#Bruce immediately starts a fight about it every single time.

[msfcatlover]

When Desolation!Jason is well & truly pissed, when he finally gets his hands on the absolute worst kind of human scum, he doesn’t use his guns beyond hobbling the bastard. Instead, when Jason’s ready to make the kill, he puts one hand on either side of their head and lets his tremors shatter their skull.  No external trauma, but the skull looks like it exploded from the inside out and brains get everywhere with no bones to stop it. It’s his signature, and it terrifies people.

(And then Jason needs to go scrub half his skin off in the shower, because the texture of brain is, in fact, disgusting, and he’s a dramatic bitch who always takes his gloves off in order to do this.)

[thewitchblue]

You've been a hero for years, but you play the same prank on every member of the Batfamily. You have regenerative powers to the extreme that your injuries heal in seconds if you allow it. The first time gets them every time.

You have metal claws and a fury that burns. You shine under stressful situations. You are the key to their success oftentimes. You are a soldier through-and-through with a surprisingly high level of intelligence. You never told them the extent of your experience, but you've shown and proven yourself in combat, so you never had to. So, you started having fun with it.

Dick thought he hit you too hard in the temple with his weapon and panicked when you, taking the opportunity, crumpled to the ground. He's never run so fast. Being the leader, he really didn't want to be charged with murder nor kill one of his greatest fighters.

Tim, poor Tim. He was so exhausted he grew sloppy on a mission. Sloppy enough that you needed to jump in front of a blade for him. Somehow, the blade managed to slip between your ribs and puncture your left lung.

Well, that woke Tim up. He never finished a fight quicker. He speed ran a fight. He was on a timer, and he felt it. You were, seemingly, bleeding out because he stubbornly refused to sleep the night before, and you had to jump in front of a blade for him. He felt guilty and horrified. What does he tell Batman? What does he tell Jason? He'll need to hang up the suit, and he'll never leave the house again. You were the soldier everybody needed. The rock everybody can rely on despite your jagged edges. He knelt beside you. He wanted to check for a pulse, but he knew it was too late. He was fighting the goons for too long. There was no way you survived. Then, he heard your laughter. You laughed in his face, and your eyes opened. You laughed so hard you cried. Tim nearly collapsed on top of you in relief. He won't be killed by Jason or Bruce tonight, and, mostly importantly, you survived. You were a dick about it the entire way back to HQ.

Bruce was frozen in terror. His son's significant other just died on his watch. He was getting flashbacks from the time Jason died. Jason. How was Jason going to forgive him? How was he going to forgive himself? He was the one to suggest you come with him on the mission. He thought it would be easy. A simple mission against Scarecrow. You were the best pick because your system cleared out the fear toxin the fastest out of everyone else. You've seen worse horrors than what the fear toxin could conjure up, so you never falter in the fight. Scarecrow actually feared you because of this. He has yet to find a combination that is strong enough to put you down. Now, Bruce's best soldier was gurgling blood with a slit throat. He's failed you. He let you die. You didn't have a family to mourn you. He didn't know enough about you to properly set up a funeral. How could he let this happen? After everyone was jailed, he let the police take over and ran to your body. Your blood had dried and caked on your neck. He knows a dead body when he sees one, and you are very much dead in his eyes. He sighed heavily as he picked you up, only to almost drop you immediately as you opened your eyes and grinned at him.

"How?"

Was the first question he demanded. He knew your healing factor was very powerful, but to recover from a slit throat seemed like a lot, especially after seeing how much blood you let yourself lose before closing the wound. You playfully punch his shoulder with a grin,

"You know how, old man."

He laughed. Touché. He knows your abilities likely better than you do yourself.

Damian wanted to give you a funeral fit for a king. He liked you the best out of everyone, including Jon. He threw a knife that managed to cut through your skull and lodge into your brain. His panic was immediate but short-lived as you pulled the knife out of your brain and closed to the wound. You scowled because it caused a headache, but you survived quite easily. In that single moment, he considered seriously contacting his grandfather to put you in the Lazarus Pit, but he knew you wouldn't want a second chance at life. He knew you would happily die a warrior's death than live a coward's life. He respected that. Damian nearly cried as he ran to you. He clung to you all day and refused to say why to anybody. You simply returned his hugs and ran your fingers through his hair affectionately. You murmured about forgiving him, and he clung tigher. He knows he doesn't have to guard you on missions, but he's a lot more protective of you outside. Chihuahua privileges.

Barbara watched with horror on the CCTV footage on a local building as you get decapitated. She had flashbacks to her run with the Joker that left her paralysed. The Joker struck again. Instead of taking you hostage, you fought too much. You fought like a whirlwind of adamantium and controlled fury. Joker wouldn't have stood a chance if someone didn't come up behind you and cut your head off. She screamed as your body picked your head up from the ground and put it back on without so much as a wince. Joker ran the second the claws came out.

Cass was petrified. She's seen death before, but your healing factor hadn't seemed to help at all when she found your corpse. You were beaten to death by Bane. She gave an appreciative whistle as she pushes your head to the side to look at the handprints around your neck. He did not go easy on you, that's for sure. She wondered how he didn't die with you. He was skewered like a kebab on your claws, limb limp but claws still out and buried into his heart. She checked and he was still alive. Barely, so you must have been just shy of puncturing the organ. You went down fighting, and that was the best she could have hoped for with you. She went to radio on comms about the news only to be stopped by a clawed hand. She watched in stunned silence as your body heals itself in less than one minute. You sat up and stretched like a cat before removing your claws from Bane. Bane groaned in agony, but you didn't mind him. You merely wiped your claws clean on his shirt with a cheeky smile on your face.

"Well, that was fun. Next time, show up faster, yes?"

Cass could only nod, dumbstruck as you laugh at her expression. Cass knew your healing factor was insane, but you were so clearly dead to her. She never underestimated you again as you told her it was self-control that stopped you from puncturing Bane's heart, not death.

Duke hadn't known fear until he watched Ra's Al Ghul gut you like a fish. Ra's used his fear as a chance to escape, and Duke couldn't find it in himself to chase. He collapsed at your side. It all happened so fast. He had no time to react. No time to stop it.

He screeched when your hands both retracted their claws, and you stuffed your organs casually back inside your body as it healed itself. His eyes were wide as you chuckled at his misery.

"Gotcha. Now, let's get the bastard, yeah?"

Duke could only nod. He was still in shock as you ran your way to catch Ra's. Talia, for what it was worth, gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before sauntering off into the night herself.

Jason was furious, to say the least. Here he was, on his knees over your seemingly dead body only for you to jumpscare him while your body healed.

You cackled like a witch on Halloween as your body heals immediately. You can control your healing factor. To whatever degree you want to. You were never in any danger.

You put the fear of God in many people because of this prank. Jason was fuming.

"Why the fuck would you do that, pipsqueak?!"

His scream echoed in the alleyway you were "murdered" in. You merely laughed. Your claws come out in the moment and you slit your own throat but quickly heal yourself.

"I'm sorry, birdie. You were the last one to do this on."

That was the wrong thing to say because that pissed him off even further,

"THE LAST ONE?! YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE?!"

Everyone on the mission watched with amused expressions. It's true. Your prank, admittedly, was mean. Especially to your boyfriend who came back from the grave himself. Fondly, you cup his face with a smile. You said confidently,

"God doesn't have the nuts to kill me, Birdie."

Jason rolled his eyes, scoffing and throwing a tantrum like a toddler. He drops your body. He could never truly be angry with you, but he's pissed you put yourself in the position of needing to be healed in the first place.

"Alright, smartass. I'm not saving your sorry ass next mission. You can do that yourself."

Jason tensed immediately once he hears the snap of your spine breaking, but you weakly laugh and heal it in seconds. Lovingly, you say,

"Bones are harder than organs, asshole."

Now Jason laughs. He was still pissed, but hey. That saves on medical supplies.

[anonymous-existences]

DCXDP Prompt 13 :

@demonic0angel I'm gonna borrow a bit of your 'First Burn' Prompt If ya don't mind <33 just a teeny bit(cuz song hehe) and make it more ANGSTY!!

Danny and Bruce are divorced, Only Dick knew they were together, Danny and Bruce's love started in college, oh how their love and passion were true and gentle, everyone around them wished them happy memories.

But as Bruce took the Mantle of Batman, He never told Danny, neither did Alfred have the heart to tell Danny that he was always getting into dangerous situations as he roamed around Gotham as a Vigilante, Sneaking out at night from their bed.

Bruce and Danny both adopted Dick, Little Richard 'Dick' Grayson, Danny's little boy, his precious little star. Bruce saw how much Danny cared for Dick, Bruce thought Dick could be a distraction for Danny so Danny doesn't notice his secret Vigilante nightlife.

....

Danny knew. He knew everything alright. Danny tries to not cry every night as he feels Bruce sneak away in the middle of the night, every whispers of love that Bruce utters to Danny felt like lies, Danny knew he had secrets too, His Past Vigilante life as a teenager is something he never told Bruce.

But this is something Danny is slowly breaking himself into denial, His husband is a vigilante, that's fine, he was fine with that, but the way he interacted with other women made Danny's heart break, even other heroes... Too close, Too Intimate, Too Comfortable.

Danny stopped following Bruce everytime he left by that time, he felt so hurt and so insecure of himself everytime he saw 'Batman' Interact with those others so.. closely.

It made Danny's core scream in doubt and his emotions derailing into confronting Bruce.

He thought Confronting Bruce about his nightly sneaking would get Bruce to finally trust Danny with the information about Him being Batman but no, it made Danny doubt so much more, Days of constant fight and reuniting, His Little Boy, Dick , and Alfred was the last thing keeping Danny in mental order, Organized and Composed as he always should be. Even if Bruce is Acting like a Playboy Brucie Wayne.

He tried to do what Jazz would have done but nothing FUCKING worked and Danny was always on edge, he felt that everything his husband said was a lie, he loved Bruce but why won't Bruce trust him? Please... please, just tell him the truth, I won't be mad. Please. Just tell me. Tell me everything. TELL ME! PLEASE! IM BEGGING YOU! JUST TELL M—

Danny loves Bruce, But as day passes, that love slowly felt one sided.

....

Dick didn't mean it, it was supposed to be a harmless little prank, he didn't know how rocky Bruce and Danny's Marriage was, he didn't know. He really didn't.

He didn't know a picture of Batman with Selina would seal it off. He didn't know a single lipstick would finish it all. He was only a child. It was his fault. He felt that it was his fault— why wouldn't he? He didn't know.. he really didn't.

Danny and Bruce screamed, it was nothing that Dick could have ever heard before, he didn't know at all. He really didn't.... It was only supposed to be a prank.. He didn't mean it...

...

Bruce soon took in Jason, Dick noticed how much Jason looked like Danny, Dick wanted to yell, he wanted to scream at Bruce, He wanted to confront him about passing the mantle to Jason— but... It's no use fighting against someone that's like Bruce. Not like Batman.

Dick secretly kept contact with Danny and his Family, Dani And Jazz was still his aunt as they lived in Bludhaven, he could always go to them as Nightwing and they'd know to help him without questioning. Dick felt bad everytime he did. He felt as though he was burdening the family of the person who's marriage he ruined, his own Father.

The only Father who could actually handle and was a real father.

Everything passed by so quickly.

Jason Died.

Tim Was adopted and he became Robin.

Jason came back to life.

Dick immediately took Jason to Danny.

Damian Came into their lives. Dick felt his blood Boil when Damian did but he couldn't blame Damian, Dick accepted Damian with a whole heart, acting like the Danny which the Manor Lost because of Bruce.

He will be the person who loved everyone, just like Danny, even if sometimes it's tiring— he just needs to keep being the Father of these children that Bruce struggles to be, It's the only Way Dick could honor Danny.

...

Bruce misses Danny Dearly, he regrets many things.

But the one he regrets the most is...

Losing Danny.

Danny and Bruce are Divorced Because Bruce Fucked up with being Batman and didn't tell the truth, Dick wanted to do a little prank cuz a kid will do pranks and snuck a lipstick on Bruce's coat and a picture of Selina with a kiss mark on it. Danny and Bruce's marriage are rocky as fuck, Dick secretly takes the other Wayne kids to Danny and they come to love Danny as their father much like Dick is attached to Danny, Jazz and Dani are the Wayne's Therapists. Specifically Jazz, she's the Best, Uncle Dan is Jason's Favorite mechanic.

Bruce Misses Danny dearly and wants him back and will try and probably try to court Danny again, nonstop as Batman, Danny still loves Bruce and hadn't moved on, His core is very much attached and embedded in the memory and love of Bruce Wayne, thus he is just waiting for Bruce to finally step up.

Yes this was Angsty, I apologize <33 but yes.

[gaywineauntsstuff]

Every single member of the Batfamily lies about their taste in music

Damian will claim that he only listens to classical music and that everything else is beneath him.

Damian will unironically listen to trashy Arab pop and the absolute worst Bollywood songs known to man (Dick introduced him to them and he hates the fact that sometimes he gets Sheila Ki Jawani stuck in his head during missions)

Tim will put on the most ear grating hyper pop you've ever heard and claim with full chest that these is the peak of humanities capabilities with music (Damian, Jason and Steph have all tried to kill him for this take) He will also play stuff like the living tombstones and sing it obnoxiously loud when he's working on the computer.

Tim however loves his 90s grunge and it's all that's playing in his headphones. (think nirvana, pearl Jam, Melvins, Alice in Chains etc) He has tracked down so many shirts and concert posters and watched every bit of content from the older shows.

Jason will claim he only listens to east coast rap, biggie, Nas, Jay etc and maybe some older metal. He will fight you on east vs west coast music, there will be weaponry involved.

