#he had Some issues at first but by the time tim showed up and settled down

[apollos-boyfriend]

one day ben just comes up to tim and goes “we’ve decided to accept him but we are NOT calling him dad” before walking away and leaving tim SO confused. i don’t think tim and brian ever officially get together but this is Especially soon in their relationship in their mansion. i don’t know if he even realizes she’s talking about brian at first. poor man is just lost on all angles. they don’t even call HIM dad??? he’ll never fully understand children

[vinelark]

With the exciting news of Kon being in MAWS season 3 (!!!!!), do you have an specific recs for him when it comes to comics? (I know Young Justice is good for him, but not much outside of that)

hello! exciting news indeed!!! and hell yeah, here are some kon-centric comics outside of yj that i’ve enjoyed reading:

Reign of the Supermen arc (1993)

this arc has kon’s intro, well before he even had the name kon, and it’s worth a read if you haven’t already because of the way he shows up and is peak annoying immediately (said with love). especially Adventures of Superman #501! (the storyline spans a number of titles, reading order here)

(and for a related rec, the reign of the superman (2019) animated movie blends aspects of the original comic arc with the “kon is made with lex luthor’s dna” reveal/retcon; it’s a fun watch! left me with Much To Think About pang-wise, too.)

Superboy (1994)

the most concentrated amount of og jacket and glasses superboy you’ll find in one series; there’s a lot going on here, most of it so very 90s (both in the plot/world and on a more meta level) and also so many adorable kons. special shoutout to my favorite side character, krypto in his “tiny white terrier with a giant attitude” form. (and for a more specific rec i’ll point to issues #60 - 61, in which kon is hopping through multiple realities and we see, among others, robin!kon and “supergrrrl” kon.)

Batgirl (200) #41

this is the issue where cass goes “hmm, i should try to do A Romance” and shows up outside kon’s window to see what all the fuss is about, and they proceed to have the most lavender date of all lavender dates. i adore kon’s inability to shut up here, and also for obvious reasons need to give it a special shoutout for kon taking a “bat-babe” on a date in the clouds.

Adventure Comics (Vol 2) #1 - 6 (2009)

this arc serves to re-settle kon into the world (and smallville) after the whole [waves hand] dying and coming back to life thing. (technically it’s 12 issues, but you’re asking for specific recs so my specific recs are the first six!) this is about kon starting life in smallville and having a prolonged identity crisis re: the superman + lex luthor of it all. cassie, bart, and tim all show up as significant guest stars (one of my fav tim & kon issues of all time is in here) but it’s very kon-centric! i also really enjoy the art, especially when it does wide/landscape shots.

Superboy (2010)

this is a pretty direct continuation from the adventure comics arc, once again feat. kon’s 21st century black t-shirt (sigh) and also kon wearing the tiniest, goofiest pair of Disguise Glasses. that said, it’s a fun, classic “teen superhero juggles school and crushes and a statistically high number of supervillains for a small town (seriously, what the hell was poison ivy even doing in kansas?)” series. also if there were any justice in the world simon valentine would’ve been one of those crushes, but alas.

Convergence: Superboy (2015) #1 - 2

i’ll be honest, i’m not super familiar with the overarching convergence storyline, but i really enjoyed this two-shot featuring a kon who has been stuck in metropolis without his powers, only to suddenly gain them back and immediately start brawling with alternate versions of heroes he knows. i also like the art in this one, and the character designs overall—leather jacket kon my beloved!

Action Comics (2016) #1020 - 1028 (“House of Kent” arc)

this sequence brings kon back into the kent family fold after the timeline fuckery (and i think follows from the young justice (2019) gemworld arc where they re-find kon?)—so basically it’s kon’s re-introduction to clark, and to lois and jon (who’s visiting from his own future adventure) and kara and martha and jonathan. despite spelling conner’s name two different ways in the span of a few issues, it’s a neat speedrun of different kon+superfam interactions, and also a fun time for anyone who’s a fan of kon being solidly part of the kent family. also: jacket kon is back 🙏

this is not at all an exhaustive list, just some of my favs--happy reading!

[too-much-tma-stuff]

As Weak as You are Strong

Part 2 of Mutually Assured Disaster, as usual this isn’t edited so if you see any errors let me know!

-----------

Training Danny did not go the way that Hood had expected it too. First off it started way sooner then he had expected or wanted, he had wanted Danny to rest and fully heal before they started anything, maybe settle in fully to Gotham. But by the end of the first week he had realized that keeping the boy still was a fucking impossible task, he was so fucking restless! Jason attempted it for another four days before realizing that he had to give Danny something controlled and safe to do before sitting still drove him crazy and he did something stupid.

The easiest way to do that just then was to start training Danny, he was able to put it off a few more days by telling Danny he wouldn’t start training until he was signed up for school because the teen didn’t want to go back to school. But it was only a couple days before he seemed to decide that even school would be better then nothing.

Danny accepted being given a new identity, Danny Nightingale and let Hood forge paperwork to have legal guardianship and then enroll him in a decent school. Though he wouldn’t be starting till next semester to give him a chance to settle in to his new home. Jason wasn’t entirely sure when he’d decided Danny belonged with him, but he had, and was looking into bigger apartments for him and his new ward. After all it was official now.

“Okay the first step will be for you to show me what you can do to get a baseline, so we’ll go to gym I usually use after breakfast,” Jason finally said one morning as pulled a bottle of milk out of the fridge. Usually he cooked breakfast for them but it was a bad idea to eat to heavily before a work out, he’d take Danny out for lunch afterwards instead.

He heard Danny pause from where he was digging around in the cupboard grumbling about how healthy Jason’s cereal options were, as if he wasn’t the one who’d already eaten the box of sugary shit Tim had left here. The silence went on for too long and Jason scowled, turning to put the milk down on the counter and stare ad Danny hard.

“What’s the issue Wisp?” Jason asked sounding more annoyed then he actually was.

“Well, it’s just, I’m really strong and I have, like, a lot of powers? A Lot, I don’t even remember all of them half the time! I think it might be better of we leave town for me to show you? Like, if you want to see my most powerful ability that’s my Ghostly Wail, which is a pretty powerful sonic thing I don’t have great control of and I’m worried if I tried to do it inside I might bring down the building.” Danny rambled as casually as he could while he went back to digging for cereal and brought them over to the table.

Jason blinked as he processed that and then nodded slowly. “Okay, we haven’t talked about this much, what powers do you have?”

“Well, the sonic scream I mentioned, super strength, flight, intangibility, I can make and control ice, I have enhanced senses, I can shock people though that’s a hands on attack… Oh, I can sort of hypnotize people, I can possess people as well but I don’t like doing it… I can shape shift a bit though I’m not very good at it yet.” Danny said, counting them out on his fingers and looking a bit unsure as if he might have forgotten some.

“Damn Spooks what Can’t you do?” Jason asked, making light of how genuinely shocking Danny’s power level was.

“I think eventually I’ll learn how to shoot lasers.. Oh! I forgot my ecto beams! I can shoot ecto from my hands with some force, it’s corrosive to humans. And I can’t duplicate yet, the one older member of my species I met could so I assume I’ll learn eventually? I’m not really in a rush to learn though, I already kind of scare myself,” Danny admitted, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Alright, can you show me everything accept the wail inside?” Jason asked tapping his fingers absently against the table, before Danny shoved the box of cereal across the table to him and he remembered they were supposed to be eating.

“I think so, as long as I’m careful. But if I break anything you’re paying for it,” Danny joked around a mouthful of cereal, pointing his spoon at Jason.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Jason said automatically, forcing himself to power through the realization he was fucking parenting this kid. “If I have to pay for anything you’re grounded.”

“You can’t ground me, you’re not my dad,” Danny shot back with an exaggerated pout, at least his mouth wasn’t full this time.

“So you’re not living under my roof, eating all my food, and asking me to train you?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrows, Danny stayed silent, pouting and poking at his cereal, steering the last few bits around the bowl. “If you have so little control of your power that you would break something you might seriously hurt a human in the field even if they don’t deserve it, and we don’t want that so if you break anything you’ll be grounded and it’ll be longer before you get into the field. Until we’re both confident in your control,” Jason explained firmly, he watched Danny consider that then deflate and nod.

“Fine,” He mumbled, drinking his cereal milk and bringing his bowl to the sink, washing it quickly.

Jason let it go, he knew Danny didn’t want to hurt anyone, he was a good kid, he was just disappointed. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had a shit attitude when he was Danny’s age as well. Jason finished his breakfast quickly, cleaning up before he grabbed the keys to his bike. “Alright let’s get to the gym, I already made sure it would be kept empty for the morning, so no one will see what we do.” He had been going to this place for ages and no one had found out he was Red Hood after all, in Gotham businesses that catered to vigilantes and rogues were deeply valued.

Danny nodded and grabbed the helmet Jason had bought for him in the first couple days. He left the apartment and went down the stairs ahead of Jason as he locked up. Danny bounded down, jumping a flight of stairs at the time and waiting on the landing for Jason to catch up before leaping down the next one. Jason didn’t understand why he was doing but he had learned gravity didn’t affect Danny the same way as most people did so jumping that way wouldn’t hurt the kid. And if it made him happy Jason didn’t give a shit, he just hurried to keep up.

Danny sat on the back of Jason’s bike, making him think about how he should really look into getting a sidecar or something, even though Danny seemed to enjoy riding on the back. Actually, it was the first time Jason was genuinely considering switching to a car for regular use, that would be safer right? And what if Danny wanted to have a friend over once he started school? Jason couldn’t bring both Danny And a friend home like this. Ya, he should definitely get a car.

