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starry-bi-sky · 4 months

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more clone^2 thoughts

you know who i just remembered ALSO has long hair? Vlad. Vlad Masters. Danny's worst enemy and biggest pain in the ass ever since he sent those vulture ghosts after his fucking dAD. Danny having long hair would make Vlad so inSUFFERABLE. Like look!! Proof that you are much better off as MY son. We have matching hair lengths! Come be my son! I will make you a halfa like me and we will become powerful allies together!

Danny almost chops it off out of spite. He ends up not doing it because he likes his hair long, actually, very much so and he's not growing it out again just because you're crazy! He's attempted to take a pair of scissors to Vlad's hair though -- THAT was a fight that got ugly. Danny's go-to threat whenever he sees him after that is that he's going to chop off vlad's hair when he's not looking - just you watch, Masters. He'll do it. HE'LL DO IT.

And if Danny wasn't keeping it a tight secret, he'd turn around and taunt Vlad about being a) a clone and b) a clone of BRUCE WAYNE. he'd say stuff like:

"How's it feel knowing my parents cloned a man richer than you"

"you're just mad that bruce wayne is more my dad than you'll ever be!"

"it could've been you that my parents accidentally cloned instead of Wayne, but instead you fucked off for twenty years instead!"

but also its a constant question Danny asks himself how he and no one else ever figured it out sooner that he was a clone. He doesn't understand how Vlad of all people didn't realize it when he went to college with the man with his parents and was also stinking rich, before remembering that he doubts Vlad remembers anyone who wasn't his parents in college, and has been a rich, recluse loser this entire time.

its a good thing though, danny's pretty sure vlad would attempt a hit on the man if he found out out of pure jealousy and indignant rage. And then he'd get his ass beat by Batman and his army of children.

All in all, Dany is a pure menace towards Vlad whenever he gets the chance, as is normal, and then Vlad's suffering gets doubled after he makes Ellie - of which she is even worse than Danny because she's the halfa that Danny Is NOt and thus has the powers to break into his house easy peasy and wreck shit. She steals his obsidian black card and goes on a shopping spree. This is a regular occurrence.

(and for anyone who isn't aware - Ellie is the same age as Danny in clone^2 bc i thought it'd be fun)

And then it gets tripled once Damian joins the family and gets caught up to speed on all of Vlad's tomfoolery and whoops, Damian's got better stealth skills than Danny and looks like Ellie has a partner in crime whenever they need to sneak into vlad's house to cause him grief.

Vlad's walls are the first canvas for Damian to test out his new spray paints on once he gets them :)

next up

Wes weston! i love this guy, he's so funny and he definitely knows danny is the Phantom in the clone^2 au. it's not as easy to figure out as it is in canon since its not just a simple colorswap, but perhaps he sees Danny taking off his mask after a daytime fight. and after that he becomes determined to reveal that quiet, strange fenton is the vigilante phantom.

he's putting some real,,, detectiveness? stalkerish? skills to use because catching photos of phantom is not as easy as it is if he were a halfa. He can't just snap a few dozen photos of fenton and phantom and then color compare the two of them either - Phantom wears a mask, and works primarily at night or in evenings, and typically avoids the living during the day. And he doesn't speak to the living either. Wes has to put in some extra work into his investigations and evidence.

He also makes the dumb mistake of cornering Danny in the bathroom one day early on and telling him he knows he's the Phantom -- now that Danny knows that Wes knows, he's going to be even more careful not to get caught. He puts in a little extra work in both Fenton and Phantom - another layer, perhaps a jacket, as Phantom, and baggier pants and boots he never wears as Fenton. His hood stays up in the daytime.

He was already putting in some extra effort to appear creepy and unsettling as Phantom - things like crouching low, tense movements, fluid movements. If he's perched on something he does a kinda-crawl like movement - think a mix between a bear and a gorilla crawl. It's weird, creepy. And he stares. Danny's mastered the art of not needing to blink for long periods of time, so if he sees you and sticks around he stares. It doesn't help that you can't see his eyes that well through his mask - its just two piercing green.

It helps endear him to ghosts and his enemies though - the annoying little human boy is engaging in ghost culture! That's eliciting some form of begrudging respect from his enemies.

And then compare that creepy, almost cryptid-like behavior to Fenton who, while considered a freak, really isn't anything more than just some dorky weirdo with occasional heart problems. He's kinda unsettling - he has those 'stares into soul' eyes - but its leveled by the fact that he's kinda just... dorky. It reads as normal, awkward kid behavior, and then gets disregarded completely as he gets older and it bleeds into 'very chill teenager'. Fenton being Phantom doesn't compute that much.

Paulina: you think Phantom is Fenton? Wes: I don't think, I know he is! I have proof-- Star: Just because they both have black hair doesn't mean they're the same, Wes. That's like saying Paulina and Manson are sisters because they also have black hair.

Wes's attempts to out him as Phantom means that Danny is a little more wary of him than he is in canon, since his vigilante identity isn't an entirely different ghost form its just him, so he has to be careful about where or when he takes off his mask in case Wes is around. Especially during daytime fights.

But other than that he has a lot of time messing with him. Wes is trying to convince his table group at lunch that Fenton = Phantom (again) and Danny just so happens to be within earshot of him and starts making fun of the idea.

"You think I'm Phantom?" and he's got the most disbelieving grin on his face that's only partially convincing. "That's totally bogus, man. The Phantom famously doesn't get along with my parents, why would I be a ghost hunter and not work with them?"

He has this most shit-eating, delighted look in his eyes that Wes knows is pure manic glee at being able to mess with him and get away with it. Wes is going to strangle him.

"Besides, dude, did you forget I have a heart condition? I can't be chasing around ghosts - my heart would give out from all that running and jumping."

Although Danny can get really serious at the flip of a coin if need be - especially with Wes when he gets too pushy about him being Phantom. A notable instance is when Wes cornered him in an empty bathroom to again talk about him being Phantom.

Except Danny, who had been working on a really difficult cold case about the death of a child, and hadn't gotten much sleep in the last 72 hours, plus a plethora of other stuff (like recently acquiring Damian, fighting ghosts, etc), wasn't in the mood to entertain him. It ended with Weston getting pinned to the wall and lowkey threatened by Danny. He apologizes for it afterwards but it's not forgotten.

Additional note: Wes Weston having a crush on Danny Fenton is a hilarious trope to me so Wes absolutely has a crush on Danny and the only one in denial about it is him. Everyone else - except Danny because he's more focused on the fact that Wes knows his identity, and has other things to worry about - knows about it, and everyone chalks up his obsession with Danny as being part of said crush.

Wes' friend: you know usually when you have a crush on someone you normally confess, maybe ask them out, pine from afar....

Wes: i dont--

Wes's friend: not accuse him of being the local ghost-fighting vigilante. Seriously, wes! His parents are ghost hunters!

Wes: i do not have a crush

Wes's friend: and ghosts aren't real! everyone knows that's a lie!

next up

Dan! Or Dante, but i'll call him Dan for the time being. Even if I dislike the name with a passion. Much like Wrath from my Childhood Friends au, Dan here is pretty different from his canon counterpart. Mostly because I wanted to experiment with Dan and different interpretations of him, and I thought; hey, where no better than an au where Danny has no powers?

so, dan? Dan is not a combination of Danny and Vlad's ghost halves -- now, don't get me wrong, danny still ends up under vlad's custody care after the death of his family, but he just doesn't fuse with Vlad's ghost.

So, what happened? What happened is that Vlad convinces a grieving Danny that he should let him make him a halfa (despite the fact that he has no idea how) because the he could go find his family in the ghost zone. Danny is in no mental state for any kind of experiments, but his hope and want to see his family and friends again gets him to agree.

It backfires. Vlad doesn't make Danny a halfa, he just ends up killing him completely. Danny comes back instantly as a ghost however, and enraged over being lied to, betrayed, and murdered, ends up killing Vlad in furious cold blood. He doesn't fuse with his ghost half, there's no ghost half to fuse with.

So a grieving ghost, Danny flees into the ghost zone. And, in this iteration, doesn't end up destroying the world. So how does TUE end up happening? Well, ten years later - with Danny remaining a forever 14 year old ghost - Dan ends up finding out about time travel. He finds out a way to travel back into the past, and he does.

So he can take over his past self's life. Danny just thinks he's fighting a weird doppleganger ghost, but ends up getting overshadowed. It's like being in a weird limbo, and Danny's not really sure what's happening - but his friends figure something out. After all, its been ten years since dan saw his friends, something has to give.

And that episode happens. Danny ends up meeting clockworth, beats Dan. But, well, it's not really happily ever after - somewhat. Ehh.. sorta. Danny's been traumatized by Dan's overshadowing - making him realize that despite everything, there are things ghosts can do that danny simply cannot and he needs to prepare for it. Onset paranoia, anyone?

Dan tells them his whole tragic backstory - there's a chance for redemption here, for him. For forgiveness. Not immediately, not yet, but its there. And he doesn't want to go back to the future - he's alone there. He's tired of being alone.

But he ends up being convinced - he needs to learn to look forward, not cling back. He can build himself up again, find new family. He doesn't have to be alone. So Dan goes back to the future.

"But come tell me if Vlad's giving you trouble --" and he smiles something wicked, "I'd be happy to handle him again"

and finally

not so much as any concrete thoughts as it is just me being emotional over Danny and Damian's brotherhood in this au and also Danny's hands. Again.

lIKE.. I put it in the tags of my reblog of my "danny's scarred hands' ficlet but im putting it here and its just?? Danny grabbing the blade of Damian's sword. Him grabbing the sword multiple times despite the fact that he knows it will hurt, that he will hurt himself. That he will keep hurting himself until Damian himself stops.

its just like??? whats it mean to spill your own blood just so that this little boy you've just met won’t have to ever again. he doesn't know any english and he is hurting you and yet you take him home and get him new clothes. he runs away and you go looking for him, every single time. you teach yourself arabic first so that you can converse with him.

this boy is a clone and so are you. you're a clone of his father he's a clone of your son - by nature of your existence this is your child. except its not your child, you don't have one, its just a little boy who happens to share the same dna as you. and you take him home and he becomes your little brother.

what's it mean when its you whose been hurt rather than him? whats it mean when you’d hurt yourself again just so that he can start to heal, so that he knows that he’s worth it? you cut your hands on his blade, catch its swing, just so this boy can know, can learn, that there’s someone who will bleed for him. that there's someone who will scar their hands just to make sure that you wont scar yours.

you’re a bleeding heart and its spilling out onto your palms. you take bloody fingers and wrap it around your little brother’s and say "its okay. it’s okay. you’re safe. no one will hurt you here. i promise. i wont let them. no one will hurt you so long as i'm around."

"put the sword down. i can show you how. let me show you how."

and damian in this au just reminds me of the song "eight" by sleeping at last. like?? the lYRICS. he is sO "eight" coded

'show me how to lay my sword down for long enough to let you through.' 'here i am. pry me open. what do you want to know?' 'im just a kid who grew up scared enough to hold the door shut and bury my innocence' 'but here's a map. here's a shovel. here's my achilles' heel. im all in palms out. im at your mercy now and im ready to begin. i am strong enough to let you in.'

"by nature of our existence we are father and son, but by choice we are brothers. we are brothers we are brothers we are brothers. and i love you"

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #clone^2 #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp dc #dp dc crossover #dpxdc au #dpdc au #ITS JUST. THEM. IM SORRY BUT ITS THEM AND I LOVE THEM.#damian's guilt of hurting danny and the consistent conversations they have from that. danny always tells damian he forgives him.#'i hurt you' 'i know' 'im sorry' 'i know'#'one day i hope you forgive yourself just as much as i have forgiven you.' 'repeat after me: its not your fault'#'youre my brother and i hurt you and im sorry. i love you.'#i should get around to making a post about the batfam meeting them but i just!!! I love damian and danny i love their dynamic #and i know that i was the one who decided that its years before they meet the batfam after meeting each other but its still just a choice #that im stil so happy about because they become brothers! they meet the batfam and they're expecting baby damian to be like how damian was #when he arrived in the manor but he's not. he's not. he wears funny graphic tees and his older brother is bruce's clone and its so clear #that they love each other. bby dames steals his brother's flannels and gets chased around by him. and they roughhouse like brothers do #and his older brother is bruce's clone and he throws damian over his shoulders and calls him 'dames' and 'dami' and 'my boy' and its so #so obvious that this clone of bruce utterly adores damian.#and i had the idea before writing this that damian's first english word is 'star' and he turns to danny and calls him star when he wants #his attention for something. he points at him and says 'star' and he doesn't do that much anymore now that he knows english #but its one of the first signs of him trusting danny when he first arrived.

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 8 months

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PROPAGANDA

KATHERINA MINOLA (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) We had to read this for English my senior year. I got so mad at the way she's treated. She's the titular "shrew" of the play. She has to be married off before her younger sister can get married, because that makes sense.

Then the most dogshit man imaginable comes along, and everybody thinks they're perfect. He literally gaslights her and denies her food and water.

Fuck Petruchio and Katherine Minola deserved better!

2.) Literally the whole play is about how she is so awful that the main guy needs to change her entire personality, which he does as a challenge not because he likes her, and then proceeds to her abuse her for the rest of the play. Yet, he is portrayed as the hero, not a villain and she is shown to have "improved" at the end. People will say, oh it's open to interpretation, it can be played different ways, it's satire, but i don't find abuse funny and there is a distinct lack of commentary in the play to count as satire imo. Taming of the Shrew is a tragedy not a comedy, I will die on this hill. Kate deserves better!

3.) The title isn’t joking, ya’ll. She literally gets broken like a rebellious feral animal and it’s treated as a happy ending.

BARBARARA GORDON (DC COMICS) (CW: Ableism)

1.) Famously fridged in 1988, which was so popular with misogynists it became canon. After almost 2 decades of being one of the only disabled characters, was rebooted to a younger, more fun version of herself whose only history is that she was fridged but not disabled by it.

2.) The Killing Joke is one of the biggest comic examples of a female character getting hurt to motivate male characters. Also tbe way different cannons will trade off who her romantic intrest is out of Batfamily is pretty disturbing ranging from Bruce Wayne in Batman the Animated series universe (ew) to Tim Drake in the Arkham games (ew). Not to mention DC now is not letting her grow out of being Batgirl taking away her legacy of other young female heroes taking up her mantle and her getting to mentor them instead forcing her into a Batgirl cycle of purgatory when she was always better as Oracle (Its a little more complicated in the new Batgirl book but its still not solving the issues in a way that feels meaningful enough to make up the damage).

3.) Was shot as angst value for Bruce and her dad, implied to be sexually assaulted in The Killing Joke with absolutely no respect for her long career as Batgirl. When Alan Moore asked if he could, the editor said "cripple the bitch." She became paralyzed from the waist down. THankfully, an actually good writer picked her up from there and then wrote one of the best stories ever written (Oracle Year One: Born from Hope). Was one of the most iconic disabled characters in comic book history, hell, as Oracle, she was definitely up there as one of the most iconic disabled characters ever as well as a fantastic character, period. There were a few moments where people kept trying to make things out of her disability and had her be shitty to other women for no reason but for the most part, she was awesome. During her time In 2011, Dan Didio and some other misogynistic/ableist comic book writers were responsible for "curing" her disability and forcing her back into Batgirl, despite her having shown absolutely no desire to do so, as part of the New 52. They also made it an editorial mandate that she couldn't have glasses, a cool secret base, and her time as Oracle couldn't be referenced. This was because those writers were nostalgic for the 60s Batman show where Babs was played by an actress they all had the hots for and couldn't accept she'd grown up and moved on. That was bad enough, but over time, she's been increasingly deaged and reduced even further to just Dick Grayson's on and off again girlfriend and a generic girlboss. Batgirl of Burnsides burn in hell.

#polls #round 1 #week 2 #new #cw domestic abuse #cw ableism

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arty-shadow-morningstar · 3 years

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Con Man's Daughter

Posting this because there isn't enough biodad! John Constantine content.

[Masterlist]

(Part 2)

-----

I feel like this should be a Damianette story or just platonic relationship after Jon got aged-up to seventeen and Damian wanted a friend his age but doesn’t want to admit it.

So basically there is this big bad in Gotham using magic that Batman was fighting at the time and enlisted John Constantine to help out.

John realizes that the villain is using a Miraculous.

“Oh. I think I know how he gets his powers. And lucky for you, Bats, I know an expert on this special brand of magic.”

And he did the smart thing and called up Marinette who at the time was already Guardian and was looking for other lost Miraculouses like in the Treasure Hunter AU I wrote.

He calls her at a really bad time. She was in the process of being chased by the guardians of the place. Monsters and evil spirits.

“Hello, Dad. What do you need and can you do it quickly?”

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s me. How is my little cupcake up to these days?”

“You called at a bad time.” Gunshots.

“WAS THAT A GUN I HEARD? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, YOUNG LADY?!”

“Somewhere in Japan. Getting a Miraculous. And why can’t you call me to check in on me and not ask me to help you with whatever mess you got yourself into.” More gunshots sounds and it was telling that Marinette was using a gun.

“Where did you get a gun? And don’t you have school?”

“It’s summer break. Don’t worry Maman and Papa know. Well, the fact that I am in Japan anyways.” Marinette sounded a little out of breath. Roaring and horrifying sounds at the other end. “Can we do this later?”

“As it happens, there is a villain going around Gotham with what I think is a Miraculous.”

Swears on the other end.

“Oi. Watch your fucking language, young lady.”

“How about a No and move the fuck back, old man. I am coming over right now.”

“Old man? I am not that old-” as a magic blue portal opens up in the Bat Cave.

And a red Chinese dragon comes out with someone riding it.

Its rider was a black-haired girl. She had a trench coat similar to Constantine's. I imagine her with a fedora. Like Carmen Sandiego style but not red. Sometimes red but only when she has to steal it from a museum or high security places and she leaves a name card with the name Carmen Sandiego. A sword strapped to her back and a dagger to her thigh.

She had a gun in her hand which she used to shoot the monsters as it was halfway through the portal and yelled out the spell to close it.

“Brilliant entrance but you are in lots of trouble, little lady. What were you thinking about going to another country unsupervised? And isn’t there still a butterfly problem in Paris?”

“One, I wasn’t unsupervised. I had Tikki, a billion years old being and a sort of god. Two.Well, it got boring trying to track Hawk-bitch down. And I found this legend about a guy with a Miraculous who disappeared in the temple and thought hey, more miraculous could mean another edge to defeating Moth-man.”

More bickering and John grounding Marinette who was acting very nonchalant about it.

Okay, at this point, I should say that Batman and Robin are in the background trying to make some sense.

Batman is surprised to find out that Constantine has a daughter who is also involved in magic like her Father but an apparently more specialised kind called the Miraculous. He is a little miffed that he didn’t know about John having a daughter. He did consider it weird at first that she had a slight french accent unlike her father’s Liverpool accent although she pronounced some words like he does.

He also connected some dots that she is also the Parisian heroine, Lady Rouge who Wonder Woman introduced to the League a while back and had declined to join the Young Justice or Teen Titans until everything in Paris was resolved.

Damian on the other hand was suspicious of the new arrival and came to the same conclusion as his father about the daughter thing.

Batman after a few minutes, clears his throat.

The Constantines stop arguing.

“Bonjour. Batman. Robin. Pleasure to meet you. I am Mari Constantine and yes, I am this homeless looking man’s brilliant daughter.” “Hey”

“Well, Mari. Your father thinks you can help us with this new criminal turning Gotham upside down. Literally in some cases. He said that you might be able to help us.” Batman said as he pulled up zoomed in picture of the Miraculous.

Mari looks through the Miraculous grimoire and tells them all about it and power-ups, basically the most effective thing to defeat the guy is to get the Miraculous off them. Plus a spell that would make the Miraculous ineffective if casted within a certain radius of it.

“Thank you for the information, Mari. Constantine, let’s go.”

Mari made to follow them.

“You young lady are grounded and staying here.”

“I don’t need another supervillain using the Miraculous which are my responsibility as Guardian to retrieve them for their own misuse and wreaking havoc on the city. And what if there is an akuma in Paris? I can’t go there if I am grounded in the Batcave although it is a cool place to hang out.”

“You can portal back to Paris but you are not going to follow me. Understood?”

“yes. crystal”

“Good. After me and Batsy get the Miraculous, you can do your Guardian duties.”

Damian snickers. Until Batman cut his mood short, “You are staying behind too. Robin.”

“But Father, why? I am much more capable than Constantine.”

“Hey!” Both father and daughter.

Damian is staying behind too because of the Miraculous power or other reasons and keeps an eye on Mari.

Damian stays behind and there were some protests about mari mad about having a babysitter and Damian doesn’t want to be a babysitter. Despite the two of them being around the same age.

“I got an eye on you so no funny business.”

“Okay, Dad, I am not going to have sex with Robin.” Mari said with a shit- eating grin. Robin definitely didn’t blush.

“I hate you sometimes.”

“I love you too, Dad. Go save the world. Byee.”

John eyes her suspiciously because she is not one to give up that easily usually.

He casts a spell to watch her as they leave. and which she totally knew about.

“So...I have one question.”

“Tt, ask and don’t bother me anymore.”

“Is Batman Bruce Wayne?”

Damian looks up, totally caught off guard.

“I am going to take that as a yes.”

Puts sword at her neck. “How did you find out?!”

“Opened up Google Maps and saw that we are under Wayne Manor. Connected the dots. Also I already knew when Dad made a bet with me once to find out Batman’s secret identity but he never did confirm it for me. And can you please not tell your father about this? I don’t feel like being interrogated by the Bat in the future yet.”

“Father must know about this.”

“I saw you looking at Scarlet here. An animal lover then? You can give her some belly rubs. She deserves it after helping me outrun those monsters.”

His silence was brought. To pet a dragon.

One thing after another and he ends up bringing out his pets-Jerry the turkey, Goliath the dragon-bat, Titus- and her introducing him to her other pets like a hellhound, griffin and other mythical creatures who mostly roam free but come to her when she calls for them and also the kwamis, at least the ones who came with her.

After 30 mins have passed, “So Robin how do you feel about disobeying our fathers?”

“I am in.”

“Depends. Are we going after the (villain's name) ?”

“Yes.”

Awesome montage of them getting rid of the spell John casted and flying out of the Batcave on their respective giant flying pets to the villain’s base.

Meanwhile, their fathers are not doing so well and are trapped in a death trap. John can’t say the spell because the villain made him unable to talk.

“At least, the kids are staying put.”

Cut to Damian and Mari jumping off their pets and onto the roof. Taking out the guards posted there and going into the building all sneakily and also taking out the guards that come their way.

They dropped into the room where their fathers and the villain is.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Villain starts an evil monologue about his mastermind plan to which Damian cuts it short by trying to cut him down with his katana. Mari goes to deactivate the death trap.

They are evenly matched with Damian’s training and the Miraculous.

Mari steps in as Damian was about to be killed. Taps on the shoulder of the villain and when he turns around, gives an awesome right hook that knocks him out.

Takes away the Miraculous and curses him. Wiped the dude’s memories of it.

“When I said stay in the Batcave, I meant stay behind at the Batcave. What point of being grounded, don’t you understand?”

“You mean, Oh, Mari, light of my life, my wonderful daughter, thank you for saving my ass. You are the best.’ by that, right?”

-----

Mari and Damian exchanged numbers and email addresses.

As she was about to leave the Batcave, “It’s been nice meeting you, Mr. Wayne.” and leaves with a wink.

John ‘ungrounds’ her for the look on Batman’s face.

-----

After this, Marinette and Damian become friends who bitch and vent to each other about their alter egos and various villains of their respective cities. (In codes, just in case) They also share updates about their pets and love of drawings.

They have that type of friendship where they trade favors. Mari calls Damian to Paris sometimes to help out with the akuma of the day and Damian sometimes calls her in when Bruce doesn’t let him go investigate a case so he can sneak out by magical means or as back up for when his brothers were too annoying to deal with.

It’s summer break so no missing school.

John and Bruce are aware of their friendship and some of the shenanigans the pair gets into behind their back.

-----

Right. how this all started...

John and Sabine first met when the latter was still in college somewhere in France. John was tracking down a demonic entity which was targeting Sabine for some reason and she was the next target.

John saved her life and exorcised the demon. There was a heat of the moment thing and they had a one-night stand. There were a few more flings and hook-ups after that night.

And nine months later, Marinette Cheryl Cheng-Constantine was born.

When Sabine first found out, she called John to come over and he thought that it was a call for another hook-up and was very surprised to find out that it was not and that he was going to be a father.

They both like each other but do not want to be in a relationship together so they both remained as friends and John agreed after some strong-arming at the very least to meet his daughter before he goes to do his job. And pay for child support. And help Sabine during her pregnancy.

Pregnant Sabine was someone you don’t want to mess with. And John has never met a demon or anyone scarier than her.

He was at first not into meeting his child and there was a self-pity party he threw himself with how the child was going to live a bad life because he was the dad and how he destroyed every good thing in his life.

That’s why he is going to meet the baby once and leave maybe a letter and the occasional birthday present and stay out of their life. Forever.

The day Marinette was born and it took one look into her eyes for the HellBlazer to fall under the spell and all of his plans to stay out of her life to burn away.

At first, he tried. He really tried but he couldn’t do it.

Lasted 4 months before he came back, wanting to place protection spells on her and sigils around the house to keep away the forces of Heaven and Hell and other entities so they won’t use her against him as a bargaining chip.

Sabine calls him to babysit. He could have refused and Sabine would have easily found a babysitter. He moans and whines about how he is a great mage and not a bloody babysitter. Sabine retorts that it is actually called parenting since he is Marinette’s father. He grumbles but in the end, agrees.

The great John Constantine is wrapped around the little girl’s finger.

