#jason & steph sibling bonding for the win

[spacedace]

Here, have a snippet of the Jason & Steph sibling bonding portion of the DP x DC AU I wrote 10k words for since last night in a haze of post sickness/burnout creative burst, featuring some Anger Management because of course it does lol

(I call it a snippet but it’s like...3k words lol)

Trigger Warnings because most of this snippet focuses on them running around Crime Alley and shit that goes down in it: references to drugs, overdoses, domestic abuse, child endangerment (if I miss anything let me know and I’ll add it). Nothing expliciet or details but they are things mentioned as happening because, well, Crime Alley.

-

Spoiler shifts subtly from foot to foot on the rooftop, hands open and ready at her side as she split her attention from watching him and checking the street below for signs of trouble. Her gaze was sharp on the girls working the corner, tracking for any hint that the man talking them up was making any of them uncomfortable even as she made sure Jason didn’t suddenly dart across the ten feet between them to strike out at her.

“George Conrad.” He said, satisfied that his sudden breaking of the silence didn’t make her jump though did catch her attention fully, fingers twitching warningly towards her belt. He nodded his head down to the street and the large man rummaging through the bag he brought with him. More of the girls had huddled up around him. “Not a john. Not even from Gotham.” He explained, shifting to walk over to the edge of the roof, giving her his back as he did. “His son Kyle ran away from home while George was oversees and ended up working the streets. George tracked him down once he was back in the states a few years ago but by the time he made it here Kyle had been killed.”

She moved to join him at the ledge, still leaving space between them but not enough for his guns to be as effective. Smart, vigilant, but still with a soft enough heart to stop and listen to one of the many tragedies that played out in Gotham’s darkest streets.

“What happened?” She asked, eyes softening on the big man in question as he started handing out ziploc bags. Jason knew very well what they held, and wondered if Spoiler could make out the finer details from the distance they were at. Sandwiches, granola bars, water bottles, condoms, clean needles, wet-wipes, little travel sewing kits, over the counter pain meds. Anything and everything George had ever been told would be appreciated or useful by the sex workers he spoke to.

“Overdose.” Jason answered, grateful that the distorter built into his helmet disguised the tightness of his voice. Memories of a cold body on the floor, stiff and waxy with distant glassy eyes. “Got mixed up with the wrong person. Boyfriend. Not a big player but,” He shrugged and knew that Spoiler would understand. It was how a lot of people got mixed up in sex work when they wouldn’t have normally. Boyfriend that promised the world, the painful fall into being pressured to sleep with said boyfriend’s friend, then another, then another. “One of Daisy’s boys was a neighbor and figured out what was going on, Daisy helped get him out but it was too late by then.”

Below one of the girls, younger than the rest - an adult, because he wouldn’t allow anything else in his territory, but still new to the scene - surged forward to wrap her arms around the old man. George gave her a gentle pat on the back, pushing her back gentle to dig out a card from his pocket. A list of numbers for her to call, shelters and organizations that could help, his own number in case she ever needed anything. “They chipped in for a funeral for him. Gave George somewhere to go and mourn. He’s been here ever since, trying to look after them all. He works as a bouncer at Daisy’s these days but he always does the rounds when he isn’t working.”

“People never get this part.” Spoiler mused, voice going soft and distant. “They always think the Alley is just…” She waved a gloved hand, “Trash and monsters. They can’t seem to get that there’s more. Just…people. Some really good ones even.”

He smiled behind his mask. There was a reason she was the one of the whole Bat Clan he’d decided to trust with this.

“Come on.” He said, waving her after him as he began an easy run that’d let them both move easily from rooftop to rooftop. Spoiler hesitated a moment, but at length followed, quick and quiet as she darted from shadow to shadow in his wake.

They spent the following couple of hours meandering around Crime Alley at an easy clip. Squat roofs and rusted fire escapes, narrow streets and dark corners. Pausing to jump in and handle anything that popped up or at particular spots of interest where he’d point out places and people. The chop shop run by the ragged gang of teens and children some of the gangs had been angling towards that needed looking after. The homeless encampment nestled between the grimy apartment building Daisy O’Neil had taken over to run her business out of and the tiny, almost forgotten pauper’s cemetery. The usual roosting spots for the drug dealers, the gambling dens, the little family owned cafe that had the best Tantuni at midnight and even better Turkish coffee at the crack of dawn.

It was as they perched on top of this last one, tucked back in the shadows away from view as Spoiler devoured the freshly made Lokma that Mrs. Solak insisted on making fresh for them when they stopped by that the question finally came.

“So what exactly is all this?” Spoiler asked, popping another of the sugary, honey covered Lokma in her mouth. He’d shoved the container Mrs. Solak had given to him over to her after eating only a few, knowing she was going to try to steal them anyway if he didn’t. “When you said you needed my help with something in Crime Alley, I was expecting…I don’t know, drug runners or something.” She popped another golden dough ball in her mouth, cheeks round as a chipmunk and voice muffled as she said, “Not a tour of the place.”

Jason let his head fall back on the brick of the rooftop entrance behind them, eyes scanning the glittering horizon of the Gotham skyline, trying to sort out his answer. He had talked about how he was going to do this with Jazz, practicing what he was going to say, what he wanted to reveal, what outcomes he could expect from the whole thing. When he left he’d felt confident about it all, riding high on the warmth of Jazz’s kiss and the fluttering thumps of little legs kicking against his hand. Now that he was here though he felt lost as to how to begin.

“I’m hanging up the mask.” He finally said. It wasn’t quite like the first time he’d said it out loud, in the privacy of his apartment, curled in bed with Jazz, only brave enough to whisper it in the dark. There wasn’t that rush of anxiety and relief that had hit him at finally saying what had twisted over and over in his head for weeks leading up to that moment. Now there was just the settled feeling, the certainty, the surety of being on the path he wanted to be on. “I wanted to ask if you’d look after my territory me when I do.”

Spoiler gaped at him. “Wait, seriously?”

He almost laughed, he settled on giving her a lazy smile. “Seriously.”

With her masked pulled down so she could eat her treats he could see her wide eyed, disbelief on her face easily. “Why?”

He gave a shrug, aiming for nonchalant. “This used to be your territory for awhile, right? You’re from here, you know the Alley and the people and how it all works.” He felt his smile go softer, “I trust you to be able to keep it safe.”

Spoiler’s - Steph’s - expression softened at that. “That’s…thank you.” She glanced out the same way he had before, face caught in something bittersweet. “I…I hated this place growing up. I still do, kinda. I think everyone that lives here does. But I still missed it, it’s still…still home.”

“Yeah,” He agreed, mind turning over his childhood. The constant fear and hardship. Living rough even when he did have a roof over his head. His father’s heavy hands. His mother’s slow wasting. Crime Alley was a complete shit hole, one where the worst of the worst tended to gather. But it wasn’t all monsters. There were good people too, just trying to scrape by. Old George wandering the streets handing out necessities to working girls and boys. The Solak family and their little shop, giving out the left overs to the street kids and homeless. The Nightingales, crammed into their two bedroom apartment, just trying to get by. “I knew you’d get it.”

They sat in silence for awhile. Steph chewing over his request and her Lokma, Jason lost in memories of the past and wistful dreams of the future. At length the blond next to him bumped his shoulder with hers, head tilting at a questioning angle. “I…I really appreciate what you said, about why me.” She said, awkward and touched in equal measure. “But…I was actually wondering why you were stepping back.”

He was ready for that question, he was. He’d initially just wanted to leave it at none of your fucking business but Jazz had - wise as ever - pointed out that he was asking her a favor, and a big one at that. He might not be comfortable with the rest of his family knowing everything - or anything - but Steph at least deserved an explanation as to why he was asking her to take over his territory.

“You tell anyone this, and I will kill you.” He started and then cringed internally because that had not at any point been something that had come up in his practice conversations with Jazz. Oh well, any more ooie-gooey feelings talk and Steph probably would have thought he was replaced by a pod person or something. “I’m seeing someone.”

The faintly alarmed look the blond vigilante beside him had melted away in an instant, replaced by a sly, mischievous grin. Hellion. One whiff of gossip and that’s all it took. “Ooooh, Big Bad Red Hood has a heart after all.” She crooned, ignoring her earlier reticence to get too close and leaning dramatically against his side. “Who is it huh? Anyone I know? Ooh, is it someone in the Outlaws?”

He was reminded of before he died, suddenly. Of teasing Dick over his latest crush over a beautiful red head that could kick his ass like a proper annoying little brother. In an echo of that moment so many years ago, he shoved Spoiler off in the same way Dick had done to him, rolling his eyes at her dramatic squawking as she nearly dropped her treat to disguise the small smile that wanted to curl at his lip. He swiped at the container lazily, a feint at stealing it back that resulted in a brief scuffle that ended with him popped a few of the Lokma in his mouth as she tore the container - that he had given to her in the first place - away, holding it close to her chest like a precious treasure.

“No, no one you know.” He answered at last they finally settled down. He paused for a beat, gaze turning back to the city as he added. “She’s a civilian.”

Spoiler looked considering at that, chewing at one of the last of the Lokma thoughtfully. “So what’s going on then? You do a face reveal and she asked you to quit the vigilante business?”

“No.” He said, taking a small, steadying breath. Better to just rip off the bandaid. “She’s pregnant.”

Spoiler went still beside him, laughing eyes shuttering and face falling into a neutral mask as she stared at him. After a long, long moment she gave a small, unreadable little, “Oh.”

Jason fought the urge to fidget. Oh. It could mean so many things. Oh shit. Oh no. Oh how nice. Oh boy I can’t wait to tell Bruce about this. That last one, admittedly, was unlikely. Spoiler was on good terms with most of the Bats and Birds but she and Bruce had long had something of a rocky relationship. No where near as bad as what he and the old man had, but still enough that she was probably the very last person to willingly go hunt Bruce down to share all the details of Jason’s private life unless she thought it particularly necessary.

The silence stretched on. And Jason knows what silence does to a human brain. Four seconds of quiet during a conversation after saying something registers as rejection, caused feelings of anxiety and apprehension, even caused the same signals in the brain as physical pain. Prolonged silence and steady attention at the same time caused an urge to fill the quiet, to speak and keep speaking until the other person says something. It was something Bruce taught him, guiding him along in his Robin days on how to perform interrogation and get the person they were questioning to spill their guts.

He was taught too how to outlast that silence in situations where he was being questioned. Both by Bruce and by the League - though the interrogations that he was meant to resist under their teachings had far more than long awkward silences to contend with. He knew how to clamp down on that instinctive drive to keep talking when faced with stillness like this.

And yet, somehow he could stop himself.

“I just…I think about being a kid and my dad going to work,” He said the word with appropriate amount of vitrol, “And then never coming back. Him dying in jail and it just being me and my mom trying to scrape by. Or…or with Bruce. Knowing that I was always going to place second to the Rogues and the city. I just…” His head dropped back on the brick behind him, eyes closed and throat tight. “I can’t do that to my kid. I’m going to be there. I’m going to make sure they’re safe and happy and that they don’t ever have to worry about if their old man is coming home or not.”

It was a nightmare he’d been having, since the morning he and Jazz crowded over a couple of pregnancy tests and saw the results. Dying out in the gutter and shambling home as a ghost to see the grief he left behind. Jazz crying, a child who’s features he could never make out standing in the doorway the way he would stand at the entrance of the cave when he was too injured to go out with Batman. Waiting in painful silence and burning tears to find out that his father was dead.

“I’m not…I’m not cutting out of the life completely.” He said, trying to focus past the squeezing in his chest, trying to force the conversation back into a conversation rather than him just pouring his bleeding heart out to a blank wall. “I’m going to talk to Babs, see if she’d be alright with me helping with some of what she does, or get something similar setup solely for the Alley. I’m going to keep tabs with my guys on what’s going on and work with them that way. And if there’s anything big, obviously you guys can call me in, I’m not just going to sit back if there’s a city wide threat or worse, I just - “

There were arms around him, suddenly. Warm and strong as they wrapped around him, a face pressed into his shoulder, his nose tickled by blond hair.

He sat there, frozen for a long moment before slowly, lifting his own arms to return the hug. Steph gave him an encouraging squeeze. “I get it.” She said, voice whisper soft and almost lost as she spoke into the leather of his jacket. “I think…I think if I’d been older, if I was more able to keep her…I think I would have done the same thing.” There was a faint sniff as she finally pulled away. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes were bright with tears. “I’m happy for you.” She moved to gently head butt him, “And I’m honored to take over watching over this shithole of ours.”

Jason gave a watery laugh, not even caring that he was crying as he scrubbed away some of the tears that had burned down his cheek. “Thanks Blondie. Steph.”

She rocked back on her heels, arms crossed as her expression turned suddenly serious. “I do have one condition though.” At his look the seriousness melted away into an exuberant grin. “I want to meet this mystery woman of yours. Wait!” She brightened, “Two conditions! I want to be there when you finally tell B and the rest! I am not missing the look on their faces when you tell them!”

He rolled his eyes and shoved her, sending her tumbling into the container of Lokma and sending the remaining fried dough balls rolling across the grungy roof. Steph squawked, dropping to her knees before the thoroughly ruined sweets as dramatic as if it was her one true love laying dead before her. “They were so young, so innocent!” She wailed, throwing her head back as if to howl at the sky in mourning before snapping back to him, finger pointing at him accusatory. “You! This is your fault! I will have my vengeance!”

The rest of the night was spent darting from rooftop to rooftop in an echo of the game of tag he used to play with Dick and Babs years ago. Tackling each other and fighting without actually aiming to do real damage. Only pausing to jump down to the street or through a window here and there to knock some heads together.

