CONTENT WARNING
suicide
Labor Day (September 5), 1927
“Louisa, give me a name or I can’t help you!”
Occasionally, Mario Falcone heard his father and mother argue, but what made this scary, was how rare it was to hear his father – who people called “Little Caesar” – raise his voice.
“What would you have me do? Be excommunicated for murder?” Mario didn’t know what “excommunicated” meant, but his mother’s tone and his father’s shouting indicated that whatever it was was not good.
Continue readingStay out of the light,
My chemical romance, “I never told you what I do for a Living”
Or the photograph that I gave you,
You can say a prayer if you need to,
Or just get in line and I’ll grieve you,
Can I meet you,
Alone?
Another night and I’ll see you,
Another night and I’ll be you,
Some other way to continue,
To hide my face
The Man of Steel floated above the yard, arms crossed in front of him. He looked down at Alfred like he’d looked down at Bill Bunson those many weeks ago – as if he were an annoyance, or a minor mischief to which he had to attend.
Continue readingI’ve seen your face before, my friend,
Phil collins, “In The Air tonight”
But I don’t know if you know who I am.
Well, I was there and I saw what you did,
I saw it with my own two eyes!
So you can wipe off that grin,
I know where you’ve been –
It’s all been a pack of lies!
There had been a plan, but it’s critical to remember that planning isn’t a match for preparation.
On the Kent farm, days stretched into weeks, and weeks stretched into months. Alfred Pennyworth absolutely lost himself in his assumed identity. He was a masterful actor, never overselling or under performing the role of Elias Clayton, and the performance had earned him the trust of many of Smallville’s current and former residents, including Martha Kent and her son, Clark.
Continue reading“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”
MArc Antony, “julius Caesar”
“Am I in trouble, Ms. Rose?” Jeremy asked. “Which is to say, have I…done something wrong?”
Jeremy pulled his hat down low on his head.
“Jeremy,” Ms. Rose was firm, assertive. She shook her head and smiled. Jeremy didn’t return the expression, just looked down instead. “No, you’re not in any trouble. Once every other week, the girls and I have something like a tea party. We choose a topic we’re enthusiastic about, specifically economics, or poetry, or literature, or current events, and every time we have our tea, two of us share those topics, like a discussion prompt.”
Continue readingWhoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or
Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
18 U.S. Code § 331 – Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
The commissioner strode through the halls of Gotham Police Department like a Metropolis crime boss from a pulp magazine. No hair or man out of place, he was neatly flanked on all sides by a constituency of goons: thugs-for-hire at the dialing of an operator at what Gordon believed to be a shell corporation.
Lieutenant Jim Gordon walked behind the ocean of “trainees,” with his partner, Detective Selina Kyle walking in stride. Jim had misgivings about tonight, and the dubiousness of The Batman as a suspect was among the lowest among his concerns.
Continue readingDentist : Shall I use gas?
Patient: [nervously] Well, gas or electric light. I’d feel nervous to have you fool around me in the dark.
The Dentist (1932 Film)
“You better be careful out here, it’s getting late, Dick,” the woman warned with a gentle smile.
“Mrs. Givens,” Dick returned the smile, “You’re the last young woman I have the pleasure to visit today, and, well, when I saw your name on my list, I didn’t want to miss a chance to say ‘hello.’” (Barbara tried not to visibly roll her eyes or audibly groan when he called the sexagenarian a “young woman.”) “Please give Henry my best, and tell him that me, Bruce, and Alfred all wish him a speedy recovery, and we’ll be by for a proper visit just as soon as Al returns from Atlanta.”
Continue reading“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
Lewis Carroll, “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There“
“You’ll receive a severance,” Lucius Fox said from across the conference room table. “We value our workers, even those who are leaving us, and we think it’s very generous.
“One month at one-hundred-and-twenty percent salary for each year of service, Jeremy. I am, however, afraid that this specific circumstance isn’t subject to appeal.”
Jeremy thought that the man had a way of delivering devastating news like a loving – but disappointed – father (or at least how he imagined a loving father ought to act). The disappointment stung emotionally, but not in the very painful and physical way that Jeremy’s grandfather used to show it.
“I understand, Mr. Fox,” Jeremy’s usually vibrant eyes looked down at his lap and the patchy porkpie hat that sat there. “Do you think I could trouble you for a letter of recommendation?”
Continue reading“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“Peter Pan.”
It was a terrifying whisper among the waifs in Gotham City.
Many of the homeless youth had started corralling together, even if it meant they needed to split the scraps and pocket change they made off of their manifold hustles.
The orphan Pockets didn’t know his real name. He was smaller, more nimble than the boys from the park, but his harelip never healed properly, meaning that it was easy for people to ignore him.
So Pockets became invisible.
Continue readingHis father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne’s t-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things, rotting fast, in their sleep
Oh, the dead
Twenty-seven people
Even more, they were boys
With their cars, summer jobs
Oh my GodAre you one of them?
Sufjan Stevens, “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”
Bruce Wayne wasn’t used to being blindsided by a possibility that he hadn’t even considered, but Commissioner Johnny Gelio, in naming the Batman as the primary suspect in the murders of three Gotham boys had struck him dumb.
Dick Grayson, witnessing this, was concerned. He’d seen Bruce get something wrong before, but usually there was, at least, some level of preparation for it. Proportionate preparation, was what Alfred had called it.
The commissioner hadn’t just zigged when they expected a zag, he had oranged when they expected a triangle.
Continue reading“The power which has always started the greatest religious and political avalanches in history rolling has from time immemorial been the magic power of the spoken word, and that alone. The broad masses of the people can be moved only by the power of speech.”
William L. Shirer
The Devil himself wore all black, stood seven feet tall, and looked every bit the menacing ruler of hell portrayed in William Blake’s The Number of The Beast is 666 (currently on display at the Gotham Fine Art Museum). The Beast’s coming was foretold by the sudden power outage, and it stood, in front of the elite of Gotham with its wings spread behind, lit only by starlight.
It beat its leathery wings, and with glowing eyes, it cast judgment upon the assembled through a sudden hole in the side of the home of the luxurious Silverwood Barrens estate of Carmine Falcone, also known as The Roman, and Gotham’s untouchable criminal kingpin.
His guests tonight had come together to pledge money to Mayor Basil Karlo’s re-election campaign.
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