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imagines-to-quench-thirst · 3 years

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Visiting your hometown

What happens when you take your man to your home town? As your memories, people and places come together how will he react?

A small/long drabble to get me back into writing. Enjoy!

Victor Creed

This mutant never thought that he would walk in your hometown. He didn't expect to see cultures that morph together into one special town, your town. A place where you grew up. So keeping all that in mind he was cautious. Various not to offend someone or to say a rude word in your mother tongue. For the first time in his life, he is frazzled and nervous. he will keep in his front pocket a small leaflet some words he heard you say a few times that may be of some assistance. trying to woo you.

-that old hag showed me the middle finger. let's go.

Unfortunately, anything that he says wrong, will be your responsibility to amend it. so good luck.

Loki

you just know that Loki will have your mother tongue in his little finger (that sounds weird but let's carry on) but do not be fooled, he can not survive the morning wave of people in the farmers market. something that is pretty much normal for you. Loki doesn't know how to feel when he sees the local butcher wrapping the meat in todays' newspaper giving it to buyers or how people shove him to the side as his black suit with the green scarf is more than brought down in value. he will hear the near shouts of Famers that are trying to sell their livelihood to him as his head goes from one side to another in a split second. he will easily get reeled in by the old farmer who just smells the innocence on the Midgardian addressed god. you know the moment you grabs his hand he looks at you.

-how did you ever survive in this chaos?

-I thought you said that chaos is your middle name.

-it is however my kind of chaos is more dignified.

-survive just a little bit more, I need to go to that man in the corner.

-oh, no...

Thor

we all in the fandom know that thor is a ball of joy. but when he lands in your city, your territory he is stoic. he is here on a mission and no one should stand in his way. he will glue himself to your side and he will hold the dictionary book in his mighty right hand and your hand in his left. he will not stand for wasting a day on mundane stuff that you do with him back in the HQ so say goodbye to lazying around. when you go to the oceanic part of your country you are now almost ready to drown him in the ocean. or just leave him on the road, it is getting that heavy.

-thor, think it is time to stop.

-what do you mean?

-to be honest, I don't know anymore I am so tired.

-you are right... let us stop. for 2 minutes and then you can drive again.

-I will leave you here.

Bucky Barnes

bucky loves to travel. he loves to see you in the role of a guide you tell him about the park where you cut your leg open and when you got to the hospital as a nun stood above you praying for your recovery. bucky loves to feel the fresh air going into his nose thinking to himself how this was the same air that you breathe in. he loves to see all the different parts of the city where you went to. even so much that he went to your former hairstylist.

-bucky, you don't have to do this.

-nonsense, doll. I want to experience it. just like you did.

-that was eons ago. and I wore super short hair, like a hedgehog.

-hedgehog?

-yeah, it was so short that I only put on gel and made small spikes.

- I will give everything I have and say that you looked beautiful.

-alright, your call.

Steve Rogers

steve cannot wait for enough for him to arrive in the city where you walked, ran, and laughed. he cannot wait to enter your old apartment and see all of the hidden pieces that he wants to know. he loves to help you clean the apartment and see a big box of your old photos. he will look with your through on the hard wooden floor with one arm around your shoulders as you talk about each photo. even showing him the photo of your sister.

-when will I meet her?

-I don't know.

-didn't you say that she lived here, still?

-yeah...

-I want to meet her. I think am ready for it.

-okay...

Bruce Wayne

you just know that when you told him to pack his bags to go with you he did his research. he knows when, how the city was built. he will try to memorize the tongue twisters and say them horribly wrong just to make you laugh. when he looks at your old apartment he tries to envision the day you left it all behind to go to Gotham and it breaks his heart to imagine you in tears.

-bruce.

you take his calloused hand feeling his fingers tighten the grip.

-sorry, I immediately imagined you when you moved out. I got sad.

-why?

-because, you surely cried.

-I did, a little, but this city didn't have that something.

-and what is that?

-you dumbass. now stop sulking we need to clean.

Clark Kent

as Clark arrived at the farm where your aunt lived he couldn't help feel but prepared. he saw the cows eating grabs and was ready in a split second to milk it just to show off his soft and delicate side. Clark heard the stories of your aunt, well one of them, and from what he concluded, for now, this aunt was the beginner level, nice one, the one who won't tear him a new one if he doesn't treat you right. as the door opened you greeted your aunt in your mother tongue and introduced your man. Clark shakingly trying to reply in the mother tongue feeling the few letters that stood together could fall more apart than from his mouth. your aunt laughed hugging him and roughly patted him on his back. almost like a punch if you will. you look at your aunt and Clark cannot help but stand behind you as he whispered.

-what did she say?

-she said that you seem stiffer than a goat's turd.

-you said that this aunt was nice.

-she is. but that is the way we express ourselves.

-with curse words???!!

-what better way.

Arthur curry

Arthur was relaxed when he arrived, he was laid back when he slept in your apartment but that all suicide jumped off a cliff as he shook hands with your mother. Your mom wasn't that intimating but he heard the stories of her standing to your abusive father and running away with just some change in her pocket and a used car. he knows that the woman in front of him is strong can make or break your relationship. so he held the coffee cup in his hands as if was the key to everything he needed to know how to make your mother happy. he saw how your eyes sparkled when you talked to her how your smile ever left for a second you take what seemed to him in complete gibberish but cute gibberish. your mother turns to him asking in English.

-so Arthur, can I call you by your first name?

-yes, madam. of course, you can.

-thank you. well, then Arthur what do you do for a living?

with a small nod from you, he tells the honest truth.

-I am a superhero. but minus the stupid cape. I am here to keep you and your daughter, of course, safe from all danger. and I hope you will like me!!!!

you turn to your mother with a small chuckle as you tell her in your mother tongue.

-he is helpless.

-he seems like it, good luck, Y/n.

Orm Marius

nothing can save his pulse from rising as he walked with the crowd of people in the town square only your hand which he held more than tightly enough. you stopped pointing at a big statue of a colonel on a horse placed in the middle of the square.

-he is a big deal.

-yes, I can imagine the poor people that had to lift it up to place it here.

-yes, but thanks to those people, people now in the present can always remember what they went through at that time.

he didn't find any specialness in the statute for him it lacked in far more than that he can count but when he saw your face looking at the statue he knew that whatever that stirred in you he wanted to see it every day. he only squeezed your hand placing a kiss on your knuckles.

-does this mean you want in your likeness?

-sure, but only if you will make it.

-oh, darling, that is a recipe for chaos.

The Joker

j never put effort into himself. he did in destruction, in chaos, in mayhem, and even in covering his white skin with some basic foundation as he meets your off the edge aunt. when you told him that every second sentence from her is a curse he was more than ready to meet her. because sometimes crazy people click with the people who like to curse. everyone knows that. so when he sat in the house of your crazy aunt he firstly observed, he watched you talked together and exchanged laughs, even more, when you ever brought to tears as you laughed off the curses she threw at you so playfully making even j smile. so when she turned to him it was game time. and you were the translator.

-my aunt asked what is that you do for a job?

-tell her I am the man of your dreams.

-I told her that.

-damn, then tell her-WHAT?!

you giggle at his shock as you heard the playful quote she told you when you were little and j wanted to know what she said.

-what did she say?

-she said "if a girl gives a man a hand, she will give him her ass"

-your aunt is a wise woman.

- I knew you would like her.

Duncan Vizla

Duncan likes to take walks and taking a walk with you next to him as you showed him around your old neighborhood and told him stores of the always pissed on metal slide and the always filled cafes that were always the pinpoints for some scammers he found in question why you like it so much. as you showed his around you stopped at your old elementary school. you showed him the main entrance was where everyone hurled in the morning hours and where you sat with your friends and talked about the horribly proffers that still to this day haunt you. something he heard you mumble in your sleep.

-she was that awful?

-yes, and people like here never get old it's like the evilness she has in her keeps her eligible for work.

-am i not the same?

he couldn't ask a stupider question. and for that, you punched him in the shoulder.

-don't compare yourself to her. you aren't evil.

-you are forgetting my job, darling.

-you kill for money, she kills for fun and to keep herself alive. a difference now let's go home I need to remind you just how good and attentive you can be.

-lead the way, dove.

hope you liked it. Tell me what you think❤️

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monsterenergysimp · 4 years

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Bruce Wayne

corpse husband x gender neutral! reader // PLATONIC, MINOR AU

summary: corpse remember your birthday

request: Hi so this is probably the weirdest request you've gotten for Corpse so far but- can you do a platonic oneshot where he's like a semi father figure to the reader (who is like- 14-15) and part of the readers whole backstory is that they don't have a dad or any parental influence in their life? I know this is definitely out there and probably not what you're used to writing but I just get kinda like- dad vibes from him? Thank you in advance!

warnings: one (1) cure, mentions of divorce, arguments, fights and disfunctional family

word count: 821

notes: This is proof read but I could have missed some stuff. This was different and a lot of fun to write. I’m so bad at title so I named this one after the man with the most adopted children omg. Your request wasn’t weird and I hope I did it justice nonnie. I hope everyone enjoys :)

main blog: @itsmysleepover

You met Corpse when you were sitting outside of your apartment door crying after you had an argument with your mom. She was mad at you for letting your grades slip and it escalated into a full-on screaming match. You burst out of the apartment and broke down in front of the door. Head between your knees full-on sobbing.

After you finished crying you still sat there, looking down. It felt safer than looking up and baring your soul to the world. You heard some footsteps approaching you but stayed put

“Uhm… are you locked out?” A deep, unfamiliar voice asked you. You looked up to see a man dressed in all black looking down at you with a hand full of grocery bags. You knew he was your neighbor because you’d seen him in the hallways a few times.

“No,” you said trying to sound serious but your voice cracked. He noticed your tear-streaked face and felt a bit embarrassed for asking anything.

“Wanna-- talk about it?” He asked unsure of what to say to the broken teenager in front of him. A mess of emotions on the floor.

“Not really, my mom’s just a bitch.”

“What about your dad?” He had asked without thinking, something you’d soon get used to.

“They’re divorced, I talk to him every once in a while but it’s been a bit. He cheated on her when I was only seven.”

“You’re awfully open and talkative for someone who doesn’t want to talk,” he joked and smiled at you, you smiled back. You sat there in silence for a bit. You stretched your back, and he sat across from you, in front of his door. “What’s your name?”

“Y/N, you?”

“Er… Corpse.”

“Cool name.”

After that anytime you had a fight with your mom you knocked on his door and he’d let you cry on his couch instead of the rough hallway carpet. He eventually gave you a copy of his apartment key so you didn’t have to bother him while he was working or if he was gone. You eventually started going there after school to do homework and whenever you were bored. Corpse never seemed to mind; sometimes before you got to his apartment he’d be making sandwiches for you both.

It was your birthday but today was no different. You woke up, went to school, went over to Corpse’s place. He was in there making two grilled cheese sandwiches. Your remember your dad would turn your birthday into a giant celebration but that stopped after your parents split and you eventually stopped caring. Now, he usually called you after getting off work.

“Hey, Corpse!” You said, excited to see him. You took a seat behind the breakfast counter and waited for him to finish what he was doing so you could tell him about the fight that broke out in the cafeteria.

“What’s up kid, happy birthday, how was your day?” He asked and placed a plate in front of you. He took a bite from his sandwich and waited for you to speak. You looked at him confused.

“You remembered my birthday? I think I told you that months ago.”

“Yeah. Turn 15 today right? ” he asked. You nodded and took a bite of your sandwich unsure how to respond. He actually remembered. You didn’t think he was listening when you told him.

“Oh, well today was cool,” you said and got up to get a drink from his fridge, “there was a fight!”

“I don’t think I should be encouraging this but that does sound exciting!”

“It was!” You said as you made your way back to your seat. “I wasn’t the one fighting anyway so it’s fine.”

He chuckles and puts his plate in the sink. “I guess; do you want your gift now or later?”

“What do you mean gift?”

“I got you a birthday present.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s your fucking birthday and I got you a present, Jesus kid I should have gotten you therapy instead,” he said in a teasing voice. Shocked and almost saddened by your cluelessness. You were in awe of the fact that he not only remembered but also got you a present. You nodded and he went into his bedroom. He came back with a midsized box and handed it to you. It was pretty light. He watched you as you opened it.

You looked in the box then back up to Corpse. He bought you a new laptop. “Corpse you didn’t have to-”

“You dropped your old one, which was ancient by the way. Now you can do homework and watch movies and play video games and stuff,” he said scratching the back of his neck. His face was bright red. You got up and hugged him. After his initial shock wore off he hugged you back.

“Thank you so much Corpse; I love you.”

“I love you too kid.”

tag list: @watermelon-mess @oldblackandwhitetown @susceptible-but-siriusexual @gday5sos @ashanti-granville @03ohj @djxrin @grapewish @crapimahuman @saturn2000 @whatawonderfulusername @johnjacobjingleheimerschmidt @lauramacch @socialdesires @teaspill8 @whathasateezdonetome @seutarose @whiteblacknothingpanda @save-the-sky @chrysanthykios

#corpse husband #corpse husband x reader #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband imagines #corpse husband x y/n #corpse husband x you #gender neutral reader #platonic reader #youtubers #caffeinated ramblings

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jeromesxreader16 · 3 years

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Such a Joker (54)

Part 53 Here!

~o0o~

"Who are you?" Bruce's voice booms through the study. He stares at his newly crafted parents with confusion, and shock. His mind must be going in circles. "Well, look who decided to join us," Martha speaks to her boy. "Hello, champ." Thomas follows.

"Master Bruce!" Alfred pops in with a tray of tea and biscuits. Bruce looks at his friend in shock. "Alfred, how did you..."

"Look at the state of you. What have I told you about rolling around in the muck?" Bruce stares at everyone, Jeremiah and I hide away watching for the time being.

"Alfred, what's going on? Who are these people?"

"Whatever do you mean, Bruce?"

"We're your parents." Silence from the billionaire boy Bruce Wayne.

"Right. Well, let's get you spruced up. After all, we have guests."

Jeremiah pulls us both out with smiles. His hand around my waist and his other raising a glass. "Welcome home, Bruce."

"Jeremiah. You're alive." Bruce's eyes travel to mine.

"Well, you didn't think Selina could kill me so easily, did you? Or that I'd ever leave my wife and my unborn sprees? I just had to put you off my scent until I could finalize my... project." Jeremiah pinches Martha's cheek. Bruce lunges for him before Alfred stops him. "Manners, Master Bruce. Let's not be rude to our guests."

I look to Bruce with a slight smile. If I play along I might be able to stay safer if I play the victim. I smile kissing Jer's cheek. "Especially when we come bearing gifts." I present the bomb to them all on the table. "Oh, Mrs. Valaska. A cake. How exceedingly kind of you. Is it Italian meringue?" I look back at Jeremiah with a smile, about to burst into laughter. He shrugs his shoulder. "Sure." Bruce strides towards me with fury, until Jeremiah pulls out the trigger.

"Now, now, Bruce, you come any closer and I blow up Wayne Manor, with all of us inside of it. I have a dozen more of these, uh, Italian meringues sprinkled throughout the house." Bruce glares at me with ill intent. "What did you do to Alfred? And who are these people?" I roll my eyes leaving Jerimiah's side and plopping on the couch. "Ah, glad you asked. Come."

Jer strolls over to look at Wayne's personalized smiles with Bruce. "Mommy and Daddy dearest were just an innocent couple I kidnapped based on... bone structure and, um... build. Just a touch of plastic surgery, and voila... Waynes. Alfred, I nabbed in the Green Zone." Bruce waves his hand in front of their faces, connecting the dots.

"They're hypnotized."

"Well, I'm afraid there was no room for improv in our script. Today is a... very important day, Bruce. Just look at the way they're dressed." I walk around Martha, admiring her pearls. "I like these, J." He hum. "I'll get you some just like it, love, but these ones are important for tonight." I giggle and kiss his cheek.

"It's the night my parents were killed," Bruce says with sadness.

"And I'm giving you the chance to experience it all over again."

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? Bruce... this...this was the most important day of your life. And I didn't get to be a part of it. We didn't get to comfort you on your big day. We need to rectify that." I stretch my arms out, planting them on my swollen belly. "Alfred, is dinner done? I'm hungry."

Jeremiah nods looking at Alfred. "Chop-chop. We're on a very tight schedule. My wife needs to eat." Alfred bows his head. "Of course, Mr. Jeremiah."

Jeremiah pulls out a chair for me in the dining area. Very comfortable and quaint! Jeremiah passes me a plate full of fruits and toast. "Alfred told me such great tidbits about your childhood. Any jam, darling?" Jer paused to ask me. I shake my head, kissing his cheek. "No love."

He nods, "Anyways, yes, How you used to eat here, in the kitchen, when it was just you and the family. My, how... homey and intimate. That's exactly how I'm raising my children."

Alfred walks over with Jer's food. "Grilled cheese and Branston pickle sandwich, Mr. Jeremiah. Master Bruce's favorite. My influence, though Thomas did add a dash of aioli for extra flair." Jer looks at Bruce with judgemental eyes. "Oh. Come on, Bruce. That's a weird favorite food for a 12-year-old."

"I'm playing your game," Bruce says smacking the plate off the table. "Now let Alfred and these people go. They're innocent."

"I'm sorry, Bruce, it's just... it's very important to me that I get every detail exactly right. Speaking of which... the final touch. What was it like... losing your parents that night? I lost my family, too, Bruce. The wound still hasn't healed. I... think about it often." Jeremiah falls into his thoughts, trailing off.

"None of this is real. You're trying to manipulate me. It will never be real." Jer smirks seeing the despair and sadness on Bruce's face. "But you are thinking about that night. That's all I need. I just want to be connected to you. I offered for you to be my best friend! You could've been the godfather to my children. But I've realized if we... can't be friends... then we can be connected in other ways."

"How?" Bruce asks frightened.

"You'll see. In time." Jeremiah looks at his watch humming. "I'm sorry to cut tonight short... but... your parents and I have a very important date ...with destiny." He laughs as we stand up and disappear with the Waynes. "You might want to find your faithful butler and leave. Quickly." as we rush out of the home Bruce struggles to find his butler.

Jeremiah runs through the tunnels, dragging me behind. "Exhilarating. Isn't it love?" I grab the wall as we near the end. "I... I need to slow down." His face smooths and he presses his hand to my back. "Aw, my love, I'm sorry. Giving you a hard time today?" His hand comes to my stomach and the twins kick excessively. "When you're around." I laugh leaning onto the soft fabric of his blazer. Jer looks down at me with sad eyes. "This is dangerous. You shouldn't be here." I furrow my brows. "You brought me along!" "And it was foolish of me. Gents, for the rest of the night, keep my wife safe. At safe blast range."

"Jeremiah!" Bruce calls in the theater. "Show yourself!"

The screen starts running a film. "Ol?! Hola, Bruce." Jeremiah swings in the frame on the big screen. "Well, here we are, the theater where your mommy and daddy took you to see The Mark of Zorro. Ha-ha! I had heard you were obsessed with this man as a child. I wonder what was it

that intrigued you so? Was it the fact that he struck fear into the hearts of his enemy?" Jeremiah in his costume fights off his enemies on the screen.

"En garde! Take that, you villain."

Jer looks into the screen. "Perhaps the movie was a bit too effective. Isn't this the part where you became frightened? When you asked your parents to leave? I wonder what would have happened if you hadn't done that. If you had conquered your fear. Maybe your parents would still be alive."

"Well, on to the last and final stop down memory lane."

Bruce runs out of the theater in a sprint. He stops in his tracks when he sees Jerimiah and I. "Stop! Stop! That's far enough, Bruce."

"Jeremiah. You don't have to do this."

"But I... I do. You see, I-I came to this realization. I realized that no matter what I did to bond us, some random gunman in an alley would be the man who you were tied to the most. The man you saw when you closed your eyes. I want to be the star of the show! Jeremiah says dramatically. "So if I can't have you as a brother bonded by love, then we'll just have to be bonded by hatred." Bruce huffs at him in anger. "And you think killing two people that look like my parents will do that? It won't."

Jer tightens his grip on me. "Well, then it's a good thing I already put a bullet in both of their fraudulent skulls." I look up at him with furrowed brows. "You said-" "Oh, you're both confused. How sweet." I look back to the couple with their backs facing us. "Jer, who is that?"

"You're wondering if I already shot them, then who's this lovely couple?" I jerk away from Jerimiah in an attempt to see the two. "No."

"Thomas, Martha...why don't you turn around?" Tears well in my eyes. "Jer, why?" He looks down at me with venom. "It's always been a roadblock, darling. Even for Jerome. With Jim in the way. No family of ours will survive. So why not have some fun with it, huh?" He winks at me. "No! You- you can't. These kids need him." "They need me," Jerimiah says with a smirk. "And so do you, doll."

"See, Bruce throughout our little adventure, fate brought to me James Gordon and Leslie Thompkins, and I thought to myself, why not... why not kill the man who you think of as your second father figure? And your dear, dear, dear friend Lee Thompkins. And when I do, finally, you and I will be bound together. Because you see...reunification with the mainland hangs on by a thread. Those fireworks go off and toxic chemicals rain down onto the city, and the government...cuts us adrift for good." I let a tear fall. "Jeremiah, please. Don't" He hold me tighter, never letting go of his hold.

Jer pulls me to the car, shoveling me in. "Dad!" I scream over his shoulder.

"I had Jervis Tetch hypnotize them so that they'll wake up the moment these beautiful pearls hit the ground. I want you to see them realize what I've done to them as life drains from their bodies. Never forget, this is all for you, Bruce." Jerimiah hops into the car with me, closing the door as we speed off. I stay silent. Sitting alone. "Aw, darling. Come on now. You know I had to. A wife can never live a life with two sides. You'll understand one day." He kisses my cheek while looking out the windows at his destruction.

"You know... I always liked him." I look up across from me to see Jerome. "He got on my nerves, but he always kept it interesting, didn't he, doll?" I push a smile out on my lips, nodding. Jerome leans over and kisses my forehead. "Cheer up love. Look down, look at our kids. Give them a laugh for me. Keep that one in check." He winks before setting back and vanishing.

I shake my head pushing all the nerves back in my mind. "Jerimiah, love? Where are we going?" He smiles grabbing my hand. "To the finale." Rounding a corner I see the big illuminated letters of ACE Chemicals. The inside reeking of strong odors.

"Jeremiah! Face me!" Bruce's echoed scream bounced through the factory. "Here, Bruce," Jer calls loudly. I stay behind pipes, hidden away safely as Bruce runs after my mad husband.

"Jeremiah! This ends. Tonight."

Both gentlemen on the metal walkway above the vats of acid. Bruce hits Jerimaih making him stumble against the railing. "No, Bruce. Now it begins." Bruce kicks Jerimaih down the catwalk, towering him. "You feel it.

The connection between us. You do. Don't you? Bruce, you feel it." Bruce punches Jeremiah as he continues. "Tell me you feel it."

"You mean nothing to me."

Jerimiah's head butts Bruce before getting to his feet again. "Why don't you understand?" Jer grabs Bruce pushing him against the railing, causing it to bend. "You need me. I'm the answer to your life's question! Without me, you're just a joke...without a punch-" Jerimiah throws his hand at Bruce, but Bruce moves at the right time causing Jer to miss. His arm follows through in the wind, his body hitting the railing hard causing it to break and Jerimiah to fall into the vat. "NO!" I scream running over. Bruce tugs me back as I try to reach down into the vat. "(y/n), no!" I cry holding to the broken railing. "No... no..." I lower my head into my hands. They're both gone. I'm all alone now.

