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birdsgoflying · 7 years ago

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Letting Go Ch.2: Behind-the-Scenes

Here is part two of my behind-the-scenes look into my fic, Letting Go!

Link to fic:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11512686

Analysis of chapter one:

https://birdsgoflying.tumblr.com/post/165566140213/letting-go-ch-1-behind-the-scenes

CHAPTER TWO:

The only one he hadn’t managed to completely alienate was Jason. …. Dick would see him out of the corner of his eye during patrol – just a flash of a shiny red mask, following him silently to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

In the original draft of this chapter, Jason was not referenced at all. It wasn’t until I wrote the end of chapter 5, where Jason tracks him down in Metropolis, when I wrote Jason into chapter two. I did this because I realized that, as far as we know in the canon YJ timeline, Jason is still dead. So as we fanfic authors often do, I decided fuck it and created my own timeline. So, here is the New and Improved Timeline of Jason Todd:

- Jason came back from the dead some time during season two.

- Bruce isn’t exactly wild about broadcasting his “failure” to the rest of the League. (Jason came back very violent and tried to blow up the city, after all, so it wasn’t exactly a celebratory reunion).

- Jason’s post-rising-from-the-dead meltdown/fight with the rest of the bat-clan happened off-screen during season two, and it is part of the reason why Dick was largely absent from the team during that time period.

- Jason chilled the fuck out eventually but kept his distance from the family for a while, then started talking to Dick again, very briefly in passing when he would run into him on patrol – a few quiet words exchanged, a respectful nod in his direction, nothing more.

- He was warming up to the idea of spending more time with Dick when Wally died and Dick started his downward spiral, so Jason kept his distance while keeping an eye on him.

Wally’s memories swirl around him, mingling with the orange mass of movement he is currently immersed in.

I wanted to wait until at least chapter two to introduce Wally’s point of view, and to be honest, even chapter two felt too early. I wanted to keep the focus on Dick and his mourning, and I didn’t want to bring Wally into it too early on because I felt like bringing Wally in early somehow lessens the blow of Dick mourning him. Ideally, I would have waited until chapter three or four, to increase the dramatic tension of ‘will Wally come back or not?’, but I ultimately decided to do it in the second chapter. If I had waited until the later chapters, I would have had to cram a lot of Wally’s content together into one chapter, and I wanted to spread it out more to make it flow a little better and make it feel more natural.

But maybe he’s a little in over his head, he remembers thinking, as they failed mission after mission. He knew the initial high was all too sweet to last. The real world hit them like a cement truck.

A large part of Wally’s POV during this chapter was based on a drabble that I wrote several months before I even started writing this fic.

Sometimes, when I am stuck, I put my fanfic playlist (which can be found here https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/kajnsn/playlist/2t9tx7twJ1CBBKdJZPvvCJ if you wish to utilize it!) on shuffle and write a drabble based on whatever comes up. I have until the end of the song to finish the drabble.

(I usually end up with 300 words or so. The key is to just WRITE, no matter how shitty it is, until the end of the song. You can go back and edit it later, but for now, just write. Misspell words, use poor grammar if you have to, and if you have a word that you want to use but you can’t remember it and it’s stuck on the tip of your tongue, just type the word ‘elephant’ and you can CTRL+F the word ‘elephant’ afterwards and go back and figure out what you wanted to say later on. But for now, just fuckin’ write. Word-vomit all over the page. Do it. DO IT.)

Anyway, during one of those sessions, “White Houses” by Vanessa Carlton came up. I’ve always loved that song. It is bittersweet, and it’s about friendship, growing up, and the loss of innocence. So I wrote, from Wally’s perspective, about what it felt like to go from the excitement of forming the team to the realization that making sacrifices was inevitable – from the Failsafe simulation to Tula’s death.

I knew I had to incorporate it somehow when I found the drabble in my “Drafts and Scraps” folder, because thematically, it matched the story very well. I had to rewrite parts of it and expand on other parts of it, and the finished product ended up much more angsty than bittersweet, but it ended up fitting the story, so I was pleased.

None of them blamed Tula for sacrificing herself. Each of them would have done it in a heartbeat, if put in her place.

I knew that I wanted to reference Tula dying when I got to Wally’s point of view, because there are a lot of really fantastic parallels that can be drawn between Wally and Tula’s deaths:

- Tula and Wally both sacrificed themselves because there was no other choice – they needed to save their friends, and the rest of the world, and them dying was the only way to do that.

- They both willingly and knowingly gave their lives for their cause.

- They both left their lovers – Garth and Artemis – behind to grieve in the wake of their deaths.

- They also both left behind another person who loved them from afar – Kaldur and Dick.

- Tula dying is what ultimately made Kaldur leave the team pre-season two, and Wally dying is what made Dick leave the team at the end of season two.

(For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Tula’s death is outlined in Young Justice: Legacy, the video game released several years ago, which falls between seasons one and two in the timeline. You can watch the cutscenes here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoCXT-M_VSM or you can purchase it on Steam if you would like to actually play it; I don’t think it costs very much. The game’s mechanics, graphics, and most of the cutscenes are genuinely shitty, but the plot is somewhat interesting and it helps fill in the gaps about what happened with Tula and what caused Kaldur, Wally, and Artemis to leave the team.)

