#I worked out on the trapeze a bit

[heyclickadee]

Also I sort of accidentally triggered the Scooby Doo sleeper agent in me by talking about not dropping people (ie, Tech), so if I suddenly start rambling about the Scooby Doo franchise on here I am sorry. It can’t be helped.

[moonstruckme]

hi i love your blog! could you write poly!marauders where james is away on a business trip and everyone is moping because they miss him

Hi, I love you! Thanks for requesting :)

modern au

poly!marauders x fem!reader ♡ 864 words

You feel a bit guilty resting your head on Sirius' shoulder while longing for another. But you reason that it’s not so bad if the one you’re longing for is Sirius’ boyfriend, too. And you like to think that if it were James’ warm, cushiony shoulder you were leaning against, you’d be missing Sirius instead. 

“How was everyone’s day?” you ask. 

Remus turns to give you a peculiar look. “It was fine. We talked about this already, didn’t we?” 

“Yeah,” you sigh. “I just feel like we’re not usually so quiet during the commercial breaks.” 

“Our yapper’s gone,” Sirius says, sulkily. 

“James does usually start the conversation,” admits Remus. “But we don’t need him to talk. Right?” 

“Right.” You nod, sitting up with what you hope looks like conviction. “Sirius, you can yap just as well as James can.” 

“Yeah, but I need him to get me going.” Your boyfriend sighs heavily. “He’d probably ask something like ‘If we were all in a circus, what would our roles be?’ and I can’t come up with shit like that.”

“No, that’s great!” You try to sound peppy. “Um, okay. Sirius would probably be a trapeze artist, right?” 

Remus nods. “And I could see you being a tightrope walker.” 

You both look to Sirius for his analysis, but he looks unimpressed. Still, he plays along. “Rem would be one of those blokes who eat fire, likely.” 

“Yeah,” you laugh. 

See, you can have fun! This is fun, right? But then your film comes back on, and you all lapse into silence again. 

“James would’ve never let us watch this,” you say after a few minutes. “He’d have made us pick a comedy or something.” 

“And he would’ve been right,” Sirius agrees. “This is fucking bleak.” 

“It’s not so bad,” Remus says, making you and Sirius exchange a look. For as much as James loves Remus, he’s most often the victim of his film vetoes. Remus’ taste is bleak. 

It’s another few minutes before an actress on-screen says a line, and Remus clears his throat awkwardly. 

“That’s what she said.” 

You and Sirius look at him with a mixture of befuddlement and alarm. 

“What?” He shifts in his seat. “I’m trying to fill a gap.” 

Sirius appears scandalized. “James’ jokes are far more advanced than that.” 

“He said ‘that’s what she said’ just last week.” 

“Yes, but in a completely different context!” 

“We could call him,” you point out. 

Remus’ expression creases longingly. “No, he’s been in meetings all day. I’m sure he’ll want to rest.” 

But Sirius clicks the speaker button on his phone, letting the dial tone play aloud. Remus looks almost relieved. 

James picks up on the third ring. “Hello?” 

“Hi,” you all say loudly, voices each trying to be heard over the others. 

“We need you to come home,” Sirius whines. 

“What?” James sounds closer to the speaker now, like he’s holding the phone tight to his face. “Is everything okay?” 

“Don’t say that,” Remus hisses at Sirius. “Everything’s fine, Jamie.” 

“We just miss you,” you clarify. 

“Oh.” The relief is obvious in your boyfriend’s voice, and you notice your other two boyfriends smiling fondly at the sound of it. You think your own expression probably looks just about as humiliatingly smitten. “Awe. I miss you guys, too. Like crazy, you have no idea.” 

“I think we have some.” Sirius raises a brow at the phone. “Rem just tried to make a ‘that’s what she said’ joke.” 

A sharp cough crackles through the speaker. “Did he? How did it go?” 

“Poorly.” 

“Ah, well.” You can practically feel the warmth of James’ smile from hundreds of miles away. “Don’t worry, love. We’ll work on it when I get back.” 

“I’d rather not do it again, actually,” Remus grumbles. 

“How was your day?” You lean on Sirius’ shoulder again, getting close to the phone like James is contained within it. 

“Boring,” he says emphatically. “I got told off by some old woman for tapping my pen on my pad too loudly while someone was giving a presentation. The hotel they’ve put us up in isn’t bad, though. Free breakfast in the morning to get us energized for another day or torment.” 

“Ooh, could you see if they have those little blueberry muffins?” Sirius asks. “And if they do, wrap me up a few to bring home with you.”

“Sirius,” Remus chides. 

“I’ll check,” James agrees easily. “Rem, do you want some chocolate ones if they have those?” 

If James could see the way your boyfriend flushes pink, he’d be grinning ear to ear. “Yes, please,” Remus replies. 

“Brilliant. And for you, lovie?” 

“I’ll just mooch off of Sirius’ blueberry ones.” You snicker when Sirius gasps, sneaking a hand around your waist to pinch at your middle. 

“Oh, perfect,” says James. “I’ll make sure to grab a few less, then, so you can really fight over them.”

“Prick,” Sirius accuses. 

“Love you, too. So, how was everyone else’s day?” 

You catch yourself smiling a second before seeing a similarly contented expression reflected on Sirius’ face. Remus moves from his armchair to the couch, and you all lean into the phone as you tell him. 

[batsandbirdbrains]

Hi! I absolutely adore your HCs/thoughts/rambles and thank you for sharing them! I thought I'd share one of my personal favorite HCs in return that maybe you would like:

Adorable, tiny, just-starting-out-as-Robin Dick Grayson is an absolutely lethal opponent to face, even if he’s not even in his double digits yet. This is a well-trained prodigy acrobat who can easily do triple somersaults and even quadruple somersaults, which I believe have an average speed of around 75 MPH!

I am by no means a gymnast, but I do love watching gymnastic/aerialist routines. I went down a rabbit hole on the history of the trapeze when I first go into the DC fandom and it's crazy how hard a quad is to successfully complete. So to have an 8 year old be able to land quads consistently? You best believe that child is capable to kill a grown man with said quad. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if one of Bruce's first lessons to Dick was how to make his acrobatics less lethal (cuz no killing rule and all that) and to avoid doing the quad in the field (as we learned from Tim, that fact that Robin could pull off a quad, a move very few in the world can do, and is around the same age as Dick would cause people to put two and two together).

His acrobatics also kind of explain why he is so good at math and enjoys it so much: in trapeze, both the flyer and catcher have to know quite a bit about physics. Since Dick started so young, he would have to know more about math and physics compared to other kids his age. It would then make sense that he might grow to enjoy math since it's something his parents would have had to teach him.

Sorry for the word vomit but I really had to geek out about how dangerous Dick Grayson really is as a fighter. As Nightwing, and even without the martial arts/weapon training, this is a guy who could kill you and make it look freaking awesome. And as Robin? He'd look adorably dangerous as he completes a triple ("Aw, but B, let me do the quad just once!" "No Robin") and knocks a man out cold.

Geek out all u want it’s so fun. This is a geek out friendly zone, promise. ❤️

But I’m now obsessed with the idea of Bruce having to train Dick to not be lethal with his acrobatics when they first start out together.

But also yes I love Dick being a little math nerd because of his acrobatics. I just like him being a little nerd in general tho, it’s my own little headcanon that I put in almost every idea I write that he skips a grade. (And it’s totally backed by the yj cartoon bc no way a 13 year old whose birthday is in December can be a freshman without skipping a grade! Nvm the fact that they made his birthday December that’s a different issue, but it still works!!!)

[desos-records]

Well-Built

Red Hood One-Shot

Thank you for your request!: OH!!!! Okokok…. Hear me out… Jason Todd with a tummy… I need him to be built like a construction worker, because it’s more realistic than whatever superheroes have going on nowadays. Maybe an x reader thingy?? I just need more content where Jason isn’t built like a bodybuilder. [Anon]

Word Count: 1,340

CW: body insecurity, but don't worry we're gonna fix that

-

Jason didn't notice the difference usually. To be honest, he never spent all that much time thinking about his appearance—vanity was expensive. But every so often, usually while training or sparring, the sickening twist of self-consciousness dug inside of him.

Today was one of those days.

He knew he'd gotten tall since the Pit, to his surprise as much as anyone else's, and he'd put on plenty of muscle to the point of being in the same weight class as Bruce, but sparring with Dick reminded him that… well, no one would be mistaking Red Hood's shadow for Nightwing's any time soon. Dick still had the body shape of a trapeze artist, a gymnast, all streamlined strength and dexterity. And while Jason could walk a high wire with the best of them, could do anything Dick could do thank you very much, he certainly didn't look the part.

So what? The scum of Gotham's underbelly weren't afraid of gymnasts. They were afraid of Red Hood and he liked to think his size helped.

He liked to think you didn't mind. Or rather, hoped you weren't into chiseled, dehydrated abs like apparently everyone else on the fucking planet. Nobody looked like that all the time, not even Dick.

"Distracted much?" Dick said, holding his hand out to pull Jason up off the sparring mat where he'd knocked him down a second ago—the fact his stupid flips actually had practical merit in generating speed and therefore force behind his hits annoyed him to no end.

Then Dick wiggled his eyebrows and tilted his head in your direction and Jason considered punching him for it as warmth grew over his face. You weren't paying either of them any attention though because you were up to your elbows in engine grease rebuilding Tim's bike after Mr. Freeze turned it into a motorcycle-flavored ice pop.

"Don't make me shoot you," Jason snapped, but he still let Dick haul him back to his feet.

Dick shrugged with that stupid, smug grin on his face and nudged him in the side. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Jay. That's all I'll say. One more round?"

He opened his mouth to say something cutting, but then…

"Hey, Jason?" you called from underneath Tim's bike, now propped up on jacks and missing its tires. "Can I borrow you for a second?"

He turned fast, glad for an excuse to get away from Dick, but also… you needed something and had asked for him out of everyone you could've asked and so what if he felt like someone had lit a sparkler in his stomach about it.

"Yeah?" He knelt down next to you.

"There's something loose in the engine block and I can't find the damn thing, can you tilt the bike up and see if it falls out?"

"Are you gonna get out from under it? 'Cause if it slips off the jacks—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm moving."

You stood beside him while he lifted one end of the frame, skeletal looking without its fairing shell, and shook it a little. Something rattled inside, plinking against all the metal bits of the engine, until it finally dropped out onto the concrete floor.

"Fuck me!" you said, angrily, and Jason almost dropped the bike.

"Excuse me?"

You knelt down to pick up the offending piece of metal, holding it up in his face. "Look familiar?"

He blinked. You stood awfully close to him, distracting him easily with your warmth and your eyes and the fact you smelled like an engine—if other people didn't find the smell of oil and gasoline attractive like he did, it was their loss—but he tried to focus on your question. Luckily, he would recognize it anywhere, even bent and half-melted as it was.

"That's a bullet," he said.

"Yes, it is. And now I have to go through this thing with a fine tooth comb to make sure there's no holes or shrapnel or God knows what else that might make it explode."

"Do you want some help?"

"Please, yes, thank you," you said sharply. Then you glanced down at him holding the bike frame and back up. "Are you still holding that?"

"Yeah? You asked me to?"

"That's a 1200cc. It's five hundred pounds."

He felt a smile pulling at him. "Impressed?"

"Sure, I knew you were strong, but you're just holding it like it don't weigh nothing at all. The grunts at my gym are always straining and making rude noises."

"Those guys are all strength and no endurance, that's their problem."

"Do you think?"

"Yeah, it's just for looks, nothing at all about doing anything practical with it." Then he smiled again, teasing a little this time when he asked, "You go to a regular gym?"

"It's good to keep up appearances. Are you sure you don't want to put that down?"

"I will if you ask me to."

You rolled your eyes. "Will you put it down please? Before you start to worry me."

He set the bike back on its jacks. "Where do you want to start?"

By the time the two of you had fixed the bike enough that you were certain it wouldn't catch fire or send Tim flying, you were both sweaty and exhausted and Jason had been sprayed with oil from a loose pipe. He pulled his shirt off and stood up to rummage through the cave's cabinets for a spare one, but not before he caught you staring.

