of it mattered right then. He left the gun where it was, locked in the car. It would take too long to retrieve and he doubted they would let him keep it anyway. He did take half a second to shove a knife down the side of each of his boots before walking to the front door of the venue, though.

There was a show going on that night and the place was crawling with civilians, humans. A girl approached him at the entrance, she wore a name tag that said her name was Heather. It took him a moment to recognize her as the brunette who had been hanging all over Billy at their first meeting. Had that really only been a few days ago? So much had happened in such a short time, Steve thought it felt more like weeks.

She led him through the crowd and into a backstage area. He knew, sort of, where he was going from here. He wanted to blow past her, start screaming Chrissy's name and find her before it was too late, but he still didn’t know what this girl was, and if he’d be able to take her easily or not. It wouldn’t do Chrissy any good if he was hurt or killed before he could reach her. For that reason alone he just barely managed to keep his composure.

When they reached the under stage area and turned, Steve had a feeling he knew exactly where they were headed. He was proven right when they reached the door to the same basement room he’d been kept in.

The door opened and Steve sucked in a sharp breath.

Chrissy was bound to the far wall opposite the wooden steps. He couldn’t tell if she was dead or just unconscious, but she sagged in her chains, eyes closed. She was covered in blood and over half a dozen fresh bites. Billy and Neil stood on either side of her, red smeared around both of their mouths and dripping onto their bare chests. He ran down the steps and tried to rush to her side but Billy stepped in his path.

“Why are you doing this?”

“You only have yourself to blame for this one Stevie-boy.”Billy said, smirking as he licked his lips clean.

“All I’ve done is what you asked me to do!” Steve shouted directly in his face.

Billy grinned. “So bold in the face of me and my father, even as we have your girlfriend chained to the wall like a fucking animal. Does Eddie truly inspire this much bravery?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you doing this. What are you talking about.” Neil mimicked him, laughing. “Have you always been so pathetic? I cannot fathom why my kind are afraid of you, Harrington.”

Steve wasn’t aware that he was well known enough among the vampires to be feared. It would be an interesting idea to think on if he weren’t far too busy worrying about his friend at the moment.

“I’m not an idiot. I figured out your play, and let’s just say I'm not impressed.” Billy said.

“I still don’t understand.”

“Let’s go discuss things in a more..comfortable environment.”

“I’m not leaving this room until you let me see her.” Steve hissed through clenched teeth.

Billy sighed. “God, you're so tedious. Knock yourself out. We’ll be waiting outside.”

Steve didn’t wait for the three of them to leave before going to Chrissy. He cradled her face gently, using two fingers to check the pulse in her neck. It was strong and steady. She was still alive, for now, and if he had anything to say about it, she would remain that way.

He smoothed the hair off of her forehead, trying to gently rouse her. “Chrissy?”

Her eyes blinked open, they swam with fear, then confusion, before finally settling on recognition.

“Steve.” She said, voice hoarse.

“I’m so sorry.” He sobbed, letting a few tears fall from his eyes. She looks so small and hopeless. He couldn’t stand it.

“It’s not your fault.”

It certainly felt like it was, after what Billy had said.

“I’m going to get you out of here.” Steve promised, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

Tears fell down her cheeks and Steve swiped them away. She gave him a watery smile “Sure Steve.”

“Times up” Heather called loudly from behind him. Steve hadn't realized she was still in the room, and apparently waiting for him at the top of the stairs.

He didn't know what else he could say, and making Billy wait even longer wasn’t going to earn him any favors. So, with one last look back at Chrissy, he made his way up the stairs and out into the hall. Heather once again led the way, ushering him into another room.

Steve immediately rounded on Billy where he sat in a high-backed chair. “What do you want from me?”

“Eddie Munson should be growing weak, rotting inside his coffin. Care to tell me how it is that he is still strong and healthy?”

“How should I know? Why are you hurting Chrissy?” Steve asked, puzzled.

“She needed to learn her place, as did your little friend Dustin. Don’t worry, I have him trapped in his coffin for now but I'll let him out eventually. I took her partially to punish you, and maybe add some extra incentive for you to pick up the pace in your investigation.”

“Why punish me?”

Billy truly looked him over then. “Do you really not know?” He hummed, considering. “Heather, baby, come here for a second.”

