#and has no intention to continue the violence of arkham

[gothamcityneedsme]

thinking about the arkham series again and how i actually just adore that 3 games are about arkham as a philosophical concept and an entity, as an answer to "what should be done to criminals" and a powerbase. and how it reflects the beliefs of those who created it.

then arkham dies in City. the idea of arkham comes to its natural, intended, solution. bombed to ash, the problem it was built to solve barely impacted in the long run. a failure of its whole philosphy.

Then Knight rolls around and in marches in jason, arkhams final victim and the only remaining shard of it, the symbol on his chest and arkham in his name. and he brings his own whole philosphy to it all, a much more personal and visceral thing.

[gl1tchr]

Do you think Paul Dano’s riddler is going to die in this universe? And or any of the other rogues (joker Penguin etc.) ?

That is a TOUGH question. I've tried to think about how Reeves used death in Batman, and how death is used in The Penguin to figure out who's *heading* towards it, and it's hard! Death in the Reevesverse is very indiscriminate. It takes the good, the bad, those trying to get better, those actively choosing to be worse. Is Edward's path leading him towards death, or is the more apt narrative punishment for his crimes being forced to continue living in his own mind? I think I lean towards the latter. I've always held firm that Arkhamverse Riddler is HEAVY inspo for Dano Riddler in terms of his narrative decline he will experience over the course of the movies. Beginning as a (still unethical and frankly delusional about his motives) well-intentioned vigilante genuinely doing what he thought would fix things (Early Riddler YO when he's still trying to go thru conventional routes to uncover corruption), to a more overtly violent and vindictive antagonist (End of R:YO and Batman 2022), and finally, into a severely deluded, broken man with very little self awareness because every moment he spends in introspection is painful. He must reckon with his actions and it is brutal, and THAT is his punishment. The quieting of his mind through death is a mercy for Riddler, AND MAYBE with the themes Reeves is going for, giving the Riddler PEACE could be a possible choice depending on what is set up in the second movie! Though, I'm leaning towards his narrative punishment being to live with who he is; Edward Nashton, The Riddler.

WARNING: I mention suicide by explosives ahead

AN ADENDUM; This is just something cool my brother thought of when we talked about Ed's future in the narrative and he agreed that killing him off isn't the move, HOWEVER, we explored some ways in which that could be done in and I really enjoyed his. I've talked about how I think Joker is rearing up to really HARDCORE manipulate Edward. I can't tell you how they'd pull this off, but let me paint you a picture.

Movie II, as we now know, will seem to largely focus on more of the mob and gang violence aspect of Gotham and how Batman will be applying his new philosophy of Hope-Above-Vengeance philosophy. So we don't *see* Ed or Joker for 99% of it. Batman's doing his thing when he gets a call from Gordon, Riddler has been acting strangely and has implied he has information that could give Bruce some insight (See: when he went to Arkham for Joker's perspective on Edward - he seems to know when to use these Rogues for his own purposes just as much as they use too) into whoever it is he's trying to find. A familiar scene, Edward across from Bruce in the interrogation room. He looks *horrible*, but he's elated. Bruce is biting back anger - the last time he saw Edward he was *pissed*, and that hasn't settled, but he's trying to be better. He's trying to have hope. Maybe they exchange some words, but that's not really why Edward called him here. Edward tells him that nothing can save this city. If his cleansing didn't save it, if hope isn't saving it, nothing will. So go down with me, Batman. He's got an explosive, rigged to blow, and while he smiles, he kills himself and attempts to take Batman with him. But he fails. What he does do, though, is cause a massive break-out, which Joker takes full advantage of - because he set it up. He wormed his way onto Eddie's fragile mind and convinced him death would be a release AND his vengeance against Batman. But Joker knew this wouldn't kill Batman, be that through some intuitive hunch or maybe he's familiar with how resilient he is. Either way, he will have convinced Edward to take his life if it meant taking down who he both despises and craves so desperately, but it would be a lie. It would just be to get him out. And he would tell Bruce as much - "I did that guy a favor - he was a *mess*, he'd shake my hand if he could but - I think I saw those on the ground when I left". Edward, always someone's punching bag, months very end. So, in that way, even though death is still mercy for Edward, it's still cruel. NOW I DONT THINK THIS WORKS NARRATIVELY ON A LOT OF LEVELS, it was just a REALLY chilling thought to imagine Edward's manic joy as he accepted he was going to die, but would finally hurt someone as much as hes been hurt. I liked it a lot and thought I'd share just for funsies :]

[pumpkin-genocide]

Hey you, you should check out “Abnormal Nights in Gotham”!!

Hey guys, I’m Roy, one of the main producer behind my new DC story podcast called “Abnormal Nights in Gotham.” Honestly, every night is an abnormal night for Gotham but you want to know what’s even more abnormal? Our production team!! No actually please someone save me they have so many eyes and legs I think my production team actually are monsters someone help me-

For people who aren’t so sure of if they’ll like this story, here’s a quick summary for you to get a taste of what we are all about!

“Terf Day” is coming up in Gotham. Every year, on New Years Eve, all the criminals drop their territories and fight for new territories. This keeps peace between them all, and anyone who goes against this system usually end up dead. This year, there seem to be some changes. All the gimmicked criminals are loose, Arkham Asylum is almost fully empty, and alliances are being made between criminals.

28-year-old Dr Ernest Ruby-Blu is a new psychologist at Arkham Asylum, wanting nothing more than to help the criminally insane. But he soon finds out that’s not how things are run in Gotham. Most believe they can’t be cured, and Arkham Asylum has just became another corrupt jail. He is now dead set on a mission to show Gotham that these people can be redeemed and he will go any lengths to prove that.

Meanwhile, a familiar face shows up into town after an absence in the criminal field for over 7 years. Elijah Clystone, aka “Ellie”, isn’t exactly a new criminal. He is known more as an urban legend, a man who knows too much and asks for bloody favors as payment for said information. No one knows exactly what his intentions are, but rumors around town say he has some new plans for Gotham.

Former district attorney Harvey Dent is battling against Two Face, being business partners with Oswald Cobblepot (more known as the Penguin) for more than 3 years by now. Harvey still wants to help Gotham after all these years, as Two Face wanting nothing but a false sense of harmony through violence.

Edward Nygma’s (formerly Edward Nashton and now known as the Riddler) spiral into madness continues and his hatred towards Jervis Tetch (now known as The Mad Hatter) only grows. He doesn’t know how long he can keep his peace with Oswald and Harvey, so he starts looking for new allies with others such as Dr Jonathan Crane (formerly a Arkham Asylum employee now known as the Scarecrow) and Julius Day (now known as Calendar Man).

Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Vicky Vale seem to have their own plans for Gotham. A new act called “Feldzeig’s Follies” comes into town at the cabana in Chinatown. Killer Moth is back into town as well? Scarecrow has been absent for a while. Allies are formed, schemes take shape, and betrayals are planned every day. Terf Day is coming up fast, how will Ernest prove to Gotham he can help the infamously unredeemable? Who will survive? Who will fall?

I’ll be making more posts about our crew and the podcast in general, but I hope you all enjoy our little show! In the end, we are just a couple of buddies who are having fun and voicing some characters! (Also if my grammar is wack and this all kinda sucks, I’m really sorry I’m still trying to figure out tumblr and I literally suck at writing things without making 1027202729 grammar mistakes 😭)

[dc-polls]

They Would Not Fucking Say That! Preliminary Poll

Lonnie Machin (Anarky)

From: Prelude to the Wedding: Red Hood vs. Anarky. New 52/Prime Earth(?) Context: Anarky attempts to thwart Catwoman’s bachelorette party (it was a lead-up to the Bruce/Selina fail wedding) and Jason Todd attempts to stop him.

Teams up with fascists to ruin Selina’s outing by sowing violence, chaos, and destruction in a large crowd of people because the Joker played on his desire for a father figure.

Lonnie, prior to the reboot, was conceived as and most prominently depicted as a politically left-anarchist character until his creator and primary writer, Alan Grant, began getting into Randian Neo-Tech Objectivism and projected it onto Lonnie as Lonnie was always his political mouthpiece. However, despite Lonnie's political sway going from more anarcho-communist to objectivist, he was always a character who had near-unwavering, passionate stances on social issues. He considered anyone who preyed on the common man, or "enemies of the people", to be *his* enemies, and he often came at this from a leftist point of view. He was a strong supporter of social justice for the oppressed, and it was his sorrow and outrage at oppression that led him to take up vigilantism. He despised fascism and considered anyone who used initiatory violence against others to be opposed to him. To Lonnie, anarchism is a philosophy of total freedom from oppression, self-determination, and helping your fellow man, not 'chaos'.

He was also *very* anti-gun and anti-weapon of mass destruction. Whenever he used bombs, they were often smoke bombs or paint bombs. On the one single occasion he used actual bombs to blow up a munitions factory, he evacuated everyone in the building before it blew up, as he cares for the lives of innocents and does not kill. The one single time that it is implied that he killed, his victim was a man who blew up 20+ innocent people in a public setting via bombing and used him as a scapegoat. He has said before that he 'can't let innocent people die because of him'. He holds to this even if he can be clumsy in his methods. When he once experienced a machine-induced dream in which Gotham City descended into fiery chaos because of his well-intentioned actions, he had a crying breakdown.

And, on the Joker - in his 1999 solo series, there is a plot point that is left open-ended that implies the Joker could be Lonnie's biological father, as he is an adoptee. This was done to cement Lonnie into the Batman mythos, as his creators Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle cared a lot about him. When editors disapproved of this, they let Grant write it on the condition that he would prove it wrong later on, but after the Joker issue the series was canceled, and so for all intents and purposes, it was not meant to be lasting 'canon'. Lonnie has been known to hate the Gotham Rogues, as he considers their actions against the people of the city to be completely antithetical to his views and ideals, some of the most important things to him. When he thought that the Joker could've been his father, he had a breakdown. He visited Arkham in order to find out and the Joker briefly played on his (at the time, a 16 year old child) yearning to figure out his parentage in the wake of his adoptive parents' implied death (with some genetic determinism 'does this mean i'll be a "madman" too? involved, but, eugh), but once the Joker tried to use Lonnie to help him break out of Arkham, Lonnie quickly acted against him to prevent his escape. It is said in a (dubiously canon) Batman encyclopedia that the crisis that the Joker could have been his father put him through caused him to self-isolate even harder than he normally does for a while until Cassie Sandsmark's speech during YJ: Sins of Youth inspired him back onto the field. Needless to say, he hates the Joker, and his hatred for the Joker's actions was enough to override his want for a parental figure.

In the post-reboot continuity, Lonnie is no longer an adoptee and his single mother would tell him the Joker was his 'real father' and would come and get him if he misbehaved. He began writing letters to the Joker, who eventually tried to get Lonnie to 'impress' him by giving Batman a 'rehearsal' before his wedding. Lonnie did this by gathering militant anti-feminist terrorists and gun nuts alongside leftists and anti-fascists in one place in order to get them to fight each other and cause 'blood, smoke, and chaos.'

As always, remember to check the notes for info others may have shared, and reblog to help increase reach!

Submissions close Wednesday August 23, 11:00 pm EDT

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I honestly didn't think Batman was that bad in Arkham Asylum, did something change?

It's complicated. For once Batman in the Arkham games does not kill, he is against killing and he won't let other people kill either, even the worst of his rogues. The thing is even from the start he has a huge peoblem: he doesn't think systemic change is his responsability and therefore while knowing the system is bad keeps playing the classical game of beating the rogues to an inch of their lifes and throwing them in Arkham and hoping the problem solves itself somehow. He does not realizes how he is making the system worse. How as a citizen of Gotham improving the system IS his responsability and how his power as both a vigilante and a bilionare shows that he could be decissive if he wanted to.

Another problem is that he is a huge enforcer of working alone. He is afraid of hurting his allies and keeps alienating them wich is bad for everyone. He is a good person but a deeply flawed one who realises only some of his flaws while seeing others where they don't exist.

Another thing is Arkham is a videogame. The gameplay kindda helps you ignore Batman excesive violence because you are playing as Batman and therefore the player disconects when deep on the emotion of a boss fight helps you to ignore details that you probably wouldn't in a cartoon or comic book. I never played the games only watched gameplays and a lot of times - specially with Riddler - I noticed very tragic undertones on the dialogues during a fight that the youtuber playing was to focused on not dying to process (and I think it helps to infer that in this situation the same would go for Bruce, he doesn't really understand the cries for help because they come from people who are threatning his life). Not only that but Riddler is really annoying and catching all his trophies specially in Knight (it's 400!!) is really taxing so a lot of the times the players (and we have to assume Batman) are so done with Riddler that seeing Batman beat him while he very likely has flashbacks of his father is satisfactory (see any coment section of this scenes and most people will be soo happy someone finally shut Riddler up and beat him down to care). So that helps in not noticing when Bruce is not being the most heroic person.

Not only that but in Knight in particular Bruce truly is worse. He is infected with the Joker virus during a huge part of the game and dealing with missplaced guilt over Joker's death (and having Joker halucinations isn't helping) between that the revelations over the Arkham Knight being Jason and the fear toxin he truly isn't in his right mind what may explain his conclusion that Gotham needs someone else who is darker than Batman instead of needing less violence and to break some cycles. Bruce mental health while not on Eddie or even Oswald or Havey levels deteriorated during the Arkham games as well and that made him a worse person and he sees it but takes all the wrong conclusions (it is very frustrating to see him almost getting the points).

Basically Arkham Bruce is a complex characther and that refletcs on how Gotham corrupts and how - even if it may not have been the game intention - what Gotham needs is systemic change and to Gotham to be connected to hope and light than fear and darkness. In the end either by the death of Batman or the hinted true end of Bruce truly becaming a worse darker hero who uses Crane's fear toxin as a weapon the Arkham games are a tragic story and Gotham will continue being a corrupt pitfall for a long time.

[fightabear]

so some time ago, someone asked me to do meta about a scene in Injustice and i wanted to revisit that scene with the scene from Year Zero in mind. and then i ended up getting deeply into injustice damian, his relationship with his two awful dads, and it’s kind of a mini character essay?

so! here’s a warning for: tyrannical totalitariam regimes, child abuse, abusive fathers, emotional manipulation, evil superman, character death & also random he-man. please note that this is entirely about injustice and its characters, which are not a reflection on their mainstream counterparts.

there’s tension between damian and bruce from the get-go in injustice, and we’re never really told why. if we take cues from the game (though that entire scene doesn’t make sense) then it’s because bruce didn’t save jason, which fits in with my reordered robin theory in which tim and jason were switched, and jason has only recently died.

now, we don’t know whether jason is running around as red hood right now or not. but i’m inclined to say he isn’t, as his injustice 2 ending makes a big deal of him becoming red hood. and damian is close with jason in injustice 2, close enough that jason listens when damian tells him that he’s a lot more than bruce thinks he is and drops the shitty batman costume. close enough that during the (extremely weird, extremely out of alignment with the comic) scene in injustice 2 where damian betrays bruce for clark, jason is the name damian throws at him with the most vehemence. regardless of the robin ordeer, bruce’s failure to save jason is seems to be an incredibly sore point between them.

so it’s interesting that bruce is already counting damian out before injustice even starts. he’s comparing damian to jason - someone who he apparently no longer considers part of his legacy. 

the kicker is: damian in injustice is actually probably the most morally centered version of himself. he shows open compassion and care for other people more often than he does in most of the mainstream runs. damian’s sense of right and wrong is solid, but what he wants is to break the cycle that gotham is trapped in. which from his perspective, is something bruce doesn’t seem to want to do.

injustice’s version of bruce is someone who truly believes that the ends justify the means - which means he’s apt to do some heinous things to people until they see his side of things. he seems to view people questioning as an act of betrayal, so instead of ever explaining himself he resorts to things like installing viruses in cyborg, kidnapping hawkgirl and replacing her, beating allies within an inch of their life - all of it is fine to him so long as they’re not dead. 

but it’s not fine to damian.  damian is constantly horrified at the lengths bruce will go to.

damian is afraid of his father. 

so, this is about a specific scene.  let’s get to that scene. its just important to note the difference between them, and emphasize that he’s not going with any intent to fight. if he was going to do that, he wouldn’t be doing this:

or respond like this:

or this:

he’s there to make amends, or at least try to. he still loves his father and he wants to be forgiven, and this is something that will carry on ten years later in injustice 2. damian made the choice to oppose bruce’s controlling nature but damian didn’t choose to abandon him and the bat family permanently. that choice was made for him. damian wants to come home. 

and he’s terrified of his father. i cannot stress that enough. bruce at this point has already shown that he knows how to hurt his closest friends if they oppose him.

damian is a highly trained fighter, but he’s also a  thirteen year old boy who knows he can’t overpower a man twice his size and weight.

and bruce?

bruce’s entire argument really hinges on ‘you, my thirteen year old son, didn’t take my side in this argument’. because, i have to put this in bold, the league was not executing the criminals they were removing from arkham. they were just transferring them to a more secure facility. something which is actually sorely needed, especially given what has just happened to metropolis. arkham isn’t fit to house them. and as far as damian sees it, bruce doesn’t like it because it’s removing an element of his control.

now, bruce isn’t wrong about how things will escalate. 

