#like Bruce isn't even a millionaire

[not-another-robin]

Does anyone wanna hear about my Borderline Unrecognizable no capes au where everyone is just normal

#like Bruce isn't even a millionaire #hes just a broody bachelor mother of 6 whos house the neighborhood kids are always at #I'm gonna be real it started as a Perchance to Dream ep but for alfred #everyone's safe. the kids are normal and in school. Bruce is a nurse (close enough to a doctor). everything's okay.

[jokin-around]

I made a Twitter thread about this, but I've been reading early issues of Batman lately and something I've noticed is how differently the contrast between Batman and "Bruce Wayne" is depicted

obviously, in many things today, "Bruce" (ESPECIALLY in fandom) is often depicted as a happy-go-lucky himbo in order to draw contrast with a grim and "tortured" batman

so how does this hold up when you look at older depictions? the answer: it doesn't. in fact it was almost the opposite.

way back in the very first issues of the official Batman title, Bruce Wayne, no matter WHAT he's doing, isn't the one who laughs and smiles, Batman is.

and these are comics that were published BEFORE the comics code authority caused a dramatic shift in tone

Bruce Wayne (or least the cardboard cutout refered to as Bruce Wayne) isn't nessecarily described as grim, but he isn't a very happy person either, he's still a rich airhead, but not so much a "himbo" or even a dedicated businessman, he's depicted as a BORED, uninterested, aristocrat:

this Bruce seems to spend of his time smoking a pipe at home or mingling with other upperclass individuals, that in-between we tend to see MUCH more often in modern comics doesn't seem to exist yet (in part because the batcave Is non-existent which I suspect has given him a bit more privacy as a character)

MEANWHILE Batman, who's investigates murders every other night almost seems to be having the time of his life:

the early comics seem to routinely depict the burgoise as cold, snobbish & bored, in contrast to batman who seems particularly expressive and joyful, for all we know Batman may partially exist as some millionaires weird passtime, but of course Bruce Wayne (the real guy, not the facade) is written as someone who genuinely seems to care due to his own past experiences:

but , with all of that layed out, one can conclude that when ppl say Batman is the "true persona" ect. originally, it wasn't (just) because of his coping or whatever it was because when he wasn't Batman he was forced to live life as a cold, "useless" millionaire:

"what if a rich a guy gave a fuck?" is still very much the base concept here, but what's surprising is how much BITE there is to it

the concept wasn't being proposed because it's like… a plausible thing to happen or attainable on a personal level, but because the rich reliably and consitently do not care

the rich ppl in this book, "Bruce Wayne" included, are not written to be envied as people. they're written to be insufferable. ppl with endless resources who are still somehow unsatisfied with life and choose to do nothing useful or direct with the amount wealth they've accumulated

but ofc it shouldn't be ALL THAT surprising, Batman debuted in Detective Comics in 1939…. ONE year after the great depression, Bob and Bill had more than a good reason to feel a bit bitter

but rolling back to the point of this analysis, whenever I say "let batman be happy" I mean "let Batman enjoy his job" despite the pain, despite the death, despite the murder, despite the hypocritical nature of it all and how problematic it may be because it's a life he also chooses, not just out of compulsion, but because it's hands on, direct & purposeful. it gives him something to do & it gives him a chance to punch a problem in the face (which may be good or bad depending on what that problem is, but still)

that kind of depiction is what set up the groundwork for nearly every deconstruction that's come since but it's so buried in time at this point that lines from characters claiming bruce "loves being batman" seem to ring completely hollow

tbh, I think the old way of depicting Batman can be ( and as been in some media) woven into the way he's depicted today, in the past Batman was an outlet for every emotion Bruce Wayne had to hide elsewhere, a symbol of empathy, fury and passion, for modern Batman, I imagine those three things still hold true, layered on top of an alter ego that allows a modern Bruce Wayne to be weird and damaged and dark.

so uh, ln conclusion, I think batman enjoying what he does to a certain extent is a crucial aspect of his character that's been lost and withered and forgotten about, let him a have a little fun, we can discuss the ramifications of all that when discussion seems necessary

#batman #Bruce Wayne #DC comics

[cluescorner]

Tim Drake has a weird fucking function

The thing about Tim that I find unique is that his life became SO MUCH WORSE after joining the heroing thing. Everybody else had a mid-to-shit life before becoming a hero/living with Bruce and mostly everybody (except Jason who LITERALLY DIED) had their life improved by being a hero/being Bruce's kid (or at least it is typically portrayed as such.

Tim had the exact opposite trajectory. His life wasn't perfect before he became Robin, but like...multi-millionaire/billionaire (canon is unclear, but he's within Gotham's upper-strata) kid with both natural intelligence + charisma and a bright future ahead of him and parents who were emotionally neglectful but nothing really beyond that (which is also a form of trauma, but all of the info we have indicates that the Drakes were no Arthur Brown or David Cain) and he still had other people he could rely on outside of them. He went to boarding school, which could be something horrible OR something amazing depending on your own thoughts/experiences. I grew up having a commute where we'd drive past a really pretty and rich af boarding school that literally everybody in our area DREAMED of going to, so to me the idea of going to boarding school sounds incredible but mileage may vary. Tim seems like the type of kid who would thrive in that though. Based on what we know in canon atm, his pre-robin life was fucking amazing.

And then he starts being the sidekick and working towards becoming Robin. His parents immediately get kidnapped and poison themselves through drinking tainted water; his mom dies and his dad is in a coma. This is not the fault of Robin, but Tim himself muses about the idea that Robin and dead parents are linked: to become Robin completely, you must lose your parents. And with how fate/destiny/canon events can operate in comics universes, maybe he isn't that far off. Once his dad wakes up, their relationship becomes strained as the man grieves the loss of his wife and realizes that his son has been doing vigilantism as a hobby. It is unclear exactly how good of a parent Jack was before the incident, but the results of Tim's involvement with the Robin mantle has definitely made things worse between father and son. Jack will also die within quick succession of 2 of Tim's best friends, his girlfriend, and his other father. He will also effectively lose like 1/2 his loved ones in the fallout of all of that mess including: his older brother, his other friends (both civilian and superhero), and the stepmother with whom he shared what I would argue is his best parent-child relationship (Dana also may have died, but it's left unclear). He has stopped pursuing higher education (the moment he even applied for college he 'died', and it seems he hasn't made another attempt since) and if he wasn’t a major focus of the media before he sure is now. He tries to quit briefly (in fact he initially was planning on quitting once someone more suited came along) and cannot bring himself to do so. Even when he does manage to get away for a while, his superhero life impacts the pre-robin life he is trying to go back to. Leaving is an impossibility, this is all there is for him now. He also isn’t allowed to make mistakes anymore, not when lives hang in the balance. The one who enforces that impossible standard the most (besides Bruce depending on who's writing) is himself. He’s got TRAUMA now and people want to hurt him constantly. He is constantly questioning his own sanity and morality and place in the world. He almost dies like every month. Tim grows colder and less grounded, he is becoming both a better and a worse version of himself at the same time. He’s saving lives in the same few issues as he’s setting up a Saw movie plot for the man who killed his father. He is haunted by the ghosts of his past and the looming figure of his future. His life becomes SO MUCH FUCKING WORSE after he becomes Robin. Some of it is the fault of others, some is the fault of circumstance, and some of it is due to his own actions. But basically all of Tim's worst traumas and life-changing moments are either tied to or caused by Robin. Dick's parents would still be dead, Jason would still be living on the streets, Stephanie would still have Arthur Brown for a father and a lot of other things that deserve their own posts/IDK if they've been retconned, and Damian would still have been raised in the eco-cult where death is a constant. Those are life circumstances that occur without the involvement of Robin, the only one who even needs Bruce involved at all in their series of events is Damian. But Tim? All of what is considered his 'worst' moments occur after he assumes the role.

This idea is what I find the coolest and most fascinating about Tim as a character. Being a hero is usually portrayed as either an outright awesome thing or a righteous duty that one must fulfill or (maybe in a grimmer and/or more grounded story) a sacrifice to your interpersonal relationships/mental health that is made for the greater good. For Tim, being a superhero actively ruined his life (both because of the general circumstances surrounding being a kid vigilante and the choices he made as part of that role). It's never portrayed that way in canon because we need to come out of issues going 'wow being a superhero is so cool! I'm gonna buy the next issue!', but when you just look at Tim's life literally everything really bad that we know of occurred after he became Robin.

#tim drake #batman #batfamily #Red Robin 2009 #Red Robin #idk this is just why I think Tim is a really interesting character. I'm probably not being as articulate as I could be but it's tumblr so #I've had a lot of people say that they think Tim is the most boring robin. And I disagree because I don't think any of them are boring #but it is definitely the hardest to explain what makes Tim interesting to people with only a cursory knowledge #and it doesn't help that a lot of what makes Tim cool relies on his relationships with OTHER characters. #like you can explain why Jason is cool and interesting without even mentioning Batman if you really want to. #with Tim you need a fucking relationship chart and like 11 asterisks whenever anything involving the 'Bruce is dead' era is involved #so I just felt like typing up why I think he can really work as an exploration of somebody who straight up got WORSE after heroing #granted it's never actually stated because DC needs to make money. and tbh the closest we've ever gotten is Red Robin 2009 #which I feel is dubiously canon at best at this rate. was it retconned? did any of it happen in the current universe?

[cookie-nom-nom]

How to Kidnap Bruce Wayne in 6 Easy Steps

The Batfam decided to have a nice evening together. They had it all planned out. The Joker was JUST put into Arkam, Harley and Poison Ivy were having a date night, and they sent the Riddler a 5k puzzle piece, so they should have a few hours. Hopefully.

But then entered...the comedian. Not a knockoff Joker, mind, an actual comedian serving as the entertainment for the night. The kids were running a bet on the odds of Bruce laughing. Not actual laughter, naturally, but how many fake laughs Bruce would decide to manufacture. Dick maintained it would be 8 times at most, despite what the others thought.

And then a PowerPoint presentation started, with the words Bruce Wayne emblazoned behind the comedian. "Brucie Brucie Wayne. Local philanthropist, runner of jobs and charities and orphanages. Gotham's number one eligible bachelor if and only if you like kids. But Ladies and Gentlemen and Folks, I'm here to tell you otherwise. Because this right here? It's alllll a mask. I know the real Bruce Wayne, and I have the proof to reveal his secret identity."

Bruce was very carefully keeping his eyes on the performer, refusing to acknowledge the eyes latching onto him, or the occasional covert elbows.

The comedian dramatically flourished the remote and changed the slide. A stock photo of a man littering had Bruce's face crudely photoshopped over it popped up. "See! A menace to society! And I have an extremely reliable witness who swears that the recycling bin was three feet away. Tsk. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Which maybe I'd be okay with since we Matched on Tinder, and yet not a single spark despite how much chemistry we'd have!" A wall of unanswered Tinder messages of bad pick-up lines and far, far too many winky faces filled the screen, all sent to a profile claiming to be 'Bruce Waine'. "This MONSTER left me on read! Can you believe it? Ghosted. And that definitely isn't on me, because my Mom says I can make anyone swoon. Who do you trust between the two? Wayne? Some millionaire who could never relate to your everyday experience?" The slide flipped between Bruce suavely dealing with paparazzi and a sweet older woman. "Or Mom, who can make wonderful potlucks, whereas we all know the Wayne Manor has nearly burned down on three separate occasions thanks to Brucie trying to use a toaster!" Technically all villain attacks, but the public needn't know that.

The Wikipedia page's list of philanthropic acts and charities sponsored by Bruce Wayne scrawled across the screen, the comedian gesticulating wildly. "All this?? PROPAGANDA! This is what he WANTS you to think! When in reality, he's a two-faced, duplicitous, littering, puppy-kicking monster who REFUSES to answER MY TEXTS, IT'S NOT HARD! I'M FUNNY AND HOT AND--!" The comedian paused in frothing at the mouth, as if suddenly realizing the audience was there. They straightened, pointedly adjusting their collar. "We all know the true darkness that lies behind his friendly, ditzy, sexy façade. And so our goal is simple: we are going to kidnap this menace for the wellbeing of Gotham (and my love life)."

Step 1: Become an orphan.

"Alright, the first step of Plan 1 is simple. Now that you're an orphan..." the slide changed with a silly transition animation.

Step 2: Irreversible and extensive surgery.

"Now this step is a bit expensive but-" they feigned a surprised face at the protests in the audience. Planted, no doubt. "I'm sorry, what's the hold-up? We don't have all night! This is literally the first step and you already have questions?" The comedian gestured wildly in the direction of the Batfam. Bruce narrowly avoided recognition thanks to his fondness for sitting menacingly in the shadowy corner of the room. "Seriously! There're KIDS in the audience! They're far too young to know how easy it is to get tragically orphaned at a young age and left with no stability and an empty hole in your life to be filled with grief, rage, and fear!

"Sheesh. Some people have no consideration for the faint of heart. Think of the children! Literally, think of the children you will be infiltrating." A flick of the remote and Step 3: Infiltrate an orphanage popped up. "We all know the easiest way into the Wayne household is adoption. Now that you've gotten extensive surgery to appear like a child, the hard part begins.

"Little is known about the entity known as children. I have put together research to aid in your mission. You need to know how to walk, how to dress, how to speak. Do you know what rizz is? Can you dab on command? One mistake and you're dead. You can fool the hearts of men, but children will rip a poor performance to shreds. I should know, I was bullied severely on the playground every time I tried to bring up the question of what the deal with airplane food is..."

The comedian went on, detailing the absurd plan to trick Bruce Wayne into adopting them. It hinged entirely on the fact he was a well-known moron. The Batkids found great glee in piling on the jabs as the comedy bit went on. Step 4: Marketability analyzed the various personalities and attributes of the Batkids to extrapolate how to lure Bruce into adopting the infiltrator, highlighting key traits like 'small' 'looks like a drowned cat' and 'a glare that is really terrifying for a baby to have'. Bruce found that portion almost tolerable, given some of the kids turned upon one another in something akin to a feeding frenzy. But it wasn't long before the full brunt of their teasing returned upon him as Plan 1 concluded with Step 5: Buying rope and duck tape while not looking suspicious and Step 6: Using flower language to apologize (for the abduction).

"...Alright. So, maybe you don't have the funds to shorten the length of your leg bones. Or maybe you don't have black hair and blue eyes. I get it, re-dyeing is messy. If Plan 1 is infeasible for your budget or lifestyle, then I've kindly considered a second revenue of attack."

A massive picture of Batman filled the screen. The crowd descended into mayhem. "Oh don't tell me the entire audience believes the butts match! We're conspiracy theorists here, but I thought you had STANDARDS!" It was possible Bruce's face was going to freeze in that perpetual rictus. Dick waved a hand in front of him, not sure when he last blinked. "Come on people! They're clearly different people. Which is why I'm going to recruit Killer Moth to do a little crime. All the funds that would've gone to child surgery can now be injected directly into the criminal underworld. It's basically the same thing our taxes do but faster! I've thought this through. Killer Moth will do anything for a price and you won't like actually be in danger. I mean, can you imagine dying to some D-tier villain? Cringe. Anyway, this is your 'in' with Batman. He saves you and it's all very heroic. And then you start chatting, maybe get his number; it's going great. It's been a few months of him rescuing you over and over again, and hopefully you haven't died or whatever. At that point you bring up Bruce Wayne. I mean he's getting kidnapped all the time! It has to be incredibly inconvenient for Batman, and he deserves a break for all his hard work. So the next step of this plan is to convince Batman to kidnap Bruce Wayne..."

.....................................................

The comedian paced backstage during intermission, rehearsing the next segment. It seemed to be going well, a good-sized audience. There was one group in the back that was particularly uproarious, save for one adult in the center. But then, the comedian was suddenly surrounded by children who seemingly melted out of the shadows. "I don't think you are supposed to be back here. Are you lost? Do you need help finding your parents? ....wait, shouldn't there have been guards...?"

"Didn't see any," Tim shrugged. Hard to, when they were strung thirty feet up in the rafters of the auditorium. "Anyway, we've just been adoring your act. Our Dad? Not so much, though."

"Eh, can't please them all. Some people just put celebrities on the craziest of pedestals."

"More like he's listening to someone ramble about trying to kidnap him." Beneath a mask a mile thick, Dad was writhing in mortification.

The way the stages of grief so clearly filtered through the comedian's face was fascinating to watch. "..........Bruce Wayne is in the audience?" they asked weakly. "Like. Right now? Watching? Waiting to ambush me with lawyers?"

"Dad's in the bathroom." Batman was desperately out on patrol to avoid his family's heckling.

"Actually, I don't think he's caught on that you're talking about him yet." Jason grinned evilly.

"Man, I heard he was a bimbo but I didn't know it was that severe. My condolences, truly. Thank god the second half of the interview is about trying to plan a dinner date that doesn't get ruined by supervillains. I do NOT need him coming after me for slander. Uh. You aren't offended, right...?" They could not afford any type of lawsuit. Or controversy. The comedian stuck to petty Twitter bait, not actual problems.

The hoard of children beamed. Suddenly, the comedian realized the exits were cut off. A teen's arm looped around theirs, another surprisingly firm grip across their shoulders. "Nah. Actually, we had some suggestions. How'd you like to do a live interview...?"

.....................................................

"Alright folks, you're never going to believe this, but during the intermission I was cornered by children. It was terrible, I was having flashbacks to second grade..." an artistic shudder. "But thankfully, these ones just wanted to harass me after listening to me ramble about trying to seduce and/or kidnap their dad for the last half hour. Can we get a big welcome for the Wayne kids! I'd introduce them but they all look identical to me!" A fantastic roar of applause at the sudden special guest segment. "Luckily, these kids have graciously elected to let me interview them so that I have better data to act on when trying to kidnap their dad. And is he in the audience still...?"

"Nope! Still in the bathroom. Has been for thirty one minutes."

"Either he needs to see a doctor or he's locked himself in again. How often does that happen?"

"At least twice a month," Jason grinned. It wasn't an infrequent excuse to explain disappearances.

"One wonders how he survives. I like that in a man. Now, quick question. Which of you is the cutest?"

"Damian!" the hoard chorused. The youngest one snarled at once, rounding upon the others. The comedian scrambled away in what was unfortunately not a particularly exaggerated fashion. There was pure murder in the twerp's eyes.

Luckily, three brothers restraining him appeared to be enough. "Don't worry he has his rabies shot yearly," one smirked.