God fucking damn it, he was a dad.

They reached the gym no problem and Jason lead the way this time, Danny hanging back just a little, clearly nervous. Jason marched on ahead, leading by example that there was nothing to be afraid of, and Danny hurried to keep up. There were a few people there still there so Jason whistled loudly and reminded the room at large the gym was privately booked out for the next couple hours and it was time to clear out. There was some grumbling but everyone went, it wasn’t exactly the first time this had happened.

“Okay the first thing is a test of strength, help me move all this shit out of the way,” Jason said, he was joking really but Danny didn’t seem to notice. He nodded firmly and went and grabbed one of the pieces of exercise equipment, lifting it and all the weights attached with no trouble at all. Jason had to pause to process that, watching as Danny moved it off to the side. “How much exactly can you lift?”

“I don’t know, I lifted a bus once and it wasn’t to hard,” Danny told Jason casually, as if that was fucking normal! Jason really had his work cut out for him with this kid. He sighed at Danny and then went to grab some targets since Danny had mentioned some sort of blast.

“Alright now that we have a clear patch show me what else you can do,” Jason said once he’d set up the targets. Danny nodded with a determined set to his jaw and in a flash of light that made Jason blink Danny had changed, his hair turning white and his eyes a green that would have made Jason’s stomach turn if he wasn’t already half used to Danny’s eyes flashing that colour randomly.

Over the next hour he watched as Danny blasted the targets with green beams that seemed to melt through what they hit and then eat through the rest, shock, freeze, and fight. When Jason told him to hit a punching bag as hard as he could Danny fucking broke it! The chain snapped and the bag flew across the room.

“I’m so sorry!” Danny yelped as soon as he realized what he’d done, before Jason had fully processed it. “You told me to hit as hard as I could! I should have known to hold back a bit but-“ Danny cut off on his justifications, ducking his head and biting his lip.

Jason took a deep breath, watching the sand that spilled from the split in the punching bag and trying not to think about what that force could do to a human body. “It’s alright, I did say to hit it as hard as you could. Now I need to see if you can punch just hard enough to drop a person without hurting them badly,” he said, ushering Danny over to a bag that wasn’t broken. He wanted to spar with Danny but he needed to make sure it wasn’t overly dangerous to his health first.

“I can do it in my human form,” Danny offered, eager to be helpful. “I have some access to my powers when I am but they’re much weaker when I am so it might be safer.”

“Safer for others but what about for you? You’re more vulnerable when you’re in your human form right?” Jason demanded and Danny winced, nodding reluctantly. “Alright then we’re going to work on you being able to control and restrain your strength in this form. You should be able to do that anyway, pulling a punch takes just as much strength as following it through and the control is even more impressive.”

“This is going to take forever,” Danny groaned.

“Well then we’d better get started then shouldn’t we?” Jason said, repressing his smile in case Danny thought he was making fun of him.

Danny groaned dramatically again, wallowing but only for a moment before the determined set to his jaw returned and he nodded. “Good, do you think you can spar with me without throwing me into a wall?” Jason joked, Danny wouldn’t want to hurt Jason so it really was the best way to help him practice.

Danny barked a startled laugh and grinned. “Oh ya! Don’t worry I’ll go easy on you~” Danny teased making Jason laugh in return, the kid really liked to banter.

“Don’t hold back to much, I’m plenty strong,” Jason shot back as he lead the way to the mat. “After this though I’m taking you to the shooting range. A gun with rubber bullets will be a good way for you to have a ranged attack without shooting fucking acid, and it’s a lot gentler then you can hit. The last thing we need is for you to get worked up or spooked in the field and really hurting someone by accident.”

“Turns out I’m not a gun, I’m much, much worse,” Danny joked and Jason rolled his eyes at the movie reference.

He dropped into a fighting stance once he reached the mat. “I’m on the attack now, I just want you to show me how well you can dodge and block Without using your powers.” Once he had Danny’s confirmation and the younger man was in his stance Jason lunged without a count in.

Danny wasn’t bad for someone who didn’t have any actual training, he was quick and his reflexes were good but he was clearly used to relying more heavily on his powers and took a couple pretty hard hits. Just as importantly though he took those hits, stumbled, recovered, and kept going. They could never avoid every hit, being able to keep going in spite of it was a crucial skill in this line of work.

Jason pushed it until he could see Danny starting to get frustrated so Jason had a good measure of both his abilities and his capacity and then backed off. “Alright we need to work on that, and your patience,” Jason said as he left the mat for a moment to grab their water bottles.

“Why?” Danny asked, maybe a little petulantly, he was eager to get out on patrol and he had always been able to rely on his powers before. Still Jason chose to answer the question in good faith.

“What if your attacked as a civilian and need to hide your powers? What if some day you’re up against something who Can actually hurt and hit you? They obviously exist given how you found me. What if some day you lose your abilities?” Jason pointed out. “Your life is the most important thing so if you have to use them so be it but we need to make sure you can handle yourself decently without them.” He handed Danny his water bottle and they both drank while Danny processed and valiantly attempted not to sulk, he was still a teenager after all and a bit immature.

“As for your patience, you don’t have anger issues like mine but if you lost your temper you could do a lot more damage.” Jason noted the way that made Danny flinch, he’s ask about that later.

“Alright now your turn to attack, show me how you fight without those powers of yours. You can turn back now if you want to, though I think you should patrol in this form so you should learn to control your strength like this. It’ll help keep your identity secret too. Though if the people in this city haven’t figured out who Nightwing is their obviously fucking idiots,” Jason told Danny as he put down his bottle and returned to the mat.

“I don’t have a lot of practice fighting humans, just other ghosts, so until I get a better feel for that I think I’d rather spar as a human as well. I mean, I’m still strong like this,” the same flash of white light around Danny and he once again had black hair and blue eyes. “But not as strong so it’ll be a good way to ease into it right?”

“Sure that makes sense, come on,” Jason said beckoning for Danny to come at him. Which he did, sloppily. He was fast, but he was untrained, his strikes were wide and telegraphed, Jason dodged and grabbed Danny’s arm, flipping him and putting his back on the ground before letting him up. Danny stood up again, looking a little more wary this time, he took a moment to consider Jason before attacking again, his attacks a little more considered and precise, but still pretty damn obvious.

Jason blocked and dodged mostly, letting Danny land at least one hit to see how hard it would be, he pulled it pretty well actually, it might leave a bit of a bruise but it didn’t even knock Jason over. Jason took Danny’s moment of triumph for landing a hit as an opening to put Danny on the ground again with a chuckle, he had to keep the kid humble after all right? He offered Danny his hand to help the boy up giving him a warm smile.

“Alright, not bad but there’s a lot you could learn. I think we’ve got a good baseline of what your capable of, and I’ll start training you in MMA and other fighting styles tomorrow, and shooting lessons this afternoon. First lunch, what do you want to eat?”

[kieran-granola]

I promised @krizariel that I would transcribe this one next, so here we go for older JayTim schmoop.

Bruce's funeral takes place on a sunny June day. It's early, too early, but living life the way he did and getting exposed to so many harmful substances and radiation has consequences. Everyone in the Batfamily shows up, no matter how strained their relationship with the Wayne name. Some of them come accompanied by their partner and/or children, and some alone.

Tim is on the cusp of forty, settled in his career, and happy with where he is. He doesn't wear capes anymore, instead he helps train younger heroes. He loves knowing that he's doing what he can to protect them and to help them stay alive to help others.

Jason will blow his forty-second candles in a few months. He still runs a criminal empire, but he's gone to university and gotten a degree. He now has a network of charities that are absolutely fronts, but he runs them in legitimate, ethical ways that enact good in the community. He also has two daughters, one in middle school and the other starting high school, and he has kept a good relationship with his now ex-wife with whom he shares custody.

Tim and Jason haven't exactly worked together or kept contact in over a decade. For all intents and purposes, they're now strangers. They have, however, both had the opportunity to work through their issues. Tim, because it was that or dying, Jason because he wanted to do the work for his daughters.

On the day of Bruce's funeral, they sit together and catch breakfast. They're the first ones awake in the Manor after they all spent the night sitting shiva, and their old enmity feels so far away. They actually get up and reintroduce themselves to each other with strong handshakes all around.

They spend the rest of the morning quietly chatting until the rest of the house awakens. Then the day truly starts, and Tim gets to see how soft Jason has turned out to be because… Well. His daughters are here and, as fraught as Jason and Bruce's relationship was, Bruce definitely showed up to be as good a grandpa as he could be for the girls. His passing devastated them, and Jason is doing everything he can to manage his own grief while being as much of a pillar of support for them as he can be.

It's intriguing and bittersweet for Tim because it makes him realize everything he missed when he decided to keep his distance from the family outside of cape work.

Anyway, eventually the girls need a break, and so Jason offers to drive them to their favorite bookshop for a spot of shopping and ice cream. On an impulse, Tim asks if he can tag along, and Jason agrees.

The "new" face helps get the girls' minds off their grief more than the bookshop does. Jason is incredibly relieved when Tim plays into it and lets them ask their questions. Still, everyone definitely has misty eyes when Jason's youngest picks a new edition of her favorite childhood book, because Bruce used to read it to her all the time, and she wants to read it with him one last time.

Having these interactions opens things up between Tim and Jason. When the girls join their other cousins back at the Manor, the two of them abscond to the patio and share their memories of their own fathers. The conversation goes from there to happier memories—childhood foods, shenanigans, broken vases and finger painting—and they find themselves smiling despite their shared grief.

They enjoy each other's company so much that they share phone numbers and make a promise to just... Catch up again. In happier circumstances.

