#kane and jim au

[whumpsday]

Kane & Jim AU: Slow Cooked

Chronological masterlist / Writing order masterlist

content: vampire whumpee, torture, burns, body horror / gore, isolation, touch starvation, rescue, caretaking

just some whump that wouldn't leave my head. i'm on an AU kick. 2 pieces in a day!! woo!!! also posted a catharsis chapter earlier :D

-

It was day one-thousand one-hundred and thirty-three since they’d left Kane in the sun.

Unlike in his cell, it was easy to count the days out here. Impossible not to, unless he lost count amid the endless pain. He couldn’t see, hadn’t opened his eyes in years, but fire licked at his toes once more, slowly working its way up.

Kane did not scream. The last time he’d screamed, a hunter had wrapped a cord around his throat and threatened to leave it there forever if he made another sound, leaving his lungs perpetually empty. That was day 14.

He had air. As his already burnt-beyond-recognition body lit up once more under the unforgiving heat of the sun, Kane reminded himself he could breathe. It was the only thing he had left.

It hurt. It hurt, hurt, hurt, always. There was no end to it, not even at night, when his wholly maimed form was given far too little time to even start to heal. There was only agony at night and more agony in the day.

He missed his cell. He would do anything to go back to his cell, in the blessed dark.

The morning sun rose enough to reach his face, his entire body once again swallowed as he burned alive.

Please. Please make it stop. Please, somebody help me! I’ll do anything. I just need it to stop. Mercy.

Every day, the same wish, unanswered. Kane was left to his unbearable existence, forgotten.

-

Somebody touched him. It was the first time Kane had been touched in over three years.

It was a light touch, just the graze of what he thought to be a hand to his jawline. Not enough to make it hurt more than it already did. Whoever it was said something, but he couldn’t make it out. Melted flesh had filled his ears for quite some time.

Kane did not move. He didn’t think he was capable of moving, anymore. But he had to do something. Maybe if he did, they’d let him inside, just for a little. Just for a few days. He would do anything to be allowed inside for a few days, even if they tortured him.

Please, I need help, please help me! Make it stop!

A small, raspy whine escaped the back of his throat, muffled further by his sealed-shut lips. It was all he could manage.

The hand retreated.

If Kane was capable of crying, he would. If Kane’s tear ducts hadn’t melted away under the sun years ago, he’d never have stopped.

Please. Please. Somebody. Help me.

His heart cried out, yearning for the touch to return. Even if they never helped, even if they hurt him. He just needed to feel for one moment like he wasn’t alone.

He keened again, a quiet thing, though he tried. Wordless begging to not be left.

The hand returned to his cheek, and he quieted once more. If the agony never stopped, at least he had this. The ability to breathe, and one gentle touch.

Without warning, something pierced his chest, and his cursed consciousness was blissfully lost.

-

Kane did not wake outside.

His arms and legs were no longer spread into the corners of the board, ensuring every vulnerable inch of his front was exposed to the sun. The board no longer touched his back, in fact. Instead, he laid on something soft. The sun did not shine.

Either it was nighttime, or he’d been allowed inside.

It was almost unthinkable that he’d be allowed to rest on something soft and let inside. Surely, it had to be nighttime.

Despite his relative freedom–he could still feel a shackle on one ankle, not silver, but nothing else–he was far too mangled to move around. He simply laid there, trying to bask in the wonder of the soft thing.

“Kane?” a voice asked, hours later. He could hear it, he realized. His ears were cleared.

He knew that voice. That was the human’s voice. Jim’s voice.

The fragile hope that he might be allowed to remain on the soft thing vanished.

“Are you awake?” Jim asked. “I saw you… twitching and stuff.”

He would cry if he could. He was crying, he realized, tears falling down his burnt-up cheeks.

“It’s okay, don’t be scared. I mean, that’s–that’s a tall order, yeah. You’re not going out there again. You’re gonna be okay.”

That gentle hand returned, to his hair this time. There wasn’t much of it left, he was reasonably sure. Jim stroked what was there, his touch feather-light, like he was afraid Kane would break into pieces.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. It’s over,” Jim promised. His voice shook like he might be crying, too.

Kane wanted to believe it so, so badly. It was everything he’d ever wanted, for someone to help. Finally, finally, for the pain to end. It hadn’t even ended yet, his body was a horrific mess of seared skin, but it had been promised. No one had ever promised to help before.

He couldn’t be dreaming. It never hurt this badly in dreams, his only refuge.

“Can you open your mouth?” Jim prompted.

No. He couldn’t. He tried, just to prove it, and…

His lips popped open, revealing a perfectly-preserved, unburnt mouth.

How long had he been out? Days? Had he not been touched by the sun for days?

“You’re doing great,” Jim encouraged. “I know you’re hurting pretty bad right now. So, um, I just…”

“Here, I’ve got it.” A different voice, female, unfamiliar. Before Kane could even worry about who she was, a lid opened with a pop, and the smell of blood filled the air.

Kane did manage more than a whine, then. A desperate howl of need.

The blood poured into his mouth, cold and refreshing and salty and sweet. There was so much of it. He drank and drank and drank until there was no more. He was actually sated for once.

“That’ll help him heal faster?” Jim asked.

“Yeah. Should do the trick.”

“...Do you think he’ll be mad at me?”

Mad? How could he possibly be mad? Jim took him away from the sun. Jim let him inside. Jim gave him blood. He was going to be allowed to heal!

“I think he’ll just be happy to be out of the sun,” the other voiced his thoughts.

There was a creak on the soft think–a bed? A couch?--as someone sat next to him. “Three years ago, the hunters told me they had you,” Jim said.

Three years. That was the end of it, then? Kane had paid his price, he wouldn’t have to do it anymore? It felt too good to be true.

“I told them to kill you,” he continued. “I was scared. I thought you would be like… before. I thought you would come after me. I didn’t know what they were doing, and they told me they’d done it. I thought you were dead. I never wanted you to suffer, not like this.”

Did that mean no more? It was truly over?

“No m-more?” Kane rasped out, his voice struggling to find itself after so long.

“No more.” That gentle touch returned to his hair, and for the first time in years, there was hope.

-

taglist in reblogs

[puppetmaster13u]

So thinkin more of Dragon Gotham, and once more, I am not drawing three separate dragon forms for Every gothamite ever. So I used Predict Morphology on Flight Rising to come up with general ideas/visualizations for each dragon form. So I guess have a Part 1 of that lol.

SO, first of all, each of these will be in the order of Alpha, Beta, Omega, though some characters might prefer one gender over the other, or not bother to change into one of these forms often. Anyway, enjoy.

Alfred Pennyworth

Jim Gordon

Bruce Wayne

Kate Kane

Lemme know your ideas and thoughts lol. I am also open to reblogs with goons and civilians. Pretty much original character Gothamites lol. Hood needs his Merry Men and the Goonion needs people in it after all lol.

[whump-queen]

emergency medical care but it’s a bunch of captive vampires being brought in to clean up the blood and heal the skin of the wounded with their tongues.

[rosebloodcat]

Crossover AU Idea: Trollhunters and the Kane Chronicles

Had an idea for a crossover and I really need to say/share it with people!

Basically, what if Toby and Jim were Magicians that lived in Arcadia? And not just two random, clueless kids that got sucked into a magical war that had been rumbling away under their feet by random chance. I think it would be cool!

(What would this AU be called? Trolls and Magicians? Magicians and Trolls? House of Trolls? House of Hunters?)

They were part of the recruits Sadie and Carter found before the second book, who were brought in to be taught and to learn about using Divine Magic. Which they did!

Eventually Toby and Jim decided, after finishing their Magician Training, to go back to Arcadia. Both because of homesickness and to finish their normal schooling, and because the Main Threat to them all (the return of Apophis, the Sun Eating Snake Monster) had finally been settled.

(I mean, that’s how it’s “supposed” to go after the Apocalypse has been stopped, right? Everyone just goes back to their normal lives with no ill effects? (They are very wrong but they don’t know that.))

> I haven’t decided on their respective gods yet because there are a LOT of Egyptian gods and I want to pick someone who’ll be a good fit for them and hasn’t already been used for a magician in canon.

I’m clueless for Toby so far, but I’d love if I could tie in his use of a War-hammer or just a Hammer to his patron.

For Jim, I kind of want to play with his name and have his god be a Water/River god. I’m considering using Nephthys, since she’s a powerful goddess in her own right and tends to get overlooked in favor of others. (Plus, it would be fun to expand her character!) That, or a god that could be tied into his knife and/or cooking skills.

> Toby’s therapist is part of the House of Life so that he can fully unload/unpack everything they’ve been through. He keeps trying to convince Jim to go too, but Jim keeps shrugging it off or saying he doesn’t need it.

(He does. He absolutely does, no matter how much he denies it. And stress baking, while delicious, doesn’t help as much as he thinks it does.)

> Neither of them were front-line fighters during the battle in Egypt, but they WERE in the battle at the Brooklyn House.

The two of them hadn’t put a lot of focus on weapon training, focusing more on the magic side of things. That said, Jim’s got a MEAN swing with a sword when it comes down to it.

(Although, since they came back to Arcadia, they’ve become a tad rusty at fighting. Not because they haven’t been practicing, but more because they’ve only been able to train with each other and against Shabtis.)

> SPEAKING OF THE HOUSE OF LIFE!  There is a House in Arcadia, but it’s pretty much empty and unused most of the time. Arcadia does feel very magical/magic saturated to anyone who knows how to tell. But, as far as the Magician’s have been able to tell, there doesn’t really seem to be anything there. The House is more of an Out Post/Watch House than anything else.

Jim and Toby have a Bi-Weekly Sleepover Weekend there to practice their magic and try to keep in shape. It’s also a good place to just... Hang out without the usual problems that crop up.

A safe space to get away from everything and just be themselves.

> After facing the end of the world together, Toby and Jim are really close. They’re also really close to the other kids from the Brooklyn House.

This is part of the reason why they have problems connecting with the kids at school.

They can’t bond with everyone over the things they enjoy, they can’t talk about their experiences, they can’t share the things they learned during those couple years they were outside Arcadia, so they just kind of... Hang back and let everyone else drift by them.

(It’s also another reason why Jim has so much trouble talking with Claire. He has NO IDEA how to talk about Normal Non-Magician Teenager Things and he has no idea how to approach a girl who’s not a magician who helped stop the End of the World.)

> The two of them know A Lot about Egyptology and Egyptian History. Honestly, after everything they’ve been through, it would be weirder if they DIDN’T know about those.

> Barbara and Nana both know that the boys have been through Crazy Shit™ and try to help where/how they can. And despite how long they were separated, both boys still have really strong bonds with their respective guardians.

