#hes pulling a steph and be the first boy of a gotham mantle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mzminola · 2 years

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Had the thought “How would the Dynamic Duo of Batman!Dick and Robin!Stephanie have gone?” and immediately started tearing Preboot canon apart and rebuilding it like a LEGO set.

Firstly, we gotta make sure Damian isn’t getting sidelined, and for that I propose he and Tim are a team for BruceQuest. Have Damian’s yearning to get to know his dad outweigh his dislike/jealousy/etc of Tim, and highlight Tim’s canonical compassion and forgiving nature.

Either they both make new mantles for this, or they’re both color-coded Robins. Red Robin for Tim, since he’s using Kon’s colors, Green or Blue Robin for Damian (I like Green for he ties to his mom, but him trying to make his own version of the Nightwing suit in some attempt to outrank Tim and everyone calling him Blue Robin would be very funny).

Things start out tense, Damian is only listening to Tim because a) Tim will just have a Titan pick Damian up and drop him back off in Gotham if he’s too much trouble like he was during Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul, and b) Tim is the only person who believes Bruce is alive and is cautiously keeping some of the methodology of proving it to himself at first.

In the original 2009 Red Robin comic, Tim repeatedly got sidetracked with hero work during his quest. Have that keep happening, and actually spend more time in that period than RR did, because it’s part of Damian’s growth. He starts out pissed at the delays and confused by Tim’s insistence on helping strangers. Tim gives some talks about the Bat philosophy and about why he keeps coming back to the hero life despite everything it’s taken from him.

Damian gets thanked by some of the people they rescue, and slowly shifts from pride in his fighting skills to pride in helping people. Eventually starts actively looking for people to help while they’re searching for artifacts. Tim is so flipping proud of him.

Sets us up for some big choices when the League of Assassins finally gets involved.

Okay, back to Stephanie, rewinding the comics even further:

1: Don’t kill off Arthur ‘Cluemaster’ Brown, we need him for later.

2: Tim & Steph never date because this is my LEGO set and I want more platonic boy-girl friend pairs in fiction, dang it. Bruce never tells Steph Tim’s identity and Tim is still keeping it secret. Rather than stalking Tim at school and seeing another girl kiss him, Stephanie and Tim are in the middle of an ongoing argument about secret identities when Jack discovers Tim is Robin and makes him step down.

Tim contacts Steph over the phone to let her know why Spoiler won’t be seeing him around, and that’s when she pulls what she did in canon of making her own Robin suit and volunteering with Batman.

Keep most of War Games, but nix the prolonged torture (because fuck that shit) in favor of quickly-gained but extensive injuries (she was tossed off a building? A building fell on her while she was saving someone?) so she really does need a long recovery period, complete with Dr. Thompkins taking her out of the country.

Honestly not sure if they should still fake her death. If yes, I think it should be Bruce’s idea.

This keeps Steph out of the way so we don’t need to rearrange the in-between canon too much, and potentially adds more fuel to the Keeping Secrets vs Not Keeping Secrets arguments.

The start of our big change for Stephanie’s arc is Violent Tendencies. Instead of agreeing to Bruce’s messed up plan, Stephanie is raring to atone for the lives destroyed back in War Games, and what do you know, some motherfucker just started another city wide gang war!

Spoiler works with Robin to stop Ulysses Armstrong. They never worked their shit out before she first left town, so it’s tense, and they fight, but they prioritize stopping the bad guys and bringing what peace is possible in Gotham.

Have repeated moments where Stephanie’s temper and instinct to argue almost messes things up, but she reins herself in to focus on butt-kicking and detective work. Have Tim notice this newer self-control, and have Steph notice changes in Tim, too.

At least one instance, preferably more, of Stephanie meeting someone who was hurt or lost a loved one in War Games, and wrestling with the fresh reminder of her guilt.

If we want to have a two-steps-forward, one-step-back situation, Tim gets caught in the blast of Armstrong’s bomb because after one of their fights, Stephanie stormed off in a temper, leaving Tim to deal with a two-person job on his own.

This sets up Stephanie second-guessing her decision to keep being a hero. If her own temper keeps getting in the way, should she really be doing this?

If we don’t want that, have it be that Tim takes the brunt of the blast because he threw Stephanie to safety or threw himself on top of her. Because that’s the kind of hero Tim is, because at this point in her arc Steph needs reassurance that her friend still cares about her despite her mistakes, and because it’s an example of heroism Stephanie needs to decide if she wants to copy or not.

Stephanie wants to be a hero.

Does she want to be the kind of hero who throws herself between another person and a bomb?

So either scenario, we set up for Stephanie to be doing some introspection when Bruce gets tossed into the timestream.

/points at the fried clone-corpse nearly everyone thinks is Bruce/ “Well he ain't gettin’ any deader!”

Tim calls up Cassandra during the whole Battle For The Cowl incident. She needs to wrap up an investigation, but comes back as soon as she can, which is when the dust has settled. Welcome back to Gotham, Batgirl!

(Cass is the Batgirl to both Tim & Steph’s Robin. She gets her own solo book back and has lots of interactions with Babs during this era.)

Not sure whose idea it is for Stephanie to be Robin again; Tim resigning himself to Dick not helping with BruceQuest? Dick acknowledging Batman needs a Robin and seeing Spoiler is struggling? Stephanie herself, volunteering for the second time?

Regardless, very early on, Arthur Brown gets out of jail or comes back to town and is being a Problem. Stephanie’s got a lot of anger, and Dick helps her deal with that. This is both an echo of Stephanie’s introduction, when she tried to kill her dad, and a way of bringing up Dick’s roots as Robin. He wanted to kill Tony Zucco, remember?

One former hot-headed Robin who’s learned how to find balance and prioritize justice over revenge helping the next generation do the same!

Meanwhile, Jason is also around being a Problem, providing straight up antagonism, but also a different opinion on how vigilantism in Gotham should work, so that Stephanie has multiple views to wrestle with.

Stephanie is a middle-class kid from the suburbs, who, as Jason put it to Tim when breaking into Titans Tower, “slept in a real bed”. But she’s also got a (recovering) drug-addict mother and a criminal father, providing points of commonality for Jason to work with. Remember his speech to Mia Dearden during the Green Arrow crossover?

Jason also plays on Stephanie’s guilt, talking about the fallout of the gang war she started, all of the ripple effects that kept going after the initial burst of violence was over. Describes some of his Under the Red Hood crime lord takeover work as “cleaning up your mess.”

Stephanie regrets everything about War Games, Dick is helping her do better going forward, whereas Jason’s argument is that she should have been more decisively violent at the start. It’s hard for all the mafia bosses to fight each other and get the little people caught up in it if the mafia bosses are dead.

During one altercation between Batman & Robin and the Red Hood, Jason punts Black Mask’s head to them and sarcastically says “You’re welcome.”

Arthur’s current criminal enterprise should directly affect Stephanie’s life in some negative way, so that all of this is fresh, not a It’s In The Past situation, and also be endangering civilians’ lives.

This arc has a big climatic scene of Dick being restrained while Jason gives Stephanie the chance to kill her dad.

(We know she’s not gonna, because she’s the Robin in Batman & Robin, but it should be as suspenseful as we can make it.)

Meanwhile over in BruceQuest, Tim & Damian are bonding over being raised with high expectations, and confusing relationships with one’s parents. Tim finally allowing himself to think & say negative things about Jack in order to help Damian grapple with his own upbringing? Heck yes.

Damian & Tim & the crushing weight of family legacies & parental expectations!

Tim being allowed by the narrative to be a big brother to Damian like Dick was to Tim!

Damian coming to see Tim as his brother despite his upbringing focusing on blood, and expressing remorse for the introductory murder attempt!

Ra’s trying to pit them against each other and getting his ass kicked!

Tim standing up to Bruce about his toxic habits once they rescue him because Tim refuses to let Damian go through the same crap he did!

Since dads are a big thing for both of the above arcs, we could go for three and bring back David Cain for Cass to deal with. Or keep him away, but bring him up in Cass & Steph’s shared scenes. They bonded over having terrible dads in Batgirl 2000, we can have callbacks.

Tim was sending progress reports back to Gotham during BruceQuest (because whether he left on good or bad terms, he wants the Bats to know what’s going on in case something happens to him and the ten year old he’s in charge of needs a rescue).

Once a week Cass makes popcorn and Babs reads the reports aloud. They make bingo cards for What Crazy Shit The Boys Got Up To This Week. When Tim gets home he makes bingo cards about Batgirl & Oracle’s shenanigans (while stealing some of theirs for his scrapbook). Stephanie demands Batman & Robin bingo cards too, and we discover Babs actually made some years ago when Dick was still Robin.

There are a lot of different ways who has what mantle could shake out once these arcs are over (in the very short time before the universe reset) but instead of getting into that I’m just going to imagine everyone reunited & hugging.

#fic ideas #or rather canon rewrite ideas #Stephanie Brown #Damian Wayne #Tim Drake #with appearances by Dick and Babs and Cass and Jason #yes the War Games arc is terrible but this is a rewrite of the AFTERMATH so it's staying #but slightly modified #Robin #Robin Stephanie #Batgirl Cassandra #Tim and Damian being brothers #Batman Dick #DC #Batfam

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flashflashhundredyarddash · 3 years

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Stephanie Brown was Robin for 104 days before she was fired.

There had been, also, the three month training period beforehand. Apparently, she had had the shortest training period of Robin (Dick had trained for a year, Jason had trained for 13 months, and after Tim’s first brief stint as Robin he’d trained for 7 months). Overall, it’s a record to be proud of.

She had helped stop 215 violent crimes. 43 criminals were charged with federal offenses due to work she did as Robin. She learned how to code in 23 different coding languages. She learned seven new languages. She could only do a quarter as many pull ups as Bruce, and she could only run four miles before having to stop to pant for breath to Bruce’s 32.

She would never be as good as her predecessors. It was in Bruce’s every sigh, his every scold. It was in the display case of a torn Robin suit in the Batcave.

Stephanie's Robin had been different. Because her training period had been so short, Bruce had taught her what he felt were the most important skills of being a vigilante. Do not let your fear control you. Always try your best to think before you act. Learn to fall before you learn to be Robin. Check your gear every night you go out. Above all, you listen to me.

Stephanie wasn’t so good at the last rule. No Robins were. She was upholding a very noble tradition.

***

“Found our perp,” Steph said around a mouthful of M&M’s.

“Hmm,” Bruce said and took a sip of his slushie she had made Bruce buy. She’d told him to get Mountain Dew and Banana. The lack of complete expression on his face told her Bruce thought it was one of the worst things he’d ever had in his life.

“I’ll take that off your hands for you,” Steph said.

“Please,” Bruce muttered.

***

Being Robin was simultaneously some of the best and worst experiences of her life. Bruce yelled at her every other day, and kind words were sparing. Some nights, it felt like she never did anything at all but follow behind Batman and feel small and lost.

But those few seconds between flinging herself into the air and catching herself with a grapple? She lived for that. All the Robins loved flying.

Cassandra Cain was on another level. In any given spar with Bruce, she could knock him on his ass nearly a majority of the time. She was so in control of her body Stephanie couldn’t even be jealous the way she was with Dick, because Cass was so far beyond anything Steph could even hope to achieve it didn’t matter.

Cass never minded that Steph said weird shit or made jokes that were only funny to herself (Steph was a comedian, okay? If you throw enough at the wall, some of them stick. Some don’t, though). Steph had done alright in school, and she was funny and fairly pretty, but because of her parents and then because of her extracurricular activities Steph had never really had a best friend before. Cass, though, was just as weird as Steph. One of her favorite hobbies was going to Target and making Steph push her around in the shopping carts. She genuinely loved pickle juice to an absolutely disgusting degree. She liked to listen to Jersey Shore and then copy lines to tell Bruce. Cass was the best friend Steph ever had.

Steph, despite any appearances to the contrary, was an intense person, and she had never had any deep connections with people because it had never seemed like anyone got her. Tim, for a time, had gotten her. Tim was just as intense and self-obsessed and weird as Steph was at that age, and the mantle of Robin was almost mythologic at that point and Tim was hot and cool and smart and seemed to think Steph was hot and cool and smart. Tim and Steph, at 14 and 15 respectively, had both very badly wanted to be seen and held and appreciated by someone else.

Growing up means outgrowing the person you used to be. It means the people you grow up with change, too. Tim was Tim Drake, and then he was Robin, and then for a while he wasn’t anything, and then he was Robin again and then he was Red Robin. Steph had been Stephanie Brown, and then she had been Spoiler, and then she’d been Robin and Spoiler and then she had been Batgirl. At some point, none of those identities fit together. And it sucked. But it was okay. She’d been in love with Tim at 15 in the only way she could have been in love at 15, and it wasn’t until she was older that she realized little-Steph’s thoughts that Tim Drake was the only boy she would ever love were both incredibly dramatic and also very sincere in a way that she missed.

Training with Barbara Gordon was even harder than training as Robin. Bruce had been training her to be a vigilante first, to get her the skills she needed, and to be a Robin second. Bruce, almost as soon he decided to train her, had realized Steph would never really be his Robin. Steph had understood this. Steph didn’t try to be Bruce’s Robin, or Dick’s or Tim’s (or Jason’s). She’d only tangentially been a Robin. A New-Robin. A Maybe-Robin. A Blonde-Robin and a Girl-Robin and the Girl Wonder and the Robin who was the first Robin to turn her head too fast and whack Batman in the face with her thick braid. Nightwing laughed so hard he cried. Steph had had no real expectations to live up to besides not dying, and she nearly fucked that one up, too.

Barbara had decided she had expectations for Steph. Babs and Cass both thought she was ready to be the next Batgirl (after a few more months of training, obviously. Dinah Lance hit like a motherfucker). Steph had wanted to be Robin, because every self-respecting boy and girl in Gotham wanted to be Robin. Even the kids from the worst parts of town, who’s parents spat about the Batman, pretended to be Robin in the streets.

Batgirl was different. When Barbara had started, she had worked with Batman, was obviously associated with him, had been trained extensively by him, but she was still her own vigilante. She had her own parts of town to patrol, her own investigations to pursue, her own people to call on in times of need. Robin was never allowed to age, not allowed to stray too far from Batman’s bulletproof cape. Batgirl was something both more profound and more real than Robin.

Steph had a legacy to live up to. Steph had several legacies to live up to. Batgirl had been something new that she could make hers in a way she would never be able to make Robin hers. It was a hard grueling task, and half the time Steph thought maybe she really wasn’t ready, but then Babs would give her a hand up, or Cass would smile teasingly at her and give her a water bottle, and Steph thought maybe she should let her self-deprecating thoughts take a backseat for a while.

Stephanie Brown loved the feeling of free-fall. All Batgirls did.

#stephanie brown #the burd writes #batgirl #robin #dick grayson #dc #bruce wayne #batmobile #batfam #batman #tim drake #the burd squawks

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danny-chase · 3 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman (Comics), Batgirl (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Stephanie Brown Characters: Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Dick Grayson (mentioned), Tim Drake (mentioned), Damian Wayne (Mentioned), Alfred Pennyworth (mentioned) - Character Additional Tags: Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, 2009 Batfam vibes, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, talks about the batgirl mantle, Cass comes home to Gotham, technically she's Cassandra Wayne in this, but idk if people use that tag, Girl Talks, possibly romantic, no beta we die like Cass, POV Cassandra Cain, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown centric, mentions Gates of Gotham, you don't need to read it though, Cass comes home from Hong Kong, sorry Bruce is dead folks, takes place in Dick!Bats era, sliding around in socks, a wee bit of fluff, Cassandra Cain gets a hug, Stephanie Brown Gets a Hug, because i think they should hug, romance or not, late night conversation between besties Summary:

Cass has a surprise visitor after returning home from Hong Kong. She hasn't been in Gotham long, a lot's changed, but there are still people here she's happy to see.

Cass glided through the halls of the penthouse; the floors were perfect for sliding around in her socks. Though, ‘halls’ was being generous, she supposed. It was large, the rooms were spacious, but there were only two hallways. So much smaller than the manor. Less rooms, though more people, and plenty of space to fit them all.

She could hear the chatter from the kitchen. The boys had decided to play a board game before she’d gotten back for the night. Dick wanted her to join in for the next round, but she found those games a little boring, and she wouldn’t fall for Tim’s puppy dog eyes tonight. But… she was tempted. It was a collaborative game, they’d explained. You don’t fight each other, you work together. That part, she liked.

She brushed past Tim’s guest room, which was slowly becoming more permanent. The door was cracked open, and she peeked inside. Neat and tidy, with trinkets lining his desk and shelves. Tim had changed a lot; his room was never this clean before. On a hunch she poked her head around the door. Behind it sat a mound of dirty clothes, just next to the bathroom door. Smiling to herself, she noted the mess of products on the sink. He’d changed, but not all the way.

Damian’s door, she found closed all the way. Tim said he liked privacy, so she moved on. Dick’s door was wide open. The room was empty, aside from a messy bed. Hers was the same.

At least she thought her room was empty.

As she approached, she heard something moving inside, or someone. Whoever it was, was light on their feet, not very large, in the range of 120-150 pounds, and a bit anxious. The door was closed. She thought for a moment, and swiftly threw the door open, without making a sound.

A blond girl in jeans and a green sweater stared out the window at the night sky.

“Stephanie?” She recognized. The girl jumped and swiveled around.

“Cass?” A joyous grin broke out across her face, though her shoulders stayed tense and anxious. They quickly strode toward each other and met in the middle of the room. Steph’s hands twitched, reaching up, as if asking for-

Cass buried Steph in a hug at the realization. Steph laughed, giggling at her enthusiasm, and squeezed her back tightly. “I missed you.” They said at the same time. Steph laughed again in delight.

They parted, and Steph sat on the edge of the bed, Cass following suit. She still looked a bit nervous but radiated happiness as well. They sat there, staring at each other for a moment. Cass smiled, also a bit anxiously, but eagerly, she hadn’t seen her oldest friend in forever.

“Are you back for good?” Steph broke the silence. Cass nodded, she’d decided, after the gates of Gotham case, to stay. The family had fallen apart after Bruce had died, but she was ready to give it another shot, and so far, things were going well. Board games, movie nights. ‘Team bonding’, Dick called it. It had only been a week, but she’d gotten a turn to pick already. Rooftop tag. It was fun.

“Things are good.” She replied. Damian was starting to trust her, and Dick and Tim were happy. And well, she was happy too. She loved having her own city, but it’d been lonely. Spending time with people was exhausting, but her family made it easier somehow.

“That’s good.” Steph replied. Not a lie, but she still looked anxious. A thought flashed through her mind.

