#my partner: I think you care too much about batman villains

[citrus-cactus]

The experiences that I, a Batman: The Animated Series/New Adventures of Batman enjoyer, have playing Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are fundamentally different from that of my partner, who never saw any of the 1990s DCAU and whose primary Batman experiences growing up were the 1960 live action version and the Burton/Schumacher movies.

[saphushia]

I know very little about the DCU but everything about DP but for some reason your fic recs intrigued me and now I’m in dcxdp hell and I was wondering if you have more recommendations especially for finished fics 👀 you have opened a can of worms in my brain and I must feed them

ok but i literally got into this shit the same exact way aubdskjfg. literally fell ass deep into this from sheer curiosity barely knowing fuckin anything abt batman and now i've read more batman comics than i ever thought i would in my life.

anyways! yeah i think i've got a couple! apologize if there's a couple duplicates from my last recs i can't be bothered to go check it lmao

⭐= my absolute favorites

=ONESHOTS=

Late Night Talkin' [danny/dick] there-was-only-one-bed get-together wheremst danny n dick r hero partners

The Stiches That Bind Us Together [danny/dick] dick's not feeling well, so danny shows up at his apartment to take care of him. and danny knows well enough what hero-ing injuries look like to take a well-educated guess

Consequences danny + fear gas. bad combo

the case of the serial killer dick befriends wierd homeless teenager danny

It's a Small World Afterall [tim/danny] tim convinces danny to take him to amity on a date. he of course then gets kidnapped- by technus, of all people

Can You Fly Without Wings? circus gothica episode but danny gets taken all the way to gotham with freakshow

Cold nights and warm hands danny's sick, so dick of course invites him to stay at the manor, and they relax together

⭐Hollow the bats encounter one danny masters at a gala, and they're all immediately concerned about how blank the boy seems. danny's missing something, something important to him, and he's missing too much to even know what

Baby it's Cold Inside [tim/danny] danny unknowingly gets hit with cuddle pollen, and tim fulfills his boyfriend responsibility of providing snuggles

Surprise Halloween Haunting jason gets kidnapped to be a sacrifice in a ritual, and hijacks it to dial up a friend

4 Times Dick Grayson met Tim Drake's Partner +1 Time He Met Them All Together [tim/danny/tucker/sam] cute tim dating all the amity trio and confusing his brothers. also furry convention scene <3

⭐Bait and Switch thanks to a cult, danny ends up possessing jason, and neither are very happy about it

=FINISHED MULTI-CHAPTERS=

Last year, I starved. This year, I devour without guilt [danny/jason] danny takes one look at jason and decides he's in need of urgent ghost medical care, so he takes matters into his own hands

The Misadventures of Cosplay Man danny gets stuck in the DC universe for a little bit, so he goes around befuddling every villain and hero he comes across, with the power of bad cosplay.

⭐Satiate jason runs into danny while danny's having a little 'nice to meet you' ravenous brawl with the spirit of gotham. as ghosts do.

Vacation Crashers the fentons' camping trip goes south for all the usual ghost reasons, and that's before the batman crash lands in the middle of all of it. cue a teamup between jazz, danny, and all the bats, to take down vlad

Wanted: Dead and Alive tim rescues an injured teenager he found in a glowing green vat in an unknown experimental facility. proceeds to lose the injured teenager. loses his shit trying to find said teenager who is hiding way too effectively for a guy whose guts were on the floor a few days ago.

ok i'm only like halfway thru my bookmarks but i'm tired now kdsjbfgjkdsfg have fun~

[editorofeverything]

Just speaking to the void, but I was fangirling as I rewrote one of my chapter to my Daminette fic and I cannot get over what good parallels there are between Marinette and Damian.

Like, Marinette's this sweet, kind, caring, talented, silly, goofy, clumsy girl who had to grow up too fast. All she wanted to do was survive school, maybe get a boyfriend, have a good time with her friends, and nurture her growing talent and prestige in the fashion world. She loves her parents and family, and she is this exuberant, friendly gal who makes friends with just about everyone. Then, she's given this huge responsibility of being a hero and having to learn how to fight and lead and protect everyone and everything from ultimate destruction, all while keeping her secret identity and constantly feeling like a failure in both her superhero and civilian life. Before being LB, she slept in because she was a heavy sleeper and she stayed up too late being inspired to design, or playing video games with her parents, or doing homework like your average preteen girl. After she became LB, being a superhero took over her regular life. There was no balance. Then came losing Master Fu. Then came Lila, making Marinette's life horrible as a civilian to the point she could become akumatized- which she can't because she's LB. And then her friend- who she became a superhero for- all but abandons her for Lila and makes excuses for her even after learning Marinette's LB. Marinette gains a lot when she became LB- her confidence, a partner, a new love, power, respect, integrity- but I would argue that she lost that much more- Master Fu, her friends (to an extent and bc of Lila), her childhood, her teen years, her normal life, Luka as her boyfriend, a peaceful night's sleep- I could honestly go on. She was an abnormally talented, kind, wonderful girl who would grow up to rule the fashion world if given the chance, and then she had to change when she became LB. She grew up fast and was burdened with a power and responsibility that she never wanted in the first place, and her normal life began to fall apart.

And then there's Damian who grew up with all these expectations to be the next leader of the League of Assassins and was groomed his whole life to rule the world with his immortal (immoral) grandfather at his side. He was taught how to be the perfect assassin since he was born. He was expected to be the perfect offspring of Talia al Ghul and Bruce Wayne/Batman, the world's greatest detective. And he loses everything he's ever known at the young age of ten- his grandfather, his mother as she take over the League, everything he's ever known- and is sent to his father, who he's heard so much about because, despite everything that happened between them, Ra's al Ghul and Talia both have huge respect for Bruce/Batman, and this ten year old assassin is faced with his great father hating who he is and what he was trained to do. Damian starts out with the batfam hating every minute of it. He thinks he's in the right, that they're soft and unwilling to do what it takes to protect the world by taking out the ones who threaten it. He scoffs at his father's rules that all life should be protected and to never kill another, no matter how much you think they deserve it. It goes against everything the League taught him, everything he's ever known, and he spends his childhood learning and failing and learning again how precious life is and how the League and everything he grew up learning is as evil as some of the villains they put behind bars. He becomes a vegetarian and adopts a cow, a dog, a cat. He plays video games and learns that he likes to draw. He goes to school and suffers a mundane life every kid his age goes through. He finds a family and friends and a team falls in love. He spends the second half of his childhood learning how to become a hero instead of a dictator, and it changes him for the better.

And when you put them together, the parallels in their stories and personalities really play off each other well. She had the world at her feet and became restricted as she became a hero. He was restricted to be exactly who his grandfather and mother expected him to be and the world opened up to him when he left them behind. They both suffered and grew up despite everything standing in their way, and I think that creates a strong bond between them when they get to know each other.

(It's also hilarious thinking about how they would handle the other's situation. Like Marinette would absolutely become the favorite child in the Wayne household if that's how she became a hero. And then Damian would take over the League and run the world if that's how he became a hero, which wouldn't be good exactly, but he would likely learn over time (I think))

[steampunk-epipen]

To add to this, just take a look at the live action film versions ALONE and you'll see massive differences.

Batman 66 was completely based on the Silver Age of Batman, a version of Batman that was meant to be more child friendly, more hopeful, more fun and wacky, goofier than thou, yet takes the concept of justice as seriously as any other version of himself.

then you have the Burton Batman. For many, this is THE Batman. I've heard it said that this Batman doesn't really have much of a personality except brooding and mysterious. Barely a character and more of a presence, which is honestly a really valid take on him. Batman is PART of Gotham, something you cannot and should not ever remove from the city, lest you face the wrath of the Bat.

then you have Schumacher's Kilmer Batman, who's a little serious in Batman Forever. Brooding, mysterious, but also incredibly INCREDIBLY DOWN BAD for Dr. Chase Meridian (who I will not talk about here). He is a deeply flawed, deeply troubled character who, based on the Schumacher cut, blames himself for the death of the Waynes—a trait of his that seems to carry over in other films.

Then comes in Schumacher's Clooney Batman, who was fun and goody and entertaining (seriously, let's all forgive Clooney at this point, please? He's been on an apology tour for years!). He was definitely a return to Adam West's style of humor, though not really done the same way. There was drama and tension and the burden of leadership that Bruce struggled with since he's always worked alone. Something many people don't seem to get is that Bruce, despite being a CEO, doesn't have very good leadership skills yet. Something made very clear with the amount of arguments he and Dick make. Snap decisions should be something he's good at, but not when he's balancing saving his partner, saving civilians, and catching criminals. The opening joke "this is why Superman works alone" is honestly a little clever in my eyes because of this—THAT IS EXACTLY WHY SUPERMAN WORKS ALONE! BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE CAN KEEP UP WITH HIM! (At least, that's what Clark would think).

AND! AND AND AND Christopher Nolan's Batman! Ohhhh that's one Batman alright. Dark, brooding, mysterious, also incredibly down bad for Rachel Dawes. Difference? He wants out. He wants to be free. He actually wants to make a proper change to the city, saving it constantly, and he knew when to hang up the cape. His last bout as the Bat was only because the threat was too big for the police. Gordon HAD to have learned how to handle Scarecrow by now TDK. Gordon HAD to have struggled with Joker AND Two-face because that's how Long Halloween went with Holiday and Harvey—this was Bruce's detective arc (albeit done poorly. The man is mostly prepared for anything yet can't seem to focus on solving crimes. He's go to plan seems to be catching the criminal in the act and watching the news, a trait that seems to have been carried over from Batman Returns, as referenced in a few video essays I've seen). There was backstory, there was character, there was drama, there was internal conflict, there was STORY.

Then, we get Ben Affleck's Batman... Should I? I should... He's... he's great, honestly. I like him, except for the killing but yk Batman does the whole "I don't have to save you" on a few villains in the comics so whatever. But I like Batfleck. Batfleck is this Batman that you know is so jaded, so dark, so tired of everything. He's basically Old Man Bruce from Batman Beyond letting everything out and not caring anymore. Fear was the weapon and death was his friend. Imagine being the Batman that gave up? That was him. He was gruesome, violent, unrestrained with all the precision of Batman we've come to expect. It was after Superman died that he finally gave in and accepted that he's not alone. That there are other heroes. That Justice and the Good Fight will never end with more bloodshed. That hope should prevail.

Then, THEN! Let's talk about the new guy. The one, the only, Battinson. Battinson is certainly a young guy, following the plot line of Long Halloween and a few others. (I just wanna say, making Riddler's costume similar to Hush is just *chef's kiss*). This is different, it's like Ben's but also Bale's. Gruesome but soft. Tortured but levelled. Clever but arrogant. Battinson is 100% a YOUNG Batman and I love it so much. Discovering hope was such a perfect arc for him EXACTLY because, in Long Halloween, Bruce and Falcone had the same belief: "We Believe in Gotham City".

That's not even getting into TDKR, where he's an incredibly controversial figure already. There's much about Batman that just cannot be explained in one version alone. looking at his early version in 1939, when he was literally going up against gangsters, mad scientists, a literal vampire, and god knows what else.

simply put, I'm a massive Batman fan, sue me.

Y’know there’s something I’ve noticed. The reason why none of the Batman movies will ever be universally liked or agreed upon by fans is because Batman is such a character open for interpretation. There are so many different headcanons and fanons that makes it so difficult to please all the fans with just one interpretation of him. He is such a complex person that nobody can really agree if he’s in the right or wrong, he’s very controversial.

[thevindicativevordan]

Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.

Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.

Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.

Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.

Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.

That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.

Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.

Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.

The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.

So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.

How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.

The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.

Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.

For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.

[crisis-on-infinite-batblogs]

Okay wait, is Brothers in Blood actually.... good?

I mean, we all know how wacky that story is, but I've just been thinking about it a lot, and I'd like you to come on another journey with me while I over-analyze and give this arc way too much credit.

((Warning: we will be discussing Jason's canonical tentacles below the cut.))

Part One: Context. It's not just for the birds.

Brothers in Blood happens roughly a year and a half after Dick lets Tarantula kill Blockbuster. He's real fucked up about it, and feels responsible for that death, and sort of hates himself for allowing it to happen. The fucking BATMAN calls him out and tells him to get his shit together. That's how you know it's bad.

Nightwing #117

"You know the difference between shooting a bullet and failing to step in front of one."

Batman's being all angry and imposing, but he's really just telling Dick to forgive himself and admonishing his son for putting himself in danger because of a stupid mistake. Bruce knows all about letting grief ruin your life; he doesn't want Dick to go down the same path.

So Dick takes a year off. He puts away the suit and just tries to live a normal life. He leaves the ashes of Blüdhaven behind and moves back to New York. Things are going pretty good until they're not. Dick is in the process of finding a new place and reconnecting with old friends, when his sabbatical is suddenly (and murderously) cut short.

Part Two: Imitation is the severest form of flattery.

This is a Nightwing comic, so clearly Dick is our hero. Jason is celebrating the one year anniversary of stuffing a duffel bag full of human heads, so it's a pretty safe bet to say he'll be playing a villain. But it's a little more nuanced than that.

While Dick was away, Jason saw a bird-shaped void and opted to fill it the only way he knows how: by stealing Dick's costume and doing what Nightwing won't.

Nightwing #118

"Only one person whose attention I'm interested in..."

The true villains of this arc are the Pierce brothers. They own and operate multiple nightclubs, as well as a human trafficking ring, and plenty of other nefarious ventures. They also happen to employ all of the scumbags that Jason hunts down and kills. However, the Pierce brothers are notably two people, not one; ergo, it is not their attention Jason is interested in.

The person he's trying to get to is Dick, and boy, is he really getting to him. Dick is absolutely furious, but more on that later. Suffice it to say: Jason has his attention now.

Nightwing #119

Jason teases that they should share the mantle and keeps calling Dick "partner". He even taunts him about (big air quotes) "killing Blockbuster." By antagonizing him thusly, Jason is pulling Dick back into the life. He's forcing Dick to end his hiatus and be the hero he knows his brother to be.

Obviously, Jason's motives aren't entirely selfless. My guess is that he's only half-way joking about partnering up. The past year has been extremely lonely for him. He had his big show down with Bruce which quite literally blew up in his face, and we don't really know what he did after that. It was probably just a lot of bed rest and self loathing.

After Jason stops being useful as a plot device, Dick just leaves him behind to face the bad guy alone in an altered physical state (if you know what I mean). Dick tells his companion Cheyenne that the building is going to blow up, and she immediately says "What about Jason?", to which Dick responds "Jason'll have to take care of Jason this time." AND THEN HE JUST FUCKIN' DIPS.

That's literally the last time we see Jay in this story. For some reason they decide to tie that loose end up with a letter which reads:

"Dear Dick-bird. I survived and I'm all back to normal in case you're interested. Leaving town to find my own way. Thanks for coming for me, brother. I know we don't agree on much. I just wanted to believe we could be family again."

It's sort of difficult to read tone from a telegram, but if we assume that Jason is being genuine, this is just incredibly sad. The only reason why he was in New York was to try and rebuild his relationship with his brother, who just ended up abandoning him all over again.

Part Three: The best offense is a good defense mechanism.

It is a well-known fact that when it comes to killing, Batman is a sanctimonious asshole (Jason's words, not mine). While Dick tries his best not to murder people, he's not nearly as anal about it as his mentor. So I guess my question is: why is he being such a dick to Jason about it?

The answer is a little something psychologists like to call PROJECTION. Dick is gathering up all the things he doesn't like about himself and projecting those traits onto Jason. So much so that he literally sees him as a demon with horns and fangs.

Nightwing #119

Let it never be said that Brothers in Blood is subtle.

When Jason shows up wearing his colors and slaughtering people, Dick's secret shame is all the sudden front page news. Now all of New York City knows that Nightwing is a killer... but Dick's known that for a while-- and he still hates himself for it.

So all of this vitriol and hostility is only partly directed at Jason, but that doesn't make it hurt any less when he accuses his brother of being on drugs.

