#i never trusted tim and i will never trust him he really keeps making dumb decisions after dumb decisions this will probably be the last

[rainbowonice]

was the cruise being 3 episodes even worth it cuz…

[headlessdino]

fanon vs canon batfam

the way that the batfam fandom can change the characters so much makes me go INSANE because like... did we read the same comics orrrrrr................ I GET THAT NOT EVERYONE LIKES READING but they can watch shows or just interact content rather than making content in which the characters are heavily mischaracterized. that brings me to what this post is actually about.

fanon dick: best brother ever, has a good ass, nice to everyone, happy-go-lucky, peacemaker, happy robin, his ass, sensitive, hugs a lot, kind of dumb, but he has an ass so it's okay, did i mention his ass?

canon dick: more serious than in fanon, can be manipulative, driven, angry as robin, pretty sociable, can be an asshole, very trusted and respected hero, empathetic, puts others before himself

fanon jason: swears excessively, angry robin, hyper masculine, kills a lot, reckless, loner, undying hatred toward bruce, almost always aggressive, calls tim replacement and holds an insane grudge against him

canon jason: "robin gives me magic c: ", willing to kill when the situation calls for it, strong moral code, not angry at the fact that bruce "let" him die, not super close to the batfam tbh

fanon tim: coffee addict, outcast, sad all the time, gets no bitches, has no social skills, complete and utter nerd, has no spine and lets himself get bullied, kind of irrelevant, built like a twig, shy uwu boi bean (sorry) (i shed a few tears typing that out), only smart person in the batfam ever, "pure", kind of kid to get bullied and have his lunch money stolen from him, has abusive parents and has never felt an ounce of love from anyone ever

canon tim: more of an energy drink guy, pretty chill, has dated around and doesn't really struggle socially, skateboards, a VIGILANTE who has a decent amount of muscle (woah who would've guessed), kind of insane but also pretty normal compared to what they say he's like in fanon

i could keep going and talk about damian being characterized as violent but also like he's a baby or bruce being treated like a perfect parent OR an abusive one but i'm tired so i'm gonna leave it at that

[gilverrwrites]

Sionis!Reader with Jason is a genre handcrafted by a fanfic deity, but Sionis!Reader who is classmates paired together on a project to unlikely friends to lovers with Tim Drake is untapped potential

Callin’ you captain, 'cause you've got one hell of a hook, boo!

But if I may add one thing: Sionis!Reader who actually has a moderately decent relationship with their pops, so they were raised with a chip on her shoulder, especially when it comes to the Wayne family. Thus; academic rivals to lovers/academic rivals to unlikely friends to lovers.

Excuse me while I do some yapping:

Tims always thought you were cute, if a bit annoying. Always trying, often succeeding to one-up him at any chance, to get a higher grade, to be a class rep or group leader, checking out books from the library before he gets a chance. But for you it's personal. It's ingrained deep in your bones to hate him and his swoopy hair, and his pretty eyes, and his cheeky laugh.

You hate the way he quietly contradicts your statements during lectures, hate his hushed tone as you whisper-argue over it until you get told off.

You even hate the way he rides to classes on that damn skateboard, and how his posture makes his dumb butt look cute.

So when you’re paired together on an important assignment it’s like your world is crumbling, how can you trust him? God, your dads gonna be pissed and sneaking him around is only gonna cause stress which will affect your ability to work.

Basically, you’re expecting the worst.

Which is why it’s so darn surprising when you actually enjoy his company. Confusing even, it goes against everything you believe but he’s actually, nice? Fun?

You stop arguing about who’s wrong during that one class, instead bitching about the professor you both dislike instead.

It takes a while to compromise, but eventually, you find a way to evenly split the workload. For the first few weeks, you take it upon yourself to secretly do his half of the work anyway, but that stops after he impresses you by consistently delivering week after week.

You’re a little harsh in your feedback but he only bites back when you go too far, and eventually, he coaxes an apology from you for being intentionally overly critical. When he doesn’t lord that over you, you start to relax around him.

Sneaking around turns out to be kind of exhilarating, actually. He’s like forbidden fruit. Well, if the forbidden fruit was studying and Eve had to eat the fruit in order to stay in the Garden of Eden. Certainly not any other interpretation of that story.

And he’s pretty flexible about meeting you in places your dad won’t find out about, so long as it’s before sundown. A few times he surprises you by throwing rocks at your window in the middle of the night like he’s John Cusack or some shit just to swap notes and tell you about his latest idea. You’d never tell him but once you got over your paranoia, you actually kind of enjoyed your late nights together.

There’s still witty banter too, you still act like you’re adversaries a lot of the time, but by the end of it, there’s no venom behind your snide remarks. It’s like your inside way of showing affection.

Although he does keep borrowing all your pens and never returning them which is infuriating, but endearingly so. Not that you’d ever tell him that.

When you get your joint grade back on the final submission,obviously you get full marks. You’re not sure what comes over you, but when you find out you pull him in for a tight hug, his hands linger on your hips a little to long, your eyes are drawn to his lips until he speaks;

“So… are we friends now?”

“No.” Embarrassed, you pull back, pushing on his shoulders despite your waists still being joined.

“Oh, well, good. That means it’s okay if I kiss you then.”

“What?! Why would that be okay!?”

“Cause you so clearly want me to kiss you, and doing so won’t ruin our nonexistent friendship.”

You're dad is not gonna like this, but really Tim’s not so bad. Your dad will have to understand. He can’t honestly be mad at Tim for the sins of his adoptive father, right?

[forgotten-daydreamer]

"I hate how they're writing Damian in Batman #146, he can't be that dumb, he's so ooc."

I mean, they're writing him almost as if he were a literal child who wants, no, needs to believe that his father's ideals aren't as fucked up as his mother's, who blindly believes in the man whom he learnt to trust despite being raised with widely different beliefs and ideals for the majority of his so-far short life.

Almost as if Damian were a pre-teen, or young teen at most (because how old can he be here, 13? 14?) who desperately clings onto the belief, onto the hope that his father hasn't really abandoned him, because his father is Batman, and Batman always has a plan, doesn't he? Obscure, complex, but a plan nonetheless, and it (almost) always turns out fine, so Damian needs to trust him, he knows he can, he knows that Batman is safe.

Logically, everyone else is older; I think the one whose age he's closest to might be Tim here, who's about 18 as usual, I guess. But Damian is a child, he's a child who's overall relatively new to Batman's antics, and he's a child who (unfortunately) rarely saw the difference between Batman and Bruce Wayne, a child who rarely got to meet Bruce Wayne at all, if you think of it.

You (you readers, not the characters in the story - because it makes sense for them to be so lost in the plot of their world that they lose sight of things) cannot blame a child for being delusional for believing with his whole heart that his father is not an evil bastard who's attacking everyone, allies included, family included. Because again, Damian doesn't really have a clear idea of how Batman and Bruce Wayne differ, he rarely got the priviledge to be with his father, Bruce Wayne, and not with his work partner, Batman.

You (readers) cannot really tell me that you're putting the blame on a child for 'snapping out of it' so late.

Of course, everyone is free to have their opinions, and if you think that this version of Damian is ooc or whatever, it's a valid, let's agree to disagree. But from a narrative pov, you can't possibly deny that it makes sense for Damian to be acting like this. He's a child, a literal child.

Expecting him to regulate his emotions as well as his sibs do is messed up. Which, by the way, they don't. Dick is a mess but keeping it together - except for the whole "punching your father senseless" thing, but good for him, I'd have done the same there. Jason is a mess and doesn't try to hide it, Steph is baffled and Babs is exhausted. The others are nowhere to be seen (and I'd have done the same pt2). Tim's the only one with a plan that's actually somewhat good - hope he makes Bruce snap out of his fear-induced little gateaway once and for all.

I know not many are fans of this run, but honestly? I'm digging it, it's possibly one of my faves. I love the drama, love the angst, love the plot-twists, like Damian snapping out of it just for Zur to silence him? Backup Robin who grins suspiciously like Jason? Tim ditching his phone - which is ossibly the most shocking thing? I'm hyped as hell.

All of this endless yapping to say that, okay, feel free to hate this or whatever, but please be humble enough to admit that Damian is being written exactly like he should be. I get it, DCAU gave us "Damian who talks like an old man, who never smiles and doesn't understand his peers" and it's cool. He's a bit like that in the comics too. But newer comics have a (very welcome, imho) tendency to write him as 'awkward' while simultaneously keeping in mind that he's a teen. And it's the best thing ever.

I, for one, needed reassurance at Damian's age. I needed an anchor and that anchor were my parents - growing up, the dynamics shifted but it's not the point. At 13, 14, or whatever Damian's age is, you're just a child who needs reassurance, because you're changing, the world around you is changing, and you're disoriented as if lost at sea. Writing Damian like that makes sense, it's not even up for debate.

He's not ooc, and he's not dumb either.

He's just a child.

Feel free to dislike how they're writing him, feel free to dislike literally every single detail about everything, this is a free world. But please don't tell me that needing a parental figure to be there for you, and that siding with said parental figure no matter what because they're essentially all you got left (rip batfam I guess?) - is ooc for a child. Damian is a child, don't forget that.

[foreos]

hatchetfield characters rated on how much they like sonic the hedgehog

- paul matthews: 7/10 i think just based on his age and personality he played like sonic adventure one as a kid and enjoyed it but hasn’t really thought about it since. if he were to play a sonic game again he’d be like “oh i remember this guy! silly :)” he does not like the chaotix.

- emma perkins: 5/10 i can see a young emma being Violently Opposed to sonic and never playing it or engaging with any content. and then at some point ziggs or even paul has her play one of the games with them and she’s like “Oh Wait This Is Fun” but idk if she’d ever consider herself a fan.

- bill woodward: 1/10 he cannot remember sonic’s name. he is completely ambivalent because he doesn’t know what that is. he’d have an appreciation for tails if he knew he existed

- charlotte sweetly: 0/10 he creeps her out. i think there’s so much going on in her life that there is no room for sonic the hedgehog.

- ted spankoffski: 10/10 he also played the games as a kid and still enjoys him though he does not advertise that at all. in college he and jenny did smoke and play the entirety of sonic 06 together. he probably hasn’t really played them since at all since it contrasts with the new everything. he watched sonic underground.

- henry hidgens 0/10 he doesn’t trust sonic.

- melissa: 11/10 she loves sonic and you can interpret that however you want

- john mcnamara: 0/10 i cannot imagine this man with a game controller in his hands.

- tom houston: -10000/10 he is a technophobe and sonic frustrates him. he finds the characters annoying and tim keeps having to beat the levels for him and he doesn’t know why sonic is looking at him like that at the end of every level.

- becky barnes: 8/10 she just thinks he’s the silliest guy. i think becky would like sonic and the black knight and get a kick out of the gimmicky motion controls. i like to picture becky having stupid fun it brings me joy.

- lex foster: 0/10 no time for that also that’s kind of dumb also also where are his clothes.

- ethan green: current 1/10, potential 10/10, ethan has never touched a sonic game in his life but i think if he did he’d be hooked.

- hannah foster: 5/10 she has never touched a sonic game and isn’t really a video game person but she has nothing against the guy.

- frank pricely: 9/10 i think frank watched SatAM as a kid and the franchise is special to him even if he doesn’t really engage. probably drew pictures of sonic and tails as a kid.

- linda monroe: 1/10 it’s beneath her. linda probably doesn’t like video game and i think she’d find everyone really fucking annoying. river likes sonic though :)

- sherman young: 1000/10 but he’s not fun about it. if you like something he doesn’t then you’re fucking stupid. why does sonic have a sword. why is sonic in a car. i don’t know sherman. he refuses to play a lot of the games and is very much a purist about a lot of shit. he hates silver the hedgehog sooooo much.

- zoey chambers: 0/10 would shame sonic likers.

- miss holloway: 5/10 sonic is too nineties for her eighties but some of the kids she’s worked with liked it and she has nothing against the guy.

- duke keane: 8/10 i think like becky he would enjoy stupid fun.

- ziggs: 10/10 i think ziggs is a sonic fan. and i’m not saying that just because they’re a furry i think they’d genuinely like it. they are not good at most of the games though, they usually can’t make it past the typical sonic late game difficulty boost. ziggs hasn’t read the comics but they might have watched some of the cartoons, you know?