“You’re not happy I’m home?” She asked quickly, her heart sinking at the notion. Steph’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What? No! Cass, I’m so happy you came back.” Not a lie. Cass sighed in relief, she didn’t want anyone to be upset she was back.

“Then why are you nervous?” Steph’s hands were fidgeting slightly, hadn’t stopped since they’d met.

“Huh, I’m not- Okay never mind.” Her shoulders dropped sheepishly. “I can’t lie to you, can I?”

“Nope.” Cass popped the p, just like Steph used to whenever they talked before. No one could lie to her. Well. Almost no one.

“Okay but… promise you won’t be mad.” She looked serious. Cass nodded slowly, watching as Steph pulled a box off the corner of the bed and carefully opened the lid. Her old Batgirl costume was inside.

“Why would I get mad over that?” She gave the suit to Steph after all, she had her Black Bat suit now.

“You let me borrow it and I ruined it!” Steph’s voice was guilty. Cass looked at the costume again. Bullet holes and tears marked it.

“Are you okay?” Cass asked, those were a lot of holes.

“Ugh, none of us deserve you.” Grateful. For what? Cass tilted her head to show the confusion. “I thought you would be mad because you can’t use it anymore. I thought you would want it back.” Cass shrugged.

“I have a new suit now.” She assessed. She didn’t really care what she wore. Besides, if she wanted another Batgirl costume, Alfred could make one.

“Don’t you… want to be Batgirl again?” Steph sounded concerned, but Cass wasn’t sure why.

“I’m always Batgirl.” Cass stated. She thought for a moment. “Like Tim is still Robin.” It didn’t matter what they called each other; they were still them. “And you’re always a Spoil-sport.” She grinned smugly at the pun. Steph rolled her eyes, but she was amused.

“Well, you can be Batgirl if you want. I kind of miss eggplant.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously, and the corners of her lips twitched up into a smile.

“It’s a good color on you.” Cass agreed.

“How about, we both be Batgirl, and we can switch costumes, and no one will know who’s coming.” Stephanie grinned in excitement. Cass grinned too. It sounded fun.

“Deal.” She flopped back on her bed. Steph followed suit. “How was Gotham?”

“It’s been wild. It’s different, you know.” Cass hummed in agreement. “I’m in college now, that’s going well. My mom’s working as a nurse. I mean, you’re right, things are good. It’s just… different.”

“Batman and Robin.” Cass noted. Steph sighed.

“Yeah, I mean it sucks Bruce died, but Dick’s doing great. And Damian’s coming around.” Steph shifted, turning to face her. “I’m sorry he died, I know he just adopted you, that must suck.” Cass took a deep breath, watching sympathy pour out of Steph’s baby blue eyes. It did suck. Her chest panged in regret, wishing they’d had more time together. But she didn’t want to focus on the past.

“Yes.” She thought for a moment. “I still don’t understand.” She confessed. Butterflies swirled in her stomach, she didn’t want to make Steph upset, but she needed to know. “Why did you leave?” It had hurt, felt like her world was ending. It had hurt Tim too, and Bruce. Steph grimaced, she was clearly uncomfortable, rolling back, she faced the ceiling once more.

“I was mad at first. I didn’t really choose to go.” She admitted. Cass understood, she’d been made to do things she hadn’t wanted to do before. It sucked. “But it was good too. It took time to heal.” She pointed at her head. “Up here too.”

“You hit your head?” Cass had been shot in the head once. Wasn’t fun.

“No like. I needed to think things out. Get in the right headspace.” She shook her head, not really understanding.

“Why’d you go to Hong Kong?” Steph asked. She thought for a moment.

“It hurt. To be around people.” She wasn’t sure how to describe it. She couldn’t stay in the manor. It was painful to be in the Cave. She never bled, but her chest had always ached, and something felt stuck in her throat. So, she left. And being alone hurt too, but in a different way. Steph looked at her sympathetically.

“That’s why I stayed, thinking about coming back hurt. I was scared, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just… didn’t know what to do.” Groaning, she rolled over again. “It’s a mess.” Regretful. But a little hopeful. “Can we… still be friends?” The hope made her heart flutter.

“Yep.” She agreed. Steph smiled, warmly, like the sun.

“Thanks Cassie.” She didn’t really understand what she was being thanked for, but as the nickname rolled off Stephanie’s tongue, she felt more at home than she had in years. They lay still, enjoying each other’s company for a while longer.

Eventually, Steph sat up, hopping off the bed. “Alright, let’s go do something fun kay? How bout we go kick the guys’ asses at Just Dance.”

“Wait.” Cass walked over to her suitcase. “I got you something.” She pulled out a box. She’d collected things, from everywhere she visited. Picked up things that reminded her of family. She hadn’t really planned on giving them away, but now she had the real people, she didn’t need them anymore. She pulled out a purple ‘Lucky Cat’.

“Oh my gosh! I love it!” Steph cradled it carefully in her hands. “Cass this is so sweet, I love it.” Cass beamed; she liked it too. And she made Steph happy with it, maybe it really was lucky. Steph smiled wider, clasping her hand and dragging her out through the hall, running so she could slide behind her on the perfectly slippery floors.

And so, with whatever luck the cat could grant them, they were on their way to kicking butt at Just Dance. As the night wore on, laughs grew louder, and Cass was reminded again, how things had changed, but how change wasn’t always bad. The penthouse wasn’t as big as the Manor, and Gotham wasn’t as big as Hong Kong, but with her family, somehow her life seemed larger, and fuller again.

Things could have turned out better, but they could have been worse too. And they would get better. Much better, as long as they all stuck together. There would be more difficult conversations to be had, but it was reassuring, knowing that after all they’d been through, she still had her best friend by her side.

#my writing #Cassandra Cain #Cassandra Wayne #sorry was stuck in a Steph Cass mood after the crocs story #so this happened #actually nope not apologizing #I love them both romantically and platonically together #read whichever way you prefer

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Making this its own post because replying to the ask got so weirdly formatted I can’t even. Oh tumblr. You work so well.

@themessofthecentury asked:

jsksjf my tumblr notifs are bugging and i didnt see your post but!!! The patron Saint of Robins?? I am much intrigue!!

(This is from this ask game, just....gotten to late, lololol. And I still have more I’m getting to, no worries. Just had a rough couple days is all, laid me up a bit.)

Okay, so The Patron Saint of Robins is kinda like the situation at the end of Grayson, except also not at all. And actually this is one of my older WIPs, and according to Scrivener I started it in 2015 afhislfhalhfalf, so it really has nothing to do with that. Also, its Young Justice-verse, but for two specific reasons:

1) YJ-verse is my go-to for Good Dad Bruce Wayne, when I don’t want to actually tackle the issues I have with his and his kids’ dynamic in comic book canon. I don’t carry over things like the adoption issue or the Robin succession into YJ fics, as I don’t think there’s anything that suggests they’re ever a specific issue in YJ and I don’t feel a need to make them one. So pretty much anything and everything I write in YJ goes with the backstory that Dick’s already adopted by Season One, and he’s the one to grant each later Robin permission to use the mantle, with no conflict over that, and more of a pre-Crisis transition to Nightwing than the post-Crisis firing from Robin. And this fic inherently needs Good Dad Bruce Wayne to work, lol.

2) I needed Klarion the Witch-Boy. Who of course exists in comic book canon, but is muuuuuch different there, and I just needed him to be a little demonic evil shithead, who sets everything in motion to get payback on the heroes for thwarting the Light in Season One, and he targets Robin due to being the oft-cited ‘first of the baby brat heroes’ and the ‘heart of the cape community.’

You don’t really need to be familiar with YJ canon at all for this one, as it goes sharply AU from after Season One, and only faintly and vaguely references specific events from that season. And I use my own YJ-ized version of the Titans as much as the actual YJ Team.

So basically, the plot of this one is to take revenge on the heroes for spoiling his game in Season One, Klarion plays a new game, by putting a chaos curse on Robin. It essentially erases him from peoples’ memories, though he’s perfectly able to make new ones. If he re-introduces himself to someone ask Dick Grayson, for instance, they don’t suddenly remember who Dick Grayson is or was, but they don’t forget about him again from that point onward, its like they meet him for the first time as a stranger.

But the curse part of things is only Batman can break it and restore everyone’s memories of Dick and his actual history, and only by identifying him for who he really is. And Dick can’t be part of breaking his own curse or else it seals it and makes it permanent and unbreakable forever.

Which of course leaves Dick completely miserable at first, understandably, and Bruce (and everyone else Dick knows, to varying different degrees) feeling some kind of loss but with no idea what it is they think or feel that they’re missing. Dick makes some half-hearted attempts at starting a new life for himself in Gotham, and in the process befriends a street kid named Jason Todd, though Dick introduces himself to Jason with just the name Robin.

The way the curse operates is it restitches together peoples’ memories to cover up the gaps where memories of him would go. So for instance, even though Jason never knew Dick before the curse, he was familiar with Batman and Robin just as much as any Gothammite was.....but due to the curse, the name Robin, upon meeting Dick, had no special meaning to him or anyone else. As far as he knew, Batman had always operated on his own in Gotham, the first teen superhero was that Speedy kid in Star City, etc. So when Jason first meets Dick, he just thinks he’s some dude whose name happens to be Robin.

Eventually, because Dick’s been kinda torturing himself by spying on Bruce just to ‘keep an eye on him’ and still watch his back, and he’s recognized by now that Bruce is mourning his loss without even knowing that he’s missing something....so Dick, who has also kinda come to see Jason as a little brother figure due to watching out for him as well....decides to kill two birds with one stone, unfortunate pun not intended. (Jason doesn’t die in this one, lol). Basically, Dick puts in motion the chain of events that lead Jason to stealing Batman’s tires, because he doesn’t know EXACTLY what Bruce will do but he knows it’ll get his attention in a big way and Bruce will take it from there.

One thing leads to another, Jason ends up living with Bruce and when eventually he wants to be trained by Bruce so he can do what he does and protect kids like he used to be.....when asked to pick a name....Jason names himself after the guy who always looked out for him, and who led to him being found by Bruce in the first place. He doesn’t know that his friend ‘Robin’ steered him towards those tires deliberately, just to bring him and Bruce into contact, but he does credit him with making the suggestion that ‘inadvertently’ (as far as he knows) enabled his and Bruce’s introduction, and so he names himself in honor of the boy who helped him and who he tried to track down again to similarly help, after Bruce adopted him, but was never able to find again.

Over the years, Dick also ends up steering Tim, Cass, Duke and Damian to Bruce in different ways than comic book canon (Steph and Babs’ debuts remain their own, as family adjacent but not family specifically) and thus is integral to the forming of the Batfam and has a connection with them even before the curse ultimately ends up broken and he’s able to reclaim his full identity. And each of them end up Robin at least briefly, like Steph is never Robin in this AU, and sticks with Spoiler, whereas Cass IS briefly Robin before becoming Batgirl after Babs. I did this for a few different reasons...

One, I really like that Cass is never Robin in main continuity as it creates a different dynamic between her and Dick than most of their siblings have, BUT I’ve always been curious to play around what Cass-as-Robin might even be like, just for an AU. Two, part of the Black Bat and Batgirl but never Robin sequence of mantles for Cass in the comic book continuity is like.....although it doesn’t get explored nearly enough, Babs was as much a kind of mother figure for Cass as Bruce was a father figure, despite Babs’ young age. So it makes more sense for Cass to stick more to just Bat-mantles than to ever be a Robin in the comic books. But in YJ, Babs is even younger, and just way too young to have the specific kind of dynamic that leads to that in the comic books, so its not as unreasonable IMO for her to have a different dynamic in her early days in the family here, before becoming closer with Babs and taking up the Batgirl mantle after she moves on to become Oracle.

And then also, and this is also the primary reason for making Duke a Robin briefly, before Damian is old enough....I got hung up on the title and it just didn’t work as well if it was Robins + Cass and Duke, lololol. See, in addition to helping steer the family into the points of introduction that make them a family, over the years he also acts as like, a guardian angel figure to the various family members, looking out for them and interceding in times of extreme danger, like when Jason is almost killed by the Joker. He’s always in disguise, but the kids eventually compare notes and realize there’s a singular figure behind each of their introductions to Bruce and the guy swooping out of nowhere to save their behinds whenever they’re most in danger, and Jason eventually connects this back to the guy who apparently NOT so coincidentally suggested he go after the Batmobile’s tires that fateful night, and the kids end up jokingly/not-so-jokingly referring to this figure as the Patron Saint of Robins. (Shout-out to the occasional mentions/allusions of Jason’s Catholicism).

They never tell Bruce about this figure (at least before Bruce starts to put together clues on his own), because they all figured out that for whatever reason, this person despite wanting them all to meet Bruce seems to want to avoid Bruce himself, and they kinda want to respect that as a kind of payback for his help, and also like....Bruce, even a kinder, gentler Bruce, is still Bruce. And when Bruce is gonna Bruce, that means Batparanoia. And all of them for various reasons DO trust that this guy has nothing but good intentions towards them, and so they don’t want to like....ruin or tarnish the positivity they associate with his intercession in their lives with paranoia or treating him like a bad guy. Which ultimately is really just smoke and mirrors for saying that he’s kinda a ‘just for them’ secret. Its a Robin thing.

(Until its not).

Because meanwhile, Dick, in between meeting the various Batfam members and pulling strings and looking out for them from the shadows, at first travels the world looking for ways to break his curse. But when ultimately its clear that the only way to break it is the loophole built into it already, Bruce identifying him for who he really is, but without Dick doing anything to steer him towards the answer, Dick settles into a new hero identity as Nightwing, and forms the Teen Titans, a public group of young superheroes (minus Roy and Wally, unfortunately, but still with Donna, Garth, Raven, Kory, ignoring season 3 Vic and also Terra because AU redemption arc what what, etc). And the Teen Titans avoid both the Young Justice Team and the Justlce League with EXTREME measures, much to the other heroes’ confusion and aggravation, because in the early days of the Titans, in a moment of what he’d term weakness, on one of his ‘bad days,’ Dick tells them enough of his story that they’re able to put together a good sense of what happened and who he really is by reading between the lines and what he leaves unsaid....

BUT as a result, all end up extremely committed to not mixing and mingling casually with the rest of the cape community because they don’t want to risk dropping any hints about the guy under Nightwing’s mask, in case that might count as steering Batman towards clues and seal the curse for good. So I have a lot of fun with having the Titans just nope out of the scene the second the bad guys are defeated even when they have to team up with other heroes, leaving the other heroes confused as hell and trying not to be all ‘WHY DON’T YOU LIKE US??”

Anyway, so yeah, that’s the gist of this one, lol. With it of course following the eventual plot that like...the Batfam starts to Detect and put things together.

ANYWHO!

Snippet

Damian versus Klarion: Round One

“Aww, its adorable that you think you’re in my league,” the Witch-Boy cooed in an absolute mockery of sympathy. Damian bristled, but before he could do anything more than that, he was faced with a much more pressing matter as reality completely lost its mind.

The walls of the cavern fell away in an instant, only to be replaced with a whirling dervish of winds all around them, as if they now stood in the center of a cyclone that bled red and silver and black. It shrieked and wailed in a chorus of voices just on the other side of being comprehensible, a symphony of the damned that set every nerve in Damian’s body aflame with a primal instinct to get out, to find silence, to be anywhere but here.

He’d barely staggered a step backwards when the ground erupted beneath him, splitting apart into jagged obsidian shards that bobbed precariously in the sea of magma barely glimpsed through cracks now spiderwebbing their way across the floor. Spears of lightning burst upwards through them, stabbing impossibly at the heavens rather than raining down from them. They hissed and crackled as they flickered like forked serpent tongues of electric violet and black. The forks becoming branches, the pillars of sky-shattering light transforming into the trunks of great trees that grew upwards and outward, weaving a canopy overhead. One that wept violently red leaves that fell gently to the ground, only to hiss and bubble like acid once they did.

“See, normally this is when I’d hit someone with a little razzle-dazzle like this,” Klarion called out over the song of madness he’d created, as it crooned and careened wildly all around them. He snapped his fingers, and in the span of a second it all ceased. Reality reaffirmed itself, and all was right with the world once more…except now the two of them stood at the end of a hallway in Wayne Manor.

Damian stumbled, the sudden reappearance of firm ground paradoxically being the thing to challenge his balance. The demon boy standing beside him crooked his thumb and forefinger in the semblance of a gun, the smile pasted across his face one of wickedly gleeful malice.

“But you, kiddo, you’re special. Cuz there’s nothing I could do to you now that could top what I’ve already done, so why try when I can just savor the moment instead?”

“What are you babbling about?” Damian demanded roughly. In the wake of what the Witch-Boy had just conjured up with nothing more than a gesture, he was keenly aware of how flimsy a shield his bravado made. He just had absolutely no idea what else to fall back on.

Klarion only threw back his head and laughed though, skipping merrily down the hall as he did.

“I know something you don’t know,” he sing-songed and Damian lost what little grasp of his patience he’d managed to hang onto.

“You overestimate my need for an answer. Attempt to intimidate me all you wish, but I have no desire to indulge your little game any further.”

Klarion jerked to a stop and spun around, his face screwed into a childish pout. He stomped his foot, petulance personified. “I’m not intimidating you anymore, I’m gloating! Ugh, you’re so stupid! They’re completely different, how can you not tell?”

Every light in the hallway flickered and fizzed abruptly. The walls wavered, bubbled, momentarily molten as if made of wax.

Again Damian was reminded just how mercurial this being he was faced with was, and how dangerous. Perhaps, as Father would say, this was not the time to indulge his own instinctive inclinations. Or as Todd would put it, just because you’re already fucked, that’s no reason to fuck yourself over more than you have to.

Crude as his older brother was, there was occasional merit to his…pithiness. Not that he would be admitting that any time soon, of course.

“Fine. What is it you wish to gloat about then?” Damian grated out. The appeasement, such as it was, tried its best to stick in his throat before finally clawing its way free. But at least it proved worth the effort when the godling’s mood reverted back to impishness as readily as with the flip of a switch.

“Well. Its like this, you see.” Klarion said. He dragged it out as he folded both legs underneath him to sit cross-legged in the air, plopping his head into his hands. “I did a baaaaaaaaaaaaad, bad thing to your family, a loooooong time ago. And none of you have done anything about it, because you don’t even know! Isn’t that funny? Doesn’t matter how big a hero Daddy Bats is if he doesn’t even know what needs saving huh? Little Catch-22 there, you might say.”

“Yes. Quite hysterical,” Damian said dryly. “So what is it you claim to have done then?”

