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stxleslyds · 3 years

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MY TOUGHTS ON PART ONE OF RED HOOD BY CHIP ZDARSKY :)

Finally I have read part one of the Red Hood story in Batman: Urban Legends!

This story is very interesting, we start with the Red Hood looking for the people who are providing Gotham with a new drug. This drug “Cheerdrops” has been passed around for weeks at this point and it has had devastating results among it's users. If you know Jason you understand that drugs are a big issue for him and one that he treats very carefully and seriously.

As he interrogates people he arrives to the building where one of the dealers of this drug is supposed to be, there he finds a horrific scene, a boy is desperately trying to wake up his mother who appears to have overdosed in her bed. Jason is quick to call an ambulance and get in contact with Oracle in order to find the boy's father who is (as he finds out later) the man that he was looking for.

Jason sees this scene and can't help but compare it to the time he went through this situation with his mom all those years ago, so he takes the boy with him so he can take him to his father, who Jason is hoping is a good man that had to sell drugs in order to help his family.

That's basically the premise of this first part of the story but now i will write about my thoughts on the specifics of the story.

The story begins with Jason giving a speech about fear and how it's used,

"Fear. Its a tool, it's his tool. I never really adopted it, maybe because he kept that fear all to himself." Then he continues with "Never had to rely on it, had to work harder to take out the bad guys, had to be...more direct." he finishes that thought with "Rubber Bullets. So that fear doesn't get turned around on me."

I for one really liked this Fear speech, it does really sum up what the Batman does, he relies on the Fear that he imposes on Gotham's criminals and such while Robin on the other hand was never meant to work with fear, which is true.

It did remind me of the speech that Alfred gave in issue #10 of Under the Red Hood about how Batman works with fear and Jason had some thoughts on it, here is some of it,

"Master Jason had a condescending practice of referring to the costumed criminals elements as 'dress ups'. He also noted that such individuals did not fear the Batman the way street thugs and mafioso did. The 'dress ups' did not believe he was a monster." "...the boy did say something to me that chilled me to the bone...even then. 'They all know he won't kill them.'"

Anyway let's go back to the actual comic I am talking about...

Jason speaks from his position as Red Hood in current time and says that he uses rubber bullets in order to keep the Bat at bay, the fear that the Bat uses against other criminals cannot be used against him if he plays within the Bat's rules.

As he was doing that he was actually trying to get info about who is making the drug but all he was able to get was who was selling it to the person he was interrogating. This drug is dangerous and Jason has to work fast.

Here is where we see the first flashback scene, we see Jason in the cave before he was able to go out as Robin and he is not to happy about it. The art is very beautiful but sadly in these panels i found my first problem with the context of Jason becoming Robin and how Zdarsky seems to set Jason's feelings on the first Robin.

It seems that Zdarsky is going for the “Jason believed Dick was the perfect Robin and no matter what he did he would never be as good as him” route, which fine ok, that's your right but, is it really necessary? I must admit i am a little tired of this particular thing because i adore the fact that when Dick and Jason first met they were fine with one another (even if a little wary at the very start). And the whole competitive and “i will never be as good as X person” is really tiring in the Robin/Batfamily fandom.

That problem is not as significant as the next one though.

Jason not thinking that Robin was “badass”. Well this is not only a bad take but it's completely OOC for Jason, no matter how you see it. From his first appearance as Robin to the flashbacks in Winick's UtRH and even through both of Lobdell's runs Jason has always loved the concept and the mantle of Robin as a child.

Batman v1, #385.

So that whole take is wrong, i don't like it and also who on this or any universe would rather call themselves Batboy? Honestly i hope this is never brought up again or i will cry. ((((Also in this house Robin will always be the name that Mary gave Dick and then he used as his hero name so it hurts a lot more))))

Also at the end of this first flashback Jason discovers a room full of firearms and is obviously surprised because Batman hates those so he asks why he has them, B responds that he has to understand how they work for his detective work, but that's not all he says, he also says this “...Guns are a coward's weapon, and we will not be cowards.”

Alright Mr. Zdarsky i see the irony... i also see the Daredevil / Punisher thingie right there.

Anyway we are now back to the present where we see Batman seeing the effects of the drug in one of its victims, after saving that person he takes some samples of the drug. We also get to see two police officers with different views on the “masks”, that's a nice way to set the story after the Joker War and before the Magistrate.

Back to Jason, he seems to be struggling, he can't find the people making/providing the drugs in Gotham and is also doubting his skills, he tells a man that if the information that he gave him is incorrect he “will find him” followed with another internal speech full of self doubt, “...sure thing Red Hood, right now you can't even find a street drug. Half of Gotham's teenagers could find it no problem. You never were the best detective.”

Alright, so Jason feels insecure about his skills now? First you have pre-Robin Jason not feeling like he could be able to keep up with the first Robin and now, Jason as a grown man has doubts about the skills that he has used for a long while now? I mean, press X for DOUBT because UtRH showed us how much of a badass and extremely skilled he is. This man planed everything in order to turn the Bat's world upside down (and this story has references to UtRH so it definitely happened) and now he feels like he is not that good?

Shit. i know where this is going, first the insecurities that he has already worked out... I can see it coming, the next big thing will be Daddy issues. Wonderful i hate it and i hope i am wrong because those “issues” are more than resolved, i know that's the only trope DC throws at Jason but honestly how different will it be this time?

Fine, lets move on. Jason finds himself in one of the apartments and what he sees is horrifying. Lying on a bed there is a woman completely catatonic with a horrible smile on her face and right next to her a terrified little boy.

Here is the best take on Jason's character so far.

Realizing that the child is scared of the situation and the masked man that just came into his home Jason takes off his mask and reassures the kid that he is there to help, it's quickly made obvious that the woman has overdosed on Cheerdrops, he makes sure to call an ambulance for her stating that she seems to be in a drug-related coma.

Its important to note that Jason is doing this as he is having troubling thoughts about how much this scene reminds him of the time he was in this little boy's (Tyler) shoes. Its hard for him but he soon realizes that he needs to make sure Tyler is safe.

He asks Tyler if he has another parent, he does and his name is Andy, after taking a look around the house Jason deduces that maybe the father is also taking drugs so if the police comes they will surely take Tyler and put him in the system, this idea is not one Jason is fond of so he calls Oracle, he asks if she can locate Tyler's dad's phone, when she asks about the kid Jason says that he will be the one keeping him safe.

Now we find ourselves back with Batman where he is investigating the components of Cheerdrops, he finds out that the drug is a modified version of Scarecrow's fear gas that gives the victim a sense of extreme happiness instead of fear.

Here we get confirmation of when in the timeline this story occurs, which is after the events of Infinite Frontier (where there was an attack on Arkham and many patients/prisoners were killed or escaped).

B suggests to Oracle that maybe Crane didn't die there and that he might be behind this drug, he will be on the job right away! To this Oracle is like well shit, so she tells B that Jason is also working this case...and here comes a funny yet confusing interaction.

Barbara says “I know you two aren't exactly friends right now but...” before she finishes Batman interrupts her by saying “He is a killer Barbara. I will do this alone.”

OH BOY is this interaction confusing! First of all may i point out how different this conversation is from the one in Three Jokers where the roles were basically reversed??? Please tell me that i am not the only one who finds that funny! Anyway that story doesn't matter here, but Red Hood Outlaw from Rebirth does, right?

Here is the thing, the last person that Jason “killed” in rebirth was Penguin and he actually didn't do it, he had him trapped in a panic room in his own Casino. Batman already beat the living shit out of Jason in RHatO #25 for it...and some time has passed, B surely found out that Jason didn't kill Penguin by now, i mean isn't he like the best detective to ever detective in the history of the universe??

Not only that but Jason has been using rubber bullets for a while and even at the start he mentions that, he basically implies that he is playing by the Bat's rules to keep him off his back. Maybe B hasn't let go of the duffel bag full of heads or any of the shitty people Jason killed during UtRH??? If B still holds that against Jason then why would he try to make Jason part of his Bat clan at the beginning of RHatO Rebirth?

Maybe he still thinks that Jason killed the penguin...but even then isn't B working with Harley and Ghost-Maker? You know, people who have killed? Why is Jason different? Did Jason kill someone recently that we don't know about? Jason only kills a very distinct set of people (that are very not nice) so i guess i don't see the logic...

Anyway second flashback, and this time we have a look at what was going on in the Batcave with B and Alfred during the events of UtRH! Nothing that wasn't explored in UtRH is said here but we do see Alfred explicitly telling Bruce how much they failed Jason. There is a heavy insinuation that the fact that Batman keeps sending the Joker to Arkham only for him to escape and kill more people actually makes B responsible for those deaths and i love that. Thank you.

Back to Jason and Tyler we get to see some very adorable scenes between the two. Jason gives the lower half of his mask to Tyler to protect his identity like a superhero and we have a really sweet moment in which Tyler chooses the Blue Hood as his name because he likes the colour blue (same Tyler).

After he leaves Tyler in a place where he will be safe he goes to the building where Andy should be and let me tell you the more Jason sees the less hopeful he becomes about Andy being just one of the people selling the drug... He does some shooting and incapacitating and then follows the man that is trying to escape and here is when shit hits the fan.

Andy is a disgusting human being. He hates Tyler's mother and doesn't care that she might be dead and the piece of shit hates his son so much that he gave a barely 10 year old drugs.

Yeah. BANG BANG BANG MOTHERFUKER.

If you think that this leads to Jason being a little more like his UtRH self, you know the guy that said that people who gave drugs to kids will get killed without a thought...yeah that's not happening, here comes the guilt!

I get it he just killed a man, but, did you read what that man said?

Anyway that's how the first part of this story ends.

The story is good. it has things that don't make much sense but i think it's because Zdarsky is a Batman fan and not a Red Hood fan in the sense that he doesnt know much about Jason's character and that this is his first ever DC work.

I cant wait to see where this story goes, while i hope “unresolved daddy issues” doesn't become a theme yet again in a Red Hood story i believe it's where we are headed. I will keep on reading because i am invested in Jason and Tyler's relationship and what is going to happen now that Jason killed Andy.

Let me know what you thought about the issue and my post if you want! Bye!

#jason todd #red hood #red hood outlaw #batman urban legends #robin #batman and robin

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incorrectbatclan · 4 years

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Hiiiiii I'm new!!!!! Could you please explain who's who? Who's in the Bat Family, and their backstories please?! ❤️❤️

For this I’ve only done Bruce’s actual like genuinely adopted family (and Alfred) because it was getting really long!! Let me know If you want to hear about the rest and I’ll either make another post or reblog this one and add onto it. I tried my best lol!!

