#Bruce Wayne meta grief

[rmbunnie]

It's most likely just Starlin trying to get to Jason dying faster because he did not like Robin, but the whole "Jason's spiraling because of his grief for his parents" thing they were trying to spin was honestly really weird, not supported by the rest of the run INCLUDING the parts Starlin wrote, and kinda reads like an unreliable narrator situation because all of the information supporting it is given through Bruce's narration, him speculating on Jason's thoughts and actions.

The plot thread of Jason's grief for his family affecting his behavior shows up like TWO issues after Jason first becomes Robin back when Collins was writing, and gets sorted out after one conversation where Jason gets to confront Bruce about hiding his father's death from him for 6 months. After that Jason is behaving normally until they encounter three predators in a row, and each time Bruce insists that they can't do anything because of The Rules and assorted red tape/diplomatic immunity plotlines. (The sister of a woman who got dismembered actually tricked the violent-misogynist killer who dismembered her sister (and then got his serial killings dismissed through a technicality) into attacking her, and ends up killing him in self-defense, and then Jason's like "seems fair" and Bruce is like "no. it's NOT. we need to follow laws and not take justice into our own hands. which like wtf Bruce! you are a vigilante who just used a custom tank to fight an evil televangelist! who then got ripped to shreds by his followers while you watched!)

Bruce kinda just decides with Alfred that it must be grief upsetting him and not the dozens of brutally killed women and their predatory killers who the law inexplicably protected, (all written by Starlin, so retconning it for DitF like five issues later would be an odd move) but the only text claiming that's why Jason was upset is from Bruce's POV and through Alfred's dialogue. Jason himself doesn't display any signs of grief in the story itself, or even act or speak in a way that alludes to Catherine and Willis beyond looking at a picture of them and smiling fondly while he sorts through their possessions. He kinda just happens upon the box with his mother's info by chance, and is like ok i guess we're doing mom searches now. He was only going for a walk through his old neighborhood, not actively searching out info on his family. When Jason is deciding whether or not to run off without telling Bruce, he considers telling him and then goes "no, all he cares about is being Batman, he wouldn't even understand why I want to see my mom." Which, I mean, "Bruce wouldn't get it" is a REALLY odd angle if the sole motivator for spiraling, then getting benched* and running away to search out his bio-mom, was because he was mourning his dead parents, a thing he notably has in common with Bruce. That statement only really makes sense if he's thinking about a different thing that was greatly upsetting to him that Bruce brushed past, like maybe a combo of hiding the murder of his dad for half a year and allowing several cases involving sexual violence to freely develop body counts in the name of the law.

Lots of people have written about how Jason's stay in the manor might have seemed dependent on being Robin with how he was kinda just scooped up, but (if we're including Detective Comics in our characterization,) Bruce had offered to let him resign from Robin and just live with him (a little late, but still. It's worth noting Batman proper shows Jason afraid and uncomfortable at the thought of Dick taking Robin back, which lends more merit to the housing-dependent-on-Robin-misunderstanding interpretation, but canon is pick and choose anyways.) The lack of trust involved in his choice to search out his mom kinda reads like it was bred by more than that alone, and Bruce's prioritization of the law over the protection of the people it ignores is notably upsetting to him in the prior issues. tbh I really do believe the outcomes of those cases could have informed Jason's stance that Bruce's method of justice is ineffective right alongside his own murder and his experiences in Lost Days.

It would make sense for Bruce to not consider his own actions while he's thinking through things that would upset Jason, because from his point of view the things there that were bothering Jason were the criminals alone, not the way that the methods with which they were approaching their crimes continually led to the perpetrators evading actual justice. During the point in DitF where he's thinking through motivations for Jason's running away because something isn't adding up for HIM, the idea doesn't so much as cross his mind. It would also add another layer to Jason's sulkiness upon Bruce's arrival if he held the belief that Bruce is ignoring the consequences his brand of justice has on victims (and the way it's affecting him to helplessly watch it play out), starts to hope that Bruce actually can understand his thought processes/relate to him when he shows up, only to be told to his face that Bruce is prioritizing his style of justice over Jason again. With the way everything that led Jason to his bio-mom was comically circumstantial and the context of the previous issues, it's kind of the ONLY way Death in the Family makes sense to me. Tldr: I feel like the grief claimed as reasoning for Jason's actions leading up to his death is mainly speculation from Bruce and Alfred and the more textually-supported reason for his erratic behavior and lack of trust in Bruce is the lack of intervention in several sensitive cases that led them to worsen unobstructed and eventually permitted them to escalate into casualties in 2 out of 3 cases.

*Also, side note, but the idea that Jason got benched for the Filipe situation, while perfectly reasonable, is not quite spot on. The Filipe situation escalated into the fight in the junkyard where his dad is crushed by a car and Bruce is all "everything you do has consequences" which is kinda big words for a guy whose lack of action indirectly lead to a girls death earlier in the storyline, but true. Jason actally gets benched because he jumps directly into gunfire while fighting the third set of predators and Bruce starts to worry he's getting a little suicidal with it. He baits a guy into shooting at him on purpose again trying to protect mom prospect number 1 later on in DitF, so Bruce might have had a point with that one.

