I'm Scrolling Through Some Ambient Noises To Help Me Write, And It Got Me Thinking. Y'know Those White

I'm scrolling through some ambient noises to help me write, and it got me thinking. Y'know those white noise machines people use for sleeping?

Do you think there's a very specific brand marketed at Gothamites?

Like everyone else has rainy nights on the beach, whale song, the crackle of the campfire, and everyone's all-time favorite "rickety fan about to oscillate off your shitty ikea desk at four in the morning."

And then there's "The Sounds of Gotham," a nighttime ambiance made up of heavy thunderstorms interspaced with the wail of police sirens and the occasional smattering of gunfire.

If you upgrade to premium, you can get the added sound effect of "small vigilante child dropping onto your apartment roof followed by the heavy pitter-patter of their combat boots as they dropkick a criminal off the fire escape."

Mm. Cozy.

i get that the majority of people who know batman know him from movies and therefore understand him as the violent justice character and assign values to the trinity as such. clark is hope, bruce is justice, diana is truth. but these are really wrong to me because it implies that bruce saves gotham via fear and pessimism alone.

he definitely terrifies the fuck out of gothamites, but that’s not all? the batsymbol also represents hope, the same way the S does.

the people of gotham have hope in batman. that his existence proves their city can get better, that they have someone to keep them safe. batman is hope to bruce, born out of an optimism that with the sacrifice of the rest of his life, he can truly make a difference in gotham. it gives gotham a second chance, a chance to get better.

it’s why the batsymbol means so much to cass, because like bruce, she believes in second chances. she got her own second chance, and she has hope that it’ll change the city.

it’s why jason wears the symbol as a mockery, because he doesn’t believe anymore. he’s been disillusioned with the idea that anyone deserves a second chance, which is why he’s willing to kill.

it’s why the criminal lords hate him, because he gives hope to the people they’re trying to take that hope away from. he disproves joker’s one bad day theory, because he had a lot of terrible fucking days and has seen the very worst of gotham and still manages to stick with his city.

saying that batman is pessimistic and born only to punish the guilty is such a diminishment of what the batsymbol means to gothamites, including bruce and his allies. and maybe nobody outside of gotham will ever get what the batsymbol means to them. nobody will understand that in the worst city in the world, they have a man willing to stick by them and sacrifice his everything just to save them.

The conflict between Tim and Dick at the beginning of Red Robin is accidentally the most interesting thing to happen to their relationship in years but everyone seems to want to simplify it to either "Dick is mean and unfair" or "Tim is a selfish brat" when the BEST batman conflicts (of which this could be one) are the ones where everyone has a point.

But the thing that REALLY gets to me is that, whether they think Dick was right or wrong for his choices, everyone seems to act like it was a logical and unemotional decision on his part??? That choosing to not believe Tim's theory was obvious and immediate?

Imagine:

Tim strolls into the Batcave and gives Dick everything he wants on a silver platter:

Hey, none of this is real; you don't have to be Batman. We can be Robin and Nightwing again, and we can go save our dad! You don't have to move cities and derail your entire life and raise a kid by yourself.

You think Dick didn't want so badly to say yes?

You think he didn't want to throw away everything and run off with Tim, that he wasn't desperate for a way out of the terrible burden Bruce had laid on his shoulders?

But Bruce had entrusted him with everything. His city. His legacy. His kid. His kids.

Dick made the infinitely more difficult choice, because he wanted Tim to be right so badly but would not abandon what he had been entrusted with. Would not let Gotham fall. Would not abandon Damian to fester with no one to care for him.

Would not feed into what very well might be a delusion wrought from grief, no doubt hurting Tim in the process, just so that Dick could avoid reality for a little longer.

Hey, you are not an embarrassment for not knowing how to do certain household chores/basic self-care. They do not come naturally to us. A lot of it takes practice! Maybe you had a neglectful guardian. Maybe you had one that was very coddling and never thought to teach you. Maybe you haven't lived in a place where these things were available to you or needed. Doesn't matter. It's okay to not know and far more common than you might realise.

That said, this website provides very simple instructions on how to do everyday tasks such as making your bed, using a washing machine, cooking different foods, washing dishes, taking a shower, etc. All you have to do is use the search bar to find the task you're struggling with, and it'll come up with what you need + other related how-to's:)

If you're having trouble navigating it, let me provide you with some examples:

How to clean dishes by hand

How to make your bed (with visual demonstrations of each step!)

How to fold clothes (with visual demonstrations of each step!)

How to take a shower & dry yourself off (also provides ways to shave beards, armpits, legs and genitals)

How to shave legs, armpits, beards, pubic areas, etc. (a more in-depth guide)

How to mop the floor

How to sweep the floor

How to swallow pills

How to make small talk

How to make eye contact in different situations (or how to avoid it while still looking natural)

It's also perfectly okay if these don't help or aren't appealing to you. Unfortunately, nothing helps everyone.