Alfred Pennyworth - Bruce’s batler and kind-of-dad rolled into one, tired, old man who just wants his family to be safe. The best baker, cook and costume creator of the group, absolutely no one can touch him or I Will Cry. Used to be in Her Majesty’s Secret Service before moving to America, so he can kick some ass - I’ve heard different code names for him, the most popular being Agent A or Penny-One, both very good at keeping secret identities secret. 👨‍🦳 /10

Bruce Wayne - This one should be obvs, he’s Batsy. Son of Martha and Thomas Wayne, he was orphaned when they were shot in an alley on their way home one night. He’s also a multi-billionaire due to his company Wayne industries, which you never hear anything about bc all he does is run around dressed in his fursona costume and punch people. Emotionally constipated, but he does love his kids a lot, even if he doesn’t show it. He’s 80 years old this year (2019), what an old man. Get some therapy. Around 40-45? 🦇/10

Dick Grayson - The original Boy Wonder/Robin. An absolutely feral child, and a slightly calmer adult. Was probably responsible for Batcomputer, Batmobile, Batarang, and many others due to his Holy Puns Batman! Born and raised in a circus as a trapeze artist/acrobat until his parents fell and died at any age between 8-12; it changes regularly. After this, he was taken in by Bruce and destroyed every chandelier he had by swinging off of it. When he’d outgrown Robin, he became Nightwing, a name he got from the Kryptonian legend and moved to Bludhaven (Gotham’s little sister city). He’s known as the funny one in the family, but in any other group, he’s the serious one so take that as u will lol. He’s the Robin you’ll see in pretty much any show about DC that has sidekicks in. Has a temper, don’t let fanon fool u. Was also Batman when Bruce died for a little bit before he was found again. Also “””””died”””””” for a bit, worked as a secret agent, back now. Absolutely amazing appalling sense in fashion. Around 24-27? 🕺/10

Cassandra Cain- Daughter of two of the best assassins in the world, and was raised to be a human weapon until she ran after her first assassination at age 8 and lived on the streets until 17 where she became one of Oracle’s agents, and later Bruce took her in and adopted her too. Due to her father’s training, she’s unable to speak with words well, and instead can read peoples body language and movement, often uses sign language to speak instead if the writer’s not a coward. She’s highly skilled in many different ways and is also my fucking child, I love her a lot. She went by Batgirl for a bit, before going by the code name Black Bat. Sometimes Orphan is used but I’m not sure why or in what comics. The cool one. She’s around Jason’s age, maybe younger, probably older. 🥰/10

Jason Todd - The second Robin, now Red Hood. Died angry, came back wrathful. Jason was living in Crime Alley, one of the dingiest places in Gotham, which is where he saw the Batmobile one day, and just decided to rob the wheels. Right there and then. Not only that but when Bruce caught him doing it, he started smacking him with a tire iron. He’s the passionate one, to say the least. Anyway, Bruce saw this kid robbing him and he was like ‘I have to have him’. So he did. For about 3 years maybe, then he died. Bc, he ran off, and the Joker killed him in a warehouse oop-. Anyway, he came back maybe a few years later to find another Robin in his place, and the clown who killed him still kicking, so he went on a murderous rampage, taking the mantle of Red Hood until he calmed down a bit. Now he’s like that angry brother u only see on holidays because Alfred makes him. Under all that anger he’s a sweetheart though, and I’m pretty sure he loves Classical Lit. Sometimes runs around with a group called the Outlaws, members changing regularly, but you have to be a redhead. Bizarro is the exception bc u can’t say no to him. Around 21? 😠/10

Tim Drake- Tim was the son of Bruce’s next-door neighbours, Jake and Janet Drake, often depicted as assholes, bc they literally just leave their kid to go do whatever they want ig????? Anyway, Timmy was like super smart, and when he was young, managed to figure out who Batman and Robin were bc he stalked them and took pictures of them every night. Sneaky. Then Jason died, Bats was like all sad and shit and wasn’t coping well so Tim just knocked on his door and was like ‘Yeah okay make me Robin’, and after maybe the 10th attempt, Bruce did. Anyway, his parents died somehow (the ‘how’ varies) and Bruce was like, yeah okay I’ll have another one. Tim’s a master hacker and he’s all-around baby, mainly bc he doesn’t fucking sleep. Was Dick’s first Robin when he was Batman, before Damian came along and got Robin instead, so he named himself Red Robin because he’s creative and petty like that. Not that I wouldn’t be tbf. Went off to find Bruce when he “died” bc he didn’t believe he was dead, and he wasn’t so like? Anyway, he changed his name to Drake recently, which is stupid so just ignore that. Needs to stop drinking coffee. Around 17? 🐉/10

Damian Wayne-Such a precious little shit. Blood son of Bruce Wayne and the assassin, Talia Ah Ghul, daughter of one of Bruce’s frenemies. He was trained all the way through his childhood to be the perfect sidekick for Bruce, so some of the things he was taught fucked him up a wee bit, but he’s slowly learning that not everything has to be difficult and he is allowed to have fun sometimes. In his eyes for a while, he was Bruce’s only son, because he was the only blood related one. Soon got told to shut up and shown that that wasn’t true. Now secretly loves his family but would die before admitting it. A baby. Became Dick’s Robin after Tim and they ended up being really close and I love them a lot. Absolutely adores animals, and adopts every animal he sees. Just like his father does with kids. Around 13. 🐈/10

The others are Kate Kane, Duke Thomas, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon and Selina Kyle. A villains list would be quite fun actually too!

Second Post! - Rest of the vigilantes

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psychovigilantewrites · 5 years

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Chapter 10 - Crunch

Pairing: Jason Todd/Reader

Genre: Smut/Action

Word Count: 4, 926 ( i know, shorter than my usual chapters, but this has a lot of plot progression i promise)

Masterlist

Ao3

TW: violence

“What the- what the actual-”

Dick’s voice almost scared you, breaking your concentration. You jolted up, your eyes immediately meeting his blue ones.

“Dick!” you exclaimed, rising up from your study table, “Didn’t Alfred ever teach you to knock?”

You crossed the floor from your desk to him, standing at your opened door. You threw yourself into his warm arms, feeling him squeeze you tightly.

“Alfred also taught me how to pick locks,” he chuckled, giving you a peck on the top of your head.

“What are you doing here?” you took a step back and crossed your arms.

“Nevermind that- what are you doing with all this?” he gestured to your floor.

Papers were strewn all over your room. From case files to articles to your notes. Dick bent down and opened a beige file.

“Wait- this is the series of Pyg’s murders in ‘07!” he gasped. He threw the file back on the floor only to pick up another. “And this is the murder of Sarah Gordon, when Joker kidnapped all those babies. Just what have you been doing?”

“Research,” you shrugged, “I’m sure you’re familiar.”

“That file on Pyg not only had the autopsy report, but also the pictures,” he pointed out.

“So?”

“So?” his eyes widen, “So, why are you obsessing over violent crimes?”

“A lunatic just kidnapped me a couple weeks ago, Dick, maybe this is my coping mechanism,” you defended yourself.

Dick pursed his lips, his expression changing.

“I don’t want your pity, Dick,” you told him, “I’m fine.”

“I know you are,” he smiled sadly, “Which is why I don’t think this is your coping mechanism.”

He walked to your bed and sat down, his handsome face catching the light of the setting sun outside your window, casting a shadow that made his usually bright and charming look turn into a more mysterious and dark character.

You smirked and joined him on the bed, sitting next to him.

You never could lie to him. Which was why this time it was going to be hard.

“Red Hood, he’s…” you struggled to put together the words, “Confusing.”

“Confusing?”

“Yeah,” you sighed, collapsing onto the bed on your back, “He’s got something against Bruce. Or Batman. Either one of them, he knows our identities, Dick.”

“It’s normal to be scared, or worried,” he offered you, “Knowing our identities make us vulnerable to him at all times, not only when we’re in uniform.”

“It does scare me a little,” you admitted, staring at the ceiling that both Alfred and Dick helped you repaint, “But mostly, I’m just frustrated. Why did he kidnap me if he was just going to toy with me and then let me go? Everything is just so unclear, and Bruce isn’t telling me the whole truth. That’s why I’m trying to figure it all out myself. I need to understand him- and in order to do that, I need to understand people like him.”

“Hence the..” Dick waved at your mess.

It wasn't a lie, but a half truth. That's what made it possible for you to deceive Dick or Bruce. You learned that by trial and error.

You did start to research to understand people like Red Hood better, but after a while, you suddenly became fascinated. The detail these people put into their torture, their time and effort. You were amazed at how passionate they were. Long gone was the girl who couldn't sleep because she saw decapitated heads on spikes.

But Dick didn't need to know that.

“Yeah,” you nodded at your ceiling. “Wait a minute.”

You shot up.

“Do you know who Red Hood is? Did Bruce tell you?” you interrogated Dick.

“He won’t tell me either,” Dick huffed, “It’s always been like that with him. No matter how hard I try to get closer to him, sometimes it feels like he’s getting further away.”

“I can relate to that,” you rolled your eyes.

“But I have a feeling that he will tell you eventually,” Dick put an arm around you, “It seems too important not to.”

You let out a snort. If it was important, he should have told you right after you got kidnapped.

“And,” Dick continued, suddenly giving you a noogie, causing you to squeal and push him away, “I heard from Alfred that you’re not talking to Bruce. May I ask why?”

“So that’s why you’re here,” you narrowed your eyes at him.

“I came to check up on you,” he told you sternly, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come here right after, but my little sister did just get kidnapped.”

“I told you, I’m fine,” you whined.

“Then you’re fine enough to tell me why you haven’t been talking to Bruce,” Dick probed, “I won’t judge. I’ve had my fair share of cold shoulders and fights with him too. I know first hand how frustrating he can be. So come on, tell.”

You let out a long and tired sigh.

“We fought,” you started, “It was when I got back from the hospital. He wouldn’t tell me who Red Hood was. And he- he called me ‘Jason’.”

You saw Dick close his eyes and squeezed his temples.

“Jesus,” he whispered, “What did he say exactly?”

“‘Back down, Jason’,” you repeated Bruce’s words solemnly.

“Now that’s something I haven’t heard in years,” Dick chuckled humorlessly.

You couldn’t stand to see the expression Dick had then, because he looked as if he was remembering a fond memory, reminiscing to a time when you weren’t around. His eyes suddenly aged, as if the sadness affected him physically.

You turned away, biting your lip. You tried hard to reel in the tears of jealousy and exclusion that burned your eyes. You focused your gaze to outside your window. It was around midday on a Saturday.

“Has Bruce made any attempts to reconcile?” Dick asked.

You took a deep breath before you answered, making sure your voice wouldn’t break.

“Yeah, but I’m still mad at him,” you pouted.

“And you have every right to be,” Dick acknowledged, “But Bruce, well, you know Bruce. He keeps these things to himself, but obviously he’s still hurting.”

You felt a wave of guilt crash over you.

He lost his son, and there you were being selfishly stubborn.

You didn’t reply, and suddenly an awkward silence filled the room.

“I’m seeing someone,” you changed the subject.

“You are?” you saw Dick’s eyebrows rise so high, they almost disappeared into his dark wavy hair.

“Yeah,” you blushed, “It’s still very new, and we’re not official yet or anything. But we’re definitely testing the waters.”

“That’s great,” Dick smiled widely at you, “Who is he? Tell me the deets. Spill the tea.”

You giggled at Dick’s ironic use of slang.

“I met him in the library a while back,” you spilled, “We exchanged numbers. Started texting, meeting up from time to time. He’s really cute.”

“I bet he is,” Dick wiggled his eyebrows.

“What’s with that face?” you laughed, “He is! He’s slightly older, and he’s got this sexy bad boy look, you know?”

“I thought you liked the nerdy types?” Dick responded.

“I never had a type, you ass!” you tried to poke him in the ribs, which he avoided skillfully.

“You’re right. I thought you were completely uninterested in boys,” he wondered out loud, “Is he nice, at least?”

