#i seriously do not think bruce would ever EVER want his kid to become robin if he had a say in it like

[roobylavender]

another tangent to that but the funniest thing about the modern conflict and dynamic between bruce and talia is that if you wanted to pit them against each other in terms of parenting philosophies you could have done that just as easily going off of son of the demon alone. talia being an abusive mother is never something that should have been in the cards but her choice to prioritize bruce’s position as batman over the life they could have had together as parents of their child is something i think about a lot and generally talia is someone who was shown to criticize bruce when he let personal emotions and conflicts get in the way of honoring his duty. i could totally see her struggling to fulfill her role as a mother bc of how seriously she takes her ethical duty regardless of however much love she has for her child meanwhile bruce would take one look at an under-10 damian and be on the verge of dropping everything for him out of grief and severely emotionally clouded judgment bc that’s just who he is when it comes to his blorbos in dire straits 

[luxaofhesperides]

Childhood friends to lovers ; requested by @starlightcat04!

Duke’s grandmother lived in Illinois when he was a kid, years before he and his parents were captured by the Joker and the news of it sent her to a hospital that she didn’t leave until Death arrived for her. But before all that, before his life upended and tore itself to shreds in front of him, Duke used to visit her in the summers.

His parents didn’t want to leave Gotham, but they also didn’t want him to grow up there amid all the crime and rogue attacks. The solution was to drive down to his grandmother’s house, suitcase in the trunk, and stay with him there for a few days before they returned to make sure no one broke into their house. 

She lived in the outskirts of Amity Park, a town smaller than Gotham and much, much quieter. The change in scenery always blew his mind, and he spent most of his childhood summers running around the woods, accidentally scaring hikers. 

There were other kids in Amity, further in towards the suburbs, but he never got along with most of them, too strange, only here for a month or so, and carrying an awareness and sense of danger that all Gothamites had. 

He didn’t really have friends in Amity Park, except for one: Danny Fenton, local outcast due to his scientist parents'… everything. His only friend, a boy named Tucker, would always be gone in the summers as well, visiting family in Chicago and Pennsylvania. 

They gravitated towards each other, as lonely kids tend to do.

Danny helped make those summers fun, full of laughter and skinned knees and smuggled tech from the Fenton household to mess around with. They shared stories of their lives, comparing Amity Park to Gotham, arguing over superheroes and getting distracted each time by how cool heroes were. 

The last summer he ever went to Amity Park, Danny had gotten his first cell phone and eagerly gave Duke his number. Any time they weren’t together, they were texting until they fell asleep, phone still in hand.

The time they spent together was always limited, but Duke could swear that no one in the world knew him as well as Danny did.

He still misses him. 

They still text and call when they can, but it’s gotten hard over the past few years. Duke was caught up in foster care and searching for his parents and being part of the We Are Robin gang and then becoming the Signal. Danny, from what he’s shared with Duke, went through similar things of recovering from a lab accident and then having his town be overrun with ghosts, of all things, which had the government get involved and cause problems.

The few times they were able to find a quiet night where they could just talk and be Duke and Danny again were nights he always treasured, though they left an ache in his chest when it was over. 

It’s just been so long since they’ve seen each other in person. He doesn’t even know what Danny looks like anymore! And, sure, he could always ask for a picture, but it feels awkward. They know what they looked like before. And they’ve heard each other’s voices, know the basics of what’s going on in each other’s lives…

They still know each other, but Duke is all too aware of the distance that’s grown between them.

“Duke, seriously, what’s got you spacing out so much?” Steph asks, pulling him from his thoughts. 

He shrugs, smiling sheepishly. “Just thinking. Sorry about that. What were you saying?”

“I was saying,” she says, “That you should do a road trip. Or just like, travel around. Check out college campuses. Enjoy your last summer vacation of high school! Trust me, you’ll want the break before going into senior year.”

“Just because you’re two years older than me—”

“Excuse me for trying to impart my wisdom! See if I help you again when I’m older and wiser.”

“Sure, Steph,” he says, “Whatever you say.”

She squints at him. “What’s with that tone? I’m being helpful right now!”

“Mhm.”

“Geez. I should have let Dick talk to you. Anyways, I already told Bruce that you wanted to do this, so he’s agreed to fund it.”

Duke jerks upright in his seat, nearly falling out of it. “You did WHAT?!”

“You’re welcome,” Steph grins, unrepentant. 

“Steph, come on. This is unnecessary. Isn’t it better for me to help out more in the summer? Train more, work with the team on stuff, you know, important things?”

“Duke.” Steph’s voice suddenly turns serious and he can’t help but give her all his attention. “Listen to me. Your life is more important. If Gotham survived when Bruce was the only cape around, then it’ll survive while you prioritize your life. And that means touring colleges to figure out where you want to go.”

“I could just stay here and go to GCU.”

Steph just stares at him, unimpressed, and he has to admit, “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not gonna do that.”

“Just enjoy traveling around, okay? And if you want someone to go with you…” she nudges him with her shoulder, repeatedly, very clearly hinting at something.

“I’ll be sure to ask Cass,” Duke says, and Steph rolls her eyes, but doesn’t deny that Cass would be a great travel partner. 

Their conversation comes to a halt when an alarm on her phone goes off and she drops her head with a groan. She grabs her bag and takes off with a quick explanation that she has to get to class, one she hates but is determined to ace just to spite the professor, and in no time at all, Duke is alone again. 

Without Steph providing him a distraction, Duke has nothing to do but read through his texts with Danny. It hasn’t been that long since they last talked; four days ago is nothing compared to the months of silence that went between them a few years ago. They’ve gotten better since staying in contact since then, and make sure to text at least once a week. 

It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.

He considers asking Danny where he’s planning to go. Maybe they could go to the same place together, live in the same apartment, be able to finally stick together. Not that it’ll ever happen; the more likely outcome is that they’ll be accepted into different universities, chose places closer to their respective homes, and still be far apart.

An idea begins to form in his mind.

They’ve had summers together before. Maybe they could have one more.

First, he needs to talk to Bruce.

He’s working from home, thankfully, typing away at a laptop in his office when Duke knocks on the door and pokes his head in.

“Duke,” Bruce smiles, pushes his laptop away. “Come in.”

“Hey. Steph said she talked to you about me traveling this summer?”

“Yes. She was very insistent that you go visit any universities that pique your interest. I’ve already agreed to fund everything, and I can take care of plane tickets and hotels as well.” 

Duke nods, trying not to look too nervous. “Yeah, so about that. Could I travel with someone? Would that be cool? Or is this a thing for me only?”

Bruce blinks. “I promise cost is not an issue. Adding another person won’t be a problem. Who is it?”

“Ah, no one you know. He’s a childhood friend of mine who lives in Illinois, and I’d like to spend a summer with him again.”

“Who is it?”

Oh boy. Bruce is definitely going to find everything he can about Danny and his family and start interrogating Duke about him. But if that’s going to let him travel the country with Danny, then he’s more than willing to deal with it.

“Danny Fenton, from Amity Park. The town with the ghost problem.”

Bruce leans back in his chair. “I’ve heard of them. The League discussed investigating it when the news first got out, but Constantine warned us to stay away due to risk of possession. It seems that the local hero, Phantom, has it all in hand.” Bruce nods, already thinking deeply about his next steps. “Alright, I’ll need to do some research. And send me a list of the universities you’d like to visit so I can plan your itinerary.”

“Cool. Thanks, B.”

Duke leaves as quickly as he can after that, letting out a relieved breath  once he’s sure no one is around to hear it. 

Step one is done. 

Now for step two: communication.

duke: hey, are you free for a call anytime soon? danny: yeah! we can call now if u want :)

Well! That was way faster than he was expecting. 

He all but sprints through the halls to get to his room and locks the door behind himself. It won’t do much to stop anyone from actually coming in, but it is a sign that he wants privacy. Once he’s sure no one is going to be listening in and interrupting, Duke pulls up Danny’s contact and hits the call button.

It rings twice before Danny’s picking up, greeting him with a cheerful, “Hey Duke! What’s up?”

“Hey Danny,” he replies, unable to help the way his voice softens with affection. “So, this is totally out of the blue, but if you could spend this summer going around the country with me, would you?”

“I mean, yeah, obviously. You know I’d do anything to spend more time with you! Why?”

Duke grins. While he was sure about what Danny’s answer would be, that didn’t stop him from worrying about a rejection. “Well. Bruce has offered to fund the entire trip and bring someone along.”

“Wait, seriously? You want me to go with you?”

“Who else? Dude, you know I love spending time with you, and I’ve missed you like crazy.”

“Oh my God, you’re serious. Duke! Yes, I want to be your travel buddy! Are you kidding me? In what world would I say no?”

“Hey, man, you can’t blame me for making sure. Are your parents going to be fine with that?”

Danny goes quiet, and Duke feels his heart drop. “Danny? Is something wrong?”

“No,” Danny says, followed by a bitter laugh. “They won’t care. I’ll just tell them I’m going traveling with a friend and that’ll be enough. They’re too busy to care much about what I do, these days. They probably won’t even notice that I’m gone, now that Jazz isn’t here to remind them that I exist.”

“How is Jazz, by the way? We could visit her.”

“She’s doing fine. Really loving Harvard. And I’d love that Duke. You’re the best.”

The mood of the conversation eases and they fall into the usual rhythm of catching each other up, chatting about their lives and any other thought that crosses their minds. It’s easy for the hours to slip away with Danny, and before he knows it, there’s a knock on his door as Alfred calls him for dinner.

He hangs up with a quick goodbye to Danny, along with a promise to send him the itinerary once it’s made. 

Somehow, news of his summer plans get out by the end of the day. Which means Steph blabbed and feels no remorse about it. The next week of Duke’s life is overtaken by nearly every trying to help him plan and prepare for his trip, while lightly interrogating him about Danny. By the time he was heading off to the airport, agreeing to take one of Bruce’s smaller private planes which was piloted by a man who definitely wasn’t Jason going by the name 'Todd Jameson'. Of course not, that would be silly.

(Duke sighed very, very loudly when he saw Jason waving at him from outside the plane. He should have expected the guy to take advantage of Bruce needing a pilot and teasing him about Danny.)

He can’t bring himself to be too bother by it, though, when it means he’ll get to be with Danny again soon. Duke would pay any price to be with him again, so this is hardly anything.

They set off with a wave from Duke and Jason flipping the bird to the rest of the family. And then Jason is up in the cockpit, blasting his playlist of songs from musicals, and Duke is left to wait impatient for the next few hours until they reach Illinois. 

The hours pass far too slow but also much too fast. Duke feels like he barely has time to prepare himself before they’re landing smoothly and Danny texts him to let him know he’s at the airport.

Jason sees him off before heading out to take a call from Roy, telling him to find his own way to his hotel. Duke barely pays him enough mind to say goodbye, grabbing his suitcase and hurrying into the airport, searching for the terminal Danny’s at. 

He doesn’t find Danny first. Danny finds him and slams into him like a freight train. It’s only his training that keeps Duke from toppling over, dropping his suitcase to hold Danny. They cling to each other tightly, as if they might never see each other again. Danny’s got his legs wrapped around Duke’s waist like a koala, and Duke would be happy to carry him forever. 

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Danny murmurs into his ear. Duke shivers, holding him tighter, and smiles.

“Yeah. I know. Man, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”

“I think I can take a pretty good guess.”

Danny pulls away, dropping his feet back to the ground. 

Duke is finally able to see Danny for the first time in years, and he’s pretty sure he stops breathing for a solid minute. Danny grew up fine. He’s got the bluest eyes he’s ever seen, and soft black hair that’s a little windswept and messy, and his grin is as bright and beautiful as always. For a moment, Duke wants nothing more than to kiss him.

Then Danny steps back and the thought fades. 

“Ready to go? We’re going to UChicago first, yeah?”

“That’s the plan,” Duke says, falling into step with Danny as they make their way out of the airport. “Then a day just to hang out in Chicago before we head to Harvard.”

“Cool,” Danny grins. “Hotel first, though, right?”

“Yeah, man, catch up time is essential.”

Danny glances over at him, something unreadable in his eyes, but he smiles when he sees that Duke is already looking at him. “Let’s get going, then.”

Danny drives them in a car he apparently made himself, which explains why it’s a model Duke’s never seen before. It drives like a dream and Duke is very tempted to get Danny to make one for the Signal, maybe even wrangle up a contract to have him work with Batman Inc. 

They spend the two hour drive chatting and laughing as if no time has passed at all since they last saw each other in person. All the years seem to fade away and they’re just Duke and Danny again, spending another summer together. 

Check in goes smoothly, and the room Bruce has booked them is large, with two beds, a seating area, and a dining area. A glass door leads to a small balcony with two chairs and a fantastic view of the lake behind the hotel. They set both their suitcases on the luggage rack, and Duke only has time to turn to Danny to ask which bed he wants before he finds himself pressed up against the wall, Danny’s hands on his cheeks.

“Tell me if you don’t want this,” he whispers against Duke’s lips.

Duke doesn’t bother replying. He just leans in, closes the minuscule distance between them, and kisses Danny. It’s soft and sweet and everything he’s ever wanted.

Then Danny makes a small noise in the back of his throat and deepens the kiss. It goes from soft to heated and desperate and all consuming instantly. Duke slides his hands around Danny’s waist, pulling him impossibly closer, and thinks I never want to leave you again.

He’s completely lost track of time when Danny pulls back with gasp. They both take a few seconds to catch their breath, and Duke realizes his cheeks feel cold.

“Sorry,” Danny whispers, pulling his hands away. Duke catches them before they can go too far and holds them together.

“Sorry for what?”

“The frost,” he says, wiggling his fingers lightly. Duke glances down and sees that his fingertips are lightly coated in frost, spilling down his fingers.

“You have powers?”

“Came with the lab accident.”

“Man,” Duke says, “We have got to catch up properly. There’s a ton I haven’t told you.”

Danny laughs lightly, breathlessly. “Oh, for sure. But later. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for years.”

“Danny, baby, you can kiss me all night if you want.”

“I intend to,” he says with a bright grin.

What else could Duke do but lean in and kiss him again?

Nothing else exists in that moment except them. Duke is so, so glad he’s got the rest of summer to spend with Danny. He’s going to take him on dates in every city they visit. 

They’ve gone years without seeing each other. Duke refuses to let it happen again. Whatever future awaits them, he’ll do all he can to keep Danny in it. 

But for now, he’s got his cute childhood friend to kiss and all the privacy a hotel room can offer. He fully intends to make the most of it.

. . .

[send me a ghostlights prompt!]

[ggfj84]

The whole world watched as the JLA disappeared from Earth. Abducted, incinerated, teleported to a Bat Burger at the edge of the solar system, who knew?

Jason turned the channel and got ready for his night job. It wasn’t like he could do anything, and Dick would play dress-up to deal with the Rogue Gallery until Bruce came back again. The best Jason could hope for was that Dick didn’t want to tag along on his exploits in Crime Alley.

What he didn’t expect was a text message just before two.

Can you come to the cave? Need your help with something.

Great. If Dick wanted him to now check in every night, Jason would not be responsible for his actions.

And Jason wasn’t going to adhere to Dick’s whim like some obedient pup.

Working. I’ll drop by later.

Three hours, two coffees, and one burger later, Jason zoomed into the Batcave.

