#my ideal jason doesn't exist

[oifaaa]

So question, sorry if youve answered this before I haven't seen it in your FAQ. Ive been reading through some Jason centered comics but want to know which ones you think capture his character best. It seems like you have strong opinions on his character and I'd like to see which comics of his best represent him!

depends which Jason we're talking about but if we're focusing on red hood Jason I prefer when he's written by Winnick so that's mostly under the red hood and losts days and then not all but some of batman and robin (I can't remember off the top of my head if it's 2009 or the 2011 run but one of those two)

[amomentsescape]

hello! Are you ok?, I hope so ❤️ (by the way, your writing is wonderful)

I would like to make a request for Yandere Slashers with an S/O who is a mermaid, who usually kills people who dare to invade her lakes, and she kills these people by drowning.

(I'm sorry if there are any writing errors, English is not my first language, and I'm writing this using Google translate)

Slashers with Mermaid! Reader

Yandere! Slashers x Reader

Includes: Freddy, Michael, Jason, Thomas, Bubba, Brahms, Norman, Billy, Stu, Vincent, & Bo

A/N: I'm doing good, thank you <3 I hope you enjoy! (Also, I decided I'm going to remove Lester from the Slasher requests. I'm still very much open to writing for him when specified, but I feel like he doesn't quite fit in with all the other Slashers).

Freddy Krueger

Meeting you was quite literally the best thing to ever happen in his undead life

He likes to team up with you, constantly coming up with different ways you both can contribute to someone's death

You pull them under, and they suddenly wake up in Freddy's world

Your dynamic is pretty ideal too

Whenever you sleep, you can visit him

And he has no issues with popping into your waters just to say hi

He does this quite often, in fact

He is very aware you can take care of yourself, but he still gets worried

You're his

He doesn't trust anyone being around you

Even if your only intention is to kill them immediately

He understands that where you are now is your home, but that won't stop him from doing whatever he can to have you live in his world

He can create the perfect environment for you

Miles and miles of nothing but water if your heart desires

Which hopefully it does

Since he isn't willing to wait much longer

Michael Myers

He never thought creatures like you actually existed

But the moment he saw your strength and darkness, he was immediately drawn in against his better judgment

He visits more often then you think

He's always around, watching

You can feel eyes on you almost 90% of the day, but you never really know where it's coming from

He enjoys watching you swim and just relax

But he especially loves seeing you drag poor souls into the tide with you

There's something so twisted and yet magical about watching you kill

But this fascination is also paired with extreme jealousy

He hates seeing you touch other people

And he almost envies the way they get to be so close to you, even if it means their demise

He hopes to find a way to take you home with him for good one of these times

You told him you loved him, so you'd be happy as long as you're by his side

Right?

Jason Voorhees

Out of all places to meet the love of your life, this one seemed especially unfortunate for Jason

But his feelings for you were strong enough to overrule his fear

He'll sit by the shore with you, hearing you talk and sing old tunes he's never heard before

He loves listening to your stories about the world underneath the current

But this always leaves him with such a deep feeling of sadness

He wants a life where you both can live together and share those memories

But he knows that's nearly impossible

He starts spending more time by the water side than the camp, finding that irresponsible teens like to be by the beach even more than the forest

You lure them in with your beauty and your words, and Jason finishes the job

He'll let you kill too if you really wish to, but he doesn't like the idea of those types of people being so close to you

He barely gets to touch you, so why should they get what he so desperately wants instead?

Thomas Hewitt

In this desert like area of Texas, Thomas has to travel quite far to see you

But the one time he accidentally stumbled upon you, he was smitten

And you surprisingly didn't turn him into another victim like all the others

He was kind to you

And now, he brings you food and stops by as often as he possibly can

You've made him little necklaces out of bones and shells

He wears every single one of them

Your bond only gets stronger each time he comes to see you

But Thomas can only take so much

Why can't you be closer?

He knows the family would love you

And he could make you so happy

His bathtub is big enough for you, he's sure of it

He knows that you won't want to leave your own home for his, but he loves you and knows what will be best for you

He's just got to be patient

Bubba Sawyer

His own family had to go on a search for him after he disappeared for a couple days

But he just couldn't help it

You make him so happy, and the more time he spent with you, the more difficult it became to leave your side

He's tried to jump in a few times to be with you, but you always persuade him out of it

He doesn't know how to swim, and you don't want him to end up like everyone else

That's when he decided that the best option would be to create your very own pond in his backyard!

That way, you could be with each other, and he would never have to say goodbye again

He hasn't told you this idea yet, but he's sure you'd be happy with it

This would also keep you from needing to kill anyone else

You're too beautiful to get your hands dirty

And it's unfair that they get to join you in the water when you won't let him do the same

He can make you super happy with his family, he's sure of it

Brahms Heelshire

He hates this dynamic between you two

He wants you at home with him so you can take care of him, and he can keep you away from everyone else

No one should get to touch you or look at you besides him

He's actually tried to drag you out of the water before, but the prospect of accidentally killing you was enough to make him stop

He never knew he could envy a body of water as much as he does

It gets to hold you, touch you, and be with you at all times

He wants that too, so desperately

Because of you, he's gone from house dweller to nature enthusiast in just a matter of days

Even when you think he's at home, he's stalking around, watching you

He insists it's to keep you safe

In fact, you haven't had to drown anyone in quite a while

And you can thank Brahms for that

The moment he sees a single soul in the area, he drags them off and disposes of them before you even have a chance to see them

He wouldn't dare let you touch another being that isn't him

Norman Bates

It honestly took him a really long time to believe that you were even real

He didn't think mermaids or sirens actually existed, so seeing you for the first time made him pinch himself to make sure this wasn't some weird dream

He also took a while to trust you since he didn't want to fall victim to your treacherous waters

But once he realized you were genuine, he dove straight in all at once

He visits you whenever he can for however long he can muster

Someone needs to run the motel, but God he wishes he could be with you 24/7

He's "jokingly" brought up the idea of you staying at the motel in a pool he could install for you

He just wants to keep an eye on you at all times

He constantly dreams of finding a way to make you human so you two can truly be together

Until you have two feet like him, it will never be enough

Billy Loomis

Doesn't tell a single soul about you

Not even Stu

And it's not because he's embarrassed or wants to see other people

He's honestly just scared that others will either think he's insane or try to capture you

Visits you every day and makes sure to pack his swim trunks so he can join you in the water

Constantly admires you and wants to run his hands along your scales

He just thinks you're all around incredible

But he has this hidden level of anger towards the situation

He wants to walk around town with you, show you off

He wants you to join him on his sprees so you can see just how powerful he can be

And he hates the idea of not having eyes on you at all times

He knows you kill anyone who isn't him, but he doesn't want you getting that close to anyone in general

He spends his nights studying ways to get you to live with him

He'll find a way to have you all to himself, even if it ends up being the death of him

Stu Macher

He actually first met you while you were seducing some poor soul to their death

And Stu was immediately enamored

He comes to see you whenever he can

He sometimes spends the weekend camping out along the shore just so he can spend more time with you

He thinks you're beautiful of course, but he can't help but fantasize what it would be like if you were human like him

You two come from very different worlds, but there's nothing that could keep you away from him

He likes to bring up the idea of mermaids and mythical creatures in casual conversations with people

How they react to it will determine whether they make his hit list

He likes to bring you jewelry and pretty objects from his victims, showing you items that you've never seen before

He talks about how one of these days, he's going to have a house built on the shore so he can be with you

And if you argue against it, he will shut down

The pent up frustration of not getting to sleep next to you every night makes his killings more brutal and his fantasies all the more darker

Vincent Sinclair

Every time he comes to see you, he brings a new portrait or wax figure of you that he made

You flood his dreams and his mind 24/7

He honestly thinks he's under some sort of spell

He doesn't mind that you aren't human like him

He's always felt very different from everyone else, so it's nice for him to have someone he relates to

But his jealousy constantly gets the better of him

Anytime you tell him of some poor soul you drowned, he can't help but feel his blood boil

Even if it ends in their death, he hates the idea of you flirting or seducing these people

The only one who should be receiving that attention is him

Barely sleeps at night

He has snuck to the shore countless time without your knowledge, just watching you and making sure your stories line up with what he observes

Is overall obsessed even more than you know

Bo Sinclair

If anyone saw you together, it would be enough to make them blush

The way you two can constantly flirt back and forth without any hesitation is otherworldly

You could have sworn he must have been a creature like you in a past life

He's so touchy when he's with you, not afraid to get his clothes wet in an effort to just be closer to you

He truly makes you feel accepted as you are and with where you live

But little do you know of his darker nature

He stalks the shore and kills off anyone that trespasses before you even have a chance to get to them

He doesn't need you looking at anyone but him

And he's already been renovating an old abandoned pool in Ambrose for you

You're going to finally be living with him like he's always wanted

You don't know this yet, but he's sure you'll be happy with the idea

It will be a great surprise

[tumblingxelian]

I was reading a post by @casscainmainly earlier & my brain went on a tangent regarding the "who is Bruce's favorite" thing. & no this is not gonna be a wholesome "Bat-dad doesn't have favorites" post, this is a "Bruce is too messed up to have the kind of coherent beliefs, feelings and focus for that kind of behavior.

