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zahri-melitor · 8 months

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New(ish) Comics Day!

Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #5: can’t believe this is almost finished. Plot is going exactly where expected. Kon’s had his revelation that his guilt trip and lack of self worth is not helping the situation and has resolved to fight to instil hope. Next month the rest of the family get to turn up to help Kon beat down the latest evil clone (stop cloning Kon!!!!)

Ghost Tour From Hell: looks like they’ve redesigned Madame Xanadu recently? Interesting way to again bump the diversity of DC’s line. Also very apropos, a Rama Kushna appearance!

What I’m getting from the finalists is that DC DESPERATELY needs a new Magic heroes book or two (or a Shadowpact or a Justice League Dark), because there are some fab ideas floating around and the writers just want to write shenanigans.

(Also please enjoy these tiny stuffed Etrigans)

G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition #1: the 90s are back apparently?

I am both enjoying and intensely aggravated by the Birds of Prey storyline (it’s a solid line up too). Babs’ giant sunhat as a redhead! Dinah in a decently protective surf-designed suit! (Me killing Ivy with my brain for the sunscreen comment, something INCREDIBLY NECESSARY for the beach if you don’t photosynthesise, IVY, why not campaign for US sunscreen to catch up with the rest of the world instead).

Please why is Babs driving the JetSki AND kicking people? Why not put her in the lifesaver tower directing operations if Helena’s not going to snipe people from it? (Grumble grumble give me Oracle) Though at least she’s mostly directing from the JetSki, not actually going after people.

An Apollo/Midnighter AND Mallah/Brain story? We’re blessed.

Action Comics #1052: still enjoying this, still don’t understand WHAT the current situation is with Peej but I’m happy to work my way in over time. Might do more background research when I’ve cleared off more of my current reading list.

Warlord #13: Skartaris time!!! One of the guys trying to track down Travis Morgan in the outside world has made it into Skartaris! Mariah and Machiste get tied to a tree with C4 strapped to them! Evil dude hunts Travis as Travis races to find the detonator!

A pretty ordinary week actually. Someone tie Travis up again.

#newish comics #tuesday spoilers

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out-of-context-batfam · 4 years

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Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #5

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luminescentauthor · 3 years

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i brought more of my dumb “birds of prey accidentally adopt red hood, because jason deserves nice things” au!

i REALLY need to read more BoP comics because a) badass superhero women hell yeah and b) there are some characters here i don’t know much about (Lady Blackhawk, for example.) (Edit: I’m 19 issues in to BoP (1996). This is all I’ve been doing since I posted this. I’m loving it??? And it’s still only Black Canary and Oracle. Dinah is a way too oversexualized but I just got to watch Babs fuckin roast the Joker this is GREAT)

TEAM MEMBERS:

Oracle/Barbara "Babs" Gordon: Team Leader. Staying Oracle because disability representation, FUCK YOU DC. Take your magic cure and gtfo.

Black Canary/Dinah Lance: Field Leader. If they lose comms or can't contact Oracle, or if they just really need someone on the ground giving out instructions. However, this happens like... Maybe once every five years. Generally, Oracle's bird's eye view is more advantageous, plus they have some of the best tech there is.

Huntress/Helena Bertinelli

Catwoman/Selina Kyle

Harley Quinn/Dr. Harleen "Harley" Quinzel

Poison Ivy/Dr. Pamela "Pam" Isley

Lady Blackhawk/Zinda Blake

Katana and Strix are both former members, they sometimes help with missions or just stop by to say hi.

Black Bat and Spoiler occasionally join the team for missions, and often hang out with Oracle. Bluebird, though retired, still occasionally hangs out with Oracle and the Batgirls. She’s very useful for tech/engineering consultation.

Batwoman also joins for missions and hangs out, just because Kate’s awesome.

Yeah I’m combining the Birds and Sirens, what about it. I want to watch these awesome ladies kick ass together.

Anyway, lots of hcs below!