As the weeks go by, their texting history lengthens. They chat every time they have a minute, and it takes a while but they eventually find a shared free spot in their schedules to grab a beer together. It's not a date—not in any of their minds at least, not yet—but they both sense the potential there when they're looking each other in the eye, feeling light and happy.

Eventually, after many months of meetings, they end one of their evenings with a spur-of-the-moment kiss, and they finally put words on the dating they've been doing.

They keep seeing each other for a while after that, now as romantic partners, and they do try out the bedroom when the girls are at their mum's place.

Then, Jason asks Tim if he'd be willing to have dinner with him and his daughters.

(He kept things on the down low at first, and he didn't really advertise his recurring meetings/dates with Tim, but the girls could see the way he smiled at his phone sometimes... and how he actually went shopping for more than his usual boring suits. They're not surprised when he tells them he's seeing someone.)

The girls absolutely hoot when Tim shows up with flowers for them, and wine for Jason and him. They then proceed to grill him over dinner while roasting the absolute hell out of Jason. Jason retaliates with the worst dad jokes and the threat of baby pictures.

Tim has an absolute blast, and that's when he realizes that Oh, it's more than just casual dating. He's falling in love with Jason. And obviously Jason is serious about this too, or he never would have introduced him to his daughters as more than a distant uncle.

The evening keeps going despite Tim's momentous realization. Jason and him start reminiscing about their younger days and the girls give each other a commiserating look of "ugh" at the dinosaurs and abscond to their bedrooms. Tim and Jason end up curled up together on the couch for one last coffee, then Tim heads back home, feeling warm down to his bones.

After that first dinner, the girls keep asking Jason if Tim will be there whenever their dad offers to take them somewhere. They insist on inviting him if Jason doesn't, because he obviously makes their dad happy, and eventually it becomes natural to include Tim in the family activities from the get-go.

The girls know they've won and gotten their dad to stop pussyfooting around his feelings when Jason shows up to his eldest's hockey match hand-in-hand with Tim and introduces him to their mom.

(She's very amused and tells him she's heard so much about him from the girls she already feels like they're friends.)

But… Jason isn't the only one with kids who care about him. Tim, as The Only Cool and Reliable Adult in most of his superhero protégés' lives, ends up being a surrogate father to quite a few of them. It's not rare for him to get random visits from young vigilantes in need of advice/a hug/someone to tell them they're proud of them and doing good.

Jason: "This isn't fair."

Tim: "What."

Jason: "My girls barely threatened you, meanwhile Wonder Girl 13 dangled me off a building because she thought I'd brainwashed you."

Tim: "Don't tell me you're scared of my students."

Jason: "Well, I can't exactly SHOOT them, can I?"

Tim: "I'd be very cross with you if you did."

Jason: "No shit. At least that explains why you were so good with the girls."

Tim: "Hmm?"

Jason: "You're a father of twelve, Tim."

Tim: "... I guess, I am. Though.... More like fourteen now, I hope?"

Jason: "You'll have to sort it out with the girls, but considering they keep sending me links to jewellers, I think it's safe to assume so."

Tim: "Nic— Wait. What?? They want us to get married?!"

Jason: "No, they think you need a new watch. Of course, they want us to get married."

Tim: "...I've never been married."

Jason: "I have."

Tim: "...Would you be opposed to doing it again?"

Jason, putting down his reading to look into Tim's eyes: "Why, are you interested?"

Tim: "...Maybe."

Jason: "..."

Tim: "..."

Jason: "..."

Tim: "...Nevermind this was s—"

Jason, interrupting him: "What's your band size?"

[aingeal98]

Hi, so I was reading some of your Stephanie Brown meta & kudos, serious props yours is excellent. I also noticed you seem to be among those who picked up on the worrying undercurrent of Stephanie's relationships with older men. So double kudos for that.

Especially as its one of those things that tends to get glossed over in fandom & I am unsure at times if some writers even grasped what they were doing. Though that may say more about how girls tend to be treated/viewed as adults rather than children, teenagers or victims, save when its convenient to judge them as such.

Sorry not sure where I am going with this, but I think your stance it from that "Five ships that won't happen" section of the Steph ask as well thought out and covered a lot, so third kudos just for tackling that heavy topic so deftly and efficiently.

Ah thank you! Stephanie's relationship with men is so fascinating to me because she's been hurt so many times and the dissonance between her canon and fanon versions are pretty grim yet interesting. Like in early canon she was the Faith to Ariana's Buffy, the Veronica to the Bettys that were Tim's other love interests at the time. And various writers had various ideas about why she was the way she was, a common theme being that she had difficult relationships with the men in her life and had been hurt in the past. Be it a villain, a friend of her fathers, Cluemaster himself, or a shitty clearly too old guy named Dean. I don't think it was meant to be a pattern, more likely just individual ideas about trauma Steph suffered in her past that ended up turning into a consistent trait.

So you've got an abusive father, at least two cases of SA that I can remember (her babysitter and Black Mask), a pregnancy with clear subtext that the father was older than her, and the general way Batman treats her.

Not to mention she was a minor when all this happened. Like Steph has so many issues that she deserves the chance to unpack but instead they've just kind of... softened her down. Like her Batgirl run was the first chance she'd gotten to be the actual hero instead of The Girl in a story written by sexists, and she deserved every second of that. There had been too much injustice done to her character and her Batgirl run did a good job at setting the baseline for giving her a decent narrative. But afterwards, the New 52 could have delved more into her psyche instead of leaning into her waffles and sparkles fanon characterization. But because the New 52 is the worst, it didn't. And now here we are.

It's one of the reasons I'd really love to write a story about Steph realising she's bisexual, because I think in some ways her view of men are due to feeling trapped by heterosexuality and the patriarchal society. It's hard to explain fully without going into a whole other meta but the way she reacts to Tim showing her bare minimum decency is heartbreaking. Like yes men are awful and have been awful to her but she still likes them, she's going to settle down and marry one eventually right? She just has to find the right one, and Tim didn't treat her like complete garbage so he might be it for her!

And then for her to realise that no, she doesn't. She can marry a man if she wants to but if she wants romance there's also women... I really think bi Steph could be so much more than a simple "Oh hey I like girls now cool lol." Like it would shake a significant amount of the misogyny she's internalised and directed towards herself, it could alter the view she's taken of the world, and it would allow her to see her past trauma through a different lens, maybe with less subconscious self hatred.

Sorry this turned into a giant ramble haha, but thank you for the ask!

[ectonurites]

Sorry to bother you, but you seem to know a lot about the comics, and specifically about Tim Drake. I was wondering if you knew off the top of your head when Tim and Steph last canonically dated? Because I see people blaming Meghan Fitzmartin a lot, but I could've sworn that they last broke up before she became Tim's author.

So, the people 'blaming' Meghan Fitzmartin are correct—but I can understand some confusion happening because the breakup occurred off-panel. So like, if you weren't following things closely at the time these books were coming out, it might seem like the first Tim story Fitzmartin wrote was referencing a breakup that already happened somewhere else... but that is not the case.

The other possible confusion point would be that there was an earlier 'break up & get back together' storyline with them in the Rebirth era, a few years before she wrote Tim.

To briefly go over the Rebirth & onward Tim/Steph dating timeline just to clear things up (and I'll be using cover dates just for consistency, so if you want release date subtract two months):

Detective Comics #934-935 August 2016 [written by James Tynion IV] Tim & Steph are established to be dating in Rebirth continuity. We don't see the actual moment they start dating, we're just shown that this is now the situation.

Detective Comics #940 November 2016 [written by James Tynion IV] Tim is 'killed' (he's not really but everyone thinks he is, and he is out of the picture for a while) and thus that effectively pauses any relationship between he and Steph, obviously.

Detective Comics #969 January 2018 [written by James Tynion IV] Tim is back and reveals himself as alive to Steph, and the two of them resume their relationship. After a short timeskip, we then learn that in the aftermath of his return... Tim is not being honest with Steph about his plans (to not go to Ivy like he said he would, to instead continue hero-ing indefinitely).

Detective Comics #970 February 2018 [written by James Tynion IV] Tim & Steph start to have some tension here because of how he's overworking himself, how he's handling things with her, and there's a moment where she says she's leaving, he asks if she means 'The Belfrey, the team, or me?' and she says 'I'll get back to you on that.'

Detective Comics #974 April 2018 [written by James Tynion IV] In the aftermath of the team sort of exploding due to ~plot events~ Steph breaks up with Tim while he's throwing too much of himself into his work.

Detective Comics #981 July 2018 [written by James Tynion IV] More plot stuff happens (a whole big mess with Brother Eye) but once that's settled, the two reunite and rekindle their relationship as they head off ‘to Ivy University’ as they tell Bruce, but we know that’s not actually where they’re going.

Young Justice (2019) #5 July 2019 [written by Brian Michael Bendis] Flashbacks show us that after leaving Gotham, Tim & Steph had specifically gone to see the Justice League/Zatanna for help with timeline memory things rather than going to Ivy. Even though they’re in separate places at the main timeline of the book, this shows us that they're still together.

Young Justice (2019) #11-20 February 2020 - January 2021 [written by Brian Michael Bendis] Steph & Tim immediately try to get ahold of one another via text once Tim's back on the correct earth, and work on getting back in touch until eventually reuniting. They are shown together [and depicted as still dating] during the later parts of the book.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last Stories of the DC Universe #1 February 2021 [written by Joshua Williamson, James Tynion IV, and Scott Synder] Shows the two of them together within the larger group of former Titans/YJ members—specifically one panel towards the end shows us Tim with his arm around her while they talk with others [fun fact that’s the panel my icon is from I just had edited Steph’s head out of the way]. As I recall/as far as I'm aware, this issue is the last time we see them interacting together/together as a couple before Future State and then the Infinite Frontier relaunch. [disclaimer that there could be like... a splash page group shot or something that I'm forgetting elsewhere during the Dark Nights: Death Metal event but like, that's not actual interaction that's just physically being present in the same group shot].