This is not a man with a stable & consistent mood, this is a man who argues with his cowl in the basement while he has company over.

Anyway, I will address this in order of appearances so:

Dick is the "Favorite" in the sense he is in Bruce's eyes a Bruce who managed to cope healthily with his trauma, grow up, move on and be happy as well as a hero.

On some days, this inspires Bruce, and is what makes him feel Dick is better than he could ever be. On other days, this is why Dick could never measure up to him, why he lacks the iron will, the drive, the focus, to be the best he could be.

Jason is or was the "Favorite" in the sense that he was the one Bruce went in on eyes wide open, that's his son, no complexity or ambiguity about it like with Dick or Alfred, they are family.

How well he did is up in the air, but he was trying, which is why Jason dying was basically his parents all over again but now its a parent losing a child not child losing parents. He can't handle it so he consigns Jason to a pre-made tragedy rooted in criminality.

Tim is the "Favorite" in the sense he is the one Bruce sees the most of Bruce in, IE, dark haired, blue eyed, rich boy of Gotham. He is Bruce without the tragedy, & someone Bruce has less preconceptions about.

This is also why Bruce started up mind games and trying to make Tim eventually be Batman but also at other points clearly didn't see Tim as suitable or fitting as well, again, moods.

Stephanie, she is not his kid and was never at risk of being the "Favorite" but she was taught by him. As usual, he projects, he projects Jason, her father, her background & class, her existence as a girl, IE, damsel, in his mind (Writers outfight confirmed this).

He's never once seen her, but there were a few moments that showed they could have had something cool, but it was not to be.

Cassandra is the "Favorite" in the sense that she is what Batman wishes he had. All the skills and training in the world to a superhuman degree, no civilian life, an 'innate' grasp of the morality he grapples with, and the same obsessive drive.

Note, I didn't say Bruce, I said Batman and also that projecting what you want on a person isn't the same as favoritism, nor is it healthy, nor is it even consistent.

Cos Bruce also hates sides of Cass that remind him of himself, IE, he willingness to do what she thinks is right over obediently listen, her self sacrificial tendencies. & he resents sides that aren't like him, the more reckless, less coldly detached parts of her, or her stepping away from his ideal path. In many ways he's jealous.

Damian is not the "Favorite", but he is symbolic of one of Bruce's longest lasting and most passionate love affairs. He is also, like Jason a symbolic representative of family, of what he could have but for the mission.

Damian is also his circumstances, his history, his bloodline, his grandfather, and no matter what he does, he can't escape these things in Bruce's eyes, we are all defined by our families he thinks.

Duke is not the "Favorite", though he does have the least complicated relationship with him due to the era of his arrival and his time becoming a vigilante before they even engaged much.

What's more, Duke was a independent vigilante before he was Bruce's student and well practiced in establishing his own boundaries & definitely has some of that "he matched my freak" energy.

IE, Bruce deciding to become a vigilante at all, Duke holding him before a train to spark his memory, they have zero chill.

So while there'd definitely some projection given his parents, and jealousy/paranoia/admiration with his natural talent and powers. Its a more overtly mentor-like relationship which lessens some of the baggage.

Emphasis on the word, some and no this doesn't make Duke the "Favorite", because if Bruce can't major project, pedestal or pre-judge someone he can't 'bond' with them to the same extent.

Note:

Again, its harder with Bruce, cos its comparing where he was and what he became over a mostly linear period and then reboots happened, amnesia happened, Bruce's persona got shifted, this makes things complicated dammit >< But I hope this was interesting!

[starwarsmum]

So after I couldn't find that fic, I decided I was gonna write my own version of it, because the idea was wonderful and I, apparently, actually cannot live without this fic existing.

Lost in Paris

Summary:

Damian has had enough of being treated like a child, or worse, as a bomb waiting to explode and kill those closest. After a conversation with Bruce about doing some vigilante work solo goes south, he comes to the conclusion that he is better off leaving home.

Little do his family know, he doesn't intend to return.

* * *

HEAVILY inspired by a fic that was deleted recently. Obviously it has my own take and writing, but I can't add the fic as an inspiration as it's not here anymore. Rated teen for language

Notes:

Heyo, so after I wrote the one shot, I became consumed with writing my own take on the fic that got away. So here's the first chapter of that.

All six have been written, but I need to take some time to read it through, make any edits, and make sure it makes sense! There is limited French throughout the fic, I'll be providing translations in the end notes.

Hope you all enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Jason

“…as though you can stop me, Father.”

Red Hood paused as Demon Spawn’s clipped voice echoed from further in the batcave. The loudest silence Red Hood had heard in quite a while followed it and he slowed down to eavesdrop.

“Tt, when will you admit that it is time I set out alone, to attempt my own vigilantism? I am a child no longer and refuse to be treated as such.” Robin sounded haughty and angry, a not unusual combination.

“I didn't say you couldn't become your own vigilante, Robin. I merely said that you would need a new mantle. Robin is Batman's sidekick, he does not stand alone. If you are ready to pass it down, I’m sure someone else will take it up. Someone always does.”

Red Hood winced at Bruce's words. Sure, all of them had held the title of Robin at one point or other, but the Fourth Robin was the most adamant that it was rightfully his, as the only blood son of Batman. And that was saying something, given Red Hood's little nickname for Red Robin and the hatred he had harbored after he found out he had been replaced. He held still as Robin drew back his hood and removed the mask.

“Father, I am Robin, it is my identity and I do not have to discard it if I do not wish to - which I do not. But if you will not give me the freedom to work without you, then I will not stay. I understand that you did not choose me, that I was thrust upon you by Mother but I have been here for 8 years now. Why do you not trust me to wear the mantle with honour?”

“You know why, Robin,” Batman growled, and there was warning in his voice. Damian clearly heard it too as his shoulders began to tense, though he said nothing. After a moment's pause, Batman continued. “You are still too angry, and you need supervision to ensure you keep to our ideals.”

“Your ideals, Father,” Damian said, his voice soft. He sounded more weary than angry and he waved Batman off as the cowled man loosed a growl. “It is of little importance. We are clearly at an impasse and nothing shall be gained by having this argument with you again. I shall be gone by morning.”

The sharp clicks of Damian's shoes were the only sound in the batcave and Red Hood counted his blessings that he hadn't been part of that conversation. Sure, Demon Spawn wound him up, but he wouldn't have thought he'd regress to his League days. Hell, some days Hood thought that he was more likely to snap than the youngest in their crew.

He slid casually into the main cave at that point, not even pretending not to have overheard the entire thing. It seemed that Batman wasn't in the mood to chat so he made himself scarce, going up to see Alfred and maybe he could scrounge some food from the kitchen. He didn't realise that this was a point in time that he would wish he could turn back to, many times over the coming years.

_ _ _

3 weeks later, and the cave was a riot of noise, voices echoing harshly. Jason hadn't suited up yet, but that didn't stop him from dropping casually into one of the chairs around their planning table so he could work out what the problem was. When the noise just continued, even increasing if that were possible, Jason let loose a shrill whistle to get everyone's attention.

“Thank you, god you lot are ridiculously loud tonight. We having trouble deciding who we're supposed to take down? Oh, hey Dick, undercover mission over with already?” He nodded at his older brother but he only got a curt ‘hi’ back. That made him sit up straighter; Dick was sunshine incarnate, but when he got angry, he got angry. God help the soul he aimed his rage towards. “Oh, shit, do we have, like, an actual problem? Did a rogue escape or something?”

“No, Jay, we're missing a team member,” Tim said sharply from the batcomputer. Jason did a quick look around but there were several of the family absent so he turned around, concerned. Tim sighed, “Robin, Robin is missing, Jason. He's been gone for several weeks and we can't find him anywhere.”

“Wait, weeks?” Jason sat up straighter, glancing towards Bruce - a look that was caught by Dick and immediately acted upon.

“What did you do, Bruce? Wait, forget that, what did Bruce do, Jay-bird?” As Jason recounted what he'd heard, Dick grew angrier and angrier, until he was agitatedly bouncing on his toes and glaring at Bruce. “So your son tells you he's gonna leave and you, what, just pretend it's not happening? For 3 weeks?!”

“Damian can take care of himself, Dick. If it wasn't true, he wouldn't have taken himself out of the role. He said he wanted to spread his wings, which of you hasn't wanted that?”

“You accused him of being one bad day away from murdering his enemies!” Dick shouted, exasperated. “And when has any of us completely cut off the whole family? Even Alfred hasn't heard from him. Has Jon? And where are Titus, and Alfred the cat? If he was coming back, he wouldn't have disrupted them!”

“You are reading too much into this and it is a waste of time. He will come home when he realises he was wrong and that's the end of it. Can we now focus on patrol?” There were noises of dissent and Tim continued to type furiously but they began gearing up. Dick shot another glare at the Bat and declared that this would be his last patrol with them if Damian didn't get in touch before the next one.

_ _ _

Jason was sitting in Dick’s apartment, watching with concern as the man paced relentlessly. It had been a month since his last family patrol and he was no closer to finding out where Damian had gone. He had League training so when he wanted to vanish, he could make a damn good go of it. Unfortunately, that left them with nothing but dead ends.

