#mads official reverse robins au

[megamindsupremacy]

I shine only with the light you gave me (I could have been anyone, anyone)

Duke took a deep breath. “If the Joker is dead, then my parents-” he stuttered, searching for the right words. “-My parents are still crazy. And you’re still Batman’s partner. And I started this, all of this, to get revenge on the Joker. And now he’s dead. And I didn’t even kill him.” Damian is silent. The mess of shadows and blood and flesh crumpled on the other end of the warehouse sat there like – like a body. Like a person Damian had killed, despite his father’s constant instructions to the contrary. He didn’t wish he regretted it. - The Joker is dead. It is left to Damian to pick up the pieces.

[webshood]

continuation of this ask here:

Top 10 worse tropes in the batfam fandom

part 1.

5 • Feral child Damian Wayne

.... this one is very... Icky. I'll never understand the need to have the brown child be treated like a wild beast who can't see his white brother without going on a frenzy to kill him, "but he tried to kill...". Skill issue and I would too if I was him like:

6 • We're inclusive

Having the poc and female cast of the batfam there, just for the sole purpose of having them there, no personality, no individual opinions or actions, they're just here for a "Duke laughed." or a "Cass was back from Hong Kong" in between paragraphs, without giving them a glimpse of dialogue or interaction with the other characters.

7 • Pit Madness

Jason's unhinged ass is very dear to me, reducing it to some sort of magic induced psychosis is lazy and uncreative, he doesn't regret those actions, he's a spiteful person who's been betrayed, and lashes out at people because he can't process his trauma in a healthy way

8 • Reverse Robins

If we're playing by the book, Duke should be the first kid on this AU, but y'all forget about his existence so... "Only the official Robin's!" Stephanie should be the one getting the Red Hood then not Tim, and it makes more sense for her, but we know why it isn't like that

9 • Jason must abandon every single moral of his to fit into the family

It's poorly written, not Jason focused at all, a amalgamation of ass licking Bruce that makes me want to puke, stripping Jason of every character trait he had pre-Red Hood and acting like he's a dumbass who only knows violence and needs to be taught about morals so he can fit into this cookie cutter version of the batfamily that's extremely ooc.

10 • Jayroy/family guy Jason

This one is a personal pet peeve more than anything, but I can't stand when ppl turn Jason into a family guy, who doesn't have any personality aside being Roy's partner and Liam's stepfather and the way some of y'all talk about Jade as if she's a surrogate is sickening.

Disclaimer: you're free to write, ship and do whatever the hell you want, I'm not your mother. These are all based on my personal preference if you'd like to complain, my ask box is open, but if I think you're sounding dumb, there's no guarantee I'll answer it.

[lifeinahole27]

CS ff: “Walking the Tightrope” (Chapter 1/10) (au)

Summary: Killian's daily routines are a matter of habit. When he wakes up late one morning, his routines all change for the better. Emma doesn't care about routines, but she does care about Killian, no matter how reluctant she is to admit it to herself. 

Rating: E (much later in the story)

Content Warnings: There will be a part where pictures are posted without permission. It happens much later in the fic but if that’s not your thing, I want to put it out there now. And, of course, sexual content will be present. I will update these warnings for each chapter to pinpoint those sections!

A Special Thank You: Oh man, how do I put my gratitude into words? There are two constants in my CS fic writing life that I am so incredibly lucky to have. Thank you @captainstudmuffin for just downright prodding me in the ass to keep me moving when I wanted to give up. You were always there in the right capacity to keep me going. You did that reverse psychology thing with me that I always do to you with “Well, if you want to give up, that’s your choice...” and it worked. And then there’s @phiralovesloki who has listened to me self-depreciate for hours on end and still keeps me moving forward. And then you both turned your attentions to helping me get this thing edited and proofread. You handled all my tantrums, all my fits, all my problems. I love you both to the moon and back. 

And of course, thank you to the @captainswanbigbang for going with this rewrite idea. All of you modding this and putting shit in line and answering questions and being awesome and informative and helpful... my eternal gratitude for helping get this, my possible magnum opus, finished and out to the fandom. Much love to you all!

A/N: I wrote a lot of notes above here to start. Because of that, I’ll keep this line brief. Enjoy!

Find it on Ao3 & FFN!

-x-

Chapter 1: The Art of Routines

September 30: Monday

Every day, Killian Jones walks from his respectable dwelling by the Storybrooke Harbor to where he works, located right off the main drag. Storybrooke is nearly the definition of small-town America, but it houses a quaint-sized office of a British publishing firm that opened a branch over here last year. Three months ago, Killian took a chance to upend his whole life and applied for a junior editing position.

From a life in the Navy to a redirection of passions towards the fine art of literature, Killian has used a rigorous set of routines to get through every major upheaval in his life, including but not limited to the aforementioned relocation from London to a small speck on the map.

He uses his daily habits from the moment his alarm sounds in the morning until he shuts his eyes at night – operating his life in a tidy way and controlling what he can control while doing his best to accept whatever tries to throw him off.

Because of his method to build up his regimens, he knows that anything that lasts beyond two weeks becomes more likely to stick.

And for six weeks, Emma Swan has been part of his routines. Monday through Friday they cross the street together. They never speak. Sometimes they’ll smile and nod in greeting, but it’s enough in Killian’s book. Or at least, they’ve come to some unspoken agreement that it’s enough. Since the middle of August, this has been his norm, and thus it is now just another thing that marks time throughout his days.

The only reason he knows her name is because of the star-shaped badge she wears on her hip. That and being the sister of the sheriff are dead-giveaways to an identity. He’d heard of Emma long before he saw her as Will Scarlet filled him in on the townies. She, on the other hand, probably doesn’t even know his name. But he’s okay with that. He’s not out to meet the love of his life – not after what he went through with his last major relationship – but to enjoy a walk across the street with an ease he doesn’t understand and doesn’t have to. 

Day after day, he continues on, never looking back to see if she’s still looking at him. He’s afraid of what he might find if he does: either she’s also glancing back and this immediately becomes something different, or she isn’t and he’s effectively found himself with some kind of rejection complex. Both ideas are ridiculous. At the mere thought, Killian snorts and picks up his pace. 

On October 1st, Killian discovers how easy it is to throw off the delicate balance of a routine as strong as his. The alarm never goes off, or if it does, Killian either doesn’t hear it or turns it off in his sleep. He wakes, instead, to the sound of his text messages going off in quick succession, followed by the phone ringing and Will’s chirpy voice alerting him as he answers that he’s going to be late. 

With that, his eyes shoot fully open and he throws himself into action, hoping to get out the door in record time. He skips the coffee and the shower, throwing on the clothes he set out last night and hoping his hair stays in place with the water he combs through it. He’s out the door fifteen minutes late. His boss, Robin, will hopefully understand - he’s one of the most easy-going people Killian has ever met. Will is going to take the piss out of him, but that’s no different from any other day. Killian knew it was a mistake to share his location with his friend but in this case, with Will able to see that he was still at home when he should already be making his journey, he wasn’t going to complain about it. 

