wait so. you're telling me. charles made that orpheus and eurydice reference not because of the ending, but because of the story itself??? you know. you know the one where orpheus is so deeply in love with eurydice that he goes to the underworld for her on the off chance they get to be together again???? like. that one???? yeah. yeah okay whatever
Peter ends up in DC (not in gotham omg) exactly where he was in his universe. It takes him a two full days to realize hes not in his universe bc he chalked a lot of the strangeness to the spell Strange casted
But nope. Hes in a new universe that has completely different heroes, and more importantly, completely different memes (what the hell is "do the butts match"??) And this place has a distinct lack of one Tony Stark
So Peter basically starts up Stark Enterprises in NY again bc he poor and its what Tony (probably) wouldve wanted. He had to pay for this metabolism somehow
But obviously peter needed an investor or twenty, but who needs more than one when Brucie Wayne exists?? Hes like a hunkier yet still bimbo Tony, and practically throws his money at any sad looking teen
But Brucie wayne ends up taking him under his wing, bc hes like. An 18/19 year old CEO and he is Very Concerned abt how this kid not only invented a new time of metal (vibranium) and a very powerful form of energy in the arc reactors, so he pays extra attention bc he does NOT need a villain running around with that kind of power and intelligence to back it
And peter is cautious at first but ends up equating Brucie Wayne to Tony Stark (billionaire, playboy, philanthropist? Hello? Bruce is just a foot taller than tony and thats the only difference) and gets wayyyy too comfortable
Comfortable to the point that he kinda starts to treat Brucie Wayne like Tony stark, in that he kind just blurts out whatever hes thinking around hom and just randomly calls bruce to ask for help
"hey is *insert company* chill? They wanna do a collab or something? Idk"
Brucie Wayne, actively on air in a live interview "Funded a anti LGBTQ+ movement a couple months ago, Peter, they're so last season"
No one let's bruce live down he said that on live television. Bruce defends it by saying its what Brucie Wayne would've said in that situation. No one denies it.
"Hey, can I legally *smth stupid that Bruce absolutely also tried to do as a young CEO*?"
Bruce, actively on patrol. "...unfortunately, tha answer is yes, but i strongly advice against it"
"Your advice is strongly noted. Thanks, Mr Wayne!"
Theres yelling in the distance and some sort of explosion followed by maniacal laughter. Bruce hangs up the phone for his own peace of mind
"Mr wayne, I think i just developed a green energy arc reactor"
Bruce, actually sleeping for once "...Peter, it is 4:37 in the morning"
Peter ends up being basically Bruce's most unofficial son. Or maybe like a nephew that calls their uncle instead of their parents. Whatever is it, the public eats it up and the Batkids are Not Amused
Except Tim. Tim thinks peter is a riot, as a fellow young CEO. But also bc peter has literally no supervision, press training, or even council to answer to, so this witty (and angry tbh) teen (who was also recently widowed from his last family member)(aunt may) kinda just. Says whatever he wants and does whatever he wants (within reason)
Idk... I love my dick as Peter's dad trope, but bruce as Peter's almost-dad-maybe-uncle (its a weird gray area. Hes got issues, okay?) Is objectively hilarious
Bruce Wayne catching peter as Spider-man or half dressed in the suit,,, his instincts as a father, Brucie Wayne persona, and vigilante life all merge together into one, immaculate reply
"Peter Benjamin Parker, what the fuck?"
Dysfunctional found family my beloved,,,
OH OH AND imagine they find out they're all vigilantes right?? So peter uses the design from the iron spider to make them nanite suits too they'd look so fire Tim would LOVE it
been thinking about charles and the fundamental feeling of betrayal and loneliness that can come with not having the type of family situation or childhood that society expects. the sense of not being able to talk about a part of himself and his experiences that’s too heavy for most people, so couching it in humor, and then the humor not landing. that ever-present sense that there are things others are not going to understand, that he doesn’t want them to understand, that they shouldn’t have to, because it just should have been different.
the self-raising and re-parenting that could have come later on, if he had gotten to grow up, but he didn’t, and so he’s just got the intervening years of his afterlife - distancing him from it but not really taking away that void that’s always a little bit there.
the complex grief over the idea of what a relationship with his dad could have been or should have been but wasn’t - because the reality wasn’t something missable, but maybe there are moments, of wishing to be whatever different sort of person he would be, if things had been different, and not even knowing what that looks like but wishing for it anyway.
the grief over the way it changed his relationship with his mum - how much he still loves and misses her, and checks on her for decades. how he couldn’t protect her or himself, and how he should never have had to think about doing either.
the idea of forgiveness - as something that society expects as much as the individual - the way forgiveness is good for personal healing, but is so often presented as more of an obligation or a foregone conclusion - because parents are automatically forgivable for being parents, right? and bullies grow up, and mature, and change, and and and. but what if he doesn’t feel ready to forgive his father, or his bullies? what if he doesn’t feel ready ever?
and even if he does practice forgiveness - it might bring him peace of mind, but it still doesn’t give him back the things that were missing that should have been there, doesn’t go back in time and undo the things that were wrong, doesn’t fix the fact that it just shouldn’t have been like that to begin with. and understanding *why* it happened doesn’t make it better really. it doesn’t fix how it all just never really goes away in the end.