but damian’s not wrong about his motivation here.  i think there’s a conversation to be had about how bruce’s methods in trying to stop the regime actually drove it to further and further extremes. bruce never tries to talk to clark - or anyone, really. he just starts playing mind games to make them do what he wants.

it harkens back to the conversation bruce and dick have in the batplane. that bruce doesn’t talk to people, he doesn’t explain himself. he’s either right or you’re wrong and he won’t explain his stance. there is never room for debate. he’ll just stop talking and leave until you agree.  there is no option where he sits and listens to an open and honest dialogue, no scenario where he entertains that he might be in the wrong or maybe things aren’t black and white.

and that’s why injustice bruce is not a good guy. 

even on prime earth, damian had to bend over backwards to prove to bruce that he wasn’t a monster. it was damian who spent months digging through the sewers for martha’s pearls. damian who had to prove he was capable of loving titus. damian who constantly had to show that he was capable of empathy and thinking of others - bruce did none of the heavy lifting in that father-son relationship, he made damian climb the entire hill and still continues to put little effort into it.

and injustice bruce is even less empathetic and expressive than prime bruce.  

which is why you get a confrontation like this:

this goes beyond dick’s accident and ties back into what clark said about bruce not tending to his son’s who are grieving because they lost friends in metropolis.  damian’s fed up with never meeting bruce’s expectations. but more than that, he’s fed up with his feelings coming second to bruce’s. 

bruce has already made a judgement on who and what damian is. damian has the potential to be dangerous and requires work to fix, and so he’s not interested in getting to know him beyond that. he tells dick that he’s “worried about  damian being seduced by darkness” but never talks to damian himself with him about it.

but clark has looked at damian and and decided that damian is good. damian has problems, clark can admit that and does, but damian is good. like bruce himself.

and ultimately why when dick dies, clark is the one that reaches out to him because he sees damian for what he is: grieving child who just made a terrible mistake. it was an accident. damian didn’t mean for this to happen. meanwhile, bruce feels as though he was proven right. damian was dangerous and now his real son is dead. bruce will later admit, once he stops trying to manipulate damian, that damian was dead to him the moment dick died.

going back to year zero for a minute, they subtly show that damian is doing his best to be like bruce. baby damian idolizes his father. so i imagine a lot of bruce’s own feelings towards damian stem from self-hatred. from bruce seeing himself in his son and not liking the reflection it forces him to confront. injustice bruce projects a great deal of his own insecurities and shortcomings onto his youngest. damian is his worst what-if.

even though damian doesn’t deal with his grief the way bruce does. there are similarities, he puts his feelings into his fists and hits. just like bruce. but unlike bruce, and most likely because of dick, he does try to communicate. come injustice 2 he even talks about his feelings.

that doesn’t justify any of the violent outbursts. and he has a lot of them. he has significant issues with controlling his anger and struggles with lashing out, verbally and physically. it both worsens and improves as he gets older.

damian knows that he’s more than his grief, his loss, his anger. he’s also compassionate and capable of incredible feats of kindness. we see that in the flashback chapter in injustice 2. people aren’t pawns for damian, they aren’t a means to assuage his own guilt and validate himself as a good person. he wants to be good for those people.

damian’s relationship with heroism isn’t built on an intrinsic need for control or power, nor is it a means of validating his self worth.

people just need him. they’re suffering.  and he wants to be there for them.

but again, we’re not there yet.

so, alfred reaches out to touch damian. damian asks him repeatedly to let go. when alfred doesn’t, damian tries throwing him off, not realizing how much strength he now possesses.

damian  has a thing about being touched when he’s wound up tightly. it almost always ends with him lashing out at someone. which, tying back into why he felt comfortable coming back here, probably goes into his expectation that he’s going to get the lights knocked out of him. because again, damian did not go to the cave to fight or hurt anyone. the pill is entirely for his own defense.

from what we know of damian’s childhood in both prime and injustice, violence is the expected retaliation for misbehavior. toeing out of line is grounds for getting the shit beaten out of you, and while things should be different here....

from how bruce reacts he’s not wrong to expect it.  note that bruce dodesn’t run to alfred to see if he’s okay, he goes after damian for hurting him. it’s damian who runs to alfred after he’s thrown bruce away from him.  

( granted, yes, he threw bruce into the penny and it almost crushes alfred )

damian apologizes and he means it.  alfred’s first question is to ask for bruce.  

“”hawkgirl”” intervenes to try to end this fight before it can escalate further.

damian deduces that this isn’t hawkgirl and blows some stuff up.  bruce calls after him probably - not to have a serious heart to heart with him about what just happened, or what happened in arkham, but to try to manipulate him into taking bruce’s side or in the very least stop his ruse from being uncovered.

this is a theme moving forward. bruce will dangle forgiveness in front of damian, but only when it benefits him and can be used to control him. eventually he’ll stop and will use the guilt he knows damian feels to wound him.

and here’s the second theme it introduces: damian is scared shitless of his father. he’s not afraid of bruce’s violence, as after this he charges straight for him time and time again, but he is utterly terrified of the lengths bruce will go to get his way.

this is also where he takes dick’s suit. i think this was his way of telling bruce that he didn’t deserve to use dick’s memory the way he uses his parent’s death - as justification for what he does.  this comes up in injustice 2 later down the road, damian will bring up that bruce uses his pain to justify how he brutalizes the people around him. damian does the same thing -- but we also see damian grappling with his conscience about it. he wants to be better. he doesn’t want to be all his violence and loss.

back to the topic at hand, damian doesn’t do anything with dick’s suit. unlike bruce, damian doesn’t wear his grief and guilt in plain sight. he puts it in a box and doesn’t look at it, he covers the wounds with anger and as he gets older, develops a death wish and basically begins seeking a noble death in order to make up for what he’s done. it isn’t until dick passes the mantle to him in an attempt to steer him back on the right path that he even looks at it again.

damian isn’t the one that ended his relationship with bruce. bruce did. damian is very willing to reconcile if bruce genuinely wants it, but bruce doesn’t bother with damian outside of combat or when he needs something. damian actually keeps up visits with alfred, he gets him birthday presents, they meet up often and despite their opposing viewpoints, they get along just fine. damian even listens to what alfred says. he still loves his family.

damian himself is a mess. this line resonates because damian, too, is afraid. afraid of bruce, afraid of being what bruce thinks he is. there’s only so far he can bury it under the anger.

by the next issue of year one, after the confrontation at the manor, damian’s discarded any notion that bruce is a good person or justified in anything he does. everything he says on this page is true.

he’s not wrong. he’s more than bruce has even given him credit for being. injustice bruce sorts people into boxes impossible to climb out.  damian made his attempt at reconciliation and instead, found out that bruce has kidnapped and replaced one of his friends to spy on all the rest. in that split second when bruce came at at him, he saw the disgust and anger in his eyes. he’s seen how bruce sees him and wholeheartedly rejects it. 

he doesn’t want to be bruce. he will not be bruce.

batman was supposed to be better than the league. it was supposed to be a new way. instead he just found a new, different means to brutalize and control, and a new way someone justifies causing harm. and he doesn’t want it.

this isn’t to say that damian is a saint. he’s a very flawed, very broken person. he went from one abusive parental situation, to another, to another, and has the damage to show for it. he’s got bad habits from all of them, many of which he isn’t aware of or doesn’t think are a problem. 

but unlike his two dads, damian doesn’t close himself off to what he’s feeling completely, nor does he decide to rush towards external solutions for his pain. he’s, again, very aware that something is wrong. he doesn’t hold to his convictions the same way bruce or clark do, he questions.  he’s deeply unhappy with who he is and what he’s doing. 

but damian is seeking answers using a very limited toolset, and there’s a very limited pool of people he can ask that won’t give him a biased answer or try to manipulate him for their own means. one of the people he confides in does just that.

the other gives him the honest truth.

his relationship with selina is fraught and she’s often one of the very nastiest people towards him, but it’s because of that  he ends up opening up to her. she isn’t going to bullshit him and just say what he wants to hear.

and this is what makes damian different from them. both of them.

because he stops, because he questions, he’s still connected to reality. to his own humanity.

injustice’s bruce is a bruce that has quietly let his humanity die. he’s completely given over to the cold logic of batman and the idea that whatever he does to the people around him, no matter how morally dubious, is justified so long as it means protecting lives. he might not kill, but he really stops just short of that. he just doubles down on his beliefs and takes anyone who doesn’t agree with him as a traitor. he will go out of his way to rationalize how a largely guilty person is innocent (harleen) and how a largely innocent person is guilty (damian). and so he uses damian’s “betrayal” - ie, damian standing with clark instead of him - as justification for icing him out. that way he can ignore all the people who have reminded him time and time again that it was an accident.  

bruce also can’t stand that damian won’t do what he says. bruce will ignore damian unless it benefits him. bruce will go on to frequently weaponize how badly damian wants forgiveness against him. there are multiple instances where he says “just do as i say and i’ll forgive you, son.”

and then in the next breath, he’ll tell damian that he “can’t forgive the deaths”, all the while he has harleen as his new sidekick.   it’s fine that harleen helped with the scheme to blow up metropolis, killed jimmy olsen, and countless others. it’s not fine that damian did something he did all the time to dick - something dick himself shrugged off, because the expectation for this behavior was that dick would catch the baton - and it ended in tragedy.

because harleen listens to him and damian doesn’t. bruce cuts damian neatly out of his life and only really cares about him again when he’s a corpse.

damian, meanwhile, never stops trying to earn bruce’s forgiveness. in the canonical bad end (or well a comic offshoot of the canon ending) damian essentially dies begging bruce to forgive him, admitting that he always cared. he launches an absolutely insane rescue mission to save his father from clark’s torture and it costs him his life.

( but it’s worth mentioning - it takes damian showing bruce an image of kara for bruce to acknowledge him. )

even before this, damian was looking out for bruce in other ways. he was the reason selina got involved with the regime. because he offered her the chance to join and save bruce. damian’s anger towards bruce is less that he wants him dead, and more that bruce won’t stop unless he’s killed.

and damian is willing to kill him if bruce poses a threat to his ‘new’ family. he’s not going to watch bruce hurt the people he loves.

but his new father sucks just as much as his old one.

talia and bruce were more obviously abusive parents. they were controlling and sometimes asserted that control and obedience using physical violence and intimidation. in obvious ways you can point to and see abuse. 

damian doesn’t recognize clark is using him until he sees clark discard kara, who should be everything to clark and is someone important to damian. before that, he has inklings that they’ve gone too far, but clark has been such a paragon of good that when he tells damian not to worry about it, he doesn’t. he hides all his darkness behind that  smile and tells damian he’s good and worthy of people loving him, that they’re saving people and they won’t let another metropolis happen. clark talks to him and still (seems to) accept him even when they disagree.

damian misses clark’s equally as abusive tendencies because they hidden under the guise of a fatherly concern. 

clark is manipulating him into divulging more than he wants to. a boundary damian set is being broken without damian even realizing it.  damian’s uneasy. his body language goes from very easy and relaxed to overtly uncomfortable and almost submissive. it’s also very subtle but clark actually rises higher off the ground to intimidate and loom over him.

damian, who has only known bruce’s stormy silences in moments of disagreement, doesn’t recognize this for what it is.  clark doesn’t take the slight out on him. clark doesn’t stop talking to him because he dared to question.

instead, he loops an arm around damian and praises him, rewards him for being honest and makes it seem like this is an open dialogue and not an interrogation. which it is. i wouldn’t call it gaslighting, but i would call it lovebombing. damian doesn’t realize that there was anything off about the encounter, or if he does, he’ll tell himself he’s just being paranoid.

after all. this ended amicably, not with him standing alone wondering what he did wrong, or being thrown across the room. clark basically stops just shy of ruffling his hair and calling him sport. 

he was rewarded for honesty. and so any discomfort he felt was imagined.

 i think a thing that a lot of fans miss is that injustice’s damian is a forthright person. he doesn’t lie or deceive much, and later on it will bother him that he’s keeping secrets from kara for ‘the greater good’. he loathes that bruce does it and works hard to not fall into that trap. he wants to be honest. he’s glad when he’s rewarded for that honesty. 

because injustice’s damian doesn’t want to be batman. he wants to be superman. he wants to be good.

but injustice’s superman is not a good man. 

clark keep secrets, many terrible secrets, and often hurts people and justifies it to himself. he just hides it far better than bruce does.  clark is even more controlling and cruel, but he leans harder into his humanity and emotions to hide it. it’s easier to see bruce being cold and calculating and miss the way clark subtly uses what you want to get what he wants out of you. and you never really see it coming when he lashes out. he’ll apologize for it, of course, and if you’re not dead you’ll forgive him, because it’s clark. he didn’t mean it. right?

bruce manipulates overtly and grandly using intimidation, clark manipulates subtly using emotion. damian only recognizes one of these things when they happen.

so clark gives damian what he wants - a parent who loves him, someone he can talk to and even show a little vulnerability with - and then uses that against him. 

the worst thing -  the very worst thing - is that bruce and clark love damian. he knows this. both seem to genuinely consider him their son. and he knows this.

in injustice vs motu, bruce snaps fully into awareness just as diana snaps damian’s neck. he’s awake just in time to watch his son die.    and when clark is brought onto the scene, clark falls to his knees and mourns damian and laments his role in driving him to this.

but they weaponize this parent-child bond he wants against him and each other. frankly, neither of them were very interested in him for who he was. nor for helping him be better and master his anger. damian’s body isn’t even cold before bruce uses it against clark, failing to acknowledge his own part in damian’s all too early demise.

he’s another chess piece on their board. one clark can use to wound bruce. one bruce can use to wound clark.

the person damian is when away from both of their influence is a more complete damian. he’s the very best of both of them.

the damian here is still curt and sometimes rude, but he laughs and bonds with the people around him. he values people’s freedom and seems to strive for honesty and communication. meaning no one is in his war to reclaim the world doesn’t want to be, and he makes no move without everyone knowing.

when he recruits adam,  he tells them their story and what they’ve gone through and gives adam the choice to join them or stay in eternia.

anyway, all of this is to say that even all these years later, i continue to be so sad about injustice damian wayne. 

edit:

now, there’s actually one other thing i want to bring up because i totally forgot about it.

so. issue 8 of injustice 2.  

if we’re going with the idea of the reordered robin theory, which is what makes the most sense to me considering jason’s age and the friction between bruce and damian, this before jason dies. and if i’m wrong and the robins don’t have a different order, then this is before some enormous event that broke the slowly building trust.

there’s none of the undercurrent of hostility and distrust that shows up in year 0, which is immediately before year 1. we’re not given a timeframe for when this occurs, either, it’s just happier times.

but what’s really hard to ignore is that the dynamic between bruce and damian is completely different here. maybe tom taylor’s just settled more into writing the two of them, but i don’t think so. year zero comes after this. 

he even acknowledges damian’s anger earlier in the chapter. but it’s less of a condemnation of his character and more a concern that he might not be ready to be on his own. alfred is the one advocating for caution, asking if he’s ready, bruce is the one saying yes, he is.

it’s a complete reversal.

and his trust is rewarded with a night of damian abandoning the “”mission”” he was given (get home from the furthest point of gotham in three hours) to help everyone along the way. which was the real goal all along, it was a test to see if damian’s compassion would win out over his want to win. and it does. bruce is proud of him.

so... what happened between them? what caused that shift? 

i’m kind of worried we’re never going to know. like, i’m so glad that tom taylor is dc’s new golden boy and they’re just letting him build a million different aus. i buy every book he writes. 

but also i’m dying because IJ2 was clearly planned to go on a lot longer than it did and i have questions that i know netherrealm doesn’t care about answering.