Instead, what he’s most upset about is that he’s going to miss Deputy Swan standing at their corner. 

And he’s right: she’s not there when he gets to the intersection. He pushes the button and diligently waits until it turns before crossing, just as he always does. It’s when he gets a full view of the patio in front of Granny’s that his steps suddenly halt. There she is, checking her phone and sipping from a to-go cup, standing at the table closest to the entrance. She glances up and sees him on the other side of the small fence that surrounds the front of the patio, and her eyes go wide. 

Quickly, she jams her phone in her pocket and exits the patio with two cups in hand, heading towards the sheriff’s station and away from him until she stops just as suddenly. She turns around to where he’s still glued in spot, knowing that each extra minute is asking for more torture from Will, but she walks up to him and he wouldn’t move if a bus came careening down the sidewalk at him. 

“Hi. This might be weird but… nevermind. Forget it.” She turns again, but Killian hastens after her. 

“What seems to be the problem, love?”

She spins around to face him again, a perturbed look on her face. He doesn’t know if it’s at him or herself, though, so he waits for her response.

“I’m not…” The words trail off, but she redirects. “I thought you might need coffee. You’re always so punctual. Figured if you were running late, you didn’t have any. But that’s probably ridiculous and just…” she trails off again, turning to dump the to-go cup into the bin nearby but Killian lunges for it. 

“No no, wait!” He catches the cup just before it leaves her grip, smiling wide when he successfully rescues it. “Thank you, Deputy. I appreciate it.”

“Swan. Emma Swan.”

“Oh, I know,” he responds, surprised at the devilish tone to the words. The only time he flirts anymore is when he’s two pints in at The Rabbit Hole on a rare night out with Will, and even then it’s with no intent behind it. His watch buzzes and Killian glances down to see Will is calling him again. When he sees the time, he can understand why. “Bloody hell. I’m incredibly late,” he says quickly, moving to continue his journey to the office and forgetting all his manners. 

“Is there something else I can call you, Incredibly Late?”

“Killian Jones!” he calls out as he gets to the corner by the post office. He spins on his heels to turn back to her, lifting the coffee again in thanks.

There’s an odd little smile on her face when he says it, but he’s still moving and has no time to wonder what it’s all about. “See you tomorrow, Jones!” 

Her words follow him around the corner and he grins as he picks up the pace to the office.

He’s amazed at how quickly his day turns around after officially meeting Emma Swan. Robin isn’t even mad when he shows up late, just happy that he’s finally sitting in front of his computer working on the endless edits he’s been helping with for a new book by an established writer. One that has terrible punctuation skills, apparently. And spelling. And grammar.

It’s barely been a half hour when he finds his thoughts drifting to the woman he only knows by name and reputation, and knows that somehow, his daily routines will never look quite the same. He wonders how much this little interaction means to her, too, if she looked so out of sorts when he was late today. And startlingly, he realizes that it did turn into something.

Running a hand over his face, Killian looks back at the page he’s supposed to be proofreading. He’s read the same sentence at least three times and still can’t figure out why it doesn’t feel right. It’s too early in the day to shut his office door and start reading everything out loud, however, so instead he saves his changes and closes the file, opening up a rain app on his phone and letting the sound soothe him while he stands up and stretches. 

“If you’re playing the calming sounds, I feel like you’re ready for more coffee,” Will says from his doorway. 

“You’re probably right,” Killian says, finishing his current stretch and turning off the app. “Shall we?”

“Ask Robin what he wants. Your treat since you were so late this morning,” his friend adds as he turns from the doorway. 

Killian makes a noise of aggravation, but still walks the short length to Robin’s office to inquire. 

Robin is locked in his own work, looking back and forth between three cover mockups that Will’s department would’ve sent over when they were ready. He glances up when Killian enters but only barely. “Coffee run?” the other man asks as he nudges each design around. 

This, too, is like clockwork in his life, which is why Robin already knows why he’s standing in his doorway. “Aye. Would you like me to bring back the usual or will you need something stronger today?”

“The usual is fine. Else I’ll be tempted to add liquor to it and no one at the home office will appreciate what I think of their last company email.”

“I have that whole rant recorded. You’d better make sure I don’t have anything stronger today or else they’ll get it verbatim.”

“Remind me to have you killed later this week after that chapter is edited.”

“I’ll pass it on to your secretary to be added to your calendar,” Killian mentions offhandedly while he leaves Robin’s office. This isn’t the first time Robin has scheduled to kill him for information he has on his superior. Killian’s sure it won’t be the last, either. 

As he leaves, Killian catches sight of the pictures on the wall. There’s a few scattered around his office, mostly of Robin’s adorable son Roland and his late wife. Marian passed just after Roland was born, making Robin’s decision to head up the American branch of NeverEndings Publishing House an easy one. The reason he’s stayed so long is also evident in the pictures of Regina Mills, the mayor of Storybrooke, scattered among the others. Regina was his “diamond in the rough” - the woman he never expected to meet and fall in love with shortly after he set up shop here. 

Along with pictures, there are paintings and his degrees, an antique wall clock that matches everything else, and a vintage bow and arrow hung behind the mahogany desk he nearly lives in some days. The whole thing feels like the den of some expensive cabin in the woods, but Killian knows for a fact that Robin put most of this together on the cheap. 

He passes his own little office again, noting the blank walls, the tidy desk, the single chair on the opposite side for small one-on-one meetings. He’s never really gotten around to decorating his work area. His degrees are still in one of the boxes in his flat, as are all the pictures of his friends and family from back home. 

There’s a single frame on his desk - just a picture of him and Liam at graduation that was packed into his luggage when he moved. Liam is beaming with pride while Killian looks like he’s about to bolt from the courtyard they had all gathered in after the ceremony. His left arm is tucked close by his side, and he knows for a fact it’s because he was trying to hide the prosthetic hook he wears from being in the pictures.

“So, why were you late today?” Will asks when they reach the doors and head outside.

“Alarm malfunctions,” Killian responds, as if there could be something besides human error to blame. Will just nods as they make the short trek down the street to Granny’s. Foolishly, Killian hopes to find his favorite deputy out patrolling or stopping for her own midday caffeine, but the only blonde in the diner is Ashley, the attentive but clumsy young server. 

Well, the only blonde woman. Dr. Whale, trying his best to flirt with Ruby, doesn’t count. 

“Have you heard anything I’ve said in the last three minutes?” Will asks, a touch of exasperation in his voice but humor lighting up his eyes. Instead of answering, Killian just pushes him forward to place his order. He pulls Killian up next to him and presents him to Ruby. “Tell Jones here that he has to come out with us on Friday.”