An ambulance rolls up fishing out Jerimiaha's body from the vat. "Miss." I continue to watch as Jerimiah's body is laid on a table and carried away. "Miss." I look up to see a nurse with worry-filled eyes. "I need you to come with me. You've been surrounded by hazardous chemicals. We need to make your child is okay." I nod numbly. Passing Bruce, keeping my head down. "(Y/n)," Bruce calls. "Let me follow." I nod without a word.

"Well, Mrs. Valeska. You're set. Two healthy twins." I nod standing. "Where is-" "Room 204. He's unconscious." "I don't care." I stand walking to the locked room, two guards on each side. "I'm his wife," I say before entering. In the bed, Jerimiah lays still, wrapped up in bandages from head to toe. I feel my tears well up with tears. "He did it to himself, doll. Nothing you could've done." Jerome kisses my shoulder, wrapping his arms around me. The ghostly feeling so comforting. I lay hand hands on his feeling the cold skin. "I wish you were here." "I know, but someone else is." The door opens and none other than my father walks in. "Dad." "Oh, my god." He covers his mouth, tears welling up, as he wraps me in his arms. "You're okay." I cry into his shoulder.

Selina and Bruce arrive in the room. "I can't believe he's still alive," Selina says with hatred, but I can't blame her. "They've been doing scans, and he has no brain activity," I say never taking my eyes away from Jer. "So, he's no longer a threat to you. To anyone." I turn around walking away from the room. "(Y/n)," Dad calls out. "Come home with me, honey. You need to be-" "Okay. I'll meet you there." I continue to walk out the doors into the dark night of Gotham, a quiet night.

#jerome #jerome x reader #jerome valeska #jerome valeska imagine #jerome valeska x reader #jeremiah valeska imagine #jeremiah valeska x reader #jerome valeska smut #Gotham #Gotham City #gotham cast

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unmaskedagain · 4 years

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Sorry, it’s reserved

Honestly neither Marinette nor Chloe had been surprised when Bustier caved to Alya’s insistent requests that the two girls not be allowed to go on the class trip to New York City. Lila had been subtly hinting about how much friendly better thing would be if they weren’t there.

Mostly because just two weeks ago, Marinette had presented her class trip idea presentation; complete with a potential itinerary, pictures of the grand hotel could stay at, the fantastic tours they could go on, and exciting places they could eat. The class had been suitable wow’d.

What was surprising was when, after Bustier announced in front of the class that Marinette and Chloe couldn’t go to New York much to the smug faces of the students, Adrien said, “Cool. Then I’ll skip the class trip too.” He then turned to his two best friends. “What do you two want to do instead?” Adrien was sick and tired of the other students in the class. He had been trying to get them to believe Lila was a liar for months but no one, not even Nino, would listen to him.

Instead, they turned on the two most awesome girls in the class. Well, Adrien wasn’t going to deal with it anymore.

The look of horror on Lila’s face was priceless. However, there was no backtracking now. The dream of a romantic trip to New York, walking hand in hand with Adrien, burst into flames and was now nothing more than ashes.

“Yeah, I won’t go either,” Nathaniel stated. “Doesn’t seem fair. Marinette worked really hard on the idea for the trip.” He never bought Lila’s crap, and he never understood how anyone else did.

Marinette smirked, “I’m up for whatever.” She shrugged. “I’m actually looking forward to now having to organize the trip. Or fundraise for it. And to think I was going to start working this weekend.” The bluenette made sure to look directly at Bustier and Alya, her ex-friend when she said this. “Its only October but believe me, you’ll want to start making reservations fast. Nothing was done but the presentation; which you can have by the way. And just a reminder, a lot of places do require a down payment. Also, don’t forget approval from the school board.”

“Which takes like three months btw,” Chloe said with a vicious smile on her face. She was the last class president. She knew exactly how hard getting a fabulous trip approved of was. “Paperwork has to be filled out in triplicates and if you mess up on even one form, they’ll make you fill out the entire thing again.” She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. “I just let Daddy know that he won’t have to make his annual donation this year for the trip. If you don’t want us there you obviously don’t need it. And to think, he usually funds thirty percent of it. But I’m sure you already knew that.”

By the looks on the other students’ faces, it was clear that they didn’t know that. However, pride wouldn’t let them back down. Besides, Alya thought, they had the moral high ground. Who wanted to hang with bullies anyway?

To the other students’ credit, they did manage to raise enough money for the trip to New York. Granted, it wasn’t nearly as much as they usually did. Alya, the new class president, also forgot to make most of the reservations until the last minute, and it was hard to find a fancy hotel willing to accommodate an entire class of rowdy teenagers at the last minute. So they would stay at a Holiday Inn just outside of New York City. The glasses-wearing girl wished Lila had been so busy with her charity work so she would’ve had time to help and maybe they could’ve gotten a much better trip.

By the end, the class trip the class would be getting wasn’t nearly as were or amazing as the one Marinette had presented at the beginning of the year. However, most were just happy to be going to New York.

Lila shot four exiled students a victorious look as she bragged about all the things and people she’d get to see in New York. She had spent months trying to get Adrien to agree to go on the trip but he wouldn’t budge.

She sighed dramatically, “I love New York. The only bad part are the superheroes. Last time I was there Robin and Speedy practically got into a fistfight over who’d take me on a date. I hate getting in the way of friendships.” Marinette snorted. “We leave for New York in three weeks. What will you three be doing then?”

“Waiting for a house to fall on you,” Marinette said easily.

Adrien chuckled, “We leave for L.A in two days.”

That got the classes’ attention.

“Sorry, What?” Alya asked; suddenly getting a bad feeling in her stomach.

Chloe leaned back in her seat, “L.A. It was my idea. We decided since we couldn’t go on your trip we’d go on our own. Let's see… our first stop in L.A, we’ll be there for about a week; we’ll tour some movie studios, go on set for the Star Trek movie that filming. Attending the movie premiere of the newest Marvel movie. Then leave for Indio; it's not that far from L.A, I think. But who cares. We have to be at Coachella, even if only for two days. Then we go to Metropolis. And I can’t remember… Marinette what did you plan for us to do? It was her idea to go there.” She told the class who had looks of sheer dismay on their faces that got worse and worse as the four described the trip.

Marinette smiled, “Tour of LexCorp, a tour of Daily Planet, reservations for the grand opening of Gordon Ramsey’s new restaurant, we got backstage passes for a 5 seconds of Summer concert-” She was cut off

“Why couldn’t we go see Selena Gomez again?” Adrien frowned.

Marinette rolled her eyes, “Because you couldn’t beat Chloe in an arm-wrestling contest.”

“She is freakishly strong,” Adrien protested. “And she plays mind games!”

Chloe blew a raspberry at the other blond.

“We’ll be in Metropolis for about a week,” Marinette continued, as her two friends bickered and Adrien declared he would have his vengeance. “Then Adrien got to pick where we next.”

“Disney World!” The blond shouted. It was his biggest childhood dream and it was becoming a reality. “We’re going to Florida to Disney World, and then Universal Studios; where we’ll get to see the Magical World of Harry Potter.”

“Geek!” Chloe sniped.

“Slytherin!” Adrien hissed back at her.

“And proud,” Chloe crossed her arms. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Hufflepuff?” She said the Hogwarts’ house like it was a dirty word. “Most notable thing a Hufflepuff ever did was die. And then somehow ended up in Twilight.”

Adrien stood up angrily, “You take that back!”

“Make me!”

Adrien looked at Nathaniel, “Ravenclaw, do something!” Their two houses went together like PB&J.

Nathaniel put down his pencil, “No.” And went back to writing. “Make the Gryffindor do it!” He motioned to Marinette.

Marinette just looked up at the ceiling, praying to gods’ for patience.

Adrien, she was suddenly reminded, was loyal enough to help hide a body.

Nathaniel was smart enough to have already come up with an alibi.

Chloe as conning enough to ensure they got away it, after goading Marinette into doing it in the first place.

Marinette would eventually snap and kill Lila. She would need them. “We’ll be in Florida for about four days; enough to see both amusement parks. Then all four of us agreed to go to New York next. First, stop Gotham; we’ll be touring Wayne Industries and attending one of the Wayne family annual galas.”

“Then we go directly to New York City,” Chloe said examining her nails. “Mama arranged us a tour of Vogue and Mode. We’ll be going to a few of the runways for Fashion Week. Adrien’s father arranged for us to go see Hamilton on Broadway.”

It had taken a lot of time, effort, threats of going to the police, press, and CPS regarding child labor laws broken concerning Adrien to get Gabriel Agreste to agree to let his son go on the trip (as well as allow him to actually have a childhood). But there had been several conditions; mostly to do with security and proper supervision; which all the parents had, though not to Gabriel’s extremeness.

Still, the four kids agreed to the terms.

“We’re going to a baseball game!” Adrien added excitedly. “A real one. I’m going to eat a hot dog the size of my arm. And cotton candy the size of my head.”

Marinette nodded slowly, already picturing herself patting Adrien’s back as he whined about as stomach ache from eating too much.

Chloe frown, picturing the same. She had lost a pair of Jimmy Choos after one disastrous trip to the carnival that involved way too much greasy food and rollercoaster with two loops. She shook the nightmarish memory away, “Thanks to Marinette, we’ll be touring the Stark Industries and the Avengers tower. All the hotels we’ll be staying at are 5 stars. Also, we’re going to three, three Michelin star restaurants. I can imagine what would’ve happened if she had made the reservations late. We might have ended up in some god awful Inn.”

“Come to think of it,” Marinette paused thoughtfully, “We should get to New York about the same time you do. What are your plans? No! Don’t tell me. I’m sure they’re amazing and I don’t want to be jealous. I mean you kicked us off the trip so you had to have something out of this world lined up.”

Alya’s mouth was dry. She tried to come up with something to say; something to brag about but she knew that come September she’d have to pony up the pics. Because Pics or it didn’t happen. Chloe was active on social media; she’d be updating on a daily basis and scooping out her competition. She’d know instantly if they were lying and they’d never live it down.

Lila fought the urge to throw the biggest tantrum of her life. At the beginning of the year, after Marinette’s trip presentation, she thought getting the bluenette and Blondie off the trip was the perfect plan; even when Adrien said he wouldn’t go. However, it was soon clear that Alya and the other students were in way over their hands. The dream trip that Marinette had spun them would be realized as only a dream as it was clear they wouldn’t manage it without Marinette’s organizational skills and Chloe’s funding.

The trip they got was the standard tourist one. A look around the city, the statue of liberty, Time Square, and a museum or two. Honestly, Lila took better trips with her grandmother.

Maybe there was still a way to save things…

“You know,” Lila smiled sweetly. “Since we’re all going to be in New York anyway, we should do everything together-“

“Can’t,” Marinette stated firmly. “Reservations are reservations for a reason. Tickets were bought. You know how it is.”

Bustier frowned. This had ended the way she thought it would. When Alya and the other students beseeched her to disallow Marinette and Chloe from the school trip, she thought it was for the best. Chloe had always had a hostile attitude that Marinette seemed to have developed as well. It left the rest of the class with negative energy that wasn’t helpful for nurturing their growth.

However, she couldn’t have predicted just how badly things would go. Alya had come crying to her several times about having to fill out and re-fill out multiple forms for the school board. She seemed to get something wrong every time.

The children could barely raise enough money for the trip. And it wasn’t nearly as wonderful as the one Marinette had come up with at the beginning of the year. Still, they were going to New York which was what counted. Most classes wouldn’t even have gotten that far, She thought smugly. It would be a good trip. (Caline had dreamed about accidentally running into Steve Rogers or Thor and being swept off her feet. And she thought that dream wouldn’t even be possible if she was too busy trying to reign in her to most troublesome students which were one of her reason her telling the two they couldn’t go.) However, even that trip paled in comparison to the one the bluenette had planned for her and her two friends. 5-star hotels, trips to galas, fashion week, going to the Avengers Towers, possibly meeting Captain America, Thor, and the rest! It all sounded too good to be true.

“There must be something you can do,” Bustier said. “It would be nice if all my students were together.”

The other students looked at the tour with hope clear in their eyes.

Adrien, Marinette, and Chloe just looked at the teacher like she was dumb. Each fought the urge to remind the teacher that she was just fine with the three not going less than ten minutes ago.

Adrien rolled his eyes, “There isn’t. Everything was bought and paid for. They are only expecting four kids which is why we get to go to so many places. Turns out, not many hotels and restaurants want to deal with a bunch of teens at the last minute.”

Marinette nodded, “Besides you wouldn’t want us crashing your trip anyway. We’d hate to get in the way. We know you guys wanted a drama-free trip.” She through the term back in their faces. “But I wouldn’t mind meeting up one day. You guys are doing time square right. Let us know when and we’ll see if we can do it the same day.”

“If we can fit in our schedules,” Chloe snapped. “It's pretty packed.”

“Not as packed as theirs, I’m sure,” Marinette smiled kindly, though inside she was doing a victory dance worthy of a champion. “I can’t wait to see the pictures.”

The four left that Friday. By Sunday, the social medias were filled with dozens of pictures of beautiful hotel rooms. The next three weeks were the worst in the class’s entire lives. The other students in the class tried their best not to look but it was hard. Particularly when the picture of Marinette, Adrien, and Chloe on the red carpet started to make waves. Pictures of the four meeting various celebrities like Lex Luther and Chris Pine, superheroes like Superman and Batman, of them at Disney World and Coachella had left more than a bit of envy in their hearts.

Their own trip had started out terribly. Alya hadn’t book enough rooms so they had to triple bunk, with some people having to sleep on a cot. And it turned out that the only tours she had secured was to Elis Island and the New York Art Museum; nothing nearly as exciting as they hoped. So they had been mostly left on their own for sight-seeing.

Still, it wasn’t a terrible trip. They ate great good and saw the normal New York tourist attractions.

However, when the time came for them to go to Time Square and meet up with Adrien, Alya, Chloe, and Marinette, Bustier was ready to pull her hair out.

Bustier never had trouble on any of the previous trips, as they were always organized to the minute, but this one had so much free time the kids didn’t know what to do with themselves which resulted in chaos. And being threatened with being kicked out of the hotel. She didn’t understand what was different. The students were usually so well behaved.

Sure on previous trips, there had been two more chaperones but Bustier always thought they were unnecessary. Her students were the best and most well behaved in school for the most part. She was positive that they only needed their teacher to watch out for them.

She was wrong.

And Bustier was very surprised to see Mendeleiev there with her four wayward students, looking very much like the Cat that got the Canary.

“Demetria,” Bustier greeted politely. “What are you doing here?”

Mendeleev didn’t bother to hide her smirk. “I was invited as a chaperone. It just me and Gorilla. Between the two of us we keep the delinquents in check,” She said Delinquents at the four who playfully hissed at her. Each of the four wore a black shirt with a different Hogwarts house on it.“Best decision I ever made. I was reluctant at first as it’s not school-related and I wouldn’t be paid for it. But Agreste and Bourgeois are paying me nine times my usual amount an hour to watch the kids like a hawk. Luckily their goods kids. What about you? How is your class trip going?”

Bustier forced herself to smile, and not bite out angrily that it was driving her insane. The kids were driving her completely up the wall. And Caline was more than a little aware of how amazing her four students trip was and to think Mendeleiev had gotten to do it all with them made her blood boil and her eyes practically turn green with jealousy. “Extremely well. We are having… the time of our lives.”

“I’m sure,” Mendeleiev said. She and the rest of the teachers had never been happy with how Bustier ran her class. Or just how much she and Damocles got away with. However, it didn’t matter. Come September, things would change. Damocles had already gotten fired for taking bribes, breaking procedure, and being a complete idiot.

Bustier, while technically, hadn’t done anything wrong would still have to listen to the school board tell her everything that was wrong with her class. And there was a lot.

“Have you gone to the Avengers tower yet?” Bustier asked, not subtly at all. She still hoped that if there was time she and her class could tag along.

“We have,” Mendeleiev told her, bursting the bubble of hope that had sprung in Caline. “It was quite wonderful. I had a wonderful debate with Doctor Banner; it turns out he’s read several of my papers and me, his. While the kids are at the baseball game tomorrow, the two of us will be having a lunch date and going over our scientific hypothesis tomorrow.”

“Get it, Ms. Mendeleiev,” Chloe laughed.

Mendeleiev shot her a stern look but her mouth twitched as she fought a smile.

“Perhaps my class could go with?”

“Sorry, we have a reserved seats.”

Envy flared in Caline Bustier more than ever before in her entire life. If they had been still in Paris, Hawkmoth would’ve had a field day. “Oh but what about watching the kids. Won’t they need you? What would their parents say about this?” A vicious smirk appeared on Bustier’s face. She always thought Mendeleiev needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

Mendeleiev didn’t bat an eye, “Already covered. Already cleared with their parents. After all who’s going to say no to Captain America and Iron Man babysitting their kids. Steve hadn’t been to a game a while and he really wanted to take his son Peter and the rest of Tony’s interns. The kids should have a blast.”

Adrien shot a bright smile at his bodyguard, “Natasha is going too! I still don’t understand how you two know each other.”

Gorilla’s face burned a red color but he remained silent. He wore the bright yellow and black Hufflepuff scarf Adrien had begged him to wear as a show of support, particularly when Mendeleiev revealed herself to be a Ravenclaw (So did Bruce Banner). Captain America and the Winter Soldier high-fived Marinette over being Gryffindors. And Pepper Potts, Iron Man, and the Black Widow introduced themselves as Slytherin alumni.

Where was the Hufflepuff love?

Adrien had looked at Hawkeye with hope but Clint had shrugged and said, “Gryffindor.”

The blond boy huffed and pouted (the pout was how he got Gorilla to wear the scarf). He bet Thor was a Hufflepuff.

The rest of Bustier’s class still steer clear away from the four; out of pride and envy. Lila had attempted to go near Adrien but was stopped by Alya who didn’t want to risk her bestie getting bullied by the meanest girls in school.

Alya had decided after seeing the pictures of the four with Superman, The Avengers, Batman, and THE LOIS LANE that life just wasn’t fair. If it was Marinette and Chloe (Maybe even Nathaniel) would be stuck in Paris, crying their eyes out over not being allowed on the trip. It was what they deserved for being such bullies.

The preplanned tour of Times Square, which was mostly just the kids walking around and awing at the pretty lights. It was actually a bit boring, once the excitement wore off. They found themselves on the highest building there, looking over New York City in its entirety, along with a bunch of other tourists.

Suddenly all the electronic billboards and every ounce of electricity turned off. Crowds up people looked around confused.

The giant monitors blurred and a face appeared, “Greetings citizens of New York, I. AM. THE. Electrocutioner!” Lights were centered on the highest building there, and it was clear the villain stood on top of the building. The building of Bustier’s class was on.

One thought echoed in the minds of each Parisian citizen, “Fuck.”

Before any of the Paris heroes’ could figure out if they should act or not, another team of heroes arrived.

The evil-doer had with him a dozen or so henchmen, each more menacing the last.

The sight of Kid Flash zooming up the side of the building was incredible. Seeing Young Justice kick butt left Marinette a little breathless.

Was this what it was like, she wondered, seeing Ladybug fight.

When some of the henchmen were ordered to take hostages; Marinette, Chloe, Nathaniel, Adrien, Gorilla, and Mendeleiev fighting back much to the shock of Bustier and her class. Chloe rolled her eyes as she, and the other three pulled out miniature pens from their pockets; did they really not know how often New York is attacked by Super Villians. Seriously.

With a click of the button, the pen turns into a long whip. Chloe refused to be taken without a fight. Her and Marinette, who now wielded a fighting staff, nodded at each other. The blonde snorted when she looked at Adrien, “A shield, really?”

“I don’t want to hurt people too much,” Adrien defended.

“This is why you’re a Hufflepuff.”

Nathaniel spun his trident around. It worked like a Taser and could shock people. Luckily only the villain had electricity powers.

Marinette didn’t know how it happened but suddenly she was fighting back to back with Robin.

“Nice moves,” Robin said after Marinette knocked out a henchman with a high kick. He knocked out a henchman with his staff.

“Not too bad yourself.”

Nathaniel nearly had a heart attack when Aqualad jumped in to help him protect several tourists. When biggest henchmen came rushing at him, the redhead fired up his trident and within seconds the underling was down for the count.

Kaldur paused, “…Can I borrow that?”

Chloe used the whip with ease and grace. She has been practicing with it ever since she saw Shadow Hunters for the first time. Isabelle Lightwood was an icon.

The blonde didn’t know how it happened. But one minute she was fighting off two lame minions then she saw an Arrow guy fighting and then falling off the roof, and the next thing she knows she’s jumping after him. Then they both were dangling off the roof with only Chloe’s whip for support.

“You call this a rescue?” Arrow guy snorted.

“You call yourself a hero?” Chloe snapped.

“Meow!”

Chloe didn’t see how he did it but one moment she was hanging there; the next Arrow guy was swinging her up back onto the roof.

He smirked at her, “You’re a pretty one.”

She waved him off, “Oh go save someone!”

When Superboy crashed down next to him after taking a brutal hit, Adrien gripped his shield and stood in front of him. Adrien was able to block most of the attempts of the underlings to reach the boy of steel. But it wasn’t long until they had them surrounded. Just when Adrien thought he was a goner, red lasers blasted the henchman back.

Superboy stood up, “Thanks for the assist.” He smiled at the blond boy. “Nice shield.”

Gorilla and Mendeleiev handled their own really well. After seeing Gorilla fight, Adrien started to have some serious suspicions about just how his bodyguard knew the Black Widow.

When the fight was over, and the villains detained, the small group stood with the rest of the civilians until the all-clear was given.

The Bustier and her class stared in awe as the members of Young Justice walked over to the six with large smiles. The heroes didn’t even spare the class a glance. Not even when Alya pushed Lila to the front but Robin and Arsenal never even noticed her.

Dick Grayson, Robin, smiled at the pretty bluenette with bluest eyes he’d ever seen and did his best to ignore Batman in his ear about bringing in the Heroes Ladybug, Chat Noir, Queen Bee, and Bright Roar in to Watch Tower stat. He knew all about Ladybug and, thanks to Batman, knew her civilian identity. But to see her in person was a whole different experience.

No, there was a time and place for everything. And right now the time was to flirt with the Gorgeous Superhero who a skintight red suit.

“You’re amazing,” He told her honestly. “What are you doing for the rest of my life?”

“I swear to god if you propose!” Batman hissed in his ear.

Marinette blushed a bright red.

Kaldur handed the trident back to Nathaniel, “This is an amazing weapon. You use it well.” He told the redhead. This must be the new Hero Bright Roar “I wish for one just like it.”

Nathaniel flushed but handed the weapon back to Kaldur, “Keep it. I’m not that good with it.”

Kaldur smiled, “Then perhaps you will let me teach you one day. One on one sessions.”

“Really Kaldur,” Aquaman chastised. “This is a mission, not a dating show.”

Aqualad ignored him.

Superboy nodded at Adrien, “You’re good,” he told the smaller blond boy. Though from the reports he read about Chat Noir, he was only a year younger than him. “Cool shirt by the way. It's nice to meet a fellow Hufflepuff.” He said and then suddenly his arms were full of a blond boy thanking him for existing.

“Breathe,” Superman chuckled in his ear. “Just breathe, Connor.”

“For such good finders, we’re so hard to find,” Adrien said. “I could kiss you!”

Superboy turned the brightest shade of red anyone had ever seen.

Arsenal eyed the hot blond girl, “At least you know how to stay out of the way.”

Chloe glared at him, “Next time, I’ll just let you die.”

“Then who be the man of your dreams.”

“Freddie Kruger would probably take his job back,” Chloe said with a hand on her hip. “Though his face isn’t as terrifying as yours.”