The Witch-Boy just sat there, regarding him with amusement, and the seconds marched on into minutes. Damian’s skin crawled. Prickling with impatience and possibly something…more. He wasn’t quite ready to name it anxiety or something as melodramatic as all that yet. In fact, he’d rather not put a name to it at all, but today did not appear to be a day for configuring things to his liking.

Klarion’s wicked grin grew as if sensing his thoughts, though to the best of his knowledge (and Damian did quickly ransack the library of his memory just to be sure) there was no indication telepathy was included among the Chaos Lord’s many, many powers. And still that detestable smile stretched slowly wider all the same, in perfect synchronization with the rising tide of Damian’s unease. Perhaps the Witch-Boy’s file was in need of annotation.

“How many doors would you say are in this hallway?”

“What? Seven.” Damian snapped out his answer, annoyed by the non sequitur. Not to mention baffled. Was it too much to expect even a semblance of linear thought from the Chaos brat?

“Are you suuuuuuure?” The Witch-Boy stretched his query out obnoxiously. “Maybe you should count again. Just for kicks and giggles.”

Damian throttled back each and every retort attempting to spring to his lips, stuffing them back down and cramming a lid on everything he most dearly wished to say to this most vexing of…shitheads. Once again, it appeared as though nothing less than Todd’s preferred form of nomenclature would suffice. Wonderful. On top of everything else Damian had to deal with today, he seemed to be finding common ground with the man all over the place. Was there no end to the indignities he must suffer?

But marshaling his own formidable willpower, Damian took a deep breath and indulged the Chaos Lord, glancing his eyes down the length of the hallway and counting out each doorway one by one. There was his own room of course, with Cassandra’s to the right of his, and the room Brown used when staying over to the right of hers. That was three. Then there was Thomas directly across from his own room, with Drake to his right and Todd just beyond that, with Father’s room at the very end of the hall, his master suite staggered and with no direct opposite like the others. Seven.

Except all of a sudden there was a door directly opposite his father’s. For a total of eight.

Damian’s brow furrowed in consternation. The faint whispers of uncertainty already seeded throughout him bore fruit, ripening into poisonous stabbings of doubt.

“That’s not real,” he stated with as much conviction as he could muster.

The Witch-Boy’s smile only grew wider still. “Isn’t it, though?”

“There’s never been a door there before,” Damian persisted, striding confidently down the hall towards it. The Chaos Lord flitted ahead of him, inverting til he was upside down and skipping merrily once more, though this time from the ceiling.

“Or has it been there all along?” He sing-songed some more.

“I would think we might have noticed if it had been,” Damian growled.

“Yes, you’d think, wouldn’t you? You are all supposed to be a family of detectives, I thought. Makes you wonder…if you could miss this, what else might you have failed to notice?”

Damian snarled to himself and did his best to shut out the demon boy’s prattling. He quickened his strides, eating up the length of the hallway in his haste to reach its end. He wasn’t sure what opening the door would prove, let alone what bewilderment the godling had conjured on its other side, but it appeared the only end to this game of his was through it, so let there be an end to it already.

And yet, for all his certainty - or best facsimile of it - he couldn’t help but pause once he reached the door in question. His hand hovered within reach of its brass knob, but some instinct, some…caution, held him at bay. As much as he wanted to dismiss all this as just one more of the Chaos Lord’s inane charades, there was a tension in the air that felt too weighty to be the product of just magical conjuring. Something more was in play here. Real forces were at work. His father might disdain magic, but Damian had been around enough of it himself to know when true power had been raised. And the span of empty space between his hand and this hither-to-unseen doorknob held more of it than Damian had felt throughout all the mad warpings Klarion had made of reality thus far.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Klarion asked from somewhere overhead. His voice, usually pitched to carry, was so soft for a moment Damian mistook it for his own inner doubts. “Some doors are easier to open than to close again, you know.”

Even knowing the goading for what it was couldn’t stop Damian then, and with a simple breath to fortify himself, he reached for the knob, spun it once, and shoved the door open all in a single sharp movement.

The Witch-Boy giggled up above.

The door swung wide, a forceful arc that should have revealed anything and everything within it all at once; the better to react quickly to whatever that might be. Fine in principle, perfect in execution, but thwarted by one small detail:

There was nothing on the other side.

And not in the sense of it being just an empty room, but true nothingness. A pitch-black abyss darker than the deepest night, yawning forth from the doorway in a vast, impenetrable shroud. Nor was anything hidden in the darkness, Damian knew, even if just intuitively. He could feel it, that he stood on the edge of an impossible cliff, that there was nothing beyond this threshold but an aching chasm of emptiness and loss. The surety of it hung in the air, thick and heavy, a miasma that seeped through to his side of the doorway and clung to him like the moisture of a fog beads upon the skin.

Klarion’s head suddenly popped up alongside him, hovering just over his shoulder.

Albeit still upside down.

“Well that doesn’t seem right,” he mused, tapping at his lips with a forefinger. “What do you suppose is meant to be in there?”

The last of Damian’s brittle patience shattered.

“Enough! What is the meaning of all this, demon? Speak plainly, for once in your miserable existence!”

His self-preservation instincts and the reminder of just who it was he was shouting at kicked in too little too late, but he wouldn’t take his exasperated fury back even if he could. He was who he was after all. But fortunately, that described the Witch-Boy just as accurately, and rather take offense or perceive any actual threat from Damian’s rage, the Chaos Lord just shrieked with laughter and sprung backwards. He flipped right side up, still hovering in mid-air, and clapped his hands with glee.

“Oh, I should have done this ages ago,” Klarion sang out. “Why, you’re almost as fun as he used to be. Back before he got all droll and serious, that is. He’s no fun at all anymore, nothing like this. Never wants to play, always just running back to his tower with that little bitch of a demoness.”

His face soured like he’d just sucked on a lemon. But rather than stop there, his countenance kept morphing into an increasingly savage scowl, the longer he ranted. The hallway was suddenly sweltering, baking with unseen heat that twisted the air into shimmering ribbons. The small horns sprouting from his forehead burst into scimitars of flame that cut through those ribbons and set them similarly ablaze.

“Always putting on airs like she’s some kind of royalty, just because her Daddy Dearest put the fear into a few peasants back in the day,” the Witch-Boy snarled viciously. “As if that’s enough to put her on par with the likes of me. No one is the likes of me. NO ONE!”

Reality itself quaked with the force of his shout. White-blue flames spat forth and crescendoed down the length of the corridor, splashing against its walls and searing them to a crisp. Damian braced himself for all the good it would do, keenly aware of the void still gaping hungrily behind his back, but before the fire could become an actual danger to him as well, all was quiet once more.

Silence hung in the air much like the demon boy, poised yet motionless. Suspended. Waiting.

And then Klarion simply inhaled and brushed his hands down the front of his garments, smoothing out the wrinkles as he reclaimed his calm. The corridor restored itself to its former self, curtains of vintage reality unrolling from the ceiling to the floor as though papering over the damage. Damian felt rather than saw when the portal behind him swung shut and was replaced with the expanse of ivory paint and ornate sconces he was used to seeing in its place.

“I am one of a kind, after all,” Klarion finally remarked. It was a casual drawl offered forth almost off-handedly, as if more a reminder to himself than uttered for anyone else’s sake. He used one hand to spell out letters in the air. They appeared and vanished again in bursts of fireworks and fluorescent flame. “U-N-I-Q-U-E.”

“As I, apparently, am not,” Damian said, seizing upon the Chaos Lord’s restored calm and good cheer. “Who is this ‘he’ you mentioned? If I’m to be pitted against him as entertainment in your eyes, might I at least know his name?”

“Nuh-uh-uh,” the Witch-Boy scolded. He wagged his finger at Damian. “No spoilers. That’s not how the game is played.”

Keenly aware of the boy’s power once more, Damian gritted his teeth and pressed on. “Well, if there are to be rules, shouldn’t I at least know what those are?”

Klarion sucked in a deep breath, drawing himself up along with his inhalation as though preparing for some great speech…and instead just toppling backward, flopping onto an extravagant fainting couch that suddenly appeared beneath him, though similarly floating in the air.

“I can’t recall at the moment.” His now-faint voice drifted up from where he lay buried amid a mountain of pillows. “I’ve had a terribly exhausting day. But you’re supposed to be a detective, remember? Go…I don’t know. Detect things.”

He flapped an arm at Damian dismissively, and then crooked a finger into a twirling motion that set his divan to spinning in lazy circles.

“Isn’t life grand?” Klarion sighed fondly. “With all its twists and turns, its eddies and swirls. I mean, take the two of us. Scant hours ago, we were mortal enemies, and just look at us now.”

The Witch-Boy lazily rolled his head to the side as the couch drifted to bring him face-to-face with Damian. His lips spread wide in that malevolent, wicked grin of his once again, but somehow it managed to be even wider than any he’d shown off before. His eyes blazed with a hellish inner light, and his voice, when next he spoke, dropped deep into a demonic register. A bass that boomed forth and set Damian’s very bones to rattling.

“Ain’t we got fun?”

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duketectivecomics · 4 years

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So with the news snippets as the Narrative Device in We Are Robin/Robin War, I’m was reminded of what happened after Steph’s death with the Child Registration thing and that’s what really spurred this on bc I’ve got a few Ideas about merging pre52 & N52 canons. And more specifically, thoughts on what growing up in the shadow of 3 Robin Deaths would mean for when the Robin Movement starts and what it means for Duke.

(Also wanna preface this, that y’all are more than welcome to your own interpretation/merging and are more than welcome to tag me in your metas on if/how you reconcile the canons! These are just some of my thoughts/plans!)

Okay. So in my Personal Melding Of Canons I like to consider Duke’s Brief Brush with Bruce to take place at the same time as No Man’s Land (so Zero Year ISNT a thing obvsly since NML replaces it), and he’s 10 at the start of That Event (so 11 by the end since it was meant to be a Full Year thing), Given that Tim isnt much older in NML than when he started out as Robin in Lonely Place, its safe to assume that Jason would’ve been killed (give or take) a few years prior to NML, and knowing for sure that War Games takes place (give or take) a few years after, its a pretty small window between Losing Robins. (I’m going 2 yrs in each direction for simplicity’s sake, but again, everyone’s welcome to their own ideas in that regard)

So Duke essentially grew up with Jason as the Robin at Batman’s side, and got to watch him Very Clearly Vanish and be replaced by Tim. (& just to Clarify, Duke is 8 when Jason Dies, 10 when the Cataclysm hits Gotham & NML happens and then ~12 when Steph dies bc of War Games)

And its such a relatively short timeframe, but it would be earth-shattering to an 8yo! The boy who was at the Bat’s side was replaced just so simply? and there’s not a single sign of him moving on to a new identity? (At least with the first its generally acknowledged that he grew up to be Nightwing, but the general public wouldn’t know of Robin’s death, only that he’s... gone. and there’s a slightly younger one in his place now.)

So here you have 8yo Duke, who sees this and keeps it tucked away, that Robins apparently can be replaced and that no one seems to make a big deal about it.

And then when Batman replaces Robin yet again, SHE disappears and Hey! Look At That! This time she’s Actually on the News and apparently got Killed bc of being a vigilante! And Duke around this point at 12 is Starting to Understand why his parents are more hesitant to let him stay out too late or why they try to get him to choose A Different Hero to dress up as for Halloweens when more kids end up dead in Robin costumes bc of Various criminals. (pulling from Gotham Central for that one, though I’m almost positive there have been other stories where kids have gotten killed in Robin costumes or dressed up as Robins & put in danger. its such a simple gimmick to repeat)

Fast forward another 3/4 years, Tim’s time has come and gone, and Damian’s taken up the mantle and-

He dies. (Or at the very least disappears but I’m pretty certain that his death had been published/publicized, given that it took place pretty publicly)

And then Batman’s been replaced by Bat-robot. (not 100% about keeping that particular part but stay with me here) And all Duke knows for sure is that his parents are missing and these Robin kids that helped save him seem to have the right idea about keeping their streets safe. And maybe if he helps them out, he can help make a real difference... And then Troy dies.

And this is by no means the first time that a Robin has died, but its the first that hits the closest to Home because Duke, Izzy, all of them are there for it.

And with Steph’s death being only a few years prior, with Dami’s still so fresh, with a renewed call for parents & police alike to eye these kids with suspicion and do everything they can to ‘keep them in line’, there’s so much going on but Duke does realize something.

That he can rely on this team that he’s found, and that while Gotham’s in disarray and the Real Batman is MIA and so’s Robin, they damn well will need SOMEONE to step up.

Because while being Robin is dangerous, thats simply because Robins know that they’re needed right there on the front lines, and that leaping in for others, committing the selfless act to protect, even while it might be a direct danger to yourself, is what being truly heroic means.

Because even Batman couldn’t stop these Robins from being the heroes they were always meant to be, even as tragic as it is that they had to be so self-sacrificing so young. (But isnt it just as incredible, that Robin didnt need Batman to tell em to be so heroic? They just were. Robins dont need Batman to tell them what’s right and whats wrong, what to do. A Robin just takes that leap and flies.)

#randywrites #randys meta #kinda got a little rambly there but uhhh #yeah ive got some Feelings abt the dead robins and idk #i think that theres a lot that can be said abt the impact that pre52 could have if we just....#bring em together in the right places yknow?#idk. i love the thought exercise at least and if someone wants to run with this in another direction thats cool too!!#alright time to queue a few more posts now & catch up some more on that outsiders reread!#meta #almost forgot that tag too whoops!

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vln-vibes · 4 years

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Watchtower Woes

Week 1 Day 4 of Maribat March

Special thanks to @little-kitty-kanny , @ethelphantom and @the-navistar-carol for beta-ing for me

It was a normal day at the Watchtower, well as normal as a space station for superheroes could be. The Watchtower looked down upon their home planet, making it seem so big yet so small amongst the sea of stars surrounding them. Today it was just Wonder Woman, Black Bat and Ladybug on monitor duty.

“Sister.”

Ladybug, otherwise known as Marinette Drake nee Dupain-Cheng (the 23-year old designer behind the Lady Luck designs by MDC company), turned to see Wonder Woman looking at her with concern. She and Diana were rather close as the Amazonian princess had practically taken her as blood sisters when she learned of a new Ladybug; seeing as her mother had once worn the mantle as well. Diana had also been her business partner when her company first began to take off.

“Are you feeling alright? You seem to be under the weather”

“She’s right,” Cassandra Cain-Wayne added in “Your center is off, you seem uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine. It's been a little stressful with the upcoming line with Wayne Enterprises,” Ladybug sighed, finding herself massaging her temple, feeling a headache already developing. “That and the team has been acting strange lately, I’ve been trying to investigate the cause, but the Miracle Book isn’t saying much, and I can’t exactly ask Master Fu anymore”

“How so, Ladybug?” Diana asked, taking a seat next to her while Cass took charge of looking through the security footage for them, still focused on the conversation.

“Well, most of them have gotten dangerously overprotective of me. Just yesterday Roi Singe took a hit for me against Hawkmoth 2.0’s latest creation. I asked him about it afterwards, and he just said that nothing could harm me? It was rather strange, especially seeing as Ryuuko and Abeille got more ruthless afterward. Chat was also hissing at people who approached me,” she explained with a troubled look.

“Even as civilians, Viperion, Monarch, and Paon were coddling me: Mari are you warm enough? Have you eaten today? No, Mari, let me get you a natural juice instead of coffee. It’s been so frustrating having to deal with their constant babying.”

“It’s honorable for your team to care for your well being” Diana commented, heavens knew how the JL got whenever one of their members was ill or was unable to perform their duties. Ladybug’s eyes just seemed to water at the implication, wiping the tears before they even fell.

“B-But that could just mean they don’t trust my abilities… what if they think I’m not worthy of being leader or even worse… of being Ladybug?”

Diana did her best to console the younger woman while Cass looked at her skeptically.

She had seen the sudden change in emotion Ladybug had gone through like whiplash, from tired to content to worried to saddened. As Diana combed through Marinette’s pixie cut, Cass continued to think of the things happening these past few weeks.

Tim had once asked Barbara if there was anything that could help with back pains, stating that Marinette had been experiencing some rather hard period symptoms.

She recalled Adrien purring along with Alfred the Cat when they had gone to Wayne Manor last week along with Tim and Conner. Even Ace and Titus were acting like her personal bodyguards, not too different from normal, though Damian admitted that it was a bit more overkill.

Just last month for the Wayne Charity Gala, during the ladies’ final fitting, she had complained to Steph that her own dress felt a little tighter than she expected... though not unbearably so, so she had just decided to leave her own dress as is.

Had it really been so obvious?

She needed to recheck whether Tim deserved the title of Detective after this. Cass stepped out of the room momentarily to make what was potentially a life changing call.

“Robin and Superboy, do you read?” she knew her baby brother, almost eighteen years old, would be hanging out at the Titans Tower in the east coast with Superboy, now sixteen, but seeing as it was a quiet day and the other Titans: Green Lantern (Milagro Reyes), Nightstar (Mar’i Grayson), Scarlet Flash and Kid Speed (Dawn and Don Allen), and Speedy(Lian Harper) would be on standby.

“Is something the matter Black Bat?” Damian responded almost immediately.

All Bats were rather keen on making sure their comms were on in case of emergencies, even when silenced, they’d have the notifications on to see who was trying to contact them.

“Do you mind coming to the Watchtower with Superboy, there’s something concerning Ladybug𑁋”

“Is she alright?” she almost giggled at how concerned her brother was before keeping her cool and responding.

“I believe she’s alright but perhaps not aware of her condition”

“We’ll be there in a minute”

Not even a full minute after stepping back in with a much calmer Ladybug, did she hear the announcement of Robin and Superboy’s arrival before the two skid into the communications room with the three heroines.

“Robin and Superboy? I wasn’t aware you boys would be passing by today,” Diana asked curiously as Damian just puffed up.

“Black Bat called about checking Ladybug’s condition” he said eyeing the scarlet hero to see if anything was amiss; other than her red rimmed eyes and flushed cheeks he found nothing unusual.

“My condition? Cass what are you talking about?” Ladybug asked confused and a bit protective.

“Superboy,” Jon perked at his name before turning to Cass “Can you hear the heartbeats in this room?”

“Uh sure…” to say he was confused was an understatement. He was rather familiar with their heartbeats, having known them for years at this point. He could hear Diana and Damian’s rather war drum like beat, Cass’ steady and rhythmic beats, Marinette’s calm and slightly faster than usual heart and then there was𑁋

Wait, what?