With cautious steps, the comedian approached where Damian was being dangled like a baby kitten. A few moments of examination, and they delivered the verdict that Damian was, in fact, a precious baby boy. The child hissed nastily. "Look at his beautiful eyes! Adorable. You could just get lost in them. Which is why I plan to print out approximately 30k pictures of this child and plaster Bruce's entire room with them. He'd never be able to leave, absorbed in his adorable adoptee."

"I'm his only biological offspring!" Damian snapped, literally. Dick had to jerk out of the way to avoid losing his fingers to the chomping child. "And that would never work!"

"Really? Doesn't he keep little picture rolls of you and corner near strangers into cooing over them?" The comedian is passed Bruce's wallet by Stephanie. "Wait, how'd you get this?"

"I took it from Dick, who stole it from Jason who stole it from Tim, who took it to reprimand Damian for stealing it from Dad."

"Wow, he is not observant in the slightest! I feel even better about my odds now. Oh, would you look at that, countless pictures..." They pulled out a roll. And then kept pulling, and kept pulling, the camera roll beginning to puddle at their feet. It was almost like a clown's handkerchief, save the fact the string of photos was sturdy enough to be used as a rope if needed. More than one of Gotham's rogues had been captured under the guise of Bruce rambling about his children.

"How much can he fit in one wallet?!" Something metallic clanged to the floor of the stage, and the comedian held up a pair of expanding handcuffs for the audience to gawk at. "Well well well, looks like I have excellent taste in men. Wait, there's also some pepper spray. When in Gotham, I suppose. Wow that's a concerning number of pocket knives...and approximately 2k in 100 dollar bills-- well isn't this scarily similar to the list of supplies I recommended in step 5! What, did he just hold someone ransom? Wait. Oh my god, that's how he made all his money. It's guilt that makes him a philanthropist! And all this time we thought he was perpetually haunted by his dead parents! WAIT." The comedian let the crowd howl, periodically interjecting as they paced the stage with grandiose graveness. "I have had an epiphany!" The laughter finally petered out, the comedian allowing the silence to linger. "Guys," they said, deadly serious. "If he made his millions kidnapping people, and I kidnap him....does that make ME Bruce Wayne???"

Batman had to dodge jokes from his kids for weeks afterward.

#disclaimer i only know the batfam from memes and cursory research (and pestering my comic fan brother) #i just had a SUPER funny dream last night and had to write it down #batfam #batman #dc fanfic #batfam shenanigans #batfamily #batfam fanfic #batfam fic #batfam funny #bruce wayne #do the butts match #dc #something to nom on

[nelkcats]

Hood Assistant

Prompt Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Next Ao3

Part 5

-----

It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do

------------------

Jason couldn't help but feel a surge of protection towards the boy in his arms, he looked so fragile as he tried to stop himself from shivering and snuggled into his chest.

Even though he should feel uncomfortable since they had only met for a couple of days, he didn't push him away, on the contrary, he hid him. Maybe it was some kind of newfound instinct but he wasn't comfortable letting anyone see the cheerful boy in such a dull way, as if the world was trying to eat him up and Jason was his only refuge.

Strangely the pits began to respond to him, he could feel the fury running through his veins, but he wasn't trying to tear the boy to pieces as usual, it almost seemed like it was trying to protect him. His confusion lasted a couple of seconds before the world became clear to his eyes, everything became extremely dangerous, almost oppressive and he had to suppress a groan when he heard footsteps near his location.

Scarecrow had been distracted by the crow that kept leading him away from the alley by yelling and pecking, unlike his previous chatty self the little crow only said "Kar Kar Kar", in its own way the little bird knew the strange man was a threat and he was trying to protect his new family.

Although Jason couldn't see it, the shadows where they were began to darken, hiding them completely inside the alley, the only thing that could be seen with the naked eye were the bright toxic green eyes he was showing, which, instead of being obstructed by the gas mask, made a more ominous scene for the observer. Scarecrow felt a chill run down his spine as the temperature around him dropped but he brushed it off in favor of continuing to chase the troublesome bird.

—----------

On the other side of the city, inside the mansion the alarms from the Batcave were heard, something extremely rare at that time of day.

"Oracle to the Batcave, it's an emergency" was heard over all the communications.

Bruce quickly moved away from the press conference upon noticing the vibration in his watch, he used those seconds to ask what was happening, camouflaging the question as a cough; he didn't get very far before reporters surrounded him questioning if the millionaire had gotten sick after spending so much time renovating the community pool, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Tim was half asleep on his computer but the call jerked him up, he panicked realizing he had a meeting with Wayne Enterprises in an hour but concentrated on the information Babs was about to tell him, priorities (and a bit of responsibility dodging).

When they were going to the kitchen for a snack, two siblings noticed the alert, they rushed but after considering for a few seconds Cass pushed Dick down the stairs, Dick for his part did a somersault landing perfectly on the floor, his gymnastics skills weren't rusty at all.

"Smug" Steph complained from her place on the sofa, she had come to the mansion to visit Cass, but as was the unspoken rule: she had stayed a little longer.

"This is not the time for games, I need assistance in Crime Alley, Crane started his attack and Jason is compromised" Barbara said desperately over the comms, she needed help fast "Are you guys available?"

"It's 4pm, it's too early for the bats to come out" Steph yawned, she would have liked to go out and show off her status as the best member of the bats but her suit was at home, maybe she could find a spare on the batcave.

"And Gotham has never seen us fight during the day, well, most of us." Tim gave Duke a curious look after he had entered through the mansion gates.

"Oh no, you are not going to let me fight the madman alone" he frowned "I just came for my afternoon snack, I'll go back to my patrol after that"

"This is not the time to argue! I don't care if you paint your costume red or put on a clown nose, I need someone supporting Jason with Crane now" Barbara voiced with frustration in her voice "he has a civilian who succumbed to the fear gas and Scarecrow changed the formula, this is urgent"

"Well, I guess the bats will be out early today, it'll be a scary day" Dick joked, although he didn't feel so amused after hearing about his brother's situation.

"I can help with the formula from the cave, I'm not as good with the Batcomputer as Tim but I can do it" Steph affirmed, even if Spoiler didn't go out on the streets she was going to find a way to help.

"Why? I can manage the computer from here while you go out on the field, Scarecrow's greatest strength is his formula so bats with masks integrated into the suit should be a better option" he stated confidently.

"Master Timothy, I hope you're not planning on skipping your 5 o'clock meeting." Alfred scolded the boy gently from behind.

"There's no time for meetings Alfie, Damian's at school and I can handle the computer better anyway" he smiled.

"No, we are enough bats, you can go to your meeting and Steph can handle the computer in the same way as you, the important thing is to get to Jay, this is not up for discussion" Dick spoke while frowning slightly, perhaps it was his concern as an older brother but he couldn't help but want to get to the place as soon as possible. Tim couldn't help but sigh at the tone and gave up on attending the absurd income meeting.

"Civilian, danger" Cass pointed out worriedly, the real issue wasn't saving Jason in this case.

"Yeah, I don't know how Jay ended up with a civilian but we have to get him out of there" Dick nodded "however, it's true that we can't go out that openly in the daytime, Duke do you think you can do something with that?"

"I can hide you," the latest addition to Bruce's adoption papers grumbled, "and focus on the crazy man while Jason is brought out."

"That will do" Barbara spoke a little more relieved "my break is about to end so I won't be able to help in such a direct way, but I will do my best"

"Okay, Orphan and Signal, it's time for the daytime operation" Dick spoke taking temporary leadership of the mission, he ignored the grunts of his siblings at the name "Spoiler, we'll be counting on you"

With that said, everyone went to the cave to take their respective suits; Except for Steph, who didn't really see the need to do it, and even if she was risking Bruce's wrath over the secret identities, she'd figure it out later, she was sure there wasn't much he could do considering she wasn't actually legally adopted, that would be a problem for her future self.

"It's a shame Jarro can't accompany us" Steph joked "seeing that he's in space and everything"

The other bats seemed distracted, from Dick she could understand it but she didn't know what Cass and Duke were thinking, the civilian? It was likely, she really hoped "the rescue" would go well.

—-------

Danny was scared, once the gas got into his system it didn't affect him like it would do on a human or one of the crows as it was originally intended to.

Hallucinations began to appear before his eyes, confusing themselves with memories, and his ghostly characteristics were more present than ever.

The only thing saving him from a complete transformation was Jason. He could feel Jason's gentle touch hiding him from the world, nestling his head on his chest.

Danny kept trying by all possible means to contain everything that could scare someone; He bit his lip, ignoring the sensation of his fangs gently piercing his skin.

Too ghostly for humans

Spectra's voice was heard perfectly in his head. Though years had passed since that incident, it had lingered within his memory, Jazz would have called it trauma, he wasn't so sure.

What are you?

He wanted to scream as the multiple times being called a monster or a threat played through his head. Until now he had no correct answer to that question, not since he was named a "True halfa" and Clockwork informed him that Plasmius was slowly dying.

Are you dead? That is cool! How did you die? Maybe you're a corpse and not a ghost, or a ghost zombie!

The innocent comment of a little boy brought him to tears, it was absurd. The "hero" Phantom had run away at that moment, he knew there was no way the boy would know that the memory affected him, that he could feel the flashes of electricity under his skin. Remembering the pain and the impotence, that didn't make it any better.

He remembered the nights he'd spent awake wondering if the accident had killed him, if he was really a ghost possessing his own corpse and was just prolonging the inevitable.

We don't need you! You are a threat!

Was there anything worse for a child than being rejected by his parents? Every time Danny heard Dr. Fentons yelling at him, whether they intended it or not, he felt the same way. If they told Phantom he wasn't necessary, Danny was the one listening to his parents, when Danny was shot, because they did not bother to repair the guns in his house so they wouldn't be pointed at him, he felt unimportant. What's the point of being showered with loving words while being stabbed through the heart?

You should leave the city

The only comment he pondered for hours. More than harming him, that random person made him understand that maybe Amity Park couldn't be his home anymore, maybe it was time to move on and stop being just Danny the Fenton creep or Phantom the hated hero. Perhaps it was selfish to want to be both.

Why do you always seek attention? We do not want you here and we will not fall for your games!

One of Dr. Fenton's comments flashed through his head, and Danny couldn't help but laugh as he sobbed into Jay's shirt, probably looking as pathetic as he felt. He hated the attention, he hated it so much.

"I didn't want to be a hero" he murmured, although his words were hardly understandable at that moment "I didn't want, I wanted to live, why did it have to be me? Why did they force me to protect them?"

Danny continued to babble on in frustration, the only reason he kept acting like the hero was because of Sam and Tucker, but he always thought it was unfair. Why did the whole town expect a dead child to protect them? Why were they not doing anything when they saw him bleeding ectoplasm in the middle of the street? Why didn't they stop the Fentons when they were developing dangerous weapons or talking about skinning him alive?

When did the living stop caring about the dead? Despite all that he did for the city, very few took into account that he was still a child, a child with too much responsibility, a child too wounded, who continued to heal others.

The situation was absurd. How many more times would he have to pick up his broken heart, praying that it could stick again even if they stole pieces? How much more could he ignore how the city never offered to give him a proper resting place?

He recalled a time as Phantom, in one of his weak moments remarking to a reporter that he never had a grave or proper rest. The rumor spread but apart from Mr. Lancer and some classmates giving him flowers, nobody did anything.

It was stupid really, but ghosts needed graves, graves were symbolic to them, it meant you died but you were loved. That no one noticed his death, the fact no one mourned him, had always felt like a void inside his soul. A void begging for affection.

But what was he supposed to do? Ask Jazz, who had her own coping methods, to lay a grave for his half-alive brother? Did he have to remind his best friends that the portal killed him? Perhaps it did it wrong, or halfway, but he died, undoubtedly.

Sam and Tucker liked to ignore the fact that his friend had come in screaming and came out in ashes. They saw it as a setback, and Danny understood, he wasn't going to spiral them into guilt just to make himself feel better, it was unfair.

"Will you leave me too?" He questioned raising his bright eyes to look at Jason "Are you going to break my heart? I'm warning you: I don't know if I can keep fixing it"

Jason gasped at the blue-green look in the boy's eyes, he could feel the anticipation, the way he was waiting for a positive answer. And he realized that no one had the right to destroy a person that much, because he had a feeling that Danny hadn't done that to himself.

But he could see the signs, he could see how this boy with teary eyes and fear of rejection was the same boy who had walked in without a care in the world to serve a bowl of soup to orphaned children, he could see how he needed approval, positive affection; And that maybe hit a little too close to home, because he knew he wasn't the one to give him those things.

"I won't leave you alone" he chose to reply "but you shouldn't offer your heart to strangers so easily Doll"

"It's funny that you say that" the halfa commented sadly "because you're not a stranger, honestly I gave it to so many people that I don't know how much is left of it, I'm sorry if I'm defective"

"No." Jason's grunt startled Danny, who turned to look at him in alarm.

"No?" He asked confused, for some reason Jason's neon green eyes sent him a sense of security, something inside him screaming protected, safe. To the point where he didn't actually wonder if his eyes weren't a different color earlier.

"No, people are not defective because they are not objects" although he was wearing the gas mask it was obvious that he was frowning "I don't care how many stupid things people told you, you are not defective, you are just human and if you have the nerve to say i'm worth it, I can give you back the same fucking feeling, you cute motherfucker"

"Does that mean you don't want it?" The boy asked instead. He didn't want to have another existential crisis over his humanity when he was barely conscious with the effects of the gas, he felt so drugged. Though his heart definitely sped up at the other's words, did Jason believe he was worth it? he'd have to talk to Johnny about it later, and yell for a while, if he was lucky enough to remember.

"Although I'd love to have it, I'd like you to save it for someone who can take better care of it" Jason spoke, noting that the boy wasn't concentrating on the positive things "you're not in the right state of mind right now Doll, don't do things you'll doubt later"

"But I-"

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard voices in the distance. Jason got back into a defensive position as Danny hid in his chest again, barely controlling the memories that threatened to flash before his eyes. He couldn't succumb again, he had to remember: Jason was safe, Jason was safe.

—--------

The moment Duke arrived on the scene he felt a chill run down his spine, the light and darkness in that whole part of town just felt incorrect, and a feeling of wrongness ran through his body.

"I didn't know it was getting cold in Gotham," Dick complained as he rubbed his arms in an attempt to keep himself warm. He momentarily wondered if Crane was working with Freeze.

"Focus, mission, find brother " Cass motioned to both of them, putting on the gas mask and adjusting it correctly around her face; the language was still a bit confusing for Cass, she was used to having her intentions read through their fights so expressing it in words was always tedious. That's why she usually chose to speak in shorter sentences, to the point instead of winding around, a bit the opposite of her older brother in a certain way.

"You're right, we're getting closer to the place marked by Oracle" Dick nodded as he headed into one of the alleys, both he and Signal had their gas masks on. It was then that he heard noises near one of the alleys.

He leaned out to see the cause of all the fuss and saw how his route was divided in two, on the one hand Cane was fighting with a crow? On the side of the road, looking completely exasperated and furious, Dick honestly took pity on the animal.

On the other side shadows seemed to be covering the alley, although it was hard to see through the smoke, Dick could make out a familiar figure, who had completely toxic green eyes and was snarling at him, yeah, that could be a problem.

"I found Jay" he commented unsure, it was always risky to approach his little brother when he was affected by the pits. He honestly listened to his warnings more as a way to reassure his brother that he was safe, he wasn't afraid of him at all, no matter how much Bruce seemed to think Jason was a mindless being during the episodes.

Dick saw it from a different perspective, Jason "Pitter" Todd was a more primitive form (and Jay absolutely hated the pun Dick created, he repeated the word Peter at least eighty times before giving up), but he retained his consciousness, he didn't instantly turned into a mindless being who went for blood and guts, he was more of a very aggressive person who put instincts as the first priority, being very prone to acting out. Still, definitely Jason.

"We have a problem, Cass come with me and help me determine Jay's condition, Duke take care of Crane" Dick ordered over the comms, to deal with "Pitter" it was better to have Cass on his side, although he was considered more expressive, she was considerably better in reading emotions.

"Oh come on, I said I wasn't going to face the madman alone." Signal frowned, although he was relieved not to have to go near the glowing black hole he could see from where Jason stood, no, he'd heard enough warnings to know it was a bad idea.

"Dayshift" Dick sneered from the comms "we can't be as seen as you can, at least the alley can cover us but we cant help it”

Duke still grumbled as he walked to the opposite side of the strange shadows, where Crane could be seen frustrated with a small crow.

"Are you serious?" Duke questioned in disbelief as he watched the little bird beating one of Gotham's worst villains just by pestering him to death.

"What's next, an army?"  He asked mockingly, however he swallowed his words at the moment when he heard a "Kar" above his head, he looked up and felt hundreds of red eyes watching from the beams of the electrical cables "yes, excellent, an army of crows, exactly what we need for a Scarecrow"

"Kar, Kar, Kar" several of the crows began to sing, for a moment he wondered what they were doing until he turned his gaze to Crane, who was covering his suit as the crow pecked at him.

The little crow moved away from Crane to quickly fly with the others and as if he were a general in a speech he spoke "Kar, sacrifice, Kar", the crow flapped his wings looking determined.

Duke was genuinely concerned about what the crows were learning in Gotham, who had taught them the word sacrifice? And why were they so scary?

"You won't be able to beat me, aerial beasts!" Scarecrow yelled furiously, firing more of the gas. The birds were not affected as they only flew a little higher. Some of them looked genuinely murderous, though, so the gas might have caused a reaction in them.

"Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice" the crows began to sing in unison, Duke felt that he had become a spectator in a horror movie.

"Really, what the hell?" Duke questioned in dismay, he was supposed to write this on the report, dammit.

He moved a little out of the way when he saw the crows preparing to fly toward Crane. He knew what his battles were and this was not one of them.

Almost to confirm his point, hundreds of crows swooped down on Crane at once, pecking and effectively trapping him in one of the alley corners. When they finished him off, the villain had minor injuries all over his body and was surprisingly unconscious. Duke was internally grateful that Crane used so much protection or maybe they would have gouged out his eyes, crows were scary.

"Love, love, love" the little crow repeated happily, his attitude had changed the moment they defeated the villain but Duke had learned not to trust the little creature, small and terrifying.

"Yeah, thanks for doing my job for me, I think" Signal wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to the current situation "at least I didn't do it alone, I guess"

Almost as a signal, the crows withdrew and the scary little buddy made its way to the alley where Dick and Cass were possibly standing, well, that was no longer his problem.