“All right, Dickface, I’m here,” he called as he lifted his helmet. “What was so important that I needed to – ”

“Sorry to pull you away,” Dick said rushed, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He was surprisingly dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket. A stuffed duffle hung off his shoulder. “I just got off with Tim. He’ll take care of Wayne Enterprises, so you won’t need to worry about that. If he needs back up, he’ll let you know.”

Why would he give shit about Bruce’s day job? Jason told Dick just that, but his older brother just let out a little chuckle and motioned for Jason to follow him into the main areas of the cave.

“I called Stephanie, too,” Dick continued to ramble. “She excited to fly with you, and yes, I made that executive decision. I think she’ll be a better partner for you than Damian, and Tim said he’ll look out for the kid. They’ve been getting along better for a while, so I think it’ll be good for them to work together.”

Jason followed Dick almost on autopilot, listening intently but suddenly feeling so detached from reality.

“What are you talking about?” He refused to acknowledge his own high-pitched tone or shortness of breath. Dick was taking him to the closet - Batman’s closet. “Stephanie is with the Batgirls, and Damian – that kid needs to be Robin. It’s good for him.” Like it had been good for Jason, once, a lifetime ago. “What are you – “

Dick stopped on the very last step before the platform, putting him at Jason’s eye level, and clasped Jason firmly on the shoulders.

“You are going to be great, Jay.” His voice was pitched low and heavy with the weight of truth. “You have prepared for this. You know what needs to be done and you know how to do it.”

Dick could not be saying what Jason thought he was saying. There was absolutely no way. “You can’t be seriously, Dick. Me? After the last time –“

“You learned. You grew. You finally came home,” Dick said with an easy shrug, but nothing about this was easy. “That was the hard part.”

Jason begged to differ. “Just because I don’t shoot people as frequently as I used to doesn’t mean…” Jason gulped, his trembled hands becoming fists, and he was grateful Dick waited for him to compose himself. “I can’t do this. You can’t be asking me to do this.”

He never wanted to do this, not like this, not when Bruce could be –

“I know,” Dick said, pulling Jason up onto the last level and into a tight, reaffirming embrace. He repeated, lower, “I know.”

They stayed like that for longer than Jason would ever admit, and when he pulled away, he ignored Dick’s glassy and red-rimmed eyes. Dick did the same for him.

Instead, Dick nodded toward the wardrobe. “Why don’t you try it on? Just for size, of course.”

Jason thought he should be offended that Dick was treating him like some child who needed to be coaxed, but Jason was about to throw up. So he guessed he’d let it slide this time.

Inside the wardrobe, a suit awaited him – dark and menacing with a full facial mask similar to the one he wore with his current uniform. Jason went through the motions, undressing and pulling on the dark suit.

As it became a second skin, he called, “Why aren’t you doing this?”

“John Stewart, Zatanna, Lois, and Wally have an idea of where the Justice League might be. They asked me to tagalong.”

“You mean lead them.”

In the silence that greeted him, Jason could imagine Dick’s shrug.

When he emerged from the wardrobe in the cape, cowl still off, Dick smiled. “Looking good, Little Wing.”

He’s supposed to be the freaking Batman and Dick was making him feel twelve again.

Jason snorted and motioned to his uniform. “Bruce is going to kill you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He pulled out his phone and cringed. “Well, I’m late, so one last quick pep talk.”

Jason rolled his eyes, only for Dick to flick his head. “There are times where you are going to second guess yourself. Don’t. You’re overqualified. Trust your gut, and if you don’t, then trust Stephanie’s. Trust Barbara’s and Cass’s and Tim’s. Lean on them. Despite what Bruce says, he isn’t a loner. He doesn’t do this himself, and neither should you.” He pressed his lips to Jason’s forehead, warm and reassuring and soothing. When he pulled away, a wicked smile was on his lips. “And hey, if you manage to keep all the kids alive, then you’re better than Bruce.”

Dick was walking away by the time Jason recovered. “T-That wasn’t funny!”

Dick waved without turning. “It wasn’t a joke.”

Jason caught up to him just before the Boom Tube. “Dick!”

Dick turned.

Jason nodded, a soft smile forming on his lips. “Thanks.”

For trusting him. For believing in him. For welcoming him home.

Dick’s smile said, “You’re welcome,” but his voice said, “I’d say, ‘Try to keep the place in one piece,’ but it’s not my place. So I don’t care.”

Jason snorted. “I think I like this side of you, Grayson.”

Dick hummed. “I could say the same.” He headed into the Boom Tube. “Kick ass, Jason.”

And then he was gone.

Jason glanced down at the symbol on his chest before glancing up at empty cave. The light from the Batcomputer cast the levels in a soft, blue glow. A bat shrieked. Stephanie’s motorcycle roared in a distance, signaling the arrival of his Robin.

A tiny, hesitant smile teased the edge of his lips.

Time to follow Grayson’s advice for once and kick some ass.

The End

A/N: Just wanted to write some Bat!Jason because of this.

[lazlolullaby]

Terry McGinnis gets yeeted to the past and becomes besties with Jason

he also has Ace and the shelter doesn't allow "scary dogs" inside.

So. He's a homeless teenager and his big dog. Who both have Batman level training. Possibly his suit, but it's funnier if he doesn't.

because I've seen Damien VS Terry a few times but I haven't seen our juvie children Jason and Terry interact much in fandom.

Mostly follows the DCAU timeline but you know. General fluid canon playground bashing action figures together because I love Terry and by dint of him being in the future he's a little estranged from the Bat Fam and that makes me sad.

first thing: Terry knows he can't wipe himself out of existence because of the way he traveled. His future is fine, he just has to repair his time machine.

But you know. Homeless, no resources. Bruce taught him to be suspicious of the government, and this is before the League, so. Not many people he can turn to.

It was almost an accident, but he was walking Ace and caught the Joker mid-rant against Batman and Robin. Terry heckles them as a distraction. He insults the Clown good. He even throws in a barb against Batman just to be funny.

Tim tries to guide him away, but the Big Brother instinct kicks in and he ends up fighting the Joker anyway.

When Batman tried to catch up to him, Terry flinched and ran. Sure, Bruce would help, but he wanted to do this by himself.

Red Hood hears about this and decides to investigate. "Hey, buddy. word is you ain't scared of clowns. I hear you could use some protection."

Terry weighs his options. He's read about Jason Todd. Red Hood. The whole mess. "It's not like I'm not scared, it's just - that Robin kid. I had a little brother his size and I'd be pissed if a low rate clown ever hurt him." And "you know death doesn't stop some people. Why don't we mock him? Make sure no one takes him seriously ever again?"

"I'm listening."

Terry becomes an Enforcer in Crime Alley. He gets close to Jason, mostly because of shared backgrounds and complaining about "their old bosses", not that Jason knows he's also talking about Bruce.

Terry had a big yelling match with his father Warren the last time he saw him before he died. He starts to soften Jason up to the idea of talking with his father since they both have dangerous night jobs.

There are raids for getting Terry's time machine up and running again. There are also surgical attacks on the Joker's usual haunts and goons. Terry and Ace get caught and taken back to Wayne Manor.

Terry specifically asks to watch how Alfred makes his cookies and food. Bruce thinks he's being paranoid but he just wants to know how to make food the way Older Bruce likes it.

Bruce thinks he's Jason and does a DNA test. It shows that he's not Jason, but he is Bruce Wayne's son. Terry didn't know this, and while he was keeping it together so far, he freaks out.

Ace was trained as a medical dog and can tell when someone has heart problems. He makes Terry lay on the floor. "Yeah this is your heart problem, here's a sneak peek of your future."

Idk how to end this but it's like, Jason comes in the front wanting to see his friend. And also talk with Bruce.

[youreobsessedwithtoomanyfandoms]

I Was Thinking You Could Be Trusted

Words: 671

Warnings: betrayal kinda?, probably poor writing and OOC characters but whatever

DC Masterlist Main Masterlist 1989 (TV) Event Masterlist Join My Taglist

Y/N was Batgirl as Jason was Robin, Y/N is now their own vigilante "Red Bird" as Jason is Red Hood

I was thinking about how to write this when I remembered that originally, what happened with Jason had his mom involved, I don't exactly remember it so I kinda used that basis of it and went from there

This is the "Bad Blood" part of my 1989 event!

Anywho, enjoy

Love Z <3

Y/N stood on the building across from him, staring in his direction. She couldn't believe it. Dick had to be wrong. There was no way that he could be Jason. No way that this...vengeful, new crime boss, could ever be the sweet kid she had been friends with 5 years ago.

Of course, she still could hear what he had told her all of those years ago. Those words that still stung from when he told her that he hated her because she was preventing him from finding him mom.

All that she had done was warn him that maybe his mother wasn't all that she appeared to be.

And she had been right.

She jumped when she heard the sound of boots hitting the ground by her. Her hand instantly fell to her taser gun, something that had been her signature when she was Batgirl and had stayed as she rebranded herself to Red Bird.

"Seems like you're still angry at me."

She turned, air catching in her throat before whispering out. "Jason."

He looked different now. His pure black hair now had a white streak in it and his blue eyes had turned green. The goofy smile on his face had turned to a small smirk.

He looked so much like the friend she had just as he looked like a completely different person.

"Batgirl, or should I say Red Bird?"

"H-how?" She stuttered, unsure of how this was even happening.

"How what? How am I alive? Or how about, how could you, just like Bruce and Dick and Barbara, allow for the Joker to live after what he did?! To Barbara?!"

As the words left his mouth, something snapped inside of her. "Are you seriously going to throw this all back to be my fault?!" She looked at him angrily, "I begged you not to go! Not to follow your mother because I didn't trust her! You didn't believe me, even after I showed you that you couldn't trust her! If it's anyone's fault that the Joker killed you, it's yours!"

She watched as his face faltered as the words fell from her mouth before hardening into an angry expression. "I thought that you would understand! You always did! You always had my back, why not now?!"

"Because you never trusted me, Jason?!" She yelled back, tears brimming her eyes, "You never trusted me when you needed to and it got you killed!"

"I thought that you would have forgiven me for that. After all, I forgave you for leaving me to rot after you ran after your stupid little boyfriend who ended up betraying you."

She stared at him with betrayal in her eyes. One of the first things they had done together. One of her biggest regrets, being unable to see who was really her enemy versus who was a friend.

"I was younger. Impressionable. I thought I could trust him." She muttered out, "But that still never gave you the right to never trust me afterwards."

He shrugged, "You're right, but at least I had a reason. Unlike you."

"Jason...Dick told me what you did, I...I've heard the rumors about what you--Red Hood--has done! You've killed--!"

"And so have you!"

"Not on purpose!" She exclaimed, "And I regretted it! Why else do you think that I'm trying to become a doctor! I want to right my wrongs, Jason! All that you want to do is spread your anger and frustration for Bruce out onto everyone else!"

"I thought you were my friend!"

"And I thought you were mine!" She put her domino masked that she had discarded back on. "But I don't think I can be friends with someone who obviously doesn't know what he wants and is so misguided on who he is anymore."

She turned and ran off of the building, falling for a moment before grappling away to the next one. She couldn't believe that for a moment she thought that the old Jason was still in there.

[chaos-bringer-13]

Wha- I was tagged? Wow. Um. Okay. So. I'm not supposed to write yet, but I can dump a bunch of thoughts, so there's that. (Seriously though, being tagged in the same line with bloggerspam is so confusing and surprising and cool? I'm not worthy lol)

Steph should be so mad about getting caught in the wish. She should be absolutely indignant about being deaged because she's not one of Damian's siblings, thank you very much, she was doing an amazing job at not becoming one. And Babs wasn't deaged! Do you think that Steph is one of your siblings but Babs isn't, Dami?

Bats and birds mostly disappearing as soon as the Waynes get deaged. I mean, Batman and Robin are probably still trying to appear as to not cause any suspicions, but Jason has nightmares, and Dick and Tim keep trying to sneak out, and Steph decided to make it her life's mission to annoy Damian and Bruce with petty pranks (purple glitter is everywhere), and Cass- WHERE IS CASS AGAIN?!

(Bruce and Dami think that Duke is reasonable at least but they actually just don't notice what he's doing because they're so distracted with everyone else. Not sure what chaos Duke causes, but it's either something absolutely insane in the city, or he does favours for his siblings who are supervised at all times. Or both. Probably both.)

Anyway, Batfam suddenly stop appearing as much, and people jump to conspiracy theories. Theory number one (normal): they're trying to find whoever caused the deaging. Theory number two (by shippers): Batman and Bruce are dating so all batfam is helping to rein in the Wayne kids (everyone knows that Waynes are insane, of course you need the entire batfamily for this task). The theory gets more followers after someone posts a shaky video of Batman catching Tim on a rooftop and returning Tim to standing on the ground Bruce (Clark is in Batman's costume for a night). Theory number three (the butts match): Batfam and the Waynes are the same people. Absurd. Nonsense.

As the deaged siblings fully retain their memories until they first sleep, it's gonna cause so much chaos. Dami makes a wish, sees Desiree, and since nothing about him changed, he realizes that something happened to his siblings. Give him a minute or two of panic as he realizes that they could be dead, and it's his fault, oh no, why did he say that out loud, that was stupid, he was just getting used to what having siblings feels like, and now he probably lost them all, and he's never talking without considering his words again- and then Dick finally picks up the phone. (sorry, I changed it from Tim because I wanted that minute or two as Dami is waiting for someone to pick up the phone, and I felt like he would call Dick immediately). Let's traumatize Dami a little. Just a tiny bit.

And then they finally check that everyone is okay and have their memories, and they calm down and relax a bit. Deaged siblings are a bit more emotional in a way kids are, and their bodies are children's bodies and it affects the way they react to some things, but they're still themselves and remember their lives (there is some yelling after they realize what happened but that's okay, at least they're alive). And they get tired soon, so maybe Jason storms off and falls asleep first (Bruce feels his heart ache at the sight of Jay being a child again, sleeping safely as if his death never happened). Maybe Dick, Duke and Steph follow after a while, and then they find Cass asleep in a terribly uncomfortable looking position in the rafters

(have you seen photos of children sleeping in the most uncomfortable positions ever? That would be her. Dick is the same, actually, he has no bones, but he'll at least be in his bed, and Cass just went "wanna sleep in the rafters" and didn't find a reason not to)

Tim fights against going to bed with a rage of a ten year old, and he's vindicated when Jason walks back, something feeling different (less angry, less stiff, more childlike) about him, and tells Bruce that he's scared because he had this awful nightmare about some clown, and he doesn't really remember it but it was really scary, so can he just sit with Bruce for a bit? And he rambles about Bruce looking kinda old, is he not sleeping enough? And as Jason looks at Damian, there's confusion in his eyes, and he doesn't exactly not recognize Dami, he remembers his name and that it's his brother, but he can't recall the details.

They wait for someone else to wake up, and yep, the kids are confused and have very fuzzy memories. So Tim decides to stay awake for as long as possible, and he writes down some stuff for himself in case he loses all his memory, and after that he dives into research, tracking down any artifacts that were brought into Gotham and could contain a genie. He manages to stay awake for a bit over 24 hours before falling asleep on the table, face-planting into the batkeyboard. After he wakes up, he's back to his batstalking and birdwatching.

(It's almost impossible to get the kids to bed after that. They're afraid of losing more memories, and who can blame them? Definitely not me.)

