#Bruce thinks it's mind control

[violent138]

It would be hilarious if Dick (recently dumped) and Jason (perpetually uninterested) were discussing their lack of dating prospects and Tim asks what they're talking about and Dick explains before going, "High five Timmy" and Tim's like "Yeah no thanks, I've got [bitches]." And both Jason and Dick are stunned.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Jason had been acting strange lately, something everyone except him seemed to notice. It started with Jason bringing Tim a full home-cooked meal into his nest and insisting he needed to eat something decent and wouldn't let him get back to the case he was obsessing over until he did.

Dick got called "Big Wing" for the first time in a while and even got hugged and spun around. He nearly cried.

Bruce keeps getting called Dad. He also nearly cries. He actually does cry when Jason, half asleep, mutters a soft, "love you"

Cass took advantage of Jason's good mood to invite him to chat with her and Steph on a picnic where they both tried to figure out why he's so happy and buy time for Barbara to look through all the places Jason had been and make sure he didn't run foul of a rogue or something.

It didn't take her too long to find out all of this started soon after a party he was invited to via one of his former goons where Jason got drunk and left with an equally drunk guy.

Appearently Jason got laid but the guy disappeared soon after. Whats more mysterious is that this Daniel (Danny) Nightengale was a fake identity and they had no idea who- or what- he really was or what effect he was having on Jason.

Damian made the mistake of insulting this guy and it took Bruce, Dick, Tim and Cass working together to pull a pit raged Jason off of him.

Yeah.

They needed to find this guy.

Plot twist: Jason unknowingly fed on Dannys energy and accidentally got thralled

[stillwaterinc]

i have nowhere to put my batman thoughts so they’re going here

jason comes back as the red hood, planning to take out his little replacement or at least hurt him bad enough that he drops the suit and lets robin die but suddenly, a month before his plan is to start, robin disappears. and so does the joker.

what? jason looks, he scours security cameras and internet forums, even weasels his was into the gcpd’s files and…

nothing. there’s nothing.

no bodies reported, joker’s not in arkham or black gate or any other prison, he hasn’t finally been given the death penalty he just. disappeared.

he can’t find anything on robin either, or tim drake, for months until he stumbles upon a nearly perfect patient file in some hospital records.

nearly. it’d be perfect to anyone else but jason, even years later, can recognize bruce and barbara’s finger prints all over it. it’s a cover. a cover for what though? he reads through the file, tim drake’s file, presumably and finds… well.

someone clearly tortured the kid, and with the meds he was being prescribed it got to him. it would’ve gotten to anyone.

jason shudders reading the initial injury report. electric burns, lots of them, are what catches his eye the most but there’s all kinds of stuff. what catches his eye the most though is the lacerations that had to be stitched either side of the kid’s mouth. shit.

he doesn’t get the full picture, not yet, but pieces are starting to come together. the joker has been missing for a while, just a little longer than jason’s replacement has been in the hospital for some violent injuries.

the joker is missing.

tim drake is in the hospital.

something happened, clearly. the joker did something to tim, something awful, something bad enough that the joker disappeared and the kid’s been in the hospital for weeks.

bruce didn’t make it in time, only this time robin wasn’t dead, he’d been broken.

someone had gotten to robin, to tim drake, before jason could, had gotten to him so badly that even after he was released he wasn’t robin anymore.

not because he didn’t want to be, a few bugs here and there in the manor let him know that much, but because bruce wouldn’t let him.

it comes out, in one of these arguments, that time killed the joker. shot him dead. and jason almost wants to congratulate the kid for it, or wants to strangle bruce and ask him how the hell he let robin, who’s just a kid, tim, who’s just a fucking kid, get anywhere near a position where he had the means and desire to fatally shoot the joker.

because that’s it, isn’t it? the reason jason’s like this, doing this, is because of the joker. jason knows how to use guns because of the joker. he’ll never go to college like a normal kid because of the joker. and now tim.

tim wants to be robin, asks for it, begs bruce to let him back out in the suit and jason nearly finds himself agreeing with bruce. the joker’s gone sure but what if someone else tries the same thing? what if someone tries worse? being in the suit’s already gotten tim this much pain, why risk more?

it hits jason, one night, that he stopped being angry at tim a while ago. a long while. he can’t be angry at bruce either, because the joker is dead. there’s no one to enact vengeance for his death on anymore.

anyways most of my posts are about incest please don’t follow me for batman content

[starrycomics]

Spoilers for Gotham War: Scorched Earth

Listen - I love Jason Todd, he is my baby boy, light of my life, my favourite murderous zombie, and I would love to see him thrive in a comic book not written by Scott Lobdell at some point in my lifetime

However

….He MAYBE should have died at the end of Gotham War

[hood-ex]

Having a Homer Simpson "d'oh!" moment because I missed/forgot some pivotal information on the Zur situation that happened a few issues ago.

