#this is not only because I'm in love with Nightwing but because I really dislike Azrael

[grayson-euphoria]

"Should I go to Nightwing?"

For future references Tim... The answer to that question IS ALWAYS YES for me. Bring my boy! I love reading about Nightwing! Why focus on Azrael and make a whole ass story about him when we could have Nightwing? T-T

I mean I'm happy they respect his boundaries and respect the fact that he is doing his own stuff now but... In this story specifically... I really feel that they should've called Nightwing

[mysterycitrus]

I'm not sure if you've already answered something like this, but what are your reasons for disliking Tom Taylor?

I haven't read everything of his regarding the Titans and Dick but I don't really like what I've seen so far. I was excited at first with the current Titans run, etc. But that excitement has faded away.

What I don't like that is hard to put into words is his writing seems to reflect that he doesn't really understand the characters that he's writing, AND he seems to prefer Dick with Babs instead of Kory.

But what are your thoughts on Tom Taylor's writing?

in a nutshell — tom taylor is a fundamentally incurious person who writes comics to go viral on twitter. there’s no tangible substance in what he writes aside from moments of unearned toothless fluff, he isn’t interested in preserving legacy relationships or characterisation, and he lauds himself as a champion of representation while blocking those from marginalised communities who critique his works for being harmful or otherwise inaccurate.

his writing on nightwing reinvented dick grayson as a spineless, inoffensive character with almost no conviction. babs gordon has been removed from oracle entirely and exists as his girlfriend who lovingly banters with him but otherwise possesses no personal stance on any issue. his portrayal of bludhaven is devoid of its grit, style, or culture. dick’s ability to perform basic tasks as a hero — solving cases on his own, any degree of instinct or self preservation, acting like an adult — is notably absent. his chip about kory manifests in strongarming babs into being dicks one true love — something that defies existing canon and harms both of their existing relationships with other characters.

his writing on titans pisses me off even more, because now he has a wide cast of established characters that he can water down into stereotypes, flat characterisation lifted out of the cartoon, and bad politics. raven is basically a non-character who exists to be bb’s girlfriend. roy is totally absent. kory is underwritten. donna is flat and lifeless. the dynamics of the group are totally off. the decisions they make are bad, and because he’s established dick as a dunce i don’t understand why anyone would sincerely trust him to lead this group.

the issue is that there are no stakes. taylor’s liberalism allows for surface-level representation with no substance and no personality. why should i care that superman is bi if said superman decides to hug space-hitler instead of fighting him? why would i care that dick grayson is back in bludhaven if every character around him exists to support his new, inferior storytelling? taylor does not appear interested in improving his craft or actually collaborating with the people he claims to represent. there is no compassion, no sincere interest in nuanced storytelling. only window dressing with shiny cover art by dan mora

[richardsgraysons]

Heyyy…. May i request a wife reader x dick grayson… she is mad at him and is giving him a silent treatment, but he is so done with this that he starts annoying her by saying Mrs. Grayson after every sentense and closing tightly lids

anon this is so adorable. i am going feral. also i am so severely sorry for my IA-ness.

tags — just overall fluff. some light swearing

In hindsight, you should've known that this would entail not just dating, but also marrying a vigilante. How could someone blame you, anyways? You were sitting at home, about to go to bed, when Nightwing crashed into your apartment after being chucked across the city by some villain or the other.

He had a major concussion. You didn't know how to treat thrown vigilantes who definitely had a couple of broken ribs and a torn ACL.

What you did know was how to comfort a man who was clearly in pain, who was trying to stifle his screams, because let's face it, the vigilante life should clearly not be glamorized.

He felt bad for the wreckage in your apartment. Every week, there'd be thousands of dollars at your doorstep from him, ready to pay it off. He had to be rich. There was no way he was giving your entire salary in four months and a half.

Eventually, you figured out his secret identity. And instead of being angry about it, Dick Grayson felt awfully in love with a girl who was as intelligent as he hoped she'd be. Sure she wasn't a supermodel, but she made him laugh. She made him think. She wasn't easy to get along with at times, but she made him better.

Three years later, he put a ring on it.

"I told you," you snapped, "you just keep going in stupid situations, and normally, I wouldn't mind, but it's like you refuse my help or anyone else's."

Dick knew he had a really bad hero complex. He couldn't stand anyone else getting hurt because of his issues. "I can handle it," he responded. "And isn't it just annoying that you've been mad at me for the past two days? Can't you just give it a rest?"

"I'll give it a rest when you start accepting help from others," you responded, your brows furrowing. "God, you're so—you're so—ugh!"

Dick rolled his eyes and then smirked at you, that stupid boyish smirk that made your heart tingle and everything else disappear. "I'm so what, sweetheart? What am I, Mrs. Grayson?"

You glared at him. "Dick!" You huffed, both saying his name and the insult. "That's it. I want a cooling down period. Leave me and the kitchen alone!"

He grinned, looking back at you, a mischievous glance in his eye. "Oh, I will, Mrs. Grayson. I will."

* * *

Making dinner was one of your forms of therapy. Dick was starting to go out for patrol, much to your distaste, no doubt about to pick a fight with someone who would give him considerable damage.

You didn't want him to go, you wanted to keep him here and kiss him forever, but he would leave anyways. It's my moral duty to the people of Bludhaven to keep them safe, he had said to you one night. I could never bring it to myself to disappoint these people. To make them unsafe. I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure people are as safe as can be.

And though you really disliked it, you knew that was one of the core reasons why you were so undoubtedly in love with him.

You turned around to grab the jar of pickles, still steaming from the fight, only to find that it was incredibly hard to open.

"What. The. Hell?" You hissed. You had opened it up just a day ago, and put it easily back, making sure it wasn't that hard.

Your face turned red and you looked at it again before trying to open it up, straining and groaning, only for your muscles to give out. There was only one explanation for this.

Your stupid, lovable, husband.

And after a few minutes of recollecting your pride, you stomped over to your bedroom where he was dressing. He was in the midst of putting the top half of his suit on, and your mouth turned a little dry when you saw him shirtless.

You were pretty sure that when the first time you saw him shirtless, literal heart eyes came out of your eyes. You gawked for a couple of seconds, admiring the contour of his muscles, only for him to turn around and smirk at you.

He knew what you were doing. Dammit.

"Hi, Mrs. Grayson," he teased. "Enjoying the view?"

"Shut up," you snapped, and held out the jar. "Open this up right now and stop screwing with my jars."

He smirked at you. "What's the magic word?"

"The magic word is 'I will beat you up if you don't open the jar up right now'," you responded, glaring at him. "Now. Open."

He laughed, tossing his head back, his voice echoing off the room before taking the jar. You watched intently as his triceps flexed when he opened the jar up with ease and returned it back.

"Thank you," you said, your voice having an edge to it. You were about to turn around before he grabbed you by the arm.

"What, no good luck kiss?" Dick asked huskily in your ear. It sent shivers down your spine.

"Even if I give you one, you'll still end up badly injured."

"C'mon," he murmured, planting a light kiss on your neck, his hands dancing on your waist. He squeezed your sides slightly. "I always fight better when my girl kisses me."

You looked up at him and snorted. "In your dreams," you responded, but he took this moment to crash his lips against you. You felt dizzy and couldn't help but to wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

When the both of you stopped, he laughed, looking at you breathless, his blue eyes twinkling in the night sky.

"Knew you couldn't be mad at me for that long, Mrs. Grayson."

"Shut up," you grumbled, punching his shoulder lightly. "Go save Bludhaven, Boy Wonder."

He stepped out the window and then turned back at him, smirking. "You know I am, sweetheart. And when I come back, I'm gonna finish what I started."

