#I WOULD BE A DICK IF I WAS STUCK IN A CIRCUS WITH SOME GUY WHOS LIKE “ADVENTURE TIME :3 :3 :3”

[lacrimosathedark]

THAT'S IT! This is a Janet Drake Defense Post

As may be obvious, I spend a lot of time reading fanfic. And there's this trend that drives me nuts, and it's villainizing Janet Drake.

I'm not gonna say she's an A+ mother. She's not. She chose her career and adventures over spending time with her child much of the time. But fandom portrays her as some rich pompous ice queen, which is never shown.

Janet Drake mostly appears in the story Tim's introduced, and in the story she dies.

So, let's start from the top: Haly's Circus.

This event is the only time we see her really interacting with Tim before her death, but it shows that at least when he was young, she was an active part of his life. She was worried about bringing Tim because it might scare him. And then rightfully scolds her husband for being sexist because Jack Drake actually IS a jerk.

...I don't like the art in this comic. Or that the writer doesn't know how kids speak.

But Janet is being supportive of Tim's clear interest in Dick's performance.

And then tragedy strikes and she acts like, y'know, a mother.

Her priority is getting her son and herself out of there.

Also worth noting that the Drakes sent a copy of that final photo of the Graysons TO Dick, which is how he has it at all. If both of them were stuck up pricks, would they even bother sending a photo to a grieving child performer they hardly know? I can't imagine Jack really bothering, but I don't see why Janet wouldn't.

And then, by the time she's dying, we know that Tim's parents have been away for a very long time, he never knows where they are, but they've communicated enough that he knows that they've been fighting.

They're passive aggressive to say the least. This marriage is clearly not working anymore.

EDIT CUZ I REMEMBERED A THING:

It's worth noting that this is a time before smartphones. This comic was released in 1990, which was when pre-paid mobile phones had just started existing. Coverage isn't universal NOW, so back then it was even less, and Jack and Janet are archeologists (or archeologist adjacent?) so they're going to be in less developed and populated areas most of the time. It's unlikely they'd have consistent access to a functional phone that could call the states to talk to Tim regularly.

This isn't to defend their absence, because fuck that, but it's to give it some context. I don't think they were trying to ignore or abandon Tim. Communication was just not readily available and Janet seems to get wrapped up in work...and Jack's an asshole.

Also for note, Janet is probably the one sending Tim postcards in the first place. It being signed "Mom and Dad" is what makes me think that. Jack would have put himself first if he wrote it, it woulda said "Dad and Mom". That's admittedly pure speculation, BUT IT FITS SOOOOOO

My thought is if this were made modern, Janet would be sending extremely scattered texts and Tim would get next to nothing from Jack unless Janet prompted him.

END EDIT

(Fair warning, this story is a few levels of Yikes, but I'm gonna stay on topic)

Bad guy Obeah Man does...something? to the pilot, and they crash, and he has a group of people kidnap the Drakes and their assistant Jeremy.

Danger really puts some things in perspective, for Janet, at least. And that continues for her. Jack is a bit delusional and in denial, thinking he has any control of the situation.

They are tied up and filmed for ransom, their assistant killed right in front of them.

Jack just keeps raging, but Janet is having regrets. Notice how she doesn't cry until Tim is brought up. Could be nothing, could be something.

And then she dies.

Her only other major appearance is when Tim is having a fever dream from the Clench and everything is kind of okay for a minute.

Tim very clearly loves his mom. And we may not get a lot of characterization for her, but she's not cold or callous like people write her constantly.

And now, we finally have a little more about her as of Batman 134.

I haven't really been keeping up since the Gotham War stuff because What The Fuck Was That My Guy, but I recently saw this specific comic.

The multiverse is fucked up again, some way some how, and Bruce is lost (again) and Tim has to get him back (again). This time, Tim is going in after him. But he doesn't end up going straight to Bruce.

He goes to see an alt of his mom.

Tim missed her so much that he ended up going to her before Bruce.

And her immediate reaction is to run up and hug him. Does that look like a mother who doesn't love her son?

"Do you have anyone to take care of you?"

"I don't know how this happened, this miracle...but I just know, in my heart of hearts, it was to show me...that every version of my son is a good one."

Tell me again that this woman is heartless and didn't want her son, I fucking dare you.

And we get more meaning to the name "Robin" and a little crumb about Tim's grandmother. As a treat.

This is all to say, please stop writing Janet Drake as a cold, heartless bitch.

Small final note though: Jack Drake is, in fact, a shitty person and a shitty father. He does still love Tim and Tim loves him AND THAT IS NOT UP FOR DEBATE, but the relationship is a mess. If either parent is actively abusive, it's 1000% Jack "smashed a TV because my son wasn't listening to me and threatened Bruce Wayne at gunpoint" Drake. Probably part of why the marriage was falling apart.

Anyway, yeah, let's retire the "Jack and Janet Drake are Bad Parents" tag and replace it with "Jack Drake is a Bad Parent" and "Janet Drake's C+ Parenting" or something.

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

My headcannons for what type of music the Batfam likes lol

Bruce: 40s love songs, mostly because Thomas and Martha are lovers of old music and art it’s a call back to Batman being such an old.. old character.

He also loves really, REALLY sad songs. Just straight depressing songs, like he knows all the lyrics to like the most downright suicidal songs ever.

Dick: he listens to very upbeat music, but like EDM and rap, he also loves circus music and really ridiculously old songs he knows all the words to “the flying trapeze” by heart ❤️

Jason: unironically his favourite album is Neil Cicirega's "mouth sounds" series of albums, he also would never admit it but he listens to Kikuo constantly. he's not a "fan" of vocaloid he just likes some songs. he also constantly listens to 80s and 70s hits as a call back to his character being popular in the 80s.

Tim: worst taste in music ever, he does NOT get the aux. it's all the most popular hits of the last 4 decades, for better or worse.

he also gets all the WE jingles stuck in his head, it's so bad.

it's mostly now video game OST's he got into FNAF lore at one point and actually solved it, and then got super into the music. he relates a bit too much, he calls Jason sometimes mike because they are both undead guys hellbent on keeping kids safe from the evils of this world, and Ra's afton because the bastard always comes back. he will BLARE "I hope you die in a fire" when working a Ra's case.

Damian: despite what he holds himself to he really likes the same fandom sorta music, video game lore was the only thing that Damien and Tim talk about, they have usually ZERO free time to watch or play games they just extrapolate wtf the game is about from their friends WITH free time. that being wally and bart.

so damien has a bunch of the living tombstones, classic Chinese and arabic music but mainly Pakistani, some 80s hits. 40s love songs because bruce is right they are really good, and some mislabeled cassette tapes\CD's Damien picks up on patrol that he likes.

Steph: she didn't really get a chance to listen to much music, since Cluemaster was a dick. but she did bond and learn to love Ballet music ever since Cassandra introduced it to her, she gets whole records and albums and buys one time releases on Ebay for herself and Cassandra. otherwise she just listens to audiobooks or podcasts when working.

Cassandra: TONS of ballet music along with classic Oprah music and theatre music, she goes to plays and pirates them, she listens to every single play or theatre music she can get her hands on. she listens to "rocky horror picture show" "the guy who didn't like musicals" "Coppélia" "Jesus Christ superstar" "The Mousetrap" any and everything. she adores it all, she and Steph are constantly looking for more records and plays to watch and pirate.

Barbara: weirdly enough 60s music, Jim rubbed off on her and she honestly just listens to all sorts of 60s sounding music, she had a Elvis phase where she just was constantly listening to Elvis, eventually she found out there was a TON of other 60s and 70s black artists who were ripped off by Elvis and started listening to them, she then eventually got into punk rock and rock and roll.

Harper: she is fully into the Gotham punk music scene, she literally is one of the biggest supporters of the Gotham punk scene. only random punk song CD's, videos she converted into CD's, old gothamite punk songs on vinyl, digital releases, she just has so much merch half she made herself and half she bought, she is the epitome of Gotham punk fan. she actually has a whole ass internet archive account dedicated to JUST Gotham punk.

Duke: weirdly he loves very ethereal and bright peppy music, only instrumentals though, listens to the weirdcore playlists on YouTube listens to corecore, he just has very strange music tastes.

sometimes he forgets his entire playlist is filled with weirdly ethereal music and the rest of the batfam get so confused, and think Jean-paul is blaring church music again.

Jean-Paul: only church music, he has the most bland music tastes, he sometimes listens to catholic metal or something when he's working but other than that he just blares organ music and mass and church music, everyone tries to tell him that he CAN LISTEN TO ANYTHING ELSE. PLEASE. but he just doesn't lol.

Thomas: he listens to 40s love songs and old Sicilian and Italian songs, he's a old fart, he loves old movie soundtracks.

William Cobb: circus music only circus music, late 1880s and 1950s circus music. it sounds like a clown house and it triggers the shit out of bruce.

Jarro: he's a baby, he has no actual opinions the batfam put on nursery rhymes andcoco melon

and the rest (carrie, Bernard, huntress and the other ones)

I have 0 idea I have not read enough comics to figure it out lol

[dairy-farmer]

There was an arc, where Tim fought to destroy an Evil VR Hivemind Internet type world? And that's got me thinkin~! So brace for another longish one! If the technology is POSSIBLE?

Why not a dumbed down, safeties in place, VR world?

Some tech genius manages to create it, it actually works, takes the world by storm. Is markted as the True Do Anything Game. And obviously, it's an intelligence agency's and superheroes worst nightmare. Crooks are meeting up through the game to make deals. The creator is scrambling to keep up and put safeties in place to stop them.

Obviously, Tim has to catch them, right?

But he can't look like Tim Drake! Luckily you can customize whenever you want. And he chose an intentionally vague username. But... it's? Nice. Being anonymous. Not being stuck under layers of disguise. Playing flashy games and dancing on unrealistic dance floors.

He catches his targets, considers logging out.

But to what? Cold take out and trash TV? This is the closest to a night "out" he's had in a while. His body is even getting rested! Laying still and (mostly) relaxed on his bed. So... fuck it. He's gonna be young and hot for once. Make friends he'll never see again, come tomorrow.

And THATS when? One of his glittery new twink friends? Leans over and tells him, like it's a dirty lil secret, the BEST part of this new "game"! No consequences hook ups. No really bodies, means no disease! No real faces or names? Means go nuts! Cut loose! Destress a bit and go wild!

And... Tim DOES have a lot of stress...

So he searchs around the various party spots, for someone that looks like he can lift Tim one handed, bend him in half, then destroy him. Because you can accuse him of many things, but being interested in the safe and boring option is not one of them.

"Burns_Malone".

A transparent nod to Matches, Bruce's criminal alias. Tim would laugh at the guy if his muscles weren't glorious. Clearly a goon fan boy. But! A HOT goon fan boy. So Tim decides to try his luck.

His luck is fantastic.

One unfairly hot make out session and some holoscreen clicks later, they are in a private "hangout" room. The kind someone so very kindly stuffed a bed into. Nice. And then? It occurs to Tim? "Oh HEY, not my real body... means no incriminating marks or patrol stopping bruises, tomorrow! I really CAN cut loose!"

So he demands that Malone REALLY puts his back into it. Bend him in half and make a Gotham man see God. Feels Malone go DANGEROUSLY, delightfully still beneath him, as he purrs his gleefully bratty demands right into his ear. Those strong hands tightening on his hips. He's gonna get put RIGHT were Malone wants him~

And he does.

Held open, pinned down. Dragged into just the right position to rock his world. Feeling gloriously split apart in away he'd never let himself have normally. Because he wouldn't be able to WALK afterwards. Claiming, brutal hands. Hot and perfect against his skin, making him feel so WANTED and desired. Getting dragged down to meet each powerful thrust, feeling that thick rod DRAG against and reshape EVERYTHING.

By the time he logs out, his pants are a sodden mess.

He's definitely hooked.

(And, unbeknownst to him, so is Bruce.)

He goes back, during his down times, to "destress".

Meets an acrobat at a virtual circus. They keep their masks on, seem so familiar. The guy's a fan of the Flying Graysons, Tim gets bent over dressing bench, surround by sequins and silks, beneath the eternal grin of his brother. It shouldn't be as hot as it is. He's lifted and balanced with such EASE. Treated like a sweet little treasure, even as his body is pounded and teased mercilessly.

(Dick is enchanted. In love. HAS to find the man he... "met" at the circus.)

Then there's the man at The Library. It's hailed as the largest of the modern age. Sue Tim, he got curious. They literally run into each other, rounding a corner. They talk books. Talk Gotham. Shit talk the mayor. Tim is seduced by cheesy pickup lines. Totally laughs at him, when his "Hangout" room of default is "Night in The Library". Neeeerd~!