The Failsafe episode was a huge turning point for the season one team – it seemed to show all of them, and the audience, that this is very real. I seem to reference the Failsafe episode in most of the fics that I write, because it held a huge emotional impact for me. I reference that episode fairly often in this fic, actually – you will see more references to it later.

They were thrust, unprepared, into what it really meant to be a superhero when M’Gann hijacked the training simulation and made them all genuinely believe they had died. He had felt himself really begin to come undone after that. It made it all the more real. He had been forced to watch his friends die. Hell, they were still psychically connected, so he hadn’t just watched; he had felt them die. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about glory and inside jokes and hanging out with friends anymore. Of course they felt relief upon waking up and realizing it wasn’t real, but the undertone of dread remained. It was a realization for all of them – someday, this would actually happen. Someday, one of them would end up dying for a mission.

But the pain they felt upon that realization was nothing compared to the pain of actually losing a teammate when that day finally came. And it was only a matter of time. They all knew the expectation – they needed to be prepared to lay down their lives the very moment it was asked of them, because they were superheroes. This was what they did. Their lives were not their own anymore. None of them blamed Tula for sacrificing herself. Each of them would have done it in a heartbeat, if put in her place.

But they weren’t prepared for being on the other side of it. For being the ones who survived - facing the aftermath of one of their teammates dying. It was so much harder to be the ones left behind, Wally had thought, as he grieved with the rest of his team. The pain of losing a teammate, the pain of watching a friend grieve their fallen lover. It was almost too much.

Wally remembers thinking, back then, that it might break him – but of course, it didn’t. People don’t break so easily.

People usually find a way to keep going.

That exact thought is what sticks with Wally as he sees flashes of Dick’s face from inside the orange blur surrounding him. Tears, angry eyes rimmed with red, lips pressed to a bottle, a parade of strangers that Dick allows to use his body in exchange for being used in return.

Wally can’t tell where his own face is inside the blur that envelops him, nor can he feel the tears that he knows he's shedding.

So, real talk - the final seven paragraphs of chapter two made me cry as I wrote it. Just saying. I think it’s probably the most emotional few paragraphs of the entire story for me.

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thepicturepixie · 5 years ago

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Haven’t posted in a long ass while but I’m adding to this old post. First off I agree with everything here BUT for different reasons which is why I’m reblogging.

Dick, Wally and Roy are some of my favorite if not my favorites in DC. So the fact that we get them but not them, pisses me off. Wally in the comics is a rare breed of ass and sweetheart, very much a flirt but also straight up paying no mind to women who do really want him. Not in a “He likes the chase” but a “He can’t read a room” way. This does make it that women DO like him and (to my memory) never made it that he harassed a girl into liking him or for not liking him. Wally is a jerk in this show and I hate it. I hate the idea that kids would watch this show and think: 1 Wally is like this. 2 This is how romance starts.

Yes, Wally doesn’t get Miss.M (She’s bad too) but he never says sorry for his actions either. Romance isn’t a back and fourth then a kiss. Women have feelings that need to be respected and so do men. Megan should have tried TALKING to Wally. Teach young people to say “Hey stop.” Don’t march forward this idea that when a woman says “back off” or nothing, she’s okay with it.

Artemis has NO REASON to Wally... Like none. None of them are really shown to really like or know each other. Like Aqua-lad states Roy is his best friend on land but we only see them together in the mole arc. Which is my problem with this show. It tells you these guys are friends but never shows it. In the comics the titans were very tight, calling each other family and acting as such (Donna dating Kyle and the others acting like big brothers. Lian calling all of them Aunt and Uncle) None of these guys feel like they understand each other in any meaningful way beside Dick and Wally (And even then it may just be my love for them) On the JLU cartoon flash and subsistence, Orion talks to batman about how Wally is a clown and he doesn’t understand it. Batman gets Wally, his heart is in the right place and truly cares, he’s easy to talk to and wants to help, even the villains. Wally never really gets a moment in YJ to really shine. None of them do. But Artemis needs something to cling to, something to sell the pairing, for Wally to be likable or for them to gel. A something that isn’t an old man naming their ship. It should have been him being the first to trust her or she opens up to him about her family FIRST and in private. SOMETHING that made THEM partners not part of a team.

......Starfire for ever! 14 years is not lust.

(I would put this under a read more but I’m on my phone so I can’t)

Okay but genuinely dickbabs and spitfire are two of my biggest NOTPs but I’m still mad for the fans who like those couples because YJ fed you literal crumbs and you’re gobbling it up telling grandon what a good feast they prepared aksjdhshdb.

Y’all should be mad at how Wally treated Artemis. Y’all should be mad at the baby limbo dream. Y’all should be mad that Dick and Babs had 0 on screen development and like a few pages of development in the comic. Y’all should be mad we know next to nothing about Babs as a person.

But why am I surprised since half of y’all only ship them because you think Wally or Dick is hot and Babs and Artemis as characters don’t actually matter, you just want girls you can project your crushes onto.

#antidickbabs #antispitfire

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yoichooseno · 7 years ago

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Hey howdy hey! Could you possibly maybe write about an AU where the batboys are really big fans of Diana (aka Wonder Woman) and them meeting her? Maybe not all of them but either way it would make me very happy Inspired by @thelittleredheadedmusician

Yes okay yes

(Sorry it’s late. Stupid exams)

Things have been looking down around the manor. Bruce had to head out with most of the JL for an extremely covert operation somewhere in the Middle East. They left sometime ago, maybe two weeks, and the boys are counting the hours of radio silence.

