More Cryptid sketches.

(Silent Hearts and Silent Knights)

Electric Birb :3

Those talons work as his hands and feet.

How does he stand when he's holding something with both talons?

✨Cryptid Magic✨

Some civilians were kidnapped by Mr. Freeze and the bats were trying to figure out how to get them out

Suddenly one of the hostages spoke up

"Dude! Your wife is is just ectocontaminated, easy fix."

Mr. Freeze turns to the girl who looks at him like he's stupid

"Don't look so surprised, I'm contaminated myself but your wife just doesn't have the right stuff to cleanse it. There's a charm on my bag and if you put it on her - clothes not skin - she'll start cleansing... No, no the pink bag, yes, don't fucking rip it off you hooligan"

Mr. Freeze was still mistrustful but every chance is important so the hostage was brought to him

"If you lie-"

"What would I get out of it? Now take of the chunky ghost necklace and put it on her as well to speed it up."

...he did so

The bats were watching with bated breath as Mr freeze took it off and flinched

"Yeah feels kinda weird to normal ppl but trust, it feels great when you got some ecto in ya. If you really wanna speed it up I can fall in a favor but I will need a sheet of paper and a pencil for that."

After watching his wife's vitals change for the better, Mr freeze immediately got them for her. She then started painting a weird circle and chanting in a language no one understood.

Then a white haired guy in a hazmat suit appeared.

"Yo phantom, can ya help out his wife... On the condition he let's all the hostages go and..."

The hostages were freed pretty much immediately and nightwing decided to charade to them it was supposed to say "he stays peaceful" but it was not easy to understand

"...yeah well...help his wife" she ended up saying, much to nightwings dismay

"So while he does his thing, your wifes vitals might change and your gonna think it's worse but they work with the ecto, you can check mine, we should get similar ones, you can keep my cleanse stuff, she should keep one around at all times and-"

The...hostage? Helper?... The girl rambled on while Mr. Freeze checked her vitals

"Yeah no, blood isn't gonna show up differently, I don't think this universe has the stuff to see it yet"

Wait what-

Wayne doll house: demon children.

Idea: each of the batkids is theorised to have a different origin.

Thing is, there's so many of them. The oldest is actually the youngest in body. It seems to be able to share memories with those who follow. It changes design right before a new bat appears.

The hero in the town over is definitely one of them, but what's it doing over there?? Asking just gets non-answers.

What happened to the ones that the Joker tried to destroy? One - the oldest and smallest - came back, but different, whereas the other - the purple and orange one - came back for a while and then vanished again for good.

None of them seem to age??

The first, smallest, oldest, it seemed to be some sort of circus performer? It gave its acrobatics to the blue one when it arrived, grew clever and defensive. It gave that to the skull headed red one, focused on technology and detective work after the Incident. Then again, and again, and one time even the bat changed along with it, but though the bat returned to normal the little Robin didn't, and now it's just as stabby and creative as it is small and creepy.

It's a good sort of creepy now, after over a decade of beating up bad guys and comforting victims, Gotham has gotten used to it, but outsiders don't much like it.

The justice league have a different opinion.

They know, or at least can observe, that the... Souls? Brains? Programs? Switch around, that it's not memories but persons that bring the new bats to life.

They just don't know where batman gets them. The new one, especially, is very circumspect.

For all this talk of the blood son, all the bats calling it demon child with varying levels of fondness, the way batman doesn't deny the claims...

Thing is the bat doesn't have blood. Everyone's well aware of this by now. Whatever sulpheric black tar he and the bats leak probably-certainly isn't blood, or at least... Not anything with dna.

So... What blood?? If not the bat's, why does it tie the newest mind of Robin to him?

Captain marvel is the first to think of an idea.

A blood child of a demon for a blood ritual for a demon.

Constantine and Zatanna second the notion - it's perfectly possible. Reasonable, even. The bat admitted himself he had no way to procreate the way humans did, nor any interest in doing so. Wanting a legacy was perfectly normal.

