clockwayswrites

[clockwayswrites]

Until then:

Jason swayed for a moment on suddenly weak legs. “B… B is coming?” “Six out,” Batman grunted over the comm line. “Yeah, B is coming. He’s about six minutes out,” Dick said, hand outstretched. “Let’s go down to meet him. He’ll have the Batmobile.” Jason’s hand twitched towards the vent. “I promised Robin would keep him safe.” “Of course Robin will. It’s just that Robin is getting some help from Nightwing and Batman tonight. He can come with,” Dick promised, ignoring the voices over the comm at that offer. They still didn’t know who Jason was protecting. Dick didn’t care, not when Jason was making promises as Robin. “Six minutes?” “Five now.” “Okay.” Jason turned to pull the vent off and help the kid out. A kid dressed in black. That clung to Jason with almost gaunt hands. That hid behind cherry red hair. “Hi, Rabbit.” The comms exploded with noise.

QUICK:

What scene do you want to see more of/see in Another Red?

#dp x dc #batpham #another red

[clockwayswrites]

LOL okay okay

QUICK:

What scene do you want to see more of/see in Another Red?

#pollunking #another red

[clockwayswrites]

QUICK:

What scene do you want to see more of/see in Another Red?

[clockwayswrites]

Hi! First of all, your writing is SUPERB, I so adore you and your posts, thank you so much for sharing your works! Shadow of a Bat hits me in the FEELS 🥹

But I have a silly little question that's been rattling around my brain for a while cuz I'm really curious about it and it suddenly hit me today that I could just.... Ask you lol SO if you don't mind me popping into your ask box with this, why do you tend to use "flick off" instead of "flip off"? It obviously isn't a big deal either way, I had just never seen that until I started reading your stuff (and then some other fic writers later on) and it made me wonder if it was a regional/diff country thing, personal choice, or if it carried different connotations that I didn't know/understand, ect.

Regardless, I hope your days get better and less pain-filled 🖤 and I look forward to more of your stories

Huh.

I mean, well, huh.

You know I've never even really noticed that much less thought about it! It probably is a regional thing, but I can't tell you where. I've lived across a good chunk of the US. There's also just a good chance that I'm wrong and just in a bad habit.

It's also possibly a bit that for me it is a flick motion as I usually bring my fingers down first and then my finger flicks against my thumb. I struggle to have my middle finger up otherwise. So it might be something I heard/read somewhere and it clicked in my mind as right. But who knows! ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ

#blathersandbits

[clockwayswrites]

Another Red - post Toxin snippet

“We could find out who he is,” Tim said. He twirled a pen between his fingers, back and forth and back and forth over his knuckles.

Dick had seen Jason to the same thing with a knife a thousand times.

“We’re not gathering any biometrics.” Bruce sounded tired. He sounded worn down and tired like he did whenever one of his kids were in the medby. Dick didn’t think that tonight the tone of voice was just about Jason.

“I’m not saying—“

“If we do, if we take that choice from him, he will never trust us again.”

“I know, B,” Tim snapped and threw the pen. It stuck perfectly in the chest of a training dummy. “I’m pissed off because we won’t, alright? I know we wont and I know why we can’t and I hate it! He needs help.”

“I know, chum,” Bruce said, voice soft. He brushed his knuckles against Tim’s shoulder blade.

Tim sucked in a breath at the silent command, held it, and let it out slowly.

“He very well may not trust us already,” Damian said. He had flung himself into one of the chairs as soon as he had come back from changing like he was in a sulk, but there was a focused alertness in his watch on the medbay. “We brought him here without permission. That is a violation already.”

“He used the panic button,” Dick pointed out. Even if he knew that Damian might be right, Dick didn’t want him to be. “He had to know that something like this could happen when he pressed it. He has to trust us at least a little.”

“He trusts Red Hood,” Damian bit. “Do not be so naive as to believe that trust extends to the rest of us.”

“Hood’s Alley,” Tim said and flopped down into the chair next to Damian.

Damian who nooded Tim’s way. “Hood is Alley. We are… other.”

Oh, Baby Bat was upset about that.