NON-CANON BUT RELEVANT: Future State: Robin Eternal #1-2 March - April 2021 [written by Meghan Fitzmartin] During the Future State event which was used largely to tease/set up plotlines for the Infinite Frontier relaunch, in this potential future Tim & Steph are seemingly no longer together but still on okay terms—teaming up in the story, but with clear tension and history there.

Batman: Urban Legends #4 August 2021 [written by Meghan Fitzmartin] We learn that Tim & Steph broke up off-panel before the events of the issue. Steph appears in the following issue further reiterating that they recently broke up.

So yeah! They broke up off-panel and this was first referenced in Batman: Urban Legends #4, thus under Fitzmartin's pen.

[zahri-melitor]

One amusing aspect of my current Bat books read is because I have not been reading Super Sons alongside the rest of the comics (because I bounce off it quite easily and have to take it very slowly) and I also have not been reading Teen Titans, and those are the titles that Damian appears to have been spending most of his time hanging out in, Damian just sort of...occasionally shows up to say he's on the outs with Bruce, because ??? (presumably whatever is going on over in Teen Titans that is part of the push to make him go evil that is about to get sharply derailed by Didio getting fired).

But it's actually quite funny, because every time Damian does show up he's...working just fine with Bruce? Damian had a lot of feelings over the whole marriage with Selina and Dick getting shot in the head, and then he's his usual crotchety self with Tim's return from the dead, and then Bruce asks him to help investigate what's going on with Leviathan and Damian's like 'well obviously it's Leviathan and Talia's involved, I am here to help, Father, and fully suspect Jason of having gone off the rails and tried to take over Mother's pet project' (ahhhhh canon Damian and Jason interactions, you have absolutely nothing to do with random theories about Damian and Jason meeting in the League, which makes sense as your timelines mean that Damian was almost certainly off on training elsewhere while Talia was busy trying to work out the way to make Jason as annoying as possible, okay digression over). And then after that Damian again turns up for all the times Bruce calls in help over his fight against Bane and Flashpoint!Thomas Wayne, which I might add Jason is 100% not bothering to do (and since I am also not reading RHATO I have no idea of why Jason isn't bothering to show up. Presumably for Jason sucks-related reasons) and has to deal with Alfred getting executed in front of him and STILL handles his part in the plan with aplomb with all of the other Batfam who turn up (Tim, Duke, Babs and Helena, aka the other real mvps here).

And Tom Taylor just had a story in Detective Comics #1017 where Bruce took Damian with him to solve the problems of some runaways from the Martha Wayne Orphanage, which is obviously a matter of principle because Bruce didn't like to go visiting it when he was a kid with his mother, but since it has Martha's name on it he obviously feels strongly about it now, and so he invited Damian for some family bonding involving the next generation ALSO feeling awkward getting dragged off to visit an orphanage that has Martha's name on the building. And Damian emotes that he's feeling awkward around Bruce right now, but clearly tracking down these runaway and trafficked kids is obviously more important, and they get to bond over the runaway kid they tracked down together in the snow, and Tom Taylor, you live in Melbourne, I know you spent all of your time translating the Fahrenheit temperatures you put in this issue through google from Celsius to work out what temperature it should be. And also you live in Melbourne so your calibration of 'cold' and 'deadly cold' is set at Australian levels, which is why there is a raging snow storm starting on panel at (I just fed this through google myself to work out temps in a scale I understand) 0℃, which drops over a week to... -2℃, and then over the course of the NEXT week to -12℃, and while the first week of temps for this is "freezing clear morning in Melbourne", the second week is a whole TEN DEGREES COLDER, which is why Taylor's designated it as unsurvivable and this kid freezing to death from exposure. Which I cannot tell whether is realistic or not, because again, both Taylor and I live in Australia and not in the tiny couple of towns that experience regular temperatures that allow snow to settle, but I also fully know that TAYLOR would also be unsure on because if he has ever experienced -12℃ it was in the normal manner for Aussies to do that (a ski trip to Japan).

But the point of this entire digression is to point out that Damian's current difficulties with Bruce or fight or whatever is going on is ENTIRELY ABSENT from Batman or 'Tec and is purely inferred characterisation from Damian just not being around very often and when he appears going 'you've been brooding a lot and unpleasant to be around' to Bruce.

[presleyintheworld]

This is the first chapter of my fic Man of Mystery (title subject to change) about Raylan trying to solve the mystery of Tim's personal life. The rest of the chapters will be published on AO3 (CalamityKid) as I write them. It hasn't been beta read, but I tried my best. I hope you enjoy!

Trigger warnings: references to child abuse, alcoholism, and PTSD.

☆☆☆

Tim didn’t take days off. Voluntarily, at least. If Raylan had set that bar on the ground, Tim crawled under it.

The last time, after he’d taken a bullet to the shoulder at the hands of one of Audrey’s ladies of the night, he’d lasted a three whole days inside the desolate white walls of Lexington County Hospital before convincing Raylan to break him out. He was back at his desk by the end of the week.

Art was well-aware of Raylan’s demons, the recurrent daddy issues and the self-righteous vigilante act that stemmed from them, but he’d yet to pin down Tim’s particular brand of fucked up. Why he showed up early and stayed too late. Why a mere few days out of the office seemed to make him twitch with a nondescript restless energy. Why he never smelled like booze when they both knew he’d spent the previous night losing a battle to Jack Daniel’s. It would have been easy to blame his time in the service and the vague allusions he’d make every so often to the things he’d seen there. But Tim wasn’t easy. Not in that way, at least. No, Art got the impression that war hadn’t been Tim’s problem—his initial one, anyway; it had been his solution.

There was an ambiguous nature to Tim that inspired speculation, a fill-in-the-blank of a redacted government document. He was something of a conspiracy theory in and of himself around the office, the reticent hotshot sniper with perpetually tired eyes and a stack of fantasy novels on his desk by his gun. Any real knowledge or perspective on the man was a hard-won victory, and even that seemed superficial at best, like the way a person can talk without saying anything at all. Art had read his file, of course: his body count and service record, the psych evals he’d managed to pass, but it was like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. Reading a book with a prologue scribbled over in pen. He let it slide because Tim was still Tim—steadfast, reliable, professional where it counted. He let it slide and hoped neither of them paid for it.

He'd been insisting for weeks that Tim take some time away from work. Only a day or two, if that was easier to stomach than the full extent of the vacation days he’d hoarded over the span of his career. The odds had been stacked against him even broaching the subject and he’d never been much of a gambling man, but he’d been pleasantly surprised when Tim accepted the offer with minimal pushback. It was ironic then that he was the one to summon Tim to the VFW on his first day off.

The first thing Raylan asked when Tim strolled onto the scene was a critical, “Are you drunk?” A question which, as a rule of thumb, Art thought, was not particularly something you wanted to hear asked of a US Marshal with a sharpshooter’s aim and questionable PTSD diagnosis. Or lack thereof.

Tim drunk wasn’t really that much different from Tim sober, save for maybe an indistinct haziness that seemed to settle over him, like a painter blending out the harsh edges of a brushstroke. Everything about him seemed more relaxed in a way that felt…genuine, noticeably different from the calculated sense of indifference with which he carried himself day-to-day. He was less put-together than Raylan had ever seen him at work, less guarded in a way that was so unfamiliar he was nearly unrecognizable. His usual collared shirt had been exchanged for an oversized flannel, the fabric worn in places from years of use. The edge of an intricate tattoo on his chest that could just be made out above the neckline, a set of dog tags visible around his neck despite his tendency to deflect conversation regarding his service. All pieces of the puzzle.

His hair bordered on just this side of disheveled, as if he’d only pulled himself out of bed at Art’s call. Raylan couldn’t decide if he looked his age or thirty years older. It prompted the question of what Tim would even be like in a decade or two; whether he’d be inside this very building, clinging to war stories and whiskey like so many of the aging veterans that sat around recalling their glory days. It was hard to picture.

“Was tryin’ to be,” Tim hummed absently. He rubbed the heel of his hand into his eye like a small child just woken from a midday nap.

Raylan cocked his head, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Why?” His tone held more curiosity than concern. Mysteries were like an itch beneath his skin and Tim was the walking embodiment of one, the bastard.

Tim leveled him with an unimpressed stare, swaying slightly on his feet. If he hadn’t finished that last drink, maybe he’d have had the mind to confront Raylan on his hypocrisy. Instead, he just sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face, fingers lingering to massage a migraine from his temples. “My boyfriend’s away and I’m codependent,” he finally said, letting his hand fall away. He didn’t give the remark any time to land before he was shouldering past them and flashing his ID to the guard.

Art just shrugged tiredly when Raylan glanced at him. He exuded the same energy as a weary parent who had long since given up understanding his children.

Raylan added this comment to the list of times he couldn’t differentiate between Tim’s laconic sarcasm and his passive honesty. The man had a way of speaking that made everything sound sarcastic and true all at once. He’d consider it impressive if it weren’t so damn annoying.

[sevensoulmates]

Hi there! Hope you are doing great 👋 I was wondering since we don't really know if Tommy and Buck will be having a serious relationship (I kinda doubt it because it's looks like the actor will be on the show for a short time and in some interviews Oliver was saying how Buck was not ready to jump onto another relationship just yet) but if they end up being on a more serious tone do you think the will be mentioned at some point?