“Yeah he is,” you smiled to yourself, “He didn’t know I was Wayne until 2 weeks ago. Before that, we were mainly texting. Now we’re meeting up more. I feel like I can be myself with him. I don’t know, there’s just something about him that makes me trust him.”

You noticed Dick frown at that.

“I’m not going to tell him anything!” you quickly added, “I’m not stupid. I know I shouldn’t trust someone I just met. It’s not about the confidential stuff. It’s the little things like how I feel, and my problems, and just- stuff, you know?”

“I get it,” Dick nodded understandingly, “You don’t know what it is about the person, but you feel like the two of you just click, am I right?”

“Exactly,” you smiled, “Been with anyone like that before?”

“One or two,” he shrugged, “People like that- whom you just click with- they’re hard to come by. You should see where this leads. Who knows, maybe he’s one of those that would stick around, huh?”

“The only problem is this big fat secret,” you complained, “It gets tiring sometimes. Lying, that is. About the injuries, about activities. I mean, how do you start a relationship based on lies?”

“That’s why you have to make sure they’re worth the effort,” he said simply, “You’re a smart girl, and way mature beyond your age. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks, Dick,” you gave him a side hug.

“Since you haven’t been talking to Bruce for the last two weeks, does this mean you haven’t been on patrol?”

“Of course I have!” you clarified, “I go out with him, and interact when I have to. But I keep my words concise and I don’t ask questions.”

“Sounds all too familiar,” he chuckled.

“How long are you staying?” you looked at him with hopeful eyes. You loved it when Dick was around. He was the affectionate older brother you never knew you wanted, who spoiled you with snacks and dessert.

“I was just dropping by,” he gave an apologetic look, “I’m a liaison for Bludhaven PD, with Gotham City PD, since they know Bruce is on good terms with Gordon.”

“On a Saturday? Which case is it?”

“That arson case,” he explained, “The third that got away, he was causing problems up in Bludhaven a few months prior to that. Gordon asked for some files, and… A detective who’s familiar with the case.”

“You made detective?!” you squealed, “Congratulations! Not many people make detective in their middle-almost-late twenties.”

You tackled him into a bear hug.

“Thanks,” he laughed out loud, “Apparently this guy, Jerome Miller, he's always hired to do stuff like that.”

Jerome Miller. The one that got away. You clenched your jaw at the mention of his name, willing your blood to not boil.

“Burn buildings?” you scoffed, hiding your true feelings from your older brother, “Why would people hire other people to burn buildings?”

“Buildings like the library, you know how their fire system works. It's like the bank. Once a fire starts, the system suck up all the oxygen,” he explained, “It's not easy to burn down buildings like those. So people hire professionals.”

“You're saying someone else hired him to burn the library down?” you frowned, “But why?”

“That's what GCPD is trying to figure out. Could be one of those location disputes. Higher ups are probably involved. It wouldn't be the first time in this goddamn city,” he shrugged.

You remained silent.

Of course, politics. Corruption had this bad habit of snaking into people's lives and ruining things.

“Promise you I’ll catch the guy, okay?” Dick offered, “I know how much that library meant to you.”

“Thanks, Dick,” you gave him a small smile, his promise comforting you. Your bond with your older brother could never be explained with just words. He gave you a sense of protection that went just beyond the physical sense that you felt with Bruce. With Bruce, you knew you could rely on him. But Dick was the one you told your secrets to. And he could make you feel better with just a simple promise such as the one he gave.

“No problem, kid,” he grinned, “I should get going, though. Gordon said he’d be free after lunch.”

“I’ll walk you out,” you hopped off the bed.

*** “Uh, Bruce?” you awkwardly stood behind him as he was sitting down in front of the Batcomputer- all geared up as Robin.

He spun around, looking at you questioningly. He was geared up as well, besides the cowl. You could see the dark circles under his eyes, the crows feet that were starting to be visible. He looked tired.

“Alfred told me you hadn’t eaten much all day, so, uh, I made you something light to have before we head out later,” you hesitantly set down a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the desk.

You almost missed the way the corners of his mouth turned upwards.

After talking to Dick earlier that day, you felt guilty for continuously being mad at Bruce. This was your way of reconciling to him.

“Thank you,” he nodded, reaching for one.

“So,” you cleared your throat, “What are we up to tonight?”

“Patrol as usual,” he elaborated, “Red Hood has been busy. With Black Mask gone, he’s technically the only one in power as of now. Even Penguin has been laying low because of him. GCPD reports a fifteen percent surge in weapons and drug trafficking along with gang related crime the past three months, but strangely a thirty-two percent drop in petty crime, murder, sexual assault.”

“Thirty-two percent is a lot,” you frowned.

“Indeed,” Bruce agreed, “In fact, it’s the lowest since Batman first appeared.”

“Which is a very long time ago,” you nodded.

“Even the Ibenescus’ have been keeping it down. Though I have reason to believe that they still are not submitting to Red Hood,” he added.

“Why?”

“The Ibenescus’ built an empire through human trafficking, and they date back all the way to the eighteenth century. The Moehler family does not nearly come as close to a crime legacy the way the Ibenescus do. The Ibenescus’ have more pride to lose more than anything. They wouldn’t surrender so easily and completely stop all their operations,” he summarised.

“I see,” you absorbed everything, “Okay, well. Patrol it is.”

You honestly expected a quiet, boring night. The past few weeks had just been stopping drug exchanges, interrogating drug dealers, and one or two car chases involving a vehicle suspected to contain smuggled weapons.

But that night, the GCPD comms were active.

Thanks to Dick’s information on his habits, GCPD had been patrolling specific locations where Jerome Miller would most likely loiter in, and at 11pm that night, a cruiser identified him buying a couple of Slim Jims in a 7-Eleven at Upper East Side on Verne Avenue, and tried to arrest him. He made a run for it, and now there were three police cars circling the area. Wherever Miller was, he was trapped.

Both you and Batman were now patrolling the area, in hopes of finding him. Batman interacted with you as usual, and you tried to do the same.

But at the mention of Jerome Miller, you felt your heart beat louder in your chest. You were extra vigilant that night, your senses somehow even more heightened as you strained your night-vision to look at every little crook and cranny in every little smelly alley that he could be hiding. You went as far to check inside dumpsters.

And at a quarter past midnight, you finally laid your eyes on him from the edge of a roof.

He was a sweaty, panting mess. His straw hair stuck to his forehead, his eyes wild with panic and he jumped at every small sound. He was hiding in a cardboard box, covered partially with a dirty towel. It probably belonged to one of the homeless, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Batman,” you communicated through your earpiece, “I’ve got eyes on him. Between ten and twelfth Verne Avenue. I’m going to incapacitate him.”

“Wait for me,” Batman ordered.

You wanted to argue back so bad, but you didn’t want to mess up your relationship with him again, especially since you were on good terms.

“Hurry then,” you said.

“I’ll be there in 1.”

You lurked on the rooftop, your eyes now entirely focused on him.

You revelled in the fact that he looked like he was about to shit his pants. He deserved it. For fucking with your library.

You swallowed. Your vision was tunneling. All you saw was him.

Your heartbeat was drumming in your ears.

He deserved it.

Fuck it, you thought. You grappled down and landed right in front of him.

He let out a small yelp, and his eyes immediately went wide when he saw who it was.

“I was paid, he made me do it,” he started pleading.

Funny how they all start to plead when they saw either you or Batman. Funny how they didn’t think of the repercussions before they did the crime.

You took a step closer.

“Please, don’t take me in,” he begged, “I have a family. They need me.”

The man’s words never registered to you. All you could hear were blubbering sobs. You bent down and gripped his shirt, forcing him up on his feet.

But before you could reel anything in, before you could even think- for the first time in your life, you acted first without thinking of the repercussions.

That was when the white hot rage blinded you.

You could taste the blood in your mouth as you threw him violently to the floor like a ragdoll with all your might, your blood boiling hot as you heard the sweet crunch of the man’s skull break as you landed blows after bloody blows to his face.

You took his head in both your hands, lifted it from the ground and then smashed it back into the the tar floor.

Your eyes couldn't focus on anything else. The world seemed to melt with around you into a blur. The only thing that existed was your revenge.

A pressure on your shoulder snapped you out of your trance. Suddenly you felt a lurch, and you were flung across the alley, your back hitting the metal dumpster with a loud bang. Your eyes focused again to see Batman hovering over the bloody mess of a man now a metre away from you.

The bloody mess you made.

You felt the bile rise in your throat. Your knuckles were aching, your head pounding. You now felt the effects of your assault on him as the adrenaline and rage wore off slowly.

And you were horrified.

You scrambled to your feet and started to walk towards the two of them.

“Stay. Back,” Batman growled at you.

You stopped right in your tracks. Batman was checking for a pulse.

The man's face was unrecognisable. You had disfigured him so much that he looked like a heap of meat and skin and blood.

“I- I- I didn't mean to,” you whispered, holding down the puke.

“Call an ambulance,” he ordered.

You froze on the spot, still looking at your victim. You saw his chest rise and fall, but somehow it was wrong. Only one chest was inflating. You heard his laboured, weak breathing. You saw his arms and legs twitching.

“NOW!”

His raised voice made you jump, and you immediately took out your phone and dialled 911. Once you ended the call, you took another step closer.

“Leave. I’ll deal with this,” his cold voice demanded.

“Batman,” you whispered again, trying as hard as you could to not break down.

“I said leave,” he snapped.

You ran out into the drizzling rain and rode your bike home without another word.

***

It was your third time showering that night.

You had scrubbed your skin so raw that it was red and felt tingly.

Especially your face. You couldn’t stand to look at yourself in the mirror. Because when you got back, you saw the blood splatters. On your mask, on your cheeks, across your nose, all from the man you beat half to death with your own fists.

You puked the minute you reached the toilet, hurling away the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you ate earlier.

But what you tasted on your tongue was the familiar metallic tang of iron, and bitter guilt.

You had completely disregarded everything the man had said to you, and you just attacked him. Why? Simply because you were angry.

Simply because you felt like it.

Simply because you could.

There’s no shame in spilling blood for the greater good , your mother’s voice popped in your head.

You hadn’t heard from her in a while, and her unwelcome presence shocked you.

You would have justified Red Hood’s actions with that logic, but even Red Hood’s cruelty were driven with a slightly righteous, albeit delusional, motivation.

But yours were purely personal rage.

That’s when you realised your actions were even worse than Red Hood’s.

You sobbed yourself to sleep that night, ignoring the countless knocks on your doors by both Alfred and Bruce, and the 32 missed calls from Dick.

***

“...last night, the vigilante Batman is now a suspect for violent assault against known arson Jerome Miller, who himself is a suspect for Gotham University Public Library’s unfortunate demise…”

Jason’s ear perked, and he stopped right in his tracks.

He ignored the scowl he got from the man behind him who almost walked into him and turned to the window display of televisions, all of different sizes, showing him a blonde woman at a desk, with blue background.

“...Jerome Miller was brought straight to the emergency department, and reports tell that he is currently in a comatose state. Has Gotham’s vigilante finally decided to show his true colors of violence? Or do you think that Jerome Miller had it coming? Stay tuned, on GNN.”

Jason frowned.

The Batman Jason knew wouldn’t have landed Jerome Miller in the hospital. Batman never cared for personal grudges. No, he was too disciplined to let his feelings get in the way of his work.

