Duc's nest

*Not being able to conceptualize the idea of what a fight against your pfp would even look like, e.g. if your pfp is just a solid blue circle with no inherent meaning behind it

And then there's 90s-Grunge-Dad-Bruce, right down to the well worn combat boots and the faded band t-shirt.

Bruce Wayne is a guest at a big charity function in Metropolis. Ordinarily he wouldn't go, but the function is part of a network of concerted efforts against the NRA and to push for better control and reduced school shootings, so he has skin in this game and an appearance by a famous philanthropist who was orphaned by a gunman is kind of a big part of the PR going on. So he makes time for it.

Clark Kent has been assigned to cover the event by the Daily Planet. Given that Bruce Wayne's presence and perspective are a big part of the whole shindig, he does his reporterly duty and makes an effort to get some quotes from him as part of his article. He's not really surprised to discover that despite Bruce Wayne's reputation as a playboy and unreliable party-hard kind of rich boy, he's very serious about this particular topic, because he did his homework and he's put together the pattern that despite appearances, Bruce Wayne does indeed take some things very seriously.

Clark and Bruce sort of recognize each other as men who have some experience in wearing elaborate social masks. Clark figures Bruce plays up the party boy image as a coping mechanism, to keep the tabloids talking about something other than the violent murder of his parents perhaps, while Bruce is not sure why this seemingly mild-mannered reporter has the mien of someone who knows exactly how to use body language and preconceptions to get the reactions he wants from people, but there are a lot of reasons for someone to pick up those skills. Especially an interviewer.

Bruce fake flirts, Clark plays up being flustered, both of them are kind of genuinely into it even though they're both aware the masks are on. It's fun, like roleplay.

Anyway the article comes out great, and Clark manages to get more out of Bruce than just the token soundbites, so the next time there's cause for the Daily Planet to send someone to cover a Wayne event Perry is just like, Kent you do it. Eventually the two build up a working relationship where they're both kind of like, actually there's way more to that guy than meets the eye, and everyone else is like are you sure you don't just want to fuck him? Because it seems like you might just want to fuck him.

Up until a point Clark hadn't really used any of his powers to observe Bruce, though, because he doesn't just do that for no good reason on principle.

But then there's one interview where it's clear that something is just wrong with Bruce Wayne. He's acting "normal", on the surface, maybe even more friendly than usual, but his body language has subtly changed, he's spending an awful lot of time sitting down, and despite his claims of a hangover, he isn't actually showing the symptoms. Clark, long familiar with the process of "turn on the 'X-ray' vision to see if someone's got an undiagnosed health issue and then try to work a doctor's appointment into the conversation" does that, and finds that Mr. Bruce Wayne is somehow sitting at a scheduled interview with a fractured wrist and two broken ribs, plus innumerable signs of past injuries.

So now Clark's trying to figure out who is physically abusing an adult billionaire, or if this is a sex thing.

Dr. Ratthi goes on a research survey with non-Preservation researchers. They're on a very inhospitable planet, with lots of superstorms and poison gas. They have a little hub that they stay in and do their work from, with short expeditions outside in protective gear.

And then in a stroke of genuine bad luck, their transport off planet, communication relays, and some life support functions are destroyed in a storm. Almost all of them are convinced they're going to starve to death and die.

All of them except Dr. Ratthi, who is completely chill. They dismiss his certainty that they'll be rescued as him just being a naive optimist from a backwater polity who doesn't know the first thing about real life.

He keeps insisting, "Oh, don't worry, my friends will come get us!" Even though they'll run out of water and food before anyone even notices that something is wrong.

And then in the middle of the fourth day after the accident, during yet another superstorm, someone knocks on the entrance.

It's straight out of a horror movie. They should be alone on this planet. They should be alone. There is a deadly storm outside. Nothing human can be out there, and yet something is at their door.

They know it's not a rescue. A rescue would be coming from off-planet, and there is no one, nothing, that would have the calculation ability to safely navigate a hopper through those winds -

And while they're almost all frozen, processing their terror and the implications, Dr. Ratthi jumps up, and goes to cycle the habitat's airlock to let whatever it is in. He's all happy golden-retriever energy, all "I told you my friends were coming! I can't wait for you to meet them!"

And before anyone can stop him -

Two SecUnits enter. Two SecUnits that have to be rogue, based off of their literally everything.

This really does feel like the start of a horror movie, or maybe the middle of a horror movie, complete with the scene where a dumbass lets the monster in, but then -

One of the SecUnits immediately starts yelling at Ratthi about stupid planets and stupid lowest-bidder equipment and stupid safety protocols and stupid humans who accept stupid research missions.

The other is like. "We should leave soon. The transport is irate, and the longer we spend here, the less concerned it will be with our comfort when it calculates our ascent through the atmosphere."

*by "pre-screening", i typically mean any sort of behavior that exists on a spectrum of "actually watching/playing/reading the thing before you played it" to "doing any sort of research on it before letting you watch it".

So, to all the workers facing Karens and Kens out in the wild, here's my advice - cry.

If you have the type of relationships with your coworkers and managers that will support you, don't try to hold it in. Cry like the overworked, underpaid peon you are.

Nothing terrifies an asshole Karen like the indisputable proof that their actions/words are affecting you as a real live person. They feel perfectly entitled to cuss out a cashier over a wrong order/no cash policy/ face mask mandate but when that person starts to cry and asks them why they'd say such mean things? A whole other story, my friend.

There's no way to make that situation look good to the manager they demanded to speak with, either. My manager literally got a security guard fired for being so verbally abusive he made one of her employees cry.

This strategy has multiple benefits -

1. You're not standing there trying to pen up your emotions, crying is a great physical release for negative emotions and you may very well feel somewhat better afterwards.

2. The person who precipitated the situation is forced to not only see you as a person with feelings, but also has to confront the fact that their abuse has consequences beyond themselves.

3. It can actually give your higher-ups leverage to address these situations. 'They yelled at my employee' is one thing, but 'They yelled at my employee until they were in tears' is a waaaaay worse offense. A good manager can use that. Hell, it can get a security guard fired!

He only finds out as he's driving down town and sees a giant billboard reading 'Wayne Enterprises. Our CEO is getting plowed by Superman. Can you say the same for yours?'

(2) This leads to a campaign in Gotham that "Brucie Can Do Better." Because Superman is, of course, from Metropolis and that Cannot Stand. If Brucie Wayne wants a hero, Gotham has a homegrown one he can screw around with: Batman.

(3) Not only does Bruce start to receive letters asking him to break up with Superman and start seeing Batman instead or letters talking up Batman while talking trash about Superman, but Batman starts getting encouraged to ask out Mr. Wayne. Like, criminals will, mid-fight, ask Batman if he's seeing anyone and talk about how he can't let Metropolis win over Gotham by dating Bruce.

(4) Every other bat and bird is 100% into this joke and will banter with the mooks, sharing that Batman is, in fact, single. And discussing ways he could woo Bruce Wayne or that Brucie could woo him.

(5) Since Superman doesn't have an address, a group of young citizens in Gotham pool their money to take out a full page ad in the Daily Planet that is an open letter to Superman telling him he doesn't deserve Bruce Wayne and that he should break up with him immediately.

(6) Lois finds this all incredibly hilarious and during her next impromptu interview with Superman, she asks about Bruce. The wounded look Clark sends her is captured on film and gets memed.

(7) Bruce wants to remove the billboard. His Board refuses. Business has never been so good. Tim makes a motion to entrust outreach and public relations to Jason full-time.