Solar

I am a raccoon biologist and one of the few people in the state allowed to take in captive bred raccoons that had been possessed illegally. The raccoon in the photos is Moonshine, but she is currently at the animal sanctuary where I work as I had been quarantining multiple new intakes from an abuse case. I still have two males (Rum Tum Tugger and Electra) left in my home enclosure as we are getting them neutered and then hopefully sending them to an AZA accredited zoo.

Tim: What? So you want me to solve crimes gayly??11/1/1!?!?!

Bruce: ... Tim: ... Bruce: ... Tim: Ok.

Bruce: ?????

Tim:

Bruce: ??

- Dick Grayson, on his bitchless little brother's death anniversary pre-legal resurrection

I think the fandom(and honestly, some characters) downplay Bruce's trauma a LOT... especially with regards to mourning his son that he genuinely believes had died by his hand.

Like you need to put it in Bruce's perspective:

This little kid who has nothing and no one in his life, looks at you and trusts you with his whole humanity, and that does change you at a chemical level. That child becomes your whole world. Your heart swells with love that you will never know how to express in a lifetime. The kid grows up in a house that is fuller and warmer than the one you had, and he loves it and calls him home — that heals something in you, and you physically feel like you're becoming a better person.

Then you make a mistake. You say the wrong thing. You drive that boy away to another corner of the Earth, to arms that don't know how to hold him gently, under the mad watch of someone who sees him as a possession rather than a child.

And he's dead, and you're gonna have to live with the fact that you were part of the reasons why he is.

LIKE??????????????

I think the fandom(and honestly, some characters) downplay Bruce's trauma a LOT... especially with regards to mourning his son that he genuinely believes had died by his hand.

Like you need to put it in Bruce's perspective:

This little kid who has nothing and no one in his life, looks at you and trusts you with his whole humanity, and that does change you at a chemical level. That child becomes your whole world. Your heart swells with love that you will never know how to express in a lifetime. The kid grows up in a house that is fuller and warmer than the one you had, and he loves it and calls him home — that heals something in you, and you physically feel like you're becoming a better person.

Then you make a mistake. You say the wrong thing. You drive that boy away to another corner of the Earth, to arms that don't know how to hold him gently, under the mad watch of someone who sees him as a possession rather than a child.

And he's dead, and you're gonna have to live with the fact that you were part of the reasons why he is.

LIKE??????????????

(inspired by all the parents that can somehow beat every game)

He watched the girls from the sideline as they groaned and fussed over their designated arcade game once again. They had been at this specific one for over forty five minutes now, and Bruce winced as Steph kicked the side of the machine in her building frustration, gaining a few looks from other players.

Bruce had thought their request to go to an arcade with him would be a surprisingly calm and stress free activity. It had been years since he'd been to one, and it seemed Cass and Steph had made a list of sorts they were aiming to go through to "Take the old man to fun places for once." He didn't see what about their usual activities weren't "fun" suddenly: staying at home and having movie nights, or joining the girls on their patrol game, counting how many high kicks they could deliver to unsuspecting goons, but he digressed. At least they were spending time together again.

(He'll admit he shouldn't join in on that patrol game, yes, or make a habit out of it, much less encourage it. But it was unavoidable to rack up a high count some days. He had reminded them many times that what they did wasn't a game, and he knew no matter what he said they weren't likely to stop now. 'Sides, Bruce supposed it was marginally better than their previous patrol game of "who can leave the most baddies dangling from rooftops". That one had been a bit more....blood pressure raising.)

But then the girls had made it their personal mission to beat this specific game in the arcade, and it didn't appear to him to be going too well. Bruce winced again and shifted away from the wall as Cass starting cussing the machine out in sign language.

He remembered this specific game from when he was a child, though he had only seen it in passing then. He was a teenager before he actually got out enough to go to an arcade himself and give it a curious try. Bruce also remembered this game had quite a few split-second hitboxes that were notoriously hard to hit, and it had been a massive headache back then too.