“That girl will eat you alive,” Oliver warned in his ear.

“So you admit you dream about me,” Roy stepped forward.

Chloe huffed, “Get real!”

“Hey,” Alya called. “Robin, Speedy, don’t you want to say hi to Lila Rossi.” She motioned to the Italian girl who had gone pale.

“It’s Arsenal now,” Roy corrected.

Dick nodded, “And who’s Lila?”

Marinette smiled, “Oh I’d totally marry you now!”

Robin grinned and raised his arms in victory.

Batman cursed in his ear.

Robin, Arsenal, Aqualad, and Superboy kept their attention on the on the four. No matter how much their superhero mentors protested. No matter how much Bustier’s tried to intervene.

No, their attentions’ were reserved

#ml fic #ml salt #class salt #Young Justice #Marienette Dupain Cheng #Marinette deserves better #adrien deserves better

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fishfingersandjellybabies · 4 years

Text

What Dogs See - fic

Characters: Titus, Krypto, Damian Wayne, Jon Kent, bits of others Summary: Dogs see more than we think they do. A/N: A gift for @mayleebaby28! Thank you for being such a supportive, unconditional and kind human being! I hope everything is going well for you and yours and know you are so loved and appreciated, especially by those furbabies. Also sorry if this is jumbly and not good, ugh! You deserve better D:

From the second he saw him, Titus loved him.

The man had talked to him on their way to the house. Warned him.

“He’s a little…prickly.” The man said with a chuckle. “An attitude that…I still don’t know how it fits in his little body.” He sighed. “But…he’s good, deep down. I know he is.” Then almost bitterly. “Dick tells me he is. I wish…” Now a sigh. “Why can’t I see what Dick has?”

But when he saw the boy, in a big dark, cold place, scowling and alone, wearing silly clothes, he knew.

This was his boy.

His to love, his to protect. His forever.

The boy – Damian – scoffed when the man presented him. Said something about being indifferent, barely looked at him.

But then Titus followed the boy up to his bedroom. Watched as he prepared for sleep and laid down. Without any command, or the boy even looking at him, Titus walked silently over to the bed, and laid his head on the mattress.

Damian was facing away from him, but Titus waited. Only huffed a breath once.

I know what you’re doing. I’ll wait as long as I have to.

But eventually Damian rolled towards him, and let those silent tears Titus already sensed drop freely. Titus licked at his face, licked those tears away, and just rested his head on Damian’s when the boy hugged his neck tightly.

Yes. This boy was his.

Krypto met Jon when he was born. He was in the room. He helped Kal-El tend to his wife, tend to his baby.

And when it all settled, when Lois was asleep, and the baby was clean, Krypto just couldn’t stop staring.

This child was beautiful.

A perfect mixture of his parents, of a human and a Kryptonian. Of two worlds, two universes.

The baby squealed in amusement as he tugged absently at Krypto’s ear, and Krypto felt like it was the most important moment in the history of every universe ever created.

He would protect this child. This miracle. But not for Kal-El, not even for the memory of Krypton.

For himself.

Kal-El muttered apologies as he removed the newborn’s fingers from Krypto’s ear, and he almost whined at the loss. Instead, he trailed after the father, watched as he put the baby in a crib, and then curled around its base. Even when Kal-El called to him a while later for some food, Krypto ignored him.

His watch started now.

Damian was his life, to the point he didn’t care to learn about any of the other humans around. He recognized them of course, but beyond that could not care less.

So it was frustrating, when sometimes Damian went places that he couldn’t go. He’d pat Titus’s head, sneak a kiss when the one he called Father, or Batman, wasn’t looking then chase after the man like a shadow.

It was even more frustrating when Damian would return covered in blood or bruises, or unconscious and being carried by that man.

Titus hated it, hated the man for it, actually. Growled at him when he returned with Damian in this state. At least until he realized it wasn’t the man causing his Damian pain, and that he was just upset as Titus was about the predicament.

He also learned over time that his boy only seemed to come home injured when he put on the heavy, bright fabric. So, one day, when the man and Damian were resting, Titus went through those lockers, sniffed out his boy’s uniform, and ripped it to shreds in his teeth.

Damian wasn’t happy with him when he discovered what Titus had done. But Titus noticed a smirk of satisfaction on both the Batman’s face, and the old man with the mustache.

These terrible moments had a small upside, though. When Damian was injured, the mustached man always demanded he rested for a long time. Tucked him into bed and forced him to stay there. During these long times, Titus lounged next to his boy, head on his leg and Damian’s fingers scratching at his ears.

Quiet and safe and with his boy. Sometimes the men joined them, sometimes not. Sometimes Damian used Titus as a pillow, and sometimes Titus would curl around him like a barrier between him in the world.

He just wished these times came when his boy wasn’t hurting, too.

He’d seen the universe. He knew the galaxies – many of them – and all the beautiful, wild secrets they held.

But nothing was as magical, or as breathtaking, as Jon discovering something new.

The way his face lit up the first time he saw a butterfly. His laugh the first time he jumped in a puddle. His gasp the first time he saw blue and yellow paints mix to create green.

It was the most amazing sight, every time. No matter how many times it happened over the years.

And when Jon discovered his powers, his heritage – Krypto was sure that there were literal stars in that boy’s eyes. He hooted and hollered, jumped into the sky and did a lap around the barn’s roof.

But when Jon swooped back down, tried to take Krypto on this first flight, Krypto took the chance to give Jon another first.

Before Jon could grab him, Krypto jumped into the air himself, swirling and spinning playfully away. He watched with a grin of his own as Jon’s violet eyes widened, and slowly, a gap-tooth smile spread across his cheeks.

“My dog can fly!”

Jon immediately flew after him, and they began a skyward game of tag. Jon laughed the whole time, and it was absolute music to Krypto’s ears.

To think – Kal-El was once the last of Krypton. The last hope of an entire race. An entire planet. An entire universe, light-years away.

And now, here’s Jon too.

Learning and growing and the best of them all, here was Jon too.

His boy was strong. Cunning. Genius. A warrior.

But that was not Titus’s favorite part of Damian. His favorite part of his boy was how kind he was. How thoughtful. How he looked at the world around him like everything was new, smiled when he found something beautiful. How he tried to recreate it in his drawings and in his music.

His least favorite part, though, was how much his boy hated himself. And he knew that. He knew that from the day he met him. So he always stayed close. Gave Damian all the kisses, love and protection he could, every time he saw him. Every time he could.

But it wasn’t enough, and sometimes that hurt. He could see it, when Damian separated himself from his family when they were all together. How he blamed himself for things that were not his fault. But worst of all, how he didn’t feel worth anything, or deserve anything.

Like the nights he came back in that colorful costume alone, limping and bleeding. How Titus would try to lick his wounds and Damian would shove him away. How the old mustache man would offer the same, and Damian would snap sharp words at him instead. All but crawl to his bedroom and close the door even to Titus, and allow himself to suffer in silence. Suffer alone.

Or the times Titus would see the man yelling at him. Scolding him. And maybe sometimes it was deserved. Titus would see the mustached old man nodding when it was. But other times it wasn’t, and the mustached old man would furrow his brows and hold his hand over his mouth.

But even if it wasn’t deserved, Damian would not fight back. Not like he was capable of. He might have a little attitude here and there, but generally allow the hateful words to wash over him. Allowed himself to believe them.

The moments with the one frequently called Tim were bad. They would yell at each other, and insult with a purpose. Sometimes it would come to blows, and Titus would do all he could to separate them. Pull Damian back by his clothes. Growl at Tim until the other backed away with his hands raised in surrender.

And then when everything settled down, Damian would retreat. To a corner or the cave, to his bedroom, sometimes down a wandering path around the manor. And he’d repeat what Tim said to him. Repeat it and lament about how correct his brother was in his awful assessment.

It broke Titus’s heart. If only Damian could see how wonderful he was. How lovely. He deserved nothing but kindness, and Titus still did not understand why he did not get it from everyone around him. Why he did not see how much he deserved it.

But his boy could not understand his barks or whines. Just whispered “It’s okay, boy. Everything’s okay,” even when it so clearly absolutely wasn’t. So Titus did the only thing he could. Followed Damian when he tried to disappear, and stayed at his side when no one else would.

Maybe that was why Titus knew how kind this child was, because Damian only seemed to allow himself to be when no one else was around. When no one could see it. Maybe that’s why he always snuck off to be by himself. It was the only time he thought he could be himself.

You are not alone. You can be yourself. Titus would say loudly in his head, hoping against hope that maybe somehow his boy could hear him, or sense his words.

You are not alone, and you are loved.

Krypto would do anything for Jon. Anything.

He’d destroy worlds for him. He’d change the climate. He’d tear another being limb from limb if they so much as looked at him wrong.

But he realized, over the years, that there was one thing he couldn’t fix. One thing he couldn’t do.

Jon was lonely. Krypto couldn’t fix that.

Jon was a good kid – a nice kid. Too nice, some said. Too naive. And instead of those traits flocking the people to him like, in Krypto’s opinion, it should – it brought out the bullies instead. Got him teased and mocked, and shoved into lockers.

And Jon tried to handle it on his own, he did. He’d take a deep breath, fix his glasses and smile. That’d just get him teased more.

On most days Jon could shrug it off. But not all. There were some days he’d come home and go straight to his room and cry. Other days he wouldn’t make it into the house at all. He’d hit their long driveway, or just pass the barn. Krypto would bark a hello, and Jon would hide his face in Krypto’s fur and collapse into tears.

He never believed the hateful words. Of course not, Clark and Lois raised him to be smarter than that. But he had no one else to lift him up. No one else to hold him in these darker moments. And this wasn’t something he could talk to his father about. His father was Superman - what kind of loser would that make him look like?

So he suffered alone, sometimes in silence.

And oh, Krypto tried. Would like Jon’s face raw if he could.

Even if you have no one else, you have me. You will always have me.

Jon never heard him, of course. For all the brilliance of his powers, animal translation was not one of them.

So Krypto did was he could – which here, was not much. No amount of laser vision or super strength would do anyone any good. So he’d whine a little, in solidarity with his cub, and laid with him until the tears dried, or his boy was able to smile again. Let himself be a pillow, a teddy bear, or just a plain shoulder to cry on if he needed to be.

You will always have me, he’d always try. Maybe one day Jon would hear him. Maybe one day Jon would know.

Always.

They were meeting someone new today, and Titus was shocked when the man said that Damian could bring him along. Damian seemed to be too, and the smile remained on his face until they jumped into the car and took off.

The drive was long, and took them out into the countryside somewhere. Titus didn’t mind. He spent the whole time sitting with Damian in the front seat, making him laugh and getting his ears scratched by Damian and the man both.

It was nice.

They arrived at what looked like a farmhouse, and immediately, Titus smelled something interesting. He hopped out of the car and immediately went on alert, wrapping around Damian’s legs. Damian just snorted, and pet his head again.

Suddenly, the door to the farmhouse slammed open, and a large man appeared. He greeted them as he walked down the steps, followed by a woman and child, and then another dog.

Krypto locked eyes with Titus immediately, and a silent truce was formed. Don’t threaten my family and I won’t threaten yours.

Titus remained wrapped around Damian, even as Krypto did the same for Jon. Titus hadn’t paid that boy any mind, not until the woman pulled him forward and introduced him to Damian.

His first thought was: This boy is so sad.

Krypto watched Damian with the same intensity, and took in his posture, his crossed arms, his gaze off to the side of the conversation at hand.

His first thought was: This boy doesn’t like himself.

After the introductions, the adults moved towards the house, leaving the two children alone. So Krypto and Titus stayed with them too.

The boys stood staring at each other, but the dogs approached, sniffing.

“Why does your boy not like himself?” Krypto asked immediately.

“He does not believe he is good enough, that what at, I’m not sure. And he has no one in his life to tell him differently. Though I suppose they don’t realize they need to.” Titus explained. “Why is your boy so sad?”

“He does not have many friends, probably because he has to keep many secrets from the children around him. He struggles to cope with the loneliness sometimes.” Krypto glanced up to Damian and Jon, when Jon sounded like he raised his voice. “…They do not appear to like each other.”

Titus looked back, gave a small scolding yip towards Damian. Damian didn’t seem to hear him. “They don’t.” He looked back to Krypto. “But you know?”

“Hm?”

He looked back at the boys. “I have a good feeling.”

“Funnily enough, so do I.” Krypto agreed. “I just…get the sense this may be the best thing to ever happen to either of them.”

“Perhaps,” Titus thought out loud. “Perhaps with each other, maybe they won’t be so sad and lonely anymore.”

“We can only hope.” Krypto nodded. “Our boys deserve better than that.”

“That they do.” Titus hummed. Jon and Damian appeared to be mid-argument, so Titus barked loudly, making them both jump.

They went quiet as they looked towards their dogs. Damian narrowed his eyes in warning to Titus, but then glanced at Krypto. “…Your dog is beautiful. What breed is he?”

“Uh…a mutt I think.” Jon mumbled sheepishly. “Do you know yours?”

“Le Grand Danois.” Damian said proudly. Jon just stared. “…A Great Dane.”

“Cool.” Jon smiled. “…Can I pet him?”

“I suppose.” Damian sighed. “Only if I’m allowed to pet yours.”

“Sure! Krypto loves belly rubs.” Jon exclaimed. “Don’t you, boy?”

Krypto barked and flopped over. Damian laughed softly as he rubbed his hand over his ribs. Titus graciously accepted Jon’s chin scratches.

As the boys pet the other’s dog, their conversation picked back up. Not into argument this time, but rather a simple conversation about dog toys.

Jon rambled slightly, seemingly thrilled to actually have someone to talk to. Damian smiled as he spoke too, not trying to hide his true, gentler nature.

The dogs looked at each other and grinned.

They finally found exactly what – and who – their boys needed.

#Damian Wayne #jon kent #Titus #krypto #mayleebaby28

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allyvampirelass29 · 4 years

Text

Welcome to Christmasland, Victoria

A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

Welcome to Christmasland, Victoria Welcome to The End And it's going to be glorious Dare I said, you belonged here with me And it's still true....... When I see your rended head Hanging from The Great Tree How fondly I'll think of you All the magical times we spent How we fought, how you bled Blood droplets like breadcrumbs Scarlet against the snow How I trapped you in my ice maze That look on your face Pleading for me to let her go I ALREADY HAVE YOU Stupid Girl How frivolous your sacrifice I'll strike her down Without thinking twice How many Wretched McQueens do I have to kill? For you to CARE what Wayne wants, how he feels? It's selfish to hold on To the child you love, only when he's gone. You'll die here, and so will the McQueen name Good riddance I say But fear not, My Dear I'll take good care of Wayne I'll give him a shiny new one Far more suited to this wondrous place Who do you want to be, Wayne? Say it with me Four letters, and it's done Why don't you spell it out for your Mom? Can you guess what comes next? Come boy, don't be shy........ I'll help you decide This isn't homework, this is fun! Something special between us That she can't wreck Welcome Home, My Son Wayne M-A-N-X

OH HOLY NIGHT!!!!! My ENTIRE body is humming, the dead heat of summer ALIVE with the magic of Christmas!!! Is there such a thing as a Christmasland Afterglow!? Because I have it, I feel....... RADIANT!!!! I've pranced around in a daze, in a December DREAM of bright coloured glisten, and a festive world, I ache to call my own, singing for anyone that will listen!!!! I never thought I'd say this, but shockingly, impossibly....... My beloved Sleigh House has been dethroned, and WELCOME TO CHRISTMASLAND has just been crowned my FAVOURITE episode of NOS4A2 of all time, beyond anything my own Creative desire could conjure!!! It's an unforgettable EXPERIENCE. It's a transcendent EVENT, bright shining, this night divine, the PERFECT date with Charlie Manx!!! Thrills become chills, dream becomes disaster, in this sleighcoaster ride of gripping emotion, dastardly duels, and devastating betrayal!!! The highest peaks, taking us up and up, ascending through the stars to the winking moon, the sharpest curves, the breathless rush of an exhilarating joyride through a surreal dream come true. in both eerily dazzling visual, and electrifying plot. Hold on, Creatives......... It's the ride of your life.

Christmasland. Like the shiniest, most beautifully wrapped gift beneath the tree, left unopened, has always presented the most intriguing mystery. Spoken about in hushed tones, in both reverence, and wonder, hatred, and horror to baffling extremes, it's NOS4A2's best kept secret. The missing piece, the final destination. For two seasons we've heard the tale about dashing Father Christmas, riding high in his ebony sleigh, all to save the children of the world, and give them Christmas every day...... But thus far, this winter wonderland has been kept firmly in the mystery box. A flash of colored shine here, a scrap of ribbon there, a quick jaunt in and out of the towering twin candy cane gates, special cargo in tow, and then we're off again. At times, it's been maddening, and I just ached to see it, SO badly!!! Now I can finally say, after two seasons of festive teases, it was everything Charlie promised, and so much more than I could have ever imagined, INFINITELY worth the wait, the hype, and the conflict!!! I am thankful too, that our esteemed writers were sly enough to hold back all this time, and then, having driven us mad with the waiting, swung wide the gates for the BIG reveal, letting the glowing enchantment and happy wonder of Christmasland overwhelm the senses all at once. You feel welcomed, you feel accepted, and once you've seen it, you'll never want leave........

Welcome to Christmasland, Creatives!!! You're very much in the moment, swept up in the full Christmasland experience, as the cheerful holiday music heralds your arrival!!! You even feel like you're there, in the backseat of the Wraith alongside Wayne, the shot in his perspective, as you go through the gates with Charlie at the wheel!!! I love it when NOS4A2 does this kind of immersive cinematography, putting us in the story, for being a Creative is all about making the fantasy a reality!!! For a boy that's never had a Christmas, who associates the holidays with his mother's depression, drinking herself to death, destroying any and all decoration, Christmasland is a FEAST for Wayne's eyes, a forbidden joy, and it shines on his face, mouth falling open, tongue sticking out, the cascade of coloured lights reflected off the Wraith's window. "Welcome to Christmasland, Wayne," Charlie chortles, as the wonderstruck lad, stars in his eyes, hops out of the car, greeted by a throng of eager vampire children. Charlie waves at them, his grin resplendent, and lovingly he calls to them as they surround him. "My Little Ones, how I've missed you all!!!"

It's a beaming joy for me to see Charlie like this, so in his element, so ALIVE, happy and playful, ready to share his world with the special little boy he has come to love like a son. As his other children clamber around Wayne, fighting over him, each urging him to play a different game, he smiles, hand raised to calm them, not wanting to overwhelm the dear little lad, and is the picture of fatherhood, as he says with gentle authority, "Now, now there will be plenty of time for all of it, after Millie gives him the grand tour. " Oddly enough, Christmasland's First Child neglects to welcome the boy her father has chased so tirelessly, braving all manner of wretched McQueens to procure, and while he veils it well, you can sense his disappointment. "Well then, it's your lucky day, Wayne. It's not every child that gets a private tour from Father Christmas, himself," He crows, deciding to shrug off Millie's slight...... for now. The vampire children oooh and ahhh, which I found just too adorable. He's magic to them, you can tell!!! "Let's go find you a more exciting costume!" Charlie coos with a sweet eyebrow raise, and I am DEAD as he lovingly tousles Wayne's hair!!!!

Can I just say, I love, love, LOVED this opener with all of my giddy, affectionate, Manx-loving heart!?!? I always thought the interactive Charlie Dream in, "Bruce Wayne McQueen," would forever be my favourite opener, but there is so much frolicking joy, and all kinds of warm fuzzies in this one, as Charlie dotes upon Wayne, charming as ever, helping him pick out his extra special Christmasland costume!!! I LOVED IT, my eyes welling up, as what I suspected all along to be true, couldn't be more adorably obvious. While it began as a revenge plot, taking Wayne, he has become so precious to Charlie, and the adoration that he has for this dear little boy is that of the proudest father, loving him, heart and soul, as his own son. In that moment I knew...... Charlie Manx would never let him go....... Oh my gosh, you guys, it's just all so CUTE, Charlie being patient and coaxing with Wayne, even though he's reluctant to give up his space pajamas, shyly informing Charlie that his mom got them for him for his birthday. Charlie sympathizes at first, and then explains that these are for bedtime, and there are no bedtimes in Christmasland, just staying up all night, playing games and riding rides. (Seriously, Baby, SIGN ME UP!!!!)

He knows Wayne so well, despite the short time they have spent together, he knows his greatest dreams, the things he loves the most, and he wants so badly to bring them to life for him, ever the attentive father. "At the peak of the sleighcoaster, you can almost reach out and touch the stars. The very moon, itself. You could be a real life astronaut......" He says dreamily with an encouraging elbow jab, making Wayne smile, and I swear I could feel my heart melting like snow. I especially loved all the little details in this scene!!! The way MANX on the astronaut costume is spelled out in NASA lettering, how the other patch even says, "Manx Moon Mission," because Charlie's likeness is beautifully illuminated in the Christmasland Moon. And the way Charlie even has an astronaut's helmet ready, presenting it to Wayne, with a flourish and a flip!!!. I found myself so in awe at the care, the devotion, he's put into these costumes, and I couldn't help but muse at all the possibilities, and which I would have chosen as an eight year old!!! I was, however, extremely nervous when he gave him the scissors, wrapped up nice in a bow, which I now see as some rather excellent, utterly chilling foreshadowing...... But luckily, this is eclipsed by something even more heart racing, in my favourite part of my favourite opener, in my favourite episode!!! (Seriously Charlie, did you write this whole episode just to dazzle me!?)

To be officially inducted into Christmasland, every child must write their name in the registry book. Wayne writes his first name in bright red ink, and then hesitates, pen paused mid-air, struggling with what to write next. "McQueen just...... doesn't feel right anymore, does it?" Charlie coos with sneaking revel. "This isn't homework, this is fun!" He persuades, enthused. "It's okay, I'll help you......" My heart quickens, chills skittering across my skin, already knowing what my sneaky boy is up to!!! "M-A-N-X," Charlie says coolly, eyebrow raised something sinister, and I can't breathe, the way he spells it out, with that exhilarated rasp, irresistibly lingering on the, "X!" Charlie takes such pleasure in naming this boy in particular, the son of his scathing arch rival, as his own. Wayne eagerly writes it out just as Charlie instructs him, the now miniature Manx, beaming at him with a toothy, vampire grin. "Manx, Wayne Manx!!!!"

All of the smug satisfaction he took in striking the name McQueen from the record, falls away at this happy declaration, and I really did cry, so touched, as Charlie gazes back at him, dark eyes glistening with vulnerable emotion, a tremble in his voice, as he says it. "Welcome home, My Son....." A slow pan back to the book reveals that all of them, every child in Christmasland, has taken their father's name, and the eerie music wants me to be chilled to the bone, but instead, I'm so ridiculously giddy. All the naysayers back in season one, who said Charlie doesn't care what happens to the children he takes, after he drains them of their youth, can be damned. Charlie LOVES his babies, and it's never been more evident than now, in this beautiful gesture, bestowing them with his last name. (Can I please have it too, Love?)

