#Bruce treats Dick the worst because he doesn't know how to love him any less and if Dick were to die Bruce would destroy the whole world

[lemonandpie]

For the ship ask game, what are your thoughts on Brudick?

*wiggles toes*

Ship It

What made you ship it?

Sometimes I wonder if I always have. I used to watch BTAS devoutly as a kid, all while absorbing the Batman and Robin are a couple jokes, so I think I was too busy shipping it to realize they were meant to be guardian and ward for quite a while.

But when I tell you that obsessed father figures and their boys who want nothing more than to be worthy of their love while wondering why they have to work so hard is my jam, know that it's because I don't have the words to express just how much I love it.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I love mess :D I love that what binds them is what divides them. Dick saved Bruce's soul but is also proof that Bruce's trauma isn't the problem, he is the problem. I love that they were each other's other half for so long that they can't really tell where one starts and the other ends. I love that Bruce loves Dick so much he wants to consume him and Dick kind of wants to be consumed. I love that Dick just wants Bruce to see him and understand him the way Dick sees and understands Bruce. I love how they can never be anything except everything for each other and it's killing them a bit but they would never, ever choose to stop

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think that any attempt to define them as just one thing will always be a mischaracterization. They can't just be lovers. They can't just be father and son. They can't just be brothers. They can't just be best friends. They can't just be partners. They have to be all of that, because that's part of their problem. Even when you write them as family, there has to be that romantic undercurrent. And when you write them as romantic, they still need to have that familial tension. Brudick need to be so messy, so tangled, that they can never simply be categorized.

It's also why I don't think they be put into boxes of 'victim' and 'abuser' either. Can their relationship ever be healthy? Hell no. Should it be nothing but toxicity? Also no. They resent each other, they chafe against each other; Bruce is controlling and demanding and yes, in at least one instance, violent, but the love must always be there. No matter what, Dick would follow Bruce to hell and Bruce would die without him

[reddtea]

I don't know what most people's relationship with comic canon but for me. I just...ignore... whatever I don't like. Like I don't generally care for ginger Jason or rapist Talia Al Ghul, so I just pretend it's not true to my version of the DC universe. There's some aspects that I might re adapt if I think they could be interesting but I don't feel beholden to what is canon and what isn't. I don't really want to argue over what is correct pre-new 52 or post crisis or dc rebirth or future state shenanigans. As far as how canon Slade is, He's not as interesting as I think he could be. I know that he's done fucked up stuff (relationship with Terra? really???) but I don't find those to be interesting. This Slade is still a bad guy and not the best dad ever by any means, but at this point his kids are pretty fucked up in their own right and nobody in this family is sane that Slade for the most part just wants some peace and quiet and will kill to get some. - Rose probably gets along the best with dad but has no impulse control whatsoever (she's no longer allowed to fly any planes after crashing the 3rd one this year) - Joey talks to Ghosts and hangs out with Dick, he's weird and a traitor - Grant...Slade isn't sure if he's real half the time everyone including Grant acts like he's a ghost haunting the house, he mostly freelances or stays with mom

My Slade is a bit of a combination of Captain America and a Geralt of Rivia wannabe. He wants to be a cool and chivalrous Knight but that has never been in the cards for him. He wishes Rose could be like Ciri, Joey could have been kinda like Jaskier before the throat thing, and Grant was like Bucky Barnes before dying.

As far as I'm concerned with Slade he's a captain America (Steve Rogers) if nobody had any expectations or respect for him because he was a symbol of truth and justice... and was treated less than human for killing people, because he could never be a proper hero. A sort of anti captain America situation where everyone has the worst idea of him believing he could never do good, and Slade is just doing what he feels like he should do anyways. Not a hero, never loved, and never respected but he's still out here doing what he was made for and that's pretty much all he's ever known. He's been trained to be practical and to be a strategist that looks at everything and anyone as pieces on a board to manage to get the job done. Sometimes people get hurt because of it. He generally tries to not feel much about it.

He has a family but they don't care that he's the most badass assassin and one of the top mercenaries in the world, he's just their dad who's a mean and stoic hard ass and nobody is afraid to call him out on it. He has a butler who doesn't give a shit about being nice, but it always there when he most need it , like Alfred but actually an asshole. A brother who is a depressed unkillable annoying wacko that hangs around sometimes to "keep him on his toes" and he's probably the only one who understand him. An ex-wife that he suspects might have a bigger kill count than him (she's just better at hiding it because she doesn't run around with bright orange to advertise) and a (mostly) one sided rivalry with Bruce Wayne and a mutual hatred of Dick Grayson (Dick would unplug his life support if given the opportunity).

