Imagine a disembodied blood-curdling scream. This is my final thesis.
Allen S. Weiss , Ten Theses on Monsters and Monstrosity
What Mr. Wayne does in the dark is nobody's business.
The prying eyes of the Gotham masses could never not gaze at the Wayne family even in death; oh, especially in death. It was only their names that sat waiting on their tongues and the manner in which death struck them too. Martha and Thomas Wayne brutally murdered before the eyes of their son and heir. Infamous for their generosity, a reputation impossible to poke a hole in; their deaths shook the world enough to make the rich folk of Gotham City clutch their pearls and think... What if that were me? Gunned down in a dark alley by a common thug, left with nothing but the taste of wet metallic and privilege on their tongues. Some saw their deaths as opportunities- places to be filled and money to be made- and the rest quickly forgot, save for a quiet prayer to their son, hoping he would never grow sick and hungry for vengeance. But all the prayer and blood in Heaven and Earth could never satiate the appetite of our Bruce Wayne.
Enter: Holy Mary. Blessed Mary. Mary, full of grace.
Hired bodyguard, Mary Kramer, is one cigarette-drag away from becoming an upstanding bearer of charity cases. Benign as she is, even Atlas could not withstand the unrepaid favours written by her name in bold 'Have it for you by Monday!'s. Each hour dragged itself into the next, until one fateful, glorious, gloomy day. A man named Alfred Pennyworth was sniffing around with her name in his mouth and she needed to know why. She took leaps and bounds to find him, hoping each step wouldn't lead to the world falling out from underneath her because God knows it was about to; Debt did that to people. It sucked souls dry and swam up to the dip between the neck and shoulder, dwelling there mockingly in a constant state of 'will I, won't I?'
2 years later, Mary found that Mr. Wayne was no different. He enjoys the defiance, the huff and puff of frustration from Mary's pouting lips. He likes to make her work for it. Unlike him, Alfred Pennyworth ended up being good on his word, a good man overall, but being the bodyguard of a superficial playboy sometimes made her wish she was back home. Home with her grandfather and working the waters with a smile brandished on her face. She disliked dwelling on it too much, only taking the good memories and keeping them tucked in her back pocket. Instead, Mary keeps Mr. Wayne close; close to her chest like the final ace of hearts in her Royal Flush. There's a time and a place for violence (her Pop taught her that) and she was never the one to get her hands dirty so early in the game, least of all for a man and even less for an old, ivory tower.
And so Here stands Mary Kramer: hired bullet of Bruce Wayne, scum of the earth.
MARY KRAMER
portrayed by . . . han so-hee
I love you the way it must feel to throw yourself over the bridge-rail into traffic below, soaring and then struck, struck, struck, bursting like overripe fruit rolling off the counter to the tile floor. Oh, I am bruised deeper by you each day. I feel it in my chest, in my groin, in my tingling toes. Ecstatic pain. An agony. An ache. An empty stomach that wants. I love you the way hunger loves to gnaw. The way a butcher loves the fish with the slam of his clever. The way he takes his knife and tenderly scales it 'til bare, the way its mouth gape and flap for air, how one gasps with no lungs.
-Roland Barthes.
also including. . .
ZATANNA ZATARA
portrayed by
alexa demie
FRANK BUKHARI
portrayed by
riz ahmed
JIM KRAMER
portrayed by
charles dance
RIDDLER
portrayed by
paul dano
─ This is a formal apology for what may or may not happen in the coming months. Will I progress past the 5 chapter mark and finish this? I hope someone else knows, because I certainly do not <3 Am I still going to desperately try? Yah, sure.
─ I wanted to prewrite for this more, but the trailer-making people for Batman actually did their jobs and didn't give much away to what happens in the movie, which is very devastating for me because it now requires me to be consistent (my fatal flaw). Nonetheless, I would like to also say that my writing style is influenced by Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' and F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' This has no relevance but I still wanted to say it because we love dark academia, and we love a main character that is surrounded by troubled people- which further brings me to my next point: Mary Kramer!!
─ Oh, Mary. My lovely, tragic disaster magnet. How someone can appear so in control yet have no control over anything is a mystery to me but alas, we move. I hope Mary is likeable, I think that's what matters to me the most. I love haunted female protagonists, but more so I love haunted female protagonists that don't realise they're haunted. It's pretty devastating, but in the 'let me hold you and then watch you kill your demons' sort of way. Please root for her because literally nobody else is.
─ As for Bruce and Mary, oh gosh. Imagine intelligent individuals and then clueless lovers. Imagine studying for an exam and the wrong question comes up, you know what to say you just don't know how to put it on paper. That, mes amies, is what you're about to read. It's cute though I promise!!!!