Except he already had, what, seven, eight, nine kids? He loved all of them, it was clear, and he'd always seemed happy with them. He'd even sighed over how many he had, had rebuffed the teasing about getting more. The new Robin mind had been a surprise to everyone, and the old one in a new body had been a little salty about it.

So the new theory was that batman hadn't decided to get a new Robin. Maybe the old mind had been ejected unwillingly! It had happened at roughly the same time batman had gotten a new personality - maybe the incidents were related?

But if batman hadn't done the ritual... Who had?

Who would do something like that???

Cultists. Cultists would do something like that. But giving the bat a son unwillingly seemed... A very odd goal, even for that type.

So... Had they messed up? Had they tried to summon the bat with a blood sacrifice ritual, and summoned a demon instead? Had it partially worked? Was the bat susceptible to demon summonings?? Did the summoning damage his own mind/consciousness/soul in some way, and that led to the creation of the new demon child while the bat changed until he'd healed????

How kind of batman to take it in!

Tldr; the league thinks Robin V is a demon born/created through a failed summoning ritual involving blood sacrifice that made batman like puns until he healed. The truth is the canon events of Damian arriving at the manor only for b to get tossed into the time stream, becoming the Robin to nightwing-batman while Tim, who is much less annoyed about it than canon, focuses on getting him back. Lmao.

Who Wants a WIP of a thing I'm workin on of Batkids messin with the JL. Well technically they're going to, as soon as Bruce can be convinced to introduce them.

================================================

   “Hey,” a figure crouched on the edge of a building chirped, the sound borderline literal as an easy-going grin spread across their face. “Hey B. B, I know you can hear me~” They poked a larger figure, one who was barely noticeable in the shadows and only by the glimmering white-out eyes that gleamed in the distant lamps below. 

   The first figure grinned wider when their prodding got a grunt, canines sharp. “C’mon B, you can’t just keep us here our entire lives,” they sang, voice dipping into twittering as they giggled. “Your League is already snoopin’ around Blud, and already tried to contact Auntie.” 

   Another grunt, the larger figure grumbling as though to say bet. The smaller snorted. “Seriously, you’ve never been able to get us to do what you say, you won’t be able to suddenly do so now!” 

   They squawked when a gloved hand with claws tugged them beneath a cloak, tucking them against the one they were heckling. “B, seriously! We’re not babies anymore, we can take care of ourselves y’know!” 

   An insistent grunt, claws combing through black hair. They rolled their eyes, even if it wasn’t visible beneath the domino-esque mask on their face. “I know you’re an adult now, Nightwing,” they said in a mocking exaggerated growl. “I trust you, Nightwing. I’m not a worry-wart Nightwing. Weren’t you the one to say we could trust the league?” 

   His ear was cuffed for his trouble, causing him to roll his eyes again. “Geeze, Batman, don’t be so excited and jumpin’ for joy now.” 

   Another grumble, insistent. 

   “No no, you don’t get to pull but my babies,” Nightwing mocked. “I don’t need your permission y’know! I could stop hiding whenever the J-L goes into Bludhaven and boom! Besides-” He grinned, tucking himself against his companion. “If we can go up to the Watchtower you can see us more often, Dad!” 

   Bingo. 

   Batman grumbled, arm tightening around him in a sort of side-hug. But he was thinking about it, which was more than a start. Bruce had a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ sort of mindset when it came to him and his siblings after all, so all that was needed was for one of them to start asking. 

   “Please Dad?” he wheedled, poking his head out from under the cloak to look up at B with wide eyes. “I’ll stay right next to you or auntie the entire time so you know I’m safe!” 

   The older vigilante faltered, head turning away. Nightwing was stubborn though- he’d managed to convince B for him to go out when he was younger, and that was in Gotham- so he could definitely convince him of this. 

   “Pretty please Dad? I won’t take off my trackers or anything!” he made sure his voice was earnest, even if he was pouting. “I’ll even… ergh,” he fake gagged. “I’ll even wear the child-leash.” The dreaded child leash, the thing that haunted him as a child, and now haunted his siblings just as much. 

   “Hrn…” He was squished more against his father’s side, the hug tightening before he was let go. “We’ll discuss it at home.” 

