#god i'm afraid this post came off to much like bruce bashing but

[boyfridged]

see, the thing is that (up until countdown at least) there’s no symmetry in jay and bruce's respective ways of grieving.

jay is perpetually trapped in the bargaining stage of grief, trying to reach out to bruce from beyond death.

bruce is way past this. he has settled into a quiet, passive type of mourning, devoid of hope for a reunion. and to stay in this state, he had to necessarily disregard jay’s true image – an image of an earnest, bright child, his son. the memory of jay has been reconstructed in his mind a thousand times and sealed in a folder labeled as “soldier” (or even just a personal failure). it's ugly. it's unfair. it's a coping mechanism.

so to me, the issue isn't that bruce wants his dead, sweet little boy back – the issue is that he barely remembers him. if he did, maybe he would be willing to take a leap of faith and search for that person in jason who came back. but he's not even trying to reconcile the image of 15yo jay with red hood – or rather, maybe the image of a volatile kid that he created in his grief fits with the red hood a bit too accurately. maybe it's a bit too convenient. it works perfectly well for his own self-preservation and sanity, to think that jason has been doomed from the beginning.

jason, on the other hand, is cursed with remembering. one of the very sparse concepts that i found interesting in rhato was when in #3 (2011) jason chose to give up on his happiest memory – skipping patrol to watch a movie with bruce. maybe it's because recalling these tender, sweet moments is what gives him hope, and motivates him to keep bargaining and trying to reconcile with bruce. and bargaining with reality is exhausting. the readers and jay know that it's a lost cause – both because neither bruce nor jay are the same people anymore, but also because, ironically, batman, the symbol of hope, doesn't have any left when it comes to getting his son back. bruce, in his grief, essentially closed the door. jay, in his grief, is banging on them.

[darklover06]

Once again, thank you @missunytheartist for this idea, at this point you are the lord and saviour of ideas 😅

Prompt: Vance haunting the pinball machine (plus my own extra addition to it)

This will also kind of string off two of my own ideas that I have posted before this.

Also have no clue how long or short this is going to be so just warning ya.

The grabber was dead. Finney did it. Everyone that was trapped in that basement can now walk free. Vance, Bruce, robin, Griffin and paperboy can all now roam free in the small town they called home, visiting any place they will remember. Vance confused as to were to go slowly makes his way towards his house and as he's walking he remembers what way to turn what number his house was, what his mum's name was, what she looked like and how much she loved him. He prays that she wasn't there when they retrieved the bodies from the other basement but then again wishes she could see that he would finally be at peace. God how he wishes he could joke to her that 'at least she won't have to pick him up from the police station anymore'.

There it is, his house. Still in the same condition as it was before, the same rusty car his mum uses in the drive, the dog house out front just incase the dog misbehaved too much. Vance didn't know it was possible for ghosts to cry, yet here he is letting a few years slip as he can start to remember all of the things he did here. As any ghost can, he walked through the walls and looks around, he walked straight into his room. Nothing changed from when he was last in there, nothing has been touched. His bed still unmade, the pile of dirty clothes still sat there in front of the set of drawers. He needs to know if his mum's okay. Walking through the door he comes across his mum sat on the sofa in the living room watching the news with tears in her eyes "my poor Vance, may peace be upon you forever my darling. I love you forever an always!" Is all she can say before she breaks down. "I love you too momma, I'm sorry." Vance whispers hoping that there's even an once of it that she heard. He can't stay here long afraid that he might break and cause damage like what happened with the bottles and Finney.

Leaving his house knowing that he will return, he walks towards the place he spent more time than he should have. The grab-'n'-go. There was countless times he was here always trying to beat his high score or beating up a kid for messing up his score. All the memories of every time he beat his score came flooding back to him and makes him chuckle slightly. He wants to know what's become of his beloved machine, has his score been beaten or not. Not wasting any time he ales his way to the machine. His machine. Frantically looking over it to see if anything has changed, and to his pleasure nothing has, there is still his high score sat there proudly. The only thing different is that there is an 'out of order' sign on it. He's sure he didn't bash it that hard that it broke. Not possible. He looks around to see the sweet innocent lady that always works here, looking over at the machine and smiling slightly as she sees one of the lights in the machine turn on. "Hello Vance, it still works but I'm making sure no one can beat your high score. Don't want to ruin your reputation with this." She chuckled lightly not actually aware that Vance could hear what she said or if it was actually him. All Vance could do was smile at how the lady he caused so much trouble for, did something so kind for him even if he had passed. He would be eternally grateful for her.

Vance walked out of the store going back to his house and saying to himself that he would take the boys there, especially cus he promised Griffin to take him there to see the machine.