[casscainmainly]

I feel like people underestimate how down Alfred is to participate in The Mission. He’s not some put upon old gentleman who’s on the sides going “I know I can’t stop you, but maybe I can keep you alive, sigh”. He’s like, “I’m not going to stop you, I’m going to help you because I have opinions about how things should be done”. Pretty sure in his first appearance he basically invited himself into Bruce and Dick’s life like Sophie Hatter in Howl’s Moving Castle, and personally I think that busybody character trait makes Alfred much more interesting, even with his updated version of being with Bruce since the beginning

Alfred is interesting because he definitely loves Bruce the most, sometimes to the detriment of everyone else. I agree that busybody Alfred is super interesting, but I think even put-upon Alfred is complex - there's a sense in which he adopts helplessness to absolve himself of the responsibility of what Bruce has become. Particularly with Leslie as his counterpart/foil, when you see what happened when she did go against Bruce, Alfred is kinda right in thinking that the only way to retain a relationship with Bruce is to enable him.

And it's important that Alfred did quit at least once (not an Alfred expert so can't say how many times). In the one I'm thinking about (Nightwing: Alfred's Return), he quits after the events of Knightfall, and Dick convinces him to come back. There, he calls Bruce and Dick his sons; he is definitely an enabler, but he does truly love them, and it's a bit of a Catch-22 for him.

This turned out way more Alfred-defensive than I expected. I really dislike the idea that Alfred is infallible and pure, but I also think he isn't horribly evil for enabling Bruce and the Robins. He's a flawed individual making choices in a flawed environment. I think he's heavily misunderstood because he's rarely a main character, so we filter him through his actions to others (and he is, to be fair, The Adult in a lot of situations). I just think he's a lot more nuanced than people give him credit for.

[celaenaeiln]

is the dickbabs romantic relationship always as bad as in Tom Taylor’s run or is it actually enjoyable in other runs? i want to read more of dick’s og nightwing run but ik dickbabs is a recurring thing and i strongly dislike what i’ve seen of it in modern comics (absolutely no offense to anyone who ships it!!)

also sort of related, but have dick and babs really been BFFs since grade school or is that new canon? i remember the initial new 52 run referencing him and babs as on and off but nothing about being childhood besties.

finally- what would you consider to be key dick grayson runs?

Surprisingly Dickbabs is pretty nice to read in other runs. I know this sounds weird coming from someone who hates Dickbabs as a ship but really it's only bad like 85% of the time and the majority of that is because of the Batgirl comics. Batgirl comics treat Dick like shit and it's a losing tossup whether he's treated well in Oracle related comics.

But to get to your point, Dickbabs in Nightwing (1996) was originally pretty good. Tom Taylor's run of Nightwing is the weird one because in every other run you have Dick + relationships whereas in Taylor's you have relationships + Dick. That being said, I highly, highly recommend reading the og one. At one point it does get toxic but Barbara leaves almost immediately after that and aside from that the ship was pretty nice for the most part.

Dick and Barbara have NOT been BFFS since childhood or whatever and this gets on my nerves that Tom Taylor and Hope Larson did that. This is one of the problems I have with the Dickbabs ship. Writers who write them love changing the story to erase Dick's friendships with the Titans. They literally love to pretend Wally, Donna, Roy, and Garth don't exist. BARBARA IS NOT HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND!! They literally keep deaging her and for what?? First she was like two decades older than him, then she's five years older than him, and now she's the same age?? Just let her be older! Barbara being the same age as Dick makes no sense because it takes away her maturity to turn her into this childish, selfish character she has no business being. She's not even enjoyable when she's deaged this far. I'm still on the she's 5 to 6 years older than Dick canon timeline and there is no way she was childhood besties with him.

The way I picture Dick and Barbara's relationship is this:

DC should've just let it at this, this was peak Dick and Barbara relationship.

Very narrow starting out list but some must read Dick Grayson runs are:

Nightwing (1996) - If you don't feel like reading anything else just read this

Nightwing (2016) - Really good up until Tom Taylor's run

Batman: Gotham Knights - pretty good and lots of cute Tim and Dick!

Titans (1999) - This is a must read if you're not interested in the original Teen Titans comics

Outsiders (2003) - Love him so much in this

JLA/Titans - Important for understanding his relationships with Titans and Batman

Nightwing (2011)

Justice League (2011) Issue #25 and Forever Evil - Same arc

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Nightwing vs. Hush

Robin era

Batman - One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze - If you want to skip the medal ages but still want to know what Dick was like as Robin, this comic is all you need to understand his character and personality and beliefs.

Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet - Dick's gauntlet test!

Robin: Year One - For fun :)

Dick!Bats era

Batman: Battle for the Cowl - To get into Dick's batman

Batman (1940) Issues #682 to #713 - Batman Dick. Incredible. Dick was such a good batman and so fun to read.

Batman and Robin (2009) - Dick and Dami!

Batman: Streets of Gotham - Also Dick and Dami <3

Justice League of America (2006) Issues #41 to #60- Dick leading his own JLA team as Batman! SO FUN!!

Detective Comics (1937) Issue #864 to #881 - Honestly Batman Dick was so good I can't tell if I like Dick more as Nightwing or Batman. Obviously it's better for his mental health if he's nightwing but he just did such a great job as Batman.

Spy era

Grayson - YESSSS. Just everything about this.

Batman and Robin Eternal - It was really good up until near the end but then it got better again

Dark Crisis - Definitely, without a doubt, no question

Additional: The ones above are focused on him but if you finish reading this then Tim's Robin (1993) Comic is a fantastic one. He doesn't appear in every single issue but he appears a lot and it's a lot of Dick and Tim characterization. Also Teen Titans (2003) for more Dick and Titans relationships.

[gffa]

for the character ask game! dick grayson: 5, 16, 25

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? Lmao please don't ask me this question, because I have zero musical taste--and I don't mean I have bad musical taste, I mean I have no taste whatsoever, I barely listen to music, and I have no funny suggestions! (Mostly because I don't care for most of the ~jokes~ about his physical body.) 16. What's your least favorite ship for this character? Fandom has made it extremely hard to like a lot of other Dick ships because literally half the fandom can't stop tearing down Dick/Babs to build up their ship, which means there's nothing there for me to like, all it does is make me think there's not much there, if the only content to come up with is ranting about another ship. Nobody's obligated to like Dick/Babs, nobody's even obligated to not rant about it, I know where my scroll button is, but also all it does is push me further away from the ship that was supposedly being sold in that post, because it seems like an unfun place to be. But my actual least favorite ship for Dick is probably Bruce/Dick because it's so close to what I want out of that relationship, except also a thousand miles away from it! Honestly, one of my oldest friends is a Bruce/Dick shipper and the overlap we have of views on the characters is probably like 85%, we just diverge on how that plays out and we both feel extremely strongly about how we dislike the other path, but that we respect the other person being on it. We both are really into the fucked up entanglement of the characters, the mirroring aspect they have of each other, the belief that the other is the pure version of who they're meant to be, the frustration of how much they love the other while also being mad at them for the distance between them, the co-dependent disaster relationship, etc. All of that is the same for both of us, we just diverge on the context for it. Which is fine in our friendship, we meet in the middle, but there have been times when I feel like the ship would be so delicious for me, because it would tunnel vision in on those aspects I like, but the thought of them so much as even smooching makes me look like I bit into a lemon. How dare fandom almost give me what I want and then take it away from me!!!! Like, I don't actually care that it exists as a ship, fiction is not in a 1:1 relationship with reality and I think a lot of us get blinded by how modern comics go hard on the father & son aspect, which I am into and think is fair to evolve them into, but that wasn't always true and it's not like Bruce/Dick came out of nowhere. It just denies me personally what I want and therefore it it is The Worst For Me Personally And Thus Jail For DC Fandom For One Thousand Years!!!! 25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now? Dick Grayson is my longest running Blorbo, like that guy invented Blorboism for me, before I ever had such a name for the concept. Dick Grayson has been my One True Character for 20+ years, nobody has ever unseated him, not Anakin, not Obi-Wan, not Thor, not Usagi, not Duo, not Tezuka, NONE OF THEM that I've lost my mind about. Dick Grayson came on the scene for me when I first watched B:TAS and hit my tiny little baby brain with his daddy issues on display and excellent Nightwing design in later episodes and the push-and-pull relationship with Babs and my fannish life has never been the same since. "That it. That's him. That's the one. That's the character I'm going to obsess over for the rest of my life." I must have said when I first saw him and I HAVE NOT BEEN PROVEN WRONG YET.