   Well.

    It wasn’t a no.

the eldritch Guardians of gotham notice batman when he first emerges- they see how he protects their city, so they gift him the abilities of a bat: wings, night vision, enhanced senses, fangs

bruce wayne becomes a shut-in after his parents die. then he travels the world only to come back the same old shut-in. he works from home, and doesn’t leave the manor. every window is covered. only lucius fox and alfred pennyworth ever enter or leave the house

one night the bat follows sirens to a circus tent, and he watches as a young boy is escorted out, crying for his parents. the next day alfred pennyworth shows up at gotham’s social services and requests to become a foster parent. a month later (money might speed the process along) dick grayson is out of juvie and the orphanage and into the safety of wayne manor

bruce tries to hide his wings when the boy arrives, but dick is fascinated by them and thinks they’re “awesome”. bruce explains how he got them, and that he is batman.

later, when batman gains a partner- robin- the Guardians of gotham bless the boy with gifts similar to his mentor: robin wings, enhanced senses, and nails that sharpen into talons

dick grayson becomes a shut-in like bruce, and is home-schooled by alfred. he doesn’t mind, he didn’t have friends his age in the circus either, and alfred and bruce are good company. bruce does let him get pets, though, a three-legged puppy he names Haley and a bloodhound named Ace

when he grows out of robin and away from gotham, the Guardians give him different wings (steller’s jay) to show they support his independence. he lives at titans tower for a while before moving to blüdhaven with his best friend donna troy. dick remains a shut-in, but takes online college courses and goes out often as a new hero- nightwing. he goes out in the mask during the day, something he never did in gotham, and spends most of his time as nightwing- not that he minds. (troia is only his nighttime vigilante partner since donna has an actual day job)

the cycle repeats with jason. however, when jason claws his way out of his grave, the Guardians guide him back to the manor where bruce finds him. when it seems like jason may never recover from his comatose state, the Guardians show bruce a lazarus pit beneath gotham, and despite his hesitation they assure him no harm will come to jason if they have a say in it

jason is revived without the nasty side effects (thanks, eldritch beings) and dick moves back to gotham. jason also leaves robin behind for a different name- red hood- and is gifted new wings (cardinal). in this au the bats & birds are more morally grey and will kill people, but only the worst of the worst/repeat offenders. jason still becomes a crime lord but he only kills when necessary and has no pit madness.

dick and jason notice their young neighbor tim drake is often home alone/without his parents and convince bruce to let him in on their secret and have him stay over at the manor. bruce eventually agrees and they later adopt tim. tim never becomes robin but he does know about their vigilante identities (og way- recognized dick as robin and connected the dots).

tim will help out on comms and basically this au’s Oracle. babs does not become a vigilante in this, instead she becomes a lawyer, but she is still paralyzed by the joker as a civilian (pre-jason’s death, bc bruce kills the joker after that)

steph works with the bats as Spoiler, and is eventually let it on their identities. she and tim bond over being the only ‘normal’ ones

when cass comes along, she is gifted the same powers as bruce, including bat wings. she goes by Black Bat and mostly communicates using sign language

bruce is never lost in time and damian eventually arrives in gotham. damian is given robin and the gifts that accompany it

since duke already has powers, the Guardians don’t give him any, but they protect him as their own

JUST. CRYPTID BATFAMILY <3

I love the whole Cryptic BatFam thing going around, so I thought I’d put my own two cents into the ring.

They where human once, just not anymore because of Gotham. Gotham isn’t a ghost but something close that feeds on emotion and belief. She saw what Batman was doing and decided to help. Nobody realizes that they’ve changed, as the changes came slowly(because She’s weak and human belief can only do so much), and the effects become almost unnoticeable out of costume. That doesn’t mean they disappear because they absolutely can still do it out of costume if they wanted, but once in costume they have to physically try to act human, they just never notice because they never needed to act human while in costume.

Gotham gives them stuff people believe they can do, She picks what She likes and gives it to them. Someone believes Batman is one with the shadows? Now he blends in even better. Robin is immortal? Hell Yeah, She’s pulling him out of the grave. Nightwing can channel electricity? Yeah he can do that, he just doesn’t know it. Someone believes something She doesn’t like? Veto, denied. People stopped believing them? To bad, She already gave it to them and no take backs.