He thought first about the scars. They all had them, of course, you included, but… well, he hadn't died cleanly and the Pit hadn't erased anything. Was he a car wreck you couldn't look away from? Was that why?

"My eyes are up here," he grumbled, a joke, but a bitter one.

"What?" You flinched and looked up, and then to his surprise, you blushed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to stare."

"Never seen an autopsy scar before?" He was being mean about it, he knew, but he couldn't seem to stop.

Even embarrassed, you managed to level him with an irritated look. "It's not that. You're just…" You gestured vaguely at his midsection. "Well-built, okay? I know you have to be. It's just easy to forget under all that armor."

"Kinda ruins the superhero image, huh?" He pinched a little at his stomach, at the bullet scar there, at the extra… well, it felt like extra, all of a sudden.

You frowned and stood up, pushing back gently, "That's not what I said."

"I know." And he turned to go. "Don't worry about it."

"Jason." You caught hold of him, fingers curled a little around his wrist, only there long enough to stop him and bring him back around and then you pulled away. "I think you look plenty like a superhero, for whatever that's worth. I wouldn't change a thing about you."

"Thanks. That… that's worth a lot, actually. Coming from you."

You shrugged. "It's the truth. I mean, you've got the proof written all over you."

And then—then—you reached out and touched the bullet scar on his stomach. 

Jason almost stopped breathing. Warmth burst over his face, all the way to his ears. He glanced down at your hand, blackened from engine grease and already leaving a mark, and when he looked up again, he caught your eye. Immediately, you pulled back, looked away from him, and held your hands tight together as if you needed one to hold the other back.

"Sorry," you said quickly. "I shouldn't've…" You shook your head. "That was a stupid thing to do, I'm sorry."

"It wasn't," he said, before he could think better of it. "Wasn't stupid, I mean. I don't mind if it's you."

You glanced his way again. "Honest?"

"Cross my heart." Then, almost floating on sudden confidence and the smudgy imprint of your hand on his skin, he added, "You wanna go get a drink with me? We've earned it."

You smiled and it made all the difference in the world.

[mysecret02]

Hello lovelies!

Trapeze artists Dick and Jason.

Just imagine Haley's used to be about two families marrying together due to financial reasons but over time other issues started to rise and a generation and reaching European fame later they separate again.

Both keep the name because it's already famous and start touring on different sides of the continent.

The Haley's with the Grayson family becomes much more famous and starts touring around the world while the other Haley's stays mostly in Europe or Middle-East.

Generations are passing by and not many remembers the connection anymore, those who do only use it for marketing purposes so when the Graysons die Bruce doesn't even think about looking into the rumour about things hundred years ago.

Even if they were true the two Circuses haven't interacted in many years so it wouldn't be relevant and maybe he really wants to keep little Dickie.

Then comes the Court of Owls and nothing leads back to the other Circus in Europe because the deal was made after the separation.

Then one time Dick needs to go undercover, maybe agent 37, but the point is that he sees the other Haley's and after the mission he goes back in hopes of seeing the place he considered his home and what he didn't have anymore.

Maybe it's self-blame or curiousity that leads him to the show but he sees it and it has a very different program so he gets a bit sad, maybe it's better this way, until the trapeze artist comes on and it's nearly the same routine.

He watches intently and feeling just like a kid when he used to see his father practice his part alone than.... there's nothing, there's no part for two people.

His heart aches because he can't stop seeing the part where her mother would have jumped and caught his father's hands with love and admiration on her beautiful face.

Maybe that's why he went to find the artist. He walked through the river of people he so enjoyed getting lost in, stopping to give a pat to the friendly elephant on the way to the back.

He asked about the show and turns out they only had one trapeze artist and the trapeze. The artist wants to teacher a young couple who were brought up in the Circus and would like to take over, but they would need a pair to safely show them how to do so.

Dick wants to help but doesn't know how to. Pairs need to work together for years and trust or at least know eachother's moves and style, he couldn't do it with the old artist. There isn't anyone who would know the routines, it was only him, his mum and dad, and Jason.

Jason. He had taught him when he had given him Robin. Robin meant his family and he wanted to fly with his family again so he taught his first little brother and Jason wanted to be able to do it so much, he wanted Dick's approval so deeply he practiced until they could move in sync and do it together.

That night his fingers hover over the call button, than around three he makes the call.

Jason doesn't understand why he needs to go to some small European city where even the trains don't stop but begrudgingly agrees to go just because Dick rarely asks for help.

Two days later he stands in front of a Circus tent? and suddenly sees Dick in a God awful uniform, like it's really horrible, showing nearly everything.

After Dick explains everything -no the clothes are absolutely unexplainable and is it really neccessery?- he is floored. He travelled to the middle of nowhere so Dickie could play pretend with him, again?

-Pray tell, why can't the pretender do it?

-Because he doesn't know do routine.

-Why? Didn't you teach the new birdies how to fly?

Silence.

- It was a family tradition, to teach the younger ones. After failing Robin, failing my little brother I couldn't do it again.

And Jason is a weak man to those puppy dog eyes, even if it's a twisted kind of logic and Dick is nearly thirty, he couldn't say no.

So they start to practice again. They spend most of their time on the trapezes, when they don't practice they argue or talk to the people of the Circus.

Dick seems to be happy and Jason really enjoys getting to know all the culture and traditions braided into each other from all around the Globe.

After a few weeks they start to train the new couple. It's harder for first timers but they are learning fast and Dick and Jason gets closer to each other, finally talking instead of shooting and not having the place to run away for a long time it gets easier.

The night before the couple's debut they both find their ways to the training ground, Dick frantically checking the ropes and trying to make them strudier, trying to rewrite history, Jason worrying about his big brother who has given him something special.

They make the routine a final time. As the light shines on them being in the otherwise dark tent Dick can imagine how it was doing the same jumps with his family, now two decades later doing the same thing.

He can feel the faint smell of popcorn and dust and leather with chalk. He can hear the breaths breaking and faintly see someone cover their eyes in the coat of their loved one, feel the grip on the tape on the metal bar and he jumps.

He is flying again, it's different than on rooftops, it's a different kind of adrenaline and freedom, it's his life, it's what he had shared with a smiling little kid who was so happy to be considered part of the family, the same smile looking at him now and opening his hands to safely catch him.

The next night the new couple shows up on the stage in the air and gets to experience it for the first time. They don't talk, they don't tell on each other for crying, they don't wait until the end of the show.

They go home to Gotham and don't tell the others, it's their little secret now, one that can continue living on because of them.

If they ever go back nobody knows, if they ever disappear for a few hours nobody knows, if they donate anonymously nobody needs to know it either.

"Would you really tell on us Barbie?"

*sigh*

*click*

O: At least they are getting on now.

[wyervan]

Hello! How are you doing?

I have some questions! feel free to answer only the ones you want and I also apologize if I ask something already anwered.

-How are they with their spanish?? have they got into it or just.. don'tcare

-Also what was their role on the circus? Im guessing like (kind of obvious) the jesters or acrobats but I'll like to read you!

-Do they have a kind of defense mechanism? Like avoiding, dinial, projection or some kind of?

-How Sun and Moon specifically meet? I think they are so so cute and even more with the "bits" of their relationship you'd been telling us :)

Also are you okay if I draw your yn Star?? Im doing some sketches and it's not a big deal but I rather ask.

Pleease don't be afraid to ramble about it. I love to read every detail that hides in your so shine brain. Thank you!

hi hi hi hi hi!

—They live/work in an area on the outskirts of a small city with a decent-sized Latino population. They are by no measure fluent but probably have picked up a few words. Spanish-speaking arcade goers are very common.

—I got some video research to do yet for specific examples of what their preformances looked like, but here’s the idea:

Moon did a lot of acrobatic and aerialist stunts! Trapeze, tumbling, balancing. I picture he moves like this rope aerialist while he practices (lookit how casual they are 🤩! Make it look effortless). Sun got involved for some duo acts.

They both did a lot of physical humor performance, clowning around 🤪. Sun did some balancing or acrobatics (though usually much closer to the ground than Moon). He liked to tell jokes, use props, talk to the crowd, do magic tricks involving Moon or audience members. Sun’s climatic act was knife juggling and throwing! We’re talking moving targets, balloons, with his eyes closed, directed at an apple sitting on top of Moon’s head 😋.

—Do they have defense mechanisms? Interesting question… answer really depends on the situation. But in general, the more stressed Sun is, the bigger and more strained that smile is gonna get. Denial, avoidance, compartmentalization, pretending like everything’s okay. At his worst, gaslighting himself and others.

Moon’s likely to get venomously sarcastic or shut down completely and ignore the issue when something’s bothering him. And it doesn’t take much more than that for him to get legitimately aggressive, lashing out verbally or physically, saying some real nasty things and punching walls-kinda behavior.

—Smoon met around 11-12ish. Came to live in the same house for a little while. Sun, who had been extremely sheltered and exclusively homeschooled up until that point, quickly became attached to Moon, especially after they started going to the same public school. Still hashing out the details of this part of their lives :3c.

—😭🥺 I would be honored if you or anyone wanted to draw Star! I never expect people to include them in their versions of the AU, so it’s very touching when anybody does ☺️. I have a pile of wips myself exploring their relationship with Smoon.

[theliliesofthevalleies]

Bruce is Tim’s Godfather AU (with a little bit of Tim never becomes Robin thrown in for drama.)

Ages and time in this AU don’t line up with like anything that is canon. You know why? Because ages in canon don’t matter and time is an illusion. May whatever gods you follow bless you when you read this absolutely convoluted mess of an AU that I thought of at like 3 am.

For reference Dick is 7ish years older than Tim and Jason will end up being 3ish years older than Tim in this AU eventually when I get to him. If I don’t lose interest and abandon it like I do with so many of my AU’s.

Also. Bruce’s age is irrelevant because.. well.. fuck that I’m not touching it with a ten foot pole.

I’m also not really going to include the girls in any of this not because I don’t love them but because it’s going to center around mostly the three older boys and adding the girls just gives me too many people to keep track of.

Anyway. On to the AU

Being the only child of the richest family in Gotham Bruce grew up meeting and making connections with the other children of wealthy and influential families. He at the very least knew of every child of every millionaire and billionaire on the east coast. Naturally that meant that he grew up with Jack Drake. They were fairly close being that their estates were Nextdoor to each other, not as close as some other children of the rich and powerful but close enough that when Jack married Janet and they started their family they named Bruce as their son’s godfather.

Bruce was elated by being named someone’s godfather, despite his absolute lack of knowledge about babies or children in general. He was just happy that someone thought of him. Of course since Jack and Janet named him godfather he made time to get to know the kid and he grew attached and protective over the child. Obviously he was already Batman so Tim became the first light in Batman’s life. He vowed to keep his moral compass to be a good example for Tim.

When Tim was five him and his parents went to the circus. Tim’s parents argued about whether or not Tim was old enough to not be scared of the circus despite the fact that he had begged to go on multiple occasions and had even convinced his Godfather to take him multiple times and not tell his parents. He was invested in watching Dick Grayson, his idol, on the trapeze while they were arguing and amidst their bickering Tim was the one out of the three of them that witnessed two out of the three Flying Grayson’s deaths.

In all the chaos of everyone getting the hell out of there Tim saw the bodies, a crying Dick Grayson, and Batman kneeling to comfort him. When they got home Tim looked at a picture he had gotten with Dick and his parents that night. Being a sweet five year old he asked his nanny to print off another copy and he went to Bruce to ask if he’d help him find a way to get the copy of the picture to Dick.

A few weeks later Tim was visiting Wayne manor while his parents worked and his many had the day off when Alfred returned home from an urgent errand. He ran to greet him and when he got to the door there was Dick Grayson. He almost screamed, well actually he was five, the kid squealed in delight. Bruce explained that Dick was going to be staying with him for a while. Then he took Tim to calmly give the copy of the photo to Dick.

