#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

[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."

[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

[glitter-stained]

Hi. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I remember reading in one of your posts that you disliked Bloodborne? If so, could you please elaborate on why? I haven't read it myself but I'd like to read your opinion.

Hi there!

So, you are indeed mistaken but I'm not sure if you read it wrong or typed it wrong so I'm gonna answer both

I haven't read Bloodborne yet, though it is on my list- it looks interesting and like the kind of trope I would definitely go for.

I am, however, betting that you are confusing Bloodborne and Nightwing: Brothers in Blood, which I loathe loathe loathe with a fiery burning passion for its demonization of BPD -Bruce Jones may not be the most psychophobic dc writer, that's a difficult competition to win when you got plots like TKJ, HiC or BFTC, but he takes "depicting mental illness as monstrous and repulsive" to a new, extraordinarily shameless level. I'm only half kidding when I say Tentatodd being sexy would have made bib better, because the idea of "we're gonna take a character going through a blatant bpd episode and transform him into a nasty tentacle monster so repugnant that his image would make even the bravest Tumblr monsterfuckers hesitate" is not innocent at all. I've said it before, aesthetic portrayal plays a super important role in manipulating a reader's empathy, and DC uses it all the time to punch down on mentally ill people. But even aesthetic aspects aside... Jason is transformed into a man-eating tentacle monster. What do want me to add to that. The point makes itself. And it's so frustrating because I love unhinged, chaotic, campy plots, I love big swings, theoretically a story where my fav is randomly transformed into a tentacle monster while having intense family drama and then it's never properly resolved/touched upon again? I should have loved this bullshit, should have been right up my alley, but instead Jones wrote that in a way so vicious to mentally ill people that whenever I read this comic I think of the way I've seen my patients with bpd get treated and I want to bite a big chunk off my wall.

And though I don't know if Jones knows he's depicting BPD (and despite how it's maybe the comic that makes it clearest, perhaps even more so than uth or bftc), Jones makes it very clear that Jason is going through a psychiatric episode, that is in fact the explicit in-story explanation for his behaviour.

I mean, there's other stuff too. Generally speaking I feel like Brothers in Blood is not only a dumb comic but also a really arrogant one. You know when you read a comic and you have to stop and squint because "wow you think you're so smart, huh?" That's brothers in blood. An insulting, stupid comic that thinks it's sooo clever.

But mostly it's the treatment of mental illness.

Also to be clear I'm not saying people are evil/a bad person for enjoying BiB even though it's brutally psychophobic. I often find myself enjoying very flawed comics like Batman: The Cult or some of Dixon's Birds of Prey, and I can engage with them critically while still appreciating elements of the characterization -what I mean is, you don't have a moral obligation to hate Brothers in Blood. I acknowledge the camp, the messiness, the modelling thing -if anything I'm pissed that so many good ideas were wasted in a comic I hate so much. But I personally have dedicated a good part of my life to fighting stigma on mental illness, it's something that I'm confronted with all the time at work, so that leaves me with zero tolerance for Jones' bullshit. That doesn't mean Dixon or Starlin are any better than him, or that I believe issues like racism or misogyny are less bad of course not- it's just that I engage with comics primarily through their depiction of mental illness, which means I am doomed to an existence of torment and suffering and also fuck Bruce Jones.

[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.

[clairivia]

Nightwing (2016) - why I dislike Barbara Gordon

Barbara Gordon is the love interest of Nightwing. Also she's the daughter of the Police Commissioner in Gotham, Jim Gordon. Please keep in context of this review that I've only read fully, Nightwing, Leaping into the Light, and even then it is not completed. Please comment if you disagree or agree with me, but I think that the characterization of Barbara Gordon in this comic specifically is poor.

Do not send death threats and/or harass me. If you do not agree with this post, block me & continue with your day!! Thank you very much.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

I feel like Barbara Gordon is a Mary Sue. I feel like the other love interests that Nightwing had were so much better in terms of writing, and hotter.