The happy, romping joy of Christmasland tears away as we are thrown back into the solemn silence of Chris' death scene. Okay...... I consider this episode iridescently perfect, my wildest dreams made real, but I do have one very furious complaint. I HATE the way the aftermath, or should I say, lack thereof, of Chris' death was handled!!!! Yes, I understand that time is of the essence here, that we've got to get to Christmasland post haste to save Wayne, that it's the number one priority right now. But GOD, Vic, your father just DIED, he was MURDERED right in front of you, SAY SOMETHING!!!!! Ughhhh it's just all so apathetic. And confusing. I cried for days, almost the entire week after Chris died, and here Vic is so..... okay? Apparently her father's death affected me, more than her!? What!? Even Lou, God love him, drapes his coat over Chris' body, without shedding a tear. Are you KIDDING me!? Lou, our sweet, sentimental, Teddy Bear Man, lovable, fluffy, deep-feeling Lou doesn't cry here!? I get that he'd only just met Chris, but then again, this is the father of the woman he loves. Maybe he's trying to be strong for her, but it just seemed oddly out of character for the both of them. I wanted a moment, however fleeting, where they said something nice about Chris, where Lou held her as she knelt by her father's body, spoke to him, and wept, and most importantly forgave him. She does mention something about not wanting to leave him out there alone, but it's so nonchalant, such an afterthought.

I did, however, absolutely ADORE the romance in this scene between Vic and Lou.

"Lou Carmody, you are the best man I have ever known, and I'm thankful every day that Wayne has your heart."

Lou and Vic's love has always been so warm, so comfortable, joking, laughing, like a warm sweater that hugs you, and I love that! But this, right here, was the first time that I felt that exquisite ache between them, that desperate longing, that spark that great loves are made of.

"Kiss me, just kiss me," Vic laughs breathlessly, and this kiss hits something powerful, between the danger that awaits and the love that's just been professed. Vic is not a super sentimental person, so it was really wonderful to see her, giddy like this, a woman in love as she looks over her shoulder on her bike, her smile indestructible.

I love Maggie here too, she's not taking no for an answer, and OMG was I the only one that FORGOT Mags was hunting the Wraith even before she met Vic!? Confounding to think there was a time when Vic and Charlie weren't a thing, battling across worlds!!!! That it was once just a fabulously eccentric librarian, asking her scrabble bag questions about a strange, black car.

"Forget the Wraith!!! We're going to blow up Christmasland!!!" Maggie cries triumphant, and there's something about seeing it, this impenetrable place, this frosty fortress, "CHRISTMASLAND," scrawled in that iconic green spray paint on the Shorter Way wall. She's really doing it. Vic's storming Christmasland, and hell's coming with her. Charlie Manx BEWARE.

There's so much to gush about in this episode, it really did feel like Christmas Morning, breathlessly tearing open surprise after surprise!!! Charlie not knowing about the ghost resurrection of Sleigh House was a SHOCK, a staggering TWIST of the most inspired BRILLIANCE!!! Where Christmasland is his dream, Sleigh House is his long repressed nightmare, lurking in the shadow of it, his own personal shop of horrors. I was STUNNED. I thought Charlie had recreated it himself, from memory, resurrecting his dead wife, but whether to have a piece of her, of it, some semblance of the wonderful life he'd lost, or to torture her, keeping her locked away inside, I couldn't decide!!! Charlie's face falls as he sees it, aghast, stumbling through the darkest remnants of his memories, and my heart panged for him, needing to console him, having never seen him so frightened, so tremulous, so...... vulnerable. He's terrified out of his mind. Shrinking back against the wall, his chest shuddering as his worst childhood trauma, Mr. Tim, calls out to him, haunting, and for a moment, he's that helpless little boy again, retreating back inside himself, begging the voice to stop. But even Mr. Tim cannot compare to the vengeful apparition waiting upstairs........

Cassie Manx, a ghastly vision, beautiful and terrible, in a white gown, with her mangled face, and fierce, glassy eyes, appears, and Charlie's heart stops, his lips trembling on her name as he falls back, horrified, against the closet.

"Come now, Charles. You know I've always been here...... nagging at you from the back of your mind, like a song you can't get out of your head......"

Cassie puts the needle down on the Victrola, and forcibly takes a dismayed Charles into her arms. "I'll lead this time," She hisses sardonically, and I can't help but notice the paralyzing parallels between this, and his dance with Jolene. He was so commanding, so haughty, seductive, dangerous, somehow both gentle and aggressive, as he forced her to dance with him. Here, it is Mrs. Manx that is the aggressor, not just in the way she yanks him about the room, erratic, threatening, but in the merciless accusations, that she wields like a knife. "You always were such a terrible dancer, Charles, my father paid for classes, but it didn't help. That's all you've ever done, spin us around in circles." I'm so torn, because Cassie is a blinding FORCE, a fearsome apparition, finding in death, the words, the voice, she didn't have in life, punishing and mesmerizing, making Charlie suffer, degrading him, each facing their demons in each other, in this dance with death. But again, my heart BLEEDS for my beautiful boy in his admonishment, called a failure of a man, a selfish husband, and careless father. (Also, I'm sorry, Cassie, but DAMN your ex husband CAN dance, I've seen it!!!!)

"You say that Christmasland is a safe haven for children, but really it's a place for you to escape yourself, a place where you are not a failure, where you are not a coward who devoured his own family, to FEED his insatiable ego."

Charlie's voice cracks, as he raises his protest, falling back against the wall, Cassie caressing his face with sinister intent, as he closes his stricken eyes. "That is why it will all turn to STATIC." I shiver with the frigid tension between them, and Charlie shivers too, beneath her fingernails, as she gets under his skin, both of us destroyed by these words, and all I want to do is run, pull him into my arms, soothe his trembling fear!!! And yet..... part of me is marveling at this terrifying creature, who could make even Charlie Manx afraid, leave him wrought with guilt, and in this moment, oddly enough, Cassie Manx has never been more ALIVE.

My favourite part of this scene, was how each of them were fighting to protect Millie from the other. An avenging ghost, and a Supernatural Strong Creative Vampire, and yet in this scene especially, we see them as what they are at the heart. Parents. In the midst of all the paranormal activity, there's something so human, so domestic about it, arguing what's best, who's best for their daughter. "How's that gonna happen, Cassie?" Charles snarls, the cast spell wearing off. "I'M IMMORTAL!!!" I loved that, his nostrils flaring, protectively pulling Millie to his side. This is beautiful writing and such a powerful scene, I was entranced.

There was one thing, however, that I thought was incredibly foolish of Cassie...... "Vic McQueen did...... She's already here." I wanted to scream. WHY Cassie!? WHY would you TELL Charlie that Vic had breeched the walls of Christmasland!? What MADNESS!!! I get that she wants to see his face when she reveals Vic, the woman he hates most, second only to his mother, has done the impossible, but the ONE thing Vic has going for her in the Christmasland strike, is the element of surprise. Now, even that's gone....... Instead, I would have had Cassie help Vic by distracting Charlie, delaying him in the house, and then have Charlie figure it out the longer it goes on, realize why she's been so desperate to keep his company!!! Now, THAT would have been AMAZING!!! I did love that last line however, as Charlie tears out of Sleigh House.

"Go, before Vic McQueen releases the white static that takes us all!!!!" Holy epic foreshadowing, Cass........ WOW!!!!

The scenes with Vic and Maggie storming Christmasland are incredible, and I LOVED how Maggie shouting, "Red Light!!!" a very human trick, worked perfectly on the vampire girl!!! Well DONE, NOS4A2!!!! I also loved how Vic KNEW Wayne was going to pick the astronaut costume, even though this little space man wasn't him!!! Thus far, between the lofty sleighcoaster, the thousands of glittering lights, and the gingerbread houses, covered in powder snow, Christmasland has been a luminous dream, a paradise for the lost. But all too quickly, as the girls near a looming pine, ominous in size and appearance, we are introduced to the first of the nightmare elements. My stomach churned, sickened, as I saw them, human heads hanging from The Great Tree like ornaments, shriveled with ghoulish expressions. What the HELL!? Maggie shares my horror, and as her hand flies to cover her mouth, gagging, I just know...... Joe. I felt the tears fall, horrified and angry that Charlie had done this to Joe, my heart sinking, staring into his empty, sad eyes. The rile in Charlie's cry, sounds the beginning of the end. "VICTORIA MCQUEEN, Welcome........ to Christmasland!!!!! The showdown is about to begin.

Charlie Manx, having shaken off the horrors of Sleigh House, now grins smugly, the coloured lights flickering behind him, catching his glossy hair in their glow, his black coal eyes, flashing mischief and danger, as he stands with them, his children, the New Family Manx. With the daughter that he's always loved on one side, and the son he's never had on the other, Charlie Manx has everything he's ever wanted, and now, as Vic McQueen stands defiant, his opposite, her promising death is just the topper on the Christmas Tree.

"Let's go, Wayne, c'mon," Vic calls out to her son, but the waver in her voice, proves that she already knows it's not going to be that easy.

"But he LIKES it here, at home with me, and all his new friends....... Charlie's voice begins light, and jovial, in a spectacularly good mood, and then hardens, accusingly. "Why would you SPOIL that!?"

"Don't listen to a word he says, Wayne, do you hear me?" Vic's anger and frustration starts to bleed through her voice, and the McQueen turned Manx, doesn't answer.

"Wayne McQueen!!!"

"That's NOT my name!!!" He shoots back with his mother's defiance. And here, I fall even more in LOVE with Charlie Manx, besotted, because he has the CUTEST freaking laugh, I have EVER heard in my life!!! It's pure music, that darling, boyish giggle, eyes widening, half surprised, half mad with adoration for his devoted son. Laughing in her face, eyes dancing, seeming to say, "Told you so," Charlie dismisses her charges of hurting him, being a monster, with an adorable, indignantly yelled RUBBISH!!! However, just as he's gained a son, he seems to be losing a daughter.......

"My bridge didn't get me here on its own, Charlie. Wayne, ask her. If she's so happy here, why does she want a ride out from me?"

Ooooh PLOT TWIST, Charlie!!! Charlie's laughing features, somber, intense with this revelation. Millie asking him to go with her to the real world, was one thing...... but asking VIC MCQUEEN for her aid, helping secret her inside, defying her own father, was the rebellious princess' act of treason against the Christmasland King.

Vic continues to appeal to Millie, pleading for her help, encouraging her to take back what her father's taken away from her, and while you can see the words' effect on Millie, her eyes sad, and emotional, she cannot speak against him, not yet. Charlie knows not to let Vic see him sweat, and he doesn't even bat an eye as he muses coolly.

"Why don't we let Wayne choose? Do you want to go with...... HER," he snarks disdainfully, trying not to roll his eyes, as Vic smiles hopeful at her son. "Or do you want to stay with me, in Christmasland.......?

All eyes on Wayne, and Charlie's smirking, because he already knows what his darling boy is going to say, although I, myself, was rather stunned at the way he said it........

"Why would we EVER leave? We JUST got here," He frowns, his tiny voice cruel, and condescending. Whoah, Wayne. That's cold.......

I LOVED this scene, the palpable tension, the scathing betrayals, in both the McQueen and Manx camps, as Charlie and Vic's kids switch sides, turning on their parents, moving across the board like chess pieces. I also noticed how Charlie stood closer to Wayne than Millie, as the scene went on, and I couldn't help but wonder...... as much as she aches to be her human self again, and grow up to go on adventures, perhaps it was also jealousy that fueled this drastic turn around. Something about what she said to him, earlier in the Ice Maze...... "I have ENOUGH friends," and how she went out of her way not to be there when Wayne arrived, and how Charlie said, "Why don't we let WAYNE, choose," dismissing her own professed desire to Vic, without a second address. Millie has been her father's sugar plum for centuries...... what will happen now that his son has become the apple of his eye?

"Scissors for the DRIFTER, everyone!!!!" Charlie yells to his little army, that delectable rile in his voice, as his fanged children descend on Vic and Maggie!!! Charlie's done playing, toying, teasing, he's kept one McQueen in, and it's time to go for the kill, win the game, and take the other McQueen OUT!!! Vic and Maggie dashing through the snow, dodging little vampires, setting bombs all the way, and the chase is ON!!! I was so THRILLED that horrid, appalling tree was the first thing to go, exploding into flames, victoriously felled!!!! Yes!!! THANK YOU, MAGGIE!!! This one's for JOE!!! I had NO idea though, that setting fire to Christmasland would hurt Charlie the same way damage done to the Wraith does, and somehow it seemed even WORSE!!! Charlie's nose bleeds and he coughs into his hand, staggering into the toy shop, and I don't know who I'm more afraid for........

Scissors for the Drifter rages on, Maggie and Vic sneaking their way through the vast, dazzling array of carnival games, and racing amusement rides, blanketed in fresh snow. The Red Light Girl from earlier, sidles up to Maggie, and all of us elicit a collective gasp, as she slips the scrabble bag from Maggie's coat pocket. "Give it back..... Red Light, Red Light," Maggie warns, trying not to panic, but you can see it in her eyes....... That bag is everything to her, and she doesn't know who she is without it.......... "New game!" The other girl exclaims with claws and a growl, and her and Mike play keep away with the bag, much to Maggie's frantic dismay. I was so relieved, and tremendously appreciated NOS4A2's approach to the Found Children of Christmasland, how fun and games were their first instinct, and maiming and murder were more of a side quest.

Meanwhile, Vic, having escaped the receding vampire throng with her life, unscathed, save one bite, isn't giving up. There's no WAY in HELL she's going anywhere without Wayne You'll-Never-Be-A-Manx McQueen. In the midst of the death defying chase, however, I was so hoping Vic would look up once, and see Charlie's face in the moon!!! Making a face of her own, mouth open in disgust, I can just hear her!!!! What the HELL-!? I would literally have given anything for her reaction to that!!! She spies Wayne, determined, coaxing him, and he looks at her maniacally, with his new father's malicious smirk, as he hurries away, making her chase him, fleeing into a vast, seemingly endless maze, made entirely of ice.

As we rise to the scintillating climax, we find the children's betrayal against their feuding parents has taken a defining, final turn. Charlie and Millie's scene in the toyshop was SENSATIONAL!!! Mattea Conforti plays Charlie's daughter with such conviction, and I am SO impressed by the emotional range, the rare talent and prowess of expression, she has at this young of an age!!! Charlie coaxes Millie in his sweet, fatherly way at first, trying to govern his anger, as he tells her about the demise of that horror show Christmas tree.

"The Great Tree........ We dreamt it up together, branch, by branch, and now it's gone."

Millie seems altogether unmoved, and if there was ever a moment that she is so over Christmasland, it's now. Charlie tries to reason with her, tries to accuse Vic for his daughter's crimes against him.

"You are not the first to be twisted into knots by Vic McQueen...... Don't you see? She's POISONED you and your mother against me, made you doubt your own FATHER!!!"

Millie begs him to let Wayne go, let Vic leave with her son, and asks him to stay with her, no more new kids in Christmasland. Charlie hesitates. "I have work to do. And that wouldn't be very fair to Wayne......" Charlie's not giving up his son, not even if it means losing his daughter, and Millie knows it......

"I'm not enough...... I never was. I begged you to leave with me, and you said no. Now, I ask you to stay, and you won't do that either?"

I teared up like crazy, she's so heartbroken, so emotionally wrought in this moment, and I saw a little girl, who would give up all of Christmasland's ornamental wonders, her birthday, and all of her friends, all of her dreams, just to have her father's sole attention.

Charlie's rage starts to take over, veiling his pain, trying to inspire Millie to action, win her back, promising her all will be forgiven, if she takes her sword, and hangs Vic's head from a new tree.

"You want to hang Vic's head on a tree? Go DO it yourself......... I'm LEAVING."

Charlie snaps, seizing her arm, nostrils flaring, the pain feeding his fury. "I am your FATHER!!! You will DO exactly as I SAY!!" A lot of people cried out against this action, of him forcibly taking her arm, but I saw it less as a show of patriarchal aggression, and much more as him desperately clinging to her, out of fear. She's his joy, his everything, and he doesn't want her to go, not now, not ever.

"You can't stop me...... unless........ you'd never raise a hand to a child, would you, Father?"

He lets her go at once, unnerved by her clever challenge, and watches heartbroken, as she takes her leave of him. Fuming, he snatches up the shiny, silver autopsy hammer off the table, his favourite toy in the shop, and leaves the store, just as the candy shop blows up in a splinter of wood and a burst of orange fire. He coughs, bent over, his hair pulling loose from his coif, his nose bleeding. Charlie and his dream world are unraveling fast.

"I want to play a game with you........"

Back in the ice maze, Wayne approaches his mother, and I have a BAD feeling, his voice eerie, and unkind........ Danger, Vic, Danger....... I whisper, the frosty air ripe with foreboding.

Vic smiles, fighting the tears, saying she'll play any game he wants, even his NBA basketball game, and she'll let him whoop her butt. Wayne resists, and I think his resentment starts to show, having never had a Christmas, having to always watch her leave him, no matter how good he's been.

"You know what Christmas every day means, don't you? No 4th of July, no friends, no sunshine, no summer, no swimming, no hotdogs, no fireworks. That was our favourite day in the whole wide world, remember? We would go to the lake with your dad, and watch the bright colours explode in the stars in the sky........ You always loved it."

I cried. Vic is so not a sentimental person, but here she is, so sweetly pouring her heart out to her son, and it is beautiful, and so moving, as she lets herself love him, be vulnerable in that love, and let that vulnerability make her strong. "Even though it's impossible, I'm here, fighting Charlie Manx because I made a promise to you, and I'm done breaking promises to you, Baby," Wayne's eyes soften, looking again like his human self, her words striking every chord, finally breaking Charlie's thrall, reaching him, and Vic cries, overwhelmed with the love she's let herself feel, pulling him in for hug, cradling the back of his head so tenderly. I don't think we could have ever prepared ourselves.......... for what came next. The music swells to its emotional height, and then deadens, a swift stab of metal scissors, and I feel their sharp pierce, leaving a sucking hole in my own chest, my breath strangled, as Wayne STABS his mother with the scissors, running off, laughing, with the cheerful exclaim of, "I win Scissors for the Drifter!!! Et tu, Bats!?!? It's a SHOCKING, tragic scene, that leaves you with a hollow fear. Is there any of Wayne left to save?

Ahhhhh but the BEST is yet to come, Kids!!! That scintillating climax, I promised you, the most chilling of all of Christmasland's thrills? It's here....... It's fire and ice, and all the sinister deliciousness you've been craving, and it's my FAVOURITE scene in an episode full of sparkling snow white perfection. Maggie, after chasing Red Light Girl into the Ice Maze, and taking her bag back, is saved by a staggering Vic, and our two dauntless heroines, navigate their way through Charlie's mind-bending, frozen labyrinth.

"You're bleeding......" Vic manages, out of breath, still clutching the stab wound on her side.

"YOU'RE bleeding......" Maggie counters cleverly, and it's a really sweet moment amidst all the screaming chaos, as the girls laugh together, Maggie supporting Vic, as they stumble and search for the exit. The feeling is mutual. It's time to get the HELL out of Christmasland.

Drops of blood, crimson stark against the blinding white, tall black leather boots, a supple leather glove reaching down to touch the blood, brushing the snow. Charlie.

The girls hurry as fast as their injuries will allow, crying for joy when they see the exit, both bitten and bruised, one brutally stabbed, chancing a glance over their shoulders when they hear a noise. But when they look back, the inviting exit is gone, and in its place, a looming wall of solid ice.

"I just saw it, it was there!!!" Maggie cries bewildered, holding Vic upright, desperately confused.

Charlie, nose bleeding, a devastatingly handsome dark figure, creeps up behind them, hammer in hand, so happy to explain.

"That's the beauty of an inscape. Everything here is a product of my........ imagination." He simpers sinisterly, and in a move that is straight up SYLAR, playfully brings the hammer to tap his forehead. "Not fluid, like water, but semi-solid...... like, say...... ICE," Charlie pounds the hammer into the ice once, teasing and deadly, the music shivering, as he advances on them, trapping them in a dead end.

"Ironic, isn't it, Vic...... When you had Wayne in your life, you were always looking for an exit, and now you're here, looking for him. Longing for forgiveness, which you'll never find, just the way your father never found it. It's a McQueen family tradition........ dying in dead ends!!!"

Another searing truth exposed in the midst of a good seethe, and Vic, rather than spitting curses, reining down on him full force, pleads with him instead, tears in her eyes, her voice tremulous. "Let her go, Manx!!! You can have me-"

Charlie Manx snarls, his eyes murderous with dark fury, thrusting the hammer at Vic, breathing hard, rasping.

"I ALREADY HAVE YOU!!!!!"

I can honestly say, that was the SEXIEST damn thing I've EVER seen in my entire life, my whole body went numb, quivering as I touched my heart, barely able to whisper, "Yes!!!! YES you do!!!!" How the HELL that ice maze didn't melt in the face of that kind of LETHAL heat, will forever be a Christmasland Mystery. There aren't even words, clumsy, coherent, or otherwise, for how HOT I was for Charlie Manx in this moment, melting in his thrall.

Without another word, he pulls back the hammer, and strikes Maggie with a deafening CRACK, and she goes down HARD, moaning in anguish. Charlie's spell shivers around me, as the fire just ignited, is introduced to the coldest fear. Not again...... No, no, no, Charlie, PLEASE GOD don't kill, Maggie!!!! I can't do it, not again, NOT HER, no, please, I'm still grieving Chris, Baby, STOP!!!" My heart on pause, and Charlie hesitates, before the bomb beneath the sleigh coater EXPLODES, setting off a chain reaction, bomb, after bomb, billowing smoke, hungry, licking flames, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad, the shining dream becoming an inferno nightmare, as Christmasland burns into a firestorm.

Charlie SCREAMS in excruciating agony, aging rapidly, hammer fumbling from his grasp, into the blanket of snow, crouching in anguish, and Vic doesn't hesitate to pluck up the hammer, and crack him HARD across the skull, knocking him out cold. With a grunt of frustration, seething hatred boiling up from her whole body, she smashes the hammer against Charlie's bloodied skull again, and again....... and again.

"Vic, you have to STOP! It won't do any good, you KNOW that!!! He's just an old bitch, that's all he ever was....."

Okay, seriously Mags, I love you, but can people just STOP calling Charlie a BITCH!? First Bing and now Maggie!? Ughhh, I HATEEE it so much! Second...... for the LOVE of GOD, Victoria McQueen, thank you for stopping that brutal smashing of my boy's skull, but, whatever you do...... DON'T DROP THAT FREAKING HAMMER!!!!! She does. She drops it. WHY does she drop it, why not take it with her!? Why leave Charlie's favourite toy behind for him to murder her with!?!?

While we're at it, I have another question!!! As Charlie searches frantically through the crowd of running scared vampire children, the park engulfed in flames, asking each one that passes, if they've seen Millie, WHY do they not answer him!? He's Charlie Freaking Manx, their famed Father Christmas!!! He's like a rock star, a saviour to them, whyyyyy won't they help him!? So Maddening. I was also surprised that Millie's ornament was her mother's golden cat brooch. After seeing the silver moon one, in "Gunbarrel," last year's season finale, that looked like Charlie, hanging on one of the trees outside the ruins of Sleigh House, I thought for SURE that it was hers!!! Who else's could it be!?

I CHERISHED the absolute MOM Moment Vic has at the end of this episode, where she's just so DONE!!!! She doesn't care that the world's on fire, doesn't care that her son is a soulless vampire that just stabbed her, she's freaking HAD it!!!

"BRUCE WAYNE MCQUEEN!!!!" She yells in unhinged reprimand, finding her Mom voice, as she charges him, wrests the scissors out of his hands, hurling them away, and hauls him up off the ground, even while he's kicking and screaming!!! He's surly in his protest, yelling out how much he'll hate her, and never forgive her, if she takes him away, calling out for Charlie to come save him!!! That was so freaking fantastic, again, such a raw, real human moment in the midst of the supernatural cacophony. The coloured lights flicker before they go dead, plunging Christmasland into complete darkness.

"Christmas is over, isn't it?"

"Yeah Bats..... It's over."