Dick, initially trying to keep the group positive, tells some stories from his YJ days- for example, the time they were ordered radio silence and then woke up with no memory of the last six months. Poor Konnor hadn’t even been alive six months prior, and he had gone savage.

“At least,” Dick smiles his most reassuringly big brother smile, “Uncle Clark won’t go animal.” He is met with weak smiles. “Well, I mean, even if he did- there’s not much they can’t handle. You know that,” he adds.

That was at hour 78.

By hour 93, Dick was telling stories of his own experiences with radio silence less and less for the purpose of comforting his younger siblings, and more to reassure himself. To remind himself that everything always works out.

At approximately 130 hours and 15 minutes, he mentions the time Wonder Woman had to carry Bruce back to the tower after Bruce broke his leg. At the mention of the Amazon warrior, everyone sits up.They love Wonder Woman. So much.

So they go around the room telling their favourite Wonder Woman stories to pass the time.

Dick relays the time Diana brought Steve Trevor to the tower, and the hour of hilarity that ensued as she continually shot him down and sassed the living day lights out of him. Then, of course, Oliver and Wally each tried to speak up and were promptly shot down by Diana, Dinah, and Artemis. The three boys tried very hard to redeem themselves, but the women were having none of it and, after a 24 hour stake-out, everyone else was delirious and the whole affair was hilarious. Dick can’t hold back the laughter as he recalls the stony expression Bruce wore, trying valiantly not to laugh at their antics. All four boys are in hysterics. Damian is shaking noiselessly as tears stream down his face. Tim is clutching his stomach, flailing his long legs as he accidentally slides off the couch right on top of Jason, who is rolling around the floor in a fit of laughter. This group is just as sleep deprived and hysterical now as the JL was.

Next, Damian tells his story, followed by Tim, and the story time is finished with Jason’s stories of watching the news for the amazing Wonder Woman, how his role model is and always has been Wonder Woman, and how he once was saved from Harley and Ivy by Wonder Woman. He had been quite young and couldn’t remember much of the event as he had been unconscious for most of it. But he knew, even then, that he would live his life to be the kind of hero that Wonder Woman was- fierce and unstoppable.

That was hour 133. They fell back into silence shortly after.

The thing about Tim is that his hair grows quite quickly, and he hasn’t cut it since a week before Bruce left. That’s three weeks without a haircut. So it’s not really a surprise that by hour 300 his hair is nearly at his shoulders. It is somewhat of a surprise that Tim is sitting on the floor between Jason’s legs, staring blankly at the TV as Jason nimbly braids his hair, shakes it out, and re braids it over and over again. He’s not even looking at Tim’s hair. He’s also staring blankly at the TV. Neither of them are even sure if the TV is on. So tired. Dick is sprawled across the other couch reading a book, and Damian is trying to teach Titus a new trick. No one is really sure what it is he is trying to teach Titus, but the boy and his dog are working intently.

Hour 302.

“You sure are a fun bunch.”

That voice. Vaguely familiar. So tired. Who. Who is it?

“What a bunch of zombies. Hello? Anybody in there?”

A hand passes before Tim’s face. Tim tilts his head. Slow recognition crosses his features.

“Jay. Jason.”

“Huh?”

“Is that…?”

Jason looks up, his fingers pausing in Tim’s dark hair.

“Oh my god… Dami? Damian?”

“What do you want, Todd?”

“Can you please tell me if I’m dreaming?”

Damian looks up from his criss cross apple sauce position on the floor with Titus.

Damian makes a sound that is the verbal equivalent of a keyboard smash.

Dick looks up from his book and smiles. “Diana! To what do we owe the pleasure?” He stands and crosses the room to greet her.

Diana smiles brightly. “I figured you boys would be bored out of your minds without Bruce here to tell you what’s up.” She surveys the blank stares of the three boys on the floor, biting her lip to keep from laughing as the excitement slowly seeps into their eyes. “Looks like I made it just in time.”

Dick glances at his brothers. Experimentally, he reaches out with one leg and taps Jay with his big toe. Jason immediately jumps to his feet, pulling Tim up with him, and the two boys leap toward the powerful woman standing in their living room. Damian races up and forward, tripping over himself, and the three boys practically shove Dick out of the way to crowd Diana. Damian and Tim are hollering questions and exclamations of praise and admiration. Jason looks like he might cry he’s so excited.

Peeking over their heads, even giant Jason’s, she calls over their shouting to Dick- “I was wondering if you’d like to join me for patrols? Maybe grab dinner and give Alfred a break? Would… Would this be a bad time?”

Dick grins and yards his brothers away from Diana with some difficulty, Jason in one arm, Tim in the other, and Damian’s collar in the hand around Tim. “We’d love that.”

The first time Dick’s little brothers meet their hero, they’re sleep deprived and barely functioning. They hardly remember it the next morning, and they barely remember to remember because Bruce is waiting for them at the breakfast table. They almost forget- almost- until they see Diana across the table. Dick slides easily into his seat, smiling at Diana and asking her if she’d like more coffee.Damian freezes. Jason screams and faints. Tim collapses under the weight of Jason.Bruce has never been so embarrassed on behalf of his sons.