“The only thing I have to tell Jones is to place his damn order,” Ruby responds, her expression challenging Will in the way that only Ruby can. She looks back to Killian with a sweet smile. “You paying for all three?” He nods as he hands over the cash. Ruby winks at him, processing the change and handing it back before spinning from the register to make their drinks.

“Come on, mate. Come out this Friday.”

“I still have things I’m trying to unpack.”

“You’ve been saying you were going to unpack those things for the last three months.” He throws air quotes when he says “things” as if they’re fictitious items Killian invented for the sake of an excuse. He almost invites Will over to see what he’s talking about but feels like that would somehow turn into a standing invitation for his colleague to come over whenever he pleases.

“Yeah? And now I might mean it,” Killian retorts instead. Ruby places their drinks down on the counter before Will can press any further, and Killian spends an extra moment thanking the younger Lucas for exceptional service, as always.

“Kiss ass,” Ruby says as they gather their drinks and leave. There’s a smile on her face, though, and Killian knows that her days would be infinitely less exciting without him and Will pestering her at least once an afternoon. 

When they get back, Will takes Robin his coffee without having to be asked, which Killian is grateful for. But he’s barely seated in front of his computer again before Will is popping back up in his doorway.

“You’ve been summoned to the dungeons, mate.”

Killian drops his head for a second, trying to gather the energy to just… get up and go see if suddenly his benevolent boss has had a change in heart regarding his tardiness this morning. But Robin just waves him in and motions for him to sit down. 

“As you know, we originally hired you to be a junior editor to collaborate on projects.”

“Aye, that was the explanation I was given when I interviewed.”

“Well, we’ve gotten a new project that I’d like to see you take on. This isn’t quite a promotion, but it’s a test to see if I can trust you with something bigger than just standard edits to a pompous arse that doesn’t know his p’s from his q’s… literally.”

“I’m definitely interested. What is this project?”

“A young author has written a novella that twists fairy tales. It’s short but it’s deep, and I want your best on proofreading, but also on suggesting edits. He’ll be in to discuss the project at the end of this month, so keep working on your current progress until then. I’ll send all the files your way this weekend so you can start reviewing them whenever you’d like. Sound good?”

“Sounds excellent,” Killian says, genuine enthusiasm coloring his answer. “I look forward to it.”

Another disruption to the orderly life he’s been living, but honestly, this is almost as good as meeting Emma Swan. At least this feels like his disastrous start to October is no indication on how the rest of the month will go. 

-x- October 2: Wednesday

The next morning, Killian is back to his impeccable schedule, so he’s calm and collected when he strolls up to the crosswalk. Only minutes later, Emma walks up, eyes trained on her phone, earbuds playing music that she nods her head in time with. He takes a moment before she notices him to appreciate the view, to take in the dark jeans she likes to wear instead of a uniform, with black boots up to her knees. Her red leather jacket is half-zipped. Soon the weather is going to grow colder and he wonders if she’ll be warm enough on her walks.

She looks up, then, and smiles at Killian while he raises a hand in greeting. She hesitantly waves back, moving to stand next to him while they wait. 

“Good morning, Swan,” he greets just as the light changes and they start to cross. Her response is mumbled as she pulls the earbud from one ear.

“Have a good day, Jones,” she says, dipping her head as a parting gesture. There’s a smile pulling at his cheeks, and he turns to look at where he’s going instead of risking the possibility of running into something and ruining his mood.

For the rest of the week, they get to the crosswalk and he greets her. They part ways at the diner with her sending salutations before she walks up the path. In a way, it becomes a new routine for them. It’s one of the only changes to his days that he’s accepted as a normal progression instead of an uninvited intrusion.

On Friday, hours after his daily dose of Emma, he’s in the middle of the last chapter he has to edit when Will pops into his doorway in the afternoon. He goes to save the files and start the coffee routine, but Will enters the room fully and places two coffees and a bag with lunch on the corner of his desk.

“I hear you’ve got a bigger project coming up. Figured I’d be a good mate for once and encourage hard work instead of mucking around like we usually do on Fridays.”

The times that Will has been genuinely kind to him are definitely countable on his hand, so he’s almost afraid to ask if there’s a “but” included somewhere in there. However, Will just gives him a cheeky grin and heads right back out the door. 

When he’s made the final change and checked over the whole chapter again, it’s beyond the time that he normally leaves, even when he stays late. His eyes are burning and his stomach is growling again, but there’s a sense of victory when he sends the files back to Robin and shuts down his office for the weekend. 

He’s surprised to find Will on the couch in the reception area, asleep by the looks of it, and Killian is this tempted to leave him there because he knows exactly why his friend is still there. But the man brought him lunch and still owes him a beer for repayment of some good deed or another, so he knocks into one of Will’s shoes and snorts as he startles awake. 

“Come on, then. Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Damn right, you are.” Will’s response is groggy and expected.

Killian makes sure the building is locked up tight before they walk the few blocks over to The Rabbit Hole. He’d rather be in bed, or watching whatever his neglected Netflix queue has in store for him. While Will obviously went home and changed into something more casual, Killian is still stuck in his suit from work. It’ll have to do.

One drink, that’s all he’s promised, and then he’s going home to get the sleep he deserves and return to his normal order of events.

They’re barely through the door when he realizes his plan is going straight into the bin. There, in all her blonde glory, is Emma Swan. She’s parked near the end of the bar waiting for Jefferson to take her order. As he moves towards her, he hears Will greeting other acquaintances, but he’s too focused on getting to interact with Emma outside of their usual crosswalk that he doesn’t veer off course. 

“Fancy meeting you here, Swan,” he greets as he props up next to her. 

She jumps a little, clearly not expecting him to be there beside her, but regains her speech far easier than he would’ve if the situation were reversed.

“I’m sorry, you’re that figment of my imagination that only lives on Main Street. What are you doing here?”

He chuckles at her description of him and rubs behind his ear in a nervous gesture. Two more sentences and this will officially be the longest he’s ever spoken with Emma, and he’s enjoying it far more than he should.

“Out for a drink with my mate Will to celebrate a project ending.”

“Scarlet? See, I always thought you had better taste than that,” she says, a smirk on her face and her eyes shifting over Killian’s shoulder to where Will must’ve come up behind him. 

“Oy, just because I’m romancing your friend doesn’t mean you have to insult me.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it means,” Emma responds to him, but there’s lightness and sarcasm in the whole exchange. 

“Romancing? You mean you finally worked up the nerve to tell Belle you fancy her?”

“Like three weeks ago, mate. This is why I tell you to come out more often.” Will claps Killian on the shoulder with those words, accepting the beer that Jefferson deposits on the bar for him, and walking back to the large gathering of people in the middle of the room that Killian is just realizing are mostly people he knows.