Jason knew that all too well.

He sensed that Batman was just covering for Robin, for you.

He smirked to himself, not caring if the people in the streets thought he was crazy. He looked up at the gloomy sky- despite it being noon- and thought about you.

You were probably getting in a whole lot of fucking trouble with Bruce right that instant. You must have lost control last night when you saw Miller, and boy did that make Jason’s day.

He was right about you after all. He knew you were hiding something dark inside you. He knew that you were almost just like him. All you needed was a little nudge in the right direction.

Were you crying all night? That was probably why you hadn’t replied to his text message yet.

His mind conjured the image of you from those weeks ago, crying at the park. Red eyes, red nose, sniffling away.

He frowned at the memory. He wanted to comfort you. Even now, his chest suddenly ached at the thought of you being in anguish and drowning in guilt.

What was fucking wrong with him?

He pushed away the fucked up mess he felt was brewing inside of him. He ignored how conflicted he felt.

He focused instead on his curiosity. You landed Jerome Miller in a coma. No doubt Miller would have been begging and sputtering about his wife and kid- yet you must have ignored everything. He needed to know what you did to him.

He stuffed his hands back in the front pockets of his hoodie, and then hunched over, looking down as he turned around and walked the opposite way of where he was going, and straight towards the hospital Miller was admitted in.

“I’m his nephew,” Jason told the two police officers stationed outside Miller’s room. He had peeked in. Miller’s face was covered in bandages. He had a ventilator attached, and one of his legs was in a cast, elevated.

“I don’t need to see him or anything, considering he’s, well, unconscious,” Jason scratched the back of his head innocently, “But Anna, my aunt- his wife, just wants to know his condition.”

“Then why don’t she come see him herself?” the shorter one huffed.

“A-are you kidding me?” Jason tried to look offended, “She has stage four cancer! She’s on chemo, she can’t move around much. Come on, officer. What does the medical report say? His family deserves to know.”

“How do I know you’re not just some reporter, huh?” the same man demanded.

“No offence, officer, but do I look like a reporter to you?” Jason smirked.

“Hey, Charles,” the other officer whispered to his partner, “I think he’s legit. BPD did mention about his wife in the case file.”

“Anyone could have gotten that information!” he argued back.

“Remember what that pretty boy detective said? Miller was very protective of his family. That kinda info don’t just get spread out like that.”

Officer Charles narrowed his eyes at Jason. And then- “Fine. You tell him, Graham, you’re better at the science stuff than I am.

Officer Graham looked at Jason apologetically. He was about ten years younger than his partner.

“The doctor said he’s got fractures on his cheekbone, his jaw is dislocated, missing teeth, nose is shattered, his orbital bone’s all messed up, one punctured lung, one broken tibia, and Grade 3 diffuse axonal injury- that’s what the doctor said,” Officer Graham’s lip tightened, “Doctor said his chances aren’t looking so good. I know he’s a criminal, but his family aren’t. I’m sorry.”

Wow, you really did a number on him.

“Thank you, officers,” Jason said with a long and sad sigh, “Aunt Anna- it’ll kill her. I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell her. They’ve obviously had disagreements, and she doesn’t support his actions, but she doesn’t have anyone else.”

“I’m truly sorry,” Graham offered again.

Jason nodded and turned to leave, secretly happy with his ability to act. He got so used to acting when he was with you, that it came naturally to him now.

But most of all, he left the hospital with an intense feeling of pride. Even if you were beating yourself up over it, it didn’t change how he felt.

He was just so fucking proud of you.

***

“You didn’t have to take the blame,” you croaked.

Your eyes were stinging, and your nose hurt every time you breathed. You were sitting down at the dining table, across from Bruce. You had expected him to yell at you like before, to do something when you came in and took your seat.

But he did something much worse.

He looked at you with pity and concern.

You looked at him through swollen eyelids.

“Why aren’t you yelling at me?” you whispered, “Aren’t you angry?”

“I’m furious,” he calmly stated.

“Then, why-” your voice cracked.

“Because it wouldn’t make a difference now,” he sighed.

“I’m a monster. I understand if you tell me to quit,” you said, “I can’t believe- I just- I’m exactly like them.”

“Then what does that make me?” you saw Bruce giving you an odd expression.

He was smiling sadly.

“What?” you asked, confused, until you realised what he was talking about, “No, Bruce. That was different.”

“I killed your parents,” he said as a matter of fact, “So what does that make me?”

“You didn’t kill them, Bruce,” you argued, “You were under the influence of- of whatever it is they gassed you with.”

“It was supposed to be fear toxin,” he reminded you, “They were experimenting with Scarecrow’s toxin when I broke in.”

“Yeah, see?” you tried to prove your point, “So it’s not your fault.”

“I wouldn’t have displayed the wrath I did- which led to your parents being pushed off the balcony- if I were emotionally stable,” he said, “They fell because of me. Because I wasn’t myself.”

“No one blames you,” you told him, “I don’t blame you. You had the right to be unstable, Bruce, your son died three months before that. I can’t believe you still think this way.”

“Yet, they still died on my watch, because of my aggravation,” he pointed out, “But if I were to quit every time I did something because I was unstable, well. We wouldn’t be here.”

“Stop being nice to me, Bruce,” tears welled your eyes, “It makes me feel even worse than if you got mad at me.”

“Good,” he smiled at you kindly.

So that was his punishment. To be understanding.

“I’ve got bad genetics,” you argued, “There’s been a lot of research on it and it shows that there is a gene to be passed down.”

“The psychopath gene?” Bruce smirked, “You’re not a psychopath. Your parents were. You feel remorse. Psychopaths don’t.”

“But, even if it’s not pure psychopathy, there must be some other traits, right?” you rationalized.

An attraction to violence, for example.

Bruce just gave you a long and tired sigh.

“Even if you were to have this so-called psychopath gene,” Bruce continued, “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Everyone has some form of good in them. Even your parents. In their own twisted way, they thought that all those experiments would bring a great contribution to the scientific community- and to humanity as a whole. Regardless of their true motivations, they comforted themselves in that delusion. Not all psychopaths are criminals, remember?”

You remained silent, mulling over his words.

“You think people, no matter how bad they are, can be saved?” you finally asked.

“It’s one of the reasons why I don’t kill,” he said, “People change. It’s just a matter of the help they get.”

“Even Joker?” you scoffed.

“Even Joker,” he nodded, “Though, I’ve stopped myself from killing him mainly due to selfish reasons. But I do believe that there is a way to cure him. We just haven’t found it yet.”

#jason todd x reader #jason todd smut #jason todd reader insert #batman #nightwing #red hood #bruce wayne #jason todd #dick grayson #dceu #dc #dc comics #under the red hood #Batman: Arkham Knight #red hood and the outlaws

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angel-gidget · 4 years

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⌖ Gidge's Guide to ℜobin 101: {2nd Edition, bc the first had dead links and other outdated info.}

Reminder: The linked Goodreads pages include not only purchase info, but also library look-up info. Always check your library first! People constantly underestimate the graphic novel goodness that can already be found for free on their local shelves.

Disclaimer: You can't read 'em all, so sometimes you just gotta pick. Some related storylines are excluded because I forgot 'em, and some because I thought about it for all of 5 seconds and ended with “nah.” But this primer should definitely do ya. Also, the selection will quickly reveal the compiler's personal bias. You'll figure it out.

I. Robin: Year One | Where it all began! Here we meet Dick Grayson, the first Robin, the one most famously associated with the name. He does flips. He does tricks. He's adorable. [Goodreads | DCuniverse]

II. A Death in the Family | The (first) life and death of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Fun fact: Jason's death was a decision that was up for vote, and readers actually phoned in, leading to his death. The arc was written with two possible endings, depending on which way those phones ultimately rang. [Goodreads | DCuniverse] Note: Do not confuse this with Death OF the Family, which is a recent Joker storyline riffing its title off of the original.

III. A Lonely Place of Dying | In the wake of Jason's death, we meet our third Robin, Tim Drake. Otherwise known as the stalker Robin. Also, Gidge's darling favorite 4ever. [Goodreads | DCuniverse] Note: Recent editions of A Death in the Family have sometimes put these two storylines together. So a more recent copy labeled "A Death in the Family" may contain this arc as well.

IV. Prodigal | In which Dick Grayson returns to Gotham to temporarily fill in as Batman while Tim is his Robin. Includes important brotherly bonding time. [Goodreads | DCuniverse] Note: This was a Bat-book crossover storyline, hence the use of DCuniverse search. It has not recently been re-collected as a single trade, though older trade paperbacks exist.

V. Everything is Tim Drake and Nothing Hurts | Robin #3 was the first Robin to have his own solo ongoing title while under the *name* of Robin. For reasons. Read these reasons. Read about my starchild. [Goodreads Vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | DCuniverse 1st miniseries, 2nd, 3rd, Ongoing ] Also, Timmers was on teams. Awesome teams. Including Young Justice [Goodreads | DCuniverse] and Teen Titans (version 3) [Goodreads | DCuniverse]. Did I just give you a giant mac truck of reading? Yes. Am I warning without remotely apologizing? Also yes. You can come back and savor it later. I'm just trying to post things for the most part in chronological order, dude.

VI. Stephanie Brown's Robin Arc | Ok, so the 4th Robin didn't exactly have a proper arc. She had various appearances, and her biggest storyline that has been collected into a volume was Batman: War Games. Said storyline was also her LAST one as Robin and ends pretty violently. If that doesn't sound very cheery, or strikes you as rather unfair, welcome to the Steph Zone.** [Goodreads | DCuniverse]

VII. Under the Hood | Ah, the fleeting nature of death in the DC universe! Jason Todd's eventful resurrection and path of daddy issues revenge. [Goodreads | DCuniverse] Note: Older editions of this storyline may divide it up into volume 1 & 2.

VIII. Batman & Son | In which we meet the only canonically biological spawn of Bruce's loins, Damian Wayne. The unbridled brat born to become Robin #5. [Goodreads | DCuniverse]

IX. Red Robin | Just when you thought I was done making you read about Tim Drake… Tim is fired! As Robin! By Dick! What a Dick! (okay, so not without reasons but still) Herein lies Tim Drake's coming of age story, outgrowing the shadow of Batman's cowl. [Goodreads | DCuniverse]

X. Batman & Robin | Aforementioned unbridled brat actually becomes Robin #5. And bonds with Robin #1. Who has become Batman. Again. For all Dick's talk about not wanting to be Batman, he seems to keep getting dragged into it a lot. [Goodreads | DCuniverse]

Extra Credit: The Dark Knight Returns | Featuring the most famous alternate universe robin ever, Carrie Kelley. Speaking in terms of major publishing history, also the first girl Robin, predating Steph by over a decade. [Goodreads & older edition | DCuniverse] ** Though lacking in links, This DCuniverse article includes checklists of both Carrie and Steph's appearances, for those seeking more thorough exposure.

#robins #robin #red robin #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #damian wayne #batman #dc comics #dcomicedit #masterpost #robin 101 #fascinating points of robin-related philosophy #gidgeblog #gidgegraphic #comics #comic primers

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Batman AU where a pissed off Dick Grayson, after being fired from Robin and kicked out by Bruce, doesn’t go back to the circus when he was off finding himself. Before he became Nightwing. He meant to, even made it all the way to Europe on his way to their latest stop, but in London he got....distracted, when he ran into one John Constantine.