[batricide]

i’ll drop this on my blog here too actually bc it’s Important to how i play damian and also let me yell about the fact that ij’s bruce is not a good person and the reason why so many people hate damian is because they somehow miss that.

so! here’s a warning for: tyrannical totalitarian regimes, child abuse, abusive fathers, emotional manipulation, evil superman, character death & also random he-man. please note that this is about injustice and its characters, which are not a reflection on their mainstream counterparts or how i view them.

there’s tension between damian and bruce from the get-go in injustice, and we’re never really told why. if we take cues from the game (though that entire scene doesn’t make sense) then it’s because bruce didn’t save jason, which fits in with my reordered robin theory in which tim and jason were switched, and jason has only recently died.

now, we don’t know whether jason is running around as red hood right now or not. but i’m inclined to say he isn’t, as his injustice 2 ending makes a big deal of him becoming red hood. and damian is close with jason in injustice 2, close enough that jason listens when damian tells him that he’s a lot more than bruce thinks he is and drops the shitty batman costume. close enough that during the (extremely weird, extremely out of alignment with the comic) scene in injustice 2 where damian betrays bruce for clark, jason is the name damian throws at him with the most vehemence. regardless of the robin ordeer, bruce’s failure to save jason is seems to be an incredibly sore point between them.

so it’s interesting that bruce is already counting damian out before injustice even starts. he’s comparing damian to jason - someone who he apparently no longer considers part of his legacy. 

the kicker is: damian in injustice is actually probably the most morally centered version of himself. he shows open compassion and care for other people more often than he does in most of the mainstream runs. damian’s sense of right and wrong is solid, but what he wants is to break the cycle that gotham is trapped in. which from his perspective, is something bruce doesn’t seem to want to do.

injustice’s version of bruce is someone who truly believes that the ends justify the means - which means he’s apt to do some heinous things to people until they see his side of things. he seems to view people questioning as an act of betrayal, so instead of ever explaining himself he resorts to things like installing viruses in cyborg, kidnapping hawkgirl and replacing her, beating allies within an inch of their life - all of it is fine to him so long as they’re not dead. 

but it’s not fine to damian.  damian is constantly horrified at the lengths bruce will go to.

damian is afraid of his father. 

so, this is about a specific scene.  let’s get to that scene. its just important to note the difference between them, and emphasize that he’s not going with any intent to fight. if he was going to do that, he wouldn’t be doing this:

or respond like this:

or this:

he’s there to make amends, or at least try to. he still loves his father and he wants to be forgiven, and this is something that will carry on ten years later in injustice 2. damian made the choice to oppose bruce’s controlling nature but damian didn’t choose to abandon him and the bat family permanently. that choice was made for him. damian wants to come home. 

and he’s terrified of his father. i cannot stress that enough. bruce at this point has already shown that he knows how to hurt his closest friends if they oppose him.

damian is a highly trained fighter, but he’s also a  thirteen year old boy who knows he can’t overpower a man twice his size and weight.

and bruce?

bruce’s entire argument really hinges on ‘you, my thirteen year old son, didn’t take my side in this argument’. because, i have to put this in bold, the league was not executing the criminals they were removing from arkham. they were just transferring them to a more secure facility. something which is actually sorely needed, especially given what has just happened to metropolis. arkham isn’t fit to house them. and as far as damian sees it, bruce doesn’t like it because it’s removing an element of his control.

now, bruce isn’t wrong about how things will escalate. 

but damian’s not wrong about his motivation here.  i think there’s a conversation to be had about how bruce’s methods in trying to stop the regime actually drove it to further and further extremes. bruce never tries to talk to clark - or anyone, really. he just starts playing mind games to make them do what he wants.

it harkens back to the conversation bruce and dick have in the batplane. that bruce doesn’t talk to people, he doesn’t explain himself. he’s either right or you’re wrong and he won’t explain his stance. there is never room for debate. he’ll just stop talking and leave until you agree.  there is no option where he sits and listens to an open and honest dialogue, no scenario where he entertains that he might be in the wrong or maybe things aren’t black and white.

and that’s why injustice bruce is not a good guy. 

even on prime earth, damian had to bend over backwards to prove to bruce that he wasn’t a monster. it was damian who spent months digging through the sewers for martha’s pearls. damian who had to prove he was capable of loving titus. damian who constantly had to show that he was capable of empathy and thinking of others - bruce did none of the heavy lifting in that father-son relationship, he made damian climb the entire hill and still continues to put little effort into it.

and injustice bruce is even less empathetic and expressive than prime bruce.  

which is why you get a confrontation like this:

this goes beyond dick’s accident and ties back into what clark said about bruce not tending to his son’s who are grieving because they lost friends in metropolis.  damian’s fed up with never meeting bruce’s expectations. but more than that, he’s fed up with his feelings coming second to bruce’s. 

bruce has already made a judgement on who and what damian is. damian has the potential to be dangerous and requires work to fix, and so he’s not interested in getting to know him beyond that. he tells dick that he’s “worried about  damian being seduced by darkness” but never talks to damian himself with him about it.

but clark has looked at damian and and decided that damian is good. damian has problems, clark can admit that and does, but damian is good. like bruce himself.

and ultimately why when dick dies, clark is the one that reaches out to him because he sees damian for what he is: grieving child who just made a terrible mistake. it was an accident. damian didn’t mean for this to happen. meanwhile, bruce feels as though he was proven right. damian was dangerous and now his real son is dead. bruce will later admit, once he stops trying to manipulate damian, that damian was dead to him the moment dick died.

going back to year zero for a minute, they subtly show that damian is doing his best to be like bruce. baby damian idolizes his father. so i imagine a lot of bruce’s own feelings towards damian stem from self-hatred. from bruce seeing himself in his son and not liking the reflection it forces him to confront. injustice bruce projects a great deal of his own insecurities and shortcomings onto his youngest. damian is his worst what-if.

even though damian doesn’t deal with his grief the way bruce does. there are similarities, he puts his feelings into his fists and hits. just like bruce. but unlike bruce, and most likely because of dick, he does try to communicate. come injustice 2 he even talks about his feelings.

that doesn’t justify any of the violent outbursts. and he has a lot of them. he has significant issues with controlling his anger and struggles with lashing out, verbally and physically. it both worsens and improves as he gets older.

damian knows that he’s more than his grief, his loss, his anger. he’s also compassionate and capable of incredible feats of kindness. we see that in the flashback chapter in injustice 2. people aren’t pawns for damian, they aren’t a means to assuage his own guilt and validate himself as a good person. he wants to be good for those people.

damian’s relationship with heroism isn’t built on an intrinsic need for control or power, nor is it a means of validating his self worth.

people just need him. they’re suffering.  and he wants to be there for them.

but again, we’re not there yet.

so, alfred reaches out to touch damian. damian asks him repeatedly to let go. when alfred doesn’t, damian tries throwing him off, not realizing how much strength he now possesses.

damian  has a thing about being touched when he’s wound up tightly. it almost always ends with him lashing out at someone. which, tying back into why he felt comfortable coming back here, probably goes into his expectation that he’s going to get the lights knocked out of him. because again, damian did not go to the cave to fight or hurt anyone. the pill is entirely for his own defense.

from what we know of damian’s childhood in both prime and injustice, violence is the expected retaliation for misbehavior. toeing out of line is grounds for getting the shit beaten out of you, and while things should be different here....

from how bruce reacts he’s not wrong to expect it.  note that bruce dodesn’t run to alfred to see if he’s okay, he goes after damian for hurting him. it’s damian who runs to alfred after he’s thrown bruce away from him.  

( granted, yes, he threw bruce into the penny and it almost crushes alfred )

damian apologizes and he means it.  alfred’s first question is to ask for bruce.  

“”hawkgirl”” intervenes to try to end this fight before it can escalate further.

damian deduces that this isn’t hawkgirl and blows some stuff up.  bruce calls after him probably - not to have a serious heart to heart with him about what just happened, or what happened in arkham, but to try to manipulate him into taking bruce’s side or in the very least stop his ruse from being uncovered.

this is a theme moving forward. bruce will dangle forgiveness in front of damian, but only when it benefits him and can be used to control him. eventually he’ll stop and will use the guilt he knows damian feels to wound him.

and here’s the second theme it introduces: damian is scared shitless of his father. he’s not afraid of bruce’s violence, as after this he charges straight for him time and time again, but he is utterly terrified of the lengths bruce will go to get his way.

this is also where he takes dick’s suit. i think this was his way of telling bruce that he didn’t deserve to use dick’s memory the way he uses his parent’s death - as justification for what he does.  this comes up in injustice 2 later down the road, damian will bring up that bruce uses his pain to justify how he brutalizes the people around him. damian does the same thing -- but we also see damian grappling with his conscience about it. he wants to be better. he doesn’t want to be all his violence and loss.

back to the topic at hand, damian doesn’t do anything with dick’s suit. unlike bruce, damian doesn’t wear his grief and guilt in plain sight. he puts it in a box and doesn’t look at it, he covers the wounds with anger and as he gets older, develops a death wish and basically begins seeking a noble death in order to make up for what he’s done. it isn’t until dick passes the mantle to him in an attempt to steer him back on the right path that he even looks at it again.

damian isn’t the one that ended his relationship with bruce. bruce did. damian is very willing to reconcile if bruce genuinely wants it, but bruce doesn’t bother with damian outside of combat or when he needs something. damian actually keeps up visits with alfred, he gets him birthday presents, they meet up often and despite their opposing viewpoints, they get along just fine. damian even listens to what alfred says. he still loves his family.

damian himself is a mess. this line resonates because damian, too, is afraid. afraid of bruce, afraid of being what bruce thinks he is. there’s only so far he can bury it under the anger.

by the next issue of year one, after the confrontation at the manor, damian’s discarded any notion that bruce is a good person or justified in anything he does. everything he says on this page is true.

he’s not wrong. he’s more than bruce has even given him credit for being. injustice bruce sorts people into boxes impossible to climb out.  damian made his attempt at reconciliation and instead, found out that bruce has kidnapped and replaced one of his friends to spy on all the rest. in that split second when bruce came at at him, he saw the disgust and anger in his eyes. he’s seen how bruce sees him and wholeheartedly rejects it. 

he doesn’t want to be bruce. he will not be bruce.

batman was supposed to be better than the league. it was supposed to be a new way. instead he just found a new, different means to brutalize and control, and a new way someone justifies causing harm. and he doesn’t want it.

this isn’t to say that damian is a saint. he’s a very flawed, very broken person. he went from one abusive parental situation, to another, to another, and has the damage to show for it. he’s got bad habits from all of them, many of which he isn’t aware of or doesn’t think are a problem. 

but unlike his two dads, damian doesn’t close himself off to what he’s feeling completely, nor does he decide to rush towards external solutions for his pain. he’s, again, very aware that something is wrong. he doesn’t hold to his convictions the same way bruce or clark do, he questions.  he’s deeply unhappy with who he is and what he’s doing. 

but damian is seeking answers using a very limited toolset, and there’s a very limited pool of people he can ask that won’t give him a biased answer or try to manipulate him for their own means. one of the people he confides in does just that.

the other gives him the honest truth.

his relationship with selina is fraught and she’s often one of the very nastiest people towards him, but it’s because of that  he ends up opening up to her. she isn’t going to bullshit him and just say what he wants to hear.

and this is what makes damian different from them. both of them.

because he stops, because he questions, he’s still connected to reality. to his own humanity.

injustice’s bruce is a bruce that has quietly let his humanity die. he’s completely given over to the cold logic of batman and the idea that whatever he does to the people around him, no matter how morally dubious, is justified so long as it means protecting lives. he might not kill, but he really stops just short of that. he just doubles down on his beliefs and takes anyone who doesn’t agree with him as a traitor. he will go out of his way to rationalize how a largely guilty person is innocent (harleen) and how a largely innocent person is guilty (damian). and so he uses damian’s “betrayal” - ie, damian standing with clark instead of him - as justification for icing him out. that way he can ignore all the people who have reminded him time and time again that it was an accident.  

bruce also can’t stand that damian won’t do what he says. bruce will ignore damian unless it benefits him. bruce will go on to frequently weaponize how badly damian wants forgiveness against him. there are multiple instances where he says “just do as i say and i’ll forgive you, son.”

and then in the next breath, he’ll tell damian that he “can’t forgive the deaths”, all the while he has harleen as his new sidekick.   it’s fine that harleen helped with the scheme to blow up metropolis, killed jimmy olsen, and countless others. it’s not fine that damian did something he did all the time to dick - something dick himself shrugged off, because the expectation for this behavior was that dick would catch the baton - and it ended in tragedy.

because harleen listens to him and damian doesn’t. bruce cuts damian neatly out of his life and only really cares about him again when he’s a corpse.

damian, meanwhile, never stops trying to earn bruce’s forgiveness. in the canonical bad end (or well a comic offshoot of the canon ending) damian essentially dies begging bruce to forgive him, admitting that he always cared. he launches an absolutely insane rescue mission to save his father from clark’s torture and it costs him his life.

( but it’s worth mentioning - it takes damian showing bruce an image of kara for bruce to acknowledge him. )

even before this, damian was looking out for bruce in other ways. he was the reason selina got involved with the regime. because he offered her the chance to join and save bruce. damian’s anger towards bruce is less that he wants him dead, and more that bruce won’t stop unless he’s killed.

and damian is willing to kill him if bruce poses a threat to his ‘new’ family. he’s not going to watch bruce hurt the people he loves.

but his new father sucks just as much as his old one.

talia and bruce were more obviously abusive parents. they were controlling and sometimes asserted that control and obedience using physical violence and intimidation. in obvious ways you can point to and see abuse. 

damian doesn’t recognize clark is using him until he sees clark discard kara, who should be everything to clark and is someone important to damian. before that, he has inklings that they’ve gone too far, but clark has been such a paragon of good that when he tells damian not to worry about it, he doesn’t. he hides all his darkness behind that  smile and tells damian he’s good and worthy of people loving him, that they’re saving people and they won’t let another metropolis happen. clark talks to him and still (seems to) accept him even when they disagree.

damian misses clark’s equally as abusive tendencies because they hidden under the guise of a fatherly concern. 

clark is manipulating him into divulging more than he wants to. a boundary damian set is being broken without damian even realizing it.  damian’s uneasy. his body language goes from very easy and relaxed to overtly uncomfortable and almost submissive. it’s also very subtle but clark actually rises higher off the ground to intimidate and loom over him.

damian, who has only known bruce’s stormy silences in moments of disagreement, doesn’t recognize this for what it is.  clark doesn’t take the slight out on him. clark doesn’t stop talking to him because he dared to question.

instead, he loops an arm around damian and praises him, rewards him for being honest and makes it seem like this is an open dialogue and not an interrogation. which it is. i wouldn’t call it gaslighting, but i would call it lovebombing. damian doesn’t realize that there was anything off about the encounter, or if he does, he’ll tell himself he’s just being paranoid.

after all. this ended amicably, not with him standing alone wondering what he did wrong, or being thrown across the room. clark basically stops just shy of ruffling his hair and calling him sport. 

he was rewarded for honesty. and so any discomfort he felt was imagined.

 i think a thing that a lot of fans miss is that injustice’s damian is a forthright person. he doesn’t lie or deceive much, and later on it will bother him that he’s keeping secrets from kara for ‘the greater good’. he loathes that bruce does it and works hard to not fall into that trap. he wants to be honest. he’s glad when he’s rewarded for that honesty. 

because injustice’s damian doesn’t want to be batman. he wants to be superman. he wants to be good.

but injustice’s superman is not a good man. 

clark keep secrets, many terrible secrets, and often hurts people and justifies it to himself. he just hides it far better than bruce does.  clark is even more controlling and cruel, but he leans harder into his humanity and emotions to hide it. it’s easier to see bruce being cold and calculating and miss the way clark subtly uses what you want to get what he wants out of you. and you never really see it coming when he lashes out. he’ll apologize for it, of course, and if you’re not dead you’ll forgive him, because it’s clark. he didn’t mean it. right?

bruce manipulates overtly and grandly using intimidation, clark manipulates subtly using emotion. damian only recognizes one of these things when they happen.

so clark gives damian what he wants - a parent who loves him, someone he can talk to and even show a little vulnerability with - and then uses that against him. 

the worst thing -  the very worst thing - is that bruce and clark love damian. he knows this. both seem to genuinely consider him their son. and he knows this.

in injustice vs motu, bruce snaps fully into awareness just as diana snaps damian’s neck. he’s awake just in time to watch his son die.    and when clark is brought onto the scene, clark falls to his knees and mourns damian and laments his role in driving him to this.

but they weaponize this parent-child bond he wants against him and each other. frankly, neither of them were very interested in him for who he was. nor for helping him be better and master his anger. damian’s body isn’t even cold before bruce uses it against clark, failing to acknowledge his own part in damian’s all too early demise.

he’s another chess piece on their board. one clark can use to wound bruce. one bruce can use to wound clark.

the person damian is when away from both of their influence is a more complete damian. he’s the very best of both of them.

the damian here is still curt and sometimes rude, but he laughs and bonds with the people around him. he values people’s freedom and seems to strive for honesty and communication. meaning no one is in his war to reclaim the world doesn’t want to be, and he makes no move without everyone knowing.

when he recruits adam,  he tells them their story and what they’ve gone through and gives adam the choice to join them or stay in eternia.

anyway, all of this is to say that even all these years later, i continue to be so sad about injustice damian wayne. 

edit:

now, there’s actually one other thing i want to bring up because i totally forgot about it.

so. issue 8 of injustice 2.  

if we’re going with the idea of the reordered robin theory, which is what makes the most sense to me considering jason’s age and the friction between bruce and damian, this before jason dies. and if i’m wrong and the robins don’t have a different order, then this is before some enormous event that broke the slowly building trust.

there’s none of the undercurrent of hostility and distrust that shows up in year 0, which is immediately before year 1. we’re not given a timeframe for when this occurs, either, it’s just happier times.

but what’s really hard to ignore is that the dynamic between bruce and damian is completely different here. maybe tom taylor’s just settled more into writing the two of them, but i don’t think so. year zero comes after this. 

he even acknowledges damian’s anger earlier in the chapter. but it’s less of a condemnation of his character and more a concern that he might not be ready to be on his own. alfred is the one advocating for caution, asking if he’s ready, bruce is the one saying yes, he is.

it’s a complete reversal.

and his trust is rewarded with a night of damian abandoning the “”mission”” he was given (get home from the furthest point of gotham in three hours) to help everyone along the way. which was the real goal all along, it was a test to see if damian’s compassion would win out over his want to win. and it does. bruce is proud of him.

so... what happened between them? what caused that shift? 

i’m kind of worried we’re never going to know. like, i’m so glad that tom taylor is dc’s new golden boy and they’re just letting him build a million different aus. i buy every book he writes. 

but also i’m dying because IJ2 was clearly planned to go on a lot longer than it did and i have questions that i know netherrealm doesn’t care about answering.