I remember Fear State, is it not part of canon? I feel like the threat of someone abusing Oracle and all it's information would really shake Barbara's mentality of using information for the sake of good. But if she admits that, then the DC writers would be forced to remove Oracle from the rest of the comic series, which I guess they don't want to do. I feel like she would have at least, not just updated Oracle, but at least feel more conflicted at staying Oracle than anything. They briefly mention how Barbara was using some technology on her spine so that she could continue walking, I feel like it would have been interesting to explore the possibility/fear that it does actually break. Then she would have to rely on a wheelchair again. It could have resonated with those who are disabled who may think that they're not living up to their full possibility? Perhaps Barbara feels like she doesn't belong in the Bat family anymore, or whatever. But then again, it's called Nightwing, not Oracle/Batgirl.

The reason why I am obssessed with Barbara Gordon is because Nightwing is, basically, a Gary Sue, so when he has relationships with flawed women, it makes the overall story more interesting, especially how he reacts to them. But if they're both perfect people, it makes it boring. Can Oracle and Nightwing please fight, or like something. Please I'm begging you, can they misunderstand each other and not talk it out like healthy adults.

Oh and also I'm bias I prefer Starfire & Nightwing together.

[solar-wing]

Im sorry, but HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO WRITE SO MANY GOOD FICS WITH THAT MANY WORDS??????

Do you have any tips for anyone planning to start writing? Can you describe how your creative thinking works? Love your work!

my exact writing process:

going from left to right:

– stare at my computer, willing the idea/scene in my head to appear on the document in words while listening to whatever inspired me on repeat. – sleep after exhausting my creative energy in such a strenuous manner. – eventually, come back to the idea/story only to end up formating the story post (story cover, author's note, summary, masterlists links, etc.) and not actually work on the story itself. – EVENTUALLY, write something and feel proud of myself for all of five minutes.

– eventually, come back and cringe at the screen wondering what the fuck I wrote and how I even got to the point I'm at. – question who I am and what I'm doing while staring at the screen, attempting again to will the scene/story I'm imagining onto the screen in a DECENT format while also wondering how the fuck it got so long. – read a notification from one of you coronal mass ejections asking me when the story I've been ignoring for months is getting updated (rightfully so) – write with passion fear, because I know if I delay any longer, one of you CMEs will eventually unite the rest of you and start a mass riot.

– stare at the post after publishing it and refresh my screen every thirty seconds to see the likes, reblogs, and comments coming in. – sleep (very important step) – eventually, read over my own work after posting it, going back in to make edits after realizing I either have a duplicated paragraph/section or a misspelled word somewhere and it's bugging the hell out of me while trying to just ignore it. – look at my inbox/drafts, trying to decide what request/draft I should finally start/finish, until I don't do that and just end up starting a new random story after getting inspired from the most random thing.

and that's it (i'm so serious, it goes exactly like that)!

but, in more seriousness, there's three crucial things to my writing creative/process.

an idea that was randomly sparked from a song or likely another post I read somewhere.

a super-powered hyperfocused spawned from ADD (attention deficit disorder) that randomly turns on and off.

drafts that have been sitting in my Google Drive for months to nearly a year.

it's funny because I'm sure people have questions of how I'm pushing upwards of 30K word fics out back to back at times, and the whole time, I'm like "This draft has been sitting here and getting slowly added to since April."

One Kent Was Enough was an idea I got last year during the summer (2023), and the draft had literally been sitting in my Google Drive and Tumblr drafts for months. Like I'm pretty sure I had a draft post of it on my old account before it got shadowbanned and I made this one..

All that to say, my writing process is pretty organic to me. It's really a reflection of my personality and how I operate in real life. Though, I I'd doubt that a lot of the stuff I put in there is unique just to me.

As far as tips I would have, the first one would be don't expect to write like your favorite author off the bat. One, you're two completely different people with different personalities, styles, likes/dislikes, etc. Two, if any of you remember how Nightwing and Shadow first came about, then you know seeing where it's gotten now has been a process. I promise I did not just start writing like this.

But, the biggest tip I would give is to just write. I saw a music artist named Doechii say this in an interview: "I have the right to be bad at something when I first start." Like I said in my process, there are many points I will look back at my work and completely hate it. Sometimes, the stories won't make sense to you or you'll feel like you've just thrown a bunch a words on the screen. It's okay.