Nightwing #119

...way harsh. Like, I know it's 2006. It was still cool back then to joke about being on crack, but considering how Jason's mom died, this feels like Dick is just poking the homicidal bear.

I already mentioned in Part Two how he leaves Jason to fight the bad guy alone in a building that's about to blow up, but really I think the shittiest thing Dick does here is when he says this:

Nightwing #119

My jaw dropped when I read that. On the next page, he says he'll put Jason at the bottom of the East River. I was so tempted to just write this off as an OOC piece of shit story, but if we're jumping through all these hoops to redeem it anyway, I'll just say this:

Dick is experiencing a lot of anger (something that's actually very much in character for him) and in his anger, he says and thinks some things that he doesn't actually mean.

We could also chalk this up to projection again, and say that Dick is really wishing he himself had died. It's still not great, but it's a little more palatable to me if you want to think about it that way.

Part Four: Tentatodd's not real, it can't hurt you.

It's time to address the giant tentacle monster in the room... and by "address" I mean "completely retcon out of existence".

While we're on the subject of projection and skewed perspectives, I'd like to posit that the mind-reading insectoid creature-feature known as "Jakob"-- was really just a dude.

Nightwing #120

He's a meta-human with psychic powers, but a dude nonetheless.

Sure, he looks like a eldritch Lovecraftian nightmare, but what if this was just what he WANTED the heroes to see him as? What is this was just a scary image that he conjured up in the minds of others to make himself seem more intimidating? What if it's nothing more than an illusion?

So, the totally normal looking meta-human dude uses his powers to capture Jason, and proceeds to more or less fuck with his mind while they wait for Nightwing to come to the rescue.

The beginning of #121 takes place inside Jason's head, and we get to see how miserable and wretched he really is. Jason doesn't believe that any one is coming to save him. He doesn't believe that he's worth saving.

And then this nonsense happens:

Nightwing #122

We already know that Dick is more than willing to see Jason as a monster, and now we know that Jason feels the same way about himself. It's not too much of a stretch to say that Tentatodd is nothing more than a shared delusion brought on by adrenaline, low self-esteem, and residual psychic delusion.

If you really like Jason's canonical tentacles, that's between you and your gods. For me, I have to believe that it was all some sort of hallucination. I just can't live in a world where that really happened, but to each their own ig.

In conclusion:

Honestly, I'm still a little fuzzy on this time period in the comics. There was a one year time leap and I'm still trying to fill in some of the blanks. If you've got any luminary insights feel free to message me or send an ask or w/e.

Thanks for coming to my bat-shit TED talk.

[redrobin-detective]

So, I was scrolling through your WG’s tag (which I love) and I wanted to extend on an ask you got a while ago about Ra’s and Tabithas different relationship. I totally agree that making gender bent characters inherently sexual, especially the villain and hero relationship is fucking annoying and weird. Unfortunately, I think ras would be a creepy little freak- but in a way where he makes lots of innuendos in a way that he thinks is totally clever and smart and charming but it’s just weird. Tab doesn’t really react to it because anything more than mild disappointment would be succeeding ground to him- so she just blows past it (as she blows up all his bases).

Now, this may be wish fulfillment for me to see a creep get his ass handed to him. But, I imagine he is a creep in front of another member of the batfam and they just snap. (I think it would work Bc rr is about ras assuming Tim’s allies dont care about him so he’s going for an intimidation thing but it doesn’t pan out) now, my question is (after that rambling), who do you think would fit best for the beat down? Like I cant decide between all of them -(´；ω；｀)

ps. Since I’m imaging Ra’s as kind of a sexist prick, would that affect talias relationship with the rest of the batfam?

Ra's is creepy to Tim in canon so it would cross over HOWEVER I would like to avoid the weird rape porn I see sometimes in genderbends. In the WG au I keep all the canon relationships (Peg still dates Starfire, Tab's first partner was Arianna) because they're essentially the same people with the same loves.

Ra's I think would be a bit dismissive of Batman's girl partners. There's a bit of understanding there as the father of stubborn daughters himself but he doesn't treat Talia with the same respect Bruce does his girls. Tabitha's quest to revive Bruce was, at first, a wild goose chase but then he saw the merit in it. He didn't truly appreciate what she was doing until it was too late. For my own sanity I'm avoiding the 'make you my evil queen bleh' scenario and going more with the canon 'you can do so much more in my organization' just with a bit of a sexist spin on it. He plays into her fears of not being good enough, that Damira has stolen her place as Robin, her idol Janis hated her, many of her friends were dead. He wants her on his side because he finally sees her worth as an asset. To Talia and Damira, it feels like a slap in the face not understanding that Ra's is using all of them as pawns.

[wesavegotham]

My personal thoughts on this are that if Damian has a conflict with Bruce again it should be more like in Batman and Robin 2011 where at least I felt like Tomasi tried to give both Bruce and Damian understandable reasons for their opinions and actions most of the time, Bruce was written as fallible and flawed on purpose and Tomasi let him learn that he was wrong about Damian (unlike other writers who write Bruce as a bad person on accident and then refuse to let Bruce face the consequences, * cough * Tom King *cough*)

Not crap like Batman vs Robin, which resolved Bruce and Damian's long running conflict by...making Damian realize that he would never be as great as his father and the solution to everything is to simply believe in the greatness of Batman really hard.

I'm still so annoyed by that. What the hell was Waid on? It fixed NOTHING. I prefer Bruce's half-assed apology to Damian during Shadow War over this and that already wasn't satisfying (and still refused to aknowledge the actual chain of events that lead to Alfred's death in City of Bane)

I also see people expressing their hope that DC puts Damian on a new team book like a magic based team when they thought Damian would get magic powers out of the Lazarus Planet event or a new team with other young characters like Irey and Jai West after the most recent Flash issue...and I'm simply not ready to see Damian on a team again. It didn't go well before and Teen Titans 2016 might have killed my desire to see him in a team book ever again. Even in the run before they tried to turn him into a villain it wasn't exactly fun and he felt like everyone's punching bag most of the time.

I remember some people saying that Irey putting Damian down in a recent story was "so great, this could be a special relationship, he needs someone who humbles him" and I couldn't disgree more. Damian has this exact dynamic with what feels like 90 to 95% of characters he interacts with. Even when he doesn't do anything to a character you get crap like Black Alice calling him an asshole even though she barely interacted with him when he was possessed by Nezha (which would be treated as a valid excuse for any other hero character) and hadn't said anything to her after he was freed. You know what would actually be a unique dynamic DC writers? Someone who actually values him and doesn't insult him for no damn reason. Stuff like this just makes me dislike Damian's so called new friends.

It's also one of the reasons why I am not a fan of his relationship with Flatline at all. Even after they kissed she makes fun of him for referring to her as possibly his girlfriend (he even showed awareness that she might not see it as a serious relationship?) when talking about her and she seemed very uncaring/nonchalant about their relationship status in her Lazarus Planet story. It all comes off as Damian once again caring way more than the other person.

Sorry, but if DC thinks Damian already needs a love interest at his age I would much prefer a character who I feel actually wants to be Damian's romantic partner and is not only aspiring to be yet another unstable relationship in his life. He already has enough of those and I think he deserves someone who is not playing some weird games with him.

If I'm being completely honest I'm not that fond of any arcs revolving around Damian getting "new friends" in the near future. I've read the arc of Damian befriending someone, only achieving anything after learning about "the power of friendship" for the nth time and then this friendship getting ignored by the next writer way too many times. Not even his most promising friendship (in terms of this character having staying power) with Jon has truly been relevant after Jon got aged up.

I simply want to see Damian achieve things on his own. Without any other character helping him or Damian only coming up with a plan that lets another character solve the problem.

Damian, a bit like Cassandra Cain, is a character who had to sacrifice their childhood and social skills to become a skillfull fighter. Only that Cassandra actually gets praise for her skills and is often allowed to be competent (I'm not saying there aren't other problems with the way DC is treating her though) while Damian's canon track record in solo fights is kinda awful. The list of serious foes he managed to beat is actually pretty short and unimpressive.

So I guess what I most desire to see in the near future is Damian finally getting some solo achievements under his belt, less undeserved insults and friends/family members/love interests who are written as if they actually like him and want to be around him.

What with Damian and other characters would you like to see more of?

EDIT: anon sent two asks that are the exact same except the 2nd one said "what conflict with Damian and other char-" and I accidentally answered the 1st ask that didn't mention the word conflict, sorry.

Gonna be honest for a minute here; I genuinely don’t want Damian to have any conflicts with any non-villain character for the next.......10 years lol

Yes, I know that characters having conflicts with each other is what makes them so interesting, but DC has been exaggerating Damian’s attitude and lack of people skills by making him an angry brat that butt-heads with everyone for so many years that I’m kinda over it at this point? Like he already had enough conflicts with other characters to last a lifetime, do we REALLY need to add more to the list? If anything I think it’s high-time we switched it up and actually had characters enjoying Damian’s company without first trying to fight him or mentioning how rude he is.

But most importantly the real reason for that is because I know that whenever he argues with a non-villain character, DC will never allow him to win the argument or be in the right. He has to always be the instigator who provokes other characters for no reason which always result in either him apologizing to them or getting reprimanded by other characters/the narrative. Seriously though, I have read every single comic that Damian has ever appeared in and I genuinely can’t recall any significant moment where a character has genuinely apologized or shown regret to the way they talked to/treated him and if they did, then its because Damian apologized to them first.

Except for maybe his parents, but I personally don’t like taking Talia apologizing to him into consideration since she’s only apologizing for things that she did due to character-assassination and with Bruce its always half-assed.

Like I understand how difficult Damian can be to deal with and how he can easily step on people’s foot, but there’s so no way you can convince me that’s he’s always the instigator every single time? Because I can count many times where other characters did him wrong without him doing anything to deserve it (at that moment at least), yet none of them have apologized, got reprimanded or shown any guilt toward their actions.

As for already existing conflicts? I’m not really interested in seeing any of them resurface again because all of them have been constantly repeated, stretched, exaggerated and dragged through the years to the point where all of them are now boring and unnecessary. Especially when the biggest two conflicts he has had are with characters that DC and readers has strong bias for (Bruce & Tim), so continuing them anymore will just end up making Damian look bad, since he will never be allowed to be in the right when it comes to them.

So yeah lets take a little break from all the fights, unless it was like harmless comedic banter, then sure, that sounds like fun and will not hurt anyone. Otherwise, just let him have unconditionally wholesome interactions with other characters for once please.

[w-ndrr]

distraction | diana prince x batgirl!reader (m)

a/n: this is nsfw! viewer discretion advised :) i also don’t write a lot of smut so i will try my very best. thanks for reading! <3 xoxo isabelle

summary: (possessive wonder woman x batgirl!reader smut) after diana and bruce’s little sister!reader have a falling out, they meet again at bruce’s little soirée and they do the thing >.<

word count: hold up idk yet (update ok now i know it’s 4.27k+)

warnings: AHEMMM the tiniest bit of angst, overprotectiveness, jealousy, possessiveness, make up sex? idk, smut; top!diana, fingering, oral, dirty talk?, hair pulling, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, marking, body worship, and her f*cking lasso

Gotham City was the pride of criminals and wrongdoers. At every corner of any street, there is always a victim at the receiving end of these crimes. It was dark place to be—to live in. The endless corruption in this city felt suffocating to be even a part of. You couldn’t imagine why a person would want to live here. Especially, with a clown always on the loose. But, the Batman has always come to save the day... Usually.

Batman was the shoulder the people of this crime infested city would lean on. Time and time again, he’s saved his city, delivering justice to the criminal element. But, he was a busy man. Under his vigilante persona, he was Bruce Wayne; he’s got a company to run, a public to satisfy and little sister to protect.

Unfortunately, having a brother like him, you followed a lot of his footsteps and decided to go save the city sometimes, too, which he passionately protested for you not to do so. You were Batgirl. And you told him that he’s got other bigger responsibilities like being a highly treasured member of the his little superhero club, the Justice League.

You’ve met the members of the Justice League. They were interesting people and they were friendly sometimes. One of them stood out, though.

Her name was Diana. Diana Prince. And you had fallen in love with her as did she. Her intelligence and determination to protect everyone was endearing. Not to mention, she was a beauty amongst beauties and you had willingly wrapped yourself around her finger.

Her love for you was undeniable. She wanted to protect you at all costs and if any harm had come to you, she would never forgive herself for not being there. She wanted you safe all the time.

But, as Batgirl, that was something you couldn’t promise.

Sometimes you would come home to her with fatal injuries and she would have to tend to your wounds. And every second, she loathed it. She hated it when you bled. She hated it when you came home with bruises and cuts. She hated it when you would cry when it was too painful.

And after almost two years of being together, the both of you fought and argued and screamed at each other. Out of anger, Diana had admitted to you being weak with no powers. She has faced many strong dangers and she believed it would be hard for you to stand against a villain who possesses powers from beyond. The words that spilled her mouth had shocked even her and she tried to take it all back but, it was too late.

You were livid. She thought you were weak, and you were angry. You stormed off and cried into the arms of your big brother. Bruce understood what Diana was thinking. At some point, he thought of you like that, too. In a way, he still kind of does. And that was okay. He’s your big brother and he should be protective the same way Diana should be.

It had been months since you spoke to Diana; the last conversation you had together didn’t go so well. You were still angry at her, but you also missed her. You loved being with her. Sometimes, because of it, you wanted to just forget about the whole fight and go back.

But, you’re not weak. And you knew that.

Lately, Bruce has been trying really hard to make your days better. He knew it would be hard to do so without the Amazonian. He also knew she was the key to making you happy.

So, he threw a gala in an attempt to get the two of you back together.

You hated parties, whether it contained solo cups, cheap beer, and blaring music or inconsequent polite conversation, canapes, and wine. You didn’t like them. You would usually put on an act as you entered the room; Bruce Wayne’s beautiful little sister. She was charismatic, a little cocky, liked to mingle, liked to drink. All which you are not.

Even though Bruce knew you wouldn’t want to go to a stupid party at the top floor of one of his hotels, it was the only way to get you and Diana into a room together without worrying about world problems. Bruce told her about the plan. You would be angry, she already predicted that, but she missed you. By the gods, she misses you so much. She would do anything to see you.

And when she did, her body ached for you. She saw you through a sea of business men and women and other important people she could care less about. You glowed in that beautiful silk gown and her eyes stuck to you like glue. Your stride, your confidence and your back, on full display, caught the eye of innumerable people in the room and she wanted to hide you—to keep you away from their lingering eyes. You belonged to her.

As she was just about to walk towards you, she heard your laugh. When she looked to the side, there was a man dressed in a fancy, three piece suit standing in front of you with a glass of champagne in between his fingers, just like you.

Bruce walks past Diana and before he could walk away successfully, she grabbed the collar of his suit jacket and pulled him close enough to talk.

“Who is that?” Diana pointed in your direction.

Bruce’s eyes darted to you then to your partner, “Oh, that’s Jamie Harris, one of the head scientists at my Biotech department... Also, (Y/N)’s���”

“Ex. Got it.��

Diana shook her head and sighed. You had only mentioned him once when you and Diana had talked about past significant others.

“What’s your plan, princess?” Bruce raises an eyebrow at the tall woman.

“What do you think I should do?”

“I would recommend just going up to her,” Bruce suggests. “Interrupt them before they doing anything big. You never know, he could be asking her out right now.”

The Amazonian nodded as she turned her head back towards your direction. Clenching her jaw at the sight of you and this short man, she walked over confidently with her eyebrows furrowed. When she got close enough, Diana had to clear her throat to grab both of your attention.

“Ahem,” Diana pursed her lips slightly before putting on a synthetic smile. “Do you mind if I interrupt?”

Diana watched as you met her gaze before immediately taking a large sip of your champagne with your soft, pretty lips. She sees your jaw clench and your eyes glance everywhere but her.

“Not at all,” the man exclaims happily, straightening his posture as he watches the woman that joined them. “Mind I interest you in a glass, Miss...”