Zur created Failsafe and erased the memory of how to stop him. He also created a batcave under Bruce's batcave. (Batman #127 / Batman #136)

Bruce literally mentioned that Zur "poisoned the well" and put doubt in Bruce's head and heart. Bruce questioned, "What else has he done?" (Batman #136)

Bruce locked Zur away in his mind, and they were at odds with each other because Bruce didn't want Zur taking over, and Zur wanted out because he perceived Bruce's insecurities and doubts as his mind being "under attack." He wanted out to fulfill his purpose. (Batman #136)

In a flashback, Zur took over Bruce's body without Bruce even knowing. One minute, Bruce was trying to solve a case, and in the next, Zur was doing his own thing. When he gave up control to Bruce again, Bruce simply carried on with his previous thought as if he hadn't been personality swapped at all. (Batman #136)

Zur tried to tell Bruce what to do. Bruce snapped and yelled at him, reminding Zur that he (Zur) was in a cage. Bruce reassured himself, "He's in a cage. I'm in control." (Batman #137)

Now there was a moment in Batman #136 where Bruce started to panic because he couldn't see the future or whatever, so he didn't know how he could save everyone he loved, and he wondered how far he could go before it all burned away.

And then in Batman #137/Catwoman #57, Bruce realized that he no longer owned the manor, and he kinda started spiraling and talking about how even if he lost the manor/his wealth, he wouldn't lose his soldiers.

"They can't be bought. But they can be saved."

Notice the fact that Bruce used the term "soldiers." Because guess what? In Batman #127, Zur referred to Tim and the other members of the family as soldiers, and Bruce angrily corrected him.

"And Tim isn't my soldier! HE'S MY SON!"

SOOO. Do you see where I'm kinda going with all this? Bruce not knowing when Zur takes over? Zur being able to erase memories? Zur using "soldier" in his own dialogue color, and Bruce using the term "soldier" in his own dialogue color? Bruce saying that Zur "poisoned the well."

AND NOW, in today's issue, Zur forcibly took over to try and kill Joker again. And you know what was said?

Bruce: No! I'm in control! I'm--

Zur: You're not in control, we (Zur) are.

BRUCE CANNOT CONTROL ZUR. HE CANNOT. He thinks he can, and he thought he had it under control, but Bruce doesn't have shit under control!

[wesavegotham]

Another thing Williamson should work on is cliffhangers because the first issue ended with Bruce getting attacked by his bats, but there was no mystery behind it and of course Batman would be fine and find a solution because he's Batman. And now this issue ended with Shush threatening to shoot White Rabbit, a character nobody cares about.

Like, in theory I'm on board with Bruce and Damian having normal Batman and Robin adventures, but the story hooks could be stronger, the characterization and relationship developement less shallow and the cliffhangers more exciting.

[starlooove]

He is in fact not cool with his friends killing people he just can’t do shit about it and the fact that he thinks he can do smth about (and does!) when it comes to his kids is like a major point

[sporkberries]

debating writing a meta post about how bruce isnt a good father but i dont know if i want to invite the discourse. 

[msfcatlover]

Web!Bruce keeps... tethers, for lack of a better word, on the people he cares about. The same strings a lot of Web avatars use for manipulation, he... tries to limit his use of. Let the strings sit lax, present in case of emergency, there if needed, but not to be used. When his worries get the best of him, he coils them around his fingers, pulling the tethers just tight enough to feel the life thrumming at the other end, the current emotional state of that person, just as a check in. A quick twist to make sure Dick’s okay. A light tug to make sure Damian actually went to bed. A small pull when Tim’s been quieter than usual and Bruce can’t figure out why.

It soothes Bruce’s nerves to have those silent check-ins.