He was around for some of Marinette’s firsts. Her first word was “John”.

It made him cry. He wasn’t a good man and he doesn’t deserve someone this precious. His daughter doesn’t deserve someone like him as a father but fate made it that way and what can you do about it.

After an exhausting week of doing the usual and coming back from Hell, he saw that Sabine had sent him a video. It was Marinette taking her first steps.

Chas swears that in all the years that he has known John Constantine he has never seen the man look so happy.

------

When Tom came into the picture, John was there to take care of a toddler Marinette while Tom and Sabine went on dates.

Insert John threatening a much bigger Tom while holding a baby Marinette with wide eyes and hugging a teddy bear with the same coat as John’s. (It was something Sabine brought on a whim and to tease John when he came around.)

Tom is supportive and treats Marinette like his own flesh and blood.

John resolved to leave for good now that Tom would be there to be a father figure for Marinette.

That plan fell into the drain the moment he was going to leave for what was supposed to be the last time before Sabine pulled him back and knocked some sense into him.

His face was a big giveaway. Sabine knows that despite his claims of being a terrible father for Marinette, he was a good one and damnit she was going to make sure that Marinette would get to know her actual father.

Tom later made an awkward talk with John about how he was not going to replace John’s role as Marinette’s father.

Marinette was the flower girl at Tom and Sabine’s wedding. John was there too.

During bedtime, John would read her stories and use his magic to make it come to life. Although he would feel a little drained afterwards, it was worth it to see her smile.

Sometimes he told stories about his tamer adventures. (After cutting out some of the inappropriate bits)

------

When Marinette was about 5 or 6, Sabine was out on an errand and Tom was at home with Mari and helping her with her homework. There was a crash downstairs at the bakery. Tom went down to check it out to find John lying on the ground.

With a weak cough, he said, “Close the door. Close it.” Before losing consciousness

Tom did before a man with pitch black eyes slammed against it.

Thankfully John had installed heavy wards around the bakery when it first opened.

They held against the demon on John’s tail. Tom brought John inside and unsure of what to do, grabbed a rolling pin on the counter.

The man outside started pounding on the glass door and every time his hands touched the door, light glowed outwards, showing the invisible magic barrier around the bakery. Sparks and steams fizzled with every pound.

Despite the reddening and burns of his hands, the not-human didn’t slow down.

“ʝօɦռ....ʏօʊ ӄռօա ȶɦǟȶ ɨȶ'ֆ օռʟʏ ǟ ʍǟȶȶɛʀ օʄ ȶɨʍɛ ɮɛʄօʀɛ ɨ ɮʀɛǟӄ ȶɦʀօʊɢɦ ȶɦɛֆɛ աǟʀɖֆ. օռƈɛ ɨ ɢɛȶ ʏօʊ,” He laughs, the sound sends chills down the large man’s spine, “ȶɦɛʀɛ ǟʀɛ ֆօ ʍǟռʏ ȶɦɨռɢֆ ɨ ɦǟʋɛ քʟǟռռɛɖ ʄօʀ ʏօʊ.”

Tom knew that Marinette’s father was a con man. Come on, Master and Practitioner of the Dark Arts and Occult. But he was a good father nonetheless despite all his flaws and Sabine liked him enough so that was good enough for him.

Before today, magic was just the sleight of hands and use of fancy tools to sell the illusions. Now, with a could-be-a-demon knocking on his door to get to the father of the girl he sees as his daughter, he’s not so sure.

“Tom? Qu'est-ce qui se passe? (What’s going on?)” A little voice came from the stairs, “Dad!” Marinette padded across the floor to the body of her passed out father.

She shook him awake and there were a few soft slaps to the face.

“Dad, what’s happened?”

John mumbles, “Demon…. possessing some rich guy….. Exorcism…. Doesn’t like me very much…Don’t worry...wards going to hold.”

John manages to stand before falling down and Tom catches him before he hits the floor. He has a concussion. Tom turns to Marinette, “Go, Hide and don’t come out until It’s safe.” which she did

Unfortunately, a while later, Sabine returns from her night out and the demon upon seeing Sabine. “ɛӼƈɛʟʟɛռȶ..”

The demon possessed Sabine and the previously possessed dude hit the sidewalk with a thud.

“ɨռȶɛʀɛֆȶɨռɢ....” The voice coming out of Sabine didn’t sound like her mother which scared Marinette a lot. “օքɛռ ȶɦɨֆ ɖօօʀ օʀ,”the demon pulled a knife out of thin air, ,“ȶɦɨֆ ɮօɖʏ ɢɛȶֆ ɨȶ.”

Tom hesitated until the demon put the knife on Sabine’s neck and put enough force for a thin line of blood to be shown.

He opens the door and the demon knocks him out. Stepping over his unconscious body and looking down on it, “ʄօʀ ȶɦǟȶ, ɨ ǟʍ ɢօɨռɢ ȶօ ʟɛȶ ʏօʊ ʟɨʋɛ ʊռȶɨʟ ɨ ǟʍ ɖօռɛ աɨȶɦ ʝօɦռ, օʄ ƈօʊʀֆɛ.” and cackles. The sound was so wrong and unnerving and little Marinette tried very hard for her sobs not to be heard.

Too bad the demon had super hearing. “Come out, my little blossom. Maman is home. Why don’t you come out and give me a hug?”

It sounded so much like her mother and she nearly believed that it was her mother and not some entity in control of her body.

But she knew better from John’s stories of dealing with demons and how they would use the voice of loved ones to lure them out and into a trap. (Definitely not something one should tell as a bedtime story but Marinette was very different and had an unconventional childhood with John Constantine as her father.)

Wait...she got struck with an idea but she wasn’t sure if it would work.

Before she could do anything, the door of the cabinet she was hiding in was opened and she was dragged out.

The demon lifted her a few feet above the ground by the collar of her dress.

It heard Marinette saying something. “աɦǟȶ ǟʀɛ ʏօʊ ֆǟʏɨռɢ ƈɦɨʟɖ, ֆքɛǟӄ ʟօʊɖɛʀ?”

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica.” Marinette was now screaming the words at the top of her lungs. She repeated the spell over and over again with fierce determination.

John, being his paranoid self, taught her the spell for an exorcism, just in case. Demons spared no one, not even a girl.

It screamed “NO….” as Sabine’s body contorted in strange angles before a dark shadow seemed to be dragged down into the ground. It made a desperate attempt to possess John before it was pulled away and disappeared. There was no sign that there was a demon attack.

After John woke up, he managed to piece together that his 5-years-old (Sorry 5 and a half) daughter sent a demon back to hell.

He was a very proud dad. (He was a tad worried about the consequences from this event and demons hold one hell of a grudge. He wanted his daughter to live a very safe and happy life. The bakery’s wards also need an upgrade.)

He also got the job of explaining what he actually did to Tom. And lots of reassuring.

Sabine, on one hand, was not happy that Marinette knew how to do magic. That is until John told her that he did it just in case so she can protect herself and later it was agreed that Marinette can learn some Magic spells and charms to better protect herself and when she is older, she can decide if she wants to continue or not.

----

(Part 2)

#bio!dad john constantine #maribat #damientte #damainette #platonic daminette #maybe?#minor swearing

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thekillingjoke-haha · 3 years

Text

We’re Batshit Crazy

@spnquotebingo Word count:1,609

Summary: Love isn't all that perfect sometimes love is crazy especially when the Hero is in love with said crazy.

Gotham AU

Jason Todd(Jensen Ackles) x Villan!Reader

Enemies and Lovers (none of that "to" bs)

Gotham Recasting: Batman=John, Dick Grayson(second Robin not first) =Sam ,Tim Drake=Adam, Joker(ledger style)=Lucifer, Harley Quinn=Lilith,ect.

Warnings: Mention of death, blood, guns, and violence

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The mad laughter rung out into the night sky as the purple Lamborghini hit corners with violently sharp turns. "Oh puddin I just love family night!~" The pale platinum blonde giggled as the man with green dyed hair licked his smiling lips. A bubble of laughter came from the back seat he turned around to see his princess looking out the small back window. "Batsy batsy batsy" Her low/high pitched giggle caused a crazy chain reaction as the bat mobile hurried to catch up. "Always ruining our fun,huh,princess?" The clown king shifted his gray-ish blue order into the mirror grinning making the scars on his face raise into a sinister smile at the look of pure chaos in his daughter's e/c eyes. "Not tonight! Not on my birthday!!" She said as she smiled reaching under the seat to pull out a Tommy gun. Climbing to the front seat sitting on her mothers lap she leaned out the passenger window. "Go back to the Rat cave your not gonna put a downer on my weekend!" Y/n yelled shooting off round towards the tires,windshield,and headlights.

The mobile didn't seem to have a scratch as as a motorcycle pulled up beside it. Slipping back in the car the younger women pouted looking at get parents. "He called his little birdie no doubt the replacements in the car." Y/n huffed as she dug around for more fire power. "Puddin we have a visitor.~" The red mask gazed at us as he lifted a forearm pistol. Shots were fired and Joker took a hard right almost like tron the motorcycle quickly turned into a ally to avoid being hit. "Sorry Princess might have to cut tonight shot." He said licking his lips as a thump came from the roof making the youngest clown snarl her eye crazed as she shot above her as the purple car swerved wildly. "YOU'RE RUINING MY BIRTHDAY,BATS!!!" Y/n cackled madly a mixture of her parents laughed till the magazine ran out.

They got to one of their warehouses where Jokers men were armed to the teeth. The clown mask had black soulless eyes and immediately fired the moment the batmobile entered. Y/n skipped out of the purple Lamborghini she got on her tippy toes and kissed her dad on the cheek. "I got the hooded punk. Can you clip the bats wings for me...a little present?!" He laughed as he armed himself with a shotgun. "Anything for my princess." The f/c sf/c female clown skipped away knowing that the motorcycle riding vigilante was hot on her tail. That's how she found herself on the roof tops jumping the gaps as heavy footfalls followed. Her loud laugh echoed as she leaped to a smaller building hiding behind a vent the moment the brown leather jacket came into view she tackled the tall man. They were both panting as a grin pulled on the clowns lips.

Y/n POV

"Caught ya,Jay bird." I giggled pulling of the helmet his apple green eyes covered by a second mask stared at me he chuckled as his hand slipped above his head in mock surrender. "Yeah you caught me,beautiful." Leaning down I kiss him my hands pushed into his cheeks my thumb running over the scarred J. We've been dating for awhile now ever since dad kidnapped the second Robin at seventeen. I was fifteen at the time and dad had me at his side as he tortured him.I was always there to stitched him up and put burn cream after shock therapy I didn't know how we got attached maybe because he wanted to rebel a little by talking to me or someone around his age saw the same if not worse shit.

Six years ago(Y/n 15 Jason 17)

"Why are you helping me?" Looking up his head was strapped down along with his arms and legs. I shrugged my shoulders I knew who he was if I wiped off the make up and temp dyed my hair I was the honor student in the same class as him. Jason Todd anyone with eyes had a thing for him,but after removing his mask it wasn't hard to piece together who the bat fam is. "I know what my dad has planned for you Jay. This is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound and might I say that's very unhelpful." This was the first I spoke to him and it wasn't long before Dad beat him to death.

Two years later.

I sat in the back of the car as Frost drove. We just left the cemetery. "Why are we doing this,n/n." He asked looking in the rear view mirror at me. I'm seventeen now my thoughts screamed at me. Why was I trying to bring him back? "Because I crazy that why!" I giggled as we grew closer to the lazapit. He was dressed in a black suit with red tie his body sunk into the water as I waited. A loud gasp drew my attention as he shot up a white streak in his hair. "Heya sleeping beauty." Looking over in shock he lowly made his way looking like a baby deer. "I'm alive,but h-how?" His green eyes looked at me. "A Ghoul owed me a few favors I just asked to use his fountain of youth." Handing him a towel and some clothes. "Sorry about the outfit,but Arkham does have one size fits all." Jason chuckled as he started to dry off.I realized why I brought him back. I was crazy about him.

Two more years later(two years ago)

Jason wanted to stay dead he didn't go back to His dad and brother after he realized that neither of them tried and save him. It was sad to see,but it brought Jason closer to me and he started to trust me and I gave trust in return. Blood coated my hands while some was on my face. Looking at Jay some was speckled on his cheeks taking the pockets square out of the mobsters coat I wiped it off he looked down at me his arm slipped around my waist pulling me closer my breath hicked. "Will you be my girlfriend,my little jester?" A large smile grew on my face as my arms went around his neck pulling him down further. "Gladly,Jay bird." I kissed him not caring if my lipstick stained his lips and he didn't seem to care either as the kiss grew more intense. We shared our first kiss at nineteen surrounded by dead bodies as sirens and the unmistakable sound of the armed batmobile. At least he's as crazy about me as I am about him.

One year ago. (Jason POV for a sec)

I came to Bruce I hate to admit it but I needed advice about the one think he knew best. Women. It was just a couple of months ago he found out I was alive and shocker he managed to drive Dicky boy to Blüdhaven to get away from him to get his own image and not just Robin. Oh and surprise surprise when out of robins he had a spare like a tire and it's name was Tim. Nevermind that I stood across from Bruce in his home main office he had a frown on his face. "You're dating someone and its serious and I didn't know about it?" He asked trying to deduct everything. "I've been dating her ever since I came back. As strange as it might sound,but I want us to be something more." That's when the billionaire playboy stood up standing just a inch shorter then myself.

"Life is short Jason and you've experienced that first hand if you feel that both of you are perfect enough to be more then go for it." Perfect wasn't realistic nothing was ever perfect my life isn't perfect her life sure as hell isn't she's the clown princess I'm a bat son. Maybe that what makes us so good together the fact that it would have never really happened any other way life is just crazy like that.

Present

Staring into those vexing green eyes always brought me back. We're both twenty-one him being older only by a couple of months. "Happy birthday,gorgeous." His voice brought me back as my smile grew. We were standing up now he held a box wrapped in my two favorite colors. "Awe you shouldn't have." I grab it and opened it a gun was inside it was red and gold revolver it looked like my moms love/hate gun,but it said King/Queen. Looking at Jay I reached to hug him when suddenly he dropped to one knee pulling out a box with a beautiful f/c ring and ruby gem. "This feels over due. You took care of me when I was considered enemy number one. You brought me back from the grave when my own family didn't try. And this might sound stupid,but I had a crush on you in middle school you were one of the only people that didn't give me pity after Bruce adopted a street kid." He licked his lips as he gave of a small smile. "Together we are far from perfect, but we are good. You complete me...Y/n M/n Napier become my queen?" My eyes glossed over with tears my make up running down the pale foundation. "Oh my god of course!!!" I jumped into his arms hugging him tightly before letting him slip on the ring. "I love you." "I love you more crazy." I chuckle it sounded watery in my throat. "If I'm crazy then that makes two of us. You wanted to marry me." Yep we're both batshit crazy.

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A/n: Quote= We are far from perfect, but we are good. ~Supernatural

Is it just me or does Jensen look fucking hot as Red Hood?! I'm mean he's definitely a reason to move to Gotham

Well first crossover AU in my bingo card

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marauderundercover · 3 years

Text

Taking Chances Ch. 16: Summertime Nightmares (Alt prompt: Consolation/advice)

AO3

The following week was the last of the school year. And it was...weird to say the least. Some of her classmates were upset that she hadn’t been the one to tell them. Many of them (most) assumed that she’d known and just hadn’t told them. She didn’t want to argue with them and she knew her dad hadn’t announced her existence in Gotham yet, so she just pointed out the fact that the Wayne family was very private.

That mostly worked. Lila kept poking though, insisting that Marinette would have told them if she trusted them. Nino disagreed, which shocked Marinette. He usually believed Lila, or at least he hadn’t ever openly gone against her before. But not this time. This time, he insisted that Marinette trusted them and it was probably her dad who asked her not to say anything. While wrong, Marinette didn’t disagree. She’d let her dad take the fall for this one. Alya though...she wasn’t taking it well. She thought Marinette should have told her ages ago. If she had known before Lila came, maybe she would have told Alya. But Alya had been more lax on what she posts on the Ladyblog since Lila’s arrival. She’d done less research, and was posting things not related to Ladybug and Chat Noir. While that wouldn’t usually bother her, Marinette did not want her newly discovered family to be the next big story on Alya’s blog.

So she basically just kept her head down, kept quiet at the class hangouts. And now school was finally out for the summer. It would be a little over two months with no Lila. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Marinette walks into the bakery and smiles widely at her Maman and Papa.

“Hello honey, how are you?” Her Maman asks, sliding a croissant into her hands.

“I’m fine, Maman.” She says, mentally preparing herself to ask what she’d been avoiding. Her dad had offered to let her stay in Gotham for the summer. It was both a chance to bond, and a chance for him to train her a little so that she could fight better, help her make a case against Hawkmoth, maybe even find his identity. He also wanted to give her a break. He thought that taking a step away from Paris, from always policing her emotions, was in her best interest. She agreed, but she still hadn’t talked to her Maman. Or her Papa.

“Bruce called.” Her Papa says. Marinette freezes. He wasn’t supposed to call yet! “Asked if we’d made a decision about letting you go to Gotham for the summer.” Rats.

“I was gonna talk to you guys today! I didn’t wanna upset you. I love you guys so much, but I also really wanna spend time with the other half of my family because I just met them and we haven’t really had a chance to bond or get to know each other and-”

“Honey, we understand.” Her Maman says, cutting off her ramble with a smile. Marinette blinks.

“Really?” She asks in a small voice. She didn’t want to hurt them. Her Maman smiles and relief floods her body.

“Of course honey. It would also give you a chance to not deal with constant akuma attacks.” She says. Marinette squeals in excitement, running over and wrapping her parents in a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She yells. Watch out Gotham, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Wayne is coming back!

---

“Why hasn’t Marinette answered yet? She’s always down for a class picnic.” Alya says with a pout. Lila suppresses an eye roll, opting instead for a worried frown.

“Do you think she’s mad at you?” She prompts, knowing exactly why the little brat wasn’t answering. She was supposed to be on a plane right about now. Lila had borrowed Alya’s phone the day before (to make sure Marinette hadn’t tried to say anything about her again) when she saw the text. Marinette would be spending the entire summer in Gotham.

Lila, in a moment of what was surely pure excellence, deleted the text. It was perfect! Alya wouldn’t know Marinette had left and Marinette would be waiting for a text from her stupid BFF. But Lila had thought of that too. She’d changed the phone number on Marinette’s contact in Alya’s phone. It was now set to go to a fake number in a messaging app that Lila spent €1 on each month. It was worth it though, it’d definitely come in handy before. And now all she had to do was wait. Sure Marinette could always text Alya first, but Lila had heard too many times that Alya usually reached out first. Probably because of how much of a scatterbrain Marinette is.

“Why would she be mad at me?” Alya asks with a nervous smile. Hook, line and sinker. Lila frowns and places a hand on Alya’s arm in a faux attempt at reassurance.

“I didn’t wanna say anything, I really shouldn’t.” She says, shaking her head.

“Please. I’ll owe you one!” Alya insists, just as Lila had hoped. This would be a key part of her plan later on. Once Marinette has been silent for a few weeks.

“Well...okay. I heard her talking to Adrien the other day.” Lil starts, using the only other person who could go against her (but won’t!) “She said- she said she couldn’t trust you!” Alya flinches back as if she was hit.

“She said that?” She asks in a small voice. Lila nods sadly, celebrating on the inside. She’d be able to use this summer, while Marinette is away, to finally take everything away from that no good brat. It would be glorious.

---

Marinette was moments away from committing a murder. She was only going to do it because she knew for a fact that she’d get away with it. With a singular pout, she’d have the world’s greatest detective on her side. She was certain of it.

“Miss Marinette please put down the knife. I assure you prison is not lovely this time of year.” Alfred says with a sigh as he walks into the kitchen.

“Then tell Dick to get out of the kitchen!” She complains, pointing at her oldest brother who was currently covered in frosting and flour. She was trying to make cupcakes for after dinner, since she knew how much Dick likes sweets. She was trying to do something nice. And when Dick came into the kitchen, claiming he just wanted to spend time with his baby sister, Marinette let him stay. Because she loves her brother, she does.

But somehow in the two minutes that he was in the kitchen, he managed to dump the entire canister of flour. Not good, but she’d already baked the cupcakes so it wasn’t the end of the world. But then somehow, he’d managed to dump the entire mixing bowl of frosting. The entire thing. She had no clue how he had managed to do that, considering the fact it was frosting. It didn’t exactly run smoothly out of a bowl. It’s supposed to be able to hold its shape. Honestly, it was a mystery.

“Master Dick, you know that you are not allowed in the kitchen.” Alfred says with a frown. Dick pouts.

“I just wanted to spend some time with Mari.” He mumbles. Marinette almost regrets wanting to kill him. Until she watches as he wipes some of the frosting off of his head and eats it. Yeah, she doesn’t regret it anymore...but she does still love him.

“Okay, we’ll definitely have to spend more time together later. But for right now please go take a shower or something. I need to make more frosting and I do not trust you to be in the room when I do.” Marinette says exasperatedly. Dick sighs but leaves. Marinette puffs out her cheeks, giving Alfred a look.

“Yes?” He asks, his lips quirked up slightly.

“I honestly don’t know how you deal with them sometimes.” She grumbles before grabbing a new bowl. The cupcakes aren’t going to decorate themselves.

---

Jason huffs, annoyed that he’d been talked into staying at the manor with Marinette. He wasn’t mad at Marinette, he would do just about anything for the kid. Didn’t mean he wanted to stay at the manor just to make sure she didn’t sneak onto patrol. She’d assured them that she was too tired to try anything, but Bruce hadn’t believed her. Thus, Jason stuck at the manor.

But the kid had made a shit ton of cupcakes and Jason had a copy of his favorite book, so the night wouldn’t be too bad. After a few hours lounging in one of the rooms near Marinette’s, Jason starts to nod off. He’s about to welcome the rest, knowing everyone would be back from patrol soon, when he’s yanked from sleep by an ear piercing scream. Shit.

---

Marinette blinks as she looks around. Oh god. No, no please don’t let this be real. She chokes out a sob as she looks around her. Paris was once again completely underwater. The Eiffel tower was split in half. Hands shaking, she glances up and sees the moon. Or, what’s left of it. She moans in distress, letting her tears fall freely. She tries to breathe, but it won’t come. She’s panicking now, trying to ignore the burn in her chest as she sees the disaster around her. The terror around her. The destruction. She clutches her throat, trying to force her body to breathe. Force herself to suck in air, to be okay.

“Oh, Marinette, I see you’ve decided to join us again.” A familiar voice says. She tenses, slowly turning and looking behind her. Standing in front of her, just as she remembered him, was Chat Blanc. She should’ve known. She should’ve known that just because it was okay for a couple days didn’t mean it would stay okay. She should’ve tried harder to find Bunnix, should’ve tried to find a way to stop Adrien from finding out. Movement by Chat Blanc’s feet catches her attention and she glances down, regretting it immediately.

“What have you done?” She asks, rushing forward and falling to her knees, desperately trying to stop her little brother from bleeding out. “What have you done?” She yells, glaring at Chat Blanc through her tears. Her hands shake as she puts pressure on the wound, using Damian’s cape in an attempt to stop the blood.

“Marinette-” He tries to say, and she just shakes her head, hating that there’s blood coming out of his mouth. She knows what that means. She knows that this is bad. And there are no hospitals anymore. Everything is underwater. Everything except the three of them.

“Hey no, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay, I’ve got you little brother.” She chokes out, trying to smile at him.

“Father,” He manages to say, his voice barely audible. “Help him.”

“No, no, please. Please don’t leave me! Please, no, no!” She screams, trying to wake him back up, trying to force him to get back up. He couldn’t die like this. He couldn’t die at all. She just found him. And now she’s lost him.

“Now we can be together forever Marinette.” Chat Blanc says, finally speaking up. She glares at him and his stupid smirk. The smirk that had haunted her since the first time she saw the white suit.

“I don’t want anything to do with you! You killed my brother!” She screams. Glancing down at her shaking hands, she can’t help but notice they’re covered in blood. She shudders, trying hard not to throw up.

“Brothers, actually.” He quips. She snaps her gaze back to him.

“What?” She hisses, standing so that she can hopefully run and get to one of her brothers before it’s too late. She can’t lose all of them. She can’t. He casually steps to the side, revealing her other brothers. But none of them are moving. Cass is also lying with them, but she’s not moving either. Gone. All of her siblings. And it was all her fault. She let Adrien know her identity. She didn’t try to fix that mistake and this is what happened. She lost every- her dad. Damian said- She turns and runs away from Chat Blanc, scanning the horizon and trying to stay as together as possible. She had to try. She could still save her dad. She could still help him. As she looks around, she manages to spot his cowl. Rushing towards it, she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Marinette?” He says, looking at her with a frown. She scans him for injuries, relieved that he just had a few small wounds. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

“I’m so sorry dad.” She whimpers, throwing her arms around him. He holds her for a moment before pulling away.

“Marinette, we have to go. We can’t stay here. It’s only a matter of time before-” He stops talking and his face morphs into the most horrified, anguish filled face that Marinette had ever seen. Right before he starts to crumble into ash.

“No!” She screams, horror and grief washing over her in waves. She was all alone and it was all her fault. And now she was going to die too.

---

“Come on Pixie, wake up kid. Come on, it’s okay, I’m here. Jay’s here.” A familiar voice soothes. Marinette stops thrashing, coughing slightly as she realizes the loud noise had been coming from her. She’d been screaming. Jay’s here? But then- She immediately opens her eyes, sobbing in relief when she sees Jason looking at her. No blood. Okay. She lunges forward and wraps her arms around him, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry.” She cries. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh kid, you don’t have to be sorry. It’s okay. You’re okay.” He whispers, holding her close. They sit like that for a few minutes, until a knock on the door frame makes her reluctantly pull back. She glances over and a new wave of tears immediately appears. She launches herself off the bed and runs into her dad’s arms, sobbing once more.