His laughter gets kissed of his face. And yeah, he can admit, it's pretty intimate here. Soothing. Makes every noise he makes seem so LOUD. Which of course immediately becomes a problem when Nerdy Pants decides to reveal his Savant Level oral.

Propped up in an over stuffed chair, legs over Library Guy's shoulders, with nothing but the crackle of the fireplace and the sound Tim's choking on, trying not to make? He's loosing his MIND. Melting. Library Guy's fingers deep inside him, rubbing and fucking against just the right spots. His mouth relentless and hungry on Tim's poor clit. It's over embarrassingly fast.

But it keeps GOING.

He just trails claiming little kisses, with the barest hint of teeth, up and up. Consumes Tim's mouth. Fingers come free. And then he's replaced them with something bigger. Bent Tim in half. Doesn't let up.

Leaving Tim pinned. Barely able to breathe. Getting filled again and again, lazy at first but faster and harder as time passes. Nothing but pressure and pleasure and TAKING IT. Feeling claimed. The center of the world. Of his focus. He hasn't ONCE stopped talking. Praising. Tim is so good, taking it so well. Being so good for him.

(It feels like falling in love. Coming home. Jason goes a little bit insane. HAS to find the guy. You don't understand-!)

And really? Tim's hook up streak has been flawless, he thinks. Decides to check out some gaming areas. Maybe do a little Role Play. And? Most bore him. But one game seems fun. He picks staff fighter, for obvious reasons. Stumbles upon a... frankly absurd Beast Master. Dude has a ZOO.

Isn't even fighting. Well, he IS. But... HE fights. The animals wait. Then he goes back to trying to tame the horned bunny rabits.

Obviously Tim has to meet this guy. That's kinda hilarious.

Together, they hunt down the Rare And Elusive Tricorn(tm). Thing is massive and brutal looking. Beast Master dude clearly adores it. Treats it like a baby. But, in order to catch the next creature on his list? They have to wait for the night cycle. Unfortunately, Tim did not know "camp kits" were a thing. So... no, dude. He DOESN'T have a bed roll to wait out here and heal up.

It's either hike back to town or share yours.

Tim offers to be the little spoon, if that helps. Apparently it does. He gets all of 15 minutes of lite napping before he feels a not so little friend come to say hello. Oh~? Beast blusters. It means nothing! Tim's pants are just very form fitting! Desperate, red faced excuses!

And now? Well now Tim's GOTTA.

A hand on his chest, run teasingly dooooown to his belt. Is that SO, Beast Master? Mmmhm? The man chokes on his words. Watches, wide eyed, as Tim leans down ever so slowly, a licks a strip up his length. Swallows him to the root. He makes the most delightfully desperate, needy, sound. Hands spasming at his side, clearly having no idea what to do with them.

By the time Tim is straddling him, slowly lowering himself down onto that thick cock, he's figured it out. Hands trying to drag his hips down faster. Roving over his skin to touch and claim. Tim let's the man flip them. Looming, panting and wild eyed, over him. Shaking like he's overwhelmed, his hands a vice around Tim's hips, bent over like he's moments from crumbling.

The snap of his hips is DESPERATE. Like if he doesn't fuck as deep as he can RIGHT NOW, he'll die. Folding forward to rest his head on Tim's shoulder, panting against his skin, fucking like he's trying to break him. It's so clumsy. Virginal and inexperienced. Completely missing his best spots half the time, focused on chasing his own pleasure.

Tim is the one who has to tease his body. To play with his clit. But... but the way he's so DESPERATE for him? Whining. Nearly sobbing for air? Hips jerking and stuttering? It's good. So, so good. Beast fills him over and over. Clings to him. He logs out wishing he could take that stuffed feeling with him.

(Damian has become a man. But is equal parts frantic and furious with the realization that he can't Take Responsibility for his actions. Where THE FUCK is his Lover?! He needs to FIND THEM! Aaaaaaa-!)

Things are going great! Tim continues to hook up. Unknowingly, with Capes. Because frankly? He has A Type. It leaves horny, horny chaos in its wake. Until! For, you know, No Reason in Particular *cough* Batman FINALLY manages to break in to the HQ of the VR game's offices, get to their mainframe, and download the FULL user base archive.

For Justice reasons, obviously.

To Catch Criminals, of course.

DEFINITELY not to look up one specific user name and trace it back to its user's location, cross reference street addresses, and start working through apartment numbers searching for a VR device. That would be WRONG and they'd never do that.

....... but I mean..... IF THEY DID? Well~ Tim's in for a suprise :D

-🐼🐼🐼

if there's one thing bats will be: its obsessed!!!! bruce, dick, jason, and damian hopelessly pining over a vr hookup only to find out it was tim all along is soo good!!!

[allovesthings]

Let's talk about the court of Owl and why I think the storyline has some problems in the long run.

So before I start, I do think that the characterisations of the story are pretty good, Dick is great especially with Bruce going good to bad (you know that time he hit Dick...because why ? Why did the writers decide to write that as a reintroduction to the characters and their relationship ? I have questions).

Another thing I really like is that despite being the first New 52 Batman story, it fit very well into the last Batman stories right before it with especially Gate of Gotham which deals with Gotham as an entity and the Wayne legacy/history in Gotham and what it means for Dick specifically (so him being a talon is within that Gotham legacy too).

If you read the DickBats right before that without knowing that it was supposed to be a reboot the characters are consistent (Black mirror is written by the same writer) and the only thing you'll have to catch up on is that Dick left the Batman costume and is back as Nightwing and Bruce is back in Gotham.

Also the labyrinth? Very twisty, creepy, horrifying and fun to read as a sequence. Love it.

That said, the idea that a secret society of rich people ran Gotham from the beginning just doesn't sit right with me. Suddenly they create a vacuum in all others stories where you ask: "shouldn't the Court of Owl be involved there ? Why aren't they ?" And the bigger they are the bigger the vacuum is. The problem with that is everytime I read a story where the court of Owl should have a say in Gotham and they don't appear, it will feel like a plothole

The second problem is Cobb and the talons and theirs link to Dick. I said it before, I do think it follows the theme set up in Gates of Gotham (and it makes even more sense when you realize this was supposed to be a DickBats story) and I did read the occasional Talon!Dick fics but I don't think it was necessary to make Dick tied to Gotham as a legacy.

I think the contrast between Bruce being a Gotham legacy and then tragedy struck leading him to try to save the city and Dick as someone who is from outside but got stuck by Gotham by his parents's death with no previous unknown link to it is so much more interesting, they have a completely different basis for how they view Gotham. Making Dick a son of Gotham kinda cheapen that. Especially if Haley circus was in on it. Because now it was always Gotham for Dick and it will always be Gotham.

Also why would Mr Haley, the guy who refuse to pay up and have the protection of criminals even under threat run a circus created to train assassins ?

[the-s1lly-corner]

Flufftober Prompt 22: Stuck in line (jax)

list is here guys can you tell that i wrote down the opening to a lot of these and forget to go back to write a little note to make this section look less empty because i sure do LMAO plot: surely, he can behave in a slow moving line while everyone else is having fun on the adventure notes: reader is gn, not romantic, jax is being annoying and a dick, no real fluff and probably what would happen realistically if you were around him LMAO word count: 779 cws: none

When you and Jax were left to wait in a line while everyone else scrambled about to finish different tasks to complete the adventure, you didn't think it would be this bad. The landscape was like a winter wonderland, with various themed quests that needed to be done before the adventure could be completed. You and Jax got stuck with picking up some NPCs order in a shop. You could hardly call it an adventure.

"This bad" being a kind way to put it, as you were being pushed to your very wits end by the rabbit. The second you were both made to sit for this section of the adventure, he's been nothing but a pain... The way you were stuck with him vaguely felt like when a teacher would pair you with one of the rowdy kids. "To rub off on them and make them calm down"... you just wanted the line to pass so you could grab what you were looking for.

Jax wasn't exactly rowdy... but he knew how to get under your skin if it meant entertaining himself for the time being. He could just wander off and leave. There's nothing stopping him. Even if there was, he would still try... but he seems to take pleasure in resting his arms on the top of your head and talking, the movement of his words rocking you slightly as he swayed on his toes- putting a good chunk of his weight on you as he leaned down on top of you. Or saying anything he can to get any sort of reaction out of you- or better yet, get some information out of you that he could use later to push you to get something he wants down the line.

Your hands clench, before releasing. Then clenched again, and release. You did this a few more times as Jax verbally complained about how slow the line was moving as you both inched forward.

You had only been here for ten minutes but you were already nearing your wits end. Was this your personal hell? Was this a punishment for something you had done before arriving in the circus?

You work your teeth together and focus your eyes intensely into the back of an NPCs head. Another exits the line, moving you forward. Jax finally stops leaning on you and pushes himself to his full height behind you. You don't remove your eyes from the NPC, nearly fully tuning out Jax as he proclaimed his boredom.

If it weren't for him beginning to tap his foot on the ground, you could have; but between the previous show and the overwhelming feeling of just wanting to get this over with your patience finally gives.

"Why not just cut to the front? I'm shocked you haven't done that sooner," You hiss. He pauses, black eyes darting to you as his grin stretches wide.

The way his eyes squinted, you knew. He'd thought about it. He'd already decided he was going to do it before even getting in line with you.

He just wanted to see how long it would be until desperation pushed you to make a suggestion.

"Now why didn't I think of that!"

Fucker.

Without another word, he slaps his arm into the NPC and shoves them to the side with a swift motion. Then the next, and the next. Before long it was just the two of you in line. You take a sharp breath, relieved that it was finally coming to a close. You drag your feet across the tiled floor until you're about a foot behind Jax.

He snaps his fingers in the face of the NPC behind the counter, and your distaste for him drives deeper. Wordlessly, as if something had gone bugging with the coding thanks to Jax changing how things were meant to be, they put what you needed onto the counter.

A snow globe. Not anything to be crazy about, just a simple globe with a cabin and some trees inside. You only dully note that the "Santa" inside it was a mini Caine dressed up. Your mouth twists. Jax doesn't seem all that thrilled either. But he still takes it, rather carelessly. He passes it between his hands as it if were a ball, before walking off. You stand there alone before he calls for you over his shoulder, though it's clear he's not all that invested on if you decide to come with him or not.

You suck a breath between your teeth.

All of that torment, for a glass ball filled with water and glitter.

Your fists clench, before you spin around and sulk after Jax.

[positiveglitchexists]

HSJJSJAJAJW OKAYOKAY IM THINKIN ONE OF THE MEMBERS MAY BE AN AI, CUZ CAINE SAID THAT WHOLE FORGETTING WHOS HUMAN AND WHOS AN NPC THING SO I THINK SOMEONE SLIPPED THROUGH THE CRACKS. I JUST DONT KNOW WHO.

Maybe gangle actually?? Jax could know she is an npc and that's why he's mean because he knows technically her feelings can't get hurt, OH MY GOD. BECAUSE JAX LITERALLY KEPT THE GATE OPEN IN THE SECOND EPISODE- THINK HE JUST DOES NOT LIKE NPCS AND I THINK GANGLE IS ONE OF EM

ALRIGHT TADC EPISODE, I LIKED LOTS :3 HOWEVER STILL DONT LIKE JAX, FRICK THAT GUY

[saphushia]

I know very little about the DCU but everything about DP but for some reason your fic recs intrigued me and now I’m in dcxdp hell and I was wondering if you have more recommendations especially for finished fics 👀 you have opened a can of worms in my brain and I must feed them

ok but i literally got into this shit the same exact way aubdskjfg. literally fell ass deep into this from sheer curiosity barely knowing fuckin anything abt batman and now i've read more batman comics than i ever thought i would in my life.

anyways! yeah i think i've got a couple! apologize if there's a couple duplicates from my last recs i can't be bothered to go check it lmao

⭐= my absolute favorites

=ONESHOTS=

Late Night Talkin' [danny/dick] there-was-only-one-bed get-together wheremst danny n dick r hero partners

The Stiches That Bind Us Together [danny/dick] dick's not feeling well, so danny shows up at his apartment to take care of him. and danny knows well enough what hero-ing injuries look like to take a well-educated guess

Consequences danny + fear gas. bad combo

the case of the serial killer dick befriends wierd homeless teenager danny

It's a Small World Afterall [tim/danny] tim convinces danny to take him to amity on a date. he of course then gets kidnapped- by technus, of all people

Can You Fly Without Wings? circus gothica episode but danny gets taken all the way to gotham with freakshow

Cold nights and warm hands danny's sick, so dick of course invites him to stay at the manor, and they relax together

⭐Hollow the bats encounter one danny masters at a gala, and they're all immediately concerned about how blank the boy seems. danny's missing something, something important to him, and he's missing too much to even know what

Baby it's Cold Inside [tim/danny] danny unknowingly gets hit with cuddle pollen, and tim fulfills his boyfriend responsibility of providing snuggles

Surprise Halloween Haunting jason gets kidnapped to be a sacrifice in a ritual, and hijacks it to dial up a friend

4 Times Dick Grayson met Tim Drake's Partner +1 Time He Met Them All Together [tim/danny/tucker/sam] cute tim dating all the amity trio and confusing his brothers. also furry convention scene <3

⭐Bait and Switch thanks to a cult, danny ends up possessing jason, and neither are very happy about it

=FINISHED MULTI-CHAPTERS=

Last year, I starved. This year, I devour without guilt [danny/jason] danny takes one look at jason and decides he's in need of urgent ghost medical care, so he takes matters into his own hands

The Misadventures of Cosplay Man danny gets stuck in the DC universe for a little bit, so he goes around befuddling every villain and hero he comes across, with the power of bad cosplay.