Now that he thought about it, he remembered cussing the game out himself back when Harvey and him had shown up with a ridiculous amount of quarters aiming to beat it that day or not at all. It took them the entire day to pull off, through quite a lot of frustration and quarters and discussing of schemes to get the damn game back somehow, but they did.

"Can I try?" He asked the girls as he approached, taking in their curious glances. He hadn't actually played any games thus far on their outing, preferring to be the ticket holder while they ran around causing chaos, but he didn't mind giving them the assist.

"You? Actually playing?" Steph looked at him suspiciously, though a wide smirk was plastered onto her face. "Yeah! Give it a shot, old man!"

Cass looked back between Bruce and the game before pointing at it and giving him a pouty look.

Okay, yeah, he was gonna crush this stupid game. It had been twenty five years since Harv and him had done it, he should be able to do it again.

Bruce patted Cass shoulder and slipped by the girls, standing at the controls and looking over them. He'd remembered quickly how the game worked once he'd started watching them play. Go left, right, up and down. Swing the sword. The whole game was trying to maneuver a knight through a dungeon to get to the princess trapped in the deepest part of it, though there were a lot of booby traps. If you got caught in even one of them, or made the wrong move, it was back to the beginning for you.

Bruce put in a dollar in arcade tokens and let Cass and Steph cling to his side as he started the game up.

The game sprung to life, and Bruce remembered that day years ago like it was yesterday. They had made a meticulous map of exactly what to do and when over the course of multiple hours. As long as this wasn't some revamped version of the game, then....He should be able to--

He maneuvered through the first two levels easily, remembering exactly what to do and when. He continued on to the next ones. The fifth level is where the girls had been stuck originally, but they'd gotten past it and were now clawing their eyes out over level six. Bruce took the same route they had when he had been watching them play and remembered why they got so frustrated with this level. It was actually very close to the end, but they hadn't gotten the button presses right to move on. They were obnoxiously specific. If he recalled correctly, then...

"Whoaaa, you played this before, B?" Steph asked. She sounded excited.

"I have been watching you two play, but yes. This game also kicked my ass when I was your age."

Steph looked bewildered towards him in his peripheral. "You played arcade games? At our age?"

"Shocking, I know." Bruce smiled, then went back to focus on level six. He got past it and was on level seven now. Almost to the end.

Cass clutched his arm pretty hard, watching the animations on screen with wide eyes. He continued on and debated whether or not he should get a few game overs before getting them to the end, as he knew exactly where to go from here, but he supposed they had spent an ungodly amount of time on this game already. He might as well let the girls get their prize after the previous near hour of frustration.

Bruce continued on, Steph cheering and Cass watching excitedly as he managed to get to the final level. The knight had to fight a dragon here.

Everything hit him like a reflex as he maneuvered through the level, squashing the fight in a few minutes and winning the game. Cass started jumping up and down and signing happily, just as Steph spooked a few bystanders with her victory dance. Bruce just hummed and smiled, glad he was able to help them out.

The game spat out a bunch of tickets for prizes. Steph snatched them up then grabbed Bruce's wrist, dragging him and Cass over to what appeared to be the sequel of the game. That one, Bruce hadn't played before.

"Wahooo! Let's do this one next!"

Grace was put into coma by the people who cared about him. They (especially Yáo being Yáo) probably double-triple-quadruple checked everything. They watched him sleep for those first few days — I doubt they went into coma immediately after leaving Earth's orbit. They probably talked to him, assuring him that he'll be okay.

Ilyukhina's coma procedure was probably supervised by Yáo. He made sure that everything was in order, but — he is just one man and he is not a doctor. There was much more room for mistakes.

When Yáo went to sleep, he was alone. He had to rely on the technology completely.

(if you like batlantern)

I present: what I am reading all evening!

@kurithedweeb's wagers of war lives in my head rent free hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh