#dick felt like the most appropriate batkid to do it

[haveihitanerve]

Read a fic then suddenly thought-

Do Bruce's kids know he was engaged to Selina and that she stood him up? If not, I'm curious what their reaction would be to the info

WAIT HE WAS ENGAGED TO SELINA AND SHE STOOD HIM UP?!?!?!?

lemme look smth up- OH MY GODS... ok- ok-... ok i think i got this... im gonna cry:

It happened on a Saturday. Because of course it did. The one day where she had no obligations, no excuse to run and flee, and the day that she and Dick met every week to catch up.

"You really drink this stuff?" Dick wrinkled his nose at the smoothie in front of him, pushing it away. Selina laughed, pulling bowls from her cabinet.

"You're really insulting my drinking choices when you live with Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake?" She countered, raising an eyebrow as she ladled soup into their bowls. Dick snorted, accepting his bowl with a nod of thanks.

"Fair, i guess. But I can hate on all of your drink choices. I'm equal in my distribution of judgement." Selina chuckled, blowing gently on her spoon before taking a gentle sip.

"I appreciate it." Dick's shoulders shook with silent laughter as he lifted his spoon in acknowledgement, taking a sip as well.

"Of course. Ah- shoot!" Selina raised an eyebrow as the first Robin cursed, hissing in pain as the hot soup splattered onto his shirt. He sighed in frustration, grabbing a napkin.

Selina swatted his hand away, rolling her eyes. "Go- there are towels in my side table, go to the bathroom." Dick nodded his grim agreement, standing from the table and heading into her bedroom for the towels. Selina shook her head, returning to her meal and finishing it up before standing to clean up.

"Uh?? Lina?" Dick's voice echoed from the bedroom.

"Yeah?" Selina called back, cleaning out her bowl in the sink. Dick walked into the kitchen, a frown on his face.

"What's this?" Selina turned, wiping her hands on a dish towel, and froze.

"Wher- where'd you get that?" She asked quietly, hands grabbing the counter behind her to keep her upright. Dick raised an eyebrow.

"It was in your drawer. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry, but I couldn't find the towels." Selina shook her head.

"Right. Yes. Of course." She turned away, back towards the dishes.

"Tabby?" Dick asked, taking a step closer, the stupid box in his hand. "What is it? You don't usually keep your steals in your drawers, and this is something expensive." Selina breathed slowly, bracing herself.

"No," She agreed finally. "I don't keep steals in my drawers. And yes, it is expensive. I would hope it would be," She smiled softly, turning to face him at last. "Because your father bought it for me."

Dick's eyes grew wide as he looked at the box. "B bought this for you?" Selina tilted her head in a nod. Dick's eyes narrowed. "But... its a ring-" He froze, eyes darting to her. "You're not married." It was a statement. Selina's head jerked in a no. "Then what-"

"We were supposed to be. Going to be." Selina cut him off before his detective skills could go haywire and she'd lose him. "He uh, he asked me. And I said yes. And we were going to be." She leaned against the cabinets, avoiding Dick's blue eyes. The same eyes as his father, though adopted. "But um.." Her finger traced circles on the counter, eyes distant. "We weren't... as alone, as we would have liked. And... someone.. close to me.. She talked me out of it. And I-" Her voice caught but she forced herself to look at him, to say it. "I left him there. Alone."

Dick's silence was damming. "You left him at the altar?" Every word was precise, hard, cold. Selina forced herself to nod.

"Well, technically we didn't have an altar- it was a roof-"

"You left my father, alone, at the altar-" He threw his hands up in frustration. "Chimney- whatever! And- and and, kept his ring???" Selina swallowed.

"He told me to keep it. A reminder. Maybe a promise. Dickie-" She reached for him, begging him to understand.

"No. No." He shook his head, backing away from her. "No no no.. I- I need to think. Alone. And- and maybe talk to Bruce-"

"Please don't." She grabbed his sleeve, holding on despite the vicious look he sent her. "Please. Your father... I don't want him to have to... to be reminded. Please. You can yell at me all you want- but- but leave him out of it. It's my fault." Dick's eyes melted slightly, but he still moved out of reach again, his sleeve slipping through her fingers.