and of course the anger, which is so futile because it has nowhere really to be directed any more, now that he’s a ghost, now that the worst possible thing to have happened has happened to him and he died. anger that maybe none of the people who hurt him will ever truly understand how they hurt him. and the fact that dying has taken him out of his father’s reach - but charles can watch him grow old, and see the very absence of himself in his life.
charles feeling an unfairness in that. an unfairness in the idea that his father got to live, and charles didn’t - and his bullies got to live, and charles didn’t - and how there was no accountability, for his dad or for the boys who killed him. and how accountability still wouldn’t take away the things that hurt him, but maybe it would help. or maybe it wouldn’t. and there’s a helplessness to that. to the idea that maybe there’s nothing that would help - nothing that would really fix it in a way that matters.
and then, of course, the hollowness that comes from disenfranchising himself from his own emotions - the fear that in carrying the anger, the frustration, he’s becoming more like his dad, or like his bullies, because those emotions have brought him nothing but pain. being afraid of how simple and purposeful anger feels, because it feels like a trap he ran from all his life and couldn’t outrun. being afraid to accept that feelings like that could ever be justified, because those emotions hurt him - they aren’t feelings he’s allowed to feel without it meaning that he’s turning into the sort of person he fears most - or worse, maybe has been that person all along, inside.
the idea of wishing for a different sort of connection with his dad, one he isn’t even sure the shape of; but the surest connection he can feel out between them is anger. anger as the thread that binds them together, the thing that makes him “just like his dad,” when he wants to be his own person so badly. and not even knowing what that looks like, when he’s been constructing himself around a void.
and - yeah - don’t know how to sum all of this up better than Unwell Over Charles!!!
god there really is just something about the cliff scene that sits in my bones; an authority figure forces you to relive life and death in its worst aspects, you lash out because you are a traumatised teenager; your friends, vulnerable and traumatised in turn, stare. they stare. at you. and this is even worse than the pain she forced down your throat because isn't this what you always feared the most?
suddenly they are no longer edwin, crystal, and niko. instead they are a young boy tormented by other boys (loud, vicious, violent) to the point of his cruel death and hellish punishment, a young girl abused and stalked by someone who will wear your face in her dreams, and another young girl who likely has experienced harassment at the hands of people just. like. you. young, stupid boys lashing out out of hurt.
you wear the shape of everyone's monsters, your own included. it eats at you like acid, like some parasite eager to expose what you are at your core: never good enough, forever a source of hurt.
roald dahl was antisemitic and misogynistic. george orwell was openly homophobic. edgar allan poe married his 13 year old cousin. dr seuss cheated on his wife (and was racist as well as antisemitic!). hp lovecraft was racist as fuck.
anyways they’re fucking dead it’s not like you’re enabling their behaviors in the afterlife or something. then again I think they bleed into the books so uh keep an eye out for that
the difference between these old white guys and jk rowling is that the former group is all dead. jk rowling is alive and using your money to oppress trans people
Leota Adebayo is probably the only one who has been in touch with her emotions in a healthy way and has learned to deal with them and be in communion with them, which makes her incredibly important to me because she is basically the emotional support for a group of dysfunctional adults with zero regulation of their mental issues and the only one keeping them together.
Leota Adebayo, whom Chris considers his best friend, because she is truly the first person to give him a chance to show that, beyond being an idiot, he’s someone trying to be a better person and also the first person who allows him to speak openly about his emotions without judging him or laughing at him, after years and years of growing up in a stifling environment full of toxic masculinity.
Leota Adebayo is the one who admires and loves her friend Emilia, and just as she tells her she’s a total goddess, a badass, and an amazing woman, she also has the assertiveness to tell her that she can be as cool as she wants, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a mess and hurting herself.
Leota Adebayo is the one who takes Economos aside, who has zero self-love, makes him feel important and reminds him that he has an irreplaceable place in the group because no one can be like him because the group is what it is thanks to each person contributing their individual qualities.
Leota Adebayo is capable of giving emotional support to Adrian when he falls apart without even understanding his own feelings, because he’s a total zero when it comes to human emotions.
Literally, Leota has become a key piece in how a bunch of traumatized, infantilized adults relate to each other and form bonds, and I feel it’s not said or recognized enough because thanks to her, these people are learning how to have decent emotional relationships.
Edwin and Charles have an ongoing beef with a pair of paranormal investigators, let's call them Evan and Caleb
it lasts years, and the investigators are always super late to the scene, but they stubbornly, and infuriatingly, follow our boys' trail
Charles finds them amusing, likes to keep up with their blog about them, is even willing to move an object or two when they're in the room, and when Edwin isn't looking
because Edwin finds them endlessly irritating - they interfere with their work, are loud and annoying and, worst of all, come to absolutely outlandish conclusions
for example, one of Evan's and Calen's theories is that they're searching for not only a couple of ghosts, but a ghost couple (they just fully think Edwin is a female ghost, they even have sketches of what they think their married ghostly couple looks like and "Eve" is a tall girl with big feet and a ribbon in her hair)
when Edwin and Charles finally get together, Charles takes the liberty of moving the bow from "Eve's" hair to her neck and only then does it finally click for the willful and overeager pair of investigators
"Caleb, what if... they've actually always been two boys?!"
"Holy shit, Evan, you may be right! so they're not actually married, maybe just best mates??"
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