Things were a little awkward/clumsy when they first came back, but they’ve all settled into a comfortable routine with each other. Home feels like home again.

That said, Jim still suffers from some wanderlust because of everything that happened. It hard to fully settle into normal.

> When Jim and Toby find the Amulet, they are a HELL of a lot more cautious about it. Magic is an old hat for them by now, and talking amulets that know (one of) their names are SUPER SUS and treated with the UPMOST WARINESS.

(Who knows what could be accidentally unleashed if they try messing with it??)

They don’t bother trying to research the amulet at school. (Since it’s Very Obviously a magical artifact.) Instead they vow to look into it at the Arcadia House and to call other magicians if things take a weird/bad turn with it. (Or if they find something worrying about it.)

Plus, it’s not smart to talk about magic around not-magic people. They are smarter than that.

> Jim openly tells him mom he and Toby found a weird, magical-thing in the canal and that (after dropping his stuff off at home) he plans to go to the Arcadia House to have it checked out. There’s no need to hide magic from her in this one since she already knows about it.

Barbara’s okay with that plan, but also gives him explicit instructions to call/text her if anything happens.

>When Blinky and Arrrgh show up in Jim’s basement, things do not go as smoothy as they had been hoping for. Mostly because Jim is a magician who survived the Apocalypse and is armed with a duat locker that has his weapons and a wide array of verbal spells to call on.

Blinky gets magically punched.

Arrrgh gets a few new scars from a Khopesh.

Jim hits his head against something.

Basically, it’s frantic and messy until they manage to get across that they don’t mean any harm. Jim takes the testament with a grain of salt.

I'm not really sure where it would go from there other than this:

Blinky and Arrrgh are impressed by Jim’s skill in a fight.

They learn that the world almost ended and they didn’t notice

There is a new, genuine Pharaoh who can channel Divine Magic and Blinky is excited for the lost magic being regained. He is learning just as much from the boys as they are from him.

Toby is brought up to speed and makes it very clear that Jim’s not going to be doing this by himself. There is a lot of arguing about letting the rest of the House of Life know what’s up.

They get to see the Arcadia House, and learn more about the training Toby and Jim have.

Jim takes to the Amulet better than he thought, but worries about how is might mess with his magic since he doesn’t know what it was made with. Also, plate armor is new and hard to move in.

Jim still fights Draal, but spares him bc of compassion and “How the hell do you expect to take care of everything myself? I need back-up to get shit done, that’s how human’s work.”

Toby points out that “We’re squishy magic users, we need muscle to back us up. Especially if we need to bust out the BIG spells.”

And that’s about it for now. I will probably think of more later, but I’ve been sitting on this idea for long enough.

[fandom-stealer]

Civilian Talia AU ages

Because unlike DC, I’m going to try and keep the ages consistent

Speaking of DC, screw cannon, I’m making my own ages for this universe because their so inconsistent

Adults-

Talia Al Ghul: 45

Bruce Wayne: 42

Thomas Wayne Jr.: 40

Alfred Pennyworth: ???

Jim Gordon: 42

Lucius Fox: 54

Selina Kyle: 40

Kate Kane (haven’t talked about her yet, but she shows up): 42

Bette Kane: 41

Kids-

Dick Grayson: 14

Jason Todd: 13

Tim Drake: 11

Damian Al Ghul: 7 months

Stephanie Brown: 12

Cassandra Cain: 11

Duke Thomas: 10

Carrie Kelly: 10

Harper Row: 14

Cullen Row: 2

Terry McGinnis: 9

Matt McGinnis: 1

Helena Bertinelli: 13

Claire Clover: 12

Henry Clover Jr: 13

Helena Wayne: 3 months

Luke Fox: 12

Barbara Gordon: 14

Jean-Paul Valley Jr: 14

Minhkhoa "Khoa" Khan: 12

Julia Pennyworth: 17

[steph-the-4th-robin]

Odds and Ends

Family, friends, and anyone else.

Bruce Wayne 

Never becomes Batman

Head of Wayne Enterprise

He's just a snobby, rich dude 

He does love Alfred, Jason, and Cass though

Later goes on to fund Project Bat

Alfred Pennyworth 

Wayne Manor’s butler

Bruce’s surrogate father 

Jason and Cass adore this man

Vicki Vale 

Reporter

Bruce’s girlfriend

Comm. Jim Gordon 

police commissioner of Gotham

His daughter is Barbara Gordon

Renee Montoya 

former detective at GCPD

current private eye 

Elizabeth “Beth” Kane

 Kate’s sister and Bruce’s cousin

She wasnt the one who became Alice

Mary Elizabeth “Bette” Kane

Bruce, Beth, and Kate’s cousin

Never becomes a vigilante

Tanya Fox

Lucius’ wife and mother of Tam, Luke, and Tiff

Although not her biological son, Tanya still loved and raised Jace like the rest of her kids

Lucius Fox 

trusted associate of Bruce and VP of Wayne Enterprise

Father of Jace, Tam, Luke, and Tiff

Had a falling out with his eldest, Jace

Cullen Row

Harper’s younger brother

Constantly worried about his sister

[peacefulofskye]

Beautiful!

When Bruce gets older, does Martha decide to take a step back, manning the comm’s while he becomes Batman and Kate becomes Batwoman?

It would also be great if instead of Talia making Damian w/ Bruce’s dna, Ras managed to get Martha’s so Damian is Bruce’s sibling instead.

When he meets Dick there’s more potential for conflict, as Bruce only lost one of his parents. Martha would be a fantastic grandmother and Dick would adore her (& Alfred of course), but mostly have only spite towards Bruce until Bruce decides to make him Robin as a way of keeping him from outright murder. And then years later, a kid tries stealing his tires…

Tim Drake would still make the connection between Dick and Robin, but the rumors going around that Batwoman and Robin are vengeful spirits that have been around for decades makes it a bit harder.

I want you guys to imagine: it’s the late 1960s, and beautiful former film actress Martha Wayne is widowed tragically when her husband is shot in a mugging outside a theater in front of her and her young son. At the behest of her young son, who has always been fascinated by the swashbuckling action movies of her youth, she takes a long sabbatical and decides to fight crime by becoming Batwoman. Dressed in a leotard and tights (and looking just as good in her 40s as she did onscreen, if you ask her) she patrols the streets of Gotham with Bruce as her faithful sidekick Robin, and her niece Kate Kane as Batgirl. 

Ras al Ghul is a re-occuring villain who wants to marry her, but her heart still belongs to her late husband, and anyway he’s not going to make a great impression when Bruce is determined to upend a bottle of champagne on him at every party he manages to work his way into. 

[nightmare-foundation]

Hero/villain batfamily swap AU

Okay so I really wanna infodump about my au that I've recently made, which puts the batfamily in the Gotham Rogues' places. I haven't thought through all of them yet, and I haven't accounted for all the batfamily (i.e. Kate Kane, Luke Fox, etc), but this is what I have

The Rogues

Bruce- The Penguin

Dick- Two-Face

Tim- The Joker

Stephanie- Black Mask

Damian- the Demons Head/Ra's Al Ghul

Barbara- The Riddler

Duke- Mr. Freeze

Cass- Lady Shiva?

The Heroes/good guys

Jason- Batman

Nightwing/Robin I- Jacob 'Jake' Grayson

Red Hood/Robin II- Thomas Grayson

Raven/Robin III- Jonathan Crane

Spoiler/Robin IV- [name] Brown (she hasn't been named yet, but she's Stephanie's daughter!)

Robin V- William Todd

Black Bat- Rose Wilson

The Signal- TBD (feel free to suggest ideas)

Seer- James Gordon Jr.

Harvey Dent

Edward Nygma

Jack Napier

Oswald Cobblepot

Waylon Jones

Jervis Tetch

Basil Karlo

Admittedly, the ones I've thought through the most are Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian. Some characters i haven't thought much about at all or I have an idea of what I want them to be (like Harvey having a role similar to Jim Gordon, or maybe Edward works with Lucius?).

BUT- this is an au where an outside force fucked with the timeline (haven't decided who/what or how) and, after regaining their past timeline memories, the batfamily (now Rogues... except for Jason lol) have to work together to figure out how to fix the timeline. The problem being their current states make that task much harder than it'd usually be, especially with their current history with each other, even despite their memories returning. So there's a whole slew of issues, not just internal, but with each other and dealing with heroes. And they have... very complicated histories with each other.

I'll explain a few of them under the cut :)

Dick Grayson aka Two-Face

What differs in this AU is that Dick is, of course, never taken in by Bruce and is instead passed around from abusive foster home to abusive foster home in Gotham. Thanks to a mix of the circus having been not a safe place and the abuse he endures in foster care, Dick develops DID, BPD and OCD from the trauma. He grows up with a close friend in Jason Todd, and while they separate for a while (Jason going to train to become Batman, Dick going into law school), they come back together as adults.

Dick becomes a lawyer because Tony Zucco had used legal loopholes to get out of facing the consequences of murdering the Flying Graysons, and Dick fully intended on trying to fix the legal system in some way and to try to prevent something like that from happening to others. At some point, Dick ends up having 2 sons, Jake and Thomas, who are 8 and 3 respectively when Dick eventually becomes Two-Face.

Since he's very close to Jason, he's actually aware that Jason is Batman. When Dick gets more unsatisfied with the justice system, he joins Jason in crime fighting as the vigilante Robin. Unbeknownst to both of them, Two-Face (not yet called that, but i haven't thought of a name yet lol) is not only unsatisfied with the justice system, but also how Jason and Dick fight crime. (Two-Face believes in the anti-hero kind of lethal justice. No, he's not 'evil')

One day, I imagine something happens and Dick, in his civilian form, tries to defend someone from someone else, but the fight results in the attacker slamming a glass container full of acid into Dicks face. This is obviously deeply traumatizing, and not only that, it solidifies Two-Faces belief that vigilantes should adopt a more lethal form of justice.

This is, obviously, how they become Two-Face :) they're deemed too mentally unstable to care for their two sons, so Jason is the person who takes them in and cares for them.

Jason Todd aka Batman

Honestly, I haven't considered exactly how he gets the idea of becoming Batman, but I'm considering that the catalyst is similar; he witnesses his father's murder. Essentially Willis got on the bad side of some mob boss and gets killed in front of Jason and Catherine. Eventually, after that, Catherine succumbs to a drug overdose.

Jason grows up close to Dick, with them supporting each other throughout their childhoods and helping each other escape foster care. Eventually Jason comes under the care of Oswald Cobblepot (who is the surprisingly kind but tough CEO of Cobblepot Industries) after attempting to steal the CEOs tires. Through him, he gets into training, and he supports Dicks lawyer endeavors financially.