"I know its not his fault." Dick's laugh was entirely devoid of humor. "For once, its not his fault. No, that lies solely on you." His eyes were so hard and cold and blue it hurt.

"Kitten- Dick I'm sorry," Selina begged, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "If I could I'd go back in time and erase it all from ever going wrong... but I can't. We agreed... we agreed to give each other a break, some time, and I'll give him that," She looked at him, anguished. "I'll give him whatever he wants I will, I swear. But... but I'm no longer a part of that."

Dick stared at her as though she had grown two heads, and maybe she had because he set down the ring box, and took a seat. "Selina, we're going to sit here, and you're going to explain exactly what happened, and after that you're going to explain exactly how it is that you believe he doesn't want you anymore, because I can guarantee-" He laughed, and this time there was something there. "That he still does."

Selina slid into the seat opposite him, hands unconsciously seeking out the box, and the ring inside. She opened it slowly, and Dick watched as she pulled out the ring, twirling the gorgeous thing across her fingers. She slipped it onto her middle finger, and Dick, mercifully, didn't comment, just watched her expectantly. Selina took a deep breath, and began talking.

[bitimdrake]

Hi! Have really been enjoying your meta posts, and as someone who's relatively recently started to delve into Batman comics, I'm curious: how does the Batfam view Bruce's relationship with Joker? Do they have times where they discuss it, or talk to him about it? My interest got peaked especially after reading The Batman Chronicles #5, and seeing that Barbara knew about Batman and Joker laughing at the end of TKJ. I found her reaction quite... interesting (and justified). Thanks!

I've been trying to find a good answer to this one, but unfortunately I just don't have it. The real problem here is that I'm just not that personally hyped on the "Batman and the Joker are ~connected" thing, so in hindsight I don't really take a lot of notice of it when it comes up?

Death of the Family from the new 52 may be of interest to you. I don't recall any point in there either with the batkids really sitting down to talk about Bruce and the Joker's relationship, but there are points of them prodding Bruce that get close. And the whole story is about Batman and the Joker and the batfam, so it's all about the interplay.

Overall, I can recall the general idea that the batkids know, of course, that there is a lot of personal pain inflicted by the Joker, even compared to other rogues, and he is likely to make Bruce especially angry or out of control--particularly in the era while Jason was dead.

Beyond that, all the vaguely appropriate examples that come to mind are too much about the kids themselves to really get at what your asking for.

Jason, ofc, has a lot of feelings about it, but it always read to me that he felt Bruce not killing the Joker was down to his code against killing, not anything special about the Joker. And pretty much all of Jason's talk about how Bruce should hate and kill the Joker is about Jason, not about anything inherent to Batman and the Joker before (or in isolation from) his death.

When Bruce resuscitates the Joker after Dick kills him (Joker: Last Laugh & aftermath), I don't recall any reflection on there being something special about the Joker that Bruce was determined to save--only that Bruce didn't want Dick to have the blood on his hands and/or that his code required him to try to save even a mass-murderer. And in the aftermath, everyone is focused on how Dick is taking it, so not much talk about Bruce.

Tim's early interactions with the Joker (Robin II: Jokers Wild) are mostly about the shadow of Jason's death: proving that Bruce doesn't have to worry about him dying like Jason, etc. Cass's major story with the Joker (DC First: Batgirl/Joker) was largely about Barbara, not Bruce.

I'm not as comprehensive in Babs, but every later story with her and the Joker that I recall (from the original Suicide Squad or Birds of Prey) is firmly about her, no particular reflection on Bruce. Oracle Year One is interesting to examine, because ultimately it's just as much about fictional character Barbara Gordon taking back her agency and lashing out at the people who stole it as it is about irl creators calling out the bullshit in The Killing Joke's story. So Babs calling Bruce out for laughing with the Joker so soon after she was shot--it's Babs criticizing Bruce, but it's just as much, if not moreso, a criticism of tkj.

EXCEPT. Like I said, I may be struggling for answers here solely because I just skimmed over them. (Because, to be completely honest, I largely reject stories that try to convince me there is any part of Bruce that remotely likes or cares about the Joker. At the most, I could see Bruce feeling a "maybe we are destined to destroy each other" thing, but even that is...more than I read into Batman & the Joker in comics tbh. In adaptations where the world is much smaller I can buy it, but not in the huge and populated world of the comics.) If there are scenes with the batkids having major, deep thoughts about Bruce and the Joker's relationship, they're also probably in Bruce-centric books more than in batkid-centric books, and I read more of the latter.