She made sure to have the powers transferred to whoever holds the title after Jason came in the picture and became Robin, but She also made sure that just because someone is wearing the costume doesn’t mean they can just become Robin or Batman, She has to check and verify that yes you can become them. So Tim just thinks that he just became better at playing Robin instead of what actually happened. This also means that Robin becomes more Other whenever someone new holds the title because of everyone’s interpretation changes with each new variation.

They also created a new language of sounds. Bruce first started it as a way to keep his identity secret by making a whole new language based on rumbles, growls and snarls in order to communicate with Alfred in secret. Gotham saw this and decided to help by making it feel more natural to communicate like this as Batman. When Robin came in She changed him similarly. Instead of growls and snarls it was thrills and chirps. Batgirl has a mix of growls and chirps.

After Dick moved on to Nightwing, he added more rumbles to his speech. And when Jason became Red Hood he changed it similar to how Batman speaks to mess with him, but still used the chirps and thrills from his time as Robin, and a different kind of chirps and thrills as well(yes you know which ones). Tim used more growls and snarls when looking for B so that’s what Red Robin uses now. They make more meanings for the new sounds they create.

You know how human belief can only do so much. Enter Danny. He believed that they were Other. He was Other. That powered Gotham up enough to make it real. She gave them bigger gifts, bigger changes, stuff would have been noticed but wasn’t because it was subtle as it happened slowly, because Danny was still half human. That didn’t matter much when Danny became the fucking Ghost King however. That was enough to make it permanent.

Danny goes to Gotham, and now the BatFam has to explain to a ghost that no they are human, when being as obviously inhuman as possible. And that’s when they realize something’s wrong, because it’s a lot harder to pretend to be human when in costume.

All of the Bats use it/its pronouns (alongside others) because they don't see themselves as fully human (due to guilt/dehumanising behaviour towards them from other people/etc). Send tweet.

His art is good guys what can I say

Immortal Gotham

Ok so bear with me

I have this au that everyone in Gotham ages differently. By this I mean that they will randomly stop aging, then continue, or age slower and no one no why (like how everyone ages in comics) but it is ONLY in Gotham. Since Gotham is so separate then the rest of the world nobody knows. It’s just that unspoken thing.

So the other heroes and villain’s from around the world age normally. While the heroes and villain's in Gotham seem to be immortal in a sense. But since Batman is a cryptid no one notices.

But it is not just heroes and villains but everyone (at least if you don’t get murdered) such as Commissioner Gordon.

Until one-day Dick Grayson causally mentions how he has 80 years of experience despite being 25. Everyone from Gotham commented about how weird it was for the world to age while time seemed to stay still for them.

Cue confusion for everyone else.

I just think this would be a hilarious thing to read.

Gotham Possesses

A cryptid Batfamily AU in which Gotham is the main character and follows its journey to consciousness as it follows its Bat and Birds. Chapters are short and a bit gloomy.

Main Characters: Gotham, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, The Joker (more characters pop up later, will add them then.)

No romantic relationships

Stuff to know: Cryptid Batfamily, grim, Melancholic mood, Angst, (let me know if I should add more tags)

Word Count: 584

[Here's my table of contents]