“Jason, what happened?” He asks quietly, she knows that Jason doesn’t know, but she doesn’t answer for him. She can’t. All she can do is cry in her dad’s arms, relieved that she could cry. That her nightmare didn’t end with her almost being akumatized like it had before.

“No clue. Heard her scream so I ran in here, but she was asleep. Once she woke up she started crying and apologizing.” Jason says softly, probably for her benefit. She tries hard to remind herself that the nightmare didn’t mean anything. Her family wouldn’t be hurt because of her.

“Is everyone okay? Damian and Tim and Dick?” She asks, still buried in her dad’s arms. She’d ask about Cass, but she was still in Hong Kong. Marinette made a mental note to text her later.

“Everyone’s fine. Did you- do you want to talk about it?” He asks, and she almost agrees. Maybe it would be better to finally tell someone about Chat Blanc. To share that burden with someone else. But...maybe not her dad. Especially not since Adrien actively knows her identity and she wouldn’t be opposed to dating the boy in the future.

“I- er, um.” is all she manages to say before shaking her head. She won’t talk to her dad about this, and she doesn’t want to leave his arms right now. Not while she feels safe. She can almost hear him whispering to Jason, but she knows he’s trying not to let her hear, so she ignores them and instead wraps her arms around him tighter.

“Can I go get you a glass of water? Maybe a cookie for Tikki?” Her dad asks after a few moments of whispering with Jason. Marinette frowns. She didn’t want to be left alone. Not yet.

“I’ll stay with ya Pixie Pop.” Jason says, almost as if he had read her mind. She nods, giving her dad one final squeeze before walking back over to the bed and climbing up, letting Jason wrap her in a hug.

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Her dad says before walking away. The silence only lasts a beat.

“You wanna tell your big brother why you woke up screamin’?” He asks. Marinette squeezes her eyes shut, desperate to get rid of the images from her nightmare.

“Nightmare.” She says simply. Jason chuckles.

“Kinda figured that part out Pix.”

“I’ve had it before.” She starts, aware of how her voice shakes. “But this time it was a lot worse. This time, I wasn’t the one who died.”

“What could be worse than dyin?” Jason asks, though she can tell by his tone that he knows. He knows what’s worse than dying.

“Watching all of you die.” She says simply. His hug tightens and she lets out a shaky breath, desperately wiping at her tears. “That’s not even the worst part Jay.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna.” He says softly.

“I know.” She says. “A version of it has happened. In a different timeline. That’s the worse part. Luckily when I had to go save that timeline, I didn’t know you guys. So you weren’t caught in the middle of everything. But in my nightmare, since you know about me and- and you guys just wanted to help but no one can win against that. No one. It was so hard to beat him when it actually happened. But the dream. It was awful.” There’s silence as he just holds her, lets her know he’s there without saying it. She’s so thankful for her family. For her brothers.

“Here’s your water.” Her dad says. She finally sits up and looks at him, noting the way his face is creased in worry. She manages a small smile.

“Thanks dad.” She says, her smile growing slightly as his face begins to relax.

“Mari! You’re still up?” Dick says, walking into the room. She blinks at him in confusion, not expecting him to just walk in. She watches as he looks between everyone else, clearly putting it together that something was wrong. He frowns, before his face stretches back into a grin. “Come on, bring all your pillows and blankets and we’ll have a Disney movie marathon until we fall asleep.” He directs, running out of the room to presumably get his own materials for the movie marathon.

“You don’t have to.” Her dad reassures her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. She shrugs.

“Might as well. I know I’ll definitely not be able to sleep anymore tonight.” She says, grabbing a couple pillows and her blanket, dragging it with her to the movie room. Leave it to her brothers to have a way to help her feel better after a nightmare. Marinette smiles to herself, once again relieved that she was in Gotham.

Masterlist

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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Okay, long time followers will probably remember having read this, but I can’t find the original post and I’m trying to like.....force-reboot/jumpstart me working on my ‘Kings of the Sky’ AU again because I haven’t touched it in awhile and I have like literally eight different installments in various stages of completion and that’s ridiculous even for me. So here’s a repost of the first part of “Teachable Moments” the canon-divergence point of that AU series, where Jason calls Dick for advice after the Garzonas case and everything changes from there.

******

The way Jason Todd warily eyed the device in his hand, one might think it was an instrument of great and terrible destructive power, rather than just…his own personal cell-phone.

To be fair, he was Robin, and pretty used to the idea that even the most unlikely of things could be used for evil in Gotham. It could’ve been stolen and replaced at some point by a henchperson of Mr. Freeze, and using it could unleash some kind of cryogenic freeze ray that would turn him into a Robinsicle. Mad Hatter could be up to shit again, and dialing the phone at this very minute might mean syncing it up with a remote radio signal that would override his natural brainwaves and turn him into Tetch’s mindless minion of like…doom and stuff. Or…or…

Or sometimes, even in Gotham a phone is just a phone, and Freud is still a dumbass. And neither of the above possibilities had anything to do with why Jason was being a giant freaking pansy about entering the last digit of the phone number he would never ever admit to having had memorized for months now.

Nightwing had said to call if he ever needed to talk. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t actually want Jason to call, right? Like, its not as if Jason had remotely been expecting him to do that, so its not the sort of thing someone did just because it was ‘expected’ or shit. He was pretty sure. Rich people manners were weird though. Had to factor that in.

But Nightwing had also even made a point to say not talking to people about stuff was Bruce’s problem and that Jason shouldn’t let it be his problem too, and even though months ago Jason had been a starry-eyed dumbass who was totally drunk on the Bruce is the Bestest Kool-Aid or whatever, ‘Wing had definitely known what he was talking about there. So maybe he’d get it, and having this conversation with him wouldn’t be. Like. The actual worst idea in the history of ever.

Deductive logic said that Jason was getting worked up over nothing and there was no rational reason for him to be this nervous about dialing a fucking phone number. And he’d gotten pretty good at the whole deduction shit, given all the work he and Bruce had put into training his mind to view the world through entirely new paradigms, so Jason was pretty sure his math on that checked out. But on the other hand, Bruce was a hypocritical asshat that Jason was currently not speaking to, so what the fuck did he know about anything?

Aaaaand he was back to square one. Well damn. This was excellent. Very productive. Good hustle out there, Jay.

Sighing gustily, Jason flopped back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying to pretend he hadn’t gotten used to how luxurious and cushion-y his ridiculously expensive mattress was. He’d gotten soft, he told himself. Then he scoffed at the idea that the past year and a half of rigorous Robin training and patrols had made him less tough than the pipsqueak he’d been back when living on the street, getting his ass kicked by bigger and badder on the regular. That hadn’t been hardness, that had been bravado.

But it had gotten him this far in life, so maybe there was something to be said for it after all?

Ugh. Decisions were hard. He objected on principle. He also really wanted to understand why he was this nervous…if he could literally fill the guy’s shoes and kick supervillain ass as Robin, what freaking sense did it make that he couldn’t even call him up on the phone?

Maybe you just know better than to ask him questions you don’t really want to hear his answer to, a smug voice said in the back of his mind. It sounded suspiciously like Willis Todd, which was all kinds of weird and fucked up, cuz Jason was damn sure his abusive a-hole of a deadbeat dad had never said anything that insightful in his life.

Which meant it was his own screwed up subconscious - presenting in the voice of his not so dearly departed douchebag dad, no less - that had Jason reacting out of spite, entering the last number and hitting Talk, all while totally on autopilot. Because apparently we’re all making healthy life choices in this Chili’s tonight, Jason snickered somewhat hysterically while his phone rang once, twice, three times.

Ugh. Was he always this fucked up in the head and he just never noticed, or was it a side effect of running around rooftops in a cape. Inquiring minds wanted to know.

“Hello?” Someone said then, answering on the fourth ring. Jason sat bolt upright, his nervous humor vanishing as quickly and unexpectedly as it’d hijacked him in the first place. For all that he’d only actually interacted with the older man a few times, his voice was instantly recognizable. As was his slight confusion.

Right. Because why would Nightwing have the untraceable number of the latest burner phone Bruce had given Jason, when the ever paranoid Bat had him swapping out phones every freaking week? Duh, Jay.

“Uh, its me,” Jason said hastily, as if he could somehow catch up to and overtake the epically long ten second silence he let lapse before his mouth started making words again. “Jason?”

“Jaybird! Hey! What’s going on?” The older vigilante’s tone instantly morphed into one of surprised delight, so apparent even across the phone that Jason actually pulled it away from his ear and stared at it, as if that could explain Nightwing’s inexplicable giddiness. He’d literally only met the dude three times. Give or take a concussion he was forgetting about maybe? Weird.

Then again, the older man was a circus performer from birth. Might just be good at faking being super excited to hear from people? Whatever. Still weird.

“Uh, you said to call if I was ever having, I dunno, issues with Bruce I guess? So I kinda had a question? I mean, if you’re not busy or anything.”

Just one question? Willis’ voice asked snidely, echoing in time with the rapid tripartite beat of Jason’s heart. Since apparently everything Jason said was trying to come out with a question mark attached to the end of it at the moment. Ugh, fuck you, subconscious, Jason thought forcefully, even as he ransacked the recesses of his mind for that bravado he was thinking about earlier. It had to be in here somewhere…

“No worries dude, I’ve got time. Hit me!” Nightwing said cheerfully. His lighthearted cadences were so at odds with the sweat suddenly breaking out on Jason’s forehead, the younger teen couldn’t help but wince in anticipation of its inevitable change once he got his actual question out. This was a bad idea, he decided, way too fucking late for it to make a difference. He had a hunch Nightwing wouldn’t be content to ‘just forget it’ or whatever even if Jason chickened out now.

So he took a deep breath, shrugged and did what Jason Todd did best. Said fuck it, put pedal to the metal, and drove at full speed for the metaphorical police barricade that was his way of picturing all the things telling him He Should Definitely Just Not.

“Do you think I’m someone who could kill somebody in like, cold blood?”

Aaaaand there went the lightheartedness. Well, he’d definitely stone cold killed that, Jason thought grimly into the silence that followed.

“Huh,” Nightwing said at last. “You’re gonna have to give me a second to switch gears here, Jay. I was kinda expecting something along the lines of ‘how do I avoid Bruce giving me the safe sex talk.’”

Jason flushed and nodded jerkily, not that the older man could see it. Still, it’d been enough of a workout just getting to this point. He didn’t trust what might come out of his mouth next if he kept trying to force it. Thankfully Nightwing didn’t make him wait too long before continuing.

“I think anyone’s capable of killing somebody in the right circumstances,” Jason’s predecessor began carefully. Except that was not remotely what he wanted to hear. Or helpful.

“I’m not looking for platitudes,” Jason grit out, not angry at the other vigilante so much as the whole fucked up mess and his inability to think about anything else at this point. “It’s just a simple fucking question. You’ve met me, do you think like, I’d be capable of just killing somebody or not.”

“I’m not offering platitudes,” Nightwing continued calmly, as if he wasn’t phased by the younger boy’s interruption or sudden aggression at all. “And its not a simple question at all. Speaking from experience, most people wouldn’t think of an eight year old as a cold-blooded killer, but that’s what I could have been if Bruce hadn’t stopped me from killing my parents’ murderer when I first tracked him down. And yet that’s still totally different from when I held a gun on Two-Face barely a couple years later, about to shoot him because somebody else told me to, and because I wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt me. Wouldn’t you agree those are two different situations and two different ‘kinds’ of cold-blooded killer? Context is kinda a big deal here.”

Huh. First off…what the fuck? Jason stared blankly up at the ceiling, trying to hurry up the processing functions of his brain because, again, what the fuck? He was like ninety nine percent positive none of that had been in the Dick Grayson Is The Greatest and Here Are All The Reasons Why brochure he’d had read to him every time someone new found out he was Wayne’s newest stray, and like. Uh. Yeah, that part would have definitely stood out. Because once more, with feeling:

“What the fuck?”

Oops. That hadn’t been supposed to be out loud. Bad mouth. Bad.

Nightwing just did a weird kinda half laugh half sigh combo. Rueful, Jason would describe it, if he were describing it to someone else, which it kind of felt like he was, relaying the conversation to himself now that it’d taken a hard right turn into the surreal.

“Blindsided you with that, huh? Sorry, should’ve figured neither of those are the kinda stories Bruce would want to share with you. Then again, I don’t really have any idea what Bruce has told you about me.”

“Not much,” Jason admitted. Which was a major source of irritation, if he was being honest. The much sung praises of Dick Grayson came from literally everyone he met except for Bruce. Who usually just got a pinched expression whenever Jason brought him up, and a rapid subject change that was not nearly as subtle as Bruce seemed to think it was.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Nightwing sighed. “I hope you haven’t put too much stock in anything else you’ve heard about me then. I’ll admit to a bad habit of enjoying my mystique, so secondhand hearsay tends to lose my best nuances.”

Despite himself, Jason’s lips curved up and he let out a rueful huff of his own. “I mean, this definitely isn’t where I saw this conversation going.”

The older man chuckled. “Thought I was going to just assume the worst and chuck the book at you?”

“Well. Yeah.” Jason shrugged, even though he knew it wouldn’t come across. “Bruce did.”

Nightwing heaved an exasperated breath. “Yeah, that’s kinda the thing about B. Sometimes, he’s great. Other times, he’s an ass. Its kinda an either or thing. He’s never really mastered the art of finding a midpoint between two extremes. Mostly because he’s never seen the point of aiming for middle ground.”

“Well its not like he’s ever really had to,” Jason griped. It just slipped out before he could stop it, leaving him feeling guilty for bad-mouthing B when he wasn’t around to defend himself. Especially since he knew Nightwing wasn’t the guy’s biggest fan these days. But he couldn’t deny it also felt good, in a way.

To his surprise, Nightwing just laughed. And not even in a malicious, spiteful kind of way, but almost relieved.

“God, thank you. You’d think that ‘hey, so my billionaire guardian kinda has entitlement issues’ would be a water is wet kind of revelation, but try saying something like that to pretty much anyone else…”

“And they look at you like you’re an ungrateful asshole?” Jason finished for him. Not that he’d ever actually tried saying that to anyone before, though he’d definitely thought it a time or two. But he could all too easily imagine the reactions he’d get, which was pretty much why he’d never gone so far as to speak the words.

“Yup,” Nightwing drawled, dragging out the p and popping it with emphasis. “And its not about being grateful or not, its just…there are some parts of everyone that just aren’t up for grabs, for other people to weigh in on or take charge of, you know? And a lot of people just don’t get that…because nobody’s ever tried it with them, or had to deal with expectations that…overstep, let’s call it?”

“Is that why you left?”

Jason winced the second it left his mouth. Too far. Definitely way too far, but he’d just gotten unexpectedly comfortable with the back and forth, and now he’d done the overstepping thing himself and was left with just dead air.

But ten seconds of heavy silence stretched into twenty, and went no further, as Nightwing sighed into his side of the phone again.

“The spiteful part of me wants to say it was more of a push than me just up and leaving,” he laughed again, but this time with unmistakable bitterness. “But even while that’s true, its not really the right answer to your question, because no matter how much of a clusterfuck that was at the time, its not…I mean, I knew at the time how to fix it. Where and how I needed to cave in order to make up with him and let things get back not quite to normal, but at least close enough.”

The pause wasn’t as heavy or tense this time, as Jason could almost sense the older man gathering his thoughts, trying to put them into words. He bit his lip rather than risk any more unexpected utterances escaping. This might not have been where he’d thought his phone call would lead, but now that he was here, hearing the answers to questions he’d wanted to ask for over a year and finding them almost comfortably familiar, he wasn’t going to risk distracting Nightwing or shutting him up for well. Anything.

“But it would have meant me caving. Settling in ways that I just…couldn’t. So in a way, yeah, I did leave, it was still my choice. And all of that was definitely a big part of it. I love Bruce, I do. I just couldn’t live with him anymore. Not without feeling like I had to give up my own autonomy and just be what he wanted. Or what he’d expected me to grow up to be, back when he first took me in. And as grateful as I am to him for that, I can’t honestly say I would have stuck around back then if I knew that was the price tag attached. I’m not…I don’t do well with people trying to force me to stick to one place, one thing. I was born on the road, you know? When I was a kid, I expected to spend the rest of my life living like that. Home was people. Not places. And so Gotham…its never fit me quite right, the way it does him, or even Barbara. Its not like I was miserable there, its just.”

“It wouldn’t have been your first choice,” Jason finished again, quietly. There was silence again for awhile.

“No. No, it wouldn’t have been. Not then.”

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itsany62 · 3 years

Text

SteveTony - Fix-Its

Here are some Fix-Its to mend your heart. Don't forget to leave kudos and nice comments in every fic!

Making Amends, by TheseStoriesAreWrittenOnMyHeart, 100 k > words, Post-CA Civil War.

Everything about them happened in seconds. Their first meeting was quick, with Tony landing next to the Captain, each man giving a curt nod and name in greeting. Their argument on the hellicarrier took mere seconds to escalate. Until Steve was goading Tony into putting on the suit and going a few rounds and Tony not so subtly reminding Steve that he wasn’t afraid to hit an old man.

It was only seconds of staring at Tony on that New York City Street, his arc reactor dark, no rise and fall of his chest, for Steve to know that inside the tin can, was a good man.

Then Ultron happened, and it took seconds for their world to change, seconds for Steve to throw his shield at Tony and for the billionaire to send a repulsor blast back. They went from laughing and relaxing to standing on an edge thousands of feet above solid ground.

And now…now everything’s changed. And all it took was a combination of seconds; of decisions made, actions performed and words spoken that they couldn’t get back.

Just a few ticks of the clock for their world to shatter.

It’ll take more than that to make things right.

almeno tu nell’universo, by silkspectred, 100 k > words, Post-CA Civil War.

Tony drives off.

Well, he wants to.

But he can’t.

Because.

Steve Rogers is in front of his car.

Steve fucking Rogers. Is in front of Tony’s fucking car.

you'll wait a long time, by nanasekei, 16 k > words.

Steve and Tony share a moment during a wedding. Things escalate from there.

Alternatively: Four weddings, a funeral, and one very emotionally stunted idiot.

Down in Lonesome Town by resurrectedhippo, 79 k > words, Endgame Fix-It.

“Why do I always find my way back to you?”

Maybe he didn’t necessarily return to Steve, but fate is a funny little thing, and after living a life of loss, Steve wants something that’s his to keep. Tony deserves a love that’s unrestrained. Steve thinks he’ll erupt with it.

Love is messy, not easy, and takes work.

Maybe love feels like rage.

But maybe love could just be jumping off a rocky mountain and smiling anyway.

After the universe is restored, Steve is lost without any direction. Retiring from the Avengers, he moves across the country and ends up building a house by a misty blue lake. Across the bridge is Tony Stark’s new workshop.

The Butterfly Effect by itsallAvengers, 20 k > words, Time Travel, Canon Divergence.

While fighting with Loki, Steve Rogers from 2012 hears the two simple words: "Bucky's alive."

And the whole universe ripples with the aftershocks.

Saving the World is a 12 Step Program by janonny, 34 k > words, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Diverge.

Tony and Steve fall to pieces when Thanos’ wins.

Then they pick themselves up, and find a solution. They also find something infinitely more precious in the process.

“It’s going to sound pretty outrageous,” Tony admitted, rubbing a hand over his brow. While he had put on some weight and wasn’t as gaunt anymore, he was still easily tired nowadays.

“More outrageous than talking racoons and a purple villain traveling through space to collect magic stones?” Steve asked drily.

Here's How it Happens by tonystarkssnipples, 1 k < words, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie).

“I got my chance with him. Now it's your turn.” Pepper smiles, shaking and brittle, but honest. “Go love him.”

-or-

The fic where Steve uses time travel to go back and relive his life with Tony.

You smile, but you don't mean it by Cap_Sweet_And_Salty_Sadness, 10 k > words, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie).

"I want to drink to forget I’m supposed to be mad at you, that we’re supposed to hate each other. I want to drink because we’re so bad with words it was easier to fight with our fists rather than talk our problems through."

Tony doesn't know how to fix himself, but he will try if it means fixing Steve and him.

To Have My Time Again... by WilmaKins, 166 k > words, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie).

It's been two years since Siberia, and Tony Stark is still dealing with the fallout - personal and political. Life is quite complicated enough, without Bruce falling through a wizards roof yelling that Thanos is coming.

Thor and Loki are stalling, but time is running out. The fate of the universe is at stake. Steve Rogers is back in the picture. Really, the last thing Tony needs is for their plan to go horribly wrong and bring Howard Stark forward in time.

But his Dad *is* standing in his office, whether he likes it or not.

So, it looks like Tony will have to fix that mess too.

Series

The Facility by WilmaKins, 155 k > words, Fake/Pretend relationship, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie).

After coming so close to losing against Thanos, the Avengers have decided to set aside their differences and work as a team again. Well, they're trying... But there are a lot of hurts that haven't gone away, and a lot of things still unsaid, and a lot of tension...

And that was BEFORE Tony accidentally ended up on an undercover mission with Steve as his fake boyfriend - at what turns out to be an alien sex club.

Canon Divergent post IW AU - Tags to be updated as updates are written... but I think you probably get the gist.

check yes (if the feeling isn't new) by cvptains, 12 k > words, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie).

After the battle with Thanos, both Tony and Steve struggle with reconnecting in certain aspects of their lives. Sam Wilson and Peter Parker are totally over it.

Where both Steve and Tony's respective friends make accounts for them on the renowned dating app, FlickLove, and the results come out a bit... surprising. Cue unadvisable meddling that really — honestly — comes from good intentions.

Bright Things and Fair by sheron for ishipallthings, 21 k > words, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie).

The course of true love never did run smooth — and neither did time-travel to retrieve the Tesseract. When circumstances outside their control force Steve and Tony to spend more time together in the 1970, they do what two people with their history do under the circumstances: work together and try to get through it without unnecessary feelings getting in the way. Falling for each other is definitely a bad idea, isn't it?

#stony #stevetony #fic rec #my recs

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anxiousnerdwritings · 3 years

Note

hiya! it's me, the one and only knull anon!! ik you arent currently accepting requests or asks, and that's fine, but I recently written something for LexLuthor and I though I should share. this ask is in no way telling you to start posting again, or anything of the sort. remeber, mental health is always the most important thing! but I was thinking of you today and I was hoping you were doing good. so hopefully this piece will help improve your mood. again, you dont have to awnser this at all rn, only when you feel better!

ps, this has been spell checked by google so that's why it uppercase lol

~~~~~~

"How long do I have to wear this dress?"

"As long as the gala goes on, ___"

"Just call it a fancy party, or a luxurious gathering since its you-"

"Oh, do not get smart with me, ____"

Pulling at the top of your dress, you tried to loosen up the tightness of the neck area. It felt like a noose to you. Fortunately, the fabric was soft, extremely luxurious, and it covered every part of your body, excluding your hands and head.

Lex, on the other hand, was in some kind of fancy suit, that looked more expensive than the carpet in his penthouse. And his carpet was more expensive then your phone bill. Well, when you had a phone.

You didn't remember when he had found you, but you remember before. At least, bits and pieces of it. A home in a suburban neighborhood, a mom and a dad, a normal looking life for a kid like you. However, after a few months ago, it was far from normal.

You were given the finest things people would want in life, in return for… hanging out with lex luthor. It sounded weird at first, but you soon realized it wasn't a joke.

You werent treated as a prostitute, and not as a lover either: you weren't even legal. If you had to guess the relationship between you and Lex, it would have to be a father and daughter kind of relationship. Which also could explain why he wanted you to call him dad.

Back to this "gala", Lex actually would ban you from going to any party at all and left you with guards at all parts of the penthouse you were stationed at, sometimes even leaving you with Mercy.

You didn't really know why he was letting you go out to this gala, but you had a few ideas. For starters, this gala was not just for anyone, it was for extremely rich people who had nothing better to do then sit around in a room. Which also explained the reason why everything looked the price of a liver.

Another possible reason was that a close colleague of your "dad" had seen you walking around in the penthouse. You never saw who it was but Lex advised you to stay out of sight when people were visiting.

Fortunately he didn't get as mad as you expected him to which was a good thing to be honest. He wasn't the type to tell you, more just reprimand you in a voice that just spelt disappointment.

Anyway. It wasn't good to think of when he was angry with you. Right now you had to focus on the people who were trying to figure out who you were.

Sticking close to Lex was easy, since he was 6 feet tall. Easily. And the fact that people wouldn't approach you when you were next to him. Only the people who you actually recognized either from voice or appearance were brave enough to even look in your direction.

The night was almost over when a man approached the two of you. At this point your feet were getting sore and when you asked Mercy for the time, she responded that it was almost 12: lex would definitely send you to bed as soon as you got home again.

However, the man who approached the two of you was familiar. It only took a few seconds of going through your memories and seeing Lexs face turn to slight annoyance to realize this was Bruce Wayne.

He walked up to the two of you and smiled down at you.

"Well, I didnt know Lex had a child. What is your name?"

You were about to respond when Lex interrupted you. "Their name is ____. And unfortunately, we were just about to leave. I hope that whatever you were going to ask can wait until later?"

Wayne's smile faltered a little, before it turned neutral. "Unfortunately, no, but it is a quick question. And one that I need to speak with you in private?" He looked at you, before speaking again, "No harm meant."

You were about to respond again, when Lex motioned to Mercy. "Mercy, could you take ____ back to the limo? I will be just a moment- oh, and do not let her out of your sight."

Mercy nodded, and taking your hand, she led you back to the elevator where the entrance was. All while everyone was focused on the two of you.

Wayne was the first to speak. "Shes not yours, is she?"

"____ is my daughter, and I hope you would have the decency to not spew this to the media. You dont seem the type of man to feed the media with info, especially not of a, young girl."

Wayne looked offended, and didnt even try to hide it in his face. "No. If anything, I was wondering why you, of all people, would be taking care of a child."

Lex did not seem offended. "Oh, but you have so many children, I thought it was a necessity." Lex leaned in a little towards Wayne and whispered, "And to be quite honest with you, it is none of your concern."

Wayne simply glared at Luthor before Lex started moving away from Wayne.

"Well, I'm sorry to say but I believe I've kept ____ waiting for long enough. I'm afraid I must go."

He didnt wait for Wayne to say anything he simply stormed off to the elevator and left.

Wayne did nothing but walk over to the windows, where he was able to get a clear view of Mercy holding your forearm and opening the limo door while a few more guards stood near you. Lex appeared soon after with his own guards and ushered you in the car.

Lifting his hand towards his ear, he commed his own children.

Whispering, he said "All of you better be following that limo when I get down there."

He heard Dick chuckle. "Oh, dont worry Bruce. I think the 4 trackers on that thing will be enough."

Bruce didnt say anything as he watched the limo drive off into the distance. Figuring it was time to dip, he left his wine glass empty at a table and left the room, and trying to figure out who was the strange girl he had just met.

