#and a JayDick I can’t quite remember either | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

firefrightfic · 4 years ago

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Hi! Legitimate question, I'm not trolling, but why do you ship JayDick? I started liking the pairing after delving deeper into the DC fandom/reading some fanfics and it made me curious. I also wanted to say that I binge read your Talon and the Hood series and I absolutely loved it!

So wow I sat on this one for a while, because I have legit not had the energy since I got it to give what I think is an adequate answer. But I’m off work for the moment so here we go.

I ship JayDick for a lot of reasons. Back when I first stumbled into DC fandom proper (after being a casual fan since childhood) and was searching for fics about my best boy Jason, JayDick was the pairing I read that immediately hit right for me, and the one that’s stayed that way no matter what other ships I’ve delved into alongside it. They just have the most interesting, fun dynamic that speaks to me. I love the differing ways in which they can connect (or disconnect, as it were). The feelings, the drama, and the possibility for understanding if you just nudge them in the right direction down that path.

There’s so much appeal in Jason, insecure in his new position as Robin, looking up and seeing Dick as this ideal, and blinded to his faults as a kid because how could he not be? Both resenting and wanting to be Dick all at once (added to in my preferred headcanon to insert an adolescent crush in there as well). Then there’s Dick, who’s equally insecure in his own way as his and Bruce’s relationship has deteriorated and all of a sudden there’s this new kid in his place. A kid he does his damndest not to resent in turn, because god knows it’s not Jason’s fault what Bruce decides to do, but at the same time he struggles to connect with him, not because he doesn’t want to, but because the timing is all wrong and his life is currently pulling him in a whole other direction.

Then Jason dies, and Dick is wracked with guilt. All the should haves and maybes, all the ‘I should have done more’ that comes far too late. Until suddenly Jason’s back again, angry and vengeful. And Jason for a while still holds Dick up as that impossible ideal and resents him for it, and Dick in turn is angry at Jason for his actions and resentment, as much as a part of him still strains to correct a mistake he never really made, and change a past that can’t be changed. They argue and they fight and keep coming at each in disconnected ways, never quite able to attune to the other’s frequency. There’s always something in the way. Always something, on either side, causing them to slide jagged edges against each other.

But then Jason calms down, whether just through time or the Outlaws, depending on your favoured canon, and starts to see Dick as who he really is, rather than the idea of perfection he built up in his head as a kid. He realises Dick is just as flawed as any of them, trying his best but still coming up short despite it, and that he can be angry and petty as much as he is self-sacrificing, compassionate and inspirational. That Dick is terrible at taking care of himself, at maintaining the life-work balance, that he has some of Bruce’s worst habits, and is also terrified that he has them. And it... stirs something in him. Causes him to remember that old crush and readjust, as he starts to ache for Dick in a way that’s not someone he wishes he could be himself, but someone who always does his best despite his flaws.

Dick in turn, starts to see past Jason as the unjustly angry murderer, and as more than a tragedy. Starts to see the wounded man underneath, longing for connection. Starts to see how compassionate Jason is in turn, and how fiercely protective of the people he cares about and the city. That Jason is incredibly loyal to those who earn it, and as such why he takes it so hard when he feels that loyalty has been betrayed. That he’s fierce and committed in everything he does, but always shielding himself out of a fear of getting hurt again, which stirs something in Dick in turn.

And it starts from there. From short, hesitant conversations and getting to know who the other really is beyond first impressions. Fighting and commiserating together over shared grievances and frustrations. Taking care of each other, being there to help the other up when they fall. Understanding, but also being standing their ground on the important things and ultimately being able to help each other be better in the different ways that they need.

Just... gosh, the potential here. It’s all about the potential, and the misunderstandings and misconceptions, the connections they could have if they just stop to give each other a chance. Unspoken longing transforming to understanding and realisations of attraction they didn’t even know were there. The shared insecurities and strengths and all the ways they can come together through them. I adore this pairing, so much I kind of wrote a mini fanfic to try and explain why I love it. Two wounded, needy, compassionate boys fitting together in ways neither of them ever suspected ❤

#asks #jaydick #jason todd #dick grayson #also thank you so much for your comment on T&H #I'm glad you love it and it made you want to read more jaydick #this is by no means the be all and end all of how to ship them btw #but it is the aspect that got me hooked on the pairing at its core #meta #dickjay

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blitzturtles · 3 years ago

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Title: Night Off

Rating: Teen and Up

Fandom: DC Comics

Pairing(s): JayDick

Summary: “If you’re not here to kill me, then get out!” Dick calls without moving. He should probably double check as to who his intruder is, but the idea of moving is somehow more unappealing than the idea of one of his enemies actually managing to break into his apartment. He’ll take the risk of potential kidnapping if it means that they’ll do most of the bodily lifting for him.

Notes: I was having a chronic pain flare, asked my wife who I should inflict it on, and her answer was, “Jotaro and/or Dick Grayson”. So here’s the Dick Grayson version. Btw, I’m doing a writing / fic giveaway! Check out this post to see how to enter. Goes until 8.25.21!

It’s extremely rare for Dick to pull out of a planned patrol, but there are nights when he can’t handle the thought, much less actually suit up and venture out into Gotham. Tonight is one of those nights. Old injuries are rearing their ugly head, making themselves too known to be ignored, and he knows that going out will be a mistake. He’s more likely to cause trouble than he is to prevent it, and he’s not about to cut into someone else’s patrol just to have someone come to his rescue. That’s time that could be better spent, and he hates the idea of anyone knowing the degree of pain he’s dealing with. To know that it cripples him to the point where walking is a slow, agonizing process. It feels like a weakness that he’s not prepared to share.

Bruce has chronic pain. That’s something Dick’s known for years. Possibly since he was a child, but the man never seems to be stopped or even slowed down by it. He’s never missed a patrol. Never needed someone to fish him out of a bad situation brought on by his knee completely giving out on him (not that Dick admitted to that being the problem; he’d lied and claimed it had been freshly injured.) It’s frustrating to watch, and it sets a precedent that Dick can’t keep up with. It makes him feel pathetic on nights like these, and it’s all he can do to try to distract himself with crappy television. Up until the moment when something crashes into his apartment through his-- previously locked-- window.

“If you’re not here to kill me, then get out!” Dick calls without moving. He should probably double check as to who his intruder is, but the idea of moving is somehow more unappealing than the idea of one of his enemies actually managing to break into his apartment. He’ll take the risk of potential kidnapping if it means that they’ll do most of the bodily lifting for him.

Sure enough, Jason shows up in the doorway of his living room a moment later with his helmet at his side, but his cowl still fixed in place. “You’re not dressed,” is the first thing that comes out of his mouth, and it makes Dick’s eyebrows climb up toward his hairline.

“Are you my babysitter now?”

“No,” Jason snarls, “I’m not fucking Bruce.”

“Alright then,” Dick shrugs and tries to leave it at that. The keyword being ‘try’, because Jason never could leave well enough alone.

“Why aren’t you out?”

“Changed my mind. Am I not allowed to do that?” Shit. He sounds unnecessarily snappish. More so aloud than he does in his own head, which he knows is the pain getting the better of him, but that doesn’t mean he wants it to reflect in his tone. He heaves a sigh, “Sorry, just wasn’t up for it tonight, you know? Think I twisted my ankle a little last night, and I thought I would take a night. See if the swelling goes down.”

Jason frowns as he mulls over those words, but he doesn’t outright reject them. “Okay,” he starts, and Dick almost sighs in relief, if only internally, “So that was bullshit.”

Fuck.

“Jason-”

“We can do this all night, so you can keep lying to me, or you can just tell me what’s going on,” Jason’s gaze shifts from Dick to the rest of his apartment, undoubtedly looking for some kind of clue. Or possibly some sort of trouble. Neither of which he finds, because Dick’s too stubborn to ice his joints, and the compression wraps he has on are hidden by his clothes.

“I’m not kidding about my ankle,” Dick says after a moment of contemplating his word choice.

“You’re just lying about the cause,” Jason concludes after a moment. His head is cocked to the side, but it’s apparent that he’s fixated on the offending joint, “And it’s not the only thing bothering you.”

The problem with Jason is that he’s far more observant than most people give him credit for. And intelligent, for that matter. It’s easy to forget that Jason thinks Shakespeare is a fun read, and that he’ll spend hours debating the topic with Alfred, if given the chance (and Alfred is always willing). There’s also the fact that Jason tends to pick and choose when he’s going to press an issue; often because he intends to come back around to it, but only when the situation turns in his favor. But the favor here has always been Jason’s. Dick’s stuck on the couch of his apartment, unwilling to move unless absolutely necessary, because his knee will feel like it’s being torn in half if he does, and that’s to say nothing about either ankle.