[fantastic-nonsense]

"Maybe I needed it once. But I trained here, with The Flying Graysons, before I trained with you, Bruce. You know what the key is to a good trapeze act? Letting go...trusting that there's someone on the other side to catch you. You taught me a lot. But I learned from them to leap into the light. We're not the same, don't you see, Bruce? I had you." -Detective Comics #1074

hang on a minute y'all, I need to go scream into the abyss

[yvtro]

there's a verse in louise glück's "a myth of devotion" that goes like that:

He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you but he thinks this is a lie, so he says in the end you’re dead, nothing can hurt you. 

and it makes me think of how bruce can't come to terms with jay being alive, and how he refuses any kind of emotional engagement with that fact. this verse encaptures one of possible reasons for this refusal so well. it's a form of self-preservation; he feels helpless when confronted with jay's anger and pain. if jason is alive, it means that he failed him again, that he already lost him again. and bruce can't live with that. denial, then.

you're dead, nothing can hurt you.

[s-darling-art]

Meta Bats AU

TW Derealization

After Jason died he haunted the a Manor.

The first time Bruce caught a glimpse of Jason’s ratty red hood darting around a corner, he went straight to the cave and tested for every single toxin and poison in the database three times. He was cleared every time.

The next time it happened was in the cave, Dick had needed to cross reference some data he’d collected in Blüdhaven against some old files kept in the backlogs of the bat computer. Bruce had just been returning from an extra long patrol and caught Dick on his way out, Jason trailing behind him.

The incidents were few and far between, he’d hear Jason’s snorting laughter in between jokes Dick would throw Alfred’s way, hear the familiar pattern of Jason’s footfalls intermingled with Dick’s in the garage.

In hindsight, Bruce should have known.

When Dick first came to live with Bruce the boy kept any and all traces of his abilities shoved deep within himself. It wasn’t until a year later that Bruce got to see a glimpse of the magic that runs through the Grayson family. Dick had been in the middle of emphatically telling Bruce a story from his life at Hayley’s, his hands waving and fluttering, voice rising and dropping at the appropriate moments, when Bruce heard it.

A faint melody filled the room as Dick’s story continued towards its climax, rising and swelling with every word. Dick seemed to be sitting under a spotlight and if Bruce squinted he could just barely make out the outfit Dick had spent a whole two minutes describing. From the shimmering sequins of his ruby red leotard to the gold glitter of his stage makeup, it was all there. The smell of kettle corn and chalk faded with the last of Dick’s words, but if he strained hard enough Bruce could still hear the faint roar of a crowd.

After that Dick had no reservations using his ability. From pulling silly pranks at the manor or heightening Batman’s scare factor in dark alleys, the alluring gleam of Grayson magic filled Bruce’s life.

Bruce really should have known.

It took too long for him to recognize what was happening, even Alfred who had a knack at spotting Dick’s influence was slow to put the pieces together. Or maybe neither wanted to see it.

Bruce followed the sound of Dick’s voice to the den, he had been staying at the Manor while his ankle healed— Bruce had seen a lot of Jason since. With a clearer mind, a knowledge of what was really happening, Bruce could recognize that Dick was speaking to an empty room, that Jason’s young voice riddled with cracks wasn’t actually responding. In the months that Bruce had been catching glimpses and hearing snippets, he had never actually seen whatever Dick had been, Alfred neither.

Laying on the floor, nose scrunched and tongue out in concentration was Jason, Dick shoulder to shoulder with him as they played a racing game. Bruce knew this moment, it had been real once. He had stumbled across them like this a week after Jason’s 14th birthday, Dick had gifted him the console and would come over once a week to play with Jason.

Bruce could see through it all now.

Freckles were missing from Jason’s face, the tv lay dormant, the lights hadn’t been turned on. Grief and guilt lay heavy in the air and when Dick turned to Bruce his eyes had gone blank in a way he’d only seen once. Once when Dick was too convincing, when he’d left the interrogation room apologizing and a glaze-eyed henchman shivering in the chair. The man came back to reality an hour later.

Dick was smiling now, he was laughing and so was Jason and Bruce could feel the tears sliding down his face. Those were real. He’d gathered Dick in his arms, pressing him close and tight, and reached for the sparkling magic within his son. He cupped the flame, gathering every stray spark, and closed tight around it until he couldn’t see Jason staring back at him. Until Dick slumped into him, until his son slowly came back to him.

[autisticrosewilson]

Thinking about them again (I never stopped) and I think it's important to acknowledge the nuances of this. It wasn't Catherine's fault but at the end of the day Jason was her caretaker for most of his formative years and watching your mother slowly rot away be it in agony or with a delusional smile is still a horrific thing to witness that young. Holding the cold body of your mom on the floor of your broken little home and always replaying the last memory of your dad telling you to take care of your mom and just- the grief and fear and the knowledge that you failed.

(the anger and the guilt that comes with it because she was your mom and she was hurting and now she's dead, how dare you be mad at her?)