...so tl;dr: there's not much I can recall beyond them noting Bruce's obvious responses to the personal attacks on Barbara and Jason, but I may not be the most reliable source on this

[m00nslippers]

How many mom figures does Jason have in crushing u?

He’s got mom-figures, aunt-figures AND grandmother figures.

Selina and Talia are both like mothers to him. Talia especially has straight-up claimed him as her son, as far as she’s concerned, she has two sons, and their names are Jason and Damian. Damian is very confused by this, because he will be talking to Talia on a custody visit or whatever you want to call it, and she’ll say, “Give your brother my love when you get back to Gotham,” and the first thing to come to mind for Damian is, but I don’t have brothers? and the next thing to come to mind is but I have a whole bunch of brothers? and he’ll say, “What brother do you mean, mother?” because he can’t figure out why she would say that to any of them, and Talia is annoyed like, “The only brother you have, Jason, obviously!” And Damian is just like?? How and when did this happen?! (Like eight years ago Dami, keep up). And I am absolutely stealing @holy-fate-worse-than-death‘s idea that all the Al Ghuls are christened in the Lazarus Pit. When Talia submerged and healed Jason in it, that was her christening Jason as her child too. That was her birthing him. She’s as much Jason’s mother as Bruce is Jason’s father, it’s real to them. She is his mom.

Jason’s relationship with Selina is more more new, like the kid warming up to his step-mom (because that’s almost literally the situation) but they have a strong base. And Selina really understands him like Bruce honestly can’t. She was raised on the streets, ran a mom for a bit there, was a thief/criminal, on almost any point where Jason and Bruce would argue, she can actually trust Selina to understand where he’s coming from an maybe even be on his side. They are very similar in a lot of ways and immediately started to connect when she officially married Bruce (which was the unspoken ‘okay’ for the family to start getting attached to her, before that she was flighty so they always felt she might leave and didn’t want to get too attached to her in case that happened). But now they are getting very close. Dick is still a bit wary of Selina, and Tim and Damian don’t have much in common with her, but Jason is a boy after her own heart, they have similar humor and are both skilled infiltrators and thieves, she loves teaching him a thing or two in that respect.

The family actually tries to keep them from teaming up much on missions unless Bruce or Dick is there too because it all just inevitably gets out of hand because they love breaking into places and joking around, especially at Bruce’s expense. Selina actually thinks a lot about how life would have been if she’d found Jason instead of Bruce, if maybe Jason’s life might have been better. But knowing her luck probably not, so she never voices this thought aloud, all it would do is hurt her boys, but she likes to think there’s a universe out there where Jason was her son first and Bruce’s second–not that she doesn’t love the other kids too but with Jason it just feels especially right and oh-so-possible that he could have been her Stray.

And then there are Jason’s ‘aunts’, good old Ivy and Harley, an anon sent me something that’s just perfect for this and I was holding on to it to think of something to write with it, but I think I’ll post it here because it’s so appropriate:

Ivy and Harley have officially acknowledged him as Selina’s kid, (unofficially they’ve acknowledged the other batkids as her kid too, but they are less excited about their inclusion. Ivy is going to miss tying up Tim with vines and Harley always had fun fighting with Damian but now they have to ugh, HOLD BACK. Harley really likes Duke, though, and has called him her nephew to his face, which Duke is very confused about, and knowing that Damian hold’s the Al Ghul views about saving the environment from humans gives Ivy a positive view of him.) They’d always rather liked Jason, Harley very much approved of him trying to kill the Joker, not to mention that Robinson Park, right next to Crime Ally, had a lot less assholes running around messing with Ivy’s plants when Jason took the territory, so she’s always had a higher opinion of him for that reason alone. So far Jason is the only kid who has been invited to Sirens’ nights, though they are considering inviting the others, maybe one or two at a time. Harley has really been trying to be a hero lately and Ivy, because she loves her, is making an effort to as well, especially now that Selina has taken the plunge, so they’re going to have to get used to these kids if they want to stay in Gotham.