Jason likes rap music... he unfortunately prefers west coast rap and has listened to no vaseline like 500 times. He will deny this till the day he dies...again. (Dick knows and threatens to tell Steph)

Steph will steal the aux and play Taylor Swifts greatest hits until one of the Boys threatens mutiny. Every single one of the bats has had style stuck in their heads during a stakeout at least twice. She will claim that the only rap song she can tolerate in Eminem and the 7/11 is Beyoncés best song.

Steph is an underground fan, think the dude selling mixtapes on the subway type shit. She also unlike Jason genuinely loves East Coast Rap music more than anything and knows every single wu-tang clan song by heart, same with Biggie. Not only does she love the music she also spends any free time binging those "history of rap and its consequences" videos and has been a firm believer that P.Diddy had a hand in a lot of the Death row records well...deaths.

Cass, well everyone thinks Cass has really good taste bc its Cass and she has zero flaws (don't @ me) she never takes the aux and will usually listen to her music while she's chilling or doing stretches. None of them have heard or seen a single one of her playlists except Duke.

its all 2010s top 40s pop music and like the trashy kind too, Beauty and the Beat, Kesha, Katy Perry. It's her turning of her brain time and she will be straight vibing to Rude! by magic or Boom Clap or Shower. she has shown this to Duke, smirked and told him that even if he tried to tell anyone they wouldn't believe him.

Duke is the only one who doesn't... lie. He just hides a few things. Lies of omission don't count as lies when the bats will lie to you about what they had for breakfast, while they are visibly eating breakfast. Duke says he listens to everything and he does. Literally everything. His patrol Jam is offensive bc it with start with Norwegian death metal and immediately switches to "like a G6" followed by kendrick Lamar and then descendants Disney channel movie music.

Bruce... Bruce is just weird, everyone asks him and gets a different answer. Bc he doesn't... like music. Like at all. It's all noise, his mother played instruments so he learned like 14 and he hates how they all sound. He just like vague batwings fluttering in dead silence.

Dick Grayson will obnoxiously play top 40 and radio music religiously around the bats. He claims it's the best music for rhythmic acrobatics and trapeze work and that true! Jason hates this kind of music the most, it's formulaic and holds no substance and drives him insane.

But Dick only listens to that music when he's moving, flipping doing high energy stuff. When he just wants to chill? This man has the most depressing music taste you've ever seen. You know that sad song from ur favorite artist that you can't listen to without crying. Yeah that's his bread and butter. Every single song is just flat out tear inducing, some of these bands have like 100 listeners and he is one of them and it's just their saddest song that reads like suicide note. The titans have conducted an intervention bc its just... concerning. He just thinks it's neat!

[aingeal98]

I think there's a misconception among some fans who mostly get their characterisation from ao3, that the reason Cass and Jason wouldn't get along is that Jason kills people and Cass hates murderers. And like. You're 50% right but the key context being ignored is that Cass would literally fight to defend the right of a serial killer to live and change like she believes desperately in second chances no matter how far gone the killer is. She'll knock a man out and break his hand so that he can never shoot and kill someone again but if she sees someone feel bad about their kill or even like. Hesitate to hurt a child. She is all over that like she will fight the world just to save this one kind of shitty assassin and give them a second chance at life where they can do better.

Whereas Jason believes that sometimes there are bad people that are simply too far gone, too much of a force of evil hurting and draining actual innocents. And the best way to deal with scumbags like that is a bullet. He feels that some people don't deserve to live, and he's comfortable ending their lives. Judge, jury and executioner. Because no one else is going to kill these people and they deserve to die so that they can never hurt any victims again.

Of course all of this is kind of irrelevant in current canon since dc basically skipped over the reconciliation and development and went yeah Jason is a batfam member and he doesn't kill anymore. So currently in canon none of this conflict of ideals is likely to be addressed. But a lot of people are interested in writing fics that actually detail the steps of reconciliation which is great and I love those fics. I've just also noticed a trend of fumbling a little when it comes to Cass.

Because the root cause as to why they wouldn't get along is not just because Jason kills people. If Jason was a random crime lord Cass would probably try to help him get free of Gotham and start over somewhere else. Killing people and having conflicting emotions about it is the easiest way to get Cass willing to be your number one sponsor at murderer rehabilitation anonymous. It's Jason being someone personal to the family, and someone who believes that some deaths need to happen, as long as the person is sufficiently repulsive enough to Jason. Or even just as a means to an end to prove a larger point, if they're pathetic and evil enough. That's what would make Cass see red, because she projects herself on every single killer and Jason dismissing the possibility of redemption for them, writing them off as deserving of death, clashes fundamentally with not just everything Cass believes in, but also her whole sense of self. Of course it's not that deep for Jason like he's not going to believe Cass should die because she killed someone as a child. But for Cass is simply IS that deep and you throw in the fact that they're both Bruce's kids and yeah. They can maybe be civil in a room together with the family right up until one of them actually talks. Because like 99% of what they could say is guaranteed to touch a nerve for the other.

It's like: Damian says something hilarious and rude towards Jason and Jason jokes about that time he shot him and Cass immediately connects that with him not feeling bad about shooting Damian and starts grilling him as to why. Because Damian's Bruce's son? Or because he's a killer? Or just to get to the rest of the family? And Dick, Duke and Tim are so tired like Alfred cooked a nice meal can we all just eat pie for one night without having to listen to you two go at it.

Tim: I've literally shot you before do you think maybe we can cool it on fighting about Jason's personal ethics tonight. Because generally that ends with me in pain even if I do nothing but sit here.

Cass: You shot me with consent. Different.

Jason: How are you even more obnoxious than Bruce? Do you ever get tired of being so exhausting to be around with your bullshit righteousness?

Cass: If you're tired I can knock you out. Nice nap for you and fun for me.

Dick: And that's ten minutes in a room together before any threats of physical harm start flying around! Great job you two, a new personal record.

[celaenaeiln]

lol hi its me 12 am anon so uh tldr is that i hung out with my friend and we got drunk and we made out or smth but more importantly they made w fuckin list of dick grayson things i started talking abt while drunk

- “bad idea right?” but its dick grayson and his exes

- bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings

- that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart

- into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered

- the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

- nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]

i am . so embarrassed. also i dont know if we made out before or after the rant and i dont know which is more embarrassing .

what. what. "more importan-" NO! NO ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT IS NOT MORE IMPORTANTLY OH MY GOD!!!

MY MIND IS LITERALLY BREAKING RIGHT NOW!

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? Do you like her? Did she say anything?! I-

WAIT DOES THAT MEAN DICK GRAYSON LITERALLY GOT YOU TWO TOGETHER?!

NO WAIT!! SHE KISSED BACK. SHE KISSED BACK!

oh my god i'm reeling.

Have you guys talked about it yet?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

I LITERALLY CAN'T THINK OF DICK GRAYSON RIGHT NOW AFTER THAT BOMB YOU DROPPED ON ME BUT FINE

"Bad idea right" was literally written for Dick Grayson!

Nightwing (1996) Issue #133

"Bad idea right?"

Actually every single Olivia Rodrigo's songs feels like Dick wrote it.

Like the sour album? Every time I listen to it I imagine that Dick just wrote the album because he was so mad at bruce after being fired from Robin lol.

"bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings"

That's true too!

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"The truth is, I didn't save you from some dark fate, those years ago. You saved me from one."

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"And you still are saving me, every day."

Bruce gave Dick security but Dick gave Bruce a life. He gave Bruce the ability to become human, to be happy.

Take Gotham War for example,

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Bruce tells Jason he's saving Jason from himself and Jason in turn asks Bruce who's going to save Bruce from himself.

Cut immediately to -

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Dick.

Dick has always been there to pull Bruce out of his darkest days when he tries or is willing but Bruce giving up on Dick's ability to do so is symbolic of him giving up on himself. It's the height of Bruce's irredeemability.

Even after Jason died, Bruce indirectly called Dick to come join him but at this point his back up personality is too far gone for him to recover.

Batman: The Return

Dick literally is the reason Bruce stays connects to the batfamily. In a good way.

He has no reservations about keeping Bruce in check.

"that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart"

5 man band trope: one leads, one contrasts, one thinks, one fights, and one keeps all of the above from killing one another

DAMN RIGHT

He's the leader.

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

And the one that keeps them all together

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

Dick is the defacto leader when Bruce is gone or lost it.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

Batman (2016) Issue #704

Batman (2016) Issue #704

"Selina doesn't run Gotham. You do. While I'm away."

And the family's protector.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

"into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered"

Yup!

Canonical:

Childhood partner to lovers - Raya Vestri

Friends to lovers - Barbara Gordon

Enemies to lovers - Shawn Tsang

Psuedo-family to lovers - Helena Wayne (they actually married in Earth 2)

Crime fighting partner to lovers - Helena Bertenelli

Kiss at first sight to lovers - Koriand'r

Pseudo-therapist to lover - Bea Bennet

Landlord to lovers - Bridget Clancy

Teammates to lovers - Zatanna

X to lovers - literally him and everyone

He's just so shippable that way. Not gonna lie, literally all of his relationships Dick and his lover have been great together.

the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

The New Teen Titans Issue #50

Man this hits hard. I've never seen how I met your mother but the parallels in the basketball hoop scene and Dick's talk with Bruce are uncanny.

The thing I think is weird about Dick and Bruce's relationship is that it's steeped in insecurities for each other. Dick feels hurt and betrayed and lost as to why Bruce would take in a new robin so suddenly and Bruce's tenure as Dick's robin is riddled with insecurities about him not being a good enough partner.

Batman and Robin Eternal Issue #6

However it's because of these insecurities that I believe they are close.

The difference between Barney and his dad, from what I gather from the clip, is that his dad never acted like one to Barney.

But with Dick and Bruce? Bruce was a good dad to Dick. But he was a terrible partner. Bruce treated Dick like an equal while still fielding reservations about his age and dealing with his own insecurities. Bruce knows that what he's doing is not right but at the same time Dick is far too competent. His intelligence, his athletic skills, his compassion, and his fearlessness were light years beyond anyone Bruce had ever met and Bruce acklnowledges this.

Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder Issue #2

"The GAS was supposed to knock his OUT. His brain out to be sailing past the MOON, right now. What's this brat MADE out of?"

Batman: The Widening Gyre Issue #1

Bruce's biggest problem with Dick is literally that he talks to much.

Dick is equal in every way to Batman and even exceeds him in some ways when he was Robin itself. So Bruce pushes the responsibilities of Batman's partner on to Dick while treating his as his son, mother, therapist, and partner. And Dick steps up to that. Soon they fall into a rhythm where Dick is Bruce's one for all human interaction. So imagine when you have a constant thing with someone that you're comfortable with and they suddenly start holding back from you. They begin talking about how you're too young to handle adult responsibilities. How you shouldn't be facing that burden. Now you're confused. Those responsibilities they are criticizing you for are the very ones that depended on you for. So now you start doubting yourself and trying harder and harder to make them see that you can handle the job. While you're struggling with confusion, they're struggling with guilt.

That is Bruce and Dick's relationship. Bruce grew a conscious after 10 years and Dick can't understand it. So there comes the self-blame and strife.

What Dick doesn't understand his Bruce feels guilty of his over reliance on Dick. Dick's self-blame has come to such a point that now even when Bruce in full honesty rants about how proud he is of Dick, Dick holds reservations because if Bruce was really proud then he would dump all the responsibilities on him right?

It's really messed up.

"nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]"

LOL

I think the Dawn of DC does have Dick be the figurehead or at least he will be in the future. We're just getting the beginning now.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

"We want you to lead."

Justice League (2011) Issue #51

It comes full circle.

[sadlybeans]

No More Batman AU Part 4: The Prodigal Son

AO3 Link || Part 1, 2 & 3

Dick could pretend all he wanted and play at being a strong, reliable hero, but he wasn’t.

Nightwing had become a beacon of what any new member of the Justice League could aspire to be, standing next to the founding members after winning his own place and not as a replacement to Batman after his retirement. He had worked hard to be the person everyone could rely on, and in turn he had won many wonderful friends that would undoubtedly give everything for him if he just asked— But Dick Grayson? Dick Grayson was a coward.

Dick Grayson was scared to death every day when he didn’t have his siblings in sight, anxiety building up on his chest until he could call or visit to see them, make sure they were safe, they were home, they were alive. He had lost every drop of courage the day he returned home only to be told his little brother had been killed. There wasn’t a single day since those news that he didn’t feel fear, even if he knew his little siblings were strong and capable on their own.

But… well. He wasn’t sure if he was afraid for Damian, or of what he could do.

Dick had started his vigilante career as a child of all of nine years old when his rage was too much to contain and Bruce had lost every battle to keep him home. He had trained with and against many people and he had grown so much that it was said he had long ago surpassed Batman, and yet— yet he felt that Damian was almost, just almost, as good as him.

Damian, the fifteen year old child that had just been dropped on their doorstep a couple months ago. Damian, who refused to acknowledge their presence most days, who swore in expletives that scandalised even Alfred, and who was a trained and seasoned assassin. Damian, who could heal inhumanely fast, who could see in the dark and move without sound, and who had broken Tim’s arm in three with two strikes too fast for any of them to stop.

He was just a kid who shouldn’t have been in their business -much like none of Dick’s siblings should be- yet he was proficient in many of Bruce’s and Dick’s techniques, and he was unfairly fast in learning amidst a fight… Dick had tried setting him up against Cass, and had thought it worked for a moment… until he learnt to use her own moves and set them equally until they were both exhausted. He had mopped the floors with Tim and Steph, and then almost defeated Dick all in a row.

When Tim had asked sarcastically if that was all he had, Damian had frowned as he opened and closed his fist.

“I’m still adjusting to fight without weapons”

A frightening phrase that had made them all fall silent, and then he had to ask cautiously if he’d like to spar with wooden swords. He could’ve sworn Damian almost brightened to that suggestion, but it was such a quick expression he couldn’t be sure. He then picked a katana and won. Against everyone.