Do you think he's spent the rest of his life chasing after the vision of his mother? Searching for Willis and Catherine in everyone he meets so he can make it right this time? Do you think his favorite things about Bruce were the things he didn't know he had in common with Willis? Do you think he begs Bruce for forgiveness the way he wishes he could beg Catherine for hers? Do you think that when he was catatonic looking up to Talia it wasn't her green eyes and soft hands that he saw?

(Do you think that in the candle light of the leagues library Talia's hair looked red and her face looked soft and he could swear it was Catherine reading to him in a language he only vaguely understood?)

Anyway fic where Jason's best memory/person he loves most/deepest desire is revealed through magic or something but instead of anything to do with the bats or being a vigilante it's him and Catherine. His best memory is his first time visiting the public library with his mom. The person he loves most is the first person who ever loved him. His deepest desire is that his parents never died and he grew up in that little east end apartment and he graduated top of his class and he became a doctor and he got his folks a bigger house and he visits them regularly with his normal civilian boyfriend and they accept him and he's happy. If any of you even care.

[timmydraker]

Tim always has his neck covered.

In photos taken by paparazzi or news articles he’ll be wearing a turtle neck, scarf or the occasional choker.

Around the manor he wears similar things but it’s more often he wears a thick band around his throat. It might be a velvet choker or a sort of sweat and like accessory. Sometimes, if it’s hot or he feels safe and confident, he will wear a thick strip of ribbon that he’ll tie in a bow at the back.

Tim’s Robin suit was altered to make sure his neck was covered after Bruce figured out he was wearing the bands during patrol and began to worry about it being a chance for him to be choked. If it’s not, he has an undershirt that’s thin and goes up to his chin.

He doesn’t eat in public very often and it leads some people to think he had some kind of issue with swallowing or maybe some kind of defect or hole in his throat.

Obviously everyone is curious, from the public to his own parents.

But Tim is a master of getting people to look away.

It’s when Jason comes back to Gotham as Red Hood and attacks Titan Tower than the reason behind is revealed.

Various non-fatal injuries are given to Tim, who of course, figures that is because Red Hood didn’t want to kill him so much as make it so he couldn’t be Robin, but it’s not all that important when other wounds are added and the slice has cut his turtle neck open.

Blood and his hand rushing up to cover his throat is the only cover for what’s under the fabric until he’s in the medical room at the Cave.

Tim is out by the time rescue comes and doesn’t wake for a while.

Which gives his family enough time to go through the grief of witnessing the horror on his neck.

There, between slight tan markings and surrounded by dried blood and a small cut, is a mouth.

It looks like a scar at first, but with some prodding the lines of the ‘scar’ split open and it’s revealed to be two pursed lips that concealed disturbing needle teeth, a nasty forked tongue limp within the unnatural mouth. It’s like something out of a horror movie, as wide as half of Tim’s neck and somehow replacing the usual parts of a throat and neck.

Alfred stands back in shock, same with Leslie, and the two look at each other in confusion.

Wordlessly, Leslie covers up the monstrous mouth with some spare bandages and the two continue to work.

Bruce, who had been nervously watching with a pacing Dick through the window of the makeshift med at in the Cave, feels dread in his stomach at the sight.

Part of it is admittedly because he feels he let a being like Tim be Robin, but it’s more so that the sweet boy with a too quick snark and brain had seemingly been hiding his Meta like ability from everyone. His parents weren’t aware of why Tim hid his throat, which means he wasn’t born with it or it developed later on.

Dick, who loves with his entire heart, can’t help himself from feeling disturbed by his youngers inhuman feature.

Yet they pull it together and with mutual understanding, decide they will find a way to figure this out and adjust to this new reality.

So, when Tim wakes up and immediately checks his throat is covered, Bruce gives him an unused look of being sorry and holds his hand.

“I… we had no choice, your neck was bleeding but-“ he takes a breath and his expression changes to determination, “I understand why you hid your, um…”

Tim in a quiet voice as he forces himself not to freak out mutters, “mutation.”

Bruce smiled at his intellectual son, “Mutation. Dick said you might be worried I would make you leave and I swear to you, Tim, both as Batman and Bruce Wayne, that you will never be made to leave this place. This is your home, that will not change.”

It takes a moment for Tim to fully process what had been said to him and he begins to shake, tears threatening to fall as he brings a hand to cover his throat.

“Are you-are you scared of it?”

Of me?

Bruce feels guilt form in his stomach and moved without thinking, pulling his heavily injured child into his arms and kissing his head, “Never, not now and not ever. I admit I was… unsure of how to react at first, but I know you Tim.”

Tim begins to sob then, clinging to Bruce and forgetting all the pain and panic he woke up with to feel the embrace of his mentor.

It’s enough to make Dick’s penitence snap and he moves into the room and joins their hug, squeezing them both tightly as possible.

When they pull back, Tim sees them both glance at his throat and sucks in a deep breath.

Dick raises a hand to his free one and says, “you don’t have to show us if you don’t want to.” But Tim shakes his head and pulls the bandage off carefully.

“I don’t want to hide anymore, not if I don’t have to.”

There, below his chin, is the mouth.

