(En)trope-y

HYPERFIXATION STATION BAYBE!!! / multi fandom: primarily Batfam atm / where all of my thoughts appear in tumblr format to haunt the internet /

[entrope-y]

Yes yes I know the assassins and the extremely competent mercenaries of the DC universe are realistically a very well kept secret, that only those with literal millions in their bank accounts can afford to hire or even know of, but like. Can you imagine Gothamites crowdfunding Deathstroke?

Like a situation where collectively, everyone is SO sick of, say, a politician. And not just any standard Gotham politician, no no, it’s too easy for one of Penguin’s men to pop the mayor, that’s not the problem here. The problem is this hypothetical politician, whose actions are affecting New Jersey, and therefore Gotham, is not only extremely insufferable and making the already shit quality of life of Gotham worse, but are also, painfully, NOT in New Jersey. Like there’s no easy access like there is with the mayor! The gall!

So what’s a girl (a crowd of Gothamites) to do when she’s frustrated by a situation like this?

Start a go fund me labeled “Help Us Reach Our Goal of Hiring Deathstroke To Do An Assassination For Us Because For Fucks Sake Gas And Groceries Are Already Damn Fuck Expensive We Don’t Need More of This Shit”

I feel like Deathstroke would be amused (as long as he’s paid full price of course)

[entrope-y]

I viscerally need some sort of outsider POV, almost “slice of life”-esque fic of the scientific community in Piltover during the height of Jayvik’s hexcore years.

Like I know Arcane has this fantastic ability of making magical steampunk engineering looking so fun and easy (and boy, aren’t I extremely jealous lol), but there’s gotta be some drama on the engineering committees.

Like you’re telling me that there weren’t any other Piltover scientists who felt jilted that their projects weren’t getting funding from the council? Preventing saltwater erosion on merchant ships is very impactful on trade routes to Piltover, please, some money would help the grants go so far! But no, instead, the entire council turns on its heel to praise Jayce Talis and Viktor the Zaunite, who haven’t completed any of the proper procedures at all! They had no papers submitted or peer reviewed, no research to fall back on. AND they only worked with each other and (probably) refused to take on any other grad students or mentors other than Heimerdinger!!! What the absolute fuck.

Like it gets even funnier when you look at it??? Viktor was the motherfucking Dean’s ASSISTANT, from ZAUN (prejudice abound) and Jayce was what, an undergrad student??? (Was he even a grad student???) And these motherfuckers not only DIDN’T get thrown in jail after BREAKING INTO the deans office after ILLEGALLY harboring a science experiment that BLEW UP the UPPER HALF of a BUILDING, IN THE RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT, (WHICH WAS BEING ACTIVELY ROBBED AT THE INCEPTION OF THE EXPLOSION), to then ILLEGALLY AND IRRESPONSIBLY start up their experiment AGAIN (but in a GOVERNMENT BUILDING THIS TIME), but they ALSO, GOT FUCKING FUNDING FOR IT. AND A DIRECT PATRONAGE RELATIONSHIP FROM ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL (and hottest) MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. WHAT THE FUCK.

ONE OF THEM HASNT EVEN BEEN FORMALLY TRAINED IN ENGINEERING AND DOESNT UNDERSTAND WHY HE NEEDS TO SIGN HIS NAME AND DATE EVERY PAGE OF RESEARCH. ARE YOU FUCKING-

Frankly, I’d quit on the spot and move to Demacia. Alcoholism statistics in the city probably rose by 75% once Hextech started getting funded because every time any sort of funding gala or conference began in Piltover it would all be like

At a conference: yeah Talis and Viktor’s hextech-

Everyone from the academy:

(Also, you can’t tell me there wasn’t ONE petty bitch who was extremely gleeful that Viktor and Jayce went off the rails on their gay science agenda and ended up defying the gods on their quest to “Glorious Evolution”. Like yeah, half the city is in shambles and there’s lots of trauma but now SOME PEOPLE get to receive their well-deserved FUNDING for their saltwater erosion research. At least their papers were properly peer-reviewed!!!)

[entrope-y]

Thinking about Caitlyn and Viktor, two of the most important people in Jayce’s life.

