#jason was only in a coma for like a month

[erinwantstowrite]

What do you think about Jason and Tim relationship? I know that fans are split between hatred for each other or the best brothers. But what do you think?

i fully believe that the writers dropped the ball on what to do with them.

i disagree with what they did with Jason coming back- they didn't have any direction for his character besides that they wanted a huge dramatic twist and Jason has stagnated because of it. him coming back as pretty much nothing like himself but then having zero good writing to convince me of his tragedy?? it's why a lot of people just ignore canon. if they were gonna bring him back, they should have gone in another direction.

if i HAD to keep jason as an anti hero, i would have written him to have a compulsion to protect Robin. a deep rooted fear where he projects his own time, experience, and feelings as Robin onto Tim (and even Stephanie!!) because of the damage that was done to him mentally. jason had long lasting brain damage. he was in a coma for months after he was suddenly revived, he was catatonic when Talia was taking care of him. the Lazarus pit might have healed that, but there would still be residual affects. Jason would feel younger than he is, he'd feel like a stranger in his own body. add on to that with severe cpstd, and you have a recipe for a kid (he was what, 18? 19? physically? when he got to Gotham?) who has a warped perception of his life and relationships. he would have memories that were forgotten to him, not just in his recovery stage but in the time before he died. he would have the feelings of a kid who wanted his dad to save him, who was angry at his mom for hurting him, who now has to struggle with why he ever came back at all. i'm sure he would be angry at everyone. he'd be confused and hurt and he wouldn't have a means to understanding his own feelings. but at his heart, jason was always a good kid, and he protected people, especially people who couldn't protect themselves

it makes no sense that jason came back wanting to hurt robin

so yeah, i'd have written him to be angry and volatile like a teen lashing out at a safe parent to be angry with, but when Tim or Steph were there, he'd dial it back immediately. at first it would be about not wanting to scare them, wanting to keep them safe as a way to help the kid that did die in that costume, somehow and someway. but eventually it would be about Jason seeing them, seeing how capable they are, and feeling protective over them, not just Robin.

but that isn't what happened, because the writers couldn't care less about how trauma actually effects people. they had him attack tim and become basically a sociopath and it felt like a cheap "gotcha!" twist that no one asked for

that being said, their canon relationship isn't terrible. in the beginning they didn't get along at all, obviously. but now, they have a respect for each other. they act like siblings. Tim has said multiple times that he doesn't hate Jason nor holds a grudge. Jason said that he should, but Tim didn't care. sometimes when I read them, I think about how well they might have gotten along if Jason never died. because let's be real, Tim was always headed for the Batfam with or without Jason's death. that's why fics where he's adopted earlier and Jason doesn't die are pretty popular. though in my opinion, they often overshadow that Dick and Tim are also brothers

i think they have a complicated history and relationship but they are siblings. they aren't texting each other everything (Dick and Tim, i fear) or having emotional conversations more than once every seven months but they'll play video games with each other, drop by unannounced to the other's house to eat their food and complain about something, and they work together well. they have a lot in common and they're both previously only children who became second children and eventually middle children. they both experienced neglect though it was very different versions.

in one universe where Tim had died, Jason mourned him. i think that says a lot about how they care about each other

if only the writers would let it STAY that way and not have Jason regress over and over just because they're terrified of character development

[oifaaa]

If Tim was 13 when he became Robin and Jason was 15 when he died and spent 6 months dead then there’s maybe just over a year between them. And then two years comatose then Tim drake is actually older than Jason was mentally despite Jason being legally and physically older which means Tim drake got beat up by two of his younger brothers which is really lame of him. Can’t believe he’s been beaten up by his younger brothers twice and he still acts like he’s the baby victim.

I like your thought process here your math is a bit off but let's ignore that in favour of how funny it is for Tim to be beaten up by 2 younger siblings

[rin-may-1103]

Just a Bite.

Master Post | Next

Danny stared out at the busy street from behind his dumpster.

or well, not his dumpster, but it might as well be his considering how many nights he's spent sitting behind it like some rabid raccoon.

Two months ago, he would have been sleeping in his own bed. His glow-in-the-dark stars vaguely lighting up his room in soft luminescent colors. The sound of Jazz snoring in her sleep just a room over, his parents still milling around in the basement.

he would have just finished fighting the box ghost and collapsed onto his bed, the sound of his home lulling him to sleep.

Oh, how things can change in a blink of an eye.

No, instead of sleeping on his bed with his cartoon ghost sheets and NASA poster covered room, he's out here in some random dirty city, sleeping behind dumpsters.

dirty, grimy, rusty dumpsters.

"did you hear?" some lady dressed in a light blue summer dress asked, turning to look at her friend as they started to walk past. "Mr. Wayne donated another lump sum to that charity." she huffed, shaking her head like she had just said the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard.

her friend stopped in the middle of the alley opening, her graying hair splaying in an ark as she twisted to face the other women. "my word! again? what the hell is that man thinking?"

the woman huffed, then smirked in amusement. "it's like he's shouting for the world to hear how desperate he is for attention. he thinks if he donates enough money to those scoudrails they'll love him or something. With how he's acting lately, it's like he wants all the street rats to barge into his home asking for money, food, and clothes."

her friend clicked her tongue in disgust, "I'd believe it. he has so many kids now, it's like he's running an orphanage. someone, anyone really, with black hair and some tragic story could walk right in and not even be noticed. they'd blend right in with the others."

"I heard it's genetic, his father was the same way before he met Martha. Bruce's blood son, Damian I believe, acts just like his father. the boy's been spotted taking stray cats and dogs inside. It wouldn't surprise me if the paper posted about him convincing his father for another sibling at some point."

the women then turned and started to walk away, their conversation slowly bleeding into the surrounding city ruckus.

Danny leaned back, resting his head against the crumbling brick behind him.

walk right in and not be noticed? wouldn't that be grand. He had heard of Mr. wayne and his gaggle of black-haired children. What were their names again? he could have sworn Sam told him before, in one of her rants about rich society.

Richard Grayson was the first, Danny remembered because Tucker had been making none stop dick jokes for a few hours. Danny didn't understand why the man would willingly go by Dick, but then again, who was he to question someone's name when he fights ghosts like Skulker and Technis on a daily basis?

Next was... Jason? Sam had mentioned there was a whole conspiracy theory of how his death was a cover-up. how all the unsolved crime community swore it was Bruce who killed the kid, that or the kid had some terminal illness that Bruce didn't want the media to know about.

thennnnnn-

Danny glanced around, trying to dig through his memories of Sam's rant. Dick: the orphaned circus act taken in the night his parents died. he's romanie? maybe, Danny wasn't too sure on that one. Jason: taken off the streets, one of his parents was out of the picture and the other one died of a drug overdose.

and then there was..... Tim! Right, Tim, the one who was Mr. Wayne's neighbor before his mother died and his dad went into a coma, then died later on. right, right. he was the known tech genius, the one who took over the company while Mr. Wayne stepped back for a while.

there were others? like, four others? Damian, the lady said he was the blood son sooo, that would imply he was the only bio kid.

who else was there? hmmmm.

well, either way, Danny's tired brain agreed with the women. someone, anyone, who looked vaguely like the other kids could walk right into the house and no one would notice.

it was a bad idea. a terrible one really. but. Danny was hungry.

he's been sleeping behind dumpsters for a few weeks now, he hadn't had anything good to eat in forever, and he was tired. (not as exhausted as he was back home, but still tired. who would have guessed he'd sleep more while homeless?)

he wasn't going to steal from people, his core wouldn't allow him to. and well, he's pretty sure Dan would have stolen already, so there was no way Danny was going to. not unless his life was at risk, and well? it wasn't right now, so no stealing.

but this? walking right into a house and blatantly taking food? right in front of them?

it wouldn't be stealing if he just flat-out didn't try to hide it. they'd be able to stop him and send him away. heck, he doubted he'd even make it past the front gate before they turned him away.

...

was he really going to do this?

...

yes, yes he was.

standing up, Danny started making his way out of the alleyway and over to the tall building with Wayne's name on it. It was a good place to start, maybe he could even find one of the kids and walk with them. or, even better, he could find Mr. Wayne and walk with him. he liked that better than following some kid around.

suddenly, a car honked right next to him, the window rolling down to reveal a tired and disheveled man behind the wheel. glancing up, Danny made eye contact with the taxi driver.

the man yawned and gestured for him to get in, already speaking before Danny could decline. "Mr. Wayne! Your father," yawn, "Father already paid for me to take you home. just hop in."

Danny blinked then glanced around, looking to see if the Wayne the man was talking about was around. nope. turning back, Danny spotted a green sticky note on the back seat.

well, alright then. guess he was getting into the taxi and doing this after all. Clockwork obviously approved if he messed with the timing of things.

Next

[brucewaynehater101]

I’d love to see more of the Emotional Marks AU. I want to see the reveal and the Bats having the realization that just because they’re doing better /now/, it doesn’t fix the damage they did before. And that they can’t force things to heal. Healing takes time.

Post being mentioned is here

What I'm curious about is if it's a human only thing or if others (like Kyrptonians, Martians, Atlanteans, etc.) also get marks.

Anyways, here's some more stuff I thought of. As always, take as little or as much as you'd like of it ^^

Tim never takes off the object hiding his marks, even for himself. It's part habit and part desperation to never see how much his loved ones have actually hurt him.

He's unique in that he isn't sure where most of his marks come from. People usually see the marks within 24 hours of their appearance. Tim has gone years between seeing his own marked skin.

As I've stated before, the object works like glamor. Therefore, those with enough magic power would be able to see past it. This is part of why Tim wanted pants for the Robin uniform (any magicians working with Robin would see the moment they saw any of Tim's bare skin). Tim is very lucky the marks on his face only appeared a bit before he became Red Robin (and part of his reason for the cowl).

Marks typically stay away from the face. They only appear there if symbolically significant or if the marks are running out of space elsewhere on the body. Bart and Kon dying really did a number on Tim even though it wasn't their fault.

YJ and Dick have helped soothe some of the marks left behind by the Drakes (and Bruce too if you want good dad Bruce). Quite a bit have even fully disappeared due to them.

Tim still collected them like Halloween candy, though.

Major marks and their placement [though feel free to offer different ideas]:

Bruce calling Tim "Jason" - x on the back of neck

16th birthday - Major gash on right temple hidden by hair

Janet dying - splintering cracks along hand (bigger version of the one Janet fakes)

Jack coma then death - line in left calf then up to mid back of thigh

Bart dying - right side from under armpit to end of ribs gash

Kon dying - giant oval over sternum

Jason's TT attack - left foot/ankle cracks

Damian's attacks - stomach area

Losing Robin - largest slash diagonal across back (left shoulder to right hip)

There's more marks, but the ones on his face are caused by people not believing in him [this is not a "they should have" argument. It would have hurt regardless of what they should have done]

Hmm... So, the reveal? I'm thinking a magician. This would be after Tim switches back to just a mask and no cowl. His face marks would be on display for magicians but no one else. He, wrongly, assumed he'd be fine.

He's playing nice with the Bats at this point, even if he doesn't fully trust them. He loves them and wants to keep the peace. He'd never voluntarily show them his marks or tell them about it.

The Bats are being nicer under the idea that their assumptions about markless were incorrect. It weirds Tim out and usually has him ghosting them for a few days if they try to initiate feeling conversations with him. He kind of wishes they would just go back to normal.