It adds to your process because eventually, you start to learn what works best for you and what doesn't. Also, the stories end up turning out to be really well-thought-out and good in the end. I'm not joking when I say One Kent Was Enough was a literal mess at multiple points, and many times, I had no idea where I was going with the story. I literally couldn't get past the scene where the boys meet their dads and the rest of the Team for months until I had a breakthrough.

you'll eventually find your own way. just start writing 💛

[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 🫶🏼

[justparkerluck]

And now... thoughts on a comic from someone super new to comics!!!

This week on justparkerluck, I share my thoughts on:

"Nightwing: Year One" - 6 Issues | March 2005 - May 2005 — written by Chuck Dixon + Scott Beatty & illustrated by Scott McDaniel + Andy Owens

Notes before the review:

— This has also been sitting in drafts for so long. It is just so annoying making these into posts because god, I talk so much. My notes are basically just a disoriented essay.

Spoilers for the comic below the cut*

First: random notes (oh my god I talk so much).

Just really great looking off the bat- they make great use of thicker line art to give a bit of edge instead of relying on realism. I wouldn't call realism bad, I just really don't like it

I like that Dixon makes the exposition notes in the perspective of the characters- Alfred's journal, Bruce's files, Barbara's notes. In this it seems to be a letter from Dick to Bruce. It's just a really great way of giving exposition without feeling overly lazy

I'll touch on this further in another review (Batman #408-409), but I much prefer this Clayface confrontation as the reason for Nightwing's origin than the Joker confrontation. I think the version with Joker could be better than this one but it's badly done. This version of the Nightwing origin feels so much more fleshed out

A minor detail but I dislike some of the characterisation of Superman in this. I like that Dick can go to him and that he's reliable. But he seems to treat his humanity as a facade and I don't think that fits. Despite being a Kryptonian, I think Superman should above all else, display humanity.

This is a really solid first introduction to Deadman. I've only really heard of him in passing before this and I know he was like lightly referenced in "Batgirl: Year One." I was worried about him potentially being a villain but he just seems to be a really solid guy with a fun set of powers- I wanna look more into him in the future

It's so cute that Jim gave dick a little sheriffs badge. It's also nice to see he still trusts Dick. I just love any Jim Gordon content y'all

Its actually hilarious that Dick saves a guy from carjackers only to find he has bodies in the car. Gotham is so sick and I love seeing that sickness out for show in the most casual ways.

I hate that they're still doing Babs/Dick. I've just never liked the ship and I feel there's better alternatives with much more chemistry. They literally mention Kori in the same panel.

Second: Thoughts on each character:

Thoughts on Dick Grayson

“I'm not sure why I went to Metropolis, but I just needed to talk to a grown-up. Someone who doesn't spend his days in a cave.” Good for Dick, cause Bruce isn't a fucking adult. I like that Dick goes to Clark. It's important he has someone to talk to that isn't in Bruce's pocket the way that Alfred or even Jim is.

“But I dedicated my life to being Robin. And I always thought-“ "That someday you’d be Batman.” I love that Dick had assumed he would be Batman. That he had to follow Bruce's steps. That now, he's forced to figure out his own future and step out of that shadow.

Dick originally getting the Robin costume from his parents colours has been something I've appreciated since I found out about it. It's cute and it gives the Robin title a level of pressure that Dick has to live up to. The other Robins have to live up to the Robin legacy- Dick has to live up to what his parents would want from him. And then I like that carrying forward into the Nightwing costume originating with his dads old circus getup.