His day shift was officially over, better turn Scarecrow over to the police, he would have to tell Bruce to control Arkham in case he tried to escape again. But his current priority was the pancakes Alfred had in the fridge, without a doubt.

He collected a sample of Crane's gas as he returned, he was sure there would be a couple of casualties by the end of the day so it was best to give Steph a sample when he got to the mansion. Also because of the aggressiveness of the crows, he could add some negative side effects to the birds as a consequence for the new fear gas formula, honestly Duke didn't feel like dealing with bloodier crows than normal.

—--------

"Scared, out of it, protective" Cass informed Dick as soon as he was a few feet away from where Jason seemed to be snarling at him in full rage, although he wasn't quite sure as the mask muffled the noise. This reaction was a bit more intense than he had expected at first, but he still felt that he could deal with it.

"It's fine Little Wing, it's me" Dick held up both hands, a sign that he was obviously unarmed, it was better to treat Jay the way Damian treated the feral cats at the animal shelter. Not that he was going to tell Jay that, ever.

"It took you long enough, bastard" he answered annoyed, but still not loosening his grip on Danny, who seemed to be shaking more the more people got closer, how did he know? One more mystery among many.

"Yeah, sorry, we were a bit busy when the alert came in" Dick sighed "now, if you can hand me the civilian"

"No" was the quick answer.

"No, don't leave me, no," Danny muttered, clinging closer to Jason's shirt, barely understanding what was going on in the conversation beyond a few sentences. He was wondering if he should buy Jay a new shirt, his brain felt so tired all of a sudden.

"Alert, danger, stay away" Cass signed from next to him, it was obvious that neither of them wanted to get away. Although strangely, Cass felt more aggressiveness from the civilian than from Jason himself at the suggestion.

The temperature dropped again, but most of them didn't notice, Dick sighed looking at Jay with a frown "What do you expect us to do Jay? Signal registered taking Scarecrow a few seconds ago"

"Go with him" Jason grumbled, if there was no danger, better, he could get out of the toxic air and take Danny away from there.

"Come on Little Wing, you know I can't leave you in this state" Nightwing denied, just as stubborn as his brother "What are you going to do when I'm gone?"

"Take Danny home" he replied, although the green in his eyes didn't shine as brightly, he still looked quite alert about the whole situation, any wrong move could bring the pits back to full.

"I assume you know the civilian" Dick muttered curiously "Okay but I'm still going to help you, where does Danny live?"

Although the question was said in a friendly tone, the silence that followed was definitely awkward, Jason couldn't help but thank the gas mask, at least that way they couldn't see the embarrassed blush spreading all over his face. He was purposely ignoring that Cass would know for sure, she wasn't a snitch

"You don't know where he lives, right?" Dick asked, knowing that kind of silence all too well.

"It's none of your business," Jason complained, although the friendly interaction seemed to be taking him out of his fury.

"That's my business, where are you hoping to take him? One of your safe houses?" He teased, though his brother's silence was definitely revealing "wait, you're not being serious, are you sure you didn't inhale some gas?"

"I'm sure Big Bird, so shut up, go help with the damn antidote and call me when it's ready," Jason said annoyed, carefully getting up from where he had lain down to give Danny more comfort and starting to walk away from them.

"Not a good time, let it go" Cass signed to her older brother, she detected a lot with that little interaction and thought that the explanation required a complicated sentence to clarify.

"I understand Cass, I'm just worried" Nightwing sighed sadly, he wasn't looking forward to telling B anything.

"Understandable" Cass nodded. It was normal that after bringing Jason back, his "old" family would become attached to him, that could be bad in the long run if Jay refused to clarify things, but it was none of Cass's business. Even if she loved her family, she couldn't express feelings for them, it was better to let them figure it out.

No one noticed Shadow leaning out curiously and watching Jason take Danny away before deciding to disappear, taking the darkness that had settled in the alley with them.

—-----

"Amorpho, I need a favor" Johnny called the ghost through his ghost phone, he wasn't going to call it Fenton phone 2.0 because Technus would be extremely offended.

"Not even a hello? Why should I listen to you?" Amorpho questioned curiously from the other side of the line.

"You can pretend to be Danny and visit the human world" the blonde ghost bribed.

"Tempting, tell me more about this favor" Amorpho said, it was not a secret that he enjoyed imitating the halfa.

"Well, the boy has to attend classes, but his crush apparently kidnapped him and he can't" Johnny explained quickly, he had been worried for a few seconds but Shadow assured him that the halfa wasn't in danger. However Johnny remembered Danny's insistence on his attendance.

"You want me to pretend to be him and attend classes?" Amorpho questioned in disbelief, he had better things to do with his time "And what do you mean with kidnapped?"

"That doesn't matter, but yes, If you accept you can do whatever you want as long as nobody dies after it" Johnny assured, Danny owed him a favor for all the work.

"Whatever I want? Okay, you have a deal" Amorpho agreed, though he still had questions about the kidnapping part.

"Great! I will call Wulf to open the portal to the university, your first class is advanced physics, good luck! Don't forget that you already accepted!" The blond hung up the call before the other ghost could react.

"You mean right now? What the hell is advanced physics? JOHNNY-" By the time the ghost reacted it was too late.

"I think that went well" The blond smiled.

—------

For his part, Jason was grateful to his siblings for being on time. He hated the situation he had inadvertently gotten himself into, but he hated more that Danny was sacrificing himself like it didn't matter. How dare he? He was going to smack the bastard with self-esteem even if he forced it.

He couldn't show it correctly because his head was still filled with that need for PROTECTION before the boy he had in his arms. Jason sighed, deciding to carry him in his arms princess style. Personally he preferred the potato bag style on his shoulder but Danny had been very displeased at the suggestion to get off his chest. Which shouldn't embarrass him nearly as much as it did.

Danny felt calm listening to Jason's heartbeat, it relaxed him as the illusions momentarily disappeared from his head. Jason was the solid ground of him, corny as it sounded.

"I want you to know that this is your fault" he claimed to the boy in his arms as he threw the gas mask to the side of the room once he got to the safe house "but since I don't know where the hell you live you're going to stay here until the antidote is ready"

Jason tried to separate Danny from him then, but every time the boy went more than 5 minutes without finding him he would start to panic and show obvious signs of Scarecrow's hallucinations. Jay was undoubtedly upset to see the bubbly boy turned into a dependent anxiety bag.

Curiously, from the bedroom window a crow could be seen sleeping peacefully, although no one was paying attention to it, the bird looked happy with that arrangement, without noticing the intruder, the boys continued talking.

"Okay Doll, you win, I'll sleep here tonight" Jason finally relented "but we should wake up early tomorrow for a nice breakfast, okay?"

Danny nodded, feeling better now that both of them were in bed and he could hear the boy's heartbeat again. He wriggled in an attempt to get into Jason's arms, where he felt safe and warm.

"You're really persistent" Jay complained, but he let him do what he wanted anyway "What's wrong cutie?"

"I didn't want you to go away in the middle of the night," Danny murmured looking worried, Jason swore he saw one of his eyes being more of a greenish blue for a few seconds, he wondered if he was seeing things "Are you leaving?"

"No, for now I do not intend to do it" the man sighed, wondering if he should add eye color to the long list to investigate "rest, I promise I'll be here in case someone bad comes, okay?"

"Okay" with one last sleepy yawn Danny settled back to listen to the heartbeat of his love interest "I hope Hood doesn't get mad at me"

"He won't find out," Jason teased, feeling a little amused "and if he does he'll have to get over it."

Stroking the boy's hair as he slept, Jason noticed a few familiar white strands tucked strategically behind the black hair. It gave him a bad feeling.

He decided to address his suspicions at another time, when memories of Danny forcing himself not to shake wouldn't flicker in his mind, when the expressive blue eyes didn't look so empty and sad inside his memories, and the sound of his laughter wouldn't change to sobs inside his mind.

Jason knew trauma well, and he wasn't overly happy to admit he recognized Danny having one. He ran his fingers gently over the boy's hand, Danny obviously hurt himself to stop the fear if the marks were a sign. He wondered why only one of his hands was hurt, but when he caught a glimpse of a large scar he decided not to push his luck so much. He needed to learn to wait, and maybe trust Danny a little bit, just a little bit.

I'm going to show you that you're worth it Cutie Doll, even if it takes me all my life.

--------------------------------------

Aaand tag time, but first a little clarification: Crane's fear gas was destined to kill the crows after a time to take the gas in their bodies (as an infection) but since it was a prototype, it failed, the crows only became more aggressive; Anyway, the fear gas was destined to affect humans too, this part was a success, except that Danny is not completely human, right? double ups.

The effect worked halfway into him, causing hallucinations but of memories he fears, he is able to resist it if he focuses on something that anchors him to reality (but he is very tired of the mental effort); That is why sometimes he seems lucid and sometimes not, he is a very drugged and sensitive halfa!

@skulld3mort-1fan@sorryiwonnoob@idfk-man10@avelnfear@criticaloverthinker@confusedandghostly @lunadoll36 @spidey29phangirl @suppengott @yjfk@apointlessbox@mimilikey@thegatorsgoose@jaggedheart11@dyinggirldied@pyramaniac@akikkobara@thedragonqueen1998@lostlightandfoundcrazy@xye-chan@saltyladynightmare @ashleysmshly @thewondersoflebanon@illusionwolfwriter24r8@littlefeather345@asphyxia778@amercurio@leftmiraclechaos @dixiwoods @satoshy12@lyra689@meira-3919@quietlyscared@plotwholls @kyrianclawraith @blacksea21090@basilf1res @flowers-n-fauna @8-29pm@phantom-dc@luer-mirin@taniaundertaleau@cloriform@readerkayden@oddlydrawnpuppets@basementloser@little-green-asparagus@echoednonny@yummy-yummy-mmmbones@confusionchaos@ectoplasm024@autumnwulf@666deaddash999@redhoneysugarorange@blue-avis@sailor-goddess@satanicrutialspecialist

#danny phantom #dp x dc #danny fenton #dc x dp #jason todd #dead on main #jason todd x danny fenton #Hood Assistant #Crows won another time #sorry Crane #Poe the crow will continue following them #this is a little angst #but after this is all hurt/comfort #Jason wants to return the favor #If Danny can't see his own worth he will show him #Danny is a little sad here cause of the memories #Don't worry #he will get better #surprised that I didn't write more about Johnny this time #Johnny thinks he is a solver maker #he is not #he is causing problems accidentally #First Danny and the Bats interaction #I'm not sure if it counts cause he was extremely drugged tho #Jason is starting to believe a little on Danny #Danny will totally remember the Hood part tho #Still they are both helping each other with trauma and that's amazing #Duke had nightmares with crows that day

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

I feel like the reason people think its unrealistic Batman could keep a secret identity as millionaire Bruce Wayne is because we're thinking about his wealth wrong.

Here's the thing; Bruce Wayne isn't a celebrity, he's old money. Yes he's a CEO, but think about how many millionaire CEOs don't end up in the tabloids. He's not a celebrity, not a noveau riche tech mogul. He's wealthy but he's not Jeff Bezos (or, Lex Luthor, same guy).

Like, remember the rich douchebags who exploded in the submarine? How many of those people had you ever heard about before the incident? The majority of rich people aren't famous or even infamous. They fly under the radar, purposefully, especially old money. And if somebody does try to pull them into the spotlight, they deploy lawyers only they can afford to sue for defamation.

So why does nobody put together Bruce Wayne is Batman? Because nobody really cares enough. He shows up in the local stories every once in a while for donating a sum to charity or hosting/attending some party, sure, but he's pretty boring otherwise. There's not enough public interest in White CEO Guy #113 to risk dealing with Wayne Corp's army of lawyers by stalking the guy. Bruce makes public appearances just often enough that people don't get curious, but not often enough that people get curious, if you get what I'm saying. Like, people on this site make jokes about civilians noticing Bruce's rotating cast of kids but tbh I think in actuality most people don't even notice that it's a different kid at Wayne Corp Christmas party each year.

Of course, that's just my headcanon and lord knows the writers have contradicted this time and time again.

#comic books #dc comics #batman #bruce wayne #batman headcanon

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you have any idea when the Wayne fortune changed from Bruce being a millionaire to a billionaire? I’ve been watching BTAS since it’s on Netflix and I noticed that the amount of money is not adding up to what I remember the Wayne fortune being in either the Nolan movies (this one is iffy since it’s been a while) or the more recent Rob Patt’s Batman adaption.

Do you suppose it’s to do with the rising fame and general “positive” celebrity of fan-bro described “genius billionaire gurus” like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, etc?

oh it's because being a millionaire simply Does Not carry the same implication of bottomless wealth that it did when Batman was created. you have to remember Brucie baby is a product of the Great Depression; the billionaire was a very recent concept (John D. Rockefeller, often called the first billionaire, "achieved" that status in 1916) and a million dollars was Very Different in 1939 than it is now. don't get me wrong, it's still a lot of money and millionaires are doing way better than The Average Person, but the cultural context has changed greatly.

it's also notable that the amount of money necessary to fund being Batman has changed drastically over the years. at his creation Bruce was fundamentally a jazzed up detective with some fancy gadgets, but as the decades went on and Batman become more high tech (and, frankly, more militarized) it would have been obvious to any writer with even the slightest interest in plausibility that Bruce's fortune would need to be in the billions rather than the millions, especially if you factor in that he's also (sometimes) funding the Justice League partially or in full. Bruce being a millionaire just isn't sufficient to make the fantasy believable anymore; he needs more money! if Detective Comics Comics is still alive and kicking in another century I wouldn't be surprised if he's reclassified as a trillionaire.

#bruce wayne

[localplaguenurse]

Hello friend from the country of maples. I have come asking for headcanons for the pants man because it is almost 4am and he is living in my brain rent free.

I would like to blame Hamilton the musical because I googled the difference between “My dearest Angelica,” and “My dearest, Angelica” and at first i thought “huh Morax would do this to wifey” and then a little throwaway like from a ZhongChi fanfic made me realize Pantalone would ALSO do this to his beloved and as the musical goes “consumed my waking days”

Oh my god Al Haitham would do this too.

Guess I’m not sleeping

Headcanons for pants? Headcanons for pants?

I love you, also go to bed pls.

Because you didn't specify what kind of headcanons I'm just gonna throw down whatever I got off the top of my head rn that I didn't include in the health headcanons. Also just fyi I flip flop between certain headcanons mostly because there isn't enough info about him at this very moment, so it's kinda like "what flavour of pants do I crave today?"

ANYWAYS pants time

For a while I headcanoned him as like 27-28 at the absolute youngest because the limited information we have about him gave me young hotshot entrepreneur "thirty under 30" vibes.

Like I can so clearly in a modern AU see his face plastered all over magazines about this young man who worked his ass off to go from rags to riches. (I'm thinking about Bruce Wayne in the opening from Arkham City. "It's billionaire, Vicki. Millionaires are so last year.")

He is unrecognizable from his youth counterpart today. He was this scrawny child, hair matted and tangled and perpetually dirty. Always had some bruises and cuts and scrapes, crooked teeth, the works. With all the money in his pocket, he's been able to afford top of the line medical care, dental treatments, expensive luxury soaps and shampoos, and only the finest of clothing. It's astounding but also horrifying to see how different the two are.

It's not necessarily his favourite food but his comfort foods are whatever super cheap fresh hot meals he could get his hands on. He still thinks back to the very first actually expensive meal he bought with his own money every now and again.

He would never admit this, of course. They'd all laugh at him if they found out he enjoyed peasant meals.

On occasion, though, he will remake one of these really cheap meals for a midnight snack.

He's not a bad cook, it's just all the meals he knows how to make are less about flavour and more about practicality/edibility. That said, though, he knows how to make a meal made from like five ingredients not only last for quite a while, but also taste really good.

Sugar daddy material, he would love nothing more than to spoil his darling rotten, HOWEVER he is not interested in someone only dating him for his money. He wants someone who will let him pamper them, but will also be there in the event everything falls apart and he once again has nothing.

Constantly has to remind everyone that the Northland Bank is SEPERATE from the Fatui. He needs everyone to know that the success of the bank is not because of the Fatui, it's because of him. Vice versa, while the bank's success may have gotten the attention of the Fatui, him becoming a harbinger is because he worked his ass off to get that position.

There is no information on his family or if he even has one, but you know how Lucio from The Arcana has that portrait of his mother all dressed up in regal attire, despite the fact he was raised in a tribe? I think Pantalone would have a bunch of portraits of his family all over his manor(s) sort of like that.

If he ever has kids, he would be so torn between spoiling them because he certainly has the money to do that, but he also cannot stand the snobby little brats of his business partners and does not want his children acting like that.

This is just really random but for some reason All Hail the Fishmen from Lisa The Painful gives me pants vibes and I cannot explain why

And... Yeah! That's it rn, unless you wanna hear about my oc/pants' knife wife Xue, or you have specific headcanons in mind.

#genshin impact #pantalone #genshin pantalone #pantalone genshin #pantalone headcanons #genshin headcanons #genshin impact pantalone #headcanons #ask

[dokjadreams]

flip.

harvey dent is a proud gotham u law graduate. he knows that DA office gives pennies to their interns like it's gold. harvey doesn't care.

if he can change the world even a little bit, that's all it matters.

bruce, the bruce wayne, grabs his shoulder tenderly at his graduation party.

"Congrats, Harv. You better defend me when I get in trouble."

his mouth smells like gin and tonic.

"That's not how this works, Bruce. But I'll try to tell the judge not to go too harsh on you if I can pass this bar exam first."

his grin is intoxicating. bruce wayne is an intoxicating man.

"Thanks, Harv."

watch the coin dance in the air.

the bar exam was hell but he passed. He's ready to be a DA in New Jersey court of law. Gotham is rough but Harvey Dent is stronger.

his friends are in gotham. rachel, a girl he met in 1L crimical law class is drinking margarita. marquis, the charming honeypot from the same law clinic is dancing like he doesn't care. benny, the president of the ABA student organization, is shouting his name to join him play beer pong with the others.

harvey dent is looking for bruce, again. bruce is late. he's never late.

as harvey tried to navigate the crowd, he feels a hand snaking up his arm.

"Sorry I'm late." a breathe laced with gin. It's Bruce.

"Don't worry about it."

even in the low light, Harvey sees a bruise on Bruce's neck.

"Everything all right?"

a kiss on cheek. other hand sliding on his torso.

"Perfect. Everything's perfect." the music is loud. "Congrats, Mr. Lawyer."