“Prince,” Diana nods at him although she could care less about whatever comes out of this puny man’s mouth. “(Y/N). It’s nice to see you again.”

After preparing, you give her a fake smile and say, “I wish I could say the same to you, Diana.”

The Amazonian swears her she felt a sharp pain in her chest. She licks her lips and stares at the floor. She notices your foot tapping against it as if you were getting impatient and her eyes traveled from your feet, to the hand the rested lowly at the curve your hip, up to your collarbones, then to your neck that she missed to kiss so much. Diana felt her mouth go dry. You looked so good. All she wanted now was to take you away from this man and everyone else in this room just to have you all to herself. Her body ached to touch you—to feel your skin against hers.

But, this man was in the way.

“Ahem. Nice to meet you, Miss Prince,” Jamie gives her a smug smile and puts her hand out to shake hers. “I’m Jamie Harris! You can call me Jamie. A scientist working under Bru—”

“That’s great, Mr. Harris,” Diana says without even giving him a glance given that her eyes were practically glued onto you. “You look stunning, Miss Wayne.”

“She does, doesn’t she?” Jamie butts in with a laugh. “You should see her in the morning! Her does this curl thing and it looks ridicu—”

“I beg to differ, Mr. Harris,” Diana clenched her jaw even harder and glares at him. “In fact, I hope you are not criticizing her hair when you have the same do as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.”

“I—Uh. W-Who—”

“ A dictator. I’m sorry. I forget you’re a scientist, not a politician—”

“Diana.”

Your voice held so much authority over her; it stopped her in her tracks and she stutters only for a moment before turning her head back to you. She swallows the lump in her throat as she studies the look on your face. Your eyes were bold, glaring at her with her brows furrowed.

“A word, please,” you tell her with a sigh. “Alone.”

Diana takes a deep breath in attempt to let out some steam. She feels your hand grab her arm to take her away from the crowds and out into a secluded hall. The moment you touched her, she felt like she was on fire. She followed behind you and watched the way you walk and by the gods, she wanted nothing more than to put her hands on your hips if you’d let her.

After you decided that it was far enough from the party, you turned around with your brows furrowed as you looked at her, her brows furrowed as well. You inhaled slowly as she crossed her arms over her chest. God, she was distracting. You shook your head and closed your eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What are you doing talking to your—”

“Ex, Diana? What’s wrong with it?” you yell at her. “I’m doing the same thing right now, aren’t I?”

Diana is taken back for a moment. Sometimes, she denies that the two of you actually broke up. You watch her as she brings her long fingers up to scratch her neck slowly. God, it was distracting.

“(Y/N). I don’t like it when you talk to other people who are obviously interested in you,” the Amazon tells you firmly. “It angers me.”

“I can do whatever I want, Diana. The last time I checked, we’re not together anymore,” you step closer to her. “And I’m not weak! I don’t need you or Bruce to tell me what I can and can’t do. I know I don’t have powers like you or Clark or Barry. I know that very well. I know I have to be more careful than all of you because I don’t get a second chance. But, Bruce does the same thing everyday! Why can’t I? I’ve trained the same as he has. I’ve fought the same as you all have! I make my own choices. Diana, I’m tired of everyone treating me like I’m glass!”

After you were finished, you heaved for air and your eyes had brimmed with tears. You had barely taken a breath since you started talking. Diana had watched your chest rise up and down and to be honest, it was really attractive when you did. Diana mentally cursed at herself for thinking about you like that after you had poured your heart out. But, by the gods, you were so distracting.

Diana had only stared at you after your speech and it only made you furious. Rubbing your fingers over your temples, you closed your eyes and let out a sigh.

“I’m done with this,” you throw your hands into the air and attempted to walk past her.

Before you could get away, Diana places her hand on your upper arm and pulls you back. She wasn’t really thinking as much as she was doing. And you weren’t exactly prepared for this next move she had in mind; in fact, it’ll leave you speechless.

“Diana—”

Her lips pressed against yours, hardly wasting no time to slide them together with a tilt of her head. Her nose brushes against yours and you sigh into the kiss. God, you’ve missed her. Even if she made you angry, you’ve missed her so much these past few months.

Diana kisses you like you were the finest thing she’ll ever taste. She kisses you with so much force that it’s all you could think about. And when she slipped her tongue past your lips to meet yours, you almost fell weak at your knees, but she released the grip on your arm and pressed her hand flat on your back, pressing you against her front firmly. You held onto her shoulders as you moaned into her mouth. Gods, when you did, Diana aggressively fought the urge to take you right there in this hall.

Diana pulls her head back to look at you. Your lipstick was slightly smudged and your eyes were half lidded as you breathed heavily.

“I’m getting us a room.”

The Amazonian thanked Bruce in her head for throwing this damn party on the rooftop of one of his hotels. So, she dragged you far, far away from the soirée and into a bed.

Before the door even opened into the room, Diana had your legs wrapped around her waist as she carried you in. She almost wanted to kick the door down after struggling to get the keycard through the slot, but it didn’t even matter. She had pressed your back against the door, lips sliding over each other, as she slipped the keycard in.

The door opened with an electronic beep and you were met with a wide room with a large white bed in front of a large window looking down at the city lights almost seventy stories up from the ground. The view illuminated the room dimly and there was no need to even turn the lights on.

Diana closed the door with her foot and slammed you against the wall (as lightly as she could without hurting you). Your hands tangled up in her hair as she moves her lips from your mouth, to your jaw, and then down to your neck. She bit on you lightly before sucking passionately until a bruise formed. And she didn’t stop. She marked you all over your neck. After she would give you a hickey, she would run her tongue over it softly. She would kiss you behind your ear, underneath your jaw, and back to you lips. She missed you so much and she couldn’t wait to mark you all over your body like you belonged to her; and you did.

Diana easily ripped your gown off and slid it down from your shoulders (it’s fine, she’ll buy you a new one). You were pressed up against her and the wall behind you as you held her waist tighter with you legs. The Amazonian rested her head in the crook of your neck as her hand slid down from your waist to your panties. She felt the warmth and wetness through the fabric and it made her groan. By the gods, you were so wet. It turned her on so much.

“Diana,” you heaved.

She waited. It was all up to you if you wanted to continue because, fuck, once she starts taking you, she won’t stop. But, if you wanted to stop, she would stop.

“Diana, Diana,” you whined as you ran a hand through her hair. “Please. Please. Fuck, Diana... I need you.”

Diana immediately slips her hand into your underwear and pushes a fingers into you. She listens to you moan as she presses against your walls. Quickly finding your g-spot, Diana pulls her head away from your neck to watch your mouth open, to watch you gasp, to watch you furrow your eyebrows, and to watch you lean your head back against the wall.

You had said her name ten times already tonight and each time it turned her on. She couldn’t wait to get you to moan and scream her name as many times as she could get you to. She couldn’t wait.

“You sound so beautiful,” she coos. “I’m going to make you come and come until you can’t take it anymore.”

Diana slips another finger into you and you held onto her shoulders as you moan at the sound of her voice and the feeling of her long fingers pistons in and out of you quickly.

“You’re going to scream for me, my love,” Diana whispers in your ear. “You’re going to let everyone know who you belong to. Okay?”

“D-Diana,” you moan.

“Is that clear?”

“Yes!” you yell. “Fuck yes, Diana!”

Her fingers move faster and faster and it keeps you moaning for her. You get tighter and tighter and soon, Diana has to speed up and apply more pressure to bring you closer and closer to the edge. Searing sensations spread from your core and through out your body and the moment she pressed her thumb onto your clit, you come undone.

You can feel wetness gushing out of you with each flick of her thumb as your legs shake around her. Diana breathes into your neck as she listens to you pant for air with a shaky breath. She lets you ride out your orgasm only for a moment because she wants to move on to the next step.

You moan as you feel her fingers slip out of you with a squelch. Without breaking eye contact, Diana brings her slick fingers to mouth and licks your juices off, sucking on her fingers like a lollipop. By the gods, you tasted divine. She can’t wait to have more. You gasp as she leans in to kiss you again with the taste of you still on her tongue. Her kisses were far from controlled as she sucked on your bottom lip, biting it softly until you groaned into her mouth.

“Shit, Diana.”

Diana smiles and easily carries you over to the bed and lays on you on top it, near the edge. She stood in between your legs and before she does anything else, you watch her slide out of her dress smoothly down her skin. Her eyes never left your gaze. She was so turned on seeing you laid out on the bed, waiting for her to take you. The Amazonian climbs on top of you and kisses you passionately with a moan as your hands meet her bare back. In a swift movement, Diana slips a hand underneath you and unclasps your bra before sliding the straps down your pretty shoulders.

Her eyes hungrily roam over your breasts and your curves and Diana wastes no time to mark you. She leaves hickeys on your shoulders, down the valley of your breasts, and on your stomach. She was in love with the way you looked right now.

“You look so beautiful, (Y/N), my love,” she says, putting a nipple into her mouth. “Your body was made for me.”

She sucks on it for a seemingly long period of time before switching to your other breast. Listening to you moan as she ducked on your nipples gave her butterflies. She starts kissing your lower stomach at the moment and hooks her thumbs through your underwear, pulling them down at a painfully slow pace. When she finally pulls your underwear off, your entrance is met with the cold air.

“Nobody can have you but me,” she tells you firmly, running her hands down your sides. “You’re mine.”

Diana excitedly pushes your knees apart for each other, spreading your legs for her. She stared desperately, eyes swallowing the beautiful sight of your slick entrance. Your thighs were still wet from earlier and she wasted no time kissing up your inner thigh. They starts off as soft, light kisses before leaving hickeys on the inside of your thighs. You were so close to her entrance but she still hasn’t put her tongue on you yet.

“Diana, please.”

She hummed against you before dragging her tongue up your thighs, tasting your juices from earlier. She used her fingers to spread your pussy lips apart. Her tongue ran up and down your lips, lapping at whatever she could to simply gather your taste. And once she did, gods, she drove her head deeper into you.

All you could do was pant and moan as the woman, with her head between legs, devours you like it was her last meal. You run your hands through her hair before pulling on it when her tongue reaches a sensitive spot. And when you moaned louder because of it, she doesn’t stop stimulating that spot over and over again until you’re a moaning mess for her.

She lapped all the juices that were spilling from your entrance like she was starving as she her fingers kept you spread open for her. Diana’s lips wrapped around your lips and sucked as hard as she could before they moved to another much more sensitive area. She pursed right around the nub of your clit, sucking it into her mouth. She flicked her tongue against it causing you to moan her name over and over again until you came a second time on her tongue.

Your juices spill out of you and your legs tremble uncontrollably as your heavy pants were heard throughout the room, however, Diana doesn’t stop just yet. She continues fuck you through your orgasm, sucking on your sensitive clit before slipping two fingers inside of you, moving at a quick pace.

“Oh, my god, D-Diana! I’m—Fuck! Please—”

You’re screaming at this point as she continues to overstimulate you. Your hands desperately pushing at her head as your legs keep trembling. Pulling her fingers out of you, she pulls her golden lasso from out of nowhere and quickly ties your wrists up to the headboard. Diana spreads your thighs as wide as they could go once while holding your hips down as she goes back to lewdly sucking your clit. Slurping at whatever she tastes, she groaning in happiness as she covers your whole pussy with her mouth. Her hands reach down to grope at your the flesh of your ass and push your hips further into her face.

“God, Diana! You’re gonna make me come,” you shake your head as moan, “I’m coming, I’m fucking comin—— Diana!”

She pushes you into a third orgasm as you arch you back against the mattress and scream her name once again. Diana happily laps and swallows all of the juices spilling out of you before pulling her head up from between her legs. You came twice on her tongue already and you felt drained of energy.

“You taste so good, (Y/N),” Diana licks her lips; there’s a visible shine on chin where your cum was dripping from her mouth.

You don’t have the energy to respond just yet, so you lay there catching your breath. Feeling lips kiss you softly up from your stomach to your neck and jaw, Diana presses her lips softly against yours with the taste of you still on her tongue, but you pull away to speak first.

“What about you?”

“I only intended to making you feel good. Besides, your pleasure gives me pleasure,” Diana shakes her head and smiles, leaning down to kiss you again.

“I’ve missed you so much,” you murmured against her lips. “I barely lasted these few months without you. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go back to you so badly, but I’m going to stand my ground because—”

“(Y/N).”

She stops you from going any further, knowing it was the lasso making you talk. With a sigh, Diana looks away from your face and unties the golden ropes at your wrists and throws it onto the floor.

You gently place the palm of your hands on her neck just below her jaw, using your thumbs to turn her head and face you.

“I do miss you,” you quickly give her a peck, only for her to chase your lips with hers. “But, Diana, I need you to trust in me a little more. We all get hurt in our battles and we all come back stronger afterwards.”

You can feel her jaw clenching with your thumbs. Her eyes were closed shut and her breathing staggers a little bit.

Diana opens her glossy eyes after a moment as a single tear drops from her eyes to your face, “I am truly sorry for what I said. I don’t think you’re weak at all. You’re strong, (Y/N). And brave. And you’re willing to give your life to save people. I guess I’m just scared of that because—”

“I know, Diana. I understand,” you nod your head as you look up at her, propped up by her elbows so that she could hover over you. “I’m sorry.”

Diana shakes head rapidly and apologizes more. She puts a hand over one of yours which was caressing her face. She kisses the palm of your hand before finally giving in and puts her whole weight on you, placing her face in the crook of your neck where she kisses you softly.

“Are we okay?”

“Let’s just have this moment and deal with everything else later,” Diana smiles into your neck, seeing all of the hickeys she left on you.

You nod your head as your eyes start to get heavy. Closing your eyes shut, you let your self fall into a calm slumber as Diana’s voice was the last thing you hear.

“I love you. We’ll be okay.”

a/n: i’m sorry if this was kind of long and if there’s some errors bc i didn’t proofread this at all bc i’m fking lazy haha but thank you so much for reading!!

xoxo isabelle

[batarangsoundsdumb]

guess fucking what? my inbox is so fucking full right now i'm unloading all of this shit in one post.

For the 11th gotham memes: gothamites react to bruce being jacked in a tiktok he made with kids, like super yoked, ripped as hell

fucking hilarious thanks. i think i did it in one meme post, but i genuinely don't remember which one

i dunno which of the batfam would do this but one time i was sleeping over at a friends house and ended up on the floor bc the bed was so very small and i just stayed there because the rug was soft

that's a drunk jason move i don't know what to tell you

tim and jason are "i listen to pop punk" solidarity. whenever jason highjacks the batmobile theyll go on long ass car rides blaring mcr and paramore and then never talk about it again

as they should!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tim: no jason it's my turn using the aux cord i gotta put on my jams jason: don't you dare put on weird shit tim: don't worry, you're gonna love this *plays fearless (taylor's version)

hear me out hear me out, red hood stans 🤝 nightwing stans t h i g h s

holy shit yes.

SNL au: Bruce breaks character when pretending to superman and says something like "I'm not superman! You've seen his gps!! It's from 2001!!!" @sabeanybabe

superman flies past the snl building the next day just to say 'actually it's from 2005, i'm not a heathen'

does your back hurt from carrying the batfam fandom

it hurts more from the exotic rock collection i keep in my backpack, but thanks for the concern.

