#dick wasn’t even the one who made damian Robin after becoming Batman
Text
For Lack of a Burger
**finally I have written! Sorry for the long absence, folks- my cat is a needy little thing and I love her. Enjoy!**
“As blood son of Batman, it is only natural that I train here to become heir to the Bat.”
Dick- well, Nightwing right now- looked down at Robin, who was staring out over Gotham with his brow furrowed.
“And what of the league? I can’t imagine them letting the heir to the Demon’s Head run loose.”
Robin stiffened a fraction more than he already was- something that Nightwing wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t trained by Batman himself.
“I know only one thing for sure concerning the heirship of the league.”
“What is that?”
“Grandfather will not taste relief in death.”
Nightwing wasn’t sure what that meant, but Damian seemed so assured of the fact. He would have to tell Bruce- maybe Ra’s had discovered a better method of immortality than the pits?
An alert pinged on their communicators, and the two of them checked it before heading off to save the citizens.
~~~
“I miss real food, Clocky.”
“You are currently unable to process it.”
“I know. Ectoplasm just isn’t the same though.”
Danny sprawled on Clockwork’s floor, lazily filling out paperwork from ages ago and yesterday.
“It has been a very long time since you left humanity behind.”
“I wish there was a safe way to go back and get some food.”
His mentor paused briefly, and Danny looked up. Was that a gleam in Clockwork’s eye?
“There is a way.”
Danny shot up into a seated position, crossing his legs.
“Tell me!”
“You will face many hardships.”
“Clockwork, serious as a funeral, I would kill for a burger right now.”
Clockwork smiled enigmatically.
“You may have to.”
He flicked his fingers and Danny found himself pushed back. He allowed it- at this point in his existence, he could overpower Clockwork, but he’d asked for this.
The world went dark around him.
~~~
In the year since he’d come to live with Father, Damian had not said a word about his brother. He’d been told, before being unceremoniously bundled away from the only home he’d ever known, that he was to be the heir of the Bat and Daniel was to be the Demon’s Head.
His mother had told him that Father would try and steal Daniel away from the League- that Damian would yet again be the lesser son. After a few months with Father, Damian had stopped believing that. There was no thing as a ‘lesser’ child for Father.
And yet.
Grandfather was a powerful man, and Grandfather treasured Daniel more than he had ever cared for Damian.
Daniel al Ghul, second son of the Bat of Gotham, was brilliant. He kept his emotions in check, fought with practiced ease in any situation, and spoke circles around even mother. It never took him as long as it took Damian to learn a new skill, and most of the time he spent studying, even when they were both allowed a break.
Damian loved him, even as the younger child overtook the position Damian had striven for his entire life.
What was not to love? Damian had loved him ever since his tiny hand had curled around his finger in infancy.
He had always been fond of small, cute things.
But if Daniel left the League, Grandfather would come after him, and it would be unsafe.
Damian held his tongue and loved his baby brother from a distance, even though he might never see him again.
~~~
John “Hellblazer” Constantine needed a drink. Or several.
Bats had appeared on the Watchtower with yet another new Robin, and this one was probably the most concerning out of all of them.
No, it wasn’t the sword.
It was the massive fucking protection order from a powerful death god that radiated off his small form.
“Bats.”
“Hm.”
“I need to talk to you and the kid.”
Bats nodded, a gesture John took to mean ‘go ahead’.
John sighed.
“Not here, Bats. Too many ears.”
“Hrn.”
The Bat swept away, followed closely by his brightly colored companion. John followed as well. He was pretty good at speaking Bat, after all these years working together.
They made their way into the bowels of the Watchtower, into a sitting room John hadn’t known existed.
“What do you need, Constantine?”
John paused for a moment, assessing. Robin was watching him suspiciously, hand on his sword, and Batman was standing half in front of the little bird protectively.
“Did you know this one was friends with a death god?”
“What?”
The Bat and Robin spoke the same word at the same time, in the exact same tone. Did they practice that? Anyways.
“Yup. Little redbreast screams hands off.”
“I am not acquainted with any gods.”
John shrugged.
“Doesn’t mean you knew they were a god. To get to the bottom of this- has anyone ever sworn to protect you in some way?”
Robin went still and pale behind his mask, before darting a glance up at Batman.
Batman, who was looking down at his sidekick.
“Robin? Report.”
The boy stuck his chin out.
“It was many years ago, Batman. He- they couldn’t have been a god.”
“You don’t know that, kid. Where did you meet him?”
“He wasn’t a god!”
Robin had become defensive, sword halfway out of it’s sheath, glaring at John- presumably for the sin of being alive.
“If the League of Assassins has contact with a deity of death, we need to know, Robin.”
Snarling, Robin started out of the room.
“I will not discuss him with either of you. He is safe where he is.”
“Robin- chum. Who is he?”
Robin stopped in the door, not looking back. His voice wobbled a little as he spoke.
“My younger brother.”
John needed a drink, and fast.
~~~
Danny stood over Damian’s bed, watching his older brother breathe shallowly. Grandfather had beat him badly, and Danny was still unsure why.
Talia wouldn’t look him in the eye, and Grandfather had gone to soak in the pits.
“Daniel?”
“Damian!”
Danny bent over his brother, placing a hand over his pulse to check it.
“Why?”
Why had Grandfather beaten him? Why had he stood and let it happen? Why didn’t he run?
“He… wanted me… t’kill you.”
Danny felt rage swell up in his tiny seven-year-old body. What right did Ra’s al Ghul think he had, to beat a child almost to death for such a reason?
What right did that man have, to touch someone Danny had come to care for?
Closing his eyes briefly, Danny allowed himself to meditate for the few moments it would take to let his rage die down enough to comfort his brother.
Once it had, he opened his eyes again and pressed his forehead to Damian’s.
“I swear I will protect you, ahki. Ra’s al Ghul will not taste relief in death.”
The next day Danny watched invisibly as Talia dipped Damian in the Lazarus pits to heal him before putting him on a plane to Gotham.
~~~
“You have made me proud, Daniel.”
Ra’s watched as Daniel bowed, having taken out a squadron of elite ninja for his tenth birthday.
The ninja were still breathing- Ra’s was sure Daniel had spared them so as to not weaken the ranks of the League he was set to inherit.
It pleased him that his young grandson was so wise, despite his youth. His older brother had no such wisdom- rash and impatient, still full of emotional weakness. Ra’s would no longer claim that boy as his grandson once Daniel passed his newest test.
With a wave of his hand, several ninja brought forth a young man. They had managed to kidnap Richard Grayson from under the nose of the Bat, and now Daniel would kill the other.
“Grandfather?”
“This is your Father’s oldest ward. He is a usurper to a place that rightfully should be yours. Kill him.”
Daniel walked towards the bound man, and the ninja holding the captive backed away respectfully.
“May I ask him a question, Grandfather?”
Ra’s nodded. There was no harm in it.
The boy drew his sword and stepped around the man, holding the blade to his neck.
“Tell me, Grayson. Is Damian well?”
The lilt in his voice spelled danger for Damian, and Ra’s could barely contain his grin at Daniel’s ferocity.
“He is protected,” the kneeling man forced out. “You won’t harm a hair on his head.”
Daniel smiled, not unlike a shark.
“I know.”
Before Ra’s could blink, Richard Grayson’s bonds had fallen to the floor as if he had turned into a ghost, and Daniel’s sword was stabbed into the dirt between the Demon Head’s feet.
“We are leaving, Ra’s, and you will not stop us.”
The venom in his calm grandson’s voice when Daniel said his name made Ra’s pause, but only for a moment.
At a gesture, ninja poured out into the courtyard, intent on recapturing Nightwing and taking down the heir to the Demon.
Seconds before the ninja collided with the two, Daniel grinned, his eyes locked straight on Ra’s, grabbed Grayson’s hand, and the two vanished.
~~~
Dick was… Confused didn’t quite cut it. His day had been a disaster, and then this tiny meta who looked like a carbon copy of Damian appeared.
“So… You a clone?”
“No.”
“Oh. Uh. What are we doing, by the way?”
The boy smiled serenely at him, and then continued his work.
“Jacking a plane.”
“You’re like, eight.”
The boy shrugged.
“If you like.”
“Where are we going?”
“Gotham.”
“Who are you?”
The boy turned and put his hands on his hips, and Dick was starkly reminded of Bruce by the posture and facial expression.
“Look, Grayson, I get it, you’re confused. But if you don’t shut up and let me finish this wiring, we’ll never get you back to Gotham before the League catches up.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
The boy turned back around and continued his wiring.
“Call me Danny. Too many fruitloops call me Daniel.”
Dick expected a long flight ahead of them.
~~~
Damian was strapping on the last of his gear to go rescue Richard from the League of Assassins when the man himself strolled into the batcave, looking tired but no worse for wear.
“Dick!”
Batman- no, he took his cowl off- Father threw himself across the room to assess the health of his son.
Damian started unstrapping his gear.
“How did you get free?”
“We apparently had a man on the inside?”
“Had?”
“He blew his cover to save me.”
“Nightwing, report. Where is this man now?”
“I was landing the plane. Nice digs, dad.”
The cave fell silent, but for the ringing of the batarangs Damian dropped as he spun to face the newcomer.
“Not sure what I think of the ‘cave’ vibe you have going on, though.”
“Daniel?”
Daniel met Damian’s eyes, and a look Damian had never seen on his little brother broke out on the boy’s face.
A true, genuine, joyful smile.
“Akhi!”
Damian pulled out his sword and held it towards the stranger in his brother’s body.
“Who are you?”
The boy laughed.
“I’m a little weird now, right? It’s okay, Damian, it’s me.”
“What was the last thing you said to me.”
Damian felt that was a good question. No one but Daniel would know.
“I said I would protect you, and that Ra’s al Ghul would not experience a pleasant afterlife.”
“That-“
“Isn’t quite it, I know. Still true, though. I brought the Lazarus pits with me. Ra’s can’t use them anymore.”
Damian heard Father and Drake choke at Daniel’s words. This was Daniel, despite his complete personality change. No one had been with them when Daniel had made his promise.
“Since when were you a god of death?”
Daniel laughed.
“It’s a long story, Ahki.”
Damian sheathed his sword and held out a hand.
“Come then, habibi, tell me.”
“Can I have a burger to go with the story? I’m starving."
2K notes
·
View notes
Note
Wasn’t it Alfred who’d made Damian Robin in Battle for the Cowl? Dick must have agreed after the fact, but Alfred was the one who set it in motion.
Nominally yes, in the sense that Alfred is the person who first put the cape in Damian's hands:
"You can't keep me here." "I'll do no such thing. But understand that you've been injured. Severely so." ......."What the hell are you pulling here, Al?" "It's time to earn your keep. If you're up for it." "So long as I'm not wasting any more time in here, whatever." -Battle for the Cowl #3
However, the reality is "not really." Three things to note about this:
One: no one in the story who actually knows what Damian's gotten up to while Dick was tracking down Tim and fighting Jason actually treats Damian as Robin. For the purposes of the narrative and everyone in it, Tim is still Robin, as Squire points out:
"I'm sure Nightwing could use a hand finding Robin. This way, then." -Battle for the Cowl #3
We don't really see anyone else's reaction to Damian wearing the cape in BftC. Even when Damian saves Tim while wearing the symbol, Tim has no actual reaction besides a single exclamation of Damian's name, and he seems more bewildered that Damian is there at all than he is about Damian wearing the Robin tunic. But the people we do see? Don't treat him as Robin. They treat him as an ally who happens to be wearing the Robin tunic for convenience.
Two: within the bounds of BftC, Damian is explicitly framed as being "Dick's responsibility" with Bruce gone. After Jason shoots Damian, Dick has the same conversation with Alfred that Bruce often did whenever one of his Robins was hurt, framed in a way that made it obvious where things were heading:
"Damian...this child...I could have gotten him killed tonight. I have a responsibility to him now. I let him down, Alfred." "Bruce also said the same of you...and Master Timothy, many times over the years." "And of Jason Todd." "Him as well." -Battle for the Cowl #2
Dick has already implicitly accepted Damian as his Robin at this point. And though Dick and Tim have not explicitly discussed it (as we see via their argument in Red Robin #1), it was also fairly clear that Tim would not be Dick's Robin based on how Dick thought of Tim by that point (as his brother, as his equal, as someone who should not be taking orders from him full-time). Tim had already spent time as the Robin to Dick's Batman back in Prodigal, and both boys had come a long way since then. Once Dick decided to take up the cowl at the end of BftC #2, it was inevitable that Damian would be his Robin rather than Tim (for a whole host of reasons I won't get into here). Alfred just hastened that inevitability.
Three: simply wearing the cape does not make you Robin. You are Robin if and only if two things happen: you have been explicitly accepted by Batman as his partner and Dick Grayson has given his blessing. You are a potential Robin. You are an ally wearing a Robin costume. But you are not Robin until those things happen.
Tim was not Robin in A Lonely Place of Dying even though he stole the costume with Alfred's help to save Bruce and Dick. Tim did not become Robin until after both Bruce and Dick had accepted him as such and he went through a training period (he was known as "Little Bat" until then, btw). The same is true of Damian, who wore the Robin tunic at least three times prior to actually becoming Robin (Bruce briefly took him out while wearing it in Batman and Son and he famously wore it during the events of Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul); he was no more Robin then than he was in BtfC.
The costume isn't what makes you Robin. Batman saying you're Robin and Dick giving the blessing of his parents' legacy to you makes you Robin (which. I will freely admit that's a loaded, complicated topic given the history of how the Robin mantle has been passed down over the years. but it generally holds true). Damian properly becoming Robin after BftC was clearly Dick's choice; Alfred can't "make" anyone Robin if Batman doesn't agree.
The core conceptual problem with Battle for the Cowl (well. there's about 5000 problems with BtfC. but you know what I mean) is that it tries to deal with about fifty different things at once, most of which all ordinarily would have gotten their own dedicated space across multiple books or tie-in comics to deal with. Instead, all of these things are smushed into a single massive threeshot event comic with awful characterization and a near-incomprehensible chain of events. In a perfect world, we would have gotten the same kind of build-up and transition between Tim and Damian that we did in the 90s when Tim became Robin after Jason's death. Unfortunately that's not what we got, so we're left to fill in the gaps ourselves.
But textually, Alfred did not make Damian Robin. Alfred handed an ally to the cause a Robin tunic during a crisis specifically for the purpose of rescuing Robin. After that crisis was over, Batman chose to make that same ally his Robin for reasons entirely unrelated to his wearing the symbol during that specific crisis. Dick chose Damian to be his Robin, and that choice should not be looked over just because removing it conveniently lifts some of the hurt feelings and messiness of that transition off of Dick's shoulders.
