#dc comics#dc#dc fanart#batman#bruce wayne#tim drake#batfam#dick grayson#batfamily
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from Australia
seen from Czechia
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
Jameson at Work, 1915
Taken by Siobhan Jackson on the set of Puppet Man between takes.
Bonus:
Little Anthony escaped his mother's grasp for a moment.
1930, Los Angeles
“Jameson, there’s a letter for you from Saint John.”
“It’s from my mother. I’ll read it later.”
“No, it’s not.”
Day 2: Kiss
The first time, it is cautious. Nobody can see them out in the woods. Nobody should be able to. Still, this is new territory for both of them. Winston may have kissed a girl before but he's never kissed Oliver prior to this moment. Oliver hasn't kissed anyone outside of his family in general. It's awkward and there is certainly room for improvement. It's a good thing they'll have the rest of their lives to master the skill. They go wild in the privacy of Oliver's New York apartment. The two of them can be as affectionate as they'd like there. Blinds drawn and door locked, no-one can disturb them. Hands are free to go wherever they like. It doesn't matter if it is back when Oliver was a student or later once Winston is his brother-in-law. This is their time to not feel like they're in hiding. Mary is blissfully ignorant and Sophia is somewhat encouraging it. Life living under the same roof as exclusive partners is amazing. Kisses prove distracting while preparing dinner, they don't last long enough whenever one of them is leaving for work and at times the goodnight kiss acts as the main incentive to get a reluctant partner to head to bed. They wouldn't have it any other way. Kissing in public for the first time is frightening. After decades of fearing arrest, they're still not sure about it. Still, they specifically came to Illinois to live somewhere they could be out as gay men. They had friends in the community who'd displayed their amorous affections publicly and gotten away with it. Besides, it wasn't like Oliver and Winston hadn't held hands while in town. That had gone well. Why shouldn't they take things further with a kiss? And Chicago Pride Parade 1974 was the perfect place to do so. Sharing a rainbow flag, the two men in their late 50s win another small personal victory. The last time is so mundane. It is a simple kiss goodnight. They've done it thousands of time over the course of their lives. A quick peck on the cheek is all Winston gets that night. He goes to sleep, blissfully unaware of the sorrow he'll begin experiencing the next day. The gratitude he was able to spend the majority of his life happy will arrive soon after.
Winston and Oliver
Winston and Oliver have two pretty different upbringings. Winston is brought up by his mother and stepfather in Saint John, New Brunswick, not very well off financially. Meanwhile, Oliver grows up as the son of a successful actor in Los Angeles. It just happened that their fathers had once been best friends, leading to them being childhood friends too. Whenever Oliver's family visited his father's relatives in Canada, Oliver would try meet up with Winston. So, with the help of letters, they remain good buddies.
Still, they start growing up and all their school peers begin developing non-platonic feelings towards each other. Anthony would talk about girls he thought about asking out. Oliver... couldn't relate. Perhaps he wasn't quite old enough. Let's wait a couple years. Still nothing. Okay, God, he's ready to be into girls already. Any time now. Seriously, don't wait up.
Winston is attracted to girls, even has a girlfriend or two during the early 1930s. Yet he feels similarly towards men too. Hmm odd. He guesses it's possible to be interested in both men and women. Who knew?
They were both raised Catholic. However, Winston doesn't suffer internalised homophobia as badly as Oliver does. Over the course of their life, Winston helps him grow more confident with his identity.
Oliver visits his aunt in Saint John during the summer of 1934, preparing to move to New York for college after the holidays. While there, he comes out to Winston. He needs someone to know and he rationalises it in his mind that if Winston doesn't react positively, they can always go their separate ways and leave their friendship behind as a childhood thing. He doesn't want to lose Winston as a friend though. Oliver knows he won't rat him out to the authorities either way. So you can imagine the overwhelming relief he feels when Winston smiles and admits he's gay too.
While at Julliard, Oliver befriends a girl name Mary. She falls in love with him and he doesn't have the guts to tell her he'll never feel the same. He loves her but only platonically. Still, he enjoys her company. And well... he's going to have to marry a girl one way or another. He'd rather it be Mary.
Everything about being her boyfriend feels wrong. He's deceiving her. And he's now planing to make that deception lifelong. He really shouldn't be doing this to her. And yet he does, for the sake of selfishly saving his own skin.
Sophia has always suspected her brother was attracted to men. She privately calls him out after he announces he's engaged. Oh and what do you know, she's attracted to 'all sorts of individuals'. Great, that would have been good to know as he came of age. Nevermind. He knows now.