I don’t normally write Diana so I can’t say she’s very true to character but I got laughing so hard about Jason doing the arm flail jump scream hop fan girl thing that I left it as is

#batboys #Dick Grayson #Jason Todd #Tim drake #Damian Wayne #Alfred pennyworth #Bruce Wayne #Diana prince #diana of themyscira #princess of themyscira #stake out #patrols #justice league #request #asked and answered #original #my writing #story time w ems

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hazardink · 7 years ago

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Love Young Justice? We have some Season 1 stats all over the boards by none other than Dominique Sumner. How about a little Mr. Grayson (... you know you were thinking I was going to say the other thing...)

Identity: Dick Grayson Power Source: Training Affiliation: Young Justice Resistances: Composure 3D Fortitude 2D Reaction 3D Will 3D Aptitudes: Athleticism 3D [Trade Off: More Athletic (4D), Than Strong (2D)] Fighting 3D Intrusion 3D Investigation 3D Streetwise 2D Powers: Wizardry 3D [Complication: Device (Utility Belt)] Advantages: Allies (Young Justice, Justice League) 2D

Mentor (Batman) 1D

Disadvantages: Major Mental Hindrance: Duty (Young Justice) 2D Major Mental Hindrance: Duty (Batman) 2D

Secret (ID) 1D Competency Dice: 2D Cost: Resistances: 7D, Aptitudes: 9D, Powers: 4D, Ads: 3D, Disads: -5D + Comp. Dice 2D = 20D

Personality: In his early days as Robin, despite being only 13, he was more experienced than his fellow sidekicks. By then he had been training under Batman's wing for four years. Despite Batman's influence on Robin, the two have very contrasting personalities. While his mentor was cold and very serious, Robin's demeanor was quite the opposite. Robin was naturally a very lighthearted individual who seemed to take joy in nearly everything that he did. Despite his immaturity, he could get along very well with people who were older than him, and tended to act more maturely whenever he was tasked with a certain level of responsibility. When simply interacting with his friends, Robin behaved in a jovial and oftentimes "little brother"-like role, in which he joked freely about his teammates, and even made fun of them when they made mistakes. He had a particularly close friendship with Kid Flash, with whom he was able to joke and often treated like a brother of sorts. Robin also seemed to take great pleasure in creating back-formations, by removing prefixes from commonly-used words such as "disaster", "distraught", "overwhelmed" and "infiltrated" to create new words. Despite his child like behavior at times, Robin was a natural tactical thinker, often coming up with plans for the Team on the fly, and figuring out complex situations faster than many of his teammates. He was also very pragmatic and preferred to think ahead. During the Team 's brief scuffle with Guardian, Robin took the liberty to activate the elevator to escape instead of fighting alongside his Team, had no qualms about Miss Martian delving into his mind to retrieve his memories, and took a break from running from Red Torpedo and Red Inferno to download the Cave's blueprints. Robin initially considered himself to be the natural leader of the Team, citing his longer experience as a hero. However, this experience and his strong working relationship with Batman led him to mistakenly assume that the other members of the Team would understand and follow his plans without him explaining them. This unfortunately caused problems on their first mission against Kobra and Bane. He subsequently claimed that Aqualad would be a better leader for the Team. While Aqualad accepted the role, he stated that both he and the rest of the Team expected Robin to eventually take the mantle, due to the fact he was more suited for the job. After the trauma of watching his teammates die in a simulation, Robin opened up to Black Canary during a therapy session. He did want to be the leader and wanted to someday become Batman. But after sending his friends to their "deaths" in the simulation made by Miss Martian, he no longer desired to become like Batman, willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the mission. Despite this, five years later he demonstrates these traits as team leader.

Find Dominique’s other YJ Conversions here: http://superscbr.proboards.com/thread/701/young-justice

Don’t forget to check out young Justice on Netflix #keepbingingyj

For insights into the show, check out the Whelmed podcast: http://crashingthemode.com/

#young justice #comics #Tabletop RPG #superscbr

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angel-gidget · 8 years ago

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Stars Unearth Your Fires (ch2/?)

Title: Stars Unearth Your Fires (Ch 2/?)

Fandom: DCU, Teen Titans, Red Robin (preboot)

Rating: PG | Words: 1200 approx | a03 link

Summary: Tim Drake never thought of himself as a troublemaker as far as Robins go. But a passing accusation quickly escalates into a case of stolen memories, technologically backwards clues from his past self, interdimensional hijinks, reflections on the good old days, and possibly the rekindling of a foregone romance. Eventually Tim/??? Mystery ship!

A/N: I ask that any fashion nerds reading this forgive me for my fake fashion week plot device. Lets just say the DCU has extra fashion weeks bc magic and leave it at that. Thanks again to @kiragecko for the beta!

"Wait, dude. Scrappy Doo hacked your diary?"

"It wasn't a diary, Kon. But, kinda."

"A lockable device on which you record your private thoughts you share with no one? Soundslikeadiary,man. Youshouldembraceit."

"I could repeat lectures verbatim from Diana about refusing to be shamed for traditionally feminine things that are actually emotionally reinforcing, but I think I'll spare you since you're not fooling anybody."

He could have come alone, but he had returned their texts on a whim, and when they had learned he was going to scavenge their old HQ at Happy Harbor... well, there was no stopping the remnant of Young Justice otherwise known as his best friends.

"It was more like a smartwatch jam packed with ridiculous hardware and old ipod levels of memory that I had filled with work reminders, but whatever."