The girl complied quickly, coming over to sit on his lap. Like that was a normal thing to do mid interrogation.

Billy placed a hand on her thigh and squeezed hard enough to hurt, but she just smiled as he asked, “What do you think, does he really not know?”

She giggled, the high bright noise sounding out of place in the moment. “Yea. He doesn’t seem like he’s lying. Maybe he’s just not too bright.”

“Well, I'll be damned.” Billy said, leaning back in the chair and shoving her unceremoniously off of his lap. “I didn’t think Eddie had it in him to do something this devious. Two marks on a human who doesn’t even know what it means? That’s low.”

It wasn’t shocking to hear, Steve had suspected it, he just didn’t quite understand what it all meant and why Billy was so pissed off about the whole thing.

“Heather here is my human servant, has been for.. How long would you say?” He asked, directing another question at her.

“90 years give or take.”

Steve’s heart started to race at the implications. “But you look 20, you're not a vampire..”

Billy smiled, basking in Steve’s sudden panic. “I’ve given her all 4 marks, she’s still technically human, but she’ll live as long as I do.”

“No, Eddie wouldn’t…”

“He must have been very desperate, there's no way to reverse the process once it’s started. The second mark allows him to feed energy off of you to sustain himself, you’ve been helping him all this time.”

Steve didn’t want to believe it. He hadn’t admitted it to himself before now, but deep down he had hoped that Eddie would turn out to be a good guy. Good guys did not force an irreversible bond on you, no matter the reason. He couldn’t worry about that now, he had to find some way to salvage this, to save Chrissy.

“But I didn’t know I was doing it, how can you blame me for that?” Steve reasoned.

Billy ignored the question. “Eddie has supporters among my people. Those who'd rather see him in power over me. I could kill him outright, but that would make him a martyr. If however, I kill someone he has given his protection to, it might go a long way in showing that he is not worth their loyalty.”

Steve knew what that meant for Chrissy, and it made his blood run cold.

“No!” He shouted, pleading with Billy. “You don’t have to do this!”

“I would think this was a lesson you’d have learned by now, Harrington. You can’t save everyone. Sometimes, you can’t save anyone but yourself.” With that, Billy gave a nod to Neil, who disappeared from the room in the blink of an eye.

Steve ran after him, Billy didn’t even try to stop him. Both of them knew Steve would never make it in time, but he had to try.

Steve skidded to a stop at the open doorway, staring down. Neil stood there, eyes glittering and covered in even more blood than before. Behind him, Chrissy’s head sat at an odd angle and he knew she was already gone. The bastard had torn into her throat with his fangs and broken her neck for good measure.

Steve screamed wordlessly as he ran down the stairs. When he reached the bottom he bent down, pulling the knife from his right boot without missing a step, as he barreled towards the piece of shit that had just killed his friend.

He wasn't fast enough, and Neil spun out of the way before he could sink the blade into his body. As Steve readied himself for another go at the man, Billy arrived..

“I can’t let you kill him for this, Steve.” Billy said, as he descended into the room. He sounded almost apologetic about it. “If you want to avoid a similar fate I suggest you start learning who your real master is.”

“Fuck you.” Steve snarled.

Billy was suddenly in front of him, having crossed the room too quickly to see. He held Steve off the ground and up against the wall by the throat. “One way or another you will learn respect.”

Steve tried to raise the arm holding the knife, but found himself unable to move, frozen in place. He had no chance now that Billy was touching him. He did the only thing he could manage, and spit right in his face.

Billy growled, face contorting with anger as he released his throat. Steve stumbled as his feet hit the ground, but still he raised the knife, knowing he only had a fraction of a second to do any damage before Billy would be back on him. He shoved upward with the blade and it sank home in the vampire's lower stomach. It was nowhere near his heart, and wouldn’t accomplish much more than pissing him off further, but Steve felt a sick sense of satisfaction in knowing he had made the other man bleed.

Steve was shoved back with a shoulder, hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Billy twisted Steve's head to the side, and for a moment he thought he was about to die the same way Chrissy had, but the vampire had other plans.

Steve realized what was coming only a second before he felt the sting of sharp teeth in his neck, and he could do nothing but fade into the quiet dark that washed over him as Billy fed.