Absolutely none of the Birds have any idea how this "we adopted Red Hood" thing happened at all, but it did. Jason has the least idea of any of them. However, he’s also attempted escape about 3 times and failed more dramatically each time and has officially given up on getting away.

There HAVE sometimes been dudes on the Birds of Prey canonically, so I'm not that out there with making Jason a sort-of member. But "sort-of" should be emphasized. Red Hood still more or less does his own thing. He's mostly just the team's annoying little brother.

Honestly I'm torn between two options: “FUCK YOU IM A FEMINIST ALL FEMALE TEAM I REFUSE TO MAKE HIM A FORMAL MEMBER” and “There's zillions of male-dominated superhero teams with a single token female and I'm inverting that for comedic purposes, but instead of him being a love interest he's just Really Really Annoying Little Brother”

When he does work with them, he's more likely to go undercover/infiltrate than anything else. Even if he is somehow compromised, people go "Red Hood found us!" not "the Birds of Prey found us!" which is useful.

I.e. Sometimes Barbara needs something done without an opponent linking it back to the team, so she'll just call Jason to take care of it.

BARBARA AND JASON SIBLING RELATIONSHIP

My ideal pre-Joker dynamic for them is Barbara constantly thinking “I love you but I am SO exasperated with you, you little shit” and Jason being the most annoying little brother EVER, and they basically just return to that

Somewhere in the background, Alfred is wiping away a single tear and Bruce is pretending he doesn’t care but his heart is swelling.)

Dick is the only member of the Batfam besides Bruce and Alfred who isn't confused as hell by how absolutely chaotic Babs and Jason's relationship is because when he visited he saw

Look, I understand that Barbara canonically can hold a hell of a grudge, but ALSO Barbara canonically recruited Ivy for the BoP. Yes, the situation with Jason is more personal, but I take the opinion that once Jason was doing better, Barbara would be willing to reconcile with him.

I should add that in my versions of the DCU, Jason only attacked Tim once, and it was primarily an attempt to bully/scare Tim out of being Robin. They fought and Jason wound up knocking him out in frustration, but there were no guns or knives involved. I'm in the "Jason Todd Does Not Hurt Children, Teen Titans #29 Is OOC, Canon Be Damned" party

Babs has a cat a la this brilliant art by @avataraandy just because I love the concept

If that link isn't working here's a reblog of the original

The cat is probably Selina's fault somehow tbh

Yes it sits on her keyboard all the time

I saw someone said it should be named Delphi and I really like that except I already named their base Delphi so??

Harley, Jason, and Barbara bonding over Joker-related trauma!!!

The Joker is never able to escape from Arkham for longer than two days anymore because the rest of the Birds of Prey will hunt him down and they will beat the shit out of him for what he did to those three

Sometimes those join in to three hunt him down too and then the asshole is completely screwed.

Everyone on this team is either chaotic or irresponsible and they keep enabling each other

Barbara on her own, or with the Batfamily? 100% responsible. More or less. Dinah on her own? Usually fine. Selina on her own? Meh, but probably fine. Probably.

With the others Birds? Nope. Harley and Jason are The Ultimate Enablers and that's the sole reason.

Bruce is going to die of a heart attack, seriously-

Dinah giving Jason a hard time about letting his emotions compromise his fighting ability and then training him (read: kicking his ass)

But also helping him overcome his trauma and counseling him because he deserves to heal

Dinah and Harley become the most unlikely duo in the name of forcing the rest of the team to confront their issues. It eventually backfires when Dinah tries to get Harley to confront her issues, and Harley fires straight back because really, everyone in this group has problems.

This is random but I love @apleye‘s siren designs so we're including those

The Birds of Prey's base is referred to as "Delphi" which is an "Oracle of Delphi" reference. It was Jason's idea. Barbara's immediate reaction was "that is so nerdy I love it."

One time the team actually winds up in Delphi for a mission and it screws with them the whole time.