Dick handled his own legacy, as he should have. And while he did not handle it with as much communication and grace as he should have or probably would have liked to, it was his mantle and legacy to handle at the end of the day. For once, he had complete agency over choosing a successor to his heroing legacy (and his parents' legacy), not Bruce or Alfred or anyone who self-appointed themselves as a successor, and we should acknowledge and respect that.
He didn't pick Damian because Alfred unilaterally gave him a battlefield promotion; he picked Damian because he thought Tim was grown and independent enough to thrive without taking his orders every day and believed Damian needed his direct oversight and the growth opportunity being Robin would provide more than Tim did. Allow Dick the dignity of his choices instead of acting like he had no input or say in the matter of who his Robin was going to be.
#sidenote for my own peace of mind I just pretend that Dick gave Steph his blessing off-panel#everyone else got his on-panel blessing at some point except her so I just. fill in the gaps for her.#dick grayson#alfred pennyworth#damian wayne#tim drake#dick grayson meta#damian wayne meta#tim drake meta#(sort of)#long post#asks#queue
125 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wayne Spirit Add-Ons
Add ons that don’t connected to each other but they probably could of the Wayne Spirit and/or Comic Cross Dimension au idea (pick your favorite) by me
+Danny knows exactly where Damian is because all he needs to do is follow the energy radiating off a Lazarus pit and BOOM, there’s a baby Damian
+Danny won’t kill Joker because sometimes there are worse things then death
+Danny knows where Cass is every single time and she can’t sneak up to him
+Once he knows Duke can see him he started to play hide and sneak to see how many times he can avoid Duke finding him
+Stephanie won’t die, not even for a minute because there is no way Danny was letting any one of his Bats die in Gotham
+Danny will cling on to any Bat who is sad on their backs and won’t go away until they get the care they need or feel better (since they all know that cold spot is their Ghost hugging them and watching them when they are at their worse and is comforting them)
+Danny is always there when anyone gets sick by their bed side
+Kate just accepted the fact Danny existed, no more need to be said when your a vigilante who kicks drama theater kids ever night in a bat suit, a ghost isn’t that far out their
+Danny did meet the spirit of Gotham, had a fight, Gotham sulking that they lost, Danny swearing that he will take care of the Wayne’s and made a pact for them to co-parent the family
+Alfred is god and Danny respects him and admires him a lot, so when Alfred always verbally gives him gratitude when he cares for the family Danny will get flustered so bad (even if Alfred can’t see him (yet))
+Danny loves all the Bats but Bruce is his favorite, his boy, his baby that he found, his child who he comfort, his teenage he protected, his silly adult he sighed about, his hero who he became so ultimately proud of
+The same time that Danny was protecting the Wayne’s he was also going to the Drake’s residence to play with a cute cubby baby Tim
+Danny died (again) of laughter when he saw the scene of Jason stealing the tires off the Batmobile
+Danny is always there when the kids are training to become a Robin because training injuries traumatized him when Dick almost fell down a tightrope once
+He didn’t stop the Joker from shooting Barbara in time but he did get to him before he could touch any of the Gordon’s
+Danny is a hugger and a clinger, if you are touched by the Danny, every Bat has the unspoken rule of stopping whatever your doing to rest (they all learned from Bruce who made the mistake of going out as Batman when Danny was clinging on him)
+Danny thinks Damian is hilarious and adorable when he first meet him after spending a good amount of his childhood slightly disliking that Robin
+No villains will, nor will ever can kidnap a Bird to train them without their consent because Danny will be there to show exactly what happened when you touch those that he claims as him (he knows some training sessions are unavoidable but that doesn’t stop him from freezing anyone of those villain mentors from hurting or making any of his Bird’s from doubting themselves of any kind)
+Everyone in the manor always obey Danny, even Alfred (which is very few times since Danny and Alfred always agree with one another to protect the idiots they fondly call their family)
+Loves when Damian is finally at the manor because of all the pets
+Danny finds listening to Jason reading soothing as it reminds him of Jazz
+Danny always gets Tim to get some rest, always
+Takes care of Steph when she is Robin because clearly someone wasn’t going to be kind to her in anytime soon
+Danny always claps when Dick does his small flairs during fights or during patrol
#danny fenton#danny phantom#batman#dc x dp#dp x dc#batfam#damian wayne#tim drake#jason todd#bruce wayne#dick grayson#cassandra cain#stephanie brown#barbara gordon#alfred pennyworth#Wayne spirit au#Or comic cross dimensions au#Or family spirit au#i Like Wayne spirit better
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
A Shade Darker than Red: Part 5
Previous Part
Danny and Jason trained frequently in the Ghost Zone. Of course their “training” was more accurately called “playing.” Tag, catch, hide and seek. They were games, mostly for kids, yet they still taught the new ghost about his powers. Jason learned how to fly, how to turn invisible and intangible, and how to create ecto blasts. Danny also taught him a lot about both the lore of the Infinite Realms and Astronomy.
He talked several times a week with Jasmine about his life in between training sessions and lectures. He talked about his father being a criminal and his mother being an addict. He talked about losing her and having to live on the streets. He talked about becoming Robin and how magical it was for him. He eventually was able to talk more about his first death, about being betrayed and abandoned, then coming back, feeling like he came back wrong. He still couldn’t remember any details about his second death and Jazz insisted that it wasn’t unusual and that it was just his brain and his core trying to protect him.
It felt… strange. Comfortable. He felt loved and cared for in a way he hadn’t realized he missed and needed. He wondered why he hadn’t gotten any therapy when he first became Robin. Did the others need therapy too? It frustrated him that this was the first time he felt someone was really putting in the effort for him. Almost like he was actually worth that level of effort.
More and more Jason was finding that the strange siblings that were Danny and Jazz actually cared for him. Loved him. Welcomed him into their little family of two and while he missed his other family and wanted to see them again, he felt good.
He had no way of knowing exactly what was happening in Gotham after his death.
.
A sick kind of tension hung in the air. Each of them set in their own thoughts. They were, first of all, Bats and thus detectives. Each had investigated in their own way, using their own skills and contacts. Then they had come together and compared notes, which all pointed to one horrible conclusion.
It was Killer Croc, strangely enough, contacting Red Robin that was the final stroke. He had found a body, disposed of in the Gotham Sewers where he was known to roam. Croc was a known cannibal and had eaten more than a few corpses that had fallen into the sewers, making work easier for the city’s mafias and harder for the Bats. But he proved that he wasn’t as much of a monster as others assumed when he recognized the body and brought it to the surface.
Dick was filled with fury as he once again stood before the dead body of his brother. He wanted to run off in a rage, he wanted to beat Bruce to a pulp like he had done with Joker. It was Damian who stopped him. Damian, who knew he had even more blood on his hands than Jason had, feared that if Bruce beat Dick in a fight that he would be the next one to disappear.
Instead they stepped back and they planned. Batman had his paranoia, and he had trained it into all of his wards. They could be just as paranoid as him, and combined they were the best tactical fighters and strategists in the world. There was a reason one of the Bats ended up as the de facto leader of most teams they were on. Combined they could match Bruce wit for wit.
Their planning reached its peak when they were all sent a communication from Bruce. Each of them were expected for a meeting in the Batcave. Team meetings weren’t rare in of themselves, but all of them at once was out of the ordinary and had them all tensing up. Clearly, Bruce knew they were on to him.
Emergency plans and contingencies were made. Superman was called and asked to keep an ear on Gotham. Flash was on speed dial with instructions to extract them before the first ring had completed. Each of their contacts were instructed on where they would be and how long they expected the meeting to go.
They each took turns denying the meeting request and submitting an alternate meeting location and time. They argued back and forth about who had responsibilities they couldn’t postpone or who hated which location, just like they usually did, however this had an additional reason. They couldn’t allow Bruce the chance to set up a location to his advantage, or some place with limited escape routes.
Finally, after much arguing back and forth, which Stephanie especially excelled at, Damian cut them all off angrily with a demand that they just meet in the game room of the manor. Barbara planned on calling in from the clock tower, as much as she hated not being able to be there, so that Bruce couldn’t put up another signal Jammer.
The others entered the game room a few minutes before the meeting started. Bruce was already there, but Cass had been there even earlier to make sure he didn’t tamper with the room. Alfred came in and served them all tea, then after a signal from Damian stayed, with his back to one of the walls, watching over the family and enjoying some tea himself.
“You all have been avoiding the cave, we still need to patrol the city and-”
“Shut the fuck up Bruce.” Dick snapped, causing Alfred to raise an eyebrow. “We know about Jason.”
“Yes, Jason has been missing for several days now and-”
“We know you killed him.” The sharp words silenced Bruce and Alfred leaned forward in surprise.
Tim threw a packet of papers down on the table.
“You had Fox create a jammer, specifically designed to work against the trackers we use.”
“You forgot, Father, that I was raised by the same assassins that trained you. I recognized the signs of you attempting to hide the scent of blood on you.” Damian snapped.
Cass signed her observation next. “You: not worried about Jason. Knew where he was.”
Barbara spoke up from her spot over the video call. “You did a good job hiding your digital footprint, but you couldn’t hide everything. And when you and Jason disappeared at the exact same time? We connected the dots.”
“Croc found Jason’s body in the sewers. Said he owed Red Hood enough not to dispose of the evidence.” Dick growled the words out, fury still written in every line of his body.
For the first time an emotion crossed Bruce’s face, just a hint of annoyance before he wiped it away. He always treated Killer Croc like a mindless beast, and now he was realizing he had miscalculated. Alfred looked stunned.
“Master Bruce I-, Bruce-, Mr. Wayne-, How could you?”
“Red Hood had taken numerous lives, and his criminal enterprises were only growing.” Bruce finally said as if he were reporting on the Riddler or the Falconies, not his own son. “I had given him enough leniency, enough chance to step away from the path of crime he was one. When he refused, it was high time that Red Hood was brought to Arkham, where he couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
“And then you beat him to death! Jason, Robin! Stop acting like he’s some common criminal!” Dick shouted.
“I determined that it was highly likely he would respond to my attempt to bring him into custody would result in violence. So I came prepared.” Bruce’s voice was monotone. Controlled.
“And you specifically attempted to hide all signs of your murder?” Damian asked, pain clear on his voice even though he tried to hide it.
“I was simply planning for contingencies.” Bruce said. “Red Hood would escalate to violence. I planned accordingly and met him in kind. I of course knew that I would not be able to completely hide Hood’s transgressions, so I ensured I had the proper time to present the evidence here. Which is what this meeting had been about, if you would like to get to it-”
“Are you shitting me Bruce?” Dick was on his feet. “You harp all the time about your precious line, about how you can’t ever kill, and then you murder Jason? Your own son?”
“Red Hood was never my son.” Bruce finally showed real emotion, rage painting his face. “My son died at the hands of the Joker. And a twisted monster came back in my son’s body. Now that monster is gone.”
Dick was shaking in fury, and looked half a second from diving across the coffee table to try and strangle Bruce. It was Damian standing that stopped him. Damian was shaking as well, though for a different reason.
“I have killed more people than Todd even tried to.” Damian said, his voice thick with emotion. “It is clear if you have taken to extrajudicially executing whoever you feel that I am no longer safe in the Manor. Richard, would I be able to stay at your apartment in Bloodhaven? I will be sure to pay my share of the rent on time.”
Dick swallowed thickly, but nodded.
“Of course, Baby Bird. That’s what family is for, taking care of each other. No matter what.”
Damian gave Dick a stiff bow before turning to a clearly thunderstruck Alfred. “I hope the care of my animals will not be too much of a burden until I can arrange for their transport to a new domicile?”
Alfred gave him a nod, fury and grief carved into his face in even measure.
“Of course, Master Damian. I will do my utmost to ensure they have the best care. Do you need any assistance packing?”
Damian shook his head and Dick followed him out of the room, taking a moment to shoot one last glare at Bruce before he left. Tim stood next and gestured to Duke.
“Do you want to bunk with me? It would cut down on your commute to GU.” Tim said.
Duke shook himself and nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He turned to Bruce. “There was a time I used to look up to you. You can say that your son died at the Joker’s hands and never came back all you want, but I need you to know, today is the day you pushed the rest of your sons too far.”
Both boys left, Tim wiping tears from his face as he wrapped an arm around Duke’s shoulders. Barbara out to the two girls who remained in the room.
“Team Batgirl sleep over here at the Clock Tower?” She asked and Cass and Steph both rose together. Cass stared down at Bruce.
“I killed once. Never Again. You’re lucky.” Her mouth worked as she signed, as she tried to contain her emotions. Steph immediately wrapped her arms around Cass. She spit on the ground at Bruce’s feet.
“I became Spoiler because my father was a murderer. I didn’t expect I would end up working under another murderer.”
The two girls left arm in arm. Cass silently sobbed as her family broke apart, the man she had looked up to so much had betrayed her and crossed the one line she considered sacred.
“Mr. Wayne, I think it is high time I tender my resignation.” Alfred said, his emotions once again hidden by his British Precision. “Consider this my two weeks notice. Since the manor will be without proper staffing, I would suggest you find somewhere else to stay until trusted staff can fill the open positions, perhaps the Watchtower would be best for you.”
He turned away, then hesitated for a moment, before he turned back to gaze at Bruce, his grief now fully visible on his face.
“You’ve been as good as a son to me, ever since you came under my care. I’ve treated each of your wards as if they were my own blood, as if they were my own grandchildren. I have loved each of them in my own way, just as I loved you. I never agreed with your strict adherence to your Rule. I’ve long thought that Master Jason was right and you should have put the Joker down like the rabid dog he is.”
Alfred took a deep shaky breath and walked away to the door.
“Even with my willingness to take a life to protect my family, or to avenge them, I still would never kill one of them, no matter what they had done. That is the love I have for my family. You are fortunate you once enjoyed that love too. Goodby Mr. Wayne.”
Alfred turned off the lights to the room as he departed. Barbara signed off soon after and immediately sent the video copies both digitally and physically across the world as a form of insurance in case Bruce ever decided to target any of the rest of them.
Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight, Batman, was left… alone… in the dark of his empty house, staring at nothing as fruitless plans and empty contingencies spun uselessly in his head.
.
Far away, and in a dimension that was just next door, the Ghost King sat on his throne as he listened to the supplications of two of his citizens. He was alone in his throne room with the two ghosts, any other supplicants or citizens of the Realms were elsewhere.
“Please,” They begged. “Please. Our son has lost his way. We know you can’t reach him, but please, watch over our grandchildren. He’s already sent one on his way to you. Please, they still have so much life to live, and if he continues on this path it will throw our city into chaos.”