“Not one for socializing very often?” Emma asks, following his line of sight and waving to her brother at the table. Killian swallows a little harder when David sizes him up, eyes scrutinizing the whole time. 

“Not as much as I used to. Will and I usually make our ventures out earlier in the evening and in the middle of the week when we do.”

“So is it the expat club or something? You and Will, Robin, Belle. I think Tink stops in and drinks with them every couple weeks or so, too.”

“Will and I work at NeverEndings with Robin. The rest is all just coincidence.”

She hums in consideration, sipping slowly from her drink. “There’s room at the table. Wanna come join us, too?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Is your brother going to murder me for speaking to you for longer than three and a half minutes?”

She glances back at David, who turns back to the group suddenly, clearly pretending he wasn’t watching them.

“Listen, he’s overprotective but he’s yet to kill anyone I had a conversation with. People I’ve dated, on the other hand…” she trails off, lifting her eyebrows to emphasize with a little shrug. 

He can’t help the laughter that erupts from him at that. She’s delightful. He could spend all his days having frivolous conversations with her and probably never grow tired of it.

“Come on, I promise he doesn’t bite unless you ask. Which is unfortunately more than I ever wanted to know but that’s what happens when you become best friends with your brother’s wife.”

“Thanks for sharing your pain with me. I hope it eases the burden of your knowledge,” he says low enough so only she can hear as he pulls out one of the remaining chairs for her. Her thank you is a quiet and pleased murmur, and he has to remind his heart to stop the constant drumroll so he can get through this evening with his dignity intact. He drops into the seat next to Emma and tries to bury the way his skin itches at the sudden change in his routine. 

A chorus of introductions goes around, with Emma giving names to random faces as she goes. He does know a majority of the people at the table, even if just by reputation. It’s nice to meet the kind schoolteacher that is David’s aforementioned wife, though he’s seen her in the library more than a handful of times since his arrival in town. 

“Everyone calls me Snow,” she explains after Emma calls her Mary Margaret. “Less syllables, more Disney Princess-ish.” When the topic shifts from greetings to the usual breakdown of everyone’s days, Killian seizes the moment no one is paying attention to them. 

“A Disney Princess that enjoys a little kink in the bedroom. Good to know,” Killian whispers in Emma’s ear, and her hushed laughter is music he wants to play again and again. 

When the conversation really starts flowing, he finds he’s less interested in drinking away his week and happier to engage with the people around the table. David still regards him with suspicion, but it probably helps that he doesn’t look like he’s trying to crawl into Emma’s knickers as the night continues on. He finished his singular beer ages ago but opts for water during his next trip up to the bar, along with food because Emma bursts out laughing when his stomach growls in the middle of her talking about a digital filing system they’re implementing. 

Emma nurses her one drink, and so he’s relieved to find her willingness to talk is due to genuine interest instead of alcohol’s influence. Of course, it may be because he’s supplying her in onion rings until she finally orders her own.

Their group slowly begins to break up, starting with the people who have someone home waiting on them. Then the couples start to leave, and Killian is pleasantly surprised when Emma all but shoves David out the door with Snow, insisting that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. 

They talk of all things small: she tells him about working law enforcement in a small town, and he shares his experiences in Storybrooke since moving. She asks about his job and actually listens when he starts talking. 

“What’s this then?” Killian asks when Emma pushes up her sleeves. 

She looks down at it, scoffing a little. “A dumb symbol of youth and rebellion,” she replies. “I got it when I was sixteen because James and I got in an argument about how perfectly behaved I was.”

“James?”

“Oh, David has a twin brother. You know how people joke about having an evil twin? David actually has one.”

“Your family is delightful,” he comments, wanting to reach out and touch the heavy lines of the flower on her wrist. “Why this?”

“Buttercups are my favorite flower.” He’s learned so many new things about her so very quickly, but he files this information away in the event he has a chance to use it.

It’s when their whole group has officially departed that they realize the rest of the establishment is similarly abandoned, with only Jefferson wiping down bottles behind the bar. 

“Sorry about that, mate. Time for us to clear out?”

“I was gonna wait until I was done cleaning to see if you even noticed the place was empty,” Jefferson responds when Killian sets the last few glasses on the counter. Emma is behind him at the table still, gathering the smattering of bottles and the rest of the stuff to be washed. “Been a while since I’ve seen her talk that much to anyone she didn’t grow up with,” the other man remarks, nodding his head towards Emma. 

“My favorite bartender back home would probably say the same of me,” Killian admits, placing a few extra bills on the bar as a tip and wandering back over to help Emma get the last of the dishes from his late dinner and her ridiculously large pile of onion rings, of which she ate every last one.

“Thanks Jeff. Have a safe trip home,” Emma tells him as she hands him the items.

As they start walking, he expects anything but for Emma to fall back into casual conversation with him about the moving process he went through. He takes it in stride as they slowly amble down the street and back to their crosswalk. 

“I’m this way,” Emma says, indicating the direction she normally arrives from in the mornings. 

“I know,” Killian responds, his tone soft and content. “It was lovely getting to meet you, Emma.”

He holds out his hand, giving hers a firm shake. Once upon a time he was a lad who could court a woman without blinking an eye. It’s that thought that has him turning her hand and bringing it to his lips, eyeing her playfully from beneath his lashes as he looks up at her. This small gesture feels so foreign, but he likes the way she’s giving him a puzzled little smile.

“Goodnight, Swan.”

“See you Monday, Jones,” she almost whispers as he releases her hand. 

They head off in their separate directions, with Killian gently brushing his lips in wonder. 

Routines be damned, this is much better than a casual wave in the mornings.

-x-

Chapter 2

[mygangtome]

who were they then, who are they now: richard armitage

My dearest, dearest tumblr user. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? I’ve tried time and again to persuade you to watch this glorious, bonkers, utterly compelling madhouse of a show, and despite my recommendations of yesteryear, you still haven’t been persuaded.

So I’m going to have to bring out the big nose guns.

HEY! ARE YOU IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING FANDOMS: THE HOBBIT, HANNIBAL, SPOOKS, CAPTAIN AMERICA?

DOES THIS FACE LOOK GOOD TO YOU?

pictured here: god he’s so dashing i hate him so muuhuhuhuch

Ladies, gents, and nonbinary friends, I present to you Richard Crispin Armitage. If you don’t know who he is, you probably haven’t been on Tumblr before.

who he was before?

pictured here: he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity

Back in the hazy, long-gone days of 2006, Richard Armitage already had a more substantial following than a lot of the Robin Hood cast. He’d been around a bit in stage and the small screen; he joined a circus in Budapest, played Macavity in Cats, stood by the side of a pool as eye candy in Cold Feet, gave a career-defining performance as Smug Man At Party in This Year’s Love, and even turned up as an extra in Star Wars.

pictured here: DIDN’T KNOW THAT, DID YOU, EH?