Chapter 8

#steddie #steddie fanfic #stranger things #vampire eddie munson #vampire hunter steve harrington #steve harrington #eddie munson #fanfic #ao3 link

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vellaphoria · 4 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @waffleinator-inator! <3

20 Questions for Fic Writers

How many works do you have on AO3?

There are 40 that I’ve solo-authored, and 9 that I did varying degrees of work on when a group of dc writers doing a round robin fic collaboration thing

What’s your total A03 word count?

It’s a bit thrown off by the aforementioned colabs, but I don’t want to go through and do the math, so the overall total is 567,072

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly DC! The comics variant, that is. And within that, mostly Batman-adjacent characters. Though I also have one fic each for the avengers, the silmarillion, and haikuu

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Excluding the collaborations, it’s:

Cut and Run (Bruce crashes Tim and Ra’s’ dinner/business meeting; T, gen, 1.6k)

Deadfall (Canon divergence where Tim died in Red Robin and was resurrected/kidnapped by Ra’s; M, gen, 125k, on hiatus)

Recursion (Tim accidentally travels back in time to when Dick was just starting out as Nightwing, which is complicated by the fact that they still haven’t made up after Damian became Robin; M for mild nsfw, DickTim, 20k)

Complications (Outsider POV of post RR-canon divergence, ft. morally grey Tim; G, gen, 1.7k)

This Whole Damn City Thinks It Needs You (But Not as Much as I Do) (There has been a fair amount of building ust between Dick and Tim after Red Robin. Dick decides to do something about that; E for blatant nsfw, DickTim, 23k)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, but very slowly!

I respond because is someone took the time to engage with my work and actually write one, then it feels like it’s only right for me to put in an equal amount of effort to respond.

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That would probably be the DickBabs with unrequited DickTim wedding Tumblr fic (here, if you like pain)

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

It’s hard to say. Since I tend to be averse to bad endings, most of my fics have happy endings of one sort or another

Do you get hate on your fic?

Sometimes. Usually from people who can’t grasp that limited third person POV means that the narrating character doesn’t have perfect information at all times, or people who are upset that characters don’t make 100% rational decisions 100% of the time.

Do you write smut?

Yep! <3

Do you write crossovers?

Depends on how you define them. I tend to do a lot of AUs which blend elements from other settings with DC, but I don’t really enjoy writing characters from different, unrelated media meeting.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! My Running (and when to stop) DickTim series was translated into 中文-普通话國語 by SummerVapour and tiktiktiktiktam, which is linked on the fic itself

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes; I helped write a few fics in the round robin collaboration series A Journey of Personal Discovery Through Social Isolation. Amusingly, we named it that a year before the pandemic started.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

DickTim, to absolutely no one’s surprise :D

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably To Break Every Bended Knee; or, Apocrypha. I really love the setting, but the fic is supposed to be JayTimDick and all the endings I plotted for it ended up being DickTim with Jason kind of doing his own thing. That doesn’t seem like a particularly satisfying conclusion to anyone interested in the story, so I decided to put my time elsewhere.

What’s your writing strengths?

Comments that have gone into specifics have said that my fics have good characterization, visualization, and engrossing plots.

What’s your writing weaknesses?

I’m very bad at brevity, so writing short, snappy fics that also make sense doesn’t usually work out for me.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I pretty much only speak English, so I don’t tend to do it. If I ever had a fic that absolutely needed it, then I’d ask for writing support from someone who actually does speak the language in question.

First fandom you wrote for?

Depends on how you define wrote. If you mean wrote and published, then it’s DC. If you mean wrote when I was a kid and then let disappear into the files of a long-defunct computer, then probably Stargate SG-1.

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Of the stuff I have published, probably Recursion. Though if I’m allowed to include WIPs, then I’ve been working on a DickTim slowburn on and off for a while now. It’s meant to cover things from when they meet to post-Red Robin, with a fair amount of mini canon divergences throughout. Currently it’s somewhere upwards of 50k, but I haven’t had a chance to work on it in a while. If you're in the mood for it, no pressure tagging @gerryrigged, @marirah, and @themandylion :D

#jagn answers #tag games

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zahri-melitor · 5 months

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DCU Holiday Bash III #1

World's Finest Christmas: a Superman and Batman story. Toyman creates a giant Captain Adventure robot to fight Superman and Batman. (Clark had Captain Adventure as an action figure as a kid). During the fight the house of the Lattems gets flattened. Clark suggests doing something for them as it's Christmas, Bruce points out they have each other which is a lot more than some people have.