King Phantom, High King of All Ghosts, King of the Infinite Realms, nodded his head. His crown flared brightly as he swore to watch over the grandchildren, both blood and adopted of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Their words confirmed his ideas and Jazz’s theories about their newest charge and for the wishes of the Waynes and the protection of Jason Todd, Danny Phantom would watch over the city of Gotham and its heroes. At least those that were still on the path.
#jason todd#dp x dc#danny fenton#barbara gordon#dick grayson#damian wayne#bruce wayne#death of jason todd#again
361 notes
·
View notes
Text
A Hundred Days to Become a Wayne
batfamily + oc insert
tw: none
wanna start from chapter one or read more? here’s the table of contents!
theres only one more chapter (the epilogue) after this what in the world
part twenty-seven
❝ BIG PLASTIC SHOES AND BAGS WITH TUBES ❞
TUESDAY — 4:12AM — DAY 101 — CHRISTMAS EVE
BENTLEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN HE WOKE UP. If he’d be in the great beyond, or in the hospital, or back at Wayne Manor with Dick at his bedside, or in his room at Whittaker Estate. He was pretty sure he dreamed about waking up and trying to explain himself to Bruce (who may or may not have been looming in the corner of his room in Whittaker Estate still dressed as Batman, but neon green).
In his dream, waking up and immediately hopping on the explanation train seemed perfectly plausible. Actually, he probably needed to. Trying to explain himself before anyone could tell him they hated him seemed like a good enough option.
But in reality, when he woke up to bright lights assaulting his eyes and machines and equipment beeping and whirring around him, he just burst into tears.
He’d never been in a hospital before, but the sheer amount of light and noise and white that was around him was enough to make him realize they were terrifying. He was wearing something stiff and scratchy that made him itch a little, and when he lifted his head up enough to see his feet, he realized his left foot looked massive under the blanket compared to his right. And he was wearing a hospital gown. Which was freezing. Everything was freezing, actually, even with the hospital blanket over him, and he was shivering. Or maybe he was trembling, he couldn’t tell. He felt really floaty.
“Are you in pain?”
He flinched at the familiar voice, and for the first time since he woke, his watery eyes traveled around the room. There was a tube going from a bag filled with liquid into his arm, a few tables on each side of his bed, and three chairs against the wall to his left. Damian was in one of those chairs.
He was wearing a green hoodie and joggers now, not his Robin suit, and he looked tired. His greenish-blue eyes were dull like he’d nearly been asleep. His hair wasn’t messy, but it wasn’t as nice as it usually was, and Bentley very suddenly realized that he probably hated his guts.
Instead of responding, he sat up in the bed and pulled his knees up to his chest beneath the scratchy blanket and gown. He had a big… plastic boot thing on his left foot, he realized when he glanced under the blankets. It made his foot feel huge and heavy and he didn’t like it. Sitting with his knees up felt weird with it on. He went to wrap his arms around his legs but it pulled against the tube in his arm with a jolt of pain, and he was just so confused and scared and overwhelmed that he buried his head in his knees and sobbed pitifully.
Of course, when the truth comes to light, he’s alone in the room with the one Wayne that was most likely to kill him.
He heard Damian shift. He lifted his head up just enough to see him nearing the edge of the bed, so he brought his shaky hands up and signed sloppily:
I’m so sorry.
Damian said nothing, but watched him calculatively. So Bentley continued to move his hands.
I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.
“Bentley-”
I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry-
“Bentley, stop.” Damian, who was now at the edge of the bed, latched onto his wrists to stop his hands from continuing the messy movements. “No one is upset with you.”
He froze.
What? No, they had to be upset with him. He’d lied to them. Plotted against them. He was a traitor. A traitor on top of all those things his dad had called him.
Bentley said nothing, and Damian let go of his wrists. He wiped the tears off of his face with the palm of his hand only for more to take their place. He signed again.
Don’t lie.
Damian scrunched his face up, half in confusion, half in offense. “I am not lying to you.”
Bentley didn’t say anything. His head was starting to hurt, but he wasn’t sure if it was from being pistol whipped, crying, or trying to comprehend everything that was going on. Somehow the Wayne’s weren’t mad at him for being a dirty traitor even though they should’ve been? Even though he completely deserved it?
He moved his hands again, this time fingerspelling. Bruce isn’t mad?
Damian shook his head from where he stood. “No.”
Dick?
“Of course not,”
Jason? Tim? Cass? Duke? Steph?
Damian shook his head. “No one.”
You?
The other boy exhaled sharply, crossing his arms. “I’m not upset with you. It would be foolish of me.”
Bentley said nothing, but sniffled, his shoulders still shuddering with small cries he couldn’t seem to stop. Why didn’t they hate him? Why were they still being nice to him? It didn’t make any sense.
Damian sighed lightly, and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Grayson is here, but he stepped out to have a word with the doctor. Father, Todd, and the rest are making sure your father and all of his contacts are properly taken care of, since they possess such sensitive information.”
Bentley hiccuped quietly, turning his head to the side on his knees to hide it from Damian. (He wasn’t sure why, it was obvious he was crying.)
“I’m really sorry,” He whispered into his knees. His throat was scratchy and sore, and he had no idea why, but whispering was about all he could do.
Damian just looked at him for a moment. And then he sighed again, and stood up with a grumble and a quiet: “Scoot over.”
Bentley blinked, and then obeyed, scooting farther to the right toward the stupid tube bag thing that was in his arm. He stayed completely silent and watched as Damian climbed up on the bed and positioned himself right next to him.
“You have no need to apologize,” He stated. “All of this was forced on you by a self-serving bigot who used fear to manipulate you into doing his will. It would be idiotic for anybody to hold that against you.”
Bentley said nothing, but wiped his eyes on the blanket that covered his knees.
“And when it came down to it, you were willing to take punishment instead of making the wrong decision,” He sucked in a breath. “And while running away was hardly the ideal choice, I am… impressed. Most children would crumble under the pressure.”
Bentley thought Damian sounded a little more Robin-ey right then than usual, but he didn’t mind. His brain was stuck on the words I am impressed, and didn’t hear much of what was said afterward. He noticed that his tears were slowly dying down.
With a deep breath and a quiet exhale, and the sudden realization that he was pretty exhausted (like, sleep-for-a-year-straight exhausted), Bentley leaned his head on Damian’s shoulder.
Which he probably wouldn’t have done if his mind wasn’t still floating from anesthesia and crying hadn’t just used ninety-percent of his available energy. But he was still halfway on drugs, and his energy was fading by the minute, and Damian was comfortable.
Much to Bentley’s surprise, he didn’t argue. Maybe it was because he felt bad that he was in the hospital, or pitied him because of everything that had happened, but he didn’t care. He was just glad he wasn’t alone.
A few voices approached the door, and after a minute, it swung open.
He saw a thin layer of weariness clouding Dick Grayson’s eyes for only a moment before an excited, childish shine replaced it. He was in normal clothes, too, now, a blue jacket and joggers, and his black hair was a disheveled fluff. “You’re awake!”
Bentley said nothing, but turned his head into Damian’s shoulder to hide the fact that his eyes decided it was time to cry again. (Seriously, he didn’t even really know why he was crying this time.) He felt Damian’s hand drift up and rest on the back of his head, a mannerism he undoubtedly inherited from Dick.
Bentley heard them murmur to one another, and the words anesthesia and angry came up, but he didn’t catch the whole thing due to his quiet, breathy sobs. (Crying this much was starting to get embarrassing.)
“Hey there, kiddo,” Dick’s voice drifted from one side of the bed to the other, and Bentley felt a hand land on his right calf. “Bruce will be on his way soon. And if you want anyone else, I can shoot them a text.”
Bentley didn’t respond apart from the quiet cries that were wracking his body, so Dick just lightly rubbed his leg.
“You know, Jason cries when he wakes up from anesthesia, too.”
He found the confidence to turn his head back forward, so he could see Dick. He was crouched by the bed with one arm on the mattress, his head propped on the other.
“Really?” He whispered with a sniff, nearly inaudibly. Dick nodded.
“Oh yeah, you’d think he was trying to fill the Nile River. And then he gets all mad and embarrassed about it,” He chuckled lightly, and the noise helped Bentley relax a little. Not to mention the mental image of the Red Hood crying from the same thing made him a little less embarrassed.
“And Tim just gets really mad. He wants Cass and Cass only when he wakes up,”
Bentley found himself wiping his eyes, and his crying was tapering off into sniffles and occasional hiccups. Damian was doing the Dick-stroke-the-hair thing and it was working.
“And don’t even get me started on Bruce — he’s the worst. He goes into, like, broody two-thousand-eight emo boy mode. Once, even Alfred gave up and left me to deal with him,”
Bentley cracked a smile, and Dick patted his leg, satisfied that he made him a little happier. “You sleepy, kiddo?”
He wasn’t sure sleepy covered it. Exhausted didn’t even seem to cover it, actually. He was so tired he wouldn’t doubt it if he just fell over right then. How was he so tired when he just woke up?
“You can rest. We’ll be right here the whole time,”
Part of Bentley didn’t want to go back to sleep, in fear they’d actually be gone when he woke up, but the exhaustion seemed to overrule it. Because with two Waynes by his side and the reassurance he wouldn’t be alone, Bentley fell asleep quicker than he knew he could. (On Damian, who still hadn’t protested, by the way.)
—
TUESDAY — 6:42AM — DAY 101 — CHRISTMAS EVE
When he woke up, bleary-eyed but less floaty than before, they were still there.
Bentley was alone in the bed, but Dick had pulled a chair right up to the edge and was folded in half over the mattress, jacket off, dead asleep. His hand was still resting on Bentley’s leg. Damian was in one of the other chairs, curled up tightly with the jacket Dick had shed, also dead asleep. How long had they been awake on Bentley’s accord?
He didn’t have much time to think about that, though, because Damian’s head was resting on someone’s shoulder, and that someone was Bruce. And Bruce was a hundred percent awake.
“Hey, bud. How are you feeling?” He questioned lowly, in an attempt not to wake his sleeping sons. His eyes were dull, but he looked alert and not tired in the slightest.
Bentley took note of his own body — his head was definitely hurting more now, like the floaty stuff had been helping him not hurt, and his ankle throbbed every now and then. Not to mention the soreness (and probably bruise) on his chest from being kicked. And his throat was still raw. All in all, not great, but it was laughable compared to the searing agony he had been in at the warehouse.
So he lifted his hands and quickly signed: Hurts.
Bruce frowned. “I’m sorry. It should be time for the doctor to come back with more pain meds soon. She just needs to run a few more tests and we’ll be able to take you home.”
Take him home? Take him home as in to their home, the Manor? Or take him home as in drive him to Whittaker Estate and leave him on the doorstep? Or maybe to a stranger’s house after social services hears about him?
He stayed silent, picking at the edge of the hospital blanket.
“I never forgot, you know. About your mom,”
Bentley glanced over at him, and they made eye contact for a moment, as if Bruce was considering leaving it at that. Then he continued: “Dick was seventeen, and had just gotten in a car wreck of his own. I was scared and reckless. I… never imagined my mistake could cause anything like what you’ve endured. I’m so sorry.”
Bentley wasn’t sure what to say, but he was cold. So he sat up slowly and peeled the blanket off of him, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and stood up. It felt weird with the massive shoe-thing. The tube-bag that was hooked on his arm was on a stand, kind of like a coat rack but with wheels, so he grabbed it and pulled it with him. Around the bed and across the room until he stopped in front of Bruce.
He signed: I’m cold.
He hadn’t even finished moving his hands and Bruce had already opened his arms, and Bentley climbed into his lap without hesitation. Hopefully it helped him understand that he wasn’t upset at him for his mom, and that it wasn’t really his fault his father was terrible.
If they could forgive Bentley for everything he’d done, he could forgive him. Bruce closed his arms around him and he sank into the warmth.
Bentley lifted his hands again, fingerspelling a few words he didn’t know in between: You're really not mad at me?
“Of course not,” Bruce replied, adjusting the drip stand in front of them. “None of it was your fault. How could I be mad at you?”
A quiet calm washed over the room, and Bentley rested his head on him. He could see Damian’s head precariously positioned on Bruce’s shoulder in just the right way that it wouldn’t slip off.
They stayed quiet for a while, before the child lifted his hands once more in a messy mixture of signing and fingerspelling. What happened to my father?
Bruce exhaled a heavy breath. “He’s alive, and he’s going to jail,” There was a stiff pause. “I’m going to have to call my social worker so you can talk to her.”
Ah, crap. That’s exactly what Bentley didn’t want to hear. A pit formed in his stomach, and he sat up so he could see Bruce better, hands moving in a slightly faster, anxious manner.
They’re going to take me away?
“No, no. I didn’t mean to startle you,” He stated, rubbing his back a little. “We need to have a meeting with her so you can tell her about your dad, so I can get emergency custody. It’s the same thing I did with Tim.”
Bentley relaxed a little, but he still didn’t know what half of that meant. What does that mean?
“Custody? It means I’ll be your legal guardian,” He explained softly.
Bentley blinked. You’ll be my dad?
Bruce chuckled. “If you want me to be. Or I can just be Bruce — that’s what Dick, Jason, and Tim call me.”
Bentley blinked for a moment, trying to take in exactly what he was being told. He’d mentioned giving him to the Waynes to his father as some kind of last ditch effort, but he never expected he would actually be able to achieve that. It kind of made him want to cry again. His father had said it was exactly what he wanted… and it was.
Bruce ruffled his hair gently. “But we don’t have to talk about it right now — we’ll handle all of that when you’re feeling better, okay? For now, you should get some more rest.”
That sounded like a good idea, because Bentley was getting tired again. He settled into Bruce’s lap and sighed deeply, and for the first time, when he thought about the rest of his life, he felt hope.
—
dedicated to @sassenashsworld 💛
—
tag list!
@fleur-alise @cademygod @sarcopterygiian
#batfamily#batman#batboys#oc; bentley whittaker#oc; bentley#oc; john whittaker#oc; the puppeteer#oc; the puppet master#mb; a hundred days to become a wayne#alfred pennyworth#bruce wayne#barbara gordon#oracle#dick grayson#nightwing#jason todd#red hood#cassandra cain#orphan#tim drake#red robin#stephanie brown#spoiler#duke thomas#signal#damian wayne#damian al ghul#dc robin#robin
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
I wrote this on my phone again😀
You could tell with the amount of emojis I used, anyways
Tim is literally my favorite I never shut up about him and bc of that this list is so goddamn long. I honestly tried to be consistent but I was going off the top of my head
Enjoy and become apart of the Tim Drake cult😈
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tim Drake hc!!! WOAH!