- rose: 6/10 i think she would have a lot of fun if she played the games but it’s never gonna be something she gets super into. sonic games do tend to have fantastic soundtracks so maybe she’d eat that shit up.

- daniel (stopwatch): 100/10 he really likes sonic. sonic is his kind of guy. i think daniel is a big shadow fan.

- sophia (spitfire): 5/10 she has nothing against the guy but she doesn’t know who blaze is or why daniel keeps bringing it up.

- pete spankoffski: 12/10 he inherited ted’s old games and LOVED them. he doesn’t really engage with the non game media but i think he’s played like most of the games.

- stephanie lauter: 2/10 what’s this nerd shit? weird :/. i think she’d like it if she tried it.

- richie lipschitz: 10000/10 he loves sonic. he loveeeeeees sonic. he has read the comics he has seen the shows he can name all the characters. richie knows the lore. richie used to have a crush on sally acorn. richie can go on the worlds longest rant about sonic forces okay it just never ends. he thinks shadow is The Coolest Guy and he embraces the franchise wholeheartedly.

- ruth fleming: 1000/10 she likes sonic a lot. she knows so much about all the games and she loves going so so so fast. i think she also read the comics and watched the cartoons and i think her and richie argue about it like all the time. she does have a thing for rouge the bat AND shadow and i think she has a little plushie chao keychain on her backpack.

- grace chasity: -10000000000000/10 she HATES sonic she hates him so much. he fills her with so much rage she fucking hates his ass. number one sonic hater.

BONUS:

- wiggly: 0/10 this game is hard to play with tentacles

- blinky: 5/10 he doesn’t really care but watching the hedgehog go zoom is fun

- tinky: 10/10 he loves this shit he wants sonic to go FASTER

- nibbly: 0/10 he doesn’t care he eated his controller

- pokey: -10/10 he thinks sonic is an attention whore and only he gets to do that

- webby: 100000/10 webby would like sonic do you see the vision do you see it. i think webby eats that shit up.

[thehorrorsoftheblackbunnymask]

Is there any ways to get on good terms on any of the creepypasta or proxy in the prison au??

Toby: It’s gonna have to take a lot of gaslighting. Toby is absolutely obsessed with you, Luke, he will cause trouble just so you can pin him down and reprimand him. You'll have to tell him stuff like "Maybe if yiu did You'll have a chance," and so on and so forth. But Toby isn't dumb, he'll catch on pretty fast. At the end of the day, Toby just wanted your love, he wants you. You can also try understand him and actually listen to him during investigations because the officers are getting more and more charged on this man.

Masky it'll be hard. This man is crazy bipolar and is very sensitive. Despite the tough, violent, scary act he has, he's in reality a sad broken man who hates himself and his life. He hates the operator/slenderman with burning passion, and he says if if wasn’t for them he could be living a normal life, hell, maybe he could've finished college and possibly get married or something like that. You have the gain this man's 100% trust for you two to be on good terms. Keep in mind, he's also madly obsessed with you, so if it could be just a little bit dangerous. I'd say when you're working on his case, try getting Tim, not Masky, Tim, to talk about himself and he'll get emotional pretty fast, but if you keep your composure and listen to him, he'll start to like you more.

Hoodie. Hoodie barely has really deep emotional attachments to anyone, the deepest one he has is with Masky and the two fight a lot. It'll be hard to Crack this guy, really hard, and he can't be manipulated either. So I'd say you can't.

Ben. It's easier than it seems. Give this man your undivided attention, listen to him rant, let him touch you, let this man do mostly whatever to you and he and you are instantly on good terms. You'll just have to deal with some PTSD.

Jeff... Next one.

Jane! Jane isn't too hard. Listen to her story, let her attempt to kill Jeff a few times, let her send letters to her wife, ans you two are buddy buddy.

EJ, he's quiet, really quiet. Like, you rarely hear this guy talk. You don't even know of he hates you or if he's obsessed with you. I'd say you'll never know.

LJ! Become his assistant, become his main source of entertainment! Keep in mind, you're still a cop with a bright future. It wouldn't be smart to get on good terms with every inmate, and with LJ specifically because if he isn't getting something big from you he isn't keeping anything a secret.

Bloody Painter, become his model. He has a bunch of blood in his cell, don't ask how he got it. He's completely infatuated with your beauty and he says you'll make the perfect model. Don't question him when he asked you to do some, suggestive things, it's all for the painting!

I don't feel like doing the rest.

[my-shields-are-down]

Hello friend!

I am right there with you about rage posting for 48 hours afterwards. What they did was a huge slap in the face to the fans.

I also have to say I agree with you about not trusting Alexi he said oh they will not go backwards, oh we are moving their relationship forward to the next step. This is not moving their relationship forward our to the next step.

I took know they will not be together at the end of this season. Where I have to say we agree to disagree is that there is always still a chance slightly be it a small chance that they will get back together. It would be dumb for them not do it financially it would be stupid, ABC and the rookie would lose so much money because people would stop watching. There are so many fans that only watch for Chenford. Also it would be dumb because if you really isolate and piss off a fan base people will never want to watch anything you do ever again. The ratings have already fallen big time since last week.

You are right though Alexi has been very quiet. I think he knows what he did but he is to much of a coward to face the music. He is to scared to talk because he knows the wrath that will be thrown down on him.

I do think we might get a season 7 but if we do I see it being the last. I personally never had IG, Twitter, Tik Tok, cameos at all so I am glad I am not missing much. So I have missed out on the all posts from the actors etc...

I just want to hang on to that little bit of hope that they will get back together. I do. I can't imagine them with anyone else. They really do love each other. I know love is not enough. But I would like to think this can't be the end. I am still mad and will be for awhile. If they don't get back together then I am pretty sure that Chenford will be my last ship. I have dealt with enough break ups and make ups that I am worn and beaten down. Another reason why I think they will be together in the end is because this usually how the formula works. Be it not usually on the Rookie but it is they break up the beloved couple they go through crap and get back together. They know it brings in viewers and it works. I can't really think of a show where they broke up a couple and didn't put them back together in some way.

But I am one of those people who stops watching a show when .y favorite couple breaks up and I will not watch again until they get back together. I am not watching the rest of this season until the finale cause I want to see what Melissa and Eric teased about that will make Chenford fans happy. I have a feeling it will probably be something that worth it anyway. But we will see. I just want to believe that there is still a small amount of hope. If we get a season 7 and I feel that we are not getting them back I will call it quits on this show.

++++

Hello friend! 🌼

I don’t think they’ll be romantically back together at the end of the season, but likely will have some kind of conversation to clear the air and acknowledge they were not communicating effectively, that they both have issues to resolve within themselves, that it was wrong for Tim to not give Lucy a say… that kind of thing.

The show will likely get renewed.

If I’m still watching next fall, my hope is that any will they/won’t they moments are not dragged out and whatever decision they make in that singular moment is final. No hemming and hawing.

But of course - they are already dangling that carrot of hope that maybe one day they’ll circle back around to each other in front of us to keep us invested and sitting on the edge of our seats. Because Chenford is so important to the show and makes them money, they’ll drag it out as long as possible. And I’m not down with sitting through that extended remix of a dance again. ( I love extended remixes of New Wave music)

And I will leave the instant one of them dates someone else. I’m just not interested in watching more Chris and Ashley relationships. THAT aspect of their romance does not ever need to be repeated. But again, I can definitely see that happening again as well. I just won’t be around to watch it.

I still want Lucy’s cover to be blown on a UC opp. And I want Tim to suffer a bit from his demotion and to keep that softness that Lucy revealed in him and share it with everyone he loves.

Time to rest.

Andrea

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

Jonathan Sims Is Dead In The End

Chapter 9: Neural Pruning (AO3) (My Fic Masterpost)

Originally Posted on 4/18/2024

Rating: M

Summary:

neural pruning is when neurons die, but like, intentionally.

no, i do not mean intentionally as in "i intentionally killed my brain cells by consuming substances such as alcohol." i mean it in a brain development context- when ur a little baby child, you have a shitton of neurons. you still have a shitton of neurons btw but you had a Bigger shitton when you were a baby (technically speaking you had the Biggest shitton before you were born due to prenatal brain development and apoptosis but whatever it doesnt matter)

so. lots of baby neurons doing their baby neuron thing. except this costs a lot of energy! so then you hit puberty and your brain's like "okay this is fucking untenable like look at how much energy we're wasting here" and cuts certain connections by getting rid of some neurons that weren't really getting used but WERE using energy. so then the remaining neurons shuffle around to increase efficiency in communication bc theyre closer together now

so. you finish puberty and you look back to when you were a child and youre like "man i was dumb." but you werent dumb. you had neural connections you didnt use then (and dont use now) that made things slower and less efficient in terms of the way you think now

Sasha takes his hand.

He stands up as he pulls her upright, moving just enough to free her a little at a time, probably to keep her aware of the fact that she's still at his mercy. They're still in Tim's apartment, and if anything happens, he can claim self-defense, legally speaking- of course, that's assuming that she'll try anything. She won't even breathe wrong right now, not with how tense this all is, not with how scared Tim clearly is, no matter how well he hides it. She knows him better than almost anyone, she can tell when he's afraid.

She loved him, once, in a way that she doesn't think most people would call love, in that classical fairytale way. Still does, sort of. She trusts him, less than she did before, but she still cares about him. He wanted her in that way, he once liked her in that way, and Sasha had tried to let him down easy instead of telling him she'd never reciprocate, but it turns out she failed in that too. She thinks that if she ever felt what everyone else calls "love," the real storybook romance stuff, she would feel it for Tim; but she doesn't, and she hasn't, and she doesn't think she ever will.

She thinks that might be part of the reason why she doesn't feel betrayed the moment he puts the knife against her wrist. It's lighter this time, there's less pressure on it, but the threat to her life is still very much present.

"I don't know what your game is. I don't know what the hell you think you're trying to pull, but if I find out you're exactly what I thought you were? I'll make your death as long and painful as I possibly can." Tim stares her dead in the eye, and says every single word with cold intent. There's nothing warm left in his voice, nothing of the man in the pub a few hours ago, only a man who is completely and totally willing to get blood on his hands.

Again, she nearly adds to that, but the first time doesn't count. It was in the future, after all, and Tim hasn't even met his murder victim yet. It's not right to hold it against him now, no matter how much she reflexively brings it up in the back of her mind.

Besides, he's justified- more so than he was the last time, anyway. He's justified in his fear and suspicion, all he knows about any of the real kinds of monsters is that there are things that pretend to be people but just a little off, and all of a sudden she shows up in the Archives and she's got different colored eyes? She's surprised he hasn't outright killed her yet. He's probably more impulsive with people he doesn't know as well.

"I'm not. I'm still- I'm still me, I promise. I promise." Her voice is shakier than she wants it to be, too quiet for her liking, but she doesn't look away from Tim's gaze, just holds the same stare as he is. She doesn't say that she's still human; in a technical sense, she's closer to human than a mannequin, which is what he's looking for, but she doesn't think she can call herself fully human anymore. She's done things that no human should do, a hundred thousand times over, for better or for worse, and now she can't rightfully consider herself one of them. A reflection of a refraction, maybe. A copy of a copy of herself as she should have been.

"Prove it." Tim doesn't hesitate to dismiss her word. Why shouldn't he? Why should he trust promises that are, as far as he knows, empty? His voice is quieter, but no less harsh than it was a moment ago. She doesn't know why it hurts more than the knife he's still holding to her wrist- maybe because the knife isn't cutting her, barely even touching her, and his grip on her hand is just firm, not overly tight.

The nerves around the cut on her throat send pain signals to her brain. She ignores them. The stinging isn't anything compared to the things that aren't scars anymore.

How can she prove it, though? How can she prove that she's still herself, beyond what she's already said? There's nothing she can think of as an argument. There's no concrete, golden proof that she can pull out, nothing that something else couldn't guess if it took her over. All there is is to prove that she's from the future, and that's easy and impossible at the same time. What would she tell him? Everything?

If only. No, she's alluded to future events enough that he knows what her story is. He knows she's going to claim she's from the future, and it's up to her to sell him on the truth.