And so, after an entire week of testing, they sat in the batcave and Bruce took a deep breath as he stared at all his children, and Dick for once didn’t know how to feel knowing that there was absolutely no excuse to not let Damian out onto the field.

“It’s… clear that your mother trained you well” he started.

“She didn’t” Damian interrupted immediately “Mother had tutors for me, but baba made me better“

Dick mentally filed another tick for concern on his thoughts about Damian’s mysterious baba.

“Right” B cleared his throat “your baba trained you well, I admit that you’re strong enough— But!” the boy scowled and he continued “Things here are not like you’re used to and….”

“I’ve been told on your family’s stand on killing. It’s stupid, but I’m willing to play along” he grunted reluctantly.

Bruce stared at him, and so did Tim and Dick, but there was no trace of deceit in him. For all his intensity and temper, he wasn’t really the type to lie as they had learnt, so Dick was inclined to believe him this time.

“… Very well. You can’t be Robin”

“You have said that already” Damian rolled his eyes “I’ll take another name”

That is certainly not the point, and none of them were comfortable with him being out there when they didn’t even know why he wanted to.

Things in Gotham had gone downhill when Jason died, and when Batman was put into the case that stood next to Robin, it was up to everyone else to keep the order in the city. They’d done a good job of keeping up the illusion, of pretending Batman still existed, but those who knew him well knew the truth… Joker hadn’t escaped in ten years, not since a week after Jay died and Nightwing beat him half to death before tossing him in Arkham. But now the asylum was on high alert, and a certain clown was said to be in a good mood after those photos of Robin were leaked.

The news had exploded and the topic was trending online, hence why Damian was actually needed despite their reluctance; he was the only one that fit the build and size, and who could also perfectly replicate Jason’s body language as terrifyingly confirmed by the photos and footage. They didn’t look that much alike and Damian’s skin was darker, but the pictures were taken at night and from far off, nobody could spot the difference unless he was close enough and standing still.

“Can you promise that you’ll be careful and follow Dick’s rules?”

The boy frowned.

“I’m not a child, I know what to do”

“We already discussed this, it’s my way or nothing”

“… Fine, I promise” he said in a grunt, crossing his arms across his chest. “Any other ridiculous demands?”

“You never patrol alone, ever” Bruce held up a hand before he could protest “that’s a rule all of them follow, not only you”

He didn’t look any more happy but nodded.

“And one last thing… you’re going to need to learn the ropes of how this works, and Dick can’t supervise you all the time. For obvious reasons, I don’t believe anybody else is qualified to supervise you, so after talking it through with Clark… Superboy is going to be your partner whenever Nightwing is not available”

Damian didn’t say anything, no immediate explosion of anger, nothing. They all waited with baited breath as he just stared at Bruce.

“He’s a child” he finally replied, with actual bafflement in his voice.

“Jon is thirteen, yes, but he’s been in the business for longer than you, and he’s kryptonian. It’s safer”

“So I don’t kill him”

“Safer for both of you”

“No, you really just want to prevent me from killing him because I don’t have access to kryptonite at the moment”

“I… Like to believe you would not attempt to kill a child”

Damian shook his head in disbelief and Tim pushed past Dick.

“Are you serious, B!? Jon’s way too good for him, it’s not safe! Why not— hell, if you want him to be supervised by a kryptonian then Kon might be able to!”

Bruce sighed deeply.

“Supernova is as busy as you are, son. And there is an undeniable advantage on Damian being around a boy his own age, it will raise less suspicion”

“B, this is madness!”

“I don’t think this is a good idea….”

Slowly they all started to argue and Bruce tried to appease Steph, Tim and Duke, with Cass staying silently frowning in the background and Dick letting himself fall seated on the chair next to the computer, exhausted both physically and mentally. Damian didn’t look too upset but he was definitely over the whole conversation and completely tuned it out, moving through a couple sword forms with his wooden katana. God… when had things fallen apart this bad?

A phone rang in the silence and Damian turned his head towards the computer, where his burner phone rested. Dick’s eyes widened and slowly the discussion died down as the teen crossed the room and picked it up, looking down at the screen for a second before he answered it.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you ungrateful little brat!?”

Dick fully winced at the furious voice that hollered at the other side, audible in the sudden dead silence of the cave. Damian looked wholly unimpressed, and he wasn’t sure if to think that was stupid or brave.

“I’m fitting in, like you said I should. Wayne has agreed to let me patrol with them”

Damian please, don’t you have any self preservation instincts? Why are you talking to your father like this? Damian, I beg you—

“If you so much as step a single foot out on the streets on patrol I WILL DRAG YOU BACK kicking and screaming if I have to!”

“Ok”

“You have no idea of—! … What?”

Damian’s lips turned into a smug smirk and Dick gaped at him.

“I said ok. You can come drag me back inside the house”

Oh.

Oh, this sneaky little brat… It was such a simple trap but it worked. This mysterious “baba” of his obviously wanted nothing to do with the bats -so far their leading theory was that he didn’t want to risk getting arrested-, which was why he couldn’t check on Damian personally, but if the boy did something so reckless that he wouldn’t approve of, something he knew only he would be able to stop… then he had no choice but to come to Gotham and set him straight.

“Damian Al-Ghul, you know exactly why I don’t want you out playing superhero” the man hissed in a low dangerous tone.

“I know” the teen agreed calmly “and it’s not going to stop me. I didn’t want you to go either and you didn’t listen to me”

“I’m the adult in this relationship you little shit, you don’t get to make demands”

“Well you gave me away so it’s not up to you anymore!” And he hung up. He turned off the phone and turned away to stare directly at Bruce. “When can I go out, then?”

Fuck…. Dick seriously needed a drink.

Robbing a store in Gotham was frighteningly easy, as long as you didn’t run across a very pissed off owner or a vigilante. But hey, Mark was very sure that none of the Bats patrolled that area at that hour, giving him a window of time to act and leave silently without anybody being disturbed.

After emptying the safe and putting a few semi valuable items in his backpack he sighed and turned around towards the door, and nearly had a heart attack right there and then, a strangled yelp coming out of his mouth. There was… god, that was a new one!

The figure was perched atop a car at the other side of the narrow street, crouched and staring directly into him through the soulless white eyes. They wore a black hood that obscured most of their face, but the bat cowl they wore was still visible and the ears poked out of it, easily making them identifiable. The rest of the suit was mostly black and red, with a somewhat childish touch on it that gave it a creepy vibe; the chunky boots of a bright red that matched the knee and elbow pads, the crimson palms of the black gloves, and the bright bat on their chest. Something about this miniature Batman reminded Mark of… of Robin, whose pictures had been supposedly taken not long ago.

Fuck, no, it couldn’t be him! Robin had died ten years ago, this was impossible—

The figure stood from his crouch and jumped down to the pavement to start making his way over, and Mark screamed in terror.

New Vigilante in Gotham! Could This Be Robin!?

Dick folded the newspaper and sighed, looking up to the many screens of the computer again. The media had been in a frenzy the entire week, and the internet was blowing up even more. Hardcore fans had dug up every single video and photo they had of Robin from ten years ago and were comparing them side to side with little Batman, and incredibly… they were thoroughly convinced that they were one and the same, which had sparked an avalanche of theories as to how had he come back from the dead, and why so late. If any of them had been skeptical about Damian’s ability to imitate Jason, then their doubts had been eliminated— hell, he could do it so well that he had added details not even Dick or Bruce could remember until they rewatched old footage to compare.

In just his first night the new Batman had turned the city upside down, and so far after a week of continuous work, he seemed to be doing just fine… which was why now, Bruce wanted them to focus on finding that mysterious ‘baba’.

Damian was still not aware of their active investigation, but either way they had found absolutely nothing, not even Babs had managed to dug up any evidence or record, and it didn’t help that the info they had was severely limited to little facts the youngest Wayne dropped here and there.

“I don’t think we’ll find shit” Tim declared next to him, grumpily staring at the nth file they had on the League of Assassins. “We don’t even know what this man looks like”

Dick let out a long sigh and leaned back on his chair as another article popped up on screen, one mentioning the date of Robin’s death, and a vague memory popped up in his head.

“Hey Timmy, do you remember I told you about that kid I ran into at the faire?” he asked quietly as he straightened back up.

“Yeah, the rude little shit that didn’t even say thank you”

“…. I think that was Damian”

Tim finally looked up and frowned.

“What?”

Dick nodded as he turned to look at him with wide eyes, now remembering clearly.

“He was wearing sunglasses so I didn’t see his eyes, but the skintone and face shape is the same, and he was wearing his black hoodie that day, I’m a hundred percent positive it was him”

And come on, the way he talked was a dead giveaway too.

“Dick, why is this relevant?” his poor little brother asked in annoyance.

“Because I saw his dad too!” he declared triumphantly at last, grinning like a mad man, before he turned to the computer and started typing frantically “I couldn’t see his face either, he wore sunglasses and a mask, but he was tall— hell, I think he’s taller and broader than Bruce. And he— he had white hair, I remember I saw white hair beneath his hood”

Tim scrunched up his nose.

“He’s old….? But that can’t be, his voice sounds way too young… dyed hair?”

“Possibly. It would make sense if he doesn’t want to be recognised”

It was a small trail, but a trail nonetheless. With those small identifiers they could check across the security feed of thousands of cameras in Gotham, and narrow the search to big tall men with white hair that had been spotted around the time Damian arrived and right before it. If they clocked a single glampse on him from one of those, they could follow the lead until it brought them to his doorstep. The man was good at hiding, they had to admit, but they weren’t the world’s greatest detectives for nothing.

Before they could truly start digging on the new lead properly, one of the screens was overaken by Babs.

“Sorry to crash your party boys, but I think you should clock in early today— I just got an alert on East End for way too many gunshots. Mini Batman is requesting to go out”

“I’m not a mini anything, Gordon” Damian called from the stairs, where he was walking down followed by a silent Cass.

Babs completely ignored him and Dick frowned.

“I don’t think it’s wise to bring you to a possible gang war, Damian”

The fifteen year old raised an eyebrow at him.

“Should I remind you that of anybody in this room, I have performed best the entire week?” he replied dryly.

Dick frowned but Cass surprised them by raising her hand to interrupt.

“We need all the help. Batman will play nice”

They glanced at Damian, who rolled his eyes but nodded in accordance to their sister. Well then… time to work.

What they found in East End was not a gang war in fact, but clowns… Joker’s thugs. While Joker himself hadn’t stepped out of Arkham since Dick last tossed him in ten years ago, his clowns usually came back every few months to remind Gotham they still existed, that Joker could come back every time… It didn’t seem like he had escaped, not yet at least; when and if he did, he would definitely try to make it memorable for ‘little Robin’. At the very least, it meant there was no rogue running rampant and the cleanup was dealt with almost completely smoothly—

That is, until Damian was snatched mid air by the tall and imposing figure of a man, grabbed by the collar of his cape like a kitten as he kicked to struggle to get free.

Dick -or well, Nightwing- turned to attack and then stopped in his tracks. That man was big, definitely bigger than Bruce was now, with a shock of white hair amidst black and his face covered by both a domino and a red metallic mask over his nose and mouth. None of them heard him move near them, despite the fact he was not a few steps away… he had managed to sneak up on all the bats, he could’ve done anything before they even relised he was present.

“I warned you, and you didn’t listen” the robotic voice came from the mask and its modulator “You’re fucking grounded, you little piece of shit”

Damian twisted to kick him in the chest despite being held up in the air, although the man didn’t even react or move at being hit. The boy wasn’t upset though, grinning as if he’d just won their little spat, which in a way he had.

“Hi, baba” he said innocently “you look really nice tonight”

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

So, since apparently I'm in a DC posting mood right now, you all want to hear this concept that's been baking in my mind for a while now?

Stephanie Brown is the same level of crimefighter as Bruce Wayne. Hear me out.

First, a common thematic reading of the Batfamily, especially the Batkids, is that all of them are in some way better than Bruce at one specific thing. Like with the equally broad thematic reading of 'All of Batman's rogues reflect a part of his psyche' this doesn't entirely hold up to scrutiny and doesn't apply to all of the Batkids, but it applies to enough: Dick is the better leader, Babs is the better strategist, Tim is the better detective, Cass is the better fighter, you get the idea. Now, normally when considering this reading the consensus for Steph is that she is the negative archetype, similar to how the Joker is interpreted in the rogues reading - an inverse of the common rule, in this case meaning that Steph isn't particularly good at anything. Some people who take this reading end this part with 'And that's why I love her!' - most don't. But I think that's entirely wrong, and to explain why we need to examine Bruce's own past.

In most versions of the Batman origin, there's a period, usually immediately or closely after Bruce graduating from either high-school or college, where Bruce travels the world, seeking masters of specific disciplines and learning all he can from them. The amount of people he meets is extensive - seriously, I have a word doc of 40 names and that's not even all of them - and later stories, particularly the Nolan trilogy, Batman/The Shadow, and IIRC Batman: Earth One, try to par that down to a single entity - The League of Shadows, The Shadow, and Alfred, respectively - teaching him all that is necessary to become Batman. It's not a change I particularly like, for one simple reason - the trek around the globe is as much metatexual as it is backstory. Like many of the prototypical superheroes, Batman isn't just one thing, he's many influences that Bill Finger brought to the table when creating him - he's a pulp hero like the Shadow, an adventure swashbuckler like Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel, a detective like Sherlock Holmes, all melding together to form our concept of 'Batman'. Having him learn from all these disparate sources - from ninjas and car thieves and magicians and detectives - seems like a way of acknowledging that breadth of influence, and I can't help but feel like limiting it to only Ra's or Lamont or Alfred takes away from that.