Nepotism baby
He’s a rich child with inheritance and basically running two separate businesses
Nepotism at its finest✨
Since he was usually on his own (due to his parent working) he used Batman and Robin as a form of escapism
Kinda lonely
He’ll talk to himself as if he was talking to Batman and Robin
Definitely ran a Batman and/or Gotham vigilante stan account on Twitter
Toxic fan **tm**
no literally, he would argue with anyone who disagreed on him that Batman was the best hero,
especially if they were Metropolis
bc why tf do they always have to involve themselves in everything Gotham🤨
Two words: Parasocial relationship
had an unhealthy obsession with Robin!Jason,
Robin!Jason saved him ONCE (1x) and it was down hill from there
Def locked himself in his room, sobbing, screaming, pulling his hair, and throwing up when Jason died.
News: Jason Todd, son of Billionaire Bruce Wayne, pronounced death! Read more to find out.
Tim: NOO!
Vaild tho,
who wasn’t crying when Jason died?
(The joker)
Wha-
He had a celebrity crush on Dick (not ship related),
no one knows about it (it’s all over his stan account that he made sure will never see the light of day),
he’s taking that secret to the grave
I say this a lot about Tim, but
Whore **tm**
have you seen his body count?!
definitely followed in Dick’s footsteps
Strange is what ppl say about him,
vaild tho,
if I had to sit next to Tim in class, I would find him strange too
Adhd coded,
why do ya think he keeps himself busy?! He literally can’t sit still
Also no insomnia,
he just suffers from chronic nightmares that keeps him from getting proper rest,
So de just decided not to sleep
“Nightmares can’t effect me if I don’t sleep”
Yeah, scarecrow has nothing on him,
poor guy’s had worse
Even after getting adopted, he never really felt part of the family,
Always feeling like he has to prove something to Bruce to stay as robin,
Which is why, when Dick had Damian be Robin, Tim felt like he had no place in the family anymore
That’s why he went a little insane
It’s cool, they’re fine now…
Speaking of insane,
Tim is like the one robin in the family I would not want to fight
Like compare to the others,
(Dick has experience form doing it for so long + mf is giggling and joking while kicking ass,
Jason is just kid with daddy issues and a gun, it’s America, been there seen it,
And Damian has both daddy and mommy issues, angain nothing really special)
Tim is just purely unhinged,
he’s got everything to prove without the care in the world what happens to him,
don’t forget his mad scientist era
What I’m trying to say is that Tim is scary and you have a better chance fighting Damian or Jason
(at least they kinda make it quick)
Ok back to silly goofy hc :D
Tim used to write Batman fanfics,
it’s true I was his screensaver
He used them all wattpad, fanfic.net, ao3, tumblr, etc
It was mostly “original character” fics, that were actually self inserts
as escapism
(He’s def taking that to the grave)
Stephanie found out about it and he was planing her “disappearance” within a rive minute timeframe
Speaking of Steph,
They cringe every time someone brings up the fact that they used to date
*hold cute picture of Steph/Tim* Awe you guys were so cute, ashamed you two broke up
Them: *gag*
He loves Steph tho, she’s his ride or die
As I mentioned in my Accent hc,
Tim knows a lot of languages bc rich kid
Him and Damian talk to each other in mandarin, mostly bc it’s a language they both know fluently
He tried to learn Arabic so Damian could feel comfortable talking to him,
(This is after the many times he’s tried to kill him, but hey what are brother’s for..?)
He couldn’t quite get the pronunciation right, and just said “fuck it we speaking mandarin”
Literally, they don’t even speak in English to each other anymore,
Like if it’s just them talk, other ppl they’ll translate or they’re talking shit
Tim and Damian actually get along,
Like it was rough at first, but living together really forces the two to get along
(Imma add more about them in a different hc)
Also Dick Grayson!!
Did I mention he had a parasocial relationship?
Yeah, Dick was not excluded from that
He knew Dick was mostly giving him the time of day bc he felt guilt about not being there enough for Jason,
But he doesn’t care
He knew what he was doing going to Dick about being Robin,
“You gotta be Robin again. Batman needs Robin”
“Idk who you are kid, but I am not wear that thing again. Plus blue is more my color. You wearing if you think it’ll help Bruce”
*Tim already at the display case* “I mean…if you insist”
Stalker
Nothing else to add to that
He’s the best to take to galas (or just to deal with high society in general) having grew up with lessons on how to be a “proper young man”
Study abroad at one point,
It was in Switzerland
Has a staring problem
Literally. Imagine just minding your business in a public area and turning to see (👁️👁️) staring death at you without blinking
Don’t worry, it’s just his adhd taking over the most part of his brain
He actually hates black coffee, but it’s the only think strong enough to have him away (so he won’t get nightmares)
He watches anime,
Specifically, shonen anime and BL (boylove)
He watches anime with Damian while arguing about the main pairing not working bc the “male love interest is obviously gay”
He wrote fanfics, you think he won’t be a shipper?
Can sing,
Like really good
Jason caught him singing in his room at like 2:30 in the morning and sent a video to the group chat
*jason sent a video*
Jason: ya see this shit😀
Everyone goes crazy bc Tim sounds so nice
The thing is, Tim never hid the fact that he can sing, just never said it out load
But if you were really pay attention to him, you could have caught him lightly singing to himself any indie or viral tiktok song while he does basic tasks
Everyone now has a mission of trying to catch him in the act,
Only Alfred and Cass knew he could sing
Bart knows about his identity before he told the team,
Bc Yk future and all
So him and Tim just naturally became closer over time as Tim could rant to Bart without worrying about his identity being blown
(More about this in another hc)
Cannon that he cross dresses
I think that’s it for now…
#batfam#batman#dick grayson#tim drake#jason todd#bruce wayne#red robin#robin#dc characters#batfamily headcanons#batfam headcanons#dc headcanon#idk what other tags to add#I have more hcs for tim but I can’t think right now it’s 12am#I love Tim Drake#hes my favorite robin next to robin!Jason
97 notes
·
View notes
Text
Faultlines
(Dick reflects on their family while Jason makes post patrol smoothies.)
Dick sat at Jason’s island bench with his forehead on the counter and tuned out the conversation. He was sore, tired, and hungry. The bench shook with the staccato of Jason chopping things and throwing them into an open blender.
Bruce was speaking through a tinny phone speaker. Jason gave a report on their patrol with uncharacteristic restraint given Bruce’s demands and interruptions. He had only told him to go fuck himself the once.
‘I expect better of the both of you.’
Dick briefly considered sliding off the bar stool and laying on the nice cool floor. Better not, Jason would probably step on him. And he’d have to haul himself back up afterwards.
They probably should have gone back to the cave. Dick wasn’t injured but he was coming down with something, and Jason held himself carefully, protecting some bruising somewhere. The safe house had been closer and Bruce was having one of those nights. It was looking to be the start of one of those weeks.
‘Sorry B, can’t hear you,’ Jason said and scooped a cup of ice into the blender and turned it on.
Whatever Bruce said was lost to the deafening droning noise. The phone screen darkened a moment later as the call disconnected.
Dick lifted his head to rest his chin on the shaking bench.
Jason surveyed his domain with a scheming expression. Dick closed his aching eyes for a moment. When he reopened them there was a bunch of leafy spinach spinning in the blender on top of the banana and yogurt and Jason looked pleased with himself.
Dick sighed, dramatic and put upon. His little brother liked to feel like he was getting away with something. Dick was happy to let him have it. He didn’t need to know that he would have been making the exact same concoction if he were at his own apartment, only worse. He’d probably add some honey though.
Jason squirted honey into the blender.
Dick smiled gratefully. He got a tall chilled glass of smoothie placed in front of him for his troubles.
He pressed it to his forehead with a groan. ‘I love you.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’
Both their phones buzzed. He glanced down to see Bruce’s list of critiques and demands now in written form. He made a face.
‘Remember when he used to pretend he wasn’t an asshole?’ Jason muttered, dragging a hand down his face. ‘What broke you old man?’
You did, dick didn’t say. You broke him.
‘There’s nobody within parenting range,’ he did say, ‘he’s malfunctioning.’
Jason scoffed. ‘It’d be worse if someone was in range. Good thing the brat is with the Kents for the week. Where’s Tim and Duke?’
‘San Fran. They’re going to space tomorrow.’
Jason nodded and leaned a hip against the bench. ‘Good. Bruce will have calmed down by the time they’re back.’
‘I don’t know about Cass though, wasn’t she coming back from Hong Kong soon?’
Jason shook his head. ‘She’s staying another month. Alfred can handle him in the meantime.’
There was a vacuous slurping sound as Dick stirred his smoothy with a metal straw. He wondered if Jason knew it was because of him that Bruce needed handling.
It wasn’t his fault per say, and Dick couldn’t even blame him, but the man who raised them both died with Jason in Ethiopia. Only one of them ever came back.
Now Damian had a father who was cold.
Dick’s littlest brother (his son, a bone deep part of him whispered) didn’t know what it was to be loved without reservation.
Alright, maybe he blamed Jason a little.
He tucked his chin into his chest and focused on his drink. Shame curled inside him.
Bruce was a grown man, he could take responsibility for himself. It was a Robin’s instinct to cover for Batman. They weren’t Robins anymore.
Before Jason, Bruce would never have asked Dick to trick his entire family into thinking he was dead. It would have been an unspeakable and needless cruelty. Bruce was responsible for who he had become after Jason.
Funny. ‘After Jason’. They lived in a post-Jason world, Jason included. No wonder he didn’t really think he belonged, no matter how hard Dick tried to convince him otherwise. How do you live in a world that had already shut your book and opened the sequel?
He figured Jason would like that metaphor. He would never say it to him. He wasn’t going to become someone who added to the fault lines in the family.
He loved Jason. He did.
He drank his smoothie. Jason leaned against the bench, rubbed his temples, and let his eyes close.
They shared the silence.
#jason todd#bruce wayne#dick grayson#red hood#nightwing#dc#batman#flash fic#i dunno#batfam#robins‚ assorted
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tim Drake Shouldn’t Have His Own Hero Persona
This is just a compilation of various Tim Drake Musings I’ve had over the last few days. For anyone that knows me, you know that Tim’s been my favorite Robin, and favorite comic book character, for over two decades now. My first dog was technically named after him (he was named Robin, but he was inspired by Tim’s Robin specifically!):
Tim's defining characteristic, and his best stories stem from this, is the fact that he doesn't want this life, but he can't get out of it because he's the only one willing to do it out of a sense of obligation. He doesn't want to be Batman, but when Dick doesn't want it, Jason can't handle it, and Damian's ego fucks it up, he has to pick the mantle back up. And in the present he has to be ready because the shoe can drop at any time. His literal nightmare future self in Young Justice was becoming Batman. The dramatic irony is that he's the best suited for it and every future keeps telling him it's inevitable.
And he hates it. He doesn't want to do this shit. He didn't want to be Robin in the first place, he did it because someone had to. And all this life has brought him is pain. He doesn't have a tragic backstory. Being a hero is what has brought him tragedy, time and again.
Saying that, Tim shouldn't become the Grey Ghost. He should have never been Red Robin past the maxi series it took to find Bruce. And he should definitely not be "Drake."
Tim Drake shouldn't have a superhero persona that isn't Robin or an incredibly unhappy, reluctant Batman.
The character wasn't designed for that, for reasons I mentioned above.
Tim's full story arc should be finally finding a point in time where he feels like his work is done, putting down the Robin mantle, and leading a normal life with the occasional consulting work for his friends and family. The sporadic return to the costume when something huge happens and all hands are needed on deck. But otherwise just being Tim Drake.
Until Bruce dies or is put out of commission, and no one steps up to take on the mantle, except Damian who was never cut out for the job in the first place. He can be a hero, but he can't be Batman.
So Tim steps up and does it. He hates it, but he does it. It destroys his life and relationships, but he does it. Because someone has to. And because that's who Tim is and what he does.
And in the end, when a 50+ year old Bruce comes back from whatever put him out of the role for a decade or so, when they have that overdue heart to heart that finally convinces Tim that he doesn’t have to do this, he should never have been made to feel like he had to do this, when he can at last rest...
Conner and Steph are there for him, even after everything that’s passed between them. Because that, also, is a crucial part of who Tim is. He builds unbreakable friendships that can weather whatever storm, no matter how long it lasts.
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
Whenever they get mad at Bruce they all go to Jason’s house and end up building a pillow fort just to make him jealous. This totally happens
Oh totally, and they make a show of checking IDs at the the door. If Bruce tries to come they check his ID and turn him away giving him one off two answers:
Not on the list
Too old
They love giving him this one when he knows that Alfred’s already in the fort.
This tradition started when Dick was a kid. One day he was really upset with Bruce so he made a pillow fort in the foyer and banned Bruce from entering. Surprisingly Alfred backed him up on it and didn’t let Bruce into the foyer. Because of this Bruce could only use the back/side door(s). Which isn’t bad, but it is a constant reminder that there’s a vengeful little gremlin in the house just itching to ruin your day. While Dick was executing a militant occupation of the foyer he started to invite others to join him. First he invited Alfred, then he invited Wally, then he invited Clark, then Diana, then Oliver, and so on until the entire Justice League was camped out in the foyer of Wayne Manor. Eventually Alfred put an end to this. The pillow fort was put away, Bruce apologized, and the JL thanked Dick for being a good host. And that was that.
Until it wasn’t.
A few months later there was another fight and another fort, this time in a guest room. It becomes a cycle that continued until Dick moved out and made Blüdhaven his new pillow fort (except instead of pillows and blankets he had a barren, desolate apartment). And that’s the, no more passive aggressive pillow forts. Right? Well… no.
One day Jason accidentally breaks an expensive vase, he’s terrified that Bruce will be mad, that he’ll act like Willis. So he runs. He runs away to the only person he knows who can keep him safe from Batman, he runs to Dick. In typical Jason fashion he tries to play tough, act like he’s not scared, but Dick sees through the act. Of course Dick doesn’t say anything, he lets Jason keep his mask of bravery. And he does this the only way he knows how, by making a fort. Together he Jason build a safe space where no one can hurt them and they spend the entire night there. Eventually Dick texts Bruce and Alfred and tells them what’s going on. The next morning Bruce is asleep on the floor outside Dick’s apartment. Waiting for Jason to feel safe enough to come home. After a long talk and a lot of encouragement Jason feels safe again. It’s an eye opening experience but it brings them all closer together, especially Jason and Dick. Jason will always think of it as the night that he and Dick became brothers. But more importantly it was the night that Jason learned the art of the pillow fort.
