20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

My RHATO/Titans for Hire/Outsiders sequel WIP is ultimately going to have Carla as part of the ensemble cast and I am predictably extremely excited about the Carla and Jason interactions, suicidal tendencies and revenge team up, girl who doesn’t believe in resurrection and poster boy for messy resurrections. I’m also excited for her interactions with Tara but it may take a lot longer for those to happen since I haven’t figured out how Tara joins the team yet. (No, wait. I think I have it nevermind. Thanks actually I’ve been struggling to figure that one out for a minute and answering this gave me the beginnings of an idea.)

Initially Carla was also going to get to be on team kill Slade in timeout, but that’s still very much up in the air. I still think she deserves to get to team up with all of the other women Slade’s manipulated in deeply personal ways though - Tara, Rose, Tanya, Cass, Amy Sue, etc. Maybe throw Talia in there and have Carla initially be angry with Talia over the resurrection thing before Talia is able to connect with her and find common ground.

In canon, I think Carla is someone who would really struggle with the concept of a best friend because she has one of those and it’s her dead brother. The fact that he’s dead doesn’t change the calculation for her (the same thing is also true of my girl Claire Clover and now I kinda want to put the two of them in a room together and see what happens - nothing good, probably). I think she would respond really negatively to overt attempts at friendship. I do think that the Outlaws would be an interesting place for her to land because Roy and Jason when written well are deeply caring people with rough edges who might be able to navigate working with her, and of course her interactions with an in-character Koriand’r would be a thing of beauty.

And apparently having the same complaints lmao

Ooh fun!!

Yeah lmao there's unfortunately a lot to complain about

book you've reread the most times?

answered already

7. Is there a series/book that got you into reading?

Black Widow 2015 vol.1 by Chris Samnee, I picked it up at the library on a whim and it was the first thing I read successfully after my burnout/breakdown in 2023

Before that, back when I was a kid? I read all the Saddle Club/Pony Pals/Thoroughbred, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Bobbsey Twins/Trixie Belden books I could find

8. What is the first book you remember reading yourself?

Probably Nina Ballerina or The Quilt Story, which were both picture book favorites.

12. Did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

2. Top 5 books of all time?

Hmmm. In no particular order

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, because it's engraved on my soul at this point

River Secrets by Shannon Hale, because I wanted to include one teenage favorite

Candid by Voltaire, because the ending philosophy is Important To Me

You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson, because I needed to include a poetry collection here and this one Matters

The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton, because it's the only book I brought with me when I fled Texas

10. A guilty fav?

I answered this differently already but the Naturals books by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

13. Do you have a Goodreads?

Answered already.

16. How many books have you read this year?

book you've reread the most times?

Probably The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I used to reread it every November, because of the first line.

10. Do you have a guilty fav?

The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan maybe? It's a period romance novella and I think that qualifies it even though I maintain that this one is Actually Good.

13. Do you have a Goodreads?

miaaaaaa

favorite thing: her motormouth lmao, she’s *so* funny and such a fast talker, I love how she figured out Ollie was Green Arrow in like five seconds flat; I love that she’s a survivor in such a specific and defiant way;

OTP: I primarily ship Mia with women, even though she’s canonically shown as interested in men. I do think she’s bi, but I also think the particular combination of trauma and comphet that she’s dealing with means that she’s not likely to figure it out until she goes off to college. And also stops projecting romantic/sexual interest onto any man who’s (a) remotely nice to her and/or (b) older than her, which I think is going to take her time.

Rose: they have a lot in common okay? They’re both “bad” victims, their intros to the Teen Titans are parallel, I suspect John’s was trying to do a bad victim Rose vs. good victim Mia thing with the way he wrote it but I. don’t subscribe to that dichotomy. This ship’s canonical basis is their two entire interactions- Rose defending Mia at Lian’s funeral and the little banter interaction in TT03 99-100. It’s implied that Rose and Mia were Titans together during the timeskip but it’s not actually on panel, but I think they were friends.