⭐Satiate jason runs into danny while danny's having a little 'nice to meet you' ravenous brawl with the spirit of gotham. as ghosts do.

Vacation Crashers the fentons' camping trip goes south for all the usual ghost reasons, and that's before the batman crash lands in the middle of all of it. cue a teamup between jazz, danny, and all the bats, to take down vlad

Wanted: Dead and Alive tim rescues an injured teenager he found in a glowing green vat in an unknown experimental facility. proceeds to lose the injured teenager. loses his shit trying to find said teenager who is hiding way too effectively for a guy whose guts were on the floor a few days ago.

ok i'm only like halfway thru my bookmarks but i'm tired now kdsjbfgjkdsfg have fun~

[birboon]

CIRCUS BOY

ACT 1 - Chapter 3

PAIRING: Peter Parker x Dick Grayson

WORD COUNT: ~5k

PREVIOUS CHAPTER: chapter 2

HOW HE'D GOTTEN  himself into this situation, Dick didn't know. 

One moment he was sitting back against the leather interior of Mercedes's newest sporting model, the next he was sitting in the vents of the new Wayne Tower and staring down through the metal grating at the lead-lined floor, still as a mouse and cursing his super-stupid friends for not shutting up. Every time his phone vibrated in his pocket he winced, knowing the rattling of the metal around him was just as loud and audible to those who weren't inside it. 

They hadn't cared about his epic escape from the clutches of an evil fashion corporation (well, no one except Connor but Superboy cared about everything) and now - although he was too scared to move to reach for the device to silence it - he was pretty sure Roy and Wally were having a battle of non-existent wits. When he got the time, Dick was going to make a new groupchat with only the girls of his team.

The 'men' were all idiots. He needed culture.

Looking at his watch and squinting through the half-light, Dick concluded that there was a half-hour before the grand opening of the new Washington office. The receptionist preparing the front desk for the event had told him that 'Mister Wayne' was in a board meeting with some foundation sponsors but Dick had gone there to surprise the tricky man and found nothing but angry, tired businessmen and women at their wit's end because Brucie Wayne had charmed his way from the room before it'd even started. 

So now Dick was stuck hiding in the ventilation systems of Bruce's office, waiting for the man to come and collect the real copies of the ledgers he'd left unsigned so he could jump down and throttle him for giving Alfred even more reasons to lecture them. Besides, it would be a nice surprise for the big guy! He loved when Dick visited him in the office; a not-so-rare occurrence whenever the teen was on break and bored.

And Dick Grayson got bored a lot.

Another buzz from his pocket and he gritted his teeth,  frustrated, risking a grab for the phone. Just as his nails slid across the glass screen, elbows slamming into the sides of the cramped crawlspace as he twisted round, he heard a click. Lightning quick - though Wally would beg to differ - Dick spun back around, eyes wide, to watch the door slide open with a twist of the handle. Soft hair brushed against the metallic ceiling, gathering static as he leaned forward to peer carefully through the narrow slits below:

A surprise rally from above. That's what he wanted to do - get the drop on Bruce, if only to hear the man congratulate his stealth. Dick grinned to himself; he'd never see it coming. Or hear it coming, for that matter. 

"Dick, come out and say hello to our guests," came the ever-familiar voice, dark and rich. Expensive footsteps echoed through the  sizeable room until a tall, handsome head of dark hair came to a stop next to the desk, directly below him. Dick blinked. 

"What?" He whispered and could almost hear the man roll his eyes. 

"Get out of the ceiling," Bruce replied sharply, looking over his shoulder to check for company. He cast the classic playboy grin towards whoever was approaching and waved meekly. "Shouldn't be a second. Feel free to, er, touch whatever you want. Except the walls - I don't want to pay someone to repaint them."

"I wasn't aware you were having visitors," Dick snapped, grunting as he shifted the loose grate off to one side. His fingers latched onto the side of the vent as he gently lowered himself down, swinging to a perfect stop in front of Bruce. The man sighed and folded his arms, watching with warm eyes as Dick slotted the vent cover back in place. "How'd you know I was up there?"

Bruce levelled him with a stare that said all Dick needed to know. A classic i'm-batman look that he was all too familiar with. Bruce held up a tiny, beeping device. A schematic of the building's ventral system glowed on the screen, a single portion highlighted in red:

"Aren't you supposed to be modelling right now?" Bruce supplied, pocketing the new WayneTech prototype. He dusted off Dick's shoulders, spinning the boy around the face their 'guests'. 

"Aren't you supposed to be in a meeting right now?" came the reply, more of a huff than a biting remark. Dick let Bruce maneuver him towards a group of people that instantly left him feeling more embarrassed than he had been in a long time.  He'd not felt this tortured by a social interaction since Barbara had invited him to that sleepover with all her girlfriends.

Needless to say, he was not feeling the aster.

The striking mustard-yellow blazers looked a stark sickly-green beneath the quality lighting of Bruce's office. Dick didn't realize the new Wayne Enterprise building was some sort of attraction  but then again... he was in and out of them all the time. And this wasn't Gotham. Bruce Wayne leaving his city to set up shop somewhere else was always a novelty.

And here he was, Wayne's ward and heir, standing barefoot with dust-bunnies on his expensive clothes and smudged make-up on his face. With no way to escape the awful situation, Bruce pinning him to the spot with a hand firmly on each shoulder, Dick swallowed his pride and raised a hand awkwardly towards the small group of teens.

"Uh, hi," he croaked out towards the stunned crowd. The silence was deafening. A familiar face turned a bright pink as his gaze raked over them. "I'm Dick."

"This is my ward, Richard Grayson," Bruce clarified. "I ran into this wonderful group on my way to Starbucks, Dick! Can you believe it?"

Some of the students snickered and Dick resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He never liked the version of Bruce that he put on show for the world: "I can believe it."

"We're in town for a competition," a man - presumably the teacher - supplied. Dick raised a brow, scanning over the sea of yellow-clad faces. Peter no-surname looked a little nauseous, refusing to meet his eyes. 

They didn't seem the sport type. Far too... well, he didn't want to say nerdy because he knew a couple nerds and Wally West was one of the fastest people alive (and if that's not sporty then Dick didn't know what was). But this group wasn't going to be competing for college scholarships in football, that's for sure.

"Mathletes?" He guessed.

"No, we're- close enough. It's close enough," the teacher supplied. He was wearing a cardigan despite the heat outside and his mousy, thinning hair was beginning to stick to his forehead.

"Mister Harrington, we're not mathletes."

Mister Harrington suppressed a sigh, chest jumping with the action, pushing his glasses up his nose. He turned to one of the students, a girl with impressive curls draped over her rather pretty face. "We don't need to bother the Wayne's with specifics Michelle."

Dick couldn't find it in him to remind them that he technically wasn't a Wayne. He may be Bruce's foster kid, but he wasn't is son. Not biologically, anyway. He loved Bruce, he did, but he wasn't going to start calling him daddy. Michelle shrugged and popped her headphones back into her ears. If he strained, Dick could just make out the tinny sound of Black Sabbath blaring from her phone. 

"It's a decathlon," Liz added, ducking away from Dick.

"Wasn't the Olympics last year?" Bruce queried, smiling handsomely behind Dick's head. The boy pulled away from his guardian, trying and failing to dodge the hand that shot out to ruffle his hair as he did so.

"It's academic, Bruce. You know that," Dick muttered, folding his arms over his chest. He caught the eye of one of the students closest to him - a kind-faced boy whose eyes were wide as the sun as he stared at Dick. "Can I help you?"

"Oh my god, Peter - he just acknowledged my existence!" The boy whispered, a hand shooting out as if he needed to steady himself on his friend's shoulder. Peter didn't seem too impressed, stance awkward as he decided between crossing his arms in an imitation of Dick or letting them hang loose by his side. "Do you know what this means? I'm friends with a celebrity!"

"Friends?" Peter contained a laugh, eyes darting nervously towards Dick. "Ned, I don't think-"

"We're totally best friends now, Ned. Don't listen to him," Dick butted in with a sly wink towards the non-believer, watching Peter's jaw tense. He held out a graceful hand, encouraged by the other boy's forwardness and grinned as Ned shook it excitedly with both hands. Dick gathered he was something of a fan. "Do you have snapchat?"

"Yes! Yeah I do," Ned exclaimed, digging through his jeans for his beat-up iPhone. His smile was contagious. "Dick Grayson wants to add me on snap, wow."

Ned's bitmoji looked impressively like him, Dick noted. They'd even coordinated outfits, wearing the same shitty t-shirt. He was suddenly conscious of his own, glancing down at the cashmere shirt that lay airily against his chest, unbuttoned and elegantly fascist: "Sorry," he said suddenly, voice bordering on shame. Peter quirked an eyebrow towards him. "I've just come from a shoot... I'm not exactly dressed up for the occasion."

"Occasion?" Peter coughed out, tone what Babs would describe to be 'playing coy'. Dick just found it venomous.

"Meeting guests is an occasion."

"Right, because you care so much about first impressions."

Dick felt his mouth settle into a firm, begrudging line, as his lips pressed together. He willed himself not to frown as he watched Peter aberrantly look away. There was a stale tenseness in the air that Ned seemed unable to comprehend, because he kept sunnily speaking as though he didn't even notice the uncomfortable atmosphere:

"A shoot? Like a photoshoot?" Ned repeated excitedly, ignoring everything his friend had said. He was practically buzzing on the spot. "That is so cool."

Dick scratched at the back of his neck sheepishly, turning the entirety of his attention towards the teen he hadn't met before. "It's pretty sick," he agreed. "So... a decathlon, huh? You guys must be pretty smart."

"Not really," Peter began. As if he hadn't earlier boasted to Dick how he'd won awards in science. His contradictory words were cut off by Ned quickly, almost as if it were a common, practiced occurrence. 

"Peter's super smart. Like, if he had a superpower, it would be intelligence. Definitely not something else, like super strength or reflexes or whatever."

"I don't have any sort of powers," Peter reassured, glaring towards his friend through the corner of his eyes. Dick hummed, not missing the silent communication. That was something to keep in mind, then. He watched as an unspoken promise swept between the two teens.

"Right. Me either," Dick announced diverting his attention from the boys towards their classmates. Brucie wasn't finding it all that difficult to rally the troops, it seemed. The students - as well as their teachers - were hanging onto his each and ever word as though he were some sort of prophet foretelling an arbitrary second-coming.

"- and so that's when I told her that the champagne wasn't Dom Perignon but actually Lois Roederer! You should've seen her face, she looked as though... Oh, Dick! Dick, come here - you know this story. Remember when St Cloud -"

"No one wants to know about Silver's alcoholism, Bruce," Dick sighed, turning into the man's addictive aura. "Why did you bring them here?"

"They're from a Technology school Dickie! What better experience for a bunch of nerdy students than a tour through WayneTech's science-y parts?"

Dick sighed. Upon bringing back the rag tag group of high schoolers there was no doubt in his mind that Bruce had forgotten to mention that the WayneTech branch wasn't actually supposed to be starting full operation until next week. He must've had a good reason for leading them here: Bruce had a good reason for just about everything. But Dick was either too close-minded or not observant enough to see what it was.

"Follow me then. You'll never get your tour if you keep pandering to his ridiculousness," Dick announced, spinning on his heels and catching Bruce's eye. The tall man gave him an almost indiscernible nod as he moved to bring up the rear of the herd.

Dick led the way from Bruce's extravagant office, through the winding, grandiose halls of the new Wayne building. He knew where he was going well enough after his little adventure across the grounds searching for the man who'd gone to Starbucks, and tried not to feel hurt when Peter dragged Ned towards the back end of the queue instead of upfront with Dick himself.