Now that he is awake, the mouth is more active. Its tongue lolls out for a moment, licking over the sharp teeth before flicking and slinking back inside.

When Tim speaks again the mouth doesn’t move, though it does seemingly smile, “It doesn’t talk, that’s kind of the only reason I still have the one on my face. I need to eat with this one though and it can be anything, organic or not.”

Dick looks on with wonder, pushing away his nerves to support his brother.

Bruce looks like he’s itching to do test or ask questions, and Tim smiles gratefully at him and does his best to supply what he does know, “It started to form when I was three but didn’t open until I was six and by then I found I couldn’t eat with my main mouth. It was when I found myself chewing on my fork and the metal broke and I ate it safely I realised I can eat all material.”

Smiling shyly, Tim searches the back of his head and says, “Steal taste the best.”

When Dick snorts a laugh and Bruce raises a curious eyebrow, Tim looks around and finds a spare pencil beside him on the side table.

The two watch as Tim’s entire head falls backwards for his gaunt mouth to open, looking almost like he’s been half decapitated.

The younger shoots out, wraps around the pencil, and then crushes its with strength and teeth until he swallows it down and his head falls back into place.

Bruce breaks and starts asking questions while Dick pokes at his brothers neck.

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

So I saw a post with art about Paulina and Damian being twins in spirit and I thought it was so GOOD AND I CANYVGWY IT OIT OF MY HEADDD

So Paulina and Damian were born in the Leauge, and because Paulina was the girl and the youngest she was treated more harshly out of the two.

Talia couldn’t take it and took Paulina to the states and put her up for adoption and told Ra’s she had died. Damian and Paulina were 5

Damian grew up without his twin, believing she died. He moved in with his father when he was 9 and didn’t mentioned because what was the point of mentioning someone who wasn’t even alive anymore. He also wanted to preserve her memory, he knew his sister as a firce warrior, and the family’s grief and pity would hurt the image he had of her in his mind

So, when Damian is 15 and is banned from patrol for one reason or another he’s in the batcave, looking over the paper work from the MCOA (meta children of America, a program to try and locate meta children with powers to help them gain control and stability) and discovers two extremely powerful metas in Illinois.

Danny Fenton and Paulina Sanchez

(I think they got flagged as a meta because Danny is a halfa and Paulina spent her early childhood years around the pits and amity, she would be affected)

At first, looking at Paulinas photo hurt him, because she looks so much like his sister.

And he realizes that she is his sister.

Without telling anybody, he boards the next flight to Amity.

Paulina’s life as a civilian was jarring compared to the LOA. She had figured out Fentons identity almost immediately and (for fun) decide to pretend to be obsessed with him.

And when the school had them submit their DNA for the MCOA test, she was a bit worried, but here was nothing she could do at the time.

After the LOA didn’t come knocking, she figured she as safe.

Until she was sitting in Lancers class and her twin brother walking the room.

She doesn’t know that he’s not with the League, so she thinks he going to bing her and she not about to return.

So she brawls him in the middle of class.

They keep fighting, Damian fighting on defense, and Paulina digging on offense until Damian chokes out that he’s not with his mother any more and he’s with his father now

Paulina: oh we have a dad now? How is he

Damian: stupid

Paulina: you must take after him! What his name?

Damian: Bruce Wayne

Paulina: 🫢

Unfortunately, someone records the entire brawl and posts it on social media before they realize, and suddenly the Waynes are in Amity and so is the League.

And once the League takes one look at Phangom with his ectoplasmic abilities like the Lazarus pit they also attempt to capture him.

So now not only does the whole world know that there’s another Wayne girl, but that Damian and Paulina were raised in a cult and that Ghosts are real.

So Paulina and Danny take shelter in Gotham with the Wayne’s and JLA protecting them (the LOA is one of the JLAs enemies)

(Danny x Damian!!)

[brucewaynehater101]

What if Tim was a meta with ability to erase and change people's memories (like Pudding from One Piece) and when he felt like he had to disappear he erased memories of himself from Batfam's minds??

Ye!

The batfam become confused af as well. They feel something is missing. There's a hole in their lives, but they can't tell what it is. They can't tell that their memories are missing because Tim erased the memory of the third Robin from everyone's minds.

Despite having no recollection of Tim (and despite him deleting all evidence that says contrary), everyone still feels his absence.

Alfred, for some reason he can't place, keeps setting an additional plate down for dinner. He finds himself buying Zesti flavors none of the Waynes like.

Jason feels an odd sort of grief when he notices his jacket is still draped over the back of the couch where he left it.

Bruce finds himself drowning in work despite the workload being the same as it always is. He goes to send his analysis of an interesting cold case but pauses at the contact name.

Cass knows, to the very being in her bones, that her family isn't whole. She just doesn't know why.

Duke finds himself dropping by Wayne Enterprises during his dayshift, but he doesn't know where he wants to go. He's also bothered by the window in the CEO office being locked how it's supposed to be.

Titus won't stop whining as he sits in front of a bedroom in the family wing that's always been empty.