After he comes back from all of his training, he refamiliarizes himself with Gotham and then becomes Batman. There's a lot of stuff he's way more lax about than Bruce is, like killing or temporarily working with criminals if it yields better results, but he still has his limits.

Jason also has his own Robins, but his relationship with them is far more healthy.

Tim Drake aka The Joker

Tim wasn't actually all that unique prior to becoming the Joker. He grew up in and out of boarding school with somewhat absent parents, in a middle class then upper class household. Tim became a photographer and journalist as an adult.

How he became the Joker is simple: he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because of who he was, he was framed, and dropped into a vat of acid.

What came out just... isn't Tim Drake anymore.

Misc.

This is essentially what I have for the others that I haven't fully figured out yet:

-Duke becomes Mr. Freeze not long after his parents are hit by a lethal form of Joker Venom. He keeps them frozen so that they stay alive while he tries to search for a cure.

-Barbara becomes the Riddler not long after Jim Gordon dies. There's a bunch of stuff that causes her to go villain mode, but her father dying is the catalyst, or the straw that broke the camels back so to speak.

-Damian is not centuries old like Ra's is, but he is on the older side (50s? Maybe older?). Really, a lot of characters are aged up lol. He is still related to Bruce and Talia. He has kids too! William (<- placeholder name, I'm having trouble naming him, I might give him a name that reflects his heritage. He's gone through several iterations already LOL) Todd is his grandson.

-Edward Nygma works under Lucius Fox and helps make things for Jason! He also totally makes escape rooms on the side. Cringefail malewife vibes, as he should always have

-Harvey Dent has a role similar to commissioner Gordon, though I'm debating if he's actually a police commissioner or a Private Investigator.

-James Gordon Jr. Is Seer, and i imagine part of the reason he became a vigilante was to prove people's assumptions of him wrong. He's physically disabled (not sure how yet, but he uses forearm crutches) and is diagnosed with ASPD. He works as a hero both in the streets and behind a screen. I'm not sure yet what kind of day job he has tbh.

[ghost-bxrd]

For Court of Owls! Batfam Au, how do the rest of the family fit in this au?

Kate Kane and Tim Drake are wealthy enough to be apart of it.

Stephanie,Cass and Duke, I'm not sure,but Barbara and Commissioner Gordon, Alfred (since he isn't mentioned I assume he disagreed and left) might be involved unless otherwise.

Damian might be a lovechild of two courts between League of Assasins, that feels he'd inherit his Dad's legacy but acts like the old court,maybe at first at least.

Tim Drake’s involvement was covered in a previous ask! As to Kate, I admit I know next to nothing about her so I’ll have to skip that for now >.>

But there’s no reason to believe the way the get introduced to the family is going to be wildly different than canon!

Alfred is still Bruce‘s loyal butler (I think I mentioned him tangentially once or twice) and knows Bruce is trying to do good. He‘s 100 percent got his back.

Steph meets Tim first after our little stalker establishes himself as the eyes and ears of the court. (Even Cobb is unnerved by how good the kid can blend in). She never becomes part of the Court or Robin (mostly because she wants nothing to do with the Owls) but she does accept the gear they provide her with. It‘s kind of a love-hate relationship between them all, but Bruce still includes her in the list of his children when anybody asks. Steph is very annoyed by this. (And also a little touched.)

Cass is sent to assassinate Bruce (without knowing he’s the Voice) and gets intercepted by a furious Cobb. She‘s still only a teenager at this point, something that makes Bruce stop Cobb from killing her and… well. (Cobb knows how this goes as soon as it comes to light the girl cannot even talk. He wonders if Talons can retire. He cannot deal with another traumatized child that needs babysitting. He deals with another traumtaized child that needs babysitting.)

That leaves Duke, whom I headcanon Bruce came across on accident while working on cleaning up the foster system. He‘s just another child right up until the moment that Bruce happens to quite literally run into him while he’s out alone in Gotham (having slipped away from the Talon once again). Duke notices Bruce is being followed by some shady looking people and helps him escape. And, well, “no good deed goes unpunished”, right? And the manor’s got a lot of spare rooms still. (Cobb would like to put himself in cryo and not come out until Bruce has managed to get a grip on his adoption problems.)

Damian is… tricky. There would be a very short window of time in this AU where him and Talia could have met that would result in Damian being conceived in a consensual way. I haven’t really made up my mind about this yet.

And Bruce is still working together with Jim to help Gotham. He’s still operating as “Batman”, after all. Just not usually in an armored suit. 🦇

[onnahu]

Batman apocalypse au

Part 1 - the beginning; Batman, Robin and Batgirl

Bruce Was 8 when the apovalypse came. His parents died in the first wave. Now I don't know if we're going with zombie, or aliens, or maybe the most scary - just earth doing earth things. Yeah. I'll go with that.

Let's say the capsule Clark came to earth in did somehow wavered the climate or ozone layer or wtv. Anyway, it triggered an apocalypse. He still got adopted by Kents, but they parented him in the world where everyone's against everyone. Although maybe the joined some group of survivars or... nvm, it's not about them.

Anyway. An earthquake kills Martha and Thomas. For now, society is still working, so after the first chaos, emergenvy services menaged to bring Bruce to Alfred. Btw Wayne Manor is in crambles. So yeah.

Catastrophies only come afterwords. Earthquakes, storms, cyclons. At some point, we lose electricyty, emergency services stop working, bc people have to care for their own families. Society collapses.

Bruce grows up with Alfred who teach him how to shoot, how to fight. (Bruce has some deep, unfounded fear/hatered for guns, tho. Maybe it's from his past life...) As people become more desperate, gangs starts to form. Who is stronger, that will live. The law of the jungle. Bruce and Alfred live in what stayed from the Wayne manor. Alfred grows vegetables in the garden, and is merciless with his rifle if someone comes too close.

When Bruce is around 14, they find out his cousin, Kate Kane, is alive. At least was alive a week before when she left gotham, looking for purpose in this dangerous world. Bruce want's to follow in her footsteps, but Alfred says no.

It's only three years later, when Alfred wakes up to find a letter and a radio Bruce fixed up. Now, 17 years old Bruce Wayne goes into the world looking for a way to help people.

Who would have know - some cult/assassin organization called the League of Assassins is still functioning in perfect condition. And it's not even because of the Lazarus Waters. They are secluded enough and skilled they can do whatever. And they have plans for the world. Not that Bruce knows about them. Not yet, at least. (Also he falls in love. And his DNA is stolen one night when he sleeps. Not that it matters. Not at all.)

After another 4/5 years, Bruce finds his way home. He's glad to see Alfred alive, even if more tired. Alfred gives him an earful, but still welcomes him with an open arms. Bruce Wayne takes on himself taking care of what was left of Gotham.

It's about 15 years sunce that fateful night, when Bruce finds himself in Gotham when he sees flying Grayson fall from the building they tried to find a safe space for night with their son. Bruce hurries up, and finds a man, later we learn his name is Tony Zucco, trying to grab a child - 9 years old Richard Grayson.

Tony Zucco menages to run away, as Bruce is more occupied with the newly orphanes child. But Richard Grason, in his head, swears a revange on him.

Not long after, Robin joins Batman in Gotham.

One night, Batman meets one Jim Gordon, who lost his wife to earthqake and his son to that apocalitic madness. Jim wants to ressurect the emergency services. People need someone to execute law and give medical help. They quickly become friends.

It turns out Jim has a sweet daughter, Barbara. Too smart for her age. At the rapid age of 13, she becomes Batgirl. (Oh by the way, did you heard about that gal running around calling herself Batwoman?)

Babs and Dick are quick friends, but when Dick is older and become more brash, tored of Gotham and Bruce, and runs away, she declines his offer to join him, deciding on staying with her father and Batman.

So when 17 years old Dick is running around finding friends who will eventually become Titans, Batman and Batgirld (and Batwoman, but she kinda does whatever she wants to do on the other end of Gotham so yk) are a sole protectors of peace. This is a year later, when while on his way out for patrol, he catches a 12 years old kid trying to steal his potatoes. Guess who that is? Jason Todd.

[whumpsday]

Kane & Jim x Catharsis - Kane & Luan

K&J chronological masterlist / K&J writing order masterlist

Catharsis masterlist

content: vampire whumpee, escape, begging, starvation, caretaking, dubious caretaker, whumpee turned caretaker, death wish, suicide attempt, recapture, torture, gore, burns, rescue, brief self-harm for vampire feeding purposes, side robot whumpee

Whumpmas in July Day 15: A Soft Reprieve

the first time i've ever done a crossover between two different series of mine! this one's been living in my brain rent-free. massive props to @sowhumpshaped for inspiration!

-

Luan’s heart practically stopped when he looked through the doorbell camera to find a vampire.

The camera  wouldn’t matter if it was a vampire. The door wouldn’t matter if it was a vampire. He would be taken, again, this time manhandled from his own apartment. The fact that he couldn’t sleep all night was the only reason he had this last moment of freedom.

“Stay back,” he said through the speaker, trying not to let his voice shake like his hands as he clumsily looked up the number for the local hunters. There was no way they’d get here in time, not even with their base just down the road. Not with a vampire’s speed.

“Please,” the vampire whimpered, kneeling on his doormat. “Please help me, I beg of you. I’m not a threat, I promise, please don’t call the hunters, I’ll do anything!”

Now that Luan really looked, he could see beyond the bright-red of his eyes and the intimidating fangs: the figure at his door was… not well. Clearly emaciated, a feeling Luan knew all too well. He could see what looked like burns, and what were definitely cuts. Tears tracked from terrified, desperate eyes.

“What do you want?” Luan snapped, thumb hovering over the dial button.

“Please, please, sir, I can’t find anything to end myself, the sun is coming, they’re going to find me, please, mercy, I can’t go back, please help me!” the vampire begged, weeping into his hands. “I can’t use persuasion, I promise, I wouldn’t even if I could!”

It was objectively stupid. It was going to get him killed or worse. If Luan opened this door, that would be the end of it. The vampire would take one look at him, use persuasion, and his freedom would be gone again, just like that.

There was no faking the way his stomach turned inward like that, worse than Luan had ever been. If Luan had ever starved that badly, he suspected he would have died.

Would there be any point to a vampire going to these lengths just to trick him, when he could have just used persuasion from the first moment?

“One minute. Stay there.” He dashed to find something, ending up with a ruler he hasn’t dug out in years. Sawing at it with a kitchen knife made something resembling a stake, though he knew in his heart that it likely wasn’t strong enough to get through flesh. He just had to hope it would be intimidating enough.

Luan hesitated. Was he really going to do this? Let a starving vampire into his home?

He looked through the camera again, at the pitiful man collapsed on his porch.

He opened the door, makeshift stake in hand. “Get inside.”