"I'm from about three years in the future. Things... things have changed. A lot. My eyes are the least of it, if only you'd seen all the scars we both picked up- but that's beside the point, isn't it?" She waits for half a moment, waiting for an answer that she knows won't come, and then continues. "There's a Statement in one of the boxes near Jon's desk. It's by a man called Carlos Vittery, he was haunted by some sort of ghost spider. He's dead, so you can break and enter as you please, and in his old basement is where you'll find Jane Prentiss. You know who she is by now, right?" She shifts her tone easily to business. It's easy to Know where Vittery's Statement is, easier still to remember that as the place that Prentiss was hiding out before Martin found her.

"Yeah. Everyone does. You honestly expect me to believe all that?" He acts like he's caught her in a lie, but he doesn't so much as move anything other than his mouth. That's not enough to say he believes her, of course, but it is enough to say that he hasn't decided that she's lying.

"I'm not stopping you from going. What, do you think I'm secretly in contact with her, and friendly enough to give her a location that would be safe to hide out from police and everyone? We can go to the Institute right now and find the address if you'd like." She doesn't keep being all cooperative without at least a little bit of attitude. Does he really believe she can just manipulate things like that? He doesn't, of course not, not unless he's deluding himself.

He hesitates. He keeps hesitating, for longer than she thinks he should, before finally taking the knife away from her wrist and helping her actually stand. The knife doesn't leave his hand- he doesn't trust her, not yet, which is fine because she doesn't quite trust him either, not so much as to believe he wouldn't kill her under the right circumstances- and he backs away by a single step.

"We're leaving in the morning." He says, and she knows he's calling her bluff. She would do the same thing in his shoes, really, so she shouldn't feel it get under her skin the slightest little bit.

"Can I go home, or am I sleeping over?" She doesn't ask if she's being held captive; there are enough clothes of hers over here anyway, from various nights in his bed- without a hookup- that it would almost be like being held prisoner in her own home. She's not even going to word it like that if she can help it.

"The couch is comfortable enough." Tim says, and she really shouldn't have thought it would be any different.

[artemismoorea03]

It wasn't uncommon for people to comment about the "Bruce Wayne Adoption Bait's" around the world, some adding their own jokes into it or saying how they wished Bruce would adopt them so they could have access to the money Bruce had and some even mentioned more devious plots. They annoyed Bruce and he hardly paid attention, but some people seemed a bit too serious about some of the devious plots they mentioned, so he had Oracle keep an eye on it.

Things were quiet for years until one day Oracle mentioned it to him one day out of the blue.

"Hey, B. I know you told me to keep an eye on this 'adoption bait' trend to make sure nobody was going to hurt you or the others but... I found something else."

Bruce had been confused until she sent him the links all from one specific poster under the user name; "Space Case".

Sometimes when I hear my parents talk I wonder if maybe my friends are right and that I should reach out to Bruce Wayne about being adopted.

That was one of the first posts, nothing serious, but it quickly grew concerning.

Do you think the Wayne's would still adopt somebody if they were radioactive? Asking for a friend.

White hair is still part of the Wayne theme, right? Also asking for a friend.

Another one of my parents weapons locked onto me today, I bet Dick Grayson never had to worry about getting shot by a gun hidden in the kitchen cupboard while just trying to get breakfast.

Do you think Bruce Wayne punishes his kids for not being Geniuses? Actually... dumb question I'm pretty sure all of the kids have like badass talents so they don't need to be smart. I need to get me a talent because at this point my 'Genius Family' is going to end up locking me in the Iron Maiden downstairs until I grow a brain cell - and no, I'm not kidding... are Iron Maidens even legal?

Are Wayne Adoptions like kidnappings? Because after today I don't think I want to be adopted. Being kidnapped by one millionaire is enough for one lifetime, thanks.

Do the Meta-Protection Acts still work if a person is dead? Probably not, right?

My sister says it's probably not smart to post this stuff online but like - nobody reads this anyways, right? If so half of the people on this website would be on some kind of watchlist. So, might as well keep going. I mean... it's not like I have anywhere else to turn anymore. The only people I can trust are 'kids' like me or are willing to strap me down and rip me apart "Molecule By Molecule" just for breathing. I'll delete all this shit eventually but for now I just need to rant. Even if people think I'm making it up at least it's not building. Anyway, weird question - if somebody get's brainwashed and commits bank robbery but returns the stolen items later are they still a criminal?

"Are these all of them?" Bruce asked.

"No. This kid started posting in this thread just before Christmas last year but in the past few months it's drastically changed. Specifically in May. I have more posts but they just get more extreme from there."

Bruce hummed, "Any luck identifying the kid?"

"Not yet. Whoever this kid is they either know how to hack or have somebody to do it for them. Whatever the case I haven't been able to crack the inscription and I'm honestly impressed. I- wait, they just posted something. Sending it now."

If a friend hurts you to force you to give them information but then realizes that you're telling the truth and helps you fix the problem they helped start do you forgive them? Cuz like... on one hand they were tricked by a really bad guy into hurting somebody innocent but they went after me specifically. But they also didn't know it was me because they didn't recognize me but it was still me... I'm fine, just a couple bruises and burns but I'm fine... I wonder if any of the Wayne's have to go through this shit. I hope not. Nobody needs that... it sucks.

Bruce frowned, "Get Tim to help you. Find this kid and see what else you can discover. If any of this is true then we need to do something."

"Like adopt them?"

"Like get them some help... some of what they're saying has me concerned they're a meta in trouble. Plus, if we're seeing a pattern it's possible that others are too and can be looking for this kid. They could be in more danger than they know."

"On it, B. I'll also send you all the chats from Space Case and let you know if any more come through."

---

For a week there was nothing from Space Case, giving Bruce plenty of time to go through the different chats and post. From what he was getting from the information in front of him he was getting more and more convinced that this kid was some kind of meta. But one of the posts specifically mentioned that even the Meta-Protection Act wouldn't keep them safe.

Some posts also suggested that Space Case was losing hope in the Justice League, the Government, and a lot of people in general. They had been reaching out for help, yet nobody answered which hurt. The Justice League got thousands of requests a day from all over the world and their computer system was meant to filter out any liable threat which meant that whatever was happening was something they hadn't accounted for.

It wasn't until he saw a specific post from Space Case that gave Bruce a clue.

Shouldn't Government agencies take a second look if there's even a shadow of a doubt? I mean, how much does it take for them to step back and realize they're wrong? The Government, my parents - everybody is wrong and not a single person will stop long enough to look at this damn Anti-Ecto law and realize that they're trying to kill living creatures. Maybe one day I'll be able to get through to the Justice League but I doubt it... at this rate I should just try to contact Mr. Wayne. What would I say though? 'Hey, sorry to bug you and also don't call the cops on me because if you do I'll be hunted down, captured, then destroyed for the sake of science'? I think I'd rather take my chances with the League... at least being ignored is better than the little hope I have left being destroyed.

A clue.

Bruce began researching the Anti-Ecto Law's and even went so far as to call Constantine when he didn't understand some of what was in front of him. Needless to say neither were impressed with the "Anti-Ecto Control Act" or the fact that their computer had somehow missed it. (Something they realized later was because they had been hacked by somebody in Metropolis but that was issues for another day).

"The Anti-Ecto Control Act is a law that allows the United States Government or anybody with a Ghost Hunting License to hunt down, contain, and destroy anything possessing a certain level of Ectoplasm. Ectoplasm - from what I understand - is essentially what the Lazarus Pit's are made up of. Which would mean that Red Hood, Robin, Orphan - and countless other members of my team, our League, and our alliances would be hunted down and it would be illegal for us to step in. Oracle is still working on finding out who 'Space Case' is but this law is most active in one place throughout the entire United States. Amity Park, Illinois." Batman said, pointing to a spot on the map. "Constantine, Superman, Wonder Woman, and I will be going to Amity Park to check this out in person. I want the rest of you finding out whatever you can about these laws, who implemented them, who supports them, and who the hell hacked into our system. We will not let this happen again."

The League all nodded as they split up to do their tasks as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Constantine made their way to the Zeta Tubes.

"So what we gonna say when we arrive, eh? 'Sorry 'bout ignorin' you for the past few months, but turns out we didn't have a single idea that you lot even needed help!' That's bound to go over well." Constantine grumbled.

"We tell them the truth. Our systems were hacked, blinding us to the fact that you needed help. We're here now, tell us what's going on." Wonder Woman said.

"And let the entire population of the lil' town know that the League can be hacked? Are you determined to start a panic?"

Superman sighed, "We'll figure it out when we get there. Bats-"

"We gather all information before we jump to a conclusion. If I'm right and 'Space Case' is there, then they might be the only one who can give us full insight. If we jump to conclusions based on the opinion of civilians we could miss something." Batman said, "Otherwise we're just there to observe."

Batman had no idea who he was looking for or what they were about to walk into but he could only hope that 'Space Case' wouldn't be absolutely terrified when they saw the four of them.

(I've never really written anything with Constantine so he might be out of character but I did my best.)

Short DPXDC Prompts #1000

Balls.

[roguesdepravity]

BTAS Batman x reader relationship headcanons? no pressure and thank you for taking this request

The big bat himself ooo. Sorry I have some thoughts on him GHFJD. Also there are so many contingencies here. At least I think Batsy would be proud. And thank you for requesting! I might be rogue-focused, but I like a few of the Bats too.

- Meeting him as Bruce would be the easiest way to get to date him. Though a trust fund kid might find it more difficult to foster a true relationship with him than an employee who he flirts with occasionally after meetings.

-Bruce is a charming man in a lot of ways. He might act dumb more often than not, but occasionally he will be forced to show just exactly how he manages to keep Wayne Tech afloat among his other business ventures. In those moments you get to see why he is considered reliable and just might make you consider giving him a chance.

-Meeting him as Batman first, would make it a bit more difficult unless you are actively fighting with/against him.

-If you caught his eye as a hostage he saved, he might find out who are, and see if it would even be reasonable to meet you properly.

-No matter exactly how you first meet, he would prefer you have an actual relationship with his unmasked persona above everything else. You would be safer without the connection to the vigilante, but also early on, he can't risk you knowing his identity even if he wants to tell you everything. Maybe an unwarranted fear, but Catwoman falling for Batman and leaving him for his masked persona left an impression on him.

-His dates as Bruce are extravagant in public. Whether its trips to famous resort destinations or expensive galas, he loves to show you off if you are willing to indulge in that. However, dates at the manor are more intimate and quiet. Most of the time he just enjoys chatting with you on the couch watching tv as Dick or Tim bug Alfred over how happy he looks.

-Bruce loves to just hold you in his arms and whisper how much he cares about you. Sometimes he has a hard time letting go because of how much he is afraid to lose you.

-You make him genuinely smile which Alfred would tell you hasn't happened in a long time.

-Gifts are expensive but meaningful. He only wants to give you things you would enjoy because he does know that his money can be intimidating.

-The best thing you can get for him is a picture of you for him to keep. He is always looking at the portrait of his parents, and if anything happens to you he wants that for you as well.

-He'd never tell you, but he has spent many nights with Alfred talking about whether or not he should stay with you. How can he bring someone else into his crazy life, but how could he deny himself of someone so wonderful either?

-If you happen to be a rouge, just know he is counting down the seconds till the relationship ends. He has been burned with Selina and Harvey by hoping that they really did want redemption and so he won't allow his feelings to muddy the waters if you ever do want to quit crime. In turn, he would never give up his life of crime-fighting, and he can't risk you using his secret identity against him. He cares deeply about you, but it just wasn't meant to be. He would just have to do his best to get over you.

-If you are also a vigilante, his life is a bit easier as he has no qualms about telling you who he is at the right time. Since you are working along side him, he is even more protective of you than if you didn't.

-For a civilian he will try to be there for you as Bruce. He isn't acting as much as people might believe he is as the playboy millionaire so when he tells you how much you mean to him he hopes you can believe him. Even if things don't work out between you, as long as you allow him, he will still try to reach out to you. Whether its getting a new job at a new company or supporting your love of the arts with a donation to the local theater, he won't forget what you loved and cared about beyond him. It wouldn't even matter if you broke Bruce's heart, he honestly cares so much that he would still put himself out there just to make sure that he at least tried to make things cordial between you.

-Telling you he is Batman would have to come after many complicated nights. If he did want to marry you, he'd have to tell you to feel good about it.

