Gotham Possesses

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

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

No romantic relationships

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

Word Count: 584

[Here's my table of contents]

Chapter 7 - Gotham Transcends

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

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

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

Batman sitting on the Batmobile: You need to watch your fighting stand Robin, when we get back–

Batman: You're not Robin.

Cosplayer very much terrified, who hadn't had the courage to tell who he was when a 6'0ft tall man dressed as a bat dragged him into the batmobile:

--

Tim in a Uber on his way to a comic con along with a bunch of other teenagers: I sense I made a mistake somehow.

Gothamites are just a different breed of people. They literally could not give a single f*ck about anything. There attitude is ‘eh, not impressed’ mixed with ‘been there don that’ and ‘try harder’.

It’s bad but no one knows how bad until they move there. I’m convinced everyone who lives in Crime Alley has had there parents/grandparents live there, while the less dangerous parts of Gotham see more new faces. They don’t stay long but they pop up.

Batman doesn’t let the Justice League to Gotham and I think that’s fair. They are all to bright and happy. Everyone is so angsty it’s amazing. He doesnt let them in for their own protection. Mostly since they all thinks he’s dramatic. But he knows that that relaxed manner is going to get them hurt.

The only vigilante that has zero haters (besides criminals) is Red Hood. Like, he control the most dangerous part of Gotham every night, walks kids/girls/teens/anyone-who-asks home, regularly buys food for the homeless, reads to kids at the library at night/near closing, stops robberies, sometimes teaches people self defense, and tries to be really quiet bc the walls are thin.

Either him or Signal bc he’s a daytime hero and everyone loves him. Nice, new, and will help out work the mundane stuff.

That being said, the rest are liked too but so have their haters. Despite this, there are websites and videos of them all doing cute and funny stuff or the gothamites doing nice stuff for them.

There is a video of someone giving Spoiler an umbrella, she returned it the next day. Someone managed to find everyone and give them their own hand sewn plushies, and their reaction.

Mostly starting with them on a rooftop of a building, a person calls out. “Yo! (Insert name)! Come here real quick!”

They go over and the person pulls out the plushie.

Batman: *stares for a moment* thank you. Did you make this? The workman ship is amazing.

Nightwing: awwwww! This is so nice, thank you!

Red hood: imma admit it, this is the greatest moment of my entire life. Now, you are in a very bad part of Gotham and need to get to bed. I’ll walk you.

Red Robin: i adore this. I will keep it with me till I die.

Robin: *brain cannot compute* Umm…Thank you very much. Honestly, no idea what to say right now

Spoiler: AWWWW, my first fan anything! I love this! Do you have an Instagram or something? I have to follow you! Let me buy you food!

Black Bat: *squished it once, looks up, Higgs it to her, then motions to hug the creator, they hug*

Signal: ummm, thank you? ive never had to deal with this before. I love it so much! Thank you!

(Can’t believe o forgot Batgirl)

Batgirl: This is so sweet! Thank you! *gives the biggest hug known to man*

Video skit is by thepandaredd, I just added open captions

Lemme know if there’s anything I can fix up 👍

So you know there’s people who think Batman has Gotham completely fooled with his Bruce Wayne persona, and there’s people who think the people of Gotham can tell he’s Batman and he’s not fooling anyone in the slightest?

Well my headcanon is that Batman thinks he crafted this specific persona that’s fooled everyone, and it does keep people from guessing his secret identity, but,,, no one actually thinks of him as “party boy Bruce Wayne,” nah, his persona gets interpreted in a different light

See, everyone knows the heartbreaking story of this guy losing his parents young, but also, there’s a ton of people who know that his parents were involved in some shady stuff that Bruce is actively not a part of, a good majority of Gothamites probably work at some place he owns and will see him at some point taking an active interest in his company to make sure he’s not cutting corners and that no one who works under him is cutting corners, and he actually donates to a ton of good causes without it being some shady tax evasion thing

Combine that with the fact this dude keeps adopting children, his best friend became a villain, Jason died (he was such a sweet kid when he was Robin you cannot tell me he wasn’t a media darling), and the guy keeps pumping money into mental health services just for it to not do help much because the whole place is actually legit cursed

I think a majority of Gothamites see Bruce as someone who’s genuinely trying to be a good person, but he clearly keeps jumping from mania (“partying” visibly) to deep depression (hiding from the press to hide his obvious wounds from being Batman), and what’s he gonna do? Get help with his mental health in Gotham?? The guy obviously tried to make stuff better for Harvey, but Gotham is still the worst place for mental health services

That’s why I think his cover is never blown when it’s obvious he’s not actually partying or stuff, Gothamites try to return the good he’s put out by making sure he’s safe, like “distracting” him from hard drugs (they don’t know he actually has no intention of taking any), anyone finds out he’s not actually drinking alcohol? clearly another person switched his drink out so the poor guy doesn’t drink himself into a coma, he doesn’t actually have sex with any of the models he hangs around? everyone knows because everyone is already aware the models are mostly there to make sure he doesn’t put himself into a coma with all his partying and could never take advantage of the guy when he’s obviously not in his right mind

Just,,, Bruce Wayne still being seen by Gotham the same way he was when he was a sweet kid cause that can tell he’s a sweet adult

(Last one is just me laughing because it hurts)

The Amity Parkers, Part 2

So, let’s go over some recent events.

Several New Teachers have arrived at Gotham Academy, those teachers being Doctor Daniel “Danny” Fenton, Dash Baxter, Danielle “Dani” Masters, and the new therapist Paulina Sanchez. These teachers have done, many, things to the curriculum of the school, with some more notable changes being the following.