How they never really shared a moment on screen together, but they must have met at least once. How could she not have, since her mother and her family were some of Hextech’s initial supporters, since Jayce was her best friend and near brother, in everything apart from blood? How could she not have met Viktor, her brother’s best friend, lab partner, and other half? She must have. Caitlyn had to have met Viktor at some point. And by proxy, her mother Cassandra.

I think, knowing how sharp Cassandra must have been in order to be on the council, in order to create/oversee the ventilation system built in the Undercity, that she must have deduced what illness was plaguing Viktor. Even if Viktor never spoke about his childhood in Zaun, she must have put the pieces together, that with his age and the Gray being eradicated from the Undercity in the present, he must have been a child when the infrastructure was completed, and it was too late for him to have had a childhood of completely clean air.

I don’t think it would have been obvious to Caitlyn, or even maybe Jayce, though, how Viktor would always feel the Gray rattling around in his lungs, weaving its way through his veins and blood, always haunting him. Slowly sapping his strength away from him as he and Jayce made leaps and bounds in their research, in their project that was going to change the world for the better.

Jayce had seen him slowly transition from his cane to his crutch over the years, no longer able to support his weaker leg as easily as he had when they first met, on that incredible night of daring innovation. Jayce was there as Viktor’s body slowly gave into the Gray and his illness caught up with him, pushing him to desperate means to save himself and their dream.

But Caitlyn wasn’t there, when Viktor collapsed and Jayce rushed to his side, as the two of them came to the grieving understanding and sudden shock of what little time the two of them had left together. She was in the undercity, with Vi, who had never had that Gray sickness, laying eyes on the community recovered from the poisonous Gray and caught in the claws of Shimmer instead.

Maybe Jayce did realize, towards the end of season 1, that the Gray was what had plagued Viktor and stolen his life and energy from him. Maybe he didn’t get the chance to figure that out.

But I think, in the chaos of the first episodes of season 2, that if Jayce had been aware of what Caitlyn was doing, of literally unleashing a poisonous, lethal gas onto the Zaunites and doom another generation to that same killing sickness that killed the brightest soul he had ever known? I think Jayce would have been horrified and heartbroken.

[entrope-y]

Now I can’t at all explain where this idea came from but bear with me for a second: you know how Gotham probably thinks of Batman as some sort of all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent creature of shadow and air?

The way that no plan in the city is secret, that the Bat will have heard about it the second the barest whisper leaves someone’s lips? How he can just look at you and instantly know every part of your past, despite having never run into him before?

I’m picturing this to the fullest crack effect; A (not good) parent in Gotham insisting to their hesitant, shy kid, that if they don’t toughen up at school and stop acting like a sissy, or worse, the Bat will know. The Batman always knows, and he’s strong and violent and hates kids like them, kids who are sensitive and quiet, and maybe look at the same gender for just a little bit too long.

In short: some homophobic parent starts using Batman as a boogeyman, a way to threaten and intimidate their queer kid, causing the kid to live in extra fear of the Bat, jumping at more than the usual shadows.

Now, because this is, of course, Gotham, and Batman does know just about everything going on, he does eventually hear about this. Bruce, being a clearly out bisexual man, seethes at the idea of people taking his image of justice and protection and turning it into shame and misogyny/homophobia/etc.

“Alfred, is it too much to add a bi-flag to the underside of my cape.”

“….sir-“

“You’re right, it needs to go on the outside, the inside is too subtle.”

Dick, in the background: ADD GLITTER!!

[entrope-y]

In the early days of Batman and Robin, around the time of Robin joining his own teen superhero team, Robin finally convinced Batman that he “can’t just ride around in the Batmobile forever, he needs his own ride! His own way to drive around and carry people if Batman isn’t there.”

Bruce, of course, is quietly devastated at the reminder that his son is growing up (he nearly started crying when Dick outgrew his booster seat in the Batmobile, they still have a little spot for it in the Batcave), but agrees that Robin has a point. This is how Robin gets his first motorcycle, under the agreement that he will be extremely careful and always wear the appropriate helmet while riding.

Of course the first thing Robin does is turn around and teach himself how to do the Akira slide on his bike.

