#rabbit knows how to bury itself 10 rejections | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

simone-garnett · 6 years

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title: it's gonna be forever (or it's gonna go down in flames) word count: 3.2k pairing: sweet pea x josie fandom: riverdale information: based on this post by @josiemccoyprotectionsquad. it’s all i could think about for the past 2 days and im weak.

ao3

When her phone buzzes late one night Josie assumes it is Val or Melody texting her, one of the pair too lazy to take the ten steps out of their hotel room to ask her a question personally. She rolls her eyes at their antics, outstretching her arm to the beside table on her left and blindly reaching for the device, smiling in victory as she gets it and pulls it to her, swiping the screen absentmindedly to read whatever was sent.

She doesn’t expect it to be anyone else but them; she had talked to her mother and step-brother earlier that night and none of them indicated that there would be anything wrong. It could be Toni, the Serpents playing at a nearby arena, but they still had a packed week and she didn’t think Toni would be willing to give up her sleep for a girl’s night, not until Monday.

And, considering the few people who had her number, it could only be Valerie or Melody.

She doesn’t expect it to be Sweet Pea.

But it is.

Josie had known Sweet Pea only tangentially; he was the bassist in Toni’s band and they had come across each other several times. The Serpents were much more hard rock than the Pussycats, though Josie had heard Toni cover some of their songs on her personal Youtube channel and had fallen in love with her immediately, enjoyed the mellowed down versions of the songs, enjoyed the hard-rock edge she had given others. And once she had heard one, it wasn’t difficult to fall down the rabbit-hole of the channel, Josie introducing herself to the band’s songs and then the band itself.

They had opened for the Pussycats while they toured and Josie joked constantly about stealing Toni to join her own band. Sorta. The offer still stands.

But Sweet Pea didn’t interact with them, not if he could help it. She had seen him with the rest of the Serpents, the man unaware she was watching as he laughed freely, smiling and teasing his friends. It was like night and day, the difference between the man that was backstage and the one depicted in magazines. Because to the world he closed himself off. Melody had managed to scratch at the walls around him and, for the most part she seemed to succeed. But she was Melody and there wasn’t a person on Earth who could reject her sweetness.

There was only one other person she had seen him like that around... but she was also a witness to a screaming match and storm-off. He had been unaware she was in the vicinity when he had fought with Ethel, and she never mentioned it to either of them.

But Josie hadn’t talked to Sweet Pea in over a year. Their bands had gone in different routes, the Serpents establishing themselves as a rock band that could headline their own concerts and Josie supported them from afar, buying their albums and tweeting about their music constantly. But she had her own band, her own albums to focus on and, with Grammy nominations coming up, she tried to not focus on anything else.

Not anything or anyone.

(She only partially succeeds, but thinking of Reggie helps her write some of her most gripping songs.

After all, heartache is a powerful thing, its intensity only increasing when it is Josie putting those feelings into words, painting a picture with music, the lyrics and melodies able to cut through the toughest of hearts and bring them to tears with the emotion she was able to elicit, heartstrings something she could play with proficiency. It was supposed to be cathartic for her, but it wasn’t.

It just,

it hurts.)

Josie still keeps tabs on them. She calls Toni regularly, reads up on the others. Of Fangs’ nomination for sexiest man alive. Of the break-up between Sweet Pea and Ethel. Their music styles clashed and apparently, they did too, far too much to maintain a relationship.

She doesn’t give it another a thought.

So receiving a text from him to meet her at Pop’s Diner at 10 that night was a surprise. She considers calling, considers demanding audio confirmation that it is him asking that not a stranger who had stumbled across or hacked his phone. She considers demanding more than just the sentence he had sent her with no explanation attached to it.

She doesn’t however, demand any of it.

Josie walks in 15 minutes late, intentionally. She was curious as to how serious he was about the clandestine meeting, too far away from their hotels for it to be coincidental. They don’t have much time off between concerts and the fact they were both in the same city was miraculous, so if he is wasting her time... she doesn’t want to think about that.

He is there however, the giant crowded into one of the booths, head down and staring intently at the table. Josie slows as she approaches him, stops one booth away from him and truly takes him in. He seems to thrum with energy, his fingers tapping on the table in front of him, Josie almost certain beneath the table his foot is bouncing up and down. He seems so concentrated on nothing and everything, brows furrowed as he stared. She must be a little heavy footed because his head jerks up when she takes another step forward, his eyes finding hers instantly.

She slides in the other side opposite him, Josie signalling Pop to her. They both idly flick through the menus he provides, silence settling around them after they ordered and await their food, the only couple in the building. It is brought to them and they pick at the chips and milkshake, a look of disgust on Josie’s face as Sweet Pea dips his chips into the drink.

But eventually their plates are empty and taken away, the pair left to themselves. Sweet Pea just watches her, hesitation silencing him every time his mouth opens to speak. And she realises that he may not actually say what he wants without prompting. “Okay,” she starts. “You didn’t ask me to come just to not say anything. So, what’s up?”