[theodorecanaryhood]

Big softie

Jason Todd x male child reader...about 5 or 6 years old.

Arkhamverse: Arkham Knight meets a child and takes him in. WARNING: death scene, language and violence.

Commissioner Gordon had just announced that Gotham City was in lockdown, anyone who hadn't left the City yet was basically screwed.

Luckily Batman was there to protect those who needed it, but not everyone could be saved. Your parents were in the kitchen as the announcement came, Scarecrow had revealed his intentions of releasing his fear toxin.

'We're going and that's final' your dad belted as he packed a bag, your mother grabbing his arm.

'But Pete, you need to think about y/n, what are we going to tell him?' Your mother said, almost as a whisper, 'He's just a child' she continued.

Your Dad sighed as he kissed your Mother gently, 'we have to tell him the truth' your Father said. They were stopped as there were gunshots heard outside, you dad grabbing a bat and your mum grabbing a knife.

'Good evening' a man's voice boomed from behind your parents. Your Mother screamed as your Father charged him, although he fought, your Father wasn't strong enough and the man overpowered him. Shooting him in the chest,

'Peter, no' your Mother screamed, she went to run but was caught by another man who then stabbed her. You were hiding in the closet, watching the whole thing. Crying.

It was a good hour later, the men raided the house and took all the goods. Your parents just left to die on the floor in the hallway. You crawled out from the hallway closet and went over to your parents.

...

Running out into the streets you saw no cop cars, just thugs and criminals wreaking havoc on the streets. You ran down the street to a neighbours house but it was no use, after pounding on the door you found it was empty.

That was when you saw him, he was towering over you with his suit. Kind of looked like the Batman suit only just more military. Also, his mask was strange, blue with glowing white, blue and red on it. Kind of techy.

'You lost little boy?' The man asked you, you just jumped forward and hugged him tight, crying into him. The man was a little shocked at first, but put one hand on your shoulder.

'I lost my parents, I watched them, the bad men came and took them' you sobbed, the man just kneeled down and hugged you tight, letting you cry into his shoulder.

'It's ok, I'll help you find them' the man said gently in your ear. Even though his voice was modified you could tell he was being gentle with you.

'They're dead' was all you said in response, you heard a slight gasp from the man.

'Come with me' the man said as he rose to his feet, he held out his hand for you to take. You obliged and took it, walking along side him down the street.

...

You were in a big room with about 8 men standing round you, one being the masked man who you now knew to be The Arkham Knight.

One of the men gave you some juice and another gave you a bag of chips to eat. Both standing next to you with their guns tucked under their arms. As if protecting you.

'What about the second phase?' One man asked the Knight, the Knight just shook his head.

'It's too soon for that, we have to act cautiously too. Batman will be onto us by now' Knight said, you just looked at him with big eyes as you finished your juice. You jumped off your seat, rushed over to him with your arms out. The Knight picked you up and sat you on the table in front of him.

'Someone has to stay with the kid, y/n can't be alone' Knight said, you smiled, 'I would love too but I have to be on the front line, Louis, you stay here with my boy' Knight finished.

'Of course sir' Louis said as he helped you down and walked into another room with you.

...

After the confrontation between Knight and Batman, Bruce Wayne now knows Knight is Jason. Jason left the site, eventually coming back and helping Bruce one last time. Rebirthing as Red Hood.

Coming back to Base was strange as Jason didn't have that, complete feel. He didn't feel like he'd done everything he set out to do. But he still felt better in himself.

Seeing your little face in the hallway made him feel even better. Also, it was the first time you were seeing him without a mask on.

'Knight?' You asked curious looking at his bare face, Jason smiled and nodded.

'Yeah, although you can call me Jason' Jason replied softly. You leaped up again and hugged Jason, smiling brightly and Jason returned the hug.

'Let's go home y/n' Jason whispered lovingly in your ear, you just smiled and took his hand, walking off into the night sky.

Jason Todd, you big softie!

[forevercloudnine]

arkhamverse riddlebat ship meme

(Continuing with the questions that @heroes-etc​ picked out for me, this set being from this ship meme.)

3. who is more afraid about the other leaving them?

Edward, hands down. Arkhamverse Riddler is maybe the neediest take on the character I’ve ever seen. Which is saying something, because the panel from “Questions Multiply the Mystery” where he writhes around on the floor begging for attention is permanently burned into my mind. He also clearly doesn’t take rejection well, as evidenced by the graffiti in his cell shown in a promotional image for Arkham Asylum (2009). J'ai aimé, j'ai souffert, maintenant... je hais. “I loved, I suffered, now I hate.”

It didn’t make it into the game proper (too subtexty, maybe, given a general lack of non-Batman people this could be referring to), but from my perspective it might as well have, since I experienced all the games second hand by sitting on the couch next to my brother while he swore at the Riddler challenges. Anyway, if perceived rejection has you writing French poetry on your cell wall in what looks concerningly like bodily fluids, then you probably won’t deal well with the concept of actually being dumped.  

5. who is more likely to drunkenly confess?

Also Edward, given that he’s calling Bruce every five minutes. And if he’s not calling Bruce directly, he’s talking ABOUT Bruce in a public broadcast to all of Gotham. Eddie is the king of freudian slips sober, so one can only imagine what he would say in vino veritas. If he does get drunk, let’s hope for his sake that he opts to communicate through his private line to Batman rather than over every screen in Gotham.

6. who is more likely to push the other away (for any reason)?

Bruce, also hands down. Arkham Knight really goes out of its way to hammer in that Batman’s callous treatment of Riddler has wreaked havoc on Edward’s psyche, even if arguably Eddie had it coming. Riddler’s mole in the GCPD talks about this:

JT Walker: It used to be funny, you know [...] And then one day, it just wasn't funny anymore. It was pathetic. He stopped taking care of himself, got that crazy look in his eyes. I swear man, he's broken. You broke him.

Bruce’s subconscious gets a dig in on this topic via Joker hallucination. 

“Joker”: Good for you, Bats! Eddie doesn’t need help. No, no, no. Beat ‘em up. Lock ‘em up. That’s the best medicine. 

Even my brother, who would attempt to stab Arkhamverse Edward in the face War-of-Jokes-and-Riddles style if the games let him, felt guilty on Bruce’s behalf when Eddie started ranting about his photographic memory. 

Riddler: I can summon your sneering features at will. That is, when they don't burst unbidden into my brain [...] I can remember every time you've hurt me. Sometimes I wake up, Dark Knight, to the feel of your hands around my neck, your carbon fiber created fists smashing my solar plexus. 

I think because of this trait, one of the only ways this ship would work in Arkhamverse is if they came to an agreement during Arkham Origins (since Edward is... more or less... a vigilante in that game, albeit one that Bruce considers distasteful), well before their relationship gets to where it is in Arkham Asylum. The other way is if Bruce actually took the lesson Arkham Knight hammered over his head and tried to fix the damage done after faking his death. (In my mind there exists a many chaptered fanfic where after Batman “disappears” he moves to the second Batcave the games put under Arkham Asylum and takes on Joker’s “Eric Border” persona from the comics to become an orderly there. Whether it’s scarebat or riddlebat varies depending on my mood, but what’s consistent no matter what is that I have five WIPs on ao3 and I can’t write it until I finish at least one of them).  

7. who picks fights more often?

Obviously Arkhamverse Edward is the most irritating person who has ever lived, so he kind of wins by default. But Bruce definitely holds his own in instigating unnecessary conflict with loved ones in this continuity. I’ll cut him some slack during Arkham Knight because one could argue that he spends most of the game half-possessed by an evil clown ghost, but it’s not like he’s much better in ANY of the other games. The bit in Arkham City where he lies to Talia’s face about being willing to spend the rest of his life with her so that she’ll give him access to the Lazarus Pit — even though if he was just honest and asked for it she probably would have helped him anyway, given that she DIES protecting him in the climax — is probably the best example of how he will infuriate people who love him for no logical reason. It’s a symptom of the post traumatic hyper vigilance, probably.

So if Edward did get the closeness to Bruce that his subconsciousness seems to be gunning for, he could look forward to the physical violence and public humiliation being replaced with the same well-intentioned gaslighting and emotional manipulation Bruce gives everyone but Alfred in these games. Actually, is Alfred the only one who’s even aware that he’s alive after Arkham Knight? Bruce, please tell your kids that you aren’t a pile of ash in the crater that used to be Wayne Manor.

9. who is more likely to withhold their feelings for the other?

The obvious answer is Bruce, because he keeps his emotions locked in a lead box buried like twenty feet beneath the floor of the Batcave (probably along with a bunch of kryptonite, since Superman is flying around the Arkhamverse somewhere). But honestly Bruce doesn’t seem to have a problem getting it on with supervillains in this continuity. He and Talia chat pretty casually about a recent romantic rendezvous in Metropolis when they meet in Arkham City. His emotional distance from Selina in Arkham Knight seems less like him withholding his feelings from her, and more like him not being over Talia’s death (or Joker’s, which... the narrative certainly focuses on more than Talia’s...). 

So I think Edward would actually be more likely to withhold his feelings for Bruce. Even if Bruce approached him first, he’s too obsessed with the possibility of Bruce humiliating him to take any positive interaction (especially a romantic overture) at face value. 

Riddler: You left me battered and demeaned in Arkham City. I am the Riddler, Batman. I don't suffer humiliation. I pay it back.

He’s not really wrong, either. Batman does humiliate him in Arkham City (by misleading Edward into thinking he’d let him die, no less); it’s the same embarrassment Edward inflicts on his own victims, so it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it per se, but it’s definitely not Bruce taking the higher ground.

Sticking him in his own trap is pretty vindictive, and Riddler’s weird commentary about not letting Batman have bathroom breaks during his revenge trials in Arkham Knight hints that Cash and the other guards might have made his (clearly unlawful!) punishment even more humiliating than we see on screen.

Riddler: Rule the seventh. Bathroom breaks will be administered on a discretionary basis. Should we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in your arduous journey to self-realization and defeat, I expect you to hold it in. Rule the eighth. Any accidents resulting from my strict enforcement of the seventh rule are to be considered your fault entirely. 

So would Edward withhold his feelings for Batman? Yeah, probably. And it would probably take a lot of time and effort for Bruce to convince Edward that any feelings on his part weren’t just an attempt to humiliate Riddler further.     

[watchtower-feed]

Death Do We Part (Part 9)

SSA Spin-off ✧ Jason Todd ✧ Physical Link ✧ 1 ✧ 2 ✧ 3 ✧ 4 ✧ 5 ✧ 6 ✧ 7 ✧ 8 ✧ 9 ✧ 10 ✧ 11 ✧ 12 ✧ 13 ✧ 14 ✧ 15 ✧ Notes: VIOLENCE WARNING. Words: 2,300+

    You try to run through all of the implications in your head and only come up with one thing. “Do you think he found a way to know when I’m tuning in? And turns off his own senses?”

    Bruce quickly turns around, eyes wide. He stares at your worried face for a second before he puts on a pensive expression. “It’s not impossible.”

     You start spending even more time in the cave. When you’re not at the university or having meals with Alfred, you’re down there trying to get a better handle on your link, trying to find a way to one-up Jason.

     But it’s a slow night. You’re laying on the medical table trying to tune in on Jason but all you hear are ocean waves. You wonder if it’s real and he’s enjoying some downtime at a tropical island somewhere. Or if it’s fake and he’s actually holed up in another fortress, playing a TV in the background.

     Familiar voices enter the cave and your sensitive hearing picks up on them immediately.

     “I’m telling you, Tim, you need to go out once in a while or you’ll forget how to talk to people.”

     Ever since Tim saw Jason’s writing on your arm, he’s been distant, immersing himself in both schoolwork and the search for Jason. Despite his feelings for you, Tim wants to bring Jason back to his family. But he’s only been helping strictly from Dick’s apartment.

     “I talk to you all the time!”

     “Not me-- not us. You know, normal people. Civilians.”

     You open your eyes and stare at the cave’s ceiling, finding it harder to tune out Dick’s voice more than usual so you decide to listen in.

     “Bruce, I’m taking Tim to this new club that just opened. Across the bridge. You know the one.”

     “You mean the one Black Mask just opened two days ago?”

     “Same one!” Dick chuckles and you can imagine him doing finger guns.

     “Wait,” you can already visualize Tim pursing his lips. “This is a recon mission, isn’t it? You said we were going out!”

     “I said my mission was to get you out of my apartment.” Before Tim could answer, Dick is already walking over to you and you see his face hover over yours, tousled hair streaming down, almost covering his eyes and touching your nose. “And to get you out of the cave.”

     You quickly shake your head but refuse to sit up. “Clubs aren’t really my scene.”

     Dick laughs, “You’ve never even been to one. How do you know it’s not your scene?”

     It’s your turn to purse your lips. The way Dick’s looking at you while waiting for an answer, you can already tell he’s prepared to fight you for this.

     “It’s obviously a mission, Dick. Are you sure you want to bring an innocent civilian into this?”

     He smirks, “Oh, Y/N. We both know you’re anything but. Just last week you beat me at sparring--”

     “It was self-defense training. Of course, I’m supposed to win!” you’re yelling now and sitting up, making his smirk is wider. This is exactly what he wants. The more aggravated you become, the more you let your guard down. He thinks he has you trapped but you’re about to pull the dirtiest trick Dick will never expect.

     “Bruce needs me here.”

     Dick looks visibly taken aback. Bruce’s brows perk up and he turns from the computer to look at the two of you. You just used the ‘Bruce’ card, which is a silent strategy you’ve picked up from Dick whenever Alfred tells him to go home.

     Under his breath, Dick hisses, “Thief.”

     “Dick, let’s go. It’s already past ten,” Tim’s already walking towards the shaft. You give Dick an innocent smile before you lie back down.

     You close your eyes when you still feel him staring at you. Then he walks up to Bruce, “She’s been spending all of her time in the cave, Bruce. We all want Jason back but she-- you-- the both of you can’t let this take over every minute of your lives.”

     Dick doesn’t wait for his reply and follows Tim. When Bruce hears the shaft’s gears stop moving, he sighs and drags his chair toward you.

     “Y/N.”

     You close your eyes even harder. You heard what Dick said to him.

     “Did something happen between you and Tim?”

     Your face flares up and you immediately sit up. “What? What makes you say that?”

     “You’ve been avoiding him.”

     Was there any point in hiding things from the greatest detective in Gotham? Of course, you’ve been avoiding Tim and he’s been avoiding you. Even if Bruce was asleep he’d notice that. You look down at your hands. “I just want to find Jason,” you whisper.

     Bruce sighs, “I know. Me too.” He lets the silence sit for a while before he speaks again. “I know you blame me for what happened--” you quickly turn to him with every intention to interrupt and he holds up his hand with a smile, “I blame myself, too. That’s why I want him back just as bad.” Bruce looks down at his own hands, holding each other and lying on his lap, “I miss my son.”

     You’re both quiet for a while. Then Bruce smiles, almost laughing, something you’ve yet to see until now. He tells you the story of how he met Jason, how the little skinny child kicked his shin, Batman’s shin, in anger because he drove over the food you left him.

     You laugh as well, making Bruce smile a little wider because he hasn’t heard you laugh in a while. Then he tells you stories of Jason living in the manor, how he would run around and open every single door to look inside. Bruce and Alfred could hear him yell out profanities as his voice echoed inside the rooms.

     Alfred would always tell Jason to mind his manners and he would, but only for a few seconds. But when he saw the cave, Alfred resorted to smiling while rolling his eyes, to not waste any more breath on berating him.

     When Jason first saw Robin’s costume on display, he stared at it in awe. It was the first time he had kept quiet for more than a minute since Bruce met him.

     “Do you want to try it on?” Bruce asked and the hair on Jason’s arms rose up. As soon as Bruce opened the case and handed him the costume, he started stripping there and then. The first thing Jason did in Robin’s costume was jump up on the medical table. With his hands on his hips and head held high, he points at an imaginary figure between Bruce and Alfred.

     “That’s far enough, ya thug!”

     You laugh aloud, filling the empty cave with your voice. “He used to--” you wheeze, “always-- say that-- when we were-- kids!”

     Bruce smiles at you as you come down slowly from your mirth. You watch him as he looks down at his hands and the smile disappears from his face.

     “If I had known about your link--”

     “I know,” you interrupt him quickly this time. You drop down from the medical table to place your hands over his. “That’s exactly why he didn’t tell you. He wanted to be Robin-- even before he met you.” You look around the cave, “this was his dream. I wouldn't have stopped him but he knew you would’ve.”

     Bruce looks over the cave until his eyes find the two cases that held Dick and Jason’s Robin costumes.

     “He never told me about any of this,” you say. Bruce turns back to you but you’re looking somewhere else, lost in thought, “But now-- Now. When I think about some things in the past, it starts to make sense. Why I would always find Robin everywhere. There was never a night when I didn’t see him near our neighborhood.”

     You take your hands away to put them on your own shoulders. Looking away, you try to recall an experience you had not long before you died.