I love your posts by why would you always leave the best parts in the tags?

as a treat for the people that check the tags ;) (and also because i'm committed to the short post aesthetic)

somehow your playlist was everything i never knew i needed. i mean it. this is my new favorite playlist.

and don't you dare get a new favourite playlist!

babe ur stoner tim playlist is exactly too perfect, earth is literally blessed by ur existence

babe thanks so much! i love my stoner tim playlist because it's just my usual playlist but people think it's an artistic choice that i put taylor swift and britney spears in there, when it's just what i unironically like listening to

JANDKSKDK BILLY RAY CYRUS ON THE STONER TIM PLAYLIST I LOVE IT IT

again it's not even an ironic choice, i know every single word and i genuinely like the song

The last chapter of Fundamentals of Casework has me crying at work. Thanks I love it @dudelookitsalesbian

oh babe, i'm sorry, but also, not sorry i love chapter 4 so much it's my lovechild with the 'mental illness' tag

soooo....stumbled on your tumblr by some stroke of fate??? read your DC fanfic first. which is PHENOMENAL btw. then found all the batmemes; the funniest thing EVER bc everyone forgets about regular old gothamites. kept scrolling and your blog pops up as recommended. clicked on the ao3 for shits and giggles and waddaya know?!?!? it's YOU!!! you're LEGEND!!!! ever seen that meme? it's a video of a cat that got into a baseball field and the two announcers get really invested in his escape attempt and start giving a play by play of the cat instead of the game. memeable moment: "GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!"

i seriously think about this ask every single day and it's so fucking funny to me that i've never seen the meme you're referencing, but i still find myself going 'GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!' whenever i see something funny. but wow i'm glad you liked this steaming pile of garbage

Fav dc character overall? And fav batfamily character?

don't ask me to pick between the loves of my life, but i can tell you i've cried about every single batfamily member and also wally west (my beloved)

What's your opinion on fans having a problem with batfam being "too big"? And some even claim that batfam is just "Bruce Alfred Dick Damian" and the rest of them are just "friends and allies" (source: reddit) Personally, I like batfam because of this reason but idk

stupid. a family can never be too big. i'm not that big a fan of like huge batfam stuff with everybody from every single universe, because as much as it's funny for bruce to have like 30 kids, it just feels a little too OOC for me.

This is the best tag I've seen involving the batfam, thanks for thinking of it

This is canon now @nctxrejects

lmao yeah i think at that point alfred has had to sit through like at least a dozen coming out talks and just has a pride flag collection in the attic that he pulls out whenever a kid comes out

idk why batfam hits different as compared to any other superhero family

bc it's found family and usually the other superhero families are almost all genetically related in one way or another

I don't know if you watch the umbrella academy but I saw your last post about batcest and saw the similarities. But the thing is (although I think it's weird) in TUA, they addressed it by saying "they were raised as weapons, not siblings" or something along those lines, which is simply not the case with batfam.

yeah i watched tua but i also thought it was ridiculous and they still treated each other as siblings so i didn't like the luthor/allison thing, and am glad they stopped doing that shit bc it fucking sucked.

Hot take: Batcest shippers are the same people who believe adopted siblings are not actual siblings

smoking hot take: batcest shippers are the people who watch 'my sister got stuck in the washing machine' porn

Duke was adopted by Bruce?

not technically no, but do i, tumblr user batarangsoundsdumb, look like i care?

True story but I had to change my freaking name because it used to be "Damien" and most people would go "OH LIKE DAMIAN WAYNE" like please I'm just tryna live

true story, but i don't actually think of damian when i hear the name damian, literally the first thing that pops up is damian darkh like bruh what?

apparently dc comics company supported comic stores by giving out new titles and stuff during the beginning of the pandemic to help them run and I just think that's wholesome

ah yeah that's so fucking cool, still don't like dc, the company, because this world is a capitalist hellhole and we're all owned by warner brothers or disney with no in between.

ayo looking at tumblr head canons and finding out bruce is actually a terrible father is a punch in the gut

lmao yes, in like 50% of comics bruce is a terrible father and it gives me whiplash

oooh I just saw the jason todd vs winter soldier post and the real question is: batman vs iron man

while iron man has like hundreds of cases of armor, batman could throw out an emp and have the guy dropping out of the sky in 2 seconds.

dickfast = fastdick = quickdick = quickie

magnum hot take

hey bata(?) just thought I'd let you know I have copied the obnoxious emoji and Billy Ray post for use on simping men going forth

thank you 😘🌷 (@spacebarsidecar)

why would you do that to your followers???? i get why i did it, but why would you???

what is scarecrow made the nightwing funko pop himself, like those diy-ers that paint over other ones

oh god no, horrible take, horrible take, that's a disgusting thought oh no

I see your HC that Bruce and Oliver fucked and raise you this: Dick and Roy ALSO fucked

yes they did and it was a horrible moment for jason to find out dick has fucked both of his best friends

"at this rate bruce adds like 1 child to his family every decade or so" Duke is introduced in 2013, Damian as Damian, not as an unnamed child, in 2006. And he is already 14 years old, Robins rarely remain Robins after 16 😬 It looks like a new Robin and Batkid will appear in a couple of years

i mean i can't wait? but somebody will probably die first tho, we're due for another major character death. my money's on either cass or duke this time.

BRO you're so right all of your Bruce's ex headcanons are amazing but they aren't ships, that's kinda wild. Like I don't want any peeks into how their relationship was I just want to see everyone make fun of them

lmao YES it's just i love bruce being a slut, like good for him.

I am in love with your posts your honour thank you

omg thanks are we like,, gonna kiss now?

The justice league needs to have a meeting to discuss how many of their members/partners have slept with bruce. Because through a combination of cannon & fannon (if DC wasn’t homophobic) we have AT LEAST: 1) clark 2) lois 3) oliver 4) dinah 5) john

Thats not counting villains or random civilians @dudelookitsalesbian

yes yes yes, they'll have a yearly meeting about how many of their collective exes could be out for revenge and batman's list just keeps getting longer.

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

and what about it?

when steph's fighting livewire and she zaps her with lighting and nothing happens and then they both just. stand there awkwardly for a second and talk. yeah i couldn't stop laughing at that batgirl steph is the BEST

oh yeah that was fucking hilarious and i think it would be so cool and sexy of dc to give steph a little comic series,,, as a treat

Hi I absolutely adore all of yours "Bruce and Oliver very badly pretending they didn't fuck each other" memes

lmao i do too

I need you to know that “Bruce Wayne had frosted tips” is one of my favorite Bruce takes of all time it’s so galaxy brained. you’re right and you should say it

he also painted his hair blonde once when he was travelling and in conclusion, this is why he's being blackmailed by the gotham gazette.

you know my thing about gordon being branded as the only good cop in gotham is its a load of shit like arguably he's a good person and not working to screw people over or anything but the fact that he also works w. batman makes him a shit cop. like yea batman is better than the mob but its still illegal its still an abuse of power he just not making bank

babe, all cops are bad cops. (but yeah youre absolutely right, working with vigilantes makes you a shit cop, but also working against vigilantes just makes you an asshole cop yanno?)

ruh roh i think i’m about to add “so not yeehaw” every time i don’t like something

that's a very good vocabulary upgrade

somehow i feel like steph already knew. like babs obviously knew but i feel like bruce got high/drunk in front of steph and started telling his boarding school stories and steph was just like “oh you fucked up i’m never gonna forget this”

steph and bruce have weird uncle/rebellious niece dynamic and they just hang out sometimes and bruce will be like 'i once broke my arm when i tripped over a hedge when i was drunk so oliver drove me to the hospital on an electric scooter' and steph will just have to sit there with that knowledge in her head.

Hello I just wanted to tell you you are So right in all your steph opinions bc she is, in fact amazing and I think that's very sexy of you. Ps. Your Bruce/Oliver fic is hilarious

babe, thank you so much and yes steph is amazing and i love her and she deserves the world and she's the best member of the batfam hands down. also thanks

In Supersons we see a couple of kids that are implied to be Damian and Jon's children and the boy has laser eyes and can fly, so I asume he's not adopted. The girl, who calls Bruce grandpa, can also fly, btw. So it's canon (probably by accident) that Jon can have kids and he must have married one of Bruce's kids. (I'm hoping for Damian, mostly because any other of his children would be waaaaaaaaaaaaay too old.) @artemisa97

lmao that was probably an accident seeing as jon is a 17 year old superhero in the year 3000 (by the jonas brothers)

You know, I'm a die hard fan of your memes, but I gotta say one thing: if Gothamites actually took gas mask everywhere with them, then the Scarecrow would just be a weird dude in a weird costume, and not a villain oh so scary. DC really should just takes notes from you.

bold of you to assume there's no gothamite anti-maskers

How does it feel being the funniest person on this app?

horrible, next question.

I can't listen to Green Day or Billy Joel without thinking of your post about how Bruce got arrested at a Billy Joel concert @nightwings-kid

yeah that's your mistake, i on the other hand can't enjoy billy joel without thinking about the glee rendition of 'uptown girl'

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

superman: so what do you do in your free time? batman, thinking about the superman fanfiction he's writing on the batcomputer: i have no free time

bruce and oliver be like boyfriends to co-workers 401k (do the justice leagues get 401ks??? not that bruce and ollie would need them, but-)

lmao yes just 400 thousand words of bruce realising 'oh dip oliver is such a fucking dumbass' (also i don't know what a 401 k is but i assume they don't?)

Gothamites would totally boo superman as he saves Gotham while batman is out. @meenje

he's like 'okay think about that next time you want to be saved from an alien octopus'

I just took long break from dc comics and I come back to see ric grayson ??

i think it's very cool and sexy of dc to see dick and just think 'you know what? let's just give him a traumatic brain injury' and then didn't develop his character in any real way

SPEAKING OF RIC GRAYSON, gothamites making confused memes out of ric grayson is much needed

'dick grayson is my taxi driver? can anyone explain what the fuck happened he looks like an italian plumber?'

i hate to say it but batfam are def "marvel characters" in that sense they are characters who are human but become superheroes unlike most dc characters who are gods trying to be human maybe this is why I like batfam

fair enough

[dessarious]

What Makes a Family? Pt18

AO3   Beginning   Previous   Next

“And what price are they going to have to pay for your magic?” Marinette couldn’t help but smile at the protective tone in Bruce’s voice as he glared at Plagg. She was beyond relieved that he seemed to be a good person and even her Guardian instincts were calm around him.

“The Miraculous are all about balance. In our case, as true Chosen, they affect us whether we use them or not. That’s why Cass’ life has been so difficult and mine has been relatively calm. Actually being in possession of Plagg’s ring will make things better for her. As for other holders, it varies. The longer you hold a Miraculous the more it pulls out certain traits in you. Good or bad depends on both the person and how in tune with the Miraculous they are.” Chloe’s over protective nature and Adrien’s possessiveness were both likely side effects of being holders but there was no way for her to know for certain.

“So they begin to turn you into a different person?” Marinette was shaking her head before he was even finished. She really wasn’t good at explaining things to other people.

“No. Any traits that the Miraculous bring out were already there. If anything they bring out a person’s true nature so they can’t hide who they really are. My former partner for instance was always showing his best face to the world around him but Plagg’s influence allowed those looking for it the ability to see some of his less desirable qualities. Especially when transformed.” While it made perfect sense that the ring had brought out the things Adrien felt he had to hide from the world, she still felt guilty. She also had to wonder how different his life would have been if she’d found her real Black Cat sooner. Cass burrowed into her side.

“Not your fault.” Marinette just hugged her twin closer. Even if Fu had picked Adrien, as the current Guardian he had still been her responsibility. She’d let her knowledge of his personal life define how she treated him when she should have simply judged his actions as a hero. It had been reckless and irresponsible. She’d put everyone at risk. She felt a vibration at her side and actually laughed when she realized Cass was purring to calm her down.

“Well if I needed any more proof that you are Plagg’s chosen, the fact that you’re picking up cat traits without even having the ring on you would have done it.” Cass stopped abruptly and buried her head into Marinette’s shoulder with an embarrassed whine. Mari just grinned and kissed her temple to try and soothe her. “At least yours is cute. The first trait I picked up was reflex bleeding.” It was a small consolation that Lila had a rash for over a month after grabbing her.

“Do I want to know what that is?” Marinette offered Bruce a commiserating smile. It was a lot to process.

“My skin secretes a toxic substance when I feel threatened. Sadly enough it’s actually helped in battles before. Poor baby August tried to eat me a few times while Akumatized.” Bruce just blinked at her and Marinette could practically hear him thinking ‘what the fuck?’ She grinned at him. “Once you’ve actually been through an Akuma attack, remind me to show you footage of past battles. It will prove educational and quite possibly entertaining.”

“You expect me to be entertained by one of my children almost being eaten?” He sounded insulted at the suggestion but Marinette rolled her eyes.

“No, but the fact that Hawkmoth tends to Akumatize the worst suited people into villains should. The only reason he’s still around is because he’s a coward. If I could find him all of this would be over in a heartbeat. Hopefully with Cass here my luck will keep shifting for the better.”

“I thought you were the one with good luck.” Mari let out a frustrated breath.

“Technically yes. However having the Miraculous active, especially with the ring being held by someone so much less in tune than I am, has been affecting me. It’s gotten better since I added other permanent holders but certain things haven’t improved at all. Also, the Kwami are of the opinion that Cass and I rubbed off some of our luck on each other in the womb. It’s likely the reason she ended up with you around the same time I first became Ladybug. Being together will allow us to buffer each other.” Bruce was still frowning at her but it seemed more contemplative than anything else.

“Cass.” She watched her sister peek at Bruce from her position. “What do you want to do?” Marinette let out an approving hum at the question. She got a strange sense of satisfaction that he treated Cass with such care even though she wasn’t his. He wasn’t as warm as her parents, but it was obvious he did care.

“Stay. Help.” Bruce let out a sigh but nodded. Cass relaxed further and Marinette could feel contentment radiating off her.

“So Selina said you’re a fashion designer?” Marinette rose an eyebrow at the subject change. “Since there’s nothing more to be done at present about what’s going on in Paris and it doesn’t appear to be an urgent issue, I would like to get to know you and I’m sure Cass does too.” She felt Cass nod.

“Yes, I’m a fashion designer. It was always what I wanted to do, but my actual start was one of the first twists of fate after I got my Miraculous. I ended up designing something for Jagged Stone and everything just sort of took off from there.” Cass stiffened slightly and Marinette saw Bruce’s eye twitch.

“You’re the designer he’s always bragging about?” Marinette felt her face flush. It hadn’t really occurred to her that he would be familiar with Jagged. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “The boys are not going to leave you alone. Dick, Jason, and Tim have a running bet over who can get a commission from you first. I apologize in advance for whatever happens at dinner.” She laughed at his dry tone and caught Cass’ smile out of the corner of her eye.

“I assure you it can’t be worse than Uncle Jagged himself. He introduces me to all my new clients and I swear it gets more embarrassing every time. I’m fairly certain he practices just to annoy me.” Bruce’s mouth twitched into something between a smile and a grimace.

“Do not underestimate the boys’ ability to be annoying or embarrassing. That’s not even counting the fact that Damian is likely to challenge you to a duel in order to prove that he’s meant to be my true heir and I have no idea what weapons he managed to smuggle on the plane.” Marinette rolled her eyes. Why wasn’t she surprised?

“I take it Talia’s teachings are still strong?” He frowned at her. Oh right, he didn’t know she knew. “When she and Ra’s were in Paris she enjoyed bragging about him and his bloodlines. That’s how I figured out you were Batman. But don’t worry, I can handle him.” The skeptical look he shot her just made her grin. “Trust me. Besides, I just have to prove I’m not a threat to him. Given that I have no wish to take over your business and I have my own hero problems to worry about there’s no reason for him to take issue with me.” Bruce still seemed uncertain but Cass signed something at him and he nodded.

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.” While Bruce obviously doubted her, she felt nothing but confidence from her twin. As nervous as she was to meet the others, Damian trying to kill her wasn’t that big a problem. At least with him, she knew what to expect.

AO3   Beginning   Previous    Next

Ko-Fi

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[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

just because you’re afraid it doesn’t mean you’re broken.

Titans 3.05

once more into the cold dark void of the internet with my stream-of-consciousness take on a superhero tv show...

spoilers ahead.

1. i cannot believe that among the first things i get to hear in this episode with my own two ears is the line 'eluded our overdudes'. why must you give me such pain along with so much joy, show?

1.5. scarecrow stringing jason along on this path to red-hood-dom is not something i would’ve ever expected, but does kind of make sense. 