After Jason died Dick stopped making pillow forts. He was an adult with an apartment to escape to he didn’t need to build an escape anymore. And besides, the one person he wanted to build with was gone. It was pointless. Then one day he met the kid without a childhood, he met the independent and much too mature Tim Drake. At first Dick would just do silly and childish things, encourage Tim to act his age.
One day Tim seems upset. His parents extended their trip, he screwed up a case, and he fell asleep during a history test. Bruce is pissed about the case and test so he benches Robin, aka Tim’s one escape from his empty house. As Tim’s leaving to go spend another night alone he passes Dick, instantly Dick picks up on Tim’s mood. So, instead of going to help Bruce, he goes to his brother. He and Tim go back to Drake Manor and build a huge pillow fort. They spend the entire night talking, sharing stories, eating snacks, etc. By the next morning the two feel much closer and Tim feels lighter. Once again pillow forts become a tradition.
Later Tim will introduce Cass to pillow forts, Steph excitedly helps. Then Steph and Dick teach Damian. Then Tim reintroduces Jason to pillow forts. One day Dick even sees Damian teaching Duke the best fort building techniques. And suddenly Bruce had a gaggle of children who build passive aggressive pillow forts instead of actually addressing their emotional issues.
#batfam#batman#jason todd#tim drake#red hood#dick grayson#bruce wayne#red robin#nightwing#damian wayne#duke thomas#robin#the signal#cassandra cain#black bat#stephanie brown#spoiler#batgirl#bats building forts#mypost#ask
585 notes
·
View notes
Text
i want dick grayson to be annoyingly perfect in the smallest of unimportant ways. and i want it to irritate the living hell out of everyone around him
every now and then, jason and dick will go to different chili dog carts around the city, and dick will sit and nod in agreement as jason nitpicks the food, occasionally offering his own two cents. the conversations are tense and if the topic strays from anything except food jason books it, but it’s progress, and dick’s grateful. but he doesn’t understand why jason always growls at him when he’s preparing his chili dogs, chalking it up to jason’s obsessiveness about that food in particular. dick figures he’s probably doing it wrong. until one day, jason bites out a rough question, asks him how he did that. dick’s confused, until jason points out, “you tear open the top of the ketchup packet in a perfect line every time. and you get all of the ketchup out of the packet in one smooth squeeze, and you never get any on your fingers, and i don’t understand how.”
roy was, arguably, a better archer than ollie. green arrow had been birthed from the island, from the trauma of survival. roy, however, had been practicing since he was a kid, and now that he was well into his twenties, he could safely say he was one of the best shots in the world. he could beat all his friends at darts, shoot an apple off wally’s head, and was generally pretty awesome. or, he would be awesome, if only dick fucking grayson would stop making every single shot of anything he threw in a trash can. no matter what he was throwing away, no matter the angle, no matter the wind or rain, as long as the trashcan was in eyesight, anything dick tossed would inevitably end up inside the garbage. sometimes, dick barely even glanced at the damn thing, just took note of it a threw the trash, expecting it to land in the proper place. and it always did. the worst part was, dick didn’t even seem to notice it. he wasn’t actively trying to make every shot. when asked, dick just shrugged and said “we had some pretty good knife throwers in the circus.”
tim’s memories starting out as robin were a whirlwind, a push-pull of bruce’s mistrust, then bruce’s acceptance, of dick’s fear and hesitation, then of dick’s love. he still remembered dick making the two of them hot chocolate in the kitchen after a day of training, tim’s muscles sore and entire body aching but the feeling of pride, because he was good enough to be robin, he knew he was. he hadn’t expected that to happen anytime soon again, given the way their relationship had fractured after tim had left dick’s batman, a terrified fury in his eyes. yet, he’d been proven wrong when, after a particularly rough arkham breakout, alfred asked both dick and tim to stay instead of returning to their own apartments. just because the manor brought back a feeling of warm nostalgia, however, doesn’t mean it kept the nightmares away. he came down to the kitchen and saw dick already up, moving around the stovetop. with a knowing look in his eyes, dick grabbed another mug to make tim some hot chocolate. tim was washed over with a feeling of relief, of acceptance. dick slid the mug towards him and tim took a sip, letting the rich chocolate warm him up from the inside. it was delicious. his little sigh of pleasure must have been audible, but then he remembered something he noticed. “dick. did you use alfred’s recipe for this?” and dick laughed, responded with, “nah. too much work. i just sort of tried to remember what was in hot chocolate, and eyeballed most of the ingredients. i’m glad it turned out good though. no clumps too, that’s good.”
donna didn’t care how old she got, playing in the park with dick never got old. as one of her oldest friends, the two of them could just walk around the park, in companionable silence, just letting themselves relax and enjoy the moment. so, of course, dick would break the silence and ask if she had any earbuds, because it was getting to quiet for him. donna laughed, and reached inside her pocket, fingered past the keys, and grabbed the headphones. the tangled little ball that came out made her sigh, and she pulled on an earbud to loosen it, only managing to make one of the many knots tighter. then, dick took the headphones out of her hands with a here, i got it, and with a few quick tugs, the tangled monstrosity unraveled easy as breathing. then, completely unaffected, he handed her an earbud, putting the other in his own ear. “i’m the one who’s got a lasso,” she said, ignoring dick’s snort and quip about how earbuds and a lasso are two completely different things, donna.
cass hadn’t expected to enjoy such a gentle, graceful form of athletics, but after a few lessons, it had become apparent that ballet could be far from gentle. it pushed her, made her practice and strengthen herself, and she’d fallen in love with the art quickly. however, the most frustrating part of the entire thing had little to do with actually dancing. the school bruce had helped pick out was prestigious, which meant a strict dress code, which meant her hair had to be in a bun. unfortunately, her hair never seemed to want to cooperate. after her latest attempt, falling into a mess of hair at her nape that had so many locks falling out, cass contemplated how mad the teacher would be if she showed up in a ponytail. at that moment, dick peeked into her room, having heard her frustrated noise, and asked if he could do anything to help. cass pointed to the mess of hair, not even remotely contained by the hair tie, and blew a strand out of her face. dick smiled with understanding, then came into her room, grabbing the comb on her bed and standing behind her in front of the mirror. he smoothed her hair with the comb, then pulled it this way and that, twisting and turning and wrapping until, two minutes later, a picture perfect bun sat atop her head. cass blinked with surprise. “first try,” she said, staring up at him, but he just shrugged and said, “it’s not that hard. you want me to drop you off?”
bruce could admit that he rather enjoyed undercover missions. it was an extended game with high stakes, a test of his own acting skills. with makeup changing his face, an expertly made wig, and a demeanor completely different from both brucie wayne and from batman, he swept through the crowd of greasy men, looking for a specific contact. then, he caught sight of someone specific indeed, though they weren’t his contact. eyebrows raised in a what are you doing here? gesture, he slid onto a barstool. from behind the bar, dick offered him a blinding smile, cleaning a glass. he tapped his wrist twice, a clear message. undercover, same as you. then, dick grabbed a couple bottles from underneath a shelf, flipping them in his hand and pouring with grandeur. bruce noticed he hadn’t put any alcohol in his little mixture, only making it seem as if he had. the flashy moves were entertaining, bruce could give him that. dick slid him the drink and bruce took a sip, eyebrows raising in brief surprise. “this is good. bartending?” dick put the bottles and the lemon away, unimpressed. “it’s not like it’s hard. just mixing a couple ingredients. no biggie.” bruce was fairly certain bartending was more difficult than that, but just then, his target came into view.
steph understood some of the bats’ frustration with dick, she really could. he hadn’t exactly been a welcome and opening batman, that’s for sure. regardless, as the few masks left in gotham had to work together, and she’d gotten to know the man pretty well. and she enjoyed his company as nightwing much more than batman. she dropped onto his balcony in his bludhaven apartment, announcing her presence in that loud-subtle way. dick was nestled in a couple blankets on the couch, going over a couple files, apparently just back from patrol if the small bandage on his neck and bags under his eyes were any indication. nevertheless, he brightened when he saw her and she nodded when he asked if she wanted to spend the night. he moved some of the papers to make room for her on the couch, but she flitted into his bathroom, going through the nail polish bottles she knew he had, and grabbing a shade of red that caught her eye. she tossed him the bottle and put her fingers in his lap, talking aimlessly about a movie she watched with cass. dick seemed to relax amidst her jabbering, and he shook the bottle a couple times before opening it and focusing on her right hand. but as he started, steph paused her rambling and focused on him instead, holding her hands gently and brushing paint onto her nails. he managed to cover her entire nail in three easy strokes, smooth and glossy, not a hint of paint on her skin. the nail was practically perfect. oh god she was jealous. “got a lot of practice with this, grayson?” she asked, and laughed at dick’s mock-offended of course not!
damian wasn’t one for photography, and he could grudgingly admit drake was far better at that particular skill than he was. however, his art class had promised to cover all types of media, and had upheld that pledge. the next two weeks were dedicated to photography, and their final project for the unit had to be a small collection of photographs. animal photography, of course, was damian’s chosen subject, and the knowledge that animal photography was one of the hardest skills to master only had damian wanting to do it more. days later, however, he could admit that it was trickier than expected. how had he never noticed how active his animals were? they never sat still, and every single picture came out blurry. grayson, upon coming across him in the manor grounds, noticed his futile attempts and asked if he could help. damian acquiesced the camera to grayson, who looked through the lens, finding the right angle and background, adjusting the focus settings slightly. then, he let out a sharp whistle and snapped his fingers. in nothing short of a miracle, damian’s pets pasued to look at him, only for a second, and the shutter clicked furiously. damian flipped through the photos, a good many of them clear and wonderful. damian snapped in irritation when dick ruffled his hair and said, “now you try!” it definitely wasn’t as easy as grayson made it look.
babs didn’t really know what she was expecting when she broke up with dick. there was hurt on both ends, and distance for a while, and she had no idea how much she’d miss him. but after a couple months of working together, of remembering that underneath the romantic tangles, their friendship was strong, she’d gotten to the point of dick randomly dropping by her apartment again. the downside was, dick kept randomly dropping by her apartment again. he stole her snacks and messed up her filing system and was so irritating that barbara almost forgot how relieved she was at having one of her best friends back. fortunately, it did come with benefits, because when he was bored, he did some of her chores for her. pausing in the doorway, she smiled at the sight of dick folding her clothes and putting them away. the gesture was platonic now, but no less appreciated. she pushed her wheelchair forward, and in greeting, dick told her how much he wanted to steal all her patterned socks. babs reminded him they wouldn’t fit, and laughed at his pout. dick grabbed one sock off the top of the laundry basket, then dug his hand into the pile of clothes randomly, coming up with the second sock in an instant. folding them together, he repeated the process for each pair. “that...that was fast. you got all of them?” babs asked in confusion. “yes? why, did you expect some to be missing?” was dick’s reply as he shook the wrinkles out of a sweater.
wally was never surprised. he knew dick better than probably most people in the world. he’d gone from frustrated and jealous of dick’s random talents, to admiring and appreciative, to just accepting them as a fact of life. dick’s phone never cracked if he accidentally he dropped it. dick never buttoned up shirts wrong, aligning each button with the right hole perfectly on the first try. dick could plug in usb ports the right way. dick always remembered which light switch was for which room, no matter whose house they were at. dick could pop a cd out of its case without ever smudging the disk, holding it by the rim perfectly. and dick always seemed to know when wally needed a day off, to just visit their old haunts, grab some ice cream, and spend the day talking away on a rooftop. that was just something his best friend could do. and wally would never tell dick, but underneath his fake irritation at it, but he loved him for it.
tag list: @comicsandhoney @birdy-bat-writes @elles-shitposts-personified @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @astroherogirl @yesboopityboop @dangerduckjpeg
#scribbles from the swamp#dick grayson#nightwing#jason todd#red hood#roy harper#arsenal#red arrow#tim drake#red robin#donna troy#wonder girl#cassandra cain#black bat#batgirl#orphan#bruce wayne#batman#stephanie brown#spoiler#damian wayne#robin#barbara gordon#oracle#wally west#the flash#batfam#dc#dick grayson headcanon#nightwing headcanon
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
“What do you want?” Barbara asks, voice crackling with static.
It’s a silly question. Tim wants crime rates to go down. Tim wants Gotham to be a safer city. Tim wants to be a part of making that happen.
“A code name that isn’t stupid.” he says instead.
Barbara sighs. It doesn’t sound like a sigh though. It just sounds like the static’s getting louder.
~
“Bernard Dowd, scholar of the ages.” Tim laughs, arm slung round Bernard's shoulder. “I thought you were meant to be the fun one?”
“I am.” Bernard groans, “as soon as these exams are done I’ll be back to the usual student life. Getting drunk, going on dates, Gotham won’t know what’s hit it.”
“Going on dates?” Tim asks jokingly, even as a well hidden part of him turns slightly panicked. “Any successes an old friend should be hearing about?”
“Not really.” Bernard shrugs, jostling Tim’s arm. “Just a couple of girls I was better off friends with.” He pauses, thinking, before continuing with his voice involuntarily going a little higher. “Couple of guys too.”
“Huh.” Tim suddenly becomes very aware of all the places where his arm is touching Bernard. He doesn’t move it. “Better luck next time.”
Huh.
~
Tim’s been avoiding Dick. He’s been awkward around him lately, Tim thinks that Barbara must have said something. He’s not stupid enough to have done something to send Dick spiralling without noticing it.
“What do you want?” Dick asks, curious, without warning.
Tim wants to ask if Barbara put him up to this but he knows it’s a genuine question. Dick isn’t manipulative like that, not with family.
What does Tim want? Isn’t it a little late for Dick go be asking that question? All the things that happened after Bruce’s death put a canyon of distance between them. It’s slowly been growing smaller but it hasn’t disappeared. Neither of them have had time enough to spend together for that to happen.
An awful, bitter part of Tim that hasn’t stopped screaming since Robin wasn’t his any more wonders if Dick would even be asking if Damian wasn’t out of town right now.
“For us to go train surfing.” Tim says. Petty. Just so Dick will say no and his anger can feel righteous instead of ill-deserved.
“Okay.” Dick says instead. Easy and confident. Himself.
“Oh.” Tim’s anger fizzles into non-existence. “Okay.”
The canyon grows a little smaller.
~
“We should go to a skatepark.” Bernard says, a little giggly from the beer in his hand.
There’s a matching beer in Tim’s hand although it’s still practically full. If there’s an emergency he’ll be of no use drunk. “What? Why?”
“Why not? You were so good in high school! And you had fun doing it.” Bernard’s tone turns a little less giggly. “You should do more things you find fun.”
Tim is surprised enough that the “Okay.” slips out of his lips unbidden.
So maybe the beer bottle is a little less full than he’d like to admit.