So, what does all that have to do with Stephanie Brown? Well, think about it - almost all of the Batfamily have only one real mentor - there are exceptions, like Tim basically becoming Babs' apprentice in No Man's Land and Cass' very funny shared custody situation, but mainly all of the Batkids learn from Batman, and what they excel at they were just kind of naturally good at anyway - Babs and Cass especially, no shade. With Steph, though? It's not as impressive as Bruce's list, but she learns general Cowl skills with Bruce, hacking and cryptography with Babs, detective skills with Tim, get fighting tips from Cass and Black Canary, is taught teamwork by Kate, evasion skills with Damian (that last one may not be purposeful), plus whatever else she can learn because, unlike the rest of the Batfamily, at least Pre-Flashpoint Steph was always learning.

True, Steph started out with very few practical skills in crimefighting, but you know who else did that? Bruce - every single time a comic or adaptation has shown him attempting to fight crime before the training trek has him absolutely suck at it. At the very least Steph never decided to stop her dad by attempting to assassinate him in a courthouse full of witnesses by veeery slowly pointing a gun at him, like Nolanverse Bruce.

Bottom line? If one more person says Steph 'isn't particularly skilled at anything', I will chew glass.

[lightwing-s]

𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬 | 𝐭. 𝐝.

pairing: tim drake x female!reader warnings: some swearing, canon usual violence, needles word count: 2,6k summary: nobody in their sane mind goes out to a park in gotham at fucking midnight, nobody except you.

a/n: so, I'm not used to writing for tim, so I hope this comes out okay for my tim girlies and that I do him any justice ^^ also, if anyone is interested in the playlist mentioned, you can check it out here and listen to it while reading this piece.

⌜masterlist⌟ ⌜requests⌟

The night was a mess. Break ins, shooting, explosions, man-bats running around, and it was only midnight. Tim was already exhausted by that point, but there was still work to be done.

Bruce had members of the family scattered around town to get each and every single one of their problems tackled as quickly as possible. Thus, Tim was now chasing down a small group of man-bats that escaped from the attack on the financial district of Gotham and were now heading up towards the East End.

He struggled to keep them out of the crowded areas. It was friday night, so there were extra people out on the streets even with all the chaos going on around town. Some people just didn’t care. So, doing as best as he could, he managed to guide the creatures through a dark alley and send them to a probably empty park, a place where he could fight them without risking anybody’s safety along the way.

Far from defeating evil monsters, you, on the other hand, had great plans for you Friday night: laying in bed and watching silly 2000s rom coms with your roommate and best friend. Having to overstay at work once again, the only thing between you and your bed right now was a five kilometer walk through the streets and a dark park that would have scared you if you did not take this route every night of the week. Guess you’re used to it.

Putting on your headphones and setting the volume to the max, your mind shut off from your surroundings and allowed you to walk the path in peace. Chumbawama’s Tubthumping was playing loud in your ears as you dance-walked your way home. 

Music had that power over you. The power to take your mind away from anything. Every time you had an anxiety attack, or when things just started getting complicated in life, be it with school, work or your family, hiding behind a beat was your favorite solution to send the worries away. That’s why, the day you first walked your path home from your new job, playing your favorite childhood movie soundtrack, HSM, and singing it word by word, you managed to get home without crumbling to anxiety. So, it became your ritual, and like that you ended your week nights.

Behind you on your walk, though, things were not so simple.

Fighting off the man-bats with a single syringe of the antidote was not a clever idea, but it would have to do. At least, he only had three more to fight. With his grappling gun, he aimed at one of their wings, hitting it at first try and pulling it down with much strength. Now, standing on top of it, he stapled its wings down while worrying about the two others who were now giving him their undisputed attention. Fending them off with, basically, one hand, he turned to the trapped one and injected five milliliters of the solution, seeing it agonize in pain, but in no time it was back to being human.

One of the other two, without patience, grabbed at the arm he held the syringe, almost managing to make Tim drop it, but he was quick to change hands and, with his free one, injected it on the leg, making it fall from the sky immediately, carrying him along the way. He fell with a thud, already feeling the pain streaming from his shoulder. Laying there on the floor, he tried to catch his breath, but there was no time for rest. He needed to get the last one.

Stooding up, Tim looked at the syringe still safe in his hand, telling him there was around ten milliliters left of the antidote, enough to knock it down. However, looking up in search of the last survivor, he couldn’t find it anywhere. Where had it gone to? The man-bats were a boisterous bunch, screeching all the time and with heavy wings that announced their incoming from a mile radius. So how did this one escape without Tim noticing?

Being alone in the park, a silence soon took over. But that was short lived. In his search for the damned creature, Tim found out he wasn’t as alone in the park as he thought. 

Just further away from him, bouncing its heads and skipping down the stone road, was a girl. Headphones on, she didn’t seem to notice the commotion going on behind her, and for some reason, that had Tim infuriated. People’s carelessness these days were doing that to him, as if they acted like they really wanted to die. What the fuck!

Then, that’s when he found it. Bright red eyes hiding inside a bush right in front where the girl was walking through, ready to catch flight in her direction. Tim’s legs were already burning, but the way he sped up and ran to try and stop the thing from doing whatever it was in its mind, made the sensation go away with the built up adrenaline. He reached the monster before it could move too close, jumping at its back, grabbing it and dropping to the floor. Tim had his arm locked on its neck, giving it a rear naked choke, taking its breath slowly and making it lose its strength. Now, with ease, he inserted the syringe on its neck, injecting all that was left of the antidote. 

“Every time that I get the feeling. You give me something to believe in. Every time that I got you near me…” he listened to the words of Atomic Kitten coming out of her mouth, while he waited for the effects of the antidote to show up.

Were they fucking singing? Tim thought, incredulous. How on Earth did they not hear them fighting RIGHT. BEHIND. HER BACK?   

The man-bat’s body started quivering, and soon his bat claws were replaced with human fingers and, like a real sized doll, fell onto Tim’s body like jelly. Releasing his arm from its neck and bending sideways to let the man drop beside him, Tim finally could take a break. There on the ground, he pretended to not feel any pain, or any burn, and allowed himself a few moments of rest. But the sound of the steps wouldn’t let him.

Getting up on his knees, Tim took a moment to catch his breath before angrily staring at the person still unbothered walking away from him. 

You didn’t need much to get lost in the music, easily accomplishing it within a few seconds of any of your favorite songs. In those few seconds, everything around you seemed to disappear little by little, as you soon immersed yourself into a dream world, much like a music video, and all that was around you could not be listened to. But when an angry looking boy wearing a costume you’d easily recognize under a normal state of mind, jumps in front of you, it’s kind of hard to ignore.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me that you didn’t hear a single thing going on behind you!” he screamed at you, frustration apparent in each word. 

Startled, you could only reply with a scream, not recognizing Gotham's vigilante, and your favorite of all of them. You tried to run, but tripping on your own legs, you fell to the ground on your butt, loud music still blasting through your headphones but they now laid on your lap.

When he realized what he had done, he walked to you and extended his hand for you to grab, and with ease he lift you up from where you were. This time, while standing there in front of you, he was able to really see your face. Like, every single detail. You were stunning. So now, he felt the warmth climbing up his neck and cheeks out of the embarrassment of scaring you — and also from staring for too long. The adrenaline was still too high in his system at that point, forcing him to do things with thinking twice.

“Are you alright?” he asks, concerned. With a shake of your head and the sight of your opened hands showing him no bruises, he sights in relief.

“I guess I’ll just have a really sore butt tomorrow.” you joke, whilst still telling the truth. Your butt was definitely going to hurt tomorrow. With your answer, you took a smile from the masked boy, the apples of his cheeks rising with the action, and the bruise on his right one becoming evident. “You’re hurt.” you point out, putting your finger on your own cheek for him to find the bruise on his, taking out of it a bit of blood.

“Man-bats. I can’t think of anything worse.” he replies with a grunt. You finally look around, to where he had come from earlier and where you assumed his battle had happened. There was a man passed out a couple meters from where you stood, and you could see others further back. Your stomach fell, sensing the disaster that could have happened to you if it wasn’t for Red Robin.

“Here!” you fished inside your bag for that first aid kid your friend always insisted you have with you, taking out of it, and expecting to be embarrassed as soon as you show it to him, a Robin edition band-aid, tainted in green, red and yellow, and with a large R drawn into it. You show it to him, waiting for him to put it on. However, he leans his face closer to you, telling you silently to put it yourself. Not knowing how to react, your hands start to shake and you can barely take off the plastic protecting the bandage. 

His cheek was warm, but wet at the touch. It must be sweat from all the fighting, you thought. Looking up, his hair was also all wet, small droplets falling down his sides. Placing the band-aid carefully, you find yourself awkwardly close to your favorite vigilante. His masked eye didn’t show you its real color, but never left your, making your cheeks grow as red as his. Unknowingly, your fingers lingered in his face for longer than needed, caressing the place where his wound was now hidden. Finally paying attention to your actions, you retract your hands to your sides.

Now, facing each other with a much more comfortable distance, you get to admire his face, even if partially hidden, and his pretty smile spread once more on his lips. The themed band-aid actually complemented well his outfit, and the funny way he stood there with his arms on his hips. Tim also analyzed everything about you, from your smile you didn’t allow out but decorated your face either way, the way you looked everywhere but him once your eyes met again, and the curious phone case you had in your hand. It was a Robin one.

“I’m sorry.” he finally apologizes, messing up the hair at the nape of his neck. You want to tell him not to worry, but he cuts you to say: “It’s just been pretty… Busy night.” 

“So I’ve heard.”

“And you still decided to walk alone through an empty park at… eight past midnight?” he questioned, but his tone was light, not judgemental, almost a joke. 

“It’s my only way home. I have to take it every day. With time you grow used to it.” you informed him with a laugh, 

“And you’re not afraid?” he asked you one more time. With your shrug, you tried to tell him you were okay with that, when in fact, deep down, you knew with everyday before the clock ticked for your shift to end, the anxiety and the fear consumed your body and only wore out when you got to your street and Mr. Johnson could be seen in your building’s front door. Noticing your expression of uncertainty, he read between your lines and understood you perfectly.

“I can walk you home.” he offered.

“I don’t want to cause you any trouble.” you shook your head. “Besides, I think Batman might need your help.”

And as if the world could sense his desire, Oracle’s voice sounded in his ear telling him Superman was strolling around and decided to give the city some help.

“It’s been taken care off.” he told you, and signaled you to show him the way.

Walking side by side, you didn’t say anything for a while, until he curiously asked you what it was you were listening to that stopped you from hearing the lousy men-bats and all that fight.

“It’s a random playlist I found on YouTube, but I fucking love it. I can’t stop listening to it for days.” 

“Can I hear it too?”

“I only have one headphone, but…” you took it from where you had placed it in your bag and put it around your neck. Taking your phone and opening it again on that same playlist, you set the volume to the highest. “We can listen to it like this?”

Throwing him an awkward smile, he leans in closer. Your shoulders are touching and you swear you can feel his breath on your neck.

“Are you an Atomic Kitten fan?”

“Not really, but I like expanding my horizons.”

“Then I think you’d really like Vicenzo. He owns a small store, where he sells old records. He recommends some of the best music, you should check it out.”

“You should take me there sometime.” you tell him. 

If only I could, he thinks, regretting ever coming to you as Robin, and not simply Tim.

“I’m kind of busy a lot.” he tries to explain, and you notice the mistake you’ve made.

“I-I know. That was stupid. I know you’re busy.” letting your hair hide your face from him, you want to bury yourself down in a hole and never come out. Only you to think Robin himself would want to take you out in his off duty hours.

“At what time do you leave work?” Tim asks.

“Around 11h30. Why?” you reply, confused.

“I’ll bring you a disk tomorrow.”

“What?”

“I’m walking you home again, if you don’t mind.” he asks, begging to say yes and letting him see you again.

“I’d love it.” you whisper.

The rest of the way, you two talked about your music taste, the concerts you attended. You asked him about his costume, was it really as tight as it looked? Nightwing’s looked like it could rip at any moment. His was actually fine, it dressed him well, you told him, getting red once more.

By the end of the walk, Tim didn’t want to leave when you told him you had reached your street.

“So, this is it for me.” you told him, as you arrived at a crosswalk. Just across the street from where you stood was a man apparently  guarding the door.

“Oh.” was all he managed to say. Looking down, he hadn’t paid attention to it, but your hands were awfully close, so he touched your finger with his, playing with them, and, eventually, lacing them together. “See you tomorrow?”

“See you.” you went to kiss him goodbye. Just a peck on his cheek, you had just met him. But just as you, he went for the cheek kiss as well, and so your lips met. You two pulled away, but the magnetic field that seemed to bring you together all night was too strong to resist, and he leaned down to you, holding your neck, and kissing you again.

His lips were wet, and his tongue graciously slid into your mouth, playing with yours. Your eyes were closed, and just like a song, he took you away from your reality, inserting you into your own, where only you two existed. 

Stepping away for breath, still with his hands on your neck, he says.

“See you at 11h.”

“How can I pay you for this? Not the kiss I mean.” you correct yourself. With a laugh he replies, already running off to wherever it is Batman may need him next.

“Bring me some coffee.”

[frownyalfred]

Forewarning: this fucker is long, feel free to skip over it

Oh man, I don’t know what you’ve got written for your coral room sequel so far, if anything, but it’s gotten me thinking about Jason coming back and Luthor’s manipulative ass and, whew.

Like imagine, Jason coming back set on revenge, furious with rage at Bruce, hearing rumors about Lex Luther tangling with Batman, and going to investigate. Lex smells him and recognizes Jason, because he’s pack. Jason is immediately like “wtf why are you pack” (maybe with some good ole slut shaming towards Bruce because the pit twists *everything* into a reason to hate Bruce). Lex smells blood in the water and immediately tells Jason that Bruce bit Lex so he could stop the kryptonian from attacking (he neglects to mention which kryptonian). Oh and Jason, Lex thought the two of them were Alphas and locked them in a room and pumped in a rut inducer to get them to fight. If he’d known Bruce was an omega he wouldn’t have done it because you know what happens when an Alpha is reduced to their instincts in a locked room with an omega… and oh Jason, he’s so sorry, but Bruce is mated to Superman now, and don’t you know? dear old pops is pregnant now. What a shame that Bruce didn’t have those kryptonian weapons he’d been stockpiling on him at the time…

Jason, upon hearing that the mating and pregnancy might’ve been forced, turns a 180 in a heartbeat as he sees green. How could he have possibly thought Bruce would have bonded Lex on purpose, when he remembers Bruce fending off hordes of alphas who wanted nothing more than to objectify and mate him? Did he really think Bruce would bond Lex, who he loathes, without some asshole in the mix forcing him to?