Chapter 8 - Gotham Transcends

She watched them swarm, at the behest of their white skinned jester whose hair was the same toxic color that painted her sewers. Born in a vat created by the corrupt, from the same poisonous liquid she tasted regularly. Whenever he appeared he stained her soil in the warmth of the living. Her Bat right behind him, protecting her, called him Joker. And the jester would laugh. A sound so chaotic, alluring, her attention captivated, ripped away from her Bat. Something in him resonated with the souls that walked her streets, that lived in her buildings, that wished for change. They would gather, hold him up and then recoil. He danced with her Bat unlike any other, fluid and unpredictable. His whispered thoughts, his actions, always directed towards her Bat. The jester needed him, loved him, loved her, wanted her changed. Her shadows played with the soundless song he wove. Enjoying their game. Nightwing, her oldest bird went too far, in protection of the youngest, in reaction to the second. Her Bat had been gripped by something indescribable. Fear was at the forefront, determination followed closely. Her eldest bird sat hopeless, her youngest shocked. With rhythmic movements her Bat pounded his chest trying to bring him back. Her Bat could not, would not, let the jester die. Like with the others, she gave her Bat what he wanted, a helping hand. She plucked a bit of shadow and when her Bat cracked the Jester’s chest, she slipped in. Disoriented and confused he shot up, clutching at his chest, his laughter echoing, filling her with new sensation. She had not known. She had been unaware. She? …I? I had not known? The excuse fell flat. Ignorance did not justify the consequences of that night. What would transpire would be devastating. How would I have known that it was not love, what the jester felt. No. It was love, but it was twisted. It was obsession but more consuming. It was jealousy, but it was sinister. He wanted my Bat. His full attention and our birds would, have, paid the price. Later, bound and imprisoned, he spoke to the shadows. He spoke to me in sweet hushed tones. Disappointed that his plan had failed, regretful. I could feel the thrill run through me, from him, when I would inadvertently respond. A flicker here, a subtle movement there. He saw me, followed me with his mismatched eyes and when he could, he would grasp the tether, trying to pull me in. The jester was dangerous and now he was aware, his connection to me, to my Bat. It was hard resisting, but I would not be swayed. He was not brought back because I wanted him, his life is held within the hands of my Bat. All he had to do was let me know and I would cut the string, let the jester collapse like a marionette. Though he did not know the power he held, though he did not speak to me directly, though I brought him nothing but torment. My Bat still had faith in me. Cared for me. I settled on him, dark tendrils wrapping around his neck, adoringly watching him work. I watched him fight, watched him run ragged for me. I curled in tighter, burying myself in his back. I smiled at the feeling, a laugh escaping, unheard. Gotham is me. I am Gotham and the Bat is mine, the jester an after thought. I had finally, fully, awakened.

This one was difficult to write. I like the Joker as a villain but now he has a bit of Gotham in him, like the robins, and that cannot bode well. Also, why does the last bit sound menacing? This is where the story led me T_T

I'm afraid to follow the path, but I must march on.

Cryptid BirdFlash art I never finished. The top one was me trying out a different sketchbook style, I'm still trying to figure out how I want to do my next "daily warm up drawings" sketchbook.

(Silent Hearts and Silent Knights)

Dp x dc

Internship work at the fentons suck

The duo has absolutely zero safety regulations in place

Even worse? Vlad gave em a big ole place where they can give tours only that they only want the part where they can show their weapons so interns it is

And Zoey? Well, she really wanted the easy money and she does play rock paper scissors with that technus guy everytime she sees em, so who better to do the job

Only that one of the kids just nearly ran into another interns trolley full off fuck knows stuff, and that Zoey, in all her older sister reflex way, pushed him out of the way, crashed into the trolley herself, and then into a goddamn bucket of ectoplasm

The fentons said she was fine "extremely high levels of ectoplasm but still human" they said

The youngest fenton has been weird towards her though, kinda fluttering around her

Oh well, what's the worst-

Gotham that's the worst

A few weeks after the accident she decided to visit her dad, only for her to be stuck in a burning building, great

Well, she got out, which thank god

But right now she is listening to the vigilantes zooming around the building, getting more and more worried about robin

After a few minutes the worry turned into panic

And then Zoey felt something weird, her body tensing as every fiber of her being screamed at her that there is a child in danger and to go save them

Before she knew it she was running, ducking underneath red hoods arm and running straight at a wall

And then going through it

But she didn't stop, she kept going until she found robin, passed out under some rumble with a goddamn cat in his arm- of course

She didn't know where the strength came from to pick up robin - and the cat - and start running back out but it sure was there

She just made it out when the building started exploding in some places

She also got to watch Batman scream in pain, calling out to robin, being held back by a crying red Robin and nightwing was held by red hood

"Over here! Robin is here!" She yelled, watching as their heads snapped over to her and they started running towards them

While robin was taken away and Zoey looked at her hands

What the hell was that

Kintsukuroi

'What if I put a clock pendulum in my torso' was the sort of question Bruce had come to expect when visiting Oracle.