Danny knows that Desiree's changes are irreversible after a certain point, so he's trying to track down everyone affected, and he has no idea how. At least he can get to the Waynes fast- why do they have protection against ghosts now? Why is there a magician who is trying to help them and subsequently doesn't let any ghosts even get close? (Tell me that Batman, mr. Contingencies for everyone, didn't find a way to protect his kids from a new threat immediately)

Imagine the chaos as Danny is trying to sneak into the manor to help without getting on Batman's radar, and flying head first into some anti-ghost wards. Imagine him having to somehow catch Bruce and explain to him that he can help, just please let him, he doesn't have that much time, come on! And Bruce is in full paranoid Bat mode, because those are his tiny little baby children, he can't just let anyone close to them!

Damian is panicking throughout the whole ordeal even if he's not showing it. Maybe he acts more formal in his attempts to hide his panic, and then he has trouble with going back to normal because just look at what his informal speaking led to! (bby is traumatized)

Also I have no idea how Sam and Tucker would manage to cover for Danny while he disappears for a week or so. What do you even tell teachers and parents at this situation? They'd have problems. Poor guys.

Age reversal

Desiree is tired of losing to Phantom and decided to just go to another city and grant wishes there. She finds a natural portal in the realms and exits it into Gotham. We’ll say she grants a few petty wishes like being taller being prettier ect.

Then she runs across a 12 year old Damian saying he wished he was the eldest brother. She says “As you wish!” And there is the usual sparkle filled puff of purple smoke, but Damian remains the same. It isn’t until he gets a com from Tim a minute later he realizes his mistake.

All the bat kids were deaged to reverse order. Damian 12, Duke 11, Tim 10, Steph 9, Jason 8, Cass 7, and Dick 6.

Fortunately this happens while everyone is in there civil IDs and not actively on patrol. Bruce calls Zatana as this seems like it was a magic curse or something. While Damian is sent on a fetch quest to to round up his siblings and bring them back to the manor. Zatana and later Constantine say that this was caused be an Infinite Realms being and they can’t undo it unless they find the being who cast the spell.

Mean while Danny is wondering why Desiree hasn’t shown up in a while. Shrugs, maybe he is finally catching a break.

[pyrokinesis]

obssessed with what if idea of bruce and talia staying married and raising damian together—imagine the chaos, imagine all the love spread, imagine the comedy.

like if we're doing math and we're setting this in post-crisis, when damian was born, bruce was still in his early 20s and by now he already had 14 year old dick grayson,

so imagine dick, by now adopted for 2 years and robin of circa a year and half, finding out bruce and talia gotten married, and then few months later they're expecting a baby, like he's been the only child for all 14 years of his life, suddenly he has to be a big brother, and i think it'd create tensions at first, with the baby being biological child and his dislike of talia,

but then after a while, dick comes to bruce and talia's bedroom bringing them both breakfast in bed while talia is reading a book and bruce is dead to the world because idiot batman, and talia is a bit confused but dick goes on and on about how while she isn't his favourite person, her health and the health of the baby come first so he'd decided to be the best teenage older brother ever, and so he bonds with both talia and bruce over getting manor ready for the baby, and whenever he's with the titans he gives them updates about his baby sibling and rants how they'll have to visit ra's after the baby is born and he can't stand the man's ego

spring turns into summer and one night in august talia goes into labour, and bruce, the overachiever in worrying, calls half a league to witness his baby being born and when talia's obgyn announces it's a healthy baby boy, both dick and bruce jump into clark's arms, and alfred and ra's are awkwardly congratulating to each other

damian is a happy and a spoiled baby, with both being very loved and very rich, but because his whole family tries their best, he slowly grows up in a fine boy, a chaotic toddler who climbs his father like a tree and yells at his papa, a whiny toddler who cries when his mama says they can't visit the kent farm and their cows this weekend, and a happy toddler who takes naps with his teenage brother

now imagine the chaos when one autumn night bruce leaves to honor his parents he finds himself in the crime alley and instead of spending the night remembering his parents' murder, all memories he has of that night is of the small angry orphan, and when he comes home alfred and talia are waiting for him and he doesn't even wait before telling them about this boy he met and talia is curious about the child that made bruce forget about his own parents

as soon as ma gunn was sent to prison, bruce's begging talia to adopt the kid, talia can't you see he made me laugh on my parents' death anniversary, he called me a boob while trying to steal the tires off batmobile, we need this kid, and talia, trying to be rational, asks if he can take care of another angry and traumatized orphan while taking care of a 3 year old and fighting crime in his free time and bruce of course promises, and the moment talia and jason meet you can feel the love between them and when damian approvingly climbs jason like a tree it's settled their boy is theirs

and then dick, a literal 17 year old who left the role of robin, needs to meet this kid and he's still at odds at bruce because they've been fighting about general things, bruce not wanting dick to fight crime after he almost died and dick wanting to be taken seriously as nightwing now, and bruce wanting dick to have a uni degree, and it's what it is

dick isn't sure of jason at first, mostly cause by now jason has started his training as a robin, but damian likes him, and if damian, and even talia like the kid, dick would live by his name and that'd be the worst—cue to the waynes becoming even bigger family

because of talia and bruce having mostly alright marriage, jason wouldn't probably rush into ethiopia and he'd talk to talia who'd come with him and when they'd meet sheila she'd try to be nice but then she'd smell a trap and together she and jason would definitely beat up joker and put sheila behind the bars—jason's pretty not okay because another mother figure in his life traumatised him, and by now all members of the family except bruce regularly go to therapy

family is a bit shaken but when batman finds their neighbors the drakes dead and almost dead it's an instict for bruce and talia to offer themselves as a foster family to the little boy drake—cue comedy once again because everyone is trying very hard not to spill abiut their nightlife, even damian who is four years old, but then it all hilariously falls apart when dick catches tim trying to get into batcave and then the old clock doors open and jason comes out the batcave and it's just crickets

[dairy-farmer]

Okay, but like an AU where Jason never died, so Tim never becomes Robin and meets Bruce as a civilian. Tim, whos parents are alive, but doesn't get along with so he applys to be Bruce Wayne's personal secretary, maybe as an intern. Bruce who generally doesn't seriously date many date girls, much less ones younger then his oldest son age suddenly clicking with his extremely young gender fluid secretary who sometimes wears teasing little skirts with oversized sweaters and sometimes flattering bottom downs with form-fitting slacks and everything in-between.

Bruce who was always wears a mask, is always the perfect public example of whatever he's being (the perfect playboy socialite, the perfect father, the perfect CEO, the perfect vigilante, but never showing all the cards in his deck to Anyone) suddenly meeting this adorable little civilian kid, and just... falling heads over heels in love. Letting down his barriers in a way he doesn't, a way he never has before. Struggling with his desire to share everything with Tim with whom he connects with so completely. Tim with his soft figure and beautiful, brilliant brain who meets him where he is in a way he didn't think was possible. Beautiful, perfect Tim.

Can you imagine the reaction when Bruce finally gives in and decided 'fuck it, Tim's the one' and marrying him or at the very least bringing him home and letting him see every part of him? The press tearing him part in the news for getting together with this 20 year secretary intern, his family hurt and assuming he's being mind controlled or at the very least manipulated by Tim, the shock and disbelief of his co-worker, both caped and otherwise. His kids, who are older then Tim who feel betrayed.

And Bruce who's finally with someone who can be that everything to him. Who owns him wholly just as he owns Tim. Who accepts him for the overly controlling kinky bastard he is. Tim, who will play any role in Bruce's life, be it housewife, lover, partner, and/or best friend and anything in-between loving how utterly codependent they quickly become. Maybe even getting a pregnant right off the bat and loving it, because he and Bruce are soulmates, and Tim just wants to be Bruce's everything (not that he doesn't love being knocked up in its own right, but for Bruce he would have as many kids as his petite little body could pop out). Who adore how Bruce's big, large hands completely swallow his plush little tits, who's monster cock wrecks his little pink pussy every night, who brands his ownership of Tim onto this skin with bruises from being held too tight, who speaks his ownership into Tim's ears and heart with candied words of adoration and possession, whispering how good, who perfect Tim is for him. How he'll never let him escape, how no one and nothing could ever take him from Bruce. How he'll stay and love him the way he deserves, and Tim melts for it. Falls in love a little bit more even as the world looks on them in horror and derision and tries to save Tim from the very thing that is his salvation.

Because Tim? Tim is just as broken and in need of Bruce as Bruce is. They do complete each other, afterall. ♡♡♡

(Sorry I just dumped this in your inbox. I typed this on my phone with I know it's riddled with typos but like I also had to share this with someone and I figured you were the one. Also, that AU you've been posting about, where Tim is obsessed with being pregnant very much inspired this, as I'm sure you can tell. Anyways, I live your writing and I hope you have a great day! Cheers ~♡♡♡)

ANON THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!!

it's so perfect, the scenario, their meeting, them just clicking so well.

with tim it's not instant. bruce doesn't magically meet him and think 'this is him, he's the one' it's something that seeps into him steadily the more he meets tim.

they're alike. very alike.

it's almost laughable to say because tim couldn't be more different from him. where bruce is big, tim is small. where bruce is rough, tim is smooth. where bruce is cruel, tim is sweet. but that's where the extent of their differences end. but there's something there... something in the static of the air or the angle of the light that strikes something in him. because when bruce looks at him he feels like he's looking into a mirror.

there's something cracked in tim, bruce can see it clear as day.

tim had a good upbringing, bruce knows that. he knows it from the file he gathered on him after the recruitment office sent him an email about his new secretary starting on Monday, here's his name, a copy of his I.D badge, make sure to forward any relevant work to his new email which is included below.

boarding school all throughout his childhood. world touring parents who got a divorce when tim was 14. a smooth seperation, not drawn out at all. they signed the papers and were now mr. jack marvin drake and miss. janet lynn wolfman. janet owned a penthouse in New York and was the owner of a historical artifacts gallery that hosted lavish events. tim visited her for every weekend and holiday in the custody agreement.

jack drake still resided in the city and had a rather nice mansion in the heart of gotham. he also owned several properties including the house next door to bruce's which was rented by a nice family who had a son that used a wheelchair. he'd insisted on tim continuing his education at a private school in gotham (which offered a discount to in-state residents). tim had graduated from his school a year early with honors and he'd been a member of the school's tennis team, the computer club, the AV club, and the gardening club.

a few weeks before he'd been hired, tim had moved out of the house he shared with his father and moved into a small studio by the bowery. phone records revealed that both his mother and father had been sending him calls that went unanswered and texts that alternated between threatening to revoke funds from his bank account and begging him to think about his future. bruce got his answer to that situation in the form of a letter from tim's guidence counselor expressing concern about tim's lack of motivation and interest in pursuing higher education.

jack drake had a master's in finance along with his wife who also had a PhD in anthropology. bruce could recall the few times alfred put his foot down and him telling bruce that he was absolutely not leaving the country without completing a college education was one of them.

he'd begged and threatened just like tim's parents had and part of bruce had thought of...just going anyway. but as a teenager, he'd never had the balls to do it.

tim, it seemed, did.

the extent to which bruce had felt for him at the time had been vague interest.

then he'd met him.

a soft blue cardigan with brown corduroy slacks that had a cotton button-up tucked in. shiny black shows and the sweetest blue eyes staring up at him. he looked...soft. he looked like a bunny and bruce felt like a coyote stumbling across him. so easy to tear up, to manipulate. he felt like he could lean over and bite tim, picking him up by the scruff.

bruce couldn't explain it but he felt like a creep with how much he wanted to just stare at tim.

tim is a good assitant. he learns quickly and is always on hand. all of bruce's assistants had been good, they could all do that too.

but tim outperforms them in one aspect.

he could anticipate bruce's needs.

he kept tissues in his pocket when bruce got a runny nose, extra pens of every color in hand in case bruce's ran out. candy in a jar when bruce got the occasional craving for something sweet. mints in a little metal tin in case bruce forgot to brush his teeth and had to speak at a meeting. a sewing kit for when bruce popped a button.

bruce's stress of the day at the office slowly...floated away.

he didn't worry about misreading a document because tim double-checked it for him. he never missed a deadline because tim made sure everything was allotted a specific time and completed three days in advance. when he was absent from work with an injury or a case that required continuous surveillance, tim provided a cover for him.

but that last one was where something tugged inside him. the days where he wasn't in the office, when he didn't see tim. they seemed so much...harder.

he'd stretch his hand out for something and there'd be no one there filling his need. he'd turn his head with a request on the edge of his tongue only to be met with empty space.

tim he'd...he'd become necessary for bruce's function. for his work.

civilian work at least.

as batman he was still carrying a heavy load made heavier by the fact that jason was still in college and could only offer so much of his time.

with jason being away, dick only occasionally visiting, damian preferring the titans and dick over him it got....bruce was....lonely.

leaguers all had things going on, bruce's children were all perfectly fine without his hovering and tim...

bruce started spending more time at work. he started striking up conversations, asking tim about his interests, listening to his opinions and bruce found himself smiling more, laughing.

tim had such quick wit and a dry sense of humor. he could see as well as bruce could how full of shit so many of W.E's upper management was. when bruce made some vague joke making a reference to an old book that was out of print, tim understood it. he understood it and laughed.

tim went with him on business trips and, bruce knew he was being inappropriate- he was crossing a boundary of employer-employee behavior. but when it came to it...they shared a hotel room.

they'd had separate beds but bruce he'd just...he'd wanted to keep the conversation they were having on roman influences in modern media culture going. they'd been so happy chatting on the plane and at the airport and then in the car. when they'd arrived to the hotel and the concierge had asked if he was checking one or two in he'd....

tim had gone off to finding a vending machine for water because bruce had coughed in the car and tim picked up on his thirst.

so bruce had lied.

just a small one, not even the worse lie he'd ever told in his life.

he'd said one and told tim that the company had screwed up somehow and they were sharing. tim hadn't hesitated to believe him and that night it was- it was one of the best night's of bruce's life.

he and tim had stayed up late like two kids at a sleepover. they'd ordered exorbitant amounts of room service and watched the movie. tim had explained every joke and punchline bruce hadn't. bruce had tightened his grip on tim to reassure him during each jumpscare and they'd fallen asleep in a bad position that left them with sore necks in the morning. they'd barely made it to the meeting in time and rather than being stressed or pissed like he normally would, bruce chuckled and smiled at the sight of tim darting around the room, gathering both his bruce's notes and cursing every deity that existed (some of which bruce had met) for his alarm not going off.

they exchange numbers. personal numbers and bruce sends tim pictures and messages that have nothing to do with the job. telling him about a good restaurant that just opened up and would tim like to join him in trying it out.

bruce doesn't recall when the line was crossed. doesn't remember when he sent the first 'i miss you' text and tim replied with hearts and and 'i miss you too'.

there should've been an alarm that went off in bruce's head the same way it did when he got...too close to someone, too invested. there should've been another alarm going off about professionalism. about him making tim uncomfortable by putting moves on him. on the unfair power dynamics between them because what if tim was just 'reciprocating' because he didn't want to lose his job. on the danger inherently present there for himself. how tim could decide to stop it, how he could go to HR or the media and talk about how bruce wayne won't stop bothering him, coming onto him, making him uncomfortable.

but that thought hadn't even crossed bruce's mind. the idea that tim wasn't as interested as he was. the idea that they're doing something bad.

there's no way to spin their interactions as anything other than inappropriate. maybe that's why bruce hides it. why he uses a separate phone to talk to tim, why he doesn't tell alfred or any of his children about tim even though his chest begs to say things like 'today tim said, today tim did, today tim told me'.