The sudden explosion of Richard into the public consciousness is primarily due to the BBC’s North and South in 2004, in which he played a brooding Northerner who primarily wears black and holds a position of power.

Then he got cast as Guy of Gisborne, a brooding Midlander who solely wears black and holds a position of power.

Typecasting? What’s that?

who was he then?

I’ve talked extensively for previous My Gang To Me days about Guy’s character, and his excellently melodramatic interactions with other characters on the show. He’s the big baddie in a show which needs one; the sneering, scowling foil to Robin’s optimistic heroism. But he’s also generous to a fault, obsessively loving, and full of thwarted ambitions. No other character divides the fandom more - is he a misunderstood good guy or an overindulged crybaby? Are he and Marion meant to be or an abusive relationship? Does he deserve a redemption arc? I DON’T KNOW, I’M NOT THE BOSS OF ROBIN HOOD, STOP ASKING ME ALL THESE QUESTIONS.

pictured here: there’s no such thing as too much eyeliner

Two years ago, I wrote the following about Guy, and it holds true:

More often than not we end our hijinks with an exasperated shout of “GISSSSBORRRRRRNE!” echoing through the castle and a shot of Guy slinking off to explain how he got foiled this week… Despite being a handsome devil, he is so deliciously dislikeable in a proper, old-school, tying-people-to-the-railroad tracks kind of way. And I’ll be honest, it’s worth watching the show just for a demonstration of how Armitage is able to smoulder with all parts of his body up to and including his back.

Where the Sheriff revels in his own villainy, Guy never thinks of himself as anything but The Hero Of This Story, and is all the more gloriously villainous for it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the show is well aware of the fact that Richard looks nice without a shirt on.

pictured here: how many times can i use this screencap before it become gratuitous

Admittedly, my particular preference is for bearded-and-soulful-Armitage (more on that later on) but you know, any Armitage is good Armitage.

richard on guy

The Thing You Probably Know Already About Richard Armitage is that he is a ~method actor, which means that he takes all his roles Very Seriously. He wrote a diary for Thorin. He underwent waterboarding in order to get in character for his role as Lucas North in Spooks. He got extremely into William Blake for Dolarhyde. And, believe it or not, he also got very emotionally attached to Guy.

Today, [Richard] knocks on [series writer Dominic Minghella’s] door with a pencil and pad. Can he ask me some questions about his character? I tell him, truthfully, that I can’t believe he is here - an actor of his talent, sitting on my sofa, talking to me about playing this part. I feel so lucky. Suddenly, I stop myself - do I destroy what little (gamma-male) authority I have by being so candid? I glance at him. My concerns are unfounded. He is blushing. 

source: interview in sunday telegraph, october 2006

pictured here: richard cosplaying as 80s investment banking!au guy of gisborne

I can’t even be mad at this point. 

His own opinions on Guy are about as complicated as the fandom’s.

“I’m really hoping that when people sit and watch this, when Gisborne is trying to woo Marian they absolutely squirm in their seats and their skin is crawling. That was my main aim with this character, to make people absolutely despise him.” 

source: interview on bbc robin hood website, october 2006 

“His love for Marian is something which is beginning to unravel him and he’s becoming more human through her. It’s actually surprising him. I don’t think he quite realises what’s happening to him - he’s becoming human throughout the course of the series, I think.” 

source: interview on robin hood audiobook, “will you tolerate this?”

who did he become?

pictured here: i’ve never seen spooks so i can’t comment but OOH, DASHING

After Robin Hood, Richard officially became a Household Name when he joined the cast of Spooks as Lucas North, a series regular. Technically he started filming it whilst finishing off Robin Hood, which must have been an experience.

He stayed with Spooks for three years, becoming That Guy Off Spooks With The Face, You Know The One, and also turned his hand to a few other television and film roles over the years. 

He warmed the cockles of our collective hearts when he turned up as Dawn French’s love interest and future husband Harry Kennedy in The Vicar of Dibley. Bit of a jump for him, this one, as it’s a handsome and charming accountant, rather than a handsome and charming spy. Still, he rose to the occasion masterfully, and also got to snog Dawn French, so he won on multiple accounts.

In 2011, he turned up as the bespectacled Nazi spy Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger. He got to have a secret submarine and run around with tommy guns. One time Chris Evans punched him in the face. It was awesome.

And then Thorin happened.

pictured here: majesty~

I will keep this brief, because if I talk too much about Thorin Oakenshield I’ll burst into tears, but it was the role that changed his life.

“I just think it’s a really amazing opportunity to take a character from a book that I was brought to as a child. My first experience on stage was in a production of The Hobbit at the Alex Theatre in Birmingham, and I played an elf.  And Gollum was a papier-mache puppet with a man offstage on a microphone. It’s been in my childhood very prominently, so to come to it as an adult,  a middle-aged man, and have another look at it is a brilliant opportunity." 

source: ‘the hobbit’ cast press conference, february 2011

Yes, that’s right, Richard Armitage is a Tolkien nerd. He wore elf ears made from cereal boxes to see the Two Towers in cinemas (he was thirty years old at the time).  And in 2012 he first graced our screens as Thorin, the proud and noble long-lost king of Erebor and a significant change of pace for a man who had developed a career as shifty, morally-dubious hired killers. 

He developed a reputation on set for being “moody and broody” (his words, not mine), due to all that method acting stuff that kept him fretting about the fate of the dwarven race when everyone else was fretting about lunch, but his performance was hailed as one of the best in the trilogy and - of course - it absolutely transformed his career.

who is he now?

Good question, and really one for Richard himself, or his doctor or his therapist or maybe a priest, but we’ll take a stab at it anyway.

After The Hobbit, Richard took a break from the massive media scrutiny and did what all British actors do when they’re scared, which is be in a play. In his case, the play was The Crucible at the Old Vic (I saw it, it was INCREDIBLE) and it earned him an Olivier nomination.

pictured here: bad timez 4 johnny p

He bounced from that into a couple of movies that you are, on the whole, unlikely to have seen - disaster movie Into The Storm, social drama Urban and the Shed Crew, bizarre fantasy Alice Through The Looking Glass…

But his most iconic role of late has been in Hannibal, as serial-killer-with-a-heart-of-gold-actually-no-wait-he-murders-people Francis Dolarhyde. He joined Hannibal for the last explosive season, and seems to have had a lot of fun killing people and wearing flower crowns and… I don’t know, I don’t go here, I’m doing my best.

pictured here: @nettlestonenell challenged me to fit at least one additional shirtless shot into this post, so here’s naked dolarhyde doing something that’s probably evil

It seems to have gone down well with the fans. And things are only looking up for our boy, who’s filming season two of his spy thriller Berlin Station as we speak. He’s based in London these days - still famously private about his private life, but happy to chat on twitter and instagram - just finished performing in his off-Broadway debut in Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love, earning rave reviews, and he’s got several movies coming up.

my gang, to me!