“I don’t really want to talk about this, Jason,” Dick uses the name for emphasis this time. With a short, clipped tone that he hopes conveys just how badly he would like Jason to leave, but Jason’s also nothing if not obstinate.

“Have you tried ice yet? Or heat?”

The words startle Dick, and he looks to Jason with far too many emotions readable on his face. Jason merely raises an eyebrow in return, and Dick sighs, “No. I don’t think I can get up.”

“Oh,” Jason breathes the word, like he hadn’t expected the answer. And he probably hadn’t. He’d probably expected Dick to continue to deny reality. To lie through his teeth until Jason gave up (which wasn’t going to happen, but that’s beyond the point now.) “Okay. Got any ice in the freezer?”

“Yes- what?”

Jason’s gone in an instant, heading for the kitchen with little concern for Dick’s desire to be left alone. He comes back a minute later with several bags full of freshly scooped ice. He passes them to Dick, one at a time, while Dick slowly places them on various offending limbs.

There’s a dumbstruck expression on Dick’s face, as if he can’t fully process what’s happening, which might have to do with why he doesn’t stop it either. Jason disappears again, this time into the bathroom, and Dick just- let’s him. He’s not sure what else to do now that Jason’s set his mind to- whatever it is he’s set his mind to.

“Here,” Jason says when he comes back with a paper cup of water and a handful of pills. It takes Dick a moment to remember that, a. His first aid kit is in the bathroom just like most peoples’, and the leap for Jason figuring that out isn’t really a leap and b. That Jason’s come here for a (very rough) patch up job more than once, which means he already knows exactly where he can find said kit.

Dick swallows the painkillers with little prompting and passes the cup back to Jason, who must dispose of it in the trash, given that he disappears into the kitchen again. When he comes back, he looks at Dick with that sort of halfcocked, curious expression he gets.

“Anything else I can do?”

“Uh- no. I think you’ve done plenty,” and Dick means that. Jason’s done more for him than Dick would have done for himself, and the ice actually feels kind of nice on the throbbing joints. Combined with the compression, it’s the best relief he’s gotten all day. Maybe the medication will actually do something for a change.

“Good,” Jason says, and Dick assumes that’s the end of that. That he’ll go right back out the window that he came in, but, instead, Jason flops on the couch cushion nearest to him and nods at the long forgotten TV. “What’re we watching?”

“We?”

“Yeah,” Jason says without missing a beat, “I got nothing better to do, and distractions can help with pain. Trust me.”

And two things occur to Dick right then. The first being that Jason isn’t just doing this out of some obligation. He wants to help. Wants to make Dick feel better, and Dick doesn’t know what to do with that information. And the second is that Jason knows, on a very personal level, what it’s like to be in so much pain that his body doesn’t cooperate with him, and of course he does. Jason’s death had been far from pleasant, and he still wears the scars of it. There’s no doubt he feels it in his bones and damaged cartilage. Never mind all the other injuries since then, and there’s a long, long list that Dick’s personally seen the fallout of several times.

“I don’t know,” Dick says once his brain starts processing in the right direction again, “CSI?”

Jason snorts, “What, want to spend all night yelling at the screen?”

“Maybe,” Dick says with a shrug, “You got something better?”

“Hell yeah,” Jason reaches for the remote, and Dick passes it to him without question, “We’re gonna watch some good ole-fashioned zombies.”

And there goes Dick’s eyebrows again, “Really?”

“Sometimes a man just needs something a little autobiographical, quit judging,” and Jason says it with such a severe tone that Dick can’t help but laugh.

Truthfully, it’s the best he’s felt all night, and that doesn’t change once the movie-- however bad it may be-- starts. He catches Jason with a small, half-smile tugging at the corner of one side of his lips, and it helps Dick to relax a bit, to know that he isn’t being judged.

#jaydick #jason todd #dick grayson #batfam #dc comics #blitzwrites #blitz

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aconitemare · 5 years ago

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[jaydick fic] Before That, And Colder

Chapter One

Summary: It's been over a year since Dick left Spyral. He's finally settling back into his old life, but his time undercover has unsettled the dust that once collected over the past. Now Dick has a barrage of untouched memories to sort through and yet another Batman case summoning him away from the 'Haven. And while Dick is catching up to his past, Jason's is catching up to him.

AO3

Next Chapter

The Batcave has a myriad of underground tunnels leading to it from miles around, but Dick as usual enters through the same trapdoor in the study he used as a kid. This library is more modest than the others Bruce keeps, with tenfold the ambiance. The books flaunt their withered spines and yellowed pages, elders of an erudite community, and intrigue emanates from the very dust collecting atop shelves and between pages. This is not a room Alfred obligates himself to maintain quite so keenly. His neglect may be strategic, some emergency deterrent to wandering guests with sensitive allergies. Not that a guest has ever, at least to Dick’s knowledge, made it this deep into the Manor.

This particular room also features in a long-standing, recurring dream Dick has had since he was ten years old. The dream has aged with him; the details are softer, more nebulous — his subconscious could once recall the exact titles on each book’s spine, the precise pattern of the red and gold rug on the floor — but the dream’s accuracy eventually faded with the real-life furniture. The quiet terror that possessed him, however, intensified. The worsening fear is probably not specific to the dream though; the world itself is scarier to Dick than it was fifteen years ago.

The dream begins with Dick in this study, the burning sconces casting shadows and providing dim light. In the real world, the sconces are electronic; man-made, ordinary, and only on if he flicks the switch. But in his head, they are made of real fire. They burn regardless of him, entirely independent of his actions, ignited long before he arrives. As the scene progresses, Dick opens the trapdoor by pulling out the correct books in the correct order; putting them back in a different, correct order; waiting for the middle shelf to retract into the wall behind it; staring unblinking into the retinal scanner until he was cleared.

This process quickened as Dick got older until the door would open without him lifting a finger. The door immediately reveals a steep, stone staircase that plunges into infinite darkness. The wordless terror, the fear that calls distantly as if from the other end of a tunnel, grips him here. He must descend the stairs; that is the dream’s one imperative. Sometimes he takes the first step himself, allowing the unknown to swallow him by increments. Sometimes he falls, a blameless mistake, and slips innocently into the open mouth of night. Sometimes he is pushed, a comforting hand on his back turned treacherous. Dick never does look behind his shoulder or acknowledge the betrayal; he doesn’t need to. He knows who the man is and trusts him even as he plummets.

But that is all a dream. The trapdoor doesn’t really open unto a staircase — not right away, at any rate. Dick has to make the trek through a dimly lit corridor first, which is murder on the legs after just patrolling Bludhaven. He hasn’t had time to relax the muscle, having coming straight here after a text from Bruce. The door makes a loud sound when it finally shuts, which Dick remembers used to freak the bejeezus out of him when he was ten. The temperature also drops rapidly, although this doesn’t unsettle him anymore. Robins fear neither dark nor enclosed spaces. They revel in the creepy-crawly. Flourish, even, once training has been completed.

Dick takes the stairs two at a time. The elevator, accessible through a strangely grandiose walk-in storage closet, wasn’t added until much later in Dick’s adolescence. He still prefers the stairs; they feel quicker. Cement gives way to rock. The air dramatically cools halfway down the stairs. Moisture clings to the walls, the ceiling, the floor. A few feet from where he stands, the Batcave is bathed in blue light. Dick spots Bruce down below, ant-like from here, bowed before a colony of busy monitors. Dick leaps over the last ten steps or so, flitting towards the hunched exoskeleton of the Batman.

“You summoned?” Dick greets and thinks about how ants communicate through pheromones and stridulation. An ant can disclose its role within the group by injecting pheromones into food, which they then directly feed another ant. Dick pictures Bruce rapidly rubbing his legs together, finds this funny, and then imagines Damian spitting chewed-up falafel into Tim’s open mouth. This is no less funny for its grossness.

Bruce glances at him, a miraculous feat that nearly sends Dick stumbling backward in shock. “What’s that face for?” Bruce asks in the same second he quickly returns his focus to his research. Dick consciously relaxes his wrinkled nose, courtesy of Ant-Damian.

“No reason,” answers Dick breezily. “How’s Gotham hanging?”

Bruce’s chosen screen, a small tablet-sized rectangle built into the desk, mirrors the information on the much larger main screen on the wall. Dick cranes his neck to look at it, but not before catching the upward tug of Bruce’s lips. “From the belfry, as usual,” he quips.

“Ha!” Dick exclaims and pokes Bruce’s shoulder once. “That was funny. I knew you had it in you, B.”

“Thank you.”