Barbara is regret. She calls Jason to complain and he just tunes into their frequency and winds up laughing at them the entire instead of reading his book. He thinks it's hilarious. Barbara. Is. Regret.

Post-mission, they keep calling it Delphi and agree that if they end up anywhere near the real Delphi again, they'll instead call it "the base" until they're gone.

Jason cannot stop laughing.

The number of villains who have gone looking for Oracle on the actual island of Delphi is a little ridiculous. It's half the reason Babs agrees to keep the name. It's funny watching people run around.

Jason goes by “Phoenix” on those rare occasions he actually joins Birds of Prey missions for reasons other than recon. It was Babs’ idea. Came back from the dead, and all.

He uses a different identity because Red Hood and the Birds of Prey being separate entities works in their favor. Like I mentioned above, sometimes they need to avoid something being linked to the team, and Hood is useful for that.

Literally nobody realizes Phoenix and Red Hood are the same person because Red Hood is loud and brash and uses guns, whereas Phoenix is significantly less intimidating and doesn't really use weapons, mostly hand-to-hand. Red Hood wears combat boots, cargo pants, body armor, and a leather jacket; Phoenix wears something more like a loose bodysuit with a hood that looks more like the Orphan costume or League of Assassins gear. There's a full cloth facemask and goggles to hide his face and hair.

The Bats are alarmed to realize that Jason, who usually stomps around in combat boots, is completely silent when he wears anything that isn't heavy boots with reinforced metal soles.

Jason can be silent in the boots if he wants to be, it's just a lot of effort.

PRE-CRISIS REFERENCE! Natalia Knight (not Natalia Mitternatch; two different characters) sometimes shows up to a) mother Jason and b) occasionally work with the team. Kate is initially deeply suspicious given that Knight is the original Nocturna and the second Nocturna violated Kate, but then Knight turns out to be perfectly friendly. She's a villain but decent person who mostly just steals things and is against killing, but has proven willing to cross that line to protect her loved ones.

You can read @coolgirl's post summarizing her shared history with Jason here!

To quote another post of mine: Poison Ivy is an ecoterroist and not a seductress goddammit! Let her be a skilled biochemist and botanist! Let her be nerdy! Let her wear pants and flannel and straw hats like the farm girl she is at heart! Let her go from “destroy humanity” to “destroy factories that are illegally dumping waste and sure Batman doesn’t love it but she’s not actually killing much of anyone and they were ILLEGALLY dumping waste so he’s going to focus on bigger problems”! Let her be morally gray instead of evil from the get-go because she has totally understandable motives!

HARLIVY!!

They're sapphos and they're in love and there's nothing anyone can do about it

Any of the rest of the team will fight anyone who makes a comment about it

Pam owns so many flannels. Harley steals them all the time. She's not the only member of the team that does so. Pam Flannels are The Best.

"Harles I love you but please stop stealing my shirts-"

Similarly, if anyone is dumb enough to make an ableist comment about Babs, the team will find out and they will fuck that person up. Usually the other Bats join in.

Jason jokingly calls Selina mom once and Selina cries. Jason is taken aback, but also touched that it means that much to her.

Selina spends most of her spare time reverse Indiana-Jones-ing artifacts, returning them to their proper cultures. Barbara helps.

Pam and Harley spend a lot of time blowing up factories dumping illegal waste.

Harley Quinn and Red Hood sometimes beat up abusers together, while Barbara gets the evidence to get them locked away.

Bruce is so, so tired. This team is going to be the death of him.

Selina loves him dearly, and is nonetheless totally okay with that.

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konako · 4 years

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Am I the only one that lives in this limbo where I really want to see more of the Birds of Prey or even a Black Canary series like people are asking for but I'm also REALLY afraid that if that happens they won't have Helena and Dinah together or that they'll set her up with Oliver... Like I want to see more of Jurnee's Black Canary but I don't want anything to burst the little happy gay bubble I live in...

