#bruce's desk.

[aloha-obi]

In some AU out there I like to think there’s a Batman that started out as more “Brucie” the playboy bachelor than self made fighting machine. A Bruce Wayne who was actually more accustomed to throwing epic parties than punching bad guys. A Bruce that tried to drown his grief in every pleasure the world has to offer… until he finds his Robin.

Dick Grayson who comes from the same type of tragedy, only he doesn’t have a billion dollars (or a father figure like Alfred) to fall back on.

This little kid who wants to take on the mob personally - is now targeted by kidnappers who want Bruce’s money - and is suffering from a complete lack of self preservation and the innate compulsion to swing from every chandelier in Bruce’s home.

This kid, who some people in Gotham’s high society look upon with a predatory gaze and whisper things like ‘Talon’ and ‘Court of Owls’ and a dozen other things that Bruce isn’t sure about…. But Dick has nothing and no one and Bruce HAS to step up and be there for him.

So Brucie, with his years of marital arts training (because he still loves his fitness and the ability to defend himself) has to quickly become someone who’s able to protect this kid. Everyone in Gotham thinks Bruce has matured and settled down because he’s a father now - and they aren’t Wrong per se but really - when your kid is that much of a daredevil/trouble magnet, a Bat-themed vigilante gets born out of necessity because Robin was going to go fight the darkness with or without Bruce’s help.

Just imagine a ‘Brucie’ who wants to forget his grief through partying more than punching criminals … and then imagine how that partying DILF becomes BATMAN - born from protective love instead of long held grief.

[hood-ex]

I'm a normal person until I remember how Dick perched his chin on Bruce's arm.

Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1

[eveningdawn222]

jayroy is so good to me for a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones is that they r both full of each other's triggers. it's insane how like. their traumas have the potential to directly impact each other. except they just. don't. for the most part they're just two really good bros. it's got so much potential and if dc ever got around to writing a jason story that wasn't dogshit, it could be a really good story. alas.

[reginalusus]

Messy Harvey and Matches sketch because the creative juices haven't been flowing. </3 Been thinking of them...

Particularly the part in my Bruharvey fic where Matches comes into it, wish I had done a little more with that angle, but oh well.

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm having incoherent thoughts about clone danny again from the clone/clone^2 au (when am I not?) but more specifically I'm thinking about his reaction to finding out he's a clone. The standalone clone au digs into that a little more than clone^2, which is more focused on Danny and Damian's relationship. But neither (so far) really get into Danny's issues about finding out he's a clone after 15 years of thinking he wasn't.

Because he resents his parents for not telling him for so long. He resents the way he found out; through a trivial school project rather than a sit-down talk. He resents the fact that, apparently, they had meant to tell him sooner. But forgot. He resents the fact that they never told him because finding out feels like something was stolen from him when it had the chance to not be.

Danny Fenton, just fifteen, cloned not even half a year ago, knows what that personal violation of autonomy feels like. He knows what it's like to be cloned and while he loves Ellie, he does, she's his sister, and in this au his twin. But he is still left with that feeling of unsafety after realizing he'd been cloned. Being cloned is violating. The onset realization that it's so easy to get DNA without the other party noticing, and that what was stopping someone from trying to clone him again?

Followed only after with the rest of the inexplainable mix of feelings of being cloned, the rest of that inner conflict and panic that's an ugly mocktail of emotions that range from horror to fear. Trying to imagine what it's like to be cloned from the cloned party, and I imagine that it leaves you with the feeling of needing to crawl out of your own skin with discomfort.

And then he gets put on the other side of it. Danny Fenton, only fifteen, was cloned not even half a year ago, finding out he is a clone. And reactions, I imagine, can vary from person to person. But to him, it feels like something got stolen from him, like someone took a hole puncher and stuck it right into his chest and stole a chunk of himself from him.

It changes nothing about him and yet it changes everything. It's a betrayal on it's own to just find out he was a clone and they didn't tell him for fifteen years -- it shouldn't mean anything, because he's still Danny, and yet it means everything. It's him, it's him, it's about him. It's his personhood. It's about the fact that a load-bearing rock in his identity just crumbled beneath his feet and now there's a rockslide.

Because then he finds out that they used the wrong DNA. Its like pouring salt in an open wound. He's not even related to his parents or his sister, when for years he thought he was. It's the fact that pieces of his identity that he's been so secure in for so long just got ripped away from him in an instant. Then they tell him -- only through his own horrified prompting -- that the person whose DNA they used -- Bruce Wayne -- didn't even know he existed. That they accidentally used the wrong DNA, then didn't tell the person whose DNA they used.

The betrayal of being lied to for years turns really quickly into horror at his own existence. Something very similar to the horror he felt at being cloned and the skin-crawling discomfort that made him feel like his own skin wasn't really his. And then its not. It's actually not. Nothing but his own name feels like it belongs to him anymore -- not his hair, not his eyes, not his heart or his lungs, nothing feels like his anymore and he didn't know what that felt like until it was gone.