Cassie: I really really hate that their primary arc is Robin 146-147 bc that is in my opinion Mia’s worst showing in preboot, that said here is a compilation of just their interactions and I do think the issues are worth reading just for their dynamic. Mia and Cassie would’ve been the only two girls on the Titans during Mia’s primary Titans run - however while I do see potential in the ship I don’t think that anything would’ve happened during this time as I don’t think Mia was interested in dating on the team due to wanting to be taken seriously, I don’t think she’d figured out her bisexuality yet, and meanwhile Cassie was in her era where she was wildly overcompensating and leaning into comphet (the only way I can reconcile Cassie in tt03 with her prior iteration/presentation).

Steph: Steph is actually in the arc where Mia is introduced, although they never interact, so there’s parallels between the two of them are intentional. I’ve read some good Stephmia fic as well. It’s not my main ship for either of them but it’s got potential.

NOTP: No one actually ships this to my knowledge but the romantic/sexual interest Beast Boy canonically addresses towards her is *so* gross! He’s older than her/that entire generation of Titans in general and he very much reads as creepy college guy hanging around high schoolers which is true to life but deeply upsetting (it’s also crucially *not* how Vic Stone, the other Titan from Dick’s generation who remains on the team in a mentorship role, interacts with the teens). Garfield Logan is the worst to Mia and the others (and the narrative rewards him for it by giving him Raven…)

Digger. Again, I don’t think anyone actually ships this but it is her canonical relationship. And it very much fits the pattern of Mia showing interest to any guy who she reads as remotely interested, particularly guys who are a bit older. I see it as equal parts trauma response and genuine interest, and I don’t think she’s going to look all that kindly on him when she’s his age if that makes sense.

The batboys. I keep seeing her shipped with various batboys (Jason *and* Tim) and I honestly don't see it. My thoughts on Seeing Red are um. Complicated, but I don't tend to go in a romantic direction with Jason and Mia even in specific AU situations where they reconcile; and I genuinely think Mia's appearances in Robin 1999 are bad enough that it's soured me on her entire dynamic with Tim.

BROTP: the entire arrowfam and the way they come together to support her forever and ever amen I don’t have a lot to say about it but I want to single out

Roy - Mia as successor to the Speedy legacy and all that involves, I don’t love that there’s never been canonical follow-up to their Rise of Arsenal falling out (so I’m writing it) but I love the complexity

Connor - this is possibly my actual favorite nonshippy Mia dynamic okay their garden conversations and island training and just. yeah

Emiko - I talked about their parallels and potential here and also here

Unpopular opinion: I think the bisexual headcanon is unpopular? It’s all either she’s a lesbian and her canonical interest in men is only comphet and trauma or she’s straight given the lack of canonical interest in women, both of which I do understand but I tend to split the difference here. As far as Seeing Red goes - the fic plan is for Mia and Jason to end up on a team together briefly, spar, she beats him, and that’s that.

A random headcanon: Mia got really into beading at one point and the entire arrowfam ended up with stacks and stacks of friendship bracelets; Mia bejeweled both her converse and her quiver; Mia is on prazosin for PTSD night terrors, although she doesn’t take it often due to being out most of the night as Speedy. Mia was revealed to find that at a certain level of exhaustion the dreams don’t come even without the meds.

Song I associate with them: Twinkle Lights by The Sonder Bombs

ROSE MY BELOVED

Favorite thing: my beautiful princess with a disorder I love her so much. Knight terrors is the comic ever and I loved watching her protect her younger self from their father and just. She’s become someone she needed and it’s beautiful.

Least favorite thing: DC keeps doing the setup for really interesting Rose arcs and then not following through. She found out Lillian was alive and then the reboot happened; the Willow arc deserved a followup; the Stormwatch stuff got a setup arc and no continuation. What is going on with all of her relationships, where did they *go*? like, she hasn't interacted with Eddie, Cassie, Mia, Amy Sue, Roy, since the nu52; she hasn't interacted with Tara, Dick, the Defiance team, or *Joey* since the Priest run (has Joey been in *anything* since Priest? I am not counting the fantasy world cameo in DeathstrInc and I don’t remember him being in Shadow War when the Wilsons were being targeted by the LoA - now I’m sad. If Joey’s not in the new Deathstroke series soon I might actually cry); she hasn't interacted with Steph after Man Who Stopped Laughing or Cass since DCeased Unkillables (and calling that an interaction is stretching it even accounting for the elseworld). is there some informal rule that says she's only allowed to have lasting interactions with Slade, Wintergreen, Jason, and Damian? Like, yes, those are compelling dynamics but genuinely where did the rest of her relationships *go* - also why does DC keep saying she's still 17/18 that makes no sense.