Around the same time, Sophia and Winston start a relationship. After all, Oliver isn't the only Jackson sibling to enjoy hanging out with Winston when they were growing up. They're happy together and Oliver is happy for them. He trusts Winston to treat her well.
Oliver marries Mary in 1940, with Winston becoming his brother-in-law the year after. Things are going well. The two men meet up every now and again. Mary just thinks her husband is spending time with an old friend. Sophia knows what's really going on and doesn't care too much, so long as Winston doesn't see anyone else behind her back.
When Oliver gets the news that two of his brothers have died, it changes how he wants to go about life. They had been 24 and 22. Oliver himself is still 28 by that point. He has some 50 or so years left, assuming he is going to die old. Does he really want to live a lie forever, just so everyone will approve of him? 50 years is a hell of a long time.
Mary unintentionally discovers the truth in 1951. She makes him pack his bags immediately. They divorce on the grounds of adultery. Fearing he'd 'corrupt' their two children (age ~9 and 5), she ensures he sees as little of them as possible.
Unsure of where to really go, he ends up at Sophia and Winston's doorstep. His reputation has been heavily damaged, his career as a composer with it. It feels as if the only things he has left are his sister and his best-friend-turned-lover.
Sophia understands the position she's in. Her husband prefers her brother's company. So she lets them go. She wants them both to be happy. Her only condition is that Winston remains an active part of their children's lives.
This new way of life works quite well for them. Winston moves to New York to live with Oliver. The three Wynton children grow up with their dad living with their uncle every other week being normalised. Their mom bringing 'friends' home every now and again isn't that out there either.
Life carries on, as it tends to do. More nieces and nephews come from Anthony, Harriet and Nora. Oliver definitely feels at home in Winston's company. Winston feels the same.
Still, the two of them have to remain secretive and anxious that they'll be discovered. I can't seem to find what the penalty in the state of New York was for sodomy. Whatever it was, they wanted to avoid it. Being disgraced as an unfaithful husband is one thing. Being in a same-sex relationship during the 50s is something else entirely.
In 1962, Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, essentially decriminalising homosexual relationships. 10 years later, Winston asks Oliver if he wants to move there. All of their children are adults themselves now. Come on, they could be free to be two men in love. Oliver is skeptical. He has built a life here in New York but... not hiding does sound nice. Okay then, let's try life in Illinois.
So they move to Chicago. They take some time to settle in, meeting other local members of the queer community while doing so. They're still not displaying their relationship in public. Decades of being cautious will do that. But then they're eating out with some friends and a couple hold hands. Very publically. And they're not getting any backlash for it. No-one's coming to their table to try get those two arrested.
Winston and Oliver risk holding hands where other people can clearly see them. No major consequences. A while later, they increase the risk by kissing while in public. Again, no legal repercussions.
Oh. Oh shit. They really can be out in public here. They get dirty looks sometimes. But it's not like those people could have them thrown in jail. They're in their late 50s now and finally, finally they can be visibly homosexual.
In 1975, they celebrate their respective 60th birthdays. Their first major birthdays as their true selves. They still can't believe it.
The two of them decide they want to help the younger generation. The queer kids who were coming of age in a time of more freedom. They both grew up in fear of being discovered. These kids need to know the community has their back. Laws changing doesn't immediately change attitudes, after all.
A music store is set up. If someone came saying their friend, Dorothy, sent them, they'd be sent to the back room. Word spread and more arrived claiming 'Dorothy' sent them.
Over the next few years, they watch these teenagers and young adults grow up. Some go to college or move away. Others keep hanging around where they know they'll be accepted.
Then one of the kids they'd said goodbye to returns. Oh wow, it's great to see you. How are things? You and Joshua still going strong? Wait, what do you mean he suddenly became very ill and died? Oh, that's- that's awful. He was such a good guy. We're so sorry. Give our condolences to his friends and family, if you're able.
It's not the last time they have members of their youth club become affected by this strange new disease. Not by a long shot. As the years carry on, they'll have one person coming to them saying their friend was diagnosed. Then they'll have another privately revealing they contracted the disease themselves a while later. Quite a few simply stress about the prospect of potentially getting infected.
Listen, they're just two gay men who are fast approaching their 70s. What the hell are they meant to do to protect these members who were practically children from something this overwhelming?
This disease obviously gets a name. When they hear about the New York Times referred to it as Gay-related immune deficiency or GRID, this ruffles more than a few feathers. Paired with other terms such as 'gay cancer' and 'gay plague', they are livid that the media has decided to target their marginalised group further.