[bisupergirl]

which clois kiddo is your favorite and what is your opinion on each one of them? im talking chirs, jon (eh), and the twins.

chris is definitely my favorite out of all of them! i just loved his relationship with lois and clark so much.... his dynamic with clark in particular was so special. i always think about that scene where clark takes him up in space to look down at earth and telling him that he belonged there because that's what jonathan would say to him when he felt insecure as a kid.... wahhh.... hated that he got aged up prematurely and put into a relationship with thara, but even then i still really liked the stories he had as nightwing (and i just really loved seeing two kryptonians use the nightwing/flamebird mantles <3). HATE that they fucked his character over in modern comics... i don't know what that THING is but it's NOT my son.

i really loved the twins in the warworld saga but it's pretty clear that no one knows that to do with them now that pkj isn't on action comics anymore. it seems like williamson isn't that interested in including them in either his superman or action comics runs (other than in background appearances) which is a shame! i hope someone circles back to the red son and starchild thing that was teased before they inevitably get erased or killed off or what have you.

jon just sucks. sorry to him. i'm definitely biased against him for a multitude of reasons but i just think he's really lame and really boring. i can't help but feel so annoyed whenever i see him in literally any context. a lot of people think the biggest problem with his character is that he got aged up prematurely (and that definitely didn't help) but honestly he was boring and kind of lame even as a child. i feel like a big part of his appeal as a kid was that he was cute and had the supersons dynamic with damian, but as someone who only incidentally gives a fuck about the batfam that really doesn't appeal to me unfortunately! maybe if literally anybody had developed his relationship with kara or kon i'd care about him, but alas! sorry to any jon enjoyers that follow me, i'd like to say i'm exaggerating my dislike of him but i'm really not.

and special shoutout to the only biological clois child i care about: laura kent. she appeared in exactly one issue of the superman family (#200) and didn't even really exist, but she was cute and had an attitude so i love her :)

[whelmed-birdie]

Comic List + Thoughts

so basically i'm just gonna compile a list of all the comics i've read and write a little commentary about them - this is mostly for my own benefit because my memory is pitiful so i need physical evidence of what i've read.

Nightwing Vol. 1: Leaping into the Light (2021)

I enjoyed this! I think it was a good beginner point for the most part because i came here with an interest mostly in Nightwing. I liked the art, and while i was a bit confused bc i knew next to nothing about this universe, so therefore did not understand any of the references they made. i still enjoyed it, the writers keep new readers in mind, and don't necessarily regret reading it first.

Robin/Batgirl: Year One (2002)

this one was good too. I got a bit bored at times but it was a good introduction to batgirl/barbara and how she started and got to be involved with the bats. (basically them just following her around while Barbara's like 'leave me alone tf')

Batman: Dark Victory (1999-2000)

also pretty good, I was kinda bored until Dick came in (mostly because he's the character i've really become invested in so far) but i loved seeing the very beginning of his character. sidenote: i love alfred

Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet (1997)

this one was fun to read! I dont have a whole lot of commentary on it but it was more good backstory and seeing dick as robin.

Robin and Batman (2022)

I LOVED the artwork. watercolor is loml. but about the actual story: i also enjoyed it. Baby Dick is unhinged i love it. also it was the beginning of me not really liking batman??? i wasnt really expecting that... WFA led me astray :') and honestly that dislike just carries on the more i read so idk whats going on

Teen Titans: Year One (2008)

MY JAW DROPPED. bro when batman straight up hit Dick i was BAFFLED. like i know he was mind controlled and what not but bro why is batman such an ass to dick??? like even after the mind control is gone like hes still just so?? like shut up and let this 13 year old have fun with his friends wtf. anyways i dont like him, sorry, but if im just reading the ooc comics then lmk but so far im 👎🏼 on batman

Teen Titans (1966)

I only read issues #1 to get the intro, and then #14 because i heard it was dick centered. I wish i liked the older comics more than i do but i'm not mad i read them. I do enjoy the titans storyline and characters though so i will definitely read more to do with them

The New Teen Titans (1980)

I dabbled but i cant tell you which issues i read- again i think i need to get used to reading comics as a whole and come back to the older ones :')

Nightwing: Year One (1996)

so i've almost finished this one! Its #101-106 and i'm on #105 rn. again I DON'T LIKE BATMAN. like he's such a man-child. he literally 'fired' and yelled at this 13 year old kid for helping his friends save people instead of being with him like okay bitch. but anyways i like this! its more good backstory plus him going back to the circus was a nice touch. also the nightwing origin!!! dick going to superman for advice :') I like it.

okay thats all i got so far, I'm excited to keep reading. I have definitely spent too much time worrying about backstory and reading orders ( ik i don't have to bc continuity is relative but my brain just wont let me go out of order) but i've gotten a reading list that i'm pretty comfortable with. Also pretty soon ill be reading more with the batfam (specifically batkids) and im excited for that!! (the batkids are most of the reason im here tbh...especially now bc batman is...not my favorite)

okay thats all :)

i might add to this as i go i might not, we shall see.

[cuephrase]

okay hi! I was the one who asked about how you get into comics cuz they're confusing and intimidating 😭 your answer was super helpful! I've been making a list as well as starting off with some like 'non-canon' stuff. (ig thats what its called? not main continuity)

I have another question though! I always see fans talk about liking and disliking different writers - are there any you personally like/ should stay away from? I always hear people complain about tom taylor specifically 😭

oh hi!! i'm so glad my answer was helpful, goal achieved!! yeah, i'd call it not main continuity, bc they are canon in their own little spheres...the licensed AUs. even if they're not main continuity, i think they can go a long way in easing you in/keeping you engaged as you brave the more intimidating aspects of comics.

WFA was that for me, actually. (which. ik is grounds to get me shot/invalidate every comic opinion i could ever have in some circles, but tbh i care a lot less about the opinions of people that uptight about this franchise than i used to, and i'm much happier for it. something can be flawed and still be fun, yk?)

BUT- to answer your question:

full transparency, while i am great with names irl, as far as comics go i drowned myself in so much content that i missed a tonnnn of names, and i've only really started learning names recently + they tend to be names of newer/current authors. for awhile i actually knew more artists names, believe it or not.

that being said, okay. hmmm.

so overall: writers that you're going to hear about a lot will fall into like, 2.5 groups, sort of a venn diagram. they are- Controversial, Loved, and Current. Current is the .5 group, because it overlaps with the other two. in my experience, you will hear about Controversial and Current the most- Loved is going to have like a few names that are just generally well-received, not that some people won't like them but like the majority is rocking with them.

some names you might hear a lot include

Devin Grayson

Chuck Dixon

Scott Lobdell

Tom King

Tom Taylor

Geoff Johns

there're almost definitely more but like, that's who immediately comes to mind.

writers will be Controversial for a range of reasons, but their writing being bad/unpopular is not the only reason.

i think knowing why people dislike an author can be super useful, i think meta is really interesting. but i personally have never avoided reading something purely off of the writer alone for two reasons, those being-

i like to form my own opinions. even if i think i'll probably agree, i like to experience it for myself so that i get full context.

with the exception of one writer (that ik by name), every writer that i've read and been like "wow i don't like this", they've written something else that i've enjoyed.