1.55. i don’t know all the details of the original resurrection arc in the comics but i like that jason, weirdly, has a greater role to play in his own demise and rebirth? i think it makes it easier to draw a line between his past trauma, the demonstrably shitty and terrifying responsibility of being robin, the ways bruce and the titans wronged him, his responses to that, the reasons he turns to scarecrow, and his final evolution to red hood. it makes for a smoother character arc rather than a one that was interrupted for two decades before somebody went oh hey let’s resurrect that kid that the audience once voted to kill and make him an anti-hero!

1.75. what’s crane giving him? anti fear toxin? anyway, crane is a fucking creep and i’m not sure i want to see a whole lot of him on my screen.

2. oh, um, heads up: there’s a long sequence of unsteady cam + flickering lights right after the title card upto the 3:16 mark. it’s a bit headache-inducing so if you want to skip, you can go ahead and do that. 

2.45. that’s... weird... why would he dream about... donna...

ok, who am i kidding. i’m going to jump right into my theory about Why Titans Makes Sense Actually because the show itself is apparently not interested in explaining itself:

a) it makes no sense for jason to be conjuring up donna--who famously did not care much for him!--in his dreams. (he wasn’t even there when she died.) or for her to be telling him don’t go or there’s still time.

b) this leads me to think that that’s actually donna, in some sort of limbo between life and death, the kind of place where jericho used to be

c) rachel has demonstrated that she has the power to link the minds of the titans across great distances--she called jason and hank/dawn for help in 2.01, she linked up everybody later in the season, projected dick’s hallucination of his father into their brains without even realising she was doing it, and in the finale, she managed to get dick into conner’s brain. she’s in themyscira now. is this how she gets donna back to life? but reaching out to her in that non-space between life and death?

d) the next obvious question is: why isn’t donna appearing in the dreams of the other titans? she probably is, but they have better reason to be dreaming about her since they were actually close to her, unlike jason.

e) but why would she warn jason in particular? does she foresee jason entering the afterlife--however briefly? does she have an idea of what jason plans to do and what he will become?

f) anyway, more trippy mindscapes and weird psychic powers, yay!

2.5. my heart clenched when bruce comforted jason post-nightmare: clearly i’ve been reading way too much batfam fic. this is a side of bruce we haven’t really been told to expect by all the characters on the show calling him a ‘psychopath’ (*cough*unreliablenarrators*cough*) and him getting jason to speak to a professional speaks volumes about the kind of self-reflection he’s done post dick’s departure, and maybe some of the regrets he has with regards to how he dealt with dick’s traumas.

i mean, just look at him when jason dismisses his concerns! BRUCE IS TRYING JASON

anyway, i have a whole lot more i want to say about this, but i’ll save it for later. 

also: LESLIE THOMPKINS!!!!

3. i really like molly--and i love that she’s a friend from before jason got taken in by bruce, the implication that they meet up regularly and that she’s a grounding influence on him (tho clearly not grounding enough to not go along with his dumbass idea about confronting a child trafficker alone). 

3.5. aw, jason. robin was his armour against everything in the world that would throw him down and chew him to bits, but san francisco proved that even robin wasn’t enough to protect him. it’s really interesting how ‘disillusionment with the idea of robin’ is so integral to the traumas of both dick and jason but in such different ways. 

4. LESLIE!!!!!!! i even forgive her office being so goddamn blue because leslie! 

4.5. it makes so much sense for titans!verse leslie to be a therapist, because this show is so inward looking anyway, and therapist sessions are a useful tool to showcase this character work in a story. besides, at least in fanfic, leslie often seems to double up as a counsellor anyway. 

4.6. oh man. i’m not terribly convinced by walters’ red hood (tho i think that may be the point--argh. i’ll come back to this thought later. have to stop getting distracted!) but he plays the asshole kid that’s trying not to let any real emotion seep through really well.

“you’d like me to punch you, wouldn’t you”

5. not sure what to think of batman’s little trophy case other than the show winking unsubtly at us and going look look - catwoman! the riddler! two face! you excited yet?! it’s like the scene from the end of amazing spiderman 2 when they were trying to drum up excitement for a sinister six spinoff by having harry osborne walk by a bunch of display cases with stuff from iconic villains in them.

... but then again, bruce does like to display a lot of shit in his batcave, including his dead robin’s bloodstained costume, so.

5.5. bruce is so soft with jason it’s killing me. beyond just trying to learn from his mistakes with dick, it speaks to his own genuine desire to balance his dedication to gotham with doing the best by his sons, although he’s often not successful with that. 

i love that titans is really playing the long game with bruce wayne, with each season and character-perspective sliding in fresh pieces of a bigger puzzle. titans’ bruce has always been a phantom of other peoples’ making, but now we’re getting the idea that he’s a whole lot more complicated than other people make it seem.

5.75. it really recontextualises some of his actions from previous seasons: the fact that he locked dick out of his security systems in 1.06 is likely his way of respecting dick’s independence and his desire not to be associated with batman/gotham anymore. jason knowing about bruce’s tracker while dick doesn’t is probably bruce trying to be more honest and upfront with his charges. bruce sending jason packing off to sanfran to spend time with the titans is probably not him passing on a big responsibility to dick (as i first uncharitably thought) but him trying to get jason out of the toxic influence of gotham for a while and a sign of his trust in dick as a leader and a mentor,

5.8. i mean, bruce is a prick, but he’s also human.

6. i think leslie is doing some good work with jason here, though she may have overstepped the line with her line about robin as a construct being projected by a man with BPD. her speculations about bruce’s diagnosis have no place in her session with jason, and if bruce confides in her, an egregious violation of patient-therapist confidentiality. 

(about the diagnosis itself... i don’t know. i can’t really confirm or refute this without a whole lot more information, and i’m not sure if the writer of this episode means BPD in the same way an actual professional might.)

6.5. i think a huge thing that gets missed out in a lot of recent comics as well as movies/shows is that bruce didn’t create the robin persona out of whole cloth. dick did. he’s the starting point of that legacy and to call it entirely bruce’s creation is blatant erasure of that. in fact, i’m surprised that dick doesn’t feature more in the conversations they’re having about the pressures of being robin. after all, the guy had been robin--bruce’s partner--for such a long time before jason. 

6.8. (and here’s the primal part of me that resonates the deepest with dick grayson--the Eldest Daughter part--that’s sort of resentful: that jason gets the therapy and softness and the learning from mistakes when it took years and years for bruce to reach out in any meaningful way to dick.)

7. oooh that was a great scene!

it’s fun to do these stream-of-consciousness live reactions, because the moment you step down from your soapbox, the episode goes right into tackling what you were just complaining about. bruce means well, he’s learning, but he goes about exactly the wrong way to help jason: taking away robin now can’t be read by jason as anything but a devastating judgment call from bruce. and iain glen really sells the moment that bruce realises this--too late--and his helplessness in trying to get jason to see that it isn’t jason’s fault that he’s trying to do this. he loves jason enough that jason is enough. 

7.5. aaaah so jason brings up the elephant in the room at last. dick got everything makes sense from his perspective, where getting to put on a costume and fight crime means approval, means being something stronger and better than you are. dick got to be robin, then nightwing, and a leader of a whole team of other costume-clad heroes. 

8. ... how did jason just walk into arkham????? this is ridiculous.

8.3. i mean, clearly jason’s not thinking straight, but betraying batman like this puts his possibilities of being robin again even further away. 

8.5. watching that chemistry experiment montage was strangely funny. this guy is looking for an antidote to fear? well, constantly mixing up and inhaling gases concocted by a mad-scientist supervillain is something only the very fearless--reckless to the point of foolishness!--would do. what’s to say crane’s not given you a formula for a drug that will keep you tethered to his every will and whim? hmmmm?

8.7. so he sought out the joker to... test the formula??? 

9. wow the “loud and clear... boss” hits different after a whole episode of them referring to each other as father and son.

9.3. waitwaitwait HOLD UP. wait a DANG MINUTE. you’re telling me that scarecrow had enough resources that he could not only have folks on the outside steal jason away and dunk him in a lazarus pit (i TOLD you that this show would bring up and dismiss ra’s al ghul in a ten second aside! I TOLD YOU) but also have his own little chemistry lab in the basement, AND have enough resources for jason to build his red hood persona???????? all of this in barely twenty four hours?

well there goes my ‘jason orchestrated his death’ theory. it was nice while it lasted. *cups hands to the sky* fly away, my baby.

9.6. a part of me is gleeful at the rushed nature of such an iconic transformation though, especially when compared to all the character work that went before it. we’re so used to getting the opposite that it’s fucking delightful to have a show that’s more interested in exploring its characters’ minds rather than battle scenes or recreating transformations from the comics. that’s taken such bold and exciting steps to fully convey all the nuances of its most recognisable character, bruce wayne, from casting an older actor to play him to unflinchingly showing just how damaging the vigilante lifestyle has been to him and the people he loves. BRILLIANT

*sporfle*

10. again, heads up: a whole lot of flashing lights between 40:28 and 42:00. 

10.3. i guess it’s the super-compressed timeline that’s really throwing me off. where did he have the time to get/develop the mind control thing from? or is it something that he got from the cabal of villains that he intimidated at the beginning of 3.02? very messy.

10.5. i love molly, i hope she shows up again this season.

11. aaaand that’s it! that was a solid episode as flashback episodes go, but now i can’t wait to return to the present.

[ashbrea381writings]

Fractals and Feathers: Chapter two, Information

“Colored cracks may appear in cases where a soulmate dies and is subsequently resuscitated.” Tim quoted as he sat back from the computer. “This happens frequently with heart patients and those in bad motor accidents.” 

“Yes, but these are a lot of them… And they’re gold.” Damian commented with a sigh. “And Kent has mostly gold with a few red ones. It shouldn’t be possible for someone to die and be resuscitated that many times!” He began pacing around behind Tim, muttering. “There must be some kind of magic involved here, perhaps Mother is behind this, Grandfather always hated my wings, it could be some sort of magic they’re using to try and make me think my soulmate is dead, but it didn’t work right.”

“Baby Bird, that doesn’t explain Jon’s wings.” Dick commented as he walked in, removing his mask and wiping some sweat from his forehead. “Besides, I did some recon too, it seems like a few people who’s soulmates are in Paris have experienced the same thing. When they called their soulmates in a panic over the cracks that had appeared, they were told that there is a new set of Supers in Paris. And one of them has the power to reverse all the damage done by the Villain… Including death.”

Tim gave a groan, typing furiously as he tried to get past the firewall that kept rewriting itself. “I can’t get any info out of Paris. I even set my VPN to and address in Paris, but it somehow keeps blocking me.” He growled in frustration as a window opened on the screen previously just covered with code, showing a young woman with dark, blue-black hair in a high ponytail and a red and black mask over eyes that practically glowed blue.

“Will you stop that?!” She snarled in heavily accented English. “I don’t care who you are, but you need to keep your noses out of our business.”

Thankfully, Tim and Damian were still masked up, and Dick was able to turn around before the video fully opened. “We work with the Justice League, if people are dying repeatedly and are only brought back by magic it IS our business.” Nightwing responded in his best Batman impression as he turned around with his mask back in place. “I’m assuming that would be you who does this?”

“Yes, it is, and I would appreciate it if you and your superpowered friends stayed away from my city.” She seemed to set whatever the camera was attached to on a ledge, showing a stunning view of Paris behind her. “We have it handled here and we don’t need any of your friends making our jobs harder.”

“Isn’t your job to protect the citizens of Paris?!” Robin growled, stalking up to the screen and glaring behind his mask. “Yet somehow, those who we know have soulmates in Paris are suffering with the knowledge that their soulmates keep dying only to be brought back by some magic that might just stop working one day!”

“I don’t get a choice.” She responded, crossing her arms. “Hawkmoth won’t stop until he gets what he wants and I don’t feel like letting the world potentially end, thank you. We are working on his identity, but it’s difficult with the magics involved-such as the one that alerted me to your intrusion and prevents you from finding what you want.”

“And how are we supposed to trust you?” Red Robin asked, almost too casually for Robin’s preference, if the way his shoulders stiffened was any indication. “See, we have a couple people we know personally whose wings are covered in gold and red fractal patterns, and we’re awfully worried about people who have to sacrifice themselves that much. Especially since it obviously sticks long enough to make a mark, AND they all showed up within the last couple of weeks.”

“One of my team members is able to rewind time for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time, this allows the possibility of thousands of different aborted timelines, hence why the lines might show up multiple at a time. Because they might have died in a couple dozen of the timelines before we finally had a solution.” She sighed and pinched her nose. “We are up against a madman with a magic item that allows him to use negative emotions against us and make his victims do the dirty work for him.”

“Dirty work? What kind of dirty work?” Nightwing asked, frowning and crossing his arms in turn. “What does he want, exactly? And how does that potentially end the world?”

“He wants the magic items that myself and my partner use. The ones our team uses and that Hawkmoth and his partner use are from a set of them, I won’t tell you how many. Each has a different power, and the one’s my partner and I use happen to be the two most powerful, using the power of creation…” She paused and gestured to herself, glancing off screen for a moment. “And destruction, respectively.” She stepped to one side to reveal a young man in armored leather with cat ears on his head.

“When you combine them, you are able to make a wish. Would you trust the man who is willing to destroy Paris with such a wish?” The young man asked, his black and acid green wings flaring out as though in a threat display. “Or being able to use someone like Superman as a weapon?”

“How would that be possible?” Nightwing asked, “Also, since we will apparently be having a longer conversation than I expected, I’m Nightwing. These are Robin and Red Robin.” He added, pointing to them. “We would like to offer aid if we can, even from a distance if we needed to. I’m assuming that since you could connect to our computer with the magic you’re using, you could also exempt it from the magic.”

“That’s a bold assumption. I’m Ladybug, and this is my partner Chat Noir. While I could let you guys have an exception, I’m afraid I don’t see why I should trust you.” Her wings were also bristling, the red-and-black spots clearly caused by the magic they used just as Chat’s coloration obviously wasn’t natural.

“We are known for being detectives above all else. We don’t have powers, and one or two of us are even mentally well-adjusted enough that we could probably come to you guys without risking whatever happens with your villain.” Nightwing insisted.

“How about we come to you? Give us a place to meet with you in your city, we have a way to transport ourselves. I’d like to size you up before I give you any more information.” Ladybug countered, moving her hands to her hips. “I don’t trust that you’re nearly as well adjusted as you claim, I’m one of the most positive people on the face of the earth and even I have had to force myself out of mindsets that nearly got me Akumatized. It’s not as easy to avoid as you think.”

“What was that word? Akumatized?” Red Robin asked, frowning as he tried and failed to translate the word.

“It’s what we call it when someone has been taken over by Hawkmoth. He sends out a butterfly corrupted by magic and turns normal people into a villain. Once the Akuma -the butterfly- is purified the victim does not remember any of what happened while they were Akumatized.” The Bug and Cat pair exchanged a glance, making frustrated faces at each other.

“What was that look?” Robin asked, still angry that they weren’t giving him what he wanted. “The look you two had just now?”

“We… We’ll tell you after we decide if we want help from you.” Ladybug sighed. “I’ve added a way for you to message me on my device I’m using to talk to you, it’ll show up as an app on your computer. Don’t use it for trivial matters or I’ll just lock you out. Give me a time and place to meet, using my timezone preferably, and I will do my best to have both me and Chat be there to discuss matters further.” With those last, brisk words, Ladybug reached for her device and cut the call.

“Well, that was rude.” Red Robin huffed, picking up his phone to show Batman’s face in a video call there. “Did you hear all that, B?”

“I heard. Send coordinates for the top of Wayne Enterprises, for 9:00 pm Paris time tomorrow.” He instructed, sighing from his seat in the Batmobile. “We will all meet them there, let her know that myself and the three of you will be there.”

“Copy that, B. Sending the information now.” The young man typed quickly, double-checking what time that would be for them. “That’s the middle of the afternoon, are you sure?”

“Yeah, nobody has anything scheduled for tomorrow, and she sounded about the same age as Robin. With all that considered, I don’t know if they DO have civilian plans early the next day, so I’d rather err towards them having more time to sleep.”