By the time he was heading to the Dead Man’s Hand so he could walk Jazz home - or whisk her off to his safehouse, if he was lucky and she was able to duck her siblings for the day - he felt lighter. Steph would look after the Alley, the people he protected. He’d work with her over the next few months, get her integrated with his lieutenants and make sure she was familiar with the ins and outs of his little slice of Gotham, make sure she was as ready as she could be to take over for him.

[slumberingcorpse]

The Batfam as the Sailor Moon Characters

Bruce/Batman: Easy, the one and only Sailor Moon. He’s fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight. He is the main character and is the princess. His Brucie Wayne personality is just Usagi’s personality and none of you can change my mind.

Damian: Again, easy. He’s the son of Batman so he would be Chibi Moon. He’s cocky, sometimes annoying, and picks fights with his father and siblings. Very much Chibi Moon behavior.

Talia al Ghul or Catwoman: I’m a bit convicted on this one. As for lore-wise, Talia is the obvious choice for Tuxedo Mask, being Damian’s mother, however, Catwoman makes a better dynamic with her often helping Batman out with Bruce being left swooned and wondering the identity of the mysterious woman under the cat mask. I anything, Catwoman can be Sailor Starfighter, Seiya, from the Sailor Starlights. You guys can choose. Hell, it can be Superman can be Tuxedo Mask.

Dick Grayson: Now, I might get some flack on this but...Sailor Mars. Hear me out. Yes, Mars and Sailor Moon often bicker and fight throughout the show, however, they also have the closest bond with each other. Dick has these both. When he doesn’t agree with Bruce he voices it but he also the one, other than Alfred, that understands him best. Also, he has a temper that is fit for Mars.

Jason Todd: Between Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus. He’s strong, stubborn, and hot-headed at times but he does have a big heart and a gentle side to him that he’s often afraid to show or that is often overlooked. It’s a bit of a toss-up but I’m leaning towards Uranus more. You guys decide.

Tim Drake: Sailor Mercury. I mean, do I have to explain why? He’s unbelievably smart but there is also that habit of being too hard on himself and not thinking he’s good enough.

Barbara Gordon: Sailor Pluto. She’s dependable and responsible. She’s someone that the bat family can go talk to. She’s also very alert and aware of situations in which she uses it to help the family.

Stephanie Brown: Sailor Venus. No doubt. If she and Minako ever met they would be best friends in no time. Steph just has that star power. That light.

Cassandra Cain: Sailor Saturn. She is an absolute sweetheart, is loyal to a fault, and would destroy you if you get in her way.

Duke Thomas: This one is also between Jupiter and Uranus but leaning more towards Jupiter. He gives me that Jupiter vibe.

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

Okay so I saw this post earlier about how the Battle for the Cowl should have been between Cass and Jason (I can’t find it; if anyone knows what it is sorry), and yk it make so much more sense than what happens in canon!! Neither Dick nor Tim want to be Batman - they’ve both been shown to want to make their own path and being Batman stresses them out like crazy. Having either of them fight for it makes no sense. Steph and Babs have their own thing, they have no desire to take the mantle, and Damian is like 10, so?? HE might think he’s ready to be Batman but no one would let him.

Anyway so I’m just gonna say Duke’s already been adopted into the Batfam here (bc I love him) and that Tim and Steph were Robins together because I like it better. And so Bruce dies right? So there’s no Batman. Dick’s chilling in Bludhaven with no desire to be Batman, no one in Gotham wants to be Batman... sans Cass and Jason.

Plus it would be like a moral conflict too - Cass is so against killing, even moreso than Bruce, because of her past and what she was forced to do, while Jason believes there are people you just can’t leave alive. And are either of them right? We don’t know. They both would want at least the role Batman has in protecting the city, though they’d do it in very different ways. And Cass would obviously win because she never loses, but I feel like seeing them battle it out would be so fun bc Jason is brutal, yeah, but he’s also smart as fuck - seeing him trying to figure out Cass’s weaknesses and use them against her and seeing Cass use her own experience and superior abilities against him.

What’s everyone else doing? Dick’s probably stressing the fuck out because two of his siblings are trying to kill each other in Gotham shit- but after a while of getting yelled at he decides to just leave them to it. Damian probably goes with him and is his sidekick like in canon when he was Batman, but given he’s still Nightwing here Damian’s not Robin. Maybe he could be Flamebird - to complete with the story Dick got Nightwing from. I like to think Steph winds up chilling with them too, because I love her bond with Damian (she’s literally the closest to him after Dick and they have such a annoying older sister-bratty younger brother bond and no one does anything with it??) and since I think she’s meant to be the next Nightwing (right?? Am I reading the wrong things??) I’d love to see her have a sibling bond with Dick as well.

Ig Tim has more time to like... obsess over bring Bruce back to life or whatever he did? I genuinely forgot how he did that aside from that “I’m not Batman; I have friends” (Tim my guy icon), so he can probably be doing that while he and Duke and Barbra all continue being vigilantes and protecting people in the middle of Jason and Cass’s fighting. Barbra has better things to be doing - yeah she cares about Jason and Cass both and she probably yells at them to sort it out, but they’re both old enough to figure shit out. Duke is also stressed out but he has more important things going on rn. I feel like Tim wouldn’t care.

Tim and Steph would probably become Spoiler and Red Robin (he named himself after a fast food place does this guy live under a rock) bc no Batman = no Robin. I guess you could go the Steph Batgirl route but I like the Spoiler costume better so I’m sticking with it.

Actually, I kind of don’t want Bruce to come back now. Like how did he even come back in canon what did Tim even do.

[autisticcassandracain]

I'm bored so here's what I headcanon Duke's relationships to be like with the rest of the batfam, ordered from 'closest' to 'I'll take a different elevator':

Cass: I am biased but this does have canon backing! Duke canonically sees Cass as his sibling. They are incredibly mutually supportive and very emotionally open with each other. I think their relationship is very uncomplicated, which, in this family, is a rarity, and it's a rock they both like to lean on.

Bruce: Duke's the batkid with the least amount of baggage around Bruce. For the most part, Bruce has been a very reliable mentor for Duke, and Duke looks up to and respects him a lot. That said, I think Duke probably still has some lingering resentment over the amnesia stint, and is a little wary of Bruce shirking what Duke considers his duties as a result. I also don't think Duke sees Bruce as his dad, since Duke's parents are still alive and he doesn't want a different father. Bruce sees Duke as his son, though.

Alfred: Had a bit of trouble deciding between him and Damian, but I think that while Duke interacts with Damian more, Alfred wins in the trust and respect department. Due to Alfred's involvement in the Robin Collective, I think Duke respects him a lot, and unlike Bruce, there is no period of amnesia to taint it, really. That said, I also think Duke's acutely aware that Alfred's priority is Bruce first and everything else second, which means there'll always be something of a disconnect of priorities between them, since Duke believes Bruce's priority should be Batman/Gotham and is willing to hold him to that. Plus, Alfred is by nature reserved and hard to truly talk to. That said, ultimately, they understand each other very well and there's a lot of mutual respect between them.

Damian: The shitty little brother he never wanted. Duke sees through Damian's bullshit flawlessly and it makes Damian mildly uncomfortable to be Perceived that way, but it also makes communication very easy. That said, they only really talk deep emotional stuff when lives are at stake. Mostly they hang out and annoy each other like siblings ought to.

Jason: Duke exclusively dealt with reboot Jason, who is significantly chiller than preboot Jason, and who I know nothing about lmao. But they canonically get along just fine and are friends, even if they don't seem particularly close. I also think that, even if we were dealing with preboot Jason, Duke would be one of the chillest with him in the batfam, because Duke has no baggage with him. And while Duke's obviously anti-murder, he also doesn't have personal trauma related to it. I think Duke believes that there are worse things than death, and therefor understands Jason's philosophy better than a majority of the batfam. That said I also think that Duke would consider preboot Jason an idiot for thinking you can control drugs by murder.

Steph: The only reason she's ranked this low is bc they haven't interacted in canon. Duke and Steph would get along like a house on fire. Both have a riddle motive, both grew up poor, both had similar senses of cynicism starting out that grew into hope, both think Batman can fuck off if he wants to stop them from DIY-ing their vigilante identities, and also they're both adrenaline junkies. I think they'd mostly hang out without talking about Deep Stuff but they sure would be great friends!

Barbara: I'm talking preboot Oracle Barbara bc fuck you. Tbh I don't think they'd interact that much. Duke's got his own teach support, and there's just not that much reason for him to talk to Babs. That said I think he respects her a lot, and they could bond over having the Joker use them as pawns to take revenge on others, and having this be the catalyst for their vigilante identities.

Tim: He sure exists! Idk I just don't see them interacting that much.

Dick: I think Duke's kinda wary of Dick. Canonically, because Dick sold him out to the cops. If we discard that as OOC then I have no canon backing for this I just think it's funny if Duke's the one person in the batfam who, for some inexplicable reason, thinks Dick's vibes are rancid. Can't win 'em all, Dick.

[flashflashhundredyarddash]

batkids and their relationships with their siblings headcanons. under read more because this got fucking LONGGG

dick

dick is the eldest so he doesnt want to bog down his younger siblings with his problems, but if he DOES, he tends to talk to jason about it

dick and cass start to really begin to bond when Cass shows up to dicks gymnastics class for 3rd-6th graders and then cass shows up all the sixth graders and they get frozen yogurt after lmao

dick and tim are Very much thick as thieves. tim is very much like bruce on the Emotional Suppression scale, so dick just really wants to make sure his little brother is safe and happy ALL the time

Duke and Damian are the only two really permanently at the manor anymore, so when dick drops by he tries to do something with both of them. duke frantically zoom calls dick every other week to help him with his his trig homework. dick shows up to dukes high school graduation with literally the BIGGEST SIGN

everyone insists damian is dicks favorite but he does actually genuinely love all his siblings equally, his relationship with damian is just Very different from the others because of the age gap and being dami's primary caretaker for a year. dick babies dami every chance he gets

jason

would sell Dick to satan for One corn chip

him and cass don't have the greatest start to their relationship because cass is very much Against Killing so it takes a while for jason to warm up to her and earn her trust. now, though, jason is competing with steph by showing cass all the classic American Teenager things she missed out on. steph is currently winning but jason is like 98% positive a crunch wrap from taco bell is going to push him over the edge

tim and jason are currently competing over who can solve the most cases in a month. tim is winning. that won't last long.

jason Loves to Big Brother duke its so embarrassing. duke will get out of school and go to his car and jason is SITTING IN THE FRONT SEAT FRANTICALLY WAVING TO GET DUKES ATTENTION. JASON THAT IS MY CAR. signal has one (1) mission with arsenal and arsenal goes hey did you ask that girl to homecoming yet and duke is like I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU.

Damian is proof that Actually, Little Brothers are Pests. Jason fully believes that he was brought back from the dead PURELY to torment damian and he will fulfill this mission at any cost

cassandra

it actually really upset her when Dick didn't accept her at first. she knows her other siblings really adore dick so his lack of trust was really disheartening. it takes dick a while but once he Actually Accepts that cass is going to be a permanent part of their life and oh, wow, dick you really hurt her feelings he really hyperfocuses on bonding with cass for a couple of months which definitely improves their relationship

she really likes jason!! their relationship doesn't start well but because he's close with steph and tim who are cass's top two favorite people to exist ever, cass is like well i GUESS ill hang out with him more. jason is fun to talk to because he always tries his best to explain jokes and give context to what people are talking about (also tim took her to taco bell already but she didn't tell jason she just wanted to hang out)

cass LOVES tim. they just click okay. tim always seems to know when to give her space and when to push and come closer. Tim's "guest room" is just her room lets be real. tim and cass occasionally get mistaken for twins and Cass Loves it.

duke makes cass listen to metal once and cass loses. her. damn. mind. they bond over music a lot because they both Love Music to a degree the others in their family don't.

damian!! damian is her little brother!!! dami isn't As Hostile to cass at first because he is 100% aware cass has the edge in fighting and respects her. cass likes all of his instagram posts and they have a snapchat streak going

tim

tim Loves dick, dick was his first sibling!! he had Very strong hero worship when he first met dick but it mellowed out when tim got older because wow 17 is really not that cool and mature lol. tim has an open invitation to dick's apartment which he does occasionally take advantage of. tim has more than once scared the shit out of wally when wally comes over and wally is convinced they're being robbed (HA) for half a second. i mean. he's not wrong.

listen. tim understands that forgiving the guy who tried to kill you would be a Struggle for some people and it was! definitely! but also at least he can trust jason to, uh, be open about if he doesn't like tim. which is not an assurance he has with other people. so if the guy who tried to kill him tells him tim is cool now then like. maybe tim isn't that bad or annoying a person? also jason arrested a whole gang and won the cases competition but then it created a power vacuum that the whole batfam had to clean up the rest of the month. thanks, jason.

tim LOVES cass. you know how most of the time theres this empty feeling inside you and you just kind of ignore it because you don't know what will fix it or if you do, you know you can't fix it? cass makes that empty feeling feel a little less empty. they just click. tim always tries to travel with cass whenever she leaves gotham.

tim and duke. Tim is actually the sibling who duke goes to whenever he has questions he doesn't want to ask bruce or alfred about, like, life or vigilante-ing or school or college or whatever and Tim is always like yes!! i love Giving Advice and Solving Problems!! tim and duke and jason fill out their college applications together.

tim and damian. LMAO. ROUGH START THAT'S ALL ILL SAY. at some point alfred goes like fuck it. family therapy. and tim and dami are PISSED. tim and damian get along best when they have a common enemy to work against. their relationship gets much better when damian is older and they actually talk about their feelings like emotionally stunted bats. despite how bad their relationship was, tim will ALWAYS protect damian

duke

very much intimidated by dick at first. dick is so much older and has his own job and friends and life and is very much AN ADULT. dick likes to take duke out to do lots of cool stuff (paintball, lasertag, tech exhibitions, concerts, etc). also, dick PERSONALLY introduced duke to superman and is dating THE FLASH. 10/10 awesome big brother.