Now, back at this point in canon, Constantine was probably in his mid-twenties at most. I’ve always pictured him mid to late thirties in current comic canon, he’s one of those guys who comes off as older than he is, b/c like, lbr, dude lives ROUGH, lol. But me being me, like, I’m not looking to hook nineteen year old Dick Grayson up with a mid-twenties staggering disaster in whiskey-soaked human form. However, that does not mean that Dick, recently feeling disillusioned about numerous things as well as lost and directionless, two things that define John in a lot of his decades, let alone twenties -

Like, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t THINK about it, and perhaps romanticize the idea of him and John being kindred spirits. As well as maybe a little attracted to Constantine’s patented performative way of living, aka “watch how I windmill through life, giving no fucks whilst taking whatever latest misfortune befalls me in an unaffected and devilishly snarky stride, because of the thing about the no fucks, see, that’s the connection there.”

And okay, if we’re being totally honest here, its not like it just COMPLETELY didn’t occur to Dick that he was coming up with reasons to justify sticking around and hanging out and also crushing on one of the people MOST likely to tick his dad off. I mean, let’s face it, John is like, the combination of three things Bruce has zero patience for and avoids or outright disdains whenever possible:

1) Magic, ugh, unreliable, illogical. (Bruce’s super-objective POV on the subject) - Look. It makes no sense. Follows no logical rules. Every usage of it is a breakdown of the normal universe and the ordered mechanism of The Way Things Are Supposed to Work, the things Batman relies on, needs in order to be him, the Great Detective, the guy who understands how everything works and that’s how he stays one step ahead of everyone else.

In a word, magic and all its works are RUDE and they like....annoy him just on principle.

2) Eternally late and relentlessly slovenly (not everyone has a live-in BUTLER Bruce, jeez)

and

3) ...John Constantine. (Let’s be real. This one just is what it is. There’s not a whole lot of getting around it. Its hard for Dick at age 19 to pretend buddying up with John isn’t guaranteed to make Bruce grind his teeth, given that its hard for anyone at any age to pretend that while Bruce almost certainly respects the things John has accomplished at various times....being in the same zip code as him is something he tries to avoid. Their personalities are not super compatible).

So, its a tiny bit possible the Great Divergence of this AU from canon.... comes down to one accidental team-up with one of Batman’s Top Ten Favorite People, No Seriously....and then Dick kinda leaning into being a bit of a petty shit here. Look, its not his finest hour, but Bruce started it, and also, like whatever. Alexa, play ‘Teenage Wasteland’ but y’know, all...SUPER LOUD and ANGSTILY.

Ahem. Anyway.

So even though Constantine rather famously likes neither people nor drama, and Dick is both those things.....Dick is also always effortlessly charming and makes friends wherever he goes. In the end, it should come as no surprise to anyone but Constantine that he is no more Immune to Dick’s innate Likeability Quotient than most of the rest of humanity.

And for a couple of weeks they kinda just hang out, get into random mishaps with magical gargoyles and ensorcelled ravens around the Tower of London and also one specific clash with a demonically possessed umbrella that turned anyone who held it into like, Mary Poppins, but also, y’know, EVIL - look it was this whole thing, don’t ask, Constantine still doesn’t like to talk about it. He even offered to show Dick how to do a minor cantrip if his mischief minded companion would agree to keep his mouth shut on the subject from now until the end of eternity.

Dick had to hem and haw over that one for a bit, but ultimately his innate curiosity won out over his fondness for telling a rousing but also hilarious tale. It was a very narrow margin, but that was all that was needed to have Dick’s foot take its very first step along a very different road in this universe.

See, Constantine’s not really expecting much to happen even as he walks Dick through the steps of the simple spell. Magic’s as unpredictable about who it’ll roll over and play tricks for as it is in how it operates and functions and like...basically accomplishes all the many varied feats that make Bruce develop spontaneous frustration migraines, because that’s not how reality works, none of this has anything to do with how reality WORKS, what happened to the RULES, dammit!

And sure, there’s all sorts of different kinds of magic, and all kinds of different lines various magic practitioners sort into....some are born into it, like the Zataras, and Constantine himself actually, though in a very different way from the former....others end up developing a knack for it after significant encounters with arcane or occult beings, forces, artifacts or the like, as though their exposure to such a focused concentration of it resulted in a kind of charge rubbing off on them, just enough to make them able to attract and gather and channel magical forces from then on themselves. Others are chosen to it, and some just have no clue why spells will work for them but not ten random pedestrians they stop on the street and use as a rather strange sample group.

But bottom line is magic isn’t just about practice and skill, you tend to either have a knack for it or you don’t, and more people don’t than do, so John’s pretty much expecting to fulfill his end of their little gentleman’s agreement and then watch Dick duplicate everything he did exactly, with zero result.

Except turns out, Dick Grayson DOES have a knack for magic, same as he has a knack for well, everything. The guy was crime fighting and kicking bad guy ass in middle school. Forget James Bond and Captain Kirk, forget even Batman himself, ROBIN is the original and ultimate Gary Stu. Of fucking course Dick would be good at magic if he ever tried it. There’s a fairly large school of thought in this universe that posits that the force they call magic is an almost living entity in its own way, perhaps even sentient. Most of the magicians and wizards and sorcerers in that school of thinking kinda all quietly nurse the opinion that magic just, like....likes Dick Grayson, and he just charmed it with his first attempt at that simple spell and had it wrapped around his finger by the time he said Abra Kadabra.

(Because of fucking COURSE John picked a spell he could end with Abra Kadabra, have you met the man? He’s the most dramatic of them all, why do you think he hates both people and drama so much??? He’s the people and the drama!)

So there we have one lost and directionless Dick Grayson, feeling like he’s lost his footing and all his old plans and projected paths don’t really fit him anymore, or at least not well enough to help him feel like he’s headed somewhere, doing something.

Buuuuuut, then there’s that petty teenage side of him again, the one that goes fuck Batman, and also I’m right to say so.....and at least that IS a direction to focus on, even if not the most noble one....so the same brain cells that linked up and logic’d him around to the conclusion that ‘Bruce will never think to look for me with John Constantine of all people, and LOL how much would he hate that’....like, big fans of the positive reception their prior performance had received, those same brain cells leap back into action with zeal and zest and steer him to the not all that distant conclusion:

“LOL, how much would Bruce hate it if I ended up being this like, super talented magician, with expertise he knows nothing about? Could you imagine?”

Turns out Dick could, and did, and so much like that initial inch in this direction, is the true basis of him following up on that and becoming a renowned sorcerous superhero in this universe the fateful last words “Screw you dad, you’re not the boss of me and I’ll do what I want!”

I mean. Yeah. That’s pretty much exactly how it began. Yup. Oops.

But the thing is, that’s just how it starts. A random string of chance encounters and events that capture Dick’s attention and interest at a time and a place in his life where he was looking for literally anything to do just that....but once it HAD his attention and interest, everything changed. It was no longer about thinking ‘hey this will really tick Bruce off,’ because Dick’s capable of that train of thought and gut/impulsive decision making, sure, but he’s not about to commit his entire LIFE to that just to flip Bruce the proverbial middle finger.

It only continues, he only keeps going and furthering his magical studies because he genuinely comes to love it for the sheer versatility, the unpredictability of it, the way holding reality in one hand and magical forces in the other is like walking a tight rope with no safety net, and sure its not the same thing as flying, but on that note, did you know there are spells that can literally make you fly?

Dick does, now, and he knows like, seventeen different ones.

And so Dick throws himself into studying magic the same way he throws himself into everything. He’s never done anything half-assed in his life. He’s physically allergic to the very idea of it. When he does a thing, he fucking COMMITS, and becomes the best he possibly can at it....which ultimately almost always puts him in the one percentile of that thing.

He learns everything he can from Constantine, or at least as much as Constantine’s willing to teach him. Eventually their paths diverge, not because of any bad blood, but just because Dick isn’t interested in the same specialties as Constantine. So then he moves on. Travels the world, similar to what Bruce did when he was his age, training to become Batman. But Dick trains with magicians, wizards, alchemists. Madame Xanadu. Sebastian Faust. Raven. Even charms freaking Circe into teaching him an enchantment or two, because lbr, a mystically inclined Dick Grayson would inevitably intrigue the more infamous mystics of the DC universe in the same way a combat-focused Dick Grayson intrigues Deathstroke and assorted others.

Everyone except for Zatanna and Jason Blood, the magicians Bruce actually respects and relies on, and who Dick is sure would report back to Bruce about him, and he’s still ticked. Plus, Zatanna’s type of magic is innate, not really something that can be taught, and Blood’s stems from his sharing his body with a demon and Dick’s not really looking for a roommate right now.

Eventually, Dick is satisfied enough with his skills and knowledge to return to the Titans. He adopts the name Nightwing, same as in canon and for the same reasons. He’s still the same man, same leader, same fighter with all the skills he already had....just now with the added repertoire of someone who’s branched off in an unlikely direction.

Hey, Bruce did want him to go to college and learn something new. Not Dick’s fault his particular field of study isn’t Bruce-approved. (Okay, its entirely Dick’s fault, since that was after all the point, but eh. Oh well).

Nightwing’s still an acrobat and hand-to-hand fighter. He’s invested too much time, effort, himself into those skills to just give them up. He’s an adrenaline junkie, thrives on motion, activity, the rush of going head to head with someone who can really push him, challenge him. His magic is incorporated into his fighting. He constructs who he becomes as magician around the foundation already in place due to who he is as an acrobat, detective and hand to hand combatant. His magic is an added skill, not a replacement for his previous skillsets.

So he has alchemical potions on his utility belt, amid his ordinary smoke bombs and gas pellets. Tools and spells of divination and scrying for when a trail goes cold and can’t be tracked further by ordinary means. But now the Titans have another mystical expert to turn to for magical related missions, not just Raven. Their specialties are entirely different, but they’ve worked together since Raven first came to this plane, and they still complement each other well.

Of course, this changes things in other ways too. Dick’s new focus takes him further away from his time with Batman than even in canon. He’s still traveling and training for most of the time Jason is Robin and never even meets him before his death. Of course he kept tabs on Gotham no matter where he was. He absolutely knows about the adoption, about a second Robin. And about Jason’s eventual death. But he’s still somewhere places unknown in the aftermath, not easily tracked down by Tim, who sets out to help Bruce on his own, wearing down Bruce’s resistance to him being Robin between just his and Alfred’s efforts. Dick remains largely estranged from the Batfamily as Cass is adopted, Steph takes her turn as Robin, etc.

And then Jason comes back from the dead.

But again, things play out differently here. This Jason is never found by Talia and the League, never dumped into a Lazarus Pit. Instead, Leslie Thompkins opens up her clinic one day to find a catatonic Jason in a bed inside, not long after he’s resurrected. He recovers as mysteriously as he returned, helped along by being in familiar environs, surrounded by loved ones as he’s of course immediately returned to the Manor and attended on by Bruce, Alfred, Babs, Tim and Cass. So he has less resentment for Tim, for being replaced. Its harder to deny Bruce’s love for him when he has Bruce by his bedside, day after day, watching and waiting throughout his recovery. He never suffers from Pit madness. Is never influenced by League ideology. Never trains with monsters and murderers awful enough he wants to kill them himself after he’s done training with them.

