Eight JL Interpersonal Associations
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Eight JL Associations
Exploring ties between individuals in the Seven Founders
1) J'onn & Diana share the burden of being the two veterans in the Justice League. Neither of them really knew the other, and J'onn didn't arrive until a decade after her formative adventures in WWII, but they still share an entire generation of world events and outlived enemies that the others don't really understand.
Neither knew each other before they met in the battle against the Appelexians, and their friendship didn't grow immediately, but once the seed was planted, it grew quickly. All that started it - beyond J'onn's ability to feel how kind Diana was through his telepathy - was a discussion where he recognized a decades-old film she had watched part of and never finished, having forgotten its name. This quickly cascaded into a slew of shared pop-culture references and outdated opinions about now-retired figures; Diana and J'onn meet up every two months or so for a black-and-white movie night. Other League members are always invited, and a few others have even hosted, but they are the two who make it all happen, and who always attend.
On a more morbid note, J'onn is guiltily grateful that there is one League member he need not expect to outlive, all other things being equal, while Diana respects him for being older and more experienced than herself, sparing her the necessity of always playing Team Mom to 'the new generation'.
2) J'onn & Bruce have a relationship defined by shared secrets. Martian technology has storage devices for telepathic data that no human (with or without telepathy) should be able to access with anything resembling ease, if they even knew what the devices were in the first place. Combined with J'onn's ability to telepathically excise information permanently from his own mind - a difficult, time-consuming, and headache-inducing feat, but one he is capable of - J'onn has been a convenient JL member to amass, in total, backup copies of more than 40% of Batman's redacted records and classified contingency plans.
In the event of Bruce's death, "John Jones" is to be involved in the execution of Bruce Wayne's will and distribution of property, while Martian Manhunter has also agreed to follow the final, posthumous instructions for the contingency of Batman's demise. Despite this, they rarely have much in the way of close contact in recent times, beyond the conferences they hold about the Team. J'onn is disturbed, despite himself, by the structure of Batman's mind, being one of the few to familiarize himself with how abnormal it is despite Batman's functionality as an individual.
Batman is similarly unnerved by all the differences between human and Martian psychology and behavior he has observed (and sometimes thinks he is the only one to have noticed), as well as the openness inherent to telepathic communication. They are co-workers, and comrades-in-arms against evil, but they keep a politely profession distance in their everyday interaction.
3) Diana & Clark have the relationship of greatest mutual admiration between them. Individually, they are the two most publicly known and popular heroes in the League, if not the world. Especially in the United States, Superman's great feats and greater, humble charisma have quickly made him the most well-loved hero in the world. Wonder Woman, however, has the better part of a century's heroics across the globe, in public and in secret; if Superman is the most intensely loved by those who know him, then she is the most widely loved, and populations who've never heard about Krypton's Last Son will happily testify to Diana's achievements.
On a more personal note, they both regard each other highly. Clark Kent is grateful to know a woman who has so much more experience than he in both living with such overwhelming power, and in learning to be a person with or without it. She was the first person to well and truly trounce him in a straight fight, as is to be expected when a strength-reliant brawler goes up against a trained veteran, and the look on Ma Kent's face when he escorted her girlhood hero through the front door as a Christmas guest remains one of his happiest memories.
Similarly, Diana finds Clark's good nature and humility in the face of his abilities to be emotionally invigorating, after a half-century of rooting through the dirty depths of man's world and running up against almost every superpower super-egoist that had hidden there. She's happy to gently mock his relationship ineptitude, and is the number one supporter that he should "just tell her, Clark," and Lois to love him for both sides of who he is. That said, she will unhesitatingly support him when he's down - especially after the time that he and Lois dated for almost half a year before she broke it off - and those gossip rags about romantic relations can swim the Styx to Tartarus, for all she cares.
4) Barry & Orin are connected most meaningfully by their wives; as the only two happily married men among the seven founders, they've had a habit of sharing glances and aside comments across the room for quite a while. Orin stood at Barry's wedding (having given him advice on how to propose), and Barry is in turn the only member of the Justice League ever to attend dinner with Mera, Orin, and Orin's surface-dwelling father.