For some reason, Barbara has every other Tuesday night completely empty. Despite her hectic schedule and her needing that time to get work done, she can't bring herself to fill it.

Damian is getting so frustrated every time he tries to paint. There's a face he keeps drawing, but it's blurry. He doesn't know who it is, and he doesn't know why it causes him to feel so much.

Steph cracks a smile when she sees a brick but doesn't know why. There's a plethora of inside jokes she knows but doesn't understand. None of the other Bats react to them either.

Dick stares at the photo of himself with his parents and two strangers. He thought his mourning had lessened over the years. He still feels it, but he usually remembers the good times when he looks at this picture. Now, it's as if he's feeling their loss anew. He's grieving, but somehow, he knows it's not about them. He doesn't know what else it could be.

[cologona]

The thing about Bruce making Dick Robin is that it can be read as empathy. Bruce and Dick both lost their family in the same way, and so Bruce tries to help Dick by giving him what he wanted as a young orphan. Justice, closure, power, meaning. Something to make the world right again, some way to move forward, someone who understands.

But that same reading is not as easy to apply to Jason

If I were to read Bruce in a particularly unflattering light, I'd say Bruce fundamentally saw Jason as more expendable than Dick. He was so afraid of losing Dick that he totally sabotaged that relationship, but he's fine with this much younger kid playing the same dangerous role? Jason is a tough street kid sure sure, but is he tougher than 18 year old Dick motherfucking Grayson??? No.

If I were to read Bruce in a more sympathetic light, I'd say that in Bruce's mind orphan = craving-for-justice-that-can-only-be-satiated-with-vigilantism, and since he found out Jason's father was dead he was trying to give Jason the same guidance and empowerment Dick got. He genuinely thought it would work. He did this at the same time that he was actively hiding the death of Jason's father, because this intense self-projection is happening at the subconscious level. He simultaneously wants to comfort the orphan and prevent the orphan from becoming "real" by hiding the truth. It is not logical but it is well-meaning.

(This self-projection is also the source of Bruce's bizarre assertion that Jason has anger issues- he isn't a classist asshole he's just sensitive! 👉👈)

Either way, there is clearly an instability to the concept of Jason's Robin. Batman and Robin requires suspending one's disbelief about child soldiers to degree higher than other superheroes, but there's not quite enough to support that suspension here.

Because how exactly is being Robin supposed to help Jason? What about Jason's supposed anger issues lend themselves to being helped by vigilantism? Jason could've just been Bruce Wayne's son, so why is he also Robin?

...Would Jason have just been Bruce Wayne's son?

I.. don't think so. I don't think Bruce adopted him just to offer a good home- not really. Bruce certainly wanted Jason to have a good home, but that's what sending him to Ma Gunn's school was supposed to be. Ma Gunn didn't work out sure, but it's not like she was the only option. Bruce could've just done more research the second time around. If Jason had rejected becoming Robin, would Bruce have still adopted him? If Batman had not intended for Jason to become involved with hero work, could you see him still sending Jason off to Wayne Manor to be adopted?

Bruce didn't just want a son, or even just a Robin. He wanted something specific- he wanted the feeling of having Dick back. Bruce praises Jason for how similar he is to Dick in his head, and based on Alfred's warning and Jason's own behavior, he apparently compared Jason to Dick quite a bit during training. When Dick himself eventually comes to confront Bruce about why there's another Robin, he pretty much lays it bare: Jason is Robin because he missed Dick. That's the core of it.

Now on one hand this is flattering for Jason! It means he was chosen for the Robin mantle because he demonstrated the good qualities similar to the original. In another universe maybe Jason Todd's Robin isn't the angry one or the dead one, maybe he got to develop and he could've become the Robin that came from sharing laughter and life rather than grief. A Cinderella? A little lotus boy.

On the other hand that's not the universe we live in and this reason has absolutely fuck-all to do with Jason.

As for Tim, parentification is straight up the basis of his Robin. It’s impossible to read his “Batman needs Robin” spiel without reading it as a meta statement because in-universe it’s just an extremely frgiggi depressing scenario.

I think Dick might be the only person for whom Bruce's intense self-projection kinda worked out. Not that their relationship was good, but the core of it was okay? Cassandra comes close but Bruce sorta… lives out his dreams of being all-Batman all-the-time through her. He pushed his bad impulses onto her and she didn’t understand the value of not being Batman so it came off really creepy. He was encouraging her to rely him. Like a tool.

[anonymous-existences]

"The reminder of what was lost will always be heartbreaking."

My Hands may be trembling in pain and I might have become lazy and decided "let's not draw the bat", I am not very good with panel drawings tho i might try it now more often. Totally not rushed-

Anyways continuation Prompt of my first one just 2(?) days ago:

Danny would have been found by Bruce Wayne himself, as Batman ofcourse and he would've found Danny in a vivisection escapee type of way where he plastered his wounds. Bleeding out what seems to be "Lazarus Pits Water" but much purer in terms of visual, Danny as a 13-15 years old boy at the time would be be desperate to live, but too weak to beg for life. He loses consciousness just before he could speak to the big bat himself.