The miscommunication is crazy- we see Dick considering robin “a defunct concept” meanwhile Bruce is actively putting a new kid in the suit

It's so crazy that Dick breaks into Arkham literally just to tell the Joker he was still there to kick his ass- that's not important, it's just funny

Dick is absolutely right to be hurt at being completely replaced by this ass of a kid. It's just so irresponsible of Bruce and it's crazy he didn't even warn Dick

I like this characterisation of Dick. That he puts on a goofy optimistic face even when he's in danger. It's fun and adds a lot levity. Robin has always been the cheery, youthful, bright part of the dynamic duo and its nice seeing him carry that forward into his time as Nightwing

The little-wing nickname he gives Jason is so cute. Man he's gonna be so fucked up when Jason dies

“You were the best father you could be. Given the circumstances.” Dude this fucked me up

Thoughts on Bruce Wayne

I hate that Bruce treats these kids like soldiers. I understand why he fires Dick here- it is the reasonable thing to do. The kid is spread far too thin. However, he goes about it terrible. This is more like he's simply discarding his kid. “Robin is my second.. my lieutenant. Anything less than total devotion into this cause is simply wasting my time.”

This is such a bad look for Bruce. He fires his own kid and then kidnaps an identical one. And immediately putting Jason in the suit isn't any better. Though, I do like this as a follow up to Jason's origin

God, I hate that he's putting Jason through a gauntlet. It's tag too, rather than hide and seek this time. He's such a fucker. Its like he thinks he's found a child soldier formula

Okay so i can understand an organic rift building between Batman and Dick's Robin over the years and I can understand Batman being a manipulative ass. That isn't new.

There's always been a bit of a gap between them- may i remind us of “You don't want a partner and you don't need a son.” (Robin: Year One) The age gap between them isn't big enough for Bruce to be this kid's dad. Bruce is thinking of this kid as his ward- not his son.

And he's not the kindest, he's a dick for the sake of the greater good. If he thinks it's for the better, he might be an ass. Dick was spreading himself thin and getting sloppy. But he's grown used to the fact it is better for him to have a partner so he recruits again.

But my criticism of the writing- my major gripe is that Bruce is just a bit stupid? It doesn't make sense for him to think the Two Face gauntlet plan would work. Two Face is a high profile criminal. Maybe if he did it in a contained environment but he didn't. This is weirdly out of character and it just doesn't make sense. The plan was never going to go right

Thoughts on Jason Todd

He is so disrespectful to Alfred, good lord. I love Jason but this behaviour is atrocious.

“You’re old… you’re him. The guy I replaced. Look, you're over, okay?” He is such an ass, it's so funny

“This is the test, isn't it? Has-been versus the new and improved model. I take down the original to get my wings.” I think this makes Jason's later view of Tim as a "replacement" make so much sense. Jason's feelings of being replaced stemming from the fact he knows he was someone's replacement is so gutting. He was blatantly a replacement for Dick- there's no getting around that. And so when he's gone and there's a new Robin, it makes sense for him to view that as his own replacement.

The relationship that Jason and Dick end up developing is so cute. Just Dick looking out for him and being totally endeared to this kid even though Jason is an ass. It's really cute

Thoughts on Alfred Pennyworth

He is just so endearing all the time, despite the criticism I always have. Alfred is incredibly endearing

I love that Alfred puts up the robin suit against Bruce's wishes. It forces Bruce to stare at his decision and reckon with any regret he might have.

“Then perhaps it can serve as a reminder to the next hapless youth in your employ. The standards to which he must aspire.” This is an absolutely crushing line.

However, despite saying that, he watches as Bruce brings in Jason and he just goes along with it

It's fantastic that he has criticisms of Bruce but he will never do anything about it

Alfred giving Dick the suit is terrific- it made me a little emotional if I'm being honest. I like to see him being supportive and standing by Dick after all the worry he had when Bruce dismissed him.

Third: Did I like it?

I had my fair share of criticisms and I stand by them but yes, I did really like this

I think its probably my least favourite of the "Year One" Dixon trilogy

Still, very solid- most of the characterisations were very well done and it offers the version of Dick's retirement that I prefer

Also, lowkey, had me tearing up towards the end

Lastly: Here have some art:

Final Notes:

— Someone just like tell me to shut up while I'm reading a comic. Editing all my thoughts was hell. This is probably only half of the original notes. I have so much stuff piled in my drafts and I'm just tryna get it all out before starting new stuff but guysss, the absolute series and Invincible are calling my nameeee

Thanks for reading! Engage with the post and take care of urself! Bye!!!

[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!

[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.