these are all things they will do to female characters, consciously or unconsciously, and jason happens to fall into this category. what sealed the deal for me was gotham war. bruce quite literally decided that instead of sitting down and getting to the root of the problem, the solution was to just make it so the problem could never be articulated. he chose taking jason's autonomy away, rather than finding a middle ground.

I'm genuinely heartened to find people sending me support even after a couple of months, so thank you kindly.

I will not go into details on recent developments, but I will say this: suffice to say, the two people in question and I are currently void of all contact, and we remain separated.

In the case of one, while I acknowledge my own mistakes I made throughout the course of our friendship, I do not feel the final impetus that led to them so abruptly and completely dropping me was in any way worth such a response. So while I can apologize for the mistakes I made - which I had already done by the time all this happened, and which I was making sure I did not repeat - I do not feel this specific instance is something I need to apologize for.

In the case of the other...the more I look back on our relationship, and the myriad of issues that went on throughout it, the more I realize how...problematic that relationship was. A lot of the mistakes I made with one friend were at least partially due to issues with the other, and while there were a lot of good times, there were also some of the absolute worst times of my entire life experienced, as well. I cannot lie and say I do not miss them, but I do not miss the stress, unneeded guilt, anxiety, and the general sensation of feeling trapped and like I might be walking on broken glass I had a lot of the time.

My feelings beyond that point remain generally the same: I still care about both of them, despite everything that happened between us, and despite how utterly ridiculous and out of the blue their betrayals were. If ever either of them choose to contact me privately and attempt to make up, I cannot guarantee I will grant forgiveness, but I will be willing to listen. However, I am not going to attempt to contact either of them myself: when one person has seemingly made it abundantly clear they want nothing more to do with you, and the other has betrayed you in a way no other human being in your entire life has, all for the pettiest and most ill-thought-out reasons...yeah. Not much reason for me to go crawling to them, is there? :P

Anon, you are a genius, I love this idea. Also, I love the implication that Zuko is so nervous for the date that he doesn't think to put out the fire with his bending.

I raise you: even though she knows Zuko must hear her giggling, Katara waits until he knocks the door. When she opens it, Zuko could not be more flustered if he tried - red in the face and sweating something chronic, a scattering of embers and ashes at his feet, and a bouquet of nothing but singed stems in his hand. For a few seconds, Zuko can't say anything because Katara is dressed up and wow, she's pretty, but eventually he manages a "Hi." and "I brought you flowers but I-, I kinda... set fire to them."

Zuko thinks his chance with her is about as toast as the flowers. But Katara is just smiling and then, from behind her back, she suavely pulls out her own bouquet - one she'd been planning to give to him.

"Lucky I brought enough to share then, huh?"