~~~~~~

oof so now as I paste this here from google docs I feel like an asshole by sending you this so I just want to remind you that you can awnser this whenever you want! I might send in some more in the future but I want you to prioritize mental health over tumblr! your health matter, both physically and mentally! and dont forget it! with lots of love,

- knull anon

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner! This is really good!💖💕 I love the idea of Lex Luther and Bruce Wayne beefing over poor Reader. Having two extremely rich, intelligent and determined people duke it out just appeals to me for some reason.

Don’t feel bad, thank you for sending this in while I was gone🥰💚. It was nice.

#anxious answers #knull anon

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

Text

Another One?!, Part 6

First > Previous > Epilogue

Adrien tensed when he walked into the living room and saw Cass struggling to wipe a red stain (fruit punch, maybe?) off the couch.

“Uh…?”

She looked up and her face paled a little bit. She did a quick sign for help, which was just the letter H in sign language for them, and he hesitated. He wanted to, he really did, but if Marinette caught him being an accomplice…

He turned on his heel and walked back the way he came.

Big mistake.

A few hours later, Marinette walked down and cursed.

“Sweeties! And Chaton!”

Everyone scrambled to the living room and found her standing by the couch, her arms crossed over her chest as she regarded each of them with a barely concealed glare.

“Whatever happened, it wasn’t me,” said Jason. Everyone nodded that they, too, were not at fault.

She clicked her tongue and uncrossed her arms to sign along with her words. “Well, it was one of you! So, if no one wants to fess up then everyone has to help clean.”

“What? That’s not fair!” Complained Dick. “If we didn’t do it then we shouldn’t have to help!”

“Then maybe the person should fess up. It’s not like I can just figure out who’s lyi -- wait, I absolutely can. Cass!”

Cass slowly shifted out of the group and then walked over to his wife. She fixed her gaze on each of the guys in turn and then signed the letter ‘A’.

Everyone looked at Adrien, who was rapidly paling. Ah. Not good.

“Wait wait wait! It wasn’t me! It was Cass, I saw her cleaning it up!”

Cass sniffled and started wiping her eyes.

Marinette clicked her tongue again. “Wow, Chaton, I can’t believe you’d not only lie about it but also pin it on Cass. I’m disappointed in you,” she said. She leaned down and picked up Cass like she weighed nothing and hugged her as she took her from the room.

Marinette didn’t see the nasty grin Cass sent him over her shoulder.

But Adrien and the boys did.

Tim waited until Marinette was out of the room to laugh, and Jason and Dick both joined him almost instantly.

“You know, I’d feel bad but you probably deserve it,” said Dick.

Adrien sighed and shook his head. “I don’t.”

“Please, Cass hardly ever does anything mean. You messed up,” said Jason through peals of laughter.

“Shut up,” said Adrien bitterly as he made his way to the closet for cleaning supplies.

Marinette grinned as she made her way along the power line as quickly as she could without making a misstep.

Jason was doing his hardest to get her to fall. Because he’s a good son like that.

“Mom! Look! A person’s getting robbed!”

She flipped him off without looking up and then came to a stop when her phone buzzed.

Weird. She hadn’t thought anyone else was out on patrols…

She pulled out her phone and saw Jason doing the same out of the corner of her eyes.

ChatoNoir: I’ve found another kid. Can we adopt him? He looks so sad...

“Fuck!” Said Jason.

Marinette snickered.

Buginette: ok

HelmetRights: Fuck, I’ve lost the only other person who was on my side

Oracle: Youre not mad?

Buginette: ive come to accept random adoptions as a part of life so its ok as long as he tells me before he does it

ChatoNoir: Yay!

ChatoNoir: Right, I’m opening up a room for him. Be on the lookout for hellportals or whatever. Get a buddy, everyone, in case it tries to take you this time.

She glanced at Jason and they both shrugged before jumping to the street and hooking their arms through each other’s.

HelmetRights: We’re good over here

ChatoNoir: And everyone’s good here. Right. I’ll do it now.

There was a beat where nothing happened…

And then a bright white light stretched beside them.

Marinette blinked. She shared a look with Jason. It hadn’t been trying to take one of them? That wasn’t normal --.

“ROBIN ON YOUR LEFT!” Yelled a deep voice from the other side, pulling both of their attentions back to the portal.

She squinted to see through the portal and a strangled yelp escaped her throat when a blur of yellow, green, and red flew towards them.

There was a flash of color and Marinette was bowled over.

She groaned and stumbled to catch her footing, pushing the weird item away from her, only for her hand to touch something that was definitely soft enough to be skin. She was so startled by this revelation that she actually fell.

Her head hit the pavement and she murmured a curse, only to curse louder when an elbow slammed into her stomach.

She felt the person roll off of her and blinked the lights from her eyes to look at them.

It was a child, she was pretty sure. After all, no one over the age of ten would willingly wear that combination of colors.

Holy shit, wait a minute, the child had a sword.

That got her moving, scrambling on the floor to get away from a very distressed kid with a fucking SWORD WHAT THE FUCK --.

“Holy shit holy shit holy shit --,” Jason practically chanted as he, too, apparently realized the very unfortunate fact that this kid had a weapon out and they definitely didn’t. There was a flash of light as he created a shield around himself and his mother.

Good timing, the kid had started to swing it in their direction. It collided with the forcefield and the kid was thrown back a few steps. This only seemed to anger him, though, because the kid started hacking at the forcefield.

Jason and Marinette exchanged confused looks for the second time that night, but came to the silent agreement that they could just wait until the kid tired out.

Marinette plopped down in the bubble and held out a hand. Jason whined a little but reached into one of the many hidden pockets of his outfit and pulled out a snack at random.

Then he sat down next to her with one of his own and they nibbled at their food as the kid attempted to slash at them.

But, eventually, the person came to the realization that this really wasn’t working at all and they dropped down to sit as well.

Marinette pulled her yoyo off of her belt and started toying with it idly. Jason cocked his gun.

They dropped the forcefield.

The kid eyed them warily and they shared the sentiment…

But Marinette ended up just yawning and asking “Who’re your parents?”

This made the kid frown. “You don’t know who I am?”

She glanced at Jason, who shrugged, and then looked back at the kid. “Are we supposed to?”

“… I’m Robin.”

Jason raised his eyebrows. “We heard. Nice name, by the way, were you named after the vigilante?”

“I bet he was. Kwami, he’s never going to let us live this down.”

“We don’t have to tell him,” said Jason.

“True --.”

The stranger clicked his tongue to pulled their attention back to him. “Wait, I’m the vigilante Robin. So you do know who I am, you’ve just… never seen me or the outfit?”

Marinette understood, now, she thought. “Oh. You’re from another dimension.”

Then her and Jason paled a little bit. Oh kwami. He was from another dimension. They’d thought the portals were just portals to different places like Tim’s, but this was a way bigger problem. They didn’t really have a reliable way to take this kid back home that they knew of, there was no proof that it opened up to the same reality every time.

“Find me Batman, then, or Nightwing. Nightwing is a constant in every reality I’ve heard of.”

Jason and Marinette exchanged confused looks.

“Batman? Is he one of ours? He’s got the lack of creativity that you and dad have,” said Jason.

Marinette shrugged. “Maybe he’s the kid Chaton just adopted?”

Alternate-Robin looked confused and angry. “No! Batman! And Nightwing!”

“Yeah, kid, we heard you,” said Jason with a strained smile. “We’re trying to figure out who that is. Do you want to call the Justice League and see if he’s a new member?”

Marinette swallowed back bile. “Do I want… no?”

“Mom --.”

“Fine, fine.” She pulled out her phone and, after a few quick calls, came to the conclusion that neither of them existed in this reality. “Sorry, sweetie, it looks like they aren’t people here. Do you have any normal people we can try and take you to?”

Alternate-Robin glared at them. “Why would I tell you something that would lead to you figuring out my identity?”

“Because we already have a Robin, which means you probably don’t even have an identity here…”

They thought about this for a minute before groaning. “Fine. Find me Bruce Wayne… please.”

Bruce Wayne? Where had she heard the name before --?

Jason gave a laugh. “Wayne? The dead kid?”

Marinette reached out and gave his arm a tiny smack, because wow look at that now the Alternate-Robin (who she really needed to learn a new name for because I’m tired of writing that) looked like he was going to cry.

“Bruce Wayne is dead?”

“Uh… yes, sweetie, he died a long time ago,” she said gently. “I’m sorry, is there anyone else we might be able to take you to?”

Alternate-Robin thought for a minute before clicking his tongue. “I guess you can take me to Dick Grayson.”

Marinette and Jason were not prepared. Jason had been eating Trail Mix so he would have an excuse not to talk and was now choking, Marinette felt like the air had been sapped from her lungs. She was now very quickly doing math to try and figure out exactly how old this kid would have to be for it to be okay that Dick had a kid because she was extremely concerned --.

“Is he dead here, too?” Asked Alternate-Robin, who was definitely on the verge of tears now fuck --.

“No, he’s alive,” said Jason, who had managed to dislodge the M&M in his throat enough to speak. “It’s just…”

He looked at Marinette to try and figure out what to do, and she bit her lip anxiously as she thought it through...

“Okay. We’ll take you to him.”

HelmetRights: Okay, so, good news and bad news

Adrien cringed. That wasn’t exactly what you want to hear when you possibly shatter a dimension while creating a room for your newest.

ChatoNoir: Good news first.

HelmetRights: Good news is mom and I are okay

He breathed a sigh of relief and fell back on the couch. Great. At least that was fine. He could deal with any other problem.

HelmetRights: Bad news is there’s a kid from another dimension here asking for Dick Grayson claiming that HE is the ‘Robin’ of the other dimension where Bruce Wayne is alive and apparently ‘Batman’ is a thing

… Except for that. What the heck?

Pegasus: That’s one heck of a run on sentence…

HelmetRights: I know where you live

Buginette: we might be adopting him to because i dont know if he even exists here or how were going to get him home

HelmetRights: *Too

Buginette: i will help you murder helmet if you want pegasus

Pegasus: Thanks…

HelmetRights: You guys are the worst

HelmetRights: Anyways, we’re bringing him to see Dick because he apparently knows/likes him so everyone be nice

The house went still as the message came in, and then there was a string of cursing from multiple people and kwamis.

Adrien grabbed Plagg and stuffed him in the pocket of his jeans and then started ushering kwamis into their owner’s rooms.

Dick ran to his room, likely to grab a set of fake teeth to hide how sharp his teeth had become since taking the fox miraculous.

Tim started stashing all of his tech under floorboards.

Cass quickly pulled on her gloves so she wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally poisoning him if her nails grazed him.

Steph and Barbara met eyes and then apparently decided they didn’t care enough to get up from their spot, instead just continuing to watch TV.

Duke, who was new and therefore had the least to hide, just started tidying.

Only a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. He smiled as he went to open it, hoping against hope that whoever this weird Other-Robin was they were stupid enough to not notice the fact that everyone was more than a little out of breath.

He opened the door and fought the urge to squeal. The kid was so TINY.

The kid looked up at him and for a moment he could see the way surprise made its way across their expression before he turned around to look at Marinette. “Wait, you’re the original Ladybug?”

Marinette blinked a few times and then laughed awkwardly. “Yeah…?”

“Because that’s the original Chat Noir,” said Other-Robin, jerking his head towards Adrien.

The entire house froze up, unsure how to process this. Were their identities all well-known in this other dimension?

“Wait, is Paris still around in this reality?”

Marinette and Adrien paled a little bit. It seemed like in whatever reality this kid was from they hadn’t made the wish. This was really not how they wanted the kids to find out about all of that. In fact, they were hoping that this never would have come up at all…

Adrien flashed his brightest smile. “Mhmm. Anyways, since the jig is up, I guess you two can detransform…”

Marinette and Jason glanced at each other and shrugged before detransforming.

The kid’s eyes widened. “Todd?!”

Jason frowned and sunk into his hoodie a little bit. “Agreste, now, actually…”

The kid was hardly listening as he pushed past Adrien to get into the house. He took one look at the people gathered there and then turned back to the people at the door with a confused look.

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

They all exchanged frowns.

“Doing what on purpose?” Said Adrien.

Other-Robin examined all of their faces for a few minutes before shaking his head. “Okay… so, in this dimension, Bruce Wayne is dead, but you’re somehow all together here, too… there’s still, at least, a Robin but no Batman… and, apparently, Chat Noir and Ladybug didn’t fail here...” He pressed his hands to his temples. “Give me a minute, please, I need to process…”

The house seemed at a loss for what to do about the kid, because Other-Robin seemed like he was going to cry. Eventually Dick, who was the only one of them they knew had a good relationship with him, got off the couch and walked over to him.

“Hey… it’s a lot, yeah. Do you want some cookies? Mari made them and I think they’re really good. C’mon…” He gently rested a hand on the kid’s shoulder and steered him to the kitchen.

Marinette and Adrien met eyes again before pulling out their phones frantically. This was beginning to sound suspiciously like this was their fault and they didn’t like it...

He saw the day of the headline declaring the Waynes dead and bile built in the back of his throat.

The same day Emilie had died.

Ah. So that’s what the wish did.

He felt Marinette’s hand lock around his wrist and squeeze. He nodded his understanding.

They needed to get this kid as far away from here as possible before someone figured out what had happened.

“Who wants to take a trip to Paris?”

Everyone looked up instantly, their eyes wide. Fair enough, Marinette had never even considered going back before. Sure, she loved the idea of Paris, loved the idea of seeing her parents and visiting the sights, loved the idea of going back to the place she and Adrien had met…

But idealism had never been her friend. She knew that she would be miserable if she was back.

After all, everything there was just a reminder of what she couldn’t save.

(More importantly, knowing her luck she could be there for one hour and she’d still find a way to run into Lila. She was not about to start punching civilians no matter how awful they were.)

But, really, they needed to find Bunnix.

There wasn’t anyone that they knew of that could open dimensions reliably.

Sure, both she and Adrien knew how to scratch some runes on the wall and open portals to pocket dimensions. However, opening a random pocket dimension is completely different from choosing a specific dimension out of the millions of different realities that existed.

And Bunnix had time powers so… maybe there was a chance?

Yes, it was a stretch, but they had to try it.

“Damian, you have to come, but everyone else…?” She said, pointing to the computer on her lap. “Make your decision within the next five minutes, please, I need to buy plane tickets.”

Dick smiled. “Can we see your parents?”

Jason nodded and pointed at him. “Good point, no reason to go if we don’t get grandma’s cookies.”

“... you do realize that my dad is the one that does most of the -- nevermind.” Marinette clicked her tongue. “Yes, we can visit my parents. Who’s coming?”

Everyone raised their hand.

And that’s how they ended up on her parent’s doorstep with apologetic smiles and eight kids.

“Maman! Pere! Coucou!” She said, with an awkward smile and jazz hands to match.

Sabine took the kids in for a long time before looking at Marinette and Adrien pointedly. “I thought you were kidding when you said you had this many. You have a problem.”

Adrien sighed and looked at the ground. “I know…”

She broke into a smile and stepped aside so they could all file in. “Good. Now, everyone inside. It’s cold out and I’m sure you all want something warm to eat.”

The kids’ eyes all lit up and they rushed to the display cases. Tom Dupain smiled at them all as he helped serve the kids.

Marinette felt like joining them, but then her mother’s hands grabbed both her and her husband’s wrists.

“I need to know all of their names. And why is the little one wearing that outfit?”

She cringed mentally. She’d hoped that her parents would get so disoriented by all the kids that they wouldn’t really notice Damian, but really she should have known that was too much to ask. The kid was wearing the world’s worst color combination and was easily the most angry looking of all of them. He stood out.

She glanced at Adrien, who quickly started pointing out kids.

Marientte was left to try to think of an excuse. Eventually, when Adrien had listed off the last name, she said “He wanted to be an original vigilante for Halloween and he hasn’t taken the costume off since.”

Her mom looked a little skeptical for a second, but they were quickly distracted:

“HEY CAN I SEE MOM’S CHILDHOOD BEDROOM?” Yelled Jason.

“NO!” Said Marinette.

Tom, however, gave the kids the directions and she was left to watch in horror as they all started rushing upstairs to go get joke material.

She pursed her lips tightly. “It’s just one night. Just one night. Just one night…”

She felt Adrien press a kiss to her temple and gave him a weak smile.

It felt weird travelling with a young child and not carrying them the entire way.

After all, it would definitely go much faster if Damian just allowed him to pick him up, but apparently he had experience running across rooftops.

Part of him was concerned by this, the other part of him thought that he wasn’t able to criticize much about this ‘Batman’ guy’s particular parenting style. It wasn’t like he or Marinette were particularly against allowing kids to be vigilantes anymore, and he assumed Batman was the same way.

Either way, now the entire family and Damian all made their way along rooftops.

He glanced to the side and saw Marinette smiling behind her mask. He felt the same, honestly, there was an odd sense of nostalgia to it. They hadn’t done this since they were teens…

Speaking of blasts from the past, though, they came to a stop just outside of Alix’s house. It was a cute one-room apartment, which isn’t all that impressive until you consider the fact that it was facing the Eiffel Tower.

“Wow, Alix must be doing well for herself,” said Adrien absently as they slowly lowered themselves down to her window.

Marinette hummed lightly and tipped her head as they considered the fact that there was no one home.

He frowned. They’d been expecting her to be home, that was kind of annoying. Well, now she’d just think they were very loud burglars.

Whatever.

He glanced at Tim. “Pegasus, can we have an in?”

Tim opened a portal for them and there was a series of dull thuds as they all hit the carpet in Alix’s room.

Duke turned on the light for them and they all blinked a bit to get used to the light now spread through the room thanks to a lantern fastened to the ceiling.

And then… they had to wait.

Marinette and Adrien spent most of the time waiting by keeping their kids out of Alix’s stuff. They didn’t really like or dislike the woman, they were pretty neutral about most of their old classmates at this point, but they figured it would be best if they didn’t start off what was (to Alix’s knowledge) their first/only meeting by seeming like snooping pricks.

Speaking of snooping pricks…

Adrien extended his baton and hit the Dick across the room that was minding his own business on his phone and sighed when he disappeared into a puff of smoke. Man, he hated when he was right.

“Everyone, arms out, we need to find Robin.”

There was a collective groan of annoyance as everyone began reaching around --.

And then there was a loud snapping sound and they were all thrown into darkness. This only lasted a few seconds before the darkness seemed to part and creep into the dark edges of the room.

It seemed that Dick had, in a desperate attempt to not get touched and have his position get revealed, jumped onto the lantern that had been previously used as light. The lantern, in turn, had snapped under his weight…

Alix was going to hate them. Great.

Marinette frowned. “Wait, who did that? There’s no miraculi that can shift light...”

Duke raised his hand. “I’m a meta, actually. I have a few light-based powers. Like photokinetic vision and umbrakinesis.”

“Oh… cool,” said Marinette, who definitely didn’t know what those words meant. She quickly brushed past this, though: “The people underneath us are going to hate her.”

She grabbed Dick by the back of his outfit and pulled him to his feet.

Damian clicked his tongue. “You’re all children.”

“You’re… ten, max,” said Jason.

“Thirteen!”

“Really? But you’re so tiny…” said Tim, reaching out a hand to touch the baby fat still present on Damian’s cheeks.

Damian scowled and batted his hand away. “Don’t touch me, Drake.”

“Agreste,” said Tim absently.

This made him pause momentarily. “You took the Agreste name?”

“... yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

Damian opened his mouth, and then slowly looked around. “Did everyone take the Agreste name here?”

Dick shrugged and shook his head. “Duke and I kept our names to honor our birth parents, but everyone else did.”

Whatever the kid was going to say next was cut off when Alix entered her apartment and screamed at the sight of all the vigilantes just casually walking around.

Adrien and Dick cringed and brought their hands up to cover their ears and only relaxed again when Alix finally stopped. Now Alix had just frozen up and Adrien almost felt bad about interrupting her internal freakout…

But they really needed to get a move on, so...

“Sal --!” Wait, no, Alix had never worked with them in this reality, that was too informal. “Je suis désolé. Bonjour, Madame!”

“What are you doing in my house?”

“Well…” Began Marinette. “We need some help from Bunnix.”

Alix hesitated momentarily and, before she could say something along the lines of ‘I don’t know how to help you’, Adrien cut in:

“Please, this will go so much faster if you don’t lie. We just need help and then we’ll be on our way.”

She frowned a little bit and then nodded, mumbling to transform.

In seconds a blue portal not unlike Tim’s stretched in the middle of the room and she waved for them to come inside.

There was a moment’s hesitation and then Adrien sighed. “Right, we’re going to do this as quickly as possible so… everyone except for Ladybug, Other-Robin, and me are going to stay here. Sound good?”

Everyone grumbled a little bit about being left out, especially Dick and Jason, but they all agreed with a nod.

The three stepped through after Alnix. Adrien rolled his eyes when he glanced back and saw all the kids crowded around the portal, faces pressed as close to it as they could without technically going through and breaking the rules.

“You know, your French is really good for Americans,” said Alix awkwardly.

Adrien tried not to sound too offended when he said, “You think we’re Americans?”

“... yeah. You patrol in America.”

Marinette also looked a little put out, but she gave Adrien a pointed look that he was pretty sure meant ‘Don’t tell her we’re French we have secret identities for a reason’. He pouted a little bit but let the subject drop.

They walked until they were in the center and Adrien fought the urge to vomit into a random time period. The place was… trippy. It was both spherical and endless, bright colors spiraled in every portal but all that he could see was white, a high-pitched whine filled his ears and yet he was sure he heard nothing.

He glanced down at Damian and saw the kid looking around wildly, his jaw open in a mix of shock and horror. He reached over and covered his mask gently.

“Okay, what’s the problem?” Said Alix.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged frowns.

“Right, so… this is Damian Wayne. He’s Bruce Wayne’s kid.”

“Bruce Wayne’s dead.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Exactly. He’s from another dimension, one where Bruce Wayne didn’t die.”

Alix frowned. “That’s not my thing, sorry.”

Adrien sighed. “Yeah, we thought so…” He discreetly slid a hand down to cover Damian’s mouth. “... but, say we brought back Bruce Wayne. Because I’m pretty sure that’s the only real difference, so… what would happen?”

“Probably something catastrophic,” said Alix. “Even if he was just some random guy there would be huge problems, but this is a billionaire. There’s no way that wouldn’t mess things up.”

Adrien opened his mouth, but she shook her head.

“We aren’t going to be doing that. If that’s all, I’d suggest you go,” she said coldly.

He glanced at his wife and frowned. It looked like she was going to argue, her face red, and then her skin suddenly drained of color. Adrien glanced at where she was looking and saw why: three portals were glitching. One alternated between a kid crying over two bodies in an alley and a scene of three dead socialites. The other two started with the same scene, of four people watching a fire, but then quickly flicked back to what they knew to be Adrien and Marinette in their rooms.

He quickly turned around. “Fine, we know when to give up. Let’s go,” he said.

The portal closed behind them and he fought the urge to wince. Hopefully Alix would never notice that was off…

He looked around and saw the kids standing there, arms crossed over their chests.

“It looks like we can’t fix it…” said Adrien awkwardly. “So, everyone, say hi to your new little brother, Damian.”

He had pulled his hands from Damian’s face now that they were out of The Burrow, but now he wanted to put them back on. He didn’t know what to do with them and had to settle for just putting them on his hips.

“You’re hiding something,” Dick said. “Spill.”

He met Marinette’s eyes and she bit her lip nervously.

He sighed. “Fine. Let’s head back to the hotel. We’ll tell you on the way.”

Tim opened a portal for them and they began running along the rooftops again.

“So, our story starts on September 19, 30 years ago… the day my mother died...”

Marinette bit her lip. The family hadn’t said anything since they had told them the story, and the longer they were silent the more her anxiety increased.

Now, they were standing in an alley, detransformed, a block away from their hotel. They could all move -- should, probably, it was kind of cold out and if they didn’t get inside soon Tim would definitely catch something -- but no one seemed particularly eager to.

She shrugged off one of her jackets and handed it to Tim. The movement seemed to startle everyone back into reality.

“So, what you’re saying is… the reason why my dad and I don’t exist here is because you two made a reckless, selfish wish?” Said Damian, his voice soft.