Batman is the man who would not let a child die and bleed out, or any people in need be it 'meta' or not. B would take Danny home to the Wayne Manor and into the bat cave where Robin Who is confused on who did his father bring home now would try to question but would hesitate as because Danny is obviously in great pain.

That's the first prompt of how he'd find the Danny of my first prompt. But for the art I've drawn it'd be more like this:

Barbara was curious on who the newly home bought baby bat is, coming unannounced and cooing over the little odd baby who seems very stunned seeing her.

In Danny Perspective all he sees is his late sister Jasmine Fenton making him tear up and be overwhelmed with grief and sadness as Nightwing tries to be big brother mode and comfort the little odd kid, Bruce unable to comfort because he doesn't know how to and he just tires to console Danny that everything is okay.

In that prompt I'd imagine Danny would be very close with Barbara and sees her as a big sister literally.

Seeing her brings him comfort and he slowly processes on how to move on from the grief of losing Jazz.

:)) hope you liked that prompt <33 although the art is not the best rn.

[psalmsofpsychosis]

Good morning why are you waiting outside of my house, i've been in the walls of your room for two weeks and i'm just starting to run out of cookies and black tea—

jokes aside though, oh look it's my favourite song. Personally to me it's hard to map out Bruce's personality and preferences on a molecular (!) level because listen– this guy is a shithead intellectual. He wakes up 5 in the morning and he intellectualises and justfies and rearranges his thoughts and emotions 55 times per second till he goes to bed at 1AM. He lives in a world of concepts and idealogies, to a great degree he's less of a human being himself and more of an idea, the idea of Batman. That, to me, is why his body is merely a vessel to him, why he and everything that he is comes second to his idealogy and The Mission, why he has such an easy time surpassing himself and doesn't register emotional and physical pain (and in extension of that, pleasure) when it happens. He has basically suppressed his emotions and his humanity, banishing it all to his subconscious where they take on very fucked up weird shapes and haunt him, internally or externally *cough*joker*cough* AND. He's got a good reason for this— his most painfully human moment was the night his parents died in front of him and he couldn't do anything about it. So in a way, Bruce Wayne's humanity is the first enemy he tries to kill, and he can't.

His emotional preferences like sadism and masochism are a part of his humanity— nobody knows what the hell goes on downstairs in the locked up basement of Bruce's personality, least of all himself. He doesn't think about pain or pleasure on a conscious level, we as the audience only get to hear the rattles of the door to the basement where he keeps the monsters. (and if you got reminded of Batcave with that wording it's because you're right and there's a direct allegorical link between the Batcave and Bruce Wayne's subconscious but that's a different talk for another day.)

On the subject of Bruce's relationship with pain though— i threw the concept of Batman's painplay kink at @fanworldbuildingfun and she said "that's a pavlovian response" which broke my spine in half because it's true. Bruce arranges his entire life around subconscious associations and equations, he associates love with pain and loss so when pain arrives, love is nearby; the moment he's about to lose something and someone dear is the moment he feels so much love, he re-enacts this association in nearly every aspect of his life.

But he also associates love with feelings of helplessness —he could've saved his parents if he wasn't so weak, he thinks— so he immediately starts fighting. The more love he feels, the more he fights and struggles against, and that fighting creates hope, hope that this time he'll win and he'll fix what went so awfully wrong. It's a chain reaction of interconnected unfortunate needs and he doesn't break the cycle because the goal, the endgame, the love, is his only remaining connection to himself and his humanity, everything else has become a protocol and a script he plays out day in and day out at this point, but the pain and the love? they're the only parts of him that remain unscripted and spontaneous and real.

so, long story not-really-short-i'm-sorry, emotionally Bruce Wayne is a runaway dog and sexually he's a pavlovian response, depending on which association he responds to in the moment his reaction can completely change direction and fall off a cliff, you can't even call him consistently sadist because he pulls punches in contexts where he could deliver, and then he turns around and tries to kill the very person he saved three pages ago. And besides accounting for the writers' inconsistencies, what you can ask of the context is, which bell is ringing just around the corner?

Bruce is emotionally a masochist and sexually a sadist comfirmed 🤑😨😱????? Or both, hes batman he can do anything (except therapy)

Lol. You could put it that way, though I think it's a lot more complicated, and at the end of the day, ambiguous. There's multiple ways to interpret this side of Bruce, but while I agree that sadism is easy to see in his actions, masochism is more complicated. Thing is, if Bruce liked pain (emotional or otherwise)... he would probably avoid it.

To Bruce it isn't about what makes him happy, or feel good. The things he puts himself through, the pain he seeks out, are a form of self-punishment (a major function of being Batman in and of itself). The reasons are easily apparent: survivor's guilt, being helpless and unable to save his parents from being killed, thinking of himself as never enough and his body as an instrument only. As Batman, Bruce doesn't even register pain as a limitation or an obstacle, so a lot of the time it isn't that he looks for it... it's just that he doesn't care if it hurts, as long as he achieves his goals. After all, why would it matter that he's hurting, when he doesn't matter as much as the Mission? His Vow, saving others and forever compensating for a loss he couldn't stop, is more important than his own wellbeing and comfort, both on a physical and emotional level.