And of course Nightwing makes sure this is one of first things he teaches Robin when he and Jason are bonding for the first time. It’s one of their best memories, messing around on an empty lot, burning tires and picking up scrapes. Dick has never seen Jason grin so widely before.

But then Jason dies. And suddenly the little silly things like bike tricks don’t feel like enough anymore. Not when one of the only other people who would have understood that reference is so devastated by his failures that he’s putting people in urgent care every night and close to ending up there himself.

So when Tim comes around, stubbornly shoving his way under Batman’s cape, for his own damn good, Dick hesitates to teach him the little things that he taught Jason. But he gives in anyways, because Robin needs to feel supported and cared about, and in a silly way, that’s what the Akira slide is about. That was why Bruce gave Dick his first motorcycle in the first place.

A few years pass, a new few players join the scene. A new crime lord starts rising through the ranks, he also whips through the streets on a motorcycle (honestly, there’s no other way to blow through the static Gotham traffic).

And then, the Red Hood does it. Right in front of Nightwing, on a midnight chase through the city. The mother-fucking Akira slide.

“Jason?”

[entrope-y]

Sorry, but the only thing I could think of when I saw that Bruce Wayne is currently taking over as Nightwing’s is just how mad Dick is gonna be when he gets that suit back

Like look at his dad. They are absolutely not the same build type, Dick’s gonna put the suit on and be crying cause the upper part of the suit was stretched out by Bruce’s barrel of a chest and canon sized arms lmfao.

Meanwhile, Bruce puts on the suit and is super confused why the lower back of the suit is hanging looser than expected (his ass is nowhere NEAR the level of Nightwing’s)

[5rozebub5]

so I’ve seen lots of fics about Bruce coming back and finding out things like Tim loosing his spleen or Damian getting shot (on multiple occasions by different people) and he almost always finds out by either having dug into the Batcomputers records and stumbling across it or just seeing it on scans or something after Tim or Damian is injured

but imagine for a moment Bruce finds out, not on his own, but by the others telling him.

And by “tell him” I of course mean that they all automatically assume that he already knows about all of it(because he’s the worlds greatest detective so obviously they don’t need to say anything) so they never bring it up until they mention it one day in passing and nearly give him a heart attack.

for example:

Bruce: Tim, I need you to come with me to speak with Dr. Thompkins down at the clinic about that new drug that’s been circulating

Tim: Oh, sure thing, just let me grab my mask

[Bruce not saying anything but looking at him confused because Tim is already fully suited up and wearing his domino mask?]:

[Tim, now wearing a surgical face mask]: Ok, I’m ready! [Bruce just staring at him, waiting for some explanation. He doesn’t get one.]:

Bruce: Tim

Tim: hm?

Bruce: Why are you wearing a face mask..?

Tim: Oh! Well Dr. Thompkins got mad at me last time I came to the clinic without one because there’s a lot of sick people there and I should be more careful since I’m immunocompromised-

[Bruce, immediately cutting him off]: Wait, what?

[Tim, slightly confused]: She got mad at me when I didn’t wear one last time..?

[Bruce, equally confused and growing very concerned]: No, not that. You’re immunocompromised?

[Tim, now completely lost because this is all common knowledge?]: Uh, yeah??

[Bruce, even more concerned]: How??? What do you mean??

[Tim, getting annoyed and rolling his eyes]: Well that’s what they call you when you have no spleen, Bruce.

Bruce: What.

[Tim finally realizing that, just maybe, they skipped a step]: I have no spleen? It got stabbed so Ra’s took it

[Bruce, about to have an aneurysm]: RA’S DID WHAT-

______ Or like him finding out Damian had his entire spine replaced

Bruce: Hey, do you think it’s strange Damian’s so small?

Dick: No?? He’s ten?? Ten year olds are small?

[Bruce, audibly concerned]: No, I mean don’t you think he should have grown some by now? Is he not eating enough?

[Dick, immediately relaxing]: Oh, that? Yeah, it’s fine

[Bruce, still concerned]: Are you sure? I was taller than that at his age

[Dick, waving his hand dismissively]: Nah, he’s fine. I think the spine replacement just stunted his growth a bit

Bruce:…

Dick:..?