-If somehow you manage to start something with him as Batman, he is a lot more handsy and protective than he'd normally be. He doesn't know how long he will have with you, and he is trying his best to keep you around for as long as he can. That also means that he might only see you once a week if you are lucky. Not being able to be Bruce with you eats at him slightly, but its just how things have to be. Though he is normally rough with his rogues, when it comes to you he is extra violent. It gets to the point that only Joker would dare try to involve you in his schemes.

[kingtom-hearts]

1. Uuuhhh. Gee. Good question. Some few years back I would've said sunglasses. My eyes are photosensitive and I pretty much wear them whenever I go outside during the day. I dunno what I'm really know for now. Most of my friends now are people I've met through Grindr, so, I guess the common theme is gay slut? I mean, my closer friends might or would associate me more with my love of Kingdom Hearts, but out of everyone I'm in contact with now uh,,,definitely that hoe. 😅

2. Definitely hitting with the hard questions. Guess there was a guy I was really close with till he moved away. Showed more compassion, generosity, and the least amount of judgement outbid anyone I've ever known in all my 22 years. Even now we've been apart, I'd still trust him with my life, and feel safer with him than anyone else. I was too dumb to see it at the time, but I really do love him. Tbh I think I'd like to find someone else that makes me feel the same way. Someone I feel I can talk to about anything without fear of judgement.

2a. Ok also uhm, definitely all the brave people protesting against all the stupid anti-trans shit. It's been really scary watching this unfold. I mean I'm in less danger as a cis person, but I guess just like the height of covid it's not me I'm worried about. I don't know their name but I saw someone give a brilliant speech at some sort of congress. Towards the end they tried to silence them and a young black person came to protect them. Honestly that was quite moving. I hope to see more people stand up to the atrocities that are unfolding before us.

3. Uhm. Hmm. I'm sure I would've said Grizz (refer to question 2), but I dunno. I've come to learn that he isn't as perfect as I thought. I mean he never did anything wrong to me, but I think he didn't really express himself and his feelings. At the moment I think it's my best friend Misha. :)

Oh I gotta answer why. Uh. We just get along really well. Been letting them slowly play through the Kingdom Hearts series at my place. I've really enjoyed getting to share my lifelong obsession with someone else. Also they're fucking cute, and we get along really well. I've said quite a few times before that I'd still be happy to hang out and see them even if we weren't having sex. I really do appreciate their company.

4. Oooooo. Cats!! Cats!!! I love cats. Really been missing them ever since I moved to this hellhole. My Dad's moved far away and I don't have a car so I never get to see him or put old cat. :(( Her name is Little Miss and I little miss her,,,so much,,,

5. Uhm. As in what colour am I obsessed with now, or like, what colour do I associate with my obsession? I dunno if Kingdom Hearts really has one colour. I've come to love pink tho. Been rocking teal hair more recently. I think it looks damn good. Def still favour the pink hair but I needed a change.

6. Haven't thought much about decor in a long while. Keeps thinking I gotta tidy up the room first. I'd love some cute plants if I could manage to keep them alive.

7. Uuuhhh. I think I'm pretty decent at singing? Would love to do some lessons just for fun when I can afford to. I can do a pretty good Goofy and Mickey Mouse impression. Though the Goofy impression has deteriorated and I can't quite seem to get it right anymore and I'm not sure why.

8. Ooooo. Yeeeesssss. Love fashion. If it wasn't so dman hot here in Australia I'd wear cute layered outifts. But I do have a bit of fashion. I really love this like, 70s/80s style button up I got from Dangerfield a few years ago.

That's just one example of a few of my favourite clothing items. Hehe. I love that shirt tho.

9. No, but I really wanna try it! I think I'd look so cute. I wanna wear eyeliner but I also hate watching things go near my eyes so, that's a bit iffy. Even then there's a lot of other fun stuff I wanna try. Don't wanna do it on my own tho. 😅

10. First thing that comes to mind is Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. I'm not as fussed on it now, but back around 2013 I loved it. Like I understand now that it's not really a great adaptation of Lewis Carol's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," but as a movie of its own I really enjoy it. Like, yeah it doesn't really understand the essence of it which is whimsy and a girl that has interesting thoughts to herself, who quite frankly I'm convinced is autistic but that's beside the point. I started reading Lewis Carol's "Through The Looking Glass" recently and I understand why Tim Burton's sequel film didn't work at all. I mean he practically took everything from that book for his rendition of Wonderland. But yeah I guess I was always a fan of the imagery, always loved all the emo shit. I reckon if I was more confident in my appearance and cared less of what people thought of me I def would've had an emo phase. I've also always loved stories where people get shocked away to another world to have amazing adventures. It especially resonated with me when K was younger. I always felt so trapped. I wanted people to like me but didn't know how I was supposed to behave, hated the way I looked, and quite frankly found the real world to be painfully mundane. But yeah anyway, I dunno if I'd recommend the film, but that's one I liked that critics and reviewers online didn't.

11. Oooooo. I've been watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer. My god I wish we had writing as good as this today. Been thoroughly enjoying it. And it's starting to get really gay and I know it does get gay so I'm looking forward to that. I do also know there's an unfortunate tripebin there so, not so looking forward to that. Also uh, if anyone has any good crossover fics with this and Supernatural let me know, cause uh, I feel like they'd go together REALLY well.

12. Oh my god so many. I can't remember a lot of them now. Used to get a lot of recs from friends in high school. Now that I've left high school I can never seem to find any good ones. But my first was "Howl's Moving Castle." Love that film, but if you don't count that one, understandably, my first anime show was Sword Art Online. Watched the first season of that and loved it. All apart from that really awful scene where the bad guy starts tearing off the woman's clothes... That...that was awful.

There's quite a few others I can think of. There's been so many I enjoyed but can't remember most of them. I really loved Haruhi Suzumiya. That show was so good. I know I've enjoyed some slice of life but the only one I can remember is one about a high school girl who secretly works at a maid cafe, which as much as I enjoyed it was discontinued. I remember it resonating with me quite a lot, as a gay kid in the closet. I remember I binge watched Yuri On Ice while I had a cold in high school. I know it's not really great representation, but I sure enjoyed the eye candy while I was sick. XD

If anyone has any good anime recommendations please let me know! I've been trying to find a good show for so long but all I seem to find are duds. I wanna watch another slice of life that makes me have some deep introspection. I wanna watch a good anime that makes me feel stuff. Like all I can find are the dumb isekai power fantasy crap. Like nothing has any substance.

13. That's a good question. Probably video games if we're counting that. There's some beautiful storytelling in some games. But I guess if not then maybe music? Really love Yoko Shimomura's soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts. Oh, also Utada Hikaru is a brilliant musician, though I tend to favour her albums from the 2000s.

14. Video games, watch shows, have sex. Sometimes I like to sing to myself. I wanna get back into knitting too. I enjoyed that.

15. Usually one? Like I have 4 and I'll use two if I'm just chilling in bed, but to sleep it's just the one.

16. My brain craves the night too much. I always wanna stay up late. Even if I know it's really important to get an early night.

17. Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh. Def love Roxas. Think I might have my first fictional crush on Riku. Reminds me of Grizz. Like he cares so much about Sora and he's matured so much. But he's also a dumbass and puts what he thinks Sora's needs and wants are before his own.

18. No. It's a plain white one I got with my phone. Just haven't been able to afford a new case yet.

19. I mean obvi theres my favourites, Simple and Clean, and Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru, but, I'm gonna tell you about one song that meant a lot to me while I was in the closet. Secrets by Mary Lambert. Was the first song that really uplifted me and made me feel like things were gonna be ok. Def recommend a listen.

20. Been kinda sick. Only symptom nownisnrunning out of breath very easily so, while I've been stuck at home it's been kinda nice actually? Like for the first time in a couple years I'm truly letting myself relax. Like no, I shouldn't be cleaning my room rn for I am too ill. Haven't felt this rested in a very long time. Started playing a new Minecraft Modpack last night and so far I'm really enjoying it. Might just be my favourite pack so far.

21. Love you too!! :D

not a dream

Hey everyone, I've thought about some cute questions for you to answer so here they go, leave the answers in the replies or reblogs and tag people who you want to answer said questions as well. You don't have to answer all of the questions, no pressure, answer the ones you like if that's easier for you!

What's one thing that your friends say that applies to you? Like a quirk or something they know you for? Something they associate with you always?

Who inspires you in your life? I don't mean a celebrity, but a person you know, brag about someone incredible that is your inspiration.

Who do you consider to be your favorite person and why?

What's your favorite kind of animal? If you lived with said animal, what would you name them? If you have said animal, what is their name?

What color is your most recent obsession?

What's a little decor item that you want to own in the future?

Do you have any mundane but cute "talent"/thing you can do? Something just slightly unusual but also completely usual?

Do you like fashion? What kind of a dresser are you? More casual? Fancy?

Do you wear makeup? What's your go-to makeup look? If you don't wear makeup, have you ever thought of wearing it?

Recommend us one movie that the critics/public didn't like that much when it came out but you personally think is a hidden gem!

What show are you watching right now? Recommend it to us!

Have you ever watched an anime? If yes, which one?

What's your favorite kind of art medium? Recommend us an artist or show us an art piece (could be music, painting, crochet, whatever) that you really love!

What do you like to do when you are bored?

How many pillows do you sleep with, if any?

Do you have trouble with sleeping? Do you remember your dreams a lot or forget them as soon as you wake up?

Who is one cool character in something you've seen in your life that you hyperfocused on at a time in your life.

Show us your current phone case!

Recommend people a song that has meant a lot to you sometime in your life and share us the story about if you'd like.

How has your day been so far?

UwU - I love you!

[bowtied-pasta]

Callout post because I love you 😚

If you simp for……

Slenderman

You like the serious business man type, but you also like a little danger.

You like the ‘he’s dangerous, but not to me’ kind of guys.

You probably have a thing for mafia au’s.

Splendorman

You’re probably a clown fucker, low key, but either don’t want to admit it or you’re just here for the clown aesthetic.

You like soft guys that would kill for you.

You like the idea of bells on him, but bells in real life are either too noisy or you don’t want to keep them around because they make you think of him and that makes you embarrassed.

‘Fenderman

Specifically my version? If you simp for him then you likely also simp for any version of Sans.

You like big, strong men that chug respecc women juice and are also kind of himbos.

You like to admire the party life, but you probably don’t actively enjoy it. That or you’re the life of every party you go to.

Trenderman

You yourself cannot put an outfit together to save your life.

You have an attitude and you think its sexy to see such a scalding personality in another man.

You’re probably a bottom or at the very least you’re a yes man.

Tenderman

You like uwu boys that would kill someone for you.

You like cottage core.

You enjoy tea times and finger foods and relaxing on the couch like a cat in sunbeams.

Zalgo

You like being spoiled.

You have a thing for big monster men.

You either want to dominate this man for top rights, or you want to be dominated by him so he can make you feel treasured.

Jeff

You like ‘fixer uppers.’

You have a knife kink.

You probably did those dumb summoning things for the pastas back in 2014.

Jane

Your ‘type’ is big titty goth girl.

You also likely have a knife kink, but you arent as risky about it as the Jeff simps.

You probably have a thing for Lady D. 

Tim

You like dads.

You’ve never smoked a day in your life but damn if it doesn’t make this man sexy for some reason.

You have an attraction to flannels and thats a war crime.

Brian

You have daddy issues.

Or you just really like geeky, nerdy men.

You would be a Ben simp, but Ben is too much of a little bitch.

Toby

You like golden retriever boys.

Something about him being able to throw axes is sexy to you. You cant explain it. I cant explain it. Nobody can.

You either like soft uwu boys or you like edgy mean guys. There is no in between.

Ben

You probably enjoy knowing he knows every inch of your life. Ngl, if you simp for Ben you probably like the whole yandere thing.

You’d be a Brian simp, but Brian is too much of a daddy.

You have a thing for blondes.

Nina

Like with Jeff, you probably have a knife kink.

But I mean… you probably like golden retriever girls too.

You are or you admire the scene thing.

The Observer

You like being watched.

Or you just like the short, quiet and mysterious type.

You want a geek squad boyfriend to solve all your computer problems for free while also hacking a bank and getting you both all the money you’ll need and more because why not.

Kagekao

You have or had a thing for spiderman.

You haven’t actually ever drank wine, you just think this drunken parcore maniac is cool.

You like Eyeless Jack, but you want more spice in the form of mean spirited pranks.

Eyeless Jack

You have a predator/prey kink for sure.

A monster fucker for certain.