And its hard to resent Bruce for not avenging him and killing the Joker, when no one’s seen the Joker since almost right after Jason’s death. The clown never returns to Gotham from Ethiopia, not as far as anyone can tell. By the time Bruce set out to hunt him down, after Jason’s funeral, the trail had gone entirely cold. Bruce hunted for him, sure, but Jason can’t be too mad about Bruce giving up before finding him. The Joker’s never been one to lay low. When even just a few months had passed without even a hint of the villain or his future plans, it was hard to imagine he was still alive - he never lacked for enemies, after all. Not unreasonable that someone else had gotten to him first.

Plus, of course, its hard to compare yourself to the ‘golden boy’ and find yourself coming up short, viewing yourself as less loved than Dick Grayson, when said golden boy still remains estranged. He’s the prodigal son in this reality, with Bruce’s anger towards his eldest for never coming back to the Manor, not even after Jason’s death - its obvious to everyone, even Jason. Tim doesn’t have the close, brotherly bond with Dick that he does in canon, and with less resentment from Jason for replacing him, its easier for the two middle sons of Batman to bond after Jason’s return.

Jason returns to crime fighting, probably still takes up the name the Red Hood - his sense of humor and irony had nothing to do with his death or the specifics of his return. He and Bruce still clash. They have their ideological differences, Jason’s harsher than Bruce would prefer. But this Jason has reasons not to force an all-out divide between he and his father, sticks to the line (even if reluctantly), not because he believes differently - he still thinks he’s right about Bruce’s way being flawed and will always argue so - but because he has reasons to stay. Things he actually feels he’ll lose if he pushes things too much, actually leaves the family. Because he has a family, he has no doubts about that here. Tim and Cass and Alfred and even Bruce. He’d miss them, if he lost them. So he makes sure he doesn’t.

And then, a couple years after his return, Jason starts feeling hunted by something. Some presence, some force constantly shadowing him, stalking him. Something supernatural. Otherworldly. In time, there’s no denying it. He’s actually attacked by some unseen, invisible presence, like some kind of monstrous beast that’s hunting him and only him.

Its hard to come to any conclusion other than that it has something to do with his resurrection. Nobody knows how that happened after all. Not even Jason. But there was definitely nothing natural about it, so with something unnatural hunting him, almost as if he’s ‘the one that got away’ or some kind of affront to the natural order of things, the Batfamily adds 2 + 2 and gets ugh, fuck, we need to call a magician for help, don’t we?

Bruce calls in Zatanna and Jason Blood first, of course. But this is well outside Zatanna’s area of expertise, she has no insight to offer. Blood’s a little bit more help. He’s at least able to confirm that the force is otherworldly, not native to this plane, and might very well have something to do with Jason’s time....not on this plane. And he is able to affirm that there’s nothing demonic about the presence, no whiff of Hell surrounding either it or Jason.

Finally, reluctantly, Bruce calls in John Constantine, at Blood’s suggestion. His number isn’t so much the last one in Bruce’s old-fashioned rolodex so much as its buried somewhere on the Manor grounds, locked in a puzzle box that affords Bruce countless opportunities to turn back or try something else before he finally gets it open and pulls out the card with his contact info and the header: IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY WITH ALL OTHER CONCEIVABLE OPTIONS HAVING PREVIOUSLY BEEN EXHAUSTED PRIOR TO THIS - HERE I GUESS.

Okay, maaaaaaaaybe I’m embellishing a little bit on that one there. But whatever.

And its not like Constantine is the actual last of the last he contacts here. For instance, even more than he’d like to not have to bring in John, he’d really rather not call Raven either, though he knows of her as well of course.

In this reality, the Titans remain more distant from the Justice League and other heroes. They took Dick’s side when Bruce kicked him out, closing ranks, not to mention Roy’s falling out with Ollie resulting in a similar sentiment from them. And Dick and Roy’s diverged paths here similarly result in them paralleling each other in not reconciling with their fathers - they reaffirm to each other that whatever ‘their part’ in their disputes were, they deserved better than how Bruce and Ollie handled those situations, and they’re not going to let each other settle for being afforded less than the respect and care they deserve.

So to be clear, its not that even after a couple years, Dick is still actively avoiding Bruce - Bruce’s failure to extend the hand first, make the first attempt at reconciliation and conveying that he still wants and needs Dick in his life, his family...that’s still the underlying issue, and the real change in family dynamics comes from Dick not caving and returning to a similar status quo to what he left, without Bruce ever actually addressing his own behavior and mistakes in driving Dick away without making any real attempt to get him to stay, or to follow him, or to ask him to come home.

As for the rest of the Titans, Wally still became the Flash here when Barry died, but he felt no real need to ‘move up’ to the Justice League, and with all of the rest of the original Titans remaining a cohesive family unit here, he chose to stay with them when not patrolling Central City. And when Kyle Rayner became the last Green Lantern and joined the Titans as in canon, the team was closer, more family than the line-up he was briefly a part of in canon, and so he remained with them as well.

So the end result is in this universe, for the end of their teens and the early years of their twenties, the Titans go their own way, and they and the JLA keep to their respective ‘corners’ as it were. Meanwhile Tim’s generation remains known as Young Justice.

So back to the Batfam’s problem and Jason’s unknown pursuer. Constantine’s not much more help than Jason Blood was. After all, demons are his specialty too, just in different ways than they are Jason Blood’s. and the other magic he knows isn’t of a sort they need here either.

He is however, able to offer one bit of advice - what they need, John says, is a magician who specializes in the otherworldly, not just the netherworlds. There are more things in Heaven and Hell than well...just Heaven and Hell. Plenty of other worlds, plenty of other dimensions....the kinds of places something like this creature could have come from. What they need is a planewalker. And luckily for them, Constantine just so happens to know the name of a planewalker who could help them.

Dick Grayson.

And of course the estranged eldest still comes when he’s called, because its never that he didn’t care, its just that he wanted, needed to be called. Even when tragedy struck the family, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to return and be a comfort to them, its just that he wasn’t sure his presence would be a comfort.

(Though it takes numerous arguments while working on the mystery of Jason’s hunter, like, before this gets even brought up, let alone clarified. All parties involved are of course world-class experts at the cold shoulder, not to mention avoidance tactics and evasive maneuvers of all types.)

And as Jason and his other siblings get to know their mysterious oldest brother, the much alluded to but rarely spoken of first son, the Zitka in the room, the shadow they’ve all always been aware of but never known much about - other than that he had a definite Talent with a capital T for getting under their father’s skin, and while they might be closer with Bruce in this reality, Bruce is still Bruce and that’s still a Talent they all can respect and appreciate - well.

It would be a mistake, Jason realizes, to assume that just because Dick left, that meant that he didn’t keep informed on what he left behind. He has many many means at his disposal now, for getting information when he wants it.

And it would be a mistake to assume that just because they didn’t see him care, that actually meant that Dick didn’t care. He didn’t have to actually meet Jason to feel at least a connection to the second son to be raised by the same father, the second person to wear his colors, bear his mantle, fight at Bruce’s side. He didn’t even have to know him, to grieve that now he’d never get the chance, when Jason died. To be outraged at the Joker, on his behalf.

And its not like Dick didn’t have plenty of other reasons to hate the Joker as well - he was the reason he was fired, the reason he and Bruce were estranged, the catalyst of so much of his family’s misfortune.

And no one did ever find a trace of the Joker after Ethiopia.

Almost like he’d dropped off the face of the Earth.

Vanished from it entirely.

Of course, while Dick Grayson might be estranged from his father, he still abides by the code Bruce instilled in him at an early age. He doesn’t kill.

But there are worse things than death, some might say.

Especially for a man like a Joker, because he does have one thing he truly cares about: landing a punchline. Its why everyone assumes he was killed by some other enemy after Ethiopia....the Joker can never go long without making a reappearance. He needs an audience too badly to ever stay hidden for long.

After all, what is a joke, if there’s no one to hear it?

And then as well, the family never did figure out how Jason ended up in Leslie’s clinic, after he crawled out of his grave.

How someone found him so quickly, and knew the best place to take him. However Jason ended up resurrected, it surely had to involve considerable power of some sort, supernatural energies that surely had to attract some attention....

at least from someone attuned to the supernatural, who knew how to see such things....

and had reason to occasionally visit the Wayne family cemetery.

Yes, even in this vastly different universe, there’s still a way, still time to reunite a family even this fractured. When you’re a planewalker like Dick Grayson, there’s no road beyond your reach, its just a matter of finding the right one.

And just because it takes time to find the road that finally leads home....that doesn’t mean its not out there.

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redbxrn · 5 years

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IS THAT DAVID CASTANEDA? NO, THAT’S JASON TODD. HE USED TO BE KNOWN AS RED HOOD BUT NOW HE IS JUST A SOCIAL WORKER. IF I’M NOT MISTAKEN HE IS TWENTY-FOUR AND HE WAS AGAINST THE HERO BAN. AKA this is what you should read if you’re curious abt my Jason characterization.

Basic Things to Know: Name: Jason Peter Todd Age: 24 Race: Mexican- American Occupation: Star City Social Worker (he helps kids get out of bad households and into good ones. He also runs an after school program for ‘troubled’ kids) Height: 6′2 Skills: Martial Arts, Lazarus Pit enchanced abilities, tactician, Master Marksman, Expert Detective. Basically he’s like a mini Bruce within his skills but he has enchanged things like Speed, agility, durability, and strength from his dip in the Lazarus Pit. He’s also multilingual (but spoke Spanish before he learned English). Childhood: (im gonna link a fic that does a better job at showing Jason’s childhood than I can do at telling it. Just pick whichever chapter from 1-5 to read bc none of them follow a cohesive storyline) FIC But to summarize: Jason was a really good kid with a lot of hope for the world. When he was Robin he actually made nice with a LOT of rogues bc he was charming as shit as a little kid. Roughly the only Rogue he ever had problems with was Joker and sometimes Harley by relation. Otherwise? Easy to get along with, loved reading, philosophy, and history. He was a little nerd, lovable, and loved the world around him. A Death in the Family: So Jason catches word that his mom is in Ethiopia and he goes because again, Jason had a lot of hope for the world around him. The thing turned out to be a trope and as per canon, Joker beat him with a crowbar. What happened during this event though was mostly psychological, out of the trauma of being beat he started to develop a second personality in order to protect himself from what was happening. Of course, no one but Joker was around to witness it. The building later exploded and Jason Todd died. (age 15) Until he was dunked in the Lazarus Pit by the Al Ghul’s. The only personality present was the second personality he’d developed while being beat. He didn’t talk, just took orders while he secretly plotted. He spent six months training with the league of shadows before leaving to enact his revenge against the Joker. Under The Red Hood: So he goes back to Gotham with a gameplan, he’s gonna kill the Joker but first, he needs to get power. He dons the persona of The Red Hood, his new identity. For the first time, this new personality gave himself a name. The Red Hood made his entrance by taking the heads of a few drug cartel leaders and dumping them on the GCPD’s doorstep. (note, he did not take control of these rings, he shut them down, took their money, destroyed the drugs). This gained the attention of Batman, and guess what? The Red Hood has no idea who Batman is. Those memories that Jason has with Batman do not belong to The Red Hood. Naturally, this created a problem when The Red Hood and Batman faced off and his identity was revealed. (age 17-18) Rebuilding: After he was deducted to be Jason Todd, The Red Hood persona started to back down, finally letting Jason Front for the first time since he had been murdered. During this time period, he spent his time trying to recover from everything that happened. This included copious amounts of therapy, and trial and error medications. He was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and was set upon figuring out what triggered this more violent personality to come out. And the answer was simple, whenever Jason felt threatened or in danger, The Red Hood would start fronting. So he spent a long time working on repressing that and although he can’t keep his alter from front, he has a better time coming back to himself. Once Bruce decided to move to Star City, Jason decided that he wanted to continue his education and go to college for a proper second chance at regaining control of his life and making it his own. (18-23) Star City: Once he graduated from college, Jason immediately went to work in Star City. He was hired on as a social worker and currently, he helps kids who are between foster homes, being taken out of their homes, etc. He also runs an afterschool program in the city for troubled kids. Jason also does a lot of odd translator jobs on the side when the need arises. All in all he’s quite happy, but not with the hero ban. He directly opposed it with the claim that the world will always need heroes, and that his personal case was important in showing that. He’s still very politically charged in that aspect and he’ll publicly debate people about it when given the chance, especially since he works so closely with kids who could really use a role model like Superman in their lives. Things to Note: The Red Hood doesn’t have any familial relationships with anyone, due to not having those memories. The Red Hood and Jason Todd have completely separate memories. The Red Hood alter is triggered by several things but the most prominent tend to be: asphyxiation, fear, and threats. The alter also isn’t directly violent unless the cause comes around, otherwise, he tends to be plain aggressive, and snappy, all in all just difficult to be around. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if Red Hood is fronting or if Jason’s just in a mood though. The Red Hood isn’t Jason’s only alter, but his other two don’t front often enough for him to know what they are, or how to prevent them from coming up. He refers to them as 3, and 6.

