self-control is a myth

“Saturday won’t work for me. My son’s baseball team is having a bake sale.”

The entire room goes silent, because no one realized Batman even had a kid. Or went out in the daylight.

“What?” one of the others asks, still shocked.

“A bake sale,” Batman says slowly, like they’re all a little stupid. “It’s a fundraiser.”

“I know what a bake sale is! But since when do you have a kid?”

“Have you not met Robin?” he asks, sounding genuinely surprised. “He’s been to the Watchtower several times now.”

“Robin’s your kid?” gets asked first, followed closely by someone else asking, “Robin is real?”

“Can’t you just drop him off?” Superman asks, trying to calm the situation.

“Well I’m also the coach, so that probably wouldn’t be setting a very good example for the kids, Superman.”

“You’re the coach?” Someone asks.

“Yes.”

“Of a little league team?”

“Yes.”

“Are we in the Twilight Zone?” Hal whispers to Barry, who shushes him.

“Will Sunday work?” Superman asks quickly, wanting this to get resolved.

“So long as it’s over with by 4pm.”

“Why?”

“I told Robin I’d take him to the Gotham Knights game.”

Everyone’s heads are spinning. Batman is actually acting like a normal guy with a normal kid. This is not at all what they imagined he was like outside of the cowl. Some of them didn’t think he ever actually took the cowl off at all.

sorry i haven’t posted in a minute, i’ve been busy with revision and it’s been hard to pick up a pencil 🥲

on a happier note i’m extremely proud of this piece. i generally avoid backgrounds like the plague but surprisingly this didn’t give me too much trouble so it’s a win in my book 👍

As far as we know, there was little research about werewolves, and most of it was about how to kill them or the dangerous beasts they were. So, probably, the fact that they didn't hurt animals/animagi was not public knowledge, and difficult to find. (Besides, it was probably not 100% verified that it would work).

This means, James, Sirius and Peter had to do real research to discover it. They had to be looking for a way to be with Remus/understand him better/help him and the research had to be thorough to find out a way to be near a werewolf without them hurting you.

Now, we should also remember that the Animagi spell was high-level and very dangerous. We see very few characters being Animagi in the HP series, and they are presentes as very talented wizards. James, Sirius and Peter did it as teenagers.

Of course, they were reckless and find it somehow funny (remember that Remus said they were the best years of his life, so he enjoyed it too even if he couldn't remember those nights), but that doesn't negate the fact that they cared enough to, once again, do the research. Because being reckless and stupid could also mean trying to see Remus-Moony as humans, or flying above the Forbbiden Forest, or whatever three teenagers could have thought of. But they really wanted to find a way to be by his side, with their friend.

All of this when they had been taught, for sure, that werewolves were monsters, untrustworthy, and not worthy at all. But they loved Remus to the point they dismissed all of that, because they saw REMUS LUPIN, their friend, not just a werewolf.

They were stupid and reckles, but it takes deep care to be so stupid and reckles just to help a friend, when the whole word is telling you that you should hate him and be afraid of him.

remus: believe it or not, babies and condoms are made of different materials.

sirius: it’s like rock paper scissors. baby oil defeats condom, baby defeats baby oil, condom defeats baby.

it is technically borderline illegal and it gives studios a good and solid reason to take legal actions against them, if they want. also if "taking commission for fanfics" is normalized on a mainstream level, I can unfortunately see platforms like ao3 facing serious challenges or maybe even the risk of getting shut down — because as of now, ao3 and fanfic as a whole exist in a "legally grey area". the main reason people can freely and openly post fanfics, and the main reason studios aren't taking legal actions against fanfic writers, is because fanfic writers aren't monetizing fanfics of other people's copyrighted characters.

some people have already explained why "fanfic commissions" are riskier than "fan art commissions". I can't quote their exact words, but it's something about fan art being "more difficult to prove that the characters were others' copyrighted material". meanwhile with fanfics, it can be easily proved that it's from other people's copyrighted material and is being illegally monetized.