Reading the return message, Red Robin began to chuckle. “They want to meet us at 4am Paris Time, as they already get up that early to do other things and missing half an hour or so wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Very well, if that’s part of their routine, we can handle that.” Batman answered, seeming interested to know what the heck had them up that early.

[mochegato]

Pixie Spy

Written for the Jasonette July Wayne Gala prompt.

Why?!? Why was she doing this again? Oh right, because John Constantine promised to give her some help with a particularly difficult part of the Grimoire if she did.  And he needed the information he was currently obtaining in order to give said help.  That is how she ended up with an invitation, still not sure how Constantine pulled that off, to the most exclusive event of the year, the Wayne Gala.  

Plus, Adrien was kind of right, ordinarily it would be a great opportunity to showcase her designs. The problem was on its surface, her dress wasn't one of her best works. The black dress had a high, cowl neckline in front and in back, adding a bit of drama and a small homage to the local heroes, vigilantes she silently corrected herself.  The high neckline also offset the incredibly short bubble skirt, making her legs look longer than the Nile.  Despite being a bit uncomfortable showing that much leg, it was necessary for this particular design and if she could actually feel like she had long legs for once, she was willing to deal with the discomfort.  She also added a glittery belt to show her shape and add some bling, which seemed like something the people at this particular event would value.  It was functional, not fashionable.  Not that it was ugly, just that it was designed to be passable, enough to fit in but not enough to get noticed.

She fidgeted slightly as she stood in the entryway trying to get past the people piling up trying to not so discretely pay homage to the king.  That king being Bruce Wayne. From her research, he actually did seem like he was a good guy. The list of charities he started or contributed to was longer than she was tall. She scowled at the voice in the back of her head that sounded suspiciously like Adrien's saying that wasn't much.  Adrien, who got out of coming tonight because the mission was to observe the Waynes unnoticed and Adrien Agreste would get a bit too much attention, that cat bastard.

Despite the laundry list of charity work, Marinette was still suspicious of Wayne.  First of all, he was rich, filthy rich.  Anyone that rich had to have some dark and twisted secrets they were hiding.  He wouldn’t be the first rich person to hide their illicit activities behind a veil of charity work.  Second, he chose to live in Gotham, the most crime-riddled city in the world.  And that is just the reported crime.  A great deal of the crime never got reported to or investigated by the police, whether through corruption or exhaustion.  The kind of place a rich person could be confident they would get away with literal murder.

But mostly, it was Constantine that made her suspicious of Bruce Wayne.  Not that Constantine had ever said anything negative about him, well nothing more than calling him a pain in the ass, but that was really not so much an insult as a compliment coming from Constantine.  But, Wayne had information Constantine needed to help them with the Grimoire and Constantine refused to say how Wayne had gotten that information. How and why would a playboy billionaire have that information?  There is absolutely no reason someone outside of the hero/villain/magic community would have that information.  And, if he was such a good guy, why would Constantine need to go to these lengths to get it without Wayne’s knowledge?  Unless it was related to one of his illicit secrets.

Her eyes darted around the room taking in its grandeur, muttering to herself about how ostentatious it all was.  Normally, she would be completely mesmerized by the grandeur and pomp of the scene.  The room was decorated to perfection.  Everything was absolutely exquisite.  However, she was too anxious and wary to enjoy it.  So instead of being inspired, each gorgeous detail grated on her. She reached up to tug on her hair before remembering her hair had been pulled up into an elegant twist held in place with a single silver pin. With her normal anxiety relief method unavailable, she instead shifted nervously from foot to foot while she scanned the room trying to catch sight of the rest of the Waynes, gently tightening and loosening her grip on her purse, trying not to crush Tikki.

She was so lost in her anxiety she didn't notice the dark haired man walking behind her take notice of her and stop.  He stood behind her with a nonchalance that didn’t seem to fit a man his size.  He watched her fidget and muttering to herself about “damn rich people” with a smile on his face.

“You don't seem excited to be here” he said quietly.

She turned around with wide eyes, shocked that someone had heard her.  Whatever she was expecting to see it was not what she saw in front of her.  The man towered over her.  Even in her ridiculously, dangerously high heels, Chloe insisted, her head didn’t even come up to his chin.  He was also extremely handsome, with chiseled features and the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever seen.  Those eyes were going to be a problem.  They were clear and kind and roguish and hypnotizing.  His black hair with a shock of white was slightly tousled giving the impression of a rouge trying to look sophisticated.  Was it inappropriate to imagine running her hand through his hair and along his sharp jawline?  Yeah, probably not appropriate and likely not welcome.  Clean up your thoughts, girl!  Great, now Alya was in her head scolding her.  No, that’s not right, because that would definitely not be Alya’s advice.  

He was grinning at her with an impish look in his eyes. “What?  Not impressed with the ‘we care about whatever the point of this gala is, but we’re not hobos so let’s not skimp on the luxury for us’ décor?  Or maybe it is the illustrious, soul sucking, benefactors of Gotham that have set you on edge.”  The smile he shot her was guarded and critical. She chuckled lightly and looked away. “You have good judgement and a good reason to be suspicious.  But you made it to The event of the season, so you must have done something right… or wrong.”

She hummed and looked away.  “Have you ever had one of those days where everything went wrong and now you don't know how you got where you are or why you are there?”

“I’m familiar with the feeling,” he nodded.

“That's my life. All of it.  Every single fucking day.  This one included."

He barked out a laugh and looked at her again appraising her.  “Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine.  I think I like you.  You might just make this torture session more bearable.  See you around,” he chuckled as he walked away.

Marinette watched the man’s retreating back.  The night was already going better than she thought it would.  But the plan for the night wasn’t to find a date it was to act as a scout and keep tabs on the… enemy?  For all intents and purposes, that is what the Waynes were tonight, right?  They had information that she needed, that Paris needed, and they apparently weren’t going to part with it willingly, so they were the enemy.  No, enemy sounded too harsh she chided herself.  Opposition? Yes, they were the opposition.  That sounded much less hostile, more like a game… a game where people’s lives were on the line.  You know, just for fun, no pressure.

She found a spot against a wall she could use.  It was slightly raised but not well lit so it wouldn’t draw attention to her.  From her spot she could finally see the family. It was very thoughtful of them to group together like that.  She could see the little one, stiff and military-like posture, glowering at the people around him.  He was standing as far away from the rest of the people there as he could without actually leaving the room.  Much closer to the dancefloor, she could see the middle boy talking to a few business men. They all had fake smiles plastered on their faces as they made seemingly insignificant small talk.  She did not envy him that experience.  Between the two and to the side was the oldest son. He was chatting up some business person’s daughter, leaning in a lot closer than etiquette would dictate. Just the father then… there he was still not too far from the door talking to a dark haired woman.  He had his arm around her waist as she leaned into him. She must be the girlfriend then. Mari made a note that she should probably pay attention to where she was as well.  Fortunately, the spot she had chosen gave her a great vantage point.  Unfortunately, her observation spot wasn’t as unnoticed as she had hoped.

 ___________________________________________________________

Jason made his way over to the bar and ordered a beer.  He still hadn’t spoken to his family to let them know he was there and he definitely needed a drink before he approached them.  Why the fuck was he here again?  Fucking Batman.  

Fresh glass of beer in hand, he made his way over to his brothers, refusing to acknowledge any of the partygoers along the way.  He watched as his brothers took note of his approach and excused themselves from their conversation partners.  Dick didn’t look too happy to turn away from the latest interest, smiling at her and giving her reassurances before sending her away.  Tim looked less happy to have to turn away from the men he was talking with. He should be thanking Jason really. He was giving him an out from having to deal with them and their god awful personalities and fashion. Seriously, who told that guy that tie was okay.  Even the Riddler would think that tie was obnoxious.

“Okay, I’m here,” Jason said taking a large swig of his drink.  “How long before I can ditch this bottomless pit of misery?”

“Woah, slow down there.  You’re going to get drunk before the announcement.”  Dick cautioned him.

“Do you want me here or do you want me sober?  You’re going to have to choose one.  They’re mutually exclusive, Dickweed.”

“Come on Jaybird, we all have to be here.  None of the rest of us are getting drunk.”

“That’s just because I’m smarter than you guys are,” he said tipping his glass to Tim who had scoffed at the suggestion and took another drink.  “There is no reason we all have to be here.  We shouldn’t all have to suffer.  And officially, I’m not even a member of this hellscape of a family anymore so I really shouldn’t have to be here.”

“If The Disappointment gets to leave, so do I. Someone should be patrolling tonight instead of all of us wasting our time entertaining these harpies.  And if one more person tries to touch me on my head I’m going to break a hand.”

“Stop it!  Nobody is leaving, Damian.  We’re in this together.  And Jason, if anyone got to go home it wouldn’t be you.  You are the reason we all have to be here in the first place; so we can ALL show our support when we officially announce that you are part of this ‘hellscape of a family’ again.  So enjoy it,” he said with a cutting smile.

“Not everyone enjoys getting groped by the gold-digging, trust fund whores.  I’ve found a way to cope.  It’s called alcohol.  Now if you’ll excuse me,” he downed the drink in his hand, “my drink is empty.  I’m going to go find another.”

“At least try not to interact with anyone. We don’t want to piss anyone off tonight.  And I don’t want to have to fix your messes.”

“Way ahead of you, Replacement.”  Jason turned and walked away before Dick could reprimand him again.  He needed to get away.  He could only handle his family in small does, very small doses, miniscule amounts, and he had already surpassed that limit.  

He grabbed two more drinks off of a passing waiter’s tray and looked for the Sunshine Girl.  He scanned the room sipping the champagne, trying not to make eye contact with anyone in the room.  His size and demeanor was usually enough to keep people away but making eye contact made people think he was open to talking.  He was not.  He had no interest in making nice with Gotham’s elite.  He wanted to get this night over with, with as little pain as possible.  

He finally spotted her off to the side of the room speaking with the obnoxious tie guy.  Jason watched as the man slid his hand up the side of her leg starting to move under her skirt.  Jason started to make his way over to them until he saw her move closer to the man.  She was close enough to whisper seductively into his ear now.  Ah, not uninvited then.  Maybe he had misread her.  Well there goes his hope of this party not sucking balls.  He started to turn away but noticed a pained expression on the man’s face.  He turned back to reexamine the scene.  She was holding the man’s hand at an unnatural angle.  It was a hold he’d used a few times himself, it was discrete but extremely effective, causing intense pain with a small movement.  He knew if she moved her hand just a few more centimeters, she could easily break his wrist.

She let go with a viscous look pushing him away from her as she did.  The man shook his hand and scowled at her.  He started back toward her and Jason took off running, not pausing to apologize to the people he bumped into along the way.  Before he could get to her, she had already taken care of it. She squared her shoulders and glared at the man, making it clear that she could and would continue with her actions if he persisted.  When she moved her hand ever so slightly, just enough so he could see it and remember what she had done, the man turned away and smiled at the people who had been standing behind him as though nothing had happened.  Jason chuckled to himself watching her move away from the man. She was definitely going to make this night more bearable.

“Looks like you don’t need me around for protection. Although I did bring a drink so maybe I can earn my keep that way,” he said handing her one of the glasses in his hand.  “That was extremely impressive.  How did you lean to handle yourself like that?”  

She accepted the glass and shrugged.  “You live in Paris long enough you pick up a few things.”

“That isn’t something you just ‘pick up’. That’s experience.”

“And that is exactly what you get when you have a supervillain terrorizing your streets and thoughts for 5 years; experience. And how do you know about that move?  Rich boy secretly a vigilante?” She raised an eyebrow at him giving him a daring smile and pretending to take a drink from the glass.  She was on a mission and she didn’t know him.  She wasn’t about to actually drink anything a stranger gave her, let alone get drunk.

“You don’t grow up in Gotham without learning how to take down someone trying to cop a feel.  And what do you mean about a supervillain in Paris?” he asked taking a step closer to her, concern edging into his stare.

“It doesn’t matter.  It’s not relevant for tonight.” She said taking a step away and scanning the room again to locate the Waynes.

He looked at her for a few moments taking her in, not just her appearance but how she held herself.  She stood with confidence and nonchalance.  She wasn’t acting coy, she wasn’t baiting him to ask her more questions, she was serious.  There was some kind of supervillain running around Paris that they had no idea about.  Well that piqued his interest.  He wanted to find out more about that and just his luck, the only person around who knew about it was the gorgeous and badass Sunshine Child in front of him. Guess he’ll just have to suffer and spend more time talking to her.  The things he does for Gotham, he smirked to himself. “I’m Jason,” he said putting his hand out for her to shake.

She looked at his hand before hesitantly taking it. His hand absolutely engulfed hers. “Nice to meet you Jason,” she said looking toward the dancefloor.  She had last seen the Waynes near the dancefloor and they couldn’t have gotten far, right?  They were likely to be near it.

Misinterpreting her focus he asked, “Wanna dance?” placing down his now empty glass.

She needed a better vantage point to locate the Waynes and even if they weren’t on the dancefloor anymore, the dancefloor would be the ideal place get an unobstructed, overall view of the room.  She could see the entire room from the dancefloor.  She just had to scope it out discretely so Jason didn’t get suspicious.  “Sure,” she said smiling at him and accepting the hand he had offered her.

He guided her out onto the dancefloor.  Jason noticed a little girl standing nervously next to the dancefloor looking at a group of kids nearby.  “Hold on just a second,” he said dropping her hand to kneel down next to the little girl.  “Hey, I just wanted to say what a beautiful dress you have.  I wish you had a smile to match.  Anything wrong, kid?” he asked gently.  The little girl gave him a nervous smile.

“Thanks.  My Mom said I could pick out a dress and I chose this one.  But Mom says it looks silly.  It’s too fluffy and gets in everyone’s way.”

At that Marinette kneeled down next to her as well. “Oh.  Well, let me fill you in on a little secret.  I’m a fashion designer and I can tell you there is nothing wrong with fluffy.  You did a great job picking it out.  It is perfect for you.  I couldn’t design anything better.  I wish I looked as confident and effortlessly beautiful as you do. ”

The smile the little girl gave her was genuine this time.  “You really like it?”

“I do,” Marinette responded.  

“I do, too.  I’m not a fashion designer, but I still think you look good, kid.  And if anyone tells you they don’t like it, scr… I mean, forget them.  Who cares what they think.  A fashion designer and a delinquent think it looks amazing.  Don’t let someone else tell you what you like.” Jason added.  The little girl beamed at both of them and bounded off to join the kids with much more confidence.

Marinette watched him as he watched the kid play with her friends making raucous noise as they played, a grin on his face until he saw some parents come to reprimand their kids for being so noisy.  So, rich boy has a heart and is really protective of kids.  Well that wasn’t going to help Marinette focus solely on the mission. “That was incredibly nice of you.  That’s not advice I would have expected from someone attending a party like this.” Marinette said taking Jason’s outstretched hand again.

“Just because we’re miserable here doesn’t mean she should be, too.  Kids should be happy.  It’s ridiculous to bring a kid to a party if you aren’t going to let them be a kid. Adults in Gotham expect too much of their kids.  They treat them like props instead of kids, tools to help them achieve a goal.” He said voice getting gruff as he spoke.  He looked back at her and shook his head as if to clear his head of his thoughts.  He smiled at her instead and took her waist with his free hand to start dancing with her.

“You know, I noticed you never did give me your name.”

She looked into his eyes for a just a moment before she looked back to the dancefloor, “You know, I noticed that too.”

“Hmmm.  Secretive. No name but a fashion designer from Paris,” he said.  Marinette paled slightly refusing to look back at him.  He was paying attention to her and noticing details.  She hadn’t expected that from this crowd.  She was going to have to be more careful about what she said.  ‘Not get noticed’ played over and over in her head.  She was supposed to slip in and out with nobody remembering her.  She might have blown the mission already.  But, was she ready to walk away from those blue eyes?  Surely, talking with him couldn’t do any harm, right?  “So, did you design the dress you’re wearing?”

She was brought back to reality with a jolt.  “Yes.  Not… not my best work, but it fit the uh, occasion,” she stuttered out.