This won't do. The two of them were born in the middle of a huge war where millions of young men died. Winston's father and Oliver's uncle were two of them. Oliver lost two of his brothers to the sequel of that war where even more people died in the millions. Too many young men and women have been needlessly lost this century. Even more are being lost right now but that's obviously not important because of who those people are.
People are dying. Some of them are only in their 20s or 30s. Stop using this as a chance to demonise a community that's already suffered enough, you bastards.
As soon as they learn it is spread through intercourse and infected blood, they promote protection. Boys, here's a condom. Girls, if any of you are planning to become involved with a guy, take one too. Don't expect him to necessarily carry one on him, though he should. And if any of you kids are doing drugs, please stop. You shouldn't be interacting with drugs in the first place but there's no better time to go cold turkey than right now. It would break our hearts to hear you got sick. Please stay safe out there, okay?
The 80s eventually turn into the 90s. While the members of their youth group may have seen them as gay uncle types back in the 70s, they're definitely more gay grandpas now. They keep going, maintaining the store and supporting younger members of the queer community in Chicago.
Oliver dies in 1999, with Winston joining him three years later. They are 83 and 86 respectively. But you know what? They've had a great go of it. Whether it was as childhood friends, brothers-in-law who maintained a secret relationship or long-term partners, they've been at each other's side. They count themselves lucky to have found someone so dear to them and been able to spend their life with them.
They wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else.
Fighting Stolen Breaths
Summary: 1932 is a horrible year for Jameson.
Warnings: Terminal illness, implied death
Okay but if you don't think Siobhan Maria Jackson didn't dust herself off after grieving, you've got another thing coming.
Like yes, obviously she took Jameson's death hard. Dude was her husband for 22 years and she'd known him since she was 18. Not to mention she lost her brother a month before becoming a widow. There was a period where she took the 'be there for the kids first and foremost' philosophy a little too far and the kids had to say "Uh Ma? Listen we're all hurting but maybe you should grieve without thinking about us for a while."
So she grieves. Then she comes out the other side ready to get down to business.
She sees her eldest son graduate college, something no-one in her family has ever done. She gets Thaddaeus House for the Disadvantaged built and personally helps out when and where she can once it's open. Her 2nd and 3rd sons get accepted into the high profile colleges they wanted. She couldn’t be prouder of them.
Even in the late 30s, once her father is dead from advanced age and she is living in Ireland again, she gets shit done. As loving and kind of a man as Jacob O'Hara was, those traits don't leave his daughter much in the way of monetary inheritance. Siobhan has to support her little girl somehow. Even the money Jameson left her shouldn't be something to live off of, in her opinion. So she gets any qualifications needed at the time to be hired as a music teacher. By the time Nora is settling into life as a woman with a husband and young family of her own, a point where Siobhan knows she's capable of going on without her mother down the street, it is the early-to-mid 1950s.
She returns to California to finish what she started. Thaddaeus House isn't quite as needed as it was when first built yet it's an important and necessary establishment nonetheless. She ordered a place to learn ASL to be added before she left for Ireland in '37. Now she's planning to include somewhere on site to receive basic qualifications, enough to get a job but with as little expenditure on the students' parts as possible. Actually, let's merge the ASL area into the school. No, hang on, we should have enough donations to put the school on it's own dedicated site. We'll provide cheap scheduled transportation between the two sites. That's great.
She likely campaigned to make ASL a mandatory subject in schools nationwide. Yes, obviously French and Spanish are fantastic for students who plan to travel when they're older. But what about those wanting to stay closer to home? There are plenty of Americans who rely on sign to communicate. So teach them an equally important language that they may need more than a European one.
Since the TLoJJ-verse is based on the real world, she probably wasn't able to make it a reality. But could you imagine her looking some authority in the eye and saying "I don't care for this whole nonsense with the Soviets. Never mind whether our ideologies are better than theirs. Let's focus on creating a fairer society. If we manage to improve the lives of the type of citizens who need it most right now, don't you think that will show the Reds who's the greater nation?"
The government twisted the arms of her two youngest sons when they were barely adults. They took part in a war that was far bigger than either of them. Damn right she’s going to try twisting the government’s arm to progress on issues bigger than the USSR being communist.
Either way, she'd probably work together with some of her children to build a centre for teaching and promoting the use of ASL. First in Los Angeles then, if that proved successful, New York and other potential major cities.