i said this in a response to a different ask, (about tom taylor actually lmao), but-

if you're interested in reading [tom taylor's] run, you should. other people disliking a run is like...idk if this is going to make sense, but it's kind of like knowing the weather. you'll be like "hey, there's rain" and then you can either a) choose not to go outside, b) grab a coat and umbrella, or c) pull on a swimsuit and go dance. no wrong choices! maybe you get outside and it's more of a light drizzle, or maybe it's basically a tropical storm and you book it back inside and start batting down the hatches.

basically, what i'm trying to get at is, if something looks interesting to you, i don't want you to be put off or feel bad for being interested (or even liking it, if you try it out!!) bc you've seen that some people seem to really dislike the writer.

on the flip side, reading stuff going into it thinking "everyone loves this!!" can be it's own problem, especially if you're new to comics, bc if you don't like it, you might be discouraged. like case in point, tom taylor's nightwing run was super hyped up for me so when i got to it and was underwhelmed i was like, oh. it made me wonder if i was missing something/reading them wrong, and also, like if everyone loves this and i don't, will i like comics? (hell yeah i would, i love comics but damn if i didn't get skeptical for a hot minute there.)

now to answer your question about writers i like/would stay away from:

i....don't really know.

like okay, i'm really enjoying the Batman/Superman: World's Finest run a whole lot rn, right, and that's written by Mark Waid. i already had Impulse on my tbr, but i was more excited to read it when i found out Waid was the writer, because of how much i enjoy B/S:WF.

or like Chip Zdarsky. pretty sure tumblr hates him, but i personally really enjoy his batman run, i like it so much actually, not that i think it's perfect, but omg does all the hate entertain me, and i really liked his jason & bruce story in Batman: Urban Legends, and i have Batman: The Knight on my tbr and i was more excited to read it when i saw that he wrote it.

however, if i saw them attached to a project that didn't immediately interest me, whether bc of the characters or concept, i wouldn't check it out just because they're writing it, yk? somewhere along my comics reading journey i may find writers like that, but i haven't yet.

(also the only reason ik their names is because they're writing current runs that i'm following lmao)

and it's kind of the inverse with writers who i'm not fond of, where if the project interests me, i'll check it out anyways, heaving a big sigh as i do.

i do plan on paying more attention to writers, bc i'm curious to see who i tend to like/dislike and why. like since i just finished reading through all of the Nightwing runs, i plan on ranking the writers once Tom Taylor's run wraps up, just for fun.

but yeah!! ik which runs i like/don't like and why, and that's about it.

idk if this was helpful at all, i'm lowkey afraid it wasn't, but hopefully it was!!

tysm for asking, and as always, i'm more than happy to answer any other questions you may have!! my inbox/dms are open 🫶🏼

[evilwickedme]

Do you ever find yourself slightly resentful of how fanon DC has completely overtaken canon DC? I like fanon most of the time but it is so difficult now to find stories that are based in canon. Batman stories are by far the worst offender.

I'm not 100% sure if you're referring to the fact that a lot of recent stories in the comics are pretty ooc or if you mean fic, but based on the last few days of asks, I'm going to assume you're referring to fandom works specifically. And the answer honestly is yes.

I in general have complicated feelings towards fanon. While certain types of fanon can actually create stories that are more complex - for example most of the Spider-Man fandom has pretty much accepted that Peter is Jewish and has depression and anxiety - or even just make for pretty fun concepts - I just love stalker!Tim okay I don't know what to tell you, or purring!Spider-People!! - the vast majority of fanon is mostly really flat characterization or actively damaging. Going back to Spidey, pretty much every bit of MCU!Spidey fanon is fucking awful. And yeah, a lot of Batfam fanon, especially surrounding Jason - is really fucking awful.

I think it's fine for fanon to exist, but the fact that it so often overwhelms the actual canon stories means that sometimes canon gets actually rewritten in people's minds. Like the people who've been in my inbox recently asking me if pit madness is actually a thing - because if you've had minimal contact with canon, how the fuck are you even supposed to know it isn't? It's so rare to come across a fic that doesn't bring it up, even as a sidenote, and when it doesn't, it's not like it's an active mention that pit madness doesn't exist - it's just there. And it's such a damaging piece of fanon, I know I keep bringing it up but it's because I have to, it's really harmful, especially since it's basically NEVER given a trigger warning. But there's also other annoying fanon - Cass as a perfect angel or Steph being reduced to a waffle fan and Tim to a coffee addict and nothing else and erasing Dick's canonical anger issues entirely, which is maybe my favorite character trait of his (although this one can also be blamed partially on Tom Taylor's terribly ooc writing of the character in the current Nightwing run...).

And the thing is yeah, sometimes we read fic purely for the escaping and the fluff, but I know a lot of us are looking for angst and hurt/comfort and fics that take themes (whether from canon or not) seriously, and it's really frustrating how difficult they are to find. I much prefer a fic that takes Dick's trauma seriously than one that relegates him to supportive older brother only. I much prefer a fic that wrestles with Bruce's inability to love Jason the way Jason wants him to and the physical abuse he's inflicted on his children than one where he's perfect and never done anything wrong. Yeah, I don't mind reading stuff for fun where there's never been anything wrong ever in the batfam. But I'm also low-key upset that my second most kudos'd fic ever is the stupid ooc batfam 5+1 I wrote in an hour. I'd much rather people read hang on which verges on character study and has, you know, themes and stuff. Also parallels, which if you've noticed my tags, are like, my favorite thing.

So yeah, I do dislike the fact that fanon has overwhelming taken over so many fandoms, and especially since batman has become my main fandom over the past few months due to brainrot, I'd love if people took these characters seriously, damnit. But this is what happens when a fandom is so majorly comprised of people who outright admit to have never read a comic in their life.

[zeroducks-2]

Going with the most obvious one but sladick for the ask game? 👀

hahaha you're such a gem Ana ♥ yeah it couldn't be more obvious that yes,

I ship it! (OTP)

What made you ship it? Believe it or not, I don't remember exactly what it was. It's like the Ultimate Perfect Ship for me, it has everything I could wish for (snark! tension! villain/hero drama! complicated past, mutual respect, some degree of fondness, the "no one can kill/hurt you but me" trope is rampant) AND I can also morph it into everything I want according to how I'm feeling on any given day - and it will always work.

So it really could have been anything. I think the Nightwing run of 1994 is what planted the seeds it but I can't be sure at this point.

What are your favorite things about the ship? As I mentioned, the duality of it.

To expand on what I mean, any dynamic between them will work for me. I love it when Slade is a rapist, or he's manipulative, violent, outright abusive. But I also love it when he takes better care of Dick than anyone else in the world, and he's the only one who truly understands him. I love it when Dick does the sweetest most domestic things around Slade because he feels so comfortable and safe. I love it when he spits blood and resentment in his face, realizing just how bad this man broke him. Slade can be a strong&protective guardian angel to Dick, or he can be the reason why Dick is losing his sanity. Dick can be sweet and playful, or drawn to Slade because he's colorblind to red flags, or he's there because he's being blackmailed, or because his daddy issues pushed him into Slade's arms.

Sometimes they're madly in love, sometimes it's just sex, sometimes Slade is a rapist and sometimes he'd tear to shreds anyone who dares touch his most precious and beloved little bird. Sometimes Dick falls for him despite everything and sometimes he gets this close from stepping over the no killing rule because Slade constantly pushes him over the edge.

I love it. I can do whatever I want with these two and it will work. Sladick gives me oxygen.

I had an ask game on the old blog where people would send me Sladick prompts and I would write both the fluff and the dark version of them, and it worked SO WELL. Here's a random entry if you're interested.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I don't know how unpopular this might be, but despite the whole duality thing I mentioned, I don't like a strictly heteronormative, ring-around-the-finger married, vanilla sex, monogamous relationship between those two. I can easily see them happily together and fluffy and domestic, but I can't process how a "straight, normal life" could work for them based on their personalities (unless it's an AU of some kind like a no capes situation), so I tend to not peruse this kind of content. But it might also be that my queer ass defaults to dislike that kind of relationship in the first place.