Put simply, pain is something he feels he deserves for failing. And in so many ways, pain is what fuels Batman; to quote King, he's an "engine that turns pain into hope". But the issue is that, to maintain the status quo, he cannot be anything else, and the engine needs feeding. It needs fresh pain, which is what Bruce keeps providing.

However, it's really hard to draw the line. If you do something like this for so long, if you make doling out pain and suffering pain an integral part of your life and identity, if it's so familiar it becomes a comfort... is that enjoyment? Is that emotional masochism? I just remembered I had a similar discussion before (link here), with some people making very valid and interesting points-- both about Bruce being masochistic, and not. And recently, @psalmsofpsychosis posted a fascinating meta and then web weave about Bruce's relationship to pain (and Joker, who tortures him the most) that got me thinking and rethinking these aspects again (link here). She pointed out that emotionally, Bruce might equate love to pain because the moment he felt the most love was also the moment he was destroyed by grief; when he lost his parents, the people he loved most. God, do check out the post because it does drive me crazy. "Whenever he experiences pain he feels capable of love." @psalmsofpsychosis I'm outside your house, come out, I just wanna talk--

[zahri-melitor]

...I think one of the reasons I just get bored by a lot of meta and stories about Jason, is that fundamentally I have this issue where for me the most interesting part and the topic I grew up on was the loss that Bruce existed within for essentially all of post-Crisis, rather than Jason feeling that he was failed.

Because I've read and are more invested in comics about Bruce Wayne published between 1989 and 2011.

Because the story of dealing with a traumatic loss of someone before their time, and about Bruce's pain and coping mechanisms (and the pain and coping mechanisms of everyone else around him), is just so much more compelling to me and speaks to my own pain and loss and regrets.

Because of Bruce standing at Jason's grave with Cass on his 18th birthday and trying to talk to Cass about someone she's never met, someone who she only can know by the shape of the loss of those around her, as he talks about the terrible ways parents can love and his regrets. Because he can't even face doing this with Barbara or Dick or Tim.

Because of Bruce's slow progress to see a world again, beyond his loss. To pass through his grief and find a way to face continuing to live and to prevent himself from spiraling back.

Because of the stories Bruce has to tell himself, as he sorts through what he can know and what he can never know, to try and find motivation and reason. And how we know that Bruce will look away from the obvious, searching for another reason and for justification at times when the truth is too close to him.

And every time I see people siding with Jason, mad, that Bruce is so stubborn and firm about his boundaries and personal motivations and what he will and will not do.

It's like. Oh. You don't know and feel that bone deep loss, and understand how fragile yet resilient Bruce's healing is. That he did the right thing, the healthy thing, the only thing he could do to cope...and moved forward. The loss is still there, but he's developed layers of protective callus over it so that he can think about things other than the loss.

Because Bruce chose to live. He chose to move forward. And the fact he largely does not allow himself to wallow is a good thing and the demands that he should turn his back on all that healing because his coping mechanisms are not the ones that Jason Todd, resurrected, thinks he should have had?

Jason wasn't there. He couldn't have been there. And fundamentally he does not have the right to determine Bruce's reaction, because it wasn't about him. It was about Bruce, himself.

[rarepears]

I've always wondered.

If we stick to canon Solo Leveling knowing that Sung Jinwoo is immortal (right??), what's he going to do when his wife is dead, his sister has passed away, and like he's got few social connections to stick around for? Oh and the Rulers reminding him again that it's not good for him to keep sticking around Earth any longer.

So Sung Jinwoo hops to another world. Another Earth like planet. And since I'm still on a DC Universe kick, I think you might be able to guess where I'm going with this.

Sung Jinwoo sets up shop. He's still a detective helping solve murders. He thinks this is basically the same Earth as before, minus a few differences. He goes about like how he did before, unrealizing just how evolved technology has become because he doesn't really use it that much. (Wow, what a boomer.)

Things go out of control quickly, not that he realizes it. People NOTICE that this new detective is a suspiciously high rate of solving cases. He's pretty efficient too. Oh and notice how he seems to talk to thin air and the shadows? "He's a meta" is the quick conclusion people draw. "He's trying to stay low key."

"True, imagine what the baddies would try to do if they knew someone could speak to the dead."

"Just imagine what rich people could do. I bet that Bruce Wayne person would pay fortunes to speak to that murdered adoptive son of his."

The Gotham locals keep the secret real quiet. They appreciate the guy. Still, they can't help themselves. Grief hits hard.

Someone approaches him asking if he could help them say a few words to a brother that was just killing in a car accident three days ago on the way to visit family.

Like dominos, more requests starts piling in.

Naturally that's where one Tim Drake with too much time on his hands notices Sung Jinwoo too. He's not yet approached Batman, still hoping that Batman can snap out of his funk, that maybe Nightwing would go back and be the Robin that Batman needs.

Basically give me an AU where Tim gets adopted by Sung Jinwoo instead and everyone's convinced that Sung Jinwoo is trying to hide the fact that he's a meta no matter how much Jinwoo protests otherwise.