Dick looked at the picture and broke down into tears. He collapsed on the floor of the foyer and bawled his eyes out. As he cried he felt a tiny hand on his cheek and heard a tiny voice. “I’m sowwy. I didn’t mean to make you cwy..”

From that moment forward Dick was Tim’s big brother and no one would ever convince either of them that it was false.

By the time Tim was six Bruce’s relationship with Jack and Janet had started to deteriorate due to them leaving Tim home alone with his nanny for prolonged periods of time. He viewed it as neglectful, it was only solidified by the few interactions with their child Bruce had witnessed when they were home. All they ever wanted to know was how school and tutoring was going and then left Tim to do his own thing and basically ignored that he existed, sending him to his nanny whenever he needed anything.

Bruce made sure that Tim’s nanny knew she could bring Tim to Wayne manor whenever she needed a break. She knew that Tim loved it there so she did take Bruce up on his offer. She didn’t want the poor child growing up with no one else around other than when he was in school so they basically lived at Wayne manor whenever Jack and Janet were gone for months at a time. Tim would get to see his godfather all the time and his big brother whenever he wanted. She noted that he acted completely different at Wayne manor than he did at Drake manor.

Tim was there when Dick was officially adopted and celebrated with them happily. He felt like part of a real family. The only time his illusions were shattered was when his parents would come home. Bruce noticed the shift in Tim, he was outgoing and excited while he was at Wayne manor but when he found out they had to go back to Drake manor he would withdraw and isolate himself from everyone but his nanny. He would stop talking to the point that at one point Bruce feared his once bright and happy godson had gone mute.

Eventually Alfred, Bruce, Dick, Tim’s Nanny and Tim started learning sign language for the times Tim would learn he had to go home. Bruce never felt he could confront Jack and Janet about their neglect because he was worried they would take Tim away from him and their treatment of Tim would worsen until there was irreversible damage done to the small boy. Bruce just did his best to remind Tim as often as possible that no matter what happened Tim had people who loved and cared about him.

Bruce was the one that realized Tim liked taking pictures. He was always asking if he could take pictures of everything, everywhere, all the time no matter where they were or what they were doing. So for Tim’s seventh birthday Bruce gifted him a very nice camera that Tim promptly started taking everywhere with him. They would print off his pictures and hang them up everywhere even if they weren’t good. Dick said it was to be able to have originals when Tim inevitably became a famous photographer/artist.

Tim would attend galas with Bruce and Dick despite his parents not being around and would stick near Dick. Dick would introduce Tim to people as his baby brother and even though pretty much all the adults knew that, one Tim was in fact not a Wayne and not Bruce’s child, and two Dick was definitely not his older brother, no one wanted to be the adult that pointed out that Tim was actually a Drake and that at some point he would have to go back to permanently living in Drake manor.

Even though Dick was older Tim would always defend Dick to the other high society children who were all just parroting with their parents were saying about Dick since he was adopted and being raised by a single father. It got so bad once when Tim was seven and Dick was fourteen that Tim punched an older kid in the face shouting at him to be nice to his big brother before being promptly scooped up by Dick and taken to Bruce. They went back home after Bruce apologized to the kids parents with the subtle undertone of a threat that if he found out their kid was repeating anything an adult may have said around him about his son again there would be hell to pay, all with his signature Brucie Wayne smile that left little room for argument.

Of course Tim being as attached to Dick as he was, and idolizing Dick for his gymnastics skills it meant that Dick had to do a lot to avoid being found out when he became Robin. It obviously didn’t work because one day just before Tim’s eighth birthday, he was watching a video of Batman and Robin and noticed something familiar. He went to Dick and asked him about a specific gymnastics trick that required a high level of precision that most gymnasts trained their whole lives to achieve. The Flying Grayson’s quad somersault that Tim knew for a fact that before Dick’s parents deaths only three people knew.

Tim didn’t let Dick know why he was asking as he watched Dick perform the trick in the gym inside Wayne manor. He asked how many other gymnasts in the world did Dick think could do that trick. Dick answered honestly that it was a highly difficult trick that if they hadn’t been trained to do it from an early age they would probably never achieve it.

Tim just left it at that, smiling at Dick with a knowing smile. Dick didn’t even notice.

No one noticed when Tim stopped going to bed after dinner. He would instead let his nanny put him to bed and after an hour he would sneak out. He would grab his camera and run around the streets of Gotham unsupervised at night and snap photos of Batman and Robin, who at that point he knew were Bruce and fifteen, year old Dick Grayson, his idol, his only friend, his big brother.

Tim was around and watched as Bruce and Dick’s relationship began to strain. They would try to hide it from Tim, whose parents seemed to be around less and less as he got older but put more and more pressure on him to be the best and achieve only perfection.

Tim saw it anyway. He saw it in the way Batman would scold Robin and the next day Dick wouldn’t talk to Bruce all day, or in the way Dick would ignore Bruce benching him and go off on patrol anyway on his own. Tim continued to go out and follow them around and by that point he had gotten even better at photography and had many SD cards packed full of photos of Batman and Robin.

Fast forward two years. Tim’s parents were missing. A plane crash. They couldn’t be located, and while technically legally Tim should’ve been placed with Bruce as he was his designated guardian if something happened to his parents Gotham CPS was never known for doing things the way they were supposed to. For six months while they were searching for Tim’s parents he was bounced around from foster home to foster home while Bruce fought to bring him back home with him and Dick in the wake of his parent’s accident.

Eventually they found all the proper paperwork proving Bruce should’ve had Tim in the first place in the event that something happened to his parents and he was allowed to bring ten year old Tim back to Wayne manor.

Seeing as how Tim had already been looking at Bruce as if he were his parental figure it came as no surprise that upon learning about his parents death ten months after they had gone missing he turned to Bruce for fatherly love. And since it was the only fatherly love he could clearly remember the familiarity made him feel safe.

Fast forward about another year and two months to Dick leaving behind the Robin mantle, becoming Nightwing, and moving to Blüdhaven. Tim was devastated. His idol, his best friend, his big brother was leaving him behind. Tim was still too young to really understand the strain on Bruce and Dick’s relationship stemming from Bruce’s strictness with Dick when it came to him being Robin.

Completely unaware of Tim’s knowledge of their identities Dick sat with Bruce to have, what he hoped would be a civil conversation, about the future of Robin. He explained that he knew Tim was the first light in Batman’s life and that would never change. He told him he would have preferred to be Robin longer to give Tim time to train since he knew Bruce would eventually want Tim to be his new sidekick or partner.

“I would have liked to stay longer and give you time to tell him and let him train and become Robin.. i would prefer it if he were Robin and not someone else or you not having a Robin at all.. but I cant do it anymore B. If we keep going at this rate I’ll end up hating you and you’ll end up resenting me.. plus he’s too young now.. you can’t ask him to be Robin yet.”

It was obvious by the way Dick was speaking though that he obviously didn’t really like the idea of anyone else—Tim included— being Robin, seeing as how the name Robin had been a nickname given to Dick by his mother.

Eleven year old Tim, who had known the two were meeting that night, crashed the meeting by throwing himself into a window and rolling into the room they were in of the run down apartment building they decided to have their meeting in.

“I know you’re my dad and brother!”

Tim brushed the glass and dust off of himself as the two older men turned and stared at him. He had looked back up at them and sighed.

“And I don’t want to be Robin.. especially not if it means you leave..”

The nineteen year old Dick kneeled on the floor and hugged Tim close to himself and told him he would always come back when his baby brother needed him no matter what but that he couldn’t keep going the way he was going.

Tim had known Dick would say that so instead of arguing he opened the SD card slot on his camera removed the extra SD card that was full of just pictures of Bruce and Dick out on patrol together that went back for three years starting the night he figured it all out. After a heartfelt goodbye Bruce took Tim home questioning him the whole way there.

Once they had gotten home Tim pulled out photo albums, a box of SD cards that were all full, and opened his laptop he had for school and showed Bruce everything he had on them and their identities. But most importantly all the photos he had taken of the two of them on patrol, taking breaks on rooftops.

“You’re not allowed to let this ruin your relationship with Dick.. I’m not choosing between you two. But I won’t let either of you say anything bad about the other either..”

Bruce looked at everything and agreed.

A few months later Bruce went back to the Batmobile to find a kid not much older than Tim stealing the wheels off of it. He was promptly hit in the stomach with a tire iron and the kid ran off.

And that’s where I’m going to leave off for this post. Hopefully I don’t for get this exists because I honestly do have most of the info for the AU already in my head it’s just a matter of writing it all down. ❤️💙🖤

As for the Tim never becomes Robin thrown in for spice don’t worry my loves Tim becomes a Vigilante. Just not Robin in fact the only other person in this AU that will ever become Robin after we get through Jay’s year and a half of Robin is Dami and only because his Akhi tells him cool stories about being Robin.

P.S. the fact that y’all like my stuff despite the fact that I am being mean and writing really sad stuff is making me feel great because I’m trying to get past my fanfic author curse of I have tried to die three times since I started writing fanfic in the last four months so.. thank you. Because I haven’t posted anything up until now because I said “fuck it if I’m going to wind up in the hospital anyway might as well actually post what I write” so thank you. ❤️❤️❤️

[jellicle-chants]

Casa Mañana CATS Show Notes

I am seriously so glad I got to see this amazing show in person! I have all of my detailed song-by-song recollections under the cut, but up top I just want to shout out @miasiegert's AMAZING costume and wig work, it was such a pleasure to see the bright colors for myself (and the wigs are just so poofy y'all wouldn't believe). Congrats to the whole cast and crew for making this show come to life, it was really something special.

Before I start, I feel like I need to preface this whole thing by saying that this was my first time seeing Cats live, period, and I also only saw this show once, so if I remember something wrong it's because half the time I was desperately trying to get any actor to make eye contact with me lmao. Also if I don't mention something you're curious about, feel free to drop me an ask or just reply with whatever your question is and I'll try to answer as best as I can! I also still haven't seen all the show footage online, so IDK what's common knowledge or not. I'll put a heading for each section so you can skip around if you want.

Jellicle Songs through Invitation

Sadly, the overture had nothing special going on :(

Jellicle Songs opened with a human worker at the stockyards being watched by the cats as they came onstage one by one, before she "turned off" the lights and left

The singing only started once she left and the lights turned back on after "can you see in the dark," which I thought was a really novel and fun interpretation of the lyrics

Since the cast was limited, Jellylorum sang all of Cassandra's lines, and Jerrie and Teazer picked up the twins' as expected. (They have Jelly listed as "Jellylorum/Cassandra" in the program but it's not a split track or anything, she's just normal Jelly singing Cass' lines)

The "flying trapeze" was replaced by some sort of leather harness(?) on a rope that the actors would stick one foot in and swing on (I have no clue what it actually is but Misto uses it during his song as well. Maybe a stirrup to cat-scale?)

The boot drop was replaced with the railroad crossing light going off, which I was hoping for ever since I saw it before the show

They made the "mystical divinity" section a bit of a national anthem analog, with the actors putting hand over heart and the two big US and Texas flags coming out

Naming went pretty much as expected. I'm not really a fan of when productions overemphasize pointing out who is who and I didn't notice it here, so that was appreciated (although I did think Skimble was Plato for most of the show, so maybe I need it more than I think lol)

Jelly and Gus had a cute moment during "some for the gentlemen, some for the dames" where they did a little bow/curtsy to each other

Victoria's solo was split up among all the girls one by one, starting with her doing an abridged White Cat with a pink cowboy hat

The hat was quickly stolen by Teazer, and they had a little fight over it which Jenny had to break up (loved the bratty vibes of this moment, which was their only big interaction I noticed)

Eventually it got passed along to Demeter, who seemed hesitant to take it, but was urged on by the other girls.

Going into the invitation/Munk's monologue, Raphe played him as serious and dramatic as ever (minus the accent), which was a departure from the other actors who tended to play a bit looser and more relaxed. (Not a slight against anyone of course, it was just interesting to observe.)