It's a few months of this behavior before some magician makes a remark about Tim's facial marks. Something along the lines of, "You okay, Red? You're aware of how dangerous it is for marks to progress as far as the face, right?"

Cause what happens when there's no more room for marks? Drastic decrease in physical health. Could lead to death.

The Bats overhear and promptly freak the fuck out again.

Tim, who has been dealing with their bullshit for the last few months and doesn't want to deal with the confrontation, disappears. He's waiting for them to process their shit before returning [he loves them but does not want to be caught in that fucking whirlwind. Bats notoriously do not handle emotions well]

[literallyjustforlurking]

Fight Little Wolf (Wolves)

The idea is that Jason is Telemachus reincarnated. This would make the beef between Percy and Jason on the Argo hilarious because it's like Jason's version of a teenage rebellion but also Jupiter having to deal Poseidon claiming Jason as his grandson. Because obviously any version of Poseidon's son is his son even if it's before his son exsisted. (He still refuses to acknowledge Odysseus as his son-in-law)

Athena is cooing over having her nephew/little brother back. Hermes and Poseidon are arguing over whose grandson Jason is.

Jason does not want to be anybody's grandson. Jason gets no say in this.

The best part though is when Annabeth and Jason are stuck in CHB for months while Percy is in his coma. Jason/Telemachus finally understands how his dad felt the entire time he was away from them. Annabeth/Odysseus doesn't understand why they can't just have their family together for one day, please.

Percy keeps hearing about this Jason dude at CJ and something about him makes a shiver runs up Percy's spine. Percy (incorrectly) identifies this as hatred. It is infact Penelope just being really upset that people keep forcing responabilites upon her son.

Because of this Percy is kinda hostile towards Jason when they first meet. Jason (who is excited to see his mother, the woman who raised him, who protected him from the suitors and who he protected in turn, the only solid presence in the first twenty years of his life) totalty doesn't break down crying when Percy gives him a slightly unimpressed look when they first get to New Rome, Why Would You Say That?

Neptune is really confused on when he got a grandson but is also will to fight Mercury over grandparental rites just for the lols.

Athena is planning on duking it out with Hera for mentorship rites.

I also have the feeling Hera really likes Penelope, who in Hera's opinion is the perfect mortal wife, so she is willing to co-parent Jason with her and just cut Zeus out of the equation entirely. Hera is not willing to share with Athena.

Odysseus!Annabeth is not willing to share with Hera who not only kidnapped Percy but also used magic to force Jason to be with Piper cheat on Reyna. This all reminds Odysseus!Annabeth way to much of Circe and Calypso and, just like everything else in her and Percy's lives, is giving the poor girl war flashbacks.

(I don't know whether or not Reyna and Jason were actually dating before Jason was taken but I think it would be funnier if they weren't and Odysseus!Annabeth is just desperatly projecting while Jason is despertly projecting becasue I just got you back please don't piss off another major olympian we're demigods I won't survive the ten years it takes for you to get back home)

Did this entire idea come from a post I saw that called Jason Lupa's little wolf? Yes, your point?

[shepherdsheart]

Dont Blame the Boy

DpxDc Prompt

Bruce was no stranger to taking in children into his home considering the many he called his own. So he was no stranger to the struggles of a new family member, each of his children had been different.

Dick had been out for blood when Bruce first took him into his home. The boy grieving for his parents was set on revenge and had promised to make there killer pay. How different he was now compared to the child he first brought home.

Then there was Jason who at first was angry and miss understood. But as time went he began to see the book loving boy who loved to learn. He was always enthusiastic to learn but he could be brash and hard headed at first. Jason still held a great love for learning but the young man was no loner as open with the family and he had developed quite a dark sense of humor.

Tim of course was a kind and smart young man with a love for knowledge. The boy was a natural genius though he did need some encouragement at first.

Bruce could go on and on about them and his other children. He was proud of how far they had all come with Damian the most recent addition before now.

Now though he was faced with a challenge, he was faced with young Daniel or Danny as the boy preferred. Danny had only lived in the manner for about 2 months now and still they had no progress of pulling the boy out of his shell.

Bruce had been reluctant at first to take in such an unstable child but when he met the boy he couldn’t say no. Seeing such pain and distrust in the boys eyes broke Bruce’s heart.

Danny had fallen victim to his parents over a year ago when they had decided he was something no longer human and as such needed to be researched. They had experimented on there own child for over a year before the boy finally broke. The boy had snapped after all the tournament they had put him through before he went on a rage filled massacre.

To put it lightly there wasn’t much left of the Fentons by the time the police arrived to investigate a call made by some concerned citizens.

With the state of the lab and Danny himself the police had called in the League for assistance where Danny was then rushed to the tower for emergency care.

Danny had been in a medically induced coma for over a month because of his violent reaction to anyone who approached him. And after he was put through intensive therapy mental and physical with several doctors.

It had been months sense then and the boy no longer acted like a caged animal but he was still very much an animal, lashing out when he felt threatened or cornered, retreating when things became to much and he didn’t blame him.

Bruce understood why the boy didn’t trust people, didn’t trust adults. After years of people failing him and the year of torment? He didn’t blame him.

Bruce didn’t blame the boy though and he was certain that with time and care Danny would come out of his shell and join the rest of the flock but till then they would work the best they could to make him feel safe and comfortable.

No he didn’t blame the boy at all

[space-dreams-world]

Inspired by this:

Except there's a twist: Danny adopts Dick, Jason, and maybe Tim.

Danny moved to Gotham (not bad end, but Vlad gets killed, trying to help Danny escape Amity Park, after de aging Dan and Ellie. Fentons, in their confusion and anger, make it even more unsafe for Danny to live there. Fortunately, Vlad made Danny his heir awhile ago, and in leaving, Amity closed their portal and Vlads. Vlad is a full ghost now. So now Danny is a runaway pregnant genderfluid teen that moves to Gotham, whether it be before the wayne murders or after. Jordan isn't born until a year into living in Gotham.)

He sets up a bakery/cafe near crime alley with his apartment on top of it and lab in the basement. He also owns a warehouse that he uses as a storage and training zone. He never makes homeless people pay, and if you can, it's a dollar. Even ghosts show up. He gets to know batman starting out and even maybe starts to court him as bats. They don't officially date until after catwoman reject his proposal, and Damian is permanently with Bruce.

Danny, while not at the circus prior to Graysons' murder, sees an escaped juvie grayson and is able to calm him down, even gets him to speak with his parents again and Danny with the help of Gotham threatens/scares Zucco into fearing for his life. He doesn't bring him back to Juvie but manages to save Dick's things and important paperwork. They declare him missing despite being needed in witness protection. Bruce wants to care for Dick but he doesn't have the same connection to Dick and sees Danny as his own Alfred, when B parents died. Danny raises Dick with a little help from Bruce.

Cannon events also happen, so Two-face and Joker get ahold of Dick for being near Batman and get beaten and shot. Danny brings Dick to the Far frozen and they heal him and he ensures to Two face/Joker that he will feel the same pain as what he has dealt to Dick and almost kills Joker but gets left with a warning.

Court of Owls actually loses Talons to Danny and are his and his kids' bodyguards now while trying to learn how heal them. Unfortunately, Bruce pulls back from the relationship with Danny, and this hurts them both.

Then,when Jason is on the streets, he sticks to near Danny's place and eventually gets adopted, too. Eleanor is born after. Jason loves his new family and is surprised that Bruce is back to dating Danny again. (Which hurts Dick because Bruce only came back for Jason)

In this scenario, Shelia reaches out to Jason for bribery reasons, and when Joker shows up, Danny is having none of it. He kills Mr. J crushes his soul and brings Jason to the Yeti, where he flatlines and gets to become a halfa instantly. This time, Danny is the one that pulls from Bruce as he never found out where Danny took Dick and now Jason to heal. So in the 6 months Jason was in the Zone practicing, Bruce took the worst of it and thought he was dead, but in reality Jason in the zone training with his powers and Dick helps out with his enhanced liminality. What seems like a death to Bruce is a coma or a loss of mobility for Jason. Bruce just assumes he's dead.

Dick grows up to be either a gymnast instructor or a social worker. Jason would be studying for literature or social or justice reform. Dan is a mechanic or security guard. He works part-time at the cafe and helps with branding and making the sweets. Jason, Jordan, and Ellie also help in the shop. Stephanie is a part timer.

Tim, during one of his photoscapedes, gets caught, and Danny and/or the kids save him and bring him to Danny. Tim, while dealing with years of parental neglect, stays with them, or Danny notifies Bruce of this. Either Tim stays with Danny, and despite Drakes having more money and power, Danny's otherness freaks them out and they decide fuck this or similar to cannon, Bruce adopts Tim.

Bruce, by the end of this, officially only has one or three kids: Damian, Cass, and/or Tim.

[I don't know if I want the boys into vigilante. It seems hypocritical for Danny to say no to vigilantism,but in another reality to this one, Danny says yes to the boys being vigilantes]

Hilariously, Danny and his kids show up to a Gala as Masters Heirs.

Jazz moves to Gotham after College to either be a doctor or work in Arkham.

Sam, while trying to leave her parents grasp, goes to Gotham for personal reasons and her parents threaten to cut her off from her inheritance unless she shows up at important events or Galas to support the Manson name.

Tucker is a tech fan and also moves to Gotham, but it is a bit of a recluse, but he takes an interest in teaching Babs, Dick and Tim in Hacking. He is an IT guy for Wayne Industries and an app creator.

[midsummer-semantics]

under the dancing lights

Small break while I do a million other things but here's *checks calendar* day 16 of @steddieangstyaugust.

Prompt: Halloween

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags: Underage Drinking, Cemeteries, Canon Complaint (question mark???), Ambiguous Ending

divider by @steddiecameraroll-graphics

He isn’t sure why he’s out here. It’s not like there’s anything left, anything calling him to action. The kids are old enough to trick-or-treat without supervision, Robin is with Vicky at a party he didn’t want to third-wheel to, and everyone else…

The point is, traipsing through Roane County cemetery on Halloween night seemed like a good idea when Steve is three Jack and Coke’s deep and unsure of where he fits into the regular world. He bought a dozen flowers on the way here just before the shop closed for the evening, like he couldn’t risk showing up to the cemetery empty-handed for some reason. 

Barb’s grave is overrun with flowers 365 days a year, three years running. Steve leaves several of the carnations in the bundle he carries at the tombstone, begging forgiveness as he does every few months. He hasn’t told Nancy what he does, even when he’s accompanied her a few times. He simply stays silent, lets Nancy grieve, and returns a few weeks later to replace the dead ones when no one is paying attention.

Next is Bob Newby, whom he didn’t know, but the kids did, so he drops a couple of flowers off out of perfunctory expectation.

Billy is the one of the hardest, his grave near Steve’s dad’s grandparents’ joint plot. He tends to spend a little more time here, aware of how the plot feels under his knees, remembering how Max looked as she lifted in the air under Vecna’s influence. Sometimes, Steve comes just to sit, to stare at Billy’s name and curse his existence, even if it brought him Max. Other times, Steve sits and talks, tells his rival how his step-sister is doing, how Steve learned to plant his feet, how regardless of what a piece of shit he was, no one deserved to deal with the bullshit the Upside Down had to offer. He leaves one flower out of obligation, but he doesn’t linger like he normally would.

He leaves a few at Chrissy’s grave, not just because she died, but because he knew her, even vaguely because she was a cheerleader while he was still on the basketball team. And because Eddie would want him to.