It also means that despite never being prone to pyrophobia before, cases involving fire fray Bruce’s nerves more than anything, as the longer any of his people spend in close proximity to flames, the more chances there are each of their tethers might burn away. A nightmare he’s encountered more than once when he went for a check-in and found only a slack, frayed thread where a sturdy tether was supposed to be.

(Bruce has on occasion yanked all the strings attached to someone hard enough to physically force them closer to him. If he holds them tight enough, he can induce paralysis. If he winds them right, he can leave someone all trussed up and immobilized. In his weakest, most paranoid moments, he has used this to try to force someone to stay safe, but the Fear... the Fear of someone else having control over your actions, imposing their will on you, of knowing your weaknesses & taking advantage... that’s what the Web wants. Realizing he’s Feeding on someone he cares about is usually enough to snap Bruce out of it, and when it’s not, the resulting damage to their relationship is punishment enough for him to resist the urge for years to come.)

[daydreamerdrew]

Marvel Team-Up (1972) Annual #3

[avayarising]

There was a flash of white light from the small sphere cupped against Jason’s chest, and suddenly the blue-green glowing globe was a blue-green glowing humanoid kid, with a black outfit and a shock of white hair, sitting trembling in Jason’s lap. The kid looked round for a moment at the stunned faces around the dining table, and then turned and buried its face in Jason’s shoulder. Jason’s arms came up around the kid immediately and he started murmuring reassurances that didn’t quite cover Tim’s triumphant whisper, “I was right!”

There was nothing else but a shocked silence from the rest of the table as Jason rubbed his hands gently over the sobbing kid’s back. “It’s all right, you’re all right, you’re safe, I’m here, I’ve got you,” he murmured over and over, until the trembling began to calm and the arms loosened a little. “Got a name I can call you? – Danny? Thank you, Danny. You’re doing so good. You’re safe here with me and my family. We’ll all protect you, I promise.”

The kid – Danny – looked up and around with bright green eyes at the word ‘family’. He looked like he was somewhere between Tim and Damian in age, and he had faint green tear tracks on his cheeks. No-one mentioned it.

Jason gave a weak chuckle. “Yeah, this is my family.” He lifted one hand from Danny’s back to indicate the various people around the table, in turn. “This is my dad Bruce, my brother Dick, my other brother Tim,” (“Hi Danny,” said Tim gently) “my sister Cass,” (Cass waved, smiling kindly) “and my littlest brother Damian,” (Damian gave a stiff nod). “That’s my grandpa, Alfred,” (Alfred bowed, “Welcome to our home”) “and I’m Jason, do you remember?”

“I… I think so?” Danny whispered hesitantly. “You read me stories?” he added.

“Yeah, kid, I did.” Jason smiled, tightening his arms around Danny again. “It’s good to see you up and talking. Here,” he turned Danny round to face the table. “You hungry? Anything here you fancy eating?”

Danny glanced over the table, then shook his head and turned back to Jason. “I – what if – The Guys in White, they…”

“They’re going down,” Jason promised. “As hard and as fast as we can manage it.”

Bruce managed to shake off the dual shock of a ball turning into a child at his dining table and Jason freely calling him his dad. He dropped out of his seat and crouched before Danny. “I promise you,” he confirmed, “you are safe here, and we are working to catch the people who did this to you. When you’re ready, anything you can tell us will help,” – Danny shrank back a little, and Jason tensed – “but only when you’re ready. For now, just rest and recover. Let us protect you and take care of you. And do eat something, if you can,” he added, with a smile that crinkled his eyes, not his mouth. “If you can’t eat our food, we’ll try and find you something you can eat. Alfred will be very disappointed if he can’t feed you anything.”

“Indeed, sir,” said Alfred. “And that goes for the rest of you as well,” he added, glaring at the abandoned plates. “I did not make all this food for you to ignore it in favour of staring at our guest.”

There were sheepish apologies, and everyone turned back to their food. Jason coaxed Danny, still sitting in his lap, into eating several forkfuls of mashed potato, some roast chicken, and, in due course, rather a lot of apple crumble with custard. By the end of it all, Danny was drooping.

“Right, kid, let’s get you into a bed,” said Jason.