Marinette winced. Part of her was tempted to say that it wasn’t selfish, that a bunch of people were now alive, but she knew that wasn’t true. After all, she and Adrien had definitely been concerned that something would happen that would kill a bunch of people in the place of those they had resurrected.

“Yes, and I’m really sorry,” she said.

“And we’ve suspected that things were going a specific way because the timeline was trying to right itself for a while, we just…” Adrien sighed. “... we never thought that we would ever actually get confirmation on it.”

Another silence stretched through the alley, and then Jason turned to Damian.

“Am I dead in your reality?”

Damian blinked a few times and then nodded. “You died when you were fifteen and then were brought back thanks to the League of Assassins…”

“That explains the ‘legally dead’ thing. Always thought that was weird.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Damn, I can’t even drive because other-me’s dumbass died.”

Dick raised his hand like a kid in school. “I have a question: do they like my puns over there, at least?”

“No. Everyone hates them.”

He pouted. “Man…”

The family started clamoring for answers as to what their alternate versions were doing, and Marinette exchanged looks with her husband. This was… definitely not the response they'd been expecting.

Marinette frowned. “Um… shouldn’t you guys be more… concerned? Disgusted? We let a bunch of people die…”

She got a bunch of shrugs.

Tim grinned. “You brought them back, didn’t you? Besides, over there I don’t have powers. This is way better.”

“Bet our trust funds are bigger over there, though,” said Steph thoughtfully. Then she shrugged. “Eh, still okay here, I guess.”

Barbara shrugged. “And, really, I don’t like the idea of being paralyzed by a clown of all things. Though I wish he was still alive so I could --.”

“THERE IS A CHILD PRESENT,” interrupted Dick, reaching out to cover Damian’s ears.

(The kid nearly chopped off his hands for attempting to do so, but Dick didn’t seem all that concerned as he dodged and stuffed them in his pockets.)

“I like being alive,” Jason chimed in. “Way cooler this way.”

Duke shrugged. “And it seems like Gotham is a little bit safer with you guys in charge. Less outright evil people with stupid gimmicks.”

Cass beamed and waved for Damian’s attention so she could sign: “Speaking of, how is Uncle Nygma doing in the other world?”

Damian stared at her like she was insane. “You’ve… you made The Riddler your uncle?!”

They nodded.

“He’s like… the cool uncle that teaches you how to avoid your taxes!” Explained Jason.

Adrien and Marinette hoped that they were just talking about the vibe that their ‘uncle’ gave off and not something that Nygma had actually done. They didn’t need any government agencies on their asses.

Speaking of government agencies…

Marinette pulled Tim aside. “Hey, I need you to make some documentation for Damian. I think we can pass him off as a biological child, he looks close enough to a mix of us, but… yeah, we need him to ‘exist’.”

Tim nodded. “I’ll do it when I get to our hotel room.”

She smiled.

Adrien eventually managed to coax all the kids inside.

Marinette and Barbara had spent some time on the plane ride attempting to make a sleeping arrangement that took into account a bunch of factors including sleeping patterns and compatibility, but they hadn’t even made it inside their rooms before the kids decided that they would take it into their own hands.

It started with Dick and Jason grabbing Tim and Marinette before they could disappear into their room so they wouldn’t be able to stay up.

(“At least let me get my computer!” “NO!”)

And then Cass, Duke, and Adrien all decided that they were bored and made their way to the room.

And then Damian, who had been feeling left out, ended up coming by as well.

The only person left out was Barbara, who had decided that she actually wanted to sleep that night.

Let me tell you, beds are not made for ten people to sleep on them. By the time Cass had gotten on they had heard the bed creak a little too loudly and decided that, hey, the floor isn’t THAT uncomfortable.

So they’d pushed the bed to the side and grabbed all the blankets from every room they’d paid for for a slumber party.

Adrien and Marinette were currently being crushed underneath their kids, but otherwise it was going great.

Damian was sitting the furthest away, pouting. Marinette had finally convinced (forced) him to change out of the Other-Robin costume and now he was wearing some of Cass and Tim’s old clothes.

Now, listen, when Adrien sees kids in oversized clothes pouting in a corner away from everyone, his first instinct is to go help. However, his instincts were kind of overruled right now because he couldn’t get up if he tried. Jason was sitting on his legs and Steph was attempting to braid his hair.

He had to settle for a smile and a “Damian… want to join us?”

“No. You all are… grossly affectionate.”

Adrien laughed a little bit, then realized he was being serious. “We’re… cuddling. It’s a normal thing.”

“It’s gross.”

He frowned a little bit and scrutinized Damian’s face. Did he not do this with his family?

The kid cleared his throat and looked away. “My father will come for me eventually and it is best if I do not attach myself to any of you.”

“Aren’t you already attached to us, though?” Said Dick, who had trapped Tim in his sweater so he couldn’t get up for extra coffee.

“None of you are exactly the same as you are in my world.”

Jason shrugged and flipped the page in his book. “Obviously not, we were raised by different people. It’s simple behaviorism.”

“Nerd,” said Tim, who had the least ability to criticize out of all of them.

“Shut up, Timbo.”

Marinette muttered something that might have been “Kwami the nicknames are getting worse” from where she was currently being crushed by Cass and Duke, who were using her stomach as a flat surface for a card game.

(“Got any sevens?” “I thought we were playing speed…?”)

“Either way, we probably all have the same general traits,” said Dick, who was apparently deciding to ignore all his siblings. Smart.

Adrien shrugged as much as he could without disturbing his kids. “And we don’t know when your dad will get here, humans need socialization to survive. Right, Mr. Psych Major?”

Jason hesitated and then made a ‘sort of’ motion with his hand. “It’s more like you need socialization to remain physically and mentally healthy but for the most part you wouldn’t die you’d just wither away --.”

“NERD.”

Jason pushed himself to his feet and oh wow so that’s what breathing was like Adrien had almost forgotten but wait no fighting is bad.

Dick quickly realized the problem with holding onto Tim while Jason was mad at him and abandoned ship, releasing the kid from the confines of his sweater and rushing away to cling to Damian instead.

Then Tim and Jason relaxed.

“Thanks, Jay.”

“Hm. You owe me twenty.”

“Gotcha.” Tim glanced at Marinette. “Want some coffee while I’m up?”

Marinette wheezed. They just assumed she meant yes.

Dick gasped as he watched Tim hop through a portal provided by Kaalki to get coffee. “I’ve been tricked!”

“Yes, clearly, Grayson. Now get off of me!”

Dick pouted and continued to cling to the child. “No. Tim is rude. I need comfort.”

“Unhand me!”

“Aw, come on, you love the other me it’s only a matter of time until you eventually love me, too!”

“MARINETTE! TELL HIM TO STOP TOUCHING ME!”

“MARIIIIII ALL THE YOUNG ONES ARE BEING RUDE.”

The person in question just wheezed again.

Damian was forced to resign himself to his fate.

Adrien rolled his eyes and sunk back into Steph’s lap.

He had almost managed to get to sleep but then Jason sat himself down on his chest again and dang it he’d just gotten used to oxygen again this sucks…

But at least everyone was relaxing for once.

What was the most upsetting thing about learning about the other version of herself?

The other version got a hamster! SHE couldn’t get a hamster.

Well…

Actually, she’s a grown adult. She can do what she wants.

But she was going to ask Barbara first…

She poked her head into Dick and Barbara’s shared room and was surprised to see Damian was also there. Huh. Apparently attachments do transfer over, whether or not Damian wanted to admit it.

Whatever. She’d had a mission.

She looked at the woman currently typing away at her computer. “Hey, I’m getting a hamster at the store.”

“Cool.”

Marinette pumped her fist in the air in victory and then turned to leave, only to hear Damian’s voice:

“Can I visit the pet store, too?”

She hesitated, then shrugged. “Yeah, don’t see why not. You dressed?”

“I am.”

She grinned and pulled her keys from her pocket and twirled them around her finger. “Let’s go, then.”

Despite having thought this would be just a her thing, she was okay with bringing Damian along. After all, she’d only have him for a little while and…

Actually, maybe bonding with a kid who was going to be gone in an indeterminate amount of time was a bad thing…

Ah, crap. Too late.

She brushed this thought from her mind and started on her way downstairs, only to quickly find herself joined by multiple kids: Jason had decided she wasn’t allowed to bond with anyone if he wasn’t there, Duke had wanted to see the animals, Steph had just been bored…

She realized that maybe it was time to get a bigger car as they reached the max capacity. There was still six other kids...

Also her husband. Him too.

Whatever, at least they had enough seats for this specific trip.

The moment she got there, Damian was gone in a blur of red. She blinked a few times and then muttered a curse. Great. She lost a kid. Already.

Well, at least she had everyone else, still --.

Nope. Only Jason had remained with her.

Does getting leashes for children count as child abuse? She didn’t know.

Jason grinned. “I’m the best kid,” he said.

She clicked her tongue. “You’re the best behaved kid at this exact moment.”

“I’ll take it.”

She gave his shoulder a tiny shove. “Whatever. Help me find them.”

“Dad is gonna be pissed when we show up with a hamster, y’know,” he said.

“What’s he going to say? ‘It’s a lot of responsibility?’ ‘You should have talked to me first?’”

“Fair enough.”

She found Duke looking at the fish and grabbed him by the back of his jacket and started pulling him along. “Besides, if he let Alternate-Me have one then he probably won’t be that mad.”

“We don’t know how mad he was,” muttered Duke as he was dragged along the floors.

Jason picked up Steph as they walked past her in the dog section. “Not divorce mad, at least.”

Steph whined and kicked her legs against Jason’s chest. “I want a divorce from this family!”

“Not at all how that works,” said Jason.

“You need a job to be emancipated,” said Duke.

“I’m concerned that you know --,” Marinette cut herself off mid sentence and then made a quiet sound in the back of her throat that she was pretty sure was a squeal.

Damian was currently being swarmed by about twenty cats. He looked somewhat distressed, though only because he was having trouble petting them all with his two hands. His red hoodie was now covered in multicolored cat hair.

“Can we please get them?” Asked Damian when he had finally spotted them.

Hm…

“We can get one of them --.”

“Each,” said Steph, who had managed to squirm out of Jason’s grip and run to the cat pile.

Marinette hesitated. Man, she was weak. There was four kids all giving her the cutest pouts and she wasn’t able to say no to that.

She clicked her tongue and looked away. “Well, I guess Adrien still would be happier with a bunch of cats than a hamster…”

“NICE!”

“I still get to name one JJ, though, and teach it to run around in a hamster ball,” she muttered as she walked over and started sifting through the animals.

When she got home she was almost tempted to pull an Adrien and see how long she could hide all the cats for, but she was 99% sure he could talk to cats (Jason had once had an in-depth conversation with a turtle, she wasn’t eager to replicate the feat with a beetle). They’d probably snitch on her.

So she went and found him in their room, the four kids trailing behind them.

Then she glanced at Damian. “Hey, sweetie, you should go through first and just say that you weren’t allowed cats in the other dimension and you wanted to get them while you still could.”

Damian frowned. “But that’s lying.”

“Think of it as doing what you need to.”

His face hardened and then softened into the world’s cutest pout as he slowly opened the door and stepped inside, his cat (Pennyworth) held close to him.

“Uh…”

“We got cats!”

“Uh…”

“Please, can I keep them? My father wouldn’t let me have them and…”

Four hours later, she sat with her husband on the bed in one of the few moments of alone time they were ever allowed.

But, also, she had JJ with her and she wasn’t intending on letting him go anytime soon.

“I know you allowed them all to get cats without even trying to convince them otherwise. Pennyworth ratted you out.”

“Listen, you should have seen Damian. He was so cute, you wouldn’t have been able to resist, either.”

Adrien sighed and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. “I’m beginning to think we should have gone with that manor my dad offered to buy all those years ago.”

“Is it still open?”

“What’s the point? We’ll have to move in a few years anyways.”

She groaned. “Fuck, I forgot about that.”

He gave a tiny laugh and buried his face in her neck. “Yeah, I don’t know how much longer we can get away with ‘model skincare routines are just like that’.”

She clicked her tongue, letting her fingers glide through his hair.

“... what if Damian’s dad can’t get here in time?”

“Finders keepers?”

She couldn’t see it but she knew Adrien was rolling his eyes.

“He’ll just have to get here in time,” said Marinette. She bit her lip and added a: “I’m sure he will.”

Despite being sure that Batman had to be trying his hardest to get here, years passed.

After all, dimension hopping is hard even when you know exactly where you’re going. Adrien and Marinette hadn’t even thought it really possible. Sure, they knew there were other dimensions and that it was possible to go between them, but targeting specific dimensions to travel to…?

So they weren’t exactly surprised when no guy named Bruce Wayne or Batman showed up to claim the kid.

That was fine. They could take care of a kid. (They’d done it before and, even if this one had a lot of social problems, this was nothing compared to taking care of a young Dick Grayson. At least this one stayed on the floor.)

What wasn’t fine that the kid was definitely not handling the fact that his father hadn’t found him yet well.

When they saw how distressed Damian was, they tried to fix the problem themselves.

Adrien had opened a pocket dimension and when, predictably, a portal opened to swallow Tim up they’d asked the people on the other side if they were missing a Robin. The people on the other side had looked at him weird and then pointed at a kid in an equally ghastly outfit as the one Damian had shown up in. So that was out of the question, it was opening new realities every time.

Marinette had asked all the kwamis, but it seemed that even gods are limited to their own realities. Something about upsetting a balance or whatever.

They had even granted immunity to any criminal that could get them to another reality, but if there were any they weren’t eager to make themselves known.

… so, yeah, that hadn’t worked the way they’d wanted it to.

They were at a loss of what to do.

They had to move soon, the questions about their appearance were becoming more and more common. People were beginning to speculate on how Adrien and Marinette had some weird inability to age, and were beginning to note that all the other people in their family had also seemingly stopped aging at around twenty. Could any skincare routine really be that good?

(No. Adrien knew for a fact that the answer was no. Any model knew the answer was no.)

And it wasn’t like they could just leave this child alone in the city. Sure, the kid knew self-defense, but there was a high chance of them asking for a social security number if he applied for a job…

After an unfortunate loss in a game of rock-paper-scissors, it was made Adrien’s job to break the news.

Adrien sighed and gently knocked on the wall next to the portal to Damian’s room.

“You may come in.”

He poked his head around carefully and sent an awkward wave to the kid.

Damian had been working out, it seemed, punching a punching bag. Adrien didn’t think that boded well for him, if he was being honest. Maybe he should come back another time --.

“What do you need?”

He winced internally and slowly crossed the room to sit on the bed. He patted the space behind him.

Damian clicked his tongue but did end up sitting down beside him.

“We need to talk about your options.”

“What options?”

“Whether you want to continue waiting for your dad to come get you or if you want to be part of our family…”

Damian frowned. “Why aren’t you going to stay?”

Adrien cringed a little bit. He might as well be blunt about it to make sure he got the point across. “Alright. Look at me.”

Damian nodded and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m almost fifty.”

The kid was not prepared if the way he reeled back in surprise was any indication.

“But you -- you --!”

“I know, that’s the problem. We can’t stay much longer before our secret identities aren’t as much of a secret anymore. We’re still planning to help Gotham, obviously, Tim can open portals to get us here, but… we all need to essentially go off the grid until everyone forgets what we look like...”

He got a frown. “But…”

“We won’t stop you from staying here. You’d need a job so we can emancipate you. We’ll still send you money and stuff when we can, of course, but that’s your option for staying here. We didn’t give you a miraculous, you age normally. You can live a normal life here until your dad picks you up…”

Damian nodded slowly. “And what’s the other option?”

“You move away with us. You can have a miraculous, if you want, and if not then that’s also fine but we won’t let you join in vigilantism unless you have one. If you don’t want to be a vigilante then we’ll pay for everything you need and support you in whatever you choose to do.”

“But I’d have to give up hoping that Batman would find me.”

Adrien winced and nodded.

Damian closed his eyes and rested his head on Adrien’s shoulder. “Why hasn’t he come yet?” He whispered, so quiet that he’d almost thought he’d imagined it.

“I’m sure he’s trying, Dami, it’s just not an easy thing to do.”

“Do you think he’ll ever get here?”

He sighed and shook his head. “I think if he was going to then he would have done it already.”

He felt a face bury itself in his shoulder and frowned when his shirtsleeve wettened. He hesitated. Did Damian want him to acknowledge it? Would it be bad for a temporary father figure to hug a child over the likely loss of their original father? He didn’t know.

“I’m sorry, Dami,” he murmured. “Do you want me to call Dick in here?”

“No…”

“Want me to leave?”

“No…”

He nodded slightly and drew the kid into a hug, resting his chin on top of Damian’s head. “Okay.”

“What if he doesn’t want me?” Damian sniffled.

Adrien closed his eyes. “Then, frankly, he’s stupid.”

He heard the kid laugh a little bit. “Yeah, he is a bit stupid.”

He didn’t answer, just pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

Marinette clicked her tongue and pointed at the whiteboard labelled ‘what to do about the crime thing’.

“More murder?” Offered Steph.

She rolled her eyes but wrote it down.

“More inconsistent patrols,” offered Duke. “So they have a harder time telling when we’ll catch them.”

She nodded thoughtfully and wrote it down.

Dick raised his hand. “Fix the court system.”

“Too much work,” she said, not even bothering to write it. “Not enough time.”

Tim didn’t even look up from his computer. “Get the social security numbers of every crime lord in Gotham and release them to the public. See what happens.”

She mumbled a “Alright, someone is losing computer privileges for the week…” She wrote down a reminder to do that in the corner.

“What if we…” Jason shrugged. “... become the major crime lords, rule over everyone, and shoot everyone who doesn’t fall in line. We wouldn’t be able to stop crime entirely but at least we’d get to choose what they’re doing.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover.”

“Then we split into factions publicly. Give west side to Dad and Dickwad, Cass and Duke get the south, you and I can take the area around crime alley, and so on…”