"Thanks, Mr. Millionaire."

watch it fall.

acid burns his body. it eats away his spirit and soul just as pain eats away his flesh. he sees a long black shadow in the corner of his eye.

he's not a hero of his own story anymore. he's lost his way home, perhaps a long time ago.

shatter.

bruce wayne has many regrets.

many of them stem from his family. his children. alfred. harper. the foxes. duke. steph. kate. barbara. jim.

harvey dent.

the list goes on.

bruce wayne tries his best to stay connected with harvey dent. his harv.

beloved harv.

could a different choice in the past have made a difference? bruce isn't sure.

it's a cold december night. he slips past the sleeping guards. he slips past the fences and barbed wires. he hangs from iron bars of arkham.

"Good Afternoon, bats."

"How are you, Harvey."

"Harv's fine, b."

a white pawn has moved c4 to c3.

"Good to hear, Harv. I missed you."

Harvey doesn't respond for awhile. Just a smile basking in the cold moonlight.

"The moon's beautiful, today. Have a great patrol for me."

when he looks up, the man is gone, just with a scribbled note left in place.

"move the knight to d5 -b"

ask yourself a question: heads or tails?

and does it matter?

it doesn't. it never does.

#bruharvey #dc comics #bruharvey angst time <3 #capridribbles

[littlefankingdom]

Making Bruce Wayne a billionaire is a fucking crime and destroys all his character.

I could forgive him being a millionaire, because you a millionaire if you have 3 millions just like if you have 700 millions. So, he could be this crazy rich without it being excessive.

But a billionaire? That means he had the money to feed, house and send all of Gotham to college, what the fuck does he beat criminals up when the solution is right in his wallet??? To assert dominance from the higher class on the lower class? Put back the broke to their place? People turn to crimes because of the environment they grew up in and the lack of opportunities they can access, he can fix that and still sleep in his manor.

And the worse is how he is a "philanthropist" because he has so many charities and does gala. Charities are not a solution. And if he has already the money to support scientists to end climate change and to end world hunger, wtf does he ask other people to give money to help the people of Gotham, the sick and the poor??? If he is a billionaire, than he isn't giving away enough of his money! He doesn't need that much money to survive and take care of all his children, he doesn't even need that much money to support his nighttime hobby!

And yes, I'm mad. I'm mad because billionaires are running our lives. Because a billionaire owns a ton of media outlet here and controls the information, he pays the politicians, he feeds the people racist bs so they hate poc instead of him, he exploits people and destroys countries in Africa. Because, if you criticize him or his rich friends in the media, you will be harassed, insulted, and threatened with violence, even if you are a politician. Because he made a 10 millions donation and was thanked like a God, when it's pocket change for him and he only did it so if someone complained about him, they would be shamed because "he is a philanthropist". Because our national organisations to help the homeless and the poor during the winter have been crying on tv about how this was the worst year ever, and they would not be able to help everyone. Because hundreds of people die every winter from being homeless, not having access to food, or poor conditions of life. Because more than 2000 children are living in the street in just my country, a first world country. And I am told to be proud that one of the richest man on Earth shares my nationality.

Fucking capitalist usamerican propaganda "billionaires are good people". Billionaires are evil, they don't need to have this much money, they don't need to exist. Hell no, Bruce Wayne cannot be a billionaire, or the Batman is no hero.

#I'm going fully political for this but fuck it #batman #bruce wayne #dc comics #my ramblings

[luna-loner]

🎃 A Happy Halloween With The Big Five 🎃

Gakushuu

Much to everyone's surprise, Gakushuu actually likes Halloween. Name a better occassion to show off his splendid sewing skills.

Him and Yukiko decide to dress up as a vampire couple.

They design the costumes by themselves. Gakushuu, being the perfectionist that he is, obsesses over the smallest of details! It is imperative his costume captures his elusiveness and charisma. He's gotta look stylish, too!

He even uses gel to smooth back his hair, giving himself the classic Dracula look. This is possibly the first time the Big Five have seen him in a different hairstyle. They know how paranoid he is about anything happening to his hair; did Yukiko somehow convince him to do it?

Since he's naturally pale, there's no need to powder his skin. Plus, he's confident he'll look horrendous with it anyway.

Of course, he's not forgetting the fangs. Those are crucial!

His cape barely reaches his ankles so he doesn't have to worry about it getting dirty. However, he has to lift it up whenever he sits down.

This perfectionist idiot spends a good deal of the party worrying about his damn costume that his date and friends have to constantly stop him.

Seo and Araki

These two also decided on a common theme every Halloween. It's a best friend thing.

For this year, it's superheros. They're going as Batman and Superman.

Araki proposes more original idea: How about they attend as Bruce Wayne (Seo) and Clark Kent (Araki), and they pick the DCAU incarnations since they're very popular? Seo likes it and agrees.

Except...people keep asking who they're supposed to be. He's lost the number of times he's yell, "Bruce Wayne! Bruce. Frickin'. Wayne!!"

Araki isn't as bothered because he's too busy taking a picture of the lovey-dovey vampire couple every 2 minutes. Makes you wonder if he dressed up as a reporter just to bring his camera.

He doesn't care if people don't know who hr's supposed to be. He just grins and opens his shirt tp show them the Superman T-shirt underneath.

Not that he has to do it often, thanks to his "Clark Kent" name tag. His camera has a DIY Daily Planet sticker.

Seo is never listening to Araki again.

Seo tries to put on a playboy millionaire act so people can get a damn clue on who he's supposed to be, but they think he's Tony Stark and tell him he got the costume wrong.

Ren

Prince Charming

No one's surprised, for as long as the Big Five have known Ren, he's mostly dressed as handsome male characters that are popular with the ladies.

His costume is store-bought, so no effort on Ren's part. Gakushuu is judgemental.

For most part, they leave him with his Cinderallas and Snow Whites.

Then he spots the evil witch herself, Hazama and runs. Not a very charming thing to do, but Ren is not dying on Halloween! Never!

Koyama

Being a huge Fantasy fan, Koyama decides to be a wizad.

He too put a lot of effort in his costume. Gakushuu is pleased to see someone else so dedicated, and Yukiko has to stop him from going full critic mode.

His costume has classical and modern elements and gets a lot of attention from everyone, especially girls. (No, Ren is not jealous. So what if half his princess harem left him to gush over the mysterious, terrifyingly hot wizard?)

Even Aarki's taking pictures of him like crazy!

Out of everyone, Koyama has the most fun at this party. Who knew having a civil conversation with people was more fun than yelling and looking down on them? Huh...

When some people ask about book recommendations, he won't shut up! This boy is a self-certified, self-proclaimed Fantasy encylopedia.

Ren wonders if Koyama, with his magic and fantasy obsession, can protect him from you-know-who. Before he can ask, he's shocked to find his supposed savior happily chatting with Hazama!

Bonus: Karma

By pure coincidence, which Gakushuu is highly skeptical of, we have another vampire.

It looks like Karma's barely put an effort into his costume. Guy just showed up with ripped jeans and a black T-shirt, plus some piercings. The only indication that he's a vampire are his fangs. This is your modern day blood-sucking bad boy.

And Gakushuu, never has he been offended in his life! This minimalistic style is an insult to the long (and unnecessary) hours he's spent on his own costume! What was Akabane thinking? Has he no shame?!

So Gakushuu spends a good hour or so critiquing and nitpicking Karma's so-called costume. It leads to one banter after another, until the two banter over every little thing. They're even competing over who's the better Dracula.

Gakushuu thinks he's the winner by defualt because unlike his uncultured rival, he's actually read the book!

Is Karma going to give up? No, he's going to imitate every popular Dracula incarnation in the media.

Yukiko sits a few steps away, reading Koyama's spell book out of boredem.

She later drags her boyfriend away by the cape after politely threatening to have Hazama curse Karma if he tries annoying Gakushuu again.

Don't mess with an angry vampire lady and her date, Karma.

#assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #asano gakushuu #gakushuu asano #sakakibara ren #ren sakakibara #tomoya seo #seo tomoya #teppei araki #araki teppei #natsukiko koyama #koyama natsuhiko #kanzaki yukiko #yukiko kanzaki #gakuyuki #asakanza #akabane karma #karma akabane #big five #five virtuosos

[jovialjuggernaut-draws]

idk if you take riddlebat prints or smth, but imagine that Edward is known to date the millionaire Bruce Wayne. Someone spots Edward on a rooftop kissing... Batman? That someone then proceeds to take photos and spread the info that Edward Nygma is not only a redeemed criminal but is also cheating on Bruce goddamn Wayne with the vigilante! Both Bruce and Edward loose their shit over this

Bruce took a deep breath, putting on a deep look of worry onto his made-up face for the wall of cameras currently blinding him. "I'm... hurt, of course, how could I not be? But this isn't a conversation I want to have with a bunch of reporters. It's a private matter between Edward and myself."

"Please, Mr. Wayne-" One especially determined reporter insisted, shoving herself between two others to reach her microphone closer to him, despite the best attempts of his security team. "Gotham needs to know! Is this scandal going to affect your public support of the city's vigilantes and Batman in particular?"

He winced. Alfred and the car were so close, he just needed to get to them.... "I still believe in Batman's mission, of course, and the safety of Gotham's citizens is more important to me than any personal drama-"

"That's not all there is to it, though, is it?" She pressed, stretching her arm despite being bodily pushed away from him. Finally, he was able to reach the car, Alfred holding the door for him.

Ducking into the car, he left them all with one final statement. "I'll just say this: If Batman has any honor, he'll face me, mano y mano, and earn my respect back. Until then, I will do my best to remain professional in my dealings with him."

More questions followed, of course, but they were muffled by the slamming of the door. The tinted windows significantly dimmed the flashing of the lights, and Bruce blinked spots out of his vision while shrugging his jacket off.

"Sounds like you're having a tough time," Edward's voice cooed from the seat beside him, his thin, freckled hands appearing over Bruce's shoulders to help take the heavy fabric from him. "A disloyal lover, is it? Tsk tsk tsk. Even a catch like you can't compete with a big, tough vigilante, can he?"

Bruce rolled his eyes, slumping back into the seat as Alfred pulled away from the tower. "Reporters. Nosy little pests, all of them...."

Edward tossed the jacket aside, curling into Bruce's side. "Oh, please. We both know you're going to milk this for all it's worth. It's gonna be a huge blow for the 'Bruce Wayne is Batman' theorists."

"Hmm." Just because he had a point didn't mean Bruce had to acknowledge it. "And I know you well enough to know you're going to bask in every second of media attention over it."

"Perhaps," Edward purred. "I'm also going to use the excuse to beg makeup sex from you."

Bruce snorted. "Every time you 'cheat' on me, huh?"

"Oh, yes. Every time. Speaking of which... Bruce or Batman?"

"Right now? Bruce."

"Then..." Edward walked his fingers up Bruce's tie, tugging at it faux-nervously, worrying at his lip. "Oh, Brucie. You'll forgive me, won't you? I'll do anything."

Bruce glanced up, seeing Alfred rolling his eyes in the rearview mirror. "Not yet. Maybe wait until we get home."

#riddler #riddlebat #batman #edward nygma #bruce wayne #batriddler #the riddler #edward nigma #riddlebats #edward nashton

[weekend-conspiracy-theorist]

girls' night ft. cass, cassie, kara, steph, and tim (an entry in the tim&steph role swap au)

"Tim's here!" Kara chirped, and a moment later there was the rattle of a key in the lock. The front door swung open.

"Oh, good," Steph said, pleased, as she climbed onto the counter to hide a frying pan all the way in the back corner of the very highest shelf. "We can make him pay for the pizza."

Tim paused in the door, looking exhausted and windswept as his eyes moved slowly across the tableau in front of him. Kara and Cassie had taken over the couch, a tangle of long legs and blonde curls and bulging biceps that may or may not have featured in a number of Stephanie's teenage daydreams (she pled the fifth), while Cassandra was curled up, cat-like, in the loveseat. Stephanie was in the kitchen, definitely not rearranging Tim's cupboards.

"Didn't realize girls' night was happening at my apartment," he said dryly. "You understand that the unlocked window by the fire escape is not, per se, an invitation."

Stephanie shot him a pitying look as she dismounted from the counter. "But isn't it?"

"Oh, brother." Tim sighed, kicking the door shut behind himself as he finally entered the apartment, and he reached into the messenger bag that was slung across his shoulder to dig out a file. "For you," he told Cassandra, dropping it on the coffee table, and headed for his bedroom.

"No shop talk at girls' night!" Kara called after him, and he waved a hand dismissively.

"It's for a personal thing."

Cassandra perked up, looking curious, and picked up the file as she crossed her legs beneath herself. One eyebrow rose as she flipped through the file. A smile twitched at the corner of her lips. Tim reemerged from his room, having switched out his button down and dark-wash jeans for a Gotham University tshirt and a pair of yoga pants that Stephanie had been looking for for weeks, and Cassandra looked up at him with a beaming smile.

"Thank you."

"Share with the class?" Stephanie asked, trying to peer over Cassandra's shoulder, but the file snapped shut before she could catch more than a glimpse.

"Nope." Cassandra's smile was beatific, even in the face of Stephanie's huff.

"We're collaborating on a project," Tim said, like that was an explanation for literally anything.

Stephanie narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously in her very best approximation of Batman's glare, but Tim was too used to her to do more than bat his eyelashes innocently. "You stole my yoga pants," she said, switching topics, and Tim smoothed a hand down his stomach as he leaned back, inspecting the pants in question.

"You can't prove anything," he told her.

"They're pretty recognizable."

"They sell these at every novelty shop in Gotham. Maybe I bought my own pair."

"Considering you're a millionaire, you definitely should have."

"That's also why you're paying for the pizza when it gets here," Cassie cut in, grinning, and Tim rolled his eyes.

"Steph has one of Bruce Wayne's credit cards, and you want me to pay for the pizza?" he demanded, heading for his kitchen.

Stephanie vaulted the back of the loveseat to go join Cassie and Kara on the couch. Cassie pulled her legs in to give her room, meeting her eyes with a sparkling grin; Stephanie blew her a kiss, then slung an arm over the back of the couch and twisted around to point out, "You're also rich!"

"I am," Tim agreed dryly. "But I'm like, regular human rich, while your vigilante sugar daddy is rich on a scale inconceivable to us mere mortals. No offense to the demigoddess in the room." He opened one of his cabinets. He stopped moving.

"I can't conceive of it either," Cassie informed him.

Stephanie would be snickering over the look on Tim's face if she wasn't too busy gagging. "Please, for the love of god never call Bruce that again."

"You're the one who has an entire powerpoint about how he's not your dad. Stephanie--"

"He's not my dad!" She threw her hands in the air. "But apparently I need to give the presentation again, because you've forgotten that the whole premise is that unconventional found family dynamics don't need to be defined by and shoved into the boxes of traditional nuclear family roles, but that doesn't mean they aren't any less my family!"

"Yeah, whatever," Tim said, which sounded dismissive if you hadn't watched him take careful notes and ask gently pressing questions regarding the contents of the powerpoint that an over-caffeinated Robin with a freshly broken arm had snuck into his house to present to him at five in the morning. (Look: she'd had a rough night. Bruce had Bruce'd at her quite aggressively re: the arm breaking. Arthur had recently gotten out of jail. Stephanie had needed a way to process her thoughts, and Tim was nothing if not a good listener.)

"But on a more important topic, what the hell did you do to my kitchen?"

"No, I understand what you're saying, Steph," Kara said, straight-faced and nodding sagely (and completely ignoring Tim). "I don't think you can get much more complicated and 'unconventional' than my family, even if we're mostly related by blood. There's my cousin who I was supposed to raise who's now older than me, his half-clone with his arch-nemesis who's not his son but also kind of is his son, his son who's from an alternate reality--but also that reality now is this reality, kind of--and who was a pre-teen but is now almost as old as I am. Not to mention the alternate reality version of me who's way cooler than me--"

"You and Peej are similarly cool," Cassie assured her.

Kara's smile crinkled up her nose. "Thanks, WG."

"Yeah." Cassie held up a hand. "And we're not even going to get into my family situation."

Kara tipped her head to the side thoughtfully, her high ponytail swishing. "Are you and Diana, like, related for real now? Or was the Zeus thing fake and she really was sculpted out of clay? I can't keep track, honestly."

Cassie grunted. "I said we're not gonna get into it."

"There are oranges," Tim said, sounding defeated. "All of my cups are overturned with oranges underneath them. There is not a single bowl in sight." He reached into the cabinet, picking at something on the back wall. "You superglued spoons onto the walls to spell out dirty words. How long have you been here?"

Actually, Cass had done the spoons--vocabulary practice--but Stephanie wasn't going to rat her out.

"If I knew what you were talking about," Stephanie told him, "I would say that, first, those are clementines, and second, it took approximately two hours to accomplish."

Tim tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling, as if it had answers for him. "You're in college. Don't you have better things to do with a Saturday afternoon?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Cassie said scathingly.

"College students don't do homework on Saturdays," Kara agreed.

"Yeah, well, during my brief foray into tertiary education, I didn't do any homework, so forgive me for not remembering the etiquette." Tim gave one of the cups a flick, sending a clementine bouncing dejectedly across the floor of his kitchen, and then filled the cup with water straight from the tap.

Kara blanched as he took a sip. "Isn't there like, seven different strands of fear toxin and joker venom in that? Shouldn't you use a filter?"

"Tim's bougie enough to have a filtration system that fits directly into his faucet," Stephanie told her.

"Except he never bothered to hook it up," Cassandra added, before Kara could be too reassured. Stephanie didn't bother to bite back a snicker.

"Everyone in Gotham has, like, low level immunity to all of that shit by now," Cassie said. She had one arm folded over on the back of the couch and was leaning against it, her cheek smushed up adorably. "I'm told that maintaining said immunity via tap water consumption is a point of pride. Because they are all insane."

"I resemble that remark," Stephanie protested idly.

Kara's eyebrows lifted high on her head. "I don't think that's actually how most toxic substances work," she said dryly. "And, hello: this is Gotham. This sounds like more of a 'everyone was high strung and paranoid in the Victorian era because everything in their environment was full of lead and mercury and covered in radioactive green wall paper' kind of deal."

Tim hid a grin behind his cup. "Maybe so."

"'Maybe so,'" Kara parroted scathingly. She gave a truly impressive eye roll and kicked lightly at Stephanie's thigh with one socked foot. (Her socks had flying monkeys on them. Steph was intending to steal them before the night was over.) "I hate Gothamites. Cassie, we need to break off and make our own friend group, with only normal people."

"Only normal demigoddesses and space aliens," Stephanie drawled.

