#Balance eachother out?

[dcxdpdabbles]

Holiday request: single dad

Bruce admits that he is unsure of the seriousness of his relationship with Daniel Fenton. He had never meant to run into the man after the parent-teacher conference. Yes, his introduction had a breath of fresh air, but Bruce was not naive.

It may have all been a trick, and Fentong was merely waiting to try to get closer to him or his money later on. He has always been optimistic about the good in man's hearts, but Bruce is also familiar with the equal darkness there.

That's why spotting the man in a busy cafe was such a shock. Bruce had gone on a walk between meetings, wanting something sweet to tie him over for the follow-up one.

He walked into a random family-owned place with a spicy smell. Bruce had been browsing the menu when he heard the soft melody for Fairy Tale Ending by Dumpty Humpty. Looking around a pillar, he found Daniel Fenton bobbing his head to the music while tapping away on his old beat-up laptop.

The cashier sees him staring and smiles apologetically. "We don't usually have people here, so we let him play his music. If it bothers you, I can ask him to get his headphones on."

"Oh no. I actually like the band." He assures her, paying for his drink and dropping a ten in her tip jar. He glances at Fenton again, then points, "What is he drinking?"

"Gingerbread Latte and a chocolate croissant," She responds easily, and at that moment, Bruce knows she hasn't recognized him. Not that he expects everyone on the street to point him out in a crowd, but it does mean she won't take pictures of him.

She doesn't know the photos could get her some money from down-on-their-luck gossip rags. He considers Fenton a little longer before nodding at her. "Can I have a gingerbread Latte? The exact same as his."

"You got it."

Bruce doesn't know what urges him to approach Fenton with the two drinks- though the cashier giving him a wink might have clued him in and clears his throat just as Fenton gets to the chorus. Blue eyes blink up at him. "Oh, Mr. Wayne. Hi."

"Good afternoon," Bruce starts, which causes Fenton to snort. With good-natured humor, he grins up at Bruce, and Bruce feels his intrigue rise just a few notches higher.

"Good afternoon to you as well, milord." The man says, one hand over his chest, bending his neck a little in a mock bow. "Has thy golden carriage brought to thy to me?"

"Having a golden carriage is a privilege for only the Roayl family. My carriage is made of silver, I assure you." Bruce laughs, stepping closer. This is different from the cashier. Fenton knows who he is, but he simply doesn't care.

Bruce is merely Bruce to him instead of the wealthiest man in the city and the country. It's....well, it's liberating, like being reminded that there are good and wonderful things still left in life. If this is how Fenton makes him feel only after the second meeting, what else could Bruce experience if he formed a bond with him?

Fenton's eyes catch the extra drink Bruce holds, lighting up when the other man offers it to him. He accepts the cup, offering the chair opposite from him. When Brue sits down, he asks about what he was writing where. Fenton admits to being a fantasy novelist and moves the conversation to what they enjoy reading.

Bruce arrived late to his next meeting but felt lighter, and a phone number scribbled on the back of his hand just like when he was a teenager and traveling states away to attend Dumpty Humpty Concerts.

The rest, like they say, is history.

Danny had quickly become a part of his life. It was odd how giggly the other man made him feel. Danny was a good balance to Bruce's brooding. Ironically, while Bruce believed the best in humans, keeping a calm center persona, Danny was cynical and bubbly. He assumed people were terrible, but there was no reason to give them any mind, and he was unapologetic for being himself.

After their third date, Bruce has worked up the nerve to ask Danny to be his boyfriend, only to have the other man laugh. "I thought we were boyfriends?"

"I didn't want to assume."

"Well, aren't you a gentleman? Look at those soft hands. You've never seen a day of work. Gentle-handed man," Danny teased while watching the people around them. Bruce knew there wasn't any real danger, but Danny had a habit of watching their surroundings in public places.

He didn't like being caught unaware. Bruce thinks he's in love. The thing is, Bruce has thought that before, and every single time, his relationship had fallen through.

He had a hand in it, but that didn't mean his partners never broke his heart one way or another.

But this time, things would be different.

Dick had pointed it out when he ran into the two at the grocery store. Danny had invited him to help pick out dinner while Dani had been on an overnight field trip at the planetarium. His eldest had cornered him when he returned the next day, smiling widely.