Everyone looked at each other and then shrugged. Yeah. They’d tried everything else, why not?

~~~

Guess who wrote a finale at a normal time for once~

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats @golden-promises @sassakitty @deathwishy @toodaloo-kangaroo @ladythugs @moonlightstar64 @dahjokester @jjmjjktth

#another one?!#adrienette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #dick grayson #nightwing #red hood #jason todd #red robin #tim drake #orphan #cassandra cain #damian wayne #robin #maribat

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preciousthingsareprecious · 3 years

Text

Finding Us chapter 23

At last I have managed to sort out this latest chapter, and I am now presenting it to you fine readers! I hope you guys enjoy it! This one's featuring Jason and a round table "Ah ha!" kind of moment.

AO3 Link

“Are you planning to stay there all day?” Bruce asked, as Jason dropped a sky blue pencil and replaced it with a green one.

Jason looked up from his place on the training mats and grinned at his dad, “Yep.” he answered, popping the ‘P’, “I did ask you if you wanted to join, and you said you were busy.”

Currently, he was laying across the training mats on his stomach. His new coloring book thanks to Cass and Tim was splayed out in front of him. He’d filled in random parts of a page as he picked and chose colors in a dance of chaos he was sure would have Damian’s hair on end if the kid had been watching him.

He was doing his best not to get kicked out. But from Bruce’s tone, and almost constant swivel between Jason and the computer’s loading screen Jason figured his luck was running thin. So far though, Jason had been immune to Bruce’s ability to shoo every other one of his children out of the cave.

They had a truce and a tiny part of Jason’s mind was interested in seeing how far he could push his dad’s patience. Another part of him --the part that had brought him downstairs in the first place-- just wanted to make sure Bruce wasn’t pushing himself too hard. There was really no reason for B to have planted himself in front of the computer other than because he was punishing himself. For missing the signs Tim was being stalked, for just not keeping a close enough eye on his sons, or for a hundred other things Jason could think of.

“You are still welcome to color in a picture of a teddy bear, or a swear word that has all the important letters turned into symbols, which really? Is a waste of a perfectly good swear word.”

Bruce snorted. Jason counted that as a win.

Jason shifted a bit, and pushed himself a little higher on his elbows watching Bruce, “You know, sitting there won’t change the wait time the computer gave you.”

“I’m working.”

“On what?”

Bruce grunted and shrugged his shoulders at the computer. The message was clear: Stuff. Things. Batman related work.

Jason rolled his eyes and threw his green colored pencil at his dad. It clattered to the ground about halfway between them. He hadn’t expected it to land, and really didn’t know why he’d thrown it in the first place.

“Jason.” Bruce’s tone was long-suffering. A father pushed almost to his limit.

“ Dad .” Jason said, pushing a little further.

This, at last, got Bruce to look over at him. Jason wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to the way Bruce looked at him when he called him Dad now. When he’d been a kid Bruce would look warm, happy, kind of like Jason felt whenever Damian or Tim decided to lean on him.

Now, he looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. Like he still couldn’t believe he’d heard that word from Jason. Like he’d just found his son again. And honestly? Jason didn’t blame him for the surprise. He hadn’t been sure they’d ever get here either. But after their talk in the study Jason was trying it out more and more. And it felt good. Right. Like home.

The surprise faded after a moment as Bruce’s face softened, letting in that breath of warmth he’d used to have.

“Join me, and let the computer do its job. No one will blame you for moving a few feet away for half an hour. No one blames you for missing what Timbo was so obviously trying to hide.”

“I am not going to lay on the floor.”

Jason grinned, “I’d be happy to move to a table.”

He shifted the coloring supplies to one of the work tables, his elbows and knees grateful for the reprieve from laying on the floor. Jason shoved the fallen green pencil in Bruce’s hand and left his dad to start working on a page of his choice while he made some tea on the cave’s little stove. No need to call Alfred down for something they had all the supplies for down here.

Bruce’s shoulders had just started to relax when the computer beeped indicating it was done running whatever program Bruce had set it to work on. The next instant, B was up from the table, pencil clattering onto the forgotten book and striding over to the computer.

Jason was a few steps behind him, his stomach churning. On the screen, Bruce had pulled up an image of a man who looked remarkably like Damian’s sketch. The kid was really good. As Jason took in the man’s face, his fists curled. The stalker or not, this guy was at the very least in cahoots with the person bothering Tim, and for that Jason wanted to take him down a peg or two.

“Get the others.” Bruce said, “I’m pulling up known associates now.”

Bruce didn’t have to tell Jason twice. He spun on his heel and made his way back up to the manor. He caught Dick hovering by the entrance and sent him down straight away. Then found Cass and Steph with Alfred playing cards. It took him longer to find Tim and Damian. He’d assumed both would be brooding in their rooms and came up short when he didn’t find either of them there.

Tim’s laptop was gone from his room, and so Jason assumed the kid would have probably moved to work on it somewhere else in the house. He went for the library first and cheered internally at his good luck. Both boys were together.

“Hey Short Stacks, we figured out who Dames met earlier. B wants everyone downstairs.”

Both boys looked at each other and then back at Jason, nodding.

“Excellent. It seems everything is beginning to coalesce.” Damian said, standing.

Tim looked at his laptop for a long moment, as if trying to decide if he wanted to take it or leave it. He settled on leaving it, and soon followed Damian around the desk.

“Did he say who it was?” he asked.

Jason herded them out the door, “I didn’t memorize the guy’s name. Besides, B had already moved on to looking up his partners. Hopefully you’ll spot someone you know.”

He paused and added, “Not that I’m hoping it’s a friend of yours or anything--you know what I mean.”

His brother waved off his concern, “I get it. We’ll find him a lot faster if I can give one of the associates an I.D.”

When the three of them made it down to the cave, they walked into a room full of chatter. Someone had dragged a few chairs over to rest by the computer. Alfred was planted in one, with Steph in another. Cass was perched on the desk by the computer, and Dick was leaned against Bruce’s chair. The big man himself hadn’t seemed to have moved from where Jason had left him.

Tim crowded up next to Dick, with Jason following close behind. He noted that Damian was hanging back just a bit. Probably because he’d already seen the guy in the flesh.

“Alright, we’re all here. Spill the beans, B-man.” Jason said.

Bruce grunted, but then after a moment he began to speak, “The man Damian met is named Mark Sherman. He’s got a criminal record, mostly for low level stuff, no stalking or kidnapping on his sheet though.”

After a few clicks the man's image was back up on the computer for everyone to see. Below his name, Jason could read his basic criminal history, and some general information about him like his age and height. He didn't seem like the worst that could come out of Gotham. Definitely someone who would hand over a creepy letter for enough money though.

“That is the man I saw.” Damian confirmed, with a sharp nod.

Bruce clicked something else on the computer. “Here’s the list of his known associates. I’ve narrowed it down to the most likely suspects. Tim, or any of you, let me know if they seem familiar.”

Jason watched carefully as six men and women’s images showed up on the screen. After less than a minute Dick, Tim, and Stephanie all three pointed at one of the men on the screen.

“Harry Ferst.” Dick said.

“But wait, he currently works for Wayne Enterprises.” Stephanie said, finger shifting down to aim at the information listed under his name, “What’s he got against Tim?”

All eyes turned to their second youngest.

“It might not be him?” Tim shrugged, “He could be another guy working with--” he sighed, “It’s probably him, but I can’t remember why he’d be so mad at me he’d stalk and threaten me.”

“Think harder, then.” Damian snapped, “You must have done something to incur his wrath.”

“Like I did something to incur yours when you arrived?” Tim shot back.

Jason expected Damian to return another volley, instead his mouth shut and he crossed his arms. He turned to glare at the computer screen.

“What does the man’s reason even matter? He is worth checking out at the very least. If he is not Drake’s stalker then he may be another lead.”

Tim snapped his fingers, “That’s it! He was up for promotion, back when Bruce was lost in the timestream. Except I was taking over certain things back then and more than one application was denied in all the restructuring. If he feels like his work doesn’t matter, and sees it as my fault--”

“That could be the source of his anger.” Jason nodded, “Especially if he was banking on that promotion or if he’s been passed up even more times after that.”

It made sense, Bruce had been the source of the same type of anger often enough, Lucius Fox too, and really anyone with any high ranking at the company. Tim mixing things up while Bruce had been gone was totally enough to put a target on him, one that would flare up into blame if something else incited Harry’s anger.

Bruce nodded, “I agree.”

Jason blinked, having almost forgotten the man was there. Bruce had let them sort it out together, which was nice. And looking at him now, Jason knew the man had already figured out the same things they had, but he was proud all the same. That stupid quirk of his mouth proved just that.

“So, who gets to go after him?” Jason asked.

“I--” Tim spoke up only to be interrupted by Bruce.

“You are staying home.”

Tim glowered at him and crossed his arms, “I’d like to go after the guy who’s been stalking me.”

“And we’d like you to stay safe.” Dick pointed out.

“I’ll be Red Robin!” Tim argued, “He’s not going to see me and go ‘Oh look Tim Drake my arch nemesis who’s also apparently a super hero!”

Jason snorted and crossed his arms, “I think we all want a piece of the guy who's been stalking one of our own. Unfortunately, he’s not exactly the type that really needs the whole family to take him down. I think our energies are best spread out.”

“Jason’s right.” Bruce said.

“Oh?” Jason perked up, “Are the cameras recording this because a miracle has occurred!”

Bruce ignored him and continued, “Dick and I are going to take care of Ferst. Jason you’ll be back up in case we need you, but until then I want you back on reconnecting with your Alkali contacts. Girls, I’d like you patrolling close in the area. Damian--”

“I will stay behind.” Damian said.

Jason dropped his arms, “What?”

There had to be some trick to it. Damian didn’t just stay behind. Ever.

The kid rolled his eyes, “You wish someone to keep an eye on Drake correct? He will stay because he does not wish to face Father’s wrath if I am caught sneaking out and I will stay because I do not wish the same if he is.”

The room was staring at Damian now.

“What?” he glared, “I am not an idiot. I know the way this family works, and I know my own tendencies. It was the obvious decision.”

Jason laughed, “Kid’s got a point.”

“Fine.” Tim declared, “You all win. Damian and I will stay here and be useless .”

“You’re not going to be useless,” Bruce said, sounding tired, “Barbara told me you’d been working on decrypting Alkali files. I want you to keep working on that.”

“You have been spearheading that part of the project.” Dick pointed out, “It’d be a shame if someone else figured it out before you did.”

Tim and Damian looked at each other. It was a brief glance, one that neither seemed to realize they’d even done. Jason frowned, cataloging it with their weird reluctance from earlier. Something felt off about it, but he couldn't quite place what it was.

Then Tim was shrugging, “You all will let me know the moment you’ve got the guy right?”

“Of course.” Dick nodded.

“Right then.” Tim said, “Let’s all get to it.”

#finding us #jason todd #chapter 23 #precious posts #this chapter feels a little short #but it's a good bridge chapter #and hey at least it's not two pages like the chapters in a book I read reccently #fanfiction

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path-of-my-childhood · 5 years

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The Rolling Stone Interview: Taylor Swift

By: Brian Hiatt for The Rolling Stone Magazine Date: September 18th 2019

In her most in-depth and introspective interview in years, Swift tells all about the rocky road to 'Lover' and much, much more.

Taylor Swift bursts into her mom’s Nashville kitchen, smiling, looking remarkably like Taylor Swift. (That red-lip, classic thing? Check.) “I need someone to help dye my hair pink,” she says, and moments later, her ends match her sparkly nail polish, sneakers, and the stripes on her button-down. It’s all in keeping with the pastel aesthetic of her new album, Lover; black-leather combat-Taylor from her previous album cycle has handed back the phone. Around the black-granite kitchen island, all is calm and normal, as Swift’s mom, dad, and younger brother pass through. Her mom’s two dogs, one very small, one very large, pounce upon visitors with slurping glee. It could be any 29-year-old’s weekend visit with her parents, if not for the madness looming a few feet down the hall.

In an airy terrace, 113 giddy, weepy, shaky, still-in-disbelief fans are waiting for the start of one of Swift’s secret sessions, sacred rituals in Swift-dom. She’s about to play them her seventh album, as-yet unreleased on this Sunday afternoon in early August, and offer copious commentary. Also, she made cookies. Just before the session, Swift sits down in her mom’s study (where she “operates the Google,” per her daughter) to chat for a few minutes. The black-walled room is decorated with black-and-white classic-rock photos, including shots of Bruce Springsteen and, unsurprisingly, James Taylor; there are also more recent shots of Swift posing with Kris Kristofferson and playing with Def Leppard, her mom’s favorite band.

In a corner is an acoustic guitar Swift played as a teenager. She almost certainly wrote some well-known songs on it, but can’t recall which ones. “It would be kind of weird to finish a song and be like, ‘And this moment, I shall remember,’'” she says, laughing. “‘This guitar hath been anointed with my sacred tuneage!'”

The secret session itself is, as the name suggests, deeply off-the-record; it can be confirmed that she drank some white wine, since her glass pops up in some Instagram pictures. She stays until 5 a.m., chatting and taking photos with every one of the fans. Five hours later, we continue our talk at length in Swift’s Nashville condo, in almost exactly the same spot where we did one of our interviews for her 2012 Rolling Stone cover story. She’s hardly changed its whimsical decor in the past seven years (one of the few additions is a pool table replacing the couch where we sat last time), so it’s an old-Taylor time capsule. There’s still a huge bunny made of moss in one corner, and a human-size birdcage in the living room, though the view from the latter is now of generic new condo buildings instead of just distant green hills. Swift is barefoot now, in pale-blue jeans and a blue button-down tied at the waist; her hair is pulled back, her makeup minimal.

How to sum up the past three years of Taylor Swift? In July 2016, after Swift expressed discontent with Kanye West’s “Famous,” Kim Kardashian did her best to destroy her, unleashing clandestine recordings of a phone conversation between Swift and West. In the piecemeal audio, Swift can be heard agreeing to the line “…me and Taylor might still have sex.” We don’t hear her learning about the next lyric, the one she says bothered her — “I made that bitch famous” — and as she’ll explain, there’s more to her side of the story. The backlash was, well, swift, and overwhelming. It still hasn’t altogether subsided. Later that year, Swift chose not to make an endorsement in the 2016 election, which definitely didn’t help. In the face of it all, she made Reputation — fierce, witty, almost-industrial pop offset by love songs of crystalline beauty — and had a wildly successful stadium tour. Somewhere in there, she met her current boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, and judging by certain songs on Lover, the relationship is serious indeed.

Lover is Swift’s most adult album, a rebalancing of sound and persona that opens doors to the next decade of her career; it’s also a welcome return to the sonic diversity of 2012’s Red, with tracks ranging from the St. Vincent-assisted über-bop “Cruel Summer” to the unbearably poignant country-fied “Soon You’ll Get Better” (with the Dixie Chicks) and the “Shake It Off”-worthy pep of “Paper Rings.”

She wants to talk about the music, of course, but she is also ready to explain the past three years of her life, in depth, for the first time. The conversation is often not a light one. She’s built up more armor in the past few years, but still has the opposite of a poker face — you can see every micro-emotion wash over her as she ponders a question, her nose wrinkling in semi-ironic offense at the term “old-school pop stars,” her preposterously blue eyes glistening as she turns to darker subjects. In her worst moments, she says, “You feel like you’re being completely pulled into a riptide. So what are you going to do? Splash a lot? Or hold your breath and hope you somehow resurface? And that’s what I did. And it took three years. Sitting here doing an interview — the fact that we’ve done an interview before is the only reason I’m not in a full body sweat.”

When we talked seven years ago, everything was going so well for you, and you were very worried that something would go wrong. Yeah, I kind of knew it would. I felt like I was walking along the sidewalk, knowing eventually the pavement was going to crumble and I was gonna fall through. You can’t keep winning and have people like it. People love “new” so much — they raise you up the flagpole, and you’re waving at the top of the flagpole for a while. And then they’re like, “Wait, this new flag is what we actually love.” They decide something you’re doing is incorrect, that you’re not standing for what you should stand for. You’re a bad example. Then if you keep making music and you survive, and you keep connecting with people, eventually they raise you a little bit up the flagpole again, and then they take you back down, and back up again. And it happens to women more than it happens to men in music.

It also happened to you a few times on a smaller scale, didn’t it? I’ve had several upheavals in my career. When I was 18, they were like, “She doesn’t really write those songs.” So my third album I wrote by myself as a reaction to that. Then they decided I was a serial dater — a boy-crazy man-eater — when I was 22. And so I didn’t date anyone for, like, two years. And then they decided in 2016 that absolutely everything about me was wrong. If I did something good, it was for the wrong reasons. If I did something brave, I didn’t do it correctly. If I stood up for myself, I was throwing a tantrum. And so I found myself in this endless mockery echo chamber. It’s just like — I have a brother who’s two and a half years younger, and we spent the first half of our lives trying to kill each other and the second half as best friends. You know that game kids play? I’d be like, “Mom, can I have some water?” And Austin would be like, “Mom, can I have some water?” And I’m like, “He’s copying me.” And he’d be like, “He’s copying me.” Always in a really obnoxious voice that sounds all twisted. That’s what it felt like in 2016. So I decided to just say nothing. It wasn’t really a decision. It was completely involuntary.

But you also had good things happen in your life at the same time — that’s part of Reputation. The moments of my true story on that album are songs like “Delicate,” “New Year’s Day,” “Call It What You Want,” “Dress.” The one-two punch, bait-and-switch of Reputation is that it was actually a love story. It was a love story in amongst chaos. All the weaponized sort of metallic battle anthems were what was going on outside. That was the battle raging on that I could see from the windows, and then there was what was happening inside my world — my newly quiet, cozy world that was happening on my own terms for the first time. . . . It’s weird, because in some of the worst times of my career, and reputation, dare I say, I had some of the most beautiful times — in my quiet life that I chose to have. And I had some of the most incredible memories with the friends I now knew cared about me, even if everyone hated me. The bad stuff was really significant and damaging. But the good stuff will endure. The good lessons — you realize that you can’t just show your life to people.

Meaning? I used to be like a golden retriever, just walking up to everybody, like, wagging my tail. “Sure, yeah, of course! What do you want to know? What do you need?” Now, I guess, I have to be a little bit more like a fox.

Do your regrets on that extend to the way the “girl squad” thing was perceived? Yeah, I never would have imagined that people would have thought, “This is a clique that wouldn’t have accepted me if I wanted to be in it.” Holy shit, that hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, “Oh, this did not go the way that I thought it was going to go.” I thought it was going to be we can still stick together, just like men are allowed to do. The patriarchy allows men to have bro packs. If you’re a male artist, there’s an understanding that you have respect for your counterparts.

Whereas women are expected to be feuding with each other? It’s assumed that we hate each other. Even if we’re smiling and photographed together with our arms around each other, it’s assumed there’s a knife in our pocket.

How much of a danger was there of falling into that thought pattern yourself? The messaging is dangerous, yes. Nobody is immune, because we’re a product of what society and peer groups and now the internet tells us, unless we learn differently from experience.

You once sang about a star who “took the money and your dignity, and got the hell out.” In 2016, you wrote in your journal, “This summer is the apocalypse.” How close did you come to quitting altogether? I definitely thought about that a lot. I thought about how words are my only way of making sense of the world and expressing myself — and now any words I say or write are being twisted against me. People love a hate frenzy. It’s like piranhas. People had so much fun hating me, and they didn’t really need very many reasons to do it. I felt like the situation was pretty hopeless. I wrote a lot of really aggressively bitter poems constantly. I wrote a lot of think pieces that I knew I’d never publish, about what it’s like to feel like you’re in a shame spiral. And I couldn’t figure out how to learn from it. Because I wasn’t sure exactly what I did that was so wrong. That was really hard for me, because I cannot stand it when people can’t take criticism. So I try to self-examine, and even though that’s really hard and hurts a lot sometimes, I really try to understand where people are coming from when they don’t like me. And I completely get why people wouldn’t like me. Because, you know, I’ve had my insecurities say those things — and things 1,000 times worse.

But some of your former critics have become your friends, right? Some of my best friendships came from people publicly criticizing me and then it opening up a conversation. Hayley Kiyoko was doing an interview and she made an example about how I get away with singing about straight relationships and people don’t give me shit the way they give her shit for singing about girls — and it’s totally valid. Like, Ella — Lorde — the first thing she ever said about me publicly was a criticism of my image or whatever. But I can’t really respond to someone saying, “You, as a human being, are fake.” And if they say you’re playing the victim, that completely undermines your ability to ever verbalize how you feel unless it’s positive. So, OK, should I just smile all the time and never say anything hurts me? Because that’s really fake. Or should I be real about how I’m feeling and have valid, legitimate responses to things that happened to me in my life? But wait, would that be playing the victim?

How do you escape that mental trap? Since I was 15 years old, if people criticized me for something, I changed it. So you realize you might be this amalgamation of criticisms that were hurled at you, and not an actual person who’s made any of these choices themselves. And so I decided I needed to live a quiet life, because a quiet personal life invites no discussion, dissection, and debate. I didn’t realize I was inviting people to feel they had the right to sort of play my life like a video game.

“The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead!” was funny — but how seriously should we take it? There’s a part of me that definitely is always going to be different. I needed to grow up in many ways. I needed to make boundaries, to figure out what was mine and what was the public’s. That old version of me that shares unfailingly and unblinkingly with a world that is probably not fit to be shared with? I think that’s gone. But it was definitely just, like, a fun moment in the studio with me and Jack [Antonoff] where I wanted to play on the idea of a phone call — because that’s how all of this started, a stupid phone call I shouldn’t have picked up.

It would have been much easier if that’s what you’d just said. It would have been so, so great if I would have just said that [laughs].

Some of the Lover iconography does suggest old Taylor’s return, though. I don’t think I’ve ever leaned into the old version of myself more creatively than I have on this album, where it’s very, very autobiographical. But also moments of extreme catchiness and moments of extreme personal confession.

Did you do anything wrong from your perspective in dealing with that phone call? Is there anything you regret? The world didn’t understand the context and the events that led up to it. Because nothing ever just happens like that without some lead-up. Some events took place to cause me to be pissed off when he called me a bitch. That was not just a singular event. Basically, I got really sick of the dynamic between he and I. And that wasn’t just based on what happened on that phone call and with that song — it was kind of a chain reaction of things.

I started to feel like we reconnected, which felt great for me — because all I ever wanted my whole career after that thing happened in 2009 was for him to respect me. When someone doesn’t respect you so loudly and says you literally don’t deserve to be here — I just so badly wanted that respect from him, and I hate that about myself, that I was like, “This guy who’s antagonizing me, I just want his approval.” But that’s where I was. And so we’d go to dinner and stuff. And I was so happy, because he would say really nice things about my music. It just felt like I was healing some childhood rejection or something from when I was 19. But the 2015 VMAs come around. He’s getting the Vanguard Award. He called me up beforehand — I didn’t illegally record it, so I can’t play it for you. But he called me up, maybe a week or so before the event, and we had maybe over an hourlong conversation, and he’s like, “I really, really would like for you to present this Vanguard Award to me, this would mean so much to me,” and went into all the reasons why it means so much, because he can be so sweet. He can be the sweetest. And I was so stoked that he asked me that. And so I wrote this speech up, and then we get to the VMAs and I make this speech and he screams, “MTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!” [His exact words: “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award ’cause it got them more ratings?”] And I’m standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body. I realized he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk shit. And I was so upset. He wanted me to come talk to him after the event in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go. So then he sent this big, big thing of flowers the next day to apologize. And I was like, “You know what? I really don’t want us to be on bad terms again. So whatever, I’m just going to move past this.” So when he gets on the phone with me, and I was so touched that he would be respectful and, like, tell me about this one line in the song.

The line being “. . . me and Taylor might still have sex”? [Nods] And I was like, “OK, good. We’re back on good terms.” And then when I heard the song, I was like, “I’m done with this. If you want to be on bad terms, let’s be on bad terms, but just be real about it.” And then he literally did the same thing to Drake. He gravely affected the trajectory of Drake’s family and their lives. It’s the same thing. Getting close to you, earning your trust, detonating you. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore because I get worked up, and I don’t want to just talk about negative shit all day, but it’s the same thing. Go watch Drake talk about what happened. [West denied any involvement in Pusha-T’s revelation of Drake’s child and apologized for sending “negative energy” toward Drake.]

When did you get to the place that’s described on the opening track of Lover, “I Forgot That You Existed”? It was sometime on the Reputation tour, which was the most transformative emotional experience of my career. That tour put me in the healthiest, most balanced place I’ve ever been. After that tour, bad stuff can happen to me, but it doesn’t level me anymore. The stuff that happened a couple of months ago with Scott [Borchetta] would have leveled me three years ago and silenced me. I would have been too afraid to speak up. Something about that tour made me disengage from some part of public perception I used to hang my entire identity on, which I now know is incredibly unhealthy.

What was the actual revelation? It’s almost like I feel more clear about the fact that my job is to be an entertainer. It’s not like this massive thing that sometimes my brain makes it into, and sometimes the media makes it into, where we’re all on this battlefield and everyone’s gonna die except one person, who wins. It’s like, “No, do you know what? Katy is going to be legendary. Gaga is going to be legendary. Beyoncé is going to be legendary. Rihanna is going to be legendary. Because the work that they made completely overshadows the myopia of this 24-hour news cycle of clickbait.” And somehow I realized that on tour, as I was looking at people’s faces. We’re just entertaining people, and it’s supposed to be fun.

It’s interesting to look at these albums as a trilogy. 1989 was really a reset button. Oh, in every way. I’ve been very vocal about the fact that that decision was mine and mine alone, and it was definitely met with a lot of resistance. Internally.

After realizing that things were not all smiles with your former label boss, Scott Borchetta, it’s hard not to wonder how much additional conflict there was over things like that. A lot of the best things I ever did creatively were things that I had to really fight — and I mean aggressively fight — to have happen. But, you know, I’m not like him, making crazy, petty accusations about the past. . . . When you have a business relationship with someone for 15 years, there are going to be a lot of ups and a lot of downs. But I truly, legitimately thought he looked at me as the daughter he never had. And so even though we had a lot of really bad times and creative differences, I was going to hang my hat on the good stuff. I wanted to be friends with him. I thought I knew what betrayal felt like, but this stuff that happened with him was a redefinition of betrayal for me, just because it felt like it was family. To go from feeling like you’re being looked at as a daughter to this grotesque feeling of “Oh, I was actually his prized calf that he was fattening up to sell to the slaughterhouse that would pay the most.”

He accused you of declining the Parkland march and Manchester benefit show. Unbelievable. Here’s the thing: Everyone in my team knew if Scooter Braun brings us something, do not bring it to me. The fact that those two are in business together after the things he said about Scooter Braun — it’s really hard to shock me. And this was utterly shocking. These are two very rich, very powerful men, using $300 million of other people’s money to purchase, like, the most feminine body of work. And then they’re standing in a wood-panel bar doing a tacky photo shoot, raising a glass of scotch to themselves. Because they pulled one over on me and got this done so sneakily that I didn’t even see it coming. And I couldn’t say anything about it.

In some ways, on a musical level, Lover feels like the most indie-ish of your albums. That’s amazing, thank you. It’s definitely a quirky record. With this album, I felt like I sort of gave myself permission to revisit older themes that I used to write about, maybe look at them with fresh eyes. And to revisit older instruments — older in terms of when I used to use them. Because when I was making 1989, I was so obsessed with it being this concept of Eighties big pop, whether it was Eighties in its production or Eighties in its nature, just having these big choruses — being unapologetically big. And then Reputation, there was a reason why I had it all in lowercase. I felt like it wasn’t unapologetically commercial. It’s weird, because that is the album that took the most amount of explanation, and yet it’s the one I didn’t talk about. In the Reputation secret sessions I kind of had to explain to my fans, “I know we’re doing a new thing here that I’d never done before.” I’d never played with characters before. For a lot of pop stars, that’s a really fun trick, where they’re like, “This is my alter ego.” I had never played with that before. It’s really fun. And it was just so fun to play with on tour — the darkness and the bombast and the bitterness and the love and the ups and the downs of an emotional-turmoil record.

“Daylight” is a beautiful song. It feels like it could have been the title track. It almost was. I thought it might be a little bit too sentimental.