“What did Jon say?” Dick growled into his phone, muttering what Jason was pretty sure were curses in Romani. “Well, where does he think he went? I don't know, Tim, that's why I've been coming to the computer geniuses! Babs says she hasn't had any luck with known aliases and I know you haven't either. I'm at a loss, Jay hasn't had any success with his contacts and he hasn't reached out to me.”

Jason listened in silence and Dick devolved into a rant about how Bruce didn't value Damian enough and treated them all relatively poorly. He heard a short reply from the Replacement and could almost imagine the little twerp with a hand wrapped around a jumbo mug of coffee as he hunched over the keyboards. He thought back to how tired Damian had sounded during the argument with Bruce and frowned. Surely Damian would pop up again one day soon, there wasn't far an 18 year old with none of the family money could go.

Tim had hacked the bank records for Damian's private account and there had been a withdrawal for a decent sum on that first day, but nothing since. And the idea of Demon Spawn getting a job with none of the references from Gotham was laughable. But after the first month had passed with no contact, they had to admit that there was less and less chance of him coming home.

5 years later

Jason stood in the watchtower, staring at the screen in front of him. He had been doing his usual rounds, checking for chatter in some of the less underground communities to see if any of Damian's aliases had surfaced. When that had hit its usual dead ends, he decided to review Robin's original profile, to see if there was something they had missed in their initial sweep for potential allies and safe zones.

Jason had never been particularly adept at navigating the system for files and didn't want to pull up the wrong Robin file so he typed in ‘Damian Wayne' and saw the file. But, curiously, there had been another, newer reference to the name. Had one of the other heroes done a search on him recently?

He clicked the link and was flooded with a metric shit-ton of information spanning the past 5 years. There were credit searches, a courthouse request, hospital records, all in French and linked to a couple of addresses in Paris. He hesitated another minute before deciding to download the information onto an external drive and then scrubbing evidence of his search. Whilst he wasn't Babs or Tim competent, anyone doing a cursory look would see nothing amiss. And there were very few people searching for Damian these days.

It was a few hours later that he made it back to his favourite safe house to finally review the information he had garnered. He was nervous as he connected the drive to a device, wondering if he finally had a lead that would give them back their brother. He scanned the most recent entry and saw an address linked to a recent credit card application. His brow furrowed but the ID used certainly looked like an older Damian.

He jumped up, too jittery to read through the entire pack of information. He'd always been more of a ‘do now, think later’ kind of guy. He could catch a Zeta tube back up to the watchtower and then get into Paris immediately. He checked the route from the Paris tube to the address before grabbing his civilian leather jacket and a domino mask.

The time difference between New Jersey and Paris was distinct. What had been a brisk but clear December afternoon there was a wet and dreary evening here. The drizzle had started not long after he had arrived and looked to worsen in the near future. He was watching the tall apartment building, hoping to spot his brother before he made an approach but with no success.

After twenty minutes, the heavens opened, forcing his hand. He could either stay where he was, getting more and more drenched, and risk getting sick, or bite the bullet and knock on the door. With a steadying breath, he slouched across the street and raised his fist to the door.

“Attendez, s’il vous plait,” came a feminine voice, and Jason panicked. That definitely wasn't his brother’s voice, had he made a mistake? Perhaps someone else had the unfortunate luck of having his brother's name, his age. He hesitated a fraction longer and the door cracked open, a shorter French woman looking up at him quizzically. “Oui?”

“Uh, pardonnez-moi, I, uh, shit,” he fumbled for the words not knowing how to phrase it. Her brow furrowed further and he felt the panic mounting. “Is, uh, is Damian here? Damian Wayne?”

“Un moment, monsieur,” she said, eyes narrowing slightly as she took in his features. The door snapped shut and he heard a muffled conversation, the light voice of the woman and a deep masculine voice that made Jason tense up in anticipation. The adrenaline thrummed in his veins as the door opened again and the small woman reappeared.

“Please, monsieur, come in,” she said politely, opening the door wide. Jason heard another door in the apartment close softly. The room was spacious and sparsely decorated, a three seater and two seater sofa selection which she gestured towards him to sit down on. “You speak English, non? I speak it too, so we can converse in that, if it is easier for you.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks, mademoiselle.” Jason’s eyes darted around nervously, taking in as much as he could. “Listen, I'm sorry for just showing up here, I just- I've been looking for my brother for years and I found something that said he was living here and I-”

“Monsieur, please, moins vite, slower, I cannot comprend- understand if you speak that fast,” she said, in a soothing manner. She had leaned towards him, frowning but not so much that he worried about being thrown out. He took a deep breath and gave her a shaky smile in apology. “Merci, now, you said the word ‘brother’, that means frere, non? Why are you looking for him now?” After all this time was implied, but not said outright so he wasn't sure if that was what she meant.

“Sorry, my brother, Damian, left home several years ago, he got in a fight with our dad. We thought he was cooling off at first, maybe spending time with a friend,” Jason said, taking care not to speak too quickly. “He was 18, you know? He was allowed to have a little time to himself. We've all chafed against the old man at one point or another- I mean,” he corrected, seeing her confusion, “we've all fought with Bruce at different times. We thought he was gonna cool off and come home, but he never did. And we couldn't find him, we tried, we were so sure we would manage but then days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into yea-”

“I understand,” she cut in softly, placing a hand on the back of his. He took a shuddering breath and realised he was close to tears, rambling in his nerves. She was about to say something else when a door opened and a tall, familiar man stepped into view. He had filled out some, his limbs no longer holding the gangliness of youth but firm and solid. His hair was still jet black and ruffled looking and his eyes the same piercing green.

“Damian,” Jason choked out, shooting up and launching towards the man. He looked even more uncannily like Bruce, the same jawline, similar builds, but he had a softer edge. He caught hold of Jason, gripping the back of his jacket tightly as the larger man shook slightly. “God, I can't believe it's really you.”

“It is me, Todd,” Damian replied, releasing himself from the embrace. They looked each other in the eye, Jason's still with that edge of pit madness but Damian - Damian looked at peace. “I must admit, I did not anticipate you visiting so suddenly,” he added drily.

Jason let out a short bark, shrugging even though all he felt was overwhelmed. “None of us expected you to keep using your actual name, Demon Spawn. God, we searched so hard, Dick was furious with B. I don't think he's spoken to him properly in years.”

Damian frowned but then the woman stood up and spoke softly in French to him. He rumbled something back and she nodded, patting Jason's arm as she passed him to go to another room. Damian indicated the sofas again and they sat down, a tense silence settling in the room. Having another person in the room had helped to ease some of the tension - Jason and Damian had never been close. But they were still brothers and Jason had been so angry with Bruce when he realised that Damian was gone.

The sound of a kettle filled the silence and the woman poked her head back around the door. She smiled at them both, a sunny, bright expression. “Pardon, would you like un thé ou un café, Jason? Or jus? We have orange or apple.”

“Uh, coffee's fine,” Jason muttered, trying to let the tension in his shoulders dissipate. He turned back to Damian after she bobbed her head once and vanished back through the door. “She, uh, she seems nice.”

“Marinette is a great many things,” Damian said, clearly amused. “Nice is the least of them, but I appreciate you saying so. We have been through much together, and she is very strong.”

“So are you…” Jason trailed off, not sure how to say it without offending someone. He waved his hands helplessly, hoping it conveyed his sentiment and Damian snorted. He was saved from answering by Marinette coming back into the room with a tea tray.

“I have sugar, lait, some macarons and cheese with crackers,” Marinette said lightly, placing the tray onto the coffee table and perching next to Damian. He reached a hand for her knee and she placed hers on top of his. Jason spied matching rings on their fingers and his eyes widened. Marinette noticed the direction of his look and gave another laugh, squeezing Damian's hand lovingly. “Oui, Damian and I are married. We have been for nearly two years.”

“Congratulations. I gotta admit, I didn't think you were ever going to settle down Demo- Damian,” he corrected, seeing Marinette's eyebrow rise. Damian nodded, glancing at his wife with a slightly chagrined look on his face.

“To be honest, the Demon Spawn you knew would never have deserved to marry Marinette,” he admitted, waving away her sudden frown. “Ma cherie, you know I speak the truth. I was a mess of a man when we met, I lashed out at everything and everyone.”

“Mon coeur, you were nothing of the sort,” Marinette reprimanded firmly. It sounded as though this was a well worn argument and Jason was almost envious of the evident love he could hear in her voice. Not that he thought Damian didn't deserve it, but he had often yearned for the kind of love that was pouring out of this petite French pixie. “Heureusement, you did not lash out at me too harshly, and accepted that you could not do this all alone.”

Jason was shocked - Damian had settled down. The pair had clearly grown together, matching each other in their differences. And Damian had changed, even more than he had begun to during his time in Wayne manor. He seemed more sure of himself, confident in an easy way. Jason cleared his throat again, drawing their attention back to him. “So, uh, if you got married, how…how much have you talked about your past, D?”

“Ah, I wondered if you would be concerned about that, Monsieur Hood,” Marinette said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She waved her hand as he tensed again. “Damian and I have no secrets. It is difficult, making a life together, without sharing such things. I understand the importance of keeping these things to myself. We are, comment dire, birds of a feather?”