#starcintro #about #bio

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rivanwarrioress · 6 years

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Revelations (Part 2) (Jason Todd x Reader)

SUMMARY: Sequel to Welcome to Gotham. A quiet night alone leads to unexpected revelations about Jason’s history and nighttime activities. Read Part 1 of Revelations first please, otherwise this might not make sense.

WORD COUNT: 2,607

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything, recognizable characters and places are the property of their creators

Unable to bring yourself to even attempt sleep, you scrubbed the floors of your apartment, getting rid of the bloodstains as best you could. Then, incapable of stopping yourself, you pulled on one of Jason’s leather jackets, and went up the stairs to the roof access of your apartment building. Few people ever went up here, although on numerous occasions, during the summer, you and Jason had often made an easy to transport dinner, and then gone up to the roof together, and had a picnic. Those nights had been among your favorite of your dates with Jason.

Now, you sat up there alone, Jason’s jacket wrapped around you, as tears leaked from your eyes, oblivious to the rain that fell around you, drenching your hair and seeping into your clothing, the dampness soon soaking through your pants. Your phone, at least, was marginally protected, tucked in a pocket of Jason’s jacket, with your hand wrapped around it, just in case somebody rang to update you on how Jason was doing.

There was a part of you that wondered if you would ever see Jason again. You remembered the bat on the front of Jason’s armor, and knew after living in Gotham for over a year, that The Red Hood was a member of “team Batman,” so you figured that Batman and his associates would look after Jason, but you were scared that even Batman wouldn’t be able to save him, that Jason was too badly hurt, and he’d lost too much blood. Would the superheroes take him away and deal with his body in their own, secretive way, or would you be allowed to be there when they buried him, or cremated him, or whatever it was they did with their dead?

You didn’t know what Jason’s wishes were. The one time you had brought up the topic of cemeteries you had taken one look at Jason’s face, and swiftly changed the topic. You wondered now if Jason’s reaction that day had been related to his history as the Red Hood.

You had guessed that Jason had gone through a traumatic past. On the few nights when he’d slept at your apartment he’d woken up with nightmares every single time. Even when he was awake sometimes you would say something, or he would see something, and he would space out, sometimes for a few seconds, but occasionally it was a minute or longer. A few months ago the circus had come through town, and your boss had invited you both along, but Jason had declined, admitting that night, when it was just the two of you, that he was scared of clowns. After everything you had heard since moving to Gotham about the Joker, you weren’t surprised. Fear of clowns was actually quite common in Gotham, you late found out, thanks to the internet.

Sitting on the roof of your building, you looked at the skyline of the city, the sirens and traffic noise drifting upwards from the streets below. How the hell had you not realized that Jason was a Vigilante…a superhero? It was so obvious in hindsight.

“Please…please be ok, Jason,” you whispered into the night.

Bruce rubbed his hand wearily over his face as he looked at Jason, sleeping soundly in the med bay of the Batcave. Bruce was sitting in the chair positioned by Jason’s bed, watching over his second eldest son as he slept, the younger man attached to a bag of blood to replenish what was lost. It was the second bag Jason had gone through since Bruce had carried him into the med bay and lowered him to the bed. A tube was still down Jason’s throat, helping Jason breathe by pretty much doing all the work for him.

In addition to the stab wound to his stomach, they’d also found a bullet wound to Jason’s upper chest, just below his right collarbone, although the billet itself had passed the whole way through Jason’s body. An x-ray revealed cracked and broken ribs, one of which had left a small puncture in Jason’s lung.

It, by far, wasn’t the worse injury Jason had received (Bruce was actively not trying to think about that), but the injuries were still life threatening, and Jason had stopped breathing not long after arriving at the cave. That had been when they’d intubated him to get him breathing again. Not long after that his blood pressure had dropped dramatically, and Bruce had been mentally preparing himself to start CPR, and Alfred had started prepping the defibrillator, and even had the pads positioned on Jason’s chest. Luckily, it hadn’t been needed, and they’d managed to keep him stabilized until Dr. Leslie Thompkins could arrive at perform the surgery that Jason’s needed, to patch him up.

That had been a few hours ago, and Leslie had gone upstairs for a cup of tea with Alfred. Dick had finally been persuaded to go upstairs to get some sleep, as had Tim (well, who knew if Tim was actually sleeping or not) and Damian.

Batman had made a point of knowing where Jason’s safe houses were, as well as his apartment. He had a feeling Jason knew this, or at least suspected, but it never came up in conversation. None of them were close to where they’d found Jason, and Jason wouldn’t have been in any condition to get himself that far. Of course, Jason still had his comms, and his phone, and could have called them directly for help, but that still would have left him waiting to be picked up in an alleyway, and that was a dangerous place to be, especially injured and vulnerable and unable to defend yourself. Batman was proud that Jason, notoriously untrusting towards others, had sought out a friend of his, seeking the safety of her apartment, rather than staying on the streets or rooftops. Bruce felt a shudder go down his spine at the thought of what might have happened if Jason hadn’t gone to his friend.

Jason would probably be dead, again. Lying alone until somebody came across him and raised the alarm. At the mere thought Bruce reached out and wrapped his hand around Jason’s.

“I’ve already lost you once, I can’t lose you again, Jay.”

“Bruce?”

Bruce sighed, having not heard Dick’s cat like footsteps approaching.

“I thought you were going to try and sleep.”

“I couldn’t,” Dick admitted, drawing level with Bruce and looking down at Jayson, “I kept thinking of him lying there, on his girlfriend’s floor.”

“You think she was involved?”

“No, no way, she was too cut up about it to have done it. Besides, she would have had more blood on her, and the only blood on the floor was around him, and a couple of drops around the window.”

Bruce nodded in agreement, having never suspected Jason’s apparent girlfriend in the attack.

“So…did you know? About Jason’s girlfriend, I mean?” Dick asked curiously. Bruce looked up at Dick with raised eyebrows.

“I am the least likely person that Jason would ever tell about a personal matter like that.”

Dick cringed, ‘Yeah, good point”

“I might have noticed a few years ago, when I kept a closer eye on him, but since he’s stopped killing I’ve kept more of a distance,” Bruce added.

“I wondered,” Dick admitted, “he…he seemed happier, this past year. I mean, he still kept things to himself, but…he seemed more relaxed and less…aggressive. I wondered if he’d made some new friends…or a romantic partner, but at the same time I thought it might have just been time related, you know, him healing after…everything.”

Bruce nodded, but said nothing. Dick was right, Jason had seemed happier and less…angry…with the world this last year, but Bruce hadn’t really taken much notice…another way he’d failed Jason.

“Do…do you think he’ll introduce us, at some point.”

Bruce sighed, “We did meet her, tonight” he told his oldest.

Dick rolled his eyes, “You know that doesn’t count. You were in protective Bat Dad mode over Jason. Do you even know what her name is, because she never actually told you guys?”

“I was going to look it up from her apartment,” Bruce admitted. Dick sighed and held out the piece of paper that you had written your name and phone number on.

“Meet, Y/N, Jason’s mystery girlfriend.”

Bruce lifted his eyebrow curiously, and Dick jerked the piece of paper back.

“Seriously…You think I would try and hit on Jay’s girlfriend while he was, you know, bleeding out all over the place? I would never do that to him. I told her I would keep her up to date on how he was going.”

Wearily Bruce leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hand over his face. It was something that Dick would do. Bruce himself had been too focused on Jason to worry about the girl who had, apparently, been in a relationship with his second eldest son.

“He’ll be ok, won’t he?” Dick asked, a hint of uncertainty creeping into his voice. Bruce blinked and looked up at Dick. The look on Dick’s face betrayed his emotions, and Bruce was reminded of how broken Dick had been when he’d learned of Jason’s death.

“You heard Dr. Tompkins,” Bruce reminded Dick gently, “he’s strong, he’ll recover.”

Dick visibly relaxed leaning against the wall of the med bay, “I don’t want to have to tell her that he’s gone.”

Bruce remained thoughtfully silent. While it wasn’t the first time one of the boys had gotten involved with someone romantically, it had been a long time since a civilian had been involved and he’d had to worry about a situation like this.

“You can tell her how he’s going, she already knows who he is,” he told Dick, although he knew that Dick would have done it, even if Bruce had said no. Dick was far better at dealing with people than Bruce had ever been.

“Bruce…what happened to him wasn’t your fault, you know that. Things are getting better between us and him, but he’s an adult now, he does do his own thing. You can’t protect him every minute of every day, if you tried it would only drive him away.”

Bruce sighed and nodded, bowing his head and continuing his vigil at Jason’s bedside. Dick watched him, before he backed away, leaving Bruce to his brooding. The only thing that would snap Bruce out of his funk would be Jason waking up, and that needed time.

You jolted awake as the shrill ringing of your phone dragged you from your sleep. You had gone back indoors just as the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon, and you had been shivering from the freezing cold that came from being outside in the snow for an extended period of time. A quick phone call to your boss had given you the day off, as you knew that you would be virtually useless at work after a night of no sleep.

Seeing no point in coming up with a lie, you had told your boss a part of the truth…that Jason had been attacked while coming home from work, and you had been up all night worrying about him. You hadn’t talked about how Jason had been attacked, nor the fact that he was wearing his Red Hood costume at the time. Your boss, however, hadn’t asked questions and had instead given you the week off to look after Jason, and had passed on their best wishes to him.

It had made a weak smile cross your face as you remembered how much your boss liked Jason, and had been the one to introduce the pair of you.