Oh, absolutely! I’m with you. I just want them both suspiciously single, being their subtle gays, thirsty selves, so we can make headcanons on top of headcanons based on their interactions.

I don’t demand canon, really. Fanon is often enough.

(Thought I definitely don’t want a Dinah x Oliver situation to have to deal with)

#Anonymous

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 4 years

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T (Obscure AU): Batman’s Oracle

T. An obscure AU.

How was Barbara supposed to know that she wasn’t simply a genius?

To be absolutely clear, she is still unarguably brilliant. But it may be in a slightly different way than previously believed.

Her skills strain credulity, hacking things it should be impossible to hack and finding loopholes in streams of code that seem to materialize for her and her alone. When she really sinks into her work she feels connected to an energy larger than herself, summoning the information she seeks straight to her fingertips. What Oracle needs, Oracle finders.

There’s a reason they tell stories about her in the darkest corners of the dark web, claiming Oracle is an artificial intelligence or a supercomputer gone rogue or some other ghost in the machine. It’s hard to believe she could do all that and still be human.

As it turns out, she isn’t. She’s something a little to the left, a metahuman. Amazing how you can live nearly three decades without noticing a little thing like that.

Dick, who has seen more absurdly unprecedented situations in his life than any one person should and found a helpful or encouraging word for nearly all of them, is at a loss for words. He brings her a cup of tea which she accepts but does not drink, letting it warm her hands as her eyes remain distant.

He clears his throat. “You know this doesn’t change anything, right? Not really. No matter you do it, you’ll still be our Oracle. And you’ll always be our Babs.”

A little cheesy, maybe. But he means well.

She wonders if he, or the rest of the Bat brood, doubt her when she says she genuinely didn’t suspect that she was different. It’s the truth, if that makes any difference. She grew up associating metahumans with bulletproof skin, blurs of lightning speed, glowing green constructs sprouting from alien rings. What was a little talent with computers, compared to that? A knack, sure, an impressive skill set, a resume filler and a reasonable career path. Nothing more.

Barbara will swear on whatever you hold dear: when she first suited up she did so with the complete certainty that she was setting out to patrol the streets as an ordinary teenager with absolutely no superhuman abilities to her name. She’s exactly as foolhardy as the rest of them, no matter what anyone tells you.

It was Tim who unraveled her unintentional secret, and how fitting that he figured it out by accident as well. All he’d asked for were a few pointers, help hacking into a database that was giving him some trouble, an explanation of a few of her better tricks that he’d never quite been able to figure out. And in trying to explain her methods she’d realized that she couldn’t quite explain, the way that riding a bike can become such a matter of muscle memory that trying to actually think about the process can only lead to scraped palms and bloodied knees.

At first, to their mutual frustration, it seemed that Barbara was only an unexpectedly bad teacher, until they both realized she’d gotten so lost in explanation that she was describing things no ordinary human should be able to do, nonsense about extending her awareness outward into a stream of information, an experience she’d never quite put into words and was startled to hear herself saying out loud.

“Babs,” Tim had said quietly. “Is this a metaphor or something? Because what you’re saying isn’t actually how computers work.”

She had stared down at her own hands, poised over her keyboard, flexing her long fingers and seeing them suddenly differently. “No. It’s not a metaphor. It’s what I do. I shouldn’t be able to do that, should I?”

“Well,” Tim had said quickly, “not that there’s anything wrong with it if you are.”

Which was not a strictly helpful thing to say.

It’s not the easiest thing in the world, getting tested for the meta gene, but that’s the kind of door easily opened by Bruce’s money and connections. It was less than a week before she had her answer.

“Nobody has a problem with Duke’s powers,” Dick is reminding her now. “And remember when we thought Cass might be a meta, too? It’s not a big deal.”

“It is and it isn’t,” Barbara tells him. “It doesn’t change anything that I’ve accomplished, and it does. I’m not especially worried about what any of you think, no offense. But I am completely reassessing how I understand myself and my skills, and that’s not a pleasant process. Does that make sense?”