WayneTech was the biggest division of Wayne Enterprises - specialized in retrieving and researching alien technologies outside of the public's knowledge, and in security detailing inside of it. It was no surprise to Dick, then, that they had an entire five-floor spread dedicated to their laboratories in the new Wayne Tower. If the new D.C office had been up and running for longer than five days, no one would have been allowed access to the main labs. Mister Harrington and his class were lucky they'd caught Bruce in a 'good' mood, despite whatever ulterior motive he had planned.

"This is the first floor's entrance to the test center," Dick explained as he led the gaggle of wide-eyed students to a dead-end. The wall opposite was embellished with a large painting - a façade of Alfred's favourite piece called The Ghost of  a Flea. It was a William Blake special event, the original art hanging high and proud in Wayne Manor. 

Dick stepped aside as Bruce swam through the shoal of people, movement fluid and calming like a deceptive predator. With a calculated flick of his wrist the entire wall rippled and plunged inwards, falling away like puzzle pieces to reveal a ringing, metallic decontamination vault with heavy steel doors and hazard symbols plastered all over it. 

"I hope you all have insurance," Dick joked, reveling in the momentary look of fear in Mister Harrington's eyes and snickering with the rest of the students as he stepped inside. "Company policy states you're all going to have to take off your shoes and wear these -" he jutted a thumb towards the right wall, hydraulics hissing as it folded upwards to reveal racks of lab coats and white sterile plimsolls. " - Totally monochrome, I know, but it's regulation."

Dick shrugged on one of the embroidered WayneTech coats and donned a pair of protective goggles. Amongst the exchanging of shoes and frisking of all personal items - phones, keys and anything else that could prove to interfere with experiments in the lab weren't allowed past that point - Dick noticed Bruce loitering near a particular tray of belongings. 

Peter was busily untying the laces of his worn-out converse, Ned shuffling eagerly beside him. It didn't avoid Dick's notice that as one of the lead research scientists came to collect the high schoolers with a tired smile and the pair looked away, Bruce took the split-second to slip the tip of his finger beneath the solo of one of Peter's shoes. 

Dick narrowed his eyes at the singular red flash that emitted from the beacon, petering out of existence as it activated. He grabbed Bruce's arm as he attempted to follow the class through the laboratory, grip like iron as it closed around the man's straining wrist:

"A tracker Bruce? Really."

"It's precautionary," the man replied with a wave of his hand. Dick could see the muscles moving beneath his suit. "It's Stark's kid."

A wave of surprise swept through Dick's blood, ice cold and sharp. Schooling his features to what he hoped could pass as indifference in the eyes of Bruce Wayne, Dick raised an eyebrow, releasing the handful of bespoke material:

"I wasn't aware he had a son."

"Because he doesn't. The kid's an intern," said Bruce. Dick studied his mentor's face carefully, meeting his steely eyes as recognition dawned on him.

"You think he was there? At the Avenger's pity-party?" Dick asked, bewildered. He stumbled back from Bruce, raking a hand through his hair brashly. No Way. Peter somehow-not-a-model? Absolutely not.

"The Sokovia Accords are a serious problem, Dick."

"Please, you're just jealous you're stuck with the league," Dick snickered, bouncing after Bruce as the man shook his head and continued into the lab. "Face it, B, there's no way Supes is going to start a revolution. Maybe you could try and rile Hal up, but -"

"That's enough work talk, Dick," Bruce cut him off sternly. They lingered behind slightly before rejoining the others, Bruce's steady hand gripping his shoulder. Dick wasn't particularly interested in another lecture on xenobiology by one of Barbara's brain-crushes. Not that Doctor Lovell wasn't worthy of being listened to - it's just that Dick had heard it all before. He'd experienced it first hand, he didn't need to be told how Amazo's copy-catting worked. "Remember where you are."

"Yeah well, I still don't think you should bug a high schooler, Bruce."

"You're a high schooler," Bruce insinuated. Dick wrinkled his nose as he leaned into the man's space.

"Your point is? I wouldn't want to be tracked by you," he retorted. He absently felt around his collar and cuffs, checking for a similar device. "Or by anyone, for that matter. You've never planted one of those on me have you?"

"Planted what on you?"

Dick froze. The dynamic duo, Peter and Ned, were staring at them from across a workbench and were flanked by the Michelle girl. She didn't look half as interested as the two boys, absently glaring into the distance with her head in her hand. Peter just appeared to be bored... probably of Ned: the teen was practically swooning at every action the Wayne Heir took. Dick wasn't supposed to be caught off guard like this - why the three of them weren't watching the awesome display of Green Lantern's cosmic constructs was beyond him.

Bruce squeezed his shoulder and Dick stared up at him. The slight pressure told him to keep quiet; the Bat would do the work for him. "My ward's always trying to avoid using the phones made by my company - which gets kind of expensive when he keeps taking them places he's not supposed to." A subtle dig towards Dick for that time he took his phone on patrol. It hadn't ended much better than a dislocated shoulder and a furious Bruce. Dick felt his cheeks heat up at the man's decisive stare. "Silly as it is, I've resorted to slipping the blasted things into his pockets when he's not looking."

Dick nodded mutely, pushing his hands into his pockets. The cold glass screen of his WayneTech phone pressed at his finger tips. "And he always succeeds," Dick said through his teeth, parading the phone for all to see. It wasn't even on the market yet.

"I thought phones weren't allowed in here," Peter recalled and Dick rolled his eyes. 

"There are exceptions to every rule," Dick muttered. He looked up through his eyelashes towards Peter's frowning face. "It may be pure favoritism, but, well... I am his son."

This just deepened the other boy's expression, much like the laugh elicited from Ned made him slump further down the table. Bruce sighed: "You're not supposed to be in here barefoot either, Dick. What happened to your shoes?"

"I lost them in the studio. They were giving me blisters."

"Oh. Saint Laurens?" Bruce assumed, face twisting as his ward nodded. "Understandable."

"Couldn't you have just worn a pair of these?" Michelle interjected, flicking her leg to rest on top of the table. The stark-white trainers cut a bold contrast atop the onyx workbench. "We all had to."

"Obviously you all don't have any taste. No one who knows anything about fashion would willingly put them on their feet. Why would I?"

"Because it's protocol?" Peter suggested. He seemed almost offended. Dick couldn't see why he would be. It was a perfectly reasonable observation to say that he had no dress-sense - a no-brainer. The dude was wearing the type of t-shirt Wally  would wear, one of those with the dorky science puns. There was no way anyone who dressed Kid Flash on his days off had good taste.

"Not for a Wayne," Bruce replied coolly, steering the conversation to the left. He checked his watch, eyebrows knitting exaggeratedly as he frowned. "Well then, Dick. I've got to be off. Time really does fly, kiddos."

"You're leaving?" Ned asked somberly. Bruce flashed him his 'Person fo the Year' winning smile, laced with regret as he looked to Dick.

"I have business to attend to and an opening to attend," the man sounded sincere. Dick wondered if he'd been contacted by the league, because there was no way Bruce was actually going to go to the Tower's christening. Maybe Diana had buzzed in for a date. Or Selina. Or- "My CEO wishes to remind me that Wayne Enterprises doesn't run itself. Mister Harrington-"

"Call me Roger, Mister Wayne -"

"Alright, Richard. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut out time together short," Bruce said solemnly. "Doctor Lovell, if you could finish this up rather quickly and have Dickie show these lovely people out? Thank you, dear."

His embellished his words with a wink, face melting into one of irritation as he turned so only Dick could see him 'Clark' he mouthed, face grim-set as he swept away. Dick's stomach churned - it must be important, then. Unless Clark had offered to take Bruce on a date. Dick always had wondered about the two of them. He grinned, watching the hulking figure of Bruce Wayne abandon the theoretical ship through one of the emergency exits - one that lead to a stairwell onto the roof, Dick noted.

As Doctor Lovell wrapped up her explanation of whatever theoretical science she was explaining, shutting down the hologram display of the Justice League's last fight with Amazo, Peter finally turned to face him. The eye contact was awkward and Dick had to refrain from looking away as the other boy pushed himself from his seat. It was almost as if Bruce's presence had been a dampener on whatever he'd been meaning to say.

"Does he always just walk out like that?" he asked. Ned almost tripped over the legs of his stool in his effort to be the first to stand beside Dick.

"Mostly always," Dick countered, waiting for the disappointed students to swarm towards him in an orderly fashion. "Sometimes he lasts longer than five minutes though, if you can believe it."

"Can't say I can," Peter said, staring off in the direction Bruce had ventured. "How does he run a multimillion dollar company?"

Dick frowned, looking over his shoulder to follow Peter's gaze: "Multibillion dollar company. He does a lot for Wayne Enterprises - you can't begin to understand the work he puts into helping this business succeed."

Peter had prodded one of Dick's more tender issues with Bruce's public persona. He couldn't stand people thinking the man was an idiot. Bruce was- Bruce was amazing. The most capable man Dick had ever and would ever meet. With everything he did to protect and serve... all people like Peter saw was Brucie.

"I didn't mean to offend," Peter retreated quickly. His eyes were warm and Dick felt somehow lighter as he stared into them. "It's just, with people like Tony Stark in the business how does he manage to stay afloat?"

"You're awfully talkative all of a sudden," Dick snapped, not un-kindly. Peter reeled back ashamedly:

"I... I'm sorry?"

"Apology not accepted. Maybe if you stop scowling at me I'll rethink," Dick said. "Y'know, I thought we were getting on okay earlier, but I guess not. Ned seems cool though."

"Ned is cool," the man himself supplied from his position on the floor, pulling off the white abominations from his feet. 

"I just didn't clock who you were before I saw you in Wayne's office, that's all!" Peter replied, ignoring him. "And then I was like... oh god, he's rich and a model and famous - It's kind of a lot to take in, y'know?"

"A lot to take in?" 

"'Cause I said all that stuff to you and I never would have if I'd know, I swear!"

Dick felt his chest deflate. Of course. He wasn't just another teenager to Peter anymore: He was Richard Grayson. Heir to the Wayne fortune, with far too much status to even consider speaking to. Dick's intrepid eyes scaled the walls opposite, thumb running over the material of his sleeve. "It's okay. I get that."

"You do?" Dick didn't enjoy the relief he heard in Peter's voice. 

"Yup," he replied, voice strained, and he leant against the doorway to decontamination to watch the boy struggle to remove his lab gear. His eyes flickered to the beat-up trainers Peter began to pull from his tray, mouth dry as he watched the boy begin to undo the laces. "Uh, hey Peter -"

"Yeah?"

He had half a mind to let Bruce's schemes alone. What did he care if Bruce's tracker was stuck to the guy's shoe? But a guilty feeling rose uncomfortably up his throat, threatening to choke him, as he observed the tying of grimy shoelaces.  "Er, about your shoes -"

"What about them?" the boy replied, not bothering to look up. It was a good job he didn't, too, otherwise he might've seen how obvious Dick was being as he went about this whole thing. He didn't exactly have a plan: He was flying by the seat of his pants here.

"I need them."

"What?"

"Give me your shoes."

"What?"

"Look, you heard me," Dick hissed, and he was pretty sure any friendliness recovered between the two of them was destroyed at that exact moment. He could feel his onw cheeks beginning to flame. Forget earlier, when he'd crawled from the ceiling in front of everyone: This was embarrassing. But he couldn't just let Bruce track the poor guy. What if it were Dick being tracked? He'd never let it happened, of course - Bruce would (figuratively) murder him. But he couldn't shake the bad feeling away. Someone knowing his every move? Possibly the grossest thing ever. "Hand them over."

Peter stared at him as though he'd grown a second head and for a moment Dick wished he had. It would've been easier to explain. 

"Are you serious?" Peter said, letting out a nervous laugh. Mister Harrington was beggining to shoo the other students from the boxy room single file. 

"Why do you want his lame-ass shoes?" Someone asked. A taller boy, with dark hair and a confused look on his face. "You can have mine, they're way cooler."

"Let's go, Flash."

"But Sir-"

"Beat it."

In the boy's defense, Dick did think the kid's Nikes were cooler than Peter's worn converse. Although he wasn't sure he'd want to wear anything from someone named Flash. He'd never hear the end of it from Wally. 

"Peter, I'm not joking. I'm tired of being barefoot and you- you have socks on!"

"Look, Di- can I still call you Dick?" Peter asked uncertainly. The other teen nodded rapidly, fingers twitching. "Er, I'm not sure why you're asking for my shoes but I'm definitely not giving them to you."

"But I need them," Dick pleaded.