Gumbie Cat

Before the song started, Munk got a little distracted with a big spool of rope he was playing with 🥺

The same thing happened with Jenny and one of the hanging string lights on the walkway at the back of the stage during his first verse, which got a big audience laugh

As the trio were getting set up, there was a little (staged) moment where Deme fell over and had to quickly sit back up, which added to the idea that she was supposed to be a new member of the tribe and a little unsure of herself

Jenny's tap costume was SO cute, and she kept the US boots on for the rest of the show, which is a good way to identify her

I was definitely surprised that the cast soft-shoeing in their boots (instead of using tap shoes) was audible from the audience, but it worked like a charm!

Munk and Jenny had a little duet at the end (not quite a tap-off like it used to be, but from what I've seen of the recent Oasis prods Munk doesn't get to tap at all :( so it was nice to have him involved)

The song ended with Jenny going "thanks, y'all!" which I am formally requesting become the button for all non-British versions of the show from now on

The Rum Tum Tugger

The staging and setup of this song was pretty much as normal, but as with all good Tugger stagings, the real gems are from the rest of the cast's reactions

Demeter was very into it and leaned over to tease Misto a couple of times, who was very flustered and kept throwing his hands over his eyes — he delivered the "terrible bore" line like he had something to prove. (I didn't know about the cast headcanon until after the show, but from what I saw, you could read his actions as romantic or "ew Dad, gross" equally easily depending on your preferences.)

Deme almost got a moment with Tugger before Bomba cut in on her

At some point Jenny snuck back onstage to "nap" through the rest of the song

Surprisingly, they didn't go with the overexcited kitten gag — I thought it would've fit great with the setting, but I'm sure they had a good reason to cut it out

Grizabella

Rumpleteazer was the last one of the kittens to approach Grizabella (she was a little more timid, I think she was meant to be one of the youngest) and Griz delivered the first verse of her song directly to her as she was shivering in fear on the ground in front of her. Afterwards, she ran over to hide with her brother — I also saw Jenny huddled over Misto and Victoria

Old Deut made a surprise appearance to lead Griz out with a handkerchief over his hand (which I thought was about the "no touching" thing but he also did it at the end, so I'm a little puzzled about that)

Bomba put her hand on Deme's shoulder for comfort as she was leaving

Bustopher Jones

This song was literally so funny, y'all. They made up for the lack of lyric changes (none of the place names were changed) with a bunch of physical humor and gags that were pitch-perfect to the Texas vibe

Everybody was split up into little groups that each wanted to give Bustopher their food (or at least Jerrie and Teazer, who had the corn dogs, really did)

The first thing he picked up was a Whataburger cup from Munkustrap — for those not in the know, Whataburger has basically the same cultural relevance in Texas as In-n-Out has in California, except you can only get it in-state

I'm so sad I got spoiled about the Real Corn Dogs, because watching him take a bite out of them onstage(!!!) was a thrilling experience

Mungojerrie & Rumpleteazer

The song started started with them coming out from behind the cat wanted posters on either side of the stage and sneaking towards the middle (including a moment where Jerrie stuck only his leg out from behind a post which was a great image)

Their solo costumes (raggedy overalls with a bunch of mismatched patches) were so cute

Behind the low wall at about mid-stage were a couple of trampolines which the actors used to do fun tricks and bounce in time to the music. I get the feeling the actors weren't as acrobatic (or the cowboy costumes/boots didn't allow that) so this was a great way to introduce some big energy to the number in a different way

After getting off the trampoline, they did a bit sitting on the edge of the wall where they stacked their legs threaded over each other (I'm bad at describing it but it's like when you and a friend try to stack your fists/hands alternating between each other)

At the end they pulled out a barrel and laid it on its side — both my sister and I thought they were going to walk around on top of it, but instead they made a seesaw with it which was also fun

The barrel ended up having some kind of illusion from which they pulled two big foam cowboy hats (in Texas colors of course). Honestly I'm still not sure how they pulled it off

Surprisingly, there were no loot bags (I think they were supposed to be more like rascals or kids goofing off and trespassing than actual thieves), so they skipped the playoff entirely

I think this was one of my favorite songs of the whole show. I really like this song when the actors are doing something every beat, and I honestly don't mind big props/gimmicks like these as long as they don't take up the whole song. This version threaded that needle really well and it was a great time!

Old Deuteronomy through the Jellicle Ball

Not much to say about Old Deut's song. I did notice a lyric change to "married nine wives" but I think that seems to be par for new shows post-2019?

After the pre-ball Macavity scare, Misto and Vic were huddled together downstage right and Sillabub downstage left to segue into the Song of the Jellicles

Tugger got the line "Jellicle cats are rather small" because there was no Alonzo, but otherwise I didn't make notes on who got which line

The ball had a lot more partner dancing than usual (no lifts unfortunately), which fit the theme really well! I don't know much square dancing lingo but I definitely saw them do a grand left and right at one point, I'm sure there was a lot more but I was too awed to really be picking things apart lol

They did pantomime tipping cowboy hats (which I hate a lot less than the weird crown pantomime Andy came up with, mostly because it's already a thing in Western dancing)

I think at one brief pause there was a small Skimble/Victoria moment? (This may have contributed a lot to the Plato mixup lmao)

There was a whole section where Old D stepped down and everyone was trying to reach for his handkerchief as he waved it around (and yeah, still don't know what was happening with that whole thing, sorry y'all 😅)

At the end of the ball (I think at the "Ecstasy" cue if you're familiar with Gillian's choreo names) the lights swept up over the audience like a field of stars and it was honestly the most magical moment ever

Memory (first time) through Moments of Happiness

For some reason in my program they have "Grizabella: The Glamour Cat" listed as "Entry of Grizabella" and Glamour Cat moved down to where this first Memory iteration goes, which gave me false hope that they were going to do the Jelly reprise. Very mean >:(

Before Griz came out, Old Deut almost presented Victoria with the pink cowboy hat from the white cat solo (which I think means she was about to be the Choice), but then she saw Griz coming and everyone got scared away

I feel like there was an extra 8 or 16 counts of dancing music for Griz before the song started, during which she did part of the partner dance choreo from the ball by herself :(

They used "silence" instead of "midnight" which I'm so mad about (ALW I'm gonna get my revenge one day just you wait old man)

Korie is such a beautiful singer, like he really fits the role to a T. Very old-school brassy bari/bass voice, a lot like Ken Page

Since there were no twins, Sillabub just got up and sang on her own, but it wasn't that jarring

At the end of the song, Rumpleteazer got a little sad and slid over to snuggle up at Old D's feet

Gus the Theatre Cat

Before you ask, yes, I did cry a little at this song (knowing that Michael had played Gus before back during the first Broadway run made me tear up, ok?)

Before the song started, Jelly gathered all of the kittens in front of her (unfortunately with the way the blocking ended up Gus was right between us and her for a lot of the song, but he had a much bigger stage presence than replica Guses so it wasn't a big loss)

As Jelly was beginning the first verse, Gus came onstage with a guitar, which he fake-played throughout his verses

Munk got to be Gus' friend at the pub, and they had real beer bottle props which was literally the cutest thing ever

During Gus' verses Michael sang with a much more lyrical tone than normal (as in he was really singing, not talk-singing), and the country accent really fit well with his song

At the Firefrorefiddle part Munk came back and handed Gus an actual fiddle, and how has NOBODY done this before??? It was literally so perfect y'all (I don't think the instrumentation was even changed but it just felt like the exact right thing)

I remembered to check back in on the kittens during their little moment, Rumpleteazer was aptly offended/embarrassed

One of the best lyric changes was definitely "in the days when Hank Williams reigned," I have a feeling if they could have changed more they would but alas

Between the end of the normal song and the lead-in to P&P, Gus ate up the applause (there was a lot!) and sang the next verse like it was an encore

Pekes and Pollicles

Not sure if this is as expected, but Gus sang "the awesome battle" instead of awful (and there was the "heathen" to "foreign" change that I've discussed elsewhere)

Before getting into full Rumpus Cat gear, Gus was dressed as a football referee (complete with real working whistle that he used a couple of times). He also did a coin flip during one of the early verses to decide which cornhole team would throw first

Yes, the actors were really playing cornhole onstage, and they were quite good at it too! I assume a lot of practice was involved lol

During the first barking sequence, Rumpleteazer was on her hands and knees playing one of the dogs and literally jumping off the ground barking, it was so silly-looking

Jenny played the police dog, complete with beer bottle. I think she was off to one corner fake-drinking for most of the song

I think the whole Little Tom Pollicle section was cut, including the bagpipes section

When the Rumpus Cat came out, the "dogs" flipped up the cornhole boards to hide behind. I also spotted Jenny as the police dog with a white-knuckle grip on her beer lmao

All in all, it was a very fun version of the song and I didn't even mind so much that it was moved out of its original spot in the show because it was SO goofy silly

Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat

This staging was a little less dynamic than the normal, they made the fake train very early on in the song and then just basically stayed there the whole time. Skimble was bouncing around as normal though

The train's "smokestack" spouted real steam at one point, which was really cool

Misto and Jelly were the card-players, complete with real oversized cards. At one point Skimble stopped to look at both of their hands and swapped some of their cards to complete the game, which I think is just *chef's kiss* perfect characterization for him

Instead of the fake train falling apart at "Skimbleshanks would help them to get out," there was a gag where Jelly was almost falling over and Skimble had to rush over and help her catch her balance

Macavity (scare, song, and fight)

Macavity used a literal lasso to kidnap Old D

This was totally just a personal thing, but I was definitely thrown off at first by the hard-T American pronunciation of Macavity

I can't remember if this happened here or somewhere else, but I feel like I should mention that at one point Bomba slid into a split so smoothly that I didn't even process it was happening until she was all the way down in it 😅

The fight was much different than normal — everyone got in on fighting Mac. I remember Bomba got a big moment getting him in the stomach before he got away

Instead of the jumper cables, Mac swiped at the "Cattlemen" sign and took out all of the lights except the ones that said "Cat"

After the fight, Deme and Bomba took a beat to clean each other off with some casual acrobatics

Magical Mister Mistoffelees

One change I thought was really sweet was at the beginning of the song, the rest of the cast were really disbelieving of Tugger and rolling their eyes at his claims, which I think pairs well with the cast headcanon

For our performance, Misto was not wearing the brown jacket he had in the promo videos — he may have had a black vest on or just his normal chorus outfit, but he still had his sheriff star :)

They had a couple of cans for Misto to knock over as part of his sharpshooting bit, but no squibs or anything onstage

During the "curled up" line, Misto went and cuddled with Vic for a second

There was a moment post-conjuring turns where the actor did a one-handed cartwheel with the toy gun still in his hand and I was just the tiniest bit afraid for his life (he pulled it off though!!!)

Instead of having a volunteer, they just had two people hold an old blanket that they used to cover Old D from one of the wings back to center stage

Misto looked away like he does sometimes after the Old D trick, but sadly they didn't get to hug after :(

During the final chorus Rumpleteazer got back on the trampoline and was bouncing along to the music

Rather than slowly making the spotlight disappear like in some productions, Misto shot it out before making his exit which was a cute touch

Memory (Reprise)

After Munk's monologue, Old D was ready to make Gus the choice, which this time was represented by a spotlight casting a circle on the ground. I was ready to be disappointed about the whole "wrong cat died" situation, but I was pleasantly surprised when Gus stepped back and invited Griz into the spotlight to make her case, it felt like a really good resolution to the issue some people have with that point

Right after Gus gave up the spotlight, he and Jenny had a little mimed conversation where she seemed a little upset/confused at what he did

Jackie did great as Grizabella — you could definitely tell she had played Elphaba in the past too lol

Interestingly, there were a couple of moments where it almost seemed like Skimble would be the first cat to touch Griz after her song, but he ended up backing off so that Vic could give her the pink cowboy hat :)

Journey through Ad-dressing

My sister and I were speculating before the show started where Griz was going to leave the stage (there wasn't a lot of infrastructure up above the stage itself so we were curious), and it ended up being the piece of scaffolding with "Mule Alley" written on it! Totally unexpected

I wish I had caught more of the cast interactions during this song, but I did definitely notice Bomba and Gus arm in arm

Old D was much more lively and light-hearted during The Addressing of Cats than normal (again, really reminding me of Ken Page's Deuteronomy, but even more jovial. I think there's footage of this so if you haven't gone to check it out definitely do!)