Barry was the first member of the Justice League informed of Mera's pregnancy, and Barry's civilian home is listed as a classified Atlantean safe house in case of truly severe emergencies. There are few things they share outside of the good fight, personable humor, and their many brief moments of mutual understanding, but the things they share inside those categories are numerous.
With his speedy mobility and his ability to run over water, Barry is the first League member Orin is likely to call for support if an ocean fight breaks the surface, and on the one occasion a (non-Central City native) villain deduced Flash's identity, Orin immediately dispatched members of his guard to protect Iris until the situation became stable.
5) Diana & Barry have known each other the longest from among the seven founders. They never worked together as heroes before the League's formation, but Barry first met Diana at a charity fundraiser, the arrangement of which she and Jay were cooperating on. He's really glad that she's fairly judged him on his own merits and achievements in the time since, and not reminisced about how awkwardly his gawky teenage self had stammered when coming face-to-face with one of the world's most beautiful women.
Diana, meanwhile, was skeptical of his ability to fill Jay's shoes when the change was announced, but will now openly admit that he has done her old teammate proud and then some. She also trusts Barry to be discrete, which is different from her trust in Bruce's secrecy. It was Barry who performed the blood tests to assess any relationship between her and Donna, and she has had him covertly run material evidence from a few 'delicate' cases through analysis, during those times Bruce had been too busy with Gotham's never-ending fight. He was the first one to guest-host her and J'onn's movie night, bringing along Iris, and Diana (in an appropriately anonymous disguise) officiated his wedding vows.
6) J'onn & Barry bond most strongly over their ability to consistently communicate unfettered, and their ability to challenge each other in games. Thoughts process much more quickly than spoken sound, so J'onn is used to slowing down a large amount from his automatic and comfortable communication speed in everyday interactions.
When engaged in telepathy with Barry, he has to race to keep up, and the two can casually share stories of their entire days in the time it takes to drink down a cookie crumble milkshake (you know which cookies J'onn likes) without stopping. At the end of Barry's time hosting a movie night, the two discovered that they are very evenly matched at chess; Batman can still beat them both, but only in regular chess, and they prefer to play speed chess when they're playing.
7) Clark & Hal have a relationship formed of fondness, respect, and favors. The idea of an interstellar space cop greatly appealed to the orphan from another planet, and Hal Jordan's access to civilian-safe Lantern database entries has provided Superman with more information about his birth planet than any other single source.
The two of them took a trip to the Rao system by way of Hal's warp capability, and recovered a wealth of artifacts and technology that are now stored in the Fortress of solitude (which Hal helped Clark program and set up, as the Kryptonian language and tech data was accessible on his ring).
In appreciation, the reporter Clark Kent did some digging into Hal Jordan's history, particularly his discharge, and turned up… Well, suffice it to say that the full set of events were never published for the public, and it was less explosive a revelation than Eiling's treason, but it got Hal a good name among important people and sent some nasty criminals to jail. Non-discolsure agreements and national security classifications cover the rest.
8) Clark & Bruce are, for all their opposite positions and opinions, the closest set of friends in the founding seven. They balance each other even as they argue, and have worked together the most often both before and after the Justice League's formation. The Dark Knight brings grim reality to Superman's optimism with a humbling reminder of all the living, breathing, thinking and feeling people who get hurt and need salvation.
In turn, the Last Son provides a ray of hope that even the worst losses are survivable, and that many good and decent people exist in the world, possessing power and unwilling to abuse it as too many others do. Bruce made his first set of contingency operations at Superman's request, after a mind-control incident that came too close, and every piece of kryptonite in the cave is a piece Clark has given Bruce. Clark has spare keys and security codes to Wayne Manor, and he is always made welcome when he visits.
Bruce, in exchange, offers Clark first refusal on all Wayne Tech interviews, (claiming its to avoid undue favoritism to his ex, Lois,) and subtly does his best to encourage Lois's attentions toward the farm boy. He and Alfred were the first people in the hero business invited to the Kent Farm for the holidays, and Clark's family has successfully made Bruce relax and laugh. (Both men are incredibly grateful that Alfred and Ma Kent have shared cooking tips, even if only the alien one of them will ever say it.)
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AN: Just a little snippet I started working on. Don't read too much into the arrangement of the people pairings: I got them by rolling a d8 after I'd assigned numbers, and then I just ran with it. Hope you enjoyed!