he wants to talk about tim all the time with someone. wants to tell them about how wonderful he is, how amazing he is, how he just gets bruce. but something possessive in bruce always stops him.

because he doesn't want to share tim's existence with the world and because he doesn't want them to go digging and then frown at him with the judgement he knows would be there.

because tim is young.

very young. he's about three years younger than jason and eight years younger than dick. he's more than half of bruce's age.

bruce is so much older, has so much more life experience. he's tim's boss.

so bruce keeps quiet, keeps it a secret even though he's desperate for tim to stay by his side at all times. the hours in a 9 to 5 aren't enough. he want's to bring tim home with him. he wants to pack him in his briefcase like he does his paperwork and carry him home, he wants to lay tim down on his fluffed up pillows and stare at his sweet face as he falls asleep like he did that night in the hotel.

he wants to wake up and see tim's drowsy eyes as they blink open and squint at the light flooding the room.

he wants. he wants. he wants.

bruce moves into the penthouse. he tells the family it's because of a case he wants to more closely monitor.

bruce invites tim up one night, he makes him dinner using a recipe he'd closely studied and analyzed so there was no way he could fuck it up.

they share a bottle of wine and a piece of cake tim had bought from a bakery. bruce's eyes linger on the frosting coating tim's lips for too long, his hands clench around his fork when a pink tongue darts out to lick it up.

tim was pretty. very pretty.

he wore soft, nice clothes that fit his body so nicely. a-line skirts that fanned his creamy thighs and were likely much shorter than was approved by the dress code. tight slacks that showed off his every curve and tight little ass. bruce knew he didn't wear a bra to cup his soft little tits. he knew because he never saw a peek of its outline when tim wore white white shirts or tight tops that revealed the soft slope of his breasts.

but bruce got confirmation that night when he slid his hands under tim's shirt and felt the plushness of them. he rolled pink nippled between his fingers until they hardened and sucked on the buttery softness of them until tim was gasping.

bruce hadn't had a condom on hand. he hadn't planned it, he really hadn't. he'd just wanted to eat dinner with tim.

tim hadn't minded at all, begging bruce to fuck him harder, to fuck him faster. and tim was so small and bruce should've worried about hurting him, about preparing him well enough to take him but bruce hadn't he'd just fucked. his cock had ripped into tim until tim was arching and twitching around him, cumming from bruce's cruel fingers digging into his clit with a fury.

tim had gone boneless and then softly urged bruce to finish, to take what he needed. anything that he wanted, tim would give him.

it was a long night and by morning bruce had still wanted more.

when they were alone in his office, bruce would slip a hand under tim's skirt and pump a few fingers in him. at the copy machine, bruce would slide past and grope his tit. while tim poured him coffee bruce would have a hand on his ass. bruce waits until the office is empty and devoid of anyone including the cleaning crew before flipping tim's skirt up and taking what he needs.

tim is all too happy to give it to him, expression twisted in bliss and thanking bruce with every pump into him. 'thank you thank you thank you thankyouthankyou-'

bruce asks tim to move into the penthouse when the rest of the manor starts asking why he hasn't been back in awhile. even if tim's not with him, bruce will know exactly where he is and what he's doing.

bruce watches tim through the cameras. he watches as tim tidies up, as he irons bruce's suits for him. watches as he sweeps and dusts and starts up dinner than bruce will be joining him for. bruce tells alfred he has something to take care and to wrap his plate up, he'll take it for lunch the next day. bruce enters the penthouse like a husband home from a long day of work and kisses tim in greeting.

tim's place by his side is usual sight around W.E. at gala's 'bruce wayne's assistant' accompanies him. the media and dick joke about bruce working him to the bone. they still haven't met him. bruce keeps his tim in the penthouse and at home.

bruce's possessiveness hasn't waned and allowing the newspapers to get photos of them is just another way for bruce to stake his claim over tim. he's mine.

tim belongs to him. he stays in the penthouse like a good little wife and brue loves the sight of him when he opens the door but it...it's not enough.

there's something missing from the picture and bruce realizes it while he's rolling tim's soft hand between his palms.

"there should be a ring here," bruce tells tim softly as his cock is nestled inside his warm, wet, heat.

bruce makes the announcement three days later during a standard interview. the man with a notepad and microphone is wrapping up and he turns to bruce and the camera with a final question said jokingly.

"anything you'd like to add mr. wayne"

and bruce smiles, a genuine thing that has both the interviewer and the camerawoman faltering.

he replies with overflowing happiness in his voice.

"i'm getting married."

no one remembers what the interview was about, all anyone cares about is that one final line.

he's getting married. bruce wayne is getting married.

bruce's phone is ringing and buzzing with the amount of calls and texts he's receiving. his inbox if overflowing with emails from HR and Tamara Fox who is in charge of public relations.

press interview, in the morning. all the newspapers in gotham are banging at the door for it. bruce replies with some halfhearted agreement more focused on the sight of tim staring at the diamond ring on his finger with awe.

the press interview is...it could've gone better. if it was 20 years ago the vitriol and edges of disgust would've been aimed at tim. he would've been seen as a 'golddigger' a 'tramp'.

now he's a victim. and bruce is the big bad man that manipulated his 17 year old assistant into being his plaything.

one of the reporters ask if tim is pregnant and if that's why they're getting married and some part of burce shivers with pleasure at the idea.

tim fat and rounded with his child. his belly full with bruce's baby.

if tim got pregnant. he'd never be able to leave bruce.

the crowd goes silent at the smile that creeps across bruce's face and a tensed hush falls over them when bruce replied with a 'not yet'.

tim watches the interview and bawls into bruce's arms when he returns.

"did you mean it? did you really mean it?"

bruce spends the rest of the night showing that he did.

his family isn't happy with him. the justice league isn't happy with him. though the latter is gentler about it.

asking specific questions and making pointed jabs about bruce's age, remarking about how young tim is and isn't this all going a little fast?

"nonsense." bruce replies to that one. "we've known each other for three years now."

"and how long have you been together for those years?" clark asks, concerned furrow to his brow because the planet is running the story like there's no tomorrow. lois land has been encroaching on viki vale's territory and they're in the middle of some kind of dick-measuring contest.

bruce stares at clark and raises a brow at the less than subtle approach.

"we had sex after he turned 18 if that's what you're worried about"

and clark's face twists.

"bruce." he says later. "you have to know that there's something not right with this, don't you. he...tim is- i'm sure he's a wonderful kid but that's just it, he's a kid."

bruce knew his announcement wouldn't be well received. he knew he'd be burning some bridges but if a single person around him cared for him even an ounce as much as tim did- they'd understand.

bruce had been prepared to be disappointed. and he was.

dick is furious and jason is uncomfortable and damian is...quiet.

"his parents say they haven't spoke to him in three years bruce- do you have any idea how that sounds? that he cut contact with them after meeting you?"

dick is angry because he doesn't want to come to terms with the possibility that bruce was doing something bad under their noses.

"tim had already been estranged from them before he met me, you can check his phone records i have them here."

and dick's face twists when brue offers them to him.

bruce overhears jason talking to a tense alfred about it in the kitchen.

"he's younger than i am alfie, how could he think this is okay? i mean- shit you know i checked my yearbook because i recognized the name 'tim drake' since they're blasting it everywhere? we went to high school together alfie! he was timmy drake, the kid they kept beating up for wearing the girl's uniform!"

well that at least cleared the air on that because some articles had been less than kind in painting bruce as some kind of perverse boss that made his employees dress in skirts for his sexual pleasure.

bruce returns to the penthouse one day to see it trashed and immediately turns on the emergency alert while he searches the apartment with fear filling his throat. he finds tim roughed up in the bedroom with damian pointing a katana at his neck an demanding that he 'release' bruce from his spell.

dick is the one who talks him down while bruce fusses over tim who is begging bruce to not take it out on damian that he didn't hurt him at all and that's when bruce realizes his hands are clenched into shaking fists and there's an anger in him that has his jaw trembling.

jason is silent as he looks around. staring at the photos littering the bedside and around the penthouse, all the signs of its two inhabitants.

"you've had him living here with you. haven't you?" he asks, voice devoid of emotion. dick freezes and also begins to silently take in their surroundings.

bruce doesn't deny it, too focused on tim who has a small cut on his hand from the kitchen knife. he'd been in the middle of preparing dinner.

despite the backlash, despite the disapproval from the media, his family, and fellow heroes. bruce proceeds forward with tim.

tim will be his, in body, in soul, and in name.

selina pops up at one point, likely sent by the family to...reason with him? seduce him?

that hasn't worked in a long time and she knows it too. and given the reveal of tim, she finally knows why.

she stares at tim with cat-like eyes as he stirs bruce's coffee for him, adding just the right amount of cream for him.

tim is submissive, something she never was. when bruce tugged, she tugged back harder.

but bruce has grown tired of that game, of the effort.

he wants to take.

he just wants to take. and tim. sweet, beautiful, perfect tim.

he wants to give. he wants to give and give and give so that bruce can take and take and take.

they're perfect for each other. a reflection of each other. two sides of the same coin. soulmates.

selina is the first one to get it. but she frowns at it, something tugging at his expression and her brow. something that looks like concern and worry.

she doesn't say anything to bruce when she leaves.

she turns to tim and offers him a slip of paper in a handshake. she thinks bruce doesn't notice because she thinks she's too crafty for him.

but he does. he's always noticed.

tim hands him the note without a second thought when she leaves, not even glancing at it.

'if you ever need help call me xxx-xxx-xxxx'

bruce crumples it up and hands it back to tim who tosses it into the lit fire of bruce's office.

bruce's wedding day is beautiful.

invitations have been sent out and surprisingly everyone has turned out. but no one looks happy like guests at a wedding should be. tim's parents are there. equal parts sour-faced and concerned.

tim walks himself down the aisle.

no one gives him away.

because that would imply that they owned him and were gifting him to bruce.

no. bruce owned tim. no one was gifting him his own possession.

bruce holds tim tight the entire night, he never takes his arm off him at all once he signs his name on that marriage certificate.

janet and jack, in the same room for the first time since they divorce congratulate them with great relucatance, jack's eyes linger on where bruce's hands are on his son's waist and janet stares at tim with so much grief like she's watching her son march to his death which bruce, personally, thinks is overdramatic.

despite the moral objection, their wedding goes off without a hitch.

he supposed it's like people going to spectate a horrible accident. like watching a child play with a knife with morbid fascination.

the media says they won't even last a year.

but on the day of the prediction, rather than a separation or divorce, bruce welcomes his new baby to the world.

dick had gone green with sickness when bruce had announced that tim was pregnant. jason had glared down at his plate, fork tight in his grip, and damian's lips had pursed.

at some point they had accepted it. that this had been bruce's decision through and through. perhaps it was after wonderwoman tensely asked him questions with the lasso, a confused martian manhunter read his mind, and a quiet zatanna checked him over for magic.

no mind control. no compulsion. no signs of interfereing.

bruce had done this.

he'd dated, fucked, married, and impregnated someone young enough to be his child.

the media gets over it. eventually.

oh how fascinating, another rich douchbag marrying someone way younger than him. bruce and tim don't even have the worst age gap in gotham or hollywood or any upper circles.

it's just that...they'd thought bruce had been better than that.

the family and the league doesn't.

tim is rarely alone. he lives in the penthouse ever since bruce had him retire for the sake of their baby.

bruce watches them on the cameras as they check on tim, ask him if he's alright. they ask him if bruce ever...does anything to him. if he ever makes tim feel uncomfortable or make him do something he doesn't want to do.

tim has their baby in his arms as they ask him, as he's rocking or nursing him with careful hands, stroking his dark hair with all the tender love and care that he does with bruce, if he feels safe.

that if he wanted to leave, could he?

and tim stares at them with dreamy eyes and breathless sigh and asks them "why would i ever want to leave?"

and bruce's heart swells up with so much emotion he can barely contain himself.

tim never returns to work, even when their first child is old enough because bruce keeps him pregnant. he keeps him swelled with his children and plugged with bruce's seed.

he kisses his milk swollen tits and suckles sweet milk out of him with gentle sucks that have tim gasping as bruce pounds him full of more and more and more.

bruce gets a new email for his new secretary a few weeks later after tim turns in his letter of resignation.

a virtual assistant, freshly developed by lucius fox.

bruce shows it to tim half in amusement and exasperation because why would they think he'd do "what he did" to his new assistant. tim was special.

a one in a million case.

there was no one and would be no one like him.

bruce knows that people are digging around in bruce's past, trying to find a pattern of behavior but they wouldn't find any because bruce had never been at all inappropriate with other secretaties.

he knew they'd find something though.

they'd find the hotel room stays that started when tim was still 17 but bruce had been telling the truth when he told clark they hadn't slept together until tim had been 18.

that would lead to nothing. so would questioning tim's parents and friends.

they could dig and dig all the way until they reached china but they'd find nothing.

bruce loved tim. he'd never ever even dream of hurting him. and tim loved him in turn.

with all his soft hands and loving eyes and sweet kisses.

bruce watched in his monitor.

he watched as tim gently played with their squealing baby in the penthouse. watched as the sweet bump in his abdomen was lovingly pat.

bruce watched tim's eyes drift up and meet his in the camera and he watched him smile and blow a kiss at him with adoration in his eyes.

bruce was a damaged man. broken with cracks so deep they couldn't be fixed. he needed to own, possess, and control with a compulsion he couldn't resist and tim- his cracks were right in the same place to reflect bruce's.

but instead of feeling that itching want that bruce did- he felt an emptiness, a need, a desire to be owned.

they were perfect for each other.

no.

they were meant for each other

----

i love LOVED this just the drama!!! the tension!! the yearning desire and fulfillment they can give each other!!!!!

[soulmate-game]

Not related to the other two Bio!mom Harley AUs that I did. Just... similar. I wrote this instead of sleeping, as per the usual.

—*—*—*—*—*

“I need your help.”

No accent, no threats of violence, no beating around the bush (figurative or otherwise). No fighting or unconscious bodies.

Just Harley Quinn with her hair down, no makeup, and completely serious, in the center of the Bat Cave. Even though her usual exaggerated Brooklynn accent (circa 1950s) had become a pretty inseparable part of her personality over the years, every now and then she forcibly stuffed it down and used her mostly unaccented voice. The one reminiscent of days with less colors on her face, a high bun, and a pristine white lab coat.

Every single one of the Bats and Birds present, fresh from an interrupted patrol thanks to her, could count the number of times they had seen Harley like this on one hand. Bruce would have the most recollections, but everyone else would have plenty of fingers left on said hand. So they all knew, especially when Bruce willingly pulled down his cowl so he could look Harley in the eye, that this was the start of something they were not likely to forget. And maybe their chances of survival were slim too.

“Harley,” Bruce’s voice was still gruff, seeing as he was still mostly Batman at the moment, but his eyes were soft. “Maybe you should tell us what you need help with first. And sit down. You look exhausted.”

Sure enough, there were dark circles under Harley’s eyes. She let Bruce-man lead her over to one of their debriefing tables and sit her down. She let out a huge sigh, her fingers tangling in her loose blond locks.

“I have a confession, and it isn’t gonna leave this cave, capiche?” The slight return of her accent relieved a little of the tension, but not much. Taking this as their cue, the rest of the bats spread out into their usual seats at the table. Bruce stayed near Harley, keeping a hand on her shoulder in silent support. Harley didn’t continue talking until he gave her a solemn nod in agreement. She gulped— an action that immediately returned the tension.