Jason can tell he’s being manipulated, but the sheer tidal wave of pit madness buries it and the whisper of “how could Bruce bonding Lex stop a kryptonian?” because now instead of being furiously angry at his father, he’s fucking enraged on his behalf and viciously protective in such a rabid way that it gives him whiplash.

Also I love fics where Bruce is either a woman or shares a role/dynamic with Catherine, because giving Jason daddy issues is great, but how about *double mommy issues*? Especially since in this, he’d be getting the same emotions of “I’m just a kid of a parent who’s doing their best but their spouse is abusive to them and I’m helpless to stop it” except this time, he isn’t helpless, so watch out Clark, not only does Jason hate you for the aforementioned forced mating/pregnancy, but he’s also projecting the ghost of Willis Todd onto you.

Anyways sorry for how crazy long this is. Can you tell that I finished reading coral room and the interlude, got a stray thought, and then lay flat on my back for five minutes staring up at the ceiling as plot bunnies devoured my brain before sitting straight up and typing all of it into your ask box?

I love this anon!!! So much!! @januariat and I have been going back and forth with ideas for the sequel and it’s very much this similar dynamic of an awkward pack trying to figure themselves out and also fighting like angry cats.

I especially agree about Jason coming back pumped full of Pit juices and omegaphobia. He’s torn between blaming Bruce for being weak/making the wrong decisions but also being defensive of him and aggressive toward Clark, the only alpha.

Lex is the funny but awkward element to every single relationship here. Oh yeah him? He’s just that omega Bruce forcibly pack bonded after he tried to kill Superman and start his own super pack. He’s actually not horrible to be around if you give him time (and you’re a fellow omega)

[theaceofarrows]

Reasons why I would kill for a Batfamily/Six of Crows crossover⬇

Bruce and Kaz having a glaring contest that last for a whole hour before Alfred and Inej tell them to stop

Dick and Inej trading circus stories and showing and teaching each other different acrobatics moves

Jason and Jesper having a shooting contest where they just keep doing more and more outlandish shots

Tim and Barbara show Wylan all the different bat gadgets and they start nerding out over crazy inventions

Matthias meets Damian's animals and very formally introduces himself to each of them. Damian tells cute stories of Titus and Matthias tells him stories of Treskell (don't think I'm spelling the right-)

Steph and Nina debating what the best toppings are for waffles

Dick, Steph, Nina and Jesper having bisexual solidarity✨

Bruce: "killing is wrong. If you take a life you're no better th-" Kaz: [gags]

Cass and Inej being the most lethal and absolute badass duo in all of Gotham

Alfred and Colm talking over tea about how exhausting it is to deal with children (Bruce included) who are always putting themselves in mortal danger

Damian and Wylan having a violin and flute duo

Everyone keeping a tally of how many times Bruce and Kaz say something emo, and taking bets on who will say more

Steph and Nina having a heated argument about which is better between purple and red

Matthias getting his ass kicked by Damian after asking why a child is here. Nina and Jesper are laughing at him the whole time

Kaz criticizing EVERY. SINGLE. Gotham rogue about how they are all pathetic excuses for criminals, and then whacking them with his cane

Jesper seeing the Discowing suit, followed immediately by himself and Dick talking about their shared (terrible) fashion sense

Damian and Inej bonding over knives. Inej immediately mastering throwing batarangs

Jason and Kaz casually talking about traumatic stories about being child criminals living on the streets

Nina falling in love with Alfred's cookies, followed by her joining in the batfam fights over who gets the last cookie

Steph, Cas and Wylan having the "my father is an evil piece of shit" Club™

The crows stealing the batmobile for a joyride. Jason laughing his ass off

Wylan and Jason exchanging formulas for different kinds of explosives

"Why would you go with go with robins?? Crows are CLEARLY way cooler-" "[unholy screeching]"

Someone brings up Lex Luthor and it just goes "rich blackmailing piece of shit who lies for political gain? Yes, we know the type"

Kaz: "-and so then after I cut his face with an oyster knife, I ripped his eyeball out and then tossed him over the side of the ship" Jason: "Nice, nice. Points for creativity. There was this one time that I cut off the heads of all the major gang lieutenants in Crime Ally, placed them all into an old duffle bag and then tossed them to the bosses while they were all in a meeting I set up" Kaz: "Hmm, I'll have to remember that" Jason: "I got it all done in only 2 hours" Kaz: "Very efficient"

I will probably add to this

[vigilvntes]

Consider your last post (Battison and Dick) but with!! Mom!r!!!

• Making Dick breakfast every morning for the first few weeks, even if he doesn’t eat it. Bruce reminds you he just needs time, but you already love him so much.

• A companion shot to the one of Battison and Dick, but it’s you and Dick going to get ice cream at 2am (Bruce nearly has a heart attack)

• Matching pjs for the family!!! (Dick almost sticks a photo of them on his poster but decides that he doesn’t want to share it) ((he keeps it in his lil wallet and takes it out during the day when he gets sad))

• Glam photos of every gala!!! The fruit snacks you keep in your clutch for your boys!!!

STOP IT IM GOING TO THROW UP I NEED BATTINSON AND DICK GRAYSON TOGETHER IMMEDIATELY AND I NEED TO BE A WIFE AND A MOTHER!!!! like battinson having a canonical parental instinct just makes me so!!!!! like i DIED when he threw himself right in front of a moving car to get the mayor's kid to safety i PASSED AWAY THEN AND THERE I NEED MORE OF IT

but like. mom!reader who's NOT great at cooking and dick making pancakes together.... like you've been trying out different breakfast foods for weeks, seeing what he likes and what he doesn't like and you celebrate every single time he eats at least one thing on the plate but one morning you get up a little earlier than usual and prepare the kitchen with all the ingredients and all the things you might need to make pancakes. you hear his quiet little footsteps creeping into the kitchen and you ask him if he wants to help you make pancakes and he's still kinda shy but he nods his head anyway because he's a kid and my god does he want pancakes!!!! so you put a little chefs hat you bought specifically for him on his head and address him as "chef" the whole time. neither of you know how to make pancakes but fuck it we ball!!! he's still kinda quiet at first but after a while he relaxes into it and actually gets kinda bossy/cheeky. so you jokingly throw a blueberry at him. then he throws a strawberry at you. so you throw one back. and then he blows flour in your face. and then it's WAR. food fight commences. he's giggling and screaming, chasing you around the kitchen and eventually you drop down on to your knees in surrender and tell him that he's won, and that he's the lord of the food fights.

eventually the two of you get back to making pancakes because you're HUNGRY so why not finish the job??? and it just. it goes so bad. so so wrong. almost all of them stick to the pan. they look like SCRAMBLED EGGS. just mushed together. BUT eventually you get a perfect pancake. and then another, and then another. and it's all going well. until you ask dick if he wants to try and flip the pancake, and he flips it so hard he almost throws the fucking pan at the ceiling. and now there's a pancake stuck up there. you just look at him and say "i won't tell him about the pancake if you don't tell him i started the food fight". bruce emerges eventually, and he says nothing about the state of the kitchen, or the fact that you're both covered in flour and syrup and there's a strawberry stuck in dick's hair, he's just happy to see him with a massive grin on his face as he digs into a huge stack of pancakes covered in syrup and cream and strawberries. but then he looks up and he's just slowly states "there's a pancake stuck to the ceiling". and you and dick just look at each other, then back at bruce, and then you both deny it.

"i can see it"

"no you can't"

"it's right there, i–"

"dick, do you see a pancake up there?"

(dick, without even looking up) "nope!"

"see? you're crazy"

".....alright"

families who gaslight batman together, stay together!!!!!

and mom!reader and dick grayson eating ice cream together at 2am... but it's bruce's ice cream. because you cannot tell me that man doesn't have a sweet tooth. you tell dick it's fine and he won't mind if you sneak down to the kitchen, dig through the freezer (because you KNOW he hides it) and just have a little bit because a few spoonfuls couldn't hurt?? and then you eat the whole tub. and from that day on bruce buys ice cream for himself and a whole extra tub for you and dick to steal at 2am (even though he'll probably try and put a ban on ice cream after 10pm)

i just. sighs. i need this so bad. maybe i'll write something when i'm finished up w my current wips!!!!

[th3sp4rr0w]

Day Thirteen

A03 Link <- Starts at Chapter/Day One for those just joining us :))

Prompts For Day Thirteen Earthquake/Flood/Crushed

Alt. Prompt For Day Thirteen Grief

Prompts Used for Day Thirteen Crushed, Grief

Tw's; Medical Talk, Dubious Medical Accuracy, Talks of Guns, Injury, Minor Blood Mention, Child Death

Chapter thirteen under the cut :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being in the van was a lot like being in the warehouse.

Robin fussed over Phantom as he lay unconscious. He took stock of the tools in the belt; expired antibiotic ointment, random gauze, two band-aids and stickers were the extent of his medical supplies. He had a single baterang left, a tracker he was fairly certain had been scrambled, a lockpicking kit, two pieces of Halloween candy, a random fidget toy and a note he couldn’t make out in the low light. He had no idea when he last used this belt or how it ended up in the plane as a back-up, but he cursed his past self for not being more prepared.

There were no windows or even a rear windshield, which he was pretty sure would (or at least should ) be illegal if he remembered right. Who knows, he doesn’t even have a learners permit yet and the closest thing to street legal he’s ever driven has missiles and regularly goes over 150 mph on Gotham roads under the cover of night. If he didn’t know any better, he’d assume Batman was a street racer.

The back of the van had bits of sunlight peeping through where the top of the door’s molding needs replaced. He uses it to fumble his way through, trying to see what was in the back. He found a cliff bar that he immediately tore into to cure him of his shaking hands. He sank his teeth into the thing and he’s never liked banana anything, but the banana peanut butter becomes heavenly in this moment. He finds a small med kit he puts near Phantom so he can go through it later. He finds various weapons he doesn’t know how to use and an open case of water with about half left.

He grabs the water, not trusting himself to half fumble his way around a new weapon. He opened one water and drank to wash out the taste of banana, then a second to wash out the wounds of the other boy. In the low light of visibility, he has to feel his way around more often than he’d like. He grabs a baterang (which, now that he thinks about it, why are those in his belt? He’s usually good about sticking to his wing dings) and marks the top of the bottle he’s drinking out of.

He lifts up his twin’s shirt, not wanting to damage it. Normally he would just cut it off, but he had a feeling it was going to be a long time before he could get another one. He focused on his chest first, since that was the one in a more delicate area than the back.

Flushing wounds is not something new to him. Even when the boys are hurt, Bruce hates the self-driving functions of just about every vehicle he’s ever owned, always trusting himself or Alfred more. He’d flushed his own wounds a couple times, even flushed Dickface’s on that memorable occasion he didn’t see a barbed wire fence while sleep deprived and got into a fight with it (which he promptly lost) and fell asleep before he could be extracted. Batman had been pissed.

He’d never quite tended to someone else’s wounds after being captured in a moving van. It wasn’t something Robin had ever done.

Jason never would’ve gotten into the situation to begin with. Jason was for Jason’s survival and nobody else’s; he had to be. Maybe Robin should’ve been more like that.

Right now he doesn’t feel like Jason or Robin. Neither one of those masks were helping him here.

He deemed the wound on his twin’s chest flushed. He could feel little puffs of breath if he waited long enough. He wasn’t sure if the slow heartbeat was a sign of something or if it was normal.

He felt his own heart beating in his chest. It wasn’t comforting that it wasn’t that much faster than the other boy’s.

The blasts were more like lasers with no bullet hole to pack. Robin did what he does best and improvised, pressing gauze to the wounds that already looked like they might be healing. He added the possibility of accelerated healing time to the list of powers.

He thought back to what he’d said . “I didn’t know you were a ghost, too.”

He busied himself with securing the gauze to his chest. He found some medical tape in the kit to secure it with and did that before gently putting him on his side to work on his back.

Same story. No hole to pack, just a big wound that looked almost burnt at the edges. This one was in better shape than the one on his chest.

He felt good enough about it to add accelerated healing to the list of powers.

What would he come out of here with? Ice, like the other boy had conjured? He already had flying, intangibility, and invisibility apparently. He still couldn’t figure out the form thing.

One second he’d been there, hair purer than snow and glowing green eyes with neon and hints of something otherworldly. It felt almost unnatural, but looking at them had put him at ease. He could tell it freaked some of the agents out, even as they were fighting tooth and nail to be able to shove them in the back of a van and take them far away from Gotham City.

He knows they’ve gotten out of Gotham by now. They’ve been back here awhile and, though his sense of direction may be screwed up being in here, he knows the alley. He could navigate it even if you dropped him in the middle of it blinded without telling him where he was.

Besides, when he got back, he sensed something... changed. It felt like a comforting spice in his very lungs. He knows it would never hurt him, but it was there. Waiting for his return. It felt safe but powerful and he knew when they got back to Gotham she’d want to talk.

He shook his head. Maybe he should put more effort into finding something edible to get his blood sugar up.

He repeated the process of pressing gauze to the wound when he was done flushing the other boy’s back. He hunted their skin for scrapes and bruises; there wasn’t much to be done about it, he had to save their medical supplies for real emergencies, but he could still take stock of how bad they were and keep an eye on them when they got to where they were going. He also took the time to flush out any small cuts or scrapes; just because they’re small doesn’t mean they can’t get infected.