Cassie and Bart had a point. But the truth was, the closest thing he really had to a diary was the dozens of hand-written letters he had written essentially screaming at his father. Letters he had tossed in the fire before he could be tempted to actually leave them where the (now dead, now lost) man could find them.

But some things remained too raw to share.

"Hey," Cassie was the first to touch her toe down on the threshold (Normally, Bart would beat her, but he had allowed himself to be a bit distracted, fully zipping around a couple laps to check out external changes).

Cassie started entering the old security codes without a hitch. She was not even thinking about it, and it gave Tim a tiny surprising warm fuzzy tingle in the chest, "Damian didn't use anything in it against you, did he? Trying to dig up crap on--"

Tim allowed himself a chuckle, "No. Assuming he did manage to read any of my entries, I would have paid money to watch him try to figure out what any of it meant."

"Oooh," Bart zipped back, and darned if he wasn’t talking faster and faster, allowing his own nostalgic excitement to kick in, "Did you write it in a code?"

"Sort of."

Kon was floating by the graffiti wall. It didn’t matter how many times they cleaned it, "Hanson Sucks" would always reappear as if by magic. Tim used to suspect Bart solely, but looking back, (and looking at Kon's face now) he suspected a little differently.

The guy's grin has a bit of the ol' Kid when he glanced over his shoulder, "You didn't just write it in code, you wrote it in SLANG, didn't you. Yes, you did."

Tim snorted. But denied nothing. There was no point.

"Bet it was like 90% rap references."

"Ooh, don't underestimate Tim's eclectic-ness, Bart. There was no doubt a healthy dose of Enya lyrics entwined in there."

Bart's nose scrunched, "Enya? Seriously, Tim?"

"Hey," Cassie interjected, "I like Enya."

"You also like country music and boy bands dangerously similar to Hanson. It's okay, Cass. Weloveyouanyway."

The rules for Gotham and his team had always been different. While clever hiding spaces had been a practically intellectual game in his home city, sometimes the trick to hiding something in YJ HQ was to just place it somewhere really dumb.

“The girl’s locker room, Rob? Really?”

“You never looked for any of my toys here, so clearly, it worked.”

The locker combination was Steph’s birthday. Something his teammates had no reason to know and something Batman and Nightwing might overlook. Or at least, they would have overlooked it back then. Maybe he should change it. Did it matter? Would he ever have cause to use this thing again? It was worth thinking about, but not something for just yet.

The lock released with an obnoxious clack and the door swung open with a creak. There were some things in his life that Tim kept meticulously clean, but no locker had ever been on the list. His crumpled extra Robin uniform tumbled out along with a collection of scratched CD’s, multi-sided dice, hand-drawn diagrams of team formations covered over by Bart’s doodling, and a cracked baseball bat.

At least his uniform had been through the wash before he stuffed it in there. Small favors from his former self. Tim carefully unrolled the Kevlar cape, tumbling his old wrist computer into his palm.

He would need to replace the battery. Specifically, remove the battery, and carefully charge it, then place it back into the device. He was not going to risk synching the thing—even to the old YJ mainframe—by plugging it into the computer directly. Maybe he was being paranoid. Hm. Not the worst thing to be.

“So…” Kon interrupted, “You gonna tell us what’s up?”

His first—heh—impulse was to be cryptic, but he swallowed it down. These were his friends.

“I was singled out by those Gatekeepers. I want to know why. When I checked the dates, I realized all of our computer records were compromised. I think… I think a more personal record might have escaped their notice.”

A moment of silence. He would have enjoyed the rarity of quiet in the old YJ cave of all things, but they were looking at him with a high-alert concern that was on the edge of tipping into horror.

“Woah. The bat-computers were compromised? Holy Hera, Tim.”

“DoyouthinkitwastheGatekeepers? You do. You totallythinkitwastheGatekeepers.”

Tim nodded, “Yeah. I do.”

“So what, man? You think they waved their triple-joined finger and just…?” Kon waved his own hand.

“Erased a week—maybe more—of events that happened while our reality was colliding with something outside of our own multiverse. And in a room with you, the Flashes, Booster Gold, and Guy Gardner; the person they expected to cause trouble was me.”

“And you can’t remember because they probably also erased our memories.” Cassie inferred.

Kon nodded until Tim’s earlier comment sank home, “Hey wait, whattaya mean ‘with me’?”

Bart giggled, “Oh, as if you don’t remember what you were like back then.”

Kon sighed as Bart and then Cassie joined in on ruffling his hair. They had to be fast. And reach up on their tip toes to do it. But Kon let them for a good half of a second.

“Ok. Point taken.”

The wait for the charger to hit green felt like an eternity. Plenty of time for the ambiance of the old cave to slip from nostalgia to haunting. Bart had opened up an entire closet of junk—chemicals, paint, mechanical insects—that he had apparently collected with Greta. Kon had dusted off Anita’s old masseuse table, only to find that no one was really in the mood to hop on it. Cassie found an old set of brass knuckles that belonged to Slo-bo, but quietly set them down when she noticed their discoloration was due to dried blood.

Nobody messed with the dusty arrows kept in hopeful little spaces. Nobody looked at the archer’s targets. At least, no one looked when others were looking.

Tim sighed and watched as Cassie floated around, fidgeting. He remembered how hard she had clung to the idea of Cissie returning to the hero life, terrified that her best friend would grow distant as a result. Tim had… been more optimistic. At the time.