Not quite a lyric change, but the address in question was changed to something pronounced more like "aw, cat"

And that's about it for the show! Like I said at the top, feel free to send me asks if there's any part of the show you'd like to know more about! I tried not to assign romantic/platonic designations to any of the pairs throughout the show because it went by much too fast to tell one from the other (which is basically my way of saying go wild with it, y'all — the cast certainly sure have!).

[theshypinkflower]

Plz, plz miss/mr/mx spare a bit of sano lore & art for the poor plz 🙏 😢 (only if you would like to ^^ also I LOVE ur art/lore/ stuff of the character♡)

I am so terribly for putting this question off for months. It's a long answer and it's kinda hard to do it in one sitting thanks to class. Please know I see all the anons in my inbox and I will get to your asks eventually <3 I'm also trying to make content outside of just my asks so please be patient (also you can just call refer to me with "Miss" dearie <3)

Sano Lore

Let me make this abundantly clear, I do NOT like how EP wrote Sano and Akira. That is the sole reason I rewrote a lot of his characters and redesigned them. Don't take it was me "fixing" his characters, more so just my take on the characters.

Anyways, a lot of this is based of the dark circus AU Gatobob did awhile back. The idea kinda started off as one of those far fetched things that I thought would never work, but after some writing it kinda just started to make a ton of sense. Needless to say, Sano and Akira grew up in a small travelling circus! Their mother was on of those "freak" attractions who ended up having a little rendezvous with their dad (who was human). After the two were born, her lover helped her escape (she really didn't want to be a mom, she probably has some regrets about ditching her kids but in her defense she was young and wanted to be free).

The two had a twin mirror act, mostly consisting of some small acrobatics (cartwheels, roundoffs, shit where you can't really break your neck like the trapeze performers), magic, knife throwing, and some contortionism. Lots of people went to see their constant in sync motion. It was kinda hard to always be in sync when Sano and Akira had clashing personalities that made cooperation a bit difficult.

One night, Akira has a rather haunting nightmare of Sano that keeps him up for a couple days (rocket to insanity reference lmao). I actually imagine Rire is in this dream and knowing Rire, it's all the reason the dream keeps him up. Why is Rire in this dream you ask? I imagine Rire sees potential in the twins (what king doesn't love a good jester?), afterall they are naga, not snake beastkin meaning they can weild magic. Eventually a knife throwing act rolls around and Akira is finding it difficult to focus on where he's aiming. Sano is spinning around and around on a wheel and Akira throws, only to aim straight for Sano's eye.

The accident, to no one's surprise, leaves Sano out of commission. His perception for his stunts thrown off now that one of his eyes is covered, and frankly it's a bit dangerous since he ends up running into things and people when doing tumbling (cheer lingo for cartwheels n shit if you didnt know). Not to mention the eyepatch ruins the mirror act. Instead of having him act, the ringmaster has Sano do some other small jobs, which is devastating to Sano since it means a significant cut to his paycheck. In turn preventing Sano from ever leaving the circus.

Sano blames a lot of what is an accident on Akira, thinking that Akira has some form of jealously against him for being the favored twin (it's no surprise Sano is the favorite). And while Akira may have SOME jealous towards his brother, he didn't mean for the incident to happen. Akira, with his naturally increased strength from being a naga, does a strong man act. He's still a bit twiggy, but he works out a bit to build muscle and strength for his act (his favorite part of the job is flirting with girls by bending horeshoes into a heart).

Sano can't go to a doctor (lack of proper health insurance, the circus has to keep travelling for business, and also because ya know fear of being outed as not human), and it's not like he needs one anyways since his eyes has managed to heal. Naga abilities n shit. Problem is, he can't see. So Sano starts getting really invested in medicine and some of the magic stuff his mom left behind. TLDR; Doesn't show up to work, captures some rando to use, harvests their eye, and performs surgery on himself. He's still a bit blind since its not his eye, but he can definitely see better. Akira finds the body and Sano manipulates him into helping him get rid of it. Akira complies since he doesn't wanna lose Sano.

Eventually, Sano devises the idea to run away from the circus. Akira doesn't want to since he's enjoying himself. People love him! But that quickly changes when he sees Sano gone from his bed. Akira naturally packs a bag and starts looking for him. Now they're on the run together. They're two broke teenagers with no education or any form of identification. And I haven't fully thought out this part yet, but Cain eventually finds these two broke teens and adopts them. Like a said before, second chance at father hood. Heres something im not so sure on yet. Either, Rire convinces Sano to become partners with him in the exchange for more training in magic, or because of Cain's involvement it's a constant fight to keep his adoptive sons safe from Rire's influence.

The rest just kinda plays out. They get their GED's with the help of their angel dad and go to college n shit. I tried keeping this as consistent as possible so let me know if you have any problems. Some of it might change later but I'll probably let you know if it does. There's probably some bits I forgot to include so ask me if you anymore questions!!!

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Lily Potter is not Mediocre

I wrote this initially as a response to a reblog on this post, but I wanted to give Lily a post of her own that isn't tied in with my rambling about shipping Voldemort. So here it is:

We don't know a lot about Lily, but what we do know implies she is very magically talented and has a bit of a cruel streak to her. She isn't as perfect as some portray her, nor as awful as I've seen some claim her to be. but oh boy do I disagree about her being mediocre.

Let's talk about the magical power first, becouse I feel a lot of people underestimate Lily's magical talent.

“Excellent, excellent, Harry! Good lord, it’s clear you’ve inherited your mother’s talent. She was a dab hand at Potions, Lily was! Here you are, then, here you are — one bottle of Felix Felicis, as promised, and use it well!”

(HBP)

I know some people like to claim Lily was only good at potions because of Snape, but I don't think that's the case. I'm sure he helped her out at first, but they stopped being friends at 5th year and she continued to seemingly have good grades at Potions since Slughorn really loves her.

As a child, Lily has incredible control over her accidental magic and accomplishes difficult magic naturally and intuitively:

But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.

(DH)

Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.

(DH)

This is way more advanced than magic usually shown by kids, especially because of how controlled it is. The only other character we see on level with Lily's control at such a young age (and who mastered unaided flight on their own) is Voldemort.

Harry also shows insanely powerful accidental magic (including Apparation) and let's just say, I don't think Harry's magical talent came from James.

Lily was both Prefect and head girl (like Tom) again showing she had a great academic track record and was likely a top student in many of her classes. We know she was good at Potions, but she was likely very adapt at Charms as well:

You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work

(PS)

Now, I talked in the past on here about how Harry is insanely magically powerful, specifically when it came to intuitive magic that just reacted to his emotions/desires or him being able to feel magic (this is that post). If we take Dumbledore at his word on how Lily cast her sacrificial love on Harry (which I tend to do) her sacrificial magic was insanely intuitive magic like we see Harry repeatedly do throughout the books.

I think the reason no one else ever did is because of the specific circumstances and Lily's specific words, yes, but I also think, that like her son, she had a knack for her magic responding intuitively to her desires no spell needed. This is a mark of a very powerful wizard/witch and not something a mediocre wizard would be likely to accomplish.

We see Harry cast this same sacrificial love in DH. And he, too, doesn't really cast anything, it's intuitive, his magic is powerful and incredibly reactive to his emotions — and I believe Lily was the same.

JKR has mentioned Voldemort tried to convince James and Lily to become Death Eaters, more than once ("Thrice defied him"). He wouldn't have given them more than one chance if either of them was mediocre. I also don't think he would've tried to get Lily to step aside so he wouldn't have to kill her as many times as he did if he thought she was average at best.

As for her personality, you're right, she isn't exactly Harry, but they do share some very important traits, and as I said, I think she and Tom would clash less than Harry and Tom (as in Lily doesn't get angry the way Harry does, so their reactions would be different).

Lily acted charming and prideful:

She turned, nose in the air, and marched off towards her sister.

(DH)

“Hmpf. Yes, well. You shouldn’t have favorites as a teacher, of course, but she was one of mine. Your mother,” Slughorn added, in answer to Harry’s questioning look. “Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl.I used to tell her she ought to have been in my House. Very cheeky answers I used to get back too.”

(HBP)

Slughorn talks about Lily's personality more than any other character, and what he says does paint her as similar to Harry.

She was talented and bright. Slughorn, who thought Tom Riddle, considers Lily Potter one of the brightest students he ever thought. She was in no way mediocre.

She was charming and had a firey personality to her. She was enthusiastic and charismatic and was easily likable.

I especially like what Slughorn says about Lily being good for Slytherin. Like Harry, she was likely considered by the hat for both Slytherin and Gryffindor due to her cleverness and bravery being both part of her.

And these cheeky answers Slghorn refers to, are like Harry's. Harry is the cheeky student Slughorn is referring to in the same breath as Lily's. Harry got his sass from Lily, not from James. Harry's tendency to back-talk Dark Lords came from his mom.

She's more scared when she's younger, crying more, but she clearly grows up to be fiercer, as Slughorn mentions and as we see in some of the memories:

“Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too! You’re not going to — I won’t let you — ” “Letme? Letme?” Lily’s bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once.

(DH)

As for the cruel streak I mentioned:

Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, “Let him down!”

(OotP)

Lily, even as Snape's best friend, can't help but find the bullying funny for just a moment. It means her sense of humor can be on the crueler side at times. The fact that it's implied, even during SWM that Lily didn't really hate James, just disliked his behavior is quite telling. Like, I don't think he needed to change much for her to go out with him. Sirius even says he mostly just stopped hexing people in the halls. I think he wasn't as arrogant, but he was probably still very egocentric. And Lily liked that (contrary to Harry who'd find it more annoying).

Additionally, when Lily wants to, she knows to hit where it hurts (the Slytherin streak Slughorn talks about?):

“That’s where you’re going,” said Petunia with relish. “A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy ... weirdos, that’s what you two are. It’s good you’re being separated from normal people. It’s for our safety.” Lily glanced toward her parents, who were looking around the platform with an air of wholehearted enjoyment, drinking in the scene. Then she looked back at her sister, and her voice was low and fierce.“You didn’t think it was such a freak’s school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you.” Petunia turned scarlet.

(DH)

She knows Petunia and she knows what would hurt/embarrass her the most and she goes for the throat. Even if later she tries to smooth things over with her.

I also wanted to note her wand. Ollivanders said she had a Willow wand, and willow wands have some interesting facts about them:

Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. While many confident customers insist on trying a willow wand (attracted by their handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) my willow wands have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn. It has always been a proverb in my family that he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow.

(From Pottermore)

(Ron has a Willow wand too, btw, like the second wand he gets that is really his)

This implies Lily was insecure, and you kinda see it in her behavior as a child. Her deference to Petunia and how many questions she asks Snape:

“Normally,” said Snape. “But you’re Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents.” “Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?”

(DH)

She is scared, walking up to the sorting hat:

He watched his mother walk forward on trembling legs and sit down upon the rickety stool. Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat onto her head, and barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, “ Gryffindor”

(DH)

But the hat placed her in Gryffindor becouse of the bravery was there. The insecurity isn't warranted (according to the wand's description). She had the fire and fierceness there all along. she may thought herself average but it was never true.

The description of the wand also suggests Lily would've been quite good with advanced non-verbal magic, which fits everything I mentioned about her magic being very intuitive like Harry's in the first section here.

So Lily is in no way mediocre and Harry is his mother's son.

[archive-of-alexandria]

Grease Paint (Buggy x Reader)

A/N: This is my first attempt at writing on Tumblr in over 10 years, but I am so down bad for this man that I can't help myself. I'm working on drafting my Moulin Rouge! x Buggy long-form fic, and this was just something I scribbled out in the meantime. This is pure Buggy x Reader fluff, so I hope you enjoy!

***

For once in his life, the ever-flashy clown pirate has nothing funny to say.