was intimidated by jason for 0.5 seconds before jason actually opened his mouth and started speaking. jason is literally. So Embarrassing. which is weird because nobody else really seems to feel that way about jason but duke knows he's 100% in the right here. like yeah jason is also An Adult and does Adult Stuff but he's also at the manor like every other weekend???? and he always complains about bruce but always seems to be in the same room bruce is in????? like okay jason. they bond over literature!! jason and duke and alfred will spend literal hours talking about books and duke loves it. duke is the only one who doesn't think jason is funny and jason gets so upset about it lmao.

cass has this one week where she gets really into photography and by virtue of being nearby (and also not nocturnal), duke becomes her victim subject. duke prints out all the pictures and hangs them up in his room (his favorite is one he took when he stole the camera and took a really bad selfie of them together).

tim is closest in age to duke so duke tends to hang around with him a lot. tim introduced duke to his young justice friends and duke is like yes!!! meta-friends!!!! tim really helps duke out with his powers because tim is always like wow i wonder if your powers would work if we did This? can you see farther than other people? is your visible spectrum of light different than other humans? Bruce does the same thing but bruce is boring about it lol.

damian and duke live in the same house and will be in the same room and just send each other social media posts back and forth. they follow each other on instagram and will, OCCASIONALLY, make tik toks together because they're tik tok fiends. each of his siblings have visited his parents once or twice but damian routinely comes with him.

damian

damian gets a special bullet point to say that it took him. forever to come around to the idea of having siblings. he very much believed that he was Bruce's Blood Son and everyone else were just tagalongs or allies. it took him ages to acknowledge that dick, jason, tim, and cass were his siblings, so when duke came and like a week later damian was like Ah, Yes, this is my brother Thomas everyone else was like dude wtf

listen. LISTEN. Obviously. Richard is very highly skilled. and also Father values him highly. and also Richard will listen to Damian complain about his schoolmates. and also Richard is much more patient with Damian than other members of his family. listen....,,, (all this to say damian kind of fucking adores dick lmaooooo this kid).

Todd is kind of unbearable but damian has been informed this is both a normal feeling when it comes to Todd and also big brothers. damian was an only child for ten years so yes, Father, if Todd attempts to tickle me I WILL break his fucking nose. yes i WILL put money in the swear jar but I want you to know i don't regret it. they always try to sneak up on each other but mostly fail.

DRAKE!!! but no lol once damian grows up and is like I Apologize for attempting to murder you it was wrong and you are just as much a son to Father as I am tim is like UGH i guess its cool since ur being so emotionally mature and all. also im 2 for 5 on siblings trying to murder me so im definitely going to win trauma bingo and damian is like i take it back you are insufferable. When Will My Older Siblings Stop Joking About Their Trauma.

CASS!!! listen. cass is cool. Cass Gets It. They have a special Bond. also damian really likes it whenever cass is home because 1) he gets to hang out and do something cool with cass and 2) he feels significantly safer with cass in the house because Nobody will be able to hurt any of their family if Cass is there. ALSO he tries to call her cain but everyone is like DONT DO THAT and he doesn't want to call her wayne bcus theyre ALL wayne (dick adds it on as a middle name but also Richard John Wayne West-Grayson is just. the lamest name ever so dick needs to reconsider it before his upcoming nuptials)((dick will not reconsider it except maybe whether grayson-west would work better)) and so he tries cassandra but cass is like :) call me cass and damian is like cassandra is more formal and respectful and cass is like :) and finally damian just has to give in.

Duke! him and duke actually live together so they get the Most Bonding Time and have a bunch of inside jokes as a result. (is it bad i wanted to laugh because inside jokes... joker... i'll see myself out). they're eating breakfast together (and also alfred sits with them IM NOT A MONSTER ALFIE'S LIKE 70 NOW OKAY) and duke laughs and bruce is like what are you laughing at, son? and duke is like oh damian just showed me this funny meme and then he shows the phone to bruce and bruce grabs it (both the boys groan) and after WAY TOO LONG is like "i don't get it" and so now duke and damian have to try and explain the comedic intricacy of bob's burgers

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Hello! Can you give me some fic recs centered on Tim? I’m very interested in Tim’s relationship with anyone. He and the Bats, Titans, Jack and Janet, girls, Wayne Enterpises, schools, super criminals, crossovers (if there are mistakes, I’m sorry, because English is not my native language)

hey babe!! (don’t worry, english isn’t my native language either, but you’re doing great!) i don’t have as many tim recs as dick ones, but i do have a few goodies.

1. And Now I’m Covered In The Colors, Pulled Apart At The Seams by @sohotthateveryonedied 17k. a wonderful spin on the “red string of fate” au that takes a look at the different relationships in tim’s life, everything from his parents to his siblings to his friends and love interests. this story was emotional yet sweet and i love love loved it.

2. Gonna Be A Better One (A Thousand Miles To Your Door) by @traincat ~19k. a look at the time when tim was benched for robin bc his dad found out, except tim and kon were dating at the time, so this fix explores tim and kon’s relationship as they try to be “normal” and end up falling even more in love. be still my timkon heart.

3. Heart, Humble by Betty (if anyone knows their tumblr, please lmk!) ~8k. another fic about that time tim’s dad found out he was robin, because dear god does that have so much potential. this fic deals with jack grappling with the fact that his son is robin wtf and it’s both funny, heartwarming, and emotional. one of my absolute favourites.

4. if you get lost (you can always be found) by @ace-corvid ~34k. this is probably my most favourite tim-centric fic of all time. tim’s trans in this fic, and the fic takes him through the major events of canon, with a bit canon-divergence in the end. it tackles this monuments challenge beautifully, and i’ve practically accepted this fic as canon by now. 

5. Pounding the Pavement (Running on Empty) by @chibinightowl ~4k. if we’re being completely honest, tim’s always been healthier, lighter, and happier when he’s with young justice. bart, tim, cassie, and kon are the b e s t team/friend group, and i love them beyond words. after an injury, tim decides to move to california to live there with yj. it’s a little bit bittersweet and chock-full of new beginnings.

6. the prophetic spring by @theinternationalacestation  ~32k. this fic is part of this author’s reverse robins au, and it’s one of the very few reverse robins fics i actually like. scratch like for this, i adore it. it takes a dive into highlighting the stark differences between red hood jason and red hood tim, showcases just how someone like tim would react to having that type of tragedy happen to him. it’s a tad dark and has plenty of tws, so if that’s not your thing i’d stay clear, but otherwise, i could not recommend this fic more. 

7. The Same Mistake Twice by @sohotthateveryonedied (again because i’m a slut for their fics) ~8k. have yall heard of joker jr? well, this heartbreaking fic is an au of the joker jr arc where the batfam comes together to help tim recover. it’s mainly tim and jason bonding, but dear god is it emotional. there is so much hurt/comfort, whump, and angst packed into this fic trust me you will cry.

8. Sticks and Stones by @soleminisanction ~10k. this isn’t exactly a character bashing, but it definitely isn’t steph-friendly either, so steph stans, you may want to steer clear. but dear god is this a fic that i needed. steph and tim’s relationship in the comics is borderline emotionally abusive, and while this fic does play it up some, it’s nice to see it getting addressed. it’s jam packed with core four fluff though, and that’s super nice.

9. Surveillance by @smilebackwards ~17k. i reread this series so often it’s not even funny. civilian!tim au, where he discreetly tries to help the batfam through his computer skills and general Smortness, gets caught, and sort of dragged into the batfam. absolutely wonderful, i adored it. also, it turns into timkon near the last couple of works!

10. Where the Healing Begins (Fix You) by @thingr1 ~21k. i had to include one of these on here. timmy deals with depression. his family helps him find his feet. the later chapters are a pretty heavy tw, so be careful. it’s a tad ooc, but a lovely read.

11. The Wound Begins To Bleed by @agent-skulldrey 7k. tim accidentally becoming a good big brother to damian. this fic was so heartwarming and sweet, also consisted of tim punching a racist asshole bully in the face, and rounded it all off with good dad!bruce. so a win-win-win in my book.

phew. that got longer than i expected. once again, i’d like to give a ginormous virtual hug to every single one of these absolutely incredible authors. enjoy reading babe!

[dcomicsficrecs]

Do you have any fics with Jason just being a Bro™️? Or any with him rejoining the family after UTRH?

For the sake of this post not being too long, I am going to rec only one fic or series from an author, but all of these authors are great writers so I recommend checking their other works as well. Hope you will enjoy this fics as much as I do!

1. Jason and Damian being bros

1.1 Bet on it by Lysical  

Even Damian could admit that his older siblings occasionally had their uses. __

"I need your assistance," Damian said, voice low and tense.

"No," Jason replied, and hung up.

Short but adorable story of Jason helping out Damian to hide something from their father, just like big brothers out to do.

1.2 Cracked Foundation by Cdelphiki    

The last thing Damian expected to happen when he ran away from home was to spend a day crammed into a small space with Jason Todd.  His father's second son was a black sheep.  An outcast.  An angry, insanity driven criminal who enjoyed screwing with the batfamily in every way he could. At least, that's what Damian thought.  Maybe he was wrong about Todd.

Perfect hurt/comfort with a lot of family feels and Damian and Jason bodning. Bonus points: Jason actually apologizing for shooting him; exploration of Bruce’s relationships with them both too.

1.3   Good Grief by lysiabeth                

“I know who you are, you know. I got my degree at GCU.” The girl says, eyes boring into Jason’s chest as if the red bat were still plastered on it, and Jason’s back stiffens.

“Right.” Jason’s teeth click together as he closes his mouth. He’s eighteen-hundred miles out from Gotham, and of all the Goddamn vet centres he could have broken into it’s probably the only one around that knows anything about his city.

WIP with 8K words so far but worth early reading and bookmarking/subscribing. Case fic, plus Damian and Jason bonding as siblings through Talia? Leviathan also plays a part in this story? Hell yeah.

1.4 Jason and the Three Terrors by Cdelphiki                

One moment, Jason was peacefully sleeping, perfectly content with his life with the League of Assassins.  Okay, so maybe not content content, but he wasn't unhappy, either.  Then Talia woke him up at 2 am, threw three children at him, and told him to get them to America and far away from Ra's al Ghul.

What the fuck.

The last thing he wanted was to see Bruce. But with three brats relying on him and no Talia, there weren't many options for sanctuary. He just didn't expect the kids to grow on him so much in two short weeks.

A superb AU where Jason helps Damian escape League of the Assassin (against his wishes and with two unwanted additions to boot, which is half the pleausure). They aren’t brothers, stictly speaking, at the start of the fic, but become them as the story progresses.

It’s a WIP but it has 50K already and it will be so much more. I am excited with every update and I’m sure you’re gonna be, too.

2. Jason being a brother to Cassandra

2.1 Nests and Cages series by LanternWisp, Lysical starting with Needles or Pins  

Jason Todd's journey back to the Batfamily. Takes place in the Frankenstein's monster of a canon I've stitched together. Each plot is rather self-contained, but the fics do flow into one another

Jay and Cass are bio siblings, and Jason’s slow return to the fold. I love this series, and I think it’s one of the greatest take on Lady Shiva being Jason’s mother too.

2.2 Didymous  by   Hinn_Raven

Didymous: adjective: growing in pairs or twins.

Cassandra and Jason are born twins, raised by their father to be killers. Two heads are better than one.

It’s a great AU with Jay and Cass being biological siblings.

2.3 the patron saint of the lost causes series by evanescent

Pre-Flashpoint AU based on canon what-if Lady Shiva was not only Cassandra's biological mother, but Jason's, too. Mostly focuses on Cass and Jason's relationship, and how that fact changes the dynamics in Batfamily.

It is also a great series with Cass and Jay being biological siblings and I recommend reading every fic of this series.

2.4 Rebirth by Ionaperidot                

"The boy is clearly ill, and while she’s almost certain that he is, impossibly, Jason Todd, almost is not good enough. She can’t drop heartbreak on her beloved’s doorstep, and she can’t run the necessary tests when Damian is vulnerable to her father’s wrath. There’s no way around it. He’ll have to come home with her."

Unexpectedly in charge of a second son, Talia struggles to raise her children without unwanted attention from the Demon's Head.

An AU where Talia is the one who unites Cass and Jason. It also contains Damian, and he’s a little brother to them both.

3. Jason and Duke being bros

3.1 Bats are Dorks by   Reah22                

Duke hadn’t meant to literally trip and fall on to Jason. He really hadn’t. For the record, he blamed Steph. It was probably one of her old pranks that she forgot to take down. That, or she deliberately left it up for someone to trip over in the dark.

Just Duke and Jason, hanging out. Super nice.

3.2 oh, where do i begin? by LazuliQuetzal

“No, no, nothing’s wrong,” Jason says. “We’re a-okay. Just peachy. Good times.”

“Oh,” Duke says, lamely, working himself out of crisis mode. There’s an awkward silence for a moment before he speaks up again. “Why did you call?”

“Right, right," Jason mumbles, which seemed a little out of character to Duke. His sort-of wayward brother was generally intimidating, even when he wasn't trying to be. "Uh, Dick said that you had a guinea pig when you were younger. How do you take care of a guinea pig?” _____

AKA, not-exactly accidental guinea pig acquisition

Absolutely adorable short story about Jason going to his little brother for advice.

3.3 rockstar au series by addiebey starting with disconnect:

jason and duke bond. dick just doesn't get it, but what's new?

Another great no-capes AU. Only two fics from the series, both under 1k, are focused on Duke and Jason, but they are so great. The whole series is, actually, though it’s not finished. I am just grateful even this much exists, but I am definitely bookmarking and subscribing it in case there will be more. Please give this series the attention and praise it deserves.