He knew where their old friends were. He knew Greta Hayes was a freshman in college now. That they girl they had once called Secret had impressed the entire faculty of St. Elias with her ability to catch up and surpass academic basics. He knew that while she excelled in her math and science classes, she enjoyed the chaos and the friendships she found in her drama electives. He knew because her teachers kept good notes that were easy to hack.

He knew Anita took odd jobs to support the two tiny children that were her de-aged parents. She would put on her old Empress costume on occasion, when crime had the gaul to come to her doorstep, but lived quietly in Louisiana for the most part. Supergirl had been the last hero to come into contact with her, and told him all about it.

None of them had really had the chance to feel close to Ray, but Tim knew that didn’t make them special. Ray Terrill’s profile with the Justice League displayed a new team every year. He had run with reserve units, the JSA, Freedom Fighters, and more.

Then there was Cissie, Arrowette, the girl who took them by all by surprise once every few months as her face appeared on a cereal box, in an energy drink commercial, or on a motivational poster in a sporting goods store. Because nothing sold that stuff better than an Olympic archer who had looks as well as accuracy.

It wasn't a painful thing for Tim personally. Hell, there had been a time when he thought he was headed for a similar path, a time when he thought retirement for himself was a strong possibility, just a few years away. But he knew better now. And he knew that Bart always bought things with her name or her face on them, but didn't actually look at them. And that when Cassie heard her voice blaring from the TV, she would stare mournfully at an old number in her phone before putting it away unused. As much as they would wish otherwise, Cissie King-Jones had drifted away from them.

Not that Tim didn’t also fit the drifter profile to an extent. The thought hit him hard. He hadn’t been to the Tower in over a two months, but like a dog with a bone, the Titans had refused to let him stay out of touch. Even when Dick had the bright idea of sending Damian to the tower, to try to get him to interact with ‘younger’ heroes—because apparently Dick could’t be bothered to remember that he was sending an eleven year old to socialize with a crew that no longer possessed a member under the age of sixteen—his friends had reached out, insisting that Red Robin was the only Robin on their roster.

It was humbling, and it put a scratch in this throat and a watery heat behind his eyes that—

BEEP!

Charging complete.

Bart zipped toward the outlet, and hopped on his toes while waiting for Tim to unplug the device. He felt Conner and Cassie join in hovering behind him as he began to skim through the files. There was only one that matched what they were looking for, with its simple text repeated in the space-tab code.

R E M I N D E R S

Dig up 8th grade time capsule

Go 2 fashion show @ Hollywood Mall. Compare/Contrast costume

Be outside July 4th

Go 2 most romantic city on July 15th

“That’s it?” blurted Kon and Bart at once.

“Fashion show?” Cassie scratched her head.

Tim sighed, “I was watching out for key word triggers. I think.”

Bart frowned, “Like, if you actually said anything close to what you meant, you were worried the Gatekeepers or whoever would notice and erase everything like they did with the Batcomputer?”

Tim nodded, “The ‘reminders’ are literally reminders. Straightforward intel would be too dangerous.”

“‘Cause God forbid your lil’ bitty bat-self actually tell your future self what was going on.” Kon huffed impatiently.

Cassie elbowed him in the ribs.

Kon hissed. “Sorry! Too dangerous. I get it.”

Cassie raised her brows and let it go. “So, what are you going to do?”

Tim shrugged, “Do what they tell me to and hope they help me remember, I guess.”

Bart looked up from his phone, “Better hope the ‘reminders’ don’t have to go in order, Tim.”

Tim winced, “Why?”

Cassie looked over Bart’s shoulder at his screen, “Because the only major summer fashion demonstration in California hits the runway in about 12 hours. Woah.”

Tim powered down the wrist tech. He didn’t like the idea of going out of order, but only two of the reminders had actual dates attached. At least he had opened the file right before July. Small favors.

“Fine. Mall first. Grab some food and rest and meet back with me in—“

“Only if you do,” Cassie’s eyes were narrowed.

“Yeah, man. No caffeinated all-nighters.”

“Kon and I will tuckyouinifwehaveto.”

Tim snorted, “Fine.

It messed with his plans, but if he was being honest, Cass was in town, and Steph had mentioned to Dick in the cave that she was done with her freshman comp essay. Red Robin wasn’t strictly necessary when Blackbat and Batgirl were around to help out.

He did his best to take it as the impromptu bit of fortune it was.

He didn’t let it hurt.

#stars unearth your fires #fanfic #gidgeblog #tim drake #the core four #core four #bart allen #cassie sandsmark #kon-el #conner kent #dc fic #dcu fic #red robin #wonder girl #kid flash #superboy #kiragecko

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dccomicsimagines · 8 years ago

Text

Joker’s Daughter - Dick Grayson x Reader

Requested by Anon - an imagine where the reader is the joker’s daughter and joins the yj team and Robin (dick) falls for her.

Happy Birthday, Anon’s BFF!!

***

“Team, this is (Y/N) and they will be joining you as of today,” Batman introduced, gesturing to you. You smiled at the sound of your name before you turned to study your new teammates who were lined up in front of you.

Most of them seemed okay, but the one who caught your eye was Robin. You remembered seeing him multiple times back when you lived with your father, the Joker. However, the glare he was laying on you now made you wonder if he recognized you too.

“Do your best to make her comfortable,” Batman finished before entering the zeta tube. He disappeared, leaving you alone with the team.

The rest of the team approached you, greeting you warmly. You couldn’t believe they were being so nice to you. It was far from the welcome you believed you would receive.