Your thumb gently ran along Buggy’s cheek to correct your lines, and the genius jester felt the greasepaint being very obviously replaced by his own maddening blush. Your tongue pokes out in concentration, and he fights the urge to grab it between his fingers – haHA! Cat got your tongue! – and spoil the mood with a poorly concocted joke. 

Buggy blinks.

….Mood? Who said anything about a mood?

A blush begins to bloom under his collar. Buggy had, in fact, been planning a way to weasel his way into your heart for months - and it seems as if you'd fallen right into his brilliantly scripted scene....so how come he can't remember any of his lines?

You continue working, and Buggy’s usually frantic mind suddenly falls deafeningly silent. Instead, the captain seems to fall into a sort of trance – focusing the entirety of his attention on memorizing your face. He observes every freckle and crease, wishing to commit it to memory. This was the first time -the only time - he’d ever been this close to someone in this…domestic…way, holding his breath out of fear that the illusion of contented bliss would shatter. 

Buggy swallows.

He had planned for this, written out every charming and witty line he could think of.

Your eyes catch hold of his through the fan of your eyelashes. Now it was time for your ears to turn pink.

“You’re staring,” Your voice is barely above a whisper, and Buggy practically melts as your eyes soften, “Something on my face?” As if on cue, a strand of hair falls in front of your eyes.

God.

He clears his throat, a soft chuckle rippling off his lips, “Well, now there is,” he muses, “Talk about a paid actor.”

You reach to push the hair from your eyes at the same time as he does, fingers awkwardly colliding as soft chuckles and mumbled apologies spill from both of your lips. Still, your eyes hold one another. 

You give way to allow Buggy to proceed, whose deft fingers trace along your forehead and behind your ear. Buggy feels electricity shoot through his hands at the feeling of his touch against you, swallowing as he allows his knuckle to caress your cheek. When you seem to lean into his touch, however, he panics.

It would seem he failed to write that into the script.

Buggy barks out a laugh, gently nudging your face and making a pop! noise with his lips to try and swim back to shore before he’s too far gone. You grab hold of Buggy’s lipstick, the last bit of his flashy facepaint to be applied. 

"And, for the finishing touch," You hum, taking his chin in your hands as you lean forward with his lipstick in hand.

Buggy's heart hammers against his chest as he feels your breath against his lips, the blood rushing to his ears in the same fashion as one hanging from a highwire.

At this moment, he indeed feels as if he is on the trapeze - delicately balancing with the hopes of making it through without a fumble.

“Doh–!” A chuckle passes through your lips, closing your eyes tight at the sight of Buggy’s comically crimson mouth. In the months that you’ve been a part of Buggy’s crew, you've never seen his makeup so fresh…and the sight was actually rather startling. It was as if the captain was in bad 3D, sponsored by technicolor, painted in by the most potent Crayola markers known to man. Buggy’s whole face looks crimson, but perhaps it's just a reflection of the brutal lipstick…

Buggy’s lips, like two bright cherries, suddenly form a pout at the sound of your laughter. His heart sinks, mind immediately skipping to the worst possible conclusion: You agreed to do his makeup not because you might care for him, but rather this was your chance to humiliate him. Buggy could feel his heart clench in his chest, and his delicate balancing act was about to turn into a dive routine.

“What?” He manages to quirk his lips into a strained smile, “You didn’t make me look like a clown, did ya-? Hrumph-!” His attempt at salvaging his pride is derailed by your thumbs pressing to his lips, your giggles giving way to a radiant smile. Little did he know that your fingers against his lips were just as much an attempt to quiet him as they were an excuse to touch Buggy.

“This color is so much more red than usual,” You say, your face growing warm, “What did I do wrong?” 

A blink. Moments pass as Buggy stares at you with saucer eyes before his hands fasten themselves to your wrists with a gentle tug. Had you realized that your fingers were still attached to his lips? 

“If you must know,” he gulped, “I have a top secret makeup technique.”

“Oh?” You feign surprise, leaning closer to your captain. A smirk twists into your lips. “Top secret, eh? Even from me?”

You bat your eyelashes, emboldened by your captain’s sheepish expression, and Buggy mutters a curse under his breath. 

Oh, fucking fucking fucker fuck.

Buggy’s voice lowers and his grip on your wrists tighten, the creak of the supple leather breaking the silence. “Especially from you.” A blink passes with the realization that Buggy wasn’t cracking a joke or being wise. He genuinely seemed…embarrassed. You’re not deterred yet, and instead, he finds you leaning in closer as your legs involuntarily squeeze together – Just imagine what those gloves would feel like in your –

You’re nearly nose to nose with the dread pirate as the air settles thick. For months you and Buggy have fallen into the old routine of cat and mouse, always teetering on the precipice of…something. The way Buggy allows his eyes to follow you during your routine without shame and latches on to your figure like a predator observing his prey is undeniable. He relishes in watching your body twist and writhe on the acrobat hoop, and you'll admit that all of your special tricks are, indeed, for him. You live for the moments he would stalk up behind you after a performance during the roaring applause when no one would be able to hear his voice - low and thick - praise you with lips ghosting your ear: “What a good girl you are, hm? Making your captain proud.” 

Your eyes fall to Buggy’s lips.

“Show me,” you swallow thickly, brushing your nose against his, “Show me your special technique.” 

Buggy’s eyes flicker elsewhere – anywhere – from your gaze before deciding upon your own lips. His grip falters, his body erupting into flame as his eyelids flutter. 

This was it: the climax of the show he has been planning and rewriting in his dreamworld for months. Buggy's flashy showmanship, however, deflates. Your hands are suddenly dropped from Buggy’s grip as he pulls back, redirecting his gaze to his now unoccupied hands. As he begins to peel off his gloves, the silence shifts into something unsettled. The fizzing tension between the two of you seems to thicken.

Meanwhile, Buggy is desperately trying to suppress an impending, raging hard-on. He already feels humiliated enough at the fact that you're laughing in his face, and now...

Cabaji had made fun of Buggy for weeks after discovering the wanted poster smeared in crimson red grease paint in Buggy’s quarters, your face barely visible beneath layers and layers of kiss marks. Buggy initially tried to cover it up, claiming it wasn’t intentional and he just needed something to “blot and perfect” his signature look with at call time. However, the sheer amount of kisses scattered across the page betrays him. There is no denying that Buggy was completely smitten with you. And here you are, practically begging him to kiss you. The set-up, the lead-in, the wind-up to the punchline…It is the perfect joke, all at his expense.

At least Cabaji hadn’t found the other copy of your wanted poster, crinkled and smeared thick with Buggy’s–

“Bugs?” Your hand on his thigh pulls the captain out of his thoughts, eyes darting up to meet yours with an unmistakable look of guilt as he tries to wipe away the memories of his moans and your wanted poster slick with his– “Are you okay?”

The clown clears his throat, finding the willpower to bring his fist before his face with a flourish as his humorless eyes settle on yours in an attempt to save face.

“For your viewing pleasure,” he forces a smile, “The technique!”

Without another word, Buggy begins to rub his lips back and forth vigorously against the top of his hand in order to remove the excess pigment. 

Fuckingfuckinghellthisissostupidthey’regoingtofuckinghatemewhatamIevendoing–

His brilliant demonstration is put on pause as you take hold of his wrist, his gaze snapping up to meet yours. A sheepish grin attempts to cross his lips, but it falters. His eyes fall to the floor.

He looks ashamed.

“For once,” Buggy’s voice is hoarse as he huffs out a laugh, “I don’t have anything funny to say.”

A beat. 

The intimacy of the moment is almost too much to bear, and your skin pricks with nerves.

“Buggy…” you breathe.

Your fingers find his face once again, tenderly wrapping around his chin. Buggy squeezes his eyes shut as you guide his face up to you. He refuses to see the expression in your eyes as you stomp on his glass heart. Suddenly you're cradling his head in both of your hands, “Buggy,” you mused, “I have a better technique to share with you.” 

Your noses bump against one another.

A choking noise passes through Buggy’s lips, and in a moment of sheer desperation for tenderness he whispers, “Please.” 

Your lips finally meet Buggy’s, and the awkward feeling of your body being too far away is overcorrected by the desperate captain. Buggy follows your lips with his body like a man possessed, knees knocking with yours as his arms swallow you whole. His hands find purchase wherever they can, trying to quickly grasp any and all of you as if you'd disappear. It's awkward, teeth knocking against teeth with the expertise of someone never before kissed, and you can't help the smile that comes to your lips.

You break away and Buggy’s breathing hitches, eyes still closed and hands gripping you so tightly you know you’ll have bruises.

You don’t mind, though. Quite the opposite. 

You can always cover them up with a little bit of grease paint.

[pixieimp]

Okey, so adding more information to one of my other posts! This one

Kurt backstory in my now headcanon and why he was not an X-Men in Deadpool and Wolverine:

• We know Kurt backstory as Szardos, he was raised by a Romani family back in Germany which was part of a traveling circus where he performed as the Amazing Nightcrawler, their trapeze artist. (That's canon, the rest is not and it's just my mind) I think for that universe, Kurt would have a similar childhood but this time he and his siblings all have a good relationship. Stephan didn’t hate Kurt and they actually were best friends so no jealousy fight and death of Stephan making Kurt run away and to be found by Charles.

• When there is a change in the circus direction and Kurt is taken from trapeze artist to main star as the freak from the show, he is also chained and caged and often mistreated without Margali or any or his siblings being able to do much more than to sneak some food at that moment.

• After a particularly nasty overdose of sedatives and a brutal beating from the new Ring Master which almost kills Kurt, Margali makes a pack with a demon to magnify her own magical abilities and to be able to free Kurt. The Szardos family took Kurt to holy ground in a near by abbey where they left him to "clean the mess" at the circus. (The Szardos family starts then with both Margali and Jimaine witchcraft some sort of mob business)

• Kurt keeps in touch with the abbey as he works the grounds to help repay the kindly help from the brothers. At the same time people starts to look at him and to point in his direction as the result of "diabolical Romani magic". Little by little people starts to fear him and to hate him as Stephan starts to use Kurt image to scare people off.

• After Margali ends up doing connections with the Hellfire Club she takes her 3 children to America where they can have a better life out of little minded folk. The mob business goes smoothly well in their new home and they have a comfortable life where Kurt goes back to feel caged and like the freak when it’s clear that his presence it’s only important to keep up the image of demonic magic her mother and sister have adopted. After quite a big argument Kurt leaves his family in order to do good honest work.

• Due to his looks it's not so easy so once more he goes back to seek god's help, he never had a problem in the abbey even when many brothers were wary from him. So he ends up finding a small church where they give him a place to stay and live in exchange for a bit of handy work and help with some of the groups for "special people" (aka mutants)

• As the people from the church gets to feel more comfortable with Kurt around, the priest starts to let Kurt help with other groups of people and that's how Kurt and Al end up meeting (Kurt at that time was in his mid 20s when they met for the first time)

Logan’s first impression:

Kurt was immediately attracted to Logan, there was something in there that sang to his own soul. Even if the man was short in his responses (he didn't know that Logan was actually shocked to see someone who in his own universe loved so much) and more than once completely rude to Kurt himself and to others. Kurt still laughed it off and actually invited Logan to join one of the veterans’ group therapy seasons.

[blakellyl]

I was at cirque du soleil not so long ago so

circus au! 🎪

Bob runs away from home unable to bear his father's abuse any longer and lives on the streets for some time, doing drugs and surviving as best he can, but one day while moving from place to place he stumbles upon a circus. Not just any circus, but the most famous one, even he's heard of it despite the fact that he's never been anywhere near such a thing (it’s not like there was anyone to take him). Bob tries to sneak into one of the trailers to steal money or food or anything useful and that's how he gets caught by Alexei (he’s the ringmaster and it’s his circus), who has returned to his trailer because he forgot something.