#lets try this again #dp x dc #batpham #another red

[clockwayswrites]

Mm posted nother red to wrong blog. Get tomorrow maybe. Gg

#blathersandbits

[clockwayswrites]

Abson is all up on Ao3. Guess I need to start editing City Pigeons soon.

._.

After... after the semester ends. I think you all are stuck with indulgent Another Red and Minx until then, for survival purposes.

#blathersandbits

[clockwayswrites]

“You know, it’s supposed to be bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”

I remembered this week!

#dp x dc #quick death ship #updateupdatedupdate

[clockwayswrites]

Not 'Not So Imaginary' getting a sequel fic(let) for @deadonmayn week...

Have a little start, even though I've been trying not to share my domayn week work, because dramatic theater kid Jason is dramatic.

-

“I never thought I’d see you again!” Jason lamented, dramatically, as he flung himself at Danny.

Danny caught Jason dutifully, having expected such dramatics (though they had to be braced a little by Diana not to fall over from Jason’s exuberance). Hiding a smile against Jason’s hair, they patted Jason lightly on the back. “There there.”

“Don’t there there me!” Jason said and pulled back enough for Danny to get the full force of his pout. Danny was very sure that Jason thought that since even Bruce mostly folded to that pout, Danny had no chance, but Danny had been living with Diana and her pout was truly lethal. Still, Jason continued valiantly with his rant. “It’s been over three weeks! Do you know how long three weeks is! That’s twenty-one days! It’s been twenty-three, that is so long—”

Jason’s words cut off with a muffled little ‘murf’ as Danny leaned in and pressed their lips together. It was still just as effective as it had been twenty-three days ago as it stunned Jason long enough for Danny to flip the cover of their SGD up so that they could use it. While Danny spoke much more these days than before, it was still a challenge to find the right words at the right time. Their device was easier and they clung to it gratefully.

“We talked everyday,” Danny said. The mechanical voice had been tweaked some over the last few weeks to something Danny was happier with. They didn’t think it was too different, but it gave Jason almost as much pause as the kiss had.

“What?” Jason shook his head, dark curls flying. “No we didn’t, we texted every day, that’s not the same!”

Danny glanced down at their SGD and back up again with a pointedly brow raised.

“I’m not being abelist! That’s still us talking! I mean texting isn’t us talking in person, I mean— stop making me feel like a bad host. Alfie, tell Danny I’m not a bad host!”

“Well, Master Jason, you have left our guests standing on the porch for several minutes now,” the balding, mustachioed man standing primly in the doorway said.

Danny guessed he had to be ‘Alfie’.

Jason threw his head back with a dramatic ‘ugh’ stomped inside, and then held the door open with a little bow. “Madam Diana. Ma— Mis— What’s the proper title for a they, Alfred?”

Alfred blinked, once. “I suppose that depends on your friends preference. Would you prefer Master, Miss, or Mx?”

Danny’s nose scrunched up as they thought.

#dp x dc #dead on main #not so imaginary

[clockwayswrites]

Minx Part 2

Minx is a placeholder name, maybe Part 1, Masterpost CW: references to drug use, allusions to past torture, grabbing

Jason had to suck in several careful breaths as he took in the wound splashed across Danny’s ribs. “No fucking John did that to you and if they did—” if they took some sort of hot poker to Danny’s side— “I’ll kill them if they did.”

Danny blinked up at the ceiling, avoiding Jason’s gaze. “So the John thing may be a cover story?”

“Fuck’n—” Jason clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to work out the urge to punch someone. It wouldn’t do any good with no target to punch. Jason had kept an eye on Danny, best as he could without being invasive, and the other seemed clean of Gotham’s shit. “What are you messed up in Danny? Is it someone’s business? Did you see something you shouldn’t on the job? Hear something?”

“No— I mean, yeah I’ve heard things, but nothing to do with this. This is,” Danny’s hand moved to cover up the mark, as if hiding it would make the problem go away. “This is just some shit from my past catching up with me. It’s nothing you need to worry about, Boss, it’s not Gotham business.”

Jason held back a growl, pushed it back into his chest. “Did it happen in Gotham?”

“No, it happened down in sunny Florida— of course it happened in Gotham.”