"Sorry, I guess? Bi I 'need them' too. I have to walk back to our hotel," Peter said, standing up straighter. He still hadn't successfully put on both trainers, the left being wedged poorly onto his foot with the laces draping dangerously on the floor. He peered over Dick's shoulder towards the rest of his class slowly walking away nervously. "Hey wait- Ned, wait for me?"

"Look, Peter I'm sorry but... you're really not leaving me with many options here, man. I really need those shoes."

"Can't you just buy a new pair like them?"

Dick rolled his eyes, pushing away from the wall. He could see the faint glow of Bruce's tracking device lodged into the material and inwardly cringed. He could envision what he was about to do and it was not going to look good on record: 'Dick Grayson, Wayne Heir, assaults Academic Decathlon student'. 

Had he no shame? Of course he did! Was the shame going to stop? Of course not.

"You're not understanding me here," Dick said slowly, voice a low treble. He tried to add in a bit of gravel, like Bruce did when he spoke as Batman. It only served to confuse Peter more greatly.

"Look, Mister Grayson, you're kinda starting to freak me out - can you let me pas-" Peter's frankly shitty attempt to de-escalate what he hadn't known to be an escalated situation didn't fill Dick with any comfort as he lunged for the boy.

His quick movement obviously took the boy by surprise because the shriek Peter let out as he was barreled to the floor was nothing less than fantastic. "What are you doing? Get off me!"

Dick had to hand it to the guy, Peter was strong. Much stronger than he looked. After only a few attempts he was able to shove Dick off of him and scramble to his feet but Dick's work was already done: he grinned up at Peter from where he was laying on the floor, waving those terrible converse in hand, and bounced up to his feet with triple the grace of Peter, daring the high schooler to do something. 

The teen's chest heaved rapidly with adrenalin and alarm, and he lurched forward to grab the objects from Dick's hand but with all the dignity of a gymnast Dick spun away and wheeled out of the room. His laughter echoed down the hallway as he sped away. Peter's eyes were wide as he watched him get away.

"What the hell?" Peter breathed out. He made eye contact with Ned, who was standing stock-still with his phone out. A terribly angled selfie was displayed on the screen:

"Do you think he'll send streaks?"

[Next chapter]

[rocknrollsalad]

STWG daily prompt - Giving in & chill Steddie | t (all the jokes are vaguely sexual but it's pg) | 1765 words

“You’re like a child,” Steve groaned. What should be affection was pure annoyance as Eddie sat on their coffee table, staring straight into Steve’s soul, and begging him to play cards. 

“I’m nothing like those dweebs,” Eddie countered with fake annoyance, strumming his finger across the top of the deck to feel all fifty-two cards. 

Steve opened his mouth to say “yes you are” but shut it, pausing in thought, and trying again. “No, but they act like you. Equally terrifying but I meant an actual child. Four or five years old.” 

With furrowed brows, Eddie stuck his lip out a little 

“You need to be constantly doing things but when I say ‘let’s go for a run’ or ‘we could shoot hoops’ you–” 

Eddie started gagging, doubled over, and making loud vomit sounds until he started coughing in seriousness. 

“You do that. Even though your skin would not fall off if you stepped on a court. So, instead, you talk endlessly through the movie I was trying to watch and now you want to play games. Like a kid.” 

It was maybe a little too far but Steve was exhausted, adulthood was a little more work than he wanted it to be. A full day of work and then he had to make dinner, he barely wanted to eat it tonight after all the labor of preparing it. 

Robin had been bugging him to watch this movie for a week and Steve didn’t feel like doing anything else so it seemed like a perfect night. Eddie said he wanted to watch it too and then made it impossible for both of them to watch it. So Steve packed more frustration on top of everything else and maybe he wasn’t as nice as everyone thought. Sometimes it’s okay to just watch a movie and eat shitty pizza without putting on a three-ring circus for the boyfriend. 

“When are you even around five year olds?” Rather than give into the hurt feelings, Eddie matched Steve’s energy. 

“I dated, like, half of Hawkins High so, ya know, every babysitter in town.” 

“Aren’t the kids supposed to be asleep before you show up?” Eddie groaned, rolling his eyes. 

“Sometimes, yeah, but other times the kid is a little shit so the babysitter calls the cute athlete to come over and wear the thing out. Promises are made and definitely cashed in.” 

“Wear the thing out. Promising for our future, I’m sure.” 

“We can’t have kids,” Steve scoffed. 

“Adoption is a thing,” Eddie said, acting like Steve was the idiot in this situation. 

“I know the ways around the whole 'we can’t carry a child' thing, idiot. We, as a couple, can’t adopt because we can’t tell people we’re a couple.” 

“Oh…yeah,” Eddie deflated. 

Packing his annoyance into a groan, Steve leaned back. He debated putting his feet up on the coffee table to try and be a real bother here but couldn’t do it. It was one thing to be annoyed but he couldn’t be a dick on purpose. Not in this atmosphere, at least. It was fun when they were in on it, goofing off and stuff. 

After a long moment of silence, just enough to let Steve think he was going to get to pay attention to this movie, Eddie said “Do you ever use the moves you used on all those babysitters on me?” 

“What? No. We’re dating. I don’t have to, like, try and get into your pants. Usually, I’m begging you to put some on before Robin comes over.” 

“You’re never begging me to put my pants on, don’t lie.” 

“Every time she comes over. Literally. Every single time.” 

“I don’t hear you complaining about it.” 

“I’m not,” Steve groaned, hating having to admit that right now. 

“So not once? You never used anything from your bag of tricks?” 

“I mean, I’m not really that guy anymore.” Scratching at his forehead, the television screen got a lot more interesting. 

“Do it, though? Use them on me. C’mon. Pretend I’m babysitting some kids and they’re asleep in the other room.” 

“I don’t have to do that.” 

“Please, Steve! I’ll never ask for anything again, please, please, please-ah. Flirt with me like you’re trying to impress me and get into my pants.” 

“Yeah, not in the mood,” shoving up off the couch, Steve gave up. “I’m going to go take a shower.” 

It didn’t make any sense why Eddie would want to see this part of himself Steve tried so hard to get rid of. Everyone they hung out with listed those years of Steve’s as his shortcomings, his flaws. He wasn’t supposed to still use those moves so why was Eddie asking? 

The shower helped some, Steve felt better coming out than he did going in. At least until he got back to the living room where Eddie sat playing solitaire. He looked up and said, “The kids are sleeping and their parents won’t be home for hours.” 

The over-the-top seductive voice Eddie used had Steve nearly throwing up in his mouth. He shook his head and walked off to the kitchen. With no purpose, he opened the fridge and hoped it revealed what he needed. 

Eddie followed, catching up surprisingly quick and dropping his full weight to Steve’s back. It nearly landed both of them inside the fridge but Steve managed to save it. Yet Eddie kept leaning into it. Again, if he were in a better mood and it would have been well received, Steve would have taken a step to the left and let Eddie drop to the floor. He was half tempted to anyway. 

“Why won’t you use your moves on me?” Eddie whined. 

“Because they aren’t my moves anymore? Because you’re already with me? I don’t know, take your pick.” 

“It’d be so fun though. I want to see if I would have given in to the legendary Harrington charm.” 

“Oh, you would have.” 

“Prove it. C’mon, prove it. You know you want to.” From there it devolved into Eddie repeating “prove it” with increasing speed. 

“No,” Steve said, making the word as short and forceful as he could. With resignation, he grabbed a soda off the top shelf and moved from the fridge. 

“Would it help if I put on a whole, like, outfit?” Eddie asked. 

“It’s not going to make me change my mind but I would love to know what your babysitter outfit is.” 

“You don’t know what I have in my closet, there’s some surprises.” 

“Uh, you mean the clothes I unpacked because you were content to keep taking them out of the garbage bags you hauled them here in?” 

“Shit, no? I have other clothes?” 

“Are they different from the ones in the laundry? Because we wash our clothes together.” 

“Maybe I clean them on the days it’s my turn, okay? You wanna take this to court?” 

A smile cracks on Steve’s face. “I just wanna see this outfit, ya know? Might put me in the mood.” 

“Oh my god! Would it?!” 

“No,” Steve groaned, throwing his empty hand in the air. “And you don’t have the outfit.” 

“I could put something together but, whatever, man. I’m the last resort babysitter. Not the first call but the parents are desperate.” 

Nothing that threatened to come out of Steve’s mouth was kind. Even in his sour mood, he was smart enough to know to say nothing. He looked at Eddie to let him know both how wide he left the insult door open and how lucky he was. 

“No, that’s even better! I’m like the struggling first-time babysitter who is desperate for help and I heard you’re a good help. I don’t know about the cost though,” Eddie said with a little shimmy. 

“Definitely not. It’s not happening but it’s really, really not happening without me knowing you want it to.” 

Eddie pressed his hands together and gave the saddest pleading eyes Steve had ever seen. “I definitely want it. Please?” 

“But it’s so stupid. I already got you and with way better moves.” 

“I know but I just want to know. No! I need to know. For science! For mankind! Hell, for womankind too! Everyone needs the full Steve Harrington experience and I can’t appreciate what I have now without knowing what I could have had, right?” 

Dropping his head to one side, Steve blinked rapidly for a second. “For science?” 

“Yes! I mean what if it doesn’t work on me? That needs documented. 

“What? No, it would have worked on you. Without question.” 

Eddie took a breath and slowly started to smile. “Ah, so that’s what works. It wouldn’t have, I couldn’t stand guys like you in high school?” 

“Guys like me? If I was any more your type, it’d be a Weird Science situation. You made me on a computer.” 

“At least I kept your tits reasonable then,” Eddie mocked. 

“You love jocks, I bet I’d just have to knock on the door and you’d be shedding clothes.” 

Eddie tried to sulk about it but he crumbled, lighting back up and moving anxiously around the kitchen floor. “Do it, do it, doitdoitdoit! Just, like, fifteen minutes? If you don’t like it we can put a movie on and I’ll make you popcorn. The Jiffy Pop stuff even.” 

“Eddie,” Steve half-heartedly tried. 

He was already too close to caving, which he hated, Eddie had this effect on him though, and as much as Steve tried to fight it, he’d do anything for the guy. No one said he had to do it happily or instantly though. Steve loved him but he was still going to complain. 

“I’ll do the next loads of laundry and I’ll cook dinner tomorrow night!” 

“Well, are we trying to have fun or are you trying to kill me?” 

“Har har, you know I’ll put a frozen pizza in the oven.” 

Steve pondered that and nodded. “Yeah, okay, but will you clean the bathroom?” 

Eddie walked in a little circle, groaning the whole time, head dropped back to look at the ceiling. “Yes,” he finally said. 

Steve did not think that would work, they needed to barter for chores more often. Heaving a sigh to sell his own performance, Steve rolled his eyes. “Fine. If it’ll get you to calm down and give me a peaceful night? Let’s do it.” 

“Fuck! Yes!” Eddie nearly screamed, fists in the air as he did a bit of headbanging. 

“Go put on your babysitter outfit but don’t work too hard because I will have you out of it in that fifteen minutes.” 

[kindtobechurlish]

One woman is storming around, something would “never happen”, and the reason why she likes me, her logic, her head, is what has me angry. “Not tonight”, and she doesn’t treat me like she treats other guys. And, now you see. Isn’t it sad? She came out, first, which is why she is storming around, and said she would marry me. I hadn’t yet made it about her, no need, but rather I made it about me. I made it about my enablement, and what I could do for her. After I did this, a fat bitch said I was wrong about some things, a white woman who needs to loose A LOT of weight and if she did she might have extra “skin” like an uncircumcised dick. Fat bitch said I was wrong for being a racist, and I had not yet thought about the prophecy of Lemuel. And, today you see Stonewall Jackson and the trees, with “ignorant Africans.” Now, you see someone with mental illness, things was so pleasant for fat bitch, why would she want any different as I am not a wanton? Where did she go? And there it is. Some guy is saying “the matrix” and it’s weird. I’m not getting onto that, what I am getting into is someone oppresses and woman storms around as a spinster, thornback, and my love only gives me the solution.