He flips off Jason’s grave as he passes it.

Three years — less than, technically— since the first death. Almost three years since Steve took Jonathan’s nail bat and made it his weapon of choice against the monsters that lurk beneath their feet. 

Over half a year since Max went into a coma that doctors — UD connected or otherwise — or Eleven haven't been able to wake her up from. 

Seven months since Eddie Munson was added to the list of people Steve couldn’t save.

The sun has dipped well past the treeline on the edges of the cemetery by the time he reaches Eddie’s grave. There’s no one else around, thankfully, but Steve knows it’s only a matter of time before some idiot high school kids make their way to the cemetery to get trashed and try to see a ghost or fuck near one of the graves. He should know, he was one of those idiot kids not too long ago.

There’s writing on Eddie’s headstone, scrawling letters spelling out MURDERER in red spray paint. One of the R’s is backward, Steve notes, rolling his eyes, a gesture that makes his vision swim a little. It’s not the worst thing that’s been blasted across the headstone since it was placed, but it’s by far the dumbest. He sets the remaining flowers down at his feet as he crouches to examine the writing closer. It’s dry, but it can’t have been there for more than a few days considering he was just here for Eddie’s birthday and had cleaned the last slur himself. He should have brought a bucket and brush instead of the stupid flowers, but he’s a little wobbly from the alcohol and the idea of going back to his car for any reason other than to go home and pass out alone sounds terrible. He’ll come back tomorrow and clean it, plus whatever gets done to it tonight probably. Maybe he should have brought his nail bat. Camped out next to Eddie’s grave and waited to see who exactly is doing it so he can make sure they know never to do it again.

Steve loses his precarious balance, falling back on his ass in the cold, damp grass with a soft “oof!” The flask in his back pocket digs into one cheek, and he shuffles around until he can extract it, then leans back on one hand while the other holds the cool metal.

“Probably stupid to drink more, but I doubt you’d give me shit about it,” Steve says to the grave, holding the flask up like he’s making a toast before closing his eyes and taking a swig. He actually hates whiskey, but it was all that was in the house since it’s his dad’s favorite, and beggars can’t be choosers.

Still, he coughs a bit as the straight liquor burns a path down his throat — he really should have brought some kind of chaser with him, but hindsight and all that — and then lays back on the grass as soon as it clears.

He keeps his eyes closed, breathing through the slight roil in his stomach, and imagines what it would be like if he simply sank into the ground beneath him. Not like if vines were to spring up and drag him under, but if he just slowly melted into the earth the way one feels like they’re melting on a really plush mattress.

It’s only a slight comfort that the grave he’s lying on is empty. Otherwise, his vision of being swallowed by the earth might come with the extra twist of Eddie’s hands dragging him down Evil Dead-style. 

He snorts to himself, his head lolling back and forth a bit. Eddie would have loved that reference, he knows it. He may not have known him for long before. . . before, but he’s sure of it regardless.

After a moment, he brings his hands up to rub the heels into his eyes, waiting until he sees stars before he opens them. The stars continue to blink for a few seconds as his eyes adjust to the inky black sky.

Wait.

No.

There are stars dancing. Little lights swaying to and fro in front of his face, with more popping up around him. He turns his head in awkward directions against the grass, knowing he’s getting foliage in his hair the whole time, watching as more blink to life.

He shuts his eyes again as he sits up, but when he reopens them, they’re still there. It’s too late in the year for fireflies, too cold this late at night at the end of October, and yet the lights dance regardless. 

“Whoa,” he breathes, feeling a distinct sense of deja vu to when he was blitzed out of his mind on Russian truth serum and staring at the ceiling of Starcourt.

One of the stars comes close to him, wisping against his cheek like a tickling feather before flying away. Another does it to his left arm where he’s holding himself up, another to his hip where his shirt has ridden up slightly under his windbreaker. Steve giggles uncontrollably as another brushes his forehead and he turns his head to follow them. There’s another, and another, and another, and as he reaches out to catch one—

“Having a good night, big boy?”

[camillomea]

red bond 1:

here is first episode i hope you like it.

When Tim woke up, he heard voices coming from inside. When he opened his eyes, he was in his room. There was a weight on his chest. When he looked there, there was a cat on his chest, its eyes open and looking at him. He meowed. Tim said, “Good morning to you too Nora.” The cat meowed again and got off his chest. Tim straightened up. He stood up. Nora had gone to his shoulders and wrapped her neck like a scarf as he stood up.

He went to the door and opened it. Hesitantly, he said, “Jay.” The voices suddenly stopped. Footsteps were heard.

Jason stuck his head into the hallway and asked, “Timmy, are you awake?”

Tim nodded, “Good morning,” he said.

Jason asked, “Good morning BabyBird, how are you feeling?”

Tim said, “Better,” smiling.

Jason ruffled his hair, “Breakfast is ready.” Tim nodded silently.

Jason asked, “Did Nora decide to be your neck warmer today?” Tim nodded silently. Jason gently petted Nora. Nora hummed. Jason ruffled Tim's hair with his other hand. Tim leaned on his hand. They went to the kitchen. Tim was slightly unsteady.

Jason was moving right next to him. When he sat down, he put some tea in front of him and said "drink up baby bird". Tim hummed quietly and took the tea. Coffee was something he had been drinking less for a while. Jason had slowly convinced him to do it. He knew that Jason was doing it because he was worried about his health. His life had gotten a lot better in the 1 year he had been in his care. Even though he had probably spent the first 3 months in a coma, that was enough. He trusted Jay and his friends with his life and he would always trust them. He knew that Jason was only worried about him. So he didn't go against his rules anymore.

Jason said "Hey are you okay Red" Tim nodded silently and drank the tea. He hummed quietly at the taste of the tea. Jason smiled at her action. He put some pancakes in front of him, cut into bites. Tim looked at it but remained silent, avoiding his gaze.

Jason sat down next to him "Eat it all, okay little bird? Don't forget to say if you want more" he said. Tim nodded silently, put the cup on the table and started eating.

Jason was watching him while he was eating from his own plate "So are you going to accompany me today Red Bird?" Tim suddenly looked up at him in surprise.

Jason said "You made my job a lot easier yesterday by being on the radio" Tim smiled widely then nodded. Jason smiled at that and ruffled his hair.

Tim said "Thanks Jay. For everything" in a low voice.

Jason "Of course little red you are my baby red. You are all baby red of course we will take care of you. Do you remember the promise I made to you?" he asked.

Tim said "Whether I like it or not you will take care of me as long as you are alive" in a low voice.

Jason said "Absolutely. Little bird is under my protection".

Tim blushed. Jason patted his head "Are you in pain baby bird?" he said.

Tim said "A little" quietly.

Jason said “Okay then take your medicine after you have breakfast” Tim nodded silently. The two of them had breakfast silently.

The two of them were eating when the phone suddenly rang. Jason’s eyebrows were furrowed. He picked it up and looked at it, he cursed a few times with the name he saw. He picked it up and opened it “What do you want B?” he said.

Tim quickly raised his head and looked there nervously. Jason listened to the phone for a while then said “What’s it to you whether I’m with you or not?”

Tim was looking at him nervously. Jason said “It’s not up to me whether he talks to you and I’m not going to force him for your nonsense” he said angrily.

He listened to the phone. He turned to Tim “He wants to talk to you” he said without speaking, moving his mouth. Tim looked at him hesitantly. Then he nodded.

Jason put his phone on speaker “I put it on speaker” he said.

Bruce said “Hey Timmy”.

Tim said “Sir Bruce”.

Bruce said “Hey how are you” the tension in his voice could be heard.

Tim said “I’m fine you” quietly. Bruce said, “I’m fine, thanks, it’s good to hear your voice. I haven’t heard it in a while. It’s a relief to hear it again.”

Tim remained silent. Bruce asked, “Well, I wanted to invite you two to dinner today. Of course, if that’s okay with you. What do you think?”

Tim and Jason looked at each other for a moment. Jason said, “We’ll think about it. But we don’t think so.”

Bruce sighed, but said, “Okay, that’s a better answer than no for me. Please at least think about it and let me know at least by 6.”

Jason said, “Okay,” then he ended the call. He turned to Tim. Tim was silent, munching on his pancake in a dull manner. Jason said, “We don’t have to go, baby bird. It’s okay.”

Tim said, “I know, I know.” Jason patted his head. He stroked his hair with his fingers, trying to comfort him. He finally relaxed a little. They continued eating breakfast. Jason always showed him tactile affection, comforting him in this way. He had realized Tim’s hunger for touch shortly after he settled down next to him. That's why he would always approach her tactfully, take care of him and comfort him in this way.

When the meal was over, they cleaned up the kitchen together. Tim had lost most of his body's mobility except for his right arm and shoulder, but Jason knew that he felt useless and that it made him feel depressed. So he always tried to make sure that he didn't feel useless.

When they finished cleaning up the kitchen together, they went to the living room and sat on the couch. Tim was sitting next to Jason on the couch while he did his homework quietly. His back was against his back. Jason was reading a book out loud while he did his homework. They were both relaxed. Nora was lying between their backs.

[spidernuggets]

Jason Todd x Reader

"Thought I was gonna lose you"

"Oh, baby, you can't get rid of me that easily"

You slammed into the hospital room where the nurse told you your boyfriend was at. You received a call from Dick almost 15 minutes ago while you were reading Jason's annotated Pride and Prejudice book, smiling at his little comments at the side. Once you heard "Jason" and "Hospital" in the same sentence, you quickly bookmarked the novel and ran out the door.

The four Titans accompanying Jason; Dick, Gar, Kori and Rachel, turn to you, but your main focus was on Jason. His eyes closed, bandages all over his torso, IV needles stuck all over and an oxygen mask over his face. Your heart beated faster, pushing the Titans out of the way to get a closer look of your lover, gently caressing his face.

"We were told he's in a coma," Dick immediately says. "There was a messy encounter with Deathstroke and-"

"And Jason jumps head in first like always," Kori interrupts, arms crossed, annoyed expression on her face, staring down at the boy.

"We don't know when he'll wake up," Gar says quietly.

You don't reply. All you can do is lean your forhead against his, praying that he'll wake.

You're not part of the Titans, but you've known Jason for years and he'd entrusted you with his identity, and soon after, neither of you could hide your feelings towards one another for long.

"He's going to wake up. He'll wake up soon," was all you could say, just barely above a whisper.

"C'mon," Dick quietly says, motioning for the Titans to leave the two of you alone. When the three members leave, Dick places his hand on your shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"He was knocked out but.. he was calling your name when he got out of the ER," Dick tells you. "He's strong. He'll wake up."

When Dick leaves, you pull a chair up beside the bed, sitting down and laying your head beside Jason's torso, holding his hand.

And that's how it remained for the next few weeks. Jason didn't show any signs of movement but you still stayed in that chair, only getting up to use the bathroom. Even with Dick's authoritative commands, telling you to go home and that he'll watch over Jason, you didn't move an inch.

Gar was the only other person to visit Jason, and occasionally dropping of some food for you, while the others focus on missions.

"He never stops talking about you, y'know," Gar suddenly says, placing a paper bag full of greasy food on the small table beside you. "Training, fighting, debriefing, he's always bringing you up. 'Do you think Y/n would be impressed with this move?', 'I have to go, I want to hang out with Y/n', 'Don't tell Y/n I got stabbed'. I don't remember the last time he talked about anything other than you," Gar tells you, repeating all the things Jason had told him about you.