“Was the occasion to look stunning?  Because you do.”  He grinned smugly as she blushed heavily under his praise.  This was fun.  This was his new mission for the night; to see how many times he could make her blush.  “Still not going to tell me your name, huh?”

She looked back at him before dropping her eyes again.  Stupid mission.  If it were just her here for herself, she could stay here dancing with Jason and gazing into his eyes for the rest of the night, and tomorrow, and the day after for that matter.  But she wasn’t here for herself.  She was here for a reason and that reason demanded she be anonymous and keep track of the Waynes.

She scanned the floor again and finally spotted the Waynes, confirming they were all there.  Nobody had snuck off.  They really liked sticking around each other didn’t they?

“No, it takes more than a pretty line from a pretty boy to get my name” she said looking back to Jason and plastering on a fake smile. “I don’t need any rich boys remembering me after this is over.  Tomorrow I’ll go back to my real life and it will be like none of this ever happened. I can report that I came, I danced, and I even smiled a few times, then never speak of it again.”

“Friends or family forced you to come because they thought you needed some excitement in your life, Pixie Pop?”

“Something like that… Pixie Pop?”

“You won’t tell me your name and I need to call you something.  You’re little and mischievous and can handle yourself… Pixie Pop. Honestly, you’re lucky I didn’t go with Odysseus.  Also, you think I’m pretty?”  He grinned down at her.

She rolled her eyes but smiled anyway, cheeks flushing slightly.  “I think that would have made you Polyphemus, which you certainly have the size for,” she grinned up at him.  “Anyway, that’s why I’m here.  How about you?”

“Oh, my family thinks I have enough fun already. I’m here because if they have to suffer, so do I.  And all to bolster the name of the illustrious Bruce Wayne.”

Marinette examined his face as he stared toward where she last seen Bruce Wayne.  He looked annoyed and frustrated.  This was a side of Mr. Wayne she had not heard about in her research, a side that frustrated native Gothamites.  A bit more information could be helpful for her to figure out what role he played in the Grimoire information Constantine was gathering, figure out whether or not he was a threat.  “Not a fan?” she asked delicately.

He looked back at her examining her face for any malice.  “Depends on the day.”

She hummed in response.  “What can you tell me about Bruce Wayne?” she finally asked.

“Why do you want to know?” he responded suspiciously. Most people looking for more information wanted it as a weapon.  Bruce might not be his favorite person, he might actually hate him right now, but he wasn’t going to help someone take him down unless it was him.

She shrugged, “everything I’ve seen shows an exemplary record for him.  You don’t seem to be a fan though and you’ve grown up in Gotham so you would have some good insights.  So, I’m wondering what your take on him is.  What he’s done to draw your ire.”

Jason nodded slightly seeming to mull over what she said.  “He does good things.  He helps a lot of charities.  He honestly does care about the city and the people and about making their lives better. His parenting skills could use some work though.  He could show his sons that he actually cares about them as more than tools, you know, whether they live or died…” he furrowed his brows and looked away for a few seconds before he schooled his expression.  His eyes got a wicked gleam to them and he leaned towards her to whisper conspiratorially “… and I hear he’s sleeping with Batman.”

Mari looks at him surprised.  “Huh, I guess he has a type then, supermodels, superheroes…”

“Supervillains…” Jason says under her breath looking back at Bruce and his date.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he covered quickly, but the damage had already been done.  She had started thinking about Bruce’s involvement with the super community.  If he was sleeping with superheroes and super villains, that meant he was part of the same circles as Constantine… and Constantine liked dating in the super community.  Could Bruce Wayne be in the super community?  That would explain why he had information pertaining to the Grimoire.  And she might need to revisit exactly how Constantine knew Bruce Wayne.

“Are you okay?  I didn’t break you, did I?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah, fine I could just maybe use some uh, water?” she gave an awkward smile.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, please?”  She just needed a bit of space to think.

Jason left to grab a glass of water and turned back to her.  She watched Bruce with her head crooked to the side.  He saw her finger discretely swiping to the right a few times as she stared intently at Bruce.  After a few times her finger swiped left instead and head straightened.  She looked around to the other members of the family as if she was counting, confirming something in her head.

Marinette’s eyes widened as she suddenly realized why Bruce Wayne could have information they needed and why Constantine needed her to keep an eye on the Waynes.  Shit. Shit shit shit shit. Shitshitshitshitshitshit. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.  She turned away quickly.  This could not be happening.  This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.  She did NOT help him break into the BATCAVE while she kept tabs on BATMAN.

And if Constantine was trying desperately to avoid him, like he did all his exes…That little…

Jason had no idea what happened but as he got closer to his Pixie he could hear her muttering under her breath in French.  His French was a bit rusty so even the pieces he could pick up were scarce and nonsensical.  Something about maybe “lying” and “Roast Beef” and “bat” and “shark” and “fucking”.  He couldn’t be positive about any of the words except two; “fucking” and “bat” those he was pretty familiar with.  Not to brag but he could swear like a sailor in at least 7 languages.  And “bat”, he knew that word in a few more languages for obvious reasons.

She was abruptly moving and ran right into him before she could take notice of her surroundings.  She looked at Jason with wide eyes, reexamining the man she had spent the evening speaking and dancing with.  Suddenly, everything clicking into place.  There was one more hero she hadn’t accounted for, Red Hood, who while he hid his face behind a mask, just so happened to have the same towering build as Jason. But Bruce Wayne didn’t have any more kids, right?  And if the other vigilantes were his sons, Red Hood should be too, right?  He just had the three boys and the two girls who were out of town.  That was it.  He had another son, but that son had died.  What was his name… She gasped loudly, “Oh God! You’re Jason,” she exclaimed out loud.  

“Yeah?”  He said confused.  They’d been over this before.

“You’re Jason Todd,” she said looking down and taking slow breaths.  “You’re Bruce Wayne’s son.”

He looked at her startled.  She put that together quicker than he was expecting especially since she didn’t seem to know much about the family. “For what it’s worth, I don’t feel like his son most of the time,” he tried to joke.  “Sorry for not telling you before.  I don’t like talking about being in the family, or being in the family at all, actually.” He winced looking at her wide eyes.

“I wasn’t supposed to get noticed by the Waynes. Shit!”

“Then you shouldn’t have worn that dress… or that face… or that smile, Pixie.”  He said grinning suavely.  

She examined him for a few seconds, emotions flittering across her face almost too quickly to identify them.  Confusion, bashful, flattered, hopeful, guilt, pain, melancholy.

“I have to go.” She finally spoke up.

“Wait.  What?”

“I… I have to go”

“Wait, is it… you have to go because I’m Wayne’s son?”

“No, I… shit.  Putain de bâtard.” Yep, that one he understood too.  Wait... “Me?” He asked pointing to himself.

“No, not you… Not because you’re a Wayne, well kind of because you’re a Wayne.  It’s…” she faltered for a few seconds then muttered under her breath again “Je vais tuer cette putain de mère.”

“Wait, who is the mother fucker you’re talking about? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.  I’m just going to kill a bitch when I get home.”

“Okay… Okay, first, that is a lot more swearing than I thought you were capable of and I’m extremely impressed… and turned on,” he chuckled as she rolled her eyes at him and mumbled under her breath “you should have heard what was going on in my head”.  He raised his eyebrows at her suggestion.  “Okay, you’re making it really hard not to make out with you right now.” He watched proudly as her cheeks suddenly blazed red at his comment. Another point for him tonight.

“Second, if you’re just worried about Bruce finding out you were here, it never happened.  I never saw you.  You were never here,” he assured her.  Instead of calming her she seemed more panicked, eyes darting from the door to him. This seemed like more than just not wanting to get noticed.  She was into something and didn’t want to be.  “Or, if you’re in trouble, I can help.  You just need to tell me what is going on.  You don’t seem like you would willingly work with someone out to hurt others, so whatever it is, I’m sure you aren’t willingly doing it.  If it is something bad.  I just really have no idea what is going on right now and I would like you to tell me.” He continued earnestly, looking her in her eyes to make sure she understood how deathly serious he was about it.  If she needed help, he WOULD help her.  Even if he didn’t like her, which he really did, he was going to help put that smile back on her face.

She looked at him for another few moments opening her mouth slightly to say something then seemed to think better of it and closed it again.  She narrowed her eyes and looked away scanning the room as she thought about what to say and do next.  She seemed to come to a conclusion as she turned back to him and set her feet firmly on the ground.

“I never told you why I was here, did I?” Even before he shook his head she continued.  “I’m here to keep an eye on the Waynes.  On you, apparently.  Didn’t know you were back from the dead though, so I wasn’t looking out for you. Congratulations on that, by the way, you know, on the whole not being dead thing.  That’s really amazing.  I’m glad you can be around to enjoy life and laugh and be sarcastic and look at me with those eyes and look like that in a suit… probably even better out of it.”  She muttered the last part under her breath.

“I’d love to see you out of that dress, too.” He smiled smugly at her.

She huffed out a breath, cheeks reddening again, “Yeah, not happening.  I’m burning this dress as soon as I get out of here.”

“I can help you with that, too.  I like setting fires.  Two birds, one pyrotechnic.” He preened for a moment enjoying the flirting. Wait, less flirting, more focusing back on the more important part of her earlier speech.

“Wait, why are you keeping an eye on us?” he asked apprehensively.

“So I could warn my… associate if any of you left. So he could have plenty of time to… what is the best way to say this…” she looked up to the ceiling and took a deep steadying breath thinking about the words she wanted to use.  None of this was part of the plan. “…so he could have plenty of time to evacuate your… lair? No, lair makes you sound like villains… your illicit… cavern of, actually I don’t know if it is a cavern… and it isn’t really illicit, is it?  Well, actually I guess it kind of is, but that still makes it sound like you’re a villain…your underground… no, I don’t even know if it is underground… to evacuate your… uh… secret… base of… um, operations?”

“My what?” Jason demanded now more than a little concerned. “Who are you?”

“Nobody.  Absolutely nobody of consequence. And nobody who should be here right now.”  She turned to walk away before Jason stopped her.

“No.  You don’t get to say something like that then try to slink away like nothing happened. Come on, we’re going to go talk to some people,” he said grabbing her arm a bit harder than strictly necessary and dragging her towards his brothers and Bruce.  She definitely figured out who they all were or at least who Bruce was and that they knew too, which put her in danger, and she was working with someone to break into the Batcave, which put them all in danger.  Everything about this situation was dangerous and bad and they needed to talk to the family to figure out the best next steps.

Marinette dug her heels into the ground pulling against him, a really bad idea considering how high her heels were. Instead of stopping him she stumbled into his chest allowing him the opportunity to wrap his arms around her, “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said squirming to get out of his embrace. “This is between you guys.  I have neither the desire nor the interest to get involved in this little lover’s spat.  I have more important things to be doing right now.  Things that asshole was supposed to be doing instead of pulling practical jokes.”

“Jokes?  What do you mean jokes?  What the fuck is going on?”  He looked at her again.  She wasn’t afraid, she wasn’t gloating, she wasn’t even nervous.  She was annoyed verging on enraged.  

“Nothing you need to worry about, Red.” She threw in the moniker at him to get him to back down.  She knew how important secret identities were, and how finding out someone knew yours could throw you off your game.  She felt a bit of guilt as she used that knowledge against him but this was no longer fun.  Now this was infuriating.  John was playing games with his former lover, or current lover, whatever Bruce was to him, instead of just helping.  He was taking time she didn’t want to spend, time the people of Paris should not have to wait.  They had spent weeks planning this when he could have just walked in and asked for the information.  They had wasted so much time.

“I. Do. Not. Have. Time. For. This.  This is not a joke.  This is not some gag for you overgrown children to play at,” she said hitting her finger into his chest with each word.  “I have people in need relying on me.  I have children counting on me. Parents counting on me.  Single people, who also deserve to live just as much as everyone else, counting on me and all suffering while they wait.  I. Am. Done.  And I am leaving”

Jason listened to her shocked.  Something was happening and he had absolutely no idea what, but somehow they were involved.  He hated not knowing what was going on.  Apparently children were suffering because of all of this and he didn’t know why.  But, he was going to figure it out.  She was right.  They did not have time for this.  Whatever was going on, they were going to help.  He turned away loosening his grip on her waist to just laying his arm on her instead of encircling her.  He touched his hand to his ear to activate the com hidden inside, “Tim, can you check the security video for the uh… our base of operations?”

It appeared that Tim was giving Jason some resistance because Jason turned away even further and started yell whispering threats into the air.  He was trying to be as discrete as possible in the crowded room, which normally wouldn’t be such a concern but there was a group of dancers headed their way, just leaving the dance floor after the song ended.  Marinette took advantage of his distraction and the sudden cover to twist away from him and slip into the crowd.

Jason called after her and tried to grasp her arm but missed her.  He searched for her but the crowd was too thick, having had to bottleneck to get past the tables surrounding the dance floor.  He scanned the crowd for her twisted hair or the black dress, but couldn’t see her in the group.  She had effectively disappeared, but if she went into the crowd, she would have to come out and cross the dancefloor in order to leave.  He could just wait for her on the other side of the group and keep an eye on the dancefloor.  He moved to go around the table, but that side was just as crowded so he did the only rational, discrete thing he could in the situation, he slid across the top of the table landing on the dancefloor and waited to grab her there, but she never came out.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

_____________________________________________________________

Marinette had a habit of catastrophizing.  She knew this.  Everyone who knew her knew this.  She thought of all of the worst case scenarios and tried to plan for them. Generally, it was a wasted effort that did little more than stress her out and annoy her teammates.  Today, however, today it paid off.  She had anticipated having to make a quick escape and once she decided it was time to go, she put her escape plan into action. Freeing herself from Jason, she pulled off her belt before even getting to the crowd.  As she entered the crowd of people, she pulled out her hair pin, letting her hair fall down.  She didn’t even have to hunch down much at all to disappear into the crowd as she weaved her way through them.  One advantage to being short.  She ran her left hand through her hair tousling it so her long raven hair cascaded around her shoulders.  With her right hand, she yanked at the cowl neckline of her dress, allowing the fabric overlay to drop forming a floor length skirt, revealing the bodice of her now red Harlow inspired dress that had been hidden underneath.  Her new dress hugged her body until it reached her hips then fell freely.  

Finally, she reached into her red purse, removed her phone, the cookie for Tikki, and Kaalki’s glasses, nodded to Tikki, turned her purse inside out revealing a now black purse with red detailing, and returned her phone, glasses, cookie, hairpin, and belt into it, leaving plenty of room for Tikki. The entire change took all of 10 seconds.  By the time she would walk out of the crowd, she would be completely unrecognizable, at least by anyone who didn’t already know her.  Unless that is, if they were looking for someone moving against the tide of people.  That would be a dead giveaway.  So instead, she pivoted and moved with the crowd instead of against it, parting with them after a few tables and moving laterally toward the exit.

Marinette made her way to the exit quickly, but not quickly enough to draw attention to herself.  She needed to get to Constantine before the “bat family”, as her research had called them, got to him.  They had reasons for keeping other superheroes out of Paris and she had no interest in having that particular awkward and slightly guilt laden (stupid gorgeous blue eyes she wanted to get lost in) conversation with them.  Especially when she was this utterly livid with Constantine, which was another reason she was rushing.  She needed to get to him so she could beat the asshole out of him. Oh, she was going to make him pay for this, and not in a way he would enjoy.  

She was angry and frustrated and guilty and grieved. She knew Jason didn’t deserve for her to snap at him like she had but she had been too frustrated to hold back and he was part of the problem.  She had been having fun with Jason.  She had been enjoying bantering with him and looking into his eyes.  She had really, really been enjoying having him look at her like she was the most interesting thing in Gotham and having him hold her closer than he had to while they danced.  And now it was gone.  She was a hero and he was a vigilante so he had to be kept at a distance.  A 3,670 mile distance to be precise, well approximate.

She was just about to cross through the exit when a voice stopped her.