They borrow a board from one of Bernard's flatmates and catch a bus to a skate park Tim remembers using when he was younger. As they go Tim tries to remember why he stopped. He tries to remember when he stopped. He can’t recall the answer to either question and annoyance rises in his chest over it.
Then Bernard is saying something and it has Tim snorting with laughter and he forgets his irritation.
Once they arrive Bernard settles himself at the top of one of the ramps like it’s a throne. “Entertain me!” he calls, “Impress me with your wheel-board magic.
Tim manages a kick-flip on his first attempt and Bernard makes a loud noise of approval.
A lot of stuff comes back to Tim fairly quickly. Most of skateboarding had been muscle memory for him and that’s something that being a vigilante hadn’t exactly hindered. As things return to him he regains some faint memories of why he’d stopped. Nothing specific, just that feeling of not having enough time. Of thinking that going to the skatepark wasn’t a particularly useful way to spend his hours while there was still real work to be done.
Tim’s always been a vigilante first, but he thinks there must have been a point when that wasn’t the only thing he was. Well, when it wasn’t the only thing he was that mattered.
“Come on!” Bernard shouts, teeth flashing white against Gotham’s grey-black sky. “I was promised entertainment!”
Tim laughs. He seems to do that a lot around Bernard these days.
He starts moving on the skateboard, deciding to leave the existentialism for another day.
~
First Dick and now Bruce. Tim’s family has really been making a habit of being weird around him lately.
He would normally think that the Bruce was worried about him, that Dick had passed along some bullshit about his mental health and Bruce was practicing some silent vigil. The problem with that theory is that Tim’s been getting better recently, so there wouldn’t be much point. At least he thinks he’s been getting better. It’s difficult to tell sometimes.
Bruce has definitely been acting weird around him though, so maybe he isn’t getting better. Maybe Bruce spotted something Tim didn’t and he’s on the road to insanity.
“What do you want?” Bruce asks one day as they’re both working in the cave. Not Batman. Bruce.
It’s a far stupider question than it was when Barbara or Dick asked it. Bruce is the person who made Tim’s desires what they are. He’s the one who took Tim’s obsession and carved it into a goal.
“What?” Tim asks, loud and confused and maybe a little angry. “What do you mean ‘what do I want’? I want the mission! What else am I supposed to want?”
Bruce stays silent for a moment and Tim imagines him turning the words over in his head. “Nothing else?” Bruce asks. He sounds sad and it makes the anger drain from Tim’s body. “Just the mission?”
“I don’t need anything else.” Tim says hollowly.
Bruce just nods, thinking. It makes Tim want to scream even as satisfaction rises in his chest.
It’s always been a point of pride that he can to lie to Batman. He’s hardly going to change his mind about that now.
~
“People keep asking me what I want.” Tim says, sat on Bernard's bed. “I don’t like it.”
Bernard's turns away from the laptop on his desk so he can look at Tim. “You ever tell them the truth?”
Tim shrugs. He isn’t sure what else to do. “Ish?”
Bernard smiles. “Anyone ever tell you you’re impossible, Tim Drake?”
“Only everyone I’ve ever met.”
Bernard barks out a laugh before sobering up and looking at Tim with ill-disguised curiosity. “Do you want to tell me the truth about it? Or did you just want to say the thing out loud?”
“I’m not sure.” Tim admits, and he has to stop himself from acting taken aback by the fact he actually said that. Tim never says when he’s uncertain. There isn’t room for it. Bernard must know that too because he looks at Tim in surprise, then scoots his chair closer to the bed so that he and Tim are almost touching.
Bernard looks very cautious. “You know that’s okay, right?”
“I-“ Tim starts, because is it? Is uncertainty the kind of luxury he can afford? “I want to want things. But it feels like I’ve forgotten how.”
“You’ve had a rough couple of years.”
“How do you-“
Bernard smiles knowingly. “You’re not as hard to read as you think, Tim. Well you are. But it’s not difficult to tell that some bad things must have happened since I last saw you.”
“Yeah.” Tim says hoarsely, thinking back to the burn of his muscles as he dug up Kon’s grave, the stinging of desert sand in his eyes, the moment of confusion when he woke up in a league of assassins base unsure if he’d had to die to get there. “Yeah. Bad things happened.” He shakes himself a little, because those aren’t the thoughts he wants lingering. He focuses back on Bernard who’s closer than Tim had realised, worry creased between his eyes. “What about you?” Tim asks, trying to exert some measure of control over the conversation. “What do you want?”
“Thought we were talking about you?” Tim might have let it go with that if not for the note of nervousness in Bernard's voice and the red creeping up the back of his neck.
“We can talk about both of us.”
“It’s not important right now.”
Tim reaches out then. He takes Bernard's hand in his because Bernard makes him laugh and he looks so nervous and Tim wants to. Bernard looks down at their hands in surprise and Tim doesn’t actually feel worried. Just expectant that Bernard is going to squeeze their fingers together more securely. He does. “You sure?” Tim asks.
Bernard just looks at him. Mouth parted with shock. He seems to come back to himself though and his expression of surprise turns into something more confident. More familiar. “What if I wanted you?” he asks, hesitancy and confidence rolled into one voice.
“Give me some time to remember how to want things, and I think I’ll want that too.” Tim replies, just as unsure and utterly certain.
Bernard tangles their fingers together a little more firmly in response and Tim feels more hopeful than he has in a long time.
#SO URBAN LEGENDS HUH??#if dc say sike rn I am going to take that as a hate crime against me PERSONALLY#dc#dc fandom#batman#writing#fic rec#batman fic rec#tim drake#bernard dowd#red robin#timber#urban legends#batman urban legends#ngl i might clean this up and expand on it a bit and put it on ao3#all the sections were meant to be as short as barbara's lmao#i'm so bad at writing romance i couldn't even get them to kiss#i quite liked how the other parts turned out though?? idk
646 notes
·
View notes
Text
Not related to the other two Bio!mom Harley AUs that I did. Just... similar. I wrote this instead of sleeping, as per the usual.
—*—*—*—*—*
“I need your help.”
No accent, no threats of violence, no beating around the bush (figurative or otherwise). No fighting or unconscious bodies.
Just Harley Quinn with her hair down, no makeup, and completely serious, in the center of the Bat Cave. Even though her usual exaggerated Brooklynn accent (circa 1950s) had become a pretty inseparable part of her personality over the years, every now and then she forcibly stuffed it down and used her mostly unaccented voice. The one reminiscent of days with less colors on her face, a high bun, and a pristine white lab coat.
Every single one of the Bats and Birds present, fresh from an interrupted patrol thanks to her, could count the number of times they had seen Harley like this on one hand. Bruce would have the most recollections, but everyone else would have plenty of fingers left on said hand. So they all knew, especially when Bruce willingly pulled down his cowl so he could look Harley in the eye, that this was the start of something they were not likely to forget. And maybe their chances of survival were slim too.
“Harley,” Bruce’s voice was still gruff, seeing as he was still mostly Batman at the moment, but his eyes were soft. “Maybe you should tell us what you need help with first. And sit down. You look exhausted.”
Sure enough, there were dark circles under Harley’s eyes. She let Bruce-man lead her over to one of their debriefing tables and sit her down. She let out a huge sigh, her fingers tangling in her loose blond locks.
“I have a confession, and it isn’t gonna leave this cave, capiche?” The slight return of her accent relieved a little of the tension, but not much. Taking this as their cue, the rest of the bats spread out into their usual seats at the table. Bruce stayed near Harley, keeping a hand on her shoulder in silent support. Harley didn’t continue talking until he gave her a solemn nod in agreement. She gulped— an action that immediately returned the tension.
“... fifteen years ago, back when I was still with Joker, I disappeared off the Gotham scene for a few months. I’m sure a few of you remember,” she looked up, and a couple of the older vigilantes nodded. Really, Jason has still been Robin back then. But the memory stuck out in his head now that he was thinking about it.
“Yeah, you were breaking away from him a little bit, which was weird at the time,” Red Hood mused aloud, arms crossed. “I think you helped us out a couple times and did some of your first team ups with Ivy before you vanished. Then a few months go by and you were back in action with Joker, so we mostly ignored it as you just being you.”
Harley nodded. “Ah, my Ivy’s a lifesaver, even back then. She helped cover up the timeline by keeping me in action for longer than I should’a been without putting me at too much risk.”
“Timeline…” Red Robin spoke up, eyes huge even behind his mask. “You don’t mean—“
“Harley,” Bruce breathed, having also caught on. “You were pregnant?”
The air went still. Harley sniffed, eyes watering even as she smiled.
“Oh yeah. Shouldn’t have been possible, ya know? Me ‘n Joker being dumped in that damn acid should have made us both more sterile than an operatin’ room. But I knew I couldn’t raise a kid, so after she was born—“
“You kept her?” Damian interrupted, earning a gentle cuff over the head from Dick. Harley just snorted.
“Yeah. Not gonna lie, I thought about abortion. But the baby didn’t do nothin’ wrong, and I was still in love with Joker back then so I was ecstatic that I was able to make something new with part ‘a him in it. Still, I knew a baby didn’t deserve to be raised in Gotham. Especially not my baby, not with my enemies and history. Not with who her father was. I knew he’d never want her, never let me keep her. So I spent the last five months of my pregnancy lookin’ around for the best possible family to take her in. And I found them in Paris, France. A sweet couple, both of them bakers. Sabine, she’s both adorably sweet and super kickass. Comes from a Chinese family that is crazy about teachin’ their women martial arts. But nothing shady about it, I triple checked. Just bonding through kicking people in the face. Which is perfect, I wanted my baby to know how to defend herself. I knew she’d need those skills eventually. And Tom, that’s Sabine’s wife, he’s a gentle giant. Same size as Bane, but as harmless as a puppy and makes the best croissants ever. Seriously, the best.”
“Harley,” Bruce gently prodded, but there was a tiny grin on his face. Seeing her behaving so… so normally, so proud and reminiscent, was a rare treat. Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t proud of how far the woman had come. How she had freed herself and become a better person, mostly on her own.
“Right, right. The point,” Harley took a breath, rubbing her forehead. “I came clean to Tom and Sabine, but apparently they knew who I was the whole time. They just didn’t care— did I mention they are perfect? Anyway, once I explained everything, they agreed immediately to adopting my baby. They’d been wanting kids, but it would’a been too risky for Sabine’s health. That’s how I found them anyway, they were in the market to adopt. We named her Marinette. She took Tom and Sabine’s last names, hyphenated. We decided Quinn would be her middle name. And after that, I came back to Gotham and told myself that she was in good hands and I needed to forget about her. Cuz I was no good for her. I knew that. I went back to my old tricks. And then…” Harley chuckled, but it was self-depreciating.
“Then a few years passed, and I started breaking away from Joker for real. Then we broke up, I blew up Ace Chemicals while you guys were outta town doing Justice League and Young Justice shit. I started dating Ivy. And—“ she smiled softly at the table, clearly seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. “Then Ivy convinced me to go see her. Visit my baby, see how she’s been. And I did. Marinette was seven years old, but damn it to hell she was gorgeous. And say whatever you want about me and Joker— most of it will even be true— but neither of us are stupid. And she inherited all of our intelligence. All of it. She got my blue eyes. But she got his hair, which meant Sabine teased me relentlessly about ‘are you sure she isn’t that Wayne’s kid?’ And don’t make that face Bruce, you’d be lucky to have a kid half as beautiful as my Mari-pie. No offense, Damian. Anyway. Anyway, this is the important part. Or part of it.
“She sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Everything. A little seven year old, who could barely understand English at the time, and she listened without interrupting once. She never threw a fit, she wasn’t angry or confused. I told her about the things I’d done in the past— well, G rated versions— and she didn’t care. She called me Momma Harley right away, said she wanted to meet Aunt Ivy sometime soon, and started telling me everything about her that I’d missed. From that day on, she became my sunshine. The light of my life, and I still call her at least once a week every week. When I disappear for a few days out of the city? I’m visiting her—“
“You’re banned from international travel, Harley,” Dick scolded, but he sounded way too amused for it to work. He knew she had her ways, anyway. Nobody could actually stop Harley damn Quinn from doing whatever she wanted.
“—Ugh, she tells me the same thing every time! Disappointed glare and everything. I don’t know how I gave birth to such a goodie goodie, but somehow I did. Not important though! The important thing is, I’m always the first to hear when something new happens in her life. And we had decided that she wouldn’t visit me in Gotham until she was at least eighteen, but apparently she disobeyed me— which I should have expected honestly— and entered you guys’ WE international scholastic competition.”
“Oh no,” Bruce pinched the bridge of her nose. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng? The contest winner?” He finally pulled out a chair and sat down. “The winner gets an all-expense paid trip to Gotham for them and their whole class.”
“Exactly!” Harley threw up her hands. “Mari told me last week, and I’ve been trying to talk her out of coming ever since. But she’s inherited both of our stubbornness too, and she isn’t budgin’ a bit. ‘Momma Harley, I wanna see you and Auntie Ivy though!’ And ‘Momma, Gotham’s nothing I can’t handle,’ or my favorite, ‘Maybe you’ll finally get to see me dropkick someone three times my size then, and I’ll prove it.’”
“So that’s what you meant by you need our help,” Tim said as he leaned forward over the table. “Joker just broke out of Arkham yesterday. You want us to protect her.”
“I’d prefer if one of you was with her outside of the mask too, as often as possible,” Harley confirmed. “I can’t stop her from coming here anymore, but I also don’t trust Joker for a second. As soon as he sees her, I’m afraid he’ll make the connection.”
“She looks like him?” Damian asked, scrunching up his nose at the ugly mental image of Joker as a teenage girl. Harley shook her head, solemn.
“She looks like a dark-haired mini-me,” she corrected. “She even keeps her hair in pigtails as her way of showing support for me. And I know Marinette can kick ass, Sabine’s trained her well. But Marinette inherited more than I’d like from me,” Harley ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t notice it until she was thirteen. She got a crush on a classmate, and it was almost like watching videos of me back during the early days of— well, of Harley Quinn. Just without the crime and insanity. She didn’t even realize that she was almost stalking the poor kid until I pointed it out, and luckily I was able to put my doctorate to good use and we nipped that right in the bud ASAP. She never meant it that way, anyway. As soon as I explained things to her, she was horrified and immediately asked me to help her learn how to have a healthy relationship. That was a fun discussion,” Harley grimaced. “But she still gets attached to people really, really easily. Once she grew out of her crush on that boy, she adopted him as her unofficial brother. She already calls Selina “Auntie,” even though I’ve barely mentioned her to Marinette. She gets attached fast, and deeply. And I’m afraid that even after all the warning I’ve done, all the stories I’ve told her—“
“You’re afraid she’ll get attached to Joker just like you did,” Bruce finished for her, closing his eyes. “Because she knows he’s her father.”