Mia: answered above

Cassrose: and they were narrative foils ohmygod they were narrative foils. Their daddy issues roadtrip could be so good if it was good. I want them to be slightly unhinged about each other and trust each other just the same.

Stephrose: they’ve interacted one time, in Man Who Stopped Laughing. Rose has canonically called Steph “the cute Batgirl” and asked for her number so there’s actually a basis for this one. They have so much potential and DC’s only scratched the surface

Bonus points for poly Stephcassrose, even more bonus points if you throw Harper Row into the mix. (I am the only person who’s done that as of this writing - I’m mildly obsessed with stephcassharper *and* stephcassrose so I decided to do both in the same fic.)

Harper Row: I’ve written the only solo Rose/Harper fic on AO3 and at some point it’s hopefully getting a sequel (that would also end up Stephcassharperose - I am nothing if not predictable) so this one is kind-of cheating but it’s a fun hypothetical- Cullen & Harper are glorious complicated siblings with a dead mom and daddy issues, Rose & Joey are glorious complicated siblings with a dead mom and daddy issues so they’d definitely have things to talk about.

Cassie Sandsmark: fresh hell making Cassie Rose’s hallucinated conscience insured that I would never be normal about them. I don’t really have anything to add here but their antagonism is way more interesting as flirting than as genuine hatred.

Eddie: they’re very sweet okay (and I am way more interested in Jayrose with Eddie involved). I find it interesting how differently Rose interacts with Eddie as opposed to the men she’s actively flirting with . There’s a genuineness that’s not present in most of her flirtation, which I tend to read as a defense mechanism

Tara: again, narrative foils. So much of the tension in Rose’s run on the Titans is defined by the obvious Tara comparison. Slade compares them, the Titans compare them, Rose draws the initial comparison herself. “Rose, still a virgin?” is such an opening line for their first on page meeting. I want to see where their dynamic could go.

Honorable mention: Cissie King Jones or Anita Fite, who she hasn’t actually interacted with in canon but I think it would add an interesting layer to the Cassierose dynamic if Rose stole one of Cassie’s girls, Cissie probably makes more sense but I miss Anita and will take any excuse to include her

BROTP:

Joey: SIBLINGS SIBLINGS SIBLINGS even in nu52 they’re protective of each other I love the two of them and the strains of familial affection they’ve crafted and how no matter how complicated it gets (Rose killing Étienne, Joey going evil) they’re still there for each other 100%.

Jason: honestly Jayrose is here for me. I tend to write them as "could be platonic or romantic" and she has been flirting with him since post-crisis (tt03 47, where she also holds him at knifepoint), but mostly I want them to be friends. I like the headcanon that they start a bar fight together every Father’s Day. I wish canon didn’t default to “and they’re married with 2.5 kids” quite so often because I do think they’d get along well. I liked Rose borrowing Jason’s car and cat hoodie in this week’s Deathstroke

Dick: Dick and Rose’s dynamic it’s important to me okay he *got her out* she trusts/looks up to/flirts with him because he’s safe and that’s the only thing she knows to do (the same way Mia does with the Arrowfam men actually, more parallels), he’s in his asshole mode but he’s still so good with her.

Shado: Shado in Deathstroke 2016 is…not my preferred characterization for her but the potential is there and partially realized by Stormwatch. Their weird push-pull mentorship dynamic is so great. Forever mourning that we didn’t get a full Stormwatch run with them.

Honorable mention: Damian, Respawn, Lorena Marquez (they should be friends), Amy Sue Allen (their mutual hatred society could be so great in the hands of a better writer), the rest of Team Defiance (Tanya and Wallace), Raven (they have a lot of shared experiences and I want them to Not Talk about it)

NOTP:

rosetim. I don't acknowledge teen titan 35.

