I donât think thatâll happen. Immunity to chemicals/poisons tends to be built up in matters of small exposures (I think, not my field) and the villains would have to be using the same basic chemicals every time, not likely. Youâd also have to survive the prior exposures which seems not very Gotham~y. â Besides, itâs a fictional city and that wouldnât make for a good story precedent to set, the citizens as immune to such a common plot point.
Now what Iâd like to see is the people of Gotham building an immunity to widespread media panic about said Joker Gas.
It becomes like a pollen count on the weather. âAnd todayâs expected Joker Toxin index is listed at 15.4, so make sure to put those breakable objects away on high shelves and put the kids to bed early, because this is going to be a bad one.â
And then the next panel shows an average family just matter-of-fact, getting the seatbelts (that theyâve installed by now) and strapping themselves in while green and/or purple clouds start filtering in through the window, so theyâre safely secured when they start to have painful hysterical fits.
Every time the Joker breaks out, sporting goods stores have a BOGO sale on mouthguards.
Yes.
And like certain cities I know of down South where thereâs a chemical depot, many citizens actually own gas masks and thereâs sirens for leaks.
You wanna help out Bruce? Those gas masks that you and the Robins don to such good effect (until a villain knocks it off mid-fight), have Wayne Enterprises âdevelopâ a cost-effective public version to sell since itâs such a regular issue. How to keep your giant ass company in business and make your night job easier. Hell, given how regularly it comes up, the government would pay for it. They do in real life.
Iâd love to see little things about how thereâs water filters commonly purchased advertised by being âGotham-Gradeâ or how it was tested and proven to filter out chemicals just like was used in the Scarecrowâs last attack. Stuff like that.
Immunity isnât likely, but companies capitalizing on the commonality of the threat, locals being desensitized to the repeated same threat situations â thatâs stuff Iâd buy.
I grew up in North Alabama. â We are not going in the safe room yet, that tornado cell isnât close and itâs gonna be really boring sitting in a closet with the battery operated radio. Just leave the weather coverage running on the TV and come help fix dinner. â You learn to read how much of an immediate issue commonly occurring dangers are and you take reasonable action without flipping out. Itâs part of the routine.
âHoney, get back here and finish your dinner. You heard the radio; Killer Croc is two blocks south of here and going the wrong direction. Your foodâs getting cold.â
This is exactly the kind of Gothamite I would expect.
âChannel 8 says the fight with Freeze is going on in Tribeca and headed towards the West Village, your school is not going to be closed tomorrow. Now go write your report. Youâll wish you had to deal with Batman if you bring home one more D in Mr. Jones class.â
People choose entertainment based on how nondescript the name and theme are, and places with giant smiling faces/puns of ANY kind quickly go bankrupt. Street and buildings have been quietly renumbered so there are less 2s. Restaurants close on holidays and everyone has quiet meals indoors – Takeout places triple their business. Restaurants adapt by offering unnamed parallel days of celebration –
âCome in February 17th with your significant other. Enjoy a quiet, safe meal – our dining room features no unnecessary decorations, and our name has no unfortunate associations in the worldâs 32 most common languages!â
A lot of people donât understand how difficult it can be to know you are asexual for sure, and to be confident that the label is true on you. You spend years asking yourself, âHow can I know if I feel sexual attraction or not?â
Trying to prove you DONâT experience something is actually ridiculously hard especially when you are nowhere close to understanding what it is youâre trying to disprove.
Itâs a lot like playing a game of Whereâs Waldo, but you have no idea what Waldo looks like and you rely entirely on the partial description of him you get from other people.
Take this image, and find âJeremyâ in it:
At first youâre like, âWho tf is Jeremy? Thatâs a thing?â
And then from discrete descriptions you hear in the hallways, you find out Jeremy has a red shirt.
And so you point to everyone on that picture who has a red shirt like, âHey hey, red, THIS could be him. Certainly one of these is him!â
But, alas, youâve gotten it confused with someone similar, but not him at all. This happens when you mistake romantic attraction or aesthetic attraction for sexual attraction or, if youâre aro, platonic attraction for romantic attraction. Youâve misidentified him because he was wearing the same color shirt and looked somewhat like what others were talking about.
You go online and ask for more descriptions of Jeremy, and you may gleam a few details. People are like, âOh no, Jeremy has stripes on his shirt, and a funkyâŚI donât know, over the shoulder scarf thingy. Look, itâs really hard to explain. Trust me, if you have seen Jeremy, you would KNOW him.â Which is like ??? confusing, although it is true.
If only you could prove Jeremy isnât on your board you would know youâre ace//aro, but itâs hard to ever be 100% certain he isnât there when you have no clue what he looks like.
Which is why it is important for aces//aros to just, forget about trying to be 100% certain and just identify anyways. Thatâs what helped me the most, knowing that I didnât have to prove something, I could just assume, âYeah, if I had felt sexual attraction, I would know. I donât have to prove without a doubt I donât in order to use the word.â Itâs okay, you give yourself your own validation.
I do feel bad for plants in general. Like, I know they are often as vicious as animals in many ways, just slower. But, I mean, they just show up and theyâre like, âI Think I Will Evolve To Eat The Sun And Also Make Oxygen And How Now Is All This.â And, like, everything fucking dies at first (totally not plants fault, btw. okay maybe it was but they didnât mean to) but then new things evolve. And theyâre like, âFuck it, eating each other suuuucks. Letâs eat the plants which give us life.â And so we start doing that. And plants are all, âOh Dear No, I Do Not Care At All For Being Eaten. I Will Make Myself Into Poison Sometimes.â But, y’know, stuff kept eating plants anyway so plants, ever the bro, came up with a new idea. âI Have Made A Decision About Being Eaten And You May Eat Me Friends And Here Is An Especially Tasty Bit Packed All Full of Delicious Sugars Which I Have Produced At Great Cost (What They Do Not Know Is That My Seeds Are Within And Shall Be Propagated Near And Far By Their Dung)â But thatâs not good enough for animals, no, not at all. We love the fuck out of some pomegranates but also alliums which are like, âI Have Not Decided To Go In For This Being Eaten Business. I Shall Be Very Foul Tasting And Also A Poison.â But no, sorry, onions, you fucked up. You accidentally wound up with a species that just doesnât give up or fully comprehend the idea of things tasting âââbadâââ or other concepts like not eating poison. (Sorry, plants, later we turn some of you who are not poison into a poison we consume recreationally. We really enjoy eating poison.)Â Legit, alliums are deadly to, like, every other species. And we call them aromatics and throw them in everything. Peppers are the best, though. They completely got on the being eaten train. BUT ONLY BIRDS Peppers are like, âYou May Eat Me, Fair Avian, For You Are Sure To Spread Me A Great Distance. But, Mammal, Take HEED. Should You Eat Me Then I Will Burn You Most Terribly.â And we were all about that. âThe FUCK, burning? I love pain,â said humans, presumably. âYou know, peppers, you and evolution have done a good job at burning us but I am pretty sure we could make your chemical agony even more potent. Come hang with us,â humans added to a very confused pepper just before creating the ghost chili.
you can take one manâs trash to another manâs treasure but you canât make it drink
Fun fact: the blending of idioms or cliches is called a malaphor.
My personal favorite is âWeâll burn that bridge when we get to it.â
Iâm rather fond of âItâs not rocket surgeryâ and ânot the sharpest egg in the attic,â but my all-time favourite is, ââŚuntil the cows freeze over.â