     “One night, someone was following me. I didn’t know him but no matter what turn I took he was behind me. Then Robin showed up and asked me to take a walk with him. We took several detours before he took me to my apartment, talking to me the whole time about the most random things, trying to keep my attention away from that man until he finally disappeared.”

     You’re smiling again, “He walked me to my door. Then when I got inside my room he knocked on my window. He stared at me for a long time. I could see his eyes moving behind the mask like he was trying to memorize my face and I felt self-conscious--”

     You blush and only now remember that you’re talking to Bruce. He gives you a small smile, encouraging you to continue.

     “He smiled at me. He ruffled my hair and told me not to worry because Robin and Batman are protecting me.”

     Bruce closes his eyes as he tries to see it in his own head.

     “I’m sorry, Bruce,” you say quietly, “For how I’ve acted this past year. You’ve been so good to me.”

     “Y/N,” he interrupts, placing his own hands on your shoulders, “You’re part of this family. You have been since before you came here.”

     You and Bruce look at each other. He’s right. They’ve known everything there is to know about you-- you and Jason. You laugh suddenly as you imagine your mother telling Bruce about the things you and Jason used to get in trouble for.

     A sudden alert from the computer steals your attention away. Bruce quickly kicks his chair back to the desk and you follow behind him. It’s Dick.

     “Batman, new player’s on the move. Robin and I are in pursuit.”

     Bruce’s face quickly changes back to a stoic expression. For a few weeks now, this new player has been working the Gotham underground, slowly climbing the ranks and recruiting all sorts of small-time thugs and a few  Arkham Asylum villains. For what? You don’t know and that’s what has Bruce on edge.

     He pulls his cowl over his face and stands up, “I’m on my way.” He walks over to the batmobile but abruptly turns to you, almost forgetting you’re there. He stands there, unsure what to say.

     “Stay safe, Bruce.”

     He finally nods and leaves you. You take his seat and pull up the surveillance from Tim, Dick, and Bruce’s masks. You see Tim and Dick chasing a shadow over the rooftops in a residential area.

     “He’s well-trained,” Bruce speaks through the comms, watching the same feed.

     “Yeah, guys got some moves,” Dick tries to make light of the situation but you can hear the exhaustion in his voice. “He knows the area, too.”

     “Don’t lose him,” Bruce orders and Tim scoffs.

     “What does it look like we’re doing?”

     “Woah,” Dick quips, “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the--”

     “Nightwing, look out!” You see something thrown in the air and explodes into a bright light, cutting off both Tim and Dick’s video feeds.

     “Nightwing! Robin!” Bruce shouts and you hear the engines grow louder in the background. You’re holding your own breath until you hear their voices again.

     “We’re fine,” Tim grits through his teeth. “Flash grenade.”

     “He knows we’re watching.”

     Suddenly all electricity in the cave goes out and the darkness swallows you before the emergency lights kick in. Blackouts never happen in this part of town. The cave’s primary power source is the same one that fuels up the manor on the city’s blueprints, but no one would know about that. Unless.

     Unless the actual target is Wayne manor.

     “Alfred!” you jump up from your seat as the computer turns back on.

     “Target engaged. Are you seeing this, Batman?” Dick’s voice fills the cave as you wait for the shaft to rise up, the current mission completely forgotten. It’s just you and Alfred on the property and you’ve been wondering for a while now why he hasn’t come down to check on you and Bruce.

     “Please be safe. Please be safe.”

     The moment you open the grandfather clock, you’re hit with a foul-smelling gas that invades every single one of your senses.

     “Right on cue,” comes a distorted voice that’s blowing on your face. You see through the badly makeshift hole in his tattered burlap mask and find deep green eyes staring back at you, wild and manic. Slowly the mask shifts with the air and you see him.

     You’ve only ever seen pictures but now you’re staring straight into his eyes. Blood-curdling laughter resonates from every corner of the unfamiliar room. A darkened space that’s no longer in the manor.

     You try to ground yourself by looking at your feet. You watch concrete appear before your eyes and you look up to find yourself inside a warehouse.

     “Boo!”

     You see it before you feel the blow knock the air out of your lungs. You clutch your stomach and struggle to keep your sights on him. He’s standing tall with the crowbar in his hand, throwing it in the air and catching it. He leers at you as you slowly back away.

     “Careful there--”

     You trip over something and fall on your back. You freeze the moment you see what-- who it is. It’s Robin. It’s Jason. His costume is tattered and singed. The tips of his hair are burned. His eyes are closed. 

     You quickly crawl toward him, “Jason!” You’re relieved to find his chest moving, breathing.

     Your body stiffens when the crowbar comes hammering down and cracks several of Jason’s ribs right in front of you. You just watch with wide eyes and hands raised in the air. Jason coughs out blood onto your clothes.

     The maniac laughs, “Oh, don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten about you, my dear.”

     The next blow comes down against your shoulder, knocking you away from Jason. The next one comes before you can recover and it hits you on the nose. Everything is ringing. Your vision is blurry with tears.

     But the image of the crowbar and the clown comes clear as day as he strikes the top of your head. You’re knocked back onto the ground and you think you heard a fracture. You feel stunned. You can’t move your arms and your legs. Only the tips of your fingers are twitching as you lie on the ground.

     Your eyes frantically move around the room, trying to find where the next blow is going to come from. He’s walking toward you, away from Jason who’s lying still in the corner. He breaks your ribs just as he did with Jason and you cough blood into his face. The splatter seems to awaken something in him and he smiles wider, the wide grin on his face twitching with joy.

     You shudder in fear as blood fills up your throat and you can’t breathe. You keep your eyes on Jason as the Joker slams the crowbar down onto the tips of your fingers.

     Is this what Jason felt? Alone? In pain? Dying? Oh god, you thought. Why does he have to go through this again? You close your eyes and desperately try to shut off your link.

✧ 1 ✧ 2 ✧ 3 ✧ 4 ✧ 5 ✧ 6 ✧ 7 ✧ 8 ✧ 9 ✧ 10 ✧ 11 ✧ 12 ✧ 13 ✧ 14 ✧ 15 ✧

✧ Watchtower Masterlist ✧

[imagines-to-quench-thirst]

Leaving legacy

Warnings: Swearing, use of violence and guns, women pitted against each other (I guess)

Pairing: Joker x reader - I gave him the name Jerome since I like the way and to me, it fits ever since I watched Gotham it stuck on

Summary: the Joker is captured by Batman. Leaving Y/n, his girlfriend to hold up his legacy but what happens when a woman nudges herself between the criminal and the good girl turned mafia leader?

'Run, Y/n! Fucking run!!' The criminal in purple cried out to his lover seeing the woman confusedly run in the club finding comfort in the magnitude of people in there. Looking back she sees the blue-red lights shining through the glass door. The car engine rumbled driving away from the club. Looking at Frost near her, he shakes his head.

'As of today, the Joker has been imprisoned by the Batman and the police.' It was painful to see her boyfriend being subdued by gas bombs leaving him defenseless and unconscious. Especially the aftermath of it all the Batman taking him into his car handcuffed heading towards Arkham Prison. 'Frost, what do we do now?' The frightened woman asked the loyal companion by her side.

'We have a backup plan. Follow me.' First walks out of the small departed as Y/n tails behind him unsure of the action. At least Forst wouldn't hurt her. Right? Entering J's office Frost retirees a black suitcase flopping it on the desk opening the top lid. He turns it around to face Y/n her eyes catching a glimpse of white papers tacked even pushed in the suitcase falling all over the place but only a small letter sat neatly on it with the words scribbled on it 'Y/n'. Picking up the letter she opens it reading

Y/n, princess, dove,

If you are reading this then it means that I am not anymore capable of doing my "business" I was arrested and the outcome is unsure. So I have to Frost a briefcase holding each valuable document that is signed for you if I was taken away or killed. My club, cars and my other "ventures" are yours. You are the only who I can trust. And if I'm in a Prison. Wait for me, I won't be there long. 💋💋💋

Besides, I need my kisses to survive.

Your Jerome

Placing the letter down with shaky hands Y/n looks at the piles of documents as an explosion of stress and anxiety power over her. 'Frost, what if I won't be good? What if I won't be able to handle this? What if I-' 'If Mr.J thought that you couldn't handle it then he wouldn't hand his entire life to you.'

Frost steps close to her putting a much-needed arm on her shoulder 'I will be here as your advisor to help you. That is my oath.' With more doubtfulness nesting in her soul, she nods desiring that she will do it right.

The streets are empty, deserted and alone with the company of the cold sharp wind and the naked bare trees they all guided to the same destination, Arkham Asylum. The purple car howled as it came to a standstill delivering its new owner to the entrance door. Y/n steps outside seeing the hush silence looming on the place she looks up seeing the floors and floors of windows which presumably all held the dangerous criminals. Waving to the guard at the reception she hands him a document.

'Visit for the Joker? Huh, I guess miracles do happen.' The guard retorted teasingly seeing Y/n's forced smile as he hands her the visitors pass. Walking through the door she sits down waiting for her boyfriend to appear only a glass partition in between them. The door on the other side creaks open as two guards guide in the Joker his hands and upper body in a straight jacket. He sits down seeing the woman he loved holding in tears to come off as if she is tough enough to overcome this. One of the policemen grabs the phone handle placing it on the table prompting it upwards. Y/n repeated the motion as she places it to her ear.

'Hey J. How are you?' Y/n asks wanting to hear his voice. He mumbles as he shakes the jacket striving to free his arms. Y/n turns to the policeman 'His nose is itching. Can you... Please?' One policeman pauses but steps forwards scratching the Joker's nose. He steps back in line with his fellow partner. 'Thanks, Princess.' He finally speaks 'You should thank him.' She points to the policeman as Joker turns to him grumbling a broken 'thank you'.

His head shoots back to her asking softly 'Are you alright?' Y/n shrugged 'As much as I can be. But it's not the same without you.' J looks at her seeing the frown that probably nested itself for the last 6 days that he was in this hellhole. 'Come on, princess, I need to see your smile. Do you know how much frowns I see from others? P-l-e-n-t-t-y.' Y/n chuckles at his spelling mistake chatting him immediately 'There is no extra "t" in plenty.' 'Oh, are you sure? It thinks there is and its purpose it's special.' Y/n looks at him weirdly as he proceeds 'The "t" is there to make you smile.' He shows off his own smile laced with the metal teeth giving off more sinister intent but still, a smile solely earmarked for her.

'I hope that you are behaving.' J says to his lover seeing the visible smile wash away being replaced by a stern lip line '...Yeah... I am the new job is-' 'Okay, that is enough visits are over!' the guard screamed over her sentence. Joker looks once more over his shoulder grunting 'I believe that the lady didn't finish her sentence.' he turns back to her 'Continue.' Y/n takes a much needed deep breath saying slowly 'As I was saying, the new job is hard but I'm handling it well.'

Joker stood up as she finished her sentence an enormous grin on his pale face 'Great. I will head back now, Princess. I love you~~~' Joker slurred his words in a mocking manner as the guards behind him cringed at the PDA while Y/n elicited a smile from her again, one he will remember when his days here are hard. Y/n stands up waving J goodbye.

'Frost calls the Falcone Mafia to tell them that the drugs will be sent through a food truck. In about 3 days...' Y/n said firmly to her right-hand man handing him the last piece of document. Taking the precious documents with a bow he exits the room leaving her to her peace and quiet. Leaning back on the big leather chair Y/n closes her eyes feeling the sleep creep back into her mind and with no coffee in sight to shoo it away. Glazing her eyes in the home line phone she sees a number appearing. 'Shit... What now?' Picking up the phone and pressing it to her ear she hears a chirpy and creeps voice coming from the other side. The cheery creepily voice asked in a high pitched rhythm

-Hi, is this Y/n L/n number?

-Yes, this is she. Who is this?

-Oh, me? I'm Dr. Quinzel, the Arkham physiologist. I'm in charge of the Joker.

-Since when do they let normal, sane people around criminals?

-You are too funny Ms. L/n. I just wanted to call you and say that Mr. Joker's visiting hours will be sentenced down to one visit every 3 months.

-What?! Why?!

-Since Mr. Joker is here for the crimes he committed we want to restrict him of him usual surrounding to see what are his triggers. We will phone you when you can see him.

-Since when is that allowed? Who signed this off? Where is my signature agreeing to this-this shenanigans?

-Ha-ha...Excuse me. But there is a need for such approval of a third party since he himself signed the document.

-He did, did he? That man is in a straight jacket! He can barely piss with his hands tied behind his back and you are telling me that Joker singed WILLINGLY a document that said he could not see me?!

-Yes, exactly. Good day. Goodbye.

The woman, Quinzel, hangs up leaving Y/n to herself to calm down her storm that swirled inside. With no coffee still in sight.

Speeding into the Arkham Prison letting the engine roar loudly as possible radiating a silent alarm of the incoming rage of one woman. Stepping out of her car she hears the near guards whispers to each other 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' Passing them with one step of her glorious heels she fumes into the building crammed with criminals halting at the reception putting on her face the fakest smile, yet. 'Hi, how are you?' 'Go-good.' 'Great. I'm here to visit Mr. Joker. I was the woman here... About 4 days ago. Remember?' 'Yeah, you wore the beautiful beige fluffy coat.' That's right and thank you it is fluffy. So can I meet him?' 'Yes, right-' 'Thanks, I know the way.'

Layering the fake sentences on to the fake conversation her heels clicked as hard as her rage was prominent on her face and hands. Walking along she heard the distant whistles and cat-calling to her form. That is some to her and some the purple Lamborghini that sat pretty waiting outside for her female owner. Making her way into a room Y/n looks at the two small chairs with an equally small table at the center of it. The room is small and wet with some tiles fallen down cracking on the floor leaving no feeling of a safe space, despite being in the most dangerous prison imaginable. Sitting in the chair she props her bag onto the table keeping it close. Patiently waiting for her boyfriend to say some sweet sweet words to her.

The door flung open with another pair of sharper heels entered the room. A tall, blonde beautiful woman with the signature white doctor's coat on her shoulders. That's her. Y/n thought, feeling her mind already sharpen her knives and aiming her guns that she conveniently abandoned at home since bringing guns here is forbidden. The woman offers her a hand to shake.

'Hi, nice to meet ya. I'm Doctor Harleen Quinzel. I'm the main psychologist here.' Yes, that's her. The equally chirpy woman smiled at Y/n replicating the same tone of cheeriness face to face. Shaking her hand with a firm squeeze Y/n replies equally warm. 'Hi, Y/n L/n.' Harleen looked at the woman in front of her opening a file of the Joker. Letting the headshot be in Y/n's peripheral sight. As much as Y/n wanted to kill her she knew she should befriend her at least to make her an inside man.

'Why are you already here, Miss L/n?' Harleen asked quickly as her fingers interlaced with each other. 'I want to visit my boyfriend. And no document will stop me.' Nodding dutifully Harleen fires back 'Well since Mr. J signed the document you have no other way than to approve his request.' Looking at the psychologist she had to laugh 'If you really talked to him you would know that I'm a good person I'm the one who keeps him in check. Thanks to me he didn't kill anyone...innocent.' 'Oh, I know he also said that you are one of the reasons he stopped doing cocaine.' 'That's right.' 'And he is having withdrawals.' 'Bullshit. The last he had a withdrawal was 2 years ago. Maybe you gave him something worth going insane. I mean we are in a prison/mental institution. I also know that many institutions such as this one spike the patient's food with any drug be it cocaine, meth, opioid-' 'That's not OUR intention. I have been here for the last 3 years and I can assure you-' Y/n looks once more at the woman seeing her glasses dip down the arch of her nose stopping at the near end. 'Don't bullshit me. I can see just buy your clothes what kind of money do you make and how do you earn it.' Her blue eyes darted at the woman in front of her that threatened to talk about the appearance and she does appreciate a good duel. 'Your hair is too lose to be around patient while other competent nurses and doctors have their hair tied neatly and tightly into a bun since they are dealing with criminals and one for the raising problems would be of an attack on the staff using the loose hair as a means to pull them in and beat them. With your shaved legs you aren't here to work and neither are your intentions. Those shaven legs are here to show off to say in a subliminal "Hey, I'm here I have shaven my legs and I'm ready to bone." while other women wear nylon socks. To cover the long leg hairs since the working hours here are brutal. And-' 'I think that's enough.' Harleen stopped her with to victory insight.

'I'm good. I can go on. So as I was saying your feet...you wear the ever so cliché heels ever. Black Louboutin. Those cost a fortune. And even the pay of the highest personnel could barely cover half of the price. And don't tell me you saved up. Since those with the white sheen are rare mother fuckers. Once in a lifetime kinda rare. And on top of that, some hair that has fallen over your ear can tell me that you flirted with someone. You know the cliche swooping the hair behind the ear when people flirt.' Harleen halts at the last words her cover blown away 'So you did. I will say a patient. Very "prolific" patient. Someone who holds ample power outside these cell walls. Someone with the green hair. Now, Miss Quinzel that is very unethical. You should know better. Since he is taken.'

Harleen cowered in fear in front of the dangerous and sharp-tongued Y/n not preferring to give in to her tactics. Y/n all of the sudden stands up without letting Harleen speak or change her mind 'Take me to him. Show me that I am indeed a trigger. Or I will make sure you never come near my man. Ever again.' With an involuntary smile, Harleen stands up ushering her out of the area and towards J.