Alfred led them upstairs to the bedroom next to Cass’s and opposite Tim’s, with a newly-made bed and a fresh towel. Neither Alfred nor Jason was quite sure how or even if the black suit came off, and the kid was almost asleep now anyway, so Jason tucked him into bed as he was. The kid curled up on his side and Jason stroked his white hair.

After a few minutes, Cass slipped in and sat on the bed beside Jason, and laid her hand gently on Danny’s shoulder. Danny didn’t stir, though he was still glowing faintly.

“I will watch him,” said Cass. “You go and talk to them.”

Jason didn’t want to leave Danny.

“You need to talk to them,” insisted Cass, and she was usually right, even if he didn’t like it, so Jason got up.

“You’ll call me if anything happens?”

“At once,” said Cass solemnly, and Jason crept out of the room, turning back in the doorway for one last look. Cass was already lying down next to Danny, and had taken over hair-stroking duties. Jason closed the door gently behind him.

Tim and Dick and Bruce were standing a little further down the hallway, talking in low voices. “– made a presentation,” Tim was saying as Jason approached. “I was going to show it to you tonight, but it doesn’t seem necessary any more.”

“We’ll watch it anyway,” Dick said reassuringly.

“Summarise it,” ordered Bruce.

Tim glanced at Jason, cheeks slightly red. “OK, so. I heard Jason a few times in the library, talking to the core or reading to it. And there wasn’t anyone else around and I figured, he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t think someone was listening. So I was trying to figure out why Jason thought there was a person in the core, and I analysed the cowl footage. When the machine came on – this is all in the slides – there was an irregular noise, above the range of human hearing, and when I modulated the frequency down it sounded like –“

“Screaming,” Jason said heavily. “A kid screaming. You didn’t hear it? You didn't feel it?” Bruce shook his head slowly and Jason stared at him for a long moment, mouth open. “You didn’t – you didn’t know?”

Bruce didn’t answer, and Jason’s face crumpled. “Oh,” he said. “But I thought –” and then his face hardened into flat anger. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I thought.”

He pushed past them towards the staircase, and Dick whimpered.

“Jason. Jason, no,” cried Bruce, and Jason halted; perhaps because he wanted Bruce to say he did trust him, perhaps because he didn’t want to go far from Danny.

“Listen to me, Jason,” Bruce said urgently to Jason’s back. “You’re right, I didn’t know the core was a person. But I did know that it was important, and that it was valuable, and that it needed to be kept safe. And I gave it to you in part because I could see that you knew it was important – better than me as it turns out. And knowing what I know now, I would make exactly the same decision again.”

Jason turned round, and Bruce stepped gently forward to put a hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t see it, but you did, and you did exactly what was needed. And now that child is safe and recovering because of your dedicated care. You have a big heart, Jaylad. You always did. And I am so” – he paused and hitched his breath – “so, so proud of you.”

Jason crumpled into his father’s arms.

Jason was acting strange.

Bruce was worried. It had started when the batfam investigated the hideout of a new gang in Gotham. They had attacked Jason earlier that week with strange weapons, so Batman, Nightwing and Red Hood followed them to a warehouse. They saw the men in white suits with the weapons, several vans and some sort of powersource they called a core. Batman and Nightwing were making a plan when one of the men activated the machine housing the core.

Suddenly Red Hood had gone ballistic! He attacked them recklessly, with much more force than neccesary. Nightwing had to sto him from beating one of them to death! Batman was furious. They left the men for commisioner Gordon and took some evidence to the cave. When they arrived, Jason looked shaken. Bruce wanted to scold him, but the look on Jason's face made him pause. He needed to focus on the case, but he knew he couldn't bring Jason along. So he 'benched' Jason. Thats what the Robins called it, anyway. But someone needed to guard the evidence, they had no idea what this power core even was.

He expected Jason to protest. To insult him to complain. But when Bruce told Jason to look after the core, he instead looked suprised. Really? Jason had asked. Then Jason had told Bruce he could count on him. Red flag number 1. This had confused Bruce, but if it kept Jason from following then it was fine.

Then Jason had started carrying the core everywhere. He held it in his hand, close to his chest. He stayed in the manor, wich was red flag number 2. Damian had caught him talking to the thing numerous times. Alfred had heard Jason in the library, reading a children's book out loud. Tim noticed whenever they discussed the gang of men in white suits that Jason would leave, instead of listening. Dick had even caught Jason singing softly to it! Too many red flags to count.