He tried to put the thought out of his mind that they were already healing when he looked over the scrapes and cuts.

He looked over at Phantom. If he tried hard enough, he could pretend he thought he was sleeping.

It was terrifying, this feeling. Robin training hadn’t prepared him for that.

He could still feel the shocks of the recoil, though he knew logically that had long since passed. He’d never needed to use a weapon other than various... homemade things, back when it was just him on the street, and wingdings and the occasional bo staff as Robin. Neither had prepared him for the day that he’d need to use something more just to protect himself.

He’d been vulnerable in the warehouse. He’d been vulnerable today. He wondered what could’ve gone differently, if there could’ve been any positive outcomes.

His mom had always disliked guns. That had always been his father’s thing and he’d always hated Willis with a passion; he’d always swore he’d never use them to Batman, who had been his mentor for the last year and a half or so.

He looked back to Phantom. Was today always doomed to end with one of them in the van? Could today have gone differently?

He supposed it could’ve. Nothing is ever set in stone, right? The speedsters were always fucking with the timeline and things, so he supposed that today could’ve gone differently. His life could’ve gone differently.

And it was stupid. To be sitting here, wondering, when he had a very real, very hurt brother on his hands that needed attention. He looked okay for now. He still had no idea what was up with the white light and the clothing change, but he supposed he didn’t have to know right now. He stared at his hoodie, still bunched up around his armpits.

He moved to smooth it back down. He didn’t want to see the gauze anymore, suddenly guilty.

He would never know if today could’ve gone differently so it was pointless to think about it. He had to focus on what he could change for the future.

He had to wait until Phantom was better; he’d hardly been able to stand the pain earlier and he’d been shot in the chest. There would be no way he could escape like this, but once he was better, they had to run.

He didn’t know where they were or where they could go, they just had to.

He shifted, pulling Phantom’s torso into his lap and stroking his hair the way his papa did for him whenever he was hurt. Maybe it was stupid and maybe he was an idiot and maybe-

His eyes welled. It was stupid.

“I didn’t know you were a ghost, too.”

He wasn’t dead. He could feel his heart in his chest and he could hear the sounds of the car and see in the dim light and he was alive. He had breath in his lungs. He wanted to be alive. But he knew he wasn’t the same.

If he hadn’t gone to Ethiopia, he wouldn’t be sitting here right now. He would know the date and he’d know what the baby bird had been up to. Instead of being on one of Talia’s islands, Batman would’ve been in Gotham to help Dick and Babs with the Phantom situation. If Phantom had still fled, his belt wouldn’t have expired Halloween candy in it instead of anything useful and he would’ve had some actual medical supplies and he would’ve had wing dings instead of baterangs and some stupid note.

If he hadn’t gone to Ethiopia, he never would’ve used the Molotov kit. He never would’ve thought to tug Phantom down the alleys. He would’ve thought ahead and realized that the only road exit that outsiders knew about was the closest to the rendezvous point, that it would’ve been smarter to go to the secret one between two buildings on the other side of the city and yeah, they would’ve had to have walked a ways before getting there, but they would’ve gotten there. They wouldn’t have gotten shoved into a van.

…When did he lose himself in Robin so much that, when Robin was out of commission, Jason couldn’t even pick up the pieces long enough to save a victim. Batman, no, Bruce was going to blame Dick and Talia for this. He just caused-

He paused. Since when is it his fault if an emotionally constipated grown man is mad at people for things they didn’t do?

He loves his papa. Other than his mom, his real mom, nobody else had ever cared for him the way a parent should.

Willis was always more concerned with money and sex. That’s... really the only reason he kept Catherine around. Jason was just part of the deal. He could see it now.

Catherine had always told him that from the first day she held him in her arms, she loved him. She was always kinder to people than they could ever deserve; he could see her falling in love with someone else’s baby and sticking around for them when nobody else would.

Bruce was a lot like her, when he allowed himself to be. Whether he wants to admit it or not, he holds far more hope and kindness for the city than it could ever deserve, and that extended to his sons. A lot of people didn’t think about Dick, the last flying Grayson, after the initial accident. Bruce checked up on him. Bruce saw he was in trouble. Bruce adopted him and gave him something to live for.

A lot of people would’ve come back to their car to find a kid stealing their tires and beat them to death. When it hit the news, assuming people even cared about it, they’d blame the kid, never caring about what put them in that situation to begin with. Bruce was more like Catherine than either had ever known.

But Bruce was also paranoid. Controlling. He didn’t like things being any other way than what he’d had in his head, and when they deviated from that even a little, he freaked out. He saw it as an opportunity to lash out at those who cared for him. It wasn’t his fault if Bruce did that.

Why did it feel like it was?

He knew he’d never be the same. When he got back, he’d be different. He couldn’t stay the same after that; even if he could emotionally stay, his failure today was too glaring to ever be comfortable being that way. This was too big of a thing to even think about quietly going back to the way things were.

He felt like there were two different people in his head; pre-Ethiopia, and post-Ethiopia. He’d been trying to hold it together but this was painstakingly familiar.

Being shoved in the back of a van with someone else. Going to an unknown location. Being unsure if the bat is able to track him at the moment. Thinking of how he’s going to get himself out of the bat can’t do it.

He’d been so sure Batman would make it in time. He could remember what it felt like to see him as he fell to the ground, that hope before it exploded. Literally.

He missed who he was before he could feel the searing pain just underneath his skin.

He took a deep breath as the tears leaked steadily.

Who he was before couldn’t matter. They were both dead as far as he was concerned. Jason had died with Catherine, the last bits of his memory stomped out when Robin arrived. Robin died in Ethiopia.

He kept trying to be the same person he was, but they were gone. It was like trying to glue together a vase that had been smashed for the third time.

At what point do you abandon the project and just get a new vase?

He stroked Phantom’s hair. He wasn’t going to give up. He couldn’t. He wasn’t Robin, and Jason would never be the same, but at the very least he could pull some sort of someone together long enough to get out. He had to.

Danny was abandoned by the same person he was. Danny still had no idea they were brothers. Danny had no clue about all the things they’d been through already.

He took a deep breath. It was times like this he missed his mom the most.

Grief was a funny thing. He never knew it was possible to grieve for yourself. To look back and feel protective over the version of you that may have been better. Who’d been naïve.

Being Robin gave him magic, but nobody had told him that it could run out. Nobody told him that once it did, he couldn’t get it back.

He could feel the anger bubble in his chest. He and Danny hadn’t done anything wrong. They had never done some heinous act worthy of being shunned. So why were they being punished?

He kept himself under control, continuing to stroke Danny’s hair gently. He untangled knots with his fingers, being careful not to tug. If he lost it right now, it’d be Danny paying for it. Danny didn’t deserve that. From what Dick had said and from some of the comments Danny made, he had a feeling the boy had had too much of that in his life.

He couldn’t help but nearly startle out a laugh. They’d been separated at birth, more or less. They had never met, never crossed paths, never knew of each other’s existence until a few weeks ago. How could two people go through all of that and still end up being kidnapped by the same group under similar circumstance?

Jason didn’t think it was a coincidence that he started showing some of the same power set as Phantom. He didn’t know why the boy had had white hair and green eyes one moment and black hair with the same baby blues as him the next, but he had a feeling it had something to do with the article Dick had mentioned.

The gravel in his pants shifted. He sighed, unable to bear it any longer.

He pulled his cape off, folding it up and gently tucking it under Danny’s head to replace his lap. He stood up and carefully peeled off part of his clothing, sweeping out the gravel, making sure to point it away from where the other boy lay.

When he was done and had his pants back on, he almost moved back towards where Danny was. He looked around.

He grabbed all the medical supplies he could from the small first aid kit. He left behind all the expired ointment, but took every roll of gauze, ace bandage, band aid and butterfly hold he could. He shoved it all into two pockets on his belt, making sure to keep the tracker. He put the two pieces of Halloween candy and all the trash into the now-emptied first aid kit and put that back where it was.

He didn’t know how he was going to sneak the water out. The bottles were too big to fit in his belt. That’s when it hit him.

He grabbed a couple and stuck them in Danny’s hoodie pocket. He checked the boys’ pants pockets to see if they’d fit any more; he stuck one in each when he saw they would, dedicating a pouch on his belt for their contents. For good measure, he stuck a bottle in the other boy’s hood, securing that with a safety pin that’d been in the first aid kit, taking care to make the bunches on the hood look natural.

He looked around for anything else. He found a smaller gun-shaped weapon in the pile of other gun-shaped weapons and paused.

He didn’t know how to shoot. Maybe, after today, he should know how to shoot. He stuck it in his belt and moved on.

He found more cliff bars and stuffed as many as he could into his pockets. Though he was hoping to escape as soon as they could, he knew to plan to be there for the long haul.

He’d learnt that the hard way before and it wasn’t a lesson he thought was worth repeating.

Occasionally, the van would come to a stop and he’d be still, unsure if this was where they’d end their journey or if they’d keep going. He didn’t want to face what would be on the other side of the van door when they eventually did come to their destined location. Not yet. Not now. Not when Phantom was still unconscious and they had precious few supplies.

He was beginning to worry. It’s not like he could wave a magic wand and make everything better; he wasn’t Zatanna.

He couldn’t make this better.

He sighed, sinking to the ground. They only had enough cliff bars for three each for three days, or they could each have one a day for a little over a couple weeks, or they could split one a day for nearly a month.

He wasn’t sure how long this ‘long haul’ would be. He was already beginning to stress himself out thinking about trying to plan for anything, really.

He had no idea what to expect. There was absolutely no indicator for why they targeted them; the only guess he had was the ‘ghost’ comments.

“I didn’t know you were a ghost, too.”

It was worse than walking into the warehouse; he’d known to expect a beating. He knew he could very well die. He knew what to expect.

Here was just... he knew it was personal with Danny. They’d probably target him a lot; he’d have to keep an eye on him and step in whenever it got too much.

He was sat next to the other boy, making sure he was alright. This couldn’t be happening.

He closed his eyes. This was happening.

He touched the pouch where the weapons sat. He took a breath.

Phantom just had to get better. Then they were out.

He heard a soft groan and looked over to see Danny rubbing his eyes. “Wha’s g’n on,” he slurred as he tried to sit up.

“Shh, it’s okay, that’s it,” Jason said as he helped the other boy. Danny looked at him and shrugged, allowing it to happen.

Danny looked down, then looked at him. “Fuck,” was all he said.

Jason laughed a bit. “It’s okay,” he said. “I uh, yeah. I’d probably freak out too, if I were you, but I promise you’re okay,” he said.

“I’m in the back of a GIW van with Robin,” the boy said, snarky. “The bats definitely think I’ve kidnapped you,” he continued.

Jason snorted. “Nah, Nightwing saw us get ‘nabbed. Think he was on the van for a bit and got thrown off, unclear.”

It was Danny’s turn to snort. “How long ‘till they find us, you think?” he asked.

Jason pursed his lips. “No clue,” he said.

The other boy hummed. “So... uh, I feel like I’m forgetting something,” he said.

Jason quirked a brow. “’I didn’t know you were a ghost, too,’” he quoted. Danny winced. “Yeah, what the fuck does that mean?”

He took a deep breath. “So,” he started. “How much do you know about ghosts?”

Jason blinked. “Assume I know nothing, because I’m picturing a grown man wrapped in a bed sheet yelling ‘Boo!’” he said, doing the wiggly spooky fingers.

Danny laughed for a minute. “Yeah, I used to, too,” he admitted. Then he sighed, almost sad. “Ghosts are formed from ectoplasm, which comes from strong emotion,” he said. He turned to Jason. “I... I don’t need to know. You can tell me if you want, of course, but you don’t have to. But most ghosts die violently. And I’m sorry if that describes you,” he said.

Jason cleared his throat. “I didn’t die,” he said. “In fact, I got dunked in a magic pool to make sure I didn’t die, so I think Batman’ll be pissed if I die-”

“Wait, back up. Magic pool?”

Jason explained. Danny asked more questions like, “What the fuck?” and “How long has this been going on?”

When he was done explaining, Danny looked vaguely paler. “So that wasn’t a dream I had about a pretty woman with a kid and a decrepit old man,” he said, dumbfounded.

Jason’s brain screeched to a halt. “Pretty lady with a kid?” he echoed.

Danny looked at him. “Yeah, like- she's pretty, uh, brown, I have no idea where she’s from but they spoke either a really rare or dead language since I could understand-”

“Did she have green eyes?”

“Yes,” he said immediately. “She also called the old dude ‘father’?”

Jason cursed. “Fuck’s Talia al Ghul doin’ with a kid?” he asked.

Danny shrugged. “Anyways, those sound fucked. You said you got that shit injected?”

Jason nodded. “I also swallowed some, I guess? Probably inhaled it too,” he said.

Danny cursed. “So, that’s probably ectoplasm. Like corrupted ectoplasm- dude, you should absolutely not be here right now,” he said.

“Comforting,” Jason said sarcastically.

“Shut up,” he said. “Uh, yeah, that’s not good. We’re probably gonna have to do something about that. How do you feel?”

Jason shrugged. “Pretty good for someone who apparently died, like, maybe 8 hours ago? It’s hard to tell time in here,” he said.

Danny looked at him, wide eyed. “8 hours- dude, why were you on patrol?!”

Jason winced. “Sooo,” he trailed off. “How up for life-changing realizations are you?”

Danny looked at him for a moment. “Only if I can give you one first,” he compromised.

Jason threw him a look. “You kinda already did that? Apparently I’m fucking Casper,” he said.

Danny snorted. “Well, there’s good and bad news? The good news is you aren’t dead!”

Jason took a deep breath. “I’m going to need, like, so much more information. What do you mean?”

“See, that’s the bad news,” Danny said. “You’re not dead, technically,” he said. “You’re just like... halfway there?”