Dick continues, “Everyone told me, ‘that man is as dry as a raisin,’ but I insisted that you’d make a joke pun-day.”

“I already said thank you, Dick,” Bruce reminds. Across the giant screen is a slowed-down video reel of a man — a boy, really, judging by the way he holds himself despite his grown height — being tied to a streetlamp.

“Who’s that?” Dick asks.

Bruce zooms in on the victim’s face. “Terry Weind. Sixteen years old. Badly beaten, but stable. General Hospital released him this morning. There are two other young men — both aged sixteen, both from low-income households — discovered in the same fashion in downtown Gotham the past month.”

“So I’ve heard,” admits Dick. No pictures of the victims have been released, either through mainstream news channels or the bat-vine. Dick recognizes the background instantly as Park Row where Bruce had taken the liberty of installing his high-tech spycams. Bruce keeps Crime Alley well-monitored even as a memorial. For good reason, as it turns out, because it’s suddenly become volatile again after years of dormancy.

Bruce switches to the next tape. “Devin White, fifteen years old. He’s the third victim and was admitted last night. According to Oracle, hospital records list him with internal bleeding, a cracked skull, two shattered kneecaps, a fractured scapula, and a broken arm.”

Devin looks up on the screen and Dick automatically pauses the tape, hand darting across the keyboard, to take in the boy’s fear-blown brown eyes. He resumes the video.

“I can’t identify the assailant,” Bruce informs, keying into Dick’s intent. “He wears a red hood and keeps his head down at all times. According to Gordon, the victims are all certain it was a man but none can remember his face.”

That surprises Dick. “They would’ve been looking right at him. And there’s street lamps,” he says.

Bruce grunts his assent, eyes glued on his screen. Devin struggles futilely on the screen as the man steps back and raises his arm above his head. Moonlight glints on metal.

“Wait,” says Dick, throat tightening, “is that —”

Before he can finish his sentence, the gleaming crowbar cracks against the boy’s skull. And then his face. His left shoulder. His right. His kneecaps then. Face again, other side. Dick’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t look away. At the end, the man removes his phone from his pocket and holds it over the boy — either taking a picture or sending a text, or both, from the angle and the time it takes before he’s pocketing the object again.

“One of the Joker’s goons,” Dick decides, punch-to-the-gut quick, when the attacker finally walks away, crowbar tucked into a duffle bag and the boy a crumpled piece of paper beneath a weakly flickering light. Dick changes his mind. “But no, he wouldn’t care anymore. It’s been, god, six years.” Out loud, six doesn’t sound very long at all. Dick sees Jason’s death like a black-and-white photograph, forever ago and therefore impossible today. But the pictures of Jason back then are in color, his visage spread out on the front pages of newspapers dating within the decade. “The joke’s been played out,” Dick declares anyway because it would be for the Joker.

“Maybe not. He’s unpredictable and historically not above recycling old material. That’s why the hoodie bothers me,” Bruce confesses. He pauses the video and faces Dick. The glow from the monitor limns the severe cut of his cheekbone as it casts his face into extremity: the heavy brow pulls farther down, the wide lips weld into one shut line, and his austere eyes sink towards a deeper, darker blue. Dick sees himself in the pupils, a distant figure peering out from a dark well.

Bruce pushes his chair away from the desk so he remains seated yet notably detached from Devin White. Dick can feel the heat emanating from the computers, warming one side of his body, as Bruce rests his chin atop his palm. Aloud, Bruce contemplates the question, “Is the color coincidental, or a nod at the Red Hood?”

Dick barely even registered the color, but once he does, his heart drops into the pit of his stomach. His stomach drops to his feet. His whole body has capsized, the world itself hurrying to reorient itself to his new right-side-up. “That would mean the Joker knows Red Hood was a Robin.”

“It would, wouldn’t it,” Bruce says flatly.

Dick follows the train of thought. “Then — what? He knows you watch the Park Row Memorial? He’s — baiting you? What does he want with this stunt?” Dick looks, frustrated, away from the broken kid on the screen towards the sturdy man in front of him. Bruce is quiet for a few moments, moments where Dick can feel his own heartbeat in his chest, his ears, his fingertips. He waits Bruce out, a red gash of a smile widening behind his eyes meanwhile. Then, finally:

“I met Jason on Park Row.” The statement is more utterance than response, spoken to the floor in a low tone. Dick’s mind immediately presses against whatever anxiety Bruce is brewing for himself.

“A lot of events have happened on Park Row,” says Dick. “If you think this person — the Joker, or whoever — knows that much, ah, they’d have to be psychic.” Internally, Dick’s profile of Jason and Bruce makes room for another detail. Twenty-five years old, out of the house for seven years, and still Dick collects his mentor’s unnecessary, painful secrets. Dick is a recordkeeper of other people’s wounds.

Bruce leans back. Dick knows he means to reset himself; change the angle of his thoughts with the angle of his body. “Maybe so,” Bruce grants, “but I’m willing to bet they know that street hits close to home.”

Dick purses his lips and thinks of scattered pearls. “Everything that happened on Park Row happened to Bruce Wayne, not Batman,” he reasons. “If the Joker knew who you were, and what this memorial meant to you, he wouldn’t lead with a Robin. Even one he,” here, Dick falters. “Even Jason,” he neatly amends. “His obsession is wholely with you.”

Bruce considers this. “Then either it’s not the Joker at all, or the Joker only knows that Red Hood was Robin, without knowledge of Jason Todd, or —”

“Or the ski-mask is purely coincidence,” Dick finishes. “For that matter, Bruce, it could all be coincidental — the victimology, the weapon —”

“Except that Jason contacted Tim the other day,” Bruce interrupts. His tired eyes seize Dick, seem to shake him by his very arms. “The day following Weind’s attack, photographs of the victim were left on his patrol bike. Photographs of Leland’s attack were delivered to the Red Hood through a series of messengers switching hands until the envelope got to him. The latest victim, as of two nights ago, had photographs attached to his bike again.”

Dick’s eyebrows have raised by this point. “Jason told Tim all this?”

“More or less. Not enough to satisfy, but Jason is hardly cooperative as a general character trait. Tim compiled his notes for me; I’ll forward them to you.”

Dick bites the further questions that taste like metal on his tongue, demanding to know why Jason would go to Tim first. It’s not essential. It’s reached Dick, at any rate, as all family matters do.

“Whomever our perp is, we can safely assume they know the details of Robin’s death and know that he came back as Hood.” Dick waits for Bruce to contribute more information, some other detail Tim afforded him, and continues when Bruce gives the slightest nod. Bruce is already on his computer, retrieving Tim’s file on the case and mailing it to Dick. “That’s a lot of baseline knowledge on their part,” Dick muses. “And a lot of patience. This is a long-con, no question.”

Dick rambles about Jason’s enemies — mostly ordinary gangbangers who likely wouldn’t have the connections or patience to sleuth Hood’s previous alias — as well as Batman’s historic opponents, who have never exhibited an equivalent fixation with any of the Robins before. Bruce rubs his chin, eyes on his computer, while Dick consolidates their shared thoughts.

“Not to get technical here, but we have a whole boatload of equally implausible possibilities here, Bruce,” Dick concludes.

“No more so than we usually start off with on a case,” Bruce replies immediately.

Dick laughs, low and tired. He can feel exhaustion creeping into his bones at the same steady pace all his needs do. Hunger, fatigue, thirst, rest — these sensations rarely overwhelm him, but instead stalk him with restraint like prowling predators.

When Dick laughs, Bruce glances up at him with a small smile. For a moment, Dick thinks of spending the night in his old bedroom. But he has a life in Bludhaven. His life.

Dick’s work phone buzzes. He slides it out, unlocks it, to skim over Tim’s notes. “So, should I put in a request for time off at the station?” he checks, half-joking. The BPD had been graciously flexible during his first year as a beat cop, but his stint in Spyral has reset any seniority he might have accumulated. Plus, he’s reluctant to coast on the “aren’t you jazzed I’m not actually dead” card. Half his coworkers entered after Dick’s time in Bludhaven, and only a quarter of the ones who remember him appreciated the cleaning-out he did on the dirty cops.

Bruce quirks an eyebrow. “Can you afford to?” he asks.

Dick translates the question in his head: Would you let me help with your bills in the meantime? “Probably not. I don’t need time off. I’m used to not sleeping — seriously, I think if I had a full eight hours, it would actually shock my system and land me in a hospital,” Dick answers. He looks around the cave in the overpowering light that somehow manages to always feel dim. Is there a comfortable chair he can settle into? He’s getting too big to perch on the computer desk without pressing fifty buttons, some of them possibly red and ominously labeled things like “EJECT” and “DO NOT TOUCH.”