“That’s weird” he whispered to himself before focusing again. Sure enough it was still there a soft echoe of duhn-duhn… duhn-dun as the fifth heartbeat. But he had never heard it before… and it was coming from…

Oh duh!

“Holy schmoly! Congrats Ladybug.” He flew up to her and gave her a huge hug, conscious of his strength now more than ever. Ladybug seemed confused while Cass smiled at her.

“You’re expecting!”

Suddenly everything made more sense, Marinette thought in that moment of realization, as she felt Diana give her her own congratulations along with Damian, who wished to both brag and inform the rest of the family.

This was really happening.

“Can— can we see Doctor Mid-Nite or Doctor Thompkins, please?” she heard herself whisper. The group looked at each other, Diana contacting the Watchtower’s doctor while Damian called for Tim and the rest of the Bat Family to come as soon as they could; was that overkill? Perhaps, but no one that was even associated with the Bats could be anything less than dramatic. Jon was the one who called Conner who called Adrien to go meet them at the Watchtower as well.

Half an hour passed and Ladybug found herself lying on one of the Med Bay beds with Doctor Thompkins, the woman having to be pulled until they mentioned Marinette requesting her assistance, making the last few configurations to the ultrasound machine.

“Are you ready, dear?” the kind doctor asked.

Ladybug lifted her uniform, which she learned she could do at that moment, nearly squirming at the cold gel spreading at her softening abdomen.

“As ready as I’ll ever be” she laughed nervously before taking a deep breath. She couldn’t help but close her eyes, unsure if she wanted it to be true or not, before hearing the curtain open. Tim looked disheveled, most likely having come out of a W.E business meeting he had mentioned yesterday evening.

“Mari, what’s wrong!?”

Duhn-duhn…. Duhn-duhn… duhn-duhn

Marinette had never heard such a life-altering sound, feeling the tears swell in her eyes as her husband looked dumbfounded.

“Is— is that?” Marinette could only nod before being enveloped in a hug by him. He whispered sweet nothings and reassurances to her as the beautiful sound echoed in their heads.

“God, we’re going to be parents, sunshine”

“So it would seem, moonlight”

“M’Lady what’s—!” Chat Noir had sprinted from the zeta entrance having heard the far too soft heartbeat coming from the monitor, the Bats not far behind him. Suffice to say that the Watchtowers usual quiet was interrupted for the rest of that evening as cheers and congratulations went around the Med-Bay.

They would later learn that she had been nearly three months pregnant by the time they found out, explaining her team’s odd behavior due to the animal characteristics of the Miraculous. However, the worst news was to come a week later on one faithful morning.

“Oh kwami, get that away from me!” Marinette exclaimed as soon as she came out of their room in their studio apartment in Gotham. The scarlet hero having to rely on Pegasus for travel to and from Paris for the time being. Not that her team even wanted her on the field in the first place at the time but she was anything if not stubborn, a necessity for the Wayne family.

That was how the coffee obsessed duo discovered that Marinette and baby were disgusted by the mere smell of coffee. Truly, it was the hardest part of the pregnancy.

Six months later, when Thomas Louis Drake-D.C was born, his aunts and uncle would continuously call him the ‘Second Coming of Christ’ for doing the impossible and getting his parents to cut off their caffeine addiction, much to their annoyance.

For now they were just a family of three, looking at the infinite stars of their baby’s eyes.

My AO3

Ko-Fi

#Maribat #MariBat March #MariBatMarch2020 #timari #timinette #Tim x Marinette #Tim Drake x Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Maribat March day 4 #Day 4 #Watchtower

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batfam-backstory-swap-au · 4 years

Text

Batfamily Backstory Swap

Duke Grayson: Duke was raised among circus lights and tightrope heights, born to the famous Flying Graysons Duke lived a fulfilling and exciting life as a circus performer with his parents. Until his parents suffered an accident on a routine performance they've done hundreds of times before. The incident devastated Duke and left him a wreck. Seeing his own trauma reflected in the young man Bruce Wayne took him in as his own. With a new life and new family it didn't take Duke long to join his adoptive fathers crusade as his partner Lark. Duke served as Lark for many years so long, until he felt as though he was drowning in his fathers shadow. Wanting to strike out on his own Duke left the nest, left the city, eventually settling in the city of Bludhaven operating under the mantle of Night Owl

Damian Gordon: All his life Damian Gordon has followed his fathers career with awe and pride. Being the police commissioners son filled Damian with a sense of purpose, he wanted to be just like his father, and opened his eyes to the importance of the Gordon legacy. When his father began openly working with the Bat Damian took a solid interest as well eventually taking on the mantle of Shadow Bat(whether Batman liked it or not) so he could help the city just like his father until the day he could accomplish his dream of joining the Gotham Police Department himself. Even when assaulted and crippled by the Joker Damian's determination was unyielding. His dreams dashed he poured over any information he could find regarding computers and technology, eventually adopting the moniker of Oracle his heroics now behind the scene but no less deeply felt than before.

Dick Todd: Dick wasn't fortunate enough to be born in an affluent family, in fact Dick didn't seem to have much luck at all as a child. Born to a poorer family with dubious criminal connections Dick often found himself relying on his wits and streetsmarts and would often wind up prowling the streets of Gotham trying to get by. A chance encounter where he tried to steal the tires from what he just assumed was some rich assholes fancy car lead him to being taken in by The Batman himself. Dick enjoyed a brief stint as the second Lark until the Joker set his sights on the Batman's protégé. Dick didn't survive the encounter and his passing sent the Batfamily into turmoil. Emotions flared even hotter when Dick returned years later calling himself Flamebird. Believing himself replaced and Bruce selfish for daring to endanger more lives with his unwillingness to kill. Flamebird set out to prove a lethal point to his once father and all of Gotham.

Cassandra Drake: Grew up next to the Waynes and often passed her time watching the bat family through a camera lens. After Dicks death she tracked down the Batman wanting to help him in his mission of protecting Gotham, taking up the mantle of Lark. Eventually she struck out on her own and reinvented herself as Sparrow.

Jason Cain: The unwanted son of Lady Shiva and deadly weapon since birth for his father David Cain. Born by Shiva as part of a crooked deal with David Jason was raised solely by his father to be a deadly weapon. Taught to be relentless in combat and understand movement as though it were a language. Jason was neglected and never quite learned how to speak or read, all he knew was combat and torture at the hands of his father. When the day came that Jason took his first life the boy was so horrified that what he had done he ran and only stopped running when he fell into the arms of Bruce Wayne. When Damian Gordon became incapable of keeping the Shadow Bat mantle, Jason took it in his stead, and now Jason spends his time fighting side by side with his family while trying to acclimate to the unfamiliar environment.

Tim Brown: Tim was the son of C List Gotham super criminal Cluemaster. Cluemaster's parenting skills left a lot to be desired and Tim having been mistreated and abused by his father all his life donned the cap and cowl life purely fueled by the power of spite. He took on the name Spoiler, always intent to spoil his fathers escapades. It didn't take long for Tim's nightly activities led to him meeting and befriending Cassandra Drake which soon pulled the young man into the fold of the Batfamily.

Barbara Al Ghul-Wayne: Barbara was raised in the enigmatic League of Assaians, born of a union between Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. She was raised and trained as an assassin and she knew was of the best of them. It wasn't until Talia smuggled her out of the league and out of her birthright that Barbaras life was thrown into upheaval. In an effort to get her daughter away from the toxic influence of the league Talia left her daughter in the hands of Bruce Wayne Barbara's father. Here with her father Barbra became the newest Lark and found herself struggling to adapt and learn to the new standards of her father and her new role.

Stephanie Thomas: Steph lived a mostly normal life in the incredibly not normal Gotham City. It was easy to think Gotham's madness would never touch them. Until the day it did and Joker got a hold on her parents driving them mad. She did the only thing you can do when faced in tragedy in Gotham City. She went on the streets and became a vigilante herself. The Batman eventually took notice and took her under his wing seeing the potential and determination she had within her. Steph eventually settled on the name Black Light and she holds the distinction of being the only meta within the Batfamily.

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goldkirk · 4 years

Text

Blackbird, a Tim Drake/Batfam fic

Chapter 12: I had to learn to be the hero, I started over here from zero

Content Warning: Vomiting in the first scene. Self harm/cutting mentions, non-graphic description but mentions of cuts and the treatment of them. Needles/vaccine/injection mention in the paragraph where Steph hums along to a Lizzo song, but it's only a mention, no description.

Barbara Gordon comes home to Gotham the next day, tossing the mantle of Oracle aside once more to be Batgirl again for what remains of July and August before she goes back to school.

“I am,” she groans, leaning over to drop her head onto Dick’s shoulder across the gap as she settles into a middle seat of Bruce’s minivan, “so tired. And never teaching Comp Sci 101 as a summer course again. I don’t care how much Dr. Holland begs. I don’t care how many free lunches they give me. It’s bad enough as a 16-week course. I don’t ever want to teach an 8-week night class again for as long as I live. Being a TA doesn’t pay enough to make that hell worth it.”

“But you did it,” Dick says, dropping a light kiss on her wild hair.

“I did,” Babs concedes. “And I did a damn good job of it, whatever Dean McGrouchyPants has to say about my methods. I dragged those kids through kicking and screaming, but they can write code better than most of the junior class at this point. Which benefits me in the long run, since I’m going to be the department’s indentured servant and overflow grader for probably the next million years, based on how slowly my thesis work is going.”

“That’s our girl,” Bruce says proudly, as he adjusts the rear-view mirror slightly so he can still see all the kids. “Everybody buckled?”

“Yes,” Tim choruses along with the others. He’s trying hard not to constantly fidget in his seat from excitement.

Jason may love him, but they’re both crammed in the backseat with Cass, and Nova and Peanut are taking up most of the floor area, so space is at a premium and Tim isn’t about to push the edges of his brother’s patience. Even the ever-calm Ace is starting to look a little strained where he lies wedged between the two middle seats.

“Bruce,” Jason says, echoing Tim’s thoughts. “No offense? But I think you might need to get a bigger minivan. Like, soon.”

“Well,” Bruce says slowly as he pulls away from the curb. “You’re going off to college, aren’t you, all grown up and everything? It’s not like you’re going to need a seat for much longer. Wave to Gordon, kids.”

Tim’s heart does a strange little flip for a moment. They all wave to the Commissioner through the windows as he disappears behind them, and the van makes its turn onto the freeway.

“B,” Jason whines. “I’m not leaving forever! And I’ll be home during breaks. You can’t just write me out of this family. I have rights.”

Tim smiles at the exchange, but grips his camera case a bit more tightly than necessary. Cass looks down at his hands and presses her shoulder into his, and he doesn’t know what she’s trying to say, exactly. But it sort of helps. He can hear his mother’s voice in his head, reprimanding him on the first day of kindergarten that you’re a big boy now, Tim, you can take the bus and you’ll be just fine. There’s nothing to cry about, silly, you’re just growing up. You’ll be fine. Daddy and I have to leave. Come on, you have to let go, you can’t ride with us, we’re going to the airport. You have your own life here, now, and you’re a big boy. You get to ride the bus with Sonia.

Janet dropping a warm kiss on his forehead as she squeezes him in a long, tight hug, then patting him firmly, encouragingly, on the back. Go on now. The weight of his too-long Batman backpack, barely filled up with just a notebook, crayons, and his lunchbox, bumping gently into the backs of his knees with every step Tim takes towards the nanny of that school year. Reaching up and taking her hand while all he wants is to hold his parents. He doesn’t want to be a big boy. He’s tired of it, he wants to be little again, and have his mom and dad home. When he looks back, his parents are already in the car, shutting the doors. And that’s it.

He shakes his head a few times, scratching one nail back and forth on the woven material of his camera strap over and over, and focuses on the feel of that in order to keep the memory from drowning him. He tunes back into the conversation, ignoring the way Cass is still watching him through the curtain of her dark hair that’s falling out from where she tucks it behind her ear.

“Of course I can’t write you out of the family,” Bruce says calmly. “You’re my son. You can’t get out of this if you try. I’m not letting you go.”

“Lord knows that’s true,” Alfred adds from the passenger seat while he furiously knits away at either a very small sweater or a very large scarf. “I thought I’d serve the Wayne family for a few years while I got back on my feet, and now here I am with a son, four grandchildren, and more animals than I can shake a stick at. And I’ve learned to make a rather mean peach cobbler, if I do say so myself. I’ve been domesticated.”

“Alfred,” Bruce chuckles. “You’re the most domesticated human being I’ve ever met.”

“Pretty sure Bruce has never seen Alfred in one of his stress-cleaning sessions,” Jason mutters, only just loud enough for Cass and Tim to hear. “Seeing as he’s, you know, usually the cause of them.”

Alfred sniffs. “You’ve only known me since I moved to America, my boy. You know the stories I’ve told you about my days in Her Majesty’s service. I have not made them a secret to you.”

“No,” says Bruce. “But imagining you as a—a spy? And an actor? I can see it, but it’s—you’re Alfred . I can hardly imagine this life without you in it as the family rock. I don’t think I really want to.”

“My dear boy,” Alfred says. “You galavant around our city in an animal costume every night and adopt every orphan who drops unceremoniously into your lap, all while running the company you swore as a teenage boy you hated and would never take on.”

Bruce grumbles back at him, shoulders hunching a bit. “Nineteen years ago I was a card-carrying punk rock kid about to embark on a literal world tour of the underworld, trying to stumble upon my own karate kid moment. Now I’m a respectable CEO with a healthy appreciation for masala chai. I have an interview with Esquire next month about what life is like as the internet’s favorite ‘DILF’ father, which I deeply wish I didn’t understand. People change.”

Dick makes a sort of choking noise somewhere in the back of his throat, while Babs claps a hand over her mouth and Jason’s face screws up into something very red and deeply pained. Tim scrabbles to hold onto the thread of the conversation, holds onto it like a lifeline, and tries to keep his focus on what they’re heading out to do.

Come on, Tim, it’s fine, He tells himself. Everything is fine. You’re finally going to the state park, you idiot, get it together! Think about how many photos you’re gonna get to take. And all the candid shots you’re going to get. Maybe even one of Cass smelling some bright flowers against her dark hair in the sunlight or something. Or Bruce watching Dick do flips off a tree. It’s going to be great. Everything’s fine. Nova noses hard at his knee, collar jingling faintly, and Tim absentmindedly reaches down to scratch behind her ear.

“Good girl,” he murmurs.

Alfred waves one hand, knitting needle drifting dangerously close to Bruce’s ear but never quite touching. “All I am trying to say is that people would hardly recognize your younger self either even if he walked beside you on the street. I don’t believe you have a leg to stand on, here.”

“Is this Alfred’s way of saying ‘Pot, kettle?’” Dick asks.

“I believe it is,” Bruce says. “All right, Alfie. Point taken. But I mean it, you know. I don’t know where I—where any of us would be without you here. I couldn’t have asked for a better father all these years.”

“Well,” Alfred says, then, his fingers stumbling to a halt with yarn still half-wrapped around the needles, and everyone in the van has been trained by the Bat. Except for the Bat, of course, who was trained, in all the ways that matter, by his Da. They all hear the hidden dampness in his tone, however well he manages to stamp it down.

“All right,” Bruce says with a grin. “I’ll lay off on the feelings talk for now. I think that must fill our annual quota, don’t you?”

“Quite so, Master Bruce,” Alfred replies, and goes back to his knitting. He stops only once to blow his nose delicately with the ever-present handkerchief from his breast pocket before getting back to it with a vengeance.

Cass raises her hand, and Bruce catches it in the mirror.

“Yes, Cass? What is it?”

Cass points with one hand at Tim beside her, and Bruce’s brows furrow as his gaze darts over. Tim ducks his head, trying to avoid eye contact, but now Jason is eyeing him too, and there’s not much Tim can do about it short of unbuckling and scrambling over the seat back to hide in the back of the minivan. And he doesn’t particularly want to get the safety lecture from Bruce, Alfred, and Dick today.

“Tim?” Bruce asks, and Dick cranes his neck around to peer into the backseat as well. “You okay?”

“Yeah, of course!” Tim says quickly.

But Jason is looking at him and frowning. “B,” he says, low, warning.

Tim shoots Jason a glare, then turns to meet Bruce’s eyes in the rearview mirror as they flick between Tim and the road every couple seconds. Tim straightens, leaning away from Cass and opens his mouth. “I’m fi—” he starts to bite out, then loses his voice in the middle of the sentence. His eyes widen and his hand shoots up to cover his mouth on pure instinct.

“B!” snaps Jason, and Bruce is already pulling off to the shoulder of the road.

“I think I’m gonna throw up,” Tim says suddenly, confused and more than a little bewildered, as he fights through the rolling nausea, and then someone’s got his buckle popped open and Dick’s hands are leading him firmly out of the back and through the sliding side door. Tim would have dropped to his knees hard at the edge of the drainage ditch if Bruce hadn’t caught him and eased him down with the same careful movement that accompanies everything he did, as Batman and as their dad.

“It’s all right,” Bruce says gently. “Deep breaths.”

Tim tries, he breathes and breathes and breathes some more as his stomach clenches and flips, and then finally his airway closes off in one final choke and he’s retching up the remains of his breakfast into a thistle bush while Bruce holds him up through it all.

Tim falls back against Bruce’s chest after one final heave, panting a little, and one of Bruce’s hands moves up to wipe at his sweaty forehead with a wet wipe someone must have dug out of the console.

"Sorry,” Tim chokes out. He kind of wants to cry, and kind of wants to vanish into the dirt and never come out again.

“Shhhh,” says Bruce. His hand on Tim’s forehead pulls Tim to lay his head back further onto Bruce’s shoulder, and Tim squeezes his eyes shut while he tries to get control back over his rebelling body.

“Didn’t realize—” he starts.

“Tim.” Bruce cuts him off, thumb brushing across his temple. His arms don’t loosen, and Tim can’t help feeling secure even while he’s kind of falling apart. “It’s okay. No one is upset with you. I promise, sweetheart.”

Tim swallows. But I made a mess, he thinks. I interrupted the drive. If I could have just—

“Hey,” comes Jason’s voice, and there are knuckles rapping twice on his cheekbone. “What did Bruce-man just say, huh? No one’s mad. I can hear you yelling at yourself from here. Your brain is awfully loud.”

“Buzz off, momma bird,” Tim mumbles, without any real heat to it. He blinks his eyes open to see Jason’s grin.

“Nah,” Jason says. “Think I’ll stay here instead. I’ve put a lotta investment into you. I don’t feel like leaving you on the side of the highway to blame yourself for things that aren’t a problem just because you had to puke up some pancakes.”