"Well, you know what." Kara held her hands up in a shrug. "Neither Mount Olympus nor Argo City are in New Jersey. So there."

"Cass isn't technically from here either," Cassie pointed out. She rolled her neck to look over at Cassandra, her head nearly tipped backwards to do so and the fringe of her short hair cut lifting off of her forehead in the process. "Run away with us?" she requested, with a roguish grin.

Ah. Cass, Cassie, and Kara running away together. Another one of teenage Steph's most popular daydreams. Tim had that look on his face that meant he was pretending to be stoic but was actually laughing at her internally, so she knew he was thinking it, too. She stuck her tongue out at him. He wiggled his eyebrows back at her.

Cassandra leaned forward, booping Cassie's nose teasingly. "Have to stay in town if I want to maintain seniority for taking over Batman when Bruce retires," she said, and she grinned as Cassie pouted theatrically.

Tim snorted. "I understand the joke you're making, but I do want to point out that Dick became Batman after having worked in Blüdhaven for like a decade," he said dryly. "Besides, no one else wants the cowl any more."

"Damian does," Cassie pointed out.

Tim and Stephanie rolled their eyes simultaneously; Cassandra looked amused.

"What?" Kara asked.

"Everybody but Dick and Damian knows that as soon as Damian hits the Rebellious Robin age, he's going to realize he actually wants to be Nightwing when he grows up." At least for a little while, anyway. Legacy was so important to him that she couldn't see him creating a new mantle straight off the bat. (So to speak.) Stephanie picked at a loose thread in the seaming of Tim's couch, smiling fondly over at Cassandra. "Funny how Dick's darker era will end up being Damian's light."

Cassandra's eyes crinkled back at her, her expression just as soft as Stephanie's. Whether he liked it or not, Damian was the baby of the family, and they all had a soft spot for him. Even Jason. Even Tim, because he'd always protect Stephanie's family like they were his own.

"Damian's not already in his Rebellious Robin era?" Cassie asked, wincing.

"Steph had two," Cassandra said dryly. "He's upping the ante even further."

Stephanie shifted, trying not to let her discomfort reach her face. Yeah, she was loud about being the insubordinate Robin, and she had no delusions that if things had gone even slightly to the left, War Games would have been the end of her tenure as the Girl Wonder. (Hell, she'd practically gotten fired in the lead up to the gang war--she had gotten locked out of the Cave--until her close call terrified Bruce into having an actual conversation with her, unwilling to let history repeat itself.) These days it was just... easier to purposefully piss Bruce off in the small ways than to acknowledge how much she did actually care about his opinion, even now.

"Arguably, Jason also had two," she pointed out, as carefully flippant as always.

Cassandra let Stephanie get away with the diversion. She pulled a face and raised one hand, crossing her fingers. "His are connected. Just made complicated by the resurrection."

"I refuse to talk about Jason Todd during what is supposed to be a lovely evening," Tim said flatly, and Stephanie bit back a snicker. Tim's Thing™ about Jason was like watching a Pomeranian pick fights with a Rottweiler. "Also," he added, "I'm still betting on Damian's Rebellious Robin era resulting in him getting really into wizardry, so he ends up Hellblazer's successor instead of any of yours. Just for the sheer schadenfreude."

Stephanie pressed a hand to her mouth. "Oh my god," she whispered. Her alternative "Damian really decides to piss Bruce off" prediction had always been him running away to team up with Huntress, but Tim's idea was even juicier.

Tim smirked. "The Ex-Robins Union contract would need a serious overhaul."

"Hey, wait a second." Cassie made a T with her hands. "Does this count as shop talk?"

"You know what?" Kara leaned around Stephanie to point at her, eyebrows raised seriously. "Yes. Yes, it does." She swept her hands out, mouth set in a determined line. "I'm calling this conversation here."

"Right." Tim drained the rest of his glass of water and then dropped it in the sink, wandering over to sit on the arm of the loveseat next to Cass. She leaned her head against his hip, and he settled a hand on her head comfortingly. "Has this mysterious pizza already been ordered? If so, I'm going to make it clear that I don't actually have any cash on me, so unless you want me to sprint to an ATM and back, I am not in fact paying."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows. "How do you not have any cash on you, rich boy?"

"I may be rich, but I'm still Gen Z," he deadpanned.

"We haven't ordered anything yet," Cassandra cut in, before Stephanie could call him a soy boy or something. That was probably for the best; Stephanie was better than that. She could come up with meaner insults for Tim.

"We should go out, anyway," Kara said decisively. "We're young, we're hot, we're single--"

"I'm not," Tim corrected.

"Hot or single," Stephanie snickered.

"You dated me. What are you trying to say about your own taste?"

Cassie snorted. "Bad tact, Timmy. Everybody knows Steph's taste in men is tragic."

"Riiiiiight," Tim said, dragging the word out sarcastically. "So is it time we talked about you two and Superboy, then, or--"

"Kon is sweet," Cassandra protested.

"Shit, I forgot you also had a thing with him." Tim scrubbed a hand over his face and then spread it out to the side, palm up. "Is he catnip to female superheroes?"

Yeah, Stephanie wasn't going to let him get away with that.

"You forget that I know what posters you had up in your childhood bedroom, Boyfriend," she said warningly. "If you wanna have this conversation, you better get down in the mud with us."

"Oooookay," Kara said, clapping her hands together. "First of all, we're all Kon-El stans first and people second, and I know that includes you, too, Timothy. Second of all, if we're going to leave we need to do it now, before somebody says something too catty and we end up destroying Tim's apartment in a pillow fight."

The joke about Stephanie's teenage daydreams was getting old. Hell, there was even space for Tim in them, if you went back far enough. She met his eyes, biting down on a smile, and because he always knew what she was thinking, his expression was that particular brand of sappy that came with the what-if's and if-only's that swelled between them once in every dozen blue moons.

What they had now was so much better than anything they could have ever had as boyfriend and girlfriend, but that didn't change the fact that he was the first boy she ever fell in love with.

And then, like it always did, the moment passed.

"We're all twenty-one now, right?" Stephanie asked, stretching. "Except Tim, and he's got like six different fakes."

"I don't want to go anywhere I'll have to change for," Tim said, a note of warning in his voice. "I had a really long day." Cass made a questioning noise and he blew out a breath through his nose, adding sourly, "I ended up in a dumpster at one point. Yes, I already showered twice; no, I don't want to talk about it. My point is that if the evening's events aren't cozy clothing friendly, I'm not interested."

Yeesh. It was one dumpster, big fucking deal. Stephanie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Tim better not force her to kidnap him tonight; they had company.

"Yeah, yeah, and if it ain't got a Grand Ol' Opry like they do in Tennessee." She waved a hand at him. "The place I've got in mind is pretty kitschy; yoga pants covered in comic book style onomatopoeias are going to be fine. Just wear combat boots or something instead of sneakers."

"I guess I can handle that," he sighed.

"If you couldn't, I'd have to call you names," Cassie told him, smirking.

Tim rolled his eyes. "I don't know why Steph was so insistent on me joining your girls' night if you all just wanted to be mean to me the whole night."

"It's how we show our love," Kara promised, popping to her feet and going to stand in front of Tim, hands extended and fingers wiggling invitingly.

Tim took her hands, a bemused smile sliding briefly across his face, and--

Kara whisked him into the air.

Tim's eyes went wide and his grip on her hands flipped, catching white-knuckled at her slender wrists. Kara giggled as she pulled him in more securely, waltzing him across his living room, four feet off the ground. Her smile was wide enough to show off the dimples in her cheeks.

"That's so cute; I almost never do this with people who aren't used to being flown around any more." She rolled her eyes and tipped her head to the side. "Except the ones who are like, screaming after being launched out of a exploding building or something, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for childlike wonder, you know?"

"Yeah," Tim said, a little dazed, as he looked down at the air beneath their feet. He clearly hadn't heard a word she said. "Yeah, that's--wow."

"C'mon, rich boy, I know you know it's impolite to watch your feet while you dance," Kara teased, and Tim laughed, a little breathless, but he pulled himself upright and adjusted his grip, flashing his best gala smile.

"Sorry, Supergirl," he agreed, taking over the lead as Kara beamed.

"That's all right, tiger; I think you've got it figured out now." She let him steer her into a spin that sent her skirt billowing around her knees, and then she took the lead back, spinning him into her arms and dropping him into a weightless dip. "See?" she said, her nose crinkling with the force of her smile. "We like you plenty."

Stephanie dropped her temple onto Cassie's shoulder, and Cassie shifted to wrap her arm around her shoulders. Steph didn't know what to say, how to define the emotion in her chest as she watched her best friends accept Tim so effortlessly--

Unlike (the rest of) the Bats, they'd all met him before; she hadn't even really tried to keep him secret from Cassandra, and it would be too much to assume that he'd never accidentally gotten sucked into a Young Justice adventure or two back in the day. But there'd still always been that thin layer of separation that she'd pulled between Tim and the scariest parts of her life to keep him safe. Now it was gone, for better or worse, and her favorite people were getting to know her favorite person.

Never mind--Stephanie did have the words.

As Kara tucked her tongue between her teeth and slowly started tangoing a laughing Tim sideways up a wall, Stephanie announced to the room, "I love you guys so fucking much."

Nearly simultaneously--

"We know," Cassandra told her.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Kara looked over to beam at her.

"Sorry, I have a boyfriend," Tim said, straight-faced despite being suspended practically upside down in the air.

"Aren't you supposed to get drunk before you get maudlin?" Cassie snickered.

Stephanie had changed her mind. Her friends were the worst.

***

Kitschy was... one way to describe the club that Stephanie had brought them to.

("Timothy... Olyphant..." the bouncer said, doubtfully, and Tim blinked back at him.

"No relation," he offered.

"Uh huh."

Despite the doubtful expression on the guy's face, Tim was allowed inside. "Nice try," Stephanie muttered in his ear, poking him in the ribs in a way meant to tickle.)

Of course, "club" was only one way to describe it, too. There was music and there was dancing, but there were also big, comfortable leather couches and coffee tables for lounging and chatting, and the lighting and decor were less techno and glitter, more warm and hazy. Gauzy wall hangings and curtains gave a sense of privacy without fully partitioning off the space, and there was art everywhere, sculptures and paintings alike. All of it was weird. In a good way.

"Something about this speaks to me on a deep, subconscious level," Cassie said, staring up at the rather large blue monkey that was hanging by one hand off of a nearby column. The monkey was flipping off the room at large.

Tim sipped his beer, nodding seriously as he stood next to her with his other hand propped on his hip. "It's a very subtle commentary on the dangers of rampant anti-intellectualism in our country today," he said, straight-faced, and Cassie barked a surprised laugh.

Then... silence fell between them.

Cassandra had dragged Stephanie to the dance floor as soon as they'd arrived, not even stopping by the bar first, and Kara had joined them after grabbing martinis for herself and Stephanie. Tim and Cassie were left alone together.

Joy.

Things between the two of them had always been a bit... strained. Not that they knew each other well at all--Tim's introduction to Stephanie's team was the story of an alien abduction for another day, but despite some half-hearted efforts along the way to claim they didn't know each other, the jig had been up pretty quickly. There-ever-after Stephanie had happily smuggled Tim into any YJ movie night that she could get away with it at, hiding him from notice amongst the ever-rotating gaggle of teens. Those were more or less the extent of Tim and Cassie's past interactions.

Meanwhile, Stephanie and Cassie's (and Kon's) relationship was... intense. Three-way rivalry meet homoeroticism meet battle-forged loyalty meet teenage hormones. Despite Tim and Stephanie having been broken up before Tim ever met Young Justice, and despite Cassie having already been dating Kon by that point, he knew she'd always seen him as a bit of... competition for Stephanie's attention.

(Tim was trying to be diplomatic. He liked Cassie a lot, despite the weirdness, and even if he didn't, he would care about her because Steph did. He was just also an asshole with complete confidence in the fact that if Cassie did decide to give some kind of off-kilter ultimatum, then Stephanie would ultimately choose Tim--if nothing else then because he was the one who didn't try to force her into doing something she didn't want to do. He was pretty sure that that both made it easier for him personally to be blasé about their interactions, and also made it way more difficult for Cassie not to want to punch him for being a smug motherfucker.)

He took another sip of his beer and tried not to cringe as the silence between them stretched past awkward and into uncomfortable. Finally, he couldn't take it any more.

"Look, I think maybe--"

"I should probably--"

They both broke off, laughing awkwardly, and Tim scrubbed a hand over his face. "Women who can crush watermelons between their thighs first," he offered.

Cassie snorted. "I should probably... apologize, to you," she said, a little stiff, with a flush of embarrassment highlighting the faint band of freckles across her nose. "I know I've been a little bit of a dick to you since day one."

"To be fair," Tim said, "I've been told repeatedly that I'm generally a bit of a dick, and not just to you." He gestured awkwardly. "So I probably deserved it. You know, in the cosmic sense if not the specific."

Cassie thinned her lips in disagreement. "It's just--"

"Good evening, Gotham."

The DJ's voice cut through the room. It was mellow and a little smoky, fitting right into the coziness of the space while still commanding attention. A jazzy, understated synth riff underscored her words as she leaned into the mic, and Tim found himself tilting his head slightly, angling to hear her better.

"It's good to have you here tonight--a beautiful one for May, hardly any rain. And what do we do on beautiful nights, ladies?" Someone shouted from the crowd, inarticulate to Tim's ear, but the DJ seemed to understand. Her lipstick was nearly black in the gloom as she smiled. "That's right, honey--we party." She winked. "So why don't all you fine young men and women--and anybody else in the crowd tonight--go chat up our incredibly talented bartenders while I get the party started?"

Some people cheered and some thrust their drinks in the air, and enough moved towards the bar to visibly thin the crowd on the dance floor. The music resumed in earnest, bass pounding through the room.

Tim blinked himself back into the moment. "Jeez. She should be crooning in a blues club somewhere."

"Yeah, no kidding." Cassie looked about as dazed as Tim felt.

"You, uh." Tim pinched the bridge of his nose and then shook his head, blowing out a breath. "You were saying?"

"Right," Cassie said. She blinked a few times herself and ran a hand through her short hair. "Right... It's just that it's... Well, it's hard, you know? When your best friend has, like, seven best friends." She cut her gaze over to him, a wry twist to her lips. "Including one that she has an inside joke with about how 'platonic soulmates' is a reductive description of their friendship."

The simple honesty was so blindingly refreshing that Tim abruptly realized he'd been spending way too much time with Gotham's vigilantes recently. There were definite advantages in the realm of emotional intelligence and self-reflection when Wonder Woman was your mentor instead of Batman.

Tim nudged Cassie with his elbow. "Stephanie has a lot of room in her heart," he told her softly. Well, as softly as you could talk when you were competing with pounding dance music. "She loves big and she loves loud, and the number of people that she loves doesn't change how much she feels for each of them."

"I know," Cassie muttered, rolling her eyes. "But it's one thing to know something, and another to internalize it." She squared her shoulders, looking every bit as determined as he'd ever seen her looking on the news. "I'm trying to be bigger than that, though; we're not teenagers any more. We haven't been kids for a long time."

"Speak for yourself," Tim drawled.

"Didn't you get emancipated when you were sixteen?" Cassie asked dryly.

"No comment."

Cassie shot him a look, disapproval sharp in those dark blue eyes of hers. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you," she pointed out, with a thread of her usual annoyance. "Making myself vulnerable in admitting past wrongdoings, etc, etc. You could set aside the sarcasm for like thirty seconds."

Waspishly, Tim snapped back, "Considering you're the one apologizing, I think--" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "Sorry, don't know exactly what I was about to say, but it was definitely going to be bitchy."

He took a moment, composing himself. "Vulnerability" was the buzzword. Tim could... manage that. For Stephanie, he could manage that.

He thumbed at the corner of the label on his beer. The paper was wrinkled with condensation and starting to separate from the glass. "Look, if it makes you feel better about... me and Steph, specifically," he said, halting. He fixed his eyes on the blue monkey rather than watch Cassie's face. "We found each other at... a time when our lives were going through some serious upheavals. You know my mom died not too long after we met?"

Cassie shifted in his periphery, but Tim still didn't look at her.

"And my dad was in a coma for a bit. Steph, well--you know what her dad was like, and that no small part of why she became Robin is because he was getting worse. It's easy to forget what was going on back then with Crystal, too, because she's so great now, but, well." Tim gestured. "She wasn't exactly a stable figure in Steph's life at the time. So we were two kids with a metric fuck ton of issues who thought we were hot shit for pulling the wool over the Batman's eyes, and... Well, I didn't have anybody for a hot minute there, until my dad woke up, and Steph had Bruce, except that she couldn't really talk to him about her home life because he didn't get it--not that I did either, but it's way easier to tell another teenager that he's being a rich putz about stuff, rather than the guy who's basically your boss, you know?"

Tim blew out a breath. "You add in first loves and teenage pregnancies and late night rendezvous with the mob? It's no wonder that we got a little codependent. And that's before everything else went down over the next several years. It all makes for a tough history to compete with, I know, but Cassie--" He looked over at her, finally. "It's never been a competition."

Her face was neutral in a thoughtful sort of way, like she was concentrating hard on what he was saying. (And what he wasn't.)

Tim cleared his throat, took a sip of his beer, and added, "For what it's worth, Young Justice, and you, specifically, were pretty much the best thing that could have happened to her back then. Whether it was all in her head or not, I have no idea, but I know she always felt like her position as Robin--with Bruce, in general--was pretty precarious. She needed someone other than just her boyfriend believing in her unconditionally, and you guys were--hell, you still are--more than unconditional. You're zealous about how much you love her, as Steph and as Robin."

Emotions flickered across Cassie's face, and Tim didn't bother to try to catalogue them. He wasn't sure how much of that Cassie had known; Stephanie was more gregarious than the rest of the bats, but a lot of it was a smoke screen. She could talk a lot without ever giving away much of substance--and it went without saying that Stephanie had always held Tim's secrets close, too.

"I... don't really know what to say," Cassie admitted.

"We could just let bygones be bygones," Tim offered. "And never talk about any of this ever again for our entire lives."

"Deal," Cassie said, gratefully, and they shook on it. Tim tried not to be intimidated by the strength of her grip, but based on the grin on her face, he wasn't succeeding.

With a jerk of his head, Tim led her over to one of the couches and flopped into it. "So... what've you been up to?" he asked.

Cassie looked at him like he was a little bit insane. "Small talk?" she said, stirring the straw through whatever brown drink she was drinking. "Really?"