He stiffens at her brash approach to the topic. His body is taut and his jaw is clenched. “I need you to be my girlfriend.”

“Are you drunk?”

“No,” he bites back. At her disbelieving look he clarifies, “I’ve had one drink tonight. Definitely needed.” He mutters it through gritted teeth, as though the mere idea of him coming to her sober to ask the question was repulsive. Which, rude.

She raises an eyebrow, casually flicking her gaze up and down his body before levelling him an unimpressed stare. “Oh, really? So, please, explain to me why I should say yes again.” Some of the fight leaves his shoulders, Sweet Pea slumping forward.

“Not an actual relationship. I mean - none of it is serious. It’s just -” he rests his elbows on the table, leaning forward, the top of his face buried in his hands, and she thinks that she had never seen him act so vulnerable, so open. “I need a fake girlfriend so the paps will get off my back.” She doesn’t say a word, doesn’t move a muscle, and Sweet Pea carries on. “The media can be brutal some times you know.” There is a self-deprecating smile curling his lips up. “After the break-up with Ethel... she was the angel in the mess and I was the big, bad man who could never deserve her. Who must have cheated or hurt her -”

He cuts himself off, and she can’t help the words tumbling out. “What happened between you guys?” Josie flinches; she was too abrupt, too fast. They weren’t even that close. His hands drop to the table. The bang of his rings reverberates in the diner, in her heart.

“Please don’t ask.” His voice is hoarse and his eyes, she couldn’t look away even if she wanted to. “I know it’s a lot to ask on top of everything else, but please don’t ask.” And it is there, the intensity she had only ever gotten glimpses of in the wings of the stage, when he was so lost in his music that he forgets to restrain himself, when he doesn’t simply play but lets it move him, lets himself be a canvass for the music to illustrate its emotion and power. He is beautiful in his vulnerability, and like a moth to a flame she finds herself drawn to him, seeking to understand.

Josie had held herself back before, and she’s sure she could do so now. “Okay fine, but what is dating me going to help?” She says it not unkindly, but even then she is sure it could have been more smooth.

“I need the media to back off; I tried hiding and lying low, but it only fuelled rumours. So I figured if they saw me dating someone in public they’d move on eventually. And then let me do the same.” She gets it, whether Josie thinks they’ll succeed is a different question entirely, but she gets what he means. It was difficult to be in relationships when the tabloids stalked for every detail, but it was more difficult to move on from them when they would keep on opening wounds you wanted to close and heal.

“Why me?” It’s an honest question. They weren’t close and she’s sure there would be a multitude of girls willing to be close to him, even in a situation like this.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” he sighs. “It was kinda a rushed decision. Melody would be best but Ethel was always suspicious of our friendship and I don’t think Val’s boyfriend would like it if I asked her.”

“So I was your third choice then?” She means it to be teasing, the despondence of Sweet Pea’s countenance getting to her, but she thinks that a little bit of bitterness slips in. “Well, what do I get out of this?”

“Publicity?” he shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a reason out there.”

There is. He doesn’t need to know of it.

Of him.

Sweet Pea sighs, and if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders and had borne it for centuries. He sounds tired and resigned and it’s the most emotion he had voluntarily shown her. It leaves her heart lurching for him. “If you don’t do it for me, do it for Toni. She won’t say it but this has all been driving her crazy. And you know what some of the tabloids have been saying about her and me...” She did. That Toni and Sweet Pea had been having an affair and that Ethel had discovered them in bed and left his cheating ass because, god forbid, a female and male be in a non-sexual relationship. She tried to be strong, but the strain of the gossip was starting to have an effect. And while Jughead didn’t believe the rumours Toni hated that the boy she loved was being dragged into messes he hadn’t wanted any part in.

Sweet Pea slips his head down and buries it in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles. “I should have never asked you to come here.”

Josie wants to laugh at the scenario. She hadn’t thought it would ever happen, that she would ever consider it.

“No sex.”

She never thought she’d agree to it.

Sweet Pea’s head jerks up from his hands and he looks at her with something akin to hope and awe shining in his eyes. “Of course not.” His voice is quiet, it is soft and quiet and it is a completely different version of him she had never seen before. “I’ll be the perfect boyfriend.”

She rolls her eyes. She almost bites back that if he were the perfect boyfriend she would definitely be having sex, but she doesn’t. They aren’t at that level of friendship yet. “You better be. Josie McCoy doesn’t date anything but the best.” It is the first time he cracks a grin at her the entire night and a thought flutters through her mind, a warning that his smile is beautiful, is lethal. She brushes it aside. “And don’t be clingy. My music career is my priority and I ain’t giving that up just because you aren’t happy with how this fake relationship is playing out.”

He nods eagerly, eyes alight now he had her agreement. “I’ll give you all the room you want. I’ll do anything.”