Have I persuaded you yet that you want to get to know the man who was Guy of Gisborne? Well, you’re in luck - the boy’s been busy. You might see him on the big screen this year in Pilgrimage, or Ocean’s Eight, or Brain on Fire. He’s aging well, like a fine wine, and you only have to poke a toe into his tumblr tag to find that his ‘army’ of fans are as passionate now as they were when Guy first slithered onto our screens, eleven years ago today.

pictured here: then & now

I think he might actually be aging in reverse.

Of course, if you want to see more of Richard, there’s one surefire way to do it - and it’s the reason I made this post. Come along and join the gang in Sherwood, and get to know Guy for yourself! Buy some DVDs, or fire up a stream, and settle down with a couple of glorious episodes of the friendliest, loveliest show in television - BBC Robin Hood. 

No matter how famous he gets, to us, he’ll always be Guy. And we wouldn’t have him any other way.

Sorry, guys. We saw him first.

-

post by @interestinggin / with thanks to richardarmitage.net & richardarmitageonline.com

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Reverse Robins AU: 39

Superboy Prime bullshit happens which breaks the universe, and Steph (17) comes back to life. She wanders the streets of Gotham, operating on VERY little brain activity for a few months before Cluemaster finds her and secretly holds her for a month or so while he tries to figure out what the hell he’s supposed to do with his resurrected completely-out-of-it daughter. Eventually, one of the LOA agents in Gotham discovers Steph’s existence and alerts Talia to her presence. Talia kills Cluemaster and takes Steph for herself with the intention of training her to take down Batman for refusing to return her son. Steph gets Lazarus Pitted after ~five months of being with the League, as Talia was trying other methods to break her out of the comatose state first. Steph, unfortunately, has a far worse reaction to the Lazarus Pit than Jason and is pretty much Completely Insane, far more so than Jason in the canon timeline. 

In the meantime, in Gotham, Duke (21) has tried to reach out to Bruce a few times, only to be met with a wall of repressed emotions and anger. He and Damian (22) respond to that by retreating even further from Batman into Blüdhaven and more or less cut contact completely. Damian stops responding to Justice League calls, and Duke only goes on JL missions that are guaranteed to not involve Batman. Tim (16) spends almost all of his time doing Oracle work, dropping out of Gotham Academy and enrolling in online high school (and college) courses. He and Cass (15) communicate frequently, but he only speaks with Batman when it’s absolutely necessary to the mission. Cass is doing her best to hold on to Bruce, but he is, in turn, doing his best to push her away. Mia (22) is minding her own business completely unaffiliated with the Bats and working as a magical consultant to the Justice League and Young Justice whenever the other magic users are being too annoying/temporarily dead for contact. Congrats to her for distancing herself from the Bats before they could irreparably fuck her up psychologically, she's doing great for herself!

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i was looking through your rr au (completely adore it btw) and i had a question about how dick managed to end up in bludhaven? did the circus perform there instead of gotham or did he just end up there by happenstance?

oh hey thank you so much!! i feel bad when people tell me they still read my RR AU because I've forgotten to update it for MONTHS. To answer your question, Dick ended up in Blüdhaven because that's where Haley's Circus was performing.He'll get to Gotham EVENTUALLY but it'll take him a while :)

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Reverse Robins AU: 38

Masterpost

After 11 years of being Jokerized, Duke’s (20) parents die. Instead of handling his grief like a normal, well-adjusted person, he cuts contact with everyone except Damian (21) and fucks off to Blüdhaven as Flamebird. Bruce has a MiniBreakdown because for the most part none of his kids have done this to him, disregarding the time Damian disappeared for two months, founded the Teen Titans, and then reappeared after flawlessly establishing the first kid superhero team at the age of fourteen. Duke isn’t like, angry at anyone in the Batfam, he just has a hardcore identity crisis that lasts from his parent’s death to their funeral and then dips the second the funeral is done to go to Blüdhaven.

A few months after Duke disappeared to the sister city, Tim (15) and Steph (16) are benched together in the Cave because they were unprepared and got cornered by Black Mask and his gang and got injured, Tim moreso than Steph due to his having less training than her. Although Bruce took her Spoiler outfit, Steph still has her og DIY Spoiler costume stashed at Tim’s house, along with their original communications equipment. Steph sneaks out to again confront Black Mask, this time on purpose, with the intention of taking revenge for hurting Tim so badly (he’s unable to leave the bed for fear of injuring himself irreparably) and to put him back in Blackgate. Tim stays in his cot to be the voice in Steph’s ear. This means he gets the dubious privilege of getting to hear as she gets overwhelmed and captured by Black Mask. Tim tries to get out of bed so he can reach the Batcomputer to contact the rest of the Bats, who are scattered throughout the city trying to wrangle the gang war that’s started to break out since the Spoilers stumbled in on Black Mask a few days prior. He doesn’t make it further than a step out of the cot before twisting his spine and falling unconscious on the floor. Alfred finds him there twenty minutes later, with Steph still screaming for help as she’s tortured in the comm in Tim’s ear. Alfred sends the Bats out looking for Steph and gets Tim back in the cot, and Tim comes back to consciousness in time to hear Steph die (woo!).

Over the next few days, Damian calls Duke back to Gotham (he had refused to return for months) and the Bats tear Gotham apart looking for Black Mask. Shadow and Batgirl (13) together are the first to track him down. Damian is fully about to kill him when Cass stops him. Cass makes Damian take Steph’s days-dead body away and deals with Black Mask herself. By the time Bruce and Duke arrive she’s incapacitated him and is only waiting for transportation to get him to Blackgate. 

In the following weeks, Damian, Bruce, and Cass get into a huge argument about, again, the morality of targeted murder. Damian fucks off to Blüdhaven with Duke to become Nightwing and the pair cut all contact with the Bats. Tim paralyzed himself in his attempt to call for help and Bruce refuses to let him keep working with him in the Batcave, so Tim rebrands as Oracle and eventually joins Cassie Sandsmark’s Young Justice team as a remote member for any tech/detective support. He also provides the team with a home base in the form of Drake Manor whenever his parents are gone. Tim isn’t officially affiliated with Batman but, after a cooldown period from Bruce’s kicking him out, occasionally assists the Bats with cases. He also reaches out to Mia/Maps, who has been making a name for herself in the magic community. Mia has been mostly out of contact since she first disappeared six years ago, but is happy to reconnect with Damian and Duke via Tim (who has declared himself neutral in the conflict between the Gotham and Blüdhaven duos). Mia becomes Tim’s contact for any and all magic bullshit Young Justice deals with (Bruce is on his own in regards to Gotham magic bullshit). Cass changes her name to Black Bat and becomes Bruce’s only partner on the streets. Bruce starts getting more violent and patrols separately from Cass more often than not. Everyone blames themselves for Steph’s death, wahoo! 