Your eyebrows scrunched together and lifted your head up to look at Gar as he handed you a burger. "He got stabbed? When??" You asked, accepting the burger.

Gar lightly laughed at the fact that you know Jason can take a punch or a stab, but would still be concerned even if Jason stubbed his toe.

"It was a month ago. He's more than fine now- well. The wound, I mean," He corrects, knowing Jason's current situation is definitely not more than fine.

You sighed, looking back at your boyfriend. "Thanks, Gar," You say, a smile tugging at your lips as your grip tightened on Jason's hand.

"For...," Gar's head tilted, confused what you were thanking him for while quickly stealing one of your fries.

You shrugged one of your shoulders. "For being his friend. He's told me some of the stuff he's gone through. How some of the other guys treat him. Without a shadow of a doubt he's wreckless and impulsive. But he's smart. And strong and brave. So.. thanks.. I guess. For believing that he is all of those things."

Gar sighed and gave you a lopsided hug. "Of course. He's my teammate amd my friend."

You leaned into Gar's hold, hand on his arm, giving it an accepting and gentle squeeze.

~

You remained by Jason's side a month and two weeks later, only leaving the room to go back to your house, asking Gar to look after Jason while grabbing a pair of extra clothes, plus a hoodie and leather jacket you stole from Jason.

You fell asleep, hugging Jason's arm, not noticing how his other arm went over his body and rested on your head, stroking your hair.

"Wakey wakey, gorgeous," You heard a raspy, groggy voice call out to you. You blinked twice before processing that someone was calling out to you. Your eyes widen as you jolt up from you seat and saw Jason smiling up at you.

"Don't tell me you've been sleeping in that position for long, babe, that could not be comfortable," Jason tried to joke. You didn't even realised what he said. You were still processing that he's awake.

A few seconds of realisation later, you start breaking down, tears cascading down for face and sobs choking out your throat.

"Oh, mama, c'mere," He whispers, weakly holding his arms out. You lunge forward, but careful not to lean over his bandages. You sobbed in his bare shoulder as he shushed you, stroking your hair.

"You scared me," you whimpered.

"I know, baby. 'm sorry, shh it's okay, I'm okay." he assures, pressing a light kiss to the crown of your head.

"I missed you," you mumbled, your finger tracing shapes along his skin.

"Missed you too, doll," he responded. "I heard you, y'know. Rereading Pride and Prejudice, saying how stupid my comments were. Asking me to wake up. Talking to Gar 'n all," he quietly explains.

"Thought I was gonna lose you"

"Oh, baby, you can't get rid of me that easily," he tried joking once more, this time earning a skicker from you as you left a soft, lingering kiss on his collerbone.

Jason shifted to one side of his bed, leaving a wider space beside him. He patted the empty space next to him, telling you to lie with him.

"Jay, I can’t, your bandages-"

"They'll be fine, I promise," he interrupts you. "Just come here with me. I'll heal faster if I'm holding you," he says with a cheeky smile dancing across his face.

You roll your eyes, but as much as you wanted him to have space to heal properly, the selfish part of you took over and slid in beside him, craving his touch that had you starved for too long.

You lay your head on his arm and you gently wrap your arm over his waist as Jason's arm cradles your head, the other draping over your body, pulling you closer, leaning in and connecting his lips with yours. It was a deep and hungry kiss that you both missed as you tiredly nuzzle your fave against his arm.

"Get some sleep, beautiful," Jason says. "You need some proper sleep," he kisses your forhead.

You hummed in response, quickly falling into a quick, comforting slumber, Jason closing his eyes shortly after.

Bonus:

After what felt like eternity, you finally slept, better yet, in the arms of the love of your life, knowing he's okay.

After finally getting a break from missions, the Titans made their way unto the hospital to see how Jason's doing.

"If Jason hadn't start the mission on his own, he wouldn't even be in this state," Rachel ranted to Dick, the two of them carrying plastic bags full of take away.

"Definitely taking a toll on Y/n," Kori says. "That kid's seen better days"

The group stopped in their tracks, looking through the window of Jason's room, seeing the couple in each other's embrace.

"Jason's awake!" Gar exclaims.

Dick smiled to himself and started shooing the Titans back.

"Alright, Jason's okay, we'll come back later when he and Y/n wake up". He said, smiling once more at the sight of the two.

♡Might be an ass fic seeing as I tried not to fall asleep. So.... definitely spelling/grammar errors somewhere.. Anyways, Hope you enjoyed reading! ♡

[liedownquisition]

Jason Todd's timeline and "Age"

So, there's a lot of discussion of Jason Todd's age esp as relative to other sidekick vigilantes, particularly Tim and Mia. I believe the exact words are usually something about a "grown ass man beating up/trying to kill teenagers."

DISCLAIMER: This particular post is specifically regarding the "grown ass man vs teenagers" statement, I have posts regarding the "tried to kill them" portion and other stuff like "seriously Jason Todd is like being shot by a marshmallow gun compared to what goes on directly before and after him in these incidents, also you don't bitch about the right stuff, also a lot of you prop up characters who are Objectively Worse, and no that's not hate on your fave it's just me calling out hypocrisy". It just takes time to find digital copies of the panels I'm using. NOTE I AM NOT JUSTIFYING HIS ACTIONS. I'm just saying y'all blow it out of proportion for petty character hate. Like, shit, they're superheroes. Jason's soooo fuckin' tame. He's not even framed as a big deal to the teens it's only the adults that think it's that much of a problem.

Courtesy readmore post cut:

Now, to start off, we all know Jason died at 15 & a few months off from 16 (if you want me to dig up panels, sure, but I figured at this point that wasn't in question). Tim at this point is somewhere between 12-13, and we have this panel in Lonely Place of Dying which takes place a few months later:

So that's a ballpark of 2-3 years between Jason and Tim.

But Tim's age is really fucky and they keep de-aging him tbh. We can extrapolate that his confrontation with Jason was between the ages of 16-17 bcs it's after the arc where he has his incredibly shitty 16th birthday in Robin Vol2 #116 and before Red Robin where he's stated to be 17. This would put Jason between 18-19 at the time. (If you really want me to find panel sources for Tim's birthday and his age in RR then, sure, but I don't think they're necessary. I used it more as a guidepost for Jason's age, since we have a clear idea of what the age gap is.)

At least, on paper.

Mia for her part I've had a hard time finding like, on panel mentions of her age and if anyone can direct me to it being explicitly stated I'd love that. I'm rereading old comics but it's a LOT of comics to hunt down & dig through. To my understanding she was fifteen when Ollie first met her, and there's at Minimum of about a year and a half between that to her meeting Red Hood, more likely at least two? because there's at least few months between that and her joining the Titans, the Doctor Light stuff, then One Year Later, and then returned to Star some 3 months after Ollie came back to run for mayor? And then Jason not too long after. So, two years feels safe. Puts her at 17-ish, Jason at 19-20

Once again, I specify: on paper.

People would happily point out at this point that the upward stretch of a 4 year age gap is a "huge gap in maturity." And yeah, under normal circumstances, I'd agree.

But, and this is going to get contradictory bcs I found Two different timelines (BOTH written by Winick, lmao), and depending on how you read it it could be up to three different possibilities. Let's Start with Batman Annual #25: Daedalus & Icarus.

Timestamp before Jason's resurrection, which is pretty well known at this point:

Next, him waking up from a coma afterwards, when he escapes the hospital:

Now the above could be interpreted as either 1 year after he died if we're assuming that it's using the same "start" point to count as the resurrection (unlikely), or one year after he came back (more likely).

Next, the timestamp right before a guy recognizes him and sells him out:

And, finally, the timestamp before being put in the Pit:

That is, count it up, between 3-3 1/2 years where Jason was dead, in a coma, or otherwise not particularly... cognizant of the world around him. His ass is NOT developing emotionally, socially, or mentally like this, which pretty handily bridges the gaps there. Taken at face value, Jason's maturity level is going to be, unironically, younger than Tim's in the wake of these setbacks.

Now, if we go to Lost Days issue 1, it doesn't specify how long he was dead, nor how long he was in a coma, so we'll just carry those two over, what we DO have is this from just after Talia brought him home:

This puts him as being on the streets for five months, so we're at just shy of two years so far. And then we have this:

Which is right before Talia puts him in the Pit.

So, in summary: 6 months dead, 1 year coma, 5 months on the street, and something like 1-1 1/2 years with the League which...

Actually puts us on almost the exact same timeframe either way. 3 to 3 1/2 years. It just changes whether Jason was on the streets or with the League for longer.

And is utterly incomprehensible because comic timelines are a freaking nightmare.

If we're being generous, then that would put Jason at a minimum of 19, maybe toeing the line of 20 for UTRH, again, on paper, because like hell are you convincing me he did less than a year's worth of training abroad throughout Lost Days. Yeah maybe they trained him in fighting while he was catatonic, muscle memory and all that. But the other teachers that we KNOW of? The bombs, guns, probably something to get him up to date on handling all that tech we see him using, Egon, potentially arguably All-Caste if you want to draw from n52...

but you'd have to knock at least a year and a half off of his internal/personal development from death & coma, at minimum. Maybe you could argue he was somewhat developing while in his "the lights are on, but nobody's home" phase, you can't say it's at the same level as a normal person might when going about their day to day life, and it's difficult to measure. But he's not hitting the kind of milestones that he should be for his age. I wouldn't put him at anything less than two years behind. So if we use our upper estimates on Jason, and lower estimates on both the developmental setbacks and Tim/Mia's ages that gives us:

Jason toeing 20, mentally 18, fighting Tim at 16. 2 year gap, kind of stretching the physical age gap if we assume Tim had just barely turned 13 when he showed up to be Robin. - OR LESS

Jason maybe 21, mentally 19, fighting Mia at 17, two year age gap again. Honestly, still not that big of a difference - OR LESS

And, to be frank, that's not even counting the mental development issues that come from the intense physical trauma from dying - and I swear to fuck don't give me the "He's not the only one who died he's not special" speech.

HOW MANY OF THE OTHERS YOU'RE USING AS A GOTCHA LOST, *GESTURING AGGRESSIVELY ABOVE*, LITERALLY MULTIPLE YEARS OF THEIR LIFE.

Not counting adults, of course. Barry lost years, Hal lost years, Ollie I think also lost a couple years? but A) they came back still adults, bodies pretty much the same. B) While Jason's body didn't go through a magic growth spurt in canon, it did still grow esp while with the League.

I'll eventually get around to Titan's Tower & GA#72 (tbh, there are other people who've already done Titan's Tower and it'd probably be better than what I do, so I'm more going to focus on the latter, but there IS a specific part of the former that drives me nuts that I don't see brought up a lot), and maybe if we're feeling spicy all my issues with UTRH starting with how Winick is just as guilty of retroactively writing Jason as being inherently a bad penny since his Robin days as any of the other "modern" writers. Like, bud, Severe enough Head Trauma is legitimately enough to change someone's personality, not to mention trauma. It wouldn't hurt your narrative for that eerie difference, the Shade of What Once Was if you're really going for RH being Like that.

Final addition: I swear to god if you use my post to start up some kind of petty-ass ship war or flame other characters I will immediately turn off reblogs and replies I am Not Dealing With That Shit, please and thank you.

Anyways, @glitter-stained, your interest made me decide to actually put the work in now to pull it up rather than passively gather stuff to dump whenever discourse pushes me over the edge so, here ya are. Looks like you did have it closer on the mark than I did.