“Yes,” Tears were slowly dripping down her face already, her hands curled into fists so tightly that her knuckles were paper white. “You know how he is. If he finds out she’s his biological daughter, he’ll immediately try to take advantage of that. And he’s far too good with his words for people like me and Mari. I’m worried outta my mind. Please. Help keep my baby safe from him.”
“We will,” Jason no longer had his helmet on, or the domino mask that he usually wore underneath it. All of them knew masks were merely formality with Harley nowadays. And he needed to look her directly in the eye so she could see how serious he was. “I can sign up as a bodyguard for the class. It won’t be weird, seeing as they’re tourists and this is Gotham. They also have several rich kids in their group if I remember right.”
Bruce nodded, agreeing with Jason. “That’s a good idea. I can lead the class on their tours of WE personally. That’ll serve the purpose of keeping an eye on her and shutting up the investors that keep begging me to make more public appearances for the sake of the company. Marinette’s name is already released to the news as the winner of the contest, so we can’t keep her out of the spotlight long. Tim, you’ll have to keep an eye on any and all pictures of the class. Try to erase or doctor the images with her in it well enough that connections between her and Harley can’t be easily made. Dick, you and Damian will be in charge of keeping an eye out for any activity from Joker. The slightest hint, and you notify all of us. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis who is necessary to stick with the class and who goes after the clown.”
“She’s gonna sneak out of her hotel to stay with me and Ivy,” Harley admitted, bringing the (now slightly judgemental) attention back to her. She raised her hands up in surrender. “She didn’t tell me that, and I didn’t approve or suggest it! I just know my baby too well to not realize that that’s her plan. Could ya provide an escort?”
Bruce sighed. “This is gonna be an eventful month.”
#maribat#ml x dc#mlb x dc#soulmate-game#bio!dad au#bio!mom harley quinn#bio!dad joker#maribat fanfic#maribat fic#platonic Harley x Marinette#platonic Ivy x Marinette#platonic brucinette
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Okay, I was looking at batman comics and I came across a panel that sparked an idea
This one. This is from when Batman finds Tim after Jack Drake gets murdered by Captain Boomerang.
But the eyes made me think of something. They almost look like his mind broke.
That gave me an idea. What if after this, Tim just breaks. He doesn’t become violent, he just loses himself in the depths of his mind, he doesn’t respond to anyone.
And Batman is extraordinarily guilty over this. First, the only reason that Tim got into the Robin mantle was because Batman was losing himself. Second, he was the World’s Greatest Detective, so in his mind, he should’ve been able to predict what Boomerang was planning on doing. He blames himself for everything.
So, Bruce takes Tim in publicly, announcing that as the Drakes and him were neighbors and “friends”, he felt a sense of responsibility towards Tim. And from there on, Bruce and Alfred take care of Tim. Tim who has essentially become a rag doll.
Damian shows up earlier because Talia wants to make sure that Bruce doesn’t become so focused on Tim that there is a risk of Damian not being accepted. He is younger so less time for the brainwashing to sink in and there isn’t competition in his mind. Tim has essentially been put into the spot of a brother who can’t try to gain the father’s favor, and therefore isn’t competition.
So, the integration in the Wayne family is easier for Damian. There is no competition, Damian has been taught to take care of sick family which Tim has become, and Bruce has become determined to not make the same mistakes as before. Bruce makes time to interact with Damian and socialize him and take care of him even more. Damian doesn’t get the Robin mantle either, as Bruce has decided that he will have no more children serving as Robin.
Jason Todd, just sees Tim as proof that Batman destroys Robins. He doesn’t hate him now because his introduction to Tim wasn’t while Tim was wearing Robin, it was of a broken boy who was lost from seeing his father’s dead body. While Jason still hates Bruce, Tim is just a sad reminder of Robin.
Dick Grayson visits Tim and helps take care of him at times. But seeing Tim just reminds him of Jason and he can’t stay for long before feeling even more like a failure of a brother. Instead, he trims his blue bat symbol with red and adds yellow eyes.
#batman#batman au#dick grayson#Tim Drake#Damian Wayne#Jason Todd#robin#captain boomerang#jack drake#dcu#DC comics#comic page
89 notes
·
View notes
Text
History of Catlad in DC fandom
So, I noticed a fair number of people asking where the Catlad idea originated.
...Yeah, I can’t tell you that, with certainty. Catlad was already a “thing” when I joined the fandom. But it made me curious, so I did a little digging.
Seemingly, the first his for the term “catlad” initially appeared to be February of 2012. However, trying to find very old tumblr posts is a nightmare, which is where I suspect it originated, so I went to the next logical place - AO3.
The EARILIEST fics for Catlad!Tim are actually post-dated to 2005 (we know it’s a postdate because AO3 wasn’t created until 2008). The first one, Forty Thieves credits the Timfinity challenge on livejournal as the original reason behind the fic. He’s actually not called Catlad or Stray in this one, he’s called the Cat, just to add another to the growing list of varying codenames this one AU has, lmao.
In the Catlad tag sans any particular batboy, the earliest is credited as based off of heartslogos’ Catlad AU, but after scouring their tumblr, I wasn’t able to find a post suggesting they started the au, just that they were a prolific writer and supporter of it on tumblr.
I even made sure to check the other boys’ tags, but Tim is definitely the originator. All the other brothers’ catlad tags only go back to 2015, which is a bit odd, to be honest. I’d have to assume there may have been a spike in Catlad!Tim visibility in that year or something to inspire the others.
Now... where did this concept come from. I wasn’t able to find the original posting for the 2005 fic, so, you know, idk. It seems to have been a subset of TimKon fics initially, as well as gen/found family fics.
As someone who likes this AU, while Tim might not be anyone’s initial choice as Catwoman’s sidekick (Jason comes to mind as the obvious street kid who’d fit her schtick, and then Dick is viewed as more of the ‘sexy one’, and Damian... well, likes cat) I personally think this au took off (aside from being an excuse for sexy times in catsuits) for two reasons:
One: Tim is more... segmented with his personality than other characters are. If you read his comics, Tim is often depicted as not viewing himself AS Robin, rather he sees Robin as a role he plays, like an actor. The idea is appealing because it takes Tim’s tendency to “put on” the Robin persona and “become” Robin to a further extreme - Catlad is about as far from Tim’s civilian personality as you can get, so the change is more dramatic and obvious. This is one for the identity porn fans out there.
And two: Tim kind of imprints on people? He just sort of imprints on Dick and Batman as a three-year-old and it maps out his entire life from there. I know some people have a hard time seeing Tim as a thief, but Tim honestly tends to use external influences, like Bruce or the Titans, as his moral compass, and Tim has been shown multiple times to go full dark side For The Greater Good villain when those influences are ripped out from under him, and he’s also more willing to bend the rules when his persona isn’t as a hero (like his arc as Red Robin, which he saw as a ‘tainted’ mantel). It’s not hard for me to imagine a world where he imprints on Selina at a young age for one reason or another and just... uses her as his moral compass, and is okay breaking the law because that’s the persona he’s chosen to adopt as part of what he sees as a greater good. Is it a big change, yes, but it’s not strictly out of character, and that’s sort of the nature of big turning point AUs.
But, that’s just my guess. Maybe’s it’s just that he looks pretty in the costume, but it clearly resonates with people for one reason or another. That’s just my take on why it works well, but someone who sees Tim differently might disagree.
143 notes
·
View notes
Note
You always seem down on the idea of the Batfam. I mean, it is hard to take seriously when writers make Bruce hostile or downright abusive towards his kids, or when Batfam members never interact. But do you think the concept itself is good, and it's just been the victim of bad writing? Or do you think the Batfam is a bad idea that can never work?
Hi there Anon! Thank you for the ask!
Hmm, this is a difficult question. Maybe I can answer this better if I do it in parts because the concept of “Batfamily” is used in different ways currently. A way to separate them can be, DC’s Batfamily, Fandom’s Batfamily and Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon.
DC’s Batfamily:
My rejection of this version of Batfamily comes from all angles, it is not a good concept within comics lore anymore, it’s badly written and used to hide and move on from truly horrendous actions done by Bruce towards the rest of the family, and DC uses the concept of “Batfamily” that fandom has become so attached to, so they can profit off of it without writing anything of real essence with it.
Why did I say that the Batfamily isn’t a good concept anymore? Well, because the Batfamily that I first came across in comics included, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Barbara, Tim and Cassandra. It was rather small and their books interconnected and had pretty solid relationships with one another. Dick and Tim got along and spent time together, Barbara mentored Cass so she could become Batgirl and so on and so forth. The family was smaller and more connected. But they still had problems and bad habits then. So, I liked them as a group of people that worked together and the name they received was “Batfamily” as a way for DC to profit from it.
Right now, the Batfamily is huge, I don’t know if you have seen those splash pages with all the members of it for Rebirth and Infinite Frontier, but those promotional pages were crazy big, characters like Harley and Clownhunter are now considered part of the “Batfamily” and all that. Then there is the kind of characters like Cass, Steph and Kate who are all connected to Batman but that haven’t been appearing in books for very long, so putting them on that page really feels like DC is trying to prove that their “Batfamily” actually has women on it, but it’s just for show.
And then there is Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, the most recognizable faces of the Batfamily aside from Bruce and Alfred (but Alfred is dead now so he doesn’t really count), all of them have had issues with Bruce or are indifferent to the existence of one another. Yes, Tom Taylor has included Tim in Dick’s book but here is the thing, it feels like he put him there just to make fans shut up about the lack of content with both of them acting as they used to do. But its false and lazy, Taylor just brought Tim to the book but we don’t get to see Tim and Dick interact in ways that can explain why they drifted off, it kinda seems like all those years where Dick and Tim were pulled apart never happened to DC and that makes me think “cash grab”. I would have loved to see them interact again if it meant that we would have some solid story for them to develop their relationship once more.
At the end of Rebirth, Damian was pissed off at Bruce and they had a fight and Damian left the manor completely. Bruce beat up Jason, then gave him a hug but still told him that he was banned from Gotham and all that abuse and manipulation was swept under the rug when DC came out with Urban Legends: Cheer, all they did with that story is lie and made-up stories about Jason wanting Bruce to go on a killing spree so Gotham can finally be the home to his beloved family (lies, lies, lies).
On top of all that we have the neglect, abuse and manipulation that Bruce had going on with Dick, ever since Bruce manipulated Dick into joining Spyral his actions haven’t faced any consequences (the family still believes that Dick was the one who lied about dying). And as recently as the end of Rebirth, Dick suffered from a head injury that left him amnesiac and Bruce absolutely didn’t care enough to look after him when he was so vulnerable and alone. DC had the audacity of having Bruce say that he was looking after Dick while Dick went from one villain manipulating and hurting him to another, and if we look at Batman’s run, we can see that he spent some of that time in a weird pit or playing catch the pussy with Selina in a tropical island.
So, taking all those things into account, I honestly believe that the Batfamily is a concept that absolutely does not belong in comics. If it were to be taken seriously then DC should come up with (organic, not forced) stories that make these characters connect once again, but they have to be careful, just because they can connect it doesn’t mean that everyone gets along and they have group chats and eat dinner together of Fridays, that would be a blatant lie and just too out there for their kind of dynamic, so, they should take things slow, start re-building what once was an make it better (if they want to make it work and feel like less of a cash grab).
I heard that there is a book with Cass and Steph being mentored as Batgirls by Barbara coming out in December, that to me is a good thing, what was done in Robin #5 was awful, Jason didn’t have or want to be there, Tim, what the hell was Tim doing there? The only ones that have gotten along with Damian and have had a solid relationship with him were Dick and Steph. Dick had a very nice moment with Damian in that issue, but Steph didn’t, they preferred to have Jason wanting to hug Damian instead (what the actual hell was that?).
Fandom’s Batfamily:
Fandom is a place where people can take any concept from anywhere and transform it into whatever they please. This fandom is just like any other in that matter, but I have noticed that sometimes the Batfamily Fandom tends to blur the lines between what’s fanon and canon. Their lore is so deep and established among people that they sometimes (willingly or not) make new readers or other people believe that how things and perceived in fandom is how things actually are in comics, and that is a huge problem.
Things like “Dick sent Jason to Arkham when the Joker was just a cell away”, “Jason has pit madness and when he gets mad his eyes turn glowy green”, “Dick was a horrendous brother to Jason before Jason died”, “Jason would be good friends with Tim and Cass”, “Jason is the only one that sees the world differently from Bruce and the other robins because he is the only one that comes from a life with no luxury” and so on and on and on…
All of those things are sometimes treated as the absolute truth by fandom and no matter how many times people have debunked and explained that those things aren’t part of comics’ canon because they are simply not true, fandom stills treats those things as the basis of their Batfamily lore.
That lore would be actually fascinating if people didn’t lose sight so easily of the fact that at the end of the day none of that lore can be applied to comics’ canon.
When you enter this fandom things can be extremely confusing and the way some of the characters are characterized are completely different to their canon characterizations, I knew that the Dick fandom was writing about was not real, but I had no idea that Tim being a coffee addict that hasn’t slept in five months and is an absolute genius in everything and anything that he does was completely out of character for him, I just thought that was true to his character in comics too. Something like that happened to me when I took a peek at Jason’s side of fandom, by that time I had read Red Hood/Arsenal, UtRH and New 52 RHatO (yeah in that order, Red Hood/Arsenal wasn’t finished yet though), with the already conflicting characterizations of those books, the first look that I had at fandom’s Jason confused me even more. After considering all those I decided that the Jason that I wanted to see and actually looked appealing to me was UtRH Jason.
Not all people in fandom read comics and that is ABSOLUTELY VALID, I have zero problems with people not liking the comic characterizations of the “Batfamily” characters, but that in itself also creates a rift between fans themselves.
Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon:
This is obviously the intersection of the other two points and this is the biggest problem that I have with the Batfamily concept. The fandom lore has been leaking into comic’s canon for a while now but right now we are kinda drowning in it. Decisions that have been made recently in DC like, Jason giving up his guns, the group chats in Nightwing issues, the family dinners that were hinted at in Cheer #6, and Bruce having had at the ready a Red Hood suit for Jason with a Batman logo in its chest, have been proof enough that DC is planning on skipping any kind of solid writing for these characters to actually get along. We are never going to see these people sit down and talk about their differences and respect each other’s work ethics.
We are never going to get stories of actual essence that prove that these characters understand and care for each other, we are just going to be told that “all is good” and now everyone loves one another and they will build from there.
That is a problem for me.