Seeing Bob's terrible condition Alexei takes pity and decides not to call the guards, instead asking Bob some questions (is there really no one to help him, how did it happen that such a young guy reached such a life and so on and so forth). Finding out that Bob has no one and nothing in his life, Alexei realizes that he won't be able to let the guy go like this so he offers him to go with them, saying that he will find him a job in the circus (he’ll just ask him to clean up here and there, only to make it look like he actually took Bob to give him some work) but in reality he won't demand anything from Bob and will only try to help him get off drugs (and to feed him bc Bob’s obviously all skin and bones from such a life)

THEN, after Bob gets back on his feet, when he’s completely off drugs and gained a little weight, Alexei will offer him to be part of the group (by that time Bob had already gotten close to everyone, of course, and they also helped him as much as they could, although some of them (John) were a bit cautious in the beginning)

What tricks will be performed by whom – whatever anyone likes, but sentryagent DEFINITELY 1000% is flying trapeze!

(how it’s explained in the au: Bob is lean and easy to catch and throw; John used to perform with Ava, but she had a bad accident (or smth like that) and can't do the trapeze now; while Ava is practicing other tricks for their shows, John has a girl from another circus temporarily replacing her while they’re looking for someone new)

Bob is terrified at first because he's afraid of heights and flying in the air relying on a partner when every time he trusted anyone in his life he deeply regretted it afterwards seems impossible for him. But John says that he’s never dropped anyone during their shows and even if he did there is a net above the floor and everything is absolutely safe; he asks Bob to at least try

And Bob, though not immediately, will agree

In the beginning they will practice for hours on end, every day, starting from the basics and learning to trust each other

Months will pass like that (and, of course, during this time not only will they learn to work in perfect harmony, to move as two parts of the same entity, but their relationship will develop into something far beyond friendship);

And then, when Bob will eventually be ready for his first show, John will whisper in his ear right before the performance, "Don't worry about anything, I'll catch you. You trust me, yeah?"

And Bob will nod, because after all the months they have spent together and all the training and all the times that John has confidently caught him with his strong arms, he does trust him, he trusts him fully, without any doubts.

(In the end Bob, who was extremely anxious before the show, will be surprised to find himself completely calm just before performing the stunt. At the same time John, who has done this a million times and was absolutely calm before the show, will be very nervous just before the stunt, even though, again, there is a net at the bottom, even though he never dropped his partners, and yet).

And lastly:

The show will go perfectly ofc, everyone will fall in love with Bob at first sight ofc (there is no other way) and sentryagent will be in love with each other and live happily with their thunderbolts* circus family

bonus:

Yelena filming one of Bob and Johns practices

+

[jennegatron]

Spent a lot of my drive home from work today thinking about the ways Ruby is similar to Amethar. Obviously the loss of her sister, being the youngest.

But the thing I really thought about was how Ruby was set up to be taking Lazuli's path, but Ruby never shows much interest in magic. Where it comes from, what it can do. She learns find familiar and uses fog cloud but she's not motivated to bring the strength of magic back to Candia. Jet is absolutely on board. This non-magical martial fighter Jet has these banned books and wants to know magic's place in the world and arcane trickster Ruby is totally content to use the bit of magic she has and never share it with her people. This cultivated resource that is what allows tiny Candia to stand a chance and she doesn't have any interest in spreading it.

She's just like Amethar. He takes the cola that Lazuli made for him, he takes the magic weapon, but he doesn't foster candian magic for his 20 years on the throne. He doesn't pick up Lazuli's research or find someone who can. He lets all of that knowledge, all of that effort languish for 20 years.

Theo gives an impassioned speech about how Lazuli sacrificed herself for the future of candian magic and Ruby isn't inspired by that. She doesn't say "I will pick up my aunt's work." she says "I don't want to read a book." She's just like Amethar. She takes the twizzling blade and she takes Yak and she takes sourscratch and is content to leave it there. To not live out her aunt's vision. To use mage hand to do trapeze tricks and to let candian magic end with her.

A Crown of Candy, you're just so rich and juicy and I can't stop thinking about you.

[librarylexicon]

hi! i'm one of those insane people who got into dc via seeing tumblr posts and going "huh these tropes seem like they are tailor made to get me obsessed" but was too intimidated by the volume of comics, and instead read the wikipedia pages of like 20 characters and dove right into fanfiction after. but i've been finding myself getting more and more frustrated with fanfics that are of the "i ignore canon entirely" variety and more and more curious about aspects of canon that are only brushed upon in fanfic. i kinda want to get into the comics but the amount is just. overwhelming. i don't really know where to start, both in regards to the timeline and where to actually find the comics to read. can i ask you for recommendations? if you don't have the time or inclination, no pressure, just delete this ask XD. thank you!

Hi! I'm glad you asked! I've had this ask sitting in my box for a little while because I've been working on redoing a Batfamily comics reading guide I made for my sister back in 2019 to get her into reading comics (it worked). Here is the reading guide, which is currently complete up to the No Man's Land section:

There's a lot of info in the guide to get you started (especially regarding your second point of where to actually find the comics to read), so I'll just address your first point (the timeline) here under the cut by providing an extended summary of events. There are spoilers ahead, but it's a useful read if you're the kind of person who likes to see the big picture before delving in. Warning: it's long!

The Timeline

(Most of the comics mentioned below have been bolded in the reading guide, so should be easy to find and read.)

Batman and Batfamily comics are old. Batman and Robin have both been around for over 80 years. Does this mean you need to read every comic since 1940? Absolutely not! For comic book reasons, there have been several mainstream continuities throughout the years, one after the other, but the best place to start is directly after the universe-rebooting event called Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, which established a new continuity known as Post-Crisis. Don't try to read that comic, just trust that it happened. You don't have to read every single one of the comics listed here, especially if you already know some context from fandom (like who's who), but these are the ones most important to the Batfamily mythos.

Origin and early years

Start your Batman reading journey with Batman: Year One, which documents the origin and first year of Batman, establishes his working relationship with Jim Gordon and introduces Selina Kyle (Catwoman). There are many stories capturing Batman's earliest years, the best of which are Batman: The Man Who Laughs (where he meets the Joker for the first time), Batman: The Long Halloween and its sequel Batman: Dark Victory.

Dick as Robin

Dick Grayson, a young acrobat, is introduced in Batman: Dark Victory when Haly's Circus comes to Gotham and his parents fall to their deaths before his (and Bruce's) eyes during their trapeze act, and he comes into his own as the first Robin in the superb one-shot Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet. You should also read Batman: Ego for an excellent dissection of both Bruce and Batman. Other high quality Dick!Robin stories that flesh out this period and establish Bruce and Dick's relationship are Robin: Year One, Batman: Grimm (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #149-153) and Year One: Batman/Scarecrow. Also a good read around this time are the three Halloween stories by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (who created The Long Halloween and Dark Victory) collected in Batman: Haunted Knight. Lastly, a natural companion to Robin: Year One is Batgirl: Year One, starring Barbara Gordon, Jim's daughter-slash-adopted-niece.

Jason as Robin

Bit of a timeskip here. By now, Dick's been Robin for six years or so (sources vary), and Jason Todd is introduced in Batman (1940) #408-409 and faces Two-Face in #410-411. There are some fun Jason stories in Detective Comics (1937) #569-574. To see what Dick's up to at this time, read Nightwing: Year One, and also check out Batman #416 for an alternate story of how Dick and Jason meet.

A new Gotham vigilante, Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) is introduced right around here in Huntress: Year One, and Barbara Gordon (who by now has retired from being Batgirl) is shot by the Joker and left paralysed from the waist down in Batman: The Killing Joke. A good Jason!Robin story that slots in here is Batman: The Cult, before the tension between Bruce and Jason is raised in Batman #425-426. Finally, Jason's life and short-lived career as Robin are permanently ended by the Joker in Batman: A Death in the Family.

Aftermath

Bruce is straight up not having a good time right now. He's mourning his kid, the Joker is still at large, he's sans both a Robin and a Batgirl, and he's accused of treason in the character study comic Batman: Blind Justice (Detective Comics #598-600). Sometime later, Dick Grayson (who is sort of estranged from Bruce and has been hanging out with his Titans friends for years) returns to Gotham in the fantastic Batman: Year Three (Batman #436-439), which retells Dick's origin (with some contradictions to other stories listed here, because that's just the nature of comics) and deals with Dick's parents' killer, Tony Zucco, possibly getting parole. Look out for a cute cameo in this one, but don't worry if you miss it – it'll come up again.

Noticing Batman's increased brutality in the wake of Robin's death, a precocious thirteen-year-old named Tim Drake bursts into the narrative when he hunts down Dick at Haly's Circus in the seminal Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying. Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City (Batman #452-454) is a good solo Batman story from around this period, and Batman: Rite of Passage (Detective Comics #618-621) and Batman: Identity Crisis (Batman #455-457) are defining stories for Tim's pre-Robin period as he explores who he is and who he wants to be. (Specifically, Tim's mother is killed and his father is left paralysed.)

Tim as Robin

(Note: Tim is Robin up until Damian is, but I've split Tim's Robin tenure into multiple sections so that it's easier to follow.)

Now that Tim has officially taken up the mantle, Bruce sends him to train in Paris, where he makes enemies of his own and chooses the bo staff for his weapon in the 1991 Robin miniseries. Around this time, Barbara Gordon reinvents herself as Oracle in Oracle: Year One (The Batman Chronicles #5). Tim debuts as Robin with Batman in Gotham in Batman #465, works cases with Bruce in stories like Batman: Shadow Box (Batman #467-469), and even tackles the Joker when Batman is out of town in Robin II: The Joker's Wild.

Other good stories from this period are Batman: Electric City (Detective Comics #644-646), a character study of Tim's relationship with his dad in Batman #480, and a Batfamily teamup and Nightwing cameo in Batman: The Last Arkham (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-4). Stephanie Brown dubs herself the Spoiler to spoil the plans of her father, third-rate villain Cluemaster, in Detective Comics #647-649, and Huntress returns with her unorthodox methods in Detective Comics #652-653.

Next up, the sprawling epic that is the Knightfall Saga. Jean-Paul Valley, a graduate student with a family legacy causing him to be beholden to a lifetime of conditioning known as "the System", debuts in Batman: Sword of Azrael. Batman, who has been overworking himself due to increasing pressures from all sides, finds himself increasingly worn out in the stories collected in Batman: Prelude to Knightfall. (Around this time, Robin also forges an unlikely friendship with Huntress in Robin III: Cry of the Huntress.)

In Batman: Knightfall, a huge Arkham Asylum breakout pushes Batman to his limits, and when he finally returns home, mentally and physically depleted, he finds a new enemy waiting to destroy him. It's not pretty. While Bruce recovers, he appoints Jean-Paul Valley to be Batman to Tim's Robin in Batman: Knightquest. Unfortunately, with the System still active, Tim finds himself increasingly sidelined and Jim Gordon breaks ties with this new, inappropriately ruthless Batman. A lot of things happen, but Bruce eventually returns (and so does Nightwing, yay!) in Batman: KnightsEnd.

Right after KnightsEnd but before the next story, there's a DC-wide event called Zero Hour, in which the universe is destroyed and remade. From a Doylist perspective, this is an opportunity for DC to smooth out some oddities with their Post-Crisis timeline and eliminate any plot elements they were dissatisfied with. Among other things, the murderer of Bruce's parents, who had previously been established as a random mugger named Joe Chill, is retconned to be unconfirmed (naturally, this changed later). You don't have to read the main Zero Hour comic, which is a five-issue limited series numbered in reverse order, but there are interesting crossover issues in the various Batfamily comics that are ongoing at this time, including Tim!Robin solving a case with Dick!Robin in Robin (1993) #10. The main reason I mention Zero Hour is because it explains why there are key differences between early Post-Crisis comics like most of Jason's run and post-Zero Hour comics like Nightwing: Year One. The answer is retconning, and it'll come up again and again. Such is the nature of trying to maintain longevity and internal consistency for comics that never end.

