As we head to the big showdown with the Joker, let’s take a moment to reflect on what are the most important things to your character. What do they hold the most dear? What can they not afford to lose? I have a couple of prompts; feel free to write these as closed paras or with a partner!
1. What is the most important thing to your character? Is it a person, their philosophy on being a hero? Their home, or the place they protect? Their privacy or celebrity? What is one thing your character absolutely cannot lose?
2. Think about what your character would be doing if the Joker had never attacked New York City. Write a para inspired by how you would view your character’s usual life. Where are they? What villains are they fighting? What are their usual worries? Take some time and think about what the Joker has truly made them sacrifice up until now.
Now that we’ve finished another big event, it’s time to take a step back and give updates on where our characters are. As the city rebuilds yet again, it’s time for everyone to rebuild themselves too.
The Mad Hatter has been caught and sent back to Arkham and the day has been saved yet again! Now I want to see where your character is now. This will help get us all on the same page before our next events, and give us an opportunity to get into our characters’ heads. Here are a few options to get you started on your closed paras:
What does their typical day look like now? How has life changed for them since all this business with the Joker started?
Do they do anything to make themselves feel better or calm down? Any rituals or places where they get away from it all, even for a few minutes?
What sorts of relationships do they have (friend, work, romantic, etc) and how do they feel about them right now?
Sooner or later, everyone finds their own special place in the city. And in a place as huge as New York, there are millions of hiding places everywhere. You just have to know where to look.
This week is our first ever para prompt! Just a suggestion to get you going as you think about paras and character development. Here’s the scenario:
Person 1 is in one of their favorite places in the city alone when Person 2 arrives unexpectedly.
The favorite place can be anything: a park, a quiet street, a club, or something completely off the wall. Here are some things to think about:
Why is that place so significant to Person 1? How often do they go there alone?
Are the two characters happy to see each other? Are they strangers to each other?
Do they have a conversation or do they suddenly see themselves needing to stop a bad guy?
If you’re having trouble finding someone to para with, just message the main. Please tag all posts ‘javprompt’ thanks!
Everything was blurry, all smeared colors and too-bright light, and for some reason, Peter felt warm. He blinked, slow and sleep-addled, and gave his eyes a long moment to adjust to the morning sunlight pouring through the open curtains. Somewhere in the endless fun and excitement of the previous night, he must have forgotten to close those.
He tried to stretch his limbs, and belatedly, felt the immovable weight against his side, holding down his arm. Confused, he tilted his head, just enough to get a good look at whatever held him down, and—oh.
Right, of course.
Harry lay curled against his side, a leg thrown over one of Peter’s, and Harry’s cheek resting against his shoulder. That, he thought with a note of surprise, would explain the warmth. He exhaled softly, somewhere between a short laugh and a sigh, before he pressed his lips tightly together. If he laughed now, he might wake Harry up, and that wouldn’t have been very thoughtful of him.
Carefully, he untangled their limbs and moved so that he could sit up, eyes flitting around Harry’s form as he tried not to wake him. The boy stirred, only for a moment, before mumbling something incoherent and falling still again. When Harry’s breathing settled back into the same relaxed rhythm, he dared to move again.
Peter rubbed a hand over his eyes, wiping away the remnants of sleep there. And when he opened his eyes again, the world was still too blurry. With a soft huff, he reached a little blindly towards the table at his bedside, hand fumbling and bumping against his alarm clock before he found his glasses.
Somewhere between impatient and relieved, he slipped on his frames and blinked a few times. There were small smudges on one side, but unless Aunt May told him to fix it, he supposed he could get away without cleaning them for a little while longer.
Then he looked at Harry again, and something in his chest flipped. Because Peter was a whole eight years old now, waking up after a night of watching a scary movie that he definitely shouldn’t have watched, with his best friend, and he was suddenly so happy. Proud, maybe, but definitely happy.
A lopsided smile pulled his mouth wide, and he reached out to tug the blankets more snuggly over Harry. For no reason at all, he tapped the tip of his friend’s nose before standing up, stretching his arms up high above his head. Harry Osborn, he decided, was the best person in the world.
He was careful to shut the door quietly behind him as he left his bedroom, glasses tilted a little too much to the side but not enough of a reason to fix them. And as he tiptoed down the stairs and into the kitchen, almost but not quite tripping over his too-long pajama pants, he was still smiling.
“You’re up early.”
Peter looked up at the sound of his uncle’s voice, meeting the familiar pair of eyes looking back at him from the small dining table squeezed into the corner of the room. Uncle Ben was already dressed for the day, hair a little wet but still combed, and his jacket hung over the back of his chair.
Grinning wider still, Peter tucked his hands behind his back and rocked on the balls of his feet. “Uh, Harry’s still sleeping. But- but the sun woke me up, though.”
Uncle Ben returned the smile, one hand curling around his usual mug of coffee. “Ah, gotcha. You know, they make blinds for that.” With his free hand, he rapped a few times against the empty chair beside him. “C’mere, kiddo.”
Peter moved too quickly, stumbling slightly in his hurry to take a seat beside his uncle. A short burst of laughter, older and more gravely than his own, filled the small space in the kitchen. Even so, Peter couldn’t feel anything less than unbridled delight. He looked up with the same wide grin, and when Uncle Ben reached over to make a mess of his already-messy hair, Peter leaned easily into the touch.