And I guess maybe too on-the-nose. Right, yeah, way too on-the-nose. That’s what I thought, because I was kind of in my head referring to the album as Daylight for a while. But Lover, to me, was a more interesting title, more of an accurate theme in my head, and more elastic as a concept. That’s why “You Need to Calm Down” can make sense within the theme of the album — one of the things it addresses is how certain people are not allowed to live their lives without discrimination just based on who they love.

For the more organic songs on this album, like “Lover” and “Paper Rings,” you said you were imagining a wedding band playing them. How often does that kind of visualization shape a song’s production style? Sometimes I’ll have a strange sort of fantasy of where the songs would be played. And so for songs like “Paper Rings” or “Lover” I was imagining a wedding-reception band, but in the Seventies, so they couldn’t play instruments that wouldn’t have been invented yet. I have all these visuals. For Reputation, it was nighttime cityscape. I didn’t really want any — or very minimal — traditional acoustic instruments. I imagined old warehouse buildings that had been deserted and factory spaces and all this industrial kind of imagery. So I wanted the production to have nothing wooden. There’s no wood floors on that album. Lover is, like, completely just a barn wood floor and some ripped curtains flowing in the breeze, and fields of flowers and, you know, velvet.

How did you come to use high school metaphors to touch on politics with “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”? There are so many influences that go into that particular song. I wrote it a couple of months after midterm elections, and I wanted to take the idea of politics and pick a metaphorical place for that to exist. And so I was thinking about a traditional American high school, where there’s all these kinds of social events that could make someone feel completely alienated. And I think a lot of people in our political landscape are just feeling like we need to huddle up under the bleachers and figure out a plan to make things better.

I feel like your Fall Out Boy fandom might’ve slipped out in that title. I love Fall Out Boy so much. Their songwriting really influenced me, lyrically, maybe more than anyone else. They take a phrase and they twist it. “Loaded God complex/Cock it and pull it”? When I heard that, I was like, “I’m dreaming.”

You sing about “American stories burning before me.” Do you mean the illusions of what America is? It’s about the illusions of what I thought America was before our political landscape took this turn, and that naivete that we used to have about it. And it’s also the idea of people who live in America, who just want to live their lives, make a living, have a family, love who they love, and watching those people lose their rights, or watching those people feel not at home in their home. I have that line “I see the high-fives between the bad guys” because not only are some really racist, horrific undertones now becoming overtones in our political climate, but the people who are representing those concepts and that way of looking at the world are celebrating loudly, and it’s horrific.

You’re in this weird place of being a blond, blue-eyed pop star in this era — to the point where until you endorsed some Democratic candidates, right-wingers, and worse, assumed you were on their side. I don’t think they do anymore. Yeah, that was jarring, and I didn’t hear about that until after it had happened. Because at this point, I, for a very long time, I didn’t have the internet on my phone, and my team and my family were really worried about me because I was not in a good place. And there was a lot of stuff that they just dealt with without telling me about it. Which is the only time that’s ever happened in my career. I’m always in the pilot seat, trying to fly the plane that is my career in exactly the direction I want to take it. But there was a time when I just had to throw my hands up and say, “Guys, I can’t. I can’t do this. I need you to just take over for me and I’m just going to disappear.”

Are you referring to when a white-supremacist site suggested you were on their team? I didn’t even see that, but, like, if that happened, that’s just disgusting. There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it. Really, I keep trying to learn as much as I can about politics, and it’s become something I’m now obsessed with, whereas before, I was living in this sort of political ambivalence, because the person I voted for had always won. We were in such an amazing time when Obama was president because foreign nations respected us. We were so excited to have this dignified person in the White House. My first election was voting for him when he made it into office, and then voting to re-elect him. I think a lot of people are like me, where they just didn’t really know that this could happen. But I’m just focused on the 2020 election. I’m really focused on it. I’m really focused on how I can help and not hinder. Because I also don’t want it to backfire again, because I do feel that the celebrity involvement with Hillary’s campaign was used against her in a lot of ways.

You took a lot of heat for not getting involved. Does any part of you regret that you just didn’t say “fuck it” and gotten more specific when you said to vote that November? Totally. Yeah, I regret a lot of things all the time. It’s like a daily ritual.

Were you just convinced that it would backfire? That’s literally what it was. Yeah. It’s a very powerful thing when you legitimately feel like numbers have proven that pretty much everyone hates you. Like, quantifiably. That’s not me being dramatic. And you know that.

There were a lot of people in those stadiums. It’s true. But that was two years later. . . . I do think, as a party, we need to be more of a team. With Republicans, if you’re wearing that red hat, you’re one of them. And if we’re going to do anything to change what’s happening, we need to stick together. We need to stop dissecting why someone’s on our side or if they’re on our side in the right way or if they phrased it correctly. We need to not have the right kind of Democrat and the wrong kind of Democrat. We need to just be like, “You’re a Democrat? Sick. Get in the car. We’re going to the mall.”

Here’s a hard question for you: As a superfan, what did you think of the Game of Thrones finale? Oh, my God. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. So, clinically our brain responds to our favorite show ending the same way we feel when a breakup occurs. I read that. There’s no good way for it to end. No matter what would have happened in that finale, people still would have been really upset because of the fact that it’s over.

I was glad to see you confirm that your line about a “list of names” was a reference to Arya. I like to be influenced by movies and shows and books and stuff. I love to write about a character dynamic. And not all of my life is going to be as kind of complex as these intricate webs of characters on TV shows and movies.

There was a time when it was. That’s amazing.

But is the idea that as your own life becomes less dramatic, you’ll need to pull ideas from other places? I don’t feel like that yet. I think I might feel like that possibly when I have a family. If I have a family. [Pauses] I don’t know why I said that! But that’s what I’ve heard from other artists, that they were very protective of their personal life, so they had to draw inspiration from other things. But again, I don’t know why I said that. Because I don’t know how my life is going to go or what I’m going to do. But right now, I feel like it’s easier for me to write than it ever was.

You don’t talk about your relationship, but you’ll sing about it in wildly revealing detail. What’s the difference for you? Singing about something helps you to express it in a way that feels more accurate. You cannot, no matter what, put words in a quote and have it move someone the same way as if you heard those words with the perfect sonic representation of that feeling... There is that weird conflict in being a confessional songwriter and then also having my life, you know, 10 years ago, be catapulted into this strange pop-culture thing.

I’ve heard you say that people got too interested in which song was about who, which I can understand — at the same time, to be fair, it was a game you played into, wasn’t it? I realized very early on that no matter what, that was going to happen to me regardless. So when you realize the rules of the game you’re playing and how it will affect you, you got to look at the board and make your strategy. But at the same time, writing songs has never been a strategic element of my career. But I’m not scared anymore to say that other things in my career, like how to market an album, are strictly strategic. And I’m sick of women not being able to say that they have strategic business minds — because male artists are allowed to. And so I’m sick and tired of having to pretend like I don’t mastermind my own business. But, it’s a different part of my brain than I use to write.

You’ve been masterminding your business since you were a teenager. Yeah, but I’ve also tried very hard — and this is one thing I regret — to convince people that I wasn’t the one holding the puppet strings of my marketing existence, or the fact that I sit in a conference room several times a week and come up with these ideas. I felt for a very long time that people don’t want to think of a woman in music who isn’t just a happy, talented accident. We’re all forced to kind of be like, “Aw, shucks, this happened again! We’re still doing well! Aw, that’s so great.” Alex Morgan celebrating scoring a goal at the World Cup and getting shit for it is a perfect example of why we’re not allowed to flaunt or celebrate, or reveal that, like, “Oh, yeah, it was me. I came up with this stuff.” I think it’s really unfair. People love new female artists so much because they’re able to explain that woman’s success. There’s an easy trajectory. Look at the Game of Thrones finale. I specifically really related to Daenerys’ storyline because for me it portrayed that it is a lot easier for a woman to attain power than to maintain it.

I mean, she did murder... It’s a total metaphor! Like, obviously I didn’t want Daenerys to become that kind of character, but in taking away what I chose to take away from it, I thought maybe they’re trying to portray her climbing the ladder to the top was a lot easier than maintaining it, because for me, the times when I felt like I was going insane was when I was trying to maintain my career in the same way that I ascended. It’s easier to get power than to keep it. It’s easier to get acclaim than to keep it. It’s easier to get attention than to keep it.

Well, I guess we should be glad you didn’t have a dragon in 2016... [Fiercely] I told you I don’t like that she did that! But, I mean, watching the show, though, maybe this is a reflection on how we treat women in power, how we are totally going to conspire against them and tear at them until they feel this — this insane shift, where you wonder, like, “What changed?” And I’ve had that happen, like, 60 times in my career where I’m like, “OK, you liked me last year, what changed? I guess I’ll change so I can keep entertaining you guys.”

You once said that your mom could never punish you when you were little because you’d punish yourself. This idea of changing in the face of criticism and needing approval — that’s all part of wanting to be good, right? Whatever that means. But that seems to be a real driving force in your life. Yeah, that’s definitely very perceptive of you. And the question posed to me is, if you kept trying to do good things, but everyone saw those things in a cynical way and assumed them to be done with bad motivation and bad intent, would you still do good things, even though nothing that you did was looked at as good? And the answer is, yes. Criticism that’s constructive is helpful to my character growth. Baseless criticism is stuff I’ve got to toss out now.

That sounds healthy. Is this therapy talking or is this just experience? No, I’ve never been to therapy. I talk to my mom a lot, because my mom is the one who’s seen everything. God, it takes so long to download somebody on the last 29 years of my life, and my mom has seen it all. She knows exactly where I’m coming from. And we talk endlessly. There were times when I used to have really, really, really bad days where we would just be on the phone for hours and hours and hours. I’d write something that I wanted to say, and instead of posting it, I’d just read it to her.

I somehow connect all this to the lyric in “Daylight,” the idea of “so many lines that I’ve crossed unforgiven” — it’s a different kind of confession. I am really glad you liked that line, because that’s something that does bother me, looking back at life and realizing that no matter what, you screw things up. Sometimes there are people that were in your life and they’re not anymore — and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t fix it, you can’t change it. I told the fans last night that sometimes on my bad days, I feel like my life is a pile of crap accumulated of only the bad headlines or the bad things that have happened, or the mistakes I’ve made or clichés or rumors or things that people think about me or have thought for the last 15 years. And that was part of the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, where I had a pile of literal old selves fighting each other.

But, yeah, that line is indicative of my anxiety about how in life you can’t get everything right. A lot of times you make the wrong call, make the wrong decision. Say the wrong thing. Hurt people, even if you didn’t mean to. You don’t really know how to fix all of that. When it’s, like, 29 years’ worth.

To be Mr. “Rolling Stone” for a second, there’s a Springsteen lyric, “Ain’t no one leaving this world, buddy/Without their shirttail dirty or hands a little bloody.” That’s really good! No one gets through it unscathed. No one gets through in one piece. I think that’s a hard thing for a lot of people to grasp. I know it was hard for me, because I kind of grew up thinking, “If I’m nice, and if I try to do the right thing, you know, maybe I can just, like, ace this whole thing.” And it turns out I can’t.

It’s interesting to look at “I Did Something Bad” in this context. You pointing that out is really interesting because it’s something I’ve had to reconcile within myself in the last couple of years — that sort of “good” complex. Because from the time I was a kid I’d try to be kind, be a good person. Try really hard. But you get walked all over sometimes. And how do you respond to being walked all over? You can’t just sit there and eat your salad and let it happen. “I Did Something Bad” was about doing something that was so against what I would usually do. Katy [Perry] and I were talking about our signs. . . . [Laughs] Of course we were.

That’s the greatest sentence ever. [Laughs] I hate you. We were talking about our signs because we had this really, really long talk when we were reconnecting and stuff. And I remember in the long talk, she was like, “If we had one glass of white wine right now, we’d both be crying.” Because we were drinking tea. We’ve had some really good conversations.

We were talking about how we’ve had miscommunications with people in the past, not even specifically with each other. She’s like, “I’m a Scorpio. Scorpios just strike when they feel threatened.” And I was like, “Well, I’m an archer. We literally stand back, assess the situation, process how we feel about it, raise a bow, pull it back, and fire.” So it’s completely different ways of processing pain, confusion, misconception. And oftentimes I’ve had this delay in feeling something that hurts me and then saying that it hurts me. Do you know what I mean? And so I can understand how people in my life would have been like, “Whoa, I didn’t know that was how you felt.” Because it takes me a second.

If you watch the video of the 2009 VMAs, I literally freeze. I literally stand there. And that is how I handle any discomfort, any pain. I stand there, I freeze. And then five minutes later, I know how I feel. But in the moment, I’m probably overreacting and I should be nice. Then I process it, and in five minutes, if it’s gone, it’s past, and I’m like, “I was overreacting, everything’s fine. I can get through this. I’m glad I didn’t say anything harsh in the moment.” But when it’s actually something bad that happened, and I feel really, really hurt or upset about it, I only know after the fact. Because I’ve tried so hard to squash it: “This probably isn’t what you think.” That’s something I had to work on.

You could end up gaslighting yourself. Yeah, for sure. ’Cause so many situations where if I would have said the first thing that came to my mind, people would have been like, “Whoa!” And maybe I would have been wrong or combative. So a couple of years ago I started working on actually just responding to my emotions in a quicker fashion. And it’s really helped with stuff. It’s helped so much because sometimes you get in arguments. But conflict in the moment is so much better than combat after the fact.

Well, thanks. I do feel like I just did a therapy session. As someone who’s never been to therapy, I can safely say that was the best therapy session.

#uhhhh #just by copying and editing text I see it's gonna be good =)#can't wait...#taylor swift #interview #by taylor #lover era #Rolling Stone magazine #Brian Hiatt

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i-am-vpelno · 3 years

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JUSTICE LEAGUE SNYDER CUT SPOILERS!!!

So, due to the nature of this film my opinions are going to be all over the place and admittedly biased. I am a huge Justice League fan, I hate Zack Snyder, I hated the original Justice League by Snyder and Whedon and I’m not the biggest fan of Batman or Superman.

The Editing:

I’m kind of between the acknowledgment that this was Frankensteined together and wasn’t meant to be released and the fact that Snyder was given like 70 million to make this movie so what’s up? Let’s start with the negatives. This movie could’ve been waaay shorter by editing out SO MANY unnecessary scenes and slow mo. I can distinctly remember several scenes where I felt awkward just waiting for a character to hurry the fuck up and get where they’re going. This is especially prevalent with the Flash as almost every scene with him is in slow mo despite him being a speedster??? Then there are just “walking scenes” where it was just so so so uncomfortable and pointless watching the characters walk from point A to point B with nothing else interesting going on in the scene. There are strange scenes that don’t really add anything or lead anywhere like the Icelandic lady smelling Arthur’s shirt????? And Steppenwolf getting “permission” from Desaad to interrogate the scientists even though we knew he was going to do that already. A lot of these extra scenes interrupt the pacing as well which is a shame because I think the time would be less daunting if you cut them. I think the worst part though was the soundtrack. They only play Wonder Woman’s theme once in the beginning but then every time an Amazon is on screen they start playing this “lamenting tune” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!!! If it’s not the same exact clip from the same exact song I will genuinely be surprised. A lot of it just doesn’t fit the film, I definitely prefer Icky Thump to whatever Snyder had Arthur drinking to.

I didn’t mind Snyder’s color palette this time as I feel like the colors are punched up just a bit. I am so glad they chose to change the entire scenery for the final fight, it was so much more pleasing to look at. Albeit it was dark so...not much visibility lol but it’s understandable. I caught myself catching chills from the suspense and the emotional scenes in this. The emotional heart of this film is definitely there! I love the fight scenes!!! Other than some awkward moments with Batman and the Flash they were amazing!!!! Everyone looks great but I think the cgi shines the most here. I can actually see the parademons clearly now and I like their design. Steppenwolf had the biggest improvement, he was kinda blurry before but he looks great and I LOVE how they chose to show off the armor and his anatomy throughout the film. For this film specifically, I enjoyed the “Part One” things because it fit well in explaining part of Snyder’s vision AND was useful when I needed to take a break from the film. I kind of enjoyed the lack of a wide screen. Like Evangelion, I got the sense that there was more happening around the characters off screen and it greatly added to the mood. One of my favorite scenes is the Barry saves “Iris” (I don’t know if that’s actually Iris West.) This is one of the only times I thought Ezra Miller’s Flash was not only charming, funny and had a neat interpretation of his abilities but this is probably the best use of the weird music and slow mo in the film. I thought it was really cute.

The Story:

By far the biggest improvement upon the original, the added context is not only done well but probably the most interesting part of the film. Though not without its own issues, it adds much needed context, stakes and characterization that wasn’t available in the original. I could summarize that “everything makes sense now” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We learn so much about Darkseid, his followers and his purpose. The whole “science so advanced it’s like magic” thing was so interesting!!! Cyborg finally has a really well done and AMAZING origin story here!!! I love how Cyborg talking to Superman’s ship and the Mother boxes is used to explain the Injustice future and how dangerous the Mother Boxes really are. It’s really hard to put it into more words than I already have!

There are still a lot of issues but they’re not too big, just pacing and preference things. For instance we didn’t need the first scenes with Lois getting coffee but we did need the ones with her and Martha. However it’s not Martha, so what’s the point? We don’t know the Martian like that yet and we have no context showing that he knows Lois is “the key.” The Flash tends to over explain his abilities at awkward points but that’s an issue I’ll expand on later. The entire “Diana explains Darkseid to Bruce” scene is good but goes on far too long and we didn’t need to see them make the boxes even though it was cool. I hated the Injustice epilogue and the intro to the Martian. We didn’t need to see the entire “break into the lab” scene or the entire convo about bringing back Superman, some of that could’ve been cut. I don’t like how they handled Black Suit Superman. From my own knowledge and reading I know that the context for the black suit is that Superman was weakened and not killed so he wears the black suit to gain his power from the sun slowly, more or less. However it’s just a fashion choice here as Supes only lost his memory. Also, no matter how hard they try this movie is not funny. Besides the jokes we’ve already seen, very few hit and I can’t even remember them. I didn’t laugh once.

The Characters:

I wanna jump into it with how bad the Flash is here. Like I said, him saving “Iris” was pretty damn good but everything around that is awkward, bumbling and forced. My biggest issue is that I’m biased towards the CW’s Flash, who is my preferred live action Flash and I completely disagree with how they’ve treated the Flash’s origin and his father. The best part of the Flash is that he’s kind of like Spider-Man in that he’s super smart and strong but lives humbly and spends most of his time helping his community. And like Spider-Man he has great quips but is easily weakened by his arrogance. This Flash is barely above a hobo and only shows the faintest hints of competence. How did he even get his suit???? Did he steal the parts to make it??? The guy who plays his father is so close to being perfect actually, if they could stop him from sounding like a high frat boy. Seriously there’s “My dad is my best friend” and then there’s “I smoke up with my mom’s sperm donor Fred.” I didn’t even like him in the original however I ever so slightly prefer him to this.

Let me tell you I’m not one to get sincerely mad over a movie, it’s all calm critique over here. However, what they did to my man Martian Manhunter is mildly infuriating. Like I said, him being Martha completely ruins that scene and makes no sense in this film. Why doesn’t he help the justice league???? His formal introduction is so blah and lacks the punch that his character deserves. I was hoping he’d get his own movie or at least something similar to Cyborg in this film. So sad!

Cyborg is obviously the star of this film AS IT SHOULD BE. Again, I’m biased but from my reading and watching of the Mother Box story from the comics, ALWAYS had Cyborg heavily involved somehow because it’s connected to his origin. But goddamn does Ray Fisher absolutely shine and I’m glad Snyder saw that in him too. The depth they go into Cyborg’s origin was great and so entertaining to watch. Hands down consistently the best part of the movie. And he was funny!

I’m going to put Batman and Wonder Woman together because I ship them but also because my critique is fairly similar. I was absolutely shocked by both of them, Diana being faithfully more brutal and Batman being to a point off color by being so soft and hopeful. BUT I ADORED BOTH. There is a balance that many people misunderstand when writing these two characters. They both have the capacity for cold calculation but have big hearts and care a lot about saving people. I hope to see more of this characterization from them. Also, we love to see Alfred being the smart capable father we know he is. I do wish they kept the thing about Bruce confronting Diana about being hung up on Steve because it’s annoying and needs to be addressed.

Superman is boring again here, but it’s the way Snyder writes him so I’m not sure what else I can say. I just don’t like how inhuman Superman seems despite his upbringing. Aqua man was shockingly boring as well. I though he was giving a decent performance, being the laid back, giggly badass from the first film.

I think Steppenwolf was amazing, a few weird flops here and there but a compelling performance that really let us get to know him! Desaad was surprisingly intriguing, mostly due to the vocal performance. Eh Darkseid was definitely different. I was missing his almost regal authority, I always thought of him as an evil emperor and I was a little sad that he didn’t act more like it. Even the Harley Quinn show captured his well founded self righteousness.

The Dreams and Epilogue:

Here’s the thing, I already know this stuff was added for sequel bating but I’d like to address some questions and concerns that I still have. I still prefer Arrow’s Deathstroke to this one, but we’ll see. Jesse Eisenburg simply doesn’t fit as Lex Luthor, even that trick he pulled was poorly done. I wonder if Lex’s body guards are Amazon’s like in the comics. Jared Leto continues to try way too hard as the Joker but actually has some intriguing lines here. Kind of alludes even more that he’s a Robin turned crazy or something. Is this leading to Injustice or APOKOLIPS War?

Anyway, it was a good film! I recommend it!

#justice league Snyder cut #justice league #dceu #Snyder cut #justice league spoilers

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ellana-ravenwood · 5 years

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“Best step-dad ever” - Jason Todd x Single!mom reader Part 2/5

Hope you'll like this little sequel ! :

FINISHED SERIES : PART 1, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5 NEWLY ADDED EPILOGUE : PART 1/3

My masterlist blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

“Hey mom look ! It’s Jason ! HEY JAAAAAAAASOOOOOOON ! JASON ! IT’S US, JASON !! WAIIIIIIIIIIIIT !! Come on mom, hurry or we’ll lose him !”

You don’t have time to say or do anything, that your son is already dragging you along the busy street, swerving wildly between people as you’re trying to keep up as best as you can.

That little fucker of yours was fast. Plus he had the advantage of being a tiny bean and able to navigate easily the jam-packed sidewalk, while you almost ran into every single person on your way, definitely slowing down your progress ...But there was no way you’d let go of your boy’s hand in that big of a crowd.

You didn’t even see Jason. Still couldn’t see him in fact, as you ran behind your boy. Was your kid hallucinating ? Mixing up your relatively new boyfriend with someone else ? Or did he have some sort of super powers you weren’t aware of, giving him the ability to single out people in a huge ass crowd ?! How did he even see anyone in there ?! He barely reached people’s waist ! Maybe he did have super powers...

He drags you behind him, without any intention of stopping, it seems. Until, after what feels to you to be hours but was only a couple of minutes (you realize you’re really out of shape), he turns into a shopping mall and screams once again :

“JASON !! OVER HERE !!”

That’s when you also spot him.

Jason Todd.

Your boyfriend.

The first actual boyfriend you’ve had since your son’s birth...

Just as you see him, he finally hears Viggo’s excited calls and turns around, his eyes instantly fixing on your kid.

Your heart skips a beat as you witness his face lighting up at the sight of your little boy. Never in your wildest dream would you have even hoped to date a guy who completely adored your son as much as Jay did...

Then again, Viggo had a knack to crawl into people’s heart and stay there.

Your son manages to wiggle his hand out of your grasp and launches himself on your boyfriend, who catches him in his arms in extremis, almost toppling backward as he wasn’t expecting the kid to jump to him like that.

The way your boy smiles widely and gives the biggest and most genuine hug to the man, and the way Jay answers the embrace by laying a delicate hand on the kid’s head, holding him close to his heart...It kinda makes your teeth rot with sweetness. It’s just too damn cute.

Who would have pictured a guy like Jason, all leather and sexy smirk, being so good with kids ? Well, given the shocked expression the two guys who are with him have on their faces, definitely not them.

You cross the few meters separating you from Jason and your son, and stand there awkwardly. Because you just recognized who those “two guys” with your boyfriend are.

Timothy and Damian Wayne. His little brothers.

You’re not really sure how you’re suppose to act. Do you kiss Jason to say “hello” ? Do you introduce yourself to his brothers first ? Do you scold your son for running away from you in a crowded shopping mall ?

You freeze as you just stand there, looking at all of them, without really seeing them. You met Dick before, briefly. He gossiped about you and Jason with your best friend Ally and your son...But that’s it. After a few months of relationship, you haven’t met a single other member of his family.

And right now, faced with his two younger brothers, you’re wondering if it’s ok...Is it too soon ? Is this unplanned encounter too awkward ? Are you making it too awkward ? Does Jason want you to meet his family ? He never acted like he wanted to, and after all your relationship is somewhat young.

"Jay, I think my mom just bluescreened...”

You hear your son say. And if you had all your mental capacity right now, you’d probably glare at him for being such a smartass yet again ! But you can’t think straight. All you can do is freak out internally about wether or not your boyfriend will be ok with you suddenly barging in on him and his brothers hanging out.

After all, he did talk about his family quite a bit, but never really hinted at wanting you to meet them...Oh my god. You were pretty sure you were about to have a full on panic attack.

Because you and Jay ? It really fits and clicks ! And it’s been since forever, that you felt like that about someone. You don’t want him to be weirded out by you and your son imposing yourselves in his life right now...

************

The reason Jason never really talked about you meeting his family isn’t at all what you were thinking.

It’s not that he thought you guys weren’t serious enough yet, so he didn’t want to show you his family. Or it isn’t because he was ashamed of you or any of the silly things that were going through your head right now.

Nope. The reason Jason didn’t talk about a possible meeting yet was because he didn’t want to thrust you into his world like that.

He was from the Wayne family. Which had a lot of advantages, but just as much disadvantages. People were obsessed with his father, and with him and his siblings. If he introduced you to his family...There was a chance a paparazzi would pick up on it, and then your life would drastically change.

Even more so because of Viggo. The mere fact that one of Bruce Wayne’s son was dating a struggling single mother ? It would put you on the spot.

Jason didn’t care what people would say about him. There were already some crazy rumors going around anyway...well, he could understand. After all he was suppose to be dead.

Actually when he first came back to Gotham, he liked that. He liked being anonymous again. Plus he was so mad at his father. So so mad...Of course now, after a long journey, he understood and forgave him. But in those first few moments back in the City he was born in, he cherished those anonymous time. Yet he could never really hang out with his brothers or at his beloved Manor because...Well, he was supposed to be dead.

There was a point, after he finally came to term with what happened to him (or at least finally understood Bruce’s decisions), where he couldn’t bear anymore to live hidden from any public places in fear of being discovered, to only see his family at night when it was patrol, to have half a life.

See, when he was still mad at his father, he didn’t care. His life was his vengeance. His life was getting rid of criminals ! But once he tried to find himself again, once he calmed down and let go of most the pain and anger...It was difficult to not be able to ever go out because he wasn’t suppose to exist anymore, and it was dangerous for the rest of his family.

That’s when Bruce came up with a plan (of course) to allow his son to have a “normal” life again. To be able to go out without a disguise. He disappeared from the public eye for a few weeks, making the entire city wonder : “what happened to Bruce Wayne ?”, only to come back with quite a news...

His son, Jason Todd, was still alive.

The boy’s death had been a big “event” in its time. Bruce gave little informations, and people didn’t ask for much more, understanding (and seeing, it was the first time they saw Bruce Wayne that devastated) the pain of a parent loosing a child...But no one really knew how Jason died, except that there had been an incident involving psychos from Arkham, so it was easy to make up something, in the end !