Jason raised an eyebrow himself now but they were interrupted by a soft cry, coming from an adjacent room. He tensed but Marinette sighed and made to get up, before Damian shooed her into her seat, standing himself. He came back moments later, carrying what looked like a bundle of blankets that he cooed to in a mix of French and Arabic. Jason went rigid with disbelief as Damian settled himself back into his seat. A shock of dark hair peeked out of the blankets and Jason sucked in a sharp breath.

“Her name is Penélope Robyn Dupain-Cheng. Penny for short,” Marinette said, her voice soft and full of love. Jason's head whipped towards her and Damian chuckled.

“It seemed fitting, I had no need for the mantle and it connects me to my past without shackling me. Marinette understood better than I did that I did not want to lose who I had been.” Jason was stunned. Damian was speaking so nonchalantly about a moniker that he had almost killed for - what he had considered a birthright. His voice softened as he looked back up at his brother. “I am truly at peace, Todd. I let go of my anger before I married as it would have been unfair to Marinette if I had allowed it to continue consuming me.”

“How-how old is she?” Jason croaked, transfixed with his niece - his second, after Kor’i had given birth. He couldn't remember how old Mar’i had been when she was this size and the Tamaranean in her could have changed things.

“8 months,” Damian said softly, turning his gaze back to his daughter. “I would do anything for her, Todd. She will want for nothing as long as I can control it. She is loved, in ways I didn't know were possible.”

A silence stretched between the three adults and Jason took a sip from his now tepid coffee. His mind was reeling; he felt as though everything he had ever known about Damian was wrong and now he was meeting what was essentially a stranger. Penny had clearly drifted back to sleep and Damian stood to take her back to her room. Marinette cleared her throat as he left, making Jason shoot her a questioning look.

“I must ask you, are you here as a lookout? When should I expect your father,” she clipped the word out, thinly veiled rage coating it, “to descend upon my home? I must warn you, I will not allow him to harm Damian again.”

“They aren't,” he answered flatly. She looked at him again, surprised. “I told no-one of my suspicions, I came alone. Like I said, we've all fallen out with Bruce at one point or another and when Damian left…well, let's just say the team isn't running quite so smoothly any more.”

“I thought you were all ‘the world's greatest detectives’,” she replied sardonically, dropping her voice as she heard Damian returning. “If you are lying to me, I will not be contente, comprennez?”

“My love, please tell me you are not threatening our guest?” Damian rumbled, laughter barely concealed in his voice. “I apologise, Todd, she is protective of those in her care, a trait from her younger years.”

“Je suis toujours jeune, Damian,” Marinette said, a light growl lacing her words. He nodded sagely and Jason snorted. It was just so…domestic. If someone had told him 5 years ago that Damian, the little brother who threatened anyone who breathed near him, would be married, with a kid, he would have had them committed to Arkham. And yet…

“They all miss you, lil D,” Jason said softly, imitating Dick for a moment. “Tim was frantic when he couldn't trace where you went, he still gets upset when he thinks about how he failed you. And Dick - I mean, he loves you, you know that. If he could have ripped B to pieces without ruining Gotham, he would have. He has a kid himself you know,” he added, setting his cup down.

“But I didn't come here to ask you to come back. I can see you have a life here Dames, a good life. Christ, I didn't think it was possible for anyone to give up our particular lifestyle and settle down but you clearly did and it's obviously been the best thing to happen to you. I'm proud of you, for whatever that's worth. I just…I would like to be part of your life again, I want to get to know the you now. Don't get me wrong, you were a little beast before you left, but you're still family. And I don't have a whole lot of that left.”

“Well, it's not like we can just leave,” Marinette said, with humour. “Merde, maman et papa, they would kill me if I just disappeared with their only grandbaby.”

“And- am I welcome back?”

“D’accord, but I will ask that you only share the information with your father if he specifically asks about Damian. It is a talk we had as soon as we were expecting Penélope, he is not welcome to my family without begging Damian for forgiveness.” The steely note in Marinette's voice brooked no argument, and Jason had none to voice. Bruce was the reason Damian had left all those years ago and he was the one who asked least often about any updates.

“What about Dick? You know he would love to see you, if he hadn't been undercover when you left, he would have at least known where you went.” Damian nodded slowly at this, making Jason grin with relief. “Awesome. Wow, okay, that's great. Thank you, Marinette. I'll take down a number and we can coordinate a visit sometime? I doubt you want to come to Gotham,” Damian's eyes narrowed and he shook his head tightly,” so I'll have to get Dick here himself.”

As he stood to leave, Marinette and Damian also stood, the slight woman stepping forward first and pulling him down for une bise, kissing his cheek with warmth and familiarity. She stepped back and carried the tea tray through to the kitchen, giving the brothers some space. Damian clapped a hand onto Jason's shoulder and received a light punch in return. They exchanged numbers before Jason promised he would text as soon as he was home again, and then when he had spoken to Dick about coming back to visit.

As Jason stepped into the Paris zeta tube, he glanced back over his shoulder and smiled. Trust Damian to move to the city of love and figure all his shit out.

Notes:

So let me know what you think! I'm going to try and update once a week-ish, but may post chapters sooner if I'm ready.

French used:

Attendez, s'il vous plaît = wait please

Pardonnez-moi = pardon me

Un moment = one moment

Monsieur = sir

Mademoiselle = miss

Moins vite = slower/less fast

Contente = happy

Comprennez = understand

Je suis toujours jeune = I am still young

Merci = thank you

Un thé ou un café = a tea or coffee

Jus = juice

Lait = milk

Mon chéri/ma chérie = my darling

Mon coeur = my heart

Heureusement = fortunately

Comment dire = how to say

Merde = shit

Maman et papa = mum and dad

D'accord = alright

Une bise = Literally, a kiss, usually how they refer to the kiss on the cheek they give to say hello/goodbye

Most of the French throughout this fic is what I've learned through Duo, so if I offend some native speakers, I'm really very sorry! I have double checked it in Google for the most part, but I'm not sure that's better.

Chapter 2

[thief-of-eggs]

HELLO LOVE <3

Brainworms have been worming extra hard since I stumbled upon your Bruce and Jay post (plus the doomed narratives one,, BELOVED), honestly those two make me so fucking ill oh my god. The tags on ur post? So true. Kith ur tags on the head. LO VE LOVE <3333 adding a little to the discussion since I am ill (and if you don't mind!!)

LOVE THE DOOMED NARRATIVE because their reconciliation is never possible imo. Grief is a wretched force that has twisted Jason's memory from the image of his beloved son into a detached, reckless amalgamation. Bruce compartmentalises to such a degree that if he has to keep functioning (both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne) that he can't possibly face the fact that his actions killed his son. His mission born out of the death of his parents couldn't have killed that bright child who was albeit a little angry at times but so full of compassion and life, right? Right?

But he has to continue. And because he does, he has to, on an internal level, make himself believe that Jason was doomed from the start. That he was too reckless. That he was too much of a mess. That he should've never been Robin (which is true in a different sense, but this line of reasoning is not it) and was destined to die. Bruce's messy cycle of grief has concluded. Acceptance comes in the form of his cherished son now being seen as 'his greatest failure, a reckless Robin, a good soldier.'

And unfortunately, the whole thing about Jason is that he is continually trying to communicate with the Bruce he remembers before he died. They're both on completely different pages in this conversation, and Jason is so mentally ill—oh my god, PTSD?—and he's trying to communicate with someone who doesn't remember him as he was. Plus, Gotham is such an intrinsic part of him that he can never pull away from it. He just gets stuck in a cycle, continually pulling away and then reaching out, and then pulling away—essentially in Limbo.

SJSJOSAOSKSOS I DO LOVE THE BRUCE AND JAY RECONCILE NARRATIVE 😭😭 THEY'RE BOTH NUANCED CHARACTERS, I BELIEVE IN THEM BUT GOD... the amount of growth they'd have to show from both their sides for that to ever happen??? YEAH. NO. 😭😭 AaaaaAAAA

ANYHOW. RANDOM WORDDUMP. U HAVE COOL AF POSTS !!!!! much love !!!!! Thank u for appearing on my tl :D !!!!!

HELLO HELLO!!! WELCOME !!

PLZ add on omg RAHHHHHH !!! Nothing makes me feel more loved as a writer and poster than seeing people get inspired by my silly little words and seeing them expand on !!!!

Also yes yes YES Jason Todd is one of my favorite muses for doomed narratives!! Every single goddamn relationship that kid attempts to have is destined to fail. From his mom to his short-lived time as Bruce’s apprentice/son, to his fragile and tense relationships with his almost-but-not-quite siblings.

Jaw on the floor, first off. Do you write??? Please do you write???? I need to read more of your words if so bc you understand these characters on SUCH a deep level UGH

“-he can’t possibly face the fact that his actions killed his son” - THIS THIS THIS !!!! Bruce is an immovable wall with Jason because he CANNOT accept the accountability. It’s like Jason is having a completely different battle with him, because Jason sees things for as they are, if not a little tainted by his own begrudged feelings, but meanwhile Bruce is seeing things through a clouded lens of denial. Bruce doesn’t understand the pain he caused Jason because he cannot even see it. It does not exist in his mind. Because to accept the pain is to accept WHY the pain is there, which in turn would just spiral out of control and Bruce is forced to accept that his no-kill ideal ended up digging his son’s own grave.