Okay, back to the main events! In what is my favourite comic of all time, Bruce rights wrongs by asking Dick to temporarily be Batman instead of Jean-Paul (yay!), and Dick and Tim grow close as Batman and Robin and as honorary brothers before Dick and Bruce finally see eye to eye in Batman: Prodigal. When Bruce is ready to be Batman again, he dons a new, darker suit (which is very close to the suit in the Tim Burton movies that were popular at the time) in Batman: Troika. Alfred, who voluntarily left Bruce's employ in Knightquest, is persuaded to return to Gotham by his best friend, none other than Dick Grayson, in Nightwing: Alfred's Return. Later, Dick does some soul-searching of his own (and gains a new costume!) in the 1995 Nightwing miniseries, and three concurrent stories in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #46-47, Batman #527-528 and Detective Comics #693-694 lay the groundwork for the dramatic next stage of Gotham history.

No Man's Land

What's up next for Gotham? It's a plague! Dubbed the Apocalypse Virus and otherwise known as the Clench, this plague ravages Gotham in the Batfamily crossover Batman: Contagion, which is followed by a resurgence in Batman: Legacy. It's dramatic, it's whumpy, it's mesmerising and it's pretty great.

By this point, you'll be familiar with the regular cast of characters and can read more of their solo comics at your leisure. There's Batman for Bruce and Detective Comics and Batman: Shadow of the Bat for higher chances of him teaming up with others. Tim's solo comic, Robin (1993), has been going since Knightfall, and Dick's excellent long-running comic Nightwing (1996) begins here. Read Robin for Tim's teenage adventures (skateboarding, making friends in school), family ups and downs (his dad is mercurial, but at least he has a cool stepmother, Dana) and love life (he starts dating Steph) and read Nightwing for Dick striking out on his own in the neighbouring city of Blüdhaven, where he eventually joins the police academy to fight crime from a different angle. (There's also the Azrael comic, which may appeal if you find yourself liking Jean-Paul Valley, but as I haven't read much of it, I make no promises about its quality.)

Continuing the notable Batfamily crossover events, Nightwing has a dalliance with Huntress in Nightwing/Huntress, and a massive earthquake devastates Gotham in Batman: Cataclysm. The consequences of this spin into Batman: Aftershock, Batman: Road to No Man's Land and the sprawling, ambitious epic that is Batman: No Man's Land, in which Gotham is declared no longer part of the United States. Within this year of danger, chaos and political limbo, we are introduced to a silent young woman, daughter of the assassin David Cain. With Barbara's blessing, she comes to live at Oracle's base (the Clock Tower) and becomes the second Batgirl. (Also during this period, Steph gives birth to a baby from a former boyfriend, and Tim – in disguise – gets himself stuck in No Man's Land to help her. It's complicated.)

New Gotham

This, along with the previous section, is one of my favourite periods in Batfamily comics. Many of the solo comics just mentioned are at their peak in terms of storytelling, characterisation and plot development, and several more excellent series begin here, including the family-focused Batman: Gotham Knights and the first ever perpetual Batgirl series for the new Batgirl, who would come to be known as Cassandra Cain. Both series are well worth reading!

Batman: Evolution (Detective Comics #742-750) touches on the fallout of the No Man's Land and rebuilding "New Gotham", and Bruce unwillingly gains a personal bodyguard named Sasha Bordeaux in Batman: A Walk in the Park (Detective Comics #751-752), which of course complicates his nocturnal activities as Batman. Soon after, Jim Gordon is shot in Batman: Offcer Down, and (unrelatedly) Dick and Barbara, who have been having off-the-chart levels of UST for years, finally call their flirting what it is: dating. Also at this time, Bruce has been rekindling his relationship with his pre-No Man's Land girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild.

In Joker: Last Laugh, the Joker decides to go out with a bang in when he finds out he's apparently suffering from terminal brain cancer. The theme of family is explored in Batman: Gotham Knights, with Bruce offering to adopt Dick (at long last) in Batman: Matatoa (Batman: Gotham Knights #16-17). And then a secret threatens to tear the Batfamily apart when Bruce is accused of murdering Vesper Fairchild in Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, eventually prompting him to drop the Bruce Wayne identity completely (this made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move) and become Batman full-time as he goes on the run in Bruce Wayne: Fugitive. Eventually the murder is solved and the murderer is accounted for, and these two stories are probably my favourite Batfamily crossovers ever. They're so juicy and get to the heart of everything I love about each member!

The excellent Bruce & Dick comic Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne fits somewhere around here, as well as Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's beautifully drawn and critically acclaimed Batman: Hush, which touches on Bruce's on-again, off-again relationship with Selina Kyle. Around this time in the Nightwing comic, Dick's life has been on a downward spiral for months because of a multitude of factors, including losing his girlfriend, his day job, his circus family, his apartment building and more. This is also where the villains Blockbuster and Tarantula are prominent.

Over in Robin, Tim's father discovers that Tim is Robin and demands that Tim give up the mantle, which he reluctantly does. This results in Bruce offering the job to Steph, driving a wedge between her and Tim. Her tenure as Robin is short-lived for several reasons, and all this leads into the mega-crossover Batman: War Games, in which a massive gang war breaks out in Gotham and Tim's sort-of girlfriend, Darla Aquista, is killed. By the time the dust settles, Steph is (believed) dead, Dick temporarily gives up his Nightwing mantle to work for the mafia (yup), Barbara and Jim leave Gotham and Tim's father is murdered in the DC-wide crossover Identity Crisis, resulting in Tim and Cassandra relocating to Blüdhaven, effectively sealing the breakup of the Batfamily. War Games is followed up by Batman: War Crimes, which is included here for timeline reasons and not much else.

Batman's pretty much all alone in Gotham again, right? Time for somebody else to return. Someone who's been haunting the narrative all these years. Yup, in the wake of the gang war, when rival mob bosses are vying to wrest control of the city, a new crime lord emerges in Batman: Under the Hood: the Red Hood, who turns out to be Jason Todd, back from the dead, and no longer a boy in a yellow cape but instead a ruthless, hypocritical murderer with a chip on his shoulder and no qualms about stabbing Batman's allies. (For more about Jason between his death and return to Gotham, read Red Hood: Lost Days.)

Lastly, there's a DC-wide event called Infinite Crisis, which shakes up the whole DC Universe and leads to Batman, Nightwing and Robin taking a trip around the world for a whole year. (Infinite Crisis also kills off Tim's best friend, Conner Kent/Superboy. Tim's really going through it at this time, poor guy.) Oh, and Blüdhaven is razed by a bomb during Infinite Crisis as well. Yup.

One Year Later

(Disclaimer: it's been a while since I read this period and this one beyond it.) After a year away from Gotham, Batman, Nightwing and Robin return, and Bruce adopts Tim (at long last) in Batman: Face the Face. I'm sure this happy-ish period is going to last, right? Well, the very next story is Batman and Son, in which Bruce learns he has a young son named Damian, who is the child of Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul (Batman's currently dead, formerly immortal nemesis of League of Assassins fame). Damian and Tim instantly don't hit it off – rather, Tim is friendly until the bratty and hostile Damian reveals himself to be a murderer and attempts to kill Tim. Of course, Bruce doesn't take kindly to this, and Damian eventually goes back to live with his mother.

Also, during the year the others were away, Cassandra was brainwashed and became evil because of Deathstroke and DC Editorial (this made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move). Later, Bruce adopts her in the otherwise mediocre 2008 Batgirl miniseries. There's a lot of complicated stuff around this time, such as Steph being retconned as Alive All Along and returning to Gotham in Robin: Violent Tendencies (Robin #170-175, Robin/Spoiler Special), Dick relocating to New York and having a mediocre run in Nightwing, Tim having a new black and red Robin suit to honour Superboy's death, Tim struggling mentally and trying to clone Conner(!) and revive Steph, his dad and Conner, Ra's al Ghul coming back from the dead (again) and trying to use a younger body (Damian or Tim) to stabilise his form in Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, and Bruce tackling the criminal organisation known as the Black Glove in Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P.

DC-wide events once again have consequences (hooray) in Final Crisis, in which Batman dies. Is he dead for good? Well, this is comic book land, so probably not, but in the meantime, the public can't know that either Batman or Bruce Wayne have died. Hush masquerades as Bruce Wayne (long story) and the Robins battle it out for the mantle in Batman: Battle for the Cowl. Despite Tim's pleas, Dick refuses to become Batman, resulting in an imposter Batman who shoots to kill taking centre stage. This impostor turns out to be Jason, who fights first Tim, then Dick, the latter of whom defeats him. Against Bruce's wishes in his will, Dick becomes the new Batman, and Damian becomes Robin at his side.

Damian as Robin

This new status quo, also known as Batman: Reborn, marks the start of several new series, including Red Robin and Batgirl (2009). Red Robin stars Tim as a deeply unreliable narrator in his new title of Red Robin in his grief-fuelled efforts to gather evidence that Bruce is not dead, while Batgirl follows Stephanie Brown as she becomes the third Batgirl under Oracle's tutelage, the pair of them working out of the Batcave.

Dick, Damian and Alfred have relocated to the penthouse in Wayne Tower and operate out of the underground bunker. Dick and Damian's rocky partnership develops into an unlikely yet compelling and heartfelt bond in Batman and Robin (2009) as they tackle a plethora of villains, including Professor Pyg and Red Hood (again). And where is Cassandra Cain? Sidelined again! She gave up Batgirl for Steph, on Bruce's request, and now goes by Black Bat, though we don't see much of her for Editorial Reasons (sigh).

This being comics, Bruce doesn't stay dead for long, and with both Tim and Dick (separately) discovering evidence that Bruce is not dead, just lost in time (yup), they work together to bring him back alive. I don't pretend to remember all the intricacies of how this works, but you can read about Bruce's journey in Batman: Time and the Batman (Batman #700-703), Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and Bruce Wayne: The Road Home. It's long and complex and honestly reading Grant Morrison's writing tends to do my head in.

There are a handful more stories after Bruce's return, including some hugs and heartfelt reunions (yes, really!) and the excellent Batman: The Black Mirror story starring Dick as Batman, but even though this is a really cool new status quo with a bunch of interesting implications going forward, the universe doesn't really stabilise, because we're up to 2011 by now, and the world gets hit by another DC-wide crossover called Flashpoint. Except, this is the biggest one since Crisis on Infinite Earths that I mentioned way back at the beginning, and so everything gets rebooted. EVERYTHING.

Batman and Detective Comics and other long-running comics are cancelled and their number restarted from #1, and many series are cancelled and just never reinstated. This new universe, known as the New 52, sets a new status quo that worked in some aspects but not so much in others. Many changes from the universe we just came from are just jumps that happen without explanation, such as Dick's return to being Nightwing (except now he's red instead of blue), Jason being an anti-hero with a bat on his chest instead of a villain, everyone being younger and closer in age, Steph and Cass being minimised and essentially replaced, and many more frustrating retcons that are confusing and/or illogical. But hey, at least the new Batman and Robin comic (starring Bruce and Damian) and Scott Snyder's Batman run (introducing the Court of Owls) are good! Note: the New 52 was soft rebooted in 2016 to become the current continuity, known at its inception as DC Rebirth, which reintroduced many Post-Crisis elements to mainstream canon.

Duke Thomas? He wasn't introduced until the New 52. Harper and Cullen Row? New 52. Tim being bisexual and dating Bernard? Rebirth, though Bernard was inspired by a very minor character of the same name from Tim's long-running Robin comic. Forever Evil, Spyral and the Grayson comic? New 52. Kate Kane (Batwoman)? She appeared during Batman: Reborn, but she wasn't established as Bruce's cousin until the New 52. Many such cases.

And so, right before Flashpoint is where the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity ends after twenty-five years, with Bruce as Batman and running a worldwide initiative called Batman Incorporated in Batman Incorporated (2010), Dick as Batman in Gotham, Damian as Robin, Tim as Red Robin, Steph as Batgirl, Cassandra as Black Bat, Barbara as Oracle and Jason as Red Hood (and full villain, not reformed in any way, shape or form). In this continuity, Bruce adopted (in order) Jason, Dick, Tim and Cassandra, and of course Damian is his biological son. It's my favourite continuity, and I hope you enjoy it too.

...And I apologise belatedly for the wall of text.

[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