-
And it also takes away duality from Gotham’s vigilantes, I know I say this too much but it’s the truth, putting all these characters under the ruling of Batman makes them all bland. Jason shouldn’t be part of any sort of group that involves Bruce! My god, I don’t want to see them interact anymore! Bruce has been absolute trash to Jason ever since he came back from the dead and I am tired of DC trying to make them be on good terms!
Jason and Bruce not getting along can co-exist with the fact that Jason isn’t a villain to Batman’s legendary hero. Jason is his own character, with his own morals and he doesn’t need a bat symbol on his chest or book logo to be relevant. Same with Dick, Tim and Barbara, let them be characters that can stand on their own because they have already done that!
Barbara as Oracle worked WITH Batman if she wanted, she had her own logo and had passed on the mantle of Batgirl because he had grown out of it.
Dick is Nightwing and has become an even better hero than Batman could even aspire to become, he has contacts with everyone in the DC universe, has led countless teams, he doesn’t NEED a batman logo on his book or to be constantly dragged back to him just to make the Bat more compelling.
Jason, my sweet Jason, he had his own logo! It was gorgeous and then Lobdell had the audacity to stamp a Batman logo in the middle of the book name and in Jason’s chest! Have we gone absolutely mad? Why did they do that? Lobdell’s constant back and forth with Jason and his feelings for Bruce, he respects him and he doesn’t, he kills and he doesn’t… each issue felt like a new take on the character! It was crazy!
And that has happened with everyone in the “family”. I will end this by saying that Bruce/Batman being at the centre of this “Batfamily” dynamic is the most laughable thing in the DC Universe. Batman isn’t family to any of the people that they constantly surround him with, he is a piece of shit.
Anyway Anon, I hope this answer doesn’t ruin your day and that you understand that even though I really don’t like the “Batfamily” concept, you and everyone else are allowed and encouraged to think differently!
Hope you have a marvellous day Anon!
#jason todd#red hood#dick grayson#nightwing#tim drake#damian wayne#batfamily#batfam#dc comics#asksss
135 notes
·
View notes
Text
Seven Stages of Being thrown into Teenage Superherodom
Stage 1: Panic
@marijon-week Day 1: Blue Eyes / Identity Reveal
@t1dwarrior-of-earth
Here *** Second
~~~~~~~~~~
Ever since Fu made her Guardian she left Paris. The Kwamii convinced her that the stress of being ladybug and the mental, and now physical, abuse of her classmates has become too much. Her parents also noticed her shift and they supported her leaving.
This was how she found herself in Blüdhaven. She was a student at Gotham Academy, but with Gotham's high crime rate they wanted somewhere safer for her. Sure she could have also chosen Metropolis, but the commute from Blüdhaven was shorter.
She will be the first to admit that it wasn't ideal, but for her mental health it was great. And with complete honesty and sincerity she wouldn't change a thing.
You see one thing that apparently gets overlooked is that Nightwing is the resident vigilante of Blüdhaven. Even more is the fact that he happens to be her neighbor.
OK so maybe a little bit backtracking here. Marinette may have figured out that her next-door neighbor, Detective Richard Grayson, happens to moonlight as Nightwing at night.
So the building they had chosen for her was extremely safe, however they didn’t take an account Marinette's extremely packed and late work schedule. With how Marinette would still be awake in the early morning hours, and if she heard a thump of boots on the balcony next to hers regularly, she is going to look out the window eventually.
When she does, she sees Nightwing at her neighbor's apartment. Which could be one of two possible reasons why Nightwing could be there. One, his significant other lived in that apartment and he just came regularly. Or two, he lived there and assumed every sane person was asleep.
Her question was eventually answered one night when she was at the desk next to her balcony door, she heard boots like normal, but this time they were closer than normal, this time they were on her balcony.
The door moved, causing her to turn and focus on the door. That was when a male voice muttered, I thought I left it unlocked like always.
So most people would have quietly left, but she wasn't most she opened the blinds. She is pretty sure she had a stare down with him but its difficult to say because at the mask.
However after countless akuma attacks, you tend to figure out who the target is, which is what she did. Same height, same rough build, same hit and skin tone, combined with her ability to recognize figures for fashion, that gives you Richard Grayson. Without breaking eye contact she got up, stepped to the door, opened it and pulled him in, shutting it and the blinds, turning to face him. Then is when she noticed the blood near his hair line and down his neck.
“There better be an extremely good reason why this happened Mr. Grayson.” She looked innocently at him, “because I don’t know how to explain.” She gestured to him now seated at her desk. She pulled out her first aid kit and started checking him.
“How did you find out?”
“Night owl,” she shrugged. “I hear you come in every night and well um, well...”
“Curiosity got the best of you.” She nodded.
Of course this was when her phone would go off, she grabbed it, opened it, and groaned, because of course she was being called a Paris in the middle of the night, morning over there.
“You know what you're still alive, just a superficial head injury, but I have to go.” She said moving towards her bedroom when Mr. Grayson finally reacted.
“I’m supposed to… you said you were 14 right?” She nodded. “I’m supposed to let a 14 year-old leave in the middle of the night?”
“I am, I can explain in the morning.” She tried to justify, but he wouldn't let go of her wrist. So in a leap of faith, she gave him a quick rundown of the Paris situation and why she had to leave. If after this Blüdhaven had another vigilante well no one else knew why, Trixx loved it though. And she had someone who not only knew who she was but knew how to help and train her. Even if he acted more like a brother to her.
After all the eyes are the windows to the soul, and as a true guardian and a pure soul of creation, she knows that she can trust Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson’s.
- - -
It’s almost humorous that the next pair of eyes she would this come to trust were a blue so electric that they seemed to hold Lightning itself. Those eyes belong to one Jonathan Samuel Kent.
She had actually met John while in class at Gotham Academy, but nothing much more than their initial meeting and a good morning in the halls. This was pretty much because he seemed to stick with Damian Wayne, the ice Prince of Gotham. And green eyes always hurt her in the past, so she mostly stayed away from them.
However the fates had another plan for them. A group project, yay was sarcastically running through her head because of course, the two people she was partnered with happened to be two pairs of eyes that made an impression on her originally.
“So, should we go to your place, or should we go to the library, oh maybe we should go to Damien’s, or maybe mine to work on this.” Jon rapid fired at her and Damian, as they well she moved in order to talk about the project.
“I um... I’m not exactly...” she couldn’t even finish the sentence before Damian butt in.
“Tt figure this out and inform me later.” With that he go up and walked away. And go figure her assumption that everyone with green eyes were complete and total dicks is just reinforced. Because if you’ve never had a good experience with anything or anyone who shares the same traits why would it be any different now.
“Maybe we should just meet at the café or at the library just get this over with.” She got up with the bell, turned on her heel, leaving Jon sitting at the desk she just vacated.
She heard of a soft, “oh ok” as she walked away.
But of course nothing ever was easy in her life. Because the next thing she knows she hears foot falls behind her, they were actually picking up speed, and then stomps as if they were trying to stop right behind her. That was when I hand wrapped itself around her wrist making her spin and face the person who grabbed her.
In that moment she didn’t think, she reacted, she reacted like every other time one of her classmates decided to hurt her. It was a motion that came as naturally as breathing while in her civilian form, so much so that she would bet her heartbeat wouldn’t have changed. She dropped the books and book bag from her arms and shoulder lifting her arms defensively to protect her head and she pushed her shoulders forward , defend her head, in an attempt to stop a blow. But the swing never came, no weight, no pressure, no kick, no pain, just silence.
She tentatively opened her previously shut eyes eyes and looked forward, towards where the hand had originally pulled her, to the person who pulled her, she saw Jon, shocked at her reaction and then that turned to fear almost, it seemed to her, as if he was wondering if he did something wrong, if he hurt her, quickly she tugged her arm away from him and dropped to the ground and tried to pick up her items. However what shocked her was that he also dropped down and tried to help her pick up her things.
She looked up as he handed her a stack, “I forgot to ask you for your number so we can do a group chat. Are you OK?”
“Oh yeah yeah I’m fine.” She pulled a pen quickly from her bag and a sticky note, she usually uses to annotate her sketches and class notes come on, “here.” She handed him the piece of paper, Marinette got up and started to walk away again, as to not miss her next class.
By the end of the day, she found out that Jon can can text her head off. She always tries to respond to text quickly but this boy spammed the chat trying to get to know her better. If she was Damian, and she figured he did, she would’ve silenced the conversation, but it would be rude of her not answer.
Eventually they did figure out a an arrangement, Damian was going to go meet a brother after school so he wouldn’t be available meaning that she and Jon would start the project. So they decided to open a chat just between the two of them and figured it out from there.
Seeing as both of them lived outside of Gotham they decided it would be a little bit safer to meet at Marinette’s and John would leave from her apartment. And that is what they did, together the two of them left Gotham Academy after school, took the train to Blüdhaven and got into study mode. They worked in relative peace, researching and writing down ideas until there was a knock on the door. Marinette made her way up to the door, looked through and there stood Dick. So she opened the door, yet what got her attention was not just her pseudo Brother but the person who is with him. This person just happened to be the missing member of their project group, Damian.
“Hey Mari, I thought I would introduce you to my baby brother!” He beamed then noticing the other person in the room. “Hey Jon.” He greater and then took a double take “Jon!!!”
“Hey Dick, Damian.” He smiled.
“Tt. Anyone care to explain this.” Damian glared between her and his brother.
“Wow something the boy wonder doesn’t know.” She muttered under her breath, apparently it wasn’t quite quiet enough as some reacted.
“She knows?!?” Jon directed towards Dick and Damian.
“Know what?” She bit the bullet.
“Boy Wonder!?!” He seemed to shout just loud enough to get their attention. This did cause a reaction, Dick almost looked proud but Damian seemed ready to attack her.
“Okay I knew you were clever but seriously?!”
“Not the time Dick!” She moved so the kitchen island was between her and Damian. That was when something clicked Boy Wonder, Robin, Damian is Robin. Dick is Nightwing, both work with Batman. Jon heard her the others didn’t, Robin is close with… oh sweet honey iced tea. “ Dick please please tell me that I’m wrong!”
“I’m going with no your right.” Thump went her head as it fell onto the counter unrestrained.
“Why can’t my life be normal?” She asked no one in particular.
“You are a magical girl who can use the power of mini sized gods who you also protect.” Dick supplied ever so helpfully.
“Not helping!” She glared at him.
“Your life wasn’t normal long before we met.”
“Still.” She grumbled. Damian and Jon were now watching her and Dick interact as if trying to figure something out. Ping. Her phone went off. “Oh come on.” She fell back on the counter.
“Who is it this time?” Dick asked.
She tossed the phone to him. “I hate elementals.” A livestream of Stormy Weather ravaged the city of Paris.
“Cookies?”
“Cookies, I’ll be back.” He tossed her a box from her pantry. Special macaroons for the kwamii.
“Wait! Let me come with you.”
“And how many times have I told you that would be a bad idea.”
“But…”
“No, don’t make me call Honey Bee to venom you again.”
He slowly backed up and sat on the couch dragging Damian with him. “I’ll um… I’ll hold down the fort. Don’t call Goldie.”
“I won’t.” She turned to go to her room. “Oh there is fresh cookies in the jar.”
She silently transformed and portaled away. Luckily her team was already there and they made quick work of the Akuma. Meaning she was back near instantly.
“That was quick.”
“Viperion was there.”
“How many times?”
“Dunno.”
“Liar.”
“Am not.”
“You are.” Jon interjected into their bickering.
“Who’s side are you on anyways?” She asked out.
“I have no idea.”
“Great we broke Superboy.” She plopped down on the couch next to a stunned Jon. “If only… Fluff.”she smiled, and knowing that smile Dick panicked. “Fluff. Hey Fluff.”
“Oh no time travel is what got you into this time travel will not get you out.” Dick jumped landing on her keeping her seated.
“What it’s going fine?!“ Jon screamed at them, looking pretty close to a mental break down, she should know.
“You didn’t explain anything did you.” She looked on up from her position under a pile of a Dick and pillows.
“I was meaning to come up with the cookies were good and kind of had my mouthful.”
“OK great so here’s the rundown. Hello my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I was chosen at the age of 13 to wield the Miraculous of the Ladybug which grants me the power of creation and healing. I moved Blüdhaven and enrolled into Gotham Academy because of my utterly deteriorating mental health as a result of bullying in my previous school. Not to mention the magical terrorist who prays on sad or negative emotions, who happens to be using the Miraculous Butterfly or the miraculous of transmission. My partner uses the miraculous of the black cat which grants them the power of destruction, but he’s a total and complete asshole, but that’s not surprising. I was then given full guardianship of every single miraculous in the Chinese zodiac box, the most powerful of all of them the tender age of 14. I figured out that Dick was Nightwing about a month after I moved in and afterwards I have been going out into with him as he’s in as the vigilante Vulpes. And I literally just figured out you are Robin,” she pointed at Damian. “And you are Super Boy,” she pointed at Jon, “because of you’re a little outburst. I would not have figured it out otherwise! And I’m totally not I am going crazy because now there is a total of three people who know my identity in another country, no less, and I’m sure I can figure out the rest of the Bat family from here but I so I don’t want to.“ She was able to breathe now, after having explained this in just under a minute.
She looked between both Damian and Jon noticed they both looked as if she was either crazy or that certainly made a lot of sense, or a mixture of both she really can’t tell.
“You were bullied.“ Jon seemed to only take away. “That actually explains earlier.” He said just load enough for her to hear, as they were still next to each other.
“I’m not going over this again.“ She huffed, causing Dick to roll off of her laughing onto the ground and she followed suit. “You know there’s a reason I’ve always trusted blue eyes.” That was the beginning of and inseparable friendship between her and Damian, and something more between her and Jon.
None of them quite knew that at the time.
Next
~~~~~~~~~~
Permanent Taglist: @itsmeevie01 @adrestar @miraculouspenta @vixen-uchiha @animegirlweeb @jumpingjoy82 @thedragonbug@astoriaandroses @icerosecrystal @t1dwarrior-of-earth @moon5606 @zalladane
Taglist: @miraculousfanfic127 @t1dwarrior-of-earth @bonusbuggy @ashbrea381writings
#maribat#dc x miraculous#dc x mlb#mlb x dc#miraculous x dc#mlb x mcu#mdcu marinette dupain cheng#mdcu dick grayson#mdcu jon kent#mdcu damian wayne#marijon#jonette#marinette x jon#marijon week 2021#marinette dupain cheng x jon kent
210 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
mechwolfebooks
Untitled
cotswoldcanalsrestoration-blog
Untitled
guttercleaningnewberryfl-blog
Gutter
Insurance
mayindianews
Untitled
poetryorchard
Poetry Orchard