[carbonjen]

JayDick HS AU. Dick has a disability (he lost his ability to walk due to an accident). Even though he's dependent on others, he's still surrounded by friends/fam and Jason doesn't understand why. Usually those who are different get bullied (as he's seen at other schools) and it's not as if Dick doesn't get bullied b/c he does. Jason finds that he's attracted to Dick and wants to talk to him but every time he opens his mouth, he just ends up insulting Dick cause he's nervous and Dick is a beauty

In lieu of a title, I’m going to quote one of my favorite comedians. 

“Laughing at somebody is just another way of dismissing them, but laughing with somebody is a bridge to understanding” -Zach Anner

When Jason had been picked up by Selina Kyle, he hadn’t thought much about her small cat filled apartment, but it turned out, the woman knew what to do with her money. Jason had pried a bit and it turned out Selina had a pretty rich sugar daddy. When said sugar daddy found out about Jason, he’d been pulled out of Gotham High and placed into Gotham Academy. He hated his uniform, and he hated wearing it on public transport. 

He was used to being ridiculed in school so that didn’t bother him. It was being ridiculed by his own people on the bus that really bothered him. He had grown up with people like this, but they sneered at him the further they got into the bad side of Gotham

Jason made it work though. He understood how the world worked. Gotham Academy had all the same cliques and groups as any other school, popular kids, jocks, nerds, druggies. Some of these groups mixed a bit at Gotham Academy, but Jason still knew the structure and purposely placed himself on the outside. 

Then there was Dick Grayson. Jason had been to a couple different school’s as a kid, his mom dragging them down to the lowest levels of poverty for drugs. All of the schools had been bad, but the kids that always got it worse were the kids that were different.

Dick Grayson shouldn’t have been one of the popular kids at Gotham Academy, but he was. Jason didn’t want to sound like an asshole, but at all his other schools, the kids in wheelchairs usually had to be sequestered in classrooms of their own to avoid ridicule. 

What got Jason even more was where Dick Grayson came from. He was a former acrobat, his parents dying in the same accident that put Dick in a wheelchair. It was all stuff that would have the kids torn to shreds at any other school in Gotham, but here, Dick had a group of friends that looked out for him. 

The only thing Jason could of that made Dick less of a target was that he was hot. Jason had seen plenty of men thanks to Selina’s past times, but none of them had been as beautiful as Dick Grayson with his sharp cheekbones and bright smile. 

Jason knew a lot about Dick and his following because his locker happened to be right next to Dick’s in what had to be the worst twist of fate Jason had ever seen. 

Jason met Dick a few days after he started. They were both at their lockers when Jason was shoved headfirst into his while he was trying to unlock it. Jason whipped around. 

“Freak,” Someone shouted laughing as Dick rolled up to the locker next to Jason’s. “Looks like they pair them together now.”

Jason threw one of his books at the guy and nailed him in the back of the head. “Fuck off asshole.”

“You think you can treat me like this?” The guy asked as he approached Jason and kicked the book aside. “Do you know how much my dad pays this school? Not as much as your poor bitch of a mom.”

Jason was winding up to punch the guy when Dick moved between them. “You know who I think would enjoy hearing about this situation,” Dick asked as he looked at the guy. “Bruce would probably love to hear about how you made fun of me and the new guy whose mother he happens to be very good friends with.”

Jason looked down at Dick and the one thing he couldn’t keep out of his head was how hot the guy looked when he was angry. His eyes went all dark and stormy and his voice dropped down low. Jason had to force himself to look away. 

The guy held his hands up and stepped back. “Jeez, fine. I was just playing. Calm down.”

When the guy was gone, Jason picked his book up again. “So Bruce is Selina’s sugar daddy?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Dick said as he opened his locker. “Jason, right? Bruce told me to keep an eye on you.”

“No offense, but I don’t think you can do a whole lot to help me out if I’m ever in a rough spot.” Jason kept struggling with his lock and was this close to giving up when Dick smacked Jason’s locker and it opened with ease. 

“Offense taken,” Dick replied. “No offense to you, but I just saved your ass back there. I may not be physically imposing but I have influence at this school.” 

With that, Dick left Jason to stand there, watching Dick roll away while he cursed himself. 

The problem with Dick Grayson was that Jason was attracted to him. This wouldn’t have been a problem if Jason had experience with being attracted people and knowing what to say to them. Jason frequently made an idiot out of himself in front of Dick and all his friends. Jason was convinced they hated him. 