“It does,” Dick says, but it’s still worrying him, and he only leaves reluctantly when she kicks him out so she can get back to work, tells her to call if she needs anything and sends her a string of heart emojis when he’s not even a minute gone. It’s sweet, and he’s sweet, and her affection for him does not diminish that she needs space from all his worried caring.

Getting back to work, the clear purpose and application of her talent or power or whatever is it she possesses, is what she needs just now. Screen in front of her, rapid fire input of information dancing through her brain, Dinah and Helena’s voices in her ears - this is what brings her back to herself.

“Oracle, I heard you’re part of the club now,” Dinah says when their stakeout is running boring and overlong. “Congrats on that. Huntress, we’ve got you outnumbered.”

“What? Oh, the meta thing,” Helena says dismissively. “God, I can’t believe Batman didn’t notice in, what, ten years? World’s greatest detective, my ass.”

That gets a laugh out of Barbara, crackling over the comms. This is an adjustment, one that will take her time, a bizarre sort of grieving for something that should not be sad. But it is exactly like her friends to help her acceptance along in the most understated ways, and Helena raises a good point: it will be hilarious to rub this in Bruce’s face.

#a writing #barbara gordon #pinkthespianlesbian

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allofthefeelings · 4 years

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I saw the tags on that Black Canary gifset you reblogged and I was actually the opposite! I went in expecting to love Canary but walked out wanting Huntress to shoot me with her crossbow 😳 I’d love to hear your thoughts on the movie too!!!

Oh, don’t get me wrong, Huntress was excellent (and anyone who said she wasn’t hot is telling on themselves something fierce), and your choice is excellent.

The movie was basically if they took my favorite character archetypes and split them among a bunch of characters. I just thought I knew what my deepest id desire is, but despite canon giving us TWO characters with deep trauma who went on to become child vigilantes, it turns out that sometimes the heart just wants what that wants and while it’s OFTEN murderbabies sometimes it’s a good person stuck in a terrible situation who does what she can to undermine it from within rather than tearing the whole system down until she’s in a position where she thinks she can actually effect change like that.

I think it was a really good movie that I enjoyed immensely but I was not quite the target audience for, in a way that has left me feeling like I don’t have a real way to talk about it well.

I’ll put more under a cut.

I really enjoyed the movie. I laughed out loud more than I have in ages, including at straight-up comedies, and the characters were generally really well-acted; they all felt lived in. Even when we didn’t get a lot to go on each of them were easily empathize-able, and I like seeing a movie where I can just unambiguously want the protagonists to win.

That said, I had a few moments where I felt like I was in that weird in-between space where I knew there were references I was missing but I didn’t know what they were. I think they would have been fine for anyone with no knowledge and delightful treats for people with LOTS of knowledge, but they did leave me a little unsettled as a viewer- like I was just slightly distanced from the story, because I knew just enough to realize how much I didn’t know.

When that’s my biggest criticism, it’s a very good sign.

I thought they built an exceptional world. I love that the dark underbelly of Gotham didn’t keep the movie from being bright and sunny. I love that this is a world where the presence of supervillains, superheroes, and vigilantes doesn’t stop everything; people are living in it. I love that they let Harley be smart and I love that she had a confetti gun- a weapon I wish to see in every movie in the future, please, whether or not Harley is in it- and I love how heavily the drama over her egg sandwich was weighted by the narrative, because yes, when everything is the worst sometimes the egg sandwich IS the most important part.

This is the first movie I’ve seen where rather than “Why do they have an abandoned amusement park?” I was like “Yes, this seems like a place that would support at least five abandoned amusement parks, and it makes sense to specify which abandoned amusement park would be most centrally located.“

I really liked Harley’s narration, and the way the voiceover and animations enabled them to play with narrative. I have a soft spot for stories that know how to manipulate narrative while still being clear, and even more of one for stories that are interrogating what narrative means. By having Harley’s narration and playing with the audience’s knowledge at various times in the movie, I felt like it was also a pretty strong metacommentary on the audience’s understanding of Harley to this point: like so much of Gotham, we’ve only seen her as a side character in Joker’s story, and this re-framing not only lets her be the protagonist without losing anything but also forces the viewer to recontextualize everything we’ve seen so far.