Ask game found here! Go grab it folks!

[mtcloudsworld]

𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 | 𝔪.𝔱, 𝔠𝔩𝔬𝔲𝔡

𝐀𝐆𝐄 | 𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶𝔱𝔴𝔬

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒 | 𝔰𝔥𝔢/𝔥𝔢𝔯

𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 | 𝔟𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔨

𝐙𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐂 | 𝔰𝔞𝔤𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔲𝔰

𝐎𝐂𝐂𝐔 | 𝔠𝔬𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔤𝔢

｡ﾟ☆: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒! 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀! 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍!

Taps mic, "Uh, is this thing on? Oh shit! I guess it is..."

Yah, we can hear you loud and clear!

In sarcasm, "Thats not nerve wrecking at all..."

Alright m.t you ready?

"No, not really but I can't exactly keep the people waiting right?"

True! It's the grande opening afterall!

"So what exactly am I supposed to say?"

Well we do need an introduction now don't we?

"Sure, if that's what the audience needs."

Of course they do! Go ahead and introduce yourself then!

"Okay, um," clears throat, "hi, the name's m.t, but you can call me cloud. I hope you find my world relaxing and friendly as I often have a hard time making friends due to my shy and quiet personality but please know I'm open to any (friendly) conversation there is. So, feel free to pop in and say a quick hi if you're ever in town."

"Don't be alarmed if you find my world under some construction :) ...i like to think i have to change my theme sometimes depending on the season."

Any rules?

"Oh yeah, well...as the president of this world, I must inform you most of my work, posts, or rants will be listed under the tags: #mtcloudsworld or #mtcloud's thoughts. You could also find my work under masterlist as well."

"Most of my female characters are black coded, meaning, their characteristics will fall under: black!fem reader, plus!size reader, curvy!fem reader, curly!haired reader etc because that is all I know and feel comfortable writing about. I might switch up here and there on the descriptions but those characteristics are my go-to."

"Please know I write adult content only, 18 and over. Minors are not allowed to enter this world."

"If you end up following me and I see there's no age on your profile, I will not follow you. Essentially you'll have to be +18."

"I like to make sure everyone is having a good time here! I don't want any hostility, discriminating, hate, judgement, disrespect etc around here. Internally I feel like if you got a problem with me please address it with ya mother. I really don't have the time nor the patience to argue with someone behind a screen. BUT, if you wanna talk like adults, please text me privately."

Okayyyy, is there anything else you wanna add m.t?

Looking confused, head tilts. "What else needs to be said? I feel like I've shared just about everything, no?"

"Mmm, not quite! Tell us about your likes and dislikes! Any hobbies? Or favs?"

"...you're kidding me right?"

"... no."

Deadpans and groans, "fine, here's a little sum sum we could bond over."

☁️ likes: photography, i like anything artisty really, food, reading, comics, webtoon, naps, anime, video games, sylus, chocolate croissant, boondocks, simplicity, rotten mango podcast, purple, cooking, goth aesthetic, gummy peach rings, tea, coffee, hot chocolate nightwing, red hood, romance, horror, thriller, comedy, r&b, neo-soul, hip-hop etc

☁️ dislikes: rude ass, judgmental ass people, crowds--confined spaces--anything that makes me feel claustrophobic, hot ass weather, bananas, anxiety/stress, depression, being the center of attention

☁️ anime: jujutsu kaisen, bleach, attack on titan, chainsaw man, fruits basket, erased, death parade, ouran high school host club, death note, afro samurai, nana, jojo bizarre adventure, horimiya, samurai champloo, high school of the dead, parasite, devil's line, vampire knight, say I love you, kaze no stigma, rosario + vampire, devil may cry, initial d, arcane, castlevania, castlevania nocturne

☁️ artist: sza, 6lack, destin conrad, doja cat, lucky daye, fka twigs, asap rocky, kendrick lamar, they, xg, chxrry22, tanerélle, don toliver, rihanna, laya, kali uchis, chase shakur, brent faiyaz, nobo woods, avenoir, her, arin ray, rini, giveon, sinead harnett, snoh aalegra, sir, summer walker, jack harlow, sonder, umi, pink sweat$, kehlani, victoria monet, joyce wrice, maeta, jessie reyez, james victory, leon thomas, ravyn lenae, lauv, jorja smith, enny, alina baraz, rosalía, amaarae, jungle, megan thee stallion, rm, jungkook, agust d, jhope, flo, duckwrth, omah lay, wizkid, ckay,clay, chris brown, bryson tiller, tommy richman, cleo sol, masego, alex isley, the weeknd, destiny ryan, ambré, coco jones, jade etc.

"There, is that better now?"

Perfect, actually!

Roll eyes, "goodness gracious...okay, I'm leaving now."

[flamebringer0]

[Image ID: A screenshot of the tags on a tumblr post. The tags say: "#Really love this look on NightWing powers!". "#But genuine question: What evidence is there that Flame is part NightWing? I checked the wiki and it said nothing about him having". "#A NightWing Ancestor". /.End ID]

Well, it's my headcanon, so the ultimate authority for the claims is just what I think is interesting. I'm not trying to assert that he was intentionally written as a Nightwing hybrid and we can use clues in the text to figure that out. To me, the idea of Flame (who doesn't identify with the Nightwings and isn't overtly related to them) as one of the only living heirs to ancient Nightwing magic is just kind of funny, so I've decided it's true. It's also not based on nothing in the text, though.

In general, I think there's a lot more hybrids running around than anyone suspects. I've talked about how it's basically impossible that there are any Silkwings who aren't descended from Clearsight, and the same could be said about Whiteout and the Nightwings, for similar reasons. Whiteout just lived so long ago that if Sunny is really her descendant, every modern Nightwing must be, because that's a characteristic of how populations reproduce. That would mean that every Nightwing is a descendant of Arctic and therefore, to a small degree, an Icewing hybrid. I think that this logic must apply generally, given the sheer number of examples of dragons in relationships with a partner from another tribe. Unless we assume that these intertribal relationships are largely a recent development, the inescapable conclusion to my mind is that everyone has ancestors from every tribe.*

All that said, I do imagine Flame has more Nightwing in him than the average Skywing does. Maybe a grandparent or a great grandparent. The main impetus for this is the scene in Moon Rising where Moonwatcher reads Flame's mind.

Moon tried, dragging the sticky dark webs off her mind and rolling them up. But as she pushed against them, out of the corner of her eye she saw Flame’s head shoot up.

Who’s there? he demanded. WHO’S THERE?

And with a ferocious blast of fury, she was thrown forcibly out of his mind.

What? Why can he do that? Nobody's done anything like that before. Moon says as much:

How did he know? she cried frantically to Darkstalker. I’ve never seen anyone do that. How could he notice that I was there?

I don’t think he knew exactly what was happening, Darkstalker said. I don’t want to risk probing deeper while he’s on the defensive like that. But I suspect he just felt … a presence, let’s say. He can’t be sure it was a mind reader. Especially if you stay calm.

And what's also interesting to me is that Darkstalker dodges the question. He doesn't know what this means either. Or at least, he doesn't want to tell Moon. But there is one group of dragons who can definitely detect mind readers: other mind readers. We're seeing that happen right here, when Moon and Darkstalker talk to each other. I imagine Darkstalker actually knows or suspects this is what's going on, but he's too invested in the idea of Nightwing superiority to admit it. He doesn't want to openly acknowledge the possibility of a Skywing who has the power of his tribe, so he has to distract Moon by immediately talking about something else. I also believe that the reason Flame attacks Stonemover later is that Darkstalker curses him, and maybe the reason he does that to Flame in particular is that he dislikes him for being a Skywing with powers that he sees as the right of only Nightwings.

