Neex' archive of Pain

"The hat is customizable," he said, struggling with the velcro patch on the front. "If I need it, I have an ICE one too. I pick based off the business i walk into."

"Customizable is an important hat descriptor," I said. "what can I get you?"

"You wouldn't believe how offended people get these days," he said. "And I'm supposed to do something about it if you're offended? You chose to be offended!"

"We all have hundreds of thousands of decisions everyday," I said. I thickened my accent. "That's what my stepdad always said. But I can make one easier - we have a delicious Ethiopian roast available."

"Like if I told you you have a bull ring," he said, "because bulls have rings in their noses. Is that offensive?"

I laughed. "I've heard that before."

"It's a joke, but people get offended. Maybe you're offended."

I looked at him. I smiled. "You aren't trying to offend me though, right?"

Of course he was. I was being friendly and the friendlier I was, the faster he switched topics. He was saying anything inflammatory he could think of to see if I'd take the bait. After about 20 minutes of my redirecting and deescalating, he settled into a more normal interaction. He took up too much of my time showing me a product I'd feigned mild interest in to get him to stop talking about getting accused of inappropriate behavior at work. When we finally disengaged, he spent 10 minutes trying to catch my eye again. When he failed, he left.

There's this new breed of customer who insists on trying to incite political conversation through their clothing and, when that doesnt work, their snide little comments. If I owned my own business, maybe I would have given the guy the fight he wanted. But I work for a corporation and I love paying my bills so I deescalated.

hello my good friend tim drake :]

My piece for the @dcfanmadezines Local lesbian aunt and her bi nephew hanging out after a hard night day of work.

Lmao you know of all the ways he’s ever worried about turning into Bruce I think unrelated-child acquisition would fall under ‘least concern.’

Realizing he’s most likely signed himself up for long-term responsibility toward these kids by taking action to help them on their terms isn’t exactly a happy process though, it’s true. XD They follow him more like migrating geese, it’s a harder formation to ambush. And mostly only when, you know, moving through potentially hostile terrain.

His role as ‘most trusted Bat’ further exacerbates the existing tension between the cloneboys and Damian. Tim is Genuinely Offended when Damian says that Tim, having reason to bear him a grudge, is probably conspiring with the clones to destroy him.