That said, while this makes the rationale for making the story Harley-focused not just logical but productive for the DCEU as a whole as well as for this movie in particular, I wanted to see more of the BoP themselves. Harley is a great character but she’s a lot, constantly- that’s her whole point!- and I both wanted more of the BoP because they were interesting and because I think Harley works best as a counterpoint to the more grounded world of the rest of them. I think the movie recognized and was utilizing that, but I would have liked to see it leaned in to even more; the contrast and their choice to work together despite that was strong but could have been even stronger.

Specifically, I feel like I got just enough of Dinah, Helena, and Renee’s backstories and current situations to whet my appetite and make me excited to see more from them, but not quite enough that I wasn’t filling in pieces myself. Which is fun, as a general rule- that’s what fandom is FOR- but this ties back to my big concern: when I know there’s so much background for them out there, I don’t want to fill in my pieces because I know I could be contradicting the Truth (I know any medium with multiple creators doesn’t have one real Truth but you know what I mean), and that leaves me kind of unsure where to go with this? Like, I’m not sure how to engage fannishly without saying “fuck canon” (which I am not terribly good at doing- I mean, I‘m great at it once I know intent but before that I’m in a constant state of “i need more knowledge to decide!”) or without doing a deep-dive of research, which I don’t currently have time to do. And while they absolutely needed every scene they had to establish where Harley was and how far she fell to achieve the rest of the movie- I think it was smart filmmaking- I wish that some of that time had gone to the other women, so I didn’t feel like I was grasping in the dark without a flashlight.

So I guess basically this is a very long way of saying that the movie was fun, I look forward to watching it again and getting even more out of it, but I feel like I am just slightly off from the intended audience in ways that makes it hard for me to engage smartly, and my best bet is to read what other people think instead. Does that make sense?

#allofthereplies #Anonymous #Birds of Prey #meta #I guess?#this is a very long post to explain why I don't feel qualified to talk about this movie #which is ironic but also kind of par for the course #I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE THIS WHOLE POST AND DIDN'T TALK MORE ABOUT HOW DINAH LANCE IS THE BEST #BUT SHE IS #FOR THE RECORD #THIS IS JUST TOO LONG

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thelittleredheadedmusician · 6 years

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Present and Accounted For

An early Merry Christmas to @super-batgirl! Since you wanted the Batgirl Squad to go Christmas shopping I figured it was best to post this a little early! I hope you enjoy! Rating: G Gen Words: 1,788 AO3

Barbara checked the time in the bottom of her screen again, biting on her bottom lip nervously. It wasn’t like Steph and Cass to be late without telling her about it, even if it was just a few minutes. Her fingers flying over the keyboard Babs did a quick scan to see if there was any trouble that they might have run into on the way. Seeing nothing Barbara slouched back in her chair with a sigh and her brow furrowed.

Just then the front door to Barbara’s apartment/liar flew open with a loud yell from Stephanie. “DECK THE HALLS! We’re heeeeerree!” The blonde rushed in, Cassandra on her heels, and immediately skipped over to Babs.

“You’re late,” she accused, waggling a finger between the two of them.

Cass held up a cupholder with a trio of cups in it. “Brought coffee,” she said by way of explanation.

“And donuts!” Steph chipped in, holding up the bag. “Now c’mon, my butt has been buzzing for the past three blocks. Nell and Tiff are getting impatient.”

Barbara rolled her eyes and grabbed her coat and purse. Cass passed her a scarf with a smile and Barbara picked up her keys. “Dinah, Helena, and Charlie are meeting us there. Zinda is in Maui on vacation. We’re picking up Tiffany and Nell. Am I missing anyone?”