“Don’t know what happened,” Tim says, sounding about as miserable as he feels. Bruce hands him a fresh wet wipe, and it feels like heaven as he wipes down his neck and mouth himself before passing it back to be thrown in the van’s trash bag. “I was fine.”

Cass hops through the side door, then, gently cradling her now-much-bigger kitten in its new little harness, and raises one eyebrow. Not, she thumbs against her chin.

Tim’s too... something, whatever, who knows, to try to figure out what she means.

Cass huffs, and gestures furiously at Jason, who blinks and tries to expand on what he figures she means.

“Uh,” Jason says. “You weren’t fine?” Cass nods. “But...you didn’t realize. Uh.” He frowns in concentration as Cass signs at him rapidfire, and Tim just keeps his eyes drifting between the two of them while he quietly tries to push his way off of Bruce and Bruce firmly holds him right where he’s at. Tim’s thoroughly embarrassed at this point and just wants to put the whole thing behind him.

Jason turns to look at Tim fully again. “She’s right. I noticed too. You looked…” he searches for the right word. “Upset? Pale?”

“Carsick?” Dick offers.

Tim shakes his head. “Don’t get carsick.”

“Scrambled eggs,” Bruce says, then. Tim frowns. He didn’t eat any eggs this morning. Some kind of understanding dawns on Jason’s face, though.

“Oh,” says Jason. “Tim. Timmers. Which part was it, when we were all talking? What upset you?”

“What? I don’t know,” Tim grumbles. “I don’t think...”

“I know I don’t know the whole Tim situation quite as well as you all do,” interrupts Babs. “But...could it have been when Bruce was like ‘guess you won’t need to ride with us anymore, huh, since you’re going off to college and a big boy now’ and Jason joked about being written out of the family, or whatever?”

Tim squeezes his eyes shut as the memory of his first day of kindergarten tries to slam back into the forefront of his mind, just for a moment, and he forces his breathing to stay even. But he can’t hide the way his muscles tensed for just a second from Bruce. Not when they’re in such close contact.

Leaving, Cass confirms above his head. Jason looks a little stricken.

“It’s not your fault, Jason,” Bruce says immediately. “Stop that.”

“But—”

“No,” Bruce says firmly, chest rumbling against Tim’s back. “These things happen. You know it’s not your fault any more than it was mine the other day when I accidentally triggered you during movie night, or today when I joked about you being too grown-up to ride in the van anymore.”

Jason sighs. “Okay, B.” He squats down and brushes some of Tim’s flyaways back from his face, and Tim grins for a second. “Sorry, Tim. At least we know another thing to avoid now.”

“No,” says Tim. He shakes his head. “To work on.”

“You don’t have to work to get rid of every single trigger in like, two years,” Jason huffs. “Damn, Timmy. Give yourself a break. You can’t rationalize your way through everything, no matter how stubborn you are.”

“That,” Bruce says lightly, “I can confirm. You feel like getting up?”

Tim nods, and allows Bruce to haul him to his feet, keeping one of his hands wrapped around Bruce’s forearm until he’s sure he’s not going to suddenly throw up again or anything.

“Sorry,” he says again. “I don’t—I don’t think that normally would have bothered me so much. I think it was just today. I don’t know.”

“It’s okay,” Bruce reassures him.

“No one cares, Tim,” Jason says. “We’ve all puked on the side of the road once or twice, in or out of costume. No shame in it.”

Tim rolls his eyes.

“Would you like some water?” Alfred asks, then, window rolled down and Tim’s water bottle in his hand.

“Yes, please,” Tim says gratefully, and chases the last of the bad taste out of his mouth as he rinses and spits once into the thistles before chugging half the bottle in one go.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dick asks gently, as Tim is following Jason and Cass back up into the backseat.

“Absolutely not,” Tim says with an impressive amount of cheer, and although Dick exchanges an unreadable glance with Bruce, who’s about to shut the door behind them, he doesn’t push. Tim’s grateful. He makes sure to give Nova some extra rubs as he settles back into the seat, in a sort of apology for not realizing earlier what she was trying to tell him. She seems satisfied, at least, and settles back down across his boots without complaint. He’s grateful for the weight. It helps keep him here and now, in the van with his family, fifteen years old, having a belated birthday and not a little kid anymore.

But after a few more minutes of driving, the old truth settles in about how much easier it is to talk about things in a moving vehicle, and Tim finds himself opening his mouth against his own better judgement.

“I was…” he tries. Pauses. Everyone’s attention snaps to him, even if they’re kind enough not to turn around in their seats. He can tell. “Uh. I remembered my first day of kindergarten. Mom and dad left for Egypt, or something, and I wanted to ride with them. But Mom said I was, like, a big kid now, and I could take the bus with my nanny, and…” he trails off, shrugs a little helplessly. “I dunno. I’m not sure why it was suddenly such a big deal.”

“When you’re small,” Bruce says, catching Tim’s eye in the mirror for a moment before looking back at the road as he turns smoothly onto the exit ramp, “feelings are big. Just because older you can look at the situation and say that it wasn’t a big deal, since everything was fine and you were safe, it doesn’t mean the little you wasn’t afraid and upset. When you’re small, every bad thing is literally the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. Dropping your ice cream can feel like the end of the world when you were excited about getting it all day and then it suddenly falls and you can’t have it anymore.”

That makes sense, Tim admits, but. Still.

“So,” Bruce goes on, and the van starts shaking slightly as it hits gravel instead of asphalt. “Put yourself in little you’s shoes, hm? He was starting kindergarten. That’s a big deal, and a big change. It’s a new school, and lots of unfamiliar kids and grown-ups, right? And all little kids want some comfort when they’re nervous, so usually parents come with them to the first day of school so everyone’s nerves are a little soothed. You just wanted your mom and dad. You didn’t want to be alone on your first day.”

“But I had the nanny,” Tim points out. “I liked Sonia.”

“Sure,” Dick says. “But she wasn’t your parents. And were you scared?”

Tim thinks back, tries to really put himself in the moment from his younger self’s eyes this time, but keep it controlled. He feels Cass pulling his hands over to gently rest on Teacup’s soft little fur, and shoots her a quick smile as his fingers start to rub lightly.

And, yeah. Tim.

Tim was definitely scared. He’d never gone to preschool. His parents had just hired a Montessori tutor, and pushed him as hard as they could. Tim was smart. He liked the challenge. But he hadn’t really been around many kids before, and school was going to have a lot. And new teachers. And it was in a building he’d never seen before, because his parents had a business event the day they were supposed to go to the open house, and his nanny had a cold. So. Tim was definitely nervous. He didn’t feel big at all back then. He felt really small, and he wanted someone to hold him, not just his hand, and--

“Tim,” Jason says. Tim blinks a few times, and looks over. Jason reaches out a hand and his fingers are suddenly brushing across Tim’s cheek.

“What?” Tim asks.

“You’re crying bud,” Jason says softly.

“Oh,” Tim says, surprised. He reaches up, letting go of Teacup, and feels his eyes. Sure enough, they’re damp. “Huh.”

Bruce has put the car in park along the side of the state park’s gravel lot sometime in the past minute or so, and he turns around in his seat now, keys in hand, and locks eyes with Tim. “You think you’re okay to head out right now?” he asks, not the slightest bit of accusation or disappointment in his voice. Tim still feels braced for it anyway.

"I think so,” Tim answers. He unbuckles, and tugs Nova’s collar gently as he calls up.

“Because we can wait a little while if that would help,” Bruce says. “Or the others can go on ahead, and you and I can just catch up.”

“No, I’m okay,” Tim says. And he’s pretty sure he means it.

“Nature is always an excellent remedy for the soul,” Alfred says, as they all pile out through the various doors. “I dare say you’ll feel better before we even make it to the top of the ridge.”

“Come on, Dickiebird,” Jason says, clipping Peanut’s hands-free leash to his belt. Dick takes Ace’s lead and wraps it around his wrist a few times. “Race.”

Dick sighs, but doesn’t actually sound all that put out. “How far?”

“Just the trailhead,” Jason says. “Bet I beat you by two strides.”

“Bet you a Snickers you don’t,” Dick snorts.

“Babs!” Jason calls over to where Babs has already walked over to read some of the plaques by the rain garden. “Start us.”

“Three,” she yells back. “Two...one...one and a half.”

“Babs,” Jason groans.

“GO!” she yells, and the boys are off.

Tim find himself grinning as he slips Nova’s over-the-shoulder leash over his head and adjusts it to fit how he wants. He straightens his camera case around his neck, takes the offered backpack from Alfred that contains his water bottles and snacks, and pulls his camera out just in time to snap a photo of Teacup’s reaction as Cass sets him down on the faint dirt trail for the first time.

“Good catch,” Bruce says over Tim’s shoulder, as they watch Cass begin attempting to lead her wayward little cat down the walking path instead of off towards the butterfly bushes. She isn’t having all that much success, but Alfred is already on it, sweeping in to take charge.

“I can’t believe she decided to bring Teacup on a hike,” Tim laughs a little. Bruce’s free hand lands on the center of his back, and Tim doesn’t flinch away as he’s steered toward the trailhead where Jason and Dick are already bickering good-naturedly over who actually out-touched the other, and Babs is staring up at the sky as if a cloud will give her guidance over how to wrangle the two of them. Tim can almost imagine from here her lips soundlessly mouthing out Lord give me patience to not stab them with a Batarang before lunch.

“As long as I’m not the one carrying the cat for five and a half miles,” Bruce says, watching Cass fondly, “I don’t particularly care. I learned a long time ago to pick my battles, and this isn’t a hill I plan to die on.”

“Yeah,” Tim snorts. “That’s fair.”

“Are you really okay?” Bruce asks quietly.

“I’m okay,” Tim confirms. “It was just...a weird moment. I’m okay now. And thanks, for that in the car. I didn’t really think about that before.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” Bruce says. “If you do want to talk about it later, or if you need a break, tell me or Alfred, all right? This is your day. You should be happy and comfortable, not stressed.”

“Thanks, Bruce.” Tim twists around and hugs Bruce for a few seconds as they stop in the middle of the narrow dirt path. “I love you a lot.”

Bruce smiles and hugs Tim back tightly for a moment. “I love you too a lot,” he says. Tim pulls away, and Bruce slings his arm back around Tim’s shoulders as they start to walk. “Come on. There’s a particularly good photo spot about a mile and a half up the trail I think you’ll like. And if we make good time, we can picnic in the big meadow for lunch and let the dogs run around for a while.”

“TIM,” comes the holler from over by the trail. Tim squints over, hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun.

“WHAT?” he yells back, ignoring Bruce’s wince.

“SUNSCREEN,” Jason hollers, and the next thing Tim knows, there’s a bottle flying at his face in a frankly beautiful overhand throw. Jason’s old baseball coach must be proud.

Bruce’s hand catches it before Tim can get his own up high enough, and he passes it off to Tim with a fond grin.

“Still mother henning you, huh?” Bruce asks, as Tim pops the cap open and starts to squirt out sunscreen lotion with a sigh.

“So much,” Tim says. He smears some of the sunscreen on his face and neck, then sticks his white-covered hand in the air as they get closer to the others, and calls out, “Happy, Momma Bird?”

“Ecstatic,” Jason shouts back dryly. “I’ll positively die of joy if you actually smear it everywhere it’s supposed to go, too, instead of forgetting your ears and back again like last time.”

“You’re a pain in my butt,” Tim grumbles under his breath, and Bruce barely holds in his laugh. Tim feels Bruce’s arm shake slightly where it rests across his shoulders.

“What was that?” Jason asks, grinning.

“I said, you’re a blessing in my life and I’m lucky to have you watching out for my pale Irish-Japanese butt,” Tim says.

“Damn straight,” says Jason, and then he reaches out and snatches the bottle from Tim’s hand. “Aw, nuts, Timmy. You already missed half your forehead, dummy. Just—let me do it, okay?”

“Okay, Jason,” Tim says, and lets his older brother do what he needs to do to feel better after the whole car thing.

Nothing gets Jason back on an even keel faster than being needed by Tim, and no one knows how to push Jason’s buttons effectively better than Tim. They’ve turned it into a dance, of sorts, and it works out.

Jason gets a little bit in Tim’s eye. But they’re okay. He’s still got the other one to look out of while taking photos, and it’s worth it to see Jason fully relaxed again. Besides, Tim thinks cheerfully. Now we can both gang up on Cass together. She’s as pale as Tim is, and probably doesn’t even know what sunscreen is for.

She’s got no idea what’s gonna hit her.

Steph scrubs a hand across her forehead, trying to wipe away some of the sweat before it gets into her eye, but really only manages to smear some flour across her skin. She sighs and reaches for the dirty kitchen towel. It doesn’t look like it’s going to do any better a job, really, with how dirty its gotten. Her mom hasn’t done the laundry in...a while. And Steph’s been more focused on making sure they all have clean underwear, not on getting the bedding and towels washed. So.

Maybe she’ll just...use the hem of her shirt instead.

She does, and it goes about as well as she expected, honestly I don’t know why I even bother, and then the oven timer is going off and her dad is yelling something from the living room and her mom shouts back in a moan from somewhere upstairs and Steph just wants it all to stop. Just.

For two seconds. That’s all she wants.

“I KNOW,” she hollers out the kitchen doorway, and she yanks out the metal pan and (gently) bangs it down onto the stovetop. If her dad wants some stupid cake for himself and his “friends”, he should bake it himself. Steph has other things she should be doing. Like finishing an article. And volunteering at the clinic, which she’s already six minutes late for.

She grabs her backpack from the back of one of the kitchen chairs and slings it over one shoulder as she opens the back door.

“I’ll ice the cake when I get back,” she calls over her shoulder. “Bye!”

"Come back here!” her dad starts, and Stephanie shuts the door to cut off the rest before he can really get going.

She hums along to a Lizzo song as she pops her headphones in her ears and takes off down the sidewalk at a jog. If she hurries, she might still make it in time to sneak Eddie Miller an extra lollipop after he finishes getting his vaccines. She knows he was scared to get them, because he’s hated needles ever since he had to get stitches from Dr. Thompkins when he knocked the bookcase down on his forehead. Steph couldn’t really blame him.

“Hi Leslie!” she calls as she lets herself in the back door. She makes sure to lock it again carefully behind her. No repeats, she thinks. Not on my watch.

“In here, Steph!”

Stephanie drops her bag and takes a moment to scrub her arms up to her elbows at the sink, then ducks around the corner into the only occupied exam room.

“Hi, kiddo,” Dr. Thompkins says, shooting her a quick smile from where she’s just smoothing down a second Band-Aid over Eddie’s skinny little thigh.

“Hey, Dr. Thompkins,” Steph replies cheerfully. “Hey, little dude. Whadja pick out this time?”

Eddie sniffs, and Steph can see he was clearly crying a minute or two earlier. But he’s already pulled himself together and is cheering up. Brave little kid.

“Batman!” he says. “And Robin.”

“Batman and Robin, huh?” she says, smile still firmly in place. She really does hope Robin is okay. At least he’s finally back on patrol, so that’s a good sign, right? She doesn’t know what she was thinking, hitting him in the head like that. She just—panicked.

She panicked. That was bad. Oh, god. Batman probably hates her forever now. Some vigilante she was turning out to be.

“Yep,” Eddie says. “They’re my favorites.”

“He’s been very, very into them, this year,” his Mom sighs, but she doesn’t seem truly exasperated. Just fond.

“You’ve got good taste,” Steph says, and she ruffles his hair before Dr. Thompkins helps him down from the exam table and out through the hallway to the lobby.

“Keep watch for any reaction symptoms, like fever, too much swelling, any kind of shortness of breath or nausea, you know the drill,” Dr. Thompkins is saying to Mrs. Miller.

“I sure hope so, by now,” Mrs. Miller says wryly, as she ushers her other four kids up out of their chairs and towards the door. “Thanks, Dr. Thompkins. I appreciate it. Say bye bye, Eddie.”

“Bye!” Eddie says quickly, before popping a bright green lollipop in his mouth to match the red one he had just polished off a minute earlier. The family sweeps out the door in a jumble of controlled chaos, and the clinic seems jarringly quiet and empty in their wake.

“I saw that,” says Dr. Thompkins, as she turns to scribble something on the clipboard at the front desk before handing it back to the volunteer receptionist.

“Saw what?” Steph says, innocently.

“You gave him that lollipop. I don’t know when you snatched it, but I saw you sneak it to him the second his mom set eyes on the other kiddos. You’re not as sneaky as you think you are.” She holds the door to the back open again and ushers Steph through before shutting it behind herself.

Steph laughs. “You’ve got years of practice catching all kinds of people doing all kinds of things,” she protests. “I don’t have to be that sneaky around normal people. His mom didn’t even realize before they left.”

“She will in the car,” Dr. Thompkins says, grinning now. “That was nice of you. He’ll remember that, next time. You’d better be here to sneak him another one if you know what’s good for you.”

“I hope I can be,” Steph says. “And, uh, on that note, sorry I’m late.”

“Everything okay at home?” Dr. Thompkins asks. She drops into the procedure room’s worn-out spinning chair as Steph takes up her usual perch on the counter.

“Dad wanted me to bake a cake,” Steph sighs. “I don’t know why he can’t just order buffalo wings for his buddies like a normal person.”

“Mm. And on that note, do you need a refill, Steph?”

Stephanie looks down for a second before meeting Dr. Thompkin’s eyes.

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “I’m almost out and I don’t want to risk anything. Thanks, Leslie.”

“It’s literally no trouble,” Dr. Thompkins says, with a wave of her hand. She scribbles on a notepad and folds the paper into a little football before tossing it at Steph, who laughs as she snatches it out of the air. “That should get you another month. Make sure you give it to Louis, during the night shifts. He’ll give you the discount as long as I’m around.”

“Thanks,” Steph says again.

“And how’s your mom?” Dr. Thompkins asks, then, leaning back in the chair.

“She’s fine.”

“Fine?”

“Status quo,” Stephanie amends. “She’s got good and bad days. She hasn’t started taking any more than her usual, so for now I guess...things are okay. She’s not getting better, but she’s not getting worse anymore. Half the days she even remembers to do stuff around the house.”

“And you’re left with the other half,” Dr. Thompkins says gently.

“I can handle it.”

“I know you can. I just wish you didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, well.” Stephanie kicks her sneaker against the old 80s tile a couple times, and digs the toe of her shoe into a nick. “It is what it is. It’s bound to get better sometime. Dad just needs to get caught and thrown in prison again.” She snorts and looks up at Dr. Thompkins. “Is it bad that that’s something I’m looking forward to?”