Exploring ties between individuals in the Seven Founders
1) J'onn & Diana share the burden of being the two veterans in the Justice League. Neither of them really knew the other, and J'onn didn't arrive until a decade after her formative adventures in WWII, but they still share an entire generation of world events and outlived enemies that the others don't really understand.
Neither knew each other before they met in the battle against the Appelexians, and their friendship didn't grow immediately, but once the seed was planted, it grew quickly. All that started it - beyond J'onn's ability to feel how kind Diana was through his telepathy - was a discussion where he recognized a decades-old film she had watched part of and never finished, having forgotten its name. This quickly cascaded into a slew of shared pop-culture references and outdated opinions about now-retired figures; Diana and J'onn meet up every two months or so for a black-and-white movie night. Other League members are always invited, and a few others have even hosted, but they are the two who make it all happen, and who always attend.
On a more morbid note, J'onn is guiltily grateful that there is one League member he need not expect to outlive, all other things being equal, while Diana respects him for being older and more experienced than herself, sparing her the necessity of always playing Team Mom to 'the new generation'.
2) J'onn & Bruce have a relationship defined by shared secrets. Martian technology has storage devices for telepathic data that no human (with or without telepathy) should be able to access with anything resembling ease, if they even knew what the devices were in the first place. Combined with J'onn's ability to telepathically excise information permanently from his own mind - a difficult, time-consuming, and headache-inducing feat, but one he is capable of - J'onn has been a convenient JL member to amass, in total, backup copies of more than 40% of Batman's redacted records and classified contingency plans.
In the event of Bruce's death, "John Jones" is to be involved in the execution of Bruce Wayne's will and distribution of property, while Martian Manhunter has also agreed to follow the final, posthumous instructions for the contingency of Batman's demise. Despite this, they rarely have much in the way of close contact in recent times, beyond the conferences they hold about the Team. J'onn is disturbed, despite himself, by the structure of Batman's mind, being one of the few to familiarize himself with how abnormal it is despite Batman's functionality as an individual.
Batman is similarly unnerved by all the differences between human and Martian psychology and behavior he has observed (and sometimes thinks he is the only one to have noticed), as well as the openness inherent to telepathic communication. They are co-workers, and comrades-in-arms against evil, but they keep a politely profession distance in their everyday interaction.
3) Diana & Clark have the relationship of greatest mutual admiration between them. Individually, they are the two most publicly known and popular heroes in the League, if not the world. Especially in the United States, Superman's great feats and greater, humble charisma have quickly made him the most well-loved hero in the world. Wonder Woman, however, has the better part of a century's heroics across the globe, in public and in secret; if Superman is the most intensely loved by those who know him, then she is the most widely loved, and populations who've never heard about Krypton's Last Son will happily testify to Diana's achievements.
On a more personal note, they both regard each other highly. Clark Kent is grateful to know a woman who has so much more experience than he in both living with such overwhelming power, and in learning to be a person with or without it. She was the first person to well and truly trounce him in a straight fight, as is to be expected when a strength-reliant brawler goes up against a trained veteran, and the look on Ma Kent's face when he escorted her girlhood hero through the front door as a Christmas guest remains one of his happiest memories.
Similarly, Diana finds Clark's good nature and humility in the face of his abilities to be emotionally invigorating, after a half-century of rooting through the dirty depths of man's world and running up against almost every superpower super-egoist that had hidden there. She's happy to gently mock his relationship ineptitude, and is the number one supporter that he should "just tell her, Clark," and Lois to love him for both sides of who he is. That said, she will unhesitatingly support him when he's down - especially after the time that he and Lois dated for almost half a year before she broke it off - and those gossip rags about romantic relations can swim the Styx to Tartarus, for all she cares.
4) Barry & Orin are connected most meaningfully by their wives; as the only two happily married men among the seven founders, they've had a habit of sharing glances and aside comments across the room for quite a while. Orin stood at Barry's wedding (having given him advice on how to propose), and Barry is in turn the only member of the Justice League ever to attend dinner with Mera, Orin, and Orin's surface-dwelling father.
Barry was the first member of the Justice League informed of Mera's pregnancy, and Barry's civilian home is listed as a classified Atlantean safe house in case of truly severe emergencies. There are few things they share outside of the good fight, personable humor, and their many brief moments of mutual understanding, but the things they share inside those categories are numerous.