Because I think it's crazy we have this huge thing (the will issue) after the shooting, just to have it never be mentioned again? And I always wondered if Taylor or Natalia knew about this at some point in their relationship with Buck? So maybe Tommy will somehow find out about this and have some opinions about it? Will this cause problems for their new relationship? Do you think there's a chance the writers would go there at some point? Maybe Buck being confronted by this could finally make him understand his role as Christopher's second dad?

I'm not entirely sure what the plan is with Tommy. It's possible they might be casual by mutual choice, or they might discover after their date that they'd prefer to stay casual. Or they might try to take it a bit further in episode 6 but something stops them. I don't know if Tommy's gonna be in episode 7 or 8 (or possibly just mentioned) I have no idea. They're still only filming episode 7 so it's possible he might be around a tiny bit at the tail end of the season, I'm not sure. But the length of him being around doesn't necessarily constitute them being "boyfriends" for sure. If they do, I think it might require them to have an onscreen discussion of it.

I'm desperately trying to find these old articles (I've lowkey lost track of them) where Tim indicates how long Tommy stays around but all I can really find is "he sticks around for a little bit but does not return to the 118". So how long "a little bit" constitutes, only Tim knows.

GOOSSSHHH the will is another point of contention where I'm like HOW can this never be mentioned again in canon?? Ryan and Oliver briefly talked about it in the press recently, but the characters haven't and I think that's crazy. It's very possible that the will is purposefully meant to be the elephant in the room that haunts all of Buck and Eddie's relationships, meant to be that one thing that says "no matter how close Buck or Eddie get to character X they will never be this close".

And again, I'm not surprised that Eddie hasn't mentioned it at all to people. Man is famous for keeping everything close to the chest. He only told Buck in the first place because he had to. Bobby MAY know as their captain with access to all their paperwork, but I wouldn't be surprised if literally no one else does, including past love interests.

And Buck, as he is known to do, likely thinks this is just a normal best friend thing. I think Buck keeps the existence of the will stored away in that nebulous place where he keeps his feelings for Eddie. It's something to not think about too closely because if he does it will only confuse him more, and likely bring up triggering and traumatic memories he doesn't want to revisit.

I think at some point the will has to be addressed, especially if the two of them really do get together romantically. I don't think it has to be a super-on-the-nose acknowledgment or making it a huge deal, but I think the shift from Buck being a "just in case I die" scenario father to Christopher to "step-father" reality will require some discussion between the two of them.

At this point in time, neither Eddie nor Buck has ever had a relationship that got SO SERIOUS to the point of either of them being like "Yup. I'm for sure settling down with this person for the rest of my life", and because of that, it's very possible Buck and Eddie never even broached the topic of kids with people like Taylor or Ana or Marisol. With Natalia, it was interesting because she happened to be smacked in the face with Buck's sperm donor storyline in a way that none of the other characters really were. It would've been interesting if Natalia had stuck around for a teeny bit so they could've addressed the real reason they broke up. Because I don't buy the whole "she only ever wanted to talk about death" line. These two were incompatible from the beginning because Natalia was overwhelmed by his life choices, the largest being the sperm donor storyline and how Buck is often overly involved in his friends' lives. If she had stuck around a little longer that story + the Christopher of it all could've been explored more. Now that Tommy's here that could be explored, but I think ONLY if Tommy and Buck get serious, which I'm not sure will happen at this point.

If I'm gonna be really honest with you, I don't think they're gonna go there with Buck/Tommy, just because kids and a domestic future doesn't seem to be the thing that's haunting their relationship. With Abby, it was that she wanted personal freedom. With Ali, she couldn't handle his job. With Taylor, it was her grey morality misaligning with Buck's. With Natalia, it was her inability to invest in Buck past her interest in his death and his over-investment in everyone else. With Tommy, I think the thing that will be haunting their relationship is Buck's feelings for Eddie. Christopher may be a part of it but I don't think Buck as a pseudo-father to him will be a point of contention for Tommy. More that Buck desires to be with Eddie + Chris more than he will ever desire to be with Tommy and build something like what he has with Eddie + Chris with him.

If the writers go the direct Buddie route after Bucktommy ends, then it's possible the two of them might address the will on their own time as their relationship gets more solid. Or, if the writers bring back the repercussions of Buck's sperm donation, that could be another way to spur on an addressing of the will. But I think it being an issue within Bucktommy is unlikely.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 23

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “At what point did I become life’s punching bag?”

Number 23 is…Joker’s Favor.

In my earlier entry for “Christmas With the Joker,” I mentioned that the creators behind B:TAS felt they had a hard time “settling” the Joker at first, and his first few episodes in the show are widely considered among his weakest stories in the DCAU. This was the episode that changed things; according to Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, it was with “Joker’s Favor” that the team felt they finally “nailed down” how their take on the Joker should really work. While, of course, I have no real major issues with those first few episodes – and I particularly enjoy “Christmas With the Joker” – I will concede that this is when the character went from just a good Joker to an AMAZING Joker. It’s the episode that officially secured Mark Hamill’s tenure as the Clown Prince of Crime. The episode is probably most famous now because it introduced Harley Quinn. And while, yes, Harley’s introduction is a big plus for the story, she’s not the focus here by any means, and is a little different than how she’d be portrayed for the rest of the series. It’s the story that really makes this one unique. The plot focuses on a thoroughly mundane man by the name of Charlie Collins. One night, after an absolutely miserable day, Charlie gets cut off in traffic by a mysterious driver, and impulsively starts to road rage at them…only to discover the man he’s cussing out is the Joker. The Harlequin of Hate chases Charlie down, corners him, and seems ready to kill him…but agrees to spare Charlie’s life if Collins will agree to do “a little favor” for him. Charlie: “O-Okay…what?” Joker: “I DON’T KNOW! I HAVEN’T THOUGHT OF IT YET!”

The Joker thus departs, promising to call on that favor at some undetermined point. Grateful to be alive, but horror-stricken by this whole ordeal, Charlie moves his family out of Gotham and changes his name…but two years later, the Joker – who has been keeping tabs on Charlie all this time – calls to collect on the debt. Charlie must find a way to escape this proverbial Deal with the Devil, before good people get hurt. Something interesting about a lot of the best episodes in “Batman: The Animated Series” is that Batman, himself, isn’t always necessarily the focal character. A lot of times, he just kind of ends up getting roped into the action and conflict as a result of things other characters do or do not engage in. This is a good example. Batman has very little direct impact on the story; the focus is really on Charlie and the Joker. While Collins isn’t the most interesting character in the show, that’s actually part of the point: the episode plays Charlie up as something of an audience surrogate, a completely ordinary guy who is just going through the motions, but – because of one bad day – he ends up in over his head in a fantastic duel of the fates, sandwiched between the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime in their endless war. It’s a unique perspective for the show to play with, and while there were other episodes that tried similar tactics of fairly ordinary people ending up in extraordinary situations, this is easily one of the best, as well as one of the earliest.

I love the subtle way the episode plays with the Joker’s own dark philosophies on life. While his origins are left somewhat vague in the series – we know he was once a gangster named “Jack Napier,” inspired by the Tim Burton movies, but that’s about it – I think most people are aware of the comic book version’s ideology on how “all it takes is One Bad Day to turn a normal man into a monster.” The conflict between Charlie and the Joker, and how it ends (I won’t give away that twist) provides an interesting twist on that idea. I also love, once again, how diabolically petty the character is in this story: he decides to spare Charlie’s life basically on a whim, but once he declares he’s going to collect on a favor, he takes it VERY seriously. What’s hilarious is that, when he DOES call on Charlie, both the man and the audience themselves are expecting this favor to be something like “Chuckers” being forced to shoot somebody or whatever…and instead, the Joker literally just needs him to open a door. That last bit, alone, probably says a lot about why this episode is so revered. Again, how much more Joker-ish can you possibly get?

Tomorrow we move on to Number 22! Hint: “All I wanted from you, dearie, was a little friendship! That would have cost you nothing!”

[piece-of-pierce]

It started because Danny stopped on the street to talk shop with Jason and knew his shit, and Jason just so happened to have never encountered someone who could read an engine like him.

So, naturally, he stalks the guy, finds out he works at a good-for-skill, bad-for-reputation shop in Crime Alley, and decides to test him with an extra Red Hood bike. (Not his main bike, obviously. One of the others that he keeps around in case the main one gets blown up or something.)

He doesn't expect much but Danny manages to not only fix the issue Hood had hidden deep in the throes of the engine but also find a few things that could be optimized and left the extra bike running as well as, if not better than, Hood's main one. Obviously, Hood hires him on the spot.

Things build from there. Danny is skilled in all mechanics, not just vehicles, so Hood lets him take a look at his more complex weapons to see if there are any things he could make happen there. What's the worst that could happen?

It might not be the worst, but Tim, of all people, manages to notice the change in Hood's gear and starts pestering, which only leads to Hood asking if Danny would be willing to quit his legally recognized employment and exclusively work for him. The guy was skilled enough that Hood didn't want to risk losing him, anyway.

Danny hummed and hawed about it as a joke, then Hood settled on a 50% pay raise without giving Danny a chance to say anything and that was that. Hood is just happy that Danny will be harder for Tim to find.

Then it's finals season and Danny's exhausted but the boy's got a hyperfocus on this gas canister design for Hood and he ends up asleep at his work desk in the main warehouse Hood works out of. It's his own quarter of the warehouse and, for all he argued against it, Hood just said that the other guys didn't make good enough use of the space to keep it. Danny would've kept arguing if the other 2 guys who worked in that warehouse (the only people Hood kept on a private 'contract' with him because they were too good to let go to someone else) weren't both laughing.