There are, alas, not many Duke and Jason-centered fics. Though there is another one I wanted to recommend, about Jason training Duke, but I can’t find it for some reason. It was short and funny, and if anyone recognizes this description, I would be glad if you told me.

4. Jason and Dick being bros

4.1 i was naive and hopeful and lost by heroics (figure8)

Clark and Bruce take in a troubled teen.

The The Fosters AU no one asked for.

It’s a part of the series which is one of the best no-capes AU I’ve read, if not the best, and it’s a great family-focused fic with a good parent Bruce. The road for Jason to become Dick’s and the rest of the kids’ brother is slow but greatly written.

4.2 To Reconcile by CasualDanger      

“Babs slapped me at your funeral.”  Jason goes to laugh, but it’s just a cough and his mouth barely even twitches up.  “She hated me in that moment.  I mean, really, really hated me, like I did Talia after I found out Damian had died.  And I wondered,” his voice cracks, eyes glassy now, “did you hate anyone when I was gone?  Because I was gone?”

Short and emotional fic where Dick and Jason open up to each other during pressing circumstances.

4.3  Five Times Dick Grayson Read about Jason Todd in the Newspaper by Engineerd              

If Dick hadn’t been special ordering the Gotham City Gazette, he wouldn’t have found out for - well. Years, at this rate.

Short and very full of emotion story. I love the exploration of Dick’s almost unchanging attitude toward Jason - well, unchanging right before the last time he would read about him (or almost the last time). They’re not really close here, and won’t grow closer, but sometimes siblinghood is like that.

4.4 The View From Jade by lowflyingfruit                

Being transported to the past is not the sort of thing one normally expects. But this having happened, and with no easy way back, Jason's determined to make the most of it. Though the Bat still stalks Gotham's streets, the city's crime is run by the mobs instead of the rogues. There's no Joker yet.

There's no Robin.

Maybe there shouldn't be.

Time Travel Jason&Dick focused AU! One of the best time travel fics where they actually change stuff even if it doesn’t transit to their universe - for exception of their more strong brotherly relationships.

5. Jason and Stephanie being bros

5.1 this time, the loser wins by parkerstorms

They were two sides of the same coin.  They understood each other.  It was nice.  It was a downright relief.  She’d never had a big brother before.

There’s not a lot of Jason and Steph being bros stories I have not mentioned before, but this one is one of them, and a great one too.

6. Jason and Tim being bros

6.1 Bonding Habits of Robins by  GoAwayOlivia                

Giving each other shit is how the bat brothers show they care. Jason and Tim do it particularly well.

It’s a funny and nice fic with exactly what’s said in the summary.

There’s a lot of fics with Jason and Tim being bros but my memorie went blank when I tried to recall. Which is not a statement about their relationships or quality of fics that depict them, it’s just sometimes my memory doesn’t work properly. This is the case with the Jason and Steph, too. As soon as I remember or discover new fics about their relationships, I am going to update this post or maybe create a new one just for the three of them. We’ll see!

7. Batfam Jason-featured sibling relationships

7.1 If the Sky Comes Falling Down (For You)  by  lurkinglurkerwholurks

or, 5 times Jason Todd saved his siblings... and one time they saved him.

It was only by luck that Jason was still there when the bodies came crashing down the street. Bad luck, he would argue. He could hear them long before he could see them, their bodies preceded by the thunderous pounding of boots of asphalt and shouted curses. Three or four figures flashed by his little alleyway, a tight mob followed by a lone, slender figure in a streaming cape.

Summary speaks for itself. It’s a gradual description of Jason slowly coming back to the family after UtRH and starting feeling like their brother.

7.2  this is a long drive (for three robins who don't agree on much) by   drakefeathers

(Bad Robins road trip AU!) Steph’s trip home to Gotham takes a huge detour thanks to Jason and Damian’s conflicts with airport security. She’s stuck driving the two brothers cross-country to reach Tim’s wedding in time.

Damian, Jason & Steph bonding road trip AU that warms your heart. Seriously, if you like any of these characters, you read this.

7.3 on a thin chain of moments and something like faith series  by irnan

Jason really oughta know better than to talk to Bats.

Jason bonding with both Steph and Cass! Love it. It’s fluff and angst, which is hard to pull off together, but it works here. It also, in places, incredibly funny. I love re-reading it from time to time.

7.4   Tremor by  LueurdeLaube              

Nobody can tell Jason Todd that joking about his own death is not a valid coping mechanism.

Not about Jason being a bro per se but about Batfam and Jason so I hope it counts!

7.5. the lost sidekick society by  redtruthed                

The batkids make a group chat.

Chaos ensues.

One of the best groupchat AU for Batfam.

[ellana-ravenwood]

The Batfamily TV show I wish existed but that will most likely never be (wecanhopethough) :

I’ve been fantasazing a LOT lately about a Batfam centric tv show. Not a story just about Bruce and then the kids are somewhere in the background, or just about one of the kid, or one character of the “extended family”. Nope. A TV show, that would focus on everyone. And here’s a few of my thoughts haha :

We’ve seen enough of times Bruce’s parents murder so no need to have a scene of that again. Even people who never read a Batman comics or watch a movie/animated show, sort-of know how he ended up being Batman ya know ? It kinda became a trope, a classic scene, to see little eight year old Bruce screaming above his parents’ bodies, in an empty alley...We really don’t need to see yet another one of those. We all know the story. And for those who are not up to date, there will be hints of what happened dropped all through the show. Because it’s still about Batman.

The Robins and all though, often people don’t even know there’s more than one Robin ? Or at least don’t know how many there are really...So here how I would love for the show to start/be : 

The first few episodes would only be about ONE kid, and ONE “extended family member” (Like Babs, ya know ?). My absolute biggest dream would be to have the ENTIRE Batfam represented (or most, there’s some members from alternate timelines/world that I’m not sure would appear...or maybe just as a cameo ?), and each of them would have their moments, and be just as important as the other. My perfect Batfam TV show would portray how they are all linked, how they’re a family (albeit not always a very functional one) So. Here we are. Longer episodes than normal shows,more mini-series sort of things than the traditional 40 minutes episodes. I think an hour would be a good timeframe, at least for the “origin story” episode...so, yeah, longer-than-usual episodes about all the origins of the kids and all.

First episode start with Dick coming in young Bruce Wayne’s life. We quickly understand that Bruce just came back after years away from Gotham (and that it was to train to become Batman). He’s been back for less than a year, and already started to be a night vigilante...And here he comes. Little Richard Grayson. A boy in which Bruce sees himself a lot (because of the way he lost his parents). And so Bruce makes the crazy decision to adopt the kid (yeah yeah I know “ward”), and it literally changes the way he lives. And boom, Dick’s origin story. Maybe a little shenanigans across the Manor. Dick’s difficulty to adapt to living with Bruce now, and not having his parents. Showing how he can get so angry at times ! And how he isn’t just that jolly little boy who jokes around and hugs everyone he sees ? Basically, an episode that could show every faces of Dick Grayson. Because he deserves to have a show where an entire episode is JUST FOR HIM, and how he is.

Second episode would be Barbara Gordon’s introduction. Pretty straight forward. Who she is, daughter of who, how she came to become Batgirl. Her close relationship with the Batman and his sidekick(s). Showing all the dimension of Babs, her intelligence and such. She isn’t just “a badass girl” (she’d only be a girl at the beginning), but an extremely intelligent one who’s able to turn situations around that look desperate, thanks to her analytic brain etc etc. She’s essential in a lot of Batman stories.

Third episode would be Jason’s arrival. Completely different from Dick’s. the episode would focus on the few years he has with Bruce, and where he comes from. How Jason hasn’t always been “the rebel of the family” (and how actually Dick has that role more than any of his brothers really...in this episode, probably there will be a quick mention of how the “previous Robin” is sort of a taboo subject because he left Gotham to go with the Teen Titans and Bruce is still not over it...). How he’s actually really sweet, and so SO happy to be Robin, and finally have someone that cares ? Which will explain why he became Red Hood later on...The episode would end on his death.

Fourth episode would start with Bruce being depressed, still not over Jason’s death. It would show how he became even more violent, which he has fights about with Dick...At the same time, Dick came back to Gotham as Nightwing after Jason’s death to still be there as a support for Bruce. Dick is always there when his friends or family members need his help...Doesn’t mean they don’t fight though. Bruce is even tougher to get through to than he used to. Jason’s death really hardened him further, the guilt not helping, of course. And then...Here enters little Timothy Drake. “Hey, I know you’re Batman !” he tells him, smiling widely...A few of his (baby) teeth are missing, that’s how young he is. The episode would be about how Bruce refuses to take Tim in as first (even more so since Tim’s parents are still alive by then), and would show their relationship evolves, all the way up to Bruce officially adopting Timbo.

Fifth episode : Hey is that Stephanie Brown we see ? Yup it iiiiiis !! Her story. Her background. What’s up with her. This episode is all about her. How she’s an important part of Bruce’s life, however isn’t one of his adoptive kid (it would be weird anyway...it would mean she ends up dating her own brother...). I always viewed Steph’ as an important member of the “Batfam”, but not as one of Bruce’s kid ? Like, she’s most definitely cared for and loved, but she doesn’t permanently live at Wayne Manor, and isn’t officially his ward or adopted kid etc etc...Doesn’t mean she isn’t included and not sort-of-family ! But, ya know what I mean, extremely close friends can be family too (remember : this is only MY opinion and how I view the characters after I read comics with them, you can totally disagree...in that case do it nicely, please).

Sixth Episode would be Cassandra’s. Bruce is fighting against her father, and that’s when he finds that young girl that appears mute, and that just killed a few men in front of him. He learns of her story, how her father tried to turn her into a weapon since she was born, via some audio recordings he found in one of his hideout. And he feels utterly disarmed. What is he supposed to do ? He can’t let such a dangerous person out, at the same time, she looks so young...And it’s not quite her fault, according to the recordings...He can’t just leave her there, but he’s also sure that locking her up would do more harm than anything else. So he takes her in. Ensues the beginning of Cass’ evolution (the rest will be in other episodes).

Seventh episode would be the one where Bruce discovers that Jason is still alive, and that he HATES HIM. Fighty fights fight...Oh shit it’s my son. Flashback of how Jason got resurrected and his short time with the Al’Ghuls, and a little speech about why he hates Bruce so much. Very “Under the Red Hood”, I guess. Ends with a heartbroken Bruce, and an even angrier Jason (because he saw Tim and Cass and can’t believe Bruce still enrolls kids to be his little “child soldier”...of course, it’s more complicated than that).

Eighth episode, Damian’s dramatic entrance. ��I thought you’d be taller”. He tries to fight every single one of his siblings (that he most definitely not consider as such yet) (and yes I’m including Cass because I want her to be part of it all...), and it’s obvious they let him win. Sure, the kid trained since he was born...But they’re all pretty old now, and trained by the Batman too. Damian couldn't overpower them that easily (yeah it’s a canon thing I’m not a fan of...). In any case, Damian’s first few days in the family are tough af...

Then after all those origin stories, a lot would happen before Duke’s episode finally comes (because he appears quite late in the Batfam). So an explanation about how he came to get in, what happened to his parents, etc etc. An episode about Duke ! He might come in only like, in a later season (again he comes really late into everything, although he appears before). But when he comes in, Damian is less of a brat now, and considers everyone his family etc etc.

I know there’s a lot more people that are friendly with the Batfam (like Luke Fox and all) HOWEVER, I wanna talk about the “core” Batfam, Bruce and the kids and all. Family. Now of course, Kate Kane would appear. Maybe have her own part of an episode about how at first she decides to become Batwoman of her own volition and isn’t even affiliated with Bruce. Her story at her military school. Why she decided to get into this business etc etc...Probably things about Jim Gordon too. Oh, and the villains ! But really, only full episodes about the ones that are really...family. Like, Kate is Bruce’s cousin and all, but...they always kinda had their own things going on. Now as I said, she’ll appear, but you know what I mean. Basically, allies and friends will most definitely appear, but they won’t all have a full episodes about them ? Maybe a story revolving around them, and therefor we learn the essentials. Also, lil introductions to all the pets the Batfam has (of course we’d have Batcow, Titus, Ace and other Alfred the Cat hehe). 

The narrator would be Alfred Pennyworth, because he’s the one constant in every story. He’s always there (or almost). First episode would start with Bruce as a little boy, after his parents’ death, training around the house, and then as the episodes unfold, more and more members appear, training with him (opening credits).

We’d just have episodes about their domestic life AND their detective life. A perfect mix of both World. And after all those introduction episodes, that would be all interesting because we all know those peeps have some wild backgrounds, then the audience would know everyone ! Now, it’s a lot of characters, so, once they’re all introduced, they don’t need to always appear. There would be episodes of all of them together, and sometimes of just two of them bonding over whatever ? Like, Dick and Jason. Tim and Damian. Etc etc.

And every episodes would talk about all the different facets of their personalities, and not only focus on stereotypes (like it’s often the case :/). Like, NONE OF THEM are one-dimensional characters. So, let’s show that Bruce is a caring man but also a total jerk sometimes, that Dick is the “carefree” one but also the “angry Robin” more than Jason is, that Jason isn’t just a killing machine and a rebel, but also very sweet. That Tim isn't just that coffee addict boy who never sleeps, but a selfless man who’s in it because he thinks he does the right thing. That Damian isn’t just a brat who hates everyone, but tries really hard to better himself and is actually extremely scared of becoming like the Al Ghuls and turning bad etc etc...Show their complex personalities, and not just boring and lazy cliches. 

Are you starting to see why this show would be impossible to exist, wether live action or animated ? Haha yeah, it’d be like, 300 seasons long hahahaha. Because there’s so much material ! ...But I’m pretty sure so many of us fans would watch every single episodes.