"Do it your way, then...and I'll do it mine."

Superman rebuilds the house and brings his own supplies to do it.

Batman sends Alfred on behalf of the Wayne Foundation to offer Mr Lattem a job designing toys for needy children.

The Joker's Twelve Days of Christmas. This is actually excluded from the DCUI copy of the issue, and after glancing at it I hmmmm am wondering why. Too violent? Too many lines crossed?

The one fascinating point for it is Joker mentions TWO dead sidekicks, here in 1999. Is he dreaming? Counting Barbara? Optimistic?

Heathen Ways: Diana, Artemis, the Sandsmarks and Jason Blood. Cassie Sandsmark is the tiniest human being in this story. She looks about 8.

Diana and Artemis argue over her participation in non-Themysciran rituals for a religion she does not practice. Diana says it’s about family and ritual and gifting. Artemis is mad about celebrating another religion’s holy day when the Greek gods are dying.

So Diana and Artemis have a beat down fight “just like the Solstice Day contest on Themyscira”. Awwww.

Alone for the Holidays: Robin. This story always makes me laugh, as it's one of the few times we see Jack leave Tim with no supervision. Jack and Dana are in Chicago and their flight home gets snowed in, so Tim's all on his own for Christmas. Right until he gets a message from Oracle that there's an emergency, and heads to the Clocktower to find... Babs, Dick, Alfred and Harold having a Loner's Christmas Party. The funniest part is of course that Bruce isn't present.

Home for the Holidays. Set in the Slab. Mark Scheffer (Shrapnel) arranges to break out of the Slab to see his wife and twin daughters for Christmas, after they don’t visit. The other characters in the Slab are definitely a mix of ‘oh it’s that guy’ D listers.

I really like this piece for a few reasons - humanising those incarcerated and the villains of DC, and also showing that telling a good story doesn’t rely on familiarity with the characters involved. That isn’t as common as it should be, in comics.

An Eye for Detail: Batlash. Batlash stops by a cottage and finds a group of crooks trying to get an old man to sign over the title to his farm. Batlash beats them up and then kisses the man’s hot 20ish year old daughter.

No Bart, There Is No Santa Claus. Our real Santa story!

I love Bart and Max together. So much. They’ve just got such a special dynamic in their mentor-student relationship.

Max realises Santa sounds like a standard superhero to Bart and despairs.

Oh Max.

Anyway Bart manages to give everyone he can find a promo of the game he’s desperate to get for Christmas. And all his own presents. Since Max has told him that it’s the thought that counts.

And when he gets home with Max…Santa has been and left new presents!

#DC Santa read along #this is probably my pick for the best of the Holiday Bash titles #but I do love all three

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gothamcitycentral · 2 years

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I think the only case of “they can BOTH be Robin” for any characters (excluding like, fun AUs) i except is Duke and Damian. Duke really does define Robin in a completely different context because his Robin isn’t about Batman, or his relationship with him, but rather how Robin is to Gotham. The people. That Robin is a symbol of joy and hope, a shining light to everyone. (Which is why it sucks his status as Robin is lukewarm at best but it’s fine whatever I don’t care at all). I feel like that’s an aspect of Robin Damian struggles with the post, the Robin relationship with the city (I’m not saying Damian is a cold hearted anti social person or whatever, just that he tries but struggles with people when he doesn’t have a personal relationship with them). I think it’d be great for Duke to exemplify the people side of Robin while Damian is the more traditional sidekick Robin. You don’t even have to completely abandon Duke as The Signal, it could be a nickname for him amongst people he’s close with, to also avoid confusion between him and Damian.

#duke thomas #damian wayne #robin #the signal #dc comics #batfamily

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schrijverr · 4 months

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Growing Pains [Dick's POV] 5

Chapter 5 out of 6

Dick knows who Barbara is under the mask, Barbara doesn't. This causes some strange interactions as their friendship develops.