“Nah,” Dr. Thompkins says. “Not in this case. I think you’re good.”

“Bet,” Steph mutters, and leans back to thunk her head against one of the cabinets. “Slow afternoon today?”

“Mm hm. Nothing scheduled till three-thirty, actually. Which means there’s plenty of time for us to catch up, since we’ve barely gotten enough time to say hello these past couple of weeks.”

“Yeah,” Steph agrees. “It seems like every kid in the neighborhood has broken a bone or needed stitches this month.”

“So it goes, in summers,” Dr. Thompkins says, mock-sagely. “And how about you? Any new mysterious injuries you can’t tell me about after a night on the town?”

Stephanie has always had the distinct impression that Dr. Thompkins sees right through her, and knows a whole lot more than she lets on. She could probably rival Batman if she wanted to. But Steph isn’t about to give up the game unless she has to, and if she admitted to being Spoiler for no good reason and Dr. Thompkins hadn’t known after all, that would suck. Plus, there was the whole “mandated reporter” thing that they already tap danced circles around with Steph’s home life, just barely avoiding social services because Steph’s mom was minimally functional for now.

“Nope,” Steph says, popping the p and grinning at Dr. Thompkins.

Leave it at that, she begs. C’mon, Leslie, leave it at that for this week. Let’s talk about the Knights game or something.

“Good,” Dr. Thompkins says. “And have you cut any more since we last talked?”

Steph groans.

“Leslie,” she complains.

“Answer the question, Steph.”

“Yes,” Steph mutters, giving Dr. Thompkins the stink eye.

“How many times.”

“Four.”

“Did you—”

“I used clean blades, I wiped them down with alcohol before and afterwards, I put butterfly bandaids on the one deep cut, and I’ve been applying ointment every day,” Stephanie interrupts, feeling cranky now. This was a good day. She doesn’t want to think about the bad while she’s in Leslie’s sanctuary. Tonight is already going to be shitty enough.

“That’s good,” Dr. Thompkins says, undeterred. “And are you keeping them covered?”

Stephanie is silent.

“Steph,” Dr. Thomkins says, exasperated. She reaches behind her and pulls on a pair of examination gloves. “You’ve got to take care of them. You’ve been lucky to not get any infections so far, with how active you are and the fact that you work at a pool. Having wounds rubbing against your clothing and bathing suit constantly isn’t going to help them heal.”

“I know that,” Steph snaps.

“Let me see,” says Dr. Thompkins, as gently as Steph’s ever heard her. “Come on, Steph.” She’s standing in front of Stephanie now, careful to leave open a path to the door. Steph can’t really stay mad at her when she knows she’s just looking out for Steph.

God knows Steph wishes someone would, more often. She's so goddamn tired of raising herself.

“Fine,” she says, and unbuttons her jeans. She shimmies out of them without hopping off the counter, and watches Leslie’s hands like a hawk as the older woman folds Steph’s underwear down just enough to see what she needs to on either side, gently prodding the edges of cuts up and down Steph’s hip area in various stages of healing. She’s careful to narrate everything she’s doing. Steph appreciates that.

“Can I clean and dress them really quick?” she asks finally, looking up at Stephanie.

It can’t hurt, Steph thinks. At the very least, that’s one round of bandages I don’t have to pay for from the drugstore. And it’ll hold up better than anything I can manage while I’m out tonight.

“Okay,” she says. Dr. Thompkins nods and pulls out what she needs, working quickly and efficiently as always; clean, medicate, bandage, check for secure seal. When she’s finished, she gives Steph’s legs one final pat and holds the jeans out for Steph to grap.

“I’m sorry,” Steph says quietly. “I know I said I was going to stop, and I was really trying, I did for a while, I just—”

Dr. Thompkins holds up a hand, throws her gloves in the waste bin, and turns to look Steph right in the eye.

"You don’t need to apologize to me for anything,” she says. “Steph, honey, you’re doing what you have to do to make it through when things are intolerable. This isn’t the first thing you try. I know that. I know how hard you’re fighting to stop hurting yourself, and I’m proud of you. It’s better for you to fall back on self harming to cope when you’re really desperate than for you to end up even worse and doing something you can’t heal from so easily, hm?”Stephanie swallows.

“Okay,” she whispers. “You’re not—you’re not gonna make me stop helping out around here?”

Dr. Thompkins frowns, looking genuinely confused. “Why would I do that?”

Steph shrugs. “I dunno. Just. Dad said if he ever caught me with cuts or scars again I’d be out of the house, since I’d be bad publicity, or a risk to others, or something, so I just...I figured maybe you wouldn’t want me around kids, or something.”

“Honey,” Dr. Thompkins says, and finally reels Steph into a hug. “No. I know you’d never hurt anyone. You’re fantastic with the kids, and a big help around here. I’m happy to have you around whenever you have time. And listen,” she adds, pulling back and staring at Steph with something fierce in her eyes. “If your dad ever does try to kick you out, you come straight here and you tell me. I won’t let you end up on the street. We’ll figure it out.”

“Okay,” Steph says, again. “I—thanks, Dr. Thompkins.”

“Any time,” the older woman says, patting Stephanie’s shoulder firmly. “Now come on. Let’s see if we can get another few boxes sorted through before the next appointment shows up. It’s Mr. Lewis, so I’ll bet you he’ll be late, as usual.”

Steph follows her out the door, and the rest of the afternoon flies by in a blur of comfortable busywork and friendly banter with both Dr. Thompkins and the patients. She always likes the days she can spend at Leslie’s clinic. They feel normal . They feel kind of like how she imagines a good home.

And if she does occasionally sneaks a popsicle or lollipop for herself from one of the stashes? Leslie doesn’t really seem to mind.

Steph publishes the anonymous article to the Batwatch community site as she walks home, to be vetted by one of the mods. If all goes well, it’ll be up by tonight, and things might finally start picking up.

Her moss has been doing well, and it’s definitely been getting notice. But only by the people in little clusters around each location. She’d thought there would be more of a buzz about the messages once the moss really became visible, but apparently she’d underestimated how much most people stuck to their own neighborhoods across most of the city. So the article was her backup, a nice guest piece on how someone has “noticed” on their daily bike rides that there was moss graffiti popping up around Gotham, and that they had made it their mission to compile a list of the clues. Or, rather, the spoilers.

Steph uses a voice scrambler app to place a call to GCPD just before she made it back to her house, warning them about a robbery that was supposed to take place tonight at Gotham First Bank, and hangs up before they could convince her to give anything else away. She has to protect her identity, especially in case anyone on her dad’s side got a hold of the call recording after the fact. She has to be careful.

With any luck, her dad will be arrested tonight and tossed back in jail where he belongs, and that’ll be one fewer thing for Steph to worry about. It’s too late for that to stop the big plan in motion—Steph knows that. It was much bigger than just her dad, anyway. Much, much bigger. Steph doesn’t know exactly who’s behind all of it, herself, and she’s been hunting . But at least this will be a step. And if the article gets published, that’ll at least get some of the information onto Batman’s radar, too.

She can work from there. As soon as she figures out how to get back in contact with them after, you know, nearly killing Robin. But it was an accident!

Hope Batman sees it that way, she thinks dejectedly. Hope he doesn’t just take me down in two seconds and tie me up for the police as soon as he sees me.

She pushes open the rusty gate to their side yard and heads for the house. That’s a problem for future Steph to figure out.

Right now, she’s got a cake to finish. And it’s going to be spectacular.

Steph ices the cake.

It’s pristine, a chocolate buttercream coating she made herself and taste-tested to perfection. She pipes on white icing as well, in little shells around the edges, and tops it all off with very tasteful rainbow sprinkles and “Happy Thursday!” in precise cursive that would make her 5th grade handwriting teacher weep.

Also, every single part of the cake and icing is chock full of laxatives. This is going to be the worst night of her dad’s life.

Steph can’t wait to spy on the police station after this one.

She places the pan, covered, on the coffee table, with plates and forks and a serving knife and Here you go, Dad, I hope you like it, it’s your nana’s old recipe like the good little daughter she is. Then she takes the stairs two at a time to her room, strips out of her clothes, and tugs on the underlayer of her costume. It takes a bit of time and tugging to get all the layers of leggings and undershirts and belts to play nicely with each other, but she manages. Then it’s time to tug on the outer layer, and the head covering, and more belts, and her mini-backpack with a few anonymous tips she’s planning to drop off at various offices, and she’s off.

Steph slips out the window, closing it without pulling the latch behind her, and swings her way silently across the awning, hand over hand, till she reaches the porch roof. She drops down through the few-inch gap, sticking to the darkest part of the roof, and then with a running jump she’s flying through the air, onto the fence with barely a rattle, and scrambling up and over and out into freedom and the great big night.

Gotham may be a shitty city, in a lot of ways, sure. But it’s her city. It’s her flesh and blood and bone and hard pavement, it’s her smoggy air and Crime Alley neighborhood and games with little kids who don’t know to be so afraid yet, and she’s not going to let it get taken down without a fight.

Steph sprints across the alleys, heading towards Uptown, getting a decent head start.

This night is going to work. She knows it. The plan is going to work out if it kills her. And if she’s right—which, duh, she totally is—it’s going to be the first big step towards stopping the Big Bad Plan of Unfathomable Suckiness, as she’s taken to calling it.

After tonight, she thinks, t his whole city’s gonna know the name Spoiler. And they’re going to have to sit up and notice what’s going on under everyone’s noses. No more hiding from the shadows. Not when the shadows are gonna come knocking whether you hide from them or not.

A fter tonight, Steph says to herself, firmly, everyone is going to know there’s a new player in town. And no matter what it takes, she vows, while kick-running and vaulting over a concrete barrier blocking her way to the city hall, I’m going to win.

[ Read on ao3 ]

#tim drake #stephanie brown #batfam #dc #shutterbug series

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ivesblosson · 4 years

Text

Bonding

Day 3 at @official-batfam-week : Injuries | Bonding During A Mission | No Capes/Civilian AU

Also on AO3

She groaned as she sat on the hard metal floor. The fluorescent light in her mask cast a strange aura around her face. Parts of her costume also shone in neon purple and the dim light was enough to let the others see her silhouette, especially since she was the only thing glowing in the darkness. “Great, now we are stuck here”, she mumbled for no one in specific. “Batman is going to be so pleased with us.”

The older boy couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s all your fault, blondie”, he grunted, pointlessly kicking the door that separated them from their freedom.

“My fault?”, Stephanie exclaimed raising up in a swift move. She rolled her eyes, despite knowing that Red Hood had no way of seeing it, and laughed. “He’s the one who locked us in here”, she yelled, pointing her gloved finger to the newest Robin, who was pacing around the old freezer trying to get a signal.

Damian stopped in the middle of a step, then turned back to stare at his partners with a death glare. “We would not have needed to hide if you hadn’t been so loud”, he said bitterly at the young girl.

“But I wouldn’t have yelped if he”, Steph gestured towards Jason, who tried to play it cool, casually leaning against a wall, “hadn’t poked me with a freaking gun!”

“I’m sorry you can’t take a joke”, he grunted, taking the pistol from it’s holster and flipping it in the air. “Just playing”, he said, flashing a devilish smile.

“You shouldn’t be playing with guns”, she replied, taking large steps in his direction and attempting to take the pistol from his hand.

“Relax, they are unloaded, see?”, he stated and fire against the ceiling. There was the noise of the trigger being flicked, but nothing came out of the barrel.

On the other side of small room, Damian cleared his throat, causing the others to drop their discussion to look at him. “In case you have forgotten, we are here hiding. If you keep yelling, you’ll blow our cover.”

“Fine”, Steph muttered, grumply sliding back to the floor. She pulled back the purple hood of her cape, letting her blond hair flow freely and rested her head against one of the many boxes laying in the floor.

Jason followed her example and also sat down, removing his red helmet and revealing his jet black hair with a white streak. “If I were you,” he said to Damian, “I would sit down. No use trying to find a signal. we are five floors below street level.”

“Sitting there isn’t going to help either”, the boy hissed.

“Suit yourself,” Jason replied with a shrug. What the brat did was the least of his worries.

“You know, we are lucky the freezer isn’t a funcional one…”, Stephanie commented, lost in her thoughts. “What do you think they kept in here? Dead bodies? Horse meat? Cocaine?”

In that moment Jason wished he had brought a flashlight with him, just so Steph could see the expression in his face. “Why would you keep cocaine in a freezer?”

“I don’t know. To keep it icy?”, she sighed. “Do I look like I do cocaine?”

“No, honestly, you look like a mushroom girl. Especially since you are fucking glowing.”

“Firstly, don’t say the f-word, there’s a kid in here--”

“I’m thirteen. I’m not a kid”, Damian shouted.

“Second, it’s called emergency lights. My suit has strategically placed glow sticks that I can activate when needed”, Steph explained.

“Call it what you want, they are ridiculous”, he pointed out.

She huffed. “At least I can see.”

“Yeah, and be seen by every criminal from Gotham to Metropolis.”

In silence she wondered if the idea was as stupid as he made it sound. She had been very proud of her invention, and the memory of how embarrassing the one time she accidently activated the neon lights in the middle of a stealth mission was still fresh in her mind. There’s no need for Jason to know about that, she thought. From the depths of the pockets on her cape, she took an old fidget spinner that glows neon green. She had bought it back in 2017, when everyone was playing with those and forgotten about it, luckly, she now had something to play while they waited for rescue.

Damian, finally giving up his useless task, sat cross legged near Stephanie. “I finished my analysis. I’ve concluded that there’s no exit. The best course of action is to sit and wait for Batman to realize we have been gone for too long and come looking for us.”

“Then we are going to be here forever. Bruce won’t even notice that three soldiers of his army have gone missing, he’ll just replace us. Especially since we ain’t exactly his favorites”, Jason grunted, thinking about how Bruce had quickly forgotten about him the time he died and how soon Tim had taken the mantle of Robin.

“Shut up, Todd, you don’t get to talk about my father like that”, Damian snapped. “You are an ungrateful piece of shit.”

“And for what I should be grateful for, uh? All he did was get me killed.”

“Oh shut up, Jason. No one wants to hear you talk about Joker and that crowbar again”, Stephanie complained. Everyone had heard that story at least a hundred times. “Besides, you aren’t the only one left for dead”, she added, thinking about how she almost had met her own end in the hands of Black Mask.

Jason seemed to recall that too, as he murmured a half-hearted apology to her. Silence took hold of the freezer for what seemed a long time.

“It’s not his fault,” Damian whispered, making the others snap out of their thoughts.

“What did you say?”, Stephanie inquired.

“I said it’s not his fault the two of you got killed. We knew what we were signing up for. The dangers that came with the job. And we still chose to do it, so we can’t blame Batman for what happens to us, it was our choices. And actions have consequences.”

Jason chuckled once more. “Seriously? I was 12. I wasn’t old enough to make a life changing choice. He knew that, he took advantage of that to mold us into his image.”

“He has a point, though. No one made you go to Egypt and get blow up --”

“Ethiopia…”, Jason corrected.

“Whatever. And no one made me go after Black Mask alone.”

“And start a city wide gang war”, Damian added.

“Gezz, thank you, Damian, good to know I can count on you to keep reminding me of my worst mistakes.”

“Can we stop with the first name basis? We are in patrol.”

“Right, sorry, Robin”, she corrected. “You know what? No wonder no one likes you. You come in out of nowhere, tries to kill Ti-- the former Robin many times, disrespects Nightwing and think of yourself being so superior. And then when someone tries to defend you, you act like a asshole!”

“Bullshit”, Damian yells, standing up revolted. “I never disrespected Grayson.”

“Stop with the first name basis? We are in patrol”, Jason mocked, imitating Damian’s accent.

“And it’s not like they like you either”, the younger boy continued, his voice cracking. He fought to keep the tears from falling and tried to regain his composure. “You are a screw up”, he pointed to Stephanie, who was sitting playing with her spinner, “and you are a killer”, he angrily shouted at Jason, who was juggling with his guns. Neither of them seemed affected by Damian’s words. It was almost as if they had been hearing the same thing every single day and the words had lost their impact.

“Look who’s calling me a killer…”

“Yeah, and I may make mistakes, but at least I got friends”, the blonde said, thinking of Cass, Barbara and Tim. “Not that you would know what that means”, she added in a whisper.

“Shut up! Shut up!”, Damian screamed, slamming his fists against the freezer’s walls. Now he couldn’t hide the fact he was crying.

Slowly, Stephanie rose from the ground and walked towards him. Before he could react, she had him trapped in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that”, she said softly. She glanced back to Jason and mouthed for him to join them.

“Yeah, Robin, I’m really sorry”, Jason apologized joining the group hug.

They stayed that way, arms tangled together until Damian had stopped sobbing. He didn’t say anything, but the way his tiny arms clung tightly to Stephanie’s waist was enough to let her know he regretted the things he had said.

A loud pounding at the door startled them, making them pull away.

“That’s it, they found us”, Steph whispered, rushing to get her mask in place.

Jason nodded, picking his helmet from the floor and putting it back on. He stood near the door, guns pointed at the entrance. “Don’t worry, those two are loaded”, he said, smiling underneath his hood.

Damian prepared his fighting stick and Steph got in position. Another bang echoed in the chamber. And finally, the door was pulled outwards.

The three of them let out a collective sigh of relief at the sight.

“Kate”, Steph exclaimed, running to greet her.“I’m so glad you found us.”

“Yeah”, Batwoman replied, gently pushing Steph aside. “Now, do any of you care to explain how the hell did you get locked in a freezer?”

“It was totally not my fault”, three voices shouted simultaneously.