“Then it’s fucking Gotham business.”

“Yeah, fuck it is, you stay away from it,” Danny snapped with a smile like a bear trap. He got up and grabbed his shirt with a waver. “Dealt with it anyway. It’s done and—”

Danny froze as Jason reached out to grab his arm.

“Danny—”

“You let go of me, Hood. I don’t care who the fuck you are, you do not grab me like this. No one grabs me like this.”

Jason slowly, carefully, lowered his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to fall over but I shouldn’t have stopped you like that.”

“You fuck’n shouldn’t have.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Jason soothed. He wasn’t good at soothing, not any more, but he would try if it would stop Danny walking out of there injured like that. “Just sit back down and let me treat the wound. I’ll stop asking questions.”

Danny sized him up, eyes sharp with the perfect winged liner. Then he sighed and sat back down.

“Thank you,” Jason murmured as he rummaged around in the well stocked first aid kit for something to treat burn wounds. “How bad is the pain.”

Danny shrugged. He had his chin on his hand and was purposefully not looking at Jason.

Guess he was still in the dog house then.

“This will help the topical pain, but I know burns hurt deep. I’d like to give you something. Have you been drinking tonight?”

“You found me outside a pub,” Danny answered dryly.

“Doesn’t mean you were drinking, Danny, I know you know how to fake it.”

Danny sighed and tilted his head to glance up at Jason. He looked tired now, like the glamor had finally worn off with the stroke of midnight.

“Yeah, I was drinking. Helps with the pain and I knew I could take those shits drunk off my fake tits.”

“Bet you could,” Jason said, allowing himself a little smirk behind his helmet. He’s seen Danny play pool before and it was a thing of wounder. “Okay, we’ll do an IV then, rehydrate you and get some pain medication in your system in one go.”

“IV?” Danny repeated, his voice small.

“It won’t hurt, I can put them in smoothly,” Jason said as he started to work on treating the wound.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re real gently like,” there was a wobble under Danny’s bravado and twang, “but I’m not much fond of needles.”

“I’ll be here. I won’t leave you alone with it in.”

Danny snorted. “Yeah, gonna hold me the whole night so I don’t panic?”

“If that’s what will help,” Jason answered without hesitation. He could feel Danny watching him, judging him for that statement, but Jason just kept carefully working on the wound.

“Don’t be stupid, you can’t wear your helmet the whole night,” Danny said as if that would be the catch.

“Then I’ll take it off before I hold you the whole night so that you don’t panic.”

“Will you?”

“Said I would, didn’t I?”

Jason smoothed on the last of the gel.

“Yeah… okay,” Danny said with a tired sigh. “Okay, let’s try the IV.”

-

Jason sat with his back against the arm of the couch and the pillow propped there. One leg was against the back cushion and the other on the ground still. Danny, make-up washed off and dressed in a set Tim sized sweats, was tucked back against Jason’s chest.

It was easier to sit that way than take Danny staring at his face covered only in a domino and black hair spray on the white streak.

Jason gently ran an alcohol wipe over the inside of Danny’s arm.

And froze.

“Not what you think.” Danny’s voice sounded small and far away. “Hood, breathe.”

Jason sucked an unsteady breath. “What?”

“I said it’s not what you think. I’m not using. I was… sickly, when I was a teen. It’s— that’s why I don’t like IVs and needles and stuff.”

“Promise?”

“And cross my heart,” Danny said, going through the motion. “Girl Scout’s honor.”

Jason barked out a laugh that was still a little too sharp. “Yeah and I was a Boy Scout.”

“I don’t you, you do a lot of community service,” Danny said, draping his head back over Jason’s shoulder.

“Yeah, well, I work with different birds than eagles.”

Danny’s nose scrunched up.

Jason liked it better when he could see Danny’s pale freckles.

“Eagle Scouts are the highest level of Boy Scouts,” Jason explained.

“Why the fuck do you even know that?”

“I know a lot of shit,” Jason said.

Danny flinched at the pinch of the needle, but Jason had a good grip on Danny’s arm and was able to get the IV in fully. Jason soothed his thumb over it after he taped the IV down.

“There you are.”

“Don’t leave.”