[Bruce, near hysterically because all his kids somehow keep losing pieces of their insides and none of them seem bothered by it??]: his wHAT- ____

Dick has to spend the next several hours trying to stop Bruce from making everyone do a mandatory medical examination so he can make sure none of his other kids are missing anything

Dick promises that it was just the two things

Bruce is not reassured

[entrope-y]

@cassandracain52 how could you leave this in the tags, this is pure GOLD

[entrope-y]

When Robin, roughly nine years old and barely starting to accept the idea of Bruce as his father guardian after a year of living with him and becoming his most trusted partner, is launched into an alternate universe so familiar to his own, do you think his heart sings with blinding hope and love in a way that it hasn’t in over a year when he sees Dick Grayson?

Do you think he launches himself at Dick with reckless abandon, all knobbly elbows and wiry frame, babbling and crying, calling for his dad in his native language that has been slipping away from him more and more with every passing day?

Do you think Dick Grayson, twenty-three years old and looking more and more like the wispy memory of his lost parents, with his father’s rough grin and easy kindness, with his mother’s eyes and curls of hair, feels his heart freeze in his chest as this child cries in a tongue he suddenly realizes he doesn’t remember anymore, as he’s lost both his family’s faces and language to time?

It takes Dick a moment to unfreeze and look down at his younger self, who he instinctively hugged close to him the moment he heard the word “Dat”, and realize that he’s looking at a literal younger version of himself.

It takes Dick pulling away from his friends that day, reassuring the other young heroes that he’ll catch up later - although they’re not so young, anymore, not with how they’re close to their mentors’ age when they started the Justice League, not when young looks like the boy in his arms, the boy he was all those startling years ago - for this younger Dick Grayson to look up through eyes blurred with tears and finally realize that this man who looks so much like his father has his mother’s eyes and hair, has his father’s easy grin that doesn’t sit on the same face as his father’s.

In this foreign and yet familiar stranger, two Dick Graysons, separated by time and space but brought close by the same beginnings and souls, find a little bit of peace in each other. And when the older Dick Grayson (“Call me Richard, for now. My littlest brother already does,”) drives the two of them back to the manor, back to their home, Dick sees his quiet-loud fears of no family, of being left behind by Bruce and Alfred, of never having another shoulder to truly lean on or have leaned on, wiped away at the sight of so many siblings, of so many members of a family he never allowed himself to dream of.

Do you think some part of the universe sighed in quiet relief and pure joy when these two birds, the Robins that brought the morning light of heroics onto the world and had a hand in ensuring the guidance of the next generations of heroes to come, in all of the chaos of lovingly worried alternate universe check ups, younger-older siblings dropping by to ruffle hair, give bone-breaking hugs, kisses on foreheads and cheeks, took a moment to gaze upon the trapeze set up in the Batcave?

It only takes a moment and a glance between them before they’re off, a dance through the air, smooth flips and trusting catches as easy as breathing and as natural as the wind buffeting a robin’s feathers.

The Flying Graysons are made whole again, for just another moment.

[kneworder]

nancy: guys, vecna got to steve!! quick, does anyone know his favorite song??

dustin, who once witnessed steve do this entire routine

in front of the tv while the bad boys music video was playing and then immediately turn around and swear him to secrecy: nancy honestly I think he’d rather just die

[entrope-y]

A Professional Name Pitch for One Jason Todd:

(Me: oh I’m gonna look up some bird symbolism cause I think’d be interesting to learn more about them

Me, approximately 30 minutes later, unsurprisingly have tied it back to the current blorbos: okay so-)

I’ve seen a lot of different pitches for AUs where Jason was never tragically murdered and became a vigilante like Nightwing using the name Flamebird like from Krypton mythology BUT please allow me to toss my hat in the ring

Assuming everyone continues using the bird theme outright (or for Wingfic purposes), my pitch is for Jason to use the name: Starling

Starlings are these medium sized passerines that are known for being pretty and singing. They can change the colors of their feathers from a pretty dark gradient with white spots to brown feathers with white spots without shedding any feathers. (Like how Jason came back with the white streak after he died!)