After the conversation with your boss, you had tried to warm up with a hot shower, and then collapsed into bed, burrowing under the warm covers, and wishing that Jason was there to wrap his arms around you. You must have dozed off, because the next thing you knew your phone was ringing loudly beside your head, where you had placed it, and a few hours had passed.

You fumbled for your phone, swiping at the screen and lifting it to you ear without looking at who it was.

“Hello?” you asked urgently.

“Hi, Y/N?” a male voice replied, and you recognized the voice as Nightwing’s from the previous night.

“Yes,”

“It’s Nightwing,” Nightwing confirmed your suspicions, “I’m just ringing to update you on Jason’s condition.”

“Is he ok?” you asked, your heart in your throat.

“Yeah… he’s still sleeping, but his vital signs look really good. Just after we got him back to the cave his blood pressure dropped really low, but we managed to get him stabilized, and then a doctor friend of ours patched him up really well.”

“And…and he’ll be ok?” you questioned anxiously.

“Yeah, give him a week or two and he’ll be back to normal. He heals fast, he has for a long time.”

“Can...Can I see him?”

Nightwing sighed, “I can’t make any promises on that one, Y/N, but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll have a word with the big guy.”

“Thank you” you replied, not knowing what else to say.

“Hey, we’ll work something out, don’t worry,” Nightwing told you reassuringly, “and even if it going to be a little while before he’s well enough to move or that it looks like you won’t be able to come and see him I promise that once he wakes up you guys will be able to talk on the phone, or even video call each other.”

You nodded, tears rolling down your face and you weren’t able to hold in the small sniffles you were making.

“Hey, it’s ok, don’t cry,” Nightwing soothed, “he’ll be up and about in no time. Why don’t you tell me a little about what you two lovebirds have been up to? Jason’s never really been one for romance, I want to know what shenanigans you two kids have been getting into since getting together.”

The next time you looked at the clock you were alarmed to realize that over an hour had passed since you had begun to tell Nightwing about the things you and Jason had done together since you had begun dating, the places that he had taken you to, the things he had made you, the little moments the pair of you had shared. Nightwing had patiently listened throughout it all, sometimes sounding emotional himself as he had asked you questions and encouraged you to continue talking about things.

“I, um, should probably let you keep going, I hadn’t realized it was getting so late,” you told Nightwing. There was a pause before Nightwing spoke again, and you wondered if Nightwing was checking to see what the time was.

‘Ah, yeah…sorry about that, Y/N, I didn’t mean to keep you talking for so long. I’ll give you a call alter on to update you on how Jason’s going. He might have woken up by then, so you guys might be able to talk.

“I’d like that,” you replied, already missing the sound of Jason’s voice.

“I’ll see what I can do, don’t worry Y/N, Jason’s is going to be fine. Bye.” Nightwing told you optimistically.

“Bye” you replied, before hanging up. While you were still worried about Jason, you were a little calmer now. He was still alive, and from what Nightwing had said it looked like he was going to make a full recovery. Still, you wished you could have seen Jason, or at least heard his voice.

Maybe later on, when Nightwing called again…

#Jason Todd #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #red hood #red hood x reader #fanfiction #rivan warrioress #rivanwarrioress #batfamily #Bat Family

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catie-does-things · 6 years

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fan fic: beati estis cum maledixerint vobis

Fandom: Batman, loosely related to Under the Red Hood Characters: Jason Todd, The Joker

AU: Jason Todd is a priest.

The story of a man who would never change, and a man who did.

Father Jason Todd is called to the deathbed of Arkham Asylum's most infamous patient.

AO3

The rectory phone rang late Saturday night, as Jason was reading on the couch. Setting aside Saint Catherine’s Dialogues, he answered it on the third ring.

“Is this Father Jason Todd?” a female voice asked.

“Yes.”

“My name is Dr. Fernandez. I work at Arkham.” She paused, briefly. “I’m calling because...well, it’s a bit of an odd request…”

“Try me,” he said with a tired smile. He was a Gotham City priest, after all.

“We have...a patient...who’s dying. He...” The doctor paused again, clearly uncomfortable.

“He requested a priest?” Jason guessed.

“Well, yes. Actually, he requested you, specifically. I don’t know if you...have a connection?”

“Who’s the patient?”

“Well, he’s...that is, technically, he’s a John Doe, but everyone…” Jason could hear the doctor take a deep breath on the other end of the line, and his heart plummeted. He knew what her next words would be. “It’s the Joker.”

“I see.”

“I understand if you don’t want to come…” She trailed off into awkward silence.

“No,” he said after a moment’s consideration. “I...I should go. I’ll be there in an hour.”

As he collected the necessary things and drove to the asylum, Jason quietly repeated the St. Michael prayer, for he could not shake the feeling of going into battle.

“Hello, Padre!”

The Joker was restrained in the infirmary bed, though he looked half dead already. His skin was more sickly yellow than paper white, and his hair more dull gray than bright green. The mess of tubes and wires snaking off his withered body made him no less repulsive, though perhaps more pathetic.

Jason held the black leather case containing his sick call kit in front of him with one arm. Years of training he would never shake told him this was an obvious defensive posture, a dead giveaway that he was going into this confrontation on weak footing. But no matter how much the memory of Bruce’s scolding echoed in his ears, he didn’t feel like sacrificing the comfort of having the pyx inside the case between him and the Joker.

“Why did you want to see me?”

“Oh, do I have sins I could tell you,” the Joker said with a conspiratorial wink. “Of course, you’ve got a few good ones yourself, don’t you, Jaybird? Hey, wanna trade? Tell you mine if you tell me yours?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Aw, come on, Red. Don’t be like that.”

Though Jason hadn’t touched a bottle of black dye since before his ordination, he had a sinking feeling the nickname was not a dig at his natural hair color.

“Are you sorry?” he asked, more accuser than comforting spiritual father. Cardinal Tolan’s gentle rebuke replaced Bruce’s scolding in his mind, but he continued. “Are you sorry for any of the things you’ve done?”

“Hmm…” The Joker tilted his head to one side, as if thinking. He probably would have tapped his chin if his hands had not been bound. “Nope!” He laughed, but it was only a wheezing echo of his notorious manic laughter.

“Then why am I here?” Jason demanded.

“That is why, Padre! Don’t tell the other little birdies, but you were always my favorite. The way you cried when that crowbar hit you! Why, that’s one of my happiest memories.”

Jason looked away, his face hot with anger. His right hand held the leather case to his chest. His left hand was clenched in a fist, shaking.

“Do you want to receive the sacraments?” he said through gritted teeth.

“Yes, I know it’s you, Red,” the Joker continued, pointedly not answering his question. “But don’t worry, I’m not telling. I’ve known for a long time. Bit of a disappointment, really, your bat-dad’s big secret. But it has been fun having that on him.”

Jason’s heart was pounding. “If you don’t want to receive the sacraments, I’m going to leave.”

“You can’t go yet, Padre! I was just saying how you were my favorite. You died so well! And then you came back to torment the old man! Oh, that was better than anything I could have done to him!” The Joker gave a wistful sigh. “I never did thank you properly for making sure I was there to see it.”

Jason still refused to look at him “What do you want from me?” he asked quietly. That particular question wasn’t directed at the Joker, so of course he chose that one to answer.

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted, Red: a good laugh!” And he let loose another wheezing fit, more cough than cackle.

“Of course, it did spoil the joke when you found religion,” he continued. “Traded your berettas for a biretta, eh? Not how I imagined you wearing all black when you grew up…”

“If it were up to you, I never would have grown up,” Jason bit back.

The Joker’s eyes lit up. “Ha! There’s that spunk I remember!” he crowed. “You’re right, the tragic abbreviation of your youth was my magnum opus. But once you made your comeback? Oh boy, was I rooting for you! A gun-toting, wisecracking Batman who shoots crime in the face? Why, it would have been the perfect mockery of everything the old man stood for!”

He wheezed again, even weaker than before. Laughing all the way to Hell, it seemed. Jason took a step towards the door.

“Wait, Padre!” the Joker called out weakly. “I haven’t given you your goodbye present yet.”

Against his better judgement, Jason stopped.

“Look in there,” the Joker said, nodding towards the sink in the corner of the room with a small cabinet over it. Cautiously, Jason crossed the room and opened the metal cabinet door.

Inside, there was a crowbar.

“Now, time was, you would have put that to good use without hesitating,” the Joker taunted behind him. “You did, in fact. And I know it’s not the same, what with me already on my way out, but I figure that means this is your last chance to get a few more good whacks in.”

Jason turned to look at the sickly man. “You want me to…”

“Get your poetic revenge? Absolutely! Like I said, I never got to thank you properly for that showdown in crime alley, Red. And what better way than this? An eye for an eye, a crowbar for a crowbar, right?”

Jason’s heart was still pounding. He set his sick call kit down next to the sink. Both hands were shaking now, with anger or fear, he wasn’t sure. Maybe both.

“Come on, Jaybird,” the Joker coaxed. “If you were still wearing the helmet, I’d be a bloody pulp already. Hell, you would have done it when you were wearing the short pants, if you thought daddy would have let you get away with it. We both know you still want to. Just because you’re wearing the collar now, don’t expect me to believe you’ve gone soft.”

Jason looked at the crowbar, still propped against the inside of the cabinet. It wasn’t the same one, obviously, but he could still feel it, every blow. He could still hear the Joker’s laugh, full-throated the way it had been in his prime. This man had killed him, killed a child, and he’d laughed while he’d done it.

And he wasn’t sorry, at all. He was proud.

Jason took a deep breath. He remembered how he had cried, on the floor of that warehouse, just like the Joker had said. He remembered how he had prayed for Bruce to come save him, for anyone to save him. He reached out towards the cabinet with one hand, still shaking.

He shut the door.

“Do you want to receive the sacraments?” Jason asked once again, though it felt like his voice didn’t even belong to him anymore. With strength no more his own than his voice, he turned and looked the Joker in the eye.

The Joker was frowning like a petulant child. “I’ve changed my mind,” he rasped. “You’re no fun anymore. No fun at all. You-”

But whatever insult he had been about to hurl was lost in another fit of wheezing coughs, involuntary this time. It didn’t stop.

Calmly, Jason pushed the call button by the door. Dr. Fernandez entered the room, accompanied by a nurse. There was a flurry of activity for several minutes, and then stillness. Fernandez pronounced the Joker dead.

The doctor looked at Jason in silent curiosity, no doubt wondering what had passed in her infamous patient’s final moments, but clearly knowing better than to ask.

“Could you...give me a moment?” Jason asked.

Fernandez hesitated, but then acquiesced. Jason looked at the man who had haunted his nightmares for years. The clown’s mouth was slack now, neither grinning nor scowling.

This man had done untold evil. He had been the cause, deliberately, of all the worst suffering in Jason’s own life. He had shown no remorse, refused the sacraments, and died full of bitterness and spite. What was left for a priest to do here?

Returning to the sink, Jason opened the unused leather case and removed the small prayer book. He found the appropriate page quickly as he walked back to the bedside. Placing his right hand, no longer shaking, on the waxen forehead of the corpse, he read the familiar words.

“Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine…”

#jason todd #father todd #catie writes things #same bat tag same bat time #my weird self indulgent catholic fan fic #redheaded priest jason #enjoy #pro ginger jason

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