Bruce gave a public conference reintroducing his son, explaining that Jason had actually been kidnapped all those years ago, and everyone thought he had died. After all, the few proof they could find about his whereabouts were leading to his death. Only he wasn’t dead ! Kidnapped, yes, by a crazy people who hated Bruce Wayne just because he was Bruce Wayne ! But he managed to escape and came back ! And blahblahblah.

It was ridiculous, but because he was the Bruce Wayne, everyone just went along with it. Jason Todd had been kidnapped, tortured and hurt, and then he escaped...It also gave him an easy way to explain his body riddled with scars to you. He got them during his years in captivity. Of course he didn’t like the idea of lying to you, but he wasn’t quite ready to tell you who he really was.

Not quite ready to inflict to you that burden of dating a night vigilante. Of course, if things kept going as well as they currently were...then he’d eventually have to tell you, but not now. Just a few more moments of peace and quiet.

Which is why he didn’t introduce you to the rest of his family yet. Jason didn’t care what people said about him, and because he had a peculiar life, he was used to have crazy rumors and such about him...but he didn’t want you to come in not prepared.

He knew what people would say. You were a single mom. You had to work so many jobs to get by. Of course the first things everyone would assume was that you got with Jason because he’s one of Bruce Wayne’s heir. “Gold digger”. That’s a word he never wanted anyone to associate with you, but he knew it would happen.

It drove him crazy, especially knowing the fact that you didn’t even know that he was the Jason Todd. You didn’t even recognize him ! Then again, he was probably the most discreet out of all his brothers, rarely going to charity events and other galas, so he appeared almost never in newspapers and on TV...

You didn’t know who he was. And then once he told you, you systematically refused any financial help. You’d been fiercely independent all those years, you weren’t about to let him pay for your stuffs. Maybe one day, if things get really really serious between you two, but for now ? Nope.

And he understood that. He truly did. If you wanted to pay for dinner sometimes, then he would let you. He knew that insisting on paying for everything would only make you feel inadequate...He didn’t want that. He was so impressed with you and the way you handled your life, raising your son on your own in a city like Gotham !

Yes. No. If he could spare you the struggle of being introduced publicly as his girlfriend, and being called all those terrible words...You already talked to him so many times about how annoyed you were when people said things like “if you can’t afford to have a kid then don’t” without knowing your background ! He could only imagine how crushed you’d be if people started to talk about you as if you were with him just for his (father’s) money !

Oh it was kind of ironic, really.

The reason you never met his family was to protect you from all of this. He didn’t want his life to impose itself in yours and your son’s...and here you were, freaking out because you were afraid he didn’t want to present you his family because it was quite a lot, to date someone who already had a kid.

You both didn’t want to intrude too much, while at the same time wanted nothing more but to be part of each others’ life. You were both afraid to force yourself into each others’ life too much.

Ironic.

Fortunately for the both of you, the little one you gave birth to ? Well, he had absolutely no qualm in getting into people’s business !

Of course he was just a kid who didn’t know better...Or, did he ?

************

Your first date happened because of Viggo. With his not-too-subtle way of forcing you to talk to Jason, and his “My mom thinks you’re cute” comment that kinda unlocked everything between you two (in the first part).

Your first date almost didn’t happen because of Viggo as well. But ended up being the best date ever...because of Viggo. Well. Of course. You should’ve known that it would involve your precious son somehow.

Your best friend Ally was suppose to keep an eye on him, but of course that same date night she had a work emergency (she was a nurse), and your poor sweet kid had a bad stomach bug.

Your best friend apologized profusely but of course you weren’t mad at her, it happened. And it was kinda your fault that she was the only person you ever trusted to keep an eye on your son...Well, not quite true.

If Viggo hadn’t been sick, you would have asked your neighbor Mrs. Pembridge. She was a sweet old lady and Viggo always loved going there (mainly because she let him go to bed late, watch animated tv shows for too long and eat a lot of sweets and homemade baking). But...she was an old lady.

Which was fine when Viggo felt ok. You trusted her to take care of your boy. But if sick...He needed to stay in his bed. Mrs. Pembridge was too old to spend the night at someone else’s apartment.

There were other people in your apartment building that you trusted too. Old friends that had been there ever since you arrived, young and with a newborn in your arms, panicked at the idea of doing everything on your own...But just like Mrs. Pembridge, you didn’t want to bother them by being so late noticed while your son was sick, and all that for what ?

Just to go on a date.

Nu-uh. Long ago you made a pact with yourself that your son would always come first. Shoving him in someone else’s arms (that wasn’t your best friend) just to go on a date with a guy ? Definitely nope.

Now many people would think you were being ridiculous, but many people didn’t raise their child on their own. Many times, it was just you and Viggo, fending for each other. You rarely left him with someone else, and if you did it wasn’t the entire night and definitely not when he was sick.

You had quite a fusional relationship with your son, because for those past seven years, it was just you and him.

It was too difficult for you to leave him like that. Especially just to go see a guy. Poor sweetheart kept vomiting and telling you you HAD to go...But you just couldn’t.

Sure you really were looking forward to that date with “The Jason” as your son called him. But Viggo was more important. Right now he needed you, so you’d stay. You would lie if you said you weren’t bummed, but you always stuck to your principle.

More than once you broke up with someone you really liked because the person didn’t get along with your son, which was totally normal to you. So missing a date ? If Jason was right, then he wouldn’t mind. He would completely understand that you had to stay with your little boy.

Sighing, you wished you had less of those days. Work was so shit today, as you ran only into rude customers (today was restaurant and library work). And then you came home excited, and started to get ready...only to have your best friend tell you she had to go.

Well. It was still fine, right ? Viggo could just go to Mrs. Pembridge who’d understand and...No. He couldn’t. You saw it instantly as you came into his room. The boy was so pale...

You quickly understood that he had been throwing up for quite a bit now, but did it discreetly so you wouldn’t know and therefor cancel your date. When you came into his room, he was trying to act tough in front of you but eventually, turned a scary shade of white and threw up all over his bed and...It warmed your heart.

Which sounds weird, and you felt awful for feeling so happy but...Your son. Your seven year old son. Your little cutie pie, hid the fact he was really sick just so you could go out with a guy. Just because he knew you really wanted to see Jason again. He threw up and bottled up his pain so his mama could be happy !

Somewhere along the line of single parenthood, you must have done something right, to have such a compassionate little one. Now of course, you felt awful that he felt the need to hide his sickness and was all alone in this for a few hours...but you also felt incredibly proud.

Viggo, however, started to cry. Not because he was sick, but because he “had ruined your night”. You then spend the next hours trying to comfort him, while holding a “barf bucket” in front of his face and trying to soothe him as best you could.

Poor little chap was crying because his mom couldn’t go out, not even because he was super sick. Man. You loved that kid to death...

But because of all those things happening at the same time, because of this quite shitty day...You totally forgot to call Jason to tell him you couldn't go out that night, and when the bell rung your blood froze.

Oh fuck. Now if he was right, he would understand you staying home with your kid, obvs. But would he be understanding of the fact you totally forgot to call him and he came all the way here just for you to tell him to go home ?

If it was you, you’d be kinda pissed.

You left Viggo who was now covered in blankets, feeling a bit better, and watching his favorite movie, “Treasure Planet”, and went to open the door.

And here he was.

Jason Todd. With a bunch of flowers and a smile to kill for. So incredibly charming, and yet his obvious nervousness was also very endearing. You still couldn’t believe that a guy like him, with his definite bad boy air, could be so shy and yet so smooth at times.

“Jason...”

“Sorry I’m a little in advance but I...What is it ?”

“I...um..I can’t go tonight...Viggo is sick and I have no one to baby sit him and...um...I’m sorry, Jason.”

“Oh...”

The man’s face fell, and your heart skipped a bit. When was the last time someone was THAT disappointed about not going out with you ? Never. Sounds about right. You try to smile but can’t, because now, faced with him, you’re really really bummed out. And you’re unsure of what to do.

Take the flowers ? Say thank and close the door ? Settle another date now ? Will he even want to go on another date ? Do yo...

You’re interrupted by a tiny Viggo, wrapped from head to toes in a red blanket way too big for him (red hood) , and holding his barf bucket in both his arms, coming to the door.

“Hi the Jason.”

“Hi smart guy.”

Jason seemed over his disappointment in an instant. He went from looking sad to smiling sympathetically at your son.

“Sick uh ?”

“Yeah. Sorry for ruining your date.”

“Ooooh don’t worry about it little man. It’s not like tonight is the only time we can have one you know ? You should go back to bed and rest.”

It makes your heart beat faster, the way he speaks to your son. The way he quickly hid the fact he was bummed for the sake of your little boy.

“I’m watching a movie. I’m not that sick, you could still...”

But as Viggo says that, his face turns paler once again, and he falls over because of how much he throws up...And you’re pretty sure that that is it. Jason won’t ever want to date you again. Witnessing the “worst” part of parenting always does that. Makes them run away.

But you don’t even have time to reach for your kid and try to hold him up that Jason is already next to him, holding the bucket of barf Viggo inadvertently let go of with one hand, and his head with the other, making sure your son doesn’t go face first in his own barf.

It’s such a sight, to see the man’s instinct of immediately helping your kid that you don’t move and just look at this strange painting : Viggo in Jason’s arms, throwing up and sobbing because his throat hurts and he’s so tired of throwing up, that you don’t even think of moving. It’s like Jason’s “paternal instincts” shocked your maternal ones.

And without even knowing how, you find yourself guiding him in your living room and telling him to lay Viggo on the couch. And oh wow, the way Jason delicately lays your kid on it and the face he makes...total and utter worry for your son, while he doesn’t even know the boy that much.

It’s surreal. It’s the first time you see someone else carry your son in their arms, and laying a hand on his forehead. But then he realizes you’re looking at him, and he takes a few awkward steps back before saying :

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have intrude in your home like that. I...I actually don’t know what took over me haha. I’ll um...I’ll go now. I’m sure you got this you um...have been doing this for longer than I have haha.”

The return of Awkward Jason. Kinda your favorite type of Jason...The man could be a smooth motherfucker, but also a bashful one. You came to know a lot about him, during your nights at the bar. You talked a lot. He became your friend. A...really good friend in fact.

And when he discovered you had a son, he didn’t even flinch. He just rolled with it and asked you out on a date. And now you cancelled that date way too late, and he ends up getting your kid’s barf all over his shirt...

“I’m sorry..”

Viggo says weakly, noticing said barf on Jason’s shirt. But Jason just smiles sweetly and answers :

“It’s alright champ’, I’ve seen worst. Plus you didn’t mean to, it’s totally ok. And again, you didn’t ruin our date to your mom and I, we’ll just do it another time.”

For the first time that day, your son smiles too, and slowly, his eyes are closing as he listens to Jason tell him it’s not his fault. Which makes you do something completely irrational.

Something that you always thought you’d never do. Something that went against your rules...

“Jason do you...Do you want to stay ? We can watch Treasure Planet while your shirt gets cleaned ? I wouldn’t want to send you away with throw up all over you...”

You’re aware of how ridiculous you sound. He’s probably thinking you’re completely crazy, asking him to stay with your barfing kid ! Sure he acted really well about all this so far, but this is a bit too much right ?

Plus it totally goes against your rule of not bringing any men into your home life when you’re son is around ! Now of course you’re not planning on doing anything with Jason tonight. You actually genuinely want to just spend time with him, which is what a date is right ?

He has been your friend for six months now. And the way he just acted with Viggo, helping him to the couch and all...but you can’t believe you just told him that. That you just basically told him to get half naked and stay over...

But he smiles now, and takes a few steps away from Viggo, as to not wake him, and says :

“Treasure Planet sounds great, and I’d be lying if getting rid of the vomit isn’t appealing right now...”

Ok. Hello ? Yes, you’re pretty sure you just found the perfect man. But hey, hold your horses (Y/N). It’s not because he’s sweet now that he’ll stay sweet. And it’s dangerous, to get your hopes too high like that...But you can’t help it.

You didn’t scare him away by cancelling on him last minute, and by him seeing your sick kiddo. He still wanted to spend time with you, and the way he smiles and looks all bashful as he takes his shirt off. The way he even looks away...you know he’s not staying because he expects anything more than just spend time with you.

And wow the man is RIPPED. But you look away bashfully too, a bit uncomfortable, and give him your bathrobes...When you turn around to look at him, you can’t help but start to silently giggle.

Soon enough, you’re both dying of silent laughter, trying not too make any noise because Viggo finally fell asleep, but not able to stop laughing because bad-boy Jason Todd wearing a pink bathrobe with laces ? It’s pretty hilarious.

And that’s how your first date started. In your home. Where no men ever really set foot. With your son sleeping on the couch, as you both watch “Treasure Planet” sitting on the floor (the couch being already taken). Eating way too many red vines and pop tarts.

At the end of the movie, he helps you get Viggo in bed, and heads for the exit. He even thanks you for spending such a great evening...It has been a long time since he had such a carefree moment with someone.

The date ends with only the softest kiss on your lips, after he asked if he could kiss you and you said a way too excited “yes”.

And that’s when things really started.

************

Six months later and things were quite serious. And for the first time in your life it didn’t worry you too much. For the first time in your life you let a boyfriend truly get close to your son.

And oh those two really got along !

Six months of absolute bliss, of Jason coming over a few times a week, or taking you out too. You didn’t see each others every single day, having both quite a schedule...but you saw each other enough.

Enough to both realize this was getting serious. Enough to both call each others boyfriend/girlfriend. Enough for Viggo to break in a run and jump in Jason’s arms if he saw him randomly in the streets...

Like today.

************

Jason felt an incredible surge of happiness, as he saw Viggo running towards him. It was so strange, how that kid kinda forced himself into his life, and yet he was totally fine with that. Usually, Jason didn’t like being forced to do anything...but that little boy, he was too damn smart, and too damn cute !

Was that how Bruce felt, when he adopted him and his brothers ? When Damian came in his life ? Was that why he always seem to forgive them more than he forgave others ? Why even if he grumbles a lot he always ended up getting them exactly the gift they wanted, or always took the time to tell them he was proud of them ?

Maybe. Probably.

But Jason couldn’t think about that too much right now, it could be dangerous, to get so attached to that kid...Dangerous for everyone. Even if it went really well between you and him, things went haywire so many times in his life that he’d rather not think about that quite yet.

For now, he just felt incredibly happy to have run into you and him randomly in Gotham’s massive center. But..why weren’t you saying or doing anything ?

"Jay, I think my mom just bluescreened...”

But before you or Jason can really say anything...A sweet laugh resonate next to him. Uh ?

Tim. It’s Tim. Chuckling a childish giggle...that stops once he notices everyone is staring at him. And then he says :

“I’m...I’m sorry it’s uh...it’s what the kid said. Bluescreened. It’s just such a clever use of the...you know when your computer goes...um...and um...Ok, my brain just error 404.”

This time, it’s your son’s turn to snort loudly, and to shake his head meaning : “oh yes good one!” and you finally regain your senses. Since when your seven year old son spoke “computer humor” anyway ?! That kid would never cease to amaze you...

************

Turned out, Viggo heard the terms “bluescreened” and “error 404″ on one of his favorite show about kids who were spies and constantly...hacked things or whatever. You didn’t quite understood everything he was saying, but you were pretty sure you bought him a shirt once, with the characters he was talking about on it.

The awkwardness of your son barging in like that over, Jason just came to kiss you and swiftly introduced you as his girlfriend. To which his brothers replied by a : “yeah, we understood”, rolled their eyes and exchanged a knowing look with Viggo and then looking at the both of you.

Hey. Hey stop it with the exasperation !

“So what are you guys doing here ? Pleasant surprise but isn’t it school time ?”

Jason asks, and your answer :

“Well we were going home. I just picked him up from school, that ended earlier today because their teacher’s wife is having a baby...and we were coming back from getting an ice cream cause he had a good grade. But then suddenly he started screaming your name and running and...here we are. What about you ?”

Jason, Tim and even Damian chuckle at your little story, being able to picture it quite well. And then Jason answers :

“Well we all had some time off, which is pretty rare so...we were about to go play some...arcade...”

As he says that, Jason is suddenly afraid that you’ll think he’s a total nerd or something, and not as cool as he seems. Now of course by then, you know he’s an absolute dork (he still thinks you didn’t see him play “Jedi and Sith” with Viggo when he thought you were getting dinner, but you totally did...it was very cute, and the force WASN’T with Jason that day, as he crashed on your son’s floor after a failed little acrobatic, and you then walked in on them laughing way too much).

But in his head right now, Jason didn’t want you to think he wasn’t “adult” enough. Playing at the arcades ? Like a kid ? How the hell were you suppose to raise a child then ? Wait...What was that about raising a child ? Was he thinking about Viggo ? Or...Uh. He shook his head and smiled at you, a bit embarrassed.

“No way, you guys play Cheese Viking ?”

You ask, clearly interested. And he should’ve known. He should’ve known you were a geek too, why was he even nervous about going to the arcade with his little brothers in the first place ? Showed as well he could take care of young people...right ? Uhg, he shakes his head again, chasing those thoughts away, as Damian says :

“Well, those two TRY to play, but I ? I am a true champion !”

“Are you, now ?”

“Yup.”

“Well I shall challenge you, young man !”

“Challenge accepted madam !”

It happened really fast. And it was weird. Damian, out of all his siblings, was definitely not one to be outgoing like that. Especially not with a stranger. And yet, it seemed to have instantly click, between you and his fourteen years old brother, as you’re now walking towards the arcade and talking about how you’re totally gonna win...

And then Viggo gets in between you and Damian, looks up at Jason’s brother and with a bright smile says :

“Careful Damian, my mommy is really amazing at that game you know ?”

“Is she now ?”

“Yeah ! She holds the highest score in a lot of arcade in our neighborhood !”

“Really ?”

“Yes ! She’s amazing, my mommy !”

“I heard.”

“You did ?”

“Todd talked about her to father.”

“Todd ? Who’s Todd ?”

“Jason.”

“Jason’s name is Todd ? I thought it was Jason !”

“It’s his last name !”

“Isn’t it Wayne ?”

“Well that too, but technically it’s “Todd-Wayne””.

“His name is Todd Wayne ? Not Jason Wayne ?”

“No, his name is Jason. But also Todd and Wayne. Jason Todd-Wayne.”

“...You know what ? There should be a law against last names that are also first names, because right now, I am confused !”

This little talk made all of you laugh, as you went to the arcade.

Viggo and Damian got along surprisingly well. It actually surprised Jason, that Damian didn’t got snappy as soon as the kid got confused (which by the way, Jay was pretty sure Viggo did on purpose...he knew your son dumbed himself down sometimes, to fit in a little better). That was something...

************

You ended up spending the rest of the day playing in the arcade. It was great. Tim and Damian were great kids !

Damian quickly gave up on trying to beat you, after you kicked his ass once too many time on “Cheese Viking”, and instead went on playing some other games with your son.

Tim tried till the end to beat you, but there was clearly no way...Your son crowned you “Butt-Kicker Queen” and it was just so pleasant.

Viggo, Damian and Tim were trying to play DDR and failing quite miserably, and you got to spend some smooching time with Jason, hiding behind some arcades. Which grossed out your kid immediately as he saw you two, and you’re pretty sure you heard him whisper to Damian :

“Kinda wish I didn’t set them up together sometimes...Why do adult enjoy puppy kissing each others ?!”

And on that note Damian dragged him away telling him they should totally play that other arcade game, while Tim deflected the subject by asking him about his favorite animes.

Jason was once again surprised by Damian’s behavior. No snarky comments, no exasperated sigh or anything. Instead, he got Viggo’s attention on something else and gave his brother some more alone time with his girl...It was rather unsettling.

And you ? You didn’t even mind that much to let your kid with Damian and Tim. First they always seemed to make sure they were in your sight, but also Viggo seemed to have such a great time with them. And they took such great care of him...You weren’t worried in the least.

While usually you disliked leaving your son with people you barely knew...But you felt like you knew Damian and Tim, after all the things Jason told you about them.

You totally understood why Viggo reminded him of Tim. Those two were definitely some smart cookies ! He hacked a few machines so they’d have “infinite quarters”, and showed how to rewire things to your son (which you weren’t too sure was a good thing).

Damian seemed like a sweet kid (which kinda went the opposite of what Jason told you about), you were pretty sure he tried to loose to games on purpose when playing against your son, but defending himself enough so as Viggo wouldn’t be suspicious ! It was very nice.

Yes. Leaving your son in his uncle’s care didn’t really m...Wait what ? What the hell brain ? Why did you say “uncle” ?! You didn’t even realize it, the word just came on its own...it was weird, but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t think it fitted.

In those short six months together, Jason had been more of a father to Viggo than the boy’s own father ever been. Which sure wasn’t difficult, given the fact that asshole split the day of his birth...but still.

It made you feel oddly weird, to realize this.

It wasn’t an oddly weird displeasing feeling though, on the contrary.

************

The day went by in a blur, because you had so much fun with Jason and his brothers ! And came the time to say goodbye and...you were kind of hoping that Jason would talk about meeting the rest of his family, but he didn’t.

Of course you were now overthinking about this, while really he just wanted to protect you...But it’s just, after such a good day you kinda thought you’d see more of his family ? Especially since his little brothers kinda hinted at it but then Jason kinda shut them down by saying you were busy ?

He constantly talked about them. They were important to him. You wanted to meet them...Why didn’t he want you to ?

But once again, your son saved the day.

You don’t quite know how Viggo did it, but he really always seemed to know what to say, and when to say it. Because there was no doubt in your heart that the fact that Jason seem to not want you to meet his family (though this was actually a misunderstanding) could dig quite a hole between you two...And things were going so well !

Fortunately, you gave birth to the smartest little boy around. You were all saying goodbye (you trying to hide how bummed out) when your son said :

“Oh by the way Jason, next week, it’s my birthday ! I’m having a party at our apartment, can you come ? Please please please say yes”

Uh ? A party ? Since when ? Your son never asked for birthday parties, he usually had a little thing at school. His teacher was great and always took half a day to celebrate the kids’ birthdays, so Viggo never felt the need to have another party at home...

“Oh and you know what, you should come too guys ? Right ? Damian ? I could show you my video game collections ! And Tim, you can bring me the book you were talking about ? The one about Minecraft ?”

Oh. Oh you get it now. Sneaky little fucker of a son you have. How ? How did he know ?!

“Hey you know what ? Dick should come too ! I only saw him briefly but I really liked him and I feel it would be impolite to invite you three without him too !”

Smart ass. You knew what he was doing. He was forcing you and Jason to take decisions once more. Forcing you to take a step further in your relationship. Just like he did, six months ago, in the park !

“Wait...Wouldn’t it also be impolite not to invite your other siblings ? You have another sister too right ? Oh and your dad ? And Alfred ? You talked about him a lot so...Yeah it makes sense ! Will you guys come ? Please please come ! Last year, none of the kids showed up to my birthday...”

Oh. My. God. Smooth. Motherfucker. You can’t believe he was totally lying right now, pulling his “puppy eyes” face to convince him to come !! And you can’t believe it worked !! They were late for an appointment now and had to leave in a hurry, but they all promised to come to his birthday.

Jason said he’d make sure to clear his schedule and ask his sister, brother and father. There was no resisting that cute lil’ kid. He’d talk about it all further with you later. And as you witness them leave you slowly turn to your son and say :

“Didn’t your mother teach you not to lie ?”

“Oh she did. But I didn’t lie.”

“Really ? No kids showed up to your birthday ? That wasn’t a lie ? We never had a party for you Viggo !”

“I know, which is why no kid showed up to my birthday. See, I didn’t lie.”

Oh my god. Sometimes, you could just strangle that kid and his smugness. But...true. He didn’t technically lie. And somehow, he managed to get Jason to bring his entire family over...This could be really good, right ?

************

This also could be a total disaster !

You’re kinda totally freaking out right now, as you’re finalizing the decorations for your son’s birthday party (the theme was “Spider-Man”).

Sure you wanted to meet Jason’s family. You wanted to be part of his life, just as he was starting to be part of yours. You wanted them to meet Viggo. You...You wanted this.

But at the same time, you were about to meet THE Bruce Wayne, and, and...and it was all a bit unnerving really ! Meeting the parents’ of your significant other was always a bit nerve wracking, but him being...being Bruce Wayne !!

Now it sure helped that you already met three of his brothers, but what if his sister was going to hate you ? It’d be a disaster ! Jason clearly adores his sister ! BUT WHAT IF CASSANDRA HATES YOU ?!

You’re really totally freaking out.

You pace back and forth in your living room now, utterly stressed, under your son’s amused eyes. But for once, your smartass of a kid doesn’t want to say anything. He doesn’t want to make you stress further.

So instead, he stands up, put on some music and runs to you, taking hold of your hands and starting to dance haphazardly around the house.

His way of trying to make you relax. And though at first your heart isn’t quite in the dancing, you’re quickly moving around with your son and oh man, how can that kid always be so good at cheering you up no matter what ?

************

“It’s really nice of you to take some time off to come, Bruce. Viggo will really appreciate it I think. And um, (Y/N) too.”

Jason says, as he and his family climbs the stairs to your apartment (the elevator was once again out of order). Bruce looks at his boy, and smiles fondly saying :

“Oh it’s nothing son. After all, you’ve been babbling about this (Y/N) to us for the past year, even before you started dating...I’m very curious now. Plus Damian and Tim said she was lovely, and Dick talked about how “Viggo” is a smart kid. I really want to meet them now.”

“Oh she really is lovely ! And Viggo ? Smartest kid ever ? He’s a lot like Tim actually in that matter. And he’s also...”

Bruce isn’t really listening to his son anymore. Instead, he just looks at him with warmth, happy beyond any measure that he seems happy.

It’s been a long time, since he saw this side of Jason. He actually thought it died with him all those years ago, when the Joker...No. Bruce couldn’t think about this right now. All he saw, was the happiness in his son, the genuine excitement in his voice...It felt like he was back when he was 8 years old again, and was that carefree little boy who went through a lot but was always so cheerful and easily excited.

That little boy who worshipped Bruce, and who called him “dad”. That little boy who was always so funny and enthusiastic...That little boy he thought died...No. No no no. Bruce couldn’t allow himself to think about those terrible times.

Instead, he focused on the joy of having once again a glimpse of who Jason really was, as he climbed the stairs towards your apartment.

They were in front of your door now, and knocked multiple time without an answer, the loud sound of music came from inside your place...Jason smiled and pushed the door open (oh he hated when you left your front door opened !).

And there you were, with Viggo, dancing around your living room to “Fernando” by ABBA.

************

Oh god this was embarrassing. You were faced by Jason and his family, for the first time ever all together meeting you and...They walked in on you dancing terribly to some disco.

You can’t recall a day you felt that flushed...But turn the music off and look at them all awkwardly. Oh man. Worst nightmare. Right there.

“I love ABBA.”

Well. Those are words you never thought of hearing from the mouth of THE Bruce Wayne ! And yet here he was, saying them.

Viggo and you stopped dancing immediately as they all came in, and were kinda standing there awkwardly and...”I love ABBA”, one of the most powerful man in the world says. For some reason, those few words make all your worries fly away.

And your son ? Oh your son exchanges a knowing look with Jason’s father, as if they’d been “partner in crime” for years. And you know that small smile creeping on his face. Which makes you smile too.

You know what will happen. And when it does, you’re ready to join in immediately.

Viggo burst out in laughter, and you follow right after. In turn, Damian chuckles first, and soon enough, your son’s communicative laughter infect everyone in the room.

And just like that, your stress is gone.

“Oh man hahahahah, geez hahahahaha, come on in guys, come on in.”

You say, gesturing to the living room and the table. Jason is about to introduce you to his family (even if they already know who you are, as he talked a lot about you) when the door bell rings again.

“Ah ! This must be Aunt Ally !”

Viggo cheerfully exclaims as he runs to the front door. Of course you invited your best friend too, you had to. Emotional support.

You’re about to tell them to leave their present for Viggo (they all brought one, man that was going to be the most gift Viggo ever got for his birthday !) when...

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM !!!!”

You and Jason exchange a worried look. You’ve never heard your son scream like that...what happened ? Who was at the door ?

In the same move, you and Jason run towards the door, and his family follows (instinct) and...Your blood freeze.

What ? No ? Why ? What was he doing here ?

Viggo is in front of the open door, and outside...Him.

“Hey (Y/N).”

He dares to say, a wrapped package in one hand, and flowers in the other.

“...Jess ?”

You say, not quite believing your eyes.

Jess.

Him.

How ?

After all this years, why ?

Jess.

Him.

Viggo’s father.

To be continued.

_________________________________

I have been in a very...strange mood all day ^^'. Like the kind you can’t quite explain, when you just feel...Meh. So this story took me AGES to write (the entire day, basically, while I usually write rather fast). I hope you liked it and...yeah. Don’t have much to say more. Except that I got carried away once more and oh look at that there’ll be another part of this story. I hope this wasn’t too boring to read...

As per usual, feedbacks and reblogs are MORE than welcome <3.

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