“Are you equating sleep deprivation with drug addiction?” Bruce asks, amusement lightening his voice, draining some of the dark from the room.

Dick locates an ultra-cozy office chair shoved near a map table. He sets his sights on the coffee-stained throw pillow atop heavy black leather. “I’m just saying, that would be a strange ER story: man jittery from insomnia withdrawals. Why risk the news headlines?” he muses, wheeling the office chair towards Bruce.

Bruce does not agree. Instead, he points out, “You assume in a city hounded by masked villains and mini apocalypses that ‘son of billionaire sleeps pretty okay at night’ would catch people’s attention?”

Dick quietly blooms when Bruce says son . It’s a warm word like sun . How badly he always wants to hear that word; he stretches towards it, leafy limbs unfurling. He tries not to preen and instead seats himself, beginning the process of getting comfortable. This position, and then that position, around and around.

“You look like a dog circling its tail when you do that,” remarks Bruce.

Dick scrolls to the top of the file on his phone, having figured out how to spend the next few hours. “Dogs have the right idea. How else can you know for sure you’re using the cushion to its greatest potential unless you sample seating arrangements?” The file is far from lengthy, he’s gathered while skimming, but there are details Bruce hasn’t covered in their conversation. For example, all the victims were attacked downtown, but Trey Leland lives in Bludhaven and was only passing through. Opportunistic, Dick characterizes the attacker.

“Are you comfortable?” Bruce asks. Dick grunts affirmatively, trying to focus. He hears Bruce say something about how Dick never stays in one spot anyway, but the words are more like ideas, like something transmitted through playscape talk tubes.

There’s a zone Dick wants to reach where details of a case will absorb him so fully he doesn’t register hunger, exhaustion, or his bladder for that matter. Everyone in the masked business knows the zone, but it’s harder to access when he’s tired, which he is — a bad start for this mission, so he will try to sleep after tomorrow’s shift if he can. It occurs to him that he might not be able to, considering he doesn’t have a gauge on how long until this criminal will strike again, or escalate from teenagers to their actual target.

He looks up from his phone and, from where his head spills out over the chair’s arm — noticeably hard and plastic beneath the cushion, already chafing the back of his neck — scrutinizes Bruce. Bruce must be tired, too, because he actually breaks away from his computer to return Dick’s stare.

“Yes?” prods Bruce after a moment.

Dick answers immediately. “We’re going to have to work with Jason.”

Bruce’s expression reveals no challenge with this. “Yes,” he replies, neutral.

“Like, close-up. Face-to-face. We might have to — guard him,” he finishes, lamely, hoping he’s getting his point across.

Luckily, Bruce does seem to understand finally the monumental undertaking of convincing Jason to accept their full help. “He’ll insist he has his own safehouse,” Bruce says.

“Or that he has his own team,” Dick adds.

“That team is haphazard at best with little in the way of deductive skills,” Bruce argues.

“It’s none of our business, he’ll say,” Dick counters.

“Then he should not have contacted Red Robin,” Bruce dismisses easily.

Dick is reevaluating his decision to remain on duty at the BPD. He’s almost not even tired anymore with this new, shiny, family-resistant case. “His safehouse is still functional,” Dick tosses into the ring.

Bruce’s voice turns grave, eyes suddenly weighing onto Dick like stones on his chest. “No house is safe,” Bruce criticizes, “and the only people he can trust are the people whose identities may be equally compromised by this situation.”

Dick purses his lips and thinks. “He won’t like that,” he warns.

Bruce’s voice regains that darkness Dick tries so hard to lighten. It’s no use, though, not during cases like these, not when Jason is present. And he is always present, in the style of phantoms, but particularly now. Bruce flexes his jaw. “But he will heed it,” he states.

Dick knows, if his and Jason’s situations were reversed, if Jason was the one putting barriers on whom Dick could trust, Dick would not listen. Dick would push back and then pull away from Jason, from Bruce and his untrusting brood. He has before.

Dick watches Bruce who has fixed his attention concretely on the screen. He’s excruciatingly tense and it fills up the cave, tightening the muscles in Dick’s shoulder. The tendons in Bruce’s jaw flex and Dick can feel Bruce’s teeth grinding in his own head. He wants Bruce to turn around and meet his gaze. He wants to know if he’ll see himself in Bruce’s eyes again. But it’s no use; Bruce isn’t looking at him. He’s been dismissed without a word.

Next Chapter

#jaydick #dickjay #jason todd #dick grayson #dc #fanfiction for the void #fic: btac

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emotionalcello-makefanfics · 5 years ago

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Ferris Wheel (Jaydick Fanfic) Part 3/3

Summary :

Dick spotted bloodstains by the Ferris wheel that trails from the bottom cabin to the very top one. What he found inside is a boy can’t be older than 15, bleeding down from the stomach, and even so, he refuses to come down from the Cabin.

“I want to see the stars, one last time, just… one last time.” The boy still muses upon the sky, mesmerized. Dick looks up, and the starless sky that’s tinted red from light pollution. Then, with great sorrow and resignation, the boy whimpers, “You ruin that from me.”

Word count : 3.8k

Part 1 2

Click link to read on AO3

Click keep reading to read on tumblr~

Dick doesn’t tell anyone that he met Jason again. He already knows how they’ll react anyway.

Whoever Jason is, there’s a probability that he ditched him. Of course, Dick didn’t come to that conclusion lightly. All he got was his first name, and he thought it was all he needed. He looked for him after his shift, a teenager named Jason around the area. It staggers him how many Jasons there were in the whole city. In the end, Dick gave up after looking for weeks and came out empty-handed.

Another possibility –and possibly the worst one for Dick– is that Jason ghosted him. As time goes on, he’s starting to believe that one more.

Every day, from the start of his shift till the end, he lingers around the Ferris wheel longer than the other rides. Hoping he’ll catch Jason snooping in again and demand an explanation. But his hope dies with time as the days go on with no signs of that teenager with sad teal eyes.

In the end, Dick has to let go of Jason and the story he kept.

“You’re going home?” Barbara stops halfway through the door after seeing Dick still in front of his locker.

“Yeah, I’m staying till opening, I’m meeting with Steph.”

“Oh, okay, tell her I say hi!”

“I will.” Dick waves as Barbara closes the door behind her, leaving Dick alone in the staff room.

That’s a lie, Dick is not meeting Steph.

After changing into his washed jeans, and covered his light blue hoodie with a worn black jean jacket, Dick strolls around the park. His feet take him to the Ferris wheel yet again. He sits by the stairs where Jason did when they last saw each other.

Blame him all you want for still hoping, but he can’t stop himself doing so, even though he had tried persistently. This place pulls him. He would be on the way home and found himself here, waiting for something even himself isn’t sure of. Just like right now. He waits and wanders as nothing happens. As usual.

The sky gradually gains it’s brightness from the black of night to daybreak indigo. The brightest point in the sky is just behind the tip of the merry go round’s roof. A flock of birds flew towards it.

Or they should’ve.

There’re black specks in the sky, like blobs on your vision or dirt on your glasses. Dick blinks a couple of times to get rid of it, but it stays. When he stood up and shakes his head, his heart thumps. It’s not dirt in his eyes. His eyes feel fine, and the dirt doesn’t follow his vision, it sticks in one place in the sky, with clouds that don’t move.

It’s a bird, pausing in mid-air. Turning around, he sees the skinny hornbeam tree beside the queue area leaning extremely sideways and froze that way, as if blown by the icy wind that made them that way. A leaf right beside the tree stops in mid-air. Curious, he touched it, but he can’t move it. A leaf in the wind that sticks like a rock stuck on a surface with power glue.

Could he be dreaming? Or has he lost his mind completely?

He doesn’t get to answer that himself when a blinding light glares from the Ferris wheel. Dick whips around to face the light source.

The Ferris wheel isn’t turned on, but a screen of blinding white light fills inside the circle structure. There’s no other sound but Dick’s breath and static electricity coming from the electric sparks jolting around the metal tubing. Nothing else moves but Dick, the lights, and the dark human silhouette inside the lights that seem to be approaching closer. It’s so bizarre that the gears in his mind just stop trying to figure out why this is happening. It’s nothing Dick has ever seen before. Maybe on the TV, but he’s not on TV, is he?

The silhouette makes itself more prominent and clearer and as that person steps out of the light and walks down the booth, Dick can’t believe his eyes and who his mind is suggesting.

The man has some bulk on his body, maturity in his demeanor, but the familiarity of his features struck Dick with one person in mind, Jason.