[lena-thinks-too-much]

Some post death Jason things that fanon gets wrong

1. Talia kidnaps a catatonic Jason from the hospital (or in some versions his dead body)

While generally speaking this isn't that big of a difference, I recently read Red Hood: Lost Days and the way Jason ends up with Talia is actually really interesting.

Jason claws his way out of his grave, which is public and unmarked and wanders out of the grave yard. He's catatonic due to the brain damage from what joker did and kinda just wanders along the highway trying to make it back home. Meanwhile whoever's security at the cemetery find Jason's grave, assume it was caused by grave robbers and decide that they'd rather cover it up instead of get in trouble for letting it happen. While this is happening Jason get's hit by a car on the road and police are called. Because he's legally dead he they fail to id him and he's admitted to a hospital as a John Doe. He's in a coma for some time and once he wakes up, he promptly runs away and begins living on the streets in crime alley. At some point some big guy tries to pick a fight with Jason and his training kicks in. Jason does a flip and someone recognizes the move as Robin. This leads to Talia finding out that Jason is alive and that's how she ends up taking him to the league of assassins.

2. Ra's was involved with Jason's training

Ra's wasn't really for doing anything with Jason. Even less so when they realized he was catatonic. He kinda let Talia do whatever she felt like but after a few months of no improvement from Jason, he insisted she called the whole thing off because it was a waste of league resources. This is what spurs Talia into shoving Jason into a lazarus pit. Which just pisses off Ra's.

3. Jason's revenge plan was due to Talia's manipulation

While Talia did tell jason that he "remains unavenged" she also told him to "not seek him out". I've always assumed the antecedent to "him" was Bruce.

In fact Jason's little revenge arc is something Talia was super against. He does the whole bomb under the batmobile thing soon after getting out of the pit but he fails to actually go through with it. Because Talia doesn't actually want Bruce dead she decides to distract Jason by sending him to specialists around the world.

I'm not 100% sure why she later shows him the pictures of Tim. Because that's the point where she sleeps with Jason (which is already a weird choice), leaves him the helmet, and seems to know Jason's going to go back to Gotham with this information.

But generally Talia was trying to keep Jason away from Bruce until he calmed down - which, considering dude kept killing his teachers was definitely going to be a bit.

4. Jason and Damian met in the league

Okay I'll start this one off by saying I love the fics that do this, but there seem to be a lot of people who genuinely believe this happened. Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but outside of the young justice universe, it's quite literally impossible.

Jason was being sent to instructors around the world after coming out of the pit. In fact he was technically being hunted by Ra's for daring to use the pit. Talia herself barely interacted with Jason. Damian certainly didn't.

The argument could be made that Damian and Jason met before the pit but Jason clearly has memories from when he was catatonic and from what I know, he doesn't recognize damian when he meets him later on.

5. Pit madness

Look, there's nothing quite as tasty as a Titan's Tower AU where Jason's stalking through the tower hopped up on pit rage with glowing green eyes only to fully lose his anger at seeing Tim Drake being a disaster of a human. Literally my favorite trope of all time. I highly doubt there's a fic under this tag that I haven't read yet.

That being said pit rage or pit madness quite literally doesn't exist. The closest thing we get in the comics is a temporary burst of madness immediately following exposure to the lazarus pit. But it doesn't last. Definitely not as long as some people seem to believe.

Jason isn't the only person to use the pits in the comics. The Al Ghul's obviously but also bruce takes his own swim later on. But Jason's the only one people think have pit madness (and also Ra's Al Ghul but he doesn't count because there's no way you survive 7 centuries without going insane). The closest thing we see to pit madness in the comics is when Nyssa tortures Talia with her personal lazarus pit (that she experimented on) by repeatedly kiled and revived her until she quite literally breaks Talia's mind.

The pit madness that people attribute to Jason, however, most closely resembles the kind of bloodlust and animalistic behavior we see from people who use the lazarus pits in the Arrowverse, and no one is ever going to accuse that of being canon. So yeah these are just some things that while I actually quite enjoy reading in fanfics, they aren't actually true and it genuinely astounds me, how many people think it's canon and not fanon.

let me know if I missed any or got something wrong because I'm mostly working off my memorie for the red hood lost days references.

disclaimer: I'm fully aware that fanon ≠ canon. However these are things that I see a lot of fans treating as fact and that just generally irks me. Like I'm all for cherry picking the timelines and details that you like and adding your headcanons into the mix. It's the best part of fandom. But also I think it's important to at least be aware of what's canonical (although with DC that does generally turns into a mess)

[thevoidstaredback]

Bruce was absolutely correct. His family might actually be from Hell. And Danny’s been there before, so he knows what he’s talking about.

Okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s not a big one. If anything, it’s doing them justice.

Dick had come back from topside with nine other people toting behind him. Immediately, Danny could name Red Robin, Robin, Black Bat, and Signal, but the others all eluded him.

Once everyone was sitting (Bruce at the head with the old man behind his right shoulder, Dickk to his right, a redheaded lady beside him, Timothy in the next seat, Damian a chair down, then Duke, the others all sitting across, and Danny taking a chair to the foot of the table), Bruce cleared his throat. “”Everyone, this is Danny. You know him as Phantom.”

Danny smiled smally and waved.

The brick shithouse across from Dick scoffed. “Phantom’s a kid. This guy is an adult.”

“Aw, you noticed? Thanks.” Danny defaults to ‘sarcastic little shit’ sometimes when nervous. Great time for that.

The blonde across from Timothy snorted. “I like him.” She leaned over the empty seat between her and Cassandra. “I’m Spoiler, but you can call me Steph. Call me ‘Stephinie’, and I’ll kick your ass.”

“Aw, you’re not supposed to tell him!” Dick whined.

Damian was assessing him. Danny could feel it. “I am Damian.”

“Nice to meet you, Damian,” Danny greeted, “You’re Robin, right?”

The kid sat up a little taller. “Yes.”

“Best damn Robin I’ve ever met, that’s for sure.”

Damian preened, but it was covered by the indignant shouts of the other four Robins. Dick’s voice carried over them all, though. “Hey! I thought I was your favorite!”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, “You are my favorite, but Damian’s the best Robin.”

“Now that’s just not fair!”

“Can we focus, guys?” The redhead beside Dick chuckled. “I’m Barbra. Across from Dick is Jason. Across from Tim is Steph. Across from Damian is Cass. Duke is next to Damian, and Kate is next to Cass.”

Danny nodded along, looking at each person as their name was said. “And you, sir?”

The old man smiled kindly. “I am Alfred, the family butler.”

“Nice to meet you, sir!”

“Likewise, Master Phantom.”

“No matter how many times I hear that, it’s still weird.” Danny muttered. He turned his full attention to Bruce. “So? You dragged me here. What’s up?”

The line between Bruce and Batman was blurred again. “The League of Assassins is our major suspect on the Coma Case.” A hologram opened up over the table, pulling everyone’s eyes to it. “With what we know, we can assume they’re trying to get into the Infinite Realms, Phantom’s Domain, by creating a portal. Without the proper protections, they will die. However, exposure to the Lazarus Pits has given Ra’s, as well as Talia and other trusted servants, natural resistance to the hostile environment that make up the Realms.”

The group waited a moment before deciding that it was now an open discussion.

“Prolonged exposure to the Pits was limited to Grandfather, Mother, four servants who were rotated out every few years, and whomever was being submerged.”

Jason snorted. “Yeah, but does getting dunked one time really count as P.E?”

“I’d imagine, based on the definition, only eight to ten minutes at a time, but that’s several minutes at a time over a month or a year.” Barbra said.

Kate hummed. “Phantom, what exactly are the Lazarus Pits? Why do they have any connection to the Realms?”

“Please, call me Danny,” he waved. “I’ve never actually seen these ‘Pits’, so I can’t give you a sure answer. However, from what I understand, they were probably a gift from the Realms Herself. Did anyone else have access to them before Ra’s?”

Timothy shook his head. “No. Ra’s was experimenting to find a cure for a sultan’s son when he found the Pits. He found them, so he named them.”

“Didn’t take the guy as the religious type.” Steph muttered. Cass giggled softly.

Danny frowned. “That changes things, but only slightly. If She didn’t give this world the Pit, then it’s probably runoff from the Realms.”

Dick looked to be hiding a smirk. “What kind of runoff?”

“I don’t know, waste? Excess energy? Maybe it was supposed to be a portal, but lacks the actual activation.”

The table burst into laughter, minus Jason and Damian. Jason looked disgusted while Damian looked inconvenienced.

Duke was the first one to catch his breath. “You- you two got thrown into a cesspit!”

It was Danny’s turn to wrinkle his nose in disgust. “I didn’t say the Pit’s cesspit. I just said it might be made up of waste from the Realms.” This made the table laugh harder.

It wasn’t until another few minutes later that Alfred cleared his throat. “As hilarious as that is to know, you are in the middle of an investigation.”

“Right, of course,” Bruce was still trying to hide chuckles, “Thank you, Alfred.

“Of course, Master Bruce.”

Cass tapped the table, signing as she spoke once all eyes were on her. “‘Lacks activation’?”

The question was aimed at Danny, so he answered. “Natural Portals can always be found where there’s been a sudden influx of electricity, like the sight of a lightning strike or an electrical fire, but they don’t last any longer than a few hours at most. And, unless you’re looking for them, you won’t find them.”

“Can one open up anywhere?” Kate asked.

“Yeah, as long as the conditions are met.”

“Why?” Bruce’s voice was serious again.

Danny uncrossed his legs and leaned his arms on the table. “Your world is one realm inside the In Between. Do you have a pen and paper?” Alfred was quick to get the requested idioms. “Thanks.” He drew a small circle in the corner of the page. “This is your realm, the one we’re in.” He drew several other small circles across the page. “These are other realms, afterlives, and Lairs.” He drew a circle to encompass all of the smaller ones. “This is the Realms, the In Between. Because She holds All- because She is All, a doorway can open anywhere as long as someone has the key. Make sense?” He moved on without waiting for answers, putting the pen down. “To answer what’s probably your next question, the Lazarus Pits could probably just be a doorway that’s been cracked open only enough for a little light to peek through. Ectoplasm - the stuff the Realms are made of - is harmful on its own when it’s been exposed for long enough. Stuff straight out of the Realms, like activated portals, has revival properties.”

“You just said that the Lazarus Pits are runoff of waste from the Realms.” Timothy cut in.

“No, I said it might be that. It’s probably more likely that whatever Ra’s was messing with when he found the Pits activated it just enough to act like a door with it’s chain up; It’s not open because the proper key wasn’t used. But, it’s open just enough to allow the revival properties through without killing whoever’s immediately near it.”

“Could Ra’s have somehow found a way to keep it open?” Bruce brainstormed, “If it’s supposed to close after an amount of time, then could he have found a way to reopen it just that little bit over and over again?”

Danny hummed. “It’s unlikely, but not impossible. I’d have to see it to tell one way or another, but that’s looking like the most likely answer.”

“Then why would he need an unnatural portal?” Dick, the only other one who’d been at the meeting, inquired, “If he already knows how to get what he wants, why try to open another door?”

“Because he’s a megalomaniac?” Timothy offered up.

Damian didn’t rise to the defense of is Grandfather, though he was frowning. “There are legends about being of the Dead, creatures that rule over Life and Death. Perhaps he wishes to challenge one? Or to become one?”

Danny scoffed. “Good luck with that. Osiris aren’t pushovers in any aspect. They gained their titles rightfully. Besides, if it’s power he’s after, then he’s more likely to challenge the King.”

