Superheroes Are Dorks

Words truly cannot describe the cold panic that must have come over the entire GCPD one night when a beat cop turned a blind alley corner and found him there. A young man, between 15-20, short dark hair, dressed in a distinctive costume of red and green.

And dead as a doornail.

(The cover of a trashy tell all I had to read through for most of this info, courtesy of Gotham Gazette reporter Simon Lippman)

The instant thought that spread through the department was, of course, the worst case scenario: What if this really WAS the then most recent Robin. If the body had simply been left for a police officer to stumble over it meant that at that point Batman didn't know. Officers who had been present for the aftermath of the second Robin's death were in a state of panic, wondering how they could possibly prepare the city for a Batman who might be on the warpath inside a couple of hours. This one going even further than the first time where he very nearly invaded the United Nations building for the sake of murdering the Joker in cold blood.

Some officers saw it as some perverse leverage they might be able to use against the Bat. Unmasking the corpse and attempting to quickly identify it hoping that it would hold some clue to Batman's unmasked identity. A very small and fringe party within the GCPD even theorized about "ransoming" the corpse to gain "concessions" from the Batman. Though in both cases it was pointed out just how stupid an idea it was to either try to use the death of his young ward against him OR to try and RANSOM HIS BODY which almost certainly would have seen the GCPD infiltrated, if not violently assaulted by Batman and his allies for the sake of retrieving their friend and comrade.

It was soon after the first body was identified with teenage actor Roger Baumbach that batman truly enters the scene, "working" his way through the residents of Blackgate, Arkham Asylum and the patrons at the Iceberg Lounge leading to a confrontation with the GCPD that soured the police's relationship with the hero, leaving them into the dark as to whether he was working the same case they were and from what angle.

All of this only further complicated by the case leaking to the press. As you can imagine, the possibility of the 3rd Robin not only turning up dead, but being seemingly unmasked on the autopsy table sent them into a feeding frenzy. Baumbach's grieving parents being harassed into the wee hours of the freezing morning as the police attempted to contain the crowds. And then the case broke or escalated in four distinct but related ways.

The escalations included a member of the GCPD taking a shot at Batman during the altercation at the Iceberg Lounge, further dividing their ability to work together on the case. And the Teen Titans were asked to come in for questioning. While none of them were able to directly comment on events (they had all been very publicly out of the country fighting some villainous plot having to do with perennial headache Brother Blood) their lack of visible shock or worry led into the two breaks in the case.

The 3rd Robin showed up alive and well on the roof of the GCPD.

And a second body was discovered.

This one laying face down in Gotham Harbor, evidently suffocated BEFORE being placed in the water near a busy path where he was intended to be quickly discovered by the killer. This body was much more quickly identified as young commercial star Scott Benjamin. Again the scene was leaked to the press, this time showing up so quickly the police had to fight just to secure the crime scene. This intentional need for attention fit together with another piece of evidence when it was noticed the photograph of the crime scene used on the front page of the Gazette was NOT the same picture that had been given to the public, meaning the photograph had to have been taken by the killer themselves. Leading to the arrest of Gazette reporter Simon Lippman.

It was only after this that a man named Jack Dunning walked into the GCPD headquarters and openly confessed to the crimes, presenting the school IDs of both young men as evidence for the deed and rambling that he would only explain himself to Batman personally while mumbling about finally existing in "their world". When Batman did indeed arrive, the entire sordid story came out at least.

Dunning had also been a reporter for the Gotham Gazette, slowly becoming unbalanced and obsessed with Gotham's costumed crime fighters. Focused on the idea of becoming part of "their world" by becoming a villain through the murder of Robin. Posing as a talent agent for the two young actors, he tricked them into situations where one could be tossed from a lethal height and the other could be suffocated. Leaving their bodies intentionally to be found and spreading the leaks through his press connections in order to summon a media circus around the possible identity of said "new villain"

Dunning is currently serving two consecutive life sentences at Blackgate Penitentiary, although media fascination with him and his psychosis was thankfully short lived. If anything the take away from this fiasco is a lesson that has very little to do with the Boy Wonder himself.

When we dehumanize our protectors. See "their" world as so much higher than "our" world, we leave ourselves open to obsession. An obsession that is like blood in the water for a news media cycle that is more obsessed with fear mongering and spectacle than awaiting the truth and providing an objective lens on events. Within hours of the leak, theories were being proposed in otherwise "respectable" outlets that ranged from it being another product of the Joker to some kind of torrid love affair between Robin and Catwoman (that particular reporter got basically everything in their office stolen, with a gently written reminder that Catwoman is more protective of the Robins than you would think).

Thankfully the 3rd Robin, now Red Robin is alive and well.

None of them dig into the boring, but very real, reality that the reason they think they're being "tricked" is because trans women can't CURRENTLY become impregnated

That is, when an official told you, a rice farmer, that you owed more taxes than you really did, it was very useful if you were good enough at math to know he was lying (and could prove it) and if you were good enough at writing to write a letter to your government defending your case.

abuse in caregiving professions (like teaching or nursing) is not solely a result of power dynamics. it's also because people who go into those professions often have a idea of themselves as Good People, and are consequently incapable of recognising or acknowledging when they've hurt someone else. instead, they mentally put 'people who have inconvenienced me' into the Bad People box so they can freely abuse them while maintaining their moral high ground.

i read ross greene a lot when i was working with "difficult" or "behaviourally challenged" children. his refrain is "kids do well if they can" - meaning, in short, that most kids act out only when the demands of a situation exceed their capabilities. punishing them for this is not only cruel but also completely pointless, because they also don't want to be doing what they are doing.

okay so I fucking love event planning and decorating and hosting and baking, aka all the elements of a banger birthday party. I am so freaking happy to throw people parties because it means I get to throw a party, then go to a party! yippee!

so my friend's birthday rolled around and I knew she wanted a party because I'd done them for her before, but I wanted to make it extra special because she was turning the big 25. so I did all the regular stuff I am So Excited About: had her roommates let me into her apartment while she was out, put up balloons and homemade garlands and streamers and table decor, made her favorite cake and snack plates and cocktails, ordered catering from a restaurant she loves, got a bunch of our friends to come over to surprise her, wrote her a disgustingly heartfelt card, etc. and then because it was the big quarter century, I was like I gotta do something extra.

now. I do not like clowns. my friend loves clowns. we've gone to the circus together and she's seen me literally close my eyes and hide when the clowns are out in the audience, meanwhile she's screaming and waving at them. so obviously I hired a clown for her birthday. (btw seeing him out of clown costume made me less freaked out because now I knew that the guy under there looks like someone's uncle.)

so she showed up after work totally expecting a party because I'm too paranoid to throw a real surprise party, and obviously loved it. and then I was like btw. there's a clown.

she lost her mind. she was sooo excited. she loved the party and she loved the clown. I was like haha yes I'm getting a good grade in birthday parties and didn't think much of it because frankly I do this a lot, and it's so much fun for me that I don't consider it work. like, I love doing all that for my friends. it's not any kind of sacrifice.

two days later, she texted me that she broke up with her boyfriend.

naturally I was like omg tell me everything I hated that guy let's get coffee. so we did and she told me that for her birthday, her boyfriend of nine months 1) forgot about it and didn't get her anything, 2) got mad at her for not texting him while she was at her party, 3) got mad at her for telling him about the party because it was "passive aggressive", and 4) called her immature and stupid for being excited about a clown at her birthday.