"Pendulums are dependant on a stable base," he replied, because the last time he'd assumed they were being unserious Tim had tried to fit a chemistry test lab in his mouth and accidentally leaked the fumes through his mask.

"It'd be so aesthetic though," said Barbara, not looking up from the dozen screens she was surrounded by. "Listen. It would look so cool - Spoiler, robbery on fifth and main - Especially if I put a clock face over my heart."

"I thought you were trying to fit a super computer in it?"

"I was, but progress is slow. It's hard to fit it and enough padding to protect it plus leave enough room for ventilation. If I add the pendulum I might at least get inspiration." She gave a heavy sigh and pushed away from the desk, gliding in her chair to where her doll body was resting on a table, the glue separating the two halves of the smashed torso still glistening. Bruce followed, peering over her at the many scanners and wires hooked into it, flashing and beeping.

"Any luck?" he asked, and they both knew he wasn't talking about the computer anymore.

"Nothing."

He squeezed her shoulder, and she leant into it. They stayed there for a long moment.

"I just don't understand!" Barbara finally burst out, hands clenching on her chair arms. "I glued nearly every single piece back together! I made sure every splinter I could find went exactly where it should! I know the contract is still there. She's worked with more missing pieces before. But she's just not responding!"

"It's not you," Bruce soothed. "You've more than enough determination and strength to puppet, and we know the human body's state doesn't affect performance."

"That's the thing!" Barbara threw her hands up angrily, nearly smacking Bruce in the face. There was a chatter over comms, and both reached for their own. "One second," she said tightly, and wheeled back into the glow of the monitors. "Copy. BW, you're nearest? Thanks. Try and avoid the sniper this time. Wing, backup is in five."

She muted again and spun around, pinning Bruce with a heavy stare. "Is there anything, anything you can think of? We've - nothing I've tried has worked."

"Well...." He trailed off, one hand coming up to rub at the chin of his mask - a quiet night meant the opportunity to forgo the practical but muffling gas mask for his favoured plain black.

It was far from the first time a doll had been horrifically damaged. The incident with Bane came to mind - Batman had been in a very similar condition, body shorn clean in two and tossed to opposite corners. It was an awful memory, but the expression on Bane and the audience's faces as his bloodless body fell apart like a rotting tree trunk and then kept moving was a silver lining he'd always treasure.

But he'd been repaired and back on his feet in weeks, if bearing the incandescent fury of the doll for several more. It had been months for Barbara, and still nothing was happening.

"There's something we're missing, and I doubt it's on your side."

"I know THAT-"

"Listen," he demanded, and her jaw clicked shut mutinously. "There's something we're not seeing. Batgirl is in no shape to demand it herself, it seems. So its inaction is something we can't fully rely on."

"You've got the most experience with the dolls of all of us. Can you.. I don't know, sense anything?"

"Nothing more than the usual, with the Patriarch Doll, but we might get more if we return to the doll house -"

"No." Barbara interrupted again, but Bruce did not take offence. "She's not going anywhere. She doesn't want to head back to the cave."

Oh?

"She doesn't want to, or she doesn't care to?"

"I say she doesn't."

Interesting. This was likely a case of the doll exerting its will. The bats were well versed in avoiding the few lines their wooden bodies drew in the sand, treating them with the wary respect one would give a favorite blade or a highly trained attack dog. They could work together, share the highs and lows of life with them, but never get complacent. The dolls were forever a foreign, inhuman presence, and as with all wild creatures they would never be so arrogant as to assume full understanding. For Barbara to so strongly decide for the doll meant she was most likely not the only one deciding.

Which meant the solution would not be found in the cave.

"Perhaps there are upgrades she wishes to have?"

Oracle paused.

"Maybe," she conceded. "But there's practically a limitless amount of things I could do, and I wouldn't know where to start. And I could more easily do them when she's up and walking."