The last time Dick saw him, he was a teenager. Shy and boyish as he asked him out for dinner. How could that boy turn into this man that looks like reaching his 40’s with a tired look of a century-year-old man.

Cleanly shaven, his jaws look sharper from the teenager Jason. Teal eyes set even deeper into his socket, topped with thick and coarse eyebrows that knit close to each other and set low on the brow ridge. A sharper look in his eyes, yet way kinder.

Before, Jason reached a little under Dick’s height, now Jason is gaining clear inches above him. There’s a stark awkward streak of white on his bangs which slightly curls and flails as he walks. His bomber jacket looks like a worn uniform with logos patched on the right breast and upper sleeves. His red shirt underneath looks as dark as congealed blood, paired with black cargo pants, gun garters snug on his thighs and black tactical boots.

He’s either here to fight or his style is just that edgy. Either way, Dick has a projectile taser and fast hands.

The man approaches Dick with that knowing smirk like they’re old friends, but the sentiment is not returned.

“You cause me a lot of hassle,” is this Jason’s first sentence, not giving the best impression of Dick, who takes full offense of that.

“Me?” Dick feels his neck tensed raising his voice that high. “You cause me a lot of hassle. Who are you? And what the fuck is that!” Dick waved at the Ferris wheel that still has a screen of glowing light inside it. There is no way no one sees this bright light, but then again, if Dick sees it, probably no one else does.

“This is a portal,” Jason points his thumbs at the light behind him. “And I’m Jason Todd, I’m here to fix the things you’ve been seeing.”

“Wait... What I’ve been seeing?” Dick repeated with a shriek, feeling constipated at what he had to digest. “You meant Jason? And your mom? But... you’re Jason too!”

“Uh huh, you’ve been seeing multiple versions of Jasons for other universes that happen to-”

“Wait, stop, please,” Dick felt like his head got pounded with that information. It’s terrible when his friends don’t believe him, but a person that popped out of the light finally agreeing with him doesn’t feel that good either.

“Oh God, I’m really going crazy, aren’t I? Babs was right, fudge my schtick every one of them is right. I should’ve stayed on meds,” Dick whispered to himself.

“Quit that, you’re not crazy,” Jason groaned, “I know you’re taking medication on this universe too, so you better stop that. You’re not having an episode.”

“How did you even know... I... whatever,” Dick huffed defeatedly.

“Chin up pretty boy, after I do what I came here to do, you’ll be just fine.”

“And what is it that you do, other Jason?” Dick crossed his arms, glaring at Jason with a combination of pissed off and mentally tired.

“I erase anomalies. I’m here to erase all the proof of the other universe ever repeated here. I’ve already deleted the security footage. Destroying the blood sample is a difficult one, no thanks to you for getting many people involved,” Jason narrowed his eyes at Dick, and Dick doesn’t feel a tinge of guilt. “And now, finally, you.”

Dick feels little goosebumps on his neck, “You’re gonna kill me?”

“No,” Jason raises his voice and grimaces offendedly, “I need to erase the memory where you’ve met the Jasons and this,” Jason waved to himself and the Ferris wheel.

“What, no!” Dick holds his head as if his hand can protect him from any mind-erasing devices, “I... I want to meet my universe you... We agreed to have dinner together.”

Jason visibly cringes, “That didn’t happen. That’s another you with another me, that didn’t happen to you, you just feel that it happens to you because... things got fucked up!” Jason just gave up halfway of explaining, and honestly, Dick doesn’t want to know either.

“But-But I felt it happened to me! I feel the weight of his body when I carried him out one of the cabin bleeding, and your mom holding onto me and... I-” Dick choked up on his own breath. Feeling tears threatening to spill at the things Jason implied.

“I know Dick, it’s all confusing, and I believe you. You’re not crazy,” Jason calmed, his voice sounds deep and soothing. “All of that isn’t supposed to happen. Things... happened, it’s difficult to explain.”

“Then why me? Why am I the only one that sees it?”

“We don’t know, and this is actually something special we’ve never encountered before,” Jason seems annoyingly excited, “You’re the only one in this universe that can see it for how it is.”

Dick groans, “Whatever, so what are you going to do now?”

“So, I’m here to fix the fucked up things that happen to you. But this will involve you, so you get to choose how I do it.

Dick doesn’t answer, doesn’t even look at Jason, and gave him his silent approval.

“You can see and experience the universe being broken, we need someone like that in our department.”

It takes a few seconds of Jason's pointed look before Dick finally catches on, “You’re offering me your job? Me? Stopping time and making Ferris wheels glow?” Dick says incredulously with an uneasy smile.

“Yeah, it’s not an easy job, but just putting it out there, we’ve been keeping an eye on you and after some consideration, we’d like to take you in to watch over this universe.”

Dick doesn’t expect Jason replying to his sarcastic question seriously, but now Dick considers it seriously.

Heh, as if.

“And if I say no?”

“I’d have to erase the anomaly to fix it, meaning you won’t remember it ever happening.”

Dick feels his heart drop, “Wait... I won’t remember meeting this universe Jason?”

“You never met this universe Jason. It’s all been other universe’s Jasons.” Jason repeated, starting to sound impatient.

“Does that mean I won’t remember meeting the.... the Jasons?” Dick rephrased, the question leaving a bitter taste in his mouth for agreeing with this Jason.

“Nope.”

“No!”

“You’ve been telling me that a lot.”

“Because I don’t agree with you, or your suggestion, or any of this!” Dick waves his hands wildly around him, “It’s... it’s too much to take.”

“Well, not trying to be inconsiderate but you need to choose now,” Jason huffed impatiently, tapping his boots.

“I don’t want to lose my memory! I-I want to meet you. Wait, I mean, I want to meet this universe you.”

Jason’s face shifts into gloom, “You won’t meet this universe me.”

“Oh, come on, I know your full name now, I can get your 411 easy. Or what? You think you’re too good for me?”

Then Jason smiled, “Not that I wouldn’t like to shack up with you pretty boy, but I’m afraid you’re a bit too late.”

“And why is that?”

“This universe me died right there,” Jason pointed up.

Dick, who hasn’t completely taken the information in, slowly looks up to where Jason is pointing. The top of the Ferris wheel where Dick found Jason bleeding.

Then it hits Dick like a big chunk of iceberg to his Titanic, and his stomach makes a grand fall into the dark depth. He holds himself as if he’s holding his mental state together.

“But I... I turned the Ferris wheel on, and get you out of there and you walked away...” Dick whispered to himself as if saying it will make it real.

“In another universe, you did save me, but this universe me died there watching the sky. It’s not your fault though, you haven’t got this job yet when he climbed up there.”

Dick can’t look away from the cabin at the top. It felt like a second ago that he talked to that weird boy. Dick spent a whole day as a nervous and excited wreck, looking forward to having breakfast with him and getting to know the story behind his grim smile when he offered it. The thought of him had occupied his thoughts for months. Always thinking that they’ll meet, sooner or later. Even though, there are times when his hope dies down, in the end, his intuition came true in the way he’d never imagine.

To think, Dick never met that boy at all. That he never met his Jason all this time.

“Whatever happened to him, did it happen to you, too?” Dick’s voice as weak as a broken one.

When he looks at the Jason in front of him, he can see his Ferris wheel boy there, holding back a story behind his weak smile.

“Yes.”

He never thought that his Jason and this Jason is the same, he thought the circumstances must’ve been different since his Jason died and this Jason is still here. This doesn’t make that seem that way.

“Did someone saved you?” Dick asked again.

“Luck did. I woke up the next day still alive.”

Dick nods, smiling in relief. “Can I know what happened?”

Jason paused, thinking over it, “Only if you tell me about Kory.”

At the mention of her name, his heart stops for a beat. The memory of her body on their bed, lifeless. Her red hair stark against their olive green sheets, pouring to the floor. Her jade eyes open and empty, like the bottle of her sleeping pills in her hand.

“How... how did you know Kory?”

“You and I were more than friends in my universe,” Jason smirked.

There’s an irk spiked in Dick’s chest, burning, ugly, and weird jealousy, “Then just ask him.”

“My universe’s Dick died before he could tell me,” Jason deadpanned, and Dick was caught off guard by the weight of the words delivered with a tone contrary of that.

It’s not him, but in a way, it is him. And in a way, Jason lost him. Almost like Dick lost his Jason.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago. He had nightmares about her, and never get to tell me who she is.”

“Oh.” Dick still has nightmares of her, sometimes he thinks he’ll come home and find her still sleeping on his bed. She’s the reason he takes the meds in the first place. “I guess that’s fair.”

It feels that he needs to know more about how his other self gets to have a relationship with Jason. Or how he died. He doesn’t even know if Jason’s Dick has the same Kory as him.