PS : This is an “adaption” I imagined, so of course not every subtlety about everyone are in the short synopsis of their episodes I gave, and there would be much more than that. And some aspect of the stories are switched a little. And it’s only snippets, small portions. My idea would be much more worked on. I just wanted to share the little things I thought about ^^. '

[bigskydreaming]

One trope in particular that’s always been a Batfandom fave is the de-aging trope, where various Batcharacters are de-aged to certain points in childhood and the others interact with them that way while trying to change them back. There’s a couple out there that use Dick as the one de-aged and younger him is surprisingly more angsty than his siblings were expecting but there’s one take that I’ve never ever seen done and that like, I would kill to read a fic of.

So like, I’ve mentioned before that one thing I particularly like about the juvie origin for Dick and part of why I always default to it, is because of how it specifically has Dick encounter Bruce as Batman BEFORE Bruce takes him in. That one scene of Dick barefoot on the rooftops just after escaping from juvie and then Batman’s just there, looming over him....

That’s always stuck out and resonated with me as just this amazing and largely untapped facet of the entire Batfamily and their dynamics.

Because see, when they meet on the rooftops, Batman tells Dick to go back to juvie before anyone notices he’s gone, and he’ll make sure he gets out in a way that he’ll be able to help bring in Zucco. He won’t be able to help if he’s a fugitive himself, Batman tells him.

Dick complies.....but not because he believes him. He has no idea who’s under the cowl, no idea that Bruce is planning on showing up the next day and making sure he gets out of there now that he knows that’s where they sent Dick.

And he has no reason to believe him either.

After all, for the past month, every adult Dick’s interacted with has basically just told him he belongs in juvie, he’s supposed to be there. In the place that everyone there acknowledges as ‘where they send the bad kids.’ As far as Dick’s concerned, every single person he’s interacted with since his parents died (with Dick still blaming himself for not telling anyone he saw Zucco threaten Haly before the show, thus probably feeling on some level that this is the reason he was sent there)...but point is, everyone he’s met has in all likelihood just taken it on face value, no matter what Dick says or does, that if someone put Dick in juvie he’s supposed to be there, and him saying otherwise is just what everyone says of course.

So Dick has absolutely no reason whatsoever to assume that Batman doesn’t look at him on the roof that night and just see a criminal kid escaping from juvie. That he wasn’t just trying to get Dick to go back peacefully, and with Dick resentfully thinking the only reason he goes back is because he figures if he doesn’t, Batman will just drag him back anyway.

Point being.....Dick’s first view of Batman there isn’t seeing him as a hero, a protector. Someone who will be on his side and help and protect him.

Any and all respect and appreciation he developed for Batman came AFTER he got to know him.

Much like Jason...who reacted to Batman confronting him about his tires by attacking...because Batman was literally catching him in the act of committing a crime, technically. Jason has no reason not to assume Batman’s going to view him as anything other than a bad kid to be carted off to juvie, when he hits him with his tire iron and tries to run away.

Now, back to Dick, in the juvie origin, once Bruce gets him out of juvie and brings him to Wayne Manor, they don’t bond instantly or anything. In fact Dick is mostly just left alone and is miserable for the first few weeks...because he doesn’t get why Bruce did that, as Bruce is still keeping his identity a secret and thus keeping up his Brucie persona even at home, around Dick. It isn’t until Dick sneaks out to go after Zucco and Batman saves him from two of Zucco’s henchmen, that Dick figures out that Bruce is Batman and Bruce starts acting like himself around him and they really start getting to know each other.

But just like Jason, who had Bruce reveal his identity to him basically as soon as he decided to take Jason in after the Ma Gunn thing played out.....

The importance of this, to me, is that for both Dick and Jason....Batman was initially the enemy to be wary of, the bogeyman for them as much as the criminals Bruce crafts his reputation to scare specifically. I don’t think its ever really occurred to Bruce that Batman isn’t universally regarded as a source of comfort and likely protection by all children...that two of his own children were just as wary of him in that way as any criminal...because even though they knew they were just trying to survive, they didn’t trust that he would view it and them that way...and had no reason to.

So the thing is....as much as Bruce always valued his time with both Dick and Jason when they were in costume at his side as Robin....I think there’s a strong case to be made that he’s never fully understood that even though they enjoyed that a lot of the time....the time they spent together in costume wasn’t the same as the time when it was just them and Bruce in the Manor.

Because Bruce Wayne was their hero, before they came to view Batman that way. They only grew to trust and value Batman for what Bruce tried to do in that guise BECAUSE he eventually won their trust as BRUCE, first.

And this is, again quite interestingly to me....the exact opposite of say, Tim and Damian. Who sought Bruce out BECAUSE of Batman, BECAUSE they were seeking the hero, the legend, first and foremost. They both came and stayed for Batman first....and then grew to value their non-costumed interactions with Bruce just as much. Whereas Dick and Jason stayed for Bruce Wayne, the man under the cowl, and only later extended that to him in the cowl.

Which if you think about it, can account for SO MUCH of the disconnect in the various Batfamily member’s interactions and miscommunications....because the mantles sometimes get in the way. They didn’t all come into the family for the same reasons, and not just with different views....but completely contradictory views.

And this has never fully been acknowledged, and thus never reconciled.

So for instance, Dick and Jason both began pulling away from Bruce more and more....due to friction between he and them as Batman and his Robins, conflicts in costume. Differing ideologies. A lot of people forget that Dick and Bruce were having a lot of fights even before the encounter with the Joker that was Dick’s last real time as Robin at Bruce’s side. They were disagreeing more and more about their approaches to criminals....Dick thought Bruce was being too violent with criminals, and not differentiating enough between petty crimes and more violent offenders, brutal interrogation methods, that sort of thing. Ironic, given that it was Bruce who was critical of Jason being too violent, etc, in their conflicts there.

But the point being, their conflicts with him BEGAN in costume. And leaked over to their civilian lives from there...because Bruce has never really made a distinction between the two. He’s always viewed himself as...he IS Batman. Batman IS him. There’s no reason their argument in costume would be any different out of it......but for Dick and Jason, because of growing to trust Bruce first, THEN Batman.....there was more of a marked distinction. And slowly, conflicts that in their eyes began with Batman just...not understanding them and their point of view...with this not being totally surprising to them because they’d always be much more cognizant of where they came from and how they first viewed him...would have thus started to ‘infect’ their interactions with Bruce...their father...the one they’d ACTUALLY stayed for and trusted....but who was increasingly becoming less of a safe refuge...because of Batman, and his inability or unwillingness to understand where they were coming from and their priorities.

Whereas Tim and Damian....being in costume at Batman’s side WAS the refuge. The stable, comfortable environment, the familiar thing that was the reason they were here in the first place. It was as their civilian alter egos that they were always uncertain where they stood with Bruce, and unsure how to interact with him at times. When they were having personal disagreements, it was easier to shelve that away and refocus their attention for the moment on the larger than life figure of Batman and what he represented to them and had even before they knew him personally.

So of course you’re going to have a total mess of conflicts and misunderstandings when you have fundamentally opposing views on what even makes you a family in the first place.

Batman and Robin were the reason Dick and Jason started to no longer feel comfortable and secure in Wayne Manor...as Dick and Jason. In stark contrast to how for Damian and Tim, being at a Batman’s side as Robin was what AFFIRMED their feeling comfortable and secure in their place in the manor or the family.

I have thoughts on Cass and Duke and Steph all here too, but this is already getting long as fuck and those four are the most clear cut examples.

But anyway, this is why I would kill for a de-aging fic that regresses Dick to back just when he and Bruce are starting to get to know each other for real, when Bruce was actively working to win his trust. When Dick had found out that Bruce was Batman and in on the whole secret, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t still a long way to go before reaching that ultimate camaraderie...and it all stemming from that still fairly fresh trauma of not just the loss of Dick’s parents, but the removal of all sense of stability in Dick’s world, where people locked him up for no real reason and adults weren’t trustworthy, etc.

Regressing Dick to this specific age and state of mind allows for several things, with ripple effects that have the potential to help with not just his own interactions with the various family members, but even the rest of theirs with each others’:

First, it vividly brings Bruce back to those earliest days with Dick and what it was like, and how hard he had to work to gain his trust...as well as all his reasons for doing it, and being glad he did. It forces Bruce to start taking a hard look at the road their relationship took since then, and acknowledge where he started taking Dick for granted as being ‘fixed or healed’ enough that he didn’t have to work as hard at keeping his trust, or mistakenly assuming that due to living with him long enough, Dick had started to become more like him to the extent that Bruce no longer had to put as much effort into trying to understand where he was coming from or bridge the gap in their life experiences AND world views.

At the same time, bringing things back to the start, so to speak, forces the other Batkids to see their eldest brother, that they’ve always had a ton of misconceptions about, in an entirely new light, unveiling for the first time entire sides of him and his past that have never really been talked about in their presence in all likelihood, for a number of reasons.

BUT. Given Dick’s overall loyalty to Batman over the years, even as much as they clash and disagree on all manner of things....

The BIGGEST shock to the system would IMO inevitably be the revelation that.....Dick didn’t trust Batman at first. Was wary of him. That Dick Grayson of all people, hadn’t always implicitly viewed the Batman as a protector.

And this opens the doors to so many of the conversations this family desperately needs to have.

Because see, Jason would understand exactly where this version of Dick is coming from, and would be able to speak to his mindset here, when their other siblings are still reeling and somewhat baffled by this very notion and Dick’s not in a hurry to explain himself further to even more costumed strangers who insist they’re not time travelers, he’s just fifteen years younger than he’s supposed to be right now.

And with Jason spelling that out for the members of the family who didn’t come into it from that perspective, you’d have Tim able to clearly speak to how that’s nothing like how he had viewed things and his place in the family and as Robin....connecting the dots at the same time to so many of his own issues with Dick AND Damian....as this helps to clarify for him that with them all approaching things from such radically different POVs...of course there would have been a large degree of disconnect between Dick and Tim over the Robin situation, because to Dick, always innately valuing their civilian connections over their costumed ones, it never really fully hit him just how not being Robin anymore threatened Tim’s sense of security as to where he stood with the family. 

While at the same time being an eye-opener to Tim and likely Damian as well, that they had such a huge source of common ground between them that they didn’t share at all with the brothers they considered themselves closer to....because its Tim and Damian who most definitively associated their being Robin with their reason for being a part of the family at all....which is why the two of them in particular were so reactionary and defensive to attempts to change their status as Robin.

And then of course, once you have them all accepting that Batman was never what forged the strongest connection with Dick....its a straight shot from there to the understanding that similarly, their own costumed relationships with Dick were never what he valued most...and weren’t going to win this younger, more untrusting version of him over now, while they still had no idea how long he was going to stay this way.

Which means just like Bruce now retracing his earlier footsteps in forging a bond with Dick as Bruce Wayne, and bringing back all those memories and associated feelings for him.....each of the other Batkids realize that if they want to forge any kind of bond with this version of Dick, who might stay that way for all they know....it was going to have to be as themselves. His brothers and sister and...Steph.

And just like it hadn’t been for Bruce the first time around....it wouldn’t be easy. Dick at this age had lots of reasons for being wary and prickly and the strangeness of this situation isn’t helping there. BUT, rather than easily falling into defensive frames of mind like they would when interacting with a prickly or angry adult Dick Grayson, their elder brother....its hard to react so defensively to the kid version of him who has very clear reasons for being that way and far less experience covering up his true feelings. It would highlight all the ways Dick is a lot more like each of them in various ways...and always had been....AND, from THAT, its easy to have them each be confronted with memories of their own earliest interactions with Dick....and how none of them had been the easiest to bond with, because of their own varied and understandable trust issues and prickliness...thus forcing them to acknowledge at last how much effort Dick had actually put into making those bonds with each of them in the first place....and how many of them had taken that for granted in different ways at different times.

Thus, now with the shoe being on the other foot, it can finally be a two way street with them now each in the position where its on them to be the one to make the effort and not be dissuaded.

And then you have Dick re-aged and still retaining the memories from while he was a kid again....and you have him with fresh reminders of what it was like when Bruce was putting in the work to win him over and be what he needed....and with Bruce recommitted to not taking him for granted as he’d been. While at the same time, finally having definitive proof of each of his siblings willing to put in the effort to bond with him and be there for him, like he’s done for each of them at times without always being sure whether it was actually reciprocated.

And all of them, by virtue of it having been the family’s eldest kid and the start of the legacy so many of them have fought over, and the first person at Batman’s side as well as to leave it....

Are all then equally in a position to make the most of this new awareness of how each of them view the family dynamics and their places within the family...and how that’s led to massive misunderstandings and miscommunications in the past, and how to avoid that in the future.

Or I mean.

Y’know. Whatever.

Something like that, I guess. Idk, I haven’t really put that much thought into it. Was just an idea. *shrugs*

sfhilakhlkaghlakg

[facelessfrey]

Roswell New Mexico Season 2, Episode 3

- Surprisingly, that episode frustrated me a lot less than usual, so that’s nice. 

- Things I am still frustrated with though: Am I the only one annoyed with the random time jumps? Like each episode just jumps forward a couple weeks and it always throws me. I guess it makes the timeline more realistic but I’m always like “but I want to know what happened during those two weeks??”. This is minor but it always bugs me. 

- Anyway, Maria finally knows. Thank god! I am happy that she got to yell at Liz and Michael for that matter because she deserved to. I wish we’d seen more of her reaction to Michael though. I mean I get wanting to cut out a bunch of exposition that we already know, and we certainly got to see her initial visceral reaction to him showing up but still...I kind of wanted more, especially since they’d been playing parking lots for two weeks apparently. But I’m glad she got to be pissed. And I’m also glad that even through all of that, she still got to look out for Rosa and try and get her some help. I hope we get to see more of that friendship as we go forward because it feels more genuine to me than any of her other relationships other than perhaps her frenemy thing she’s got going on with Isobel. 