Not that then. If the doll wanted something to change but not receive upgrades or heal, than what?

... Not heal.

Batman hurried to the table. Oracle watched him with hawk eyes, but another call on the comms turned her away with a final warning glance.

Recovering every single splinter from a damaged wooden object and perfectly reattaching it was nigh impossible on a good day, never mind in the dead of night with a moving target. The dolls always returned to the cave to regenerate scratches and nicks they couldn't buff out, or accepted plaster to transmute with whatever supernatural power guided them.

The batgirl on the table, divested of all covering and armour, was still as chipped and scuffed as the day nightwing recovered last splinter.

The pieces fell into place.

"She doesn't want to be perfectly rebuilt," he realised. "She doesn't want the damage to disappear as it normally does... She wants it to remain visible. A different type of repair, then."

Oracle spun in her wheelchair to face him.

"Why?" she asked, something sharp in her eyes. Bruce chose his next words carefully.

"Perhaps she thinks such damage doesn't need to be hidden away," he said, slowly, and didn't comment when she turned away. Though she put on a strong face, and the doctors had recently released her full time, it would be a long time until the young hero was able to truly heal her mind.

"She doesn't need to do that for me. She's just causing me trouble."

"I don't think she is," he tried. "Dolls tend to reflect their puppeteer even after they accept us. You can't deny your trajectory has been changed."

They both sent a significant look to the enormous super computer taking up the wall.

"You've said you almost feel better able to protect Gotham now, with your reach and skills. Do you really feel that way?"

"I - I don't -" her mouth worked silently, and Bruce waited. "I mean I guess... But a part of me always assumed it'd be temporary, you know? Once I fixed batgirl.. It'd all return to normal." Her voice wobbled, and Bruce didn't hesitate to crouch before her, wrapping her in a long armed hug. She buried herself in his chest, regardless of the chilled metal.

"It's okay if you don't," he whispered into her hair, and held her as she shook. "I'm just throwing ideas around."

"I do though," she rasped. "I think I do feel that way. There's so much that can't be solved by violence, and it feels good to be out there but... I think I can help even more people, this way."

"That's good," he praised, "that's good. You can do whatever you set your mind to."

"You stole that from a parenting book verbatim."

"It's applicable to the current situation."

"Fine," she sighed, and pushed him away to roughly scrub at her eyes. "I'll give the doll another chance. Find some glitter glue or something, I don't know."

"Any materials you need will be provided," he promised. "I wouldn't recommend glitter glue or our usual tar."

He moved to pat her on the hair as the emotions of the moment faded, making sure to keep his unsheathed claws out of her hair.

"Once you fix her, though, I would recommend you puppet the doll during night hours still," he told her. "It wouldn't be good to put your body through twenty hour days."

"I've got a good system set up for now, but thank, B-man."

The computer dinged with another alert, and oracle spun to squint at it with a muffled curse, typing furiously. Batman escaped to the other side of the room, where the folders he'd originally come looking for lay. She waved, distracted, as he left, and although the doll could not smile, he could feel it on his face all the same.

@puppetmaster13u I summon thee dear mutual ^^

Prompt 256

Look, Bruce had had no plans to be a cryptid, he swore. 

Vigilante? Yes. Dark abomination of the night? No. And he was, he was technically just a dude. A well trained (and maybe feral) human, but still just a human! Apparently not to the rest of Gotham, and he honestly should have nipped those rumors when they first started. 

But like, it was also perfect for his secret identity. No one exactly expected an undead shadow-beast to have a secret identity after all. Or an undead shadow beast and some sort of ghost child to have ones, as the small child- which turned to small children- he’d taken in discovered. 

Which, look, he had tried to get Dick (and later Barbara, and Jason, and Tim, and Steph, and by the time of Duke and Cass had given up) to stop. He had tried everything he could but no, nothing could stop them. Literally nothing that he had done could stop any of them, so he had trained them instead. 

And the children were all little shits. At least by the fact that Nightwing had lead the newly-made Justice League right where he was perching, continuing to chitter and giggle near hysterically as he ducked behind him. 

And somehow they were here to try and recruit him. Great.