The vampire scrambled in, crouching like a cornered animal on his floor, panting hard. “Th-thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Please don’t call them, please, I just–”

“You can stay the daytime and that’s it.” It wouldn’t be the first time Luan had stayed awake a full 24 hours. He could do it again. “At sunset, you leave, and you don’t come back. You never take a human. Agreed?” He pointed the stake at the vampire with both hands. “Try anything and it’s the stake.”

What Luan wasn’t expecting was for the vampire to look up at him with utter adoration. “Yes, sir! Thank you, sir! I’ll be good, I promise, thank you so much! You can kill me if you’d like, I don’t mind, I won’t resist. Whatever you want.”

Luan slowly lowered the stake. “That’s… probably not necessary.” A look around the room. The sun would start rising in a few minutes, he had to act fast if he was really offering this vampire refuge. “Go wait in the bathroom,” he pointed, “There’s no windows in there.”

“Yes, sir!” The vampire started to run, but tumbled over himself, collapsing to the floor. Before Luan could react, he picked himself up to his hands and knees, crawling quickly to the bathroom and closing the door.

“Jesus,” Luan muttered. The blinds were already closed, always closed, but he knew some light could trickle in through the gaps.

What to do next? He knew what he wanted next when he was rescued. To feel safe, to feel free, to feel in control, to know Cyrus couldn’t hurt him anymore. Food, water, blankets, a fucking warm shower. Home.

What had even happened to the vampire to make him like this?

In the end, he gathered up some sweats and sneakers he wouldn’t miss–he wasn’t going to make the vampire run home half-naked and barefoot when sunset came–and a blanket, then knocked on the door, stake stowed in his pocket. “Hey.”

“Yes?” the vampire called back.

Luan opened the door, finding the vampire huddled in the bathtub. “Brought you some stuff. You can use the bath and whatever too if you want, you know.”

The vampire’s eyes widened as Luan set the bundle down on the edge of the sink. “Thank you, sir! That’s so kind of you! Thank you so much!”

“Mm-hm.” It felt good to be the one in control. Safe, somehow, even with a vampire.

He wanted to ask what happened to him, but he hated when people asked for details. Those fucking true crime junkies. If the vampire wanted to talk, he would talk.

“I’m Luan,” he offered. “You?”

“M-my name is Kane. No one’s asked me that in a very long time.” The vampire stared at him like some kind of divine being.

“Alright, Kane. Glad this isn’t going to shit immediately. I’ll be… out there. Knock if you need anything, I guess.”

“Yes, sir!”

With that, Luan let him be. The vampire did not return, staying locked in there well after his shower ended. As the hours ticked by, he couldn’t keep his mind off the vampire in the bathroom. How could he?

Food. He was probably hungry. Starving, if his appearance was anything to go by. Luan knew that feeling, the never-satisfied clawing in his gut.

He pinched at his skin. He had blood to go around, didn’t he? Just once.

Luan knocked at the door. “Kane? You doing okay in there?”

“Yes, sir,” came the vampire’s muffled voice, “Do you need something?”

“You need something,” Luan corrected. “I’m gonna feed you some blood. Open up.”

The door opened fast, Kane’s wide, red eyes greeting him. “You would give me blood?” he asked in a hushed whisper, the blanket still wrapped around him.

“Yeah. Here.” Luan held out his arm. That’s where they did blood draws at the doctor’s, right? “I know you’re hungry. Go ahead.”

Kane burst into a huge, fanged grin. “Thank you, sir!” He took Luan’s arm gingerly, with a gentleness he wouldn’t have expected from a monster of the night. Deciding on the wrist, he bit in slowly, carefully at first.

As soon as he broke the skin, all that gentleness disappeared.

The vampire bit in hard, making Luan wince at the pain of it. But he’d expected pain. It was a goddamn vampire bite, of course it was gonna hurt. He grit his teeth and bore it. He’d had worse.

“Okay, that’s enough,” he announced as he started to feel woozy. “I get you’re hungry, I wanna help, but I’m not a buffet.”

Kane paid him no mind, continuing to gulp down mouthfuls of blood, eyes wild.

Luan’s heart began to race, either from the depleting blood or the sudden terror or both. Suddenly, he wasn’t in control anymore, and that meant the vampire could do anything to him. It wasn’t like with the robot, who had to follow his orders. This was a vampire. What was he in comparison to that? He was powerless. He was–

No. Not again. He would not be that helpless thing again.

Luan hit the vampire as hard as he could, bringing his fist down on the back of his head. “I said stop!”

Kane reeled back, his bloody fangs tearing from skin, the blow jerking him back to reality. Landing clumsily on the floor, he looked up in horror as he realized what he had just done.

“I’m sorry!” he cried. “I’m s-so sorry, sir! I didn’t mean to, I swear, I was just so hungry I couldn’t control myself, I’m sorry!”

His eyes grew watery, his breaths quick and panicked. Kane backed away on the floor, cowering against the tub. “Please just k-kill me, please kill me, I’ll be good, I won’t resist, please, please, I’m sorry, I can’t, please kill me!”

Luan clutched his bleeding arm, staring at the pathetic creature before him. Was that what he’d looked like?

“You’re fine. Just don’t do it again or it’s the stake,” he said firmly. He was in control again. He got to make the rules.

“Please don’t call them,” Kane begged. “I’ll do anything, sir.”

“You’re fine,” Luan repeated. He picked the blanket up off the floor, having fallen in the chaos, and draped it back over the vampire. He instantly clung to it, his shaky hands curling tight in the fabric.

“Th-thank you, sir.” Kane gasped. “Thank you, thank you, I’m sorry.”

“Good.” Luan grabbed a box of bandages out of the cabinet and left, closing the door behind him. He was sure the both of them would feel better that way.

-

Luan woke up to insistent knocking at his door.

He wasn’t supposed to fall asleep. There was a fucking vampire in his apartment. As soon as his head was clear enough to realize, he bolted upright, looking to the still-closed bathroom door, then to the window.

The evening sun still filtered through the blinds: it was still daylight, at least for a few hours more.

“Who is it?” he asked, unlocking his phone. An emergency alert from hours ago plastered the screen before he could check his doorbell camera: VAMPIRE IN AREA.

“I’m with the local vampire hunters. We just wanted to ask some questions,” the man at the door said.

Not a sound came from the bathroom.

It would be more suspicious if he didn’t answer the door, right? Luan opened it. “What questions?”

“We were holding a vampire in the base a few streets down when it escaped last night. This one can’t hypnotize you, and we had it pretty weakened, but it’s still dangerous–caught it before it could take anyone, thankfully. We know it couldn’t have gotten far, already combed outside. It has to have snuck into someone’s home, so we’ve been making the rounds before it can escape come nightfall. Have you seen anything suspicious?”

“...Take anyone?” Luan asked, the floor falling out from under him.

“Yep,” the hunter nodded, “When we caught it, it already had someone. Almost got away with her, too. If that thing managed to get her over the border, that’d be it. Last thing we want is for that to happen again. Luckily, we’ve got the sun on our side.”

How could he have been so stupid? Of course a vampire wouldn’t be in human territory for any good reason. Kane had already gotten a taste for his blood. He was just a few hours away from being lured into captivity again, and this time, there’d be no one to save him.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Luan grit his teeth, chest tight. Cyrus would never let him hear the end of it if he knew. “He–he tricked me,” he mumbled. “He’s in the bathroom.”

“Fuck. Least we caught it before sundown. Read up some on vampire safety,” the hunter instructed him, strolling inside.

The bathroom was no longer silent.

A sob accompanied the frantic scratching of nails against wood for only a moment before the hunter yanked the door open, the shitty lock giving way on only the third try.

“No! No, please, I was out!” Kane screamed, clawing at the sink cabinet ever-harder. “Please, please, mercy! I can’t! I was out!”

“Behave yourself,” the hunter spat, and Kane and Luan both flinched. He grabbed the vampire by the hair. “Come quietly and you get a tarp, not that you deserve that much after the stunt you fucking pulled today. Make a fuss and it’s the sun.”

Kane wailed, a cry of anguish so long and deep Luan thought it might never end. When it did, a shaking Kane wrapped his arms around himself. “I’ll be good, sir,” he whispered, eyes distant.

He offered no resistance as the hunter dragged him away, only tears.

Alone once more, Luan knew he’d made the only choice he could to protect himself, but the tightness in his chest didn’t go away.

-

In the coming weeks, Luan couldn’t get the vampire out of his mind.

Even taking it out on the robot didn’t help, not that it ever really did. He found himself turning it on less and less, leaving it in the closet. Seeing Cyrus’s face just made him feel worse.

The hunters had to have killed Kane, right? That would be fine. Humanity would be safe from him if they did that, and Kane had been begging for it, anyway. What reason would they have to keep him alive?

Luan knew the answer to that better than most.

One call to the hunters confirmed it: the vampire was alive, though they promised ‘improved security’.

“Can I see him?” he blurted out.

It took some convincing, but Luan was able to secure himself an appointment.

-

“Keep away from the bars,” the hunter leading him downstairs instructed. Down, down, down. Concrete walls, concrete floor. Luan fought the urge to run. “You can talk with it for five minutes. Get some closure on whatever it was doing in your place. I’ll escort you back up later.”

“Mm-hm,” Luan agreed.

At the bottom of the stairs was a cell, and in the cell was a metal trunk. Luan dug his nails into his palm.

“It might look a little gnarly, but remember, these things aren’t human. They heal like that.” The hunter snapped his fingers. “Wait here.”

The hunter unlocked the cell, then the trunk. “Out.”

The lid flung open, a skinny, burnt hand retracting as soon as it appeared. Kane climbed out of the trunk, landing in a mess on the floor.

He was much worse-off than Luan remembered him. In only six weeks, the clothes he’d given him had become so torn and bloodstained as to be practically unrecognizable. Nearly all the skin he could see was burnt, his face a mess of severe welts. He looked to Luan with utter terror in his eyes, far more than the robot could ever hope to mimic.

“H-hello, sir,” Kane stammered.

Luan had to run. He knew he was safe, he wasn’t a vampire, but the danger emanating from every crack of this place was far greater than any he’d felt with a vampire cowering in his bathtub.

He didn’t move. He didn’t speak.

“I’m s-sorry,” Kane continued, clutching at his shirt. “Please, please, I’m so sorry.”

“What?” Luan asked. “Why are–”

“Please don’t take the clothes away! I’ll do anything!” Kane bowed his head, trembling. “Anything, anything, p-please, I need them, I’m so sorry, please! They’re the only thing protecting me from the silver!”

He picked his head up to look back at the trunk and then Luan with a sob. “Please, I know I don’t d-deserve it, I’m sorry, but please, please, I’m trying. I won’t run again, I’m sorry!”