Conner Kent: ohmygod we get it he’s sooooo desirable she’s flirted with him in multiple continuities and I genuinely don’t give a fuck

unpopular opinion: I wish DC would let her have her eye patch back, I know that arc is messy as hell but I don't like when characters have disabilities erased? I'm also firmly of the belief that Slade sexually abused her and that's only partially because I'm projecting my own survivorship onto her. I think it's very much supported by canon.

random headcanon: Rose embroiders designs on her eye patches. Her favorite has a rose design. She embroidered a patch for her father for his birthday one year - she doesn't know if he got it, she's never seen him wear it, but he did and he keeps it in a safe with his most prized possessions.

Song I associate with her: Twinkle Lights by The Sonder Bombs

NATASHA

Favorite thing: the consistency with which she defends abused women and girls. I have a very bad persona poem somewhere about it, it’s such a well done character beat and it makes me really happy

Least favorite thing: Every time Marvel tries to play up the “sexy assassin femme fatale” aspect of her character. I tried to read one of the Secret Avengers recently and it got Rough, whatever happened in the widowmaker run which took place after the Liu run, every time her zipper is drawn below her cleavage even on covers for books that otherwise handle her well.

OTP: the thing about Natasha is that there's a strain of almost poetic wording that crops up in the way she describes people, and I tend to ship her with people who match her energy - primarily Bucky, Elektra, Yelena. Maria Hill gets close sometimes but that could just be my soft spot for Blackhill. Matt can do it but frequently chooses not to because he's Matthew goddamn Murdock and his specific issues are shaped very differently than the spy/assassin ones that characterize everyone else she's involved with.

Buckynat are each other’s homes in the darkness and I adore them for it. Aro4aro bi4bi cat4cat couple. What remains in the absence of memory is love. Like. They understand each other on such a deep level.

Yelenat are *so* compelling to me. I think actually fucking would be less intimate than whatever they’re doing in comics but also they absolutely should. "Little one"/ "Rooskaya"/ "her blood is my favorite blood to shed"

(I also have a lot of thoughts about one of the semi-recent Thunderbolts comics referring to Bucky/Yelena/Natasha as "throuple")

NatElektra..."girls with sharp teeth”. They should do other things with those teeth is all I’m saying.

I don’t exactly ship her with Matt but I don’t not ship it either. I think that relationship is important to both of their development and one day I will actually write that Natasha/Elektra/transfem!Matt fic

I have a soft spot for mcu specific romanogers on occasion, and I’ve actually written mcu wandanat darkfic, it’s still one of my top rated fics on AO3. Also roguenat is fun “spy secrets”

Brotp: Natasha and Laura Kinney (circa bw2014, I’m not caught up on New Avengers), I love how good Natasha is about the shape of Laura’s grief/anger. Natasha and Nadia Van Dyne and Ying Liu should interact more given the shared Red Room connection and also secret empire fallout. Natasha and LIHO AMEN I love that she has a cat (or two cats according to bw2020) I love the slow building trust between her and Liho. Oh! I think pre-moon knight mercenary Marc should cross paths with Natasha on a mission. I also really want to write both a Gotham crossover and a Ballerina 2025 one.

Notp: Clintasha lmao every time they do Clintasha stuffs in the comics it ends up propping up Clint’s character at Natasha’s expense and it’s infinitely frustrating to me. If I’m truly honest this extends to winterwidowhawk - I can generally tell when it’s just an excuse to pair the boys together with Nat as a secondary character, Tales of Suspense makes me want to ship it but fandom’s everything frustrates me enough that I just can’t. My clintasha issues unfortunately extend to bobbinat although that one comes with a side of “is this blatant queerbait or is it for the male gaze”

Unpopular opinion: well, my opinion on Clintasha/Clint and Natasha is definitely an unpopular one. I also tend to write her with carefully managed dissociative tendencies.

Random headcanon: Natasha once infiltrated the Hellfire Club while Tessa/Sage was undercover there and became a rare person who actually tried to get Sage out. Sage’s misplaced loyalty to Charles Xavier wouldn’t allow her to take Natasha up on the offer but I think it matters that she tried.

Natasha is banned from the SHIELD helicarrier poker game - she didn’t cheat at cards, although she could have. She’s just that good at bluffing.

Song I associate with them: the Natasha (and Yelena) amv that exists in my head to Russian Girls by Kombinaciya is so good trust me. The song has this perfect post-Soviet vibe that really fits the energy of Black Widow Breakdown to me.