Walking behind Y/n looked at the influx of inmates all serving their time even seeing some familiar faces, discreetly waving. Passing the steel wall barricades they enter a new part of large prison the walls aren't made fo steel but of plexiglass with small holes drilled in to give the prisoners air. Stopping at the last one Harleen back away Y/n glancing at her J, her Jerome facing a corner in his straight jacket nearby a window seeing his/her purple car.

With her green bag in her hand and other placed on the glass Y/n whispers in relief 'J? Can you turn around, please?' He looks back at her seeing her deprived eyes and narrowly open mouth, her hair let loose to move freely, the bag he gifted her in her hand and her body, damn those curves and dips. Grumbling he turns back to face the wall hearing her sweet sweet voice 'J, this woman told me you signed a document saying I was some kind of a trigger. Is that true? Am I?'

Waiting for answers that he doesn't supply his cellmates next door answer instead of him 'Baby, with that body and confidence you can be my trigger.' said a thug that doesn't deserve a glance to be speared on. 'With that body, I would be completely grateful to God for once in my life.' said another trying to reel in her attention. The comments influx in as the ruckus evolved unbearably. Besides the comments, Y/n shouted through the glass 'I'll go back home then. I will see you every three months. I miss you.' Turning away from her lover she walks away leaving him in the same stance that he greeted her with. In front of a wall near the window. The same window that exhibited his girl entering the car and driving away to continue his legacy while he resides here. Surrounded by idiots and a whore.

For. Now.

Hope you enjoyed it. Feedback is always appreciated💚

[aftselakhis-shaladin]

Harley Quinn is coming

In anticipation of Birds of Prey movie, DC will be releasing several Harley comic books.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Punch is a no powers AU staring teenage Harley. I find official synopsis intriguing: "Harleen is a tough, outspoken, rebellious kid who lives in a ramshackle apartment above a karaoke cabaret owned by a drag queen named MAMA. Ever since Harleen's parents split, MAMA has been her only family. When the cabaret becomes the next victim in the wave of gentrification that's taking over the neighborhood, Harleen gets mad. When Harleen decides to turn her anger into action, she is faced with two choices: join Ivy, who's campaigning to make the neighborhood a better place to live, or join The Joker, who plans to take down Gotham one corporation at a time. "

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy by Jody Houser ,  Adriana Melo and Elena Casagrande is set in current continuity and follows Ivy's rebirth as vaguely human-shaped plant monster. The synopsis promises the villainesses being on the run and a more psychological approach to them and their relationship.

Harleen by Stejpan Sejic is a graphic novel that serves as an origin story of Harley, though its canonicity is uncertain at that point. It's a remake of Stjepan's cult fancomic about Harley. It follows the psychiatrist Quinn as she tries a new approach on reforming the criminally insane patients of Arkham Asylum... and then gets worse before it gets better: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions. On that road I saw a pale man, and he smiled at me..." Dr. Harleen Quinzel has discovered a revolutionary cure for the madness of Gotham City-she just needs to prove it actually works. But with the criminal justice and mental health establishments united against her, the brilliant young psychologist must take drastic measures to save Gotham from itself

Harley and Joker by Kami Garcia and Mike Mayhew is an AU where Harley is a police consultant who catches the eye of the Joker: "In Gotham City, where heinous acts of violence are a daily occurrence, the GCPD relies on Harley Quinn, a young forensic psychiatrist and profiler, to consult on their toughest cases. But Harley is haunted by one case in particular—when she found herself at the center of a horrifying crime scene the night she discovered the body of her roommate, left with the signature of a notorious serial killer—the Joker. When a series of gruesome displays of murder appear throughout the city, the past and present collide as Harley’s obsession with finding the depraved psychopath responsible leads her down a dangerous path. She must decide how far she is willing to go, and what lines she is willing to cross to solve these cases once and for all.

[lady-hammerlock]

Through the Looking Glass - Chapter One (Telltale Batjokes & DC Comics Crossover)

AN: Hey all. I know I haven’t posted any Batjokes in a while, but I’m back! It’s been hard finding time to write with my new job, but I’ve missed it. With this new fic I’m hoping to post a new chapter every second weekend after these first two chapters. 

The Telltale half of this fic is based loosely on the world state I had at the end of Enemy Within, plus my own headcanons. The basic gist is that Bruce has ended up alone apart from John, who is now out of Arkham and helping him with his work in the field. Bruce and John aren’t a couple when this story begins.

The other half takes place in a world that is sort of a mix of the Arkham games and comic book canon. 

This fic is going to stay relatively safe for work. There’s going to be a bit of canon-typical violence and a fair amount of canon typical ableism and all of the other terrible stuff that usually comes with Arkham though, so heads up for that.

You’ll find the first chapter under the cut. I’m also hosting the full story on AO3, so if you’d prefer to read along there, here’s the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18628810/chapters/44174716

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS - CHAPTER ONE

“I’m approaching the address now,” Bruce said. “Going radio silent.”

“Ooh, is it a proper lair?” John’s voice burst out over the radio. “Please tell me Tetch has a themed lair. Themed lairs are always the best.”

“Going radio silent,” Bruce repeated.

“Ooh. Right. Sorry,” John said. “Wouldn’t want the bad guy knowing you’re coming. Radio silence it is.”

Bruce found himself smiling, despite the slight difficulties of working with John, and despite the fact that he was wearing the cowl. Batman smiled rarely after all, or at least that had been the case before he had started working with John Doe.

It had taken a long time before the doctors at Arkham decided John had recovered enough to be allowed to live in the outside world again, but it had been worth it. He had only been living with Bruce in the manor for three weeks, and had only been helping Bruce out with his work as Batman for two, but they were already starting to settle into a rhythm that fit them both surprisingly well. Bruce had hope that, unlike John’s disastrous attempt to become a vigilante, working together in this manner might actually work out well for the both of them.

John was not silent, or tactful, or any of the things that someone working with Batman should have probably been. He chimed in with random observations whenever he felt like it, would tell Bruce jokes or funny stories as he was travelling through the city, and there had been one time when Batman had been sitting on a rooftop, staking out the building across from him, when John had decided to serenade him.

It felt far removed from what he was used to. He had been on his own for the past two years after all, and when Alfred had been guiding him before that it had always been as a voice of reason; always calm and collected and logical. Having John prattling away in Batman’s ear grounded Bruce, reminded him of who he was behind the cowl in a way that wasn’t always productive, but which made him happy nonetheless.

Over the past few days the two of them had been investigating the deaths of three girls. All of them had been young and blonde, and the crime scenes in which they had been found had been some of the most elaborate pieces of criminal theatre that Bruce had ever seen. Bruce wasn’t sure what had been more disturbing; the identical blue dresses that each girl had been found in, or the look of terror that had been on each of their faces when they had died.

They had already traced the murders to one Jervis Tetch, a man that, if his and John’s hunches were correct, they would find hiding out in the small, run-down milliner’s shop that Bruce now found himself standing in front of.

“What is a milliners anyway?” John asked, and Bruce sighed fondly. He had a feeling that Tetch wasn’t going to get very far if he tried to run, and from the couple of glimpses of Tetch he had gotten so far, the small, squirrelly man wasn’t going to be able to put up much of a fight. So perhaps there wasn’t much point in insisting upon silence.

“It’s a hat store,” he explained.

He reached out and opened the front door, finding as he did that it was already unlocked.

On the other side of the radio conversation John let out a gentle gasp.

“Then it’s absolutely a themed lair,” John said. “Hats! Like the Mad Hatter! It totally fits with the whole Alice in Wonderland theme he’s got going on.”

“Except Tetch doesn’t actually own this place,” Bruce pointed out. “So I’m not sure it can qualify as his lair.”

The store in question looked as though it had been closed up for years, which wasn’t all that unusual in this particular corner of the East End, which had been slowly turning more and more into a deserted slum ever since Harvey Dent had blown up several blocks of it during his violent and short-lived reign as mayor.

Old hats still lined the shelves of the milliners, all of them gathering dust and cobwebs. Here and there a blank circle in the dust gave away where one of Gotham’s many criminals had been looting.

John scoffed.

“If he’s the one hiding in it then it’s his lair,” John insisted. “Actually owning the place doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

The lights were off, but luckily Bruce could use his cowl’s night vision to pick his way through the fallen furniture and debris towards the back of the store, where just a hint of light was shining from beneath a heavy wooden door.

Bruce cautiously opened the door and then stepped into the small hallway beyond. It hadn’t gathered as much dust or been subjected to as much destruction as the front room, but it had still gained plenty of cobwebs.

A light shone from an open door near the end of the hallway. Bruce walked towards it, noticing, as he grew closer, that he could hear someone muttering quietly beneath their breath. At first it was too faint to make out any of the words, but he caught a few snatches as he approached the open door.

“No, no, no,” the voice muttered. “This doesn’t make any sense. No sense at all. I want to go home Alice.”

Bruce entered the room slowly, a batarang held at the ready in case Tetch tried anything. Tetch didn’t seem ready to fight though. In fact he barely seemed to notice that Bruce had entered the room at all.

He sat hunched over in one corner of the room, his back to Bruce and his body curled over something that he was clutching tightly to his chest. The man was wearing the same ridiculous outfit that Bruce had caught sight of at the last crime scene; an oversized top hat and a raggedy old jacket. It occurred to Bruce in that moment that Tetch looked almost exactly like the Mad Hatter that John had compared him to earlier.

“Jervis Tetch,” Batman growled.

The man glanced over his shoulder and let out a whimper when he spotted Bruce approaching. He then turned back, his attention landing on the strange object that he was holding once more. Bruce caught only a glimpse of it. It looked like a gnarled and twisted chunk of wood, several branches twisting and turning over one another in a way that made the wood look distinctly unnatural, and far darker than wood usually was; a deep brown that looked almost black. Some sort of sculpture? Bruce had no idea why such an object would be so important to Tetch, but he had every intention of finding out.

“No, no, no,” Tetch muttered as Bruce lowered his arm and the batarang that it held and continued to approach the smaller man. “This isn’t fair. Not fair at all. This is supposed to be our home but it isn’t our home. Oh, we don’t even have any of our friends to help us out.”

“Joker, I think I’ve found our suspect,” Batman said over the radio. “Doesn’t look like he’s going to make a run for it.”

“Okay Batsy,” John replied. “I’ll let Jimmy Gordon know. The G.C.P.D. should be on their way soon.”

Tetch hadn’t seemed to react to anything else that Bruce had said, but at the mention of Joker he turned around and stared at him with wide eyes and what looked to be absolute terror on his face.

“Joker?” he said, his voice breaking just as much as it had before. Tetch let out a long, low whine, and curled in upon himself and the object in his hands.

“Joker!” he repeated. “Why is he talking to the Joker!?”

Bruce could understand why a criminal might be scared of Joker after John’s short and violent stint as a vigilante. Tetch’s confusion was a little harder to fathom however. Bruce had thought that most people in Gotham had realized that Joker had been Batman’s ally. That association, in fact, had haunted Bruce for months after the fact. The criminals and police of Gotham had both been more scared of Batman and far less likely to trust him for a lot longer than Bruce had been happy with.

“That’s not your concern,” Bruce said. “Jervis Tetch, I’m here to apprehend you for the murders of Maria Blackwood, Kiera Millhouse and Eden Thatcher. This will go a lot easier for you if you don’t resist.”

Tetch flinched as soon as Batman reached out to him, as though he expected Batman to hit him at any moment. Despite knowing that Tetch had been responsible for the deaths of three innocent women, Bruce couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him in that moment. Tetch was obviously anticipating pain, and was clearly very far away from being mentally stable.

“I’m just going to handcuff you,” Bruce assured him.

He tried to grab the wooden sculpture, or whatever the hell it was that Tetch had been clinging to, but that just made Tetch hold onto it even tighter, and made him lash out at Bruce on top of it, kicking and flailing at him where before he had been still and silent.

“No, not my Looking Glass. No! You don’t understand!” Tetch said, struggling against Bruce’s grip. “Oh, Alice, tell them. Tell them! It’s the only way that we can get home again. They take that away and we’ll be stuck here forever!”

Bruce didn’t like the sound of that. He stopped trying to grab the sculpture and focused instead on stilling Tetch, both of his hands grabbing Tetch’s upper arms and keeping him pinned in place. Bruce had already known how small and slight Tetch was, but feeling how skinny the other man’s arms were on top of his diminutive stature just brought home exactly how small and frail he was. Bruce wondered when Tetch had last eaten. He certainly didn’t look well.

“The wooden sculpture,” he asked Tetch, holding firmly onto each of the smaller man’s arms. “What does it do?”

“Do?” Tetch asked. “What does it do? Oh, I already said what it does. It takes us home. It brought us to this topsy-turvy place where Batmans and Jokers are friends and it will take us back home where everything makes sense again.”

Bruce shook his head. Whatever else Tetch was, he was clearly very confused.

“Is he making any more sense to you than he is to me?” John asked.

“No,” Bruce said, dragging Tetch to his feet.

The G.C.P.D. shouldn’t be too far away, which meant that hopefully he would be able to hand Tetch over to Gordon and call it a night. “This one clearly belongs in Arkham.”

It wasn’t until the G.C.P.D. had arrived and Bruce had someone else’s help to restrain Tetch that they were able to handcuff him.

Bruce held on to the object that Tetch had referred to as a ‘looking glass’, turning it this way and that and wondering just what on earth it was supposed to be. It weighed a lot more than wood alone could account for, as though there was something much heavier at the object’s core.

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Commissioner Gordon asked as he approached, taking a deep draw from his cigarette as he did so.

“I’m not sure,” Batman replied. “But Jervis Tetch seemed to think it was important.”

“Well, if you think it’s worth investigating then be my guest,” Gordon said, throwing the cigarette on the floor and stomping it out. “I’m gonna have my hands full just trying to make sense out of this guy. We still don’t even know how he managed to do it! Little guy like that, overpowering three fully grown women without any help. He must have had some sort of trick. I would have said drugs but the coroner didn’t find anything.”

Gordon paused, and looked over at the looking glass that Bruce was still holding with obvious suspicion on his face.

“You don’t think…?” he asked. He didn’t need to finish his question. Did the object in Bruce’s hands have anything to do with how Tetch was able to manipulate and then murder his victims?

“If I find anything important then I’ll let you know,” Bruce said.

“Right,” Gordon said. “Same here I guess. I’ll let you know if we get anything interesting out of this guy.”

Bruce looked over at Jervis Tetch, who was being bundled into the back of a police van and making it as difficult as he possibly could for Renee Montoya and the other officer assigned to him. He was kicking and struggling, despite the fact that his hands had been cuffed behind his back.

“No, no, no,” he screamed, looking absolutely terrified. “Not Arkham! Not there! Give me back my Looking Glass. I need to go home!”

“Should have thought about that before you murdered those girls,” Montoya told him.

Montoya definitely had a point. Tetch was far from innocent, but his protestations against being sent to Arkham reminded Bruce a little too much of the ex-Arkham inmate that was waiting for him back at the Batcave, and he found himself suddenly in the grip of an almost overwhelming desire to get back home and check on John.

Bruce found himself in the Batcave along with John less than an hour later. He had been unable to resist the urge to run up to John and throw his arms around him as soon as he saw his partner, holding him tightly until John was giggling and begging him to stop.

“I missed you too big guy,” John had said, pulling Bruce’s cowl off with a swiftness and precision that would have suggested that he had been doing this with Bruce for years instead of weeks.

Eventually Bruce had removed the Bat-suit completely, and the two of them had settled down with tea; a habit that Bruce hadn’t quite been able to kick, even now that it had been years since Alfred had left the manor, while they discussed the case.

“You know, I just remembered something,” John said as he paced backwards and forward in front of Bruce, who was sitting in front of the computer and still enjoying his first cup of tea long after John had finished his second.

“There was a guy named Jervis Tetch back at Arkham as well,” John continued.

“What? Really?” Bruce asked. “It’s an unusual name. Are you sure it wasn’t the same guy?”

“I guess?” John replied. “I mean, I only met the guy a couple of times because he tended to keep to himself and didn’t leave his room or talk much. Pretty sure our Tetch was at least a little bit taller than the guy you put away tonight though, and from what I heard, the guy at Arkham was relatively harmless. Didn’t sound like the kind of guy who would just go around murdering innocent girls.”

“What was he in Arkham for?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know,” John replied, almost giving Bruce a heart attack as he tossed the artefact up into the air once more. “Like I said, he didn’t really talk much, and he wasn’t very interesting, so I never looked into it.”

“Hey, that could be dangerous…” Bruce began, but the words had barely left his mouth before John was almost yelling in reply.

“But what the heck is it supposed to do?” John asked, stopping throwing the object around in favor of pulling at and poking the small box experimentally.

“Don’t do that!” Bruce snapped, reaching out to jerk John’s hand back from the mysterious contraption.

John frowned at him, and Bruce realized that the action had come across as being far angrier than he had meant it too.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he massaged his forehead, trying to rub away the tension. Bruce hadn’t been at all worried when it had been him holding the object, but now that it was in John’s hands he found himself almost irrationally afraid that the object would prove to be dangerous, and that something would happen to John because of it.