She smiles in agreement and nods. And with that the deal is struck.

They slip out of the booth, Sweet Pea brushing off her attempts to pay for the meal. “Think of it as a thank-you. Or a bribe to continue with the deal, whichever.” She huffs in annoyance, but she can’t cling to the emotion as much as she wants to, the feeling evaporating as she sees Sweet Pea grin at Pop, a decent tip left in the jar as he turns to where she stands, strolling over to her.

She sticks out her hand to him and he looks down confused at it and she rolls her eyes, pulling it back to herself. They walk out together, his hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders up high, and arms tucked into himself. No, she thinks, this won’t do at all. “You know we can’t be like this in public.”

He blinks repeatedly at her. “Like what?”

“Awkward! You’re keeping a metre between us. How do you expect anyone to believe we’re together if you can’t look at me for longer than a minute.”

He looks off to the side, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d think him embarrassed. “I can look you in the eyes.” She arches an eyebrow in challenge and he huffs, meeting her eyes. He wavers when she takes a step closer to him and then another, her hand resting on his torso but Josie tuts softly at him, her other hand holding his chin in place.

She gets a little distracted, eyes wandering around his face. They had never been that close before, never needed to, never for this long. She can see freckles she never noticed before, the upturn of his nose, the small scar across his cheek. And when she finds his eyes again it feels different, the moment no longer a challenge between them.

Josie tilts her head to the side. “How good are you with kissing?”

The words break whatever tension had arisen, Sweet Pea blinking the look away, a more easy-going one taking its place. “Oh that, that I can do.” He grins at her, hands lifting to cradle her face, his thumb brushing against her bottom lip. She doesn’t think it would affect her as much as it does. And then she doesn’t think at all, Sweet Pea ducking his head and catching her mouth against his. It... it’s a wonderful kiss, much better than she was expecting from him, Sweet Pea soft and probing, his arms wrapping themselves around her, pulling her flush against him.

His hair is soft between her fingers, soft and long and she fists it, pulling him closer to her. It is easy to lose herself in the moment, in his kiss and touch. She is keenly aware of the arm pressed against her back, keeping them close, as well as the other resting on her hip, sliding down her ass. She can feel his nose press against her cheek, can feel his fingers dig into her skin as she drags her nails across his scalp. She’s losing herself in the kiss and she hadn’t done that in a very, very long time.

They break apart, Sweet Pea resting his head on her’s as they both try to catch their breath. But eventually he straightens up, Josie tilting her head higher to meet his eyes. And there is something in his eyes, she thinks it’s lust, she knows that it has her temperature rising.

“Oh,” she breathes, pulse racing in its aftermath. She hadn’t been kissed like that since Reggie. Her heart pangs at the memory, the thought of her footballer, of how tough he was on the field and how soft he was when it was just them. She swallows down her saliva and the memories of a past she couldn’t live in. Not anymore. “Okay then. That - a lot of that.”

His smirk is irritating. “I think I can live with that.” And his thumb is doing a distracting thing on her hip bone, stroking it gently, the callouses sending tingles through her body.

It is enough to bring her back to reality, Josie crossing her arms over her chest. “Get over yourself Sweet Pea.” And she extracts herself from his embrace. This... this was safer. Distance was good. “I am not going to be accused by the media as some frigid witch. And I need some benefits in this.” There is a smugness to her own smirk, an arch to her brow challenging him to contradict her.

He doesn’t.

“So we’re really doing this?” He seems more amazed than anything, Sweet Pea not expecting the night to go as it did.

“For Toni,” she clarifies.

And he grins a disarming grin and oh no, she thinks. This is very risky. Especially when he wraps his around her shoulders, tugging her close to his side as they walk to their respective cars. He is still stiff, but he was trying and the moment he becomes more comfortable, she knows it would make everything that much more dangerous.

She wakes up to a plethora of texts and missed calls, from Melody and Val. From Toni and Fangs and her manager and her mother. She clicks Val’s text, mind still hazy from sleep. And so seeing an website link captioned with a ‘plz explain?!?!?!?!’, she automatically clicks it and waits to see what the big fuss was about.

Josie almost drops her phone at the images that load. Her and Sweet Pea, bathed in the purple and red glow of Pop’s neon lights, the stars twinkling above them, his hand resting low on her ass, her arms around his neck, hand buried in his hair. The first is of them kissing, her head tilted to the side, Sweet Pea bending down to meet her. She didn’t realise there was such a big height difference, not until she sees how he engulfs her in his embrace, crowding her. The next is right after. It’s as though she were seeing it for the first time, because she remembers the moment, remembers the surprise of his talent, remembers thinking of Reggie. But she doesn’t see that in the image, not when Sweet Pea is pressing his forehead on her own, their noses touching. She sees closed eyes and close bodies.