Ugh LOVE the idea of Bruce gaslighting himself into thinking this was how it was always fated to be. Putting the blame not on himself or Jason or the Joker, but on some higher being that he doesn’t even believe in. It’s such a Bruce coping mechanism. Sweeping everything under the rug bc now he can’t see it. IM UNWELL

YES YES THEY ARE ON SUCH DIFFERENT PAGES!!! YOU GET IT!!! They literally are having two separate conversations and neither understands why their words aren’t sinking in to the other. They may as well be talking to their own hallucinations at this point- Jason at the memory of his father and Bruce at the doomed ghost of a boy who once was.

And YUP that’s why I write little “good dad bruce” fics and read so many too, because I WANT them to reconcile but… in the actual real world reality? I think the best they could do is an uncomfortable middle ground. Where Jason is no longer antagonized, but not exactly welcomed either. He’d have an expected seat at the table, but he’d never come. He’d be on every place card, every invite, but he’d never show up. He’d be included, but would choose to stay away. And that breaks my heart but also I truly don’t think either of them can go beyond that. In an effort to cling to familiarity and sanity and a guilt free life, Bruce pushed his biggest regret away. He could have had his son back, but instead he chose to believe it couldn’t be true. And like the greatest self fulfilled prophecy, he made it true.

ANYWAY THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY AND BLESSING MY INBOX !!! seeing so many words made my itty bitty heart so happy. biggest MWAH to you <33

[romnianistan]

once again not really canon but when jason says "i'm just not ready / wait for me" to peter in best kept secret and when jason says "let's tell your mother whose whole existence is built around micromanaging other people's lives so then she can call my mother who will immediately tell my dad and the two of them can rush down here to conference with father. that is if they don't get me out of here first to send me away to one of those camps to get cured. or maybe i can ask notre dame for a leave of absence while i deal with a sexual identity crisis. or maybe my dad will just beat the shit out of me and then disown me" to peter in reputation stain'd

like imagine you're just a 17yo closeted teenager and you're telling your boyfriend/best friend hey i get why you want to come out but this is really not the ideal situation for me because if that happens the outcomes for me are 1) conversion therapy 2) domestic violence 3) losing my career prospects and you're trying your best to keep your friends happy and keep your parents happy and keep your teachers happy and keep your boyfriend happy but in the end he doesn't listen to you and almost outs you to your catholic priest and eventually outs you to the guy who hates you the most in your class and so you indeed lose your entire social standing + your whole friends group + your boyfriend like a self-fulfilling prophecy and when you beg them all to forgive you (even tho you did nothing wrong in the first place and only tried to make everyone happy and always "thought for all the best" (as per reputation stain'd)) none of them listen to you and so you kill yourself but the fandom doesn't care and homophobic sheltered american teens online are saying you're actually the villain. anyway i'm very normal about this

[sardonic-sprite]

Dad!Tim AU pt 6

Bc Q keeps randomly knocking down my door and screaming EIRA every few months/aff

Part 1

Within a week the family has worked together to craft an official statement for the press

If it weren't for goddamn ras tim would be advocating the "keep all reporters and paps the fuck away from my baby" approach, but as it is he just has to try to minimize damage

They hold a small press conference in Wayne tower, where they've got absolute top security around, and Bruce is right by Tim's side expressing unwavering support and 0 judgment as Tim states that he's stepping down from his position (not CEO he was in charge if like R&D since Bruce came back)... in order to care for his infant daughter

Dead silence. Wide-eyed stares

Tim takes a deep deep breath and says

"Her name is Eira Bahar Wayne. Her mother is my best friend *he's a bit choked up, because he's never going to get them to understand exactly what steph is, more than friend, other than lover, one of the most amazing women in the world* and if you will all take a moment now to turn off any flash or recording lights... they'll come out and say hello."

It was a calculated move, introducing Eira literally in Stephs arms. Tim's the famous one, no one will forget that he's a teen parent, that he claimed this kid. He's also eiras literal biological father, she has 23 chromosomes from him and sooner or later that's going to become apparent

She also has 23 chromosomes from a woman who is not steph.

There can't ve any doubt in the publics mind that steph carried and bore Eira, tho, or ras has an in. So Eira meets the world this way, so that the very first pictures to exist of her are *with her mother*, with Steph smiling so lovingly and holding her totally correct, eiras blanket and stephs dress even subtly matching and complimenting Tim's suit.

That's why he goes to meet them, arm around stephs back, and brushes eiras little Itty bitty curls that Tim thinks are from his mom, and they step forward as a unit

He thinks it works

Camera shutters are GOING OFF (thankfully no flash, he didn't want to go red robin on them) and several reporters are awwing and sighing

They ask a few questions, to Tim and to steph. They share facts - eiras birth height and weight, how long Tim and steph have known each other - but not stories - how long wad the birth, did you decide to have a child or happy accident?

Tim kind of wants to punch the guy who asked that but he forces a laugh and says it's rude to ask a lady such things

And then it's over and the next day 3 different newspapers have it as the headline story

Eira becomes a celebrity overnight. All of Gotham is SCREECHING about how adorable she is, how adorable their family is, how Tim is now a DILF (he blocks that tag) how lucky steph is to have Tim and eira

(There's other screeching too, about teen parents and recklessness and gold digging and debauchery and-- Babs keeps all that off Tim's and stephs feeds, monitoring it herself to ensure it never gets too loud)

Tumblr has an EIRA WAYNE PROTECTION SQUAD blog with over a hundred followers, #eiratheadorable is trending on Twitter, and they've recievied probably fifty handmade baby things in the past 2 months - blankets, hats, mittens, an empty scrapbook to fill, a nursery-appropriate superheroes painting

It's a little overwhelming but it's kind of nice

Tim and steoh make sure to go out and be seen every few weeks, together or apart, with eira on their hip, in a baby sling, in a stroller. For the most part people keep a respectful distance as they beam and coo and wave, and anyone who doesn't is quickly blocked by Cass or Damian, or dick when he's in town

(Jason isn't supposed to be alive and Bruce was found to be way too over protective. Tim AGREES but daaaad stop, you can't give away your batman voice bc one idiot had his flash on)

And exactly 3 months after eiras announcement, the perfect amount of time to cement her as part of the family, cute and tiny and lovable, an ideal in Gotham imagination...

Bruce and Talia announce their marriage and the date for a public, FANCY, vow-renewal, and take the people by STORM

Ta da?

[leoruby-draws]

Finding a certain Someone...

One full week of drawings posted, but I'm still not done yet. Cause there's one more after this, something I've been wanting to post for over a year, but first lets go into this post.

There's a certain archetype that I've been wanting to put in the TrWh Outlaw team, and that's the 'Superman' type hero. Someone clearly strong, with powers that can be similar, and give off that certain 'super' vibe. In canon it was Bizzaro, a failed superman clone. He exists in my au, but being an adult was obviously not what I wanted. Perhaps in the future he can join the team tho. There are also a couple of current members that could sorta fit the mold but weren't quite what I was looking for. Like Grant Emerson and Gillian Wahrman for example, Gillian ended up filling a different archetype tho.

Grant esp kinda came close, esp when you factor his older self seen in Sins of Youth. His older self seemed more secure and when his emotions stabilized he could even fly, he really gave off that superman attitude. He never really got there as he actually matured in the comics, if anything his life got shitter so he's still a ways off from this mature ideal. At any rate he didn't quite fit the bill for me, sorry Grant.

Another idea was Lindsey Wah aka Aura, you can find her in Superboy and the Ravers. She had magnetic powers so she could be pretty strong, but I'm not sure if she was strong enough for what I wanted.

She's kinda a party girl but I thought that would make her fun in a way, wanting to both party and help people. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought she didn't quite have that 'spark' with the others that I wanted. In fact, I was kinda thinking she should join the Young Justice team when it forms in my au, she's already friends with Kon through the ravers.

Three random characters here, but I'm gonna focus on Sierra ? aka Matrix II. The other two I can talk about another time. Look at Sierra bothering Linda Danvers, speaking of, her story is super convoluted. Kinda had trouble following it tbh.

Sierra was part of Lex Luthor's pet team, Infinity Inc. II (crazy how you can just buy names rights like that), she proved to be a total coward, but I kinda find coward characters fun in their own way (think of like Usopp form One Piece). There could be a character arc for her, where she learns to become more braver and heroic as she grows. But in the end, I didn't go for her. She didn't have enough fire power for me, I still do like her. Maybe she could ally up with team at another point?

Captain Marvel is a superman expy himself, so having his arch nemesis's sidekick could be something that could work. This hero is Amon Tomaz aka Osiris. I thought the way Amon tried desperately to become a hero but everything was just stacked against him endeared him to me, that struggle to be what he wants to be is something that I think fits him with the Outlaws. Amon came close but I still wanted someone closer to the Superman mythos. He might join the team at a later time or ally up with them.