“They’re yours,” Luan assured him quickly. “I’m not… taking them. That’s not why I’m here.”

Kane let out a massive, shaky exhale, the grip on his shirt still tight. “Thank you for your m-mercy, sir. Thank you for letting me keep them. Thank you for giving me one good day. I treasure it, sir. It–it was the best day I ever had. What can I do for you?” He looked up, eyes shining and watery.

Luan turned and ran.

-

He brought the robot out that night. No one else had the guts to tell him what a piece of shit he was. No one else who wasn’t in prison.

Luan didn’t tell Russ what happened. He didn’t need to. The robot did its job, and by the time he was done, his knuckles hurt. The robot winced as Luan reached down to switch it off, then fell limp.

He called the cops. They didn’t care. It wasn’t a crime to hurt a vampire.

Luan thought about moving, but he didn’t. Instead, he did the opposite, took long walks out to the hunters’ base with his hand on the unused pepper spray in his pocket. It was just a building, as far as he could see, but he knew Kane was in there. Someone had to know.

Until one day, Kane was outside.

He was strapped to a propped-up metal board, baking in the sun, the clothes Luan had given him gone. It was the least human he’d ever looked: his skin boiled like sugar syrup on a stovetop in some places, crisped like burnt marshmallow in others.

There was no one else out there.

He ran home, came back even quicker with his car, and hopped the fence. Barbed wire tore at his skin, but didn’t slow him down. Kane writhed, pulling at his bound wrists.

“I’m getting you out of here,” Luan whispered, taking bolt cutters to his shackles. Kane fell to the ground, letting out a muffled shriek as his yet-untouched back set ablaze.

He didn’t have time to be careful. He hauled Kane up–he hardly weighed anything–and threw him over the fence, following quickly.

Tossing the vampire into his trunk, he added, “Don’t say you’re sorry if you have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry. You’re going home.”

Kane’s mangled face was unreadable, but Luan could have swore he saw him relax just a little amid the pain.

-

Luan drove. He couldn’t go home yet, that much he knew. They’d find him in a heartbeat. He drove as far away from that place as he could get, the cargo in his trunk surprisingly quiet.

When he’d gotten a few hours away, he found a secluded corner of a parking garage and popped the trunk.

“Easy, it’s me,” Luan shushed when Kane started to cower. “We’re far away. Here.”

Kane’s mouth was sealed shut, his lips fused together by the heat of the sun. It took some prying, but he managed to get them unfused. Kane didn’t seem to mind, not even when his skin tore and bled.

There were no fangs in his mouth.

Whatever. That wouldn’t stop him. He grabbed his pocketknife from the glove compartment and slashed his palm open. Kane writhed again, a desperate whine dragged from his throat, but stopped when Luan made a fist over his waiting mouth and squeezed.

“Drink up,” he encouraged. He kept going for a while, eventually bringing his hand to Kane’s mouth to let him lick the excess blood from it. His hand left scabbed over, as if it had been healing for hours rather than minutes.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” Kane rasped, his voice hoarse. “Thank you, I’ll b-be good this time. Thank you for giving me another chance.”

Oh, he’d screwed this guy up bad. Another achievement in his worthless fucking life.

“Who should I contact about getting you home?” he asked. Time to get straight to the point. “Any vampire who could come here when it’s night and get you?”

Kane was silent for a moment. “Bellamy Verta,” he said eventually. “S-safe. Safe for humans.”

The guy wasn’t hard to find, and from what his profile said, he sure seemed to live up to safe for humans. His profile linked to a website that looked like PETA for vampires.

“I’m sending a DM. He’s probably asleep right now, but he’ll probably see it when he wakes up,” Luan reported.

Kane wept, blubbering gratitudes.

-

Luan cleared the area an hour before Verta was set to arrive. No matter how innocent his page looked, he wasn’t taking any chances. He left the trunk closed so no one would find Kane besides the one who was supposed to, not that he expected vampire hunters to be prowling an unpopulated parking garage in the middle of the night. Not exactly prime vampire ground. He was sure Verta would be able to figure out opening it.

He didn’t go back to the car until he got an emoji-filled DM back from Verta with a picture of what looked like Kane’s attempt at a smile.

His trunk had a hand-shaped dent in it, not that he really gave a shit. By the time he got home, it was almost sunrise. He really had to do something about his sleeping before Monday.

Luan stared blearily at the closet.

He opened it, turned on the robot. Russ flinched back at his touch, looking up at him with a harsh glare. “What?” he spat.

Luan unplugged the charger and shoved it into Russ’s hands before backing away. “You can go.”

Russ opened his mouth, then closed it, the glare melting from his face. He turned and ran through the door without a word, off into the sunrise.

It felt better than any time Luan had hit him.

taglist in reblogs

event: @whumpmasinjuly

[puppetmaster13u]

Some random thoughts for what cat each of them might be based off of:

Bruce◗ Maine Coon Alfred◗ Ragdoll Cat Kate◗ Norwegian Forest Cat Jim Gordon◗ Manx Cat Barbara◗ Turkish Van Dick◗ Bombay Cat Cass◗ Persian Cat Jason◗ LaPerm Cat Tim◗ Bengal Cat Steph◗ Selkirk Rex Duke◗ American Curl Damian◗ Toyger Cat Carrie◗ Munchkin Cat Terry◗ Wirehair Cat Matt◗ Pixiebob Cat

In above order:

Prompt 55

Bruce absolutely despises magic right now. Absolutely hates it. It’s hard enough to balance everything as is, but now he has to go back to being a social hermit (thank fuck) and even pause vigilante work (gotham damn it all). 

If someone could break this stupid cat curse on the entire family, blood or no, that would be great. Or if perhaps the League could stop laughing and Selina could leave him alone that’d be amazing. 

[not-a-space-alien]

K&J x MMSS 4: Valen & Jim Part 4B

So, this is the first chapter of an alternate timeline that we wrote to the fourth crossover. This diverges from the story at the original chapter 4 (I'll call it chapter "4A" and this is the "B" timeline.)

The first three chapters go the same way, and then in chapter 4, for the "B" timeline, Jim's dropoff with his sister goes without incident, meaning Valen doesn't get burned and therefore does not come back into human territory with Jim. They go their separate ways and don't meet again until years later.

Since Valen does not have the protection from Jim and Liz in this timeline, he ends up getting captured by vampires hunters when he comes back years later--the same ones that took Kane in K+J. Those hunters then get the details from Jim's book mixed up--since obviously Valen would be mentioned in it--and think of Valen as "That vampire from Jim Liberman's book," assuming he's the one who held Jim hostage without really checking the details. They then offer Valen to Jim, who showed up expecting Kane like in K+J canon. So this version would be more of a "caretaker-turned-whumpee" and "whumpee-turned-caretaker" story.

We lovingly refer to this as "the horrors version." What happens to Valen in this AU is much, much worse than what happens to him in canon MMSS.

K&J masterlist

MMSS masterlist

K&J x MMSS crossover masterlist

To be added to the taglist, contact @whumpsday

Warnings: Blood, aftermath of torture. The usual. Just some real sicko shit.

***

The rest of the meeting at the border is tense, but ultimately goes off without a hitch.  Valen is ultimately happy to be rid of the car and simply runs back home.  They exchanged phone numbers, and Valen calls to leave a message to say he got home safely.

They talk a little bit over the phone over the next week or two, but Valen decides to leave Jim to his human life, and goes back to focusing on his research.  Down the road, he realizes he needs to spend some time on human territory to make it feasible, but by then he hasn't talked to Jim in years and doesn't want to bother him.  That's when the unthinkable happens.

***

They'd told Valen that his victim, Jim Liberman, was coming to pick him up, for revenge.  That he'd get his just deserts.

Valen can't remember who Jim is.  He'd racked his brain, trying to think of all the people he'd ever wronged, and had come up empty.  He's no stranger to tears at this point, but he cried like he'd never cried before that day, salty tears streaming down his cheeks in the same track they'd run a thousand times before, over the bare silver muzzle that had been fused with his melted skin for years at this point.  They hadn't even given him a chance, they'd just assumed the worst about him and used that as evidence that he deserved the worst torture imaginable for years, and now he was going to be given to someone who was going to treat him even worse, and he couldn't even remember who or why.

Then the hunter drags him outside and throws him at the feet of the human who was to be his new jailer.  And he does recognize him.  They met once for a few days, 15 years ago, and Valen's hazy, pain-addled brain can't quite remember what their interaction had been.  Valen found him outside, he remembers, and he'd taken him home.  That was bad, right?  Had he kidnapped Jim?  Maybe that's what they'd been talking about.

That doesn't sound like something Valen would do, though.  Well, maybe it was something he would do now, he has no way of knowing what kind of person he is now.  He does remember he used to be very kind and compassionate, though, and it seems like he wouldn't have hurt a stray human.  But the hunters have been telling him over and over that he's a monster, a leech, a wretched animal that deserves all the pain it's getting, so maybe he did hurt Jim, maybe he does deserve to be strung up in the sun forever with his air cut off.

But still.  Even if he deserves it, it's too horrible to think about.  He trembles on the ground, looking at Jim’s knees with pleading eyes.  Please just kill me.  Please just end this travesty of existence.

All of Jim's nerves and expectations go out the door the second he lays eyes on the vampire the hunter pushed in front of him.

Not Kane. Valen.

Jim looks at him in shock that quickly morphs into horror. He opens his mouth to object, to say you had the wrong guy and even if you had the right guy this would be unthinkable, but the words die in his throat. They're already handing Valen over to him, and only because they think he deserves revenge. He won't say anything that could even potentially jeopardize that. These hunters probably would not approve of him freeing Valen. God, they used the padded cuffs he brought for Kane, but that's a silver muzzle.

"I'll be g-going now." he says shakily to the hunter instead.

"Just give me a call if it's too much trouble and you want to return it." says Chase.

"That won't be necessary." Jim says curtly, trying to hold back tears. He and the hunter exchange goodbyes, and Jim drops to his knees, eye-level with Valen.

"Oh my god. Oh my god, Valen, holy shit, what did they do to you?" he whispers in horror.

"What did they do to you?"  Just what I deserve, right?  That's what they'd been saying this whole time, so he'd started to believe it.  The alternative was something unthinkable.

Jim reaches to unlock the muzzle- he can try to talk to Valen about the whole please don't use persuasion on me thing later, but it's apparent that Valen won't be able to speak for a bit anyway. "I'm gonna take this off, is that okay?" he asks.

Jim is taking the muzzle off?  That can't be right.  The muzzle stays on was the very first rule the hunters had laid down, because he was dangerous and could use his mouth to hurt in a number of ways, and this burning sensation locked around the lower half of his face had become the only constant in his new life, and the idea that it would go away had never occurred to him as a possibility.  It was part of him now, just as his skin was melted to the silver.