Dick

favorite thing: he's a fucking mess of emotional issues and I think it's great. his life should be a mess forever and he should make it worse on purpose.

least favorite thing: um. the golden boy thing is a facade guys. I thought we all understood that but a lot of writers/fandom takes it at face value and doesn't understand that.

OTP:

Wally: I think they dated briefly when they were teens on the Titans, I like them as a lot of firsts for each other, I think they broke up amicably when Wally left the team and then of course Wally met Linda and the rest was history but they’re still such great friends, no jealousy or animosity.

Kory: I reblog so much DickKory. It’s pretty and they have great chemistry, but Dick doesn’t always treat her all that well in the initial NTT run and I wish that got acknowledged more, and I don’t mean by fandom. I mean that there’s things like the DickKory heart to heart in this week’s New Titans where he’s being emotionally open with her and she’s calling him Boy Wonder and it’s not strictly out of character for her but so many of the issues in their relationship were him *not* being emotionally open with her? And I realize this is current DC where everyone is emotionally open and in their healing era lol but still.

Roy: I tend to see them getting together much later but they have great chemistry from at least the 80s action comics arcs on through the end of post-crisis.

Slade: I don’t consider my Sladick fics shipfic in the strictest sense because it’s not endgame in any of them, but they have an exceedingly weird dynamic and it fascinates me to no end. I am putting them in the microwave *with* aluminum foil and filming the inevitable explosion from a safe distance.

Bea Bennett: Justice for Bea Bennett! She was actually interesting in her pre-Taylor retcons iteration and I wish she’d gotten to stick around as a bartender/information broker ex instead of whatever Taylor threw together with the Spyral pirate royalty.

Honorable mention: Joey Wilson, Tara Markov (in specific AUs)

NOTP: I don't get endgame/non-problematic Sladick, where’s the seasoning? Even going exclusively by comics canon not the cartoon it should still be problematic and dark.

Oh and I used to ship DickBabs a decade ago when I was getting into comics but I just don’t find them interesting romantically at this point. There are comics where I do enjoy their relationship (okay mostly just BoP 1999 8) but I just don’t think I’ll ever write them.

Brotp: the next chapter of Shore Leave is Dick and Donna fic where she’s got a migraine and it’s the anniversary of her family’s death and also he’s injured, so probably that. Also Dick and the rest of the Titans, Dick and the rest of the Bats but especially Jason and Damian.

unpopular opinion: I frequently write Dick as nonbinary transmasc which definitely counts. And I understand why people take issue with transporting the apprentice arc from the cartoon into comics canon the way I frequently do, I really do, but something about it compels me just the same. Hmmm. I also think the thing people are trying to articulate with the phrase “eldest daughter syndrome” is a mixture of parentification and enmeshment (or emotional incest), all of which can happen with any gender.

A random headcanon: Dick is a nonfiction audiobooks/podcasts guy. He listens to them at work at 1.5x speed. I wish I could come up with a “his most recent listen was” but I don’t think we’d have a lot of nonfiction overlap because mine is mostly about trauma or deconstructing evangelicalism and I can’t see Dick being invested in either. MOX by Jon Moxley, maybe?

Using my preferred timeline for Jason’s death, the last call he and Dick had before Ethiopia was just after Jason got his learner’s permit. Jason was trying to argue that now Dick *had* to let him drive the spaceship, Dick kept saying no. He’s haunted by that “no” and he can’t help feeling like, if he’d just said yes, his brother would still be alive. He never says this to anyone.

Song I associate with them: The Great Impersonator title track by Halsey, for the continuous performance of it all.

This year I have only really read nonfiction and comics

Best nonfiction: Jesusland by Noelle Kidd. This was so cathartic and surprisingly funny. Collection of essays dealing with the Christian pop culture the author - and I - grew up with.

Best comic: Absolute Wonder Woman - this is, frankly, mythic. I'm fully caught up and I'm having a great time.

Cool project

I'm learning knitting! It's going okay so far, I made an altar cloth and a scarf and knitted my way through two additional skeins of yarn for practice. I'm going to start working on a very complicated shawl cardigan soon so we'll see how it goes.

Fic project