David's story from World's Finest is so sad, it a genuine tragedy what happens to him, though he does sorta get a happy ending. It's pretty obvious that his story and teenage look is modeled after Jason (almost blatantly so), so it should be expected that he could be what I'm looking for?

I did think about it for a hot second, but if you read World's Finest then you see he starts off in Dick's age group, making him too old for me. I suppose it doesn't matter since World's Finest is elseworld (I think?), but that's what sticks in my head. He came really close too, aw well.

Also I tried to copy Mora's style as best I could, esp tried to copy that :] type of smile he sometimes does. It's a really cute quirk of his work I noticed lol.

This one is more of a joke, having Superboy prime as a candidate but I was never gonna go for that. I don't think he would enjoy being part of my goofy au honestly.

I started getting a little desperate for what I wanted, it felt like my standards were just too high and specific. I even start to go into making oc's to fit what I wanted, like these:

This was a oc created to be a sorta legacy/sidekick for Maxima, who was a kinda a anti-hero (with the hots for Superman). I made her personality more reserved and calm to contrast with Maxima. But still not what I needed, I'd still like for her to exist in my au, maybe as an ally of sorts.

Another oc, Starsha was a character I created years ago, she was a part of fanfic 'idea' where Jason meets an alien girl to be friends with. Separate from the Training Wheels au, and I think she might've been created before all that too. The story for her goes that she was a robot from space that crash landed on earth and Jason has the difficult task of hiding her from her creator and from Bruce. It eventually goes bad and Starsha dies trying to protect Jason (in a explosion, calling forward to Jason's eventual death). She eventually comes back when Jason's older, and is kinda meant to replace Starfire in a new52 style outlaw team.

I thought maybe I could transplant her to my au, Starsha had just about everything I wanted it seemed. But having an oc for my 'superman' just didn't fell right and I though I could just keep looking in the comics. Then!!

Then I did! I found someone perfect!!

And that someone I'm gonna talk about tomorrow!

[rafyki]

Hi!! For the Character Ask game:

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? -- Jack/Joker (could be individually and/or as a ship)

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? -- Percy

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot? -- Jason

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter? -- Nico

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like? -- Leo

Once again, sorry it takes me so long to answer ;A; I'm just extremely slow o<-< But thank you so much for the ask!!!

Okay so:

-5: first of all thank you so much for indulging me in this obsession with Jack and Joker even though you're not following the show yourself! xD and as for the song, I sadly have to say the new ost of the show "A hundred ways" - it tore my heart to pieces when I listened to it the first time and read the lyrics ;A;

-7: Okay I'm going to say this even though I know it's controversial: I like it when the fandom makes Percy extremely petty about the "you're not my type" line lmao I just find it so funny okay?

But apart from this silly thing, I love that the fandom often lets Percy be angry and powerful and dangerous. I don't think thats something Rick explored enough, tbh

-13: Not sure what emoji reminds me of him (except for the⚡, obviously), but as for something Jason would use a lot... idk, i think Jason would text like a mum, you know, and use all those cringey emojis like 😊 lmao Idk that's the first one that came to mind for some reason xD

-20: Leo!! Oh no one could ever convince me that Leo and Nico aren't just made to be besties! They would fit together so well, okay? And they're similar yet different, I think they could help each other a lot, and Nico would find Leo's sense of humor hilarious, and Leo would play Mythomagic with him, and they would gossip about boys - they would be the perfect besties okay, i just know it

-21: I've only written about Leo once (a crime, I know, i need to write more) but what I really love is digging deeper in all his self-esteem issues and the way he uses humor as a coping mechanism and a way to hide himself. You know, everything Rick introduced and the basically pretended didn't exist and was nothing more than Leo wanting a girlfriend :) And something I don't like when writing this character? Mhh, I don't know? I haven't written a lot about him, as I said, but I don't think there's anything in particular I don't like!

[roobylavender]

do you think bruce is abusive? i don't mean in the physical way they've been writing his as recently but emotionally.

it's very clear that he does love his children but some abusers do genuinely love the people they hurt and just think they are in the right (thinking of my own dad who somehow couldn't understand why we didn't want to talk to him because he always took care of us but treated our mother. badly. and in front of us when we were little kids.)

and i'm not sure whether i count bruce in that because while it doesn't look like what i'm familiar with i thought i'd ask because only recently i've actually come across people who see him as abusive but do actually see the character as he is and love it and i was wondering what you thought

sorry if i'm dumping too much on you or it isn't something you want to answer, feel free to delete/ignore, i just think the answer is more interesting from people who genuinely love and understand bruce as a character as you seem to and i've only seen it from two other people so i wondered what you thought

i don't mind answering! this is one of those asks where i wish i tagged my stuff bc i've talked about it before but my outbox tag is so populated that it takes way too long to search through lol (and unfortunately as we all know tumblr's in-blog search function is broken beyond repair). but tldr i would say bruce as he's existed for the past thirty years or so is abusive. my divergence in opinion is simply that i don't think he ever should have been made so. his more modern characterization as someone reactive and prone to lashing out at others, particularly his children, has never made sense to me and i don't think it's heavily supported by pre-crisis canon. the extent of bruce's failings as a parent should reflect his inability to communicate and his growing tendency to be a shut-in. which i know some people take to be comparable to neglect but ig i don't think it should ever go that far.. like when i say inability to communicate i don't mean him failing to take care of his kids or giving them their due attention when he's raising them but moreso falling into a pit of despair and guilt once they've reached adulthood bc he feels like he's signed their death note by enabling their lives as vigilantes. i do think parentification can potentially come into it but ideally i would want it to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later if that makes sense. like we should've been over bruce's depressive "i'm a terrible parent and everyone i love dies so i should just do everything on my own and slowly k*ll myself in the process" episode by the early 00s at latest. and it should've been acknowledged that a large part of what drove him into that depressive episode was jason's death, so realistically being given the time and space to process jason's death and its implications properly would have allowed for bruce to seek closure and move forward and be less.. whatever he is now. to me the successive whammies of identity crisis and war games and under the hood deliberately thwarted that

[my-pjo-stuff]

For the Great PJO Ask Analysis event:

You've got a topic in PJO you'd like for me to analyze?

Presentation of race and gender: such as Charlie Beckendorf, Annabeth Chase, etc. and how those types of representations are good/bad for the audience.

Want to share YOUR analysis of stuff with me and my followers?

Annabeth Chase is not a heroine as the fandom makes her out to be. As a daughter of Athena, she's shown to be ruthless when it comes to anything, even forming relationships. Her attitude, derived from her fatal flaw, arguably makes the books difficult to read at times because she's so critical of what others do. Alternatively, she's a traumatised young girl who has had many people abandon her. What's your thoughts on her?

Want to hear my take or shares yours of different characters and aspects of the PJO universe?

The films, though poorly written and ill-received by critics and most fans of the books, were integral to get more people to read the books. Opinion on both films?

Thoughts on Luke's character in the films or the series?

Thanks for the ask! Presentation of race and gender

In my honest opinion? It seems to be more...brownie points collecting from me when Rick introduces any female or POC character in the books. I am only on The Lost Hero as of now, but from what I observed are these facts only ever just present and don't really contribute a lot to a character, while most major characters still tend to be white and male. For example Beckendorf. Yes he is a canonically POC character which is GREAT, but at the end of the day not only did he get 0 story with his race- he almost immediately got killed off too to serve as a plot device for Silena's story. I also seem to notice that while yes, there are quite a few female characters they are still consistently weaker than the men and tend to be reduced compared to them when it comes to combat. Annabeth for example, while no doubt being an important character she doesn't really fight much. She's a LOT weaker compared to Percy, and even if we go with the "well she's a strategist, not a soldier" angle then she also doesn't seem to do THAT much strategy? Clarisse comes to mind for a female fighter- but even she seems to lose against Percy whenever they fight or have an altercation and otherwise just isn't explored much or shown much. Piper from what I've seen does have an interesting set up and does seem to be very important- but just like other female characters she doesn't seem to be an equal match to Leo and Jason. You don't have much exploration of her native american side. Now I understand that you can't give every character equal amounts of screentime- but it does feel rather weird to me that the most powerful, important characters with the most screentime seem to be white men. The again to be fair, A) I'm a white teen girl so what do I know about race and B)Not yet finished with HOO so there are still chances for it to get better and have positive examples. But so far main and important characters still tend to be white, and if they are POC it doesn't have much influence of the story to the point of the race being easily swapped with no changes. And personally I do think that while representation to have is nice and good in the short term, it can grow harmful or less effective in the short term as any culture or issues are ignored. It can easily gives the impression that things such as racism or prejudice don't exist. The fact that most POC characters so far seemed to be rather unimportant side character (with expectation to Leo and Piper) in a setting where their race doesn't even matter is also meh for me. The fact that there's pretty much no female main character who could ever even think about going toe to toe with their male counterparts also reflects harmful ideals. Annabeth Chase is not a heroine as the fandom makes her out to be.(.....) What's your thoughts on her?