And why is Jim asking Is that okay? like his opinion on anything makes any difference?  What is he doing, talking to Valen like he's a person?  Valen doesn't answer, sitting there with eyes downcast.  Some humans didn't like it when he made eye contact, they said he was trying to use persuasion on them, and that earned him the ultimate punishment: the sun.  He avoided eye contact like the plague.  Even just looking up at Jim earlier had been risky.

"Alright. I'm goin' for it. Sorry that there's no way to do it without it hurting, but that thing on your face can't be comfortable. Sooner I get it off, sooner you can heal, right?" Jim gives his bony shoulder a gentle squeeze. "S'gonna be okay. You're out. I- I'm gonna help you, like you helped me." His tears do fall, then.

He unlocks the muzzle and begins pulling it off. It's melted into Valen's face and almost impossible to remove. His skin tears like wet paper. Jim punctuates his efforts with a sorry every few seconds until it's off, leaving Valen's face a gory mess, lips completely gone and teeth on full display. Jim retches involuntarily at the sight. "I'm so fucking sorry, Valen. Least it's off."

Valen dissociates from the pain, just thinking of Jim’s words.  It's going to be okay?  I'm gonna help you?  None of this sounds right, it clashes with what the hunters had been telling him for years.  Like you helped me.  Maybe Valen had helped this human?  But then why had the hunters punished him?  Helping a stray human does sound more like something Valen would have done, though, in the past, when he'd been a person and not a rabid animal.

Oh, that's right.  That's the answer to what kind of person he is now, as he'd wondered earlier.  He's not a person at all, he's a mindless animal, the kind that would, here still on the hunter's doorstep, immediately bite the metaphorical hand that feeds, in an attempt to turn it into the literal hand that feeds.

Valen's mouth hadn't been free in years, and all he can think of is his primal instincts urging him to take the chance to feed while he can.  They hadn't needed to train the instinct out of him, because he'd had no opportunity to use it.  And Jim is so very full of delicious, aromatic blood, and so soft and vulnerable, and so very, very right there next to his mouth, and Valen is so very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very hungry.

As soon as Jim says least it's off, the gory mess he'd just exposed around Valen's jaw comes to life and snaps shut over Jim's wrist.

Jim freezes, eyes wide and mouth shut tight. He cranes his neck to the side, just like he's supposed to, even though it's covered in fabric and Valen feeds from his wrist. He hasn't forgotten how to behave.

He trembles horribly as Valen feeds, crying much harder, though the only sounds that escape him are quiet sobs.

Until he starts to feel lightheaded. More lightheaded than Kane ever made him, even when Kane overfed.

"Valen, p-please." he whispers through his tears.

Nobody hears him. Valen's stomach is a blackhole that can never be filled, his heart a void that screams to be filled with violence.

Valen, p-please... Valen is gone, there's only this animal that won't stop drinking until he's forced to. He'll kill Jim, but he doesn't care, he can't.

He bites again, getting a bigger mouthful, tearing more skin, sweet, wet blood gushing into his mouth, down the front of his nearly-naked body

Jim knows it's bad bad bad, he'll be punished for sure, but he has to get away or he'll die. He pushes Valen off of him- it's easier than he'd thought it would be. His already-hurting wrist erupts even further into pain, and Jim cries out softly, cowering away from him.

Valen hasn't been strong in years. It's easy to push him off, his fangs tearing the skin as they're pulled out. He swallows what's in his mouth desperately, licking the remaining blood off his shaking, chained hands.

He bit, he attacked, he fed, the ultimate thing he wasn't allowed to do. The hunters are all still nearby, they'll surely hear Jim's pained sounds, and then he'll be punished beyond belief. But he needs the blood, he needs it, he can't think of anything else.

Jim holds his bleeding wrist to himself, sobbing.

"I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry, sir." he blubbers. "Please don't hurt me, I'm sorry. Please, I just, I don't wanna die."

Chase comes back out, hearing the commotion. "The fuck! It bit you?!"

Valen cowers when Chase comes back on the scene, his very presence instantly reducing Valen to a submissive, trembling mess. He whines like a dog, the only method of communication that had been available to him for years, and presses himself into the floor. Please don't put it back on, please please please.

Jim snaps out of it with the hunter's call. He's on a rescue mission now, he remembers. He needs to get Valen out of here safe, no matter now terrified he is of him.

"N-no." he lies, unable to stop crying. "This is the vampire's blood. Just, just tryin' to switch muzzle."

"Fuck, I told you it wasn't a good idea. You should've asked. Here, let me put the muzzle back on, it's better with it on." Chase starts to approach, going straight for the discarded silver muzzle on the ground.

Jim kicks the gore-covered monstrosity away. "No, just, use the one I've got." He doesn't want to muzzle Valen at all, especially given how painful Valen's face looks, but there's no way he can drive home with Valen unmuzzled after this. "It's in the car."

"Right, switching. Sure, your call." As Chase goes to grab the padded muzzle from the car, Jim mouths I'm sorry to Valen.

Chase fastens the muzzle onto Valen, too tight. "You good to go? Need anything else?" He assumes Jim's crying is due to seeing his captor again, emotions high.

"I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yes." Jim insists. "I can handle this."

"Alright. Drive safe." Chase heads back inside.

Valen remains a terrified, quivering puddle on the floor, hardly able to believe he'd escaped Chase's check-in without being strapped to the board and set outside in anticipation of the sunrise. He'd swallowed blood, he'd fed, and it's better than he's felt in years despite the raw mess of his face and the new muzzle squeezing him. It doesn't burn, and his stomach has something in it, and any relief from the pain in any amount is welcome at this point.

He rolls over so he's facedown on the ground. He's muzzled again, the way he should be, and that's enough for his brain to remember he's supposed to be submissive and obedient and nonthreatening. He stares straight at the ground, no chance of eye contact

Jim shuffles back over to Valen and reaches out a shaking, bleeding hand to gently rest on his forehead. This way, if Valen lunges again, he can easily push back. Heart clenching with terror, he puts his uninjured hand under Valen's muzzled mouth.

"Please spit." he whispers. "I can't ask the hunter for first aid without letting him know you bit me. I need the bleeding to stop. Please."

Valen looks at what Jim's doing through a haze of pain and confusion. Spit. He knows that one. He has to be obedient.

As best as he can through the bit blocking his mouth, he lets bloody saliva dribble out of his mouth, stringing down into Jim's hand

"Thank you." Jim retracts both hands and rubs the saliva over his wound, thankfully stopping the bleeding pretty quick.

He takes a moment to breathe, trying to calm himself down. "Well, least I don't have to psyche myself up to feed you. Jumpin' right in the deep end." he says nervously. "Do you remember, when you found me? I was dying, and you gave me water. You saved my life. I'll never forget it. I'll make sure you get home safe, too."

Valen doesn't look at him. He can't. But Jim's words are washing over him in waves. Valen had saved his life. Yes, that sounds right. He'll make sure he gets home safe, too. That doesn't. Valen is a dangerous creature, and he'd just attacked Jim, and he was going to be disciplined and tortured.  It'd already sunk in a long time ago that he was going to be imprisoned and in pain for the rest of his life, and there was no way he could let himself believe Jim's words, to open the can of worms to start hoping again, because that was always how he got hurt emotionally. Bitter tears spring into his eyes.

As shaken as he is by the bite, Jim remembers what it was like to be so thirsty he'd do anything for water. He gets it, and he can see how terrified and desperate Valen is.

"It's okay. Let's get you in the car, alright?" Jim takes Valen's arm and helps him into the back seat, figuring he might want to lie down.

He's too nervous to take the muzzle off: if Valen bites while he's driving, it'd be very bad for both of them. He does take off both sets of cuffs, though. "Hope that's a little more comfortable. It's gonna be a few hours until we get back to my place, figure you could crash there while you heal up and head home whenever you're ready. I'll take that thing off when we get home, okay?" He gestures to the muzzle. "Don't wanna get in an accident."

Valen watches Jim help him into the car, and take his manacles off, and promise him gentleness, all with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Head home? Head home???? The possibility is too absurd to comprehend. Is Jim being cruel, messing with him? No, that doesn’t make sense. If Valen really had saved Jim's life, maybe this is real?

He lies down in the back of the car, with his wrists free, limply allowing himself to be carted around. He should apologize for biting Jim as soon as he can. Maybe that will earn him less pain.

He stews in that thought for part of the ride before being once again overwhelmed by his animalistic fear, and he starts pawing at the muzzle, trying to get it off, but there's a lock on it. He whines, tears streaming down his face.

Jim hears miserable whining from behind him. "Hold on, lemme pull over and see what's up.”

He does, pulling onto the shoulder and opening the back door. "I know it sucks right now. I'm so sorry. I'd ask what's wrong, but there's a lot. What can I help you with right now?" He's hoping Valen can charade it to him. He doesn't have anything to write with, and Valen won't be able to talk until he heals, muzzle or not.

Valen claws at the muzzle on his face, worming around in the backseat, just wallowing in his desperation

"Hey, hey hey hey." Jim hesitantly reaches out and takes Valen's hands in his. "If I take that thing off you, are you gonna bite me again? I'll take it off if you think you can hold off."

Valen tries to steady himself. Jim is helping him, Jim is trying to help him. Right?

He bit Jim, and it was nowhere near enough blood to sate his hunger, but if he wants the muzzle off, he has to not bite. He can do that, right? He nods slowly

"Awesome. Thank you, I know it's gotta be hard. But you did take enough to make me woozy, so I hope it's enough, 'cause I can't give you more tonight. I only got so much blood. I'll find a way to get you more soon, though, okay?" He can ask people. Liz or Laken, maybe.

Jim unlocks the muzzle, lifting it off Valen's face. "Didn't realize that asshole put it on this tight. I'm sorry, that had to hurt, 'specially with your face. Is there anything else?"

It's off and it'll stay off if he behaves. He can do that, he can behave.  He rolls over and curls up into a ball. He wishes he had something to cover himself, in case the sun comes up. Still hiding his face, he mimes a motion like pulling a blanket over himself

"Yeah, fuck, sorry." Jim should've been thinking about the fact that Valen would want some clothes for the ride home. He came expecting to have to come face to face with his abuser, only to be met with this entire situation, and his brain's on the fritz. He takes his flannel off and hands it to Valen. "Will this work for now? We'll be home in like, two hours, and then I can get you some real clothes."  It’s well before sunrise, but Valen would have no way of knowing what time it is.

Still crying, Valen takes the flannel and wraps it around himself, barely managing to get his arms into the sleeves, like he doesn't remember how to put on a shirt.