They’re very good at aerial acrobatics and are also known for aggressive flight patterns, called murmurations (which look SUPER cool btw)

They have a lot of symbolism for friendship and connections, especially in the sense of embracing social status but knowing when to change old patterns for the better and listening to your instincts. (I don’t know much about Jason’s Robin connecting with the Titans or Justice League or Young Justice but 👀👀👀)

Starlings imbue the significance of family and community and of learning how to co-exist with the people around us without creating any sort of tension. They are also quite aggressive, and can symbolize that breaking away from family, especially toxic or hurtful ones, is not at all bad. They are meant to symbolize prioritizing family without forgetting yourself. (Is this literally not all of canon Jason’s relationship with his family COME ON)

And if all of that hasn’t convinced you:

“Due to its aggressive behavior toward other birds, the starling is sometimes associated with warriors.” TELL ME THAT ISN’T JASON I REST MY CASE

[entrope-y]

I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential with the citizens of Gotham just being completely unbothered by whatever terrible thing is going on in their lives.

Like during a lockdown someone starts jokingly making thirst edits of the local vigilantes running around on the roofs and IMMEDIATELY there’s like a hundred shitty iPhone quality thirst edits circulating social media.

Someone strings together a bunch of clips of Nightwing screaming in frustration, Red Robin face down on the roof of a residential building, and Red Hood slipping on something in an alleyway and eating shit and puts a cover of a really peppy kpop song over it and it goes viral in an hour.

Someone ELSE decides to take a clip of Red Hood literally HUNTING a goon down in an alley (like the goon is literally tripping over their feet and screaming, Red Hood is just walking slowly like a goddamn PREDATOR) and puts “Love Me Like You Do” over it with the caption “how the music makes a difference…” and THAT dominates the news cycle for a week straight.

[anxious-m3ss]

“I hope this email finds you well”

First of all the only emails that ever find me well are from AO3

[entrope-y]

I see your “Eddie actually had a crush on Steve from the very beginning of high school and he’s mortifyingly embarrassed about it” and I raise you: Steve didn’t land on Eddie’s radar UNTIL Steve came back beat to shit and haunted by the horrors post s1. THEN it was all:

Eddie: oh my god…he’s so pathetic and mysterious….

All of Hellfire: ?? He has a black eye because he lost a fight with high school weakling Jonathan Byers? What the hell are you talking about?

*Steve, trying to get lunch and instead tripping and eating IMMENSE shit when the lights flicker. Food is everywhere, he has noodles in his hair. Everyone is snickering and staring as he stares haunted up at the ceiling*

Eddie, already fanning himself with a stack of character sheets and making goo-goo eyes: I can’t NOT fuck him

[entrope-y]

*In a pre-s4 universe where Steve is trying to finally tell his best friend Eddie about the Upside-Down*

Steve: Eddie….I’ve been fighting demons

Eddie, who has been fully aware of how many boys Steve has been secretly kissing lately (and internally furious that he hasn’t been kissed yet): oh, is that what we’re calling bisexuality these days?

Steve: what??? No! I mean literal demons!

[entrope-y]

Anyways-

[entrope-y]

I haven’t read LOTR (YET, I REALLY WANT TO WHEN I HAVE TIME), but I have to think that the hobbits would be at least a little proud of me, as a college student, for having a second breakfast every other day

[entrope-y]

As a disclaimer, let me just say that I LOVE the Kas Theory and the plethora of ‘Eddie Munson is a Vampire’ fics. Love them to death. I also love the Werewolf Steve aus, like yesssss the boyfriends are matchinggg

But may I raise you: in the sense of canon divergence, say that Eddie doesn’t die, that Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Dustin carry him out of the Upside Down and run him to the nearest hospital. He survives, he’s treated for his wounds and infection, and it’s okay, he’s alive and healthy!

You know who hasn’t been treated for his wounds and probably won’t be? Steve.

Please give me Steve slowly starts turning into a Vampire and Eddie figures it out. I wanna see the floofy haired boy as a feral fucking vampire stalking Eddie and trying to turn him to ‘finish the job’. Please.