Her and Sweet Pea look cute and wrapped up in each other, close and comfortable and there is a small part of her which longs for when she had that, when she had a man who loves and adored her, not just her voice.

They look in love.

(She ignores the thought about the silence from one person. She is going to have to learn how to do that.)

#josiepea #josie mccoy #sweet pea #riverdale #riverdale fic #ruthie writes #will there be more? who knows #i mean the backstory between her and reggie and sweet pea and ethel is pretty much planned out #and thats not even including them being rivals

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liaragaming · 7 years

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You dare touch her!

Inktober, Prompt 10. Protective/possessive Solas for @blue-syrena

Word count: 1,088.

She's been called many things. Child of Clan Lavellan. Herald. Inquisitor. Rabbit. Knife Ear.

She was the Lover of Fen'Harel. Carrier of His Mark.

Traitor was another. The night she wouldn't kill the one she loved to save the world. The night she watched it all burn and held no regrets.

God Slayer is her new title as she hunts those who were released the night the Veil burst open.

She's good at it too, far better than she thought she would be. Turns out gods bleed just like everyone else.

As for Solas? Well… he has his duty restoring the elven empire. And there is no place for her there, not among the returned ancient elvhen who will never see her as anything more than Fen'Harel's pet.

She isn't even welcome among her own people, the mortal elves who survived the destruction of the Veil and will never forgive her for her part in it.

No matter. She isn't looking for redemption. Just Andruil, with her blade across her throat.

Solas warned her against taking on the huntress too soon, and now she knows she's waited too long. One does not hunt a hunter. The elven god has had too much time to observe the fall of her brethren and to plan how she might escape their fate.

And it is said her arrow never misses.

But there's a transfer of power when one kills a god, and the God Slayer has tricks of her own.

Not that any of it matters when one foolish mistake sends her into a trap she should have seen.

Cockiness, that was the fault of the elven gods. They thought themselves invincible. And as she slayed one of them after another, she began to believe the same.

The only reason she isn't dead is having the siphoned power of her previous conquests to counteract Andruil's arrow. And it still buries itself in her shoulder.

She cries out and falls back against the stone wall of the ruin. A long, rumbling snarl fills her ears, and in a puff of swirling smoke, Solas appears before her.

Has he been following her this whole time?

“You dare touch her!” he growls into the empty ruin.

Andruil appears, stepping from around a corner, her bow strung and pulled taunt but pointed at the ground. “Fen'Harel,” she rolls the final vow off her tongue. “I didn't expect to lure you here. Concerned for your pet, were you?”

God Slayer pushes herself off the wall and steps forward, fully prepared to push Solas aside and finish what she started. But she cries out in pain again.

The damned arrow feels like burrowing deeper into her flesh.

Solas rounds on Andruil who raises her bow. “You may have trapped us behind the Veil long ago, but you're not as strong as you once were.”

Solas' body seems to shift, no longer solid, fading between elf and wolf. “You want to test that theory?”

She sees the trap before he does, jumping aside and using her god-borrowed power to deflect as Andruil looses another arrow in her direction.

It misses, but pain shoots through her shoulder once more.

Solas lunges at Andruil in a cry of fury.

God Slayer falls back against the wall. Taking the arrow in hand, she tries to pull it out but only seems to encourage it deeper, inching toward her heart. She curses, knowing she can’t fight like this.

But Solas can hold his own. He and Andruil dance around each other in a swirl of movement that's impossible to follow. She doesn't know if he fights as elf or wolf, or perhaps both. Each time she blinks he seems to have taken a different form, though it's a wolf's snarls that fills her ears alongside Andruil's taunts.

It's over far sooner than she expected, the wolf finally catching the hunter in its jaws. Andruil's neck is crushed in a spray of blood, and God Slayer turns her face away.

Solas comes to her, himself again, his face full of tenderness and concern. His fingers brush the stem of the arrow in her shoulder, and she yelps.

“Stop struggling,” he tells her. “It's meant to find its mark. You're working it in.”

“Maybe we should let it.”

“Don't talk like that. You're going to be fine.”

Define fine, she thinks.

Is it fine that her own people reject her? Is it fine that her friends and family are dead because they put their trust in her and she failed them? Is it fine that the humans raised her up as a prophet of their god and she hasn’t been able to find herself since? Is it fine that she constantly longs for a future with the man she loves that each day seems less and less likely to come to fruition?

Is it fine that she doesn’t know why she fights anymore?

She struggles to free herself from him.

“Stop!” he says, grabbing onto her, refusing to let her go.

She bites her lip against the pain and tries to shove him away.

He uses his body weight to push her against the wall. Grasping her arms in both hands, he pins them at her sides. “Enough!”

She spits in his face.

She regrets it immediately and turns her head from his shock. Tears fill her eyes, and all notion of fighting drains from her.

Solas freezes the arrow in a blast of icy magic that burns as it shoots through her like fire. She screams.