“Aren’t you the King?” Duke said.

“Yep.”

“What’s your plan of attack then, your majesty?”

“I can hear that you didn’t use capitals,” Danny playfully scoffed. “If we've assumed correctly and it is the League of Assassins or whatever, then why not just kill this Ra’s guy?”

“I will not allow you to kill Grandfather!” Damian shouted.

Danny threw his hands up in surrender, “Okay, okay. Murder is off the table. My next solution is to wait him out. Shut down his portal project, wait for him to die on his own, and then pull him through the gap in the door into the Realms. Then, I’ll have him in my domain and he can spend the proper sentence time in Walker’s Prison.”

“I’m sorry,” Jason very calmly put his hands on the table and looked Danny in the eye. “There’s a prison in the Realms?”

“Yeah? Realms Beings are really the only ones who end up there, but exceptions have been made. And, with the amount of times this Ra’s guy has been dunked in the Pit, he’s practically guaranteed to appear in the Realms before moving onto his chosen afterlife.”

“Well that certainly makes me feel better.” Kate muttered sarcastically.

Duke raised his hand slightly. “What if he succeeds in making an artificial portal?”

Danny felt a shiver run down his spine, phantom sparks of electricity running up his left arm. “Then the exposure to the Realms will kill him and anyone near the portal.”

Bruce hummed again. He does that a lot. “How do the Osiris come to be?”

“Just call us Halfas,” he waved, “Inorder to become one, you have to die, but only halfway, hence the human name. But, because this guy’s already died so many times, he has no chance of becoming a Halfa. Maybe the first time, but he’s long since passed the opportunity.”

“What’s our plan of attack, B?” Barbra asked. “We can’t go after the LoA without major consequences.”

The cave - Cave? - elapsed into silence.

“Maybe,” Timothy spoke after a while, “We can’t go after them without Talia storming Gotham, and we can assume the same consequence if any of the Justice League or the protege teams try, too. But what about the JLD?” When no one spoke up, he continued. “Think about it. The JLD will know how to handle this better than anyone else. And, everyone knows they only ever do their own thing. The JLD and the JL don’t actively communicate unless they’re forced by a World Ending Threat to work together.”

Kate’s eyebrow raised. “That’s crazy enough reasoning, it could work.”

“Phantom?”

“I’ll talk to the JLD tonight and get back to you as soon as we’ve got it figured out.”

“Good.”

“If you don’t mind my interruption?” Alfred said from over by the elevator. What did he leave? When did he have time to cook? “Dinner is served.”

Part 19 Part 21

[zahri-melitor]

Poking at timeline stuff again:

So Kon was ‘born’ in 1993, and hatched from his tube aged… 15ish? He turned 1 in Nov 1995 (Superboy Annual #2 of his series) – note Kon is STILL AGING here, and after this point he’s usually described as 16 physically. His age ‘froze’ in July 1997 (Superboy #41) and then started aging again after Sins of Youth in May 2000 (Superboy #74) Kon died in May 2006 (Infinite Crisis #6) Kon returned in June 2009 (Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #4)

2000-2006 is about a year in Comics Time. I think it’s 100% fair to say Kon was physically 17 year old, at his youngest, as at his death, and mentally 17-18.

Kon enrolled in Smallville High on his revival – he’s almost certainly in Year 12/a Senior – and 2009ish is known as the ‘start’ of a school year by a bunch of correlating factors (Steph starting college is one). Flashpoint interrupts and this school year likely never finished. He may or may not have celebrated his 18th birthday before Flashpoint but it either happened or was due imminently.

Known timegaps – Kon lost slightly over a year between Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. His aging stopped either for over a year (if you use Bat timelines) or more like 6 months (given it was 3 years real time). In total I want to say Kon’s ‘age’ went backwards about 18 months to two years over this period. His mental age, however, probably only lost 15 months or so.

By Flashpoint, Kon probably was due to celebrate his 18th birthday in his personal timeline.

In comparison: Jason Todd died aged 15 (if you take canon at its word) or 14 years 9 months (if you use the canonical birthday and death day dates). He was officially dead for 6 months before getting resurrected (- 6 months) and then in a coma for a year (-12 months). He then had a fun amnesiac period which does not have a defined length of time before Talia got sick of it and pushed Jason into a Pit.

Using Bat timelines, 18 months after Jason’s death is probably some time around Contagion or Legacy. Legacy in particular makes a lot of sense for Talia to see Jason in Gotham and pick him up to take home with her. He probably had to go into a Lazarus Pit during No Man’s Land, given Bane and Bruce start the ‘destroy all the Lazarus Pits’ campaign post-NML, culminating in Death and the Maidens in 2003-2004.

Either way, Jason Todd is still mentally 15 years old as of 2000.

Jason’s not in a position to return to Gotham with Talia’s urging until AFTER the rebuild for the famous bomb the Batmobile moment (realistically probably 2000-2001), and from the rebuild process IN DC comics 2001 is a better call than 2000 if you don’t still want rubble everywhere (they didn’t manage to get Ivy out of Robinson Park until Jan 2001)

He then does his world travel training trip… but is back in Gotham for September 2003 and Hush (and Tim’s 16th birthday).

Given Tim’s birthday is canonically on 19 July, the longest Jason’s world training trip can be is 6 months, and is probably more like 3-4 months given the required futzing time either side.

Jason doesn’t legally turn 18 until March 2004 (Tec #790). He’s still almost certainly mentally 16 years old here. He’s arguably physically 17.5 here.

A set of preboot timeline facts from all of this that is hilarious (to me):-

Jason and Tim are mentally about the same age, given their canonical 23 month age gap by date of birth. Depending on how long a period Talia keeps Jason around as an amnesiac, Tim may actually be mentally older.

Yes. The Titans Tower fight was essentially two 16 year olds having a spat.

Kon, despite also having fun death times, is 100% mentally older than Jason for all periods, though they’re close to drawing even after Final Crisis. He’s probably close to physically the same age as Jason for a lot of the time up to Infinite Crisis.

Tim may actually have spent a similar amount of time training in Paris (between Robin I and some time during Legacy and the summer leading up to Cataclysm) as Jason did on his Lost Days world trip.

Anyone who questions how Tim can be one of the greatest bo staff fighters in the world when he’s working off the same time frame of intense training from masters as Jason is (and has a far more substantial training time with Bruce and Dick) is honestly discounting that Tim has more extensive vigilante experience than Jason does, particularly in terms of Gotham-focused skills.

Kon and Tim end up by Flashpoint as within a few months of each other in age.

[wickedsmille]

a social worker!jason & street kid!tim WIP

Unedited, unfinished, utterly self indulgent. 😎 Rated TT for I'm Trying but it still might be Terrible.

-----

If someone had told Jason he would be sitting at a desk in Gotham’s crumbling Department of Families and Children building, he would’ve believed them wholeheartedly. That’s been a universally accepted fact ever since he saw a CPP social worker get down on one knee and hug a street kid so full of filth they were more garbage than human and promise them safety and warmth. As a newly homeless eleven-year-old, he’d desperately wanted the affection and safety and warmth promised to the young girl being cradled so carefully, so gently. But he’d run away, too fearful of discovery and the possibility of living out the more common worse case scenario for kids who went into Gotham’s ravenous foster care system.

So, maybe he wouldn’t get the happy ending he liked to imagine while he lay awake on his ratty, bed bug ridden mattress in the condemned hotel he’d squirreled himself away in. That was okay. He was okay. There was a group of boys, rough around the edges but ultimately the champions of homeless whelps like Jason, who would look out for the kids without a home or forced out of it. They’d taken Jason in immediately. Made him into one of them. Then he was another champion, another source of light and life and protection for the ones who couldn’t protect themselves.

After the whirlwind a couple years later, complete with a tire iron to Batman’s midsection then being thrust into the upper echelons of fame and wealth from a surprise adoption by one billionaire Bruce Wayne, Jason got the idea to become a social worker. The idea only grew exponentially with every night he went out into the streets as Robin. The things he saw, the bad and ugly, solidified his resolve to do better, be better, to help in a more concrete way than punching the daylights out of creeps and criminals. 

Then the Joker happened and Jason escaped with his life by the skin of his teeth. Sort of. He didn’t have many teeth left after they were knocked out of his skull. Bruce hadn’t seemed too angry over Jason’s need for emergency, reconstructive surgery. Surprisingly, he’d been happy. Or, at least, a melancholy and droll joy brought out by Jason’s continued breathing even after they’d removed the breathing tube after Jason awoke from his coma sweating and shaking and so fucking scared what happened. 

Bruce was there, and Alfred and Dick, for every painful day, long week and nearly insufferable month while Jason under went surgery after surgery, hours upon hours of physical therapy and even stayed when it all became too much and Jason lashed out. He’d never be Robin again, or a  vigilante at all, but he could still dawn the mantle of champion and help the smallest in need. 

Now, if someone told Jason he would be sitting in the bathroom of Gotham’s crumbling Department of Families and Children building, trying not to cry or hyperventilate or scream, he would’ve laughed right in their face. 

It’s his reality, though. When faced with the reality, the endless files of abused and neglected children carrying a varying degree of scars mentally and physically, he doesn’t think anything he did as Robin made a real difference. At least, it doesn’t seem like it. Not with all the missing children yet unrecovered or the multitude of suspicious house visit reports lacking in details while children come out of the homes smaller, quieter, lesser. 

He hates it.

He wants to change it.

Fuck it, he will change it.

Jason has come back from a beating and a bomb. He can tackle Gotham’s foster case system. Sticking it out, finishing his internship and his degree, is how he can help these kids now. Galavanting around the roofs in tights and a cape isn’t an option anymore but he thinks this may be better. By all accounts, Batman holds back the tide but he doesn’t offer a permanent fix to the inherently broken system that is Gotham. Doing this? Working from within, hands on in a way Robin couldn’t be, seems a lot more impactful than beating the shit out of men and women trying to make a quick buck to feed their families. 

Taking a deep breath, Jason goes through a breathing exercise Bruce taught him when he was fresh out of the hospital and fearful of every tick and clink and shadow. Scraping up his resolve isn’t so hard when he thinks not on how he’s failed but how much good he can still do. The positivity feels foreign and wrong but to hell with feeling sorry for himself anymore. People need him. He doesn’t have time to wallow anymore. He’s had enough of that over the years.

When he returns to the bull pit filled to the brim with bustling bodies in varying degrees of unkempt, Jason plops himself back down at his intern desk and pulls his stack of files closer to himself. One person in particular speeds past before doing a double take and walking back towards him. Jason swallows hard when the CPP supervisor stops in front of him with her hands on her hips and lips pressed into a thin line.

“You’re not folding on me, are you, Todd?” Tyasia asks him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Jason replies, cheeky and charming in a way that feels wrong.

She rolls her eyes and plants her hands on his desk. “No shame if you need to back out,” she tells him seriously.

“Fuck no,” he spits out.

A grin works its way across her lips as she leans away again. Truth be told, Jason likes her. She’s stuck with CPP for nearly three years now when the average tenure of a social worker or CPP agent is nine months. Tough as nails with a take no shit and a presence that commands respect, Tyasia is the pillar that keeps the department afloat even as bright eyed, brushy tailed new recruits flit in and out when the job becomes too much. She’d taken one look at Jason, laughed in his face and wished him luck, not that he’d need it.