1: Creating and teaching the formula for toxins and gasses used by Gotham Rogues, naturally creating a new form of defense the students could safely practice.

2:Taught then everything they could possibly need to survive a natural or unnatural disaster, making a School Medic Team from a survivalist club they’d started some time at the end of the first semester of the year.

3: Ruined Lex Luther AND Superman at the same time for custody of Connor Kent Masters (Connor likes the Kents, despite his Originals treatment of him). And now he was a student at the school, catching up in leaps and bounds to his fellow students while also constantly hanging out with Tim during rest periods.

4: Shown the entire County that they were lucky they’re Inspiration for teaching and Fentons parents hadn’t been the ones to take the reigns, because they were worse by at least one league of magnitude.

5: Getting more classes added that were on paper optional but due to Gotham being, well, Gotham, most students took them, from the custom engineering class to basic understandings of magic, because apparently Gotham was littered with super haunted/magical points.

And finally

6: The creation of portals, though you have to pass several tests and qualify for a college degree in engineering at minimum with the approval of Doctor Fenton AND his parents before partaking in the class.

Has anyone else ever had Harley Quinn psychoanalyses them when she’s in the middle of being arrested??

Like she took one look at me and said “I’m licensed to diagnose autisim honey.” And then bam she was being driven back to Arkham.

Help??

I think it’s hilarious to think of Gothamites having normal jobs. I got to thinking about it after reading the series ‘a Pizza Girl’s Guide to Gotham’ on ao3 which is great btw. But other normal jobs like waitress, hairdresser, accountant.

The mortician who has to pretend to not see batman looking at a mysterious murder victim

The florist making the bouquet that some crime boss is gonna poison before giving to their enemy

A dog walker who has to walk random exotic pets

The bank teller who is just tired of robberies at this point they don’t even care any more

The late night diner waitress who is very concerned when a vigilante falls asleep in one of her booths

The therapist who has to go thru monthly classes on not falling in love with a villain because one person messed it up

Actually all phDs have anti villain training modules in Gotham

Librarians who get asked the most sus questions about obscure history or sciences

Babysitter who swear they babysat Robin at one point

DC canon isn’t real. At least, not to me. I just slowly go through the things I see from comics and shows and compile the parts I like like one those dragons under the blanket, snatching things and hoarding them.

Like, Duke? I know next to nothing about him. But you know what? In my version of the DC universe, the people of Gotham love him in a way they don’t love the Bats. He’s their friend. Sure, a meta friend but at this point who doesn’t have something funky they can do after years of chemical, biological and just plain old warfare on the streets of Gotham? Signal is the guy you flag down during the day when your store’s getting robbed or if you just wanted to talk to someone. He’s there, present in the daylight and real in the way the Bats aren’t. He doesn’t just fly above Gotham like Superman either. You’d catch Signal helping old ladies across the street and trading tips on knitting patterns and skills. You’d catch him hanging out with homeless teenagers and splitting a giant thing of pizza with them, except he takes a small slice and makes sure the rest of them gets enough to fill their stomachs for the day. Once, a criminal decided to jump Signal while he was helping out a lost kid and traffic just stopped cold because people slammed on their brakes to stop and jump out of the car in order to beat the guy up while Signal got the kid to safety. Then they watched as he turned around, used his powers to flashbang the guy, deck him, and then track down the kid’s parents.

Signal is their bestie. Signal is Gotham’s bestie.

Jason? What rubber bullets? No, no, no. He still uses live rounds. Sure, he doesn’t kill when he doesn’t have to, but Jason is very much capable of refraining from murder and also just putting lead between some asshole’s eyes. He doesn’t kill much anymore because he 1) needs the rep of mercy when warranted, 2) likes his family enough 3) is skilled enough not to need to kill and 4) has enough of a reputation where killing is no longer the first thing he has to do to be taken seriously. Also, he killed the Joker, if someone else didn’t do it first and he should be regarded as a, if not a hero, then someone who did something decent. He beat the shit out of Tim and traumatize the poor kid, and did that whole Under the Red Hood thing because he’s got issues with Bruce, but it never made sense to me that he was painted as a villain for it. Like… there’s a whole city that would be toasting Red Hood.

Anyways the world is your oyster and DC canon makes less sense to me than Marvel’s. So.

HC: Everyone in Gotham is obsessed with 23 and Me because they all want to be related to the Batfam.

The Bats bleed a lot at crime scenes, and Gotham cops hate them.

Police submit vigilante DNA to Ancestry and 23 to see if they get any leads to their identities.

It’s a bust on that front but the general public gets so excited at finding out whether they’re related to the Batclan. It becomes a conversation starter: “So which one are you? I’m Signal’s fifth cousin!” “No way! I’m Spoiler’s fifth!” “Let’s be friends!”

Everyone’s obsessed with getting a Nightwing hit; it’s like the Golden Ticket because no one in Gotham has matched with him yet.

It’s so normal for Gothamites to just casually chat about it and visitors from other cities are like “Uhhhhhhh why are you all obsessed with being related to each other???” and they make Gotham-is-inbred jokes because they don’t get that the Batfam isn’t ACTUALLY related (mostly).

There’s merch, mug, badges, hats, and t-shirts that say “I got this shirt from my cool auntie Batwoman, she’s tough and sassy and if you mess with me they’ll never find your body”.

Gotham loves its weird little superheroes.

Based on THIS post

Video skit is by thepandaredd, I just added open captions

If there’s anything I can fix up, lemme know

Concept: When Duke gets fear toxin'd, he acts like/is convinced he got a dose of Joker's laughing gas instead.