“I’m sorry!” A stream of apologies flow from him as he rips the encased arrow from her shoulder, then cauterizes the wound. “I'm sorry.” He soothes her shoulder with healing magic. Then he holds her and rocks her to his apologies. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

He says it over and over until she's not certain what he's apologizing for.

“I'm so tired, Solas.” She sobs into his armor.

“I know, vhenan.” He presses a kiss into her hair. “I know.”

“I don't want this anymore.”

“I know.”

“I just…” She lifts her head and reaches for him.

He lowers his head to kiss her.

There is everything in that kiss – everything they were, everything they could have been, and everything they are. The thought of it makes her want to cry harder, and she fights against the sobs that threaten to take her anew, tears flowing freely down her face.

They sit together, still holding each other when darkness falls and well into the night. And at long last he tells her,

“I'm tired too.”

Read all prompt stories: [AO3] [Tumblr]

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#this prompt made my heart hurt #solavellan #my fanfic #dragon age #inktober 2017

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kierantc-blog · 7 years

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Dark Days: The Forge #1 Review - Welcome Returns and Lore Building

“Before i get started, i want to say thanks to people who follow me and those who have read my reviews and thoughts since i joined Tumblr, it means a lot.

So Dark Days: The Forge #1 is one of two prelude issues, the other being The Casting #1, to the massive Dark Nights: Metal event brought to us by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, the team behind the critically acclaimed New 52 Batman series.

The theme of this series is of course metal itself, The Forge and The Casting are terms relating to the blacksmith art of shaping metal into something else, and we start this story off with a diary entry from the recently deceased Carter Hall AKA Hawkman, who tells the story of how he first got his metal wings. In Ancient Egypt he came across what appears to be a Thanagarian ship in the sky that would ultimately give him, his princess (Shayera, Hawkgirl) and Hath-Set eternal life.

The metal in question is Nth Metal and that ship is made up of it entirely. We also learn that Carter had been exploring the Nth Metal for years as he would often have visions of another life that would disturb him and he wanted to know where it came from.

Having Hawkman tell us this story is a good narrative choice from Snyder (one of many he makes in this story), but it once again blurs the lines when it comes to the origins of the character.

Meanwhile in the present day, Batman is using his resources at Wayne Enterprises to fund undercover sites designed to investigate an issue with the metal, which is supposedly becoming unstable, a problem which Aquaman is more than happy to bring up as the site Batman narrowly escapes death from is based in the sea.

Arthur asks Bruce what he was looking for, but Bruce cryptically says that he knows what is locked beneath Atlantis, implying that some questions should go unasked for now. So what is buried beneath Atlantis? Is it related to the metal?

We later find Bruce back at his Batcave, it would seem he’s been working on this problem with the metal for some time and has even consulted other heroes on the matter, which brings back to the fold the one and only Mister Terrific, Michael Holt, returning to the main universe after some time away.

As it turns out though, Michael has been working with Bruce on this issue with the metal, travelling between Earth-0 and Earth-2 to bring Bruce information on a Multiversal level. Terrific reveals that the frequency infecting the metal on Earth-0 is also doing the same on Earth-2 and beyond, and even a man of his intellect doesn’t know why.

It’s honestly so good to see Michael back in the picture and in a huge story like this too. It’s easy to do a story that concentrates on the big core characters but Scott Snyder doesn’t do “easy”. Which brings us to another surprise returning character....

Mister Terrific sparks a thought in Batman, who decides to investigate further but instructs his colleague to bring someone out of the box......PLASTIC MAN!!!

Now what Bruce means by unstable though i’m not sure (people with his powers are known in fiction to become physically unstable and not be able to hold their form correctly), but Michael’s smile says it all right there, it’s good to have him back.

Snyder pulls out another rabbit from his hat, because if you told me a year ago that Scott Snyder AKA Batman Guy was going to write a story that included Hawkman, Mister Terrific and Plastic Man in it, i would have laughed. This is what good writers can do though, explore the back catalogue and use any character so seamlessly, it’s one of the things i love about Geoff Johns so much.

Batman heads to the Arctic to see Superman in his Fortress. Years ago, Bruce asked Clark if he could have a room in the Fortress of Solitude, and made him also promise never to look at what he put in the room.

Clark was seemingly too nice to question his motives and agreed, and Bruce even shot the key to the room into the sun so no-one could go in there. But now Bruce needs to go into the room, and there’s only one person you can turn to....Scott Free AKA Mister Miracle!

Mister Miracle unlocks the door with ease and peaks at what is inside. He’s shocked, or horrified, or probably both, and tries to warn Bruce but he waves him off and tells him to leave.

I think Scott had a point though, because in the room is a tuning fork tower previously seen in Crisis On Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. These towers are designed to hone in on frequency that each Earth gives off and have been used to save them and replicate them, and they can potentially destroy them too.