I think she's a bit bland to be honest. Like yes the set up is very interesting and certainly has many possibilities- but it's not explored enough. The first person POV from Percy is partially to blame for this, but I would have loved to see more on her thoughts. For example: She reacted pretty hostile to Luke in the first two books after the betrayal. In SOM she was angry above all, in TLT she didn't even seem to be very suprised or sad at how Luke betrayed camp. To the point of her first words when finding it out being "may the gods curse him" and basically what amounts to "yeah makes sense that it was him, I can see him doing that" Now could this simply be Rick's inconsistent writting? Yes most definitely, but I still think she should have been explored more. What went on in Annabeth's head? How did she feels? What did she do in that time she was captured by Luke, and pretty much directly protected by him? I'll be for real and say I find both her and Percy pretty bland in terms of character. Said it once, said it again- great set up imo but bad development.

Opinion on both films?

Thoughts on Luke's character in the films or the series?

Imma be for real here and say that I didn't really like the movies that much? But it's not like I hate them, they just weren't my cup of tea. Personally I'm one of those people who say that an adaptation should always be as close as humanly possible to the source material. Same goes for Luke in the movies- I do admit his casting was PERFECT, but otherwise? He didn't really have the same charm to me as he had in the movies. SHOW LUKE ON THE OTHER HAND GOES HAAARRRDDD. While I do still have my gripes with the show (especially with how Percy and co. missed the deadline and the way they did Hermes and Poseidon) I do think they did Luke pretty well. Even if I had preferred a book accurate casting did Charlie definitely bring over the right vibes. The changes in the scorpion scene are honestly understandable imo, considering that they now have a solid plan of Luke's character it makes more sense. NGL the show is sort of my biggest hope to get people to stop demonizing Luke for no reason. If hotness could save Draco SO CAN IT SAVE LUKE.

[devoted-horror]

hiii the motivation to write hasnt been motivating and i don't have anything in my drafts ready to post yet so instead here is me rambling on whether or not i think a relationship would work out between me nd certain slashers bc idk. im bored. and i like rambling abt silly things. nd only like... 4 of these r answered in full seriousness so.

starting off strong w michael myers uhm.... he's the ideal relationship for me, i fear.... which is funny bc i never think abt him but i have an avoidant attachment style and he would expect literally nothing from me :thumbs up: there would b no need for intimacy or anything like that it would just b a thing that exists nd never gets acknowledged.

jason voorhees..... idk im uber scared of drowning so i cant even picture getting anywhere near crystal lake bc i'd be scared that i'd fall in lol but. perhaps... i've only seen a small handful of the friday (the first one, goes to hell, x, the jared padalecki one, nd freddy v jason) and i've been far too unmotivated to watch the others but. he's interesting. i think a nice lil life away from people living in a cabin in the woods near a lake is nice to think about, but. idk.

amanda young.... i wanna say yes sosososo badly i could b so good to her but i would die and end up in her list of dead girlfriends i fear. i have a crush on her.

billy loomis is a no personally bc i've known people like him irl nd they make me wanna chew on 20 pieces of rotten tomatoes.

stu macher on the other hand.... i don't think it would b anything serious i think we'd pretend to date as a joke for the funny haha but then oh shit.... maybe it Isn't a joke.... drama happens amidst the ghostface murders.... think.... pretty little liars but better.

bubba and thomas go hand in hand here as a sad no bc i cannot stand hot weather and you wouldn't catch me in the middle of nowhere texas unless something was Very Wrong.

asa emory is a hard no. i hate bugs. i have a fear of bugs. a ladybug or butterfly comes near me and im screaming and running away, and that is not an exaggeration. also bc i have the biggest crush on arkin thts my bbygirl right there guys asa simply stands no chance i fear

quinn bailey.... i don't think it would work out but would i still try.... probably.... i love her sm.

mark hoffman is also a no bc like... idk... he's just not my type.

ethan landry pre-reveal is a yes he's so pathetic coded it has me giggling nd kicking my feet just thinking abt him but post-reveal... probs not.

corey cunningham has me biting my fist because i wanna say yes so badly he is so near nd dear to my heart and i just Know the bastard wld b stupidly romantic nd wld never even think abt cheating nd shit like tht right but also like... it would be overwhelming. like i said, avoidant attachment style, i'd feel suffocated. but it's a nice thought.

bo sinclair. i have.... such a crush on this man... i want to say yes because of that alone, but i simply cannot. there would be fights 24/7 and honestly just turn me into wax already man bc he'd give me a headache.

vincent sinclair would be a yes, i think, if only bo weren't around. it's mean of me to say but vincent doesn't leave town, so in order to be in a relationship with him, i'd have to stay in ambrose as well and deal with bo and once again i cannot.

lester sinclair is an immediate yes under the assumption that he doesn't live in down, but rather on the outskirts of it. nice fuckin cabin in the woods with wicked wooden carvings nd funky animals bones and a dog?? honestly sign me up.

brahms heelshire, as much as i love him and as much as he was the one to make me fall into the whole slasher x reader tag, is a no. again, avoidant attachment style. also, i can hardly take care of myself so there is no way i'd be able to take care of a full-grown man. besides, my cat comes first nd i don't think he'd like that too much.

tiffany valentine pls just one chance is all i ask. fuck it just one date man i'll make it the best date ever pls pls pls

charles lee ray is a no bc he's not my type tbh.

jesse cromeans is also a no. i don't have an explanation for this one i just. idk. it's a no from me.

this isn't every slasher (obviously) nd def not all tht i write for here but i ran out of things to say. so. rambling ends here.

[yellowocaballero]

I loved NewWave and it's nominated for my top reads 2023, BUT THE JASON FICLET??? I thought it was going to be a light read but it hit me full force in the face because I didn't expect to identify so much with Jason! When I read your Jason it was like I was reading myself and I want you to know that I started reading it early at night and finished it at dawn because I constantly had to stop and cry because of how much my heart resonated with his! loved it

HI THANK YOU <3

I'm glad you identified with him! Jason is very much a character who's a little like me too. He's a born writer, and his way of using fiction to put the world in a framework that he can understand is very relatable. It leaves him a little out of touch with the reality of situations, but that's a feature and not a bug.

I can't relate as much to the racial undercurrent in the story, but I don't want to understate it. It has to suck for Jason to feel constantly compared to the blonde haired blue eyed 'perfect sidekick'. She provides something seen as valuable and ideal that Jason never could. Coming from Steph's viewpoint (and considering canon) the idea of her being unattainable perfection is deeply funny, but it's very real to Jason. Adding in Tim - who's identical to Bruce and comes from the same social strata - makes Jason feel like it's every man for himself.

That's what makes his connection with Bruce even more important, though. He's the polar opposite of Bruce in every way, but although Tim and Bruce are similar in a lot of ways, Jason and Bruce have a deep connection and understanding that Tim and Steph don't. They're both dreamers who make the world a stage, their need for justice comes from a place of great pain, and they love in quiet ways.

Jason's a special kid. Like Steph, he has so much value that he doesn't see. Unlike her, he wants more - he's hungry for it, that life with meaning and kindness. He's finally attained something good, and he's scared of losing it. He has so much to offer that he can't see, and the happiness of the story is when he's seen.

New Wave was my way of giving a character who's been routinely fucked over by canon and sidelined by fandom the spotlight. She's special and perfect and loved and recognized and important because...she's none of those things 'in real life'. I wanted to give that to her. Steph's a character I related to when I was her age, and I wanted to give that to myself too.

Jason came from a similar place. I do think canon & fanon are like...overly obsessed with him lmfao. There's a billion 'Jason joins the manor' stories and it's why I almost didn't write the story lol. But he's rarely given the chance to be a kid, one who exists in his own right - to join the Batfam out of his own choice, which is something bizarrely rare in fic. And kids like Jason are the forgotten ones, and it will always be Jason's dream to show the forgotten children that they're as much Robin as he is.

I'm glad it meant something to you ;-;. This story meant a lot to me too, which is why I can go onnnn about it lol. Thanks for reading and enjoying! <3

[cardboardboxy]

Rick shouldn't've ended Hero's of Olympus with everyone in a 'happy' relationship

Heres why :)

So happy is in quotes because piper had textbook comphet and caleo existed, but there wasn't any indication that those couples were going to break up, but I'm going to go through each couple and explain what could've been done better in my opinion

Percabeth: I absolutely love percabeth, but I dislike the fact that almost all lighthearted interactions these two had were with eachother or with people collectively, there was hardly any bonding that they experienced separately which isn't great

Frazel: Setting aside the... questionable age gap, they were very fast paced which logically doesn't make much sense. They were in a very fast paced environment and a lot of their interactions were in high stress situations which isn't the best for getting to know eachother, excusing trauma bonding which shouldn't be used as the basis for a long term relationship, they really had no reason to get together until later on in HoO or potentially even after, so they would've had time to actually form a relationship beyond both of them having crushes and being friends

Jiper: The main issues in their relationship are pointed out in ToA, piper was manipulated by hera/juno to believe she had feelings for jason. I'm unsure whether or not its actually mentioned directly, but jason also felt obligated (in the beginning) to get with piper due to piper having memories of them as a couple. Both of these caused the pair to lack chemistry

Caleo: Apologies to caleo lovers for what comes next. These two are only together because leo is desperate and calypso was cursed, none of their romantic interactions feel natural and their personalities completely clash. In ToA leo talks about him having how calypso would hate him talking about their relationship like a machine even though that kind of thinking is hardwired into his being as a son of hepheastus, which means leo would have to completely change himself in order for him to be palatable to calypso

As individuals they also have issues, leo feels out of place with his own friends and feels inadequate when he isn't in a relationship, the solution to that is to work through whatever is causing those feelings and ideally to strengthen his connection with his friends outside of life or death settings. The last thing leo should do is jump into a relationship with the first girl who reciprocates his interest, let alone one who was cursed to do so

Calypso hasn't had a platonic relationship for over a thousand years, she needs to acclimatise to the current world and create multiple connections before getting into a romantic relationship. The only reason Calypso even remotely likes leo is because of her curse, without it she would still see him as an irratating brat and I doubt she'd even consider him a friend, if her love curse ever faded she'd also probably feel an obligation to stay with leo considering he freed her from basically eternal imprisonment

This concludes my yap session 👍

[mikeylivesattheend]

SO I finally read the first Unwind book by Neal Shusterman and wowowowow people were not lying it's so genuinely incredible. Like no joke, even if you read this goofy post read the first book. It's not perfect (looking at you 2007 era feminism) but it's haunting my thoughts. I don't think it will ever fade. And you know the one scene. You know.

