The Empty House - Part 3

Based on my own and my familiy's life experiences, I've long held the sneaking suspicion many ghost stories on one side were 'dangit do you think they saw?!' tidbits on the other.

Imagine going on a walk on a really foggy day, enjoying the vaguely eerie, faint and distant aesthetic of it all, and the soft quiet of having no other people around. You're about to cross a familiar bridge when you suddenly feel lightheaded. It's nothing to worry about, just a weirdly wobbly feeling that means you should sit down. And probably get more iron in your diet. Either way, you need to get up and you need to cross this bridge to get home. But now being alone has put this weird fear in you - irrational or not - that if you walk over the bridge, you might get dizzy again and fall from it.

Weird and lonely problems require weird and lonely solutions. Since you're all alone here anyhow, you can act strange if you need to. So you get down on all fours - not on your hands and knees, but on the balls of your feet, like a dog. And like this, you start to slowly creep over the bridge. Nice and slow, happy about your solution that made it feel safe to cross and get home. You can be weird if you want to, nobody's judging here.

You're creeping at a comfortable speed, very slowly, but the bridge isn't that long. You can kind of make out the outlines of things on the other side through the mist. The end of the bridge, a familiar tree, a streetlamp, the silhouette of a bush and-

A person. A human figure. You freeze mid-step to stare. That is the most definitely the outline of a person, standing perfectly still. Staring right at you. You don't know how long this moment lingers, but eventually you can't hold your balance anymore and you have to step forward, placing your open palm back on the cold damp bridge. The figure turns, and takes off running. Bolting off in a very normal, startled way that anyone would when they're spooked.

It occurs to you that you only saw the vague outline of an unexpected person, an obscure figure standing in the fog. They, however, saw the vague outline of you, something perhaps vaguely human-shaped, but moving in a way that people simply do not, slowly, very slowly, creeping over a bridge.

Assuming that nobody would see you, you accidentally became someone's unexplained Silent Hill experience.

Now I'm not saying he's cheating or anything, but he DOES have at least three close friends with magic healing spells/tech/lasers (Zatanna/Superman/Wonderwoman) that could conceivably be deployed such that he maintains plausible deniability. Just sayin'.

DC handbooks are so funny to me. "Batman is in peak physical condition" that man hasn't slept in three days and has broken all his major bones at least twice before. peak physical condition, my ass

I needed this today...now I can put off the self reflection for aaaaaages!

A fantastic poem on an infuriating phenomenon; arguing in good faith does not guarantee a correct consensus

just because someone can articulate their point better doesn’t make them right, it makes them articulated. 

Can confirm for Lake Michigan (though I always thought her a friend); two hours into a lovely day at the beach was when the coastguard showed up to save us.

Superior, though. Her our father always taught us to fear. It never stopped us swimming, but it kept us safe.

Whereabouts do you live, roughly speaking, and what drew you to that place in particular?

I'm in Michigan, and that's as specifically as I will answer that question! We have really lethal lakes.

The Warners win, hands down UNTIL THE ROBINS ARRIVE

Batman VS Everyone

If Batman gets prep time, so does everyone else

^"He was right, of course." (/she/them) Seriously though me too he had it all figured out

You can tell that I’m a real Lord of the Rings expert because my favorite character is the unnamed sentient fox that appears for three lines in chapter 3 of the fellowship of the ring. 

The sheer incongruity of the last line never fails to make me snort.

There's a reason retellings of the Green Goblin's origin tend to skate over his exact reasoning for his aesthetic choices. The Lizard he ain't.

I do appreciate that they acknowledge Norman has no logical reason to become the Goblin. By being a millionaire he already commits more crimes than the Goblin could get away with in a lifetime! Amazing Spiderman 40

"Holy *insert swear*, Batman!" needs to become a bit, it is something I didn't know I needed in my life XD

In my opinion, the butt jokes are incredibly incredibly tired.

So here are several fun facts about Dick that you can use for comedic effects/running jokes instead:

His hatred of Capes. Listen we are talking about Dick wore a yellow cape for 9 to 10 years in universe Grayson. The moment he changed his costume, he straight refused to ever wear a cape again, the only time he had to wear one, it was as Batman and it was very very frustrating for him.

You know that when he watched the Incredibles with Lian and Roy or Damian and Edna Mode came on screen with her hatred of capes, this was his reaction:

Someone else finally understand him. She instantly became his favorite character.

His tendency to put unknown substances/evidence in his mouth and being able to identify it by taste and his knowledge of what Heroin taste like (yep still not over it).

It's both impressive (the fact that he can actually identify something by taste alone is impressive) and gross and even his closest friends don't understand why he is the way that he is, Do we think it's the Bat training or do we think it's just Dick (tm)... I feel like it has to be just Dick, right ? considering everything in Gotham is a toxin of some kind ? How many heart attack do we think he gave both Bruce and the Titans with that ?

Dick Grayson namer of superhero things: Listen, I just learned that Dick named the Arrowcave and now I just kinda love the idea of a running joke that every time a classic superhero in contact with Robin has a goofy name for something superhero related, it probably comes from the 9 year old superhero who thought it sounded cool.

The Titans are never letting that go and Dick doesn't want to talk about it (but he secretly still really like the names, they were cool when he was 9 and pretty practical when you think about it, thank you very much).

Everyone has a crush on him (tm): Honestly it is pretty funny that everyone and theirs entire family have a crush on Nightwing (and also pretty consistent canon since Raven in ntt). The reaction of the batfam is annoyed because that's gross, it's Dick, theirs brother/son, and the Titans are amused (Donna, Vic, Garth and maybe Wally) or maybe sorta part of the people who have had a crush on him (Kory obviously , Roy, Raven).

You do need to be careful with that, but I think if you do the opposite of what DC is usually doing, you'll be fine.

Also you can also includes the disastrous first date with supergirl in that. She also had a crush on him and they date was so horrible that he considered changing superhero identity because it was so embarrassing (truly one of the greatest plot-point on Superman/batman world finest honestly and this series is genuinely my favorite modern/current series)..

His petty side when he doesn't like someone: Listen, Dick has a petty side, ask Helena circa Outsiders (2003), Talia (always), Jason circa the late 2000s (Morrison era) and Azrael (also always). When he doesn't like people but has to work with them, he is going to be a little shit because they have to know he doesn't like them. it's important. and the comedic potential of Nightwing, one of the most competent, known and admired hero of the community being so petty is excellent. 10 out of 10, I need him to work with someone he hates again just for the fun of it.

The last one is just an headcanon and do not have basis in canon as far as I know:

Sometimes, as an adult, Nightwing says Holy shit in front o fa classic superhero and that superhero does a double take because they are so used to him saying Holy goly batman (and that include Batman).

One of Spidey's first (and still one of his finest) chilling moments of superhuman intimidation. This is a teenager, and up til this he mostly moved like one. As opposed to, you know, a force of pure primal fury.

Notice that Peter's stride is not even MOMENTARILY halted by the gangsters trying to tackle him. Amazing Spiderman 11