For Jason’s part he likes knowing that he can count on those two in pretty much any situation, they are never going to judged him for having killed people, or for much of anything really because they’ve done worse and don’t regret their actions. It’s very relieving for him to know that he’ll always be accepted by them, even if he messes up with this thing with the JLA and the batfam and everything. If for some reason he royally screwed-up and all the heroes turned on him, he knows Ivy and Harley wouldn’t.

And on to the grandmother figures. Jason has Ma Gunn and Ducra. Jason doesn’t know it, but Ma Gunn is his biological grandmother. She’s your regular ol’ uzi-wielding, cigar-smoking granny and you can see exactly where Jason gets it from. She was never around when Jason was a kid, when she took Jason in the first time she never told him they were related and when he got older it felt too late to mention it. Jason doesn’t like what she was doing before, but he’s been crashing at her place with the Outlaws for a while now and she really does treat him like her grandkid, and she’d never thought she would feel any kind of care or pride over her useless son’s kid, but she can’t help herself. They are just so much alike. If something happened to her, Jason would be pretty upset. If Jason ever found out she was his grandmother, he’d be really betrayed that she hadn’t told him, because he does hold a certain fondness for her and would love to know that she was his real grandmother.

Ducra is his other grandmother figure, and he’s really grateful to her for taking him into the All-Caste. He knows she has a certain fondness for him, because if she didn’t the descent among the Caste at his acceptance would have had her running him out ages ago. They didn’t like that he was an outsider or a human or uninitiated into any organization they respected (like the League of Assassins). That she took it upon herself to recognize him as their prophesied and teach him their ways made a lot of people hate her. In the end she was right, that he was strong and good and was able to learn all of their techniques, yet they still don’t like him. Jason is really thankful that she fought for him against her own people, as well as was the only teacher he had at the time to teach him anything worthwhile or good–while everyone else were awful people like Egon who betrayed his sense of ethics at every turn.

Sometimes Jason wonders if he might be descended from her, far far back in his bloodline or something, and maybe that’s why he can use the All-Caste techniques when most people on the planet can’t even after lots of training, but she’s never talked about having any kids outside of Essence (not to mention that would make his thing with Essence a little weird) so maybe that’s just some wishful thinking on his part. Maybe he just wishes there was a blood connection so he could never lose that relationship, like he worries losing his relationship with Talia or Selina or Ma Gunn. Like he seemed to lose his relationship with the bat family. He had worries that maybe blood was the only way you could be assured that people would stay with you, keep loving you–but some time with Kori and Roy finally changed his mind on that. He knows they will always love him and they don’t need blood for that, so he’s less worried than he used to be that all of these relationships in his life will just go away one day when they realize he’s not good enough.

[cat-the-dragon]

Batkid figure floorskating

AO3 link

The first one to commit the offense had, very predictably, been Dick.

No one would be surprised to hear it, in fact, next to swinging on the chandelier and sliding down the banisters, just zipping around in socks on the polished and waxed ball-floor was extremely tame for him.

Each one of Bruce’s children had at one moment or another, taken a few minutes to just play with the feeling of running half across the room, then letting themselves slide the rest of the way.

Even Damian, though the first time hadn’t been totally voluntary, and he always covered his game up by declaring he was practicing his landings in case he had to navigate a gravelly rooftop as Robin.

Something changed with Cass. Cass, who loved classic dancing, and had made a good few dancer friends. And one day, these friends innocently told her she should watch the finale of the winter Olympics figure skating.

Cass had seen it. And then she’d dragged Tim and Steph to look with her. And then Dick had wanted to know what his younger siblings were bonding over. And then Damian go irritated to be left out and butted in too.

Dick had wistfully said it reminded him of skidding on the ballroom floor, and Cass had perked up at it, insisting they try it too.

It had become something of a weekly ritual, everyone converged to the ballroom in their slidiest socks and spent a few hours practicing their floorskating.

Jason just happened upon them by chance one day while he was trying to sneak into the Batcave for a bit of intel while Bruce was asleep. He looked a bit wistful, and so he was begged to join in by the most insightful members (Cass and Dick) of their little slide-club.

Damian sneered at his socks, and Dick apologized for the youngest’s attitude, but still gave Jason a pair of his own more appropriate ones and they showed him which routines they were trying to emulate.

After that, Jason just popped back at the manor for the weekly floorskating practice.