- I feel like this was the first time Maria became a real character to me, now that she knows too. She never quite fit in the show before for me because she was always weirdly isolated. Despite supposedly being friends with Liz and Alex and having a thing for Michael, she was always on the outside and not even a way where she knew it or the other characters were actively trying not to tell her. She just didn’t know and didn’t seem to know anything was really off and wasn’t curious at all and trying to figure it out. And that always felt off to me. Maybe it’s because OG Maria knew something was up with Liz in about five minutes and then kept at her until she found out the truth. But that’s because she was there when she got shot. That’s because they were high school best friends who saw each other every day and worked together. This Liz and Maria have never had that kind of relationship. We didn’t even get to see it in the flashbacks because Heather wasn’t available for that episode or whatever. So anyway, I’m glad she knows now and I hope it means she will continue to feel more like part of the show. 

- Moving on to Rosa, she breaks my heart, crying about wrecking her miracle. I see she’s seeing her dad again next week. I hope that since she’s going to have more support perhaps, that she’ll be able to get through everything she’s going through. 

- I also hope that now that maybe she’s told Liz something about what Max has been saying to her, that there will maybe be more urgency in saving Max. I feel like the show is missing some stakes or something to really push the characters forward. They’re kind of going along on their own character journeys but I feel like they really need a strong overarching plot to tie them together and give them purpose. 

- Isobel’s scenes this week actually made me almost miss Max. His twitchy mind calls to Rosa never much endear me to him but sibling banter wins me over. I like that they had him be there for Isobel during all of that. And sure, at home self abortions are not the greatest message but I suppose she at least made it vaguely political about Roswell/New Mexico. But mostly, I felt okay with it because of that speech she gave Max about why she needed to do it. 

- Also, Isobel showing the handcuffs and sex toys to Valenti was kind of brilliant. But I do wish that investigation was a bit more urgent as well. Maybe it will be come that. Who knows. 

- Liz and Jenna were a lot of fun in this episode. There’s usually so many just quick scenes in this show and no one ever hangs out together for long periods of time, at least this season. So it was nice to have some extended bonding over booze and firearms. Although I have no idea why Cameron is back again or what is going on with her sister still. What happened to Ohio?

- As for Michael, I did actually think his scene with Maria and making her breakfast was cute. And she wasn’t wrong, that was probably the most words he ever spoke to her, which might be why one of their scenes finally didn’t feel weird and forced to me. Of course that’s all over now since she’s mad at him over the alien secret now. I suppose it should be interesting to see if they try again once she calms down but I’m obviously more interested in the newly platonic bros. 

- I liked the Alex and Michael scenes tonight. I though it was nice to see them actually working through stuff together for more than thirty seconds. I liked that Alex just got up to leave cause he thought he’d been dismissed but then Michael came back out. I know they’re going off to that farm or whatever next week and that should be interesting. Even though that’s where Alex is going to meet Forest but we’ll see how it all goes. In any case, I’m just glad to see them spending time together because I think both they and we need them to build a friendship first before they ever try anything again. I think they need that base level of trust. 

- The stuff with Alex and his dad was once again weird. I mean I get why he did what he did but again, I’m just so confused on what Jesse Manes’ role is in this show. I just want him to be the “big bad” at some point but he’s just chilling in a hospital bed and I don’t know what they’re ever going to do with him. 

- The flashbacks were interesting. Though I’m mildly distracted by all the places I know these actors from. Haha. But it was fun seeing Jason Behr again. It was like one of the OG Roswell flashbacks again where they all played other characters. It was fun. I wonder if we’ll see him again. Also nice to see Michael and Max and Isobel’s mothers fighting so hard for them. That was sweet. 

- Sad there was no Kyle this week. Although at least I was spared from more insurance talk with Steph. So I guess that’s a win. 

- All in all, I thought it was a way better episode than last week and I hope I continue to feel that way because I don’t want to be infuriated by this show. Although, it does still have a massive amount of storytelling issues. But we’ll see. 

[whetstonefires]

While i was rifling thru your fic tag like a half-starved raccoon in a cake tin I found your clone Damian's fic & i'm in LOVE! And like, do u hav anymore meta on that verse? like how do the rest of the fam find out? how do they REACT?! how does Damian? does the heretic clone still exist? Just reading abt tim with a bunch of tiny dami's gave me heart palpitations. Thank you for this gift.

(In reference to this post.)

Why thank you!

It’s vaguely inspired by some meta @cerusee and @audreycritter did about what if Damian was one of several identical clones, but I’ve been fascinated by the character potential suggested by Damian having been cloned since Talia first revealed it, so.

Let’s see.

I don’t think the Heretic still exists, not in the form we saw. This story fragment sort of assumes Talia went less crazy than they made her for the whole Leviathan storyline; she doesn’t regard the clones as sons the way she does Damian (she totally relied on cloning to get him perfectly matched organ replacements, like that spine) but she’s not “sons are born to die in battle” “let’s grow him big inside a WHALE” levels of whacked out.

She hasn’t fully committed to having them compete to be selected as the official Damian #2, either, because she’s still attached to the original, though the growing prospect of that was a lot of the reason they ran for it. One of them might have wound up as the Heretic, in another timeline? But it was a timeline that diverged long before they fled the League.

So they make it to Tim’s emergency van without being intercepted, and get as far as his secure site on city limits, but they have to fight their way through the last leg of that trip and to make it inside the bunker, and it’s supplied for a siege but not really big enough for eight people, even if seven of them are small, and also staying there and being besieged would draw the attention of the Bats, which defeats the whole purpose of not making for the Cave/calling reinforcements.

So he calls his friends for extraction, and they all wind up in Kansas.

Tim puts off contacting the family until the clones have with his guidance sorted out exactly how they want to present themselves.

Unfortunately, the last stage of the ninja battle was showy enough not to be overlooked, so his absence was noticed much sooner than he expected, and regarded as more worrying. On the second day Dick calls Kon to see if he knows where Tim’s gotten to, and Kon fails to lie adequately.

Dick can’t pressure Kon as easily as he can most people because last time he asked Kon for a favor Kon came to the North Pole and died for him.

Which is the kind of thing even Nightwing isn’t veteran enough not to take seriously.

But he still calls his bluff and asks a bunch of questions, and winds up very suspicious and worried, so at this point Tim and the Damians have to hurry up and figure out how to announce the situation or go on the run from the Bats as well as the League, which would be. Not smart.

Tim explains the situation over videochat with the Cave before having the cloneboys join him on the feed; this spares them the worst of the yelling.

Bruce, Dick, and Damian all respond pretty badly. Bruce because he doesn’t like change and he’s reflexively suspicious, and having eight Damians to raise is a justly horrifying notion. Also anti-clone prejudice. It’s unfortunately an established trait of his, though not like. A strong one.

Dick because he’s really defensive of Damian, and perceives this first and foremost as an emotional threat to his bab’s fragile identity.

Damian because he knows exactly how he was raised to react to someone being in a place he wants, and he knows how many opportunities his father’s household policies gave him to take shots at Tim, and they may be six years old but there are seven of them. He is going to die.

All things considered, Damian’s being the most rational here.

He’s wrong though. The clones were raised as disposable ninjas, not princes; they’re perfectly well aware killing him would gain them nothing, and they have very little sense of entitlement.

Bruce and Dick do try to be nice to the kids once it’s finally settled they will be staying at the Manor at least for a bit, because they need to be somewhere safe and Bruce can’t leave them at Clark’s house forever. Even Ma Kent has her limits.

But Bruce blows bewilderingly hot and cold and Dick kind of makes a point of of not being too warm to them, because he’s loyal to his demon brat. Damian starts staying at his place a lot and consequently working with Nightwing instead of Batman.

Bruce has no idea what to do about this or if he even should do something. Damian’s thirteen, right? Teenagers are supposed to rebel??? This is a pretty harmless way to do that?

But he misses him.

This does lead to making more time for the Seven Identical Six-Year-Olds.

Their sense of morality revolves around having made the breakthrough to valuing on another’s lives; they aren’t as opposed to not-murder as Damian was but they’re also a lot harder to coax into seeing things his way because they don’t need as much from him, emotionally.

This makes them ironically less terrifying for Bruce, even if he’s still having trouble actually bonding with them the way he normally does with his kids.

Barbara meanwhile is cautious. She always takes a while to warm up to new people, and she doesn’t have Tim’s history with clones to get her over that speedbump. She tries very hard to be fair, but she’s not really welcoming. She’s Reserving Judgment.

Jason thinks this is the funniest thing ever and goes out of his way to tease Damian about it. Privately he’s super creeped out, but as that wears off he starts getting mad about Bruce and Dick making the kiddos feel unwelcome and at some point does a rant, and after that is vaguely protective in a useless sort of way.

He enjoys being a bad influence. The septuplets also enjoy this. They think he’s funny, too, and he’s easier to communicate with than most people around here. Achieves a fairly high tier on the Favorite Non-Clone Brother list they aren’t exactly keeping.

Cass is super about these kids. She can relate to them even more than to Damian, because they weren’t raised as heirs to anything and don’t have the sneering put-down form of pride going, and also she’s actually around to meet them at the crucial getting-to-know-you stage.

She thinks sparring one-on-seven is an excellent sibling bonding activity. There are assassin-child puppy piles once they’re all worn out. Many photos are taken.

She’s doing much better than Bruce at getting them to extend their nascent sense of empathy beyond one another, without actually making an effort. It’s not like they’re actually much behind their cohort when it comes to social development, they’ve just got murder conditioning flattening their affective empathy. (And are ahead of cohort intellectually, which contributes a lot to the dissonance.) Cass’ accidental therapy involves butterflies.

Tim continues to be around, a lot more than he has been for a while because he’s kind of obligated to see this through. The septuplets trust him, which is more than they do anybody else for a while, so he winds up with a lot of childcare duties.

Since this amounts to ‘showing them where to find soap’ and ‘being in their vicinity’ rather than i.e. brushing their teeth for them and making sure they don’t steal each others’ snacks, he’s fairly okay with this.

Sizdahum sticks especially close, which is fine because he’s not a big talker; he winds up getting a lot of absent lessons on detective work.

Tim gets yelled at for having murder scene photos open in front of him; both of them and Haftum, who happens to be there at the time, roll their eyes a lot throughout.

Tim’s friends also visit the Manor a few times specifically to visit the kids, since they already met them. At one point the Damian clones, Tim, Kon, Wonder Girl Cassie, and due to rumor mill Anita, Cissie, and Greta all have a picnic in a rare afternoon of sunshine on the Manor grounds.

Alfred packed the picnic so it has ludicrously expensive cheese, a fruit salad featuring freshly pitted cherries, and thermoses of milkshakes in the favorite flavors of everyone who got one, even the ones he’s never met before. In response to this bounty Anita threatens to come to visit every time she can get babysitters for her parents.

Then she considers introducing her parents to the clone kids. They’re turning out almost as weird, even if in theory they don’t remember their previous lives. We’ll see how that turns out.

Bruce got used to how all his sons’ friends know his secret identity over a decade ago, it’s…fine.

Steph thinks they’re creepy but she’s far enough from ground zero to laugh about it, especially about their occasional appearances as Tim’s row of ducklings, and also she trusts Cass’ judgment.

Everyone does, to a certain extent; it helps the septuplets’ cause incredibly over the course of the first few weeks. It wins Alfred off the fence about them after about three days, which is quite a coup; even before that he was fast catching up with Tim in the ‘learning the differences between the septuplets’ sweepstakes.

(Cass is the only one who can even semi-reliably tell them all apart if they’re not wearing their nametags, or catch them switching, but learning things like their individual preferences in weaponry or cake is arguably much more important.)

Speaking of names, it’s a difficult issue. Bruce would (with considerable angst and self-doubt) be willing to name them all if asked, and they’d probably be open to it if he offered, but they’re not quite comfortable naming themselves and he’s too insecure and weirded-out to suggest anything else.

The other members of the family are varying degrees of not okay with the numbering system. Steph’s main issue with it is she has trouble remembering them precisely, because she doesn’t speak Farsi and learning seven unfamiliar similar-sounding words at the same time doesn’t play to her strengths.

Damian has a tendency to call them by their numbers in English, which only some of the clones actually mind but it offends the hell out of Bruce.

The necessity of keeping them secret until they have actual public-ready names and a story has been settled on wears on everyone’s nerves a bit. The issue that there exists no story more believable than the actual extremely weird truth stands in the way.

Barbara actually crafts an entire cover about rescuing the products of an illegal cloning operation by people planning an overly complicated ransom scheme for Damian, and Bruce going ‘well dammit they’re my kids too,’ which doesn’t get deployed for a while because:

1) everyone’s still hunting for something a little less weird and

2) they have to review the entire body of legal precedent relating to clones to make sure this won’t put the kids in jeopardy down the line or undermine Bruce’s chances of getting custody somehow.

Meanwhile, Bruce absolutely forbids the clone squad from getting involved in vigilante fighting. Because they are six. They’re not quite on house arrest but they have strict supervision and a curfew. They mostly accept this; they’re used to discipline and they did come here for refuge.

He tries to take away all their live weapons. Because they are six. This fails to stick. It threatens to become a serious bone of contention.

Cass, Tim, and Damian (somewhat unwillingly) wind up having to broker the issue; explaining to Bruce that the kids think he suspects them of plotting murder, and to the kids that Bruce doesn’t think they can be trusted not to hurt themselves with sharp objects is. Fraught. On all sides.

Why does Bruce never get any kids for whom normal responsible parenting guidelines are fully applicable?