[Mike and Giorno were both cool and complete geniuses regarding chemistry and software, respectively. Hood couldn't take any risks with them or Danny. If any one of the three took a turn into being a Rogue, that would be it for Gotham. They get on like a house on fire.]

So, Danny falls asleep at his desk and it isn't the first time but he usually wakes up within a few minutes. This time, after about an hour, Hood carries him over to a couch in the corner and Danny wakes up just enough to know he's being held and cared for and, comforted ball of trauma that he is, he gets a grip on Hood's shirt and won't let go even in his sleep. Eventually, Hood relents and has Mike bring him his laptop so he can keep working from the floor.

This happens almost every night for a week and, by day 6, Hood just shoves Danny on the couch as soon as he shows up and tells him to 'get some f-ing sleep. You need it.'

Danny finally figures out Hood's identity because he walks past Jason on the street and does a double-take because he made that multi-tool. Why does this random civilian have the multi-tool that Danny equipped with everything from a bottle opener to a mini flamethrower?

So, of course, as soon as he sees Hood that night he starts talking a mile a minute because "I think you got robbed or something, man! There was this guy about your height, your build, and your demeanor and he had the thing that I made for you and- oh shit... If it helps, I have no clue who you are as a civilian."

Another story prompt. Dead on main, this time.

***

Danny stared into the emotionless red helmet as the wrench he was twirling clattered to the concrete floor. "What?"

Red Hood tilted his head "You should come work for me. Name your price. I'll even let you keep working here."

Danny swallowed. Swallowed again. Gotham U tuition wasn't cheap, even with a partial scholarship. And it didn't cover books. Added onto the bills and rent that were overdue. Danny added all of it up together and multiplied the number by 5. He half expected Hood to shoot him on the spot, but the man just nodded.

"Done. You start tomorrow. I'll pick you up here at closing time." The man turned and started walking toward the door.

"That's an insane amount of money you just agreed to!" He called out.

"You could have asked for more." Hood said, and the door slammed behind him.

Danny let out a Shakey breath and picked up the fallen wrench. Red Hoods mechanic, huh? What even was his life?

[cryptidcircusco]

there’s a lot of soft domesticity in my system and im emotional so im gonna talk about it yippee 🥄🌱

so I have a LOT of introjects. The way my system works is that most of my introjects aren’t characters I relate to or whatever, they’re just characters I liked and would probably trust, especially the ones who have important jobs that can sometimes be scary. Nobody really talks about the fear and mistrust around alters who know things that you don’t, or who take your memories from you, even the ones that seem normal because it’s a trigger or something you shouldn’t remember.

But after the initial fear of being a system, and in all the grief there is around knowing why and not remembering and not experiencing it all, I found a little bit of peace in learning about my alters. The ones I would have tried to repress because they’re assholes are genuinely sweet, they just don’t express it well. The ones I think of as soft can take a beating, and they can fuck people up if needed. The ones I think of as anxious and paranoid and potentially dangerous are some of the most gentle with me.

Tim, or Pookie Bear as he goes by online, is an introject of Tim Wright//Masky from Marble Hornets. He’s anxious around people and cameras, he drinks in headspace which can upset some alters with addiction issues, he’s the first to revert to what we call the Masked State* when we’re in fight-or-flight. But when we had a long day or week or whatever and we can’t sleep, he’s the first one to help. He shows up, he puts on his playlist in our headphones, and he sleeps in all the blankets and keeps the nightmares away.

Jack is a feral animal loosely based on Eyeless Jack. It’s usually skittish, it’s not good at the whole human thing. He tries his best, but it’s not easy being so suddenly disabled when you were an apex predator for nearly 300 years. But Jack is the one to notice when we’re overdoing it, and either tells us directly to stop and take a break or sends a message to whatever alter is close by.

Gina is so sweet. She’s a mix of Jeff the Killer and Nina the killer, her story being that “Nina” was a cover for Jeff’s transition. She changed her name a couple of times and settled on Gina. She’s pure scemo sunshine. She’s the kind of girl you could say anything to without judgement and she’d hug you or give you advice or whatever you need. She will also kick someone’s ass for you. Gina can be vicious when we need her to be. She’s finished countless arguments we got dragged into by people we shouldn’t have been talking to, she’s shut down Jeff and Corvus and even Sorrow when they try to start something. Yesterday I was gonna be late for a date because times got changed and I was panicking and Corvus and Jeff were bickering and then Gina shows up, tells them to knock it off for a sec. And she let me borrow her clothes. And she helped me with my hair.

Brian is a big one. He’s nice to other people on the outside, he’s good at masking, but internally he’s cold. He’s tired. He went through a lot during Marble Hornets, and then afterwards when he spent years as a proxy. He held everything together then, and he was our sole gatekeeper/manager for two years. He’s always been the guy to take it and be too strong so nobody else has to be. But when he lets things go, when he accepts a little help and shows up, he REALLY shows up. Brian was there when my family wasn’t. Brian is there when I want someone to hang out with, he’s there when I feel depressed and can’t get out of bed or shower or eat. He’s there in the back when I’m sick, reassuring me, congratulating me even for making it this far because I’m ALWAYS sick and it gets tiring. He’s the guy ever.

Vex, or Ilana as she’s formally known, is a dreamwalker succubus. She’s at the top of the pyramid. She’s out of touch with a lot of things, like emotional relationships and our disabilities, but she’s good at her job and knows when to step back or step up. She went dormant for a while and recently came back, but before that she was our main security. She would be able to knock alters out for short periods of time when they got violent, but she wasn’t able to help the root cause and when we found someone else who can, she immediately asked “What do you want me to do?” She knows how to work well with others. I’m so grateful for that.

Johnny is an introject of The Spot way after it’s cool to split ATSV introjects. He’s just a guy. He’s the silly. He has top surgery scars and he treats me like one of the guys and it’s helped me start to come to terms with my gender and I love him for that.

Jeff is a big one for me. We thought he was a persecutor at first with how much he hated one of our friends, but he was right about that person being dangerous for us. He’s an asshole a lot of the time, but it’s his main method of reality checking us out of oncoming psychosis. He’s secretly so sweet to our littles, especially the ones who aren’t sweet little kids. He knows how to be firm and when to shut someone down if they’re trying to be unsafe or manipulate the others.

Sorrow is tricky, because Sorrow is actually a subsystem. They have a few different alters and are an introject of our self-insert OC, who we also wrote to have DID. They’re a good companion to whoever needs help in security, usually Jeff or Brian. They’re small, like really tiny and thin, but holy shit they have taken down almost everyone in the system at one point or another. Jack might be our resident Guard Dog, but Sorrow would be our sheepdog. In addition to being really good at tackling people, they are soft and quiet when we need someone to sit back and just watch without a lot of noise. Sometimes, having alters around while you’re in a vulnerable emotional state can overwhelm you, so Sorrow takes a lot of that on. They’re gentle when they need to be. There’s a lot of duality like that in my system. And I love my alters.

*The Masked State is when our CRP/MH alters revert back to source, or in the case of Tim and Brian, their personas of Masky and Hoodie. In this state, they tend to be more violent, more prone to physical aggression within the system and outside of it, and have drastic personality shifts.

[luminouswriter]

Some #Chenford thoughts.

↪I want all the good things for Tim & Lucy—as Chenford but also as individuals. That being said, I don't want them to rush. I want them to be the one couple that the show dives deeper into and let's unfold naturally. I don't want by the end of the season for Tim to propose and Lucy be pregnant by episode one of S6.

I want to experience them dating. The cute and fluffy stuff, the stolen glances at work, the slight barely there touches, I want to watch them freak out when the other is in danger, I want to watch them get to know each other even better on their couches and beds and laugh and open up about all the ugly stuff that they know each others hearts completely. I want them to grow into their "You know you're my best friend right?" Era. I want the angst and growing pains until they settle into their own.

I want what makes Tim —Tim and what makes Lucy—Lucy to be brought into the writing to make their relationship more complex.

For example with Tim Bradford—if you deeply get his character and see things from his perspective and not your own then you get why he is the way he is. He is the most layered character and it's all got to do with his past.

He is a grump and smug and sarcastic and I think they have all been coping mechanisms with his whole past being abused then the army that he won't talk about then the Academy and Isabel.

He won't say it—but he has abandonment issues, it's why he keeps people at a distance. I think Lucy breached that barrier pretty quickly and easily it's why Tim tried by all means to keep things "professional". It's why he didn't want her to talk too much about personal stuff and why he calls her Chen and even with we see how easily he folds when it comes to her. " Air Conditioning makes you weak." Lucy gets hurt "How about I fix that air conditioning." And this was early on when he was still a big grump.

Tim fell for Lucy first, it's easy to see and this didn't happen this season. We've established that Tim is a great guy who cares about people. We saw how he stood up for Jackson or how we've had it mentioned in passing that he's helped Nolan out but I don't think if either those two or even another female Rookie like Barnes had wanted to go into UC that Tim would have acted the way he did when Lucy got interested in UC. He probably didn't even understand why he felt like that but Lucy and UC scared him shitless. Here is this woman that he has unexplainable feelings for taking the same path his wife took and later abandoned him & their marriage for.

Tim is terrified of loosing Lucy—we've seen that play out and not just losing her as in dying or getting addicted to like drugs but if you've paid attention then you've noticed after he asked her to go to UC school and she misunderstood why he told her that and this distance was created between them then you did notice he is scared of losing her in his life as—a friend or whatever. The sneaked in glances and facial expressions showed how much he hated that they weren't close anymore.