It wasn’t the point though, Dick knows that much. He wants to know what happened to Jason because of the same urge that Jason wants to know about Dick’s nightmares. An open wound that needs closure. Any closure.

Jason looks up, his eyes mellow as a soft smile graces his mature face, “Can we go up?”

“I can’t move anything. Everything froze over.

“Don’t worry about that.” Jason closed his eyes and breathes in. Deeply. Then he opened his eyes that were filled with the same blank white light as the Ferris wheel’s portal.

The wind blows shortly, the bent tall tree bounces back to straight, its leaves fall gracefully to the floor. But the clouds still haven’t moved, and the birds far away still frozen in time.

Jason exhales, and the light in his eyes dimmed out slowly, returning the teal and dark circles on his eyes. His lips smirking at Dick who’s half losing his mind and half amazed.

Dick turns the lights on but doesn’t rotate the Ferris wheel. For memories sake, Jason showed him how he climbed to the top. It’s surprisingly easy.

They both sit at the top of the Ferris wheel, their backs against the seat, looking up to the indigo sky as Jason tells his story and Dick tells his. The world around them is forever at dawn. Their eyes are on the sunlight that peeks behind the merry-go round’s roof. Often, they’ll look at each other.

They talk about the things they’ve never told anyone before. Guiltless and shameless, since the world feels to fall deaf to their stories but each other.

In frozen time, they sit at the top of the Ferris wheel. No one is stopping each other from talking, as if this will be their only chance to come clean with their burdens and sin. So, they stayed and talk as long as they please.

And none of them knows how much time has really passed.

+++++

Something is different about this amusement park. She can’t point it out, but it just feels foreign to her. One thing for sure is that she’s completely lost. Everyone is taller than her and she can’t see her moms. She’s sobbing but she won’t cry because she’s wearing her Captain Marvel jacket. Today she promised to be good so he can go to this park, so she’ll find a way to find her moms.

Her mama says, when she’s lost she needs to find someone in uniforms and tell them that she’s lost. As the six-year-old girl looks for someone with a uniform, she finds someone entirely different that puts everything else at halt.

A girl that looks just like her.

Not just anyone that’s wearing the same dress or having the same hair. She looks at the mirror for dress-up often enough that the girl in front of her is –well– her. Like a twin or the exact same copy of her. The other her is wearing a Wonder Woman shirt instead of her Captain Marvel Jacket, and a gold skirt instead of her jeans. But their hair is braided the same favorite way she liked, intertwined with blue ribbons.

She’s as speechless as her. Of course she is, they’re not staring at a mirror, but at each other! And as far as she knows, she’s not a twin, and she doesn’t have any other siblings yet.

“Callie!” Someone called and the girl in front of her looks back to the source of the voice.

That’s weird. She almost believed that they’re the same person, but her name is not Callie.

The girl named Callie runs towards the direction of the call, leaving her behind.

Being a lost little girl, her first instinct is to follow her copy, hoping to find her moms.

“Hey there! You must be lost.” Someone steps in front of her and she abruptly stops. She looks up to see the extension of the legs in front of her, then finally finds her smile.

It’s a security guard with hair as black and fabulous as Loki but with a friendly face and blue eyes like Captain America. Then a smile and kind eyes, just like a prince.

“Yes! I’m lost, I need to find my moms. I think I need to follow her,” She points to the direction her twin just ran off to, but she disappeared between the crowds already.

The security guy just smiles and bends his knees, “What’s your name, little girl?”

“Amalia.”

“That’s a pretty name, my name is Grayson.”

“That’s a pretty name too.”

“Why thank you!” the man smiles and he looks more handsome than the princes in Disneyland. “Come on, I’ll take you to your moms.” He offers his hand and she eagerly takes his hand.

With the guide of Grayson’s hand, they walk through the crowds. Amalia looks at her surroundings –as her mother always says– and she noticed that they’re walking towards the Ferris wheel.

“Are we not going to the announcement booth?” Amalia asked.

“Nope,” Grayson popped the p.

She doesn’t know when, but as soon as they step closer into the green grass area of the Ferris wheel everything else stops. The people, the music even the birds in the sky. Amalia turns her head wildly to see every little thing that pauses in mid-air and finds it fascinating. Before she knew it, she was already on the platform on the back of the Ferris wheel. There are some frozen people there, exiting the ride and their feet mid-air as they step down the platform.

Amalia finally looks away from gazing at the frozen bee right beside her when a bright light glares from the Ferris wheel. Inside the circle frame of the Ferris wheel filled with opaque white that glows. Amalia has never seen such a thing. Does every Ferris wheel does this?

“You need to go through now Amalia,” Grayson says, “You’ll meet your moms, the right ones.”

That would be great of course because Amalia is starting to miss her moms, but then he looks up to Grayson, and squeeze his hand tightly.

“I’m not going to see you again, am I?”

Grayson smiles like a prince and put his hand on top of her head.

“Maybe you will, but I’m not going to remember ever meeting you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the me on the other side of this portal hasn’t met you yet.”

She looks around again, to the people that stopped in time, to the big shining portal and the prince beside her.

“This is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me, and no one will ever believe me.” She sighed. She’s going to write this in her diary right, just in case she forgets or thinks she was imagining this.

“I was like you too, it sucked when there’s something happening to you but no one believes you.”

“Right!” she shouts too loud, but her prince just laughed. He’s truly the love destined for her, he’s the only one that doesn’t mind her big mouth.

“I believe that everyone is destined to be with another. No matter how wild the circumstances are. You’re going to find someone just for you, believe me.” Her prince stares into the portal and right then, she knew Grayson is not her prince. His face looks soft and kind when he smiles. He looks like how her mom looks at her mama.

She lets go of his hand in defeat but she won’t give up.

“Did you find someone who believes in you?” She asked.

“Yes,” he answers with a smile showing all his pearly teeth.

“How did you find them?” Amalia asked.

Grayson looks up to the top of the Ferris wheel with pursed lips. Whatever he’s racking up in his brain, it made him smile.

“I didn’t. He found me.”

#jaydick #jaydick fanfic #jason todd #dick grayson #jaydick ao3 #emocel's #Jason todd fanfic #dick grayson fan

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nattvingen · 7 years ago

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Batfam Fic Recs

Specifically, JayDick and DamiTim! (Please mind the tags on AO3, be responsible for your own fandom experience, etc.)!

JAYDICK

this is where you are by empires Mature | No cape AU, Past abusive relationship, Hurt/comfort, Subspace

I'm lonely now, and I don't know how to get it back to good - matchbox 20

written for the geckoholic's prompt for the jaydick winter blahs exchange: you're a nude model at my art course and I'm so gonna fail it because you're so distracting

hold my body, hold my breath by redhoodsrobin (manatsuko) Teen-Explicit | Fake relationship, Undercover, Pining, Getting together, Sex

Nobody ever said it would be easy.

to catch a thief by badraph Teen | Character study, Relationship study

He's forced to realize, now, that his mental picture of Jason has been seriously outdated for a while now.

Exit Wounds by Fudgyokra Mature | Rape discussion, Incest discussion, Hurt/comfort, Sex, Getting together, DickKori

After a traumatic run-in with Slade, Dick returns to Wayne Manor to find peace. Instead, he finds Jason Todd.

Between The Bars by Mikimoo Mature | Undercover, POV outsider, Getting together

A number of suspicious deaths at South Haven Penitentiary are being ignored by the authorities, but have attracted the attention of various other parties.

OR:

That one time Dick and Jason accidentally ended up undercover on the same mission and started a riot.

Take the Heat Out of Me by quipquipquip Explicit | Sex, Injury, Some murder, Getting together

Lost Days!Jason trolls Officer Grayson!Dick in Blüdhaven. Dick counter-trolls with the power of love. (It's super effective.)

Swimming Up High (Flying Down Low) by geckoholic Explicit | Sex, Masturbation, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism

Dick's cheeks flush with... he's not sure. There was no alcohol to cloud either of their memory and he remembers every dirty, debauched thing they did last night. And yet there's something indecent about watching this, now, like he's catching Jason in an intimate moment that he wasn't given permission to see.

ghosts and gods by perissologist Teen | Paranormal stuff, Getting together

If Jason is a ghost, then Dick is a supernatural force all his own, one that tears worlds apart in search of better ones.

---

As a side effect of coming back from the dead, Jason is a bona fide paranormal phenomenon. Dick seems to be a little too caught up in mooning after him to notice. Their siblings aren't amused.

(Or, Jason is a supernatural presence after his resurrection, but the poor fool in love with him thinks the freaky feelings are just the butterflies in his stomach.)