Tim threw his hands in the air. "It's not like we really know each other! So, yeah, small talk, until we find something cooler and better to discuss. Like..." he fell back on one of Bernard's favorite conversational gambits. "Whether or not man has actually walked on the moon."

"I've walked on the moon," Cassie said, and Tim choked on his beer. She laughed at him.

"I should not be surprised by that," he said, hoarse, as he grabbed a napkin off the coffee table to swipe at his tshirt.

"Considering I know for a fact that you've personally been abducted by aliens?" Cassie said dryly. "You really shouldn't."

"I still maintain that that was 100% Steph's fault. And we never even left the stratosphere." He waved the conversation away, shaking his head. "Not the point. C'mon, girl bicep. Engage with the bit." He slapped his hand on the back of the couch. "Do you think the 1969 American moon landing was faked on a sound stage in order to win the Space Race?"

Cassie's lips twitched, and she leaned toward him, her blue eyes sparkling in the dim lighting as she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Honestly, Mr. Drake, you're asking the wrong question."

"What question should I be asking, then, Ms. Sandsmark?" Tim rejoined, grinning.

"Whether or not the American government used time travel to prevent the Russians from doing it first," she told him, straight-faced.

"Now, that's interesting," Tim said, crossing one leg over the other. "Elaborate on that."

***

Alien body language, in Cassandra's limited experience, was... well, alien. Cassandra wasn't sure that other people--the ones who weren't so instinctively attuned to the way that bodies moved--even noticed, but she did. Their anatomy, the ways their muscles shifted beneath their skin, were just different. But more importantly, the varying cultures of Earth had certain things in common in the way they interacted with and understood each other (ephemeral things, things that Cassandra couldn't explain in words) that alien peoples simply did not have.

Additional data points were usually helpful in learning to interpret those cultural differences in body language, but Kara Danvers was unique among the Kryptonians on Earth (at least, among the ones that Cassandra had had cause to meet) because she was the only one who hadn't grown up among humans.

It made fighting with her difficult--and Cassandra could always use more practice sparring against people with powers; she should ask Kara and Cassie both to come by the Clocktower for some training before they left Gotham--but it made dancing with her... interesting. Gently unpredictable. Highly enjoyable.

Cassandra had always appreciated people who were happy to talk enough to fill the silences she wouldn't, too. Kara and Stephanie were both like that, yelling over top of the music with their bright eyes and lipsticked lips. Maybe they were singing along? It was too much sensory input for Cassandra to keep track of, so she wasn't even trying; she just let the rhythms of the music and their voices wash over her without parsing them out into words and sentences.

Cassandra spun, enjoying the way that the skirt that she'd found amongst the clothes that Stephanie kept at Tim's place flared with the motion, and Kara slipped through the space around her, her steps inhumanly light and her smile sparkling. Her hands were deceptively strong when she set them on Cassandra's waist in a lift, and Cassandra couldn't help the burst of delighted laughter as she stretched her arms and arched her back, trusting in Supergirl's grip.

Stephanie cupped one hand around her mouth (sort of; the motion was awkward because she was holding both hers and Kara's drinks) and cheered, and Kara winked as she set Cassandra back on her own two feet. She leaned in, lips brushing Cassandra's ear as she said something that Cassandra couldn't code switch quickly enough to catch. It sounded teasing.

Kara then swirled away with a flutter of her own skirt, slinging an arm around Stephanie's neck and tugging her teasingly close. Stephanie wiggled her eyebrows and gave an exaggerated thrust of her hips, making Kara laugh.

In the corner of her eye, Cassandra could see that the tension had slipped away from both Tim and Cassie after whatever big emotional conversation they'd had, making room for easy camaraderie and a little bit of mischief as they bent their heads together on one of the big leather couches. That was good. Cassandra had never enjoyed watching the two of them eye each other like feral cats whenever Stephanie wasn't looking.

She spun away.

Club dancing wasn't Cassandra's favorite--she'd prefer ballet or, even better, a good mosh pit--but movement was movement, and she reveled in it. She just wished the room smelled less like sweat and alcohol, scents that reminded her, more than anything, of poorly cleaned safehouses and antiseptic wipes. It was a little hard to lose yourself in the music when you kept thinking about the previous week's adventure in stitching up the stab wound in your baby brother.

Cassandra shoved the memory away and let the crowd separate her from her friends as she fell deeper into it. (It wasn't like Kara couldn't pick her out of a crowd by the sound of her heartbeat. If they needed her, they could find her again easily.)

She danced with some strangers--college girls, by the Gotham University sweatshirt one was wearing, who were bouncy and inelegant and loud as they jumped and thrashed--until someone nearby tried to put a hand on her hip. One of the college girls grabbed her hand, pulling her away with a glare towards the offending party, and Cassandra patted the girl's cheek in thanks (even if she hadn't really needed it) before twisting away and falling once more into the anonymity of the crowd.

Her eyes caught on something glittering, high on the ceiling, and she felt her steps falter.

That was an odd place for a camera, she thought. It couldn't see the bar at all. Its only purpose could be to observe the dance floor, but the blaze of the lights next to it would surely obscure the image.

Cassandra didn't let her gaze linger suspiciously, but it did sharpen; the movements of the crowd steered her around the dance floor, and every time her gaze fell on the ceiling, she studied it in earnest. She found three cameras, all sensibly located, and grew increasingly certain that whatever that was at the center of the room, it was not a camera. It was smaller than the others, not as rounded.

Her circling of the floor had brought her back to her friends, and she caught Kara's elbow, pulling her close. "I'm breaking the shop talk rule," she said, too quietly for anyone without super hearing to understand.

Kara recognized the quiet urgency in Cassandra's voice, and she flipped that switch that every cape had, becoming focused, becoming dangerous, even as she followed Cassandra's lead and continued to dance. "Hit me."

"On the ceiling, center of the room, near the light fixture. What do you see?"

Kara pulled Cassandra close, cheek to cheek to hide her sight line as she peered into the gloom, her Kryptonian eyesight cutting past the obscuring haze of the lights better than Cassandra's could. Her brow furrowed. "I can't really tell what that is," she admitted. "It almost looks like... like a really small turret gun. But that's crazy, right?"

Cassandra could practically see it hit her that this was Gotham, and, no, that wasn't at all crazy.

She grabbed Kara and Stephanie's wrists and drew them away from the dancefloor, towards Tim and Cassie. "What do you know about this place?" she asked Stephanie, as quietly as she could.

Despite having been outside of the conversation on the dance floor, Stephanie didn't miss a beat. "I know that it's new," she said, falling instinctively into her Mission Report voice. "It opened about three months ago and gives a lot of business to local artists and musicians, which has made it popular with the Bohemian twenty-something crowd. And I know that its bouncer let Tim in despite a really obvious fake." She rolled her eyes. "He has better ones; he was definitely hoping he'd have an excuse to go home and sleep."

That was sketchy. Less sketchy in a relative sense in Gotham than in most other places, but still plenty sketchy. Liquor licenses were expensive and not worth losing when your livelihood depended on them, and serving to underage kids with obvious fakes was a great way to get yourself in trouble. Except that it was also a great way to entice vulnerable populations towards your bar, and then when you added in mysterious projectile weaponry...

"Has there been an uptick in missing persons in the primary age group since it opened?" Cassandra asked quietly.

The line of Stephanie's back tensed. "Nothing substantial enough to have pinged our radar, but let me run a more focused search."

Cassie saw them coming first, her eyebrows shooting high up her head and the casual slump of her shoulders washing away, and Tim turned. His eyes caught Cassandra's immediately.

"Gotham missing persons cases, ages 18 to 27," she said, bluntly. "Specifically the unsolved cases."

Tim blinked. "Including or excluding Crime Alley?"

"What's going on?" Cassie asked. She started to rise from the couch, but Kara waved her back down and perched on the coffee table in front of them.

Stephanie leaned against the back of the couch, thumbs flying over her phone screen. Cassandra could see a hint of a green interface and knew she was accessing Oracle's database--

More thorough and better organized than the one Bruce maintained for the Batcomputer, and yes, regardless of what he claimed, it definitely frustrated him. He liked to be the best at things. Cassandra could relate.

She sat next to Tim, close enough that their knees touched. "Excluding, for now."

"Time range?"

"Three months."

"Four women and two men have been reported to the GCPD. One of the women is strongly suspected to be the victim of domestic violence but the body hasn't been located yet; two went missing on nights out with their friends; one's last known whereabouts was leaving work on a Friday afternoon. One of the men also went missing on a night out with his friends. One was last seen buying a pack of cigarettes and a Red Bull at a gas station." Tim shrugged. "I can't tell you much more off the top of my head."

"No need; I'm pulling the files and querying a list of addresses for the last known locations." Stephanie nudged her shoulder. "Can I ask where this is coming from?"

"Weird thing on the ceiling at the middle of the dance floor," Cassandra told her. "Kara said it looked like a mini turret gun."

Tim hummed thoughtfully, draping his arm over her shoulder as he cast his eyes towards the weird thing in question. "Well, obviously they aren't just shooting up their patrons indiscriminately. You're thinking a tranq gun or something? Step up from slipping drugs into people's drinks at the bar?"

"I don't know. It could be nothing."

But her gut was telling her it wasn't, and she could read the same on Tim and Stephanie's faces.

"Well, on the plus side," Stephanie said, "Wonder Girl doesn't have a secret identity these days."

***

"Oh my god, you're Cassie Sandsmark, aren't you?! You're Wonder Girl!"

Stephanie's voice broke through the crowd at just the right moment as the music died off--gathering the attention of everyone in a fifty foot radius and then rippling outwards.

It was actually scary, how quickly she and Tim had managed to mix up her appearance so she wouldn't be easily pegged as one of the people who'd walked into the club alongside Cassie. They'd traded tshirts--

"Did you spill your beer on this?" Stephanie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Have you ever heard the joke that if they'd tried to hire Stanley Kubrick to fake the moon landing, he'd have demanded to film it on location?" Tim countered, as he cut the shirt into a sleeveless tank with a pocket knife Cassandra had pulled out of nowhere.

--and Stephanie'd cuffed her jeans and traded her flats for a pair of heels that she'd had in her purse. Tim had pulled her hair up in a messy bun and patted it wet to darken the color, as she wiped off her lipstick and redid it in purple.

("But couldn't someone check the cameras and see you go into the bathroom in one outfit and come out in another?" Kara asked.

"It's pretty unlikely they're going to think that hard about it, honestly," Stephanie said. "We're just being cautious."

"You're looking pretty good, but it's still missing something," Tim said. To Kara, he added, "Also, Proxy. She's taking care of the cameras."

Oh, right.

Well, before she could feel too silly about the question, Kara reached into her purse to pull out her spare pair of glasses and slid them onto Stephanie's face. "There," she told her. "Now you're ready."

"Oh my god--" Stephanie went cross-eyed trying to look at the bridge of her own nose. "Do you and Clark buy these in bulk? Are you single handedly keeping one single optometrist in business?"

"Who's Clark?" Tim asked, faux innocent. "Just kidding, it's hard to keep a secret identity when I've met both you and your clone."

Stephanie set her hand over his face and shoved.)

Cassie played her part beautifully on the dance floor; giving it her best humbly embarrassed, "Aw Shucks" kind of treatment in the face of Stephanie's loud fangirling and demands for her to flex her biceps. Others were joining in--Gotham loved its Bats above all other superheroes, of course, but that was Wonder Girl, and she was standing right there.

When Stephanie asked for a selfie, Cassie caught her by choreographed surprise as she swept her into the air--

And only someone with Kryptonian eyesight might notice that Stephanie's phone camera was flipped the wrong direction, focused instead on the strange device on the ceiling that was suddenly only a couple feet away. Cassandra had already taken advantage of the distraction to slip away into the back, while Tim and Kara stuck around in the main room so it wouldn't look too much like all of Cassie's friends had abruptly abandoned her.

Tim had zipped his jacket up over his tshirt, hiding the swap, and his eyes were scanning the crowd as he tapped his empty beer bottle against his bottom lip.

Kara gave him a nudge with her elbow. "What are you thinking?" she asked. She didn't know him very well, but she did know Stephanie, and growing up together had resulted in the two of them trading mannerisms back and forth. It was a very familiar frown etched between his eyebrows.

"Just wondering if we're on the right track," Tim murmured. "Clubs are great places to make people disappear from, sure, but there are easier ways to do it. We have no idea what kind of projectile that thing is meant to shoot, or if it's even sinister."

"Just a weird security system, do you think?" Kara rubbed at her nose, trying to resist the urge to sneeze. Someone out there on the dance floor had on a truly sickly sweet perfume that was giving her a headache. It had barely been noticeable an hour ago, but it just seemed to keep getting worse.

"I don't know." Tim sighed. "It could be literally nothing. A weird hook they stick a disco ball on sometimes, I don't know."

"From what I saw, it definitely wasn't a hook," Kara told him. She bit her lip, crossing her arms over her chest. Ugh, if this wasn't Gotham, they'd all write this off and resume getting drunk.

(Not that Kara could actually get drunk on Earth-standard liquor, but she liked the taste. Alcohol tasted sharper and more sour to her than it did to a human, from how she heard them talk about it.)

But this was Gotham, and that meant that if they did decide to let it go, then midway through the night someone was definitely going to get axe murdered or shot with a dart that would transform them into a marmoset or something else equally ridiculous yet horrifying.

Their phones buzzed in near unison, interrupting her anxieties, and Kara slipped her iPhone out of her purse as Tim heaved a sigh and reached for his own. His phone case had Black Bat's version of the bat symbol on the back, and it was impossible to say which of him, Stephanie, or Cassandra might have been its originator. It was pretty cute. Kara wasn't sure if he'd appreciate her saying so, though.

Steph had dropped the pictures she'd taken in the Girls' Night group chat; one picture of the thing on the ceiling, and one very cute selfie of her and Cassie that Kara immediately set as Cassie's contact photo.

🦇♀️ (11:57 PM):

[image_20221126_90293838.jpg] [image_20221126_90293839.jpg]

less of a turret gun, more of a nozzle. could just be for pumping in smoke during live music or whatever

🦆 (11:57 PM):

right over the center of the dance floor? wouldn't it be by the stage?

🦇🦇 (11:58 PM):

I'll add mysterious pipes and smoke machines to the list of what I'm searching for.

🦇🦇 (11:58 PM):

To borrow one of Duke's favorite phrases, the vibes down here are rancid.

🦇♀️ (11:59 PM):

what does that mean??? cass do you need back up?

🦇🦇 (11:59 PM):

hm. don't worry about it.

Because that wasn't ominous. Stephanie caught Kara's gaze across the crowded dance floor, briefly, and rolled her eyes. "It's Cass. She's fine," she whispered, and--well, fair enough.

One day Cassandra was going to be Batman.

Tim slipped his phone and its adorable friendship case back into his pocket. His lips were tight at the corners. "Honestly," he told Kara, "I think I'm actually more concerned about the nozzle than if it was a gun."

"Because--and if I've been saying it a lot tonight, it's because I need you all to understand how insane you are for living here--this is Gotham," Kara said darkly. There were way too many terrifying aerosolized forms of attack wandering around on its streets. She didn't have to say it--Tim knew what she was getting at. He lived it every day of his life.

Tim's expression tightened further. "Hopefully Cass finds--"

"What a special treat we've got tonight, folks," the DJ said. Her voice cut through the room due to the cleverly positioned speakers. "I'd say give it up for the girl wonder, but that means something different around these parts."

Tim broke off when the DJ began speaking, even though he knew Kara could have heard him despite the woman talking over every other conversation in the room.

Except, there weren't other conversations in the room, Kara realized. All she could hear were the electric buzz of the lights, the inhale and exhale of several hundred humans, and the minute rustles of fabric that accompanied minor movements and adjustments.

(Well, okay, Kara could hear a lot of things. On the other side of the city, Nightwing and Robin were arguing about Pokémon, and on the other side of the world, some Australian school kids were playing rock paper scissors over who got to go next on the swing. In the basement of the building, some kind of kerfuffle was starting up, but until Cassandra indicated that she needed back up, Kara wasn't going to worry about it.)

When Kara studied the crowd, she found that everyone was hanging rapturously onto the DJ's words. Everyone, including the bartenders, including Cassie where she bobbed weightlessly above the dance floor with a black girl in a Gotham University sweatshirt held against her side. Kara couldn't really see her face from this angle, but she looked... dazed. Her grip on the college student was slipping.

So, that wasn't good, Kara thought, as foreboding sank its teeth into her spine.

"What brings you to Gotham tonight, Wonder Girl?" the DJ asked.

Kara snapped her attention over to the DJ, focusing her eyes past the gloom and the distance to find... a woman. Just a woman, and that shouldn't have been as disappointing as it was. Supergirl was well aware that the worst kinds of people on Earth and throughout the galaxy were regular, boring, old people, but there was still a part of her that felt like you should be able to look at someone and just know.

The DJ was in her mid- to late-thirties, with dark lipstick and eyeliner sharp enough that Kara was a little jealous. She had wavy dark hair that had been brushed to a smooth, luscious sheen, and her dark eyes were fixed firmly on Cassie.

Kara's nose wrinkled involuntarily as another wave of that sickly sweet smell washed over her.

"Just... visiting some friends," Cassie said. Her voice--usually strong, usually dripping with conviction--was somehow... distant.

Okay, Kara thought. One nozzle on the ceiling pumping some kind of (sweet smelling?) gas (?) into the room, plus one big group of humans (and one half-human goddess) who seemed to be hypnotized by the DJ's voice, equaled serious shady business. She didn't need to be trained by Batman to do that kind of math.

The number of people who had immediately headed for the bar when the DJ suggested they do so earlier hadn't really registered as anything but an offhand oddity at the time, but it made a lot more sense now. Using drugs to make your customers more open to suggestion was definitely skeevy, and also definitely illegal at least in the "non-consensual drug use" sense, but was this situation any more malicious? Mind control intended to boost profits was a far cry from mind control intended to, you know. Enslave the populace and take over the city or whatever.

Kara wasn't sure if she should be giving this woman that slight benefit of the doubt or not, and all the detectives on site were either high or--from the sounds of things--currently wrestling something twice her size. She bit her lip, glancing over at Tim and then Stephanie, but they both had the same glazed expressions on their faces as Cassie did.

Then the DJ leaned forward, her eyes going a little wild and her grip on her mic white-knuckled, and she asked Cassie, "What friends?" in a tone way too intense for casual curiosity.