His issues are the reason why he didn't leave Ashley when she said she didn't want to have kids or marriage (I don't even remember) he cared about her and maybe loved her to some degree but it wasn't something so profound that he was seeing forever with her 💁🏾‍♀️. The way she left him hurt him but he wasn't madly in love with her, Ashley was safe while Lucy—for Tim is danger. She collapses his walls without even doing much and that needs to be played into their relationship. That love that he didn't think he could find again—even deeper this time, that fear of losing in more ways that one and the fear that she so easily sees past his defences and he can't protect himself.

Lucy is such a complex character too. (And I love that they are doing something a little more with her this season but they need to dig deeper. We need more of her for the seasons to come.) She deserves more, especially with her family storyline wise.

I think Lucy's biggest plotline is that she needed support, one that her own family didn't give her. And to prove to herself and others that she belonged. Tim gave her that. Even with all his rough edges he pushed Lucy and gave her the net under the ledge that she deserved. But even with that—i think her insecurities kicked in when Tim asked her to go to UC, she felt rejected esp knowing that they were about to cross a line. Her need to prove herself and her not being able to see herself the way others see her can be such a great incorporation in their relationship.

Chenford has the potential to be one of the best ships because both characters are not written to be perfect (acting like a character doesn't have faults and is this perfect person who deserves to only be treated with kid gloves does a disservice to them) and are so intricate and lovable. The obstacles at work alone makes their ship more interesting and then you add their personal lives? They could be so great and we need the show to follow through.

[southofsound]

I absolutely love this, and I raise you; Stealing Bruce's hoodies

Now, I don't think he'd be much of a hoodie guy, but things are starting to get a little chillier as fall is fast approaching gotham, and he sees all of his kids with them so he figures it must be worth at least trying, right?

The only issue is, he keeps losing his. He doesn't understand at first, he's sure that someone is fucking with him, because there's no way he could loose 6 hoodies without something happening to them. Loses one, buys another, loses that one, it's a vicious cycle, etc. He can only ever wear one for a couple weeks before - poof - they're gone, he can't seem to find them anywhere.

He's completely baffled until he catches Jason in the batcave, wearing a hoodie that seems just a little too big for him, it covers most of his hands and seems to droop a little farther than normal. Bruce squints a little at first, it strikes him as odd that Jason's hoodie was too large, it just wasn't his style. However, Upon further inspection, Bruce recognizes it as his own.

Jason, for one, is ecstatic to finally be on the receiving of someone larger's hoodie- I mean, sure, Dick's we're nice, but there was something guiltily comforting about the way the sleeves dropped a little past where they were supposed to, the way the fabric fell a little looser than normal and it smelled very vaguely of home, and safety. Not that he would ever say that to Bruce's face, but Jason was glad Bruce had gotten himself some hoodies- the unsuspecting fool.

Bruce, on the other hand, is little surprised, but not opposed. He hadn't really taken Jason for the kind of person to steal clothes, but, he thinks it's a kind of cute. Not that he would say that to Jason's face, lest risking the red hood's wrath, but there is no denying the warmth that blooms in his chest at the sight. He figures he should talk to him about the hoodies though, there's no way he could really need all six of them, surely.

Only, Jason doesn't have all six, as it turns out he is not the only one in the household to make a habit out of stealing the warm over-shirts. The next time Bruce spots one of his children sporting his hoodies, he's surprised to find Damian, of all his kids, sitting on a couch reading something in a hoodie that reaches down to nearly his knees. Bruce is nothing short of utterly perplexed, shocked to find his youngest child snuggled up in a hoodie that is much too big for him, completely unashamed as he flips a page.

There is an equally warm feeling that spreads through him this time, though it does nothing to quell his confusion. Bruce wants to inquire, wants to demand an explanation, but finds that either the question is too intimidating or he simply cannot bring himself to interrupt, he's not sure which. Instead, Bruce opts to pay a little more attention to how everyone is dressing, and it isn't long before he recognizes the patterns.

He catches Tim pacing around in one of Jason's leather jackets, watches as Cass sports a loose sweatshirt of Dukes while she works out, and notices when Jason borrow a warm, winter jacket from Dicks wardrobe one night at dinner. Bruce is fascinated by the bizarre ritual, though glad to be a part of it as he watches all six of his missing hoodies pop up across his myriad of wards, something warm and fuzzy pulling at his heart when he sees them.

Bruce considers buying one more hoodie, one for himself, to keep out of reach, but figures ultimately that it would be a waste, given all of the ones available to him. So, instead, Bruce shows up to the batcave one morning, tired but satisfied as he draws looks from his children, knowing full well why there's staring. Dick looks almost offended, but there's a grin in his eyes as Bruce sets his mug down on the coffee table, settling himself down in his chair.

He's well aware that the fabric fits a little snug against him, but it's warm and soft and he finds he likes it just as much as any of his own hoodies. Smirking a little as he takes a sip of his coffee, he finds he understands now, why everyone's stealing. Dicks hoodie feels warm, and safe, and personal, and a little like petty revenge for all of his abducted hoodies, and he loves it.

headcanon that the smaller batkids steal the bigger ones' hoodies and jackets. and by "bigger ones" I mean literally anyone bigger than them.

jason gets the short end of the stick because dick and all his little siblings take his. tim's the only one bold enough to go for the leather jackets (well, and cass, but they're way too wide in the shoulders for her) but it's not uncommon to find dick or stephanie in a dark red or gray hoodie that smells of motor oil and gunpowder.

damian usually takes dick's hoodies, but they're very oversized on him. on the bright side, there are thumbholes in the sleeves of all dick's hoodies, so he can still use his hands. the thumbholes make them a hot commodity in the winter.

there is a tim-steph-cass jacket pipeline. steph steals tim's hoodies and cass takes them from steph. hence tim stealing jason's leather jackets -- steph won't take them, so he gets to hold on to them until jason realizes and takes them back. sometimes cass will also steal duke's hoodies, but she always returns them clean and neatly folded (unlike how it goes with the rest of the family, in which they are returned only under threat of blackmail or with long rounds of negotiation).

this is an extremely long-standing ring of jacket theft. you cannot leave a hoodie unattended in wayne manor. damian doesn't actually own any hoodies, and cass only owns one, because there's so many other people in the house to "borrow" one from. nowhere is safe. steph once broke into dick's apartment to steal his warm hoodie, the one with the fuzz on the inside.

but it goes the other way sometimes. jason leaves things in the pockets of his leather jackets for tim -- film for his camera, hand sanitizer, half-filled punch cards for local coffee shops with "drink water too, fucker" written on the back. cass will tuck little slips of paper in the cuffed sleeves when she leaves hoodies out. the notes don't say anything, but they have little smiley faces and hearts on them, and steph has taken to doing something similar with corny jokes. dick just straight-up leaves candy in the hoods of his jackets.

it's a game, it's a love language. it's simultaneously annoyance and affection. there's nothing like wearing a hoodie that's too big for you, that smells like your family, to make you feel safe.

[mutable-manifestation]

Part 2 of The Gotham Puddle Boy: Danny Fenton

Danny wasn't too concerned about getting in a car with a stranger in what may well be the crime capital of the world. 

If he got weirdo - or Dash-like - vibes he could just slip out of sight and vanish into the wind. Being half ghost made a lot of human dangers less so.

Plus, perks of being a Fenton: riding in the car with a stranger wouldn't make him nervous about their driving. No one in the world was worse at it than his dad.

So a few minutes of trading jokes and a promise of video games was all it really took to get Danny to say "sure" to going back to Tim's house. 

The car was nice, at least, and they bantered over music even as they left city limits, which Danny chose to ignore for the time being.

Around 10 minutes later they turned to approach the gates of a veritable mansion that unfortunately brought forth the memory of his first time approaching Vlad's house. 

He was silent as Tim buzzed them in, and as they crawled slowly up the driveway he took the opportunity to ask.

"You live here?”

“Yep! Bruce Wayne is my adoptive father. Welcome to Wayne Manor!"

Not long after the building’s front door was opening before they could touch the handle, with an older man in a suit greeting them. "Master Tim, welcome home. I see you've brought a guest."

A hand clapped down on his shoulder as he was introduced, "Danny this is Alfred, Alfred this is Danny. We'll be in my room playing Damned."

"It is a pleasure to meet a friend of Tim, Mister Danny."

"Ah, you too. And just Danny is fine, Mister Alfred."

Alfred smiled and secured a promise that they'd be down to at least stretch their legs and eat something after an hour had passed before Tim was ushering them through the building to his room.

Sam was a good person, but also openly hated rich people despite technically being one. Her parents, however, were a nightmare hidden behind a thin facade of civility when in public. Vlad was also a nightmare. Axion labs had been run by some tycoon and they killed their innocent dogs. Lex Luthor openly hated Superman - which would be totally understandable if it were because he never so much as glanced at Amity Park’s issues instead of because of his incredibly Xenophobic stance on any and all non-humans. All told, Danny didn’t have a good track record with -illionaires - not the adults, at least.

'...Okay, maybe I should just avoid Bruce,' he thought, settling on the floor at the foot of the bed in the enormous room they'd entered to face the gloriously massive TV while Tim booted it up.

An hour later, Alfred was knocking on the door to herd them to the dining room where he'd prepared "refreshments." It was nice to enjoy homemade food that didn't fight back for once - he hadn't eaten at Sam or Tucker's house in a while and takeout wasn't quite the same. Even if they were unfortunately healthy snacks - the strange slices he'd learned were apricot were surprisingly good.