Novelty by Salmon_Pink Mature | Sex, Selfcest, Threesome, Costume kink

Two Dicks, no waiting, and it'd be funny if Jason wasn't so turned on he can't think straight.

Under My Sneered Lips by Salmon_Pink Explicit | Sex, Rimming, Felching, Dirty talk

Jason enjoys being Dick's first for all the filthiest things.

Fathers, Be Good by ariadne83, somehowunbroken Teen | Kid fic, Mostly gen

The last person that Dick expects to hear talking when he picks up his phone is Jason, who has been dead for years. Except he isn’t anymore, apparently, and Dick can hear a baby screaming in the background as Jason asks him for help. What is there for Dick to do but drop everything and run to help his long-lost brother?

The Miscommunication of Severance by orphan_account Teen | Divorce, Kid fic, Angst, Happy ending

Dick and Jason were just trying to make it work for the sake of their son.

a holy fool all colored blue by hadrons_collide Teen | Angst, Hurt/comfort, Getting together

After Batman deals with Scarecrow, Nightwing tracks down the Arkham Knight.

His Girl by Neffectual Teen | MtF!Jason, Coming out, Established relationship

Jason Todd took until she was thirty to become Violet, and she sometimes wonders if she'll ever feel quite right.

I Think I Wanna Marry You by dinolaur Teen | Established relationship, Marriage, Coming out

A night out for drinks and a certain Bruno Mars song land Dick and Jason in an interesting predicament. Guess it’s as good a time as any to come out to the family.

It Doesn't Stick by Skalidra Teen | Immortality, Flirting

Jason's fifteen when he dies for the first time. He's eighteen when he comes back to Gotham for vengeance, and dies again. But for some reason that second death doesn't last any more than the first one did, and Jason comes to the realization that something, somewhere, is keeping him alive.

Calendar Boy by empires Mature | No cape AU, Friendly rivalry, Getting together

prompt: Non tragic no cape AU where Jason's a sexy fireman and Dick's a sexy police officer. Bonus +1: policemen's ball. Bonus +2: firemen's calendar. JayDick?

All the Way (Like a Good Boy) by TimmyJaybird Explicit | Sex, JayRoy, Phonesex, Threesome-ish

Jason is drunk. He's drunk and on Dick's couch and suddenly faced with an age-old crush that never exactly died. Except he's with Roy now- but Dick is fairly sure all can be fixed with a quick phone call.

Melt Me Down by Skalidra Explicit | Sex, Marathon sex, Established relationship

Sometimes, Dick gets in moods. Jason's never been able to figure out exactly what the moods stem from, despite their years together, but he always finds himself caught up in the flow of them anyway. But of all the things that Dick could be doing in these moods, this is definitely a good one.

into you by perissologist Not Rated | Dance AU

“You think it’s really Nightwing?” Kyle asks, gaze searching ahead in the herd. “Here, in Gotham?”

“It’s possible, I guess,” Jason says. “He goes everywhere, doesn’t he?”

“C’mon, what’re we waiting for?” Duke is already pushing forward, eyes glittering in excitement. “Man, how crazy would it be if it is him? Dude’s a legend. I’ve been hoping he’d come to Gotham since that one video of him dancing to Tupac on the Eiffel Tower.”

---

The Outlaws are the best underground hip-hop crew in Gotham--until the anonymous international sensation Nightwing crashes onto the scene.

A Hot Mess by Skalidra Teen | College AU, Roommates, Getting together

Jason's roommate at his college, one Dick Grayson, is both a blessing and a curse. Hot as sin but messy as hell, and completely oblivious to both things. Even when he brings up the mess part of it, it doesn't get much better (although Dick is trying). So, they enact a system. Cleaning, in exchange for 'favors.'

I'm Just A Problem That Doesn't Wanna Be Solved by geckoholic Mature | Sex, Sex pollen, Angst, Pining

The agreement, as it stands, is a couple months old. Back around New Years, they had to deliver Bats to Catwoman's doorstep in a last ditch attempt after the chemical route didn't take. It was awkward for everyone and, from what Jason heard, had served to curtail eye contact in the manor to a minimum for a few days. He and Dick had a conversation about it a couple weeks later, and really, this kinda shit happens to them often enough that certain... contingency plans seemed like a good idea.

knocked me off the ground by Windmire Not Rated | No cape AU, KoriDonna, StephCass, Getting together

"It's Jason Todd you'd be working with. You remember Jason, right?"

"He's probably hoping you remember him."

For his best friend's wedding, Dick's more than willing to double as best man and co-wedding planner, even if it means going back to the city he's been avoiding for years on end. Then he meets the other best man and co-wedding planner and falling so hard and so fast was so not part of the plan.

Baby Let's Forget the Morning by MissNaya Explicit | Sex, Incest play, Dirty talk

Jason wonders what Dick thinks of him: is he a brother, a friend, something else entirely? He gets answers, but not in the way he pictured.

deafening perceptions you have of me by thanatopis Teen | Angst, Mutual pining, Getting together

Dick and Jason keep dancing around each other, never quite giving in or giving too much, and Dick is tired.

came down easy spinning threads to the throne by pissvinegarandacrowbar Mature | Sex, Fluff, Prescribed drugs, Established relationship

Red Hood took a bullet for Nightwing. Dick is grateful, he really is. But now he has to deal with a drugged-up Jason Todd.

Run and I will Chase You by Gravity_Sun Teen | First kiss, Pining

Day 1 - First Kiss

The three times it didn't count, and the one time it did.

Cabin Fever by Skalidra Explicit | Sex, Established relationship, Injury

In one random fight, Dick takes a badly angled shot to the knee that puts him out of commission. As his partner, and the one living with him, it's Jason's job to keep Dick off his feet until he heals. Not an easy job, not with Dick's resistance to ever staying still, but he has to do it. At least there's one way that he knows for sure can bleed out some of Dick's extra energy.

Dad!Jason AU by fishfingersandjellybabies Gen-Mature | Baby Damian, Talon!Dick, Hurt/comfort, Getting together

In which Jason is resurrected and found that Talia had a baby with the Batman. To protect Damian from Bruce and Talia's battles, he gives up on his plan of revenge and instead secretly takes the child to Gotham to raise as his own.

But then Dick finds them both, and all bets are off.

My Downfall is Rooted in Your Desperate Need by victoriousscarf Explicit | Sex, Temporary character death, Rape discussion, Angst, Getting together

Dick isn't Orpheus and he can't play a lyre. But that's okay because the analogy falls apart the longer you look at it.

He's just not going to let Jason stay dead a second time.

Pop Psychology by perissologist Mature | Sex, Angst, Injury, Getting together

Stupid broken boys in love.

we will wear our masks again out after dark by IMightwing Explicit | Sex, Batman!Jason, Injury, Hurt/comfort, Getting together

Dick paused and looked straight at Jason. “I want you to be Batman until I’m healed.”

“No,” Jason said. No way in hell, he wanted to say, but the quicker he got this over with, the better.

Written for the Batfam Reverse Big Bang 2017.

Another Perfect Catastrophe by Mikimoo Explicit | Sex, Undercover, Non-consensual drug use, Non-consensual kissing

Dick goes undercover as himself in order to catch a gang of international thieves. Jason reluctantly tags along as his long suffering bodyguard. During the ensuing mayhem they get to know each other again and build a few bridges.

Indulgence by MissNaya Explicit | Sex, Established relationship, De-ageing, Dirty talk, Rape roleplay, Virginity roleplay, Spanking, Rimming, Costume kink, Bondage

A villain's curse turns Dick into a teenager physically. Before they figure out a solution, he and his boyfriend Jason decide to explore a few taboos.

Trophy Wife by Volavi Teen | Fluff, Established relationship

A casual remark from Roy forces Jason to re-evaluate his understanding of his relationship with Dick and his self-identity. Jason can't possibly be the trophy wife, can he? Dick helpfully sets Jason straight. Well, not exactly.

Miniature Bridges by Gravity_Sun Explicit | Sex, Angst, Pining

Day 3: First Time Realizing They’re In Love

It's just sex, until it isn't.

Dick's Dick by MissNaya Explicit | Sex, Sex toys, Self-discovery, Dirty talk, Exhibitionism

Jason gets Dick a gag gift for Christmas. Neither of them expect him to end up liking it so much.

Through the Wire by pissvinegarandacrowbar Explicit | Sex, Tattoos, Body image, Getting together

…to your door, to your door.

When Jason finally works up the courage to get a tattoo he's wanted for years, he attempts to send a picture of it to Roy, who is out of Gotham on an emergency mission. Turns out, Harper and Grayson are awfully close together in his contact list.