Jason blinked. “Phantom.”

“Okay okay, so,” he said. “About a year and a half now,” he started, looking past Jason, “I did something, um, really stupid,” he said.

He pulled up his sleeve, revealing scars like a lightning bolt from his palm all the way down his arm, disappearing into the hoodie. He remembered seeing the rest of it under his gauze. “My parents built a portal to hell-”

“They did what?”

“Technically, it was to the ghost zone, they’re ectobiologists- doesn't matter,” he said, waving it off. “I got dared to go in. I tripped. I got electrocuted. I got revived by ectoplasm, and it wired itself into my DNA. I’m still alive; my body needs everything a regular human does,” he said, looking at Jason. “But I can also do this.”

He allowed a bright white light to envelop him. Jason winced back and waited for it to dissipate, leaving Phantom in his white-haired glory.

Jason stared. “Sooo, you’re...”

“A halfa,” he filled in. “And, uh-”

“You think I am, too.”

“Yes.”

Jason looked away for a moment. He swallowed and licked his lips. “So, like, I also have a...”

“Ghost form. And an ecto signature, which is probably why the GIW-”

“You said that earlier, GIW. Who’s the GIW?”

“Ghost Investigation Ward. Also called Guys In White.”

“That’s lame. What do they want with us?”

“We aren’t considered sentient,” he said.

“Wha- not sentient? I feel pretty fuckin’ sentient.”

“All ghosts are,” Danny explained, “But those assholes don’t think we are.”

Jason nodded. “This sounds like a big meta rights violation.”

Danny snorted. “It’s technically legal,” he said. “They snuck the anti-ecto acts in years ago.”

Jason blinked. “Oh, so it’s something that Lois Lane would have fun with?”

Danny lit up. “That’s who I was supposed to find in Metropolis!”

Jason grinned. “We know her personally, she’d love the case,” he said. “We just need to get out of here.”

Danny looked around. One moment he was solid, the next he was translucent as he tried to phase out of the van.

BZZZ

“Ow!” he hissed, coming back up. He tried going through the ceiling, then the doors, all with the same results.

“... That’s not happening,” he muttered. He touched down and turned back human. He got a weird look and checked his hoodie.

“Robin?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do I have a water bottle safety pinned into my hood?”

“Do you want to go potential days without water?”

“Fair enough,” he muttered. “But yeah. Congratulations, you’re a halfa!” He did jazz hands.

Jason snorted. “So, you want my news now?”

“Sure."

“So, on a scale of one to ten, how upset would you be if you found out your parents aren’t biologically your parents?”

Danny looked at him. “I mean, not very, since I think I was disowned anyways? Why?”

Jason smiled a little. “So, I was doing research on my bio mom recently,” he started. “And I found out I had a bio twin.”

“... Oh ancients above.”

“Yeah,” he said. He reached for his domino and tugged it off. “I don’t want to say anything for sure, since Batman hasn’t ran any tests, but-”

“No, no, you’re uh. We’re related,” he said. “Feel that?”

At first, he had no idea what was happening. Then-

Calm-Safe-Reassurance

“What the fuck?” he said, jumping a bit.

“That,” he said, “Is something ghosts use to send messages to loved ones. Mostly emotions. You don’t have to be related but it’s easier if you are, and they can be dampened or severed, but they’re kind of automatic for anyone who was biologically related in life,” he surmised.

Jason took a deep breath. “Cool. Cool-cool-cool.”

Danny looked at him. “So, twins, huh?” he said. Jason snorted.

“Yeah, I guess so. I, uh, I’m Jason Todd by the way.

“Danny Fenton,” he said, holding his hand out.

Jason took it. “This is so not how I imagined this going,” he said.

Danny snorted. “I’d imagine not. What did you think it’d be like?”

Jason shrugged. “Honestly, I was planning on leaving you alone. Maybe making sure you were in a good spot, since I wasn’t before I met Batman-”

“Who’s Bruce Wayne, right?”

Jason snorted. “Yeah.”

“Is he going to get mad you told me?”

Jason thought about it. “Maybe? Mostly because the last biological family member I told ended up kidnapping me and taking me to the Joker,” he said casually.

“Oh shit,” he said. “Is that what happened?”

Jason nodded. “Bat, uh, Bruce? He took me to the pits ‘cause I got worse, I guess,” he said. “I was pretty out of it when I woke up so they didn’t really tell me much.”

Danny nodded. “I know nothing can fix this, but I’m sorry,” he said sincerely.

Jason looked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry ‘bout your, uh... death? Too,” he said.

He snorted. “Don’t be. It was my fault.”

Jason frowned. “Dude-

The van turned sharply, causing them and a few of the various supplies around them to slide to the right. They came to an abrupt stop immediately after.

“What the...” Jason muttered, rubbing his head. He frantically grabbed his domino, pressing the hopefully still sticky bits to his face, putting his facemask on after.

“Codenames,” he hissed as they heard banging outside.

He saw him nod out of the corner of his eye. He transformed almost immediately.

Robin vaguely wondered where the water went when he did that. As the door swung opened, he decided it didn’t matter.

He saw his cape on the floor and cursed internally. It was too late to grab it now.

Glowing nets immediately enveloped them, even as Phantom attempted to fly out before they could try anything. Robin tried to dodge as Phantom was caught, but when his skin touched the net-

“OW!” he shouted out. “OH MY GOD WHY DOES IT BURN-”

“Can it, scum!” Someone barked.

Phantom looked over at him, apologetic, “Robin, hang in there!” he said before one of the agents grabbed the net, bringing him closer.

“Shut up, filth,” they slammed him down to his knees on the ground, grabbing his head through the netting and slamming his head on the dirty van floor. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble for us, Phantom.”

Danny smirked. “What, you have trouble outsmarting 14-year-olds- AH-"

The man shoved his face harder against the metal.

Robin felt his own net being yanked, dragging him out of the van. “This one,” he said with disgust, “Cost us three vans!"

Robin’s body tilted over Phantom’s and off the edge. He let himself fall.

He braced himself up on his hands when a foot came out to stomp on it.

He grunted at the unexpected nature of the attack, but he didn’t cry out. He could feel his joints pop out of place and bones snap under the crushing weight, but he didn’t cry out.

“See! I told you they didn’t feel pain, Agent V!” one yelled across the parking lot.

“Someone outta get Agent A,” someone else said.

He didn’t understand what was going on, but when he turned to look at Phantom, hand still under some asshole’s shoe, he looked vaguely terrified but mostly impressed. “Explain later,” he mouthed.

He nodded. Finally, the boot lifted their foot off his hand. He pulled it back, cradling it to his chest protectively and glared up at the man.

“Awe, what’s the matter, ghostie?” he said, all malice. “Did you want me to kiss it better?”

Robin snarled.

“Leave us alone!” he heard Phantom yell. “It’s not our fault your moms passed away and you had to get real jobs to pay for the basement-”

The person holding his net jerked it harshly. He let out a small ‘oof’ as he toppled to the ground. They placed a foot on his chest.

“Listen here little shit,” they growled. “We’re in charge. We-”

“Ha, yeah, right,” he wheezed. “Your wife leave you or something-”

Robin watched with growing horror as the person stepped further onto his chest. Phantom didn’t seem bothered much, but he couldn’t imagine it was easy to breathe like that.

… Did Phantom have to breathe? Did he have to breathe? He added it to the growing list of questions. He found himself wishing he had a notepad.

He was turning into the baby bird. He’d have to apologize for making fun of him for having a small notepad he was constantly jotting things down in. He might pick up the habit himself when they get out of here.

“Jealous?” he heard someone ask. They grabbed the back of his head roughly, dragging him over to where they were. “Don’t be,” he purred. “You’ll both be getting the same treatment soon,” he said, fake concerned.

“Their room is ready,” a new voice said, perfectly formal. A woman with a severe face and a tight bun stood before them, all business.

“’Their room’? Don’t you mean rooms? ” Someone asked.

He tried not to outwardly panic. Getting separated would make it that much harder to escape.

“No,” she said simply. “If the plan had gone accordingly, yes, however we’ve discovered something... interesting. Agent Q, would you do the honors?”

An agent in- you guessed it- a white suit stepped forward. He messed with his gun before pointing it at Jason and shooting.

He screamed. It hurt- bad. He’d been trying to keep in his noises because these fucking people didn’t deserve the satisfaction, but this was unbearable. He felt himself change, his leggings and facemask disappearing. He felt a familiar weight on his shoulders return and he wasn’t sure what happened at first.

He looked around. Faces morphed into awe as he came down from the pain. He tried not to tear up as he turned to Phantom.

He looked like he was going to be sick. What’s going on-

He looked down. His boot was a blood red, nothing like the Robin red Dick had picked out, or like the soothing green of his suit. His eyes trailed up his bare legs, where his scars glowed faintly in sickening patterns, deepening in the places he knew the burning was slightly worse than the area around it.

His shorts were the same red as his boots, catching in the light of the day. His shirt was a lazarus green, not like the neons of Phantom’s eyes.

The dandelion of his cape turned into a soft purple. He was about to lose his mind.

A murmur started in the crowd. The woman smiled for the first time.

“Hybrids,” she breathed. “Look alive, ladies and gentlemen. These boys are the advancements of the future; sick things parading themselves around as humans that can turn at will,” she said. “Experimentation on them will be a pleasure, I’m sure. Any and all proposed experiments go through me,” she said, eyeing the crowd.

Phantom and Robin shared a look.

“Dismissed,” she said, waving her hand. “Agent J!”

Agent J, presumably, ran up. “Yes ma’am?”

“Take the hybrids to their room,” she said.

He shifted from foot to foot. “Is it wise to keep them together?” he asked.

She gave him a withering look. “You question my judgment?”

“No ma’am,” he denied swiftly. “Just bringing up a concern.”

“I hear your concern, and I do not care for it,” she said coldly. “Take them to their room, unless you wish to be reassigned?”

“No ma’am. Right away,” he said, grabbing the nets from the agents who’d handled them previously.

He didn’t pick them up, just dragged them along the floor like they were a heavy garbage bag instead of people.

Robin silently reached out for Phantom with his good hand. Phantom grabbed it, hanging on for dear life.

This might’ve just gotten a lot more difficult.

[ailelie]

(1) Tim knew this was happening. He could have stopped it. Instead he smoothed the way to ensure that Jason's efforts would see print.

(2) This leads to a campaign in Gotham that "Brucie Can Do Better." Because Superman is, of course, from Metropolis and that Cannot Stand. If Brucie Wayne wants a hero, Gotham has a homegrown one he can screw around with: Batman.

(3) Not only does Bruce start to receive letters asking him to break up with Superman and start seeing Batman instead or letters talking up Batman while talking trash about Superman, but Batman starts getting encouraged to ask out Mr. Wayne. Like, criminals will, mid-fight, ask Batman if he's seeing anyone and talk about how he can't let Metropolis win over Gotham by dating Bruce.

(4) Every other bat and bird is 100% into this joke and will banter with the mooks, sharing that Batman is, in fact, single. And discussing ways he could woo Bruce Wayne or that Brucie could woo him.

(5) Since Superman doesn't have an address, a group of young citizens in Gotham pool their money to take out a full page ad in the Daily Planet that is an open letter to Superman telling him he doesn't deserve Bruce Wayne and that he should break up with him immediately.

(6) Lois finds this all incredibly hilarious and during her next impromptu interview with Superman, she asks about Bruce. The wounded look Clark sends her is captured on film and gets memed.

(7) Bruce wants to remove the billboard. His Board refuses. Business has never been so good. Tim makes a motion to entrust outreach and public relations to Jason full-time.

(8) For this reason and this reason only, Jason has regrets.

Bruce forwarding Wayne Enterprises advertisement emails to Tim for him to deal with only to realise too late he's actually been sending them to Jason.

He only finds out as he's driving down town and sees a giant billboard reading 'Wayne Enterprises. Our CEO is getting plowed by Superman. Can you say the same for yours?'

Suprisingly, the share price goes up.

[androxys]

Androxys Reads... Batman: Year One!

Here we go, back on this blogthrough of post-Crisis Batman comics. Sorry for the gap in doing these– I moved and started grad school and got a new job and all that. But also, I was delaying this one because I hadn’t decided how I wanted to blog it. Previously, the comics I’ve read have either been a single issue or a limited two-parter. Year One is different! It’s a four part story, first of all. But there’s also more meat on the comic’s bones.  Year One is one of The Batman comics, by most folks’ metric. So I needed to figure out how to write about a larger story, grappling with both its larger page count and larger presence in our fandom consciousness.

This is the way I settled on for now: I’m going to try to limit myself to around 200 words of commentary on each individual comic, and then I’ll get as much as I want to say about the story as a whole at the end. I’m hopeful that I stay satisfied with this way, especially looking forward to stories like Knightfall, NML, and BW:M?/F.

My only other preface note is that while Batman 401-403 are happening “in real time,” meaning Bruce is established as Batman and we’re already on Jason as Robin, Year One kicks off a major jumping back within the timeline to show things that happened in the past to create the present we were reading. We’ve gotta establish the new continuity somehow! I’m sure this won’t get confusing.

All that said, here’s Year One!

[Batman #404]

Immediately, we’re set up to see Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne as foils–both are coming to Gotham, but whereas Bruce is coming back, Jim is coming for the first time. Bruce is coming by air, wishing he took the train, Jim is on the train wishing he flew. They both agree that there is something awful and rotten about Gotham City, though.

Something that strikes me, and I’m not picking any particular screengrab, is how eager Miller is to show us how corrupt GCPD–the authorities and establishment of Gotham–are at every level.

[Batman #404]

This sequence gets me because we know that Bruce has spent the last several years doing nothing but training… but he’s been in Gotham for two months now not doing anything, because he doesn’t have the final piece yet. And I know that’s driving him crazy.