What I'm saying is, even after reading (and starting the 2nd book) of this very grounded, fleshed out world, I had to look it up on a03. With Jason Todd 💀💀💀

It doesn't seem to exist so here's some AU ideas/HCs

Note: This is for fun, and I do not know the ending to the series. This post will spoil general plot points of the first and second books.

-Bruce is a moderate on unwinding. He would, of course, never unwind HIS kids but he trusts s c i e n c e and it follows logic

-just for fun, maybe the person who killed his parents was an awol unwind, and hes grateful that person was able to live on in a better form

-bruce wayne has great security, and the family is intense about preventing storked babies. But if a mother does try, they usually send at least 1k to help, and a lot of mothers go to his house to get some financial assistance

- dick traveled a lot, met a lot of different people. I think he met a lot of unwinds, and his parents were pro not murdering teens, but they couldn't house them for more than a day or two. The law pays more attention to transient spaces they can track after all

-all of this to say dick loved meeting and showing off to new people, and doesnt like the cops, and doesnt like that they get so scared. His parents/troupe influenced him a lot but no one has really said any of this aloud to him since he's so young. Hes never feared being unwound, not seriously.

-my ideal fic wouldnt be dick focused, so his character progression might be depressing here.

-he thinks unwinding is immoral, says it feels wrong, doesn't use words like soul. He is passionate about this issue when directly confronted, but he believes temporary help is the best he can provide.

-dick feels secure he wont be unwound for two reasons. Bruce knows hes too capable to be detained by cops. And dick knows that bruce couldn't live with himself if he condemned dick to a divided existence, no matter what his logic says.

-Unwinding is a huge blur of grey for batman in chaotic, unpredictable Gotham. For brucie wayne, clinking champagne glasses with a teenager's hands, complimenting an elderly investors washboard abs, unwinding is a fact of life. But for bruce wayne, the father, the son, unwinding would always be a prolonged muder. Bruce does not ponder those feelings deeply. He does all he can (he doesnt)

-Dick doesn't like that they rat on violent runaways/unwinding awols, but he knows they fill in lower gaps as goons. He hates it at first, and bruce does learn to ignore more. But dick learns the dangers of desperation. He meets nore people who agree with unwinding, tithes, and as he grows into larger scale problems/hero teams, he loses sight of the bigger government issue.

-all this to say, as an adult, dick does what all his parents did in a way (money, hidden spots he knows, advice he's picked up on) but his morals match bruces more than his parents. He thinks that tithing is okay if the kid is 17 and consents, understands that religion is personal, despises the state homes doing it the most (bruce has given so much to those leeches).

-i dont know enough about the teen titans to know how theyd feel, how that would impact dick, if he'd even /have/ the entire team or if some became unwound

-oh my god unrelated note clark as a teen, despite being very loved, was glad he was indestructible. Docs dont use kryptonite

-jason jason jason my boy jason. So yes unwind awols are pretty natural to him, working girls, hes against the process bc he knows a lot of families who do that to kids & he gets it

-in this au he could keep the canon backstory. It still hurts bc he especially feels then he was a burden, storked by one of willis' exes. Or he could be fully storked from the jump. His bio dad is dead, shelia is the only one alive. Bruce is more anti-shelia initially bc she storked him but he knows some people do want to see their kids later in life? This also impacts his early social clout, since storks are looked down on. Maybe especially so where he's a 'real' burden.

-hes a lot more intense than dick abt unwinds, is deeply paranoid bruce will unwind him and has to be reassured bruce would never personally do that. Jason doesnt want to use unwind body parts, but bruce will always choose jays life over his 'moral high ground.'

-honestly most of death with the family will feel the same, the main difference is Jay will have a guilty thought, wonder if it would have been better to let bruce unwind him, if robin should have served everyone (bruce did not threaten this, but kids have been unwound for a whole lot less).

- THE CRUX IS THAT JAY WAKES UP WHOLE BRAIN IN NEW BODY HORRIFIED HEHEHEGED

- this au uses the movie version of utrh with talua stuff, but add in that the brain cannot automatically connect to the body, this is very untested, and it takes like a year to make it work at all. No laz pit, the body is a military buff 16 year old but not excessively violent yaknow

-he still loses it bc "oh my god I was unwound, how did this happen? did bruce do it? no no? he couldnt. i died. where am i? talias oh shit - gotta go fast yeet"

- he goes to gotham, doesn't try to kill bruce but does realize how fucked he is. He can barely open doors, has to think constantly to walk. After moping for a while talia finds him, offers to train him, explains he was meant to be a gift. Jay says he doesnt want to go back to bruce, talia fucked him over, she seems guilty so the training still happens, mainly as an urge to finish what she started, and maybe fulfill that initial goal someday

- im the most torn on this bc i think jason would never want to risk being their guinea pig again.

-he does not kill anyone until its a parts pirate. Talia sent him to increasingly pro unwinding people to force his hand for sure. Either to have a reason to cut him off, or to make their moral worldviews align more.

-Jay is def vaguely suicidal, self disgust. So this is punishment for him + scumbags. It also puts the body to a purposeful use, in honor of the kid.

-body dysmorphia duh btw. After this im extra fuzzy on details for jay

- i want him to be part of the anti divisional group, I want him to be a more community driven hero. But is that really in character for him? How would the unwinding world impact his priorities? Would he operate in gothan as the red hood, work as a human trafficker to save those kids?

- this is also the reason I'm not focusing on characters that come after jason much. His impact would need to be felt in some way in the stories, but I dont know where yet

-i think tim is part of a much, much larger family here and he didnt go to a fancy school. In canon his grades are mid, and even tho his parents love him, he has a lot of competition.

- him being robin makes his life a lot harder. Maybe after jack +janet die the gov actually orders most of the kids to be unwound bc state ho budgets etc. The uncle thing is very legitimately needed lmao

- steph storks her baby yes, but now she's able to keep track of their life in a really unhealthy way.

-i don't know enough about babs to know how she'd feel. I think she might be for it, she might even heal her spine with it. But I'm not sold on that fully

-cass is radically anti unwind. She does go to bruce, but honestly in this au she might leave because he does condone it through his inaction

- the justice league must be pro unwinding for conflict in this world to work, and finding out the reasons for that would be so interesting. Hell maybe the justice league wouldn't really be a thing at all, with such clashing morals.

-and idk how unwind ends so no fuckin clue on resolving the conflict AND adding superheroes

Sorry this was so long, and for at least 5 typos. Please steal my ideas and write a better fic than i can ty 😘😘😘

I'll probably end up adding more jason details to this if/when I find a game plan for jay or finish the unwind dystology

[dynoguard]

So you want to Do/Commission DynoGuard fanart.

I've gotten several asks about this, so I'll post the answer here.

My positions are largely copyleft. I am pro fanworks, pro transformative work. If you want to do fan stuff for personal use, that's 100% fine and cool, providing you're not selling bootleg merch or the like.

Fic is fine, but anything with story, I will not be reading/watching. That's basic creator self-protection, standard operating procedure. Do not send me unsolicited story materials. Just art* tho? Love to see it. Really recharges the batteries.

That's the easy part.

I also received an ask about NSFW content. That''s a complicated (and awkward) ask. I'd rather Rule 34 exist than be a snarling anti-fanwork type and I have to stay true to my pro-transformative ideals. I do however, have three simple requests for fanart:

Tag all fan works accordingly, if possible, include that it is fanart in the description. This is just for clarity.

Please do not tag anything NSFW with #DynoGuard. #DynoCrack or some other divergent tag is fine. This is just so when my concept is being searched during pitch processes that Rule 34 doesn't pop up.

If you do NSFW, keep Jason and Linn out of it, please.

I've never fielded questions of this type, and I hope I've done so in an appropriate way. I reserve the right to edit these preferences based on future experience.

*Oh, and when I say I like to see fanart, that's SFW stuff. Don't send creators porn.