How on Earth did Batman get hold of this though? How is it possible that this exists in the post-Flashpoint universe? So many questions and no answers, but we do know that Batman is about to use the massive tower to try and get a fix on the frequency that is coming off of the metal.

What could possible go wrong?

Meanwhile in Plot B, we join Hal Jordan as he is tasked by Ganthet, a Guardian of the Universe, to investigate rumours of a terrible truth coming to light on Earth and sends him to Wayne Manor. Hal thinks it should be an easy mission, but he doesn’t account for Duke Thomas.

Duke Thomas, not a Robin, is guarding the Batcave and tries to take on a Green Lantern. Poor boy, he didn’t stand a chance. Hal though gives the kid a break and explores a little, finding a secret cave in the Batcave.

“Only Batman would have a secret cave inside his secret cave.”

He’s not kidding.

Hal and Duke explore this secret cave and are confronted by a mysterious voice, that gives them a guided tour of the things they’re about to see and gives us an insight into why Batman is exploring the metal in the first place.

As it turns out, it all started back when Bruce discovered the existence of the Court of Owls in the New 52 series of Batman, also written by Scott Snyder. In issue 7, Bruce discovers that the Talons, the assassins used by the Court are brought back from the dead using a special metal placed in a tooth called Electrum. Dick Grayson actually had one in his mouth for years as he was being groomed as a future Talon by the Court, before Bruce took him in at Wayne Manor.

As this mysterious voice in the secret cave tells Hal and Duke, Bruce was able to extract a strange substance from the tooth he took from Dick and found that it gave off a strange energy signature that was also found in some of the most powerful artifacts in the world.

As you can see from the picture, Bruce has collected Doctor Fate’s helmet (or one of them), a trident-like weapon possibly from Atlantis and a pair of bracers similar to what Wonder Woman wears.

The mysterious voice also mentions another element, Dionesium, a substance that took center stage during another Snyder Batman story known as Endgame.

Snyder is digging in deep to get these threads for his story, a great pair of callbacks to his previous work and again he pulls out another rabbit from his hat and brings back the original Outsiders group in their original line up!

It would be poor form for me not to mention another plot thread from this issue, which shows us the Immortal Man talking to an acquaintance about Elaine Thomas, Duke’s mother. As it turns out, the Immortal Man once offered Elaine immortality and she rejected him, and he has since been watching her with the hope she wouldn’t reveal his secret.

Immortal Man is one of many obscure characters being brought into the Metal event and will later be part of the Dark Matter line up of books, written by James Tynion IV and art from Jim Lee, so it makes sense that he would show up here.

Meanwhile, closing in on their strange tour guide, Hal and Duke make their way through the secret cave and Duke is already putting together who this stranger is.

To their horror they open a door and find a crazed Joker, crudely scratching numbers into a wall and laughing like a maniac. It appears that Bruce has been holding him captive for some time.

As i’ve already said, i love the fact that Snyder has gone outside of his comfort zone of the Batman universe and has used other characters for this story, if anything it really shows the growth he’s made as a writer and the confidence he has now to tell big stories. And this is a big story, make no mistake about it. He still uses the Batman related characters to frame his story but he’s not afraid to make pairings that no-one would do in a million years, i mean come on, Duke Thomas and Hal Jordan? It’s a cool idea!

As for bringing in characters like Mister Terrific and Plastic Man, it’s done so that you’re happy to see these guys return but also uses them in a way that feels integral to the story.

As a prelude to a larger story, this issue does a great job of helping set up the stakes as they are and intriguing us into what the mystery of the metal is going to end up being. I still have lots of questions, especially when it comes to Duke and his All-Star Batman story about him potentially being a meta-human and how his mother fits into this larger story.

As for the artwork, highly serviceable stuff. I’m not John Romita Jr’s biggest fan but his work on this issue is great. As usual Jim Lee owns the pages he draws and Andy Kubert captures the magic of Carter Hall’s life in his pages too.

TL;DR: A wonderfully done prologue to what could be one of the most original and interesting DC events in years, and does great fan service to those who loved Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman series as well as those who love DC in general, with some great surprise characters turning up along the way.

Overall Rating - 10/10

#Batman #Dark Days #The Forge #Duke Thomas #Hawkman #Nth Metal #Hal Jordan #Plastic Man #Crisis On Infinite Earths #Infinite Crisis #The Outsiders #Immortal Men #DC Comics #DC Rebirth #Comics Review #Comic Books

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The top of the web startup

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The top of the web startup

Silicon Valley is meant to be a spot the place a few guys in a storage or a dorm room can begin firms that change the world. It occurred with Apple and Microsoft within the 1970s, AOL within the 1980s, Amazon, Yahoo, and Google within the 1990s, and Facebook within the 2000s.

However the 2010s appear to be affected by a startup drought. Individuals are nonetheless beginning startups, in fact. However the final actually huge tech startup success, Facebook, is 13 years previous.