In this chapter, Dick tries to navigate school with his only friend being Barbara, though she doesn't know it. Something that isn't always so easy.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: none

~~~~

Chapter 5: Natural Ally

Barbara is a little weird, Dick decides after a few days of studying her. His first day had been less successful, but with B’s training he has become subtler in studying her and his mess up was useful for something, because he figured out to drop his ‘friends’.

Dick doesn’t like any of them and it seems Conrad and his little gang are more than happy to drop him when he doesn’t want to fall in line.

Having to adjust to being high society has been really strange, but having Robin helps. He saves his anger and excitement for the night, when he can jump off roofs and whoop as loudly as he can and be as annoying as possible. Keeping that safe makes the performance easier.

However, he knows these people aren’t his people and the more he learns about the socialite life, the harder it is to relate to them. So, he kind of floats along, friendly enough to get along with everyone, but not really befriending anyone.

He’s also not planning on befriending Barbara either. Out of everyone, she’s most likely to get his experiences, also not raised with wealth and, not to mention, a sidekick like him. But she’s still on probation in his book. He’s watching her.

And without her noticing too! Suck on that, he can totally be sneaky (and no, he’s not still sulky about when she managed to sneak up on him!).

After their near miss altercation, he’s determined to mean mug her again, just a little, but of course Alfred has to make him feel a little bad about it. So, he acts as normal as he can while he broods and is glad he did so when the guilty feeling creeps up when he realizes they’ve been excluding her.

He convinced B to give her a grappler too, but he wants it to be perfect. It’s a peace offering and a sorry, so it needs to be good. So when they’re in Mrs. Holland’s class, there is a moment where they can talk, he takes the opportunity. “What’s your favorite color?”

“What?” Barbara says, sounding appalled.

Dick’s guilt grows a little, she parades in a purple version of Bruce’s costume, of course he should have known that already. As apologetically as he can, he says: “Oh, yeah, of course, sorry, I should know.”

He turns back to the front in embarrassment and it’s not until Barbara taps him on the shoulder and asks: “Are you okay?” that he remembers that she doesn’t know he is Robin.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he says, quickly trying to hide his stupidity behind politeness like he does whenever he’s out as Dick Grayson, letting out a relieved breath when Barbara seems to buy it.

Though she does scrutinize Dick the next day. He doesn’t know if she caught on – and a stupid part of him kind of hopes she has, he wants a friend – so he just sends her a smile and says nothing, letting her interpret it as she wants.

Apparently she interprets it as him being Dick and not Robin, which is good. They still don’t trust her, not entirely, not with that. It’s good that his mistake flew under the radar. But still.

He and Barbara have been getting closer- well, he and Batgirl have. They make fun of B together and take out bad guys. She’s his friend and she’s right there! He just can’t talk to her. Which means he’s all alone. Friendless.

It’s a little sad. He’s not used to it. He’s used to a loud circus filled with people, making new friends in every city or town they went to. But here, all stationary in a big mansion with only Bruce and Alfred and no friends at school… it’s lonely.

So after their run in with the Commissioner, Dick wants to make her happy. Cheer her up. So, he asks Alfred to pack him some cookies.

He doesn’t even think about it. In that moment it’s natural that he would want to do something nice, just like he made B get out of there after the comment. Barbara is his teammate (though he still loathes to admit that sometimes), of course he wants her to smile again.

When he comes in the next day, Barbara looks tired. Dick is tired too – comes with the territory of being a hero – but she looks tired-tired. Not just stay up late tired, but emotional tired. It’s an emotion Dick has come to know well this year.

So, he doesn’t even think when he turns around, cookie in hand, only for her to snap: “What?”

Okay, rude, he knows she is still sometimes a little jealous or something, but he’s been working on it. No need to get mad. However, he knows she’s been through a lot, she’s deflecting onto him, just like he did to Bruce when he found out about Batman and Tony Zucco. (See Alfred, he listens when you try to counsel him.) So, he just holds up the cookie and says: “I have an extra cookie.”

“Congratulations?” Barbara shoots back sarcastically.

Now Dick is taken aback. He thought they were becoming friends, but now she’s shutting him out again. Did he do something? She seemed okay with him last night, so what changed?