[Batman #404]

I always wonder what Bruce hopes to accomplish here? To “see the enemy” some more, it seems, but it always strikes me that he’s waiting for his epiphany, to understand what he’s missing. He fights Holly’s pimp (hey Holly!) and we get to meet Selina for the first time, but Bruce’s mission is at a messy point. He talks about “the enemy,” which seems to mean the entire city, and he helps the individual–but he’s not at a point where his actions as an individual can do anything about the city as a whole. The early parts of Year One really are about showing the impotence of the individuals, and showing why Bruce needs the mantle and mystique of Batman, and he needs to work with others. The art is certainly beautiful.

[Batman #404]

There are a lot of dramatic Bruce moments in this story, but the moment where he sits bleeding out with the bell in his hand is one of my favorites. Bruce would rather die than spend more time spinning his wheels, he has a flashback to his parents’ death and then…

[Batman #404]

The sign he was looking for. He shall become a bat. I love this sequence, because it really leans into one of the themes of Batman as a genre, which is finding that human fortitude at the last second right where it seems impossible. It's baked into him from the beginning!

[Batman #405]

I know that I’m not talking a lot about Jim. Sorry, Jim. Anyway, I think it’s interesting that Arkham is depicted here as being operational, or at least functional enough to provide records to GCPD at this point in Year One. I know sometimes it’s suggested that Arkham was closed down in the past and then gets reopened with the rise of supervillains.

[Batman #405]

Okay, I’ll throw him a bone. I’m less compelled by Jim in the early part of Year One, because as I said, these are characters who need to work together to make big change, they just don’t know it yet. And while Bruce can sit up in his manor and experience “the enemy” through field trips while  waiting for his missing piece, Jim is so enmeshed in the everyday corruption that he can’t see any way out but to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

[Batman #405]

Have we potentially run into our first continuity error, only *checks notes* five months post-Crisis? Here’s Barbara, referencing Superman during Batman's Year One. We know that Batman and Superman meet for the first time in Man of Steel #3 (Nov ‘86) once Batman is an established crime fighter–he has the Batmobile and the blue suit, rather than the black and gray Year One suit. We know that Man of Steel #3 happens sometime in the 18 months between MoS #2 (where Clark gets his job at the Daily Planet after debuting as Superman to the world) and MoS #4… so how exactly do these timelines work? How is Superman a known entity before Bruce has even put on the Batsuit for the first time, since this is the literal night he debuts the suit?

Maybe this scene in Batman Year One– explicitly dated April 9th– is right after Superman debuted to Metropolis in MoS #2. All of Year One will happen now, and Bruce will meet Superman at some point in the six months between the end of Year One and MoS #3? Comics timelines are miserable, and the flashbacks and time jumping certainly don’t help!

[Batman #405]

I love this sequence, where Bruce is holding a kid who fell off a fire escape and fighting off his fellow burglars at the same time. Bruce refuses to drop the kid, which means taking some hits, but the sanctity of life takes priority.

[Batman #405]

Sarah Essen!!! Love her. I'm sure you won't have an inappropriate relationship with any of your coworkers.

[Batman #405]

Here, Flass describes his first encounter with Batman to GCPD. Everyone’s clowning on him, but I love when stories lean into the fact that when you don’t know about Batman, he does seem sort of superhuman! The fear aspect gives him that mystique! The cape does hide his body and make it seem like bullets pass straight through him! He’s fast enough that you may not see him throw the batarang–he just extends his hand and a guy falls! It’s scary! It’s so good to see how Bruce’s psychological campaign works.

[Batman #405]

No notes. This is my favorite moment in Year One. Bruce “what is overkill” Wayne goes to a dinner of Gotham’s most influential and corrupt and puts them all on notice in the most dramatic way possible. Batman has debuted for real, folks!

[Batman #405]

Objectively hilarious that as Gordon is interviewing Harvey Dent, trying to figure out if he’s Batman, that Bruce is hiding under Harvey’s desk. Given that this is the first time we see Harvey, I do have to wonder how Batman began to work with him. Reading Year One really makes me want to seek out fics that fill in all these little moments.

[Batman #406]

So the GCPD has chased Batman into an abandoned building and bombed it, not caring that there were also homeless civilians inside. I’m raising my eyebrow at both Batman and Frank Miller here–Bruce demonstrated he’s willing to take hits to avoid letting someone die. Batman as a character is about the preservation of life even when it seems impossible. So in this moment… it’s just too much? There’s nothing Bruce can do so he just focuses on himself? I’m beating this moment back and forth between “he’s making the utilitarian choice to do more good later by preserving himself” and “that’s not what Batman’s about, Frank!”

I like that his helplessness haunts him, though. He repeats it to himself over and over as he falls through the fire.

[Batman #406]

King. Really though, Jim’s had no patience with Branden’s overzealous disregard for lives. He saw that Batman is in this position for saving a woman’s life. The pivot is happening.

[406 Cat]

Couldn’t save the man, but can take a bullet throwing a cat out the window to try to save it. Oh, Bruce. You don’t even know it’s Selina’s. Not pictured: Batman singling out the man who tried to shoot the cat, and subsequently throwing that man through a wall. Because the cat represents innocence and an unselfish deed, and so forth.

[Batman #406]

You know Bruce, I also often find myself needing a man on the inside.

[Batman #406]

Of course it’s queer, Holly! It’s comics! It’s queer subtext all the way down!

Selina! Catwoman! Another narrative foil thrown into the mix!

[Batman #406]

And now that Bruce has his thing down, we can keep looking at Jim’s own searching for faith and purpose. He knows that Gotham is rotten, and that the man he’s supposed to see as evil has more moral virtue than the authorities he serves. But where does he go?

[Batman #407]

Final issue of Year One! This isn’t plot related, but I love that the cop bar is Hopper’s, referencing Edward Hopper and his painting Nighthawks. In terms of plot, Jim and Sarah Essen are breaking off their affair on account of Jim’s pregnant wife. Funny how you can’t distract yourself from the evils in the world by clinging to the only other seemingly virtuous person trapped in the same system as you, huh Jim?

[Batman #407]

Jim Gordon finally got to Bruce Wayne to interview him and see if he’s Batman, and call me out on this one, but I think I actually like the Year One movie’s adaption of this scene more than the comic itself. Where’s the manspreading? Where’s paying the woman who was acting as his arm candy? Anyways, these back to back panels are once again tickling my continuity questions… why this pivot, if not to just make us think of Superman? Why? Why??

[Batman #407]

Selina’s plot in Year One is so wasted, which is such a shame… she’s become Catwoman and robbing the wealthy because she can. She gets a kick out of it, sure. But where does it go from there? Where’s the depth? Right here, she’s scarring The Roman to make her mark, literally, but then where does it go? It’s setup for Long Halloween, sure, but that’s a connection made in hindsight. The Long Halloween won’t be published until 1996, and we’re in ‘87.

[Batman #407]

This is the moment that the whole Year One story has been building to, really. Corrupt Commissioner Loeb, tired of Jim’s popularity and morals, works with The Roman to kidnap Jim’s son, James Jr. They tried blackmailing Jim with his affair, but he already told Barbara about Sarah. Bruce helps stop the kidnapping and gets James Jr. back to Jim, and we have the first of many “does Jim know?” moments.

Things wrap up pretty well from there! Flass, who had been implicated in drug dealing, squeals on Loeb, who resigns. Jim gets promoted to Captain. Corruption, in the end, ate itself to death. The morally upright only had to withstand it long enough to see it through.

[Batman #407]

Things end on a hopeful note! These two have made a connection, they’re working to make Gotham better… but just as soon as they start taking on the corruption and “normal” problems in Gotham, the costumed criminals start coming out of the woodwork. In some way, maybe that’s what Catwoman’s role in this story helps convey–she’s the middle point between “normal” criminals and the costumed criminal. She’s just a woman, a cat burglar, but she makes it into a spectacle. She cares about optics, about leaving her mark.

Overall, where does Year One leave us? It’s a story about people versus systems, and the inevitable truth that you can’t do everything alone. Jim will learn this quicker than Bruce, unfortunately. Bruce will spend the next… forever… relearning this lesson. 

To end, I’m going to quote artist David Mazzucchelli, who in turn is quoting Frank Miller, who has this to say about Batman: “He's clearly a man with a mission, but it's not one of vengeance. Bruce is not after personal revenge ... He's much bigger than that; he's much more noble than that. He wants the world to be a better place, where a young Bruce Wayne would not be a victim ... In a way, he's out to make himself unnecessary. Batman is a hero who wishes he didn't have to exist.” Because that’s what it’s all about! Batman ultimately is a comic that always works best when not taken literally, but instead as an interplay of symbols and metaphor. If only a DC movie would realize this.

And I’m pretty pleased with myself! I kept this to just over 2k words, which was the goal. Next, to keep things spicy and in the time period, we’re going to read Matt Wagner’s Bad Moon Rising stories: Batman and the Monster Men and Batman and the Mad Monk. These two lead into The Man Who Laughs, which is the story in which Joker threatens to poison the reservoir, as seen here. Timelines!

[the-wintershade]

won't tell a single soul that my soul's gone | Pattinson!batman

pairing: pattinson!batman x reader  summary: bruce takes an explosion to the chest and you can’t get in touch with him. wc: 1.0k+  genre: just depression, just loving touching, comfort, stilly pretty angsty though   a/n: these songs really capture the feeling of the movie so well that I was immediately transported back into the dark world. wow. awesome picks. They have made my playlist for sure. thanks for requesting and thanks for sticking with me, anon. till we meet again.

Bruce isn’t sure how he’s gonna fix this.

The city feels oppressive, pressing against his chest as he stares up at the ceiling of the church. Then again, it could be the weight of the impact from the bomb that’s thrown him across the room starting this dull ache.

It was the only riddle he couldn’t solve.

It was the only piece of information he couldn’t give him to save him.

He’s failed like he’s failed before.

He doesn’t fight sleep when it comes.

…

You hear about what happened at the funeral moments afterward. It’s hard not to hear all of the dreadful things in this city when you work for the paper.

Your heart races as you reach down for your phone. Your fingers shake as you open a text message to ask if he’s alright. As you send it, you already know you won’t get a response any time soon.

Your head droops forward as you catch it in your hands, elbows propped up against the desk.

It’s getting too overwhelming here. Every time you work on a story for the paper, it’s like the crime is only getting worse, not better. The articles you proofread only talk about killings or robberies, or corruption.

Gotham is becoming a cesspool; in fact, it’s already been for some time but knowing Bruce and what he fights for every night just makes it more apparent.

Your manager stops near your desk and you tilt your head back, just enough to make out his face. He doesn’t greet you, doesn’t check in to see how you’re doing, just says, “I need that article on my desk in twenty.”

Nodding, you close your eyes and take a breath, listening for his footsteps. When you hear them trail away, you open your eyes again and click back to your computer.

It only takes a few minutes to write. You know what they want you to say — corruption’s on the rise, can we trust the law, and staff of the streets. Nowhere is safe.

You make a few small edits before sending it to your boss’s email and the printer on the floor.

The headline: Another Dynasty Destroyed; The Bat Too Late

…

When Bruce finally figures a way out and back to the manor, he feels this dreadful tug in his core. He can’t shake it. It’s like it’s pulling him down to the earth, and he’s only barely resisting it.

He trudges into the manor as if weighted by chains. He didn’t realize how loud his boots are until you come peering around the corner and softly pad across the room over to him.

Usually, his eyes brighten to see you so near, but he can’t quite manage to give life to the spark. Then again, when you’re closer and he can see you better, he notices a dull gloss over your normally sparkling orbs.

Bruce instinctually reaches up to hold your cheeks when he notices the lack of life in your body and he’s pleasantly surprised to feel you doing the same. The pads of your fingers press into his skin and bring him back to life.

It’s like your touch chases the chains away and he wants to keep you closer than ever.

“Hi.” You mumble, tracing your thumb over his dark eyeshadow.

His smile is bitter, still weighed down by all the events he still hasn’t left behind, but at least his lips try to fight gravity for your sake. “I missed you.”

He watches your pupils grow and shrink. Then he feels you press your body against his, your arms latching around his neck.

The chains feel like they’ve dropped.

He cradles you in his arms, pulling you against him to keep you free of those chains, afraid they’ll latch around your legs if he’s not careful.

It’s like you knew. It’s like you could see them. It’s like the moment your skin touched everything he ever went through transferred from his mind to your heart. It’s like you could see how bad everything was; he never speaks his emotions as plainly as he just did.

“I missed you so much.” His words disturb your hair and you squeeze even tighter, chasing the demons of the past away with the strength of your affection.

…

You notice his voice cracking at the end and your own pain manifests in the little tear sliding down your cheek.

You needed to touch him, feel his life underneath your bones. It felt like the both of you were slipping away.

You’re grateful for this grounding, grateful that you can just hold him. But you’re also thankful that you have someone to hold you up, to keep you steady in such a godawful city.

Carefully, you reach up and stroke the back of his hair and press your skin against his neck. “I’m glad you’re safe.” You mumble and keep your eyes closed as he pulls you back so he can look at you.

You feel his fingers ghosting over your tears and feel the rest of the legion of saltwater rise up to be released. You know your eyes are glass when you open them and you can feel Bruce’s love pour over you, fighting against them.

The struggle on his face is evident in the lines of his forehead and the tightness around the eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. Words don’t really help in times like these.

“Come on.” He grasps your body against his side as you both walk up to his room.

…

You curl into each other, holding on as if a hurricane were going to come and rip the two of you apart. Soon enough, the chains leave Bruce alone, long forgotten at the front door. Soon enough, the feeling of floating away leaves you firmly grounded against the earth.

You’re tied to each other in a way that words will never be able to explain, but the two of you will know intrinsically.

You may not be able to have everything you’ll ever desire, but you will always have a tether to yourself in each other. It’s made of the strongest and deepest bond known to heaven and earth, and it will never break.