Oh, screw it. Kara had happily followed the Bats' (plus Tim's) lead and let them do their sneaky detective thing to try and figure out what was going on, but her supervillain radar was officially pinging off the charts. It was time for a new tactic.

In a split second, Kara both fired off a text to Cassandra and also changed into something a little more comfortable.

👽 (12:02 AM)

hey c! so the DJ is mind controlling ppl! dont kno y. i can handle things out here!! rlly hoping ur ok & can shut down whatever shes pumping in here 2 make ppl susceptible before she orders smbdy 2 attack me or wtv. xoxo stay safe!

"That would be me!" Kara called cheerfully. She zipped up next to Cassie, caught the civilian just as Cassie's fingers slipped fully off her waist, deposited her gently on the floor, and then fluttered her fingers towards the DJ in a sassy wave.

She'd packed one of her older costumes for this trip, because Stephanie got a big kick out of teasing her about the crop top and she always caught Cassie checking out her legs in the miniskirt. She'd kind of wondered if just seeing her might help snap her friends out of their hypnosis, but unfortunately, it didn't look like the power of lesbianism alone was going to be enough.

She heard her phone buzz in her purse where she'd left it hanging in the crook of Tim's arm, but hopefully Cassandra wasn't in any trouble she couldn't get out of alone. (It sounded like she was done with the wrestling and had moved on to disassembling something heavy and complicated, but who knew?)

"So, like, I know that it's not really any of my business, but it's pretty clear from an outside perspective--" Kara held her hand up in front of her face, palm facing herself, and then turned it and pushed it toward the DJ-- "that you've got something really hinky going on here, and I'd just like to--"

"Wonder Girl, take her down!" the DJ blurted, panicked by the unexpected appearance of Supergirl.

"Oh, come on!" Kara complained, even as Cassie's fist collided with her nose.

***

🦇🦇 (12:03 AM)

Little busy K sorry. Think we stumbled on a doomsday cult. Check people's purses for rebreathers; Gothamites usually carry them. S&T both do.

***

Unfortunately for the DJ, she hadn't really thought through the ramifications of what happens when one super strong Amazon attacks one super strong Kryptonian.

(In her defense, while getting thrown through a window by the Bat was a practically a city-wide pass time, it was way more unusual for someone to actually get thrown through the floor.)

The last fifteen minutes were a hazy blur in Cassie's mind--she remembered indulging in a few other selfie requests as Stephanie slipped back into the crowd. She remembered that voice washing over her, pushing away everything else. She remembered--

The thud of her knuckles against invulnerable skin.

(The DJ hadn't thought that through, either. It was a toss up in a normal fight which of them might win; as an Amazon, Cassie was better trained in terms of combat, both physically and tactically, while in terms of raw power, Supergirl had Wonder Girl beat. But hypnotized people weren't exactly known for thinking clearly and remembering their training, and even having to protect the civilians as they fought was barely a handicap for Kara after so many years of practice.)

Through the lifting fog, Cassie could hear the familiar murmur of Supergirl's voice. Slowly, it sharpened into recognizable words.

"...with me, now?"

Kara's voice was deceptively light for the way her hand curled behind the back of Cassie's head, strong fingers gently searching for any injury.

Cassie blinked, slow and unfocused, as she sucked in heaving gulps of air. There was a telltale dusting of concrete and splintered wood over her, under her, a little bit in her mouth. "D'd you throw m' thr' a wall?" she slurred.

What looked like a literal fucking torch flickered behind Kara's head as she grinned. Cassie's vision was swimming, but she could tell Kara'd let her hair down when she changed into her costume. She had really pretty hair. "Through the floor, actually," she said, cheerfully. "Don't worry, Lois has been buying all of us these books on structural engineering so we can better avoid anything that's load-bearing. The clean air's helping, right?"

"Clean is relative," Cassie grunted, but yeah, it was. She hadn't really noticed the cotton fuzz around her thoughts until it was gone, chased away by the taste of incense and smoke and sewer.

Kara clasped Cassie's forearm, helping pull her to her feet, and then dusted her off with a grin. "Punch whatever Black Bat tells you to punch while I go deal with everything topside, okay?"

And with a sudden rush of wind, Kara was gone.

"Bat? You're down here, too?" Cassie croaked, stumbling slightly as she braced one palm against the wall. Her head was throbbing, and she tried to force her eyes to focus past the buzzing in her brain.

More torches, she noted. People in hoods too distracted by the darting black shadow in their midst to pay much attention to Wonder Girl and Supergirl literally crashing through the ceiling. A big death ray looking thing at the center of the room that the black shadow was trying very hard to dismantle while fending off the hooded people.

Well.

Vaguely nauseous or not, Cassie could help with that.

She launched herself into the air and crashed into place back-to-back with Black Bat. Cassandra wasn't wearing her full get up, of course, but she must have had a spare mask and hand wraps stuffed into Stephanie's purse, along with a long black scarf. Together with her torn up black jeans and her (questionably ironic) Batman tshirt, they made for a reasonable facsimile of her costume.

Cassie blocked a punch and crashed a couple heads together (calculatedly gently, given her current state). They staggered away from her, groaning, and she tossed a glance over her shoulder. "'S that thing gonna explode if I start smashing it?"

"Probably not. I say go for it." Black Bat used Cassie as a launch pad for flying scissor kick, the ragged ends of her scarf trailing behind her the way her cape usually did.

Cassie figured no one would begrudge her a couple seconds to admire the ease with which the Black Bat cut through the room.

(Being who she was and being in the profession she was in, Cassie Sandsmark knew a lot of very dangerous women. Diana could take on the entire Justice League blindfolded; Artemis had the grace of a leopard and the viciousness of a pit bull.

But there was something special about Cassandra Wayne. She moved faster, hit harder, thought quicker than any non-metahuman should reasonably be able to, and yet when she fought, she was... kind. She didn't hit people with the intent to inflict pain or injury, although sometimes that was unavoidable; Cassandra fought exclusively with the intent to end the fight. To put down her enemies fast enough to protect the innocent. To put them down gently enough to protect the instigators.

God, Diana would love her. Had Batman ever bothered to introduce them? She didn't think so. Maybe he was scared Diana would steal his favorite protege. He'd certainly gotten all weird about it the one time Cassie had tried to invite Stephanie's Robin to come to Themyscira with her and Kara, and Cassie had reluctantly let the idea go.)

A well-placed kick to one cultist's chest sent him flying into two of his brethren, and they all went down in a groaning heap.

Right. Moment over.

Cassie grabbed the nearest bit of steel plating, sank her fingers into it with a snarl, and felt the burn in her muscles as she tore into it. A rush of heat blasted outwards towards her, someone behind her screeched at her to stop, a bullet whizzed by her shoulder--

Clearly they didn't expect it to explode, if they were willing to take potshots in its direction. That made the roaring orange whatever that she'd just exposed a little less worrisome.

But Cassie placed her trust in the Bat at her back and stubbornly ignored it all. She set her boot at the bottom of the hole she'd made and gripped onto the upper edge, gritting her teeth, and used the coiled power of her whole body to force it wider, wider, wider--

Cassie staggered back a step at the sudden lack of resistance as a long, jagged strip of sheet metal tore wholesale off of the side of the doomsday device; she swung it experimentally, getting a feel for its balance and its resistance through the air.

Yeah. She could work with this.

She hefted it into the air like a baseball bat and began to take a smash out of anything that looked delicate enough to break under her oh-so-tender ministrations. It was almost meditative. Especially once people stopped shooting at her.

When Cassie ran out of really obvious things to tear apart, she took a break, lifting her tank to wipe at the sweat and ash on her face, and nearly jumped when she lowered it to find Black Bat standing right in front of her.

"Nice work," Cassandra told her, twitching the scarf down so she could see the ghost of a grin on her lips.

Cassie cast her gaze across the dozens of cultists ziptied and unconscious throughout the rest of the basement. "You, too," she said dryly. A bigger unconscious lump caught her eye and she squinted at the far corner of the room, a frown tugging down the corners of her lips. "Is that a bear? Did you wrestle a bear?"

"Don't tell Robin. Batcow is a big enough hassle." Cassandra drifted closer, raising one hand to swipe her thumb, slowly, over Cassie's cheek. "You missed a spot," she said.

It took every ounce of Cassie's self-control to keep her breathing steady as she looked down into the white lenses of the Black Bat mask. "Thanks," she managed, a little breathlessly.

Cassandra pulled her scarf back up, but not before Cassie saw her smile twitch wider.

Kara stuck her head down into the basement through the hole in the ceiling, blonde hair cascading down, and whistled to get their attention. "Are you two done yet? The cops finally made it to the party. Apparently half of them hate Tim, and the feeling is mutual. It's hilarious; you need to get up here."

Cassie held out her arm, and Cassandra fit herself neatly into her side, fingers tucked into one of her belt loops as Cassie wrapped her arm around her waist.

"Your phone is buzzing like crazy," Cassandra told her, her chin dipping to glance at Cassie's back pocket.

"Oh, yeah. It always does that. I don't even really notice it any more." Cassie rolled her eyes. "Young Justice may be defunct, but the groupchat never dies. Last time I glanced at it, Anita and Kon were getting heated about who knows what, and Cissie was shamelessly egging them on. I keep trying to mute it, but Bart will steal my phone to turn my notifications back on if I go quiet for too long."

As their fearless leader (for a team that no longer existed), every message that Cassie sent in the groupchat was automatically spam-liked and prompted a chain of replies full of clapping emojis and Beyoncé gifs. She was also the final arbiter of all arguments (not that anyone ever actually accepted her word as final, despite claiming they did) and the keeper of the lauded movie night schedule, even though it was always Bart or Stephanie who was responsible for planning them. It was... annoying. And a hell of a lot of fun.

(Everything that YJ had always been at its best. The Teen Titans were great and all, but Cassie really missed her team.)

"You love it," Cassandra observed.

"I love them," Cassie corrected dryly. "The never-ending arguments about which season of Wendy the Werewolf Stalker is superior, I could live without. Which, by the way, if Steph has ever tried to claim to be above that show, she's lying to you. She started watching it ironically to have ammunition for making fun of Kon, and now she's the worst of all of them."

Cassandra laughed as their feet touched down, lightly, onto the ground floor. She slipped out from under Cassie's arm with a squeeze of thanks, her head turning as she studied the room. "Everyone's already out of the building?" she asked.

There was a knowing glitter in Kara's eye as she looked over the two of them, dusting off her knees and flipping her hair back over her shoulder. "Uh huh. Once there was a little extra ventilation in here--" they all galnced at the hole in the floor--"Steph was able to fight through the mind control enough to get rebreathers on herself and Tim, and then they organized the evac while I dealt with the DJ."

"Good." Cassandra tilted her head towards the back exit. "I'm off then. Have fun with the GCPD. Don't let Tim be too mean. Just because they're corrupt doesn't mean they can't still arrest him."

Kara gasped, zipping around to cut off her escape route. "You can't just abandon us!"

"Can. Will." Cassandra booped Kara on the nose, then ducked under her arm and vaulted the bar with graceful ease. "You can't stop me. You can tell them Black Bat was here, but I'm not giving a report."

"But we don't--!"

Cassie laid a hand on Kara's shoulder. "She's out of costume," she pointed out gently. "Let her go."

Cassandra paused with her back against the door, poised to disappear into the shadows. "Besides," she added, laughter in her voice, "someone's got to explain all this to Batman."

***

Getting milkshakes at two AM after a rowdy night on the town was pretty par for the course for a girls' night, Stephanie was pretty sure. Eating them on the top of Wayne Tower in your superhero costumes was probably unusual, though.

Even for Gotham.

"It has never been more clear that I'm the fifth wheel than at this moment," Tim said, dryly. And he wasn't wrong--his yoga pants and tshirt stood out amongst the spandex and body armor, even with the spare domino that Stephanie had slapped onto his face. Nonetheless, he was leaning contentedly into Wonder Girl's shoulder as he ate his peach-and-strawberry monstrosity with a spoon. On his other side, Supergirl and Black Bat were playing Rock-Paper-Scissors. The Bat was winning every single round, and looking very smug about it.

"Seriously, Cassie, does your phone ever stop buzzing?" he asked.

Cassie snorted. "Nope."

She'd brought back the black crop top and the red leggings with yellow stars when she'd cut her hair earlier that year, and Stephanie was grateful. That long blonde hair, flowing skirt Wonder Girl--she didn't know her. That was some girl trying to force herself to be what everyone wanted an Amazon to be; glamorous and feminine before kick ass and authoritative. It wasn't Cassie.

But this version of Wonder Girl, with the harder edge and the taunting grin and the undercut? She was someone Stephanie would be happy to follow into battle.

(Plus: abs. And biceps. Every gay girl in North America was jealous of Tim right now.)

"Bart fell down a wikipedia hole and has been educating us all about cone snails," Stephanie told him. "We love an autistic speedster king."

Tim hummed. "I miss Bart. Tell him he should call me sometime."

"Does he even have your number?" Cassie asked, laughing, and Tim... smirked.

"I dunno, Cassie, you tell me. I mean, why would Bart possibly have my number?"

Stephanie narrowed her eyes, leaning forward so that she could see him better around Cassie. "Tim," she said slowly. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

He choked on his milkshake, and Cassie non-subtly gripped him by the back of the shirt to make sure he didn't knock himself off the side of the building. "Wait, do you not know?" he demanded, leaning forward--as far as Cassie's grip on his tshirt allowed him to go--to squint at her.

(Yes, he was wearing a domino, but Stephanie could still tell. She'd been reading way less expressive faces through masks since she was fourteen.)

"Oh my god," Stephanie said. She pressed her palm against the forehead of her cowl. "All those times I thought Bart was just making a weird Bart-joke that I didn't get when he said something about us having an ex in common--"

"It was one date; calling us exes is a little strong."

"Oh my god!" Stephanie threw a handful of napkins at him. A couple hit him; the rest fluttered into the air and drifted down towards the glittering Gotham streets below them. "How could you not tell me!"

Tim burst out laughing. "I thought he was going to!"

She dug her gloved hands into her hair, groaning, as she leaned backwards. "When did this happen?"

"I dunno, a couple months after the whole alien abduction thing?" Tim was still laughing, while Stephanie was having a crisis. Her best friend and her Tim went on a date and neither of them told her!!! "We met up in Gotham, we got froyo and went to an arcade, he was a perfect gentlemen. We kissed exactly once--"

Stephanie made an inarticulate noise.

"--and ultimately decided that long distance superhero-civilian relationships are not worth the hassle, even when the superhero in question is a speedster, so we parted on amicable terms." Tim side-eyed her. "Did you seriously not know?"

"Some detective she is," Cassie snickered.

That set Tim off again, laughing so hard he was almost crying. "He must've thought I was going to tell her," he wheezed.

"Or he decided to see how long it'd take her to out the pieces together," Cassie said, "which is apparently more than five years."

"Oh, shut up," Stephanie huffed. "You two are the fucking worst. I'd pour my milkshake on you, but it's too tasty for that." It was cookies and cream, because Stephanie knew what she was about. She slurped it pointedly, knocking her elbow into Cassie's.

"You love us," Cassie said confidently. She ignored Stephanie's attempts to goad her, instead slinging her arm around her shoulders and tugging her into her side. It left her own (peanut butter) milkshake pressed into Stephanie's shoulder, condensation dripping down onto her body armor.

Stephanie wrinkled her nose at her. "I've been informed I have bad taste."

"Only in men," Tim corrected. "And milkshakes."

"Fuck you."

"No, thanks." Tim kicked his legs idly, gazing out across the city. "So, is this how your girls' nights usually go?"

"You mean do we usually not even make it through our first round of drinks before we uncover that a death cult is using the club as a fundraising front and intending to eventually sacrifice all of its patrons to power its death ray--"

"Dismantle said death ray--"

"Wrestle a bear--"

"Get weirdly passive aggressive with the cops--"

"And then go get milkshakes?"

"Yeah," Tim said.

"Pretty much," Cassandra said.

"Last month we went bowling," Kara told him.

Cassie grinned. "And fought the eldritch monster that was eating all the bowling pins."

Tim raised an eyebrow. "I'll... be better prepared for next time."

"Next time!" Stephanie crowed, throwing her hands into the air victoriously. "Aw, Boyfriend, I knew you loved us."

"Stockholm syndrome," he declared. But he was grinning, crooked and carefree, and Stephanie reached across Cassie to squeeze his knee.

"So, are you gonna tell me what project you and Black Bat are 'collaborating on?'"

"No."

"You'll find out." Cassandra sucked down the last of her milkshake and then rose to her feet gracefully, stretching. "So, what now?" she asked, as the wind teased at her short black hair and the tattered edges of her cape.

"Movie night?" Stephanie suggested.

"We could revisit the pillow fight idea," Kara said thoughtfully.

"Nobody's back from patrol yet, right?" Cassie asked. "We could go vandalize one of the Red Hood's safehouses."

Tim's eyes lit up, and Cassandra tipped her head back as she laughed.

#stephanie brown #tim drake #cassandra cain #cassie sandsmark #kara danvers #the tim&steph role swap au #I wrote this #this took so long and is only questionably good but I'm tired of looking at it

[deciphertheriddler]

... Why the obsession with Bruce Wayne??

"..."

He looks up, disbelief in his eyes as he shakes his head slowly.

"You think I'm obsessed with him? I'm not. I'm not! He just keeps showing up, EVERYWHERE." He stands up, clearly worked up, and breathes heavily for a moment, before sitting down again, eyes on the ground. "It started at the orphanage, when his parents oh-so-generously gave us their old house to live in. And then they came like saviors, promising everything that would never be given to us. And Bruce was there, of course." He laughs to himself before looking up. "And he looked at me." His expression gets distorted in rage. "HE LOOKED AT ME ON THAT DAY LIKE I WAS DISGUSTING! LIKE I WAS NOTHING! I WAS JUST A KID, HOW COULD HE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME...?"

He tries to gesture, but the shackles stop him, and he calms down a bit again.

"Anyway, as we grew up, did you know Bruce Wayne was like everyone's imaginary friend? We would say 'oh this room was little Bruce's toy room', 'did you know he had three different bedrooms all to himself?'... We lived all piled up there. Even a mansion wasn't big enough for all of us, and it got worse as we didn't have the money to repair around."

A small pause, as he recollects his thoughts.

"And Bruce, Bruce was everywhere. Everything he did, it was on the news. People loved to show off poor little orphan Bruce Wayne. He lost his parents! Lost everything! And us, uh? We have lost all too! I never even knew what it was like to be loved, wanted, to have parents! No one cared for our problems. For our misery. No one even remembered about Renewal, not even me at that point, it seemed like a distant dream."