Then it hits him and he quickly tries to save himself: “No, I mean, would you like one? You look tired.”

“Wow, thanks,” Barbara says and Dick cringes, this is not at all how this was meant to go. He just wanted to do something nice to cheer her up and all he’s done is make her hate him. That’s not the plan.

Dick is grasping at air, not as good as Bruce at sweet talking yet, so he has nothing to say to get him out of the pit he created. Fortunately, Barbara speaks again first. “But I would like a cookie.”

“Here you go,” Dick says, relieved, giving her the cookie, feeling some satisfaction when Barbara takes the first bite and seems to unclench a little. Mission success.

“Thanks,” she says.

“You’re welcome,” he replies, turning back to the lesson to hide her from Mrs. Holland, so she can eat the cookie in class and to give her space. Dick Grayson is not her friend, Robin is, she doesn’t want to hear from him now.

After that incident, he tries to be more mindful of it. It’s no good breaking their secrecy just because he wants a friend. So, life goes on as normal and Dick and Barbara are strangers.

That is until Poison Ivy throws Barbara off a roof and Dick is nearly too late to save her. He can’t do that. He doesn’t want to. When he comes home with Bruce that evening, he says: “Barbara should be in the know.”

Bruce gives him a look – not a mean one, not a dismissive one, just curious – and asks: “What’s the reasoning?”

Dick likes that about Bruce, he’s always willing to hear him out. He’s not his dad, not really. He won’t ever be his dad – well, not soon anyway – he’s too young and inexperienced. He doesn’t treat Dick like a son, he treats him like an equal and, honestly, Dick can use that right about now.

“She totally figured it out already,” Dick exclaims. “She always figures it out before me, there is no way she doesn’t know. Pretending she doesn’t for your ego won’t help. We need to work together better, getting her on the com system will help, but Alfred is on there too. So, she’ll need to know, right?”

“Alright, next patrol we’ll tell her,” Bruce agrees and some nerves that he hadn’t been aware of are soothed by that answer.

“Whoo!” he cheers, because cheering and being happy about that is better than thinking about how she looked when she fell. How they looked when they fell.

“But wait until patrol,” Bruce warns. “We- we had an encounter as Batgirl and Bruce. She might not believe without seeing and you never know who’s listening.”

“Alright,” Dick agrees easily. He can totally wait until patrol. Then he tastes the blood in the mouth, mixing with Alfred’s cookie and he wrinkles his nose as he says: “I think one of those plant monsters punched out one of my teeth.”

So, Dick spends the morning classes at the dentist to get checked out, luckily discovering that it was a baby tooth with an X-ray photo.

He’s happy when he gets to school in time for the break and even happier to see Barbara, alive and well. Sometimes it’s nice to have the reassurances and today he needs it especially. So, he walks over to her table, ready to sit down only for her to-

“No.”

“No?” Dick repeats, unsure where the no came from. Is she still mad about him getting mad? No, right? They were good when they parted, he made sure they were good. So why the no?

“No,” Barbara repeats, sounding more firm. “I don’t know why you’re obsessed with me, but no. Not in the mood. Scram.”

Hurt. That was the emotion Dick felt. They had had a rocky start, sure, but last night was their big finale, right? They finally got each other. What had happened between then and now that made her act like this? Unable to hide all of those thoughts whirling around in his head, he softly says: “I just want to be friends.”

“Why?” Barbara asks.

Dick frowns, isn’t that obvious? So, he shoots back: “What do you mean why?”

“What do you mean with what do you mean?” Barbara says, her brow furrowed as she watches him, before suddenly her eyes widen, as if she realizes something.

It hits Dick that he was wrong. She hadn’t figured it out- well, she has now. He gave it away and now she knows and they’re staring at each other. A stalemate.

If he doesn’t say something soon, she might and then Bruce will get mad because he was supposed to wait for patrol and not spill the beans, because who knows who might be listening. She can’t, under any circumstances, mention their night life.

So, he panics and quickly says: “You’re right, I’m being weird. My bad,” and prepares to make a hasty retreat. He can try again tomorrow.

Before he can successfully get away, however, Barbara stops him: “No, I was being rude. Sit down.”

That’s an order if he’s ever heard one and while Robin has never listened to Batgirl giving an order, he isn’t being Robin right now and despite his screw up, he does want to befriend Barbara. It’s only natural, right? She’s his ally. His backup. His friend.

It’s quiet.

And awkward.