Or is it.......? I have it on good authority, from Father Christmas himself, no less that Christmasland is FOREVER......... Let's hope Charlie Manx and the Wraith are too, as our seductive villain's dreams go up in flames. Here's to the SERIES BEST EPISODE, and to our beloved supernatural fantasy, NOS4A2 getting renewed for SEASON 3!!!! Christmasland in flaming ruin, his son and daughter strewn, both forsaken, Charlie find the Wraith, and save your soul, else your winter reverie will be naught, but a smoking hole. You have to fight, you have to make it!!! Turn the key, Charlie, it's time........ to get CREATIVE!!!!

#nos4a2 review #nos4a2 #charlie manx #vic mcqueen #wayne mcqueen #millie manx #cassie manx #maggie leigh #welcome to christmasland

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jasontoddiefor · 5 years

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Sunday Batfam Fanfic Recs!

Welcome to my second Sunday Batfam Fic Rec list!

Since the first list was such a success, I’ve decided to actually do this weekly! What is ‘this’ you ask?

Easy! Every Sunday I’ll recommend Batfam fanfics of a specific theme. The first week was Batman Beyond/Time Travel, then we had a Spooky Halloween Special and, finally, this week’s theme is…

Billionaire Batfam, Social Media & Galas!

If you want to, you can request a theme and I’ll try to find fanfictions for that!

Here’s my Batfam Fanfiction Rec Tag.

That being said, have fun reading 30 fanfictions and please leave these lovely authors a comment!

Title: #BayneIsCanon Summary: Gotham ships Batman and Bruce Wayne. He's not really sure how to feel about it. #trainwreck #bayne #scandal Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17226011

Title: #gotham is trending Summary: thghhhh: ahhhhh, i'm back in gotham. can't wait to get back to a supervillain attack every other day. i've missed this. [the city of gotham, it's vigilantes, and resident billionaires - as seen through social media] Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12331965

Title: (Dance) Lessons Summary: “STOP!” Cass shouted, suddenly appearing between them. “No talking. No fun.” she gave each one a glare. “Only… dancing.” Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13205775

Title: (that moment when) A Supehero Replies to You Summary: Dick Grayson, as any good millennial, is an avid fan of Buzzfeed: Unsolved. So, when Shane and Ryan discuss the death of Jason Todd, Dick can't help but laugh. Laugh, and then film the reactions of the batfamily when they find out....in costume. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18561994

Title: a hat fashioned from tin foil Summary: nightwang @karakurachou – 8 hours ago jason todd is alive and faked his death so he could become robin: a conspiracy theory thread. Batfam conspiracy theories meet social media. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14356020

Title: and it comes back again Summary: Bruce “I accidentally slipped and fell across the room, took out three tables and broke a desk with your body as I ACCIDENTALLY fell on you also you’re going to jail” Wayne takes his young protégé down the rewarding path of revenge. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14268537

Title: Brother Bear Summary: Dick slips a Disney reference into a speech, Tim only realizes because Jason sneaks into his own memorial gala to finish the quote. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21036350

Title: Bruce got Therapy instead Summary: “I’m twenty four and have yet to find a partner,” Bruce stated, not looking up from the paper. “While true, I hardly think that is a subject to worry over right now. Many people your age have yet to meet someone they desire to spend the rest of their life with.” “It’s...I don’t really have a problem with the fact that I haven’t met anyone.” A pause where Bruce took a contemplative sip of his coffee. Alfred patiently waited for the young man to say what was actually going through his mind. “Well, the Manor seems rather...empty, don’t you think?” He finally looked up to his butler. Alfred fully turned to Bruce, his free hand held behind his back. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make, sir.” “I’m thinking about adopting, Alf.” OR: A world in which Bruce Wayne got therapy instead of becoming Batman. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20634062

Title: Chase You Down Until You Love Me Summary: The Waynes make a sport of their high profile in the media during yet another boring gala. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102315

Title: Diversionary Tactic Summary: Jason, from his early days as Robin to his later days as Red Hood, has had a unique skill set. It ends up being weirdly useful and also possibly the grossest way to have a father-son relationship moment, but hey, that’s life. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12624390

Title: Favorite Parts Summary: There are things Cass loves about Wayne parties, and things she does not. What she loves most is seeing her Father act himself at those parties. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11195331

Title: Gala Night Summary: "What if I use the wrong fork at dinner?" "You won't" "But what if I do?" Bruce arched an eyebrow "Do you seriously think that none of the kids ever used the wrong fork?" [...] Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397771

Title: Getting out of a Gala Summary: In a world where Bruce found Jason closer to nine and his fallout with Dick wasn't that bad, Jason gets forced to attend a gala. Luckily, or unluckily for him, he ends up getting out of it partway through. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15968498

Title: Gotham’s Top Ten Memes Summary: Every city has its pride and Gotham isn't different. We love our “dark and gloomy” architecture (meet us in the Batburgers parking lot Metropolis) and our Waynes, our vigilantes and most importantly: Our memes. So, without much further ado, we present you Gotham’s top ten memes. Gotham, the Waynes and the Bats through the eyes of social media. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19283281

Title: Happy Little Accidents Summary: Bruce and Lois have a quiet, friendly moment at a gala. Memories of their children make them laugh and cry a little. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21176123

Title: Mess with Them Summary: Selina Kyle is at the first gala event a young Jason Todd attends with Bruce. And she knows exactly what he's going through. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7559761

Title: Nightmare at the Gala Summary: When an amateur group of bad guys get their hands on fear toxin, they decide to use it on their next big game: the semi-annual Gotham Leaders Family Gala. And lo and behold, your favorite vigilante family just happens to be there too. But without their alter egos, they’re just another helpless rich family with easily kidnap-able kids. Will a frantic, fear toxin induced Bruce Wayne get his head together to save them? Or will he accidentally reveal his family’s biggest secret? Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14885828

Title: Of Smiles and Broken Things Summary: Tim's first gala isn't going as well as he had hoped, but at least the host is nice. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17899127

Title: Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts Summary: A DC universe where moms are awesome and raise their kids right. Now with more melanin and queerness. Also, Gotham's in Michigan and Metropolis is in Connecticut. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Fics are in chronological order but are all standalone. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/440926

Title: Stay a Child Summary: “Redo it,” Bruce orders. “Aw, come on!” Dick dares to pout — a thing that he uses often, and would work on anyone but Bruce and Alfred. Sometimes. Bruce gives him a look. “I’m not going to do it for you.” “I’m going to misdo it until you do,” Dick threatens. [Two times Dick went to a gala with Bruce and one time he didn’t.] Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15098102

Title: The Art of the Gala Summary: Barry is the one who usually goes to these things. Unfortunately for Hal, Barry got called in to Central for a case, so now Hal has to go to the Gala with Bruce. Bruce is just lucky Hal loves him so much. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17654852

Title: The Bat-Signal Smashing Charity Gala Summary: Spawned from the realization that them making Gordon physically destroy the Bat-Signal at the end of The Dark Knight is absurd and hilarious. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1867965

Title: The Bats Out of the Bag (At the Drop of a Tinfoil Hat) Summary: In which Tim is Bruce's secretary, there's a gala, and questions get answered. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18762865

Title: The Gotham’s Wayne Summary: dukeofthomas [We all know who the real QUEEN of the Manor is] The Gothamites are very invested in the Waynes. Very very interested. A journey through the Gotham's favorite family: the Waynes through Social Media. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13333119

Title: The Problem with Galas Summary: Galas are an issue, because something always goes wrong, and no one knows this better than Dick Grayson. (It's a bit of a problem, actually, but he can always depend on Bruce to get him out of trouble.) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/906501

Title: The Wayne Deal Summary: Bruce Wayne's parents made a deal, if you do something to make yourself noticed at a Gotham Gala- enough to impress the papers, then they will leave right away. Bruce passes this deal along to the children in his custody.Each one adds their own flair to it. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17641559

Title: three bars, one city Summary: The Wayne kids join Twitter. This is widely seen as a very bad move. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18172040

Title: Unattended Wards and their Unfortunate Guardians Summary: Roy and Dick are left alone for a couple hours at a gala. How much trouble could two boys possibly cause while unattended? Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14770661

Title: Wayne Family Tweets, aka Why Bruce Wayne's Hair Is Going Gray Summary: JTW @hottoddie oh okay u hold a totally acceptable grudge for a couple years and suddenly ur “”bitter”” Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17387441

Title: Wayne Gala Summary: Alfred teaches the boys how to dance. The girls go shopping for dresses. And it only took three hours into the party for all that effort go to waste. …But that's fine. They were Waynes. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11316591

#dc #dc comics #batman #batfam #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #Damian Wayne #Tim Drake #cassandra cain #duke thomas #Stephanie Brown #batfamrecs

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setepenre-set · 5 years

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Operation: Angler Fish (part 3)

Megamind/Roxanne, K+ rating, pre-movie AU

Minion encourages Megamind to give their damsel in distress an unusual present for her birthday.

AO3 | FFN

(links disabled so that this will show up in the tumblr search tool. I will reblog this momentarily with the links; look for it in the notes.)

"Really? Now?"

Roxanne, tied extremely loosely in her customary kidnapping chair, sees, in the viewscreen over Megamind's shoulder, Metro Man is still sitting on his white couch, a plate of nachos balanced on his lap.

"Come on, man," he says, "the game's on!"

"Well, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your busy day of couch-potato-ing, Metro Man," Megamind says, "but evil does not follow a sportsball shed-u-al."

"—really?" Roxanne can't help but interject. "Funny, how there's never an evil plot while there's a baseball game on. What a coincidence that the evil schedule always happens to be clear when the Metro City Wolverines are playing."

Megamind glances over his shoulder at her, barely suppressing the smile she can see threatening at the corners of his mouth.

"I have no idea what you mean, Miss Ritchi," he says.

"Can't it wait? Wayne says. "I mean—"

"Hey!" Roxanne says, a little sharply, "I could be in mortal danger, here!"

"Dire peril!" Megamind adds.

"Desperate straits!"

"Terrible jeopardy!"

"My very life at risk!"

"Ugh, come on," he says, "why do we have to go through this same silly charade again?"

Megamind's spine straightens.

"Silly charade?" he says, voice stiff, and Roxanne can tell by the set of his shoulders that he's genuinely offended.

Wayne, though, either doesn't notice or maybe doesn't care. He picks up a chip and takes a bite.

"Yeah," he says, mouth full, gesturing with the half-eaten chip. "Roxy's been kidnapped, I'm gonna stop you; we've been playing through this our entire lives. Why do you keep trying? Face it, little buddy." He pops the rest of the chip into his mouth. "I'm invulnerable. You're never gonna beat me."

Megamind's hands ball into fists at his sides. In the viewscreen, Metro Man eats another nacho with a bored, complacent air.

"You know," Megamind says, "what your problem is, Metro Man?”

"Besides you?"

"You think that you're above everyone else," Megamind says, "that the rest of the world is beneath you. You spend all of your time up on cloud nine, looking down on the rest of us. Well, you are about to be brought down to earth, Metro Man. Brought down by your one true weakness...Roxanne Ritchi!”

Megamind’s eyes flick over to meet hers as he says her name, a wicked smile playing around the edges of his mouth and Roxanne takes a sharp breath.

(Your one true weakness, Roxanne Ritchi, and it sounds so much like Megamind’s standard evil monologue, but it’s not—Megamind isn’t threatening her, isn’t even really playing at threatening her.

He’s threatening Metro Man with her.

Not a pawn, not a damsel in distress—a weapon, a partner.)

Wayne sighs a deeply put-upon sigh.

"Okay," he says, "okay okay okay—let's get this over with."

The air around him blurs as he starts up his superspeed, and then he disappears from the viewscreen. Megamind presses a button, making the screen go dark, and then he whirls around, cape billowing, eyes shining with anticipation.

“We are warmed up and ready to go, Sir!” Minion calls, and Megamind rubs his hands together in glee.

"Places!" he cries, for no apparent reason, since they're all already in their places, her in her kidnapping chair, Minion at the console in the corner, him at the viewscreen. "Places; places; places!”

"Bowg!"

"Bowg bowg bowg!"

"Bowg bowg!"

The brainbots seem to find Megamind's excitement contagious; Roxanne watches as Megamind runs around in a little circle, brainbot cloud spinning around him, before he ends up in exactly the same position as he started.

And—

—and—

—god, he’s so—so—

And maybe she should—maybe she should laugh, or at least want to laugh, but something that is definitely not laughter catches in her throat, beneath her sternum and what she wants, what she really, truly wants is—

Megamind glances over and meets her gaze, and his grin fades into a look of puzzled bemusement. He tilts his head, a question implied in the gesture, and Roxanne opens her mouth to say—to say—

She’s not sure what she intends to say, but it definitely starts with Megamind, and there’s a please in there somewhere, and whatever it is has her heart fluttering in her chest, a trapped bird in her ribcage and Megamind’s brows draw together in something that looks like concern, and he takes a step towards her and—

Metro Man bursts through the roof.

He comes through just where they expected, landing in the one conveniently clear spot which just so happens to have a spotlight on it which glints off of his hair and shiny white teeth.

He straightens up and strikes a heroic pose while the dust is still settling, hands on his hips, expression more sternly determined than threatening.

"Megamind," he says, "you—"

"Now!" Megamind and Roxanne shout at the same moment, and Minion's big robotic hand slams down on the console button.

And the gun, the big showy one which seemed so clearly to be pointed at Roxanne, goes off, shooting backwards.

The gravity beam itself is invisible to the naked eye, so Roxanne can't actually see it. She sees the moment it hits Metro Man, though, because he gets a very surprised look on his face and then promptly falls over, collapsing in a way that reminds Roxanne of Saturday morning cartoons, Wiley Coyote flattened abruptly by a falling anvil.

"Urgle," Metro Man says, and—

—completely fails to move at all.

Metro Man doesn’t get up.

He makes a strangled noise and Megamind can see his muscles straining, but—

He doesn’t get up.

(a trick it has to be a trick of some kind; there’s no possible way—)

Metro Man’s eyes bulge, his features contorting into an expression of shock—an expression so ridiculous that it has to be genuine, because there is no way Wayne would ever make his face look like that on purpose.

“Gnngh,” Metro Man says, and Megamind hears himself make a choked kind of noise, a spasmodic, half-smothered laugh that edges much closer to overwrought hysteria than evil exaltation.

(villainous plot after villainous plot, but he never expected any of them to really work, never expected them to succeed—)

Megamind looks up from Metro Man, still lying on the floor, to Roxanne, sitting in her kidnapping chair. Her lips are slightly parted, and her eyes, when they raise from the fallen Metro Man to meet Megamind’s gaze, are very wide.

"Oh look," Minion says, tone mild, clearly the only one here who actually expected this to really work. "We did it.”

“We…did it,” Roxanne says.

"...we did it?" Megamind repeats, clutching the edges of his cape in what feels like a vain attempt to hold reality itself together.

“We did it!" Roxanne crows, leaping up from her chair. She gives her wrists and ankles an impatient wriggle and the ropes fall away. “Ha! I was right! Didn’t I tell you, Megamind? Didn't I tell you his powers work off of antigravity?”

“Brilliant,” Megamind says, unable to keep himself from moving towards her, unable to keep himself from holding out his arms to her, all of his rationality drowned in the radiance of her, “Brilliant; you’re brilliant, Roxanne!”

She laughs, loud and jubilant and somehow wild, her eyes shining, and runs to meet him, feet barely seeming to touch the ground, triumph carrying her like Winged Victory into his arms.

Megamind catches her and sweeps her the rest of the way off her feet, whirling her around in a circle while they both laugh, until, dizzy and off-balance with spinning and with how glorious she is, he has to stop.

“—worked, did you see—”

“—absolutely genius—”

"Tell me, Megamind,” Roxanne demands, leaning against him, her arms around his neck, "tell me you couldn't have done it without me.”

The room is still spinning around them, as if the two of them are in the eye of a hurricane or a cyclone, and Megamind’s breath catches—catches at the command in her voice and at the nearness of her.

"Never," Megamind says, breathless with awe. "I could never have done it without you, Roxanne; I tried for years, and you! The very first time—"

“—help,” Metro Man says, voice very flattened.

"Oh, shut up, Wayne," Roxanne says, not even turning her head to look at Metro Man, her eyes still fixed on Megamind’s own, and Megamind’s heart absolutely thrills.

“—dying—" Metro Man says.

"No, you're not; you're fine," Roxanne says, rolling her eyes and still not looking over at him, still not looking away from Megamind. "It's literally just gravity, Wayne; normal people feel like this all the time."

Metro Man makes a pained, disbelieving kind of noise and Roxanne makes a sound of deep annoyance and turns her head at last to look at the fallen hero.

(her arms still around Megamind’s neck, his arms around her waist, her body pressed against his, and Megamind thinks that perhaps the room is never going to stop spinning, that he’s never going to be able to catch his balance again.)

She shifts her balance, leaning even more fully into him, and Megamind stops breathing.

"Roxy—why?" Metro Man gasps out. "Betrayed—"

Roxanne’s eyes narrow and her arms slip from around Megamind’s neck as she turns to Metro Man. She regards him for a long moment, long enough for Metro Man to falter into silence.

Then, slowly, deliberately, she stalks over to Metro Man, her spine straight and her shoulders set.

(a cape, Megamind thinks disjointedly, she needs a cape; it should trail out behind her, red like fresh blood or black like shadows or dark blue like deceptively deep water)

She stops directly in front of Wayne and looks down her nose and him, then smiles like slow-working poison.

“Wayne," she says sweetly, "when's my birthday?"

Wayne gives her a look of deep bafflement.

"And how many times," Roxanne continues, still in that same tone of honeyed venom, ”how many times have I asked you to stop calling me Roxy?"

Wayne's mouth opens and closes a few times.

“That’s—that’s it?” he manages at last, “That’s—what kind of a reason is that!?”

He sounds not just utterly flabbergasted, but actually offended, and Roxanne’s eyes and mouth harden, her chin going up, and evil gods, but Megamind wishes she were wearing her crown.

“You,” she says, lip curling with contempt, “are confusing the symptoms with the disease, Wayne.”

He blinks at her blankly.

“…disease?” he says. “What disease?”

Roxanne makes a noise of extreme annoyance.

“The disease is a metaphor, Wayne!” she says.

“Oh. Uh. For what?” he asks.

“For your personality!”

“Wh—I have a great personality!”

“No!” Roxanne says. “No, you don’t! You are, in fact, a giant dick! People just tell you that you have a great personality because you’re rich and superpowered and they think you’re attractive!”

“That! That is not true!”

Metro Man looks beseechingly at Megamind, as if expecting some kind of support from him.

“That’s not true…right?” he says.

“Uhhh,” Megamind says, trying to think of a tactful way to exit this conversation.

“Oh!” Minion says, with a note of barely-detectable malice in his cheerful, helpful tone. “Like you were saying yesterday—it’s lucky that he’s all muscle and beef, elsewise no one would want to date him at all!”

“Minion!” Megamind hisses, and Minion gives him a look of limpid innocence from his suit’s aquatic headpiece.

“Sir?”

“I have a great personality,” Metro Man says sullenly.

Roxanne gives a comprehensive snort of disbelief and Metro Man glares at her.

“Oh, right,” he says, “like you’re any better! I’d rather be muscle and beef than—than—needles and complaining!”

“Minion,” Roxanne says, casual, conversational, strolling around Metro Man.

“Yes, Ma’am?” Minion asks, and pretends not to see the way Megamind’s head whips around to stare at him, and then at Roxanne in turn.

(ma’am? since when does Minion call Roxanne—)

“You remember that higher setting I said we should put on the gravity beam?”

“—there’s a higher setting?” Megamind asks. “Since when is there a higher setting?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Minion says, ignoring Megamind’s question and radiating as much pure innocence as it is possible for a fish to radiate.

“Use it,” Roxanne says.

“You got it, Ma’am!”

“WHAT?!” Metro Man shouts, and then makes an undignified shriek of pain as Minion twists the dial.

Roxanne signals to Minion to lower the setting again—signals to him with Megamind’s own private strictly-for-use-with-the-henchfish setting-lowering signal, which she is not supposed to know about! And which Minion is definitely not supposed to accept from people other than Megamind, and this was not part of the plan, never part of the plan, and—

“—no—” Metro Man chokes out.

Roxanne—Roxanne laughs, not a performatively evil laugh, but a real, wickedly-amused one, and Megamind gulps and has to stumble back to grab for the edge of the console when his knees threaten to buckle.

"Rox—anne," Metro Man says. "—not too late—turn back—side of good—help—"

“Help?” Roxanne says, voice rich with amusement. “What happened to I’m invulnerable? What happened to you’re never going to beat me?”

Metro Man makes a garbled noise and Roxanne laughs again.

Around Megamind, the shoal of brainbots are silent, hovering in the air, each of their eyepieces and attention fixed on Roxanne, each one of them as absolutely riveted by her as Megamind himself.

“You've lost, Metro Man," Roxanne says, voice soft.

She glances over at Megamind then, and smiles at him, slow and—and what he can’t help but think of as seductive and Megamind’s grip on the edge of the console is definitely the only thing keeping him on his feet right now.

"Say it,” she purrs, still looking at Megamind. “Say that you’ve lost.”

"—Roxy—"

“Minion,” Roxanne says. “The next setting again.”

"—no!" Wayne shouts, and then shrieks in as Minion twists the dial.

After a moment, Roxanne signals to Minion to turn the setting back down.

“Say. It.”

“I’ve—I’ve—lost,” Metro Man gasps out.

"And you're done," Roxanne says, beginning to circle him again, like a cat playing with a cornered mouse, "aren't you, Metro Man. This city—Metrocity...is ours."

She glances over at Megamind and he can’t remember how to breathe, can’t remember how to stand up properly, can barely manage to stop himself from falling to his knees.

When she smirks at him, Megamind promptly loses the battle with the last of his dignity and slides down the console and onto the floor.

Roxanne blinks at him, surprise and confusion and a little concern in her expression, and she takes half a step towards him before she checks herself. Out of the corner of his eye, Megamind sees Metro Man’s gaze moving back and forth between him and Roxanne, terrified and confused.

“I—yeah,” Metro Man says. “It’s, uh. It’s—yours.”

Roxanne’s head snaps back around and she pins him in place with a glare.

"Say that you'll never interfere with us again," she demands.

"I—I—yeah, sure, what—whatever you say—"

"Swear it!”

Her voice rings out, loud and snapping, and Megamind understands with a jolt that she was still toying with Metro Man earlier, because this, now, this is Roxanne being serious.

(Metrocity is ours and never interfere with us again, and she doesn’t realize, does she; she doesn’t realize she’s talking like—like—)

"I swear!” Metro Man says, sweat standing out on his brick-red face in beads, “I swear! Jeez—“

Roxanne bares her teeth, hands clenching into fists.

“I don’t think you’re taking me seriously, Metro Man,” she hisses, tone well beyond dangerous.

“I—”

“Hit him again, Minion.”

“NO!”

Minion does, and Metro Man thrashes, screeching before Minion once again turns the setting back down at Roxanne’s signalled command.

“Swear that you’ll never try to harm us again!”

“I—swear!”.

“That you’ll never try to convince anyone else to do it either!”

“Yes! Yes!”

“That you’ll never even attempt to work as any kind of hero ever again!”

“Yes! God—please—”

Roxanne holds up a hand as if she’s about to signal to Minion to turn up the dial again, and Metro Man sobs.

For a long moment, she stands looking down at him, hand half-upraised, and then she slowly lowers her hand.

"Release him, Minion."

"...Are you sure, Ma’am?" Minion asks, tone almost disappointed.

Roxanne whirls back around—really, she needs a cape—and Metro Man's eyes widen again in terror.

There is an indrawn breath kind of pause, and then—

“Oh, once more for old time's sake, Minion!”