“Atta boy,” she praises. “Now, this is a weird situation and usually I wouldn’t let a fresh face do this, but you’ve got the-” she stops to wave a hand at his everything, “whatever, but I’ve got someone for you to handle.”

Raising a brow, Jason pushes his stack of files away again. “Because I know what I’m doing.”

Tyasia fixes him with a sour look. “Don’t play dumb. It’s not a good look at you. And I could use the help.”

It’s probably true. She looks more ragged than Jason thinks he’s ever seen her. With her hair wild and eyes sunken, she looks worse than Gordon does most days. Which makes sense when he thinks about the corruption within her own department she battles with every day alongside the enormous case load she maintains and gaggle of well meaning but often ineffective bleeding hearts she oversees. He sort of feels bad for mouthing off. 

“So what’s up?” he asks.

Rifling through the folders tucked under her arm, she slaps one onto his desk. The tag says Timothy Jackson Drake and Jason feels like he’s fifteen again, on the hunt for a kid freshly orphaned and in the wind. They never did find Tim. Paging through the file, skimming its contents, it seems CPP has had a few run-ins since Tim’s parents died and he went on the lam. 

“I’m confused,” he admits.

Tyasia laughs and pulls an empty chair away from a nearby desk to plop it in front of his own. “You’re going to meet him, talk to him, write up the report and get him to agree to temporary placement in juvie till he ages out in a few months.”

“Like hell am I doing that,” Jason says resolutely. In his opinion, it’s cruel and unusual to send a kid into Gotham’s JDC. “You know what it’s like in there and Drake? I remember hearing about it on the news. He’s as blue blood as they come and ain’t no time on the street going to make the sharks in there forget it.”

“I don’t have any other options,” she replies firmly. “You saw the budget forecast, yeah? A 12% cut across the board for the department. I can’t get him emergency housing and everywhere else is full up after we revoked the Greenway’s and Hanby’s foster licenses. We shut down the 4th Street youth shelter after Crane blasted the block with his bullshit.”

“So where’s he supposed to go?” Jason finishes for her, sounding tired and defeated. He’s starting to get why social workers don’t last in Gotham.

She nods grimly. “And you and I both know what can happen to people on the streets, underage or not. At least at Alpena he’ll have a bed, regular meals and I can try to swing for a single bed for him.”

Jason hates it but, considering what he’s picked up over the months he’s been interning and what he remembers about Timothy Drake’s background, it’s the least worst option. Of course Tyasia would stick him with an utter shit job for his first foray into the bittersweet world of real social work. So, reluctantly and with a scowl, he nods his head and she nods back. She whirls around and presumably goes to fetch Timothy. Oh joy of all joys.

Still, this is what he came here for. This is what he wants to do. Capes and masks be damned. He’s going to make real change starting with Timothy Drake and making sure he sees his eighteenth birthday without becoming another statistic. 

The file has a picture of Timothy, obviously younger than the seventeen he is now, but the kid across from him looks so much different. In the photo, his wide eyes are bright and his hair is cut short. Although the collar of his t-shirt is ripped and stained on the shoulder, it looks workable. He could pass for any kid coming from a down and out family anywhere on the East End.

The Timothy in front of him is narrow eyed with his mouth pulled into a tight line with long, messy hair falling in his eyes. There’s even a leaf stuck in his hair. His clothes look worse for wear with gaping holes in the knees of his jeans showing off the scraps and bruises there and his shirt is three sizes too big with the seams already popping along the bottom. With dirt smudged on his face, Timothy looks like he’s seen better days. Jason has to wonder if they plucked him from the tender mercies of the GCPD and plopped him right down in the lobby. Probably behind a locked door because Timothy looks ready to bolt.

Clearing his throat, Jason awkwardly starts, “Hi, Timothy, I’m-”

“Tim,” the kid interjects curtly.

Jason refrains from snapping back and grits his teeth. “Tim, I’m Jason and I’m here to help.” Tim scoffs and kicks the front of the desk Jason’s sitting at. He can’t tell if it’s because of Tim’s fidgeting or an act of defiance. “Do you want the good or the bad news?”

“Isn’t there a kitten stuck in a tree needing your attention?” Tim asks.

If it were socially acceptable to throw his hands up, he would. “Why would I do that?”

Tim shifts in his seat, body language reading as uncomfortable but there’s something else there. The detective in Jason latches onto it as he stares Tim down. Admirably, Tim holds his gaze and doesn’t back down. There’s a quiet fire in his eyes. On some level, Jason feels like he’s the one being picked apart under Tim’s assessing stare. Eventually, Jason has to blink.

“You lose,” Tim proclaims.

Caught off guard, Jason blinks again. “What did I lose?”

“The staring contest.”

“I didn’t know we were having a staring contest.”

“Obviously we were,” Tim asserts.

“What are we, twelve?” Jason says tightly.

“No, I’m seventeen,” Tim shoots back hotly, “and I’ll be eighteen in three months. I’m almost an adult so you and all your good intentions can go to someone else.”

“Say it like you mean it,” Jason says tersely.

“Okay,” Tim replies nonchalantly, “fuck off.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Are you always this antagonistic?” Jason groans.

Tim laughs, something real and light that startles Jason and makes his stomach clench. “Didn’t you read my file?”

“Have you read your file?” Jason questions.

The small smile on Tim’s face gets wider, sharper. “Maybe I have.”

And Jason has no idea what to say. He was not prepared for this. Whatsoever. He’s lost the plot entirely. With no idea how to handle the absolute gremlin in front of him, Jason closes his eyes. He thinks of calming ocean noises, the smell of lavender and dryer sheets, all the things he turns to when the world is too much and he needs a break. While the situation isn’t on par with a flashback, he doesn’t want to get in a fight with a kid he’s supposed to be helping. 

Right, help.

Loudly, Jason clears his throat. “Anyway, as I was saying, I’m here to help and good news is we have somewhere for you to go. Bad news is it’s Alpena.”

Tim’s expression turns murderous before Jason’s even done speaking. “No. No way. Not happening.”

“Too bad,” Jason grumps.

“I’d like to see you make me,” Tim challenges and Jason has a couple seconds to have an uh oh moment. 

Once those seconds are up, Tim is out of his chair like a shot. Despite the duck tape holding his shoes together, Tim moves quick. He weaves between the staff milling about the office, expertly evades the officers who make a half assed attempt at grabbing him. Too bad for Tim, Jason recalls enough of his training to give chase. It’s not easy. A dull ache in his hip from a badly healed fracture makes itself well known but Jason will be damned if he fucks up his first real assignment.

Tim has had some practice and Jason is out of practice so he isn’t even close when Tim is nearing the door. There’s only about ten feet of space in the waiting room outside then he can hit the main doors and disappear out onto the Gotham streets. Who knows if they would find him again. It’d be just as likely to find him in a shelter as it would be to come across his body in a dumpster. Jason is not letting this kid one up him again. His pride wouldn’t survive it. 

Turns out, Jason didn’t need to worry so much when Tim’s mad dash to freedom ends with him colliding painfully with an officer coming through the door. Smashing into the guy, Tim falls back on his ass. Jason comes to stand over him, chest heaving even though he’s trying to cover it up to ease some of the embarrassment he’s feeling at being so out of shape. Relatively speaking. He keeps up with his physical exercises and makes good use of the training equipment in the Cave but it’s no running rooftops six to eight hours every night. 

“Gotcha,” Jason huffs.

“Hardly,” Tim drawls. In defeat, he lays on the ground and glares up at Jason.

Glancing up, Jason raises his eyebrows. “Thanks for the save, Dick.”

Dick looks mildly shocked as his eyes swivel between Tim and Jason. For his part, Dick takes the odd turn of events in stride and tips his hat. “Happy to help, Jason, but what’s going on here?”

“Child abuse is what,” Tim grumbles.

Jason gives him a poisonous look. “I was trying to get him to a place with three squares and working heat but no. It’s not good enough for Mr. Upper Echelons.”

“Because Alpena is such a treat,” Tim says sarcastically.

“Not good enough for you?” Jason snaps. “What about all the kids shivering out there and ready to gnaw off their own arm if it means they don’t feel hungry for an hour or two, huh?”

“Yeah, so go get them. I’m fine,” Tim spits back. 

Dick puts a hand on Jason’s shoulder to push him back from where he’d unconsciously been looming over Tim. Despite the obstacles to his growth, Jason hit the genetic jackpot to tower over most others in height. The injuries set him back in muscle mass but he’s no still no slouch. Tim on the other hand looks like a stick figure. The delicate bones of his wrist stick out prominently and his cheekbones look like they could cut glass. He’s dirty and stinks and he’s so not okay it makes Jason want to bite his head off or scream.

“Maybe we should have this discussion not with him on the floor,” Dick murmurs to Jason. 

Jason glances at Dick and feels the fight drain out of him. With Dick here, it doesn’t seem so impossible to get Tim to listen. After all, Dick has coaxed Jason into spilling every nasty insecurity and dark want in the rough moments he spent fresh out of a nightmare and shaking in the dark. Surely Dick can get one rowdy kid to stop, think and listen, too.

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good,” Jason agrees.

Without a second thought, Dick smiles like he’s proud and the tight coil building in Jason’s chest comes undone. Dick extends a hand to Tim to help him up with a gentle, soft look. It makes Tim roll his eyes but he takes the offered hand and gets back onto his feet. A hand comes down on both Jason and Tim’s shoulders to guide them through the throng of Looku Lou’s watching the drama unfold. Jason goes a little pink around the ears from causing such a scene but one glance at Tim shows him totally unaffected. Little bastard.

Jason takes a seat at his borrowed desk, Tim takes the chair in front of it and Dick stands firmly in the middle of the two. Absently, Jason grabs Tim’s file and starts rifling through it.

“You’re pretty savvy with the streets, huh?” Dick says.

Jason is about to scoff and say Well, duh, former street kid here, of course I am when Tim piques up, sounding pleased with himself, “You tend to pick some things up when you’re out there.”

Jason tries to be subtle as he looks over the top of Tim’s folder, one eye on the words and the other on Dick and Tim. Dick tosses his head back and laughs, genuine and free. Tim smirks in return but he’s still tense in his chair with his arms crossed.

“True but I have to say, and don’t take this the wrong way, you move fast for being homeless,” Dick jokes but Jason knows it’s not really a joke. Hello, veiled Bat interrogation, funny Dick would bring it out.

“You’re the one who caught him?” Jason asks casually.

Dick hums in response. “And nearly lost him, too.” Ah, so that’s why Dick is sticking around to get answers. Even if he’s plain, old civilian Dick Grayson, he’s a trained officer and some of the Bat sponsored moves can be used without raising too many questions. The fact that a homeless kid could also lose the amalgamation of Dick Grayson and Nightwing? Scandalous. 

“After you nearly ran into that wall,” Tim points out smugly.

It makes Dick laugh again. “Yeah, you got me good with that one.”

“What can I say, I’m resourceful,” Tim says pointedly. 

Looking up, Jason catches Tim glaring at him again.

Don’t get him wrong. Jason understands. Better than half the staff in the office. While he can see how much they care, a lot of them have never been in the position Tim is and Jason was. Even Dick can only empathize but seeing it isn’t living it. Bruce has a foggy, third person idea. The others in the office, the do gooders taking up a fight they’ve never been forced to fight, see it every day and understand it but, well. It’s different. 