Thank you. It's the most covered he's been in years, and if he gets thrown into the sun, less of him will be burned. He wants to say thank you. But no, that's talking, that's bad, he might use persuasion, he has to show he's obedient. Eyes still downcast, he nods, hoping Jim can see his appreciation non-verbally.

"Alright. Let me know if you need anything else. When we get home, I'll get you a pen and paper so you can write. You can take a bath, get into some pajamas, and I've got a bed set up in the basement for you." Jim gets back in the driver's seat and keeps going.

All of that sounds too good for him.  He doesn't deserve a bath, and pajamas, and a bed. He knows that now, the hunters taught him, the hunters taught him he needs to be happy with a concrete floor and a hose and whatever pain they were giving him, because it could always, always be worse, somehow.

Valen tries to show he's grateful, but he's just so scared. He can't get his hopes up that this foggy promise of comfort from somewhere above him is real and not something he's imagining. He has a very good imagination.

He stays curled up in a ball, shaking. It's the first time in forever nothing is actively hurting him, and he has something in his stomach, and he feels okay, but all this change is making the entirety of his ordeal hit him all at once, and he can't seem to stop crying and being scared even though Jim is being kind to him. He tries to stay quiet so as not to seem ungrateful, but the tears and sobs occasionally come out in waves all the way home.

Jim's heart breaks for Valen. He has no idea what kind of unimaginable horrors he's been through, but he knows what it's like to be helpless and scared. He's just glad he can do something about it.

When they arrive home, Jim opens the back door and peers in at Valen again. He's nervous, very nervous, to be so close to Valen after the bite. But for the past decade, Valen's been almost like a deity of safety in his mind, the savior who took him from the brink of death and delivered him home. If Valen isn't safe, no one is.

"We're here, bud. C'mon, let's get you inside." he encourages, holding out a hand for Valen to take.

Valen wants to bite again. He really, really wants to. All he'd wanted to do for the past five years was bite the people who were causing him pain, and he is in pain and helpless and scared, and it's like wading through thick fog to grasp what's actually going on and what he needs to do.

Don't bite, the muzzle will stay off if you don't bite. Don't bite.

He gingerly reaches out and takes Jim's hand.

Jim takes him inside, leaving all the restraints in the car. He doesn't plan on using them. "Alright, what do you wanna do first? Bath, sleep, or write? Uh, just hold up one two or three fingers. And I'll get you some clothes."

Valen feels so overwhelmed by the way Jim is talking to him. He has to make decisions? He's too tired to think, drained and exhausted by his hunger and fear. He holds up two fingers. That was for sleep, right? Maybe he wants to just be left alone for a while

"Yeah, I bet you're exhausted. Lemme grab something for you to wear, just hang tight for a second, yeah?" Jim leaves briefly, returning with a set of soft checkered pajamas and a familiar outfit: the clothes Valen gave to Jim 10 years ago.

"I can finally return 'em." Jim says with a smile, handing everything to Valen.

Valen takes the clothes with shaking hands. He recognizes them. He finally remembers taking Jim home and caring for him when he was in need. Just as Jim is doing for him now. He buries his face in the outfit and drops to his knees, crying. He wants to say thank you. But he shouldn't try to talk, that's bad, and he should be good for Jim, who's helping him.

Jim goes down with him, rubbing his back, careful to avoid the half-healed burns. "You're gonna be alright. I've got you. I won't let anything bad happen to you. How about I show you downstairs, you get some rest, and tomorrow you can get cleaned up, get some more blood in you, and if your mouth's not healed enough to talk yet- which, yeah, I dunno how long that'll take- you can write anything you wanna say. Sound good?"

Valen tries to compose himself, sniffling. He's scared, but all he can really do is hang in there and trust that what Jim is saying is true, and that everything will be okay. Downstairs and rest sound nice.

When Jim shows him downstairs, the basement reminds him uncomfortably of his cell at the hunter's compound, although he quickly decides he'd prefer it to the upstairs anyway just because it has no windows and therefore no risk of the sun.

There's a bed, and a blanket, and a pillow. Jim intends those to be for him, right? He'd said he'd set up a bed for him. Right? But it seems so outrageously luxurious, so much more than he deserves or is used to, that he can't bring himself to accept it. He must be misunderstanding somehow, or thinking wishfully. Such things are not for him anymore, and he can't risk seeming entitled and presumptuous. He can hear the hunters' voices: You think you get a bed, leech? That's cute.

No, he can't risk it. He needs to show he'll be happy with whatever Jim gives him. Especially after he'd bitten Jim. There's no way that behavior should be rewarded like this.

He really, really wants the blanket, so maybe if he shows he knows his place, Jim will be kind and give it to him anyway, even though it's too good for him.

Valen staggers to the corner of the room and slides down onto the ground, lying on the cement floor with the clothes Jim had given him under his head as a substitute for a pillow. He hopes that misusing the clothes that way won't seem too entitled. The voices come back. Oh, you think you deserve a pillow, leech? That's cute. Since you don't know how to use them, might as well take them back.

"Oh, hey, what's wrong? Is something wrong with the air mattress? I know it's not, like, the best thing ever, but I only got... you can use my bed if you want. It's upstairs, but I can close the curtains and you should be peachy." Jim offers. "You can sleep wherever you want. Take your pick."

Oh no, no, this is too hard, it's too hard to try and figure out if it's really safe to accept the air mattress. He wants it so badly, which is the exact reason why he knows he can't have it. That is something they trained into him.  He curls his bony knees up to his chest and cries, unsure of what to do

Okay, Valen is scared. He's just scared. "It's okay. Nothing's gonna hurt here." Jim says softly. "How about you put on your pajamas and get into bed? Can you do that? I'll turn around while you get changed, just like, make any noise to let me know when you're done or if you need help.”

He turns around, hoping this will encourage Valen.

Valen wishes Jim would stop phrasing things so ambiguously, and start just saying what he wants Valen to do.  He is used to commands, not ambiguous suggestions.  How about you put on your pajamas and get into bed could mean anything.  He thinks it means Jim wants him to do that, but he really wishes Jim would just order him to use the bed so he can do it without being afraid that he's doing something he'll be punished for.

But he'd said Nothing's gonna hurt here.  That doesn't seem right.  How will Jim punish him, then, if he won't be using pain to do it?  Unless Jim doesn't think he needs punished?  Maybe he doesn't, if Valen saved him, like it seems like he did forever ago, in another life.  But the hunters had seemed so sure he'd deserved it, so maybe they knew something Jim didn't.

Oh no, if that was the case then maybe there was some danger that Jim could find out what it was that made him deserve pain, and then stop being nice to him and helping him.  His brain runs off in this anxious train of thought, before he tries to ground himself by the fact that Jim has turned around and clearly wants him to get changed.  Just get changed, you can do it, stop using your wild imagination and just get changed.

He drops the mangled, bloodstained tatters that comprise the clothes he'd been wearing when he'd been captured to the ground, then pulls on the pajamas.  They're soft and warm and cozy, and so, so wonderful and that makes him so nervous because surely this can't be for him, this has to be a mistake, right?

Say thank you, say thank you or he might take them back.  He tries to remember how to talk.  You have to vibrate your throat, like a growl, and move your lips, except he doesn't have those right now.  He tries anyway, and it comes out as a strangulated gurgle.  He puts his hands over his mouth.  No, talking is bad, isn't it?  He doesn't know, he'd never been given the opportunity with the hunters.

Jim turns around at the sound to see Valen dressed. "Awesome. You can go to bed now, get some rest. And don't touch the door, okay? It's got silver on it. I was, uh, expecting someone else, not you. The hunters said I was picking up Kane, so y'know, precautions. I'll leave it open, so don't worry about it. You need anything else before I head up?"

Go to bed.  Go to bed, go to bed means go to the bed and lie down in it and close your eyes and go to sleep. Right?  He wants to so badly.  But he is so, so anxious.  He wants Jim to reaffirm that he means for Valen to sleep on the air mattress.  It feels like it's not going to be safe to accept the bed and the blanket and the pillow unless Jim tells him he has to.

He can't look Jim in the eye and give him a questioning facial expression.  He can't ask Are you sure?  Valen is completely oblivious as Jim tells him about the door--he has no intention of going near the door, or trying to escape, escape is impossible and useless to even hope for--he's laser-focused on the bed.  He steps towards it and kneels again, slowly extending one hand out to touch the blanket, whimpering as though he expects Jim to hit him.  Keeping his eyes low, he looks at Jim and pauses with his hand on the blanket, to give Jim an opportunity to either tell him to keep going, or to shoo him away and confirm his doubts.

"Yeah, that's it. Shit, at least Kane let me sleep in a damn bed. Go for it. You're all good." Jim gives him a thumbs-up. "Or, uh, if there's some other problem, I could get something for you to write with after all?"

Valen nods at the suggestion, and holds his hand out, trying not to cry.  Why did this feel so hard?

"Alright, one second." Jim heads upstairs, coming back a moment later with a pen, paper, and a cutting board he grabbed just for a hard surface to put the paper on. He sits on the air mattress, handing Valen the materials and patting the space next to him. "What do you wanna say? It's alright, you're safe now."

Valen doesn't get up onto the bed next to Jim.  He stays kneeling on the floor and takes the materials from Jim.  His hand is shaky, and he fumbles with the pencil, crying as his hands struggle to write, something he hasn't done in years.  Eventually he manages to get out a message in messy font:  I don't deserve a bed.

Jim sighs sadly. "Yeah you do, man. You deserve a bed. Promise. Look, I don't know all of what those fuckers did to you, I can't say I know how you feel. But I do know what it's like to have to learn how to be a person again after being told over and over again I'm not one. You're a person. You deserve nice things, and you deserve to be safe, and you deserve a bed. Okay?"

Finally, finally that's enough to make him feel like he can take the bed without being anxious about it.  It sounds like it's safe for the blanket and pillows too.  Tears still rolling down his cheeks, he crawls into the bed underneath the blanket, balling up and tucking himself away.

"There you go. Feel free to come up and get me if you need anything, alright? Up the stairs, down the hall, first door on the left. Hope you sleep good." Jim pats him on the shoulder before getting up, turning the lights off, and heading upstairs. As promised, the door remains open.

The feeling of softness around him still feels wrong wrong wrong, after so long  on hard floors, but he weeps with joy at the luxury.  He falls asleep truly comfortable for the first time in years.  Maybe, just maybe everything is going to be okay.  He doesn't try and get out of bed, especially not to leave the room; he isn't convinced he could make it up the stairs anyway. But he doesn't even want to. He doesn't want to escape from the luxury of having a blanket.