#batfamweek2020 #batfamily #red hood #spoiler #jason todd #stephanie brown #damian wayne #robin #mine #writing #dc

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sqoiler · 7 years

Text

family swap au stuff

haley’s circus was in smallville for a rest stop and john and mary went out and were killed in a car crash

it was the talk of the town and martha and johnathan decided to take in their orphaned son, as he was around kara’s age (kara had just landed a few months ago and they thought she could use some company)

they tried to keep the alien thing a secret from dick but it was hard for kara not to brag (i mean come on she’s like 10 have u ever met 10 year olds)

so dick knew and demanded to meet superman and thought clark was the COOLEST EVER

and dick and kara become besties and then one day they’re on a field trip and they go to a lex corp lab for a field trip and one of the workers “accidentally” spills something on kara and dick sort of.jumps in front of her? and then it gets on them both and there’s an electric shock that gives dick kara’s powers. she still has powers but now he has a weird version of them, too

after this clark takes kara & dick and they both move into his apartment in metropolis so he can keep an eye on them and be there for their training

this all ended up with dick and kara sneaking off to the fortress as soon as they could both fly and making themselves suits and supergirl and superboy were born

dick & kara co-found the titans which consist of kid flash, speedy, aqualad, aquagirl, wonder girl, and starfire

the titans eventually disbanded but before that happened kara & babs dated for a while. they mutually broke up when babs decided to move back to atlantis and quit being aquagirl

when the titans disbanded dick and kara decided to. move on and be a lil more solo so they became nightwing and flamebird

they were still partners but they worked less with clark or the titans and more with each other or justice leaguers

their home base is still metropolis but they worked on cleaning up bludhaven and work worldwide

b’ara is an atlanteian and she’s the adopted daughter of orin & mera

she grew up a princess and she learned magic from her mom

when garth became aqualad, b’ara (who’s around his age) forced her dad to let her be aquagirl alongside him and garth and babs joined the titans together

babs & garth were always friends but never super close?

babs dated supergirl for a lil bit but when the titans disbanded babs decided she wasn’t so sure about being aquagirl anymore so she went home to atlantis to work with her mom some more

at some point babs went up to visit with her friends for a titans reunion and while she was up there she got shot in the back of the spine by a mugger and was paralyzed

she had to stay up in the surface for a while after that and started doing tech stuff to help her dad with heroing

this led to her going up to the watchtower and helping the whole jl once she got really good at tech

she still goes to atlantis & can swim around still (her arms are ripped af)

cass & jason were twins born of shiva and given to cain

when they were around seven shiva showed up and killed cain and rescued her kids, leaving them with someone to take care of them. that person, of course, immediately dumped the kids in the first waste hole they could find.

jason & cass are left in gotham and they’re both mini killers who cant talk, all alone on the streets. fun times

black canary, who occasionally teams up with batman, was in gotham and found the two of them, cold and alone

dinah was sorry for them and took them in, just for winter to get warm so she could dump them in the foster system

then she got attached and taught them how to talk and they got cursed by the wizard (who approached dinah about some sort of alternate timeline or something) and now they both had the same canary cry and before dinah knew it she made ollie pull some strings to legally adopt them and jason & cass lance were born

dinah worked to re-train them and when they were 11 cass and jason decided that it was far past time they became superheros and snuck out as gold & red canary

dinah loves them a lot but they really give her a headache sometimes

the three of them live in an apartment in star city and crash at ollie’s place a lot and when roy got addicted and ollie kicked him out dinah brought him in (cass & jason were still pretty little then) and they all bonded and roy’s basically their brother now

when tim & kon restarted the titans cass and jason became reserve members since they were a lil older

cass & raven became really close friends through the titans

jason is close with gar and kid devil and others idk

cass and steph, another reserve member, become pretty close and become known as a nightmare pair

speaking of steph,

she and her parents move to central when she’s like 3ish and crystal dies when steph is six

when steph’s 11 flash brings down cluemaster and adopts her

steph pressures wally into telling her how to get powers and executes the procedure and survives

around this time, wally hung up the KF mantle, so she took it on

it only lasted a few years before she, too, had to give it up

when barry died and wally became the flash, steph picked up the mantle of dart and bart showed up soon after

steph was a reserve member of the titans and befriended cass lance

she dated courtney whitmore when she was kid flash but when she retired they broke up

when she was dart steph & cassie got together and have been going strong since

she and damian became friends and ever since whenever hal looks at steph he gets a mini heart attack

t’hym m’orzz came to earth at the same time as his sister m’gann did, and they both sort of hung around before j’onn introduced them to kon, who’d recently come into existence, and the three of them hit it off and from kon’s older brother dick’s encouragement they re-started the titans

soon enough people like bart and cassie joined, bringing along steph and cass and jason and raven and gar an

t’hym and kon started dating and making plans to see the stars and generally being gay

duke thomas’s parents were killed by a wonder woman villain, and diana took duke in

duke convinced her to train him and she did

the gods found out about this and blessed him with some powers (strength and flight) and he became wonder boy

he’s never been to themescyria and doesn’t really want to intrude or anything

he and cassie are best friends and when cassie joined the titans he wasn’t far behind

duke & diana have a mother/son relationship and cassie jokingly calls him her nephew since she and diana are sisters

duke and bart have mutual crushes on each other and are skirting around the issue atm

damian was dropped off with bruce and he was trying to convince him to be batboy or something when a green ring descended from the sky and announced that damian was the youngest green lantern of earth ever

bruce begrudgingly took him to hal who stuck him with jessica and simon

damian and jess immediately got along really well and it took longer but he and simon eventually got along, too

the three of them are known menaces among the green lanterns of earth and hal is eternally faceplanting at them all

damian & steph met when hal & barry started dating and all the lanterns decided to shovel talk barry

damian voice: allen PLEASE break jordan’s heart i don’t want him to be happy

steph: [snorts in laughter]

anyway damian & dick met when jon befriended damian (as new members of the new titans) and jon invited him over and dick was like “this is my new brother”

damian: hey father i have a new brother and sister now

bruce, tiredly: who

damian: stephanie allen and dick kent

bruce: im moving to ethiopia

(feel free to ask me or my artblog @sam-and-crystal if you have any questions! <3)

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batfam-imagines · 7 years

Text

Killer - Part 3

This is just really quick and really short. Don’t worry it’s not the end! I have no idea when I will be able to post next. Hope you like it! Let me know what you think should happen next!

Killer - Part 2

The boys come back from the zoo several hours later. Conner had decided to go back to the Titans so he could watch over the younger heroes in Tim’s absence.

“Kon says that he loves you and that he’ll support you. He’s sorry that he couldn’t tell you himself, but …” Tim shrugs.

“Thanks, Timmy. I’ll have to make a trip to the Tower soon. I’m sure the kids could use a homecooked meal”

Tim’s whole face brightens, “You should come live at the Tower! Damian is supposed to join the Titans soon, Dick’s always there to visit Kori, and I’m there too!”

“Yes, your presence would greatly improve my stay there, Ummi. It might make the presence of the others tolerable”

Jason’s been surprisingly quiet through Tim’s suggestion, “Jay, what do you think?”

“I’m not allowed at the Tower, Mom. Was dubbed a bad influence to the younger generation”

“That was years ago, Littlewing!” Dick slings an arm around Jason’s shoulders, “You don’t kill anymore, and it’ll be good for the kids to have a marksman to help teach them”

“Alfred can come too!”

Said man chuckles, “I believe that it would be good for me to spend weekends away from the Manor. I cannot completely abandon Master Bruce, so weekends will be the only times I am available”

“I’m sure the kids would take any time you could give them, Alfie. However,” You glance over at your two oldest sons, “I can’t have you just abandoning your father. Tim and Damian are scheduled to stay full time with the Titans, but I need you two to still keep an eye on Gotham and Bludhaven.”

Jason rolls his eyes, and gets a smack on the back of the head for it, “We’re not gonna just leave Gotham, mom. B will still have backup if he needs us for a big case. Steph and Cass are planning to come back to Gotham anyway, they’ll be able to help B. And with his track record, he’ll just find another kid to take up the Robin mantle”

“Yeah, I sure in hell hope not. Your father has never been the best at actually raising you kids. He’s damn good at training you to fight and do detective work, but he’s a little … emotionally stunted”

That sends Dick, Tim, and Jason into a fit of laughter and manages to make Damian crack a smile. “You can say that again!”

“Now that we’ve all had a good laugh, how about we order some pizzas, watch a few movies, and then head to bed?”

“Sounds like a plan” Dick grabs a pen, “What does everyone want?”

Amidst the shouting of pizza orders, you quietly pull Alfred aside, “I’ve made my decision, I can’t do it. I hope you aren’t mad at me, but this just isn’t something I can do”

Alfred smiles, “I understand, you know that I will support you”

“When the boys fall asleep I’ll head to the Manor, if they wake up will you -”

“I’ll tell them that you went out for a walk”

“Thanks. Now come on, if we don’t get out there Dick will forget to get you extra cheesy bread”

Getting into the Manor undetected is easy without a hypervigilant butler to stop you. Bruce is already in the cave, probably out on Patrol still, so you know you won’t be interrupted.

Titus and Alfred the cat follow you as you make your way around the Manor, picking up a few of Jason’s books, Damian’s swords, Tim’s laptop, and Dick’s cereal. Steeling yourself you make your way up to the master bedroom, “He hasn’t even been in here, has he?” Titus just huffs.

Everything is exactly as you left it, the bed sheets still rumpled, a pair of sweat pants tossed on the floor, even your phone is untouched. Making a quick loop around the room, you stuff everything you’ll need into a duffle bag. With trembling hands, you write out a quick note and lay it on Bruce’s pillow, right on top of a neat stack of papers that were signed and notified earlier that day.

Bruce hasn’t left the Cave in almost a week. He’s barely slept, only managing to grab a few hours here and there on a cot that’s in the Cave. He doesn’t have Alfred or Y/N to drag him upstairs into an actual bed to rest, or to eat.

When he finally does manage to make it upstairs, the Manor is ominously quiet. Like the Manor itself knows that something has changed with its inhabitants.

Bruce makes his way upstairs, and to his bedroom. He takes a quick shower, and flops down on the bed. His head lands directly on top of a stack of papers, and a note that’s written in undeniably familiar handwriting.

Bruce,

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that things have turned out this way, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t forgive you for throwing me in jail like that, for being more Batman than my husband. I married you because I loved you, and I still love you. You made a choice that night, you chose to be Batman instead of Bruce.

I signed for the divorce, Alfred said that you’ve had the papers written up for years. I already gave it to my lawyer and he had it notarized. You had already signed the papers so there wasn’t any need for you to be there. Alfred is staying with me for a little while, just until I leave Gotham. The boys are also staying with me.

I wanted to forgive you, Bruce. I know that I broke a promise to you, and I’m sorry for that, but you wouldn’t listen. You wouldn’t listen and you threw me in jail like I was just another piece of Gotham trash. Don’t take your anger out on Alfred or the kids. Take care of yourself, B.

I’ll always love you,

Y/N

Bruce reads the note again and again, trying to make his tired mind comprehend what he was reading. Of all the outcomes he had thought of, he’d never thought that Y/N would sign for a divorce, maybe a separation, but not a divorce.

He glances down as the papers, papers that he had written up as a contingency plan. Papers that Y/N had gotten ahold of and had signed. Life as he knew it, forever changed with her neat signature on the line beneath his own.

And for the first time in a long time, Bruce Wayne cried.

Killer - Part 4

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huilian · 6 years

Text

Equal to A Death Sentence

Characters: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd

Summary: A drunken night, leads to a drunken confession.

A/N: Happy New Year! Have some angst!

Dick was drunk. It wasn't often that he would be seriously drunk, but apparently it was one of those nights. It was the anniversary of his parents' death, and if that didn't bring back memories, Dick didn't know what will. He was planning to get drunk at one of the dingy bars in Gotham. He didn't trust himself with being in Bludhaven. At least in Gotham, there were other people. In Bludhaven, he would be completely alone. He was nearing half the bottle of cheap vodka when he saw Jason. Damnit. He was not prepared for that. He had specifically chosen a place nowhere near his family for the night. Why would Jason be here, now? Jason hadn't seen him yet, though. He could still get out of this bar. And, Jason saw him. No going out now. Jason walked towards him. A smug smile on his lips and a swagger to his steps. Dick wished he could be anywhere but here now. “Well, well, well. The Golden Boy, slumming it in Gotham bar. Never thought this day would come,” Jason said. “What are you doing here, Jay?” Dick managed to bit out. “Nothing of particular interest, now that I saw you here." Jason shrugged. “What are you doing here?” “Nothing,” Dick said. “Really? 'Cause I've got a dozen texts from Replacement to Bruce asking if I've seen you anywhere.” “Well, are you going to tell them?” Jason tilted his head, then gave a half-shrug. “Nah. I'm curious though. What got your ribbons in a knot?” “None of your concern, Jay.” “Oh, come on! You're drunk in a bar on the outskirts of Gotham, evading the family. I'm not going to be the one who explains this to B.” “Then just scram, Jay.”

Jason sighed. His whole demeanour changed. “You've gotten everyone worried, Dickie-bird. What's going on?” Dick simply looked at him. Jason waited patiently. “You're saying you don't know?” Dick asked him. “What? I'm supposed to know?” Then Jason's face fall. “Oh.” “Yeah, Jay. Oh.” Jason didn't call Bruce, or Babs. He sat down next to Dick, and asked for a glass from the bartender. When he got it, he poured a sizeable amount of the vodka Dick had on the table, then drank it in one shot. Through it all, Dick could only watch in amazement. “What is this shit? It tastes like, well, shit," Jason said. “You don't have to drink it if you don't want to, Jay," Dick said with a long suffering sigh. “Nah. If you're going to get drunk, I'm going to get drunk with you. Then you're going to my apartment.” That got Dick to look at Jason with amazement. “Don't think anything about it, I'm overdue for an apartment change anyway.” Dick let the matter drop. He continued drinking his vodka, only pausing periodically to check Jason's drinking. Jason only sipped at his drink, aside from that first swig. Dick wondered what that meant. Dick took another shot of the vodka. He decided to try to decipher what it meant tomorrow, when he was not out of his mind with grief and drunk to the gills. After a while, there was nothing left in the bottle. Dick called for another one. Thanks to his training, he had an amazing tolerance for alcohol, and he wanted to get drunk tonight, not just slightly tipsy. Jason saw that and said, “Damn, Dickiebird." Dick just glared at him, then took another swig of the vodka. “Okay, okay.” Jason raised his hands. They fell into silence again, broken only by the clinking of glass on glass. After Dick had drank his way through most of the second bottle, Jason took his glass and said, “Okay, that's enough.” Dick was too intoxicated to resist Jason's suspiciously gentle hands. Jason half-dragged, half-carried him to where he put his bike. Wait a second. His bike. “You took a bike here?” Dick managed to get the words out. “Hey, it's not my fault you decide to get drunk. Just hold on, my apartment's not far.” Dick grumbled while Jason lifted him up his bike and put his hands around Jason's waist. He tried to hold on tight, but his hands were too weak to do it. Thankfully, Jason's apartment really was not far from the bar. Jason then dragged slash carried Dick down from the bike, then up into the apartment. When they reached the apartment, Jason dumped him on the couch, then dissapeared into the kitchen. He reemerged with a glass of water. He gave it to Dick, who took it only after Jason had glared at him. “Drink. You'll feel better in the morning." Dick nodded his thanks. Jason went out again, and he could hear parts of a conversation. Dick was too tired and drunk to try to keep up. Jason went back in, a sour expression on his face. It was the kind having a conversation with Bruce will bring out. “Just talked to the big bad bat. You'll have problems with him tomorrow, Goldie.” “Heh. Goldie. I doubt I'm the golden boy, Jay.” “Did really not hear the part where you and him are going to have problems tommorow?” “We have problems everytime. It's nothing.” “Huh.” They fell into silence again, Dick sipping at his water and Jason taking a seat at the sofa. After a while, Dick said, "Have I ever told you where I got the name Robin?" “I'm not in the mood for a storytelling session, Dickiebird.” “No, really, have I told you? I know I told you about Nightwing, but do you know where Robin came from?” Jason sighed. “I just assume you made it up. It sure sounds like it.” “My mother used to call me that,” Dick said. That got Jason to look at him, really look at him. “I don't want to hear this, Dick.” Dick continued on. “She said it was because I was born on the first day of spring. And because I fly. I was her little robin, giving life and cheer everywhere.” “Too much cheer,” Jason grumbled under his breath. “Sometimes I wonder if she would hate me, knowing that the name she gave me was identical to a death sentence.” “The fuck. I'm outta here.” Jason made a move to stand up. Dick, drunk as he was, still managed to pull him back down. “You asked me why I was drinking myself to a stupor back there. Well, here's the answer. My mother would hate the fact that Robin was now equal to a death sentence.” Jason opened his mouth to argue, but Dick beat him to it. “I know about the jokes. You and Steph and Damian joked that dying is basically a rite of passage by being Robin. And yeah. All of you died, Jay. You, Stephanie, Damian, Tim, died because of Robin.” “I wouldn't put Tim there.” “He died because he was a Robin, Jay. You can't argue with that.” Jason sighed. “Everyone in the hero industry died, Dick. You know that.” “But Robins died, more than anyone else. More than any mantle. Makes me wonder if it is best that Bruce didn't take me in way back then. No Robins, no deaths.” “God, things I never wanted to know about your sad ass. That's simply the alcohol talking, Dickiebird. Go to sleep, you'll feel better in the morning.” Dick wanted to argue, but Jason glared at him. “Go.To. Sleep. Take the couch.” “Allright, allright.” Dick was too tired to protest more. Jason somehow has gotten up from the sofa, and he laid down. Within seconds, Dick was fast asleep. *** The next morning, Dick woke up with a terrible headache and a sore back from sleeping on the couch. He sat up, then he saw a glass of water and some aspirin. A note was slipped in between the glass and the table. Robin was the best years of my life. I'm pretty sure Tim, Steph, and Damian felt the same. Ps. If you ever say this to anyone, I will kill you. Dick smiled.

#dick grayson #jason todd #dc #fic #lian writes

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danyka-fendyr · 6 years

Text

Sleep is For the Week

Big thanks to Tumblr user @tantalum-cobalt for inspiring me on my main account @rmswiftie13 to write this! This is just a short fic I wrote about Damian and Tim doing some brotherly bonding.

Word count: 2378

Tim Drake was not too proud to admit he had some issues. Some less open-minded individuals might even call them problems. However, Tim was an intellectual, and therefore could recognize at 5:00 AM on a Tuesday, watching the sunrise on a digital screen showing a view of the woods outside the manor that he had set up when Steph had asked when the last time he saw the sun was, that not sleeping for 8 days straight and not eating for 3 was really more of an issue than a problem. Tim knew this because Tim had been solving a problem for those 8 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes and 52 seconds. If anyone knew what a problem was, it was Tim.

No, Tim Drake didn’t have any problems except the one he was currently working on. He couldn’t figure out how Bane was doing it, but somehow he was managing to get a new and apparently enhanced form of his special little strength elixir through Tim’s carefully constructed screening system. Technically it was the GCPD’s screening system, but Tim may have nudged them along by dropping a fully formed plan into Commissioner Gordon’s inbox using an anonymous email account. Not to say that Jim didn’t know exactly who was responsible for the new low in drug-trafficking currently occurring in Gotham city. Jim Gordon was good at knowing things quietly though.