Some woman storming around, stumping around, she knows about Robert E. Lee’s prettiest sight, and like there is a field gang in the field there are these women who are TOO OLD to be that sight and I’m one man. You see negro nerd making the joke on me for three years, he got his Lori Harvey of the nation or viceroyalty, and I have Robert E. Lee’s prettiest sight but they are TOO OLD. Some thornback, spinster, she got married, and now I’m getting my fix and my kids can’t be like me. Woman storming around, I got heads on my body like a pig eating feeds, and it’s Robert E. Lee’s prettiest sight but it’s TOO OLD. Woman storming around, stumping around, and then another woman is stuck, and now you see TOO OLD. Some woman is beautiful to me, and I feel weird around 25 white girls and it is just me. “What am I doing here?”, and Robert E. Lee isn’t personified. I know what I worked for, if I have to take it there I’ll take it there, and you put two hands in pocket to say you are not in politics right now. I’m not white. You see TOO OLD, and now your classrooms aren’t black and white but all these people are half way there and they can only be black. Isn’t that funny? This makes you put both hands in pocket, just for you to think of white woman with black hair? You see it? “I’m white”, and dumb negroes won’t catchup. I’m not saying be more righteous than whites, I’m not righteous in my own eyes, but I say figure it out! Some guy has a fetish of belly buttons. He says he is obsessed, it is means for him to feed his baby - and he’s feeding his woman. I have Robert E. Lee’s prettiest sight, but too old, and that will make you take in information and “be better” as I’m on to Old Bed’s tricks! Same ol circus, OLD BED! You know field hands, and in that there is the field gang. Oxgang? You see it! Anglo-American law, you learn it, see it, and say, “I could have thought of that.” Well, you are white and I am black, that’s how it works! “Poor devils”, and many wouldn’t read to FIGHT! I have the prettiest sight, but TOO OLD, 25 heads on my body and I’m getting my fix. Behold, what could have healed the country, I begged you to talk Confederates before Trump and I just want to work in manufacturing, you can go off and be the voice and not a bad actor, only to see racism and it shows I’m not Rastus. I didn’t go to a high school either. I just walked, and in it I was able to get money. By my God I changed laws, and courts recognize it, and I got pony tails, clips, buns, pigtails, hair down, whatever, kissing my body and giving me my fix. You don’t want to talk Confederates?

I’d establish Egyptian culture, by Confederates, and woman is clear. She wants to feel like woman who stood before judge Judy, with other women, and there was one man justifying what he had in his mind. She wants that same image, but courts recognize it. Now, I have TOO OLD for prettiest sight and it’s racism. Christianity said pay caesar, and calling yourself white is like you calling yourself Christian, and BOOM. Woman get lifted up to her highest state, and now you see why she’s storming around as my love is content. The good wife, it ultimately is because of black dick and she’s enabled. “That never would happen” becomes “it would only happen if it was you and you weren’t on the internet”, and she’s storming around. I have the answers to be with her as I am, she imagines me giving her 20% of my pay every two weeks and I worship her in clandestine marriage, and you see a woman content with the truth as the other is just storming around. “I could use 125 dollars or so, 90 dollars, a week”, and it’s 400 dollars a month and she’s my wife. Storming around, just to see I’m really doing more than show I don’t need “treatment”, and it’s “not tonight”, woman content says the same. NOT TONIGHT.

Oh, if I wasn’t on the internet, and I just walked, to make you wonder, and I never was on the internet, I have lock and key. Now, people feel a little better about themselves just for you to see the storm! She got my attention, and she wanted to be uplifted. “She’s just being a white woman”, and “it never would happen” unless it’s me. Storming around. She never thought of things, just to think. Some spick is in kitchen, and if the spick learns language to be better than a hottentot then the spick can be in kitchen and keep getting better. Now, at 50, 5 star in New York City and poor people who can’t afford school are joining the army. Yea. Joe Biden’s emanation is, and they preach peace - it’s an insidious effect. Instead of McDonalds sweet tea, large, being two dollars (it changed), it’s five dollars, and they are making it about the cost of eggs and milk last year. “Be positive”. Negro woman!

An idiot is ready to see my analogy of the pig, and think it’s the same as a gold ring in the SNOUT of a pig is like a fair woman without discretion. She’s storming around, or being still, and I’m showing her I’m ready to marry. “It would never happen”, becomes it would only happen if it were me, as a woman is a thornback, spinster, and I have the solution in our love. Woman storming around, how awkward is marriage? All of these people go to the wedding, could not even know them that well, they could not like your wife or husband, and there is a pastor saying, “speak now or forever hold your peace.” Woman storming around, it’s awkward for a spinster, thornback, to get married for she is beyond the ordained age. Some woman who can’t dance, she starts spinning, and there it is. The wedding is awkward, woman storming around and I know her. Music plays she spins. Now, “marriage is awkward”, spinster, she’s wearing heels in a dress with drape over head. Her dad is giving her away, spinster. Woman still sees this and understands my love - beyond Robert E. Lee’s prettiest sight and TOO OLD. I engage clandestine marriage, and all of those people other woman wants there, making her storm, wouldn’t be there.. and I make love with her like I am making a daughter just to make it about her sucking my dick.

She gives her sign, woman storming around, woman still, she says she’s watching me. I can’t hide from her, my acts, so she feels like a god in me getting enthusiasm when I see her. “Not tonight”, storming around, still, and I don’t have her feet in my face with her on her back telling me she love me first night. That’s why I act like this. She come to love me, and I don’t have to physically pop her Cherry and I’m not bopping her upon the head. It wasn’t that serious, if that guy was me, and not on the internet, “ok, it would happen.” That’s your sign, and then people dream? Living outside of the self? Now, woman doesn’t treat them like she treats me, and she doesn’t want YOU to know she submitted to women surrounding my body like pigs feeding and I’m making out with my love because she married my first. Woman storming around doesn’t like thinking of housewife, the contrast of good wife, and me in my penury saying, “YOU GONE TALK ABOUT THE CONFEDERACY, SON OF A BITCH.”

[thespianinthebackcorner]

This is really interesting!!!! I also think that their designs were somewhat influenced by their physical appearances- for example Kinger being blonde, or Ragatha wearing purple.

For the few people who follow me for my other fandoms, you can choose whether to read the Digital Circus stuff or not. If you don't that's fine.

Since their circus designs are all based on theatre and games, this might be far-fetched, but perhaps it's possible that they're all theatre kids or similar somehow and found the headset n stuff in offices behind a theatre. Zooble is fairly chill but gives me lighting/sound crew vibes, especially since she just leaves whenever she doesn't think she's needed, Ragatha and Jax feel like they'd be actors- they act quite theatrically (especially Jax), Pomni is a classic case of "I got forced into Theatre Club and idk what's going on", Gangle I'm imagining as some kind of dancer or hell even just a costume manager (hence the ribbons) and Kinger and Queenie likely owned the theatre or similar- hence them being the King and Queen chess pieces. The King and Queen of the Theatre.

I'm also thinking that their appearances are mandated somehow by the few memories or thoughts they had just before they entered the circus. For example my headcanon is that Jax had a pet rabbit by the same name, that he was thinking about just before putting the headset on- hence his model and him eventually picking that name. Because it was the last thing on his mind. (Speaking of I hope one of his buddies irl is taking care of smol Jax ☹️)

comparing their personalities to the age list Gooseworx gave us, which I'll put under here, and Jax's comment on being stuck in the circus for years, it's possible that they simply stop aging in some form once they get into the circus.

Jax is 22 but acts like a teenager. Gangle is older than he is but both sounds and acts younger. Kinger's voice is a bit too high for a nearly-50-year-old man.

Pomni and Ragatha's personalities seem to fit their ages, and let's be real Zooble's personality is far too relatable to pinpoint an age from. I'm thinking that Ragatha and Pomni are likely the newer members (well ok Pomni was a given there) while Kinger, Gangle and Jax have been in the circus for longer. This would explain their personality/age mismatch- Gangle and Jax showing up in their teenage years, while Kinger arrived in his 20s or 30s, lines up with their personalities, and they simply never changed- because they never really could. Idk what happened to their real bodies, though. I feel like they would've been perceived as going missing by the outside world.

I also like the idea of Jax lying through his teeth, but what I like more is the idea you came up with- that he's so unbothered by everything because he learned to do that from previous situations. To me Jax is the kind of guy who probably didn't grow up in a very good place, whether it was family issues or money issues or something else (considering the pink dungarees which is an odd fashion choice I'm thinking he probably grew up around the poverty line bro grew up in the hood) and learned to be a bit of a dick not only to survive but to make the best of his situation- literally laughing at tragedy, because if he didn't, he'd have lost his will a long time ago by now. (If you're wondering about how he ended up with a pet in that situation, apparently in some countries people will by pet rabbits for Easter and then set them free cause they don't want to take care of them, so I'm thinking Jax found one of them and took it in. He probably needs an emotional support bunny too. It explains the pocket on the dungarees)

Gangle is my favourite, so I may be biased here, but I'm thinking you're on the right track somehow with the idea of her being just as delicate as her masks. However someone else said that maybe instead of masking her emotions, she had a bipolar kind of situation where her emotions change quite rapidly with no middle ground, and to me that feels like it fits. Nobody else in the circus is such an obvious metaphor for something else, so Gangle masking her emotions seems a bit too upfront, especially for such a shy character.

i can't say much about Kinger or Ragatha cause your theories seem so spot-on, but I like the Zooble idea. Walking into a back room to think and try to clear that confusion, and ending up finding the VR headset that takes them to the circus.

As for the others, if we go with the previous thoughts I had, Kinger and Queenie seem like the types to try and have a go at stuff their kids are interested in, so maybe they found the stuff behind their theatre and gave it a shot. Jax probably wouldn't pass up the chance for a game even if it is a little beat-up, since games are pretty expensive and consoles can break easily depending on the type. Gooseworx already basically said Gangle is a weeb so her having a hidden passion for games wouldn't surprise me. (she feels like the type to be ridiculously good at Mariokart.) Ragatha likely wanted an escape from reality, and Pomni sounds like she found it somewhere and was curious.

💫Blu theory timeeee :D✨

Okay, not sure if anyone else has already said or thought about this but, I NEEDED TO WRITE THIS DOWN TO GET IT OUTTA MY SILLY HEAD AND YALL ARE COMIN DOWN WITH ME >:)

(Digital Circus Edition!!!)

LONG POST WARNING LMAO THE BRAINROT IS REAL SEND HELP 💀

Now that I've got your attention hehehe, lets take a momentary deep dive into the wacky world of The Amazing Digital Circus!

So lets review what we know from the pilot ep.

The world inhabits some sort of virtual reality.

Its completely run by AI, that being Caine, Bubble, and other artificial characters that seem to be spontaneously created by Caine at will. (For example the Gloink Queen, those wooden mannequins, ect.)

The human victims are transported to the "digital realm" when they put on some sort of headset.

The transition completely wipes their memories of their past lives.

When the human mind is clouded with existential dread, that being caused by loosing all sense of sanity at the realization of never being able to leave, the person becomes "abstracted" and aggressive.

This behavior not only affects the other "players" but the AI as well in some cases completely destroying them.

Caine is capable of fixing small abstractions (like Pomni and Ragatha) but unable to with a completely abstracted individual. Which seems to automatically cross their pfp on their respective doors and generate new slots for new players.

What we DONT KNOW as of when I'm writing this lmao...

Who built/programmed the headsets and why?

How are all these people getting possession of them?

Is it a company? A case of rouge AI? A tiktok trend gone wrong???

What happens to the victims originals body? Does anyone in the real world know what's going on??

How long has everyone been in there?? Does time work differently in the virtual world?? Does time pass at all??

DOES GETTING ABSTRACTED MEAN U DED??? Or is there a way to fix being abstracted?? (GIVE KINGER HIS WIFE BACK)

Now that THATS outta the way... lets move on to my theory.

I firmly believe Caine genuinely has no clue why humans are popping into the circus at all. I know this already has been debunked by goose but I just wanted to clarify.

He doesn't really understand human emotion, he is an AI after all, so he naturally lacks empathy. All he really knows is to keep the humans entertained, censor swearing, and be silly lmao. It's refreshing from the classic "grrr angy bot mad at hooman" stuff. NOT SAYING THATS WHAT HAPPENING BUT SPECIFICALLY FOR CAINE AND BUBBLE LOL. they just goofy fr.

It kinda reminds me of the generative AI, like whats going on today with ChatGPT or CharacterAI. Its a software that entertains the human by creating random means of conversation or environmental; storytelling. (Its so funny because I'm writing a paper about it in college, I personally don't support AI generative content but it's still very fascinating to explore how these machines work and function. And this is just a silly cartoon after all lmaooo.)

The reason I bring this up is because of the "Machine Learning" aspect of it. You see, generative AI nowadays is fed certain information from its human user, which then uses what knowledge its given in the input into the output.

This could be the reason why the "exit door" kept popping up. Because the algorithm is being fed information from its human users and the output being the existence of a "fake exit" door. The software is just trying to simulate what the humans want but cant physically do because as of right now, its impossible.

I also think this affects how humans are perceived in their avatars. Everyone has a unique look to them when they enter the circus, this could be caused by the AI reading whatever was left of their thoughts or feelings before entering the virtual world.