Bruce was worried about him. He was starting to worry about mind control! But when he had tried to confront Jason, he had cut him off. Jason told Bruce that he knew he had messed up at the warehouse, that he had gone too far. So he was really happy that Bruce had trusted him with this. After that Bruce had been too stunned to say anything about it. But they knew the problem had to be adressed. During dinner, the whole family where going to discuss this matter with Jason.

That was before the core transformed into a glowing, white haired child.

[arsonstatistic]

in the almighty universe (bruce almighty, evan almighty—the God!Morgan Freemanverse if you will) do people think that evan baxter, average congressman they dgaf about, got, like, religious psychosis? i need to know if people where like “anyone have update pics on boat guy? is there an arkupdates accounts?” and “this is a bible accurate ark i think” and “i think this might be real chat cause how the fuck did he get a pair of blobfish on his boat bro”

[beginnerblueglass]

Hey when all the ladies were in Elko’s Diner, right before fake Bruce (not to be confused with hallucination Bruce) stood up, Rachel made a motion like she was about to stand up, but she didn’t, almost like she was prompting him.

[gaywineauntsstuff]

Dick Grayson:

*runs the titans*

*works for the league*

*has a day job*

*solo patrols bludhaven*

*solo patrols New York*

*on call 24/7 for regularly scheduled Gotham crisis(es)*

*training at least 40% of new gen heroes at any given moment*

*infiltrating the current annoying cult, corrupt gov, spy organization, company, mafia group, evil underground ancestral foundations of a city and random corrupt modeling industry*

*monitoring drug pedaling in 3 cities*

*emotionally regulating 80% of his family bc why would they do it themselves? Nah let’s just ruin relationships for fun -cough Bruce cough-*

* maintaining civilian cover*

*canonically does volunteer work*

I am beginning to think nightwing doesn’t have anger issues he’s just overstimulated bc wtf

Like Dick take a break what is this?

————

Dick currently working on infiltrating the mob, after 4 days of 6+ hour patrols bc bludhaven has no chill an Arkham breakout, a performance review at work that took too long, organizing a titans outer space mission, just got back from training Jon Kent: no one call me plz god no one call me I can’t do this I have so much work no one. Call me plz

*phone rings* -it’s tim

He could ignore it but last time he left Tim alone for a month the dumbass lost his spleen and decided a cowl was a fashion choice (equally bad in his opinion)

Dick picking up the phone with his non broken arm: yello

Tim: so I accidentally maybe got kidnapped and maybe also started a cult around the concept of Batman and I’m out of energy drinks. (All equally dire in tims opinion)

Dick popping 4 caffeine pills: shut up I’ll be there in 30 don’t DO ANYTHing.

—————

Jason: sooo I might be engaged to an alien princess

Dick about to pop a Xanax: tell me it’s Kori or at least in this galaxy

Jason: nope

Dick: …. Can it wait

Jason: she wants to eat me, their species is like a praying mantis knockoff but with space and mind control.

Dick: yeah okay give me an hour I’ll call raven

————

Damian: hello Richard

Dick: what did you do.

Damian: I have been kidnapped by my mother

Dick: again

Damian: I feel it would be redundant to say anything

Dick: …….. alright I’ll call the nearest flying hero be there in a bit… keep ur spine where it is Damian or I swear to god-

——————

Bruce: cult

Dick who just got done with an undercover mission: anddd?

Bruce: we need someone to infiltrate it

Dick: I swear to god I. will. hurt. you

Bruce: hnnnn

——-

Babs: I have… acquired a child

Dick who is fighting deathstroke : …okayyyy

Babs who is watching the fight: she’s a little bit … traumatized

Dick, dodging a katana: preaching to the choir

Babs: can you do your whole, human empathy and kindness tell me ur life story I have puppy dog eyes.

Dick: ….

Babs: you owe me

Dick: … one day I will delete all your numbers and disappear

Babs cheerfully: you know no matter where you go I can find you hunk wonder see you in 3 hours don’t die before then!

[starlooove]

The reason timtam is superior is bc there’s no way to ship that and not realize how pathetic and lame tim is

[tonyglowheart]

"he would not fucking say that" -- post I saw that was imagining what the batkids would be like fighting over who gets Bruce in his old age