"Danny seems excellent. He's like an undercover goth dating an undercover prep. You both are literally the opposite of each other and seem to like spending time around each other."

Bruce wasn't entirely sure whether it was a bad or good thing, but he was happy that his kids approved of him dating again. He did get a little nervous about Damian, only to find out his youngest had come to idolize Dani, and that only made him hope the relationship would work out even more.

He could see it now, Danny tapping away on his laptop while Dani painted next to him in the Wayne Manor yard- Both preferred to be in nature- on cozy weekends. His children crowding the breakfast table while Danny sang songs from bands he'd never heard.

Birthday candles are being blown out with the cheering family. Christmas mornings followed the candle lighting of Hanukkah on the previous eight nights. Graduation ceremonies that will bring Bruce to tears despite claiming he has trained too hard to do so. Boyfriends and girlfriends, the two could tag team into scaring while their children regretted ever bringing them over for an introduction.

Danny would be the last thing he saw when he closed his eyes before bed and the first thing he saw in the morning light.

Bruce wasn't sure how their relationship was going, but he hoped, oh, he hoped.

[melly-artes]

Helping around the picnic table

[ningadudexx]

.

Ive had enough im going to leap into the monkey cage today at the zoo and start talking about monkey king

[teethcake]

Mmm mullet woowoo 🫶

Bonus (semi nsfw):

[capn-twitchery]

important oc distinction to me is twitch is a high seas adventure protagonist who is trying really hard not to get dragged into horror. but they Will be

grace is a horror/tragedy protagonist* who is trying really hard not to get dragged into this high seas adventure by twitch. but he Will be!

*horror protagonist except he stole the role from that one guy he killed. this wasn't his role he just killed a nemesis pc and took his place

[luck-of-the-drawings]

smth smth about 'the thing that the character did that you thought was rly rly funny in the moment is actually linked to a terrible trauma that lies within said character.' or wahtever.

[blluntrotation]

sorry nothing really to show, for now, only starry little doodles

[cherealta]

vivienne would throw all her goals out of the window if it meant staying with the people she loves the most vs agnieszka would isolate herself so she could achieve her goals.

more under the cut!

vivienne grew up in a tight-knit family. she was surrounded by them mainly because one, her grandparents owned a resort in thailand which her mother and uncle helped with, and two, her three cousins feeling like siblings more than anything. because of this she would get lonely easy as not being around people for even a hour would be such a foreign feeling to her. obviously stuff happened as she got older, she grew less close (didn't help moving to the us by herself for the first year when she was just about to turn fourteen, then her mother coming over to the states too when it didn't work out with living with her father - long story). she started losing her mother's constant attention when she was around 10, leading her to try and find it in other places. the co-dependant bsf was that place. it wasn't healthy for either of them. that best friend in question being dao - who'll get her proper introduction soon hopefully. but for now i'll leave it at that (mwahahaha).

this didn't get better when she moved to the states. in fact it got worse. she went to some fancy boarding school that her father sent her to because he still couldn't face her properly. she had nobody that she knew by her side. everyone was a stranger. not only that but she had to learn american customs, to conform to their standards. so she did anything, literally anything, to get the attention she needed. she didn't want to be alone. because for vivienne being alone meant she failed. it reminded her of her mother's sudden distance. she never got a full reason why, just guesses, and it lead her to believe she wasn't a good enough daughter for her mother anymore. not only that she couldn't let them leave like dao. it lead to a lot of hurt and trouble for vivienne. even though she hates looking back on this part of herself i think it helped her grow a lot. it made her realize her actions can have bad consequences, even the smallest ones.

at berry high where she could make her own rules and not subject herself to hellish social standards she was setting herself at the boarding school i think it helped her relax and be a lot less reckless. but she still loses herself at times. not only that but it's hard for the students to see vivienne faltering because they see her as a symbol more than another human being (not exactly their fault and honestly this more how vivienne thinks than the actual reality. but i'll explore this a lot more when i go into detail about how the ace saga personally affected her). hell she even did fall into the trap of pushing people away because guess what - she's human!