You probably haven’t actually looked at the human anatomy to try and understand it, but you for some reason trust this man to bandage up your injuries.

Dark Link

You like Link but you also like edgy boys.

You definitely have some kind of attraction to swords.

Men in tights are hot to you.

Laughing Jack

You ARE a clown fucker.

Being the one to let this deranged psycho out of a box made to hold him sounds like fun to you, regardless of the fact that you would probably die.

You listen to the pop goes the weasel song all the time, or you used to.

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 22: Petrichor and Bibliosmia (Library/books)

AO3

Prev

Marinette frowned at the rain outside of her window. She had wanted to go to the botanical gardens with Harley and Ivy today. But with the rain, both women decided it would be better to just reschedule. They didn’t want her to get sick. Which, to be fair, was sweet. But still upsetting because she really wanted to go to the gardens. She’d planned on using the plants as inspiration to make something for Ivy.

“Tikki, I’m bored.” She says, looking at her smallest friend. Tikki just looks at her.

“You’ve been stuck inside because of the weather before, Marinette. Why don’t you design?” Tikki suggests. Marinette huffs, flopping back down onto the cushioned window seat.

“But there’s nothing inspiring in my room, Tikki.” She mumbles, before shooting back up. “Do you think any of the boys are here?” She asks.

“Only one way to find out!” Tikki says with a smile, obviously relieved to have avoided any more whining from Marinette. She jumps up, throwing one of Dick’s old hoodies on over her t-shirt. She’d always gotten cold easily, and becoming the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous didn’t help. That, and the manor was cold on a good day- it would probably be freezing with how bad the weather was. She slides down the banister, knowing her Dad was at work and couldn’t yell at her.

“Miss Marinette, if you insist on behaving like your brothers, I will have to resort to treating you like your brothers.” Alfred says with raised eyebrows. But she can sense the smile wanting to break through. She just grins apologetically.

“Sorry, Alfred.” She says. “Speaking of my brothers, are any of them here right now?” She asks. If they’re not, she could probably convince Alfred to bake something with her. As long as she promises not to slide down the banister again.

“I believe Master Jason is in the library. Masters Dick and Damian are in the gym and Master Tim is at Wayne Enterprises with your father.” He says and she hums, thinking. She could go do some training with Dick and Damian, or she could go sit and sketch in the library with Jason.

“Thanks Alfred!” She says, giving him a wide smile before turning and walking down one of the many halls. She glances in open doors as she walks. Despite having lived here for nearly a month, she still got lost going anywhere other than her room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the Batcave. They were kind of the places she’d gone the most. She could also easily find her dad’s study and the main sitting room, most of the time. But the library wasn’t really a place she’d spent a lot of time in. And while she loved Dick and Damian, she also knew that they hadn’t gotten time to hang out just the two of them in a while. She’d talked to Dick before, about how when their dad was missing, he was basically Damian’s father. She knew that bonds like that didn’t just go away, knew that neither boy wanted it to. So she figured she’d just annoy Jay instead of barging in on the others’ bonding time.

Finally finding the library, she grins. Pushing the cracked door open a little more, she moves into the room, jaw dropping. The floor to ceiling bookshelves were packed. There were huge overstuffed couches, and the large windows had window seats attached- perfect little reading nooks. Quickly making a mental note to come to the library more, she starts to search for Jay. She knew he had to be in here. Alfred is never wrong. She grins when she spots him, sitting in what looked like an insanely uncomfortable position, but one she knew from experience was the best.

“Whatchya reading?” She asks, walking over and getting comfortable on the couch next to him.

“<i>Pride and Prejudice<i>.” He says, continuing reading for a moment before putting a little scrap of paper in the book and shutting it. “What’s up, Pixie Pop?” He asks, looking at her with a grin. Marinette sighs dramatically and moves so that she’s upside down on the couch.

“It’s raining. And I was supposed to go to the gardens with Ivy and Harley but they canceled because of my ‘health�� and they were ‘concerned’.” She says with a pout.

“And you decided the library was the best place to curb your boredom? No offense kid, but you don’t seem like the type to read.” He says and she huffs.

“I like books! It’s just-” She pauses, remembering the way Lila had teased her for it back in Paris. Her classmates hadn’t joined in, not really. They’d just agreed that she was a little odd.

“You okay, Pix?” Jason asks, his earlier grin replaced with a slightly concerned look. Marinette winces and nods.

“Yeah it’s- I can read. I swear I can. But when I’m looking at a book, or an article or anything with a lot of text, it gets hard to pick out the pieces. Things just kind of swirl together and then I can’t decode it and I get frustrated and just stop reading. It sucks, ‘cause I do like books. I listen to audiobooks while doing commissions.” She rambles, stopping and turning red. Though that may be from hanging upside down on the couch. Sighing, she sits up and shrugs. “Sorry I’m so weird.” She says. Jason’s face morphs into a scowl.

“Just ‘cause you learn differently doesn’t mean you’re weird, kid. Just means you’ve got your own style. Don’t let any of those little shits you go to school with tell you differently.” He says, reaching out and ruffling her hair. She smiles at him, a genuine happy smile. She was so relieved that he didn’t think she was weird. Or stupid. Lila had thrown that word around. That one hurt. Marinette prided herself on her quick thinking and cleverness. And her grades. They were some of the best in the class! So for Lila to call her stupid…

“Pixie.” Jason says, drawing the nickname out in a sing-song voice. She looks at him and raises an eyebrow. “You were zoned out, kid. So, was there something ya wanna do?” He asks. Marinette glances down at the book in his hand and frowns.

“I don’t wanna keep you from reading. I can just sit in here with you. I’ll probably end up grabbing my sketchbook.” She says. Jason waves in a ‘no big deal’ motion.

“I’ve read this book a million times.” He reassures her. She glances at the cover again, realizing it’s not one she’s really heard much about before.

“What’s it about?” She asks. “I’ve never read it.” Jay’s face morphs into a huge grin.

“You said you like listening to books, right?” He asks. She nods. “Well, then settle in because I’m going to read to you.” He says proudly with a grin.

“Oh, you really don’t-” She tries to say. She didn’t want to make him read to her. That was not-

“Oh but I want to.” He says, effectively cutting off her mental ramble before she can complete her meltdown. “Listen Pix, this is one of my favorite books. If you go listen to some dumb audio book, you won’t get my commentary. Trust me, this is the best way for you to read the book.” He says and she snorts, shaking her head lightly.

“Okay, Jay, let’s read a book.”

---

Finally arriving home after being stuck at the office, Bruce sets off to find his daughter. Since his apology a few days ago, he’d attempted to make an effort to check in on her and see how she was doing. He tried to also do the same with the boys, but they had all given him odd looks, so he didn’t continue. He checks her room, the Batcave, the sitting room- nothing. He finally decides to check the kitchen. If he had to guess, she’d be there baking with Alfred. He walks in and sees Alfred, but no Marinette.

“Good evening, Alfred. Have you seen Marinette?” Bruce asks, silently hoping she hadn’t left the planet again.

“I believe she’s in the library with Master Jason.” Alfred says and Bruce blinks in surprise. He’d never seen her read a book before, while Jason always had a book on him. He supposed it could be a hobby of hers that he just hasn’t noticed. Or, she could have just followed Jason. Which seems more likely. The two of them were all but attached at the hip ever since the Gala. It was surprising, but at the same time welcoming. Thanking Alfred quickly, he walks towards the library. He’d just say hi and leave. No need to make them stop reading if they were having fun. Gently pushing open the library door he walks in and pauses at the sight. Marinette had wrapped herself in a blanket and was almost sitting on the edge of the couch, leaning forward with an intense look of concentration on her face. Jason had his legs swung over the arm of the couch and was reading out loud. Immediately recognizing the book as Jason’s favorite, Bruce slowly leaves the library, careful not to let the door slam. He’d have the chance to talk to Marinette later, but for now, he’d let the two continue reading in peace.

Next

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[redjaybathood]

so okay, it's really frutstrating for me when you see someone who say something that isn't actually - like, true? and you respond to it? and explain why? and people like - no, i'm not talking about this, i'm talking about that specific thing that doesn't actually happen (or doesn't happen as much as i am implying it does, at least), so go make your own post.

Here I am, making my own post.

Look, Jason stans - who among you thinks any Robin dying except Jason (which in fact is only Stephanie and Damian) cheapens Jason's death? Please raise your metaphorical hands by replying to this post.

Which - I don't think you exist en masse. Like, 90% of the blogs I follow, servers I'm active in, etc, are about Jason, or made by Jason fans, or at least by people who aren't anti-Jason. And I frequent Jason's tag on tumblr. So I have seen a lot of bad Jason takes, but this? This is the most fucking bogus thing I ever heard of.

Well, there is a misinterpretation of some takes on canon - what Jason's death brought him to a villainous path. Which is true, in a way. Because here's an approximate timeline: Starlin hates kid sidekicks and especially Jason, who's Robin, and a sidekick on Batman's book, which Starlin writes - he wants to kill him off and lobbies for it - he gets a go ahead from editorial - he makes Jason seem angry or incompetent - he kills him off - Robin's death raises uncomfortable questions about Batman - DC makes it so that Jason, retroactively, remembered as solely the bad angry reckless incompetent Robin. And it's how Jason gets remembered in general.

And how do you bring a character like this back? Well, why not a villain. Cue Under the Hood (and it only goes worse from there).

And then you get anti-Jason fans, most of them Dick and Tim fans, who actually are behind the take "any other Robin dying and coming back as not a murderer invalidates Jason's 'excuse' to become a villain" which, in short hand, "any other Robin dying invalidates Jason's experience" which is now assigned to Jason's stans. Who - and I saw these exchanges before I started blocking people a lot - see that bullshit and go, hey, no, Jason has a totally valid point of view when he goes and murders people - he fucking died! Whereas anti-Jason stans reply: he's not the only one, so there! And I mean. If Stephanie decided to go apeshit after her resurrection - I would honestly support it, as long as it doesn't make her another dumb villain that Tim Drake takes down by the sheer superiority of being a white middle class male with a personality so bland everyone could project on him or something. Not Damian, though. I don't trust DC with Damian at all.

But in all seriousness, I do understand people that say that Jason's being a murder victim kind of gives him a unique perspective on killing being a last resort in keeping people safe. Which is what his villainous arc in UtRH and, to a lesser degree, from then on, is about. He didn't start with killing everyone and their mother - he didn't even end that way; like, he never is shown to take a life of an innocent person on-page. This never happens. But he started with a plan to take down Joker. And honestly, you think there's any need for jury, judge etc for Joker? The same Joker, who at one point, walked himself into jail just to flex how untouchable he is? This Joker? Are we really sure that murder cannot be allowed ever, within this fictional universe? Sorry, I got off topic again.

But in a nutshell: anti-Jason fans use "other ppl died and didn't become murderers" as a way to invalidate Jason's very traumatic experience and a grim but more realistic outlook on crime-fighting within the DC universe (not real life though; please don't murder people in real life). It's their gotcha! moment.

And I maybe can see where are they coming from, except their need to put down other characters to validate theirs: other people really died. Stephanie did. Damian did. They were the same victims of dumb and dare I say, malicious, decisions of DC editors and writers. And they didn't come back murdering people.

So I see where you would think the argument of "Jason wanting to kill the killers is valid, actually, because he died" falls apart. But you can, in fact, take different approaches to the same problem? Whatever works. (In case of DC, though, nothing really works - neither killing nor not-killing villains - because what would the stories be about if all the criminals were actually defeated? Wayne Family Adventures is a niche thing, even if it tries to be a broad-appeal)

It also is a wrong fucking way to look at this, as I've mentioned before: Jason was returned as a villain because they thought it would be a great dramatic thing people would buy comics for. It's not like Jason has agency and one day he woke up in his grave and decided, well, it's a beautiful morning for some murdering.