Till final yr, Uber appeared destined to be Silicon Valley’s latest know-how big. However now Uber’s CEO has resigned in shame and the corporate’s future is unsure. Different know-how firms launched prior to now 10 years don’t appear to be in the identical league. Airbnb, probably the most useful American tech startup after Uber, is value $31 billion, about 7 % of Facebook’s worth. Others — like Snap, Sq., and Slack — are value a lot much less.

So what’s occurring? On a latest journey to Silicon Valley, I posed that query to a number of know-how executives and startup traders.

“Once I take a look at like Google and Amazon within the 1990s, I type of really feel prefer it’s Columbus and Vasco da Gama crusing out of Portugal the primary time,” mentioned Jay Zaveri, an investor on the Silicon Valley agency Social Capital.

The early web pioneers grabbed the “low-hanging fruit,” Zaveri prompt, occupying profitable niches like search, social networks, and e-commerce. By the point latecomers like Pinterest and Blue Apron got here alongside, the pickings had gotten slimmer.

However others instructed me there was extra to the story than that. Right this moment’s know-how giants have change into much more savvy about anticipating and preempting threats to their dominance. They’ve accomplished this by aggressively increasing into new markets and by buying potential rivals once they’re nonetheless comparatively small. And, some critics say, they’ve gotten higher at controlling and locking down key components of the web’s infrastructure, closing off paths that early web firms used to succeed in a mass market.

In consequence, an trade that was once well-known for its churn is beginning to appear like a standard oligopoly — dominated by a handful of massive firms whose perch atop the trade seems more and more safe.

Everybody in Silicon Valley is aware of the story of once-great firms like Digital Tools Company, Solar Microsystems, AOL, and Yahoo that had been introduced down by main know-how shifts. Enterprise capitalist Phin Barnes instructed me that at the moment’s know-how giants have rigorously studied their errors and are decided to not repeat them.

The administration groups at at the moment’s tech giants — Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft — are “significantly better at understanding existential threat,” Barnes instructed me.

For Facebook, the primary huge take a look at got here with the introduction of the smartphone. Facebook began out as a desktop web site, and the corporate may have simply been caught flat-footed, like Yahoo was, by the shift to cellular gadgets. However Zuckerberg acknowledged the importance of touchscreen cellular gadgets and pushed his engineers to make cellular apps the highest precedence throughout the corporate.

Zuckerberg additionally went on a purchasing spree, snapping up firms that appeared to be constructing huge audiences on cellular gadgets. In 2012, he purchased Instagram, which solely had a handful of workers, for $1 billion. Two years later, he purchased messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion.

Zuckerberg was following a mannequin pioneered by Google. In 2006, Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, a website that has grown into one of many web’s hottest locations. Most necessary, Google purchased a little-known cellular software program firm known as Android in 2005, laying the inspiration for Google’s eventual dominance of smartphone working techniques.

These acquisitions proved to be massively important. One rating reveals WhatsApp and YouTube because the web’s prime social networks after Facebook. Instagram is subsequent on the listing in the event you ignore Chinese language websites. If these firms had remained impartial, they simply may have emerged as main opponents to Google and Facebook. As a substitute, they turned yet another piece of the Google and Facebook empires.

Amazon has pursued an analogous technique. It purchased on-line shoe retailer Zappos in 2009, and the following yr it purchased Quidsi, the corporate behind a preferred website for brand spanking new mother and father known as Diapers.com.

Not each know-how startup accepts the giants’ acquisition gives. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, for instance, turned down a $three billion acquisition provide from Mark Zuckerberg in 2013, then took his firm, renamed Snap, public in 2017.

Facebook has responded by constructing its personal model of many Snapchat options. Facebook-owned Instagram launched its personal model of the Snapchat’s common tales characteristic final yr, and inside six months Instagram tales had extra each day customers than Snapchat itself.

Instagram has additionally launched a model of Snapchat’s lenses, which permit folks to take whimsical rabbit-ear and dog-ear selfies. Worries about competitors from Instagram has put downward strain on Snap’s inventory.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman rebuffed acquisition gives from Google and Yahoo, taking the corporate public in 2012. Google responded by growing its personal native critiques service. And — in Stoppelman’s view — Google used its dominance within the search market to present its native critiques product an unfair benefit.

“Google began turning the screws on distribution and began to bury natural search outcomes,” Stoppleman instructed me in a June interview. Yelp pages began to seem additional down in Google search outcomes, making it tougher for Yelp to draw new customers. Yelp was already common sufficient to thrive in america, however Stoppelman argues that Google’s techniques hampered Yelp’s efforts to increase abroad.

And the specter of stiff competitors is usually a highly effective inducement for impartial startups to promote to the incumbents. Quidsi, the corporate behind Diapers.com, initially rejected Amazon’s overtures. Amazon responded by slashing its personal diaper costs.