So Jason understands why Tim is so angry and looks ready to shove Jason’s pen between his ribs. No one would take it very well if they were going to be shoved into jail under the guise of it being for their own good. It’s cruel. Jason gets that. But being dead is worse and he has plenty of experience with near death experiences and having one foot on the other side, a hairs breath from tipping over the precipice and straight into a grave. 

It doesn’t help how long Tim has been on his own. Words like criminal neglect and no adult supervision are hard to miss in his files. Apparently, even before his parents died on a trip overseas, Tim was forced to be wholly independent. Then, when the vultures descended on his parent’s company, dismantling it and bleeding it dry within months, Tim had his safety net ripped away. After that, his inheritance was locked away tight and no placement was truly safe against those who’d take Tim just for access to his money with no regard for Tim himself.

“Look,” Jason says, exasperated. “I know. It sucks. If someone came to me with this bullshit when I was a kid, I would’ve kicked them in the nuts and never looked back.”

“Hey, that’s a good idea,” Tim replies blithely.

It’s Jason’s turn to glare but he doesn’t raise to the bait. “But, it’s only for a few months, not forever. We’ll make sure you’re taken care of and you won’t end up dead in a gutter.”

“I’ve been fine for years,” Tim refutes.

“And how many of the other street kids have you seen bite it? Or just disappear?”

Tim stays tellingly silent.

“You know,” Dick cuts in, “he has a point.”

For a second, it’s like Tim is thinking it over. He even relaxes, sinks down in his chair. His shoulders slump like he’s accepting defeat. The whole act totally fools Jason. He should’ve known better because one blink and the next, Tim is shoving everything on Jason’s desk at him and swinging around to punch Dick in the dick. When Jason said it, he hadn’t meant it literally but kudos to Tim for quick thinking.

Jason makes an indignant noise as paper and pencils and office paraphernalia rains down on him in a flurry while Dick groans and bends over Jason’s desk. Then Tim is gone, racing towards the door once more. Jason doesn’t bother getting up this time. He wasn’t fast enough last time, he won’t be this time with the way his hip is hurting. Dick is out of commission for at least another thirty second judging by the way he whimpers. Damn, Tim must pack a punch. 

“Wow,” Dick wheezes.

“Yep,” Jason seethes. 

“Timothy Jackson Drake” Tyasia booms.

The entire office goes still, Tim included. He has one hand on the door with it half open and about to step out into freedom. Like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Tim’s shoulders come up to his ears and he turns slowly. There, standing in the middle of the office with her hands on her hips and a thunderous expression, is Tyasia. Her cellphone is held tightly in her hand. 

“What have I told you about minding your manners in my office?” she asks firmly.

Dutifully, Tim replies, “Not to antagonize the nice men and women doing their best every day to better Gotham.”

“And what did you just do?”

“Made a newbie hate his life choices and committed a gross misdemeanor,” Tim sighs. 

“Yes, you did.”

Tim doesn’t look happy at the news. He mumbles, “Sorry, ma’am.”

“Cram it with the ma’am, get your butt into my office and stay there.”

Turning on his heel, Tim marches back to Tyasia’s office. Each step looks like it’s taking him closer and closer to the gallows. Once Tim is out of sight and sequestered in her office, Tyasia turns her disapproval towards Jason and Dick. Dick visibly shrinks under the weight of her stare while Jason starts picking up the scattered paperwork so he doesn’t have to meet her eye. Eventually, she breathes out, then in, then out again.

“We’ll be talking about what just happened,” she says calmly.

“Best of luck, Jay,” Dick consoles.

Tyasia snaps her head towards Dick. “Oh no, don’t think you’re getting out of this, Grayson. You and me will have some words, too.”

Dick pales and Jason tries to hide his snickering. At least if he’s going to get scolded, Dick will, too. It’s a small victory that does little to make the day less shitty. 

Comparatively, the talk goes better than Jason has anticipated. Tyasia was far but stern, letting him know just how poorly he’d done, how Dick shouldn’t have welcomed himself into the conversation, but gave him sound advice on how to do better in the future. She congratulated him for at least not handing in a resignation after dealing with Tim. Apparently it wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe Jason should’ve read more into Tim’s file before tackling the devious little troll. Dick took his chastizing with grace before sheepishly bidding them both goodbye. 

Jason didn’t see Tim after that. Although, walking out of Tyasia’s office, he did resolve to do better by Tim. From what he’d read, a lot of people had given up on Tim. He wasn’t about to add himself to the total so he begged, pleaded and dug down deep into the well of wishy washy but not outright toxic foster parents to scrap up a place for Tim to go till he ages out. The information was passed over to Tyasia who looked equal parts fond and exasperated. Jason got that a lot but he stood his ground and demanded she do it. If he was going to do good, he needed to start somewhere. 

He’s a little surprised when Tim’s file ends up on his desk again with Tyasia looming over him much like the first time.

“House visit,” she tells him.

Jason swallows but agrees. He asks if he should bring an escort and she laughs at him, saying it’s fine. He’s not so sure about that. 

He goes as instructed and knocks on the door to the dilapidated brownstone in the middle of New Town. It’s an older building squashed in between newer development and boarded up shacks. The siding is hanging off in the front and one of the windows has a piece of cardboard taped over it. When the door opens, it creaks so loudly Jason thinks he can feel it in his bones.

The woman standing before him has a cigarette in one hand and a dour face. “What?” she rasps. “We don’t take solicitors.”

Jason shows her his badge and her eyes widen. “House visit to check on Tim Drake, Mrs. Fields.”

She fiddles with the door knob and nods. “Right. Yeah, yeah, let me go get ‘im.”

Leaving the door open, she disappears into the house. He takes the invitation and steps inside to get a look around. It’s not the ritz but he’s seen worse. The inside is at least clean even though nothing is in good repair. The furniture looks ready to fall apart and there’s a couple holes in the walls but there doesn’t seem to be anything truly wrong. Mrs. Fields comes back quickly, an arm around a young boy.

“Here, Timmy, why don’t you tell the nice CPP man how much you like it here?” she coos at the kid.

“Uh, yeah, yes, super great,” the boy stammers.

Jason's brain blanks out entirely because standing in front of him is decidedly not Tim Drake. The boy has blond hair and brown eyes, is maybe fifteen if not younger. He looks mildly well cared for, clean with decent if cheap clothes, but none of it changes the fact that he’s not Tim. And Mrs. Fields is trying to pass him off as the real deal. She knows she’s caught when Jason turns his slack jaw face in her direction.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he says in disbelief.

Mrs. Fields bristles, “Okay, okay! It’s not my fault he ran off!”

The boy next to her fiddles with his sleeve. “Can I go now?” he asks quietly.

She tightens her hold on his shoulders in a half hug before shooing him, surprisingly kind. Coming back to Jason, she purses her lips. “I don’t treat my kids bad. I do my best, I do, but those checks aren’t enough and I’m getting on. When he took off, wasn’t much I could do about it. Ty gave me the rundown on ‘im. I’m not surprised.”

Her monologue doesn’t make it any better which he’s all too happy to point out. The assertion gets the door slammed in his face and Jason doesn’t know what to do. Call it in, probably. Tyasia then the police to report Tim as missing. Again. 

“So you pretend that kid is Tim?” Jason asks, voice a step away from hysteric. 

Of all the things he’s seen and experienced, this one right here where a foster parent is doing a bait and switch on him is up there in ridiculousness without Rogue involvement. Funny how civilians can throw him for a loop but he’s used to the likes of the Riddler. It’s ass-Bat-wards is what it is, he decides. Who needs a cape and short shorts when all he needed to do was expose himself to more tried and true Gothamites with no shame and their own flair for the dramatic. Not Jason. He’s currently got his hands full with a missing teenage Houdini wanna be.

“What the fuck,” Jason says, with feeling too. Mrs. Fields takes a step back and then another as the fog of this-cannot-be-happening lifts and leaves him feeling the familiar itch of anger skittering under his skin. “When?” Jason demands.

Mrs. Fields narrows her eyes. “I’ll tell you if you don’t report me. I do good.”

The this-cannot-be-happening feeling comes back, filling him with a volatile cocktail of incredulity and irritation. “Are you bargaining with me right now?”

“Are you from Gotham?” she scoffs.

“You know what, whatever. Sure, yeah, of course I won’t report this,” Jason bites out. “Now tell me when he left.”

Finally, Mrs. Fields lets up and starts to turn away. “Three days ago. One of my older kids comes to visit sometimes, says he sees him skulking around in the Alley sometimes.”

Jason is taking off before the door is even shut yet. There is a formerly rich idiot running around Crime Alley. Granted, Tim must be well acquainted with the trash laden streets housing the majority of the human garbage of Gotham, but Tim hasn’t lost his Bristol accent. He’s been on the streets for four years now but still. Jason feels like this is his fault. Like if something happens to Tim he’ll need to carry it on his conscience alongside all his other failures. He’s had enough of those. 

Crime Alley isn’t big, not really when it’s compared to the vast size of Gotham as a whole. One kid isn’t going to ghost him. He is Jason Todd, former Robin, current badass, thank you very much. Jason knows the best dumpsters in the Alley to pillage for most likely not spoiled foods, which buildings are livable if you squint and turn your head to the side, how to find the little figures scurrying into innocuous piles of trash. 

Luck must finally be showing Jason some grace because he makes it the few blocks to the Narrows without feeling like he’ll melt into a puddle of pain and sweat. Even better, he’s leaning on a street light, head hung low as he tries to catch his breath, when he sees the telltale shift of a garbage can in the alleyway across from him. 

Part 1 of 2? Maybe??

[spnfanficpond]

Weekly Pond Newsletter

For those in the US, I hope you're finally coming out of your turkey coma in time to prep for the next round of holidays! So, remind me, which song don't we want to hear? Mariah Carey or Wham? I always forget. And may have possibly already lost because I've heard Mariah Carey three times, already. 😭🤣

Old Business:

Giveaway in the Discord server - Admin Michelle is giving away the entire Culturefly Fall 2024 Supernatural box in its entirety! Head into the Discord server, look for the #giveaways channel, and drop a link to a fic that you are thankful for to earn an entry into the drawing. You can enter as many times as you have fics you are thankful for!

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompts -

New Business:

Fishing For Treasures - December's theme is Original Writing! This means, not fan fic. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, whatever, as long as it's not a fan work. The @fanficocean will be celebrating next weekend, and we will be celebrating the 21st and 22nd. Click here for all the details!

Manta Rays chats in the Discord server - Admin Marie will be hanging out on Friday at 8pm EST and Admin Michelle will be hanging out Saturday at 4pm EST in our Discord server. Come say hi and let us know how your fics for Secret Santa are coming along!

SPN Rewatch: FanFic Edition - Because of the holidays and other life interruptions, the chats this month will be on the 7th and the 21st instead of the usual schedule. This means on Saturday at noon, we will discuss 3.13 Ghostfacers and 3.14 Long Distance Call.

Online events on Stageit - Jason Manns will be performing on Stageit on Monday at 2:05pm EST, and Creation Entertainment will be livestreaming the J2 main panel from Nashville on Sunday at 5:15pm EST. If you can't afford to buy a ticket, hitch a ride and a fellow fan will probably pay your way!

New Member Spotlight - The post with November's new members will be up in the next few days. Sorry it's so late!

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That’s all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! Click here for a static view in Eastern US/Canada time (desktop only, no mobile app access, sadly), and click here to add our calendar to your own Google calendar! We try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. If there’s something you want to see on the calendar that’s not there (maybe a convention we missed, cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @heavenssexiestangel, and @spn-fanfic-reblog-writes!