“Hey,” a woman with short black hair and green eyes called out to her.  Marinette slowed down weighing the risk of just blowing her off vs the risk of stopping. She decided ignoring her might lead to the woman calling after her, which would bring unwanted attention, which she wanted to avoid.  Stopping seemed the safer answer.  As long as she didn’t look back at the gala or do anything else that might incriminate herself, she would be able to get away without any awkward conversations or fights.

“Yes” she answered with a strained smile.

“I saw that little quick change back there,” the woman responded.  Marinette’s eyes widened in panic.  Before anxiety could start going over all the worst case scenarios her mind could come up with, she was already in the midst of one of them in real life she really didn’t need to start thinking of worse things to add to it, the woman continued, nonchalantly scanning the people at the gala, “don’t worry, I’m not going to out you.  I just might have occasion to use a quick change myself from time to time, so I was hoping you might share where you got your dress.”  She shot Marinette a wicked smile.  ”Just because you’re hustling doesn’t mean you can’t look killer doing it.”

Marinette relaxed minutely and gave her a small smile, “it’s called MDC Designs.  She’s online. What’s your name so she’ll know who to look out for?”

“Thanks kitten.  I appreciate it.”  She said never looking back at Marinette.  “Selina.  Selina Kyle. I’d say nice to meet you, but we never met, did we?”

Marinette smiled to herself as she walked out the door. Maybe the night wasn’t a total loss. Hopefully, Constantine got the information they needed, she’ll get to punch his smug face as soon as she sees him, and she’ll get a new client.  Guess Adrien was right about showcasing her design after all.  He must never know.  Not such a bad night at all.

 Chapter 2

 Tag:

@fsketchart @jasonette-july-2k20

[soulmate-game]

Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month 2020

Day 5: Overprotection

Disclaimer: Dick was adopted when he was 12 in this fic. Just for math’s sake.

—*—*—*—*—*

“What.”

Damian stared at his father, face carefully blank. Bruce grimaced, shifting.

“I said, you have a half sister. Biological.”

Four sets of eyes bored into him, from all of his sons. They were gathered not in the Batcave for once, but just one of the sitting rooms in the Manor.

“... and what, Father, does that have to do with the French class visiting Gotham?” Damian asked again, posture steadily growing stiffer and more and more stone like. He was trying hard to suppress emotions, but not even he was quite sure what those emotions were yet. Anger? Fear? Resentment? Probably. He might have detected some excitement there too, deep, deep down. Bruce took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for this.

“Well. I’ve kept up with her life, but last time I checked she had no idea that she was adopted. When her birth mother died, it was right around the time I adopted Dick. She was still an infant, and I knew I was not equipped to handle taking care of a baby—“

“Father,” Damian interrupted again. “You sent her off. Have her up for adoption,” he said slowly, as if realizing that that would have been his fate had his father known about his existence earlier, as well. It was almost ironic, considering how Bruce seemed to have a problem with adopting other children nowadays. Bruce nodded.

“She was adopted by a couple in France. Paris, to be exact. I’ve kept up to date, asking them to just send me a letter or email once or twice a year about the general stuff she’s been up to. Nothing too invasive. A few pictures. And last time I asked them, they said that she had no idea about being adopted or that I was her father,” Bruce sighed again, running a hand over his face. “But I think she does.”

“Why?” Jason asked, confused as everyone else to the change in subject. Except Tim and Damian, who seemed to be quickly connecting the dots.

“Oh boy,” Tim breathed. Bruce just nodded.

“Her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She is the one who organized the trip for her class to come here, to Gotham. She is the one who entered and won our international internship competition, and turned that into an excuse to get her entire class to come here for two weeks. To get to know the place she will be living for her internship next year, after she graduates Lycee, France’s version of highschool essentially.”

Tim winced. He had been in charge of the internship competition, and Bruce had given him free reign. He had chosen the winner without even thinking to run it by his adoptive father.

“Bruce—“ Tim tried, but the man just held up a hand.

“I don’t blame you. I haven’t been paying too much attention to her life, and I didn’t expect her to do something like this. But we know now that, if she does know and this isn’t a giant coincidence,”

“Unlikely,” Dick agreed, wincing. “Possible, but unlikely.”

Bruce huffed in agreement. “Then, we know she is very resourceful, determined, and has skills that impressed Tim enough to choose her out of tens of thousands of contest participants worldwide.”

“The minimum requirement for a Wayne,” Damian finally managed to bite out, still coping with this proverbial slap in the face but doing his best to handle it. He was seventeen damn it, and had come a long way from who he used to be. He could handle this. He could. He would.

Bruce rolled his eyes, and then leaned forward with his hands braced on the table. “Okay. So now we need to make plans.”

“Plans?” Jason asked, frowning. “For how you’re gonna tell her without getting your faces plastered over every tabloid in the city right?”

“No,” the older man shook his head. “Plans to keep her alive, unharmed, and unaffiliated with us until she leaves. I will not be making any public appearances unless absolutely necessary, so trips to the Tower are out of the question—“

“Are you…” Jason’s eyes were wide. “Trying to keep her out of our Shitshow? Because yeah, kudos to you even if it took you way too long to learn, but if she went through all this trouble to come here then it's probably too late.”

Dick nodded. “If she’s anything like you and Damian, there’s no way she’ll back off easy. Avoiding her will only make it worse on you, and probably the rest of us too.”

Damian stared straight into his father's eyes, glare sharp and searching. “What is this about, Father? You have not worried this much about any of us—“

“Because none of you were as naive!” He barked, quickly catching himself and taking a breath. “You all had a way you could benefit from this life. A way I could help you. But Marinette has both of the parents she has known her whole life, they treat her wonderfully. They care. She’s never had to worry about constantly moving, or fighting, or going hungry. The only deaths she has ever experienced have been from afar and due to natural causes. She designs as a hobby and has no problem with socializing or handling emotions in a healthy way— introducing her to our life holds no benefit for her. The only thing it can give her is unnecessary danger and risk and secrets.”

“Yeah, well. I guess Batman doesn’t know everything, does he?” A new voice startled them all from the doorway, making everyone's head whip over to see who had managed the near-impossible and snuck up on all of them.

Standing there, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, was a short part-Asian woman in her late teens. Her midnight black hair was cascading down her back in one thick braid, tied off at the end with an indigo ribbon. Her eyes were a piercing cobalt blue, matching those of Bruce perfectly. Her jaw was clenched, and the infamous Bat-glare coming from her was directed right at the person who made the expression infamous in the first place.

“Marinette,” Bruce breathed, shoulders squaring. “Your plane isn’t supposed to arrive until tomorrow.”

“It won’t,” she agreed. “I took a portal here. You see, my extensive research into Batman’s known habits and tactics, which I started after I figured out about your alter ego last year, informed me that you tend to go to the extremes to protect people you deem incapable of protecting themselves, and are also prone to idiotic self-sacrificing behavior in the form of purposely making yourself look like an ass.”

Jason chuckled. “She’s got you down to a T, B,” he quipped with a grin despite the caution still in his eyes. “But let’s back up a bit, little Spitfire. What’s this about a portal?”

Marinette pushed off the doorframe, walking closer to the scattered group. Tim and Jason were spread across one sofa, Damian on the other with Dick, and Bruce was occupying an armchair. Marinette just walked until she stood where she could easily be seen by everyone, but also had nobody at her back.

“The portal is part of a bigger story. Like, the fact that father dearest wanted to protect me so badly that he placed the JLE in Paris, but didn’t realize that relations with that branch were so bad that the JLE never informed him or the JLA about getting kicked out of France and reassigning themselves to Italy. Bruce never kept a close enough eye on the city, because he wanted to keep emotional distance, and therefore was completely blind to when a supervillain showed up and terrorized Paris for almost five years,” she continued, her glare never leaving Bruce’s face.

“I found out about being adopted when I was eight. I found out who my biological father was when I was thirteen. Last year, I finally put in the work to connect Bruce Wayne to Batman. And yeah, I never told Maman and Papan, because they have never completely understood me. They wouldn’t have understood that I was fine with having no contact with you, back then. That my snooping had nothing to do with being unhappy with them as my parents. They would have immediately assumed they were inadequate when I am merely curious by nature. But then I ended up being chosen to be one of the child heroes that fought said domestic terrorist that showed up five years ago. And I sure as hell couldn't tell them that a magical artifact showed up on my desk one day and that the god inhabiting it told me to fight the monsters the villain made and just, just go with it. I couldn’t tell them when I went from being one of two Parisian heroes to being the leader of a team. I couldn’t tell them when my elderly mentor, unable to fight by our side but who had at least provided emotional support and knowledge, passed away and gave me his title and responsibilities. I’m sick and tired of being protected, Monsieur Wayne,” Marinette didn’t seem to notice the tears that had begun to fall.

“I’m sick of it. I know you were trying to keep me safe, but I fought a war I wasn’t prepared for. I died, thousands of times. But my own powers and the powers I have my partners brought me back to life. Over and over. I don’t need protection, damn it. I don’t need you to distance yourself, because you're the only fucking person I can call a parent who might understand,” she held out a hand, her scowl turning into a gentle smile. “I have so much I need to talk about. Before I drown under all these secrets. Please. I’ll go back through another portal before my parents notice I’m gone, but I’ll be back in town tomorrow when my plane lands. Just. Please, don’t push me away. That’s all I ask. I want to get to know you, all of you. I… I need family who understands.”

“Thousands.” Bruce repeated, all of them still recovering from Marinette’s very sudden, info-dumping speech. “You died… thousands of times?”

Marinette laughed, but it was a sad sound. No mirth there. “I gave my friend a magical artifact that reverses time, and the artifact that gives me my own powers can reverse any damage from a fight I use it in. Even death. Sending untrained teenagers to fight a villain three times their age makes some kind of failsafe like that kind of necessary.”

“Fuck,” Jason cursed under his breath. “Well. You’re welcome to join the living Zombie club,” he offered. The girl snorted, giving him a watery grin in thanks.

“I’m sure you know about my stance on powers and metas,” Bruce decided to say, wincing immediately after. That wasn’t what he meant to say. At all. He earned another brief glare for it.

“I’m not a meta, and I only have powers when I use the artifact to transform, thereby borrowing powers from the miniature god that the artifact houses. Think of it like doctor fate, but my gods are actually not parasites and my powers are much more… specialized. I had to learn combat on my own, and I was able to train in my sleep with the past users of this artifact. That includes people like Fa Mulan, Joan of Arc, and someone you actually know— Hippolyta. I’ve mastered more fighting styles by now than I care to remember, and I’ve done gymnastics since I was three. I don’t know if my parents told you that in their letters. I even won the gold in the nationwide France gymnastics competition two years ago. I assure you, I don’t rely on my powers nearly as much as you might think.”

Bruce swallowed. “I can… greet you when your class arrives.”

Marinette grinned. “Well, that’s a start.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Idk what happened, I don’t know if I like this at all but oh well. I’m posting it anyway. Maybe one of you will like it. I… couldn’t really find any other way to do this so oh well. Also, I think Mulan was a past Dragon..? But I put her as a Ladybug because I Can.

@momothefemur @ladybug-182 @starlightshield @trippingovermyfeet @greatcatblaze @sam-i-am-0222 @bluesimani @ruelukas22 @acoolspacegirl @iamablinkmarvelarmy @meme991001

[jeremiahwasajoker]

Hello there! The question that you have asked me is a really great one. I think that the answer to this varies from person to person, so I hope that everyone reading this keeps in mind that this is an opinion! Without further ado, let’s get started.

Personally, I do think it is possible for the Joker to love/care about his significant other. I am aware that this is a *hot take*, but just hear me out. The first example of this that I can find has to do with the Joker’s deceased wife Jeannie. I know that there’s a debate of whether she actually existed or not because of the context of him telling Batman about her in the ‘Killing Joke’ comic, but it turns out that there is a comic run where the Joker is told that his wife was murdered instead of her death being an accident. This drives him to hunt down the person who killed her and attempt to act out revenge on them. With all of that being said, I think it’s safe to say that the Joker has a soft spot in his heart for Jeannie and that he still genuinely loves her even though she has passed. A visual example of this can be seen below, where you can see that he looks very pained while looking at a photo album of their shared life together.

The second example that I think proves this (to me, anyway) has to do with the Joker’s newer partner, Punchline. From what we have seen of Punchline in the comics, she is silent, cold, deadly, and has earned the Joker’s respect. Even though their interactions haven’t gotten too romantic yet, there’s a palpable connection between the two. From what it seems, the Joker considers her as his equal rather than just a henchwoman because she always gets the job done and has a plan for everything. Her personality also seems to suit his very well, fueling their chemistry with one another. In fact, James Tynion IV (who is Punchline’s creator) said that one of the stark differences between her and the Joker’s relationship versus his and Harley Quinn’s is that he does genuinely care for her in a non-manipulative way. Being by his side is 10000% her choice, which I think is a refreshing take for a Joker relationship. Here’s a picture of them dancing.

That point brings me to my next, which has to do with none other than Harley Quinn herself. As we all know, the Joker and Harley’s relationship is quite tumultuous and abusive. Personally, I don’t really ship them together, but I do really appreciate the (rare) wholesome moments between them. It’s been said that the Joker was too afraid to ever admit his feelings for Harley and that’s why he abused her, but I have to disagree. Even though I think it’s possible that he tried to hide the fact that he may have loved her, I do think the reason for his abuse was because of their personalities clashing. Harley is a fun, bubbly, and ditzy character that goes on a whim and sometimes isn’t completely focused on the Joker’s plans. She is easily manipulated into loving him (as per the ‘Mad Love’ comic) because she has the type of personality/issues that caused this. However, her going on tangents or screwing up/not fully understanding his ideas has made her an annoyance to him. She also isn’t fully evil, so this can lead to questioning from her. Especially since the Joker is someone who is methodical and cold-hearted, he strongly disliked these aspects of Harley. It’s even thought that the reason for his abuse of her is because she slightly reminds him of Jeannie. Regardless, him abusing her is TOTALLY NOT OKAY!!! That’s why I don’t prefer this Joker ship as much. I’m also not justifying him for hurting her in any way, but rather examining the aspects of their relationship that may have lead him to do this to her. Anyway, have a soft picture of them together that I do appreciate. I do wish that their relationship was more like the example below!

Now, I know what you may be thinking: “You said you don’t ship Jarley as much, but you love Eccomiah!! Doesn’t Jeremiah abuse Ecco and stuff?” Weeeelllllll, here’s my take on everything with that. As I have mentioned countless times before, I don’t think that the true plan for their relationship was for them to turn out the way that they did. Ecco’s character was the way she was in season 4 for a reason. I think that the route that they were trying to go was for her to continue to be the stoic, bada$$ Joker henchwoman that was willingly devoted to him. But, because they had to rush to finish the show, they were like “we have to have Harley Quinn!!!” and kinda just changed her personality so that they could say they had that character on the show. I know for a fact that Ecco was meant to be intelligent and not ditzy. She is a perfect match for Jeremiah in the sense that they are equals and that they bring out the evil in each other (even though that is an unhealthy dynamic in general). Another thing that I have mentioned many times before is that I headcanon that she was faking her season 5 persona as a part of their plan. I explained that more in depth in my “Verisimilitude Trumps Precaution!” post, which you can check out in my Eccomiah tag. Regardless, I do think/headcanon that Jeremiah loves and simps hard for Ecco. She’s his dream partner in a sense that she’s highly proficient with her skills, as well as being fully and willingly devoted to him. Just look at them here! What a power couple!

In conclusion, I do think that it is possible for the Joker to be in love with his significant other. I think that it just really depends on the context and the personalities of his partner. This being said, this does not make him any better of a person! He is still an extremely evil and vile villain who should not be looked up to. I’m just saying that I think it’s possible for him to fall in love with someone who matches him without their dynamic being romanticized or diminishing his level of evil. I do think that it can work!

I hope this made sense! I know that it’s kind of messy because I wanted to do my research and get all of my thoughts out about this! I also hope that others can respect my opinion on this.

Have a great day! 😁