Metro Man screams as Minion twists the dial.

“—all right, all right!” Roxanne says after a few moments of screaming. “Really, though, Minion, you can let him go now.”

Minion, sharp-toothed grin wide, presses the button and Metro Man sags in relief.

“—how—how could you?” he asks Roxanne, voice somewhere between tragedy and accusation. “You—you—what is so funny!?” he demands, as Roxanne and Minion and Megamind all exchange a look and then burst out laughing together.

“Oh, that was so much fun!” Megamind says, still sitting on the floor, giggling.

“I told you it would be!” Roxanne cackles.

“Fun!?” Wayne says, outraged. “Fun!? You—you tortured me! You—”

“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic,” Roxanne says, rolling her eyes. “I told you, it’s just gravity, Wayne. Earth standard gravity! Normal people feel like that all the time!”

“People that are used to it!” Wayne protests. “Besides, the—the higher—the higher—the higher setting—stop laughing at me!”

“There—there isn’t—any higher setting!” Megamind says, holding his sides.

“That—that was just—just a placebo dial!” Roxanne gasps out, tears in her eyes from laughing so much.

"Bu—wh—agah?" Metro Man splutters.

Megamind and Roxanne, who have at last managed to mostly stop laughing, look at him and then glance at each other again, which sets them both off again into peals of laughter.

Wayne looks between the two of them, and then draws himself up stiffly, offended dignity and muscle cramps.

“I,” he announces to the room at large, “am going home.”

“Good, good,” Minion says, mostly managing to smother his own mirth as he expertly herds Metro Man out, the brainbots following in their wake. “That’s, uh, that’s good. Why don't I call you a cab."

…to be continued.

notes:

Only one more birthday celebration update left to go! I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter.

When Megamind thinks of Roxanne as like 'Winged Victory', he's referencing Nike, the Greek goddess of victory / Victoria, the equivalent Roman goddess. Nike/Victoria were generally portrayed as having wings. Nike was generally associated with victory in athletic games, while Victoria was associated with victory over death and victory in war.

Thank you to my own Victoria, @displacerghost, for betaing this, and for helping me so much with the style and tone for this. <3

#megamind #megamind/roxanne #fanfiction #operation: angler fish

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haunt-the-stars · 5 years

Text

Ornaments

Written for Batfam Christmas Stocking 2018 for @starknjarvis27 ‘s prompts “A seemingly normal holiday activity accidentally makes someone sad, someone else comforts them.” & “Jason’s first Christmas back at the manor”

Fandom: Batman (Comics)

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain (mentioned), Dick Grayson (mentioned), Tim Drake (mentioned), Damian Wayne (mentioned)

Category: Gen

Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Jason Todd

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst

Every once in a while, Bruce wondered what it was like to have five mostly-grown children in a normal-sized house. Usually, he immediately wished he didn’t wonder about it, because the idea was terrifying. His family not being able to spread out to their own spaces...it would be awful for everyone except perhaps Dick. Even he sometimes retreated for a few hours, and Bruce would find him under a heavy blanket, headphones in, happily shutting the world out.

It was one of those times, when everyone was shutting the world out in their own way. As of this morning, all five of his kids were under his roof, and they would be having Christmas Eve dinner all together in about nine hours. Then Christmas Eve patrol, when Nightwing wore colorful string lights and Red Robin wore a Santa hat and Orphan’s humming of Christmas songs was constant on the comms. But for now, in anticipation of spending so much time together and so much energy trying not to kill each other, they were taking a few hours for themselves.

Bruce checked on Cassandra first, found her curled up with a tablet in the library watching what he had to assume was the holiday baking show she’d been watching so much lately. It’s relaxing, she’d told him. Ace sat on her feet, tail thumping against the chair. Cass waved at Bruce, not bothering to take her headphones out, then signed, “Do you need help?” Bruce shook his head, smiled, and waved back before quietly shutting the door and moving on.

Damian was harder to find, but Bruce eventually discovered him perched on a window seat in the study, fast asleep, sketchbook and a handful of pencils in his lap. Bruce smiled at the sketch of the large tree that stood outside the window. Damian had captured the falling snow, and seemed to have started adding a small bird with a tiny scarf before he fell asleep. Bruce gently moved the book and pencils to a table and replaced them with a blanket over Damian, hoping the chill from the window wouldn’t freeze him.

Dick was next, and Bruce didn’t even have to walk far into his bedroom before he heard the shower running and Dick’s voice drifting out of the bathroom with the steam. Bruce listened for a few seconds, thinking wistfully to himself how nice it would be if he actually remembered how to play the piano so he could share in Dick’s love of music. Damian had just started letting Dick teach him how to play the guitar, and Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t just the tiniest bit jealous of yet another connection they had that didn’t involve him.

He moved on down the hall to Tim’s room, and got another auditory confirmation of wellbeing in the form of Tim’s bright giggles, and then a, “It’s definitely just ‘moose,’ Bart.” A pause, then, “Well, house rhymes with mouse but it’s houses, not hice, right?” and then, “Kon, shut up,” and then more laughter, which made Bruce’s heart warm. He ignored the fact that the giggles were probably due to Tim’s obvious crush on Superboy, because to acknowledge it would be to acknowledge that yet another son of his had a thing for men who could bench press him. He had lost enough sleep over Dick, and Tim had his own contingency plans. Probably.

Bruce considered stopping his rounds there to avoid agitating his most volatile child. He had seen him just an hour or two ago, and it was unlikely that anything life-shattering had happened in the meantime. But a worried little drive always seemed to win over in situations like this. He couldn’t relax until each bird was accounted for, and after spending so long not getting to check on Jason, it was a privilege he never wanted to pass up. Especially today, given the circumstances.

All five birds in his nest for Christmas...for the first time.

True, each year had brought them a little closer to it, with Jason first sneaking in during the night to drop some mania-driven notes and presents, then the next year coming for an awkward visit during breakfast, and finally this year, a hesitant maybe to Alfred’s invitation. Truthfully, Bruce didn’t think he would come. His visits were slightly more frequent than they used to be, slightly more peaceful, and Bruce knew that he and Dick had a standing monthly dinner date, that he and Tim were steadfast video game partners, and that he genuinely seemed to like Cass and Damian. But when it came to Bruce, everything was still a battle.

He was sort of hoping for a Christmas miracle come dinner time tonight, that maybe they’d get through a whole twenty-four hours without conflict.

The room that had unofficially become Jason’s was empty, as was his childhood bedroom -- expected, since Jason usually wanted nothing to do with it. Bruce would have checked the library next, but he had been in there to see Cass and Jason wasn’t with her. Alfred was unaccompanied in the kitchen, putting a sheet of sugar cookies into the oven, and reported that he hadn’t seen Jason any more recently than Bruce had.

Beginning to worry, Bruce was about to make his way back to the study to check down in the cave when he heard the faintest of sniffles.

Oh no.

He stepped silently backwards until he could pinpoint the noise that was coming from the sitting room. It was quiet, but unmistakably Jason. Bruce could pick out the sound of any of his kids’ tears from a mile away, even if some of them were more apt to let him hear than others. He had to come up with a game plan, though. Dick and Cassandra both liked to be held when they were upset, while Damian usually calmed down with verbal reassurances and Tim was content to have someone sit with him and listen.

When Jason was young, he used to like Bruce to sit and listen to him too. But sometimes when he looked at his son now, it was like looking at a stranger. So different in the ways he talked and moved and felt that Bruce didn’t know how to take care of him, didn’t know how to love him anymore.

But he had to try.

Bruce came around the corner into the sitting room to see Jason sitting, legs crossed, face buried in his hands, under the Christmas tree. There were at least twenty Christmas trees in Wayne Manor, most of them in the front entryway and the ballroom, but those were decorated with big, plain, shining balls. The eight-foot beast in the sitting room was for all the ornaments each of his children had collected over the years, from the very first little elephant he’d given a nine-year-old Dick to Damian’s new tiny tray of teacups. Jason, despite his huge and intimidating stature, looked small beneath it.

“Jason.”

Jason started, lifted his head, and groaned. His voice was brittle and his face was red. “How much would it cost for you to go away?”

“I’m a billionaire.”

Jason huffed, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve, and Bruce stepped further into the room, doing his best to look open and non-threatening. Open palms. Loose arms. Just like Cassandra taught him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nope,” Jason said. Bruce shrugged, and sat down next to him, keeping just a bit of distance between their shoulders. Letting Jason come to him.

Praying Jason came to him.

“It’s not fair,” came Jason’s pitiful whisper after nearly a minute.

Bruce resisted the urge to turn and face him, hoping he’d feel more comfortable this way. “No, it’s not.”

“You don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

“It’s probably not fair.”

A startled, choked half-laugh came from Jason, and then a hand was in front of Bruce’s face, uncurling to reveal an ornament. One of the first ornaments he gave Jason, in the shape of a tire.

It had seemed funny at the time.

“I was thirteen, when you got me this,” Jason says, and Bruce nods patiently. “And that was seven years ago. I’m twenty.”

Bruce had a bit of a feeling he knew where this was going, but he nodded again. “Yes, you are.”

“I’ve only been...a-alive, and...sane, for...sixteen years, total.”

Now Bruce did look over, saw Jason shudder and another tear slip down his cheek. “I missed so much. I missed getting my license, and my prom, and my graduation and birthdays and I’m here fucking crying because I missed getting some stupid fucking ornaments.”

Bruce felt his heart sink. “Jay…”

He had nothing else to say. Jason’s lip quivered and his breathing stuttered, tears coming in a slow trickle as he collapsed forward into his hands again. “I’m not twenty yet, Bruce. I can’t be twenty. I can’t be twenty when I was never sixteen or seventeen or--”

“Shh.” Carefully, Bruce laid a hand on his son’s back and rubbed up and down his spine. He wasn’t sure how well a hug would be received yet. But maybe this could be a compromise. “You don’t have to be twenty. You can be sixteen if you want.”

“I can’t be s-sixteen.”

“Why can’t you?”

Jason looked up at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I can’t be younger than Tim.”

That was another thing about Jason. No matter the circumstance, no matter if they were sitting on the floor and Jason was crying, there was no one that could ever make him laugh more.

For a few seconds, Bruce felt horror crawl up his spine as he let out the most inappropriate, uncontrollable laugh he had in years. A rare “bat-guffaw,” as Dick would call it. Jason stared, wide-eyed, shocked into breathing steady again.

And then he laughed too.

Bruce hadn’t really heard Jason laugh since he came back with an adult voice. He’d heard him cackle, heard him mock him, but never laugh earnestly like a child being tickled.

His new laugh was nice. Low and loud and bubbling up through his tears as they both dissolved back into giggles every time they looked at each other. A little bit hysterical. But that suited him, Bruce supposed.

When they finally calmed down, Jason scrubbed at his eyes again, sniffling. “I’m a fucking mess.”

“You should wash your face. I’d...like to take you somewhere, before dinner.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Where?”

“The mall, maybe? Somewhere with a Christmas store. I think...I think we have some ornament shopping to catch up on.”

Please be the right thing to say.

Jason grinned.

They picked out five ornaments, in the end. A motorcycle, a little stack of books, the Gotham skyline, a tiny pair of combat boots, and a pair of comedy and tragedy masks.

It wasn’t until they were checking out that Bruce noticed Jason had added a small bat to the pile.

Maybe this would be the first of a new kind of Christmas.

#bcs2018 #batfamchristmasstocking2018 #My writing #batfamily #jason todd #bruce wayne #batfam fanfiction

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forthemultiverse · 6 years

Text

Countdown Pt 2 - Jason Todd x Reader

Request: If requests are open, could you do a part 2 to “Count Down” where Jason gets injured and the reader winds up being the one to patch him up. And during the commotion, his helmet comes off and the reader freaks out because IT’S THEIR SOULMATE!?!?! Or maybe Alfred tells Jason about how she was his soulmate and so he keeps an eye on her as much as he can until one night he has to step in and save her? If this is too much I completely understand and sorry for it being so long. Have a nice day 💗💗💗!

I hope you like it since I hadn’t even considered a part two to this but the second I saw this request my head went wild. Thank you for the inspiration, I just pray it’s good!! (Also, this is my 100th post and I’m nearly at 400 followers and freaking out inside. Thank you everyone for coming along for this ride)

- People have asked to be tagged (<3) in this Part Two so here you go: @sailorsolar12 @satansspacebubblegum

Soulmate AU: A Soulmate Universe, where the clock on your wrist counts down to the day your soulmate dies.

Part One

Sad to say, you’d been permanently stuck in Gotham since the day he died to the present. Every time you tried to leave, you felt the tug in your gut. The Universe wanted you to stay, which gave you even more motivation to leave, but still. You didn’t date, and most people worth being friends with didn’t cause a fuss if you rejected them once they saw the burnt date on your wrist. You didn’t want to go through that pain again. No more Soulmate deaths.

Your best friend didn’t get it. She thought you’d be desperate to meet your second one so you could have all the time you could have together. She also thought you wouldn’t want anyone else to know you for a minute then lose you to death. You thought avoiding dating would make it even easier for this mysterious soul number two. They could make their assumptions about soulmates, and you could die without causing them a minute of stress.

You’d probably change your mind about that when you were older, but for now, you were twenty, at Gotham University, and working for a section of the police that tried to reach out to teen runaways and orphanages. You’d spend your evenings at the orphanage, talking and getting to the know the kids, taking the older ones out and driving them to any parties they might have, baking with the younger ones, and you’d sleep there to make breakfast and tutor anyone on Saturday morning. You also found yourself playing video games and sports with them before having to leave after lunch on Sunday. Sometimes the police would have you come and talk to the kids they’d found on the streets since you always had a way with people. The kids listened to you and put up less of a fight if you were trying to convince them to get help.

Your introduction back into the Wayne Family life had been when you’d been asked to check in on one Stephanie Brown. It was separate from the police, but the Hospital also asked for your assistance when they were dealing with broken homes and kids with abusive parents. Not only was she the daughter of the Question, but she had been pregnant and had given the baby up for adoption. The Hospital asked you to check in with her, and you had information on her hold of she ever wanted to know where it was. You’d been against it first. You didn’t want anything to do with the Wayne’s, and she was dating Timothy Drake-Wayne. Surely you’d end up having to go to the Manor to meet her one time, and then you’d feel bad for never answering the butler’s calls and never explaining to Bruce why Alfred had tried to reach out to you. Ignoring his butler had resulted in multiple stroppy emails from the billionaire - and you didn’t want to know how he got your email.

You were right, but you were also too much of a pushover to say no when Stephanie sent you the location for your check-up.

You pulled up in the long driveway, suddenly hit with what it would have been like to visit the place when you were younger. You’d barely known Jason, you couldn’t make assumptions about what he was like beyond your one evening together, but you were a hopeless romantic and a very vivid daydreamer. You didn’t think about it. You refused to. You were a smiler, and bright face, a positive energy people needed in their lives. You wouldn’t let yourself seem down.

Steph had said to go round the side and into the gardens, claiming that you’d spot her easily. She was right. She sat, laughing and tangled with Tim Drake under a tree while the sun shined on them. You smiled to yourself, the aura coming off both of them was the aura of soulmates. Their legs were on top of each other, and there was a share bag of crisps knocked over slightly a few metres away.

“Hey?” You broke their bubble.

“Hey (Y/N)!” Stephanie straightened herself up slightly, her legs still tangled with Tim’s. “He’s been stuck in front of a computer for about three days and heavily sleep-deprived, so Alfred called me in - you don’t mind if he’s here right?” She suddenly sounded tense and panicked.

“I’m good if you are…what we might be talking about…?”

“He knows about the baby. We started dating right after I found out…is that weird, Nah, he was helpful and stuff. It was pretty great. Flew back into town just to help me through it.” Steph was a living heart eyes emoji for a good second, and you chuckled. The bags under Tim’s eyes were oblivious, but he was smiling softly back at her.

“Well, how are you doing? And I mean that to both of you,” you raised an eyebrow at Tim.

“Tired.” Tim sighed, leaning back on the tree.

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.” You thirded. “Anything cool going on in your life.”

“This is super casual, don’t you have to ask like a list of questions and stuff?” Tim asked

“Not a therapist yet, just helping out teens for the police and the hospital in the hopes of making people’s lives better.” You shrugged.

“Why do you wanna do that?” Tim asked, and Steph’s eyes went wide.

“Tim!”

“That came out wrong. I mean, helping people is great, what’s your inspiration?”

“I’ve always been good at getting people to talk I guess, plus I have a pretty good way of getting runaways to talk to me.”

“Which is?”

“Are you a runaway?”

“No,”

“Then you don’t need to hear it.” You turned back to Steph, “How’s school going?”

She groaned “I’m assuming you’ve been given information?”

“Just some missing homework and an absent from yesterday.”

“I overslept.” The phrasing was careful.

“Not sleeping well?”

“Nope, been up late at the moment,”

“Any reasons, or just, it’s Gotham, and no one should sleep if they want to live.” You joked and the look Steph and Tim gave each other couldn’t have been more obvious. Everyone was a bit stressed at the moment. Batman seemed to be at war with the Red Hood a few months back, then he disappeared, and reappeared about to unmask Batman and the latest Robin, then he disappeared again, and Batman disappeared. Then they both reappeared a few weeks back and even though there didn’t seem to be a problem between them this time - guns were a tense subject in America and having him just running around Gotham kept everyone on their toes and well behaved. “Wanna talk about that look or are you going to make me analyse it?”

“How are you doing at the moment?” Stephanie changed the subject. You stood up walked towards her and held out a hand. She took it and once you’d pulled Steph to her feet you gave her a tight hug. “Everything you say is between us and only us. No judgement. It’s okay to be scared.”

“There’s just a lot of stress at the moment.” You felt Stephanie relax slightly until the butler appears from the back door.

“Master Tim - ” his sentence was cut short when he saw you. “(Y/N)! What a surprise!”

“You know Alfred?” Stephanie pulled away to look at you closely. “Do you work for Bruce?”

“God no, well he basically owns the city so technically I do, but Bruce Wayne probably hates me. I never answer his emails.” You said while lifting your head to the side slightly.

“What?” Tim was looking at you, a gleam in his eye that made you feel vulnerable. Like he knew everything about you - or he would by the end of the conversation.

“What are you doing here? Not that you aren’t welcome,” Alfred had hurried over to the pair of you.

“What’s going on?” Steph’s walls were going up which meant you two were probably going to have a Bruce Wayne conversation in the future. There were some issues and anger to be dealt with there.

“Miss (Y/N) here, is…was Master Jason’s - ”

“Alfred!” You cut him off before he could finish the sentence, your voice raised slightly - something which didn’t happen often.

“Jason’s Soulmate…” Tim finished the sentence looking at the inside of your wrist. “You were - ”

“Yeah, you don’t need to say it again.” You sighed.

“Jason’s Soulmate…” Stephanie muttered in shock. “That must have been awful.”

“I knew him for about an evening of talking and a few days of texting…” your voice was low. You knew going to Manor wasn’t a smart decision.

“Anyway, you two are needed in Master Bruce’s…office,” Alfred said to Tim and Steph, and they disappeared in a second.

“I should probably go.” You didn’t like how stiff your voice sounded.

“You should come back for another visit,” Alfred suggested.

“I’m sure you’re very nice and all, and you mean it with the best intentions - but the last thing I want to do is be at the home my soulmate ran away from before he was killed.”

“I understand.”

“Thank you. Tell Steph she owes me a full half hour of chat,” you didn’t wait to hear him say yes as you exited the garden and hopped in your car to drive away.

Since that afternoon, something was off around you. Not with you, just around you. Gotham suddenly felt a lot safer. You spotted Red Robin and Spoiler watching you and the older orphanage kids head into a bowling alley, and you kept seeing red flashes when you walked anywhere at night. It took you two days to get curious as to what was happening and test this new aura. You did something very unlike you and went for a rooftop walk in the more dangerous part of Gotham.

Most of the buildings were tall and closely packed together, a few alleys ways every now and again - and you weren’t stupid enough to try and see if you could cross them. You walked across four buildings, waiting for anything to happen, anything at all.

“What are you doing.” You tensed up, turning round to face the Red Hood in all his hun slinging glory.

“Wandering.” Your voice was tight, and you started to regret your evening out very much.

“It’s not safe.”

“Has Batman been sending his army of smaller selves to watch me?”

“Why would I know?”

“Cos you’re clearly involved with him somehow.” Red Hood laughed.

“Just get back home okay.”

“Aren’t you going to try and shoot me?”

“My line of work is a lot more complicated than that.”

“How old are you?”

“20.”

“My age, I might know you.” You said without really thinking the sentence out fully, it just slipped out and he didn’t deny it. “So what’s your business with the city tonight?”

“I’m not going to tell you that.”

“Why not? You’re in the works with Batman, so anything you do will be all over the papers by next week, to my knowledge we don’t know each other, I have no place better to be. Talk to me.” The sentence felt all yo familiar but you didn’t click why you just had a weird sense of Deja vu. Something obviously bugged the Red Hood too as you noticed him tense for a second before relaxing.

“Do you always walk around smiling and saying things like that?”

“Not purposefully.” You shrugged. “Does it bother you that I’m smiling right now?”

“I just don’t get how people can be that happy all the time.”

“Maybe you should try it sometimes. Being positive is actually quite fun.” You teased and turned to look at the sky. Gotham was the city of clouds, the Batman symbol shining exactly where it always did. “So what are you dealing with tonight.”

“Just a surveillance job.”

“And why did you come talk to me?”

“You’ve been walking on these buildings for a good half hour, and I got curious.”

“It’s been half an hour?” You looked at your watch “Wow, time does fly when you’re alone with your thoughts.”

Jason didn’t like being at the Manor any time of the year, but when the whole family were together, it was the worst. The only reason he was there was because Dick had saved his ass and taken him back for stitches - now he was stuck listening to Stephanie half Yelp half encourage him.

“She’s so nice! Don’t you dare be mean to her and screw this up! Literally, how did someone so kind-hearted end up with you for a Soulmate! She’s the most supportive person I’ve ever met!”

“Cut it out already!” Jason snapped, grabbing some toast and contemplating shoving it in her mouth.

“I can’t believe you spoke to her but didn’t tell her!” Stephanie complained and Jason froze. He hadn’t even known who his soulmate was until Steph started screaming about it, and he only took it seriously when Alfred told him what had happened. That was the real reason he was still in Gotham. He didn’t care about Bruce’s job for him; he cared about the fact someone out there had been hurt by his death. Someone had really cried for Jason Todd - not Robin, not Bruce Wayne’s ward. Jason Todd.

“How do you know I spoke to her.” He spoke very quietly and everyone in the kitchen tended. He wasn’t sure if everyone in the room would ever trust him over than Alfred - but him speaking calmly terrified them more than him yelling.

“This is your first time in town not trying to kill one of us; you can’t blame me for wanting to know what you’re doing.” Bruce was observing him, and Jason didn’t enjoy being treated like a bomb about to explode.

“So that’s why you’ve been spying on her!” Jason almost laughed. “She’s seen you, you know. She knows somethings up because she’s seen you guys watching her! But you’re not watching her. You’re watching me.”

“Why are you just watching her if you aren’t going to talk to her?” Tim finally asked what they were all thinking.

“I died, Tim.”

“I know. It’s your favourite topic of conversation.”

“I can’t just walk up to her as Jason Todd. The second I do anything, everything comes out about what happened, all of you guys, and this entire world. She becomes apart of it. And I don’t even know her that well.”

“She’s your Soulmate. You are one of the few people who have 100% proof that they’ve found their soulmate.” Stephanie said, looking slightly towards Tim.