“When do you gotta go into work?” He asked, curious and a little bit hopeful that they might have a little bit of time before then. It wasn’t that he didn’t get to see his uncle a whole lot, but there wasn’t a such thing as spending too much time with him, either.
Ben smiled, sitting back a little. “Half an hour. Wish I could say noon.” Peter couldn’t help but deflate a little at that, eyes darting to the corner of the table as his uncle continued. “Why? You have something big on your schedule today, Pete?”
“Uh, nothing too big. Harry might stay for a little longer.” The corner of his mouth pulled upwards again at that, and Peter gave a small shrug. Maybe, if Harry was allowed to stay later, Peter might get to take him swimming. “I was just wonderin’ though. Sometimes I don’t get to see you until later.”
There was a pause, and Peter looked up in confusion, not sure if he had said something wrong. Instead, he was met with an impossibly wide grin, and briefly, he wondered if it hurt to smile so wide. His uncle reached out to nudge his shoulder, gentle for all intents and purposes, and lifted his mug with the other hand. “Tell you what, kiddo—you wanna try some coffee? Don’t tell your Aunt May, though; she’s been telling me that coffee stunts growth, or something like that.”
Any disappointment he had been feeling slipped away in an instant, eyes growing wide. “Really? I…yeah. Yeah, okay!” Clasping his hands together in excitement, Peter let his gaze flicker to the mug in his uncle’s hand.
Again, Ben laughed, but it wasn’t in a way that made him feel embarrassed. It never was. “Alright, alright. Easy there, killer. We’ll wake the neighborhood at this rate. And—hold on. Oh, Pete.” A hand reached over to adjust Peter’s glasses, and he scrunched his nose, squirming in his seat.
“Okay, okay. And here I thought you were a patient kid.” Ben clicked his tongue, but carefully passed the mug to Peter, who paid careful attention not to wiggle any further, in case he should spill it. “Alright. Give it a shot.”
Eyebrows furrowing, Peter stared down at the cup’s contents with absolute sincerity, nodding once. Then he lifted the mug and, for the first time, tried coffee.
He coughed, immediately caught off guard by how strong it tasted. It was almost heavy, and decidedly too much. Pulling a face, he held the mug out for his uncle, who chuckled again and took it from him, one hand coming to rest on Peter’s shoulder.
“Easy now, hot shot. You doing alright?”
There was still something strong at the back of his mouth, but Peter managed to give his uncle a thumbs up, coughing once more. Coffee, he thought, was sort of terrible.
A glass was held out in front of him, blessedly filled with water this time, and he took it quickly. After downing half of it, Peter sighed, finally looking back at his uncle. “Why d’you drink that stuff? It’s…weird.”
Another low chuckle, and Uncle Ben raised a brow in his direction. “Well, it wakes me up, kiddo. I didn’t used to like it, either, but it grows on you.”
Peter opened his mouth to tell him that, apparently, the sun could also wake someone up, when footsteps interrupted them.
“Ben, do you think—oh. Peter?” A soft voice called from the bottom of the stairs, and they both looked over at Aunt May. Eyebrows high on her forehead and curlers still in her hair, she looked between the two of them, then smiled fondly. Peter felt his mouth echo the expression instantaneously.
His aunt shook her head, almost as if she had thought of something funny, and moved closer to place a hand on his and ben’s shoulders respectively. “Isn’t it too early for the two of you to be causing trouble?” Peter laughed, straining to look up at Aunt May, but not entirely minding. “Why don’t you go wake Harry, and I’ll get some pancakes together before your uncle has to leave?”
For a moment, it was difficult to move, because—really, there was a lot to be excited about, thrown into a single sentence. Pancakes, time with his aunt and uncle, Harry. He had seen great days before, but today felt like it might just be the best among them all.
“Thanks, Aunt May! I’ll—I can go get him, sure!” A toothy grin lit up his features, and with a quick hug Peter scrambled out of his chair and hurried back upstairs. Still, when he pushed open his bedroom door, he tried not to make too much noise. Waking up by way of being scared wasn’t something that he enjoyed, so he figured Harry might not like it, either.
He dropped down onto his mattress—it wasn’t anything big, but he and Harry still managed to fit, so he thought it was just fine—and pulled his knees up to his chin. With barely-contained enthusiasm, he reached over to lightly tap at his friend’s arm, smiling when eyes opened to meet his own. And Peter paused, then, because after the initial confusion of waking up, Harry smiled back. And yeah, today was his favorite day.
Sometimes memories are buried down deep, but when they come to the surface they can reveal a lot about who a person is.
This week, think about your character’s childhood. What is one specific, happy memory that they have of being a child? For some, they may have had mostly positive experiences when they were young. For others, happy memories may be few and far between. Even if it’s just one tiny moment, I want you to think of a time your character can remember being happy.
Write a closed para about a happy childhood memory.
Make a graphic that illustrates the memory.
Make a playlist that reflects the emotions that are tied to the memory.
The burden of being a superhero is great, but that doesn’t mean they have to do it alone. In this business, a friend you can trust your secrets to can be just as valuable as having powers.
This week, think about your character’s best friend. Are they also a hero, or a civilian? Do they know what your character does? What would your character be willing to do for them?
Write a closed para about your character’s best friend. Think of memories they share, or just write about how they help your character in general.
Make a graphic that shows your character and their friend.
Make a playlist or post a “theme song” your character and their friend share.
All prompts are always optional. Please tag your prompt related posts javprompt. Thanks!