***

@barebarb

@cc1010foxy

@emcscared-whumps

@gt-daboss

@hurtpluscomfort

@jakersdaboss

@lolrpop

@melancholy-in-the-morning

@pigeonwhumps

@secretwhumplair

@some-thrilling-heroics

@starfields08000

@t0rture-me

@thecyrulik

@thejinglingcourtjester

@vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff

@whuarri

@whump-cravings

@whump-my-heart-away

@whumpycries

@wolfeyedwitch

@whump-addict

@why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

[havendance]

Bat affiliated characters ranked by how interesting I think a genderswap AU of them would be

Tim Drake - I admit that I am biased as a Tim fan, but also if Tim where a girl then I think she would pretend to be a boy as Robin and her identity issues would be like ten times worse and it compells me

Dick Grayson - I maintain that in response to all those 'eldest daughter dick grayson' ideas, there should be an au where Bruce actually has an eldest daughter. (something I partially explored in my Helena-Dick roleswap) But also, what if the first robin were a girl!

Jean-Paul Valley - If Jean-Paul Valley were a girl I gaurentee you I would find her way more interesting (and probably actually read her comics instead of letting them languish on the to read list)

Bruce Wayne - The question of 'what if Batman were a woman?' is also something I have explored in various Helena AUs, but there's still lots of interesting ground to explore there.

Stephanie Brown - So much of Steph's character is connected to her being a teenage girl and created as this foil/love interest to Tim so I think on his own, Stevie Brown is one of those things where I think a lot does get lost, but I think that in an AU where we're also swapping Tim to be a girl there's a lot of juicy potential because of the foil thing.

Julia Pennyworth - Okay, I originally had below Alfred and then I started thinking about it. Alfred abandoning one son in favor of the other. Jules and Bruce as these sort of brothers. Buried tension... It compels me.

James Gordon - You know what? Yes. Jenny Gordon as the woman commissioner who has had to fight for every inch in Gotham and the fact that she's working with Batman just means that everyone's questioning her competence even more and there's endless rumors that they're having an affair.

Damian Wayne - The more I turn this idea over in my head the more it grows on me. The potential's there. I would need to chew on it some more. I might rank this higher if it weren't for the fact that the couple genderswapped Damian AUs I've read just weren't doing it for me.

Alfred Pennyworth - I usually do not care much about Alfred, but think of the mommy issues that Bruce would have if he were raised by his emotionally-absent brittish housekeeper.

Duke Thomas - I'd give one a shot, but I just haven't read enough of Duke yet to really get an idea on how compelling I would find this.

Cullen Row - The Row siblings have their moments, but I'm just not super invested in them. That being said, Cullen being a girl probably would make me more interested in her.

Harper Row - See above.

Barbara Gordon - The fact that Oracle is a woman is part of what makes her so awesome, but I think there could be potential for, uh, Barry Gordon (not all of these random names I come up with will be hits I am afraid) as Jim's son in terms of the Gordon family soap opera drama.

Cassandra Cain - This just makes her more boring I am afraid. He does get ranked about all the Rucka women though because of the kick-ass factor. I'd give reading about boy!cass a shot which is more than you can say about a lot of the people we're about to get into.

Jason Todd - Sorry to the Jason fans out there because I can see the potential there, but also even making her a girl is not enough to make me care about Jason more than I usually do.

Selina Kyle - There might be something there but I fear I have to admit that I don't care enough about Selina to put her higher on this list. I simply do not spend time thinking about her though I am curious enough to want to read her comics eventually.

Helena Bertinelli - The bottom of this list is all Rucka women because genderswapping them makes me actively not interested despite the fact that I usually like them. Helena being a guy would just be so boring.

Kate Kane - I guess Kate could be a gay man but then we loose the messy lesbian drama :/

Renee Montoya - ditto

Sasha Bordeaux - (This is my list and I get to include her if I want) The whole point of Sasha Bordeaux is that she is like, the ur-Rucka Women. We can't take that away from her. What's left then? (I guess other than swapping her with Tim which was a thing that I did do once.)

[mastermasterlist1p1]

Stuff i like

Anyone has some good stories without the smut? I don't care about the fandom

Whump :

[tw choking, manhandling, captivity, stockholm syndrome, masochistic whumpee]

Vampire x human whumpee (A centuries old vampire takes in a mortal bloodbag as a gift from his maker. )

some Stockholm

what's best

giving information

Two Weeks of Whump Masterpost

The Scry Masterlist

Clove Masterlist

The Scry

🩸 Kane & Jim Masterlist🩸

Blood catalase

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old bones

The Promise

White moves first pt.1 pt.2 pt.3 pt.4 pt.5

Bruises

----------------------------------------------------

JJK :

defiance masterlist | king!sukuna x servant!reader by @yenayaps

moments in twilight (sukuna basically in love)

Yuuta x reader (basically yuuta is like a yandere but reader is okay with it, literally the best one I've read I LOVE IT)

Haunted (toji x reader)

synopsis in which satoru really needed to start reading the gc more often. solves a lot.

tell me about love (show me how) | gojo satoru

❝ 𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐄𝐌𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐘! ❞

❝ PROF. GETO'S CLASS IS SO HARD, BUT HE'S SO HOT!! ❞. Pt.2

AURORA BOREALIS GREEN

Bad Habit (hitman!tōji fushiguro x reader | 17k) (this THIS 😻😻😻)

Say yes to heaven (gojo)

Beat of my heart pt.2 (college au - drummer! gojo x psychology major! reader)

Shameless (king to be gojo x f! Servant)

𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 ! (Gojo)

Taking what's not yours (bully gojo) masterlist pt.1

Jjk fanfics

𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞!𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

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Hero, villain and stuff :

Protective ( villain x villain stuff, Supervillain swoops in to help them out of their misery )

Hero x villain (hero has wings and she's basically a monster)

Some romantic hero x villain 😏

Hero x medic

Bodily Responses

"I love you."

Hero got amnesia

Mutually Assured Destruction (DAAMAMMMNNNNN EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ IT)

Hero has amnesia from an injury Villain caused. Guilty, Villain took them in until their memory returns

A Good Roommate Is Hard To Find pt.2 pt.3 pt.4

Kidnapped by the Boss pt.6

First meeting (dork villain and hero)

Sweet dreams : pt.1 pt.10

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Masterlists :

@treasuringizu masterlist

Watercolorfreckles masterlist

Masterlist of oddsconvert (whumpee stuff)

Masterlist of thepenultimatword

Jazz's Master List

Neptunsopening

arealphrooblem masterlist

im-a-wonderling's masterlist

treasuringizu's masterlist

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Mixte1963 :

Joseph Descamps x Michel pt.2 pt.3 (it's on Ao3 ) A Mixte 1963/Voltaire High fanfiction about Michèle Magnan and Joseph Descamps

Joseph Descamps x reader

I don't know

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BNHA :

Deku × reader (ok so deku is a pro hero famous and stuff but he's lonely and needs a partner, meets reader and decides to date her but reader is a thief. I won't die peacefully unless there's a pt 2)

Katsuki x reader (divorced, it's Christmas)

He hadn't meant to fall in love. (Katsuki x reader)

Shigaraki being touched starved

Love like a ghost (shigaraki x reader)

Yandere Vampire!Shoto x Human!reader

Touya x reader

vitality : pt.1

Accidental Boyfriend (tomura x reader)

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Denji with a Codependent gf!

.

Some stuff I didn't read yet

Hmm1

Hmm2

"creature of myth."

[dcfanfictioncatalogue]

stephanie brown NOV 2023 fic awards

this is part of a new experimental thing I'm doing, where I will comb through every fic posted/updated in a character tag for a specific month and find my favorites! I hope this will encourage people to read and comment on new and active fics with less-focused-on characters.

-> Action & Plot <-

Purr-ple Power [series: 2/2], by Cephalogod. 5.7k, T, timsteph pre-relationship. summary: batman wouldn't listen to steph about her dad, but luckily for steph, a certain cat-themed vigilante is more than willing to. my notes: I adore "stray" fics/AUs, so it's about time steph got one! her particular brand of mischievousness is more than suited to selina's, and tim in this series is so funny. love!!

&&

Road to Recovery, by Solemini. 19.8k, T, gen, 6/6. summary: cass leaves steph the batgirl suit, and everything changes. a complete rewrite of batgirl 2009. my notes: god. this steph is angry. and she deserves to be-- she hates the world for not treating her right, she resents her upbringing. this is our angry robin. but it is, despite that, a tale of joy and love. basically, it's a gorgeous retelling of batgirl 2009.

-> Fluff & Humor <-

the relief of home, with you, by MermaidMarie. 2.5k, G, stephcass. summary: a series of little moments in the home steph and cass share. my notes: AAAGHGHG this was so cute!!! absolutely adorable and lovely 10/10 no notes the perfect friends to lovers domestic fluff

&&

the purple menace and camera boy, by waffleinatorinator. 1.2k, T, timsteph pre-relationship. summary: steph is spoiler, tim is a civilian, and he finds her injured in a dumpster. my notes: they're so cute!!! this is just one little scene but it's an adorable setup and I enjoyed it immensely.

⇘     click for more!     ⇘

-> Whump & Angst <-

distress signal, by waffleinatorinator. 5.4k, T, implied stephcass. summary: cass's distress signal goes off. steph runs across a city for her. my notes: the angst is DELICIOUS. the author's tag of "if there was a pwp tag for whump i would use it" rings very true. definitely good steph angst >:)

&&

i swear that i'll be yours forever 'til forever falls apart, by waffleinatorinator. 800, not rated, timsteph flavoring. summary: steph comes back as the red hood, and she's out for revenge -- but she doesn't get what she expected. my notes: this concept is everything to me -- reverse robins tim as red hood always bugs me when steph is logically supposed to be in that spot in the order and when it fits her story so much better. I also love tim's dedicated loyalty to her here, and how insane they both are &lt;3

-> Currently Updating <-

Girls Against God, by cookiesncrows. 36.3k, M, stephcass endgame, 22/?. summary: jim gordon falls ill, which means babs and james have to tolerate each other enough to take care of him. in the interim, kate kane moves back to gotham to be the new batgirls' mentor, which steph and cass are not fond of. my notes: ohh the angst is so good!! this fic is very heavy on the character interaction and the plot which I personally adore, and the inclusion of lesser-known characters that are written very well makes this whole world feel fleshed out and real.

&&

The Ping-Pong Wars, by fadesfanfic. 6.6k, G, gen, 5/?. summary: steph beats damian at ping-pong, and damian becomes hellbent on reclaiming his honor. my notes: it's silly and fluffy and somehow manages to perfectly capture the batgirl 2009 vibe of steph trying to bond with this feral little child. well worth the read!!! &lt;3

send me an ask for fic rec lists ++ to find a fic lost to the sands of time