It also even more wrong way to look at this, because you compare characters like: this one is more morally in the right because they do not kill! (and therefore they are a good character and stanning them makes you a better person than other stans) This one is in the wrong because he does kill! (and therefore they are a bad character and stanning them makes you a burgeoning serial killer)

In the post I'm referencing I did go off about Tim and Dick stans because they are the worst offenders: not only they say "Jason isn't the only one who died" - I mean, duh; they say "well, Tim/Dick died also" which is a fucking lie. It honestly feels like they are trying to, I don't know. Invalidate Jason's (and Steph, and Damian) experience, or make Tim/Dick seem as the most tragic characters (because of course the only valid feelings are from deep trauma; the characters you should love the most are the ones who suffered the most; is it Christian morality in play again? or what? I don't get it). When Dead Robins Club tragedy is not just what they have gone through in-universe, but the treatment of poor, female, and people of color in DC comics overall. They are killed off - for a long time, Jason; planned to be made permanent death, Stephanie; and Damian, for a short time, but the repercussions are still felt to the same day if not by Damian himself, then by his mother Talia.

And I'm sorry, but Tim and Dick have never, even at their worst, been treated the way those three characters were. They never made out to be a bad Robin, an angry or reckless one, a Robin that deserved to die - a Robin that didn't deserve to be Robin. A Robin to kill off.

So no, they did not die. They wouldn't have.

[shiroganeryo]

Komui's Discussion Room content (DGM 27)

Volume 27 has been released recently here in Brazil and I realized the remaining of Komui’s Discussion Room were nowhere to be found in English, but after reading all of it, I thought there are very interesting things hence why I wanted to share!

Please bear in mind this is not a direct translation, but a summary.

I have a lot of criticism when it comes to Viz Media’s release (official English), but I’m quite content with the work Panini, the distributor of D.Gray-Man in Brazil, has done so far with the official Portuguese release. If there are any mistakes, please bear in mind I translated the information directly from their version.

There are 11 questions covered in this summary. For the others, please check Jeidafei’s translations on them (totally recommend it!): Part 1 | Part 2 | Author's note & Thanks Corner | Extra

Without further ado, let’s get into it! This got very long.

≫ Kanda hasn’t reached the “critical point” in synchronization yet (+ why Allen isn’t a General)

In the question “How did Kanda hide having gone past the critical point”, Tiedoll answers that he actually has the potential it takes to do it but hasn’t done it yet. Still on the same question, they answer a related question about Allen’s critical point: “If Allen has reached the critical point, why wasn’t he appointed to become a general during the Order’s reconstruction?”

Allen replies that it was impossible at that time since Central was keeping watch over him. Tiedoll adds that he’s also too young and the only one able to operate the Ark, the latter making Central even more suspicious of him. General Cross’s reputation also seems to have played a part in this, having the higher-ups deem Allen as someone they couldn’t trust enough.

Ryo’s note: Allen thanks Tiedoll for putting his thoughts about Cross into words and Cross simply laughs it off. XD

≫ Sleeping positions

They get asked about their sleeping positions. Tiedoll describes how Kanda sleeps with detail (when younger, in fetal position; nowadays, he sleeps lying on his side, preferentially the right side).

Allen comments that Johnny sleeps sprawled on the floor or the desk and that everyone in the Science Division sleeps like this; when he first saw it, he got concerned thinking something tragic had happened. Johnny says it’s comfortable to sleep like this, but Allen isn’t so sure.

Cross comments on how Allen sleeps; he mentions he likes to sleep hugging something and when he can’t do it, he complains until falling asleep. Allen gets flustered and claims that he got used to sleeping with Tim because he used to be big, but is over it nowadays. Johnny remembers Link used to tell him not to sleep with the piggy-bank, to which Allen replies that it was “not a sleeping position, but survival instincts”.

Kanda comments on how he brought a ton of food to the infirmary one time and says it was annoying to listen to him eating nonstop. Allen replies with sarcasm (“sorry for needing to eat to recover my energies”).

Cross sleeps naked, with his arms open (according to Allen).

Tiedoll sleeps on his stomach, blanket over his face.

Ryo’s note: The time Kanda is referring to is in Chapter 135 (135th Night: Repose, Partly Cloudly).

≫ The symbol on the CROWs' foreheads

Cross replies that it’s probably the compulsory mark of the procedure that transforms regular people in CROWs. Tiedoll says that Cross knows a lot, as expected of someone who’s able to use magic –he shrugs off the compliment – and Kanda asks when and how exactly someone like him learned it. He angrily says he didn’t learn it anywhere and ends the question at Allen’s remark that he always gets angry when people ask.

Ryo’s note: This is interesting. Could imply he was the one to teach magic to Nea (and the Earl himself?), and not the other way around. But, it’s also possible he just didn’t want to answer.

≫ “What is something you find impressive on the other, but have never admitted?”

Johnny decides to start with Kanda and Allen, and the two exchange insults for several lines.

Johnny then passes the baton to the Generals, who do the exact same as their apprentices.

Johnny ends the question with a thank you and sweating nervously.

Ryo’s note: By “insults”, I mean things like Kanda calling Allen a crybaby, and Allen saying Kanda’s dumb. Tiedoll calls Cross a delinquent; Cross calls him “doting dad”. The list goes on…

≫ The time Kanda spent with General Tiedoll right after becoming his apprentice (+ Allen’s time with Cross)

They are asked what was the most outstanding episode from such a time, and Kanda absentmindedly says he forgot. Tiedoll seems disappointed, stating they had made so many marvelous memories together, to which Kanda replies “please stop talking in this weird way”.

Allen asks how the travels were, and Tiedoll says the most important at that time was to take care of mending Kanda’s heart. They spent much time talking about amenities, having contact with plants and animals and admiring beautiful landscapes. Tiedoll believes that getting in touch with beautiful things can help to connect with the world, despite carrying the burden of being a Second; he wanted Kanda to feel like regular people feel about the world.

Johnny and Allen are touched, and the latter comments how jealous he is. Cross then reminds Allen of how many bedsheets he had to wash because of him, making him flustered. He then goes on to remind how not only he did that but also had to feed him – Tiedoll comments on how it seems impossible to imagine Cross doing all that – and even help him change many times.

Allen’s embarrassment reaches the maximum and he threatens to beat Cross if he keeps talking about that.

≫ Stories of when Kanda and Lenalee were little

Kanda tries to shrug the question off, but Johnny insists they answer. Tiedoll says that the two of them were really cute, just like two lilies that bloomed inside the gray scenery of the Order; Kanda tells him to stop.

Allen is uninterested in Kanda, but wants to hear about Lenalee. Cross asks him if he likes her, and says he thought he had a girlfriend in the Asian Branch already. Allen denies it and says both LouFa and Lenalee are his friends; Cross laughs, saying he doesn’t judge, and Allen nearly snaps in irritation (again).

Johnny moves on to answer the question; Kanda is against it, but Tiedoll holds him in place. Johnny tells that Jiji told him that at first, Kanda would be asked if Lenalee could train with him, but he would shrug her off saying he didn’t want to train with a girl, which would make her cry.

Every time Kanda made Lenalee cry, she would run off to Reever. In reality, Johnny thinks she wanted to talk to Komui instead, but she thought he was busy and didn’t want to bother him, resulting in her crying at Reever’s desk. Tiedoll and Allen are weeping at it (they thought it’s cute).

While Reever comforted Lenalee, Marie would appear bringing Kanda along, who had no idea how to apologize, while Lenalee would bashfully hide inside Reever’s lab coat. This kept happening until he eventually accepted to train with her.

Johnny starts telling another story involving Kanda’s meditation and Lenalee coming back tired from a mission, but Kanda interrupts him. Allen says it’s being fun and tells him not to bother.

Kanda tells him to shut up, calling him a bedwetter. Allen snaps (again).

Ryo’s note: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

≫ “Who amongst the Noah would Allen best go along with? Hypothetically speaking.”

Allen and Kanda are worn out from fighting (see the previous question); Johnny is giving them calming tea. Tiedoll says that it seems Allen and Tyki Mikk looked friendly when talking to each other, and Allen interjects saying they’re not friends and that Tyki doesn’t respect the notion of personal space.

He then goes on to say he doesn’t imagine himself being friends with any Noah because they lack common sense. Cross mentions Road and how she’s always being flirty with him, which makes Allen tell him to stop implying things, while sounding unsure about being friends with her or not.

Johnny asks if Allen is embarrassed and reminds Road kissed him. He denies being embarrassed and says that kissing is just a form of greeting for her (he’s sweating nervously while saying so). He adds that, on top of that, he feels like Road sees someone else when she looks at him.

Cross seems amused.

Ryo’s note: This answer is very interesting. It seems to confirm the theory that Road had some kind of connection with past!Allen. We won’t know for sure until it’s revealed, but it does seem to imply such a thing.

≫ The taste of Innocence + the Crystal Type Innocence + Exorcist supplies + Cross suspiciously knowing about the Bookman clan

A reader asks how did Innocence taste like when liquefied; Kanda says it tastes like nothing, similar to water.

Johnny points out the wounds that formed after their Innocence became Crystal types and if they don’t hurt. Kanda says that at the time they don’t, but such wounds won’t heal even with his healing ability – which he concludes makes sense since it’s from where the blood comes out to form the weapons.

Johnny mentions that the Science Division (Komui, more specifically) made Lenalee pills that will prevent anemia. Still on that subject, Allen remembers people had asked what goes inside the bags the Exorcists carry on their uniforms. Johnny says they carry first-aid kits, disinfectants, anti-hemorrhagic meds, and things of the sort. Miranda and Timothy carry sweets with a high intake of calories, Krory carries Akuma blood sweets and Lavi and Bookman asked for migraine meds.

Tiedoll says they are nothing without the support of the Science Division and thanks them. Allen asks about Lavi and Bookman getting migraines. Cross mentions it’s probably from an occupational disease because storing that much information and memories can wreck your head over time.

Allen comments again that he seems to know a lot about the Bookman Clan, and that it’s very suspicious. Cross magnificently shrugs off the question.

≫ Allen’s cheating

Allen gets asked if he becomes bad at luck games (i.e gambling) in case he doesn’t cheat. He says that a bet on luck always rewards something even if gains are small, but Johnny says he’s really bad at things like rock-paper-scissors. Kanda thinks he was just in denial about admitting he’s unlucky.

When scolded by Kanda, Allen says it was a matter of survival and that he never cheated good people on; just bad people.

Johnny says living like this is dangerous and that he should stop; Allen apologizes and says he needs money, and if anything, he can use his Innocence.

Cross is amused and sounds proud. Tiedoll regrets Cross’s influence on Allen.

≫ About Link

Allen gets asked if he has ever seen Link smile, to which he responds he has tried making him laugh/smile, but never could do it. Johnny says that everyone from Central is very serious, especially Link. Tiedoll thinks that it might be forbidden to smile when their superior is Director Lvellie.

Allen goes on to ramble about how Link complained about everything: when he had food on his face after or during eating, asking him to redo reports because they were illegible despite Reever being able to read, scolding him for not drying his hair after going out of the bath because he could get a cold, and how he was a shame for not folding his uniform properly before putting it away.

Cross asks him, “what was he? Your mother?” and Allen says he didn’t get annoyed at him. He wonders if all moms are like this.

Johnny says people were worried when he was assigned to watch Allen, but in the end, Link went along well with everyone and confirms that Allen liked him as well. He also states that Allen’s reports became a lot easier to read thanks to him.

Ryo’s note: Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary folks: it’s Link appreciation time! *tips hat* Also Allen wondering about how mothers treat their children was just precious, even if it’s a throwaway comment.

≫ The vibe at the Black Order

In the question “Who runs faster, Komui or Reever?”, Johnny says that he thinks Reever is faster; Allen adds that Komui cheats by using Komurin, though. Kanda gets annoyed and tells them they (at the Science Division) should make Komui behave accordingly to his role. Johnny sniffs and says that they try.

Tiedoll says that it’s actually good that Komui is cheerful because the Order used to be a very different place until he took over the post, and that he (Tiedoll) disliked the gloomy aura it used to have. Allen remembers Lenalee commented about it once and asks if the Order was really this different back then. Tiedoll says that even if it’s been built with a noble purpose, human beings aren’t perfect and a lot of things get distorted over a hundred years. He recommends Allen to ask For about it, as she has existed ever since the Order was founded and protects it to this day.

Allen is sad and comments he wants to visit the Asian Branch again someday. Johnny says he’ll go with Allen, but the latter says he would want to eat Jeryy’s food again before that. Cross sneers and wishes good luck.

They wrap it up at this, and both Kanda and Allen look very happy about being done with the Discussion Corner (as noted by Johnny). Tiedoll bids Cross adieu, and says “rest in peace, Marian” – to which he replies “don’t treat me like a ghost”.