In the end they all forgot about dodging Bruce, who got curious for the relative silence he woke up in and came to the room, only to see his sons and daughter (and almost daughter) practice backward sliding lifts in near syncronicity on the sound of silence.

He stood there, unnoticed for a few minutes, until Alfred came to fetch him and informed him with a smile that it had been going on for a while. Bruce could see the soft expression on the old butler’s face at the kid’s simple joy, and he wondered, when the last time was that he’d done something with his children just for fun. with no trace of the mission lurking around the corners.

He remembered, sliding along on this very floor, how long ago had this been? Alfred had tried harder then to feign annoyance at his antics than he did now for Bruce’s kids.

And just like that Bruce took his decision.

Two weeks after he first found out about the standing rendez-vous, Bruce tried to casually join in with his children, dressed just like them in sport leggings, a shirt and socks.

As soon as the shock wore off, but before Jason’s warry expression dissolved, Damian critiqued his choice of socks too, nose turned up at his poor choice. Bruce blinked and looked at the socks that he’d thought would work, and a snickering Dick rummaged in his bag to also lend Bruce one of his back-up pairs of extra-sliding socks.

Alfred stepped in hours later to tell them he’d prepared a snack for the athletes. Bruce couldn’t really remember the last time he’d had such an approving and happy gaze aimed at him by the butler.

He also couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun.

They ate the snack, then the children egged Alfred on until the old butler reluctantly agreed to try a shoeless spin around the room. (Bruce noted that Alfred’s socks didn’t get any negative comments.) The spin turned into several, as the kids couldn’t agree to not be the one to pull Alfred round and had to settle it by taking turns, but Bruce could tell the old butler was delighted.

When everyone started to stretch and head for the showers, Bruce somewhat shyly asked his kid if they’d be okay with him joining them from then on. The strange look came back to Jason’s face, but Cass agreed so fast that it was pretty much that.

Still, Bruce had so much work to do with his second son. Maybe asking him to teach him some things would be a good idea? It could help mend their relationship.

Bruce went to take his own shower with a smile and strict instructions on what socks to wear next time.

And to Bruce’s mind, It had been it. Harmless, highly athletic, but non-combat-related fun with his children every week, his warry son accepting to be in the same room as him for a few hours every week.

He should have guessed his children had PLANS.

As it was, it took him an embarrassing amount of time to notice.

To be fair, any of his children taking off their shoes at a charity function wasn’t that unusual.

Or loosing their jackets.

Removing pants and ripping off skirts was new though.

And that’s when he saw the sequined, sparky, coordinated leggings that he connected the dots.

By then everyone had noticed his children (even more than usual) eccentric actions and was starring at them.

On cue, the orchestra started playing the song they had been practicing their routine to, and his children started to dance, and slide, some gracious a faeries, others deliberately flubbing and dumbing down their talent. 

Bruce felt at once proud of how sneaky they were, and frustrated he didn’t have a matching pair of sparkly leggings to join in the fun.

There was a sigh near his elbow, and he turned to Barbara.

She smiled at him wistfully. “Steph told me about the practice. I wish I could still do that.” She glared momentarily at her unresponsive knees, and Bruce decided that he really didn’t need sparkling leggings.

His priceless shoes got removed and hung carelessly to Barbara’s chair, and he bent to pick her up, then slid into the empty space his children had created with their flashmob, twirling Barbara as he went.

He cut in swiftly in his children’s routine, and tossed Barbara up and away, trusting Steph and Cass to catch her.

The girls didn’t disappoint, tucking their female mentor between them and taking the fastest round they could, backward around the ballroom to make Barbara laugh.

Bruce, for his part, turned to Dick, whose partners he just stole and opened his arms in the sign to tell him he could do a lift up.

With a cry, Bruce’s oldest son lept into his arms and in dirty dancing style lift.

The next day, all the papers would be speaking about the Wayne’s figure floorskating show. Bruce just couldn’t wait for it.

I am dedicating this to @comicroute, @chibinightowl, @comebackolivia, @camsthisky, @tantalum-cobalt, @audreycritter, @glaciya. You’re all (and some other I didn’t @ too) making my tumblr experience great, so here, have some fluffy batfam bonding and social media frenzy inducing antics.