Dick is terrible at awkward silences, so he tries to find something to say that won’t put her on the sidekick topic, but also isn’t too out of place. In the end he settles on: “So, uhm, what is your favorite color anyway?”

Barbara laughs and he mentally facepalms, though he can’t help but be happy that Barbara is happy again, not sad like she was last night. He also likes that he gets to see her eyes as she looks at him and smiles. “Purple. It’s purple,” she answers.

Ha, he thinks, called it!

#rr writing #dick grayson and barbara gordon #dick grayson #dick grayson is robin #robin #robin dc #barbara gordon #barbara gordon is batgirl #batgirl #batgirl and robin #bruce wayne #batman #alfred pennyworth #dc #dc comics #growing pains au #early days batman #the batman 2004

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remarcely · 11 months

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After receiving a lengthy comment on one of my recent ao3 works, I’ve spent most of my morning thinking about how fanfic writers portray Jason Todd.

People write fanfic for a few reason, one big one is they don’t like the canon and think more can be done with the characters/plot. It’s not the only reason, but it’s fuelled plenty of fandoms over the years.

Jason is a difficult character to write. He’s been handed around countless writers, had some good stories and some bad ones. He was unfortunately relabelled as the angry Robin, killed off in a way that a lot of people were not happy with, and the legacy he left behind in-universe affected every character.

I have mixed opinions on Under The Red Hood. I own the comic, I’ve read it, and I did enjoy it as a storyline. Do I like Jason as a morally grey antihero/villain? Yes. Do I think he deserved more than to be used as a pawn in the succession of Batman, Talia’s plan to send Damian off to Gotham, and essentially being a distraction? Yes.

Not that he could have been ‘good’. His anger was justified from his perspective- because nothing worthwhile changed. He died and, sure, Bruce changed the way Robins operate and the gear to add extra protection, but that’s still a child soldier. Jason was the first Robin in line to the grave, even if the major deaths were retconned later on.

It’s his anger at Tim- which yes can be accounted partiality to being replaced and pit madness- that I disagree with. Jason died as a kid because of Robin, no matter which way you spin it. That anger at the injustice should have been spun to his brutal protection of any child. Tim shouldn’t have been excluded, if anything he should have been protected more.

A lot of the stuff I write is AU I don’t write Jason as a villain much currently but I’ve always enjoyed the more anti-hero leaning Jason. I don’t care about him killing, being a crime lord, or antagonising the Bats.

I can see everything his character is and has been and still wish his hand of cards had been better.

My personal opinion, which means shit all to any one else and you are very welcome to take with a grain of salt, is Jason's villain-arc should have been him acting solitary, separate from the League of Assassins. One gripe I have with fanfic is others writing that a non-league affected Jason would go straight back to Bruce. I don’t know about you, but if I were in Jason's decomposing dress shoes I’d be pretty pissed.

As I’m writing this now, I really want to create that story myself- which is the whole point of fanfiction.

This is longwinded and could be put in better words, but these are the only ones I’ve got I’m afraid. Fanfiction can be a change to canon and it’s characters, some good and bad, but always different. It doesn’t mean we ‘don’t even like the character’ or aren’t a true fan. Every portrayal will variate from the original.

Robin in the past has been viewed as a generic side kick, with very little difference between Robin 1 & 2. Their designs were near identical, their creation based on being Batman's partner, and No.2 was quite literally voted by the readers to be murdered. Of course they will be different as they grow and change with their audiences, they are stories.

Jason Todd is not the same character he was 40 years ago and he will continue to evolve for the next 40 years. Fandom will defer from canon as it picks an audiences favourite parts and ignore the lesser liked. I don’t try to write Batman comics, I personally have no interest of doing so, I am perfectly happy writing short online works about what I like from the stories I’ve been provided with.

If you don’t like fanon, read canon. If you don’t like canon, read fanon. It is as simple as that, there is no need to start insulting peoples understanding of your favourite characters because they hold different opinions to you. Enjoy comics without policing others.

Do not send any hate to the comment I am referring to if you come across it, they are welcome to their opinion, even if could be construed as rude.

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