“Wooo, dying has one plus side I guess!” Jason said sarcastically. “The universe can say all it wants but let’s be real, whether she’s my soulmate or not, it’s my choice to be with her. My choice to use this information. If I ever decide I want to be with someone; it’s going to be my decision, not the universes, not you guys, mine.” Jason stuffed another piece of toast into his mouth and left the Manor as quickly as he could.

“He’s going to spy on her some more, isn’t he.” Dick mused

“Oh definitely,” Steph responded. “She just has this quality about her that makes it impossible to dislike her.”

So that’s what Jason did. He watched and he watched and he stayed in Gotham. Taking down bad guys and causing no trouble. He even started to obey some of Bruce’s rules. He didn’t want to be driven out of the city until he made up his mind. This was his choice to make - and yours he guessed. He didn’t want to cut you out of the conversation when it was your future he’d be deciding too. But talking to you meant he had to choose before someone in his family did it for him. He didn’t trust Stephanie not to somehow do something about the situation the next time she saw you. He also didn’t think Steph would do it with any cruel intentions. She understood where Jason came from, she was similar to him in many ways - and she justed wanted to help.

The gun rule was not one of the ones he followed. He liked using guns, but it was also guns that meant he was bleeding to death in an alley. He’d seen you walking around late at night again; you were coming back from dropping some kids off at the orphanage and obviously tired. A tired young woman was a prime target, and someone had grabbed you. He had to interfere, but his game was off. He kept expecting you to freak out, say his name, and he was worried you’d already been hurt. They’d pulled out a gun and shot six bullets while he was distracted. He was going to hunt them down and make them pay once he could move.

“Oh my god.” he heard your voice and for a second he thought his brain had made it up as some sick twisted way to give him comfort, but that wasn’t the case. You were there. You were talking to him. “You need to stay awake!”

“Get away…”

“No way, you need help, I’m going to get you help.”

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah, bullet holes and blood equal fine.”

“I’ve been through worse.”

“Sure, and I’m sure that’s not part of the reason you’re running through Gotham as a gunslinging vigilante. Therapy’s a thing, and this is not normal. You’re not fine.”

“Just, get -”

“Get you some help? Sure.”

“That’s not what I was going to say,”

“Well, it’s what I said.”

“I’m -”

“In need of help, yes, I know,” you were searching him for any way to call any of the other superheroes to come help. You doubted he’d want to go to a hospital.

“Getting a bit feely, at least buy me dinner first.”

“Isn’t that normally the girl’s line?” You finally got sick of looking at the stupid helmet.

“You need air.”

“I’m -”

“Need to breathe.”

“That one didn’t work.”

“Doesn’t matter, you need air, and you need to text someone your location.”

“Please don’t take the Helmet off.”

“Would you rather die.”

“A little bit.”

“Very funny.” You felt around his head and found the two clasps, pulling the helmet off and take advantage of the fact he seemed unable to move the rest of his body. He wore a mask over his eyes which made you laughed, “See, isn’t it nice breathing fresh air?”

“I can -”

“I can breathe now, and it’s beautiful.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” it wasn’t even close. Jason was going to say that he could explain. But the mask and blood meant you didn’t recognise him. Even without the mask you might not, he’d changed quite a lot since he’d died. He was safer than he thought, and sadly that fact hurt him a little bit.

“I’m taking this,” you pulled out his earpiece and put it in your ear, tapping the side to turn it on. “Red Hood’s bleeding to death in an alley.”

“Um…hello?”

“Hi, Anyway someone can come and get him?”

“Getting your location now.” you recognised the voice, but not well enough to place it.“I took the helmet off so he could breathe properly, he can talk, but he’s really pale and was shot like six times,”

“Spoiler and Nightwing are on their way.” the line went dead, so you assumed the person had ended the call.

You looked at the face beneath the helmet very carefully. Some part of your mind was turning and putting the dots together - I mean, there’s only so much face a mask can cover. Something was there, something you couldn’t figure out and it was infuriating.

“Do I know you? I know you probably won’t tell me, but like…”

“Kinda.” He didn’t say anything else as you suddenly gasped. He’d changed, he changed a lot. And you didn’t understand how on earth he was alive. He couldn’t be alive. Your mind was playing tricks. A similar voice and facial structure didn’t equal Jason Todd. Jason Todd was dead and people don’t come back from the dead. You were being crazy, and irrational. But if laser shooting flying men were real, was resurrection really that impossible? You’d been at the funeral. You’d seen Alfred and Bruce’s reaction. You’d seen his older brother Dick beating himself up for not trying to be a good brother to Jason. You’d cried. You’d cried for someone you barely knew. He couldn’t just be alive. You were assuming things.

But you had two dates in a world where you only get one soulmate. It would make sense.“Your friends will be here soon…”

“Take the mask off.” He could guess what you were thinking based on the reaction.

“No. I will not have that conversation now. You can’t be -”

“Jason Todd.” he tried to nod.

“Nope.”

“I can-”

“Nope.” You took a step back, your breathing picking up. “I went to Jason Todd’s funeral, and I can’t yell at you while you’re dying.”

“Yell?” he didn’t expect you to yell.

“I’m freaking out a bit right now so yes I will probably yell.” your voice was all over the place, but you were determined not to yell. He didn’t deserve to be yelled at. “You can’t be Jason Todd, Jason Todd died.”

“I can explain everything.”

“Then do that, when you’re not dying.” You refused to believe it. “Jason Todd’s already dead, so he can’t be dying right now.”

“Take the mask off.“

“Fine, but only to prove you can’t possibly be Jason Todd because I went to Jason Todd’s funeral.” you were shaking slightly, wishing Nightwing and Spoiler would just show up already to end whatever mind trick Red Hood was playing. You leant forward slowly, peeling the mask off and trying to convince yourself not to. Not knowing the answer would be better than knowing because then you could pretend your first and real soulmate was out there. You could also assume that this was all some evil game and that Jason was dead and continue living your life just the same. It would be your choice.

The Red Hood, had been a killer, he’d gone rage on Gotham more than once and he used a gun. He killed people, and he worked in the shadows. You’d seen the amount of chaos and fear he created. If this was Jason, you didn’t know what you’d do. You’d want to give him a chance, and in a way, he was more effective than Batman, but you weren’t one for violence. You’d never been. You liked positive thinking and smiling faces. But it this was Jason, it was your soulmate. And he had really died, so whatever brought him back would’ve messed him up pretty badly so could you blame him for wanting to be a bit more permanent with his methods of dealing with crime. Every thought in your head was running wild and merging faster than you could cope with. You were overwhelmed and ready to break down. You couldn’t deal with all of this; no one should have to deal with all of this.

The mask fell to the floor, and it may have changed, but it was Jason Todd’s face. You’d stared at a picture after he’d died to help you process everything. You’d memorised his face and thought about how it may have changed if he’d been given a chance to live. You may not have known him all that well but you didn’t want to forget him.

“I went to your funeral.” you started to cry. The third time you’d let yourself cry over it, “You better recover and explain what the hell is happening.”

“Can I see your wrist?” he asked. You raised it slowly to show him.

He ran his fingers over the scaring on the first date. The burns had never faded and you could still vaguely still the numbers underneath. The 0 had turned into minus numbers just to remind you how long you’d survived without the universes input. He kissed the burn lightly.

“Crap, that’s a large number…”

“Which one?”

“Both of them.” you laughed slightly, still crying. “I guess you’re going to be living quite a while then, no dying tonight..”

“Your number’s big too.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“We’re here!” Spoiler announced, stopping dead when she saw you.

“We’re taking her to the cave,” Jason instructed.

“Obviously.” Spoiler nodded while Nightwing picked his little brother up.

“So, Dick Grayson?” you assumed, pointing to Nightwing and trying to piece everything together in your head.

“This is going to be a fun week.” Dick laughed

Part One

#Jason Todd #jason todd one shot #jason todd x reader #jason todd imagine #red hood #Red Hood And The Outlaws #red hood x reader #red hood one shot #red hood imagine #batman #DC comics #dc imagine #dc oneshot

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survivingthejungle · 6 years

Text

never fade away; part vii

oh goodness. it’s been a hot minute since i wrote a new part to this. bear with me. i’m getting back into the swing of things.

_____________________________________

This was it.

The apocalypse.

Armageddon.

The End of Times.

You had been dragged inside of some abandoned warehouse, watched Jerome make a crazy speech about ‘what death was like’, and ‘how Gotham was going to be reborn into chaos’, and you watched him murder a man via explosives on live television. He grabbed you before running out of the building, pushing yourself in front of him to make you run fast enough to get out. (And also to act as a human shield in case the police were waiting for him outside.)

The city was pitch black. Never before had you been able to see more than 10 stars in the sky in Gotham; now you could easily see at least a million. Of course, the smog and air pollution was ever-present, but the city lights being cut off was quite effective in facilitating the visibility of the night sky.

You admired being able to see the natural brightness and decorations of the universe; you did not, however, appreciate the fact that it was caused by Jerome.

The boy who was seemingly determined to make your life a living hell.

To say that he was not intriguing as a concept would be lying. What’s not interesting about some 19-year-old killing his family, escaping from a prison for the criminally insane, going around a city he isn’t from and killing people every chance he gets, kidnapping 16-year-olds, and cutting off the whole power supply of said city?

You only wished you hadn’t been the poor, previously aforementioned 16-year-old. And why did he obsess over you, you wondered?

From the time you were forced to spend in the penthouse in Downtown Gotham, you could pick up on the fact that he liked your appearance and had even considered you pretty. You could also pick up on the fact that he very clearly enjoyed games. You were like a game to him. ‘Let’s see how many times I can kidnap (y/n), let’s see how long I can kidnap (y/n) this time, let’s see how many emotional scars I can leave (y/n) with this time around,’... the list went on.

“Be honest- how’s my face look?” he asked out of the blue, in the midst of a silent car ride towards what was begining to look like a suburb.

“Uh... not good.” “Hm.” He considered this. “Well, I did say ‘be honest’, so I’ll give ya that one, babe. Say- what game do you wanna play first?” “What?” you asked him.

“You know... dunk tank, balloon popping, ring tosses... name your pick, beautiful. This is your night as much as it is mine.” That confused you. “Why is that?”

“Well, because we’re finally together again! This is what people have been waiting for, isn’t it?” Theatrically, he made a sign with a free hand while steering. “Jerome and (y/n), the dynamic duo, back at it again! Hahahahaha!”

“Sure, that’s what all your cult freaks wanted. Sure isn’t what I wanted. And we aren’t a duo. And I don’t want to play carnival games. I want to go home. You can let me out here,” you tried, “I’ll walk?”

“Not gonna happen, hot stuff. You don’t get it, do you?”

“Don’t... Don’t get what?” you questioned.

“I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want to lose you again. Death made me realize a lot of things, and I intend on keeping you with me from here on out. You’re gonna stick around with me from here on out!” The car was parked now, in the driveway of some bougie-looking mansion. “I’m not gonna let you go easy this time. No one’s gonna stab me in the neck and let you go this time. You’re staying with me now kid, we’re in this for the long haul!” You were disturbed by the serious tone of his voice now.

You had a worried look plastered on your face; a reasonable reaction. You refused to look at him, instead you chose to stare down at the floor and focus on not crying. Someone will find me, you promised yourself. They won’t let this happen to me again. Someone must be looking for me. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.

“Hey. Hey... look at me. Give me a smile, huh?” he nudged your shoulder, trying to get you to look at him. You did nothing, just tried to pull farther away from him. “Ah, you’ll get used to it after a while. It’ll be like last time, remember! You were fine eventually! We just gotta get you back in the swing of things.” “NO!” you yelled, tears beginning to fall freely now. “Don’t you understand? I was never fine! I was faking it so that you wouldn’t kill me! I was protecting myself! I never wanted to be with you! And I don’t want to be with you now! Why don’t you understand that?” You turned back from facing him and buried your face in your hands, trying to control your tears and make them stop.

Your breathing was cut short when a strong hand wrapped itself around your throat, restricting the blood flow to your brain as well as air flow to your lungs. Your head was pressed to the back of the seat of a car; you had no escape. In his eyes, you saw no emotions; well, nothing other than pure, unbridled rage. “I’m gonna let that go with a warning, babe, because I know you didn’t mean it. But if you act up like that again? Well... it’s not gonna be pretty. I can promise you that,” he spat, his face mere milimeters from yours. “Capisce?”

“Yes,” you managed to choke out, barely making a sound at all.

“Is this gonna happen again? Because you know, I’m not as patient as I used to be.” His grip loosened on your neck slightly. “No. It won’t. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me again.” You looked at him with pleading, glassy eyes, praying to God that your life would be spared for even just a day longer. He didn’t respond to this. He simply got out of the car, walked over to your side, and opened it expectantly.

“Well?” he goaded, gesturing for you to get out. As you hesitantly got out and stood up, he said, “Well, gee, (Y/N), you’re so welcome for opening the door and being so chivalrous. There’s not many gentlemen left these days.” “Thank you, Jerome,” you croaked out hoarsely. He mock bowed to you and laughed, the slits on the sides of his mouth widening grotesquely.

“Hands,” he demanded suddenly, “Put ‘em out.” You obliged carefully. He pulled a convenient rope out of his back pocket and began to tie it around your wrists. “I know you’re still not used to having me back yet. Can’t risk you tryin’ to run off, can we?” He smiled at you, like he had completely forgotten about everything else that had just happened. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” ______________

Eventually, after chaos was wreaked at Wayne Manor, you and Bruce Wayne were both thrown into the back of Jerome’s hijacked squad car. He hightailed it to a makeshift carnival in the middle of town; just about the only place with any working electric. Once there, Bruce turned to you quickly; in the short moment Jerome had stepped out of the car, he told you, “I promise I will get us out of here.” The sincerety in his voice gave you a sliver of hope for the rest of the night; you were basically both in the same boat, and you were both trying to get out of it together.

You tried to stay mostly silent throughout the whole debacle, afraid that if you let the wrong word slip out, you might end up dying like one of the people in the awful makeshift carnival games by which you were surrounded. Even when your newest friend was suddenly faced with death-by-canon, you made sure not to make a peep. If Jerome thought you two were starting to be pals, he’d surely kill Bruce in a split second. He was possesive that way, among many other ways.

But you dropped the façade in the house of mirrors. More specifically, once Bruce broke a mirror and ripped your bindings off, before nearly killing the ginger.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Brucie,” Jerome choked out, “Not in front of my girl, would ya please? Poor thing’ll be traumatized for the rest of her life if she sees me go again.” You knew in your heart he was probably joking, but he almost souned the slightest bit sincere every time you were a topic of conversation.

“She’s already traumatized by you, you clown,” Bruce spat at him. “(Y/N), run! Get out of here! I can handle myself!” he ordered you. You nodded and ran, making sure to not look back at the expression on the redhead’s face (or lack thereof) when you took off. Finding your way out, you were met face-to-face with Detective Gordon, as well as Bruce’s butler, Alfred, who you’d both assumed to be dead and gone by now.

“Christ, (Y/N), we need to get you out of here. We have no idea where Jerome could be right now,” Jim motioned for you to stand next to him in order for him to keep a closer eye on you.

“He’s in there, Detective Gordon, and so is Bruce Wayne. Jerome almost killed him but by the time I got free, Bruce had the upper hand. I don’t know what the status is right now, though-” and you didn’t have too, because Bruce was walking out of the same exit you had just been through, looking absolutely exhaused with his sad clown makeup still painted on. Jim, Alfred, and you all breathed a sigh of relief, before you saw the devil-boy come out with a vengeful look in his eye, and a loaded gun in his hand.

“BRUCE! Behind you!” you yelled, and Bruce managed to get out of the line of fire. Soon after this, Detective Gordon clocked Jerome in the face so hard that his... well, that is face flew off into a dirty puddle on the ground, and Jerome fell straight back as well.

______________

4 days later and, while you knew your life would never exactly be normal ever again, you had hoped that it wouldn’t get interrupted again for at least a while.

While walking Sadie downtown one day, you happened to pass by the GCPD at the same time that Detective Gordon was headed outside. “Oh, (Y/N)! Coincidence crossing paths with you right now; see, I’ve got a bit of bad news,” he told you.

“Oh gosh,” you responded, “What happened? Please tell me he didn’t get out again...” you pleaded to a higher power.

“No, no... but it is about him,” he informed you. “He’s been making threats, (Y/N), and he’s gone through with all of them, but he’s given us an ultimatum...” he trailed off.

“What happened, Detective?” you wondered.

“He’s been killing inmates and guards left and right. Now, there’s not much we can do, since he is already locked up, but he just offered us a deal. It’s... it’s about you.” “What about me? I’ll do it, Detective, I don’t want him to keep killing people. I’m so sick of people killing each other all of the time.” The detective sighed. “He said he’d stop, but only if you would come and see him at least once a week in Arkham. Now, before you say anything, if you agree, we’ll have plenty of armed personel with you during any visit, and a bulletproof barrier between you during every meeting. Are you okay with this?” he asked you, searching for a sign of reaction in your face.

You nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll be okay. I can do it,” you told him. “I can do it,” you said once more, this time to yourself.

_______________________________________________

hi friendos. it has been a long ass time (as i have already mentioned i know)

i have had this stuck in my drafts waiting to be finished for about a month. im the literal worst. i know. please accept this as my apology.

in other news?? the newest episode has got me FUCKED ALL THE WAY UP like damn. all my boys be lookin fine as hell on these thursday nights. god bless amen hallelujah i’m tired and i just got back from spring break so forgive me if this is bad i love u all.

u kno da drill. feedback is welcome, encouraged, and appreciated

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desperatelyseekingroleplay · 6 years

Text

Roleplay partners wanted!

My name is Rhys. I am 21 years old, she/her, from the CT, love the color magenta, and own two orange tabbies. I’m looking for partners in my conquest to write! While I can't get responses in every day, I am almost always open to chatter and geeking out about all sorts of things.

I write third person, past/present tense, and paragraph form. I'm a novella-ish writer, and do try to crank out at least four-six paragraphs each time I get a response in. Like previously mentioned, I want to stress that while I can't respond every day, everything I do write is full of TLC! I always want to mention this to partners beforehand, because I know some people would rather do rapid fire responses than one or two a week. My limits are pretty general; toilet stuff is a no-no. I don't like to write out top/bottom stereotypes or "seme/uke" tropes. Beastiality, pedophilia, and the like are icky things I would rather avoid.

I write for all genders, ethnicity, and orientations! I am open to any pairings, and beyond that, varying genres.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18n3iuj4m9X1hBo9P2IezrKdTfkTrSKt0H34ZP6v3hHs

LIMITS

________

No unrealistic stereotypes of queer relationships, please. Yaoi, yuri, seme/uke, etc. Can't do that. Characters need to both have versatile roles; switching, so it's fair for everyone. Though, my characters do tend to be a lot more dominating!

{{Very welcoming of BDSM, dom/sub, but this does not mean someone needs to be penetrated every single time in order for the dom to dominate. Get it? This can also apply to heterosexual relationships. I would literally love to see female characters who top, if you know what I mean. If given the chance, I will definitely have dom!females in bdsm-related situations}}

Furries; blegh, no thanks. Beastiality, nekos, anything of sexual animal-related nature is a no-go, fam.

Vore, scat, bathroom stuff, pedophilia. You know the drill! ((I am not opposed to consensual, legal age and non-reproducing incestuous relationships in FICTION! Sex is fine, just no children resulting from it. Reminder; this is fictional.))

Okay, so despite those few limits, I am actually pretty welcoming of anything else. Smut, of course. Some kink a little out there that you want to suggest? Let's do it, dude. I am open to polyamorous relationships, any queer shit you're willing to throw at me lmao I am super OOC friendly and I am pretty much a garbled mess when I get to know you! I am open to crooked relationships, ones that don't function right, fluff and all cuteness, unconditional love-- my interests fluctuate! I am down, 24/7, guys! Here's a list of fandoms and pairings below.

_________

**=Craving

Borderlands

Handsome Jack/Rhys

Handsome Jack/Rhys/Nisha

Rhys/Axton

Handsome Jack/Nisha

Fiona/Athena

Fiona/Vaughn

Rhys/Vaughn

Until Dawn

Josh Washington/Chris

Chris/Mike

Jess/Mike

Sam/Beth

Matt/Jess

Emily/Matt/Jess

Life is Strange

Max Caulfield/Chloe Price

Max Caulfield/Kate Marsh/Victoria Chase

Nathan Prescott/Warren Graham

Rachel Amber/Chloe Price**

Rachel Amber/Frank Bowers

Frank Bowers/Damon Merrick**

Dick Grayson/Jason Todd**

Dick Grayson/Koriand'r

Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson

Dick Grayson/Wally West

Oliver Queen/Dinah Lance

Harley Quinn/Pamela Isley

Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent

Batman: Telltale Series

Bruce Wayne/John Doe**

Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle

Bruce Wayne/Jim Gordon

Bruce Wayne/Harvey Dent

Bruce Wayne/Harvey Dent/Selina Kyle

Marvel

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Tony Stark/Bruce Banner

Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson

Thor/Bruce Banner**

Clint Barton/Pietro Maximoff

Peter Parker/Harry Osborn

Peter Parker/Wade Wilson**

Gwen Stacy/Peter Parker/Harry Osborn

Peter Parker/Wade Wilson/Vanessa Carlysle

Uncharted

Nathan Drake/Samuel Drake**

Nathan Drake/Harry Flynn**

Chloe Frazer/Nadine Ross

Samuel Drake/Rafe Adler

Game of Thrones

Arya Stark/Gendry Waters

Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell

Daenerys Targaryen/Jon Snow

TTGOT

Asher Forrester/Gwyn Whitehill

Rodrik Forrester/Arthur Glenmore

Mira Forrester/Margaery Tyrell

Gryff Whitehill/Elaena Glenmore

Gared Tuttle/Finn

Gared Tuttle/Josera Snow

The Walking Dead

Rick Grimes/Shane Walsh

Rick Grimes/Negan**

Daryl Dixon/Paul “Jesus” Rovia

TWDG

Luke/Nick

Javier Garcia/David Garcia**

Clementine/Gabriel Garcia

Javier Garcia/Paul “Jesus” Rovia

The Mortal Instruments

Simon Lewis/Raphael Santiago

Simon Lewis/Jace Lightwood

Isabelle Lightwood/Lydia Branwell

Alec Lightwood/Magnus Bane

Infamous: Second Son

Delsin Rowe/Reggie Rowe

Delsin Rowe/Eugene Sims

Delsin Rowe/Hank Daughtry

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

Anyone/your dadsona (for the love of god someone give me a good, not cliche john doe dadsona and you will win my heart!! I just want to play a dad lol bring me some great ass ocs)

Far Cry 3

Jason Brody/Vaas Montenegro

The Last of Us

Ellie/Riley

Some basic ideas that I do have pretty big doc ideas for;

A few marine biologists go to an island off the coast to study the marine life there, which in turn, turns out to be something much bigger. (Mermaid/siren prompt!)

Soul mates; it can be like some of those AU’s where you don’t see color until you meet them, your tattooed timer counts down until then, or maybe even soulmates continuously reincarnating and one of the two has killed them for centuries in order to be “immortal”. For the first time, the victimized partner gets close enough that the other begins to fall and they start aging, together.