“At one level,” writes Businessweek’s Brad Stone, “Quidsi executives took what they knew about transport charges, factored in Procter & Gamble’s wholesale costs, and calculated that Amazon was on monitor to lose $100 million over three months within the diaper class alone.” As a venture-backed startup, Quidsi couldn’t maintain these sorts of losses, so the corporate wound up promoting to Amazon in 2010.

Basic web startups like Yahoo, eBay, Google, and Facebook had been in a position to launch with modest quantities of cash and attain profitability inside just a few years.

“Mark Zuckerberg had an enormous benefit with Facebook as a result of the strain that ordinary folks have of constructing an organization was changed by the lightness of him simply taking part in round with concepts,” mentioned Mike Maples, an investor on the agency Floodgate.

By the point Zuckerberg based Facebook in 2004, it didn’t value very a lot to run an internet site — even one with thousands and thousands of customers. So Zuckerberg was in a position to attain profitability rapidly, and as Facebook continued to develop, the positioning turned massively worthwhile, giving the corporate loads of cash to spend on acquisitions or new initiatives.

However latest years have been totally different.

As traders have realized how worthwhile dominant know-how firms can change into, they’ve been keen to pour an increasing number of sources into making certain that their startups are those that dominate their market. And that, paradoxically, has made it tougher for anybody to succeed in profitability.

That’s the scenario within the ride-sharing market, the place Uber and Lyft have waged a multi-year worth battle that has value Uber billions and its smaller rival tons of of thousands and thousands of . An analogous dynamic has emerged in markets like meals supply, the place firms have spent thousands and thousands to draw clients.

One other change: Incumbent know-how firms more and more management the platforms startups use to succeed in customers.

“Facebook grew based mostly on saying ‘give me your electronic mail addresses, and I’ll ship out emails inviting your folks to strive Facebook,’” Yelp’s Stoppelman instructed me. “Does Facebook enable that by itself platform? Hell no. They are saying ‘pay us $four an set up and we’ll make it easier to get one person at a time and make some huge cash within the course of.’”

So whereas the technical prices of constructing an internet service are cheaper than ever, it has change into widespread for firms to spend thousands and thousands of on promoting to get their app or service in entrance of potential customers. And a big share of that cash flows to Google and Facebook.

There’s one thing to all of those critiques, however it’s additionally necessary to not overstate them. As a result of for all of the challenges trendy startups face, there’s little doubt startup with a very revolutionary mass-market product would discover a technique to attain clients. I feel that finally, there’s loads of advantage to the low-hanging fruit speculation: We haven’t seen any huge new web firms emerge as a result of there’s a finite variety of alternatives to construct huge, profitable on-line companies.

Just a few months in the past, the web had loads of enjoyable on the expense of Juicero, a startup that bought an overpriced juice-squeezing machine. The truth that this sort of gadget for the super-wealthy acquired funding looks like an indication that traders are struggling to develop merchandise with extra mass-market enchantment.

Juicero was an excessive instance. However even latest web startups with extra mainstream merchandise — like Snap, Sq., and Pinterest — aren’t prone to be as revolutionary as Apple, Amazon, and Google had been of their early years.

This sort of factor has occurred earlier than. Within the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, there was an explosion of innovation in semiconductor manufacturing. However finally, the market settled down, with a handful of massive firms — Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm — dominating the market. Innovation in “Silicon Valley�� didn’t cease; it simply moved to issues aside from silicon chips.

Within the 1980s, nice firms like Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit had been based to make software program for PCs. These firms nonetheless make loads of cash — similar to Intel does — however there isn’t loads of room for desktop PC software program startups at the moment.

We could also be reaching an analogous level with apps and on-line companies. There are solely so many issues you are able to do with an internet browser or a smartphone, and perhaps firms like Google, Facebook, and Snap have already locked down a very powerful markets.

After all, that doesn’t imply innovation in Silicon Valley goes to cease. But it surely would possibly look loads totally different than the innovation we’ve seen during the last 20 years.

Take Tesla, for instance. In some methods, it’s a basic Silicon Valley firm. It’s based mostly in Palo Alto and employs a military of programmers to design the whole lot from its touchscreen interface to its self-driving software program.

However in different methods Tesla represents a departure from the Silicon Valley norm. Whereas Apple manufactures iPhones in China, Tesla operates its automotive manufacturing facility in Fremont, California. The place Uber and Airbnb have averted proudly owning the automobiles and homes, Tesla spent billions of on a battery manufacturing facility.

So even when incumbents like Google, Facebook, and Amazon proceed to dominate the marketplace for on-line companies, that doesn’t imply they’ll stay the leaders of know-how innovation extra broadly. Relatively, innovation might shift in dramatically totally different instructions — towards electrical automobiles and supply drones, for instance, quite than smartphone apps. We’ve gotten used to considering of Silicon Valley, the web, and innovation as interchangeable, however the subsequent wave of innovation would possibly look very totally different from what we’re used to.

Disclosure: My brother works at Google.

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