“... fifteen years ago, back when I was still with Joker, I disappeared off the Gotham scene for a few months. I’m sure a few of you remember,” she looked up, and a couple of the older vigilantes nodded. Really, Jason has still been Robin back then. But the memory stuck out in his head now that he was thinking about it.

“Yeah, you were breaking away from him a little bit, which was weird at the time,” Red Hood mused aloud, arms crossed. “I think you helped us out a couple times and did some of your first team ups with Ivy before you vanished. Then a few months go by and you were back in action with Joker, so we mostly ignored it as you just being you.”

Harley nodded. “Ah, my Ivy’s a lifesaver, even back then. She helped cover up the timeline by keeping me in action for longer than I should’a been without putting me at too much risk.”

“Timeline…” Red Robin spoke up, eyes huge even behind his mask. “You don’t mean—“

“Harley,” Bruce breathed, having also caught on. “You were pregnant?”

The air went still. Harley sniffed, eyes watering even as she smiled.

“Oh yeah. Shouldn’t have been possible, ya know? Me ‘n Joker being dumped in that damn acid should have made us both more sterile than an operatin’ room. But I knew I couldn’t raise a kid, so after she was born—“

“You kept her?” Damian interrupted, earning a gentle cuff over the head from Dick. Harley just snorted.

“Yeah. Not gonna lie, I thought about abortion. But the baby didn’t do nothin’ wrong, and I was still in love with Joker back then so I was ecstatic that I was able to make something new with part ‘a him in it. Still, I knew a baby didn’t deserve to be raised in Gotham. Especially not my baby, not with my enemies and history. Not with who her father was. I knew he’d never want her, never let me keep her. So I spent the last five months of my pregnancy lookin’ around for the best possible family to take her in. And I found them in Paris, France. A sweet couple, both of them bakers. Sabine, she’s both adorably sweet and super kickass. Comes from a Chinese family that is crazy about teachin’ their women martial arts. But nothing shady about it, I triple checked. Just bonding through kicking people in the face. Which is perfect, I wanted my baby to know how to defend herself. I knew she’d need those skills eventually. And Tom, that’s Sabine’s wife, he’s a gentle giant. Same size as Bane, but as harmless as a puppy and makes the best croissants ever. Seriously, the best.”

“Harley,” Bruce gently prodded, but there was a tiny grin on his face. Seeing her behaving so… so normally, so proud and reminiscent, was a rare treat. Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t proud of how far the woman had come. How she had freed herself and become a better person, mostly on her own.

“Right, right. The point,” Harley took a breath, rubbing her forehead. “I came clean to Tom and Sabine, but apparently they knew who I was the whole time. They just didn’t care— did I mention they are perfect? Anyway, once I explained everything, they agreed immediately to adopting my baby. They’d been wanting kids, but it would’a been too risky for Sabine’s health. That’s how I found them anyway, they were in the market to adopt. We named her Marinette. She took Tom and Sabine’s last names, hyphenated. We decided Quinn would be her middle name. And after that, I came back to Gotham and told myself that she was in good hands and I needed to forget about her. Cuz I was no good for her. I knew that. I went back to my old tricks. And then…” Harley chuckled, but it was self-depreciating.

“Then a few years passed, and I started breaking away from Joker for real. Then we broke up, I blew up Ace Chemicals while you guys were outta town doing Justice League and Young Justice shit. I started dating Ivy. And—“ she smiled softly at the table, clearly seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. “Then Ivy convinced me to go see her. Visit my baby, see how she’s been. And I did. Marinette was seven years old, but damn it to hell she was gorgeous. And say whatever you want about me and Joker— most of it will even be true— but neither of us are stupid. And she inherited all of our intelligence. All of it. She got my blue eyes. But she got his hair, which meant Sabine teased me relentlessly about ‘are you sure she isn’t that Wayne’s kid?’ And don’t make that face Bruce, you’d be lucky to have a kid half as beautiful as my Mari-pie. No offense, Damian. Anyway. Anyway, this is the important part. Or part of it.

“She sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Everything. A little seven year old, who could barely understand English at the time, and she listened without interrupting once. She never threw a fit, she wasn’t angry or confused. I told her about the things I’d done in the past— well, G rated versions— and she didn’t care. She called me Momma Harley right away, said she wanted to meet Aunt Ivy sometime soon, and started telling me everything about her that I’d missed. From that day on, she became my sunshine. The light of my life, and I still call her at least once a week every week. When I disappear for a few days out of the city? I’m visiting her—“

“You’re banned from international travel, Harley,” Dick scolded, but he sounded way too amused for it to work. He knew she had her ways, anyway. Nobody could actually stop Harley damn Quinn from doing whatever she wanted.

“—Ugh, she tells me the same thing every time! Disappointed glare and everything. I don’t know how I gave birth to such a goodie goodie, but somehow I did. Not important though! The important thing is, I’m always the first to hear when something new happens in her life. And we had decided that she wouldn’t visit me in Gotham until she was at least eighteen, but apparently she disobeyed me— which I should have expected honestly— and entered you guys’ WE international scholastic competition.”

“Oh no,” Bruce pinched the bridge of her nose. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng? The contest winner?” He finally pulled out a chair and sat down. “The winner gets an all-expense paid trip to Gotham for them and their whole class.”

“Exactly!” Harley threw up her hands. “Mari told me last week, and I’ve been trying to talk her out of coming ever since. But she’s inherited both of our stubbornness too, and she isn’t budgin’ a bit. ‘Momma Harley, I wanna see you and Auntie Ivy though!’ And ‘Momma, Gotham’s nothing I can’t handle,’ or my favorite, ‘Maybe you’ll finally get to see me dropkick someone three times my size then, and I’ll prove it.’”

“So that’s what you meant by you need our help,” Tim said as he leaned forward over the table. “Joker just broke out of Arkham yesterday. You want us to protect her.”

“I’d prefer if one of you was with her outside of the mask too, as often as possible,” Harley confirmed. “I can’t stop her from coming here anymore, but I also don’t trust Joker for a second. As soon as he sees her, I’m afraid he’ll make the connection.”

“She looks like him?” Damian asked, scrunching up his nose at the ugly mental image of Joker as a teenage girl. Harley shook her head, solemn.

“She looks like a dark-haired mini-me,” she corrected. “She even keeps her hair in pigtails as her way of showing support for me. And I know Marinette can kick ass, Sabine’s trained her well. But Marinette inherited more than I’d like from me,” Harley ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t notice it until she was thirteen. She got a crush on a classmate, and it was almost like watching videos of me back during the early days of— well, of Harley Quinn. Just without the crime and insanity. She didn’t even realize that she was almost stalking the poor kid until I pointed it out, and luckily I was able to put my doctorate to good use and we nipped that right in the bud ASAP. She never meant it that way, anyway. As soon as I explained things to her, she was horrified and immediately asked me to help her learn how to have a healthy relationship. That was a fun discussion,” Harley grimaced. “But she still gets attached to people really, really easily. Once she grew out of her crush on that boy, she adopted him as her unofficial brother. She already calls Selina “Auntie,” even though I’ve barely mentioned her to Marinette. She gets attached fast, and deeply. And I’m afraid that even after all the warning I’ve done, all the stories I’ve told her—“

“You’re afraid she’ll get attached to Joker just like you did,” Bruce finished for her, closing his eyes. “Because she knows he’s her father.”

“Yes,” Tears were slowly dripping down her face already, her hands curled into fists so tightly that her knuckles were paper white. “You know how he is. If he finds out she’s his biological daughter, he’ll immediately try to take advantage of that. And he’s far too good with his words for people like me and Mari. I’m worried outta my mind. Please. Help keep my baby safe from him.”

“We will,” Jason no longer had his helmet on, or the domino mask that he usually wore underneath it. All of them knew masks were merely formality with Harley nowadays. And he needed to look her directly in the eye so she could see how serious he was. “I can sign up as a bodyguard for the class. It won’t be weird, seeing as they’re tourists and this is Gotham. They also have several rich kids in their group if I remember right.”

Bruce nodded, agreeing with Jason. “That’s a good idea. I can lead the class on their tours of WE personally. That’ll serve the purpose of keeping an eye on her and shutting up the investors that keep begging me to make more public appearances for the sake of the company. Marinette’s name is already released to the news as the winner of the contest, so we can’t keep her out of the spotlight long. Tim, you’ll have to keep an eye on any and all pictures of the class. Try to erase or doctor the images with her in it well enough that connections between her and Harley can’t be easily made. Dick, you and Damian will be in charge of keeping an eye out for any activity from Joker. The slightest hint, and you notify all of us. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis who is necessary to stick with the class and who goes after the clown.”

“She’s gonna sneak out of her hotel to stay with me and Ivy,” Harley admitted, bringing the (now slightly judgemental) attention back to her. She raised her hands up in surrender. “She didn’t tell me that, and I didn’t approve or suggest it! I just know my baby too well to not realize that that’s her plan. Could ya provide an escort?”

Bruce sighed. “This is gonna be an eventful month.”

[stxleslyds]

You always seem down on the idea of the Batfam. I mean, it is hard to take seriously when writers make Bruce hostile or downright abusive towards his kids, or when Batfam members never interact. But do you think the concept itself is good, and it's just been the victim of bad writing? Or do you think the Batfam is a bad idea that can never work?

Hi there Anon! Thank you for the ask!

Hmm, this is a difficult question. Maybe I can answer this better if I do it in parts because the concept of “Batfamily” is used in different ways currently. A way to separate them can be, DC’s Batfamily, Fandom’s Batfamily and Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon.

DC’s Batfamily:

My rejection of this version of Batfamily comes from all angles, it is not a good concept within comics lore anymore, it’s badly written and used to hide and move on from truly horrendous actions done by Bruce towards the rest of the family, and DC uses the concept of “Batfamily” that fandom has become so attached to, so they can profit off of it without writing anything of real essence with it.

Why did I say that the Batfamily isn’t a good concept anymore? Well, because the Batfamily that I first came across in comics included, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Barbara, Tim and Cassandra. It was rather small and their books interconnected and had pretty solid relationships with one another. Dick and Tim got along and spent time together, Barbara mentored Cass so she could become Batgirl and so on and so forth. The family was smaller and more connected. But they still had problems and bad habits then. So, I liked them as a group of people that worked together and the name they received was “Batfamily” as a way for DC to profit from it.

Right now, the Batfamily is huge, I don’t know if you have seen those splash pages with all the members of it for Rebirth and Infinite Frontier, but those promotional pages were crazy big, characters like Harley and Clownhunter are now considered part of the “Batfamily” and all that. Then there is the kind of characters like Cass, Steph and Kate who are all connected to Batman but that haven’t been appearing in books for very long, so putting them on that page really feels like DC is trying to prove that their “Batfamily” actually has women on it, but it’s just for show.

And then there is Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, the most recognizable faces of the Batfamily aside from Bruce and Alfred (but Alfred is dead now so he doesn’t really count), all of them have had issues with Bruce or are indifferent to the existence of one another. Yes, Tom Taylor has included Tim in Dick’s book but here is the thing, it feels like he put him there just to make fans shut up about the lack of content with both of them acting as they used to do. But its false and lazy, Taylor just brought Tim to the book but we don’t get to see Tim and Dick interact in ways that can explain why they drifted off, it kinda seems like all those years where Dick and Tim were pulled apart never happened to DC and that makes me think “cash grab”. I would have loved to see them interact again if it meant that we would have some solid story for them to develop their relationship once more.

At the end of Rebirth, Damian was pissed off at Bruce and they had a fight and Damian left the manor completely. Bruce beat up Jason, then gave him a hug but still told him that he was banned from Gotham and all that abuse and manipulation was swept under the rug when DC came out with Urban Legends: Cheer, all they did with that story is lie and made-up stories about Jason wanting Bruce to go on a killing spree so Gotham can finally be the home to his beloved family (lies, lies, lies).

On top of all that we have the neglect, abuse and manipulation that Bruce had going on with Dick, ever since Bruce manipulated Dick into joining Spyral his actions haven’t faced any consequences (the family still believes that Dick was the one who lied about dying). And as recently as the end of Rebirth, Dick suffered from a head injury that left him amnesiac and Bruce absolutely didn’t care enough to look after him when he was so vulnerable and alone. DC had the audacity of having Bruce say that he was looking after Dick while Dick went from one villain manipulating and hurting him to another, and if we look at Batman’s run, we can see that he spent some of that time in a weird pit or playing catch the pussy with Selina in a tropical island.

So, taking all those things into account, I honestly believe that the Batfamily is a concept that absolutely does not belong in comics. If it were to be taken seriously then DC should come up with (organic, not forced) stories that make these characters connect once again, but they have to be careful, just because they can connect it doesn’t mean that everyone gets along and they have group chats and eat dinner together of Fridays, that would be a blatant lie and just too out there for their kind of dynamic, so, they should take things slow, start re-building what once was an make it better (if they want to make it work and feel like less of a cash grab).

I heard that there is a book with Cass and Steph being mentored as Batgirls by Barbara coming out in December, that to me is a good thing, what was done in Robin #5 was awful, Jason didn’t have or want to be there, Tim, what the hell was Tim doing there? The only ones that have gotten along with Damian and have had a solid relationship with him were Dick and Steph. Dick had a very nice moment with Damian in that issue, but Steph didn’t, they preferred to have Jason wanting to hug Damian instead (what the actual hell was that?).

Fandom’s Batfamily:

Fandom is a place where people can take any concept from anywhere and transform it into whatever they please. This fandom is just like any other in that matter, but I have noticed that sometimes the Batfamily Fandom tends to blur the lines between what’s fanon and canon. Their lore is so deep and established among people that they sometimes (willingly or not) make new readers or other people believe that how things and perceived in fandom is how things actually are in comics, and that is a huge problem.

Things like “Dick sent Jason to Arkham when the Joker was just a cell away”, “Jason has pit madness and when he gets mad his eyes turn glowy green”, “Dick was a horrendous brother to Jason before Jason died”, “Jason would be good friends with Tim and Cass”, “Jason is the only one that sees the world differently from Bruce and the other robins because he is the only one that comes from a life with no luxury” and so on and on and on…

All of those things are sometimes treated as the absolute truth by fandom and no matter how many times people have debunked and explained that those things aren’t part of comics’ canon because they are simply not true, fandom stills treats those things as the basis of their Batfamily lore.

That lore would be actually fascinating if people didn’t lose sight so easily of the fact that at the end of the day none of that lore can be applied to comics’ canon.

When you enter this fandom things can be extremely confusing and the way some of the characters are characterized are completely different to their canon characterizations, I knew that the Dick fandom was writing about was not real, but I had no idea that Tim being a coffee addict that hasn’t slept in five months and is an absolute genius in everything and anything that he does was completely out of character for him, I just thought that was true to his character in comics too. Something like that happened to me when I took a peek at Jason’s side of fandom, by that time I had read Red Hood/Arsenal, UtRH and New 52 RHatO (yeah in that order, Red Hood/Arsenal wasn’t finished yet though), with the already conflicting characterizations of those books, the first look that I had at fandom’s Jason confused me even more. After considering all those I decided that the Jason that I wanted to see and actually looked appealing to me was UtRH Jason.

Not all people in fandom read comics and that is ABSOLUTELY VALID, I have zero problems with people not liking the comic characterizations of the “Batfamily” characters, but that in itself also creates a rift between fans themselves.

Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon:

This is obviously the intersection of the other two points and this is the biggest problem that I have with the Batfamily concept. The fandom lore has been leaking into comic’s canon for a while now but right now we are kinda drowning in it. Decisions that have been made recently in DC like, Jason giving up his guns, the group chats in Nightwing issues, the family dinners that were hinted at in Cheer #6, and Bruce having had at the ready a Red Hood suit for Jason with a Batman logo in its chest, have been proof enough that DC is planning on skipping any kind of solid writing for these characters to actually get along. We are never going to see these people sit down and talk about their differences and respect each other’s work ethics.

We are never going to get stories of actual essence that prove that these characters understand and care for each other, we are just going to be told that “all is good” and now everyone loves one another and they will build from there.

That is a problem for me.

-

And it also takes away duality from Gotham’s vigilantes, I know I say this too much but it’s the truth, putting all these characters under the ruling of Batman makes them all bland. Jason shouldn’t be part of any sort of group that involves Bruce! My god, I don’t want to see them interact anymore! Bruce has been absolute trash to Jason ever since he came back from the dead and I am tired of DC trying to make them be on good terms!

Jason and Bruce not getting along can co-exist with the fact that Jason isn’t a villain to Batman’s legendary hero. Jason is his own character, with his own morals and he doesn’t need a bat symbol on his chest or book logo to be relevant. Same with Dick, Tim and Barbara, let them be characters that can stand on their own because they have already done that!

Barbara as Oracle worked WITH Batman if she wanted, she had her own logo and had passed on the mantle of Batgirl because he had grown out of it.

Dick is Nightwing and has become an even better hero than Batman could even aspire to become, he has contacts with everyone in the DC universe, has led countless teams, he doesn’t NEED a batman logo on his book or to be constantly dragged back to him just to make the Bat more compelling.

Jason, my sweet Jason, he had his own logo! It was gorgeous and then Lobdell had the audacity to stamp a Batman logo in the middle of the book name and in Jason’s chest! Have we gone absolutely mad? Why did they do that? Lobdell’s constant back and forth with Jason and his feelings for Bruce, he respects him and he doesn’t, he kills and he doesn’t… each issue felt like a new take on the character! It was crazy!

And that has happened with everyone in the “family”. I will end this by saying that Bruce/Batman being at the centre of this “Batfamily” dynamic is the most laughable thing in the DC Universe. Batman isn’t family to any of the people that they constantly surround him with, he is a piece of shit.

Anyway Anon, I hope this answer doesn’t ruin your day and that you understand that even though I really don’t like the “Batfamily” concept, you and everyone else are allowed and encouraged to think differently!

Hope you have a marvellous day Anon!

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.) 

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl: 

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason. 

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman. 

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick: 

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason: 

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim: 

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.) 

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time. 

Red Robin #1

Damian: 

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back: 

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray! 

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

[bigskydreaming]

Hello, hello, tis I, your friendly neighborhood ‘dude who is obsessed with people making jokes and insults out of Dick’s name’ back with another episode of Why No But Seriously Why!

In today’s episode, we’re going to focus on the fanon of the swear jar. That thing ordained by Alfred that makes many an appearance in fics and headcanons....including ones that also show Jason and/or others calling Dick a Dickhead and other things all willy nilly and suchlike and forthwith.

How does this track, asketh I? Does Alfred provide exemption clauses for making fun of your brother, to the others? Does Alfred not consider making crude insults out of the name Dick to be a swear? Does Alfred, a born Brit, hailing from the land of the “We’ve Been Calling Richards ‘Dicks’ For Longer Than The Rest Of You Have Been Calling Them Rich’s,” not consider the fascination with making penis jokes out of the name of a child he’s helped raised from the age of EIGHT to be uncultured, crass and frankly unacceptable in any house he resides in?

I’m just saying, does it really make sense, and is the risk of pulling readers out of your story if they’re NOT amused by the jokes made of his name really worth whatever it is you feel is added to a story BY making the same old jokes about Dick’s name?

As I’ve said many times before....Dick Grayson? Fictional character. Has no feelings that actually need protecting....OUTSIDE of fiction. Making jokes about his name from beyond the fourth wall, just people commenting on a fictional character’s name? Go wild, go crazy, have a freaking Bacchanalia. Truly does not matter, if you ask me.

But IN universe? IN fiction? Totally different story, because look what those jokes require or make assumptions out of:

1) That Dick truly has no protective or defensive feelings whatsoever about his childhood nickname, and genuinely feels nothing about people habitually taking his choice to keep it as an invitation to insult or mock him.

1b) That Dick doesn’t in any way ever perceive peoples’ insistence on associating his name MORE with the insults and penis jokes than they do with it just being a name, to in any way be a slight against his beloved parents, of the “well they should have known better than to call him that” variety.

1c) That Dick has no negative feelings whatsoever about the fact that even his close friends and family regard his name as being no more worthy of respect or being ‘offlimits’ than the average Gothammite or public citizen might regard it, despite the fact that his close friends and family are perfectly aware of the public’s history of looking down on Dick for his origins and thus you’d think would WANT to appear different than them in Dick’s eyes.

1d) That Dick has never at any point expressed anger, frustration or bitterness that he can’t even have his name respected without even loved ones superimposing their own associations on top of it, no matter what it means to HIM.

2) That Alfred truly has no opinions whatsoever of the other charges in his care disrespecting Dick’s name and its origins stemming from his first parents.

2b) That Alfred has never expressed this opinion to any of them or made his displeasure about such jokes known.

2c) That Alfred doesn’t find it disappointing that the rest of the family and associated friends and allies seem disinclined to separate themselves from the general public’s opinions of Dick’s name by regarding it with a little more respect as at least a sign that they regard Dick himself with a little more respect than the general public.

3) That Jason or none of Dick’s other friends or family have never taken the initiative to wonder for themselves how Dick might actually feel about the frequent jokes or insults, and if shockingly, he might not actually be fond of them.

3b) That Jason or Dick’s other friends or family have chosen not to care or respect the opinions of Dick and/or Alfred or anyone else who states or suggests that these jokes or insults aren’t welcome.

4) That none of Dick’s other friends, be they Titans, or Uncle Clark, or siblings like Cass or Damian or frankly anyone, ever speak up in defense of Dick’s name and suggest that there’s a significant lack of respect around it and thus around him, that they personally take a very dim view of. (Even when Jason’s best friends include Dick’s former fianceé and own longtime BFF).

5) That nobody has ever bothered to think that only EVER being addressed by some form of insult by even his own siblings might possibly have a slightly demoralizing effect on someone’s self-esteem over time.

5b) That nobody has ever bothered to think that making sexual jokes about his name and thus innately sexualizing Dick from even his earliest days in Gotham, when coupled with the hyper-sexualized stereotypes people often apply to Romani individuals and further coupled with the suggestive rumors surrounding Bruce’s reasons for taking in a young boy, might possibly have contributed over time to Dick having an extremely skewed view of himself as an innately sexualized being no matter what he actually did in terms of sexual behavior.

I mean.....there’s more. If I felt like it.

But the point is......there’s a LOT of implicit assumptions that creep in alongside the seemingly harmless jokes and insults surrounding Dick’s name, the second you start to really focus in on how it might appear from his POV....IF you include even just the possibility that he DOESN’T like it.

EDIT: Also, lots of people have pointed out that its just sibling culture to make fun of a sibling in ways that you wouldn’t be okay with someone outside the family making the same jokes. And this is absolutely true! BUT. My issue here and why I don’t think the Dickhead jokes fall under this umbrella, is because I can say in my experience being from a blended family, and from what I’ve discussed in the past with other kids from blended families....there are ‘rules’ about this sort of thing, when you have adopted siblings, and the one near-universal truth that I’ve always found is that anything that stems from an adopted sibling’s first family, the one you do NOT share with them, is absolutely off limits. You mock them for something that originated outside your family, you’re the asshole, because at that point, you’re literally no different from outsiders to your current family making fun of that sibling. That ‘joke’ is not YOURS to make or share in, if you do not have the history with the thing you’re basing the joke on, that your sibling has with it. Shared history is the entire basis of siblings being able to mock each other while still citing solidarity against outsiders, and in adopted families, there absolutely are elements of each others’ lives that YOU are the outsider to, and it absolutely falls on you to respect that just as you’d want your sibling to respect the same of you in turn. If Jason absolutely would not be okay with Dick or anyone else making jokes about Catherine or his life with her, he should not be okay with making jokes about Dick’s name, circus origins, or other aspects of his life that stem from or call back to his time with his first family. The same holds true of all the others as well.

The other aspect of this name-calling not falling under the excuse-umbrella of just being typical sibling culture is its entirely one-sided. Show me the tendency where Dick responds to these everpresent jokes or insults by even light-heartedly calling Jason and the others insults like Hey Asshole, or Dumbass or anything like that. When things are entirely one-way, the impression given is not that of a camaraderie of back-and-forth. It becomes just one person or multiple people punching down in a way they feel confident from experience the other person will NOT respond in kind, which gives them an outlet for venting frustration, resentment or aggravation which risks them nothing, because they KNOW Dick won’t retaliate, and at that point that exchange becomes something very different from a general sibling back-and-forth....because there’s no ‘back.’ What you end up with at that point is literally just hostility, no matter if more mild than other cases, and a situation where one sibling is simply taking ADVANTAGE of the opportunity afforded by another sibling’s good nature and refusal to engage in hurt feelings even while you feel free to cause those feelings in them. And that’s just not a good look. Its just not. And even if you find those exchanges humorous yourself as a writer or a reader, you might want to keep in mind that to plenty of other readers, its making even the characters you like and INTEND to be liked, just....come across as kinda not cool assholes instead.

END OF EDIT.

And here’s the other point:

Its not really about his name, and never has been.

His name is simply emblematic of how EASY it is for people to fall into the trap of just....choosing to overlook Dick’s POV entirely, the second its pitted against other characters and what they might gain from their POV....even if that ‘gain’ is as simple and basic as the slight moment of humor Jason gets from making a joke or mocking insult out of Dick’s name.

Here, let me present this another way:

Every single person alive has SOMETHING they get defensive or protective about. SOMETHING that they’re like no, this is offlimits to people, this is not for their consumption, their entertainment, its not for THEM to take and twist into something other than what it is for ME, because its MINE. This is basic human nature. EVERYONE has this feeling about SOMETHING that’s particular to them.

And with Dick, most of the things that we’re generally given to view him being protective or defensive about are either almost more about other people than him - such as being protective of his family members - or else, they’re things that he’s not ALLOWED to be purely defensive or say, territorial about.

Like for instance, the name Robin.

Think about how Robin is pretty much one of the ONLY things Dick is largely deemed to be defensive or proprietary about.....BUT how that’s also largely used NOT to have him wholly in the right for feeling that way.....but to put him in conflict with the other Robins, given that they also have strong feelings about the name regardless of its origins, and its not solely Dick’s anymore.

Now here’s my question:

If for example, you go with the take that Robin was Dick’s mother’s name for him, and that’s why Dick is so protective and defensive of that name.....why would he be any LESS protective or defensive about his mother AND father’s OTHER name for him....given that the only possible reason for him TO stick with the name Dick all throughout adulthood, is that its the form of his name they referred to him by, and thus, clearly, it DOES carry emotional significance for him?

See what I’m saying?

Why is it, that the only time so many people see Dick laying a claim to something, being defensive or protective of something that’s HIS, standing up for HIMSELF.....is when the waters are murky, when its not a clear cut case of him being wholly in the right, when it pits Dick against someone else and says both are at least somewhat valid?

Why is it so RARE to see people imagine Dick putting his foot down in defense of himself, in defense of something that’s HIS.....where its 100% crystal clear that he has every right and reason in the world to feel this way, where there’s no doubt whatsoever that he’s on the correct side of thinking “this is mine and I get to say this”?

Even about something as simple and basic as his own name?

And why is it the only time we seem to see people sticking up for Dick or weighing in on his behalf, its in the case of extreme actions like him having been raped or abused? Why are there hardly any stories of people looking at alleged family and friends bitching about Dick or heaping insults on him or his capabilities and saying hey, he’s been doing this while most of us were sitting in middle school detention, you could show him some respect? Why do none of the people who value and respect Dick so highly ever seem to weigh in like THAT in stories?

My challenge, should you choose to accept it, is just to look at the above list of possible reasons why Dick might not be thrilled about how people use his name....and just IMAGINE what it would look like, if Dick just said to another character....”Hey. Could you cut that out. I would appreciate it if you didn’t do that.” Even just “I really don’t like that.”

How does a scene like that go? One where Dick is wholly and completely justified in putting his foot down, in feeling that someone is overstepping or paying him an insult or a disservice?

We hear all the time in fandom about how in the name of ‘humanizing’ Dick and ‘making him more relatable’ some people focus overly much on emphasizing his flaws, his alleged temper, his secretiveness, etc.

I’d like to argue that flaws are not actually the only staple of humanity. Risking making a character more dislikable is not actually the only way to make them feel more human or relatable. THIS is another way to do that. Make them defensive, proprietary, territorial, even prickly.....but with REASON. With CAUSE. With JUSTIFICATION. Because people are ALLOWED to be, when people are being a - all irony intended - total dick to them.

And there is a long, LONG history in fanfics, of people being exactly that to Dick, and him just....smiling.

EXCEPT for when his choice NOT to smile, and to actually take offense and push back......pits him against another character but with the other character usually being granted just as much right and reason to not give way.

So? I’m saying you have right here a perfect example of how to flip the script on that. To make it abundantly clear that Dick has just as much right to put his foot down with even people who love and care about him and say hey, you’re doing something I don’t like, that in fact even hurts me, and I want you to stop.

Why not use it? Why does there always seem to need to be an ARGUMENT about whether or not Dick is in the right to feel wronged in some way.....when its so abundantly clear that he’s given no shortage of reasons for that in practically every other fic?

And consider.....if you’ve never previously entertained the idea that Dick might take offense to how people treat his name, or feel defensive about it......what else might you be overlooking that he could feel that way about, and is there any reason why you think you tend not to view Dick as being defensive of HIMSELF and things that are uniquely his?

*Shrugs* Just food for thought, mayhaps.

[listentothelittlebird]

So I wrote Waterbender Jason Todd and that was a blast (the series is Gotham’s White Lotus!) but I went through a ton of drafts for how Jason got reintegrated into the Batfam - and here’s one of the drafts!

Word Count: 2760 words

I like this one because it’s dramatic :) Enjoy!

(This draft essentially diverges directly after Burning Iceberg - some of the diversions can be seen in the tags!)

An explosion, Oracle’s words quickly filtering into their comms.

“I have eyes on the combustion bender. Looks like he’s still looking to complete his contract.”

Batman’s voice came next, barking an order for Robin to return to the Batcave.

“But-”

“Little bird, you should probably listen to the B-man,” Red Hood jumped in, “Seriously. Lay off this one for all of us, alright?”

Robin huffed, but obeyed.

The explosions followed Robin’s movements until Batman was able to intercept the bender. Red Hood dropped down soon after. Batgirl had taken to accompanying Robin back to the Batcave. Nightwing informed them that he was on his way to Gotham, likely to check up on Robin for his own assurance.

The blasts caused Red Hood to dart to one side, Batman to the other. Before the smoke filling the empty warehouse could clear, a blade was pressed to Jason’s neck.