Soon, they were giving you a tour of the cave. The others were kind, desperately wanting to include you. However, Robin didn’t say a word, trailing behind the others during the tour. You felt him watching you everywhere you went, sending shivers up your spine.

After the team left you at your newly assigned room, Robin finally cornered you. “I know who you are,” he stated, his voice hard and unfeeling. You didn’t flinch, even though you wanted to.

“I could tell,” you replied, narrowing your eyes at him. You were determined not to be intimated by him.

He stepped closer to you, his voice dropping into a whisper. “If you hurt this team, I will personally put you away.”

“You can try,” you whispered back, smiling sweetly at him. Robin narrowed his eyes before marching away. You watched him go with an uneasy feeling in your stomach. Robin may not believe in you, but you were determined not to let the team down. You had separated from your father when you discovered how evil he was.

Heading into your new bedroom, you were determined to prove Robin wrong and finally find the family you had always dreamed of.

***

Robin may have been wary of you, but the rest of the team was as welcoming as can be. You helped M’gann make cookies, swam with Kaldur, watched static with Conner, snacked with Wally, and trained with Artemis. It was nice to be part of something, and to have friends.

You even joined the team on a few missions. None of them were anything too serious, but you proved yourself to them and they started to trust you.

However, that trust was put to a test when you came face to face with your father.

The team had been sent on a mission to stop Poison Ivy from covering the Château de Versailles with man-eating plants. You were excited for the mission for you had never been to France before. Wally kept flirting with everyone. You rolled your eyes at most of his attempts, laughing when Artemis bantered with him in response. However, your excitement was mellowed as you felt Robin’s eyes watching you at every moment.

Of course, your excitement disappeared completely when Kaldur assigned you and Robin to sneak into the Château to survey the area.

Robin followed you the whole time as if waiting for you to betray them. You could feel the weight of his eyes on you, and you were tried of it. Stopping suddenly, Robin crashed into your back.

“Sorry,” you snickered when Robin growled.

“Do you mind keeping your mind on the mission?” he snapped, pushing you to get you moving again. You crawled around a bush, narrowing avoiding a monster plant growing nearby.

“Why don’t you stop worrying about me and focus on the mission yourself?” you replied, eyeing the plant as Robin glared at you with enough malice to make you flinch.

“I told you I’ll not let you hurt this team,” Robin warned, his voice harsh.

You bit your lip, your eyes stinging in hurt. “I haven’t seen or heard from my father in nine months since I was able to finally get away from him.”

“That doesn’t mean anything when it comes to the Joker,” Robin retorted, gesturing for you to keep moving. “Keep going.”

You listened to him, blinking away tears. The two of you finished scouting and reported back to the team. You let Robin do the talking since you didn’t trust your voice.

Mentioning your father brought back bad memories. Memories you had fought hard to keep away.

Once the team had formulated a plan of action from Robin’s findings, you were assigned to stay back to provide backup if needed. You didn’t argue, knowing it was Robin who was forcing you to take an inactive role in the mission.

Waiting in the bioship, you listened in on the team’s mind link to keep tabs on the progress. They worked together so well, you wondered how you would ever fit into the equation. The fight was going in their favor until you heard a laugh you had wished to never hear again.

“The Joker is here,” Kaldur reported through the mind link. “He must be working with Poison Ivy.” You buried your head in your hands as Robin’s accusation burned through the mind link.

“(Y/N) has betrayed us, just like I told you she would.”

“Enough. Now is not the time,” Kaldur snapped, silencing him. You were dragged to your feet as your father’s laugh filled the air once again. Knowing what you had to do to keep the team’s trust, you jumped out of the bioship in search of your father.

You took out several of your father’s henchmen along the way while avoiding Ivy’s plants and Joker’s laughing gas. The team’s chatter was still in your head, but you remained silent, keeping your search a secret.

Eventually, you found him standing next to Ivy while sending waves of plants and laughing gas towards Conner and Kaldur. You saw Wally trying to clear away the gas with his speed with Artemis taking out the plants. Robin was kneeling by a laughing M’gann. You assumed M’gann got a whiff of the laughing gas.

Creeping up behind Ivy and Joker, you tightened a hold on your baseball bat before jumping up to attack Ivy from behind. Ivy dropped like a sack of flour, her plants falling with her. Joker spun around to face you, his mouth dropping open in surprise.

“Oh, Sweetheart,” he gasped before laughing grotesquely. “I didn’t know you were in France.”

“I didn’t know you were here either,” you replied coldly, taking a swing at him. He ducked, dancing out of the way playfully.

“Now, now baby. You don’t want to hurt your dear old dad,” he chuckled, sending another wave of laughing gas towards the team. “After all, you don’t want me to take the crowbar to you again.”

“Shut up,” you screamed, swing your bat wildly. He dodged again, laughing hysterically as he squeezed his flower on his chest to spray acid at you. You jumped out of the way.

“Take your medicine, sweetie,” he cackled, sending laughing gas your way. You didn’t react, choosing to swing your baseball bat instead. It connected with his head, knocking him unconscious.

You hit him several more times as you breathed in the laughing gas. It burned your lungs, but nothing else happened. Even though you hated your father, he did give you one gift. Immunity to his laughing gas.

Just when you were about to hit him again, someone grabbed your bat to stop you. You glanced over to find Kaldur standing next to you. The frown on his face was deep, though the concern in his eyes surprised you.