“I know it probably doesn’t make much sense, but the last time I let someone care about handle an object I didn’t fully understand, it was Lucius Fox, and the object in question was the box that the Riddler used to kill him.”

“Foxy; the friend whose funeral I crashed, right?” John asked, his anger tempering immediately.

“Yeah,” Bruce said.

They were trying to get better at expressing their feelings and letting one another know what was bothering them. It was slow going, but Bruce felt that they were both making some progress at least. After Arkham Bruce had known that maintaining a good relationship with John was going to be a lot of work, but by god was he going to put that effort in and make sure it worked.

John scoffed and shook his head at Bruce’s confirmation.

“Riddler was such a… a…” John fumbled for a while, his fingers curling as his hands tensed in anger. “Such a nuisance!”

“Yeah,” Bruce said, reaching out to place a hand on John’s shoulder, hoping to calm him down a little before John got too worked up. “The point is, I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you like it did with Lucius, so let’s just be careful with that thing, all right?”

He gave John’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, savoring the feeling of John, alive and warm and safe beneath his touch. He had meant what he had said. He really wasn’t sure how he would cope if he lost John. Not now when he depended on John for so much, and when he had let the other man into his life and into his heart to the extent that he had.

“Oh, don’t worry Bruce,” John said, offering his partner a wink. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know,” Bruce sighed. “Still, let’s wait until the Bat-computer scans this thing and tells us it’s safe before we go touching it too much, all right?”

Almost an hour and several scans later, John and Bruce still weren’t any closer to knowing what the strange box was or why Jervis Tetch had been so attached to it.

“Is it safe to touch?” John asked. He was still curious about the strange wooden object. There were so many strange gnarls and shapes that could possibly be buttons that he wanted to try prodding and poking. There were few things that infuriated him more than a mystery that he wasn’t allowed to solve.

“Because I’m getting really, reeaallllyyy tempted to touch it Bruce.”

“I don’t know,” Bruce said. He had been staring at the Bat-computer for ages, trying to make sense of the readings that it had taken of Tetch’s device. John was completely lost, having only the vaguest idea of what any of the numbers on the computer screen even meant. “It’s been giving off a strange sort of radiation; one that neither I nor the computer can make any sense out of.”

“It has to be really weak though, right?” John asked. “I mean, if there was something really wrong with it then the two of us would have felt something by now, right?”

“In theory,” Bruce said. “The box I gave to Lucius seemed completely harmless too though.”

“Come on Bruce,” John said, his fingers twitching as he stared at the box. “Please let me touch it. The radiation is really weak, right? There’s nothing to worry about, right?”

“I guess so,” Bruce said. John barely waited for the words to exit his partner’s mouth before he was reaching out and grabbing the box.

His fingers wrapped around it greedily, pulling it close to him.

“Wait, John!” Bruce called out.

John froze, the box clutched to his chest. The box had, so far, done absolutely nothing.

“See Bruce?” John said. “It’s fine. No harm done.”

John could see his partner relax, his shoulders immediately slackening and the look of terror on his face disappearing to be replaced instead with Bruce’s patented ‘stern and disappointed’ look. John didn’t know what Bruce had been so worried about. Well, he did know, and he guessed that he could understand it. He was terrified of losing Bruce as well, but there was no way that the strange wooden thing in his hands was going to be enough to tear the two of them apart.

“You know buddy,” John said. “You really need to lighten up sometimes; learn to live a little and take some risks.”

Bruce didn’t say anything, just raised an eyebrow in John’s direction.

John sat down cross-legged on the floor and made himself comfortable as he inspected the dark, twisted wooden shaped in front of him. It had to do something, didn’t it? If it didn’t then Tetch wouldn’t have been so concerned with it.

The closer John looked the more sure he was that certain parts of the wooden object were designed to move. He ran a hand over what looked to be nothing more than a strange twist in the wood, and found that it could be pressed in pretty easily. He pressed it, expecting perhaps for the box to open and reveal whatever was inside.

Instead the room was flooded with blindingly bright light.

Next chapter

[ao3feed-timdrake]

Home

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2OiBA58

by daaarkknight

Bruce Wayne is Arkham Asylum's resident psychiatrist. He’s dedicated his life to helping people given up by society as psychos and freaks. And what does he get for it? Nothing.

 Except maybe a family.

This work will be continuously updated for a few days, so keep in touch!

Words: 8564, Chapters: 10/20, Language: English

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman - Fandom

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Jeremiah Arkham, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Jonathan Crane, Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley, Alfred Pennyworth (flashbacks), Jack Napier, Harvey Dent, Two-Face, Tim Drake

Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson, Selina Kyle/Pamela Isley, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Batman/Joker, Joker/Harley Quinn

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Bruce Wayne is still DC Dad, but is messed up, so is everyone else, Pedophilic urges, Bruce Wayne has good intentions, I love this universe, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Humor

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2OiBA58

[lfthinkerwrites]

Monsters and a Man

Title: From the Case Files of Edward Nigma, PI

Fandom: Batman

Rating: M, for violence and murder.

Summary: Penelope’s testimony inspires some different reactions from some very different men.

Author’s Note: There is a murder and some ableist language in this chapter.

AO3 Link

1:30 pm

Edward had decided to stay with Penelope for a while that afternoon. It had been a week since he'd seen her last after all, he reasoned. And it wasn't as if they didn't have quite a bit to talk about. For her part, Penelope did not seem in a rush to shoo him out either, working away at her paperwork while he chattered on in the seat in front of her desk. "...So then, the girls decided that just telling Ellen stories about our exploits wasn't enough, they had to show her pictures as well! So there I am, having to explain to my fifteen-year-old daughter why I decided to rob the First National Bank dressed in a green jacket with light up questions marks!"

Penelope smiled slightly and continued writing. Edward was beginning to slowly, but surely be able to read her body language. This was genuine amusement. He smiled a bit himself, then continued on. "Nina and Deirdre then proceeded to tell her that when Batman arrived, he foiled our getaway by aiming a Batarang at the emergency sprinkler system. When my jacket got soaked, the lights short-circuited and I had to throw it off because it started to smoke!"

Then Penelope did something Edward didn't expect. She laughed. A short laugh that she immediately covered up with a hand over her mouth. She looked up at him and her face flushed a bit. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at the thought of you catching on fire."

Edward shook his head. "It's not that," he said. "I just...I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before." He liked it. "Besides," he said with a smooth wave of his hand. "I've learned to recognize some of the absurdity of my former life. I wouldn't hold it against anyone if they laughed at it every now and then." Within reason. Briefly.

Penelope smiled again and shook her head. "How magnanimous of you." She turned her attention back to her paperwork, then paused. Her smile fell and her expression became almost blank. She put her pen down and rubbed the back of her head. Edward frowned.

"What's on your mind?" he asked.

Penelope sighed. "This morning. This whole week. I just...I keep going over everything that happened in my head and I wonder. Did I do enough? Is there something else I could have said?"

Edward let out a sigh himself. "Well, speaking as a member of the gallery, I'm not sure that there's anything more you could have done. Well, legally at least." If Strange and the Commission members were hellbent on running Gordon and the rest of GCPD out, then there wasn't anything Penelope could do or say to change that, not unless she was willing to resort to drastic measures. Looking at how uncertain she was though, Edward stayed his tongue. That wasn't what she needed to hear now. "You don't seem the type to worry about what-ifs anyway."

"I'm not usually," she admitted. "I've always thought of myself as being in complete control, of always knowing exactly what to do in any situation, but..." she sighed again. "I have to know that I did everything I could. If I didn't, I don't think I could ever forgive myself."

Nearly two years on and the shadow of Arkham Asylum and TITAN hung over her still. You and I are alike I think. We've both lost a part of ourselves, haven't we? "There was something I've been wanting to ask you," he said cautiously. "At the end of your testimony, you said something about how thinking of the denizens of Arkham as monsters can cause a person to justify committing crimes against them. I couldn't help but notice that you were directly addressing Ward." Penelope's face settled into a blank expression and she looked down at her pad of paper. Edward took this as a sign that he was on point. "That was about TITAN, wasn't it? He was involved?"

Penelope slowly nodded. "Ward transferred Bane to Arkham Asylum so that I could-" her voice hitched slightly. "So that I could begin the process of extracting venom from his body, for the formula."

Edward nodded. "You threatened to expose his involvement in that affair to undermine the Commission."

Penelope's voice came out in barely more than a whisper. "Yes."

"Even if that means destroying your career and reputation?"

Penelope looked back up at him, her eyes icy and a determined expression on her face. "It wouldn't be an effective threat if I wasn't willing to go through with it, now would it?"

"No, it wouldn't," Edward admitted. He couldn't approve of her willingness to sacrifice herself for an institution like GCPD, but this determination, this internal fire...he greatly preferred this to the hesitant, almost fragile woman he'd seen minutes earlier. "If he calls your bluff, give me warning at least before you do anything. Exposing sensitive information about prominent city officials is something of a specialty of mine."

"I can handle Ward. You don't have to get involved-"

"I want to. I've never liked Ward." Edward tapped his finger on the armrest of his chair. He could never get back what he lost, but Penelope could find herself again. She just needed a push. "It's not a question of your abilities. I'd just prefer not to see you lose everything. You deserve better than to become a martyr for GCPD."

Penelope looked almost taken aback by Edward's statement, which perturbed him somewhat. What's harder to believe, he wondered. That you deserve better, or that I care enough about you to say it?

"I'm not trying to make myself a martyr," she said finally, her voice low. She wasn't angry, or put out. She seemed more resigned. "I just...if something goes wrong, you have a lot more to lose than I do."

Edward blinked. So her going solo for the Commission wasn't just about her proving a point. She was, in her own way, trying to protect him. He felt a surge of fondness for this brave, stubborn woman. He wagged a finger at her. "Really now, dear doctor, have you forgotten who you're speaking with? Edward Nigma, formerly known as the Riddler? I was risking life, limb, and livelihood on the streets of Gotham back when you were choosing what classes to take your freshman year of college. I'm a resource."

"Your condescension is not appreciated, Edward," Penelope huffed. Her serious expression gave way to a small smile. A smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, but a smile still. "But thank you."

Edward smiled back. He liked her so much better when she let herself be happy. "Think nothing of it. Besides, worst case scenario, you could always join me on Vicki Vale's show and do a tell-all interview."

This quip had the desired effect and she let out a small laugh again. "God no," she said. "I don't know how you can stand being as much in the public spotlight as you are."

"I consider it my due," Edward said, leaning back. A return to their usual banter would be welcome after everything they'd experienced the last week. "After all, what good is a dazzling intellect and persona without an audience?"

Penelope rolled her eyes, but in a good-natured way. "You're impossible."

Edward chuckled a bit. Any further talk about the Commission, about Strange, about Harley, about regrets could wait. For now, for just one afternoon, he simply wanted to enjoy her company. "I know it."

6:00 pm

The elevator stopped on the third floor of City Hall. The doors opened almost immediately, but Ward hesitated before stepping out. He'd dreaded having this conversation since the end of Young's testimony but it couldn't be helped. He sighed, stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hall to the Mayor's office. Most of the staff had left already, leaving only the security personnel and an odd staffer or two finishing up on work. As he thought back on the day's events, Ward ground his teeth. He'd anticipated Leland being a threat, but Young? Who could have seen that coming? The insufferable bitch would ruin everything. She needed to be dealt with quickly. He reached the end of the hall and was now standing in front of the solid wooden door of the Mayor's office. Ward let out a long breath and brought his hand to the door. "Quincy? It's me."

"Come in," a deep voice sounded from the other side. Ward frowned. This wasn't Sharp. He opened the door to find Dr. Hugo Strange standing with his back turned towards him, looking out of a window that overlooked Downtown Gotham. "Good evening, Warden," Strange greeted without looking behind him. "Shut the door."

Ward closed the door behind him. "Where is Quincy?"

"He is running an errand at the moment. He won't be in tonight." Strange slowly turned around, his dark brown eyes peering intently through his glasses at Ward. He'd worked in corrections for most of his adult life, seen every type of scum and monster Gotham City had to offer, but something about Strange's sheer presence made him shiver. "He will be informed as to what we discuss tonight."

Ward gulped a bit. "Fine," he said. "We need to talk about Penelope Young."

"I heard that she made an impression at the proceedings today," Strange said without any trace of amusement. "It seems that she was not quite content with playing the role of aggrieved damsel in distress."

"It's worse than that. She's a threat, Hugo."

Strange gave a small incline of his head. He didn't seem to be surprised, a fact that worried Ward. "Go on."

"She approached me after her testimony. She all but stated that if we continue our attacks on Gordon, she'll publicly expose the TITAN Project." Ward wet his lip. "We need to deal with her."

"She certainly has proved to be more meddlesome than I had originally anticipated," Strange admitted. "However, we cannot move on her. Not yet."

"Not yet?" Ward repeated. "Hugo, if she goes public-"

"It would be damaging, yes. You would have to resign. We would have to put one of our contingencies into effect to ensure that Mayor Sharp would get out relatively unscathed. But the alternative could be costly. We have to consider what it would look like if she were to have an unfortunate accident so soon after her testimony."

"I understand that. I wasn't suggesting we do it right away. But-"

"There is something else to keep in mind as well," Strange interrupted. "Who was it that saved her from an unfortunate fate, and what might he do if she were to meet one?"

Understanding dawned on Ward. "Nigma. You don't think-"

"Nigma is not now nor has he ever been capable of loving anyone," Strange responded. "He is capable of some degree of sentiment, however. And I believe that she is useful to him in some capacity. He wouldn't have lifted a finger for her otherwise. We've been able to keep the man at bay for the time being, but he will perceive an attack on her as an attack on him. We cannot move on her until we have a sound plan to contain him."

Ward wanted nothing more for Young than to have her car brakes fail, or to meet a random mugger in a dark alley, but he could see Strange's point. Nigma had been one of the most formidable criminals in Gotham history for a damn good reason. Ward had seen that for himself in person more than once. If the man wasn't a complete lunatic he'd have had the city in the palm of his hand years ago. "We need to tell Quincy at least."

"And we will," Strange assured him. "He is going to need more...convincing in order to fully turn on her though. He still sees himself as almost a father to her. I told you, he tried to offer her employment at the asylum again."

"I remember," Ward answered. He shook his head. "She should have died that night. Or stayed in hiding. Why the Hell is she starting up trouble now?"

"Her motives are immaterial. We can wait to deal the death blow to Gordon. Her testimony, as unexpected as it was, can't take back the damage done to Bullock and Montoya. As long as even one of them resigns, it leaves Gordon vulnerable. Do not let your anger at Young's presumptuousness distract you from the greater goal."

Ward nodded. "You're right. Of course. Greene and Roberts are still on board with some of Quincy's suggestions. Young undermined their credibility in front of most of Gotham's press corp though. They're going to be reluctant to approve all of them, especially the harsher ones."

"That was to be expected. Even if Greene and Roberts prove to be useless cowards, we have other means to ensure changes are made. Was there anything else?"

Ward shuffled a bit. "Where exactly is Quincy?"

A smile came to Strange's face. "About an hour before you arrived, he received a call from Bolton that made him quite agitated. He said he had an unfinished matter at the Asylum he wanted to personally see to."

Ward furrowed his brow. An unfinished matter at Arkham? What could Sharp possibly need to do-Victor Goodman was at Arkham. "Oh, God."

7:00 pm

After winning the Mayoral election, Sharp honestly hoped that he would never have to set foot through the doors of Arkham Asylum again. That he'd never have to walk through the dark, cramped halls, that he'd never have to listen to the moaning, the shrieking, the laughter, the pleading from the wretches that resided in them. It was blissfully quiet tonight though, the only sound the echoes of the steps he and Lyle Bolton made down the hall. "It's quieter than usual tonight," he said.

Beside him, Bolton grinned. "Yeah. Curfew's at 6:30. They know better than to act up after that." He chuckled. "Amazin' what electrified bars and floor panels can do."

"Quite. And the Rogues?"

"They're still in the Isolation Ward. What's left of it anyway." The pair came to a stop right in front of the last room at the end of the hall. "Here we are. You sure you want to do this, Mayor?"

Sharp's grip on his cane tightened when he thought of the animal that lay on the other side. "Yes."

Bolton opened the door to the Arkham Infirmary, or rather, what passed for it. The official infirmary had been destroyed during the Joker's takeover almost two years ago. Now it was a repurposed recreation room, with six cots and three medical machines. The Asylum had received a grant to rebuild and update the infirmary, but Sharp had ordered the funds to be allocated to Hugo for his own research needs. What point was there to rebuild it if the animals were just going to destroy it anyway? The room itself was empty, save for one patient lying in a cot in the far left side of the room, and one young male orderly standing over him. As Bolton and Sharp entered, the orderly spun around, his eyes widening in shock. "Mr. Mayor!? What are you-"

Sharp held a hand out. "Good evening, Mr..." his eyes peered at the man's nametag. "Mr. Sanchez, is it? I wonder if you would be good enough to give us the room?"

Sanchez looked from Sharp to the patient to Sharp again, almost bug-eyed. "The room? Why-"

Bolton stepped forward, jerking his thumb to the door. "You heard him hombre! Clear out of here!"