“I won’t,” Jason promised. “I’m right here.”

#reblog since i posted it very late #and i like it #and there is a masterpost #and I'm so so tired #dp x dc #dead on main

[clockwayswrites]

Minx Part 2

Minx is a placeholder name, maybe Part 1, Masterpost CW: references to drug use, allusions to past torture, grabbing

Jason had to suck in several careful breaths as he took in the wound splashed across Danny’s ribs. “No fucking John did that to you and if they did—” if they took some sort of hot poker to Danny’s side— “I’ll kill them if they did.”

Danny blinked up at the ceiling, avoiding Jason’s gaze. “So the John thing may be a cover story?”

“Fuck’n—” Jason clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to work out the urge to punch someone. It wouldn’t do any good with no target to punch. Jason had kept an eye on Danny, best as he could without being invasive, and the other seemed clean of Gotham’s shit. “What are you messed up in Danny? Is it someone’s business? Did you see something you shouldn’t on the job? Hear something?”

“No— I mean, yeah I’ve heard things, but nothing to do with this. This is,” Danny’s hand moved to cover up the mark, as if hiding it would make the problem go away. “This is just some shit from my past catching up with me. It’s nothing you need to worry about, Boss, it’s not Gotham business.”

Jason held back a growl, pushed it back into his chest. “Did it happen in Gotham?”

“No, it happened down in sunny Florida— of course it happened in Gotham.”

“Then it’s fucking Gotham business.”

“Yeah, fuck it is, you stay away from it,” Danny snapped with a smile like a bear trap. He got up and grabbed his shirt with a waver. “Dealt with it anyway. It’s done and—”

Danny froze as Jason reached out to grab his arm.

“Danny—”

“You let go of me, Hood. I don’t care who the fuck you are, you do not grab me like this. No one grabs me like this.”

Jason slowly, carefully, lowered his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to fall over but I shouldn’t have stopped you like that.”

“You fuck’n shouldn’t have.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Jason soothed. He wasn’t good at soothing, not any more, but he would try if it would stop Danny walking out of there injured like that. “Just sit back down and let me treat the wound. I’ll stop asking questions.”

Danny sized him up, eyes sharp with the perfect winged liner. Then he sighed and sat back down.

“Thank you,” Jason murmured as he rummaged around in the well stocked first aid kit for something to treat burn wounds. “How bad is the pain.”

Danny shrugged. He had his chin on his hand and was purposefully not looking at Jason.

Guess he was still in the dog house then.

“This will help the topical pain, but I know burns hurt deep. I’d like to give you something. Have you been drinking tonight?”

“You found me outside a pub,” Danny answered dryly.

“Doesn’t mean you were drinking, Danny, I know you know how to fake it.”

Danny sighed and tilted his head to glance up at Jason. He looked tired now, like the glamor had finally worn off with the stroke of midnight.

“Yeah, I was drinking. Helps with the pain and I knew I could take those shits drunk off my fake tits.”

“Bet you could,” Jason said, allowing himself a little smirk behind his helmet. He’s seen Danny play pool before and it was a thing of wounder. “Okay, we’ll do an IV then, rehydrate you and get some pain medication in your system in one go.”

“IV?” Danny repeated, his voice small.

“It won’t hurt, I can put them in smoothly,” Jason said as he started to work on treating the wound.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re real gently like,” there was a wobble under Danny’s bravado and twang, “but I’m not much fond of needles.”

“I’ll be here. I won’t leave you alone with it in.”

Danny snorted. “Yeah, gonna hold me the whole night so I don’t panic?”

“If that’s what will help,” Jason answered without hesitation. He could feel Danny watching him, judging him for that statement, but Jason just kept carefully working on the wound.

“Don’t be stupid, you can’t wear your helmet the whole night,” Danny said as if that would be the catch.

“Then I’ll take it off before I hold you the whole night so that you don’t panic.”

“Will you?”

“Said I would, didn’t I?”

Jason smoothed on the last of the gel.

“Yeah… okay,” Danny said with a tired sigh. “Okay, let’s try the IV.”