He is my pathetic (bamf) blorbo I love him so much 😭

Nineties Tim Drake is a balancing act of being perfectly confident and competent when in the heat of battle, being completely sure of himself and being capable of changing his plans on a dime and all-around being borderline scary because of how well he can read his opponents moves and react to them, but outside of combat he is an awkward little duck boy who wants to befriend other superheroes but is also internally fanboying a bit over meeting other superheroes, so he comes across as stilted and nervous in social situations.

Yes I’m thinking about Tim Drake again. Did I ever truly stop thinking about Tim Drake? Who cares?

Tim is so funny because he is completely confident, the picture of a perfect leader, but the very second he has time to think about anything, he doubts literally everything he’s ever done. The Baseball Arc (my beloved) is a great example because Tim doesn’t trust himself, doesn’t actually believe what he’s doing will work, thinks he’s dooming two separate planets by being stupid. The comic goes out of its way to show us Tim doubting himself, because when he’s actually out on the field, playing baseball for the lives of billions of people (and yes, that is the funniest thing I’ve ever typed in my whole life) Tim is the complete opposite. More than trusting himself, he asks his friends to trust him, to believe in him that he can make them win a dumb baseball game and that he knows what he’s doing.

And they do trust him! That’s what really sticks, in Young Justice! The others trust Robin, they trust Tim, with their lives and the lives of everyone they know and care about. They trust him to do what he says he will, and he pushes himself so that he never lets them down because letting them down would prove that his doubts are correct.

But, even as he exceeds expectations, Tim is still doubting himself. He doubts that he’s a good enough Robin. He doubts that he lives up to Jason’s and Dick’s legacy. He doubts that he lives up to Bruce’s standards. He doubts that his plans will work, even as he comes up with a billion contingencies in the case that they don’t. He doubts himself, and Young Justice shows us this multiple times.

Tim Drake has a constant struggle with himself, with his internal voice that tells him he isn’t on the same level as the heroes he surrounds himself with.

But, the Young Justice team don’t believe he’s subpar. They’re baffled by him, they don’t understand him, they can’t read him at all, but they trust him and it means a lot to me that Tim can take the trust they put in him and build himself up with it. He trusts them just as much as they trust him.

He trusts them more than they trust themselves. He trusts Impulse even while everyone else thinks Bart is just an impulsive boy who can’t sit still. He trusts Wonder Girl even while Cassie doubts herself in similar ways that he does. He trusts Superboy even while Superboy struggles with everything under the sun. Tim even trusts Secret! Do you know how hard it is to trust Secret? Secret literally tried to murder Stephanie and Tim was just like “Girls will be girls” (I blame the writers for being sexist, but it is really funny to think that Tim thinks of girls in the same way people say “boys will be boys.” Like, he thinks that all applies to girls, not boys. Look who he surrounds himself with, Tim is more shocked when girls don’t punch each other to show affection)

Anyway, long story short, I fucking love how Tim is the most capable awkward little duck man in the world and I support him more than I support myself-

Some of my favorite words and phrases to describe a character in pain

coiling (up in a ball, in on themselves, against something, etc)

panting (there’s a slew of adjectives you can put after this, my favorites are shakily, weakly, etc)

keeling over (synonyms are words like collapsing, which is equally as good but overused in media)

trembling/shivering (additional adjectives could be violently, uncontrollably, etc)

sobbing (weeping is a synonym but i’ve never liked that word. also love using sob by itself, as a noun, like “he let out a quiet sob”)

whimpering (love hitting the wips with this word when a character is weak, especially when the pain is subsiding. also love using it for nightmares/attacks and things like that)

clinging (to someone or something, maybe even to themselves or their own clothes)

writhing/thrashing (maybe someone’s holding them down, or maybe they’re in bed alone)

crying (not actual tears. cry as in a shrill, sudden shout)

dazed (usually after the pain has subsided, or when adrenaline is still flowing)

wincing (probably overused but i love this word. synonym could be grimacing)

doubling-over (kinda close to keeling over but they don’t actually hit the ground, just kinda fold in on themselves)

heaving (i like to use it for describing the way someone’s breathing, ex. “heaving breaths” but can also be used for the nasty stuff like dry heaving or vomiting)

gasping/sucking/drawing in a breath (or any other words and phrases that mean a sharp intake of breath, that shite is gold)

murmuring/muttering/whispering (or other quiet forms of speaking after enduring intense pain)

hiccuping/spluttering/sniffling (words that generally imply crying without saying crying. the word crying is used so much it kinda loses its appeal, that’s why i like to mix other words like these in)

stuttering (or other general terms that show an impaired ability to speak — when someone’s in intense pain, it gets hard to talk)

staggering/stumbling (there is a difference between pain that makes you not want to stand, and pain that makes it impossible to stand. explore that!)

recoiling/shrinking away (from either the threat or someone trying to help)

pleading/begging (again, to the threat, someone trying to help, or just begging the pain to stop)

Feel free to add your favorites or most used in the comments/reblogs!