Character A has an awful time living in the city; alone, and without mom's guidance, completely lost. One day they receive a call about a deceased relative, one they'd never heard of and apparently left their estate and everything in their will to A. With nothing but the clothes on their back, A took a shot and drove out to this presumed "estate", only to find that it's a mansion in a tiny little town with an eerie vibe and populated by the typical small town churchgoers and farm folk. Living in this town was a hell of a challenge; everyone was nice, too nice, and people were missing. Character B is an exceptionally charismatic, charming person and the only mechanic/handyman in town. A and B become friends, partially, when A needs to fix up the piping in their estate. A stumbles upon the attic one day, and for once, they start to get why this whole town reeked to the roots in weird shit-- their deceased relative was tracking something here in this town, having to do with all of the MIA townsfolk. DR has a board of possible suspects, and at the center? B. OSJFODSFHSDJSODFJD!!! Bonus content: B is, in fact, not the murderer, instead a vampire on a mission to track down the monster, same as DR. small towns give me honey moon vibes and I??? am so down for some kinky, albeit eventually fluffy romance between people who are trying to make it work. I actually have a doc for both TBD characters and a location. None of this is set in stone, so please share your thoughts.

A doesn’t have any memories of their life, only being conscious and staring down at a mutilated body in a ditch. When they meet B, they learn why; welcome to limbo, they say. You just died. A has unfinished business; finding out who murdered them, why, and what else is holding them here. B is a reaper intent on helping lost souls pass over-- they were never born, and A shows them the delights of life before it’s taken. B learns to love A, and A doesn’t want to leave limbo. While A’s soul is clinging between realities, B must make a pivotal decision; squeezing tight on the concept of love, and letting A go. (BONUS!! REINCARNATION; A & B ARE GIVEN THE GIFT OF LIVING AGAIN, TOGETHER.)

Coming of age story between two childhood friends who are separated by circumstance, and after ten years, reunite and learn that your first love doesn’t have to be the one that got away.

Two friends drop their whole lives to go on a road trip once they turn thirty-- they elope together, leaving their unhappy lives behind them and in this grand scheme of mental breakdowns and tearful smiles, they find that love may be the only cure to a broken existence.

In a post-apocalyptic world where a pandemic has killed off most living species, Character A is a lone wolf with little to do with other people that don't benefit him, except for a select few. A is especially rough around the edges, as he's lived through some sick shit and lived to tell the tale. A had once been part of a group dedicated to finding a cure, but things went south, and a lot of people died. A had a close bond with the leader of said group, and coincidentally they were the only survivors. Their past together, having been deeply demented and twisted, caused them to fall out. Said leader has rebuilt a new group in the ten years since the last time they'd seen A. Character B is the only known immune person alive, and has dedicated their life to being a resource to finding a cure. A and his (current) contact/partner in crime have something taken from them, and are determined to get it back. They do some searching, and are confronted with this group-- they have what they need, but are only willing to give it to them for a favor in return. No one can outrun their past forever. (Last of Us-inspired!)

An architect/treasure hunter is being funded an expedition to find a lost treasure and they are forced to bring along a reporter in order to receive the funds. the reporter and architect certainly don't get along in the beginning— they bicker, and clash on most fronts. the expedition wasn't meant to be dangerous. what was initially thought to be a simple job turned into something treacherous; bandits, a team of hired hitmen and their leader looking to take the treasure for themselves, and some rather supernatural elements that they both couldn't quite put a finger on. the treasure hunter and the reporter have to work together to get out of this alive, and get to the artifact before someone else does.

..and many more!! Thanks so much! If you've read through, please contact me at [email protected] and mention kiwi somewhere in your email. n_n

Rhys xoxo

#Writing Partner Wanted #Roleplay Partner Ad #Long Term Roleplay Wanted #21+ Roleplay Wanted #submission

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foreverlilaclies · 7 years

Text

Titanic AU

Nothing To Do But Wait

Pairing: JayDick

Rated: M

The Southhampton docks was bustling with activity and voices. The day was bright and the people around seemed to be filled with energy and excitement. And why would they not be? After all they were all about to set sail on the largest ship in the world. The RMS Titanic was prepared to set sail on her maiden voyage. The ship was luxurious as it was huge. Measuring 269 meters in length and over 150 feet in height. She was huge, beautiful and unsinkable.

A nine year old boy stood in the middle of the docks, staring up at the ship in stony silence. He pid no attention to the people moving around him, his eyes focused on the ship that would take him from his home in London and force him to live somewhere else. Somewhere unknown. He hated the unknown. He hated feeling so lost and uncertain when he was accustomed to being assured.

“I do not want to go.” He spoke up, for what was probably the tenth time. He didn’t care though. It was as true now as it was three hours ago. Damian Wayne had never been one to hide his disdain.

“I know,” The voice beside him replied softly. “Neither do I.” Damian turned his head so he could properly see the young man beside him. His father’s ward had been a constant in his life since he was four and he had been unceremoniously dropped on his father’s doorstep by his mother. Damian had few memories of his own mother. She had left when he was very young, leaving Damian with his father and returning to her own home in lands far away. Damian’s father, Bruce had already taken in a child by this time. A twelve year old boy with a complexion as dark as Damian’s own and eyes as blue as the morning sky. He looked troubled now. Almost frightened by the sheer size of the ship before them.

Bruce Wayne had taken Richard in after his parents were killed when he was very young. Six or so. Bruce had raise him as his very own and when Damian came along, he looked to the older boy as his older brother, blood or not. Bruce was a very wealthy young man, having inherited his family’s wealth after his own parents had lost their lives in a robbery. Bruce fueled the pain from losing them to help those in need. Thomas Wayne had been a doctor who catered to those in need and Bruce channeled that in the the law. There were many who could not afford a lawyer of the Wayne signature and Bruce reached out to them and gained a reputation as a cut throat but fair lawyer who cared more for the victim than the money. He came to claim the moniker of Bruce ‘The Bat’ Wayne. Bats struck fear in the hearts of men when darkness fell and Bruce used it to instill fear in those who hurt others.

“Boys,” A voice suddenly spoke up, startling Damian who turned his head towards the man, eyes narrowing slightly. “I trust you’re both prepared?” Dick did not turn to face him, still gazing up at the ship.

“We are.” Dick murmured for Damian who continued to scowl. Thomas Wayne Jr. had Bruce’s face and build but none of his warmth. Same cheekbones and strong jaw, same dark hair and thin lips. His nose was a bit thinner and his eyes a shade lighter than Bruce’s, but it was no doubt that they were brothers. He looked away from the two boys to gaze at the Titanic.

“The finest ship in the world,” Thomas mused, hands on hips as he came to stand next to Dick and gaze up at the ship. “It’s larger than I had imagined.” His voice was a low rumble that never managed to sound like Bruce's. Dick seemed unimpressed.

“I don’t see what the fuss is all about,” Dick looked away from the ship to fix Thomas with a curious stare. “It doesn’t look any bigger than the Mauretania.” Damian looked from Dick to Thomas who sighed with a little smile. He shook his head, brows pulling together.

“You can be blasé about somethings Richard, but not the Titanic. You are far too difficult to impress.” He looked away from the ship to fix the two boys with a long stare. “Shall we?” He motioned his hand towards the crowd.

“In a moment,” Dick once again spoke up for Damian. “I’d like to look for a bit longer.” Thomas nodded at this, tipping his hat towards Dick and offering him a small smile that Damian never understood.

“Very well, Richard. I will see you on the ship. Nephew, stick with Richard.” Damian stared silently after his uncle as he vanished into the crowd of people, no doubt to find his own group.

It still hurt to really look at the man. Too many memories. Bruce Wayne had been killed by one of the criminals he had put away. Joseph Carr had managed to escape his prison and confronted Bruce at his firm. This had left Damian without a father and Richard without the man who had raised him. Until Bruce’s younger brother had returned. Thomas Wayne Jr had spent his youth abroad, never interested in the family. He had been to Paris and Egypt and even to India. He had returned right after Bruce’s funeral and had gone so far as to dismiss the family butler, Alfred. It had been a bitter few weeks. Bruce was gone and this man with his face was taking away everything Damian and Dick held dear. Alfred had been like a grandfather to them and it had broken the old man’s heart to have to leave them. It only made sense that Thomas would wish to take even more it seemed.He was a man who traveled. Now his interests lay in traveling even farther than he had before. America held promise. America was unknown.

“You will not leave me?” Damian suddenly spoke up and Dick looked away from the Titanic to smile at his brother. His eyes were bluer than the sky and in that moment Damian adored him more than anything in the world.

“Never.” Dick replied softly. Damian reached out for Dick’s hand and clung to it, feeling better when Dick squeezed it reassuringly. They stood there for a long while and stared at the ship before them, both lost to the unknown it presented.

Playing poker was a form of art if you asked Jason Peter Todd. It took patience, cunning and confidence with each hand. With each fold of a card, the player was painting their picture as the winner or loser of the game. Jason Todd was an artist and he knew full well that this painting would not be forgotten. Today that art would be considered more of a war. The winner after all would be winning something far grander than a few coins or beer.

It was high morning on the 10th of April. The sky was blue and Jason Todd was ready to face the world. First he just had to win this damn poker game. He was facing off against three older men who seemed far more confident than Jason had felt. Three tickets sat in the middle of the table, ripe for the taking. The bar was loud and crowded and smelled of tobacco and old beer. It was a smell Jason had become accustomed to.

“I fold.” One of the across next to him sullenly spoke up, showing his lousy deck. The young man next to Jason slowly lowered his own cards and once again, there was nothing. Jason but down any disappointment and looked to the graying older man across from them. The man scowled, showing his own hand of cards. Nothing for him either.

The two boys with Jason watched him carefully. Roy Harper was a smart mouthed twenty year old Irish man and Tim Drake was the little street urchin that had followed them since Jason had caught him trying to steal some food. Urchins needed to stick together after all. Tim was fifteen and still naive to how bad the world really was. He looked at the bright side of things and although it was endearing, Jason also found it dangerous. He was seventeen and saw the world for what it was dirty and filled with pain and ambition. The rich ate and the poor starved. That was how things were.

Jason grinned at the young man next to him, nudging his shoulder. “You gonna save our asses Harper?” He asked and Roy snorted, showing his deck that had nothing of merit.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah.” Roy muttered. They looked towards the final man who slowly smiled, dark brown eyes filled with excitement that had both Tim and Roy looking very nervous. The bar seemed to fall silent as they waited for him to show his cards. His two teammates leaned close. The man called Sven set down his cards and Roy breathed out a soft curse.

“Two pair.” Jason muttered as Sven and his two friends shared quick grins, all assured they had won. Jason turned to his boys. His green eyes were saddened as if deeply troubled and Tim's stomach dropped.

“I'm sorry boys.” Jason spoke up with a shake of his head and both Tim and Roy started in, dismayed.

“Todd, that was all our money!” Roy shouted, voice booming in the tavern and catching the critical eye of the barkeeper who was pouring a glass for an elderly man across from him.

“What will we do now?” Tim asked as Sven and his friends both kicked back in delight. Jason shook his head with a little sigh.

“We’re not gonna be able to worry about that for awhile.” He replied, looking from Roy to Tim. “Because we’re going to America! Full House Boys!” He called out with glee, throwing his winning cards onto the scratched surface of the table for all witnesses to see. Roy was on his feet in an instant, fist high in the air as he called out, gaining the attention of all the patrons.

“We’re going on the Titanic!” He crowed. “We’re going to America!” He grabbed Tim by the scruff of the neck to hug him. Sven sank into his seat, his two friends heatedly arguing in a language Jason did not understand. He did understand however when one of them socked Sven in the face. Jason and Roy broke into laughter, watching as Tim quickly gathered their winnings.

“We’re going to America!” Jason repeated in awe. He was going home.

“I'm afraid you're not likely to be going anywhere! You lads better hurry!” The barkeeper suddenly spoke up, causing the bar to fall quiet. He pointed to the clock behind him. “Titanic sets sail in five minutes!” There was a hush of silence.

“Shit!” Roy cursed, and all three of them scrambled for their items. Five minutes to get to the ship. They could do it. Jason saluted Sven and his fellow losers before racing after Tim and Roy.

“Run!” Tim cried out. There were people everywhere when they finally made it to the docks. Jason laughed out loud, high on glee of their winning. He ducked under the arm of a passing man, spinning out of the way of another. He could see Roy ahead, red hair flaming in the morning sun.

“We’re living the highlife now boys!” Roy shouted over his shoulder. Jason passed by, legs pumping as he gripped his bag over his shoulder.

“We’re damned royalty!” He corrected. They approached the ship, dodging by the various people, Roy reached for Tim to help pull him along. They approached the deck leading to the Titanic, stopping the man from sealing the door.

“We’re passengers!” Jason called out as they made their way towards the entrance. “Don’t go, we’re passengers!” He held the tickets out to the man at man, breathing heavily. The man accepted them and nodded for them to enter. They ran like mad men, laughing and shouting as they raced by other guests of the Titanic. They reached the decks, the sun nearly blinding as they strode across the deck towards the railings. Roy was silent as he looked over the edge, but both Jason and Tim were excited and loud as they looked at all the people. They could see the little tavern they had been in not six minutes before.

“Goodbye!” Jason shouted to the crowd on the docks below. “We’ll miss you!” Beside him, Tim waved gleefully, dark eyes bright. They continued to wave and shout, neither caring about anything and Roy watched them with a little smirk. The Titanic began to set out and Tim continued to wave at the crowd, laughing as he did so. Jason leaned back, watching the tavern as it began to shrink away. Beside him, Roy chuckled.

“We’re the luckiest sons of bitches in the world.” He muttered, voice nearly drowned out by the crowds. Jason nodded, eyes never leaving the shrinking tavern.

“Yeah. We really are.”

#jaydick #dickjay #titanic au #jason todd dick grayson

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mitchbeck · 5 years

Text

CANTLON'S CORNER: WOLF PACK OPEN FOR BUSINESS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - It's clearly the first days of school time for the Hartford Wolf Pack as the team's brand new head coach, Kris Knoblauch, is trying to find his "sea legs" as much as his roster of 32 had a strong, two-hour practice on Monday. As they prepare for their first exhibition game Wednesday night in Danbury against the Springfield Thunderbirds, Knoblauch was very non-committal as he goes forward day-to-day. “This is my first head coaching job at the AHL, of course, I‘ve had time in juniors, but this is a completely different setup. The Rangers gotta be at 23 (roster permitted under the CBA) so I think a day-at-a-time right now. I can’t think too far ahead right now. I’m really happy with the teamwork so far, and we had some solid play in Traverse City. It was my first look at the team, and we had some very strong play, so it was a good first step.” Personally, for the Knoblauchs, getting settled in has been a whirlwind. “We got here in mid-August. Three days later, the kids (age 11 and 9) are starting school. Then, I’m off to Traverse City for a week. I come back, get things set up at home, and with the team, its been an awful lot of work, but we're excited to be here,” said Knoblauch. Coordinating practices is not as simple as just throwing pucks out there and putting the nets on their magnets. Despite a large number of players, Knoblauch has felt the longer practices (two hours) will help the acclimation process for coaches and players alike. "The ice has been pretty good and held up well. We set-up our structures and foundations,” Knoblauch, who had a lot of three-on-three drills for "Red Squad" (mostly veterans), "Blue Squad" and navy colored jersey squads accenting twenty feet and in around the end on offense and defensive side of things. Getting to know the players beyond scouting file is Task Management 101. “I know some of the guys, but a lot I have to learn and the process is day-to-day. Having an assistant like David Cunniff is gonna be important for me to lean on because he has been in the AHL seven or eight years. It’s the support system the Rangers have set-up. It’s gonna make my job easier on and off the ice.” One veteran player on defense, an extremely contested position in Hartford and with the parent Rangers, was free agent, off-season, signing Jeff LoVerde. “I can see right away why he was the LA organization all those years as a valuable part of their team in Ontario. He really conducts himself very well and had jumped in to help the younger players and I think he’s gonna be a very important asset back there." Clearly, goaltending is a position of major organizational interest. Ex-Pack, Alexander Georgiev, is presently penciled in as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. Russia's highly touted rookie with plenty of KHL experience, Igor Shesterkin, has a serious stack of bricks of his shoulder pads with the very high expectations that have been five years in the making. Former UCONN netminder, Adam Huska, has had a strong camp for the Rangers. ‘We'll have two goalies battling, we have a third (Tom McCollum) here as well, and they all want to be playing, and all three will be in the mix. We're going to have some strong competitors in net. There are so many variables and possibilities that will be there both of them have played well." Knoblauch was non-committal as to who will start in net tomorrow or if there will be games split between rookies Francois Brassard and Jake Kumsky, a Union College grad who already had a deal with Ft. Wayne (ECHL) and who's in training camp on a PTO. Up-front, one player who has stood out from Traverse City to the early stages of this training camp, has been Lewis-Zertet Gossage, a Kent Prep grad, who has had a strong five-game audition at the end of last season. “He has stood out right in rookie camp. He came in in great shape and his speed with his size is quite good. It gives him an advantage among a variety of factors of course that go into (evaluation).” The backline has an abundance of players and contracts and will be a position where some players could be on the outside looking in. “We have a real mixture here of guys from some still unsigned, to some who are, and some young guys coming up who have shown their skills and also players still with New York. There are a lot of moving pieces here. One of the other good things is we have Gord Murphy, who we're very fortunate to have, and he will be a very important part of working with our defense and the group we put together.” A few players of note are back in camp ready to tackle a new season, and the changes since John Davidson, the team's new President, has taken over and the wholesale new coaching staff both in style and quantity has been unmistakable. “It's kinda hard to define. There is clearly a more upbeat feel this year and it’s really all brand new. I’m still adjusting to it, so it's all-new for me," forward Gabriel Fontaine, who was just sent down and entering his third and final season of his original entry-level deal, said. He was a defensive center his first year and battled for more ice time. He got quality offensive shifts including powerplay time, but Fontaine, after a summer spent back home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and after this camp, which he stayed at longer, is aware of his role from the outset. “I’m gonna take any tools they send my way and put it in my bag and continue to work toward getting to the NHL. It’s a pretty big change here. It's just gonna get bigger and faster and be part of the leadership group here in Hartford. Clearly, a different vibe here, it’s hard to describe right now.” Fontaine is fully embracing a defensive role as he readies to embark on his third pro season. “The Rangers want me to concentrate more on becoming a reliable center defensively, take (important) faceoffs and that’s gonna help me make that jump to the NHL. I won’t be a first line guy on the powerplay,” Fontaine said with a laugh. "Everybody wants points on the powerplay. This is gonna be my path to the NHL.” The other player is the sunny, smiling, Ty Ronning. He spent some of his off-season in Phoenix seeing his one-year-old nephew and training back home in Vancouver. “New coaching staff, I’m a little older. I'll be 22 next month. A virtual graybeard. I'm really excited and I realize its a big year here. Expectations are big, I got two years left on my contract, so it’s a big year,” remarked Ronning. Speed has been his calling card in juniors. Ronning felt he needed more improvement. “I worked on getting my three strides quicker. I’m a small guy, and if I can gain more space in the offensive zone, or coming off the wall in the defensive zone, I can be faster to the puck. I think I will have more success because the speed and decision making here is so much quicker than juniors and in Maine. Bad decisions often wind up in the back of the net,” Ronning said. His summer training partner was his father, Cliff Ronning, who tallied NHL goals and the maturation of Ronning is really underway. “I learned to listen to him more this summer than in past years. Just trying to be more mature rather talking back. When you're younger, you tend to not listen. He has 20 years of (NHL) experience. He helped me in working on my shooting and learned a lot about my release and nuances of scoring and I learned a lot about him.” Another key to Ronning’s career development was the late legendary, Pat Quinn, who was a giant in the hockey business as a player, coach, GM and franchise owner at every level. “He was a grandfather figure to me. He drafted when he was the owner of the Vancouver Giants. He was very open-minded. If you could play he wanted you. He wasn’t like you play, but you're too small. He believed in me. I really can’t state enough how important that was at the time in my life…just tremendous,” Ronning, who has a small tat near his left bicep in his Quinn's honor, said. Maybe the luck of the Mighty Quinn will help him in his second pro season. NOTES: The team kept their collective focus and discipline when the building alarm system test went off during practice. Phil DiGuiseppe was assigned by the Rangers. but has to clear waivers first. Sean Day was among five assigned to Hartford and Knoblauch was awaiting what his medical status as he is recovering from off-season hip surgery. He has been a red no-contact jersey since training camp began. “I think he is close, but his medical clearance will come from New York and I expect it sooner rather than later." The other players included Connor Brickley, Tim Gettinger, Nick Jones, and Dawson Leedahl. Knoblauch confirmed Finnish defenseman, Tarmo Reunaren, is heading back to play for Lukko Rauma (Finland-FEL). “He got better in Traverse City and he played well in New York. He’s 21 and its numbers right now the organization has a lot of defensemen and he has a European option. He will be getting quality playing time. He has a future here because he showed he can play there are just so many spaces.” Over the weekend training camp, tryout rearguard, 6’4, Mason Geertsen (Colorado Eagles last year) was last season was sent to Hartford, Joey Keane, Patrick Newell, Ryan Dmowski and Jake Elmer. One of the training camp invitees includes former Springfield Falcon, Bryan Lerg, who played in Switzerland last season with HC Ambri Piotta who spent time working with Elmer doing pass, catch, and shooting drills. Some other players of note assigned to the AHL or camps include; Ex-Pack’s Cole Schneider (Milwaukee), Chris Bigras (Lehigh Valley), Mike Paliotta (Binghamton), Brandon Halverson (Toronto), Chris Mueller (Syracuse), Adam Tambellini (Stockton), Rob O’Gara (San Antonio), Hubert Labrie (Belleville), John Albert (Manitoba), Ryan Haggerty, Dustin Tokarski (Wilkes Barre/Scranton), and Brian Gibbons (Charlotte). Ex-Sound Tigers, J.F. Berube (Lehigh Valley), Griffin Reinhart (Belleville), Mitch Gilliam (Toronto), and Matt Donovan (Milwaukee) CT Connections Karl El-Mir from UCONN (Toronto), Alex Lyon of Yale, and David Drake of UCONN (Lehigh Valley), Brogan Rafferty of QU (Utica), Jordan Samuels-Thomas (West Hartford/QU) Stockton, Chad Krys (Ridgefield) Rockford, Tommy Cross Simsbury/Westminster Prep) Springfield, Craig Martin (QU) Toronto, Luke Shiplo (QU) Bakersfield, Sam Anas (QU) Iowa, Ross Colton (Taft) Syracuse, Callum Booth (Salisbury Prep) Charlotte, and Wiley Sherman (Greenwich/Hotchkiss Prep) Providence . Sons/nephews of Whalers; Cole Cassels (Belleville), Cayden Primeau (Laval), Jake Leschyshyn (Chicago), Hayden Verbeek (Laval), Henrik Samuelsson (San Diego) and Mark Kastelic (Belleville). Sons of New Haven Nighthawks/Senators/Beast/ Knights; Mathieu Olivier (Milwaukee), Mike Mersch (Texas) and Drake Rymsha (Ontario). New NCAA signees Cody Milam (Michigan St.-Big 10) Laval, Billy Christopoulos (Air Force Academy NCAA –Independent) Hershey, Jacob Jackson (Michigan Tech-WCHA) San Jose, Hayden Hawkey (Providence College-HE) Stockton Joe Wegeworth (Notre Dame-Big 10) Colorado and Carl Hesler (Dartmouth College-ECACHL) Rochester. Now that makes 216 Division I collegians have signed pro deals and 286 collegians total have signed North American and European pro deals. Ex-Pack Ty Conklin was named volunteer goalie coach for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (HE). Taylor Raddyysh, the older brother of the Wolf Pack’s Darren Raddyysh, was assigned to Syracuse by Tampa Bay. Big win by building operator Spectra in securing US vs. Canada in a women's hockey battle coming on December 14th at the XL Center. The two top women's programs in the world will be a marquee event to be apart of and attend. Read the full article

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