Allen says he knows Cross is an illusion created by his weakness, but that he was happy to see him (in reference to the 222nd Night: Searching for A.W - Hypokrisis). Cross tells him not to exaggerate.

Johnny is content that they could finally keep it to the ideal number of pages – something the Discussion Corner is known to usually have trouble with. Tiedoll says that if they had gone overboard, the next issue’s Discussion Corner would be canceled, and wraps up thanking everyone who has cared about Yu so far and asks that people keep cheering for him.

Johnny thanks the readers for sending their questions. Allen and Kanda are relieved it’s over.

Ryo’s note: And that’s it! Man, this got LONG. Thank you very much for reading until the end. Can’t wait for the next Discussion Room, the way Tiedoll worded it makes it seem like it’ll be on the next volume, 28. I’m excited!

If you're interested in seeing more DGM content from me, feel free to check my masterlist here.

[bluegarners]

hiya @viceturtle! I finally got it done! Here is your Bad Things Happen Bingo request with Dick and Jason; you can also read it on ao3

What Have I Done?

It’s a lot. He’s not going to lie.

Dick was dead for eight months. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It was a fact that they were all forced to deal with, all forced to live with. Dick was dead and there was nothing any of them could do about it. And for a time, Jason had held onto the small belief, he’s not going to call it hope, that Dick had somehow managed to pull through. That even despite the beatings, the torture, everything before and after it, Dick had managed to pull through and come out of it all alive.

But he hadn’t. That was the thing, at its core. Dick died. 

Jason knows what it is to be dead. To be beaten and left to die. To struggle and still search for a way out of the shit hole you’re suddenly in and cling to that light, that stupid, stupid promise in the back of your head that screams, Help is coming, just hold on a little longer, that forces you to keep struggling, keep surviving, keep hoping for a way out despite the circumstances. Jason knows and it absolutely sucked. 

He died and then clawed his way out of his own coffin. One of his fingers is permanently misshapen, wood chips and metal piercing through his stiff and cold skin. He’s got scars all over his body to prove that he died, to prove that he was beaten with a crowbar, messed around with like he was just some dummy, some thing that could take a beating and then some. Up and down and across and lined; the scars are all over him and he died.

And Dick died too. 

In those eight months, Jason felt more connected to his deceased older brother than he ever had before. A deep and twisted connection over a shared death, a similar fate so convoluted it makes Jason sick to think about sometimes. His murderer is still out there. Jason has to live with that fact and even though it’s not fine and things would be so much easier without that psychopath, Jason gets it. Sometimes. Gets the moral code, the compass, that shrouds Batman and his little followers.

And he’s trying. He is. He made an effort to try and do the right thing when Dick died because suddenly, the role of older brother had fallen onto him and even though he doesn’t have a good relationship with Tim or the recently resurrected Damian, or anyone for that matter, there was still that recognition that it was all on him now. He was the eldest. He was the one to look towards. Not look up to, no, he will never claim the title of a role model, but now he’s the oldest, the most experienced, the next in line when one just can’t go to Bruce about shit going on.

The point being is that he did try, put in more effort than he probably should have, to stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at being better. At being the eldest of the entire brood and not fucking it up horribly. He switches to rubber bullets and smoke pellets. He keeps his excessive violence reserved for only the worst scum and even then still attempts to steer clear from Batman’s territories. He takes care of the Narrows, rekindles a sort of friendship with Tim, doesn’t fight the literal child that lurks in the Cave, and avoids confrontations with Bruce altogether.

It works and it’s good. He steps up, frankly owns being the eldest, and he’s fine. He’s fine with it. He’s still got his reputation intact, Red Robin isn’t terrified of his presence any longer, and Robin doesn’t pull a sword every time they spot one another. So what if he slips up occasionally and gets carried away? They’re just rubber bullets, weapons all the same, and they’re no different from getting hit with Batman’s fist (which Jason knows, from experience, hurts like hell) or getting swung at with a large knife. 

He had a thing going on, is what Jason’s trying to get at, and then Dick showed up.

Dick. Richard Grayson. Who died eight months ago after he was tortured by the Syndicate and had his heart stopped by Lex Luthor. Who they had a funeral for. Who they mourned for. Who Jason had attempted to fill the gaping hole he had left behind.

Who Jason thought had died.

Betrayal is a word Jason feels like he could apply to a majority of his life. Betrayal from his parents, his poor, poor mother who just couldn’t muster up enough fucks. Bruce, Batman, for getting him into the vigilante life, for letting him wear that damn costume and get himself blown up for all his efforts. Talia, for restoring his mind after he was supposed to be dead. Bruce, Batman, again, for letting his murderer walk around like it was another Sunday, any other day, just a nice, normal day for a stroll like he didn’t just kill Bruce’s own son-

Yeah, Jason feels like he has liberal use of betrayal. It’s just an old song he hums sometimes and lets others join in occasionally.

But there was an unspoken code, a silent right-of-passage, when it came to being Robin. A mutual understanding of sorts. You don’t back-stab another Robin. Ever. You don’t lie, cheat out, betray a fellow Robin. There were too many shared experiences when it came to being Batman’s, Bruce’s, Robin and that ultimately revolved all back to trust and knowing that things were still the same despite all these years. Being Robin was both the best thing to ever happen to someone and also the ultimate death sentence. You don’t just get to be Robin either. You’ve got to earn it, to prove yourself, to show that you can take it all on, to keep up with Batman and the ever changing and violent Gotham.

So, when Dick shows up with an apology on his lips and the expectation of being welcomed home after all this time, Jason punches him square in the jaw. It’s surreal, a part of him thinking his fist will just phase right through the man’s face, but his knuckles connect and if the sound of his fist against Dick’s jaw isn’t the most satisfying and cruel thing he’s ever heard, Jason doesn’t know what is. 

It’s agony, nearly, to see the red blossom on his older brother’s cheek because, holy hell, that means it’s all real. That Dick is really alive and not still buried in that weed covered yard with decaying roses scattered on top of it. Dick is alive and Jason is furious because he’s supposed to be dead and Jason already tried so hard to fill the other man’s impossibly huge shoes and he was doing a damn good job at it. He likes to think so, at least.

But who cares, right? Who gives a shit when Dick is back now and it was all for nothing? Everyone can just go back to their normal routines now that the star player is back and they don’t need a fill-in like Jason to stick around. All that effort, all that time, all that trying all summing up into one big, Surprise, I’m not dead, from the man of the hour himself.

Jason avoids Dick after that. The man said he wasn’t staying long, just “checking in” with everyone like he was just on some business call for a few months and not dead. 

And that’s the root of it, Jason thinks. That’s what really gnaws at him because Dick is treating the whole situation exactly like he was on some extended vacation and just forgot to tell anyone where he was going. Not like his absence literally turned their entire world upside down. Not like the loss, the emptiness, that literally echoed everywhere Jason went was consuming and terrifying. In those eight months, Jason had to toe the line between being the eldest and maintaining his identity as Red Hood, and that’s where Jason truly felt close to Dick. Felt like he finally got what Dick and Bruce’s arguments were about so many years ago, this constant war of wanting to be better, wanting to have freedom, wanting to stay yourself when there was a constant war of others trying to get you to fill a role that you don’t want. 

Finally, Jason felt like he had some other important connection to his elusive older brother that had nothing to do with the man that housed them, only for it all to be thrown across the room and into the trash. 

To keep it simple, bare-bones, really dumbed down, Dick lied. About being dead, of all things. Jason can get behind needing to lay low after all that, being stripped of your identity on live television wasn’t exactly great for their kind of lifestyle, but to just leave? To go out on some mission and leave the rest of them out to dry like that? No warning, no hints, no notes, nothing? God, at least Jason made an appearance. Granted, not the best sort of re-introduction, but at least he wasn’t trying to hide.

To say the least, Jason is hurting. The anger faded along with any sort of need to prove to Dick that he had stepped up when he left. Now, he just feels… shitty. In a way, this is what he had been half-way expecting. No one stays dead in this business. There is always someone with a back-up or ex-machina to save the day and bring back a fallen hero, villain, whatever. But there had just been something so final, so human in Dick’s death. In that moment, seeing the mask ripped off, seeing his brother’s face on T.V out of context, away from the normal flashiness that was being related to a billionaire, it had scared Jason because that was his brother, Dick Grayson, world’s most annoying man in the universe, on T.V; beaten, bloodied, bruised, and humiliated for everyone to see.

He’s always been jealous of how clean and clear Dick’s eyes looked. Just a simple and rare shade of blue, obnoxiously bright and searching. Jason’s mother used to say he had his father’s eyes, a muddy mix of blue and green. He’s never liked his eyes, but there was always something so attention grabbing with Dick’s. Seeing them on T.V, wide and blood-shot and bruised to hell; the blue was out of place and humanizing in a way that Jason just couldn't describe because it was simply Dick Grayson there. Not Nightwing. Not a hero. It was just Dick Grayson, world’s worst older brother ever, looking lost, defiant, and defeated all at once.

And that hurt.

The man is like some nasty disease that won’t leave him alone though. Their first meeting was two days ago and Jason is trying his best to ignore the knife in his chest, not literally, when Dick shows up. Just outside the Narrows on the roof of a bodega, Dick appears from where ever the fuck he’s been and walks over to Jason. It’s a cue, Jason knows, when thunder rumbles in the distance and if he were a bit more into literature, feeling a bit more melancholy for his freshman year of high school, Jason would say that a storm is coming for the both of them, not just Gotham.

Dick walks with his hands in his pockets, stuffed inside an old brown jacket that looks well-used and well-loved. Jason’s never seen the jacket before. Must’ve gotten it on his extended vacation. A part of Jason knows that Bruce was in on it too, that Bruce probably deserves just as much anger he’s dishing out towards Dick, maybe even more, but Jason’s tired of trying to play nice and get along. Dick is the one in front of him now, right here on a Wednesday night with the glowing, neon advertisement for Coke singing behind their heads and a run down, twenty year old convenience shop beneath their feet. 

Dick is here and now when he should be dead.

Just like Jason should be.

“What do you want?” he asks, the metallic tin of his voice modulator diminishing some of the threat. It’s a known fact that Red Hood guards his territory with a viciousness rivaling a rabid dog. Outsiders aren’t welcome. Never welcome.

In contrast, Dick is mask-less. Civilian. Same clear blue eyes from eight months ago that were sealed shut the last time Jason saw them. A dark bruise stains Dick’s right cheekbone, the shape of knuckles and betrayal. It’s a good contrast.

“I came to say goodbye,” the other man answers, stopping just short of six feet in front of Jason, “and that I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner. I really am,” he insists when Jason remains silent. “Things just… happened too fast. It killed me to be away from you all for so long. I wanted to tell you, I did-”

“Really?” Jason interrupts lowly. “It killed you, huh?”

Dick sighs, a hand coming up to brush through his hair. “That’s not what I meant. You know it’s not.”

“I don’t know, Dicky. Times are changing, you know. One minute, you’re the star pupil, and the next I’m your backup. And now,” Jason shrugs, letting his hand come up to rest on the holster he keeps on his hip, “I’m not so sure about that.”

Dick is eyeing Jason like he’s looking at something he doesn’t like. Something that’s leaving a bad taste in his mouth. But that’s just something he’s going to have to deal with, isn’t it? Suck it up buttercup, and all that.

A laugh erupts from Jason as he truly takes it all in. “You know,” he chuckles, nothing humorous causing his mirth, “you really had me there for awhile. I bought you flowers, went to your funeral, dealt with all that shit, and yet here you are. In the flesh.” He laughs again, fingers curving steadily around the grip of his gun. “I think I liked you better dead, Dick.”

The older man frowns, brow dipping into a neat crease. Not a single wrinkle on his perfect, tan, not dead face. “The situation was unavoidable,” he says, like he actually believes a word he utters. “Batman needed a guy on the inside. The, hm, circumstances leading up to that set it up so that I could be that guy. It wasn’t exactly my choice to stay dead, Jay.”

“Names,” Jason snarks, that same anger he felt two days ago rearing its ugly head again. “You know, you say you didn’t have a choice, but I think there’s a clear distinction between dead and alive, don’t you? It might just be me, who knows because fuck if I do, but I think a warning woud’ve sufficed. A fucking warning. ”

Something must click in Dick’s head as his frown deepens. His hands are out of his jacket pockets now. They’re both tense.

