#as well as manhwa/historical aus with batfam

[cheust]

Sometimes I think about the angst potential of a Neglected! Reader that sacrifices themselves for a member of the batfam, not bc they love them, but to hurt them.

I kinda like the idea of a Neglected Reader that becomes volatile over time, the neglect turning them bitter, and with no way to properly cope, rots away on the inside. Filled with the desire to hurt the batfam. They could turn to a life of crime but what would it actually accomplish? More people that feel like they do? One more criminal on Bruce’s roster? No. Crime is not an option for their desire to hurt the bat and his birds.

So what does reader do? Die. They die publicly.

What I have in my head so far is a scene like in the 2009 Astro Boy movie, where Bruce is taking investors and the press on a tour of his companies new projects when Damian “accidentally” (Reader set it up perfectly) sets off a new training robot that’s actually dangerous, and reader pushes him out of the way and ends up being killed by the robot.

All in front of reporters, who do what any reporter would do, report on Bruce Wayne’s failure as a father, and turn reader immortal like Martha and Thomas Wayne.

It only hitting the batfam how much they neglected reader when Reader’s close friends practically plan the funeral for them, telling the batfam through choked sobs how reader would want to be remembered. It hits them more when they have to sit and listen to the stories and memories of Reader that their friends tell the batfam, memories they had no role in. They had no idea how many people loved reader, how many people are crumbling in grief at readers death. And it’s painfully obvious how little the family knows about reader all throughout the funeral. With them not being able to come up with one memory of reader.

On the other hand, bc I love a reader that can get the upper hand!

Reader who fakes their death and escapes the batfam and Gotham City by escaping into a different world all together. A reader who put their all into learning magic so that they can fake their death and not have to suffer the consequences of the batfam somehow finding out, bc there’s nothing more embarrassing than seeing your dad in his armored bat suit, 3 years after faking your death.

Or having your younger half brother berating you for faking your death and “embarrassing the family name with such a stunt”. All the While the oldest brother is crying and squeezing you, saying how sorry they are for not being there for you.

Yic.

So of course you’re safe in this fantasy world, it reminds you a lot of those manhwas you use to read in your spare time. You can now make your own business and dominate in trade and investments. Make friends and foes in your business field.

However, the blood in your veins run icy cold when you hear a certain lastname at a ball you’re attending. A name that you had hoped to never hear again. A name that has your stomach in knots and a million questions in your mind. A name that makes you want to throw up and run away, to hide behind your loyal knight.

Bruce. Wayne.