Cass shrugged, giving Babs a smirk. “You know all,” she said innocently. Babs poked her in the side as the elevator made its descent.

“Well Harper had to work, Kate and Bette said thanks for the invite but seeing as how they don’t do Christmas there was no point in them braving the crowds.”

“Smart,” Barbara muttered.

Steph rolled her eyes but continued as Cass snickered. “Did Alysia or Frankie get back to you?”

“Yeah, they’re both going to be getting lunch with us, but Frankie had a meeting for Gordon Clean Energy and Alysia and her wife were decorating this morning.”

“Ooooh, domestic life. Must be fun,” Steph laughed.

“I wouldn’t know, the kids I take care of all insist on decking villains rather than decking the halls,” she replied smoothly.

Steph blushed but chuckled and Cass leaned down to plant a kiss on Barbara’s cheek. “Here now. Close enough.”

Barbara reached out and wrapped her arms around the girls’ waists, pulling them in for a quick hug as the elevator dinged open into the clocktower’s underground parking garage. They both gave her a quick squeeze back before hopping out the door and rushing toward her van, arguing over who got shotgun with Cass expertly holding their still hot drinks out of the way of Steph’s flailing arms.

Barbara pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Dinah, warning her they were on their way, before getting herself situated behind the wheel. Cass won the front seat debate so Steph was leaning forward, practically sitting on the center counsel as they drove. Once they picked up Nell, Barbara was able to raise an eyebrow at Steph in the rearview mirror before glancing over at the younger girl, effectively getting Steph to sit like a proper human.

Nell chattered excitedly and thanked Steph and “Miss Barbara” for inviting her along for the day. She was even more excited when they picked Tiffany up, Lucius giving the two youngest girls money for candy with a smile.

“I thought Luke said you were anti-sugar?” Barbara asked, genuinely curious.

He shrugged and smiled easily back at her. “Only when I’m the one dealing with the sugar’s after effects.”

She laughed, promised to have Tiff home before dinner, and they were on their way.

Once they reached the mall Cass passed out the coffees to Babs and Steph, she had gotten tea for herself, while Steph opened the box of mini donuts for everyone to pick from. They had just reached the mall’s entrance when Barbara felt something slam into her from behind. Her shoulders were quickly enveloped in a hug and her vision was obscured by a mess of dark red hair.

“Hey there Charlie,” she laughed and hugged the girl back.

“Missed you boss. The mission was fun but man is it good to be home,” Charlie smiled as she pulled back. The freckles on her nose disappearing as she wrinkled it.

“There she is! Our supreme leader! The one, the only, Barbara Gordon!” Dinah called, holding up a coffee cup of her own. Helena rolled her eyes and tugged on the end of Dinah’s long blue scarf.

“Zinda sends her best. She barely touched down to drop us off, where did you send her for Christmas anyway?” Helena asked, holding the door open and shepherding them all inside.

“Oh you know, some place sunny and tropical. With shirtless men serving alcohol. Zinda’s dream locale,” Babs smirked at her friends while Steph and Cass snorted behind her.

“So she gets a tropical vacation and we get Christmas shopping in Gotham? I’d like to issue an official complaint,” Dinah said dryly.

“Just because you don’t like the crowds doesn’t mean you can complain about the company,” Steph snarked. She waggled her finger at Dinah as Cass stood behind her dramatically rolling her eyes.

Dinah sighed and took a sip of her coffee. She slung an arm around Steph’s shoulders and began to manhandle the younger blonde further into the mall. Babs couldn’t help but snort and share a look with Cass who shook her head, causing her short hair to flair out. Cass then held out her free hand to Tiff who eagerly took it, swinging their arms. Charlie waved to Nell, who quickly began asking her all about the Birds of Prey’s latest mission. Helena walked beside Barbara as she began to navigate the busy shopping mall in her wheelchair, glaring at people too rude to even bother with stepping even slightly to the side.