“(Y/N), stop,” he ordered, gently taking the bat from you. You let him take it as your eyes stung with tears. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” you coughed, looking over at M’gann. “Is she okay?” Kaldur followed your gaze before nodding.

“Yes, M’gann breathed in some of the gas, but Robin gave her an antidote,” he explained as you noticed the rest of the team was staring at you. Kaldur gave you a funny look. “Do you also require an antidote?”

A tear slipped down your cheek as you glanced back down at your father. “No, I’m immuned.” You drew in a shaky breath, turning away from your unconscious father. “I’m going back to the ship now. Let me know when you need pickup.” With that, you hurried away, emotions spinning out of control.

Over the next few days after the mission, Dick gained more respect for you. After overhearing the meeting with your father, he realized that he may have been mistaken on his first impressions of you. Frankly, he was ashamed he had judged you based on your heritage.

Unnoticed by you, Dick watched you go without his usual suspicion. Swallowing hard, he realized he had developed a new-found respect for you.

***

If he was completely honest, it wasn’t just his respect for you that grew, but his attraction towards you as well. You were so strong and cool, yet passionate in everything you did. When you hung out with another member of the team, you were so happy to be with them. Your eyes would sparkle, taking Dick’s breath away.

You were always kind too. Even when Conner would insist on watching static for his choice on movie night, you didn’t get up and leave. You stayed with him all night, watching as if you found it as fascinating as he did.

The rest of the team took notice of his growing interest in you. They began to make up excuses to throw the two of you together. You didn’t appear to notice the reasons behind why everyone was putting you and Robin together, which relieved Dick to no end. He didn’t know how to approach you after confronting you with such mistrust when you arrived.

It was on a night out with the team when everything fell into place. All of you had seen a movie and were currently messing around in an arcade adjacent to the movie theater.

Dick was racing on the motorcycle game with Wally. He won several times already, but he kept playing since Wally wanted to beat him so badly. It got boring after a while as Dick found his attention drifting over to you more and more.

You were playing pinball with Artemis, trying to beat the machine’s top score. Artemis failed, kicking the machine before stepping aside to let you have a turn. You cracked your knuckles, giving the machine a determined look while sliding in your quarter.

“I just passed you, Rob,” Wally cried in victory as he zoomed passed Dick on the virtual track. Dick growled before returning his attention back to the game. He quickly raced passed Wally to claim first place again. Wally challenged him to another match, promising to beat him this time.

As the races continued until Wally suddenly gained more skilled. Dick found himself struggling to keep up until he watched helplessly as Wally’s avatar soared passed him to cross the finish line.

Dick spun to confront Wally on fowl play to find you instead. He blinked as you gave him a timid smile.

“Sorry,” you apologized, taking Dick’s shocked face as a negative reaction to your presence. “Wally begged me to take over for him. He kept saying you were killing him.”

“No, it’s okay,” Dick replied quickly, blushing at how jumbled his words became. He was actually nervous to be talking to you. “I didn’t know you were that good.”

“Yeah.” You looked down at your hands, biting your lip. “My dad let me play a few before he booby trapped them a few years ago.”

Dick grimaced at your words. “I remember. Isn’t that when the Joker tried to capture children to use as his puppets?” Dick’s voice became harsher than he intended.

“It was his idea, yes,” you admitted, shivering at your memory of the day. “I left a tip for Batman about it. However, my dad found out about it and beat me for the first time.” You closed your eyes, taking several deep breaths to calm yourself.

“I’m sorry,” Dick mumbled before slowly putting a hand on your shoulder. You knew by the tone of his voice that he truly meant it.

“Thank you, but I’m here now and that is in the past.” You placed your hand on top of his, squeezing his fingers kindly. He dropped his hand off your shoulder when you let go. Glancing at him curiously, you decided to ask him the question on your mind. “Why are you being so nice all of the sudden?”

Dick looked away from you, gazing at the main screen of the game. He took a deep breath. “I realized you weren’t a threat. You could have betrayed us in France, but you didn’t. I was mistaken to mistrust you right away and not think about what you had been through.”

You pursed your lips. “So, you overheard what I said to my father right?”

“Yeah, I did.” Dick’s eyes softened with sympathy. “I’m sorry I made your starting experience on this team harder than it needed to be.”

“It’s okay,” you answered, smiling at him warmly. Your body glowed at his apology. It was still so strange to have people be kind to you. You glanced back at the game. “So, do you want to race again?”

Dick grinned at you playfully before digging out two more quarters. “We should place a wager on this since we’re both so skilled and all.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, Boy Wonder. What do you want to play for?”

He glanced around before leaning in close to you. His lips were only inches from yours. “If I win, you have to kiss me.” You watched him warily, pulling away from him. Your stomach tingled at the thought of his lips on yours as your mind raced to come up with something for your end of the wager.

“If I win,” you whispered seductively. “Then you have to take me out on a date.”

Dick smirked at you, letting out his creepy little chuckle. “What if I do that anyway?”

You turned towards your screen, sending him a sideways glance. “Then maybe you’ll get your end of the wager.” Dick turned towards his own screen as you glanced at him again. You really couldn’t believe he was actually interested in you, but then again, perhaps this was a sign of good things to come.

#dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #robin #robin x reader #robin imagine #dc comics imagines #dc reader insert #young justice imagines #yj imagine

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