Sanchez's face flushed, but he did as he was told, leaving the room with a final backward glance at the pair.

Sharp looked at the patient lying in the cot with disdain. "You may leave, Lyle."

"Mayor, I don't think that's-"

"I can more than handle this degenerate," Sharp insisted. "Make sure that Sanchez finds himself occupied with something else. If I need you, I'll call you."

Sharp didn't look up but heard Bolton's steps out of the room and the sound of the door shutting behind him. Now, for the first time, he was face to face with Victor Goodman.

Goodman's health had deteriorated since being brought back to Arkham. His skin was deathly pale, his face sunken in, his chest nearly concave. Lying in the cot as still as he was, wearing only a thin hospital gown and covered with a single white sheet, he already looked like a corpse. It was only the rhythmic beeping sound of the medical machine that informed Sharp that he was even still alive. He looked at Goodman without a trace of pity. It was the least the filth deserved, he thought, after all that he'd done. "Victor Goodman," he commanded. "Wake up."

Goodman made no movement or sound. Sharp frowned, then poked at his body with the end of his cane. Both of Goodman's wrists were securely cuffed to the sides of the cot, not that Goodman was in any kind of shape to offer resistance. "Goodman!" Sharp barked again. "Wake up!"

Goodman let out a soft groan and slowly opened his eyes. It took a moment for them to focus, and when they did, they narrowed. "Sharp," he muttered, his voice a hoarse croak barely above a whisper.

"That's Mayor Sharp to you, scum!" Sharp huffed. "I have a question for you about your actions last December. You will answer me, do you understand?"

Goodman's eyes shut again. "I've said all that I need to say. Let me live out my last remaining days in peace."

"It's about Penelope Young."

Goodman's eyes opened again. "Penelope...Odysseus' wife and the mother of his son. She waited for him faithfully for twenty years, keeping other suitors at bay through trickery, never losing faith that he would come through his trials and return to her. What do you want to know about her?"

Sharp rubbed the head of his cane. "When I was told that you had abducted her," he said in a low tone. "I believed at first that it was a crime of opportunity. That you simply needed a human shield and that she was the easiest to take. Bolton, however, informed me today that that was not the case. That you specifically targeted her. Why?"

Goodman let out a wheezing noise that might have been laughter once. Sharp's eyebrow twitched. The filth actually had the nerve to laugh at him. "A suitor? She has her Odysseus and it isn't you."

Sharp slammed the end of his cane onto the ground. "Don't be puerile! And if I wanted to talk about dratted Greek mythology, I'd speak to Zeus! Tell me!"

Goodman let out a sigh. "After our meeting at the old nightclub, I was disappointed with who Riddler had become. I had my Ankhesenamun follow him, to see if we could find anything to use against him." His voice turned almost plaintive. "Where is my Ankhesenamun"? I haven't seen her in so long-"

"She's in a Women's Correctional Facility. You'll never see her again. Go on."

Goodman let out a small groan but continued. "She followed him to a coffee shop in Downtown. That was where he met his Penelope."

Sharp growled. "She is not his Penelope." Inwardly, he was confused. Penelope had met with Nigma? Why? What could she possibly have to say to that thing?

"Isn't she?" Goodman mocked. He actually had the audacity to mock him. Him, the Mayor of Gotham, the Savior of this City. Sharp resisted the growing urge to throttle him. He needed to hear what he had to say. "I saw the photographs my Ankhesenamun took of them together. I saw the look in his eyes when she left him. He desires her. He may not acknowledge it, but I know desire when I see it in a man."

Sharp wanted to wretch. How dare he. How dare that preening, self-important, arrogant, maniacal degenerate have the gall to have designs on an innocent girl so far above him? "That was why you kidnapped her? Because you believe he wants her? Sharp would kill him first.

"I don't believe it. I know it. I saw how furious he was when I had her in my grasp, when I took her. And do you know what else?" Goodman smirked a bit as if he knew the words he'd say would harm Sharp. "She desires him as well."

Sharp barely heard the sound his cane made when it slipped from his grasp and fell to the tiled floor. Penelope wanting Nigma? He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. She was too smart, too driven, too sane to follow in Quinzel's footsteps. "She doesn't-she wouldn't-"

"She does. Even when she was bound and helpless, she tried so hard to protect Riddler from my final trap. I saw the tears almost fall from her eyes when she thought he was dead. I saw the look in her eyes when he came for her. She wants him as much as he wants her. He is her Odysseus, and she will wait for him no matter how long it takes."

Sharp's fists clenched. He remembered Penelope as she was when she had started her internship in Arkham, how bright she had been, how she had been the only one of that group to have real ambition and a vision for what Arkham could be. How quickly she had taken to the place, how he could see her coming around to his line of thinking. How she was everything he had hoped his daughter would be if he had ever had one. The idea of that girl giving herself to Nigma...he wouldn't let it happen. He would save her from him, being her back to where she belonged, part of the new order he would create.

Goodman wheezed again. "Do you know what I regret the most? That I didn't kill her when I took her from GCPD. Riddler's reaction to making it through the trials of the Underworld, only to find her mummified body? It would have been glorious."

Something inside of Sharp snapped at that. With one sudden movement, he wrapped his large hands around Goodman's throat and squeezed. He dimly heard the sound of Goodman's cuffs rattling as he tried in vain to lift his arms to defend himself. His grip tightened. Goodman was making no sound now, his mouth hung open, his dark eyes wide, almost bulging out of his head, just like the others when Sharp had delivered his divine justice. Sharp didn't acknowledge the smell coming from the sheets, nor the fact that his eyes were rolling back. He didn't see Goodman anymore, but another Rogue, one with a tacky suit, a green suit, and a smirk on his face. "You will never have her," Sharp fumed. "I will protect her from you! Do you hear me, Nigma? I won't let you take her from me!" Nigma said nothing, Goodman said nothing. Hours seemed to pass, but Sharp's grip did not loosen. Finally, he heard a long continuous beep coming from the machine. Goodman was dead. He removed his hands from around his throat and surveyed his handiwork. Another wretched soul, cleansed from this City. Soon, Nigma would join them.

When Ward and Goodman arrived, Bolton and Sharp were both in the ramshackle infirmary. Bolton at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at the scene. Ward took one look at the body that lay in the cot and nearly vomited. "Jesus!" he hissed. "Quincy you can't start this again! You're the Mayor, for god's sake!"

"Yes," Sharp answered as if he was in a daze. "I am. I am the protector of this City. I will cleanse it of the filth that inhabits it."

"Of course you will," Strange said patting him on the shoulder. "You've had quite the exciting evening, haven't you? Come, let's go to my office and have some tea."

"Alright," Sharp answered. "Thank you, Hugo. Yes, I have had quite a day..." Strange gave Ward a sharp look before he led Sharp out of the room.

As soon as they were gone, Ward turned on Bolton. "And just where were you when this was happening!?"

"Right outside," Bolton shrugged. 'I didn't think he'd actually kill the guy. So, what do you wanna do? Make it look like a suicide?"

Ward sighed, then nodded slowly. "Yes. Help me get his body in a noose by the window. Then strong-arm one of the doctors to sign off on it. Then cremate him. I don't want this coming back to haunt us, understand? What about that orderly that was here?"

"He was on the other side of the building when Goodman died. He doesn't know jack."

"Good. And Bolton? The next time Quincy gets one of these urges, call me immediately. Understand?"

Bolton huffed but nodded. Ward took a breath. He'd lived in Gotham all his life. He'd seen first hand what criminals had done to it. What were a few dead freaks against finally restoring peace and order to this town? "Good. Now help me with the body."

[emocatkeith]

every 2 months or so i am sucked right back into batman and this godforsaken gremlin man. so, i decided to expand more of my bm oc cast, and since i don’t think i’ve ever shown these dudes off, here they are now! Also, still deciding on the weapons they should use and what designs they should be, but I’m satisfied for what I have now.

check below to see their prototype-ish designs and some info about them! it’s valentine’s day and im going to indulge in my adoration for my ocs, god damn it!

All five of them work as “henchmen” under Jervis Tetch’s command. Of course, they’re still wacky and unique in their own right, so Jervis often gets a headache when trying to corral them back into doing what they’re supposed to do. Despite this, the Wonderland Gang (shut up this is their name for now as cheesy as it sounds) treat each other like family and are ride-or-die for one another.

[From Left to Right, starting at the top]

(TW: Transgender/Possibly ableist bullying, mind-control, violence, child abuse, & body horror/gore, jic!!)

- Baily Aubre “Deck O’ Kards” (usually shortened to just Kards) - 24 - Female (AMAB) - Baily was a gymnast-in-training during her school years, and hoped to go on into the Olympics. However, she lived in a more “traditional” town, and the boys often picked on Baily due to her feminine-acting ways. But when she discovered she was actually trans, she became a social outcast and general pariah, and had to both quit her gymnastic career dreams and to transition into home-schooling instead. Due to never being able to really trust others in social situations, Baily only really cared about her widowed mother, whom she depended a lot on. So, when she passed, Baily didn’t know what to do, and since her apprehension among groups of people didn’t motivate her to go to college, she soon went into shady businesses instead. She worked as a henchman for multiple rogues and soon set herself upon a criminal record, but she had grown fond of Jervis and his goals. But, as time went on, Baily realized she wanted to go onto bigger things in life and tried to convince Tetch to do the same. When that didn’t work, Baily attempted to walk out on him, but didn’t see him approach her, and just when she got a few feet away from him, Jervis knocked her out. Due to his obsessiveness and loneliness problems, he told himself that the only way to keep her around was to mess with her brain a bit, to make her more loyal to him. Baily is still witty and cautious on dangerous situations, but now she’s willing to sacrifice herself for Jervis. Though, her personality was mainly remained intact, her memories of her past was completely rewritten and changed to Tetch’s liking. It’s unknown if there is a way to undo the effects of his tampering, but a scar permanently remains wrapped around her head and hidden under her hair as a reminder of what he did.

-  Jackie Summers “March Hare” - 20 - Male (AFAB) - Jackie was a major sweetheart back in his youth, but constantly hyperactive and excited. Unfortunately, he was very gullible and naive into being tricked or pranked by other kids, and often scolded by his teachers and parents for getting bad grades or not listening during class. Though, he still remained an optimist, hoping that one day someone will be a true friend to him. But the bullying and harsh attitude to him only got worse as time went on, even beyond his school days. In Gotham, he was a college student studying theatre and visited the local library many times during the month. One day, as he browsed through the fiction setting, he picked up a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland out of curiosity. He was spooked, however, when a man approached him and excitedly started talking to him. But, Jackie wasn’t adverse to conversation and soon became friends with the man he soon would learn was Jervis. But, since he hadn’t transitioned yet, he still had long blonde hair that his new friend would often fond over. While confused, Jackie didn’t question it and loved the newfound attention he got from Jervis. But, one day as the library started to close up and the secretary decided to hand the keys over to Jackie, Jervis strolled in with a new tea recipe he wanted Jackie’s opinion on. Being oblivious to his intent, he agreed and drank the tea, but soon would get knocked out and wake back up to find Jervis, dressed up in his Hatter assemble, trying to get Jackie to play the role as his Alice. Afraid and not knowing what to do (and hating the itchy dress Jervis put on him over his regular clothes), Jackie appealed to Jervis by instead exclaiming he would rather be the March Hare than Alice. While slightly disappointed at first, Jervis relented, but found Jackie to be a much better suit for that character in the first place due to his eccentric personality (a side-effect of being in drama classes too much, haha). Likewise, Jackie found himself becoming much more attracted to the March Hare character and wanted to continue helping out his new friend. So, when Batman tried to rescue him from Tetch, Jackie instead fought him (with Batman clearly winning) but as both were sent to Arkham, they decided to become partners-in-crime together.

- Eenah Lyle “Dormouse” - 19 - Nonbinary/Genderfluid (it fluctuates) - Eenah has always been the quiet type, preferring to listen rather than conversate. Even though they had bad narcolepsy, Eenah found themself to be a fantastic bodybuilder at a young age and strengthened themself up for wrestling competitions. Eenah soon went on a winning streak, and went towards becoming the ultimate wrestler in all of Gotham. But that came to a close when they won against another diva, who was furious that Eenah won. So, thanks to their narcolepsy, Eenah passed out and woke up right after their bus-ride back home left without them. But they were approached by a gang that were hired by the diva to “rough Eenah up”. While they fought as hard as they could, Eenah was outnumbered and brutally got beaten on, who left when their lower jaw broke. Eenah was left there until a random passersby stumbled upon their body and got them to a hospital. Despite being able to repair most of the damage that was done to them, their jaw would always be crooked from now on. This prevented them from going on into the championships and Eenah lost everything after that. Fueled by fury and revenge, Eenah went on a rampage one day, finding the gang and diva that ruined their life and murdering them without a hint of mercy. Afterwards, they went on the run, coming across Jackie who they attempted to mug for food money. Instead though, Eenah found kindness they hadn’t felt in a long time, and waringly, followed Jackie back to Jervis. They found that Jackie and Jervis was trustworthy enough to be around, and soon that trustworthiness evolved into a tight friendship. Now, while being more on stealth missions, is able to hold their own against Batman or anyone else who intends to mess with them or their friends.

- Karoline Hudson “Queen of Hearts” - 14 - Female - Raised in a high-class, European family, Karoline was a sweet girl and had a kind family that hoped for the best for her future. Everything was looking great for Karoline and her family, but that peace was soon disrupted by a large group of people who viciously murdered her family and was kidnapped by them among many of her prized possessions/wealth to be sold. After seeing how cruel people could be, Karoline’s pure demeanor was ripped to shreds, leaving only a shell that felt empty. But, as the group arrived to Gotham, they got into a fight with another group of people, allowing Karoline to sneak away from her prison and run off into the streets. Unfortunately, nobody knew of the Hudson family and thought she was just a beggar on the streets, rambling crazy talk, and left her out on the rain. Three years pass, and Karoline has become a scavenger and unwilling of other people’s help due to fear of hurting her or taking her back to those people. So, when Jackie and Eenah found Karoline shivering in the rain, they were surprised at how snappy and mean this little girl was. But, Eenah reached a hang out to her, and started to tell of their own story. While still being highly aware of any sudden or suspicious movements, she was surprised to find that they weren’t trying to trick her at all. Jervis, although also shocked at how sharp-tongued Karoline was, welcomed her with open arms. Karoline still remains to be cautious of anything they might do to hurt her in some form, she found a new family that were generous and nice towards her. She likes to take charge most of the time, but often relents to Jervis’ pleads to just let him do the blueprints for god’s sake. She also likes to pick on everyone, especially Kard, but would kill anybody who would say or do something that would harm them. Karoline also has a small plush rabbit, stitched heavily due to wear-and-tear, that has dirty yet white fur, kept from her young days before she was taken away.

Chester Bennett “Cheshire Cat” - 38 - Male - Chester was always a nice man, liking to help others out even at the cost of his own time or safety. But, he also grew up poor and scrounged around for any money that he could find. His kindness had a limit though, especially towards rich or stuck-up people that believe they’re better than everyone else. While hating getting into debt, Chester had no choice but to relent to one of the top mob-bosses in Gotham, Roman Sionis, just to live. Though, as his constant failures at regaining the money towards Sionis persisted, Chester knew he had made a horrible mistake into working for Sionis when he was strung up and, as punishment for disappointing the mob-boss too many times, went through excruciating pain as his skin was ripped off from his muscles. Thankfully, he called the police before he was dragged to the warehouse, but the GCPD was too late. Roman Sionis and his henchmen had left Chester there to bleed out, who was barely alive at that point. Through hospital care, he survived, but was told that his epidermis would never recover from this trauma and would have to wear bandages to avoid harmful outside influences or blood leakage. Time went on, yet Chester never got over the traumatizing event and could hardly keep a stable job more than a month. Out of all of Gotham, there was one place Chester would go whenever he felt emotional: Storybook Land. He snuck in at night through a hole in the fence and wandered into the Wonderland area, and just as he got to the Caterpillar room, he broke down and sobbed underneath a mushroom. He jumped however when a voice above him asked what was wrong. Somehow, Jervis, who promptly introduced himself to Chester, had snuck his way into Storybook Land that night too and wanted to know why Chester was crying. He didn’t know why he started to vent towards this random stranger, but since nobody listened to him and instead veered away due to his off-putting appearance, finally having someone who would listen to him. Jervis nodded along, sympathizing while not being patronizing, and the two of them soon went on a long chat. Chester hadn’t felt this happy for so long, and found a friend in Jervis. Both met up at Storybook Land during night just to talk about their day, until Jervis brung in the new and improved costume of the Cheshire Cat the theme park got and, since he noticed he always wanted to cover up, they could have fun together dressed up as the Mad Hatter and the titular cat. Chester agreed, and found the costume to be surprisingly flexible and comfortable, not actually wanting to take it off. While apprehensive and shocking at first when Jervis spilled the beans about his Rogue status, Chester continued wanting to be friends with him and be a part of his makeshift gang. The others hit off Chester fast, and before he knew it, the man found himself a new home in the form of, frankly, a bunch of crazy people. And, to his own shock, he liked the company. 

hope you liked all that cheesy backstory stuff lmao. i was scared at first to post their backstories but i thought why the heck not. hope you guys like these misfits!