That aside, it really is true that Flame is described as having a forked tongue. In the tribe descriptions at the beginning of each novel, forked tongues are specifically mentioned as a trait of Nightwings, Sandwings, and Icewings. On the other talon, Skywings, Mudwings, Seawings and Rainwings aren't said to have them. I think in reality this is just a mistake. It seems Tui T Sutherland forgot, or she simply really likes describing characters as having forked tongues. At least Ochre, Squid, and Glory, and possibly even more characters I've forgotten about, also have forked tongues that they shouldn't according to the tribe guide. And of course, in the graphic novels, nobody has a forked tongue. So it's really pretty inconsistent and probably not meant to mean anything... but in my heart Flame has a forked tongue because he's part Nightwing.

And his graphic novel design does have darker scales than any other Skywing character, as far as I can tell.

* With the exception that there are possibly no Pyrrhians who have Pantalan ancestors, but I expect that to change in short order.

About Nightwing Powers

Wow it turns out you can attach titles to posts, awesome. I will now make another post.

It always drove me kind of crazy how Nightwing powers are presented in canon. I think it drives a lot of people crazy because I've seen more than one person's headcanon adjustments to them. So here is my contribution to that genre.

Some Nightwings have perceptual abilities that other dragons -- other Nightwings and members of other tribes -- lack. One is the ability to read minds, the other is the ability to see the future.

All Nightwings develop both future sight and mind reading in the egg. The mind of a fetus can't integrate any of this information, and most will lose both abilities long before learning to understand what they mean. The dragonet's third eye closes, so to speak, within hours after hatching, and will stay that way for the rest of their life. For unclear reasons, the loss of these abilities is prevented by exposure to the light of a full moon immediately after hatching.

Nightwings always hatch at night, at least if the eggs are exposed to the sky. Those who hatch under a full moon retain the ability either to read minds or see the future, whereas those who hatch under two or three full moons retain both. The presence of these abilities also causes the development of silver scales on the face. A mind reader has a silver scale at the outer corner of each eye, whereas a prophet has a silver scale in the center of the forehead.

The appearance of the silver scales correlates with the strength of the ability. A larger, rounder scale indicates greater power.

A dragon hatched under three full moons inevitably has the most powerful prophecy and mind reading. Other than that, it's unclear what exactly makes the abilities of one Nightwing stronger than those of another.

Raw power isn't the whole story, though. Clearsight is the greatest prophet of all time, but she isn't the most powerful prophet of all time (or even the most powerful in her immediate friend group). It just turns out that a dragon who diligently works on her abilities will have a certain advantage over one who believes he is already the most powerful and has an inevitable destiny.

It may not be immediately obvious what it would mean for someone to be "more" or "less" powerful at mind reading or prophecy, but there are two relevant metrics: clarity, and control. I think the names are self-explanatory, but just in case, here's a metaphor. If you imagine Nightwing powers as a flashlight shining into a dark room, clarity is the brightness of the bulb, and control is how easily one can direct the beam. These metrics are not really independent: weakly empowered Nightwings will be weak in both aspects, and strongly empowered Nightwings will be strong in both aspects. For those in the middle, who make up the majority, clarity is more developed than control.

The strongest prophets can direct their vision down many different paths, examining the futures that cascade out of intricate chains of decisions, possibly centuries into the future. The weakest prophets have occasional, muddled impressions that a certain decision in their immediate future might lead to something good or bad. In between are the average prophets, who have clear visions, but little ability to control when they occur or what they are about.

Similarly, the strongest mind readers can root around in another dragon's mind and examine any fact, belief or memory they're interested in, whereas the weakest may have a vague impression of the most immediate, intense feelings of whomever they're around. Average mind readers can clearly read the surface thoughts of other dragons, but can't probe arbitrary mental structures without somehow activating them -- by inducing the target to actively reminisce about a memory or some such thing.

In the old days, back when Nightwings understood where their powers came from, it was quite common for ambitious parents to try to time the conception of their eggs so that they would hatch under the full moon(s). For a single full moon, this is almost pointless: the quickest of the three moons cycles through its phases in just a few weeks, and the variation in the incubation period for a Nightwing egg is great enough that it can't be reliably timed to any specific moon phase. For two and three moon nights, this practice is more meaningful, but only in the very general sense that someone who doesn't conceive an egg roughly a year before the brightest night definitely won't have any thrice-moonborn dragonets, whereas someone who does, might.

Some seers would also offer advice about how to do this. For the most part, this advice was snake oil; only the most powerful seers could decide to have a vision about a particular egg's future. Even among the few who could, it would be extremely difficult to see and articulate all the subtle factors that lead an egg to hatch after a longer or shorter incubation, and most of them would be far outside the ability of the parents to really control anyway.

More unscrupulous parents would occasionally try to break an egg open under the full moons, regardless of whether the dragonet was ready to hatch on their own. This practice has never been successful, as hatching in this way disrupts the delicate developmental process needed for the dragonet to retain their power. It is also quite dangerous, and many of the dragonets who were subject to this simply died.

Foeslayer and Arctic didn't do any of this, incidentally. They just got lucky. Or they got unlucky. Depending on which of them you ask.

Speaking of Foeslayer and Arctic's kids, Whiteout has both Nightwing powers. It's not because she hatched one day after the brightest night, though. Hatching a day after a full moon doesn't grant any power. It's actually a manifestation of synesthesia. Synesthesia causes sensory modalities that are unrelated in most people to correlate in a specific way. Whiteout, like all Nightwings who hatched under no full moons, lost direct access to her abilities shortly after hatching. However, she's still able to use them indirectly via synesthetic influence on her other senses. This is why she describes Clearsight as "azure on the inside": to her, Clearsight's thought patterns are azure in a fairly literal sense.

Another Nightwing whose power manifests in an unusual way is Flame. I mean, Flame isn't actually a Nightwing, but he has a semi-recent Nightwing ancestor. That's why he has a forked tongue, unlike other Skywings, and why he has darker scales than any other Skywing. And he hatched under a full moon, so he can read minds. But since his Nightwing ancestry is slight, his power is extremely weak. It's so weak that he has never become consciously aware of it, and most of the time, it doesn't really affect anything. But if someone thinks really hard about him, he senses it. This is why he's the only dragon Moon has ever met who can tell when someone's looking into his mind. It's a very weak form of the same two-way communication she uses to talk to Darkstalker.

In the year 5000, Nightwings have largely lost access to their powers, since they no longer allow their eggs to hatch under the moonlight. Contrary to what Moon thinks, this isn't because they're afraid of hatching another Darkstalker. After all, if it were specifically desired to avoid hatching eggs under the full moons, we would expect to see some kind of active prohibition, or at least some sort of legend about the terrible consequences of doing so. What actually happened is that the Nightwings' new home prevented them from hatching eggs in moonlight, and after a few generations with no mind readers and no prophets, the dragons started to believe their own abilities were legendary or allegorical.

Despite the Nightwings' present powerlessness, belief in their abilities persists. The Nightwings encourage these rumors, and also train their dragonets to imitate the power they lack. This training mostly consists of cold reading and theatrics, not unlike the techniques human con artists use to simulate psychic powers. However, they also leverage the one sensory ability that Nightwings still have over all* other dragons: an extremely strong sense of smell. Most dragons are aware that Nightwings smell better than members of other tribes, but they don't grasp that they may leak private information through subtle odors that only Nightwings can perceive. By examining the smell of another dragon's body, modern Nightwing "seers" and "mind readers" deduce information in a way that is easily mistaken for magic by the uninitiated.

Darkstalker is highly scandalised by this practice when he wakes up, not least because he has an Icewing-tier nose and can't do it.

Now that Nightwings are living in the rainforest, it's likely that their extrasensory abilities will start to become more common again. Unfortunately, their only connection to the ancient techniques for controlling those abilities turned out to be evil and was sent to gay baby jail. It will likely fall on Moonwatcher to begin the process of re-developing these practices and teaching them to a new generation of Nightwing dragonets.