[tumblingxelian]

Honestly one of the interesting things about the ‘original’ Batfam, IE pre-52 was how much history people take as SOP now was dependent on one event after another and that feeds into and makes a singular united Batfam harder. 

Like, for example, some people act as though Cass and Tim were always super tight, but they weren’t. Before their Post War Games era, Tim straight up said they weren’t friends and Cass should stop pretending to socialize as part of her bodyguard work and she agreed that they didn’t actually have anything to say to one another and her job would be easier not needing to pretend to interact with him and left. They ‘only’ became close after they got moved in together after Steph died and bonded over that shared grief. 

But there's the rub, cos if Steph doesn’t die that doesn’t happen, but if she does and comes back there really should be no reason for her to want to interact with Bruce at all after the shit he put her through without them both attending therapy. He made Cass give her Batgirl which is a shit show of an apology or acknowledgment and only served to damage the pairs relationship, but without it Steph isn’t Batgirl. 

Similarly Steph and Barbara only had a good relationship post Steph becoming Batgirl and it hinged on basically ignoring how much Barbara seemed to actively dislike Steph before she died. Same with Alfred and Steph actually, so acting like he’s some glue doesn’t work. 

Jason’s ‘only’ ties to the ‘Batfam’ are from his pre-death days, so basically, Bruce, Dick and Alfred, with Barbara in a nebulous not quite fam position, but they seemed to get alone via Gotham Knights. He’s also completely incoherent from comic to comic, showing no interest or care about Tim or the Robin mantle in UTRH. Then being brought into Titans as a violent man-child in a Childs costume, raging about and beating up Tim. Then later dressing up as Nightwing to slit the throat of low level criminals and briefly became a tentacle monster.  But that’s a different issue. 

Cass and Dick s I understood it didn’t really have a relationship until he got pissy with her for being mind controlled and then that got erased and so they were close siblings with no development and then that all got erased for the 52. 

Back to the event things above, but like, Tim’s entire position in the ‘Fam’ is predicated on Jason dying and no one stepping up to be Robin and or pull Beuke back from his subcaudal rampage for 6 months. He didn’t particularly want the job and has no deep investment in fighting crime until he’s spent ages doing it and even then his ties pre War Games largely extended to Bruce, Alfred and Dick, with his relaitonship to Barbara seeming entirely professional over friendly or familial. 

Duke’s N-52, but basically a half independent operator as I understand it and Damian’s a very late addition who only ever seemed to get ‘that’ close to Dick and Steph, given Bruce by this point was a walking mass of complexness over a man that could be a dad. 

Like, trying to find a way to connect and square all of that into some kind of workable family is ‘interesting’ but largely impossible without a shit ton of therapy and consistent characterization and histories for everyone and even then it seems largely unfeasible. 

I don’t mind fics where they all get along, but in many ways its easier to pretend their histories were adjusted to compensate, like, I dunno... Jason came back mid training trip to just ask Bruce “Why is the Joker alive” and they managed to sort of work something out with words. Which then stops Bruce from messing with Steph so much, so no War Games, then Dami and Duke just show up later. But even then, Cass and Steph would still largely be doing their own thing, Tim would then still have his own family and so on. 

I forget where I was going with this XD 

Also Oracle for the win, fuck this revisionist bullshit with Batgirl Babs! 

As much as people love the whole batfamily fanon thing I just can't forget how if we're talking about canon a lot of its members don't really care/interact or talk to each other.

Cass wouldn't like Jason cause of her views on killing

Dick hasn't really shown much investment in Cass

DC writers forget that Cass and Steph are characters, I've got no problem with fanon but honestly it ain't gonna work out lol

Hello there Anon!

I think that the Bat Fandom is (loosely) divided in two groups, the ones that know and are aware that fanon only works in fandom and the ones that strongly believe that their version of batfamily is better and can easily replace the “batfamily” dynamic in comics.

Like sure, fandom’s version of batfamily is cute and fluffy but I don’t think for a second that it is better written or a good replacement for the mess that we have in canon.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say that fandom’s version of these bat-related characters are better written. Like, I am sorry but no. These are all the same character template with one distinctive characteristic that is exaggerated enormously. It is a good thing to have as a fanon thing to enjoy and make headcanons about but we cannot lie to ourselves either, fanon characterizations are also bland but like in the opposite direction of canon.

I absolutely agree about Cass and Jason. Cass would not like Jason at all and I don’t think that she would be willing to work with him. In Jason’s case, I think that he wouldn’t care about Cass’s existence but it would piss him off that there is someone so much like Bruce in terms of the “no killing rule”.

About Dick and Cass, well, things are more complicated there. Dick used to have a solid relationship back in the day, before the New 52, and like many things when it comes to Dick, it was taken away and completely erased. Dick’s only interactions with Cass happened in Batman & Robin Eternal, which was a complete reboot of her character introduction and then a few Nightwing issues ago she appeared in the “batfamily” chat after Dick gave his charity speech. So, yeah, Dick isn’t present in Cass’s life but that just a new DC take, he used to have a nice relationship with her before. She even had a wonderful relationship with Tim that now doesn’t exist but at least she gets along well enough with Duke.

“DC writers forget that Cass and Steph are characters, I've got no problem with fanon but honestly it ain't gonna work out lol”

Oh yeah, this is where the big problem is at, and if I may I will rant about this a little bit because Cass and Steph being side-lined or forgotten has to do with the fact that DC wants Barbara Gordon to be their forever Batgirl.

Cass and Steph had a very nice place in the “batfamily” back in the day, they were solid characters that had lots of fans and they actually developed into being Batgirls with the help of Barbara as Oracle (as well as Dick and Tim). Back in those days the batfamily made sense and felt closer, they were less people in the family and DC actually spent time developing these dynamics and relationships.

Those characters also had other relationships and dynamics outside of Bruce/Batman. The most important one was Barbara’s relationship with the Birds of Prey, she had moved forward in her real and vigilante life. She was an adult woman who used a wheelchair and had grown out of the mantle of BatGIRL, she had a team of women by her side and she had decided to train to girls to take over Batgirl.

It was perfect, and it worked. But one day DC decided that Barbara should be younger and able-bodied. And because they did that, they made her Batgirl again (a massive downgrade), by giving her Batgirl back they did two other things, they made Cass and Steph’s existence a complicated thing AND they slowly erased the true concept of the Birds of Prey.

So, we were left with a Barbara Gordon that was aged down to Dick’s age, so DC could profit even more from the ship wars and they trapped adult and disabled Babs inside a teenager version of her that had completely devolved.

Batgirl Barbara is an absolute for DC, they love to pretend that she was the original Batgirl and that she has been the only one to wear the mantle. They also love to make her able-bodied because DC has always been ableist.

The only reasons why DC teases Cass and Steph in Batgirl costumes like they did in Future State is because they know it hypes people up and it sells books.

Right now, we are having a completely unnecessary event where Barbra is Batgirl AND Oracle and she fighting an evil version of Oracle. Yeah, because that’s another thing DC loves to do, villainizing Oracle, so people grow more distant to that Barbara characterization.

And the fact that Barbara is nowadays both Batgirl and Oracle (and able-bodied) is a huge insult to Cass and Steph’s characters who need to be brought up again into the spotlight because we are lacking solid female characters in the beloved “batfamily”, Barbara isn’t only horribly characterized but she had her own book taken away, so now she is the annoyingly ever present character that appears in Nightwing because DC loves to cater their books to shippers that don’t see characters beyond the relationships that they like.

Well, I really got carried away there but yeah, fanon’s batfamily will never work in canon and it only works in fanon in a superficial way because their versions of these characters are completely different from the characters as we actually know them.

As a Jason person I can honestly say that fanon Jason is nowhere near as interesting as canon Jason, and fanon Jason is as bland and dumb as Lobdell’s Jason and I will die on that hill.

Anyway Anon, thank you for sending me your ask and I hope you have an amazing day!

[business-as-usual-bats]

Expanded Tale of Tim Drake Watching Ru Paul's Drag Race

Tim has been a long time fan of the TV series and one day Steph mentioned watching it and it was a huge moment of, "You watch Ru Paul's Drag Race?? Me too!!!" So, they get together once a week, order pizza, and watch it while cheering for the Queens they want to win.

The first person to discover them is Cassandra. Cass and Steph were supposed to hang out that night and Tim was okay if Cass tagged along to their weekly get together. Cass didn't quite understand the concept at first, but as soon as it was explained she thought it made perfect sense. The art aspect she thought was very beautiful and quickly grew fond of the show. Mostly, she enjoyed how happy it made Tim and Steph.

The next to discover them is Damian. He was looking for Alfred the cat. He found Alfred sleeping on Cass's lap while the three watched some ridiculous show about men pretending to be women. He watched to continue to scoff at Tim. But then the Queens did an animal themed event, choosing which animal inspired them in their dress and makeup designs. One discussed the power, grace and mystery of a cow, and Damian said, "Finally, someone understands." He sits down, no longer scoffing, and takes a slice of an all-veggie pizza.

Dick had heard about Ru Paul's Drag Race, but never got around to watching it. He stumbled upon Tim, Steph, Cass, and Damian, and he immediately was overcome with the adorableness of sibling bonding. Dick cooed at Damian before the kid responded, "-tt- Either be quiet and watch the show or leave." Immediately Dick joined them, asking a lot of questions as the others explained the rules of the show, each betting on which Queen would win. Dick rooted for whoever had the brightest designed costume.

Then came Jason. When he discovered them he immediately started laughing. Everyone ignored his teasing until eventually Jason commented, "Did she honestly just throw shade after lip syncing for her life three times in a row? Please, she came into the competition not even knowing how to sew. She super glues her costume together." Dick gasped, "Wait- you watch this show??" "Of course I do. It's amazing. Now shut up and scoot over." Jason was by far the most critical of the show, saying what should've been done differently, or how a Queen misinterpreted the spirit of a specific event.

Lastly, Duke wondered where the heck everyone disappeared to. He found them gathered together, shouting at the TV, smiling, and eating junk food. He stood in the doorway awkwardly before Tim noticed and called out, "You going to join us or what?" Steph grabbed him by the arm and plopped him down on the couch, shoving a bowl of popcorn in his hands. Dick laughed too loudly and Jason was a tad pretentious, but everyone enjoyed themselves, so Duke kept watching, taking note of how much he loved this crazy family.

[coolgirl]

Fic recs masterpost

ok so i used to have a lot of fics masterposts on my old blog and people keep asking for recs + i wont be able to upddate them or anything anymore so i decided to just move them all to this blog

under the cut: AUS / arkham knight / jaykyle / jayroy / robin!jason / gen / angst fics 

*: last added (april 4) //   for some reason the links arent working so go to jasontodd.tumblr.com/ficrecs for the links, sorry!

AUS

The Virtue of Revenge | young justice au with jason as red x making his own team with roy, starfire, raven, and others. i love it, even if it has shaky moments and stuff pls give it a chance.

crystal silence creeping down | young justice/lost days au

Flicker from View | another young justice au

Live to Rise | yes. you guessed it. young justice au.

Collide &  Convergence | au where post crisis jason goes to the young justice universe

The Changeling Sequence | series where jason meets damian before he went to gotham. The last part is a wip that i doubt will ever get updated again, so uh be careful. read only the first or second part and forget about the third.

The Drag of Fate | au where jason is lady shiva’s son as well. Part of a series, which i also highly recommend but idk if they would be au as well

heavy on the heart | another jason and cass are bio siblings. A+.

Didymous | cass and jason are twins.

repairing the world | i dont know how to explain this series.. its an au and really really good. Jason doesn’t appear in all the pieces.

just go  | jayroy, wings au

In the Shadows (of Who We Used to Be) | jayroy, black widow & hawkeye au

The Family (or how Jason Todd was adopted by the Avengers) | marvel crossover

bad boys bad boys (whatcha gonna dooo) ♫ | jason is damian’s batman. iconic fic imo.

Rise (And Try Not to Fall) | star wars au

A Bird in Morning | bruce finds jason when he’s at the hospital after crawling out of his grave

Moment Between | ghost jason & ghost martha and thomas wayne

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Perhaps The World Ends Here | marvel crossover, future jaykyle

Batten Down the Hatches | a few different aus here. young justice + helena wayne

My Brother's Keeper | jason & damian knew each other from before + damian arrives to gotham just for jason

When the Moon Found the Sun | main story is clark/bruce but it’s preetty cute. soulmates au.