It's a question of Nature Vs. Nurture -- where does the line of "nature" begin and where does the line of "nurture" end? What of him is actually his? What of him is Bruce Wayne's? It's not logical, it's not supposed to be. It's a load-bearing wall on the house of his identity being destroyed and now everything else is caving down in on him. What belongs to Danny, what belongs to Bruce Wayne?

[batcavescolony]

So Talia Al Ghul ran Lexcorp while Lex was President right? What was Damian doing? Does it ever say? Did she ever have take your child to work day? Was he just with Ra's? Or training? Early 00s till idk whenever Lex wasn't President, Damian would be around. Where is he?

[rainpunk07]

dc x dp prompt inspired by this tiktok

if you don’t wanna click the link, in summary it’s a hyper-realistic animation commenting on American overconsumption and capitalism through the metaphor of jeff bezos owning a bakery and using his sugary workers as ingredients once he realizes it makes his pastries more delicious. (it’s permanently altered my brain chemistry, i recommend that you watch it it’s so good.)

anyways, i’m aiming for “they’re in the same universe already” type angle, but you can do whatever you want. so let’s say a former GIW dude gets laid off and ends up in gotham. through whatever hijinks you choose, the guy discovers that shades are DELICIOUS in your average pastry and decides to open a bakery with this knowledge. (the only reason this dude and gotham citizens can consume these is cuz they’re liminal contaminated or something, you decide.)

now also for whatever reason, we find danny in gotham (with or without his companions) and by some magic of fate (clockwork probably) he stumbles on the bakery. he’s maybe heard how good it is and they’re just so yummy or something or other. upon trying it, he immediately wants to puke because he knows that there are shades in it and it feels like full on cannibalism. what he does about it is up to you.

on the bats end, they’re all enjoying these pastries as much as any other person in gotham. some bat manages to coax jason into trying one and when he tastes, he has a similar reaction to danny. he doesn’t recognize the secret ingredient as shades or inherently cannibalism, but he just feels down in his being that there’s something fucked up about it. (lazarus pits obviously tip one further towards liminal than not.)

side note on that, considering damien was raised nearby the lazarus pits for a majority of his childhood, i say that he’s neutral on the taste. like, it isn’t delicious or anything but it’s not the worst thing he’s tasted. and he’s definitely not gonna search out the sweet treats. (maybe he connects the dots between his and jason’s liminal-bility? does he follow jason around as he investigates the bakery? it’s up to you ;) )

on the other hand, the other bats don’t understand their distaste/neutrality and think jason’s tweaking, but jason knows what he knows. (cass believes him obvi. they probably investigate the bakery together)

so this is probably where the duo meets danny, and they figure out the stuff together and now you add whatever angst you want that comes with the combined worlds of danny phantom and detective comics. is danny the ghost king? demon twin au? is jason a baby halfa? it’s all up to y’all ig

NOW BE FREE *drops the idea at fanfic writer’s feet and skedaddles away*

[supermarvelgirl15]

Besties for the resties 💞

[indigogirled]

it’s tuesday

[psalmsofpsychosis]

Dark Gotham TV show me the forbidden post 1×15 "Alfred carries baby Bruce to their car after they watch the sunrise together because Bruce can't walk and then back at Wayne Manor he sits him down and gently, quietly washes and cleans Bruce's ankle and smoothes a hand down his calf and slowly bondages it tight as he memorises the sound of Bruce's reluctant involuntary hisses" scene

[kitxvoss]

randolph bell in every episode / 2x17

[aloha-obi]

HC that Dick spent most of his early years just following Bruce wherever he went- like he goes on all business trips to foreign countries and does his schoolwork (he’s homeschooled/private tutoring til at least high school) in Bruce’s office. He’s occasionally seen doing increasingly ridiculous stunts in the background of Bruce’s zoom calls. One time B just left the room and put a 10 year old Dick in charge for the rest of the meeting. The kid closed a business deal, declared a corporate wide policy for paid birthdays off and organized a bring your dog to work day. When meetings become too boring B puts himself on mute and plays catch with Dick until someone actually has something worth saying. And everyone remembers but it’s taboo to bring up that time Bruce got (accidentally) blasted in the face with a football while discussing budget cuts

[amaraudermind]

I just know Duke loves celebrating the Ides of March

[handsomeamoeba]

My fellow DMs, take it from me

If you have ever said the words "no, that can't be it" at the game table, know that your players are already unionizing against you to make you commit to whatever stupid name or lore decision you just said

[lovepollution]

I mean, some people might say that it’s too much, but luckily I am not one of those people. 🙃

[shih-coulda-had-it]

I want a story or head cannons about afo going to his private gym for a leg day and forcing yoichi to come with him.

Bonus points if Kudou and Bruce encourage him to go, but it’s because they don’t realize AFO has 0 idea how to moderate his gym routine for a frail younger brother whose knees pop every time he stands up.