*Actually, Seawings can smell nearly as well. But only underwater.

[scattered-winter]

When you love Barbara Gordon but Dickbabs is also your notp 🥂

I was oh so tempted to respond with a sarcastic remark but no. I'm actually gonna get into this one

the reason I hate dickbabs doesn't have anything to do with my love for the characters. I love dick grayson. I love barbara gordon. these aren't secrets; anyone who spends more than 30 seconds on my blog can see it. my issue with dickbabs comes from a long history of barbara being thrown with every batboy that comes along. tim in arkham knight, even bruce in btas, to name a few examples. to me this makes even dickbabs seem surface level and 2-dimensional because......dick is another batboy.

another issue I have with it is the fact that both characters are reduced to only their relationship with each other. tom taylor's recent run puts dickbabs at the forefront of a story that, if you go by the title, should be about nightwing. I don't mind romance in stories but if I am reading the nightwing comics, I want to read about nightwing. and this isn't even getting into the disgusting ableism in regards to barbara in particular! her disability, something that enabled her to become the literal capstone of the vigilante society, was retconned but guess what!!! to replace the lost representation we'll just write in a 3-legged dog!!! there's absolutely no way this is ableist or shitty!! ✨✨✨ (/s)

I also really hate how fandom (and dc) are pitting all of dick's love interests against each other. it turns babs and kori (some of my favorite heroes with their own powerful stories and personalities) into the bratty girls squabbling over the guy. and I don't even need to say why that's so upsetting to me

finally, my biggest issue is that I just?!?! don't like it very much!! they have an incredible friendship and I fucking love good friendships!!! there doesn't need to be a big reason why I dislike a ship! sometimes it just doesn't vibe with me! but in the case of dickbabs, there are a few things in specific that make me dislike it.

tldr: my dislike for dickbabs has nothing to do with how much I love/hate their characters and everything to do with the fact that I am curating my own experience with this media and if I dislike something, it is of my own choice so to assume that I have to ship dickbabs because I love barbara as a character is, frankly, childish and immature. with all the love, grow up <3

[skyland2703]

20 and 63 from the mashup list!!

(...possibly bbrae if you want because thats what i'm dying to see in Titans Academy, but i give you freedom of whichever ship you choose <3)

Sooooo BBRae you say.... *wink* (two of my fave tropes EVER!)

20: Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple AND 63: Teacher AU TWO OF MY FAVORITE TROPES EVER!!

I hope you like it!!!

I take wayyy too fucking long to write sooo im sorry about the delay on the prompts my friendos!!!

AO3!

Everyone knew it. It was no secret. Even if it was, it wasn’t at all, a well kept one. And the best part was, everybody was talking about it.

And it was NOT a good thing for two particular professors at the Titans Academy. Every time they were together, be it standing together, or sitting together or even when they had a joint class together. Whispers, whispers, whispers. Someone had even drawn a heart with a marker on their photograph that had somehow appeared next to each other in every single Academy yearbook that had been distributed! Of course, Nightwing planned to “go to the bottom of the mystery” being the master detective he was, but for reals, everyone knew he was the one of the two people who might have done it. The other being Victor Stone a la Cyborg.

Raven didn’t find it hard to block out the whispers and the voices. She was an empath, and would hear people’s emotions and thoughts quite regularly, and blocking them out was a sort of regular thing for her. Whispers were also easy to drown, especially when they didn’t carry any weight as such.

Beast Boy on the other hand, Raven often noticed, got unnerved when faced with things like this. He was a nice, high spirited, cheerful goofball, who didn’t really fare well at hiding emotions. If he was frustrated, flustered, annoyed, angry, or rather anything except happy, it’d show quite easily on his face. It was one of the things Raven loved the most about him, he was perfectly transparent, not like other guys who liked to keep their emotions bottled up, and not in a way like Raven’s where her emotions overloading might end up in her demonic powers getting out of control, but rather, a case of being “Wayy too cool to have emotions or be nice”.

Raven had a strong dislike for boys like that, boys who faked how they felt, and were actually really manipulative and shrewd. Beast boy was definitely not one of them. And that was one of the many reasons why she didn’t mind the whispers. If people around the academy were shipping her with someone, she was glad it was Beast boy.

She had just started grading the term papers in the teacher’s lounge, when she suddenly realised there was a question in the paper about adaptibility to adverse conditions, a question that she, Raven Roth did not put in her section of the paper. And honestly didn’t know the answer of either. Starfire had wanted the questionnaires to be set by the entire staff together, or if that was not possible with a lot of bickering, then with all the professors sending their respective questions to her, the headmistress, who could compile it into a perfect question paper that would set a challenging questionnaire for the heroes in the making.

And the teachers were allotted a group of students whose papers they had to check, whether they knew the questions or not. “You can use the help of the friends and the other teachers of the school to help you with the questions that you do not the know” she had said sweetly, “it will only make the bonds of your accord and companionship grow the stronger”

Nobody had a heart to refuse.

The first six questions were easy, and two were not from Raven’s subject of Enchantment and Charms, but simple stuff, that Raven could mark with ease, but question no. 7 was something else entirely.

“Beast boy will know the answer to this” raven muttered and got up, taking a sample paper from her desk, and dashing out of the door, knowing she’ll be back in a few minutes with some in depth knowledge of the subject.

On the way, she scanned the paper for more questions to ask Beast boy, while she was at it, so she wouldn’t have to run again and again. In the paper of forty questions, she found 8 she couldn’t do without his help.

He was standing in a classroom drawing some stuff about some animal characteristics on the white board, when Raven arrived.

“Hey” She said, standing in the doorway, beckoning him.

“Hey!!” he replied back cheerfully, and the entire class, which had been listening attentively, suddenly burst into hushed whispers.

“Beast boy I need some help” she said, blushing a bit, feeling some of the whispers reach her...

“Oh!” He blushed just as she did, it was a reflex action that happened any time she said anything to him. He scratched the back of his neck, “um mama— I mean raven, I’m a bit busy, but what happened??” No matter how busy he was, he would always make time for her.

“Umm class, try seeing the patterns in the leopard, and how they take care of their young ones, and I’ll be back in ten” he said, in his most serious voice, but the entire class burst into excited whispers again.

“Hey Rae!” He said, still blushing, still flustered, as he came out into the corridor to face her.

“I wanted to ask you some stuff” she said, handing him the paper, “first off, question seve—” before she could complete her sentence, Gar interrupted her.

“Hey, umm Rae can I ask you something?” He said, a little hesitantly, and Raven stopped short, “Sure Gar, what happened?”

“Actually… I… uh. The way you, the way you pulled me out of the classroom… won’t help with the… the whispers…” he said, a little flushed.

Raven understood. Beast Boy was again having trouble with dealing with what people said behind his back, and students, in general, can be quite mean.

“Oh” was all she said, and Waited for him to continue, but he didn’t.

“Gar?” She asked, gently, once again, placing a hand on his shoulder, “why do you worry so much about what people say about you and me?”

He gulped, “it’s not like… it bothers me…. It’s more like…” he struggled to find the right words.

Raven didn’t need to use her empathic powers to know what he wanted to say, because deep down, in a place where she rarely let her emotions wander, she felt the exact same way.

“It’s more like you *want* them to be true.”

Garfield Logan looked at her for a long, LONG minute, trying to understand what she had just told him, and it took him a hot second, but his blush went up about a thousand times, as he realised.

“Are you… saying… that… you also… want… those whispers to be… real?” He stuttered nervously, and Raven smirked. Just like she had imagined it in her head countless times.

What was that other thing she had imagined?

Oh yes.

“The whispers… I think it’s time enough that we give the smoke a flame to brag about” she said, pulling him by his collar, closer, and softly planting a kiss on his lips. Her lips softly brushed against his, preciously, delicately, like the tiny, fluttering wings of a butterfly, just long enough that he could inhale her breath, feel the warmth of her skin, let his heart skip a few beats, before it was over, way too soon, and left a taste of her lipstick lingering on his lips.