Between the Light and the Dark* | damian & jason uuhm i cant remember what this one was about per se bc im reading like 5487 similar fics but yeah

Two Dead Birds  | time travel stuff

Red Blood, Blue Blood | jason (and the rest of the batkids) are bruce’s biological kids, yeah i wasnt a big fan of the premise at first either but its gud

Rebirth | talia & jason, mind the warnings

you belong among the wildflowers | kate n renee adopt jason instead of bruce

We're the warriors of tomorrow |  Cass, Jason and Damian meet while with the League of Shadows

Can You Hear Me?  | ghost jason

to death's other kingdom I will not go  | bruce makes it on time au

The Ties That Bind  |  The pit restores Jason's body but not his mind, Ra's makes him one of his assassins and Talia adopts him as her own.

death’s outlet song of life* | the gordons find jason before the events of lost days

reflections on shattered mirrors.* | talia & jason stuff

Come Alive* | young justice s3 based

A Path Upon The Ground* | au from lost days, eddie and jason meet again

ARKHAM VERSE

If He Had Come & the sequel  Desiderium | au where bruce rescued jason before he could become the arkham knight.

the roads we know

this gun needs no bullets

JASON & BRUCE CENTRIC (not romantic)

Quack | this one is so crackish but so so cute i love it, robin jason

If He Had Come & sequel Desiderium  | arkham knight verse and its so good and has a lot of bruce & jason feels

Neverland /  Keep Lying To Me | deaged/ little jason from another universe.. sad and cute

Icarus and Bubble Gum | fluff, robin jason

Knock On Death’s Door | bit of both but not so so so angst, red hood jason

dead and dying things | au

In Memoriam | angst, trying to fix their relationship, red hood jason

If the Fates Allow | angst, red hood jason

The D-Word | fluff kind of.. red hood jason

This Place We Built With Grace and Guilt | angst angst angst, red hood jason

I Love You | robin jason, fluff

Wayward Birds | fluff and angst, robin jason

yesterday’s gone, yeah it went away (i’ve been lost but i’m here today) | another trying to fix their relationship fic, its cute and sad

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Little Absences | sad, robin & red hood

Schrödinger's Honest Man | sad, drugs tw, absolute fave

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

Frozen History | de-age

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

Unconventional Family Reunions | bvs setting

Prompt: Trapped | mind the warnings

Safe In My Arms 

The Failures of Reverse Engineering  | ghhm not really bruce & jason maybe?

to death's other kingdom I will not go | bruce saves jason au

points of impact  | glass case get fucked

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)*

waiting for you. *

The Little Things*

World's Finest* | my uwus my uwus have fallen everywhere

JAYKYLE (all iconic)

In Which Kyle Confesses The Same Thing Six Times

milk and honey

Batman vs Space Bureaucracy

deadlock

attention to detail

tempest in a teapot

violet tendencies

no love, no glory (no hero in his skies)

keep the door open for me

waffles and war 

The Art of Subtlety (jason lives au)

Perhaps The World Ends Here | marvel crossover, future jaykyle

Riding in Batcars with Boys

boy, you fill my lungs with sweetness

no chance, no way, i won't say it (no, no)  

a change in the atmosphere

invitation to commitment

Overexposed 

i deserve that, don't i, some sort of blazing love that i can live with 

i won't say 

The water is always warmest at dawn

JAYROY (all iconic too)

sleepless 

Countdown

just go (wings au)

Unspoken

(for thy love is) better than wine (E)

Rooftops

Dick Wolf is a Really Funny Name

A headache isn’t always a bad thing

sad eyes, bad guys, mouth full of white lies [high school au]

kairosclerosis 

The Night They Met 

march down an empty street (like a ship into the storm) *

Archange de la mort (rallume ton flambeau) * | hic warning lol

this time, the loser wins | steph & jason centric though

So Baby Come Light Me Up *

Little Talks *

All the light is never ending, much like you and I; *

Don't let me go, for I feel I may fall * | soulmates au

Something Reckless * 

OTHERS

how to make a home. * | some eddie/jason if you squint, rose/eddie/jason team up

This Car Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us* | could be read as jayconnor :3

Robin/young!Jason

The Art of Subtlety | jason lives au, jaykyle

Little Absences | sad, robin & red hood

I Love You | robin jason, fluff

Wayward Birds | fluff and angst, robin jason

Icarus and Bubble Gum | fluff, robin jason

Quack | this one is so crackish but so so cute i love it, robin jason

we were not tragedies | jason & babs, read warnings

Heavy Home | gen, alfred & jason

Good News (No One Mourns the Wicked) | Jason & steph & damian. harold they’re dead (kinda robin!jason??)

Love Yourself (So No One Has To) | good amazing au with some selina & jason (not really.. robin but it starts as robin!jason i guess?)

Moment Between | ghost jason & ghost martha and thomas wayne

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Tired &  Laundry | kinda au, read tw!

Smoke | jason & jim gordon

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)* | mix of present and past jason

Sidekick* 

waiting for you.* | technically baby jason

The Little Things*

World's Finest* | oh this one.. my uwus

GEN

hold on to what  we are, hold on to your heart | gen, Barbara & Jason friendship. Some dinahbabs & jayroy

gotta give the boy points | gen, absolute fave

Strangers in Nothing but Name | marvel crossover, side steve/bucky

If He Had Come |  Desiderium | Arkham Verse, gen

I can’t  think up a good  name for this | young justice verse, gen apart from canon relationships

A Better Thesis | gen, p short but i loved it

The  F-Word | gen, batboys being batboys

until i’m in my grave | gen, wip 

Robins United | gen, batkids bonding, except for cass, thats my only complaint

Free of Dogma | gen, canon divergence, marvel crossover w Jason & Bucky

bad boys bad boys (whatcha gonna dooo) ♫ | au where damian is jasons robin and not dick’s, obviously damian & jason brotp. 

Heavy Home | gen, alfred & jason

In the  Shadow of Two Gunmen | gen, Marvel crossover

Flicker from View | side Barbara/Dick, young justice verse

I Love You | gen, Bruce & Jason

how to  hide a stray resurrected superhero from your parents/parental figure | au, jason & tim friendship kinda

One For The Road | Jason/Roy/Koriand’r but its SO cute

Baby,  It’s Cold Outside | gen, Dick & Jason

The  (Family) Doctor’s  Appointment | gen, batboys bonding

The Family (or how Jason Todd was adopted by the Avengers) | marvel crossover, gen

Reason | wip, gen, canon divergence

Soliloquy | gen, tim & Jason brotp,  and really cute batfam moments

Red As The Shadow Of Death | gen, young justice/under the red hood verse

Give Yourself a Chance | gen, duke & Jason & leslie brotpish

homecoming | outlaws brotp fic, could be considered shippy if you want to

And I Said What About Breakfast at Tiffany’s | jason & steph

Of Bats and the Forsaken | jason & all the batkids, side steph/cass and jay/roy if you squint

this is a long drive (for three robins who don’t agree on much) | no capes au, steph & jason & damian, background tim/tam

The Dying of the Light | marvel crossover, bucky & jason, canon divergence

Cat | selina &  jason, catlad au

Killing for Love | cass & jason, au  where jason was lady shivas son  

Keep Lying To Me | de-aged au, just heartbreaking imo, cursed fic

The Social Habits of Robin | gen, batboys. Where_is_cass.jpg tho

Steph and Jay’s Excellent Adventures | series, Steph & Jason

Neverland | jason & batkids, young!jay travels to the future. sad asad sad

on a thin chain of moments and something like faith | gen, jason & cass & steph mostly. really good

Good News (No One Mourns the Wicked) | Jason & steph & damian. harold they’re dead

In a Parallel Life | batboys focused, it has amazing dialogue, dynamics, and characterization. It’s only missing Cass and the rest of the girls.

repairing the world | series, not everything is about the batfam.

Born to Run (Born to Rise) | Jason & Talia having a mother/son relationship reblog if you agree

Live to Rise | it updated again p recently so yay! young justice verse

To Save a Dying City  | jason + other people

Let’s Have Some Fun This Beat Is Sick | mostly damian centric

Movie Night: The Mummy  | read trigger warnings, batboys

The Trading Chain  | not jason centric, but it has cass being older than jason and calling him “little brother” so noice

we sure know how to run free  | jason & cass

Yesterday’s Voices | bruce loses his memory au

Nests and Cages series | read trigger warnings

Roots | barbara centric, really good plot and characterization

Love Yourself (So No One Has To) | good amazing au with selina & jason

Retrograde Motion | de aged jason au

Provenance | mostly roy centric, bruce fucks oliver’s life for what he did to roy. iconic

Schrödinger's Honest Man | sad, drugs tw, absolute fave 

Batten Down the Hatches | a few different aus here. young justice + helena wayne

My Brother's Keeper | jason & damian knew each other from before + damian arrives to gotham just for jason

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

until i'm in my grave v2 | this one is already mentioned in this post BUUUT the writer started rewriting it so!

Frozen History | de-age

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

show me yesterday, for i can’t find today | time travel au

Warm Enough | alfred & jay fluff

Parallels | mia & jason team up

Legacy | reverse robins, not jason centric but hes there alright.. i think.. i cant remember :D

What are the words I'm forbidden to say?* | damian & jay fluff

Cracked Foundation| jason n damian

Cat's Cradle  | more jason n damian

spaces in between  | damian & jason again

When the lights go out  | damian & jason, theres a pattern here

in my head, i do everything right | some jason & steph

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)* | past & future jason

life, if well lived* | jason travels back in time and meets martha & thomas wayne

In Charge * | babie jason

Pyrrhic victory* | jason & damian stuff

Twists and Turns* | more jason & damian bonding

Of Brothers and Batcows* | guess what.. yes! more jason & damian

This Car Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us* | jason & connor.. say no more!

First Gear* | back to jason & damian please read this.. damian tries to teach jason to drive

changing, falling, fading (please watch over me)* | jason bonds with damian & steph

ANGST

Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death [read the trigger warnings!!]

in the repairing the world series there are a lot of fics dealing with jason, tho Warm Enough ugh not all are centered around him. I would say read  Escalation | Coup de Grâce |  Interlude for the rh!jason arc, and  Tired &  Laundry for robin!jason. [also read trigger warnings]

Countdown | jason/roy]

those six days [trigger warnings again!!!]

Call | angst

the tune without the words  | kind of character study from jim gordon’s pov

Unspoken | jason/roy, really angsty if you remember how red hood arsenal ended

If He Had Come & Desiderium | arkham knight verse, read trigger warnings!

Reason | on hiatus :/

hold on to what we are, hold on to your heart   | this is my favorite ever.. read trigger warnings

Heavy Home | alfred & jason

until i’m in my grave [trigger warnings!]

Keeping Broken Pieces Together

Monsters | marvel crossover

gotta give the boy points | this one please!!!! another fav. read trigger warnings

The weight of it [trigger warnings!]

Live to Rise | young justice verse

Neverland | THIS ONE IS PURE ANGST!!! please its so sad..

Keep Lying To Me | this one has some angsty scenes too im sad emoji

hangman is coming down from the gallows  | some angst

Movie Night: The Mummy  | read trigger warnings, batboys

Love Yourself (So No One Has To)

All in the Blood [read trigger warnings]

Little Absences

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

Rebirth * | mind the warnings and its really. sad.

The Failures of Reverse Engineering *

Eternal Soliloquy * | sad sad

throw me a lifeline (I might even catch it) *

changing, falling, fading (please watch over me) * | jason & steph & dami angst

[richincolor]

For poetry month I started looking for books to highlight. What I realized is that there haven’t been many young adult poetry books in my life lately. There have been a few books containing some poetry though. Here are some of my favorite novels with at least a little poetry woven into the story:

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero [My Review]

Summary: Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn’t want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it’s important to wait until you’re married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, “Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas.” Eyes open, legs closed. That’s as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don’t mind it. I don’t necessarily agree with that whole wait until you’re married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she will think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.

Shame the Stars by Guadalupe García McCall [My Review] [Interview with Guadalupe García McCall]

Summary: Eighteen-year-old Joaquín del Toro’s future looks bright. With his older brother in the priesthood, he’s set to inherit his family’s Texas ranch. He’s in love with Dulceña—and she’s in love with him. But it’s 1915, and trouble has been brewing along the US-Mexico border. On one side, the Mexican Revolution is taking hold; on the other, Texas Rangers fight Tejano insurgents, and ordinary citizens are caught in the middle.

As tensions grow, Joaquín is torn away from Dulceña, whose father’s critical reporting on the Rangers in the local newspaper has driven a wedge between their families. Joaquín’s own father insists that the Rangers are their friends, and refuses to take sides in the conflict. But when their family ranch becomes a target, Joaquín must decide how he will stand up for what’s right.

Shame the Stars is a rich re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet set in Texas during the explosive years of Mexico’s revolution. Filled with period detail, captivating romance, and political intrigue, it brings Shakespeare’s classic to life in an entirely new way.

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson [My Review]

Summary: Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods.But Jade doesn’t need support. And just because her mentor is black doesn’t mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.Friendships, race, privilege, identity—this compelling and thoughtful story explores the issues young women face.Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson [My Review]Summary: Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods.But Jade doesn’t need support. And just because her mentor is black doesn’t mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.Friendships, race, privilege, identity—this compelling and thoughtful story explores the issues young women face.

Some novels in verse are:

Cinnamon Girl by Juan Felipe Herrera

Summary: I want to see what is on the other side of the dust When the towers fall, New York City is blanketed by dust. On the Lower East Side, Yolanda, the Cinnamon Girl, makes her manda, her promise, to gather as much of it as she can. Maybe returning the dust to Ground Zero can comfort all the voices. Maybe it can help Uncle DJ open his eyes again. As tragedies from her past mix in the air of an unthinkable present, Yolanda searches for hope. Maybe it’s buried somewhere in the silvery dust of Alphabet City.

Booked by Kwame Alexander

Summary: Like lightning/you strike/fast and free/legs zoom/down field/eyes fixed/on the checkered ball/on the goal/ten yards to go/can’t nobody stop you/ can’t nobody cop you…

In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel The Crossover,  soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read. This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by poet Kwame Alexander bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match!

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson [My Review]

Summary: Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman [My Review]

Summary: Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient Bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit.

Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe García McCall

Summary: Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother’s battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse.

When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami’s life.

While her father cares for Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her seven younger siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she takes refuge in the shade of a mesquite tree, where she escapes the chaos at home to write. Forced to face her limitations in the midst of overwhelming changes and losses, Lupita rediscovers her voice and finds healing in the power of words.

Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita’s journey toward hope is captured in moments that are alternately warm and poignant. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about testing family bonds and the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience.

Finally, here are two poetry related books I look forward to reading sometime this year:

The Playbook by Kwame Alexander

Summary: You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for our lives? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives?

Illustrated with photographs by Thai Neave, The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration on the court of life. Each rule contains wisdom from inspiring athletes and role models such as Nelson Mandela, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Carli Lloyd, Steph Curry and Michelle Obama. Kwame Alexander also provides his own poetic and uplifting words, as he shares stories of overcoming obstacles and winning games in this motivational and inspirational book just right for graduates of any age and anyone needing a little encouragement.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Summary: A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.