“Where is my son?” the voice hissed. The Pit was long gone, but that did nothing to quell the snarl that answered the question.

“Nice to see you too, Talia,” Jason spat out. He could guess why Talia had come to Gotham - investigating the new mask that held his build, as well as the absence of one eight-year-old after his most recent mission.

“Where-” the sword dug deeper, “-is. My. Son.”

“Where do you think?” Jason snarked, “C’mon, Tals, you can’t be that much of an idiot. Detective it out yourself.”

Talia growled. “You poisoned my child’s thoughts,” Talia murmured darkly, “If not for you, Damian would have completed his mission successfully, and been ever closer to becoming a satisfactory Heir. I should have recognised your meddling from the start.”

Jason chuckled. The smoke was clearing, now, and from the comms, it seemed that Batman was apprehending the combustion bender. He hoped Oracle could hear him and had alerted the others.

“You kept Damian from his father,” Jason stated evenly, “The least I could do was tell the kid about his Dad and his brothers. You know, the brothers you never told him about? Not to mention his sister, too.”

“He is the blood-son.”

“He is the youngest son, and you’re gonna have to get through me and the rest of us if you so much as think of hiding him away again.”

Batman dropped down in front of them. Talia’s sword was still dangerously close to his neck, digging in slightly, nearly drawing blood.

“Back away from the Hood, Talia,” Batman growled, “This is between you and me.”

Talia stilled.

“You haven’t told him,” Talia realised.

Shit.

The sword was humming, growing warmer. Jason could feel the heat on his skin.

“You told me you wanted revenge. You told me you wanted your replacement gone,” Talia was on a roll, now, grasping greedily for control, “You told me you wanted him to pay. For not avenging you. For leaving The Joker walking.”

Jason shuddered at the mention of the Rogue. He could feel Talia’s shark-like grin at his neck.

“A shame,” she tutted, “You realised, didn’t you? That he never cared for you. No wonder you have yet to tell him the truth.”

Batman took a stuttering step forward. Jason tried to control his breathing, the blade heating up enough to burn. She was trying to get under his skin. Trying to…

Jason made sure to inject rage and malice into his next words, “You’re not the only one with tricks up your sleeve, Talia.”

Underneath his jacket was a flask of water for emergencies.

“Oh?” Talia hummed menacingly, “And what may that be?”

Jason moved, breaking out of the hold. The sword flared into flames.

The jet of water knocked Talia back several paces, but not before she could take a slash at his helmet. The material melted into his lenses, and Jason cursed, ripping off the helmet just in time to block her blade with an ice-coated arm.

“The spirits. That was you.”

“Bingo. Looks like the Pit didn’t melt out your brains.”

Jason met the flurry of attacks steadily, bending the broken ice into water blasts and back to ice once more, dodging the flames and ignoring the singed marks on his clothes.

Another explosion. Jason’s gaze darted just enough to see that the combustion bender had returned, hands bound but still conscious.

“I should have never helped you,” Talia stated, a tone of finality, “It’s only right I bury you again.”

A bout of flames aimed for his face, forcing Jason to roll backwards, just out of reach. By the time he got back to his feet, Talia was standing beside the combustion bender, who was already in stance. Another explosion sounded, right above him.

Jason only had time to curl up and erect a crystal of ice around him before the warehouse roof fell.

He could taste the smoke on his lips, the dust of wood and cement. He waited one, two seconds, straining against the weight of the building against the ice, before digging into his jacket, pulling out a small comms unit and stuffing it into his ear.

“-you hear me? Hood!” Oracle was yelling.

“I’m under the warehouse,” Jason gasped out, coughing up the smoke and dirt and dust, “I’m- I’m underneath. I- please. Please get me out. Fuck.”

He was trembling. The ice creaked, painfully loud in the silence. 

“I can’t-” his lips moved without his permission, “-can’t do this again. Shit. I- don’t make me do this again.”

Distantly, he registered that his voice was no longer modulated, like it was in his helmet.

“I found him,” came Batman’s grunt, and if Jason had enough space within the ice, he would have keeled over in relief. The soil beneath him rumbled, but Jason had long come to associate this specific tremble with earthbending. The earth opened, and Jason gasped as he dropped into the ditch, which closed and engulfed him in darkness.

“B?” Jason whispered, the sound echoing. He was vaguely aware of someone approaching him as his breath quickened.

“It’s me, Hood,” Batman’s voice sounded, and Jason sobbed.

“I- shit. Shit.”

“It’s alright,” Batman soothed, “It’s-”

Batman cut himself off, coming to a stop just in front of where Jason was on his hands and knees, desperately trying to quell his panicked breathing.

A hand on his shoulder pulled him into an upright position on his knees. Jason flinched as a flashlight was shined on his face, then gulped audibly as Batman visibly jolted back in shock. The light stayed trained on his face, even as Batman reached out slowly, as if scared he would disappear. His hand first found Jason’s arm, then his neck, pressing to his pulse, and then reached to his face, peeling off the red domino mask with a fragile touch.

A beat passed, where Jason stared into Batman’s cowl, desperately waiting for a reaction.

“Batman, what’s Hood’s status?” came through the comms.

“Jason?” he whispered. He tugged off his cowl, and Bruce’s eyes shone with flickering hope and brokenness. 

Jason sucked in gulps of air in between his hitched breaths, enough for him to rasp out one word, “Dad.”

The light moved away from his face, a black gauntlet grasping tightly onto his arm, nearly bruising in its grip, pulling him roughly forward. Jason lost his balance, tipping straight into a tight hug that knocked the breath out of him, just as it knocked the first tears loose.

“Dad,” he whispered again, the grip around him tightening somehow, “Dad.”

“Jason,” Bruce returned just as reverently, “Oh, son, why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I’m-” Jason sobbed, gasping, “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know… how… how to tell you. Didn’t know what to say. I-”

Bruce shushed him quietly, and Jason dissolved into tears in his father’s arms.

-

“Jason?” Bruce had whispered, and then the words through the comms were too muffled to make out.

“Batman? Batman, are you there?” Dick tried again, sharing another concerned look with Tim. Bruce had gone silent, save for words that were too hard for them to make out. Cass placed a steadying hand on Dick’s shoulder, a silent sign of support.

“Tune into Red Hood’s comms,” Oracle chimed abruptly. Dick frowned, but did as told. 

“-Dad,” the voice, unmodulated for the first time, cracked with emotion, and the two brothers froze. The voice bordered on familiarity, despite the lower tones and faint rasp. 

Damian, who had been inattentive to the audio up until that point, straightened abruptly from where he had been scrutinising a batarang. He was by their side in moments, focused intently on the blank screen of the Batcomputer as if it could provide him the answers of the universe. Cass looked on with narrowed eyes, picking up the tension in their stances, tension for different reasons.

“I’m sorry,” was heard, dissolving into incoherent phrases that were shushed by another voice. Bruce, Dick’s brain supplied. That was Bruce comforting Red Hood- comforting-

“I’m not hearing things, am I?” Dick’s voice trembled, humour falling flat. Tim’s face was pinched beside him, vaguely pale, likely mirroring his own. 

Beside them, Damian breathed deeply, in and out, and turned to them with a determined tilt to his frown.

“The brother I mentioned before,” Damian started, snapping Dick’s attention towards him, “The one who told me about the zoo, about hugs. He told me about you as well, Grayson.”

Damian met his eye with only a flicker of hesitation. “He told me you loved hugs, and other forms of physical affection. He told me you once ate a box of cereal and started doing cartwheels down the hallway. He said you taught him how to fly, and how to fall.”

“Prepare the medbay for smoke inhalation,” Batman’s voice intoned. Alfred had appeared on the steps to the Manor, already making his way towards the medical supplies. Tim and Cass shared a look, and followed.

“Jason Todd,” Dick blurted, Tim’s steps faltering, Cass freezing. Something clattered out of Alfred’s always-steady hands. “The brother you’re talking about. Is his name Jason Todd?”

Damian’s gaze, still wary and too-old from his childhood training, nodded with conviction.

-

Alfred paused at the bedside, taking a moment to stare at the absolute miracle in front of him, sleeping peacefully with the same expression he had once seen on a small malnourished boy. He had just managed to convince Master Bruce to wash up before staying vigil by Master Jason’s side, and Alfred was quietly glad for the moment to allow himself the time to take in Master Jason’s aged appearance.

Alfred rested a hand on Jason’s head, and allowed himself an indulgent brush through the young man’s hair, the tuft of white hair tangled into his raven hair. 

“My dear boy,” Alfred whispered, “Words cannot describe how glad I am, to see you alive.”

Master Jason twitched slightly, eyes flitting open just enough to take in Alfred’s face. A small smirk made its way to his lips, a greeting as much as it was a sign of his relief. Master Jason hummed out something intelligible, but Alfred shushed the boy, and his eyes easily slid shut once more.

-

Jason jolted awake with a gasp.

“Jay,” came a soft rumble, “Jaylad. You’re okay. It’s okay.”

Jason flitted his gaze over the room, cataloguing everything he could see in the dim lighting, before familiarity met him with sudden certainty. His gaze drifted over to the speaker.

“It’s okay,” Bruce repeated softly, guiding Jason back to lying against the pillow.

“B-” Jason grimaced at his dry throat, “Bruce?”

Bruce offered him a cup of water. Jason squinted at it and lifted his hand, but Bruce’s hand lowered it before the water could so much as ripple. “No bending in the Manor,” Bruce huffed, his lips twitching into a small smile, “Alfred would have your head in no time.” Jason huffed a laugh as the cup was pressed into his hand.

When the cup had been emptied, Jason cast another glance over the room. It was Bruce’s bedroom, Bruce on a chair beside the bed, Jason in the bed, now propped up against the headboard.

“The bender,” Jason started, turning to eye Bruce, subconsciously checking for injuries. He had a nasty-looking bruise on his arm, but otherwise looked alright. 

“He got away,” Bruce stated, “With Talia.” Bruce paused, visibly reigning himself in, settling for, “Jason… I have many questions.”

“I’m sure you do,” Jason agreed with a cringe, “There’s… a lot to cover.”

He blinked then, perking up once more, “Damian. Can I see Damian?”

“Talia let you meet him,” Bruce guessed. Jason nodded distractedly, shuffling himself out of the covers and inching towards the edge of the bed. He paused to sniff the baggy shirt he was wearing, and blinked at Bruce. “Am I wearing your clothes?”

“You are,” Bruce confirmed, lip ticked up in amusement. There was a concerned glint in his eyes as Jason stood up, swaying through a head-rush. Bruce’s hands stuttered towards him, but hesitated. Jason took the initiative and wrapped his arms tightly around Bruce, and Bruce hugged him back just as firmly.

“Damian’s having breakfast with the others,” Bruce spoke softly, “Are you… ready to see them? Or would you rather me bring Damian up alone?”

Jason hesitated. 

“I kind of owe them all answers, don’t I? Let’s just get it over and done with. Rip it off like a band-aid.”

Bruce hummed, lingering in the hug for a long moment before finally letting his arms go loose. Jason pulled away with a small smile, Bruce brushing a hand over his face with an overly tender expression.

There was vague scuffling coming from the kitchen.

“Quick, grab the coffee, Dami!” Dick hollered with a laugh, easily swiping Tim into the air and holding him over his shoulder. Tim twisted with a feral kick at Dick’s face, which he easily dodged by maneuvering until Tim’s arms were pinned and his legs stuck out too far to hit anything substantial. 

“Be careful, Masters,” Alfred called from where he was dealing with their pancakes, not once looking up to acknowledge the play-fighting.

Cassandra was watching from the side, the only one to acknowledge Bruce and Jason as they walked in, giving them a smile and a wave. She stepped towards Bruce first, pulling him into a short hug, and did the same for Jason. Jason froze unsurely, but Cassandra smiled into his collar and giggled. “Cass,” she murmured, pulling away to beam, “Hello, brother.”

Jason returned the smile tentatively. “Hello, sister,” he offered, Cass’ smile stretching wider. Bruce looked ready to burst with emotion.

Tim whined and slumped over in Dick’s grip as Damian, on Dick’s encouraging nod, poured away the coffee into the sink, “This is unfair! Absolutely unfair! It’s only been a week and I’m already suffering from middle-child syndrome. Unfair.”

Jason snuck up on Dick and pounced, tipping them both to the ground and grabbing Tim out of Dick’s hold. “Middle children have to stick together,” Jason nodded sagely, grinning widely as Tim stared down at him dazedly, from where he had ended up sprawled on top of him.

“Jay!” Dick chirped brightly, and Jason grunted as the older boy flopped on top of them both, “You’re awake!”

“Get off, Dickhead!” Jason managed to roll out from under him. One thing led to another, and suddenly Jason had himself wrapped in a Dick Grayson Hug that was definitely not stopping anytime soon. That was about the time he met Damian’s eye, and he gave the boy a warm smile.

“What did I tell you, Baby Bat?” he drawled, rolling his eyes and gesturing to Dick’s arms, “Dickie loves hugs. Can’t get away from him even if you tried.”

“Damn right,” Dick hummed happily, squeezing briefly, “You run now and I’ll hunt you down and hug you for even longer.”

Jason gave an answering pat to Dick’s shoulder in acknowledgement. To Damian, he shook his head in mock-annoyance. Damian stepped forward, then, and folded himself against Jason’s other side. Jason curled his arm around the boy, and Damian shoved himself more firmly against his side.

“Your eyes aren’t green,” Damian whispered. 

“No, they’re not,” Jason agreed, “I… it’s a long story, but I managed to get rid of the Pit rage, and got my bending back, while I was at it.”

“We have time,” Tim pointed out, settling himself on the ground in front of the small pile of pressed-together bodies, “I don’t think you’ll be extracting yourself from Dick anytime soon, either.”

Jason huffed, smiling softly. “I’ll start from the beginning, then.”

[batarangsoundsdumb]

yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

[batfoonery]

BatPets Headcanons

In honor of the Most Glorious and Beloved Bitewing (and Ace and Titus and Alfred the Cat and Goliath and Batcow.....) I wanted to share my thoughts on what pets the batfam has and should have.

Dick

Ahhhhhhh Bitewing! Our new beloved! We've only just gotten you but if you get whooshed away by bad writers I already know I will RIOT.

It actually makes perfect sense for Dick to take in a stray pup. His bro-son has the attitude and personality of a cat, so he already had that covered. And I can't see him paying high prices for a designer breed (bless him) so it's stray/shelter or nothing.

That being said, he also needs a young dog. Some people are made with the disposition to take in the older dogs with older dog needs, but Dick loves deeply and I can't see that he'd deal well with the shorter timeframe of taking in older dogs. So. Younger dogs, that he can go running with in the morning and play with in the park and nap with on the couch.

Jason

My man has taste, and also had a doggo as a kid. He's got a soft spot for all of Gotham's forgotten strays. I see him as being a pitbull kind of guy, but like. Also mastiffs. Anything big and menacing looking, but they always turn out to be utter marshmallows.

Totally the type to name his big scary dog Tinkerbell or Baby or something mushy like that. Likewise, Kori and Artemis (and probably Roy) all collect cutesy costumes and collars and leashes. Has the most cutsey giant dog.

The kind of dog that he can trust to take care of kids. If he's particularly concerned about a kid out on the street he can drop the dog off to stand guard until the kid's parent shows up. The dog is real gentle with the lil human, but scares off potential kidnappers.