Jinwoo was never trained in covert ops after all. Plus he doesn't like fame but he also doesn't mind it. (He's apathetic to it and people's perceptions of him is more accurate way of portraying it.)

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #98

Danny had a pretty shit life. He was adopted at age 8 after Ra’s slit his throat and his mother threw him into the lazurus pit at the last second. His adopted mom Maddie liked ghosts way more than his adopted dad Jack thought she did. So when Vlad revealed he was half ghost she left Jack for him. Jack in his grief of losing his wife swears all ghosts to be evil especially Vlad. Danny does his best to hide everything from his dad but Jack has started to notice that Danny has some odd behavior from time to time.

Jack decides it’s time for him and his son to leave Amity Park for a while and head to the only other city that they were considering moving too because of the ambient ectoplasm. An invention goes wrong shortly after they move into their apartment and Danny finds himself switching bodies with his twin.

Waking up in Wayne manor was a shock for Danny he didn’t know his brother got adopted by Bruce Wayne, he’s got to sneak out of here and make it back to the apartment as soon as he can so he can switch them back he just hopes his twin won’t assume the worst with his dad.

Waking up in his supposed long dead twins body was a shock for Damian, but apparently he wasn’t at least that’s how he felt when he first woke up but their were several things going on here that didn’t make sense about his twins body. For one his body temperature was way lower than it should be, Damian didn’t need to breathe as much, and it seemed his twin somehow despite not carrying the meta gene developed powers that he very much had difficulty controlling. He’s got to get to his twin he assumes is probably also very confused at the moment.

[casscainmainly]

CASS JASON THOUGHT EXPLOSIONS JUST HIT god I'm too shy to come off anon cause shit at eng,,, but also!!! Thinking abt how Jason would recognize his own inveterate empathy + compassion in her, something he views as a flaw in himself. While Cass, though able to understand his grief, pain and hurt, can't help but resent the way he embraces and embodies behaviors she's fought so hard to leave behind.

They both see parts of themselves in the other :0

It's probably not as bad for Cass post Batgirl 2000 (plus they won't really... seek eachother out... ever?) but Jason... oh boy... he's already unstable...

Also smth smth about both of them and abandoning their civilian identity as a form of self sacrifice,, for Cass it's obvious,, in Jason's case it's because 'someone has to do it' and making himself like a symbol for all victims, the whole process being akin to an immolation of civilian Jason Todd. Someone smarter than me could probably discuss the nature of how they both self-mythologise too in such a similar but varied direction??

IDK !!! :O

Also COOL BLOG,, I LOVE U CASS AND VVV COOL META AND DISCUSSONS!! I SEND U FLOWERS 🌸🌺🌸

They absolutely see bits of themselves in each other!! Especially because their two moralities are defined by a Big Event in a way none of the others are (besides Bruce, of course). I personally agree that they wouldn't seek each other out, but there is insane potential in a story where they're forced to work together (although current Jason is not necessarily the best version for the conflict I'd like to see.).

And BIG yes to your civilian identity point!!! Both of their identities were forcibly taken away from them, Jason by his death and Cass by her father. Of course Cass has never had a true civilian experience, but it's important that both their identities are completely subsumed by their goal: once again, it's the self-reduction to 'murder victim' and 'murderer'. There's no space for normality, for anything other than that defining moment. I guess that might be what you mean by 'self-mythologising', a denying of their fundamental humanity (which they both have, and have always had).

(I know there's lots of headcanons/fics on Jason legally coming back to life, but I'd love to see more of them deal with how he feels about it beyond the logistics/jokes; how does he feel stepping back into an identity chained to both his murder and his relationship to Bruce Wayne?)

Anyway, your thoughts were awesome and you definitely articulated them well! Thank you so much for the flowers <3333.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Burying All Your Children In Small Coffins

by janeaustenlover Jean Racine once said, "A tragedy need not have blood and death: it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy." Copying the works of dead rogues, Copycat is a new Rogue bringing destruction and fear to Gotham City. He leaves behind a victim, a six year old meta. There's blood coating Tim's hands, but she holds them without a second thought and asks if he wants to color with her. Words: 4346, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, DCU Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Original Child Character(s), Original Characters, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon (DCU), Original Antagonist Character(s) Relationships: Tim Drake & Original Character(s), Batfamily Members & Tim Drake (DCU), Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Duke Thomas, Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake & Jim Gordon (DCU), Tim Drake & Prudence Wood Additional Tags: Major Original Character(s), Tim Drake is Batman, Dark Tim Drake, Tim Drake Kills Joker (DCU), Tim Drake Needs Help, Tim Drake's Missing Spleen, Child Death, Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Violence, Blood and Injury, Hurt No Comfort, for a little while, Hurt/Comfort, Parent Tim Drake, BAMF Prudence Wood, Spoilers:, Dead Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson is Ric Grayson, Ric Grayson Fix-It, Barbara Gordon Needs a Hug, Amnesia, jason todd is missing, No beta I die like Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne are Siblings, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, the grief of the living haunts the dead, while the hiss of the dead haunts the living via https://ift.tt/ZnPY3Q1