Alfred had them stretch their legs again two hours later - this time snackless - and Tim decided to give him a tour. The house was immaculate and the kitchen would have made the Lunch Lady greener than normal with envy.

It was also empty.

"Don't you have a bunch of siblings?" he asked on the way back to the room.

"Yeah, but they're all out doing their own things until lunch." He stopped just after closing the door behind him to grin at him. "Speaking of which. Can you stay for lunch?"

Danny blinked at the sudden manic energy starkly contrasting with the incredibly normal question. 

"Uh, I don't have to be back at the hotel until like 5, so, sure?"

"How do you feel about playing a little prank?"

Danny grinned, "What did you have in mind?"

---------------------------------

POV Jason

Jason’s patience was running incredibly thin. He had been looking at tubes of water for hours while Bruce kept asking variations of the same question. His only consolation was that Duke took up half of the attention or he might have punched him by now.

The only reason he even showed up was that he’d been told there was potential Lazarus water in Gotham - or something similar. But after hours upon hours of tests by the computer and him and Duke staring at it he was certain; that was water. Bruce had lost it.

Just as he braced himself to try and knock some sense into Bruce, Alfred came to fetch them to lunch. 

‘Finally,’ he thought, power-walking to the exit.

“I’ll be up in a minute, I want to set up one more scan to run while we’re eating,” Bruce threw after them.

“It had better only be a minute.” He paused to glower ominously over his shoulder, simmering with rage at all of the wasted time - and using that to smother the concern trying to bubble up.

“Finally,” Duke said once they were out of the batcave. “I thought we were going to be in there forever!”

Jason ignored him as he fished out his phone.

“Oh hey, group text from Tim; he has a guest that fits the family theme so he’s going to try and prank Bruce to see if he’s actually ‘lost the plot.’”

Jason grimaced, “Great, so instead of a productive lunch we’ll be playing house plus ‘guest that definitely isn’t the former Jason Todd, just a very similarly looking friend of the family’ for an hour.” He ran a hand down his face, sighing in frustration. “Count me ou-”

He froze in place, every muscle flinching to a stop. 

“Uh, Jason?”

“Quiet.” He hissed, eyes darting to the stairs as voices began to drift their way. 

Every hair stood on end as he stood there, something in his blood echoing dissonant signals of danger-run-hide-flee-don’t move-stay still-stop-stop-stop even as his conscious mind demanded he confront the problem head-on. But he couldn’t move - frozen as surely as if he’d been hit by one of Freeze’s ice rays.

As the stranger came into view his mind gave up on the danger signals, finally settling on don’t move don’t move don’t move even as near-unbearable levels of anxiety bubbled up in his gut. He barely registered Tim standing next to the guy as his head turned to stare him down, Jason’s eyes widening and shoulders hunching now that this… person’s full attention was on him.

The person hesitated a moment at the top of the stairs before smiling.

“Hi! I’m Danny, you must be Tim’s brothers?” he chirped, voice friendly enough that the anxiety uncurled just a bit. Just enough for Jason to register Tim staring at him oddly and Duke looking between the two of them.

Tim descended the stairs, done waiting for “Danny” to take the initiative, perhaps, while Duke took his silence as a cue to give the guy his cover story.

“Just me, actually,” he said. “The name’s Duke. J here is a friend of the family.” 

“Oh, uh, nice to meet you both anyway. Sorry for crashing you guys’ lunch,” he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck sheepishly before following Tim down to their level, still smiling calmly. “My parents are in town for some engineering convention and Tim kind of rescued me from dying of boredom.”

Abruptly, Jason found himself completely calm - relaxed, even. Suspiciously so; all of the rage and frustration he’d felt ever since emerging from the Lazarus Pit was suddenly swapped out for a level of relaxation he could nearly call “Zen.” 

He would nearly suspect a meta had broken Bruce’s rules, but he was the only one to react. Tim and Duke were clearly unaffected and the guy was either one hell of an actor or had genuinely only noticed him when he saw him. 

Meaning this was potentially Lazarus related - and even that thought could not cut through the sheer tranquility he was feeling to cause panic. His thoughts, at least, were unaffected.

Also, he kind of just wanted to enjoy not being angry for the first time in ages. Sue him.

So he plastered on a Wayne-family PR smile and ended the second awkward silence of the day. 

“Don’t worry about it; any friend of Tim’s is a friend of ours, at any rate. We have maybe two more minutes before Alfred actually manages to wrangle Bruce out of his study, why don’t you fill me in on this prank.”

[maxine-drusilla-wayne]

YOU DONT LOVE HIM!

Part 1!

(Barbara Gordon x fem!reader!)

Summary for this series:nightwing gets upset when Barbara finally gets him back by cheating on him ONCE but she gets bashed behind her back and nightwing wants to get with reader but when you tell babs she doesn’t believe reader and turns on her.

Warnings:slight stalking(later in the series),betrayal,sadness,metions of joker,reader hides a secret, revenge, heartbreak.

You had been coming downstairs when you heard a loud noise.

“Grayson what the fuck are you doing?”

You saw a broken keyboard as you came closer.”y/n. Just the person I wanted to see.” He walked closer.

“What happened? Where’s babs?” You asked trying to hide the disappointment of not seeing your crush.”we’re having a fight! That’s why I wanted see you.” He says with anger in his voice.

“Ok well what about?” You got tired of asking questions and just wanted a straight forward answer from him.”Barbara cheated on me!”Oh. You didn’t really care in fact being happy for Barbara bc she had cried so many times because of dick and now he has they audacity to be upset? Oh ok.

“Oh ok well I hope she’s feeling good right now.” You replied bluntly showing how you didn’t care how mad he was or more made he would get.

“Y/n what the fuck?! She cheated on me!”you didn’t give af. So you said that.”ummm ok? I don’t care. You cheated on her multiple times with kory and other girls. She honestly deserves better.”you didn’t care anymore especially since you started to not like him a while ago for living up to his first name.

“I know you have a crush on her but seriously y/n where’s the fucking loyalty?!” “Where’s the loyalty?!” You were appalled. “Yeah you’re supposed to be my friend!” “Motherfucker you the last person who should be talking bout “where’s the loyalty?!” You was cheating on yo girl first!” You ready to slap him.

“Those were mistakes! We all make them!” “Well then forgive her for hers!”you hated him in this moment and took every ounce of inner physical and mental strength to not put your hands on him.

“Listen I love you and want to be with you so let’s be together!” You patience is thinning.”ugh as if!” You didn’t want to settle for him. He’s an embarrassment.

“Please!” “NO!” At of anger you slapped him and ran out.

Hours passed and he blew up your phone begging to be with you. Of course you weren’t gonna let that slide but her Grayson had made up too.

At 9:00pm you decided to tell her.

Before you walked in her room you noticed Damian and Tim by her door.”tt’ I can’t believe you still tolerate little red riding hoods” Damian said “hoods” implying that she was….well I think you know. But it made no sense since at the time she was still in her wheelchair.

“God,I hate babs.” “Oh shut the fuck up mommas boy and Jason Todd’s replacement.” You said and knocked on the door. They walked away and you heard babs wheeling over to the door.

She opened it and smiled as she saw you.

“Hey y/n! What’s up?!” She greeted then asked as she opened the door more so you can walk in.”hey babs! Listen I have something really important to tell and you might not be so happy hearing it.” You said nervously.

Her face immediately dropped to a serious face. That scared you even more.

“Go on.” She replied.”well you know how you and he who shall not be name were going through some issues today?” You asked with a slight nervous laugh.

“Of course I do,what’s the matter?” She ask with a sigh and you can tell she’s already getting impatient.”ok well for the last couple of hours even after you guys made up he’s still trying to get with me!” You yell fastly in fear.

She just sits there and looks at you up and down with her eyes all still with a resting bitch face.(that you find quite attractive)

The she starting laughing…but the laugh of someone going crazyily mad and about to loose there patience.

“I can’t fucking believe you y/n! You do this to your best friend?! Your crippled one at that!” Then you can see her start have tears of frustration.”no! No babs it’s not like that please!-“ she cut you off.

“Yes! Yes it is exactly like that! Now he may do at lot if this but he wouldn’t do that to me ALREADY!” At this point now you were starting to cry.

“Babs you would really choose a ain’t shit ass guy over your best friend!?”your heart was breaking at how she would choose his word over yours.”oh and now you wanna fucking cry? You wanna cry?” Babs asks.”when you’re fucking-sucking the energy out of everyone here! And then you wanna fucking lie to me y/n?” You were sobbing.

“Babs please you know I would never lie to you!-“ “you’re fucking dead to me y/n.” She said as she stopped crying.”you don’t me that-“you say while shaking your head frantically but she cut you off.

“I mean. Ever.fucking.word. We’re done. There’s no more ‘y/n and babs’ anymore while you always try to act so fucking innocent!” She says and you’re heart is hurting.this is the worst day of your entire life.

“I love you.” You say sadly knowing that you’ll never stop.”no the fuck you don’t,you love being loved! You love my attention!” “So umm just get the fuck out of my room and you can just like stay out of my life! Forever! Bc honestly looking at you right now has me physically fucking Ill!” And with that you run out and straight to your room.

You get and text. It reads “get the fuck out” from “brucey!🦇💵” and with that you pack your things and go through the secret elevator in your room but you decide to head to the batcave first.

You see dicks phone and you have fingerprint in there so you decide to screenshot his thirsty text. Go to “wallpaper” and set it as his Lock Screen and Home Screen.

Then you decided to get your motorcycle and decided to ride to a hotel that you had book for the night. You check your phones time;9:48pm it read.

“It’s gonna be a long trip…”you thought getting on your bike and riding into the night.