Cass

The first of our exotics keepers! I feel like Cass would really appreciate betta fish. The way the swim and flit through the water, fins seeming to dance as they moved.... like tulle, like dancing.

She probably has several tanks. The first one she got was from Petsmart or PetCo or whatever. It irked her because she knows they don't tend to treat the fish well, but the local petshop's fish were all extremely sickly looking. After that she's hooked, for lack of a better word, and Bruce ends up learning way more than he ever needed to learn about importing fish (and paying for imported fish).

She's meticulous about their care. They've all got nice big clean tanks, and a companion to help keep them clean (different ones according to temperaments, snails for the easier going ones and shrimp for the more aggressive boys). They've got live plants and decorations to hide under, each tank a different theme to show off the fish. Has lowkey been considering getting a female for one of her favorite easy going boys (the first one, who has become a very soothing companion) because he's getting older and she'd like to be able to carry a part of him on.

Tim

His companion is an emotional support animal, with papers from his doctor and everything. Seems like he should be a dog person, but instead has a very big Turkish Angora. Her name is Mrs. Tuffles and he got her from a breed-specific rescue.

She's good for him because she disrupts his work and also helps provide a soothing presence when he has a panic attack. At night if he isn't in bed at a certain time she lays on top of whatever he's working on. If he's panicking she lays on his lap or chest and purrs (the added weight, the feeling and sounds of the purrs, held disrupt tension). She's a cuddly cat, and it tricks him into sleeping in in the mornings.

When he finds out that cats purr on a wavelength that encourages healing, and that there's evidence that they sit on humans and purr in attempts to heal/help them, he bursts into tears and startles the cat, who had been draped over his shoulders.

Steph

Got a bunny because she thought it would be an easy pet. She was very very wrong. It was from one of the neighbors in her building, because the mom of the kid who brought it home didn't want it anymore. It's a cute little lop, grey and brown.

She quickly discovers that bunnies are super dirty, and they absolutely stink. It bites her for the first week (and Tim and Jason and everyone else that isn't Damian, who somehow tricks it into loving him) and she seriously considers taking it to the shelter. But she doesn't. By week three, he's snuggling up on her feet and in her lap, and she decides that maybe he isn't so bad after all.

He didn't have a name when she got him, so she call him Mi-Mi. She doesn't tell Damian, but it's totally named after him because he reminds her of the way Damian had been when she'd first met him and the progression of their friendship over time.

Duke

Seems like a bird type of dude. Probably has a Cockatiel or two. They're very sassy birbs, and there's no way he doesn't enjoy that. One of them repeats words, and has picked up swears from Jason. It swears at Bruce every time he comes in Duke's room. Everyone except Bruce finds it funny.

The other one "dances" whenever it hears music coming from Cass's room. They're both very active and curious, he's contantly having to buy toys for them to rip apart. One of them nipped Damian's ear once, and Duke has never seen Damian look more offended in his life. It was probably the first pet that Damian hadn't been able to Disney-Princess.

They've probably got a dumb name pair. Tom and Jerry, Chip and Dale, etc. Personally I think he'd get a kick out of naming them Batman and Robin, just to fuck with Bruce. He probably then teaches the one who talks (Batman) to say dumb things like "I am the night! I work alone!" etc etc.

Damian

Has all the animal companions. Not pets. That makes them beneath him, which probably opposes his fundamental beliefs. This is my reminder to yall that Ra's started out as an eco-terrorist. Putting aside what he is or is not now, I like to believe that Damian was raised with a deep respect for nature and animals, he probably sees humans as just one particularly terrible animal species.

He has a wide array of companions as is. I'm good with them all, although I wish they'd bring back his dragon friend. :( I love the dragon friend.

I think he'd be the type to have axolotls too. They've got an interesting mythological basis and fit into the dragon theme. Plus the short story "The Axolotl" by Cortazar is a fascinating piece of mystical realism and I could see that he'd be intrigued by the species. They're endangered in the wild because of habitat destruction and invasion of foreign species that prey on them, but are easily bred in captivity. So I could see he'd keep at least one breeding pair, with the intent to someday bully Bruce into funding a project to save their natural habitat.

Barbara

Doesn't have her own pets, because she doesn't want the responsibility on top of everything else she does.

But her apartment always has furry/feathered friends in it because she's constantly petsitting for the others when they have to go do hero stuff. She's basically like a step-mom for everyone else's pets. She's learned how to take care of tanks and whatnot as well, mostly for Cass. The axolotls are gross and she refuses to touch those tanks, but the bettas are kinda like cute grumpy old men. She likes to tease Bruce by telling him his grand-fish take after him.

Always has a variety of pet snacks with her. She is determined to be the overall favorite human to all the bat-pets. Competition is fierce between her and Dami, but she has an edge because Robin the Cockatiel seems to prefer her.

[iphoenixrising]

If it's not a problem I would like to see what happens when omega Tim safe words out?

I just so in love with how you wrote him and I know you've a thing with Dr Tim and safe words but I would really appreciate if you'll give me this with omega Tim

Have a great day/night

Babe asked for O!Tim safe wording out. Taking into account how much he’s been able to take so far in my fics, then it’s apparently going to be truly something for him to safe word, right?

….or is this just another excuse to have AAANNNNNGGGGGGSSSSSSSTTTTTT.

(I regret nothing, but, well, you might, babe :D :D)

**

It was just supposed to be Pack support. Just the Bats realizing they had an Omega in their ranks, an Omega who had been more on the outskirts than part of the inner circle, an Omega who had been walking a long road alone. Just the Dick and Jay trying to be good Alphas and take care of him. Just giving in to those crazy instincts.

It was never supposed to hurt. It was never supposed to break him. Not like the first time when he was essentially kicked out of the Pack, when his cape was pulled out from under him, and his place became a question mark instead of a given. (Falling from Wayne Towers because Ra’s is such a douce canoe, he’d been beaten to fuck, blood loss and a real concussion to blame when he wondered if they’d bother putting up a case with his suit, if he even mattered that much to Dick, if he ever really did…)

When he presented, when he didn’t have a hint of a Pack scent, It had taken an embarrassingly long time to feel like he could get anywhere near the city. Long after he’d sent Bruce back home, telling him everything with sparse details, why there wasn’t an R on his shoulder, why he couldn’t be Batman’s sidekick anymore. He’d left all the pain locked in his chest, keeping himself as impartial as possible to deliver the hard facts, ignoring the whimpering, cowering Omega in the depths of him crying out for someone, anyone to want him, need him, keep him.

Working his way back in hadn’t been easy. Keeping his presentation under wraps with scent blockers and suppressants hadn’t been either, but there was no way in hell he was going to let something like the fact he was an Omega be the reason they wanted him back. Fuck, no.

But it happened anyway. Slowly but surely, O called him more often about cases, wanted to know if he had any helpful intel. B dropped by the Tower, more than once, to seek him out, told him how buggy the Batcomputer must be this point, but he wouldn’t really know, Tim, because you always handled that, didn’t you? Dick tentatively showed up in one of his safe houses while he riding an undercover stint, pizza and terrible B sci-fi flicks, looked crushed when Tim closed the door on him by sheer self-preservation instinct.  Jason Todd showed up to fish him out of the middle of the Atlantic when a case of crimefighting gone hilariously awry ended up with a thwarted world-domination plot and his ass landed in the middle of, you know, the ocean and shit. Damian of all people demanded his presence in Gotham for the upcoming anniversary of Batcow’s induction into the family.

(When he’d blurted out, “why would you want me back? Aren’t you the one that wanted me gone in the first place? Well, I mean, got what you asked for, right? How about we pretend this conversation never happened.” 

He had been in no way prepared for the demon himself to come hunt him down with a vengeance. Robin seeking him out no matter where he hopped next on the fight crime, kick ass, and take names train.)

(That kid? Seriously.)

And as much as Dick had apologized after he finally made his way back to Gotham, had said no Omega in his Pack should have been alone, without a Bat safety net (reads as: mother hen), he had seemed genuinely upset Tim had presented outside of Gotham, on his own.

Worse, he hadn’t told anyone. Hadn’t come back.

(Like he thought that was an option at the time.)

It wasn’t until later, after they found out he presented, and were…upset he’d been on his own for so long afterwards, that he’d laughed at Dick’s angry expression, shaking his head.

“Come back? Why? To what? I didn’t have any Pack scent by then, and I sure as fuck wasn’t welcome, so why bother? I did what I had to do. We got Bruce back, didn’t we?”

He hadn’t been prepared for how strongly Dick’s musk flared, how the Alpha went deadly serious, had stepped back and palmed some pellets on instinct when facing something potentially dangerous – like a pissed off, feral Alpha male.

It had taken visible effort for Dick to get a hold of his Alpha instincts, which had absolutely perplexed him at the time because really? They hadn’t been partners, allies, friends for almost two years by then.

“It was…I tried to….Tim –“

He’d just waved off the helpless sputtering because by then, it hadn’t really mattered.

“It all worked out in the end. Don’t think about it all too hard, Dick. I don’t.” Which had been an obvious lie, but had at least appeased the Alpha enough not to viciously scent him or use the dreaded octopus hold until he was cuddled within an inch of his life.

So coming back was…different. Unexpected.

Being the official Pack Omega came with Bats all over his everything. Bats coming out of the woodwork when he was starting to run down, when his Heat was approaching, when he’d been out of the city for too long.

(It was all for nothing in the end. Because they’re only after the Omega now, not the boy that used to wear the R…)

“Heat’s easier with an A, Timmers,” Jay had started that ball rolling. “Ya ever gotta need fer the real thing, betcha I know a few Alphas what might help ya out.”

“I can call some Alphas I trust if that becomes the case.” Had been off-handed in his mind, but it had been something else to see Jason’s expression smooth out, to catch the soft noise of leather when the Red Hood’s hands had clenched into fists.

But against his better judgement, he’d let them into his Heat safehouse. At first just to let them deliver Alfred goodies. Later because they wanted to stay, to spend his Heat together.

It was fine as long as they would just leave afterwards. It was fine as long as it stayed just instincts, just Alphas and an Omega. It was fine because they still treated him like Red Robin on the streets and left him alone when he went blackout on cases outside the city.

It was fine until it suddenly wasn’t.

“Gawd, sweetheart,” Jay moans against the nape of his neck, noses against the base, “ya feel s’ good. My sweet lil’ ‘Mega. My purty ‘Mega, lettin’ me in, givin’ it up ta yer Alpha. Gonna lemme be good ta ya, yeah? That’s right. Perfect fer me, ain’t cha?”

It’s his second day, so he’s with it enough to realize what Jason said.

“Yeah he is,” Dick’s fingers in his hair, nails scratching at his scalp. “He’s such a good Omega for us, isn’t he Jay? He fits so nicely between us. Our cute O–“

“Red.” Tim croaks out from under Jay’s bigger body, the wet sounds of skin slapping fast and furious. He bucks up against Jay with real strength, his eyes already getting ridiculously hot and full.

“Red, dammit! Get the hell off me!”

He yells loud enough to make Jay flinch and jerk up abruptly from where he’d been laying over Tim’s back.

Dick’s hand pauses before untangling from his hair.

And even if the Heat is still burning, his body desperate for the knot that was just seconds ago opening him up for it, Tim pulls off Jason’s Alpha cock wetly, doing it himself while both Alphas seem frozen in their spots, not sure why he would safe word out at all. He seemed to be enjoying them!

Tim’s already clawing and scrambling off the bed, careful not to touch either of them, legs wobbly, messy ass and thighs on display, feeling open and raw and needy, but his chest too tight, his lungs seemingly unable to get enough air.

The bathroom door has a lock. Not that it was much of a deterrent if the Alphas really wanted to get to him, but there’s always the window big enough for him to fit through, too small for Dick or Jay. It would give him enough of a head start anyway.

At one point, he’d pulled a towel off the rack, wrapping it around himself, sitting against the bathroom door to literally block it with his body without being consciously aware of it.

He didn’t move, stayed bare ass on the cold tile floor, concentrated on getting enough air back in his lungs, biting down on his lower lip until his eyes stop spilling over, hot and full, until his chest stops stuttering with half-sobs. Until the Omega in him calms it the utter fuck down.

Soft tapping filters through when the door vibrates against his back.

Dick’s voice filters in while the inside of his head is an utter mess. “… got some pajamas for you, and-and a sandwich. Jay made coffee. Can you let me in, sweetheart?”

“Don’t call me that,” is out of his mouth before he can stop it. “I’m not your fucking Omega. I wasn’t enough to be your partner, your brother, and I’m sure as fuck not going to be your bitch either.”

“What the fuck didja just say ta ‘im?” Jay barks from outside the door.

“It’s just instincts,” he tries to snarl but his voice is hoarse, “that’s all this is. You think I don’t know that?” The laugh is scarily unhinged, “it’s not like anyone chose me, right?”

Because honestly, that hasn’t happened his whole vigilante career.

There’s silence outside the door. Stillness. The Omega writhes inside him, still needs a knot, still wants the Alphas even though Tim knows better than to think they want anything other than a warm hole, another vigilante to share the burden, an Omega’s influence in the Pack.

(He fucking gets it.)

“Apparently, we should talk.” Dick’s voice is flat, something like anger or disappointment.

“Get out,” is what Tim says instead. “Get dressed and get the fuck out. I’ll take care of myself.”

Like I’ve always done. Even back when I wore the tunic.

“Tim, we shouldn’t–“

“No,” and his own scent had changed from candy sweet to alarmingly bitter to his own nose. “You are going to get your clothes on and leave. You two don’t see me through anymore Heats. I find someone else or take care of it myself.”

“What?!” Jay sounds floored, “what the shit is this alla sudden? Ya can’t be serious right now.”

“I’m not fucking around, Jason. You leave, or I will.”

“You can’t go out smelling like Heat!”

“I dunno what the hell’s goin’ on wit’ ya but–“

He stands up on wobbly legs, moves to push the window open, knows they’ll hear the squealing because he’s not trying to be quiet about it.

“Whoa, whoa! All right, all right, fer fuck’s sake!”

“We’re getting dressed and leaving,” Dick is right up against the door. “Don’t go out the window, Tim. We’re…we’re going to go, okay?”

“Then go. Now.” He says from the window without turning around. He can’t chance his inner Omega will push him to whine at the door, to smell like open for business, take me, love me, make me yours because that is not at all where any of them are right now.

He hears them talking, their voices getting more muted as they go back to the bedroom to apparently do as he asked.

Tim climbs out of the tub, window still up, and turns on the shower without getting in, just using the noise as a deterrent.

“Don’t like it, Dickie,” he vaguely catches as the Alphas pass by the door again. “We try ta take care a’ ‘im and that’s what the fuck he says?”

“He safe worded, Jay. What does that mean to you?”

And Tim’s throat gets tight when he thinks about the implications Dick is suggesting.

“Dunno. How ‘bout ya gimme yer theories, Detective.”

“Later. I want to make sure there’s water and Alfred meals left in the feezer.”

“Fine, them let ‘im take care of his own ass. I ain’t never took advantage of a ‘Mega in my fucking life.”

Tim doesn’t leave the bathroom until he hears the front door slam closed. He darts out long enough to reconfigure the security system, makes sure no Bats are getting in without a hell of a shock.

The rest of his Heat is utterly fucking miserable, natch.

He feels wrung out and hurt by the time it’s done and he’s ready to put on the suit again.

He doesn’t put in the Batcomm, for the first time in months, and it goes back in a drawer before he takes off out the window.