Tim hadn’t figured out exactly how enhanced Bane’s new serum was, and he wouldn’t be able to until he got his hands on some of it, which was another thing bothering him. He had some idea though since Bane had used it to knock Bruce straight out of commission for the past 8 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds. Let’s just say there were a lot of broken bones involved. A ridiculous amount really.

That was why Tim was currently sitting here, working on overdrive. Dick was dealing with something in Blüdhaven. The details eluded him at this particular stage of caffeine-driven sleep deprivation. Jason was off with the outlaws doing goodness knows what, but probably involving murder on some level. Steph and Cass checked in on him occasionally, but they were a bit preoccupied, Steph with helping Dick and Cass with helping Alfred watch over Bruce, who was being particularly difficult.

That left Damian. Tim wasn’t worried about Damian interrupting him though. When given the option, the demon-brat avoided Tim like a vampire avoided daylight. So Tim was left in peace, except for the nightly patrol where he and Damian tried to avoid speaking. They couldn't afford to get into too many arguments, spread as thin as they were, so it was better to just not talk at all.

A steady dripping sound filled the cave, a peaceful background to Tim’s research. His fingers clicked steadily across the keys, and his background ambiance audio was helping him stay focused. Or so he thought.

As it turned out, the classical music combined with the sounds of a storm, the dripping off some stalactite in the back of the cave, and the steady thrumming of his fingers on the keyboard may have been a little too calming. Tim’s fingers began to slow as his eyes began to droop. In a last-ditch effort, he reached for his coffee thermos, only to find it empty. He idly wondered how that had happened, closing his eyes in annoyance. He only meant to close them for a moment, but once they were closed it just felt so nice.

All he wanted to do was drift out of his tired, aching, throbbing body that had been screaming in protest at him all week. His eyes itched and burned even while closed, his stomach churned, his head hurt and his limbs ached. Before he fully knew what was happening, brain slowing down to match the speed of molasses, Tim Drake was asleep.

Damian was bored. No, bored was an understatement. The understatement of the century. If he didn’t find something to do, he was going to stab someone. Speaking of stabbing people, what was Drake up to?

Damian figured he was probably in the cave, and if Damian was lucky, his guard would be down. A prime target for stabbing. Perhaps torture, if the opportunity presented itself.

Damian made his way down to the cave, at first confused by the echoing sounds bouncing off the walls. He couldn’t understand why on earth someone was playing classical music in here without headphones. It was an unspoken rule of the Batcave that if you were going to listen to music you should probably do it with headphones since sound resonated all too well. The answer became clear to him though when he took a few steps further.

Drake was lying crumpled in a desk chair, his body in a pathetically grotesque position. Headphones hung halfway off his head, the cord jerked out of the computer by some movement in his sleep. One arm was folded between his waist and his legs, and it looked like he was probably losing blood flow to it. The other dangled lazily down to his toes, fingertips brushing the floor, while his head was buried awkwardly between his knees, neck twisted in some inhuman fashion.

“Drake, as much as I would like to see you in pain, I need you to have my back on patrol tonight. Wake up, or I assure you, you will not have to feel my wrath to understand the meaning of pain. Though I shall provide more, no doubt,” Damian added.

Tim didn’t stir. He didn’t even move a single muscle, other than to breathe. Damian wondered if maybe someone had put something in Tim’s coffee, but then he realized that someone would have had to be him since no one else had the time for that kind of devious micro-managing. That was certainly one way to get Drake to sleep.

“Drake!” Damian called his name louder this time.

Still no response. He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. It would seem there was only one option left to him.

Damian crossed the room, pushing Tim up by his shoulders into something that resembled a sitting position. He was heavier than Damian expected him to be, still in his Red Robin suit that he hadn’t changed out of from patrol. Carefully, Damian hefted him halfway over his shoulder. He stumbled slightly, taken aback by the sheer muscle mass of the older boy. He knew on a subconscious level that Drake had to be strong to some extent, but he hadn’t thought about how much time Drake probably actually spent working on maintaining that strength, or the weight that would result from that behavior.

Damian dragged Tim along, refusing to bow under his weight. Tim still hadn’t stirred, fast asleep. Curse Drake and his dangerous sleeping habits. Didn’t he know he could get Damian killed?

Eventually, after much dragging but certainly no sweating, panting, or any other signs of large amounts of effort, the 13-year-old managed to get his older brother into bed. The only problem now was that it was not Tim’s bed, but Damian’s.

Bruce’s room was the closest to the cave, naturally. He had to be there at any given time during the day, or the night for that matter, so it only made sense. However, Bruce was currently occupying his room, so it wasn’t like Damian could drop his load off there. The next closest room just so happened to be his.

He had demanded it under the pretense that, as the heir to the mantle of Batman, he ought to be just as close, if not more so, to the cave than his father was. It definitely had nothing to do with the nightmares that had plagued him since his death or the fact that the room had belonged to Grayson in previous years and perhaps was capable of bringing Damian such paltry feelings as peace and comfort. No, his reasons were purely practical.

So there Drake lay, diagonal on Damian’s Superman comforter, a gift from Jon. It was a stupid gift, but he never knew when Jon would be visiting, so he thought it best to keep it on at all times so as not to hurt the feelings of his overemotional...ally. Constant vigilance was important. Almost as important as making sure to stay on the good side of one of the most powerful families in the universe. It was an intelligent political move on Damian’s part, of course.

Damian’s hands came to rest on his hips as he stared at Drake, surveying his conundrum. The true heart of the problem was not that Drake was on his bed. No, the real dilemma here was that, after lugging Drake up a few flights of stairs and placing him on his bed, Damian was not tired, exactly. No. He just thought it might be prudent to rest and make sure he was up to his full strength for patrol tonight.

Of course, Damian could only see one way of getting any sleep right now. He refused to use a bed that wasn’t his own since that would be admitting defeat, something Damian never did. Instead, he would simply have to share the bed with Drake.

Moving him again wasn’t an option since Damian didn’t want to strain any muscles that could be vital in his role as the next Batman. He had a responsibility as the blood son. With that in mind, Damian moved to the far end of the bed, as far from Drake as he could get, and went to sleep.

When Tim woke up, his first thought was that he was not in the Batcave. Slowly, he assessed his surroundings. The first thing he registered was warmth. Radiating out from somewhere near his chest, there was something providing heat.

Tim looked down to see a shock of dark hair, messy with sleep. His first instinct was confusion, unsure who exactly was sleeping curled into his side. He shifted slightly to get a better look at their face, and nearly cried out when it was Damian.

The young boy’s long dark lashes brushed his high cheekbones, eyelids fluttering lightly from some dream and obscuring his sharp green eyes. He had his arms wrapped in on himself, knees pulled up to his chest, back pressed firmly against Tim’s own chest.

Tim was just going to quietly sneak out of the room, already sitting up halfway, when he heard something. A quiet groan slipped out of Damian’s mouth, so low Tim almost missed it. The noise got louder, whimpers now, gut-wrenching in their vulnerability.

Tim almost left it, knowing that the last person Damian would want to see waking up from a nightmare was him. When Damian cried out sharply though, Tim knew he couldn’t leave him like this. He didn’t have the heart to wait for someone else to help the demon brat. He may be annoying, but he was still Tim’s baby brother, and he looked tiny and fragile lying on his Superman blanket in the dim room, curled in on himself. He was protecting his core, the very same place Tim knew a large scar lay, one that marked more than just an injury.

He reached out, shaking Damian’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Tim whispered harshly. “Hey, kid. Wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

Slowly, Damian stirred, the strangled noises coming out of his mouth fading.

“Drake?” Damian asked, blinking and revealing his hazy green eyes. “How did you get in...never mind. Go away Drake, I’m sleeping.”

The tiny boy turned onto his side, away from his brother. Tim knew better than to think that he was just going back to sleep. He had seen the sheen of tears in his brother's eyes before he had rolled over, and he knew what he was hiding.

“You were having a nightmare,” Tim said.

“I’m fine now. You may leave,” Damian muttered.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tim asked softly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I will be quite alright, Drake. I assure you I shall be more than competent on tonight’s patrol.”

Damian’s voice was terse, but he couldn’t hide what Tim knew. With his pale hand on the boy’s dark shoulder, he could feel the slight shudders running through Damian’s body. Without pausing to ask, or to consider the possible effects on his own health, Tim scooped Damian up and placed him in his lap. Carefully, he wrapped his arms around the little boy and held him close.

“You don’t have to talk about it. I know I’m not close to you like Dick, and I can’t relate like Jason. Just...don’t do this alone. You don’t want to be alone, Damian. Trust me.”

There was a moment of silence, the feeling of it thick in the room, like the tight feeling in the back of Tim’s throat.

“Very well. I shall allow you to stay on one condition. Go back to sleep Drake. I can’t have you collapsing in the middle of a fight. You’re already a disaster enough as it is when you’ve had enough sleep, you had best not get me killed in a situation that could have been completely avoidable,” Damian said.

“Yeah, okay kid,” Tim said, lying back down with Damian still held tightly in his grasp.

“And you will eat something as well. Not that you need it. You are incredibly heavy, do you know that Drake?” Damian grumbled, wiggling so that he was more comfortable.

“Sure. Whatever you say, Damian,” Tim said, grinning to himself.

“Now go to sleep Drake,” Damian commanded.

As it turned out though, he didn’t need to tell Drake to fall asleep. He had already done just that, his breathing settling into a steady, slow rhythm. Damian felt his own breathing slow too, and before he knew it he had joined his older sibling.

When Bruce would finally convince Alfred to let him out of bed for the first time in over a week, he would be surprised when he went to check on his youngest only to find him sleeping, curled up underneath the cape of his third son. He smiled, closing the door as he turned to head back to bed. Not, however, before he had time to snap a pic to send to his eldest in Blüdhaven. Dick was going to love this.

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wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey · 7 years

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Thanks for the tag, @theamiableanachronism! I really enjoyed this one!

rules: choose any 3 fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions. then tag some friends.

i choose: • Batfam • Scarlet Heart Ryeo • The Walking Dead

the first character you loved:

• Bruce Wayne and Alfred. My first real intro to the Batfam and DC was Batman Begins, and I thought Bruce Wayne was the coolest, bravest guy ever. And Alfred was THE BEST. Kind, fatherly/grandfatherly, loyal, sarcasm lord

• Wang So. Obviously. Even before I had actually seen a single episode, because I heard he had a tragic story, and he was also as beautiful as an angel. A dark, wounded angel, but an angel none the less. When he stormed onto the scene and revealed himself to totally be a murder angst cupcake, as advertised, well, I was bewitched

• Dear sweet Glenn, who sasses the heck out of Rick while saving his butt. Yeah, Glenn, the pizza delivery boy who was the bravest, most unselfish of them all. Who became one of the most trusted leaders. He could have turned and left Rick to die, no one would have known or cared, but he didn’t. He helped out a stranger, and saved a heck ton of other people by that simple act.

the character you never expected to love so much:

• All the Robins, honestly. Look, when I watched the Dark Knight trilogy, all I knew about Robin was from a clip or two I had seen of the old campy Batman show, and I kind of was glad a legit Robin never showed up in the films just because I thought it would be ridiculous. I was SO wrong. I had no idea. I had no idea what dark, tragic, beautiful, light, funny, DEEP stories surrounded the MANY kids who would take up the Robin mantle

• Eun, I guess. I never hated him, but since he was always rather immature, it was easy to laugh at him and make fun of the things he did. Then things happened, and while he remained naive in many ways, it was rather sweet and sad at the same time. My dorky son deserved better

•Daryl Dixon. Starts out seeming like a rough, angry, slightly racist redneck whose one redeeming quality is his concern for his even more messed up brother. And then I realized how much of a softy he was underneath everything, how much he cared about Sophia, and how it destroyed him what happened to her. I saw him connect with Carol, and befriend Rick and Glenn, and become Rick’s brother essentially, and be softened by Beth. And as the seasons go on he becomes more badass, more caring, more indispensible to the group, and he loses the undesirable traits he picked up from his childhood. We find out what his childhood was. Daryl with Glenn is Rick’s right-hand man, and HE JUST CARES SO MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING DON’T EVEN TRY TO DENY IT MAN

*I’m gonna cheat and add another person for TWD: Carl. In the first season or two he is a little kid, kind of annoying at times, but boy does he grow up and mature. It’s a terrible tragedy what he goes through, the things he sees and has to do that no kid should ever have to. But he is so freaking strong, and he respects his dad so much, and I love his friendship with Michonne. I love his concern for his little sister. I love how he shoulders responsibility, how he does what he thinks is necessary, how he worries sometimes that he is becoming a monster too. I FREAKING LOVE HOW HE WILL nOT PUT UP WITH NEGAN HE HAS NO EFFS TO GIVE FOR THE GUY HE IS TOO MAD AND HAS SEEN TOO MUCH

the character you relate to the most:

• Well, I can relate to Jason’s love for books, to Tim’s often more quiet and reserved nature. However, I definitely relate to Dick Grayson the most. He is more outgoing than me, more outspoken, but he has such great love for his friends and family. The care for his little brothers (in canon and fanon) is something that particularly calls my attention. You see, besides two older siblings, I have four younger brothers, and I have helped raise them, I have fought against them, fought with them, fought for them, laughed with them, and busted with pride over their accomplishments. I have been the person who tried to organize them, to tease them, to keep the peace, to enforce the peace. And maybe I am projecting but I just really see a lot of myself in Nightwing. The man who hopes, the man who tries to bring light to the darkest of places, the man others trust to help them when they fall. (I also just hold him in the deepest admiration and its a thing, I try to be a better and braver person so that if he were real I would be worthy of his friendship and respect...)

• A little bit Hae Soo, because I also would get increasingly frustrated by the culture at the time. We also share a deep love with Wang So :) Seriously though...maybe Baek Ah? Because he is the quiet and introspective type, he suffers quietly, he listens and hears things and tries to help those who need it, he tries to bring the outcast brother back into the family. He is a healer of sorts, a healer of the heart, and he loves little kids and everything beautiful. He sees things.

• Maybe this is me projecting again but Glenn? Kinda small and nerdy, scared of a lot of things, but bravely keeps on trucking. And slowly rises to being one of the most integral parts of the group. A man who has strong morals and isn’t afraid to punch an ex-military man twice his size if that man gets between him and the people he loves

the character you’d slap:

• I’d say the Joker but honestly he deserves something more like a bullet to the head. I would totally slap a lot of the writers who don’t know what character development means, and I would slap at least half the Batfam because sometimes they just don’t know how to communicate feelings properly. And they frequently hurt each other even without meaning to. After all of this, however, I would pull them all in for individual hugs. Oh, I will also totally slap anyone who ever so much as tries to give Dick Grayson grief about the awful things that happened in the Blockbuster and Tarantula incident

• Wook. UGH. Also his sister and Queen Yoo. The king, whatshisface. Taejo? also the little creep Won. I would slap Yo but I would be afraid to mess up his eyeliner, which is on point at all times and is too wonderful to destroy

• Andrea. I am so sorry but I could not stand that woman ever. I rarely actively dislike a fictional person, and I apologize to fans of the comics, I realize that the show screwed over her character, but I despise Andrea with everything I’ve got. Mostly because she runs around proclaiming how much better she is than everyone while at the same time making colossal mistakes. And honestly her end was ridiculous. If Glenn can take out a walker while beaten up and duct-taped to a chair, you can figure out how to pick up pliers with your feet

three favourite characters (in order of preference):

• Dick Grayson is the love of my life, and then I guess Bruce, Jason, Tim, and Damian are tied for second place, and then directly behind them are Barbara, Cass, and Steph (I need to read more comics and fics about them, and I am sure they will advance to make the second tier even more crowded). Alfred is in a special category all on his own

• Wang So (love of my life), Bae(k) Ah, and I guess a tie with Hae Soo, Jung, Woo Hee, and Lady Oh

• Glenn is first in my heart now and forever, and Carl, Daryl, Carol, Michonne, Maggie, and Rick all hold second place. I like a lot of the other characters, but I’m going to give third place to Tara, and she doesn’t have to share with anyone. She is just that cool (also awkward and adorkable)

a character you liked at first but not anymore:

• I love every single member of the Batfam to with all my heart. (The ones I am familiar with, don’t know much about Duke and Harper yet.) To go beyond, to characters in the universe, well I won’t say I ever liked the Joker but I thought he was a really great bad guy, Batman’s ultimate foe, someone who should always be around throwing wrenches into things and whatnot. This was after I had seen him in the The Dark Knight. Then I started actually reading comics related things and HE KILLED JASON TODD. MY SON. NOW I DON’T CARE I WANT THE JOKER DEAD I WANT HIM DESTROYED, OBLITERATED, AND NEVER LOOKED BACK ON.

• Wook. I thought he was occasionally sweet, if not exactly the strongest of persons. And then I met his wife, who deserved SO MUCH BETTER. And then Wook revealed himself to be a jealous little eggshell

• SHANE. He’s kind of like The Walking Dead’s version of Scarlet Heart Ryeo’s Wook. Originally a decent guy, a good friend, but when things go south, he gets selfish and self-centered and bad things happen.

a character you did not like at first but now do:

• No one really? I think? Unless you want to bring the show Gotham into this picture...which I don’t, because that would also make me want to write a book about my love for it and certain of its characters

• can’t think of anyone this applies to

• Hmm, I guess Herschel? He was kind of annoying with his whole “let’s round up walkers and take care of them in my barn.” Then tragedy and a near death experience and eventually he winds up being the cool old grandpa

3 otp’s (in order of preference):

• I actually don’t have a strong preference as of yet...I kind of like BatCat, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. I haven’t experienced much media with either pairing yet so I have read and enjoyed both DickBabs (I still say it should be Dabs) and DickKori. Ooh I like Tim/Steph (is there a ship name for that?). I ship Jason with happiness. Actually I ship the whole Batfam with happiness and peace and a good night’s sleep. I don’t ship Damian with anyone because he is just a bby birb :)

• SoSoo, Baek Ah x Woo Hee, Eun and Soon Duk (Deok?). Also, So x Happiness/Peace/A Living Family Who Loves Him

• GLENN AND MAGGIE FOREVER. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND. Richonne is great and I definitely like Caryl. (I shipped Bethyl just a little, once upon a dream.)

this was fun :) if any of y’all want to do this @itspileofgoodthings @thelonelybrilliance @nalavistahlia @blackaquokat @castieltaking-hobbits2gallifrey @camsthisky @abadpoetwithdreams @tabbyofwisdom ...I feel like there are other people I want to tag but it is way late (early) and my brain is dead forgive me if I left you out and please consider yourself tagged!

#tag games #fandoms #batfam #scarlet heart ryeo #the walking dead #those are all very different things

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