“I’ll be back soon,” he says. “Maybe another month. Two at most. When I get back, I’ll try and…” Dick trails off there, as if searching for the right words, but Jason doesn’t have the patience for him to find the right way to say the same bullshit he’s already heard before. 

He’s so tired. So, so tired.

“We were fine without you,” he snarls, relishing in the way Dick’s eyes widen at the claim. “The world doesn’t stop turning just because you decide to go off on a little adventure. Newsflash, asshole: None of us need you. You can’t come back here and expect everything to fall back to the way things were just because you decide it’s time to show your face again.”

“I was doing what I thought was right,” Dick snaps back. “Look, I’m sorry you had to step up and be a decent person for once-”

“And there it is,” Jason growls, unholstering his gun. “You think you’re so much better than me. You’re just so goddamn smug you can’t even see your own mistakes. What, is my being here just too inconvenient for you? Can’t make all the little hero-worshipers fall back into line like they used to?”

“Stop putting words in my mouth. I did what I thought was best for everyone and I paid the price for it.”

Jason lunges, cutting the feet between them into inches. “What was best?” he yells, swinging with one fist and aiming with the other. “Who the hell are you to decide that?”

Dick retaliates, pushing away Jason with a kick that connects to his armored chest. It’s barely a glancing blow though and he’s charging forwards again, squeezing the trigger as a shot rings off into the air, missing Dick’s foot by a few centimetres. Another crack of thunder resounds in the distance and a bolt of lightning cracks open the dark sky. Dick rolls away from Jason’s tackle, on the balls of his feet and ready to jump away again.

“I didn’t come here to fight you,” Dick tries, widening his stance. “I just came to, god, I don’t know, Jay. I didn’t ask for this!”

“Cut the bull,” Jason says, raising his gun again. He’s got it trained on Dick’s mid-section and even though a part of him knows he’s not going to take the shot, another part of him has his finger itching towards the trigger. “None of us asked for any of the fuckery that comes our way, but we deal with it, right? I’m dead, you’re dead, the brat’s dead, we’re all dead!”

There’s another crack of thunder, one that brings the rain with it. It pours, instantly drenching the pair, and a sheet of gray divides them. There’s surely something poetic about it, the divide that surrounds them both, but Jason’s not one to dwell long.

“Well, I’m not dead anymore!” Dick screams through the rain. “I am alive! I’ve been dead for eight months and I don’t want to fucking be anymore! I want to come home, Jay. I am alive. Goddamnit, I am alive!”

“So why didn’t you tell us that? Tell any of us that? All of this, that’s on you , Dick. You want to know why there wasn’t a big fucking parade for you? Why no one was fighting over the chance to be the first one to get to shake your hand? It’s because we don’t trust you anymore. No one fucking wants you near them because that’s how badly you fucked up.”

He must strike a nerve because Jason sees something crumple on Dick’s face. 

“I didn’t- I didn’t want to leave you guys, Jay. God, you’ve got to believe me on that. I had no choice. It was either I leave and do this for Batman or-”

That same anger rises up again. Anger from different directions, different thoughts, but ultimately because it’s about Batman. Always, always about Batman. What he wants. What he needs you to do. Because if you don’t do it, and someone dies, it’s your fault. And Dick has always been the suck-up, the one to come when called, because even after all their spats and all these years of silence between them, Dick was still a Robin first and goddamnit if Jason doesn’t understand that. He hates that he understands that need to please Batman, to do what he asks in the hope of just some tiny ounce of praise or acknowledgment, but Dick is a grown adult. He’s not Robin anymore.

None of them are.

Dick takes a step forward and Jason squeezes the trigger, feeling the recoil in his wrist as Dick freezes, the bullet breezing right past his armpit. His eyes are wide, finally taking the weapon in as it is, and there must be some realization going off inside Dick’s head because now he’s the one charging in, stance low and shifty, and Jason’s on the defense now. His finger is still on the trigger, just barely, and he’s raising it to aim again when a flying round-house knocks the gun from his hand and fist drives under his chin. It disorients him a bit because, damn, he didn’t actually expect Dick to fight back, Jason was trying to get him to go away, but now they’re both serious. They’re both dangerous.

It’s a no-weapons brawl, just fists and dirty kicks and the rain is still pounding away against the bodega. The rain has plastered Dick’s hair to his skull and Jason is grateful for his helmet because it’s clear the water is making it difficult for the older man to see. He takes advantage of this, striking down with his elbow on Dick’s trapezius and quickly hooking his left foot around his ankle. It works for a split second, Dick thrown off and unbalanced, before Dick is tumbling down and using his own momentum to pull Jason down with him. 

They’re on their backs now, rough and cold cement bleeding through their jackets, and the neon Coke sign flickers in and out as thunder continues to roll and shake the world.

“You should’ve stayed dead,” Jason snarls, taking a jab at his older brother’s face. “You should’ve never come back.”

Dick frees one of his hands from underneath the massive bulk of Jason’s suit, palm striking the sides of his helmet. “Take off the godamn hood and say that to my face,” Dick pants, shoving one of his knees into Jason’s side. “Look me in the eye and tell me you want me dead, Jay. Tell me you want me dead. ”

Another bolt of lightning splits the dark and its image refracts against the many puddles, and for a moment, the light sears into Jason’s eyes. He flinches against the burn and it’s enough hesitation for Dick to take the unguarded moment and flip Jason, crouching with one knee on his chest and the other digging into Jason’s forearm. They’re both breathing heavily, exhausted both physically and mentally, and he doesn’t bother to stop his brother as Dick reaches down and shoves the helmet off of his face.

Their eyes meet and Jason squints up at clear blue. Yeah, he hates that color. Hates it so much it feels like something ugly in his stomach, coiling and clenching. They’re both frowning but Dick just looks resigned. Jason hates that too. Now that he has the chance, he can see new scars on his brother’s face. New, finer lines and white and pink discoloration. 

Funny how eight months can make someone look so much older.

“I wish you had stayed dead,” Jason finally says, hating himself all the more for it. “I wish you had never come back.”

Dick stumbles off of him and there’s a thin trail of red leaking from one of his eyebrows that keeps getting washed away. Jason doesn’t even remember hitting him there, but he must’ve been excessive. Must’ve over-done it. Just another thing he’s managed to fuck up. Check it off the list. 

He sits up, feeling the ache of a sore back and numerous bruises, and watches as his brother leans heavily against the poles of the advertisement. The rain only seems to come down harder, bouncing off the yellow stained bodega roof. He gets to his feet slowly, careful to keep an eye on the slouching man, and treads over to pick up his helmet. His gun is closer to the bright neon sign and when he gets near enough, Dick looks up, something horribly heavy and sad, settling into his face.

“Okay,” is all he says, nodding once. “Okay, Jay.”

Dick reaches into his jacket pocket once more, fiddling with something, but Jason’s too preoccupied putting his helmet back on to really pay attention to it. They’re done fighting. Done with whatever all of that was. His hair is soaked, his jacket is going to have a layer of mildew on it in the morning, and Jason is tired. Beat. He can’t find the will-power to truly be bothered with anything else. 

This is his territory so he’s not technically fleeing, but that’s what it looks like. Tail between his legs, off to lick his wounds, Jason’s sure that’s what Dick is thinking (he knows that’s not true, he knows this, and he’s got a little secret screaming, pounding away in the back of his skull, but Jason’s too burned out to deal with it, to address it). He walks to the edge of the roof with his back turned on his older brother, his alive and breathing, long lost brother, and jumps off, sliding down the fire escape and landing on the grimy streets below. His boots squelch in the rain, and there’s water logged into his socks, but Jason ignores it in favor of staring ahead. Refusing to look back.

Here’s the thing about being a Robin that everyone who’s been one before knows. 

You rely on each other. There’s no codependency, not really, but there is a certain degree of reliance on past and current Robins. Robin is the inspiration. Not Batman. Batman doesn’t inspire little kids to go out in the night and get punched in the face and witness cruelty so awful you have nightmares for years after. Batman doesn’t inspire light and forgiveness and mercy; that’s all Robin’s doing. The bright colors, the chatter, the youth. That’s all on Robin, the little child weapons they are, and the shared experience of being that for Batman is a bond that runs so much deeper than blood. Thick and interwoven and relied upon so much more heavily than a simple crest or uniform.

And here’s that screaming secret that vibrates inside Jason’s skull: he’s happy Dick’s back. That Dick’s alive. At the end of the day, Dick was the first Robin, the first light, and having him snuffed out was a world that got three shades darker, bleaker. It was Dick’s Robin that truly gave it the twinge of hope all the Robins after carry with them; he was the model, the mold, they shaped themselves after. Him being dead changed that perspective for the worse because the first Robin made it. That’s what was so important, what tips the scales for the confidence of all Robins after. Dick made it. Survived being Robin, survived past Robin, and became his own hero. 

Dick outlived being Robin and that was the ultimate goal. To survive. 

So him dying was the last straw but now that he’s back, alive, everything was going to be okay again. Yeah, they’re all still messed up from it, there’s going to be a lot of trust built back up again, but they’re Robins for Christ's sake. Thicker than blood, stronger than a crest, relied on more than Batman. And maybe Jason’s being sentimental, still trying to be more eloquent than his sophomore English education allowed him to be, but God, he’s trying. He’s trying so hard despite the ache that wears down his bones and the fire that consumes his brain.

That’s why he gives in. Turns around. Looks back. Does what he thought he was too stubborn to do, but things change and-

The neon sign is brighter. No, that’s not right. There’s another source of that eerie, glowing light and Jason’s eyes widen as he sees a person step through it. Another figure, broad, muscular, unfamiliar, and they’re heading straight for Dick. His brother. Who is still leaning against the advertisement poles. Who’s not doing a damn thing to avoid the stranger that’s fast approaching. 

Soreness and fatigue forgotten, Jason starts sprinting, boots pounding against the pavement as he cranes his neck upwards to watch the stranger continue to advance.

“Dick!” he yells in warning, drowned out with the rain. “Dick, move!”

He slams into the fire escape, hands scraping up the ladder as he hauls himself three steps at a time, chest heaving and heart beating wildly. He slips, losing his footing, and Jason grunts as he feels the pull on his shoulder and his knees bang into the sides of the bodega. He pushes on though, gripping the metal tightly and finally reaching the top.

He’s pulling himself over, gasping and searching, and he sees the man tugging Dick closer to the strange light, what Jason thinks must be some sort of portal, and before he’s even gotten a leg over the edge, his right hand is scrambling for purchase on his gun. He takes aim and fires without a second thought and curses aloud when it jams.

“Dick!” he yells again, throwing the useless weapon away and falling over onto the roof. “Stop! Stop! What’re you doing?”

His brother just trudges on though, bicep gripped by the stranger that continues to drag him closer and closer to the pulsating light, ghoulishly pink and saturating the air with an ominous buzz. Another flash of lightning illuminates the sky and Jason trips over himself in his haste, crashing into the slick cement. He whips his head up, too far away, too late, as the stranger disappears fully into the portal, Dick just a few inches away.

“Wait!” Jason cries, still attempting to rise off of his knees. Damn the rain. Damn the weight of his grief. Damn it all, get up. Get up. “Dick, stop! Stop!”

The rain is loud though and there’s a divide between the two of them, mixes of gray, pink, and red light. His brother half turns, watching as the younger stumbles towards him, and Jason can’t hear anything, can hardly process what’s even happening now, but Dick’s lips move in what Jason thinks is, Goodbye, and Jason screams, lunging as his brother fades into the light.

He falls, smashing into the cement once again as he fails to reach for his brother’s hand, and lands where the portal had just been. He lays there on his chest, heaving and attempting to breathe through his helmet, but it’s too hard, too suffocating, and Jason rips it off and flings it as far away from him as he can. His hands clench into fists and he fights back the urge to cry as he slams his fists into the roof. Bam-Bam-Bam.

Something cracks in his knuckles and Jason stops at the pain, shifting back and hanging his head between his knees. There’s a vicious burn in his eyes, his ugly, muddy green eyes, and Jason swipes at them furiously.

“We just got you back,” he whispers through gritted teeth. “We just got you back, Dick, and you, you just-”

A clap of thunder rattles the thin poles of the Coke advertisement as its lights finally flicker out. The night is dark without its glow and Jason is left in obscurity. 

“What have I done?"