Exeunt'verse by elwon Explicit | Sex, Getting together, Coming out

JayDick character studies. A pre-nu52 AU, set after Damian arrived in Gotham, but wherein Bruce never 'died' and therefore Battle of the Cowl didn't happen.

—————

DAMITIM

For a Change by MissNaya Explicit | Sex, Oral sex, Dom/sub, Dirty talk

Tim notices everything, whether he wants to or not. He knows by the clothes Dick wears whether he’s on-again or off-again with Barbara (tight pants and polo shirts mean on-again). He remembers how many bullets Jason has left even when Jason himself forgets. And he knows that Damian has been jerking off to the thought of him for at least several weeks.

Things Have a Way by cadkitten Explicit | Sex, Masturbation, Scent kink, Frottage

Tim gets mugged in his civilian identity. Damian comes to pick up the pieces.

Hoodwing’d by somehowunbroken Mature | JayDick, Fake relationship, Or is it?, Accidental relationship

Dick and Jason seem to think it’s hilarious to make out where Tim and Damian are going to walk in on them. Naturally, Tim and Damian take revenge.

Taste the Green by Salmon_Pink Explicit | Sex, Costume kink, Blowjob

Damian is wearing the original Robin uniform. Tim doesn’t think he can be blamed if he loses his mind a little.

Show Me the Meaning (Of Being Lonely) by TimmyJaybird Explicit | Sex, One-sided TimJay, One-sided DamiDick, JayDick, Heartbreak, Rebound sex, Accidental relationship

It started with a drunken need for comfort- when Tim and Damian were broken at what felt like their worst. But what was reflex, could have been called an accident, turned into the exact thing they both never knew they truly needed.

Involuntary Ties by TimmyJaybird Explicit | Sex, FtM Tim, PiV sex

Tim invites Damian to crash on his couch for the night, and quickly expects their night to go to nothing but bickering. Good thing that Damian is weak and pretty, and Tim doesn’t mind either.

Backwards by shadeblue Mature | Sex, Hate sex, Or is it?

He doesn’t even like Tim. Tim doesn’t even like him.

My True Love Gave To Me by fishfingersandjellybabies General Audiences | Crush, Superbat, Clark is a bro

In which Damian has a crush and has no idea what to do about it.

A Day of Rest by MarbleAide Explicit | Sex, Dom/sub, Bondage, Sex toys

Tim works too hard, but Damian has his own way to make him stop and get his head cleared up.

Give by cadkitten Explicit | Sex, Breathplay, Dom/sub

“Give.” The crack of Damian’s voice was like a whip, right next to Tim’s ear, and God that did things it shouldn’t have.

you don’t have to say i love you (to say i love you) by akaparalian General Audiences | No cape AU, College AU

It is 7:46 AM on Wednesday, and Damian very carefully sits down in his seat (front row, just to the right of the podium), every fibre of his being aware that Drake is sitting two seats away. This is – surely this is statistically significant. From five seats away to two, all at once – and after the coffee, and –

lit!verse: anachronism by heartslogos Teen | Major character death, Resurrection, Damian pls

Damian’s face softens as he reaches out, fingers brushing the unconscious face, “You were my father’s Robin, and for a time, Richard’s, perhaps… you could be my Robin as well.”

Join Me When You’re Free by Skalidra Explicit | Sex, Established relationship, Bondage, Sexual experimentation

Damian and Tim have been together for years, and sometimes, Damian likes to try new things. Usually Tim can see them coming a mile away, or at least know when Damian’s got something on his mind, but this time he’s caught a little off guard. (Which does not at all mean that he’s not interested.)

Plan Awry by DustToDust Teen | Unrequited love, Or is it?

Damian had a plan. For what only became clear after it’d all gone wrong.

#Great fanfic #JayDick #DickJay #DC #Feloss does stuff

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firefrightfic · 3 years ago

Text

I posted 151 times in 2021

85 posts created (56%)

66 posts reblogged (44%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.8 posts.

I added 183 tags in 2021

#my fic - 34 posts

#asks - 32 posts

#critical role - 22 posts

#essek thelyss - 16 posts

#shadowgast - 16 posts

#fic rec - 13 posts

#skalidra - 13 posts

#ask game - 13 posts

#next day reblog - 12 posts

#shout out - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 123 characters

#also let me also reassure you that should there ever come a day where i decide i'm 100% done and not coming back to a story

My Top Posts in 2021

The Dick focused story in Batman: Black & White this week is a suprisingly lovely look back over his (pre-New 52) history and I appreciate it.

139 notes • Posted 2021-04-27 10:47:59 GMT

So wow I sat on this one for a while, because I have legit not had the energy since I got it to give what I think is an adequate answer. But I’m off work for the moment so here we go.

159 notes • Posted 2021-01-02 14:46:30 GMT

Hearing the Critical Role Exandria Unlimited discourse going on right now is both interesting and exaperating, because if you can somehow put aside the fact that whenever this kind of criticism happens it is almost always aimed exclusively at the female players (with fans who can't seem to separate a character having negative traits from the actor playing them), it really paints a portrait of the different ways people play DnD. More importantly, the way certain people can't seem to let go of the idea that if someone plays DnD in a different way than their own group does, they're doing it wrong.

Some groups like to follow the rule books to the letter. Others prefer to think of them as just guidelines. Some players are just there to kill monsters and build the most powerful character they possibly can using the mechanics available, while on the other side you have those that are there for character and story first and foremost. Both approaches are okay, but the problem comes when one group tries to inflict their opinion on the other (and tbh, it's pretty much exclusively the rule lawyers side doing this). DnD as a game to win vs. DnD as an experience.

CR to me has always been a show that favours story/character before mechanics. They largely stick to the rules as set out in the books as a framework to give the story stakes, but character journeys and roleplay triumphs over 'how efficiently can we kill monsters' time and time again. ExU, Aimee and her character Opal, are just the latest example of this, and reading Aimee's commments on twitter about she approached building and playing Opal purely through the lens of character rather than making her powerful in the traditional sense really spoke to the kind of DnD player I myself am. Especially as Aimee is new to the game, vs. the main CR cast who have several years of experience playing at this point. Aabria too, is a fantastic DM who has shown she is more than happy to bend the rules in favour of the story.

It really boggles my mind that some fans still, even now (six years into the show being aired), can't grasp this. Or be forgiving towards someone new to the game. That everything Aabria and the ExU cast did in this mini-campaign wasn't without the full blessing of the main CR cast (Matt was right there playing in this group too, people). Just, if at this point CR's play style isn't for you, move on. There's plenty of other DnD shows out there now. Let these people have their fun and be grateful they're allowing us to be there with them for the ride.

233 notes • Posted 2021-08-15 12:26:49 GMT

I'm still not over how short D&D elves can be, especially drow. Which shouldn't be the revelation that it is, but when you cut your fantasy teeth on LOTR where all the elves are tall by default it can be easy to forget, despite having also read a few Forgotten Realms books in the past, as well.

For most elven races, the recommendation is to start with a base height of 4'6, then roll 2d10 to generate a random height for your character. Which puts the majority of elves at anywhere between 4'8 and 6'3 in height depending on if you get the best or worst rolls possible (with an average of 5'5) provided my math is right, always a shaky prospect.

For drow, that base height is 4'5, and you roll 2d6. Which means the minimum and maximum height for their particular subrace is 4'7 and 5'5, respectively. Drizzt Do'Urden, the most famous drow character out there, is 5'4, while Ryld Argith from the War of the Spider Queen books, described as being unusually big and burly for a drow, was 5'5. Given that in most settings drow generally live their entire lives underground, it makes sense they'd be shorter.

Which means (because obviously this was coming back to Critical Role and Shadowgast eventually), even if Caleb is a perfectly average 5'9/5'10 for a human, he probably still towers over a non-floating Essek, who I can't imagine is particularly tall for his people either, given that he's also a squishy wizard. If we give him an average drow height, he'd only be 5', maybe 5'1 or 5'2 at a push.

In conclusion, #Shadowgast size difference rights. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

(5e.tools source for anyone who doesn't own the d&d books: https://5e.tools/races.html#elf%20(drow)_phb )

(https://www.mrinitialman.com/OddsEnds/Sizes/sizes.html for easy height comparison)

286 notes • Posted 2021-07-06 13:01:50 GMT

The fact that Essek's relationship with the Luxon can now be summed up as 'Local Atheist Only One Who Truly Understands God' is hilarious and I love it.

2728 notes • Posted 2021-06-18 10:38:09 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #got some high hitting posts this yea #r #essek champion of the luxon my beloved #combine this with the one on my main blog and you get a truly accurate assessment

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