-

Jason sat with his back against the arm of the couch and the pillow propped there. One leg was against the back cushion and the other on the ground still. Danny, make-up washed off and dressed in a set Tim sized sweats, was tucked back against Jason’s chest.

It was easier to sit that way than take Danny staring at his face covered only in a domino and black hair spray on the white streak.

Jason gently ran an alcohol wipe over the inside of Danny’s arm.

And froze.

“Not what you think.” Danny’s voice sounded small and far away. “Hood, breathe.”

Jason sucked an unsteady breath. “What?”

“I said it’s not what you think. I’m not using. I was… sickly, when I was a teen. It’s— that’s why I don’t like IVs and needles and stuff.”

“Promise?”

“And cross my heart,” Danny said, going through the motion. “Girl Scout’s honor.”

Jason barked out a laugh that was still a little too sharp. “Yeah and I was a Boy Scout.”

“I don’t you, you do a lot of community service,” Danny said, draping his head back over Jason’s shoulder.

“Yeah, well, I work with different birds than eagles.”

Danny’s nose scrunched up.

Jason liked it better when he could see Danny’s pale freckles.

“Eagle Scouts are the highest level of Boy Scouts,” Jason explained.

“Why the fuck do you even know that?”

“I know a lot of shit,” Jason said.

Danny flinched at the pinch of the needle, but Jason had a good grip on Danny’s arm and was able to get the IV in fully. Jason soothed his thumb over it after he taped the IV down.

“There you are.”

“Don’t leave.”

“I won’t,” Jason promised. “I’m right here.”

#dp x dc #dead on main #minx

[clockwayswrites]

Me, thinking about 'Another Red' as the pieces start to come together:

#blathersandbits #another red

[clockwayswrites]

Your hands-

Your hands are disabled.

You live in America and your hands are disabled so you drive anyways even though it hurts because your hands are disabled.

You drive to the grocery store and your hands hurt, but you need groceries. The prices have gone up but you need groceries because you're out of food because you've had a migraine for four days.

You drive to the grocery even though it hurts and prices are up and you're very careful because of the vertigo from the migraine and you watch every step. You try to be careful but the pain and the vertigo make your movements slow and your hands bump and jar and jab.

It hurts.

Because your hands are disabled.

Your hands are disabled and they bump and jar and jab but you make it through the grocery story, fingers curling like the legs of a dead spider. You get into your car because you have to drive home with the vertigo and the food you had to get because in two days the rain comes back and the temperature swings and you'll have a migraine.

You drive home with the vertigo and the food to the dying cat who's screaming because he's starving. You tell him to wait as you rush to put the food away and your hands bump and jar and jab as your rush to feed your cats even as your knuckles throbs with pain.

You have to clean the litter pans.

Maybe it can wait.

It hurts.

#idk if this is poetry or prose or what #but it's been... a very long day #poetry #i guess #cw pet illness

[clockwayswrites]

Oh my God. You're the writer of one of my favorite favorite Dead on Main fics. Holy shit. I just reblogged one of your posts saying I'd add the fic referenced to my many tabs and I already have a couple of your fics in my tabs. I'm gonna go ghost now, can't believe myself 😂 so glad I was like "let's check their blog!"

Anyway hi 🥰💛hope you're doing well. Remember to stay hydrated and have something to eat and take breaks as needed. Take your meds if you have any too! (I tack this onto any messages I send writers so I hope it doesn't bug you)

LOL nooo you don't have to go ghost! It's okay! I mean, 1) I can't remember names for the life of me and 2) I have a different Ao3 name than here! It's okay~ Now you've found me here so you can see all the first draft/wip stuff!

And ty! Meds taken, just ate, and drinking so any electrolytes I'm gonna float away.

#blathersandbits

[clockwayswrites]

*writes 800+ words of Another Red but not the part I'm supposed to*

Jason breathed in the heavy clove scented smoke, taking comfort in it. He didn’t smoke often anymore, but if Bruce and Alfred hadn’t gotten him to stop, he didn’t think he ever would. Somethings were just too much part of a person. The smoke swirled up into the night air, caught in the constant breeze a harbor city like Gotham had.

“You don’t have to do this kid, put yourself in danger like this.”