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Something I've noticed about my Reverse Robins AU (which i haven't updated in. uh. months. whoops) is that Bruce almost becomes a worse father as he goes instead of better. And this was unintentional but I think it does reflect the reverse part of the reverse robins au. In canon, Bruce does a pretty good job at the parenting thing, then he has a Spiral of Doom after Jason's death and he's only really starting to claw his way back up to Good Parent instead of "that guy who trains us sometimes".

Unfortunately for him, Bruce gets to start from Good Parent and then he gets five kids' worth of bad parenting he has to go through before he can start redeeming himself by being a Good Grandpa to Dick. He's just. so fucked up that his kids don't even let him be a parent anymore. Somebody noticed (and I hadn't even, although I was the one who wrote the damn thing) that both Jason and Dick are third-gen Batkids. Jason is basically raised by Tim and Cass (and partially Young Justice) until Bruce adopts him for legal but not emotional reasons. Duke and Damian straight up don't tell anybody they have Dick for MONTHS because they don't trust their family with him. Jesus Christ Bruce, why are you like this (I did this to you, sorry dude)

It takes Bruce getting slammed over the head with a forceful self-introspection via dimension travel to get his shit together. You are so messed up, Bruce. Your entire family is so messed up. I am very sorry.

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Reverse Robins: 36

Masterpost

Tim (13) has been going out at night to follow Batman for a few months now. Having observed the past two kids who did the same (Duke and Mia), he manages to stay out of sight of Batman, content to observe and not interfere. He runs into Steph (14), who went out as Spoiler in an attempt to get Batman’s both attention and help in taking down her father. She runs into Tim while they're both attempting to track down Batman, smacks him with a brick, and panics + drags him back to her house because she knows if she leaves him out by himself then someone is going to get him. Tim wakes up to the tender care of a fourteen-year-old with no medical experience and an ice pack, gets yelled at by Steph, and yells back at Steph. Thus is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The pair makes Tim’s house their base and try to work together to take down Cluemaster without the help of the Bats, with Steph as Spoiler and Tim as the voice in her ear. Early on, Steph gets caught by Duke (18) and Damian (19), who interrogate her as to who she is. Tim tells her their identities so she can try to blackmail them into letting her go. They instead take her back to the Batcave to determine what the fuck they’re supposed to do about this rogue fourteen-year-old who knows their identities. 

    Tim storms the Batcave, pursued by Alfred. He also gets tied up while Damian and Duke try to call Bruce and Cass (12) to figure out what the hell they do with these random fucking kids. Alfred recognizes Tim as their neighbor's kid and asks him why he is not with his parents on their trip. Tim is like “why would I be with my parents”. Bruce and Cass get back in and Tim and Steph explain everything. They demand that they be let go so they can go take out Cluemaster. Bruce is down with this because he does Not want more kids to deal with. His assorted kids and dad are all like Uh Fuck That and refuse to let him drop these kids back off on the streets of Gotham to try and take down a low-level villain. Tim and Steph are more than happy with being released to do their own thing, but Duke/Damian/Cass convince Bruce to teach Tim and Steph crime fighting. Tim typically stays behind in the cave as tech support, and, once Cluemaster has been re-imprisoned, Steph joins the posse of costumed children that follow Batman around. Tim gets a bit of fighting training and occasionally goes out with Steph as Spoiler #2 if they just want to dick around Gotham for a night or if there’s an all-hand-on-deck situation.

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Reverse Robins AU: 31

Masterpost

The Joker, once again, escapes Arkham with the help of Harley Quinn. Batman (31) and Batgirl (14) split up with Signal and Shadow- the Bats to go after the Joker and the boys to go after Harley. Turns out that they were being misdirected- Duke (13) and Damian (14) run right into the Joker’s trap. They get stuck in cages with a pot of boiling acid hanging over them, because Gotham. Duke starts freaking out, because he is still traumatized by his parent’s attack four years prior. Damian, while the Joker is distracted with traumatizing Duke further, breaks out of his cage and goes for the throat. Damian, happily, murders the Joker right then and there. He then gets Duke out of his cage and the two of them just kinda sit on the floor while Duke has an even worse panic attack and Damian awkwardly tries to comfort him. Patting his back with his arm straight out and saying “there, there” unironically. Bruce and Mia, having realized what was going on as soon as they found Harley and not the Joker at their location, burst in to the warehouse to find that the boys are fine (relatively), the trap is disabled, and also the Joker is Fucking Dead Oh My God Mia Don’t Look. Everyone gets dragged back to the Cave very quickly while Bruce tries to work out “this person has murdered another person against my direct ‘no killing’ orders” versus “thats my SON” versus “it’s the joker and Duke no longer has to live in fear of him anymore”. Nothing gets resolved anytime soon. Everybody is having a Bad Time 

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Reverse Robins AU: 29

Masterpost

Duke (11), Bruce (29), and Mia (12) more or less have an established Thing going on for them. Duke is Signal and Mia is starting to show up less and less in the Cave, as Bruce’s databases have proven to be not comprehensive enough for her interests. She starts interacting in person with Gotham’s occult circles directly, with the codename Maps. Bruce, having kinda learned his lesson about trying to stop very stubborn children, tries his best to teach her how to stay safe when interacting with those kids of people, disregarding the fact that A) Gotham, B) she is twelve, C) she is female, and D) Gotham. Duke throws Mia a mini-party when she shows up in the Cave one day and triumphantly announces that she broke a grown man’s arm when he was trying to kidnap her and figured out a rough location of the portal to Hell under Gotham, at the same time, all by herself.

    Talia (30) appears in Gotham with Damian (12). Bruce tracks her down, and Talia more or less throws Damian at Bruce, says something like “the one who is all has deserted, war is brewing, oh yeah this is our kid, he is SO not safe anymore, looks like the one you adopted hasn’t died yet (unfortunate), but that means you are clearly capable of keeping children safe, yours now, gotta go before anyone follows me here, bye”, and dips. Bruce is left to figure out what the hell to do with this son he apparently has. He is 100% sure this is not actually his son, as he and Talia never had sex. The paternity test and every single other subsequent genetic test says otherwise.