but at the end of it all, vivienne doesn't even know what she wants for herself. even by the end of her senior year were she grows A LOT. this leads her to have a gap year and going back to thailand for a year. it helped her understand herself more and to heal a bit from her childhood. now in the year of 2024 which she's currently 26 i think she still has a lot of places to grow. learning how to be selfish for ONCE will help this girl by a long run. somebody tell her it's okay to argue for her opinions, thoughts and feelings instead of feeling like somebody will shoot her in the face if she ever does anything that they don't like.

then you have agnieszka. a lonely child. her mother and father clearly fell out of love by 1996, but they didn't divorce. her mother had to fight her family to even marry him. he was a poor immigrant from poland, to her family they saw him as a nothing more than a dirty social climber. her agreeing to name her agnieszka was a massive fuck you, so divorcing him will just let her family have that win which she'll not let them have. then on the other hand agnieszka's father had finally managed to get himself (and by extension his siblings) a very comfortable life. why would he give that up? they live in the same house until agnieszka has moved out, trying to keep up an "image". even after her mother found out about vivienne and his affair, she still stayed. but they don't share the same room. they don't even sit in the same room as one another.

agnieszka being undiagnosed with autism didn't help either. she constantly felt out of place. her mother tried to "correct" her odd ways, her father told her that she should only embrace those ways in private. this caused her to mask, which lead to her hiding such a key part of her identity. she would just be whatever people said she was. it was easier that way. it's not like she agreed with most people. she didn't understand why life worked the way it did. why her parents lived like that. but it seemed like a easier choice for her at the time.

when she went to school (catholic private school no doubt) she had to conceal even more of herself. she had a gut feeling she liked girls when she was around 14, though she didn't get the confirmation until a girl kissed her. hell she barely knew this girl! she doesn't even remember how it happened. but she was afraid - until she was 17 when she started to give less of a fuck. it became an open secret to the sapphics of the private school. letting herself be their experiment. nothing real ever came out of them. but agnieszka didn't complain. it wasn't like she could hate a bunch of cute girls wanting to kiss her. but it didn't help her with the feeling that most relationships are just superficial nonsense that people use to get further in life and for their own selfish reasons.

she had friends in school - though she lost contact with all of them except two. a lot of them didn't understand why she'd cut herself off from her parents just to live a life she wanted. but agnieszka was tired of living in the shadow of somebody or just being an extension of them. she wanted to make a name for herself but she didn't want to let people in too close. if her parents failed her how could anybody else not?

this is why she chose to showcase her art and became a fashion designer. some of the collections were about personal parts of her life covered with fancy and pretentious words as the name of the collection and then some were things she was simply liked. it allowed people to know who she was while simultaneously not directly saying it.

i think like vivienne (but instead of high school it was university) helped her grow. she learnt to let people get close to her, to build actual connections. it was hard at first. she was still lowkey socially awkward and had a hard time understanding others but as time passed she had a better grasp. though she made sure she lived life how she wanted. if anybody disagreed? they could simply leave. no matter how close. but at the same time i think learning that relationships don't have to be this super complex soul-bonding thing could help her... a lot.

[simperius]

thinking about how if all my tv crushes teamed up they would be so powerful. these mfs would devise the most formidable insane scheme of all time and execute it with competence and style

[dailykugisaki]

Day 186 | id in alt

Maki beloved!!!!!

[drxgony]

some more oc doodles, just one in fact. this is of one of my non rook oc that i have paired with illario. give me a forced together angry rivals that hate eachother story to unlikely battle duo lovers and ill eat that UP.

[hertwood]

the more alex n franco get to know eachother the more fun the banter gets 'almost as tall as you' what if i Passed Out

[otakuwithapen]

Chat and Claw Blanc are rotting my brain, it's a problem. The sketch isn't colored, but they're Blanc I promise lol Two traumatized kitties, no one in Paris to talk to but eachother. It's only marginally healthier than talking to petrified corpses. Maybe they'll stumble into a recovery arc, maybe they'll just make eachother worse, who knows.

[skeletonzimms]

this trope always and forever

[rhythm-of-space]

I just will never understand why the universe didn't make me Josh's tall girlfriend and him my short king. Like life is so unfair.

[iamnotmereally]

"I wish I knew how to quit you" is exactly what it is. idk what it is but it is exactly what it is