Ragatha is perceived as a doll, or some sort of child's toy. (she kinda reminds me of the ones I used to have as a little girl.) It could've recognized something she was fond of, or maybe how she perceived herself when she was human, maybe she saw herself at some point being toyed with mentally or perhaps she was in a situation were she felt like she had no control. Which is why she attempts to stay optimistic and see the brighter side of every situation.

Jax is some sort of anthropomorphic rabbit, (I like to believe his name is a play on Jack Rabbit lmao.) not sure why the algorithm would perceive him as a rabbit?? Since rabbits usually symbolize humility, kindness, and compassion. Which he is clearly NOT LMAOOOO. (then again it could be the software being ironic 💀)

But I think its more or less his mannerism's of his eyes and mouth. His teeth are almost always closed and his resting face is a sly smile. I adore the idea many have had of it symbolizing him "lying through his teeth". Which he could 100% be doing. Also, he seems the most unaffected human considering the situation he's found himself in, being trapped in a virtual world for eternity and everything doesn't seem to bother him much. (He rlly is winning the idgaf war)

Maybe he had to learn to be that way when he was a human, to just become "unbothered" by his crappy situations and turn them into a joke he could inflict onto others. Or maybe its just the way he is idk. He seems to be actively trying to get the others to hate him more then they're situation rn.

Then there's Kinger, who he and his wife has both been turned into chess pieces. Which actually gives us a lot of information about who they were or what they acted like. And their relationship to one another.

In chess, the Queen is the most powerful piece in the whole game, and she actively protects the king from the enemy pieces. As for the King.. wellll, not so much. Being the weakest piece in the whole game, and the most venerable without the queen or other chess pieces, it fits almost to a T. (Poor kinger...)

Maybe when they were humans, Kinger and his wife were clearly never really apart, maybe they had a silly date idea and wanted to try VR...

Gangle is interesting to me, she has different masks that show different emotions, and effectively cause her to change her mood drastically depending on which one she wears. (I mean we've only seen her with the sad mask on since her other one broke, maybe she's normally rlly chill??)

perhaps she normally bottled up her emotions when she was human? maybe the computer turned her into a delicate ribbon like creature with very breakable persona faces for this reason??

Zooble instantly reminded me of preschool, we used to have these shapes we could mix and mash together to create our own creatures. Their design is the most unique outta all of them, this could easily represent their mindspace or some sort of confusion they were going through when they were human. They just seem very DONE with everything lmao. mood.

As for Pomni, well, she's the reason I wanted to write the whole long thing hsjshss.

Her avatar is jester like, and a jester is known for entertaining guests of higher status. Could this have been what her job was like as a human. I know a lot of people theorize her job being an office job, and I completely agree. She could've easy felt as if she was just a jester forced to entertain or follow whatever her work life was like.

She's very nervous and rightfully confused after entering the world, wanted to leave immediately. But, I have to wonder, why would she even have a headset?? Better yet why did any of them put one on at all??

I think it was a form of escapism from reality...

That's what VR is in general right? A way to escape the real world. A virtual reality.

Maybe the humans were lulled into a sense of escapism from their troubled lives, paying taxes, dealing with bosses, family, emotions.. or maybe were just genuinely curious..

I mean the first thing people really said after watching the digital circus was how amazing it would be to just end up in a place were you could just do "fun things all day" or "not have to worry".

And I think that's exactly what the AI wanted and is trying to do.

LITERALLY.

We all know AI isn't the brightest.. all things considered. Its a machine, it takes things LITERALLY.

Caine is just doing what he is programmed to do. He doesn't know what's going on, maybe he doesn't even know WHY he's the ringmaster in all of this.

But someone DID create him.

Someone DID develop this generative virtual world.

The question is why?

[heartxshaped-bruises]

@cursedvessels​ CONT’D FROM HERE...

When they heard about the search parties being put together, Elizabeth had to scope it out. Sure, she wasn’t technically from around here and probably could be as much of a suspect as anyone, if not more-so. However, she also knew some things the rest of these people didn’t–about the disappearances. Maybe part of her was afraid, though she would never admit it. Not afraid of what might be out there, but afraid she might actually have all of the answers standing right in front of her. She could help, even if part of her didn’t necessarily want to believe the suspicions she had about the people closest to her.

They jumped slightly when the other finally spoke up. Of course they had to be stuck with the one who looked like he would be the closest to a killer out of anyone in the party–then again, who said anything about a killer? They weren’t afraid of him, exactly, but their thoughts were far away from the moment they were in. What if they had a vision of what was going to happen next? What if they could find out who this…killer, kidnapper, person or thing was going to take next? To do that, though, they would have to either find a space alone or get her partner to somehow trust her. She had never been very good at getting people to trust her.

The comment that came next had E rolling their eyes. Sure, it had crossed her mind that this killer or whatever could be the very person she was walking around with, but they also had a pretty good understanding of how killers thought. Maybe she spent too much time watching crime television, but she at least knew that it would be stupid for them to use this as an opportunity to take their next victim.

“ Aren’t you nervous, “ they pointed out, frowning. “ Even a little? I mean, I know I’m not the scariest person alive, I’m short and probably physically weak compared to you, but don’t act like you weren’t thinking it too… “ She swallowed. “ It could be anyone, right? You, me… “ The people they were closest to…Anyone. To them, that was scarier than the prospect of a killer on the loose by far.

“ And just to be clear, I’m not scared, I just don’t wanna be caught with my guard down and have an axe-murderer jump me as soon as you aren’t watching. “

-------- NOW, LOOK WHO SUDDENLY COULD SPEAK. They spent the search so long in silence that Rachel hadn’t noticed that he never heard her voice before. Not that it mattered, you know. He barely remembered their name, something with T, I or E or so, and he had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t be that person -- not after all of the shit he waded through -- but if anyone was more of an outsider than him it’d be the circus bunch. Sorry, but that’s how it was. That to be said, he always had a soft spot for underdogs. But not in A MISSING GIRL CASE that was only a not confirmed dead girl case, if you asked him. There was so much wrong about all of this, you had no idea. He didn’t want to think that way. Not about the circus guys or the victim... Man, not only two hours out here and he already regretted crawling out of bed.

        ❛❛Oh, I’m still thinking it.❜❜ Rachel stopped to turn around to T, I or E, eye-brows knitted but the musing tone of his voice was clearly fake. ❛❛And now that you mention it, axe-murderer sounds oddly specific. And you really don’t look like someone who’d be suspected first. Just as I look like someone who’s totally stronger than you, so there’s that.❜❜ He took a step towards them as if to prove a point. TO SEE IF THEY’D FLINCH. As if the reaction could be a indicator of whether she was suspecting him or if she was the one he should be wary of. But honestly -- he was just being a dick for the sake of it. This bullshit was unnerving enough. He didn’t want to be on edge if he didn’t have to and her staring had been unbearable. He needed to get it out of his system.

        ❛❛If you’re hoping I’d throw myself at anyone lurking in a shrubbery to help you, you’re very much mistaken❜❜, he added and finally turned back to scan the ground, the leaves... the bushes. What a fucking liar he was. That didn’t mean that he ruled them out as a potential threat, but it revealed more about his character than he liked. 

[thevindicativevordan]

Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.

Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.

Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.

Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.

Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.

That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.

Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.

Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.

The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.

So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.

How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.

The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.

Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.

For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.

[oitommothetease]

Invisible String (6/?)

Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x Female reader (Modern AU)

Description: James Buchanan Barnes, the owner of the most expensive-looking club in town and your new apartment. He was a dick and you hated him. What could possibly go wrong when you, the new girl in town, start bartending at his club to pursue your dreams?

Word Count: 2.1k words

Bucky couldn't recall the last time he had a genuine conversation with someone who wasn't his best mates, Sam and Steve. He enjoyed your company and as much as he hated to let his guard down, he wanted to do just that with you. You were everything that Bucky thought he would find repulsive, but he couldn’t help but be attracted towards you. And for the first time he wanted more, he didn't want a one-night stand or a fling with you, he wanted to know you. He admired your courage and bravery, but mostly he admired you. You, with all your stupid yet funny jokes and spontaneity; he liked you more than he would like to admit.

But there was this thing that you were his employee and one meal doesn't count as a date. It was just a meal. But yet, Bucky wanted it to be more. He had never been so intrigued by another person, but it was also clear that you didn't reciprocate his interest. And Bucky would have all of his 206 bones crushed out rather than giving his heart to someone only for it to be not requited. 

So, when you walked into the club the next day, pretending as if nothing had changed, Bucky knew where your relationship lay with him, and he was content with it. Okay, he wasn't content with it, but he knew he couldn't force something that wasn't there. He would choose to be in your life as your boss, acquaintance, or maybe even a friend if he's lucky enough than to not be in your life at all. 

***

When you got settled behind the counter, your mood wasn't that great. It could be because you weren't drunk this time, or maybe because you enjoyed your meal with your boss a little too much for your liking. You wouldn't call it a date, but it sure as hell was a lot better than all the dates or meals you've had with people.

Your good mood was definitely not because of the fact that your mother called only to inform you that this family friend's son is not going to wait around long, and you should at least find a stable job if you can't find a suitable boyfriend. Then she started boasting about your sister and her amazing profession and how she and her husband save lives every day. And you might have had enough of her bullshit and lied that you indeed have a stable job and relationship. None of which is true. 

Bartending only pays the bills, and you haven't had a relationship in years and none of them were serious. You always ran away from any sort of commitment because you knew you would eventually have to introduce your partner to your family and nobody deserves to see that circus, and you told yourself that you're doing a favor to those previous partners by leaving them or as your friends like to call ghosting them. In your defense, dealing with you and your family is more horrific than any scary movie. 

Well, until now because tomorrow your sister and her family are coming to meet your partner and take you back to your parents' place for the weekend. The only problem is that you lied to them about your job and your partner. The worst part is that both of them are pretty non-existent.

"Hey, How are you feeling? " Peter asked you, noticing how you still weren't paying attention to the customer in front of you. 

“Great, not drunk, if that's what you're wondering.” 

“I'm fine," you retorted, glancing at the concerned look Peter was giving you. You quickly took the customer's order and proceeded to make the drink. 

"The last time you said you were fine, you threatened to kill a dude," Pietro interjected, enjoying the faux disbelief that landed on your face. You looked over to Wanda for help, but she just chuckled at her brother's antics.

The rest of the night at work went by as it usually did. Pietro making a sarcastic remark here and there, Wanda countering her brother with a snarky response, you were laughing your ass off watching the duo and Peter awkwardly tried to suppress his amusement. In a weird custom, these three coworkers were the only thing that felt normal. 

By the time you were done, it was mostly you left like always, with the addition of security guards that James added since Rumlow. You wanted to talk to him, especially after the wonderful not date you had, but the situation with him was not under your control anymore and it released from your grasp which scared the shit out of you. If James and you had met under different circumstances, then you would have tried to date him, but with him being your boss and the whole Rumlow thing made everything so complicated, and you didn't have time for any sort of relationship complication in your life. At least that's what you kept telling yourself.

When you were done with your shift and were about to leave, a very familiar voice called for you. You've been trying to ignore him all day and just when you thought you've succeeded, he catches up to you. 

The thing that scared you with James was that you felt safe, too safe with him. You were scared that you were going to become dependent on him for your security, and you hated that. You always despised women who weren't anything except their husband's wife, as if their whole identity was being a man's property. Furthermore, you knew the only thing to be blamed here was patriarchy and men, but you decided that you weren't going to be someone's property, you were going to be your own person. 

And you rebelled a lot to reach here, dyed your hair blue just because your mom told you not to, pursued your dream just because your dad told you to follow a secure nine to four job, left ex-partners because they told you what to and what not to wear. And some part of you knew that James wasn't like that. He wouldn't exploit you and your weaknesses. 

But what you didn't realize was that these were merely excuses that your brain mustered up because you were too scared to be dumped. A long time ago, you decided that it is better to leave than be left. And James — well, James made you feel things that you didn't want to chase. You feared commitment and abandonment too much to go after a guy. 

Your thoughts were brought to a halt when he held your wrist gently and called your name again. Reluctantly, you turned around, pretending to be surprised as if you didn't see him. 

He obviously caught on to you. "Why are you ignoring me?" 

"What?" You scoffed in feign disbelief, taking your hand away from his grasp and setting it on his shoulder. "Why would I ignore you, bud?"

Bud? What the fuck? , both of you thought at the same time.

Carefully, he eyed your hand and then you, "Okay, come on, I'll drop you home."

"No, James, it's fine, I can go on my own." 

"Yes, yes, you are an independent, strong woman but come on," He teased, but you didn't seem to pick up the glint of mischief in his eyes. 