“Why exactly did you want us to all go Christmas shopping together?” Helena asked. She glared at a group of teenagers who nearly ran right into Barbara. Babs smiled up at her in thanks. “I mean, I need to get it done but I’m mostly shopping for you, Dinah, Charlie, Zinda, and Barda. Having three out of the five of you here just defeats the purpose a bit.”

Babs shrugged, watching as the rest of their group ducked into a candle shop. “You could always go off with Steph and Cass, they’d be happy to help.”

“I know, I’m just trying to figure out your thought process here.”

“Oh trust me, you don’t want to. It’s scary in here,” Babs pointed to her head and grinned, crossing her eyes as Helena watched. The other woman rolled her eyes and poked Babs lightly on the shoulder.

“Would you two hurry it up?” Dinah called, sticking her head out of the entrance to the store. Babs stuck her tongue out in response, to which Dinah maturely replied with flipping her off.

Next to her Helena snorted and Babs muttered something about disowning all of them.

In the candle store Steph had a candle filled tin in each hand and was sniffing a third on the shelf in front of her. Wrinkling her nose, Steph turned to Cass. “Which one do you think I should get Bruce? Which do you think says ‘I am the embodiment of angst, broodiness, and dads everywhere’: Apple Cinnamon Swirl or Sugar Cookie Carol?”

Cass shook her head slightly before raising her eyebrow at Steph. “What do you think?”

“Well I think that the coupon book I made for each member of your family last year was a brilliant idea but apparently not, so now they’re all getting crappy candles. The turds,” Steph muttered the last part, frowning between the two candles.

Cass failed to stifle a laugh and patted Steph on the back. “This one,” she said and pointed to the apple and cinnamon scented candle.

Steph grinned brightly and placed the rejected candle back on the shelf. “Thank you!”

Cass just shook her head and smiled. She turned to find Tiffany and Nell and see if they wanted to go to the Disney store with her. The three of them just about ran over Helena and Barbara on their way out the door.

By the time they were done in the Disney store all three had managed to buy gifts for their whole family, something Cass was ridiculously proud of. Especially since she knew all of her family would genuinely enjoy their presents. Nell was beaming as she held up the Dalmatian spotted mug for her mom, Tiff oh-ed and ah-ed before showing off her own purchases. Cass couldn’t help but smile as she thought of Lucius, Tam, and Luke opening up their matching Porg plushes. According to Tiff the three of them were obsessed with Star Wars, and it was obvious to Cass that the young girl was obsessed with what looked to her like a space penguin crossed with a hamster.

Cass felt her phone buzz in her back pocket, a message from Barbara asking where they had wandered off to and saying that they needed to start heading to lunch. She sent a quick reply before calling the girls over and offering them each a hand, making sure her shopping bag was slipped over her wrist. Tiffany took Cass’s hand happily, swinging their arms between them. Nell looked at the offered hand, her mouth twisting to the side before she met Cass’s eyes. Cass smiled at her and wiggled her fingers. Nell grinned sheepishly before placing her hand in Cass’s. With a broad grin Cass lead the girls toward the restaurants near the front of the mall.

Babs watched as Cass skipped towards them, Nell and Tiffany in tow. All in all it had been a fairly successful trip. Barbara had gotten presents for all the boys, something she had specifically put off in anticipation of today. Helena had slipped away with Steph at some point and both came back weighed down with bags and smug grins on their faces. Dinah had gotten most of her actual presents and spent the entire day shopping for the gag gifts the Queens always gave each other. Although the kiddy bows with suction cup arrows from the year before were hard to top. Charlie explained that she made all her presents and was just there for the company, which she thoroughly enjoyed by chattering away and giving her opinion and insight on each gift.

As Cass drew nearer Babs eyed the Disney bags that they all carried suspiciously. “So what did you guys get?” she asked Cass, a single brow raised.

The younger girl grinned in response. She shrugged and winked. “Presents,” was all she said.

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