With his speedy mobility and his ability to run over water, Barry is the first League member Orin is likely to call for support if an ocean fight breaks the surface, and on the one occasion a (non-Central City native) villain deduced Flash's identity, Orin immediately dispatched members of his guard to protect Iris until the situation became stable.
5) Diana & Barry have known each other the longest from among the seven founders. They never worked together as heroes before the League's formation, but Barry first met Diana at a charity fundraiser, the arrangement of which she and Jay were cooperating on. He's really glad that she's fairly judged him on his own merits and achievements in the time since, and not reminisced about how awkwardly his gawky teenage self had stammered when coming face-to-face with one of the world's most beautiful women.
Diana, meanwhile, was skeptical of his ability to fill Jay's shoes when the change was announced, but will now openly admit that he has done her old teammate proud and then some. She also trusts Barry to be discrete, which is different from her trust in Bruce's secrecy. It was Barry who performed the blood tests to assess any relationship between her and Donna, and she has had him covertly run material evidence from a few 'delicate' cases through analysis, during those times Bruce had been too busy with Gotham's never-ending fight. He was the first one to guest-host her and J'onn's movie night, bringing along Iris, and Diana (in an appropriately anonymous disguise) officiated his wedding vows.
6) J'onn & Barry bond most strongly over their ability to consistently communicate unfettered, and their ability to challenge each other in games. Thoughts process much more quickly than spoken sound, so J'onn is used to slowing down a large amount from his automatic and comfortable communication speed in everyday interactions.
When engaged in telepathy with Barry, he has to race to keep up, and the two can casually share stories of their entire days in the time it takes to drink down a cookie crumble milkshake (you know which cookies J'onn likes) without stopping. At the end of Barry's time hosting a movie night, the two discovered that they are very evenly matched at chess; Batman can still beat them both, but only in regular chess, and they prefer to play speed chess when they're playing.
7) Clark & Hal have a relationship formed of fondness, respect, and favors. The idea of an interstellar space cop greatly appealed to the orphan from another planet, and Hal Jordan's access to civilian-safe Lantern database entries has provided Superman with more information about his birth planet than any other single source.
The two of them took a trip to the Rao system by way of Hal's warp capability, and recovered a wealth of artifacts and technology that are now stored in the Fortress of solitude (which Hal helped Clark program and set up, as the Kryptonian language and tech data was accessible on his ring).
In appreciation, the reporter Clark Kent did some digging into Hal Jordan's history, particularly his discharge, and turned up… Well, suffice it to say that the full set of events were never published for the public, and it was less explosive a revelation than Eiling's treason, but it got Hal a good name among important people and sent some nasty criminals to jail. Non-discolsure agreements and national security classifications cover the rest.
8) Clark & Bruce are, for all their opposite positions and opinions, the closest set of friends in the founding seven. They balance each other even as they argue, and have worked together the most often both before and after the Justice League's formation. The Dark Knight brings grim reality to Superman's optimism with a humbling reminder of all the living, breathing, thinking and feeling people who get hurt and need salvation.
In turn, the Last Son provides a ray of hope that even the worst losses are survivable, and that many good and decent people exist in the world, possessing power and unwilling to abuse it as too many others do. Bruce made his first set of contingency operations at Superman's request, after a mind-control incident that came too close, and every piece of kryptonite in the cave is a piece Clark has given Bruce. Clark has spare keys and security codes to Wayne Manor, and he is always made welcome when he visits.
Bruce, in exchange, offers Clark first refusal on all Wayne Tech interviews, (claiming its to avoid undue favoritism to his ex, Lois,) and subtly does his best to encourage Lois's attentions toward the farm boy. He and Alfred were the first people in the hero business invited to the Kent Farm for the holidays, and Clark's family has successfully made Bruce relax and laugh. (Both men are incredibly grateful that Alfred and Ma Kent have shared cooking tips, even if only the alien one of them will ever say it.)
__________________________________
AN: Just a little snippet I started working on. Don't read too much into the arrangement of the people pairings: I got them by rolling a d8 after I'd assigned numbers, and then I just ran with it. Hope you enjoyed!
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