“No, I do,” Rabbit bit out. Jason was pretty sure if he could see the kid’s teeth, they would be bared in a feral smile. “What I can’t do is let people get hurt when I can go and help them.”

“Yeah, and what about your safety? You could die.”

Rabbit laughed like that was some sort of big joke and Jason felt himself bristling at the reaction. Jason knew how dangerous this was— more than anyone else in his family. He’d felt that fear and pain and—

“Yeah, well, Hood, sorta too late for that.”

Jason’s anger left him so suddenly that he felt cold in it’s absence. No—

“Do you know, it’s not the death itself that’s bad,” Rabbit drawled, almost lazily. He finally lit his gifted cigarette. He didn’t take his mask off, like Jason had hoped he would, but ducked his head down and pushed the mask up just enough to take a slow drag. He looked so small like that, hunched over on himself with the bright ember dangling from his fingertips. “The body stopping everything… it’s sorta of quiet. All those functions we don’t think about going on all the time— breath’n and blink’n and beat’n… it’s quite without all that going on. Nah, it’s not the actually dy’n that’s so bad, it’s the fear that comes with it.”

“Yeah.” The admission almost hurt Jason to choke out.

“Yeah,” Rabbit agreed. He took another drag from the cigarette. His free hand was curled over his head, likely to keep his face hidden from Jason, but it just made Rabbit look all the more like a scared kit. “And that fucking fear? That worst part? I live with that all the fucking time, Hood, so nah, I’m not so ‘fraid of dy’n‘gain.”

“At least let me help you avoid it,” Jason said. He didn’t mean to plead but fuck if he wasn’t.

Rabbit snorted and took one more drag before he snuffed out his cig and stood. “Yeah? And how do you plan to do that?”

All traces of the drawling accent was gone and that hint of Gotham was back in Rabbit’s voice.

Jason wondered which was more real.

He reached into his belt instead of pressing the matter— instead of pressing the accent or take on death or talking Rabbit out of this life. Jason knew in every shattered bone of his that it wouldn’t do any good. This life already had the kid by the neck and there was nothing to do about it. It would choke Rabbit out one way or another, just like the rest of them.

The red fob was innocuous against his glove, could hardly even see it in the dim, yellow light of th Narrows. Red on red on red—

“Take it.”

Rabbit didn’t.

“What is it?” he asked instead, leaning forward just a little.

“A panic button.”

Rabbit snorted and flicked the remains of the cigarette at Jason. “I’m not taking a fucking tracker.”

“It’s not a tracker until you activate it. You press and hold the button on each side for two seconds and only if you do that is it a tracker. I can’t activate it remotely on my end or anything,” Jason said. “It’s the same one I give some street kids and sex workers. There’s nothing special about it, it’s just a tracker.”

Rabbit watched Jason with an eerie stillness. “Swear it.”

“I swear, it’s just a panic button. It’s only a track if you turn it on.”

Rabbit still didn’t move. Jason sighed and started to pull his hand back before Rabbit darted forward and grabbed the panic button. The little fucker was quick.

“I won’t press it just for anything,” Rabbit said with a defiant jut of his chin.

“Wouldn’t expect you too,” Jason said with an honest, easy shrug.

Rabbit watched a moment longer before he pulled out a keyring without any keys and put the button in. It hung between a battered food shelter tag and a library barcode that Jason was sure was counterfeit.

“Yeah, whatever. Now go on and get, Hood. Don’t you have a whole city to look after?”

“Fucker,” Jason said fondly and stamped his own cigarette out before he tucked the butt away in a pouch slot. The small part of him that was still very much a Bat wanted to do the same with Rabbit’s so he could try and pull some DNA. Instead he flicked Rabbit off and leapt off the roof to the kid’s laughter.

#another red #dp x dc #batpham

[clockwayswrites]

The Bats, in Another Red, when they start thinking of Danny as one of theirs: "Well at least we got some variety with the bright, cherry red hair!"

The Bats, when Danny finally trusts them enough to let his roots grow out some: "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT- EVERY TIME."

#blathersandbits #another red #dp x dc

[clockwayswrites]

And then I """napped""" for 12 hours until my morning alarm went off.

#blathersandbits