Speaking of fighting for better equality, I feel she would do what she could in the fight for civil and gay rights. Well, Anthony, she doesn't know if she's quite up for marching in large crowds now that she's in her 70s but she'll try to help things on a more local level. And no, Oliver, she is a bit conflicted on homosexual couples vs being told her whole life it should be a man and a woman only. However, she doesn't see why having emotions that do nothing to cause harm to others should be punishable by law. Is there anything she can do to help?
Throughout her life, Siobhan composes music. She wrote the melody that people immediately associate with the Jolly Gentleman. The music from Carving for Beginners is her own. Music is her creative outlet the same way writing had been for Jameson. She even sets something up at Thaddaeus House to encourage people to take up playing an instrument if they want.
Oliver visits her one day and discovers the pile of compositions, some complete, others that have been works in progress for varying amounts of time. He convinces her to compile them into an album. She agrees so long as the ones with more personal reasons for creation are left out. If they really want those ones out in the world for public consumption, they'll have to wait until after she's dead. She doesn't want to live with the knowledge someone could casually listen to something she created as a way of coping during the most despairing points of her life.
It's Pearl's death in 1973 that makes Siobhan consider slowing down slightly. 85 by now, she could certainly leave her children and grandchildren to carry on her efforts. She could travel to foreign lands and see what they have to offer. But nope, that's not Siobhan Jackson. She'll cut back on some things that require more physical effort, sure. But spending time at Thaddeus House gives her people to chat with when her friends and family are busy living their own lives.
In later life, I'm sure she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. Not to mention dogs. She has always been partial to Dalmatians. Maybe some piano playing and garden maintaining too. I love the thought of her becoming this figure in the community, this old woman who has done more than a few things with her life and tries to keep going within reason.
She reaches 90 and yeah, maybe she's not as active as she wants to be but she still goes out and does what she can. Her memory is starting to go now, it's getting more evident as the months and years roll by. When nearing 95, she gets asked if she's aiming for the big 100. She usually chuckles and say "Well we'll see, won't we."
She turns 96 in July 1984 and two months later, she's gone. When she sees Jameson again, she tells him she tried her best to fulfil his last wishes. He just laughs like it's obvious before replying along the lines of "Angel, you did more far more than try. Thank you."
And that's the contrast between them. Jameson left early, his ideas of how to give back to a world that allowed him financial security came too late for him. But Siobhan was given more than enough time. She had 52 years more than him to get it done.
She could have stopped in the ‘30s. She could have said "It's done. I fulfilled my promise to him. It's standing and functional and that's what he wanted." But she doesn't.
In the ‘50s or early ‘60s, she could have said "To try change the education system is a monumental task that one 70 year old Irish immigrant couldn't successfully lead." And maybe she was somewhat right about that. She sure as hell gave it her best shot though. Without her, people in the 21st century would have less opportunities to learn ASL. Just because you can’t complete a marathon doesn’t mean the distance you managed is redundant.
Siobhan lived a goddamn full life. Part of her life’s work might have been fulfilling her husband’s last wish. But to focus on that or just see her as simply Jameson’s widow is to erase so much of what she did with her life. She was a composer, talented pianist, supportive mother, someone willing to fight and speak up about the things she cared about, a woman who came to America aged 16 with the hope of finding better prospects there than Limerick offered then did so several ways over.
In short, I stan an Irish queen. I hated myself for making her wait 52 years to be with her other half. But she didn’t waste those five decades. She killed it. Now she can look back on it all and be proud. Like she deserves to be.
Just... Siobhan.
Whenever I hear the bit in It’s Quiet Uptown where Hamilton tries to get through to Eliza, I can only think of Jameson trying to comfort Siobhan in Summer 1944.
More realistically, it would be Nora comforting her Ma but no,that girl already has a lot on her plate during that time canonically.
“See, kids, right from the moment I met your Ma, I knew I have to love this women as much as I can, for as long as I can and I can never stop loving her, not even for a second. I carried that lesson with me through every stupid fight we ever had, every 5am Christmas morning, every sleepy Sunday afternoon, through every speedbump, every pang of jealousy or boredom or uncertainty that came our way... I carried that lesson with me. And I’ll carry it with me now that I am sick. Even now, in what can only be called the worst of times, all I can do is thank God, thank every god there is or ever was or will be and the whole universe and anyone else I could possibly think... I saw that beautiful girl on that stage, that I had the guts to stand up, walk over to her, tap her on the shoulder, put pen to paper and write.”
- Jameson probably, based on Ted Mosby talking about his wife.