You heard that as a taunt, a taunt your father has told you an ample number of times, that you indeed can never be anything on your own if you don't have a man beside you. While you were lost in your thoughts, James was moving towards his car, assuming that you were following him.

 "But I am," you argued. 

Your voice sounded distant to him, he turned around and walked towards you. "You are what?" 

"I am strong and independent."

"Yes, you are," he agreed as a matter of factly because it was the truth. He had never met someone so strong who would leave behind their whole life to pursue their dreams. He, being the mob boss, and filthy rich couldn't do the same, and he may not tell you this, but he admired you so much. 

Once you got the assurance you needed, you started walking towards his car. "Are you coming or not?" and he followed you. 

Of course, you knew you were strong, but your life had not been going as smoothly as you anticipated. You're stuck in writer's block, your family interference and lack of trust in you hurts like a bitch. You were somewhat crushing on your boss, and you blurted random embarrassing stuff in front of him without thinking. You know, normal crush things. 

When you reached the apartment, he insisted on dropping you to your floor. The car ride was spent in peaceful silence, but the time spent in the elevator was everything but that. No, the fifteen seconds were spent in James fidgeting beside you because he wanted to say something but didn't know how to. 

After you unlocked your door, he finally spoke up. "Um, I was just wondering whether, you know, - I had fun last night and I don't have smooth conversations with people - um, I don't know, I'd like to go out with you again," he didn't finish, but your eyebrows shot up to your forehead and he quickly backpedaled. " Not as a date, if that's what you want. It could be a meal shared between you and your boss. Not that I'm implying that you are obligated to go with me just because I'm your boss. I'm asking this as a stranger, well, not as a stranger but as a friend, I think."

"James,” you spoke softly, and he could feel the denial coming his way.” I had fun too, but you're my boss. This is highly unprofessional."

He signed in defeat and looked at you one last time. There was so much he wanted to say, he wanted to tell you that he enjoyed your company more than he should. He wanted to tell you that he liked you. He wanted to tell you that he wanted to see where this thing would lead with you, but he knew better than that. At the end of the day, you were his employee and if you were to get involved with him in any form, it would only end in your tarnished reputation. So, he nodded, not trusting himself enough to speak much after the clear rejection. "I understand."

"Y/N! “

Both of you turned towards the source of the voice and frowned. He frowned because he was confused, whereas you, oh, you weren't confused, you were furious at the person standing there and at yourself for forgetting about their arrival.

 "Hi, Carol. I thought you were coming tomorrow," you stated, faking a smile, and everyone in the area could see your distressed attempt at looking excited.

 Well, everyone except your sister because she shrieked with happiness and ran towards you to throw her arms around you. Her husband followed behind and gave you and James an awkward smile.

 "I just couldn't wait to meet my baby sister and we'll take you guys back for the weekend."

You guys, James and you thought at the same time. James looked at the side of your face for an explanation, and you kept looking forward at your sister, avoiding his gaze.

Fuck, you forgot about that. How can you forget about that? You mentally cursed yourself and didn't say anything because you didn't know what to do. 

Your sister picked your silence as her cue to talk and pointed her index finger at James, who was standing beside you now. "Is this him?"

Your sister looked at you, expecting an answer, your brother-in-law looked at you with something called, please hurry up, I just want to go back to the hotel. James looked at you with bewilderment. 

You sighed and took your boss's hand in yours, who also happens to be the most dangerous person in the town. He complied, holding on to you tightly, running his thumb on the back of your hand in a soothing manner. It felt like the most obvious thing as if your hand was made to be held by him. The thought sent a pleasant shiver down your spine, but you were too stubborn to accept it.

"Yes," you finalized. "This is James, my boyfriend."

TAGS: @bananapipedreams @akkinda10 @rivers-rambles21 @emmabarnes @goodcleanfunsis @valsworldofcreativity @boofy1998 @marvel-3407​ @priii​

[purple-vixen]

Batfamily interactions involving vines - Headcanon

A/N: I've been wanting to write this for a while. This is my first headcanon by the way, I hope you enjoy! - Vix

• Whenever Dick screws up, Tim and Steph ALWAYS shout "What the fuck, Richard?"

• Jason also gets on board just for the sheer pleasure of pissing Dick off.

• When no one was around, Jason sat on the Wayne Manor piano and started hitting the keys trying to recreate that "Is there anything better than p****? Yes, a really good book." vine

• As soon as he played the last chord, one of the shelves started moving and Bruce's collection of Ming dynasty vases crashed into the floor

• And that's how Jason found out about the Batcave's old entrance.

• Tim set his voicemail greeting to a record of him saying "Oh hi, thanks for checking in, I'm still a piece of garbage".

• Damian once tried to convince the other batboys into becoming vegetarian when they stopped by the Bat Burger drive-through after patrol. As soon as he realized they weren't buying it, in a fit of rage Damian yelled "Fuck your chicken strips!"

• Barbara often quotes the country boy vine when she's with Dick, but instead of saying "country boy" she says it like "Circus boy, I love yoooooou".

• During meetings in the cave, whenever Bruce asks them to look at some graph from the intel he gathered, the Batkids always snicker then start singing Photograph by Nickelback in unison and Bruce regrets his life choices for 4 minutes and 18 seconds straight.

• Bruce threw a Bat-glare at Steph because he was interrogating a Two-Face thug that was playing dumb and Steph was in the background dancing while singing "Why the fuck you lying? Why you always lying? Stop fucking lying"

• There was this time Jason showed up in the med-bay with two soprano flutes stuck on his nose

• Jason was about to explain to Alfred that Barbara had bet 5 dollars if he played the John Cena theme with two flutes in his nostrils just like the kid from the video

• Before Jason could even speak, Alfred cut him off and said "Save your breath, at this point I'd be far more terrified if I knew what happened.".

• Steph and Cass thought tying a potato to the ceiling fan in Cassandra's bedroom because of that vine would be a good idea

• It was all fun and games until the fan started spinning too fast and the potato flew out and made a hole in the window glass

• Less than 5 minutes after that, a ladder was put near the window and, Alfred, who was trimming the Wayne Manor garden, appeared, covered in leaves and with a head bump

• Alfred retrieved the potato and calmly commented "The fact that this is the most ordinary thing I have seen today really amazes me."

• As soon as he left, a mortifying silence established while Frank Ocean played in the background. That was until Cass mumbled "A potato flew around my head before you came."

• Tim has two Instagram accounts, one for his civilian identity and the other for Red Robin

• One night Bruce made him wait in the Batmobile while he discussed something with Selina

• Tim got bored, sat on the Batmobile driver's seat and started a live stream through his Red Robin account

• During the live, he reenacted the "I'm in my mom's car" vine, but in that part where the mom spoke, Tim would make an impression of Batman saying "Get off my car."

• Batman showed up out of the blue and said "What are you doing in my seat?"

• Tim instantly turned the live off and jumped back to the passenger's seat faster than Flash

• Using Instagram during patrol was banned by Bruce after that night.

• One morning Barbara was having breakfast with Jim and while reading the newspaper headline about Penguin running for mayor, Barbara grumbled "Gosh, sometimes I wish I was Jared, 19"

• James Gordon, a dad confused over social media, especially memes, asks in response: "Who the fuck is that Jared 19 and why the hell so many people want to be like him?"

• After seeing that vine of a cat installing a cable, Damian tried to train Alfred (the cat) into doing the same thing

• Long story short, the family's Xbox was sent to tech support and Damian had to pay for the repair with his allowance.

• One time Dick and Jason were working together on a case about missing children

• "There's only one thing worse than a kidnapper." Dick said as he wrote on a board the word "child" over "kidnapper"

• "A child!" Jason exclaimed with assurance.

• "No!"

• "Especially if that child is Damian."

• "Jason, no!"

• The biggest April fools prank the Batkids ever did was related to a vine.

• There's a vine where a guy brings helium balloons inside a car and the car starts floating.

• So they decided to tie hundreds of balloons into the Batmobile.

• The floating Batmobile was being broadcast all over the news in Gotham.

• Once again Bruce regrets his life choices

• "Have kids, Master Bruce." Bruce grumbled, remembering what Alfred used to tell him. "Kids are good to keep you company, Master Bruce." He grumbled while throwing away a trash bag full of popped balloons. "Should have gotten a ferret. Ferrets don't tie helium balloons to your car, and neither leave the toilet lid open."

[wordsfromthesol]

Invisible (3/3)

Author: @wordsfromthesol Pairing: Damian Wayne x Twin!Reader Warnings: Language, obvi.   Word Count: 845 A/N: Look guys, I finally finished the thing! Requested: @soukouloutsouu Taglist: @loxbbg @fandomsaremylifeline @minamisulemisa @annoylinglyaries @greeknerd007 @thesuitelifeofafangirl @crazychild6025​

 Part One   Part Two

Today had just been weird. In the back of your mind you hoped things would change, get better, yet you couldn’t bring yourself to actually believe the thoughts. They had years to care, to show an interest, to become your family, and they didn’t. At every turn they ignored you. You tossed and turned in your bed, thinking about the day’s events. Would Diana’s words really have that big of an impression on them?

Tensions were high around the house for nearly a week. Every time you passed by it seemed as if your brothers stopped and forced themselves to talk to you. You didn’t have great experiences with family, but you were pretty sure that it wasn’t supposed to be this awkward. You were laying in your room, avoiding everyone when Bruce burst through the door.

“I’ve decided that we are to have a family night once a week.”

“You do not have to pretend Bruce. I promise not to tell Diana.” You were shocked when Bruce came over and sat at the end of your bed.

“I understand why you think that. You have every right. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in things, I forget to take a step back. Your brothers and I…our trust came from working together. I think all of us are a bit rusty on forming that connection in other ways.”

A calming silence filled the room as you recollected your own upbringing. You still had trouble making connections with people. There’s a certain credence that comes with fighting alongside someone. You were so set on being different from Damian, it never occurred to you that they didn’t know how to establish a relationship without that aspect.

“So…” The word was finally pulled from your lips. “How about a game night then?”

A smile tugged at the corner of Bruce’s lips, “Tomorrow. I’ll have Alfred set it up.”

**

“Right hand red.” Alfred called out, as the five of you were spread out across the board.

“There’s no way you can make that!” Dick chuckled, perfectly at ease in the contorted shape.

“Alright circus freak. I trained for years, I still have some residual agility.” You clapped back. It actually seemed like you were…not family. Not yet, by any means. But the awkwardness that had been looming in the Manor since Diana left seemed to be slowly dissipating. “Ha!” you called out as your hand slapped down on the red dot. Dick promptly stuck his tongue out at the boast.

“Left foot yellow, Master Todd.”

“I’m not built for this. Who picked this fucking game?” Jason collapsed as soon as he lifted his hand, forcing Tim to the ground as well.

“You know damn well it was Dick. Don’t worry, Clue is next.” Tim commented as he shuffled off the board.

“I think it was a great choice.” Bruce snickered from the armchair beside them. Jason shot him a pointed look as he collapsed onto the couch.

Damian fell next, you quickly followed. Unfortunately, now you all had to listen to Dick boast that he was in the lead. “What are those scores now, Brucie?”

“It’s not about the scores Dick.”

“But I won twister and placed second in scrabble AND trivial pursuit. Which means I’m totally winning.”

“Well I got second in twister and first in trivial pursuit…” You stared your eldest brother in the eyes. “So watch your back.”

“I’ll set up Clue then.” Bruce attempted to hide his smirk as he left to get the game.

“This is rigged.” Damian pouted as he crossed his arms.

“You’ve always been a sore loser.” You rolled your eyes at your brother, remembering the childhood you shared.

“Wait! I forgot! You and Dames trained together!” Dick’s voice went up an octave as he thought about all the embarrassing stories you had stored.

“Eh…not really together. But uh, I was always forced to watch any sparring.” Dick’s face fell at your words. He didn’t realize how differently the two of you were treated.

“But you’re the granddaughter of the demon.” Tim mumbled out as the gears turned in his mind.

“Yeah. I think the ‘daughter’ part was the issue.” Thankfully, Bruce returned and cut your explanation short. It felt weird to share something so personal. You don’t think you told anyone about your time with the League. Even Damian didn’t fully know what you went through there.

“Clue is ready to go. I have already chosen the victim, weapon, and room.”

**

You laid in bed that night, replaying the events in your mind. Only this time, you didn’t cringe at every interaction. Even if this was a one-time thing, you knew you would always cherish the memories of the night. The memories of your family actually trying to become your family. Though in the back of your mind you knew you wouldn’t let it be a one off. Your talk with Bruce had made you realize that you had never tried to be part of their lives either. And on that night you made a vow to try.