    Damian spends the first four months (ish) of living at the Manor trying to murder Duke, who goes from avoiding the murder child, to fighting back against the murder child, to trying to murder Damian back (“he started it!”). Bruce sits them both down and has the whole “Batman doesn’t kill, who are we to play judge jury and executioner, if you start then you will never stop killing” speech. Duke goes “but i’m not Batman, so i can do what I want”. Damian goes “but I’ve already killed people??” and starts panicking. Bruce also starts panicking, because at the age of almost 30 he has STILL not figured out how to deal with children. Eventually Alfred comes in and mediates everything and gets everything all sorted out. Damian promises to stop trying to kill Duke. Duke is a little shit about it and makes him apologize, at which point Damian again tries to kill Duke. Bruce sighs very deeply and takes an Advil about it. He makes Damian and Duke call a cease-fire for the night so he can go Batman alone. Mia pops up again (he is certain she has a tracker on him but cannot find it) and declared that she FINALLY found the exact location of the portal to hell under Gotham, wanna come see? Bruce goes back home and makes Alfred pinky promise him to never let him adopt any more children.

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Reverse Robins AU: 27

Masterpost

At the age of nine, Duke Thomas’ parents get hit with Joker gas, and Duke starts kicking up shit in every single orphanage, foster home, and school group he’s placed with, trying to rally people to help him take down the Joker. This gets the attention of Batman, who has not learned his lesson about approaching nine-year-olds with pertinent information about ongoing cases. Duke, of course, immediately latches onto Batman and refuses to let him go off and take out the Joker on his own. At some point in this two-week-long confusion fest (that ends with the Joker in Arkham), Bruce winds up gaining custody of Duke while his parents “recover” in the hospital. Bruce doesn’t know how this happened. Duke doesn’t really know how this happened, but he’s nine so he has an excuse. Alfred refuses to talk about it. 

    Within a month of Duke’s guardianship being established, Duke is running around with Batman as Signal. Mia (10), who has still periodically been popping up to harass Batman for training and to provide him with ill-gotten occult information in exchange for training, goes “wait, how come he let YOU do that?” and decides she no longer is waiting for Batman’s help and hits the streets as Batgirl. Bruce Freaks Out, takes her to the cave, gives her a Stern Talking To, and promises to give her detective training as long as she doesn’t go out fighting crime without any experience, holy shit are you trying to kill yourself? (Nobody ever said Bruce was good with children.) Mia typically only comes by the Cave once or twice a week, where Bruce teaches her about detectiveing. She occasionally goes out as Batgirl, especially when there’s an all-hands-on-deck crisis, but vastly prefers doing research in the cave on Gotham and America as a whole’s Supernatural Bullshit. 

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Reverse Robins 2.0 Masterpost and Timeline

I'll be updating the timeline as I post more outlines, by the time I finish the outline the entire timeline should be out!

The timeline starts in the year 2000 for simplicity's sake, the actual date doesn't really matter. 2000 is the year Bruce is born, and his age will precede each entry in the outline.

~15: Bruce and Talia

23: Bruce starts Batmanning

26: Mia

27: Duke

29: Damian

31: Joker gets got lol

32: Cass

36: Tim and Steph

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Reverse Robins: 32

Masterpost

Damian (15) and Duke (14) have progressed past their mutual murder attempts and work together as Batman’s partners, Signal and Shadow. By complete coincidence, the two have made a light-dark theme pairing out of their costumes, which they refuse to acknowledge whenever Mia (15) brings it up. In the years since Damian arrived in Gotham, the trio had also adopted Colin into their group, when they all teamed up behind Batman’s back to take down a children’s fighting ring. Colin rarely comes out as Abuse, instead trying to go back to a normal life, but he still hangs out with Duke, Mia, and Damian at Gotham Academy.

Ever since Talia dropped Damian off with him, Bruce has been hearing rumors about a civil war brewing within the League. He and Damian, while patrolling together, run into Cass (8), who is in the process of both being kidnapped and also kicking her kidnapper’s assess. Damian recognizes Cass’s style as League-trained, but Cass also recognizes Damian’s movements as League-trained and books it. She doesn’t leave Gotham though, and over the next few months she keeps showing up randomly, only when Batman is alone, and never really doing anything, just watching him and disappearing when he gets too close. At the same time, Bruce learns for sure that there is a Wholeass War Going On in the League, allegedly started by The One Who Is All deserting the League, causing followers of Ra’s al Ghul to turn on David Cain. Cain then started calling in favors and allies to fight against Ra’s, and within a year nearly the entire assassin community was embroiled in a conflict nobody was totally sure why they were fighting, WW1-style. 

Bruce finally manages to start a pantomime communication with Cass, where he learns that she is running from someone dangerous, is yes-no scared of the dangerous person, and trusts him (Bruce) for some non-pantomimable reason. She eventually agrees to come back to the Cave with Bruce. Damian Loses His Mind when he realizes who Cass is, and together Damian, Bruce, Duke, and Mia, with additions from Cass, manage to piece together what exactly is going on with the aforementioned war that Bruce had only been kinda sure was even happening. Because of the communication barrier (that Cass may or not be playing up to get what she wants), Cass joined the trio on the streets within a week, and was adopted within a month. The League immediately takes notice of this and approximately 200 assassins of differing factions within the League all descend upon Gotham and start fighting each other, their own factions, and Batman and Co. By the time the dust settles, Talia has made an appearance personally in Gotham. She and Damain get into a blow-up fight about her leaving him with Bruce all those years ago, Damian has another morality crisis (to kill or not to kill, that is the question), and Talia and him part with a new, if not better, relationship. They learn that Cass made her first kill three years ago and immediately ran away from David Cain, which is what started this whole mess in the first place. Mia starts calling Cass “Batgirl”, as a throwback to her first alias back when she was in elementary school and still doing her best to annoy Batman into training her. Also, while the gazillion assassins were in Gotham, Maps met a magic specialist who took interest in her near-encyclopedic knowledge of occult theory and offered to train her in the practice. Mia accepted and leaves Gotham to train with no warning to anyone but the Bats, so congrats to her for becoming another cold case in a long history of Gotham cold cases, this is what ten-year-old Mia would have wanted. 

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Reverse Robins AU: Year 26

While searching Gotham Academy (I’m assuming it's a K-12 school) for an alleged magic user late at night, Bruce (26) stumbles across Mia Mizoguchi (9), who had stayed late after an Unofficial Detective Club Meeting. Mia immediately realizes that Batman is here because of the suspicious incidents happening around the school. She tells Batman that if he wants the evidence the Club has already collected, he has to let her work with him for the night. He agrees to her terms, and every night after she follows him around the school whether he likes it or not. He does try to lose her. He does not succeed. By the end of the week, the pair has successfully trapped and exorcized the low-level demon that popped up in Gotham Academy, because Gotham. 

    Mia then proceeds to, very enthusiastically, point out how they worked so well together and attempts to convince Batman to train her. He refuses and fucks off into the night, and proceeds to get chased around Gotham semi-weekly by a nine-year-old with a new obsession with the occult and cartography. Good for him!

Masterpost

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Rewriting my Reverse Robins AU instead of working on my ten other WIPS, stand by.