“I’ll ask you about the term papers later” she winked playfully, spun around on her heel, and left, leaving a stunned, more red than he was green, Beast Boy who was basically at this point stranded on cloud nine, with no bounds of his joy.

Of course, this would NOT help the situation with the rumours and the whispers, and the fact that everybody knew that this was bound to happen at some point in time or another.

Beast Boy was jerked back into the present by the sound of a window pane breaking as the the entire class practically attempted to stay inside, while at the same time get as much of a view at the professors, to gawk at their conversation in the hallway through the glass windows of the classroom.

[skalidra]

So in your earth - 3 verse the owl family seems more tight knit than the batfam - if I'm right. They even make sure Jason is more so in the group than the batfam. They also make it more of an effort to do that - even to the point of 'too much.' How else is the owl family different from the batfam. Besides the fact that they're bad guys. Like each character and how they differ between the alternat version of themselves. Also if the two were to meet what would they think of the other/respond?

I know you already wrote where Nightwing and Nightingale switch universes for a little bit but if they (had) to work together or something, even if that would be filled with conflict. Also do you think that some of them might be jealous in some way of their alternat self. Like Jason seems to have it somewhat worse in the batfam verses the owlfam. Tim perhaps as well. And how do you think after having to 'work together' they would end up veiwing the other?

It's not that I see them liking each other - no. But actually perhaps growing to resent each other on a more personal level. What do you think

Well, probably the simplest, biggest difference between the Bat vs Owl characters is just because of the variations on how they were raised.

Below follows a lot of discussion of my Earth-3 universe, Nightingale, etc.

Starting with the differences...

- Dick was actually pretty similar up until Bruce, though his childhood had more of a focus on show business, but Bruce encouraged him to get revenge for his parents and set him on a much darker path than canon Dick. The Owl version plays hard for an audience. He doesn’t let himself rely on basically anyone, and he views almost everyone as at least a little bit inferior to him. He saw his parents die, trusting each other and the rope, and he’s not going to ever let himself make that same mistake. He trusts his family, is viciously protective of them, and would burn the world and himself to make sure they survive. He’s still the workaholic, he’s still the one to make the sacrifice play if he thinks he has to, but he hides that loyalty because it’s also a sort of weakness.

Nightingale, on the outside, plays to everything that makes people underestimate him. He’s pretty and he’s lithe and if you make the mistake of thinking his attractiveness makes him less dangerous, you’ll end up on the sharp end of a knife real quick. A blade is easier to hide when it’s smiling, instead of glaring at you. (And a flirt distracts and unnerves people; makes them sloppy.) Nightingale exploits every weakness in other people, especially the ones that he causes himself.

A Nightingale that met Nightwing would think that he was full of weaknesses, and Nightwing would be horrified at the potential that he could turn out like this, if things went just the right way. There would be a mutual respect of talent and skill, but Nightwing would want to jail/contain/neutralize Nightingale, and honestly Nightingale would probably want Nightwing dead. After all, Nightwing is a living, walking example of all the things that Nightingale doesn’t want anyone to know about him (that he loves his family, that he has a hell of a temper, that he works himself to the bone more often than not, etc.). No one would walk away happy from that, if they walked away at all.

- Jason is somewhat more stable in the Owls, but he’s also a lot more screwed up in different ways. Dick’s got him all twisted up around his fingers, and trying to go a different path from the rest of your family is a lot harder when the rest of your family are a bunch of murdering psychopaths instead of, you know, heroes. One version gets you stuck in jail, the other gets you stabbed and repeatedly dragged back to them. On the other hand, it’s harder to ignore someone killing when you don’t want them to, as opposed to the Owl version where every once in awhile Jason just does something heroic and/or not totally in line with family wishes, which mostly just provokes irritation.

So I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily got it better than canon Jason. It’s somewhat easier early on, but he doesn’t agree or like all the family tactics and those kind of dislikes build up over time. Sooner or later, Jason’s going to need time to not be around that kind of easy violence. That might not go well.

Canon and Earth-3 Jason meeting would go, I think, fairly smoothly. They’re both fucked up, but they’re both somewhere in the morally grey area and they share a love of the rest of their family. There would be some commiserating about being the respective black sheep of their families, but really Jason - in either world - I think is too grounded to want to try and change or interfere with another universe’s version of him. Once they got the situation figured out, things would go peacefully.

- Tim is... He was neglected, terribly, in Earth-3, but this tiny Tim didn’t have a Robin to look up to, he had a Talon. He puts together this information that Bruce Wayne is the Gotham urban myth/supervillain/terror of the night Owlman, and he watches Talon, and he sees an answer to all his problems. A role model. When Jason dies is really the tipping point. Bruce becomes unstable, he gets violent in rage instead of from calculation, and Tim steps in to offer himself as an apprentice to restore the order he’s seen come to life under Owlman’s rule. He doesn’t do things in halves either, so he goes to Bruce and he offers himself, and he asks for Bruce to kill his parents (who he barely really knows anyway) and take him in.

Tim in Earth-3 is a maladjusted, nearly sociopathic killer that sees people as either people that can be used, or are useless, with the rare exceptions of those that he truly comes to know and respect/be loyal to. (Bruce, Dick, and later down the line, Kon, Jason, and Damian as well.) Those are also the ones that actually treat him as someone close to them/loved, and he’s honestly so starved for that attention that even scraps of it are enough to keep him completely loyal to someone.

He hates being out of control, he doesn’t like other people having an advantage on him, and he’s learned that in a world full of people stronger than him, the best defense is to have strangleholds already in place for anyone that might be a threat. The rest of his family is, physically, more dangerous than he is, but Tim studies people and he pinpoints exactly how to beat them, and that makes him a terrible enemy to have.

Tim meeting himself would be... perilous. Canon Tim, like Dick, hates seeing how very twisted and evil he can get, given the proper motivation. Earth-3 Tim, on the other hand, probably just thinks that canon Tim isn’t worth his time. (Except maybe to pick his brain for any ideas that may not have occurred to him.) If canon Tim gets in his way, he’ll kill him; otherwise, may as well leave the threat alone and avoid it, if possible. Why take the risk?

- Damian really is more or less the same. In both worlds he’s raised in a family that’s trying to teach him one way of live, and then he comes to Bruce and he learns a different one. One that he thinks is difficult at first, or doesn’t fully understand, but quickly becomes accustomed to and enjoys, inevitably picking it over Ra’s’ side of things. Damian of Earth-3 might actually be a little bit less of a rage-ball. In the Owls, he’s accepted for any and everything he might be, with the only condition being that he remains loyal to his family. If that means he loves animals? The other Owls will gladly support that habit (even if there will be a bit of teasing). He wants to go out and take out all his bad feelings on someone? They’re there for that too.

The main difference? The Owls do not take shit from Damian. There’s no ‘he’s a kid, go easy on him’. There’s no Damian ousting Tim from his position. Pecking order (forgive the pun) is very well established in the Owl family, and Damian being Bruce’s son doesn’t mean that he gets to jump to the top. Dick earns Damian’s respect/slight fear right off, with his initial ‘let me test you’ sparring session, and when Damian tries to press his ‘blood son’ advantage over Tim? He gets his ass handed to him. Tim takes him down hard, and Damian is never stupid enough to try it again. Tim gives up his position willingly, and Damian becomes Talon, the latest apprentice.

I think if the Damians met, there would mostly just be unease. These are versions of themselves that, from their point of view, fell to what they rejected. If possible, I think they’d be best suited by parting ways as soon as possible, though neither would be willing to let the other run around in their universe. The only peaceful way that happens is if they can split and go back to their own worlds, otherwise it’s a ‘I must stop you’ situation.