Finally, he stands up, pacing around his cell.

"Don't you think he could have helped? Not as a kid, but later. He could have cared. He could use all that money to something, but what do we get? Nothing. The entire city loves him, and the guy doesn't even leave his house! I mean, why do you think I had to send him a bomb? There was no way I could get a chance of sneaking in the tower or following him, when he apparently thinks all the city is too beneath him to even grace it with his presence!" He almost spits the last part.

"I'm not obsessed with Bruce Wayne. This city is obsessed with him. Can't you see it?" His eyes are pleading for understanding. "Not even all my followers understood that. All millionaires are part of the problem. You don't get that rich without stepping on people. And Bruce, he didn't even try to do anything. Not even pretend."

He sits down again, sighing tiredly.

"The worse thing is, sometimes I feel like I can understand him. That somehow we are connected, and I can see exactly the type of person he is. Maybe he's... Lonely. Isn't that upsetting?" He drops his head back, staring at the ceiling, tone down. "He doesn't even know I exist. Or does, now, but he won't understand, will he? No, I'm just the sick little psychopath that even my parents didn't want because they could see what I would become. Too bad I wasn't left to starve as a baby, isn't that what everyone thinks?"

He fidgets with his fingers. "... I don't want to talk about Bruce Wayne. I should have killed him."

#wow ok so he started and never shut up #tw parental abandonment #tw murder #i got lost in all stuff was mentioned here uh #█ asks #█ｖｅｒｓｅ ００１ 𝚄𝙽𝙼𝙰𝚂𝙺 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚃𝚁𝚄𝚃𝙷 (main) #loved the ask tho!!! #anon

[roguesdepravity]

BTAS Batman x reader relationship headcanons? no pressure and thank you for taking this request

The big bat himself ooo. Sorry I have some thoughts on him GHFJD. Also there are so many contingencies here. At least I think Batsy would be proud. And thank you for requesting! I might be rogue-focused, but I like a few of the Bats too.

- Meeting him as Bruce would be the easiest way to get to date him. Though a trust fund kid might find it more difficult to foster a true relationship with him than an employee who he flirts with occasionally after meetings.

-Bruce is a charming man in a lot of ways. He might act dumb more often than not, but occasionally he will be forced to show just exactly how he manages to keep Wayne Tech afloat among his other business ventures. In those moments you get to see why he is considered reliable and just might make you consider giving him a chance.

-Meeting him as Batman first, would make it a bit more difficult unless you are actively fighting with/against him.

-If you caught his eye as a hostage he saved, he might find out who are, and see if it would even be reasonable to meet you properly.

-No matter exactly how you first meet, he would prefer you have an actual relationship with his unmasked persona above everything else. You would be safer without the connection to the vigilante, but also early on, he can't risk you knowing his identity even if he wants to tell you everything. Maybe an unwarranted fear, but Catwoman falling for Batman and leaving him for his masked persona left an impression on him.

-His dates as Bruce are extravagant in public. Whether its trips to famous resort destinations or expensive galas, he loves to show you off if you are willing to indulge in that. However, dates at the manor are more intimate and quiet. Most of the time he just enjoys chatting with you on the couch watching tv as Dick or Tim bug Alfred over how happy he looks.

-Bruce loves to just hold you in his arms and whisper how much he cares about you. Sometimes he has a hard time letting go because of how much he is afraid to lose you.

-You make him genuinely smile which Alfred would tell you hasn't happened in a long time.

-Gifts are expensive but meaningful. He only wants to give you things you would enjoy because he does know that his money can be intimidating.

-The best thing you can get for him is a picture of you for him to keep. He is always looking at the portrait of his parents, and if anything happens to you he wants that for you as well.

-He'd never tell you, but he has spent many nights with Alfred talking about whether or not he should stay with you. How can he bring someone else into his crazy life, but how could he deny himself of someone so wonderful either?

-If you happen to be a rouge, just know he is counting down the seconds till the relationship ends. He has been burned with Selina and Harvey by hoping that they really did want redemption and so he won't allow his feelings to muddy the waters if you ever do want to quit crime. In turn, he would never give up his life of crime-fighting, and he can't risk you using his secret identity against him. He cares deeply about you, but it just wasn't meant to be. He would just have to do his best to get over you.

-If you are also a vigilante, his life is a bit easier as he has no qualms about telling you who he is at the right time. Since you are working along side him, he is even more protective of you than if you didn't.

-For a civilian he will try to be there for you as Bruce. He isn't acting as much as people might believe he is as the playboy millionaire so when he tells you how much you mean to him he hopes you can believe him. Even if things don't work out between you, as long as you allow him, he will still try to reach out to you. Whether its getting a new job at a new company or supporting your love of the arts with a donation to the local theater, he won't forget what you loved and cared about beyond him. It wouldn't even matter if you broke Bruce's heart, he honestly cares so much that he would still put himself out there just to make sure that he at least tried to make things cordial between you.

-Telling you he is Batman would have to come after many complicated nights. If he did want to marry you, he'd have to tell you to feel good about it.

-If somehow you manage to start something with him as Batman, he is a lot more handsy and protective than he'd normally be. He doesn't know how long he will have with you, and he is trying his best to keep you around for as long as he can. That also means that he might only see you once a week if you are lucky. Not being able to be Bruce with you eats at him slightly, but its just how things have to be. Though he is normally rough with his rogues, when it comes to you he is extra violent. It gets to the point that only Joker would dare try to involve you in his schemes.

#batman x reader #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne headcanon #btas headcanons #btas batman #bruce wayne #btas #batman headcanon

[linkspooky]

Spinner vs Deku - The Ordinary Everydude Protagonist

This post came about because I read somewhere, someone pointing to the fact that Spinner doesn't parallel any of the main class 1A kids. Shigaraki parallels Deku, Toga parallels Uraraka, Shoto parallels Dabi, then what about spinner? This is not true actually, though, because Spinner.... also parallels Deku. They are both green.

Beyond that though, the role of protagonist of the villain side has been split between two characters. Shigaraki is the main plot mover of the villain side, he's the character which the main conflict of the story, but also Shigaraki is a fully formed character with an incredibly specific and detailed backstory. The audience isn't really meant to find him relatable (though I do but, that's beside the point).

To use an example from super hero comics, Bruce Wayne / Batman is meant to be a character with a detailed backstory, he's not meant to be relatable because we are not all millionaires sadly. However, the point of spiderman is that he is just a kid from new york who randomly got super powers and patrols the block. We are supposed to see ourselves in spiderman, because, the entire point of spiderman is that he could be anyone. The best adaptations of Spiderman (Ie, the Miles Morales movie) stay true to this concept of the character.

So, for My Villain Academia, Horikoshi split the role of protagonist between two people, Spinner who is so far unimportant to the story, unrelated to the main conflict, an everyman guy but also a character whose perspective is important because the audience can find it relatable. Then Shigaraki who is Horikoshi's well-developed OC who the story revolves around. Therefore you have one perspective character who narrates, and helps the audience understand the other character who the story revolves around. If you want an example for literature, the book is called the Great Gatsby, the plot revolves around Jay Gatsby, but the story is told by some dude named Nick Carraway and filtered through his perception. The plot revolves around Shigaraki, but it's relayed to us by Spinner.

It's in this role that Spinner parallels Deku, and once you start thinking of them in that sense that they are both characters the audience is meant to relate to and see themselves in their similarities become even more clear.

1. Empty Cosplayers

Despite all the deliberate parallels between Shigaraki and Deku set up, backstory wise Deku actually has a lot more in common with Spinner. They are both members of a group affected by the prejudices of quirk society, Deku is quirkless, Spinner not only has a heteromoprh qiurk, he doesn't even have a useful one like a few of the other heteromorph kids in the hero course, he just sticks to walls.

They learn from a young age that society is unfair, and ti's also unfair towards them. They are also both victims of bullying. which society around them seems to deem as acceptable. Deku is tormented by the same kid for years and nobody stops him, Spinner lived in a backwater town and he just accepted everyone telling him he was worthless. They also both developed nerdy / fanboy personalities, and leaned into their interests as a response to being bullied. Spinner is a gamer, Deku is a fanboy of heroes, and it's been commented upon several times his desire to collect hero merch is a nerdy hobby.

The greatest thing they share in common however, is their main motivation at first is how much they want to become like the hero they idolize. Deku is sort of an empty character motivation wise, he doesn't have a backstory reason like Shoto, he doesn't really ever articulate why he wants to save others, he just wants to be like the hero he admires that always smiled while saving others. However, if you were tor read Spinner's foiling of Deku, because Spinner is much more articulate of his reasoning, you could say that both Spinner and Deku were so tired of being weak and helpless and unable to change their circumstances, they both admired someone who fought against the world with all their strength, Stain in Spinner's case, All Might in Deku's. Deku and Spinner are themselves people who are somewhat empty and lacking in internal motivators, but they are also moved by great feelings, to strive to do great things, even in circumstances where they are powerless. They are also, very specifically, moved to take their very first steps towards acquiring something by the desire to save others, Deku by his desire to save Bakugo which makes him move when he's powerless, Spinner by his desire to support Shigaraki which makes him fight an entire crowd of people with much more powerful quirks than he has.

They also both dress up and cosplay like their heroes. Spinner s costume is deliberately modeled off of Stain, he carries a bunch of knives around at first, because that's what Stain did. Deku wears the green outfit with the bunny hood, because it's meant to look like All Might. He copies a lot of All Might's moves at first, without thinking about how to adapt them to his body.

They also both started out as nerdy slash weak kids who were moved to get stronger by the chance to be like their heroes. Spinner just started doing sit ups apparently, Deku worked out for months until he could even inherit the quirk All For One. Most importantly though they are not only cosplayers they are empty cosplayers, Deku and Spinner don't really have a complex and nuanced understanding of both All Might and Stain they just both admire them as their personal heroes. Deku still to this point has a hard time seeing the flaws and critiquing All Might's mistakes. Spinner doesn't really think critically about whether Stain was right or wrong. They're both caught up in admiring both as symbols for what they represent. All Might as a hero whos aves everyone with a smile. Stain as a force of change for a society, that was for Spinner, stagnant and oppressive.

Which means they also repeat some of their predecssors mistakes. We just went through an entire arc of Deku doing the exact same thing All Might did, which was cut everybody off, and try to solve every problem of Hero Society alone, despite the damage it was doing to his body and his Mental Health.

Stain's failure was specifically because he tried to revolutionize hero society all alone, not only did his actions not result in the reform he wanted when he was stopped, but Shigaraki was able to use Stain's image to recruit other people into the league of villains who didn't really agree with Stain's idea of reform of hero society, and instead wanted destruction. Now we have spinner who has become the face of a revolution the same way that Stain was, that he is also quickly losing control of now that AFO has become the head of the League of Villains.

Spinner of course admires the idea of destroying the old society and replacing it with something new, but I think in these chapters he's quickly realizng that, what new thing they replace it with might not be better if someone like AFO who thrives off of control and centralizing power to himself has a say in it. That is once again, Spinner becoming his hero, but not realizing his faults. Spinner actually has a strength that Stain doesn't have, the ability to work with others, to sympathize with them and comprehend their motivations to the point where they can see the humanity in someone like Shigaraki. And it might be Spinner's specific strength over Stain, that allows him to retake control of the narrative that Stain lost control of, and AFO is currently trying to take control of.

2. You Looked Like You Needed Saving

Spinner and Deku are also connected because on the villain side and hero side respectively, they are the first two characters to verbalize that Shigaraki is someone who might be in need of saving.

Within two chapters of each other, while everybody else remarks upon Shigaraki as a god of destruction, or some kind of divinity, it is both Spinner and Deku who express concern from him as a person.

The reason they are both able to connect to the normal human side of Shigaraki, is because that is their role essentially, as the narrator / perspective character for each of their halves of the story. However, it is also because they are both essentially just normal people.

Now whether Deku is actually a good deconustrction of the chosen one myth or not, or whether he's actually a good protagonist isn't really the point here. Deku is set up by Horikoshi in his role as the story, as just a normal person, who got dragged into all of this mess. Deku is suposed to be Spiderman. Not a special chosen one, but a normal kid struggling along to keep up with everyone else. Deku doesn't immediately understand the complex nuances of the world around him, because he's supposed to be the audiences way of working out the complexities in what seems like a light hearted story about a super hero academy at first but then becomes a much darker deconstruction. The idea Hori is trying to get across again and again is that Deku is nobody special, just a normal kid struggling.

Spinner is also an everydude struggling to keep up with his peers who are all, more powerful, and also have much more specific motivations than him. It's Spinner's role in the story, to try to learn to comperehend the nuance of these people. If Deku is supposed to show us the more human and nuanced side of the heroes in the story and how they struggle, then Spinner is meant to relay to us the villains.

Which is why Spinner starts out with no motivation at all, and starts out as being the one to question and antagonize Shigaraki, only to change his mind once he sees other sides of Shigaraki. Spinner is a perspective character, his journey isn't about being the strongest, or working out a lot to get jacked, but rather to gain perspective of the world, and that was also supposed to be the intended purpose of Deku's solo arc.

Deku and Spinner are both characters who start out with no specific motivation except admiration for their heroes, and no direction in life, because they are supposed to gain some over the course of their journey. Their journeys also, are becoming less and less about being individually strong, and more about learning to reach out to others. Deku admired All Might's ability to save everyone alone with sheer super strength, but in his solo arc he couldn't live up to that image he crashed and burned. Spinner admired Stain's ability as just one man to change the world alone, but now in Stain's position as the face of a revolution, he's kind of powerless and in a position where he could be manipulated by AFO very easily.

He's on a tight rope right now. The solution to both of their problems, is to once again open up to the network people around them. Deku needed to reunite with Class 1A. Spinner's plotline is likely going to revolve around bringing the scattered pieces of the league back together, while AFO tries to keep them seperate and easy to control.

Spinner and Deku are also both characters who are motivated to go out into the world, and try to understand it, because of their desire to save people. This is also where they differ. It's actually interesting how they contrast, because they both even admit they admire Stain, Deku really early on in the story says he can understand Stain at least but not Shigaraki. Stain is also, as much of a fanboy of All Might as Deku is. See they admire different aspects of Stain, a character who is meant to be the first instance of blurring the line between hero and villain. A villain character, a murderer, who is explicitly a fanboy of heroes, and unlike Shigaraki doesn't want to destroy heroes entirely just make them better. There's a heroic side to Stain, and a villain side, and Deku admires his heroic intentinos, whereas Spinner admires the lengths Stain will go to to bring about change even if it means taking violent action.

Spinner will just kill people. That's an important part of his character, he is an empathy character, he's an everyman, but he's also very specifically an everyman who joined a terrorist cell to kill people. Spinner is able to make sacrifices for what he determines to be a greater good. He will even sacrifice the many for the few, he'll disrupt the safety of common people in order to get what he thinks is better. However it's because Spinner can empathize with the individual over society, that he's able to make connections with people like Shigaraki and may even become his salvation.

Beating up Shigaraki does not work. The heroes will try and try it again, but it just does not work. Gran Torino told All Might not to try even talking to Shigaraki, and he got worse. Deku got angry and beat the ever loving crap out of Shigaraki, and then he got possessed by AFO and got worse. Endeavor burned Shigaraki alive several times, and then learned his son was also a villain and the situation got worse. Violent suppression is just not going to work for Shigaraki, which is why Spinner's empathy which values individuals over society is being set up as important. Because, the world isn't strictly utilitarian. When an individual is being oppressed, sometimes you have to inconvenience the whole of society, in order to help that one individual. That's what heroes are supposed to do you know, go above and beyond?

I believe the story is setting up these two seemingly opposite points of view, Deku who values the peace of mind of everyone over the suffering of the individual, and Spinner who values an individual like Shigaraki over the whole of society who is also the story's biggest victim and someone in need of saving, in order to make them both compromise with each other. That is, the story is probably setting them up to work together, as people coming from both sides of hero and villain to save Shgiaraki. The pro-heroes just won't reach out to Shigaraki, their strategy again and again has just been to put him down. Deku is someone who wants to save Shigaraki, but his every method so far has failed, because he's very clueless as to how society works.

When they come together from different ends of society and work together their compromise will be able to bring out the strengths of each of their perspective. Spinner is much, much better at looking at the nuance of society than Deku ever will be, because he's been down in the muck fighting in the front lines to begin with. Deku is also someone who will be able to help Spinner direct his actions towards a more just cause, which is something Spinner wants to do, he wants to bring about a more just future like Stain wanted.

Spinner and Deku are probably going to team up, and my evidence for this is how woefully incomplete Uraraka's supposedly grand speech that's supposed to be a turning point in the story is. I think this is at least in part meant to be deliberate, because, Uraraka freezes up in the middle of her speech when she talks about how hard the heroes have it, and how the heroes and the public should be sharing the burden so everyone can smile together in the end, as she thinks about how she deliberately caused Toga to cry by denying her empathy, or even a chance to talk.

DUraraka's speech about how life is just as hard on the heroes and they're suffering right alongside of us, because they're people too, deliberately leaves out the most dehumanized members of society, the villains. Uraraka hasn't yet reached the point where she can tell the public that villains aren't symbols of hatred and fear the same way that heroes aren't symbols of strength, they are all just people struggling in a complicated and messy world because she hasn't reached that point herself. Therefore, Uraraka's speech seems to be only half the solution to the problem of the current society. Heroes have it tough, but, also what about the villains? I'm hoping, Horikoshi deliberately left that out, because the kids are not at a point where they can save their villainous counterparts, and they need someone with the other half of the answer to lead them there.

Therefore, if Uraraka parallels Toga, if Shigaraki parallels Deku, if Dabi parallels Shoto, all in the fact that while being villains on the outside, but also children who need to be saved, because they represent what all three could have grown up into had their lives been a little tougher on them then, what does Spinner parallel to? That's easy, Spinner is going to be the one to save them, because before even any of the kids got to that point of sympathy, Spinner was the one who was trying the hardest to comprehend the motivations of his friends and see them as people. Spinner is going to become the "My Hero" of the villain side and step up as a savior, rather than as a person who needs to be saved. Spinner parallels Deku in that he too, is just an ordinary every dude who can step up to become a hero.

#spinner #iguchi shuuichi #deku #izuku midoriya #uraraka ochako #stain #all for one #shigaraki tomura #league of villain meta #lov meta #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #bnha 329 #mha 329 #bnha 329 spoilers #mha 329 spoilers