Jason was at his locker one day, Dick’s army of half redheads around him. Jason made his way to his locker and tried not to eavesdrop on their conversation. They were talking about a bonfire and how Dick wouldn’t be able to go. Dick was talking about how it was alright but the rest of the group were talking about how they were trying to work things out so Dick could go. 

“How about none of you go to the bonfire because bonfires are lame and there’s a 99% chance it’ll be busted by the cops anyways.”

The comment slipped out without Jason really noticing it and Jason cursed under his breath as everyone turned and stared at him. 

“Uh, how about you mind your own business?”

“Kind of hard to do when you’re all flocked around my locker,” Jason retorted. 

“Dick’s locker is here too,” a redhead said, narrowing her eyes at Jason. 

“Yeah well Dick doesn’t take up as much space as you guys.” 

Jason heard a snort and looked down to see Dick hiding laughter into his hand. 

“Was that some kind of insult?”

“No,” Jason said. “But I can come up with one if you really want to hear one.”

“Jason, Babs,” Dick said. “That’s enough. You guys go to class, I’ll meet you there.”

“Are you sure you want to be alone with him, Dick? I heard this guy gets in fights all the time.”

“I heard people don’t like being talked about like they’re not there,” Jason said. “And it’s not like I’ll hurt him. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

The girl, Babs, narrowed her eyes at him again but after some careful urging from Dick, they all left. 

“You know, you’d have way less problems if you weren’t so combative,” Dick said. 

“Asking me to stop being that way is like asking you to walk,” Jason replied, leaning against his locker and crossing his arms. 

Dick raised an eyebrow at him. “Was that thing about the bonfires true?”

“What, that they all get busted?”

“Yeah.”

Jason shrugged. “Think about it, a big fire in Gotham is going to attract attention. Especially in a nice part of Gotham.”

“I was looking for an excuse not to go,” Dick said. “I think I’ll use that one.” 

“The whole wheelchair thing wasn’t good enough?” Jason asked. 

Dick laughed. “Apparently not,” he sighed. “You know, you’re the only person that’s ever joked with me about it.”

“I’ve always been taught to make light of a bad situation.”

“Oh, I always thought you were taught to fight your way out of it, based on what I’ve seen at least.”

Jason laughed and shoved gently at Dick’s shoulder. “Fuck off Grayson, you’ll be late to class.”

-

Dick and Jason’s interactions either went super well, or they went terribly and Jason hated himself for that. The playful banter happened between them way too sporadically for Jason to say he was making any sort of progress to be anything but acquaintances with Dick. All to often, Dick would look at him and Jason would spit out something stupid. 

Dick approached him during his free period in the library one day. 

“Hey,” he said. “Can we talk?”

Jason swallowed and pushed aside his homework. “Uh, yeah, go ahead,” he gestured to the table and instead of taking a seat across from him, Dick took the perpendicular edge. 

“So I can’t help but notice,” Dick said. “Either our conversations go super well or you just kind of insult me and I wanted to ask so I could get it out of the way. Do you have a problem with me?”

“No,” Jason replied, and before he could think about what he was saying, he continued. “Far from it.” Jason cursed and Dick must have noticed. 

“What?”

Jason looked down at the table and he could feel the heat in his cheeks. “I like you,” Jason said. 

“You mean like as a friend?” Dick asked. Jason looked at him and that must have said it all because Dick leaned back a bit and put his chin on his hand. “Oh,” he said. “I see.” 

“Now that we have that out of the way,” Jason said. “We can go back to what we had before. Your friends can keep hating me and I can keep insulting you because I can’t talk because you’re so beautiful.”

Dick stared at him for a long moment and Jason wanted to die because the silence between them was so tight it almost hurt. 

“I’m free on Friday,” Dick said. 

It was Jason’s turn to look at him and ask, “What?”

“I like you too,” Dick said. “Because you aren’t afraid to talk about my disability. Other people treat it like this giant sore spot, but you make it something I can laugh about. No one has ever done that. They always treat it like something that limits me, but you put it in another light and I like that. Not to mention you’re insanely hot, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Jason stared at him and Dick had a shit eating grin on his face. It was beautiful. 

“So,” Dick said. “Friday? After school? Alfred always picks me up so he can give us a ride to the manor and we can hang there.”

Jason grinned. “Imagine Selina’s face when I tell her I got my own sugar daddy.”

Dick swatted at his hand, but he let it rest there. Jason laced their fingers together. It turned out, fate wasn’t so bad after all.